scribblesandscratchings

9 teaching weeks left? what the heck?!?!

2009-03-01T12:10:00.000-08:00

How on EARTH do I only have 9 teaching weeks left? that is RIDICULOUS! Guess it's time to start really enjoying my time here and not moping in the basement because its raining for the 40th day in a row or something ridiculous!
I want to go to Stuttgart and see my friend G...
In other news, I've read
God on Mute
I Kissed Dating Goodbye
Let God Write Your Love Story
Let Me Be a Woman
because of said hiding in the cellar raininess, let me know if you want me to blog on them :)
More soon
xxx

Update and the German School System

2009-02-14T13:58:00.000-08:00

Well, I've been putting this one off for a while, had an incredibly incredibly busy couple of months with a recurrent tonsil infection and trips back and forth home to try and sort it out. In the same way that it took me a while to mention the breakup on here, I also drastically put off mentioning a new relationship! Its been on facebook for a while, but I guess here is where I do more emotion venting and it feels more personal, but what with today being valentines day and all I guess for all those who read this (and apparently you exist! thanks for the comments, I doubt I'd have made time to update if I didnt know people ever checked back) its time to announce the arrival in my life of Jon. I'm not hugely desperate to publicise my private life so suffice it to say, I've known him since I was born, he's none of the things I thought I wanted and everything I now realise I needed in a relationship and despite the difference and craziness of jobs (he's in the royal marine band service) it's all pretty good on that front :)
So anyway onto the juicy stuff, sarah's first real blog on anything other than the rather dull intricacies of her life, the wonder (haha) that is the german school system!
As most of you probably know, I'm working this year as a foreign language assistant in 2 schools in Hamburg, Germany's second largest city. After 6 months (eek) now of working, I'm beginning to really get a feel for teaching, but also to get a feel for the system. For those not as well versed in German education as me (where have you been?! hehe) the basic system is as follows:
Grundschule (Primary School) is started at 6, and finished at 9. They're not expected to know how to read or write when they start, and go to Kindergarten from around 4 if parents need them to be somewhere during the day.
Then the 'fun' starts. They then get streamed into one of 3 schools, a Hauptschule, a Realschule or a Gymnasium. Very basically explained, a Gymnasium is a grammer school equivalent, which is finished with Abitur (the leaving exams needed to enter Uni) at age 19, a Realschule is a mixture of academic and vocational subjects which is finished with Realschuleabschluss (exams which leave vocataional further study or apprenticeships as the next stage of study) at age 16 and Hauptschuleabschluss after which one is supposedly qualified for apprenticeships at the age of 14.
Which school you end up in is supposedly decided by your teacher. However, as I've been realising it seems that it is decided far more by your social background, parent's level of education and ethnic background (there are huge amounts of 1st generation turkish immigrants in Hamburg.)
I work in a Gymansium, and a school for the physically disabled which runs from age 6-19. This mixed (understatement) job means that I work at both ends of the educational spectrum here in HH (abbreviation for Hamburg). Turns out as well as being streamed in terms of academic ability, everything is dished out according to this school system; Gymnasiums get the lions share of funding, the teachers have to train for 2 years extra and then earn WAY more than their contemparies in the other schools. Facilities, books all get progressively shitter as you work your way down the system. The impression one gets is not of a streamed system giving everyone the chance to perform well due to teaching tailored to their academic level, but rather a sink or swim mentality where the brightest get the most support and Hauptschule closely resemble a place to lock disruptive teens for 5 hours a day while their parents work.
My flatmate K works in a Hauptschule, on her first day she went in and the kids were hitting each other round the head with chairs, the teacher simply walked back out of the room shut the door and said 'we'll come back in 10 minutes and see if they're still doing it'.
My special school is even worse off, the teachers and the erzieherinnen (we don't have an english word for this, each class has a teacher who's academically responsible for the kids and an erzieher(in) who is responsible for them pastorally, making sure they know how to sit and eat and behave etc) are atrociously paid, they're all clearly there for their love of the job and the kids but the pay of the erzieherinnen in particular is just a joke.
Remembering that this is a school predominantly for the PHYSICALLY disabled, imagine how shocked i was to discover they don't even take Haupschuleabschluss, and the majority will end up working in a furniture workshop. These are kids who in y4 can talk better english than my kids in y5 at the grammer school, so long as you can get past their speech impediments. ARGH its outdated and unfair and ridiculous and frustrating.
And then when I say that the special school is ridiculous, consider that my grammar school which is 'selfresponsible' and in Hamburg's top 4 schools, has 2 OHPs per building and 3 computer rooms of 15 computers for a school of 1000 pupils. Its in the wealthiest bit of HH too, the parents will just call up and take their kid's entire class climbing or iceskating or whatever at like 2 days notice! Odd stuff.
I've got more school rage, and will save it for later this week, as I now know people are reading!

