Well.. I'm not entirely sure where I left you all.. and since my internet is so rubbish I can't be bothered checking.. so I'll just start from where makes most sense to start from! :)
So.. My sister and her boyfriend came to visit me! That was fun! We went out and ate lots of nice food and stuff and also had a few drinks! We wandered around Potsdam and Berlin and we also got to watch some really awfully cheesy American programme - New York gets a job or something like that. It was so bad but none of us could take our eyes off it!! Well anyway, nothing particularly eventful happened whilst they were here.. it was just a generally good few days :)
Then, I had a day all to myself where I managed to go and join a gym! I went in and did it all in German! It was good! I felt really proud of myself!! Going to be going for the first time tomorrow now that everyone has gone!
Which leads me onto the next part of my week! Jess and Nick came to visit me on Thursday! I went to pick them up from the airport and luckily they arrived early so I didn't have to do any waiting around for them!! We went to Potsdam and bought some food to make a lasagne.. although we did spend forever trying to find a cheese sauce or a sachet to make a cheese sauce from! Found one eventually! Woohoo!
So we ate that, watched films and went to sleep cause we were all knackered! The next day I had to be up at 6.15am! But it wasn't too bad, I got to work with class 1/2 who were all really cute so I didn't mind that :) Then we just wandered around potsdam for ages until we decided we wanted to be really cool and make a poster with Laurence's name on it. (or Lord Percival Lolly Kerans III as he is apparently known). We all probably got a little too excited at this prospect.. myself probably more than the other two since I am such a child! We managed to make each of the letters look really cool and hopefully Jess will get a pic of it up on facebook!! :D
Laurence was already there when we got to the airport so we couldn't be all cheesy waiting for him with it so instead we just held it up for him as he walked towards us! But it was worth it all the same!
Then we went back to mine and watched The Germans have eyes 2 (the hills have eyes 2) and then fell asleep!
Saturday we got up and went to Berlin! We were gonna go up this TV tower thingy but the queuing and wait for it was far too long so we didn't bother in the end. Oh we also got asked to give some foreign woman money and Laurence had a bit of a funny argument with her which resulted in her saying 'Fuck You' though she can't speak english... apparently..! ha
So anyway, instead of going up this tower thing.. I somehow got talked into being pulled along on a trailer type seat thing on the back of a bike to take us to checkpoint charlie! We wandered around a bit and then decided we wanted to go drink! We found a nice pub/restaurant type place and drank lots of nice stuff! Especially the mulled wine! YUM! Then ate nice food too! After that we went on the hunt for a supermarket to buy more alcohol and found one in the end! We probably bought more than we should have done but it was fun all the same! Got back to mine, shoved a film on which we hardly watched and just got lovely and drunk! :D Didn't end up getting to sleep til about 4am but it was a fun night! Made a change actually being able to do something on a night such as drinking! :D
The next day, we went into berlin again with the hope of hiring 2 tandems to do a bike ride but we got there too late and they said we couldnt :( So instead, we went on a boat right where everything they said was in German so Nick and Jess didn't understand a word of it! Then we managed to find a nice looking place to eat and got really nice food. Well, except Jess.. she didn't like hers! And then Laurence flicked candle wax on me cause he is mean! But Nick managed to make Rodriguez out of some wax (a little wax cube basically) It was funny anywhoo! :D
Then we got a train to the main train station and wandered around there for a bit. Then we all went our separate ways. Laurence almost missed his train cause he was in the land of nod stood on his platform but we managed to make sure he got it. Then we got ours and got home nice and quickly ! :D
We watched UP when we got in! It is such an amazing film! I loved it and would watch it again several times given the chance! :D After that we fell asleep.
Monday I had to work so was out until 2.00 but I was very proud of Jess and Nick. They made it all the way into Potsdam without me! So I went and met them there! The xmas markets opened that day so we had a quick look around but it was raining so we went and bought some food to make tea then went home!
