I say it all the time......but I love this city!

So I'm back home now, and it's almost like Germany is a distant memory. I do miss it very very much, but I do also love it here.

Those who know me well have probably been irritated once or twice by not only my love of Manchester, but also the ridiculous amount of times I say the phrase 'I love this city' (except for those who share my love, which, in all honesty, can only be the other mancunians).

Since I've been back, I've basically set about picking up my life more or less where I left it, with a few changes that have been made while I was away. Bought a new car, which is nothing like the one I set out to buy, that was bright yellow. This one is a very calm pale green colour, bigger and more reliable than my little old Seicento. Man I miss that car...

Also bit the bullet and phoned Showsec. Trouble is, phoned and let them know I'm back, but have done nothing about arranging any shifts and am still totally undecided about whether or not to go back. A lot of the people I loved working with aren't there any more, and those that are still there don't seem to be having much fun. Plus there's the added factor of not renewing my sia licence, not sure I'll be able to handle the mocking when I show up in my green shirt :)

My mum and Steve have also celebrated their 1st wedding anniversary. Can't believe it's been a year already. Celebrated in usual style with champagne. Me and Mark went to watch Robin Hood that night. Don't ask me what happened. I don't know.

It's been pretty easy getting back into the old routine, seeing great friends and always going to the same places.....Alton Towers on Thursday. Actually can't wait :).

Basically, to sum up. Love home, miss Germany.

Reasons I love being in Germany....

So the last part of the year abroad is absolutely flying by, and we've been up to lots of stuff since I got back after easter.
Since I love the bullet point thing, and can't be bothered to go into too much detail, here's a shortened version of what we've all been up to.

• Went out for Gethin and Ashton's 21st birthdays, which involved the usual stuff of cocktails, shisha and karaoke.
• Enjoyed the action of a sweepstake on when Gethin would vom, and didn't enjoy the responsibility of getting him home afterwards. Not pleasant.
• Hopefully acted diplomatically when faced with a certain group of people.
• Went to Munich, and realised what a small world it actually is.
• Had my first ever beer-related hangover.
• Found out which modules I'll be enduring next year.
• Saw a picture of my unborn neice/nephew and got really excited about it.
• Booked a language course in Belgium for August.
• Didn't make it to Venlo, but had an amazing weekend with Harri anyway.
• Started to panic about how little time I've got to get my uni project done.
• Couldn't decide whether or not I want to go back to my job in Birmingham.

Off to see third eye blind tonight with Harri.....not going to lie, not entirely sure who they are but I'm sure it will be an evening full of laughter and fun and the such like. :)

I am really starting to look forward to getting home, and really not looking forward to leaving Germany. :)

Reasons I love being home.

Being at home for the Easter holidays has been exactly what I needed. Haven't done anything particularly interesting, but here's a list anyway.

In these last 2 weeks I have:

• Only been blind drunk once, but I did make a rather large fool of myself.
• Injured my ankle, which I only consider to be half a drinking injury as I was only half cut at the time.
• Seen the doctor twice, for two things completely unrelated to one another.
• Been to the cinema five times, and only seen three different films.
• Been irritated by all the 3Dness of new films, as a wearer of glasses, having to put more glasses on top of them makes for an uncomfortable experience.
• Read Shakespeare, and actually enjoyed it.
• Asked myself and others the question 'What is wrong with them?' at least fifty times.
• Done absolutely nothing on my university project.
• Learned what a 'fivehead' is.
• Been told I take myself too seriously.
• Forgotten how to speak both German and Dutch.
• Watched about forty five episodes of Friends.
• Been given some of the best advice I've ever heard.
• Decided to relive some of my teenage years by listening to old albums by Linkin Park, Evanescence and Panic at the Disco.
• Been to Birmingham, and broken Gaz's car, or that's what he reckons at least.
• Had a lovely afternoon drinking Champagne with my mother in Harvey Nichols.
• Started knitting again.
• Danced around my room in my underwear far too much.
• Found a definition of 'Love of my life' that I can get on board with.
• Decided I want more piercings and tattoos, and been afraid that soon I'll fit in with the people at Subculture.
• Struggled with the thought of returning to Germany, after realising that I probably do love Manchester a bit too much.

Only seven weeks left in Germany. Genuinely can't believe how quickly it's all gone by, and yet how much my life has changed since I left. I am cautiously optimistic that soon I'll realise it's all for the best.

Home, Sweet Home.

I finally made it back to Britain for the Easter break.......and rather than being 5 days, it's been extended to 2 weeks, so lots of stuff to do and people to catch up with.....

Well, in short.....Bruges was pretty amazing.

