477,7 beeline

Summer Trips and Rain

2011-06-11T10:39:00.000+01:00

Finally it's time for yet another entry in what has become a rather inactive blog. Exam period and my time in Germany was surprisingly time consuming. Luckily there was not a lot happening in this time anyway so I'll skip straight to the good part or well the part after exams.

Naturally you would think, the second you finish your exams you'd want to have a couple of drinks. Surprisingly enough I did but let's not get into that.

Starting last Saturday travelling in the UK started again. Firstly with a university organized trip to Dorset and secondly with a road trip to Cornwall and Devon. First things first and with little words and some pictures, I'd like to take you through the two day journey with the university group.

As you might have realized by now, there were not many words lost here. In fact none at all about the trip really so far. I have to say that apart from what you can see, there is not much to say. It was a nice trip with great photo opportunities that fascinated me but did not really have that extra something. Nevertheless I really enjoyed it.

Sunday night we went to karaoke and had loads of fun. It also meant that I needed every second of sleep I could get on Monday because Tuesday morning it would be time for THE road trip.

So Tuesday morning we started driving towards the very South-West of England. According to the weather forecast we would not be so lucky. Thanks to the unpredictability of English weather, it was al right in the end. The first proper stop in Lynmouth gave us a feeling of what we could expect in the next four days. Absolutely amazing scenery and the smell of the Atlantic Ocean. A taste of this will follow in the pictures later. The second stop was at Combe Martin which on its own would have been worth the journey. Wonderful beaches and cliffs joined together to form a marvellous place. Those two stops have taken up a lot of the day and so we headed to the Riversford Hotel in Bideford afterwards. The Hotel was really nice with a great sea view and all of that for just £ 25 per person. After eating in a nice local pub and sleeping in a nice and comfortable bed we had an amazing breakfast and drove off to Morwenstow, which for me personally was the highlight of the trip. After driving for around 20km on a street as wide as my car, we arrived ad Morwenstow, which is a village with about four houses and an old church. Nothing special there? No but a sign "Public Footpath" leads to the most exciting and beautiful cliffs I have ever seen. It was so fantastic, I cannot even find words to describe it and it has to be astonishing if even I cannot find words any more. Next we stopped at yet another beach with cliffs before we arrived in St Ives in our hostel - which wasn't really a hostel, but more like a students' ran guest house. After arriving, we've left to see a play at the Minack Theatre. The Minack Theatre is an open air theatre right at the coast. So you can see a play and if it is really really bad or boring, you can just look up or left or right a little bit and you'll find yourself looking at the Atlantic Ocean. Brilliant!
Spending the morning of the third day in St Ives, we drove off to see Land's End which was more than just a small disappointment and we immediately left and headed to Saint Michael's Mount then. Funny story: Can you imagine leaving your car keys inside your locked car in a foreign country? Well, I can. Anyway I decided to wait and enjoy St. Michael's Mount for two hours totally not related to waiting for a locksmith or anything!
While waiting, we've met two of our friends from Bath who were visiting Cornwall as well. Isn't the world small? Knowing how to open a car with just a piece of metal in less than two seconds, we drove off to hour guest house in St Austell instantly. The Karmary Guest House was amazing and a true recommendation for all visiting the area around St Austell.
The next day we went to see the Eden Project. It was pure amazing yet quite expensive.

And now, for the fun part. Pictures:
Lynmouth and surroundings:

Combe Martin:

Riversford Hotel:

Morwenstow:

Bedruthian Steps:

Minack Theatre:

St Ives:

St Michael's Mount:

Eden Project:

And finally my first ever published panorama picture:

http://photosynth.net/view.aspx?cid=30a1bce7-7bdc-4b0c-b38c-ed38866a2a9c

I hope you are all well and that I'll see you soon

Cheers!

Spring and a Friendly Visitor

2011-03-31T15:32:00.000+01:00

Last week was probably the best week of all my year. Saying this might upset people sharing great experiences with me a little bit in the first place and yet I am making this drastic statement. Why? Simply because the sun was shining. The difference is enormous and the fun you can get from lying around the lake and enjoying the sun after what has been 5 months without really seeing the sun can be quite depressing. I am not the guy to become depressed quickly, in fact I have not become depressed at all but seeing the sun made me yet a bit happier. Work has been laid to rest for a couple of hours each day and all the sorrows carried away by warm sunrays hitting the face and body of everyone. I would've never imagined writing about a simple thing like a sunny day before but England and a tough winter in general makes you realize the sun with all its power.

Yet last week was great for an entirely different reason. Anna Lena went to visit me for the weekend and what a weekend it turned out to be! On Friday we celebrated Dan's birthday by going to Happy Hour (Beer for £ 1.50) followed by going to a casino and a club in Bristol. Cheers to "All on 17" and the people I went with, it was a great night. Coming home at 4:30 can only be topped by waking up at 8:30 again and going to do some sight seeing. So this is what we did! I will skip telling you about the part of the day I spent realizing just how stupid I am (reading Anna Lena's project makes me feel exceptionally dumb). Due to being tired and having a lot to talk about, we spent the evening at home.

Sunday started like you would want it to start. Waking up feeling perfectly awake and ready to so something amazing. For Anna Lena and me this meant going to Chris' place to eat lunch. Cheers for all the good food (Fajita's and Schnitzel) and for this great game of football in Victoria's Park, and if you think this is not a good end, I agree with you but I am off to meet friends for a coffee and I cannot make them wait any longer.

German and a proper fun ending will follow soon - I hope.
See you all!

St. Patrick's in Ireland

2011-03-20T12:17:00.001Z

Realizing the great opportunity at hand, we decided to go to Dublin for Paddy's. Looking forward to this trip to Dublin and Galway I didn't even mind waking up at 3:20 in the morning to go to the airport and after wasting most of the morning due to being tired and lazy, we had a great guided walking tour around Dublin's most important monuments (including more than one pub). It was fantastic and for free. Truth be told, I forgot half of what our amazing guide said already but nevertheless it was very informative and enjoyable. After walking around the city a little bit longer and some great Irish dancing lessons, the night finished in a great hostel with pasta and a very talkative room mate (hope she doesn't read this). Awake as I was the next day, the Guinness tour in the morning was cancelled and we prepared ourselves for the national patron to arrive. The massive amount of people to see the parade was sheer overwhelming, however I could not see a lot. I hope the pictures tell you roughly what it was like.

After the parade and having lunch I and some other brave men (women!!!!) went to see the Guinness storehouse... On St. Paddy's day.... € 11 and the big question: is it worth it? The simple answer: yes. Not because you learn a lot or anything but because it was a lot of fun. Imagine Charlie and the chocolate fabric.... Only with Guinness... Yeah, that's right...

Leaving to head to a pub at 8, we were in a tired yet good mood and since everyone on the street went a little crazy, it wasn't hard to understand what this day was about. Nevertheless the night ended quite early for me thanks to 1.5h of travelling home (and being too weak to stay awake all night).

The hotel we woke up in the next morning was sheer fantastic, mainly because the beds were amazingly comfortable. Mathilde and I were then heading to Galway. Sadly some of us had to return to Bath on the Friday, but those remaining bravely continued their adventure. After having an Italian lunch and a rather long walk to our guest house, we were happy to arrive and - Spanish as I have become - took a nap. The evening started with a walk to the sea which was so great that I decided to go back there the next day early in the morning just to enjoy it a little while longer. While writing this I have just realized that we spend 3 nights in Ireland and I succeeded in spending it in three different types of accommodation (hostel, hotel, guest house). Since this paragraph only contains useless information, let me continue:

There's a stone in Galway named after a man and this stone is 500 years old. Why would I tell you this? I don't know but the man who told me would, I guess - and hope...

The harp on every Irish coin and on all the official documents is not the original Clàrsach (Irish harp) but a mirrored image of it.

The original symbol is owned and copyright protected by Guinness. Shocking but interesting I think.

Travelling with 12 girls as the only boy IS fun

BUT 4 hours of the trip will be lost due to bathroom breaks.

Guinness does taste better in Dublin, but that's just because we want it to. It is exactly the same as in the whole Republic of Ireland.

Don't trust fortune tellers

Everyone's Irish on the 17th of March

All in all, the trip worked out in a way I would never have imagined. I have seen little of Dublin and Galway and I have the feeling of having missed out on so much so that I have a strong urge to come back sometime and explore it again, but on the same time, I had the special opportunity to get to know my friends better and to spend valuable time with them. I cannot help thinking of my year abroad coming to an end soon, and even if I am not supposed to say this or even think this, it won't change the fact that this adventure has to end. However the friendships that were made here can and hopefully will last for longer and for this, I think, this holiday was brilliant. I am sorry for getting melancholic and all but there is always things worth speaking out loudly because there is always a big chance of somebody else thinking exactly like you.

Not wanting to end the blog on such a thoughtful paragraph: here are

some of the amazing and embarrassing photos of mine. Enjoy!

All 13 of us in one picture, can you believe it?

I'll update the photos as soon as I get the other ones... Hope you're having a great time and see you all soon, cheers!

