Pizza, Coffee and some Italian company

My biggest worry about my time in Italy was that I would be lonely. What got me through the hard times in Germany, and what made it truly special were the friends that I met and the time that we shared. When you go to the university it isn’t surprising that you make a lot of friends very quickly. Everyone is around the same age, you are all going through the same thing and you latch on to each other. If you don’t like the people you meet on the first day, who cares you’ll meet a hundred more candidates the next day.

Being a language assistant or doing work experience is completely different though. I’m in an awkward age group, I’m too old for the pupils at the school and the son of my host family, but I’m too young in comparison to the teachers and my host mother. I haven’t had any contact with anyone remotely in my age group.

However I am very lucky the adults around me are equally worried about this and on Tuesday night I received a phone call from my mentor inviting me to go out on Saturday night (last night) with her friend’s daughter and mates. Although I was a little dubious about it, I agreed, what’s the worse that could happen?

The girl, E, is 18 but her boyfriend and the rest of the people who joined us were 21. They took me to get my first legitimate Neapolitan pizza. We shared two pizzas between the ten of us. It was very very delicious. It tasted really fresh and even though the mozzarella still gave it that oily taste, it wasn’t that gunky taste that you get from, say a pizza from Pizza Hut, which just makes you think “Urgh just think of all the fat this contains!”. I was NOT expecting the size of these pizzas though. Check out the second one:

What a monster of a pizza!

After that we drove around for a bit and then ended up in some bar called “Up and Down Coffe” in Pozzuoli. It was a really nice bar, clean, smart and comfortable. If they’d just turned the heating up a little bit more it would have been perfect.

What surprised me about being in the bar was that everyone ordered either a soft drink or a coffee! 3am, and we are drinking coffee…in a bar!?! Personally I think it’s great but I could just imagine some stereotypical Lads on holiday in Naples, partying with the locals and then being taken out for coffee. I don’t think they’d be too impressed.

Anyhoo E recommended a coffee for me to try, and it was gorgeous. A little pricey for such a small cup, but then again that’s Italian coffee all over for you. Great in taste, small in size, high in price. The coffee was called caffè del nonno (con panna). I would most certainly drink it again because it was divine.

But how was my experience with the Italians you ask? They were all lovely. Very friendly and very welcoming. They mostly spoke Italian to me, although a few of them were trying their best to practice some English with me, but I didn’t mind. One of the boys “Meatball” we call him acted as my translator when the conversations were just to complex for anyone to explain in Italian for me. Communicating was not as hard as I’d imagined although I found it difficult to follow conversations between the group. This is probably to due with the speed and the use of slang. I really enjoyed their company and I do hope they were sincere about inviting me out again. I had a great night. I was very tired after it, I was not expecting to eat at 00.30am and come home at 4am, but it was worth it.

Things are going well, I feel very lucky. ☆☆☆

Why is it so cold

Is it wrong that I am colder for longer here in Italy than I was in Germany.

One cold days in Germany, I spent my time inside. Trying the same here is Naples isn’t working. The houses are made to keep you cool, which I’m sure I will love come May/June time but right now I’m freezing. Having a shower is painful, because the water barely reaches lukewarm. I’m pretty sure I’m going to catch pneumonia.

I wasn’t expecting it to be so cold, so I don’t really have any woolies with me and my boots broke two days before boarding the plane to Naples. Tomorrow we are forecast heavy rain…great. Maybe if I’m not too tired after work tomorrow, I will brave the rain and the language difficulties and hit the shops in search of some warm clothing. There are a lot of sales on at the moment, so I just hope I’m not too late.

The Barmy Brit with the Brolly

Today was a lovely sunny day in Naples, painfully cold though. And what do I do? I take an umbrella with me. Why? Because it MIGHT of rained.

In England I carry my umbrella with me most days, because that ONE day that I forget it, it rains. This “survival instinct” kicked in as I was about to leave the house today and I quickly when back to my room to fetch my rainy day companion. Big mistake.

My Mentor made fun of me the whole morning. She couldn’t believe that I had brought the umbrella with me. She had a point, as during the 4 hours we were in the centre I only saw two other people with them.

Imagine her face if it had rained. It didn’t though :(

Happy one week anniversary to me

I’ve made it through my first week of Neapolitan life alive. 

