Leaving: The highs and lows of Bremen

At the time of writing (but not typing), I’m on the plane back to the UK and can’t help but feel a sense of sadness leaving Bremen. For some reason, whether it be the people on the course, the friendliness of the place, the fact that I feel settled there, or simply that it’s Germany, I really have an aversion to leaving. Although I know it’s only a comparatively fleeting visit (15 days or so), I don’t feel very much at all for anything in the UK at the moment… Germany is where my mind’s at, and I’m fully in ‘the German mode’ at the moment. No doubt that’ll change in time, and also I feel as though I’ve prepared myself well for Thueringen: I now know that the first day or two is never going to be fun and a little lonely and isolating. By having experienced this in Bremen, I feel as though I’ve really ‘dodged a bullet’ of loneliness, so to speak.

Anyway, the main point of this post is to document the highs and lows of Bremen, not talk about the lack of empathy with the UK that I’m currently feeling!

The lows

The first day or two was a rather isolating and lonely time, with the hotel offering me little comfort (even though I would, over time, come to miss the TV!) and doubts swirling around my head about the course and accommodation.

The start of the second week was a little hard, as over the weekend of the first full week at the GI, my dad had come back out to see how I was doing, and it took a little time of getting used to ‘being alone’ again.

The end of the course of the GI: So many good people known, in lots of different roles too, and it was a real shame to leave – not the uni, admittedly (it looked, to me, bloody ugly!), but the course, the supportive atmosphere and just the sheer range of different nationalities will all be sorely missed.

Leaving Germany: As I wrote at the start of the post, I feel now, more than ever, that my heart really is in Germany, and it feels (or has begun to feel) as though it is a second home to me.

The highs:

The people: To the coursemates Agop, Victor, Benita, Petra, Dascha (and little Asia!), Christa, Fred, Larissa, Weijen, Joanne and all the others; to the Zivis Tim, Sören and Henning; to Elke – thank you all for a fun filled, fantastic month. It’s great to be able to stay in contact with you all.

The trips: I can say that on all of the trips that I went on – the Begrüßungsabend, Nachtwächterrundgang, Fahrradtour, Schokoland, Cafe Sand, the Abschiedsabend, and the others too, plus all the fun in between and afterwards – I’ve enjoyed every single trip for various reasons.

Travel: Hamburg, Bremerhaven and Oldenburg – each had their own charms, and although Hamburg wasn’t really my cup of tea, the whole process of travelling by train to these places and exploring them for myself (or, in Hamburg’s case, with others), it was all very enjoyable and really does give you a great sense of independence, that I have come to savour.

Die Verbesserung der Sprache: ‘Verbesserung’ sounds so much better than ‘improvement’, I think! As I posted yesterday, after speaking German non-stop for 5-6 hours with someone as it’s your ‘lingua franca’, and just simply being immersed in it via the TV, radio, newspapers, signs, hearing people speaking it in the street etc., and of course the GI course too, all these have improved my German markedly, and I’m loving it!

Leaving Germany: Although I’m sad to leave, I also leave here on a definite high. My language skills have improved by a large degree, new folks having been met and friends made from them, and I’ve made the best out of what was a challenging and a bit of a depressing start to the month for me, to the point where I feel very settled. That, to me, can only be a good sign.

To say I’m looking forward to the next eight months in Thüringen is a massive understatement! I can’t wait!

The final days in Bremen

As I write this on Friday, I can’t believe how quickly the last four weeks have flown by. It really is a bizarre feeling to think that, in just over 24 hours, I’ll be back in the UK back to my ‘normal life’, when this, here in Germany, has actually quickly become reality and normality for me.

Here’s a quick roundup of what happened over the last 48 hours, in addition to me travelling to Bremerhaven and Oldenburg: On Wednesday, after getting chatting for the first time since the course began, to a coursemate, while the others all went their separate ways, we stayed and had another beer each and just began talking about anything and everything, and it really is quite rare to find someone who can converse on such a wide range of topics, and that was a very enjoyable feeling. Laughs were had, but so were serious discussions too. In the end, we spent the best part of two hours just talking while walking around the Hbf. As well as the obvious enjoyment of the making of a new friend and good conversation, it also brings home to you how comparitively safe Bremen is – we were around the Hbf, which isn’t that selubrious of an area, until 0100 and we had no trouble at all.

