Learning to forgive myself

I´ve had a tough 3 days of work.

--> first case of being late......
Monday - I started work at 8am and my last lesson ended at 930pm which meant that I was out of the house at 645am and back at about 10pm. I had my first teaching experience in a company, in which I was a replacement since the original teacher had another assigment. There were 6 hours of teaching altogether and I was misinformed about the timing of one of the classes. I was eating my lunch during my lunch break which was supposed to be from 11 to 1130pm. While I was happily munching my food, a woman came into the pantry and told me that the class was waiting for me. The instructions stated that the class was supposed to start at 1130 and it had only been 1120. She replied saying that the class was supposed to begin at 1115.

I was shocked and flabbergasted. The class then explained that 1130 was the original timing but they had an informal agreement with the previous teacher that they would begin 15 mins earlier and end 15mins earlier too - which I wasn´t informed of.

--> Second case of being late....
I teach English at the VHS on Monday evenings. Normally Stephan fetches me there since it starts only at 8pm. That day though, Stephan was stuck in a meeting and I couldn´t contact him. This meant that I didn´t know that he was in a meeting and kept having the inkling that we would somehow still be able to meet up before my class. While waiting for him to call, I decided to have my dinner.

By the time he called, it was too late for him to fetch me to my school. I decided to make my way there by myself taking the train - without any map, since it was too late for that. BAD MISTAKE.

I took the train to the correct train station, but ended up walking the exact opposite direction from where I was supposed to go. You can either turn right or turn left 50-50 chance. And of course I had to make the wrong choice. I wrongly estimated the duration of the train journey and coupled with my error in walking, I ended up being a total of 10mins late for my class.

In Germany, punctuality is so highly-regarded that anybody without this virtue is pretty much fried?!? I honestly felt like a criminal when I was late! I thought my students were ok when I explained what happened but apparently one of them wasn´t. At the end of the class, I thought I heard someone say "I hope that next week we start on time and not 10 mins late again". This was my first time being late after 4 lessons mind you.

Given that it was really not nice to keep them waiting, I really had hoped for the participants to be gracious and forgiving. I guess there will always be a difficult person anywhere. I ended up sending an email to the class to ask them to meet 10 mins earlier next week so that we can make up for lost time. The same guy whom I thought said that statement before actually replied "Everybody makes mistakes, but yours is harmless." So I really do hope that I heard the wrong thing at the beginning! Whatever it is, I need to learn to forgive myself for being human and making mistakes inspite and despite my efforts to be punctual.

--> 3rd time of being late (THE BEST ONE)
I went to another company today. What supposed to take 1hr 20 mins, took me 2 hrs to get there. I thought I would be 30mins early and I ended up being 15 mins late instead.

I checked the map, road directions and public transport system on how to get to my destination. I first took the S-bahn - no problem. Followed by the U-bahn (no problem too), except that I took the train that was 10mins earlier than what was stated in the travel itinerary. Lastly, I would have to change to the bus. The bus journey was supposed to take not more than 15 mins. I sat in there for 45mins!

I went to the bus-stop and checked whether the bus would be travelling in the correct direction. Confirmed - from the bus plan at the bus-stop. The only funny thing was that the plan stated that the bus would come at 823am. Barely had I register this information, did the bus 120 arrive the bus-stop. I was happily surprised as the bus was 10 mins early!

Normally buses come on-time in Germany, not earlier not later. I figured out, "oh well, maybe the buses DO come earlier here". I took the bus, with full confidence that I took it from the right bus-stop. Hence, I didn´t bother to ask the driver if I was indeed going in the correct direction.

I ended up being somewhere totally different after travelling for 20mins! (Esslingen). The bus-stop where I was supposed to alight would have been the last stop, hence I didn´t ask anybody if I was in the wrong bus. By the time I realized that the bus was making a round and the bus stop were "repeating" themselves, it was already 840am. My class starts at 9am.

It turned out that the bus 120 has 2 different routes, which start at the SAME bus-stop! So I should have waited at the bus-stop for the next 120, that would come in 10mins, instead of taking the earlier one! I mean, what´s the chances????!?! Isn´t it such that you normally take the bus in the opposite direction from a DIFFERENT bus-stop if you wanna go in a different direction?!? What the heck!

And, I remembered seeing my destination on the front of the bus, which was "Neuhausen". Apparently, I should have seen if its from "Neuhausen to Esslingen" or "Esslingen to Neuhausen". I mean, how on earth was I supposed to know, since the trains here only put the name of one place either "Neuhausen" OR "Esslingen" but never both? I must have only seen one word and thought that it was in the right direction........

Needless to say, I was late for 15 mins! That´s like criminal in Germany lah. I thank God that the class was understanding and they mentioned that I wasn´t the first teacher who made this mistake. Somehow though, I still have the fear that someone´s gonna complain to my school about me. "In Jesus Name, I trust that ALL things will work together for good, including when Pris is late. Amen"

Yup, this is my life..... that´s why I´m so exhausted these days. Surviving on God´s strength. I´m looking forward to not having any companies in the next few weeks. Seriously considering asking my Father-in-law to drive me to new places and I´d pay him for it instead.