my time here in england is over. time just flew by. i spent 290 days in this country, 290 days full of experiences and great moments. tomorrow i'll be back in switzerland, even though i can't really believe it yet. it somehow feels like leaving home to go home.

i’ve been to school here today for the last time, said goodbye to mr. howard and the other teachers. i had to say goodbye to all my friends; it was horrible. but it didn’t feel real, i kinda think i’ll see them all again at school next monday when this weekend is over. i know i’m going home, but the message doesn’t seem to have reached all the parts of my brain yet. maybe it helps me to realise when i try to summarise the last ten months:

i had a great time here, honestly. it was awesome. i was quite lucky to stay in tunbridge wells - i had the opportunity to go to london and the sea very easily. i had a nice host family (i am very thankful i could stay with them), found fabulous friends - what more could one wish for?

going to school over here was a pretty cool experience. my four subjects pleased me. first of all, the english lessons with mr. howard: mr. howard is just a unique person. i learned a lot about the english culture and the english language. the pub games... well, they were funny, most of them. i liked the eating lessons the best (if you know me, that does probably not surprise you). then, photography. photography was just great - i learned a lot about digital and especially analogue photography and i worked on many really cool projects. i then got to love maths over here. back in switzerland, i never considered it being fun, solving problems. my three lovely teachers over here could deliver everything in a way that made me curious, so i started to actually understand, not only learn by heart. finally, my last subject: health and social care. i can really not say i had that 'aha-effect' about anything i learned in health and social care; however, the lessons were quite easy-going... i enjoyed that :D

i think i ought to talk about british food at this point. many people warned me about british food ('es isch im fall huere gruusig!' - 'ich hoffe, du hesch gern lamm? böckel' - 'da chönnds di ja nachher hei rolle!'). i can say now: i do not agree. british food is generally great. maybe i was just lucky as my host family cooked very well, but i think i can generally say that the brits have some really good dishes: shepherd's pie, jacket potatoes, roast dinner with yorkshire pudding, beef stew, fish and chips, english breakfast (for dinner)... additionally, they have lovely crisps in awesome flavours (salt & vinegar, cheese & onion, prawn cocktail, barbecue...) and very nice desserts (apple pie with custard or cream, victorian sponge cake...) the only things i did not really like were meat pies and sausages (and sausage rolls). and about the 'british people are fat'-thing... okay, there are some obese people, but i cannot generally say that british people are fatter than swiss people. and about the 'sie rolled dich hei'-bit - i didn't really become a fatty (surprising, with all the food parcels i got sent over :D - maybe because of the superb zumba lessons...).

the second thing people warned me about was the british weather. i agree, somewhere closer to the equator, the weather would probably have been nicer. when i came over, the sun showed up daily, for about three weeks. then winter started and lasted until may. yes, i spent a rainy autumn over here, had snow in winter, but i actually don't think it was way worse than 'nebelsuppe' in zurich. the only thing that is annoying is the wind. it's permanently windy, which makes it feel colder than it actually is. however, my last two or three weeks were actually pretty nice and sunny.

and when thinking about the weather... actually, on most of my saturday trips, we had nice weather. i visited lots of lovely places: brighton, maidstone, windsor, canterbury, birmingham, hastings, oxford, folkestone, cambridge, greenwich, winchester, salisbury, stonehenge, eastbourne, whitstable, ramsgate, southend, sevenoaks, dover, margate; then the great trip to ireland. additionally, i spent many really cool days in london. i will miss all that travelling so much! i take many wonderful memories home of all those trips (and a few photographs. just a few. notice the irony.). by visiting all those places, i got to see many different sides of england. i got to love england, and i don't regret for a second that i decided to go to the united kingdom. 

i now have to leave behind 'a second life'; a life i put quite a lot of effort into building up. i have to leave really good friends behind (at least with the promise that we will meet up again), which is quite hard. i never want to forget about my year, as i have gained so much. writing this blog was a good possibility to share my experiences and photographs with you guys. and about the photographs... my photo library expanded by 26  gigabytes during the last ten months. i hope my photographs help me not to forget too quickly... i'll miss england, and i will definitely come back from time to time in my future life. 

