On Location German – 13 Mar 2013

130313-hollyHallo zusammen, it’s Holly here, back with another blog post. I’m still having a great time over here in Germany and I am constantly learning new words and phrases. A couple that I have learnt recently are überglücklich sein (to be on top of the world) and zu schön, um es in Worte zu fassen (too brilliant for words). I do, in fact, feel on top of the world just now and my year abroad really is too brilliant for words!

Was die Arbeit betrifft (as far as work is concerned) I really feel like I fit in now and I am getting the hang of everything. I run my own Scottish culture Arbeitsgemeinschaft or AG (study group or workshop) which is part of the curriculum at the Gymnasium where I teach. The children can choose from a variety of topics, giving them the opportunity to learn something new that is not in the normal school curriculum, without having to worry about grades.

In my last blog post I told you all that I was going to Berlin. It was amazing and one of the best aspects of this trip was that I didn’t have to pay a huge amount because of the different train tickets that I bought at the beginning of my stay here. Firstly, I bought a Semester ticket through the nearest university to me. This cost €215 per semester and gives me unlimited travel on Nahverkehr (the slower, local transport) in my Bundesland (state in Germany), Nordrhein-Westfalen. In Germany when you enroll at a university you automatically get this ticket as it is covered by your tuition fee. Secondly, I bought a Bahncard 50 which gets me 50% off of all trains in Germany and some in Switzerland and Austria. I would definitely recommend this to any of you who may be thinking of spending a longer period of time in Germany.

We managed to fit a lot into our long weekend away, including der Fernsehturm (The TV Tower), Das Brandenburger Tor (The Brandenburg Gate) and lots of Museen (museums). I also loved Die Berliner Mauer (The Berlin Wall) or “East Side Gallery”. I think that Berlin is a city that everybody should visit at some point in their life

Das reicht für heute – that’s all for today. I’ll be back again soon with more stories from my time in Germany. Bis bald!

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