My computer is too hot to touch....

... so this is going to be a quick post.

The weather here has been stupid lately. Way too hot. I complain. The kids at school are too hot, it's hard to teach, to learn, to move. Today I had a few water breaks and made sure that the water bottles went everywhere with the kids.

On Saturday I went into the city to run some errands. Went to the dollar store in Bockenheim to get some small things for my classroom: clothes pegs, baskets, zip lock bags, etc. Then back to the Zeil for more errands. Bought some shoes to replace some of the broken pairs I own. Still need another pair - annoying thing about not being able to wear runners or sport sandals to school! I also bought some dresses. All last week I have been worried about the heat that was coming so some dresses sounded like good things to wear to school on hot days.

It was super hot (~33) and sunny, but I did stop to watch this for a bit:

Tearing down a building on the Zeil. They didn't seem to be working too fast, possibly given the heat.

I had a quick walk down to the river and across the Eiserner Steg (iron bridge). I wanted to walk through the flea market and look for a bell for my classroom. Managed to get their before it was finished, but no luck with a bell. Ended up taking the U-Bahn back to the Zeil because I was too hot to face the walk back. 

Looking back while on the Eiserner Steg - a train was going on the tracks along the water! Never seen this before - I think it was some special train. It rang it's bell the whole way along to make sure no one was walking along the tracks. 

Had to stop at the Applewine Festival to buys some chocolate popcorn - thanks to Cara for introducing me to this!

And no German festival should be without a barbecue - a hanging, swinging barbecue! 

Sunday was even hotter than Saturday. It got up to 37 degrees and was more humid! Horrible sounding, AND I had a softball game!! Our coach had emailed us earlier in the week to tell us to start drinking lots of water and bring at least 3L to the game. At the game they kept going around telling us to drink. I don't think I have ever been in such heat, or drank so much water in my life! The games (we actually play two back to back) took longer than normal because we had some water breaks. I got to play 2nd base for a few innings, but in the heat couldn't really manage any more. We all survived though, and won one of the games :) It was a nice come-from-behind-in-the-last-inning win. Fun, but don't ever want to do it again in that heat! 

And back to school today. Was a bit tough for some of the kids. The heat, and having been off for the weekend - I was welcomed in the morning by two of my students in tears. One continued to cry on and off all day. Hopefully things will get easier for her quickly. Lessons went really well - they are starting to get the hang of school - yippy!! Though apparently as some of the boys get more comfortable they start fighting... 

Here is a bit of a list I have compiled, so I can look back over the year and see how things change:

What frustrated me right now:

- them not understanding simple instructions. For example, I ask them to put their snack in their backpack and line up, and end up with kids lined up with their back packs on...

- because they don't understand a lot, a few of the kids don't communicate with me. I mean don't look at me, ignore me when I am talking, as if I'm not there. 

- the content is too easy for them, but we have to do it so they learn the English. For example, counting to 10... they can even do that in English! 

What I already love:

- hearing them speak English!!! Even if it is a version of "May I please go to the washroom?"

- going out on the playground and being greeted by my students with big smiles on their faces

- crying students asking for me on the playground. Ok, I don't like that they're crying, but it's kind of nice to know that they are sad and asking for me. 

- the feeling of accomplishment that comes with them lining up quietly (because trust me, it IS an accomplishment!)

I will add some more as I think of them, because I know there are more! Now on to Tuesday.... so much for a quick post :)

2 days in...

2 days in and I'm already exhausted! Yesterday I got to meet my new class, though only taught for about an hour. We had our big welcome ceremony, complete with Schultüte (school cones - huge cones lavishly decorated and filled with goodies for the kids), and then the students got to come to their new classes for an hour. We introduces ourselves, read a book, coloured name tags and sang a song. It went really well and I was super excited about today. 

Today was a full day with the classroom teacher. We don't start our subject schedules until tomorrow. It was nice because I got lots of time to go over classroom routines, get to know the kids, etc. But man was it a long day! My students are in grade 1, but have never been to school before. They have all been to either half day or full day kindergarten (not like our kindergarten, here it is a combination of our preschool and daycare), but not real school. It will take a while to learn all the routines and rules and be able to sit quietly and listen on the carpet. Given that 15 out of 18 students don't speak much (if any) English, this will be a bit of a challenge. They seem great though. Minus a few disrupters, they did amazing today. We were all very ready for the day to end at 3:45 though!

Tomorrow we start our subject schedule. Which is great for me because on Thursdays my class has German and then sports, so I don't reach them until 1:30! Now that I've met the kids though, I really need to sit down and get some serious planning done. Plus do some finishing touches on my classroom. I am super happy with how it has turned out. A bit bare at the moment, but I'm sure that won't last long! We already made some owls to hang from the ceiling (yes, my class is the owl class!). Here is a picture of what it looks like:

Where does time go ... ?

I can't believe that my summer holiday is already done, let alone that this week is done and I am one week away from school starting!!! I have spent this week in the library trying to get it ready for the start of school. It's mostly there, but of course still more to do! I also got some time to start getting ready to teach. Next week all the teachers will be at orientation - so staff meetings, information sessions, planning meetings and time to get our classes ready.

Now for a quick update of what I did at home. Mostly just enjoyed being home :) Got to do almost everything I had on my to do list. Saw lots of family and friends, but also just enjoyed being home. I love Vancouver, and didn't realize how much I missed it! Here are a few pictures:

Starting off in Toronto: I spent a few days there before coming home, visiting Anna and Matias.

This is how we spent my last morning, outside with the hula hoops. 

And since it was about 35 degrees out, the morning included freezies :)

Now back to Vancouver:

Biking around False Creek with my dad. We managed a couple of bike rides, including one all the way around False Creek and the sea wall.

Me with the bikes. This was just after the big tree (possibly the one in the background) where there has been an eagles nest for a couple years. On one of our bike rides we saw a couple of eagles sitting on a branch. The next time we saw one fly away.

The best part was discovering a Chinese bakery in Chinatown that had delicious steamed buns. (Because of course you have to stop for food often when biking) This was on our long bike ride. We stopped for a snack at the bakery and then had sushi for lunch at the bottom of Denman.

The first weekend we had family visiting, and the second Christie decided we should go hiking at Golden Ears. It was a very nice hike, ending up being about 5 hours! I really enjoyed being back in a BC forest. Nothing quite like it ... the forests are not the same in Germany.

We even got to see some snow!!

Not there yet... still more hiking to do!

And my final weekend in BC we went to Nanaimo and Victoria. I enjoyed visiting Pat in Nanaimo and getting to see the parade for the bath tub race. Then we drove to Victoria to visit Robert. On Sunday we hiked up Mount Doug (nothing like the hike the previous weekend). This was partly with the goal of taking some family photos, something we had not done in ages. So we took a bunch, and got some good ones! 

Us at the top of Mount Doug

Siblings

Then last Saturday I came back to Germany, with my suitcase full of goodies. I brought some other teaching stuff too, but mostly stickers (the most important part of teaching apparently.) 

(L) food!! I brought back peanut butter, crackers, brown sugar, chocolate chips, vanilla, pumpkin, jam, and some cheese that's in the fridge:) (R) All the school stuff I brought. Some teaching books, stamps, but mainly stickers!! There is about a kilo of stickers there. When my bag was overweight that was what I took out and put into my backpack. I was thinking it could come in handy to bribe any chair kicking kid on the plane :)

And here's one more picture. Not from the summer, but actually from June. This was at the last softball game  before I went home. There are more pictures posted on the website, finally, but this is the only one of me.