So what’s happened since I last updated you properly on my adventures in Italy.

Well Tuesday was my first day at school. It started off with another musical train ride on the Cumana. This time there was not only an accordion, but also a woman singing into a microphone. I’ve noticed that the backing track always seems to be “no parlo americano”. Is it the generic backing track for these types of people? Also I had my first experience of gypsy tactics. A little kid hopped on the train and handed out pieces of printed paper explaining that he and his family were poor and homeless and needed our money. I’m sorry kid but do you really expect me to feel sorry for you when you are wearing brand new out of the box trainers! At least try and look convincing!

The next big moment of the day was getting off of the Cumana. I had been told numerous times “get off at the SECOND stop for Quarto. Not the first one the SECOND one”. This is all fine, except for the fact that the stop for Quarto 1 has no sign on it anywhere! So I was completely oblivious to the fact that we had gone past the first stop and were heading for the second. Luckily something inside me made me feel like I needed to get off, and even though I was very cautious departing the train and worried about having made a mistake, it all turned out fine.

I’ll post another post with more details on the school, just simply because it will make this post even more monstrous than it is bound to be without it. But my first day was pleasant enough and was spent completely with my mentor.

I had no school on Wednesday because of a strike on the Cumana. this also meant that I couldn’t really go anywhere either. But it was back to work on Thursday and today. I was with a mixture of teachers this time. One teacher is an absolute nightmare, I just wanted to take over and tell her go home. She has obviously never been to an English speaking country in her life let alone revised her knowledge of the English language and culture since her childhood; more about her in a rant-like post.

Both today and yesterday I went to the cinema with the school. The cinema in Italy is very different to in England (Maybe this is just for this cinema or just for cinemas in this area, I obviously cannot compare at this moment in time). Firstly there were no adverts. Secondly there is a break in the middle of the film. I was so confused. I thought maybe we had to come back tomorrow to watch the rest of the film haha. And lastly, people applaud the movie when something good happens. It makes for an exciting atmosphere, but its annoying when you are trying to concentrate on the dialogue.

We were supposed to watch The Kite Runner, but the film jammed after 10 minutes and they put on Hachiko instead. I remember it coming out in the cinemas back home and I had no interest in watching it. Blah blah another movie about dogs…THE MOVIE WAS AMAZING. I was so moved at the end and then to find out that it was a real story. I cried the rest of that afternoon every time I thought about poor Hachi. Mock me, I dare you. Today was supposed to be another attempt to watch the Kite Runner but alas it was repairable, so they put on an Italian film called Quando sei nato non puoi piu nasconderti which was not appropriate for the age group, and was a little depressing but by the end I could say that I enjoyed the film.

This afternoon I explored Soccavo a bit and realised that there is a lot of shopping to be done here. I even found a few boutiques selling Roberto Cavalli and D&G. Who knew all of this was right on my doorstep!?! I have yet to find H&M though.

So yes, well done me for getting through this first week. I feel like I’ve been here a lot longer. And I am counting down the days until I am back on British soil with my loving family. I miss them so much. 17 weeks exactly until I can go home. But in the mean time I MUST improve my Italian. 

 

 

Feeling useless

I probably felt like this when I first moved to Germany, it was so long ago that I really don’t remember; but right now I feel utterly useless.

I can’t do the simple things that I want to do because of my problems with the language.

I’ve forgotten so much Italian, and even if I do remember it, when I need to use it I tense up and poof it’s gone. I’m ok at home with my host family, the difficulty crops up when I’m outside in public. Particularly when I want to buy something.

Oh how I long to be able  to walk into a shoe shop and not be daunted by the prospect of someone asking me if I need help or worse me needing to ask them for a shoe in my size.

I feel like my lack of language and confidence is restricting me. I want to be free to buy, go, see whatever I want.

I need to study hard. Maybe I will bring back the word of the day.

The curious incident of the dogs in Naples

You see this dog:

He doesn’t look too healthy right?

Now look at these dogs:

I see dogs like this everyday that I have gone out so far in Naples. I don’t understand.

Are they sleeping? Are they dying?

The weird thing is that they don’t appear to have any owners.

I’ve never come across such a sight in my life. Let alone been confronted with it everyday.

