The Train

It was a weekend that had had a lot of football in it. I didn’t know much about it, but I heard the people cheering from the boy’s apartment – he lives in the “party” area of town, where there are lots of hen parties and people just going out getting drunk.

The walk to the nearest station had been tricky all weekend – there were more rowdy people in the streets than normal and the amount of graffiti on the shops’ walls in the area had doubled overnight.

I was getting a Sunday afternoon train back home, and the walk to the station wasn’t as bad as it could have been. I ducked past a group of 6 women in tutus taking photos with young boys who were leering at their breasts.

Getting on the train I managed to find 4 seats free so I sat in the corner. At the next stop, however, there was a large group of football fans – mainly men – that got on the train and were followed up by a couple of policemen.

They piled in around me. One young lad of about 18 sat next to me, making his friend nudge him and shout “waaay heeeeey!!!” Opposite me sat another young guy with his girlfriend.

“Offenbach!! Offenbach is shiiiiiiiit!!!” shouts one guy sat in the next set of seats. “Offenbach is shiiiiit!” reply all the other fans. A couple of men start a song to the tune of Waltzing Matilda, and they start bouncing up and down to the tune as everyone joins in.

Another guy in the next set of seats has the loudest voice of those around me. He seems to be really caught up in the excitement and is yelling at the top of his lungs. He also gets up to bounce to Waltzing Matilda, but then shouts “Kassel!!! Kassel is shiiiiiiiiit!”

No one replies with yells as they did with Offenbach. One thing Frankfurters can unite with is their dislike for neighbouring Offenbach, but apparently Kassel is spared the same loathing. The guy looks embarrassed and sits back down. More shouting starts and so he soon perks up when he can join in again.

While the shouting is going on, the girlfriend opposite me is wincing at the noise. We catch each others’ eye and give a look of understanding – “yeah, these guys are morons”.

Luckily the train pulls into the main station and the football fans and I go our separate ways. The girl and I nod at each other one last time – “good luck with those guys”. And she is gone in the jumping, yelling crowd.

Thoughts about Bravery

Me, as a 20 year old girl ready to take on Japan without fear. 

I’ve been having problems with my confidence recently. People who know me will see me as outgoing and someone who is everywhere at once, doing all the meetups and friends with everyone. But I used to be so much more. I think there’s a better word for it, but I used to be brave when I was younger. I used to do a lot of drama, I loved to be on stage and when I went to Japan to study I didn’t care if my Japanese was good or not, I just used it.

But I have found that I’m not that person anymore, I seem to have lost that side of me. My German friends constantly ask me to speak in German with them… I guess I could and it would be ok but there’s an element of “losing face” involved that’s just too risky… or scary for me. Every German I know speaks amazing English. It would just be embarrassing to let them see just how little German I speak. And also when we speak in English we can have amazing conversations but if we spoke in German we’d be reduced to boring, simple stuff. But I can’t ever remember feeling this way with Japanese. Maybe it’s because I was a cocky little shit, but this time round I just can’t get the German out, even though I know my friends won’t judge me and I know it’ll only make my German better.

I finished the advanced improv course a few weeks ago and I noticed in that area too I’d become a lot more withdrawn. I love improv – I love being on stage. When I was younger I used to do SO much theatre; regular stuff, improv contests, I was a dame in the village panto (meaning I was 16 year old girl pretending to be a man pretending to be a woman…) and I even entered a solo theatre contest in a division 2 years older than my age (and still won). I was this girl, but now I am not, and I think it’s holding me back.

When you’re an expat or just a regular language learner, I think you need to be super outgoing to be able to get the most out of your life in your adoptive country. Langauge-wise it’s pretty straight forward – you need to be brave enough to just go for it and you’ll get the hang of the language. As an expat it’s best if you just throw yourself into various situations and go to random meetups because you never know what will happen. Of course, it’s also ok to not be outgoing and an expat, but you won’t have as many crazy stories to tell your grandchildren

I guess this lack of bravery has been bugging me for a while. I guess various things happened and I lost the drive I used to have to be like this, but I’m taking steps to get it back. Improv helps me a lot, but I’m *thinking* of maybe dabbling in stand-up comedy. A comedian friend of mine who I admire very much came over the other week so I could road test my routine on him but I just clammed up. I’d like to work myself to the stage where I’m able to do this – even if I’m not funny I think the experience will be good for me.