S x x

Manic Manic New Life!

2008-12-17T06:11:00.000-08:00

I'm so sorry it's been so long! I guess settling into a new job, new country and new friends never really left me with time to blog even if I've been reading all of yours and facebooking like a demon! Life here has settled into a pattern pretty well now, i have prettified my room and really made it feel like home (read: bought a cheap sofa on ebay and plastered the walls with Uni photos). Work is going great, pretty intense considering how early they start but really enjoyable and leaves me with most of the day free for hobbies, I've started learning samba drumming which is amazingly good fun! In a church and cell which has been great, just getting settled in now which will always take time I guess! I've got a few blogs in the pipeline along the lines of: The german school system and how much RAGE it gives me, having read 'I kissed dating goodbye' a bit of an opinion airing and some more on just settling in and learning to live and entirely new life! If anyone hasnt already given up checking, check back soon! xx

Moin Moin aus Hamburg

2008-09-20T12:19:00.000-07:00

I'm here!! The year abroad is well and truly begun... eeeeeeee! I flew out a week ago yesterday, and life has been an absolute blur ever since. I'm going to try and keep up to date on the blog, not least so that I can look back when I go home at the end of the year and remember just how it feels to be new in a new country. Eek!
Hamburg is great, it feels so friendly because it's broken into districts, you wouldn't know you're living in Germany's second city. My house is lovely, I'm living in 2 rooms in the converted cellar of an 'einzelhaus'- meaning detached house, pretty normal for the UK but far less so for Germany. I live with 3 girls, a trainee teacher (S for the purposes of the blog), a trainee occupational therapist (C) and a landscape architect (U). I've been gradually beautifying my room, slowly as cash is thin on the ground until my erasmus form arrives and my deposit from Austria is paid back into my bank account. I need to nag my flatmate about new lights (most of them are broken) and a wardrobe, but I have a bed a desk and 2 chests of drawers which is good. I got a bedside table and bedlinen at Ikea the other day plus 3 plants which have made it feel a lot more like home.
I had to travel down to Cologne to have a 3 day training course in a Monastry last Sunday, I travelled with my friend Rich from Uni who's also an assistant (125 euro gone, like that! on the train tickets.) We met up with a couple of other assistants who are working in Cologne, and ended up in a bar with Germany's oldest pnuematic steam orchestra (for orchestra read accordian and tuba player made of wood with pumpy cheeks). You should hear that belting out 'Sex Bomb' by tom jones (it was one of the very few things on the song card I'd ever heard of).
The training course itself was OK, incredibly intensive, with the worst imaginable glutenfree food (one day all i got was cornflakes for brekkie, potatoes for lunch and rice for tea. its like anti-atkins) with copious amounts of overly detailed lectures on health insurance and the vagueries of the German school systems (all 16 of them!!) It was really good to get to know the other assistants though, that part was really fun, theres around 30 of us in Hamburg which should make for some fun nights out. That said, it'd be really easy to slip straight into that social circle so I'm trying to make myself get to know my flatmates which is tough because one of them talks even faster than me in dialect!!
Germans are so blimmin organised. I had to go register my address at the 'bezirksamt'- like a district office, where I was given a really complex form and a deli-counter esque tag and told to wait my turn. Then having got past the beauracratic hurdle of my complete lack of prior address within Germany, I paid into a reverse cash machine (it took my money (6 euro) instead of paying it out) and was officially angemeldet (registered) with a jazzy piece of white a4 to prove it! Closely followed by buying a german mobile for 15 euro which i'm pretty sure doesn't work. Followed by drinks at the alster pavilion (wikipedia it, i can't be bothered) with the other assistants, it was a pretty cool day all in all.
Which leads me onto today's fun and games. Got up at 5.30 am to go to an icelandic horse tournament as part of some duty-induced flatmate bonding. My horse Vocab has increased 200% at least!! Did you know icelandic horses have the most gaits of any horse? me either. But after 3 1/2 hours of watching, it transpires that they can 'toelt' sa well as walk, trot, canter and gallop. Anyway, once the flatmate who was participating was knocked out (she came 17th in case you're wondering...) and C and I were well and truly frozen to our cores, but bonding quite well, we got to go to the second bit of the day- Kartoffelfest; think Oktoberfest, but for potatoes. Surprisingly a great afternoon, lots of chips plus beautiful scenery, loads of tiny german children doing wholesome farmy activities, baby piglets allover the place and a nice bio farm shop with a glutenfree section which I would have patronised if it were not for the chronic lack of money! Then back to the tournament in time for the pairs fancy dress competition (2 horses, 2 people dressed as a pair, so bride and groom or princess and pea, tied together with toilet paper which can't break) before home for communal veggie stew and rice. (with more sheeps milk schnapps)
Look at me and my wholesome Germanic life. I don't think I've ever had so many new experiences in one day, roll on starting school on Monday! I want to go to church tomorrow, but I'm dead on my feet so am catching up on some much needed sleep!!
much love
xxx

Gin, Germany and Educational Theory...

