Post 50! And big news! :)

Wow! This moment changes my life, right now: I just clicked on "send" for my university application form online!!!! So actually, from now on, I'm a student! hooorray! :) It's such a great feeling to finally have this whole thing sorted out with choosing subjects and deciding what to do from October on - now there's no way back, I'm going to study English and comparative Roman linguistics (or whatever you may call that!:))! After several changes on the university website and total confusion for me, they now seem to offer this combination, which is perfect for me... we'll see!

Actually, there's so much to write about at the moment, but I'm sooo tired... Just to let you know: My weekend in London was great, with highlights such as Mme Tussauds (although I find it scandalous that there's no Matt Damon in wax... :) would have been great to take a picture with him!), a city trip on a Sightseeing Bus (sitting outside on the top of the bus - was really cool, also literally, we were freezing... :)), the musical "Les Miserables" (do you know the song "on my own"? Wow, that made me cry!!! It caught me completely off guard and I couldn't do anything against the tears that came to my eyes...)...

I can't believe this is already Post 50... wow! But on the other hand, that's not even that much, I mean, I've been here for 10 weeks now... I don't know! To every one who's still reading, thanks! :) I hope I'm not boring you to death with my always-the-same-stories...
We only have another 17 days here in Cambridge if I'm not mistaken, it's incredible how time is flying - on the one hand, of course, I can't wait to see you all again at home and I notice little things every day that I miss (real bread, cheese, milk, a clean bathroom, a warm bedroom, public transports - you know what I mean!:)), but at the same time I can't imagine life without Olga and Pascal anymore and I realise that it's going to be sooo hard to stay in touch with them - that really makes me panic! In a way, I just want to enjoy every minute here with them - but we're all bored and somehow fed up with school, so the mood is not always brilliant, it's really weird at the moment...

so now I really have to go, I hope I can make it home before the rain comes back... :P See you all very soon! :)

catching up...

Can somebody please stop the time? It's terrible, I feel as if every day were just passing faster than the one before and before we realise it, this whole adventure here will be over! This thought is really scary and although of course I'm looking forward to coming home, there are so many things that I'm going to miss about being here, especially my new friends - but let's stop thinking about it... :)
The fact that I haven't posted anything for quite a long time is not a bad sign, I'm still enjoying it all a lot - it's just that somehow there is so much to do all the time, I always forget half of the things I want to do... sorry about that! Same thing for e-mails...

But what might interest you is what we've been up to since the last time I wrote something here, right? Well... Last saturday evening was good fun although we were not very lucky with the restaurant: We had a reservation but still they didn't have a free table when we arrived - if it hadn't been Saturday and the chances very small to get a table somewhere else, we'd have left! The food and service were alright, but not that we would race back to that restaurant again... No surprise therefore that we first went to "our" Cafe Nero for dessert then before walking to the Grafton Centre to the cinema. As you know, we went to see the DaVinci Code at 10pm. It was so strange to sit in the cinema until 1 in the morning, but in a way I liked it a lot - I hope we'll do that again before we leave, after all this is the only way to stay out later than 11pm! ;) The movie is quite good, although I must say, it's as always with novel adaptions:there are so many details in the book that are left out in the movie and I personally don't think Tom Hanks is the perfect cast for Robert Langdon (whereas Audrey Tautou is simply perfect!!! She's exactly how I had imagined Sophie Neveu!)... After the movie, we managed to get lost on our way home because we don't really know this part of Cambridge - of course none of us had a map and it was quite fun to find back to familiar territory! By the time we managed to do that, it was already rather late and when I finally got home, it was about 3 am. But it was worth it! :)

So far, this week has not been that exciting, we've had another few tests at school, I'm pretty confident about the exam now, I guess we'll all be fine... Apart from that, nothing new around here actually!

I'll have to wish you all a nice weekend now, I'm off to London from tomorrow until Monday, my father is coming over! I know it's weird, the English don't have a day off on Ascension (so today), but next Monday is a bank holiday... I don't mind, as long as I can spend one more day exploring the capital city! There will certainly a lot to write about after the weekend, I'll keep you updated!
enjoy the weekend and see you all very soon!:)

What a feeling!

