Flying Home for Christmas

Matt and I are now back in the UK after a very busy Autumn term in Germany.  We have a very full 3 weeks in the UK, and time is already flying by!  We landed on Tuesday at Stansted, and shock of all shocks, walked straight through passport control without having to wait for a million years!  We spent some time with Matt's family, and fitted in a Frank Turner concert too, then I headed down to the coast to Mum and Dad's for a couple of days.  We have had a lovely few days walking along the beach, and playing with the puppy.  I really do miss the sea in Germany.

On Thursday, we went to visit a row of houses near by who put on fabulous Christmas lights.  They have a charity box for visitors, and there certainly were a lot of people there having a look.  Their electricity bill must be huge!

The puppy is getting quite big now, and she is super fluffy.  Her front legs are so furry, I think she looks a bit like a sloth!  Troublesome as ever of course.

One thing that Germany really doesn't do as well as the UK is fish 'n' chips, so we had to have them!  They were certainly worth the wait.

Our near by garden centre has Reindeer, so we went to visit them and to see all the Christmas decorations (A bit of a family tradition before Christmas).  This one is Dancer, and the one below is Button.

We had a lovely walk today along the beach at Highcliffe.  It was lovely to be by the sea again.

Happy Christmas everyone!!!

Christmas markets, Christmas parties and Christmas guests

Here are a couple of photos from the very pretty Christmas market in Essen that I went to last week with some friends from work.  Some of the lads from work were planning on cycling there (it's a LONG way to cycle), but ended up chickening out.  The girls were going to meet them there, but in the end this is the group who ended up going.  It rained quite a lot, which was a shame, but the market was fun.

This is a piccy from the work Christmas party.  It was held at a Tapas restaurant in Duisburg, and was really fun.  We did our secret Santas then too, and I got a lovely Christmas cross stitch - a very well thought out present.

Sam and Amy came to visit us last week.  They arrived on Wednesday evening and went home yesterday.  It was great having them here, and made our last weekend in Germany before heading home for Christmas lots of fun.  They amused themselves around Duisburg and Dusseldorf on Thursday and Friday while we were at work.  Friday afternoon we finished work for the holidays early, and they came for after school drinks at the pub near work.  We had gone out for dinner on Thursday evening with some people from work too.  It was really nice introducing Sam and Amy to our lovely new friends, and showing them the bars where we hang out.

On Saturday we decided to go to Cologne for the day.  The weather was unfortunately miserable, but it didn't stop Cologne from being absolutely packed with people.  Cologne has 7 Christmas markets, and we did quite a few of them - the Cathedral market is the photo above, in the shadow of the beautiful Cathedral....

This was in the Old Town market.  We had a gluvine here and lunch (bratwurst and Salmon in a bun)....

Below was the Angel market, which was my favourite.  The lights in the trees were lovely when it got dark, and the stalls were all crafty things.  Just my sort of market.

Below was St Nicolas' town, where we had more gluvine......

Here is where I got a text from my school friend saying that her girlfriend had proposed to her in Prague!  Very happy for her, and excited for my first Lesbian wedding!!!

We also went to the Gay and Lesbian market - lots of chocolate willys but not much else, and the harbour market, where we tried hot glubeer - sounds disgusting but is actually really nice.

So we made it to all 7 markets!  We had a great day, but were exhausted by the end of it, and standing up on the train back to Duisburg didn't help!

Of course we had some Gluvine in Duisburg Christmas market too.... So basically Christmas markets and gluvine sums up the entire weekend!

Today we are heading home for the holidays.  3 weeks at home will be wonderful, as I haven't seen Dad for 4 months and Mum for nearly 3 months!  We're both really looking forward to it!

Mustaches, markets and misfortune

Here is a delightfully sleepy photo of Matt's mustache at the end of 'this years 'Movember'.  Matt organised Movember at work and out of the 12 people who took part, he raised more money for cancer research than everyone else put together!

Well done Matt, and thank goodness the mustache has gone for another year.

This week has been full of more Christmas market visits (as every weekend will be now until Christmas).  I went to Dusseldorf market last Saturday with a couple of girl friends from school.  The market was nice, but it was really busy, so I didn't really get into the Christmas spirit quite as much as on Sunday when Matt and I went to Duisburg market.  Duisburg's stalls are just as nice and it is a lot less busy, so it gets my vote every time.  I'm trying the market in Essen on Sunday, so we will see how that compares.

Other things that happened last week include 'my' class, or rather the class that I covered for the whole week were 'class of the week'!  I was in charge of them that week, therefore I count that as a win for me!  One of the kids in 'my' class told me that I was a very good teacher, which is always nice to hear, especially when they are normally too busy being disappointed that their normal teacher isn't in. 

Every Friday in assembly the teachers each give out an 'achievement award' to a kid who has impressed them that week.  I decided that since I had taught for a whole week, that I would give one out too.  I chose a girl in my English class who had impressed me with her creativity and imagination when carrying on a short film with her own ideas.  The look on this girls face when she realised I was talking about her was priceless.  She was so chuffed and didn't stop smiling, so I was pretty happy on Friday.  This girl has been lovely to me all of this week, so that's an added bonus!

