All by myself....

.... no I am anything but all by myself. In fact I couldn't be more surrounded by people.

Just a quick note on the blog as I realised I haven't written on it in an few days. The past week or so Uni is beginning to settle down because I have finally angemeldet(i.e. registered for all the classes I am supposed to) and the work is beginning to start. It's taking me a while to get through my reading but I am hoping that with time that will get better.

Of course the other major problem is trying to find German people who want to speak German because EVERYONE wants to speak English or as soon as they know you are English then they casually slip into English mode - DAMN.

So the past weekend I wasn't up to much. Friday night was beer drinking with the boys oh and watching Anchorman(for the millionth time), Saturday night went to an Irish pub in the Altstadt and drank a fair amount of beer. Sunday night was the day to rest as it should be but also had some reading to try and get through. Then came to Anna's in the Südstadt to chill out with the girls and watch Bridget Jones(thus the meaning of the title) AND Love Actually. Ended up staying here at Anna's and am still here now - luckily have brought my stuff with me so it is just a short walk up to Uni for me!

Anyways...speak soon

Guten Abend meine Damen und Herren - wilkommen bei blog Shnuff:-)

Pretty sure that most of you will be able to understand the title.

Ok so after a mega confusing week of being lost in University and quite frankly being lost in translation. Today seemed to put me back on a mega high again mainly because I could actually follow the lecture plus we got to look at some paintings which I really liked. Also I met a few more ERASMUS people but they all seem to know each other and their level of German is amazing.

Yesterday in my determination not to sit on my bum and be lazy - I took myself off to the Art Gallery....well I was feeling cultural what can I say? It was great and there was alot for me to see. There was alot of expressionist painting jazz going on there so I spent ages looking at those pictures. Plus some of the contemporary pieces were FABULOUS! Oh check me out getting all arty and geeky. I have a whole mile of museums to cover so it will give me something to do at the weekends when I am not partying or "studying".

Then since it was a beautiful day I decided to take a big long walk since everyone else in Bonn seemed to also be walking around too it was great. I took myself along the Adenauerallee which was a little journey into history because it is where the old West German government had their former shindigs. I then also walked back to the main Uni building and headed back to Hauptbahnhof which was a total of 5 stops. Eventually when I get my bike back then i will start to cycle from Tannenbusch to town because I think it will only take me something like half an hour plus then I will get to explore more of Bonn.

Right I actually have some homework to do and since it is 10 sides of German it is going to take me a while I think to read it and probably make sense of it.

aufwiederhoeren.

Week One - Party 4

Ok so Friday night was another partying night because it was the opening of the semester even though that is technically on Monday but I think I can understand why they give us the weekend to relax before.

Had to take this boring tour of the building before we could actually go into the bar which is the smallest room in the world but the bar was fully stocked so it was good. Plus we got the beer which was only €1 for half a litre....it was great. So for me I decided to stay on the cocktails as did Maria and then the Czech boys arrived and it went a little bit crazy. They introduced us to this czech drink which had the smell of vodka with the taste of sambucca it was horrible!!! Much dancing was done and many attempts at break dancing too - I am surprised I even have a back that isnt shattered into pieces to be honest!

Saturday morning was not the most pleasant of experiences shall we say - I should have also taken a trip to Aachen. In the state I was in there was no way I was going to be sitting on a bus for 3 hours. I spent most of the day in bed it was horrific - my neighbours were great though because they had come out for a few pints too. So when we made our dinner together we all had a proper masive giggle about the previous night's events.

Today I woke up and watched Frida(I know I have seen it a million times but I LOVE it so much) then decided I couldn't stay in bed all day. So I took the Strassenbahn into town and found a little market going on - like a flea market so lots of random things including a Gramaphone stand which was awesome there were about 30 different ones and the guy who owned the stand had alot of original vinyls from the 1920s it was GREAT! Then I met up with Dave and went for some hot chocolate but I have never tasted chocolate like this it was DIVINE!

Now am back home for my sunday night in drinking tea and reading the Suddeutsche Zeitung and also potentially watching Pulp Fiction. But first to wash my hair and make me some din dins.

bis spaeter

Steffi x

Yeah so i'm pretty much domestic now

Well you know moving away from home you have to do some chores in order to survive. So today I ventured to find the washing machines and dryers in the basement...only no one told me it was just in one buildings basement. So I stood in my own building's basement for about 20 minutes looking for the washers/dryers then eventually asked some one else.

