Monthly Personal Goals – April 2009

I filled all my March goals, woo hoo!

My new April goals are:

Be a Great Teacher – I want to focus on getting really good at teaching. For my own sake and for my students’ sake. I’ll improve myself as I go along, and will also bounce ideas off of other trainers too.

Keep a Clean Flat – It makes me feel a lot better when it’s nice here instead of everything in disarray.

Use Pantry Items - My pantry is stocked now so I’ll keep my food costs low by using up what I have, and only restocking on fresh items like veggies, fruits, bread, eggs, cheese, milk. No junk food this month, as I can’t afford it!

Hand Wash Clothes – I tried this out to save a few euros (because it’s expensive doing laundry here) and it worked out great! So I’m going to keep this up. I have to make sure I do this frequently otherwise it’s too daunting with a huge pile.

Update my German Resume – Take new picture and include my German work experience.

Apply to Other Jobs – Anything that sounds interesting, I will apply to.

Exercise/Move Around – Walk the stairs instead of take the elevator, do some stretches and cardio at home, walk around outside, ride my bike, do 10 push ups everyday!

Learn and Use German – Build my vocabulary and practice speaking any chance I get.

Enjoy Life! – Reflect on how awesome it is that I’m living in *Europe*. Be positive and don’t take anything too seriously.

Leaky Pipe

Yesterday I finally open that cabinet door underneath my sink (which I really haven’t opened since I got here), and I almost have a heart attack when I see the bucket underneath the pipe OVERFLOWING with water.

WTF?!?

It had also damaged the mini-kitchen’s baseboard and the wall behind. Anyway, it’s best expressed in pictures (click to expand):

I wasn’t sure if this was my problem or the landlord’s problem, because the renting agreements are a lot different here in Germany. Some places don’t even come with a kitchen (!), so in those cases you are responsible for your own plumbing. Mine comes with a kitchen but I still don’t know what the deal is with plumbing.

Martin said that I should ask my landlord to fix it; My landlord did tell me when I first moved in that if I ever had any problems with something needing to be fixed, to just tell him and he will do it.

So I went to my landlord this morning and he came over to fix it immediately. He also cleaned it out with bleach so that the mould wouldn’t grow, and thanked me for telling him!

Anyway, it still looks as bad as those pictures but at least the pipe is not supposed to leak anymore *knocks on wood*.

The German life of lots of vacation

Well, I am pretty happy!

My stupid infection is gone and I’m back on track with getting settled. I am feeling so positive and optimistic about my new life here.

People tell me that the first 3 months of living abroad are the hardest, and this has definitely been the case for me. March is my 3rd month here, and there have been lots of ups and downs, feelings of uncertainty, and wanting to turn back.

But I knew I would feel these feelings, and I always try to put things in perspective while giving myself room to go through what I need to. As a result, I feel I’ve become a stronger, more resilient, more independent and compassionate person – all over the course of the last 3 months!

Phew!

I also think it will only get better and easier from here on. I have more skills and know what to do now.

My work for instance, has picked up since moving to Düsseldorf!

Thank goodness I moved out of Martin’s flat. No offense to him, I loved being with him but it wasn’t good for business and the town itself didn’t offer me much for anything else either. I do miss Martin a lot when I don’t see him, but it’s a trade off that has to be made.

But, back on work: I am absolutely thrilled with my new schedule! I have a 2-day work week and a 5-day weekend.

Last time I wrote about my schedule, it was Mondays at an insurance company, and Fridays at a logistics company. But I’ve since had to give up my Monday class (because I was sick) and was offered an all day Thursday class at a pharmaceutical company.

So that means I’m teaching only Thursdays and Fridays, ongoing for the next few months.

This is enough for me to cover all my expenses and to live comfortably.

I’m pretty impressed, actually.

I’ve read so much about teaching English in Germany, and most of it had made me very nervous to come and work here. I’m glad I’m having a positive experience, but I am still looking out for myself. So far my school has been great, and other trainers are having a good time working with the company too. Which definitely says something.

My school gives me big blocks of back to back classes, which doesn’t waste my time and makes it worth the traveling. They also pay for my travel expenses, and my wage is decent for someone who has no experience teaching and doesn’t really know what she’s doing, lol. No one breathes down my neck and it’s all very independent work.

So far so good!

I have opportunities to work more jobs and will probably be offered new classes by my school – they seem to get a lot of business. I’ve also been offered some work by the school I take German lessons from (it’s actually an English school), but I’ll see how I feel about taking on any more.

I really want to spend time looking for other non-English teaching work (since my visa is unrestricted) and soaking up all there is here while learning some German. Alles klar? Tschüss!

Ich spreche sehr gut deutsch!

I’ve been speaking more German lately! In the outside world, no less. And people actually understand me!!

I say simple things like:

“Guten Tag!” – Good day.

“Danke, Tschüss!” – Thanks, bye!

“Bitte” – You’re welcome/pardon.

“Entschuldigen” – Excuse me.

And these are the sentences I’m most comfortable saying:

“Ich möchte ein tasse kaffee mit milch und zucker.”

“Ich möchte [insert noun I looked up in the dictionary!].”

“Ich spreche kein deutsch.” – I don’t speak German.

“Sprechen Sie englisch?” – Do you speak English?

“Ein bisschen” – a little

People are nice here in Germany, and I think they find it cute (or funny) when I attempt to utter the few words that I know. I still need to learn grammar, but for now I’m focusing more on building my verbs and nouns.

I also practice with Martin, and he says I’m doing well. Of course I speak some German in class too.

