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

Stormy Skies

My apple juice is gone. It is not in the fridge where I left it. There is no sign of it in the bin. It has disappeared without a trace. I am not impressed...

Fulda, die Stadt, wo die Zeit im Fluge vergeht

Time doesn't wait for anybody or anything in Fulda. It flies right past you and before you know it it's the 21st November and there's talk of Weihnachtsmärkte (christmas markets), snow and Christmas arrangements. A lot has happened since the last post, too much for one blog entry really but I'm going to try and fit it all in anyway. Take a deep breath now...

Thurs 10th Nov was Kate's bday and I felt kinda sad being so far away from my lil sis, especially when I spoke to her on the phone and found she had been replaced by a bedridden ill person :-( Anyway, no time to dwell on being away from home, I had a visitor. Hannah, a Yorkie, came for a fleeting visit - thurs night til sat morn - 2 nights of parties, german food, german beer, german clubs, and 1.5 days of sleep with a wee tour of Fulda thrown in for good measure. Hannah left and life in Fulda returned to its normal abnormal self. If you can say anything about my time in Fulda it's that it is blooming unpredictable.

This last week has included a rice and water detox diet, followed by binge eating on Snickers bars, an unusually quiet Desperate Housewives Night with aussie burgers (burgers, beetroot, egg, pineapple, tomato, salad, onions etc. etc.) and 7 v tired gals lacking in party spirit. Then I played mediator at a fairly emotional discussion, then there was a totally wild and random night that included going to Wiesbaden (capital of Hessen) to see an out of this world band called Stereo Total (www.stereototal.de), then eating a really good Turkish meal at midnight before heading back to the train station to find no trains for 4 hrs and freezing temperatures and then taxiing it to Frankfurt to find somewhere warm to spend the next few hrs before the first train back to Fulda. A fairly dodgy club called Cookies was our chosen haunt but as we were all exhausted it wasn't the best clubbing experience I've ever had. Arriving back in Fulda at 6.30am was amazing. Never thought Fulda would be such a welcoming prospect... Slept Friday to be fit for the party that night - organised by BASIB, the Batchelor equivalent of ICEUS so it was my duty as an ICEUS student to be there. Was called World Beat and was basically a party with music from all over the world that no-one had ever heard before. V cool. Work on the Beer Project was done on Saturday, and v aptly, we were all hungover... Since then there's been snow, studying, yummy food and Harry Potter in German (I had to see it but it pained me to hear all the voices replaced by random Germans who sound nothing like the originals), oh and Burger King at 23.45 as post cinema snack. Amongst all that there's been 23hrs of class and a lot of time spent with a certain Indonesian called Ragil :-D

Salsa, Sunsets and Shepherd's Pie

So yesterday I had a low point. Still not come up with an explanation as to why, but am pleased to announce that it didn't last long. As the main cause was probably tiredness, the best solution would probably have been to get an early night. But, all those years of studying Philosophy has taught me that logic often gets you nowhere very fast. So, I didn't get an early night, I went round to Bec's, cooked some shepherd's pie (damn good btw), had a jolly time eating it with Ragil, Heidi and Anne and then went to a salsa party and proceeded to dance the night away. It was an ace time and I am pleased to announce that after 4hrs of dancing to latino music I can almost salsa :-) I woke up this morning feeling emotionally fine and dandy if a little sore in the head (and the legs actually - my body just ain't used to those salsa moves.) Eggy bread and fried tomatoes with plenty of OJ to wash it down proved a v enjoyable breakfast (ta Bec) and then our Introduction to Communication Theory class was almost interesting, although I missed my note-writing buddy...

Just been on Bec's roof, watching the sun go down over Fulda (pretty gorge hey?!) and now I'm going to start getting ready for tonight's entertainment. Yes, ok, I was going to have a very early night to prepare myself for Hannah's visit (fellow Yorkie who's going to be here from tomorrow til Saturday) but got a text from Uli saying there's a group of English-speaking folk going to a swanky Italian restaurant and the food and drink are on the rich American Prof (of legendary belly dancing night fame). Well, an invitation like that is hard to turn down (I may be on a scholarship but I am still a student after all) and so I shall be joining the Professor, a British lady who is randomly in Fulda, Sam (a West Virginian) and Uli (a German who spent a year in Glasgow) for a posh Italian meal. Excellent.

Bonne Soiree one and all,
xx