2008-09-06T10:07:00.000-07:00

So I'm curled up in a big comfy armchair, drinking a gin and tonic and continuing my (admittedly still pretty self-centred) musings. I know I'm blogging a fair amount about me at the moment, but a) its summer so nothing hugely interesting is happening and b) I'm kind of enjoying sitting down and taking a good, long hard look at myself. It's been too long since I last did it.
First things first, I have a house in Hamburg and am flying out on Friday which is pretty exciting. Hopefully I'll settle in and meet people pretty fast, I'm going to be blogging my goings on on here rather than on my travel blog as I don't think it counts as travel if you have a job, a housing contract and flatmates (with goats).
Secondly, I'm pretty much over my "I'm going to live in a hole and join a convent because it's easier' stage, and am taking my first tentative baby steps towards acknowledging that I am capable of liking other people and that that isn't a bad thing, or going to end in tears immediately. Admittedly there have been a couple of pretty unpleasant encounters with guys in the past couple of months, the last one being pretty recent, but this leads me to the 'educational theory' part of the post.
If you've ever done psychology or education, you'll have come across the educational theories of Piaget and Vygotsky. Basically they sat down and considered what drives people to learn, and one of the things that they realised was actually discomfort is a huge factor, for example the discomfort of shuffling around on your bottom is what drives you to copy mummy and daddy and get up and walk. This actually ties into my ideas of christian ideas of suffering in an odd way, and it's driven back home again some thought processes I was having when I was ill at a lesser level, that suffering in the short term can actually lead to greater happiness or fulfilment in the long term.
Which is why I'm telling myself that even the bad experiences, dishonesty and abuses of trust that have happened over the past couple of months have been positive- I've had good friends around me to pick me up and keep me going, and I've become a lot more savvy and less naieve as a result.
I think I'm just on such a steep learning curve with the breakup, knee, granny and move abroad that much as I appreciate how that discomfort is making me grow, I'm a bit fed up and would like to be comfy and not growing, just for a while.

Promise a blog not about me will hit soon! Might even hit the last 2 chapters of God on Mute.

S xx

Freewheeling

2008-08-29T11:41:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the delay. I am indeed complete rubbish but you can see my travel bloggage through facebook if you care that much about what I got up to in Vienna!!
So. Have slowly got my head around singledom much more slowly than I thought initially I'd take. Its been especially odd because we were together so long, noone my age really seems to have anything useful or relevant to say. I feel like if I hear one more 'when I broke up with my boyfriend, it was terrible, we'd been together 4 months and...' I'll actually scream.
Which leads me onto the title of this post. I've decided that my relationship was like having stabilisers on my bike. Comfy and easy and safe, but stopping myself reaching my full potential or 'top speed' as it were. So now i'm stabiliser free, and racing along, admittedly with a lot more chance of falling on my arse, but having a hell of a lot more fun along the way. Thats not to say I'm not scared out of my head. Hopefully this will go soon!! :)
Off to Hamburg tomorrow- EEK!
S xx

Exams, essays and midnight beaches

2008-06-23T11:01:00.000-07:00

Again a long gap, that's what 7 exams and 5 essays in under 3 weeks does to you! sorry, dear non existent reader!
Exams were OK, essays will be finished by Thursday (I had knee-related grounds for extensions) and then Sunday morning the excitement begins... I fly to Vienna!! woop woop! a month of teaching english and chilling out with (hopefully) lovely people!
Have nipped home for a couple of days to really purge my room of crap in an attempt to make the amalgamation of my Sheffield stuff and residual Norfolk rubbish less of a chore. Met up with some school friends which was lovely, we ended up having a bbq on the beach in the dark- SO much fun!
Have to dash again, will do the God on Mute post when I've retrieved it from under my bed and attempted to finish the last 2 chapters!

