The communication of language

A collection of essays is following soon...

[itistimetowriteablog]

#Weekly Update 32: I knew that being far away from home is not easy at the beginning, but never thought it would be harder when you just move to a different city

Hello everyone,

I’ve started this new blog post over 100 times, but never finished it until now.

‘Why?’, you may ask.

I never finished it, because I was too busy with my non virtual life (aka the life of an University student, who as we all know has no free time at all! 😂), I was not motivated at all and not satisfied with the result of started, but not finished texts. More than 3 month have now passed since my last entry. I wasn’t in a good mood and there were no 'really exciting’ topics to write about! :(

To be honest I had a reverse culture shock when I came back from England and believe me or not, there are still 'culture shock moments’ happening, because I moved from my home(in Germany) to the (German) city in which my University is. The distance from my home to Uni is nearly the same as the distance from home to London! 😝 Especially when I went to Berlin for the first time(which is not far from where I live now), I was a little bit shocked. Most of the time it’s nothing serious, just strange people in Berlin, who behave in a way that I don’t expect them to. And most of the time it’s just a funny anecdote, which I tell my friends and family at home afterwards! 😆

I’d never been to Berlin before I moved to my University city, so I guess I really didn’t know what to expect. For me it felt like something similar to a culture shock, besides the fact that I didn’t move to different country. Unfortunately I always compare things (is this a typical German thing? I’m not sure), so when I went to Berlin for the first time I was thinking: 'Great, it’s just another capital city, like London with a lot of tourists and soo cosmopolitan, because of them.’ In my opinion I still haven’t seen enough of Berlin to describe the city to somebody, who never went there, in detail. But what I can definitely say is that is NOT like London or other capital city at all. 😁😄

So this is just a small amount of what has happened since the last entry.

I also finished my first semester at Uni (which included a lot of new things and experiences), passed my English exam (I’m so relieved now! ☺️🇺🇸🇬🇧), went home for my first real 'Semesterferien’ (semester break), got sick just a few days after I arrived at home (of all the things I thought I would miss, I never ever thought I would miss Lemsip so much at this moment, but fortunately I had some halls soothers, which I bought in England and loads of Tea of course), spent some quality time with friends and family, started to revise/review my Italian (allora = well) and finally went back to Uni city yesterday.

However, I didn’t write and speak much English the last few weeks, but I hope I got back into writing (proper English) on this blog.

Some people asked me if I miss England. I have to say that I do from time to time. It’s not the places (let’s exclude London💘 from this, okay?😅☺️) it’s more the people I miss. But when it rains here it’s not the same as in England. Speaking German the whole day again was strange at the beginning, but I got used to it. Luckily my University has a lot of international students, so I speak a lot of English anyway. And by continuing this blog I try to improve my writing skills! 😁 I miss the British humor sometimes and British TV series like BBC’s Sherlock. But BIG NEWS I’ll go back to the UK in August! I got an internship at/ in (why do I always struggle with this prepositions?) Bournemouth for six weeks and I’m really looking forward to it!

I want to visit friends and my host family, but also want to go to some other places in the UK (Cornwal, Devon and Dublin for example, so if you have any recommendations please let me know! 😉 Thanks!😊).

Hopefully it was interesting for you. From now on I try to publish an update every Saturday (as usual).

So stay tuned and have a sunny weekend!☀️

All the best from a more and more springlike Germany, x Julia

[itistimetowriteablog]

#Weekly Update 31

Hello, it’s me!(I can’t get this song out of my head 😆)

Oh my goodness, how much has happened since my last entry?!From 🇬🇧 To 🇩🇪, from being an au pair to being a student at Uni! 😁

Two months ago Uni started.

The weather changed from autumn 🍃🍂 to rainy☔️ (and sometimes cold❄️) winter⛄️.

Still I can’t believe that I’m now living so close to Berlin.
Last Saturday I went there just for the day and had a marvelous time with the first snow since Janurary! 😯❄️⛄️

But back to writing now, because I was quiet absent at the blog, let’s get on with it.

In my last entry I was thinking about writing a review of my au pair adventure, but it’s still hard for me to find the right words and difficult to express myself in the way I want.
I’m not sure if it’s, because I’m writing in English which is not my native language or just because one year is so difficult to put in a few sentences, I guess it’s a little bit of both.😉☺️

So I thought it would be the best to write a letter to future au pairs and give them some advice! ☺️
____________________________________________________________ Dear future au pair,

today I want to share with you the experience of a whole year abroad, (living and working) as an aupair in England, which is not easy to describe in just a few words.

Maybe I should start with what you have to expect from the next months, the next half a year or the next year.

First of all there will be loads of ‘new’ things, a new country and a new culture, new people, a new ‘family’, new friends, new places, new thoughts and feelings, a new experience in general. 
New and/or maybe strange things, which you didn’t know before or you didn’t recognised before, because before it was just 'normal’ for you.

There will be times when you’ll feel happy and will laugh a lot(you’ll think: 'Everybody is so friendly and openminded, I never want to leave!’), but also times of tears and fear(you’ll ask yourself:'Why am I here? If I could I would like to go home just for a few hours.’). 
You’ll get to know a new culture and maybe a new way of living. 
There will be points in which you agree with your host family and points in which you totally disagree.

You’ll improve your language skills, your pronounciation and your social skills.

Strangers will become acquaintance. Acquaintance will become companions. And companions will finally become friends. You’ll meet people from different cultural backgrounds.

