Chapter Seven - The Seventh Week

Monday 19th October

So, today we headed off to Trier, which isn't actually in Saarland, instead it is in Rhineland-Palatinate (or as the Germans call it Rheinland-Pfalz). Rhineland-Palatinate is effectively a cushion for Saarland against the perils of the rest of Germany - it surrounds our little Bundesland on all its internal borders.

Trier is also the oldest city in Germany (according to Wikipedia, which is always right!), the birthplace of Karl Marx (him of communist manifesto fame, rather than a brother of Groucho!), as well as having some roman buildings too!

We caught the semi-fast train there, which took us just over an hour, which wasn't too bad. The views along the side of the river are pretty nice...what I would describe as picture postcard Germany. In fact, when we went along there this morning, the mist was just rising off of the river, and it was quite eery (I'm not sure how we'd spell that in English, so that's how it stays!).

When we got to Trier we thought we'd have a look around. There were a few places we thought we ought to see there, for example; Porta Nigra (an old Roman gateway to the old city) - still looking quite impressive considering its age, The Dom - which is a real mish-mash (that technical term again) of historical periods, with the main part being built during the Roman times, and other bits added on through medieval times. We also thought we ought to visit Karl Marx's house, which, if I'm honest, was a bit of a let-down. I'm not sure exactly what I expected, but it didn't really live up to it!

So, we did have a look at all of the above places, as well as wandering aimlessly (although we had a map, in case it wall went askew) through the streets of Trier; some of which were very pretty. There was also a market there today, and a mini-Versailles. Then we headed towards the river, which is the Mosel (Moselle in French) and walked long there for a bit, admiring the views on the other side.

Then we headed back to the Bahnhof, and enjoyed a nice train journey back to Saarbruecken from Trier, again enjoying the views from the train window!

This, ladies and gents, is why I came to Germany!

Just to make it easier, and to save uploading photos to two different places. You can see my Year Abroad photo album here.

Tuesday 20th October

Sorry, it's taken me an age to get round to updating this....this can be explained simply by saying "Microsoft Windows". I shall explain more about this later!

After our trip to Trier yesterday, we had originally thought about going by tram to Sarreguemines and then taking an SNCF train further into France. This idea, typically, encountered problems! This time in the form of a national strike by SNCF (who else!). Not being deterred from a day out in France, I thought we might go to Forbach (which I think is just one big housing estate full of HLM (council flats, for non-French speakers)) and if we go as a group we may find something else worth visiting...so we arranged to meet at the train station to catch the bus to Forbach in the morning. I have travelled to Forbach by bus before without problems using just my university semester ticket...however, for some reason best known to the driver, we weren't able to travel on this bus...so again, determined to visit France today, we waited quarter of an hour for the tram to Sarreguemines.

We had another wander around Sarreguemines (although, it was still pretty dead), had a cup of coffee, looked at the cinema to see if there were any films worth seeing (there weren't any on until the evening), and then headed over to Intermarche to grab a few groceries before heading home.

So, all in all, a typical day - brick walls, more brick walls, and a couple more just for good measure! Still, the tram ride was pleasant!

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the computer problems....so when I got home from Sarreguemines I flicked on the laptop, went and put the kettle on, came back ready to log-in, to find it had a corrupt boot-up file...being a technical whizz-kid I knew what this needed, so I switched it off and on again! Erm...this didn't work, and I was out of ideas! So, this wasn't a pleasant evening all in all...and a day in which Obstacles seemed to be the word of the day! You'll be pleased to know the computer problems were solved later on in the week!

Wednesday 21st October

Today I had my final round of bureaucracy in Germany...after this, no other German authorities need to be told about me! I had an appointment at 11am at the Auslaenderamt (Foreigners' Office) to get something called a Freizuegigkeitsbescheinigung (which I now know is effectively a piece of paper, saying that I can do as I please in Germany as I'm a citizen of the EU). I walked there from home, and got there about 10.35, and my number was called (another one of these ticket and number systems) at 10.45. The process involved me handing over pretty much every other piece of paperwork I had accumulated during my time here and the man in the office photocopying it. Then he gave me this piece of paper and I was free to go. I left the office at 10.55 (5 minutes before my original appointment time) - this was a true example of German efficiency at work!

