2 days to go...Dora's last Bochum-based Blog

Still high on vodka energy combo from last night, and feeling quite odd, I am sat in my room, which I am slowly packing (very slowly and without enthusiasm), awaiting the arrival of my Mum in under an hour, to come and help me sort my life out and take me home on Monday.

Last night me, Glen and his friends Alex and Matthew may have accidentally gone to some kind of gangsta club night, which we thought was a gay night. Apparently in Germany, there is a fine line between gay and gangsta. We didn't realise straight away, rather we just thought the music was a bit of an odd choice. There was a brief dubstep interlude, which me and Glen enjoyed; the sound of dubstep instantaneously turns me into a dickhead. I wouldn't like to see a video of me doing my little dubstep dance. It's also a well-known fact that the more you listen to dubstep, dance to dubstep and talk about dubstep, the more of a dickhead you become.

My year abroad is hard to summarise. It feels odd that this is my last entry in Germany (as I assume it will be, since the next two days are gonna be super busy...did I just say super? That is definitely more like something Glen would say...8 months in Bochum have taken their toll. I also now meow at people without even noticing I'm doing it, swear a lot more than I used to and use incorrect grammar on purpose. I may not have become German, but I have definitely become more like Glennchen).

I did a lot of travelling, as I hoped I would. I've seen a lot of Deutschland. München, Münster, Aachen, Köln (all the time), Düsseldorf (for that nice compulsory holiday), Dresden, Berlin again, Frankfurt, Mainz...I'm sure there's been more places. Not to mention Amsterdam, Budapest, Bratislava, Vienna and Madrid. I'm struggling to recall everywhere I've been, and that's awesome. I might have spent all the money I earned in this job, but I spent it well as far as I'm concerned, seeing things I wanted to see and doing things I wanted to do. We'll ignore the percentage that undoubtably went on clothes I don't need and booze I shouldn't have drunk.

My German...is better. I had hoped it would magically improve more, whereas it actually proved quite difficult to improve. I could have tried harder, but life is already hard, and though I did put in some effort, there's only so much German I can fit in my brain at any one time. And if I'm honest, I am not a hard worker. I like to chill and I like to have fun. I knew from the start that I was not going to spend my year memorising vocabulary, reading newspapers, having political debates and revising grammar. If I didn't do those things in the UK, there was no reason I was likely to do it abroad, with lots of fun and exciting distractions.

My work ethic, I think might actually have changed though. I am definitely buzzing for fourth year, and not just because I get to move into a house where I will permanently have this face to entertain me:

("that face": copyright Alex de Mare, 2010)

but also because I'm quite looking forward to studying again. I never thought I'd miss it, but it seems I actually really like being a student, I like exercising my brain and I don't really want a proper job just yet. Not that this year has been a good example of a 'proper' job, but you know what I mean.

I think all things considered, this year has helped me in my on-going quest to become a proper person, rather than a stroppy emotional teen. I've learnt how much I love to have my friends around me, but also how well I can manage by myself. People told me this would be the best year of my life; and I would say, yeah, it has been amazing. But I hope next year can compete too. I hope my life doesn't ever stop being this much fun, though I hope it will become less stressful and less emotionally challenging. I hope the friends I have now will be my friends for a very long time, and I hope I never forget all the good and bad times, not to mention all the German I learnt, during my "Year Abroad". But then, I guess that's what my blog is for.

Maybe expect another entry once I'm back in the UK, though I only have two days there before me and Sophie go to Corfu, Italy and Barcelona. I be this excited the whole time, Sophie be this drunk the whole time. But less blonde.

Dora.
xxx

This is the end...my only friend...the end...

Sad face! So, my job is officially over. I still have to go to school and get various forms and things off my mentor, and potentially go out for ice cream with her and some other English teachers. I hope that does end up happening, it would be nice to have a sort of quiet goodbye...thing. It doesn't really feel like I've left as yet; my last class was with some year 8s, who don't seem so bad now I don't have to teach them again. They're learning about limericks, and two of them performed their limerick to me as a rap, complete with actions. Yeah, they're really not so bad.

