Of Sweetie pies, Oatley Runs and ‚humping‘ neighbours...

Hiya "mi lasses and lads"

first night with new housemates...only Álvaro is missing

Well another week has passed and Ta Luv needs to be updated. Last Monday I finally moved closer to the city. I was really lucky and found a fab place very close to the center and just in front of the uni, so it has the perfect location…doesn’t take me ages to get everywhere…

Archery Place...that's where things happen ;)

my new room...still needs some decorating...but I already bought a lamp;)

Monday was busy at school, then the move and I went for some deli Thai food and a couple of drinks with my new flatmates: Shannon (crazy, funny girl from Canada who is such a sweetie pie!!!), Chris (who is English but has lived in Vienna, he is there right now…), Álvaro (aka Cielito from Spain), Miki (from Poland), Arun (English) and Adam from next door who is always at our place! It was such a warm welcome, they showed me “our local” which is literally two steps from our house so it’s just perfect and we had a good time…It seems as if I am not going to get a lot of sleep here…

Picadilly Gardens

 The next day I went to Manchester for a German language assistant meeting…I met the Austrian Michi there and we did some great sightseeing…Took some funny pictures and had a blast. After the seminar we met some other Austrians and went for a walk: saw China Town, the Manchester version of the Viennese “Riesenrad”… 

with Michi

 And, of course, how could it be different, the night finished in a pub…that’s the way it is supposed to be in order to pass as a real Pom! It’s amazing how important pubs are for Brits…it’s just THE place to be, regardless of the time or day… might have to go to the gym with all that beer drinking hahaha

The first weekend with my new flatmates was real fun. On Saturday, Shannon showed me around Leeds town,...saw a couple of really nice places...

University of Leeds (Parkinson Building), just a stonefall from my place

Civic Hall with Shannon

close to the Market and Corn Exchange

At night, after having dinner with Alex and Kathi, I had a drink with Shannon&Co in our local “The Fennton” – we saw even a live performance by a Leeds band, which was pretty sweet. After numerous pints and bars we came back at around 4ish. The night was full of wrong translations and comments like “Oh Adam do you hump” (meaning something completely different than limping…but well in German it means to “humpeln” – which sounds so similar, so I just pronounced it English and thought that might do it hahahaha not quite!)

in "Sandanista" with Adam, Shannon, Àlvaro and Olly

On Sunday we had to get up at 9 because Olly (or aka ‘Dave’) took us all to see the Yorkshire Dales. 

Thus, well equipped with a big coffee, my camera and my jacket - off we went to the Dales. It was such a beautiful day: Got the full Bronte feeling: sunny and cloudy weather in an amazing countryside: rich green meadows with desolate old abbeys…As would good old Charlotte say:

“There was no possibility of taking a walk that day. We had been wandering, indeed, in the leafless shrubbery an hour in the morning […]”

Well for us it was just the perfect weather for a long walk and even a race up the “calf and cow mountain”!

 In the mountains Shannon and I got to know some really cool guys - Tim and Dave...here they are:

Dave and Tim - the coolest couple in all Yorkshire

And of course extensive exercise has to be gratified with a nice British meal: so I had my first “Beef and Ale Pie” – mmmhhh so yummy. Apparently there is the saying “who ate all the pies” to refer to somebody rather fat ;), but well after all that walking around some strength was required to take even more pictures and more walks ;) 

To have the the full Yorkshire feeling we ended the day with a cheesy Yorkshire soap called “Downton Abbey” and a big cup of hot chocolate. What a wonderfully charming Sunday!

Dave and his half pint of Leeds Best

view from the "Calf and the Cow"

Some side remarks: Here in Leeds there is a tradition among the students to do the “Otely Run” [check it out on: http://otleyrun.net/about/] – which is a pub crawl including 16 pubs… You are supposed to go to all of them and have one pint in each bar. The thing is that you have to wear a fancy dress…well I thought that means I’ll have to put on my nice dress (which I normally wear to work)…but apparently the term “fancy dress” refers to costumes…well that would have been funny. But you can see all the guys running around in ridiculous costumes, dresses and what not and getting totally drunk. What a tradition!

Good guys, I’ll talk to u soon and tell you about my adventures with the Loiners!!

Ta!

Fabulous Drag Queens in Leeds

Ta Luv reports back once more ;)

Hiya my fabulous readers:

Yesterday turned out to be a spectacular night!!! Before getting ready to go out we went to Roundhay School to do some sport, had dinner and then dressed up to go out with the girls and Alex's and Xisca's boyfriends.

ready to go partying!!!

a picture for Kathrin, on the top of the double-decker on our way to town

Kathrin's friend Eli was visiting Leeds and her friends picked her up at the trainstation. And then we headed right towards the gay district in Leeds and just had a blast!!! It was a fabulous night out with cider, apple vodka, numberous shots and constant laughter!!! We girls definitely loved it and will go back there, the boys were a bit less enthusiastic, but also had a great laugh.

 
After going to the bar where Eli worked for 9 months we headed to the Viaduct. And how could it be different, before I wanted to enter the bar they asked me for my ID...well I still look like 18 - yippiiiiehhh ;)
 The Viaduct is a gay bar where famous Drag Queens perform, and we were lucky and could watch a Drag Performance - which was just incredible. People were sooo nice, constantly smiling at you and calling you "luv". The Drags were just fabulous, amazing how they captivate the entire audience!!! The house was on fire!

