This is the end...my only friend...the end...

Sad face! So, my job is officially over. I still have to go to school and get various forms and things off my mentor, and potentially go out for ice cream with her and some other English teachers. I hope that does end up happening, it would be nice to have a sort of quiet goodbye...thing. It doesn't really feel like I've left as yet; my last class was with some year 8s, who don't seem so bad now I don't have to teach them again. They're learning about limericks, and two of them performed their limerick to me as a rap, complete with actions. Yeah, they're really not so bad.

(I'm looking forward to living in a room that isn't on the ground floor, directly next to a footpath; there are two gardeners working right outside my window. One of them just casually wandered along, stopped and stared at me through the window, holding a large branch, then wandered on. Unnerving...he could have at least smiled...)

I also am yet to update about my last two weekend trips. First, I went to Madrid with Jessy and Robyn, where we stayed with Jessy's brother. An excellent host, who can speak Spanish; very useful considering we definitely do not speak Spanish. Because I'm the one that does languages, regardless of my having never learnt Spanish, Jess and Robyn seemed to think it suitable for me to be the one to communicate wherever we went. Admittedly, I have no shame when it comes to attempting to speak other languages, apparently even when I actually can't. I would do a lot of hand gestures and say "si" and "gracias" a lot. Failing that, maybe speak a bit of French (they're the same, right?) or offer a list of languages I could slightly more competently communicate in ("English? Deutsch? Francais? Nederlands??").

Anyway, a highlight of our trip, apart from obviously improving my spanish, was a lot of karaoke on the first night, where the karaoke bar was empty when we got there and full by the time we left. No doubt this was due to our excellent renditions of, among others, Rollin' by Limp Bizkit (with actions), the Thong Song, Bad Touch by Bloodhound Gang (with actions), Backstreet Boys, many a Beatles song, many a Blink song, and right at the end a woman insisted we stay to sing Don't Stop Believing with her. Unfortunately, the song she had in fact requested turned out to be a different song by the same name. This did not damage our confidence, and the three of us happily belted out the Journey song over the top of the wrong backing track.

Iiiii waaant it thaaaat waaay...tell me WHYY..

There were protests in Madrid. Here are Robyn and Jessy getting into the spirit of things.

We went to the Botanical Gardens, where we found a tree trunk that...quite vaguely resembled a knob. Vaguely.

Me and Jessy hanging by a pond.

We also went on a night out, during which we surfed on a travellator. It's always been beyond me why they don't have these things literally everywhere.

The band we saw in a club. There is a picture of Green Day behind them; they were not Green Day, but they were quite good. We enthused.

If we ever go back to Madrid, I fancy nipping to Ibiza, as it's so easy to get to.

We went rowing. Here's Jessy with a mermaid we met.

And Robyn having a really good row.

Overall? Excellent trip. Then came another week of school, which frankly, I remember nothing about. It can't have been especially good or bad. I probably didn't do much.

This weekend just gone, I went to Dresden again. It would have been better, had I not been suffering from a really bad cold, and basically couldn't breath all weekend. Bleurgh. We did go on a lovely hike in the Sächsischer Schweiz though.

Dora and Sophie enjoy a cliff-top.

Dora, Sophie, Rachael and Hanna enjoy posh picnic of wine in plastic champagne flutes, cheese and crackers, grapes and pom bears, on top of some nice rocks. This was along the main tourist footpath and it felt a bit like we were on stage.

So, I guess my year abroad blog is coming to an end. No more exciting trips, just another week in Bochum. Me and Glen did Abmelden (deregistering) yesterday. First attempt! And it was successful! We celebrated with a little walk around Stadtpark, to say goodbye to our duck friend. We also met a friendly cat! And went for sushi. Omnomnom.

Dora.
xxx