20th April 2013

Hello again!

This week I am going to be recounting some of the nice and not so nice stuff that happened after our Germany road trip in March. I bumbled through April, writing my dissertation, planning lessons, partying a fair amount, duelling with the German language and of course, teaching.

Then, erm, as already mentioned, at around 1pm on Saturday, the 20th of April, Tylor and I were chilling in my room, having had a lazy morning watching Game of Thrones. Suddenly there was a bang on the door and my flatmate shouted "Komm raus, es brennt!" (come out, its burning!). Bewildered, Tylor and I looked at each other, then sprung into action: Tylor had been on the point of leaving anyway, so even had his shoes on, I however was still in gammelmode, so ran out of the house in my PJS, coat, just stopping to grab my handbag and of course, my hard drive with my diss on.

(As an aside, I realise retrospectively that all our fire safety chats back in primary school stressed not stopping to grab anything, but at that moment we couldn`t smell any smoke and well, my panic did not completely override my protection instincts for my diss, so I didn`t follow the advice 6 year old Beth received from the nice fireman, sorry!)

We gathered outside in a group of dazed students in various states of dress and varying states of shock, and watched our beloved Lintzstreet house burn. It had started in the attic of number 13 (next door, on the left looking at the pictures) and spread to the attic of our house.

The attic on fire.

Firefighters. Photo courtesy of volksfreund.de

A quick note on an admirable thing in Germany: there are beruflicher Feuerwehr (professional firemen) in every city, but the nation has a astonishingly well developed volunteer feuerwehr system, which is staffed by people from all walks of life ready to spring to action at any time to help those living in both villages and cities. We had the professionals of course but also the volunteers. After the fire was put out, a group of them sat down on the bench for a well earned rest, and took their helmets off. I was really moved upon seeing they were all gangly, acne-afflicted teenage boys (not a normal emotion for that sight, I can tell you) who had just spent 2+ hours of their weekend putting their own safety at risk. Bravo Germany, and thank you, German volunteer firefighters.

After the fire. The roof collapsed in on itself, a moment where the seriousness of the situation finally hit me, straight in the optimism, and the tears appeared.

The "attic" after the fire. Photo courtesy of volksfreund.de

As a building we were (and still are) very close, and comforted each other, especially those whose flats were directly underneath the fire. However, it was touching to see how the neighbours came out to help the 60 stranded, crying students: the Gaststätte handed out coffee, rolls and words of comfort for example, and a kindly neighbour gave out a fantastically odd assortment of warm clothing for those of us not dressed for 5 hours in the cold to wear. I am grateful to everyone that helped, and to Svenja and other people who came with their cars to pick up friends and take them home.

The aftermath of the fire was a bit hectic. The best thing was it was established that no one had been injured at all, something I`m so grateful for. The bad thing was that everyone was suddenly homeless for 6 days. The worse thing was that of the 12 flats, 6 were damaged beyond repair and were homeless for good. Those of us in the outer flats, my flat included, tried to help those in the middle.

As for our flat, all but one of us decided to move out despite our flat being intact, as the stress of the situation combined with the future of living in a building site made us just want to get away asap. I only had 6 weeks left in Germany at the time, so it didn`t make sense to find somewhere new. I moved in with Tylor (boyfriend, fellow assistant and fellow blog writer, see here) and his welcoming flatmates. 

A little side note: I`m not a soppy person naturally, in fact my loathing of romantic films is despaired of by many long-suffering friends, but I cannot do enough justice to Tylor´s support on the day of the fire and ever since. Not only did he immediately insist upon my moving in and taking care of me, he`s put up with me ever since, and stopped at nothing to get me out of my little shocked closed-off mind that I retreated into after the fire. Thank you Tylor, you are awesome! <3

Your house burning down when you´re living in a foreign country is not ideal, and afterwards I seriously considered the prospect of going home early and curling up with my cat for 2 months. However, stiff upper lip and all that, or more appropriately I love my friends in Trier too much to leave early, and I´m so so glad that in the end I decided to stay ´til the end.

The exact cause of the fire hasn`t been established yet, and there is a criminal investigation underway. Who knows if or when any solid reason will come out. But the Lintzstreet was easily my favourite place EVER to live and I made some awesome friends there. The feeling of unity amongst the people that live there was summed up with the following poster, designed by Dan (M.D.Rezaiekhaligh), a pretty awesome graphic designer from the building:

Courtesy of M.D.Rezaiekhaligh

Check out his stuff at http://www.behance.net/redactedesign and http://flavors.me/mdrezaiekhaligh

Right, drama over. I dithered over wether to write this post or not for ages but in the end I thought well, it was a big part of my year abroad and a learning experience if ever there was one. Next post: some of the nice hikes I`ve been on in the last few weeks!