Drag performance in the Viaduct

Alex, Kathi, Xisca and I could not stop laughing and smiling. Dom and Neil (Xisca's and Alex's boyfriends) were so funny...they did not dare to go to the loo alone as they were really popular that night, they would have definitely been the one's who would have scored.

After some LGBT fun we went to another bar and had some drinks. In the end we came home around 3ish...

 Such a hilarious night, I guess we girls will go back their - who knows maybe we even become regulars!!! So guys if you come visit we should hit the rainbow streets of Leeds!!!

Tata!
xx

About girls saying masculine words, first days at school, and long bus rides

 Hiya Luv:

the balmforth residence_my house for the first two weeks

Another week has passed in lovely Britain, and I have to say the weather was unusually warm and sunny...should probably not get used to it though ;)

Leeds Library

After coming back from a fun weekend in Oxford I started my first day at my second school. It took me hours to get there... I thought that 1 1/2 hrs would be enough to reach the school in time, but it turned out that it was not enough...it took me almost 2 hrs...not that I am normally late ;)

on my way to school at 6.40

Garforth Community College

Language Department

The first day was great fun, the MFL department is fab and my mentor teacher is such a darling. She warmly welcomed me showed me around and told me that I might only have to work 2 days a week - so that means I'll have a long weekend every second week, which is great!! So plenty of time to host visitors!
The school is really good, much less strict then the other school where I am not even allowed to go to the loo alone...(but that's probably because they have got the Local Authority in the house, which is checking their classes, discipline, etc. Apparently they did really bad last year so they face numerous observations throughout the year, which makes life a bit difficult...).

On my second day at school I got up at 5.45 to be at school at 8.40 and experienced my first French lesson in a primary school. The pupils were so cute. One of them was brave enough to ask me where I was from, and when I told them that I am from Austria they were whispering in excitement. Later on one of the girls asked me if I were from Australia [well yes, this is just stereotypical] and when I tried to explain them that I am from Austria it took them some time to realise what I mean...

They had one of their first French lessons and learned the difference between masculine and feminine words, then one of the girls wondered: "Are girls able to say masculine words" which was just hilarious.

Well apart from school I also went to uni which was good fun, met tons of new people and saw some great lectures...looking forward to these meetings on a Wednesday...

Apart from that, Kathrin (the Austrian FLA) and I decided to use the self-service cashier in Tesco...which turned out to be a real adventure...Well let me explain a bit: There are those machines where you can scan your purchased items and pay them, which means one does not depend cashiers. You can do this 24/7 and there is always a shopping assistant in the shop who helps you. He had to pop by thousands of times, as we had a hard time figuring out how the machine works...either we did not scan the products properly or we did not put down the bag,....embarrassing but fun as well...

Tesco - all about shopping

trying out the self-service machine

 Yesterday we had Austrian dinner with good wine, Kässpätzle, Apfelstrudel and Spanish starter as well as THE Austrian national anthem "I am from Austria" - was a fun and chilled evening...Alex, the Spanish teacher at Roundhay, even learned how to pronounce "Kaaaasspätzle" the "Upper Austrian way" ;).

Austrian Dinner

Well, now I am off to sport before getting ready to go to a Drag Performance in Leeds which should be fun.

Looking forward to hearing from you guys,
have a good one,

Michi

Of Loiners, Lads and Lasses: My first week in Leeds

Hiya.

Leeds

 So I finally decided to enter the world of the bloggers to keep you up to date about my life in Leeds: the city of the "lads and lasses," the place where Loiners pronounce "won" like "wun," "hello" like "helleee" and always affectionately refer to you with "ta luv".

A week has gone by since I've packed my bags and moved to the nice and rainy mother land Great Britain.
The weather is as one would expect very rainy and chilly...but hey, we're in Britain. I just had to laugh about the weather - not only is it impossible to stay dry from above as your brolly blows up all the time, but then there are those vicious puddles...I was just walking around an plooofff here we go one foot in a puddle...and then straight away the next one. Totally soaked but happy I arrived back home after visiting my main school and wandering around in the city center.

Until now I'm really enjoying Ledonian life, even though there is heaps to organise! But that's good, keeps you moving ;) I have already explored bits and pieces of Leeds, looked for a place to live (still haven't found anything, but have been quite lax about it), bought the essential things to survive, even got a mobile. Now I just have to arrange a bank account and the I'm all set.
Right now I live with a family and three other assistants, it's a lovely house but just a bit far outside of everything...

typical UK weather

with Jim and Kathi in "The Fox",

a local pub in my current home district Roundhay

I spontaneously decided to spend the weekend in Oxford - so I could see my Aussie friend Ben and celebrate his birthday with him... It was a fun weekend - long nights out, 3 o'clock pizza in the "Retreat",  sightseeing and yummy meatball pasta!!! I even managed to have breakfast with another FLA (foreign language assistant) from Austria!

visting Ben's town

funny faces with Ben's sister Rhiannon

Tomorrow [or rather in a couple of hours, so I should really go and sleep now] I'll visit my second school...I am really curious about how things will be - it seems as if both schools were quite different...so we'll see.


Well, I should get going, looking forward to hearing from you guys.
Big hug,
muaaaaa
Michi, xx