The End.

So... sorry it's been a while, it has been crazy here! Today I have an important topic to reflect upon and thought it was easier to now share it on here :)

I am coming to the end of my 12 months here in Berlin. Wow. How weird that sounds! 
And this is a list of a few of the things I've learnt:

1.Germans are some of the most honest, generous, loving, creative, passionate and fiercely loyal people you will ever meet.
2. You need to get over the shock of their blunt way of communicating before you can fully understand them.
3. The German system for getting anything done is great. Until someone tries to push in front of you in the queue or cross the road on a red light. Then it doesn't work as well...
4. There's no need to be afraid of inner city children as a teacher. If they respect you, then you have nothing to fear.
5. German history is about so so so so so much more than just Hitler. It's actually fascinating.
6. The phrase 'weisst du' is the most annoying phrase in the German language. Like, ever.
7. My favourite words in the German language: Wackelpudding ('wobble pudding' = jelly), Kummerspeck ('comfort bacon' = weight gain from comfort eating), Handschuhschneeballwerfer ('someone who throws snowballs with gloves on' = a coward).
8. Children between 2-7 are incredibly capable at learning foreign languages.
9. Germans are very good at football. Like, really good.
10. Currywurst, Doener, Brezeln, Spaghettieis and Milka chocolate are the best foods ever.

Can't wait to be back in the UK but will miss it here very much!! 

So sehen sieger aus!

Alles liebe,

Louise x

Ice cream... in November?

Today I had a bit of a disaster class.

It's a new English class I took over just last week, with only two children signed up (I normally have groups of 8-10), both of whom are really quiet, and it's hard to do anything with them.

Having discovered this problem last week, I thought this week I'd be extra prepared.

I brought extra materials, my favourite games and even bribes for them, to try to entice them to join in, but it just ended up being even worse than before!

One of the two children was sick, so after a lot of persuasion I managed to get the other child to come to English, under the condition that he could bring his brother with him. About five minutes in, they both started asking "wo ist mama?" (where's mummy?), and from there it just went downhill. I simply couldn't do anything to entice them to go along with the lesson plan that I'd made! Lesson plan virtually aborted, I then attempted in various different ways to regain control, but then they started crying and... well... yes. Absolute disaster.

I was frustrated, a little upset, and rather disappointed in myself, to be honest!

What on earth are you supposed to do with a class like that?

So I then resolved on my journey home that comfort food was needed. Real, homemade Italian gelato ice cream, to be specific.

Yes, that's right. One of those really cold, melt-in-the-sunshine, give-you-brain-freeze-but-you-love-it-anyway, beach-holiday-appropriate type treats you can buy everywhere on a hot summers day, and nowhere after about the beginning of September (or so I thought!).

Am I crazy? Yes. 

Was it worth it? Definitely. 

In spite of the brain freeze, and the coughing fit I endured when a piece of waffle cone went down the wrong way, I would still argue that the moral ambiguity surrounding the consumption of ice cream in 11 degrees Celsius are totally outweighed by the satisfaction of enjoying the self-awarded comfort food, knowing that I have people I can turn to for help in how to turn this class into a success, and knowing that next week it will be better.

Until then, meine Lieben,

Alles Liebe,

Louise x

The one about Public Transport

This might seem like a strange topic to choose for my blog, but I have experienced some rather bizarre observations on German (specifically Berlin) public transport, and I thought I might share those with you today.

Underground

Surprises

Here in the city there are no ticket barriers on the underground platforms, which means that you get a lot of people attempting to ride without a ticket. All tickets are controlled spontaneously by inspectors onboard the trains, and this can take you entirely by surprise, as they are often plain-clothed (and can fine you 40€ on the spot!)
I have started to realise, however, that there are certain traits to look out for, if you want to spot one.
Firstly, they are virtually all middle-aged men, travelling in pairs or threes, with broad-rimmed glasses and balding white or greyish hair. They tend to wear jeans in an attempt to fit in and look like part of the young crowd, when normally people of their generation would be wearing cords or chinos or something more... age appropriate.
They tend also to wear a loose shirt or black leather jacket, in order to try and cover the bulky ticket machine attached to their belt.
And finally, they always travel in small groups of normally 2-3, who never sit down upon entering the carriage no matter how many free seats there are. After a few moments of hovering by the door in awkward looking silence together, they fan out and start their murmour of 'Fahrkarten, bitte'. Then you can see which people start to squirm uncomfortably!


I must admit, I do sometimes entertain myself by playing 'spot the inspector' on a crowded U-Bahn train!!

Buskers

You often find buskers with guitars or similar on the underground trains as well, which can be entertaining. 
I hear one man fairly regularly- he plays guitar really really well, he has a deep, crooning, beautiful voice, and an amazing beard. He has serenaded me and my fellow passengers with songs such as Moon River and The Way You Look Tonight, and always brightens up my journey to work of a morning.

