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| The whole cast |
On Friday last week we had our performance of the English play "Holka Polka". I've been working with a group of 15 dedicated students for about 3 months to get this play on the stage and we finally did it. Though, as with all plays, not without it's dramas. (See what I did there, huh?) A week before we were supposed to perform one of my main roles ended up in hospital because of high blood pressure and fainting fits. We thought he would be back in time but, very sadly, I had to take on his role. This meant I had to apologise (in formal German, eek) to the audience for having a script on stage. I admit to being rather nervous for my students as rehearsals hadn't been going great but they turned out a wonderful performance. 60 people came which was a decent turn-out and followed the play with plenty of enthusiasm and laughter. The kids in the front row had a ball, mainly because of the costumes, me being thrown on the floor and the general slap-stick nature of the play. The students were thrilled, I was happy, the audience was raving. I couldn't be happier. Until, turned out none of the THREE people filming managed to capture it on camera. Devastating but such is life. Thankfully there are plenty of pictures. I am so pleased to have pushed myself to take on something like this. It has given me a great sense of achievement and I think the students have memories they will treasure for a long time. They are the people I am seriously going to miss working with.
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| The witches have a serious PR problem |
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| Brenda meets the Wolf and Cindy |
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| Everyone take a bow |
On Sunday we had a Medieval Spectacular in Wassenberg which was the coolest thing. They are a group people, a bit like the circus, who travel around Germany in Middle Age costume and put on festivals. They are paid by the city and they live in tents and cook on open fires etc. There were plenty of things to buy - I had to exercise a lot of restraint to not buy swords, and dresses, and bows and arrows etc. But they also had music and blacksmiths and archery and sword fighting and jugglers and jesters and lots of wonderful things. I had a great time! If I lived in Germany I'd totally run away with them...
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| Trying out archery |
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| Do I suit the helmet? |
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| Sword fighting! |
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| I would have liked one of these... |
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| These guys are actually from the Netherlands but they play super good Celtic music |
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| These are the teachers I had the most to do with |
Today was my final day at school which feels totally odd. It's hard to believe that my 9 months are up. It was very sad saying goodbye to colleagues and students and I would really have liked to stay longer. But, the government can't pay me anymore and I am off on holiday! Blogs may come thick and fast over the next month and I hope you enjoy coming on my tour of Europe with me. I promise not to try and skite too much... ;-)