Thursday: As we both enjoyed chatting to each other so much, we agreed to meet up again at 1700. This, duly done, we then walked along to the Schlachte area, by the river Weser and sat, under the trees and umbrellas, sheltering from the rain and – again – just had a chat about anything and everything. Fairytales, I think, was one topic; films another.
At 1900 we then went to the Dom (Cathedral) for an organ concert. I’d been looking forward to this all week, but it was a bit of a disappointment, to our eyes. The guy was apparently very good, but whether he was having an off night, or just that organ music isn’t for me, I thought it was a bit of a waste of time and money, but it’s a new experience at least.
A restaurant next, where I had some soup and a Diet Coke, her a hot chocolate and we just ‘shot the breeze’ for another hour or so. Then, back to the Hbf where, after yet another hour or so of just talking about random things, it was time for me to leave. A hug, a kiss on the cheek and that was that. She was leaving to head home this morning, and it was a nice way to end things, having gotten to know a new person, who’s friendly and fun to be around.

As for Friday, or today in other words, this morning was Oldenburg, and I’ve just been catching up with my e-mails, Facebook and typing up posts for the blog over the past couple of hours. This evening, I’ll tie up the loose ends (paying my house owner for washing, for example), begin to get some preliminary packing done and generally relax.

What I’ve noticed, and felt, in the last few days especially, is that my German has sky rocketed. In a good way, obviously. My new friend-cum-coursemate’s English isn’t all that good (or so she says), so German was the lingua franca between us, and, although at the time you don’t notice it, afterwards I thought ‘Wow. I’ve spent 5/6 hours speaking German, and it’s no effort at all.’ Not that there aren’t mistakes in there, of course there are, but I’m picking up on them and correcting myself as I go.
My confidence too, has gone up a good notch or so – situations where I would feel nervious of or perhaps avoid when this month began, are now no obstacle for me. Today, for example, when I enquired about the validity of my ticket for the IC train, I had about a 5 second think about what I needed to say while in the queue, then said it: Ich will nach Bremen fahren. Ist diese Fahrkarte mit den IC Zügen gültig oder nur mit der Regionalbahn?…. THIS, here, is what I wanted to achieve. Confidence. The speaking of language to be vaguely automatic and less faltering. I feel as though I’ve achieved this goal. It feels great, to say the least.

All in all (which is a phrase I use a lot, I know!), this month has been nothing but a brilliant experience: New people, new friendships, a host of new countries learnt about and the possibility of visiting a couple of them too, plus a peak in my language skills and knowledge. What more could I ask for? To live here a bit longer – but I will do, anyway. A win-win situation, in my book.

As an aside: In my opinion, the word for ‘musing’ in German, Träumerei, is much nicer than the English. It comes from ‘träumen‘ – to dream, and just sums it up perfectly, I think.

Travel: Oldenburg

Oldenburg (Niedersachsen)
www: Oldenburg.de

Well, I arrived with time to spare this morning (Friday), so seated myself on the train to Oldenburg nice and early. If Bremerhaven’s slow train yesterday was rural, then this train’s route was even more so. Like the line to Bremerhaven, it plods through attractive wooded areas, stopping at all stations. Most of the platforms have some sort of greenery on them, be it from nicely kept flowerbeds to unkept weeds, it varies the journey at least and is always better than boring old concrete that is in abundance in cities.