Wow, another big highlight! The musical on Thursday evening was just amazing! Actually it wasn't a musical as we know it with a story and all that, but more a show consisting of the best songs and dances from many musicals and dancing movies - the songs performed ranged from Grease to Dirty Dancing and from Mamma Mia to We will rock you, the four singers had great voices, the support band was cool and the dancers were just- wow! :) As the Cambridge Corn Exchange, where we saw it, isn't that big (the same place we saw Saturday Night Fever a few weeks ago), the atmosphere was in a way quite personal and after only a few songs, most people in the audience were already standing and singing and dancing, it was amazing! Of course Olga and I joined in with the singing and dancing and we just had so much fun! The title of the show, "What a feeling!", really expresses what we felt! ;)

Yesterday was simply another morning at school, we really feel a little bored with it all at the moment... We spent the afternoon in the city centre and then went out for dinner in the evening. We'd found another Thai restaurant and the three of us had another great night out with good food, interesting discussions and another visit to the "Filling Station", the same place we ended up in last week.

At the moment, we're (Olga and me) sitting in the Library again, outside it's raining again (or still?) - we have two pieces of writing to hand in on Monday, but I completely lack the motivation to do it, it's so bad at the moment! But hey, it's weekend and we have the right to enjoy it! So, for tonight, we have another highlight ahead of us: After dinner in an Italian Restaurant, we're going to see "The DaVinci Code" at 10pm! I can't remember when I last went to the cinema that late at night, but I'm looking forward to it, as it is impossible to sit somewhere in a pub or bar here in Cambridge after 11 pm which always puts an early end to our evenings (except if we walk home afterwards, which we've done several times now and is good fun as long as the weather is ok...)! I'll let you know what I think of the movie, so far I haven't heard that many positive reviews...

Again, I wish you all a fantastic weekend and hope to hear from you all soon! Miss you guys! :)

Week 9!

Hi ya... ;)
Incredible, time is really flying - If I could turn...turn back the hands of time... *sing* it's so strange, now that we've really come to like it here and would love to spend some more time in Cambridge, it's already going towards the end, the exams are drawing nearer and teachers are already planning our "farewell"-activities... shocking! :)

Wow, last post was last week - Friday afternoon was so great, certainly one of the highlights of my stay here so far! We just sat (or rather lay) in the park all day long, had lunch there and afterwards just talked, laughed, almost slept - it was great! Of course I was Rudolph again but now that the rain is back in England, I'm glad I got a little sun tan last week! Although I can't complain, right now the sun is shining, but who knows what it's going to be like in half an hour! :)
The weekend was very nice as well, nothing special during the day on Saturday but another perfect evening: The three of us went back to the Big Buddha (which was the first restaurant Olga and I went to almost 8 weeks ago!) where we had a delicious Thai dinner, before we went on to "our" Cafe Nero for "dessert" and then to a bar - all very relaxed and just nice! By the way, what's the english equivalent for "gmuetlich"?
Sunday morning I had to get up early to meet my conversation partner which again was a lot of fun (not the getting up early part though! ;)) - but I think I have to set that record straight: I do get along very well with him, but not THAT well! ;) Whatever some of you might be thinking, don't worry, I haven't fallen in love with an English guy! ;)
After that I met Olga and we were just in the mood for doing silly things so we went to the big shopping centre where we startet trying on clothes we'd never buy, even dresses - it was sooo much fun, too bad I didn't have my camera with me! :)

so now, Week 9 is already half over - school is as usual, we're getting slightly bored with it all because naturally it's always about the same, and I have the impression that we're kind of stuck: I think we've reached this point where we're familiar with all the exam strategies, we know all the essential grammar, now it's just hit or miss with the vocab in the exam!
Tuesday evening we went to this Pub Quiz with our teacher again and it was a lot of fun. The categories this time were much easier for us, including song lyrics, quotations from movies, anagrams and general knowledge (last time it was history, GB, numbers and sports...)!

One month from yesterday, I'll be back home!
Talk to you soon, I gotta go to class! :)

Hey! :)

This time really just a short post: The conversation exchange yesterday was great, really! This guy seems very nice, he's my age and studies German and English - I guess his standard German is better than mine, I realized that I had not used this for more than half a year and at the moment, even swiss German is weird to me, so...! But we had a lot of fun, he took me to King's College and we sat on one of the bridges there, it really felt like a fairy tale world - I can't imagine what it must be like to live there as a student, it's just amazing!
Now the sun is out again and we (Olga, Pascal and I) want to spend the afternoon in the park - I'm not going to waste my time at the computer now, so I wish you all a very nice weekend!
Talk to you again next week! :)

conversation exchange

just a quick update, my lunchbreak is almost over: summer is back in Cambridge! We are sitting outside, it's sooooo great and warm - don't ask me about the weather forecast though, it's quite frustrating (11 degrees and rain on Sunday...)! :)
Great news: I have a new conversation partner! Remember I once mentioned the girl I was "matched" with? She never answered my e-mail and I never got to know her so I went back to the organiser and asked if I could get a new partner and yesterday I got the confirmation that they've found a new partner for me. This time it's a guy and I'm going to meet him this afternoon, am quite curious to get to know him (not what you think now!)! :)

