All Good Things.

This day exactly one year ago was the day I began my adventure so it only seems fitting that today I write my last blog post.
To those of you who have read from the beginning:
1. Thank you so much for your attention, and
2. If you were willing to read all that rambling then you probably should seek professional help.
There has been highs, lows, frustrations, anger, laughs, staying up until dawn, staying in bed all day and most certainly everything in between.
If for some unknown reason you want to continue reading the pixelated version of the nonsense that could only be from my mind (again, professional help. Just saying) I can be found here from now on. (Warning: Will contain ranting about Final year)

Thanks for giving me a place to rant and rave depending on the situation and hopefully managed to offer some nuggets of information that will actually be found  useful. This is now a place that can be revisited to relive some of the madness that has occurred over the last 12 months.

See you guys soon and all the best.
-Claire

Bureaucracy The Eternal Pain In The....

So I haven't updated in a while.
3 reasons:
1. Not being on Erasmus any more means there is a distinct lack of Erasmus-y type things to write about
2. The only Erasmus-y type things that have been going on have been insanely dull and bureaucratic
3 I've been watching quite a lot of Netflix.

However I said my loyal reader (thanks again Mom) deserved a brief run-down on the boring part because as I have previously stated it's not fun and games all the time.
So we all know that bureaucracy can be the world's biggest pain in the......neck, lets keep it PG. It can be an even bigger pain in the neck when you're trying to get things organised from a remote location. (More of which can be read about here. Hurray for shameless self promotion!)
All Erasmus students must apply for a transcript of records containing all their results for a date to be set by their home University. Unfortunately your home and visiting Universities may not work in tandem leaving you to send frantic emails on a borrowed WiFi connection on the outskirts of Manchester 3 days before you 'must' and I repeat 'MUST' have it submitted. Thankfully after many stressful hours and even more panicked emails said transcript arrived at the UCC international office just about on time....only to be followed by more requirements in the form of a confirmation that I sat the exam. Apparently the fact that I sat (and failed) the exam (with a 5,0 to prove it) isn't enough. Now tracking down these confirmations should be simple yeah? HA! Well this isn't entirely true.
Within 2 hours of emailing the Politics department I was in possession (we as in possession as a person can get of pixels on a screen) of my confirmation. Unfortunately the department of Economics, the department I was actually enrolled to keeps finding problems and issues and if someone was to tell me they invented the phrase passing the buck I would believe them without hesitation.
So in summation (the academic season is almost upon us. Closing paragraphs are now a must):

• Bureaucracy is a pain in the neck
• Getting what you need from offices without face to face communication is up there with becoming a fully fledged astronaut for NASA
• People tend to not be helpful over email and may refer you to an email that doesn't in fact exist
• Dealing with 2 Universities at once is hard

However I am glad to report that all remaining paperwork is simply to allow my final grade for the year to be finalised. A result which I am glad to report was a pass.
Yes dear reader, contrary to what I know you believed, I managed to undergo an academic enrichment worthy of the passing grade for a full University year.
Or at least successfully managed to convince someone important that I did at the very least.

A Pointless Ramble (Now With 100% Extra Rambling)

So it's August 3rd.
I find this very odd. My completely rational reasoning? To me this date never existed. I know hat sounds crazy, but stick with me on this one.
For the first time in about 2 years I'm not counting down to anything, be it counting down to leaving home and heading to Germany or vice versa. In my head life didn't exist past the end of July. This time last year I couldn't see past leaving for Germany and as I thought spending a year being lonely and miserable. 3 weeks after leaving I was trying to deny the fact that time was slipping (rapidly) away.
Now it's over and I'm trying to adjust to that. To the fact that having a chat with people will no longer be popping over for a cuppa but will require an internet connection and a screen (and before anyone breaks out the 'Back in my day....' speech I am well aware I'm lucky to have that much a'ight)
My only dealings left with Germany, for now, are getting results (any time you want guys. Tick tock.) and apply for my Transcript of Records. Expect an angry rant RE: Bureaucracy in the next few days.

