Well, I've been wanting to blog for a while and keep failing massively to getting round to it...ah well. First of all, something completely unrelated to the entire blogosphere, just a kind message to the girls out there that wear leggings as a replacement for trousers: DON'T. You look rid-IC-ulous. Just wanted to share that with you all (I walked home from work behind a girl wearing leggings, and the sun was shining and I could see her pants. Not a pleasant sight. Just whilst I remember, one of my flatmates and I were discussing people wearing clothes that don't fit as soon as summer arrives, and flesh is more visible than necessary etc etc. and how last summer they were contemplating hanging a banner off the balcony saying: you are too fat for that. or whatever, something like that).
Ok, so work is going well, I like the people (still) and there is a great atmosphere. Only today, we were talking about how it's important that there is a great atmosphere at work, it means we look forward to going to work and because we enjoy it, we work. I am enjoying the translations that I am being given (still ones that have already been done, I'm not sure as an intern I can do official translations, either way I don't have enough experience).
The weather is picking up, last week it was very windy (Julia has informed me that it isn't windy two days a year), but once again, I am able to sit on the balcony to enjoy the sunshine (and sort out the ridiculous flower tan that I managed to develop on my legs).
This weekend was the Hafengeburtstag, the harbour/port's birthday. It was 822 years old (according to the website). There were lots of people, it was madly busy. I had been told that the Queen Mary 2 (massive cruise ship) would be there. So I went on Saturday after having eaten lunch with Julia and being directed in the right direction - "you can't miss it, it's a MASSIVE boat". Anyway, I looked and looked, and finally saw a BIG BOAT. After heading towards it, taking pictures of various other boats along the way, I realised it wasn't in fact, the QM2. So I had seen the Hafengeburtstag and didn't really have plans to go back again that day, as Dave and I had made loose arrangements to go on Sunday. As it so happens, he texted me saying he was going to watch the boat ballet with some work colleagues and I should go join them. So I did, but of course, organisation skills are not everyone's forté and I was late. So we tired to watch the boat ballet (boats dancing on water), but of course (once again), I am too short. Luckily people seemed to be in good humour about the fact that I was jumping up and down in the air to watch properly, and let me pass almost to the front (although this ridiculously tall man would not move). They were laughing "Let the kid to the front!". It was really interesting watching boats dance, hardly the most graceful of vessels, but it was surprisingly good. Anyway, then we went to the beach on the other side (because I was late, we didn't get over there to see the ballet) and sat and listened to music and chilled by the water, hoping to get a glimpse of the QM2. Which didn't arrive. I had looked on the internet once I had gone home after the first time at the programme, which said it was due to arrive at 18h30. Anyway, after a while, it was windy and shady so we went back to the other side, to sit on the grass and drink some beers (I was sliightly hungover from drinking the previous night on the balcony with the flatmates, got some great stories!). We stayed there on the grass for quite some time, then decided to go and dance to the music on at one of the stages. The music and dancing was followed by fireworks, then we went to another stage to see a rock band dressed in cow print with mohawks and all sorts, was great. DANCED LIKE CRAZY. My muscles still ache. Anyway, Dave and Tino (Dave's friend from Sweden, featured perhaps in another story about drinking by the lake, which I thought was the port. Clearly not.) walked me to the S-Bahn station and then I went home. I couldn't get in. Luckily I had seen Fabi's light on (the missing housemate, who has now helped me out with my keys, twice. And even been nice enough to give me his, as he only needs his at the weekend. I was sitting outside the door on Friday, having given up on trying to get in, and he just appeared with a suitcase, asked if he could help me. I explained that I live here, and the key I have is crap. Of course, he opened it straight away. Ohne Scheiß, that happens all the time!)
The week was rounded off with a jolly trip to Jim Block (burger place, really good) - with Julia, her friend from church Stefan and Fabi, and watching a couple of episodes of Shameless with the aforementioned (but replace Stefan with Nils).
That'll do. Ciao
Monday, 9 May 2011
Tuesday, 3 May 2011
Two contrasting days at work
Monday morning, my alarm went off at 7.15, so that I could get up and go to the Burgeramt before starting my first day of work. Julia had told me that as long as I don't steal the bathroom between 7.15 and 7.20 then we would get on just fine. I had set my alarm with good intentions. Ah well. I decided to go back to sleep until 8.15 and got up and had a shower, thinking I would arrive at work at 9.30, given that I could arrive between 9.30 and 10. At 9, I decided to check my emails. WRONG! I had to be at work between 9 and 10. What a great way to make a first impression, turning up late on the first day! I had wanted to be punctual at the earliest time I could be there, unfortunately I got that time wrong. Oh well. I stayed on a bit later to make up the time I had lost by arriving late (it ended up being only 15 mins, and I stayed 24). Yesterday kind of dragged. I spent the day on Trados, which is a software used for translation memory. I basically copied and pasted an 83 page document into the software, so that it can be saved and not waste time for future similar translations. It was extremely tedious and given that the software randomly splits the document into segments (it comes from a PDF) and tables were a nightmare. But the atmosphere in the office is great. There are approximately 6 of us. 4 girls in one room. And then approximately 3 men around and about. I haven't quite figured out who is who yet. Of the men. Of course, working in the office with the girls, I have figured out who does what.
