Elena Cresci

Archive for September 2009

SEWING MACHINE SEWING MACHINE

September 24, 2009 Blog No comments

Guess what came in the post today!!

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MY GERMAN SEWING MACHIIINE! It says ‘Lady Victoria’ on it, so that means her name should be Viktoria… with a K because she’s German. Now be nice, she’s a lady.

I’m so happy I bought one, and it was a bargain too. 40 euros plus the postage and packaging, sweet. It’s an older model to what I’m used to, having a fairly modern Brother at home, but I had a quick go on a t-shirt (for lack of other fabric) and on first impressions, it’s a lot quieter than my old machine! I think fabric is in order. I have some sweet projects that I saw on Weekend Designer bookmarked. Eeeeee excited!!

Things I miss… Monster Munch Pickled Onion

September 21, 2009 Blog No comments

I think Things I Miss is probably going to centre mostly on food…

I eat far too much Pickled Onion Monster Munch, so maybe it’s not such a bad thing that they’re not around for me to eat copious amounts of nowadays. BUT THEY TASTE SO GOOOOOOOOD. I’m the type of person who will go to a shop 10 minutes out of my way because I know that they’ll sell the MEGA MONSTER MUNCH instead of those feeble normal ones… but will eat the feeble ones anyway. I miss the times when I’d remember that Iceland sells big bags of them for a pound and I’d just nom away watching something on BBCiplayer (I think that’s another Things I Miss post though…)

In Germany, crisp variety seems to be limited to Paprika and… err well I think Paprika because I haven’t seen many other flavours other than in the Pringle family. Luckily for you who like sour cream and chives Pringles, they’re readily available. Monster Munch? Not so much.

Thankfully, I do quite enjoy the Paprika crisps. They’re not as good as Monster Munch, but they’ll do! I just ate a whole bag. Urgh.

I’M ILL

September 18, 2009 Blog No comments

Urghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Schniffles and coughs.

Kein Spass.

Clubs in Dortmund are sweaty

September 17, 2009 Blog No comments

Well, Suite023 was. It was ridiculously tiny and packed to the brim! My first German club experience, awwwh. Naturally it was with members of TEAM FABELHAFT (the group of friends made at Altenberg… the fabelhaft thing is a loooong story) and it was aceee.

They played tunes from the 90s all night – as a consequence, it was clearly obvious to everyone in the room that we were from the U.K, being the ones who ate a grape (jizzed in our pants) when the Backstreet Boys/Spice Girls/Insert 90s band here came on and also being the only ones knowing the dance to Saturday Night. Some pretty epic moves were thrown by all! But whenever a German song came on, our dancing became muted, almost confused, while the Germans went nuts. So yeah, fairly transparent.

I assumed that not a great deal would be that different. Well. Upon entrance we got given this card, and I was warned not to lose it because I’d get charged the maximum if I did… the maximum for what? Well, turns out instead of paying for your drinks on the go, the bartenders mark on the card how much you spent, and then you pay you drinks and entry costs at the end of the night. Not sure if this is the way it’s done in every club in Germany, but nevertheless, it was bloody well weird! Plus it led to some extreme spending, thankfully not on my part as I wasn’t fussed on many of the drinks, because you forget that you need to pay at the end.

This is why pre-drinking is a good idea kids! We pre-drunk at my apartment while playing some choons on my laptop, albeit with crappy speakers. Can you guess which power ballad we’re singing here?

Ah yes, the age old classic, Jizz in Your Pants.

Pretty ace weekend all round. Was great that Beef could make it, even if she and Emily had to spend the night on my highly comfortable laminate floor with an itchy picnic blanket. So bequem…

Then Gravy came on Saturday (yes, I know, Beef and Gravy, ironically it was coincidental and yet works so well…) and came out with some classic drunken quotes, and I believe her and Beef made up a song. So, good times!