I guess this post did have a point after all. Since I (in theory) set up this blog 1. As a way to keep track of everything I was doing and be able to look back on it when ever I wanted and 2. To give advice to future ERASMUS students. I  realise I failed miserably but you're the one currently reading this so who's the silly one in this relationship?
So this is my advice regarding going home: No matter how much you detest/detested the idea of going you will miss your host country. Like it or not it's a place you're going to have spent a year of your life which is quite a sizeable chunk. You're going to have met fantastic people that you're going to have to say bis später to, but as I've already mentioned it doesn't have to be goodbye if you don't want it to. Thanks to the magic of Skype if I mention them maybe they'll pay me for advertising? anyone that wants to can stay in contact. The magic of the internet. Well that and cat videos.
I think the biggest piece of advice I can give you is something that hadn't even crossed my mind: don't expect to just fit right back in to home life. You've been away, developed your own routines and ways of doing things, didn't have to answer to anyone and made your own calls on pretty much everything. You may think you'll slot back into your place at home and maybe you will, but for me it was, and still is a different story. Home may still be the same but I most certainly am not, and you know what? That most definitely isn't a bad thing.

Don't Expect It To Be A Long One.

So at time of writing I am homeless in Germany.
I am on the brink of eating a questionable yet quite delicious pretty haphazardly thrown together meal.
I am about to go out on what will be last night in Konstanz
and finally I feel like bursting into tears.
ERASMUS is on the brink of being over and I don't quite know how to deal with that fact.

The Not Fun Side of Erasmus.

So I'm procrastinating. Hence the 2 posts in one day.

So it's exam season here in sunny Konstanz which really goes a long way to make our ever shortening time here and the sunshine considerably less fun.
The majority of days over the past 2 weeks have been spent in the library, gazing out the window of the library, wishing death upon the library, typing, looking at so many graphs I was considering just graphing my entire life and being done with it, eating ice-cream, studying British history through German (yes it's odd I know), wishing more death upon the library, wondering what the application process to join the circus is like, more typing, facebook, reddit, more reddit, research, eating, more reddit and typing.

It's been a busy few weeks.

Planes, Trains and Auto-mobiles: A Final Adventure in Berlin

So as we're well into the final countdown it was only appropriate that one more adventure be had. Having done my fair share of travelling there was only one place that could round off this year: The bats*it crazy German Capital.

Now if you've been following my year abroad 1. you really need something better to do on the internet and 2. you'll know that when it comes to trains I haven't exactly had the best run, (with the exception of Italy). Well, dear reader, on the first weekend of July 2013 (Yes I know that was almost 2 weeks ago. Shut it.) I truly managed to outdo myself. Now with the prospect of a 12 hour journey ahead of us our initial thought for the most comfortable and trouble free expedition would be the train. Apparently we weren't the only ones who had this thought as the train was full. Very full. So full in fact that it resulted in our party of 7 travelling in 4 different ways. Yes you guessed it, plane, train, auto-mobile and bus. (In fact the working title for the sequel). It would appear that the short straw was pulled by those of us that decided to unwittingly put our faith one again in Deutsche Bahn, in the form of a 2 and a half hour delay in Offenburg. The reason we were given? 'A Police operation' and the subsequent lock down of the station Now I hadn't known about the existence of Offenberg before then and now, to be completely honest and at the risk of completely loosing my strong Offenberg based readership, I want it to burn.

Still we arrived. Eventually. So what to do in Berlin? Well after rounding up the group and feeding the Canadian out first port of call was the Reichstag or German Parliament building and after that the next 2 days were filled with the standard tourist spots throughout the city. Brandenburg Gate, Checkpoint Charlie, The Berlin Wall, the Canadian Embassy (don't ask), The East Side Gallery, the DDR museum which has been closed for 2 years, The T.V Tower, the Holocaust  memorial, the grounds of the Olympic Park which contained the most over compensating motorcyclist I have ever seen. All this adventuring was promptly followed by naps and cocktails. Both of which I'm sure you'll agree are very very important. Which leads me on the the Berliner style of enjoying their Saturday nights. Lets just say that's where the bats*it crazy aspect comes from. If you're wandering down the street at midnight don't be too surprised if you see a impromptu gig break out on every corner. Well I say gig. What I mean is Busker + copious amounts of drunk people - a sense of shame = attempt to make your way down the street. Also don't be surprised if the only reason you go home is because the sunrise is telling you to. Or if you go to a club you get in at 07:30 wondering what the hell happened. 