Following my appointment, I decided to have a random day out on the trains, so I travelled on the train to a town called Dillingen, where I'd seen there was a branch-line, which I thought I'd take; just to see where it goes really! It goes to a place called Niedaltersdorf - which is, as I realised, just a small village with a church, a river, and a pub (which was closed for lunch!). Thus, it was a difficult place in which to kill 45 minutes waiting for the train to come back - so I sat down and read some of my book! After going there, I headed back to Saarbruecken, with the intention of going shopping...this I didn't do, preferring instead to head home and do very little!

Thursday 22nd October

Today, I had a lot to do! With Mum & Dad arriving in the evening, I felt it was necessary to do some tidying up! So, I started in earnest to do that about 10 am, after being distracted by the internet far too easily! After tidying for a bit, I decided it would be a good idea to iron the clothes that had been languishing on my clothes horse for the past few days - when at the same moment, I realised my laundry basket was full...so off I trotted to the washing machine with my bag full of clothes.

After I'd started the whole washing process, and begun to iron...I remembered I had to go shopping too. So, down to the bus stop I went with all my bags and shopping list. I had a bit more shopping this week, what with having to feed two other mouths and all, so it was a bit bloody heavier coming up the 67 steps to my house!

When I got back, I finished the ironing, and fetched the washing from the machine, and reloaded my clothes horse (so, really my room was just as full this morning, all I had achieved was to put some more of my clothes back in the wardrobe!).

During the afternoon, I had the fun job of dusting and cleaning my room! Ladies & Gents, please take note - as nice as laminate flooring looks, it is a right pain in the backside to keep clean, as it attracts dust like nobody's business!

As you can tell, the bulk of my day was well planned, well executed and generally was a lot of fun. (I've not got a sarcasm font, but if I did, this last sentence would appear in it!)

When Mum & Dad arrived, we had some tea, and spoke to my landlady, and then we went for a walk down to the Schloss, and had a beer before enjoying the bus ride home!

Friday 23rd October

So, on the first day of my parents' being here, we decided that instead of enjoying some of Germany, we would have a trip to Sarreguemines. We wandered around there for a bit, had a nice walk around the market, and then had a coffee! We then walked down by the side of the Saar (or Sarre, if you're a patriotic Frenchman), before heading off to Kleinblittersdorf for lunch and to repeat my walk from Kleinblittersdorf to Guedingen.

I should, at this juncture, briefly mention the weather (well, as there's three English people here - it would be negligent of our stereotype not to!) - it was a drizzly and cloudy day, but not exceptionally cold.

The walk was broken at Guedingen, where they conveniently left a pub, with a couple of drinks, before walking back to Kleinblittersdorf. It would appear that in this part of Germany they have employed the same person to count the distances as they have in Devon. (For those of you who don't know - Distances in Devon are often far further than the signs tell you they are - e.g. if a sign tells you it's 5 miles to Modbury, be aware it could be 8 actual miles!). How do I know this? Well, at one end of our walk, it purports to be 5km to the other end, whilst at the other end walking back along the same path will be 7.5km...where do the extra 2.5km come from? Who knows!

After walking as far as we did today, we decided to stay in and watch a film tonight.

During the film, we decided to use my computer's own rescue and recover system - this basically reformats my computer and then kindly installs Windows back on it. This might sound awful, but luckily I had saved a lot of my work on a memory stick, so that wasn't so bad! What's more annoying is that I now have to re-install a lot of my software back on the computer, which is more a time-consuming problem than anything else! Damned computers!

Saturday 24th October

Today we went to a couple of towns not too far away from Saarbruecken - indeed actually doing something in Germany! One of these was Saarlouis, which I had already visited with some of the other assistants; here we walked around the market and the infamous Tedi shop (basically a poundstretcher). We also had a walk along the side of the moat around the old fortifications in Saarlouis, which was very nice. At the moment, it is a perfect time to get some fantastic pictures of the orange, and red leaves on the trees!