Last night I once again went to the supermarket with Andy, although it was kind of a bad idea as I was REALLY HUNGRY. I bought some yummy goodness and when I got back in, I cooked straight away, without even taking my bag off! Yes, I was that hungry! I hadn't eaten a huge amount during the day, as I had forgotten what living with severla people requires claiming your food and writing your name on it if you want it there the next morning. Or the next whenever. Particularly if you only have one fridge shelf for approximately 5 people. AAAAAAnyway, we went to the supermarket during the day (it is literally under the office) and I bought a salad and some chocolate to compensate for the lost chicken slices. Anyway, I watched some Shameless that Julia gave me on the external hard drive she lent me, blogged, chatted and went to bed.
TODAY. Wow, I might almost finally be up to date. I don't think I will bore you every day with the details of what I did, but maybe until I start doing something specific at work. And I will of course post random titbits about the city, pictures of things usw usw. Today, I didn't see the time fly by (probably because I deliberately stayed later than necessary to finish the Trados input)! Which is good news, because yesterday dragged, despite the great atmosphere. Today, Aki (one of the two permanent workers, apart from the 3 men) showed me what she does, how the bills are calculated, how translators are found and so on, there are some big companies that have regular translators and lots of translators on the database. So today's job was putting new potential translators on the database. There is basically a form that they send over with languages, prices, information usw and I just put them onto the database. Once I had done that (I'm slightly worried that I was too efficient, because there wasn't too much to do and I spent lots of time doing nothing - Aki told me wenn du nichts zu tun hast, darfst du einfach surfen (you can just surf the net, if you have nothing to do)), I sent out emails to the people who had sent CVs and stuff telling them to fill in the form and send it back. I then went on one of the company's other sites and registered for things. Then, I got to translate something. To be fair, it had already been translated, but I got to read the translation that had been sent once I had finished my version. It wasn't too far off, but given that in the Masters, I didn't translate from German to English... I think it was OK. :)
And here I am, back at home, finally up to date with my blog and waiting for a phone call. I am also going through my to-do list and organising some papers. That's the plan. Then tomorrow night I will see if I can catch up with Eba and Thursday night I am seeing Dave (who managed to block his phone and went slightly AWOL upon his return from Amsterdam). That's about it.
Happy bedtime reading! Ciao for now x
Last night I once again went to the supermarket with Andy, although it was kind of a bad idea as I was REALLY HUNGRY. I bought some yummy goodness and when I got back in, I cooked straight away, without even taking my bag off! Yes, I was that hungry! I hadn't eaten a huge amount during the day, as I had forgotten what living with severla people requires claiming your food and writing your name on it if you want it there the next morning. Or the next whenever. Particularly if you only have one fridge shelf for approximately 5 people. AAAAAAnyway, we went to the supermarket during the day (it is literally under the office) and I bought a salad and some chocolate to compensate for the lost chicken slices. Anyway, I watched some Shameless that Julia gave me on the external hard drive she lent me, blogged, chatted and went to bed.
TODAY. Wow, I might almost finally be up to date. I don't think I will bore you every day with the details of what I did, but maybe until I start doing something specific at work. And I will of course post random titbits about the city, pictures of things usw usw. Today, I didn't see the time fly by (probably because I deliberately stayed later than necessary to finish the Trados input)! Which is good news, because yesterday dragged, despite the great atmosphere. Today, Aki (one of the two permanent workers, apart from the 3 men) showed me what she does, how the bills are calculated, how translators are found and so on, there are some big companies that have regular translators and lots of translators on the database. So today's job was putting new potential translators on the database. There is basically a form that they send over with languages, prices, information usw and I just put them onto the database. Once I had done that (I'm slightly worried that I was too efficient, because there wasn't too much to do and I spent lots of time doing nothing - Aki told me wenn du nichts zu tun hast, darfst du einfach surfen (you can just surf the net, if you have nothing to do)), I sent out emails to the people who had sent CVs and stuff telling them to fill in the form and send it back. I then went on one of the company's other sites and registered for things. Then, I got to translate something. To be fair, it had already been translated, but I got to read the translation that had been sent once I had finished my version. It wasn't too far off, but given that in the Masters, I didn't translate from German to English... I think it was OK. :)
And here I am, back at home, finally up to date with my blog and waiting for a phone call. I am also going through my to-do list and organising some papers. That's the plan. Then tomorrow night I will see if I can catch up with Eba and Thursday night I am seeing Dave (who managed to block his phone and went slightly AWOL upon his return from Amsterdam). That's about it.