I don’t like it. It’s weird.

If anyone can clarify what the hell is going on with the dogs in Naples then please get in touch.

The crazy Neapolitans

I decided to go out on my unexpected day off and take some photos of the city, during my time in the centre I encountered more crazy Neapolitans.

1. La donna che canta: I was waiting for the Cumana at Soccavo train station and a lady came and stood next too me. At first I thought she was just talking to herself loudly, but the more I listen the more I realised that she was making no sense. Finally it clicked, she was “singing” very loud but very unemotionally, along with her ipod. But the reason why it was making no sense was that she was only singing a few words per line. A lot of people were staring at her but she seemed oblivious to it all.

2. L’uomo con l’anatra: It’s not unusual for beggars to have pets especially dogs. In fact my favourite is the man in Nuremburg who dresses up both himself and his little canine friend to entertain us with a bit of light hearted entertainment (the Christmas themed costumes were my favourite). However the man I saw today takes the cake. Check this out:

Your eyes do not deceive you, that is a duck! You can’t see so much from this photo but the man’s duck was actually rather fat, in fact probably the fattest duck I’ve ever seen. So “homeless man” you want me to believe that you need my money when you obviously have enough funds to feed your dog and duck, who must get fed very well considering the size of him, and to buy a rug and water bowl for the two. Seriously?

3. Il nonno con la penna: There is a lot of graffiti in Naples, but that’s nothing really new to me as Germany was the same. What is new to me though is walking past a man old enough to be my granddad and spotting him defacing a poster with a ballpoint pen!

4. Il cantante che non parla inglese: In Germany I was always in awe at how well the buskers could sing in English. They really sounded legitimate. The same cannot be said for the man singing in the Metro station this afternoon. He was singing a rendition of “can’t get no satisfaction” by The Rolling Stones only his version went “’cause I CRY, and I CRY, and I CRY and I CRY….I can get through, satixfashow.” Bless him.

Well those are the bunch of nutters I met today. I’m looking forward to meeting some more tomorrow.  

“Is a Creme Egg classed as a liquid?”

On Friday when I was just about to go through the security check at the airport I realised that I had a Cadbury’s creme egg in my bag. I’m not too sure if its classed as a liquid or not but I put it in the clear sandwich bag anyway just in case. My friends thought this was hilarious.

I admit it does look a little strange.

So is the contents of a creme egg a “liquid” or not? Granted it is not as fluid as water but neither is Vaseline, but that still needs to go in the clear bag. I’m just glad that the woman at security didn’t question me about the egg. That would have been embarrassing. 

First day at work cancelled

No work for me today.

Supposedly the secretary isn’t in today so I have to go in tomorrow.

This is a shame because I was mentally ready to go to the school today, plus it is a beautiful day outside I don’t want to be stuck in the apartment.

Maybe I will take a trip into the city. I’ll see how I feel.

No sleeping on la cumana

I took a lot of trains in Germany, I enjoyed sitting down, looking out of the window and drifting slowly off to sleep.


No chance of that in Naples!


Today I travelling with la cumana again (the train which take me to Montesanto, which is the historical part of Naples, and to the school if I travel in the other direction).


When I got on the train I noticed two gentlemen holding accordions. As the train left the platform the one of the men turned on a large speaker, I’d happened to have missed that, which blared out a backing track and they began to play along with it, VERY loudly.


No one seemed surprised or bothered by the loud playing. I, myself, was quite amused. I couldn’t help but imagine how the German’s would have reacted to this; not too well I expect.


Oh Italy you are very noisy.

My first 24 hours in Italia

My first 24 hours in Italy were very different to those 24 hours in Germany.


The first difference was that I wasn’t alone. I was picked up from the station by two teachers, they arrived 40 minutes after me because they needed to get from the school to the airport, so technically I was alone for that time but what’s 40 minutes between friends?


The two teachers were really enthusiastic and friendly. The one who was driving, L, was so into the conversation that she didn’t really have her eyes on the road much. A little scary but comforting to know that they were excited for my arrival. I found it difficult to contact my mentor teacher O while I was in preparing for this part of the year abroad and barely answered any of my questions and therefore I had the impression that she wasn’t too bothered about all of this. Maybe all of this friendliness is just temporary and their true selves will come out in time. Who knows? I hope not anyway.