Um 3:20 aufwachen um zum Flughafen zu fahren ist nicht jedermanns Sache, und es ist sicherlich nicht meine erste Wahl, aber was tut man nicht alles um St. Patrick's Day in Irland zu verbringen? Nachdem wir den größten Teil des Morgens verstreichen ließen. Nach einem leckeren Mittagessen nahmen wir dann an einer Tour teil. Zu Fuß ging es an allen wichtigen Sehenswürdigkeiten im Stadtzentrum vorbei wo wir anhielten und unser Stadtführer uns etwas von der Geschichte Irlands erzählte. Lustigerweise waren bei diesen Sehenswürdigkeiten auch Pubs am Start. Da ich zu faul bin den Rest zu übersetzen werde ich einfach was anderes schreiben, diejenigen unter euch die beide Sprachen verstehen erhalten daher also mehr Informationen (wenn auch genauso unnötig). Wir ließen den Tag ruhig ausklingen und taten nicht viel außer etwas rumlaufen und ein Festival zu bestaunen. Zu guter Letzt gabs es dann Pasta im Hostel. Eigentlich wollte ich am nächsten Morgen zum Guinness Storehouse, aber Faulheit obsiegte und ich schlief länger. Wer hätte es gedacht, nicht wahr? Der St. Patrick's Day Umzug war sehr cool, auch wenn ich nicht viel gesehen habe. Die Menschenmassen waren überwältigend... Schaut euch einfach die Bilder im Englischen Artikel an, und lasst euch überwältigen!

Nach dem Umzug und dem Mittagessen ging es dann für mich und einige junge Damen zum Guinness Storehouse. 11€ hat der Spaß gekostet, aber ich denke das war es wert. Es ist nicht wirklich eine Brauereibesichtigung wie man sie erwartet, sondern eher eine Mischung aus Museum und Kneipe/Pub.. Schwierig zu beschreiben, aber es war spaßig. Um 8 ging es dann von Guinness auf zur Partymeile. Es war fast schon beängstigend wie verrückt die Leute waren, und wie viele es waren... Aber sehr lustig. Nach einer Nacht mit viel zu gutem Schlaf für unterwegs ging es dann nach Galway. Leider waren wir dann etwas dezimiert, da einige meiner Freunde zurück nach Bath mussten (Uni lässt niemanden so richtig los schätze ich).

Galway lässt sich für mich in wenigen Worten zusammenfassen. Es ist eine kleine Stadt, mit viel Wasser - es ist schlichtweg ein Traum. Die Foto's beschreiben recht schön was da so los war. Aber nicht nur das sondern die Pubs sind auch recht beeindruckend. Es gibt quasi zwei Straßen die einfach nur voller Pubs sind. Und wieder: So viele Menschen. Irland ist faszinierend was das angeht, und ich bin sehr froh das erlebt zu haben.

Die unnützen Informationen und den letzten richtigen Paragraphen mag ich nicht übersetzen. Ich hoffe das ist kein zu großes Problem. Jetzt geht es erstmal ein wenig an Mathe und dann hoffentlich ins Fitnessstudio noch, und ich werde mich hoffentlich sehr bald wieder mit lustigen Informationen melden können. Bis dahin: Macht es gut und bis bald

German Writing and the Fun of Translating

2011-03-03T23:43:00.002Z

As my English skills reach skyrockets, people started losing track of what I was writing. Therefore and because I miss the language, my next big blog entry will be dedicated to the German language and my family. Which of cause could cause an uproar with the non-German readers. Thanks to me being a "nice guy", Bea's words not mine, I will therefore avoid this and write in English as well. Of cause this means that people who have a general understanding of both languages will laugh at either my poor English translation or my poor German. I want to stress that I am fully aware of this and only here to entertain you.

Luckily nothing new happened this week and therefore this blog entry will end fairly quickly but I do not want to leave you without telling you about one of the upcoming highlights in the UK and for my fellow readers here: I am officially going green, which doesn't mean politically or - god forbid - environmentally, but it means St. Patrick's Day in Dublin.

I will have my very own camera team with me to capture each and every second and my creative mind will be kissed by a muse in the form of Guiness.

Love you all, Cheers.

Wort für Wort übersetzen funktioniert leider nicht so ganz, da dieser erste Satz, im Englischen zwar auch arrogant, absolut überheblich klingt. Wegen meiner komplizierten Ausdrucksweise und der Tatsache, dass ich Deutsch vermisse, werde ich die nächsten Beiträge in deutsch verfassen. Da dies eventuell zu einem Eklat unter meinen nicht deutschsprachigen Leserinnen und Lesern führen könnte, und weil ich weiterhin ein "nice guy" bin, werde ich also ein paar Beiträge bilingual halten. Ich bin nicht etwa eingebildet, sondern Bea sagte ich sei ein netter Kerl und was Mama Bea sagt ist wahr!

Das bedeutet natürlich vor allem Demütigung für mich, da die Leute die sowohl Englisch als auch Deutsch verstehen entweder meine schlechte Übersetzung, oder meine peinliche Muttersprachkenntnis als Grund für Peinigungen finden können - und werden. Ich möchte klarstellen, dass ich mir darüber vollkommen im Klaren bin, und sowieso nur hier bin um euch zu unterhalten.

Glücklicherweise ist hier nicht viel passiert, und mein Blog bleibt somit schön kurz heute. Bevor ich ihn jedoch zu Ende bringe, möchte ich auf ein Highlight meines Abenteuers aufmerksam machen, das auch für meine Leser ein Highlight werden wird: Ich werde nach Dublin fliegen, und nicht nur das, nein, sogar an dem grünsten Tag des Jahres: St. Patrick's Day in Dublin. (PS: das Wortspiel funktioniert im deutschen leider nicht)

Um dieses Erlebnis mit euch zu teilen, nehme ich mein eigenes Kamerateam mit, um jeden Augenblick festzuhalten und werde mich von der Muse küssen lassen - was natürlich nur eines bedeuten kann: Guiness.

Liebe euch alle, Prost!

PS: Ganz besonders meinen Papa diese Woche! Du bist der Beste.

Photos of the Recital

2011-02-20T23:29:00.003Z

So here we go again - might overplay my hand today a little bit but I just wanted to bring this out there, mainly because people want to see how gorgeous (yet badly compared to everyone else who was there) I looked.

By the way I almost forgot to tell you that Paul was one of the stars in the recital and did a great job in performing or well at least accompanying two lovely girls on the piano while they sang. In the biggest picture, there's Mathilde, Bea, Paul, Pia and me, on the upper left picture it's obviously Paul playing the piano, one down there was my personal highlight of the evening: a woman playing the harp - wonderful!

The lowest two pictures just show the luckiest two men of the evening with *their* women... I am not quite sure if they approve of this but anyway.

There's still no pictures of my Friday but some party photos out which I haven't had a glance at yet so this will take some time to find nice ones.

Today I went to a service at Widcombe with Joe and Matt, whom I have met at one of many Globe Café's. I can tell you, listening to a service in another language is at least a hundred times as difficult as it is in your mother-tongue. After the service we had some great underground time which was yet another possibility to learn and forget another ten names. On this occasion I have to say I do not do this on purpose and I still remember all of you, despite probably forgetting your names. I still find it astonishing that religion on its own can connect people who barely know each other so quickly and despite not adding anything to the conversation or the general discussion I felt strangely involved already. Looking forward to next week and obviously this week's Wednesday. Globe and English - yeah!

I only just realised that I have tricked you with the title but let it be said, that I planned on quickly posting the pictures and it sort of turned into this. Hope you enjoy it anyway and see you all as soon as possible.

Cheers!

PS: I miss you, Elisa!

It's been a long long time...

2011-02-20T17:13:00.002Z

I hate to do this but the last few weeks left me no choice but to start my new post with an apology. I wasn't able to write for quite some time and I really regret not taking the time. My holidays in Germany where the best two weeks I've ever spend in Germany which is not so much about the quality of the week as it is about how great it is to see friends, parents and siblings again after not seeing them for such a long time. Strange as it may seem, while feeling at home and absolutely happy, I missed Bath and the people around. In fact I thought more about Bath and the upcoming 2nd term then about things to do in Germany. Nevertheless my weeks were packed with events, parties, meeting people and of cause: Christmas. Oh what a wonderful time of the year. My flight got cancelled and I was scared of the idea to not spend Christmas with my family but in England. Luckily I found my way back to France by train and ferry where my parents - perfect as they have always been picked me up and drove me safely home. A true Christmas miracle if I may say so and seeing that this is my blog: I may.

Coming back to England was made much easier by my bigger brother and only slightly younger sister coming with me and staying at my place for a week. We had a great time and I think they really enjoyed seeing the beauty of this rainy place. The day they left, also known as my brother's birthday, I headed to university to study for my exams. One week of preparations may not seem much and you might think it is not enough. Suffice to say you might be right. Nevertheless they went relatively well and the results are to come out on the 28th of Feb. Exam period really dragged me down a little bit and after the second week of exam stress, it reached its peak and I wasn't able to focus anymore. However this just meant I learnt to appreciate the inter semester break all the more and with all the spare time going to waste, I even joined the gym.

A massive load of lectures, sports and events did not leave me with enough time to document or at least briefly inform you of what I did. Today however I have the time so I will skip right to this weekend. It was music weekend for me: Valeria, Lara, Camilla, Pauline, Christopher and I went to see a band perform in the Huntsman. Despite it being not my choice of music at all, I had a great time and due to the concert being in a pub. I will spare you the pictures in which I would not look good anyways. (I have to admit, I don’t have the pictures yet, I’ll update them asap). Friday went by and clubbing had to be cancelled due to us staying in this pub till 1am. Saturday morning and afternoon came and went without really doing anything useful and, as you would expect, I really enjoyed it. Saturday evening Beatriz, Mathilde, Pia, Paul and I went to see a concert of one of the university’s societies. I have to admit that I did not expect too much of it but boy was I wrong. Some of the performances were out of this world and with the satisfying feeling of pure enchantment paired with spending an evening with great friends I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow this night.