xx

Chirpy Chirpy Chirpy

2008-06-01T10:57:00.000-07:00

Well you can't keep a Sarah down for long (unless she's asleep in which case you might be waiting a while...) and, dear reader, I'm feeling far chirpier over the past week (despite a ridiuclous number of horrible exams.) This has resulted in me standing in the living room SCREAMING and bouncing at my poor mis-used flatmates this afternoon, because I have a summer job opposite the Prater in the centre of Vienna!! Geil, oder? I had a fantastic phone interview with the main guy today, it's an english language day camp and honest to goodness, I am counting the seconds. I am overdue a holiday! I'm sharing a class of 4-8 year olds (theres 3 classes in that age group, I'm hoping for the middle one so 5-6 year olds) with another counsellor. I take them 9-4 every day, registration then accompany them to the specialist counsellors for dance, craft, music and sports, then I'm their english specialist so teach them English for an hour and a half a day. I'm so excited- it'll hopefully be everything I loved about YA! without any of the crap that came with being on a residential camp (bongs, homesickness etc.) Unfortunately this huge mood swing has left me more hyper than a kid with ADHD on red bull, and the revision for Oesterreich Heute at 9am tomorrow is not going well.
In other news, the British Council contacted me this week to tell me I'm in a special school for my teaching in Hamburg- not what I was expecting but should still be a laugh!!

Update (Sorry for the long gap)

2008-05-26T13:48:00.000-07:00

So, bite the bullet time, (I've been putting off writing this blog, or anything really for the past month) Andy and I broke up over a month ago now. This is neither the time nor the place to go into that, but it would be weird to continue blogging and not point that out so voila.

In other news (lol) I've been turning to my faith a lot recently, with the rather awesome effect that God and I are way closer than we have been for years. (Seriously- no exaggeration.) This isn't somewhere I feel comfortable sharing every aspect of how this is going, I'm keeping an actual diary for that, but stand by for choice snippets of the experience of a christian getting back into church!

I've been blessed (<-- see, the happyclappy language is back already) (unfortunately the sarcasm never went anywhere) with some AMAZING people who have literally popped out of the woodwork and been there for me in everyway from hugs and coffee through to prayers and words of encouragement and wisdom. Guys- I don't know if you're reading this, and I'm not up for naming people without their permission but you know who you are- thank you SO much. I love you. x x

I checked out a new church last night. Turns out when the poo hit the fan, I wasn't getting what I needed from my old place, and I've been feeling called to the new one for quite a while (but have been sticking my head in the sand)- so I headed up there for my friend K's baptism. I had the BEST service- and ended up with my knee getting healed! How cool?!

Those of you that know me at all will remember a lot of prayer for healing kicking off during my M.E, and to be absolutely honest I never believed that on-the-spot healing was ever going to happen for me. In fact- I had posted on Mark's blog to this very effect earlier this week. But it happened so praise the Lord for that!!

I will be posting more on this as my brain processes it all- my life has been turned on it's head over the past few weeks, plus the exam period is in full swing, but I've been reading God on Mute and am brewing my first ever mark and carl esque post about something other than the mundane ins and outs of my own life. Stay tuned!

Big fat blog full of self pity to follow

2008-04-17T02:43:00.000-07:00

I dislocated my knee yesterday and it really hurts :( I can't believe I did it just from standing up on the sofa! Am now on crutches and have to haul myself back across the whole of Sheffield to go to the fracture clinic by myself as les flatmates are all busy. The crutches feel like they're breaking my shoulders, and I can't hobble as far as the history department, let alone the uni proper. Plus the nearest bus stop is up hill, and I have no idea how I'm going to get around! Factor in 2,500 words in on wednesday which I haven't even started yet, and you have the reasons for my current sitting on the sofa with my leg up, wallowing in self pity. Yarg

Sorry for the gap!!

2008-04-05T03:56:00.000-07:00

I've had a crazy easter break, been up to Scotland to help get my parent's house ready for letting (we live in church acocmodation but they just bought my granny's house from her when she went into care, unfortunately she hasn't redecorated since the sixties!!) Meant to do loads of work but didn't because I caught a bug, so it'll no doubt be a mental month and a half up until exams!
I never did a post on the equality officer properly, basically we got a majority but not of 2/3 so the changes didn't pass. Good news is that there's loads of supporters of an equality officer running in round 2 of the elections which is great, especially Beth running for women's with loads of policies to act as a defacto women's officer. I guess that proves that the saying about God opening windows is true!! (as the right wing christian fascist which I was accused of being during the elections :S)
In other news, I wish I could get to London to protest at the olympic torch being carried, but will be packing ready for my return to Shef on Monday morning. I would go tomorrow, but don't want to be put on busses and have the trains all messed up! I was just watching the news about it, got really angry at some stupid silver medallist from athens going " I'm a sportswoman, not a politician. All I want to do is play sport, and it's a huge shame when politics get in the way of that." I'm sorry mrs. Let's not let the human rights abuses perpetrated against thousands of chinese citizens stop you swimming for a living. Yearg.

