Exam season.

It's exam season.

I'm bored.

I'm waiting for FREEDOM FRIDAY!

But I love my friends here so much and wanted to write it somewhere because I'm going to cry when I leave.........<3

Amigos :)

I am sort of posting just to post. Nothing extraordinary has happened, I'll try summarise.....

Since Madrid, I've been home to see my family. Those few days in Grassington was glorious, beautiful (cold!) sunshine, family and friends, and just great fun. It was the Royal Wedding whilst I was at home too, which meant coffee cake and champers at a family friend's house, followed by a street party in my village. It was heaven to be home! It was my first time since January, and next time I go home it will be only for two days in June....and after that I won't be in Grassington until August......home friends, I love you, and I miss you.

Anyway. I arrived back from home, in Almería, on the 3rd of May, hopped in a taxi to go and meet the lovely Richie Mullaney, and we had a really fun week of sun sea and sand. I made my first ever paella, Richie made Banoffee, and Vicki and Emma came over for dinner =) It was so great! Such a lovely week....and then Sam came to stay! We chilled a la playa and did the standard sights, all in all an absolutely bonita few weeks!

And now.............it's exam time. I say it like I'm doing revision, I'm STILL working on my coursework, and due to flatmate complications I had a bit of a distracted week....so although I think I'm working constantly, (which I have bar today), I know I'm behind- boo!

But I'm so so so excited for post-exams! Vicky, Emma and I are going to go to Granada for the day, lots of beach time and tapas time and Fiesta time with all the other great ERASMUS friends I have here :) It's amazing how you can meet people for such a short space of time, yet feel like you've known them all your life =) Almería is the best place in Spain I've ever visited, I love it.....and don't want to leave in two weeks!

Sorry that this is such a redundant post.......it would seem I have no time to do anything anymore, distracted with friends/work/the beach.....not bad disctractions ;) Two weeks today I'll be in London, three I'll be in Edinburgh.....so sad that the Zeit ist so schnell vorbei..............

Love xxxxxx

Semana Santa

Semana Santa has been amazing.......we've just had our Easter week off (only a week, I know, the meanies!) and I managed to jam pack all sorts, and still a bit of work, into what has been a very nice week!

Last Monday, Emma and I went to Madrid! We spent three days exploring the capital city, and what struck us both is how different it is to Almería. It's so westernised! There's a Starbucks on every corner, it has everything you'd expect of a capital city, and it made us realise quite how little and old fashioned Almería is. Not that I'm moaning, I missed Almería a lot by the end of it! It's nice to live in a city where you feel you know everything and everywhere, and as well as that it feels really Spanish. In Madrid we heard every language under the sun, and realised that we'd never have to speak a word of Spanish if we were there.

Emma and I did the tourist thing- guide book in hand we explored the hell out of Madrid;- we'd spent a lot getting there/staying there so we wanted to make the most of it! Above is the Royal Palace. We saw art galleries (Prado and Reina Sofia), palaces, shops (obviously), and many, many cafes! I had my first ever churros- churros are long thing donuts that are typical of Spain, and you eat them with hot chocolate....I'd never managed them in Almería so was determined to in Madrid- and I didn't like them! At least that's something less for me to waste calories on :) One of the coolest places we found when we were there was the Mercado de San Miguel- an amazing food/drink court, that had shops inside too.....we got sangria and walked around the shops, it was strange to feel a bit tipsy whilst book shopping.....but the food in there was amazing, from all over the world, and it was just really great to see!

What else did we do?! It was only a few days ago but I'm forgetting already........I think my favorite place the whole time we were there was the park- El parque Retiro. It's a huge huge park, with a lake inside where you can rent boats and row! We didn't get a boat, but next time I go to Madrid I will be there in an instant! The day was glorious, and walking through the park was beautiful. I very much fell in love with Madrid, and envy any of my friends who are on their year abroad there, you lucky souls :P

We came back from Madrid on Thursday.....exhausted. Our intentions to go out and fiesta were pushed forward to Saturday, we needed a lot of recovery time! On Friday, however, we went to go see the processions here in Almería. Easter is a big deal in Spain, and Andalucía (the region where I am) does the best Semana Santa in Spain, so I'm told. The processions are big, sombre affairs, and I felt so lucky to see them. I am in no way religous, but I can imagine that if you are, these events in Easter week must be just so moving, so important. If it rains, they cancel the procession, and we saw people on the television crying over this.....so yes, big deal!

I hope that video works- this is just a bit of an idea of how the processions were. ...I don't feel describing does it justice.

And that more or less brings me to today.....we went out Saturday night, which was good to let my hair down! And then last night we had Easter Dinner at the lovely lovely Manchester crews flat =) My Easter week has been very English, though Emma and I did buy a Spanish guide book, and I'm meeting with my Spanish friend tonight =) I have a lot of work on at the moment, so I'm trying to fill my daytime with work, and my night times with fun, as it breaks up the hell that is my workload a bit! Also, I am going home on Wednesday, and then back here the following Tuesday, when Richie arrives here in Almería! I just want to be at home now, I hate the few days before going somewhere, the having to pack/clean everything, and I can never concentrate because I just want to be at the destination! I'm flying via Malaga so I'm going to check it out on Wednesday before my flight.....home of Picasso =)

Hasta luego xxx

Hace calor!

It's all heating up in España. It's so warm, so warm, blue skies, no hay nubes, and I'm sat here swigging a cup of tea in the morning sun. This is indeed the life! I'm doing that thing where my list of things to do is so large, but I want to savour the moment/this cup of tea, so I've decided to ignore work for a wee while, and type....

So my week. Last weekend was lovely. Tea, Vicky, Emma and I all went on a Tapas Route around Almería. There was a festival, "Ruta de Tapas", and you received a wee map and got to go roun different establishments trying new tapas. If you spent so much money, you got one free, so it was an incentive for us to eat and drink lots! We had such a lovely time hunting out new places, I feel I know Cuatro Calles extremely well now....Cuatro Calles is four streets in the centre of town, with lots of bars, restaurants and clubs, visitors beware, you'll be spending a lot of time there =) After hunting out new places, we had a bit of a night out (I say a *bit*, we didn't go home until 5am...) and hunted out some new clubs, though it was disappointing....the music just wasn't up to home's standards, no cheese, nothing popular, just strange Spanish songs I didn't know....such is life living in Spain, I guess!

