A busy little bee…
So another month has passed, the summer holidays are just around the corner and mum has been and gone. Time just keeps flying by!
Mathildehöhe - Part of Kate's Grand Tour of Darmstadt
Firstly, we are FINALLY back on the field for hockey. I’m really enjoying playing the ‘proper’ sport again and am getting used to the new terminology. I keep forgetting the English words for things though, which is frustrating and also a tad worrying. I had to email a friend to find out what channeling was… just a little embarrassing.
I am not 100% pleased with my game, but I am definitely fitter. Most excitedly, we are officially into the play offs for promotion. 🙂 It’s all a little different over here. Basically we have to play the best team from the state of Baden-Württemberg over two weekends and the winner gets to be promoted into the regional league which consits of teams from fíve different states – Hessen, Saarland, Bayern, Baden-Württemberg and Rheinland-Pfalz. I keep getting confused though because they call that the relegation (insert German pronunciation here), and I keep thinking of relegation instead of promotion.
So basically… I did absolutely nothing exciting for a month after I got back from Canada and THEN everything got VERY busy.
This was kicked off with my first German school camp. Luckily the little chickens behaved themselves and I think they had a good time. We went to a youth camp near Marburg that provided us with a pre-organised program that focused on team building. I can’t say that I was particularly pleased with the program. I felt that a lot of the activities were badly structured
Drinks with Becca
and that our team leaders were in some aspects incompetent. But the kids enjoyed themselves, which of course is the most important thing. 😉
Home from camp Thursday, school Friday and a flight to Manchester to see the lovely Bec. Friday was crazy, I taught in the morning, had an ice-cream in the Orangerie with a friend, flew to Manchester, went shopping and had a curry all in the one day. Mind boggling for an Australian. Had an amazing weekend with Bec. We went shopping, watched TV, had curry and roast and most importantly, enjoyed each other’s company.
Home Sunday, day off Monday to prepare for mum’s arrival on Tuesday. It was fantastic to see her and to be able to show her Darmstadt. Now she knows where I live, the city and has even been to my school. My Bilingual year 5 class put on a play for her and Rusty and they enjoyed practicing their
Schloßgrabenfest
English on them. Unfortunately we played like crap in the hockey game she saw, but it was still awesome to have her there. 🙂
Mum managed to come over the weekend of the Schloßgrabenfest. It’s a massive open air festival with over 90 live bands for free in the city centre. We went and saw ‘Right Said Fred’… ‘I’m too sexy for this shirt, too sexy for this shirt…’ They were so bad that they were good. We particularly enjoyed the lyrics ‘Juliana, Juliana you’re my Samson and Delilah. Juliana, Juliana you’re the apple of my eyeler!’
Next stop Donaueschingen to visit Damaris and her family over the weekend. It was fantastic to see her again and we had a great weekend
being spoilt by the family. I also had the opportunity to visit one of my best friends from my exchange which was lovely. We ate Raclette und visited Switzerland. It’s so weird… as soon as you cross the border the whole landscape changes. You know automatically that you are in Swizterland. Damaris and I played games and drank 3 Euro ALDI Australian wine. It seems to be a tradition of ours.
Saying goodbye to mum was hard. I loved having her here. Thank God for Skype and substitute mothers (Angela, Gudrun and Maren). And having lots of things to look forward to… World Cup Australia versus Germany on Sunday, Temper Trap next weekend, promotion games and a visit from Owen. Net schlecht
xoxo
P.s More photos?
Check out http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=225459&id=509745588&l=7a81343244
The Amazing Adventures of Kate and Bear 