Oktoberfest

I was just chatting to Madison, and her enthusiasm for life is infectious. Then I saw the counter on my profile about coming home... it says 129 days (that's til the end of semester). And you know, that's really not that many days left. I mean, obviously it is, and when you say that it's five months, then yeah, it's a long time. Actually in five months it'll be the night before the first day of semester. I realised that I need to get a move on and do all the things I wanted to do this year. I also really need to write in my journal, since I have abandoned that basically since arriving to Heidelberg. Hoppla!

Also, despite the massive amount of times I had to edit my last post because it just wouldn't format correctly, I am still in the mood for blogging, so thought I'd take advantage of that, and write about my last week.

Sunday

Well, starting with Saturday night - I barely slept, for no reason. I know I was still awake at 6am, despite trying to go to sleep for hours... and I must have dropped off sometime around then, then awoke at 8:45 to get up and get ready to collect Simon! After a bit of a debacle finding him (who would've thought the shuttle bus would go to the carpark, not the front of the hotel), brought him back here where we both wanted desperately to sleep, but didn't. I made us leave the house again around 2pm, at which point we did the 'Heidelberg tour'. If any of you come and visit, trust me, I have it down. Sure, there are other things you could see, but I show you the main things. I should start walking people up to the castle, though, rather than taking the Bergbahn. I'm sure it'd be better for me. That night, after a 9+ month break, we started watching Lost again. We'd finished season 4 off with Nick, and are now 7.5 episodes into season 5. Simon also vlogged.

Monday
After a delightful sleep in ("Sez it's 11:30!") we wandered our way down Hauptstr. on the hunt for an Autumn/ Spring coat for me, and a coat coat for Simon. I found a coat but didn't buy it, though I did buy two shirts and two pairs of shoes. Now, as we all well know, finding me shoes is mighty difficult, which is why I wear Converses all the time. So I bought a fur-lined pair of those (black, high-top) (I already have a pair of fur-lined low-tops), then we went to New Yorker, and I found YELLOW HIGH-TOPS! (Imitation, obviously)... but still, LOVE. Though I haven't worn them yet. That night we watched more Lost and it was great.

Tuesday
I started loading the newest How I Met Your Mother (streaming, obviously, because you're not allowed to download in Germany and streaming is a lovely loophole...) which had premiered the night before, though we ran out of time to watch it as we popped to H&M for me to buy my coat. After a VERY panicked and stressful bus and S-bahn ride to Bruchsal, we managed to catch our train to München! We also watched a couple of Lost episodes on the train, then finally arrived to meet Emma and Matt!

After the "800m" walk to the hostel (it felt like 5km, but was 1.6, according to Google) (but uphill with bags is never the best), and Emma and Matt had showered after being on a train for a really long time, we headed to Oktoberfest!!

My first impression was that it was like the show, just German. So that made it automatically awesomer. We had a quick walk around, then headed to the Hofbräu tent, where the Fanatics group was. We went on a 'tour' which I'm still not entirely sure was the best plan, though on Tuesday and Wednesday nights it worked out well as we had tables already and it was just easy to find the large group of loud Australians in yellow shirts. But then again, there was a large group of loud Australians in yellow shirts, and on Thursday no tables. Anyway, we eventually got beers (that is, a LITRE of beer), and after a while space at one of the tables appeared so we hopped up onto the bench and started singing along with the drunk masses.

After a while we sat down... and then two tables over, a fight broke out. That was interesting. Security arrived fairly soon afterwards, though, and they got kicked out.

I wasn't having that much fun until the band started playing AC/DC and the tables of Australians exploded. I mean, we were all singing along to the other songs, but at that point we ALL got up on the benches. After a trip to the ladies', Emma and I couldn't get back on the bench, so just hung out in the aisle chatting and singing along to the songs while drinking our massive beers (we were still on beer #1, Simon was on #3, though). Once we'd finished them, we left and wandered around outside with all the pretty bright lights. We made the boys buy us Lebkuchen (gingerbread hearts - WEARABLE SNACKS!), and they both played a side show and won crappy prizes. We all (yes, all) ate some Bratwurst (except Simon who ate Currywurst), then headed home - which was an adventure in itself as we didn't really know where we were going as we'd gone a different way on the way there. But we found the answer and everything was super.

 Wednesday
After waiting for the girls in our dorm to get raus, we all showered and got ready for the day. We decided to go out and explore Munich, and Emma was pretty keen to get a real Dirndl (as opposed to the skanky one she already owned). So off we walked, not really having any idea of where we were going, but walking just the same. We went into a fair few shops, tried some Dirndls on, and eventually found some for 20 Euro! (Just the Dirndl, the shirt and apron were extra, but still, cheap as!), so I decided to get a second one. A girl always needs a back-up Dirndl, after all ;)

After Italian for lunch, we headed back to the hostel to cut our Dirndls (they were really long, though I didn't end up cutting mine), and sew hearts onto the aprons to customise them and tie the outfit together (we're so creative!). The Fanatics group were meant to be leaving at 4pm, but when we went out there (after rushing a lot to get ready after our sewing session), no one was there. We worked out later that they'd just been running late, which was frustrating. But in any case, off we headed to the festival again, this time knowing exactly where to go (follow the masses, basically!)

Tonight we were in the Löwenbräu tent. The beer was a LOT nicer and also not as alcoholic. We hovered around the allocated tables for a while until some space freed up and we made it onto one of the tables. We made friends with the people sitting next to us, consumed beer, bought donuts and a Bretzel (which was then posed with by pretty much everyone on the table...)

As the night wore on, more and more beer was consumed (I managed two litres plus a litre of shandy that night!) and eventually we were all up on the benches dancing. So much fun. Though again frustrating that I was the only one who actually knew the words to the German songs. But I had great fun singing along by myself/ with the 29357360 Germans in the tent. A number of people actually thought I was German tonight, and I spoke a lot of German too (which probably helped convince them, as they were mostly Australian). This was definitely the best night for me (ha, ha, ha). The beer was better, and I had the (alcoholic) confidence to speak to randoms in German or English, PLUS I got to wear my Dirndl (which makes any night a good night!)... all in all just a really, really fun night.

I look mysteriously very tanned in this photo...

 We left the tent around 11pm, I think, then after searching for AGES to find a toilet, we couldn't get food from ANYWHERE because everything was shut! So, we followed the hordes of people to "the best Döner shop in Munich", according to a German guy I was talking to while in the line. And the falafel was indeed pretty good!

It was meant to look like we were in a barrel!

