With only 2 weeks left here I remembered to finally update this stupid thing!
Haven't actually done much since I got back on Wednesday- school was closed on Thursday and Friday due to Ascension Thursday, or Christi Himmelfahrt as the Germans call it. So on Thursday I did approximately nothing, on Friday I did a wee bit of work, yesterday I went to Konstanz and had a beer, a cocktail and some Chinese food, then another beer in Weinfelden when I was stuck waiting for the train, and today I've been doing a wee bit of uni work as well as sending various emails to various people with whom I need to sort things out before I leave.
So far I've emailed the Gemeindeverwaltung (local administration type people), Orange (internet), the BrockiShop (to get them to collect my furniture), letting agency, and I think that's all the Swiss related stuff I need to sort out.. I hope so anyway!
Having missed almost 2 weeks of work I was slightly concerned that I wouldn't be paid the full amount this month (I really hope I am :/ ) but I've made some progress in getting a bit of extra work this week. Tomorrow morning I've got 3 extra lessons, as well as 4 extra on Wednesday, so at least I'm making some tracks with regard to that. The following week is another project week type thing, so I don't think there are any proper classes.. but I'll ask the teachers if they need me to help out with anything, just for the sake of making up for lost time. I'm sure I'll get at least 50% of what I would normally get, but I'd rather have more ;)
ALSO! Someone finally came to view my apartment! Unfortunately I wasn't expecting anyone to actually come so I was a bit of a gibbering idiot, and realised all too late that my "estate agent" German is essentially non-existant, but I did manage a "ooh there's some shops around the corner", haha.
Anyway, time to head back to the flat- just remembered that I've to be in school for 8 tomorrow, so I really ought to get to bed early. I understand that is only 16.30, but I'm not leaving here til 5, then gotta make dinner, shower, etc etc etc..
Sunday, 16 May 2010
Thursday, 18 February 2010
February
Just realised that I haven't updated this thing in absolutely ages- well, since before Christmas. So it's definitely about time I did update it!
January was fairly uneventful, and mostly taken up with oral exams. I did very little actual teaching as most of the things I was doing finished just before Christmas. The school was then off for a half term at the start of February, and now we're in the second week back.
This time, my timetable is much nicer- I have Mondays off, and don't start until 15.30 on a Tuesday, meaning my weekend is much longer! On Wednesdays I only have one lesson as well, later on in the afternoon, so this new timetable certainly allows me more lie-ins than before.. my earliest start is 08.10, and that's only once a week.. bliss.
Most of my classes are in the 1st and 3rd year this time, whereas last term they were mostly in the 2nd and 4th year. We're focusing mostly on reading projects which is also nice because the classes are enjoyable and give all the students plenty of opportunities to speak and use the language. All in all I'm enjoying teaching these classes very much, although I still have to meet a few classes, so hopefully they'll be similarly pleasant.
Today I'm finishing at about 4pm, then it'll be straight home for dinner, I'm absolutely starving because I was too lazy to make breakfast or proper lunch, and instead brought a few clementines and a cereal bar with me to work- been here since 10am so by the time I get back I'll be ready to eat the entire contents of the fridge!
I'm also very excited as on Saturday morning I'll be going to Berlin! I'm staying until Monday afternoon, in a hostel (it's nice and cheap that way) that I stayed in when I went to Berlin with school a few years ago. So far I don't really have any concrete plans- I'm hoping to do a bike tour of the city on Saturday morning, so I can get lots of touristy photographs- and at some point I'll definitely go to the Jewish museum and possibly the Anne Frank museum too, if I get a chance. There's a few people from my German class at uni there, so it'll be nice to meet up with them and see how they're getting on.
Finally... hmm, I don't think I have anything else to report! Well, I went to Zürich last night for a "German conversation practice" group thing, it was just a group of 6 others and me who want the opportunity to speak standard German (the Swiss generally converse in their own funny little dialects) and it was really good fun. There was a native German speaker there too, to help us and correct our mistakes, and all the people there were very pleasant, so all in all it was very good fun, and I'll definitely go again next time. Most of the others haven't studied German to the same level as me so it was a nice wee ego boost for them to comment on it, and the Swiss guy who was there didn't have to correct toooooo much. So I'm really glad that my German hasn't gone totally down the pan. He also said (there was also an Irish guy there) that people from NI and the Republic tend to speak German with a better accent than English people, or something to that effect. Hoorah!
