Heidelberg

This week I have been off sick again!  I blame having to cover in nursery!  I did make it in to work on Monday, and was on the year 6 trip to Osterbeek in the Netherlands.  I will add my photos tomorrow because they were on the school camera and I didn't get a chance to email them to myself yet.  I was feeling really unwell, which was such a shame because the trip was really fun for the kids and I would have loved it if i'd been feeling well.  Year 6 are studying WW1 and WW2 this term, so the trip was to the Airbourne Museum and WW2 cemetery.  It was an hour and a half drive from school and I slept all the way there and back, at one point waking up to find a child sitting next to me, smiling at me! Creepy.

We went to the cemetery first, which was really interesting.  We had a tour around, taking us to 10 different grave stones and were told the stories behind them, which were all tragic.  The graves were all of very young men, English, Dutch, Jewish, one German Jew who changed sides, Polish and one American.  It's interesting to see the affect it had on some of the children, who were upset and wanted to talk about how awful war is.  It was good to see the cogs working in their heads and resolving to do all they can to make sure war doesn't happen in their lives.  I love how idealistic and ambitious our kids are!

The museum was great.  We went in and sat down at tables which had suitcases on them.  In pairs, the kids opened a suitcase and inside were photos and medals and models all relating to a person who died in the war, who is featured in the museum.  They had to follow questions around the museum that would help them work out who their person was - English, German, Dutch, civilian, military etc.

The final part of the museum was an immersive experience in a very high ceiling basement, which was just fantastic.  You entered through the belly of an aeroplane into a war scene in a town, with actual houses to wander around, and huge screens with authentic videos of fighting on the walls, and sound effects all around.  You walked through trenches and past a hotel that was playing a radio announcement about an attack.  It was really effective, and so well done.  Even I managed to enjoy myself despite being ill!

The rest of the week I was off sick and pretty much watched TV and crocheted for the next 4 days.  Matt was busy, with playing football on Monday and Wednesday.

On Friday I was feeling much better (and Matt was unfortunately starting to feel unwell).  We headed off for the train station in the evening, towards Heidelberg in the south of Germany, to meet Matt's parents and brother for the weekend.  We have been to Heidelberg before and really enjoyed it.  The Christmas markets just made it all the more enjoyable.

Please take note of the fabulous 'Homo Heidelbergensis' who appears on the roof of this bar.  He is a famous skeleton found in the area.  All of the figures were based on well known people from Heidelberg.  I love the detail!  I'm going to have to have a look at the Duisburg one and see if it's similar.

Fried potato...

Drinking gluvine.

Going up the funicular railway to the castle and to the viewpoint at the top of the mountain.

This was at the top of the mountain...

... a gigantic wine barrel in the castle.

My challenge to myself this weekend was to take all of my photos on the 'Manual' setting on my camera, which means that I was controlling everything.  It was so much fun!  And really fantastic when I realised just what I could do with the camera not on 'Auto' settings.

A real stroke of luck was that it was 'black friday weekend' an American thing where there are huge sales on in the shops for one day (extended to a week really).  We popped into Saturn (like PC world or Currys) to look at the flash I was about to buy for my camera.  The deal I managed to get was the better flash (the one up from what I wanted) for the price of the worse one that I was going to buy!  I ended up saving 70 euros on a considerably better flash.  Fantastic!  Now I just need to learn how to use it. If it's as much fun as discovering 'manual' mode i'm in for a treat.

Christmas Markets

This week the Christmas markets started!  I really love the markets, they are so magical, and have a jolly and festive atmosphere.  We went on Friday after work with a group of friends, and had a lovely time trying the different Gluvine and eating salmon in a bun (which I dream about all year round!).

Before we went to the markets (and ended up having a very late night there), we had our international fair at school.  The last 2 years we have had a winter fair on a Saturday, where the teachers set up, take down and run the stalls.  This year, the 'Friends and Families of St Georges' run by the class parent representatives, organised the whole thing.  The stalls were all food from different countries, and it was really busy and a huge success.  I didn't really get to see much of it, because I was covering in nursery all week, and their kids don't get picked up until 4.30.  It was a bit of a rubbish week really.  There were international themed activities and parties going on all week and I missed out on most of it because of being on cover.  I did get to go to the year 4 party though which was fun.  So much delicious food from around the world!

I was glad the week was over anyway.  I went into Duisburg to the shops on Saturday to buy a few Christmas presents.  Matt stayed in and had a couple of friends over to watch the football.