We got to take a guy on the stage to take this, he loved us haha

 Thursday
Was again a slow start, and none of us felt super fantastic. I wasn't hungover, but I had also had very little sleep due to a certain snorer. We made our way to the Dirndl shop of yesterday so that I could purchase a handbag shaped like a Bretzel (which is a pretzel, for all you non-German speakers out there). It was 20 euro, but so worth it for the novelty factor! I also bought some Bretzel earrings :D

After lunch, we headed back and decided to have a rest because we were all just feeling bleh. Around 3:30 I think it was, we headed to the festival, much more subdued than the previous day. I chose to wear my main Dirndl again (as opposed to the back-up Dirndl), even though it was a bit smelly and a lot beery from yesterday. Matt however was feeling even worse than the rest of us, so he and Emma ended up going home after we'd had a wander around the... I was about to write showgrounds, haha. 

Well, okay!

Simon and I went to the Paulaner tent which was where the group was meant to be that night, eventually found them, though no one we recognised from the previous day, unfortunately. It was not the best night, and the beer wasn't as good, and we left pretty early on. We purchased snacks, then went back to the hostel to get an early night.

Friday
We awoke reasonably early, packed up, then Emma and I went to have breakfast as it was included in the price and we hadn't taken advantage of it the previous two mornings. We checked out and made our way to the train station where we eventually parted ways - Emma and Matt to Füssen to see Neuschwanstein, Simon to the airport to fly to Manchester, and I of course made my way back to Heidelberg, full of fond memories and sick of 'heyyyyy, hey baby, ooh, ahh, I wanna knooooowww if you'll be my girl', which Oktoberfest seemed to have a love affair with (well, just that part, actually).

There were some not so fun times in there that I haven't written down, but despite those, I had a fantastic week. As I wrote as my status; there's just something about wearing a Dirndl standing on a bench (I even stood on the table at one point on Wednesday! And not just to get to the other side, which I also did a bit, haha), litre of beer in hand, singing along to English/ German songs :)

Hufflepuff

I got my Pottermore email on Saturday! I didn't really go on it for very long though, as I went out to Heidelberger Herbst. But I'll talk about that later, probably in a different post.


Yesterday I spent a bit of time on Pottermore, and have finished chapter 7, during which I got sorted into Hufflepuff. At first I was not happy with it (I in fact exclaimed HUFFLEPUFF?! in disbelief), but after reading the description of the common room and so on, I'm happy to be in the trustworthy and loyal house.


Once you’ve opened the barrel, crawl inside and along the passageway behind it, and you will emerge into the cosiest common room of them all. It is round and earthy and low-ceilinged; it always feels sunny, and its circular windows have a view of rippling grass and dandelions.


There is a lot of burnished copper about the place, and many plants, which either hang from the ceiling or sit on the windowsills. Our Head of house, Professor Pomona Sprout, is Head of Herbology, and she brings the most interesting specimens (some of which dance and talk) to decorate our room – one reason why Hufflepuffs are often very good at Herbology. Our overstuffed sofas and chairs are upholstered in yellow and black, and our dormitories are reached through round doors in the walls of the common room. Copper lamps cast a warm light over our four-posters, all of which are covered in patchwork quilts, and copper bed warmers hang on the walls, should you have cold feet.

That sounds rather delightful to me, really! Also it is the yellow house and we all know that yellow is my favourite colour.

Today I continued a bit further on my quest through Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and have accrued house points for Hufflepuff (interestingly, I don't know anyone who has been sorted into Gryffindor. I know a Slytherin (Laura), and a Ravenclaw (Anna), but no Gryffindor yet). I'm finding that a lot of the background/ interactive pictures are more the way that I'd imagined Hogwarts (or the other locations), and Diagon Alley looked rather like the Shambles indeed.

There have been several moments at which I've thought that I would enjoy this a whole lot more if I were ten years younger, because it is almost exactly what my twelve-year-old self would have liked, and indeed what I wanted. Some parts have reminded me of various fan websites, and even the official website, and I think it's sad that this wasn't available when I was younger, but I am of course happy that it has come out now, now that everything is over.

It's also really good to be getting all the extra information from J.K. Rowling about the characters, or places, or development of specific things.

So, so far I have enjoyed my 'unique online experience'. I'm up to chapter... maybe 13? I don't remember, and 'due to overwhelming demand, [I] can't access Pottermore right now' to check, so you'll just have to believe me.

Another positive of it is that it means spending less time on Facebook. Though honestly, anything could take me away from Facebook at the moment. Since Google+ went public on... Wednesday?, the layout changed,  and it is just not good. Sure, I've previously been one of those 'I want the old Facebook!' people... but now more than ever, I am. I do not enjoy the thing in the top-right corner that tells me every single thing that every single person in my friends list does. I don't care about most of it; the important (?) things are put in the news feed anyway. I get that they're trying to keep people, but I have actually navigated away from Facebook several times in the last few days because I just don't like it. And if a media student is using Facebook less, I'm pretty sure other people are, too. We have a pretty high tolerance for new things - we have to - but this is just going too far.

Kekse, Rock, und Alkohol

Hallo! Don't worry, I shan't write the whole post in German. I would fail miserably and it would be terribly embarrassing. I've had a good few days since I last wrote... and I don't mean since my ridiculously massive post about Harry Potter and Glee, though there have indeed been a good few days since then, but 'good' and 'few' have different meanings in that context. Oh, English.

Anyway, after a lazy Wednesday, on Thursday I went to Rewe to buy some walnuts, margarine, and pizza (as Friday is Pizzatag). I also went to a fabric shop and bought some white cotton that I can use as lining for a dress. Once I got home, I decided that I really needed to wash my bed linen again because it smelled so bad. I will never, ever use machine 2 again. Anyway, while that was going, I came back here and baked cookies. However, we only have two oven trays, and one of them is actually a pan that is oven-safe, in which Odett had made an apple cake a few days before. So therefore there was only one oven tray, so I could only get half of the dough through at a time. But then by the time the oven warmed up (I forget that it's slower than the oven at home), I could only get the first half through, then I had to go and get my washing. But it was all fine, then I came back and finished, did the dishes, ate a couple of cookies, and hung up my washing. The cookies are delicious and I am excited to get home to have an actual cup measure as well as readily available good brown sugar. Because at the moment, I am just using a mug (which I have been using for the whole time as the cup measure and figure that as long as I'm consistent it should turn out okay...) but they're always just slightly different here from at home. And not in a good way.

Anyway, later that night I thought to myself that instead of just watching another movie or more episodes of QI, I should do something constructive, so construct something I did! I made a skirt from some fabric I bought in March or April. At the time I was very unhappy with how it turned out, but wore it on Friday and am now fairly pleased with it. I may even connect my phone to my computer to put some photos up.

Ignore that this is not focussed and remember I was using a phone camera.
I have since added a second button. They are in lieu of a zip because  my zip skillz are not super, esp when I'm not following a pattern, as I clearly was not. But notice (if you can), the ditch stiching. Even though half the time I clearly missed the ditch.

And ignore whatever's going on with my hair - I had just got out of the shower.
The skirt also features a pocket. YAY POCKET!

