Goodbye freedom

This is the last blog entry I write in absolute freedom, since I'll have to go to work tomorrow, which also means getting up kinda early (although school here starts at a friendlier time than it does in Germany). Lorna asked me to prepare an introduction lesson for year 12 and 13. I'll teach only small groups in which there are 3 pupils max., at least tomorrow, that is. I am excited as well as nervous about the job which is probably quite normal when you start something where you hold the 'new kid in school' position. I've prepared a little game with which the pupils will get to know me, I'll get to know them and most importantly, I'll get to hear how good their German is. I hope it'll work out well...
Sandra complained about the delayed start of the French assistants (which is apparently only next Monday), whereas I wouldn't mind having a few more days off. On the other hand, it's good to have something to do, I suppose.

Come to think of it, the title for this entry might not be accurate, because Judith and Mike left for Australia yesterday and I have the house to myself for the next month. But then, the two of them have never restricted me in any way, so the title probably is correctly chosen. Don't mind me...I'm just talking gibberish.

Reliable German sources tell me that my beloved Nudel-Schinken-Gratin also missed me and has therefore found its way into an envelope addressed to Cheltenham. The letter from the car rental company, however, didn't hold any vital information (about the crash, for instance), but ads. Idiots...

Saturday Night

Just came back from a drinking tour with Sandra and Benjamin, her boyfriend. I'm not as drunk as I would have expected me to be after five Vodka Red Bulls, but there you go. My genes must have somehow adapted to the British standard. Next week, I'll be going in a mini skirt that barely covers my genitalia, so I won't stand out in the masses. We went to Wetherspoons at first, a pub that I used to go to with my Bookworld colleagues, but it has transformed into a club or a pub with a dancefloor, whatever you want to call it. I texted Jaqui to ask her what that was about and she told me that she doesn't even go there anymore because it's horrible nowadays. Thanks for telling me :P Anyway, since it was way too loud to talk to each other, we went to a real pub after our first drinks. At some point, we decided that we have to have a look at the golf courses in town one of these days, for I remember playing golf here about 13 years ago, so there definitely is one around. We should go there and hit a few balls soon.
Some things to be done in the following months apart from playing golf:
- visit Cheltenham Racecourse and bet on horses
- go to a Cricket match, understand rules and maybe even play ourselves
- see a Rugby match
- buy mini skirts and look like w****s
- go to London and marry Kevin Spacey (more likely than understanding the Cricket rules, I suppose)
Now, I treat you to a pic of Sandra and Ben before I lie down and try to sleep which I won't be able to do anyway (damn you, Red Bull, why did you make me drink you?!).

My school, my home, my room

Pate's from the outside.


My room.


I had the choice between two rooms and I have obviously chosen the impractical one. I don't even have a desk in here. The chair I've got belongs in the other room, but I pinched it so that at least my laptop is heightened.
You can probably guess which bed I'm sleeping in. The room is a mess, I admit.

Mission Possible

Hooray! I've managed to open a bank account at Barclays today. It might have helped that the son of the nice lady I talked to is a pupil at Pate's and in fact doing German. I took me about an hour, though, and she asked weird questions about things I didn't know the bank was interested in. One of the questions on the application form (yes, you have to apply for an account) was 'Tell me about your family'. Since I didn't expect a question like that, I was a bit baffled and asked the poor lady three times if she could repeat it. I'm even putting money into my savings account every month now (Mom, Dad, I want you to acknowledge that!). Now, I just have to wait for my first salary.
Judith came home from London today where she babysat her youngest grandchild who'll have her first birthday next month. Apart from the babysitting, she also saw to it that the whole family got something healthy to eat, so I offered to cook tonight (unhealthy, for a change) to take a bit of a burden off her.

Life started! Yay!

My life here seems to have finally started.
I walked to school today (a walk of roughly 30 minutes) to meet Lorna who is in charge of the assistants at Pate's and she gave me the guided tour of the school. I just gotta say 'wow'. Pate's doesn't make the impression of being a school at all. It doesn't look the least bit like any school I've ever seen. Firstly, it has carpeted floors everywhere, the sixth formers have common rooms (not an invention of Harry Potter, then) with small kitchens even, there are computer working places all over and when I waited for Lorna at the reception I was startled to see a Toshiba flatscreen hanging at the wall whereas an even bigger one is hanging in the senior library. So, all in all, the school seems to be quite posh as is the rest of the town - which isn't a bad thing at all ;)
Lorna also seems to be really nice. She handed me a map to find my way through school which will be very useful considering that I wouldn't have found my way out today. She also told me that she'll try to get us assistants a day off, so that we can do stuff together. Then there was a short explanation of what will be expected of us which sounds quite reasonable. The assistants usually work 12 hours a week, mostly with small groups of students with the main aim to get them talking (including discussions with the sixth formers as a preparation for their oral exams). There might be some of the more clever primary school pupils coming over to learn a bit German and I was asked to teach them a bit, since they probably won't be needing me the whole 12 hours anyway ;). Additionally, I wa asked to help them correct some of the essays languagewise which is fine, obviously (although...they might want to wait until they've seen how bad my German really is, hihi).
There'll be a teaching programme for all the assistants in Gloucestershire at Pate's on October 15th . We will have started teaching by then, but anyway...Working life starts next Wednesday (Oct, 1st) at 9am and I think I'm even looking forward to it.

