New new neeeew
I have new things!
For example, new glasses :
So worth the money. My old glasses had lost the nose pads, were wonky and about three years old! I like these ones because they don’t cover my face as much but are still kinda cool. Has to be said, the selection of (affordable non-designer) glasses at Specsavers has improved IMMENSELY since I first had to get glasses.
Something else which is new:
I have my very own website now! So I’d head on over there if I were you! 
Holy moly
Lots and lots has happened since I last wrote (or gushed…) about Torchwood!
1) I found a place to live in Dortmund! I’m sub-leasing the room of a girl who is going to Wolverhampton until March – I spoke to one of my housemates today, he seemed really cool. They’re all photographers, which should be interesting! After March, I’m staying in this Guesthouse I found, which, if I remember correctly, is on the same street as where I’m going to be living for the first part of the year! So it’s worked out pretty well in the end. Interestingly, my friend received a phonecall from her school the other day and was told by her Betreuungslehrerin that she shouldn’t look online because she will, in all likelihood, get a bad deal. I thought I should mention it if perhaps one day someone were to chance on this blog looking for information about an Assistantship abroad. However, my experience has been really positive – I think it’s pretty much the same as when you look for student accommodation; luck of the draw. You could get a shit landlord or you could get one who can’t do enough for you, there’s plenty of both types around, so I wouldn’t rule out sites like Wg-Gesucht.
2) Speaking of landlords, still haven’t had my deposit back, grr. My housemates aren’t happy either as they have to pay deposit and rent for their place this year and need that money. I’m going to keep calling him and texting him until he does it.
3) I’m slooowly getting everything done for Germany. EHIC has been ordered, accommodation sorted, cash account from Nationwide (because they’re the only bank who don’t charge for taking money out at a foreign cashpoint)… I still need to sort my contact lenses and some more medical stuff. I also badly need new glasses – mine broke earlier this week, and while they’ve been fixed now, they’re still missing those plastic bits that go by your nose and I think after three years I need a new pair…
4) I’ve been sewing a hell of a lot of stuff. I found this awesome site, Burdastyle, where you can get free and/or cheap patterns that you print off at home. So far I’ve made two dresses, two skirts and there’s a top lying around that’s not really finished. I are ze sewing masterr! I have a profile on there now, which I’ll be updating soon, and I’ll update here with a proper blog post at some point…
OMFG Torchwood
Loved Children of Earth so much! Watched it on iPlayer with the boyfriend, and I’m so glad I didn’t use it for background noise while I was sewing, it was far too good for that. It went placed Doctor Who only wishes it could go; this is what Torchwood was meant to be about from the start! Although, I think Children of Earth has set it apart from Doctor Who now, it’s much more than just ‘the grown-up Doctor Who’.
Though it has to be said, while partially explained by Gwen at the beginning of episode 5, I still don’t really understand how that big of a shit storm could go down without the Doctor being involved. Particularly when it involves such great sacrifice – I love the fact that he wasn’t involved because we all know that it would have been a happy ending had the TARDIS showed up a Thames House, but regardless, this is a Universe where not only is the Doctor known, but known as someone who can save the Earth in dire need. We’ve seen the government turn to him before, so why no mention of him? Martha’s on honeymoon, so what? Think that would have stopped her making the phonecall when kids started to chant in unison?
That’s the only thing that bothered me anyway, but like I said, I’m glad the Doctor wasn’t involved because the reason Children of Earth was so good was because everything wasn’t OK, it wasn’t all hunky dory, there was no solution without sacrifice – even if it was thoroughly disturbing to watch. (The guy who played John Frobisher deserves some kind of award, seriously)
This kind of stuff can’t fail to get a reaction, but it seems as though the Torchwood fandom has exploded because of this. People were actually sending insults to one of the writers via Twitter (can read his blog post about it here) which is just unfair. I’d hate for this interactivity between creators and fans due to Twitter, blogs etc. to go sour because fans can’t hack what a creator does with their creations. People are upset that most of the cast has been killed off, and what with the news that Russell T Davies is heading Stateside, a fair few people are wondering if the intention was to leave Torchwood in a state in which it couldn’t come back. I don’t really know, I think it will come back because the ratings speak for themselves. How it’ll come back, I don’t know, but I hope it doesn’t jump straight back into what Torchwood used to be, because it can’t really. We’ll see anyway. I hear John Barrowman is lined up for David Tennant’s last episode as the Doctor, so I hope some Jack-fixing goes on there and that’ll give way to a new Torchwood team.
Bad Blogger! Bad!
Arghhh I totally promised myself that I’d write more, but I’ve been such a lazy arse – actually strictly speaking, for once, it’s not down to laziness, it’s been down to being so goddamned busy!