Friday I didn't really do much during the day. Went into town to get a parcel from Mum (yay!), then came home and skyped with Simon for a while. I made him weigh his bag to be sure he wasn't over 23kg. He wasn't. I then had mini pizzas for dinner. I'd just settled into my trackies when I was asked by one of the Irish girls I met on Tuesday if I was going out that night, so got ready and headed three stops towards town to meet the other two Irish girls. We pre-drank at their place, then headed to the Brass Monkey. Everyone was there already and much jolliness and frivolity took place. We followed the Italians (I think it was the Italians?) who said they were going dancing, but on the way people got distracted by food, so ended up standing in the street for ages waiting for people to buy food.

While we were standing outside, there was a group of Germans standing near us, who eventually came up and asked if we were from England or America. "England, Ireland, Australia", was our answer. Then we talked to them for a couple of minutes, and one of them asked why I could speak German if I'm from Australia (yes, yes, we're isolated from the rest of the world, I know), and I answered in German (as it was asked of me in German). Then the guy who was standing next to me asked me to speak German, and I had no idea what to say, but spoke some anyway, and he told me my German is really good, and better than a lot of people from abroad who live in Germany. So I was quite chuffed.

Eventually we found the others (and by the others I mean SO MANY PEOPLE), and then proceeded to dance in our little corner... then we moved downstairs and danced on the benches next to the tables. A few people tried to dance on the table too, but it was a little too rickety. So much fun, though! Perhaps because you were always told to not stand on chairs or tables, unless you had to reach something high, I suppose... and then here we were just dancing on them! It was fantastic.

At 2:40am, the music was turned down (not off, just down), and the house lights came on. So we made our way back onto the street and stood there waiting for someone to make a decision. Finally one was made, and we ended up at a club that we were at previously but didn't go into. We were told, however, that there were too many of us and we wouldn't fit inside because it was small. So Laurence and I volunteered to go home (as we were discussing it anyway), and quickly bailed. We walked together to Bismarckplatz and chatted while waiting for my bus which came after fifteen minutes I believe. I swear I was just grinning to myself the whole busride home. Luckily there were only four people on the bus, all spread out, so I don't think anyone saw me look like a loon.

It was a really fun night, and part of me wishes that I'd got into the going out last semester. But part of me is really glad that I didn't, partly because I'm sure eight months of not drinking did me good, but mostly because I think it will help separate the two semesters into two different experiences. Which is indeed what they are, but I know that I need to be sure not to try to compare them, because they will be so different. For one thing, this time around there'll be Christmas markets! :D


Today is Saturday and I did nothing, really. Although I did clean my room as SIMON ARRIVES TOMORROW! Very excited about that, and about Oktoberfest which is next week. So if I don't blog between now and Friday, you'll now know why.

SIMON IS ALMOST HERE

Die beste Woche meines Lebens, or Glee and Harry Potter week

Ok, I started this post when I got back from the Glee/ Harry Potter adventure. I didn't ever finish it, but I think I should get back into blogging. Plus Mum said she was still waiting for this post, so I thought I should get onto it.

I got back this afternoon from the BEST WEEK OF MY LIFE. You might have noticed that I don't blog all that often anymore (unfortunately), but this was just such an amazing experience that I need to write about it, more than just captions on photos on Facebook will allow. Also there are a whole lot of people who have asked about it, so having this here is probably easier than writing everything out in seventeen different chat windows... yes, I am still lazy.

Our adventures started on Thursday at 4:45 when Laura and I left class early. We met Grant outside Max-Weber-Haus because he kindly agreed to be our pack-horse take our books home for us (so we didn't have to take them away). We all caught the bus to the train station, then, after collecting our suitcases, Laura and I hopped on an S-Bahn to Mannheim, then on another train to Frankfurt airport.

For some reason (probably because we hadn't checked in already... ;), we weren't sitting together, though I was behind her. She was sitting next to a hilarious Irish man who thought that Gollum was part of Harry Potter, and who laughed at us for going to Dublin to see Glee live (as most people did...). He did tell us some things about Ireland and Dublin though, and was rather entertaining. As a result, I got WAY more pages of Harry Potter und die Heiligtümer des Todes (HP7) read than Laura. We eventually found our hostel and checked into our shoebox room. My mattress was super uncomfortable because I could feel every spring, and any time either of us moved, the whole (bunk) bed moved.

However, our first impression of Ireland was AWESOME. First there was the super nice man on the plane, then when we got off the bus from the airport, we asked some other people if we could look at their map (we'd forgotten to take the one from the airport... hoppla). Then we got to a large intersection, and were just standing there looking lost, when a guy walked past, looked back, and said 'are you lost?' He turned out to be a tour guide and pointed us in the right direction. Everyone is just SO friendly!!

Friday
This morning we went on the free tour (the same company that the friendly tour guide worked for). Paul was our guide, and he was hilarious and Irish. So it was nice listening to him for 3 hours ;) after that we decided to go shopping, but don't think we were super successful. THEN we went to T.G.I. Friday's because you know, it was Friday and we don't have those in Australia. It wasn't that awesome. But it was still cool. We had free hot chocolates that night! YAAAAAAY! Best hostel ever.

Saturday
The hostel offered a free walking tour of Howth, which is a seaside town, so we decided to do that. One of the guys from the free tour yesterday happened to be on it, and we also met another Adelaide girl, who had ALSO travelled to Dublin to see Glee live! (She was au pairing in Italy, she didn't come all the way from Australia ;)

The walk, however, turned out to be a hike up and down cliffs (well, not actually, but on the hills which were half cliff ;)) so we were pretty tired by the time we (eventually) got back to Dublin. We ended up chatting to the receptionist, Emma, for a fair while, because we asked the best way to get to the O2, she laughed at us for going to Glee, then we just talked for aaaages! She was lovely. Defs our favourite. We went upstairs and got ready... I wore a Starkid shirt, and Laura had a Glee shirt. Best story ever, hey. Anyway, so we went to where we'd arranged to meet Catherine, and Zach (the guy from the tour yesterday as well) was also there. We tried to find somewhere suggested in Zach's Lonely Planet (lol) but it didn't seem to exist anymore, so we ended up near the O2 paying a huge amount for some spicy noodles. The only vegetarian thing there was chips, which I'd had for lunch, so I just asked the boy to get as little chicken in the noodles as possible. He did very well! And I'm pretty sure I managed to pick it all out :D

Anyway, so then we parted ways with Zach, and hung out in the foyer of the O2 for a while with Catherine (who was 11 rows in front of us), then around 7:50 we heard cheering coming from inside, so freaked out and though it was starting 10 mins early!! Once we'd run inside, however, it became apparent that it was just all the teenaged girls screaming at photos that were being shown on the screen. Yes. Photos.

Before the main act, there was some random dance act. I don't really have a huge interest in dance, but some of them didn't have shirts on, so that was nice ;)

EVENTUALLY... IT STARTED.