Things I miss… oof, it could be worse

September 16, 2009 Blog No comments

In a follow up to the previous post, I’ve decided that it could be far worse on the cheese front. Getting ready for work this morning, I had a chat with my friend in America who’s attending University there for her year abroad. Spoke about missing beans and cider, to which she answered that she missed cheese. There was me thinking that America would have PLENTY on the cheese front, but according to my friend, all she can find is the canned variety.

I honestly can’t think of anything worse. I’d rather Sauerkraut over this shite. It looks like it should be whipped cream!!!!

Eeeeew.

My heart goes out to you Tilly, living with cheese in a can. I hope you find some cheddar real soon, or at least Edam!

Things I miss… Baked Beans

September 15, 2009 Blog No comments

Words cannot describe how much I miss these suckers. Classic student food, the musical fruit, even the Tesco value ones are nom. But in Germany? You can’t really get them. Well that’s not technically true – you can get them in some places few and far between, but at about 2 Euros a tin, it’s gone from student food to a luxury. So I suppose if you’re REALLY craving some cheesy beans on toast, you could just pay the extra…

Cheesy beans on toast tended to be my pre-training meal back in Swansea, so I’m missing out on something nom (something yummy) AND something that is legitimately good energy food (…ok perhaps I should cut out the cheese a little, but still, I spend 2 hours punching pads/people or throwing them/being thrown and last the whole thing and then some if I run 5K beforehand ALL THANKS TO CHEESY BEANS ON TOAST thankyouverymuch)

As for a German replacement? I’m told that their beans tend to be a little different, with meaty corn beef type stuff included. I would imagine it would be a little bit like the beans and sausage variety – which I don’t like. I’ve yet to see them in the Supermarkt, but I’ll keep my eyes peeled, but I doubt I’ll try them unless I’m really really really desperate for cheesy beans on toast. Speaking of cheese, is it wrong that I am really considering spending about 3 euros on some Cathedral Cheddar Cheese?

I’m hungry now.

BOB GELDOF!!

September 13, 2009 Blog No comments

We saw Bob Geldof in Dortmund!

BOB ‘GIVE US YOUR FOOKING MONEY’ GELDOF!

He was playing in Dortmund city centre as part of an anti-Nazi concert thing – apparently Dortmund has a problem with Nazi demonstrators, something which the population of Dortmund clearly (and understandably!!) has a problem with.

I’m not entirely sure why we were all so excited, none of us were mahoosive Bob fans, but oh boy, we are now. We spent the whole journey to the Rathaus (City Hall, not House of Rats dammit) going on about how we just wanted to hear ‘I Don’t Like Mondays’ and talking in funny German voices about how Bob should warten (wait) for us to get there before playing it.

We got there just in time to see Bob start, had a little boogie, got some beer, and boogied while waiting for ‘I Don’t Like Mondays’. We sure showed the locals how to bust a groove. The thing was, our friend was getting the train in from Remmscheid (no, I don’t know where it is either), and it was nearing the time that she was due to arrive and he still hadn’t played it. Big dilemma, and the old ‘oh her train will be late’ is never going to happen in Germany. Never. In the end, two of us went while two stayed, promising to ring if he started playing it. Ten minutes later…

Cue us calling them, shouting ‘RUN!!!! RUN!!!!!’ so that they could get there in time to witness the magic… and just in time, about halfway through the song THEY ARRIVED! It was seriously a magical moment, I can’t really do it justice.

I’m definitely gegen Nazis for the obvious reasons – but also because I don’t reckon fascists would let you dance like loons.

Thanks Bob!

Schule ist ausgezeichnet! With an extra dose of a Fire Alarm

September 12, 2009 Blog No comments

So I’ve been to my school a total of six times, three of which were spent observing some of the lessons. So far I’ve observed Klasse 5, Klasse 9 and Klasse 11, in lessons like Biology, German, English and Maths (which went right over my head!)