Reading washing machines auf Deutsch is NOT easy - there was no escaping trying to get away with looking for maybe the English/French translation oh no entirely German(I don't know why I am so shocked I mean I am in Germany after all). Lets just say i'm not exactly down on the washing and drying vocab! So a few click of a buttons here and there and hopefully done - if I see smoke rising from the building behind me I know then that my washing is on fire instead of actually drying.

The next thing is cooking - I like to cook but the hob here is weird and there is no gas:-@ This is quite possibly the weirdest complaint ever...yeah guys love the country but do something about the hob situation. Went to the Turkish market today to get some vegetables for my tea and I went into the shop but the man nearly died - I think I was the first non-turkish person to be in the shop for a long time it was bizarre.

Was avoiding the HIT supermarket after the snotty check out woman nearly threw me out after she ram-sacked my other shopping bag suspecting me of stealing - im sorry woman but what am I going to steal out of your store exactly? Maybe if you had some nice shoes in the shop I would chance it but im not going to be stealing fruit and vegetables or tableware.

Also can someone tell my body clock/sense of time to sort itself out? I keep turning up late for things and missing everything...well not everything I mean I went partying(again) last night.

OH YEAH - I went partying! So went to this place called Bar Ludwig which was the international students opening party so people from ever inch of the earth packed into a little former restaurant. I say former because the dance floor was acutally a kitchen but with everything ripped out of it, tiles on the floor and walls oh and of course a sign about switching microwaves on. Little strange! The music was great though it reminded me alot of heebies except with the odd German Beatles track chucked in for good measure 'Sie liebt mich ja ja ja'.

Tonight is going to my Steffi night off to rest and relax before tomorrow when yet again there will be another party but this time it is in the halls so I don't have to get the nightbus or train home.

love love
Shnoodels

Queing, German Bureaucracy und Bier

It has to be said that there are too many forms to fill in and too many things to que for. I have spent nearly 6 hours in 2 days queing around waiting for stuff with about 200 other disorientated people. Today was enrolment at the University so again back to the akademisches Kunstmusuem to sit around and be spoken to about things which have already been done by everyone. Also they need to invest in some microphone’s as projection to the back of the room was terrible – anyways enough of this rant about the surprisingly lacking organisational skills.

Am now an official student of the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn. Woop dee doo! Am among scholars such as Karl Marx, Prince Albert and Germany’s first post war chancellor Konrad Adenauer there is now a new one – Stephanie Luise Lambert. WUNDERBAR

Have been meeting lots of people which is just awesome and they are from all over the place. Austria, Hungary, Finland, France, Albania, Czech Republic and Turkey are to name a few. There are also a few Spaniards walking around too but they just stand together and witter on and on they talk like this writing wilbevfbdfvbkenvfbkEBVNKAEJBRVFGKEJBV.Kahjb vj\HBVKEB....it doesn’t seem to make sense but you know that what they are talking about is great and important to them.

So last night went on a bit of a pub crawl which was great. I tried about 6 different German beers. It got to the point were I actually had to say, “STOP please I can’t drink any more.” I really am a poor excuse for a student. The night bus home was also an event. Luckily I was with my newly acquired hot neighbour, ‘Maria’ and the two of us were trying to see were our street was....easier done in broad day light rather than 3am when we stumbled home.

The next piece of bad news was we were supposed to be up at 8am to get into Uni fresh and early but I slept through my alarm and was a little worse for wear this morning so didn’t go. They didn’t tell us that going to this meeting this morning was important – so oh well it got rescheduled as no one came!!Oh well it will be alright in the end.

Also there is a local cat who I think gets fed by lots of people so he is a proper fatty – reminds me alot of Stella Bella Boodles who also has a big belly. But it is lovely to come home and have the cat follow you to the door he doesn’t miaow so I don’t think he sprechen’s Deutsch.

Anyways must go einkaufen. Missing everyone

wilkommen, bievenuem, welcome

After a difficult and tearful goodbye with the Dottie this morning it was time for me to head to the lovely international office on Poppelsdorf Allee.

Found it easy enough but don't think I have ever been in a room with so many foreign people at one time; chinese, italien, french, turkish, austrian( not sure if they count!) - were all registering up for ERASMUS. Had to fill in a form which was half English half German...I tell you trying to learn German here is going to be tough as most people can speak English or somehow recognise you are English and come to your rescue.

Hats off to the deputy lord mayor who came to do his welcoming speech at the opening talk and did it in about 7 different languages which was uberly impressive. Also met an ace austrian person who has come here to do law with ERASMUS and she lives in the next building so in the words of Daniel Hillard in Mrs Doubtfire, 'I think I made a friend'.

