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

Alex's weekend in Germany, and other recent funs.

I find it amusing that this entry had already saved a draft before I'd actually written anything. Decided it necessary to update, seeing as I haven't since Berlin (a whole two weeks ago!) and because I'm really busy for the next few weeks with people visiting me this weekend and next weekend, and the time-consuming task of turning 21. I intend to do a little dance, spin in a circle and suddenly grow taller and older like they do on The Sims 2.

Last weekend, the lovely Alex de Maré came on her first ever trip to Germany! After a traumatic journey from Düsseldorf Weeze airport, which no one should ever fly to or from because it is in the middle of nowhere, she finally arrived in Bochum. We were needless to say, very excited to see each other and caused quite a scene in Starbucks, while I taught Alex how to ask for a coffee auf Deutsch. That night we went out for cocktails in Bochum with Marina and Bertpfeif; a lot of fun, despite feeling slightly too drunk to finish my last cocktail and having to ask for some achievement water (Leitungswasser = tap water; Leistungswasser = achievement water).

Saturday afternoon, we overcame hangovers and headed to Köln, where I proudly introduced Alex to the Dom and fed her Schnitzel by the Rhein. After some pre-drinks at Maria's, followed by further pre-drinks at Jen's, we headed to a club called Papierfabrik, at about 2.30am; this being the German way. Go out as late as possible and try not to come home before daylight. It was a lot of fun; someone gave me a free hat. The train ride back to Bochum at 5.50am was not fun. Definitely the longest, coldest walk of shame of my life. Sunday was a write-off due to how much party we had made the night before. Bleurgh.

The next day, when we felt a bit more human, I took Alex for boat sushi and showed her the park and the rabbits in Bochum; after this, I had to say a very sad goodbye and put her back onto the bus to Weeze failport. Erm, then I worked for a week, which is less interesting. A highlight was probably a year 6 asking me if I had ever seen Justin Bieber around London.

On Friday me and Glen had a nice day out to the Ruhr river; this part of Germany is called the Ruhrgebiet (district), but I'd never seen the actual river, so I decided we should go visit it. And usually when I demand we should go somewhere for no reason, I can somehow talk Glen into coming with me (this being how we discovered Essen and Düsseldorf, and the revolutionary idea that we could drink beer and shop at H&M in many different cities!).

I took lots of pictures on Glen's camera, since I no longer have a camera due to tragically losing my bag at Karneval. We then sat on the grass and drank one beer each, while enjoying the site of our new favourite river, before going tipsily back into town for sushi, which Glen followed up with currywurst for dessert. Our night continued with drinking more beer in my kitchen, followed by noch ein bisschen tanzen at Stargate club.

The rest of my weekend consisted of going to Köln again, as I am incapable of staying away for more than a week at a time, to hang out with Maria. We did more outdoor beer-drinking. This is my new favourite activity.

That is everything I have done since my last entry; sorry for the lack of photos of recent events. I miss my camera, but will no doubt buy a new one soon. Though currently trying to avoid spending all my money before my exciting travels at Easter. The fabulous Robyn, Lindsay, Jessy and Nat are visiting this weekend; I am really excited to see them! Having already had Alex to stay, I have established that I like being official Nordrhein-Westfalen tour guide/translator. Plus I get to show some more people the Dom. Oh how I love the Dom...

Dora.
xxx

Berlurlaub!

Berlin + Urlaub = Berlurlaub. I am literally a genius.

At the weekend, thanks to Germanwing blindbooking (which I may have mentioned a lot, considering I think it's the best invention der Welt), me, Sophie, Heidi and Glen went on a surprise holiday to Berlin. Needless to say, it was wicked. We experienced Heidi losing her Berlinity (lol), and also went to probably my favourite German club so far (think Wire in Leeds, but dancier). I ate a vegan döner (a "vöner") and also a very nice cupcake (not at the same time). And I have also just realised I am incredibly fond of brackets (see?).

Anyway, it's early and I can't be dealing with typing at this hour. I've just had my daily walk to school and back, to find my lesson not on, as I sort of expected but cannot assume just in case it is actually happening. So have some photos instead.

This are Dora with a vöner. Omnomnomming. I promised my vegan Mitbewohner that we would go to the vöner place and I would nom vöner and take a picture. Mission accomplished.

Dora and Sophie, nomming a nommy cupcake (and a brownie that was less nommy. Not recommended).

