WEIRD

Hi everyone!

Happy New Year! 2009 was not the best of my blogger-years. Somehow work got more demanding than I had ever expected. I guess my last post got quite lonely here :-)

Anyway, here is a short update on my life in 2009:

• January: first assessed teaching examination (year 12 history)
• February: MOVING #1 from Bamberg back to my parents, started teaching at the Martin-Pollich-Gymnasium in Mellrichstadt
• March: see post March 27th :-)
  
• April: had to say goodbye to Shani, got my new car

• May: work, work and even more work - trip to Munich to visit Chris

• June: "sunrise-meeting" - hiking in the Rhön

• July: final weeks at the MPG, I even started to like that school - various excursions, e.g. to the Museum of Industrial Culture in Nuremberg

• August: Susi got married - HOLIDAYS in London with Flo

• September: MOVING #2 from my parents to Bayreuth, started teaching at the Markgräfin-Wilhelmine Gymnasium

• October: my father's 60th birthday, my granny's 85th birthday
• November: various concerts with "Inspiration"
• December: weird...

This December was really weird. First of all, work seems to have me deprived of two of my favourite hobbies - baking christmas cookies and visiting christmas markets. Okay, I managed to cramp a bit of them into my tight timetable. As we had no concerts in December, I was in Bayreuth most of the time. I only went home once to join my brother and my mum for a trip to Erfurt Christmas Market. It was very cold that day, but it was great. I had only been to Bamberg's Christmas Market at the end of November and therefore I really enjoyed the atmosphere and the grilled almonds, of course! By the 4th Sunday in Advent I had not done any baking, but Lena, may flatmate in Bayreuth, and I did three days of baking and we did 6 different kinds of christmas cookies. Yummy! The Advent season at school had been tough, especially due to the fact that I taught a bilingual history module on the Great Depression in 1929. So apart from marking and the other common things I had to prepare this module quite thoroughly as it is part of my final teaching examination.

In Bavaria the last day of school was the 23rd of December, so I had only a few hours to do my last christmas schopping. On the 22nd we had the teacher's Christmas party in the great hall of the school. This was really good and finally I got the feeling that Christmas is really close by. I managed to gather the last presents, e.g. a scooter for my godchild Nathalie and I finally drove home to spend the Christmas days with my family.

December 24th was definitely not my day, everything went wrong! First my brother called in the morning, telling us that they were not sure if they could make it because Nathalie was sick and throwing up all the time. So they had to see the doctor first. We were glad when they later on told us that they would try to make the 3h trip from Stuttgart to my parents. In the afternoon I was supposed to sing at a Christmas Mass with my choir leader. However, I never made it there, as my new car (still doesn't have a name) broke down with motor problems. I do not know what is wrong with it yet, as my mechanic is on holidays till the 4th! Well, I had to make the trip home with no more possible speed than 50 km/h as it did not want to accelerate anymore. GREAT.
Trouble did not stop there. My grandfather got dizzy, fell and we were not able to help him up again, as he had fallen right behind the door and we were not able to open it with him behind it. GREAT.

What we did not know that evening, Nathalie's sickness was not due to her flu, but due to a very aggressive virus. She felt better in the evening and so Christmas Eve went according to plan - with my whole family (cousins, aunts, uncles, etc.) meeting at my grandparents after dinner. We all hugged each other and so on. On Christmas morning we went to Gelnhausen to visit my other brother. We had a nice lunch out and really enjoyed the day out. However, that was when a whole series of events started. The first person to feel a slightly uneasy feeling in her stomach was my sister-in-law. She was the first down, the same night my brother and my brother-in-law joined her throwing up in the bathroom. On Boxing Day my granny joined the crowd, just like my godfather. GREAT. Nathalie's "24h-puking-virus" made its round through my whole family.

On Sunday we had a big concert and I was looking forward to it. We met int he afternoon and while we were still rehearsing when I started to feel uneasy. I survived the concert and I even made it home afterwards. However, I became Nr. 7, followed in the morning by my grandfather, my parents followed suit over the last two days. GREAT. I was really unhappy, because of my sickness I was not able to go to Christian's birthday party on Monday. Well, it couldn't be helped.

Yesterday was great, however, quiet and relaxed, but that was all I wanted anyway, as I had not totally recovered yet. Gosh, this year has gone fast and many things will be going on in 2010. My life has come to another turning point. I will finish my teaching training with my final exams in June. What will happen after that...I don't know yet. Depends on the Bavarian state, if they offer me a place or not. Maybe I will start a Phd or I go abroad again. I guess, wait and see.

