Brr, it's minus 15 degrees here in Fulda. I think this is the coldest weather I have ever experienced. I'm just pleased that I was organised enough to buy a woolly jumper and some fleecy boots back in November.
Here are some cute penguins to make myself and the fellow Fulda crew feel better. Roll on Spring I say xx
* This weekend I am looking forward to:
- Heidi's 'last supper' (before her return to Oz 2moro morning)
- an ICEUS house party on Friday
- Liverpool beating Man Utd on Sunday :-)
* My aims are to:
- get over my third cold in as many months
- find a new song lyric for my tag line (suggestions on a postcard/comment)
- and to learn more French and read all about EU enlargement
* I will mostly be listening to:
- Thea Gilmore, David Gray and Alanis Morrissette
* And I will mostly be eating:
- Thornton's European Inspired Continental Collection (scrum diddly)
Bon weekend mes amis xx
It is update on my life time... Several things have happened since my last shall we say 'normal' blog entry. Not least, that I now have a fairly smashing Nietzsche card on my desk, inspiring me to great thoughts (see previous chicken entry).
I guess the main thing is that I have decided to move out. The room is nicer, although admittedly the flat isn't. Still, I will be living in the ICEUS-Gebäude, in a flat with a good mate, plus I will have a couch, an armchair AND a balcony, and any day now it's going to stop snowing and the temperature is going to reach positive figures again, and so a balcony will def come in handy. (I'm imagining relaxing in my armchair, sipping chilled sparkling wine/beer in the sun...) Yeah, my current flat has advantages but my relationship with my flatmates is certainly not improving and I am looking forward to a new start.
On to the academics. Well, I did my presentation. Unfortunately myself and Chryssa chose the day of our presentation to discover that the uni has only 2 projectors. Needless to say, they were both hiding when we needed one and so we had to present ohne our amazing powerpoint presentation. In case we weren't mad enough at this fact, Prof Ott decided to lay into us saying it was our fault for not being more organised. The fact that there has been one in the room every other Monday seems to have slipped his mind, and the time we spent in between class searching for the projector was apparently not satisfactory enough. Anywy, we did our presentation. It could have been a whole lot better. I know I am terrible at doing presentations, and no matter how hard I try, I don't seem to get any better. Well, I basically just read out my 10-page essay, without managing to engage the audience at all and without any real eye-contact. I am not pleased with myself and I'm not happy with my presentation. But at least it is over. If Ott had acknowledged my request to do a dissertation instead of a presentation, rather than ignoring it, then I think, he, myself and the class would have been a lot happier. Needless to say, he is not my favourite professor at the moment. Anyway, it's over now.
Finally to address my progress on sticking to my resolutions. I am not very proud to announce that I have not done any exercise since 2005 and that I have only today started actively learning French. I am however drinking less, although studying more remains questionable. The motivation is more present than it was before Christmas. Unfortunately it has a tendency to disappear at the key moment, i.e. when the time comes to do the work. Still, it's a work in progress.
ps - As if wishing to counter my own claim, here are a couple of pictures from the first (and only one that I have attended so far) party of January - Heidi's leaving party. There's me, Ragil and Chryssa, Susi and Heidi and then Toby, Ajay, Arne and Bec.
Detectives working on the case of the stolen apple juice [see Stormy Skies blog] have informed me that new evidence has arisen. The key suspect, known as "The Elephant Upstairs" or "Victor", has been caught on camera... Don't let his innocent face fool you. This is a wanted man...
Fact 1: Chickens need heads to live.
Fact 2: Dead chickens can't run.
Fact 3: 'Running around like a headless chicken' must mean 'running around like a dead chicken' and as dead chickens cannot run, it seems to me wholly appropriate to replace the traditional meaning of this metaphor (having a hectic time) with 'lying still and doing nothing'.
I have been running around like a headless chicken all day.
The presentation didn't go well. In fact, it didn't go at all. I spent my first hour awake mentally psyching myself up to prepare for the presentation of my paper. When I was nearing the end of the psyching up process I was rudely interrupted by my flatmate Matthias (of 'assistant to toilet-dismantler' fame), who requested a look at my Mietvertrag (rent contract? can't think of correct translation). He then pointed out that it finished on the 31st March (news to me, I thought it ended on the 1st March) and went on to suggest that he would probably be moving out at the end of the semester and that I could therefore have his room. His room is about 3 times the size of mine and sun-facing, therefore several degrees warmer and pleasanter. This news took me rather by surprise. I have recently been doing some research into flats and almost set my mind on moving into a large room complete with balcony, sofa and armchair in Chryssa's flat. Only moments before Matthias' interruption, I had infact read an email from the International Office regarding this room in Chryssa's flat saying that I could have it from 1st February.