Now, remember how I explained the difficulties involved in getting there? Well lets just say that the journey home had me yearning for the simplicity involved in getting there.
Deutsche Bahn Pro Tip: for the love of God check and double check and why not triple check the validity of special offer tickets on various train types. If you don't you may or may not (you will) get thrown off the train in the middle of nowhere. Like nowhere. I mean it, you may end up in a place where it's only selling point is it's distance from other places (there was a sign). So having to be back to Konstanz for an exam the next day not getting back wasn't an option. Unfortunately Deutsche Bahn wanted us to really earn it. Having gotten various timetables for various routes home and most definitely giving the lady behind the desk in the station the busiest and most exciting day she's had in years.  We came up with a plan:
We get to Frankfurt. We get a car. We road-trip.
Again, life hates us. Having rang ahead it still managed to take the bulk of an hour to actually get into the car, but I think belting out Bohemian Rhapsody while rocking down the Autobahn in a BMW 1 series was worth it.

Having travelled to quite a few places throughout the year i firmly believe there was no better way to round of the travelling portion of my adventures than by going to the nations capital.
That said, though I'm pretty sure any posts from here on out will be soaked in tinged with sadness I still have a week of adventures and fun times ahead of me in Konstanz and I plan to make the most of every second.

(Final two pictures courtesy of Rhys even if he doesn't know it yet)

Tick Tock Goes The Clock...

Today is the 27th of June. I fly home for good on the 27th of July. This makes me too sad for words.

Please don't get me wrong. I am truly looking forward to seeing everybody at home (both 2 and 4 legged) after 4 months but it will be very bitter-sweet.
Over the next few weeks I have a lot to do. So much we were even given a list. Packing must be done, paperwork submitted, essays submitted (having sat down to do the latter being the reason I'm currently writing this) and worst of all goodbyes have to be said.

It's bizarre to think that the thing I dreaded and couldn't comprehend doing is now the thing I am drawing to the end of. To think that this time last year moving to Germany was this big thing that I couldn't even wrap my head around.
Over the last year I would like to think that I've changed for the better. There have been a lot of changes, both personal and academic. (Yeah, I learned s*it. Who'd have thought it?) I have met the most maniac and interesting people from the broadest range of backgrounds. I've made what I wish to believe will be lifelong friends. Some of which I am lucky enough to be spending another year with in UCC. Some who are a little further away but still near enough to fly to in less time than it takes to drive to Dublin (Yeah, I'm willing to fly Ryanair for you people) and some who I will be saying goodbye to for an indefinite amount of time (or until I need somewhere to say on the continent of North America). All of which will be harassed mercilessly on social networks of every form.

I am most definitely not going to dwell on it too much though. What's the point? All I know is that the next few weeks are going to be all about getting as much as I can out of every aspect of life here which will involve a highly acrobatic balancing act between actually turning assignments in on time while the little matter of exams looms on the rapidly approaching horizon and having as much fun as possible.

In the meantime: Next stop Berlin.

...'Cos It's A Lovely Sunny Day'

So the sun (and some very dodgy tan lines) temporarily arrived in Konstanz.

Now being from the rainier part of Europe it's been long engrained into my psyche to never ever waste a moment of sunshine. This has caused  issues. The main one being I have oh so much academic work to do (who would have guessed) and unfortunately my brain has decided to go into sleepy holiday mode. This is a problem. A second problem is copious amounts of ice-cream and my ever expanding waistline but that's a whinge for another time.

So how have I been spending my time I hear you ask. I think spending the greater part of of a 27 degree Saturday afternoon lying by the lake and going for the occasional dip is a pretty well utilised day in the sun, is it not?
Also barbecues. Lots of barbecues.

Basically this was partly me saying 'HA. Sun. F*ck you guys.' partly a post to buy me time until I've something worthwhile to post about again. (You can never say I'm not honest)
Unfortunately the next one is probably going to be something deep and philosophical. I know, ewwwww feelings.
Bis dann!

