Class trip and Kiel

Polar bears but sadly no ice...

Hedwig!

It's been a busy two weeks but I have thoroughly enjoyed myself. Last Monday I went with 3 year 7 classes to Bremerhaven for the week. It was definitely interesting to be on the other side of a class trip! The bus trip there was VERY loud and the kids were very happy to finally arrive after about 6 hours underway. The weather was average but we still had a great time in the really cool museums. I found the shipping museum very interesting but I suspect the kids were not so enthused. However, the German Immigration House was very well put together. Everyone received a passport and then we immigrated. They had built a wharf where we learnt about why people left and where they were going and then we boarded the ship. Inside they had built three replica cabins showing how the ships had evolved over time from the sailing ships through to modern day cruise liners. We then left the ship and could watch films about Germans in other countries. Then we immigrated back to Germany! Definitely a great experience and interesting to learn about.

In Samoa

We also spent 4 hours in the Climate Change museum which has to be the best museum I've ever been to (including Te Papa). The first part was a special exhibition about the dinosaurs with life-size plastic models and also live animals like snakes, crocodiles, turtles, lizards etc. No tuataras though! Then you go on a world journey. Bremerhaven is at 8degrees East longitude and they take you through all the other countries that are on the same line of longitude. Each place is built to look like somewhere in that country and is the same temperature as well. There are videos, listening stations, pictures, info sheets in each country and you learn about a family there. They tell you all about the climate in their country and how climate change is affecting them.

 Very amazing to walk through, though the 48 degree temperature was not to my liking. Thankfully Antarctica came next so I cooled down there. The third part is more scientific and explains all about climate in the past, present and future and the final part is all about how we can change our lives to be more environmentally friendly. Overall a fantastic place to go and very thought-provoking. We also went out on the mudflats, on a harbour boat-tour and visited the zoo. I didn't get a huge amount of sleep as we had to keep on getting up to deal with kids but a very fun week!

Exploring the mudflats. NOTE: in bare feet! Freezing

Ritchie and I on the ferry

The canal

Wiebke

On Friday I caught the train to Kiel to see an old friend who was in NZ for a year. Wiebke is studying medicine there but had only just started the Uni semester so had time for me too. It was really nice to be by the sea and one day we took a ferry out to one of the beaches. But on the way our motor broke and we spent half an hour or more bobbing around in the shipping channel until we could be towed to the right place! We also visited Hamburg one afternoon and the Nord-Ostsee-Kanal which connects the North Sea with the Baltic Sea and is the busiest man-made canal in the world. I also got to do lots of sleeping and lazying around which was awesome too.

Kiel harbour

Stormy sunset

Oktoberfest

It's been a mixed week at school with some classes being totally boring and some being full-on work. My year 12 extension class were very hard work and I think some silly games are in order to lose some of their fear. They were definitely not keen to participate in a discussion and I found it very frustrating to ask a question and be greeted by 15 blank faces. But a challenge is always fun so hopefully I can find some way to bring them out of their shells. On Wednesday the teacher I was with told me, on the way to class, that I had half the year 9 class for the next two hours. Thanks for the heads up! "Just get them talking" she said. Out came the youth group games and drama exercises, tweaked a little and actually the whole thing went pretty well. The kids seemed to have fun and wanted to know when they were next with me. These are the kind of experiences that remind me why I'm here and why I want to be a teacher. Because it's so satisfying to see students enjoying a lesson and learning something useful!

Last night was our local Oktoberfest. I went with Ute and some of her friends and had a rather interesting evening. Getting dressed up in our dirndls was a whole lot of fun but the actual party was average. SO many people packed into a large tent, very loud music combined with everyone having shouted conversations and beer everywhere. The floor was sticky with it and there were beer glasses and broken glass all over the place. A serious danger was having someone tip their beer all over you because there was simply no room to move! We ate hot chips, checked out everyone else's dirndls, danced a bit and then I came home at 1am. It was cool to go and see but probably not something I would do again.

Ute, Maria and I ready to go

This week I head off to Bremerhaven with the year 7 classes and then it's school holidays. Hard to believe I know and I certainly don't feel like I've done enough work to deserve a break so soon. However, I'm not complaining and am going to enjoy visiting friends and seeing some more of Germany!