After a big late night Friday, Saturday was a sleepy mix of lazing around, watching telly, doing nothing....until about 3pm, when I met the lovely German girlies for helado by the playa =) After a bit of German banter (love that German is still around me/ that I'm still learning German in Spain...nerd!) I headed back home intending to sleep....but then Tea invited me out with her Spanish friends, and we had tapas and watched a really cool band in a tetoría in the old part of town. Tetorías are little cute arabic influenced tea houses, and the music was just my style.....a bit of jazz, a bit of reggae, it was great! Everyone else headed out into the calles for a night out, but I bailed at midnight, one all night fiesta a week is more than enough for me....getting old? Who?! Also I'd planned to go to the castle with Vicky and Emma, so I wanted to be all healthy!

Sunday morning came, and Vicky Emma and I headed up to the Alcazaba, Almeria's castle! It was really nice weather, and as we reached the castle it became increasingly hot! Thankfully no one burnt, but the weather is slowly getting stronger....and it's only the first of April today! The castle is amazing. It's the second largest Muslim fortress in the South of Spain, after the Alhambra of course! We walked around the gardens, the little buildings, and the castle's esplanade soaking in the sun and sights.

After a touristy hour or two in the castle, we walked through the little streets down to a tapas bar, where we had some lunch and then intended to go to the beach......after about 5 minutes on the beach, we realised the weather had gone from beautiful sun, to beautiful sun and gale force winds, so beach plans were abandoned.....and I went home and slept =) What a beautiful weekend!

And this week....I intended to do all the work ever to catch up....but the weather has been to nice! I managed to do the work needed for last week but my ignoring of the big summary for history I have to do by the end of the year is going spectacularly....I feel like giving up this history course....I don't need the credits, but I'm doing too many credits in case I fail something. Sometimes being a worrier is a sensible thing though, right =)

Now it's 11am and I've been quite productive so far today.....having Pizza and films with friends tomorrow night, and then Sunday Mum and Stephen arrive! I'm so excited to see them and share lovely places in Almería with them =)

Anyway, best go back to do something =) x

Warning, it's big.....

Hola chicos =)

I haven’t really written a proper entry since arriving in Spain. In Germany I wrote so often, once a week usually, because I had so much more time in which to do so. Here it seems since day one of arrival, that if there hasn’t been work to do, there’s been subjects to hunt out, language barriers to overcome and of course, good old nights out.

Since my arrival nearly four weeks ago (time flies, seriously), I have done quite a lot. I wanted to write an entry to prove to myself that I have done things, because in comparison to my German life I’ve barely seen any of Spain yet! In Germany I was immer unterwegs visiting new places, and different friends, but I can sense Spain is different already.

Stop blabbering, Amelia.

So, University! For any readers (if there are any) that don’t know what the heck I’m doing in Spain, well I’m here in a vain effort to improve my Spanish. It’s getting somewhere, where exactly I don’t know, but I am making minor improvements. Let’s just hope there are many more to come in my remaining three months! I’m studying at the University of Almería, which is in the South of Spain. I have a lovely flat with a balcony, which is but seconds from the beach, and just a short ride on the bus to class. University in Spain feels so much more disorganised than in Edinburgh, I suppose we are spoonfed to a certain degree at home, whereas here everything is a lot more independent. Moreover, there’s more of a focus on participation in class, your grades at the end of the year depend a lot more heavily on participation and extra work done in term time, than the final exam. I suppose this may turn out to be good for me, as I suck at exams…but then again, participating in class is a tricky one, especially when I’m struggling to understand the classes!

I’m taking two history classes and two literature classes, and although at times I am totally confused, I think my brain is slowly adjusting, and I’m beginning to pick stuff up. The workload is all a bit big, I think it’d be fine for a Spanish student, but it’s just a pain trawling through all this reading/doing all these commentaries in another language sometimes. But it’s why I’m here!

University out of the way, now to the fun things!

On my first day I met Jorinde and Tea, two lovely Norwegian girls who study Mathematics. I was shy and retiring, and felt entirely lacking in confidence on my arrival, and they swooped me up and have been helping me out ever since. Soon after meeting Tea and Jorinde I met Marta too, who is also lovely, and from Germany. We all went to Cádiz together for Carneval, which was SO much fun, we all had our disguises ( I was a pirate!) and walked through the streets of Cádiz, meeting international students from everywhere, it was brilliant. I love Cádiz too, I wish we’d had more time to spend walking around and soaking up the culture. But I have to be Spanish Amelia now, and party more, not German Amelia and take photos always =)

In my classes, I luckily met two lovely girls from Manchester, Emma and Viki, who live just up the road from me too, and excellently we have a couple of classes together. They’re really lovely, and out of class we’ve been going for tapas in Tío Tom’s which has thus far been the favourite bar….but we must find more! The great thing about tapas here is that you pay just for your drink, and then choose what tapas you want of a big list for free….tapas and wine for 2.50 is the best thing ever, Edinburgh definitely needs to learn a lesson.

What else have I done? Argh so much but so little. Nothing of great significance. I guess my life here is like my life in Edinburgh, in so far that I’m a student again. I have to do work, and there isn’t as much time (or money, more importantly) to flit off all over Spain. At the moment I’m just enjoying soaking up some Spanish culture, learning about Almería and trying to better my language….and of course, meeting all the wonderful people here. I’m so excited for the weather to improve, we’ve had on and off days since I arrived- mostly quite consistently sunny, but there’s been a chilly wind whipping about.

