Monday 19th April - Sunday 2nd May
So, with the Black Forest barely behind me, it was time to return to school! Monday saw me doing my normal lessons; no covered required this time, which made a pleasant change! However, that record was no longer standing by the end of Tuesday! Tuesday saw me doing 2 full cover lessons, with little more than 5 minutes preparation for both of them together. Wednesday was a pretty standard day at the Gymnasium, although I had the chance to work with a new class (to make up for the 12. Klasse kids who've left. My new class is a 7. Klasse (Year 8 equivalent/12-13 year olds) and they're a charming class, who are very curious, and seem to be keen to learn and practise their English. I'm looking forward to working with them more in the last month of my placement here. Thursday was my busiest day of the week; I had 5 lessons straight through at the Gymnasium. Luckily, all the classes with whom I work are pretty good kids really!
As you can see, work wasn't overly exciting this week. But, and I'm reverting to type here, the weather has been pretty fantastic this week. I read in the local paper that Saarland is the Bundesland (Federal State) in the whole of Germany, which has seen the biggest change in climate due to global warming. Now, I understand that Global Warming is a threat to the planet, but, in a purely selfish and tongue-in-cheek way, I'm more than happy for people to bring their 4x4s and drive them round Saarbruecken for the rest of the month if they want! The average high temperature last week was 19.7 degrees celsius, and the sun has been shining almost perpetually. It's now at the stage, where I can leave for work at 6.45 and not require anything more sustantial than a short-sleeve shirt. That said, the weather today has been a little bit hit and miss; we've had some very nice sunny spells, but also a couple of very loud and wet thunderstorms too.
Because the weather has been so good, I've spent a fair amount of the week outside! Wednesday evening I met up with a colleague from my Gesamtschule who wanted me to meet her daughter and her friend who were visiting from Paris. There was no alterior motive here! She suggested it would be a good opportunity to practise listening to and speaking some French, and she was quite right! Thursday afternoon was spent by the Saar with a few friends, which wasa very nice way to spend the time. It was easily warm enough to remain by the Saar long past the half 8 we were there until, but I needed to have something to eat!
Friday saw me make a trip to Homburg in the evening for Will's birthday party. He has had the misfortune to turn 21, and leave me in the 20-club alone! It was actually my first trip to Homburg properly, excepting changing trains. On the train coming back to Saarbruecken there was a Ticket Inspector who was raking it in with 40€ fines being given out willy-nilly. I had already bought a ticket, so saved myself some money there; but because the majority of DB's Regional Trains are unchecked many people like to play russian roulette with the Inspectors. As one philosophically said to the Inspector; "you win some, you lose some" - or a rather more complex German equivalent!
Saturday, as the previous week, required an early start, which was fine. Lucy and I were going to Bonn for the day, and were taking the 7.02 train. Last Saturday it was perfectly possible to catch a bus into town at 6.14 and walk to the train station in plenty of time. Yesterday was different though. Saturday was the 1st May. In Germany the 1st May is a Public Holiday; that means places only open their Sunday hours - largely none at all, and buses only run a Sunday timetable; this is not helpful when the earliest bus round by me is at 9.32! Luckily, with a quick check using their text service I was able to see that there was a bus from the bottom of my road to the train station at 6.32. With a bit of a jog, I made it in time and managed to safely get to the train station. The train from Saarbruecken went to Koblenz, and does some have some fantastic views over the Saar and Mosel on the way; and it's double decker, which still hasn't worn off yet! From Koblenz we changed to a train directly to Bonn, which took about 45 minutes. We got there about 11ish.
En route to the tourist information office (always the first port of call; for a street map) we got distracted by an artisan's market in the Minster square. Some of the stuff there was good, some was quaint and other bits were bordering on "Why?" standard! After looking around the market for a bit, we headed over to the tourist information office, got our street map and then trotted off to explore Bonn.
