Today at school one of the praktikant* asked me if I was homesick. It felt really good to be able to say, “No.” While I do miss my family and certain comforts of being in a more familiar place, I don’t have that same sense of Heimweh that I experienced last time I was in Germany. I won’t go into too many details, but I will say that working as an English teaching assistant (and having my own apartment!!) suits me much better than working as an au pair. I’d love it if my family could be here, or if I could just hop on a plane and casually meet up with them every month, but overall it’s very reassuring to not feel lost or out of place living in a foreign country.
*A praktikant is someone who is still studying at university and is essentially a student teacher, yet different from a trainer teacher. They observe for a certain amount of hours (usually about 100) and are required to teach about 30 hours of lessons in a classroom. A trainer teacher is someone who has graduated from school and passed their teaching exams, but is still not considered a full-time, full-salaried teacher (the German term for this is Referendariat: see section, "Germany"). They teach their own classes, usually w/o supervision, but still have an occasional evaluation and end examinations before they can become a teacher; this period of training lasts for 1.5 years. I feel really fortunate to have several trainer teachers + Praktikanten at the school in Rheinfelden because it’s given me the opportunity to meet and talk with people closer to my age. One of the trainer teachers actually lives within walking distance of my apartment, and it’s been really nice having a friend nearby!
I touched on my time as an au pair above, and speaking of, I was in Munich this past weekend visiting my former host family/making a trip to the Oktoberfest. Simply put, it felt really strange to be back there, in the same neighborhood (but different house) and visiting a family that I was essentially part of for over 6 months. The visit was nice and it was exciting to see the kids after almost no contact in 2.5 years, but the visit reminded me why being an au pair can be so stressful, and it was definitely refreshing to know that come Sunday I would be heading back to Weil Am Rhein.
So, Oktoberfest… I love getting dressed up in the traditional garb - girls wear dirndls and men wear lederhosen - however I did not love the insane, massive crowds of people roaming the fair grounds. I say fairgrounds because the Oktoberfest is actually more like a giant fair with rollercoasters, carnival games, and food stands, with the very German addition of the giant beer tents, the highlight of any frequenter of the Oktoberfest. If you were randomly dropped off in the middle of the celebration and didn’t realize the tents were full of rowdy beer drinkers and German folk bands, you would probably just think you were at a kids’ carnival. Despite the unfortunate fate of sitting at a table with people who wanted to marry their friend off to me and aggressively tried to set us up, overall I had a good time…. and needless to say we left that table after one beer. Below is a picture of my view from the ferris wheel, which shows just how crowded it got in the afternoon, and why my friend and I decided to head out after a few hours and go find a less populated beer garden instead.
I don’t like making these too long, so I’ll save my experience (the best yet, probably) at school yesterday and today for the next post!!
PS - I’ve decided the only pleasant thing about long train rides are the gorgeous countryside views, especially when on a packed regional train. I was fortunate enough to get a seat on the ride back from Munich, but 7 hours of traveling in 1 day was enough to convince me that I would rather fly to the Fulbright Welcome Meeting in Hamburg later this October. There is only so much train travel I can handle!! (More to come on the Welcome Meeting in a later post!)
*A praktikant is someone who is still studying at university and is essentially a student teacher, yet different from a trainer teacher. They observe for a certain amount of hours (usually about 100) and are required to teach about 30 hours of lessons in a classroom. A trainer teacher is someone who has graduated from school and passed their teaching exams, but is still not considered a full-time, full-salaried teacher (the German term for this is Referendariat: see section, "Germany"). They teach their own classes, usually w/o supervision, but still have an occasional evaluation and end examinations before they can become a teacher; this period of training lasts for 1.5 years. I feel really fortunate to have several trainer teachers + Praktikanten at the school in Rheinfelden because it’s given me the opportunity to meet and talk with people closer to my age. One of the trainer teachers actually lives within walking distance of my apartment, and it’s been really nice having a friend nearby!
I touched on my time as an au pair above, and speaking of, I was in Munich this past weekend visiting my former host family/making a trip to the Oktoberfest. Simply put, it felt really strange to be back there, in the same neighborhood (but different house) and visiting a family that I was essentially part of for over 6 months. The visit was nice and it was exciting to see the kids after almost no contact in 2.5 years, but the visit reminded me why being an au pair can be so stressful, and it was definitely refreshing to know that come Sunday I would be heading back to Weil Am Rhein.
So, Oktoberfest… I love getting dressed up in the traditional garb - girls wear dirndls and men wear lederhosen - however I did not love the insane, massive crowds of people roaming the fair grounds. I say fairgrounds because the Oktoberfest is actually more like a giant fair with rollercoasters, carnival games, and food stands, with the very German addition of the giant beer tents, the highlight of any frequenter of the Oktoberfest. If you were randomly dropped off in the middle of the celebration and didn’t realize the tents were full of rowdy beer drinkers and German folk bands, you would probably just think you were at a kids’ carnival. Despite the unfortunate fate of sitting at a table with people who wanted to marry their friend off to me and aggressively tried to set us up, overall I had a good time…. and needless to say we left that table after one beer. Below is a picture of my view from the ferris wheel, which shows just how crowded it got in the afternoon, and why my friend and I decided to head out after a few hours and go find a less populated beer garden instead.
I don’t like making these too long, so I’ll save my experience (the best yet, probably) at school yesterday and today for the next post!!
PS - I’ve decided the only pleasant thing about long train rides are the gorgeous countryside views, especially when on a packed regional train. I was fortunate enough to get a seat on the ride back from Munich, but 7 hours of traveling in 1 day was enough to convince me that I would rather fly to the Fulbright Welcome Meeting in Hamburg later this October. There is only so much train travel I can handle!! (More to come on the Welcome Meeting in a later post!)