We got in and my landlady was just coming out of her room as we got in. Thanks to her, I no longer want to live in this house! She basically got cross with me about having friends staying over, claiming that I never told her there would be three people and I never told her how long they would be staying for. I know 100% that I did so I stood my ground as much as I can in a language I don't fully understand. How dare she call me a liar to my face when she is already making me pay extra money just to have my friends stay anyway and making me pay extra money when I want to use the bloody washing machine! I think she is just taking advantage because I'm English! But anyway.. it resulted in her telling me I'm not allowed more than one friend to stay in the future! I'm paying my rent, I'll have who I want to stay over!! We weren't exactly disruptive and nothing got broken! If she doesn't want me to have people over then she is renting to the wrong person! 1. I'm a student, so I'm going to have friends round. 2. I'm from England so the fact all my friends are so far away is difficult for me to deal with. If they want to come visit of course I'm going to let them!
Apparently it's unfair on the other flatmates?! Well Anne was at home for the majority and the other one downstairs is 2 floors below so not even remotely affected! It's very hypocritical that the old cow landlady is allowed to have anyone she wants over whenever she wants and can make plenty noise, but I just have 3 friends visiting, which i told her about and she agreed to, and I'm in the wrong!?
If I could move out of this flat now, I would! I don't like her! Perhaps things are a little different in Germany, but the way she has behaved is just downright rude! It wouldn't be tolerated in England!
I'm paying the rent plus extra on top to basically be only allowed the right to eat and sleep here and nothing more! Where is the sense in that?!
ARGH!! Rant over! ha
So anyway, today Jess and Nick have gone home too and I also feel like shit. I hardly slept at all last night and woke up with a horrible sore throat and headache and feel quite sick so I haven't been able to go into work today :(
I hope I'm better by thursday cause I'm going to see A Christmas Carol with the two English teachers which will be really good!!
Thats all for now from me anyway!
Lots of love
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Tuesday 24 November 2009
Sunday 8 November 2009
It's been a while...
So where have I been all this time I hear you ask? No.. I haven't just been sat hiding in a hole avoiding the world of blogging! I just haven't got round to updating cause I've had stuff to do! So.. this is probably going to be full of fuzzy memories and whatnot and also will probably be very very long.. but an update is an update.. so here goes!!
Well.. when I last left you all, I was complaining about having to pay 163€ to go to Cologne for my induction course.. so we will take it from there!
So on the Monday.. I got all my trains etc and everything went according to plan which was very good as that was my first train journey anywhere other than Potsdam! My only complaint.. the guy sat opposite me on the train was really creepy and singing.. or should I say grunting.. along to his music! :| but other than that, everything ran smoothly and I got to where I should have been when I should have been there! :D
So after making us wait around for aaaages in the train station and on the coaches and everything - the police even told us we had to move!! - we finally set off from Cologne to Altenberg which was about 45 mins away or something like that. We got there and it was raining and no one really knew what they were supposed to be doing or where they were supposed to be going or anything because we weren't told a thing! Finally.. they told us we had to go inside (which they could have bloody done sooner so we didn't get all wet!!) We went into this big hall thing and all sat down. I looked around and so many people already seemed to know each other but I didn't have a clue who anyone that was there was!! They did a short introduction type thing saying who all these different teachers from the different areas of Germany were and thanked us for coming and explained a few other things. Then they announced who would be in what room and who with etc. It's at this point I realised just what a bloody small world it is. I ended up sharing a room with a girl who I went to Brownies AND High School with and she still lives in Meltham now. I mean.. I didn't really know her, but was just bizarre to be over 800 miles from home and still meet someone I sort of know and end up in the same room as them!
So anyway I won't bother going into all the ins and outs of what happened there cause a lot of it won't interest most of you. We did however have to do mock lessons, so I had to teach a group of 20 - 22 year olds and pretend they were German primary school kids. Was quite funny really. Oh and on the last night we did a quiz, which was extremely difficult! Though I did know one of the answers..! And even the people that did the quiz didn't know why. The question was 'What nationality is Super Ted?' Oh yeah! I knew! WELSH!! lol
Well.. when I last left you all, I was complaining about having to pay 163€ to go to Cologne for my induction course.. so we will take it from there!