I hope you are all well and I promise to be a better blogger this year!

Bye, bye Shani!

On Friday I had to say goodbye to good old Shani. After 14 years it was time that he made his last trip, but it was a sad one for both of us. We had 8 wonderful years together and he got me everywhere I wanted to go.
His greatest adventure was his trip to Ireland, where we cruised the whole island in a very short time. Okay, he definitely did not like the potholes and after his time in Ireland he needed new shock absorbers. We had a great time and as he was my first car, I will always remember him. All in all he travelled 135887 km, he was a tough little fellow. No one had such a lovely pink car, which never really caused problems.
I gave him a hearty farewell and the last thing I did, was taking off the little bow, which he had carried for the last 3 years on its antenna. I had to fight with tears and it was sad that he did not have the strength to go on. You will always be remembered!

SHANI
loved and loving car of Nadja
* 04.04.1995
+ 17.04.2009

I will miss you!

Long time - no see

Oh well, what can I say to defend myself? I guess nothing suitable.

So it has been some time since my last post. To be honest, there were not too many things going on, but I had my hands in a full workload. New pupils, new collegues, new school, new books, new stuff to teach...

I cannot really tell you, how I feel, because my moodchanges even get on my own nerves. At the moment I feel like a hamster in a treadmill, always a step behind with everything: my work, my family, my friends. I function, but I am not really happy. Sometimes I wonder if I have chosen the right job. Mind you, I love teaching, but I am not sure if I can meet the expectations everyone seems to have. I have high claims for myself that I try to meet and people around me (collegues, family, friends) all seem to demand more than I can give. Unfortuntely my rotten time-management makes everything worse. Furthermore some of my students are, ehm..., "pubertal".

I don't want to whinge, but it does not help when friends tell me that teachers have more holidays than anyone else, teachers have only a half-time job and get home at 2pm, teachers have nothing to do... They do not see that I come home at 5, have a break till 6 and then spend the rest of the evening (usually till 12) at my desk preparing classes or marking various pieces of work. Same goes for at least half of the weekend, sometimes more if there is marking to do. Right, at the moment I need way too much time to prepare a single class because I do not have any resources I can rely on and I admit that there are periods in history of which I have hardly any knowledge, so I have to read a lot. And don't talk about payment, at the moment I earn less than 1,000 Euro for a 75 hour week!

I just hope it gets better over the months and that I get some routine to manage workload, free time and friends/family in a way that the treadmill runs smoother and slower! I am working on it. So it has nothing to do with YOU if you do not hear anything from me, at least not personally. I avoid my computer as good as I can if I do not have to work.

But there are also things which are positive at the moment. I have the opportunity to spend time with my friends - well, I live with them again :-) I also see my godchild more regularly as I am always at home when they visit my parents. I plan my summer holidays (some change of scene might help), I expect to meet some friends over the holidays (yes, I do have holidays over Easter), I hope I get to know a bit better how my students "tick" as we say in German. But there has also been a shock two weeks ago when my great-aunt was killed in a car-crash.

I spent the last three days with my collegues of the FLG at Schney Castle where we had a psychology and pedagogy training with our tutors. It felt so good that the others who started their teaching career with me seem to have the same kind of problems. My students are lambs compared to some of collegues' students! My school, even though the equipment (OHP, laptop, beamer, etc.) is from the last century, is a good one and not a bad place to start. Still I think about other options, e.g. starting my PhD next year or going abroad again. We will see. I will definitely survive these two year of training and then we will see what happens!

Even though sometimes everything seems black, there is always some white. I think positive, but I long for some free time without my conscience bothering me all the time.

Hope you are all well and I hope I can post more regulary - I work on my time management!

An end and a new beginning

Wednesday last week was my last day at the Franz-Ludwig-Gymnasium. A funny feeling, I have to admit. Time was running fast since Christmas and there was a lot of work to do. I had my teaching exam last Tuesday - which was more than satisfying with a B - mid-term reports had to be written, exam had to be corrected and all the little bits and piece before leaving this place.

There was also our 3-day-trip to Dresden with all my collegues of the seminar. It was great - expensive and exhausting, but great. It was also freezing cold and we met one or two snow storms. I will post a few pictures as soon as I get them off my camera.

Yesterday I had my first day at the Martin-Pollich-Gymnasium in Mellrichstadt. I had five lessons to give and had no preparation at all, as I only got all the information at half past seven in the morning and I had to teach at 8! So I had to improvize. I am not really good at that, but at least I survived. I miss the FLG in Bamberg, even though the other teachers seem to be quite nice and the students I met so far are not too bad - however, this was the first day and they were playing tame...