Where I've been for the past 2 weeks:

2008-03-04T14:04:00.000-08:00

Promoting this around campus, voting started today:
Union Council (on which I am disabled students councillor) propose OPTION 1- A president, education officer and international officer (getting elected at the moment), plus the following:

-An Equality Officer: When we did the consultation (which was emailed out to all students), they consistently (both men and women) put equality above 'womens issues'. Women currently are one of 4 representative groups in the union, yet the only one with dedicated officer support. LGBT, Black Students and Disabled Students (the committee which I am chair of) get moved around different officers every year depending on who 'fancies' looking after them- a totally unacceptable situation in my eyes. Therefore we propose an officer for all 4 groups, who would be held accountable by all 4 committees, therefore preventing 'favouritism'. I also DO NOT believe that removing the women's officer means we can't guarantee a women sabbatical officer- Reading Uni have just elected an all female sabb team despite having no women's officer. Lastly, just because we have had one for however long does not mean we can continue to discriminate against other groups!

-A Community Officer: As you've probably seen over the past year, there have been huge issues relating to hall food problems. Were you also aware that there has been a 200% rise in burglaries recently in Crookes? The women's safety bus would also be covered by this officer role, as we believe safety is not just a women's issue. Also, a weird anomaly of our consitution means that the President is the public face of the Union but the Welfare Officer deals currently with housing issues. So which one talks to the police, sits on the council and deals with community forums? In our proposal- the community officer would. They could also run more campaigns relating to keeping yourself and your belongings and house safe along the lines of Shhh and Love Where You Live.

-A Welfare Officer: Currently, the Welfare officer is responsible for: disabled, lgbt, part time, local and mature students, student parents, all the community issues highlighted above, mental health and sexual health and financial hardship. Under our proposals, due to the creation of the equality and community officers, this would be reduced to: part time, local and mature students, student parents, mental and sexual health (INCLUDING eating disorders, bizarrely currently under the women's officer, despite affecting men too) and financial hardship. Clearly all 3 officers will have more time for their respective groups than currently.

-A Finance and Services Officer: Has explicit responsibility for environmental issues. The environment is a big deal- so vote for a proposal which couples environmental responisibility with real change.

-A Sports and Activities Officer- pooling 2 jobs, but with 2 guaranteed admin assistants therefore a net increase in staff for both clubs and societies, plus guarunteed funding in a year in which the Union is facing huge budget cuts. Option 1 is the only option to guaruntee this funding.

The campaigning has got incredibly petty and personal, some of my friends have been taking some real abuse just because they are the Sabbs, so are easy targets for groups like socialist students, who seem militant in defending their right to speech, whilst constantly challenging that of the Sabbatical officers. Its all still a bit too fresh to talk about now, I'll let you know more after I know how it's gone- I'm knackered from all the campaigning!

Sarah x x

Busy Busy Busy

2008-02-21T10:35:00.000-08:00

Who would have thought Uni was so much work! I can't believe the workload of my seminars compared to how little I did all last semester, and this is before the essays all hit enmasse. I know that if I start on some of them now then I might get further, but I'm really reluctant to for most of my subjects because I want to have had the seminar on the essay before I write it. Luckily, for Fascism that should be in 2 weeks, and I can get going on the German essay as soon as I have decided what it will be on.
I have another cold. I hate this time of year, it feels like the entire world is grey and sniffly. I also haven't been to visit granny (who moved into a home just down the road from me a few weeks ago, can't remember if I blogged on it) since Saturday, I know I should but I've just been so busy!
I had a great lot of meetings yesterday (my 'day off!') and am now really involved in a project called developing inclusive curricula which is interesting- trying to improve communication between staff and students to discuss their needs. (Quite possibly more interesting than it sounds!!)
Really looking forward to the weekend :D excited excited excitedd

x

Sorry for the delay...

2008-02-16T09:23:00.000-08:00

Exams got into full swing so as you can probably imagine, blogging didn't take first priority! Also, I've been thinking a lot lot LOT about the upcoming officer roles reviews but as I was a returning officer, I was pretty much silenced as wasn't allowed to voice a public opinion on the situation. On thursday I stood down, so expect a big ol' blog on that in the next couple of days.
I started all my new modules this week. I love the first lectures of a new module, my mum described a degree to me as 'islands of knowledge' in the cafe at tesco this morning, its so true! There is so much German and History I will never know, and yet these little bits which I know in so so much detail. Odd but cool. Just in case you were wondering this semester I'll be doing; Austria Today (current affairs), history and dialectology of the german language, Fascism (which I still try and leave the first s out of) and Britsh colonialism 1814-1904. I'm excited! (but its fine that you're not, honest, just fake smile at your screen).
I'm off for noodles for tea, I'm worryingly excited!!!!
xx

One more week...

