My Year Abroad

As exam time is coming to a close and all my friends start to trickle home from their various year abroad destinations, I figured it was about time I write something about my experiences.

It’s been a mad one, in short. I've already written a fair amount about my time in Mexico, about the violent love of my friends accompanied by bullets fired from police weapons and wealth of culture juxtaposed with the poverty of compassion from the hearts of those who hold the power. I learned about unyielding strength in times of hardship and laughter in the face of pessimism. Although I was unwell for a large amount of my stay, there is not one ounce of me that regrets going. My heart was broken in more ways than one, sleepless nights were abundant and tears shed uncountable, but oh lord, I am so much stronger for it. It was chaotic and challenging and magical in all the right ways.

Berlin, however, was short and not-so-sweet. Perhaps it was because I finally had a minute to breathe after all the crazy. Perhaps it was boredom. I really can’t decide. I started off well-ish, attending all my classes which was a habit I had lost after being removed from studies UNAM. I'm not sure if I was unwilling, or just simply unable to connect with others, so I’ll settle for somewhere in the middle. I spent most of my time reflecting on and processing what had happened to me, muddling my words when talking to new faces and feeling genuinely disconnected from most conversations. I suppose my life was just in a very uncertain place.

Funky Berlin street art

The culture shock was overwhelming. It’s like what people have often said to me about moving to London, that the shock isn't moving to the city, but moving back to your small, quiet town. I was in a similar sort of situation. I did a bit of exploring but felt so bewildered by the change in scenery to enjoy it much. I kept on confusing my German with my Spanish, my Spanish with my English. My accent in German was just weird and I had forgotten even the most simple sentence structures. The sheer waste of consumerism and pettiness of daily worries regularly brought me close to tears, and I longed to be anywhere else. Not to mention, people in Berlin are just plain rude.

The Backhaus TEAM

I can’t say it was all bad. Over time I started to adjust a little more, and though I never braved Berlin’s (in)famous night life, I did manage to enjoy some other Berlin-esk fun. My house mates were great and we had a day out urban exploring in an old spy base which has now been converted into an arts space. I also LOVE Mauerpark, with its live music, live haircuts and live, well, “music” with Bear Pit karaoke where tourists gather every Sunday to embarrass themselves. The visits I had from two of my favourites from Mexico and my family were absolutely fab as well, and my friends from KCL really did pull me through. Plus the food is cheap and the beer is cheaper, and you always feel safe walking alone at night. I was simply in the wrong frame of mind to enjoy it like I could have done.

My future Mexican hubby and I (we're marrying for visa purposes) losing our Pride virginity together.

Live music at Mauerpark

I’d like to go back sometime and do it again, but for me I think Berlin will always be a better holiday destination than home. I did get into Yoga while I was out there, which is one silver lining, and I stayed long enough to hopefully achieve enough credits to avoid any resits in my final year. Plus my new bestie lives out there too (if she ever returns from Mexico), so it’d be hard to avoid it forever.

We'd got a load of money out to pay some bills and felt rich for about five minutes, so we made it rain money but then lost loads and had to crawl around on the floor to find it...

I suppose Berlin taught me that sometimes, it’s OK to stop. You can push yourself too hard and your mind needs time to process things that happen to you. With hindsight, I probably wasn't well enough to go away at all, but in no way to a regret my decision to do so. It’s just made me realise that although moving to a new country may seem like a fun adventure, and in most respects it is, it’s also important never to forget the pressure it can have on your mental well-being. You can take things too quickly and everyone needs time to adjust.

I think the older I get, the more I realise the value of time at home, in familiarity and in those who have known you for years. It’s a place where you don’t have to be ‘on’ all the time, where you can relax and just be yourself without having to worry about making new friends or impressing anybody. In my mind I now have three ‘homes’: Preston, London and Mexico City, though Preston will always be closest to my heart. It’s funny how going away for thirteen months can make you realise the value of staying put. Roll on a summer filled with old friends, Oxfam and English food. I think I've just about earned it.

Lunch in Poland

On Wednesday afternoon I had some free time, so I decided to do something novel and head to Poland for lunch. The border is just an hour and a bit away from Berlin Hauptbahnhof, just take the train to Frankfurt Oder and walk across the bridge.

