20/9 to 30/9 - the end of language course and when lots of Germans bought me shots...

It's taken a while for me to update this - not just through laziness but because German 6GB internet must not be surpassed. I've survived 10 days without internet in my room and feel like I deserve some kind of medal. Or not. Anyway, I digress...

So, this last week and a bit brought my language course to an end and came with the creeping feeling that something wasn't quite right with the world. Essentially, I'd been bought shots by a worrying amount of German lads. Looking back over the three and a bit weeks since the start of everything, I realised I'd been bought shots by 5 separate groups of German lads (maybe there was one girl in one of the groups but that doesn't really help much). I'd had Jägermeister, Rhubarb schnapps, tequila, and my personal favourite - Vodka with fizzy sherbet - bought for me and couldn't really figure out why. Firstly I thought it was as a joke for me to drown my sorrows after the world cup, but noone really mentioned that, so I came to the conclusion that I was being hit on by a lot of German men at the same time. Well I was willing to accept being attractive to German men for the sake of a bit of cheap booze.

On the subject of alcohol (I am a student after all), I'm noticing a tendency towards continental drinking methods on my part. One Monday I even went to the student bar near my halls and didn't buy a single drink. And get this - I still had a good time. Crazy. To be fair, I made up for it the next Monday by getting into dangerous shots competitions and being forced to drink a litre Stein of water before I went home, so seems I'm still English at heart.

Staggering away from that subject, I used this last week and a bit to introduce some more positive aspects of English culture to the internationals. First idea was to make a nice wholesome shepherd's pie like mother used to. To be fair, it was doomed from the outset. Firstly I chose the warmest summery night we'd experienced the whole time, then went to Lidl only to find that concepts like lamb and beef mince and nice English herbs like Rosemary and Thyme don't exist over here. I left the shop with a packet of turkey mince, a shaker of paprika, and dread in my heart. The end result was just as disappointing as it sounds. Much more successful was the showing of 'The Germans' Fawlty Towers episode, just need to pluck up the courage to show that to some actual Germans now, will be a good test of the famous sense of humour...

No home should be without one

Trips-wise, Düsseldorf was visited and found to be very nice, with an excellent line in shisha bars. The Westfallenstadion (AKA church of football) was visited, which was all very nice, but the fanshop was the real star. Here you can buy BVB (Borussia Dortmund for the uninitiated) wine, garden gnomes, Monopoly, and my personal favourite - a toaster which pops up with the club logo. Genius.

 The last day in Dortmund before we had a week's break and I headed back to rainy old England has to be reported on. This involved a trip to the Actien Brauerei in Dortmund, a tour around the old machines etc, and then the taste testing. Oh yes. Between 16.00 and 17.00 we were sat on long wooden tables being ploughed with glass after glass of Brinkhoff's, Dortmunder Kronen and DAB. How we were meant to actually taste them and appreciate the flavour is a bit beyond me when a new one was passed out every 5 minutes, but I'm not one to complain. Feeling rather tipsy, we headed to our finnish friend Petra's house to make pasta for 20 people, which ended up with huge chunks of garlic after my drunken chopping. No-one seemed to notice anyway. From there we headed onto Dora's for some drinking games and then for some fun in Spunk, because if there's one thing this country has taught me, it's that everyone loves Spunk.