During the first week of April I’m going to do a German homestay. It’ll be in Frankfurt so I’m not going far at all, but I’m actually really nervous about it. I have no idea where the 16 year old who went off to Japan to do homestays is, but she’s not here right now. I feel nervous about speaking German to someone other than the few people I share my terrible skills with and I feel nervous that it’ll be a whole week of me and the teacher – her teaching me in intensive lessons during the day and cooking and hanging out together in the evenings. This all seems very daunting to me.

But I think once I’ve taken these steps I’ll feel a lot better about myself, so I need to take them. Do you take steps to put yourself in different and daunting situations?

Getting Naked Abroad

Most British people are ridiculous prudes. While we are happy to have topless 19 year olds in our daily newspapers, we would go through hell and back to prevent having to expose our own bodies in public.

When my family came to visit Japan for the first time, the first hotel they stayed at was this traditional hotel, with tatami mats and gender-segregated communal washrooms. My mum and sisters weren’t happy with this, and while one was in the wash/shower room, the others would stand guard by the door, and then switch when they were finished, so they could ensure only one person would be in there at a time – they wouldn’t even get naked in front of each other.

One thing you need to do in Japan if you ever go is to an onsen, or public bath. Onsens are usually outside, and then there are public baths which are indoors and are often equally as awesome.

I was always afraid of going to one of these public naked parties, because the thought of me being naked and white and fleshy in front of loads of skinny perky Japanese ladies scared me so very much. But my friend Ashley managed to persuade me (I can’t remember how…) and I entered the world of nakedness.

The thing with these baths is that the only thing to hide your modesty are these tiny hand towels, and when your modesty is quite sizable as mine is, these towels don’t often cut it. So I couldn’t exactly do the very British way of getting undressed and walking about using the towel to hide behind. Eventually, after a few trips to our local (and awesome) public baths, I got used to it. People didn’t stare at our naked bodies (to our knowledge), and the only awkward moment we had there was when this grandma was taking her 5 year old grandson to the baths and told him to go talk to us in English… because forcing your 5 year old grandson to speak English to two naked foreigners isn’t going to scar him for life.

And then I came to Germany.

I’d known about how German people like to get naked public before coming here… a friend of mine used to speak fondly about the public baths, and also on holiday you always find that group of German tourists who are on the beach playing catch with nothing but a thong on (though that’s mainly the men). But joining a gym here brought nakedness onto a while new level. Again, in gyms in England it’s fairly normal for people to be fairly cautious when they are getting changed and so on. You should look into your locker and focus on getting changed and even when talking to someone you should not look at them. In my German gym, naked is king. These women are not ashamed of their bodies at all, and stand fully starkers right there while talking to each other. The Japanese people from work who are also at my gym are fairly into this too, and don’t try to cover up much… so I have open nakedness AND nakedness of colleagues to deal with.

Is it normal to be naked in public where you are from? How do you feel about public nakedness? Let me know in the comments!

“Help! I need to find a place to live in Frankfurt!”

On any forum, or Facebook group or online community of any shape that concerns Frankfurt, the thing that comes up ALL the time is “how can I find a place to live”?

I’m going through the process of moving right now – my current apartment isn’t in an ideal location, and things aren’t going so well with my flatmate so I have found a nice room in an apartment with 5 really lovely German people and 2 cats!

It all happened so quickly – I happened to be casually browsing an apartment website when I saw a nice advert, written in English, mentioning cats and I thought, what the hell, I’ll probably not get it so I might as well try. That was on a Friday. Sunday night I was asked to choose an appointment time to go and visit the apartment and meet the people, Monday after work I went to visit, and by Monday night they had chosen me.

The first time round it didn’t happen anywhere near as smoothly as this. I was in Japan, it was just after the Tsunami and I knew nothing about Germany. I had the right websites, but the first hurdle was that I didn’t speak any German at all, the second was that I was unable to go visit the apartment and the third was that people didn’t like the fact that I was in potentially-radioactive Japan.

What’s more, I made a big mistake – I was doing all this about 5 months in advance of me moving to Germany, which is way too early to get something good. My rental agreement, and German etiquette will tell you that one must give notice of their leaving 3 months in advance, but in actuality this doesn’t happen. Where German people will plan their whole year’s worth of holidays in January, they seem to plan to move flats in less than a month.

Eventually someone gave me a break and I moved in with a German girl, who was replaced with my current Japanese flatmate when the German girl left for London. So, what advice can I give you when moving to Frankfurt?

