New design!

After a whole lot of nothing on here, I felt I should just start fresh with a new design. It looks all glittery and exciting, just how I feel right now. I am so so so excited about Texas- just one week left!

end of year brains

My flatmates have gone, my room is pretty much as plain as when I moved in, I am desperately trying to make dishes that combine everything I have in the fridge..not very fun.  Other than that, it's time to say goodbyes, prepare for stupid exams.. even less fun.
I am super excited for Texas but it seems there are so many things I need to get done first.

So excuse for the lack of updates, soon there is so much more to talk about!

Thanksgiving.

A little late yes, but oh well. This was our Thanksgiving (inspired) dinner last week. We have never had that many people over for food,but it worked out fantastic. Everyone brought a dish, we made turkey and even though we were worried about not having enough food, it was (of course) way too much and we had leftovers for days! I really can't say how nice it was to have so many friends for such a nice dinner.
And to make it proper legit, my new American friend (haha) was there as well! She is doing exchange at my Uni at the moment but her actual University is St. Edward's, my future exchange uni! It feels good to know that I can cling to her when I am in Texas, haha. Speaking of Texas, it is scary how close it is getting! My passport arrived safely with my new visa in it, so thank god that is sorted out. Veeeery slowly I am thinking about what to pack but I am still very involved here in Edinburgh, so I don't really want to think about leaving. I don't know why I am feeling so weird about going away, god knows I have been away longer! 5 months is really not that long. Anyway, two more weeks to go here in Edinburgh and that means one essay, two exams, packing my room up, going to the christmas market and other shenanigans. Let's do it!

Procrastination.

Just because.

I would rather watch this 10 times than start writing my essay.

Ughgh!!!!!!!!!!

Catch up! {picture time}

Going through my phone and finding all these pictures I think I never shared- reason enough to post them!

After Halloween I flew to London to celebrate Georgie's 21st birthday- meeting up with these girls is the best thing: It's like we have never been apart. We are all shit at keeping in touch and have such different lives but that is not important. Spooning in our hotel bed, being the loudest in the pub, running around barefoot in Piccadilly Circus- I just love these girls to death ♥

Going to the cinema with all the girls to watch Don Jon | beautiful Greyfriar's Kirkyard | Julia and I shooting a promo film in a posh hotel | Oktoberfest | me being obsessed with Tom Hiddleston's dance videos | our amazing dead body outline for the Halloween party | my new amazing friend fom Texas

Me and my flatmates performing Hugh Grant's dance from Love Actually | a night out with the girls



Christmas party! I wish we had a picture of everyone in their christmas jumpers, it was just too good |  My super amazing hair style, done by Mona  ♥ | Party after party: Second party of the night with some other friends

You're a lizard, Harry!

picture by Julia

After the horrifying 9h bus ride and my terrifying visa interview (they also told me that I am not allowed to get a US work visa in the next two years and even though this is not such a big deal, I am seriously annoyed by it. Telling me I can't get one just makes me want one!) we did some shopping on Oxford Street and then went to Leavesden, where the Harry Potter Studios are located. I've wanted to go ever since it opened and it has been everything I imagined. Some props and sets I have seen before on an exhibition in New York but the studio tour is just so much more. It is definitely worth the 29 quid!
You are allowed to take as many pictures as you want and we did take so many, but I don't wanna spoil everything. So I will just show a few pictures here. If you wanna see more, go to Julia's blog and read her post about it!

The gift shop is masssssive and of course expensive, but I am a big sucker for those things so I couldn't resist. However, I just stuck to a copy of the second book (I am re reading all the books in English at the moment and I love this edition) and Bertie Botts beans in every flavor for my flatmates (they are gone already, it's just so much fun). If I had all the money in the world, I would probably buy a Gryffindor scarf, a million chocolate frogs and Bertie Botts beans, a wand and some of the very expensive but amazing jewellery. Oh well...

What British people say...

 I have read this little chart a while ago on Jo's blog and was amazed at the accurracy of this!

It is a bit scary that I do use some of the phrases as well, sort of well aware what I actually mean. I don't know why I use it, I guess because it's sort of smooth to say.
What can I say- faked politeness just comes natural. 

This week...

...is going to be so exciting!

via x

For my exchange semester in Texas I need another (my third one now) J1 visa, so I have to go down to London for another interview (as if they didn't already have my fingerprints). Julia is going with me and after the interview we are going to the Harry Potter Studios in Leavesden- I AM SO EXCITED!!!!

via x

Then on Wednesday we are going to watch both the first and the new second Hunger Games film in the cinema- this calls for loads of popcorn!