Anyway, time to go and teach class 1bSW about Sherlock Holmes.. ooooerrr.
January was fairly uneventful, and mostly taken up with oral exams. I did very little actual teaching as most of the things I was doing finished just before Christmas. The school was then off for a half term at the start of February, and now we're in the second week back.
This time, my timetable is much nicer- I have Mondays off, and don't start until 15.30 on a Tuesday, meaning my weekend is much longer! On Wednesdays I only have one lesson as well, later on in the afternoon, so this new timetable certainly allows me more lie-ins than before.. my earliest start is 08.10, and that's only once a week.. bliss.
Most of my classes are in the 1st and 3rd year this time, whereas last term they were mostly in the 2nd and 4th year. We're focusing mostly on reading projects which is also nice because the classes are enjoyable and give all the students plenty of opportunities to speak and use the language. All in all I'm enjoying teaching these classes very much, although I still have to meet a few classes, so hopefully they'll be similarly pleasant.
Today I'm finishing at about 4pm, then it'll be straight home for dinner, I'm absolutely starving because I was too lazy to make breakfast or proper lunch, and instead brought a few clementines and a cereal bar with me to work- been here since 10am so by the time I get back I'll be ready to eat the entire contents of the fridge!
I'm also very excited as on Saturday morning I'll be going to Berlin! I'm staying until Monday afternoon, in a hostel (it's nice and cheap that way) that I stayed in when I went to Berlin with school a few years ago. So far I don't really have any concrete plans- I'm hoping to do a bike tour of the city on Saturday morning, so I can get lots of touristy photographs- and at some point I'll definitely go to the Jewish museum and possibly the Anne Frank museum too, if I get a chance. There's a few people from my German class at uni there, so it'll be nice to meet up with them and see how they're getting on.
Finally... hmm, I don't think I have anything else to report! Well, I went to Zürich last night for a "German conversation practice" group thing, it was just a group of 6 others and me who want the opportunity to speak standard German (the Swiss generally converse in their own funny little dialects) and it was really good fun. There was a native German speaker there too, to help us and correct our mistakes, and all the people there were very pleasant, so all in all it was very good fun, and I'll definitely go again next time. Most of the others haven't studied German to the same level as me so it was a nice wee ego boost for them to comment on it, and the Swiss guy who was there didn't have to correct toooooo much. So I'm really glad that my German hasn't gone totally down the pan. He also said (there was also an Irish guy there) that people from NI and the Republic tend to speak German with a better accent than English people, or something to that effect. Hoorah!
Anyway, time to go and teach class 1bSW about Sherlock Holmes.. ooooerrr.
Sunday, 20 December 2009
Snow II
It's been ridiculously cold here lately. It hasn't been above about -3° since I got back from Brighton- I think it was about -9° or so this morning when I got up. Nothing like a blast of cold to wake you up..! Anyway, I went for a walk this morning to a forest thing nearby, so click here for photos. The one above is my personal favourite!
Wednesday, 9 December 2009
BOREDDDD
I am updating this simply because I am ridiculously bored, and have run out of news stories on my most visited sites (BBC.co.uk, MailOnline.co.uk & a couple of celebrity gossip sites.. I only read the Mail because it's funny! I don't see it as serious journalism, honestly..). Anyway, I'm stupidly bored. I'm also quite excited about tomorrow, because tomorrow night I shall be off to Brighton to have the merriest of weekends. Fin said that the food they'd ordered from Asda arrived today- complete with Yorkshire puds- so I'm really looking forward to the dinner. And the drinks (cocktails and whatnot).
I had beans on toast today, on small toast (Swiss bread seems to be very small). The beans weren't very nice. Like everything here, they were ridiculously salty, and the beans themselves were suspiciously large. I bought them in the Spar hoping that they might be at least similar to the Heinz variety but apparently they mess them up especially for the Swiss. Grrr.
