November 2007

25/11/07 - Sunday 25th November 2007
"Life is a rollercoaster..."
Updated! 26/11/07 - Monday 26th November 2007

God bless Desiderius Erasmus! After being abroad for the longest continuous period of time in my life so far...here's the 'low-down' on the crazy events that took place during my first two months in Germany.

Max Kade Haus - October 2007

Variety is the spice of life!
Never has such an oft-used idiom rang so true. The first thing that struck me upon meeting my fellow Erasmus students, was that Europe is a much larger place than I first envisaged, or even dared think about. Mixing with students from all over Europe... and indeed the globe certainly added fire to my already alight love for languages. The first month alone I tried (ok and I admit it... failed) to learn Italian, Spanish, French and Polish. I had intended to add Japanese to that list, but fell at the first hurdle when I couldn't get my mouth around some of the foreign sounds.

Currently I'm sticking with Spanish (on a strict academic timetable of 2 hours a week with a crazy little man from Paraguay), though I do try and get in the odd Pimsleur or Michael Thomas lesson here and there. What has surprised me though is how similar the 'romantic' languages are, how come they haven't all simply merged into one? In fact I'm now so excited when leaving the house, as I know that I will, most-probably, be sitting having a nice coffee (oder Bier) across a table that could have 7 conversations going on in 7 different languages! Pity I can't understand a one of them!

Still... My German is coming along nicely; I'm understanding plenty of it and getting bags-full of opportunity to speak it, which previous to this year, I had absolutely no confidence in doing whatsoever.

Kieler Stadtwerke Eisfestival - 23rd November 2007

The work-life balance
In the interim-period between my last entry and this, I've met so many new people, been to wondrous places and generally had an awesome time, without the worry of a 3000 word essay due in the next day. Okay, I have work to do in the pursuit of academic development, but clearly not enough to harm the development of my German language learning, which I'm keeping as the main goal of this year. I've never felt more sociable, despite living in an Einzelzimmer, with my own bathroom and kitchen. I think if I stopped in my room alone the entire time, I would go crazy, hence the coffee, tea and beer meetings are very often recurring events. I even have an amazing StuddyBuddy, Nina (The Princess from the Ghetto), from Hamburg, who can help me along the way, which is awesome!

Despite Kiel being a rather small city, there is plenty going on and numerous social events to get involved in. In fact the temptation to try and fit them all in is a little overbearing, especially when you catch the first early morning train from Hamburg at 6am after a night-on-the-town! Still, when your with friends, you're not spending too much money and still having an awesome time... what's the worry? There are a couple of pictures of the events of the past month, which I've took part in. Firstly, the Kieler Eisfestival opened this weekend and will be there throughout Christmas. I'm sure to be there at least twice a week! Although only a small rink, there is an Ice-Bar, for chilled, as well as (natürlich) Glühwein! As can be seen in the picture, there is also a sweety-stall (for those amazingly gorgeous Chocolate Strawberry kebabs); a sausage stall (depicted by the 'bratwurst' sign); as well as the cakey-type stall. All-in-all a nice opening to the Weihnachstmärkte, which open soon!

Große Harry Potter Nacht - Kiel Hbf - 26th October 2007 (Me, Vicky and Len)

The second event that I thought should be mentioned is the Große Harry Potter Nacht. Impressed by the Germans excitement for the launch of the finale of the Harry Potter series (in the German translation), I searched online and found that Kiel (like most German cities) was hosting a huge "Harry Potter" launch night. Naturally I couldn't resist, grabbed an eyeliner pencil and scribbled a "Narbe" on my head, found a stick from a tree to signify my wand, and got down to the Hauptbahnhof with the rest of the German children to see what the excitement was. Admittedly there wasn't much going on, a potions show, a trip for a night in a museum, costumes, face-paint galore, a midnight reading from a German dressed as a wizard etc etc, but it was magical nevertheless, and more-so when you compare it to the feable English release... standing outside WHSmith on a cold July night was clearly not as fun!

The Legendary Duel

I should possibly mention that, despite the hilarity of having a battle-of-wands with Victoria in the middle of a packed out German main station, I'm pretty sure that the embarrassment of a developing audience, consisting of children and adults alike would dissuade me from doing it again... then again... what am I thinking... clearly I would! I do love the women's expression; one of intrigue, laughter and "oh-it's-them-crazy-english-again!"

Kiel Hbf - 6.40am - 10th November 2007

Thirdly, despite it being 4°c on average during the day now, I've still found time to spend a day at one of Kiel's many beaches. Laboe is a lovely little beach "resort" (if you can call it that). My lovely neighbour and her friends took me in the first few weeks I was here (and hadn't yet met any of the Erasmus lot - so was a bit like a lost little sheep). Then I proceeded to take some of the Erasmus lot later in the month on a little guided tour; though admittedly only went for the gorgeous fish-butties and over-priced, though extremely "lecker" coffee!

Laboe - 7th October 2007 (Me, Steffi, Nicole, Inga)

Even though the coats and scarves were present on both occasions it was so lovely to simply be sat on the beach, having a chat, reading a bit of a book etc. Really couldn't be more different to the fast-paced work-laden life that was 2nd year university.

Sonstiges

Food is really cheap too! Which means eating out is a frequently occuring event... and why not! A succulent steak is not too readily available when your cooking for yourself and the effort of going to the supermarket to buy a high-enough quality one far out-ways that of going sitting in a nice restaurant on Holtenauerstraße.

Laboe at Sunset - 4th November 2007

As this is turning into a monster of an entry (and has taken a large part of the morning to scribe). I'm going to leave it there. Hopefully the addition of the lovely photos will help disguise the fact that the text isn't very substantial in content. Having bought tickets for Kate Nash in Hamburg next week, I'm sure that will feature prominently in the next entry, but with so many social events I may try and do shorter, more frequent updates to keep you entertained as these huge updates do take quite a large portion of time to write... and that's without the redraft!

I'll close therefore with a nice quote I found on the internet... "The purpose of fun is to have it!" And indeed I have certainly been sticking to it for the past two months. Having now karaok-ed in a huge Irish Pub on Hamburg's infamous "Reeperbahn" and then again last Thursday in a club at 4am in the morning, both times rendering Elton's "Your Song" unlistenable for the entire listening German population, I can honestly urge you to enjoy life as much as I have and am currently still doing! Viel Spass! Sleep well...

"Liebe Gruße!... see you soon!"

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