Christmas Comes This Time Each Year

Points to anyone who can name the festive tune. Well, hope everyone is full of festive cheer and that lots of fun was had yesterday. It's rather strange writing a blog from home. In fact, it's rather strange to be home. Left Fulda in a bit of a mad rush. Not really sure what has happened to the last few months, well apart from the fact that they have flown by faster than a flock of geese (had goose for lunch, got the bird on my mind...) It's all been totally mad but a whole lot of fun. Now I'm back home, trying to get my breath back. Not sure I'll manage to be honest judging by the last few days. Arrived back in York on Thursday night. Had one hour to unpack, say hello to family and cats and then Matt and Cat descended on us. Had a lovely big meal and lots of fun. Matt gave me a cracking present, 4 months in the making. A highly original version of Top Trumps based on all things English. Will enjoy educating my Fulda mates when I return! The next day it was in to town to meet my York mates for coffee and cake, then back home to have a meal with Auntie Julie, Uncle Rog and cousin Alex. They left and it was catch-up with Jules and James before heading to church for my one service of the year. As those of you who know me will know, I don't do church, or Christianity, or in fact religion in general but I tend to make an exception for the Crib Service on Christmas Eve. Imagine a village church, lit with candles, full of infants (ranging from a few months to 10yrs in age) and their parents trying to keep them under control. The vicar is more like a primary teacher than a vicar and the service is highly entertaining and always involves a good sing-song and lots of audience participation, although sadly I am now too old to join in myself... After church it was back home for more yummy food, crackers and family fun and then the traditional dictation of 'Lucy and Tom's Christmas' and 'Twas the Night Before Christmas' by Mum before bed.

Christmas day involved lots of presents (thank you!), a visit to the neighbours' house for scrummy nibbles and lots of sparkling wine with Sandra, John and their 4 little girls:-) We returned home to find the oven hadn't worked so Christmas Dinner was delayed by a few hours. The Queen kept us entertained for 10mins of the intervening period (although her stress on religious and faith groups was a little too strong for my liking), we had a walk around the village and saw several families enjoying Christmas, complete with party hats. Christmas Dinner was worth the wait and we all went to bed feeling content. Today is Boxing Day. Me and Kate drove over to Dad's where we are now. Hellos and hugs, then more presents, food, a walk, Liverpool 2-0 Newcastle (half time score) and a nice log fire. Once again feeling content and my pulse is almost back to normal. Need a few days of relaxation now to prepare for New Years in Ed and then the return trip to Fulda on the 2nd. It's all go I tell you.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone!

ICEUS On Tour

Just returned from a fun-filled 4 days spent with my course people. Our location was the spa town (village) of Bad Liebenzell, located somewhere in the Black Forest. Our purpose was 3 days of seminars on European Law and 1 day in Strasbourg visiting the European Court of Human Rights and the European Parliament. Our accommodation was some 16th Century (at a guess) castle with gorge views over the town as well as fairly decent grub and a v cute little pub with self-service bar, which last night hosted our mini Christmas party (imagine candles, Glühwein, homemade German Christmas biscuits and Silent Night being sung in 7 or so different languages simultaneously.) It was all jolly good fun and really informative. Amongst other things, I learnt the decision-making processes in the EU, all about international courts of law (did you know that the European Court of Human Rights is the only international court which citizens themselves can file complaints to?), the opinions of a German Green EMP, that the European Parliament is a v cool building, that the standard of interpreters in the parliament varies a great deal, that the Council of Europe is an extremely ugly building, that the tastiness of Pfammkuchen is limited to the initial impressions and that I still can't speak French or ice-skate...
I have returned to Fulda feeling invigorated and experiencing new-found motivation to read more, study more, speak more and learn more French. It is my New Year's Resolution come early. Unfortunately right now I am very tired (still suffering from sore throat and a v attractive chesty cough) and so, guess what, it starts tomorrow :-)

[photo index (from top): Alberto&Yu at the European Court of Human Rights, Ragil,Bec,Firdavs&Ramona, me&Ragil in Heidelberg, Alberto,Chryssa,Bec&Ragil in Strasbourg, Bec&Ragil at Council of Europe and mini ICEUS Christmas party]

mmm, vitamin c

What would December be without illness? Well, better probably. I have been struck down by the dreaded lurgy. Have spent the whole of my 3-day weekend in bed, feeling sorry for myself. I have left the flat once since thursday night - me and Ragil went for a wander around christmassy Fulda, bought a christmas pressie, ate a beef döner (unbelievably good), went to a Glühwein stall and drank warm juice (you know I am ill when I choose juice over mulled wine). Exhaustion soon set in and so we came home and I haven't left since. Anyway, just to reassure you all. Ragil has been looking after me (thankyou:-) and I'm eating lots of oranges, and healthy foods and drinking lots of liquid. Hopefully it'll pass soon,..