They were really good performers, and their voices were really strong (especially Mercedes'!) Of course my favourite part was the Warblers part... but then Darren Criss joined in with the Glee Club too! I took a lot of photos and videos (even though we were told not to take video, haha, such a rebel ;), so they'll go up on Facebook I guess. I think I'm rushing through Glee because I want to get to Harry Potter. Sorry about that, though I guess it makes for less reading for you guys ;) we decided to walk back because it would've been too crowded on the tram, but we were so excited and hyped up (we met back up with Catherine) that it didn't seem far at all! I was wearing my Starkid shirt, as I mentioned, so on the way there, I got some high-fives for being a Starkid, and then afterwards someone offered me a delicious Redvine :D totally awesome :D

Sunday
After a few days of getting up early, we were pretty much dead, but stupidly decided to book a day trip for today. We went to the Wicklow Gap, Blessington Lakes, Glendalough, and saw handweaving at Avoca. It was all really pretty, and we both bought a pair of knee-high socks at Avoca. Yaaay! We hung out for ages with Emma again tonight. She is so hilarious, and also gave us many wonderful suggestions for Barcelona and Edinburgh.

Monday
We went to the Leprechaun Museum today. That's right, there is A MUSEUM OF LEPRECHAUNS! It was basically this woman taking us through some different rooms, telling us the history of leprechauns and so on. The best room was the giants' room, where there was HUGE FURNITURE. We of course took many, many photos on the giant chairs, with huge teacups on our heads... as you do. But that was fun. There was also a 'fire' (it was a projection into a 'fireplace'). I decided it would be wise to try to use floo powder to get to Diagon Alley. So I threw some, spun around.... and smashed into the wall. Luckily my camera, which was being used to record it, cuts the last second off videos because it couldn't be helpful and finish when you actually press the button... but anyway, we have a (very dark) video of me spinning... but no wall smash. I'm sure you're all very disappointed. For the rest of the day we just walked around. We tried (in vain) to find Harry Potter costumes (cloaks or similar), and had another experience of Irish loveliness - we were walking up and down a road because Emma at the hostel had looked up costume shops for us, and there was apparently one on this road. We walked to the end, though, and couldn't find it. So we went into a shop that was quiet (as in, there were no customers) and asked the woman there if she knew of any on this street. I think it's worth noting here that we were also probably blown away with people's willingness to help because we actually asked things, and understood their answers and were able to engage them further, because English was a fluent common language for all of us. Anyway, she spent a good ten minutes searching for costume shops in the naehe... erm, nearby. I think she was really bored because she had no customers, but still! Lovely!!! That night I think we went and got pizza. Or that may have been the night before. I don't really remember. We started playing Scrabble. We were going to play Denglisch Scrabble (words from either language acceptable), but then two other girls from England came over and asked to play with us so we ended up just playing in English... though some of the worlds were fairly er... made up ;)

Tuesday

Today we went to LONDON! After finally playing our Denglisch Scrabble game, we left the hostel where we'd been hanging out (our flight wasn't until the afternoon). We got there safely and uneventfully, and Madison, who lives in London met us at Paddington with a sign saying our surnames :D We went to our hostel, up five flights of really narrow stairs, and discovered that we were sharing with two Asians. We thought one was probably a woman because there was a leopard-print bag and a hairdryer around. We later found out we were mistaken, and it was two men. Two Asian men who snored. We dubbed them the snasians. They were nice, but snored. As it turned out, we didn't spend a lot of time in the room anyway.

We met up with Kate, who had come from Freiburg that morning, and the four of us headed out to get some food (pizza). When we got back, we went to the kitchen to use the wifi, and Kate went up to bed while Laura, Madison, and I were just looking stuff up on the free half hour of internet we got. Then we were going to check out what was going on at Trafalgar Square, as Madison had read in the paper that there were already people camping out a few days before. Then our internet ran out, so we decided to take a trip to Trafalgar Square at 10pm, because WHY NOT?

So onto the tube we hopped, got off at Charing Cross, and walked down towards Trafalgar Square. As we were waiting for the lights to change, two guys were next to us, holding what looked like a tent and sleeping mats. So, I asked them if they were going to camp out for the premiere... and indeed they were. Together the five of us approached the security guard at the edge of the Square, and he told us what the dealio was. The wristbands to get into the viewing pens were being given out at 10am on the Wednesday, and everyone who camped out would put their name on a list and would be guaranteed wristbands. We three asked if we'd be able to get them if we came back in the morning, and he said he didn't know, but that if we stuck around with the two guys for a while, put our names down with them, and then went home and came back the next morning, we'd still be able to. He was our favourite, he was great!

So together the five of us walked up to where the line was for campers to put their names down. There were already a lot of people around. We all introduced ourselves - the boys were Sean and Dan, from America. Though as it turns out, they actually live in England. But we said we were from Australia, and nothing about living in London/ Germany ;) anyway, so they were lovely, and then somehow, don't even know how, we decided that we too should camp out. Part of it was the atmosphere, and the mounting excitement, a lot of it was stupidity. But also not wanting to miss out. So we left to go and get supplies before the tube shut (and also to shower!) and eventually made our way back, where the boys had set up their tent. OH WAIT, they weren't allowed to, because it's illegal to erect structures on Trafalgar Square. Yeah, seriously. There were people who had been camping for six days, and they were under tarps and umbrellas because they weren't allowed tents.

The three of us, however, did not have a tent. We didn't have sleeping bags. We had a picnic blanket that I'd purchased in Dublin (it was so pretty, it had flowers on it and it folded up to a handy size with a handle!), Laura and I had coats, we had our umbrellas (though it wasn't raining, they helped with stopping the wind), and we had hoodies. It was so cold. SO, SO, SO cold, lying on concrete all night. At least it didn't rain. I didn't sleep, though I got close a couple of times. But then the cold was just too much and the concrete too hard. Around 5am, Madison and I made a hot chocolate run to McDonald's and they were SO WARM AND DELICIOUS! 

I realise I haven't described where we were sleeping, waiting. We were in cages.

Most people were around the edges, and had been huddled against the walls all night, some with umbrellas over them, some with nothing... As the sun was coming up, the group opposite us, with whom we'd started talking, started singing The Circle of Life. I love my generation.

Wednesday

Those are the cages of the people who had been there from up to six days before. They were groups 1 and 2 (that is relevant later).

Laura, Madison, and I made another Maccas run probably about 8am? Maybe earlier? I don't really remember. Anyway, while we were gone, they squashed everyone who'd camped overnight into half the space. It got crowded.

Then we waited. We read a bit, and talked a bit, and tried to watch some AVPM (but it wasn't loud enough), and sort of dozed a bit. At one point, someone yelled out 'IS ANYONE HERE FROM AUSTRALIA??' and we looked up and yelled YES!!!! ...turns out these girls were on the radio, and they'd asked for Australians or Canadians. Laura did most of the talking, but I got to contribute some too! :D

Eventually, at 10, people in pen 1 started moving. The wristbands were starting to happen!!!! Excitement was building. But it took about an hour and a half to distribute those wristbands. Then they moved onto pen 2.

