8 Months Of Erasmus...And 1 To Go

That title is a bit misleading. I'm actually finishing my year abroad three weeks on Friday so that's definitely less than a month! It's also technically nine months since I moved to Bologna, I'm just not counting March since I spent nearly all of that month in the UK. All in all a very dodgy title. Apologies.

I've been thinking about how in three weeks on Friday I'll be back in the UK (and probably spending the day curled up with the dogs on the sofa, drinking a real cup of tea and considering a trip to Tesco just to marvel at all the British things I've missed this year (this week it's the humble British biscuit that I'm craving)) and how my Erasmus experience will officially be coming to an end. Which, although I'm really excited about coming home, is actually a bit of a weird thought.

Jena

Bologna

I mean, I've spent nearly a year away from the UK (including my six weeks of au pairing last summer). While I would not say that I am so used to life on the continent that going back to Bangor for my final year is going to be the end of the world, I think it's going to be a little odd adjusting back into normal British student life.

Though to be truthful in most ways I don't think there will be any adjustments to make. I'm looking forward to my fourth year house, going back to PhotoSoc, having lectures with people I know and actually like (certainly in the German department, everyone seems to have gotten a lot closer to each other over this past year), and just getting on with all the things I've wanted to do in Bangor (or just in life in general) since I moved there nearly three years ago. In some ways (and I think a lot of other language students will feel this way too) it's like I'm waiting to start my real life again, like I'm just waiting here for a bit and then I get to go home and get on with things.

It's not because of where I am now - sometimes (as those who I've complained to will now) Jena can be so boring that I want to tear my hair out, but other times it's really good.
It could just be because in many ways it's been a very long year, with ups and downs and I think I'm just ready to come home now!

That's not to say I've not had good times because of Jena. The uni itself I really like. And I like the area I live in because it's surrounded by the countryside and that's quite nice. 

Fuchsturm, Jena

And while here I don't have as many friends here as I did in Bologna, I'm lucky enough to have three good friends from Bangor studying in nearby Leipzig who I've seen pretty regularly! Not to mention my other lovely Brit friend, who I went with to Prague last month - a trip which we booked after knowing each other for about two weeks (and that I forgot to write about, I know).

Cospudener See at Leipzig

Prague!

 So, three and a half weeks left. What am I planning on doing?

Well on Thursday I'm SUPER excited to be meeting my boyfriend in Stuttgart for the weekend (mostly I'll just be excited to get off the bus I'm taking there after a SIX HOUR JOURNEY), then I'm briefly zipping off to Berlin (for the first time ever!!) to meet an old friend from Bangor and see the one and only Modest Mouse! Then it's back to Jena for the last two weeks, which will be two weeks of packing, exams, hopefully one last visit from the Leipzig lot, eating as much schnitzel as humanly possible and once more taking advantage of the €2 margarita offer that's on nightly in a Mexican restaurant in town.

Fingers crossed I'll be actually writing about said adventures...

Bis später x

A Weekend in Madesimo

Can you believe it's Christmas next week?! I certainly can't! I've no clue how this semester, my first in Italy, has gone soo incredibly fast!

What's better yet is that on Saturday I will be coming home to the UK! I'm so excited to see everyone and take a nice little break from life in Bologna - my main plans include cuddling the dogs and eating about 67 mince pies...

...But whilst last Christmas I wasn't feeling particularly festive until I actually got out of Bangor (I guess maybe the job I had in retail was killing my Christmas spirit), this year I'm already there. Though surely it's partly because of Bologna looking so dashing in all of it's Christmas lights, I think it's also got a lot to do with the fact that I've just spent the weekend playing in the snow!

That's right, I've been skiing! And on a trip organised by an Erasmus organisation, no less. I've done a couple of Erasmus group trips already but I think that this has been my favourite yet.

Before I left, I was a teeny weeny bit worried about the trip. I mean, I didn't actually know anyone going, and this left me with the (unwelcome) niggly doubt that I wasn't going to get on with anyone and end up spending the weekend alone. This wasn't the case at all - I was expecting there to be way more of us but in the end there were actually only about 20, including the guys who'd organised it all, and we all got on really well, so that was good!

