The final week

The rest of the final week that I had in the UK, after Monday’s good news, passed relatively uneventfully. A few e-mails were pushed back and forth by fibre optic internet dwarves, from my mentor to me about arrival and meeting arrangements.

On Thursday, the packing started in earnest, with all manner of clothes, toiletries and electrical appliances (well, plug adaptors) were folded neatly and placed into cases, ready for the off. This was, over the next day or two, added to slowly.

On Saturday, a very useful package arrived for me through the post from the British Council: A Language Assistant’s manual, containing a mass of ideas, information and tips on lesson planning, classroom management, discipline (though I hope that won’t be necessary!), making yourself noticed on arrival, and other very useful information. Also contained in the package was a little leaflet about personal safety, but I hope that I won’t ever have to dip into that, for obvious reasons!

Here we are then – Sunday. The night before the ‘big off’. After a sad farewell to my ever loving, lovely girlfriend, I sat down and actually realised that, for all I’m looking forward to it, this is going to be one hell of a challenge. The reality just hit me, or, as somebody put it previously in the LA manual, ‘[it] punched me in the face’. To think that in 24 hours time, I’ll actually be in Germany, struck me as rather nerve-wracking! I’ll actually be there! All the waiting is pretty much over – now comes the experience and adventure. No doubt I’ll cope, stick it out, rise to the challenge and exceed my own expectations (as I did in Bremen), but at the moment – anxiousness is what I’m feeling!

Regardless though – it’s gonna be one hell of a year. I’m determined to make the most of it, get the best out of it, and come back being a much more rounded and world-wise person – with improved German skills to boot!

Right. See you all in Weimar.

First contact, an offer of accommodation and a pile of leaflets

After a nice relaxing weekend with the family in a rented cottage overlooking a lake in the Cotswolds, it was back to it on Monday. After checking my e-mails on the way home, thanks to the virtues of the mighty iPhone, I found that my mentor (Betreuungslehrerin) had e-mailed me on Sunday evening, to welcome me and say that if I wanted accommodation, she had a suggestion for where I could stay, at a cheap rate too. To top it off, she said that it was available from the Monday when I moved out there, if necessary!

Tuesday (today) was a day of action too – beginning to gather leaflets of events, walks and cycle rides around Essex and the surrounding counties, getting a new set of trainers that I badly needed, and clearing up the various queries that I still had: Would the current lack of a contract affect my payment while in Germany? – No, as I can get it arranged while out there; Have I slowed things down by not sending in the ‘Acceptance of Post’ form earlier? – No, it’s fine to send it now, even at this relatively late stage; Can the pack of information (teaching manual and personal safety info) be sent out soon? – Yes, I haven’t missed it, they’re just being sent out this week.

With paperwork and forms at the British end, that’s nearly all of them out of the way. The groundwork is done for my arrival in Weimar, but no doubt there’ll be a slog of administration to get through once arrived, but that’s all part of the fun(!).

All in all, a great couple of days! It has felt as though, after receiving that e-mail from my mentor just over 30 hours ago, the floodgates have opened and everything’s moving along at a great pace. It’s also strange to think that in six days, I’ll be out there properly…. How the time flies!

The contract finally arrives … by e-mail

Well, yesterday was an interesting day… This little ‘saga’ began the day before, on Wednesday, when, tired of waiting for the contract to come through my letterbox, I e-mailed the contact at the British Council, who helpfully passed me onto someone in Germany.

The next morning (yesterday), I woke up to find two e-mails in my inbox: One from a woman at the PAD, the service that sorts out international exchanges in Germany, and another from a person from the Ministry of Education in Thueringen. The former said that I should ‘urgently’ get in contact with my school – which turns out to be a Gymnasium (a grammar school) in Weimar, with the latter giving me an apology and saying that the principal will contact me ASAP.

I’ve e-mailed the school to say ‘Hello’, and to introduce myself and to, ultimately, speak about arrangements. No reply from them yet, but as their school year began yesterday, I’m not fussing and worrying too much about the lack of reply at the moment. The telephone number for them that I have, I think I’ll only use as a last resort!

So then, there we are: Weimar [wikipedia]. It looks to be a very nice city, though it has been noted in guidebooks to be ‘neither a medieval or monumentous city’, but I think I’ll be the judge of that! It’s a university town, so that should mean that there are at least a few goings on during the evenings and night time. What’s also good is that both Erfurt and Jena are around 15 minutes away in either direction (Erfurt to the west, Jena to the east), so I can get my ‘Erfurt fix’ before too long!

The title of this post is rather erronious, as really, all I’ve received is an ‘informal’ notification if you will, of where I’m to be placed. I haven’t actually got the official contract through my letterbox, and this, I believe, is what I need to send forms off and so on, but I’ll put in a few queries about that on Monday.

What to do now, then: Prepare and send off various forms to the British Council, the University of Greenwich and Germany; collect various bits and bobs that could be useful for teaching English (leaflets, newspapers, menus, tickets etc); and begin to pack!

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.

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!

Bremen preparations

This week has been a week where it feels like I’ve had no time to think or be. Regardless though, I’m still very excited about Germany – Bremen in particular, as it’s just around the corner (well, 24 hours away!).

As well as the induction course documents, what’s landed in my inbox is the confirmation of where I’ll be staying in Bremen. It’s a bit out of the centre, but the guy says that I can use the room whenever I like from Saturday, which is very nice of him!