The first thing we went to see was Ludwig van Beethoven's birthplace, which was pretty much a house, with a plaque on the window. It has a museum on the ground floor, but seeing as it was a Public Holiday it was closed! Shortly after Beethoven's house we came across the Communists/Socialists/Trade Unions all having a parade, which from what we could grasp was not authorised by the place, yet was still taking place. The parade, was actually not parading at that moment, instead it had turned into a stationary protest about the police arresting one of their contingent. So, as nothing exciting seemed to be happening we moved on, and returned to the tour of Bonn! The next focus of which was to be the River, after a drink! After we'd replenished our liquid levels we walked down to the River, which is a river I saw last Sunday in Basel....can you remember what it's called? (if no, it's the Rhine). We walked along the Rhine to see the old West German Parliament building and the Post Tower. While we were there we discovered that there was a trail along the river side of the planets, with little signs about them all the way. The planets were distanced to scale, and the overall trail probably went on for about 5km. We walked all the way to Neptune from the Sun, before we came across a building site and the industrial port in Bonn. And as Pluto is not technically a planet any more (it's, in fact, an asteroid), we abandoned the search there and headed back into the city to find somewhere for lunch. We got back into the city about 15.30 when we decided to have some lunch. After lunch I had to go and rendez-vous with the main reason for coming to Bonn, Ruediger.
It would be useful, I realise, here to explain who Ruediger is, and why I had to meet him. So, that's what I'll do, but I shall answer the key questions in reverse order. (Partly because it makes more sense like that, and partly because I can!) But before I can even explain why I had to meet him, you need yet more information! You need to know that Dad collects clocks, lots of clocks, but that he prizes his modest collection of "Perpetual Motion" Atmos Clock. Now rather than me try and explain to you exactly what they look like, or how they work - I counsel you to click here to find out more! I had to meet Ruediger to collect one of Dad's Atmos clocks off of him, because Ruediger repairs them and restores them. Ruediger was previously a senior diplomat in the UK working for the German Government and it used to be much easier to take stuff to him in Wimbledon. He was then re-posted and now works in Bonn, so as I live in Saarbruecken, the decision was taken (not entirely by me, if I remember correctly!) that I would go and collect said Atmos Clock and bring it back to Saarbruecken for Mum & Dad to collect when they come over in a few weeks time! Needless to say, the clock managed the train journey home unharmed, which is good for two main reasons: 1) it's very valuable, and 2) I like breathing!
So after being a very cheap courier, I spent Sunday moping! I did do some useful things like clean the bathroom, and prepare a couple of worksheets for lessons next week! But my main achievement of the day was avoiding the thunderstorms that arrived in Saarbruecken today!
Now, for the avid and attentive reader, you will notice that this blog entry was actually written on time! So enjoy, it doesn't happen very often!
Next week comes the expedition of the year - Lille!
Showing posts with label Sunshine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sunshine. Show all posts
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Friday, April 23, 2010
Chapter 28 - Back to school
Saturday 10th - Sunday 18th April
This title is not named after the retailing season, although it will surely be appearing in shops soon! Instead, it is an unsarcastic, unironic statement about my first week back in Saarbruecken.
As at Christmas, I made the decision to travel on the Saturday before work started again on Monday. Two main reasons for this: SNCF, and sleep! SNCF because it's a Sunday, and their service is sometimes a little sketchy on Sunday, even if they had to decided not to partake in a mouvement social (a strike to you and I), and despite the fact that the majority of my journey is spent on my laurels reading a book, listening to my MP3 player, or simply admiring the view (albeit at 270 km/h), travelling halfway across Europe (well, through France anyway) can take it out of you - so I travel on Saturday so that I can catch up on a little bit of train-lag before going back to work, where it's expected that I'm not still rubbing sleepy dust out of my eyes!
So, the journey started about 7.55 at Chippenham railway station, where it was a very nice day, and I had far too many layers on (simply to save me having to put them in the already bulging suitcase!). Now being a seasoned traveller I'd half expected the train to be late into Chippenham, but it had managed not to be. So, we left on time, and powered our way towards the only London station named after a bear who likes marmalade sandwiches. All was going tickety-boo (well clickety-clack, but you get the idea) until just outside Reading, where we seemed to stop for a while in the middle of nowhere. The Train Manager told us that there was an issue on the line in the Slough area, which was why were being held up before Reading. We eventually crawled into Reading, where the Train Manager was able to find out that the delay had been caused by someone jumping in front of a train in the Slough area, and the line was duly closed to allow a clear-up operation to begin, and then the lines were only gradually re-opened, which meant that the signalmen (and I daresay women) had to sort out the backlog. This they managed, and then we continued on our way to London, arriving a mere 45 minutes late. I would like to take this opportunity to do something which I don't do very often, and that's to have a bit of a rant!
My chosen topic this time is "People who jump in front of trains". Now, before I start I should say that I accept that suicide is not an easy decision to take, and the people who choose to end it all, are desperate and at their wits' end, and this rant is not about suicide itself, simply about the choice of someone to jump in front of a train. For this reason, I would ask people not to jump down my throat for what's about to come!
