My Last Week And Last Blog

Hey there,

Well what a week. I went to see Leonard Cohen (Life = complete).

Monday:I came back to Germany on Monday and had an absolute disaster getting home. I was told by Deutsch Bahn that there was a train station in the bottom of Frankfurt Airport. They sold me a ticket that if I missed the train I could not get a refund or another train with that ticket. So I arrived into Frankfurt-Hahn which is basically a field and a shed. Turns out there are two airports in Frankfurt and I was most definitely at the country cousin which did not have a train station underground. Turns out I was 2 hours away from where I was meant to be and that meant that I was going to miss the train. I got to see Frankfurt by bus but due to the circumstances I now don't like it there. In total I had to pay €120 to get back to Freiburg and travelled 6 more hours than I needed to originally.

Tuesday:I started doing a Creative Writing course that finished on Saturday which was really great. People received my story really well. Our class was an interesting bunch; the highly opinionated Danish woman, the Bavarian forest man, the flaming gay Georg, the insane Spanish woman that smelt like turf and Arnold Schwarzenegger as a 20 year old. It was a fairly odd mix! I loved it though and tonight (Saturday)we're going for drinks and watching Axel (the Bavarian) rap...yes. Rap. I'll fill you in once it happens. On Tuesday I went to Feierling to drink my favourite beer. I came home to find Pharaoh out of sorts. He had a little black lump under his chin. I went to bed.

Wednesday: I woke up to find that Pharaoh had passed away during the night. At first I felt nothing but then I realised that Coco passed away a month before I left for Germany. I should have known. I wanted to bury him beside the lake but due to the rat problem I had to make other arrangements. When I broke the news to Konny he laughed and said "I told you so! I knew you kill that fish" Everyday that boy becomes more and more entertaining. The hardest part was taking him out of the bowl. It took me about half an hour to work up the courage. I buried him in a frozen cod fillet box with sand from Scotsmans Bay. The funeral procession went down to the dumpster and I slowly slide in down into the depths of trash.

Thursday: was pretty boring. I spent a lot of my time looking at the vacant space on my shelf where Pharaoh once lived. I only realise now how much I looked towards him; to check if he was alive, about a decision, anything really. It was sad and lonely but I know he's in a better place.

Friday:I had my good bye dinner. It was all very emotional. Konstantin's girlfriend caused yet another scene as he was giving me too much attention so they ate dinner by themselves in his room. They got me a present of a book with beautiful photos of Freiburg. I'm going to miss my WG gang but they've all promised to visit. I really hope they do! I told Tommy about the short story that I wrote and he started to cry at the synopsis. Man, I'm good.

Saturday: Brought all my clothes that I can't bring back with me to the Red Cross. The women there are getting a little suspicious of me. Sorta like I'm stealing the clothes, feeling bad about it and then giving them to charity. Oh well. I cleaned up my room, arranged another appointment with my housemeister, went to Vauban; the most environment friendly place in Europe (And the most boring), ate ice cream and went to every bakery I came across. That evening I went out for drinks with my Creative Writing class. They're fun...a little pretentious but aren't we all? Then we went to my Bavarian rapper. I paid €4 in. It was terrifying but wonderful. They rapped about love, girlfriends, the holocaust and other...entertaining...issues. It was terrible but wonderful. I was scared but amazed. It was the best €4 I have ever spent.

Sunday: My final hours in Freiburg involved cleaning my room, hugging Tiffanj and trying to wake up the boys to say good bye. I went down to the dumpster to put more rubbish in. As I entered the dumpster room I saw that all the things I had thrown away the day before were lined up in rows. My things were organised by their purpose; toiletries, clothes, paper etc all had their own little section. The worrying thing is that I had thrown all these things into their respective bins and right into the middle. That means the lucky person who took them out had to climb into these gargantuan bins, go right into the middle of them and dig. Seeing all my things lined up was terrifying so I through away the old rubbish, put away some of the rubbish I wished wasn't lined up, get my bags, locked up my room and went to the train station an hour early. It's truly upsetting to see something like that. Especially when your old Penneys underwear is lined up by colour. The train, bus and flight home went smoothly even though I woke up twice on the plane with a jump and gasp as I thought I was still on the train. The woman next to me knew I was crazy...She wasn't far off.

Now I'm back home and happy. I still feel as though I haven't landed but that may take time. This year was fantastic and I will never forget this up close and personal experience with Germany. I plan to go back there in the next year but for the time being I never want to hear a German word again...just for awhile!

Thank you everyone for all your support during the year; from the people who encouraged me to go to the people who tried stopping me. Freiburg will always remain so close to my heart but it was your on going support, cards, texts and emails that really kept me going!

