Beginning of School, Book Reading, and Friendships
If anyone tells you that the first couple weeks of school are easy peasy, they aren't telling the truth! The last two weeks have been extremely busy, between getting into a new morning routine, starting to adjust to the fact that I am teaching in 90 minute blocks, as well as starting to get acclimated to the culture of school. Thankfully, the last two weeks I have been able to accomplish much of my planning during the day, as I have not had to do much subsituting, which will definetly change as the school year gets more into a swing. On top of working in the special education department, I was asked to assist with a class in the EAL department, which has been a new experience for me, as I don't have any teaching experience with students with limited english proficency. To say the least, I feel some days that I am barely keeping my head above the water, but thankfully I have been able to connect to people here at the school to help ease some of the apprehension as well as have tried to help conquer some preliminary 'road blocks'. But it's still a HUGE challenge, which I don't think anyone could prepare for.
Because all of the interns here are going different ways/avenues during the day, we don't see much of each other during the day, so it's been nice to be able to catch up about how things are going in our different avenues when we come home at night. Things have definetly changed in that aspect, as we are all so engrossed in our individual roles in school, that we don't spend as much time as we used to during our summer camp days.
I have come to really enjoy reading books during my free time here, especially at the small cafe down the street from my flat, which is something new for me. I used to never be an avid reader at all, actually would have to bribe myself to read anything for school. Luckily, some of the local bookstores here have english book sections, which are unfortunately are somewhat small, which makes sense for being in a foreign country. However, I've been able to find some interesting books here and there to read. I am thinking of investing in a Kindle possibilty down the line due to the amount of books I have been reading these days. We shall see.
Someone asked me the other day what my favorite part of Germany has been so far. I would have to say the several friendships that have come together over the past two months living here. It's been really interesting and refreshing to have become friends with people of all different ages, walks of life, and interests. I definetly don't think I would be meeting the same type of people if I was back in the states.
Because all of the interns here are going different ways/avenues during the day, we don't see much of each other during the day, so it's been nice to be able to catch up about how things are going in our different avenues when we come home at night. Things have definetly changed in that aspect, as we are all so engrossed in our individual roles in school, that we don't spend as much time as we used to during our summer camp days.
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| Intern Squad |
I have come to really enjoy reading books during my free time here, especially at the small cafe down the street from my flat, which is something new for me. I used to never be an avid reader at all, actually would have to bribe myself to read anything for school. Luckily, some of the local bookstores here have english book sections, which are unfortunately are somewhat small, which makes sense for being in a foreign country. However, I've been able to find some interesting books here and there to read. I am thinking of investing in a Kindle possibilty down the line due to the amount of books I have been reading these days. We shall see.
Someone asked me the other day what my favorite part of Germany has been so far. I would have to say the several friendships that have come together over the past two months living here. It's been really interesting and refreshing to have become friends with people of all different ages, walks of life, and interests. I definetly don't think I would be meeting the same type of people if I was back in the states.