Things I miss about Germany/ Things I like about Ireland

Hey guys,

in this post I will talk about things I miss about Germany and about things I love about Ireland. Some of the things are food, but of course not everything. Have fun! :)

Things I miss about Germany:

- my short way to school
   In Germany I have to walk less than ten minutes to school and if I take the bike it takes three minutes. Here I have to walk 40 minutes and take the train for 20 minutes and that is one way. So I have to do that twice a day.
-german planning and organisation
  That sounds so rude oh my god. One example are the infos about the sleepover cause we got them one week beforehand and the note for our parents on the day before. Or our teacher told us the information about our portfolio we have to do for midterm one week beforehand as well.
- sparkling water
   I thought I would miss it more, but actually I don't. But from time to time it would be nice to drink a glass. Last weekend I drank sparkling water with another German friend of mine and we realised that it doesn't taste as good as we remebered it.
- a punctual bus
  The busses here arrive when they want to. And I am always afraid that the bus doesn't stop at my bus stop because they don't announce the name of the stations.
- cheap stationary
   My teachers wanted me to buy sooo many things! And everything is so expensive. For three copy books I paid 6€ or 7€.

Things I love about Ireland:

- Mince Pie
   These are small pies that are usually eaten on Christmas or Easter. They are filled with fruits and sooo tasty!
- Appletarte
  This is also pretty irish. Appletartes are small apple pies and the people usually eat them with fresh cream.
- Black tea with milk
  For me it was always so weird to put milk in tea,but now that I'm here I wanted to try it. And it is actually quite good.
- the landscape
  The landscape here is so pretty especially the hills and since I live close by the sea I can always see green hills to my right and the sea to my left as I walk to school. That's lovely!
- the people
  Everyone is so polite and kind and everyone greets everyone else on the street. And they apologize for literally everything and always they thank you. That is so amazing!

I hoped you liked this quite short post and had fun reading it.

See you!
Nici

 

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Hey Leute!

In diesem Post werde ich ueber Dinge reden, die ich an Deutschland vermisse und natuerlich auch ueber Dinge, die ich an Irland liebe. Manche Sachen habe ich hier neu probiert und es geht sowohl um Essen, als auch um Kultur etc. Have fun!

Dinge, die ich an Deutschland vermisse:

- meinen kurzen Schulweg
 In Deutschland setze ich mich 3 Minuten aufs Fahrrad und bin in der Schule und hier bin ich             insgesamt eine Stunde unterwegs. Pro Weg. Also jeden Tag zweimal.
- deutsche Planung/ Organisation
 So klischeehaft es auch klingen mag, aber in Deutschland ist es teilweise echt strukturierter. Naechste Woche haben wir ja die Uebernachtung in der Schule und in Deutschland haetten wir einen Elternbrief bekommen und so weiter. Hier wurde das mal flott 5 Tage vorher erklaert. Und den Elternbrief haben wir am Tag vorher bekommen.  Oder auch die Klausuren werden teilweise nur ein paar Tage vorher angekuendigt.
- Wasser mit Kohlensaeure
 Ich vermisse es nicht so stark, wie ich vorher dachte, aber manchmal waere so ein Glas Wasser mit Kohlensaeure doch ganz schoen. ;) Edit: ich hatte am Wochenende Wasser mit Kohlensäure und ich war überrascht wie schlecht das auf einmal schmeckt.
- Ein pünktlicher Bus
Busse kommen hier wann sie wollen. Und generell ist Busfahren total anders. Die Stationen werden nicht durchgesagt und ich habe immer Angst, dass der Bus nicht hält.
- günstige Schulsachen
Ich musste für meine Schule so viele Sachen kaufen und das ist hier alles soo teuer! Ein Pack mit 3 Heften hat 6€ oder 7€ gekostet...

Dinge, die ich an meinem Leben in Irland liebe/ Dinge, die ich in Irland zum ersten Mal probiert habe und liebe

-Mince Pie
Das ist eine irische Feiertagsspezialität, die man meistens zu Weihnachten oder Ostern isst. Mince Pies sind kleine Küchlein mit einer Fruchtfüllung und sie sind einfach so gut!

