PGF Inspection

The Parental Governing Force came for an inspection this week. Translation: my folks came for a visit, arriving as they did on Saturday at lunchtime. The visit is technically not yet over, seeing as they are leaving tomorrow, but seeing as I am buggering off the Freiburg tomorrow morning, will only see them briefly. Been good to see them, the last time was a brief meal in Brum when I was there campaigning for elections, bit tired and stressed out back then, so they got to see a better Julien this time round.

With regards to stuff we did, Saturday we bummed around the Dresden Alstadt looking at some of the sights and had a nice lunch. Found the place they were staying at and dumped stuff. I then showed off my digs, which met with approval (bit late now if they didn't with 7 months gone and only left!). Went back into town had tea and generally relaxed before going home.

Sunday was cold, still managed to show them all major sights and sounds of Dresden Alstadt, as well as visiting a couple of museums, the transport museum and the zwinger which has collections of art, all very nice and cultural.

Monday was great, took them to visit the lovely town of Meißen, before taking a steam train from Radebeul to Moritzburg and Radeburg. Had a quick look round Moritzburg, but nothing greatly impressive, well not compared to Meißen. Weather was a slight improvement on Easter Sunday, but still was cold when the sun went behind the clouds.

Tuesday was great also went to Sächsiche Schweiz (Saxon Switzerland), lovely national park area south east of Dresden on the way to the Czech Republic. Got train to Bad Schandau, nice little town, and got this rickety old tram up the valley to a waterfall, we then did a small walk up through the forest, before traming it back the last little back to Bad Schandau. After meal back in Dresden that evening, I went out with housemate Holger to Katys Garage. Was good, opportunity to go Katys during the week is seldom working in school and all, so need to take advantage during holidays!

Wednesday bummed around Dresden , went on a boat tour down the river to Blaues Wonder big bridge painted blue. Then we went to the Grosser Garten, and round that on a little train. Then after evening meal, I met up with assistant Matt in Dresden visiting his girlfriend. We had a couple of beers and chatted shit as only students can do. Re-affirming my belief that I often find quiet drinky chats more enjoyable than big nights out.

Today we went to Leipzig. Basically consisted of bumming around the city looking at the sites, weather has reached a high point, actually spent most of the day with the jumper off! All in all it has been a good week, and these great hols continue with a trip to Freiburg, woohoo!

The holidays arrive, Morven returns, and I get some work done!

The week started with another reasonably successful teaching of teachers, proceeded as it was by some research in the university library, which brought to a conclusion my work with one of my primary sources. Yippeee, writing time for my history essay comes ever closer. We were also told that we should be getting paid after the Easter holidays, another bonus, seems to be that we're going to paid the full amount, despite us doing it together, we shall see!

Tuesday I went to school, it was Projektwoche at the school this week and with the projects already well under way on the Monday, I was largely left to my own devices, to go round and enjoy the various projects. Was fun, again you see another side to the school, with pupils and teachers allowed to be more relaxed, and that lovely school ethos also making a welcome re-appearance. Everyone coming together and helping and doing fun stuff.

Wednesday was much the same, except I didn't have after-school detention with one of my classes which I had on Tuesday (the bad lesson last Thursday), so once school was over and I had done some final photograph taking and saving on the computer, I was off home to Bannewitz for the the hols! Got back and me and housemate Holger cleaned the bathroom and bin in the kitchen, believe me they both needed doing, especially the bun in the kitchen. Anyway it was all nice and clean, and even before we started despite not having given the bathroom a proper going over since October, it was all still cleaner than the average student dump in Brum!

After my cleaning fetish was over, I went into town and picked up Morven from the station. We then went from a drink in Der Fliegender Hollander (the flying dutchman) in the Weisse Gasse in the Altstadt. Had a couple of drinks there, before moving onto posher place for evening meal. Drink there as well, before ending with a drink in my favourite watering hole; Bärenzwinger. Early finish at 11, and early to bed, good thing to I was shattered and so was Monster Morven!

Thursday went into town, bummed around the Altstadt, had an ice-cream, had lunch before seeing her off at the train station. I then went to the city library to do some more primary research. Spent a good five hours there, good thing too, the library is going to be shut completely over the Easter weekend, including Saturday! Shocking. This all meant that as extra research was going to be limited over the following days, I decided today to start writing my year abroad history essay, yay! Finally, after months of painstaking research (ahem). Might even have finished it before the end of the holidays, we can but hope! Anyway PGF is arriving tomorrow, yay!

Ode to my Somester Ticket!

Ah my Somester Ticket we've had some good times, some great times, and some brilliant times. We travelled to school, do Dresden, halfway back from Leipzig, to Glashütte, to Meißen, and to Radebeul. But now, sadly, our relationship must come to end. Mainly because your validity ended on the 31st March. I will still keep you, just because you've been so good to me, even though you are of no further use! You will remain to remind of ridiculously cheap transport that I have only have ever found so cheap in Dresden! An example for other universities and cities to follow! I salute you Somester ticket and thank you!

If anybody is wondering why I am writing an ode to a transport ticket, it is because it was a rather special transport ticket. When I registered at Dresden uni in October, I paid 140 euros, and the majority of this was to pay for this ticket. The ticket itself was my uni ID card, which didn't even have a photo on it, which is why I had to always travel with photo ID when using it. The ticket allowed unlimited transport within the upper-Elbe ticketing region for six months, and not just the Dresden city ticket zone. This was travel on all buses, trams, regional trains and city commuter trains. The only thing you couldn't use it on was the Inter-City, Euro-City, or Inter-City-Express long distance trains. And when I say unlimited travel, I mean unlimited, any time of the day, rush hour or on night-buses. At 140 euros (that's £100 roughly) for six months this was a bargain, and you could argue I didn't make as much of it as I could have! I could get half-way to Leipzig, to the Czech border, and halfway to Berlin, and pretty much everywhere in between. Brillaint!

Now granted this is the good even by German standards, every university has a Somester ticket but not all of them are as extensive as Dresden's. I heard that Leipzig wasn't quite as good for example. But regardless, students are well catered for in transport terms in Germany. With offers such as Mitfahr (car-sharing) and 50% discount for students on the 50% discount card on the train (so that's 103 euros instead of 206 euros, for 50% off all train fares for the year).

Pity we can't have this in Britain, where season tickets in Birmingham for the bus only for 3 months cost nearly as much as the Somester ticket, and the single tickets now costing £1.40.... Train fares, while cheaper to some extent in Britain, (if you know what you're doing), are partly because of generally shorter distances. German ticket prices are standard, peak-time travellers don't get swindled, and there are still very good offers at weekends on regional trains (unlimited travel for 5 people for 30 euros!) On the whole transport front, I am sorry to say that Germans are still ahead of the game. What I'd give for unlimited West Midlands transport at the price of the Somester ticket....

Now what to do about transport for my remaining two months here....