Today started with going to the gym to absolutely destroy my body (again) and even though it is hard to believe, it felt great (again). The rest of my day was well wasted with studying in the library catching up on lectures (I know this is even harder to believe) and I can finally say that I am ready to start the second term now.

Hoping to see you all as soon as possible which for some of you may mean today but for others it will be by the end of July.

Cheers!

PS: I'll upload the photo's of Saturday on to the dropbox and here by the end of today.

Last week in England

2010-12-22T16:12:00.002Z

The last few days or even weeks were really silent around me and I have to apologize for that. It was not that I did not want to write nor was it because I did not have anything to write about; on the contrary, so much was going on that I had troubles finding some spare seconds.

My London trip is long gone yet you did not hear from it which is not so bad seeing that London is a city everyone should visit and everyone has heard a lot about it already. Needless to say going there with my good international friends was even better. The week after that, I visited Anna Lena in Coventry. We were really indecisive about what language we should speak and spoke a funny mixture of German and English. After going clubbing on Friday night, Anna Lena and I went to the Christmas market in Birmingham because, and I quote, "Coventry is a bit ugly". The Christmas market was fun, the university of Warwick in Coventry was big - just big - and obviously I had to miss my train and return an hour late. I do not know what it is with me and trains....

Coming home on Saturday at 10:30 and being really tired made me really want to go out with my room mates and some international Students. That was brilliant, and the end of a long party weekend. On Sunday I caught up on my studies and was really pleased when I saw the results later in the week.

This week was a strange week in so many ways so let me start by telling you about the facts rather than the feelings first. I had a Christmas dinner with my VIP-friends on Monday, had a great night with Dan on Tuesday, had the best day on Wednesday (are you getting used to me loving my Wednesday? You really should), was at Mathilde's on Thursday and had some friends over on Friday. I really have to tell you more about all of those events but fact is, the train I am sitting in right now is about to arrive Dover soon, so I have to pick out two events to tell you about. I think I have to pick the Wednesday just because that is what made the week special in so many ways and the second thing might be Friday because I am always thinking about myself rather than others.

My Wednesday started with getting up really early and trying to get to lectures, which just did not happen, instead I went to uni for the Globe Café. Since it was the last Lunch at the chaplaincy before Christmas, they had a "Christmas Globe" with great food, a small speech from a guy of the Christian Union, carol singing and a small present for us. It was so much fun, I cannot even describe it. Ever since I have heard of it I went to the Globe Café and it always was worth it, mainly because I met great people there and I always had a nice chat and a hot coffee there. Needless to say the last Globe was better than ever and brought me into a great Christmas mood. After the Globe me and Cynthia headed to our English class. After one and a half hour of serious work, we had our break and started with our Christmas celebration which was all about singing, eating, watching a great film and having fun. I was so happy to hear that the classes continue in 2011 because I really like the people in my class and I really would miss them all. After the classes we went to the Abbey to enjoy the carol service and Jan and I had a quick Dinner at Cynthia's first. First time I've eaten something Chinese; absolutely lovely. The carol service was better than I had ever imagined. You could literally feel Christmas coming inside the Abbey and filling your heart. I was so happy, so at peace with everything, I had the feeling nothing could go wrong in this week. And I was not to far off. Since I had to cook on Thursday, I had to go to the shops after the carol service, so my day ended here. I did not mind, you should always stop when it is the most fun.

Friday was quite different yet on its own quite brilliant. I woke up at 8 in the morning feeling rather tired and uninspired to do any work. I could kind of afford to be lazy since I did an awful lot of preparations on Thursday so I sat back and relaxed in the living room. Having slept in my bed with my freshly cleaned duvet was so good, that I kind of wished to return to there. At one o'clock I finally started the cooking for the evening. A Spanish starter followed by an Italian main course and a French dessert where the plan. Cooking for twenty people is not too easy and not everything worked out quite nicely. On the other hand, them coming late was a good excuse to explain why the food was not perfect. I think most of the people liked the dinner, but I was not a good host which kind of annoys me. I cannot change what happened and I will try hard to do things better the next time. The evening ended with some of us going clubbing in XL which was a lot of fun and I was lucky and drunk when I fell asleep. The Saturday was my cleaning day. Thanks to twenty guests, a hang over and me being lazy as usual, it took me the whole day to clean the kitchen, but I did not mind. There are things you have to do, if you want to have guests and that is one of those things.

I am home now, I do not want to talk about how I came home in detail, just this: My flight was cancelled so I had to take the train, ferry and cars. It was exhausting and I am so glad to be home to see my family and my good old friends from here. On the other hand it is a really strange feeling to leave my good new friends behind me in England (and France, Spain, Italy other parts of Germany and other parts of Europe and the world). Those mixed feeling will be even worse in the summer and I am not looking forward to that. On the other hand I am looking forward to everything else ahead of me.

Especially Christmas

The Travelling Time

2010-12-07T19:06:00.001Z

I do not seem to come to a rest, time runs past me, and I don't know where to find another second to really breath. Last week was a pretty good week, I am really happy to play handball again, even if it is just training at the moment. Coming up tomorrow are the last two English assessments and then there's only some maths stuff left for me to do before Christmas. In fact, thinking about it I do have a lot of work to do, and by postponing it, it actually gets more and more.

Never mind. This weekend I was in London with all of those people:

Edgar, Lara, Jan, Bea, Pauline, Jimena, Valeria, Clotilde, Christopher and Chloé

and the two people missing from that above picture, Mathilde and I (plus random passengers)

While fulfilling all the basic sight seeing tasks, we had good talks, laughs and the chance to take some magnificent pictures. All in all, it was a good trip. If I had to point out a highlight of the trip I assume it would be the Thames at night, and especially the Tower Bridge.

As much as I would love to write more about London, the weekend, the hostel, the trip and the week, I do not have the time to do so. I will try to write more about it on Sunday, but I cannot promise anything.

Cheers!!! :)

Chapter 23: Sooooo Cold!

2010-11-29T15:56:00.003Z

I cannot believe I will be able to give you two posts in one day, but that is happening and yes, if you have not read the first, do that now, and keep this one for later.

If you have already read the last post, you will find yourself prepared to go on a short journey to Wales with me. The plan was:

Getting up on the Saturday, getting a train to Newport and another train to Abergavenny.
Enjoy a fun day there, sleep at a small hotel, get up in the morning and get a train to Cardiff.
Haste through Cardiff, take a lot of pictures, and take a train home in the late evening.

As some of you may be familiar with my organisational skills, you will find it hard to believe, that this would work out. I got up way to late, and had to leave the house without breakfast, ran to the bus stop and - to my own surprise - got the bus. I was happy that I was not late, and I would catch my train. Well, I would have, if my luck did not leave me. The bus broke down, and I had to run to the train station. I missed my first train by two minutes, and had to wait for the next one. Of cause that meant I would have to travel on my own. So I was robbed of one of the most exciting parts of all tours. Instead of laughing,sitting in the train, joking around and making plans that would never come true, I was stuck in a train on my own. Instead of two trains, I now had to take 3 trains, and thanks to the delays due to the weather, I missed the second train as well. If that is not bad enough, let me cheer you up, by telling you, that I also missed my third train. In the end I arrived, and was warmly welcomed by Beatriz, Chloé, Clotilde, Maria, Valeria and Christopher. After throwing my stuff in the cheap but lovely hotel, we went to see the town center of Abergavenny. The first thing I bought, were gloves, and spending 2 pounds on them, was by far the best purchase I have made in England so far. We got a hint from the tourist information that there was a beautiful way to walk to see some of the beautiful countryside, so we took the bus to where they suggested, and started to walk. It was about a four miles walk, and after it took us an hour for the first half mile, we started doubting if we would ever make it. It was a beautiful way along a canal, and since the scenery changed a lot, it was not boring at all. Also it was not boring, because you have plenty of opportunities to talk to the other people, and find out what they want to do with their lives, and what they have done so far. Most of them have by far more experience than me, and have stories to tell, of which I have never dreamed of, so it was really exciting and enjoyable for me. While sorting my thoughts, I'll leave you with some pictures, although there are a lot more in my Bath folder of picasa and I strongly advice you to take a look there.

Not only did we walk along a canal, but there was some excitement going on, when we found our way blocked by a cow, standing on the wrong side of the canal. Obviously it wanted to go on the ice, but it did not carry the cow, so the cow crashed in the water, and had to swim to the land again. Sadly, it was the wrong land. The cow walked in front of us for about a mile without really having any other option. When it came to a small bridge, it could not walk further and it became really nervous. We tried to let it pass us, but that would not work. After some thrilling twenty seconds, it ran past us, and almost fell in the water. Needless to say, the cow was even more scared than us.

We arrived at our goal, right in time to catch a bus home to Abergavenny to watch the Rugby game. Sadly, there was no bus for 40 minutes. We arrived 30 minutes into the game, and where not too thrilled to see the rest of the game, mainly because it was sooooo cold, and we where really hungry. The evening was spent with enjoying the great hospitality of the hotel, eating pizza and talking to some native people. We ended up in our "living room" and played a really cool card game, which is by far the best drinking game I've ever heard of, although we did not play it as such. We slept in a dormitory for 10, but luckily we had it for ourselves, so it was no big issue. We got up early in the morning before our train arrived to see the castle again, and the town center and to take some nice pictures of Abergavenny. "We" meaning Beatriz, Clotilde, Chloé and me, since some of us value sleep and warmth more than pictures and experiences. It was really really really really cold, but totally worth it, since:

We arrived back in the hotel early enough, to have a tea to warm us up, before we took the train to Cardiff. Arriving in Cardiff, and with a full day plan, we enjoyed a sunny, and therefore beautiful Cardiff, and I will supply you with a lot of pictures, before I continue blabbing on.