Happy bedtime reading! Ciao for now x
Monday, 2 May 2011
Schönes Wochenende, na?
So, Saturday morning after my first night's sleep in the new place, I was pleasantly awoken by the sunshine (I have no curtains). I did some organising and unpacking, as I hadn't done the night before and headed downstairs at about 11.30 ish. 2 of my housemates were around and Debo's cousin was also here, he invited me to join them in town and then on the beach. Given that I hadn't eaten and wasn't reallly ready to go out, I said I would join them later, took Debo's number and came back upstairs after having a nice cuppa and chat with Debo's cousin, Marco. A bit later, I heard some noises and went downstairs to find myself face to face with a complete stranger (this seems to be quite normal here). Turns out they didn't go to the beach and came back here, so I joined them on the balcony in the glorious sun and heat, we drank some Sekt, chatted, drank some cider and had some weird German thing that I think you are supposed to put in vodka. It's like fizzy stuff, tastes quite nice, apparently better with vodka. To be confirmed.
After sitting out in the sun for a couple of hours, and having said bye to Marco and Missy (the random stranger I ran into pre-shower), I went out to invest in some Diet Coke after sorting out the key debacle (I didn't have a key and nobody was in. A note about the key, it's IMPOSSIBLE to turn, what with so many copies having been made, and the fact that it's generally an old house. I will get some pics up in the next few days). I then retreated to my room, which was nice and cool (the sun was on the front of the house and I had left my window open) and blogged, probably. I was so busy, I didn't really notice the time going by. Which was good. I then cooked and decided to go out with Debo and Nils to Debo's other cousins. I am glad I went out, I heard some German, spoke some German and met some nice people. I also experienced something cultural. The night before (and on) the 1st May, there are demonstrations in lots of German cities about lots of things. I remember steering clear of Tübingen city centre a few years ago. But I found myself on Saturday night, slap bang in the middle of all the action. I will post some pictures soon, but they don't really do justice to what I saw. I have never seen so many police in my life! It was crazy. Police vans everywhere, people dressed in black and marching in the street. Luckily, we were inside at Debo's cousin's flat. But we watched from the window, it was so intriguing (especially given that we don't have anything like that in England on the 1st May, only Maypole dancing usw)! It was nice to try and understand what on earth was occurring, speak some German and be in a German environment. I really feel like each day my German is getting a bit better! We then went to go out. Given that we were about 10, and nobody really wanted to pay 9€ to go into a bar, it was taking AGES to decide where to go. Nils and I got bored and decided to go home. Now Nils doesn't speak a great amount of English so I was forced to speak to him in German. We stopped by a pizza place and sat and chatted whilst we ate. We laughed a lot, probably because I was slightly tipsy and couldn't express myself properly and was talking lots with my hands and kept saying "Aber du verstehst mich, oder?" and he kept saying yes. Probably just to be polite. But it was fun! We eventually got back at about 2.30 and I collapsed in bed and woke up probably at about 9.30 with the mix of my alarm and the sunshine.
The house was so quiet, unlike the Saturday morning. I figured it was Sunday, and Nils and I were the first back, Julia had gone to a house party and I'm not so sure about Andy, so most people would be sleeping in. I headed downstairs at about 11.30 and ran into Julia. We sat in the living room and chatted about the night before and our plans for the day. She was going to a Scout meeting, then they were going for a barbecue on the river. I asked if I could join them, trying to make the most of any opportunity I have to meet people and so on. She gave me directions so I could join them after there meeting which would be "pretty boring". Of course, I was by this point the only one in the house, Nils had gone out, Andy had disappeared and Debo had gone to demonstrate, so it took me about 5 minutes to lock the door. Once the door was locked, I headed on my merry way. There were 5 of us and the weather was perfect for BBQs. We found a nice spot by the river and got the barbie going. After some yummy salad and garlic bread amongst other things, a few of us headed off to find ice cream. My first of the year! It was a thouroughly excellent moment and of course, I probably smeared it all over my face, as I happen to be one of the most catastrophic ice cream eaters in the world. I then came home and watched the City match on the internet. It's so exciting to be able to do that, because after 8 months in Vert Bois with its appalling internet, I had been going slightly (slash very) insane.
After the match and some blogging, I decided to go and watch some Shameless (Julia had remembered that I liked it and taken the entire first series out on DVD from the library in case I got homesick!), although there was a murder/crime mystery thing on TV, so we watched that instead and I ate a tomato and mozzarella salad. It was YUM. Then Debo appeared from nowhere and talked about getting some food delivered. Despite the fact that I had eaten lunch relatively late and had just eaten a tomamozz salad, I ordered a baked potato with sour cream. Today (Monday, so not that much later on in the week), half of it is sitting in tinfoil in the fridge to be eaten at a later date. The food ended up coming quite late and I went to bed pretty much straight afterwards, having watched a bit of The Dark Knight with Nils. I had planned to get up early the next morning to go to the Burgeramt to register with the city. Hm. We'll see shall we?