Last night I traveled to Köln to a training session/social function at the school I work for, and met an American girl who also lives in Düsseldorf. She’s really nice and we became instant friends. She speaks German and offered to teach me! So I think my German will really come along since we’re planning to hang out a lot.

The accidental-everything weekend

Martin and I had a fun but very strange weekend…

The fun part was that we explored more of the city!

From the lettuce box!

This is the 2 week harvest.

Martin and I have snacked on a few leaves, but are saving the rest for sandwiches later!

They smell delicious!!

The different ways to say “You”

My beginner’s German classes are going well.

There are 6 people in the class: 2 Brits, 2 Americans, me, and the German teacher.

The class is very beginner so we are still learning the basics.

German is a hard language to learn. But fun!

To give an example, there are different ways to say “you“, depending on the situation. Whichever you use, it also changes the conjugation of verb and noun combos (btw, nouns can also be conjugated in German!).

Here is a “you” example:

Wie heißen Sie? – What’s your name?

Wie heißt du? – What’s your name?

How do you pronounce the ‘ß’ letter? It’s called an ‘es-tset‘ and is pronounced like ‘ss‘.

Here’s another example:

Woher kommen Sie? – Where do you come from?

Woher kommst du? – Where do you come from?

For some reason, you can also split ‘Woher‘:

Wo kommen Sie her? – Where do you come from?

Wo kommst du her? – Where do you come from?

Don’t forget to pronounce W’s as V’s and S’s as Z’s:

Wo = ‘voh‘;

Sie = ‘zee‘

Easy-peasy!

I just realized, phonetically my name in German could be spelled like this:

Geßica.

Guten Tag. Mein name ist Geßica!

Being sick while abroad

How ironic that soon after I write a post on how things are coming together, that things fell apart.

Well, it’s not that dramatic, but I ended up getting sick shortly after I wrote my previous post. Sick enough that I knew I had to seek a doctor and go on antibiotics ASAP. This wasn’t the type of infection that I could just ride out.

So I contacted the Canadian Consulate for a list of English speaking physicians, and also called my insurance company to notify them that I would be seeking emergency medical care.

My insurance company, Travelguard, is SOOO good!!! I also used them when I got sick in Hong Kong, but didn’t require much of their assistance then.

This time though, I needed help to book my appointment in German (Martin was at work) and they found someone who spoke German to make the call and ask the questions that I wanted!!

Service was truly excellent, and everyone I spoke with at Travelguard was really kind and caring, not to mention fast and efficient. Much thanks to them; they helped me out a lot.

By the time I got to the Doctor on Tuesday morning, my infection had gotten worse; I could feel it, and the Doctor confirmed that it was bad. She gave me a prescription for antibiotics (yes!) and said I had to come back the next day for a follow up.

The follow up was today and things are getting better. For starters *I* feel much better already. The antibiotics are kicking bacterial butt!! Though just to make sure, I’m going back to my Doctor on Friday for another check.

The Doctor is also wonderful, btw. It’s a relief to have someone good to go to if I get sick again.

I’ve had to cancel all my classes for this week. I am in no shape to teach anything.

Don’t worry about me though. I am doing well now. The annoying parts are all under control and I just have to focus on resting, drinking lots of water, keeping myself warm, and taking my antibiotics.

Hope you’re having a better week than I have been!

This life is coming together

Things have been busy here, but also fun and productive!

I started teaching 2 new classes at a logistics company in a nearby town, and tomorrow I’ll start another class at an insurance company.

These classes will last for the next 5-6 months, which I am SO grateful for because it gives me something interesting to do whilst paying my bills!

The logistics people were SO nice. It makes teaching them for 5.5 hours straight a lot more fun, and is also worth my 1.5 hour commute (each way!).

I thought I would be nervous, as I’ve never really taught before, but it turns out I’m pretty excited about everything!

I mean, I’m a little concerned that I will bore people and/or people won’t like me, but all in all, this teaching-stuff gives me the opportunity to meet people, learn about their lives, their jobs, and their companies. And I’m getting paid to do it too. I think that’s fantastic!

So here’s hoping that tomorrow’s first class with the insurance company will go well too. It’s a slightly bigger group but also a shorter class, and located not too far away from where I live.

On another note, here is a picture of how our flower babies look:

They’ve grown a lot since my last entry, and that wasn’t even a week ago. Holey moley! Martin was here for the weekend and we both geeked out about it. He took some nice pictures on his camera, but that was before these extra blooms!

P.S. I’m slowly getting more settled here and I love it! This guy doesn’t hurt things either.

City Gardening

Over the weekend, Martin and I went to Holland to buy flower bulbs. The package came with 4 bulbs, so we’ve split them up and are each taking a pair to grow.

Here is a picture of them sitting on my window sill:

While we were at the gardening store, I got mesmerized by the lettuce section (yes, can you tell I’m vegetarian?). We added them to our cart and now they are growing in an old ice cream container!

I’ve heard that growing lettuce in doors or out doors is super easy; that all you really have to do is water them and voila! a fresh head of lettuce every week.

I’m a little skeptical (mainly because I don’t exactly have a green-thumb), but I’ve done some research and am willing to try. Even though I’m a city girl, I’ve always dreamed of growing my own food and living a sustainable life. Projects like community gardening are a great idea in my books- I’ve just never participated.

So this is my chance to have a little exposure to gardening and growing my own food. I am very excited! (what am I not excited about, haha!) So far the lettuce has grown a bit in the last few days, and if this goes well, I might try growing other vegetables too.

Will keep you posted.