The last tea bag.

It's been an up and down sort of week, what with Reubs going home, running out of tea bags and the realisation that I'm not going back to Warwick this year. I never thought that I'd miss uni but I'm strangely envious of everyone moving back to Canley ready for another year together. The other low point was going to make myself a cup of tea and discovering that I'd run out of tea bags. I bravely tried the generic Teakasse black tea but it is disgusting. I miss England!

School was pretty quiet this week as classes 6 and 9 were away on a school trip.

- 5a. Good lesson, lots to do and stayed for second lesson.

- 7d. Final lesson before the class test, attempting to construct sports poetry...

- 7a. More sports, more posters, more presentations.

- 5c. A couple of incidents (9th formers bursting into the classroom due to one of the 5c-ers annoying them, another 5c-er crying because she wasn't getting enough attention) but otherwise fine.

- 5b. Loving 5th form this week. Helped Martin take a cover lesson which was a fun way to end the school week.

Due to having a visitor I actually went somewhere other than Rewe during the school week. Firstly the Kabusturm, another random tower in the middle of the woods. I still don't understand why these constructions exist but there is a good view from the top.

View from Kabusturm // Kabusturm // Somewhere between Badse and Wesseln

I also had my first ever Currywurst (how I got this far without trying one is beyond me, inadequate German student) in Hildesheim and it was amazing. Literally amazing. Will be going back there. Wednesday was Hannover day. After a wander to the Rathaus and some last minute Milka buying I deposited Reubs and a suitcase on the train to the airport. I had a brief Primark raid, chat with Meadbh and made the second to last train home... success.

For my exciting exploring Friday I went to Wolfenbüttel, not a particularly big place but known at the home of Jägermeister. Unsurprisingly I wanted to visit the Jägermeister factory (on Jägermeisterstraße) and was offered the wonderfully early 9am tour (you have to book in advance). I only had to leave the house at 6am,  enjoying a dark, misty and freezing cold walk to the station. The level of dedication was well worth it as the factory tour was amazing.

The basic mixture for all the Jägermeister in the world is made at that one factory in Wolfenbüttel! The tour started with the ingredients: 56 herbs and spices are used to make Jägermeister, of which we saw 25 and 4 are top secret (to the point that they are stored behind frosted glass in the factory). Next stop was the labs, where all the ingredients are analysed as well as the Jägermeister mixture at various stages of production. Apparently 383 quality control checks are carried out! We also saw the maceration tanks, oak barrels for maturation (the biggest containing over 22 000 litres of Jägermeister), and the bottling process. It was very impressive. My knowledge of Jägermeister production is now comparable to my knowledge of salt (alarmingly high). For example, 98 shots of Jägermeister are drunk per second worldwide. The tour itself was completely free and at the end we were given a present of a small bottle of Jägermeister and two shot glasses to thank us for visiting! Incredible.

Already loving Wolfenbüttel I set off into the town centre, full of the standard timber-framed buildings. The Herzog Ernst August Bibliothek [library] is apparently world famous so I went there to admire the floor to ceiling leather-bound books and the library-associated (and logically named) Lessinghaus [Lessing House], a house that Lessing lived in. It had been made into a mini museum, so I've now seen a handwritten copy of Emilia Galotti. Wahoo.

Stadtmarkt // Historic town centre // Herzogliches Schloss // Side street // Hauptkirche Beatae Mariae Virginis

Wolfenbüttel town centre was lovely. It had a nice market place (like all towns here), a nice Rathaus (like all towns here) and some nice churches (like all towns here). There was also a Jägermeister shop where you could buy items from bikinis to toasters.

Stadtmarkt

On Saturday I went for an 'Anna walk'. For the uneducated, an 'Anna walk' is a walk where you don't follow a route or even take a map, instead wandering wherever you feel like. My walk took me (a very indirect route) to Wesseln, the next village along the valley. Along the valley because I wasn't in the mood for a hill.

The week finished with Konzert in the Kurpark. Brass bands seem to be a German obsession, and able to play anything from Flashdance to a Toto medley (Africa was surprisingly effective). Worryingly there was also a sing-along schlager setion... something about a Fischerin von Bodensee... No idea on the others. Despite all this the highlight of the week has to be Niedersachsen winning the Bundesvision Song Contest 2013.