When you are part of the Fulbright program, you don’t get to choose what town you live in. Instead, you get an email about three months before you leave telling you your location. So, when I got an email saying I was going to go to Mallersdorf-Pfaffenberg, I was really nervous. I thought I was going to move to a big city, not a tiny town! I was worried that it would be hard to make friends in such a small town.
As it turns out, I was completely wrong. Living in a small town is a great way to make friends, and there’s a lot to do here. The community is very friendly. Even though I thought I would be lonely here, living in a small community means you get to know a lot of people! Now, I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Most of my time is spent working as an English teaching assistant. This was a little difficult at first, because the German school system is different from ours. I work in two schools. They are the Grundschule (elementary school) and the Gymnasium. The Gymnasium is like a high school. I help in the 3rd, 4th, 8th, 11th and 12th grade. At first, feeling comfortable in my school was really hard. I am scheduled see each class only once a week, so I couldn’t remember any names.