At this point, we started discussing the fact that we had NOTHING with us for camping, and that if we had to do it for a second night with nothing, we would die. Madison and I decided to go and get some sleeping bags/ a tent (apparently we were to be allowed to put up tents, though actually I think that was a rumour because there were no tents that night...). We figured we had about an hour and a half, because even if they got through pen 2 faster, they couldn't get through the entirety of our pen before we got back. Or so we thought.

I took this photo from the balcony of the National Gallery.
It probably shows less than half of the people waiting.

We were going as fast as we could, but Madison took us to a place that was 20 mins away on the tube to get sleeping bags. We grabbed three, and ran back to the tube, then ran from Leicester Square tube stop down to Trafalgar Square, because Laura had called and said that they were starting on pen 3. I called again as we were running, and Laura said that they'd tried to get our wristbands, but couldn't so we'd have to just go and ask... but didn't know how well that'd work...

We were pretty worried. We'd camped out for these wristbands, and just left at the worst possible moment!

Madison, however, is very confident, and just walked up to one of the security/ wristband people, and said that we were told to get wristbands because we'd just gone to get sleeping bags (clearly - we were carrying them). He told us to go to another guy. So we did, and asked him the same thing. He looked over at the first guy, who held up two fingers, and so then we got our wristbands.

Simple as that.

Simple as that.

No camping needed.

No running needed.

No freaking out needed.

But we got them, and that's the important thing.

We went into the 'viewing pen', which was covered in bedding and people, and found our crew. We'd also been joined by Madison's housemate's younger sister (the housemate was at work), so we had quite a little group there, with us four girls, Stephanie, and the boys. We spread out as much as we could. 

Then it started to rain.

Luckily, Madison and I, while stocking up on things like water and snacks, had thought to get garbage bags in case it rained. So we put everything we could into the bags to keep our stuff dry, and huddled under umbrellas, in the stylish ponchos we'd purchased the night before. The rain cleared eventually, and we went back to our waiting. We drew things on our arms ('Dumbledore's army', the Deathly Hallows symbol, 'I must not tell lies', a home-made Dark Mark...), listened to music, chatted, took photos..

SO EXCITED!

This is actually the screencap of a video that I took of the girls sitting on the fountain reading.
But there were people all around reading Harry Potter. It was brilliant.

But it was really very boring. We also napped a little. Our spot was against the fountain, so there was a super comfortable concrete ledge that we used as a semi pillow for a while.

WRISTBAND!!!!

This was in some sort of free paper that got passed around. "nasally challenged". lol.

Later that afternoon/ night, we took it in turns to go and have showers and come back. During the day, they'd been setting up a stage with a giant 'HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 2' across the top of it. They kept going through the night. They also kept testing the sound. 'I KNOW WHAT HE DID. HE DEFILED IT WITH DARK MAGIC!' (I picked that as being the Grey Lady... and I was right!)

There was such a feeling of community there, though. We were all camping out because we loved one thing: Harry Potter. We were the dedicated ones. The ones who loved it that much. Harry was a part of our childhood, a part of us.

Made with tent poles. I guess tents weren't allowed after all.

Sure, we were sitting in what somehow became a main walkway, and that was annoying to have people climbing all over us all day and all night. There were people who somehow moved into some of the room we'd taken, and there were people who turned up late in the day and took even more of the room (one of them was wearing an ASU shirt... just sayin'...). But all in all it was good.

It was kind of drizzling when we eventually crashed in our deliciously warm sleeping bags, so I arranged the umbrella to cover our heads and bags (which were also still in the garbage bags). I think I woke a couple of times, but went straight back to sleep. It was just so much more comfortable than the night before. I was also wearing leggings as opposed to jeans, so that helped.

Thursday, or the day of the premiere

Around 5am, we woke up because people were moving. Lots of people were moving. Someone yelled out that the people from the back were trying to move forward, and that we needed to hold our ground.

How DARE they?! They had clearly arrived WAY later than us; some of them had in fact only just got there! And they were trying to steal OUR spots?! I DON'T THINK SO. A group of teenagers came and stood in the walkway that was in front of us. We were still in our beds. They can't take our spots if we're taking up ALL THE SPACE! Dan asked if they were going to stand there for the next 10 hours. They said they would. About 15 minutes later, they sat down.

Eventually we had to concede some space - we had to get up and go to the toilet and get food and so on and so forth. So we sat on the edge of the fountain. Made sense to us, it was a ready-made seat for the day, and we could stand up on it once the stars started arriving!

The finished stage! AND red carpet!

 There were official crowd control people walking around, and there were two in each fountain. Eventually we got bored of sitting, and Laura and I stood up on the edge. One of the guys came over and told us to get down, that we weren't allowed to do that. We got down, and asked if we'd be allowed to once the event started, or be allowed to kneel, or anything? And the guy said that he'd be a bit more lenient once it started. He was lovely.

So we waited around a bit more.

And a bit more.

There were interviews going on, and people asking the crowd to wave.

And then it started raining. And when I say raining, I mean RAINING. Luckily, we still had our ponchos and our things in the garbage bags. We also had umbrellas, and so just sat there, on the edge of the fountain, waiting it out. 

That sign says 'Kangeroo took too long, so we flew 28 hours to get here. Aussie, Aussie, Aussie!'
Yes. KangEroo.

View from the toilet line. It doesn't look like there are that many people. But believe me, there were.

THEN, they decided that they had to turn the fountains on! Yes, while it was raining, they had to turn the fountains on. We were not the only ones sitting on the edge of the fountain. There were people all around it. We did get some warning of it, but it was still so ridiculous that we didn't think it would actually happen. But then it did. About fifteen minutes later, to chants of "TURN IT OFF! TURN IT OFF!", we succeeded, and they turned them off. It of course didn't make any difference to us (we actually stayed quite dry, thanks to our ponchos), but a lot of people got a lot wetter than they would've just from the rain.

It rained on and off all day.

Maybe 45 minutes before 4pm (which was when people were due to start arriving), one of the guys wading in the fountain came up to us and told us that if we stood or kneeled on the fountain edge, that we'd be kicked out.

We panicked.

We were angry.

We had guarded that spot all day, all night, and then all day again. FOR NOTHING! It was way far back from the barrier, we were counting on getting good photos because we obviously weren't going to get autographs, and we'd resigned ourselves to that. But now NOTHING? We couldn't see over all those people!

One of the boys (I think Sean) went off to see if he could find us a better spot. He came back and reported that they were still letting people into the viewing pens at the top of the stairs.

Then the other one went off and came back and said that he'd found us an awesome spot where no one was, right where they came in. After a lot of umm-ing and ahh-ing, we decided to go there. We wouldn't have been any worse off in the new spot than we were there, in any case. But seriously... best spot ever, so we thought.

That's right, that's the red carpet RIGHT THERE. 