They drove me to the apartment of my Host family. The area isn’t great but it’s not the worst. From the outside the apartment block looks very very depressing. It reminded me of the area just in front of German train stations where all of the Turks live. However from the inside it the apartment looks like a palace. I couldn’t believe my luck when the lady showed me around. They’ve even given me the bigger of the two bathrooms which at least triple the size of my BEDROOM at home. 
It was very scary when the two teachers left. It was just me and the guest mother, MG, and we could barely communicate. She had little patience with me trying to understand what she was saying and I couldn’t say anything of any sense. In the end she left me to unpack and went and had a lie down. 


While she was sleeping I had another look around and noticed that there was a wireless internet router. When she woke up I asked her about it but she was convinced that there was no password for it, yet my laptop wanted one. Finally she phoned her ex husband and he told her that it was on the bottom of the router “doh!”. All was good until the internet connection broke after 2 hours and didn’t come back. We still don’t know why.
I had a shower,the water temperature was very inconstant, very very annoying, but then when I tried to take the plug out of the bath tub it was stuck. I tried everything but it wouldn’t come out. I cried. I was just so exhausted and so scared of MG. I hid in my room for a bit before explaining to her what had happened. She was lovely about it and even gave me her hair dryer so that I could dry my hair properly.


MG’s son V came home and we all had dinner. he is such a sweet boy, especially for a 13 year old. Conversation at the table was not so tense. MG made us CottoLette while reminded me of Schnitzel and for afters we had Italian cheese and bread. The cheese wasn’t awful but I prefer Cheddar haha.


Today I met up with my teacher in the centre of Naples. There was bit of a misunderstanding with the time and I thought we were meeting at 10 but it turned out that she hadn’t set a time. Luckily my host family had accompanied me on the train so it wasn’t a big deal. She took me to get an espresso, my first one, a sim card and to look at the city. Naples is so different to Germany. The stereotypical Italian is laid back…well not in this city. You need to have eyes everywhere not just to look after your bag, but to make sure you don’t walk into anyone, you don’t get run over, you don’t step in dog poo. Urgh yes dog poo, barely saw the stuff in Marburg, Naples is definitely restoring the balance in the world when it come to dog poo. ITS EVERYWHERE. 


I have to mention the Mopeds. In Marburg my main worry when I walked down the street was being run over by a bicycle. The cyclists there are crazy. They don’t care that you are there, they just ring their bell and expect you to jump out of the way. Now I have the same threat with mopeds, except they don’t even warn you! Also where the hell are the traffic lights in this city. I’ve seen one pair and that’s close to the apartment.  

Lunch was back in the apartment. MG made us Ravioli in Brodo (Broth) it was lovely and after we had turkey on bread. She is being so kind to me and has finally got some patience “dimmi” (tell me) she says every time I’m struggling with my sentence.
It was making friends with people and keeping busy that got me through the first few weeks in Marburg, and it looks like the care from this family will do the same. I was sad yesterday, I had “doppelheimweh” as I called it because I missed Marburg so much, but also home. Even though I can’t access the internet on my laptop at the moment I’m not too distraught. Yes it’s an inconvenience but I know that my parents, boyfriend and friends are supporting me whether I can chat to them everyday or not.


Sorry for such a long post, there was just so much to say :)

My Abschiedsparty and a tearful farewell

As I posted earlier the 17th was my last day in Germany. Me and my closest friends went for a meal and then to Schwarz Weiss (the student bar) to say goodbye to those who couldn’t make it to the meal.
The meal wasn’t anything special. We went to Cafe 1900 and I had a Reizauflauf for the first time. It was good. Although I think my favourite is still Nudelauflauf. The waitress was funny though. She kept pretending that she couldn’t understand our German so that she could practise her English. We found it a little offensive though and she wasn’t very helpful or friendly either.
Schwarz Weiss was nice and relaxing. We played uno toy story edition “Alien!” and a game where you have to try and blow some cards off of a bottle, but you can’t blow them all off.
Saying goodbye to people was hard. I cried, they cried, we all had a group hug. J and K came to the airport with me this morning. None of it felt real. I felt like I was just going away for a week. There were again more tears and a failed excuse for a goodbye speech and then off I went on the aeroplane.
I wasn’t even afraid on the aeroplane. All I was concerned about of leaving my friends behind. But as they told me, the distance between America and England, and Japan and England is so much further than Germany and Italy.
I hope they can visit soon. I miss them so much

The time has come to say goodbye

I’m moving out of halls today (still need to pack ahhh!) and I don’t know when my next blog post will be, so I thought it’s best to try and round things up tonight.

