Herzlichen Willkommen nach Deutschland

So, I finally made it to Germany after 10 hours of flying. It was all good until I needed to take the train. Since this was going to be the first time that I had ever taken the train by myself (Canada having nothing on this scale) I made sure that I got to the train station with an hour and a half to spare. Then actually making sure I was on the right platform at the right time, I discovered that I was not at the right station. Yikes. So I ran around trying to find someone who could, in English, tell my seriously stressing self where exactly I was supposed to be to get on the right damn train. I was so ridiculously frustrated. On top of that I was definitely carrying a year’s worth of junk around. Anyway- turns out I had originally been in the right place- I just was a few stops ahead of where my train ticket said that I needed to be. Do you have any idea how frustrated Germans can be when faced with an idiot with two huge bags and a backpack, wandering around seemingly without purpose??? It was the suck indeed.

Anyway- once I actually got on the train it was ok- no changes or anything to worrying about on the way to Cologne. The Foreign Teacher Assistant conference was actually held in Altenburg. It was 3 days of hardcore learning about how to teach, how the German school system works, and friend-making. And of course, as they say in Dumb and Dumber, the beer flowed like wine J. It was pretty great. Out of the 140 some assistants there, only about 10 were Canadian with about 5 New Zealanders to round things out. The rest were all from the UK. I actually already knew most of the Canadians on the program. Also, I learned that the Welsh are seriously awesome! It was a bit weird to be treated by another English speaker as someone with an accent, but my status as a novelty gave me the opportunity to make a lot of friends, many of which live quite near.

On Thursday, I left Altenburg for Bad Bodendorf, which by bike is about 30 minutes away from Bad Neuenahr where I am teaching. My host family is pretty great. The son is in grade 12 and actually one of my students, which I find totally hilarious. The family is friendly but not insanely so. I also have a bedroom furnished entirely by IKEA. It is so big that it more than makes up for the crap room I had the last time I was in Germany: