You are currently browsing the monthly archive for June, 2005.
Today was quite good. I worked 7h30 – 9h, then corrected exams until 10h15. After finishing one class’ exams, I asked boss A if she wanted the check them to see if there were any discrepancies before or after I filled out the grade list that I had to turn into the office, and she said, ‘No, I trust you’. Quite a complement!
I spent an hour after that chatting with Matt, who was still having a rough time (more tomorrow).
I taught my 11h45 – 12h30 class and made it quite clear that I was annoyed with people being late by making them wait outside while a student made her oral presentation. No one showed up for my 12h40 – 14h10 class, but I’m not worried about that. It’s the class that’s going through exams at this time and they looked at boss A at 9h50 and the three that actually showed up for class were going home. Fine with me, as I was still paid for not teaching their class.
From there, I drove Matt home so that he could get something he needed, then went to the supermarket and home. I then taught my final class of the day (15h – 16h30), and met Matt back at the school we took off for the beer garden on the Rhein. I had a couple of beers, but he had to teach another class, so he had a couple of cokes. It didn’t matter, the conversation was still good.
Why did we get together? I knew that he had been having a rough time both here and with his family life back in England, so I thought that he might need a friendly face and a bit of non-stressful conversation before he left. I was right, he did.
We talked for a couple of hours and then cycled back to the school, where we said our good-byes and parted ways.
19h41 – We’re having a thunderstorm, so I’ve signed off the internet, unplugged all the cables from my computer and am operating on battery power now. After what happened last year, I’m not taking any chances. Too bad, though as I had just started relaxing to a baseball game. I’ll post it once the thunderstorm ends.
Work was good today, as it is most Wednesdays. I taught 11h – 12h30, 12h40 – 14h10 and 17h30 – 19h. I usually have a 19h10 – 20h40 class, but the student is an investment banker and she’s attending a ‘deal closing’ dinner in Frankfurt this evening so she cancelled today’s lesson last week. I spent 15h – 17h correcting exams and still have twenty-four more to go.
I have to turn my exams in to my boss A so that she can make sure they are graded correctly (the Board of Education here requires that all final exams are gone over by a second teacher), so I gave her the first six to see if she could find any discrepancies. She had a couple of questions on my decision to mark a few things wrong, but after I explained why I had done it she agreed with me. I have no problem with her reviewing my work and asking for explanations, as I’m careful when marking exams.
It got very the last thirty minutes of my last class today, and looked like rain was about to start pouring down at any minute. As I was walking out of the school at 19h10, I said to Vince, ‘Do you think I’ll make it home before it starts raining?’ to which he replied, ‘Probably not,’ which was what I was also thinking. I arrived home at 19h15 and as I was locking my bike, the rain began. Whew!
All in all, a good day for me.
Not a good day for Matt, though.
He asked for a raise today and was told that he couldn’t have one. Matt said that he had been told, ‘You may think we’re busy and doing well now, but we’re up to here [hand at chest],’ (in an irritated tone of voice). Matt wasn’t sure exactly what that meant, but he assumed it meant the school is in debt. I think it was a way for D to get Matt to stop asking for a raise. After all, if Matt thinks that the school is not doing well, why would he ask for a raise?
After that, Matt took my advice. I had told him that he needed to be more visible at the school to get more opportunity and eventually a raise. I recommended volunteering to be a teacher in our bilingual secretary program so that he shows the bosses that he’s interested in more than just our basic classes. He did that and was told that that would be possible in September. I also told him that he needs to be more serious about his job and stop having so many pub lessons, due to the fact that the serious teachers at our school (Vince and me) are the ones that get ahead.
Odd things have been happening between D and Matt. All of our salaries are electronically deposited into our accounts except Matt’s, for some unknown reason. Matt didn’t have his money at the end of March and it turns out that it was due to the fact that D hadn’t had time to manually transfer Matt’s money. It happened for the second time this month, even though D had agreed to set up Matt’s electronic transfer in April so that this wouldn’t happen again. It’s happened again and Matt’s going through it as we speak. Also, when Matt tried to complain to D about a secretary, D became a bit indignant with Matt and told him he didn’t want to hear anymore about it. D never becomes annoyed with anybody unless he’s in an extremely bad mood, but he’s done it twice to Matt now (from what Matt says).