My life seems mental, and it seems like it won’t get less mental until….May 2012, maybe? I have so much to do and see and read here, as well as visits from my Mum and Stephen, from Sam, from Richie, and then I’m briefly returning home in April to see the family….then soon enough June will be upon us and I’ll be heading home! So it’s been lovely to take 30 minutes out of my otherwise hectic day, to sit with café con leche in the University cafeteria and type type type….even if it is blabbering nonsense! I’ll try take more time to write about things I do as I do them, because I’m sure there are some great things I’ve done, that I’m forgetting to write. Spain is teaching me how to be organised again, something I lost control of in Germany. Speaking of Germany, if any of my German friends are reading, I really miss you all! You were in my thoughts this morning as I walked by the beach, and saw someone had grafittied GFS (the abbreviation of the school….) on a wall. It made me remember you all and all the great things I did whilst I was in Diepholz! I’m missing being German a lot.

Anyway, I best stop typing, I have a class to go to, the hardest of my week, the one I usually don’t understand at all….wish me luck. After the week I’ve already had, I will have definitely earnt myself a glass of red wine by tonight…..

Chapter 2: Moving to Spain.

I arrived safely in Spain =) So happy I'm here, I miss Germany a bit, but at the moment this is all so new and different that I just don't have time to think about it!

I arrived last Sunday, at about 17.00, where the Jorinde, the girl whose room I am renting, met me and showed me the flat, and the area. She invited me to dinner with her and her friends, and I felt comfortable immediately with them all! All the International Students here seem so friendly (not that I've met loads!) and welcoming, and I'm enjoying that I'm starting to settle into life a bit, even though I've only been here a week.

My week was a bit stressful, I have to say. Lots of running around and trying to find/understand classes, decide on credits.....it all got a bit much. Even though it isn't all 100% sorted now, and I still have new classes I want to try out next week, I think I am nearly there with it, and feel a bit happier about the whole thing now. Spanish University is so different to the UK, a lot less standardised and informal, late or absent lecturers are common and they like just taking random fiesta days. Not that I'm moaning about that! My lectures also are sometimes until 10pm, which I find strange. But so is the life here, I guess =)

My flat is so close to the beach, a minutes walk, if that. It's super! Although the flat itself is a bit small, it's very clean, and to be honest, I couldn't ask for a better location! My flatmates are lovely too. The whole speaking Spanish thing is hard work, but I am getting there, and trying to not be too hard on myself, I only left Germany a few days ago!

Having said that, it's good that you really need Spanish here. Most of the international students speak Spanish amongst themselves- the friends I've met have spoken English with me, but I recognise that that isn't always the case, and that slowly it'll morph into Spanish. Which is good! I've been practising my Spanish with my flatmate this week too, it's really rusty, sadly, but it's coming back. I'm at a level where my reading is pretty good, it's just getting the words onto paper/out of my mouth! As well as that, they speak with a pretty heavy accent down here, I'm getting used to hearing all the words without s' though! It's all good =)

And that's it! I've been for tapas, several times with friends, I've had dinner with friends and generally settling quite nicely into the Spanish way of life. Now my first stressful week is over, I'm hoping university will chill out a bit next week, so I can get into a routine with it, as opposed to dashing around like a headless, clueless chicken! There's a carnival in the region at the moment, and there's an ERASMUS trip to Cadiz next weekend which I'm going on with two of my friends, I'm so excited, it should be brilliant!

Tonight I'm going to my first 'botellon' and then going out into the night of España =) I am quite sure we won't be in until 6am....or so life seems to be here =)

xxx

Bye Bye!

Liebe All,

Since my Hamburg adventures, my week has been quiet. Well, quietish. I've quite enjoyed a quieter week of sorting Spain things (I have found a flat!) and beginning the sorting/throwing away/packing process, so as to ease this week a little bit. It is now Sunday. I now have seven days left. Eek!

I rarely write about actual school, which is strange, as it's the main reason I'm here! My week's been a lot more school based, a bit more lesson preparation than normal (which I love!) and generally staying around in school to chat to people, give extra tutoring and so on. I love my classes. I love the teachers, chatting to them about England and Germany differences, chatting away to the kids and the other little challenges that I've had along the way! I offered to take Maike's Year 5 English class last week as she was poorly, and it was hard! I really enjoyed it because the kids are brilliant, and I've been in their class since September, so I know them really well. I really missed Maike in the class though! Normally it's a case of working together, but she instructs a lot in German, whereas I always speak English in class. This time, I had to speak German to them...normally I wouldn't be afraid of speaking German to pupils, but Year 5s can be critical.....they weren't though, they were lovely, and only confused once or twice (I blame that on the grammatical rule I was explaining not me!) and it all went quite smoothly. A bit of a hurdle.....

My week passed quite uneventfully! I did a lot of Skyping last week, actually, and a lot of sleeping.....and I went running with Annette once or twice....out of character! Then fast came the weekend, my final week, and I seemed to be running about non-stop! So my restful previous week was needed to get me through..

On Saturday I met my friend Andrea in Bremen. Andi is amazing! I met her through German exchange when we were 14, we were Exchange Partners and we get along so well, it's brilliant. She comes from Bavaria (I nearly put an accent on the i in Bavaria then, what is wrong with me?!), but is studying in Kiel at the moment, which is a few hours north of Diepholz. We decided to meet up in Bremen, had a bit of a wander round but mostly a lovely catch up! We went to the Viertel, which is much like Hamburg's Viertel- cool quirky shops selling pretty clothes, books, etc. We wandered around for a bit and then tucked ourselves away in a little cafe called "Heimweh", which means homesick, because we both were so far away from our respective homes :P It was so nice to catch up with an old friend, and I'm wanting to visit her again soon.....I intend to get Bryony to come with me too, in order to recreate our German Exchange at school =)

Sunday came, and I'd intended to get up really early and whizz off to Munster for the day, but I woke up and just had no lust......thus I slept, began the packing processes and had Nathan over from Bramstedt for coffee =)

My last week at school arrived, and I couldn't actually tell you where the time went, but it FLEW by! My last week in school was a flurry of goodbyes, lesson prepping and chatting to teachers.....

On Tuesday, I went to see Kokowääh with Svenja. It was such an adorable film! It's a Til Schweiger, bordering on typical rom-com but just so brilliantly, beautifully done, as with most German films =) I recommend it highly!