So on the Monday.. I got all my trains etc and everything went according to plan which was very good as that was my first train journey anywhere other than Potsdam! My only complaint.. the guy sat opposite me on the train was really creepy and singing.. or should I say grunting.. along to his music! :| but other than that, everything ran smoothly and I got to where I should have been when I should have been there! :D
So after making us wait around for aaaages in the train station and on the coaches and everything - the police even told us we had to move!! - we finally set off from Cologne to Altenberg which was about 45 mins away or something like that. We got there and it was raining and no one really knew what they were supposed to be doing or where they were supposed to be going or anything because we weren't told a thing! Finally.. they told us we had to go inside (which they could have bloody done sooner so we didn't get all wet!!) We went into this big hall thing and all sat down. I looked around and so many people already seemed to know each other but I didn't have a clue who anyone that was there was!! They did a short introduction type thing saying who all these different teachers from the different areas of Germany were and thanked us for coming and explained a few other things. Then they announced who would be in what room and who with etc. It's at this point I realised just what a bloody small world it is. I ended up sharing a room with a girl who I went to Brownies AND High School with and she still lives in Meltham now. I mean.. I didn't really know her, but was just bizarre to be over 800 miles from home and still meet someone I sort of know and end up in the same room as them!
So anyway I won't bother going into all the ins and outs of what happened there cause a lot of it won't interest most of you. We did however have to do mock lessons, so I had to teach a group of 20 - 22 year olds and pretend they were German primary school kids. Was quite funny really. Oh and on the last night we did a quiz, which was extremely difficult! Though I did know one of the answers..! And even the people that did the quiz didn't know why. The question was 'What nationality is Super Ted?' Oh yeah! I knew! WELSH!! lol
Oh and also.. the money I complained I had to pay to travel there... they reimbursed us with 100€ so it wasn't as bad as I expected really. So anyway, I came away from there with a few friends and all in all it wasn't a bad 3/4 days. Oh and on the train coming back.. I had a Subway for my dinner! So can't complain :D yum!!
When I got back it was the umm.. 8th October so at that point I began counting down the days til I went home! :P I didn't really do much between then and going home. Anne's sister had come to visit. But I didn't do that much. Oh I had to help out at this thing at school where we did a 'traditional' English teatime with cakes etc. Especially with the oh so traditional English 'Orange Cake'.... no ? I hadn't heard of it either! But they made me help out cause it was something to do with an English project they are doing with schools from all over the world so they wanted me to show my face basically to say look at us, we have an actual English person helping! :D I didn't mind, beats doing nothing at home!
So anyway, after a few days of not really doing much.. it was time to go home!! Woot! I couldn't wait! Can't believe I wasn't going to bother going home at all until xmas!! Now this was my first time getting to the airport alone! Luckily there is a train that goes directly there and the station is actually attached to the airport so I had no problems. But.. I didn't want to arrive too late because I had images of huge queues and missing check in and missing my flight etc.. so I got a train that I knew would get me there on time... Or in this case, early! Whilst I was sat around waiting, I was greeted with the sight of a German policeman, gun in hand! Scary stuff! ha. Though luckily, I didn't have to sit around for too long once I arrived. I managed to check-in relatively queue free. I was also very impressed with myself going through the metal detector machine things. Every single person in front of me.. for about 5 people, set the machine off and had to be scanned with the hand held thing. I just walked through.. no noise at all and off I went.. laughing in my head at those that were scanned!
