The First Month...

So...Graeme gave me the nudge to finally get started on my blog-type-thingy, which I’d decided to do before arriving in Germany but still hadn't got round to starting... So here I am on my day off, still in my PJs, eating Wiener sausages, watching “How I Met Your Mother” in German and reflecting on my time here so far...

Sorry for the crappiness of this blog, I’ve never blogged before and I tend to get a bit carried away with describing every little detail. Still, you don’t have to read this; it’s mostly for me to keep a record of my 2^nd year abroad. If it interests you, by all means enjoy!

I'll start from the beginning; it's fair to say I was less than happy when I found out that I was being sent to Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Having applied for the South of Germany, hoping to be placed somewhere near my friends in the far South-West corner of Bavaria, the far North-East corner of Germany was the last place I wanted to be heading... Still, finding I out that I would be teaching in a primary school cheered my up a bit and I started to look forward to it.

On the 19^th August I set off to Germany with my mum. My head-teacher met us from the train station in Stralsund and took us to our guest room at the local Church. That evening we went to view the room I’d been offered via a room-search website, we got on well with the lady and, after looking round a few other places, on the following Wednesday I moved in. Early on Wednesday, mum got the train back to Hamburg and I popped into my school to get a few documents signed, and then sat in on a lesson, the children were ridiculously cute and kept coming up to me and showing me their work. On Saturday I went to a baptism which was held in a lake on the nearby island, a lady from the church gave me a lift, and when she and her friend found out I was here teaching English, they employed me as a private English tutor!

After the baptism there was barn-dancing and barbecue and I met a woman with 2-year-old twins, who was looking for a bit of childcare, so I went to visit them the next day, after church and spent three hours with them, I feel like I’ve known them forever!

At 2am on Monday I got up, ready to get my train to Cologne for our assistant training course. I met Laura and all the other assistants on the cathedral steps where we were met and taken to the old monastery where we were to live for the next 4 days... I can’t say much for the usefulness of the course but it gave us a chance to meet loads of other assistants and make friends with others who were going to the same area. I started school the day after I got back from the course and then spent the weekend with my new housemate, as she works away during the week. On Saturday night we went out with a bunch of her friends from school, we didn’t end up getting home until 3am! I spent the week sitting in on lessons and getting to know the children and last weekend Thomas came up from Bavaria to visit me.

We spent Saturday in Rostock with Michael, another assistant who I’d met on the course; it was an awesome day spent shopping, drinking chocolate cocktails and taking photos of camels, zebras, llamas and elephants outside the circus. On Sunday Thomas went back home and I’m back at school this week, really getting into the rhythm of teaching.

I’m loving it here but I do miss my friends back home, not to mention my wonderful boyfriend. I’m so thankful for Skype!!