On Wednesday I had dinner at Annette's with Cornell, and we chatted all things school/Diepholz for hours. Sadly I've been a bit under the weather last week, just a bit of a cold and blocked ears but it's made me very boring! I stayed quiet, but enjoyed the chatting and conversations and of course, dinner =)

On Thursday I had to say one of my hardest goodbyes. It had always struck me that saying goodbye to school would be hard, the teachers etc, but I hadn't really realised how horrible it'd be to say goodbye to my language assistant pals! We've all stuck together since about November, keeping in good contact via Facebook and meeting up every few weeks to explore somewhere new. We get along so well and I know we'll all stay in contact back in England, which is lovely. Rachel is also going to be in Spain the same time as me, so visits are bestimmt planned =) Rachel, Laura, Annwyn and I had dinner all together in Hannover, and I stayed at the very lovely Annwyn's due to trains back to Diepholz being thin on the ground! It was so sad to say goodbye, but I know we'll stay in contact =)

I left Nienburg, Annwyn's town, excruciatingly early Friday morning to get back to school in time for my official "Verabschiedung" (Farewell) at 9.20. I'd made chocolate cake with butter cream and pink sparkles which went down an absolute treat, and the lovely school said such kind words about how much they appreciated my help and work in the school. Various people had got me lovely, so thoughtful, presents and cards (one particular letter that was written to me really, really brought a tear to my eye...) My lovely brilliant mentor teacher Maike treated me to lunch, and the lovely Jasmin and another teacher (I'm bad I don't know his name...) all went for lunch =) Then coffee at the Redetsky's (they gave me a Diepholz calendar! I am so proud!) and afterwards, I popped to the school to see some Improv-Theatre that the students were putting on. It was so clever, someone would suggest a place/theme/time/feelings, and they had to just make up a play or sketch based around it! It was hilarious. I popped on home after to pack further, and then went out with the new Referendarin Steffi for drinks. We had a quiet night, but I ended up being ridiculously hungover all day Saturday, which sucked!

Saturday came. I packed. I sat with Cornell and drank coffee. She's got me a present, a little USB stick with things to further my German education on.....I haven't opened it yet but I'm intrigued, bless her.

Sorry that this post was essentially just a list of what I've done, I'm currently sat in Bremen airport awaiting my first flight of the day, as I am moving to Spain! I really cannot be bothered to write, but figured I should whilst still in Germany....whilst Diepholz is still very much in my head.....this moving to Spain thing still doesn't feel real. I am extremely intrigued to see how my first week goes.......my good friend Holly's parents live close to Almería and Holly is coming over to visit them next weekend, so I am going to visit her =) So excited to see a friendly face! Though I'm sure there'll be lots of friendly Spanish faces too.

My life is certainly not boring.

The Partymäuschen in Hamburg

Die Zeit ist schnell vorbei. Just 12 more days and I'll be in Almeria, probably in a Youth Hostel desperately seeking wifi in order to find myself a flat somewhere. I will also, most probably, be writing frantically in this blog, as I try find an outlet forall my worry and language frustration! I know the first few weeks of Spain are going to be a pain,more than anything because I know my language isn't as good as German, so it's going to take some time....

Anyway, that's all that out the way. Since my last blog from Chemnitz, I've been, as per usual, a very busy bee.

After Chemnitz I slept, oh it was glorious, and woke up on Monday feeling more than ready for the week ahead! I had the most awesome time in school, as ever, and I can't stand the thought that I soon have to leave. I love being a language assis

tant, I'm really enjoying my time here and the school is just amazing. There'll most defin

itely be some crying next week when I say my goodbyes! There are two new trainee teachers who have started last week, and it's a shame they've only just arrived. They're both really lovely, and one of them lives in Diepholz, we've planned to do something all together before I leave!

So my weekdays were like my normal weekdays, a sea of Karoli

na and Kaffee catch ups, lesson planning and rand

om chats with Cornell, cycling arou

nd Diepholz relatively aimlessly and lesson planning, wie immer!

On Thursday, however, I went through to Bramste

dt, where my language assistant friend Nat

han lives! It's only about 30 minutes away from me, so although we haven't met up all that regularly, it's been nice having a fellow Englander nearby, in case of a bout of Heimweh....he cooked dinner whilst I drank wine (I tried to help!), and then Annwyn, our Nienburgerin, joined us after she'd finished at school. We ventured into Syke, a nearby town, to go see Nils Landgren, a jazz artist whose played with Abba. He didn't crack out any of the Abba classics (I was gutted!) but he was amazing, a really talented musician, and I'm glad we decided to go! Natha

n and I have been attempting to go see some jazz music since we

made friends, , so I was very glad we finally managed it before I left! Then Annwyn, Nathan and I went back to Bramstedt, ate the cake I'd made (chocolate and orange-nom noms) with custard, gossiped, drank a bit more wine and

watched Singing in the Rain =) I admitted

ly fell asleep through the film...standard practise for me nowadays.......

Apologies, readers, that I seem to be waffling. There's a lot more where that came from. I'll try cut my ramblings down!

FRIDAY came and Annwyn and I left Nathan's and

embarked on our trip to Hamburg, where we met the lovely Rachel and Laura, two other language assistant pals =) We decided to stay the weekend in Hamburg. Our initial plans were for a crazy weekend in Frankfurt, but after seeing expensive train tickets and being told Frankfurt wasn't *that* great, w

e booked a hostel in Hamburg. We've all been before so we knew it quite well, and it was amazing to be able to bummel around the city and explore parts we hadn't been to before. Hamburg is amazing, it was my fifth time of going there and I wasn't even nearly bored.

The picture above is of a Titanic-esque building that we clambered to the top of on Friday (there were steps!). The view was incredible. There were loads of buildings like this, all with glass windows so you could see in.....very very chic. I want to work in one when I'm older!

