The beginning of the......oh wait

Eurovision Celebrations

At the moment Facebook is full of people informing me that summer is here, exams are over, for some people even Uni is over but in Germany that is sadly not the case. For all the other Erasmus people about to pipe up with, I have 2 weeks left too, you better stop right there because I have 8 weeks left….yes you read that correctly, 8 weeks. It turns out that having 2 months off in Spring means that the long summer holidays we’re used to just become more university. For once I’m actually not complaining (too much), summer is significantly better than other seasons in Tübingen, I’d rather be here now, than in February and March when it was cold and gloomy.

I’m not sure if I’ve made this point before but Tübingen is boring, sometimes to an excruciating point, in the winter semester there was often literally nothing to do but it’s summer now, the sun is (sort of) shining, the Freibad is open and sitting in the park has become a pretty common activity for us.  Sitting in the park may sound boring but luckily Tübingen has a vast array of strange people to watch. Living here is sometimes like living in an alternative, hippie universe, the park is full of people balancing on ropes, wearing trousers with outrageously low crotches and playing a game that involves throwing bits of wood and bits of wood (I don’t know the name, rules or point). Luckily drinking outside is full acceptable, it makes the people even more amusing. We have one favourite man who wanders around topless, performing some kind of sexual Tai Chi, always a pleasure to watch.  So I’m hoping that these 8 weeks end up being 8 weeks of drinking, barbeques and German learning (I guess it has to be involved somewhere). I do also have work to do, Edinburgh are insisting I write an essay for them, it’s been so long since I did anything properly academic that it’s been a struggle. I’m also taking a course this semester that requires me to read German books, more useful for my language skills than making collages, but that was a lot less demanding. Oh well, at least I have 8 weeks left to finish it all.

Tai Chi Man

To make things even better, we’ve just had a week off, the catholics are finally doing something right and giving us a week off for Pfingsten (Pentecost).  I ended spending part of my week off in Vienna and Bratislava, which was pretty cool. Vienna is an unbelievably pretty city, every other building looks like a palace, but it is pretty pricey. Bratislava on the other hand was cheap, like outrageously cheap, and it was very cool. It has a beautiful old town, surrounded by communist buildings and the largest communist living complex in Europe nearby. The contrast was pretty interesting. On this trip to Bratislava we decided to go on a bar crawl….as far as bar crawls go it was a bit of a fail. The four of us made up more than half of the group, we were joined by 2 Aussies, one who was determined to prove he was sooo English because he’d lived there for a year, then 1 American soldier. The soldier made it funny at least, probably one of the stupider people I’ve met in life, one of his greatest quotes being “do you want to hear about war or Knoxville”, closely followed by the story of going to rehab for getting so drunk he got lost in his own dormitory, Brandon you made our night. As for the rest of my week off, I’ve been attempting to write the aforementioned essay, ‘Did the east Germans feel German after reunification?’…if anyone has the answer feel free to let me know, so far I’m still unsure.

Vienna being all pretty

Even though the Queen is German, they don’t seem to fancy celebrating the Jubilee and Monday and Tuesday are just regular days here in Deutschland. No fear though, we’re bringing our own taste of Britain to the Germans, Monday is roast day and Tuesday is Pimm’s day, which we’re importing specially for the occasion. I’m even considering making a flag.

Back in Deutschland

The Beer Fest

It’s been a while since I wrote anything, but it’s been a while since I’ve been in Germany so I took a little break. Why haven’t I been in Germany you ask? Well they conveniently have a 2 month holiday between February and April. I was dubious at first, it means the 2nd semester goes on till July and it just seems odd but now I am a convert. The 2 months off were pretty awesome, went skiing twice then spent 4 weeks in California….pretty good student lifestyle. Plus being in Germany till July could be good. Unlike the flood weather in England, the weather here is glorious, I even got sunburnt on Saturday. You might think sunburn is bad, I think of it as ‘base burn’, something to build my ‘tan’ on.