While we were waiting there, we were interviewed! Though I missed half, I was in the toilet. Though I think we were interviewed twice, actually, and I was there for the second one! But we didn't end up in the coverage :(

About 15 minutes before 4pm, when everything was scheduled to start, it stopped raining! The sun came out, and the fountains were turned on again.

Then, at 4(ish), the first car pulled up. And Rupert Grint (Ron) got out! We all started madly cheering and waving and yelling and taking photos. He signed a few autographs for the people on the other side (you can see them in the photo above), then went into Trafalgar Square, onto the first stage, then past the photographers, then up onto the main stage. We couldn't really see all the way over there, and we were at such an angle to the screen that we couldn't see that, either. Nor could we hear anything. But that was ok.

Then the twins, James and Oliver Phelps (Fred and George) arrived! More cheering. More yelling. They disappeared when we were distracted by the arrival of Tom Felton (Draco), but they soon reappeared at the top of the road - there were going down the masses, signing everything, and even taking photos with people! We were so excited!

More people arrived, more big names, as well as some lesser-known ones too. We cheered and we took photos and we yelled as loudly as they could for them to come over to us... but none of them did.

But that was okay, the Phelps twins were going to come over to us! Right? WRONG.

They went up and down, and they just didn't come to our section.

So disappointing. I'd given up hope. But then Helen McCrory came over to us! And she signed autographs and spoke to us. And that was just the start.

I think it was probably partly because they'd seen her come over, but people started to form a mass behind us once they realised that actually, this was a pretty awesome spot. After more people were behind us, more actors came over.

Jamie Campbell Bower (young Grindelwald)

We called over to Alex Watson (who doesn't play anyone, he's just hot, and Emma Watson's brother), and he came over and talked to us, signed autographs, and posed for a photo. And high-fived Madison!

Alex Watson high-fiving Madison!

Emma Watson (Hermione)

David Thewlis (Lupin)

And then... J. K. ROWLING ARRIVED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And looked as excited to see us as we were to see her!

Once everyone had arrived and been chivvied up the red carpet, the trio, director, producer, and J.K. made speeches on the stage. As there was no one more arriving, we conceded our places, and went closer so that we could hear. They were all really emotional, and I am not ashamed to admit that I cried. As in, tears streaming down my face.

It's okay, they did too.

 The speeches were eventually done. Everyone made their way back up the red carpet to the cars waiting to take them to Leicester Square for the film.

 OH YEAH THAT HAPPENED. IN A PHOTO WITH THE TRIO. HECK JA!

After they left, Darren Criss (Harry in http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmwM_AKeMCk" target="_blank">A Very Potter Musical, and Blaine on Glee) and Joe Walker (Voldemort in AVPM, Umbridge in AVPS) also appeared in front of the photographers! I was SO excited!!! Unfortunately, they were really being hurried along... but while Darren was having photos taken, Joe was kind of standing off to the side. So I yelled his name. Loudly. And he looked in our direction! Then started moving up, signing things for people. And he *almost* got to us, then they made them both go up the stairs, up to the cars. Laura yelled out "HAVING SECOND THOUGHTS ABOUT PIGFARTS POTTER?" and he LOOKED AT US IN THE FACE!!! Then Joe was sneaky and signed some more autographs. And he was LOOKING at me, and making EYE CONTACT (like, not just eye contact, I'm saying EYE CONTACT), the sort of eye contact that says I WILL SIGN YOUR PIECE OF PAPER NEXT, THANK YOU FOR BEING A FAN and then he had to leave and I didn't get his autograph after all :(

And that was that. That was the end. It was all over. So we all sat on the concrete in the middle of the square. I cried. So many emotions! I was so happy, and so sad... but that's for a later blog post.

We weren't allowed out of the square for a while, but eventually we could go, and so go we did. We were SO tired! We had some Asian for dinner, then went back to the hostel. My friend Em was there, having arrived that day after dealing with French bureaucracy, so I talked to her for a bit, but eventually just had to go and sleep for a century.

Friday

After not nearly enough sleep, we set off to explore London. We took to the tube to St Paul's, then walked down to the river (and Millennium Bridge, the bridge the Death Eaters destroyed in Half-Blood Prince), and along the Thames. We bought theatre tickets for Chicago that night, then went back to Trafalgar Square to relive our favourite moments. This included lying on the floor.

The whole square was completely clear, devoid of any sign that there had been 8000 people there the day before, with a whole lot camped out the night before. I am very impressed with the clean up team!

We also visited M&M world, which was AMAZING! Four levels of M&M fun!!! I'd seen photos of the one in New York, from people who have visited it... but I had no idea how amazing it'd be! We had pizza for dinner (it was Pizzatag, after all), then went to see Chicago.

I'd only seen the movie when we went to Oberhausen to see Wicked in German (did I even mention that I did that? Well, that happened), and I didn't love it. The show was good, though. Not amazing (though there were some incredible voices!) but still pretty awesome!

Then we crashed. In the room with the snasians.

Saturday

Kate left on Saturday morning, so Laura and I met up with Em and went to the Portobello Road Markets, about which I'd heard a lot, but had not made it there in any of my previous four London trips. They were pretty cool, though went for AGES and were basically the same as any other market, really. We had delicious cupcakes, though!

On our way back, Laura and I stopped into Hyde Park (though it was actually Kensington Park) just so she could say she'd seen it. We were SO tired and delirious, though. We found an Eis (ice cream) cafe that had free wifi, though, so stopped there for some delicious Eis, and caught up on five days of almost no internet (OH NO!). 

We went to see We Will Rock You that night, and it was really good, even though I don't know that much Queen, and the storyline was (obviously) built around the songs.

Sunday

Was the day that our trip came to an eventful close. We needed to get up at 4:30am to get a shuttle to the airport to get our flight. Laura's phone was charging, so I was the only one who'd set an alarm (we were on the top bunks). Mine went off... and I turned it off. And went back to sleep. Luckily, Mum texted at some point (ages after we needed to be gone), and it woke me up enough to realise that it was 5:43 (there we go, I remembered the time after all), and that we were SCREWED. So we jumped out of bed, threw our clothes on, and ran down the stairs, dragging our suitcases. Lloyd, our favourite receptionist friend (who is from Perth and made fun of us for camping out) called us a taxi. 

The taxi driver was lovely, he thought we were German, and then was just SO confused by how good our English was, haha. But we made the flight. We didn't have a lot of time to spare, but we made it, thank goodness.

The week was so amazing. SO amazing. I'm so blessed to have opportunities like this. :) 

OH NO THE BACKGROUND'S CHANGED!

Well, I've changed my background/ colour scheme (it comes automatically with the background) again. I made a few changes to the colour scheme, because some of it really hurt my eyes to read.... but I'm still not entirely convinced that I love it. It is yellow, and I do like Autumn... OH NO!!! Half the reason I like summer being over is because that means it's my birthday soon!! BUT NOT THIS TIME! Ahhh, another season crisis!

