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!