He was such a sweet man with a seemingly good sense of humour, even after all the things he had to endure. He told us about living in a ghetto and, when he was eleven, jumping off a truck that was taking the ghetto-dwellers away - the luckiest decision of his life, he said. A few years later when he was old enough to be fit to work, he was taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau and from there another concentration camp. He said he was referred to as number 84303. I'm not sure why, but hearing that made me feel much worse. Finally, when he was 15, he took part in a death march that ended with the British troops liberating them. He ended up in England, got married, and still lives here.
It was really touching to see a survivor that close and listen to him talk about the events with his own voice. He was such a sympathetic person and I'm so happy I had the chance to listen to his talk. He said many memorable things: "My grandson said to me: 'Grandpa, you are so lucky to be alive.' And I looked down at him and said: 'My dear, so are you.'" He was also telling us how there was no point in hating anybody because the person would never know you hated them -- the hatred would just be in your own head making you suffer.
After Zigi's talk, I did something a bit more cheerful: I saw the musical Oliver! It was in the same theatre as The Winter's Tale. The children were really good, and there were a couple tiny boys that were so adorable and got the biggest applause at the end!
This is actually my last day in Sheffield for about a month. Tomorrow I go to Oxford (and we'll be seeing Cats!) and on Saturday we take the train to Devon where I'll spend Christmas and New Year's Day! I'm looking forward to experiencing an English Christmas.
Last weekend I had a little mini-trip to Leicester with Charlie's family! We stayed with Charlie's cousins for one night. It was such a nice visit! Too bad I didn't take any photos!
On Sunday we had a little Christmas celebration in the flat where we exchanged Secret Santa gifts, pulled some crackers, and took a lot of silly pictures. There was also a Christmas celebration at the Ridge (the reception building of our village) where they had a chocolate fountain and a photobooth!
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| Chocolate fountain!!! |
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| Some produce of the photobooth... |
It was such a fun evening! Even though we don't do stuff together that much, it's really nice to get together every now and then! I already feel like I'm going to miss them when I eventually leave.
One last thing! I baked some gingerbread biscuits on Tuesday with my Japanese friend and her flatmates. It was my second time ever making them from scratch without a ready-made dough, and their first time ever making gingerbread at all! Considering all that, I think it was success.
Look at them beauties!
Tomorrow I'm taking my suitcase to class and heading straight to the train station afterwards. It'll be my last ever Irish class, which makes me a bit sad. I've really enjoyed learning Irish, so I decided to get the teacher some chocolate and wrap it very non-festively.
Well, it's not all over yet -- I'll still have the exam in January!
What an eventful week it has been. Let Christmas arrive -- I'm totally ready for it!
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