Corrections and some more info

Hello there, just me again. I know, I know: "How boring." Well, get on with it, it's the best me you'll get :P
At the moment I'm just sorting stuff out and (oddly enough) watching football. Those of you who know me well, know what I think of it, but still, this world cup is so weird it's actually interesting, even if the games are not the most pleasurable to watch and the referees not quite perfect.
Stevo just told me off for getting my history wrong :D Sorry Stevo ;)
Henry VIII had 6 wives, not 5! Today in school, I heard that little chant again that everyone seems to know about Henry VIII. I'm finding it quite hilarious. "Divorced, Beheaded, Died, Divorced, Beheaded, Survived". It certainly has a chime to it, hehe :D
As far as sorting stuff out is concerned, I'm not very far yet. In fact, I haven't quite started. I really should start thinking about it though, I guess.
At school I'm always running around with my camera, taking pictures of all my classes with classmates and teachers. I've returned all the books I had taken hostage against a ransom of 30 pound. It pays being a booknapper! No worries about eyewitnesses, no need for violence, it's brilliant. The perfect crime :D
Yesterday I went round to Niklas' after school, and then he came round for the Spain-Honduras game and a quick cardgame, which he won!
Anyway, the weather is just lovely at the moment. I went to town to get some stuff, including a white T-Shirt and some textile markers, so everyone can sign :D
Tomorrow is an RE (religious education) conference, where they have a Sikh guy (not as in sick but as in the religion) which will do stuff, I'm not entirely clear as to what exactly.
I'm just counting down the days now with one eye crying one laughing, 8 to go..

The last month of England

Hey, I'm back ;)
At the beginning of June, I was starting to realize that I had to go soon. Really soon. And it's even sooner now, only 10 day left in fact. After having spent 9 months with Stevo and Lesley in England, a pretty bleak outlook. On the other hand I'm looking forward to going home and seeing all you lot again. But I will miss England, it has left a lasting impression, and it was in fact the best year of my life so far, I would say. I made new friends, acquired a second language to the extent that I dream and think in it, had some great experiences, a lot of fun and grew as a person I believe. It is great and I can't quite believe it's over that soon.
Anyway, at the beginning of June, there were still loads in it for me.
June 1st-4rd, Tuesday-Friday
This week was the sunniest this year, it was more than 20 degrees every day, the sun shone every day all day long, it was just lovely. I did some bits and bobs of revision every day, but not too much and went running a couple of times. There was no Salsa on Wednesday and I started reading another book, "The Lovely Bones", which was weird but good. Not much social interaction going on because everyone else was preparing for next weeks exams, but that was fine by me. I finished the lovely bones on Friday, tanning in the back garden and enjoying the sun. Friday was also Bob's birthday, so John and Celia came round and we had a BBQ to celebrate his birthday.
June 5th, Saturday
To get a bit of a break from the little revision I had been doing and get some energy for the revision I was going to be doing, we decided to go to Woburn. Woburn is a Safari Park not too far away from us, where the animals are not in cages but run around freely (obviously they separate predators from the other animals) and you go round in your car. I took quite a few pictures. There were elephants, giraffes, zebras, lions, bears, wolves, rhinos, camels, parrots, lemurs, wallabys and what have you. It was great and having a camera with a good zoom really paid off that day. As if that hadn't been enough animals for the day, we watched "Finding Nemo" in English, Stevo had never seen it at all and I had never seen it in English. Good fun, I think it's better than the dubbed version.
June 6th, Sunday
About 4 o'clock in the afternoon I entered what I called "revision mode". It was going to be an intensive week and I wanted to be prepared. I revised psychology that day and went to bed early.
Here's the week: Monday - Psychology Unit 1 exam, 1pm-2:30pm, went alright, I was well prepared
Tuesday - English Literature exam, 1pm-3pm, poetry part was very good, Wuthering Heights seemingly, until I later realized that I'd forgotten to mention context. In the morning I was walking around the house, chanting quotes to myself and in the evening, I was preparing for the next day, physics and maths. Physics Unit 1 having gone not to well, I was worried about Unit 2.
Wednesday - Which proved to be alright in the end, I finished with loads of time to spare and answered all the questions, 9am-11am, then went to town for some food with Nick and Marcell and then had maths, C4, in the afternoon, 1pm, 1:30h for the first part and 1h for the second part, so I left school at 3:30. The exam itself was quite easy I found, but other people found it difficult.
Thursday - Psychology Unit 2 exam, 9am-10:30am. In comparison to the past papers, this was an unusual paper in that it had 3 extra essay-style questions, so 4 overall, when they normally have 12, but I was prepared quite well, answered all the questions.
Friday - Maths C3, 9am-10:30am. The penultimate exam, for which I had prepared not as much as the others as it was supposed to be easier than C4. It was, and I did alright I think.
So that was the week. What I did in between the exams? Revision, sleeping, eating, nothing else!
June 12th, Saturday
Even though Lesley asked me whether she was going to find "a dribbling little mess" by the end of the week, to which I replied "yeah, that would be me then", I wasn't really worn out, just relieved that most of the exams were over. 6 exams in 1 week is quite harsh. So Stevo and I went to Salcey forest where they have "the largest freestanding treetop walk in Europe" which takes you up to the tops of the trees and you get a great view. Interestingly, in the little restaurant of the park, they had menus on the insides of the loo-doors. Then we went to Lesley who had been shopping with her Mum during the day and visited Lesley's parents one last time so I could say goodbye and then watched "the football". 1st half still at Lesley's parent's place, then quickly rushed round to Lesley's and watched the second half and afterwards got some Fish and Chips from the local Chippy. I also got a battered (paniert) Mars bar, which is basically a Mars bar (as in the chocolate) in batter and then deep-fried in fat. The portions were so big, I could not physically have finished those fish&chips, even if I hadn't had the mars bar.