In case I don't have the time to update this tomorrow (or if I don't want to sit at the computer when the weather is great and we have a free afternoon!), I wish you all a very nice weekend and hope to hear you all soon! :)

Weekend and The Battle of the Swiss German dialects

Rainy days and Mondays... yes, the rain is back! And it's Monday - of week 8 already! Can't believe it...
But I'll just quickly let you know what I've been up to: On Friday, Olga, Pascal and I went for another curry, now we've finally found a good and friendly restaurant, hoooray! :) "The Curry House" on Castle Road - strongly recommended to anyone visiting Cambridge!
As usual, we had a lot of fun and as the evening was so nice and warm, we decided not to go straight to a pub after the restaurant but sit outside for a while - we ended up sitting on a little wall in front of King's College for about one hour, it was great! Then we went to "our" pub, the Rat&Parrot, but somehow, this was disappointing: now that the university term has started again here, it was absolutely crowded with students who were mostly drunk, it was terribly loud - I could say we weren't that angry when it closed anyway at 11pm... But we were not in the mood to go home, after all it was only 11 and the beginning of the weekend! So we decided to walk home which was quite far and we took another way through parks and different neighbourhoods - it was sooo much fun! Olga tried to teach us some words in Dutch and we taught her some Swiss German (always fighting which was the right word, the one from Zurich or the one from Bern...) and at some point we were talking about the "Hippigspaengstli" and Pascal mentioned the story by Franz Hohler, "S'Totemuegerli" which definitely almost killed us with laughing... When the three of us met again on Saturday, this battle of the dialects continued and it's getting funnier by the moment, so pleeease, if anyone of you can think of some typically Zurich german words which are funny, I'd be more than glad to get them via e-mail, I need to defend myself! :) But how can you argue against someone who writes his description of where in a restaurant he's sitting with "sitze unge hinge links"? ;)
Here's a link to a quite amusing forum for all Swiss people and everyone who's ever wondered how the hell we understand each other; I begin to wonder myself... ;) http://www.hitparade.ch/forum.asp?todo=viewthread&id=7378&pages=
Saturday evening was a lot of fun as well: I went over to Pascal to watch a movie because I really miss watching movies (I don't really have any access to TV at all and if I ever sit in the living room with my host family, the news or something are on - I haven't seen a movie in ages!) and it was Olga's idea that we could watch one together since she had something with her hostparents that evening. We watched "Hitch" which is really a funny movie and afterwards we just talked and "argued" until quite late (late enough that I'm still tired now...), was really a cool evening!
Yesterday, the weather was terrible, I can't describe it in other words, just pouring rain and not just "english rain", but really heavy rain, Olga and I were soaked by the time we reached the city centre on our bikes; therefore we stopped at a Caffe Nero to dry up a little bit before we went on the Fitzwilliam museum - we decided to start doing culture stuff now... ;) The museum was really nice and given the fact that it is free admission, we might even go back there once, they have some nice Monet paintings! ;)
That's it, now we're back at school again...
wish you all a great week!

P.S.: to my dear cousin who's lost her bet and has to speak bern german now: have fun but don't forget which side you HAVE to support in this battle of the dialects! ;)

Have a nice weekend!

Hi again! Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer says hi again... :) No, I'm not mad and it's not suddenly Christmas again, but my mirror tells me that I bear a strong resemblance to Rudolph - my nose is sunburnt! ;) But I don't want to complain, on the contrary, I can't say how happy I am at the moment: the sun is shining brightly, we have temperatures above 20 degrees (yes!!!) and everyone is so cheerful! We sit outside during coffee and lunch break, spend more time in the city centre near the river (and less time at the computer) - and catch sun burns... ;) It's so weird, somehow no one was prepared for this sudden change of the weather and now you see people with miniskirts sitting next to people who still carry around their winter jackets and we try to get all our teachers to go outside with us... it's fun!
For the weekend, the weather forecast is terrible again, maybe we finally have the time to go to a museum - or else we sit in a Caffe Nero and work on some homework, we don't have any plans yet!