Sometime you’ll feel as if you have always lived there and sometimes(while you’re standing in the biggest crowd of people) you’ll feel as strange as you can.

From Monday to Friday(and in some cases also on Saturday or Sunday) you’ll wake up because of screaming children.

Even when you finished your 'working’ day in the evening, it can be difficult at the beginning to relax after a stressful day. 
You’ll live 24 hours, 7 days a week under the same rooftop as your host family.

The weekends and sometimes evenings(normally you’ll be to tired to go out from Monday to Friday evening, or you have to babysit) will be fully planed and packed with stuff you want to see and do in this short time.

After a few days, or weeks or even months you’ll be in a routine.
You’ll build up a relationship with your host kid(s) and the other members of your hostfamily. 
At first time will feel endless and then a few month before you go back home time will rush as fast as it can.

So as you can see there is a lot of things coming up to you. 
Like I said at the beginning it isn’t easy to sum up what can happen in a whole year. 
You’ll definitely get more confident with everything by time and in most cases there is a change, even if its just a small one.

One last thing to keep in mind! 
There will be things you might find strange/ thing you don’t understand at the beginning, but don’t worry, it’s not strange, it’s just different from home.

And wherever you’ll go now,
keep in mind to realise every single day as a gift and to keep it for yourself as a memory(for example write a diary/a blog or take one picture every day).

I hope this letter will help you to settle into your hostfamilies live as good as possible.

Good luck and take care,
all the best
____________________________________________________________

Please let me know what you think about my letter to future au pairs. Would you change/ add something? If yes, please let me know! Do you have some more advice? 😉

Next time I’ll give you some advice what to do in London to experience a lot, but also safe money! 😁

Wishing you a good weekend,
wherever you are right now, 
all the best from more and more wintery Germany,
x Julia

[itistimetowriteablog]

#Weekly Update 30

Hi guys, :)

this is just a short weekly update about how I want to continue this blog.

As you can see, I updated the background a little bit(a new photo and a new color).

I finished my au pair year, but still want to continue this blog. I’ll write about my experience as an au pair in one of the next entries and I’ll give you some advice about things you can do to save money while staying/ living at London and also some advice to future au pairs.

After that I guess there isn’t anything about the au pair topic left, because of that I want to share with you from time to time my study experience at a German University.

I hope you’re interested in this and you will continue to read my blog.

I’ll write to you as soon as I can. ;)

Whereever you’re in the world right now,                                 

all the best, 

x   Julia

[itistimetowriteablog]

Weekly Update 29 - Back home and other stuff that happened

Hello or should I say ‘Hallo’?! 😄😉

I’m back in Germany since three weeks now! 😊 Originally it was planed to stay with my hostfamily until the end of August(29th and 30th of August, so this weekend), but on the 3rd of August an invitation from one Uni for an application test arrived. This test would have given me a higher chance to get into this Uni, so after long conversations with my hostmum and my (real) mum, I decided to go back to Germany to take the test. I came back on Sunday, the 9th of August, drove on Monday(10th of August) 4 hours with my mum to the Uni, we stayed in a youth hostel and I took the test on Tuesday(11th of August). The following Wednesday(12th of August) I unpacked the rest of clothes that I didn’t unpacked on Sunday and started to call friends to surprise them with the news of my return. This was around three weeks ago and I wouldn’t say that there wasn’t enough time to write at least a small update, but I had to focus on Uni first. Now the situation about Uni is very clear. I got a positive confirmation for a Uni, which is an hour away from Berlin(the capital city of Germany) and has a good reputation. The only negative point is that it is around 6 to 7 hours(by car) away from home. Last Tuesday I went there for a welcome day(Uni will start in October with an orientation week, but this welcome day was held for answering still unanswered questions about the Uni and so on).

The first days back home were quiet confusing, because speaking German the whole day was challenging, but now it’s fine. ;) I’m trying to keep my English on the level it is now, which means two days after I came home my parents and I watched the film 'Silver Linings playbook’(high recommendation) in English and I started to read the novel 'The woman in black’(I’m still not finished) by Susan Hill(also the original English Version).

On Tuesday(on the welcome day of Uni) I met a girl from the Netherlands and we had a nice conversation in English. I guess it was just a strange situation for all the other future students, who are from Germany, but all in all it’s a very international Uni so I hope I’ll speak some more English there in the next years! :D

My Brother is now nearly as tall as I am and a few things changed during the year I was away from home, but most things are still the same way! :D

Besides this positive time I had also negative days, which I’d like to mention more in my next entry. Then I’ll tell you more about coming home and how to cope with a reverse culture shock. A whole entry about my au pair experience is also planed. 😉

So I’ll write to you soon, but this time not three weeks later! 😄😉☺️ All the best, lots of love, x Julia

digitalesleben sunfloweriniceland

[itistimetowriteablog]

Weekly Update 28 - Holiday with the Boys and an useful advice for you

Sunday, 2nd of August:

Hello again! Finally I managed it to publish this at least on Sunday(instead of Saturday), but yesterday I was the whole day out, so it’s not a wonder that I didn’t published something here. Okay, enough excuses!!😄