We left Bologna about 3.15am and arrived in Madesimo at some point after 9am (I slept through most of the journey and was a little disoriented when we arrived so forgive me if that's wrong) (actually that's not true, I was awake for the last half hour or so just looking at the mountains - covered in snow and so beautiful, and it reminded me so much of my time in the mountains in the summer). Once we'd sorted out rooms (I was paired with an Italian gal Margherita), and then the ski gear (I'd forgotten how heavy ski bots are!!!), and then had a bite of breakfast, it was time to hit the slopes!

Admittedly, I thought skiing again was going to be easy. I'd been on a school trip wayyy back in like 2007 I think, and then had a couple of trips to indoor slopes since then, and I'd been pretty good at it so I hadn't put much thought to it until I got to the top of the slope and suddenly turned into a complete chicken! I just couldn't remember how to turn or move at all and I panicked, so I got maybe 10 metres down before I struggled out of the skis and hiked back up again!! Luckily for me, my lovely roomie gave me a mini-lesson on how to ski again and slowly but surely I manned up and went for it. I mean, I still sucked and had to go down pretty slowly (and soo many falls), but by Sunday I was actually doing alright again! And after lunch at a rifugio (maybe you remember I talked about eating at these in the mountains in the summer? It's literally a 'refuge', so somewhere you can take a break and get some food), the skiing continued until nearly 4pm by which point we were knackered. Luckily dinner wasn't until 7.30pm so we had plenty of time to chill out/shower/nap, which is just what we did.

Both dinners (so Friday and Saturday night) we had at the hotel, Hotel Arlecchino, were seriously good! It included Antipasti (but you could also get something from the salad bar too), first course, second course and pudding. My favourite courses included Pizzoccheri alla valtellinese (like short pieces of tagliatelle (with spots on!) in the 'Valtellinese' style which meant cheese and potatoes, yum yum) and Tagliatelle al Ragu (so all pasta, of course!). The service was really good too.

Saturday was probably my best day of skiing - I barely fell or crashed, and I wasn't as tired as I would be by Sunday! Unfortunately through the weekend the weather worsened - while Friday had been glorious bright sunshine and air, it snowed a bit that night and a thick fog set in for the rest of the weekend, which meant that some of the slopes were closed by Saturday morning. It wasn't all bad though - I quite enjoyed the sort of spooky atmosphere given off by the fog! It made ascending on the lifts quite interesting..

The view from our room - the fog setting in!

The hotel had a little bar/disco area downstairs so that was where we headed on Saturday night. Safe to say it was an err...interesting night. I don't know, the music was terrible and the age range was a bit too wide, and I think most of us agreed that we'd had more fun playing UNO in the one of the rooms earlier on. But we had a bit of a dance so that was quite fun anyway.

*

* So cool, me

*

And then suddenly it was Sunday! We had to be packed up before we went out to ski, and after that was done we went up into the fog again. By now, everything was seriously achey (and I was getting sick AGAIN so unfair) so it was slow going to begin with for me. We packed in a good few hours (and I a good crash - I managed to cause a pile up having crashed into a guy skiing, but then one of the guys on the trip stopped, took off his skis and started to climb back up the slope to grab the ski pole I'd lost, only for another skier to come bombing down the hill and crash into him! Ouch) before getting lunch at another rifugio, which also eaten at on Saturday. After we'd eaten a few of us opted for a hot Bombardino. According to the internet, it's made of eggnog, brandy, and traditionally a local spirit as well - ours were topped with whipped cream and chocolate powder, and delicious!

Bombardinoooooo

Shortly after which we were bundled onto the bus to start the journey home - including our stop I think it took about 6 hours!! Unfortunately by the time I got home I wasn't sleepy (I slept on the bus for a bit again), so it ended up being a bit of a late again, which hasn't helped my flu....urgh fingers crossed it goes away by the weekend huh!!


So basically the weekend consisted of skiing, sleeping and eating! It was a really good one and I'm so glad I went, even if I'm still aching today...


...Ciao for now!

X

* photos taken by another member of the group!