And on Friday some of my friends are having a Christmas party (yes, ridiculously early)- so it's all gonna be Christmas jumpers and nommy food. Yay!

Why my Iphone is gone/ yay new phone!

For only a year I have had my Iphone and ever since the IOS 7 update, it has been getting slooower and slower. It doesn't help that every 2 months my memory is full because I have taken way too many pictures. I dont wanna back them up and then let them be forgotten in the depths of my laptop. I think those recent developments were just the tip of the iceberg- I was swearing at my phone every day for the past weeks and it got to the point where I just wanted a new one. A phone that suits me better, and also a properly unlocked phone that I can take to Texas with me.
After some research I found the lovely Sony Xperia T, the lovely James Bond phone (he apparently uses it in Skyfall). I sold my Iphone and sent it off to its new mommy after my new phone got delivered yesterday and I never looked back.

I am totally in love with it and how much Android lets me personalise my phone (which was the main reason why I didn't like the Iphone anymore, btw). Also I can put in a 16GB memory card, so yay for that! The only bummer about getting rid of my Iphone is that I now have quite a few Iphone cases- Mona already sneaked some of them, but it makes me sad- I wish I could just use them for my new phone. Ughgshsg, but because I can't do that:

A little bit of Ebay inspiration for my new collection:

all from Ebay, here x

How to piss off a Brit

via x

Oh yess... pissing off people is quite easy here, especially if you don't know the cultural do's and don'ts.
 So here you go, a list on how to piss off British people.

• Ignore the difference between England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland 

Depending on the sensitiveness, it might just be enough to call a Scottish person British. Or worse, European! I find this topic especially annoying. Whenever I get into this with a British person and they ask me in return "wouldn't you find it annoying if they called you european instead of german?"-  ummm NO? They need to get over this identity crisis for goodness sake, it is a pain in the bum.

• Jump queues

This is really easy to do. I have done it many of times, by accident of course. Everyone loves queuing here, doesn't matter where. I recall a situation where we were waiting in a sort of lobby of a cinema because it wasn't open yet. The lobby had a roof and it was nasty outside, so everyone was just huddling in, mostly in the corners (because you know, you don't just stand in the middle of the lobby by yourself). And then people started randomly queuing all the way on to the street, instead of just coming in to the middle of the lobby. This only got funnier when they started complaining that people weren't queuing smart enough and wasting too much space. Oh the joy of telling them that no one is actually in line!

• Don't offer your seat to an elderly person in the bus

This is probably the same in every country, but there are a lot (!) of old people on the busses here. Everyone jumps up when an old person comes in, it is so weird to watch. 

• Don't say sorry or excuse me when you go past someone in the supermarket

This bugs me sometimes, just because it is so silly when you say sorry to someone because you are grabbing something from the shelf in front of them. You basically apologize for everything you go in the supermarket. That's why I like shopping in empty stores. In Germany, no one cares (which I do find rude by now, this is how weird I got!)

• Admit that you don't like the Queen

Weird one. I find the Queen weird in the way that everyone is so smitten by her and I just think she comes across like an old grumpy lady. But that's my lesson learned, do not say that out loud.

Have you seen...?

 'Have you seen' is probably the most asked question in our flat.Have you seen that cat with tights video, have you seen that new Jimmy Kimmel video, have you seen that new trailer- we are embarrassingly in synch in terms of the YouTube videos we watch on a daily basis. Yes, I said it.

It is really hard for people to come over and take part in our weird conversations and inside jokes, believe me. We are a big bunch of weirdos.

So anyways-

a couple of 'have you seen' for you guys!

I am slightly embarrassed to admit that Mona and I re-enacted this on our way home tonight.

Thinking about the future {what happens after graduation}

via x

I think a little introduction is necessary so everyone has the right picture.
Scottish Bachelor degrees are for some reason 4 years long. You can "stop" after 3 years and receive an ordinary Bachelor degree or you do the full four years and then get an Honours degree. The Honours degree has different classes, so you get a grade showing how amazing you were (or not).

Right now I am in my third year. We do two simple semester, no trimesters or anything like that, so there is the winter semester (Sept - Dec) and the spring one (Jan - May). My spring semester is going to be my exchange semester in Texas, so my third year is split. The first half here in Edinburgh is almost over and it scares me loads. Today in two months I will be in Texas.