Did I mention that I'm ridiculously bored? No? Well, I AM. I did a bit of work on my dissertation & pedagogic report earlier (ie I retyped the basic outline which I will eventually email to my supervisors). Also emailed a woman who seems to be some sort of super Swiss-German expert to ask for her advice on my dissertation. So I think now I'm going to write about the relationship between Swiss German and High German (the normal kind), historical attitudes to Swiss German (everybody hates it, basically) and the influence of other languages on Swiss German (they all say "merci" and "sorry" here instead of "danke" and "es tut mir leid"). There, I summed up 66.6% of my dissertation in one sentence. Glad I can't do that for the pedagogical report, which is going to be on bilingual education (woo). I actually think both topics will be very interesting, it's just going to be a pain getting them off the ground. I think the dissertation is going to be entirely based on reading (so just a standard essay I guess, with the question dreamt up by me) whereas I think the pedagogic report is going to require a bit more independent research on my part- I'll probably have to do some case studies on pupils, some who are taught in bilingual classes and others from monolingual classes. Fascinating stuff I tell ye.
On the plus side I'll probably sleep well tonight as I got out of bed an hour early for no apparent reason. I normally have a lesson on a Wednesday morning with a Maths teacher (he teaches in English, or at least he will be in the new year) so I meet him every week for a bit of conversation practice. Alas today he did not show- don't know if that's because I'm stupid and forgot to write down that he wouldn't be here, but I don't think so. Ah well.
Well, that's the end of that, I think I've used up all my words for today. I think it's almost time to finish off the horrible beans. I think I might treat myself and have them with the bizarre tasting potato wedges I bought yesterday.. oh well, it's almost Brighton time. I am otherwise happy because a) I'm going to Brighton tomorrow b) Jay is coming over at Christmas c) I have a lovely new sequinned skirt d) I'm going to get my eyes tested hopefully on Christmas eve so soon I may even have the gift of sight. I've had to explain to a few classes that if I ignore them in the corridors, it's not because I'm rude but because I can't make out their faces until it's too late, and walking about the place squinting is not a good look.
The End.
I had beans on toast today, on small toast (Swiss bread seems to be very small). The beans weren't very nice. Like everything here, they were ridiculously salty, and the beans themselves were suspiciously large. I bought them in the Spar hoping that they might be at least similar to the Heinz variety but apparently they mess them up especially for the Swiss. Grrr.
Did I mention that I'm ridiculously bored? No? Well, I AM. I did a bit of work on my dissertation & pedagogic report earlier (ie I retyped the basic outline which I will eventually email to my supervisors). Also emailed a woman who seems to be some sort of super Swiss-German expert to ask for her advice on my dissertation. So I think now I'm going to write about the relationship between Swiss German and High German (the normal kind), historical attitudes to Swiss German (everybody hates it, basically) and the influence of other languages on Swiss German (they all say "merci" and "sorry" here instead of "danke" and "es tut mir leid"). There, I summed up 66.6% of my dissertation in one sentence. Glad I can't do that for the pedagogical report, which is going to be on bilingual education (woo). I actually think both topics will be very interesting, it's just going to be a pain getting them off the ground. I think the dissertation is going to be entirely based on reading (so just a standard essay I guess, with the question dreamt up by me) whereas I think the pedagogic report is going to require a bit more independent research on my part- I'll probably have to do some case studies on pupils, some who are taught in bilingual classes and others from monolingual classes. Fascinating stuff I tell ye.
On the plus side I'll probably sleep well tonight as I got out of bed an hour early for no apparent reason. I normally have a lesson on a Wednesday morning with a Maths teacher (he teaches in English, or at least he will be in the new year) so I meet him every week for a bit of conversation practice. Alas today he did not show- don't know if that's because I'm stupid and forgot to write down that he wouldn't be here, but I don't think so. Ah well.
Well, that's the end of that, I think I've used up all my words for today. I think it's almost time to finish off the horrible beans. I think I might treat myself and have them with the bizarre tasting potato wedges I bought yesterday.. oh well, it's almost Brighton time. I am otherwise happy because a) I'm going to Brighton tomorrow b) Jay is coming over at Christmas c) I have a lovely new sequinned skirt d) I'm going to get my eyes tested hopefully on Christmas eve so soon I may even have the gift of sight. I've had to explain to a few classes that if I ignore them in the corridors, it's not because I'm rude but because I can't make out their faces until it's too late, and walking about the place squinting is not a good look.