Neither Matt nor I can figure out what he’s done to get on D’s bad side (if he actually is). The only thing I can come up with is that D might think that Matt is planning on leaving our school shortly, or possibly doing a runner (both of which Matt told me (last weekend) he doesn’t plan to do). From what else he’s told me, it appears that D doesn’t respect him and he appears to be treating him like the idiot we had last year who was a terrible teacher and didn’t know grammar at all (I won’t give that moron the decency of mentioning his name). I assume that Matt is a better teacher than that (after all a chimp would be better than the idiot), but I’ve never seen him teach so I don’t know anything his teaching abilities.
Anyway, he’s my good friend and I’ll help him in whatever way I can as long as I don’t jeopardise my job or relationship with my bosses.
To add more stress to his life, Matt lost his mobile phone last Friday. He cancelled his SIM card (the card that operates the phone) and got a new phone from T-Mobile and they said they’d send him a new SIM card immediately. Oddly enough, when I lost my SIM card (but not my mobile), I went to my local O2 (a different mobile phone provider) office, they cancelled the old one and gave me a new one right away (saying it’d work in 24 hours, but it worked in 2 hours). He went home for lunch and found a note from DHL (like FedEx, but a Deutsche Post company (so you know their service is terrible)) that they had tried to deliver it to him but hadn’t been able to due to the fact that he wasn’t home. He went to the DHL office and found out that the delivery man hadn’t returned yet, so he asked them to tell him to deliver it to our work address. That never happened. So, he went back to the DHL office and they said that they still didn’t have it and had no idea where it was (the deliveryman had returned all of his undeliverable packages). Basically, his SIM card is in mail limbo, leaving him incommunicado until they sort it out and find his SIM card.
Matt has a holiday coming up, and as much I’ll miss not having a cycling & drinking buddy, as well as my good friend, I’m glad he’s going. He needs to get away from here and all the crap he’s going through (there are also other things).
(the thunderstorm is still happening, but I’ve logged on for a second to post this and check my email).
I barely slept at all last night due to having an upset stomach. I taught my 7h30 class, but was exhausted, so at 8h30, I gave them a reading assignment to do and went to talk to the office about my three incompany classes that followed. Luckily, David was there. I explained the situation and also that I was way too tired to stay awake while driving the 42 km to teach there, and he agreed to cancel the classes because he had a few appointments and couldn’t teach them himself.
On my way home to attempt to get some of the sleep I didn’t get last night, I dropped my bike off at a bike shop, a proper bike shop not the rip off artist I used in January. A new tube costs €5.90, a new tire costs €9.90 (for a street riding, €11.90 for mountain riding) and with mounting, it’ll cost me €25. There was nothing to lean my bike against, so I asked him how much a kickstand would cost and he told me €12.90 (oddly enough, kickstands aren’t standard features on many bikes in Germany), so I told him to put one on (I had been considering having one put on for quite a while now). That’ll save me from having the above-mentioned problem again. Plus, he said I could pick it up at 16h this afternoon. Same day service is good.
I had previously been thinking about buying a new bike next year, but now I’m having second thoughts. I might just spend a bit more money and have mine overhauled. I’d like to replace my front tire and tube next month so that I’m using the same kind and age on both wheels. Then all I’ll really need are a rear cogs cassette, derailleurs, a chain, chain ring and pedal arms and it’ll be like having a new bike (I hope). Probably cheaper too. Plus, my bike looks old (it’s been estimated to be a 1991 model), so it’ll have a better chance of not being stolen or vandalised than a brand new bike.