(I'm looking forward to living in a room that isn't on the ground floor, directly next to a footpath; there are two gardeners working right outside my window. One of them just casually wandered along, stopped and stared at me through the window, holding a large branch, then wandered on. Unnerving...he could have at least smiled...)

I also am yet to update about my last two weekend trips. First, I went to Madrid with Jessy and Robyn, where we stayed with Jessy's brother. An excellent host, who can speak Spanish; very useful considering we definitely do not speak Spanish. Because I'm the one that does languages, regardless of my having never learnt Spanish, Jess and Robyn seemed to think it suitable for me to be the one to communicate wherever we went. Admittedly, I have no shame when it comes to attempting to speak other languages, apparently even when I actually can't. I would do a lot of hand gestures and say "si" and "gracias" a lot. Failing that, maybe speak a bit of French (they're the same, right?) or offer a list of languages I could slightly more competently communicate in ("English? Deutsch? Francais? Nederlands??").

Anyway, a highlight of our trip, apart from obviously improving my spanish, was a lot of karaoke on the first night, where the karaoke bar was empty when we got there and full by the time we left. No doubt this was due to our excellent renditions of, among others, Rollin' by Limp Bizkit (with actions), the Thong Song, Bad Touch by Bloodhound Gang (with actions), Backstreet Boys, many a Beatles song, many a Blink song, and right at the end a woman insisted we stay to sing Don't Stop Believing with her. Unfortunately, the song she had in fact requested turned out to be a different song by the same name. This did not damage our confidence, and the three of us happily belted out the Journey song over the top of the wrong backing track.

Iiiii waaant it thaaaat waaay...tell me WHYY..

There were protests in Madrid. Here are Robyn and Jessy getting into the spirit of things.

We went to the Botanical Gardens, where we found a tree trunk that...quite vaguely resembled a knob. Vaguely.

Me and Jessy hanging by a pond.

We also went on a night out, during which we surfed on a travellator. It's always been beyond me why they don't have these things literally everywhere.

The band we saw in a club. There is a picture of Green Day behind them; they were not Green Day, but they were quite good. We enthused.

If we ever go back to Madrid, I fancy nipping to Ibiza, as it's so easy to get to.

We went rowing. Here's Jessy with a mermaid we met.

And Robyn having a really good row.

Overall? Excellent trip. Then came another week of school, which frankly, I remember nothing about. It can't have been especially good or bad. I probably didn't do much.

This weekend just gone, I went to Dresden again. It would have been better, had I not been suffering from a really bad cold, and basically couldn't breath all weekend. Bleurgh. We did go on a lovely hike in the Sächsischer Schweiz though.

Dora and Sophie enjoy a cliff-top.

Dora, Sophie, Rachael and Hanna enjoy posh picnic of wine in plastic champagne flutes, cheese and crackers, grapes and pom bears, on top of some nice rocks. This was along the main tourist footpath and it felt a bit like we were on stage.

So, I guess my year abroad blog is coming to an end. No more exciting trips, just another week in Bochum. Me and Glen did Abmelden (deregistering) yesterday. First attempt! And it was successful! We celebrated with a little walk around Stadtpark, to say goodbye to our duck friend. We also met a friendly cat! And went for sushi. Omnomnom.

Dora.
xxx

Things that have happened since Osterferien

I went to Aachen again. Another final trip to Ladies' Night (or rather, "constant free drinks to pass round the group" night) at B9, Aachen's most gangsta club, followed by another night on Sophie's floor. I did want to finally visit the Dreiländereck and skip from Holland to Belgium to Germany, but somehow, possibly as a result of overindulging at B9, a hungover picnic in the park, featuring chicken and baguettes and sunshine, was somehow more appealing. 

