A different 'Land' brings a different experience

Before starting at Bath, I took a year out and lived in Munich for 8 or so months. I had just turned 19 and everything was a bit scary, but I got on with it and in the end had a great time. I really wanted to improve my German, but unfortunately most people's first question was 'where do you come from?' This was followed by 'from England' and the rest of the conversation was conducted in English, no matter how hard I begged to change back to German. I was worried that when I moved back for these 5 months the same thing would happen again!

I have now been in Esslingen for 4 days and the only time that I have spoken in my mother tongue has been in English lessons. The school is incredibly friendly, every teacher seems happy to see an English language assistant and have agreed (more or less) that my German is very good - here's hoping I don't prove them wrong!

I'm currently staying with one of the teacher's and the rest of her family, who have welcomed me into their amazing house with open arms. So long as there are no problems, I am hoping to stay here until the end of February! My little attic room is looking quite homely already!

The highlights so far have been arriving and (about an hour and a half later) putting on some borrowed indoor shoes to play football with the teachers (my first time in about 3 or 4 years! My legs are still fairly sore!) After that I was taken back to the staff room where some beers were casually handed out - now I know exactly what went on in our school staff room!! 

Afterwards I found myself in an all-Italian restaurant that spoke little German. My Head of English decided that he should give the Italian a go, but ended up speaking a mixture of the two languages - is that Deutalienisch or Tedeliano? Who knows, but the poor waitress was certainly struggling!

All I can say is that what I have experienced in Baden Württemberg is completely different to Munich. I've found that what was waiting for me, in this stereotypical German toy town, just South of Stuttgart, is worth every 6.15 wake-up call!