b.e.a.utiful.

Just found this pic on google and had to share.

This is where I live, can you even believe it?? I live just to the right about 1/3 up from the bottom.  CRAZY.

Source.

bonnzo.

Just a quick update. I have so much to write about and so much to do, but I just want to sleep. I will get round to writing or rather typing it soon!

• Moved into my flat in Bonn :D I missed Angelika, Udo and Alina a lot!
• Bonn is beautiful.
• I have tortoises in the river about 2 mins from my house <3
• I need to write my dissertation proposal.
• I need to finish my TEFL course.
• I need to tell Bonn Rathaus dass, ich heir bin! And tell the Post Bank my new address.
• I go to Berlin soon.
• Jenny and Sarah are coming to visit. WAY TOO EXCITED.
• Tomorrow I have to travel for almost 2 hours there and pack for a 45 minute lesson, doh! At least now I live somewhere where I can go out and do stuff :)

 

This is the Poppelsdorfer Schloß (castle) about 3 mins from my house!

Bonner Münster. Ahaha I'm dead good at photography me (sorry about the cars, at least I didn't cut the top of the church off!)

 The Rathaus (town hall), how regal and beautiful?

I have a post in drafts about the Burberry Prorsum show at Fashion Week (OMG how amazingly brilliant was it?), but I think it'll have to stay that way. I'm definitely not a fashion writer or a writer at all for that matter!

bureaucracy.

Tried enrolling at Bonn Uni today. Emphasis on tried. Ahha what a palava, luckily I had Jula with me, but basically we went to the wrong floor at first and was sent upstairs after waiting an hour and then told they can't accept me as a Fremdsprachassistentin and must go to the International Office. Eeee, nothings simple.

Emailed lots of people about flats today, so hopefully I'll get a reply!

I have Thursday and Friday off this week :D because there is a staff excursion on Thursday which I am not taking part in and then on Friday there is a sponsored walk, I believe. I might go depending on whether they need me or not.

Been at school a few days now and everyone is lovely, but it is still scary. I went to a 5. Klasse Mathe lesson yesterday, which was fun. The little ones are so cute and very intrigued about me. The 9. Klasse are fun too. The 13. Klasse is a bit different because I am such a similar age, I feel as if I should be a pupil with them rather than a teaching aid... That's definitely going to take some getting used to! I have my own place in the staffroom now and also received my username and password after 1 day; there are staff that have been waiting over a year for a password and I got mine before them ahahah ooops! I think I may have left the paper that it was written on at the computer and then someone (hopefully) threw it away thinking it was rubbish, instead of stealing my details ahaha. Luckily I had memorised the information.

Etwas interessant?

1. Totally got lost walking to the train station today! What should have taken 10mins took 30...hahaha ooops, JUST managed to get the train in time, I really thought I was going to miss it.
2. People talk to you on the train, when they sit down they say Morgen or whatevers appropriate and then say bye! At least they have to me anyway XD
3. German teenagers are very good at English
4. Everyone wants to speak English to me, but I must practise German!
5. I think my appetite is coming back, but I still cannot do breakfast at 7am.
6. I think I've put on weight, wahhhhh. Not even eaten that much! Damn beer.
7. I need a new watch; my keeps dying even though the battery is new! 

Things to do:

• Enrol at Köln/Bonn Uni
• Find somewhere to live
• Contact Postbank and tell them my phone number is english so they need to add +44
• Email PAD and ask for a letter allowing me to attend uni.
• Pick lessons I want to join and help with
• Speak more German!
• Paint my nails

Ein paar Fotos:

 Köln

 Kölner Dom

Aliiiiina!

pizza.

I had pizza, it was huge. Tasty but huge. Here's my leftovers, this is just over quarter of the pizza left and it's a normal size pizza box for size comparison. HUGE.

Omg well nearly embarrassed myself, but I didn't which is the important part XD. I bought a cocktail at the Klangwelle (amazingggggggggggg) which was 4€ and I paid with a 10€ but he only gave me 5€ back, but I left it thinking ah well he must think I'm English and stupid so obvs I was thinking of giving him a piece of my mind (in my head of course, not out loud that would be crazy!) until half way through the first show at the Klangwelle I remember PFAND, the 1€ was for pfand, duh. So I took my glass back and received my euro :) Happy ending.

Klangwelle:

School tomorrow, must be out of the house my 7.10am wahhhhhhhhhh.

few thoughts.

