More details

I've been in contact with Katrin, my mentoring teacher, who has kindly sent me some more details about the school, the town, and my particular situation.

Hello Jennifer,

I am sending the information about our college I promised in my e-mail.

Accommodation: is no problem as we have got a well-equipped hall of residence; everything has been refurbished recently. There is a kitchen on every floor. You will live there with our students, who are used to language assistants, so it will be easy for you to integrate. And it is just a five-minutes’ walk from the halls to the college. The rent is 145 Euros a month for a single room.

The town: Stadtroda is quite a small town (about 6, 000 inhabitants), so practically everything is within walking distance. There is a fitness centre with gym, sauna, badminton and squash facilities and a brand-new outdoor swimming pool. You can easily get into Jena, Weimar, Gera and Erfurt by train or bus.

The college: You can find information on the college on our website: www.fachschule-stadtroda.de. Our students are 19 or older, so you will work with young adults rather than children. All our assistants have felt that this makes teaching a lot easier and more fun. The number of students per group varies considerably but does usually not go beyond 20.
     As regards material, books etc. I do not think you will need anything specific. But it would be a good idea to bring along something about your home town, family and/or the region where you live and work (photos have always been a success!); this way we will be able to combine introducing you to the students with a bit of what we call Landeskunde.

 Most of this sounds excellent to me, since I've done most of my TESOL training with IEP and AUAP. The only thing that I'm a little iffy about is the dormitory. I'd hoped to have my own apartment and not have to share space with anyone ever again (I've been living with five other girls for the last year...) but it seems that it is not to be. I also had a neutral-to-negative experience in the dorms in Marburg. However, I hope that I can take better advantage of the situation this time.

I've also contacted the university in Jena to ask if I might be able to matriculate for a year. This brilliant university has classes in:

• German as a foreign language
• German linguistics
• German literature
• German studies
• Greek studies (<3!)
• Indogermanics (which took me three reads to decipher)
• Linguistics
• Latin studies
• Medieval and modern Latin (they might have a German Eduardus!)
• Romance languages and studies
• Slavic languages and studies

Besides the unimaginable joy that all of this linguistic goodness sends coursing through my veils (Fulbright what?), being able to take university classes would let me get to know some students with similar interests, continue studying topics in my field, and get me a semester ticket, which means free transport throughout Thüringen. That all sounds quite handy, but I'm waiting to see what the university and my Betreuungslehrerin say.

Speaking of which, Katrin sounds very nice. She says that she's had assistants for 15 years, so she won't be surprised by my presence or scrambling to find me something to do.

That's all the news for now...updates when they come.