Ciao for now x
After sitting out in the sun for a couple of hours, and having said bye to Marco and Missy (the random stranger I ran into pre-shower), I went out to invest in some Diet Coke after sorting out the key debacle (I didn't have a key and nobody was in. A note about the key, it's IMPOSSIBLE to turn, what with so many copies having been made, and the fact that it's generally an old house. I will get some pics up in the next few days). I then retreated to my room, which was nice and cool (the sun was on the front of the house and I had left my window open) and blogged, probably. I was so busy, I didn't really notice the time going by. Which was good. I then cooked and decided to go out with Debo and Nils to Debo's other cousins. I am glad I went out, I heard some German, spoke some German and met some nice people. I also experienced something cultural. The night before (and on) the 1st May, there are demonstrations in lots of German cities about lots of things. I remember steering clear of Tübingen city centre a few years ago. But I found myself on Saturday night, slap bang in the middle of all the action. I will post some pictures soon, but they don't really do justice to what I saw. I have never seen so many police in my life! It was crazy. Police vans everywhere, people dressed in black and marching in the street. Luckily, we were inside at Debo's cousin's flat. But we watched from the window, it was so intriguing (especially given that we don't have anything like that in England on the 1st May, only Maypole dancing usw)! It was nice to try and understand what on earth was occurring, speak some German and be in a German environment. I really feel like each day my German is getting a bit better! We then went to go out. Given that we were about 10, and nobody really wanted to pay 9€ to go into a bar, it was taking AGES to decide where to go. Nils and I got bored and decided to go home. Now Nils doesn't speak a great amount of English so I was forced to speak to him in German. We stopped by a pizza place and sat and chatted whilst we ate. We laughed a lot, probably because I was slightly tipsy and couldn't express myself properly and was talking lots with my hands and kept saying "Aber du verstehst mich, oder?" and he kept saying yes. Probably just to be polite. But it was fun! We eventually got back at about 2.30 and I collapsed in bed and woke up probably at about 9.30 with the mix of my alarm and the sunshine.
The house was so quiet, unlike the Saturday morning. I figured it was Sunday, and Nils and I were the first back, Julia had gone to a house party and I'm not so sure about Andy, so most people would be sleeping in. I headed downstairs at about 11.30 and ran into Julia. We sat in the living room and chatted about the night before and our plans for the day. She was going to a Scout meeting, then they were going for a barbecue on the river. I asked if I could join them, trying to make the most of any opportunity I have to meet people and so on. She gave me directions so I could join them after there meeting which would be "pretty boring". Of course, I was by this point the only one in the house, Nils had gone out, Andy had disappeared and Debo had gone to demonstrate, so it took me about 5 minutes to lock the door. Once the door was locked, I headed on my merry way. There were 5 of us and the weather was perfect for BBQs. We found a nice spot by the river and got the barbie going. After some yummy salad and garlic bread amongst other things, a few of us headed off to find ice cream. My first of the year! It was a thouroughly excellent moment and of course, I probably smeared it all over my face, as I happen to be one of the most catastrophic ice cream eaters in the world. I then came home and watched the City match on the internet. It's so exciting to be able to do that, because after 8 months in Vert Bois with its appalling internet, I had been going slightly (slash very) insane.
After the match and some blogging, I decided to go and watch some Shameless (Julia had remembered that I liked it and taken the entire first series out on DVD from the library in case I got homesick!), although there was a murder/crime mystery thing on TV, so we watched that instead and I ate a tomato and mozzarella salad. It was YUM. Then Debo appeared from nowhere and talked about getting some food delivered. Despite the fact that I had eaten lunch relatively late and had just eaten a tomamozz salad, I ordered a baked potato with sour cream. Today (Monday, so not that much later on in the week), half of it is sitting in tinfoil in the fridge to be eaten at a later date. The food ended up coming quite late and I went to bed pretty much straight afterwards, having watched a bit of The Dark Knight with Nils. I had planned to get up early the next morning to go to the Burgeramt to register with the city. Hm. We'll see shall we?
Ciao for now x
Sunday, 1 May 2011
The big move, amongst other things.