After lunch in Saarlouis, we headed off to Merzig, where we actually went in a Woolworth (not quite the same thing as the ones which closed in January, but started by the same American). After walking around the town, which is nice, but there really isn't a lot here (except for two train stations!)...there is, though, a hill, from which you can have some fantastic views over the Saar and over the valley. (I've already put some photos on the blog in one of my September entries, if you're interested!)

This evening my landlady cooked a typical Saarlaendisch dinner for us. It consisted of a rare Saarlaendisch delicacy...err...maybe, not rare....in fact, not normally a delicacy....potatoes. The meal started with Potato soup, followed by pureed potato with cabbage, followed by a Lyoner sausage (which is originally French, but the Saarlaenders like to claim ownership for it!). This was finished off with stewed apple, and a few pieces of french cheese. All of this was washed down with a little (or, in fact, quite a lot) white wine! I would also like to add my name to the list of people (mainly students) that argue that alcohol makes languages easier and more fluent!

All in all, a very pleasant evening to end a pleasant day! It was also an opportunity to get to know my flatmate a bit better, because prior to this, we had often passed like ships in the night (me early in the morning and her late back in the evening!).

Sunday 25th October

So, today, we went out to see some more picturesue places within Saarland. The main reason for this was that everything is shut on a Sunday. The first port of call was a small town in Northern Saarland called Mettlach. Near to Mettlach is a famous bend in the Saar called the Saarschleife (Saar loop)...it is basically the only thing that normal Germans would recognise from the Saarland! I'm no geographer, so I'll explain it in layman's terms - it's basically a bend in the Saar, which almost goes back on itself. (I will put some pictures up when I put that piece of software back on my newly reformatted computer!).

From Mettlach, we thought it would be a good idea to walk along the river, to see what the loop was like from the bottom of the hill. It is pretty unimpressive to be honest. Admittedly, the river finds itself in a very deep wooded valley, which at this time of year is very pretty with the autumn colours, but in terms of noticing the actual bend, it's negligible because you are on the bend for so long, it becomes normalised.

So, after walking around the bend and back, we decided to head up to the viewpoint, from where there are some pretty good photo opportunities to be had of the view over the Saarschleife. We took some photos and decided that it was well worth the journey!

It was a little bit early to go home, so we headed over to Losheim am See, where there is a railway museum (which I knew would be closed, being a Sunday and all). It was surprising how easily accessible the museum property was; you could walk pretty freely around the main platform areas, and they are running trains along their preserved line at the end of November - so guess where I'll be then!!!

After briefly walking round there, we headed home and had a nice stroll down by the Schloss (castle) in Saarbruecken before catching the friendly bus back!

Several European, and intra-German excursions planned next week...I'll keep you posted!

Chapter Six - The Sixth Week

Monday 12th October

We're back using Firefox now, which is good, and is my preferred browser, as Opera started to play silly beggars! Although, it would appear it is now seemingly impossible to underline things on the blog in Firefox, but such is life!


Anyway, the first day back at school after my Introductory Course (jolly) at Altenberg. Would they still remember who I was, would they have forgotten I was supposed to be a cover teacher for Fr. Zils, who has gone on the exchange to Barcelona? Alas, they still knew who I was, and indeed I was still down to do these cover lessons.

Now, before I go on, I feel I should say something about abbreviations in the schools in which I work. In both Secondary Schools and Uni, names are abbreviated to initials - for example Mark Lister, becomes MRL, Karoline Von Oppen becomes KVO...thus I would be AJV. This makes sense, this is a standard, universally understood way of doing things. However, in Germany it is not. Germany, the land where rules and order are at their most prevalent, has adopted a completely different system for abbreviating names. Although, system may be a bit of an exaggeration, because the word 'system' implies a standard way of doing things, a pattern, if you like....Examples include Fr. S. Zils, who has the abbreviation Zs, and Hr. T. Gross, who has the abbreviation Gs. This might seem like a pattern, but then someone like Hr. J. Leistenschneider comes along and stuffs it all up by having Ls. How is a man supposed to cope? So, the dilemma for me was, how do I sign my name? Easy, AJV...they'll get used to it sooner or later!


