I Didn't Take Your Post, Ok?

I  must look dodgy, otherwise Germans mistrust the Irish in general (probably more true!). I doubt I'll ever be mistaken for a drug dealer or criminal person (it's always the quiet ones though- you have been warned!). No but seriously- got accused of throwing people's post in the bin and possibly eating a stuffed pepper, was a weird week with the flatmates.

Anyways, moving on from another awkward moment, went to Stuttgart last week and twas very good indeed. First of all we went to the Mercedes Benz museum which really made me miss driving and I want a car now. The museum was amazing, so well kept and so detailed. Each car had it's own information plaque and an audio guide told you everything in more detail. Some of the cars were so beautiful and others just made me want to drive really fast on a race track.

Next we went into the city centre and had a guided tour from the one and only Nico (strange but very interesting man). Wasn't a great tour to be honest, walked around in a circle in a church but I think that's just his style- did the same thing in Konstanz when he took the language course on a little trip. I finally got to do some serious shopping which I thoroughly enjoyed. Bought myself some lovely clothes in Mango for a Christmas present! Fed myself afterwards with a lovely chicken sandwich while sitting on a bench on the main square in Stuttgart.
After this we went to the Landtag which is the parliament for the state of Baden- Wurttemburg. We watched the representatives pretend to be interested in what the speaker was saying while some (most) just played on their iPhones/pads. We then got to talk to the representative for the Konstanz area, a Green Party member. There were some lost in translation moments with our translator because she didn't exactly speak great English and it was quite clear she didn't know a lot about politics.
Alles in allem it was a very good day, well worth the 15 euro it cost.

Can't believe that's it's so close to Christmas already. The shopping has begun and this really makes me excited about Christmas  Today I bought a CD of German Christmas songs for the mother and the markets are opening in Konstanz next week.


Off to Zurich on Sunday to the Christmas markets so hopefully will find some nice things there!

First Post (again)

Blog attempt Number 2! After one of my posts was hacked the last time I decided to give blogging one more chance. Thought it would be a nice thing to have for when the Erasmus Year is over, something to look back on I suppose. Plus I need something to convince people that I actually am in Germany- camera doesn't connect to the computer so I have no pictures... I am here I swear. I'm not just hiding at home until July!

I can't believe I've been here two months now (apart from the little stint at home in October). It still hasn't sunk in that I am living in a different country- whenever I dream of home, I wake up so confused.

So far the experience has been a mixed one- being sick for the first month I missed out on a lot like meeting new people when the other people from Ireland did etc. I've been trying to catch up, which I must admit isn't too hard because everyone is really nice! I know I must have given off a terrible first impression to people though while I was sick- I was so homesick and fed up. Hopefully that first impression hasn't stuck!


I am getting quite handy at this cooking malarky- I've had burnt meat a few nights and have managed to cook meat straight from the freezer which supposedly isn't a done thing. I haven't given myself food poisoning though (yet!) and I cooked roast potatoes the other day which I must admit were as good as my mom's (and that's good!). Self praise is no praise I know, I'll probably end up eating those words some day (get it?).

College in German is hard. I don't know what I was doing but I managed to delude myself in the build up to this year, I didn't even think about the learning through German aspect of everything! The German language classes are fine but the lectures and seminars are quite difficult. Hopefully as my German improves, that will become less of an issue.

Thinking about it now, I'm actually not sure if my German has improved since I arrived. I guess I've gained more confidence with my spoken German but I'm not convinced about an expanding vocabulary. I'm also sure that my housemates think I'm deaf and probably stupid- when I arrived back after being in Ireland my housemate asked me how long I had been back and I said "Danke!" thinking he had said something along the lines of welcome back. I'm such an idiot...

The picture is one I took on my phone in Immenstaad, which is also on the lake, when I was here three years ago.

Anyways I'm off to cinema to see a German movie- hope I understand what's going on there at least!