I don’t have much to say about my holidays, except it was AWESOME. Spending 4 weeks in California was the best decision I’ve probs ever made. It’s a pretty amazing place and I enjoyed the Americanness for a while. I even watched a lot of basketball, big step for someone who really doesn’t care about sports. Ask me about March Madness now and I could probably pretend to know what I’m talking about/copy something that somebody told me. One of the best things about being there was the food; England isn’t amazing at ethnic food and Germany is even worse, so getting to have pretty legit Mexican (not Tex Mex) food, Dim sum, Sushi and lots of other types of food was pretty cool. The portion sized lived up to expectations though so I’ve had to take up running as a way to work it all off.

Me and my actual Tex Mex

As far as Germany is concerned I’m not really sure what to write about, it’s pretty good right now and when I’m not complaining I’m not sure I have much to say. The usually bureaucracy is going on, learning agreements and such. And the usual lack of real work is going on as well. Slightly better this time though, at least I don’t have any collages to make. I still have an issue with the library, I actually need to work up the courage to go in there this semester so I can write an essay, could be a pretty entertaining/frustrating experience. Talking of German experiences I went to a beerfest twice last week. The first time I drank 3 litres of beer, the 2^nd time I learnt my lesson. It was great though, lots of Dirndls and Lederhosen and lots of German songs. This one is my favourite by far:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3r83jGYoaCs

Everyone was dancing on the table to this one. The only downside to the festival was the weight of the glasses. It might be pathetic but I could barely move my hand the next few days after the first time I went. Trying to dance while holding a litre of beer is actually pretty strenuous.  

Too Heavy to open my Eyes apparently

Some people I know here have come up with the idea of having a ‘Mangel an Englisch’ Mai. Basically we’re not supposed to speak/write English to anyone who could potentially converse in German. Potentially this could be a good idea but there’s a good reason I speak to my English speaking friends in English. And it’s something like this:  http://iwastesomuchtime.com/on/?i=34625&fb_source=message

We speak in English so that our conversations aren’t total crap. I’m supposed to not watch any English TV/films either but I’m not sure how good Game of Thrones will be in German and I’m not sure if I’m willing to give up watching Game of Thrones to be honest. Anyway we’ll see how it goes, I can already guess that it’ll go pretty badly though. 

The Library

Tübingen Library: Possibly the most pointless library ever 

I’ve been home for about 2 ½ weeks of my 2 month holiday so far. It’s somehow strange how easy it is to slip back into it, being in the UK is very easy. I hope going back to Germany is just as easy but I doubt it. What isn’t as easy to slip back into is doing real work. Erasmus is a strange experience. On the one hand it’s hard, learning a new language, doing everything in that language and adjusting to a new place is all pretty tiring. But on the other hand it’s pretty easy, after hearing about the stresses of 3^rd year from my Edinburgh friends I’m pretty glad to be avoiding the endless essays and assignments they seem to have.

For my year abroad I have to write some kind of year abroad dissertation for history. At the moment it seems a little impossible. In 1^st and 2^nd year we’re spoon fed for our essays, titles are provided, reading lists are given and it’s all reasonably straight forward, but now I’m on my own. I can write about anything from German history; Germany has a lot of history, a lot of controversial history. Choosing a topic was pretty stressful, but even once you’ve even vaguely come up with an idea you have to find your own books. Sound easy? It’s not. Especially when you’re in Germany and don’t even understand how to use the library.

Let me explain: in Germany you can’t just go into the library, browse for books and find some that might be useful. First of all you have to leave your bag, coat, whole life, outside. They don’t have an alarm system so you can’t take anything in that might help you steal anything from them. Then once you’re inside you discover that there aren’t any books (so you couldn’t steal anything anyway). You have to find your book on the catalogue (so no carefree browsing), order the book, and sometime in the next 2 hours to 2 days the book will appear under your personal collection reference. Not knowing what book I want or where to find said collection reference was severely hindering my ability to read anything.

So last week I went to Edinburgh to hit the library and generally catch up with people. Being in Edinburgh made me realise just how much I MISS IT! Edinburgh is awesome, I miss understanding how a university works, I miss my flatmates and I miss the things you can do in Edinburgh. Tübingen is a small place, a very small place, not many good night’s out/places to eat/things to do. Year abroad is a great experience but I can’t wait for 4^th year and being back (I could pass on the huge amount of work but the rest will be excellent).  Now that I have a flat sorted for 4^th year it all seems quite close, sadly in Germany the semester doesn’t end till the end of JULY! Goodbye summer I guess. It'll all be worth it when/if I'm fluent in German, should make next year a little easier.

