reflections of my time - two and a half months too soon?

After watching Julie & Julia am feeling incredibly inspired by both characters. They both found something that they truly enjoyed and stuck through it even in the bad times. It is such an admirable quality and I wish I could say the same for myself.

I am such an impatient person and the quicker something is done the better. However doing something quicker isn't always the best way in fact the hare and the tortoise should have taught me that going slow can often make you a winner. Also if something is not worth doing then don't do it or in some cases I find ignore it until it completely goes away.

Today is Mai Feier Tag(May Celebration Day) in Germany and is also a good day for a bit of a political demonstration throughout the country as well as lots of fun for kids...not necessarily though political demonstrations even if the politcal parties do give out free balloons. Kerstin, Michelle and I headed off on our bikes to the Tierpark to see all of the animals. All very sweet indeed (A shame that they are in captivity) but nevertheless they all seemed happy. I saw the tiger who escaped last month and also some amazing baboons. No pandas and no penguins I am afraid.

After curry/bratwurst with pommes for lunch it was time to head to the fire station which had opened its doors. It meant that all of the engines were open to sit in and also lots of fire cadets (?) were around in their uniforms doing lots of different things. One of the things they had to do was a race to unravel the fire hose and blast a target with the water. Very entertaining but unfortunately no fires around which was not really fair considering it was a fire station.

After a long bike ride home - Michelle went back home and Kerstin went into the garden. I tried to catch the frogs but it was no use and I was not in the mood for gardening. With nothing to do - I got into bed for a snooze potentially missing out on the chance to go to the Spa. Maybe we will go tomorrow only time can really tell plus me hiding out in my room will not really help the situation either.

Today I had a very lovely phone call which cheered me up immensly - I went from feeling miserable to feeling extremely happy in the space of 10 minutes.

In two weeks time it is back to Bonn and then on to Hamburg for a few days. Since I am staying longer I will get to see more people and also unfortunately have to work really hard on my essay for University. It is so hard and laborious - I just don't understand how it is supposed to benefit me really. I don't know how I can find enough hours in the day to fit everything in.

Next week is the Cambridge test in Berlin - I am so excited and the kids are probably terrified. I have prepared them all as best as i can in the roughly 7 weeks I have had. This includes talking as much as possible about all of the topics and even in some cases about English history (see previous blogs). We have gone through all of the topics and I have given them a practise paper to do since they have only done one and if you don't feel confident on the exam layout then I think it will effect their performance. Aside from that I have my fingers cross that every one of those kids acheives something. They have truly been inspirational for me and I have loved getting to know all of them, shocking them with my German knowledge and helping them with their English & building their confidence. BRING ON THE TEST!