The End.
Sunday, 6 December 2009
Weekend
This weekend Alex and Fin visited. They were here from late Thursday night until this morning, and a splendid time was had by all. I think they liked it here- Alex was especially pleased that there was snow (even though it didn't actually snow. The snow from Monday just hasn't melted yet) and they were generally impressed by how festive it was over here.
After I met them at Zürich Airport, we got the train back to Wil and walked to Rickenbach, stopping off at McDonalds on the way- with great self control I managed to not get something, instead I just stole a few chips. Wahey! On Friday then we just went into Wil to have a nosy around the town, although I had to teach a lesson in the afternoon so I just left them to their own devices, leaving them with a lovely map of how to get to the school, so I could give them a very quick tour of it. Then we went to Arts pub, (place we went before, mum) and had a couple of drinks and food. They both had burgers, I had chips, and then we staggered back (we weren't drunk!) here and watched the most terrible film in existance, "I Could Never Be Your Woman" or something like that, a seemingly plotless film with random appearances from people such as Graham Norton and David Mitchell- the main "stars" were Michelle Pfeiffer and Paul Rudd. It was absolutely bloody awful. I actually fell asleep. It had absolutely no redeeming features.
Anyway, on Saturday we went to Konstanz for the day- there's a nice Christmas market there- and it was all lovely and festive. I took Fin to Woolworth, and she seemed to be fairly impressed by it. Alex was just very pleased at all the lovely festive things. The place was absolutely packed- hundreds of people weaving their way in and out of the stalls- but it was very nice, and Alex & Fin managed to buy some lovely festive things (such as gingerbread and decorations). When the crowds got too much (after about an hour!) we went to Latinos for some nice Mexican food, did the market again, then went to a cafe hidden away from the market by the end of the Bodensee to have some glühwein (which Fin was not a fan of..). We left Konstanz around 7 and then went to Arts again for a drink, walked back here, watched When Harry Met Sally, had some glühwein and festive snacks, they decided to watch Hocus Pocus, which I wasn't really that into (sorry!) and then this morning we had to get up early so they could get the train to the airport. Unfortunately bus timings meant it made more sense to walk, and we underestimated the amount of time needed to get to the station, so as soon as we got there I comandeered two ticket machines, punching in the appropriate details for the journey, as the train arrived at the platform. Fin got her ticket without any problems but the machine did not want to accept Alex's money, so I sent Fin up to the platform and shoved my debit card in, willed the machine to hurrrry UP! and when it eventually printed the tickets my goodbye to them was something like "GO GO GO THAT'S THE TRAIN THERE GO GO GO SEE YOU ON THURSDAY GO GO GOOOOOOOO!!!".
Anyway I had a very enjoyable weekend, and now I'm looking forward to next weekend, as I'll be in Brighton from Thursday evening until Sunday afternoon- can't wait! Christmas dinner time! And of course I'll get to see the wonderful Fin & Alex again, as well as Toby, and Jay of course, and enjoy a few cocktails..
After I met them at Zürich Airport, we got the train back to Wil and walked to Rickenbach, stopping off at McDonalds on the way- with great self control I managed to not get something, instead I just stole a few chips. Wahey! On Friday then we just went into Wil to have a nosy around the town, although I had to teach a lesson in the afternoon so I just left them to their own devices, leaving them with a lovely map of how to get to the school, so I could give them a very quick tour of it. Then we went to Arts pub, (place we went before, mum) and had a couple of drinks and food. They both had burgers, I had chips, and then we staggered back (we weren't drunk!) here and watched the most terrible film in existance, "I Could Never Be Your Woman" or something like that, a seemingly plotless film with random appearances from people such as Graham Norton and David Mitchell- the main "stars" were Michelle Pfeiffer and Paul Rudd. It was absolutely bloody awful. I actually fell asleep. It had absolutely no redeeming features.