Returning to the course of Monday, I attended Hr. Leistenschneider's lesson as per normal. This lesson is always a nice way to break into Monday morning, because I can sit at the back of the classroom (normally) and only need to say something every now and again to clarify a language/pronunciation point! Today, though I committed a cardinal sin in Germany...I arrived a few minutes late. To be fair, I had been in the school for the last 45 minutes, but had had to fight with a photocopier in preparation for the following lesson. Why are photocopiers so damned complicated, and why are they so slow when you're in a hurry?

After the lesson with Herr Leistenschneider (which I still maintain is the most quintessentially German name I've ever heard!) it was my turn to be the teacher! I had to cover a lesson with the 6. Klasse (year 7) and today we did alphabet revision - nothing too complicated, and they seemed to be a good class on the whole. I seemed to judge their ability about right, which wasn't bad considering I'd not met them before.

The next lesson was with the year above, who I covered the topic of school with, and it seemed to go very well actually. They finished the work faster than I expected, which, for a teacher, is a damned sight more annoying than not finishing it (they can finish it at home, i.e. no more work for you). We had been working on a fun poem about school, which they understood really quickly. The homework I had planned on setting them (i.e. learn a verse off by heart) had been duly changed to learning the whole thing off by heart - that'll teach them to work faster than my lesson plan!

The last lesson of the day was with a 9. Klasse (year 10), with whom I normally work. Today we did work on Emergency Services - I was slightly concerned that it would be a little bit too basic for them, but again I seemed to have judged the level about right. Maybe I should think about becoming a teacher! ;-)

Again, as for every day until Thursday, I had a class in period 9 (between 1515 and 1615) with the Oberstufe, which is always a pleasure to do, because the students are so good at English, and intelligent!

Tonight, there was the first Stammtisch meeting at the brewery in Saarbruecken - it was a pleasant evening with the French, American and one Spanish assistants, and not too pricey either, which was nice!


Tuesday 13th October

So, today I had an early start at Ludwigsgymnasium - I caught a bus at 7.00 (that's 6am for those of you reading this in the UK!) and was at the school about 7.25. I couldn't risk taking the later bus; it's bad form when the teacher's late - especially as I have to unlock the door to the classroom to let them in - I wouldn't even be able to hide the fact that I was late! Still, it's been a while since I've had to go to work in the dark! Although, I'm gonna dig out my gloves, scarf and hat for tomorrow!

My first lesson went well, as it happens, we revised numbers, simply by playing games! This was good for the kids, and a relatively stress-free lesson for me too! Just what the doctor ordered at that time of the morning!

The second, and last of my cover lessons this week! We worked on the British school system today with the 7. Klasse (year 8), using a letter, which I wrote purporting to be from a year 7 at Sheldon School. This worked well, and they seemed to understand it quite well, and they've got the whole of the holidays to write a reply - so there'll be no excuse for not having it done!

The next formal lesson was with the Oberstufe class of my Betreuungslehrerin. I was supposed to start with a 10 minute discussion about the Emancipation of Women - this turned into a whole lesson talk. I was surprised at the opinions of some of the young lads, they were almost out of the 19th century! So much for the New Age Man - I'm not sure that it's got to Saarbruecken yet!

Over lunch I went to the station, where there is a comemorative "Zug der Erinnerung" (Train of Remembrance) which includes a display about the trains used by the Nazis to deport people to the Death Camps. It was quietly moving, (although purely on a metaphorical level - it wasn't going) - it makes you think, and put things in perspective in life. For you Germanists, here's a website link for it!

This evening I went to dinner with a colleague, and it was a very pleasant evening! Another early night coming up though, because I've got to go out early again in the morning!

Wednesday 14th October

Back to the Gesamtschule today for the usual thing! 2 lessons; one witgh a 5. Klasse, where I take a small group to another room and cover the classwork with them - we usually get through it quite quickly! Then I work with another teacher and her 6. Klasse for my second lesson. Today I had to oversee some people doing their tests, because they hadn't had the opportunity to finish them during the first lesson. So, it was a nice quiet morning for me!

After the hard work at the Gesamtschule I ambled into town and met up with one of the other assistants for a coffee.

This afternoon I'd agreed to do some work with one of the Gymnasium teacher's students - she wanted help on her pronunciation, and seeing as the teacher had helped me conquer the Secretariat for a Photocopier Card I thought it only right to do him a favour in return!

