Chapter 20 - Normality continued

Monday 18th - Sunday 24th January

Firstly, I would like to give congratulations to...myself...for managing to complete this blog entry more punctually than previous entries! So, well done me!

Now I did claim, at the end of last week's entry, that this one would be slightly longer and more interesting, and it will be; but it probably won't be edge of the seat stuff (not unless you forgot to put your glasses on anyway!).

So, school was OK this week. On the Tuesday I had to start quite early (8 a.m.) and was a cover teacher for two double lessons with the 12. (Year 13/Upper Sixth (for you old fogies) equivalent) and 11. (obviously Year 12) classes. I had to do some preparation for this, which basically involves me playing around on the Internet for a couple of hours trying to find a suitable article to adapt and create activites for. Obviously, upon finding the articles I then have to create a lesson plan around them, which is the more time consuming part - as I have to try and remember what I could do at their ages, and then create activities of a suitable level (apparently 5,000 word essays aren't suitable!).

Also on Tuesday, I had my first private tuition lesson. That is to say (which is less clumsy in French) I was giving the lesson, and receiving payment, not being the student. What's more interesting is that the person I'm giving tuition to is a Referendarin (Trainee Teacher). The tuition is easy, from my perspective, too - all I have to do is sit there and be a guinea pig (I tried being a hamster, but the wheel just wasn't for me) for her lessons, which she runs through with me, and then I comment, suggest, and correct where applicable.

Friday saw some more recording taking place, I would tell you what it was about, but I wasn't invited this time, so I can't! I did meet up with the other assistants after they had finished for a drink. After this Harriet and I took the Saarbahn to Sarreguemines (which I won't describe again - because seasoned readers of this blog will likely be bored by it!(if you've not heard of it, go back to the beginning and start again!)), where we had a wander round some of the shops - looking for French things to boost our cultural knowledge at a low price. Our journey was largely fruitless, so we returned empty handed to Saarbruecken and disappeared into the night (by which I mean we went home!).

Saturday, the day of Brunch, arrived plenty early enough. Several of us were meeting at Harriet's for Brunch. Arriving punctually (this German thing is starting to rub off on me!) clutching my bag containing tomatoes, a cucumber and a red pepper, we spent several hours there; chatting, comparing lecturers, universities and experiences. We also met some Erasmus students from the University of Saarland, which I had hoped to do earlier, but other things came up (i.e. I forgot).

At the moment Saarbruecken is the home of the Max Ophuels Film Festival, which is up there, as you would imagine, rivalling Cannes in prestige and glamour. (Rather like David was rivalling Goliath). So, being the cultural beings we are, we decided to head into town on Sunday evening (well, what else is there to do?) and watch a film being shown as part of the festival. The film we opted for was U.F.O., which tells the story of a family living in Germany in 1986 (a year of explosions - with the Challenger Space Shuttle exploding during take-off, and the small matter of Chernobyl (or Tchernobyl) exploding. The story focuses on the mother's paranoia about danger from the sky/space. She appeared to believe that the above named explosions were the actions of aliens, who had also invaded Earth, and were posing a direct threat to her and her family. Needless to say, this caused a certain level of stress within the family unit, until she drives off in a car and has an accident, after which she is sectioned and treated for Schizophrenia. She is released, but refuses to take all of her pills, so has a relapse, and goes to jump off the roof of her block of flats. I fear that a cliche may be necessary here, but you did, really, have to be there to make much sense of that description.
As a review, I would say that it was no Disney film, it's not particularly comic, preferring instead to show the effects of Schizophrenia on a family (rather than directly on the patient) and how they try and cope with it, that said, it did have a happy ending. It was a good film though, and one I would recommend to others interested in experiencing modern German cinema.

So, that was this week. Those of you who have read this before will know that before Christmas it was not uncommon for a group of assistants to go and do something at the weekends, and you will also note that this hasn't really happened at this juncture. Fear not! We are heading off to Karlsruhe for the day on Saturday, so I will report back on that next week! (Hopefully on Monday, as I have the day off!)