Bea

Chloé, Christopher, Clotilde

Clotilde, Christopher
Valeria, Beatriz, Chloé

on the left hand: part of the Millennium Stadium

The Cardiff bay area

Now that I have picture spammed you enough, I will commence with telling you a little bit more about our day. The most important part: We ate Frankfurters (German sausages). Also I want to stress, that it was really really cold. We finished our sightseeing tour at around 5 and as we were so exhausted, we thought about taking an earlier train. In fact three of us did, but the rest of us decided that 10 pounds was not worth it, so we enjoyed the rest of our day in a Pub, mainly warming up, eating and looking at pictures.

I came hope so late at night, and so cold and exhausted, I just wanted to go to bed. Seeing the upload times of my pictures, you know that this did not happen, and thus began the new week with me being awake instead of asleep again. Drawing a conclusion, I would say, we all enjoyed the trip and I am quite sure, that lots of fun trips will be following soon. I think all that is left for me to do now, and that is what I was saving it for: Thank you!

Carols, Mulled wine and crêpes

2010-11-29T12:07:00.001Z

Starting my blog with a post about Thursday seems a little weird to me, but it was such a busy week, that I could have posted every day on it's own. So Thursday arrived, and I'll jump ahead right to when the plot begins. Marian, my English teacher, invited our group to see a Christmas concert of the Primary Schools of Bath in the Abbey. It was beautiful, and full of true Christmas spirit. In fact, one group managed to put on a performance, that even for grown ups would be difficult. After the Concert, we went to the Christmas market to drink a mulled wine, and walk around the town, which was lit in so beautiful colours. Again, since my descriptive style is no where near good, let me show you:

by the way, I was there with Farah, (me,) Anahita, Mirka, Jan and (not in the picture) Simon

In fact, the Christmas market in Bath is inspired by the German Christmas markets, which made me proud somehow. I know it is not appropriate to be and so on, but nevertheless I was. The Christmas market is lovely and I am sure I'll go there again before it closes.

After we had a hot chocolate in Starbucks, I had to hurry up to meet Chloé in order to get to my place and start cooking. Chloé wanted to make crêpes for some people and I offered my place, since we have a big living room and a rather bit kitchen. Obviously I did not know what I was doing, since a shot time later, the living room and the kitchen where packed with people. Maybe I should start writing a book "How to turn a cooking invitation into a house party", I seem to have a talent for that. Do not get me wrong though, it was a brilliant night, I and hopefully everyone else, had a fantastic night, and a lot of fun.

Some of my guests, my room mates and me

Chloé trying to flip a crêpe, Monica and Edgar

Dan and Anton (room mates), Beatriz and Paul

Anton and Danny, using all their concentration

All the empty space left

After a night like this, It is not as easy as you would think to get up in the morning to go to your lectures. So it happened that Anton, Dan, Danny and I did not go to any lectures on Friday. Instead I did the cleaning, and some work for the week. Friday night was my first handball training, and it felt good to run around for two hours even though, sore muscles where inevitable. I will have my second training today, and then sign up for it. I would like to take this moment to break, because the weekend deserves a separate entry and I have to head for uni now.

Invitation of the Mayor

2010-11-25T13:53:00.000Z

The week started great with me finishing most of my studies on Monday during the day. Also I decided to try to get into the handball team, which obviously won't be easy, but it can't hurt. So I had to buy indoor sport shoes on Tuesday after my lectures finished. I went to the City Centre which really is a brilliant place to shop, if you want designer clothes. As you can imagine, it took me some time to find a shop that. In the end, I found a nice shop, and I was greeted like a king. Needless to say, I got some shoes without having to spend much time trying different shoes on. I spend a lot of money for them, but that was al right. When I got home, our landlady who did a house inspection again was already gone, and all she left was a note, that we would have do decide whether we wanted to rent the house next year again or not. That was not really a question for me, and I did not do very much the rest of the afternoon, apart from eating my first McDonald's menu in England. It was delicious. My plans for the evening were exciting. The mayor invited the international students to a reception. All you needed to do is show up in your national dress or smart clothes, and bring your invitation. The reception was in the Pump Room (see picture below this paragraph), which is a beautiful room, with a big chandelier in the centre of the room, and a grand piano on a podium on one side of the room. Since my description is nowhere close to what the room looks like, just enjoy the pictures, that convey some of the beauties of the room. In my opinion it was even more beautiful than this. After speeches by the Mayor, a student representative and a spokesman for the Roman Baths we were invited into the Roman Baths at night. While it is supposed to be a wonderful place at daylight, I have not been in there, so I can not judge myself, it is breathtaking at nights. For pictures, see below again.

the Pump Room

the Roman Baths

the Abbey in the background of the Roman Baths

Chloé, Beatriz, Christopher, me and the Mayor of Bath

Me, Edgar, Chloé, Beatriz and Christopher

my favourite picture of the night

Not only was it a reception, and a tour through the Roman Baths, but also was it a nice reason to meet Beatriz, Chloé, Edgar, Christopher and a lot of other people which I met coincidentally inside. At 9pm, I thought the night was over, and I would get some well deserved sleep, but instead we met some people outside of the Pump Room, who did not get a ticket. So Chloé, Edgar and I joined Lara, Clotilde, Valeria and Carolina for a drink. This was the perfect ending of an almost perfect day, and I was so happy when I fell alseep after having dinner and talking to Andy for about an hour.

This was not the only things that made me happy on Tuesday, and I apologize in prior for not answering in person; I received a mail from Germany asking me several questions, and telling me how great it was of me to write my blog so consistently. First of all I have to say: I don't. The reason why I will not be able to answer in person is, that I have not had a day without something going on in the evening since Monday, and since I will be in Wales over the weekend, there is just no time to do so. So I would rather answer the general questions here, and give more details when I am back in Germany. So this paragraph will be about small details, funny little differences, and all the stuff I would leave out because it seems insignificant to me. Starting with the advent calendars. I bought mine on Monday with Paul, and it has 25 doors, so 25 pieces of chocolate - take that Germany. I've included some pictures about how we get electricity, the first one shows the stick, which you have to take to a supermarket. You then tell the cashier how much money you want to pay. You pay it, and he charges your stick with that amount of cash (kind of like prepaid mobile phones). After that, you take the stick home, and stick it in the fuse box (2nd picture). There is also the amount of money displayed that you have left. Our electricity was really low this week, so we had to top it up by another 60 pounds. (realize, that I just answered 6 questions!). Moving on: I would lie, if I said that I still had a lot of work. It is not easy and it is time consuming, but compared to what other students have to do it is barely anything for me. This is why I can travel so much and I really enjoy doing so. I planned of introducing a lot more people from abroad and talking about their backgrounds, but it is a thing I have to have time in order to do that. I think when I am back in Germany, I'll spend some time trying to talk a little bit about people from other European countries and probably, if I know enough by then, of someone from Mexico, Japan and India (well, India will happen eventually, since I do a lot with Riddhi). Thinking of this, I should probably add the nationality of each person in my blog so far, but that destroys the text in a way so I won't do it. Instead I leave you the possibility to guess. I am aware of my drinking habits and it just so happens that whenever someone takes a picture, I have a drink in my hand. It is not because I drink a lot, but instead it is, because I have the same drink in my hand for the whole night, or is it? I think there's three questions left, one of them, I'll answer the writer in person, the other two were no real questions, but I'll answer them anyway. Yes, my English has become a little better, in fact, it has become solid enough to mess with my German already. And yes, I am feeling fine, but reading my blog gives a much better answer to that, and therefore, you are right not to ask me the question. I was really happy to receive the email, and I am looking forward to Christmas or even to the time before Christmas.

On Wednesday, after my two English classes, which were great fun and quite successful in the sense that my essay and my summary were graded as high as I would never have imagined, I went for the Pub to meet Dan to watch Tottenham versus Bremen. But thanks to the buses, I was almost an hour late for that. I still had an enjoyable second half of a bad football match, and I am keen on seeing more football games in the not too distant future. After getting home, we decided to watch another film, and go to bed after that. With a feeling of pride because of my good essay, I went to bed happily, and just got up to inform you about the first half of the week.

Christmas and Sightseeing

2010-11-21T01:25:00.001Z

As Christmas approaches at an enormous speed, Bath has turned itself from a shopping paradise into a Christmas wonderland. It's not snowing yet, although I hope it will soon, but the streets in the city centre are flooded with lights, and being as beautiful as it is without the lights, it is just magical now. I have not gotten any decent pictures of this yet, but I will have magnificent pictures by next weekend, since the Christmas market will start on Thursday and I will definitely be there. Not much has happened this week, mainly because the university thought it would be fun to load up my schedule with unnecessarily hard essays, coursework and revision homework, but I have managed to go to a Bath Abbey tour, from which the new pictures (top right and below this paragraph) are. Bath Abbey is just amazingly beautiful, and I plan on doing the tower tour soon, to finally get a wonderful picture over the city centre of Bath.