4 weeks(!) are left until I’ll leave London! 😩 The last week was quiet exhausting, because the boys have holiday now, so they are at home with me, but it’s okay. At first I wasn’t sure how it would be for me to take care of the boys for most of the day, I guess that’s the fate of every au pair in the holiday time(you don’t really have a break until the evening, so your hostchildren are always around you). Of course I was sure that it wouldn’t be as worse as it was last year in my first host family(we didn’t leave the house for weeks in their holidays!!!), but I wasn’t sure how it would work with the boys and I have to say, it’s tiring, but on the other hand so exciting, because I’m spending the last weeks with the boys and enjoying my last weekends here. We played Tennis at the Tennis Club, went twice to a nice park with a huge playground, baked a cake, took the bus to go to a Bowling centre and had on Friday (like always) a Movie night(this week we saw Johnny English). Last Thursday I saw Nadia(the Australian au pair) after two weeks again and we had dinner at a Brazilian Restaurant. It was very delicious and when I’m back in Germany I want to learn some Portuguese, because my brother and I want to go to Brazil in around 5 years! 😊

I found a very useful website, which I’d like to share with you today. The website is called http://www.netmums.com and is useful for your holiday activities, because you can find parks, activities and lots more close to you(in the UK) on that website(http://www.netmums.com/local-to-you/places-to-go). To all current and future au pairs in the UK, who are not sure what to do with their hostchildren this or future holidays, I hope I gave you a good advice!😉

How I said before the week was exhausting and made me tired and as if that wouldn’t be enough I caught a cold, which is a little better now, but I’m still not healthy.

Yesterday I met up with Ginny and another friend and we tried Korean food. After that we went to Hampton Court Palace, which is definitely worth it to go. A small tip about Hampton Court Palace(but also valid for the Tower of London and a few other historical buildings), if you’re a student(and have a valid student card) and book your tickets in advanced, it will be much cheaper than on the gate.

However, I thought about writing a few tips down for visiting London or/and being an au pair in the UK. What do you think about that?

That’s it for today, see you next week again, all the best from London, x Julia

P.s.: I never mentioned it here, but I have an Instagram account now, so if you want to see some photos of my time in London, have a look: https://instagram.com/julyabloguk/

sunfloweriniceland digitalesleben

[itistimetowriteablog]

Big Weekly Update 21-27!!!

Hello! 🙋 I'm back! 😁 So much happened so that I didn't find any time to write here. Wow, the weeks are flashing by so fast, especially the last weeks were finished so fast! Less than two months(5 weeks) are left until I'll go back home! I can't believe how fast the time ran! Like I said last time I'm realising now, how less time is left. Every weekend in July is planed. It's difficult to discribe how I feel. On one hand I'm looking forward to finish my 'year' here and to go back home, but on the other hand I'm still in a 'Wanderlust' mood, I would like to see, do and experience much more in this short time left. I guess it feels like that, because there is again the same feeling of uncertainty, which came up last year after I finished school. I mean I knew I would move for one year to London and had some expectations, but in the end it was all a big surprise, everything showed up totally different! But I'm happy now! I got used to my routine here and feel comfortable and safe. This time the big uncertainty is that I don't know, how the Uni/ Study thing will turn out. I'm sure that I want to study now, because I'm certained about my study subject, but again I don't know how it will turn out and what I have to expect. So that's it what makes me insecure. This year away from home definitely helped me to see certain things from a different view plus I got to know myself better. I feel more self-confident than before and now I have no problems to speak the whole time English(there was never a problem in it, I knew most of the vocabulary all ready, I was just insecure how to use them properly). But now back to what happened when I didn't write anything here(of course more than that, but these are just a few things I want to share with you): 1.) I went to Holland park, which I can really recommend! Compared with other parks in London it is much greener and has a lot of trees. You will feel as if you're not in London! Instead it feels like being in a forest or in the woods! 😀 2.) I applied at a few Unis and had my CAE Cambridge Advanced Exam! Now I have to wait (in both chases) for an response/ result. 3.) The last weeks were nice and sunny, it's getting summer here now! UPDATE: Typical English weather, which means it was sunny yesterday, today it's cold and rainy. And next weekend they say it will be sunny again. 4.) Ginny and I went to Thames Barrier, which is interesting, because it has a small museum, but it wouldn't be in my Top 10 recommendations for London. What I can really recommend is to go for one day to Greenwich. I went there two weeks ago and it was amazing, of course also a lot of tourists, but you will find them everywhere in London! 😄 If it's a nice sunny day like last Saturday go to Black vanilla, a nice gelateria close to the Station. A few weeks ago I went to Richmond and Kingston which are a little bit outside of London(South west, Zone 4 and 6), but definitely a nice choice, because you can have a nice walk close to the river Thamse with more local people instead of loads of tourists. 5.) June and July are two months with an unbelievable amount of birthdays! In July alone are three birthdays in my hostfamily! 6.) I can't believe it, but three weeks ago a friend of my brother came with a few friends to London and I showed them a little bit around. Again I realised how much I got to know this city, but there are still parts of London and England, that I haven't seen, but definitely want to see in the future! ;) 7.) Strawberries and cream 🍓🍦🍰 - of course - there was Wimbledon! Personally I'd never an interest in Tennis before, but after watching it every day on TV and playing it myself with the boys in the garden and on the tennis court I got more interested in it. 8.) Ginny and I went last Saturday to a basketball match. England vs. New Zealand! Of course it's different from a match in the USA, the mood was totally different, but it was exciting! ☺️ So I was really busy, but in all this time when I didn't write here I had different thoughts about my current life here, my future, what I would like to do in the next month, all those kind of things... I'm not sure how I'll continue the blog, I definitely want to continue writing and improve it, but of course I won't write that much about London and au pair anymore than before. I'm prepairing right now a post about tips for London in generell and also a little guide for au pairs! Probably I don't want to write too much about London and being an au pair, because I'll leave soon. The other reason is that I find it quite hard to differentiate between telling you about the things I did here and my 'private' life. Yes, right now I came to a point where I want to write down all my experience I made this year, but I'm not certained about sharing them with the internet. Maybe it's because I read the book 'Girl Online' by Zoe Sugg(aka Zoella) and because of that I thought about anxiety, panic attacks(I'm not sure if I ever had one) and how much the internet knows about us or more precisely how easily information about us (we don't really want to share with the world) can get online. By the way, I bought three books here and finished all of them, if you're interested in some reviews, please let me know! 😉 Okay, I guess that's it for this time. Sorry for writing a lot of times 'I', but it wasn't easy to write about what happened to Me without mentioning 'I' a few times. 😁☺️😉 See you soon and not weeks later!;) All the best, xx Julia

