Quite Alright

January is finally nearly over. I'm not wishing my life away but I am pleased that there's only a few days to go. I feel like the worst is over. I've only got one more week of my current timetable (it is possible that there are a couple of classes I won't be sorry to leave... am I allowed to say that?!). So it will all be change again, which could be good, could be bad.

The teachers were all feeling stressed this week as it was time to give everyone grades for the halfway point of the school year. Reports come out this Wednesday so it's all fairly hectic. I went to my first Klassenkonferez (class conference) which was like nothing I am aware of in English schools. Basically, there is a meeting for every class. It is attended by all the teachers who teach the class, two parent representatives and two pupil representatives. The form tutor(s) lead the meeting, reviewing the grades of each class member, in particular ones who are not doing well and may need to go down a course/year. It was bizarre. I cannot imagine it happening in English schools... the pupils at the meeting know one of their fellow pupils may have to re-do the year before he knows! Crazy.

Less than an hour after my final lesson of the week I began my journey to Göttingen. Although it was a place I had wanted to visit for a while, that wasn't my only motivation. I was meeting Dan there (a friend from uni, originally from Germany but year abroading elsewhere). Why Göttingen? The halfway point!

Bismarckturm

Our wander around Göttingen took us through the town centre, the university, past various churches and the like. Armed with a Schinken-Käse-Brötchen [ham-cheese-roll] each we headed up into the woods to the Bismarckturm. Bismarck towers are a type of monument found all over Germany... there are plenty of them and they are all variations on the same design. Unsurprisingly the tower was closed for Winter but it was a nice muddy and snowy walk. But the terrain was fine because I was wearing walking boots. Dan however was not.

Göttingen

After our very long walk-and-chat we had a very long coffee-and-chat. It was lovely to hear about his travels in Canada and the USA, as well as discuss how I was finding Germany.

At the end of the day we waited on opposite platforms for ICEs going in opposite directions. There's nothing quite like a goodbye at the train station. Of course, the ICEs were both delayed so we had about 15 minutes of standing waiting on opposite sides of the track. All in all an excellent day... maybe I'll see him in June!

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