Friday was spent not doing much, the highlight to be honest was meeting a lovely girl from Hong Kong in the hostel called Eba, she was looking for somewhere to stay and we ended up chatting for most of the afternoon. This was after I had gotten myself lost on the way to Frank's to pick up my luggage. I ended up deciding to take a taxi back to the hostel – I couldn't move in until the evening, so I used the hostel as my base for the day. I am normally quite anti-taxi, they tend to be relatively expensive. But with all my stuff and two changes, taking public transport was far from ideal. So when I got back to the hostel, I met Eba and I helped her look for a place to live. Now that I had somewhere to live, I could spend the time helping her. I equally didn't want to leave all my stuff at the hostel, so that suited me just fine. Anyway, because on Thursday Dave and I had faxed some papers over to the DAAD about insurance, I had to scan them the receipt of the bank transfer that I had done. So I put all my extra stuff in the luggage room and Eba and I wandered down onto the high street and after scanning the stuff over, we went and got a hot chocolate and sat outside in the sunshine. We discussed differences between Hong Kong and England and Germany, and our respective plans and it was lovely! Then we went back to the hostel and carried on looking for somewhere to live for Eba. I translated what she wanted to say into German for her (she speaks no German) and advised her to text and not email so much, as Andy (one of the housemates) had told me that people don't tend to reply to emails, more so phone calls. And given that she speaks no German, a text would be better (that's what I did and I managed to successfully find somewhere).
Eba then headed off for a bit of a wander, and I stayed a bit longer at the hostel (I meant to say that they showed a bit of the royal wedding)(and I had leftover pasta and veg for lunch, shared it with Eba because Dave had put a whole kilo (maybe) of pasta to cook. So there was lots of it). I then returned the key to the safe and got a member of staff to call a taxi for me and got my luggage ready. The taxi driver was relatively surprised with how much stuff I had given that I was on my own (I don't think it's that much). Anyway, I got to the apartment to find Andy waiting outside. He had locked himself out, but Julia would be back soon, she had gone to the supermarket. So we stood outside and waited, Julia was back not long after. I went and dumped all my stuff upstairs, Nils had not quite moved out, so I just left it in the corner and went to organise going to the supermarket, to get my bearings a bit. Andy said he was going, so I decided to go with him, Sunday being a Feiertag and all that jazz, I knew I needed to stock up on food. EVERYTHING IS SO CHEAP IN THIS COUNTRY. I mean, I didn't buy any proper meat, but still. 15€. For fruit and veg, some chicken for sandwiches, mozzarella, pasta, tomato sauce, gnocchi, crème fraiche and Weetabix (I knew you would all appreciate my shopping list hugely, it is very exciting!). Anyway, then I cooked dinner and watched a film with Julia, Debo and Nils (who in the meantime had moved all the last bits and pieces out of the room so I could move in). As soon as the film was over, I was extremely tired, so I went to bed.
Here is a quick character analysis/overview of the housemates (in alphabetical order – and I have only given some of them alter egos, as they are so blindingly obvious):
Andreas (Andy): likes football and running, blasts music out and is the guy I was in contact with about the place in the first instance, the one who was on the receiving end of my high pitched “REALLY?” and “Thank you so much” -es. He is one of the older ones (I think round about 29) and is a student.
Deborah (Debo – The crazy one): the best kind of nutcase that exists, she is very very funny and full of energy all the time. Very open and friendly. I'm not quite sure what she does, but I do know that she is somewhere round about my age.
Fabian (Fabi): ? The one I haven't met yet. He works in Zürich during the week and does something to do with I.T. and his room is next to mine. Watch this space.
Julia: She is really nice, works for women's magazines, is a scout and one of the 'older' ones. We get on really well and, as the majority of the others, is really helpful and patient and understanding when I can't get my words out.
Nils (The quiet one): Nils is 22 and repairs cars. He is also very quiet (I think he just takes a bit of time to open up, see next post).
That's all. Ciao for now.
Too good to be true?
Ok, I won't keep you on tenterhooks...Having spent all day Thursday fretting about whether the other people who were viewing the house were better than me and getting pissed off at Dave going on and on about how wonderful the house party with his future flatmates was, I received a phone call. I HAVE SOMEWHERE TO LIVE!! F-ing yes mate! Words cannot actually describe how happy I was! And still am, in fact. I could move in the very next day.
This afternoon (let's pretend it's Thursday), Dave and I went into a part of the city centre to meet a guy he kind of knew from when he was in Sweden and we bought some beers and went and sat down at the Alster (at the time I thought it was the harbour, but I was later informed that the Alster is a lake. In all fairness, there were boats! And I hadn't been to Hamburg since my daytrip in 2008). They reminisced a lot about Sweden, I got bored. Then we invited a girl to come join us. She joined us and then after sitting chatting for a while then went to Jim Block (amazing burger joint) for dinner. Will def be going there again! Then we went back to the hostel and Dave went back to his new place to drop his stuff as he had decided to join his friend on a weekend trip to Amsterdam (he had been debating whether or not to go for some days). I claimed my stuff from Dave's room (I slept in a different room every night and didn't want to take it all downstairs to bring it back up again so left it with his stuff) then went to bed, as I was on wake-up-call duty. 6.20. And I had also arranged with Frank (wonderful man) that I would pick up my stuff from his at 11am.