Had to get something to eat now.. so went to Burger King.. and the tables didn't even have chairs.. so I had to stand at a table all on my own eating a burger! What a loser! haha. After that I had a bit of time to kill so I went and looked around all the duty free shops and stuff. There was quite a lot of stuff I wanted to buy but in the end I settled on buying a shot belt! A belt.. with about 24 mini bottles of alcohol all around it! I loved it! Though it didn't last long. It was gone almost as soon as I got back! :P
So anyway, I finally got on my plane with no worries, got a window seat as I had wanted and all was well :D When I landed my bag came out relatively quickly again! Lucky me! James was picking me up from the airport so I walked out to the arrivals bit and looked around. Couldn't see him. Waited a bit, looked around a bit more and still saw nothing. (I knew he was already here at this point cause I had texted him) so in the end I called him. Asked where he was, said I couldn't see him... turns out he was stood behind a pillar and hadn't seen me come out! The idiot :P But we went to his car and drove off back to his! :D
It was then at his that my shot belt soon got drunk! Along with a bottle of wine! :D Good times! Met his parents for the first time then too, which wasn't all that scary really! :D
So on the Friday I took my stuff home, said hi to my parents then stopped at James's again cause we were going to the Trafford Centre the next day. Great I thought! I had a lot of money to spend and a lot of things I wanted to buy! So we drive all the way there, get inside and start walking around. I'd say no more than 10 minutes in.. what do I realise... ? I don't have my bloody card with me! So can't buy a thing!! Luckily James lent me a bit of money so I managed to buy some stuff and just paid him back! I'm a complete tit at times!
Didn't really do much on Sunday. Oh actually, had Sunday Lunch at James's and met his sister for the first time then too! :D
Then on Monday, we went to Whitby for the day! The weather behaved itself, though it was bloody freezing! We walked around all the nice shops, the whales bone thingy, the abbey and all sorts. I even bought a lucky duck! Lets hope some of the luck rubs off on me :D
We then went out Monday night and James got very very very drunk! Was funny though! :D Just about managed to get him home in one piece! :P
I don't think we did too much on Tuesday or Wednesday, but I can't remember! But Wednesday night, we went out! I got very drunk, don't remember a lot of it but at least I made up for James being so drunk on Monday since he had to practically carry me home! :D Good times! Nice way to meet his friends for the first time too! :D haha
I want to say that we did something else whilst I was home too.. but I can't for the life in me think what it would be.... ! On Saturday I went shopping and must have spent about £200 on all sorts of different things! Then that night we had a very nice curry at mine :D YUM! Then on Sunday I had to fly back to Germany :( Boohoo! haha. Wasn't too bad though since my parents were coming back with me for a few days :D
Everything worked out fine with the flight coming back, no delays or anything which was good :D Took my parents to their hotel and then got a taxi home. Didn't end up getting home until about midnight! Next day, went into Berlin with my parents. We looked around some shops and also went on a boat tour thing (photos on facebook) which showed us all these different governmental buildings and stuff do do with East and West Germany, cause the river we were on had split the too. There were also things commemorating people who had died trying to cross the river to get to West Germany. That was all very interesting and stuff :D
Then, the next day we had a walk around Potsdam, just looked at the shops etc cause my parents were flying home that day so didn't have too much time to do much else. It was all very good though :D
They left 27th October and since then I haven't done too much. I have had to plan a few lessons for school. One of the lessons I had to plan was on Guy Fawkes. Something we don't even learn about here! Can anyone tell me anything about him other than the fact he tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament? Nope, didn't think so! So that involved a lot of research etc, then a lot of dumbing down cause it was aimed at Primary School kids learning English as a second language! That went down quite well though and I think they found it fairly interesting!
I also went to a Filmpark in Babelsberg with Anne last Saturday! It was bloody freezing but it was a really fun day. There was all sorts of different things to look around, mostly German tv shows so I didn't really know who any of the characters were but it was still fun. We also went into a 4D cinema (same as 3D but the seats move etc..) and went into a TV studio where they were showing us how all the different filming things worked etc. Anne and I had to pretend to be on a soap for that.. in front of about 100 - 150 Germans! :| but it was cool. I didn't have to say anything - I was just a background character! :D
Then, we ended the day there watching a stunt show. It was really cool. They were abseiling from really tall buildings and free-falling from high towers and doing jumps on motorbikes and running around whilst set on fire! It was really good :D haha.
