Hello my lovely booklovers,

Welcome to the Weekend Coffee Share, a blog hop that was started by the lovely Diana over at Part Time Monster, but has now moved to a new home with Emily at Nerd In The Brain. Every weekend we get together for virtual coffees and a little casual chat. How has this past week been for you?

I apologise once again that I had to miss yet another update last week. My life has been busy, but things are finally starting to fall into place for me! As far as that is concerned, my motto is “Let the good times rule”, or as the people of New Orleans would say “Laissez les bon temps rouler!”

If we were having coffee today, I’d first of all tell you my exciting bit of news: I GOT A JOB! During the Weekend Coffee Share on February 19, I told you guys that I had been offered a job at a language school as an English teacher, despite not having applied or interviewed for the position. Well, I got it!! I officially started as a language instructor on March 1, teaching English as a Foreign Language and German as a Foreign Language! I’ve had my first two English classes (which are 1 Business English / Conversational course and 1 UK primary school prep course) and I’ll teach my first German lesson tomorrow! I am so excited about this opportunity! A bit overwhelmed as I have no idea where to really start, but I can do this! I’ve still got my part-time day job and I work as a freelance language instructor, but there’s a chance I could get taken on permanently if I prove myself. Native German & English instructors are apparently hard to come by, so being a bilingual native speaker of these languages who can teach is a pretty good situation to be in. The school is really supportive in terms of resources, and they will even sponsor me to get my TEFL certificate (which I started but never finished due to my MA).

I FINALLY got recognised for something I’m good at and work doing something I like.

If we were having coffee today, I’d tell you about last weekend.  I gave a talk / presentation about the UK at the Naturefriends house, and I was asked to provide tea and scones as well. It’s been marked down for months, but I didn’t get a chance to prepare much. I was up all night Saturday to sort through 6 years worth of photos to use. It all went swimmingly. Apparently, the talk was interesting, just the right length, and fun for everyone. It also brought back a slew of memories and now I miss the Lake District something fierce!

If we were having coffee today, I’d tell you about my trip to Cologne yesterday with my cousin Fabian. We hadn’t seen each other in almost a year and were long overdue a get-together. So we decided to go to Cologne and shop for books, as there’s one huge bookstore that has an excellent English-language section. I ended up buying Neil Gaiman’s Norse Mythology, and an absolutely gorgeous Penguin Threads edition of The Wizard of Oz!

Next stop was The English Shop, where I stocked up on Twinings Tea, Bakewell Tarts, Hobnobs, and 2 Guardian newspapers, as well as the book The House at Baker Street. In this book, Mrs Hudson and Mary Watson team up and it sounds like they’re showing Sherlock and John how it’s done. I’m all for BAMF Mrs H, so this is right up my street! My legs are still sore from the long distances we covered yesterday, but eventually we found ourselves next to Cologne Cathedral at a Kölsch brewery where we had a well-deserved beer. At the station I found one more book though, and I had to buy it, considering the title:

 

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you that dad has now moved out of my childhood home and into the house I live in, though there’s still lots to be done. I’m just glad to have had a weekend’s rest from moving boxes.

 

Anyway, that’s it from me. Check out the other Weekend Coffee Sharers, I’m sure they’d love to see you as well!

Thank you for having coffee with me. Same time, next week?