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I’m not sure if I’ll be blogging from Paris or not, so, I thought I’d slap up a reminder about the
Second Whiney Expat Blogger in Germany Meet-Up:
Bonn
18 & 19 November
Updated list:
The definites:
J – both days
Jen and Sparky – both days
Belinda – Saturday only
Christina (Mausi) – both days
Haddock and possibly Mrs and Juniorette
Probably
Hamish – Saturday only
Vailian – Sunday only
Andrea (Sahmmominbonn)
Expressed interest:
Elemmaciltur
Schadenfreude
Rich
Chris (AEiD)
Adam
As far as Paris goes, this won’t be my first time there. I spent time there in 1998 and you can read my (hastily written) travelogue here.
I’ll be back on Saturday evening.
there was nothing I could post that would surprise you….
Believe it or not, one of the reasons I moved here was for the weather. Yes, I know that I wax on about how crappy it is (which is true for someone like me that doesn’t like clouds and rain), but it’s warmer here than in Poland.
I remember watching the forecast on television when I lived in Poland and the temperatures were well into the minuses (C), and seeing that the temperatures in Germany were well into the positives (sometimes 10C – 15C range).
However, this doesn’t mean I’m going to stop whining about the weather.
As I sit here in my not-all-that-interesting-and-quite-small city, my thoughts turn towards the dynamic city of Bangkok.
That wonderful and lively city of ten million people with towering skyscrapers, bright lights, warm weather and non-stop activity.
Bangkok.
Magnificent Bangkok.
I woke up this morning and had no clue as to what time it was. My mobile phone, computer and radio-controlled clock all said the same time, but I hadn’t changed any of them back. Thinking that they might have changed themselves, I checked Time and Date.com, whose URL was misleading because it was only showing the date. Not very helpful.
I finally signed into a chatroom, asked what time it was on the east coast of the US, saw that there was a five hour time difference (it was before 2am there) and realised that everything actually had reset itself.
No more running around the house to reset things. What fun is that?
Here’s an apporpriate song for today: The Timewarp!
21 October started off as most of my Saturdays lately – I had to work. That’s okay, as I like the two students I have and the lesson flies by. When the lesson ended at 11:00, I had sixteen minutes to get to the train station for the start of the rest of my day.
My first stop was in Bonn to do a bit of checking around for the Meet-Up, strolled around a bit and also met up with a friend that lives there before heading off to Cologne.
I arrived in Cologne at 16h25 and wandered around for a bit before heading over to the prearranged meeting point just inside the main train station, where I saw a few people that I recognized and went over to the group and met the ones I didn’t know. Yes, once again I was at an internet Meet-Up with the group from the website that I had met up with in September and July.
It ended up being a group of two Americans (including me), one Briton and nine Germans – six of which I had met at either the Bonn or Frankfurt meet-ups and one that had been at both. Honestly, it was like going to see friends again, and the others fit right in. Of course, being a meet-up we started getting to know each other immediately.
We took the 17h41 train to the Ehenfeld district of Cologne to the Ethiopian restaurant that had been decided on for dinner. Why an Ethiopian restaurant? Due to the fact that Sol had heard that it served excellent food and none of us had been there before – an adventure.
What is Ethiopian food like? Since none of us had been there before, it was quite interesting to see everyone (including me) smelling and poking at our food to find out exactly what it is we had ordered and the general consensus was that it was very good and we were all quite satisfied.
I tried to upload a photo of what I had, but Blogger’s acting up again and wouldn’t let me. It was chicken and a hard boiled egg in a hot sauce that consisted of many different spices, a small lettuce, tomato and cucumber salad toped with a bit of finely grated onion, and a small side dish of cottage cheese (in case one’s mouth couldn’t handle the spiciness – I didn’t need it).
The socialising continued until 22h, when it was suggested that we move to a different location for further festivities. However, I had to catch a train home, as did the Brit, so I can’t report on what happened after that. I can tell you that we all had a good time and I feel confident in saying that new friends were made by all.
We were given instructions on how to get back to the main train station (one change of metros was required). No problem, as I’m pretty good at finding my way around cities, so it seemed like an easy task, but when I got to the place I had to change trains, I found out that the U5 wasn’t running and a bus was plying the route in its place. I found out where it was and one drove off as I was walking towards the stop, so I had to wait for the next one.
I hadn’t been ‘out on the town’ since I returned from Spain and noticed that most of the people passing by were drinking beer as they strolled along to wherever. In Germany that appears to be the norm, not the exception. In Spain it was the opposite.
Cologne is very lively in the evenings, unlike my town. Granted, my town does have a lively Old Town area, but the outdoor seating areas are required to be closed and empty of people at 22h otherwise they risk being fined €5,000. The ‘powers that be’ in Cologne have probably realised that ridiculous laws like that are counterproductive – which makes it a great place to be in the evenings.
It ended up leaving at 22h37 and was at the train station at 22h47, giving me seven minutes to run down to the train station (the bus stopped a few blocks away), buy a ticket and get up to the track. I made it by one minute, only to find out that the train was five minutes late. I arrived home ten minutes late.
All in all, it was a great time and I’m totally glad I went! I love meeting and getting to know people, so this was right up my alley.
She hasn’t blogged in more than six months now.
As previously mentioned, I have two students from the Czech Republic that are in my town for training. That’s now changed to ‘had’ because their last lesson ended at 9h this morning.
They’re currently on their way home.
In addition to working full time, they had twelve hours of English lessons per week (broken into two hour blocks – none in a row) divided equally between in-company classes and classes at our school (they took the bus there). Despite the long hours they worked and learned English, they always had smiles on their faces and were eager to absorb all the English we could give them, and they returned home every night and did every bit of homework they were given – never once complaining.
To make their lives even busier, they (and a couple colleagues) were allowed to use a company car and drive back to the Czech Republic every weekend – 8 hour each way (!). The one in his early 30s to be with his wife and 3 year old daughter and the one in his mid-twenties to spend time with his family and friends. They left every Friday around 16h and returned around 1h30 Monday mornings and were always on time to work at 7h.
I had them for 6 hours per week, Bg had them for four and Am had them for two – all of us looked forward to the classes because of their enthusiasm for learning English, how easy they were to teach and also their friendliness. They were also quite satisfied with our teaching. Yesterday evening, they came into the office to find out which room I’d be teaching them in and the boss just happened to be there. He mentioned the fact that he had been told they’d be leaving wished them all the best – to which they replied that they wanted their teachers go with them and continue lessons.
Everybody knew that we loved teaching them and commented on how happy we seemed before and after their lessons (when we said that our next lesson was with ‘The Czechs’, everybody knew who we were talking about. Even the secretaries loved them and noticed the improvement in their English as they went from saying ‘Room?” to asking ‘Which room is our lesson in?’
Since they were leaving today, Bg and I went out for a drink with them yesterday evening (Am was on holiday) as well as the wife and daughter (who were visiting for the week). Unfortunately, the wife doesn’t speak English, but she does speak French so that’s how Bg and I communicated with her at first (the guys don’t speak French). However, after listening to them speak Czech, I realised that I understood quite a bit of it because of how similar it was to Polish, so I then interjected what Polish I could when speaking to her. That brilliant occasion lasted for two hours and they presented Bg with a pink rose and me with three cans of Czech beer as they way of thanking us for the planning, flexibility and execution of our lessons.
From time to time students that touch everybody’s heart attend our school. Jan and Jiri are the latest.