I also had an Oberstufe Class during period 9, which, as per usual, was a pleasure to do!

Another early start tomorrow, because I need to go to the station on my way to work tomorrow to get my tickets to Paris for Christmas. At present, I can get home from Paris, and back again, but not actually from Saarbruecken to Paris and vice versa.


Thursday 15th October

The last day of school before the holidays! :-) Not a particularly long day either, in terms of lessons!


As I said yesterday, I would have to get up early to buy my tickets to Paris for Christmas. So, up I got at 5.30 and logged on to t'internet and checked Deutsche Bahn and SNCF for ticket prices. It turned out to be 20€ cheaper to buy it from SNCF, and includes free seat reservations. It did mean that I needed to have a trip to Sarreguemines to pick up my ticket from the nice people there.


School was pretty standard, I spent most of the time working with smaller groups and covering the majority of the classwork quicker than the teachers and their big classes. This meant that my kids had less homework than their counterparts - so even if they don't really want to come and work with me, there's a very clear advantage of them doing so!

So, after work, I sent a message round some of the other assistants asking if they wanted to go to Sarreguemines. Otherwise, it's a slight extravagance (despite the fact that it's free) to go all the way there just to pick up a ticket. So, Esther and I went to Sarreguemines, had a wander round, and had a couple of cups of coffee (Beer is more of a summer drink, and it's definitely not summer here anymore!). So, after waiting an inordinately long time at the guichet (ticket office booth thing (see, my French translation skills are still there!)) I was able to get my ticket, and then we headed home.


I would like to revert to stereotype now, if I may (and let's face it, it's my blog, so I may), and comment on the weather here. It's gone from being fantastic 23 degrees sunny days, to 6 degrees overcast damp days almost overnight. I had to find out my gloves, hat and scarf the last couple of mornings to go to school. As Esther described it: "It's gone from Spain to Siberia in 24 hours". We haven't had snow though, which I know a couple of people in Germany are experiencing!


Friday 16th September


Today was the first day of the holidays as far as we, assistants, are concerned. So, we planned a rendez-vous (a multi-lingual blog this one!) at 11 am (who thought 11am was a good time...I've had to get up at 5.30 three days this week!) in front of Johanneskirche. The plan, if you can call it that, was then to walk to the Hauptbahnhof, and get on the first train going somewhere in Saarland! So we did, we went to Saarlouis, which is about 30 minutes away on the train. Now, Germans are generally practical people, and they like things to work smoothly....maybe Saarlouis is an exception! The Hauptbahnhof is 4.5km away from the town itself....so if you've not been there before it's very easy to go there, walk around the few buildings near to the station (although avoid the toilets) and think that that's all there is!


We nearly did this, but then we decided to catch a bus into the town itself, and have a look round. Saarlouis is actually quite a nice town, there's more there than I imagined. It's not really quinitessentially German, but instead has strong franco-germanic-luxembourgish influences...it's is, to use a technical term, a mish-mash. We had a look around some of the shops there, before heading out to IKEA, which is not very far on the bus.


I've never been to IKEA; both of the other assistants have, and they were determined to show me what it was all about. Now, I didn't need anything, and I was expecting to be bored out of my skin - imagining it as a cross between MFI, DFS, and B&Q (other furniture & DIY retailers are available, but their names were too long). I was pleasantly surprised....the attention to detail in IKEA is fantastic. Looking at it from the perspective of someone who has worked in retail for the last 4 years, it was clear to see what they'd done and why...and it really worked. Basically, for the people that haven't been, they have displays of how rooms could look, and I mean loads of them...and the attention to detail is just spot-on. There's also a "suggested route", which has a different colour on the floor, and it's expected that most people follow it.


Also, the stuff in there, isn't too pricey either (some stuff is dear, other stuff looks cheap and nasty, but generally it's OK), and it has everything you could need for setting up a home. So, it's easy to see why it's become so popular, and successful!