My phone is sorted now so for ya'll reading this via Facebook drop me a line and I will send it on to you. But for now it is time to eat some soup and then go drinking with everyone tonight

Kultur

It is safe to say that me and Dottie have not neglected our cultural duties aside from trying to pass ourselves off as British tourists who verstehen nicht. Since arriving we have abused the German cuisine quite possibly to the extreme; cheese, salami, NICE bread rolls, kase kuchen/cheese cake, pflaumen kuchen/plum cake and curry wurst have all featured in our dining.

After a lazy start to the day and a difficult night’s sleep it was time to travel into town. Of course today is 20 years since Germany became reunified as a country – so it means that nowhere is open which was not helpful so thank god we stocked up on food yesterday. Bonn city centre also seemed to go back in time a bit not by 20 years but by about 2000 years as there were Romans(half naked Roman's add's Dottie) running around doing battles all sorts of Roman stuff...as you do. A man dressed in Roman clothes going to use a toilet is quite possibly one of the randomest sights that I could have encountered but then I just thought of Liverpool city centre on a night out.
Anyways back to the culture stuff. Dottie had wanted to go to see Herrn Beethoven’s house so we went on out little walk to his house which was actually open. I am lucky as have been here before with school but I think it was good for le Dot to see the house. The house is separated up between the original and then next door there is a little studio were you can go online(think Mrs Doyle here **GO ONLINE**) and listen to any of Beethoven’s music. I tell you two scousers dancing around to Beethoven’s 5th Symphony was deffo a sight and very amusing for the group of German tourists going around the house.
Tonight we will stay in and probably watch Black Books but tomorrow I think I may venture to Aldi as quite frankly drying dishes with toilet roll has only so many perks. Bis spaeter!!!

Location, location, location

For a first day of an Auslandsjahr it has probably experienced every emotion and human action possible; rage, anger, tears, a bit more rage, silliness, laughter, confusion, loss and finally actually getting to Bonn Studentenwerk where I am going to be living until February.

Location One – Manchester airportPeople don’t fly with flybe.com. I think first and for most that has to be said. Secondly it resulted in a very VERY angry mother which is never a pleasant thing but to be honest after paying over £150 in excess baggage fees who wouldn’t be a fair bit cheesed off?? Stupid regulations.

Location Two – Flybe Aircraft. As many of you will indeed know I am TERRIFIED of flying and it is something I do not pretend to enjoy in the slightest. However on seeing the tin can I was flying in I can safely say that I was more terrified than usual and not happy at the hour and a bit I had to spend in the damn thing. You see Easy Jet and Ryanair ( I should just keep plugging cheap air lines I think) are nice big planes where you have space to breathe in them. Oh no nothing like this with Flybe it was a PROPERLOR plane which I have never been in and the plane was tiny thus the STRICT regulations on the baggage. Going up into the sky felt like the plane was going to fall apart at any second – I think it was the burley football fans that were just about keeping it together.

Location Three – Düsseldorf AirportOn leaving the tin can and getting aboard the shuttle bus to go to the terminal building it came that time to go through border control. Only as I looked through my already heavy cloth bag – no passport to be found. I had only gone and left it in the tin can. So I sprinted back to the shuttle bus to ask the driver ‘SPRECHEN SIE ENGLISCH?!’ to see if I could actually get away with it but oh no he said ‘NEIN’....I set my language from stun to kill at this point explaining in a panicking manner that I have left my passport in the plane and could I go back to get it. The bus driver drove me back to the plane and said I was not legally allowed to touch the tarmacL So he got off the bus and knocked on the plane door – WHO DOES THAT? HE KNOCKED ON THE PLANE!!!! Had to then go to the Grenze Polizei /border police to explain I had left my passport in the back pocket of the seat on the plane – so a few radio calls and a nervous wait later the passport was found RESULT!

Location Four – Düsseldorf S-Bahn lineComputers in foreign countries never make sense even when they are sneakily put into the English option. THANK HEAVENS for George Michael’s cousin who lept from the stationary train to help me and the Dottie. We managed to purchase our ticket to Bonn Hauptbahnhof almost the second success of the day but it went down hill from then as we missed the connection train and had to wait an hour for the train.

Location Five – Bonn Hauptbahnhof and the final destination SWBONN. Luckily my study buddy Doro was waiting at the station for us and managed to drive us to the Studentenwerk which was absoulutely lovely and meant no kerfuffle over try to find which way to go. Arrived in my room. Got the tour – am the only girl it would appear who is living on her floor. The boys seem lovely but messy...I will soon sort them into shape and if not then I got to ship over Emily Ford. Anyways I need to try and sleepL