I spent the month of August traveling around Europe with my mom before settling in Hamburg a couple weeks ago. This was my first official week of TAB. On Monday, we met at the University of Calgary where our liaison gave us presentation on Hamburg and teaching in Germany. We also received great travel tips and advice for sight-seeing around Hamburg in our free time, it really got me excited to be here. The next day was my first day at my placement school. It happened to be the first day of school for the grade 1 students, which in Germany starting first grade is a big deal. The other grades put on a performance to welcome the new students to their school. Parents get the day off work to attend their child’s first day of school, the first-grade students are often dismissed early to have a celebratory lunch with their families. Very different from how the first day of school is celebrated in Canada.
I look forward to being more involved in the school in the coming weeks! Hamburg is such a beautiful and vibrate city, it feels like my first week of TAB just flew by. Having a more established daily routine and connecting with the other TAB students really helped alleviate some of the homesickness when my mom left.