Since then, I've just been back at school so haven't done too much really. The weather is cold so I bought scarf, gloves and this nice headband thingy instead of a hat! :D they keep me nice and warm :D
Oh and yesterday, I met up with a couple of friends who live nearby that I met in Altenberg - David and Erdem. We went to Erdem's flat here and met his girlfriend, Tara. We went to a park near their flat called Mauerpark and set off some fireworks which were cool :D then went back there and had some nice food and stuff! It was a fun day :D I even managed to make my way there ok! Though on the way back, my very first connection got to where I was meant to be 2 mins late which made me miss my next connection. Not a problem too much cause there was another not long after, but cause I had missed the 2nd connection, it meant I had missed my bus home from Potsdam! The next bus was going to be in 27 mins so I thought no way! Got a taxi home instead!
Now today is Sunday.. I haven't done too much so far apart from a bit of exercise and showering! But all in all life is good and I'm in a very happy mood right now! :D
You are now all officially updated on my life here in Deutschland! I'll try not to leave it so long the next time I update!! :D
Lots of Love
AMY!! :D
When I got back it was the umm.. 8th October so at that point I began counting down the days til I went home! :P I didn't really do much between then and going home. Anne's sister had come to visit. But I didn't do that much. Oh I had to help out at this thing at school where we did a 'traditional' English teatime with cakes etc. Especially with the oh so traditional English 'Orange Cake'.... no ? I hadn't heard of it either! But they made me help out cause it was something to do with an English project they are doing with schools from all over the world so they wanted me to show my face basically to say look at us, we have an actual English person helping! :D I didn't mind, beats doing nothing at home!
So anyway, after a few days of not really doing much.. it was time to go home!! Woot! I couldn't wait! Can't believe I wasn't going to bother going home at all until xmas!! Now this was my first time getting to the airport alone! Luckily there is a train that goes directly there and the station is actually attached to the airport so I had no problems. But.. I didn't want to arrive too late because I had images of huge queues and missing check in and missing my flight etc.. so I got a train that I knew would get me there on time... Or in this case, early! Whilst I was sat around waiting, I was greeted with the sight of a German policeman, gun in hand! Scary stuff! ha. Though luckily, I didn't have to sit around for too long once I arrived. I managed to check-in relatively queue free. I was also very impressed with myself going through the metal detector machine things. Every single person in front of me.. for about 5 people, set the machine off and had to be scanned with the hand held thing. I just walked through.. no noise at all and off I went.. laughing in my head at those that were scanned!
Had to get something to eat now.. so went to Burger King.. and the tables didn't even have chairs.. so I had to stand at a table all on my own eating a burger! What a loser! haha. After that I had a bit of time to kill so I went and looked around all the duty free shops and stuff. There was quite a lot of stuff I wanted to buy but in the end I settled on buying a shot belt! A belt.. with about 24 mini bottles of alcohol all around it! I loved it! Though it didn't last long. It was gone almost as soon as I got back! :P
So anyway, I finally got on my plane with no worries, got a window seat as I had wanted and all was well :D When I landed my bag came out relatively quickly again! Lucky me! James was picking me up from the airport so I walked out to the arrivals bit and looked around. Couldn't see him. Waited a bit, looked around a bit more and still saw nothing. (I knew he was already here at this point cause I had texted him) so in the end I called him. Asked where he was, said I couldn't see him... turns out he was stood behind a pillar and hadn't seen me come out! The idiot :P But we went to his car and drove off back to his! :D
It was then at his that my shot belt soon got drunk! Along with a bottle of wine! :D Good times! Met his parents for the first time then too, which wasn't all that scary really! :D
So on the Friday I took my stuff home, said hi to my parents then stopped at James's again cause we were going to the Trafford Centre the next day. Great I thought! I had a lot of money to spend and a lot of things I wanted to buy! So we drive all the way there, get inside and start walking around. I'd say no more than 10 minutes in.. what do I realise... ? I don't have my bloody card with me! So can't buy a thing!! Luckily James lent me a bit of money so I managed to buy some stuff and just paid him back! I'm a complete tit at times!