The idea initially occurred to Greg and I, because of our semester ticket of free travel within the Berlin-Brandenburg area. Unfortunately, I actually found out that our ticket doesn't go quite as far as the border (oopsy), but as I was already on my way back by the time the ticket lady caught me out, I was let off with a warning. Either way our semester tickets do go pretty far, so I think I'll be using it for further exploring on my Wednesday afternoons.

Edgy-look-I-was-in-Poland pic.

Germany on the left, Poland on the right.

The two towns are just divided by a little bridge over a river, with no passport control (good old European open borders) and it takes no more than five minutes to amble across. The majority of my afternoon was comprised of wandering along the river bank on the Polish side, which was a lovely, peaceful change from the madness of the big cities that I have grown accustomed to. The town itself, Slubice (anyone able to tell me how you how that's pronounced??) is tiny, and mainly just made up of cheap tobacco shops, hairdressers and tasty food.

The strangest thing I found is that although these towns are sooooo close together, and it was clear that people cross from one to the other on a regular basis, hardly anyone on either side speaks the other's language. Maybe that's something totally normal for border towns, but I just always assumed that if you lived so close by, there would either be a stark sense of bilingual-ness or some weird mismatch of the two being spoken - you know, like Spanglish but in this sense... Deutski. I quite like that word. 

So most of the time I was stumbling through awkward conversations in broken German (regardless of which side I was on to be honest, my German skills can hardly be blamed on the locals) in order to buy cigarettes for a friend and a yummmmmmy lunch of Polish goulash and potatoes.

I know goulash isn't really Polish, but I just couldn't resist.

Loving my alcohol-free Polish beer and rocking the forehead creases.

I think I'm getting old.

My trip was a short one, as I said literally just for lunch, because I had to get back to Berlin for a yoga class that I was yet to discover, would nearly kill me. My fitness/bendy levels just aren't what they used to be. However I did get to potter through Frankfurt Oder a little on my way back, which was typical small-towny with pretty churches and a square with a fountain. I quite liked the atmosphere there actually, though I think I'm just tending towards peace-and-quiet a lot more now after my year of madness.

I liked this weird fountain a lot.

That evening I also moved into MY NEW HOUSE (I'm very excited about this) which is an old hostel converted into a WG of 28 people. Yes, you read that correctly t w e n t y - e i g h t people. I thought that it would be like another adventure in itself. It really is a bit like living in a cross between student accommodation and a hostel; I'm in a four person dorm, there's shared showers, a huge kitchen and a cleaning rota. I haven't met many people yet because it's been a pretty hectic few days plus I'm going home this weekend (WOOOO) for my sister Siobhan's hen do :D So I'll start my mingling and stuff next week, when I can really sit down and get to know people.

Today I think I'm heading to the park for some beers and *fingers crossed * sunshine before catching my flight at 9.30 tonight. Now it's probably time I got out of bed and packed...

Kill Your Darlings!

Last Sunday I actually managed to get out for my first bit of exploring since I arrived in the city nearly three weeks ago. As my friends and I have already done most of the usual touristy things, we wanted to do something a little more 'off the beaten track', so we decided to follow my 'Franzi Guide to Berlin' which my awesome bestie, who is originally from Berlin, made me as a leaving present from Mexico.

First stop was visiting the theatre she used to work at called Volksbühne and buying a mystery ticket to a show so I could spy on all her friends who work there. I chose a show called 'Kill Your Darlings! Streets Of Berladelphia', mainly because of the catchy title and the fact that it was only an hour and a half long. It's a pretty alternative venue, where they give out free matchboxes with slogans like 'Still Alive' and 'Fuck Off' branded across the front in shiny red typeface, and all their flyers are A5 stickers of the play titles with descriptions on the back. As a student willing to sit anywhere, my ticket cost just 6€, which I later learned was an absolute bargain.

I took myself on a solo date night to see it on Wednesday, having no idea what I was letting myself in for. In short, it was a monologue critique of life, love, capitalism, communism and the self (or at least that's what I got from it, but I could be entirely wrong), with the main actor gallavanting around in nothing more that rainbow glitter leggings, surrounded by a gymnastics troop. There's singing and audience participation and a very bizarre use of stage props, so it ticked all the boxes for me. I'm not completely fluent in German, so unfortunately I missed some of the key lines and jokes, but nonetheless I had an amazing time. Nothing like what I expected, I'll definitely be going back there soon.