Today is ‘Seven Sleeper Day’ in Germany (also known as Dormouse Day in the UK according to a British colleague). A farmer’s tale says that the weather on 27 June (every year) determines the weather for the next seven weeks. Fine with me, as I love warm weather. Another tale talks about the martyrs of seven people of the Christain faith, but no one here knows why it’s related to weather predicting (it’s not). A third tale talks about a Dormouse predicting the weather (a British version of Groundhog Day?). Pick your favourite legend.
More from Wikipedia ((badly) translated from the German version – the English didn’t have it).
Weather
The farmer’s rule that on Siebenschlaefertag, the weather of the next seven weeks is decided actually applies to 17 July, but Gregorian calendar reform shifted the date to 27 June. It does not have anything to do with the Seven Sleepers or the rodent with the same name. Statistic analyses have determined that the rule in 65-70% of the cases applies, with the Jet stream and how strongly it affects the European weather.
Martyrs
The seven martyrs of Ephesus are shapes of a Christian holy legend.
The seven brothers (Maximian, Malchus, Martinian, Dionysius, Johannes, Serumpion and Constantin) are to have been immured on instruction of the Roman emperor Decius in a grotto with Ephesus (today Selçuk) in today’s Turkey in the year 251 because of their Christian faith. After 196 years, in the year 447 this grotto was then coincidentally again opened and the seven brothers awaked freshly and merrily, but then however, surrounded by a holy light, they are to have died.
Rodent
That (Glis glis) is a mouse like, nocturnal rodent from the Bilche family (Myoxidae). It received its name because of its seven months long winter sleeps. It looks for places to sleep in tree holes and also under the roofs of houses. However, instead of there only to sleep, it tends to run around at night and makes so much noise that could be mistakento be a human adult, perhaps a burglar and not a mouse that weighs a few hundred gram.
I’m off to meet Matt for some cycling on something called Tal Total (translated into English means Total Valley). The roads that lead along both sides of the Rhein River from Stolzenfels (just south of Koblenz) to Bingen (the B9) and Ruedesheim (the B42) are closed to vehicular traffic and left to cyclist and rollerbladers. Many of the villages have events going on (music, etc) as well. I’m not sure how many kilometers it is, but my guess would be about 80. We’re not going to cycle the whole thing, just part of it. Getting to Bacharach would be nice, but might be a bit ambitious (48 km).
The weather is cloudy and 18ºC. That’s a bummer because it was brilliantly sunny and over 30 ºC 18 – 24 June (yesterday was rainy and about 27 ºC). I was hoping we’d have wonderfully sunny weather like last weekend. Supposedly it’s going to be 25 ºC and mostly sunny today, but I’ll believe it when I see it.
Angelika was supposed to go with us today, but she hasn’t called me to find out when we were meeting. She’d been telling us for a month that she’d be going with us, but it appears that she really didn’t want to. She’s only ever accepted one invitation that we’ve given her (we all have long breaks together and Matt and I frequently go for long walks, cycling and/or out to lunch) and that was because we had to convince her. She tells us ‘next time’, but when the next time happens she always turns us down again. She’s a very nice person, but both of us are tired of her flaking out. Oh well.
Off cycling I go.
I survived the meeting without killing anyone (or myself) for only speaking German. Actually, I did quite well with my German and understood about 70% of what was said. I usually don’t have a problem understanding ‘High German’, which the presenter was speaking, but have a problem with dialects (which most of the other participants were speaking).
Now, I’m attempting to relax. Why attempting? I’m not sure, but think it’s due to the fact that I don’t have a lot of time to relax. I usually have things to do (exams to make/correct, lessons to plan, blog posts to write, plans with friends, etc), but today I don’t. However, that’s not a bad thing, since tomorrow is another cycling day, I have decided that I’m just going to relax and do nothing today. However, it’s not easy. I’m still trying to find a way to slow down. I can’t actually ‘do nothing’, I get bored too easily.