It’s been a stressful week. Exams and Hausarbeit to do, the room to clean, packages to send home and being kicked out of my room by the Wirtschafterin and the Maler, because the mould in my room was as he called it “Rote Karte! Rote Karte” (which from what I can gather means its rather bad). Anyway he made my room super cold and there is still a lot of chlorine in the air from whatever chemicals he was using and I woke up ill from it all. Thank you Maler, thank you.

Tonight will be a time for saying farewell to my friends here in Marburg. I already said goodbye to one of my friends from South Korea, sadly he can’t make it tonight. I’m looking forward to seeing all my friends again all at once, but I wish it was under better circumstances. I will miss them all so very very much.

I will miss Germany too. I really feel at home here. When I first arrived here on the 31st August I hated it and wanted it to be over with quickly, now I wish I could rewind back to that day. I’ve been very lucky here. I’ve met amazing people and been able to partake in so many activities that I’d never have done back in the UK. I’ve travelled so much. The only place that I wasn’t able to visit was the east part of Germany. I went to the opening of Karneval, I saw Sebastian Vettel’s homecoming, I saw him and Michael Schumacher race in ROC and I watched the German national football team play against Italy.

I’ve really become adapted to life here in Germany. Granted some things still drive me crazy, but there are a lot of positive aspects to this country and I am proud to say that I have lived, survived and loved here. I hope that my experience in Italy can be just as good. I’ve learnt in the last 6 months that change is not necessarily a bad thing so I will try my best to take everyday as it comes in Italy and make the most of it.

 

Punctuality, Exams and Earthquakes?

Today was my first day of proper exams (I don't really class the one in January as been a real exam) and for someone who did the equivalent on 30mins revision per subject and had lost the majority of her notes I did reasonably well...I think. 

My first exam went better than expected. I'd expected it to go into a lot more depth than it did. It was really just "describe this term", "give me an example of so and so". I don't know whether I've told you before but I don't actually need to pass my exams, only take them, hence why I didn't do much revision. But I told myself that I would try my best and complete the paper to the best of my ability. What really annoyed me though was that two of the Italian Erasmus students in my class filled out the front of the paper, handed it in and walked out...LESS THAN 5 MINS INTO THE EXAM Are you kinding me? Do you have no self respect? I know it's none of my business, but their laziness really got my back up. 

I was expecting to not do well in the second exam, and I didn't but I at least managed to answer a few questions, which was more than I expected. By the looks of it though, it was a difficult paper for everyone as three quarters into the test the girls in front of me were struggling on the same questions as I was. I'd like a pass mark in it, but I'm 80% sure that I failed it. It's a shame though because I really enjoyed that class, if my assignment for my home uni had not taken up all of my time, I definately would have studied hard for that exam. 

But I have a confession to make, and it's not the first time it's happened...I showed up to uni over an hour early again! I went to the classroom, realised that that was not my class in there, frantically checked my emails on my Ipod to see if there was a room change for the exam, asked the lady at the porters' office if she knew where it was, was told to go up to the 8th floor, where the German women shouted at me to wait a minute, and almost burst into tears. So I'm outside the office cursing at the stupid university for not informing me of a room change, hating myself for missing last weeks lesson where they probably announced the room change, when I looked at my watch and realised that it was 9.15am NOT 10.15am. I felt like a right tool. But naturally I was relieved. 

So that was my day so far. 
And in other news, there was an Earthquake in Marburg today, I didn't feel anything though. 
Enjoy the rest of your day xx

I don’t want to go

I’m leaving for Italy on Friday and all of a sudden I am terrified.

I was fine until last night when the teacher who will be my mentor in Italy popped up on facebook chat and began talking to me.

She told me that she was unable to pick me up from the airport because of the time, but she’d give me the address so that I can get a taxi. That was fine, it’s not here fault.

