Ballare and London!

Hi again... Thanks for your VERY philosophical comments to my last post, really made me laugh! :)
Sorry for not posting anything earlier, it's just that "nothing ever happens, nothing happens at all..." I can see now how the next few weeks will fly past in a complete daily routine... We just discussed this yesterday: it's so weird to think about the aspect of time, on one hand we were surprised how fast these first two weeks (already!!!) had gone past, but at the same time home seems to be extremely far away - yes, I guess I'm a little homesick at times... but isn't that normal? I mean, I just miss all you guys so much!
But let's talk about nicer things: Yesterday night we finally went to one of the Students' Clubs, it's rather famous and called BALLARE. First we spent one hour in a bar with some other students from our school, since the club didn't open until 9.30. At about 10 we were there, lucky to have a flyer and therefore a reduction on the entry price, but then we had to pay for the cloakroom - I am the "girl with the thousand jackets" (that's what Olga calls me) because I'm always wearing about 5 jackets over each other (yes, I definitely should have brought my winter jacket...) and yesterday I wanted to give two jackets to the cloakroom: Great, they charged me for two items and I paid 3.20 £ just for the jackets!!!! It really annoyed me... In general, life is rather expensive over here!
But to come back to our Ballare experience: when we finally got in, there were not many people and no one was dancing - this didn't change until about 11pm. By that time I was really upset, but then they started to play GREAT music, to name just a few songs: "La tortura", "A dios le pido" and "la camisa negra"... Olga and I were on the dancefloor for at least 45 minutes until we couldn't breathe anymore (it was so warm and by then really crowded)! Then we met the other girl who had come with us and obviously didn't like the place and agreed that we would leave around midnight.. Well yeah, that was it then! But Olga and I definitely will go back there again (maybe not before the weather is warm enough to leave the jackets at home though..) and then stay longer, the athmosphere was really nice once the people had started dancing!

So now, the next big thing is tomorrow: TRIP TO LONDON!!!! We had the chance to sign up for a one day excursion organised from our school and of course we were the first to run to the reception! It really is a great opportunity: we had to pay 16£ which includes the coach transfer both ways and a tour around London in the morning. The afternoon is free - we don't have any ideas what we could go and look at but I have no doubt that we will have a great time! Some of the other people we got to know a little better are also coming (Pascal, Rebecca who joined us yesterday...), I'll tell you all about in on Monday!

So... I really don't know what else to write now! It's not as exciting as in the beginning and unless you are interested in what kind of homework we have everyday and what we do in our lessons, there's not much to tell you... :(

enjoy your weekends (whatever plans you have) and I'm looking forward to hearing from you all soon!

Water bottle philosophy

This is going to be just a short post since a) there's nothing special to talk about and b) my lunchbreak only lasts for another 15 minutes!
Just one little thing that I noticed today that made me think: We are allowed to drink water during the lessons so usually each of us has a 0.5litre bottle of water on our desk. Last week, most of us still had their individual bottles that had come all the way from their own country (I had a San Pellegrino, Olga and some others had these SPA bottles - Corinna, do you remember the red ones from the Maturreise? ;)) which seemed to be some last reminder of people's nationality. Now, over the weekend, everyone seems to have bought a new bottle of english water and suddenly everyone has the same bottle in front of them... I know it's nothing meaningful; it just struck me that we're already so far away from home, all going into the same direction, probably all smelling the same (english laundry soap, however you call this!),...
So much about my water bottle philosophy! :)

Weekend

Hi again! Here I am again, finally back in the virtual world (terrible how addicted I am, the two days without internet were rather weird...)! :)

But let's talk about nicer things: My weekend! Since my last post, so much has been going on, I don't even know where to start... best thing will be to start with Friday night: As we had planned, Olga and I went to this Thai Restaurant called "The Big Buddha" (if anyone ever goes to Cambridge, I can only recommend this place: Delicious food, nice atmosphere, friendly staff and acceptable prices!) before we went to the City Centre in order to find some nice pubs. This proved to be more difficult than we had thought, leaving us walking about the city for quite some time without finding anything appropriate... We ended up spending almost one hour in a huge bookshop that was open until 10pm! :) Then we finally found a traditional Pub called "The Eagle" which is said to be one of the best and nicest Pubs in Cambridge. It really was very nice, although it was absolutely crowded... After one drink (no, Madi I still haven't got any experience neither with Beer nor with Darts!) we left and went to another bar. The first one we went in was too loud and full so we sat down in "ta bouche". Also rather loud, but okay. So that's about how we spent our Friday evening, had some very interesting discussions, just a nice evening out.