That's all for now.
This afternoon (let's pretend it's Thursday), Dave and I went into a part of the city centre to meet a guy he kind of knew from when he was in Sweden and we bought some beers and went and sat down at the Alster (at the time I thought it was the harbour, but I was later informed that the Alster is a lake. In all fairness, there were boats! And I hadn't been to Hamburg since my daytrip in 2008). They reminisced a lot about Sweden, I got bored. Then we invited a girl to come join us. She joined us and then after sitting chatting for a while then went to Jim Block (amazing burger joint) for dinner. Will def be going there again! Then we went back to the hostel and Dave went back to his new place to drop his stuff as he had decided to join his friend on a weekend trip to Amsterdam (he had been debating whether or not to go for some days). I claimed my stuff from Dave's room (I slept in a different room every night and didn't want to take it all downstairs to bring it back up again so left it with his stuff) then went to bed, as I was on wake-up-call duty. 6.20. And I had also arranged with Frank (wonderful man) that I would pick up my stuff from his at 11am.
That's all for now.
Not in France anymore.
Where were we? Ahhh yes. First full day in Hamburg, check. New German phone, check. First flat viewing organised, check. Not in Montpellier anymore, check.
10 reasons I know I'm not in Montpellier anymore
1. Everybody speaks German.
2. I can not successfully eavesdrop (yet).
3. There is no tram, only S and U Bahns, and as well as telling you the name of the stop, they tell you which side to get out of and also sometimes speak in English.
4. I am living in a youth hostel*.
5. Hamburg is huge. Massive.
6. You get money back for your bottles.
7. Everything is Dirt Cheap. Groceries usw.
8. The internet works!
9. Almost everybody speaks English.
10. Ritter Sport (for those of you that don't know it...YUM)
Ok, so Wednesday was the day of the flat viewing. Let me give you some info. Of course, just so you know, I did spend all day Wednesday looking at other places, sending out emails and stuff because I have heard of the horrors of trying to find somewhere to live in Hamburg.
I left the hostel at about 7.15 to head towards Blankenese, the location of this "flat" (and of my workplace, meaning it was an ideal location). The flat was right by the S Bahn station, no excuses for getting lost then :) (I didn't). I got there and had to wander round a bit as I was early. There was a girl standing on the balcony, so I figured this was one of the housemates. I strolled round the back to try and figure out how to get in. There was a door opening up to a stairway, but I wasn't sure that was it and I didn't want to just appear without being sure I was going to the right place. Just at that moment a girl called down the stairs telling me to come up. So I was in the right place. Wow, it looked amazing from the outside, a 3 storey building with a balcony usw usw. The ground floor was other things, like a taxi company and a Therapiezentrum. Words cannot describe how welcoming all the housemates were, and what a lovely evening I had. The room was small, but not unliveable. Only 1m squared smaller than my room in Vert Bois and I had a lot of stuff. I have downsized my belongings sufficiently.
There were 5 flatmates, 2 younger ones, 3 older ones, 2 girls, 3 guys. I didn't meet one of the guys as he is only home at weekends, as he works in Zürich during the week. The guy who I would be replacing was the biggest chatterbox in existence. I only know one other person who talks so much. But I literally could NOT get a word in edgeways. Anyway, all that aside, they asked me to stay for dinner, if I was hungry. I was hungry and I thought it would be a great opportunity to get to know them and let my personality sparkle through ;) I ended up staying for a few beers after dinner and before I left, they took my details to call me the next day after the last two viewings. I ended up getting back to the hostel close to midnight. This place was too good to be true.
*true on my second day in Hamburg.
10 reasons I know I'm not in Montpellier anymore
1. Everybody speaks German.
2. I can not successfully eavesdrop (yet).
3. There is no tram, only S and U Bahns, and as well as telling you the name of the stop, they tell you which side to get out of and also sometimes speak in English.
4. I am living in a youth hostel*.
5. Hamburg is huge. Massive.
6. You get money back for your bottles.
7. Everything is Dirt Cheap. Groceries usw.
8. The internet works!
9. Almost everybody speaks English.
10. Ritter Sport (for those of you that don't know it...YUM)
Ok, so Wednesday was the day of the flat viewing. Let me give you some info. Of course, just so you know, I did spend all day Wednesday looking at other places, sending out emails and stuff because I have heard of the horrors of trying to find somewhere to live in Hamburg.