June 13th, Sunday
Stevo, Lesley and me went to London to go to the Tower of London and a radio recording at St. Martin in the Field's church. The Tower of London is the place full of beefeaters (and that's NOT the guys with the big furry hats), where they clip the raven's wings so they can't fly away and the empire can't go down, a prison for important prisoners where trials were held, including that of Henry VIII's second wife Anne Boleyn who was accused of treason and adultery and beheaded there. He was the guy who found the church of england and made its rules, so he could divorce his first wife, which the pope at the time wouldn't let him. Nice bloke, really. Divorced the 1st wife, had the 2nd one beheaded, 3rd wife died in giving birth, divorced his 4th wife because he found her ugly, and his last wife he would also have had beheaded if he hadn't died beforehand.
Anyway, we saw the crown jewels and the insides of the tower and some reenactors doing the trial and execution of Anne Boleyn. After that we went to St. Martin in the Field's, which is a church in London where many a classical music recording has been made, to see some hymns being recorded for a radio programme. Then we had some readymeals at Daniel's place before going home.
June 14th, Monday
I had a lie-in, did some preparation for my last exam, then watched a movie called "Pay It Forward" which was quite good. Then did some more past papers for "Mechanics 1".
June 15th, Tuesday
M1 9am-10:30am, I had a slow start in that exam, but still managed to finish fairly quickly and had enough time to go over any questions I wasn't sure about. After that I went to see the local Cromwell museum, to which I'd never been before and thought I had to do it. Rather small building, so I was done in half an hour and then joined Shaun, Nathaniel and Elisabeth going to Hinchingbrooke Country Park where they had lunch and we had a nice little chat until about 3 o'clock. In the afternoon I did a treasure hunt which Stevo and Lesley had prepared for Bob's wine maker's club, driving through Northamptonshire, ending up at a pub where I got fish&chips.
June 16th, Wednesday
An epic day out in London with Paddy P and Leah. I got 3 free tickets for the house of commons so I asked Paddy and Leah to come along. We took the train to London at 9, had a full english breakfast, then went to the houses of Parliament and had a tour around which was quite good. I saw the house of Lords and the great hall and everything. After the tour, we decided to queue up for the house of commons, where they were having a debate. It only took 5 minutes of queueing to get in and we saw some politicians (nobody I knew) arguing about different affairs, which was very interesting to see. After that, we went to the Hard Rock Cafe where I bought myself a T-Shirt, then got some lunch from Marks&Spencer's which we had in Green Park before going to the Science Museum and the natural history museum (just for the dinosaurs and the blue whale). Finished there, we went to T.G.I. Friday's (standing for Thank God It's Friday's). They have a thing there called "bottomless glass", which basically means drink as much as you like, the waiters will continually top you up. Leah had some chicken with a salad and Paddy and I both went for a 14oz Burger with bacon, cheese, onion rings, chips and Jack Daniel's sauce. TERRIFIC! But sooo much. I was absolutely stuffed afterwards, but it was well good. Then we got the train back home, continuing the game of wizard we had started on the journey there, and I lost. By miles. Well done Paddy and Leah for ganging up on me :P
June 17th, Thursday
Unfortunately I had to go back to school, there was some sort of assembly where everyone else got told about what was going to happen next year, all quite irrelevant for me, apart from the date when I get my results: Results day is some time in August. Until then, I won't know how I've done in my exams in June although tbh I'm not that worried. In the afternoon, Paddy came round and I taught him Schnapsen, before we then went to a Fun Fair in Brampton where we met Sonia, Leah, Elisabeth and Nathaniel and went on the dodgems (Autodrom). Paddy and me decided, that if the two of us were to get in a dodgy together, we would have so much mass that we would easily be able to dodge anyone away, which turned out to be true: We just stopped and whoever we rammed went a couple of feet backwards. Unfortunately my legs are a bit too long for those small dodgies and I kept hitting my knees whenever I dodged someone. It was good fun.
June 18th, Friday
We started some new stuff at school, for everyone else this is the beginning of Year 13, their final year. They have 5 weeks of school before their summer holidays (6 weeks long). Some interesting stuff there actually, especially in maths. I am going to be SO bored in maths next year. Seriously, I've got my A level in maths, I've done it all. Nevermind. I had my (penultimate) piano lesson, we did some more on Claire de Lune and Take 5 and some scales and jazz, all really interesting stuff. I'll have to find a good piano teacher next year... In the evening, we watched the england-algeria game on telly.
June 19th, Saturday
I didn't get out of my pjs all day and from 2:30 onwards started working on the blog. In the evening, Jeremy, his girlfriend, Sam and Jess came round to celebrate Jeremy's birthday, Stevo and Lesley had gone out, and later in the evening when Stevo and Lesley came home I joined them. It was really good fun, we didn't get to bed until 1:30.
June 20th, Sunday
Which made it difficult to get up, but I managed. I got up at 8:30, got some bacon from the co-op and set everything up for a father's day breakfast for Stevo. Everyone else was pretty hung over from last night, so I had plenty of time and finished off the blog this morning before Stevo got up, then got in the kitchen and made (with a bit of help and advice from Jeremy) some fried bacon, fried eggs, baked beans and toast for everyone. I don't want to praise myself, but it was quite good and I'm beginning to get the hang of fried eggs. Now I'm just doing the last 3 weeks and I'm about to go to Cambridge, where they have a jazz festival and I'm going to see all the boys a last time before I leave.
10 days to go. I'm happy, and sad, I'm looking forward, but will miss.. Oh well, it has been a very good year and I would not miss it for the world.
Yours,
S. P. B.

Catching up

Hello there, It's a me!
It's about time I wrote another blog entry I guess. There's gonna be a few changes though this time. I just feel the need to write in English, seeing as it's the last four months which I'm summing up pretty much. I'm just quite immersed in this language now, but I'll try and make any words clear that aren't commonly known. Nevertheless, you'd better have your dictionaries ready in case I forget to explain some words ;)
Even though I hope people who read this can keep their mouths shut and not mention what they read to everyone, I will save some information that I don't really think should go on the net. If you want to know anyway, you can ask and I may or may not tell you.
Off we go then.
Last time I wrote it was a Saturday, and this time it's a Saturday, just 16 weeks later :D
February, 28th (Sunday)
Well, as a Sunday, this was one of the quiet days. The only happening noted in my little Sixth Form calendar is "Did my HWs from 22-0:30." That makes sense, it looks like me, leaving my homework til the very last minute. Lazy much, eh?
