@home

My time at home is almost up and I must say it has been as eventful as ever. I am particularly proud of my achievements of fitting not one, not two, but three family parties in and of having met up with a very large portion of my very large family (and very nice to see them all is was too). It has been 2 weeks of slightly random activities - a 9-man pond liner offensive, a ridiculous amount of appointments (doctor, dentist, hairdresser, glasses, contact lense etc. etc.), lots of tea and cake in english tea rooms, a spontaneous trip to Nottingham to watch the Brits and eat Indian takeaway and then spend money I don't have, an über windy trip to Scarborough beach, a slap up meal (family party no.1), an engagement party (no.2), a 21st complete with darts competition and Glenfiddich (no.3), funtimes in Liverpool with scouse cab drivers and their jokes (what do you call a mid-wife reluctant to deliver scouse babies? A crime prevention officer:-). I've shown an Aussie around the place I call home, I've eaten lots and I've even managed to take a few photos to record my time. You can see a selection below...

ps - HUGE congratulations to Ellen and Si and to Hannah and John :-)

à Genève

6.5hrs on the train and then arrival. To Les Brasseurs pub for a quick one and then a "bonjour" to Ange. Excitedness and joy on both sides due to reunion in foreign lands. A walk fighting the arctic wind lakeside and then to the swanky studio apartment complete with leather sofa, four-poster bed and huge window avec lake view. Not bad.

Hunger strikes. Only fondue would do. Bread and melted cheese - bizarre idea for a meal but surprisingly pleasing. The £6 per drink bar seemed rather overpriced (but the Ferrari parked outside was exciting) and so to a more lively (and more bon marché) bar until tiredness set in. Next day was the LP walking tour around la vieille ville. Cute streets. A cathedral that wants to be a Greek temple (#1) but with a high tower and gorge views (#2&3). Coffee. Chicken salad cravings and, low and behold, a Poulet restaurant with just 5 meals on offer, 2 of which being chicken salads. Some nice vin to wash it down and then mousse au chocolat and espresso for an energy boost. To la voiture for a roadtrip to Evian - pourquoi? Well, pourquoi pas. Plus, they make famous water there. A rather slow but super picturesque drive along Lake Geneva with some super cheesy tunes and fairly terrible but highly enjoyable singing along. Peaceful lake time in Evian and a nice looking Corvette and then back in the car. Westlife, Take That and ABBA had done a cracking job on the first leg and it was now the turn of Steps and Madonna to take us from Evian, around the lake, past Montrieux and back into Switzerland to Lausanne. Lausanne gave us the best steak I think I've ever had with a very nice red wine to go with it. Mmm mmm. Then it was Romeo and Juliet and a drive back to Geneva, completing the circle around the lake. Pickwick's Pub provided the evening's entertainment, which included England vs Germany darts competition. It was a satisfying victory for the Brits :-)

Day 3 was the mountain day. A mini road trip to France and Chamonix (#4)- an über posh ski resort. Up 2 cable cars to reach the summit of Mont Blanc, some 3800m high. Lots of photos and calls of admiration. Despite ski jacket, gloves, scarf and many layers, I have never felt so cold. Brrr. Felt like we were on top of the world though, and well, I guess we were pretty close.

After the descent down the hillside, we returned to Geneva to chill (or defrost even), fajitas, chats, pink champagne and then back to Pickwick's for a night of karaoke. We were shocked to find the pub had been taken over by a large group of drunken, yellow-tshirt wearing Ozzies. Davis Cup victory against the Swiss and heroic Oz tennis player soon turned up too to be praised by everyone, except the slightly befuddled Brits and German. Said German even managed to unwittingly ask his coach who he was and what all the fuss was about. The presence of celebrity didn't stop the karaoke though. We killed Gloria Gaynor's I Will Survive, as well as Bitch by Meredith Brooks. A German guy requested mine and Ange's presence on Bohemian Rhapsody and we killed that one too. Still, lots of fun to do karaoke to that one - from opera to air guitar and headbanging. Great stuff. Where our voices failed us, our stage presence filled the gap and we had the Aussies singing and dancing along...

Sore head the next morning but the UN was waiting. Trams, wanderings, steak and Euro Millions tickets and then to the UN for a walking tour. Pretty cool building. Interesting tour, especially when we heard Switzerland only joined in 2002 - interesting fact for you. After UN had shown us its stuff and we had seen diplomats from all over the world roaming the corridors, we headed back to the apartment for last minute packing and then to the station. Farewell over tea (how english) and then dans l'avion.

What a weekend.

Away with the negativity

My last blog entry was so overwhelmingly negative that it needs an almost instant reply. I am not a negative person and I very much dislike dwelling on negativity.

Today I am feeling happy. I made some progress yesterday and had a nice evening in with Ragil as a reward (we watched the film Ray, v good btw, and we've been hooked on Ray Charles' music ever since :-) Today I am plugging away and slowly getting through the mounds of reading and translations.

Anyway, enough about the work, enough progress reports. Here's a photo of me doing a chicken jig at my cousin's 21st Ceilidh, alongside Pops, Matt and Cat.

Happy days to one and all xx

Zeitdruck

Well, as Marie quite rightly pointed out this morning, I have been über slack in the blog department recently.

It is not as if there has been nothing to report, rather that my head is so full at the moment that there is simply no room in it for blog entries.

Classes finished today. Only 2 exams to revise for and sit (Monday and Tuesday) and 21 course descriptions to translate (for financial not altruistic reasons I hasten to add) and then the semester is over. As I formally started my revision today, and began translating yesterday, I am having slight time issues, like THERE ISN'T ENOUGH of the stuff. I am trying to remain motivated, pushing myself, drinking copious amounts of Darjeeling and eating copious amounts of chocolate (for the energy obv) and to get reasonable amounts of sleep so that I am as fresh as possible for the next day of translating and revising.

As you can see. My life is one big party at the moment - the kind of party where no alcohol is allowed, music has to be kept down and general interaction with other people should be kept to a minimum. Sounds like fun, non?!

Not that I am looking for sympathy. I happily accepted the translation job (what can I say, I'm a student considering a career in translation post-2nd graduation...) and it is my own dumb fault for not having started revising earlier.

I still haven't gotten over the feeling that because I am in a foreign country, I am an exchange student, here for the cultural experience rather than to get a degree. This makes motivation rather difficult as I always have the excuse in the back of my mind that it is in a foreign language so it doesn't matter if I don't get amazing results. I reckon at 9am on Tuesday morning this feeling will disappear into a puff of invisible smoke and it will suddenly dawn on me that I am here for real. That I am a Masters student in Intercultural Communication and European Studies and that I really should know something about the subject. The exam could be a rude awakening...

Still, 4 days remain to make myself an expert on the subject. If only I didn't have to translate 3 course descriptions a day at the same time.

Oh well, chin up as they say. At least it is so cold that staying inside remains the more appealing option...