Tschüss!!

10 Reasons Why Doing A British Council Assistantship (in Germany) can prepare you for working life in general.

Hi there! Here is a little side post I thought of and wrote on the train on the way back from work the other day.

I don`t actually want to be a teacher, despite the amount of enjoyment I`ve got from doing the Assistantship, but I got to thinking about the skills I`ve learned this year which can be applied (hopefully) to wherever my career may take me after graduating. Here are some that sprung to mind.







1. German schools like to start early, and getting up at 6 ain't no big thing.

2. The impressive skill I've acquired of being able to hide all signs of fear and glide through a crowd of screaming, swearing, fighting kids will help control my emotions in stressful situations in later life.

3. Ditto the knowledge that head up, shoulders back, a deep breath in and a smile can make the world of difference to your outer confidence, and a surprising amount to your inner one too.

4. Teachers like to complain, which is good to an extent but I can now differentiate between the important and not so important issues. (I really don't care if the school fair is on a Sat or a Sun, but the school felt the need to debate it for 35 mins, including 4 votes.)

5. When speaking your own language, as well as any foreign ones you may speak, be aware of what you're saying, and say it as clearly as possible.

6. Preparation is good, winging it considerably more risky.

7. If you feel you're being misused, (too much subbing in my case for instance) then don't be afraid to speak up

8. BUT if stuff seems out of your depth at first, stick at it for a bit. I was surprised how the Big Scary Thing that was standing alone infront of a class of 30 kids became just average and No Big Thing at all.

9. Force yourself to speak to your coworkers, no matter how insociable, exhausted or anti-german-speaking you may feel that day. They'll respond very happily, 9 times out of 10.

10. Cake is always welcome. Everywhere.

"It`s just on the outskirts of Nuremburg...I think": Germany Roadtrip, Part 3!

Hello again! I am on it with the writing apparently. There`s sooooo much I want to mention before I go.

Also, this blog won`t be properly ending like I planned at the end of the month, as I have an internship in Nimes, France. I don`t know how much internet I`ll have though, so it will be a while before I know how regularly I can update this. I leave Germany on the 1st of June, go home, turn 21 on the 4th of June and head off to France on the 10th! Crazy.

We left the Roadtrip at my slightly disillusioned thoughts of Prague. The next day we headed to the main station, where we had booked ourselves onto a coach heading to Nuremburg. Shortly after a gleaming white coach with the red Deutsche Bahn stripe and logo pulled up, and we ashamedly admitted our relief at joining the German transport system so soon. It`s like a sort of cuddle blanket for the weary traveller.

Upon arriving in Nuremberg we changed onto a train heading to our Couchsurfing crib. Another thing I`d always wanted to try is Couchsurfing (link here), a worldwide organisation whereby if you`ve got a spare sofa or bed in our house and are open to meeting new people you can post it on this website, and people can apply to come stay with you. Basically its like Mitfahrgelegenheit in my last post only with sleeping not driving. I was a little nervous of doing this alone, so with Whitney and Tylor there it seemed like a good opportunity to meet new people and safely. Plus, its free!

I knew the place wasn`t directly in Nuremberg, but hadn`t quite realised it was a 40 min train ride away. Then again, that`s my commute, so that`s standard for me! Anyway, we were picked up by our Host, Michael, in Ansbach, Bavaria, and taken to his farmhouse. He lives in a house share in a cool farmhouse with 7 other people in literally the middle of nowhere. I can`t imagine students doing that in Britain but it was great! Everyone was great and it was really chill, they gave us home made apple juice, owned chickens and a cat and our Host played in an acoustic band, called Elena Jank & the Acoustics (our Host on the double bass), check out this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJwA9RsIxlQ

I read an article (click for article) yesterday about the downfall of Couchsurfing. I may be new, but experiences like this and the couple of times my flat hosted a Surfer make me glad that, if the original feeling of couchsurfing is indeed fading away, I`ve been lucky enough to experience some of it myself. It was such a positive experience.