I admit I'm not exactly a huge fan of the film myself, but I fared better than those who hadn't actually seen it, you know when the comments of 'oh, look, that's where Colin Farrell got shot' were flying about.

We obviously climbed up to the top of that tower. They tell you that it's three hundred and odd steps, but not that it's get really narrow and suffocating towards the top, I was a bit scared going downwards, poor Gethin had to take care of me most of the way down. I didn't even think I was all that bothered by confined spaces, but turns out I am, especially when I had to try and get past the people on their way up, which involved walking on the super narrow part of the stairs amidst mutterings of 'ah, zij is bang' from the Belgians. Yes that means 'oh, she's scared'. Felt a bit daft, needless to say.

Of course there was a great deal of drinking involved. Dropping glasses in the hostel bar got the group into trouble with the barman, but it was alright cause the manager was on our side :)

Chris, hostel manager, nice guy....who didn't mind that we had lots of alcohol in the room or broke half of the bar's glasses. I spent a good deal of the weekend chatting at him. Looks a lot like I'll be going to work for him in the summer, which is really exciting. Certainly saves me sitting on my arse doing nothing. Hopefully I can work there before doing the course in Leuven and then I'll head on home for September before uni. Hoping to be quite advanced at Dutch by then too.

I did learn however, that I speak Dutch like a German.

Let's get this straight.....I constantly get asked if I'm from Holland when I speak German, so I speak German like a Dutch person and Dutch like a German person. Marvellous.

So unfortunately had to cancel the trip to Italy, which is a gigantic shame.

Lately I found myself in a situation which seems to have escalated without me actually noticing, a situation which from what I can tell has arisen from a lot of misunderstandings. It's difficult to know sometimes who understands you and who doesn't. It's definitely been a time of reflection on who my real friends are and where I really want to be. Needless to say I didn't have to look very far, but it's a real shame that things have turned out this way.

In light of this I decided the best thing to do would be to stay at home for the whole holiday. As I've already mentioned at least a million times, I really do love this city, and the people in it. I love the feeling of being home, with all the comfort it brings. Although since I've been home (got here on Thursday) I haven't been able to keep my eyes open! Haven't felt this tired in such a long time, and even with full nights' sleep I've needed naps. I suppose after all the stress and having to sleep in my uncomfortable German bed I've been able to relax and actually get some good sleep in, which is great because sleep is one of my favourite things in the entire world.

In short, it feels amazingly good to be home, and I honestly wish I didn't have to go back to the 'Scheid, still, only 9 weeks left and then it's all over. Strange how my feelings keep changing about the ever approaching end.......

Only 12 weeks left? Surely you jest......

For the most part things are very very good.

The sun has finally made an appearance in the 'Scheid and therefore everyone seems to be in a much better mood- me included.

I've actually realised in the last few days how little time we've all got left here. Now that the people on short contracts have all gone off home or to their second countries, we all noticed that we've only got three months left.

This makes me sad. I don't want to go home. Only just starting to feel at home here. It really is going by far too quickly. So much so that I feel like I need to start making plans for my return. Things like which car I want and which mobile phone network I'm going to go with. Seems really stupid when I do have a few months left, but since the last 6 have actually flown by, I know that they'll be over before I know it.

Lots and lots of stuff to look forward to though. Going to Bruges next weekend for Ciaran's 21st Birthday. Totally excited to finally be doing some travelling outside of Bundesrepublik, and although I've heard that the place itself isn't all that good.....the people that are going to be there mean that it's going to be epic. So excited.

Then home in 2 weeks for a few days, then straight after off to Italy! For some odd reason have chosen to fly with Ryanair on the way out there, even though it's incredibly unpleasant. And I have to figure out how to get into the centre of Milan on a bus, by myself. I don't speak Italian. Bit concerned to be honest. I'm hoping it'll be a case of 'follow the crowd'. I am British after all.

I've also found a Dutch language course in Leuven, Belgium for a month. I've decided the last thing i want to do is sit around and do nothing for the summer again, so this seems like the perfect thing to do, since I'm struggling to find a Dutch course in Brum for when I return.

Actually do feel like I'm looking forward to getting back to uni and finishing off my degree, but that's more a feeling of finishing, getting out of Birmingham and getting on with my life.

Teacher at school has also put the idea in my head of going to Japan when I finish uni.......decisions decisions. Never actually considered going to that side of the world before.

Started on my year abroad project too. Been reading quite a lot and it's not the worst topic in the world. I've basically given myself the excuse to spend the next 8 weeks reading children's literature, which isn't entirely unpleasant. Also incredibly chuffed that I got my feedback for my essay plan and it wasn't a complete fail. Only negative point was citing references, which I already knew I was bad at......so not too shabby at all really. I really would appreciate some help with the referencing thing though. No matter how many times I read that bloody guide they gave us I still can't get it right. Frustrating.

