Chapter 23 - The last week of term

Monday 8th - Sunday 14th February

As the title suggests, or in fact explicitly states, this week is the last week of term before the half-term holidays. The holidays mark the changeover point in my year abroad. Not in that I'm moving countries, simply that after the holidays I'm changing the days at which I work at my schools. This is quite exciting because I will get to work with some different classes, and have a different timetable! The only downside was the organising of the new timetable - primarily because it meant I had to chase teachers down; finding out when they were teaching English. But, nevertheless (which, for some bizarre reason I wrote as three words on my first attempt!), I managed to sort it out, and my timetable isn't too bad; no days scheduled to finish after 4th lesson, and only one early start a week!


So, what have I been up to this week? Not a huge amount during the week - a couple of private lessons, a tandem meeting, and having a few drinks with friends! Also we sowed the seeds of some longer journeys we may go on, but more about those when they've popped their heads out of the "wouldn't it be nice to go to...?" phase, and they enter the "Planning" phase! Needless to say, it could be quite an exciting three months!


Thursday saw the beginning of the exodus (by exodus, I'm referring to the four British Assistants who are leaving Saarland to its own devices for a week). Harriet headed off to Marseille, via Paris. As we're beginning to expect when Harriet tries to go anywhere, her train was late, and she missed her connection in Paris, but SNCF being reasonable sat her in First Class on the next TGV to Aix-en-Provence!

Saturday saw a day trip to Worms; which, for the record, is not so named because of any link to a blackbird's favourite meal. Worms, it has been argued, and is still being argued, is the oldest city in Germany. Whether or not this is the case, to me is somewhat irrelevant, for Worms does have a couple of 'claims to fame' without the need to be recognised as the oldest city. The first and, probably, most famous reason for its historical importance is its links to Martin Luther. Those of you who are not up to date on the Reformation or the foundations of the Lutherian Church may think I'm talking about the dream-filled American Human Rights campaigner, if you are thinking that....you are wrong! The American was Martin Luther King, the famous German Christian reformist was Martin Luther! So, back to the story, Luther was called before the Diet of Worms (a sort of religious court for the Catholic Church) to defend books that he had written, and opinions that he held regarding the need to reform the Church. In case you hadn't noticed, the Reformation isn't my strongest area of German History, so I shall provide a link to a Wikipedia Page, which explains the Diet of Worms better and more eloquently than I can! Yer t'iz
The other reason Worms is famous, or well-known, is because it is the home of the oldest Jewish Cemetry. Worms used to have one of the largest Jewish communities in Germany, if not the whole of Europe (excluding Russia). The Jews suffered in Worms, as they did all over Germany, on Kristallnacht (9th November 1938). The Synagogues were destroyed, the Jewish cemetery was desecrated, Jewish business were robbed, and trashed, Jews' homes were pillaged, vandalised, and, quite often, set ablaze. Following Kristallnacht, life for Jews became increasingly unbearable in Germany - as I'm sure everyone's aware! After the war, the Jewish population in Worms had been reduced by a huge percentage, and to this day remains very small. 
Here endeth the History lesson!

Worms was a nice city really, with a charm, which I can't quite describe or put my finger on! Navigation around Worms was made somewhat challenging by the fact that the tourist information centre was closed on Saturdays (arguably the day when a city would get the most visitors!). This left us navigating my signs with maps on them, which was fine - you simply headed in the rough direction, and when you came upon the next sign, you adjusted your route if necessary! But, on the whole it wasn't too bad to find our way round! I would dispute one thing that Worms advertised about their city - they gave the impression that Worms had a nice promenade along the banks of the Rhine. This, I feel, might be the case if you worked for Wincanton logistics, or had a penchant for the smell of petrol refineries! There was, however, a nice bridge over the Rhine with a castle gatehouse on the Worms end. This bridge was closed though, because it was too dangerous to cross. The new bridge now takes the strain of the traffic leaving Rheinland-Pfalz and heading to Hessen. 

After walking back to the centre of Worms, we decided to head back to Saarbruecken, but stop off in Ludwigshafen on the way, to see what was there, while we were out in that direction! There was, it turns out, a Hall in Ludwigshafen called Bugger. The Hauptbahnhof is situated a far away from the city centre, and is surrounded by big hotels. So, after a somewhat disappointing visit there, we got on the train to Kaiserslautern, where we would have half an hour before the train back to Saarbruecken. Now, we thought we would go and find a cafe where we could get a coffee and keep warm. We were somehow out of luck - there is a cafe that's open on Sunday, but not Saturday afternoons! So, we found a machine in the station that sold hot chocolates, in which we partook, before catching the train back to Saarbruecken.

Sunday, the day of St. Valentine, was spent packing a suitcase and getting organised for my evacuation of Saarbruecken. I am spending the half-term holiday in Berlin, where I will meet a friend from Bath, and where my parents are coming over on Tuesday. I'm looking forward to it for a multitude of reasons; it'll be the first time I've been on an aeroplane in years, it's BERLIN (that should need no further explanation!), also there's a day trip to Colditz planned too! All in all - it should be a fantastic week - and I'll be sure to take lots of photos, and have plenty to say about it - so brace yourself for a ridiculously long entry next week! Until then, adieu my friends, and adieu Saarbruecken!