We found a tipi!! This was in the German equivalent of Harrods, KaDeWe. I was baaare excited about this tipi! It's almost as good as the one me, Kat, Pippa and Max built in my garden that time. Ours trumped this one though, because it contained beer and ipod speakers.

Generally, Dora does not approve of graffiti on the East Side Gallery. But I will make an exception for this bee. It is a fantastic bee.

I insisted. I like jumping photos.

Another highlight of the trip was seeing Sophie have a go at some Germans on the plane, who it turns out, were not sitting in our seats. Me and Glen had already realised this and did try to tell her, but Sophie ignored us and continued her German rant. Good practice, I guess.

The rest of this week didn't provide much to comment on. Yesterday, me and Glen successfully paid for another semester at Ruhr Universität, therefore scoring another semester of free travel around Nordrhein-Westfalen. And we didn't even get charged the usual 10€ late fee! Cue going out and buying ourselves 10€ worth of celebratory sushi.

Dora.
xxx

How I came to hate Karneval

So, this weekend I went to Köln for Karneval. I am now of the opinion I should have just given it a miss. Right before we left, me and Glen had literally no Bock auf Karneval (couldn't be bovvered). And there was a train strike. The world was encouraging us to stay in Bochum and do nothing all weekend. But I insisted that despite how little we felt like it, that we should go and we'd regret it if we stayed at home. So we got dressed up, begrudgingly pre-drank a bit on the way to Heidi's, and forced ourselves to go out and have 'fun'.

The first night, I lost my bag- contents: wallet (every bank card, discount card and student card I own, English and German, and also 40 euros, £10 and my English simcard, cos I'd left it in there after my brief trip to the UK), phone (cute little pink touchscreen- I had recently upgraded), purple camera (I like all my electronics to match), keys, expensive concealer, and half a pack of marlboro menthols (no real loss obviously, seeing as I don't smoke anymore as of...er...a few hours ago). I really don't know how this happened, or more to the point, how I didn't even notice my bag was gone until the next morning. Cue realisation that I am literally the thickest person alive. This put a bit of a downer on my weekend.

That aside, Karneval reminded me of New Years Eve, in that there is so much pressure to have fun, that it's actually quite stressful, too busy and quite difficult to have fun.

Given the chance again, I would not go to Köln for Friday (AKA drunken bag-losing day of doom), and I wouldn't bother with the Monday either. Geisterzug on Saturday was pretty awesome; slightly Halloween-themed costumes and partying in a tunnel are a good combination. But that aside, I feel like I failed at Karneval. Never mind.

This whole experience has made me appreciate that really, money and cards and random electronics are not that important. I've saved most of the damage within a couple of days, and I didn't lose my passport, which means I can still get money from the bank and can still go to Berlin at the weekend. There are much worse things that could have happened. I could have lost all my clothes. Now that would actually ruin my life. So, positives of the weekend? I got to spend it with these people.

And Max (not pictured, but I swear he exists)

And I got to dress up as a fairy. Or rather, I got to dress up as an exaggerated version of myself, with multi-coloured wings. The rest of my outfit I would happily wear on an average day in England, perhaps with slightly less pink eyeshadow.

Dora.
xxx

Basically I'm a part-time bloggaaar...

So, it seems my blog is now the top result when you type blowjob ikea into google (cue jokes about what my year abroad must mostly consist of), and in the last week the overwhelming majority of readers have been people in Malta (a country I just had to google in order to work out where it was). I hope I become some sort of distant celebrity there, like that annoying English girl that got famous in Japan by dancing on Youtube.

Yesterday I taught another class about London and Watford (which is, as far as any German kids now know, a part of London), which was quite fun. Though probably less fun than last time, when I got an applause at the end, and also witnessed 12-year-old pronouncing the Grand Union Canal as the Grand Onion Canal.

At the weekend, me and Sophie went to Leeds, where we signed for this house, for ourselves, Alex and Rachael. I can't wait to move in.

Happy Sophie, moments after paying our deposits, signing our contract, and before heading to the pub.

It was so good to be in Leeds. It made me remember how much I think of it as home; it's so much better than Watford and so much easier than Germany. We went out, as well, and it was amazing not being the only drunk, scantily dressed people on the street, or the only people dancing in the club.

This morning, I've just got back from my usual stroll to school and back. Today they're schreibing a Lernstandbericht, whatever that is. All I know is, they don't require my help for it. It would be nice if they would sag mir Bescheid, just once, so I actually know if I have a lesson or not. To think, I thought I might actually do a full 12 hours this week!

Dora.
xxx