Learn the lingo -

You can easily get by in finding an apartment without knowing German. But you should know key terms that will crop up in your search. Here’s some for starters -

WG – Wohnung Gemeinschaft – shared apartment. I’d say about half of the people I know share apartments and the other half have their own place. Normally people will come here and share for a while until they find a good place to live by themselves for good.

Miete – rent. If you’re sharing then in Frankfurt this could cost anything from 300 euros for quite a crappy apartment to 600 for a nice room in a great apartment. If you’re looking to live alone, expect to pay around 600 a month for a standard, small, probably studio apartment.

Zimmer – room. When an advert says it’s 2 Zimmer it means a bedroom and a living room, not two bedrooms (if you say in English it’s a 2 roomed apartment most people will think it’s got two bedrooms).

Einbaukuche – kitchen is included. Important info warning! Especially if you are renting your own place (ie not a shared apartment) your kitchen will probably not be included. You will need to go buy yourself a kitchen. I have no idea how to do this, as I’ve not done this before. On the same note, things like lighting and curtains may not be included even in a shared apartment. To this day, my “curtains” are a sheet that sandwiched in between the frame and the door of my window.

4 OG – it’s on the 4th floor (same as the UK – 5th floor US style). The apartment you like is in the attic on the 7th floor? You’re thinking “ach, I’ll just send my belongings up in the elevator”? WRONG. 90% of the time there will be no elevator in your building. On the plus side, after a year living in that 7th floor apartment, you’ll have a lovely bum.

kalt/warm – cold/warm. Your cold rent will be the base cost of your apartment and the warm rent will be rent + how much is costs to heat and electrify it.

Makler – evil companies/individuals who will take your hard earned cash just to show you a few apartments and give you a key. The fee will often be around 3 month’s rent. You won’t have to use one of these if you are looking to move into a shared apartment.

Kaution – deposit. Usually 2 month’s rent. Important info warning! In researching for this post I found that according to German law, your landlord must put your Kaution into a separate bank account in your name and not touch the money until you move out. Any interest gained on this money will be yours.

Provisionsfrei – No agency fees needed.

So what have we learnt so far? Moving to a new place in Germany costs a lot of money. Now let’s look at some of websites you can use to find an apartment!

wg-gesucht.de is a good site for finding shared apartments. In the top right hand corner you can click on a little Union Jack and make everything English. I found both of my apartments through this, and it’s easy to understand everything because of the little icons. You can see whether the people living there can speak English or not and you can easily see how many people are living in the apartment.

Don’t want a shared apartment? Try Immobilienscout24.de! I’ve not used this site but it’s pretty easy to use, even without any English.

Back to shared apartments – wgfinden.de is a site I’d not seen last time I was looking for a flat here. But it looks like a cool site, and there are links to the flatemates’ facebook pages so you can see if they are weirdos or not.

Speaking of Facebook, Wohnen in Frankfurt is a good page with regular posts from people with free rooms/apartments. You can find both shared and own apartments here.

If I were looking for an apartment, I would stay clear of forums like ToyTown or other expat communities because a) the people on there are usually grumpy (“You posted in the wrong section! Go look in the correct place for your apartment!!!”) and b) every other chump looking for an apartment will be there as well. Be wise, use the above websites like a German person.

There are many, many more websites out there – if you know any other good ones, be sure to share the knowledge in the comments section!

Which area of Frankfurt should I live in?

This varies greatly from person to person (some people I know won’t even go over the river for a good dinner, let alone live there) but here is a very brief break-down of the areas in Frankfurt.

Innenstadt – the inner city. Can be a little pricey depending on location, but will probably be noisy. Good for shared apartments.

Bahnhofsviertel – The area around the main station. This is the area I live in, and the area I will stay in after I move. It is not as dangerous as people think. My previous apartment was in a quieter area and I always worried that if I was attacked no one would be around to help me, but aside from a few cat-calls and a few cars pulling up beside me, I’ve had no problems. There are people openly using hard drugs at the mouth of Kaiserstraße but if you ignore them they will ignore you. This area is usually very cheap since no one wants to live there and you’re likely to get a nice apartment for a great price.

Nordend – A nice area suitable for a family. Leafy, safe, and full of people who wish they lived in Bornheim. A very popular area, which pushes up the rent price.