Yesterday, I went on the Year 5 day trip to the Science Museum in Essen.  The museum is fantastic!  The founder of the museum was actually our tour guide so he was obviously very enthusiastic.  The tour ended up being 2 and a half hours long, which sounds far too long for the kids, but it went so quickly!  The museum was split into 4 rooms, all with experiments for the kids to try on sound, movement, texture etc.  We would go into a room, have a talk for 10 minutes, with a couple of demonstrations of the experiments, then the kids would play with the experiments for 40 minutes.  Then we would move to the next room and do the same again.  The kids loved it, and so did I!

In other news, I have had a very sore knee for the past week and a bit, mostly when i'm outside walking in the cold (we're into minus numbers now, and it even snowed a bit yesterday).  Today I went to the doctors.  A friend at school has a doctor friend who she recommended to me.  You don't make appointments here, you just turn up and wait your turn, so my friend said go early, and she had text the doctor to let him know I was coming.  I arrived, and they said it would be an hours wait.  About 3 minutes later they were calling my name.  It's all about who you know!  I got some seriously evil stares from the very full waiting room!

It turns out that you can get joint and muscle problems if you have had an infection recently, so the knee trouble could be related to my recent bladder/kidney infection.  Anyway, they strapped my knee up, and i've got pills to bring the swelling down (it was very swollen for the last few days), and i've been signed off work to rest it, which is pretty annoying.  I'm not meant to go to work tomorrow either, but it's the Christmas party and there is no way im missing that, so i'm going in, and i'll just have to sit down lots!

Christmas Markets

We're been having some internet problems this week, which are now thankfully sorted.  There is going to be a serious amount of Christmas market photos in the coming weeks, but before we start, here is one of Matt on International Children's Day.  Everyone at school came in their national dress, and some of the outfits were fantastic - so colourful and exotic.  We have over 40 different nationalities in the school, so it was quite a mix.  I was boring because I had a nasty cold last week, so all I did was wear a West Ham football shirt.  I spent most of my day telling the Year 6 boys that West Ham are a London team, and that yes, they are better than Manchester United! 

Anyway, Christmas hit Germany with full force last week, when all the Christmas markets opened.  We have only been to our local market in Duisburg so far, but have plans to visit some others soon.  Duisburg's market is great, and has a ferris wheel and an ice skating rink too.  The food stalls are amazing!  The picture of us above is with Flammkuchen, a pizza that is made with white sauce instead of tomato sauce.  There are lots of different types of Gluvine to try too - apple, blueberry, white, red...We have been to the market 3 times in a week already!  Sometimes we go after work, just for a drink and to soak up a little bit of atmosphere.  It's wonderful!

A Working Week

Yes it really is as boring as the blog title suggests.  My article is due in a week tomorrow, so i'm spending pretty much every second of the day when i'm at home working on it.  It's getting there, but very slowly, which is a bit frustrating.

Last night I did give myself a night off.  I went out for dinner with the girls in the bottom photo, for one of their birthdays.  We went to a tapas restaurant really far away from where I live. The food was nice, but tiny and very expensive, and the service was terrible.  I won't be going back there in a hurry, but at least the company was excellent.  My boss phoned me when I was on the tram on my way home and told me that he was in the casino with Matt and why didn't I join them.  I've never been to a casino before, but it was quite fun really.  I placed two bets and won both, so not bad at all.  Matt ended up winning 70 euros plus getting all the money he spent back.  He asked for it in a 100 euro bill, which was pretty cool - never seen one before.  I also saw a 500 euro bill for the first time tonight.  I didn't even realise the bills came that big!  Someone in the casino was changing TWO into chips!  Some people really have more money than sense!

  

The rest of the week has been quite hard work, what with writing my article every evening.  Lots of people have been off sick, so i've ended up covering lessons every day.  Monday was that year 5 Maths group, although they were all very well behaved, as I knew they would be.  I also covered year 3 and year 6, and the Little Dragons in the nursery again (not my favorite thing in the world).  Tuesday started off terribly, with one of the year 4s running over to tell me that there was a dead cat in the playground.  There was, and it gets even worse; it hadn't just died of old age or the cold, it had got its neck stuck in the football net and strangled itself to death.  There was blood all over it from where it had tried to bite its way free.  and quite a few kids saw it, including some year 3s that were really rather traumatized!  Not something I enjoyed dealing with, and hopefully not something I will ever have to deal with again!

Matt has had a good week.  He had parents evening on Thursday, and will have it again on Tuesday, which is quite tiring.  I will barely see him next week as on Wednesday i'm off to stay in a castle for two nights with the year 4s.  Should be fun, although I did feel rather scared about it after our meeting on what duties we will have.  5 adults suddenly doesn't sound like very many for 60 kids when your not in school!  Wish me luck!!!

A snake from Duisburg Zoo

Speaking of Duisburg Zoo, I found this picture from the school camera today from when Duisburg Zoo came in to give the kids a talk.