Saturday 17th October

So, today I played a game. An interesting game in the city. I found about the game from a fellow assistant whose church group was organising it. The game is called "Scotland Yard" and is effectively a grown-up version of the playground classic "Cops and Robbers". The rules were quite simple, the 2 pairs of fugitives would be using public transport in the city, and you had to track them down! You could only use public transport too, and weren't allowed to walk other than to the nearest bus stop/tram stop etc. Every 20 minutes, we would give our location to the central control, and shortly after would receive a message from control giving us the location of the fugitives. Naturally, we didn't know which buses they were on, or in which direction they were travelling; so a lot of it was down to trying to second guess the fugitives.


We found the first pair quite easily (after going in completely the wrong direction to start with!) on the tram, by meeting them at a tram crossing point. The second group, though, were much mroe challenging to track down, but we did eventually find them, purely by chance by getting on the first tram to come along. The only problem was that Harriet's group had got on at the tram stop before (no more than 500 metres up the road) and found them first.


Still, it was a nice way to spend a Saturday afternoon, and we saw some different bits of the city!


To revert to type again, I feel I must comment on the weather; when I walked down into town today, it hailed...and not the 5 minutes worth of hail we're used to in Britain, this was about 15 minutes of it, and when I was walking along, I could here it crunching under my feet on the pavements! Other than that, it was a cloudy day, and still cold here!



Sunday 18th October


I waited in this morning, because I had accumulated so much washing, that I had nothing to wear tomorrow! Two lots of washing took me up till about 1 o'clock. Then I decided I wanted to go somewhere outside of Saarbruecken. I have a book of things to do in all the different towns in Saarland, so I simply opened it at a random page, and then asked Deutsche Bahn how to get there!


The place I landed was, was a place called Sankt. Wendel. It's about 30 minutes away by train, and was a nice little town. The shops were open there, although I would presume this was for a special occasion rather than the norm, as nothing in Saarland is normally open on Sunday, excepting a few cafes! I had a nosey round there, took a few photos and then decided I would call in at Ottweiler on the way back. Ottweiler is a much smaller town, but, in my opinion, a prettier town...literally nothing was open there, and I saw about 3 people wandering round. There is a museum railway running along a 21km line to a railway museum, which leaves from Ottweiler Bahnhof, however today was the last running of the year, so I'll have to wait until the new year to have a look there!


When I'd finished in Ottweiler, I took the train back to Saarbruecken, but it was still quite early, so I decided to head out to Voelklingen to have a look around! Although I walked in the direction of the Voelklinger Huette rather than into the town itself. Again, I took a few photos there, before heading back into Saarbruecken and off home!


Tomorrow, I'm heading off to Trier with a couple of the other assistants, which should be nice, especially as we can travel the majority of the way for free!

Chapter Five - The fifth week

Monday 5th October

Off to Altenberg today! Shock horror, the train was late - I blame this on the fact that it was a TGV, which came from Paris this morning! There were also a surprising number of people trying t board the train at Saarbruecken considering it left at just before 11am. A seat reservation would have set me back a couple of euros, and I decided I probably wouldn't need one. I still stand by this decision, because the train was so busy, I think it would have been too difficult to get through to my reserved seat! So for the first part of the journey to I travelled in the buffet carriage of the TGV. No proper seats, but somewhere to lean and not very busy either. It was only for about 75 minutes anyway!

So, on arrival in Mannheim, which is apparently in Baden-Wurttenburg (that may be a slightly tenuous claim in my opinion!), we waited for our train to Koeln. The train was 2 ICEs joined together. Yet again, we had a mad search for a seat, and I was successful...momentarily. After about 3 minutes, I was evicted again - so off to the vestibule I trotted and sat there! (It's like being at home again!). I was sat there for about an hour or so, until Frankfurt Airport, where quite a few people got off. Back in the carriage, there were seats free - so down I sat. To be turfed out again moments later - never mind, I like the vestibule anyway! There's a clever screen there, that tells you how fast the train goes - we were generally travelling about 290-300 km/h. After a bit in the vestibule, the train manager came down, and told me there were seats towards the back of the train. So, off I trotted, and I sat down, only to have to get off the train at Koeln 30 minutes later.

We got to Koeln really quite early (14.05 for a 15.30 Meeting) so we set off in search of a toilet. The ones at Saarbruecken Hbf. cost 50cents, in Koeln €1 (which brings a whole new meaning to the phrase to spend a penny). So, in the end, we waited in a cafe until the allotted meeting time.