Anyway, that is not what I wanted to talk about.
In my mind I often jump in time to the start of fourth year. And then thinking of how fast everything will go. Settling in, accepting that this is your last year. Then it's Christmas. New semester, which is the last semester. Writing your dissertation.
All of a sudden it will be May 2015 and we will graduate.
A day I look forward to because we get to wear these cool outfits with the hat and everything.
But what happens after that?

This semester I am taking a module this year where we talk about businesses and creativity, becoming an entrepreneur and all those things. For some reason this is not really a third year module, so 99% of the course are fourth year people. Therefore, we seem to talk a lot about their possibilities after graduating.
It is comforting to see that a lot of them don't have a clue what to do either.

Every so often I have this splash of inspiration, maybe when watching a film, hearing someone speak about their future, talking about all these different options that we have. I could do soo many things with my degree it is ridiculous. For me that also means I could just end up doing nothing special.
Sometimes I think I want to work within film production, or a TV series, then I want to be a freelancer somehow, or a social media marketing adviser, then I want to do marketing, and sometimes I want to have my own business.
It annoys me so so so much, because it would be so much easier if I had a specific goal that I could work towards. But no.
I am still at the point that I was at three years ago. I want to have a cool job. One that makes me happy.
I don't want to be the next Steven Spielberg.

I love studying, I love listening to my teacher talk about film, having discussions about all sorts of things related to the film business. I don't want this to end!
So doing a Masters maybe. But that's expensive.
Or actually finding a good graduate job. But that's hard.
& where do I even want to live?
Ughhsghs

Scottish Weddings

via x

Oh Scottish Weddings. Sadly I have never been but I really want to go to one, one day. In the beginning I never realised how traditional they can be and how they have all those little quirks. Take the dancing for example. They do ceilidhs.

both via x

I love dancing like this, it is so much fun and creates this feeling of belonging- what's more perfect than that for a wedding party?
Oh and with that goes the band. Bagpipes, harps, violins... aaah I love it.

Then the food.
Haggis, smoked salmon, hot apple cider, whisky, trifle, scones.. mh mh mh!!!


And the venues.
Scotland has a lot of castles (duuh), which are commonly used as wedding venues. Or anywhere in Scotland really makes a great wedding location. It all looks amazingly romantic and old.

via x 

via x

I just love this- I just wish Scotland's weather was more appropriate for outdoor weddings.

Scotland on Screen {part 2: Glasgow}

So here we go, part 2.
This time: Glasgow.
In the last couple of years there have been quite a few production in the city, even Hollywood one's.

via x

Not Another Happy Ending (2013) was shown at the Edinburgh Film Festival and even though it felt really special to be among the first to watch it, I didn't like it that much. It was very clichee, very predictable. However, it looked beautiful and Glasgow makes a great setting for this film.

via x

Now on to another kind of film. This picture shows Glasgow, however completely americanised: Different street signs, cars on the opposite site of the road and yellow cabs. It is a scene out of World War Z, which was partly filmed in Glasgow but is supposed to be in Philadelphia.
Strange, if you ask me.

via x

Cloud Atlas is slightly different. It uses Glasgow as a location and dresses it up as San Francisco and London, but it also shows Edinburgh, as you can see in this pretty picture.

via x

This is such an absurd and funny Scottish film: The Angel's Share.
Typically the angel's share is the bit of the whiskey that evaporates during the aging process, but here it is a film by Ken Loach that takes place in Edinburgh, Glasgow and the Highlands. Despite the crazy mission they go on during the film, it feels properly Scottish with their accents, outfits and whatnot.

Halloween- our photo booth

I love photo booths (who doesn't?). So when we have parties, all I really want is a photo booth. Because I think it brings people together and is such a fun activity and definitely makes a party fun.

All we do really is put up a sheet in front of Mona's warderobe (it's massive), set up a tripod with my camera in front of it, put in the right settings and off we go.
It is a sort of annoying work to turn them into these nice photo strips but so worth it- and I love that we are doing something special here.

   

This was just a tiny selection of the pictures, I think I did around 30 of these strips but this would definitely be too much for this blog.

And to wrap all of this up, here my absolute favorite picture of the night:

The Joker pushing Alice in to Narnia.

A tiny sneak peak

 

Here you go people (aka Anna & Steffi), our Lion Witch Wardrobe costume (in the wrong order)-

I got back from London tonight, as I flew down to celebrate one of my friend's birthday with her. I feel like so much went on in these last four days it is ridiculous and could have happened over a whole week. But no, I had to go on a 9am flight right after our Halloween party. 

Let me tell you, that was a horrible idea.

But for now I just want to sleep, and then get back to normal. And be a little sad that Halloween is already over.