Matt's parents visit, and Duisburg Zoo

Matt's parents came to stay this weekend, and we had a really great time with them.  We met them in Dusseldorf on Thursday evening for dinner in a pork restaurant, because they had a hotel for the night in Dusseldorf.  Then they arrived at the flat to stay with us on Friday evening.  Matt and his Dad were off at a football match on Friday evening, so the girls stayed in and had pizza takeaway and a good catch up!

On Saturday, we decided to go to Duisburg Zoo, which I had heard is the best in the area.  The day was unseasonably mild for November, and we even had ice cream!  The Zoo is fantastic, and has a huge variety of animals.  Here are some of my favorite pictures.  I especially love the one of the lion.  The colour didn't come out very well, so I'll have to have a play on the computer to see if I can enhance it at all.

The Dolphin show was brilliant, and we all enjoyed it, even though it was all in German - you could still get the gist of what they were talking about.  It's so incredible how high they can jump.  They were splashing the audience up to the first 5 rows, and we were in row 6.  The man in front of me got drenched, so I was glad we were sitting far enough back!  It may have been warm, but I think it would have got cold very quickly if we were soaking wet.

In the evening we went to the Inland Harbor for a couple of drinks, and then to a Mediterranean restaurant, where I had beef Goulash, which was delicious.

On Sunday, we just watched Dr. Who, and I got a lesson in Crocheting, before they headed for the airport.  A great weekend all round.....

... and not only because of our goody bag!  The goody bag also included a wonderful crochet blanket that Margaret had made for us.

The rest of the week had been a mixed bag.  Friday was interesting in the morning because I was in with the Little Dragons on cover (2 year olds).  There are normally 3 teachers in there with them but one wasn't coming in until lunch time, so I was in there instead.  Let's just say I'm not a huge fan of the tiny ones.  I'm normally with year 3-6, which is 7-11 year olds.  I've just got the hang of how to speak to and deal with kids that old, but I was completely stumped by the babies.  Most only spoke German, and a lot of them cried all morning - there was a new one, who was only on her second day.  She cried constantly and I think it unsettled the others who all started crying too.  I had no idea what to do, and I think the teachers were probably glad to get rid of me!  

By the way, I did all this wearing a superhero costume because it was Halloween on Friday!  I went as Elasta-girl from the Incredibles.  I'll put a photo up of my outfit as soon as I've got it from the school camera.  I got lots of good comments about my costume, so I was quite pleased.  Some of the teachers had made no more effort than a pair of devil horns on with normal clothes, but some had done a good job.  The kids looked fantastic, especially the year 6s, who had really gone to town, with creepy contact lenses in; one was a spider with her arms as two of the legs, which held up the other 6 legs; there were mummies and a girl who had makeup on her face to look like her face was being unzipped - some seriously cool stuff.  

I spent the afternoon setting up the hall for the Halloween disco, and then from 3.30- until 5.30 dancing with the teachers (doing the Macarena - we had to teach it to the kids because they were too young to know it - made me feel seriously old), and the time warp.  I'd become that embarrassing teacher who dances, that I remember so well from my own Primary school discos!

There was a raffle at the end of the night and the 3 prizes were getting to pick a teacher to gunge on the playground.  6 teachers volunteered (I was NOT one of them!), and the head of Primary, head of Lower School and one of the Year 6 teachers all ended up getting gunged in front of the kids and parents after the disco!

Thursday was less fun.  One of the Year 5 teachers who I have covered for before (and quite enjoyed covering for) was off for a whole day.  This meant that I was in charge of a class for every lesson.  The teacher normally had the first two periods off for PHSE and German, but because the PHSE teacher was in a meeting, I ended up covering PHSE too - doing the same lesson twice in a row for the two year 5 classes.  I taught them about Hinduism, and actually really enjoyed all their questions, and how interested they were in learning about religion.  Then I had a double (hour and a half) English lesson.  The last lesson of the day was history and they were just doing posters, so that was fine too.  The lesson in between English and History however, was probably one of the worst hour and a halfs that I have ever spent!  EVER.  It was double Maths, bottom set.  I am normally in with the same group of kids for bottom English, and even with a fully qualified teacher, and me, the TA in the room, the class are pretty hard work.  I had them on my own, plus a few more, plus a few from ESL (English as a second language).  It was horrendus.  My throat was sore from shouting; threats didn't work, they just ignored me, and were noisy and ran about screaming, and banging on tables.  I wanted to cry after the lesson.  The other TA had tried to get another teacher to swap so that I didn't have to take the class (it didn't work out), and I should have realised then how bad it would be.  I told the other year 5 teacher about it, and on Friday, all 3 teachers had a big go at them; they were given detention at break and lunch (I get to decide if they have it on Monday too), and I got a written apology note from everyone in the class.  The notes are quite funny, so that cheered me up.

Unfortunately, I have to take the class on Monday for 45 minutes again for Maths, and I've had two teachers offer to do it instead of me, but I think they only thing worse than doing it, would be not doing it.  Plus all the punishments will be fresh in their minds, and I still have Mondays detentions to hold over them, so I think they will be fine.  A bit of an experience though, and my first very bad one in the new job.  I guess we learn from our mistakes though.