Tag Archives: Germany

Lessons learned

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Oh my gosh, where did it all go, how is my Erasmus year already over?

I’ve just arrived back to the UK and it is bizarre to be back.

My year at Heidelberg university has been the best year of my life – and I consider myself to have had a rather good life so far!  So the fact that it’s suddenly over feels strange.  Very strange.  I don’t have any regrets, but the realisation that myself and all these wonderful people I’ve met over the last 11 months won’t ever be in the same place again is difficult to process. Continue reading

Brexit Apocalypse? Let’s try to think about it first

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51.9% vs 48.1%…

I think the last time a number struck me  so viscerally, so historically, was when Usain Bolt finished his 100m world record time of 9.58 seconds.  What a moment.  The feeling of watching history being made is something I will never forget.

The results of the UK referendum will no doubt be burned into everyone’s mind for the rest of their lives.

Interspersed through this article will be some fun pictures of what I’ve been getting up to in Heidelberg in June.  I would have loved for instance, to talk about the charity football tournament I organised with some friends, which attracted over 16 5-a-side teams and spectators, so over 100 people and helped raise over 800 euros for charity.  Instead I’ll just stick the weblink here:

http://erasmusfussball.wix.com/alternativeeuro16 Continue reading

May – an awesome month!

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I always had it in my mind that May was going to be an awesome month.

The second semester would be properly in swing and I would have an exciting trip to Barcelona planned with my girlfriend at the start of the month (this blog appears to have been taken over by trips Amytis and I have done/are doing together…).  Oh, and at the end of the month I was to go off to Berlin for a few days. Continue reading

March Madness

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So, up to the 16th March I was still working terrifically hard and trying to enjoy myself.  On the 17th of March, however, I was free to go travelling, and my gosh, but was it the trip of a lifetime as I saw Norway and Sweden with some wonderful, wonderful friends and afterwards we visited an especially amazing girlfriend in Paris.

This post is an attempt to neatly surmise my travels, which were rather frantic at times as we were having a lot of fun.  We were also rather lucky in our travels.  It was during our trip that the terrible attacks on Brussels occurred.  We were due to fly to Brussels on our way to Paris just a day after the attacks and so accordingly booked other flights to Paris another way in the end.  My thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their loved ones.

Anyhow, I’ve decided to divide up this post into both Oslo and Paris (our trip in Sweden was cut short and rather limited by our having to spend the whole day trying to cancel and rebooking flights).

So, here goes… Continue reading

February Crackdown

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I must start this blog with an apology, for it is sorely overdue.  I’ve been rather busy for a long time at Heidelberg, which is not a good enough excuse!  I’ve been working and playing hard, with so much going on that I kept telling myself and leaving little notes around my room saying: ‘when I have a little time, pen a quick blog article!’

But things kept coming up and I got super under pressure with work – and I even contrived to mess up my WordPress log-in during this period, such that I got locked out of my own account.  I lost the faith, the desire to blog for a brief period, and for this I apologise.  I’m back on track now after completing the toughest piece of work I’ve ever done at university and after a break to recover during which I travelled, I’m stronger for it!  I will be more disciplined in the future.

So, what happens during February in Heidelberg? Continue reading

January – Exams, birthday and heartfelt goodbyes. The end of semester 1 – what a ride!

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So with the end of January comes the end of my first semester at Heidelberg, which has been incredible – seriously though, what an absolutely mammoth semester, full of surprises and experiences that I will treasure for the rest of my life!

This post will be divided into two simple parts, both of which I hope have some practical (if a rather nostalgic) benefit: firstly, how to deal with the end of the semester academically, and secondly, how to deal with it emotionally… Continue reading

Fröhe Weihnachten! They definitely know it’s Christmas time…

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And all of a sudden it’s nearly Christmas, how did it sneak up like that?

Well, actually it didn’t sneak up at all…

For in Germany you have the glories of the Christmas markets, which ensures that unless you’re living reclusively in a cave, you don’t just know it’s Christmas, but rather feel like you’ve been doused in Glühwein throughout December!

And so this post entails what it’s like working towards the Christmas break at H, trips away and the festive cheer that wraps itself around you despite all the work we have and looming exams at the end of January… Continue reading

The serious, academic, pragmatic post

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So, I ended my last post with the line:

‘On the 12th Oct, term begins, so I hope to make the post a bit more academically focused!’

Well, work has started and it’s pretty good, if not always plain sailing.

When I decided to write a blog about my Year abroad, I did so with the intention that I would write the blog that I would want to read, i.e. not a just funny, quirky anecdotes-stuffed, gap-yah style year abroad blog… Rather, I hope that this blog has been so far entertaining and funny, but for this post at least, we turn now towards the serious aspects of studying abroad…

Some fun & crazy pictures are interspersed throughout to make this article a bit more readable… Continue reading