Average day?

What I learned at school today:

• that one of my pupils was rushed into Emergency last night with we-don't-know-what. She was the one I sent home last Thursday because her symptoms were slightly (swine-)flu-ish and I didn't want to be the idiot responsible for an outbreak of that at our school. However, instead of seeing her doctor that day she went to the outdoor swimming pool. The next day she had an ear infection. She told me all this herself yesterday, at school, in her bubbly, loud, excited usual way. She seemed totally fine. I just can't figure out what happened between then and last night.
• that another girl from that class was taken home by her mother because she had cut herself all across her left arm, over and over. Again, this is a friendly, polite girl. Quiet. Well, alright, point taken.
• that a third pupil from the same class hadn't come home last night and that his parents and child psychologist were trying to track him down, so far without success.

...And those were the ones that didn't even show up!

I sometimes have to do a quick reality check whether it's a school or a (raaather special) hospital I work in... On a much happier note, I also learned something else. I happened to meet our caretaker in the office this morning and enquired after his son (one of my new pupils in Third Year) whom I had first-aided the day before. The boy was lying on the ground after breaktime, bent double and crying because he had been stung by a wasp earlier and someone had kicked him hard right where the sting was. He couldn't get up or walk properly so we picked him up and helped him inside where he got a thermal pack and a few soothing words from me (the all-purpose-medication for anything that doesn't bleed too much) before I rushed off to round up my class who meanwhile had happily run wild.

Anyway, I asked his dad how the boy was doing and the answer was "Well, not too great. But you know what, he really enjoys his English classes now. He used to hate the subject, but now he's really pleased to have you as a teacher." Of course, I had to play it down immediately and replied something stupid like "Well, I guess he's quite comfortable with having a teacher who is even more chaotic than himself..." - But, well, you know, it did feel really good to hear something like that.

Perfect days.

Hm, tricky.

Obviously a new favourite site of mine: foundmagazine.com

When in doubt...

* * *
Go gather by the humming sea
Some twisted, echo-harbouring shell,
And to its lips thy story tell,
And they thy comforters will be,
Rewording in melodious guile
Thy fretful words a little while,
Till they shall singing fade in ruth
And die a pearly brotherhood;
For words alone are certain good:
Sing then, for this is also sooth.
* * *

From: W.B. Yeats: The Song of the Happy Shepherd

Oh, wie schön ist Wuppertal!

RE7 Richtung Rheine
Ein Mann (Mitte 30, sehr korpulent, ebenso ungepflegt) kommt auf ein älteres Ehepaar zu, spricht für das ganze Abteil gut hörbar:
- Tschuldigung, ist hier noch frei?
- Ja.
- (Der Mann setzt sich.) Fahren Sie auch bis Hagen Hauptbahnhof?
- Nein.
- Ich fahre bis Hohenlimburg.
- ...
- Bis wohin müssen Sie denn fahren?
- Bis Wuppertal.
- Ach so. Ich fahre bis Hohenlimburg.
- ...
- Is warm heute, ne?
- Ja.
- Wirklich sehr, sehr warm heute.
- ...
- Sie wolln sich auch nich’ so unterhalten, ne?
- Nein.
Der Mann steht auf und geht. In der anderen Waggonhälfte:
- Ha’m Sie Lust sich zu unterhalten?
...