Then she asked me if I want to meet up with her on either Friday or Saturday.

I said Saturday would be best because I expect I’ll be in a state of shock on Friday.

“Why? What shock?” she asks!

I then tried to explain to her that it’s going to be big culture shock moving from Germany to Italy and of course I’m going to be upset after leaving my friends, but she didn’t understand. She thought I meant that I had an awful time here in Germany and I was expecting to have an equally awful time there.

Now I’m terrified that when I get to Italy the same is going to happen. I’m going to say something and they are going to turn it around and get offended. My friend managed to make her mentor hate her and I’m pretty sure it was the same type of misunderstanding. I don’t know if I could handle that. I want to be able to talk openly about my problems, not pretend everything is peachy.

I’m not looking forward to Friday at all. I just hope that there is wireless internet in the house that I’m staying in so that I can skype and blog. Without it I think I might go crazy or breakdown, especially if I have to keep all of my negative feelings to myself.

Homeless for the day

I went to see the Wirtschafterin today, she’s not too difficult to track down on Fridays because it’s laundry exchange day, and told her that I’m moving out next week. Yes this time next week I will be in a completely different country. (Not too sure how I feel about it right now).

Anyway she told me that I have to move out on Thursday morning which means that I will be homeless for 24 hours. Luckily I can sleep over my friend J’s house that night, and since she is coming with me to the airport on Friday anyway its not too much of an inconvenience.

I guess its good in a way because I can actually enjoy Thursday because I won’t be still packing and cleaning my room (I ALWAYS leave things to the last minute). But it means that I need to get things ready in my room asap.

I wonder what my new room will be like. I hated this room so much, but now it feels like home. It’ll be sad to see it all bare and prison like again.

Oh the joys of moving.

 

My first ever football match. Germany v. Italy 9/02/11

It all feels like a dream. I can’t believe that I watched the German national team up close and personal yesterday. The men that I’ve watched countless times on TV, in Germany and England were there in the flesh doing what they do best. It doesn’t even bother me that they didn’t win (it was a 1-1 draw).

We set off for Dortmund at 12:21. This was too early for me, as I’d only gone to bed at 5.30am that morning. We took three trains and it took just over 4 hours I believe. Our original plan was to go to the city centre for a bit and then go to the stadium but our last train actually stopped at the stadium and a lot of people got off, so we thought hey why don’t we check it out.

Glad we did because there was a lot of free stuff that we would have missed out on otherwise. Including flags, face paint and sweat bands.

 

This is the Fan Club bus where we got flags painted onto our cheeks

If you remember all the way back to November then you’d remember that I had 4 spare tickets to get rid of, yes I still hadn’t managed to sell them. But finally my prayers were answered and I managed to sell them for 80 Euros. I had to haggle a bit, the cheeky beggar wanted them for 60! It turns out I’m as gifted as my dad when it comes to market trade.

We got ourselves something to drink and eat in an outside Biergarten and then went through into the Stadium. The view as we walked in was breath taking, the stadium was huge, although the pitch was at least half the size that I expected, TV makes it look a lot bigger.

We were sat really close, 4th row to be exact, and Nord Tribune (where we were sat) received free flags…yes more free flags.

The National Anthem was one of my favourite parts of the game (except the game itself). For a friendly game they sure went to town when it came to showing off their natural pride.

 

Sudtribune made a D for Deutschland during the National Anthem.

 

The game itself was very dream like. I found it hard to believe that the people I was watching were the real people. We all found it hard to let it sink in. Even when Schweinsteiner got this close:

Bastian Schweinsteiger

I loved the chanting and songs. “Schwaaaaaaaaaaaarz und Weiss” was one of the songs. But the best had to be the chant “schieß ein Tor! schiess ein Tor!” (shoot a goal). For the first half of the game all we could hear was “she’s a door”…ooops.

We all enjoyed the swapping of the shirts at the end, for obvious reasons, but what I did not enjoy was the mascot Paule. He’s a little creepy don’t you think

Evil Paule

We had over two hours to kill before my train home. So we roamed the streets of Dortmund in search of food and shelter. We really turned some heads and were approached numerous times by people asking where we were from. “Marburg, einfach Marburg”. I have to admit it must be weird to see 4 girls all dressed up in Germany gear speaking fluent English.