However, as I did want to document the Germany year abroad process, this is a bad move on my part as I’ve failed to write about this whole shebang finally getting a move on! Last time I updated, I’d just received a letter about the induction course near Cologne. About a week ago now, I received a big fat scary German letter through the post – after trying to decipher it by myself, I eventually got to the bottom of what it was actually telling me to do with the help of my old German teacher.
So! I know where I’m going, finally! Dortmund, Nordrhein Westfalen is where I shall be spending the next academic year as a Foreign Language Assistant in a Gymnasium. The next step : making the scary phonecall… I had planned on emailing or using good old snail mail, but my German teacher pointed me towards this handy website which details when the schools in each German state break up for their holidays. Mine was closing for the Summer holidays the very next day, so I had to act quick and take the plunge.
My Betreuungslehrerin (the teacher who’ll be looking after me) sounded really really nice, and I think she could tell that I was ridiculously nervous. I didn’t want to just take the easy route and speak English, but I didn’t exactly speak a whole lot of German either – mostly just sentences I’d pre-prepared and an awful lot of ‘ja’. Unfortunately, the school was unable to secure me any accommodation, but I don’t mind too much. The way I look at it, this gives me a chance to make some friends outside of the school, which can only improve my German.
Since then, I’ve been trawling through German accommodation websites, sending emails left right and centre. So far only one bite, but I haven’t emailed them back due to my computer going stupid on me, and wanting to have a few more options before choosing. I really hope I can get this sorted by the end of the month, or I’m a bit screwed.
So there’s a real quick update for you. Things seem to be happening really fast now, will probably be booking my flights to Cologne tonight.
Other than all the German stuff, I’ve been getting all crafty and stuff this past week! Will probably blog more about it later… well, we’ll see how successful it turns out!
Moving on…
Tomorrow I will have officially moved out of my house, fondly known to its inhabitants as The Palace of Vadge. I expected to feel fairly sad while packing up my stuff (in between watching Doctor Who, Spaced and Secret Diary of a Call Girl…) but it’s been better than I’d thought. In fact, I’d say I felt sadder seeing my housemate’s empty rooms, but that’s probably because they put far more effort into decorating their room than I did. I’ve had my teary eyed moment about leaving Swanners for a year; watching Feeder at the Summer Ball. Can’t remember which song it was. I was all ‘waaah I don’t wanna go’ and then I realised that I paid 40 odd quid to enjoy myself, not mope! Then I got hoisted onto my friend’s shoulder, felt a bit like a parrot, but got a far better view than from shortarse POV.
My next room neighbour affectionately (I think?) named my room ‘The Dungeon’. You know how someone says ‘oh, sorry for the mess’ if you walk into their bedroom? Well, I’ve yet to see a room that’s actually worth the apology; their messiness pales in comparison to mine. I’ve only seen one room that’s worse than mine… So… I suppose mess is my way of decorating? It’s all tidy now, with everything ready to pack into the car tomorrow.I’m at home at the moment, heading up tomorrow to pick up stuff because I really badly need motorway experience. Two years of driving and I’ve had one brief stint on the scary scary motorway of doom, I think it’s about time I manned up and faced the music.
I got a fat letter in the post from Germany calling me ‘Frau’ har har har. Ahem, guess I’ll have to get used to that*. It had all the details for my Assistantship induction course thingy, and I have to be in Cologne for the 31st of August. Eek! Scary times, needing to book flights and that but can’t really do much until my moolah comes through for the various Open Days I’ve worked at.
It’s all stormy and that here, ooooooh… I like it. Think I’ll go watch the lightning!!
OMG FOLLOW ME
Fucksticks.
The first request, I declined, I was like, no, this is NOT happening, I am NOT joining in on this one. I was adamant.
One ‘FOLLOW ME!!’ later and I give in! SO. WEAK.
I lost my resilience to Internet crazes a looong time ago.
*sigh*
This is a lot funnier now I know what Twitter is…
Bahama Bluuuuue
So! Grading last Sunday! Scary scary times! As I was at a wedding at home on the Saturday, I had to get up super early Sunday morning to get to Swansea and get my Jitsu on. I hate eating in the mornings at the best of times, and feeling sick with nervousness did not help matters in the slightest. Couldn’t finish my staple pre-grading beans on toast.
It was absolutely stunning weather on Sunday, someone on the radio said it would be perfect BBQ weather – what I would have given to just head to the beach and BBQ it up all day!
The grading itself was a lot shorter than I’d anticipated. Things went well, there were a few cock ups obviously, but nothing that I felt would make me fail. There was an unfortunate moment during the V where I honestly thought I was going to throw up on top of someone after I’d thrown them which would NOT have been good, not to mention embarrassing. Although I suppose they wouldn’t have wanted to attack me again had I thrown up on them… Managed to bruise my training partner a fair bit though! She’s calling me hamster fist now because of the bruise I left on her cheek.
