Düsseldorf dorf dorf, can you geddit up...Düsseldorf dorf dorf, is you big enough?

I spent the last 3 days in Düsseldorf with all the language assistants from two districts called Arnsberg and Detmold (I'm not convinced those are real place names but it seems Bochum is included), at what they referred to as a course on the invitation. It was compulsory. Thinking back to the Altenberg course, I envisioned another 3 day piss-up. However, this was interrupted by constant activities.

The first day, we went to the Landtag, which is like the Nordrhein-Westfalen mini version of the Reichstag. We had to sit through a talk where they told us about, from what I could pick up, the founding of NRW and political shorthand. Then without any kind of explanation of where we were going, the woman finished her talk and just told us to come with her. We then sat through a number of other talks about...things, in a number of round rooms with tables and microphones in. When this was finally over, we were rewarded with cake.

Trekking back to the hostel, a bunch of us decided to have dinner, buy some pre-drink and go out, except we were so tired from all the round room tours that we ended up getting drunk and staying in the hostel. The next day I woke up with a bitch of a hangover and a 10-hour itinerary of museum tours to attend. Bleurgh.

The Ruhr-Museum might have been interesting if I had an attention span of longer than 10 minutes and if we'd been allowed to wander round and look at the cool stuff, like the stuffed animals and the dinosaur fossils. Instead, we got a tourguide who explained how to separate coal from steel and showed us such fascinating items as a jar of water from the war.

Back on the tour bus, we then went to Oberhausen where we were let loose in a shopping centre for a couple of hours. A trip to H&M and a portion of currywurst later, we were meant to be meeting at the Gasometer. We did eventually find it, despite some confusion caused by the signposting.

The gasometer (which was a big cylindrical building with solar system-themed art inside) was probably my favourite part of the day, partly because of the lack of tourguide and partly because there was a giant 25m model of the moon inside it. Everyone loves the moon. We also got to go to the top of it and look out over Oberhausen, which was fun because I like tall buildings.

After Gasometer time, we went on some sort of night walk around an iron...making...factory. It was dark and scary; probably would have been quite interesting if it wasn't cold and rainy and if the rickety steps didn't make me feel like I was going to die. That together with the fact that I really wanted a nap. Still, we got a nice view of Duisburg (pronounced Doos-borg, after much debate) and Ikea from the top. I think the point of the day was to learn about the industries of the Ruhr-Gebiet. Of course, the joke's on them because I wasn't paying attention. Hmm.

Back at the hostel, we'd promised each other we'd make it out to a club or at least a cocktail bar, but ended up staying in and getting drunk again, shattered from our long day of learning.

The next day, we had to attend a 2 hour talk (theme unknown) at the hostel; we were 15 minutes late and didn't get seats and so had to sit on the floor for two hours, while we were told things like not to bunk off school and how to make friends. This time we were not rewarded with cake.

The day's final activity was meant to be a 2 hour tour round Düsseldorf-dorf-dorf in the rain. No one fancied it; a group of us decided enough was enough, and went downstairs to hide until the tour left without us and we could sneak out. We ended up standing around in the car park until we got the all-clear and could escape in Matt Hardy's car (cheers, mate!). Home free.

Back to school tomorrow. Me, Tami and Glen are also going to go for a jog. I'm hoping that's enough exercise to burn off the quantity of beer I've consumed since arriving in Germany.

Dora.
xxx