March, 1st (Monday)
My calendar says: "Beatiful day, sun & happiness! / Bikeshed wouldn't open." Now there's a story for you. With February being so cold and the winter being cold and windy and (sort of) snowy and all the rest of it, the wooden door to the bikeshed sort of shrank during the winter. Obviously, wood shrinks and expands depending on the temperature. Now that isn't a very good thing to do for a door. Especially when I need to open it to get to my bike and go to school (being late in the first place didn't particularly help either). What I'm saying is that, try as I might, I simply could not open that bloody shed door. Hence I couldn't get to my bike. After 5 minutes of fruitless attempts at forcing the door open, I looked for other possibilities. The result was bleak: Stevo had gone to work, the other bike was in the very same shed and walking would take me another half hour (it already being 9:15 when school starts at 9:10, walking was not a viable option). Luckily, some neighbours were having a patio to their house done and some workers with a van full of tools were there. So I went over and asked them as kindly as I could whether they could help me force the door open and break into that shed over there so I could get to my bike. Combine that with a still quite possibly very evident foreign accent and it kind of looks dodgy (nicht ganz sauber, leicht illegal). Fortunately they helped me anyway, using a crowbar (Stemmeisen) and a spade (Schaufel) to force the door open, I got my bike, cycled as if my life depended on it and was only about 25 Minutes late in the end, causing some amusement amongst my Maths class. That was the day my bike got a new home in the other little shed, to avoid this incident from repeating itself.
March 2nd, Tuesday
The weather was still quite damp and the area still flooded, but like monday it was a very sunny day, so I decided to go for a little run. I had gone for runs before, but only sort of 40, 50 Minutes long and not very far. This time I decided to see how far I could go if I just kept going. I set off late afternoon and ran to a village called Grafham. Now that village is about 4 Miles from my house, so it took me 1:13 h (says me calendar) to get there and back. Of course by the time I got there the sun had started going down and I was hungry, and by the time I got home I was even hungrier and it was almost completely dark. I did sleep alright that night though :D
March 3rd, Wednesday
A usual Wednesday, went to town to get some lunch, then I went to the gym (as I did most Wednesdays in fact, hypocrit that I am), then went round to Emma's place and then to Salsa with her.
March 4th, Thursday
My hair having grown quite long, I think it was that Thursday that I decided to have it chopped off. Now I don't know whether I've mentioned this, but there is a barber's shop in Huntingdon who cuts hair for a tenner. Anyway, I had my hair cut rather short, with only a rather short fringe (Stirnfransen). Not the best haircut, but hey, do I care? As long as I can wash it properly in less than an hour I'm fine with what it looks like. Even though I hate my hair at the moment, cause every time I come out of the shower I look like a bloomin Beatle, it's ridiculous! Anyone who says the 60s are dead obviously hasn't seen my hair. Nonetheless, my Mum has forbidden me to have it cut before I go home, as she thinks that barber's shop is rubbish. So bear with me when I come home looking like I've just come from the 60s. Other than that it was a Thursday like many others, with Philosophy Club at lunchbreak and the Debating Society after school. From the barbers, I went shopping for Lesley's birthday, which was on Sunday. I got her a DVD and some chocolates, assuming that she would get so many books that a DVD would be nice for a change.
The landscape was still flooded (I think I've got some pictures somewhere.. I hope..) and there were plenty of ducks, swans and other floating poultry in our back garden as well as the field across the brooke, which continued to be flooded for quite some time after the water had gone back down.
I vividly remember being late for school (again) and telling my maths teacher that I had to fight off some ducks to get to my bike (which wasn't quite true, but caused laughter and went for an excuse).
March 5th, Friday
My calender just says some stuff about school, nothing of interest apart from my piano lessons, which always brighten up my days. My piano teacher is absolutely terrific, we're doing jazz and anything that I like really. It's great. I can't believe it's only one more lesson that I have with her :(
March 6th, Saturday
It being Lesley's birthday, this was quite an active day. First we went to pick up Lesley's Mum and Dad and went to the Pub "The Stag" with them, where I believe I had some Steak and Kidney pie. Oh how I will miss pies...
After that, we went to Pam and Bob's to have a birthday dinner which basically consists of sandwiches, but proper english ones, really quite good. While Stevo and Lesley went to a play of some sort I believe, I stayed and Pam and Bob's and rolled around in their living room.
March 7th, Sunday
Erm, yeah, another Sunday, I went for another run, Grafham and back again, so 8 miles, and that's about what my planner says.
March 8th, Monday
Careers day! This would be like an orientation meeting for your future. Since there are so many young people in Britain, there is quite some competition for University places and people need to get to grips with what they want to do later in life really fast and choose their courses accordingly. This was sort a day of information on courses, Uni life, student finance (here they still pay quite a substantial amount of money for uni, I believe for Cambridge eg. it's 3.000 Pound a term, hence 9000 Pound per academic year, on top of accomodation and food and everything), so really not that useful for me, but nonetheless interesting to find out about how the system works in England, even though I still haven't got a clue quite how it works in Austria ^^
March 9th, Tuesday
We started coursework in some of our subjects. Coursework is basically the only homework that is assessed and counts towards your final grade. It is a bit like a project or massive homework. Anyway, that Tuesday we started our Physics coursework on electricity. "Electromotive Force and internal resistance of a cell" was the topic, so lots of circuits and batteries and all the rest of it to do. I went into that coursework without so much as an idea of what I had to do. Luckily Paddy was able to explain quite well what we were meant to be doing and I managed to do that. Study-buddies for the win!
In the afternoon, I went to town with Emma and we had a cup of coffee / tea before I then went to Homebase to get myself a proper bikepump and some lubricant for means of bike maintainance. Who would have guessed that a bikepump that is about 25 pound in the bike shop is about 10 pound in Homebase, and the lubricant which was 7,50 in Halfords came with triple the amount for 4 pound in Homebase? Such a rip-off, honestly.
March 10th, Wednesday
We started our English Literature Coursework with Mrs. Beddows finally, which was on the poetry of Ted Hughes in relation to Sylvia Plath. Rather depressing story, those two, but nonetheless good poetry by Hughes. As always, "Language, Imagery and Verse Form" needed to be considered in relation to the meaning of the poem and its message. Obviously we had some time to do all of that.