Anyway, we all passed! Hurrah! So I am now a light blue belt! A fun consequence of this is that in order to get my actual light blue belt, I had to dye my white belt with fabric dye. Fun times! It took me bloody ages to find it though, wandered around Wilkinsons for ages trying to find the bloody dye. Turns out they had a small selection that was tucked away at the back of the shop. Only one light blue dye ‘Bahama Blue’. So I’m a Bahama blue belt! Dying it was funny, I thought I was going to get it ridiculously wrong, but thankfully they turned out OK. One of the other light blues was taking the mick because ours are more of a girly light blue than his, but hey, prettiest belt I’ve ever worn! Ended up dying one of my hands though :
Fun times! Though the nails were blue already, can’t hurt to match.
Still finding the whole thing a little crazy. Though I won’t be grading for at least a year, definitely longer anyway, because of Germany. Fine by me, I don’t mind going to a different club and starting all over, I’ve done it once before. Learning it all in German though… oooooh that’ll be a toughie.
Gonna miss the Jitsu crew though. We went to the beach afterwards, chilling with some cider and then headed up to our local Japanese restaurant, mega nommage. Looking forward to heading home though.
Gah, should go to bed, need to get up super early tomorrow. I have a seriously bad habit of staying up mega late.
Freedom!
So now that exams are over and done with, I’m resolved to post more. Mostly because the next few months are going to be fairly mental, and I would like to document it somehow, for myself and maybe for people who’d like to keep up with what I’m up to.
Anyway, to clarify, I’m coming to the end of my second year doing English and German, meaning that come September I shall be taking my intercalary year in Deutschland, speaking the Deutsch and all that jazz.
Enough of that, the here and now is far less scary! I’ve just got back from a friend’s wedding reception which was ridiculously awesome. The entertainment was provided by a Twmpath band, Twmpath being basically a Welsh barn dance. I’ve been to a few Twmpaths, or rather was pushed into it by teachers at Llangrannog – a particularly awkward hour as I recall. Thankfully, whether for the inclusion of alcohol or the fact that I’m not an awkward 13 year old anymore, tonight was far more fun. It was nice that everyone was really eager to dance, even those that were the designated drivers of the evening. I also got to wear my pretty dress which shall make a reappearance next week at my close friend’s wedding, and my first forage into the world of tit tape was successful, hurrah!
Tonight made me really aware of how these next few weeks shall be the last that I see a few people, what with people leaving or leaving by the time I get back from Germany. When I left school, I didn’t feel that sad because I knew I’d keep in contact with the people I really liked; after all, on the most part you’d all be coming back to live in the same place during the holidays. Not to mention that some of my closest friends are in my Karate class, and I knew I’d see them again. It feels a bit different this time though because everyone’s from all over the place really. Some people stick around after Uni, but not everyone. It also sucks that I won’t graduate at the same time as people I’ve been here with since the first year. I’ll just need to make sure that I make many visits to make up for it! It’s not all doom and gloom, I’ve seen people who graduated last year a fair few times, so I best be looking on the positive side innet.
Man, can’t think of anything else to write… well there is the Jiu Jitsu grading a week today, but I’ll keep that for a post by itself.
On the drive back today this song came on the radio and I remembered how much I liked it :
First but one
I hate writing the first post. The thing is, you tend to feel obligated to give some sort of brief introduction, a reason for writing, or even just a theme for the blog. Well, I lack a theme as much as I lack a proper title, but I’m planning to work with what I’ve got anyway, and perhaps an introduction is not completely out of place.
I’m a student studying English and German. I’m in my second year of University this year, but next year I’ll be doing an Assistantship in good old Deutschland, and I really hope I’ll be lucky enough to be able to go to Berlin. That would be amazing. Don’t ask me what I want to do with my degree, because I don’t have a clue!! I have thought about being a teacher, but I’m stubborn; so many people have assumed that I want to be a teacher because of the degree I’ve chosen, so I feel like that option is the cop-out. Stupid reasoning, I know! Other than that, I’ve always wanted to be a writer, but laziness has always been in the way of achieving that. Other than little tidbits, I’ve written one semi-decent piece in years, which was meant to be a precursor to a story I never quite figured out.
I did have the idea of attempting to write a book before I was 20, but being as my 20th birthday in April draws closer, it seems that that’s out of the window. I can’t say that I have any point for this blog…yet.
And that ends the most typical introductory post in the world. This is partly why I don’t write much… most of it ends up as scrap, but I’ll grin and post it this time.
Blogitty blog blog
I wonder if ‘blogging’ is ‘bloggen’ in German. Like does it go :
ich blogge
du bloggst
er/sie/es bloggt
wir bloggen
ihr bloggt
Sie/sie bloggen
Ich habe gebloggt? Ich bloggte?
Yeah, getting just a little sad here… Nice to know I can remember some German grammar though!
