Year Abroad Review (So far) Just Cos I Felt Like Writing

As I sat on a chair in 8 West in Bath, and heard yet another guy stand up and tell everyone that the year abroad had been the best year of his degree, I just sorta though 'Yeah, yeah, whatever, living in France can't be as good as that...it's France!!' Next year, I will be that guy, standing up, telling everyone to go to Strasbourg, and telling everyone to go to Konstanz. Before I continue writing this, I'm gonna try and summarise this. Over the last year, I have:

Been to the following cities:
Vernet-les-Bains, Girona, Colmar, Strasbourg, Kehl, Prague, Bath, London, Rome, Naples, Bari, Patras, Athens, Thessaoloniki, Kalambaka, Paleofarsalos, Istanbul, Catania, Palermo, Milan, Zurich, Basel, Stuttgart, Konstanz, Ulm, Crailsheim, Nurnberg, Freiburg, Baden-Baden, Vaduz, Barcelona, Neuhausen, Meersburg, Cambridge, Oxford, Munich, Kreuzlingen, Singen, Friedrichshafen and many more.

Seen the following games and bands live:
Bayern Munich vs Hannover, Strasbourg vs Lyon, Muse, Rage Against the Machine, Kiss, Rammstein, The Hives, Bad Religion, Kasabian, Jay-Z, Ellie Goulding, Dizzee Rascal, Katatonia, Kamelot, Airbourne, Pendulum, The Editors, Motorhead, Slash, Alkaline Trio, You Me at Six, Alice in Chains and 30 Seconds to Mars. (Soon to be added) La Roux, Mando Diao, The Strokes, The Prodigy, Florence and the Machine, Biffy Clyro and many more!

Made friends from the following countries:
England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, US, Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Chile, Singapore, France, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, Slovakia, Italy, Croatia, Spain, Slovenia, Greece, Czech Republic, Mongolia and many many others.

The journey begins:
I set off for Strasbourg on the 5th September 2009 with Sally. I took 16 kilos in a suitcase and some hand luggage, yet didn't have a place to live. A flight and a train journey from Stuttgart later, I began to feel the efficiency drain out of my blood, as I enjoyed a fortnight of searching for accommodation and enduring language lessons with Monsieur Meyer which made me comtemplate suicide for the first time. The accommodation hunt went on, and one day, I walked into an Internet cafe and checked my emails. I had received an email 10 mins before about a student room in halls available, and was the first of 70 people to reply. Result! So I gots me a room. Time to relax? Hell no. Sally was staying with a family and within a week, the dad of the family had come onto her while the wife was out and the kids were brushing their teeth. It was all drama as operation, let Sally escape from the house commenced!

Settling in in the first few weeks was fairly easy. People like Petr in my accommodation were friendly, and I soon got to know the 2 most important people of my year abroad. Step up Samantha Muller, everyone's favourite half German, half Philippino, born in Malaysia, lived in Egypt, studies in sheepland, so she's basically an international hobo. Secondly, but not necessarily in that order :-) Patrick O'Brien, a man who chats girls up with pizza, a man whom I taught the word banterous, my drinking buddy and future husband. Some of the highlights of the first few months were the day trip to Colmar, when everyone had got less than 3 hours of sleep and most people were still hungover, and Europapark, which was an amazing day of riding on some of Europe's biggest rollercoasters. We'd established a friendship circle too. All english speakers, but still totally awesome nevertheless. Lorcan Murray - Irish procrastinating legend, Matt Pizzorusso - most sarcastic American in the world, the Canadians Katherine, Jean and Taryn who were always ooot and abooot, everyone's favourite nicest person, Katie Harris, Petr from Czechland and Jean-Pierre, with a name like that, obviously from Germany! Along with many other cool people like Laura and Lacy and many others.

Whilst I may have met many lovely people, I stick by my vow that I will never live in France ever again. If you try and set a bank account up and it takes 4 weeks, you get annoyed. If a professor cancels your exam on the day of an exam, you get annoyed. If Thierry Henry robs Ireland of a place in the World Cup due to cheating, you get annoyed!! (To be continued)