Signing off for the foreseeable future as,

Frau Helen

xxx

Last Blog For The Time Being

Hey there,

I wanted to write my second last blog. Tomorrow will be one of the saddest days of my life. Tomorrow I must part with my modem and therefore my internet. I will not have internet for the remainder of my stay in Freiburg. I'm not too sure how I'll cope. I have prepared myself by procuring a copy of David Copperfield. I'm hoping that 905 pages will keep me as entertained and as uptodate as the internet does. I pity the man who has to wrench the modem from my fingers. Life in Freiburg is complicated at the moment. Seemingly, it's impossible just to up and leave a country. There's more too it. A lot of forms and queues. I'm getting there slowly and if I don't finish filling out the forms I plan running back to Ireland without them noticing.

Konstantin is now officially back with his girlfriend. She's already whipped him into shape. He was the most enthusiastic of my flatmates for the themed BBQs however yesterday his tone suddenly changed. Konnie upset Tommy so much that Tommy cancelled the BBQ. Konnie went out on a bit of a rant/tangent. During which Konnie's girlfriend was standing beside him the whole time nodding her head in agreement. He was saying that he didn't want to have motto BBQ, that he didn't want to eat and drink with us every week, there was never anyone new and it was pointless to have these BBQs. The whole time he seemed to regret every word. Then he said we should have just BBQs every week, eat and drink together. So he contradicted himself. The rest of the WG think his girlfriend made him do it. And when Konstantin realised I am leaving next week he got upset, looked plaintively at his girlfreind who glare but still tried to get Tommy to put the BBQ back on. No luck. Konstantin was telling me the other day that his girlfriend told him she only dates "guys with few to no friends and who are easily controlled". Perfect match, it seems. God knows.

I handed in my final essays on Monday, finished my last test today and did my last presentation last week. I am a free woman! Now I get to sit back and relax. Next week I'm taking a block seminare in Creative Writing. Should be easy enough...I'm hoping. Everyday I repack and reweigh my luggage and no matter what I do it never seems to reduce. The room is looking more and more empty, white and sad but I'll be back in my Irish room in no time!

I realised today that I've been buying a brand of toilet paper called "Happyend". I thought I wouldn't care about the terribly translated English names and phrases over here. Turns out Germany still has its charm

I'm having an epic day of cleaning tomorrow. I have my final check with my Hausmeister on Thursday so I need to have everything spik'n'span. This involves cleaning the floors, the kitchen, the bathroom, the window, my wardrobe inside and out, repainting the walls where my posters ripped off the paint, the door and my mirror. And a lot a dusting here and there. I plan enticing the animals of The Black Forest to come and help me!

Well, this is goodbye for German blogging. I will post another blog about my final days in Freiburg once I am settled back into my familiar environment of Dublin. I hope the blogs haven't been too tedious. Until the next blog...tschüss

More...

I spent my day clearing out my room and making up a box for the next UCD student coming here for an Erasmus. I had decorated all the walls with anything I could find so that it was a little more home like rather than the white cube I arrived to. Now it's back to the hideous white cell look but I had to do it so my Hausmeister can inspect it next week! I can't believe I'm leaving here in 15 days. It's honestly crazy how fast time has flown.

I don't really have much news. The last time I was in Ireland I clocked a guy at the airport in Germany as he was so beautifully nerdy. He was on my bus back to my house and then I forgot all about him. On my way back to Germany he was on my flight again, on my train, on my bus, on my tram, got off at my stop and walked into the same place that I live. I presumed he was stalking me now. However he disappeared and I didn't think of him since. Yesterday a friend I hadn't heard from in ages sent me a comment on Facebook and HE was in her profile picture with her! Odd. Last night I went to see Bruno with a few friends. My friend said his friend Jonas was coming along too. Guess who it was. Yes, my stalker. We sat beside each other at the film, went for drinks with everyone after the film and is the nicest stalker I've ever had. He's so sweet and pulls at his shirt sleeves when he's talking to you. Today he added me on Facebook. I think a beautiful friendship is beginning.

I finished my final essay yesterday so now I'm free to do all the things I've wanted to do but hadn't gotten the chance to. I want to go on the trams to all their final destinations. I did it today for one tram and I stayed on for so long I ended up in the middle of nowhere in the tram terminal. The driver shouted at me and I had to walk for ten minutes down the tram lines. I had that feeling that I'd be killed by a tram and because of my location my death would definitely have been registered as a suicide as no one was to be seen for miles. Just tram tracks. I've been to three end stops so I've about 6 more to go or something. Then I need to think of all the other things I wanted to do before I leave which I have forgotten.

I have a face mask on and now it's starting to burn so I believe that's my cue to sign off.

Just an Update

Hello there,

Things are slowly wrapping up here in Freiburg. I've written a huge list of all the things I have to do in order to depart the country from going to the end stop of every tram, closing down my bank account and convincing Konstantin that he still wants to adopt Pharaoh.