I'm off, want to sit in the sun - wish you all a very nice weekend, hope to hear from you all soon! :)

Just a thought :)

I just received this picture from a friend over the MSN and it expresses something that I know now more than ever before: I love my hometown! And I miss it! :) Defending myself against someone from Bern is quite helpful for not forgetting it... ;)

Back in Cambridge

Wow, back again...! It's already May!!! And - believe it or not: it's spring in Cambridge!!! We have sunshine and temperatures close to 20 degrees!!!! :) I'm so happy about that, it was amazing this morning when the sun woke me up...!
But let me stick to "chronological order": After posting my last news here I went home to get myself ready for our dinner out - but as it is, everything always turns out different from what you'd expect: Olga texted me, saying she didn't feel well at all and that she couldn't come out for dinner - after another few text messages in all directions, Pascal and I decided to go for a curry nevertheless. We had such a nice evening, all very relaxed just talking about anything (yes, we're bad, in swiss German...), went to an Indian restaurant first (until they literally kicked us out - they put the check on our table without being asked for!!!) and ended up in a Caffe Nero until that closed - then we walked home (that is, he walked me home :)) and talked for another at least 45 minutes in front of my host mother's house...
You can imagine how tired I was on Friday morning when we had our video shooting - first we went to school where our teachers showed us a video ("The Rainmaker" with Matt Damon, hoorray! :)) before the taxi came at 9.50 for Jelmer, Pascal, Olga and me. On our arrival at the University of Cambridge Building, we got a lot of information about the exam and our "interlocutor" prepared us for our exam and after more than half an hour of preparation we went into the video room. it was very professional with camera men, microphones everywhere - weeeeird! Jelmer and I had to speak about some rather easy topics so it wasn't that bad and consequently the feedback they gave us afterwards was very positive - the one expert even called all four of us "superstars" and was convinced that we're going to pass the exam! That was quite an ego-boost! :)
After this, we were taken back to school where we wished everybody a nice weekend and took our bikes. I had to go home as soon as possible because I had to pack my suitcase... At 3 o'clock my neverending journey began: the taxi company had advised me to order the taxi half an hour prior to departure because of Friday afternoon traffic so they picked me up at3 - too bad we were already at the station 5 minutes later and my bus would not come until 3.45... Luckily, Olga and her boyfriend were in the city centre and they came to the bus stop for a little chat! :) When the bus finally arrived, it was already 15 minutes delayed and then it got stuck in traffic jams - to put it short: it took me a good 3 hours to get to Victoria station where I had to find my way to the right subway line to Richmond and it was 7.50pm when I finally arrived at our friend's house in Richmond... Although I was exhausted, I enjoyed a lovely evening with Sandra and her little daughter Anna (3 years old and just soooo cute! :)). On Saturday, another friend of Sandra's joined us and in the evening my mum arrived - it was so cool to see her although very weird in a way since it was neither home nor my "home" here, some kind of neutral territory in between... but in a way I'm glad that no one is visiting me in Cambridge, that way I can keep all the memories from here separated from my life at home and that gives it a speciel kind of magic (sounds stupid I know but how else could I describe that....)!
Without writing all the details I can say that the next days were extremely nice, very lazy with a lot of talking (and even more chocolate! :)), catching up with my mum, playing with Anna, simply enjoying the company of people who talk during meals... ;) The time passed very fast and yesterday I already had to leave again - they came to Victoria station with me and fortunately the coach journey yesterday was only 2 hours! :)
At 5 o'clock I was back in Cambridge and there was already full programme for the evening: we went to a pub with one of our teachers for a pub quiz! I met Olga and Pascal at 8 and together we found our way to "the Green Dragon" which is a very oldfashioned traditional pub near the river a little outside Cambridge. When we arrived there, our teacher wasn't there and neither were any of our classmates - but in the end they all turned up and the whole quiz thing was good fun. We had - to use Olga's favourite expression - "not the foggiest" about any of the questions but it was nice to be there and spend some time with all these people; I realised that I had really missed them over the weekend (I can't think how terrible it is going to be in June...)!
The pub closed at 11 but Olga, Pascal and me still had the way home and it was sooo funny, we were all rather tired and this was not a good combination - we almost fell off our bikes laughing...
This morning, the other teacher surprised us with another test at 9 o'clock (are they working together or against each other??? ;)) so now I'm quite tired again! At least we don't have any homework for tomorrow which gives me some time to reorganise my folder (it's full...) again!