Do I have things I can do today if I want? Sure, thirty exams to correct. I’ll pass. I have to clean my flat. Not today. Let’s change the question…do I have anything fun I can do if I want? Kind of…one of my classes has just completed its final exam for the year and we have four weeks to fill. I have them doing oral presentations, but I need more, so I asked them what they could come up with. One of the things was watching Sex in the City and discussing the English in it. I was a bit leery when it was suggested as I had never seen the show before and it has ‘sex’ in the title. I asked the (25 year old) girl that suggested the show how we could watch it, and she said that she had seasons 1 – 6 on DVD. I asked the class what they thought and no one objected (most were familiar with the show), so I agreed to consider the idea as long as I could view the DVD in advance and select the episode and also make up exercises to do based on the program. She gave me season 6 to select from.
I’ve watched three episodes and don’t fancy watching and discussing any of them with a classroom of fifteen people, thirteen of which are women. I’ve seen episodes called ‘Out of the Frying Pan’ (it was okay, but I still don’t see what all the fuss is over this show, they seem to be a bunch of snobby, well off, egotistical women in Manhattan), ‘Catch – 38’ (it appears that these women are people who have known each other for many many years now (perhaps since high school or before) and they’re 38 years old – one year younger than me) and another one called ‘The Ick Factor’ (in which one of the Manhattenites is dating a Russian (in NYC) and he’s written a piano song for her, wrote a poem for her and attempted to take her to the opera (after buying her an elegant dress), but she fainted on the way to the opera house. After he revived her and asked if she was alright, she said, ‘No, it’s too much. I’m an American, you’ve gotta take it down a notch,’ so he took her to McDonalds)
How stupid is this show? Talk about stereotyping! Give me a break! We’re all not that uncultured. No wonder non-Americans have such stereotypes about Americans. Americans, on the other hand, would just laugh these thing off.
Moving on…
I haven’t blogged the past couple of days due to the fact that Matt had a meltdown on Thursday. Due to many stressful factors like the situation going on back in England, a few work related items and a very trivial thing between us he just lost the plot. I suffered the brunt of his aggression (despite how insignificant our setback had been), but knew it wasn’t the real Matt on the phone and later in an email, so I wrote it off as him needing to let off steam. I know that our friendship is strong enough to handle the difficulties of life, so I wasn’t worried about his release of tension. He turned his mobile phone off after the email, so I wasn’t able to call him to talk about what was really bothering him. It’s better that he did, as it gave him a chance to calm down.
Knowing his schedule, I surprised Matt by waiting for him on the front steps of the school when he arrived at 9h20 (his incompany class ended at 9h). I said to him, ‘How about a cup of tea?’ He responded uncertainly, so I said (in a calm tone), ‘I think it’d be a good idea’, and he took the hint and decided to go.
We talked. He got a lot of things off his chest. He had been holding things inside and finally had to explode at someone, so it turned out that it was me (most likely due to the fact that he knew I’d know it really was more about him than me). We spent a couple hours drinking tea, then on the promenade along the Rhein talking, joking, etc. It was good to see him smile again.
At 18h, there was a 5km ‘Company Run’ in Koblenz. I had several students running in it as well as a few friends (among the 4,500 participants), so I went to watch. With the dense mass running, I was only able to see a few of them but was glad I had gone.
Matt met me at the beer garden (it was just off the race course) at 18h30 and we left later than had been expected. I had planned on leaving 22h (because I had to get up early today), however Spence and his fiancée joined us at 21h45, so we stayed due to the fact it was the first time either of us had met her. Let’s just say she’s a doll and the four of us had great conversation. They left at 23h30 and we left at midnight.
However, the evening wasn’t over. Matt felt the need to have further discussion about life in general, so we discussed everything he wanted to talk about and then parted ways at 01h15.
That brings us up to now.
I’m off to a seven hour seminar that’s all in German. Seven hours of that awful language.
I plan on staying in this evening, so I’ll blog a bit more later.
Subject: Orange
Taken on 12 June in the Rheinland-Pfalz Days 2005 parade in Bad Ems