The next day we headed back to Trier, it may have taken nearly 8 hours and 5 regional trains/trams but our spirits were high, and we were cheered by the prospect of our own beds. It was 10 days, 9 cities and a hell of a lot of fun.


Here`s a few photos I missed last time:

4 of some 10 odd cars in a row that had been clamped in Prague. Gutted.

The view of Prague from the castle, pretty nice eh?

As a final note: on the weekend before the fire, which is the subject of the next post by the way, we celebrated Whitney`s hen night/bachelorette party/Junggesellinnenabschiedsparty (spot the German term). In Germany the modern tradition is to have a Bauchlädchen, a sort of tray on a neck strap, from which you sell things like cupcakes, shots, sweets and condoms. We got Whitney dressed up and hit sunny, crowded Trier on a Saturday afternoon and wow it was so much fun! Not the most intelligent of pursuits admittedly but so entertaining. 

It was also heartwarming how generous the public were, most people paid at least 3 euros for a cupcake, some 5 or 6, and before we knew it we`d earned 60 euros from 15 cupcakes. The Apprentice, here we come. Below is a picture of us before setting off. Guess which one is Whitney!

Bis gleich!



P.S The Porta Nigra and its surrounding area are covered in 500 mini red and orange statues of Karl-Marx, famous philosopher and born in Trier. It is in honour of his 195th birthday apparently. Amusingly, over 50 have already been stolen.

GerSoc in Leipzig, the Stasi museum and money confusion in Prague: Germany Roadtrip Part 2

Hello hello hello

My dissertation is complete! Which means, I finally have the time and energy to finish the many blog posts I started. Also, I am welling up just thinking about it but sadly I have only 3 weeks left in Trier! This has gone WAY TOO FAST. Right now I really wish I could borrow Bernard`s Watch for a while (apologies if you`re not a British 90`s kid and don`t get the TV reference). He may have used it for worthwhile things like helping his friends out or getting the better of bullies: I`d just use it for a couple more schnitzelabends, evenings sat around with flatmates (new and old) and Sunday afternoon walks along the Moselle.

Anyway, where was I? Of course, the roadtrip! We`d left the tale at Kassel, having just left Pepe the hire car (traumatically). The next day we got picked up by a business man, which we`d organised through a German website called Mitfahrgelegenheit (http://www.mitfahrgelegenheit.de/). Say you`re a German businessman/woman, a commuter or someone just generally going on a long car journey past several cities. To save a few bob on fuel and to escape the German radio (it`s a bit tedious, sorry Germany but it is) you can post your journey on this website and people ring you up and ask to join for all or part of it. The Brit in me was highly skeptical of the safety of this venture, but then the adventurous side won over and tried it out. This was the second time we`d done it, and to get from Kassel to Leipzig in a couple of hours in a roomy car with good conversation for 13 euros, you can`t complain. We arrived in Leipzig in good spirits, and he dropped us off 5 mins from our hostel right in the city centre.

One of the main reasons for going to Leipzig was that the German Society of Southampton Uni was having their annual trip there at the same time. GerSoc is always good fun and having been heavily involved last year as pres I was keen to join them, so we booked ourselves into the hostel. The group quickly treated my American and Canadian co-travellers as one of the gang, and we had a LOT of fun over the next few days sightseeing, exchanging banter and trying not to turn into human icicles.

Incidentally, I seem to have spent a large part of my year abroad trying not to turn into an icicle. Germany definitely does get colder than Britain.

Making myself at home in the amazing hostel. (Say Cheese! Hostel, Leipzig). BIG THUMBS UP.

Leipzig Rathaus. Leipzig is beauuuutiful.

Statue of Johann Sebastian Bach outside the Thomaskirche. 

Leipzig is famous for its influence on and prevalence of classical music. 

We visited a Stasi museum in the old Leipzig Stasi headquarters. Whilst wandering around the displays of anti-capitalistic propaganda, I was see-sawing between 2 emotions: incredulity verging on hilarity at the conditions, beliefs and actions of the Stasi. The second was horror, which crept up slowly. It may be interesting to read about, but the extent of the observation the Stasi subjected on East Germans came as a complete surprise. I knew, obviously, about the black vans and the neighbour-on-neighbour- suspicion and the Überwachungskamera (CCTV), but I hadn`t realised just how much the lives of the everyday East German had been remotely-controlled like a child`s race car. It puts the CCTV debate back in Britain in a new perspective, certainly, and I left thinking about how lucky I am to live in a country where freedom is almost exactly what it says on the tin. 