Ostend – Good connection on the S Bahn but the area ranges from super lovely (near the zoo) to just as bad as near the main station (near the S Bahn station). There is a legal drug den next to the train station to keep drug users off the streets, but you still get the occasional dodgy looking person in that area.

Bornheim – The place everyone wants to live. It has its own little shopping street, plenty of cafes and so many lovely restaurants. It’s pretty safe, but can be an awkward place to live if you are stuck up the wrong end of Bergerstraße, far from the U Bahn stop. An expensive place to live, but you can get lucky and find a solo-apartment for around 500-600.

Gallus – Like the area around the main station, this has a bad rep. People will pity you if you say you live here, but I know people who do live in Gallus and it’s not that bad. It’s 1 block away from where I live and my improv classes are there too and I’ve never heard or experienced anything bad there. The only thing I would say is that it’s a little dirtier than other places. You can probably find a pretty good apartment for a decent price here, and it’s got a good S Bahn link as well as trams running through it.

Bockenheim – Student central. Nice wide roads and nice buildings in a fairly safe area. Expect to find a lot of cheap shared apartments with more than 4 people living in them. A lot of people from work live there in apartments like that and it’s a great way to start your Frankfurt life as it’s a great way to meet new people and make friends.

Sachsenhausen – Over the river. If you’re a family, I’d say this is your best bet, though it may be pricey. This is the more traditional side of Frankfurt and if you go further south in Sachsenhausen you’ll get nice leafy areas with large houses to live in. The area around the Sudbahnhof station can be very pricey but it’s a nice area to live in nonetheless.

Flughafen – The area around the airport. I don’t know anyone who lives here but apartments here seem to be pretty cheap. It’s probably very noisy.

Niederrad – Over the river, between Sachsenhausen and the airport. This is where I work and the people who live here are usually people who have to work late in the office. On one hand this area can be pretty cheap to live in, and it may or may not be close to where you work since it’s a jungle of tall office buildings, but on the other hand it can be a pain in the bum to travel home to after a night on the town, and it’s often lacking the culture and shops etc of other areas.

Griesheim, Rodelheim, Praunheim – Places that are far away that people only live in if they want super cheap apartments and/or don’t know Frankfurt very well.

Höchst – A suburb of Frankfurt. You get to it by train or by S Bahn. Technically it’s part of Frankfurt but it’s it’s own place and I imagine pretty annoying to live in if you don’t have a car to get about easily.

Offenbach – The town next to Frankfurt. You can easily get from there to Frankfurt on the S Bahn but people say it’s not a nice place to live. Probably has some of the cheapest apartments you can get.

Anything else to mention?

It can take anything from a week to three months to find an apartment here, depending on how picky you are and how you do in apartment interviews. Be aware that when you move out of an apartment you may be required to repaint it. In some contracts there are strict rules about when you are able to use the washing machine/play music/make noise, as well as how often you are required to open your windows to prevent mould. If your contract is in German then get a German person to outline it for you.

Helpful links -

Housing in Germany

Apartment rental – Toytown

Dictionary of related terms

General Frankfurt Information

Glad to be Born in the UK?

Last week I came across a wonderful link listing reasons why Japanese people felt glad to be born in Japan. The number one answer was that there are 4 seasons in Japan, which is a common joke within people who have lived in Japan. When Japanese people say this, they mean that there are 4 distinct seasons and that they enjoy each one to the fullest. I must admit, I have never experienced such amazing Autumns as I did in Japan, but that doesn’t mean that other countries don’t have the same (last Autumn was also pretty awesome, for example). Other answers are also typically “Japanese”, like “drinkable tap water” at number 2. A lot of Japanese people believe that their stomachs are different to those of non-Japanese people and refuse to drink tap-water outside of Japan,  as I did in India. On a side note, when I was at uni in Liverpool I noticed that the tap water there tasted horrible, but it’s pretty nice in my hometown of Bury St Edmunds. In Frankfurt, too, the water is pretty good, but has a lot of stuff in it that isn’t so good for your hair.

The list got me thinking about what makes me feel glad to have been born in the UK, and even what makes me glad to be in Germany. When I came back from studying in Japan, my mum told me that I’d become racist against my own people as I was just tired of how tired and unhealthy British people look, but really I was just missing Japan. Here in Germany I shock people by saying that I would much prefer to be here right now than in the UK, but rather than me being “racist” against the UK, Germany just offers a lot more for me than I could get back home.

ANYWAY I think I’d like to make two short lists – one for the UK and one in another post for Germany. If you’d like to make your own lists then please let me know in the comments section!