- schwarzer Tee mit Milch
  Für mich war es immer sehr befremdlich, wenn eins meiner deutschen Familienmitglieder Milch in seinen Tee gekippt hat. Aber hier musste ich auch mal probieren, weil es so typisch ist. Und inzwischen mag ich es auch ganz gerne.

- Apfeltarte
  Kleine Apfelkuchen, die oft mit Sahne serviert werden. Auch ziemlich irisch und echt lecker.

- die Landschaft
   Die Landschaft hier ist einfach so wunderschön. Alles ist total grün und das sieht echt toll aus. Da ich ja auch am Meer lebe, ist das hier nochmal besonders schön. Denn der Kontrast zwischen grünem Hügel rechts und dem Meer links ist echt bezaubernd.
  
- Die Menschen
   Wenn man auf der Straße jemandem begegnet, wird man immer gegrüßt, die allermeisten Leute bedanken sich für alles und entschuldigen sich immer, wenn sie dich z. B. versehentlich anrempeln oder so.

Ich hoffe dieser eher kurze Post hat euch gefallen. :) Im Laufe des Tages kommt auch mein 2 Monate im Gastland Update.

Bis dann!

Nici

I am back... I guess

Hey lads!

You probably can’t believe you’re reading this and I can’t believe I am writing this. 6 months ago I published my last post and if I am right I was still in Ireland back then. Actually I wanted to keep you updated on my situation back at home and about my re-integration in Germany but it didn’t feel right at that time. But I guess now it feels right to post and that’s why I am doing this. This post is probably going to be pretty messed up because there are a few things I wanna talk about. Let’s get started!

First of all: I am going to create another blog. It is probably going to be about bullet journaling and art but I am also going to share my favorite recipes and maybe also post stuff related to traveling. As soon as it is out I am going to insert the link right here so if you’re interested in stuff like that go check it out.

The posts that I wanted to make about my exchange year will follow in the next 10-14 days.
(My uniform, I know, I promised this post in November, I am SO sorry!!; my favorite places and restaurants in Cork; advices on finding the right organization for your exchange year + review and honest opinion on Experiment e.V and EIL Ireland; advantages of an exchange year; my seminar I had in March; my Ireland/exchange year playlist  and last but not least some more impressions from my time abroad)

The next thing I wanna talk about is going back home. I want to be honest with you guys, getting back into my German life was so much harder than becoming acquainted with the Irish culture and Ireland in general! My last day in Ireland was horrible and I cried almost without any breaks.... Luckily I had my amazing friends with me and they really helped me through this day and especially night. Seeing my parents for the first time after such a long time was very overwhelming! On the day after I came home my friends had organized a surprise party for me which was amazing. (If anyone of you reads this, I love you <3) Fortunately I was allowed to stay home two more days so I had to go to school on the 30th of January. At first it was horrifying because it felt like before but everything was so different ( I am in senior cycle now which is pretty different from Junior Cycle) and so many people wanted to talk to me and all I actually wanted was being alone. All in all I was very overwhelmed during the first weeks. Somehow everything got back to normal and became routine again. From time to time there are days or a week where I feel really bad and sad and it feels like my heart is getting pulled out of my chest. Most of the exchange students will know this feeling. It is like being homesick but 1000 times worse...  But I guess that is the price you have to pay for all the amazing memories you make during your exchange time.

I am still in contact with most of my friends and my hostmum. If I am lucky we will go to Ireland next year!

I hope you enjoyed reading my post and are not too mad I hadn’t posted in 6 months because I promise I will post some more things soon!!

Nici

My travel bucket list/what I have actually seen

Hey guys,

this post is gonna be about my travel bucket list I’ve made in the beginning of my exchange year. You can see it in the picture below. All the places I’ve been to are marked with an x and Limerick is crossed out because I cancelled my wish of going there.

The places I’ve actually been to are:

Cobh

Cork

Middleton

Kinsale

Dublin

Killarney

Waterford

Galway

The cliffs of Moher
And a few places I don´t know the names of. Just a mountain and a forrest and some villages.