Anyway, I guess I'll leave it for a little while, but I just think that the left-hand side is too pale, so I might even change it right after I post this, and then you'll all be really confused. HaHA!

EDIT: I did change it. Completely! I'm not sure how I feel about it still... that everything's not connected to everything else, but I guess it'll be okay ;) also the background is of Bretzeln, and that makes me happy :D though then again, I don't know if that's something you can tell. Oh well. Mmmm, Ditsch Bretzeln.... I thought maybe it was sort of relevant, because I'm in Germany... ;)

Today I didn't do much at all. I kept meaning to do things... and then didn't. I was even going to bake cookies, but then discovered we have no nuts, though I thought we did. Perhaps I'll go and buy some tomorrow and make them. I did do my washing, though. One of the great things about it being the holidays means that there aren't many students out here (plus I heard that the new buildings have their own laundry rooms?), which means no waiting for a machine to be free! I think though that machine #2 last week messed up my linen wash (because I had both mine and Laura's to wash), and didn't rinse it out properly, because there were still suds in there when I took the washing out, and it took DAYS and DAYS to dry. I did washing on Thursday, and I didn't put it away until Sunday. FOUR DAYS OF DRYING?! I don't think so! Because my other load didn't take that long.

Tonight when I got my quilt cover/ pillow slip/ sheet out (because I washed the other set, they were too slippery and not very warm), they smell a bit (and in fact, my room was smelling a bit when I had them on the clothes horse)... SO, these won't be lasting long before I wash them again. If only a wash didn't cost 1.70. And I don't use the dryers because I don't know how. I mean, I understand how they function, I just don't know what I can put in there and it not shrink. Because I shrunk that yellow/ orange dress of mine by putting it in a dryer when I house sat last year :(

I guess in winter things won't take *too* long to dry as I'll have the heater on. Assuming it actually works properly... let's hope whatever was making it not work properly in March is fixed when they turn the heat back on, hey! We'll see.

Okay, I have an idea. I'm going to post the first half of the Glee/ Harry Potter trip, then work on the second half some more. YAY!

I would really like my Pottermore email...

Come on, I got early access, it's going to be open to the public in October... and it's almost October. They're sending emails every day now, apparently, but I still don't have mine! I bet I get it next week when I can't actually get on... because I'll be at OKTOBERFEST!!! :D pretty excited about that.

I've started blogging more (as you can probably tell), and I kind of like it. Even though most of the time the posts say nothing except that I've done nothing that day, it's still good for me to be writing, I think.

Pretty sure part of my dream was in German last night. I don't remember what happened, but I think my housemates were in my dream... which means that we were speaking in German. SO YAY FOR THAT! Second dream with German ever! :D

Today is Tuesday (though I have a feeling my blog might still be on Adelaide time, which is weird...) (EDIT: fixed! Though technically it's Wednesday anyway). I woke up quite late (maybe 1pm?) and eventually left the house about 3pm. I went to the post office, DM, then to Kaufland where I once again overkaufed... but oh well.

Tonight I went out to the Brass Monkey. I've been there twice before - once with Rick when I visited him last year, and once with Seb when he visited me (we're still not talking, apparently. I facemailed him the other day asking if he would recommend his Montpellier hostel and he never replied. Don't even know what I did.), but tonight was probably the most fun (sorry, Rick. That whole night was awesome). On my way from the bus stop, I heard two girls speaking English ahead of me so I asked if they were Erasmus students - they were, from Ireland. So I pretty much stuck with them the whole night, and met a bunch of people. It was a good night.

Started uploading my photos from The Great Schaff (the trip to the UK) last night, but got about two days in and stopped, haha. I'll get on it. My Dublin/ Glee/ London/ Harry Potter post is going to be seriously mammoth. I put it in Word the other day just for fun, and it was nearly 4000 words. It is going to need some EDITING.

Anyway, I should probably get to bed, I have a big day of doing nothing tomorrow ;) (though I did say I'd help Simon pack via Skype.. not sure how well it's going to work, but we can try.)

Sez's sea sex life

I'm constantly baffled as to how I get so many hits on this blog - a high of 31 the other day, hovering usually somewhere around 10. Which really is a lot of people to be looking at my blog every day. Because other than my parents, I don't know who would check it.

I raised my confusion with Simon...


Simon says:
*The title of your blog is "sez's life" and Z and X are very clsoe together
Simon says:
*so people are probably googling sex life
Simon says:
*and see yours come up
Simon says:
*and think its about your sex life
Simon says:
*and then they stay for the quality writing and forget hardcore pornography D:
Simon says:
*Problem solved
Simon says:
*Literally you are third if people type "sez life"


...though when I googled it, I wasn't even on the search results. I did get the history of sex in India, and asked if I meant 'sea life'...

And then Simon googled what the title of this post is. It came up with this: Sea Org's Willie Sez: Don't Whack Yer Own Willie!

Yes, you read that. Just click on it, and read a few sentences.

That raises the question 'what even IS Sea Org?!'

So we looked that up (). Here are some of my favourite parts. Firstly, the overview:

The Sea Organization or Sea Org is an association of Scientologists established in 1968 by L. Ron Hubbard, the science fiction writer and founder of Scientology. Its members are found in the central management organizations of the Church of Scientology as well as in individual churches. Initially created at sea, maritime customs and traditions persist today even in the land-based branches of the organization.

*sigh*

My next favourite part:
Members of the Sea Org sign an employment contract with the organization for one billion years.

WHAT
JUST
WHAT
ONE BILLION YEARS

Sea Org members, in accordance with Scientology beliefs, are expected to return to the Sea Org when they are reborn. The motto of the Sea Org is, "Revenimus" or "We Come Back" in Latin. Official statements from the Church of Scientology contend the contract is merely symbolic of the dedication members are expected to hold to the organization, and that members are free to leave if they wish.

Oh Scientology.

So anyway.

Yesterday was Sunday. In the morning, the first person I met in Heidelberg, my housemate Chrissi, moved out. I helped carry her stuff down to the riesen van that she'd hired and said goodbye. My new housemate, Nestan (sp?) is from Georgia, and moved in on Friday (though was staying with her mum, I think, until yesterday afternoon when her mum flew home). So I had a bit of a talk to her. Her German is really good. In the afternoon was the Stadtführung (city tour) from the same people who organised the pubcrawl. I decided to go because I might learn something (I did bail halfway through last time!) and for something to do. And I did learn some things, so that's good. Afterwards I went with Neil, Barbara, Alex, and Nikki (?) to get Eis, and it was delicious. Then I went to church. The whole day, it had been really, really muggy. Then, just as the service started, so did the rain. And I mean RAIN. With thunder, and lightning, and all sorts! It was pretty awesome. I liked the sermon, too. Veränderung ist möglich (change is possible).

