Why Did You Go?

Hey fellow readers,

After due consideration, I have decided to try and keep this running despite the obvious lack of internationality at the moment. Which obviously will not be all that interesting for some of you others however might still enjoy it.

I tried to really give an insight of what a German person would experience going to England - what's different, what's similar. Whilst I was living with people from England, others do not. In fact a lot of the ERASMUS students do keep to themselves in the foreign country. They create their own little states and live in their old little worlds. Do not get me wrong, by all means, this is not necessarily a bad thing. To a certain extend, I did this as well. I travelled with other international students a lot, I spent loads of time getting to know their countries and their customs. I enjoyed it almost as much as I have enjoyed spending time with my room mates and the guys I met along the way and to be quite honest, I never really cared where they were from, I wanted to meet people and with a bit of distance to it all, I finally understood why. It was about the challenges that changed me along the way. So why was it such a unique experience for me and why should you want to go?

A Year Abroad and How It Didn't Really End

It has been quite some time since the last time I published something here. In fact, it has been more than two years, which is a pretty considerable amount of time passed.

My time in England ended and so - I thought - did the purpose of this blog in general. Fact however remains that once you have lived abroad for a while your life is not quite the same as it was before any more. After some time of reflecting on those changes and on the time in England, you always get back to the question, what did you learn and how did it shape your life. For me, what has changed rather drastically is the interaction with people from abroad. A lot of people from abroad come to study in Germany and it is sometimes rather difficult for them to meet locals. Before I went to Bath I was not aware of international students too much and I have to admit that I did not really care very much either. I didn't notice them too much and it always seemed like they wanted to keep to themselves. A mistake that's not easily forgiven, since essentially this behaviour is what shapes the way people will think about this country and especially the students here. After coming back, my circle of friends has changed dramatically. Whether it's all for the good or not is not to be discussed here, however I do want to stress how vital it is to take every chance to meet people from foreign countries.

Spring and a Friendly Visitor

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!

German Writing and the Fun of Translating

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.

Photos of the Recital

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.

It's been a long long time...

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.

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....

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

House Guests and How to Talk to British People

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.

Bristol at Night and a Tea afterwards

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.

Between Proficiency Certificate and Problem Sheets

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.

First week conclusion

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.

Dusk

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.

Finally the british weather has arrived...

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.

Sitting in the Library

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.

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

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.

apartment hunting

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.