There is, on the other hand, a downside to having such buskers in the train carriage with you. You can't avoid them. 
Now there's one trio of musicians, and I know exactly where they travel to and from, which I now make a conscious effort to avoid. Their trio consists of a clarinettist, violinist and I believe a guitarist, and they will play Pachabel's Canon in unison in a loop. It's really not very tuneful or pleasant to the ears, and I don't appreciate the way that their assistant pushes their collection cup insistently right into your face. Over all, a highly unpleasant experience, in my opinion!

Polite Homelessness

Homelessness is quite a big thing in Berlin (it's really difficult to find accommodation here), and so quite often homeless people will turn to magazine-selling to earn enough money for a bed for the night/food to eat.
It's quite common to see these people travelling on the U-Bahn and S-Bahn, begging from the commuters and tourists they find there.
What astounded me about these people was how unbelievably polite they are.
This is a rough translation of a typical Big-Issue-Equivalent salesperson here in Berlin:
"Hello, and a wonderful and pleasant morning to you all. I would like to firstly apologise for disturbing you on your way to work/sightseeing here in Berlin. My name is X, I am one of the hundreds of homeless people in this city, and I am here today to ask you to buy this magazine from me. It only costs 1.20€ and will help me to afford something to eat and drink, as well as helping me to eventually afford a roof over my head. Even if you don't buy a magazine, I would most appreciate if you could donate any spare change for food and drink. In any case, I wish you all a very pleasant onward journey and have a nice day. Thank-you for your attention."

I mean, seriously?! You'd never find that in England!!

Buses

Bus etiquette. 

It seems that here, travelling by bus is a very impersonal business. You are expected to have minimum contact with the bus driver- there's no greeting or eye contact other than silently showing your ticket upon einsteigen (getting on)- and you exit from a side door without saying 'thank-you' or acknowledging the bus driver's existence. Bizarre, but so it is.

Bus driver driving style

Now, here in Germany, drivers are generally known for being fairly respectful and considerate of other road users (I'm ignoring the concept of the Autobahn for now!), but I have to say, bus drivers are a real exception to the rule.
I have to travel by bus virtually every day for work here, and I have noticed a lot of interesting behaviour.
Bus drivers frequently honk their horns, drive over red traffic lights, cut up cyclists and cars and even shout 'Arschloch!' at other road-users if they don't do what they expect.
For a short period of time, we entrust our safety into the hands of these people, and so to set such an example of how (not) to drive just seems a little ridiculous, and very unneccessary. On the other hand, the buses are virtually always on time, so I suppose that's a positive side to it.

That's it for today. Sorry it's been a little random!

Alles liebe aus Berlin,

Louise x

Drawings, Discipline, Dirndl, Destinations and Dumbfoundment (but it's not all bad!).

I've now been here for a grand total of 57 days. 
That's 8 weeks, or just under 2 months, or 1/6 of my time here (depending on how you look at it) and I've very much settled into the general routine of day-to-day working life.

I now am not only in charge of teaching English to young German children, but also music classes twice a week, as well as undertaking homework-marking and private tuition in my spare time.

Drawings

So I received my first present from a child yesterday. It was apparently a drawing of me:

Hair that's long enough to reach the floor, an anorexic-looking long purple body, short stick-legs (again, purple) a big smile and a lovely pair of purple glasses. 
Yupp. Very accurate... :-)

Discipline

Some of the children in my classes have now sussed out that I can be a bit of a pushover, which has been a steep learning curve!! I hate it when they start to play up and not listen to me, because I don't want to seem like the big scary English teacher, but it got bad enough the other day that I even had to send two boys out after they starting throwing things around, so I've had to learn very fast to assert my authority!
However, I now have some very sneaky tricks up my sleeve (mainly bribery-based), and I've finally mastered the subtle art of keeping the childrens' attention without needing to raise my voice, so my classes seem to be under a little bit more control again. 
We'll see how that goes!

Dirndl

I also recently went shopping with my housemate and her friend, and we all tried on the traditional German/Austrian national dress (called Dirndl). Pretty hysterical experience, I must say, and it was surprisingly comfortable:

Edelweiss, Edelweiss, every morning you greet me...

Not sure quite how the children would react if I turned up to class like that though!

Destinations

So here I wanted to cleverly introduce the arrrival of a few lovely people to Berlin, but then couldn't really think of a word beginning with 'D' that would fit with my title. So I went with destinations. Sorry =P

Emily, Elaine and James (friends and fellow music students from Newcastle Uni) have just arrived to start their years abroad at Humboldt uni, here in Berlin. It was lovely to be able to see their familiar faces again, and to share in their experiences of moving here and settling in, even though I am working quite a lot of the time so unfortunately don't get to see them as much as I would like. 