I have 3 year 11 history classes, a year 9 history class, a year 7 English class and a few extra lessons, including an English conversation course for year 12 and 13. My timetable is not too bad, but I am not sure if I can handle 16 lessons a week. This does not sound much, but it is hard work to prepare the classes and it is time-consuming. It is also learing-by-doing, as my repertoire is still limited and I am not sure if I can motivate my students. Sometimes I have doubts if this is the right job for me. Mind you, I love teaching, but I am still not sure if I might not be a better teacher at university. Kids in their worst puberty years are not my favourite. But I will definitely go on till my second teaching exam next spring - so that I am finally a fully trained teacher. And then I have to think about alternatives again - may it be a Phd or teaching abroad again, where English is not just grammar and so on, but Literature and all the nice things about this subject!

Well, we will see how things develop. At the moment we are drowning in snow and as I have to pass the highest mountains of the Rhön to get to my new school (I moved back home to my parents), the way to work is exhausting, too. But spring is close, at least I hope so :-)

Good start?

I hope you all had a good start into the year 2009!

New Year's Eve was absolutely fine and so I hoped to have a good start alltogether. However, it seems that there are a few ups and downs on the way already.

The Christmas Hols were great and I had some time to meet up with friends and spent a few days with my family. I love to play with my little gorgeous godchild Natalie, but she has grown so much over the last few months and I was told yesterday that she has made her first steps two days ago.

Germany has been a freezer since Christmas (up to -30°C) and today snow was falling thickly even here in Bamberg. I have to stay in bed at the moment, as I have caught the "Brisbane Influenza" or so it seems. I was not allowed to work the whole week and today my doctor told me that I am not allowed back at school till Thursday next. This is definitely one of my downs, as this has interrupted all my plans.

I was supposed to have my first "teaching exam", which means I have to "conduct a special lesson" with all the nice bits and pieces to impress my "judges" (my history teacher, the teacher of the class from which I took over a few weeks ago and the headmaster, of course). My topic would have been: Who is responsible for the First World War? But as I am still ill, we had to delay it for another 2 weeks. My form is a year 12 history foundation course and it is really frustrating and annoying that now I can throw everything I have done so far into the bin. Great.

And as this was the day of bad news, I got another one: I have to move again. Today at school we received the letters which told us where our new school is from the 16th of February onwards. Okay, it could have been worse, but I do not like to leave Bamberg, as I absolutely adore this place and it has become my home over the last 7 years. My new school is actually only 30km from my parents (Martin Pollich Gymnasium Mellrichstadt) and I have to think about what I am going to do. I do not want to move out completely, as I definitely come back to Bamberg in a years time to finish my teaching course at the Franz-Ludwig-Gymnasium. However, I am not too keen to move back to my parents, but it would save money and I could hold my flat here in Bamberg - of which my flatmate obviously is very fond! So I have to spend some thoughts on that topic over the weekend too, but there is also an exam of my year 12 which I have to correct as soon as possible.

Hope you are all well and without influenza!

Take care
Nadja

Long time no see

I have been absent from my blog for quite some time. Of course I was busy, but somehow also a bit lazy. Too many things were going on so that I was not very keen on spending time at my laptop.

There are many things I planned to write a post about and probably I will do so over the weekend:

• Natalie's baptism in May
  
• Eva & Fred's wedding in May
• my first allocation to a school in Munich and my fight to stay in Bamberg
  
• my holidays in Torquay and London
• Anne & Nils wedding two weeks ago
• and MY FIRST DAY AT SCHOOL

I also have the results for my second degree and I am very happy and proud about them. The celebrations, however, have to wait until November.

Yes, I made it back to school. I am a fully trained teacher now or at least I have passed all the academic parts of it. My new school is the Franz-Ludwig-Gymnasium in Bamberg and there are 20 other "freshers" with various different subjects: History, Social Science, Maths, Physics, German and English.
Today I was told which classes I have to teach on my own after half term: A Yr 6 in English and a Yr 12 in History (foundation course). And here we are...

Can you spot me?

Exam Update #17 or THE FINAL ONE

YYYYYYIIIIIIIPPPPPPPPYYYYYYY


I made it, I really made it! Oh I cannot tell you how happy I am!!!!!

Oh my goodness, what am I going to do with all the free time? 5 weeks without any duties, any books to be read, any facts to be learned off by heart, any exams to sit, any time at my desk at all? I have been studying for nearly a year, denying me everything, always having a really "bad" conscious whenever I did not spend time studying for my exams.

