Mein lätzter Tag/ My last day

Ich bin am Montag in Hannover angekommen - genau 6 Monate nach Anne und Stephan geheiratet haben! Wir haben schön gefeiert.
In meine paar Tage da hab' ich die Chance den Stoiber zu sehen - interesant weil ich ein bischen von den TV Duells gesehen hab'... Aber ich hatte nicht so riesige intresse da alles anzuhören...
Ich hab' jetzt viel von Hannover gesehen UND ich hab' Inleiner fahren gelehrnt! (ich bin nur ein mal hin gefallen, und daß war auch nicht schlimm).
An Donnerstag bin ich nach Oldenburg gefahren, Ilka hat mir ein 'tour' von die Stadt gegeben. Und wir haben so viel 'geschnackt'. Heute (Freitag) hat Ilka mir eine kleine 'Tour' von Bremen gegeben - eine hübsche Stadt. Dann bin ich zurück nach Lüneburg gefahren und hab' den Abend mit Mareike verbracht.
Leider muss ich Morgen früh wieder nach Hause fahren...
Es war eine echt schöne zeit hier in Deutschland. Sara hat sich so viel für mich gekümmert (jeden morgen mit mir früh aufgestanden, essen und (natürlich) ein Bett besorgt) VIELEN DANK Sara!
Insgesamt hab' ich viel für meine Uni Arbeit gelehrt und hatte eine echt schöne Woche ferien!
Gillian

My English version:
On Monday I arrived in Hannover, exactly 6 months after Anne + Stephan's Wedding. We had a nice little celebration.
In my few days there I had a chance to see Stoiber - interesting as I saw some of the TV duels... but I didn't stay long - my fascination in German politics isn't that great!
Now I've seen quite a bit of Hannover, and I've learn't to Rollerblade! (I only fell once, even that wasn't that bad.)
On Thursday I travelled to Oldenburg, Ilka gave me a tour of the town - and we spent loads of time catching up! Today (Friday) Ilka gave me a small tour of Bremen - a pretty town. I then travelled back to Lüneburg and spent the evening with Mareike.
Sadly I'm travelling home tomorrow...
It was a really good time here in Germany. Sara looked after me so much. (She got up early with me every day and provided food and a bed!) THANK YOU VERY MUCH Sara!!
All in all I learnt a lot for Uni and had a really nice week for a holiday!
Gillian

Harz weekend

Jetzt hab' ich den Wochenende bei Sara's Eltern verbracht. Es ist ein ganz schöne Wochenende gewesen. Wir haben uns ausgeruht und wurden bei Sara's Mutter verwöhnt! Wir hatten echt schönen Wetter und ich hab' viel von Osterode gesehen - eine Stadt mit viele alte Gebeude! Es ist ein bischen wie Canterbury, in daß es eine alte Stadtmauer hat.
Am Sontag sind wir den Brocken hoch gewandert. Es war echt schönes wetter, aber leider ein bischen diselich, trotzt dem hatten wir einen schönen, ziemlich weiten Blick! Sara's freundin ist auch mit gekommen, es war schön sie Kennen zu lernen. (view some pictures here)
Heute fahre ich nach Hannover und bleib da für ein paar tage mit freunden…
Bis zum nächstes mal
Gillian

English version:
I've just spent the weekend at Sara's parents house. It was a lovely weekend. We had a chance to relax and were 'pampered' by Sara's Mum.
We had brilliant weather so I had the opportunity to see much of Osterode - a town with many old buildings. It's a bit like Canterbury, in that it has an old city wall.
On Sunday we climbed the Brocken Mountain. It was lovely weather again, unfortunately a bit hazy, still we had a good view. Sara's friend joined us, it was nice to get to know her. (view some pictures here)
Today I'm travelling to Hannover and will stay there for a few days with friends…
Till the next time
Gillian

Letzter Tag/ Last day

Heute hatte ich mein letzter Tag. Es war gut. Ich hab' zwei Englisch Stunden unterrichtet in den 4. Klassen, es war interessant mit denen zu arbeiten - die sind ein bischen elter und mögen nicht auf neue leute hören!!! Aber ich hab's geschaft!
Ich hab' auch 'meine' 1. Klasse Mathe unterrichtet. Dass ist auch gut gelaufen, und Heute zum ersten mal haben die Kinder mich richtig beim Namen an geredet, und für hilfe gefragen, sonst fragen sie immer den anderen Lehrer/in!! Also ist es schön geendet!! Ich hab' auch ein Bild von denen gemacht.
Heute hab' ich auch erfahren was ist loss mit meinen Klassen Lehrer, leider hat er Meningitis, und ist immer noch im Krankenhaus... Schlimm.
Heute nachmittag fahren Sara und ich zur ihre Eltern und verbringen einen schönen Wochenende da. Wir wollen den Brocken steigen (ich wuste nicht dass der den höchsten Berg im Harz ist... oops!!!)
Ich mache eine woche ferien hier in Nord Deutschland und werde wieder was schreiben wenn ich in Lüneburg wieder bin...
Gillian