I left the hostel at about 7.15 to head towards Blankenese, the location of this "flat" (and of my workplace, meaning it was an ideal location). The flat was right by the S Bahn station, no excuses for getting lost then :) (I didn't). I got there and had to wander round a bit as I was early. There was a girl standing on the balcony, so I figured this was one of the housemates. I strolled round the back to try and figure out how to get in. There was a door opening up to a stairway, but I wasn't sure that was it and I didn't want to just appear without being sure I was going to the right place. Just at that moment a girl called down the stairs telling me to come up. So I was in the right place. Wow, it looked amazing from the outside, a 3 storey building with a balcony usw usw. The ground floor was other things, like a taxi company and a Therapiezentrum. Words cannot describe how welcoming all the housemates were, and what a lovely evening I had. The room was small, but not unliveable. Only 1m squared smaller than my room in Vert Bois and I had a lot of stuff. I have downsized my belongings sufficiently.
There were 5 flatmates, 2 younger ones, 3 older ones, 2 girls, 3 guys. I didn't meet one of the guys as he is only home at weekends, as he works in Zürich during the week. The guy who I would be replacing was the biggest chatterbox in existence. I only know one other person who talks so much. But I literally could NOT get a word in edgeways. Anyway, all that aside, they asked me to stay for dinner, if I was hungry. I was hungry and I thought it would be a great opportunity to get to know them and let my personality sparkle through ;) I ended up staying for a few beers after dinner and before I left, they took my details to call me the next day after the last two viewings. I ended up getting back to the hostel close to midnight. This place was too good to be true.
*true on my second day in Hamburg.
Saturday, 30 April 2011
Good morning, Hamburg!
So. I arrived in Hamburg. I decided to get off the train at the central station, rather than the other ones on offer. Firstly because I didn't know at what time I could check into my hostel and I knew there would be luggage lockers in the central station. With hindsight, I should, of course, have gone to Altona, which was the end station, because my hostel was approximately a 3 minute walk away and check in was 24 hours. So after an hour or so in a café, trying to figure out how to get to the hostel, and deciding whether or not to just turn up at the company, or email to warn them I was on my way and find out how to get there, I headed over to the hostel. The hostel was SO nice. I have stayed in lots of hostels before, but everything about this place was perfect, the staff were so helpful and a great location, nice relaxing area etc etc. So. I checked in (early), dumped my stuff in my room (early) and got ready to head out, printed off the contract for the company usw and was on my way out, when I met this Australian guy (Dave, who will feature quite a lot in these opening posts), who just happens to be in Hamburg for a year! ACE IN THE FACE. We talked some, he said he didn't speak any German and wanted to get a phone, because he was looking for accommodation and thought that phoning was easier. So off we trotted, to explore the area a bit and get ourselves some phones. We went into a shop and a guy offered us phones for 5€ (having established that we both wanted o2, on various people's advice), but the system was down and it was going to take him 3-4 days to register the phones. Sod that. We went and had some lunch, then wandered round trying to find Media Max which was da oben with a finger pointing in the direction off to the right. Of course, it was off to the left and upstairs. We didn't find it, but we did find phones! The guy even topped them up for us :) which was nice. Althouugh, the shop was one of those with about a bajillion phones in the window, I don't think either of us would have gone into that sort of shop in our respective countries..
ANYWAY. We then went our seperate ways, I sent Dave the wrong way back to the hostel and I headed off to the chic suburb of Blankenese to find the company, to get them to sign the convention de stage. I was, by this point, even more tired than was possible! I got there, and struggled to express myself, all these different languages is a bit of a head-fuck. Luckily the other intern speaks English and she is lovely, we chatted a lot and yeah, they signed the thing! HOORAHHHHH I met the boss (briefly) and the woman who I had been emailing for months. It's in a nice house, and there aren't many people in the office (I will of course, update on this situation when I have actually started!).
I then went back to the hostel to catch up with Dave, and I could officially start looking for somewhere to live. Given the state of my German, I emailed a few people and texted a few people. One of them was within my budget and in Blankenese! Which would be ideal, given that it was close to my work place, so no commute usw usw. I hoped they would be in touch. In touch they were, and they invited me to a viewing the next evening. First viewing, eeeeeek. Then Dave and I grabbed dinner at a place that offered reductions for people staying in the hostel. Dinner involved a hilarious sequence of phone-calls from some man speaking in English trying to offer Dave somewhere to live. I was crying with laughter and poor Dave had to try and keep a straight face. Kudos to him for managing to do so :) he even managed to go and look round the place, which I wouldn't have done I don't think...kind of a nutcase, this guy was. So whilst Dave was out looking at this place, I nabbed one of his hard drives and watched a film. I was so tired, I fell asleep quite early. Dave got back at about 1.30 and the GIT had found somewhere to live! NO FAIR. But that meant less competition for me to find somewhere to live, and one friend in Hamburg to help me find somewhere to live!
And that was my first full day in Hamburg :) More to come!