After buying my ticket, we hopped back on the metro/underground/tube/whatever-it's-called-here to Eberswalder Straße in search for the promise of 'the best pizza place! supercheap and open until 4am'. Although it wasn't quite 4am, the promise of the best-super-cheap pizza was definitely appealing to four hungry students. To eat out in London on a regular basis as a student, you either need to have super rich parents or be willing to spare a kidney to the black market. Berlin, however, is no where near as pricey. An ENTIRE pizza costs just 3.90€ (2.90€ if you just got a plain margarita) and it was delicious too. Honestly, I have never in my life been so happy to buy a pizza. So if your looking for a cheap eat near Mauerpark, Ebenswalder Straße next to the Sparkasse is where it's at.

We then headed off to the famous Mauerpark, beers in hand, to check out what was left of the flee market (it was getting kind of late by this point) and enjoy the various artists who were dotted around, whilst lounging around in the rare North European sunshine. 

Open-air karaoke which basically consisted of lots of tourists embarrassing themselves in front of a large audience. Great fun to watch though.

These guys were great! Live drum set that you couldn't not dance to. Serious festival vibes.

By the time we ended up leaving the park, the air was getting nippy and the sun had began to sink behind the high-rise flats. Still stuffed from our super tasty pizzas and one too many beers, we tottered back to the metro, sleepy eyed and satisfied with the days adventures.

Aside from going to see the show on Wednesday, my week consisted of nothing more than lots of going to school and getting lost. Nothing out of the ordinary really. I'm still taking it slow at the moment, because the culture shock between here and Mexico has been a bit overwhelming. So more day exploring and a mystery concert tonight with Greg (Matthew E. White anyone?) should hopefully make for another chilled out weekend.

A building I came across that is on ALL the postcards, when I got lost looking for Volksbühne. The text reads 'Human will can move everything. This house used to be in another country'.

I love getting lost.

First Weeks in Berlin

I have now been in Berlin for just over two weeks for my second study abroad placement. I'm still homeless and living between a friend's couch and a hostel, still can't for the life of me remember how to speak German and am lamenting the fact that as I am no longer able to drink alcohol, I can't taste the beauty that is German beer. Aside from the slight downsides and the fact that an old lady confronted me in the street the other day calling me 'common' because I'm English, I have been able to have at least a little bit of fun, plus I suppose alcohol-free beer isn't allllllll that bad.

On my first night in the city my lovely friend Imogen came to meet me for a pizza and a beer in Friedrichsschain. It was an absolute lifesaver because after a 12 hour flight followed by a quick 24 hour pit stop in London, which was crazy-busy full of catching up with and seeing friends, I was pretty exhausted and disorientated. Not to mention the jet lag which hit me harder than it ever has done before! Even without alcohol, my first German beer was glorious and after almost a year of sleeping on a mattress on the floor, my comfy hostel bed was pretty darn luxurious. I'm staying in a hostel called Plus Hostel Berlin, which I would highly recommend - it's cheap, well located AND it even has a pool!

As I have been to Berlin before (see posts Berlin Meat Sweats and East Side Gallery), I've already done a lot of the main tourist sights. However, when I came last year I fell down some stairs in a club and messed up my ankle (I can thank my old friend Paul for that one), so couldn't walk very far on the last day and missed a couple of key things.

EMILY AND GREG WERE REUNITED (he's doing his study abroad here!) at Checkpoint Charlie, which I'm sorry to say was kind of cool but a little underwhelming... I have, however, heard good things about the museum which I am yet to venture into, so I'll update on that when I finally get around to it.

I finally saw some real life Trabis which were THE car of East Germany before the reunification (I say THE car but in fact it was THE only car you could have... communism and all that) Anyway, I think they're cute but we couldn't go into the museum because Greg is a boring sod and wanted a beer, plus I'm super poor right now, so I probably couldn't have afforded it anyways. Also, I should probably note that they weren't this colour in the DDR...

We also made it to Potsdamer Platz, which is famous for some reason that I can't remember because I am an awful German student, so I have been super kind and linked Wikipedia for you, in case you are interested. The area isn't particularly special; lots of tall office buildings makes it feel a bit like the City of London but I took a photo nonetheless because it makes a good touristy Instagram shot.