After walking down the harbour, we wandered around the Elbmeile, which is essentially a big row of restauraunts and markets (which were sadly closed!). Th

e markets apparently all come to life at 6am selling fish, and we've been told that the 'done' thing is to have a night out and then come see the market on the way home. Sadly we didn't manage that (though we did manage a big night out!) but it's something I can save for next time =)

After wanderings we went for dinner, and then beer in

a posh Italian Restauraunt, where they , after iding us, decided they loved us and insisted on taking lots of photos of us....bless them. We were all flagging a bit after a big long week of school, so we went back to the Youth Hostel room and all called it a night!

Oo the Youth Hostel Room had a really beautiful Swedish boy in it. Just had to get that in somewhere. He was stunning!

Saturday came and we ventured into the Schanzenviertel. This is very much the arty part of Hamburg, with lots of different little shops and cool places to eat and drink. We wandered round, assessing where we'd return in the evening, and then embarked on an amazing little flea market in Sankt Pauli where we all spent ages browsing through the books, old postcards, and other bits of kramm! Then came lunchtime........and then it was FERRY TIME.

Ferry time was super fun. So we realised we could get a really cheap ferry to a little beach. Above you can see the lovely Rachel and Laura modeling said VERY German beach! This little piece of Hamburg is an absolute gem, with some stunning houses that look like they cost and arm and a leg! Still, an amazing place live, I bet. The beach was a bit disappointing, well no, it wasn't, it just wasn't what I'll be expecting of a beach when I'm in Spain, to say the least =)

So after a day of wandering and eating we were all a bit sleepy. I have somewhere along the way managed to forget to mention that Nathan and Rachel's flatmate Laura had joined us too! Nathan had to go home, but Laura took us to a rather Schicki Micki bar for coffee, before we all crashed back in the hostel before our wild night out......

My lovely little Partymäuschen =)

We went for dinner in Schanzenviertel after our retreat to the hostel to make ourselves look less touristy (!), and after a very yummy indulgent dinner, we headed to a pub or two in the Schanzen, were we drank wine and then met Rachel's flatmate Laura again, who'd left us for a few hours. This resulted in us singing Spice Girl songs, recalling S Club 7 knowledge and generally regressing to our childhood for hours.....in half Deutsch half English, as the wine began to affect our ability to speak in any language whatsoever ;) We then stumbled on further into the night, and after an amazing rendition of Total Eclipse of the Heart in the Schanzen U-Bahn station, we headed onto the Reeperbahn......

NO we didn't really. Well we did.....the Reeperbahn is a notorious red light district, and at night it is so so so scary. So scary. But, we wanted to see it, and there is a street very nearby where it is safe/good for students to go out! So we decided on a walk through, in full on snow, and what was a walk soon became a run, as we realised quite how lairy and seedy the whole thing really is! We hit our studenty fun street, where we ended the evening in an amazing club (they played THE CURE in A CLUB, AND THE BEATLES. THE BEATLES!!! I was in my pure element) , where we danced the night away until 5.30am.....then we quietly returned to our rooms, for sleepy sleepy time.

The next morning we arose from our pits after wenig sleep, had a big breaky, giggled on through the morning about the hilarious previous evening, and headed back to our respective towns =)

And das war es! All in all, a stunning weekend with some brilliant friends. Gonna miss them massively when I go to Spain!

"Touch the floor for democracy!" (Our new system of deciding what pub to go to).

"If that guy turns that light on, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna TURN IT OFF" Oo Laura, she went there!

Going East Mark II.....Chemnitz, Dresden and Leipzig

As I type this, I am pulling out of Leipzig Hauptbahnhof, and waving goodbye to the East, where I’ve spent a lot of time the past weeks!

Year Abroad hasn’t been all I expected it to be. Do not get me wrong, it is the most fun in the world, but I never imagined I’d be out and about quite as much as I have been. I imagined settling in my town and making lots of German pals my age….this hasn’t really happened like hoped, but I guess my whizzing around mainland Europe to visit what seems to be everyone ever has definitely proved fun =)

The time betwee

n going to Warsaw and Chemnitz was all very fast;- I arrived home from Warsaw Tuesday night, and then travelled to Chemnitz, in the East of Germany, to visit my friend Sam, on Thursday afternoon. Travelling wasn’t all that fun, but I had a new book, and new music and films from my friend’s laptop, to keep me occupied J

After a tiring 6 and a half hours, I arrived in snowy Chemnitz. Chemnitz is

a city in Saxony, and it was named “Karl Marx Stadt” until a mere 21 years ago. The communist vibe is very much present through buildings in the town, and moreover reinforced with the town’s ‘crown jewel’, the Karl Marx head! This was potentially the most imposing statue I’ve ever witnessed.

After catch ups with Sam and dropping off my things, we headed into town to an Irish pub to meet some of his friends, who were all ERASMUS students at Chemnitz University. After a couple of glasses of wine and getting to know some new faces, a relatively early ni

ght was had in order to get up bright and early Friday! I got to join Sam in his class on the Friday morning, I love going into other peoples schools (like when I went to Janni’s too…) because I like seeing how different people work, and different ways of doing things. I am also an incredible geek, so it would seem!

After school and a brief tour of Chemnitz on Friday, we jumped on a train with out pack lunches (!) and headed off to Dresden. Dresden is magnificent. Marred only slightly by the great pain caused by my shoes, we wandered through the town, Sam

giving me little historical insights to different places. Obviously Dresden was obliterated during the war ,but the reconstruction of the old buildings is impressive! Sam’s wonderful tourguiding lead us to the ‘surprise’ of my visit, which turned out to be the most English little tea room ever! We drank Yorkshire Tea (there ain’t nothing better, I tell you) out of quaint ceramic mugs, and I perused all the English Novels, postcards, and pictures of the Royal Family on the walls! It was

excellent. They also sold Tunnocks Tea cakes and Cadbury’s Chocolate buttons. I bought a teacake and the buttons, which are being saved for with a big cup of tea in Diepholz whenever I’m missing home a bit!