I've also decided to stop making serious Facebook statuses. They only get me into trouble. Nothing but foreign language banter and sarcasm from now on. That way I can't be blamed for anything. People will have to find another way to convince themselves I hate them when I don't.

Although for the record....I don't really appreciate being called a whore by people who have never met or talked to me. I find it very confusing. Stop judging me for no reason, get to know me, then call away. Then it's just banter. There's a difference.

Oh, the banter........

Well, it's certainly been eventful since I managed to make my way back to the land of sauerkraut und lederhosen after my extended stay in the uk.

I promised myself that I'd come back to Germany and dive right back into the 'living and breathing' but unfortunately it didn't really go that way. As excited as I was to see my friends I genuinely didn't want to come back, spent the first week feeling very homesick and trying very hard to look like I was glad to be back to the tea

chers at school.

After being back for about a week I found myself in a really difficult place......a place which involved me getting my feelings seriously hurt. What followed was basically a week of continuous tears, phone calls to the uk and some seriously intense homesickness.

Needless to say I wasn't in the best state of my life, but I do have some of the most amazing family and friends, who have all been there for me whenever I've needed them and also given me the strength not to run home and stay there, which was very tempting for a while.

Of course there have been some pretty epic nights out along the way,

one of which spent in Duesseldorf at a seriously tacky and so-typically-German-it-hurt nightclub called 'Anton's Bierkoenig'. The night was basically spent dancing to horrendous German music such as 'das geht ab' and being inappropriate. After planning to all leave for Dortmund together, everyone left in pairs and it ended up being me and Ciaran on the very grim 3:20am train back. Wouldn't have been so bad, had Ciaran not basically passed out after about a minute and a half. I also never imagined that I'd be showing my ticket to Deutsche Bahn employees at 4am, but I suppose that's Germans for you. After watching him turn off his alarm and go back to sleep at Bochum Hbf I had to shake Ciaran pretty violently to wake him up once we got to Dortmund, and even then he didn't believe we were there. I'm not sure either of us has ever been so pleased to see an open Mcdonald's as we were when we walked out of the train station though.

This weekend has definitely been the most grim for me so far.

On Friday I decided to be very irresponsible and enjoy a few cocktails in Dortmund with the guys. Emily had some friends visiting so we were all really looking forward to meeting them and finally going to a nightclub in Dortmund where wearing heels was appropriate. Had t

o have a bit of a cheese when the barman told me that his colleague had made a mistake and made me a margherita instead of a cosmopolitan, so I could have it for nothing. The drink itself was disgusting, but I had to drink it since it was free :). Having barely eaten for the entire week, I found that my alcohol tolerance was somewhat affected and ended up in a rather bad state.

Saturday was our night of Cologne Bierbike action. We must have all seriously lost our minds choosing to go out in the freezing temperatures for a couple of hours to drink cold beer. Truth is, was feeling far too grim to drink anything, and only managed to get through 2 glasses of Koelsch while the guys

around me were drinking at lightning speed.

It was really good banter, but maybe not the most pleasant experience I've ever had. I'm somehow covered in bruises and not sure how I managed to get them, and it's actually surprising how difficult it is to pedal that thing :).

Once bierbike was over and done with we all went off to a nightclub called 'Bootshaus' which was right on the other side of Cologne, and possibly the most bizarre club I've ever been to. It's also worth a mention that we came back to the hostel afterwards to find Nana, who had spent the previous 4 hours sitting in Mcdonald's. Banter.

Since I've been back I've also been trying to connect more to the teachers at school. I'm constantly getting into trouble for being too shy and not asking people for things, because apparently it's really not normal in this country to feel like it's cheeky to bother someone when they're busy or just ask them outright if you can join in on whatever they do in their spare time. I do think it's a bit awkward to just strut up to someone and be like 'erm, can you entertain me this weekend please?' but apparently people aren't going to offer.

I did spend the day with Herr Taeger (German teacher) and his family last week, the intention of which was to show me what a typical day in German family life is like. Not the most exciting thing, but it was really nice to spend some time speaking German and he also has a really cute three year old daughter, Smilla. She was pretty grumpy with me at first, but once she realised I wasn't trying to steal her toys we had a lot of fun playing with her train set and reading about a ballerina of some sort. I'm actually starting to think I'm better with kids than I thought, even if I couldn't exactly understand her all of the time :).

As for my new year's resolutions. I like to think that they're going quite well.

I've kept up with my plan of going to the gym at least 3 times a week and have discovered that I actually really enjoy doing all the aerobics classes, even if I don't enjoy lifting weights. I've also been having a go on the power plate, which may be the most random piece of exercise equipment in the world. I never thought standing on a plate that vibrates for 45 seconds would be such hard work.