Me, Sophie and Glen also went to the spa. We are classy people. It was actually amazing; we basically just went swimming, but I left that place feeling all chilled and happy and relaxed. I guess that's how you'd imagine you should leave a spa day, but I was pleasantly surprised at how well it worked. So surprised, that I had to calm myself by going for tapas and wine with Sophie, which was so good that we had to calm ourselves with two more bottles of screw-top wine in her back garden, where we stayed up till all the Germans went to bed and we could finally have a go on the sun loungers. Though not before deciding we needed music and dancing to our ringtones. Which looks like this, if anyone was interested:

Yes, that is a bottle of beer. Yes, we may have moved onto beer because somehow a bottle and a half of wine each wasn't enough at the time. The next morning I realised it definitely was.

Following Aachen weekend, I spent a week trying to entertain myself while Glen was being a hobbit (yes, he does mean hermit) and writing his dissertation. I went to Düsseldorf Kaiserswerth by myself, because I vaguely heard it was quite nice there. It was. I sat by the Rhein and read a magazine. And wished I had more friends.

This last weekend, I went to München. It was pretty special. It was nice being reunited with Rachael, and remembering that she is insane. We intended to have a few drinks, maybe go out, but not stay out too late because we were going out on the Saturday. This is us after about an hour:

And then when me and Pippa finally made it back to Rachael's. Notice how it is definitely the next day. And we were the first ones home.

After recovering through a lot of fajitas and a side order of spinach (we like spinach, OK?), and trying to muster some enthusiasm (by drinking energy drink so strong that last time it gave Rachael hallucinations), we arrived at Kellie's friend Phil's house, to hang out with the Bayern language assistants and watch Eurovision. Oh it was fun! We randomly selected 3 countries each and had to drink...when almost anything happened. Some favourites were "every time Germany does something embarrassing" and "every time someone is orange".

Rachael and Sophie hadn't met the famous Daniel Brooks before. I do like it when my friends meet each other and hit it off.

We also thoroughly enjoyed the S-Bahn into Munich town. As the well-known saying goes, there ain't no party like an S-Bahn party. Apparently Müncheners disagree though. We did actually get bottled at one point. Bottled. Just for livening up the journey with some loud but beautiful renditions of club anthems.

We are lovely people.

Night out success. Next day lunch success. Mitfahr back to Bochum success. And I was definitely ready for bed when I got back to Bochum at midnight.

That is, I believe, an update of everything that has happened since Osterferien. There's a mere 7 working days left at the school. Seven. And just two more weekends of fun. This year is definitely almost over. I'm glad I get to go back to the UK. I miss it. And I've actually only been home once all year. Once. Apart from Christmas, and apart from going to Leeds for a weekend to find a house, I haven't been back to England.

I'm going to Madrid this weekend, so I'm going to finish this entry and go on with trying to learn some basic Spanish off the BBC website (if it goes as well as my learning Slovakian and Hungarian pre-eastern tour, I will be chuffed).

I think I might be addicted to going on holiday. I better get over this problem by the time I go back to Leeds and have to live off student loan again.

Dora.

xxx

Dora attempts to summarise Eastern Tour

So, it's been a week since we flew home from Vienna, after a week of exciting tourist fun around Eastern Europe. Since I can't really be bothered to recount every detail of the trip, here's as brief a summary I can manage, complete with photos to illustrate the things I fail at explaining. One paragraph = one day.

So the first day, me, Sophie, Ali and Max flew out to Budapest to join the Dresden crew, and Hannah and Bertpfeif, who had already been enjoying Budapest for a whole day. We went out to a ruin bar, which looked amazing. At midnight, it was Ali's birthday, so I bought him a Birthday shot of delicious Unicum. Oh, I definitely recommend Unicum. Especially if you're a fan of spirits that taste a bit like alcoholic soil and claim to be healthy.