Oldeburg itself, once you step out of the entrance of the Hbf, doesn’t give the most fantastic impression, as you come face to face with a street with a fair number of sex shops in it, but so it is in Germany. Although it was a bit of a seedy area, once you get through it, the Mitte comes up fairly quickly – although you need to know where you’re going to find it: The signage that was so confident at the Hbf exit, appears to have a change of heart halfway down the street and simply ran away. You’re left with a fork in the road (Straßengabelung) at one point, but luckily I chose the right one.
The Mitte, once found, is a nice affair, with paved pedestrianised areas and winding little streets that branch off from the centre. It reminded me a little of Bremen’s Schnoorviertel.
After eventually having found the Tourist Info building down a rather small road (why it can’t be placed directly in the middle of the town or near the Hbf, I’ve no idea) and having acquired a map, I had a bit of an explore. I found there to be a lot of nice cafes and although it was oddly windy, I sat down outside one, had some tomato soup and had a good think about what this last month has been like, the highs and lows, the funny and the not so, which I’ll write in a post tomorrow when I’m home.
From there, I had a look around at a body of water called ‘Hunte’ – whether it’s a lake, river or reservoir, I’m not sure, but it looked attractive enough. A quick walk back to the Hbf followed and, after enquiring whether my ticket was valid (gültig) for an IC train or not (it wasn’t), I settled down for a 35 minute wait, which I rather enjoyed. Just sitting on the platform watching the world go by was surprisingly relaxing.

As ever with my visits, they are relatively fleeting, but at the same time, I always try to get some sort of idea as to what the town / city is like and, to me, Oldenburg is a pretty place with lots to explore, but as ever with me, with no time to do it in.

Travel: The slow train to Bremerhaven

Bremerhaven
www: Bremerhaven.de

As Thursday and Friday are effectively my weekend this week, I thought I’d do something that I’d been intending to do ever since I stepped off the plane way back at the start of July: Travel.
I was intending to travel to Oldenburg on Thursday, but as I arrived at the Hauptbahnhof having just missed the one-per-hour train, I scanned the list and saw ‘Bremerhaven’, and thought that, although the last time I’d been there, I wasn’t exactly impressed with it, that was only for twenty minutes and I wasn’t really in the mood. Now though, I was – I had both more time and inclination to do so.

The travelling itself, I find, is always enjoyable. Although I still haven’t got the hang of the various ticket options yet – there’s no ‘return’ ticket (Hin- und zurück Fahrkarte) for example, just a ‘Four journeys’ option – buying tickets from the Ticketautomaten is very easy, as long as you know what sort of ticket you want. On the whole, I’d say that rail travel in Germany is relatively expensive – it’s €10.70 for a single from Bremen Hbf to Bremerhaven Hbf, for example – but the trains are usually on time, clean and comfortable.

There’s two types of train that you can get to Bremerhaven – a fast one that only stops at one station, and a slow, ‘let-stop-at-all-places-under-the-sun’ one. Having been on both, I think that the latter is better if, like me yesterday, you’re in no rush and are content to watch the world go by. You get to see what I’d call ‘rural Germany’ – little towns and villages that are in none of the guidebooks and only have an obscure reference on the Land’s website and a line or two on Wikipedia: Oldenbüttel, Stubben, Lunestedt and Loxstedt. Admittedly, all I’ve ever seen of them is perhaps a level crossing with a foresty lane beyond it, or a platform with a once grand station building on it, but I still feel like you’re living in ‘proper’ Germany, rather than a hotel and tourist cocoon, protected and helped by guidebooks.

I digress: Bremerhaven eventually came into view through the train window and, armed with a map from the Tourist Info, off I trotted to find the Mitte. It’s not surprising that the last time I attempted to find it, I was unsuccessful: It’s a good twenty minute walk away through a non-descript street, until you hit the ‘Alter Geestebrücke and, as you walk over it, the Geeste river flows beneath you. Through another non-descript street, the main streets ‘Theador Heuss Platz’ and ‘Bürgermeister Schmidt Straße’ open up in front of you and are full of shops, cafes and little knick-knacks down side roads, such as the aptly named ‘Große Kirche‘. It was a pleasant walk down to the end, which took a good twenty minutes – the novelties being a Woolworth shop (Woolworths being a much loved, but now defunct UK shop chain) and many squares with very colourful and ornately arranged flowerbeds. There was a bench in one of them, so I sat there for a few minutes taking in the pleasant surroundings, before continuing in my pursuit of the harbours of Bremerhaven.
In a short time, I’d found them. There were a number of very impressive looking boats that were moored in the harbour that appeared to be more for show than sailing and this all added to the nice, if windy, atmosphere of it. Over the next ten to fifteen minutes, I passed the three harbours that the city has to offer – the Neuer-, Alter- and Museumshafen, and although the Alterhafen was alongside a dark and rather uninviting main road, it still looked reasonably pleasant.
From there, it was a case of walking over the other bridge, the Kennedybrücke, and then following the main road through the surburbia, past the still colourful but rather misplaced flowerbeds, back to the Hauptbahnhof.
There, as I had 45 minutes to wait, I had a Bratwurst – a typical German snack if ever there was one – had a browse in the bookshop and took the slow train, all stops, back to Bremen.