Reasons to be glad to be born in the UK -

1. The NHS.

When I was in Japan every time I got sick I felt that I was being forced to have extras even though I didn’t need them, just to bump up the price. While it’s the opposite in the UK and you may have hospitals being stingy with you, I have never had this experience personally and neither has anyone I know. I had extensive braces (think along these lines…) and it was all free. There’s no worrying about being able to afford these kinds of things, and it’s all available to everyone.

2. The food.

Yes, I can hear you laughing. Seriously, British food is really great. I mean, we’re not the fattest people in Europe for nothing, right? Cornish pasties are pretty much the yummiest things in the world. I miss Sunday roasts so much, but they take so much effort to cook for just one person. On the healthier end of the spectrum, there are shops like Eat which sell amazing healthy options at lunchtime. Supermarkets are full of healthier options and inspiration for better eating with locally sourced (not to be confused with locally horsed… fnar fnar…) items. This is something I’ve not experienced in either Japan or Germany. And if you have a bit of a sweet tooth, an American friend recently begged me to bring him back “some of those sugar coated gummies you guys have… fruit pasTILLES?” So apparently our sweets are pretty awesome, too!

3. Education.

There is a lot wrong with the British education system, least of all that your experience depends greatly on where you live. You can be in the catchment area for the best school around but someone a mile down the road is in the catchment area for an under-achieving school. We may not get the best scores on tests, or create the brightest children but what our education system does is teach children how to THINK. Again, I wasn’t really aware of this until I went to Japan and saw that everything is multiple choice in tests there. I explained to the teachers that in the UK even maths and science questions come in essay format – why won’t this experiment work? How would you improve on it next time? – there are so many ways in which we are asked to think and not regurgitate. So many times I asked my Japanese students to give their opinions, and every time it failed. When I was back home last, my youngest sister who is in year 10 right now was writing a complex essay in French on her thoughts about smoking. Britain creates independent thinkers, young people who go out and get what they want, people who think of ways to make things better. And with the bleak job prospects right now, we need these kinds of people.

4. It’s easier to “settle down” there.

I look back at people I went to school with and I see them buying houses and securing a good life for themselves. I look back at myself, living in a flatshare drowning rent money each month that won’t go towards anything. I would *love* to buy myself a house right now. To put money on a mortgage and work on a home, not a place to stay. But Germany (or Frankfurt at least) is a “rent for life” kind of place. And don’t even let me get started on Japan, where it’s impossible to even rent if you’re not a Japanese male. They will often turn away people for not being Japanese, from being a solo female and for other ridiculous reasons. When I left Japan I said I’d love to go back when I’m retired and live in a lovely old wooden Japanese house. I’d still like to do this if I could. But I doubt they’d let me.

5. British people are awesome.

Recently I’ve been feeling really sad about British people in general, mainly because I keep on making the mistake of listening to the Jeremy Vine show on Radio 2 every day, which is the audio version of The Daily Mail. There is SO MUCH racism on there that I decided to not put the BBC in this list. But I was speaking with some people who had studied in the UK and they reminded me how friendly people are there. If you are on your own, you can just go to a pub and you’ll have friends in minutes. People will strike up conversations with you on the London Underground. People will be concerned for your safety even though they are complete strangers. Sure there is a cesspool of people who don’t want any foreigners “coming in and stealing our jobs” but the majority of British people love Britain being so multicultural and welcome visitors and long-term stayers alike. We will even complain along with you when you moan about the UK. The friendliness of British people is something that surprises me every time I go home – and I am not the only one who has this as we talk about this regularly here.

So please let me know what reasons you have to be proud to be from where you are from! I’m really looking forward to comparing answers!

My Foot Ordeal – German Healthcare

Ever since Halloween, my right foot has been really hurting. In a small space at the base of the toe next to my little toe there has been an agonising pain that sometimes comes avec a bruise, sometimes with swelling. Thinking I’d just pulled a muscle in my foot, and since it’s not sore every day, I didn’t think I needed to go to get it seen to.

After about two weeks, I woke up and found it really hard to walk on my foot so I thought the time had come – I must go see the doctor. I have a really nice GP that’s pretty much opposite my apartment, and they speak English too (the female doctor’s son is in Cambridge so we often talk about that, and she tells me every time I go about how terrible the NHS is and how her son always comes home to Frankfurt every time he is sick.)

