Crazy traditions!

One of the things I love the most when I am in a new country is to discover and experience the different traditions that are celebrated in that country. It is so interesting to see how things are done somewhere else. Sometimes it is easy to forget that things are different everywhere, that because we celebrate one special occasion in a certain way does not mean that it is done the same way everywhere else.
In Germany, for example, it is bad luck to wish someone Happy Birthday! before that person's actual birthday. That means that if your birthday falls on a Monday, you will not celebrate it with your friends and family the week-end before, but rather the week-end after, to avoid bad luck for the new year to come.
Another tradition not known at all to us, but so interesting, is something called a Polterabend (Annie, Julie, Patrice, Carl et Caro- cette entrée va vous rappeller des souvenirs!). A Polterabend is generally celebrated the Thursday night before a couple is to be married. The purpose of the evening is for all the guests that are invited to bring old dishes (only porcelain- no glass) and to proceed to smash everything on the ground, trying to brake things in the smallest pieces possible. Apparently doing so is supposed to bring luck to the soon-to-be-married couple. The future bride and groom have to clean up all the pieces before 12 o'clock midnight, and the guests are supposed to make the cleaning-up process rather difficult, by for example tipping over the wheelbarrow full of broken dishes or spreading the pieces everywhere.
At this particular Polterabend, we were more than 200 people, so as you all can imagine, there were A LOT of broken pieces of everything from plates, to cups, to vases and even an old toilet!!! As this was my first ever Polterabend, my friend Anja managed to find me 35 plates to brake- fun times!!!!
A party would not be a party here in Germany without something to drink! The couple provides food and drinks for everyone invited. The 200 people attending this party managed to polish off 400 liters of beer and 70 bottles of Schnapps- yes, that means a lot of headaches the next day!!!!
As this party took place in a small town, some of the music was provided by the local fire brigade, who not only put out fires, but also play various instruments! They provide their musical services for all big occasions in the town.
It was a most interesting evening and I am glad that I got to experience such a fun and different tradition.

The sun also exists in Germany!!!!

One of the only things (or should I say many things?!) we don't have control over in life is the weather. You can plan the perfect trip, booking all the best hotels and restaurants, making sure you see and do all that the country you are visiting has to offer, but the only thing you cannot plan is what the weather will be like once your dream vacation starts.
The weather in Europe this summer has been less than perfect. I, of course, cannot complain about it too much, as I had a beautiful summer in Montreal, but let me tell you that I did not expect it to be as bad as it has been over the last few weeks. I had packed some of my favorite dresses, thinking I would put them to good use here in Berlin, but I have been yearning for some of the fall clothes I did not bring with me, thinking I had time for my mom to send them to me via post!But life has a way of surprising you and for the past week or so, the weather here has been beautiful! Sunny and warm every day, perfect dress weather!
On Sunday, a few friends and I went to the beach- well, not the real beach, next to the ocean, but close enough. This "beach" is a man-made lac. It was formerly some kind of mine, and once it was not needed anymore, the big hole left behind was filled with water, and presto! a beach was created. The water was too cold to swim in, but I enjoyed walking in it until my knees nonetheless! The sand felt wonderful between my toes- no need for a pedicure when you have a "beach" not far from home!

Long overdue!

I have been promising this post for a long time now and I have finally managed to get my act together (i.e. clean my room!!!) and take some pictures of my new home for the next year.

My room, as you will all notice, needs a fresh coat of paint, which it will get sometime this week. The walls are pretty empty at the moment, but I am sure that will change soon- I have already accumulated so many pamphlets and fliers, I just need a clean wall to stick them on!

The apartment is very comfortable and cosy- I feel right at home here.I hope you enjoy the pictures!

My bedroom:

The bathroom:

The hallway:

The kitchen:

and the living room:

My first visitor from home!

I have been lucky in my life so far to have been able to travel, and live abroad, quite a lot. I lived, and studied (although not very much!!!!!) in Swansea, Wales for six months as an exchange student and traveled through Australia and New Zealand, also for six months. When you leave for a considerable amount of time, and when you know you will be in one place for a while, it is always a nice feeling to think about having people come and visit you. When I left for Berlin, I opened the invitation for people to come and visit me to almost everyone I knew, secretly knowing that I would probably not have many takers. It's not that people don't want to come, that I know. It's a question of time and money, as most things in life are! But it felt nice to tell people to come and see me, because you never know what will happen in life!
And guess what?!?!?! I have had a taker!!! My friend Marie-Claude, whom I met at the Children's Hospital, where she also works, had planned, as her vacation, a trip to France. In a series of coincidences, which life is so full of, her father was asked to transfer to Berlin for six months or so, as of mid-August of this year. With this new development, she decided to add Berlin to her list of places to see on this trip, and yesterday, I spent the whole day with my first visitor from home!!! There is something so special to be in a new and exciting city with someone from home. It feels so surreal and yet so comfortable. We spent the whole day walking around Berlin's many wonderful neighborhoods, stopping in little boutiques and funky clothes stores, talking about things and people from home. We stopped to have coffee and cakes, a must when in Germany! She met my roommates and saw my flat, and I showed her some of the things that my new wonderful city is so well-known for.
I had dinner with her and her parents, which was so lovely. As much as you want your Independence and can't wait, as of a certain age, to move out of your parents' house and live on your own, there is something so comforting and so universal to be around a family and have dinner with them. It was nice to get their impressions of the city and to hear what their experience so far had been like.
I sincerely hope that I will have the pleasure in welcoming many more visitors here in beautiful Berlin. I have said it many times before but will say it again: come and visit!!!!!

