About
Fir trees and snow are the two things she associates most with childhood, and a woman with a slight accent spoiling her by cooking her favourite dishes. That the kind, law abiding woman had completely forgotten her mother tongue and had resorted to false names and a life of half-truths to survive, she learnt only much later.
An unpopular and wayward teacher later bewildered and confused her with the idea that he couldn’t teach his students anything, that he could only make them think. The first of many bewildering and confusing ideas that have stayed with her. As a student she tried her hand at teaching several times, with various degrees of success. She bored English students with German, drummed English vocab into elderly Germans and frustrated prisoners with English grammar exercises. The first long trail she ever walked in full was from Görlitz to Vacha. To walk for as long as you want and decide spontaneously where to stay the night, made her realize how much fun it is not to plan ahead. Sleeping in churches or on community hall floors turned out to be much more interesting than she could have ever imagined, but it didn’t turn her into a pilgrim, just a hiker. On the coast walk from Bray to Greystones she first noticed and instantly fell in love with the scent of gorse. In Germany she likes the soft ground and scent of a pinewood forest best. An Italian lecturer was the best teacher she ever had. She still tries to emulate her methods. Picture of Gorse: Kiddgillian |