[itistimetowriteablog]

Weekly Update 20 - Summer in the city ☀️

Hello guys! This time on a Monday. So I hope you’re all fine? Last week wasn’t quiet exciting compared with the previous weeks, but besides the normal au pair routine I went last Wednesday to Benefit and got my eye brows waxed.😳 Yes, waxed!😄 It sounds more painful than it really is and it’s so much cheaper here than in Germany, so I thought I will give it a try and I’m really satisfied with the result! 😊 Another interesting thing about last week is, what I did on the weekend. On Saturday I met with Julia and we got some tickets for ‘The curious incident of the dog in the night-time’(I’m still speechless!😄) at tkts for 7:30 pm, before we went to the Theater we walked to Hyde Park and had a nice picknick. I went to King’s Cross/ Euston Square on Sunday morning, had some lunch in this area and took a bus to Oxford Street. Than I went to Baker street and met again with Julia. We went to Regent’s Park and had a relaxed time, lied on a blanket and read our books. Around six in the evening we went back to the tube station and I went home to skype with my family. So, this time it was a short entry, but there will follow soon a lot of new entries! 😁😉

Write to you soon, all the best, x Julia

sunfloweriniceland digitalesleben decadeofdreams

[itistimetowriteablog]

Weekly Update 19 - Bath, Bristol, Cardiff & Birmingham

Hello again! This time my weekly update comes a little bit later, because I went last weekend to Leeds Castle, Canterbury and Dover with Ginny. So today I want to tell you a little bit about my three days trip to Bath, Bristol, Cardiff and Birmingham. On my first day I took the coach to Bath and stayed there until 6 pm ish, then I took the train to Bristol and arrived there around 20 minutes later. I stayed one night at Bristol, but I guess I saw more of Bath then of Bristol, because I had just the evening at Bristol, but to be honest I would prefer to go to Bristol again and not to Bath. I mean Bath was really nice, but I enjoyed Bristol more. For all of you how don’t know what’s so special about Bath, it has an old Roman spa(and also a modern one!;) ) and you can find a lot of Roman traces there. So all in all Bath is a nice place, but for me it’s just another city with a lot of tourists. I mean I was also one of them, but compared with Bristol it was massive(so many people)! :o I saw a lot of modern architectur at Bristol and I really liked to go on a walk next to the river ‘Avon’. On my second day I had a small breakfast at 'Colston Hall Bar & Kitchen’, which was opposite of my coach station. The breakfast(photo) was delicious and can really recommend to go there, if you take the coach from there! ;) And then I went to Wales or more precisely Cardiff and had so much luck with the weather! :) After I found my hotel and left my luggage there(because it was too early to check-in) I went to Cardiff Bay, which was just a 20 minutes walk down one street, so not that far away. ;) I spent some time there(until 2 pm) and took a lot of photos! Because I forgot to put on suncream and to take my sunglasses with me, I decided it would be the best to go back to the hotel, have a little break and put on some suncream afterwards. So I check-in at the hotel, spent some time at my room(I skyped with a good friend of mine from Germany and shortly with my mum, to tell her that I arrived safe) and in the evening I went back to Cardiff Bay and had a nice dinner. My last day started really early, because my coach left at 7:25 am(!!) to Birmingham. After around 3 hours I finally arrived at Birmingham and the first thing I saw was the big shopping center. For all of you, who have never been at Birmingham, there are a lot of shops at Birmingham and it’s after London the second largest city in the UK!;) Later I went to a park(close to the public library and just relaxed a little bit! I had some lunch(a still water, some sweet potato fries and a chickpea & quinoa veggie burger, the last one was vegan by the way!;) ) at 'Handmade Burger co.’, because I walked through and it looked really interesting!;) And it was delicious, so another recommendation for you! :) Later on I walked a little bit across the city centre and in the afternoon I had an Earl Grey tea and a granola bar at a Café. I went also to Birmingham Cathedrale and because it’s in a park, I set on a bench and just relax again a little bit! Please don’t think I was too lazy to walk on this day, I was just really tired(because I had to wake up so early in the last three days) and I had also the whole time my Rucksack/bag with me, which is quiet heavy over a long time. The rest of my time at Birmingham I spent with walking around 'The Bullring Shopping Center’ and around Central Birmingham. For Dinner I bought a Ham and Cheese Baguette at 'Baguette 4 less’(I can really recommend it), which cost only 99p(it was really cheap, but delicious and they added also some lettuce to it) and went into a supermarket to buy a bottle of water and some chocolate. I thought about buying also some fruits, but I was still full from my lunch, so I went back to the Coach Station(where I arrived in the morning) and had around two hours left, before the bus left from Birmingham Coach Station towards London Victoria Coach Station. So I had enough time to eat my baguette and to have a look around. All in all it was an adventurous trip, because I went just on my own, but I really enjoyed my time! :) I would like to recommend to you to visit Bristol and Cardiff, if you haven’t been there until now, because I really like it there and like I wrote before, the weather at Cardiff(Wales) was so great in the afternoon!