 

Urban Daddy {travel apps}

via x

I would like to introduce y'all to my favorite app when I am in the States- UrbanDaddy.

Whenever you don't know where to go eat or drink you just pop in a couple details and it will give you amazing recommendations for bars or restaurants in your city. The funny thing (and my favorite bit) is that you can add extra information, for example that you are with your friends or your boyfriend or whoever really! The search bar is like you see in the picture, so you can add what you want (drinks, food, burgers, sushi.. and a lot more choices) and answer one more question: And what else..?. That could be 'I am broke', 'somewhere with a view', 'someplace where famous people hang'... and so on, I think you get the drift. 
First of all it's really fun and instead of just wandering around the city searching for a good restaurant, you get really good recommendations instantly.
I have used it various times and every time (!) we found a place that was really. good.

It is a US only app so far, but should you be over there, download it and try it!
It's amaazing and you don't feel like a tourist who doesn't know where to eat out- yay!

A little update. {with an unrelated picture}

 

I cannot believe we are already in the sixth week of this semester and bla bla, it's almost winter. To be honest, I am ready to skip this so called "fall" and go right in to Christmas mode. Just bring it on and get it over with. Anyway, I feel like I haven't done a proper update since America so here we go:

• Starting 7th January 2014 this will all turn a little Texan over here. I cannot wait for a little less winter and all of the other adventures waiting for me!
• I have a new job! You might remember how I worked in a call centre last year during the semester. It is a tough job because people yell at you and thinking that you are selling hoovers to them or something like that (the fact you are not doesn't even matter to them). So I was looking for other jobs but it's really hard to find a job here when you haven't got experience in retail or waitressing... And then all of a sudden this job at a dentist fell in to my lap. I was supposed to do secretary work but when they saw my CV, I was suddenly promoted to their sort of PR and Marketing advisor. Haha, can you believe it?
• Julia and I are doing a video for a hotel here in Edinburgh and they give us free nights and whatnot as a 'reward'. I am super excited when it's finally finished!
• Speaking of making videos, I am very much in the mood for making something cool about our life here, so me and my flatmates are going to do a sort of 30 day video challenge. We will see how that's gonna turn out, but I am very very very eager to do it!

 

My Halloween costume {drumroll please}

There are so many characters in the Narnia series, but we were looking for a group of three costume- and there are four kids going to Narnia, so that didn't really work. Instead, we decided to go as
The Lion, The Witch and The Warderobe- Haha!
Not too obvious, a bit ridiculous, and super fun to do!

So think of something like this as the warderobe costume and of course the lion is a bit easier to dress as, with big hair and cat eyes... and then me as the white witch...And then all of us together in our Narnia-looking-flat, aaaah I get goosebumps when I think of it!

As soon as I have all parts of my costume I of course gonna share it on here, aaah so so excited!

I'd rather go to Narnia / our Halloween theme!

via x

Not the most innovative, but certainly not the worst! Our flat is going to be Narnia land, with a photo booth, a scary Halloween room and loads of other fun stuff... I seriously cannot wait! I am actually just looking forward to having a great time with our friends but the rest is gonna be so fun! We are going to have some sort of Narnia like entrance of course, walking through coats etc.. then a lot of snow, a christmas tree, turkish delight.. oh and a lamp post!!!!

SOSOSO excited! Just wait for our costumes!

My top 3 travel destinations during my semester abroad

So I seem to finally be an official student at St. Edward's University, yibbie! Now all the hassle starts with lovely bafög, visa procedures, booking flights, I even need to get a vaccination for Texas! 

The many things I am looking forward to is being super in the centre of the States and being so conveniently located! Here are my three top places I wanna go to during my semester abroad:

via x

 Meeeeexicoooo!!!! Ooooh yes, so exciting!!!!

via x

Vancouver- mostly to visit some special people, but also because it just looks amazing!

via x

And Cuba. Right now there are only a few airports that are allowed to fly in to Cuba (from the US) and Dallas is one of them, so yay!

Scotland on Screen {part I, Edinburgh}

Just for fun, I am going to do a couple of posts about this. Maybe this will get me motivated for my essay, maybe it will just distract me. Oh we will see. So I kept thinking about films shot in Edinburgh and there are (sadly) really not that many films that show Edinburgh in all its glory. A lot of possibilities for more films to come and I am sure a lot will change over the next years. But for now, here it is- Films that are set in Edinburgh. Or feature Edinburgh. 