After the meeting with Lorna, Sandra (one of the French assistants) picked me up and we spent the afternoon together which was really nice. She has her car with her, so we drove into town, went to Starbucks (why didn't anybody tell me that Frappuccinos are cold?!), did a bit of shopping (Tesco's, that is) and went to her place (not what you think ;) ). She lives here with her boyfriend who is still looking for a job. He seems to have a bit of a rough time, since he is not particularly convinced by his English. We had a nice conversation, though, and both of them were really hospitable. Since we got along so well, the three of us will be going out for a beer on Saturday evening. There you go, I had a great day today and will let it finish with a film...maybe Die Einsteiger...who knows ;) Thanks for reading and have a good night!

Found in the papers

After Judith and Mike told me that reading the paper would improve my non-colloquial English, I followed their advice and looked at the pictures in the Times. Look what I found :)

Thomas, this is for you:


In case you can't recognise anything, it is a whole bunch of Tiggers sitting on a whole bunch of chairs at some fancy meeting. Don't ask me why, though.

Edit: Found out why there are so many Tiggers: It was at the memorial service for a professor. That prof was apparently known for his motto in life, namely that you have to decide whether you want to be a Tigger or Eeyore. The pic cleary shows what he decided on.

Random...again

Not a lot is happening here at the moment. I go into town a lot to do some unhealthy shopping, unhealthy for my wallet, that is. But I've almost reached my self-set limit. So I won't purchase too many DVDs until next month. I should be alright with the choice I have now, since I bought The Omen Pentology as well as the Planet of the Apes box. That'll keep me busy for a while. Judith and Mike told me that it would be a great time to start working on my paper rather than watching all those films. I tell them I want to perfect my procrastination, since I am quite proud of that talent.

Judith accompanied me to a practice yesterday, for I have to register with an NHS doctor. It'll be quite interesting to see how the medical system functions around here. They gave me an appointment for the beginning of October. Remind me to take a dictionary, for I barely understand my German doctor. How can anyone assume I'll understand an English one?

Finally bought a UK SIM card today, yay! Calls are really cheap to German landlines, so if anyone wants me to call him, just send me a note and I will ;)

Greetings to Philipp and his family, by the way. I hope, Daniel behaves well :P

The way into town

Random

My DVD collection catches on. I confess: I went to HMV again. There is a sale at the moment (yeah, I know, there ALWAYS is a sale) which I simply couldn't and will not be able to resist in the near future. It is tempting and dreadful at the same time, because I know how much money I will probably leave there. Yield: Sweeney Todd, Fargo, The Royal Tennenbaums and Grizzly Man.

Mike is bemused by the title of the seminar I did last year, "Formulaic Language", for he cannot imagine what it is about. Neither can I, by the way.

(Partly not so) New curiosities in the series "what makes the British different":
On Friday, I went into two shops, because I wanted a chequered notebook, but only found ruled ones. If you don't find chequered paper at WH Smiths you can deduce that the Brits don't write on it. Weird. But maybe I'm simply blind.

And another thing:
On my way into town, I saw way too many people wearing not enough clothes. The sun is shining and the weather is quite agreeable on the whole, but it is simply not warm enough for spaghetti tops, hot pants and flip flops. I say that after two days of freezing, so I should be used to the cold by now, but still I feel, I have to look after my body.

Alarum, alarum

When I lived in Cheltenham four years ago, my hosts left me alone for a week, because they went to Spain to practise their Spanish. The day they were set to return, I wanted to tidy up a bit, so I took out the garbage. As soon as I left the house, a draught slammed the door shut. At that point I was incredibly relieved and proud of my sense of anticipation since I had rushed upstairs just before to get the key just in case...but the door wouldn't open again. Something inside the lock must have moved because of the violent blow. Judith had told me that the neighbours had an extra key so I went over and asked them for help. They couldn't open the door either, so I waited in their living room, watching The Perfect Storm until my hosts came home. With a little bit of wiggling the key around in the lock the door did open again, but I've been heavily traumatised since that day.

Last night, another traumatising incident took place. I was watching Cape Fear in my room (on my laptop *grml*), when I took a break to fix myself something to eat. On the ground floor, I heard an alarm and went to the window to see where it came from. I saw neighbours looking strangely at my hosts' house, so I went outside and asked them whose house or car the alarm belonged to. You already know the answer. For the rest of the evening, I was paranoid, expecting the alarm to go off any time again, therefore I triple checked every one of my steps. Talking about the development of neuroses...
What must have happened is that the alarm was accidentally switched back on when the keys were in my pocket. When I walked into the kitchen, I must have set off the motion detector and the alarm started howling.

This is the culprit. No, not the cute little "hunny" eating bear, Thomas :P

Cheltenham lost its Virginity...

After I spent the first half of the day avoiding the shower, I went into town in the afternoon. On my way, I took more pictures. First: the house from the outside.

Then: Christchurch which gives its name to the street I live in and is actually quite nice to look at.