Bambi, Ice Cream and a Whole Lot of Eating: An Impromptu Trip To Munich

So what happens when you combine wanderlust and a 5 day weekend? One of the most hastily planned trips to Munich you could imagine.

So as I may have previously mentioned (see every previous blog post) Germany can be a little crazy at times. Add the fact that one has the potential to have their weekend begin at 2pm on a Tuesday afternoon due to one of the 4 bank holidays during the month of May and you being to feel guilty if you don't go a bit crazy yourself. Now considering that the idea to go on a trip to anywhere was conceived at lunchtime on Tuesday and completely booked by 6 pm that very evening I think we did that justice, and a pretty awesome time was had.

So what to do in Munich? Well if the weather is sunny quite a lot. Having dumped our various items we decided to embrace all the cultural wonders Munich had to offer.....from a Biergarten. Don't judge me. I'm only a person. A person in the beer capital of Germany. After our much needed pit-stop we had a wonderful stroll in the evening sun beginning in Marienplatz. We even got the joy of seeing the famous Glockenspiel in action. Unfortunately having not gotten there almighty early what we could do was limited before the shops closed, so we had to go drink more beer. Damn. Life can be really hard sometimes.

The following morning once every member of our party were finally awake we decided to wander a bit further afield, taking in the Olympic Park and BMW Welt. The day was rounded up by a lovely evening in Hofbrau Haus, which if you're not lucky enough to get to Oktoberfest is the next best thing, and a mad dash to get a Canadian with timekeeping issues to his bus on time. We got there. Barely.

The weather the following day was, shall we say, less than stellar. Nevertheless we braved the elements and ended up in the Allianz Area. Which was pretty awesome. We also attempted to do at least one thing of an academic nature and visit the Bavarian Landtag. Upon reaching the security barrier conversation went as follows:
Us: Hallo
Security Guard: Grüß Gott
Us: Können wir besuchen?
Security Guard: Nein
Still it was the though that counts right?

Unfortunately if you're not prepared for the elements you could be lacking for things to do after 5pm bar spending your evening in a pub or in our case ending up back in Hofbrau Haus. Which was by no means a bad thing.

Of course it wouldn't be me if I didn't round up with a few nuggets of useless information:

•   You cannot go to Munich and not spend the entire time gorging on all things German.
• When looking for a seat in a Hofbrau Haus-esque situation pick carefully. Your choice of bench-buddy may lead to a free Maß and some interesting conversation.
• Similarly, beware, you may get pinned into a corner by walking stereotypes. Which can only be unfortunate.
• I missed my calling to be a professional Footballer.
• I cannot go to Munich without stealing a Maß glass.
• Before going anywhere check opening times.
• If the majority are walking in the opposite direction to you they probably know something you don't.

This was most definitely the most rushed and hastily planned trip I've ever been on and was definitely up there as one of the most enjoyable. What did I learn from it? If you want to go somewhere, go. Time is short and you won't have the opportunity forever. Planning is for losers.

Nothing Went Wrong: The Italy Chronicles

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Proceed With Caution

So I'm currently on semester break. Woo free-time!

However while academic holidays are full of doing nothing with a side of piss all (which I take to a whole new level) I urge both of you regular readers to take care if you do decide to vacate your host country, be it to make sure your family hasn't forgotten what you look like or to see what wonders are on offer further afield. The reason you  should take care? Well while academics may be on hold administration certainly is not.

The first thing to beware of? Banking.
Learn from my mistakes and take special note of your foreign bank balance particularly around rent-payment time. As all of my correspondence with the bank in through a physical medium I completely missed out on the fact that my rent transaction hadn't in fact been completed, (yes it was late anyway but that's beside the point) resulting in a panicked Tuesday afternoon and 'urgent transaction handling charges' otherwise known as a kick in the teeth.

Though a major pain in the neck, banking charges can be dealt with relatively painlessly. Unfortunately not everything can be solved so easily. My advice: double and triple check that you are on the mailing list for EVERY class you're taking. It's pretty easy to slip through the cracks resulting in not receiving very important e-mails. Such as e-mails telling you the sign up dates for a repeat exam and only finding out about said e-mail the day after sign up has closed. The cost? A very slim possibility of 4 credits.