On Saturday, we met at 1pm to go to the City Centre. The weather was BEAUTIFUL (can you believe it??), almost warm with sunshine and everything so it was rather stupid what we did: We went into a book store that had a special sale, hundred of books for only one pound each... we spent so much time going through the books and buying some! Then we checked out some of the other shops and the market in the City Centre, which was really nice. By the time we went home (around 4.30pm) the weather had completely changed and it was raining again (getting used to it...). So we went home to get rid of our shopping bags and bikes and met again at 6.30 (in the pouring rain, it was horrible!). Luckily we had made a reservation in an Italian Restaurant called "ASK", otherwise it would have been impossible to find a table! On our way to the restaurant we met a guy from our class who was out with 7 other people who had forgotten to reserve a table, so he was rather upset. We decided to "adopt" him and so he joined us for dinner. It was such a great evening, Pascal turned out to be a very funny person and we had all kinds of stupid discussions, topics including miniskirts, relationships at language schools, style (or no style) of the British and much more! After dinner we went on to a very nice Pub / Bar (another place I can really recommend to anyone who comes here) called "Rat & Parrot". We spent some time there before we went on to the "Club Salsa". Pascal decided to go home (but he won't get away without coming to a club with us some time!), so Olga and I went dancing alone. When we arrived in the club, we were literally alone, we were the first people in there and consequently felt rather stupid... But the music was great (actually they had all kinds of "Chart music around the world", but since it is the only Latino Club in Cambridge, they played quite a lot of Latin pop, like Jennifer Lopez, Ricky Martin etc), the place nice and at the latest around 11pm there were many people and it really was fun to dance! We stayed there until about 1.30am and then took a taxi home.

There's not much to say about yesterday, we went to the Grafton Centre, a big shopping centre a little outside the City Centre which is open on Sundays (isn't that great? There's no way to stop Shopposauruses over here! ;)). It was okay, there are some nice shops, but we didn't really buy anything except for Baskin&Robbins IceCream! :)
Yesterday was mother's day here in England, which really is a big thing for them, so my host mother was invited to dinner with her children. Before they left, she just left me a plate with my dinner, which was FANTASTIC: A green thai curry! I had already smelled that on Saturday and really regretted going out for dinner and yesterday I was defiinitely confirmed in my opinion that Barbara is an excellent cook! Just to have that said - I'm definitely not going to lose any weight because of disgusting english food! ;)

I guess that's about it... Now we're already in week 2! I keep wondering about the weird nature of time: on one hand I think that this first week has gone past very fast but at the same time I have the impression that we've already been here forever! When I spoke to my mum on the phone yesterday night I realised once more how much I miss you all, but still I enjoyed it very much!

So now, I really should get going, we've got quite some homework to do and I'd like to get some reading done tonight (I've got some interesting books now, some from the library, one from our teacher and some from the book sale on Saturday!:) But if anyone has a recommendation, I'd still appreciate it of course!)...

Weekend ahead!!! :)

"Rainy days and Mondays always get me down..." So now, since today is not Monday, easy to guess: it's a rainy day... and this really got me down this morning! The first thing I realised when I woke up was for once not the cold, but the rain outside (the cold came two seconds later) and in that moment I hated being here. I don't know how to explain it, it just really struck me that I'm stuck here, sitting in this tiny little room, having no one to really talk to, having to go outside in the rain on my bike... Luckily this bad mood passed as soon as I met Olga and at the latest when we reached the school (not even as terribly wet as expected), everything was fine again. It just brought home to me how much I'm going to appreciate certain things at home as soon as I'm back and how much I miss you all, even if I don't feel this all the time (fortunately!)...

