Bryssel?

Jag ville bara uppdatera er i hur det går i det omfattande praktiksökeriet. Igår hade jag en telefonintervju med en person som jobbat på region kommittén nere i Bryssel. Intervjun hölls på engelska och visst var jag nervös men jag tycker ändå att det gick bra. De återkommer om två veckor och då får jag veta om det kanske blir Bryssel efter jul!

Om ni undrar så jobbar region kommittén med att övervaka vilka lagar som stiftas i EU för olika regionalpolitiker räkning runt om i Europa.

Hi there

Another week is soon over and there is only one week left at the school. Honestly I haven’t done that much this week. Well I have been to the biggest collage in New Zealand but it was a bit disappointing actually. It felt a bit rushed and the teachers were really busy. I went to six different lessons and two of the teachers didn't even introduce me for their classes and some of the lessons were right boring. One teacher even apologized for his lesson...anyhow other lessons were far more interesting and most of the teachers did a good job. Here are more pictures from the bay of islands as I'm Lacking new material :) Have a lovely weekend!

Another pic

Well I think you can guess what this is :)

This is New Zealand

My new German friend and I started our journey to the bay of islands on Saturday. Our carrier, a tiny Mitsubishi from the early 80’s, took us from Auckland to the bay of island in just about three hours. Daniel had barley slept anything the previous night so I took over the wheel after 30 minutes. It usually takes some time to adjust yourself to left side driving which also includes left hand gear shifting but I’m an experienced left side driver as I’m drove a car in England for a whole year. I was seriously hungry when we arrived and my left knee was aching since the car had made a good job of limiting my tall legs. We had not arranged our accommodation for the first night so we set out to find somewhere to stay. All the backpackers (youth hostels) were full but we managed to find a nice motel for just 45 (250kr) dollars each. We were now both seriously hungry so we went to the supermarket and bought some food. The dinner consisted of grilled chicken and beef and a fresh salad. Yeah that is right we had a BBQ at the motel. It is apparently so that almost all motels and backpackers keep themselves with a good old gas grill (no coal…too much to preparations for the kiwis) The day was nicely finished off in the motel’s spa pool.
This is New Zealand! We took a four hour dolphin seeker cruise and we saw lots of dolphins after just 30 minutes. The boat continued to explore the bay of islands and our final destination was the world famous hole in the rock. Captain James Cook gave this cliff its name after well…its hole. The hole was so big so it was possible for our boat to pass trough. The highlight of our journey was when the boat dropped us off on one of the islands for an hour. We walked to the best viewing point and a stunning landscape with massive islands surrounded by glittering turquoise water meet our eyes. It was something like this I had in mind before I landed in New Zealand and the best thing is that there is so much to come.
The highlight of the last day must have been our visit to the stone store, a place where the first missionaries from England lived. I learnt about how the relationship with the Maoris developed and how it finally resulted in the birth of a nation in Waitangi, 1840. Check out this link to learn more. http://www.waitangi.net.nz/
See you

Guldet ska hem!

På söndag avgörs allsvenskan och det ska bli otroligt spännande! IFK Göteborg eller AIK kommer att ta hem det och jag hoppas för allt i världen att det allsvenska guldet hamnar där det hör hemma, hos mesta mästarna IFK Göteborg.

Snart i hamn!

Snart är oktober också till ändå och det har varit en av de mest intensiva månaderna på mycket länge. Det har varit prakikansökningar, det har varit skola och det har varit lite annat också. Det har varit mycket helt enkelt men nu börjar jag se ljuset i tunneln. Det är heller inget tåg som kommer farande utan förhoppningsvis är det ljuset av en ljus framtid. Jag har som de flesta vet "bara" drygt ett år kvar av mina akademiska studier och sen är det ut i den tuffa verkligheten som gäller. Spännande spännande, mycket kommer kanske också att avgöras av vad jag hamnar när det kommer till praktiktjänstgöringen nu till våren. Det kan bli Stockholm det kan bli Washington eller så blir det ingenting alls då jag lite på vinst och förlust har satsat ganska högt! Den som lever får se....

Take Care!

I'll be back

Hi everyone
I just wanted to tell you about the fact that there won’t be any new posts on the blog during the weekend as I'm going away to the bay of island. Anyhow, there will be an extensive report on Monday.
have a nice weekend!

what is happening in NZ?