It being a normal Wednesday, I went to town for lunch, then to the gym, then round Emma's and then to Salsa with her.
March 11th, Thursday
The physics practical continued (you know, circuits and stuff and the likes) and I did actually manage to cut my finger with a crocodile clip. That is something that not many people manage to do, even though I don't quite think it's something to be proud of.
I also got my results for the January exams back, which were accompanied by the words "You are a maths-ninja". I got 100%, 97% and 90% on my three maths exams. Fairly good I dare say, all A*s and the best results of the year.
March 12th, Friday
Practical in physics continued, this time luckily without any injuries. I did not forget my piano lesson and in the evening I went round Emma's where Shaun, Leah also were and we watched some movies.
March 13th, Saturday
Although slightly suspicious at first due to the name, I decided to go to a barn dance with Stevo and Lesley, some of their friends and Emma and I turned out to be really good fun. Even though the main audience was a bit older than Emma and me, we had a brilliant time doing all the different dances. Robin once again proved to be a really funny guy and started a sort of skipping competition. Who can skip the highest, furthest and stamp the loudest. (Skipping = Hoppsalauf).
Coming home, Niklas stayed over at ours as his hostparents needed his bed to accomodate a guest of theirs.
March 14th, Sunday
A very workful day, quite opposite to my usual Sundays I spent that day doing English Literature coursework. Skim-reading through my chosen books, picking out quotes and writing down the page numbers with descriptions of the quote for reference was the first bit, then I went on to make a start at a piece of work that was to take me more than 25 hours of work.
March 15th, Monday
The headache I had developed the previous day was joined by a sore throat and other symptoms of general illness so I decided to stay at home. However, I did not take the day off but instead did coursework all day long. I finished mid-evening, my essay was about 4700 words long (including quotations) and should have been 2000 (excluding quotations) at max. The other essay draft was done in about an hour, totally neglecting the need for any quotes and just writing my ideas down to have something to present. Last minute work does not always work, but it sort of did that time. Why? Because the deadlines were today for the one and tomorrow for the other.
March 16th, Tuesday
Having done my coursework I handed it in. Phew! During school, I was taken to the PAC (Performing Arts Centre) to practice with my dance group for the upcoming performance.
I had heard of some other Latin dance classes in Brampton, quite close to my house, so I decided to try that out and asked Emma whether she wanted to come as well, which she did.
Walking home from school then with Emma I discovered that my bike had another flat tyre. This was annoying, and the first time in months that it had happened. Round mine, we watched some DVDs and then went to the Latin dance class, which was quite interesting, even though we turned up about an hour late not having timed our dinner very well.
March 17th, Wednesday
Again, I was taken to the PAC to practice, and in the afternoon there were "subject review meetings" with our teachers to discuss our progress, set some targets and so on. I basically got told to carry on as I had started. In the afternoon, I got my bike to Halfords to have the flat tyre fixed. There goes another fiver.
March 18th, Thursday
Some more practice for the show that night, I managed to get the outfit for the show in the afternoon and it did go quite well. Every Tuesday up to that day we had been preparing and it did go accordingly well.
March 19th, Friday
I had my piano lesson as usual and then went to town with Emma for a coffee. After that I had dinner at Niklas' place and we made some plans for the next day, deciding that we would go to Birmingham the next day. To get the cheapest train possible, we would get the train at 6 o' clock in the morning, which meant getting up at 4:45.
March 20th, Saturday
Got up at 4:45, Niklas texted "Ready to Rambo?" to which I replied "Yiiiiiiihaaaaaa!". We cycled to the train station and got there about 20 minutes early (I have pictures to prove it), then got the train which took us to Birmingham via London (which is a bit out of the way, but never mind). We got to Birmingham at about 8:30 and decided to have a full english breakfast. Now that is one of the best things you can imagine. A full english breakfast does as its name suggests: It makes you full, for hours. Omeletts, sausages, baked beans, mushrooms, cooked tomatoes, bacon, brown sauce and toast plus a pot of tea and all that for 5 pound. I can say, that was money very well spent, that breakfast kept me going until well into the afternoon. We then went into the national gallery, had a little walk round Birmingham, went to the Jewellery quarter and the pen museum and tried to get into the science museum, but unfortunately that would have cost money (museums usually don't in England). We also saw probably the biggest shopping centre of England and the Bull ring before then catching a 40 pound train back home. This train took us another way back than we had come and just as we arrived in Derby (go figure that one...) we got told that the train to Peterborough had been cancelled. So we waited for an hour and were expecting to wait another 40 minutes once we got to Peterborough. We had some tea and saw the Bobbies sort of sort out a fight between hooligans. When we got to Peterborough, luckily there was a train to Huntingdon on the next Platform which we just about caught; the doors closed directly behind us. So much as for the english train system, we had not been told that there was this train. We got home at about half eleven (which is 11:30 and not 10:30), absolutely shattered and I went straight to bed.
March 21st, Sunday
I had, as you would expect, a proper lie-in until about 1 o'clock in the afternoon to get some energy. Apart from that, my planner doesn't say anything so I guess it was a lazy day. Aditionally, the watch which I had ordered from amazon as a late Christmas present arrived on Saturday so I could rid myself of that 9,90 plastic thing and put on the 88,90 plastic thing (solar powered, radio-controlled, stopwatch, 5 alarms, countdown-timer and different timezones, G-Shock, YEAH MAN!), so I spent some of my time finding out how it worked and all that.
March 22nd, Monday
Emma came round mine again and we watched some DVDs. The second watch arrived, but it turned out to be the wrong one and a rather long struggle to sort things out with the reseller on amazon began that day.
March 23rd, Tuesday
This was another working day, I finished my physics coursework and spent some more time on my two english coursework essays.
March 24th, Wednesday
A busy day, I got up early (for my standards), had a shower and all, must have been a special day or something.. I remember being quite energetic that day and eager to get things done. Anyway, school passed by as usual, then I returned my watch (which cost 6,20 pound), got myself lunch in town and then went round Emma's to go to Salsa later in the evening. With the cost of 2 Salsa lessons, my money that had already been running out for some time was effectively gone. I had 2 pound in my wallet and 4,20 pound in my bank account.