I hope you’re fine?! ;) It’s already June, I can’t believe how fast time runs sometimes, however, have a nice Tuesday and a fantastic week! :)

Write to you soon, all the best, x Julia

[itistimetowriteablog]

Weekly Update 18 - May, good vibes, a concert & Fish'n'Chips at Brighton

Hi guys! How are you? Another week is finished and I'm really happy at the moment! :) So many great and undiscribable good things happened this month and I'm still looking forward to a few great things, which will happen in the next two weeks! So all in all May is a great month! Yes, of course the weather could be better sometimes, but it's the UK, so what else should I expect? :D Okay, so what happened in the last days? Like every week I had College on Monday, Thursday and Friday, but this Friday was the last day before 'Half Term Holiday' and normally this(Half Term Holiday) means more work for an au pair, because the children and you have holiday, so it isn't really a holiday for au pairs, but this time I'll go for three days to Bath, Bristol, Cardiff and Birmingham! I'm looking really forward to this! And next weekend I'll go to Leeds Castle, Canterbury and Dover with Ginny! So I'm traveling a lot this month, but I guess I won't travel as an au pair this much any more, because June, July and especially August will be quiet taff, because the boys will have holiday, so they will be at home! What else happened this week? Last Tuesday I went to a second concert with Ginny, this time it was by the Londoner band 'Shake Shake Go' and took place at Hoxton Square Bar & Kitchen. It was a great concert and I can highly recommend 'Shake Shake Go', but also Louis Baker, a guy from New Zealand, who played a few of his songs before 'Shake Shake Go' entered the stage. Last Friday I met again with the Australian au pair, her name is Nadia by the way and she is really nice. We had lunch at an Italian Restaurant and after we had a little walk next to the Thamse, we found out that we live just a few streets away from each other! :D Yesterday I went to Brighton(photos will follow!) and had 'Fish and Chips' for the first time in my life! I went to 'Bardsley's', which is on Baker Street and I can highly recommend it! It was delicious! :) Next time I'll let you know what happened on my way to Bath, Bristol, Cardiff and Birmingham! Have a nice Sunday afternoon and a good week, write to you soon, all the best, x Julia P.s.: What do you think about Instagram? I guess it would be easter to share photos with you there. Let me know what you think about it? ;) digitalesleben sunfloweriniceland decadeofdreams mrbenbrown

[itistimetowriteablog]

Weekly Update 17 - Omg, how much can happen in just one week? :O

Sunday, 17.05.2015:

Hello again!

A lot of great things happened in just one week!!! :O I’m still a little bit speechless! :D The first half of the week was really usual compared with the rest of the week! On Monday I went to my language class again and on Tuesday I did some housework(like every week). But on Wednesday it began to change, I met an Australian au pair for lunch and in the evening I went with Ginny(I mentioned her before, she is one of my closest friends here and we got to know eachother at my first language course) to a concert of the (unfortunately still unknown) british band ‘The Sherlocks’(one of their songs, my favorite: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=s4GW14_Sodk) and what shall I say? Of course you can’t compare them to professionell bands, but they did a great job and the evening was good! Also the weather was really nice and sunny on Wednesday, but England would not be England if it doesn’t change from one day (with sun) to the next (with rain). So on Thursday it rained cats and dogs and I did something that I haven’t done for quiet a while. I went to a Shopping Center(which is close to my College) and bought some books, clothes and a few other things. I saved money in the last months, because I want to travel again a little bit more through England! But on Thursday I spent a little bit of my money. By the way what do you think about a vegeterian/ vegan diet? Please let me know. I’m really interested in this topic at the moment! :) After my language class on Friday I went to our weekly au pair meeting and when I came back home I fell directly asleep, I just wanted to take a nap, but I didn’t wake up until 3 am! A few minutes later I fell asleep again, I guess this happened, because I couldn’t sleep properly on Thursday night! Yesterday I met with Julia(yes, she has the same name as me and I also mentioned her before, she is the friend, who went with me to Portsmouth and New Forest (Lymington)) and we had a relaxed afternoon. I got to know her hostfamily, who is really nice! In the evening we went to the Savoy Theatre to see ‘Gypsy’ starring Imelda Staunton(Dolores Umbridge, Harry Potter) and it was wonderful! Today I met with my old landlady(I stayed last November/ December for six weeks at her house) and we had a nice walk through the Hyde park/ Kensington Gardens. We visited the 'Serpentine Sackler Gallery’ and had a nice cup of tea/ Hot Chocolate(she had a Hot Chocolate and I had a tea) and an interesting chat. The original plan was to meet afterwards with Julia at Leicester Square(where the premiere of George Clooneys new film 'Tomorrowland’ took place today, but Julia and I didn’t know about it) and to go to a free concert by the 'London Symphony Orchestra’, which took place this evening at Trafalgar Square. At 5pm ish, when I arrived at Leicester Square I got a text message from Julia and she cancelled our meeting, because she fell sick, but I didn’t mind, because last weekend I had to cancel our meeting. In the end I went on my own to the concert and it was great! :) The concert was finished around 8pm, so I decided to walk from Trafalgar Square to Waterloo Station to take the train home. On the way to Waterloo I met Ben Brown(the British Youtuber: mrbenbrown) and his friend Matt. At first I wasn’t sure if I should talk to them, because I thought they would might feel annoyed, but then I said to myself 'Julia, you might have just this one change to speak with them, so use this chance or otherwise you will regret it later!’. I guess I behaved a little bit strange(like a fangirl? :D), but both were really nice and we took also a photo! Thanks a lot again! :)

