Wow the reception for the relaunch of the blog was pretty incredible, thanks guys! I'll do my best to keep to the standard of rambling anecdotes of last year. Also, this blog has had over 12,000 views....I can't quite believe it.
Preparations for Hamburg are full steam ahead. Apologies for stating the obvious but it requires a lot of graft to move abroad! My initial to-do list was a mere 22 items long, and its spawned its own baby to-do lists as time progresses and the flight draws closer (20th July, by the way).
In my next post I'll write a bit more about how my life in Hamburg is shaping up but before that I thought I'd give a whistle-stop tour of the 12 months between the end of my year abroad and, er, now.
France: La Vie en Pierre Seche
I may not mention it very often, but I do actually study French too, and in an attempt to boost the language that had been thoroughly squashed by German during my year abroad I went out and worked with Apare, an organisation that sets up working holidays in the south of France. For 3 lovely weeks I lived in the changing rooms of a village's local football club with 10 other people. In the mornings we'd rise early, head to a local beauty spot and restore an ancient bergerie (sheperd's hut and sheep pen), using dry stone walling and other traditional methods.
Location of Caromb in France.
An example of our finished work.
Dry stone walling proved difficult but very rewarding. Also, oddly soothing, where suddenly your biggest problem in life is finding the right stone for the gap before your eyes.
In the afternoons we'd head out in our little minibus to explore the local area, drink some of the excellent local wine or do some sort of adventurous activity such as gorge walking. I came home tanned, with much improved French, half a stone lighter and largely out of the sadness that had been hovering over me since leaving Trier.
I'd recommend an Apare working holiday to anyone (French isn't necessary)! Especially if you get bored lying on the beach like I do. It costs €150 for the 3 weeks and that includes all the food, wine(!), transport and leisure, so muuuch cheaper than your average holiday. Check it out: http://www.apare-gec.org/EN/
Southampton
In September I moved back to Southampton and threw myself back into life there. I'd moved into a lush (by student standards) house with some of my closest friends from my course (Helen, Vic, Chris, Lucy) and we had a brilliant year distracting each other from the stresses of final year, which usually involved going hyper in the kitchen late at night. We laughed, we cried (usually from laughing, luckily), we baked to varying degrees of success and accrued a ridiculous amount of inside jokes. We even decided, late one night, to learn the phonetic alphabet, as anything was better than studying by this point.
The house (yes I realise my outfit looks a bit odd with the dresses, I didn't join them for grad ball)
Left to right: Vic, Chris, Lucy, Me, Helen.
Aaaand reflecting our usual kooky state of mind.
I did actually do a lot of work, in fact I studied harder than I ever have before and it paid off too, getting a 2:1 overall and a 1st in my final year and discovering a love for translation I never would have suspected was there. I also enjoyed finally getting to do some creative writing, writing, randomly, a chapter of a crime fiction novel in German, as you do. As you can tell from this blog, I really like to express myself!
But all work and no play makes Beth a dull mini person. Mostly this was solved by the aforementioned group of international students Diana introduced me too. 3 from Colombia, Alessandro from, erm, no one was sure, least of all him ;) We quickly formed a little group and I was half convinced I was still on my year abroad: it got to the point where sometimes we'd be sat in Stags and my ears would prick up excitedly at the sound of British accents, before remembering sadly I wasn't on my year abroad anymore. Sad, I know xD
But no matter, I had SO much fun with these guys and we had so many adventures in Wales, Edinburgh, Brighton, Yorkshire and of course, Southampton! I also learnt a LOT about Colombia, and now have plans to visit next summer.
The gang. Back: German.
Middle row: Me, Diana, Maria, Alessandro
Front Row: Jorge
At the whisky museum in Edinburgh.
Final mention goes to Flo, who became my partner in crime for pretty much everything: partying, food shopping, gym, chilling. We may be spending the summer in separate countries (France and Germany) and I may miss her a lot but one day we'll be inseparable again, whether she likes it or not!
Flo and I celebrating our exam results.
When exams were over I was incredibly gutted to leave Southampton (so much so that I hung around 'til almost the last day, a good month after exams finished) and all my friends behind. I had the BEST time at Southampton and am so glad I chose it all those years ago.
But now, the next adventure starts!
Tschüß!
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