I realise that this is a pretty rambling blog post but I’m trying to read about German electoral differences in the 1994 Bundestag election, pretty hard to be focussed in moments like this. 

The Germans

The University Prison....exactly what people imagine the Germans to have

To counteract the chaviness of the Geordie Shore post I thought I’d do another post about Germany. I finished my exams last week and since coming back people keep asking me what Germany is like and are the Germans how people imagine them. They’re both pretty hard questions to answer. In some circumstances the Germans are exactly what I thought they would be. For the people who study German in Edinburgh, the relationship with the professors is a lot more Frauke than Sabine. They’re very keen on their titles and I received a pretty angry email informing me it was ‘Doktor Professor’ not just ‘Professor’, no first names in Germany. However, if you go and speak to them, most are pretty friendly. My exams were mainly oral exams and all my professors were understanding of my German skills (or lack of German skills), maybe not something people would expect.

I guess the stereotypes we have of the Germans in England are based around them being very orderly, lacking in sense of humour and general a little bit cold. The orderly part could be true, students seem to work harder than in England but as far as the sense of humour and coldness goes, I don’t think it’s true at all. The sense of humour might be different to ours, but it’s funny in its own way, a few Germans I’ve met have some great banter (once I explained what it was) and generally they’re pretty good company.

As far as the coldness goes, I think it’s more of a cultural difference. In England people will quite quickly be ‘best friends’, it’s the freshers week phenomenon of needing someone to hang out with. In Germany on the other hand it takes a bit longer. At first, personal topics are definitely out of bounds and everything is a little more awkward. But once you get to know them, I would say that it’s a less fake friendship than what a lot of people have in England. I guess a big problem the British find in Germany is that people are quite blunt. In England everyone uses small talk and even terrible things are described as ‘not bad’. In Germany they say what they mean and the concept of small talk doesn’t really exist. I read that in a translation of 'Paddington Bear’, the German version cut out conversations about the weather completely....it just wasn’t important to the story.

Being in Tübingen has probably taught me more about English stereotypes than German ones. People in Tübingen are pretty trusting, a lot of shops have stuff out on the street, the Germans see this as normal, my English friends and I always comment on how easy it would be to steal it......definitely says a lot about the English mentality. In general Tübingen is a nice place to live, it’s a typical middle class place, people’s only concerns are how organic their food is and how they can save the environment.  There are attempts to make it seem more dangerous, such as this excellent youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=4aS8WQigBrU but really, it’s one of the safest places I’ve ever been in.  The guy in the video with the baseball bat probably just plays sports and anyway i’ve never seen any of them hanging around.

I think that the ideas people in England have about Germany are for the most part pretty outdated. The students are generally just like students everywhere and the stereotypes we have aren’t really true. Except for the towels on sunbeds thing....that’s still true.

p.s.  As much as I’m being nice about the Germans here you probably don’t want one as a boyfriend, according to the Dailymail (the encyclopaedia of truth) German men spend the least on Valentine’s day presents......just saying. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2098357/Valentines-Day-Date-man-Far-East-spend-jewellery.html

Geordie Shore 2

Vicky and Rebecca kicking off already

I knew the initial blog excitement would wear off, that combined with exams and holidays has been getting in the way with any further updates. I thought I’d just write a quick follow up to my Geordie Shore post. Series 2 has begun and the first 2 episodes can only be described as incredible. Most of the questions I asked in my last post have already been answered: Charlotte failed to resist the parsnip and Vicky is pretty much as crazy as always. Sadly no one has informed Jay that he is grim yet but I guess that keeps the drama alive.

The 2^nd series is already throwing up questions of its own though: Why is the new girl balding on one side of her head? Furthermore, why does she look like some kind of creature? I’m hoping the next few episodes will explain this and more. Best quote so far has to go to Charlotte for describing her and Gary as having a special relationship..”like 2 otters sharing a log”, however Vicky describing the fat woman getting a fake tan as “wetter than an otter’s pocket” was also pretty epic (bit of a strange otter theme going on there.)

