Today was my last day of school before the summer holidays. The kids still have three more days of school, but those are dedicated to school trips and sport festivals in which I am not involved, so today was my last day.
The weather changed overnight, so we didn’t have “hitzefrei” again. Though today, only half of my afternoon class showed up. We watched Voyage of the Damned, the 2007 Doctor Who Christmas special. I had picked it, because Doctor Who usually works for kids of a fantastic bent (Chuck works for those who prefer action adventure) and because one of the students in the class is a huge fan of disaster movies featuring big ships in danger. And since Voyage of the Damned is the Doctor Who take on Titanic and The Poseidon Adventure (both of which the student in question loves) I figured it would be a good fit. And it was – the kids thoroughly enjoyed themselves, even the one who pretended not to be interested.
I suspect I may be the only person in the world ever to draw a parallel between the Beluga Shipping takeover which has been dominating the local news for the past few months and a Doctor Who plot. But the situation of Max Capricorn, the villain in Voyage of the Damned, and his company actually does mirror that of former Beluga head Niels Stolberg and so I used the Beluga comparison to explain the finer plot points the kids did not get. Only that Stolberg did not turn to villainy.
However, though school is out, I still have to get up very early tomorrow – much earlier than usual in fact. Because I have to take my Dad to the airport again. This time he is flying to Ilulissat in Greenland with half a dozen stopovers inbetween. And no, I had never heard of Ilulissat before this week either.
The half dozen stopovers are more of a nuissance for my Dad than for me. But unfortunately, he starts his journey with the 6:20 flight to Amsterdam, which means that I have to get up at 4:30 a.m. and pick up my Dad at 5 a.m.
The 6:20 flight to Amsterdam is the first flight that leaves Bremen airport every morning (or maybe the second. I think there is a Frankfurt flight a few minutes earlier) and it has been the bane of my existence for years, because I have either been on that flight or taken someone to the airport who is getting onto that flight lots of times. The timetable never changes either, the flight always leaves at 6:20 a.m. The Bremen – Amsterdam flight is the oldest connection at the airport – it has been going continuously for ninety-one years. And I bet passengers in 1920 already complained about the 6:20 flight to Amsterdam.
sending...
Awww – enjoy yourself (after your early morning tomorrow)! I just had the final exam English happen today (our holidays start at the beginning of August) and now we shall hussle to finish all of this (especially since the marks for all the other classes have to be done by the 12th if possible).
How nice not having to show up for the non-school-stuff – at least I shall probably be one of the helpers putting in data for the BundesJugendSpiele and not standing outside in the burning heat as I used to have to do before my eye problems started.
We didn’t get any hitzefrei either – from what I gather it’s the same situation as you have: the headmaster has to decide whether to do it.
Our final exams were a few weeks ago and the “Zeugniskonferenzen” took place last week, so we’re basically through for the year and have been since last week. And instead of Bundesjugendspiele we have something called “Sport und Spiele” Tag, which is apparently a Lower Saxony specific quirk (since it already existed when I was a student). The good thing is that there is less pressure and the students are likely having more fun (I hope).
I was surprised by the “hitzefrei” thing myself, since it’s the first time I’ve experienced it as a teacher. It was a good decision, though, since some of the rooms are intolerably hot and the kids are even more difficult to herd in such conditions.
Anyway, hang in there and think of the holidays, even if you’re hip-deep in tests and exams to be corrected.
Oh, I am ^^…. thinking of the holidays, heh ^^