Well, here I am, the first day of a 10 month stint as an English language assistant teacher in Germany. I just spent 28 hours in transit, managing to squeeze 3 hour's sleep mashed between a big fat tatooed dane and a perculiar smelling indonesian... at least when i landed in Amsterdam I found out that adelaide had beaten port handsomely on sat night in the AFL semi. Unfortunately there are very few port supporters here to goad about the result...
It is surprisingly humid here in Cologne, very much like the weather in Sydney in April. So, after meeting my former student exchange partner Hannah at the airport, we set out for a walk around town, sampling a few Kölsch beers here and there. Kölsch is a type of beer unique to the city that is full strength, but so sweet is almost tastes like lemonade. Anyway, after knocking back a few of these I spent my first night in Germany in a youth hostel, with my roomie being a funny japanese guy who spoke about as much english as i do japanese, he was pretty cool, though, and taught me a few cheeky pick up lines in japanese. Our conversation over breakfast was sort of like pushing shit up hill until we started talking about soccer. I think it went along the lines of: Me: Nakata, he is a good player. Roomie: Yes, very good. Roomie: Harry Kewell. Me: Yes, also a very good player, but is always injured. Ahh the world game...
This afternoon I'm off to boot camp at Stalag 13, or something like that. Should be interesting.... at least i'll be able to meet some other english speakers there. Basically this week long camp is used to tell everybody what is expected of them at their schools and what they can and can not do etc. I'm looking forward to getting up to Dortmund on Friday, apparently my room has been furnished and is ready to move into. This weekend I'm going to see Hannah's little brother play a gig at some pub near Dortmund. When I was last here he, although being just 15, could play all of One by metallica including the solos, so his band may be worth listening to.
So, after lugging all of my crap for my 10 month stay across the Rhine to the Hauptbahnhof, I saw a seething mass of about 180 people, mostly from the UK but with a few Irish and Canadians milling around the foyer area. After waiting for a while, we were all bundled into busses and driven to an old monastry in the sticks somewhere outside of Cologne. Of course, with my first day at this camp coinciding with the first time in 20 years the English have actually beaten us at Cricket, the poms couldn't resist having a dig at me whenever possible. All I could come up with was something along the lines of 'One swallow doesn't make a spring.' Naturally I spent the first few days there mostly in the company of the Irish and Canadians.
Anyway, the week went by quite smoothly, with the best part being the fact that they ran a bar every evening with half litre beers for 1 Euro. Naturally, I was quite keen to take part in the night time proceedings, and managed to get to know quite a few people, mostly from the Universities of Nottingham and Leeds. The most interesting evening of the week was definitely the last, when everyone got incredibly drunk, with some of us pulling all nighters due to the 2 hour rule. For those not familiar with this rule, it is a policy used when one is very drunk and must get up very early. Generally if you have to get up in less than 2 hours, you will feel worse the next day if you get less than 2 hours' sleep than you would if you stay up all night. So basically, breakfast at 6 in the morning was quite an interesting affair, with quite a lot of bleary eyes and stumbling drunks trying to force down coffee before travelling various distances to different cities in Germany.
I myself had to travel 1 hour north to Dortmund, and I caught a train with a Northern Irish girl by the name of Laura who was going to be working in Bochum, a town about 10 minutes from Dortmund. Basically, the whole day was a bit of a blur, with me desperately trying to stay awake on the train so I didn't wake up 2 hours later somewhere in Holland, with a crazy eyed Dutchman smoking a ciggarette, leering at me from the seat opposite. Luckily I stayed awake, and got off at Dortmund, to be picked up by Kathrin, the head of English at my school. Kathrin took me on a brief drive around the city before taking me to my student apartment building, where I unloaded all of my stuff before heading out to lunch with her. How I managed to hold up a conversation with her in German for over an hour while not falling asleep in my curried rice is beyond me.
Anyway, my first evening in my student flat was spent talking to a bunch of Syrians, who were the only people to be found on my floor, due to the fact the uni semester hadn't yet started. They were quite welcoming to me, sharing their meal with me before smoking shisha for the rest of the night out on the landing. While this was all very nice, I had to excuse myself at about 9 o clock to go to bed, due to the fact I hadn't slept in over 36 hours.
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