I happened to watch the 2^nd episode whilst on a ski trip with my dad and some of his friends, a few of them asked me why I enjoyed watching such crap TV (I told you that why was an important question). To be honest it was pretty hard to answer, I know its crap but it’s also hilarious. There is something about watching people behaving ridiculously that is addictive. So far this season looks even better than the last and the new people are proving pretty good for the drama. If you don’t watch Geordie Shore then none of this will make any sense to you and you’re probably a far more cultured person than me. However I would definitely recommend checking it out at least once.....you might be surprised at how great it really is.

Geordie Shore

On Tuesday the best (or worse depending on your taste) programme is returning to TV. That's right, Geordie Shore is coming back. The only vaguely sane person on the show, Greg, has left and there's 2 new, hopefully huge, characters joining. The new housemates are 18 year old Rebecca and 25 year old Ricci. Apparently Ricci "spends hours at the gym honing is eight pack and says he can get any girl he wants" so he's basically a clone of the guys already there. Rebecca on the other hand could be interesting, only because she claims to fancy Jay, pretty excited to see Vicky kick off about that. 


I'm not proud of it but I kind of can't wait for the new series, it's my definition of car crash television. Something about watching people completely embarrass themselves is kind of addictive and the ridiculous quotes they come out with are pretty entertaining. So many questions to be answered in the new series: Can Charlotte resist the parsnip? Will Vicky continue to be a complete pyschopath? Will anyone inform Jay that he is actually a very hideous person? Guess I'll have to watch to find out.

As a bit of advertising for the upcoming series the Geordie Shore cast has created their own perfume. Most perfumes go for a floral scent but this one apparently smells like Kebab....always classy. Apparently it started as a spoof but then they decided to genuinely make it. One of the new characters, Rebecca, explained her excitement with this excellent quote: 

"I had no idea that the line 'Ooh, I could murder a kebab' would lead to all this; famous last words I guess. We have joined the ranks of Beyonce and Britney who have their own perfume, so it feels like we've really made it"

I think she's misunderstood the level of success that making a kebab scented perfume represents. Anyway, here's the full story if anyone wants to read more about the complete mindfuck that is the Geordie Shore perfume: 

http://www.mtv.co.uk/news/geordie-shore/344200-geordie-shore-kebab-perfume-rebecca-walker

My New Favourite Website

I’m being pretty keen with the blog updates but I think it is early blog excitement/ lack of interest in doing any work. This post isn't just me complaining about living in Germany it's about something I saw today and enjoyed (I said I might do that). To be exact it's about my new favourite website:  http://www.notonthehighstreet.com/

I’ve known about it for a while but I was reminded of it today and had a look at their Valentine’s Day presents. I started looking with the thought that I’m probably not actually doing Valentine’s presents as I’ll be all alone (sob) but it’s still nice to look. However, since looking today I might have to come up with excuses to buy presents because I think it’s all so amazing. I love giving people gifts so this website is kind of dangerous for me and my bank account. It's my mum's birthday soon so at least I have that as a reason. 

If I had more money and was going to buy a present I would definitely be getting these cufflinks for my boyfriend for Valentine’s Day. 

http://www.notonthehighstreet.com/evydesigns/product/location-location-location-personalised-map-cufflinks

They are so cute and I’m secretly pretty soppy so these are ideal. I think the map idea is great; you can be personal without being too cheesy. No one needs to know what the maps stand for except for you. 

I also really love this scratch off map:

http://www.notonthehighstreet.com/thelittleboysroom/product/scratch-map

 For anyone that loves travelling it’s a great way to show off all the places you’ve been and remember all the places you still want to go. If I had somewhere to put it, this would be a definite purchase. 

Notonthehighstreet has so many things that I love, the jewellery and gift ideas are my favourites. The personalised gifts are something you can’t get everywhere so it’s a definite bonus and the brands are generally slightly quirky and maybe not something you can get on the highstreet (makes sense right).