First Week of School

This week has been exhausting!  Simply exhausting!  Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, there were no children in school, and it was a chance for all the teachers to get their classrooms, lesson plans and resources ready.  For Matt it was a chance to settle into his new job as a manager, and for me it was a chance to run around like a mad person.  The first week of term is the busiest of all for TAs.  There is only me at the moment, as the other TA from last year is now a year 3 teacher.  The school did interview someone for a TAs job across the whole of primary (not just Lower School), so that will make things much easier.  She starts on Monday, and seems very nice.  So my first week was full of helping the teachers put up display's, laminating new resources, sorting out the resource cupboards (I tidied them at the end of the summer term, and no one has been in the school since, but they always look like a bomb site when I get back from the break! The cupboard fairies at work, I think!), giving out new books, textbooks, stationary orders, using up my entire year's worth of printer credit in one day printing housepoint diaries, the list goes on.  One of the teachers said to me 'I've been here for years longer than you, but your the one everyone comes to with questions, and you know the answers to EVERYTHING!'  I was secretly thrilled by this comment.  I felt the same way about the TA from last year, and now I am that person.  I'm even being given my own set of keys to the store cupboard, since I am 'The stationary queen' according to my boss.

The children were back in on Thursday and Friday, and it was nice to see old faces, and get to know the new ones.  I won't be the TA for year 3 this year, so it was odd to think that there will be a whole year group that I don't know, but at least I can work more with years 4, 5 and 6.  I even have PE lessons on my timetable this year!

We haven't really done much this week, other than managing to get to the gym a few times, because we've been so exhausted.  We did go for a few drinks on Friday night at the pub near our flat, and we went to the lake yesterday with the same group, which was lovely and relaxing.  Matt made an amazing curry for dinner!  Today we are just relaxing and preparing ourselves for another busy week!

Summer School and Housewarming

Last night we warmed the heck out of our lovely new flat.  We had 18 people in the flat (and it wasn't even that crowded), and the bath filled up with booze.  It was a great night full of catching up and silly games.  I feel so lucky to have such wonderful friends here in Germany.

I got some lovely housewarming gifts (mostly bottles of wine), and a new Orchid, and a little plant with rubbery leaves.  I have no idea what sort of plant it is, but it's very cute.

The new addition to the Orchid family is quite similar to my giant Orchid, but the centre of the flowers are slightly different colours.  It's beautiful and so my Orchid obsession continues.

This week I was back at work for the last Summer School of the year.  I was running it with another teacher who is a good friend, so it was quite fun... well, Thursday and Friday were fun.  We had a water fight on Thursday, and I definitely lost.  I could not have been more wet.  The kids loved it!  We even had the hose out, and the teachers still lost, to kids with water guns!  Best quote of the week was when one of the boys wouldn't stop playing with his huge water gun at during the entire morning session, and me shouting 'Cheif, put that gun down!' just as the director of the school was walking past the door!  Whoops!  I also managed to make an idiot of myself in front of the owner of the school, without even realizing who it was.  I was very wet, and had wandered to the office to see if I could get the hose.  The owner of the school walked past and said that it seemed a bit dangerous for me to be wandering around with no shoes on, and I said that I was in the middle of a water fight and was trying to get the hose in order to gain a tactical advantage!  Apparently he thought it was hilarious, thank goodness!

On Friday, we went bowling down the road from school, so that was fun.  The kids bowled and the teachers had a free lunch, and ignored the children.  Perfect!

Monday, Tuesday and especially Wednesday were not so much fun.  The mix of children we had wasn't brilliant.  They didn't get on particularly well, and they had just had the entire summer to forget how to behave properly, so they were rude, answering back, rolling eyes, and generally quite horrible, which was a shame.  Still, that's 500 Euro in the bank, and now i'm back in the swing of getting up early and going to work (on the bike now.  It takes 15 minutes).  It will be a lot easier for me next week when school actually starts, than it will for everyone else who has had this week off.  Matt was in school too for Thursday and Friday, starting his new job, by doing the inductions for the new staff.  He was quite nervous on Thursday, but has been so busy that he hasn't had time to be nervous since!  His new office is lovely.  I'll post a picture of it as soon as I can.

To see what creative things we made during summer school, have a look at my crafty blog http://creative-faye.blogspot.com

Birthday Girl and Catching Up

This week, Matt and I have been on a huge detox trying to loose some of the weight we put on over the holidays.  It's been going really well!  We had the day off on Tuesday to celebrate my birthday.  We went to the lake which is just a 15 minute cycle from our flat.  It was roasting hot, and there were only about 10 other people here because the German schools have already gone back.  Bliss!

In the evening we went to the Harbour for huge pizzas and some cocktails.  It was lovely.

I got lots of wonderful gifts from everyone who clearly knows me too well.., lots of wool and crafty-related things.  Looking forward to getting stuck in.

Last night I went out with my friends who are finally all back in Germany.  It was great to have a good catch up over dinner and cocktails.  It's like we've never been away!

Back to work tomorrow for the summer school, and i'm quite looking forward to it.  We've just found out that we can do a day trip on Friday, so we're trying to go to the Sea life centre - perfect for our 'Under the sea' themed week!

Birthday Boy and The New Flat

A very busy week last week, hence why I have only just had time to post something.  The week started off with Matt's birthday, which we spent back in Hampshire with Mum and Dad.  We all went for a breakfast at the beach cafe to start the day, followed by a walk with the dog across the meadow.  Then Matt and I went into Christchurch for some mini-golf (which he won, only just!), an ice cream, and a wander around the shops, and beautiful church.  We finished the day with an Indian meal at the local restaurant.  Indian food is something that Germany doesn't really do, so it was a real treat!

On Wednesday we flew back home to Germany.  German Wings changed our flight from Dusseldorf to Cologne, which adds an hour onto the journey home, so we didn't get back until 1am!  Of course we were going straight to the new flat, which is lovely.  On Thursday we had the mammoth task of unpacking, and now it is pretty much done, so here are a few photos of the new place.

The low ceilings are only a problem in the bedroom, where I have to bend double just to get into bed, and in the bathroom - we still haven't worked out how to have a shower without bashing various body parts on the ceiling and taps, and without getting the floor drenched.  Definitely a skill to be learned!

We haven't done much else this week, other than unpack.  We're going to the gym every day (now only a 10 minute walk from our flat) and being really healthy to get back into shape before school starts.  Only 1 more week of holidays to go!

Studland, Corf Castle and Matt's Birthday BBQ

On Tuesday, after our lovely weekend at Moorhill House Hotel, we decided to do a day trip to Studlands Beach and Corf Castle.  We went over on the ferry to Studlands, and had a nice walk along the beach... 

There were several jellyfish washed up along the shore, because of the high winds (maybe?), and this whopper was the biggest.  Turns out, I really don't like alien-looking creatures from the sea!

A picture of Lovely Lola from our picnic.

We walked up to the little village of Corf, for a coffee/tea/beer and a wander around the cute village.  It's got some gorgeous little shops!

There was a fitness area in a play park that the boys had to demonstrate their manlyness on...

We came back to London on Thursday for a West Ham football match, and we also had a BBQ for Matt's birthday with some of his university friends, which was lovely.

Busy, busy, busy!