The second day, we saw literally as much of Budapest as it is physically possible to see in one day. We did a walking tour with an awesome tour guide, who told us all about how happy but poor Hungarians are and recommended us the best places to go out, as well as forcing the reluctant group to sing happy birthday to Ali. We followed up the tour with a trip to these amazing underground candle-lit caves, which featured a wine fountain. In the evening, we headed to another ruin bar called Szimpla, which everyone had recommended, and it did not disappoint. We sat and drank in an old Trabi. The only slight set-back was when me and Sophie accidentally got left behind by accepting free tequila shots just when we were meant to be leaving, and ended up very lost in Budapest, until we finally got rescued through the magic of Ali and his iphone.

Owl on the wall at the first ruin bar.

Decorative bunnies across the room in first ruin bar.

Dora enjoying the Buda side of Budapest.

Our tourguide, showing us how to grope the horse statue's balls for good luck (and good sex, apparently).

Dora enjoying a castle that looks a bit like it's made of sand.

Ali and the wine fountain in the caves. We were advised not to drink the wine. It didn't kill us.

Sophie in an old Trabi at the second ruin bar.

Sophie, lost in Budapest, with a book and a beer she acquired along the way.

Tuesday was Bratislava day. Budapest started looking nice and sunny, but it was time for us to trundle along to the next country. Our train to Slovakia was very exciting; there were compartments! We sat in a compartment! Did I mention it was hot and sunny in Budapest? Well in Bratislava, it was grey and rainy. It stayed that way for most of the time we were there. We spent most of Eastern Tour running away from good weather. Our first day in Bratislava was quite chilled. We went for a massive chinese, then in the evening we went out to a bar where I had a cocktail that used sparkling wine as a mixer, and we saw some Russians being racist. It wasn't our favourite bar of the holiday. They did give us free shots though.

So the next day, we walked around Bratislava and saw pretty much all they had to offer. The centre is very nice, probably because it's all been built for tourists. The rest of the town, outside of this cheap little haven of cute restaurants and souvenir shops, is grey and depressing. There's a nice castle though, which we did visit, and everything was incredibly cheap. The only real fail was that Bratislava is completely dead during the week. We tried to go to what looked like an incredible club in an old bunker, sort of built into the side of a mountain, but it was closed during the week.

Yes, we made it to Slovakia.

 Walking up some cute winding side streets, towards the castle.

 View of Bratislava. I told you it wasn't pretty. There is a bridge that looks like a UFO, though.

One of many cultural experiences; Pippa with some Tesco value string cheese (yes, they have Tesco!), which seems to be popular in Slovakia. It tasted a bit like rubber and looked a bit like intestines.

Oh, did I mention we got a really fast BOAT to Vienna?

They let Sophie drive.

We may or may not have shouted "boat wankers" at any inferior passing boats.

It was really windy.

We made it to Vienna! Third country in a week. Glen joined us (after I managed to find him, all lost at Westbahnhof, as I expected) and then there were ten. The first day, we did some chilling, seeing as we were all getting a bit shattered. We went for a very cost effective italian, and I can safely say I went to bed at about 11pm, exhausted.

Refreshed and rejuvenated, the next day we went to Hundertwasserhaus, which is a pretty, odd-shaped building, and then to Prater, which is like a big funfair. Fun it was. By this time, it was the 29th April, which was Royal Wedding day, and we celebrated in our own special way, by getting wankered at the hostel, then going to a club by the river, wearing Royal Wedding bunting from Poundland (because somehow we didn't feel we looked "Brits Abroad" enough yet). We made a fantastic impression on Vienna.

And Vienna made a fantastic impression on me. So much so that I had to spend most of the Saturday afternoon at the hostel, napping and being sick. I'm getting too old to make party. I did manage to recover in time to join the others for afternoon tea in a posh cafe. That night, we enjoyed our last evening of Eastern Tour in a vaguely Austrian themed restaurant. I had Käsespätzl. I can't tell you what it is, sadly, but it's tasty.

Our last day of Eastern Tour consisted of checking out of the hostel (kindly leaving our leftover pre-drink in the fridge with a multi-lingual note, encouraging people to help themselves to it) and going to the zoo. After deciding the zoo was too expensive, we settled for the gift shop, where Glen got very attached to many of the soft toys. The last adventure in Vienna was a visit to Cafe Central, previously frequented by Lenin and Freud, for a very classy glass of wine and a very posh chocolate mousse.