I was also lucky enough to receive a visit from my mum and step-dad on my first weekend here (which is another reason why I haven't starved yet. Did I mention how poor I am?) Neither of them have ever visited the city, so we tried to fit in as much sight seeing as we could into two days, wandering from Alexanderplatz, past Humboldt, down Unter den Linden to the Brandenburger Tor, then to the Jewish Memorial and the Reichstag. We also managed to fit in another visit round to Checkpoint Charlie and Potsdamer Platz, so most of the big sights in one day IS possible, it's just a fair bit of walking.

The Jewish Memorial

One of many beer stops a long the way!

Some Berlin graffiti which I love and is everywhere. Expect more pictures like this in future posts.

On the last night they took me out for a traditional German meal of dumplings and sauerkraut and goulash (I know goulash is Hungarian but it was in a traditional German restaurant so it's nearly legit)

Unfortunately because of my pobreza and the fact that I'm not very well at the moment, I haven't been able to go out at all yet. Mostly I've just been going to University, which so far I have thoroughly enjoyed, and have been meeting up with old King's friends. Seeing my pals has probably been the highlight of the move so far; the stories of the past year's adventures in various parts of the world and the old 'in' jokes have made me feel a lot more at ease in a strange and new place.

So here's to another week of 'can you repeat that please?' and insults from random strangers on my lack of class. I move back to the hostel tomorrow for eleven days, before a weekend at home for my beautiful sister Siobhan's hen do (SO EXCITED!!), and fingers crossed I will return to my own place.

Mexico City and Berlin

I think it's about time I explained to you lovely people what's going on with my little countdown timer at the side of the screen. I may or may not (I genuinely can't remember) have mentioned that I study languages at university, German and Spanish to be precise, and due to this I am required to go abroad for my third year of study, before returning back to London to finish my degree. I am currently in the midst of completing my second year exams, meaning that my year abroad is fast approaching. I'll be spending my first term at UNAM in Mexico City and my second term at the Humboldt in Berlin, which is all very exciting.

However being the keen bean traveller that I am I don't fancy wasting any time of this almost entirely university funded year away, so I've booked a flight to Las Vegas on the 25th May (two days after my final exam) along with my lovely friend Greg. We decided on Vegas since it's much cheaper to fly there than most places in Central America, so the plan is to cover some of the major South West tourist sights and cities in the USA - Las Vegas, San Francisco, Los Angeles - before heading down into Mexico, perhaps looping through Guatemala and Belize before ending up in Cancún where Greg is due to fly home from. After that I haven't really planned the details but I have a few friends called Edgar and Adriana who live in Mexico City and San Cristobal, respectively, who I will definitely be popping in to see before term starts in early August.

That awkward moment when you both buy the same travel guide, which doesn't contain any information about the entire north of Mexico. Skills.

Here's a rough plan of the route we're thinking of taking (click on it to enlarge!)

That's about all I've got semi-set in stone for now, but I do have two friends studying their first terms in Martinique, which is a Caribbean Island and another in Rio, Brazil so we're intending on doing some visits and travelling once our terms finish in December. Then we're all moving to Berlin to join up with some of our other course mates and I'm considering flying out to Estonia and travelling down from there before my term starts in late March/early April... We'll see anyway!

*For those with USA travel know-how*

Greg and I would really appreciate any tips any of you might have for cheap ways of getting around in the US. We're on a pretty tight budget and it turns out that because of my age car hire is just out of the question. We're going to be using Greyhound and Megabus for the long stints, but we'd love to be able to visit either Death Valley or the Grand Canyon (or any other major outdoorsy spots) without having to pay extortionate day-trip fees. So any pointers on car shares, cheap car hire sites or even cheaper bus companies would be much appreciated! Also cheap campsites would be nice too :)

East Side Gallery

Final instalment of the KCL German Soc trip EXTRAVAGANZA. And never has the phrase 'the morning after the night before' ever been such an understatement (honestly, it's nearly two months later and I'm still waiting for the hangover to end).

Greg looks here how we all felt on that Sunday morning.

Unfortunately I think my ankle came off the worst that night. I'm not quite sure what happened, but I know it involved me and some stairs in a club at silly o'clock in the morning. The sad thing is, I doubt there is much more to the story than that to make me sound even the least bit graceful - I was wearing Doc Martens and everything.

Since everyone was pretty knackered we decided to take it easy for the day and head out for a nice wander/hobble along the East Side Gallery, a long stretch of the old Berlin Wall which has been turned into an international memorial for freedom. Artists from all over the world have been invited to the paint the wall, resulting in some incredibly moving reflections. Once a hideous creation which used to divide two nations, it has become a place of powerful beauty.