So heed my warnings dear readers and beware of admin mistakes coming back to bite you in the arse.
Oh and if you're wondering I make my triumphant return to Konstanz in less than a week so expect late, less than informative updates on a slightly more regular basis and of course expect all of the shenanigans.

That's The Belgian Ghetto, You Must Never Go There Simba...

So last week I went to Brussels, Belgium.

Why Brussels you may ask. Well I had no choice in the matter. In a bid to remain friends and not kill each other we decided to leave the choice of what our destination would be up to to fate, or to be more specifically German Wings.

Now obviously with great deals comes great inconvenience, in our case this was a 6 hour wait in a deserted Stuttgart airport. Though the journey from Konstanz to Stuttgart gave us some interesting stories. Including running into a harmonica playing gentleman who claimed to be Jesus of Nazareth and a train so cold that we only warmed up when we went out into the snow, to say that we were glad to see that the flight was boarding would be one hell of an understatement.

So there we are, a group of college students in a new city. No rules. No time constraints, so what's the first thing we do? Nap of course. Go hard or go home, that's my motto. As we were quite sleep deprived during our initial arrival we didn't pay much attention to our surroundings, including 2 oncoming trams. Apparently turning the traffic lights off outside one of the primary train stations in a major European City at rush hour is perfectly acceptable. Who knew. Upon awakening we decided to go see a bit of the city. Think grand architecture, Gothic designs and cobbled streets. Think again. Unfortunately we wandered in the wrong direction. Into what we affectionately referred to as 'war torn Chechnya'. Make of that what you will. The real highlight of my day was dinner in The Hard Rock cafe. Yes, the highlight of my day was food. What of it.

We ate too much and couldn't flee the camera.

'Visits for individuals cancelled until
further notice. Pre-booked
groups only' 

The next day was devoted to sightseeing, and chocolate. I can't stress the importance of the chocolate enough. (Food featured heavily throughout the 3 days) We got to the pretty side of Brussels. Finally. My god was it pretty though. This was the Gothic, cobbled part we're used to seeing pictures of.
Being the wild party animal that I am the thing I was most excited to see was the European Parliament and see it I did. From the outside.
This sign offered a more crushing blow than a punch to the gut ever could. The only thing that could soothe my broken heart? The residence of the Belgian Royal family of course.

I think we can all agree that national symbols are important you want people to look at it and instantly think of everything good and essentially badass about your country. Well where we have the Harp Belgium has....a urinating child. (Mannequin Pis) An odd choice I'm sure you'll agree but we wanted to see it nonetheless. Brussels had other plans. This is what it actually looks like:

 This is what we got to see:

It has been dressed up from 9am to 6pm on the 27th of February only to celebrate the 169th anniversary of the independence of the Dominican Republic. Please don't get me wrong, this is an important event that deserves to be marked but it was a tad disappointing to not see the little guy how he usually looks. Still at least I got a unique picture right?
The final stop on our tourist tour of Brussels was the Atomium. Built in the image of a unit cell of an iron crystal magnified 165 billion times it's quite impressive to say the least.

So Brussels basics:

• Very pretty city depending on where you go.
• Be careful. We were followed while walking in a group so stay aware of what and who is around you.
• Watch yourself in the underground. We managed to catch a guy with his hand in one of our bags while trying to maneuver our way around.
• Belgian Chocolate is delicious.
• Belgian Waffles too apparently, if you're into that sort of thing.
• Hard Rock Cafe is beyond delicious. I still think about that burger sometimes...
• It's acceptable to spell Stuttgart 'Stuttugart' if you've been sitting sleep deprived in an airport for 4 hours.

All in all I enjoyed the trip. Brussels not so much. (Based on my personal experience) Would I go back to Brussels? Unfortunately not. Have I been turned off of Blind Bookings? I'll tell you after Milan.

1 Semester Down...

 So last Friday marked the end of Semester 1 here in Konstanz. We will soon be saying hello to a whole host of new faces and for now have been saying see you soon to some old ones. With everybody feeling a little odd about the whole situation I decided to recall just a handful of the best moments from the last 5 months and because no words could do them justice here's the choice of the many many photos that have been taken.