March 25th, Thursday
A normal Thursday with Philosophy Club and Debating Society. I got told off for my english coursework being too long and not really focused. Aye, I got telling off.. Anyway.
March 26th, Friday
I handed in my physics coursework, had my piano lesson and went to a quiz with Stevo's work colleagues at which I wasn't allowed to participate because we had won the previous one and we would have been 7 people when 6 were allowed in a team. So I just came for the food, read the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and fell asleep publicly, apparently snoring quite loudly. Nice.
March 27th, Saturday
I went bowling with Emma, Shaun, Iona and Leah before then going on to do my English Literature coursework while everyone else was invited to Leah's birthday party. Only recently I found out why I hadn't been invited to that, explanation was fair enough.
March 28th, Sunday
I sort of finished my coursework that day. That is, I thought I had finished but my teacher thought different.
Also, my family arrived and we had a nice dinner in the George in town with Stevo, Lesley, Sam and the whole of my family. Yay, Fish and Chips :D
March 29th, Monday
My coursework was not good enough, I had to redo my bibliography and there was not 10% more or less so I had to cut out about 300 words of my essay. Also, my conclusion was apparently inexistent, so I had to write a new one.
March 30th, Tuesday
I followed my parents to London, where they had gone in the morning. On the way there, someone tried to kill themself by jumping in front of a train, but apparently they did that too early and there were no trains around to get killed by, the police caught them and arrested them. Still a holdup of about 40 minutes. In London we had Chinese and then saw the musical "We Will Rock You" which was quite good in fact and had all the Queen songs in it.
March 31st, Wednesday
I can't quite remember what I did that day, but it must have been something with my parents because I skipped my Salsa lesson.
April 1st, Thursday
"Pinch and Punch, 1st of Month!" April Fool's day, unfortunately nobody decided to play any tricks on anyone. After school, we went to York which took us quite some time. In York we had a little wander round and did what we always do when we go places, visit the main attractions, take some pictures and go shopping.
April 2nd, Friday
We spent the morning in York and I got a new wallet and a hat and then went to the Yorkshire Dales. It being Good Friday there was no school, so it's not like I skipped lessons or anything.
The Yorkshire Dales, aye. Beautiful landscape, quite rough though, and driving through it with my Dad at quite high speed was a bit like a rollercoaster. I don't feel sick easily, but after that I did a bit. We returned home in the evening to get some shut-eye and be ready for the next day...
April 3rd, Saturday
... on which we went to Oxford. There's always a big argument whether Oxford or Cambridge is more beautiful. I personally prefer Cambridge, it's more vibrant. Other than that, they are pretty much the same. Unis, bicycles all over the place, students, churches and so on.
April 4th, Sunday
We went to a local village with a bit of history attached. Stamford it was called, and there was an old Tudor (Tudors being one of the royal families, before the Stuarts and the civil war) house, where Ancestors of Cromwell also had connections to. Quite interesting.
April 5th, Monday
My family left again, and we had a good easter monday with chocolate and the likes.
April 6th, Tuesday
Stevo and Lesley were still of work, and I had my easter half term, so we went to London. We did a duck tour (in a WW2 vehicle that goes on roads as well as the river Thames), the London Eye and then went to a restaurant for some Pizza. The weather was brilliant as well. A very good day indeed.
April 7th, Wednesday
Still off school, went to Salsa with Emma in the evening.
April 9th, Friday
I had sort of developed a headache, fever and general not being well the day before, which continued, I spent all day in bed, trying to get better...
April 10th, Saturday
...which I did. Just in time for playing my role of Pierre Paysanski, a russian-parisian poet in our Murder Mystery game. This was good fun, you get a bunch of people together and everyone gets a role to play. Some person (not in the game) has been murdered and you have a sort of play to go through before accusing someone at the end of the game of murder. A bit like Cluedo, apart from the fact that I usually win in Cluedo and got it totally wrong in this one ^^ All the sons + girlfriends, Pam and Bob, Stevo, Lesley and me were the players. There was some nice food and all in all it was a very good evening.
April 11th, Sunday
This was the day I was supposed to go on my trip to Dublin. Due to a major, excuse my language, cock-up of the EF-people, I did not have a clue what was happening and just assumed I wasn't going. The day was spent mainly sleeping off the rests of my illness, watching telly and reading.
Week 12th(Monday) to 16th (Friday)
Not much was on really, I went to Salsa with Emma, went for a run with Niklas and taught him how to play Schnapsen, and on Friday evening I went to see Hairspray with Stevo and Lesley, just a local production by people my age, but nonetheless fairly good. Oh yeah, and on Thursday there was the first ever political debate on telly. Nick Clegg (Lib Dem), Gordon Brown (Labour) and David Cameron (Conservative) talked about a variety of things, rather interesting to watch. A bit like the "Elefantenrunde" on the ORF, but more scripted and organized with a little less interruption and a little more audience.
April 17th, Saturday
First we went to a park and met Stevo's brother Andrew, his wife Jane and their three daughters Charlott, Joelle and Olivia as well as Pam and Bob, had some picnic and a little walk around before then going round to Annemarie and Robin's and having a really good dinner, lots of fun, involving a tulip that never quite recovered and some stories about my hostparents which I found quite interesting and amusing. As if not enough, Annemarie and Robin have a hottub (Whirlpool, Jacuzzi) which we used later on in the evening. It's really quite nice, freezing outside but a cosy 35+ degrees in the water.
April 18th, Sunday
Stevo and Lesley went to a Christening and I had the house to myself for large parts of the day, which I used to watch more telly, read books and play the piano, as usual, but also a bit of revision (some past papers and chapter assessments in maths).
April 19th, Monday
One more day off, teacher training day (=Schulautonom freier Tag), lie-in etc. and some (a tiny bit) of revision.
April 20th, Tuesday
Alright, picture this: You've been doing absolutely nothing for about two weeks, come back to school, thinking nothing evil and are presented with a mock exam. Nice, huh? Yeah. Well, I got the dates for the past papers wrong apparently and we had a psychology past paper straight away, for which I was prepared not one bit. In that respect, getting 62 out of 72 was not that bad.
