Speaking and listening to German the vast majority of the time is really tiring.
Things I've learnt so far:
- German efficiency is a lie.
- Trains are numbered - DO NOT TRUST THE TIME!
- They are constantly drinking water or coffee, also hard liquor, beer and Champagne are all acceptable at lunchtime.
- Bureaucracy is everything.
- Apparently 17/18 degrees is cold and I must wear a jacket.
- Not wearing at least a pair of socks around the house is an offence against German common sense. (I have lost count of how many times they've asked me if I need a pair of sock/ begged me to take a pair)
- English Sausages are vastly superior.
- Mountain climbing is hard.
- Mark needs Gibbs slapping more often.
- Cheese and ham at breakfast will never be right.
I should probably start at the beginning yes?
So, trains are numbered? Who knew, ah yes all the Germans/ Germanophiles I know who never thought that y'know, that might be a hint I might need upon arrival!!!!
You know who you are!
It was in this fashion I let my train to Cologne leave without me.
When I finally arrived, in this fine Rhineland City I promptly got lost, this is because it was A. dark and B. the Germans put up street names in 1. very strange places and 2. only when they feel like it.
However I did eventually after throwing a tantrum with Google maps in the street (much to the amusement of a gaggle of drunk bystanders, it seems cold, tired, scared and anxious English women are funny) arrive at my hotel. It was gorgeous the staff were awesome the wireless free and they left cake and Toblerone in my room. However the shower was slightly broken in that the holder wouldn't stay up and I did end up causing a flood. Mark must have being using up all the common sense at the time...
After spending a morning wandering around Cologne, buying books in bookshops that look suspiciously like Waterstones, realising one cannot write in English and speak German simultaneously and still wind up with an ability to think at the end of it, and being chatted up by a very forward German student, (this seems to be normal for Germans, they keep telling me precisely what they think - it gets awkward, well maybe just for me, they don't seem to be to bothered), it was time to meet up with all the other assistants for the Altenburg Conference. Which is completely bonkers, some one ended up in hospital because they had an epileptic fit, there was far too much/not enough alcohol (on the final night 5 people bought most of it and then wouldn't share, no one had any sympathy for their hangovers), I learnt more about the commonwealth in 3 days than in the last 21 years, and perhaps a little bit about lesson planning.
Oooooh - on the subject of the commonwealth - so we had assistants from Canada, New Zealand and Australia with us as well. The most joyous moment of which was when Hannah said the word "out". My friends, they genuinely do speak just as "How I Met Your Mother" makes out. I was rather excited but
it would appear that Canadians are now rather bored of this reaction. Sad faces.
Any hoo after 3 mental days in which i had perhaps a grand total of 8 hours sleep it was time.
I haven't the words or the mental acuity at this point in time to describe precisely how nervous I'd been flying out and arriving in Cologne, but Thursday morning it was back and with a vengeance! I don't believe that before last week i ever shook so violently with nerves before.
It wasn't even anything I could control! I have never been so pleased to see Mark - he had forgotten how violently I rant when tired, angry and fed up of course feeding me Mocha soothed my irritability and irrationality some what after we missed the connection from Stuttgart to Tübingen.
Eventually after two trains and pulling a proper English tourists abroad stint - who can be bothered speaking German when English is so much easier - we arrived in Tübingen where Goran came to meet me, and by extension Mark, who pretty much had to leg it to what it later transpired was an argument with the university international office xD! It was at this point that I tried to get in on the wrong side of the car much to Goran's amusement, (he spends far too much time mocking me! And is far too concerned about my lack of sock wearing!) before almost wetting myself in a fit of juvenile behaviour in regards to a dubiously named village. Unfortunately I have to go through this village every time I go direct to Tübingen after school. Hopefully, eventually I'll quit sniggering. If you're wondering what the name is (and are really that bothered), go Google earth Dußlingen or Tübingen and have a look around the local area.
After spending the evening doing the hardest listening exam ever - trying to converse with excitable but shy 4 yr old twin girls who obviously only speak German about everything from Pippi Longstocking to Hello Kitty
I went to bed, and failed to get up.
But that's going to have be another blog. because I'm unbelievably knackered still and my bed is calling me.
Be not afeared, photos are coming, but not until later.
Miss you all!!
Bethxx
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