All in all, if you can get into the atmosphere of a place, I find that it becomes enjoyable, or bearable at least and Bremerhaven certainly was the former of those two for me.

GI: The final day

The final day at the GI was a rather relaxed affair, with no teaching happening, rather we all had a bit of a picnic (inside, sadly, due to the torrential rain) and sat giggling to various videos on YouTube. Apart from filling in a couple of forms – one for evaluation about the course, the other evaluating the guest family, we had very little to do except eat, drink and be merry.
It was an interesting feeling that I experienced: Sadness, yet pleasure. Sadness at leaving Bremen and all the people who I’ve gotten to know over the last month, but also of pleasure, as I’ve now got the basics of the language (die Grundlagen der Sprache) down in my head – the cases, adjective endings and the passive are all being used on a regular basis without much difficulty – and also because I know that I’ve got eight more months of living in Germany ahead of me. I remember on Saturday when we were coming back from Peine and Schokoland, just leaning my head against the window, and breaking out into a spontaneous smile. That feeling has continued well into this week, too.

In the evening, we all met up at ‘Paddy’s Pit’, which is an Irish pub near the Hauptbahnhof. As someone put it: ‘You’ve come all the way from the US, and me from the UK, to learn German in Germany, and now we’re sitting in an Irish pub’. The fact that the waitress spoke English to us too, just make it even more disorientating! Regardless though, a good evening was had by all, from drinking games to long chats about anything and everything, this evening was good fun.

The final week in Bremen: Presentations, Universum and Spaß

After the fun of the weekend with Schokoland and Cafe Sand, on Monday (yesterday), I found myseslf having woken up, realising I’d dreamt in German, which was a new experience for me. I then spent the next 30 minutes or so, thinking in German, before my natural socially conditioned language came through and English resurfaced. It was a good start to the day though, whatever way you looked at it!

The sessions at the GI are winding down now – it’s the final week. Presentations about events in our own country had to be given (I would do mine on Tuesday on The Boat Race) and concentrated on turning this into a rather attractive powerpoint presentation after the session was over. This duly done, I joined in rather spontaneously with a group heading to the Universum Sciene Centre, an interactive science place for kids. While there was lots to do, I wasn’t in the mood and was Begeisterungslos. The company though, was good.
After this, perhaps due to the ever changeable weather (which was, at the time, raining), I felt as though I’d hit a literary and oral brick wall with the language. That feeling, as crap as it was at the time, was very short lived however, as I and owner of the house that I’m staying at had a chat about how the course was going for me, and how this cycling holiday was.

On Tuesday (today), I’m pleased to say that the presentation went well and was actually a bit of fun, too! There’s no event on tonight, but tomorrow is the official final day of the course so we can have a bit of a relaxed, fun day – a Spaßtag, if such a word exists in German – we’re going to have a picnic in the park nearby and watch Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others), a great film about the Stasi in the DDR. In the evening, there’s a farewell evening – Abschiedsabend – at an Irish pub near the centre that I’ll be attending, and then Thursday and Friday are my own two days for travelling that I’ve set aside. Where I’ll go is a bit of a mystery – perhaps I’ll spontaneously decide on the day!

As it’s the last week, perhaps I’m sub-consciously mentally winding down, but this is one of the times where that is the last thing that I want! I was chatting to one of the folks on the course earlier in English, and she agreed with the feeling that I had – like me, she was in two minds about leaving. In one way, of course it’s nice to have the home comforts and being able to be instantly understood (although, admittedly, that has become less and less of a problem as the month has gone on), but in the other, this country is a great place to be, and it’s somewhere that I’m passionate about and feeling at home in.