April 21st, Wednesday
A usual Wednesday, Gym, Salsa (but without Emma this time). I hadn't been to Salsa for a few weeks, but there had been some talk of a new venue, which I believed I had to go to this week. Turned out I didn't, I was in the wrong place, and had it not been for one of the ladies from the Salsa class coming by and picking me up, I would have had to walk either home (which is quite a way) or to the other venue (which is also quite a way).
April 22nd, Thursday
The second political debate was on, leading up to the General Election and everything. We had some curry I believe and watched the Debate.
April 23rd, Friday
I spent some time with Emma in the afternoon and had my piano lesson and that about sums it all up.
April 24th, Saturday
I was being all good that day, or so Stevo said. I mowed the lawn, emptied the dishwasher and put the dirty dishes in, hung up the washing outside and collected it a few hours later. Stevo and Lesley went to another Christening (Taufe), so I once again had the day to myself. I decided to not do anything at all, it being close to my birthday and all.
April 25th, Sunday
Same applies here, I didn't do very much, I went for a 2 hour run and played the piano for a bit, then I opened some of my birthday presents (I'm not quite sure which ones I opened).
April 26th, Monday
My Birthday!! :D I got quite a lot of stuff. Some money from Lesley's parents, some shower gel and deodorant from Pam and Bob, and from Stevo and Lesley the following: Marmite, a Marmite egg cup, a tea mug with a lid in the form of a cat, a tin of mushy peas, a fridge magnet and a trip to London where we went to see the musical Avenue Q, which was absolutely brilliant! Do you know the song "The Internet is for porn"? It's from that musical.
Nick Clarke's birthday is on the same day as mine (as I think I've mentioned) so at school we both got good wishes for our birthdays and stuff.
On Tuesday I didn't really do much.
April 28th, Wednesday
I went to the gym after school and then round Emma's to watch my cake being made, then to Salsa in the evening.
April 29th, Thursday
The cake Emma had made was absolutely beautiful (in the sense of really really really tasty). It was chocolate sponge, a layer of chocolate frosting, chocolate sponge and a cover of molten chocolate with bits of marcipane on top. We had that in Maths on Thursday morning. Thursdays are always fun, two lessons of Mr. Williams (or JAW as we call him) make any day a good day anyway, but with my birthday cake this was possibly the best Thursday.
April 30th, Friday
I had an english literature test on the themes in Wuthering Heights slash a times essay, which was a bit of a bummer but my euphoria was too high to be reached by schoolwork.
I had my piano lesson as usual and then a relaxing evening with Lesley and Pam while Stevo and Bob went to a talk of an ex-Prime Minister. The young musician of the year award was on telly and there were quite some talents there, I can tell you.
May 1st, Saturday
My birthday party. I initially invited 12 people, of which 2 couldn't come so I invited two more. We ended up being 8 people, then shortly 7 and then 8 again. How that works? Let me explain:
There were Emma, Matt, Marcel and Nick, then Shaun, Nathaniel, Niklas and me to start with. Including Stevo and Lesley that made us 10. Now I had booked 3 slots for a thing called Spymasters, maximum 4 people per slot so we ended up being 2 groups of 4 and then Stevo and Lesley in one group. Spymasters is like a little maze where you have to do stuff you would see in a spy movie, like avoiding lasers, cracking codes, unlocking doors, finding keys, cracking saves and jamming cameras, getting some high-tech top secret weapons and returning them. Nick, Marcel, Niklas and me went as a team and we did quite well (I still have my "Agent's Pass" somewhere...) but got beaten by Emma, Matt, Shaun and Nathaniel. From that, we went to Frankie's and Benny's, which is a pizzeria basically, Nick had to leave early but Ben joined us. There were about half a dozen other people there celebrating their birthday, so we did hear the Happy Birthday song they play quite a lot. It was good fun though.
Finally we went to the cinema to see "The Ghost", which was a rather good movie. Pretty much everyone had left, only Ben could stay. I got some Caramel popcorn (which is actually quite good) but no drink with it, what a mistake. Nevermind, a good day!
May 2nd, Sunday
We went round to Lesley's friends Tracey and Bob and their daughters Hilary and Maxine (I'm sure I've mentioned visiting them in one of my earlier posts) and spent the day there. I took my binary watch (which had not been returned, but refunded by amazon, then re-ordered from amazon itself and eventually delivered) which I'm sure you'll all get to see sooner or later when I'm back home and my 4 in a row 3D. It was good fun, and we attempted playing wizard again, with a bit more success than last time. We also watched "Over The Moon" which is a casting show for a musical as well as laughing about the little russian girl and the creepy old coach on the athletics on telly.
May 3rd, Monday
Another Bank Holiday Monday, this was spent having a picnic, some afternoon tea and then hunting down some bluebells (loads of them, in a forest, like a blue carpet) and having a go at a swing that hung from a tree. H-I-L-A-R-I-O-U-S! I can tell you. Stevo had a go as well, neither of stopped laughing while on it. Like five-year-olds tbh ^^ Here's a joke for you: What's the best anti-aging cream? Ice cream obviously, which other one makes you feel like a five-year-old? :D
May 4th, Tuesday
Back to school after a prolonged weekend, you could really feel the teachers getting started on revision. All required knowledge had been stuffed into our minds by now, so there was nothing to do but revise and practice.
May 5th, Wednesday
An unusual Wednesday (ha, you weren't expecting that, were you? :P). No gym and Salsa was not on, instead I had a little personal crisis (if you want to call it that, which I do) which was largely not solved, but avoided using a ready meal and a DVD (always works, doesn't it?).
May 6th, Thursday
The day of the general election, so all the MPs (Members of Parliament) and the Prime Minister-Elections. Interesting to see, a quite indecisive result. Conservative won, but not clearly enough to form a government on their own, labour lost massively and Lib Dems, despite their good telly appearances even lost seats. The BNP on the other hand (which would be the equivalent to the FPÖ, but probably a bit worse) luckily got no seats at all, otherwise I would probably have been deported straight away, but the Green Party, which is not very popular in England (like in Austria) got their first seat ever.