I can't believe it, the first weekend here has already begun! As every Friday, we don't have afternoon classes (thank God! :)), so now we're making plans for the next two and a half days. None of us is particularly keen on staying at home with their host family, so we try to be out as much as possible, starting now: as you can see, I'm still in the language lab now, afterwards we're going to the public library to borrow some books (great thing: as a language student you have free access to all of the books!), you know, Reading Practice... For tonight, we have a real great "programme": We've found a Thai-Restaurant on the internet that sounds very, very good, so we're out for nice dinner and afterwards we want to check out some of the pubs.
For tomorrow, we still have to plan the details (doesn't that sound good?;)), but we are definitely going to the city centre, do some shopping, get to know the city etc and in the evening we're going to a club. On Sunday, we don't have much choice, there's just one Shopping centre that's open on Sunday, so we almost have to go there - there's also a cinema there; I'll tell you all about it on Monday! ;)

I hope everything is fine at home and you're all doing well... Enjoy your weekend! :)

P.S.: I'd be glad about any book recommendation, I know I should read more but I don't know what...

Day 4

Decide for yourself if you want to call yesterday day 4 (if you count my trip on Sunday as Day 1) or today... I just like this number! :)

Big news: I survived my first bike ride to school! I'm really proud of myself... although my muscles already try to tell me that cycling isn't their favourite job, I am really glad (would you ever have thought that I might say that one day???) that I got a bike! We looked for secondhand bikes everywhere but couldn't find one around school and when we heard that it would cost about 55 pounds to buy one at a shop, we decided to rent one instead: it's 62 pounds for 12 weeks now, but any repair or loss will be covered... I almost died on my way back from the bike shop yesterday, I can't remember the last time I rode a bike (must have been our french excursion with Mme Vincent I guess...), but everything went fine. I was surprised how short the way was from the city centre to my host family's house! ;)

We didn't go to this party yesterday night, we were simply too tired.. I know that's terrible given the fact that we have not even been here for one week - but at least my tiredness has a good reason: I have not gotten (sorry, american english - it should be "got") enough sleep ever since I arrived because my room is soo cold! It sounds stupid, I know, but I keep waking up in the middle of the night because my entire body seems to be almost stiff with cold and I'm constantly shivering! My bed is right underneath the window and I get the impression that the English don't know how to build windows that actually close... Anyway, together with all the homework we have, we decided to wait for the weekend. And all these parties are every week anyway, so... Don't worry, I'm not going to spend all my time just working, I really want to have fun over here, but as long as I don't feel very well, I don't need to exaggerate things, right? ;)

Today, the weather's really nice, the sun has been shining all day long - we even sat outside during lunchbreak (wearing 4 jackets over each other, but still!)! The weather's supposed to be rather bad the next few days, it's going to rain, but at least the temperatures should get up to 10/12 degrees... let's hope so! :)

Our exam preparation classes are great! Really... We are practising all the different papers of the proficiency exam, that is Reading, Writing, Speaking, English in Use and Listening. We learn tons of new vocabulary every day, I'm still trying to figure out the best way to get organised with all these work sheets, vocabulary lists, pictures to speak about etc...
The afternoon lessons are the complete opposite, terribly boring and in my opinion completely useless... Today we had to talk about soap operas for two hours (without even watching an episode or something), first describe people on pictures, then come up with a story to each of them, read the summary of some soap opera episode, then write the following scene - and in the end, had to play our "scenes"... It was not only stupid but also embarassing!!! We'll have to find a way to do our homework for the morning classes during the afternoon lessons...

That's about it for now! I should get going, write two texts tonight and do some other stuff - but at least tomorrow's a free afternoon to look forward to!

