This air of feeling like the end of the school year is coming soon has been recently exaggerated by the fact that the 13th graders (Abiturienten) are taking their final tests this week (Abitur). They basically have to do well on these tests to get into college and to study the areas which they've been focusing on this year. What was surprising, however, is that the week before the Abitur the Abiturienten basically go bonkers. They had dress up days throughout the entire week, and culminated with a day of madness, squirt guns and noise makers on Friday. Picture this:
I arrive at school and hear all these whistles and horns and noise makers going off, and as I'm getting ready to enter the building I see a PARADE of Abiturienten marching right toward me armed with water pistols. My little feet haven't moved that fast in a long time. I quickly make my way to the teachers' lounge, but soon enough figured out that this wasn't safe ground either. As I'm talking with a teacher the Abiturienten march in singing some song and squirting people along the way. Kinda funny...some of the teachers were not quite as amused. Then later in one of my 8th grade classes the doors BURST open mid-class and here come the Abiturienten AGAIN, this time not being shy at all with their water pistols. The entire class was soaked and I managed to get shot smack dab in the face. One girl's notebook was so wet that it dripped when she picked it up - and since they all write in ink (not ball-point), all of their papers were destroyed. Really, Germany? Really? This madness went on all day, and when I finally thought it was over I heard the whistles and noisemakers on my walk home! I was about ready to make a mad dash into a shop when I saw the students ride by in the top of a double decker bus. Bizarre. And apparently we weren't the craziest place this year - a friend of mine said that the Abiturienten at her school actually chained the teachers into the teachers' lounge and started a party with the students in the main part of the building. They didn't let the teachers out again until the principal agreed to let the entire school out early. Question: Why did I not go to school in GERMANY?!
Now onto the penguins (and half-marathon, really). A bunch of the other English Teaching Assistants decided to run a half-marathon around the zoo in Muenster last weekend, so my friend Katie and I decided that we would be the moral support and cheer them on. The race was called the "Zoo" race, so we assumed that they'd be running through the zoo, so Katie and I spent the day looking at penguins, bears, tigers and giraffes whilst the others ended up running around the zoo. It was a perfect day - sunshine and all. We all then met up to go to a Biergarten after the race had ended. Good weekend, really!
Katie and her fave - the giraffe
Me and my friend George the parrot. Yeah, I gave him a name.
I heart penguins. For some reason I thought of the ND girls when taking this picture. Maybe it's because it would be totally easy to put word bubbles above each and make it a reenactment of a Finnie's scene at the bar. Maybe something like, "Hey, want to go in on a pitcher?" "Beer or Long Island?" "Scotty!!! Hey, Scotty!"
The girls after the race! Lynne, Sadie, Merianna, Emily, Sara and Sarah
Since I've returned from spring break I've actually received a decent amount of work to do. I think this is the part when the teachers freak because they realize I'm only here for two more months and they haven't really used me yet. Although the conversation club isn't working out (can't get the damn 12th graders motivated), I've been upping my teaching time in several of my 8th grade classes (starting to learn which teachers are prone to letting me do what I want rather than what is in the book), AND I've started tutoring a 5th grader three class hours per week. This has been great in keeping me busy - I get to put together the lessons by myself and get to teach on a consistent basis. That, and I actually feel like I'm making a difference! Yay! Today we went over the names for different food items in English and had a field trip to the grocery store to practice by having him find the items that I put on a shopping list. I'm thinking either animals or describing people as the next topic? Slash, trying to figure out how to put together a makeshift version of "Guess Who" on my own...any suggestions on how to do that?
Other than that looking forward to Kate and Marker coming to visit the first week of May!
This is Mallison, signing off.
Official Countdown: 70 days
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