On to more exciting things... Ruth has kindly provided us with a photo of the key suspect in the 'apple juice mystery' (see Stormy Skies comments) and I must say, he does look like he could have it in him to be an apple juice thief... Photos of any more suspects will be warmly welcomed. Don't want to bias the case by only naming and shaming one suspect.

Other things to note before I go and lie down again: Went to Karlsruhe last weekend with Ragil and a few others to visit an Indonesia evening of culture. There was Indonesian dancing, music, as well as a film about the country and lots of yummy yummy food. Mmm. Was v impressed by the whole event and Karlsruhe was pretty nice too. All in all it was a v enjoyable day, apart from maybe the fifteen or so minutes when we thought we were going to miss the last train home. But all's well that ends well as they say.
Oh and then last week a guy from the British embassy in Berlin came to Fulda to talk about Britain's Presidency of the EU. V interesting, for me especially. Never really heard the government's stance on all the EU issues and he did a v good job of towing the party line. It was actually quite propagandaesque. Spoke to him a bit afterwards. He was of the opinion that Britain has a diff attitude to the EU than say France and Germany because they joined later: When the EU project started it was about building peace in Europe and by the time Britain joined this had been achieved. Britain joined for economic reasons only, hence the lack of 'Euro-feeling" in GB. He also said that he felt he had more in common with say an Australian or a South Afrtican than with a German or a French person. This kind of surprised me actually. Personally I disagree. Maybe it's a generational thing, I am from Generation E after all...

One last thing. Can someone please let me know what Hannah's blog address is? Want to know what she's up to...
Ta muchly.
Take care one and all xx

Christmas is coming...

Christmas is coming
The geese are getting fat
Please put a penny
In the old man's hat
If you haven't got a penny
A ha'penny will do
If you haven't got a ha'penny
God bless you...


Woo. Am feeling very christmassy and have been for a whole week now. It's amazing what a little snow can do! Yep, last thursday it snowed and snowed and snowed, leaving Fulda covered in a blanket of white. The snow has remained, none of this Britainesque turning to slush after a couple of hours nonsense. The staying power of the white stuff is perhaps a good indication of current Fulda temperatures. It is in fact so cold that I have been forced to buy two pairs of thick woolly tights and a second winter jumper/long cardy thing (yes, Gate & BB, a coolie :-) Tights under jeans, Doc Marten's, winter coat, hat, gloves and scarf are all essential items that must be remembered before leaving the flat. Failure to do so results in acute coldness and prompt numbness to fairly useful body parts, such as fingers, toes, nose, lips, face, etc. etc.

In case the snow wasn't enough to make me feel like I should be singing carols, eating chocolate daily (isn't December excellent?!) and starting to get excited about 'Lucy and Tom's Christmas', salmon on Christmas Eve, stockings, presents, the best meal of the year, family, friends, general festivities and the Queen's Speech (or rather the sigh on everyone's faces when I insist on watching it, he he), the Christmas Markets have opened for business. This means, whenever a spare moment is found, it is to the Weihnachtsmarkt that we head to drink some Glühwein (absolute necessity to fight arctic temperatures) and enjoy the unique atmosphere of a German Christmas Market. Many enjoyable experiences have already been had at a Weihnachtsmarkt. We had an inpromptu international Christmas carol moment last week, where we all sang carols in our languages - english, german, spanish, slovakian, chinese and laughed at each other's attempts to sing along. The faction of Fulda's population who happened to be frequenting the Weihnachtsmarkt at the same time as us crazy ICEUS people were most impressed...
Then, on Sunday we had a whole day dedicated to the great German Weihnachtsmarkt tradition. A day trip to Nuremberg organised by the international office. Unfortunately Glühwein and two parties the night before meant the 9am departure was rather sub-optimal. But as Nuremberg is located only 40mins away from Bamberg, it is a place I have visited many times before and I was extremely excited about returning to the city. We had a tour of the town and then traditional German grub (in the restaurant we went to Mama) and then we hit the Weihnachtsmarkt. Glühwein, Eierlikor, more sausage, roasted chestnuts and lots of German Christmas Market offerings that were clearly made in China. It was a very cool day spent in the very good company of Ragil, Bec, Seda, Chryssa and Heidi amongst others. The snow and adverse weather conditions meant the coach journey back took 3hrs instead of 1.5. When I got back to my apartment, I could barely keep my eyes open, let alone speak (as Mum will confirm). I would like to take this opportunity to thank whatever force made it so that 2 out of my 4 classes on Monday were cancelled :-) Perfect timing.

Anyway, I have got to wrap this blog up. Got less than an hour to eat tea and make myself look beautiful for the party tonight. No rest for the wicked...
Take care one and all xx