GERMANY
Word up!
Yup, I'm in Neuerburg, and this week has been one of the best so far, purely because I did like 4 hours of proper teaching (leading the lesson as opposed to watching, sighing and nodding) and just had general good times. Turns out Neuerburg has a pretty awesome slide, which I reckon is gonna definitely become a tuesday night ritual (not alone, you understand. Not yet).
The only hiccup I had was trying to coax a response out of a girl I had in one of my support groups. I'm being very careful to explain this well, as usually when I make critical comments about a lack of student response, I get a ridiculous backlash consisting of "oh maybe they're really nervous and/or not confident and/or scared of foreigners and/or recently bereaved and/or mentally disabled". The list goes on.
I've studied that list in depth and have confirmed that she is none of these. I can't even begin to describe how bad it was. There's unmotivated lack of response, and then there's this. It was like interrogating a hardened criminal.
Me: Und wie heiss du?
silence
Me, louder: Wie heiss du?
Her: *indecipherable mumble
Me: Wha ..? noch einmal?
silence
Me: .. noch einmal bitte?
Her: *mumbles some vaguely recognisable name
Me: Right, cool. Uuuuund .. was sind deine hauptfächer in der Schule?
silence
And it went on like this for 20 fucking minutes. If I'd had a taser, I would have used it, just to provoke a response of more than one indistinguishable word. And then I would have gone home insulting this needlessly poor aspect of my job while she twitched and drooled into the floor. This was pretty much the only downside to this week.
See, it's all looking quite good at the moment, because my new timetable is pretty easy while still fitting the year abroad requirements. It's gonna change again sometime in Easter and if anyone's planning on me having a less-than-3-day weekend, they can have it over my cold dead body. And, I'm still getting paid, so I must be fulfilling at least some guidelines.
The only other new thing is what I assume is lack of exercise. Back in August and September last year, when it was ridiculously warm here in the 'burg, I did a lot of walking about in our forests, or just doing general exploring.
Now it's colder, this is less fun, and I think my health is suffering. I broke a sweat putting my converse on the other day. In October time I pulled a muscle putting a sweater on. I think that's my bodys wake up call.
"Hello, Max? Sort yourself out."
Apart from this, healthy eating is a no-go in Germany. It just can't be done, certainly not unless you sacrifice all which is good and tasty in this country. If anyone wants to be my year abroad nutritionist, do get in touch.
I'll finish up with some pics I took from just outside my flat this morning at about half 8. Today was actually a good day, it was kind of 'cool British summer evening' barbecue weather at about 4 or 5 this afternoon, which incurred a lot of England student-life nostalgia. Ho hum.
That's all I have for you today.
I'm gonna put my post about my recent trip to Maastricht on indefinite hold because it'll involve uploading more pictures which I simply can't be arsed waiting for. By way of a teaser preview, there was a boat, a pub, a spliff, a gas mask and breadcrumbed sausage.
What I will leave you with however is this mother of all tunes here, the second half of this sentence in fact being one big link to said tune.
If you haven't had an eargasm by 14 seconds in, then I lump you in the same class of person as the girl mentioned above.
Word up!
Yup, I'm in Neuerburg, and this week has been one of the best so far, purely because I did like 4 hours of proper teaching (leading the lesson as opposed to watching, sighing and nodding) and just had general good times. Turns out Neuerburg has a pretty awesome slide, which I reckon is gonna definitely become a tuesday night ritual (not alone, you understand. Not yet).
The only hiccup I had was trying to coax a response out of a girl I had in one of my support groups. I'm being very careful to explain this well, as usually when I make critical comments about a lack of student response, I get a ridiculous backlash consisting of "oh maybe they're really nervous and/or not confident and/or scared of foreigners and/or recently bereaved and/or mentally disabled". The list goes on.
I've studied that list in depth and have confirmed that she is none of these. I can't even begin to describe how bad it was. There's unmotivated lack of response, and then there's this. It was like interrogating a hardened criminal.
Me: Und wie heiss du?
silence
Me, louder: Wie heiss du?
Her: *indecipherable mumble
Me: Wha ..? noch einmal?
silence
Me: .. noch einmal bitte?
Her: *mumbles some vaguely recognisable name
Me: Right, cool. Uuuuund .. was sind deine hauptfächer in der Schule?
silence
And it went on like this for 20 fucking minutes. If I'd had a taser, I would have used it, just to provoke a response of more than one indistinguishable word. And then I would have gone home insulting this needlessly poor aspect of my job while she twitched and drooled into the floor. This was pretty much the only downside to this week.
See, it's all looking quite good at the moment, because my new timetable is pretty easy while still fitting the year abroad requirements. It's gonna change again sometime in Easter and if anyone's planning on me having a less-than-3-day weekend, they can have it over my cold dead body. And, I'm still getting paid, so I must be fulfilling at least some guidelines.
The only other new thing is what I assume is lack of exercise. Back in August and September last year, when it was ridiculously warm here in the 'burg, I did a lot of walking about in our forests, or just doing general exploring.
Now it's colder, this is less fun, and I think my health is suffering. I broke a sweat putting my converse on the other day. In October time I pulled a muscle putting a sweater on. I think that's my bodys wake up call.
"Hello, Max? Sort yourself out."
Apart from this, healthy eating is a no-go in Germany. It just can't be done, certainly not unless you sacrifice all which is good and tasty in this country. If anyone wants to be my year abroad nutritionist, do get in touch.
I'll finish up with some pics I took from just outside my flat this morning at about half 8. Today was actually a good day, it was kind of 'cool British summer evening' barbecue weather at about 4 or 5 this afternoon, which incurred a lot of England student-life nostalgia. Ho hum.
That's all I have for you today.
I'm gonna put my post about my recent trip to Maastricht on indefinite hold because it'll involve uploading more pictures which I simply can't be arsed waiting for. By way of a teaser preview, there was a boat, a pub, a spliff, a gas mask and breadcrumbed sausage.
What I will leave you with however is this mother of all tunes here, the second half of this sentence in fact being one big link to said tune.
If you haven't had an eargasm by 14 seconds in, then I lump you in the same class of person as the girl mentioned above.