So, here’s the first lesson about German healthcare – you have your private healthcare plan which you pay into every month, but every quarter, if you go to see the GP, you have to remember to take 10 euros in cash to pay. I don’t know what this is, or why it is. But it is. I have forgotten my 10 euros a few times. Once, they sent a letter to my house reminding me to pay it, and I had to do a bank transfer online. Other times, they just get me to pay it the next time I’m there. But it needs to be paid.

So my GP tells me I need to go see the orthopedic doctors the other side of town. I confirmed with her that in these cases, one must go to the GP first and not just straight to the specialist and she said that that was correct. It would be nice to cut out the middle man, but I guess it’s better this way. In Japan, you’d just go to the specialist. I don’t think they even have GPs there.. maybe general doctors, but no one who refers you as they do in Germany (or in the UK).

It is a massive white whine, but I was quite put out that I spent more than 3 hours waiting around in the doctors. I waited, then I was taken to a room where I spoke with a nurse, then waited in the room for the doctor, then waited in the waiting room again, then had my x-ray, then waited, then spoke with the nurse and then spoke with the doctor.

It’s a massive white whine because in the UK, this process would have taken 3 weeks, not 3 hours. I should have been happy, but I was grumpy. Sat looking at an x-ray of my own foot for 20 minutes, when the doctor came in I said about how my foot didn’t look broken as I’d feared. “Are you an expert?” he asked me. “Uhm… no…” “What is your job?” “Uhm… Japanese translator…”

He stared at the screen, enlarged the picture, and announced that my foot was not broken.

He made some vague gestures and talked about how his English wasn’t so good and that he didn’t know the technical term, but I had “flat feet”.

.. Flat feet.

All this pain, is because my feet are flat.

I looked down at my prized 10 euro Primark shoes – prized because it’s been a year since I bought them and they are still going strong. I knew in my heart how I had wrecked my feet. He turned to me again with a massive needle in his hand. While the nurse pinned me down and stroked my head, he stuck that needle in my foot and put what felt to be a burning acid in my foot.

My remedie is shoe insoles, which are (for 30 euros) being made specially for my feet.

On the whole, I like the German medical system. It works. There is no faffing around like in the UK, and I trust them not to rip me off with things I don’t need like in Japan. It’s one of the many things that makes me think that Germany is by far the best place to live right now.

Sneak Preview – Top List

 

You’re in Frankfurt on a Monday night, have a spare 6 euros and don’t know what to do?! Come to Sneak Preview!

Sneak Preview is where you pay just 6 euros to see a film that isn’t out yet – but on one condition – you won’t know what film it is until it starts!

I’ve been going for over a year now… I’ve been a little lax in recent weeks since I usually have other things to do on a Monday night but it really is super fun every time I go. To show you the wide range of films we’ve had at Sneak, here is my top 5 best Sneak films, and top 5 worst. YAY!

Top 5 best films

1. Hysteria

The best ever was Hysteria. It’s basically the story of how the vibrator came about; set in old time London and starring Maggie Smith who is awesome. This film was not only super funny but educational too! What’s not to like?

2. Moonrise Kingdom

If you’ve not ever seen Moonrise Kingdom, SHAME ON YOU. It’s sooooo good. A whimsical tale of a cub scout who fell in love with a girl, it’s sometimes awkward in the way that young love is often awkward, but is fun for young viewers as well as seasoned film goers. By the way, if you like the fashion from the film, get inspiration here for Moonrise Kingdom outfits!

3. Crazy, Stupid Love

I love Emma Stone. Any film with Emma Stone in it is instantly a winner for me. I wish I was her. She’s so funny and cute and lovely. Not only does this film have Emma Stone in it, but it also has Ryan Gosling, who is my “celeb free-pass“. Omg. Ryan Gosling.

Although any film with these two in would be in my top 5 film anyway, this film is super funny and clever and a blast for all viewers. Did I mention Ryan Gosling?

4. Brave

Disney’s most recent masterpiece. Also, Scottish accents are so awesome. If a guy has a Scottish accent I go weak at the knees almost instantly.

“I’LL BEH FAITIN’ FUH ME OUHN HANNND!!!”

5. Attack the Block

Adam Buxton is amazing. I LOVE the Adam and Joe podcasts, and am a huge fan of everything they do. This film isn’t Adam’s finest work, but it’s still pretty good – A story of “yoofs” from London who come up against enemies a little stronger than the average bobby. It would have been higher on the list but I kind of thought that it glorified yob culture a little bit. It’s something I feel ashamed about as a Brit and I would have liked for the film to show that it’s not cool to be a nob a little bit more than it does.

