Summer Trips and Rain

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.

St. Patrick's in Ireland

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.

Last week in England

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....

The Travelling Time

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)

Chapter 23: Sooooo Cold!

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.

Carols, Mulled wine and crêpes

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:

Invitation of the Mayor

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

Christmas and Sightseeing

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.

Media Overload

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.