2008-02-01T13:23:00.000-08:00

And exams are completely over! I can't WAIT! I had a meeting today about a widening participation project which I am helping coordinate- introducing dyslexic teenagers to the idea of Uni and helping them to prepare, showing them round building personal relationships etc. I'm really excited about it! Plus, its paid which is a nice change to all the voluntary stuff, so with that and the buzz team work promoting the officer elections hopefully money won't be too tight this semester!! I'm home alone tonight so am sitting watching american idol and trying to decide if I want friery. hmmmmmmm, tricky.
Sarah x x

Nestle, Swimming and Family Trees.

2008-01-31T14:23:00.000-08:00

So today union councillors got the chance to sit in on a meeting between our working group who are considering the issue or whether or not we continue with our current union boycott of Nestle products or not, and Nestle represenatives who came to persuade us not too. As students with disabilities councillor I made the decision at the start of the year not to get involved with any groups that didn't directly impact on the disabled students of the union as I know my tendencies to get involved with everything and already had enough on, so was pleasantly surprised to be invited to the meeting. My mum and dad decided we were going to boycott nestle as a family when I was in reception (I remember stropping about no kitkats on the way home from school) and my mum worked as a breastfeeding counsellor and was heavily involved in baby milk action so I have to say I went in there ready for some serious Nestle bashing. However, I was actually surprised, and a little freaked out by my feelings in the meeting. These people (as you would expect) were seriously well prepared. Nestle sent representatives from the developing world, (S. Africa and Sri Lanka) who now work in the UK. They basically said that in the developing world Nestle was a trusted brand and its only in Europe and the US that these problems exist. (Well maybe because we have better access to education and resources?) They bombarded us with articles and facts and figures and said how they were the best industry practice, had been removed from loads of black lists, even the Methodist Church have decided to invest in them. They made the (fair) point that in all the shouting about Nestle, other companies who are breaking the codes to a far worse extent are being ignored (SMA, Cow and Gate) by the general public. They raised a recent guardian article which had Nestle in the title but only talked about other companies as proof of this, they also had a pet midwife who had 'switched camps' from bma to Nestle talk to us.
I really don't know what I think- Baby Milk Action can't be sure they can get to the Union before the working group needs to bring it's recommendations to council, and I'd hate for them to only hear the Nestle perspective. But it makes me wonder if we should be boycotting all the other companies too? But that referendum may well be defeated, therefore undoing even a Nestle boycott. I'm glad glad glad that it's now in the working group's court, and not mine. An interesting afternoon though.

In other news- I haven't been swimming since the summer because it makes my eczema flare really badly, but in the space of a week I have found this pool pratically next to my house, which has lower chlorine than the Uni pool, and have finally found a ethical and organic eczema body wash (I HATE the emollients I get on prescription, they're overly greasy and make me smell like an oil refinery) which is suitable for the shower, as I hate baths. They also make a shampoo and conditioner- a bit on the pricey side but I got the shower wash and the shampoo and my eczema on my head is the best it's been in ages, plus I didn't flare up at all after my swim (25 lengths! go me). Their website is here and their stuff is yummy.

Lastly, I did a google search for the origins of my surname just for my own personal amusement in front of ER this evening, and found out my family motto is esse quam videri which means to be, rather than to seem. I quite like it!

Well, if you made it this far, thanks for reading!
S x x x

Looking towards a busy term...

2008-01-29T05:50:00.000-08:00

The exam period is a weird time- I have things I know I need to do but I'm completely free to do them as and when I want. Last semester was my 50 credit semester and I'm now facing a 70 credit semester which is kind of exciting, but also intimidating as I still need to work (paid) and carry on with my union commitments (unpaid) plus I'm trying to get more involved with church, I've been asked to sing in their palm sunday service which is exciting, I really hope I can fit it in because, weirdly, I find choral singing really relaxing, and also a style of music that modern churches maybe don't consider that often.
I was in Somerfields today (buying grapes mozzerella and pop socks if you're really interested) and while my friend paid, was looking at the magazine counter. Now I really don't care which star has lost a whopping 2 stone in 45 seconds, or how Myleene Klass lost 58lbs between popping out her baby and leaving the delivery room, or how YOU TOO CAN LOSE 14 STONE AND YOUR SANITY ON OUR EXCLUSIVE 14 DAY LETTUCE AND PEA-SHOOTS DIET!!!
Obviously this country has a strange relationship with food, that's what happens when you cut the end result of something off from how it was produced until cooking and eating just becomes something involving a freezer, a microwave and a sofa in front of the TV. Magazines fetishizing what is already a problematic relationship really doens't help- and I'm fed up of seeing it to the point when I won't buy magazines with this crap written on the front of them. How about teaching people to live healthy lives, both physically and MENTALLY? Why is it weird if a woman says, I'm a size 14 and have better things to do than stress about shrinking to a 12. People in the world are starving to death!! Yarg.
I will be SO happy when these 2 essays are done, maybe I'll stop ranting.