My school is really nice, but it seems HUGE. I keep saying that it’s a lot bigger than my school in Wales, but I don’t think that’s true. My school was expanded over the time I was there, so I suppose it seems HUGE to the kids who start there now, but it never seemed that big to me because it was added to building by building from the one corridor it was when I started. There are a LOT of teachers at this school though. I think there are ten English teachers? I think I’ve met them all…The staff room is massive and I’ve been introduced to so many different teachers, so I can’t remember! The kids seem really nice as well. As it’s a Gymnasium, I expected the kids to be quite bright, and they do seem to be from what I’ve seen so far.

I hope I can help the kids in some capacity. I’m still nervous about it all, I haven’t had to prep anything, while a lot of my friends have been asked to, but I think that my Betreuungslehrerin (the teacher in charge of me basically) is really sticking to the letter and giving me two weeks of observation – for which I’m thankful, I’m not sure I could deal with being chucked straight into it without getting a small idea of how the kids are. Also she has cleared up another worry I had – about teachers asking me to cover lessons for them. At Altenberg they warned us that sometimes teachers will ask, and we’re not allowed to do it so we have to say no and I worried about how I would say no without seeming rude. Thankfully, she told me that I was under no circumstances to do it, so she’ll have told the other teachers that.

Another thing I love about my school is that the teachers speak German to me all the time, I’m only allowed to speak English to the students! I think my German will improve a lot because of it.

Friday was interesting, because the kids from Klasse 11 had prepared questions for me. They ranged from ‘Do you find it difficult to speak German’ to ‘What do you think about the British Empire?’

…mmm fair play this entry’s a bit boring

Altenberg = Nothing to worry about

September 7, 2009 Blog No comments

It’s been a week?!

Over a week actually, since I flew to Germany with one kg too many… Right now I’m meant to be going to the Buergersamt to register, but I’ve just made plans to go a bit later!

The induction course at Altenberg was ridiculous amounts of fun, despite early mornings, loads of lesson things and a limited supply of beer at the bar… Not that that mattered, because as much as I have tried to like beer, I don’t, ew. I can honestly say that I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so much in three days!

I’m not sure I’ve actually said what Altenberg is – the assistants going to Germany have to do an induction course before they go to their respective destinations, and that course is held in Altenberg. It’s basically a course to help you out with teaching, learning how to plan lessons and also to meet assistants in your area so you’re not totally alone! It’s a monastery apparently, but there weren’t any monks, sad times.

Despite having two of my good friends with me going to Altenberg, I felt kinda apprehensive about going. I knew that we had to do some teaching practice in groups, and I worried that I wouldn’t click with anyone etc. etc.

Turns out there was no bloody need to worry – you know that group of people at an event who just can’t seem to stop laughing at the littlest things? Yeaaah, that was us! I won’t go into all the in-jokes here, because no one else bar us will find them funny

As for the course itself… the lessons were tiring mostly because there were so many of them. They could have saved some time with certain things – we had two and a half hours to prep our lessons, which seemed like a really long time in hindsight. On the other hand though, some of the stuff was really helpful, for example having previous assistants (a.k.a Ehemaligen) to tell us about their experiences, even though all bar one were American so certain things concerning Visas wasn’t really applicable to the majority of the U.K based group. If anyone’s reading this and thinking of not going to the course… well, I’d definitely rethink. This is really the best way for you to get to know people in your area. I know the main aim of this year is for me to learn as much German as possible, but it can see it being a really lonely experience if you don’t have people to share it with, and the best people to do that with are those who are going through the same things. The language barrier can often be a difficult hurdle when forming friendships. Not to mention that there are loads of tidbits I know now that I wouldn’t have known had I not gone to Altenberg.

I’m now all moved in in Dortmund! But I’ll save that for another blog post. For now, here’s a picture of me doing something you shouldn’t do in Germany – dance/walk in the cyclist lane.

Pedestrian in the Cyclist lane = fair game.

Bis bald!