But, as it stands I'm 10lbs lighter than I was when I got back and I'm really feeling better about myself.

I'm off to Birmingham in a couple of weeks to see Imogen Heap in concert and also to see some of my friends for a crazy night out or two.....so so looking forward to it. I'm also so excited that Rus and Elle are making their way down to do it with me too. The plan is definitely to have an epic time, and probably also to annoy those who have the displeasure of working while I'm there :).

Definitely feeling like the living and breathing year abroad 2010 has begun, and I actually can't believe we only have 4 months left. We've actually been here longer than we've got left. Time really does fly......not lying, absolutely terrified at the thought of having to go back to Birmingham, but at least it's still quite far away..........

Back to Germany? No, not quite yet.

After joking the entire time about the weather being too bad to go back, it did actually happen. Manchester Airport closure and flight cancellations meant that I had to change my flight from yesterday to Sunday, therefore buying me an extra five days at home.

So, I hope that everyone had a fabelhaft Christmas.. I did. Spent the day at home with the family, and drinking 3ish bottles of champagne.
Not going to lie, went to bed on my beer scooter and woke up with the worst hangover ever. Boxing day was a very grim day.

Shortly after Christmas I made my way down to Leicester for Ayesha and Darren's wedding. It was a really good day and Ayesha looked so gorgeous.
It was really great to catch up with my good friends from Showsec brum, managed to get whatever gossip there was, and got told by pretty much everyone that there's another Mancunian, who started just after I left, and looks a bit like me. Feel a bit replaced :).
Seeing everyone made me realise just how much I miss them, and I do look forward to getting back to Brum and seeing them all again soon.

For new year I had toyed with ideas of going to both Birmingham and Cardiff, but the severe weather warnings meant I decided to stay in Manchester, figured I'd just stay in, watch films and get fat.
Nope.
Me and Jen decided pretty late on that we wanted to go into the city centre instead. Chose 42s and got ourselves some tickets off the internet, was £15 to get in but the drinks were all normal prices. So because the place is, lets face it, a bit of a dive, it was £1.70 a drink. Not bad at all really.
Met some of the typical idiots that enjoy a night in 42s, but to be fair the few guys that came to talk to us were pretty insulting. I really had never noticed before that the mancunian way to chat people up is to insult them. I wonder if it actually ever works. Makes me glad I've got thick skin anyway.

After midnight me and jen did the whole typical toasting thing, except we pretty much toasted to everything we could think of, in an attempt to be convinced that 2010 will be different from 2009.
I did decide to give myself some new year's resolutions for the first time in my life. It is, admittedly a bit of a long list, but for the most part it's just about improving myself personally and changing my attitude to how I try to get what I want. Of course there's always the stereotypical 'lose weight' one too, but I really doubt that'll happen :).

So on Sunday, went down to Chill Factor with my mum for a ski lesson, it was a christmas present from Weavey. I admit, I was a bit skeptical about whether or not I'd be able to do it, but I found the whole thing to be a bit of a laugh. I was of course, an absolute natural, until he made us go backwards and then I admit I fell down, but it was totally graceful, of course. Not sure my mum had much fun actually skiing, but we had a good laugh together.
I'm really hoping to go again soon, also thinking that snowboarding looks like fun too. Going back to Germany throws a spanner in the works and have to put all of this on hold :(.

I have to say, I am looking forward to going back, and I'm not.
I've really really missed my friends from out there, and I can't wait to catch up with them and hear all the stories, but I'm not looking forward to going back to school. 6 months seems like a long time to be annoyed with small, irritating teenagers. I do keep telling myself that it will fly by, but it definitely isn't a lie when we say that school just gets in the way of the weekends.
I'm really hoping to see a few different places in Europe this year though, Holland, Switzerland and Belgium being at the top of the list.
I'm also carrying on with my Dutch course and intending to start a belly dancing course. I've definitely been having a bit of dance-withdrawal while I've been away. I just hope that belly dance will satisfy me until I get back to uni.
I really do have to get started with my year abroad project. Feeling a bit frustrated about it because I'm the only one in the group who has to do anything, and also because I'll have to start going to Duesseldorf at least a couple of times a week, which is just a pain.

Just as a random note at the end I've discovered a pretty amazing website, if you're a massive language geek like me...... www.livemocha.com
It's like a social networking site for language learners, but also has free language courses in loads of languages from beginner to advanced.

On the upside I wish everyone a Happy New Year, and hope that nobody is having too much of a stress over the weather. I also hope that everyone who hasn't managed it yet, makes it back to Germany safely.

Time to start living and breathing the 2010 part of year abroad 09/10 xxxx