So today is Friday, I arrived in on Monday, that's 5 days. In that time I'm pretty sure I've filled out a dozen forms, written my address at least once on each of them (the current record is 3 seperate entries) and signed my life away more times that I care to think about.
Don't worry, this isn't going to turn into an anti beauracracy rant - in fact you could consider it the opposite. It is in fact going to be "thank goodness for the EU". That's becuase most of my friends here are from outside the EU and thus need to do about double the paperwork and a special bank account for wich the details need to go to the immigration ministry. So thanks to the EU not only am I annoying the Daily Mail (which can only be a good thing) I also have a couple more hours free of forms.
If you've made it past the break I'm going to assume you're either interested or giving me the benefit of the doubt, so I'll write about me (if you were in the latter of those two groups this could go either way).
I'm a very lucky boy - I had help moving from my parents, which means I have food, a spare chair and more than one bag of things, which is a godsend. It also means that I said goodbye to them on Wednesday (and Tuesday night just incase I didn't have time on Wednesday) which was surprisigly hard. Now I'm not normally one to get homesick: In bath I speak to my parents about once a week (or less) and never really think twice about being on my own. Somehow here it feels different, perhaps becuse I know that they can't just ride to the rescue and I probably know how to solve any problem better than they do (actually now, rather than just thinking I do). It's an odd feeling but I suppose all part and parcel of the Erasmus experience.
As mentioned above I do have some freinds and a number of them aren't from the EU - in this case it means North America - Canadians and Americans (specifically North Carolinians). This doesn't mean I'm not speaking German though - all being clever university types we've twigged that the idea is to learn German so we speak German amongst ourselves (except to the total beginners and when we don't know a few words). I know it won't be perfect but until real life outside ofthe induction course starts its exactly what we need.
Speaking of the course I'd reccomend it to anyone - even if I were hitting firsts in German (which I very much am not) I would still think that 3 weeks of lessons (3 hours a day) could only be a good thing. What's more whilst I'm sure I could manage to fill in all my forms on my own hand holding and idiot proofing is always nice, especially if you're prone to occasionally being an idiot.
So, having come full circle and back to forms I'll leave this slightly essay like post and go and enjoy the sun.
Bis Später.
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