Today I've been doing some of the Phonics online course that im doing for work, and playing with the settings on my camera to get to know indoor photography a bit better for the wedding im photographing in December.  We've been catching up on the new Grand Tour (Top Gear) and the wonderful Planet Earth II narrated by the fabulous David Attenborough.  

Today I haven't felt very well again - possibly coming down with another cold already.  I've also had such a stiff and swollen neck that I can't really move much.  Not much fun.  I'm going on a trip to Holland tomorrow to the aircraft museum, so hopefully i'll feel better by then!

An Ill Week

I don't know how people can say things like 'It's just a cold' or 'I'll power through at work'.  Maybe I just don't get sick by halves, but this weeks 'cold' was a particularly nasty one.  I was off work from Wednesday, and am just starting to feel better today.  I was too sick to do anything but sleep and watch  Gossip Girl, not even being able to crochet for the first couple of days!  In the end I ended up crocheting some really easy patterns, just to keep me distracted.  So, a pretty rubbish week for me.

On Monday and Tuesday I had been making a huge cardboard boat for the year 5s assembly on Friday.  I cut it out and drew the design and had 8 kids helping me paint the two halves on Tuesday afternoon, which was lovely.  We had some music on and we were just chatting about the election, and school.  I  love seeing the kids in that sort of environment, when they relax and chat to you like they do their friends.  I look forward to finding out how the assembly went when i'm back in, but i'm disappointed that I missed it - I know how hard the whole year group worked on it.

On Monday I took my usual year 2 library class for an actual lesson, which I don't normally do.  They drew some pictures of me that are really funny.

The top ones are of me with a rainbow, and me teaching in an outside classroom.

The bottom ones are of me swimming, and me with a giant dog and some butterflies.  Very cute.  They know how to win me over - I usually don't like this class at all!

Matt has had a very busy week after getting back from his training in Warsaw at midnight on Sunday.  He tutored on Monday and Tuesday evenings, went to football training at a team he has joined on Wednesday evening, Thursday was parents evening, and Friday was football at school.  Very busy indeed!  I think he was quite glad to have a quiet weekend!

Halloween

Monday (which seems like ages ago) was Halloween, which meant getting dressed up for work.  There I am in the above photo dressed as a Mexican Day of the Dead, Sugar Skull, with my pal Laura.  We painted each others faces, and I thought we looked pretty good.  

Below, we're in character...

I spent most of the day taking photos of the kids in their fancy dress and getting the hall ready for the disco after school.  This year I decided to make a photo booth - we always take photos at the disco but they tend to be a bit rubbish, just of kids running around, so I thought a photo booth might get us some better photos, and it did!  It was a huge success, and everyone loved the coffin i'd made for it, and the mask props.  The kids dressed as Dracula looked especially fabulous in the coffin!  Definitely one to remember for next years party.

The kids all decorate pumpkins too which is fun.  Here are some of the best ones.

Some of these are clearly made by the parents not the kids!  My favourite is the butternut squash cat below - simple but very effective.

The kids can buy raffle tickets to gunge a teacher.  5 teachers volunteered this year and here they are being gunged.  I had to elbow a lot of children and parents out the way to get this great photo, but it was worth it.  I printed it out in A3 and stuck it on the staffroom board!

 

It was a bank holiday on Tuesday, thank goodness, I'm not sure I could have coped with another 4 days of school after the disco. It's a very tiring evening!

On Tuesday, Matt and I had a much needed lie-in and then walked to the bar near to school for lunch.  It was a beautiful, warm day, so the walk was lovely, looking at all the trees changing colour.

Matt wasn't very well on Wednesday, so didn't make it into school.  He was OK by Thursday evening for his flight to Warsaw for an IB training course though which is good.  He still isn't back yet, and isn't due to land until 10.30 tonight.  He's going to be tired next week for sure.

The rest of my week was OK.  I don't much like being in the flat on my own, but it's meant that I can literally crochet from morning til night, so I'm happy with that.  I went to book club on Thursday evening with my little book group, which was nice, but otherwise haven't done much this weekend.  It's been very relaxing.

Visitors From Newcastle

On Wednesday our friends arrived from Newcastle for the weekend.  Andy worked here for just one year the same year that we first moved to Germany, and we have kept in touch since.  They were very easy going visitors and did their own thing during the day.  We went for dinner on Thursday evening at Schanke, as Andy is one of the original founding members of the boys pub night known as 'Schanke Thursday'.  Girls were invited this time, which was nice!