at least i can look forward to seeing my family and all my friends again. even though i wasn’t really properly homesick during my time here apart from one or two occasions, i did miss switzerland, my family, my friends. i especially missed the food :D i’ve already written a huge list of things i want to eat again when i’m back... also, i missed the beautiful landscape (switzerland just is a very nice country, i noticed that after seeing nothing but green fields and sheep :D). but going home is also weird. i can’t remember thoroughly what my ‘old life’ was like. i’m a bit scared of not being able to ‘find back’, even though that may sound ridiculous to you. i’m scared that everything changed that had been important to me - i know that i’ve changed... i’ve been having those moments of seriously thinking of taking a plane to hawaii or some other dodgy place far away tomorrow at the airport cause i just can’t stand being between two worlds, not here anymore but not in switzerland yet. i then tell myself that i should be pretty positive everything will work out; as i think i learned to handle new and unknown situations over here. i do sometimes succeed convincing myself - and then i am just looking forward to the upcoming days again.

oh god i can’t believe that my time here is over!! i’d like to thank everyone at this place who supported me during my exchange year; i’d like to thank all my lovely friends and my family. 

again: i had an awesome time. and i love england. 

see you soon.

bye-bye sea... i went to brighton with ellen and minky today to see the sea again before leaving. when we arrived around noon, it was cloudy and very windy. later it changed and went sunny :)

i feel really weird. time flew by, i remember having a month left over here and thinking 'oh, still a lot of time left'. i then remember having two weeks. one week. and now suddenly two days. it's not even two days, just two nights! i don't know if i should burst into tears or laugh. this is so strange. i don't want to pack. i don't want to say goodbye tomorrow to all my dear friends. i don't want to leave behind. on the other hand, i am looking forward to seeing everyone again at home. gosh!

school again... mr. h. is still running his lessons. we took a group picture today, almost all of the internationals are on there :) i then said goodbye to my lovely maths teachers, which was quite sad, really. i will miss them!

in the evening, we all went out for a last meal together at wagamama's. 

from back to front/left to right: nis, luca, alex, maryam, me, ellen, svenja, diana, kelly and minky :)

:)

i went to lakeside today with ellen to do some last shopping (but just suitcase-friendly stuff, of course). i will miss republic, forever 21 and even primark :(

i believe in summer.

i went to london today for the - sob - last time (but just for this year abroad. i will come back!). ellen and i first when to the national gallery once again and then walked around. look at the pictures...

national gallery

piccadilly circus

soho square

bridge near charing cross

another touristy photograph :D

today, i had the last coffee and cake meeting with my local rep sue. at least something i won't  really miss (i had to wait for the bus for 40 bloody minutes to get to her house). we had to sit in the garden once again, even though it was a bit chilly (13°c). sue told us all about getting to the airport on saturday (apparently i get a lift to gatwick and then have to take the coach to heathrow, but alright) and we had some coffee that tasted a bit like washing-up liquid. apart from the meeting, my last sunday wasn't really spectacular. i just took all the post cards i received during the year from my walls, and generally started to get things ready to pack. it feels totally weird and i am a bit sad when thinking about leaving so soon...

saturday was the last trip-day... i went to margate with ellen. margate is a seaside town with a lovely sandy beach. well, it was very windy, and the sand turned out to be not so lovely when blown into my face, but anyway, we had a good time. besides a sweet old town, margate has got a really cool art gallery. there was an exhibition on with the title 'curiosity - art and the pleasure of knowing' with many interesting digital and analogue photographs (even some of the first cyanotypes by anna atkins), some sketches by leonardo da vinci, then some stuffed animals, a few film installations... very nice! in the evening i went to ellen's and we had a nice dinner and watched the final of britain's got talent. a really good last saturday!

selfie on the train :D

sand in my face - oh i love it!

art museum

cyanotype by anna atkins

and let the lasts begin... 

we had the last eating lesson with mr. h. today: strawberries with sugar and cream. it was delicious!

in the evening, i went to zumba for the last time. i really enjoyed it! just my feet suffered a bit, i already sent my sport shoes home. apparently, dancing in vans gives you blisters... but the dancing was worth every blister! 

london... i think i went to london for about twenty times during this exchange year - i will miss it so much!

@knightsbridge

camden

wanna buy a flamingo? - camden

time is flying - camden

@monument

my lovely friends and i :)

lime street

buildings around lime street

lloyds building @lime street (this architecture!)

:)

which bike is your favourite?

park @st paul's

today, the sixth form leavers assembly took place at school. it was mainly to say goodbye to the year 13s who go off to uni or work (but also somehow to us internationals, even though we'll still be around at school until the end of next week). 

friends :)

it's unbelievable how much stuff i bought/got in ten months...  as there would be no way of fitting everything into my suitcase, i posted a parcel of nine kilograms (my arms are still aching) today. bye-bye shoes, jackets, jumpers, books! greetings, the packing-genius (well, not quite).

thank god for photoshop!

and: notice the airplane! :)