First real school day

So here I am again, sitting in the language lab at school (which can be used as a computer room with open internet access)...
Today was my first real school day here at the Embassy CES. Since I don't have a bike yet, I had to walk to school. Actually I wanted to meet Olga, so I was at our meeting point at 8 in the morning but she wasn't. So this was the first opportunity to use our english SIMcard... she had gotten lost on her way... After waiting for some more time I decided to walk on because I was still very far away. I walked very fast and still it took me almost another 30minutes to get there - after this hour out there in the cold, I was sooo happy to get inside the classroom! :)
In the morning we had the first 4 exam preparation lessons which were very interesting. My classmates are very nice, there are two other swiss people (one from Bern and one from Lugano), two Germans, two Dutch and one Turkish woman. They're all between 18 and 25 years old and I get along quite well with all of those I've spoken to so far. The proficiency teachers are both women who love languages, one of them was the one who interviewed us yesterday (was it only yesterday??? I have the impression of having been here for a long time already!). The course is going to be quite tough, judging from the amount of homework we already got today (actually, Olga and I are here in this room to do homework right now, but the internet has a terrible temptation! ;)) but I'm glad the level is that high.
The afternoon class was again rather boring, if I'm not completely mistaken, the book the teacher used was the Headway upper intermediate, my fellow HoPro-students will know what I mean to say by this! :)
There's no "social activity" today, so I'll just stay here now, get some homework done and then walk home again because we are going to look for a second hand bike tomorrow.
Tomorrow night, there's a club night in the city centre where they have all kinds of world music, especially latin, salsa etc - we just got the flyers to get reduction on the entrance fee! :)

Well, that's about it for today, I'm looking forward to hearing from you all!

First impressions of Cambridge city

As you can tell, I'm not at the party! ;)
The afternoon class was terribly boring but afterwards, one of the teachers took us to the city centre which was very interesting. There are so many beautiful colleges, I really wish I will be able to spend some time studying here... we'll see!
She showed us some of the "best" shopping streets, best restaurants, important bus stops and other useful stuff (most of which I won't remember the day I need it, there was just too much new information today!). The city centre is really nice, there are many really old buildings, a large pedestrian zone and everything is small and therefore the risk of getting lost is pretty small! :) Instead of going back to school with the teacher, one of my classmates, Olga, and I went back to the shopping street and bought an english SIM card for our mobile phones - I'll give you the new number via e-mail! This is going to make life much easier for me since I don't have to care about money when I have to call my host family and now that I know some other people here, we can arrange where and when to meet via short message.
Olga had promised her host family to have dinner with them tonight so she was not going to this party and after having heard that it is every monday anyway, I decided to stay at home tonight - I don't know if this is polite to go out on the first evening... and I know that we can go there every Monday, it's a party for all the language students who stay in Cambridge, not only from our school, so it's going to be a great opportunity to get to know other people! Looking forward to next Monday! ;)
What else is there to say? Tomorrow's going to be the first real school day in our exam class, today was more like organisation and stuff - I'm curious to know who of all the people I met today will be my real classmates for the next 3 months!

Now I should leave the computer, I'll continue tomorrow from school - I'll meet Olga in the morning, we walk to school together because we both don't have a bike yet... :)

P.S.: I really doubt if my decision to leave my winter jacket at home, was right - it's terribly cold here and when we got back from our city trip I felt frozen... the fact that my room here is like a fridge doesn't help much there...

First post from Cambridge

Hi all! So here I am in Cambridge... can't really believe it yet! Yesterday was a long day, but everything went well. I almost missed the flight though... My mom brought me to the airport, where we had to queue for the check-in and then met my father and to my surprise also his wife and my grandparents. We had a coffee with them, which I really enjoyed since the conversation kept me from getting sentimental! ;) When the moment came when I had to say goodbye to my mom, it was extremely weird - I'm soo used to having her around me all the time and the two of us have never been apart for longer than a week or two.. but we'll make it! ;)The airplane was rather small and seemed rather old, and when it took off, the noise was terrible, everything seemed to be shaking and cracking, as if this thing were about to break apart.. frightening, honestly! ;)In Heathrow, I had to wait for almost 2 hours before I could take the National Express bus, so I went to the Starbucks, got myself a nice cup of coffee and sat down. There was an older man sitting at this table (it was the only free seat!) who reminded me a lot of my grandfather (yes, Aetti!) and to whom I spoke for almost 45 minutes. Like this, the time passed quite fast and at 2 pm I could board the coach and was again on my way to Cambridge. The bus ride took almost three hours and by the time I took the taxi to my host family's house, I was terribly nervous and excited...Barbara, my host mother, is very nice, and showed me round the house as soon as I had come in. My room is tiny (really, there's no other word for it!), but okay, the house is in a quiet neighbourhood and from what I've seen so far, not too far away from the city and the school. I'm still thinking about how I should handle the entire bicycle issue - there would be a possibility to rent a bike but it's ridiculously expensive and maybe I could buy one second hand and then resell it before I leave.. we'll see. Today's my first day at school, it seems very nice, the classrooms are rather small but very "cosy" and the teachers and most of all my fellow students seem very nice! I already got to know a dutch girl who lives not too far away from my host family and who's going to be in my class from now on and there are many other people who I'm looking forward to getting to know better.
Now I should get going, we have some afternoon classes "study skills" and afterwards, one of the teachers is going to show us the city centre. Tonight, there's a special party in one of the clubs for all the language students, it sounds like fun, maybe I'm going... I'll keep you all updated! :)love you all, miss you all...