Berlin- a few pictures

Pearl, the teacher!

I have now been in Berlin for three and a half weeks. My first two weeks here have been so jammed packed with fun activities and new discoveries that I have to admit that I almost forgot that I was here to work as an English assistant!!! But that all changed on Monday, my first day at Judith-Kerr Grundschule.
I was warmly welcomed by all the teachers at the school, who all knew my name and where I was from, as they had been told of my arrival the week before. I even received a beautiful bouquet of flowers- talk about a good first day at work! Everyone was pretty excited by the fact that I come from Canada, and most particularly from Montreal, and I have already heard about the trips that a couple of the teachers have made to our beautiful city!!! This primary school is special because of the fact that it is a European school, which means that the students are taught half in German and half in French. This means of course that most of the teachers are also bilingual. I won't lie, it was so nice to speak French again, I have missed it!
The program requires me to work 12 hours a week, and the principal of the school was nice enough to organize my schedule so that I can have a long week-end. I will work three hours a day from Monday to Thursday and will have Friday off every week- not bad hey?!?! A long week-end will come in handy when I will want to travel a little.
I have now met most of the students that I will be working with. Students at this primary school start learning English as of the 5th grade, which means that they will only have received two years of English before they reach high school. The level of English of the fifth graders is really, really basic, but the sixth graders are actually pretty good, so I look forward to seeing the improvements the students in the fifth grade make over the next few months.
The students are all so very cute and nice. I was asked all the typical questions that kids ask a new person that comes to their classroom: how old are you? are you married? do you have kids? where are you from? what is your name?
The kids all write with fountain pens and have the most beautiful handwriting. They are all so eager to please and to learn. Finding a volunteer to come to the board or to answer a question is definitely not a problem with these kids- the moment the teacher asks a question, 20 hands go up in the air and all you hear is "Ich!" "Ich!" "Ich!" (me, me, me).
Classes are really small- there are no more that 22 students per class, which makes teaching, and learning, a much easier task.
I think I will very much enjoy working at this school. I look forward to getting to know the students better and try to help them learn English in a fun and exciting way.

Still alive!

I know, I know, I promised regular postings and look at this, more than a week without news of me already! But I have a good excuse for my absence from the blogging sphere. For the past three days I have been in Altenberg, a quaint little town half an hour away from Cologne, on a seminar/orientation course given by the PAD, the organization that has brought me here to Germany.
We were 180 people, from the States (the majority of the attendees), Great-Britain, Australia (represented by only one person from Melbourne), New-Zealand (only two Kiwis were there) and of course Canada, with its five representatives: two from Toronto, one from Victoria, one from Fredericton, and you will surely all agree, the most important from Montreal!!!!
We stayed in a converted monastery, which was very quaint and cosy (pictures to come soon!).
The three days that we spent there felt a little like camp- we all ate together in a big eating hall, at very fixed times. We shared rooms and bathrooms and our schedule was timed to the last minute. The only difference between this and camp is that at night, one of the classrooms was turned into a makeshift bar, and you could buy half liters of beer!
We were organized by Bundesland, which means that I spent the majority of the last three days with the other 34 people who will be working in Berlin. I met some interesting people and hope to see a few of them again soon.
We spent most of our time preparing lessons and acting them out in front of the rest of the class. This exercise, although not really meaningful to me, was really good for most of the other people, who have no teaching experience whatsoever (we are not here as teachers, only as assistants, so our role in the classroom is limited). Each lesson was observed by a real teacher, who made comments at the end of the lesson. My observer asked me if I had had teaching experience before, because he felt I was a natural, so I guess I will be OK this year!
I am presently in Düsseldorf, 20 minutes north-east of Cologne, at my friend Chris' house. I met him when I was in Australia and it is lovely to be spending a few days here with him and his boyfriend.
I will be back home on Sunday and promise to write more then!