Today is Monday. I woke around 11 I think, and could hear Odett (my other housemate - I don't know if I've mentioned them on here before. Just so we know, the fourth one is Vanessa, but she's at home right now) and Nestan talking in the kitchen (because you can hear everything from the kitchen) so I thought I would get up and join them. So I did. But I really haven't done anything today. Terrible, I know. I think though that I'll do some sewing a little later. I also started cleaning up my room but I have so much stuff. HOW?! I have only lived here for 6 months?! Ah well. Five months to go, friends.

A pubcrawl and the Neckarwiese

Last night I went on an Erasmus pubcrawl. Now, we all know from previous posts, that exchange students hate erasmus students. It's mostly because of that day when we were all waiting to register for whatever it was, and they sorted us into two lines, where we, the exchange students, had to stand for AGES waiting, whereas the erasmus students (I think just EU students) got to zip through. Then a lady came up and down the line shouting "ERASMUS! ERASMUS!" and we were all angry because we just wanted to go and enjoy the nice weather.

ANYWAY, it was good. There were so many people that turned up that they had to split us into four groups and take us to different pubs, which I'm fairly sure they hadn't reckoned with. I'd met some of Neil's friends (being the afore-mentioned English guy) but he and I got separated from them and ended up in a different group. So that was difficult, trying to talk to new people. We all know I'm no good at it. But I met people from Poland, Hungary, England, and Spain. And possibly other places though I'm pretty sure not. I started feeling a bit sick before midnight (though not from the alcohol, just generally not good) and so decided to leave. But WHO KNEW, there are no buses to where I live between 23:52 and 01:24. WHAT. WHY? How stupid. Anyway, so Neil, who had also left, and I just wandered the streets of Heidelberg, ended up at the Mensa where I had a tiny pineapple juice which actually lasted me quite a while, and then I caught the after midnight bus.

I CAUGHT THE AFTER MIDNIGHT BUS.

THAT'S RIGHT ADELAIDE, IT'S NOT TOO HARD TO MAKE AN AFTER MIDNIGHT BUS GO NEAR WHERE I LIVE.

So that was exciting.

Today I woke up a few times before I actually woke up, then didn't really do much for a while. Eventually I clothed myself in a summer dress and went out into the 29-degree day. I thought I should probably go out because there's rain forecast for all the days on my desktop gadget (three), and it is autumn now. But in any case, today was lovely. I just read some Harry Potter 7 (auf Deutsch, natuerlich!) and people-watched while sitting in the shade on the Neckarwiese. (Basically the banks of the Torrens, the Neckar just doesn't look as nasty as the Torrens).

After coming home after a couple of hours I made myself dinner (veggie burger, lettuce, avocado), a dip (avocado, sour cream, sweet chilli sauce), put the dip in the fridge for tomorrow (because I was full, just didn't want to make the dip with nasty looking avocado, though I suppose after being in the fridge overnight it might not look delightful... we'll see ;)), offered the housemate who is moving out tomorrow help, eventually helped her move boxes and her TV and all sorts of other things down to an apartment a floor below (I suppose so then there will be fewer stairs tomorrow), then came back to my room and started watching Rapunzel (which is the German Tangled that we saw at the cinema in Stuttgart). It's such a lovely film.

Photos on the internet

So today I noticed that an acquaintance from America posted a photo that was mine. I asked if he was still in Heidelberg or if he'd just stolen my photo (though obviously I knew the answer; I compared the photo he posted to the one I did and it was identical), and he said that it was probably mine; that it'd been passed round a bit. It's really weird that photos can do that these days. I mean, you obviously realise that you're uploading photos to the internet, but you don't think that people are going to post them as their own, you know? I guess I understand now why every third post on Tumblr is about people wanting credit for their graphics.

I went through a stage in first year when I put a tag on all the photos I took and put on my blog (at least, the ones I cared about), but I got lazy. And it's a photo of a destroyed building, I don't care that much. It's the principle.

Wednesday: woke up at 2:23pm. Didn't do much other than watch Pretty Little Liars. English boy Neil came to collect a quilt/ linen (as I inherited a lot from people leaving, and so posted on an Erasmus Heidelberg Facebook page about it) and he stayed and chatted for about an hour. Skyped with Grant.

Thursday: woke up about 1:30pm. Skyped with both the Simons in my life. Went into town, had a Bretzel and looked in H&M where I bought a top and a skirt. Came home. Did two loads of washing (best thing about the holidays - no one is here, so there is always a machine free! Today there were HEAPS so I could do both loads simultaneously!). Spanish guy came and collected pretty much the last of the things.

My room is so empty now... I can't imagine how it'll look once my clothes are dry and the clothes horse put away... there will be so much space! I don't think I'm ready for it.

It's so strange to have my room back to the way it was. It hasn't been that way since July 22nd. And that was a while ago. Don't get me wrong, loving having space in here again! It's just weird.

A stranger in a strange place.

It's really weird, going around a town that used to be so full of people I knew (or knew of, or had met once), knowing that I could now count on two hands the people I know here - that list comprises two housemates (one's moving out on Saturday), and the girls from my small group (from church). It's strange to walk around alone when I always used to have company. It's strange to only have to wait for the Ditsch girl to get one Bretzel; strange that I'm watching TV alone. Strange that at some moments I don't mind. Strange that at others I cry for an hour straight.

I was told in the semester gone that exchange is the best place to change yourself if you don't like who you are. Nobody knows you over here, and it's expected that you would have changed after living away from home, from everything and everyone familiar, for such a long time.

I don't think I've changed that much this semester. There are little things that I've noticed. I know that I've adopted turns of phrase from those around me. I know that I've spent more time watching TV and movies than a couple in winter hibernation, and that I've watched shows that I would never have watched alone. I know that I've painted my nails more this semester (three or four times) than I probably have since I finished school, and school holidays didn't automatically mean nailpolish. Perhaps you have to be further away to see the big changes. Perhaps I haven't changed at all. Perhaps this semester is the one that will change me entirely. Perhaps it won't. We'll just have to wait and see.

In any case, I'm going to try to blog more. My Harry Potter post is coming. I worked on it for hours a few nights ago. I'll try to talk about what I do each day. Maybe that will motivate me to leave the house so that I don't write:

Monday: watched Pretty Little Liars all day; ate chocolate. Went to sleep at 4:30am.

And instead can write;

Tuesday: skyped with my parents and chatted to some friends. Got a Bretzel for lunch. Put my name in the tandem partner box. Went to DM. Checked Bauhaus for a front bike basket (they still don't have any). Went grocery shopping. Met an erasmus student who came and got the laundry basket Grant left here. Finished season 1 of Pretty Little Liars.


Though I would add that on Monday, flowers were delivered to me from my parents, wishing me a happy second semester. Even though they're not here, even though no one's here, I am surrounded by good, supportive people. And for that I am truly thankful.

Everything's ruined.

*throws pancake out the window*

Seriously though.

Laura's gone.