Filth (2013)- Man what a freaking filthy and bathshit crazy film. Not sure if I should like it, but it is worth seeing just because of James MacAvoy, who is incredibly fantastic. Although I was thinking of Mr Tumnus a bit too much when watching it.

Sunshine on Leith (2013)- Aw yes, I loved loved loved it! It is such a cute little film, beautiful non stop and the ending..cuteezzz!! It also felt very special watching this film here in Edinburgh with what seemed to be a lot of locals- I think everyone enjoyed it!

One Day (2011)- I must say I enjoyed the books more than the film and Edinburgh is only featured for a tiny bit, but it is still lovely.  

Trainspotting(1996)- I have to admit I haven't seen it yet (it's on the endless list of films I need to see) but it is the prime example of Edinburgh on screen.And Kevin McKidd is in there, one more reason to see it sooooon.


(There are obviously more film than this and you can read about them here , for example)

Me and my flatmates.

These past weeks have been just sort of settling back in to my life here. Over the summer I was living in this flat by myself mostly and it has been so different. I really forgot how much I love living with Margaux and Mona- when I am in a bad mood, I just go home and I know that they will cheer me up. We have a ritual of watching series together (like all of them), going through the funniest YouTube videos, talk about anything and nothing, cuddle up on the coach together because our flat it so cold, dance offs, bake offs and whatnot. We wear the weirdest granny clothes in the flat, binge eat through our cupboards, share our shirts, shoes and jackets. I really can't imagine living with people you couldn't do these things with.

I am really sad that I will miss out on so much when I am in Texas.
(But we are planning to go to Turkey at the end of next summer so yay!)

It's that time of the year again {Halloween}

Well I think we all know that I love Halloween to bits- dressing up is my favorite part but it's even more fun to see all the great costumes and ideas that people had (go hard or go home).

 

Now I love Breaking Bad and would love to dress up as one of the guys, but my flat decided to do a group costume (much more fun!!) so I had to let it go. Also I am not sure how I would look with a bold mask on... mhh..

2 Broke Girls is just so distinctive and easy to do, but again there are only 2 Broke Girls and not three. So this one is out as well-

I am not sure if you have seen that stupid 'what does the fox say' video and it follows that whole Harlem Shake path, so meh... but I am sure a lot of people will dress up like this. I was already asked if they could borrow my fox onesie.

However, Mona Margaux and I are going to have a sort of group costume. I am not gonna say what it is yet, but I am soo excited!!! It's nothing new but still pretty cool I think.

 Of course it's movie related, that's just one hint.

 We are also having a Halloween party at our flat which goes along with our costumes (haha) and I hope it's gonna be amazing.

So this is definitely not the last Halloween related post (¬‿¬)

What are you dressing up as this year?

Sunshine on Leith {movie tip}

Edinburgh and Scotland definitely don't get their deserved share of spotlight in films, so I love it when they do- this film comes out today and I will try and see it as soon as I can because it just looks amazing!

Long distance friendship

I think everyone who moved to another country for an unspecific or longer time has thought about this. It's not like the discussion you might have with your boyfriend: If he is coming with you or not. If you stay together or not. Friends are not moving with you, most of the time.
You are also not breaking up with your friends.


Scrolling through my facebook pictures from the past years makes me so sad and happy at the same time- I went to so many different places with different people, made great friends... And it's pretty safe to say that all of my friends from all over the world will probably never be in the same spot at the same time (unless I fly them all in for my wedding). 
It makes me sad to think about it this way, because it means I miss so many people all the time. I miss being in certain places with them, I miss being with them in particular, I miss their presence in my life. It's something I really wish I could avoid.

I know for a fact that I will not be in touch with a lot of my "friends" from University when we finish our course. I guess that is okay- some are just not meant to be in for the long run.
It's not just that- some of my friends know everything about me, some only know tiny bits. Sometimes we became friends for a certain reason, sometimes for no reason at all.
Some friends I meet all the time, some I only see once a year. All of this has nothing to do with the depth of each friendship and I love that.
I was a very different person at summer camp than I am here in Edinburgh. Let alone at home in Germany- which is why my friends are as different as the places I met them in and I appreciate that so much- we bonded over the weirdest things and people from home will probably not understand the friendships I made in camp. How could they?
There are times when it tears me apart that I am stuck in one place, that the world is so huge and that there are so many places to live. I want to live close to all of my friends, but that will never be possible.

So what can we do about all of this?
Nothing really. Be happy with the amazing friends that we have, make an effort. Book flights and travel whenever we can to see each other.
But be okay with it when you can't see each other that much.

Because true friendship isn't being inseparable, it's being seperated, and nothing changes.