Now, it’s just a case of packing, exchanging a few more pounds Stirling into Euros, and then bringing everything together and off we’ll trot to the airport.

I’ll try to keep the blog updated from Bremen, but if I can’t, I’ll certainly be writing my thoughts down and then typing them up on my return. After the month away, it’s then two or so weeks back in the UK, then finally a couple of weeks in Thüringen before the official start of the induction course. During that time, the school contract will come – hopefully sooner rather than later!

Details of the induction course

I’m pleased to say that, after a good six weeks of waiting, I received the details of the induction course through the letterbox this morning from Germany! The course (Einführungstagung) will take place from 30 August to 02 September in Haus Altenberg, an old monastery, near the ‘tiny’ village of Odethal, near Cologne.

The course is designed to give us all a flavour of language teaching for the first time, with a well prepared itinerary over the three days – everything from the clarification of logistical matters (getting to and from the building as a start off!), the German school day, the differences between language lessons in Germany and the UK, group discussion work and lesson practice, to health insurance – everything that’s going to be practically needed, it seems, is covered.

The days start early in typical German fashion – breakfast at 0815, with the days properly beginning at 0900, finishing at 1815 on the first full day, and 1930 on the second. For the final day, we’re up at 0630 to clean the rooms, hand the keys back, have breakfast and then it’s off to Cologne station at 0730 for our onward journeys to wherever it is that we’ll be going!

What I’m very happy with, is that the whole document and bits that came with it, including a very comprehensive booklet, are in German, except for one sheet about the essentials, which is in English. Regardless though, I’m pleased to say that I understand most of it!

What’s a tad irritating is that the contract from the school (Schulzuweisung) hasn’t arrived yet, but fingers crossed that it will do soon! The upside though, is that at least I know when and where I have to be, and when my language assistantship officially starts (30 August).

All I’m feeling at the moment is excitement. Excitement, and a bit of “There’s a heck of a lot to prepare!”.

Aspirations for the year

I would say that I have a few aspirations going into this year.

Firstly, and perhaps the most obvious, to improve and attain a high level of competence with my German (I was going to write ‘fluency’ here, but I don’t want to get carried away, being British and emotionally distant, and all!). Ultimately, I guess to do the classic ‘come back home and forget English words’, would be a good thing!

Secondly, to simply enjoy myself while living in a country that I’ve had nothing but good experiences of, to date – I doubt it’ll be hard to do!

Thirdly, this will be an intriguing time for me, as it will decide for me, I think, whether I want to be a TEFL teacher once my degree has finished (and thus could live in Germany for a year or two teaching English to kids).

The positives, of which there are too many to name:

• Living independently
• Using a language that I love, daily and getting myself immersed into it properly, for a long period of time (three months at a time)
• Exploring a new culture
• Meeting and integrating myself into a new group of people
• Helping kids improve their language skills, hopefully making them more interested in English
• The beer and food!

The worries, that are few, are:

• German paperwork!

I think it’ll be fascinating to see which are fulfilled and vice versa.

Bis dann!

Hello there

Hello there! Welcome to my blog about my year abroad in the coming year, and various escapades in Germany in the past. I hope to update this blog regularly, especially as the year gets underway properly in September, and with the various other little bits and knick-knacks that will crop up between now and then – including a rather large ‘bit’: A Goethe Institut course to keep my German up to scratch, in July in Bremen.

I should explain what I am to be doing while in Germany. I will be a language assistant somewhere in the state of Thüringen, which is right in the centre of Germany, from September 2010 – May 2011. As I’ve been studying German for the best part of 7 years now, this year abroad feels very much like the culmination of those years, so I am feeling – while, naturally, a little nervous – very excited!

Not much has happened so far: In December I applied to become a language assistant in Germany with the British Council, after choosing my preferred region, age range of kids and that I wanted to be in a city / large town. In May, I then heard that I’d been assigned to Thüringen, and am now patiently twiddling my thumbs waiting for the all important contract from the school to arrive – it should come any week now.

Tschüss.

Welcome to my blog about my year abroad and various escapades in Germany, both this year and in the past. I hope to update this blog regularly, especially as the year gets underway properly in September, and with the various other little bits that will crop up between now and then – specifically the arrival of the contract to tell me where I will be placed, and my month long Goethe Institut course in Bremen in July.

I should explain what I am to be doing while in Germany. I will be a language assistant somewhere in Thüringen, which is right in the centre of Germany, from September 2010 – May 2011. As I’ve been studying German for the best part of 7 years now, this year abroad feels very much like the culmination of those years, so I am feeling – while, naturally, a little nervous – very excited!

I suppose I’ve started this blog for two or three reasons:

1) To have a personal record of this year abroad – this is a significant milestone and event in my life. I’ve always had the writing bug and have always wanted to keep a blog, but had nothing to fill it. Now, I do.

2) To keep family, friends and curious strangers informed of what I’m doing

3) Hopefully, to provide a resource for new language assistants heading either specifically to Thüringen, or just to Germany in general, in future years.

Although the majority of you who read this will no doubt know me, for any curious Googlers out there who’ve stumbled across this blog, I’m Joe, a twenty year old student, studying Philosophy and German at the University of Greenwich, and I’m originally from Essex.