We wandered around the rest of the day, discovering and taking pictures like all good tourists can J In the evening, there was a Slovakian evening being held by the ERASMUS students at Chemnitz University. I had so much fun! There were so many new faces, again, and I really enjoyed using my German in a really social occasion, an event not always possible in little old Diepholz. That sounds weird! I’m not a hermit in Diepholz, far from it, but I don’t have the studenty party lifestyle, which is lifestyle that aids ones language immensely. There’s nothing like a glass of wine to improve ones language!

After our crazy cultural Slovakian evening, Sam and I whizzed into Leipzig on Saturday, to continue my tour of Saxony. We met with Gillian, a friend from our German course who is about to move to Leipzig, and it was delightful to catch up with old Edinb

urgh faees J I love Year Abroad, but the security of University (security is definitely the wrong word, but it’ll do!) is very alluring at times! We visited the Stasi Museum, because the headquarters were based in Leipzig. The museum was based in the old offices, and it was all incredibly eery, the whole place reeking of Ostalgie! After a Stadtbummel and being a bit nerdy, we swooshed off to our hostel, as we had decided staying in Leipzig the night would be more fun than staying in Chemnitz! We met some of Sam’s friends from Leipzig, had dinner, drinks, and then went to “British Music Night” at a club in Leipzig. It was amazing, easily one of the best nights

out I’ve ever had! It was all indie music, but popular indie music, and the stuff that you just don’t ever hear in nightclubs. I usually find it a bit tricky to get sucked into this going to nightclubs abroad thing, because I’ve found they can sometimes take themselves too seriously, but Leipzig was perfect! I’ve obviously been brought up in an Edinburgh music environment, where my haunts of the Hive or Potterow are far from pretentious!

So, lots of dancing and singing later, we had a few hours sleep before venturing back out into Leipzig today! Sam’s friends went home, and we had lunch in the cutest little German pub, where you could pay with DM still! I love the East. A very yummy salmon and walnut salad later, we further toured Leipzig, before 16.40 came, and I had to clamber onto my train back to the ‘holz. I’m due in at 21.47, where Cornell has very kindly offered to collect me from the station so I don’t have to walk home…laziness, perhaps, but I decided not to refuse, I’m shattered! Due to a new timetable, I don’t have school until 11.30 tomorrow, which is fantastic! I do love work though, and especially as I only have three weeks left I’m going to request to do more lessons, just to give myself more of a feeling of worth, and to keep me busy. I love being busy. I’ve started giving myself tasks to do, and I have decided to delve back into Spanish starting tomorrow, and begin to mentally prepare myself for 27^th February. That’s just three weeks today. I am so scared! I met a girl in Chemnitz that came from Malaga, and she informed me Almeria, the place I will be studying at, wasn’t that great….I’ve dec

ided to not let her get to me, or her comment, as part of my ‘stop worrying about everything ever’ resolution! I’m near paralysed with fear when I think about moving to Spain, but the news that a good friend of mine Holly is visiting her parents who live near to Almeria in March, has cheered me up greatly J Wait, what am I moaning about? Almeria will be absolutely amazing, I know. It’s just that at the moment, the idea of finding a flat, starting a university two weeks late in a language I don’t feel comfortable with, and beginning the process of establishing a group of friends, is all but daunting........

Right, I’ll leave before I write forever. If you made it to here, well done! Just 4 and a half hours until I’m back in Diepholz, I’m going to settle down and watch the rest of Dorian Gray =)

Ciao!

Going East Mark I....Warsaw.

I got back from Warsaw yesterday, and it already feels like a dream =)

Well, it was all quite dreamlike, I was very very tired for the majority! A mixture of me not sleeping for a lot of last week, on top of me being quite reluctant to sleep due to catching up with friends in Warsaw, meant I was a bit dazed!

I arrived in Warsaw Thursday night, where Richie met me off the train, and we went and made dinner, and drank wine...standard! Although my main reason for Warsaw visits was to see my friends, I also went because Magda, my friend from the summer school I work in, had asked me to do workshops on England in schools in Warsaw. I was super excited\nervous! Luckily, on Thursday evening Richie went through it all with me, and when Friday came it wasn't that scary at all. With the heckling of Richie at the back, I managed to get through my workshops quite well, and learnt a lot! At the end of my last one, the smiling face of Magda appeared, and we all went for lunch together, and caught up on what we'd been up to since the last time we'd been together in Prague!

On Friday evening, Richie, Richie's friend Woytek and I went into the bright city lights of Warsaw, and had a bit of a night out.....it was insane, and our decision to stay out until 6am meant for a very sleepy Saturday! We managed it regardless, and after sleeping in Saturday, we made the decision to look round Warsaw on Sunday instead....silly hangovers. On Saturday evening we had a party, andI met lots of new people, and finally got to put lots of names to faces of the people I always hear about!

On the Saturday, we somehow managed to stay up until 4am chatting....I however was insistent to be a tourist on Sunday, so after making tea and pancakes for everyone, we finally got out into the city to see some sights! Richie's friend Woytek very kindly did a bit of a historical tour, and I fell in love with Warsaw very fast! We did a standard old town tour. I love the main square, it is a huge vast space, with a big light up mermaid in the centre (I swear not as tacky as it sounds!), and all the buildings are really pretty, and built interestingly, if that makes sense? I am not feeling particularly architectually minded today, as you may have already sensed! Obviously the old town isn't really that 'old', due to the absolute devestation it saw by the Germans in WW2, however the reconstruction of the city is magnificent, and I could have wandered for days around the city finding more and more things. Alas, I just didn't have the time!

Woytek then took us to the Jewish Ghetto, and on to the Jewish memorials. They were all quite eery, for obvious reasons, and there were flowers and candles placed around them. It really hit home how much the Polish, and Warsaw, were effected, and still are effected, by WW2, and the Nazis. What the English learn at school to be just historical events, numbers on a timeline, are here very much still events, not a thing of the past but still living, in so far that the memories will never fade.