The trip to the town centre takes about 10-15 minutes and is quite a nice walk. Yet, when I got there, I realised that I shouldn't have gone. I'm completely disillusioned and desperate. Virgin Megastore is gone and I don't know if they simply moved or actually closed down their branch in Cheltenham. I looked all over the High Street but I didn't find it. Had to go to HMV to do my shopping, then, where I couldn't resist the tremendous DVD sale, of course (nothing new here ;) ). Bought Hana Bi, Cape Fear and No Country for Old Men - for those of you who are interested - and saw at least 200 other DVDs that I'll have to buy during my stay.

John Travolta said in Pulp Fiction that "it's the little differences" between countries that make visiting an experience. I, for one, just love the fact that you can actually switch off the power sockets here, no annoying plug pulling necessary. More of the little differences are to be noted and accounts will follow.

Rear window

Just to show youwhere I live, I took two pictures from what I see when I look out of my window.

The field on the left is a hockey field that belongs to the Cheltenham Ladies' College whose buildings are all over the town. I distinctly remember my brother having loads of fun watching the girls practise when he was 13ish ;)
Please excuse the quality of the pictures. I am planning on buying a camera at some point ;)

Freezing

Judith was kind enough to leave me a list with the most useful instructions concerning the household, one of them was how to turn on the water boiler. When I first came into the house, I didn't think it was necessary, but when I calmed down and the sweat from the way home (eww, I know) didn't keep me warm anymore, I decided otherwise and wanted to switch it on. The thingy is in the same room as is the washing machine which is in the basement. On my way down, however, I realised that the basement door is locked...great...I don't want to call Judith and Mike to ask them where the key is in case it isn't in the house and I don't want to rush them home and thereby messing with their holidays. On the other hand, have you ever noticed how many things become a real pain in the arse without hot water?! Turning on the radiator? Doesn't make any sense. Taking a shower? I'm dreading that. Probably the reason why I'm still hanging around in my pyjamas. Washing the dishes? You get cold hands you cannot warm afterwards, neither on the radiator, nor with hot water. See what I'm going through? :D
I guess, I'll have to give Judith a ring later...

Car, plane, bus, stop, bus again

I finally arrived in Cheltenham after a tiring journey. The plane left at 10.25 at Hahn and I had my first lengthy chat in English already on the plane with my seatmate - even though more on his than on my part. We landed at 10.50 local time and I have been travelling the country since then, including a two-hour stay at Heathrow - which doesn't exactl qualify as travelling come to think of it. Got the keys from the neighbour and let myself in. The fridge looks like I'll be able to eat something tonight, slump down on the couch, watch a film and then fall into bed.
Had a quick look around the house, Judith and Mike got their bathrooms remade and they look really nice. I'm looking forward to taking a long bath.
The best thing so far, though, is that I detected an unsecured WLAN which seems to belong to some neighbours. Ace!

Last day

My last day in Germany draws to a close. Got the last presents for my host parents (apparently Mon Cherie came back from its summer shutdown today, yesterday none were to be found, today it's hard NOT to find any), finished packing more or less and hope that I didn't forget anything important. I also decided that I'll only take DVDs I haven't seen yet which narrows down the choice to a justifiable amount ;).
My brother and his girlfriend are coming over tonight and the whole family will go out for a meal. I get to choose the restaurant, and what could be better than saying goodbye to Germany by eating Chinese.
I talked over the modalities with my dad who'll drop me off at Hahn airport on his way to work tomorrow and we realised we have to get up at 6 something am. Damn...

You just gotta...

...love the Brits. I asked my host mother what she would like me to bring from Germany. Her answer: "Brillenputztuecher (I still have some from my last visit, but it will be a while before I am next there, and the German ones are so good), and a few (not many) packets of DR Oetker's Vanillenpudding and Schokoladenpudding." Brilliant!
I collected my GBP today and was astonished at the miserable exchange rate - from British perspective, mind you ;).

Moving and news from Cheltenham

I hate moving. My flat is empty, and so will be my bank account, because we banged a car today with the rented van...yay! Nobody was hurt though, so it wasn't as bad as it might sound. Still, I know what my first salary will be spent on.
To make things worse, I got news from my host parents today. They won't be in town the day I arrive, so I'll have to get the key from the neighbours and spend my first two days alone in that big house. Not a prospect I'm particularly looking forward to. On the other hand, it helps me getting used to being alone, since they will be leaving for Australia for four weeks anyway.

Leaving Mainz

I finally decided that I don't want to reactivate my old blog and got this pretty one here. I hope PC doesn't hate me for so shamelessly copying his ideas, but I simply cannot be creative at the moment for I've too much to do.
I'm still in Mainz, sitting in between packing cases and not being comfy in my flat anymore. The posters are off the walls, my home cinema is all packed and the shelves are empty. My DVDs sit in the bathroom waiting for the transport to my parents' house tomorrow and I still haven't decided which of the boys I'm taking to England. Yesterday, Thomas (Bernhard?) and I celebrated our final victory over Bowser, the gruesome princess abductor, and watched our last film for the time being. That's how I say goodbye to my flat.