Twenty-two, and back in high school

Today was my third day at my school, and the first day I've really felt like writing (and like shelling out the change for the internet cafe).

The school is a bit of a commute from my hostel, so even though I didn't have to be there until 11:30 on Monday, my first day, I left the hostel at 9:30. Of course I found the school relatively unproblematically and had about an hour to walk around the neighborhood. I'll try to take some pictures of the school and the immediate vicinity when I can, but it's in quite a nice neighborhood, although the school itself is a bit run down. One of the English teachers told me that it hasn't gotten much money from the state in the last fifteen years; since the reunification of Germany, most of the city's money has gone to the eastern schools, which were in really bad shape.

Anyway, I made my way inside and waited for my supervising teacher at the table in front of the teachers' lounge. When he arrived, he introduced me to a whole bunch of people - the principal, the secretary, a lot of the other teachers, most of whose names I don't remember at all - and invited me to come along to his next class. He introduced me to the students and they asked me some questions, and then I just sort of sat in the back and watched.

And that's pretty much what I've been doing all week. It's what the Germans call the Hospitationsphase, where I get to know the school and how things work a little better before I actually start assisting the teachers, which will probably be some time next week. I actually only have one most day this week - I only have to work 4 days a week, and on Friday I'll be moving into the new apartment.

I'm glad that my work schedule is so gentle - 4 days a week, and only about 3 lessons a day - because I already feel quite tired at the end of each day, and I'm not really doing anything yet. It is, like the title says, a little like being back in high school, with the halls periodically full of screaming kids (incidentally, I feel like most of them are tiny, and then there are a few massive 13th classers, who scare me a little). And I feel somewhat off balance linguistically - of course I've been attending English classes, and the English teachers I've been following talk to me in a weird mixture of German and English, and it's a bit hard to switch between then at a moment's notice.

I don't mean to whine, though, as everyone at the school has been really nice - almost all of the other English teachers I've talked to have told me to call them by the familiar form of "you," and some of the other kids have been on extended visits to the US and are eager to talk about it (one girl was trying to engage me in a discussion on make-and-bake cookies, but the bell rang and cut her off). I'm just feeling a little overwhelmed, but I suppose that's to be expected at the beginning. Later (especially when I have my own internet access) I'll post more specifics about the German school system and various other observations.