After our afternoon of wanderings and discoveries, the evening came fast, and Richie, Magda and I had wine, cheese, and catch ups, before an early night...as I had workshops again Monday! Monday's workshops came and went like a thunderbolt they were so fast! I had four in a row, and I really enjoyed exploring what I could do with them, developing my material and making myself into a bit of a character =)

Before dinner, whilst we were waiting for Magda to finish school on the last evening, we found this amazing place in the old town for wine. It's a cafe, but it is all pink inside, with movie stars on the wall, feathers, random assortments of teddy bears, lace, necklaces, and handbags dangling from the roof. It was very bizarre, and felt quite unpolish! My experience of Poland up to this point had been places that were quite dark, smokey and cool. This was the absolute opposite, and even better it sold homemade wine, which made me feel like I was experiencing Warsaw just that bit more =)

And then, after another evening of dinner and chatting with my friends, Tuesday morning came and I lugged myself onto my 10 hour train back to Diepholz! The long weekend of chilling, catching up, drinking and seeing new places was exactly what I needed after a melancholy January! My life is more or less non stop now until I leave on the 27th February, but I am making time in my day to write this posts, so that I don't get behind.

PS. Krowka is the yummiest thing ever. I'm addicted.

Weekend wanderings.

Last week I had a "Knoten in der Zunge", or so I've been told by my Landlady! This means to be tongue tied, and I agree whole heartedly. Last week was a blip on the otherwise brilliant Auslandsjahr times, and I promise January blues are over and out!

SO the WEEKEND. It has become so that I now live for my weekends. My evenings in Diepholz are quiet little things, and knowing that my next three coming weekends are PACKED full to the brim, I haven't done my normal attempts of organising things with people in the weeks...purely so I can have a bit of me time, do a bit of reading and try get a bit better at reading/listening to German, which often leads to procrastination! It has definitely hit me that I'm leaving in 5 weeks, and I'm well in the knowledge that I'll be amongst English speakers a lot of this time....and everyone knows I love a good panic :P Aside from my evenings of reading/Skype/trashy tv, I've spent a lot of time having coffee and chats with my landlady, which is lovely =)

But on Friday, I managed to escape little Diepholz, and went to the big bright lights of Hannover to visit my lovely language assistant friend Rachel! After having a bit of a funny week, it was so good to see a friendly face. We decided to follow "der rote Faden", or the red thread, around Hannover. This is a red line that's painted on the pavement in a strip, so that one can follow and see all the main Hannover sights en route! I was lucky enough to also have the Hannover expert Rachel avec moi, and as we toured the Stadt I began to realise I actually loved it! I've been warned that Hannover is a bit "grau" and boring, but I honestly think it's lovely. Charming, I'd say! The Rathaus is something else, set on a lake, which even on a horrible grey afternoon was beautiful. People definitely play Hannover down.

Our wanderings took us to this lovely little German tea rooms, where I had "Lieblingstee", purely for the cute name, I'm not gonna lie! After lots of chatting and re-warming, we headed back out into Hannover for more wanderings, and then dinner and wine before my long trek back to the 'holz! It was a very good way to spend my "frei Tag" (love the pun there. Also know it's not funny...)

Saturday arrived, and I cleaned. A lot. Which was fun and definitely blog-worthy news....ha! After completing lots of fun to do list crossing off tasks, I made a very "Year Abroad" move and accepted an invitation to a "techno disko". The thought of this, my friends, scared the living daylights out of me. Techno music is not my forte, plus anyone reading who may remember Opal Lounge circa first year, when they had UV lights? Yes? Ringing bells? To those unfortunate enough to have missed this, said lights sent my hair BRIGHT WHITE and my skin BRIGHT RED and my teeth BRIGHT WHITE. I looked ridiculous. I do remember my friends spending the entire evening wetting themselves! Anyway, I digress. So yes, I went to said "Disko" with Karolina and her friend Alicja. The disco was in the middle of nowhere in a place called Stammwede, in this house that had been converted into a UV lovers haven! Upon arrival, we realised we stuck out like sore thumbs. I do that thing constantly in Germany where I dress up, always, even when I know no one else will.....I looked so silly and out of place! Regardless of it really not being our thing, we chatted, drank and danced a bit before deciding at 1.30 that it wasn't for us.....at least I tried it!

Sunday arrived, and the wonderful Niedersachsen crew (or at least part of) descended on Diepholz! Laura and Rachel were both desperate to see Diepholz, quite bizarely, so I gave them the grand tour! Having looked at the, well, approximately three Sehenswürdigkeiten of Diepholz, we went to my flat, where I cooked Spanish food, and we ate and drank Sangria! Rachel had brought some lovely cakes from Hannover too, so we ate ate ate and all were ridiculously full! I am still full today, true story!

So, this is nearly it now kids. I have only FIVE weeks left. FIVE. That's nothing. I am so scared. As anyone that knows me quite well is sure to know, I am panicking. Especially as we have got to start choosing fourth year options....everything is getting a bit real, hard work is drawing ever closer, and well. I'm trying to keep calm =) I have so many exciting things happening! I'm going to Warsaw on Thursday until Tuesday, so that'll be the next blog post =) Then to Sam's in Chemnitz the weekend after, and Hamburg with the ladies the week after! All's good!

Over and out!

P.S. I'm still obsessed with the Burlesque Soundtrack. Just thought I should let you know.

Being rats, daytime absinthe and other year abroad tales.

Despite some melancholic feelings towards the end of the week, all's well in Auslandsjahr world! So, my last post ended on Friday, yes? Well. I went to see Burlesque Friday evening with Svenja. It was lovely to see Svenja again and to catch up on Christmas/talk Harry Potter =) The film Burlesque however, was something else. To most normal, culture appreciating, music loving film fans, this film would be potentially the most devastating thing to have ever happened to Hollywood. However, I thought it was AMAZING. Cher's unmoveable, expressionless face, Christina's predictable moves, glitter, cheesy music and a hot hot man? BEST FILM EVER. OK, at the time of watching, I groaned OUT LOUD at how bad the storyline was, but I definitely downloaded the soundtrack (my Itunes counter says it's beenplayed 6 times....). So, I apologies if your estimations of me have gone down, but Burlesque is most certainly a guilty pleasure of mine!