On Friday evening we went to watch a football match at Monchengladbach's ground Borusia Park.  It was against Frankfurt, and was a seriously boring match.  Nothing happened AT ALL! It took us more than 2 hours to get there because it was a tram, train, then a bus to the ground which got stuck in traffic.  We ended up walking the last half mile in the rain to get to the ground on time, but still missed the first 10 minutes of the match - not that we missed much!  The away fans were more interesting to watch than the football, with their chants, flags and synchronized jumping.  We had a bunch of English lads in front of us who were fairly entertaining, in a horrendously chav-tastic way.  They were on a stag weekend, and had taken the stags football ticket, hat, watch and phone.  He did manage to talk his way into the ground after about 30 minutes of football, as wasn't best pleased.  He had some trouble persuading the stewards to let him in because there was a random drunk man sitting in his seat.  This man had to be forceably removed by 3 stewards.  That was quite entertaining too, but the football was rubbish!  It was an 8.30pm kick off, so we didn't make it home until 1am!

On Saturday, the boys lazed about, while I taught Lucy how to crochet - very successfully!

Then we went for ice cream, followed by cocktails.  We then met some friends in a local brewery called Websters for delicious schnitzels and beer cocktails.  A nice evening with good company.

The week at school was quite busy.  I had my buddy trip to the shops to buy some toys for the playground and classrooms on Thursday.  They were very well behaved and loved that Matt drove our mini bus, as he was having a joke with them.  We managed to get lots of toys and the kids enjoyed themselves.  The buddy badges even arrived that morning, thank goodness.  The buddies have been pestering me for 8 weeks about them!

On Friday, I barely had any lessons because year 3 and 4 were both on trips, so I got to work on some props for the Halloween disco on Monday. I made a coffin photo booth from a gigantic box, that is going to double up as a hiding place in the morning for some of the kids to jump out at unsuspecting people from! Haha, it's going to be great!  We also have a disco on Monday evening, which isn't too bad because i'm on photo taking duty, which I quite like.  We've got Tuesday off for a bank holiday too, so can't complain at all!

Dublin and Galway

It was half term last week! Yay!

We had a nice couple of days doing not much of anything, and were getting ready to head over to Ireland with two friends, to see another two friends who worked at our school last year.  The day before we were due to leave, our pal's lung collapsed (again - it happened around this time last year).  He was in hospital in Dublin for the week, and had an operation to fix his lung up, so it won't happen again.  He got out of hospital today and is in good spirits, but it was such a shame that they couldn't come to Galway with us.

We had a good time anyway, exploring the pubs of Dublin for a few days before heading to Galway on the bus (2 and a half hours on the coach).  

We stayed in the fabulously decorated Bloom hotel in Dublin.  The hotel wasn't brilliant on the inside, but it was right in the centre of Temple Bar, which is the place to be in Dublin.  I understand now why people say Dublin is so expensive.  Compared to London, which is where we were living last time we visited, we didn't think it was too expensive, but this time, compared to Germany, it's super expensive!  We basically pub and bar and restaurant hopped while we were there.  We met up with one half of the couple we'd gone to visit on Thursday night, going to an American style diner.  We've done nothing but eat for 5 days!  We've also listened to some really cheesy Irish 'traditional' music, which was fab.

We went into the whiskey museum in Dublin, which was brilliant.  It was a walk around tour, not really a museum, just 4 rooms done up like a victorian bar, a monks distillery, a secret drinking room and the room below with original bottles of the distilleries that used to exist in Dublin before whiskey production pretty much stopped.  Our guide was really good, and we learnt loads, especially about 'Irish wakes' - they started because whiskey that wasn't distilled properly would send people into a 3/4 day coma.  The family would lay the body out and wait to see if their loved one would 'wake' from the coma - too many people had been buried alive!  Gruesome! 

We did a whiskey tasting at the end of the tour, trying 4 whiskeys from different regions and distilleries.  We were taught how to smell and taste the whiskey, and to see what difference a few drops of water in it does to the flavour.

On Friday, we got the bus to the lovely town of Galway, which is like a seaside town, with a quay instead of a beach.  There is a wild stretch of land to walk around, which gives nice views of the far off hills.

The town has lots of character - with bars, little individual shops, and plenty of jewellery stores selling 'Cladagh' rings which the town is famous for.  There was a lovely craft and food market, and a beautiful cathedral.

We had some amazing fish and chips while we were there, as well as the worst curry I have ever had in my life.  My tikka tasted like tomato soup, and it made me rather unwell!

On our last night, Saturday the 4 of us went to the local dog track.  Our friends had never been before and loved it!  My bets won two races!

It was such a good week with our pals, and we were sorry to leave the beautiful Emerald Isle.  I'd love to go back, rent a car and properly explore the country.