How I Ended Up Here...

How I Ended Up Here...

Well, well, well here we are, just one month left which seems like a long time when you think it’s a quarter of the time I’ve been here but just like the previous months it’s going to fly by. Ever since I first applied for uni and put Winchester as my second choice (God bless Brighton!) I was intrigued by the idea of studying abroad. I saw that Winchester offered it and it was one of the reasons I put it as my second choice, that and in reality the fact it was the only university I applied for with lower grades.

Unfortunately, come August 2011 I didn’t receive the grades I hoped for and then was pushed in the direction of Southern university, Winchester. It is not my kind of place but I don’t doubt that it is beautiful on a sunny day at least. I hadn’t looked into this uni much and hadn’t even visited it. Thankfully I was lucky enough to be close to a decent guy back then who drove me down to take my first look around but unlucky for him he got all the negativity as well as positivity I voiced from that trip. In simpler terms - I dreaded it.

 I looked into clearing and going to Northampton (silly girl). I just didn’t want to go to Winchester and sorting out my own housing made it even less appealing. My first year was a rollercoaster for many reasons I leave unwritten this time because most of you know the stories. Put aside everything bad that happened I have had a lot of happy times and met some incredible people too but most of all it has given me the lifetime experience of studying abroad, so this is where I return to the topic I first wanted to talk about.

As a lot of you know I have German family. Half of my family live in the city of Munich which is in Bavaria. I have visited it twice over the past two summers and I automatically fell in love with it so this is what made me want to study in Germany. It was choices between Germany, Poland, Prague and America. I am not really sure why I didn’t look into America but perhaps that would have been a bit too daunting for me. Therefore, I chose Germany.

I had no idea what Dusseldorf was like, how big it was or the sort of things you could do. I only knew that it was up North in Germany.  I expected it to be like Munich and Bavaria but to my surprise after I arrived it is not. In fact I don’t think it really resembles the German lifestyle in its entirety. I think Bavaria pretty much represents Germans at their most German. Bavaria is pretty spectacular and the countryside especially. It is magical and mysterious; huge lakes with tree after tree surrounding them and then high mountains which form part of the Alps towering over in the background. It’s insanely beautiful.  Dusseldorf is still beautiful but in a different way. My cousins had warned me that it was much more industrialised which I don’t really appreciate. You have to look a little harder for the pretty parts such as the Japanese Gardens in Nord Park or Schloss Benrath which is a little further out of the centre.

It is not just the aesthetics of Dusseldorf but also the convenience of where it is located. From being here I have been able to visit Cologne which is one of the four largest cities, Amsterdam, soon Brussels and of course Rome. I mean you could say it’s possible to visit these places from anywhere but it’s the fact that being in Dusseldorf has pushed me to go and explore them and not forgetting how cheap and easy it has been to travel there. Travelling is truly one of the things that inspire me the most and with the past year opening my mind to travel writing this has given me huge opportunities and a tonne to write about. People must wonder and even get frustrated with the amount I post on blogs and social networks but it all aids me for the future. Practice makes perfect and most of all I always enjoy an outside opinion on my writing, especially when it’s a good one.

I was looking back at my Tumblr posts from before I arrived here and I was dreading it. I moved past the phase of being excited to being absolutely terrified. My friends assured me how much I’d love it and I kept repeating myself saying ‘But what if I absolutely hate it?’ to which most of them laughed.  I don’t know why I found it so impossible to see through the fear of leaving, to see further to the point where I was going to absolute love it. Why would I hate it? It’s been brilliant even if at times it has been intense.

Just before I left I was a little lost with things, having had four months of nothing to do which left me unsettled but being here has put everything in perspective. Now I'm happier than I have been in a long time. You get a lot more than just an adventure when you do something like this. It really makes you appreciate things in life, just being away from what was comfortable and starting new. It was hard, but powering through it made it into something unforgettable. I have learnt that I am definitely not a home girl and I can be away from stability and explore into something deeper and more challenging. I have learnt that it’s perfectly fine to get nervous and scared because at the end of the day those anxieties are fun in making your way to the bigger picture. No matter what it is, if you are tempted by something and if you want to do something but are afraid, carry it out and pursue it until it becomes that aspiration you made happen.  Otherwise it will just be something you wish you hadn’t given up on. Believe me because I'm talking from experience and I'm honestly one of the biggest worriers you'll probably ever meet.