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This week I've been taking extreme advantage of my brand spanking new Deutsche Bahn card. More discounts = more travelling!
Saturday was spent entirely in Köln with the lovely Kirsty. I managed to book the slow train there but then actually got to have a look at Germany as we went along the Rhein, rather slowly. But the day in Cologne was worth the toddle there.
Of course we saw the Dom but refused to climb it preferring instead to believe Google that there is a good view. We did get to go in as well, but not to see the entire thing as there was a service going on, but it was good to see that such an old and quite popular landmark is still being used as it was intended. Outside the Dom there's an old Roman mosaic floor - I had my Kirsty guide to learn all this from - that they uncovered just before the war and closed off to protect it. On the other side of the Dom is the bridge over the river with thousands upon thousands of love locks along it - so sweet to see!
We then had a rather long wander round the town, down the shopping streets in search of an elusive English shop. In our hunt for the shop we ended up in one of the best travel shops going, an awesome stationary shop where there was no stationary and had generally an awesome time shopping and chatting. Eventually we found the English shop thanks to a sign we probably walked past earlier without noticing. The English shop was just that, full of imported (and expensive) English groceries and, most importantly, discount tea. Day, made. I know where I'm going to go when I need to stock up on the home comforts before I make an English dinner for my family here.
Dinner consisted of a really tasty burger from a steak house - better than it sounds, I promise - before heading home laden with baked beans, Ribena and PG Tips.
This weekend I went to Frankfurt again with Vicky. It never stops surprising me that there's always something new going on in the town centre. This week was the start of Japan week in Frankfurt and there were Japanese martial arts demonstrations, drumming performances and, of course, Japanese cuisine. Including a really popular stall selling octupus noodles!
So we had a good wander and a trip on the U-Bahn to a shopping centre we never knew existed which turned out to be really good and somewhere I think we'd go again.
In between trips I'm still really enjoying working at the school and I think I'm getting then hang of planning lessons a bit better. By far and away the best thing I've done is take on the year 5 class - Simon Says and games of Find Someone Who... are fantastic to do and so much fun - I'm really enjoying it! With the year 9s I've also introduced my Rules and Forfeits. The rules are general English grammar that they tend to get wrong, such as pronouncing a V as a W with many amusing results - "I live in a wery little willage" being my favourite. The forfeits aren't horrendous, more fun, such as tongue twisters or saying the alphabet backwards. Who said it wasn't all fun and games?
I'm really looking forward to work this week and also to the end of the week when, again abusing the DB card, I'm going up to Amsterdam for the weekend with Kirsty and the bunch from the Shire who are coming over for mine and Kirsty's joint birthday celebration. Should be awesome.
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