Top 5 worst films (in reverse order for fun times)

5. Abduction

Twilight guy tries to prove that he can do things other than Twilight, fails.

Most memorably line – “OMG THERE’S A BOMB IN THE OVENNNNN! I’M NOT DYING HEREEE!!”

4. Contagion

The best part of this film was that Gwyneth Paltrow dies in the first few minutes. That’s not a spoiler – she’s dead on the poster. A “scary” film about a super virus that spreads over the world. Makes you want to carry hand sanitiser forever.

3. Cosmopolis

Other Twilight guy tries to prove that he can do things other than Twilight. Fails. Spoilers – nothing happens in this film. Good for fans of the inside of limos.

2. Act of Valor

American navy guys go and save the world from evil terrorists.

While the storyline is ok (though a big pile of biased American propaganda), the thing that makes this film one of the worst films in the world is that they didn’t have real actors but real navy guys. Who can’t act.

Most memorable quote -

“GRENAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADDDDDDDDEEEEEE!!!”

1. Black Gold

I just… there are no words. The storyline, the acting, the accents, the logic… everything in this film goes in the “what the fudge” category. I can’t even put it into words. Look it up on IMDB. Watch it if you like pain.

Though there are often droughts of good films, Sneak is really good and I highly recommend checking it out. It’s on every Monday night from 9pm at the CineStar cinema. Book online HERE!

TLS Frankfurt

 

I’ve just finished a 6 week improvisation course with the Frankfurt theatre group TLS.  It was SUCH a blast. I went to drama clubs all the time when I was in my teens, but I had to quit them when I got older. I’ve wanted to get back into performing for years but haven’t had the chance – and here was my chance!

It was a small group of just 14 people from all over. Aside from the teacher, there were only 4 other native speakers of English other than myself. It really made the improv games more fun to have international perspectives on things, and I learnt a lot from sharing and experiencing other peoples’ sense of humour.

Each class, we would focus on a different skill in improv – from learning how to set the scene with just one line, to learning to give and take in a scene and how to establish characters. It was made for the complete beginner so it was really easy to step right in there, but even for someone like myself who used to do a lot of this kind of stuff, there was plenty to learn.

On the last class, we had a little performance and I invited two friends of mine to come and watch us perform. It’s been so long since I’ve done anything like this, but it really was amazing. More than that, I made some really amazing friends there too – people I wouldn’t have necessarily met otherwise.

The next 6 week course is sadly fully booked now, but there is an advanced course in January which I would like to take. On the first Saturday of every month they hold a drop in session for a few hours in the afternoon, with tickets to see the professionals perform in the evening.

Even if you are not so much into the whole performing aspect of this, I highly recommend these classes. They are great for meeting new people and letting your hair down.

Find more information on this as well as all the other things TLS does on their homepage.

NaBloPoMo: Loneliness

 

My friends are doing NaNoWriMo – National Novel Writing Month this month. They will each sit and try to write a novel each throughout November. Today we sat in cafes with them writing away and me typing away at my blog. It seems like a really cool thing to be part of, but I don’t really write stories. BUT I found that there is a blogger version! NaBloPoMo is National Blog Posting Month, where the members will try to post every day.

I’ve not signed up officially because I don’t see the point in adding myself to a big long list of bloggers, but I will try to join in in my own way by blogging along with them. I also don’t see why it’s hosted on a females only blog website… can’t men join in?

ANYWAY, today’s theme is “When were you last really, truly lonely?“.

Being an expat, you can sometimes feel on top of the world – surrounded by truly amazing and international people, it can give you a real buzz. In Japan, at the start it felt great to have the locals come and ask me questions, and marvel at how I could speak Japanese. But after a while it just felt so fake. Were these Japanese people friends with me because they like me? Or do they like me purely because they think it’s cool to be friends with a foreigner?

When I was in Japan, I think this was the thing that brought me down the most and it really was the time when I have felt the most lonely and the most depressed. I worked super, super hard to build a group of friends (both foreign and Japanese) around me, but sometimes it just doesn’t happen. I got sick of superficial friendships and Japanese people being surprised that I can speak Japanese, and use chopsticks.