That’s it for this week, in my opinion it is quiet a lot for just one week! ;)

Have a great week and I will write to you soon, all the best, x Julia

P.s.: Because I’ll be next week at a concert again I would like to share 'my spring/summer playlist 2015’ with you soon. ;)

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Weekly Update No. 16 - or What happened in the last weeks

Sunday, 10.05.2015:

Hi folks! How are you? First of all, long time no see! - I would say. I’ve been really busy since my last entry here, so that’s why you didn’t hear anything from me for the last couple of weeks! I’m really sorry for that, but today I would like to share a little bit of all that stuff that happend in my life in the previous weeks. So, first of all, obviously I’m back in the UK, back in London, England! :) I stayed until Thursday(23.04.) in Germany. My flight back to London was on the same day around noon and despite the fact that the flight was only one hour long, I arrived at the house of my hostfamily at 5:30 pm, just because I took the bus instead of a taxi, which normally would take 45 minutes. After arriving in the early evening I went out, because the weather was so nice. Friday was a really busy day. In the morning I went to my first College and met one of my closest friends from here. We spent a nice morning together. Around twelve I had to leave to get a rail card at London Waterloo. Saturday and Sunday I spent with three other au pairs at Liverpool. We did quiet a lot of sightseeing in this limited time so I was really tired in the evening and not really motivated to write anything down. On Monday(27.04.) I enroled myself again at my current College and payed the fee for the language course. Tuesday was a really successful day, but also a really busy one, because I managed to get my money back from the first College and I also visited two of my closest friends from here. On Wednesday I went to one of the au pairs, which were with me at Liverpool, to borrow a book for my language course from her. Last Thursday was my first day in the new language course. The other students are all nice, but of course, most of them are german again. Last week on Friday I had college in the morning again and then in the evening I met with a friend at Victoria Station to take a coach to Portsmouth. That’s why I didn’t have time to publish anything last Saturday. My friend and I had a really nice time at Portsmouth and on sunday we took the train via New Forest. We had to change two times and before we change the second time at Brockenhurst we went out off the Station into the New Forest National Park and what shall I say? In Germany I don’t live next to a big forest(like here I live in a suburb of a bigger city), but both, my friend and I realised how much we missed the nature! So we had a long walk through the New Forest and went back to the Station Brockenhurst around 3:45pm ish!;) From Brockenhurst we took the train to Lymington, which was just another 10 minutes away. We had a nice Sunday evening at Lymington and came back on Monday, the 4th of May(Bank holiday). On Tuesday I did some house work like vacuuming and emptying the dishwasher and all that kind of stuff. Wednesday I tried to bake some Cookies with a recipe by Tanya Burr(http://youtu.be/GsUzi4x9m-E), they came out really good, but maybe a little bit too huge! :D On Thursday and Friday I had again College, where we did some Tests for the upcoming exam. On Friday in the evening I went out with a couple of people, it was a nice evening, but yesterday in the morning my body showed his revenge! I felt sick, really sick. Originally my plan for yesterday was to meet the friend (who went with me to Portsmouth and Lymington) in Central london, but to be honest I’m glad that I didn’t go because it started to get worser and worser. I went really early to bed. Today in the morning I felt a little bit better. Now I’m feeling much better, but still not like normal. I don’t want to describe in detail what I had/ have, because it’s not a good topic to speak/write about, but just this much, my stomach hurt and I didn’t feel good, but it’s getting better now!;) I hope next week I can tell you more positive things that happened here! Have a nice sunday afternoon and a good week! :)

All the best, see you soon, x Julia

sunfloweriniceland digitalesleben

[travel-quotes]

People travel because it teaches them things they could learn no other way.

Lance Morrow (via travel-quotes)

So true!

[itistimetowriteablog]

Weekly Update no. 15

Monday, 20.04.2015: Hello again! I can't believe that this is my second entry in English. After I got so much feedback, I thought that it would be better to continue in English. Looking back on the last week I have to say that it was a really average week. I went to the hairdresser for example, bought new shoes and visited my aunt and my cousin together with my mum. All of that was (of course) really positive, but I had also a few negative moments in the previous week. I don't know if every au pair has this kind of moments, but I can imagine that a few have them after coming fuelly back home from their au pair job. Moments when you miss your hostchildren and London, when you miss the whole routine that you had every single day for months. I guess I feel like this at the moment, because life here (at home), of course didn't stop when I left, it continued/ went on (like the life I had in London for the last months). In a kind of way it feels like homesickness, or as if you feel strange in both cultures. I don't even know how to call this in German, but I hope you understood what I mean. It is a really sad feeling and it feels like something is missing, but you don't really know what is missing. I hope it was not too sentimental this time, but I thought I should share this with you! Let me now if you had similar moments before and how you coped with them! Have a nice evening and a good week, all the best, write to you soon, see you next week, greetings from Germany, x Julia sunfloweriniceland digitalesleben fleursetnuages decadeofdreams lucymfoster samanthasmaria