Hi again
I have been silent for a couple of days but I’m living a hectic life here in New Zealand and I’m usually really tired in the evenings. Sometimes I don’t even have time to watch when my favorite agent Jack Bauer hunts down terrorists in 24 (I got season 5 on my hp computer) Anyway what have I been up to lately? Well I had my first lesson this Monday. It was about Sweden and our culture. I included, among other things, important stuff such as the pronunciation of our Swedish letters ÅÄÖ. Here is a quick guide if you’d like to try it out yourself: Å:A with one dot. Pronounced as the English "o" as in "for". Ä:A with two dots. Pronounced as the English "ai" as in "fair. Ö:O with two dots. Pronounced roughly like the English "u" as in "turn".
I talked to a guy from Germany this Monday and it turns out that he will be an English teacher and history teacher in Germany when he’s done here in New Zealand (he has been here for almost a year, working as a German teacher). We spoke for ten minutes and he is apparently going to one of the best places in New Zealand this weekend called the bay of islands. He asked me if I wanted to join him but I told him that I had other plans and that I already had planned a trip to the bay of island the weekend after my last practice day. Well the same evening I got a message from Marina who I sort of had planned the weekend with. She will apparently join her host family as they will go to their holiday house. So I sent Daniel an e-mail the same evening and I’m now going to the bay of islands this weekend. But you might ask yourselves, what will happen with the other trip? Well it is apparently a place you easily could visit more than once so I'll do the trip with the others as well!

P.s the picture is from one of the classrooms and it means that the kids are allowed to be there on their own during brakes. However, the sign could be removed if they missbehave.

Auckland 2

Wow what a night in Auckland! Marina, Linda, Christine (the rest of the New Zealand crew) and I had great fun in Auckland this weekend. One thing which we told ourselves before the trip was that you should challenge yourself during the trip. Well my first challenge came yesterday as we went to a Japanese karaoke bar. We hired a room for two hours and screamed our heads off (that is true for me anyway). I was actually a bit nervous before the ordeal but I soon disappeared and my time in the lime light must have been when I sang Maria with Blondie and performed some a couple of exciting dance moves.

I’m really tired now and I’ll have my first lesson tomorrow so I better go to bed.
Cheers Markus

p.s picture: the new zealand crew :)

Bäst och sämst

Jag sticker emellan alla Markus inlägg med att lista vad som är bäst respektive sämst just nu.

Bäst

• SVT- (som vanligt), i princip allt håller hög klass.
• Xperia 2- från SE ser ut att bli riktigt bra, kan bli min till jul:)
• Höstens fina färger
  

Sämst

• Sverigedemokraterna - finns inga gränser för hur illa jag tycker om detta parti, måtte det aldrig komma in i riksdagen.
• Att veckan bara har 7 dagar, det är mycket nu...
  

Out in Auckland

Hi this will be the shortest text ever as I must catch a bus in 30 minutes. Anyway, I have spent almost the whole day in Auckland. It is a special city which has wide streets and a busy city center.

I will return with more information about the night life tomorrow.
Take care!

reporting in

Hello again I went silent yesterday but I was so tired so I went to bed at 10:00 pm (that is 2200). A shame really that I got a phonecall in the middle of the night from a school in umea where I did my last practice period…I almost answered the call but realised in time that it might be hard to do any teaching in Sweden while I’m here. Anyway I have had two more days at school and it looks like I have a rewarding time ahead of me.
Math was a subject which I spent a lot of time with in upper secondary school but I’m afraid it was a rather long time ago. I still felt rather stupid when I helped a boy with a few questions. One question was about reflective geometry. I have never heard about it not in English anyway. I asked the boy about that word and he said he didn’t remember as he was five (!) the last time he worked with it.
I guess most readers know that my back is not the healthiest one in the world but I have lately learnt some really good stretching exercises and I usually use the floor while doing them. Alas, I’m not sure if I could do it any longer since the whole house was sprayed with pesticide this morning. But I guess it is a rather unpleasant experience to be awoken by a cockroach in the middle of the night.

I love your comments :)
Bye

Spinning round round round

The first day at a new school in a new country contained lots of new impressions and I was dog tired when I came home around 1630.

