Last weekend something amazing happened. For the first time in my life I would put my feet on English ground. September 7 was a lovely (!) summer day and the weather was brilliant (no rain at all – can you believe that?). And no, I did not go to London, but to Derby, a small-ish city in the East Midlands, mostly known for its football club Derby County. So why would I go there you ask? Well, I’ll be a foreign language assistant (FLA) for German at Derby High School, a well known independent school in Derby, starting on October 1 this year. So the idea was to get familiar with the city and with traveling by plane and train (which turned out to be rather simple).
Getting off the Airbus we already experienced what “British politeness” means: I wanted to buy a British SIM card at the SPAR store at Stansted Airport, so I asked the cashier for advice. He explained that lebara cards never really work with phones from outside the country and that O2 would probably be the best option for me. In case I have any questions in the future I should just go ask him. He was talking for let’s say 5 minutes and … no-one complained! There were a lot of other customers behind me – not saying a word. I was stunned. Had I been in Austria, they might have started a riot already …
Later that day we arrived at Chuckles Guesthouse located in Crompton Street in Derby, a really nice place indeed. The breakfast was deeeeeeelicious and the couple running the place was super friendly and helpful. I met my mentor teacher on Saturday, chatting about my job for three hours. 🙂
We also visited “Ye Olde Dolphin Inne” (allegedly that’s Derby’s oldest pub) trying to get familiar with English beer, Derby’s city centre including its beautiful Cathedral and four shared flats (I was trying to find a place to stay, but couldn’t find anything suitable). Oh, and Lara Croft Way of course. In case you don’t know: Lara Croft was invented in Derby. 🙂
So, I had a wonderful weekend, filled with a lot of “lovely”s and “thank you”s and I’m really looking forward to September 28 – when I will be finally moving to England. 🙂
