It’s been about six months since I left Germany, but it seems like some German habits are quite hard to shake off.

In Germany, as well as some other European countries, have a useful system when it comes to recycling bottles. When you buy a bottle of drink, you pay about 10 – 15 cent extra. This is called ‘Pfand’, it works as a deposit on your bottle basically. So when you take your bottle back to the supermarket (or wherever you purchased it), you get your Pfand back. This was a particularly handy thing for house parties, where people tended to leave their beer bottles. After my leaving party, we got about 40 Euros worth of Pfand back!

I tended to collect my bottles and take them all back at once when I went shopping; this is what most people do! So upon cleaning my room in Swansea the other day I found that this habit of collecting bottles has yet to leave me…

I guess you can take the girl out of Germany, but you can’t take the bottle-collecting German out of the girl!

I know Mondays are normally reserved for my Movie Monday posts, but I have something a little different on my mind this week…

Namely that, this time last year I had just begun my German adventure and was on the induction course in Altenberg meeting the people that were to become some of my best friends in the course of my year abroad.

Although I’m certain that my business with Germany is by no means done, I can’t help but feel a little sad and nostalgic. So much has changed since I left for Dortmund, from some personal situations to my sewing and to my career aspirations. I actually have a plan for when I’m done with University now, whereas I didn’t have a bloody clue where I was going with my life this time last year! I’ve met the most amazing people, and I can’t wait to visit them in their respective locations.

Not to mention that this blog was pretty much in its infancy back then! I feel like it represents me much more accurately as a person now, and I’m more at ease with writing it than I ever was back then.

So tonight, as I chill out to watch The Shawshank Redemption for next week’s Movie Monday, I’ll be wearing my I <3 U Dortmund t-shirt – which you can buy here (for those who don’t know, the U is the old brewery in Dortmund which has become the symbol of the city) – and reminiscing about those good old German days. I’m actually wearing it with a skirt I made in preparation for Self Stitched September! Please excuse my heavily bruised legs, it’s been a crazy few weeks at  training!

Speaking of Dortmund, please do go check out my article about it over at Third Year Abroad!

Anyone got any recommendations of German music I should be listening to?

I’ll be shouting for Deutschland in half an hour! Come on my German babes, Italy are out and you’re my only hope!

Don’t get me wrong. I adore Wales – I love how we’re never in the World Cup so everyone supports ‘Anyone But England’, I’m loving the weather right now and I especially love occasionally hearing a bit of Welsh while walking through Cardiff town centre… but my goodness, I miss Germany terribly. Family and friends time has been great, but I’m really feeling a bit of the old Heimweh* right now.

Part of it may be that I’m being a little bit lazy now I’m at home and have far too much time to overthink things. Perhaps it’s also a case of reality hitting me, hard, since I’ve arrived back in Wales. A lot of people I started Swansea University with are leaving and heading either to their respective home towns or to completely different places where they’ll embark on their ‘grown up’ life. It’s made me realise that I need to make some decisions about where I want to be this time next year, whereas this time last year I knew that I’d be in Germany in a few months.

What a depressing post this is turning out to be!! Any of you just back from a Year Abroad and feeling the effects?

*That would be homesickness. Even though Germany’s not my mother country, I feel that’s an appropriate word.

Right now I’m adjusting to the language change around me; clearly not as difficult a task as I’m switching to my native English instead of to the really-not-native German, but I’m still saying ‘Danke’, ‘bitte’ and ‘Hallo!’ to anyone I interact with. It’s weird to hear English all around me! Not to mention that I keep expecting to see my  favourite bakery haunts and Bratwursts on offer in the train station. When I picked up my train tickets, I searched for the option to print my journey itinerary and of course found none, because I’m not dealing with Deutsche Bahn anymore! No instances of anyone noticing my newly acquired German stare… yet.

Now I’ve been home just under a week, it’s crazy how quickly you can settle into your old routine. As for what’s in store for me this Summer, well that  mostly depends on whether or not I’ll get a job! For now I’m enjoying the gorgeous weather and looking forward to Swansea on Sunday. It feels good to be back.

I can’t quite believe that this week is my last. This time next week I’ll be back in Wales, in fact, at this exact time next week I’ll be at training! While I’m excited to be back in the U.K, leaving Germany will be difficult. I love Germany, I love Germans and their orderly, staring, beer-drinking ways. Germany feels like a second home to me, and I’ll miss Dortmund terribly.

But I’ve said enough about how much I’ll miss Germany – I just wanted to share the fact that my parents are now, for all intents and purposes, GERMAN. They travelled to Cologne for a mini city break and to basically take half of my things home. So, this meant I exchanged my very full suitcase for their very empty one… except they forgot that their passports were in the back pocket. HOW SILLY. I got a text this morning (because my Mum tried to ring me several times and just got answered by a German man, this is what happens when you forget to put the dial code in) and sent over their passport numbers, and after much toing and froing around Cologne airport on their part, they succeeded in getting back to the U.K!

I really really hope this doesn’t happen to me next week! Note to self : CHECK FOR PASSPORT EVERY FIVE MINUTES!

Well, well, well, look what just turned up on Spiegel.de’s international section :

The Germanic Stare-Down : Whatcha Lookin’ at Granny?

You jump into the subway on your way to work in the morning and plop down in the nearest seat. Glancing up from the morning paper, you can’t help but notice that the person across from you is staring at you for all he’s worth. You break the gaze, but each time you look back, he’s still staring. Is it a challenge? A come-on? Do you have food on your face? You look away, but can’t help squirming.

Welcome to Germany, the land where a bit of intense eye contact is a daily occurrence — so much so that many expats and visitors have dubbed it the “Germanic Stare Down.

This article offers some interesting explanations for the stare, such as Germany’s past concerning the Staatssicherheit, more commonly known as Stasi. For those not in the know, the Stasi were the secret police of the GDR (East Germany) and were highly efficient in their spying methods, from wiring houses to even coercing civilians into becoming unofficial spies, sometimes having them gather information on their own family. Though I wouldn’t say that this was the case in NRW, being in the West of Germany.

I’ve come to love the German Stare anyway. My tactic is to stare back, though I’ve seen the old grin, wave and ‘HIYAAA’ employed to great effect. The article suggests the old ‘take a photo, it’d last longer’ route – when I first visited Augsburg, we challenged one another to actually do this auf  Deutsch. So : ‘Mach ein Foto, es wird laenger dauern’!’

I wonder if I’m more of a Starey Marey after nine months in Deutschland?

The abundance of May public holidays aren’t all that I’ll miss in Germany; it’s odd having built a life here and having to leave it. My (now daily now there’s one at the end of my road) trips to Rewe, Backwerk (bakery) and the Kiosks (especially on Sundays when everything except the Kiosks are closed!) shall be sorely missed, not to mention all the German acquaintances I’ve made, from my housemates, to the teachers to the students at school. I’ll truly miss Team Fabelhaft – a group of people who so often reduce me to tears of laughter – so they can all expect visits when we return to the U.K.

So much has changed since I set off to Cologne at the end of August ‘09 – some changes have been beneficial, others have been regretful, but I wouldn’t change this year abroad for the world. In fact, I’d love to do it all over again.  There’s a scheme in Nordrhein Westfalen which involves native speakers being on payroll as teachers in schools here for contracts lasting a year. So you never know, after I finish my degree I could be back in good old NRW again…