OK, my confessions gone and out the way, let's swiftly move onto

my Saturday! So, I got up nice and early to set off to Hameln, or auf Englisch, Hamelin!

This, my friends, is where the Pied Piper (or Rattenfänger for you Deutsch lovers!) story comes from, and I've been wanting to visit since th

e beginning of the year. Niedersachsen/Lower Saxony is always put down for being a bit redundant o

f wonderful places to visit, but if there's one thin

g to get out of my year abroad it is to not judge a book by it's cover! I've discovered so many wonderful little places in Lower Saxony, and Hameln is high on the list of my favorites.

So after a 3 1/2 hour train journey, helped a lot

by the tales of Annwyn and Nathan's Christmas', we arrived in good old Hameln. We sauntered on into the town and wandered through what was a very pretty, yet quite samey, old town. Funny shaped buildings were scattered everywhere, all trying to sell me rats of any description. Obv not real ones. The Pied Piper sorted that out.

The winner of the "best rat themed touristy gift" goes to the Likör shop we found....that sold "Rattengift" (rat poison) and "Rattenblut" (rat blood!). So we were perusing and taking photos of these funny bottles, and we were asked if we wanted to try. Being the students we are, we hastily said yes, and tried said blood and

poison! Now here it must be noted for the slightly lesser minded readers that this was not actual blood and poison, but schnapps and absinthe. Thus, two shots of these and I was well on my way. We returned to this shop later in the afternoon, to sample some more delights and do a bit of shopping (Samuel Cosgrove, I bought an amazing present for you when I visit you from there!). I also bought myself a cheeky wee bottle of Mango and Jalapeno schnapps, that has now joined my "Zeitreise" Schnapps that

I got from the Medieval market on my shelf of things that will never get drunk. I'll have to schlepp them back home for fourth year house parties, me thinks :)

Anyway, said absinthe shot definitely turned me insane. We found a Pied Piper statue, which I then INSISTED we all be rats and Pipers by. In hindsight, I apologise prefusely to Nathan and Annwyn! Ha! We then discovered a really lovely German pub with proper German food, where we hid away for hours, chat, ate and drank, before embarking on what felt like an epic trek of a journey home!

Sunday came, and I worked on my workshop for Warsaw most of the day. My trip to see Magda and Richie next weekend is mostly for pleasure, however I am also giving workshops on "England Today" in Warsaw. I have stitched lots of old lesson plans and new ideas together into a workshop, and I'm really looking forward to giving it a go! Scared, but excited scared! Powerpoints aside, I went for a beautiful lunch at Annette's, and then we went for a small walk in the glorious sunshine! It was a perfect day for me, a nice mixture of productivity and pleasure!

And since Sunday my week has been a blur of school, lessons, Kaffee with Karolina//Kaffee with Cornell and weekend planning! Tomorrow I'm going to see Rachel in Hanover, and on Sunday people are coming to experience Diepholz for themselves! We, my friends, will see...

Post-Christmas Germany!

So, I am back in Diepholz once again! After the excitement of Christmas, Germany was quite hard to come back to. It was the first holiday in a long time that I haven't worked part time in, so I had three weeks of rushing around and seeing everyone as much as possible, as well as spending a lot of time with the lovely family. I celebrated my 21st, again, with home friends, had a lovely Christmas Day with the family, and spent New Year down in London with close friends, and my sister. It was perfect!

Last Saturday I flew back to Bremen. It was hard to leave home, because I'd just had such a nice time, but once I arrived back in Diepholz, with Cornell open armed at the train station waiting for me, I was happy to be back! The one thing I can say is that the language is always hard, on the first few days, to adjust ones ear back to. I feel a lot more "German" again now, which is excellent!

On Sunday, I met with Annwyn, Laura and Rachel in Hamburg, so we could have a wander and a catch up about all our Christmas'! I've been to Hamburg quite a few times, but never really felt I knew my way around, so it was nice to wander and make everything just that bit more familiar.

Hamburg is the second biggest city in Germany, and certainly buzzing with people and trade. Whenever I've been, although slightly marred by the many cranes they seem to have, it always feels special to be there!

We walked to Hafen City, the port area of Hamburg. I'd been there before, when Janni came to visit, however my concentration had been more on the terrible weather then- sadly Janni chose a very poor weather weekend to visit! Anyway, Laura had got a new camera for Christmas, so we decided taking silly arty photos by the port would be fun for a while :) We walked along the Elbe until we reached a little cafe, in which we decided to pause for coffee....hilariously, the cafe was called "It's so fresh!". I do sometimes wonder if some Germans realise what their English means, when they use English. =)

Anyway, it was another one of those glorious days in which we seemingly did little else but wander and natter, and it was perfect! We're all returning to Hamburg in February to stay for a weekend before Rachel and I both leave for Spain, and for that I am very much excited, it'll be nice to experience Hamburg "properly"!

After Sunday, the blues hit me somewhat. I think it was a mixture of being tired, and it being a Monday! I've never really had the "Monday blues" before, what with being a student, who often works weekends anyway....but they certainly hit me! When they hit, I always endeavour to make lots of plans, and that's what I did =) Year Abroad is the most excellent thing ever, and I recommend it to everyone, however when you're in a wee little town with expensive trains to places, sometimes it is annoying. I'd looked in to joining clubs in Bremen, but it's too far, too expensive, and too unsafe for me to travel so late on the trains home at night. I don't always feel safe on the later Diepholz trains, and it is better to be safe than sorry =)

So my first week ran by in a blur, looking back! I've caught up with lots of teachers, had coffee with Karolina and done lots of lesson preperation :) My New Years resolution is to be more active with my language learning (geek), and by that I just mean reading a bit more, and maybe a bit of writing =) I'm going to Hameln with Nathan and Annwyn tomorrow, so for that I'm excited! I also have a trip to the cinema with Svenja planned, we're going to see Burlesque....I have been wanting to see it for ages! I'm a little bit upset, however, that The King's Speech doesn't come out over here until February :(

Anyway, bis bald Leute! xxxx