Didn't really do much on Sunday. Oh actually, had Sunday Lunch at James's and met his sister for the first time then too! :D
Then on Monday, we went to Whitby for the day! The weather behaved itself, though it was bloody freezing! We walked around all the nice shops, the whales bone thingy, the abbey and all sorts. I even bought a lucky duck! Lets hope some of the luck rubs off on me :D
We then went out Monday night and James got very very very drunk! Was funny though! :D Just about managed to get him home in one piece! :P
I don't think we did too much on Tuesday or Wednesday, but I can't remember! But Wednesday night, we went out! I got very drunk, don't remember a lot of it but at least I made up for James being so drunk on Monday since he had to practically carry me home! :D Good times! Nice way to meet his friends for the first time too! :D haha
I want to say that we did something else whilst I was home too.. but I can't for the life in me think what it would be.... ! On Saturday I went shopping and must have spent about £200 on all sorts of different things! Then that night we had a very nice curry at mine :D YUM! Then on Sunday I had to fly back to Germany :( Boohoo! haha. Wasn't too bad though since my parents were coming back with me for a few days :D
Everything worked out fine with the flight coming back, no delays or anything which was good :D Took my parents to their hotel and then got a taxi home. Didn't end up getting home until about midnight! Next day, went into Berlin with my parents. We looked around some shops and also went on a boat tour thing (photos on facebook) which showed us all these different governmental buildings and stuff do do with East and West Germany, cause the river we were on had split the too. There were also things commemorating people who had died trying to cross the river to get to West Germany. That was all very interesting and stuff :D
Then, the next day we had a walk around Potsdam, just looked at the shops etc cause my parents were flying home that day so didn't have too much time to do much else. It was all very good though :D
They left 27th October and since then I haven't done too much. I have had to plan a few lessons for school. One of the lessons I had to plan was on Guy Fawkes. Something we don't even learn about here! Can anyone tell me anything about him other than the fact he tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament? Nope, didn't think so! So that involved a lot of research etc, then a lot of dumbing down cause it was aimed at Primary School kids learning English as a second language! That went down quite well though and I think they found it fairly interesting!
I also went to a Filmpark in Babelsberg with Anne last Saturday! It was bloody freezing but it was a really fun day. There was all sorts of different things to look around, mostly German tv shows so I didn't really know who any of the characters were but it was still fun. We also went into a 4D cinema (same as 3D but the seats move etc..) and went into a TV studio where they were showing us how all the different filming things worked etc. Anne and I had to pretend to be on a soap for that.. in front of about 100 - 150 Germans! :| but it was cool. I didn't have to say anything - I was just a background character! :D
Then, we ended the day there watching a stunt show. It was really cool. They were abseiling from really tall buildings and free-falling from high towers and doing jumps on motorbikes and running around whilst set on fire! It was really good :D haha.
Since then, I've just been back at school so haven't done too much really. The weather is cold so I bought scarf, gloves and this nice headband thingy instead of a hat! :D they keep me nice and warm :D
Oh and yesterday, I met up with a couple of friends who live nearby that I met in Altenberg - David and Erdem. We went to Erdem's flat here and met his girlfriend, Tara. We went to a park near their flat called Mauerpark and set off some fireworks which were cool :D then went back there and had some nice food and stuff! It was a fun day :D I even managed to make my way there ok! Though on the way back, my very first connection got to where I was meant to be 2 mins late which made me miss my next connection. Not a problem too much cause there was another not long after, but cause I had missed the 2nd connection, it meant I had missed my bus home from Potsdam! The next bus was going to be in 27 mins so I thought no way! Got a taxi home instead!
Now today is Sunday.. I haven't done too much so far apart from a bit of exercise and showering! But all in all life is good and I'm in a very happy mood right now! :D
You are now all officially updated on my life here in Deutschland! I'll try not to leave it so long the next time I update!! :D
Lots of Love
AMY!! :D
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