Yes, yes, yes!!! :)

Oh my god, I can't believe it! I passed the test and have my driver's license!!! :) It's such a cool thought that I'm now (finally!) allowed to drive around all by myself and without this stupid L-sticker on the back of our car! ;)
I was soooo lucky (be it the fact that I had to start from the parking lot number 4 which is my lucky number, or maybe it's because today's St.Patrick's Day... right, Nesi?;)) :
In the beginning of the test I was terribly nervous and parking didn't go very well, but my expert was surprisingly nice and seemed to understand that this was just due to my nervosity!
So if anyone needs a lift from now on, I'm officially available as Chauffeur! ;)

Juanes-Picture

Just to illustrate yesterday's post... that's JUANES! ;)
I know, he definitely isn't the most handsome man, but hey- who cares as long as his music is cool???? ;)

It's funny, I read an article about the concert in a newspaper and the author wrote almost exactly the same as I did about the difference between the Kaufleuten concert and this one - but the writer seems not to have enjoyed it as much as I have! ;)

JUANES!!! :)

Wow, yesterday night was just great! We (my best friend and I) went to the concert of one of my favourite artists, the columbian singer Juanes. The music was great and the fact that we had managed to get quite close to the stage made it even better... We had so much fun and I enjoyed it very much not to worry about anything for a few hours, just sing, shout, jump and feel alive!
I have already seen Juanes in concert before and of course, I compared yesterday's show to last time - to be honest, I liked the first one more, but it was just completely different! Last time, it was in the Kaufleuten, a club in Zürich and this time it was in the Hallenstadion (the big concert hall), so there were about ten times as many people... of course, this changes the whole atmosphere, two years ago, very few people knew Juanes here in Switzerland and those who went to the concert were real fans, it was all very personal and in a way "intimate" , but yesterday, it was music for the big crowd... it was still great, I mean, he's the perfect entertainer, some of his songs are like hymns ("A dios le pido" for example) and also the ballads were very emotional and really touching - simply great music, what else can I say! I can only recommend to everyone who likes latin pop / rock music: if you ever get the chance to see Juanes live, take it!!! :)
*que bonita fue esta noche...* *sing* *... que inolvidable esta noche*...

The Final Countdown

Another 6 days at home... Today was the last sunday I could spend at home, with my mum, with everything I'm used to around me... one week from now, I'll be in Cambridge! It really is the final countdown now...

I haven't heard anything more from my host family (I wrote another e-mail to my hostmother but without any clear questions, so maybe she doesn't write back at all) and I'm really getting nervous about it all, it's coming so soon! At the same time, I have to tell myself how many other people have done the same thing and really enjoyed themselves - I just spoke to my friend who's been in Ireland for almost 3 months now (love you, my little sister!! :)) and she told me not to worry about it, that you get used to being there - but that it is clear, that there are certain things that you miss as soon as you're away from home. I'm just not a person who likes being confronted with new situations! It's okay, as long as I can plan everything and know what awaits me there, but as soon as there are any open questions I feel uncomfortable... I know this is something that I should really work at because it keeps me away from making new experiences but it's easy to say! I just hope that I will be able to not be as shy as usual and make some new friends from the beginning on!

