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.