My English version:
Today was my last day. It was a good. I taught the two fourth year classes English. It was interesting to work with them - they are that much older and don't like to listen to new people, but I managed!
I also taught my first years, that went well. For the frist time today they addressed me by my name and asked me to help them, before they always asked the other teacher. So placement ended on a nice note, and I got a nice photo of them.
Today I found out what my class teacher has, he has Menigitis, and is still in hospital... not so good.
This afternoon Sara and I are going to her parents' house, and will be spending a relaxing weekend there. We're going to climb the Brocken mountain, (the highest mountain in the Harz - I didn't know that.. ooops!)
I'm going to spend the next week here in North Germany, having a holiday. I will write again when I'm back in Lüneburg.
Gillian

three quarters of the way through!

I've got only two days to go. It's gone by so quickly!! Well I've gathered lots of info, so I'm quite confident I've got all that I should need... My class teacher fell ill in the first week, and very unfortunately is in hospital, so I haven't actually seen so much of him. But the other teachers have supported me really well, which has been great. Yesterday, I taught maths to my year ones, and then taught two English lessons (in different classes). All went down very well, and I really enjoyed myself. It was great to see the second group of children of whom I taught English, as they have speech and language difficulties, yet they still managed really well with learning new English words!
Today I went on a field trip with a year 3 class. They've been working on a project looking at grain, eg wheat and barley, since March. Today was the final part of the project, we went to thresh and mill the grain. The children used the old methods of threshing and milling. At the end of the morning we used the flour to make waffles - very yummy!!!
Today I also discussed my placement with the Head, she wrote me a very nice report. Of course I asked for an official translation too, so she sent me home with a copy to translate. So Sara and I translated seperately and then compared and polished together. Sara is really proud that she had to help ME with the spelling of quite a few words!!
Oh well, one day I'll know my own language!!
Till next time, Gillian

Half way through

Well that week went by fast, I've been learning a bit more about how the system works and what the objectives are of various lessons ('cos I've tried to work them out without asking, but sometimes I just can't see the point of some activities- until it's been explained to me!)... My class teacher was ill on Friday, so things were a bit chaotic, there... Oh well, I hope he's back again tomorrow.
So, what have I been up to this weekend? Sara took me to the Uni and showed me around on Friday afternoon, we even did some work!! - got some books out of the Library for my essay... now I've got to plow thru' them...
Friday evening Sara, Julia and Manuela took me to see the night life of Lüneburg... we had a very nice meal out, sitting outside watching the people go by and listening to the band. We discussed all sorts and decided that we all needed to polish up on our knowledge of politics (particularly as Germany has its elections soon!!!)
Saturday we woke up to a lovely sunny day, and had already booked a tour to the 'Lüneburger Heide' (the heath), so we had a coach journey to Niederhaverbeck, where we then went on a carriage ride... we didn't see quite as much of the heath as exepected, but still it was nice, but guess what? The weather did what English weather does, it suddenly rained on us!! Fortunately the carriage had a roof so we didn't really get wet although the sides were open. But of course I was in shorts and a T-shirt and although I'm English I didn't take a jumper with me, so I did get rather cold!!!! In compensation we went and had some cake and mint tea when the ride was finished. It was very nice to eat proper German cake again. But the 'adventure' (as some of our elderly fellow tourists called it) was not complete. We got on the bus and started the journey home... but what was that, there was some strange noise. A few minutes later the driver says, I'm just going to have a play with the vehicle, but don't worry we'll get home. He kept driving, but things were obviously not right, but he got to some village where he knew people and stopped there, They found the problem immediately -broken fan belt. They suggested we all go look at the beautiful church and another coach would be there in 1/2 an hour, so we all trouped off in a long line to see this church and wander around this quaint little village... Sara and I wandered off and then decided we better get back to the crowd, then the church bells started to ring, we had to pass by the church again, as we approached a man came out looking very confused, (he belonged to our coach load), as we got nearer he told us to come in the church and look at it again - he had found the light switch to light up the alter, so we had another look, and then continued on our way. But we reckon that the man switched the lights on just as the bells began to toll, so we think he was rather shocked by this outcome... Needless to say we were highly amused!!! Anyway we did finally get back to Lüneburg, and had a successfull day, seeing the famous Lünerburger Heide, being entertained by the older folk and passing ourselves off as English tourists! (view some pictures of the trip here)
Today we've taken it easy, but we did go to the Kalkberg, with the help of a map - now Sara knows a bit more of Lüneburg :-) (but the view isn't as good as it's claimed to be... Oh well.)
Well it's back to school tomorrow, you'll hear more from me later in the week.
Gillian