Open day, police input and rollerskates.

Last weekend, I went into school on Saturday morning, to help with the open day for the school. It mostly involved me playing memory with 6 year olds, while the teacher answered the parents' questions, and tried to convince them to send their child to the school. It somehow made me feel good that open days in Germany are exactly the same as open days in England- before it started, everyone was busy washing the tables, cleaning everything, dusting things that probably hadn't been dusted since last open day, and then when the children were there, all the classrooms were full of games and puzzles and activities which I have never seen any of the classes actually use. (Though to give credit to one of the year one teachers, she used a lot of them in one of her lessons the next week.)

In other news, I got stopped by the police on my way to school one day this week. Don't worry, it's not as bad as it sounds. I was cycling along, when someone called from a car 'Guten Morgen!' I looked round, thinking maybe someone was asking for directions or something, and saw a police car. I know it's illegal to drive without lights in Germany, I didn't think they'd be stopping me for that, as it was daylight, but I thought maybe they do random checks. I wasn't worried though, as I'd got them fixed a few days before. However, the policeman didn't say anything about that, just called me something -it sounded like Geistfahrer, but I'm not sure...- and told me I should be on the right. As I was on the right, and on a cycle path, I wasn't really sure what he meant. At the corner before the place they stopped me, there is quite a difficult corner- the pavement is narrow, and it's hard to see what's coming- and I had actually passed someone on the left, just because of the way we'd both come round the corner. I wondered if maybe the policeman had seen me do that, and was just reminding me I should be on the right. So I moved my bike to the very right hand side of the cycle path, and got ready to set off again, but the policeman told me No! and that I shouldn't go any further, and I worked out he was telling me to cross the road. Is it the rule that cyclists have to cycle in the direction of the traffic, even when they are on the pavement? If it is, there are not many Germans that actually follow that rule, and that's unusual when it comes to Germans and road rules. After having done some research on the internet, I think it's something that depends on the situation, usually you are meant to stay on the right pavement, but if there is no pavement on one side of the road, or there is a cycle path on the other side, then you can go on the pavement against the direction of the traffic. I'm very confused by the whole thing really, but at least I managed an encounter with the German police, without getting shot! (Again, don't worry, it really wasn't as bad as all that...)

And lastly, the other day I saw someone, dressed normally (for German standards) on his way somewhere, using roller blades as a method of transport. Not skating like skaters in England, who do tricks and so on, but just using them to get from A to B. Why not, I suppose. Logically, as long as you remember to bring another pair of shoes, it might even make more sense than a bike- you don't have to worry about finding a place to put them, you can use an umbrella as you skate, and so on and so on, but it still looked a bit weird.

Just a few random observations and stories for you there.

Tschüss!