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Weekly Update no. 13 & 14

Tuesday, 14.04.2015: Hello! First of all sorry for not writing anything in the last two weeks. After my last blog entry I thought about writing my blog in English, because not all of my readers(tumblr calls them follower, but readers sounds better to me) are from Germany and speak German. So that's why I'm writing in English right now. This is my first entry in English and of course I'm not a native speaker, but I try my best to write as good as I can in English. Today I would like to share with you what I did in the last two weeks. As all of you (who understand German) know I flu two weeks ago (on a sunday) for a holiday back to Germany. I can't believe that two weeks are already over. After I stood up on this sunday at 3:30 am, because my flight to Germany was at 7:40 am, I took a shower and had just a small breakfast. Then I got ready for the flight. At 5:45 am a Taxi picked me up to take me to the airport. After the big airplane crash of germanwings I was of course a little bit worried about my flight, but on the other hand the flight is only 55 Minutes long and I was also excited to go home for two weeks. All in all the last two weeks were really good. On the first monday I met a friend and we had lunch together. Thursday was a little bit busy, I had an appointment at the dentist in the morning and at 2 pm at the Bank Office. At 4 pm another good friend came to our house and we had a nice tea time together. My friday was compared with the thursday really lazy. I just sorted out a few of my cloth. For saturnday we planed to go to Frankfurt am Main, which is also called 'Mainhattan', because Frankfurt has also a lot of skyscrapers similar to Manhattan. After a rainy, but nice day in the city we drove to my grandparents. On the second monday I met another good friend. On thursday I met one of my two best friends. We had a nice walk through the nature and also a good talk about what happend the last months. Friday was also nice, I met with my other best friend and we visited my old dance group. They were all really surprised to see me, because nobody knew before that I would come to visit them. After tidying up my room on saturnday morning I went with my brother to the city centre of my home city. I hope it was a little bit interesting for you? Please leave me a feedback! Shall I write more entries in English? What do you think about it? Have a nice afternoon and a good week, write to you soon, see you next week, greetings from Germany, all the best, x Julia

[itistimetowriteablog]

Weekly Update no. 12

Samstag, 28.03.2015: Hallo ihr Lieben! Heute schon mein 20.Eintrag auf diesem Blog! :O :D Morgen geht's nach Deutschland, ich kann's irgendwie immer noch nicht glauben! Ja, zwei Wochen in Deutschland und ich bin schon wieder voll verplant. :D Die letzten Sachen werden heute eingepackt und dann heißt es morgen um 4:00 Uhr aufstehen, durch die Zeitumstellung verliere ich dann nicht nur eine, sondern gleich zwei Stunden des Sonntags! Wieso musste ich ausgerechnet an dem Tag fliegen, an dem die Zeit umgestellt wird? Da ich wie gesagt schon einiges geplant habe, möchte ich jetzt nicht versprechen, dass ich mehr oder weniger als sonst schreiben werde! Allgemein war die letzte Woche okay. Da der Sprachkurs "nur" zehn Wochen ging, hatte ich in der letzen Woche ein wenig mehr Zeit, weil der Sprachkurs seit dem 20.03.2015 vorbei ist. Ich möchte dann aber wenn ich wieder da bin, mit dem Sprachkurs weiter machen!;) Sonst gibt's eigentlich nicht so viel interessantes zu berichten. Wie fandet ihr meine englische Filmreview? Weitere Einträge in English? ;) Ich überlege noch immer den 50 facts about London und/oder den British Tag(bin ja keine Britin, daher weiß ich nicht, ob ich den Tag machen soll, aber ich trinke z.B. auch sehr viel Tee) oder andere Tags auf english zu beantworten! Was würde euch denn so interessieren? Bitte lasst mir mal ein Feedback da! Auf Grund der Tatsache, dass einige Leser(tumblr nennt sie follower, ich finde Leser aber irgendwie schöner) meines Blogs nicht aus Deutschland kommen, dachte ich mir, wäre englisch vielleicht für alle besser! Was meint ihr? Oder ab und zu mal english?;) Freue mich schon sehr auf Family and Friends! Bis bald, ganz liebe Grüße aus London, x Julia

[itistimetowriteablog]

Review of the film 'Interstellar'

Today I would like to share my review of the film ‘Interstellar’ with you. I had to write a film review for my language class and so I wrote this one. I hope you like it! ;) Please tell me what you think about it! Thank you! :)

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Review of ‘Interstellar’ by Julia ______________________________________________________

The film I would like to review is ‘Interstellar’.

Interstellar written and directed by Christopher Nolan is set in the near future, where crop blight has caused civilization to regress into a failing agrarian society. It’s about an ex-engineer and ex-pilot called Cooper, who discover by accident a secret NASA base with his daughter. Then he has to help a team of explorers to find a new planet to which all people on earth can move. The main theme of the film is the dilemma of Cooper, who has to decide if he wants to save all People on earth or if he can see his family again.