Jumping in front of a train is one of the most selfish ways of committing suicide that I can think of. On the very basic level, you will cause delays to the rail network, but let's face it the Train Companies can do that on their own without the help of someone standing in front of a train. So, all in all, the delays it causes are not my primary issue, merely an annoyance. That said, I seem to take delays better than others; one day when I was commuting to Bath, the trains had been cancelled, or severely delayed because of someone jumping in front of a train, and a lady comes down the stairs onto the paltform, and says "I hope he's dead!". I don't get that annoyed by it, instead I find an alternative way to uni. But, as I said that's not my main problem with it, my biggest issue is the effect it has on people who are innocent, and who have to deal directly with the person's suicide - people like the Train Driver, who may never be able to sleep at night again, the Police Officers of the British Transport Police who have to attend what they call 'one unders', along with the Network Rail employees who have to clear-up the line so that the trains can run again. All of these people have to deal with sights that are simply awful, and could cause untold psychological trauma. Or, in the case of Stanley Martin, the ultimate price, because someone decided to kill themselves by parking their car on the line and waiting for a train to crash into them.
Now as I said, this rant was about the effect that 'jumpers' have on others who were otherwise going about their normal daily business, and have had to deal with such horrors.
Now I've got that off my chest, I shall continue with the story! I got to St. Pancras, where I had arrived about 3 hours before my train was due to leave, so I went to a cafe and read my book with a mug of coffee in the sunshine whilst waiting for check-in to open. The Eurostar left, pucntually, and had an uninterupted journey to Paris, except for the planned stop in Lille. We arrived in Paris about half five, and as I walked to Paris Est I found somewhere to eat some tea, before meeting Esther at the station. We travelled back on the ICE together, where we also arrived on time, which is a rarity amongst the trains to/from Paris! After a short bus journey home, I was in bed by 11 o'clock!
Sunday was spent unpacking, well, rather putting away the stuff I'd already unpacked (onto the floor) and I had a private lesson in the afternoon. Otherwise, it was a quiet day, involving me pretty much catching up on a weekend of stuff I'd missed on iPlayer!
The first week back at school was full of the usual post-holiday chaos! With the ash cloud posing problems all over Europe, I was impressed that none of the teachers had been silly enough to get themselves stranded in a really hot, sunny country, instead of being shut in a room with 30 excitable children! I also rose to a certain level of fame, or the negative form thereof, because it was during this week that the English Abitur (A-Level) exam took place, on the higher tier of which all of the students in Saarland would have been told what to do by yours truly. That said, I still haven't heard it, and my ask one of my teachers if I could have a copy of it, so I can enjoy my slurring of the letter 'r' in a typically Westcountry manner!
It was this weekend in which Esther and I had originally planned on going to Munich, but time constraints let us down. It was only on the train back from Paris that we were supposed to be going then, and as nothing had been booked or organised, we shelved it, perhaps for another year! Instead, I took advantage of the fantastic weather which we've been experiencing in Saarbruecken, and spent most of the weekend by the Saar in the sun! Over the weekend there were also a couple of evening get-togethers too, in which I took part.
So, what's coming up next week? Not a lot regarding school, it's been a pretty quiet week really. There is a weekend trip to Freiburg im Breisgau (on the edge of the black forest, near the Swiss & French borders) for me and Harriet to look forward to.
This title is not named after the retailing season, although it will surely be appearing in shops soon! Instead, it is an unsarcastic, unironic statement about my first week back in Saarbruecken.
As at Christmas, I made the decision to travel on the Saturday before work started again on Monday. Two main reasons for this: SNCF, and sleep! SNCF because it's a Sunday, and their service is sometimes a little sketchy on Sunday, even if they had to decided not to partake in a mouvement social (a strike to you and I), and despite the fact that the majority of my journey is spent on my laurels reading a book, listening to my MP3 player, or simply admiring the view (albeit at 270 km/h), travelling halfway across Europe (well, through France anyway) can take it out of you - so I travel on Saturday so that I can catch up on a little bit of train-lag before going back to work, where it's expected that I'm not still rubbing sleepy dust out of my eyes!