Anyway, at school I got my results for my 25+ hours work coursework back and I got 36 out of 40 possible marks, 22/25 for the two novels in comparison and 14/15 for the poetry bit, with which I was more than happy, seeing as all my essays so far hadn't earned me anything higher than a B-.
My coat's zip broke, so I gave it to the dry cleaners for repair. Please note this date.
In the evening, I did the cooking and Stevo got home about half an hour late :O. He got right telling off by me, you bet! I grounded him for weeks. I'm not having that sort of behaviour in my house, am I Stevo? :P I was actually getting worried something might have happened, it's not like him to be late. Was quite a funny experience though, being on the other side of the parents/children game.
May 7th, Friday
I didn't have piano lesson that day, can't quite remember why, but my teacher wasn't there. Unfortunately :(. On top of that, I had a timed essay and the plans to go to Sussex over the weekend got cancelled due to ill children. Dou you know the expression FML? It stands for "Fuck My Life". Now that's not how I felt, but if I would ever feel that way, it would have been on that day. Nonetheless, I'm quite lucky, aren't I, so why be angry with my life? I just don't see the point. Anyway, to make the most of my weekend, I invited some people round.
May 8th, Saturday
Who actually turned up and we had a little bit of a jam session. Marcel and Poppy, some friends from school who are in a band with Nick came round with guitar and bass and I dug up my guitar. My classical guitar education is unfortunately rather useless for jamsessions I discovered.
After that, I went for pizza with Niklas, we played some cards and watched a movie. All in all a good day, still recovering from my little personal crisis, you know.
May 9th, Sunday
Alright, here's what my planner says: "Wasted day - 5 pm. Dr. Who, Good News, HIGNFY. Robin came round, Stevo grouted his mirror. Scrabble. Talk with Stevo about Life and all."
Now that may seem very cryptic to you lot, but for me it makes perfect sense. I spent most of the morning (or what had been left of it) watching on the BBC iPlayer: Dr. Who (to which I'm hooked ever since the new series with Matt Smith and the rather fit Karen Gillan, but more of that later), Russel Howard's Good News (Russell Howard is a comedian and he takes the mickey out of the latest news stories) and Have I Got News For You (similarly, a couple of comedians taking the piss out of the news). Then Robin came round, and Robin is doing mosaiques (not sure I've spelt that right) for a business, Stevo and him being good friends Stevo did a mirror once, but had not put the grout (erm.. dunno, look it up. It's the stuff that goes in the cracks between the tiles) in yet, so they did that. Then I played Scrabble against Stevo (and duly lost) and later in the evening had a good conversation with Stevo (personal crisis and stuff, you know).
May 10th, Monday
Another Psychology mock (59/72, my performance deteriorating), but otherwise a rather humble day apart from going for a swim in the gym with Stevo in the evening. Did you know that there are next to no outdoor swimming pools in Britain? Guess why..
May 11th, Tuesday
As I had done all the Tuesdays since my arrival here, being a proper fan, I watched House after coming home. Gordon Brown resigned that day both from being Prime Minister and Leader of Labour. I had a Debate after school "National Identity causes more problems than it solves" in which I was playing devil's advocate and somewhat counter-intuitively argued that it does. Nevertheless I won, 7:2 by votes. In the evening I did some english literature revision for the poetry bits.
May 12th, Wednesday
I bought myself a Glasto Unplugged ticket (more about that later), and cycled to Salsa in the evening.
On Thursday nothing really happened.
May 14th, Friday
I had my piano lesson and we started doing some more Jazz and improvisation which I greatly enjoy, even though I'm not very good at it.
May 15th, Saturday
It being Sam's birthday we went up to Lincoln and had some pizza and a walk around there, going into Lincoln Cathedral before then leaving him to it to celebrate his birthday with his mates and some booze. From what I heard he had a good time.
I for my part watched Dr. Who on the iPlayer. Like I said, I'm hooked. I don't know what I'm going to do without the BBC.
May 16th, Sunday
I did some revision during the day (can't remember precisely what, which sort of indicates I didn't do it very well or a lot of it) and then went to a Last Night of the Proms-reenactment of Stevo's choir which was quite good.
May 17th, Monday
I went for a run and did some revision, so a busy but not particularly interesting day.
May 18th, Tuesday
English Literature Poetry mock exam which went quite well in fact, some revision and then the Dr. House Season finale which was, I have to say, pretty epic! I mean, first I was like nooo, that's well bad, then I was like, Oh, what's happening now? and then I was like, wth? but then it turned out all good and I was like, finally! Yeah, that was that.
May 19th, Wednesday
A usual Wednesday, so gym and Salsa. It was now 6 weeks to go, and I was starting to count the days, both in looking forward and in not wanting to leave..
May 20th, Thursday
That was a busy day I can tell you. You think you've had busy days? Tell me about it! So get this: I was going to Barry (in Wales) over the weekend and I wouldn't have all that much time to do pack staff the next morning, I was quite tired as well having gone to bed late and in the early evening we went to Milton Keynes to see the play "History Boys" from which we didn't get back quite late. So between going to Milton Keynes and coming back home from school I was rushing around, getting my stuff sorted, checking I had my tickets and everything sorted so I wouldn't have to worry about it.
I also got my first ever A in English Literature on a timed essay :D
May 21st, Friday
So I was all set up (I even have my little checklist here in my planner, Toothbrush & Past, Deo, Underpants, T-Shirt, Jeans, Jumper, Socks, Camera, Bats, Physics Book and "Of Mice and Men") and had my piano lesson until 4:30, then had to rush off to the train station to catch my train at 16:59. A 6 hour train journey was spent on reading "Of Mice and Men" by Steinbeck, revising maths and english literature and listening to music. At 22:55 I arrived in "Inis y Barri" which is basically Barry Island in Welsh. There I got picked up by Maria to embark on what proved to be a smashing weekend. I met Maria's hostmum and hostsister and we had a good laugh. Oh yeah, about the train journey: My travelling food was basically a box of shortbread fingers, but some fellow passengers that were sitting at my table had a little picnic and didn't have all of their chicken, so I pinched what was left of it and had a nice little conversation with them in exchange for it. That was my dinner sorted, hehe. Got some chocolates for Maria's hostmum on the way there (first impressions, you know) and then had some pasta salad when I got there.
