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.

Things seem to be disappearing.

Today was one of those uneventful days but I seemingly have lost a few things. I bought hollandaise sauce for the 6 asparagus that I picked out, weighed, got the price for and put in my basket. I never saw them again.

Then I went to my local post office. After a little walk with the threat of rain I walked up to where the door of my post office is and it was gone. Not like it changed hands of business, I mean the entire building was gone. I stood there stunned and in retrospect looking rather stupid as I looked around to see if the post office building may have just moved somewhere else. There was no sign, no indication to why or where the post office building had moved.

I've lost the pen I was writing with somewhere on my clear desk.

Today has a great sense of absence.

Busy three weeks

Hello there,

Haven't written here in some time. The chocolate thief has been identified...Konstantin. I found a note in my fridge beside a bar of very good Swiss chocolate; "I'm sorry!!! :-) Here some little replacement for you. Konstantin." It transpires that he had only taken three pieces but my note upset him so he bought chocolate to replace it so there is another unidentified thief in the flat.

Ciarán came over to see me on the 28th of May. We went rowing in Titisee which was lovely, I rowed first and then he took over. After a minute or two of the boat spinning around in circles I asked if he had ever rowed before, he hadn't. For the next half an hour, I was cox of the boat and shouted instructions at him. After that he turned out to be a very good little rower. I think when I grow up I'll have a little row boat and a medium sized lake to row around. The weather was more than beautiful, smothered in factor 50, Ciarán and I sat out for little picnics on all the days.

Mags (the Godmother) and her sister,

Brid came over on Thursday(4th of June). Konstantin has no idea what a god mother is so he spent his week and the weekend praising the "GOTTES MUTTER" and praying to her. It was a lovely weekend of sunshine, a bit of rain and lots of good food. They spoilt me rotten which was really good of them. I needn't eat ever again. They're hilarious fun to be around and really nice to travel with. We went up to St.Peter on the Saturday. The closer we got to it the more rain came down. We took refuge in the beautiful cathedral which is white, red and gold on the inside. On the way back we had a very enthusiastic bus driver on the way back who was clearly a local and knew everyone and that we were definitely not from Freiburg. His running commentary on the bus intercom about us and various things that caught his attention added to the trip. On saturday evening we saw 20 Polizei vans that blocked off Kaiser-Josef strasse and all exits off it. We still have no idea why as we walked to the Munster for mass, we entered the platz and were confronted by at least 200 armed police people. Terrify

ing, a little. Feeling that you're walking into the wrong place and at the time, BIG chance. After, the awe inspiring mass with incredible organ playing, we came out and every sign of police presence had disappeared! Thanks to Mags and Brid, I had a lovely weekend and got to see plac

es of Freiburg, I didn't know existed!

It has been a busy few weeks but I needed to see the people I miss. Ireland is a stone throw away but seeing the people that

you love and miss really makes the difference.