Göttingen

Merlin, a 14-year-old from Göttingen, has been with us this week, part of a group on a half-term twinning deal. We were to have had a second boy, but he cried off at the last moment through illness - which meant that Merlin had to work that much harder on his English.

He wasn't missing anything, he said, being away from home on Halloween. All the action takes place on St Martin's Day, when children process from house to house with colourful paper lanterns made in school, sing a song - the last line of each verse is "Rabimmel, rabammel, rabum" - and get sweets in return. No trickery required. (I have since discovered that the lantern procession symbolises the light that holiness brings to the darkness, just as St Martin brought hope to the poor through his good deeds.)

Merlin's father is Martin (too).

The book Sarah kindly gave me last Christmas tells us that Göttingen "has nurtured 40 Nobel Prize winners". Compared to how many from Cheltenham I was wondering.

Hat trio

We have had two of Mini's friends staying this week. Mikiki (on the left here), who came last year, is off again tomorrow, but Cheko (right) - or Shan, as she prefers to be known - stays till the middle of this month. Miki remembered my interest in Sudoku, bringing me no less than three books, which should keep me going for a while.

A Real Madrid supporter

We have a 20-year-old Aoyama University student lodging with us for three weeks. "Have you been to England before?" I asked him. "No, but I've been to Madrid to watch my favourite football team play at the Bernabéu." Ah well.

Shohei is an intelligent and delightfully well-mannered young man from Sapporo, with a great appetite (which pleases Caroline): we haven't had anyone from that far North before. A former youth ski champion, he gave it up, preferring warmer-weather sports. He relaxes by performing heavy metal karaoke and reading manga online. When he leaves university next year, he hopes to join Barclays, to become an international banker. In six years time, he plans to marry his diminutive girlfriend, whom he met at school six years ago: she is over here also, staying with another host family.

A touch of Galician Spring

On the day of the Royal Wedding, our very own younger version of Pippa arrived to stay – from Spain. A graduate of Vigo University, Lorena is looking for an internship here, where she can put to good use her excellent English and her skills in advertising and public relations. Meanwhile, she is completing a year at the University of Gloucestershire, and lodging with us till the end of next month.
She’s already had a good go at me for not making more of my photographs. I’m about to put her at work finding us casas rurales to stay in, on our way back to the ferry after our fortnight with Thomas in Portugal.