May 22nd, Saturday
The day was SO sunny, I can't quite describe it. We sat in the back garden all morning having fun and I even got a bit of a sunburn, in fact I'm still tanned from that very weekend. That was the morning sorted. At sort of lunchtime all four of us went to Cardiff where the other EF students were having a sort of meeting, playing Bowling and having some all-you-can-eat chinese. That was good fun and very filling indeed. I met some of the other EF students and the ones I talked to were all quite nice. Coming back from that Maria, Pily and Me delivered some newspapers (I have photgraphic evidence). I got to see quite a bit of Barry, including the Gavin and Stacey house which is there. At night we went out and met some people, I got some mexican sweets from pily and we had some more fun, even if there wasn't much going on.
May 23rd, Sunday
In the morning, we basically sat in the back garden and laughed. I don't quite remember everything we laughed about, but we did laugh quite a lot. Brilliant ^^. Around lunchtime, we went to Cardiff to do some sightseeing which proved to be a rather short appointment before it turned into shopping. I got some arbitrary birthday presents but decided against buying a Cardiff Hard Rock Cafe T-Shirt. Arriving at home, we had another little walkaround in Barry, which is quite a nice village, marvellous views of the sea and all. I finally caught my train back home at 6, did some English Literature and Physics Revision on the train, finished "Of Mice and Men" and arrived at home around half eleven (23:30).
May 24th, Monday
Now this may seem a bit unfair, but I had holidays now. Not quite like holidays, the official term is "study leave". You're meant to do some revision, there are no lessons but the teachers are at school and available for you if you need them. This monday, I had a lie-in and then went for a run to Grafham, because the weather was so very nice that being out and about was the only option. So picture this: I'm running, the sun is burning down, it's got about 25 degrees, and as I run past a tree, there is a red bike with the Royal Mail logo on it. Next to it, there lies the matching postman. Eyes closed, apparently asleep, having a break I guess. I only went to school only for my physics lesson to clarify some matters and then spent the day at home, mainly outside.
May 25th, Tuesday
Went in for 1st lesson which was a bit pointless, as we weren't doing much, just working on our own, which I could have done later and at home, but never mind. It was lovely outside, really sunny, really enjoyable. I started reading the book "The Time Traveler's Wife", to which I was hooked almost instantly, it is such a good book. In the afternoon, Niklas came round and we played some cards and in the evening, Glasto Unplugged was on. This is basically a little Acoustic concert, there had been auditions leading up to it to decide who was going to play and it was very good indeed. Some really good music there, including Nick, Marcel and Poppy as the Green Jalapenos doing some funny and funky stuff.
May 26th, Wednesday
In the morning (that is about 9ish) I got up and went for a run, but feeling so energetic, went further than ever before. When I looked it up on google maps it was about 10 miles (16km) overall and I was on the road for about 90 minutes. My psychology book seems to be right in arguing that regular physical exercise improves mood. I also voted for the Landtagswahlen and sent my vote off and then spent most of the day reading "The Time Traveler's Wife".
May 27th, Thursday
I had my first exam, for which I didn't quite revise as much as I probably should have done and it went accordingly. 1 hour long, I hardly finished. Physics Unit 1, so most of the bits that I missed out on due to only taking up physics in january. In the evening, I went to see Robin Hood with Emma and her Mum, which was quite a good move. At night, I finished off reading "The Time Traveler's Wife". I can't say often enough how much I enjoyed that book.
May 28th, Friday
In the morning I went for another run to make up for what was to come. My first exam over and a week of exam-free half-term ahead of us, Niklas and me decided to cook something. Now the challenge was to not just cook anything, but to do something exotic and a bit strange. We did pan-fried fillets of cod, marinated using coriander, parsley, thyme, limes, chilis, worcestershire sauce and onions with a side of tomato&lime salsa, some fried polenta and fried carrots and onions. As a starter, it was absolutely beautiful. The main course was Cuban-style lamb. Marinated for 2 hours in molten orange marmelade, orange zest, oregano, garlic&oil and Coke (yes, as in Coca Cola) and then in the oven for an hour, together with some potato wedges with rosemary and some oregano tomatoes. This was pretty sweet, both in the literal as in the sense of "Sweeeet!", and very filling and enjoyable indeed. The pudding was going to be Coconut milk rice, which we made straight at the beginning to let it cool down. So we had pudding rice, coconut milk, some fried pineapples and mangoes and roasted pistachios and some molten sugar on top. In betweeen cooking I managed to go to my piano lesson and play some card games with Niklas and after the main course we took a break and watched a movie to let it all go down before having pudding.
May 29th, Saturday
Emma's birthday party with lots of people, food, some movies and Twister, which was a lot of fun! Coming home from that there were Stevo, Lesley, Annemarie and Robin waiting for me to join in watching the Eurovision Song Contest. We made little tally charts and rated the performers on Singing, Music, Clothing, Sexiness, Novelty and some extra points. At first it sounded a bit funny-sad, but then I joined in and it turned out to be good fun :D
May 30th, Sunday
Was a quiet day in to tune out a little bit and get in the mood for half term.
May 31st, Monday
On top of being half term, this was another Bank Holiday Monday, so Stevo, Lesley, Pam and Bob and me went to Bletchley Park, which was used during WW2 to decrypt the german Enigma messages. As it was VE (Victory in Europe) day, there were some reenactors and a fighter plane display. So we had a walk around, did a couple of tours and saw a WW2 plane fly over, some homing pigeons being released and quite a few reenactors, one of which I caught on camera showing another reenactor something on her iPhone (in a pink leather case). 1930s meets 21st century. I also got some old sheet music for piano for overall 70p, quite a bargain.
At home, we had BBQ and and then watched telly, there was a show on called "The Big Personality Test" which was quite interesting.
And that's the past months done. Stay tuned for more, June will be appearing shortly.
Gosh, that was a piece of work here, aye it was. Started yesterday at half 2 (2.30) and only just finished (obviously with breaks in between, but still).
Hope my english wasn't to puzzling for you, if it was I'm quite happy to recount it all once I'm back home.
Cu in a bit,
Stefan