'The Kiss of Death' by Dmitri Vurbel, the famous Brezhnev and Honecker kiss painting.

The lovely Mathilde and Hannah doing their tourist thang.

As a massive hippy I just love this.

Trying our best to look alive for the group pic.

After spending sometime wandering along the gallery, we decided to all retreat to our natural habitat i.e. McDonald's, in a feeble attempt to eat away our exhaustion. I think it's safe to say that by this point in the trip we were truly partied- and touristed-out from the sheer amount we'd managed to pack into just five days of travel. Some of the guys then headed off to see Check Point Charlie as their last stop of the trip, but unfortunately I was just in too much pain to walk any further, so Greg and I headed back to the hostel to recuperate a little before rounding up the troops. 

Action shot of our power nap in Maccy D's.

That evening we had our final meal all together before setting out on our final venture which would be staying the night on the airport floor. I actually didn't mind it, being so exhausted I pretty much passed out straight away, plus after South America I'm pretty much used to sleeping anywhere.

Hannah loving life on her make-shift airport bed.

The trip ended in a similar vein to how it began. We were up super early and slowly migrated as a team towards the terminal. In true German fashion, Stefan even had his final beer of the trip whilst we were waiting for boarding to start (at 5am...)

The man, the myth, the legend.

Our final camp site outside Burger King, looking as glamorous as always.

It's been a while since the trip came to an end, but I think I speak for everyone when I say it really was super fun! It was so lovely for me to get a chance to really get to know some more of the guys in the German department, both in my year and the year below, and not only that, we managed the entire thing without anything going wrong! Which really, is quite impressive for a group of late teen - early twenty something year olds.

Berlin Meat Sweats

It would appear that February is just not a good month for me, writing-wise. However never fear, as I am back with a vengeance to continue telling you about my recent adventures in Berlin!

Now where was I...

Ah yes, we arrived in Berlin, were really sleepy and most of us crashed pretty early on the first night. So we had some serious making up to do the next day, starting with the classic trip to Alexanderplatz and of course the compulsory tourist picture in front of the World Clock. We also treated ourselves to our second Bratwurst of the trip for breakfast. I seriously cannot get enough of that stuff.

After we'd finished munching we headed of in the vague direction of all the touristy stuff. We did the classic trying to get a picture in front of the Berlin TV Tower and failing because it's pretty impossible to fit into the picture frame whilst standing on the ground, before wandering down 'Unter der Linden'.

On our way down we came across Humboldt University, the place where a lot of my course mates will be spending their year abroad. Outside there was a DDR (German Democratic Republic) thrift-stall-type-thing, laden with all sorts of old medals, comic books and school certificates from the former state. As massive German nerds, we of course had a bit of a nosey. There's something strangely enchanting about seeing the propaganda first hand. It's like meeting a person for the first time after hearing their entire life story; you know everything about them, yet they still don't quite seem real until you actually see them in the flesh. Having a small part of the DDR's history materialise in front of me really did, in the least cliché way possible, bring history to life in a way I hadn't really experienced before. I suppose it was different to a museum, since it was so tangible and almost day-to-day, not having been glorified by some fancy museum stand with a placard attempting to minimise the reason for it's existence into just a few small sentences. You could touch, hold and analyse to your hearts desire, imagining your own back story to the particular old photograph and its previous owner. History really is quite magical.

En route to the Reichstag we saw lots of other cool things...

We met Lenin himself inside a museum that was too expensive to pay for so we just took seflies and ran.

The be-a-utiful Catholic Cathedral

 The Branderburg Gate, of course, with a slightly intimidating group of Hungarians protesting something-or-other outside if it

And then came the platter, which has a story all to itself. Unfortunately this may of been a 'had to be there' moment, however I haven't cried so hard from laughter probably ever as I did at this, so I can't possibly miss it out. The story goes that whilst Greg, Imogen and I had fallen behind for some reason, the others headed off to find a restaurant for a brief chill with a beer and a bit of food. Once we'd arrived and ordered our steins of the local brew, Jess, Anna and Rhia eagerly awaited their sharing platter at just €20.99 between the three of them. Or so they thought. *Dramatic pause* DUN DUN DUUUUUUN.

