It's weird that i only have 8 days left in Germany! Don't get me wrong, I'm really looking forward to going back to the UK and seeing my boyfriend again (and on a regular basis too, that is!) but it's just weird that I've been in Solingen for so long!

Since I left school, the longest I've tayed at home was 6 weeks. Now I've been here over 3 months. It was good seeing all my family an friends again, but to be honest, I didn't do much. I've been to Köln once, to Düsseldorf twice. I could have gone more often! Then again, I did 5 weeks of work experience at my local paper, after that I've been freelancing for the rest of the time and must have made an impression, as they now book me for whole days and not just for a story at the time.

But in my free time, I had a lot to catch up on, which didn't really work that well. I meant to get my contacts book sorted, for example, and I just can't seem to finish updating it. I get distracted. Or I fall asleep. One of the two.

Solingen itself has not a lot to offer. There's a city festival Echt.Scharf.Solingen on at the moment, with wine festival and live music and the shops will be open on Sunday (they are usually closed). But I'll miss my favourite event, the Zöppkesmarkt. It's a city-wide flea-market held every September. It's quite good if you're after old vinyl records and cheap junk ;)
I haven't even managed to take my bike onto the Korkenziehertrasse, although that was one of my goals for this summer. my lame excuse is that my bike was flat and I couldn't find why as there's no hole.

And now I'm going back to England. Of course I'm looking forward to it, but I don't have a job over there at the moment. And I don't really fancy going back to uni and spending loads of money on tuition fees for nothing! They still have me waiting on my results whether I passed last year or not. And personally, I learned more doing work experience than during 2 years of study, which really says it all about the University of Cumbria! Honestly, if you consider enrolling there, DON'T!!!! You'll regret it! My Travel Journalism degree turned out to be not about travel journalism at all. It's journalism and tourism management, the two faculties have no idea what we're doing and I'm supposed to find a job at the end of this! Just great!
But then again, I think I'll travel a bit more this academic year. Even if it's just weekend trips. The best thing is: my boyfriend will keep me company, so we sould have a good time whatever happens ;)