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
