Blue skies and sunshine ♫

And yet another day of glorious sunshine after a very sunny week. Who knew it could reach 24° in April? Perfect. Shame the sun is apparently taking some leave and letting spring return tomorrow. Still, can't complain!

Bergisch Gladbach (Hebborn) in the sunshine

So, school... Well after a (many) timetable hiccup(s) last Tuesday, I sat in on a Klasse 9 lesson and learned that the English language has 4 ways of forming the future tense depending on the context - who knew? (For the keen beans among you: 'going to' future, 'will' future, simple present, and present progressive).

This week is the Abi* students' last week in school, so apparently they are coming in 'verkleidet' / dressed up every day, each day a new theme ... today appeared to be something along the lines of awards ceremony / suit get up. They are also selling waffles in the break times raising money for, well I'm not quite sure what - probably some sort of leaving party, which, as they blasted out music through some big speakers, turned the corridors into more of a club than a school! Cue some of the older teachers returning to the staffroom mumbling and grumbling utterances of dissatisfaction about something they could do nothing about.

I also briefly met one of the teachers accompanying the English exchange this morning - apparently they were off to Fantasialand today. Took me right back to being about 11 years old...

This long weekend also involved a trip on the Seilbahn (cable cars across the Rhein), some sitting by the Rhein and Dora's birthday celebrations. Whilst sitting at the Rhein we watched an owner play fetch with his dog, using a bottle top ... and were also asked if we wanted to be part of the audience for a quiz show on WDR. I had to decline, although bonus points for the woman still approaching us auf Deutsch even though she had heard us speaking English. Dora's birthday meal, despite being at an Argentinean restaurant, proved to be very German - when the menu says steak, it means steak, just steak. Nice to see a whole collection of Leeds people though (plus others!).

One view from the Seilbahn, looking over the Rheinpark towards the Dom

Easter is now a coming, so trees like the one below (taken from the internet, I decided that stopping to take photos outside people's homes probably isn't a good idea!) and lots of painted boiled eggs are springing up all over. Plenty of Lindt / Milka chocolate bunnies have also appeared in shops, but no creme eggs or mini eggs - consuming as many of those as possible will have to wait until next week. Homeward bound on Friday!

Ostereier

You may remember me saying back when "Wills and Kate" first announced their engagement, and then the wedding date, that Germany didn't really get it. Well, they probably still don't but that hasn't stopped wedding fever reaching the media here. The local newspaper even has a countdown for the number of days left to go... Oh dear.

* Abi, short for Abitur - the German equivalent of A-levels