Though it’s not nearly as much, I still get pangs of loneliness here in Frankfurt. When I did the Twitter FFM thing the other week I did feel really alone in this city. On a closer scale, though I have amazing people all around me, sometimes it can really sting when you feel that no one really knows you deeply here – that all our friendships are quite new, and with people coming and going all the time, you never know how long an expat friendship will last.

At the end of the day, loneliness is just one of the downsides to living a great expat life. I would still choose working abroad to working back home any day.

Let’s see if I can blog every day in November! If you have a blog, please do join in!

4 Frustrating Things About Germany

After reading a wonderful blog post on things that annoyed the blogger about her adopted home of Senegal, I decided to write something similar about Germany.

Especially on my blog, I am a lot kinder to Germany than I ever was to Japan. I think it’s because I feel closer to Japan, so I’m harsher on it and want it to be better. On my old blog and also on Lang-8 I was forever annoying Japanese people with my posts about how my coworkers didn’t accept me, or how someone was racist to me, or how I didn’t like certain other cultural differences. Japanese people really don’t like you being critical… But it wasn’t that I was necessarily looking at Japan in a bad way, I think it’s because I had wanted to live there for so long, and I wanted Japan to love me as much as I loved it, that I was overly harsh on the country and its people.

With Germany I came here not expecting anything. I expected to just suck it up and get on with it because I wanted to work at Nintendo. But I really do love it here. Not in the same way that I love Japan. Japan was my dream – where I had wanted to live since I was little. I love Germany in that it’s safe and clean and a nice place to live. The people are lovely, the city is exciting. My work is fantastic and the people around me are amazing. But, of course, it’s not perfect here…. So here are my 4 frustrating things about Germany!

1. There are no 24 hour shops.

Anyone who has lived in Japan will tell you how amazing it is to have convenience stores open all night. In the UK, supermarkets are open 24/7. In Germany, shops in the centre close at 7 or 8 depending on what day of the week it is, and the supermarket closes at 10. When I’m coming in from a night out it’d be nice to be able to pop into a shop and buy something to snack on.. or when I’m late back like I am when I come home from Zumba, it’d be nice not to feel rushed because I only have 20 minutes left until the shop shuts.

2. Things rarely get delivered to you.

Unless you are/have a housewife/househusband, and are able to be there at all times during the day, don’t expect anything other than spam mail and small letters to be delivered to you. You will be sent on wile goose chases across the city (if you are in Frankfurt) to find which small corner shop (that closes at 4pm, by the way) your online purchase/stuff from home/care package has been sent to.

If you are very, very unlucky, your goods may be sent to the Zollamt – customs office, which is on the edge of town, about 30 minutes on the tram and another 15 minutes walking after that. Word of advice if this happens to you – always say that your stuff is a gift!! Otherwise you may have to pay extra on it!

3. The food is pretty salty.

I love German food. I don’t eat the crap stuff in the canteens anymore, so I really appreciate the good German food that I have once in a while. However, German food is really salty. I’m not sure if they, as a nation, feel particularly bad about this, but there doesn’t seem to be any obvious efforts to cut down on this.

4. (Frankfurt mainly) There are lots of homeless people.

The cities I’ve lived in before Frankfurt are Liverpool in the UK and Nagoya in Japan. In Liverpool there was a cute old man who used to play the violin on Bold Street all the time. Otherwise, there were no obvious homeless people. In Nagoya there are visible homeless people, but they are pretty sophisticated, and sit in Sakae station and paint and play instruments and watch tv on little handsets. They’re pretty pro-active about their situations.

In Frankfurt there are people with stumps for limbs, women wrapped in head scarves, young girls, men on crutches… all manner of people who make you feel so guilty for all that you have. It was one of the very first things that struck me about Frankfurt, and I tried to get involved with a soup kitchen. But no one would have me due to my lack of German skills. I was (and am still) very upset about this. A smile is the same in every language. I do give money to the women and young girls I see on the streets, but I don’t have enough to be able to give them as much as I feel I should. I feel constantly guilty about it – especially when they come into restaurants and go from table to table asking for money. I wish I was a big enough person to be able to offer them more than I do.

So, there we have it… they aren’t such bad frustrations. I think I am very mellow about living as an expat now. I’ve come to accept cultural differences as things that should not be debated or fought, but discussed and learnt from. The German way of life is constantly making me see things in new ways – I really do love it here.

If you’re an expat, I’ve love to hear your top 4 frustrating things about where you live!