First of all, I will spend some time with my family, especially with Natalie, whose 6-months birthday it was today. I want to spend some time with my friends, most of them I have not seen for months.

I will go on holidays on Saturday - to good old England of course. A few days in Torquay and then 4 days in London. Nothing spectacular, but time to relax. Time to recharge my batteries for the start of the school year which will start on the 17th of September.

By the way, I received a letter last week which told me that I am allowed to stay in Bamberg, so I do not have to move to Munich. This finally seems to be MY week. My new school is actually my old school, as I spent one of my internships there and it is within walking distance from my flat (5 minutes), so good for me.

My last exam on Monday was English and American Literature again, but this time 1 hour oral exam. This was not as easy as the Literature exam for my teaching degree. Even though some of the topics and books on my reading list were the same, but the questions were tougher, they were harder to answer and needed a lot of interpretation and profound knowledge of the primary texts. However, the atmosphere was relaxed - but I am sure because of lack of sleep (went to bed at 3am and woke up at 7am) my command of the English language was not as good as it normally is and my interpretations were sometimes a bit feeble. My professor is not very fond of Shakespeare, but in this exam he really asked tough questions on Macbeth and Midsummer Night's Dream.

The result was more than satisfying: 1,0
However, I was told that my written exam was not as good as the oral one. Both grades are added and then divided by 2 to get the final grade for Literature. I knew, that I was not that good, but by his phrase "not so good" he meant something around 1,7 - which is still fantastic! Therefore if the grades remain as they are, the final grade for my second degree should be between 1,3 and 1,4 - GREAT!

I still cannot believe it, it is over - but a new step forward...

• my time at university has come to an end
• my time in Bamberg nearly came to an end
• never ever again I will have another written exam - only oral ones during my 2 practical years in school
• I will never have that many holidays again - what a pitty
• I will never be able to quit things, just because I cannot be bothered to go, e.g. to a lecture
• last time to go on holidays when nobody else does - unfortunately I will always have to travel when everybody else does and when it is most expensive
  
• for the first time since my time at RMS six years ago I will earn enough money to live without the support of my parents
• I finally arrived at the "other" side in school, I am a fully qualified teacher - okay, I have to pass another exam to complete my degree in two years
• my Phd is still possible as I stay in Bamberg - so my dream can still come true
• New Zealand is also still an option - I am on the reserved list, as the schools do not decide till October how many assistants are needed for the new school year

Oh well, a lot will be going on, all starting on the 17th of September. And since yesterday also my flatmate Katrin is allowed to stay in Bamberg, as her school is only a 15min train ride away. So we can go on sharing our flat and save a lot of money. We are a good team and I am so glad that she is going to stay in Bamberg as well.

Rollercoaster

The last two days have been an absolute emotional rollercoaster ride. As I already said, I got the news that my new school would be in Munich. I was absolutely crushed, I did/do not want to go to Munich. Yes, it is a great city, but not with a very low income, I am not very fond of sleeping under a bridge.

Anyway, I am not giving up.

Thursday I phoned the school in Munich, but they are not able to help me find accomodation. I also wrote a mail to one of the professors who had offered me a Phd telling him about my "catastrophe". Well, I got a mail back the same evening telling me not to worry too much. He promised to phone the ministry of education first thing the next morning, trying to find out if there is any chance of getting a teaching position in Bamberg - without giving away my name of course. So he did and told me at 10 the next morning that 4 candidates are not taking up their offered postions in Bamberg and that there is a slight chance that I get one of these posts instead of the one in Munich. He told me to write the guy at the ministry a mail confirming my request. However, this mail backfired - well, it was undeliverable, so I guessed wronge e-mail address. So two hours later I phoned the guy. He was really unfriendly, absolutely rude to be honest. Apparently he had received my mail (no idea how) and was now angry that I blocked the lines and the "contribution process" by calling again. He had told the professor that a mail is enough. I apologized and he said, that my request will be considered and that I will get an answer in a few days time.

So at least now there is some hope that I can stay in Bamberg. Two of my friends did get their first choice schools and if I get the post in Bamberg, I will be at the same school as they are. That would be fantastic and the grade of my exam did not play any role in the distribution of "first choice" towns, as I was a lot better than one of them. Well, it doesn't matter, if I get the job in Bamberg.

KEEP YOUR FINGERS CROSSED!

I celebrated my birthday and my exams last night with a few friends - or at least I tried, because there is still the Sword of Damocles hanging over me called Munich! I will blog some pictures of the party as soon as I get them off the camera.