My Germany Trikot

Me and another friend who had been watching the game, but not with us, got the ICE home whilst the others stayed until 4.50ish for the regional train. We should have beat them by about 2 hours but because the Sbahn decided to break down a stop before Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof we missed our train to Marburg and I ended up getting back to my room 15mins before the others. I was gutted, but at least I managed to get some sleep on a comfortable train.

Even though it doesn’t feel like it really happened, it was one of my favourite experiences here in Germany. Getting to see Germany place or seeing Vettel’s homecoming or the opening of carnival are all things that I may never get the chance to do again and they really make all of the homesickness and hard times worth while. I am very lucky to have a year abroad.

 

 

It was a hard two nights but ich hab’s geschafft!

After staying up until 5am to nights in a row, and filling my system with copious amounts of Red Bull (see previous post) I have finally managed to finish my essay for my home uni. It still needs a bit of editing but that is a job for Friday.

Now I can enjoy the game tonight with no worries.

What Game?

Why the Germany v. Italy football match in Dortmund. I can’t wait :D You can bet I will be taking lots of pics ready for an epic blog post about it <--- It’s my first time every watching a football match live.

Drucken sie die Daumen (cross your fingers) for a win. If my luck today is anything to go by the we should be fine, I mean just look at what I FINALLY accomplished this morning. Yes after god knows how many attempts I managed to win at 3 draw solitaire (by new guilty pleasure).

 

 

Anyhooo GO GERMANY!

 

My can of Vettel themed Red Bull will help me through this tough night.

Right now my body is thinking “urgh it’s that time of the year again!”. Yes, it is allnighter essay writing, semester worth of info cramming time. Boooooo.

Energy drinks are my main source of nutrition during this time.

So I popped to REWE and found this bad boy!

Yes that is love of my life Sebastian Vettel on my can of Red Bull. I’m not sure if you can buy these back home (most probably) but I have never been so excited buying a can of Red Bull in my life.

Just in case you’d like to see a close up of his face, then this is for you.

 

Did I mention he’s doing the Vettel finger?

Essay fail

I have a lot of work to do at the moment. One 3000-4000 word essay for my university, a 10 page essay and a four page for Marburg plus 2 exams to revise for. As we say here in Germany time is Knapp and I’m really struggling.

Yes I know it is my fault, I should used my time more effectively blah blah blah.

But seriously my main problem at the moment is that I’m finding it really difficult to write. Maybe I’m just rusty but I just can’t write an essay anymore. Everything I’m writing is just descriptive and uninspiring. There is little discussion or argument.

Maybe it’s because I’m writing in German and not English? I just don’t know.

I think I will I force myself to go to the library tomorrow. I need to try my hardest to get my first draft of my essay for back home done otherwise I’m going to be seriously behind.

Urgh this is torture. All I want to do is enjoy my last week and a bit with my friends.

Happy belated 21st to me

A week ago today (Friday 28th January) was my 21st birthday. I wasn’t looking forward to it because 1. I hate the thought of getting older, and while I stopped being a teenager last year, I could say I had finished my teens, now all I can say is that I’m properly in my twenties :S 2. Twenty-one is a big deal, an important birthday, and I really wanted to be able to celebrate it with my family.

So when I woke up on Friday morning I had a little cry. I opened my cards and presents that I had brought back with me from the UK and my mum had bought me a special 21st birthday photo album. I looked the the photo album for a long time. I hadn’t planned any sort of celebration. I didn’t feel like celebrating. But how could I leave such a book empty. It was then that I decided that I needed to do something, even if it was just have a night down the pub with some friends. I got out my phone, texted a few people, told them the place, Desperados, the time, 21:30 and went to class.

After the class me and my boyfriend had Döner for lunch, which we ate at the bus stop (inside joke, it had to be eaten there), we went to H&M to buy something to wear for the evening (like I said I hadn’t planned on doing anything special so I hadn’t bought anything nice back from the UK to wear) and then we went to get cake.

I’m not sure whether the German’s do birthday cake or not. But I thought it’d be a waste to buy a whole one so we went to Cafe Vetter for some posh cake and hot chocolate.