After seeing the huge group of assistants in the station foyer, we knew we were in the right place, so we, like sheep, joined the flock and waited patiently. Going to this Altenberg were assistants from Berlin, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (Mecklenburg West Pommerania), Schleswig-Holstein, Baden-Wurttenburg, and, of course, Saarland.

We had to wait at the station for a second double decker coach to collect all the people. And when it did finally turn up, we were still waiting around for another 40 minutes or so, for some people whose trains from North Germany were late!

On arrival at Altenberg, in the rain, we did the usual things: Rules and Regulations, Introduced ourselves (although, this wasn't much of a challenge for the Saarlaender!). Our tutor was a teacher cum civil servant in the Saarland Ministry for Education. We then paid our €30 towards the cost of the course!

Tuesday 6th October

Today was the first day of proper teaching at Altenberg, but before we get to that I feel it would be a good time to mention something about Altenberg itself.

Altenberg is a cathedral (albeit in the middle of literally nowhere), which is still in service (possibly not the right word, but it'll do here!). This means that people still pray here, and that they are stilled called to prayer. But, I want to tell you a story about a man at Altenberg, let's call him Quasimodo. Now, Quasimodo has decided that the local people, who are all aware of the Cathedral's presence, need a reminder about attending church. But because Quasimodo's a conscientious bell ringer, he knows people like to get to church punctually (we're still in Germany, don't forget!). Moreover, Quasimodo's a little bit old, so he can't quite master the phones, so he decides to ring the church bells. He first does this at 5 am (until about 5.30), then, almost as if you pressed snooze, he starts again at 6 am (for about half an hour again), and then once more about 7 am (when the service itself begins). My room at Altenberg was about 50 m from the bell tower - and, as I'm sure you can imagine, it's very loud, and annoying - especially at 5 am! But all things considered, you've got to feel a little sorry for Quasimodo, he always looks quite upset whenever you see him - it's been said he's got the hump! (sorry, I couldn't not put one in!)

So, having eaten breakfast, we started the proper course today! But before the proper teaching, we were given €100 travel expenses (as we'd already travelled to Germany, and had to travel again across Germany to get to Altenberg). So, just to break this down:

I paid €68 for my train fare

I paid €30 for the course

I received €100 allowance.

So, I've therefore gained €2 by turning up at the course. What was more impressive was that the money was paid in the form of a €100 note. (they are green, and it was the first time I'd ever seen one, let alone had one in my possession).

The day itself was basically taught in Bundeslaender, which for us was a massive qadvantage! We started after breakfast, with a 1 3/4 hour session on the school system in Germany, and more specifically Saarland. We also covered the rules and regulations of what you can and can't do as a Language Assistant.

We then watched a video of a couple of assistants teaching classes, and went back into our groups to discuss them.

Following lunch, which was reputedly fish (although I'm not quite convinced!), we started discussing our lesson plans and looking at the materials for the simulated lessons tomorrow.

After dinner I decided that instead of going to the bar tonight (although at 1€50 a bottle of beer - it's very cheap here). I watched "Die fetten Jahre sind vorbei" (The Edukators) again and very pleasant it was too!

Wednesday 7th September

So, today we had to teach our prepared lessons to the other assistants in our group. This went OK, but as a group we'd decided to make it more interesting by behaving like pupils of the age we were supposed to be. This meant, pronouncing words wrong, reading badly, talking in German, passing notes around the classroom, asking to go to the loo, chatting amongst ourselves, and even throwing things across the room. Needless to say everyone was absolutley shattered by the end of the day, but it had been generally fun and had passed the time quickly!

After dinner, there was a pub quiz, in which I learnt that Saarland is the smallest Bundesland (this is rubbish, there are 3 city Bundeslaender, which are all smaller than Saarland). Then back to the bar, for a couple of beers and a wake-up time of 6 the next morning!