Little update about my driving: I spent two hours on the road with my mum today, we drove to Regensdorf, where I'm going to have my test, too, and it went quite well - maybe my chances of getting my license next week aren't that bad after all? We'll see - but that's another thing that makes me nervous...

Hi again... I'm not as enthusiastic as last time, just to tell you straight away!
why?
well... I had a driving lesson today (hopefully one of my last!) and I don't know if I stand any chance to get my driver's licence next week - I made some stupid mistakes that simply shouldn't happen anymore...
I got an answer from my host mother... she took her time to answer all my questions which I honestly appreciate but somehow my good feeling about it all has gone... don't ask me why exactly, it's kinda weird... one thing is, you can forget the Skype thing I asked yesterday, it won't be possible since I can't use my host family's computer - I hope very much that I can check my e-mails and write this blog from the school's computers, otherwise I have a big problem!
Same thing with the phone calls... I can't use their phone, so the only solution I see at the moment will be that I buy a mobile phone card over there, give you all the number and you have to call me on it (which is very expensive for you then....)! :(

But we'll see, I'm just getting slightly nervous about it all...

comment to yesterday's post

just wanted to add something to my entry about Murphy's law: it did NOT snow when I left the office yesterday evening and I didn't even miss my train, so this is wrong: sometimes things DO work out well! I'm just not used to that kind of luck anymore!

News about my host family!

Wow, wow, wow! It looks as if my life were suddenly going back to normal - or no, not normal, but finally BETTER in every respect!

Here's the news of the day: First of all, I'm a free person!!! Today was my last day in the office and believe it or not, I was almost sad when I had to say goodbye to some of the people who had been really nice to me... but I'm soo happy to have a few days of complete freedom now!

Plus: I received some more information from the language organisation today and it sounds great: My "host sister" is my age (born in 1986) and my "host brother" (yes! :)) is 22 years old, they live alone with their mother and their house is only about 15 minutes away from my school! Sounds like - to use the swissgerman word for once - absoluts Schoggi-Läbe! (for the english speaking readers: this means that life is going to be easy, a lot of fun, just perfect...)
I just wrote an e-mail to my host mother with many more questions and of course I'll keep you updated about everything I get to know!

Completely different question: Who of you knows the internet telephone system Skype??? Sounds perfect for long talks while I'm away, doesn't it? I'm trying to find out if there's a possibility for me to use it over there (which is not guaranteed since I don't have my own laptop computer), either at school or at home in my host family (this is one of the questions I asked in my e-mail...). Does anyone of you already use it? This would be great!!!

I gotta go, it's getting late...

another try... :)

NOW it works - don't ask me what went wrong when I first tried... never mind!
This is what I'm going to look like in Cambridge, when I have to go to school by bike... :)

Pictures

Here's my first try to add a picture to my blog... it seems to be working, but I have to disappoint everyone who's already expecting a photo documentary of my Cambridge stay: unfortunately I don't have a digital camera (that works), so I won't be able to post pictures while I'm in England - unless someone there takes a picture and sends it to me ... we'll see!

Murphy's law

Just for fun - I'm still thinking about my last post and searched the internet for Murphy's law:
take a look at this site:
http://www.murphys-laws.com/murphy/murphy-laws.html
-it's so terribly pessimistic, it just makes you laugh!

Have a nice day and GOOD LUCK! :)

Thoughts...

There are so many things running through my mind, I don't really know what to write down now... I'm sitting in the office again, don't have anything to do and since no one pays any attention to me, why not feed my blog in the meantime!