Sarah x x

RAGE!

2008-01-25T03:35:00.000-08:00

So in my successful attempts to avoid writing this essay (which has led to a wasted week) I was wombling around facebook and found a group dedicated to the memory of Heath Ledger. No surprises there- Heath was an amazing actor and people will jump on anything to try and create the next super-group (I may be cynical, maybe they just really liked heath ledger, maybe both?! who knows.) So anyway, I saw that someone had posted that the lovely, Christian people at Westboro Baptist Church, Kansas are going to picket his funeral. Westoboro Baptist Church? I hear you ask, better known as www.godhatesfags.com. These representatives of Christ on earth are going to picket his funeral because: (and I quote) God Hates Fags! & Fag-Enablers! Ergo, God hates the sordid, tacky bucket of slime seasoned with vomit known as 'Brokeback Mountain - and He hates all persons having anything whatsoever to do with it. Heath Ledger is now in Hell and has begun serving his eternal sentence there - beside which, nothing else about Heath Ledger is relevant or consequential. This and other kind-natured ramblings can be found here (If you want to make yourself sick!)
This has annoyed me for SO many reasons- Firstly, even if you were the kind of Christian that believed that homosexuality is wrong (Which I'm not- I'm a let he who is without sin cast the first stone kind of person) you still have to believe that portraying a homosexual is wrong, which is whole other story, BUT even if you think that acting a homosexual in an oscar-nominated film is wrong, you must still believe in salvation or you're not a christian, so if Heath Ledger had ever prayed for forgiveness he wouldn't be in hell anyway. SO they can't guarantee he's there, even if they believe the biggoted load of nonesense outlined above, as they simply don't know what went on between Heath Ledger and his maker.
Secondly- now we've given these idiots the benefit of 5 minutes of acting as if there was anything salvageable about their point of view on this, can we look at this realistically?! ARGGGGHHHHHHH! These people are the reason that hundreds of thousands of people believe that faith (of any kind) is not for them. They believe that Christians are judgemental and wouldnt accept them, or that they wouldn't fit in. The thing I love about being a Christian is the basic accpetance that I am human and will always f**k up! And so will all my Christian friends. Noone is acceptable because we are all flawed. Noone is perfect. INCLUDING the godhatesfags brigade. They seem intent on turning people away from God in order to preach their intolerant ignorant message.
All I can say is God is love, full stop. Its not for me to analyse or judge on what kind of love that should be, I'll leave it to the big guy and as long as you're not hurting anyone or yourself, I'll leave you to it.
I'm so glad my church is the polar opposite to Westboro Baptist.
Check it out!

Slightly more of a rant than I intended, but hey, not a post about my boring life for once!!

Sarah x x

I am still here... promise!

2008-01-17T14:25:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the big gap! I've had an incredibly hectic couple of weeks, plus a really sore jaw! I've been working on an essay on memory- it's been hard work but really really interesting which was nice, at least I didn't have to spend ages working on something that didn't remotely interest me, which is what I'm about to start doing with this horrible multiculturalsim essay- not that multiculturalism isn't interesting, but 1500 words in german about multiculturalism is not what I need at the moment.
I'm currently packing to go to back to Uni, not really sure how I feel about that at the moment, I do love it in Sheffield but everything was so stressy before christmas, and not all of it was resolved so heading back into the middle of it when feeling decidedly below par isn't filling me with joy, plus I'll really miss Andy and his lovely house :(
I have to go back to Uni via Edinburgh which is a pain, I have a huge case which I'm going to fill with my granny's incontinence pads while my mum drives to Sheffield with my stuff to give my aunt a break, ooh the glamorous life of Sarah.
I know this is all a bit stream of conciousness but I don't know how to personalise this blog so if anyone can help me please shout.
Lastly, I can't believe the media are shocked that Gordon Brown called Hain incompetent- finally a politician actually says what everyone is thinking and its still mega news?! What a weird country we live in!
More soon.
Sarah x x

New Year!