Next week, my schedule is full of things to do, and people to meet, so that it will get even harder for me to keep up with my studies, but I am looking forward to it anyway, especially the weekend will be awesome, since I will be going to Abergavenny and Cardiff to see some other cities in the area.

Rather then a preview, I should give you a review about my trip, but to do that is quite difficult, since I do not have my mind sorted right now. I apologize for that, and I'll try to make up for that by throwing in some more pictures of Bath Abbey.

After the Bath Abbey tour today, I went home for a quick dinner, and afterwards, three of my room mates and I went to see the new Harry Potter movie. It was a lot of fun, and it made me really tired and really want to not do any work for my courses next week, but I have to, so I'll leave you with some pictures and the assurance that I am doing alright.

For more pictures, as always, click on any picture, or click on the top right slide show.

Media Overload

2010-11-14T13:29:00.003Z

After two weeks of silence, I strike back, more dramatic, more realistic, more brutal, more live, more....

Well, to be honest, not quite. The reason why I didn't write last week, was just the lack of time. I was away a lot, I had a great week, I have fallen far behind in my studies, and I have to do a lot for them today and tomorrow. But that's not for you to worry about. Instead, why don't you enjoy the beautiful Bonfire Night Firework of Bath - which actually was on the 6th of November instead of the 5th of November. I have not quite figured out why it was.

The 5th of November is Guy Fawkes Night, you might as well read up what it is about on wikipedia, since I am sure I can't give you any good information on it, or you can just enjoy the fireworks, I have professionally filmed for all of you to enjoy.

I had a really great night in the uni that evening, and afterwards we went for a snack to Wetherspoons, just to go out later on that night. It was a good night. Also, a friend of Dan's came by our house to day over for a week, and therefore, this week again about going out a lot, which I did not mind really. My first English assessment has already been marked, and I am quite proud of my result which was far above average and therefore better then I expected it to be. My second assessment was writing an essay, and I think I might have done that rather poorly. Speaking of essays, I have to write another one today for my CEP (Cambridge English Proficiency).

But I promised you a media overload, and so far you've only gotten one small movie, let's change that by skipping right to yesterday.

I went on a really expensive full day tourist tour in the general area around Bath. For all of you having access to facebook, you can find a lot more photo's there, then you can here, but I try my best to but the best one's up here, because it is really worth looking at some of the most beautiful sights in Britain and probably the world.

The first picture I've taken from Stonehenge, and one of my favourites

Me sitting in the Devil's Chair
This is in Avebury

I love that picture

A white horse carved in the ground. It is a tradition to do that, and look at it, that is just beautiful. The oldest of those white horses is more then 400 years old

This is actually what Avebury looks like. For me personally, that is more impressive then Stonehenge, although it has a totally different origin.

Not only is that a beautiful picture, but also can you see the thatched roof of that building. They use straw for their roofs in a brilliant way, and it just looks so great.

Lovely building in avebury right next to the world heritage site

Another traditional kind of roof: stone roofs
This is from Lacock, which for me was the most beautiful city in England so far.

Just an example of why I think that Lacock is so beautiful

A barrel - no meaning!

This is the home of Harry Potter's parents in the 2nd movie

My favourite picture from Castle Comb

Castle Comb as well

It took me 20 minutes, to get that picture without people walking in the streets, but it was worth it

So, yeah, I finished my touristy stuff around Bath for now. The only thing I have to do is go to the Bath Spa Thermes at some point.

Since I already wasted way to much time doing that instead of actual work of uni, I'll leave without explaining very much, and without a proper finish. I'll try to update next weekend to tell you a little more about what is going on here. Also check out the photo's in the Bath folder again, there are some more online on my picasa. (top right corner)

Looking forward to Christmas right now,

Cheers

House Guests and How to Talk to British People

2010-10-31T21:21:00.001Z

So here I am again, totally tired and yet still awake. Why should I be sleeping, it's only half eight. Which, by the way is 8:30 and not 7:30 as it would be in German. So why am I so tired? Good question, and I do not really have an answer to that. But let's go through it in chronological order. Sunday after I finished writing I spent the rest of the day doing nothing, in the evening Dan's brother Jase and his friend Paul came by to stay over this week, and Paul's brother came for a short visit on Sonday as well. We played poker, and drank some beers. On Monday I got up quite early, in order to do some work before my lectures, but the state of which we've left the kitchen on Sunday, and the fact that the landlady was about to come by in the afternoon left me no choice but to spend two hours of cleaning the kitchen. The landlady came, and checked if we would not leave the house in a total mess, that really confused my quite a bit, I cannot imagine something like that happening in Germany, but maybe I am totally wrong there. So I went to uni without having anything done for the week yet. I came home at 7 and was just looking forward to go asleep, when Dan convinced me to join him, Jase, Paul and Anton for a pint of beer, naturally I was up for that, and so we went to a pub that served beer for a pound a pint, which is a ridiculously good offer. So we've had quite a few. I had a great time talking to Jase, Paul and Dan. Wait, not with Anton? No, because they did not let him in because he didn't have his passport with him, and the ID was noch accepted as proof of age. Weird, and really annoying.

After the pub closed, we went to a little club, because Second Bridge was full. It was a great night, but obviously didn't help me on my work. So I came home, and missed my first lecture since I didn't wake up by my alarm. Instead I had a good talk with Jase and Paul, and in the evening I was finally able to do some actual work. I finished at around 2am, and needless to say, I was pretty tired the next day as well. And as always Wednesday is not the day to be tired, seeing I have 11 hours of uni there. Well, it went all relatively smooth, English classes were good again, and I still cannot believe I am not getting bored of them. It is such a pleasure to improve each day, and I really notice that I do. I am able to follow any conversation now, I does not matter if it's a lot of people, or if it is really complicated. Also, my conversational skills have dramatically improved over the last two months.

I did not go out on Thursday night, but I was at Weatherspoon's with Andy, and tasted some delicious Ales for lunch. And yes, I also ate something there. Friday was just me waiting for Saturday basically. which was not so bad, and I cooked some delicious food. On Saturday, Gordon came by and he, Danny and I went to Bristol to meet Dan, Jase, Paul and Mark there. We thought we were going to a house party, but instead Dan, Danny, Gordon and I went to a Pub, and met the other guys later in a club.

Me being dressed up as a fat drunk German guy was a good call. Halloween was quite fun, and spending the night in Bristol was definitely a good call. Obviously it also meant that I was not in any shape to do work for uni today, So I guess next week will be pretty horrible for me in order to catch up with all that work.

Nevertheless I had a great week, and actually I was complimented, to be "the friendliest German" they know by two people in one week. This left me no chance but to feel good about myself a little bit. Looking forward to next week and the week after that and ....

Cheers

Oh, almost forgotten: We have 250 cans of beer in the house.

My awesome Halloween costume, Danny, Gordon and Dan, Mark, I and Jase, and Paul dancing (in that order from left to right)

Bristol at Night and a Tea afterwards

2010-10-24T16:13:00.003+01:00

Last week went rather slow for me, I did not really do much for university, but what I did was decent work. On Wednesday, I had great fun at my English classes again, and I suppose for meeting people, those English classes were by far the best choice. I had to write an Essay for my Cambridge class, and I was quite satisfied with the result. Hardly any mistakes, and Marian, my teacher, really liked my humorous humour. Needless to say, for me as a rather terrible student of all languages, I was quite proud of that fact. It was great fun again, but I was really tired afterwards, and yet I had to wait for another hour for me second English lecture of the day. In that time, I enjoyed talking to some students, one of whom will be more important later on, so I will introduce her now.

Bowen is a Chinese woman, doing her Masters in International Management in Bath. I met her in the Seminar Skills and Informal Spoken English lecture a week ago. Before the class on Wednesday, I was sitting in front of the room, listening to some music, when she came along. We had a great talk about life in Britain and basically about all the stuff that was on our mind hat this moment. Obviously I sat next to her during the class as well, and we had much fun. Well, I had, and I hope she enjoyed it as well. Again I have to admit that my subconscious prejudice were totally stupid and unjustified. As much as that bothered me, I am quite happy, that I did not really care about them in the first place, so maybe they were not as bad as I thought of it.

The day ended not quite there, but instead I had another great night watching a movie. Fun note: Danny forgot his keys, so he tried quite hard to wake us up for getting in at 2am. Lucky for him, I actually cared about his health, and opened the door. Thursday arrived too quickly, and I had a good solid day of studying with enough pauses to talk to some other students. And also I booked my tickets to visit Anna Lena in December. I went to bed quite early on Thursday, knowing that Friday would be a long day. On Friday, I was asked to present one of my solutions on my exercise Sheet. Obviously I took it as a good thing, since I honestly enjoy uni here. Friday afternoon, I was texting Riddhi about Bristol, and he told me he was sick, and wasn't able to go. I was really depressed, but quickly tried to make other plans. As it turned out, he called me at around nine and told me he would want to go anyway. So we were off to Bristol, and I had a great time, but drank way to much. I've never spent so much money in just one night here, and I really regret doing so. Nevertheless I had a great time, and woke up feeling quite good in the morning. Where I again talked to Bowen for a short time, and we decided to meet at uni for a tea and a chat. I have learned so much about the background of Chinese culture, language, and obviously also her, that made me really feel connected, and I am seriously considering studying Mandarin next year. But enough on that. I am really looking forward to learn to cook Chinese properly, and also for a totally unrelated reason looking forward to next week.