Dumbfoundment

So I had a bit of a shock the other day, when I found out that the leader of the church I'd been going to here in Berlin has actually been arrested for having had sexual relations with a 13 year old boy. 

I'd met him a few times at the church services, really respected and looked up to him as a teacher and church leader and example of a model family man, and so it was a real surprise to find out that he had been arrested.

It has revealed many things to me:

• That no matter how well you think you know somebody, you never know what's going on inside their hearts/minds. A slightly daunting thought!
• Even those people who seem a perfect role model aren't actually perfect. They're just human.
• People (especially in Christian circles) are very very quick to judge. Me included.
• When the head of an organisation/group is suddenly not there any more, although it brings utter chaos, it brings people together under a united desire for sustaining the cause. It has made a lot of people re-evaluate what's important to keep the church running, and pull together to move forward.
• How much I need Jesus. Without him, I am nothing better than any murderers, idolaters, thiefs, rapists, adulterers, liars or cheats... yet with him, I have everything. I have no more regret, guilt or hopelessness, because I know that I have a hope and a love everlasting that will never change or leave me stranded. What an awesome gift!!

That's all for now. I'll try not to eat too many Currywurst before I post again.

Alles Liebe,

Louise x

Time passing... and a few Milestones

Over here, time seems to fly by incredibly quickly, but at the same time, it also feels like I've been here for ages. 

So, today I'm celebrating three important milestones in my Year Abroad.

Firstly, the end of my first official week's teaching. 

What a week!! At times it's been tough, but the children are on the whole very sweet and willing to learn (which always helps!), and the more lessons I've taught, the more confident I've become at controlling the class and ensuring that both I and the children enjoy ourselves.

And now, I'm looking forward to next week, when two more new classes start, and I can get stuck in even further with those children I met this week.

Secondly, it's just dawned on me that I've been here in Berlin for exactly a month today.

A MONTH ALREADY!!!

It feels like only yesterday I was packing my life into a suitcase and setting off for the airport, full of excitement and nervous anticipation and more than a little bit emotional/teary-eyed.

Now I feel like a Berliner. 

Now I own a bike.

I honestly feel like this is a significant rite of passage for anyone living here in Berlin. If you don't have a bike, you're not truly embracing what it is to be German. Pedal-brakes, basket, slanting crossbar, the lot. So, yesterday, I went and bought one. :)

Admittedly, this isn't just as a metaphorical symbol of the culture, but also for me will potentially be very practical. A bike will make it significantly easier to access the schools where I'm working (which tend to be quite far away from any U-Bahn stations), and to travel between them, as well as further exploration of the local area in my free time. But it's also helping me feel like I fit in here as well, which is a good feeling.

I'm not going to use it straight away for work, as I want to be really secure in where I'm going/how to cycle on the Right hand side of the road/how to adapt to a bike with pedal brakes before I even attempt that (I'm not sure it would leave a good impression if I turned up for English class 20 minutes late, breathless, covered in sweat, having got lost and nearly caused a traffic accident!!) but hey. I'm here for a whole year. Plenty of time for all that.

My third milestone is that tomorrow, it's only two weeks until I fly back to sunny old Blighty for the wedding of two very dear friends of mine in Durham. I have been honoured with being asked to be bridesmaid, and it's been nearly two months since I've seen either of them, or in fact any of my Newcastle-based friends, so there will be a mega celebration in order. I can't wait!!!!!

So here's to time, that old friend. As somebody (I forget who) once said,

"Yesterday's the past, tomorrow's the future, but today is a gift. That's why it's called the present."

Alles liebe,

Louise :) x

Berlin... some thoughts.

I've been here for just under two weeks now, and I'm starting to get a feel for the city, the pace of life and the attitudes of the people. There have been many surprising discoveries, and I thought I'd just share with you a few thoughts.

The area in which I'm living is called Steglitz. It's found in the South West (formerly American sector) of Berlin, and is beautiful. Gothic architecture, lush parks, grand houses and tree-lined avenues are all around here, and yet there is still a constant reminder that you are living in a capital city, by the amount of traffic, skyscrapers and shopping centres which are virtually unavoidable (as you can see here).

However, Steglitz is just a tiny little part of this huge, expanding city. You can easily travel on the S-Bahn or U-Bahn (underground network) from here into the Stadtmitte, and from there, explore all around the city in whatever way you feel like: Walking, Bus, Boat, Bike, Tandem bike, Horse and cart, Strange multi-person Beer/bike combos (not kidding, these do actually exist- proof below).

