I came back to Germany by ferry from Sweden.
After staying few days with a friend in Hamburg and visiting another friend in Bilefield I began to cycle across Germany.
Here I began to upload podcast instead of writing text as I am a bit lazy to sit and write.
This is my first podcast in English. I decided to start recording voices for my English report to explain my journeys and tell the stories because I was quite lazy to sit down and write.
Let’s talk about the last week. Last week was not a quite big week for me because I didn’t cycle that much.Ididn’t cycle for all the last month because I was staying Stockholm for 10 days with friends then I cycled 2 days to Linkopingand again saw the friends then I cycled half a day to a next city and again saw the friends and then another half a day to Gutehnberg.
I was in Gutehnberg for another 10 days then I took a ferry from Gutehnberg to Kiel in Germany then I took a train from Kiel to Hamburg.So I haven’t cycled much. It was just mostly meeting friends and had workshops in schools. In last month in Sweden,I had 8 schools and in total I had almost 20 workshops in 8 schools which were very remarkable for me. It was kind of success in Sweden because I found it was quite open.
It was so easy to find a school. Even once a day I received an email and somebody told me:”Dear Mohammad,my daughter came back home yesterday and you were visiting her class. She was so excited about your visit. I am a teacher and I would like you have a class in my class if it is possible for you and then the next day I had another 3 classes in another school.It was great and this is something that I don’t experience this way in Germany because in Germany everything is just rule.
I was in some schools that they told me:“Maybe you can come in 15th,13thJuly or maybe other, for example in 6 month which was so hard for me to be organized to work in 6 month. It was almost impossible. My life is like a Nomad???. It is so hard to be organized for another 6 month in advance. But still I have hoped to do it in Germany,so far I haven’t succeeded. I was refused for any schools because of short notice and timing. Even so I could tell them around a week or 10 days in advance but one week or 10 days was too short for them to organize and they needed more time to fix it.
When I was in Hamburg,I left my bike in Hamburg and took a train to Bielefeld to meet one of my very good friends named Ana Maria. She is one of the people????she is teaching Nia.I remember in last summer when I was in Bielefeld sitting and talking till late or till morning actually. That time she was just thinking about starting teaching Nia and starting working with Nia and now I know I see that she has workshops in different cities and she really improved and she has kind of success in her job. She always inspires me.
It was great to meet her again to see how she is progressing. Of course I can learn from a person who is progressing. She is just developing. I was 2 days there in Bielefeld. The weather was quite nice and we could walk in the forest and jungle for 2 days and then I returned to Hamburg. I was in Hamburg for another day.
Sadly there was an Iranian school there and they didn’t accept me because I didn’t have any recommendation letter from the government. I said them,”Idon’t have any recommendation letter from the government but I have a resume and you can see my website and I have done it in 130 schools in worldwide”. It wasn’t enough for them and finally I didn’t succeed to visit Iranian school and my people in Hamburg Germany. It was kind of stupid thing.
After Hamburg,I cycled to Hanover. In Hanover, I had a lot of friends. Maryam Khakbazian who was a face book friend and I know her for a year. When I was going to Hanover,Maryam asked me: ”Hi Mohammad,where are you going to stay?”She was my host actually and she was trying to do her best for me to have a very nice something in Hanover. She said: “you have 2 choices: you can stay in hotel or I can ask my friend and you can stay in his apartment but his apartment is very small”.
I was thinking about it and if I want to be honest I’d rather stay in hotel because for the last month I always met so many people. I needed some quiet time. I needed some time just for my own. I needed to be quiet and a bit isolated for little time. I could stay in my room and I did just nothing becauseduring last month I met so many people and I was always talking,telling story and …all the time. It was a good time for me to shut my mouth, to shut my brain and just keep everything quiet.
I was in Hanover for 3 days. It was very hard to organize a school because I was not still recognizing schools and the other reason was about Christmas time and schools were already close. But I was quite likely to meet some people and some teachers who were interested in and they asked me for organizing a plane or workshop for their schools in January. If I have a chance and if I they can organize it, It doesn’t matter where I am in Germany now. I just take a train to come there to do my job, to visit schools and hold workshops because actually my journey is no longer cycling journeys. I am no longer as a cycle tourist. I just bring my project, visit schools, hold workshops and talk to kids. I just use a bicycle to move from one point to another and of course I enjoy it.
My whole 3 days in Hanover was just walking, visiting Christmas markets and different part of town along with little with the photography and then I left Hanover yesterday. I cycled down to Kassel where I have other friends and I can stay there with my friends.
I am going to spend Christmas Gif with my friend there. I had a night camping in between. The distance between Hanover to Kassel was 160 km.It waseasy to do it in 2 days (80 km a day) but first I couldn’t make it even 80 km because I left Hanover quite late about 10 AM and it was a very windy day and my body was tired. I had so much rest and I haven’t cycled for the last month and my body was not used to any more.
I needed more exercise and more cycling to be more comfortable on the bike. Yesterday I was not comfortable. I was pushing myself hard. I have to be more careful about my fitness, my weight and my comfort as well. When I have lots of comfort, going to challenge becomes hard because it is a big contrast. I got used to have comfort for the last month. I was always with the friends, I had always party and I had always very nice place to sleep. When you go to the challenge, you lose your capacity and you are not able to take it.
I was cycling in the evening. There was a hill in my way. I climbed that hill and then at the top of the hill I found a place through the woods where was quite flat to put my tent.
It was raining last night and there was very strong wind. I could hear very strong wind. I remember that before I put my tent, I saw lots of trees falling down because of wind but I am a tree myself. It is OK!!! I am not going to be killed by falling trees…I will never be killed by a tree! So I love them and they love me!
I think I slept about 11 last night and woke up 7 in the morning.I couldn’t wake up earlier because it is so good to sleep in forest in the nature. It is so natural and peaceful. There is no vibration in your head. It is just pure pure….being likes a kid who is called by mom!
So I woke up a bit late. I had my breakfast. I am getting ready and I have to pack now to start cycling again to Kassel. Hopefully, I get to Kassel today and after staying 2 or 3 days there I will keep cycling to Frankfurt.
Till the next Sunday and my next report from everywhere I am, good luck, enjoy and merry Christmas.
25 December 2014
