England: Mark II

Wednesday September 20, 2006
I flew from Barcelona to London Luton, only, upon landing, the pilot informed us that we were not at Luton but rather Stansted! A light plane had problems with its hydraulics and put down at Luton closing the airport to other traffic and re-routing flights to as far away as Birmingham.
So what was a relatively late flight turned out to be later...
The evening became brighter, however, when Jo (ex-GAPper) met me at Mile End Underground station from where we walked back to her flat where she and her housemates, Adam and Angie hospitably hosted me on and off for the next month. It was fantastic to see Jo and catch up again after 4 years.
September 21-25
I caught up with Ella (another GAPper) the following evening when Jo and I met her and went to the pub, and things started to feel a little surreal (like meeting friends from a parallel life!). Then it was off the next day to visit Timshel and Shelley near Bridgwater in England's pretty south-west, where I spent a very relaxing weekend.
September 25-29
The following week I saw Daniela (yes, another GAPper) when she came over for dinner and again it was lovely to catch up. We reminisced while looking at her photos from Moscow...
The whole week I was writing my 15 page essay in German for my literature subject and working against the clock to meet the deadline of the weekend. I was hoping to have it done by the time I went to Birmingham on Friday evening... it didn't eventuate and I ended up finishing it on a fairly late Friday night in Birmingham.
September 29-October 1
I was in Birmingham to visit John, a friend from Freiburg, and, after the essay was complete, I enjoyed good weekend - it was nice to catch up with John again and see him in his native environment. We even played a reminiscent game of Frisbee despite the bitter English weather.
October 2-October 20
With the essay out of the way, I was able to get out and about a bit more in London, although I also enjoyed just taking a break -.relaxing, reading, watching films and normal household stuff that I hadn't really done so much of in Germany. I went out with Jo on a few occasions, going to the pub or visiting her friends and also went to Daniela's house for dinner and with her and Jo to Brit lane - home of London's India... yum yum.
October 7-8
The weekend after Birmingham I went to Oxford for a party on Saturday night. I caught up with Ed (another GAPper) and he showed me the sights before sitting down for a beer on the river... it's a very pretty city. Then I went back to Ella's for the party before heading back to London the next day.
October 12-16
The following Thursday I headed North and visited Paul and Helen Shogren again where I was again received as well as in May. Chris and Claire were still there and I had a wonderful time, and great conversations, with all of them.

Before too long, the month was over and on October 20th I flew back to Freiburg - partly anxious because all my friends there had left and partly relieved to have my own space again for the first time in over two months.

Catching Up!

Dear Reader,
Sorry I haven't posted in ages. I will now type up a few more entries and try to get this page up-to-date.
Thanks for your patience.
P.S. Don't forget, you can also see hand-picked photos of my adventures at: http://unimelbedu.facebook.com/photos.php?id=218100724&l=47660
Viel Spaß!

You know you've been living in (Freiburg) Germany when:

• You find yourself standing at a completely deserted intersection waiting for the green man. (And you've walked 200m out of your way to get there)
• You travel to the UK and almost get killed by the traffic because they're driving on the left!
• You travel over a few hundred kilometres on the train with four or five (or 8!) connections and are not surprised when you arrive on schedule.
• You are used to traveling "in" the bus, tram or train as opposed to "on" it (after all - who travels on the roof!).
• You get to the bus stop one minute before schedule only to see the tail-lights fading into the distance.
• You are equally alert to the dangers of being hit by a bike or tram as a car.
• You shock people just by telling them you don't own a bike.
  
• You are aware of the "fluidity" of bicycle ownership.
  
• You regularly eat the local specialities: Türkish döner kebap and Italian ice-cream.
• You never throw a bottle away but instead keep it in your bag/pocket/room until you take it back for "Pfand" up to six months later.
• You shop for groceries at about three or four different supermarkets because of their subtle price and range differences.
• You know everything about the local beers - where they're brewed, which is best, etc - and would never consider drinking a beer from another part of the country (let alone an import!!).
• You find that you putting the verb at the end of each clause in English keep.
• You have the desire to put multiple nouns together as one word in order to achieve a germannounconstructionsimilarity.
• Talking about national pride won't make you any friends at parties but talking about the success of the national football team will.
• And on that note, you know that football involves 11 men and a round ball, and that, while Germany has the best football team in the world England and Holland have the worst (Australia is pretty ok!).
  
• You don't even notice that you are regularly inside beautiful buildings, hundreds of years old, that were destroyed in war(s) only to be rebuilt in their original style.
• You are not surprised by the lack of skyscrapers in the cities.
• You are surprised and somewhat shocked when customer service staff or waiters are friendly to you.
• You start to think that Australia's entire area is filled with poisonous snakes and spiders.
• You've seen heaps of Europe but not much of Germany.
• You're used to seeing dogs everywhere - on the streets, in trains, trams and buses etc. - bare are surprised when you hear a dog bark.
• You know that beer, sausages and sour kraut are not just German stereotypes.
• You are used to travelling anyway within 50km of home on a fabulous public transport system for free!! (Well you paid 63€ per semester for the privilege)
• You don't notice anymore that although you've never touched a cigarette, your clothes constantly reek of smoke.
• You take it for granted that in bars you get table service!
• You are used to the question: "you're from Australia! Why on earth would you want to come here?"
• You know that Bavaria is not Germany and you can't speak Bavarian anyway.