I've been writing essays all the time so I don't have too much interesting news to comment on. As you know every week we have a themed BBQ and this week was "Cartoons". I decided to dress up as Little Red Riding Hood. The other costumes were Pippi Longstocking, The Ghostbusters, Mickey and Minnie Mouse. There's always too much food and the night usually finishes with the bursting out of costumes. This time however we were dancing around our tiny balcony to the greatest hits of Michael Jackson (God Bless his white cotton socks). I found out that I only know 7-10 words of 4 of his greatest hits. Clearly, I wasn't much of a fan. The BBQ brought with it Konstantin's (was ex now present) girlfriend who has the face of a disdainful spade. I personally don't like her because;

1) I was going to dress up as Minnie and she stole my costume

2) She told Konnie that she only dates boys who have little to no friends and that are easily controlled...The message is yet to hit home to him

3)She thinks that I'm trying to seduce Konstantin and run away with him. Little does she know that Konstantin has seen me in the morning and eating.

4)She talks about me in German and when Konstantin reminds her that I understand she says I don't. She's a smart one.

The costume thieving spade was at the BBQ last night dressed as Minnie Mouse. I baked a cake in the shape of Mickey Mouse and she accused Konnie of cheating on her with me. The reason; I baked a cake of Mickey Mouse and he was dressed as Mickey Mouse. Ah yes, the Irish courting ritual of baking a cake in the present appearance of the loved one. I cheered myself up though by laughing to myself as she ate. She eats teenie-tiny bites, nose wiggling, darting little eyes and holding her hand up to her face all the time in other words like a mouse. She is Minnie Mouse incarnate. Needless to say I was thrilled. She also squeaks like a mouse if a favourite song of hers comes onto the radio. The list of comparisons is endless. Konnie says that they're not really going out and that she isn't staying around. Little does he know that the mouse is burying a nest back into our flat. I plan setting traps.

In other news Carlo is in flying form. For the past few weeks he has been talking about Sharon. Sharon loves me. Sharon misses me he's sure. I've played along and pretended I know what on earth he is talking about thinking that he was referring to Paolo. A private joke that I have not been let in on. Finally, I asked him who Sharon was. My question was met with hysterical laughter "You have forgotten them so soon! How could you?! You are a bad girl! He's waiting for you in Ireland and you don't even know he's there". Ah yes, Sharon...my boyfriend Ciarán. Carlo and I spent an entire afternoon learning English phonology. Sharon is no longer part of my life, Key-arrr-own is. We're getting there slowly.

News Flash!

I've been calling Alburna the wrong name. Her name is...*drumroll*..Albane.

That's right Albane from Albania.

It's been a good day

Stuff and Fluff

Hello there,

Well I've actually been doing a lot of things since I last wrote a blog. Since it's been such a long time since I wrote I've forgotten most of what I have done but that's life and I'm sure you're all glad the blog won't be of the epic sort.

I've been researching and writing all my essays and yet I've only completed one. It's an arduous battle against the wonders of the internet entertaining me and trying to write these essays. I took to locking myself in the library but after a while I decided I had a "feeling" about the library so now I can't study there. Yes, it's all in my head but I'm pretty pleased I don't have to sit in a dark room, surrounded by forgotten books, written by dead, boring people and listening to people who refuse to use to tissue and snort and exhale through their noses. The essays have suffered with my absence from the library but I'm lying to myself and I'll telling me I'm making progress!

The WG(the inhabitants of the flat I live in) now have started having BBQs every Wednesday. We usually have a theme to it. Last week, we dressed up rockabilly style and played the hits of Elvis, The Baseballs and all that sorta jazz...or should I say Rockabilly. I make a different dessert for each BBQ and I'm baking quite a bit over here. The boys (and girls) think it is because I'm generous and I want to be nice. In actual fact, I bake so much because I can't buy a box for half a dozen eggs. So to prevent them from going off before I use them I bake a cake. I'm teaching Kaelyn how to cook too. We've covered righteous mac and cheese and burgers and chips. She's a keen learner but prefers washing up more than cooking which is a bit difficult when the spoon you were using disappears while cooking as she's cleaning it. We're learning slowly.

I jumped up to Berlin for the weekend on the 18th of June to see Clair. It was so cool to be back in Berlin and with Clair. We mainly slept, ate and watched Disney movies. It was the perfect weekend. I headbutted a huge man in a club at least twice my height (I exaggerate a little) by accident but he took it pretty well as I'm still alive to tell the story! But yes, Berlin was awesome.

That's pretty much all my news. The eggs go off tomorrow so I'm off to bake a cake!

The new girl

Alburna from Albania and I have been getting on rather well regardless of the grand canyon of a language barrier that stands between us. She's been here months now and yesterday she called me "Tiffanj", naturally I didn't respond as that's not my name. After she tugged at my dress, I realised that she was talking to me about the Italian girl, Helen. I told her that I was Helen and I'm Irish and that Tiffanj is Italian and the girl who lives next to me. She told me I wasn't. After a lot of pointing, saying my name and generally trying to make her understand, she got Konstantin out of his room to identify me. Konstantin and I have been working on humour and sarcasm. Today, all my work backfired on me. She asked him if I was Tiffanj to which he laughed and said yes. I could have strangled him as now Alburna from Albania thinks I'm a bitch. She left the room with a confused and somewhat hurt face. After glaring at Konstantin, I got him to go to her room and identify me as me. Things are a little difficult at the moment.