So here I am, actually writing my first entry in my Wales diary.
There's only one week left to go, my appartment needs thorough cleaning and tidying and I'm still looking up words in English. I'm curious to see how I will cope having to speak English hopefully non-stop for the first time in my life! I suppose I'll enjoy it so much I won't want to go back to Germany in the end.
Well, but that's getting ahead of myself. I'll wait and see in time!
The journey starts on April 19. I'll fly to Manchester where I will hopefully meet up with a very nice girl I met on CouchSurfing with whom I'll spend the first day and who will show me around.
On Sunday, I'll catch a train to a small town near Wrexham where I will participate in a science project in a hospital which is doing researches on ankle prosthesis. I don't know what will happen for the next 4 weeks to follow as this will most probably depend on my project's progress, but my plan is to get to know the people and the surroundings on weekdays, go on some trips on the weekends and maybe even have the fourth week off to seek even deeper knowledge and pleasure.
Wish me fun and luck!
About Me
- Dom
- German guy, French origin, at home in the UK. Explorer of my fate & proud of my tremendously romantic outlook on life. Yes, I seem calm, but my mind's a disco.
1 comment:
Dear Blogging Brother:
Congratulations! On going to Wales and on your blog - we are all looking forward to reading it! Here are my personal rules for blogging in and about a foreign country:
1. What do I miss? (In Germany: Reese's Peanut Butter cups. Good Mexican food. Movies in English. A sense of humor. People saying hello to you on the street. Li Hing Mui.)
2. What do these people do that I see seldom at home? (In Germany: They're always shaking each other's hands. They're always complaining. They even compete with each other to complain. They are always wrapped up in discussion. They treat politics like a hobby.)
3. What do these people think about, talk about and react to my people? (In Germany: Germans look at America like a lunatic asylum and area always finding ways to confirm their clichés.)
4. What did I expect and how are things different?
5. How do I feel? Happy? Sad? Lonely? Free? Threatened? (In Istanbul I was overcome by a feeling of lawlessness and chaos that I had never felt before – it felt as though I could do anything – get into a fight with some guy on the street and not get into trouble. I found it easy to argue with taxi drivers and flirt with women. I felt that way a little bit when I first came to Berlin from Munich, too. I felt free and welcome. On the other hand, when I came to Berlin I also felt much more threatened in the subway – it was darker and less predictable than in Munich, and the people were more diversified and that is threatening at first, too.) The education of the soul is one of the greatest subjects of writing.
6. Photograph everything. Throw away all photos that look like they could be from a tourist brochure and post the others.
7. Whatever you see, ask yourself if there is something different or strange about it – any little thing that might not even appear strange at first.
8. Go places you don’t usually go, see things you don’t usually see, talk to people in bars.
9. Find a bar that stays open late and fills up (on the weekends at least) with lots of young, single men and women, with a good mix, especially with students, but not too cool, and hang out in it 3 nights a week until closing time until you start meeting people there – even if you are alone all the time and embarrassed of being alone and you have to fight with yourself not to go home and do something more interesting like surf the Internet. In Berlin it took me half a year of this – or was it more? – before I got up the guts to talk to people and people talked to me. (You don’t have so much time, but still…) Smartest thing I ever did.
10. If you post two stories one after the other about your domestic or work situation or if you don't post anything for five days, force yourself to go out and do something unusual the very next day.
Your friend, Eric
Post a Comment