My “Birthday” Cake

(Also in the cafe we came across a man who was dressed like a burglar.)

After skyping with my family (my sister asked me if it had been the “best birthday ever!” bless here) me and the boyfriend went for a quite and cheap dinner and made our way to desperado. Everyone I had invited except for two came. It was such a relaxing night. I had a lot of fun. Being around the friends who love me was just what I needed. I received some great presents, but it is the messages that they put in my cards that I will cherish the most. I really have the best friends here in Marburg that I could of wished for. I really wish I didn’t have to leave so soon. I will do my best to keep in contact with all of them. They really helped make my 21st birthday special.

 

My Birthday Presents

(yes that is a fake postcard from Justin Bieber wishing me a happy bday, it is another inside joke)

Birthday Biscuits baked by H, who sadly couldn’t make it. Yummy.

Meat me in Mcdonalds

I was supposed to visit a friend for dinner tonight. But while I was on the bus to her halls, she texted me asking if we could change it until tomorrow. I didn’t mind but I felt bad because I had blown off another one of my friend’s who had wanted me to go to Mcdonalds with him tonight.

Thinking about Mcdonalds reminded me that I was hungry and I could really do with a nice burger. So I hopped onto another bus and went to buy myself a greasy snack. I walk into Mcdonalds and who is there sat eating a BigMac, my American pal who had invited me earlier that day. Maybe it doesn’t seem like such a coincidence, but for him to be there at that exact time and for us to both be alone…well we thought it was pretty funny.

we ate, we laughed, we swapped stories, all in all a lovely evening.

In other news, I’m going to another Chinese New Year dinner on Saturday and hopefully will be watching the Superbowl on Sunday/early Monday morning. So a good weekend ahead, but first I need to get my work done :/

KOKOWÄÄH

Today was my fourth and probably final trip to the cinema in Germany. Apart from Goethe! which I saw back in October tonight’s movie was the only other German film I’ve seen here.
I was very excited to see the movie, KOKOWÄÄH, simply because of Til Schweiger. I became a fan of his work in 2008 when I purchased one of his DVD’s, wo ist Fred?, simply because it was on the shelf next to Goodbye Lenin. The second reason why I was excited to see it was because his daughter co-stars in it. I was really intrigued to see whether or not she’d inherited her father’s unique style of acting. The little cutie didn’t let me down.
The movie was very very enjoyable. The plot, without giving too much away, revolves around film writer Henry, Til Schweiger, who is suddenly burdened with 8 year old Magdalena, Emma Schweiger, his suspected his daughter. Henry is a bit of a ladies man and has no desire to have kids in the future. (It a pretty generic plot for these long lost kid showing up at your door movies). The twist is that Emma already has a “father” who is battling with himself over his feelings for a child that is not his.The relationship between the two fathers is not as tense as expected  and it makes for some funny viewing. Although nothing can beat the comedy between Henry and Magdalena. As I’d hoped the two Schweigers have an amazing on screen chemistry.
My only complaint about the movie is that at times I felt that the comedy was overdone. There were a bit too many “funny bits” thrown in when they really weren’t necessary, which ruined the plot a little. I think they could have simply kept Henry and Magdalena as the two comedians. In my opinion that would had opened up a whole knew level to the movie by the two sharing a bond of a comedic personality that the other characters do not possess.
Haha I think I’m starting to ramble on now. I apologise. But please check out the movie either in cinemas, if you’re in Germany, or keep an eye out for the DVD. It really was a great movie.
Here’s the trailer:

Happy Chinese New Year

Ok, I’m back, and I actually mean it this time. The laptop is up and running.

So I have a lot to fill in, but I thought I would start with the most relevant topic at the moment, Chinese New Year.

As you guys know I have a lot of Taiwanese friends, and they were lovely enough to invite a few of us round last night to celebrate the year of the Rabbit with them.

They made us a scrumptious feast of Taiwanese cuisine.

For dessert we were treated to some caramelised Strawberries and some pearl tea! (also know as bubble tea and tapioca milk tea)

 

The tea was gorgeous, although I didn’t like the texture of the tapioca, so I tried my best not to suck them up the straw.

So Happy Chinese New Year everyone, enjoy your 4/5 nights of festivities and look out for more posts during the next few days. ☆