So, the journey started about 7.55 at Chippenham railway station, where it was a very nice day, and I had far too many layers on (simply to save me having to put them in the already bulging suitcase!). Now being a seasoned traveller I'd half expected the train to be late into Chippenham, but it had managed not to be. So, we left on time, and powered our way towards the only London station named after a bear who likes marmalade sandwiches. All was going tickety-boo (well clickety-clack, but you get the idea) until just outside Reading, where we seemed to stop for a while in the middle of nowhere. The Train Manager told us that there was an issue on the line in the Slough area, which was why were being held up before Reading. We eventually crawled into Reading, where the Train Manager was able to find out that the delay had been caused by someone jumping in front of a train in the Slough area, and the line was duly closed to allow a clear-up operation to begin, and then the lines were only gradually re-opened, which meant that the signalmen (and I daresay women) had to sort out the backlog. This they managed, and then we continued on our way to London, arriving a mere 45 minutes late. I would like to take this opportunity to do something which I don't do very often, and that's to have a bit of a rant!
My chosen topic this time is "People who jump in front of trains". Now, before I start I should say that I accept that suicide is not an easy decision to take, and the people who choose to end it all, are desperate and at their wits' end, and this rant is not about suicide itself, simply about the choice of someone to jump in front of a train. For this reason, I would ask people not to jump down my throat for what's about to come!
Jumping in front of a train is one of the most selfish ways of committing suicide that I can think of. On the very basic level, you will cause delays to the rail network, but let's face it the Train Companies can do that on their own without the help of someone standing in front of a train. So, all in all, the delays it causes are not my primary issue, merely an annoyance. That said, I seem to take delays better than others; one day when I was commuting to Bath, the trains had been cancelled, or severely delayed because of someone jumping in front of a train, and a lady comes down the stairs onto the paltform, and says "I hope he's dead!". I don't get that annoyed by it, instead I find an alternative way to uni. But, as I said that's not my main problem with it, my biggest issue is the effect it has on people who are innocent, and who have to deal directly with the person's suicide - people like the Train Driver, who may never be able to sleep at night again, the Police Officers of the British Transport Police who have to attend what they call 'one unders', along with the Network Rail employees who have to clear-up the line so that the trains can run again. All of these people have to deal with sights that are simply awful, and could cause untold psychological trauma. Or, in the case of Stanley Martin, the ultimate price, because someone decided to kill themselves by parking their car on the line and waiting for a train to crash into them.
Now as I said, this rant was about the effect that 'jumpers' have on others who were otherwise going about their normal daily business, and have had to deal with such horrors.
Now I've got that off my chest, I shall continue with the story! I got to St. Pancras, where I had arrived about 3 hours before my train was due to leave, so I went to a cafe and read my book with a mug of coffee in the sunshine whilst waiting for check-in to open. The Eurostar left, pucntually, and had an uninterupted journey to Paris, except for the planned stop in Lille. We arrived in Paris about half five, and as I walked to Paris Est I found somewhere to eat some tea, before meeting Esther at the station. We travelled back on the ICE together, where we also arrived on time, which is a rarity amongst the trains to/from Paris! After a short bus journey home, I was in bed by 11 o'clock!
Sunday was spent unpacking, well, rather putting away the stuff I'd already unpacked (onto the floor) and I had a private lesson in the afternoon. Otherwise, it was a quiet day, involving me pretty much catching up on a weekend of stuff I'd missed on iPlayer!
The first week back at school was full of the usual post-holiday chaos! With the ash cloud posing problems all over Europe, I was impressed that none of the teachers had been silly enough to get themselves stranded in a really hot, sunny country, instead of being shut in a room with 30 excitable children! I also rose to a certain level of fame, or the negative form thereof, because it was during this week that the English Abitur (A-Level) exam took place, on the higher tier of which all of the students in Saarland would have been told what to do by yours truly. That said, I still haven't heard it, and my ask one of my teachers if I could have a copy of it, so I can enjoy my slurring of the letter 'r' in a typically Westcountry manner!
It was this weekend in which Esther and I had originally planned on going to Munich, but time constraints let us down. It was only on the train back from Paris that we were supposed to be going then, and as nothing had been booked or organised, we shelved it, perhaps for another year! Instead, I took advantage of the fantastic weather which we've been experiencing in Saarbruecken, and spent most of the weekend by the Saar in the sun! Over the weekend there were also a couple of evening get-togethers too, in which I took part.
So, what's coming up next week? Not a lot regarding school, it's been a pretty quiet week really. There is a weekend trip to Freiburg im Breisgau (on the edge of the black forest, near the Swiss & French borders) for me and Harriet to look forward to.
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