Whatever way you choose to explore, you can't NOT be amazed. It's unbelievable. Such a unique city, and there's an awful lot to explore. Thank goodness I'm here for a whole year!! :)

The Berlin Wall

I guess I can't really give my thoughts on exploring Berlin without mentioning the inevitable. I mean, a structure that divided the city completely in two for so many years will obviously have had a lasting impact on it, but I wasn't quite expecting this much!! You can still tell which side of the wall you are on, even now- 23 years after it was torn down. The architecture, the kinds of people, the sorts of businesses you find there, it is almost like a different city in the East, despite the ongoing efforts of the German Government to unite the city as an example to the rest of the country to do the same.

To give you an idea, compare the first photo with this one (taken from the sightseeing bus, a view of Leipziger Strasse, which was formerly in the DDR (East)):

The sky's still the same colour, granted, and there are still lots of trees, but each of these high-rise apartment blocks belong to the era of the 1960s DDR, where children had collective potty training, Trabis (DDR-issued cars) were the transport of the day, engineers earned little more than farmers and everyone (or so it seems) went on nudist holidays.

It's like a different world.

How on earth can these two, distinctly-different sides to one city unite as one, after all this time apart?? It seems impossible.

However, I think, after last night, I might have my answer: The Youth Culture.

There is an immensely strong youth culture here. And when I say immensely strong, I mean students and young professionals (I use that term loosely- most don't have permanent jobs, just love it so much here they don't want to leave) on bikes EVERYWHERE- especially in the "cool" areas of Neukölln and Kreuzberg. 

There are no laws against drinking in public places here, there is no tax on beer (so it's ridiculously cheap!), smoking is allowed pretty much anywhere and there is an incredibly relaxed attitude towards drugs as well. 

In cometh the inevitable: parks full of young people with their bikes, drinking crate-fulls of beer and smoking I-don't-know-what until goodness-only-knows what time in the morning. Oh, and they listen to a lot of techno music too.

Sounds horrific, right??

Well no. Actually, it's not like that at all.

I was in such a park last night, and it was really good fun. I'm not saying that I have started smoking and doing drugs or anything, but I went and I had a few beers with friends from work, and genuinely really enjoyed myself. Nobody in the park was drunk out of their heads, making a fool out of themselves and throwing up, leaving broken bottles everywhere and making a mess for somebody else to clear up, like they would be in a similar situation in England.

These people get together to have a few beers, and to socialise and relax after a hard week's work (someone even comes round and takes away your empty bottles for recycling!!!). They are a young, liberal, creative people who embrace the attitude of 'live and let live'. There are buskers, street artists, people dancing on the streets and professional graffiti artists as well as street theatre groups and impromptu comedy/karaoke acts all over the place, and they come from all different walks of life, yet all have the same passion for freedom of self-expression. 

They don't care if you're from the former West or East. They don't even care if you aren't German! It doesn't matter what you wear, what car you drive, what language you speak, or whether your handbag came from Primark (yes it does exist here) or Prada. If you are proud of who you are, and you make the effort to just go with the flow, you will be accepted as a Berliner- guaranteed.

I think this liberal attitude is what is the key to Berlin's success as a flourishing cultural city. Admittedly, this liberality can go too far- free availability of beds on the dance floor in clubs for those couples who just can't quite make it as far as their own bedroom, for instance- but it's definitely the only way that I can see it possible for them to move forward and look beyond the segregation and division of the past.

Here's to the future, Berlin! Prost!

Alles Liebe,

Louise :) x

I've arrived!!

I have now arrived in Berlin and settled into my accommodation. Hooray!

The city is fascinating- full of contrasting beautiful old gothic buildings and graffiti-covered concrete DDR-style skyscrapers. Lots of green-ness though, too. And an excellent, efficient and punctual transport network (it is Germany, after all).

Things I have achieved so far, that I'm proud of:

-making a phone call in German to the bank and successfully cancelling/re-arranging my appointment there.

-Navigating the Berlin underground system (U-Bahn) on my own. Next step is to confidently do it without needing a map, but I've got to take it one step at a time, I suppose.

-Successfully registering residency here, as well as applying for the German equivalent of a CRB-check at the town hall.

-Understanding a church sermon in German. I went along to a church service on Sunday, and managed to successfully follow the speaker's line of thought, which was very satisfying as religious language isn't the same as every day German. Oh, and he was Swiss, so his accent was even more difficult to follow!

-Setting up a German phone contract.

-Successfully registering for a bank account in German over a nice cup of coffee (the German way to do any kind of business, of course)

... and all of this, in less than a week. Is it any wonder I'm exhausted?

My official training for the internship starts tomorrow, and it will be intense, but I'm really looking forward to it, as we get to work with school children right from the outset.

I will try to post again before too long.

 Alles liebe,

Louise :) x