Kassel: The life and times....

Hello once again.  Another love letter from Kassel, which I'm starting to believe must be an obscure German word for "grey".  It's been pretty damn grey here this winter so far.

And what's been goin' on?  Not much, I'm afraid.  After finally getting my schedule up to almost "full time" (way more than 40 hours, but whatever) back in December, January has seen fit to grace me with more than my fair share of cancelled classes, three of which have ended permanently.  So we're pretty much back to where we started from.  The sad truth of this is that, as much as I may or may not love Germany, as much as I may or may not want to throw in absolutely everything I have into making things work out here, a job that doesn't let me pay my bills is not going to be a job I have the luxury of keeping.  I've asked my company about the prospects of getting me back up with a schedule that would let me have a monthly budget in the black, and unfortunately they did not have much to tell me.  So there may be some hard choices to come, I am sad to say.  I am still hoping to make it work here, and am working on several possibilities on my own.  We will see.

Have not exactly had a gem of a social life since getting back, either.  My best friend here, Jocelyne, picked up and left Kassel back in early December.  So I lost my drinking buddy and venting tandem exchange partner.  (I vent and she listens, then she vents and I listen.  It was a good system.  Like therapy, but free.)  So I've been trying to fill my time in other productive ways.  After saying I was going to do it for months, I did finally join a gym here, which of course is one more expense that I don't need right now, but a monthly gym membership is a better use of 50 euros than one of my typical debaucherous nights out, and I'm not doing very much of that second thing these days anyway.

Um.  I also bought a basil plant and named him Lion-O.  Yep, we're really scraping the bottom of the barrel for interesting updates these days.

Just tonight however, I did book a train and a hostel for next weekend in Heidelberg.  It's really not fiscally responsible for me to be taking a trip just now, never mind the fact that I have no idea how all the prep and paperwork and stuff I usually do over the weekend is going to get done.  But I simply have to start making myself enjoy Germany, and the thing I love most of all (except perhaps a big, dry mimosa) is travel.  Heidelberg sounds beautiful; I definitely did not want just another dreary urban jungle.  It also seems that while it has plenty to see and do, a weekend should do it justice for an initial visit if I plan it right.  Really looking forward to setting out on an adventure again.  It has been way too long.

I realized the other day that if this was my Istanbul contract, my time here would be pretty much over.  That is kind of horrifying to me, because so far I haven't done jack shit here in Kassel.  I mean, I didn't do as much in Turkey as I probably should have or could have, but I did knock out two incredible long weekends to world-class ancient sites and saw a good chunk of Istanbul itself over the course of four months.  Compared to my current state of affairs, I was an intrepid trailblazing globetrotter back in Turkey.  ....Hence, the impulsive Heidelberg purchase, and to hell with things like bank accounts and lesson planning! :)

It's not much, but the past two Saturdays I have managed to at least do a little sightseeing.  A couple weeks ago we actually had a mostly-sunny day, so I did something I've been wanting to do since I moved here, and walked around taking pictures of the pretty parts of Kassel.

Kassel has its own little Galata Tower.

As you can see, Kassel does not lack for churches.  And my own apartment building aside, I actually live in quite a pretty neighborhood, with lots of old buildings that a colleague tells me managed to escape the WWII bombings.  I discovered a couple of neat spots, including an Egyptian restaurant I'm looking forward to checking out.  I wonder if they'll have that delish spaghetti/rice/lentils thing.

Last Saturday, I did something else I've been meaning to, and visited the Schloss Wilhelmshöhe.  At one time, it was a palace.  Now, it's an art gallery.

From a trip to the Bergpark back in September

I forgot my camera on this visit, but that's okay as they don't allow photos inside and you probably have a pretty good idea what an art gallery looks like already.  Lots of German and Dutch Masters, and a lovely Rembrandt collection.  On the ground floor, there's a small collection of artifacts from Greece and Rome, and even two glass cases of pieces from Ancient Egypt.  Downstairs, there's a lovely cafe.  I sat and had one of the best salads I've been able to find in Europe so far.  A good day.

And... that's kind of... it.

Oh yeah, and no fun sightseeing outings for me tomorrow.  Instead, I'm attending an afternoon teachers' meeting!  Hooray!  (Losing my one free day was also an impetus for next weekend's trip.)

This time next week I will be safely ensconced in my Heidelberg hostel, hopefully getting ready for an early night so I can get up and make the most of Saturday.  Something to look forward to.

Hope everyone is healthy and happy.  Goodnight folks.