2008-01-03T11:27:00.000-08:00

Well a very merry christmas and a happy new year to you all, sorry there's been a big break but I've been loving sleeping, hanging out with Andy and my family and generally chilling out. Unforunately I set myself the deadline of the new year to start work again, and essays=facebook=blogging so here I am. Am currently deciding if I want to link to this from my facebook, as there's no point in me blogging to noone!
Bigger blog soon (I promise)
Sarah x

Church

2007-12-16T05:13:00.000-08:00

So, after a brief, unsuccessful church hunt last year I found a new church near my house at Uni at the start of this year. To begin with, everything was great- they were all really friendly, I like the style of worship, it's maybe not as modern as I'd like but I really agree with their theological stance and its great to be at a church with such a passion for social justice. The problem is, they have a student night on Wednesdays which I can't make it to because of DDSF. Its beginning to feel like they're never going to see me as 'part' of the students at church, and the rest of the church just seem to presume that the students are keeping an eye 0n me. There's a christmas meal next week which someone semi-invited me to last week but didn't mention where or when, I found out today it's fancy dress as everyone else was discussing their costumes and still noone invited me. They then all went round one guy's house for lunch, and another girl is having a party tonight but... you got it! no invitation. I found out today that there's an email list which you can get on but I guess I had kind of hoped that someone would have told me about it. I've never really had to integrate into a new church before as Dad being a minister means everyone knew who I was so it was never really a problem but this is really starting to get me down. I may be chatty, but I hate asserting myself. I just wish churches realised that the welcome team need to focus on more than you're first sunday- it's really integrating into the church that's hard. (especially if, like me it's a completely new tradition, I'm brought up methodist but now at a high anglican church.)
I don't know if anyone even reads this but if so, any advice would be appreciated. comment away!!

Sarah

Nearly Christmas...

2007-12-15T08:21:00.000-08:00

WAHEY the last paid work of term is done (£12. woot.) A nasty trip to nasty meadowhell yesterday has resulted in some very non nasty presents, although now I'm going to be looking decidedly like Santa trying to get all the family's christmas presents, the books for the history, neue deutsche identitaeten and film module essays and enough clothes for a month. I really can't wait now, it's bizarre most of my friends being on holiday and all chilling out and I'm still all guns blazing to get this 201 essay done. That said the NPD is a really interesting topic so at least I'm not bored! Getting stressed about my lack of grammer, will have to hit that over Christmas with some Hammer Grammer fun... another book for Santa's sack!!

2007-12-03T10:12:00.000-08:00

So, much MUCH calmer after a nice weekend off, purposefully did NO work which now is stressing me out but was so neccessary at the time! I went to Chatsworth with a friend from home and a flatmate this Saturday and had a great day, exploring and eating and window shopping (SO broke at the moment it's actually ridiculous) but we got in for free as another flatmate works there, so all I paid was the bus and it was a great day out for 4.50!! I'm not working any shifts this week so I should be OK time and pressure wise, got debate tonight and then my first day off in 6 WEEKS tomorrow... I'm going to sleep soooooo long!
Sarah x x

Argh

2007-11-29T05:09:00.000-08:00

I do too much. I mean SERIOUSLY too much. Those of you who have been in my life for some time will remember me crashing and burning during A levels. Well, clever girl that I am I have taken on too much and, according to the doctors, could be back down there at any moment. You see, my running for disability councillor was described as being a couple of hours a week. To start with it was taking a lot more than that, and I thought that as I got the committee set up and going, my workload would drop but as I delegated, the workload didn't drop- the people who I delegated to seem unable to take responsibility for their own work and always make me turn up to help them. Add into that my Uni work (what with a degree being the actual reason I'm here and all) and paid work to pay the rent etc and you have one ridiculously stressed, very knackered Sarah. My current track is to try and convince the Union to pay me by the hour, its a long shot but worth a try. The essays are piling up, they are my number one priority and therefore I can't do both DDSF (disabled and dyslexic student forum) and paid work, and DDSF won't pay the rent. Rant over, prayer appreciated :)

Sarah x x

Here we go again...

2007-11-24T14:54:00.000-08:00

So. After mutliple problems with the last blog, here we go again. Have chosen blogspot.com as it seems to be the provider of choice for most of the blogs I read on a regular basis, even if they don't realise I'm reading them!!
So, as an update from the last blog, I'm now in my second year at Sheffield studying German and History, recently elected as students with disabilities councillor on the Union council so am directly responsible for all the disabled students at Uni (eek) Have finally settled into a church, (after a year of a little bit of church hunting and a lot of laziness and bad habits) and am currently planning for my year in Germany next year which is daunting to say the least!
Anyway, andy has just arrived after a long train trip up to see me and his tea is in the oven so this is all to be continued!

Sarah x