Today the guys and me had a proper cleaning, and the house looks really good for the first time since I have been here. The reason for that is, that Tracey, our landlady, is coming by tomorrow to look if everything is all right. Dan's brother and a friend of him is coming by later this afternoon, and they will be staying here for a week. We'll see what happens there.

To conclude, I had a great week, I met some great people, I did drink too much and I am still happy here, but still I am already looking forward to seeing my family on Christmas again.

Between Proficiency Certificate and Problem Sheets

2010-10-15T17:28:00.002+01:00

Hey all,

The second week of uni is over now, and I just wanted to give you a quick summary. I had to chose a different forth subject, which is quite nice up until now. I am quite happy with my maths unit choices so far. The problem sheets we get each week take up a lot of time, much more then in Germany, so basically I end up with the same amount of work as in Germany for the maths lectures.

On Wednesday my first English lectures started. I was assigned to the highest level of the Cambridge classes, and I really was worried, I would be the person speaking the worst English in this class. In fact, they all speak English at approximately the same level as me. The group was fairly big, the room was really filled, and spent about an hour on a name game, and getting to know the people sitting close to us. The next two hours we had small quizzes, and some exercises. I really liked the class, and was happy to meet them. I already ordered the book I need for the class, which set me back 20GBP. After the Cambridge course, me other English lecture started 'Seminar Skills and Informal Spoken English'. I was shocked to sit in a room with 20 Chinese people, because I thought I was in the wrong class, but it was the right one, and the lecturer is really a great guy. We spent the one and a half hour by getting to know each other, and speaking about ourselves basically. I had a great time. I really like the atmosphere in both those classes. The most important things I've learnt there: You do not automatically speak a language just by living in a foreign country, Maths is pronounced 'math-s' really and Chinese people may pick an European name if they want.

When I finally came home at around 9pm I was exhausted but really happy. Getting up on Thursday was really difficult for me, but in the five hours time between lectures I got all my exercise sheets done. In the evening me and Andy cooked and for the first time for quite a while all my housemates where in the living room for the same time. We watched some TV shows, and had a few beers, when we decided to go to XL later. Anton and I went to Vodka Rev first, to have a few shots. The line before XL was huge, and Security had a lot of work picking out the people which were too drunk. They actually do alcohol tests. Pretty funny. Four of the guys before us in the queue where picked out, and never came in. In the club Anton and I met Dan and some friends of him. Later I even met Paul in the club, and I had a great time, but it went a little out of control, and I was home late, and didn't even hear my alarm, so I missed my two problems classes.

Tonight I will have a nice grasshopper and then hit the clubs again with Dan and Riddy, and maybe some other guys as well. Before that I should really write my essay for English, but I just don't feel like doing it, and I want to do it properly. Wouldn't have thought that I would be so much into languages.

I will have to book my flight back to Germany next week, and the train to the airport as well. I think I will stay in Germany for New Years, but I'm still not sure yet. Also I may go to Bristol next week at some point, hopefully someone will join me for that.

Cheers.

Just some (useless) stats

2010-10-06T13:44:00.003+01:00

Obviously I am a little bit bored right now, so after finishing my practice exercises for this week, I startet reflecting on what I did that week. I had three hours of lecture on Monday, two in Tuesday and two on Wednesday. That makes a total of seven hours in three day's which isn't that much. On Thursday I'll only have two hours of lecture as well, and on Friday I have four hours. That gives us a total of thirteen lecture hours a week, which compared to what I did in Germany seems like a bad joke.

And it somehow is... In Germany we have far more lecture time, and the lectures are helt at a different level.

As you would expect, there is a "but"...

But the lectures being at a slightly lower yet still high level leads to a lot of work for the students. Which leads to a lot of self-teaching, which personally I like so far. Once the lectures really start I can comment more detailled about the level of the lectures, I suppose anyone would find the first week easy.

But I didn't want to get into that anyway. So some stats:

26 subjects (the best of cause Mathmatics)
13,000 students (almost 10,000 undergraduates)
25 per cent of the students are international students
in Bath there is another uni named "Bath Spa University" which also has 7,000 students
so it's 20,000 students in a city with 100,000 residents.

Those are the stats of Bath, but this are not the stats I was interested in.

And I prodly present:

477,7 crossed the crucial line of 1,000 clicks. I would never think that so many people would read that, or be interested in it, and I am happy that I was wrong.

Thanks to

700 clicks from Germany,
180 clicks from the UK, which weren't from myself
100 clicks from North America
and all the other 200 clicks from all over the world

(and I promise the next post will be worth reading again, since I know this one's just a waste of time)

Cheers

First week conclusion

2010-10-05T12:23:00.005+01:00

Hey you all.

It had been a funny and exciting Fresher's Week for me. Although I did not really attend much of it. I went to the maths introduction and to the exchange student introduction and of cause I met my personal tutor and my studies tutor. So let me start talking about that first.

The maths introduction was made for first year students mainly, so I did not really get any information I would have needed. The exchange student introduction was more useful, as I got information on travel around the UK and about English language courses. I will apply for those tomorrow, and hopefully I will be allowed to attend both I want to apply for.

I met my personal tutor Alastair King on Thursday together with four other students. Three of them are German and come from Hamburg. The forth comes from Australia. The talk with Mr King was quite interesting and really useful. It was about what we planned on doing in Bath - study-wise but also what we personally want and what Bath can offer. After having our group photo taken, me and the other Germans went to Gregory Sankaran to talk about timetabling and choosing our units. For me, it wasn't such a hard choice, I was able to pick two of my most favourite subjects, one subject I find quite interesting and metric spaces, which I have never learnt properly.

Well, enough of my unit choices, which you probably find boring anyway. So back to the beginning of last week. Anton's brother and his brother's girlfriend came visit him on Wednesday, which my house took as an excuse to go to the pub, and get quite drunk. It was a really great evening, which kind of ended with me hurting my hand quite badly. Where other people think that is a bad think, it probably isn't. It turned out, that having a story to tell it a great way to meet new people, as for me, before I met my personal tutor, I waited with the other students outside his office, and got into a conversation with them. It ended in spending the day with the three Germans, and meeting some other Erasmus students in the City for shopping and coffee - and in the evening we all had a lovely dinner together at Paul's place. We decided on doing that next week as well, I am not sure if we do, but it would be a great thing.

On Friday some of the Erasmus students and I met in the city again to have a night out. We were at vodka revolution, which was great. They just played my kind of music, so I cannot complain about a thing. Well, except for them closing up at 12pm. The girls all were tired and decided to call it a night, but Paul and I went for a last beer in a Pub. Good choice, since it turned out, Paul and I have at least two lectures and the love for algebra in common. At about half past two we left the pub, and I was happy to fall asleep at three. You would think! That night Gordon - the guy I got my room from - was there for two days, and he fell asleep in my bed, meaning I had to crash on the sofa. That obviously meant I was awake when the first guy used the kitchen, which was at about 9am. I was kind of happy about that since I hadn't wasted my whole day then. I enjoyed that afternoon at home, talking with my room mates, and watching them playing console games. I wasn't that into playing myself. In the evening we went in the City Center with Gordon and a friend of his to go to a club. We decided to go to Second Bridge which was kind of expensive, but just great. I had a really good time without being too drunk, and without spending too much money - if you can say that at 8GBP entrance. I arrived back home at around four, so most of my Sunday was filled by sitting around doing nothing. Luckily my first lecture started late on Monday, so I had that day to adjust my sleeping rhythm.

So my first lecture ever in another country arrived at quarter past four on this Monday. Algebraic Topology. I have the feeling that I have one of the best lecturers here, and it was really great. We were about ten people, and I was looking forward to my other lectures. Metric Spaces was directly after that lecture, so I did not have time to talk to Paul really much, I searched the room for a two hours marathon of Metric Spaces, and as I found it I couldn't believe my eyes. It was a room for about 200 people, and it was filled with 210 people as I arrived. I had to sit in the very last row, and really had troubles reading the blackboard. Also the Professor wrote really fast. I didn't like those two hours at all, but the stuff we did was really easy, so I do not worry about that lecture very much.

Where in Germany lectures usually are ninety minutes long, in England they are only fifty minutes long, and that were two lectures at a time. It is kind of weird to hear people complain, that they have three lectures in a row, in Germany I sometimes had four in a row which here would be six in a row. But if you are not used to it, maybe it is really that difficult.

Today I had my Advanced Group Theory lecture, which was in a small group as well. I really liked it, and I'm looking forward to learn more of it. Later today, I will have to attend my last Maths course, which is Differential Geometry of Curves and Surfaces. I am not sure what this will be like, but I suppose it will be crowded again.

I would like to add some pictures, but I think I have to wait for them to be uploaded to facebook since I didn't take a lot of pictures.

Conclusion: I had a great week, with a lot of things going on, I met some more people, and I enjoy the lectures so far, but my iPhone still isn't working.

just some more small stuff

2010-09-29T18:13:00.002+01:00

Hey, you all! I just wanted to let you know my debit card finally arrived, so I was able to order my iPhone and activate my sim, which was even more important!

Tonight I guess we're heading out to the pubs again, maybe I'll make some pics. But you should not rely on that. As soon as I get to my laptop, I'll share a pic of one of the 6 computer rooms in the Library. The view out of the upper ones is truely amaizing, if the weather is nice, which it wasn't today...

computer room

view from the building of mathematical sciences

Cheers!

