Heidelberg

I'm now in Heidelberg for two weeks, following an intensive German course at the "Collegium Palatinum". C, who is in Frankfurt for a dental operation over the same period, dropped me here on Sunday after a relaxing day at her parents' house chatting in rusty German and trying to hide the foul hangover that Mac and Lucie inflicted the night before on Lower Marsh.
My host family runs a metal bashing business from a workshop in front of the house. Four of the six children have left home and the parents rent the spare rooms to various odd-bods, currently including a German theatre set designer, a super-earnest public health researcher from Harvard, a demographer from Burkina Fasso, a jurist from Budapest and me. As the only language student, I get to eat dinner with the parents and their two teenage sons, quite entertaining although the father is a little obsessed with house prices. I think he's also the one who made the weird metal scultures that dot the house.
At breakfast, I have a table for one in the kitchen and never see the others, perhaps they're still in bed.
The house is in Handshuesheim, a suburb of out-of-town stores and farmland north of the old city. The jurist, who has been coming to Heidelberg since 1968, told me that the locals have been trying to form a break-away republic from Heidelberg but no one has taken them seriously so far.
Twenty minutes bike ride across the river Neckar is the old town, beautiful old squares and ornate pubs and shop fronts. The school is in a high-ceilinged villa next to the law faculty and a short walk from the pub area, which we will explore tonight.
I am nearly 20 years older than the other students, who come mostly from eastern and southern Europe and the states, and the only Englishman. The students are shy but friendly and speak English to each other during the breaks, though I am stubbornly sticking to German. Bets on how long that lasts?
Tomorrow we will spend the afternoon on the Philosopher's Walk.
G

ps - more NY blogs to appear here soon...