In a way, it’s good that I feel this way now: A mere 15 days back in the UK, which is a fleeting visit really, and I’ll, with fingers crossed, be out in Thüringen again, searching for accommodation in the place where I’ll be working. Now, if only that contract can come through …

Thüringen moves ever closer…

Thüringen is drawing ever closer, day by day: It’s a mere 34 days now until the induction course starts at Haus Altenberg, and as a result, new information was received by all new Language Assistants from the British Council on Monday, which was a welcome relief as it feels as though things are slowing to a crawl while waiting for this contract.

In an e-mail, there were many forms attached, including a list of who went where last year and who is going where this year (there are a fair few folks off to Thüringen, which is good) with their contact details, Germany country notes, a couple of forms that are needed for the receiving school, checklists of what to do now, once the contract is received, on arrival, and when at the school and other various little tidbits. As well as this, is to be a package posted to us in the UK, containing personal safety tips and a big teaching manual full of ideas; we’ve also got a website set up for our use, plus an internal e-mail group.

Interestingly, looking through the list of those who went to Thüringen last year, no-one went to the capital, Erfurt – they went to other cities such as Weimar and Jena, and it really will be pot luck as to where I’ll be placed, but wherever it’ll be, no doubt I’ll love it.

It really does bring it home to you though, just how much there is to do … The day of 16 August, when I move to Thüringen to look for accommodation and get everything sorted nice and early, draws ever closer, and the smile on my face and excitement, grows with it.

Schokoland, Lilienthal and Cafe Sand

On Saturday, I had my first event of the week – a trip to the town of Peine, to visit ‘Schokoland‘, a chocolate factory and museum. The journey there and back took a good two hours each way, but it flew by and was very enjoyable, with a chance to collect one’s thoughts – I remember looking out of the window and smiling to myself at the thought that I’ve got eight more months of being here – but also, to have a good chat with a coursemate about the differences of the Canadian / UK school systems and about differing cultures in general.

Around the factory itself, we first got to make our own chocolate tiles and decorate them, which was a bit of a laugh. In order to use the time well and to let the chocolate cool, we were then given a tourand shown how chocolate is made, via various exhibits such as a chocolate volcano and other less purposeful, yet equally impressive objects such as ‘The world’s largest sitting rabbit’, and a huge Santa Claus, both made completely out of (wrapped) chocolate. We were then ‘treated’ to a film that would have been interesting, had it not been for the appalling acting contained therein!
After the 25 minute laughter session, we were given the chance to visit the gift shop, in which a couple of bags of choccies were bought for the folks back home and then we got given our tiles of chocolate – we were laden down with it in the end, to say the least…
All in all, the factory was an OK experience – it didn’t really excite me, but it was good to do as the company was good and the journey interesting, so at the end of the day, for a mere €10 it was a good day out.

I had intended to get up a little later than usual on Sunday, and give myself a lie in, but my body refused to co-operate and found myself awake at 0815. As I couldn’t go back to sleep, after a shower and breakfast, I decided to kill some time before the trip to Cafe Sand at 1500, I decided to get the tram to Borgfeld and then walk to the village of Lilienthal, which we had fleetingly explored last Sunday during the bike tour. On the way to the Hauptbahnhof, I decided to walk to wake myself up a bit and also to explore – I got off in the centre and then walked up – and that reinforced my idea that Germany is practically dead on a Sunday: Although it was almost 10am, there was absolutely no-one about and nothing open – a bizarre feeling.

I enquired at the Hauptbahnhof on the way, what I needed for a Bahncard 50, which gets you 50% off all rail fares in Germany for a year, and as it turned out, not a lot: Just my passport, bank details and a passport sized photo. I then skipped off on the line 4 to Borgfeld, for what was a reasonably long journey (25 minutes). From there, it was off down a gravel path for about a mile or so before the Herzlich Willkommen in Lilienthal sign came into view. It was then a case of me doing some exploration – I was hoping to come across the Church of St Jürgen again, but discovered I was about six miles east of it, and I sure wasn’t walking there! I’d come into the village through a reasonably business-y bit – full of warehouses and petrol stations and the like. These were a bit bleak, as they were all shut, so had no inclination to explore further – so left and got the tram back into the centre of Bremen. Although it was a bit disappointing, I still found it to be interesting, as I like nothing better than to go for a walk and explore new places.