Jess suddenly had a harrowing thought that perhaps they'd read the menu wrong and hurried to double check. To her absolute horror, it turned out the cost was actually €20.99 per person. With a minimum of four people. Bringing the total cost of the meal up to €83.96. Even worse was that it was way too late to cancel it and we had no way to run as three of us had ordered a litre of beer each (never try downing a litre of beer kids, believe me, it's not as fun as it sounds). So we waited with baited breath for the monstrosity containing: a shoulder of pork wrapped in bacon, a whole roast chicken, sausages, slices of leberkäse, a gammon steak, a fried egg, a large portion of chips and a large side salad, to arrive.

As I couldn't afford to pay a portion of the bill, watching three people eating that incredible plate of food without being able to dig in myself was a particularly painful and will-power challenging experience. They had a pretty good go at it though! Even if we couldn't get away with playing the 'silly foreigner' card (which, for once, was genuinely the truth) and had to pay the entire bill.

Once we'd managed to successfully execute our Indiana Jones-style escape from the evil platter wielding restaurant from hell, we headed off slightly more intoxicated than planned to visit the Reichstag, outside of which we decided to take the most attractive blind selfie* known to man. As I've been before I spent most of my find taking silly pictures outside the various fancy buildings in the area and causing general mischief. 

*Definition of a blind selfie: basically a selfie the old fashioned way. hold the camera up without flipping the lens and snap. For the best results, don't plan the position of the camera, bringing it up to about the right position and pull a silly face. Voilà, pure perfection.

Still not ready to throw out touristy caps away for the day, we went in search of the Holocaust memorial and Potsdamer Platz. As with my visit to Auschwitz, I think it would be better if I were to write a separate piece on the memorial, rather than including it amongst all our tom foolery. However Potsdamer Platz was really cool and we'd been lucky enough to run into another group of the girls who were on the trip with us to all get a lovely picture together.

We eventually made it back to the hostel after our insanely busy day to get ready to go out and experience some of Berlin's (in)famous night life. I was also lucky enough to meet up with an old friend who I met on the first ever exchange I did in high school at just 14 years old! 

Me and Paul, old friends reunited!

I won't go into too much detail of our antics but I think Berlin lived up to our expectations on the night-life front, with none of us returning home much before 5am, covered in marker pens and each with a different story to tell.

I'm sorry this post turned out so much longer than I expected, we really did get a lot done in one day! I'll try and write about our final day as soon as possible :)

Crocs with Socks

After an early night on Wednesday, we headed out again to explore Hamburg a little more, and of course an integral part of any trip to Germany is the compulsory visit to a Croc shop. Like the true fashionistas we are, we each tried them on whilst showing off our socks and surprisingly the lady in the shop was totally cool with it... You just gotta love Germans.

I also had my first Bratwurst of the trip... 

The rest of the morning consisted of arty picture taking, book shopping and ice cream. I even managed to show off my German skills by asking a man to take a picture of us all. Except I accidentally asked him to send me a picture, rather than take one. In front of his wife and three kids...

Later on Stefan, Elle and I headed out to the harbour (my fourth trip to Hamburg and the first time I've actually visited it!) to meet some of the other guys. I have to say, although I do understand why the city is famous for the harbour as it is pretty grand and vast, it wasn't all that exciting to look at for someone who isn't really interested in cargo ships. But at least I can say I've been there now! Whilst some of the guys went on a boat tour, the rest of us decided to try out another local brewery called Block Brau and begin preparing ourselves for the pub crawl later on.

After a sobering walk home and the first of a few two many McDonald's visits of the holiday, we stocked up on some cheap beer at the local Penny store to pre-drink before heading on a bar crawl of the red light district. I haven't been on many bar crawls, usually dubbing them as 'tourist traps', but seeing as none of us had any idea where to go and it was only 12 euros, we thought we'd give it a shot. It turned out to be a lot of fun, we got into five bars for free and free shots in each one, all of the bars proving pretty decent and cheap - perfect on a student budget! It was also a great way to meet other travelers as you get to chat to other guys who are on the crawl and we even met one guy who is a second year maths student at our uni! Small world eh?

We got in rather late but somehow managed to get up on time for breakfast, check out and our bus to Berlin. I like to think I timed it all pretty well, as it meant we could all catch up on sleep on the bus rather than wasting any of our time during the day (I got the skillz).