I don't want no scrubs

Highlights of helping in Class 8 today include explaining what Scrubs meant in the context of the sitcom, followed by failing to explain how this was different to the meaning in the song "No Scrubs" by TLC. I think I made up for this by helpfully singing the chorus.

Another highlight was having to somehow explain to a very quiet girl why she couldn't present in front of the class that the Love Parade used to be called the Fuck Parade (inappropriate, and having googled this, also factually incorrect). The joys of teaching children that copy and paste stuff off Wikipedia without knowing what it means.

This weekend, I went to Neuerburg to visit Maxface. The village is pretty much how I imagined it to be; small, picturesque and featuring a lot of old people that stare, and some cats. We also went to Trier, where we drank massive nommy beers.

The lack of night life in Neuerburg meant our only real option on Saturday night was to get drunk in a park, though we gave up when the roundabout made us feel sick and we concluded that drinking in the park was less fun than we remembered it being. Lolling about on swings after downing vodka cherryade used to be the high point of my week. I feel old.

But not so old that this didn't brighten up my day. Vaguely amusing place names. Lol.

Dora.

xxx

Ode to Leeds Uni

Recently I've been really missing being at Leeds. Having spent some time trying to feel at home at Ruhr Universität Bochum, I've concluded that I am actually really lucky to be at Leeds, where everything works and is user friendly and makes me feel at home.

Here are a list of things I would improve about R.U.B.

• I would let people take their bags and coats into the library; having failed to find an empty locker, I had to leave my coat and bag on an unsecured shelf, and spent a good ten minutes trying to fit all my valuables in my pockets so I didn't have to leave them unattended.
• I would also have built the campus out of some materials other than grey concrete (Roger Stevens building aside, Leeds Uni is quite attractive really).
• On the library computers alone, I would make the following improvements:
• install some form of up-to-date Windows system; whatever it is they use, it is not user-friendly, and there is no Microsoft Office.
• recognise and let people access USB sticks. Or save documents. Somehow. Generally.
• allow people to search articles including the word "gay" (I concluded R.U.B. are homophobic, after trying to find an article about a court case involving gays; when it told me access was denied, I tried replacing the word "gay" with "heterosexual". No problem...).
• (this one's really revolutionary) link up each computer to a PRINTER! So when the copy shop closes, with it's white box-like Windows 98-style computers attached to ink-free printers, people would still be able to print things!
• I would also make people NOT TALK so bloody loudly in the library. It is a freaking library!
• I would build a Student Union. I miss the Union so much. And there are no societies here. I want societies!
• I would make it compulsory for people to dress well and smile. It makes a difference. I miss fashion-watching around Leeds, it's nice when people make an effort and it's nice when people look happy.

So I'm sure Ruhr Uni has some advantages...no, now I'm just being nice. Leeeeeeds, I miss yooooou!! What I wouldn't give to sit and work in Eddie B for a couple of hours, then go to the Union for a pasty and a latte, before walking home through Hyde Park.

I'm going back there to house hunt in two weeks. It's gonna be stressful and there will be minimal time for partying or walking around hugging university buildings. But I still can't wait!

<3

Kissing to Fucking, via Wank, in 4 hours 40 minutes

This is my favourite thing about this week...slash a tour I am determined to go on by the end of our Year Abroad.

(double click to see picture properly)

And to think people ask me why I study German!

Other wins of this week: I have a new timetable, in which I only go in pointful lessons (i.e. ones where I serve a purpose rather than ones where I am just the foreigner who sits in the corner), and finish by 11.15am every day.

I have a new tandem partner, who is really cool (I'm not just saying that because I know she reads my blog!) and now my German might actually start getting better. I hope.

Me, Sophie, Glen and Heidi are going on a surprise trip to Berlin, thanks to germanwings and their magical blind booking option. I heart trips.

This weekend I'm going to Münster and Köln. Making the most of my semester ticket before it runs out at the end of March. As if they actually want me to PAY for travel after that?!

I have also unintentionally quit smoking, because I have a sore throat, therefore smoking hurts and is no longer enjoyable. And I went jogging, twice. I even bought trainers for the purpose of jogging! I have turned over a healthy new leaf.

Anyway, I need to pack for the weekend. I now store all my belongings on the floor and under the bed rather than in cupboards, so finding everything I need could prove challenging.

Späters,
Dora.
xxx

Weekend tour of towns with double-As (Aachen and Maastricht)

So this weekend a bunch of us hung out in Aachen. We sampled the best German club I've been to, or maybe just the drunkest I've ever been in a German club, followed by a day trip to Holland, where I got told I have a good Dutch accent. Shame I'm actually learning German and have never been told I have a good German accent..

First we went to Sophie's, where we got chinese takeaway, and then got really really drunk. This lead to such activities as throwing tictacs into Heidi's mouth, unexplained running in circles, and sending Max downstairs so we could try to feed him beer through a hole in the kitchen floor.

After teaching a German club how to party, telling a girl in the toilets her afro was "voll geil" (a phrase I don't think exists in German) and trying to request Chase & Status, only to find when given a pen and paper that I was too drunk to write Chase & Status, we decided it was time to take Glen home so he could vom on Sophie's floor.

On Saturday, we all woke up hideously hungover, feeling in no way up for our exciting day trip. We arrived at Maastricht after a one hour bus journey, waited around for a number of our group to throw up at the station, then headed onwards to a floating Coffee Shop. Spirits were higher when we left, as demonstrated by chirpy jumping picture.

We also checked our a special beer bar, where I spoke some Dutch only to find that I can't understand any. Me and Glen also had a game of self-confessed failchess. Glen (who was known as Glentje for the day, that being the Dutch translation of Glennchen) won, despite how pissed off he looks in the picture.

On Sunday we wandered around Aachen and saw the sights, and also booked flights for our next exciting adventure, to Budapest, Bratislava and Vienna in April. Eastern Tour...yes... :)

In other news, today me and Glen went out in Bochum and found a massive park and a zoo we didn't know about.

Dora.
xxx

"Do you know Ray Davis?"

said some kid in my year 8 class.
Me: er no, should I?
kid: Oh. He's my uncle, he lives in England too.

Just when I thought they couldn't get any more dumb...

My least favourite thing about living just a 7 minute walk away from school: walking home and having hundreds of kids I assume I've taught at some point yelling stuff at me in English, or walking along with me and trying to make conversation. Maybe they think I like talking to kids, seeing as I work at their school. They are mistaken.

My least favourite thing about teaching Class 12: half way through one of my conversation classes, they had a break, so we stopped. At this point, a whole group of other year 12s wandered into the room and started chatting to me, mostly auf Deutsch (no problem) about where I go out in Bochum and if I want to go out with them and if I like 'bad boys' and telling me they're horny and other such inappropriate things (definitely a problem). Awkward.

My favourite thing about my job: I'm done for the week, and going to Aachen tomorrow, and Maastricht on Saturday. Tour of cities with a double-A in the name. And I get to speak some of my limited Dutch! I heart Dutch. Yays.

Dora.
xxx