Thursday 8th October

So, that was that! Altenberg's over! We got up at 6, packed our stuff away, put our linen outside the door, and went down to breakfast for 6.30. Coffee was definitely necessary at breakfast! The coaches left promptly at 7.30 for the journey back to Koeln station, where, as I had a fair amount of time before my train journey, I went to the Cathedral. It's height is impressive, but it was very dark and dingy inside! Metz was much nicer! The train back was scheduled to take about 3 1/2 hours. First we travelled to Koblenz on an Intercity train (not an ICE, but the next one down). We got into Koblenz 6 minutes late, and our connection time should have been 7 minutes. So, we had 1 minute to get off the train and run, yes, run, to the correct platform! It was slightly Top Gear-esque, and probably looked rather amusing! The train we got on was going to take us about 2 1/2 hours to get to Saarbruecken - quite a long time. The journey itself though is wonderful, for the most part the railway runs directly alongside the Mosel, and if you were to picture a German river scene, it would be a replica of the view from the train. It was truly fantastic! So, I'll be going back there soon!

Friday 9th October

I had quite a bit on the administrative front to do today! I had to go the bank to collect the relevant stuff so that I could do Internet banking with them. This was a painless process, which took 5 minutes, which was much less than I expected! I also had to go the Hauptbahnhof because I have decided to indulge in a Bahncard 25 for those journeys I'll be making outside of the Saarland, which entitles me to 25% off fares for 4 months. I also went into the Tourist Information Centre to try and find information about B&Bs or Guest Houses in Saarbruecken. This turned out to be the most challenging thing I had to do, as they weren't able to help me, other than to direct me to the stand with the hotels' leaflets on them!

I was planning to go to Neunkirchen (Saarland's second biggest town) today, but instead met up with one of the other assistants, where we had a couple of drinks in town, and had a nosey around, followed by a nice meal out (Moules Frites), which was very nice indeed! Whilst we were sat down after eating, the other assistant's flatmate saw her and came over to chat, along with a couple of his friends, one of whom is the girl who lives in the flat with me! It's a small world here in Saarbruecken!

Saturday 10th October

Today it rained! This is the first day of proper rain I've experienced in Saarbruecken since I arrived over a month ago! This meant our planned trip to Saarguemines was called off, so instead we went around my friend's and watched Harry Potter, after making Pancakes! Following the film, we tried to work towards solving the problem my friend has with a lost passport. The first stage of this is to go to the Polizei and report it as missing, which we did. Then we ambled up to the Train Station, on the off chance it had been handed in - but the office is closed until Monday now! If it hasn't been handed in, it will mean a trip to Frankfurt for my friend to the British Consulate there to work on getting a new one!

Sunday 11th October

Today I'd planned to visit Homburg by train. And technically I did visit Homburg. I had a very quick look round, but it's very difficult to appreciate places like that properly when you go round on your own, so my visit was rather short. So I returned to Homburg Hbf, from where I planned to return to Saarbruecken, using an indirect route. I caught a train to Neunkirchen (12 minutes away) and then had to wait for a Schienenersatzverkehr (bus replacement service), which in atypical German fashion left late. Now, I would have thought that as the train and the bus were both run by Deutsche Bahn, it would have been possible to hold the train to meet the connection. Err...no....it's not the train driver's fault the bus was running late, and just as the bus pulled into the train station, I could see the train screeching round the corner on its way to Saarbruecken. So, here I was in Illingen, a town I'd not even heard of before, so I ambled down into the town - into the middle of their town festival. As you'd expect, there were plenty of sausages and beer around, with some music too! It was a nice amble round the town; there was also a car boot sale (consisting of about 12 cars) in the town. The most exciting there, though, was a shop that sells chalk! I don't need any at the moment, but I had been looking for somewhere in Saarbruecken for weeks that sells it, without success!

After wandering round the town, I went back to the station, and caught the train to Saarbruecken, then I travelled ut to Merzig and back on another train; just because I could really!

Two things struck me today - one is that the Semester Ticket is really good value for money, as the tickets today would have cost me about 20€, instead I travelled free! Second was that there is a much less stringent, yet more sensible, approach to Health & Safety on the railway here; the railways are seldom separated by big fences to stop people walking on them, and the trains don't have yellow ends either (to make them more visisble). Maybe it's because the Germans are intelligent enough to realise that walking on a railway line is not a clever (klever in German) thing to do, because it'll hurt if you time it wrong.

Back to school tomorrow, for one week, and then it's the Autumn half term!