Hach ja, der Auftakt zu einem ereignisreichen Nachmittag. Wenige Minuten später kommt die Durchsage:
„Aufgrund eines Böschungsbrandes verzögert sich unsere Weiterfahrt Richtung Wuppertal auf unbestimmte Zeit.“
(Mist, und ich denk mir noch: Mensch, sei clever, nimm nen frühen Zug – abends soll’s ja Unwetter geben, da sind dann wieder die Gleise unterspült und alles... Jaha, im Gegenteil!)
Irgendwann hieß es dann, dass das mit den Löscharbeiten wohl noch dauere und unser Zug hier ende, bzw. nun wieder zurück nach Köln führe. „Ich empfehle Ihnen auszusteigen und mit der Schwebebahn nach Wuppertal Hauptbahnhof zu fahren und von dort zu sehen, wie Sie weiterkommen.“
Die Bevölkerung von Wuppertal-Vohwinkel war sichtlich beeindruckt, 400 schwitzende, schwer bepackte Menschen durch die Straßen ziehen zu sehen. Schön auch die Gewissheit, dass egal, wie warm es gerade draußen in der Sonne ist, es drinnen in der Bahn gleich dank großzügig aufgeheiztem Metall und 400 schweißtriefenden Leuten mindestens noch 10 Grad heißer sein wird. Aber immerhin sind wir alle gemeinsam über die Wupper gegangen, äh gefahren. Spontane Solidaritätszusammenschlüsse, biginning off bjutifull frendschipp...
Am Wuppertaler Bahnhof bekamen wir dann auch noch den RE7 Richtung Rheine, also den, der eine Stunde (plus 10 Minuten Verspätung) später fuhr. Den, der also die gleiche Strecke gekommen war, die doch angeblich so lange gesperrt sein sollte.
Wie? Ihr meint, da hätten wir ja gleich in Wuppertal-Vohwinkel bleiben und in Ruhe nen leckeren Eiskaffee trinken können, um dann eine Stunde später entspannt in den Folgezug einzusteigen??? Aber dann wäre ich doch nicht mit der Schwebebahn gefahren! Und ich hätte den Hasen und den Igel nicht kennen gelernt! Und den blinden Maulwurf! Und ich hätte nie herausgefunden, wie weich so ein großes, rotes Plüschsofa ist!

Willkommen in Bonn - Köln/Bonn.

Der Kölner Flughafen begrüßt seine Gäste mit dieser Ansage.

Gesprochen von Frank Glaubrecht, der "Stimme" von Pierce Brosnan.

Klassisch. Großes Kino.

(Sorry, für alles andere ist es eindeutig zu heiß - I can feel my brain atrophy...)

Rather moths than butterflies.

Huh, isn’t it strange?

Here I am, back from Ireland for a while already and even though while there I diligently spent a fair amount of time every evening jotting down anecdotes and notes of what I simply have to blog about as soon as I am back, somehow for the last what – 12 days I couldn’t bring myself to type anything. Well, no one is making me of course, so who cares, but I’m a bit astonished nonetheless. I guess it’s just a case of there being simply too much to tell. That, and the fact that writing really is the most fun when you should be doing something else instead.
So it comes as no surprise at all that I should be feeling like blogging right now, when really I should be working on lesson plans and course lists for the new school year which starts tomorrow. Well, it already started today, but – can I just rub this in very quickly? – the powers that be were gracious this time round and actually granted me those two school-free days I need for university, and they are – tadah! – Monday and Friday!!! So, I honestly don’t mean to make anyone overly envious or anything, but surely you do realize that this means that until October I have a gorgeous string of four-day weekends and three-day weeks (in my book, the only truly appropriate work-leisure ratio)?!
That temptingly glittering medal does have its downside however. The price seems to be that the days I am working are going to be a bit of a challenge. (Aren’t they always? How soon you forget.) Due to a sudden English teacher shortage at our school, we are going to have one English class less per year, which boils down to much bigger courses and a whole lot of dividing up of old classes and sending around of confused pupils. Also, I had to give up “my” class, the one I was in charge of for a year and have been teaching since day one.
Anyhow, tonight is the night of things fluttering in my stomach that shouldn’t by rights be fluttering there, the night of nerves and that strange sinking feeling you know from way back when you went to bed without all your homework done (which was, basically, every school night since Third Year). It’s by now become something of a tradition to be experiencing this back-to-teaching-tension after the holidays, and even my dad tells me he knows what it feels like and gets mild bouts of it still – and he’s five years away from retirement – so I guess it’s part and parcel of the job. Too bad that for me any tension has a rather unfair share of headaches tagging along.
So, what with the screen hurting my eyes and that big (and worse: early, urgh) day ahead tomorrow:
Nightynight, sleep tight! Don’t let the bedbugs… Er…right. Good night!