The weather has been playing tricks on me all day long - in the morning it was freezing cold when I was waiting for bus and train, but then it seemed to be beautiful weather - everytime I looked out of the office window I could see sunshine and even some blue sky and I got all excited about it finally being "spring"... but when I went out to buy lunch, it was snowing again! Unbelievable, but that's what my life has been like lately... do you need proof? Right now the sun is shining brightly outside again! I bet it will be snowing as soon as I leave the office to go home! ;)

I know this blog should be all about Cambridge, but there are so many other projects that I keep thinking about, not caring whether they're realistic or not... I'm preparing for my driving license test (is this how you call it?) which I'm taking on Friday, march 17th - wish me luck, I need it! Last week I had really planned to go driving with my mum because we both didn't have to work but then I was ill for 5 days and when I finally felt like driving again this **** snow started falling - as I said, Murphy's law! If there's anything that could go wrong, it will.... Let's hope this is not true for my England stay! ;)
Another project or dream or wish or whatever else you may call it is Spain... I'd still love to go to Spain some time this year, as a preparation for my university studies but also to get to know another "culture" (I know it's still Europe and many things are the same but still... you know what I mean!) and hopefully also some new people! On the other hand I'm somewhat reluctant about planning it because I don't want to be away from home the entire summer... I don't know what to do! Can anyone recommend a great language school somewhere in Spain? I'd be soo glad about some tipps from people who've been there...

Well, that's about it for the moment - I should get going (clean out my desk drawers etc - get ready to LEAVE THIS OFFICE! ;))...

The road ahead

I'm sitting in the office (another two and a half days to go and then I'm free as I can be!), outside it's snowing AGAIN (or still? I don't know...) and as usual I don't have anything to do - why not use this time to explain the title of this blog... maybe you've asked yourself what "The road ahead" has got to do with a language exchange or with my life: simple as it is, this is the title of one of my favorite songs (if anyone likes the same kind of music as I do, this song is worth downloading! Legally of course! ;))!
Here are the lyrics:

The road ahead is empty
It's paved with miles of the unknown
Whatever seems to be your destination
Take life the way it comes, take life the way it is

Horizon in the distance
So close, and yet so far away
You shouldn't be surprised when on arrival
The dream has flown away
And fear is not here to stay

The road ahead never gives away a promise
The road ahead is a highway or a dead-end street
A dead-end street

Raindrops on your windscreen
They fall from heaven or from hell
You drive into the light or into darkness
Incertainty as your guide

The road ahead never gives away a promise
The road ahead is a highway or a dead-end street
The road ahead never answers any questions
And nothing is sure all the way, not even tomorrow
With miles of the unknown ahead of you

The road ahead is empty
It's paved with miles of the unknown
Whatever seems to be your destination
Take life the way it comes, take life the way it is

I guess now it's clear why I chose this title - I don't know what the next three months (not to speak of anything that comes after England) will bring but I'm looking forward to walking these "miles of the unknown"....

First contact with my host family

My "Cambridge adventure" is coming very close and finally I have some detailed information!
I got an e-mail from the language organisation on Friday with my host family's name, address and phone number and of course I wanted to get in touch with them as soon as possible... My curiosity was already killing me!!! So I plucked up all my courage and tried to call them Friday evening but nobody answered the phone - next try yesterday around lunch time, same result... I already began to wonder what kind of people they might be but today I was lucky and someone picked up the phone: I was so nervous and had the impression to have forgotten all my English - therefore felt like a complete idiot! - but my future "host mother" was very nice and obviously didn't mind that I had to ask twice because I didn't understand everything in her very british accent... Although we didn't talk for a long time I found out something that sounds like a lot of fun: this woman has two own "kids" - or whatever you want to call them: they are 20 and 22 years old!!! Unfortunately I don't know yet whether they're boys or girls but actually it doesn't really matter - this is just perfect! I mean, if anyone could tell me about the coolest places in Cambridge, about where to go or what not to do, it's people of that age!!
Maybe I'm lucky for once? :)
I'll keep you all updated as soon as I know more about them - I got my host mother's e-mail address and I'm definitely going to make use of it for further questions!

Snow!

Doesn't have anything to do with Cambridge- but still worth writing about: I can't believe how much snow we got yesterday here in Zürich!!! Everything is white and the world looks like a fairytale wonderland... If it weren't already March, I'd be all excited - but in a way, this winter is getting too long for my liking...! :)

wow, online!!

So, finally I have my own blog... embarassing as it is, I don't even know how to start!
This is going to be my "diary" during my time in Cambridge (starting on march 19th) and will give you (who reads this) updates about my impressions of England, about what I'm doing and most of all, about how I feel over there....
Have fun reading it! :)