Crew outside Hundertwasserhaus, near a Hunderwasser fountain.

Pippa about to enjoy exciting soup served inside some bread.

Royal Wedding-themed clubbing.

Glen looking pensive in Cafe Central.

Oh, and me, Glen and Sophie had a nice little silent disco to liven up the plane ride back to Cologne.

I think that is a suitable summary of everything that happened on Eastern Tour. Ooh na na...Eastern Tour...

Dora.
xxx

Dora blogs from Frankfurt

So my current location is at Emma Craig's humble abode in the very tall city of Frankfurt. I'd forgotten what sky scrapers were like- they are tall. Really tall. Frankfurt is a bit like the centre of London. It's full of businessy people and very tall buildings. Did I mention they are tall?

Clearly a few weeks without blogging has left me incapable of making any sense. Apologies in advance for how rambly and lacking in direction this entry will likely be.

So since my last entry, which detailed the Brits invading, I had a birthday and turned 21. To celebrate, I had fun party times in Köln with my family and friends. That sentence took a long time because I accidentally switched the keyboard to Russian (thanks, Emma's laptop!). Köln party times was really fun; we ate steak and went clubbing. Parents did not attend club, to the disappointment of us all. But the next day we all hung out by the Rhein and drank beer and ate currywurst, after climbing the Kölner Dom and looking out over the city. It was a very German afternoon.

I then had another week of school, which included teaching the terms "lightweight" and "slag" to my year 12s; they were doing a lesson on British stereotypes. Oh.

On Friday, just as I'd resigned myself to a night in, I heard the Spice Girls blasting out of one of my (all male) flatmates' rooms. When I went to investigate, I found two of them drinking beer, wearing coloured sunglasses and singing along at the top of their voices. Needless to say, I grabbed a beer out of the fridge, put on my heartshaped sunglasses and joined in. I ended up drunk at a party with some Germans I didn't know, until 3am. Unexpected evening of fun WIN.

Saturday I went to Köln, as is becoming part of my weekly routine, to go out with Maria. We went to a club, full of more lesbians than I have ever seen in one place. It was borderline terrifying. Still, it was a while since I'd been to a club that actually plays fun (bad) clubbing music, so I was well chuffed.

Right now, I am in Frankfurt. Me and Maxface went on what was going to be a two day trip, to see Emma Craig and Daniel Brooks, including a visit to Mainz, twin town to Watford. I can safely say Mainz was nothing like Watford, except for some annoying 18 year old chav equivalents that hassled us on the train home.

We've been here since Monday; it's now Thursday. To be fair, I have nowt to do back in Bochum and tonight we are going OUT! So I'm not gonna complain.

I hope that was a reasonable summary of the last few weeks. Expect another mammoth update when I'm back from Eastern Tour (Budapest, Bratislava, Vienna, YAY!) next Sunday. I heart Osterferien.

Dora.
xxx

I love my life as a DICKHEAD...

Lads on tour

...all my FRIENDS are DICKHEADS too!

One of the highlights of Jessy, Robyn, Nat and Lindsay visiting me? Getting a cab home from a bar last night, really drunk, singing "Being a Dickhead's Cool" at the top of our voices, and having the cab driver shout, "weiter, weiter!" (keep going, keep going!).

Another thing I liked? Not being the only person with my legs out. It was nice to know I wasn't the only person getting evils for wearing summer clothes in sunny weather. (nb. Germans do not like it when you wear anything short, but I am bored of jeans.)

Robyn and Jessy having a Marilyn Monroe Moment

We had a fabulous weekend, quite frankly. It was awesome having a bunch of Brits around, and I quite enjoyed having to translate everything for everyone. It makes me feel clever.