Jägermeister is cheap here: yay
I'm def going to get a beer belly D:
They eat a lot of bread. I thought we ate lots of bread...nuh-uh
My stomach can not get used to the food, I have to force it down.
German pupils are very good at English.

Kulturnacht.

Today has been lovely. I have had a mini tour of Euskirchen and I am pleasantly surprised at how big the centre is, despite everyone saying how small it is. And there is a traditional english telephone box that their twin-town Basingstoke gave them, but instead of using it as a phone they use it as somewhere to swap books. Can you imagine doing that in a tiny telephone box? Such an amazing idea! Everyone just goes and takes a book and puts one back in it's place. I must take photos!

Tonight I have been to the 5. euskirchener Kulturnacht and really enjoyed myself. I will confirm here that Germans can do comedy and are so funny! Eva Eiselt (above) was hilarious! I also saw Tunc Denzier and Ozan Akhan, if you're interested watch them on youtube, so funny.  We also went to see a clown who did some tricks and then proceeded to put a woman on his shoulders and ride a unicycle, eeeep! There was some flamethrowers who were really good, nothing like I have ever seen before! To end we went to a jazz concert by the Römer-Schmitz-Quintett "Two Generations of Tenors", which was a-mazing. Absolutely loved it! Plus one of the saxophone players was beautiful ;p

Tomorrow I'm going to Bonn with another teacher from the school and we're going to 'the best Italian' restaurant and then to look around at the nightlife. Should be fun :)

New things I've learned today:

1. Bonjour is tasty. It can't be found in Germany, but rather in the Netherlands. Kindly though Angelika's best friend has given me a whole jar full! Wie schön :)
2. Euskirchen is a town which makes sugar. 
3. I really love Germany.
4. The internet knows where I am in the world and it's freaky.

der Zimmermann.

So, I'm here! I'm written now in the cellar of my mentor's house, she has kindly taken me in (hopefully) until I find accommodation. They have a dog (Alina) where I'm staying and she's been bitten by a Rottweiler in recent weeks so has to wear a nappy and underpants, it's so cute and also funny, but I mustn't laugh, otherwise she's gets embarrassed ahaha, bless her.
I have registered and got a bank account and have pretty much done everything important, thanks to the wonderful Angelika!

Today I went to the school for the first time. It was scary! Angelika took me into her first two periods, which was the 13. Klasse. I felt like I should have been in the lesson, because the pupils are a similar age to me, instead of 'assisting' the teacher. Everyone in the staffroom was friendly, which was good. Very weird to be on the other side of the door though, going to take some getting used to! This afternoon was spent looking for accommodation with Willem, another english teacher at the school. I went back to his and met his wife and gorgeous little boy Nick (i want to squish his face), he is so adorable! Then Willem took me into Köln Innenstadt and we had falafel and beer, naturally. It was fun. Everyone is being so nice and helpful, thank god, I wouldn't know what to do if everyone was awful and just ignored me...luckily that is not the case.

New things I have learnt about Germany:

1. On stag nights the stag is made to dress up, which is also like here, but they also sell things like kisses, alcohol, little trinkets, games etcetc to get money to fund the night! How genius is that?! There was a man dressed in a bed sheet with a hole cut in it and he was asking if anyone wanted to try and score for 1€, pretty funny to watch!
2. Der Zimmermann: or a carpenter is someone who travels around Germany to get work for accommodation and food. He works for free and often receives free beer in pubs as everyone knows who he is and appreciate what he does. Also interesting is that they can never be any closer than 100km to their hometown.
3. Germans knock on the table instead of clap. You can imagine how awkward I felt doing it at first, it just felt wrong to me, but I guess it's normal here ahaha!
4. 2 words: Becks Lemon.
5. I love the way Germans say Rebecca ;D Re-bec-ca, sounds much nicer than Beckie.
6. I love Cologne <3

oh.

Oh bloody hell. I can't believe how close I am to leaving for a foreign country for almost a year! Waaaah why do I get myself in these situations.  When I first applied to uni my year abroad felt like it was light years away. It so isn't.

Still no luck on the accommodation front, but luckily my mentor has offered to give me a place to stay for the weekend. Also need to start packing, will do that tomorrow. Promise.

Finally getting my hair cut and maybe coloured tomorrow! I'm really liking the look of these colours.

