Liminal

Good day to you all, and happy weekend! I didn't write a post earlier this week because I had absolutely nothing to write about. Last weekend I had four days off in a row, as Monday was a bank holiday. I had planned to go to Mannheim, but ended up not being able to face the journey; the trains were striking again, and a five and half hour journey could have ended up inestimably longer, as the transfer times were about five minutes for each change. Basically I chickened out of the journey because travelling is very stressful and I am a big baby and also a wet lettuce.

I did spend some time this week meeting up with various language assistants; as we officially finished on the 31st May, everyone's last day was on Thursday or Friday. I, on the other hand, stupidly agreed to go in on Monday 1st June as a favour to one of the teachers. This didn't seem like a bad idea at the time, as I do really like this teacher and I knew I'd be hanging around for a while after we officially finished anyway, but I am now seeing the error of my ways. This is namely that everyone has already finished and all the assistants I know in the area have gone home, meaning a) they have already had their emotional last day full of celebrations and gifts, while I have had none of that, and b) I am officially without English-speaking friends. And also c) I could have gone to Italy sooner rather than having to wait until Tuesday.

Of course it isn't as bad as all that, really. The frustration of not being able to move on to the next step until I have properly finished my time at the school will only last until about 10am tomorrow, and then it will be over! I know it'll be sad leaving the school, and I'm dreading the awkwardness of giving people my weird presents and cards and trying to judge the correct amount of emotion it's acceptable to demonstrate. But as I said, it'll be over soon. Even if I leave a lasting terrible impression, it will be over soon. And then I can finally move on to the next step which, as I mentioned, is going to Italy to visit Jack!

It was Katrin's adorable idea to make jam for teachers' gifts. Unfortunately I am only capable of
making deeply unpleasant-tasting jam. But who was to know that? And by the time they
try it I'll be long gone, so really, what's the problem?

In terms of things I have done recently, the only event of note was the Jugendweihe I attended yesterday. I can't remember if I've written about this before, so I'll explain it - a Jugendweihe is essentially a confirmation for non-religious people (and appears to be a typically East German thing of which other Germans may be unaware). Kids aged 14-15 get dressed up with everyone else in their class in school who wants to take part (the religious ones of course choose to be confirmed instead) and there is a ceremony followed by some kind of party. It's attended by close family and grandparents and seems to be taken quite seriously as the formal transition from child to young adult.

Katrin's daughter, Lucy, was in the class that had their Jugendweihe yesterday morning at the Villa Esche, a building that was designed by Henry van der Velde and has, at various times, been used as a textile factory, ministry for state security, art gallery, and seat of the Soviet military command. This is mostly according to the Wikipedia page - I have definitely had the history explained to me at least three times this year but each time I failed to imprint the information in my brain, about which I am struggling to feel guilty. Anyway, these days Villa Esche is used for such events as weddings, concerts, readings, and of course, Jugendweihen. 

It was lovely to be invited to Lucy's Jugendweihe, as it is usually attended only by immediate family and close friends. As the tickets had already been booked months in advance, Katrin had told the organiser a white lie to get me in; my reason for attending was apparently that I was writing an essay about it for university. While not being entirely untrue - I had indeed at one point been writing a learning log for university about aspects of Sachsen culture - it was far from wholly factual - I had not, in fact, mentioned the Jugendweihe at all, and had already submitted the 'essay' (otherwise known as a 500-word text of about three paragraphs). Anyway, it worked and I'm so glad I went! The whole family was very dressed up and looking beautiful, which made me feel incredibly underdressed in comparison. Fortunately there were varying levels of dressiness from everyone else, and I did spot a few people in jeans and a lot more in day dresses like me, so I wasn't too self-conscious.

Katrin, Lucy and Karsten

 The ceremony itself consisted of a couple of speeches from the organisers, musical interludes by a quartet of singers and one guy on the keyboard who seemed to join in the singing at random points, and the presentation of presents and flowers to the 'young adults'. This was very classily done. I was uncomfortably reminded of various interminable ceremonies I have had to attend over the years, whereby names are read out one by one, the person in question leaves their seat, climbing over everyone else in the row while muttering apologies, and meanders up to the front to accept the accolade while everyone watches in silence. Then there is a smattering of applause, the award-winner begins the long trek back to their seat, and the next name is read out. There was none of this yesterday. The kids all sat in the front row so they could easily walk up to the stage a mere metre or two away from them; their names were read out in groups of three or four; background music was played by the keyboard guy while they were handed their gift-wrapped book and a rose each; everyone applauded when they had finished receiving their gifts to provide a ten second interval for photo-taking; and then they returned to their seats and the next group was called up. This took a total of about fifteen minutes for all twenty kids to be individually presented and have their moment in the spotlight, and managed not to be boring for anyone. Admirable. I wish people in school assemblies could have learnt from such a slick procedure.

The musical entertainment was delightful too, at times being both poignant and hilarious. It got off to a good start when they opened the show with a less creepy version of this song from Cabaret, followed by a lively retelling of Cinderella in comic song, several traditional German folk songs, 'Mama ich bin nicht mehr klein' from Hairspray (ten points if you can guess which song that is in the English version without looking it up), and finished with 'We go together' from Grease which I think I enjoyed more than everyone else, as potentially the only audience member who knew every word. All in all, an absolute joy.

So, as I've said, tomorrow is my last day at the school! I want to write a proper blog post about that but as tomorrow will likely be taken up with lots of emotions and other nonsense, that may have to wait until I get back from Italy. I have a nice early start on Tuesday morning - I'm getting the train at 5.30am from Chemnitz and, all being well, will arrive in Bologna at just before 4.30pm. Excellent. However I am going to take the advice of the postcard below, which is one of the many with German idioms translated literally into English that I bought instead of thank you letters for teachers. You're welcome, everyone.