The weekend began with me fetching the girls from Dortmund Hbf (huhhboof), which they got to all by themselves, making me very proud! I then took them back to Bochum with me and we went out for noms at a restaurant that did yummy vegan burgers. After that we went home where we attempted naptime for a couple of hours before Naddy cooked dinner (Jessy helped by chopping a pepper), and then Glen and his friend Alex came round to pre-drink with us before we hit Bochum town centre.

We tried to go to Stargate, that being me and Glen's (ex-)favourite Bochum club, but we actually got turned away for being too straight and having too many girls with us. Maaan did we kick up a fuss! We then went to an electro night with my flatmate, but not before Angry Feminist Glennchen had sent him this text:

"Wir haben zu viel Mushi!! ZU VIEL!! um rein in Stargate zu kommen! Zu viel Mushi für ein Minderheitsgruppe!! dass finde ich ungerecht!!!"

(translation: we have too much pussy!! TOO MUCH!! to go into Stargate! Too much pussy for a minority group!! I find that unjust!!!)

Anyway, it is now 3pm and I am yet to leave the house, so I will leave you with some pictures of me and Glen dancing in my kitchen.

Dora.
xxx

Blog-worthy praise of the city of Köln

Today I am rejoicing. OK, so right now I am just sitting grumpily in my room, wishing I hadn't bothered washing my hair before going to bed because now I can't be bothered to dry it and straighten it, which means I will wake up tomorrow looking like this.

I had to make this picture very small because the sight of my own forehead(/fivehead) upsets me. But it is necessary so I understand the consequences of not drying my hair before sleeptime.

Today was a seriously successful day though. First, I taught 4 lessons. Meaning I actually spent the whole of each lesson doing things and no time at all sitting in the corner feeling awkward. And I felt good about it! I felt the sense of accomplishment I imagine one might get from actually doing a day's work. Plus I got to play Simon Says twice.

But the real win of today, was getting a slightly ominous email from my Mum, saying I had a letter from the British Consulate in Düsseldorf and did I want her to open it. Well, I did want her to open it. I don't know what the British Consulate is, let alone what they might want from me.

The British Consulate wrote me a letter to inform me that my bag had been found! 

I almost had a fit. And instantly sorted my life out and got on a train to Köln to collect it from the Fundbüro; a place I'd already been to, and sent a detailed email to, informing them of my loss some weeks ago - yes, a phonecall would normally be more effective, but despite having a phone number, this office is not actually contactable by phone. Try it yourself if you like; you get a recorded message of what the website says, and then it hangs up on you, as there are literally no questions you could possibly ask that couldn't be answered with their fool-proof recorded message.

I didn't have high hopes; I thought it was a miracle even if just my driving license was in there, maybe with my MAC concealer and a bit of change. I can tell you that when I got to the Fundbüro and waited an agonising hour (or it might have been 5 minutes, it's hard to tell) for them to search the basement for my bag, having not listened to a word I said and interrupting me a lot while I tried to explain how I knew they had my bag, I finally got my bag back. I may have had another little excitement fit and squealed "JA! Das ist meine Tasche! Das IST meine Tasche! Ich dachte, dass ich es nie wieder sehen würde!" while waving my hands around trying to take it off him.

Inside my bag? Everything I left in it, including my phone, camera, my half pack of Marlboro Menthols, my concealer, a purple lipstick; everything. Apart from 40 euros, which the finder presumably took as a reward. I don't mind. At all.

I was on a high for the rest of the day. Here I am outside the Fundbüro, having been happily reunited with my bag and camera.

It's upside-down. Get over it.

So this blog is dedicated to the kind, honest person who gave my bag in, rather than ransack it and steal all my stuff. It is however, not dedicated to the cheeky fact that the Fundbüro charge a 10€ admin fee, before you're allowed to take your own stuff back. Especially considering the fact that they ignored my email, even though according to the label on it, they'd had my bag since the 15th March, and had not told me! Although I guess they get brownie points for managing to contact me eventually.

Kind honest bag-finders of the world. I love you.

Oh, and this is me on the floor in the train station. I am still confident that alcohol had nothing to do with me losing my bag.

Dora.
xxx