ANYWAY. We then went our seperate ways, I sent Dave the wrong way back to the hostel and I headed off to the chic suburb of Blankenese to find the company, to get them to sign the convention de stage. I was, by this point, even more tired than was possible! I got there, and struggled to express myself, all these different languages is a bit of a head-fuck. Luckily the other intern speaks English and she is lovely, we chatted a lot and yeah, they signed the thing! HOORAHHHHH I met the boss (briefly) and the woman who I had been emailing for months. It's in a nice house, and there aren't many people in the office (I will of course, update on this situation when I have actually started!).
I then went back to the hostel to catch up with Dave, and I could officially start looking for somewhere to live. Given the state of my German, I emailed a few people and texted a few people. One of them was within my budget and in Blankenese! Which would be ideal, given that it was close to my work place, so no commute usw usw. I hoped they would be in touch. In touch they were, and they invited me to a viewing the next evening. First viewing, eeeeeek. Then Dave and I grabbed dinner at a place that offered reductions for people staying in the hostel. Dinner involved a hilarious sequence of phone-calls from some man speaking in English trying to offer Dave somewhere to live. I was crying with laughter and poor Dave had to try and keep a straight face. Kudos to him for managing to do so :) he even managed to go and look round the place, which I wouldn't have done I don't think...kind of a nutcase, this guy was. So whilst Dave was out looking at this place, I nabbed one of his hard drives and watched a film. I was so tired, I fell asleep quite early. Dave got back at about 1.30 and the GIT had found somewhere to live! NO FAIR. But that meant less competition for me to find somewhere to live, and one friend in Hamburg to help me find somewhere to live!
And that was my first full day in Hamburg :) More to come!
Friday, 29 April 2011
I'm ugly and tired
And the title of this blog (in general) is a slight lie. Because I am not homeless in Hamburg. Or particularly ugly (I hope). Hoorah! The title of this entry is dedicated to my dear friend Sarah Luebke. And it is going to recount the tales of when I was homeless in Hamburg. Which was a matter of days, luckily. So I guess I should start with the preamble, why I am in Hamburg usw (usw = und so weiter = et cetera) and all the faff that was involved in me getting here. And maybe that will perhaps explain why I am ugly and tired.
So here goes...back in time approximately one week ago. Location, Bureau de stages, G208 (or thereabouts), Université Paul Valéry, Montpellier 3. Of course, this requires prior information. So I will sum it up in as few sentences as possible, because it is of course, relatively boring. In order to leave my accommodation in MTP, I was required to give some sort of proof proving that I wasn't just leaving for the hell of it and actually had a valid reason. So I sent the convention de stage (a contract between me, the university and the company) over to the company via email asking them to sign it as a temporary measure for me to give it as notice. Of course, the convention was in French and English, but not in German. And of course, the company refused to sign something they didn't understand. There is a first time for everything (the first time a German company has refused to sign the bilingual French-English convention). I got on to the head of the masters, explained the situation and she got on to getting a translation done into German. BUT (fast forward to a week ago) the translation had not been done. So here I am, sitting in the Bureau de stages, being told that until the company accept to sign the convention, I can't go to Hamburg. But I have a ticket for Monday to go to Hamburg. ARGH. I was sent from person to person to try and organise the situation, even the legal services in Montpellier got involved. All very complicated.
Then packing happened usw usw, that is always a stressful situation. Given that I arrived in Montpellier in the car, downsizing required extensive effort and was a difficult operation. Thanks to all of those that helped! :) A guy from my course, Frank, who is German and happens to live in Hamburg, happened to be going to Hamburg on the same day that I was, in a minibus with a trailer. So he extremely kindly offered to take my stuff when I bumped into him in that hideous Bureau de stages that Fateful Friday. Frank took most of the heavy stuff, like my magic box, but of course as usual I leave everything to the last minute so all my stuff wasn't packed. So I didn't get everything to Frank in time.
ANYHOW. Let's get on to the move. Once everything was all packed up and I had said most of my goodbyes, I headed down to the station with a couple of friends. They helped me with 2 of my bags. To be honest, I didn't have that much stuff, but enough to perhaps require help. And help I required when I crossed gay Par-ee after arriving in from Montpellier, because one of my bags broke. It was one of the strong shopping bags you buy at the supermarket. THANKS, Shopi. I was supposed to be meeting a friend up there, but unfortunately her train got in too late. So I had to buy a holdall, annoyingly from one of those over-rated, over-priced Paris shops. Then I jumped on my train, found myself in a lovely cabin, being offered a choice of drinks for breakfast by the nice Deutsche Bahn man! There were 2 of us going from Paris, a French girl called Camille was joining me all the way to Hamburg. We spent about an hour chatting, then decided to go to bed. I was exhausted, I'd had a sleepover at Beth's the night before leaving and had slept all of about 4 hours.
12 hours later, I arrived in Hamburg...
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