Anyway, on Saturday we went to Konstanz for the day- there's a nice Christmas market there- and it was all lovely and festive. I took Fin to Woolworth, and she seemed to be fairly impressed by it. Alex was just very pleased at all the lovely festive things. The place was absolutely packed- hundreds of people weaving their way in and out of the stalls- but it was very nice, and Alex & Fin managed to buy some lovely festive things (such as gingerbread and decorations). When the crowds got too much (after about an hour!) we went to Latinos for some nice Mexican food, did the market again, then went to a cafe hidden away from the market by the end of the Bodensee to have some glühwein (which Fin was not a fan of..). We left Konstanz around 7 and then went to Arts again for a drink, walked back here, watched When Harry Met Sally, had some glühwein and festive snacks, they decided to watch Hocus Pocus, which I wasn't really that into (sorry!) and then this morning we had to get up early so they could get the train to the airport. Unfortunately bus timings meant it made more sense to walk, and we underestimated the amount of time needed to get to the station, so as soon as we got there I comandeered two ticket machines, punching in the appropriate details for the journey, as the train arrived at the platform. Fin got her ticket without any problems but the machine did not want to accept Alex's money, so I sent Fin up to the platform and shoved my debit card in, willed the machine to hurrrry UP! and when it eventually printed the tickets my goodbye to them was something like "GO GO GO THAT'S THE TRAIN THERE GO GO GO SEE YOU ON THURSDAY GO GO GOOOOOOOO!!!".
Anyway I had a very enjoyable weekend, and now I'm looking forward to next weekend, as I'll be in Brighton from Thursday evening until Sunday afternoon- can't wait! Christmas dinner time! And of course I'll get to see the wonderful Fin & Alex again, as well as Toby, and Jay of course, and enjoy a few cocktails..
Monday, 30 November 2009
Sunday, 29 November 2009
Tis the season to be jolly!
Feeling quite festive today, because I went to a Christmas market yesterday, and have just spent a while finishing off the Christmas wreath thing I'm making for mum (I'd call it a holly wreath, but there is no holly on it).Anyway, the Christmas market! Went to Basel (it's about 2hours away by train) to check out their market, even though I was rather hungover from my trip the previous night to Schaffhausen (one of the Swiss cities bombed quite badly in WW2- look it up on wikipedia!). I just about
managed to drag myself out of bed in time for the train, and met Elaine there around midday. She was in a similar state, having been out the previous night- although I think she hadn't quite managed to get to bed at all, so I was definitely better off.
It didn't take too long to find the market, and it was lovely- some really gorgeous stalls, mostly quite traditional things. There was a fantastic stall selling authentic German stollen, but it was ridiculously expensive so I couldn't buy any. Sorry mum, will get some before I come back though, I promise!
We didn't buy very much, and what I did buy, I can't really disclose here, because it may have involved Christmas presents, haha. I did get some lovely glühwein though, and the best bit is you paid 4fr for the drink itself (£2.40) and then you had to pay an extra 3fr (£1.80) as a deposit on the mug- basically, you could keep the mug, and if you didn't want to, you got your 3fr back. We kept ours, of course.
We spent a couple of hours at the market and then just wandered about the city itself. It's a nice city, quite big, lots of nice shops and then the normal sort of high street shops. We also took a quick trip on the tram, just for a laugh, and decided to go to the St Louis Grenze (French border!) and had a quick walk around France, haha. It was very strange when all the signs were suddenly in French, instead of German. We did try to find the 3 borders, where France, Germany and Switzerland all meet, but we were unsuccessful. I will do that sometime though!
After our quick trip to France it was back to Switzerland to wander about the shops, then back to the train station so poor Elaine could get the 5hr train back to Lyon. She got some raclette- looked interesting, but I didn't have time for it. So I was back here in my flat by about 7.20, having had a most pleasant festive day- shame it's still so bloody warm here (for November, that is- still 10-13°).
I have my own Christmas tree now though! It's quite small really, but it's fairly festive. Unfortunately due to its small size, the fairy lights I have are a bit big for it.. oh well, it's the effort that counts- it took 3 or 4 goes to get the lights looking half decent so I'm happy to leave them as they are. And I have my festive Christmas music playing, c/o parents- thanks for the cd!
JUST LOOKED AT THE FORECAST FOR TOMORROW AND APPARENTLY IT'S GOING TO SNOW!!!
Although it's set to rain the rest of the week.. boo.
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