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.