I`m not saying East Germany was in general a bad country to live in. In fact most people I spoke to (including the business man who drove us there who had lived in East Berlin until the fall of the wall)  spoke of it very fondly on the whole, but the Stasi really was a nasty business indeed. Below is a list of the Stasi officers themselves who were executed for disloyalty (hingerichtet) to the party, and other reasons. The last one, Werner Teske, (wiki page here) was one of the Stasi elite, executed for alleged treason and the last person to be executed in Germany.

Quick story I`ve just remembered. We asked the businessman "where were you when the wall fell?" (always a good question to ask any Germans older than about 33). His answer (remembering he lived in East Berlin and was about 18 at the time) was great. I can`t remember the facts exactly, but this is my best retelling.

He said he was at a house/bar getting drunk with his friends. They`d been discussing the tension in the city, but none of them thought much would really happen. One of the friends was particularly drunk, and went outside (to get some fresh air I imagine.) Later on, when they thought the guy had passed out, he suddenly banged the door open, stumbled into the room and said "Morgen fahre ich nach West Deutschland!" (Tomorrow I`m going to West Germany). They all laughed, and the businessman said "go to bed, you`re drunk and talking rubbish". That was indeed the night the wall was torn down, so their drunken friend was right after all, drunk or not.

We also went to Dresden for the day. I was mal gespannt (no direct translation, kinda means like curious to see how it turns out) to see Dresden, as I had no idea how much it had been rebuilt since being essentially completely destroyed during the Second World War, particularly during the bombings of February 13th - 15th, 1945. The old town has been completely rebuilt, and is very beautiful. I didn`t like it as much as the new town though, which, though rather ugly, feels more like the Germany I really like : a bit alternative, bustling with locals and hidden gems. Two of these gems we found; one was a huuuuge bycicle, the other, a tiny photo booth, where we`d heard the record amount of people in there at one time was 8 people. Naturally we tried to break this record, but only managed 7.

GerSoc on a bike.

Cosy.

The middle photo makes me laugh every time, what possessed me to make that face I have no idea.

On the last night in Leipzig we headed to the Moritz Bastei for a night out. It was good fun, its like a series of underground tunnels, during the day you can eat there very cheaply and in the evening the same goes for the partying. We had a small er, run in with the police on the way, when Paddy was fined for urinating in a rubbish bin. In the words of the Leipig Polizei: "We are sorry but we just do not like that in the city of Leipzig". 

The next day we sadly left GerSoc behind and headed on to Prague. We did another Mitfahr, though sadly this one wasn´t er, quite so good, as the Czech driver turned out to be slightly psychotic. An example: we`re driving along the stunning river Elbe. We`re in a new country, and the sun is shining. However, only one eye can appreciate the beauty, and our nerves not at all, as the rest of us is concentrated on the extremely erractic over-taking of the Czech guy, and praying that we won`t crash. Good news! He didn`t crash, but lesson learnt: not all Mitfahrs are the best. 

We reached Prague, and proceeded to get some money out so we could travel into the city centre. This triggered a typical tourist moment: standing there, with 1000 Kroner in one`s hand (about 40 euros) and thinking "do I buy a car with this or a chocolate bar?".

I have to admit though, that over the next few days we spent a lot of time wandering around Prague, waiting for that "I love this city this city is amazing its even better than what everyone says it is" moment. It never came. Prague is gorgeous, and there`s plenty to see, but what I think ruined it for me was being such an utter tourist. I`m afraid readers I`ve got too used to being able to speak the language, and knowing where I am, and being shown places by locals. I`ve been spoilt, basically, so suddenly I was all too aware of the swarms of loud, ipad carrying (I kid you not, people use Ipad as cameras, hahaha!) and semi drunk tourists. I felt embarrassed and uncomfortable, and wanted to be back in Germany where I blended in with the locals. Speaking of which, aside from manning the overpriced stalls and coffee shops, the locals were nowhere to be seen in the city centre. 

My dislike of Prague may have had a lot to do with my state of mind generally though, as by now the journey was starting to take its toll on us. I was getting nosebleeds from the cold, Tylor had a bad cold and Whitney was still limping from Würzburg, and badly. Being a decent tourist requires a bit more energy and interest than I could really summon up at the time, so take my thoughts of Prague with a pinch, nay a bucket of salt.

That`s it folks! Part 3 coming soon.