Category Archives: Personal

A cold

After bragging that this was the first Christmas break in history in which neither André nor I caught a cold, apparently the germs have caught up with me. It started over the weekend, and I had to stay home from work today. Of course the timing is perfect – today and tomorrow are the days in which the grades for the midterm reports have to be entered into the computer at school, which means lots of last-minute grading. It’s not much fun if you’re not feeling well, but lots of tea with milk and honey and hot lemon juice (with water and honey, a good old home remedy) will hopefully get me through. Ugh, back to work.

Weihnachtszeit, Plätzchenzeit

I didn’t have much time for Christmas decoration, present shopping or things like that this year, but last weekend I mananged to bake some Christmas cookies. They’re called Heidesand and are, as far as I know, a Northern German speciality.

Heidesand-Kekse

Heidesand, lecker.

Für die Deutsch sprechenden Leser: Mit einigen Kollegen aus dem Hunsrück und dem Westerwald hatte ich Diskussionen darüber, ob es nun Plätzchen oder Kekse heißt. Man wollte mir weismachen, es gäbe zwischen den beiden einen gravierenden Unterschied – nur konnte mir keiner genau erklären, was genau der Unterschied sein sollte. Zu Weihnachten backen sie jedenfalls alle Plätzchen, keine Kekse. Die Norddeutschen waren sich alle einig: Die Begriffe sind synonym, und man kann sehr wohl Weihnachtskekse backen. Hauptsache, die Plätzchen schmecken.

Schon wieder Ferien!

Today was the last day of school before the autumn holidays. Yes, it’s only been seven weeks since the summer holidays, but these weeks have been very busy, school-wise, so I’m looking forward to having two weeks off. Of course, this doesn’t mean that I don’t have anything to do: On my desk I have two exams and two tests that need to be corrected, and then I’ve got to prepare three exams which my pupils will take shortly after the holidays end.

In between, we hope to get in a few hikes, since the weather looks quite promising so far. Tomorrow I’ll be going to Trier for the day and do a mixture of sightseeing, walking and shopping there. I’ve never been there before, so it should be quite interesting to visit the Porta Nigra, the Trier cathedral and other sights new and old. Trier was founded 16 BC (or even earlier) and is considered the oldest city in Germany.