Sehr geehrte Frau Wilkinson...

The long awaited email has arrived! Apparently I am going to be teaching in...

     Bad Salzdetfurth (not even going to try to write that phonetically)

Oooh, actually try bard-saltz*-debt-furt [*with the 'a' in a Northern accent]. Moving on...

After a bit of research, mostly on the school website I have established that the school website is confusing. IGS Bad Salzdetfurth seems to be a mixed ability secondary school but I'm not entirely sure. I think it might be more fun to teach a more varied set of students so hopefully it is mixed. At least I have a question to ask my Betreuungslehrerin!

Thank you google images for these wonderful photos of Bad Salzdetfurth

Bad Salzdetfurth is located in South Niedersachsen, close to Hildesheim. Technically a 'Kleinstadt', Bad Salzdetfurth is on the River Lamme and was originally a salt worker community way back in 1194. Once people discovered the medicinal properties of this salt bath houses were build and Bad Salzdetfurth became a popular tourist attraction. See what a logical name it has?! (Salz = salt, Bad = bath) ... doesn't stop it being awful to type...

Apparently the area is really popular for cycling, with a race in the (mountain biking?) Bundesliga being held there and the Harz Mountains close by in case I want to relive Heine's Die Harzreise. For anyone who intends to visit me, the wikipedia page assures me that there is a 'railway halting place' and Bad Salzdetfurth is only about 50 km south of Hannover. And yes there is a Christmas market (I did have a mini-panic about what I would do if I was in a town with no Christmas market).

During my research I found a fun little video to introduce Bad Salzdetfurth... sorry non-German speakers!

So that's about it for today! It's all been rather exciting hasn't it! I should probably go and do some revision, after all if I want to retrace Heine's Harz journey I need to remember where he went...