In the following I will talk a little bit about my trips there, my favorite places and of course I will add some pics. :)

Cork: my school was in Cork so I’ve been there literally every day. Cork is a beautiful city and I really enjoyed living so close to it. My favorite places are the asian restaurant “Ramen” and St. Patrick’s Street in general. Especially during the christmas time it looked awesome because of all the lights.

Middleton:

I’ve been to Middleton with Paulina during the christmas break. It is only a twenty minute train ride away from Cork but honestly you don’t miss anything if you don’t go there. It is just a small town. But they have a beautiful cathedral which I would consider to be my favorite place… 

Kinsale:

My hostmum took me to the Old head of Kinsale in the very beginning of my time here and it is more or less a smaller version of the cliffs of moher. Last sunday (20th of January), I went there again with two friends and we walked from Kinsale almost down to the Old Head. We had amazing weather and could really enjoy the cliffs and of course Ireland’s stunning green hills.

Dublin:
Apart from the orientation which was actually not really in Dublin I have been to Dublin only once. It was a day trip with Paulina on the 12th of January. I love the city and especially Grafton Street amazed me! It kinda reminds me of the German city Münster. I saw lots of beautiful places and honestly I don´t know which is my favourite. Probably the librabry of the Trinity college.

Killarney:
The first time I went there was with my hostfamily. We didn´t go to the actual town only to the national park. I highly recommend going there, it is an amazing place to go hiking. During the christmas break I went there a second time with Fiona. Together we went to an american diner and it was sooo good! And we also went to the national park.

Waterford:
Another trip I went on with Paulina was our trip to Waterford. My hostmum said she really likes Waterford but we didn´t like it that much. But we discovered a very cute cafe where we had amazing apple tarte. 

Galway:
That was Paulina´s and my first bigger trip. Galway was probably my favourite City in Ireland even though I´ve only been there for a couple Hours. Galway has loads of gorgeous churches and small lanes. Very cute City!

The cliffs of Moher:
Fiona, Jenna and I went there in october and I have to say it was AMAZING! The weather was literally perfect and we took many beautiful pictures. The cliffs are stunning and I beg y´all to go there when you visit Ireland.

I hope you´ve enjoyed the post!

Nici

Things every exchange student knows ;)

Hey guys,

today’s post is gonna be about things (almost) every exchange student knows. Obviously I can’t speak for everyone out there but I talked to other exchange students as well and this is the list we created together. It is just for entertaining purposes and not to offend anyone. Enjoy lads!

1. Talking about your new teachers etc with other exchange students in your language. And you’ll always have a secret language also when you are talking to someone on the phone.
2. People ask you to teach them swearing words in your native language. Yup, this happens way too often.😂
3. People will always know someone who knows someone who has a friend who has a cousin who has a girlfriend who has a sister that has been to your home country.
4. This point is just about Ireland and Germany but so many people here actually know some german. Once I had a conversation with a friend in the supermarket and suddenly someone turned around to ask us what language we were speaking. When we told him we spoke german he said goodbye to us in German when he left.😂🤨
5. You will helplessly fall in love with something that you can only have in your host country. For example a certain restaurant, a sport, a dish whatever.
6. We all start randomly speaking to the wrong person in the wrong language and start texting your friends in english or whatever language by accident.
7. When talking to a person in one language we try to use idioms and sayings etc. from the other language.
8. Sometimes we just speak a weird mixture of languages. (Kurze Anekdote für die deutschsprachigen Leser: ich habe einmal mit einer Freundin geskypet und währenddessen gegessen. Irgendwann sagte ich ihr, dass ich kurz meine Platte wegbringen gehe. Jap, ich habe statt Teller Platte gesagt, da es im Englischen ja plate heißt...😂🤦🏼‍♀️)
9. The friendships made in the host country feel like yearlong friendships even though I know the people for just a couple months. Especially the friendships I developed with the other exchange students throughout the times are amazing and very deep.
       10. Last but not least: The time abroad feels like a few days only but on the other hand like years.

I hoped you liked this post. The german translation will follow in one or two days I am just too lazy.

See you
Nici