The dilemma is as follows: rely on Matthias moving out, take his unfurnished room, pay €10 more per month but save having to pay 2 rents in Feb and/or March OR agree to move into Chryssa's flat with her and 2 other new inhabitants (could be anyone...), where the rent will be about the same, there is more than adequate furnishings and a friend, but where I will have to pay 2 rents for at least 1 month (and maybe 2). The flat I am living in at the moment is more aesthetically pleasing with a nicer kitchen and nicer bathroom, plus a larger hallway. The locations are pretty similar. My relationship with my current flatmate could be described as cordial but probs nothing more and although I have exchanged a few emails with the girl whose room I am currently occupying, she will be as unknown as the 2 others who move into Chryssa's.
This dilemma has been troubling me all day. Any suggestions, thoughts, solutions would be most welcome...
By the time it came to me leaving my flat, my head was rather all over the place. I then walked outside to find my gorgeous pink beauty of a bike had disappeared. I cursed for a wee while and then accepted it had been nicked. I was in a rather distraught but equally bemused state due the bizarreness of my day thus far (it was only 10.40am by this point) when I received a phonecall from Chryssa saying class had been cancelled and that we therefore didn't have to do our presentation until next week. Unsure whether to be overjoyed or very cross, or infact, what to do with myself in general, I continued walking in the direction of the uni. I soon decided to head to Ragil's place to tell him all about my quite remarkable morning. By the time I arrived I had decided that I was indeed annoyed at the Professor's mysterious absence. I had gone to the trouble of psyching myself up and was as ready as I was ever going to be to do the presentation and now the misery had been prolonged for another 7 days. Anyway, I walked through the building and out the back door. I was about to turn left to go down the stairs to Ragil's apartment, when what should I see infront of me but the magnificent pink of Augusta, chilling in the bikeshed of Blücherstasse 18. A wry smile was all I could manage. She hadn't been stolen after all, just borrowed and moved by Ragil.
The excitement and eventfulness of the first part of my day has meant that the remainder has been dictated by sheer emotional exhaustion. I am pleased to know that Augusta still remains in my possession, I am frustrated that I have still not done my presentation and I am confused about my future living arrangements. On top of this, I have excitement about rapidly approaching 5 week holiday (which now includes cheeky weekend in Geneva and 2.5wks in Britain) coupled with stress about 2 presentations and unknown quantity of exams that need to be dealt with before this holiday commences, plus several random and extremely pointless homeworks that need to be completed in the near future.
Yes, emotional exhaustion is my current state. Sitting in bed, writing this, I am struck by the thought that there is only one way to end this blog; with a picture that I am hereby naming 'exhaustion'
Welcome back and Happy 2006!
So it’s back to life, back to reality here in Fulda. After a cracking festive period (thanks to all family members for presents and for all those family and friends who I managed to see for making my 9 days in Britain fandabbydosey) I could have returned to Fulda sad that it was over so fast. I didn’t however, in fact, I was excited to go back and see Ragil and my other friends again.
2006 has given me a new kind of optimism. I feel it is going to be a good year. My resolutions all centre round getting the best from life and actively doing positive things to achieve my goals. For example, ‘drink and sleep less, study more’ is a key one. I’m going to organise my time and be as disciplined as I was before I got to Fulda (and that part of my personality evaporated). I’m going to start doing regular exercise and I’m going to learn French properly (not just attend French class once a week).
I can’t guarantee I’ll stick to these, in fact I haven’t done any exercise since before New Year and although I’ve bought a ‘French Starter Kit’, I am putting it off until my horrific presentation is over. I have also slept far too long today and spent the rest of the day procrastinating. However, my optimism remains, interrupted only by occasional anxiety attacks about Monday’s presentation and even these don’t keep me down for long.
It will be interesting to see if the optimism lasts and if I can stick to any of my New Year’s Resolutions.
Time will tell…