It all started with a powerful staff- meeting where the headmaster had a short speech over how excited he was about the new term. It was, after he had finished, possible to raise different topics by raising your hand. This is interesting since it created a positive atmosphere and it was clear that the headmaster had a clear vision for “his” school. Anyhow, I’m not the only teacher trainee at the school there are namely 5 girls from the Auckland area that are doing their practicum at the same time as me. My tutor seems like a nice person and we will have a lesson plan meeting on Wednesday since I’m going to carry out a couple of lessons then(!)
It was obvious who was in charge in the classroom. The teacher did every now and then tell the students off when they misbehaved in some way. It could for example be when they talked too loud or when they didn’t listen to what she had to say. It felt rather odd as I didn’t think their misbehavior required a rebuke from the teacher. But the class is rather noisy so doing nothing might not be a very good idea either. I think that I’ll find the right balance after the first week. It will be fun to tell them about Vikings, blizzards, November, and polar beers ;)

All for now
Markus

p.s I was tempted to taste one of the citrus fruits on my way to school...

lost

Today I set out to find the school I’m going to be at for the next four weeks. I got some instructions from Barbara (the mum) on a piece of paper and I manage to find the school without any difficulties. I cannot come up with a better place to build a school, the view is just awesome (they say that a lot here). It didn’t take me more than 15 minutes to get there and I felt comfortable when I started going back. But in some way I managed to get lost after roughly 10 minutes. It is a bit hard to explain exactly what went wrong but there was a pathway that I couldn’t find. The two girls I asked looked a bit amused when I explained to them that I had found my way to the school but not the way back. They directed me to a pathway but it turned out to be the wrong one, but I didn’t want to turn back and make a complete foul of myself so I continued... A ten year old girl was the next to be asked (I had by then started to feel slightly worried). She gave a direction which I knew was wrong but I started to walk in accordance with her instructions anyway but I man had apparently overheard the conversation and he knew that I was going the wrong way. It took me a while to explain my situation for him (a mess really) but he managed to explain where I should go.

So all in all I had a little adventure on my own today…please take your time and check out the video and pictures from the school.

I’ll be back with more stuff from New Zealand tomorrow much

Kiwis

All the texts on the blog will from now on be in English and I hope it is alright with you :)
Anyhow, this is my second day in Kiwi land (lots of things are called Kiwi here, the strange bird, the fruits and the people) and I feel slightly more refreshed than yesterday. However the jet lag will probably haunt me for another couple of days.
I did, as a true explorer, bring my camera with today when I went for a walk and is it not without reason people fall in love with this country. I managed to take a few nice pictures on my one hour beach walk. I also visited a big mall outside Auckland. My host family live around about 15 from the city centre so it didn’t take more than five minutes by car to get to the mall. Nothing of interest happened at the mall apart from the fact that I bought I can of expensive chlorella powder 40 kiwis which is around 220 kr (yes also the dollar is sometimes called kiwi)…it is supposed to clean your system and contains lots of healthy stuff. It remains to be seen if I’ll feel the difference.

Stay tuned for more!


p.s I must regrettably say no to the request to import a kiwi from New Zealand...yes it is illegal.

Get me a Kiwi

Markus, det ska verkligen bli kul att få följa dina äventyr på andra sidan jordklotet. Kom bara ihåg att fixa mig en Kiwi fågel, ett löfte är ett löfte ;)

Erik

I Nya Zeeland

Sa antligen har!
har inte fatt igang natet pa min dator men det kommer nog snart. Ar sjukt trott men det kanske inte ar sa konstigt med tanke pa 3 timmar somn de senaste 50 timmarna. (tank er en Zoombie pa valium..) Nej nasta gang far det bli forsta klass sa att jag far plats med mina ben. Hur som helst verkar familjen trevlig och huset som de bor i ar fint men KALLT.
Det verkar som om mitt losen till facebooken blivit stulet...i och med att "jag" skickat ut massa konstiga saker om viktprodukter. Vet inte om det kan ha att gora med losenordsstolden fran hotmail. Har iaf bytt nu sa jag hoppas att det inte blir nagot mer.

Ha det gott
Markus now in kiwi land

Resan har börjat

Så då sitter jag på Hong Kongs flygpllats återhämtar mig lite. Det tar verkligen på krafterna att flyga och min resa startade 0800 från nävekvarn för att fortsätta till London kl 1540...och sen vidare till HOng Kong. Här är kl kl 1815 och mitt plan till Auckland går kl 2101. Sov nog inte mer än 2 timmar på planet...det har sina nackdelar att vara lång. Lyckades döda fyra timmar med två mindre bra filmer tranformrs 2 och angels and deamons.

Jag postar en bild på solen som har lite asiatisk mystik över sig.

Ha det gott!