Fresher's Week

2010-09-29T13:29:00.002+01:00

The uni started with an induction week on monday. Nothing much happened there, since most of the information they gave where for 1st years, and do not really differ from the rules and regulations in Germany.

But I've figured out my timetable, my English lecutures, and I've bought my bus pass.

Right now, I am just waiting for the last lecture of today, which is just to confirm my attandance. After that, I'll enjoy the wonderful British weather on my ride home, and try to figure out what to do tonight. You literally cannot see more than fifty meters due to heavy rain. All my housemates have arrived by now, and it is getting really full and lively. I like it. We've had a little poker tournament started a few days ago, fortunately I won.

Tomorrow I'll be meeting my personal tutor and also the other exchange students in the department of mathematical sciences. And afterwards I'm going to go to an open lacrosse training. I am not really sure if that's a thing for me, but it sounded quite good, and I am really in the mood for doing some sports. Also I will buy tickets to the UK Championship Snooker, if anyone is interested in going there as well, just let me know, I would be happy to organize it from here.

I am really happy that uni is about to start next week, and that I got my timetable sorted. My lecture times on the other hand are not so great. Mondays and Wednesdays I have to stay in uni past 7 and on another day as well, if I do some sports. Also I have early lectures four times a week, and my biggest gap is four hours, which is an aweful lot of time, if it takes you fourty to fifty minutes to get home. Still, I suppose that I can use that time at uni to do revision or course works.

Also I have already booked my flight back home, since I fear the prices will go over the roof this short before christmas.

Dusk

2010-09-20T22:39:00.002+01:00

I just went jogging an hour ago or so. It was just beautiful to see the city of Bath in the twilight. This morning I've had the pleasure to see the dawn, too. Nothing much happened, the rest of the day. Why did I go out at 9pm? Well, I had to buy electricity in the supermarket. Nope, I am not joking, you actually buy electricity kind of the same way you top up your pre-paid mobile phone. For that to work you have something that looks very similar to a USB stick and take that to the supermarket. You give it to the cashier and tell him how much you want to top up and you pay the money directly with your other goods.

That much for the informational party of my story.
Now let's hear the whole story: I arrived at the Coop after dusk, so it really was dark outside. On my way down, there were lots of students on the street drinking, so I figured I'll be asked for my ID, since I wanted to buy some beer, too. Being asked for your ID isn't unusual in England. I find that very convenient. Especially when you're threatened to be prosecuted if you buy alcohol or tobacco for minors.

Well, so I bought a pack of beer, and after showing my drivers licence I asked the really friendly cashier if she would top up my electricity, and that I never did that before. She told me she could not do that, she was afraid and told me where in this shop I could do that. Eventually there are two different types of cashpoints.

So I went to the right one. He didn't ask for my ID since he has heard my conversation with the lady. I handed him my MasterCard since my English debit card still has not arrived. "ERROR"

I was shocked, why would they not take my MasterCard? The queue behind me was getting longer, and I had no clue why they would not take my card. I bought stuff in that Coop some days ago, and it has never been a problem. Well, after what felt like two hours, the machine finally accepted my credit card, and I was happily headed back home.

At home I had to plug the "electricity-top-up"-stick in the port on the fuse box, which oddly is outside of the house (accessible to almost everyone). Of cause it's locked, but still...

After about two seconds, the top-up amount was shown, and after another five seconds the new balance was shown. We have now 18GBP worth of electricity - strange unit, but it works.

Hopefully I'll come up with something smashing and extraordinary on my next update, but until then, lets enjoy the small things.

Ah, and by the way: I've got a job offer, I could be a tutor for Algebra 1 or 2, but I guess I won't accept it, in the first semester. Instead I'll be sitting in on three or four English lectures which will not count towards my diploma, but hopefully I can profit from them.

Cheers

Finally the british weather has arrived...

2010-09-15T14:32:00.003+01:00

Well, after two weeks of brilliant weather here at Bath, it was time that the weather changed. Yesterday it was raining cats and dogs, and I was finally able to see the whole city go down in a beautiful fog. I suppose I will not be so euphoric after another 2 months of this, but I enjoyed it yesterday. And since I went to the city centre on Monday, I had the last really great and sunny day to enjoy at the Circus.

You can see the Circus in the picture.

Well, on my walk back a slight rain started, which made me wish I had left half an hour earlier, but as I walked, it turned out, the rain wasn't really a problem after all.

Today, I was finally able to activate online banking and telephone banking. And for the pound being strong when I transferred the money, and being weak now, I've lost about 5% of my money. That's just unfortunate. Tomorrow the debit card should arrive, that would be the last thing I am waiting for at the moment. Then I can finally start a little bit of travelling. There's only about two weeks left for that at the moment. Then the introduction week starts. I've tried to figure out when I should attend and what I should attend there, but unfortunately, that isn't as easy, since there are things I can attend, and things I must attend, but some of the lectures I must attend coincide with others which I have to attend. That's confusing, but I guess it's not that bad.

I guess I'll go to uni one more time before that week, just to make sure I was not misled by anything. It should be the same as it was in Kaiserslautern. You go to the first introduction lecture, and they pretty much tell you about everything that you have to attend. It's the safest way I guess. There should be some students who speak English even worse then me, so I don't need to worry about it, hopefully.

Sorry it took me so long to get you an update, but nothing really happened here up until this week. I am about get my UK phone number this week, and my German number will only be active until the 30th of September. That's it for now,

Cheers!

New photo's online

2010-09-04T10:53:00.000+01:00

Well, that's all I think.

Sitting in the Library

2010-09-03T14:39:00.002+01:00

I'm just bored, so I've decided to write some things. Today I really wanted to go to UoB, well, I had to since I had to finish up with my bank account set up. What an adventure. First a good twenty minute walk down to the bus stop. At least I caught an early bus, then a thirty minute drive to University, seems like the fast Buses only drive during semester, but I don't really mind that. We drove through the entire city centre, just like the red buses the day before yesterday, which was kind of good, since I've seen the connection between my home, the city and the university finally. Not that I'd say I wouldn't still go all the wrong way sometimes. Setting up my bank account was as easy as ever, German banks should do it the same way and not the "if the form is not complete, we cannot help you" kind of way. But that isn't that important I guess. I have an account finally, and I am really happy about it. Also it is about time, since I am stuck in England with about twenty five pounds now, and I really do not want to pick money from my master card.

Hopefully my dad's return went well, it's strange to not being able to talk that easily to my family. Hopefully sometime tonight we can Skype (ha ha - hope they are reading this, or my sister is to tell them).

I'm just thinking about what to eat tonight, maybe the guys and I can even make some real dinner tonight, that helps a lot with my huge problems in English day-to-day communication. Yesterday Anton and I made Sandwiches, which was kinda nice, since it's just toast, cheese, ham, any vegetables we had in the fridge, ketchup and mayonnaise. And even I liked it - which is surprising, since I don't like ham, the English cheese, ketchup or mayonnaise. But surprisingly, it was really nice. And it should be by far the cheapest way for dinner, since my lunch cost 2,5 pounds, and it was a special offer...

But that is Britain in a way. You'll notice how expensive life can be. In Kaiserslautern I could eat and drink in the Mensa for 2,5pounds, and still have money left for a pudding, here, it suffices for just the main course of the meal. At the university, there is no such thing that would compare to a Mensa, nor is there a real comparison to student prices. It is not that expensive compared to the city centre, but come on, 1,4 for a small coffee - are you kidding me? In Germany I'd get two large ones at the university bistro. Well, never mind that. Fact is: It's expensive. But it's not all bad. I didn't eat bad food yet, and I'm in the mood to even try fish and chips on my way home later.

There are several different options on buses for students, the two main possibilities are to get a number of rides, or to get a time period. Since I life far away from the city centre, and far away from university, I'm quite sure I'll take the 13 week pass, which costs 80GBP and if I buy them as soon as I have my banking account I'll have three of those for the whole year which gives me 240GBP for 39 weeks. The "year" option, which costs 249GBP lasts 36 weeks. What's up with that? I guess no reasonable person can explain the logic of that, but maybe it's to make the students think "Hey I'am saving" while they in fact would be paying way too much.

Well for just being bored the article has gotten really long, so I'll stop here, and look for more things to do the next couple of days in Bath, I should not forget, I practically have three weeks of vacation without having to do anything at all - Awesome.

Cheers!

...and now for the first time ever...

2010-09-02T15:00:00.006+01:00

So finally, my first post from Bath. It was supposed to be a all happy, "everything's perfect" post, but it's not. Instead it's a post, for which my oldest English teacher would love me. It builds up suspense it has a climax and it has a turning point. And since ladies are reading this, it has a happy end in which the beautiful daughter finds the love of her life and they live perfectly ever after.

So let me just start:

My dad and I drove to Bath in his car, well actually we drove to Calais after he had to work a full day. So I drove to Calais. It all went well except 150km from Calais there was a little bit of a traffic jam. Turns out, it was not so little, and it took us more than an hour to pass it. So we where pretty short on time. Well, you all know we got the ferry since this is my first post, and it's not late enough so that you would assume anything else. At the ferry, we fell asleep for a few minutes, and woke up, and fell asleep again. Not so much a good night sleep. Well, we drove of the ferry and decided that we'd sleep after we passed London. 50km later, we realized, that was not such a good Idea, and we exited the motorway right away, and fell asleep in the car for about 2-3 hours. After that, my dad started driving, and I did not really realize it, but I slept for another solid hour or two. I drove the last few miles, and we arrived Bath early at around 6 I guess. The next thing was, we had to find the House. I will not bore you with that story. It ended with a new map of Bath for me (yay) and us finding the house at 8:30am.

