So, my first week is officially over! As the bad quality video above explains, I was planning on making a whole video blog post to talk about my week, but I don't think the microphone is good enough for you to be able to understand me. I'm also just being a bit lazy. So instead, I will sit here with my coffee and a bowl of Viennetta (I'm so classy) and type out a post about my week, I hope I don't ramble too much...
To be honest, it has been one of the strangest weeks of my life. On the one hand, it has all been a bit of a blur; I've met so many new people I can't count, let alone remember their names, I have had to adapt to a completely new routine of working every day from 7:15am until about 4:30 or 5:00pm, and I have been working and living in an entirely new environment. On the other hand, it has been a VERY long week. I tend to get tired easily anyway, but I found this week absolutely exhausting. It was a relief to finish work yesterday and know that I had an entire weekend to catch up on some sleep, which I have definitely done :D In fact, despite my intention to go into Heidelberg today and perhaps go out this evening, I actually spent my day here at the flat, mainly sleeping and eating. No, wait, only sleeping and eating... Tiredness aside though, it has been a busy but interesting week and I feel like I have made a good start at settling in.
I mean it when I say that everyone I have met has been very welcoming and friendly. My German really is hopeless, more so than I would have hoped really, but on the most part everyone has been really patient and has worked hard to make things easier for me. It is strange, because they must think I'm a really quiet person, when in reality it's just the language barrier. With time though I am sure I will improve, and I have taken to reading the English/German dictionary in the office at work if I have some free time, so fingers crossed that I might start to remember some of it soon!
For anyone who is curious, I thought I'd give you an outline of my average day at work. I have to be there at 7:15am, although the school day doesn't technically start until 8:00am. Most students start arriving by about 7:30am though, and we have to be around to greet them and keep them entertained until lessons start. There are three other young volunteers working in the same department as me, and it is also our job to set up for breakfast in the morning in this time as well. Once lessons start, all the staff in our department sit and eat breakfast together, unless we have to be elsewhere or sit in on a lesson. All the members of staff are group leaders, each assigned a few students who they spend time with and look after throughout the day, but none of them actually teach lessons. After we've eaten, we then have to get things ready for break time, which means collecting food from the canteen for the students and putting out plates and glasses. Break time is from 10:10 until 10:40, and during this time I sit with whichever group I am assigned to for the day and play games or talk with the students. Lunch time for volunteers and staff is at midday, and at this time we all go to the canteen to eat. There is always a choice of three cooked meals, as well as fruit, salad and brötchen. Some of the food is nice, but a lot of it is...not exactly my thing let's say, so I have taken to eating salad and brötchen most days, which is fine, especially as I don't pay for it :) Once we have eaten, it is then lunch time for the students and that means sitting with them in the canteen and talking until they are finished eating at about 1:15pm, as well as helping some students eat or drink if they are struggling. The rest of the afternoon is spent sitting with any of the students who have a free period in the day, until school finishes at 4:00pm. Our final job for the day is to clean up the kitchen and tidy all the group rooms, so once that is finished we are free to leave. Everyday there will be some lessons which I go to and help, but how many varies depending on the day. I attend two types of lessons, the first which are English lessons and where I am just assisting the teacher, the second being 'homework lessons', which I generally oversee alone. I also have a small group who I meet with on Mondays to help with their English. The students do have learning difficulties, so they only learn very basis English, but the standard of their English surprised me a lot. Most of them are actually very good; it puts my German to shame! The structure of the school day confused me a lot for the first couple of days, but I have got used to it now and I am starting to understand where I have to be at what point of the day. I am also beginning to remember how to play the games the students like, the main one being 'Skip-Bo' which is a card game from the same company who made Uno. I tell you though, it's confusing enough to learn a new game a t the best of times, it's ten times harder when it's being explained to you in German!
In addition to all the new stuff at school, I have had an interesting week getting used to living by myself. Obviously I'm not alone, I live with two other girls, but it is the first time I've ever lived away from home and had to be completely responsible for myself. It's been quite fun this week actually, getting to go and investigate the little local supermarket and cook for myself. For the first couple of days I literally ate pasta and noodles, because that was all we had and I didn't get an opportunity to go shopping. Since then though I have made myself omelette and fried rice, and today I went out and bought the ingredients to make a good old spaghetti bolognese, which I'll cook at some point next week. I can see myself getting bored of cooking though. I get thirty euros a week to spend on food, which is quite reasonable considering I get lunch for free, but it means I am conscious of what I buy. Other than one day when I had chicken at lunch, I have had a strictly pasta, bread and fruit/vegetables diet, which I am not used to. As well as that, I miss Waitrose! God, I sound middle class, but what I really miss is the selection of food they have. Maybe it is because the local supermarket it only smalll here, but the choice is quite limited with some things. I am also more than a little cautious about buying meat here, partly because I can't even understand what half the things I see are! That aside, I really am enjoying cooking for myself and being able to do what I want, when I want.
I feel like I had lots more to say, but right now my mind has gone blank. I have also already written you quite an essay... Therefore, I think I will leave it at that for now, but I will try and keep updating regularly about anything interesting that happens!