I would recommend this film to anyone who likes long and thought-provoking films, because the film is 169 minutes long and gives you a lot of aspects to think about. People who like Inception, another film by Christopher Nolan will definitely like this film. The film lifts you out of your everyday life into a futuristic world which is on one hand not always logical, but on the other not that different from our actual situation. ______________________________________________________

This was my review of ‘Interstellar’. I hope you liked it?! ;) Please let me know if you’re interested in more blog entries in english! Cheers! x Julia

Lots of greetings to: digitalesleben decadeofdreams sunfloweriniceland fleursetnuages samanthasmaria nessieinengland

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Weekly Update 10 & 11 - heute mal ein bisschen nachdenklich! ;)

Sonntag, 22.03.2015:

Hallo ihr Lieben! Ja, ich weiß, ich hatte versprochen ab sofort regelmäßig(also jeden Samstag), zu schreiben! Es tut mir sehr leid, aber wie ihr ja alle mitbekommen habt, hatte ich vorletzten Freitag mein letztes Examen und war dem entsprechend am Wochenende erst mal erleichtert alles hinter mir zu haben, aber auch extrem müde! Ich konnte mich Samstag nachdem ich einen mega schönen Tag in London verbracht hatte, einfach überhaupt nicht mehr abends dazu motivieren noch irgendetwas zu schreiben.

Allgemein ist das Leben als Au pair doch immer wieder sehr persönlich, damit meine ich natürlich könnte ich hier ganz viel dazu schreiben, was ich alles so in der Familie erlebe, aber es ist irgendwie immer noch das freie, für alle zugängliche Internet mit dem ich meine Erfahrungen teile und daher bin/war ich an einem Punkt angelangt, wo ich dachte, wie kann ich weiter schreiben, ohne das es zu persönlich wird, aber weiterhin interessant bleibt? Eine genaue Antwort habe ich noch immer nicht gefunden! Einfach auch weil ich nicht so genau weiß, ob alles hier so interessant ist, als das ich etwas dazu schreiben sollte! ;)

Was ich aber heute mit euch teilen möchte sind die Themen Heimweh, Ängste und Befürchtungen, die man als Au pair so haben kann. Wir gehen ja alle anders mit diesen Themen um und ich möchte überhaupt nicht andeuten, dass ich mich zur Zeit genau so fühle, denn ich fühle mich noch immer wohl hier! Ich möchte einfach nur ein wenig die Gefühle wiedergeben, die ich in den letzten Monaten hatte bzw. einige davon habe ich ab und zu noch. Ein großer Punkt ist das Thema Heimweh! Jeder geht ja mit dem Thema anders um. Mir ging es Wochen lang gut und es gab keine Anzeichen für Heimweh, am Donnerstag habe ich dann mit meiner Ma telefoniert und plötzlich liefen einfach die Tränen. Vielleicht liegt es auch daran, dass ich langsam realisiere, das ich in ca. einer Woche nach Hause fliege und dann aber nicht da bleibe, sondern nach kurzer Zeit wieder zurück nach London fliegen werde.

Was ich aus den letzten Monaten gelernt habe ist, dass es gerade am Anfang verdammt schwer als Au pair sein kann, weil man in einem fremden Land ist und einer evtl. fremden Kultur und einem einfach vieles fremd ist. Man kennt außer der Gastfamilie eigentlich niemanden und auch die Beziehung zu ihnen muss man erstmal aufbauen.

Ich habe hier ein paar wirklich gute Freunde gefunden, aber da wir uns einfach noch nicht so lange kennen, kann ich die Beziehung zu ihnen natürlich nicht mit der zu meinen engsten Freunden aus Deutschland vergleichen!

Keine Ahnung, ob es allen Au pairs so geht, aber ich habe immer noch das Gefühl, als ob ich bestimmte Erwartungen nicht erfüllen könnte(obwohl das überhaupt nicht der Fall ist, meine Gastfamilie ist sehr zufrieden mit mir), es ist einfach diese gewisse Verantwortung, die man hat und das “Abschalten/ Entspannen” nach einem “Arbeitstag”, was mir nicht immer leicht fällt. Ich weiß nicht, ob es vielen anderen Au pairs auch so oder ähnlich ergeht, aber ich dachte mir, dass ich heute einfach mal meine Gedanken mit euch teilen möchte! Damit kommen wir eigentlich auch wieder zu dem ersten Punkt zurück, den ich angesprochen habe! Das Leben/ die Arbeit als Au pair ist sehr persönlich, damit meine ich, dass man mit der Familie ja unter einem Dach wohnt und anders als bei einem “normalen” Job nicht so einfach jeden Tag abends aufhört zu arbeiten und abschalten kann.

Allgemein bin ich ein Mensch, der oft viel zu viel über alles nachdenkt, daher weiß ich nicht, ob es anderen Au pairs ähnlich ergeht, aber es wäre sehr interessant zu den angesprochenen Themen mal Feedback zu erhalten!

Heute habe ich also mal ein bisschen meine Gedanken und Gefühle mit euch geteilt, ich hoffe ihr schreibt mir mal, wie’s euch zur Zeit so geht?! Hoffentlich war es nicht zu sentimental, sondern auch ein wenig interessant?

Nächstes mal dann hoffentlich endlich wieder an einem Samstag und unter anderem mit einem Bericht über das Musical Mathilda, in dem ich gestern war!

Ich genieße jetzt noch die letzten Sonnenstrahlen und wünsche euch noch einen schönen Sonntagnachmittag! :) Bis spätestens nächsten Samstag! ;)

Ganz liebe Grüße, x Julia

P.s.: Evtl. kommt dann heute(sonst halt morgen) noch die schon lange versprochene Review zu ‘Interstellar’!