It was then a case of a nice relaxed lunch and an equally relaxing walk in the Marktplatz and around the Schlachte area respectively, which, as the sun was shining, was all very pleasant.

The trip to Cafe Sand was an interesting experience – it was a little man-made beach on the other side of the Weser. This meant that we had to get a ferry across, which was a novelty, even if it did last a mere 45 seconds!
Once there, we ensconsed ourselves at a couple of picnic tables and while some folks went off to volleyball, we stayed seated and had a good chat with the boss of the GI, in German, which is the way it should be! At this point, I got a bit annoyed with myself, as it seemed that I couldn’t string half a decent sentence together, or so it felt. As she put it, I ‘brake myself’ (bremse mich > sich bremsen) by thinking too much about the grammar. This, though, was remedied on the 20 minute walk back through very attractive country lanes, over the bridge to Domsheide, where we both had a good talk together (with me speaking, while not mistake free, ‘fluid’ German) – which was just what I needed. The topic was interesting: How the former DDR is, to us both, better than the west as it gives you a different sort of feeling and atmosphere and, in my case, the chance to speak German without much interference from English – Altenburg being a perfect example.
From there, a couple of folks went their own way, but three of us walked back up to the Hauptbahnhof, speaking German all the while.

All in all, I think I find my mistakes in spoken German to be a bit of a hinderance, but if I just let myself go and ‘go with the flow’, then I get my point across a good 95% of the time. The correct and accurate grammar can come later – what’s important, is communicating in the first place!

This, then, is the final week and it’s amazing how quickly the time has gone…

A late start to the week

So, first things first:
Q: Why was there no posts throughout last week?
A: Because nothing of any real interest happened!

No events, either with the Kultur/Freizeit programme or outside of it took place last week until Thursday, although even that was a bit of a non-starter, for reasons that’ll become clear.

In order to make the transitition between the UK and Thüringen easier, I had bought myself a simple Pay As You Go mobile for €30, with €20 as a top-up – €50 in total, in other words. This, I thought, was all in order until I took it home, put the SIM card in and discovered that the phone found it to be unreadable. That then annoyed me for the rest of the day: A quite illogical response, as in reality, it didn’t actually matter if I had the phone or not at that point. I resolved to take it back on Friday to get it sorted.

This I duly did, to discover that the only problem was that I’d put the SIM card in the wrong way round (in my defence, the diagram on the phone was wrong, too!), but I finally felt like things were actually sauntering along at a rather nice pace.

Speaking of getting moving, as has seemed to be the constant trend, after struggling with the passive for so many weeks and months, after an initial ‘Just what does this do?!’ moment in class, it just suddenly clicked. The concept of having ‘worden’ stuck at the end of a sentence no longer mentally scares me, or makes me throw my hands up in annoyance, or disbelief at how this odd language is put together. While the passive with modal verbs still stumps me a little, the basic principle and use of the ‘normal passive’ is, I’m pleased to say, coming right – eventually!

Thüringen – a bit of progress

Sadly though, nothing in the way of communication from the Land itself, rather an e-mail landed in my university inbox from the British Council’s representative at the uni, about the entitlement that I have to a bit of extra money from the Erasmus fund.

Erasmus, for those of you who don’t know, is a scheme that enables students of all nationalities to study abroad for a year at a university. I had considered doing this, but the placement that the uni had (with Bremen uni, funnily enough!), wasn’t to my liking. Anyway – it seems that I’m entitled to a bit of extra money per month, so I duly filled out the form and sent it off – which was a job in itself: One international post box in the main post office in a city is hardly efficient!

Preparations for Thüringen, then, move slowly, ever so slowly onward. An actual bit of concrete communication from them, such as the long awaited school contract (Schulzuweisung) would be nice. No doubt it’s in the pipeline though – a very long one, obviously!