Not enough suspension built up yet? Ok, then let's move on. Anton opened the door, one of the other tenants. Nope he's not a serial killer or anything. He showed me the house. The living room is beautiful, full of cables at the moment - I hope that all stops once a TV's here, and the other people. Then he showed my the kitchen, which was so full of dirty dishes, It first looked pretty bad. But actually it's a nice new kitchen which, if everybody does a bit to it isn't very hard to keep clean. He went upstairs, and he's shown me my room.

It is so small, not even two people can stand in it. Frankly I really was shocked by that. "Ok, what to do now? There's no way that is really my room, there's no way I can have guests." Well, we had our good morning coffee, which really helped keeping the eyes open, and decided explore the neighbourhood first. We were really hungry, and we where happy to find a small shopping mall with some bakeries. We had two fresh but not mind-blowing sandwiches, and kept walking and talking. It was a good thing my dad was here, because he kept me from going crazy about what you've seen above.

We went home, had another coffee, set up the internet - 50mbps *STRIKE* - and decided to drive to the University of Bath. Good thing we did, we've seen some of the most beautiful landscape in the UK (since I have mislead us yet again), and we've seen the by far most beautiful University I've been to. I will show you photos of it, as soon as my father send them to me. We drove back to the city, and wanted to see the city centre. (which cost us 2,30gbp to park). The city of Bath is marvellous. Hopefully my dad will send me the pictures as well. We made the classical tourist tour in those red double-decker-buses everyone knows, and realized it was only 2pm. Since we were both really tired, it seemed like 8pm or so. I drove the car back home and returned to the city by foot to enjoy the rest of the day in Bath. It's really beautiful, and 2 hours are just not enough to see enough of it.

Walking to the city, is basically just walking downhill, and took me about 30-35minutes. I obviously didn't take the fastest way...

We had a Guinness and something to eat, and went home at around 6 - well it took us more then 30min, rather 45min to get home. And it is all uphill. That'll be good for my figure and my vitality.

Well all in all that was quite a nice day, It was exhausting no question, and I have decided to wait another day before thinking too much about the what if's.

The next day arrived, and after a cup of coffee, I went to the university again. This time for requesting my library card, and opening my bank account, and a few other things. It took approximately one Minute for me to hold my own personal library card in my hands. Why's that so special? It is like a debit-card with my picture on it, and it counts as my "Studentenausweis". Then we headed over to the Bank, well there are four different in one building on campus, and my favourite was there, too. We went in, and without any proof of anything, I've opened a bank account. You will not get any of this non bureaucratic stuff in Germany. But anyways, we checked the sports on Campus: They have like 10 Soccerfields (grass!!) for what seems to be like free use, two large halls for Indoor sports, two fitnesscenters, and some artificial turf places. Awesome!

After driving me to and from university, my dad left, and is on his way back to Germany right now. I went shopping and made my first meal in England. Which led to those cheap camera photos of my direct neighbourhood.

Tonight, the guys and I will maybe have a drink here or will head out to have one in the city. Don't know yet, but I am ready to find out.

I hope you've all understood what the turning point was (and nope, it was not the Guinness), and I guess you would all give me a straight A for this essay. If not, then you will never be a good teacher and you have never learned anything useful yourself. Just kidding.

I'll try to work the pics into this Blog a little better, too.

Cheers,

Finally, my last post from Germany

2010-08-31T11:59:00.002+01:00

For the last time for at least four months, there's going to be a post from Germany. Well, not so much a post but a postie ;)

Tonight I will be heading to Calais, then take the ferry to Dover and after a short break there, I will drive the last few miles to Bath. Most of my room is in brown boxes right now, which is kind of sad to see. I had to get rid of so many things I thought I would keep forever (e.g. my small collection of whisky bottles). Of cause you can say "it's only for a year", "you'll be back", "nothing's gonna change in this short time" of stuff like that, but that's not exactly true, everyone knows that.

I tried really hard to write down everything I want to take to Bath, and all the things I have to do once I am there, but I am sure I have missed something, hopefully nothing to important. I'm always thinking "remember to pack your ID", "remember you need British money" (which in fact I do not have yet), "remember to pack your charger" the list continues infinitely.

It's going to be a long drive for me and my dad, especially for my dad, because he has to work today.

So, yeah, that's about it from Germany, I'm giving over to myself in England (very soon)

Good Bye!

Oh, yeah, and I've installed Skype (ID: chris.in.bath) feel free to add me.

fun news

2010-08-21T10:55:00.001+01:00

Since I now have my new address, I was able to look up the exact distance between my home, and my new home, and it's just amazing since it is 477.6 miles. I guess that was a pretty good guess.

I won't change the name of the blog though.

Cheers!

It's getting serious

2010-08-21T07:33:00.001+01:00

I am only 11 days away from departure. But it is getting harder each day. I guess you only realize what you have when your about to lose it. Don't get me wrong, I am really really excited to go to Bath, and live there, but it's hard to leave my dear friends, and my family behind for nearly one whole year. The last week was amazing. First my short trip to Hamburg with a friend was legendary, the following day just wonderful, die days followed by that where superb, and I guess I am losing myself in adjectives..

I would like to take at least some of you with me, but that won't work.

Still, let's go back to some interesting news: Most of my room is in brown boxes already, but I have no Idea where my bed and my sofa should go. I wrote a list of things to do and things to pack for England, and it has gotten huge. I bought a nice Senseo, so at least I'll have coffee in Bath, that'll be good. I met a friend yesterday who is going to the UK for studies as well. We talked about problems that might occur and things we should not forget. It is a good thing to know, she's in England with me, even if she is 110 miles away.

I am hoping for lots of visits from you all, and you can take that as an serious invite.

For the next few days, I have to install Skype, especially on my mom's Laptop, and that's about it. Minor tasks like packing, clearing out my room, finishing with all the bureaucratic stuff and so on will be done shortly before departure. I am just hoping not to forget anything important in Germany, but anyone who knows me knows I will.

I'll try to see you all one last time, stay tuned for more information on my farewell party and especially for my first post from the United Kingdom, of cause.

final steps to Bath

2010-07-27T14:31:00.002+01:00

So, Chris finally found a place to live for the next year.

I did not see anything of the house but the front yet. This didn't really suit me at first, since the place could be a real dump. Nevertheless I am excited and I'm sure it's beautiful.

Thanks to facebook I've at least seen the pictures of my room mates and chatted a bit with some of them. Can't wait to meet them in person, they seem like a lot of fun. Since I was in Scotland for a week, I was not able to solve all the banking and insurance issues last week, but tonight that'll be done, I'm sure.

Everything that's left to do in Germany now, is to pack my bags, decide if I'll go by car or by plane, clean up and clear out my room. And of cause say goodbye for 4 months. I plan on being back in Germany for Christmas only.

I am really happy about the fact that it is made easy to study abroad by pretty much every firm. E.g. o2 offered me to freeze the contract for whatever time I wanted for only 25€. That means instead of paying 180€, I'm saving 155€, thanks to the consideration of them. Thumbs up for that!

I'll report on anything new

apartment hunting

2010-07-08T13:27:00.002+01:00

Big News!

Naive Christoph thought he'd be the only one looking for a new home in Bath.

WRONG!

It seems like there are lots of people looking for few houses, and that does not make my search any easier.

Also the distance between me and the Houses is making search difficult. But lets not grind about that for now. Living in the UK as a student is different to living in Germany. While the usual form of living in Germany is to have your own apartment with your own bath, your own kitchen, in the UK you practically have to share. Also one cannot compare this to so called Wohngemeinschaften, or at least not to the Wohngemeinschaften I know. In Germany you practically always have your own big room, and maybe a little place to meet your roomie (I like that word). In England your private place mostly is a bed and a desk, Period. You really live with at least 3 other students in the same house, like a family. You don't pay for room size, you pay for kitchen and lounge size. This way of live - although I have not experienced it yet - amazes me. It's the ideal way in my opinion, but coming from such a big family that does not surprise anyone I guess.

The only downside is: This makes it even harder to find a place to live, since you need to come along really good with the people you'll be dining, laughing, talking, drinking, watching stupid TV shows or shortly said living together for the next 9 months.

So, I guess that's it for today - one last thing for fun:

Tourist: Can you tell me the way to Bath please?
Policeman: Well, first you turn on the hot and cold taps then ...

Cheerio my dear friends.

477,7?

2010-07-06T14:20:00.004+01:00

Hello readers,

I am a student of the Technische Universität Kaiserslautern. By the end of may I decided to apply for an exchange student program for February 2011. As I searched for more information, I got a hint of one of my professors that one space for an exchange student at the University of Bath was open, and that I could apply for this year September. Without hesitating I gathered the information and applied. The next month should become a test of character for me, since whether I was accepted or denied would change the way the next 11 months will be for me.

Yesterday I received the offer, and of cause, I immediately agreed.

So what has this to do with 477,7?

From my home town Hettenleidelheim in Germany to my new home for the next year it takes exactly 477,7 miles air-line distance (beeline?), and I liked this number very much.

I'll write English since I will be living in England, sorry for the inconvenience this may cause.

The plans for today and the next few weeks will be

finding a place to live
telling my superior I'll be leaving in Sept
some insurance issues (I don't even know exactly what to do there)
collecting even more information

and of cause I will celebrate this lucky event.

Cheerio mates