Fingers crossed I like my hair when I leave the hairdressers tomorrow... Ahahah one day it will happen!

things to do.

Yesterday I received my loan (must. not. spend.) but through lots of nosiness and forum reading I found out  I am actually entitled to more student loan than I initially thought. I had put on my application that I am doing a placement abroad when in fact I should have put that I am studying abroad. It altered my available loan by double, which is much needed! I just need to phone them up and confirm that everything is in place etc. So yay for that!

Over the last few weeks I've been quite busy with birthdays and parties (such a weird word), two 20ths and my friend Serena's leaving party; she's going to Canada until Christmas! Exciting stuff.

  Me and Serena :)

I need my hair cutting I know, I still don't know what I'm going to do with the colour it's grown out so much and if I leave it any longer I think it'll look awful, especially when I won't be able to get it done again until Christmas. Hmmm I hate going to the hairdressers, I'm never happy with it and I always have a good hair day the day of my appointment! Is that just me?

I'm still no further with sorting out accommodation for Germany, but I know I'll definitely find something once I'm out there if I don't before I go. There are always hostels. I'm quite excited for the induction and meeting new people in the same boat as me. I'm still wondering how I'm going to manage to fit my life into a 20kg suitcase and 8kg carry on allowance... Must start making lists! I might do lists in another post. Ahahah so boring for people to read I know, but I think it will help me.

I started a TEFL course in June and with 100 hours worth of online work to do, you can imagine how boring, time consuming it gets... I need to finish it before the end of October. I've managed to complete the 30 hours Grammar course, just have the 50 hour teaching and 20 hour video courses to get done. I really enjoyed the 20 hour weekend course though, met loads of lovely people so I would definitely recommend that! Need to crack on with it, but I know I'll end up finishing it in Germany, just hope I have internet connection, otherwise I'll be spending my life in the library/school.

Oh oh oh oh I'm going to LANDAAAN :D:D:D I'm going to see my beautiful friend Susan with Jennie and Sarah and I'm so excited. I've never been to London and I can't wait. We're getting the coach which is so much cheaper than the train, just twice as long ahahha ah well I like coach trips :) Just hope I'm not working those days as I won't be able to do it, oops.

winter colours.

Some of my friends will already know that Summer isn't my favourite season for clothes, I tend to just carry on wearing my winter wardrobe but with less layers...So as you can imagine I'm not very good at dressing for summer. But fear not autumn is just around the corner and I've already fallen in love. In love with the clothes that is.  The colours; burgundy, dark greens, browns, greys and not forgetting the sparkles! Who doesn't love sparkles?  Just thinking about wearing winter clothes makes me happy, I can't wait to pull out my beloved parker (I might do a post about it I love it that much!) from the back of the wardrobe and give it a bit of TLC. On the subject of coats, I think I'm after a faux fur coat (or anything with fur on for that matter) this year and looking around online I have my eye on a few!

Topshop Brown Faux Fur Double Breasted Coat £98

Topshop Navy Faux Fur Collar Wool Coat £75

Missguided Armari Aviator Jacket With Cream Fur £32.99

eBay Leopard Print Faux Fur Coat £27.98

I'm also after a new bag for Germany to fit all of my work in as the one I used to use for uni didn't really fit my notepad and folders in, I had to squish them in or carry them. Ahaha the things you do for a nice bag ;) However, VIPXO just posted about some of her amazing eBay finds and it included these perfect faux Alexa Mulberry bags:

eBay Designer Inspired Satchel Hand Bag £29.47 

But with only 2 left at the moment, hopefully I'll be able to find some once I've been paid! 

Now I just need lots of money...Oh dear I should stop window shopping online when I need to be saving and also looking for somewhere to live in Germany! Eeeep. Need to finish my TEFL course too, I have until the end of October to finish I think, need to check that for definite though. So much to do.

going away.

So this is my first blog ever and what a better way to start than to record my year abroad!
I'll be flying out to Germany on the 11th and heading to an induction on the 12th-15th and then after that I'll be living and working in the Land of Deutsch for almost a whole year! Yeah I'm nervous but also really excited for something new and out of my comfort zone. Can't waiting to do some traveling of Germany and also the rest of Europe. :)

Hopefully my blog will be a bit more exciting than just reciting daily/weekly happening and include other things I'm interested in such as a fashion and finding bargains in charity shops, on market stalls or on ebay!