Apologies

I don’t know if anyone will be reading this, but I felt the need to explain my long absence, so I decided to write this post. Let me apologize for my being absent for so long without any sort of explanation before. I had some severe personal problems that I prefer not to specify here, but I have them more or less figured out now. However, I will not continue this blog, at least not for the next few months because I am doing my semester abroad now and it’s hard to find any free time at all. I am always at university or at some sort of Erasmus event with some friends.  

So, for anyone who is interested in knowing more about this, well, I am in Rome now. Actually, I applied for Erasmus (in case you’ve never heard of it, it’s a European exchange program) in England, but at my university there were only four places available while about 200 students applied for it. But they offered me to go somewhere else. So, I ended up choosing Rome, since I learned some Italian at school and I’ve always wanted to see Rome. I’ve never been there before, I’ve also never been abroad alone or for more than two weeks, so as you can imagine coming here was quite exciting for me. 

And I have to say, I absolutely love it. There are so many beautiful places to visit here, there’s always something new to see. I love being abroad anyway and I love the Italian language. I love waking up in the morning with my window open and hearing people in the streets talk in Italian. Of course, it’s also much warmer here than in Germany. What I love most is meeting so many people from all over the world (mostly Europe) and making friends with them. I actually even avoid the other German students. I mean, there are enough of them in Germany, so why would I want to spend all my time here with Germans? The only slightly negative thing about talking to all sorts of different people all the time is that I feel like my English is actually getting worse here. Most of the Erasmus students don’t know much Italian, so we usually talk in English. Unfortunately, so far I haven’t met any native speakers and a lot of the students are not very good at English, so you have to try to adapt a little so that they can understand you. By the time I am back, I will probably speak English with an Italian or a Lithuanian accent; Lithuanian because I am currently spending most of my time with two girls from Lithuania. 

By the way, one thing that you should NOT do here is being out alone at night as a young woman. I always meet with some friends when I go out, but Rome is so big and no one lives near my apartment, so at first I always went home alone. Normally I don’t have a problem with that, I also do that in Germany and I am not someone who is easily scared anyway. But I can tell you that it was not a good idea.

I had to learn quite fast that even during the day, it can be quite difficult. Something that I still don’t know how to do is being unfriendly with men. I am used to trying to be friendly and normally, when I’m not interested, I still try to let them know politely and in Germany that works. But in that aspect, Rome is very different from where I come from. So, I’ve been told that I am too nice. 

Anyway, I am going back to university now. Actually I just wanted to explain why I haven't been around anymore. Again, I am sorry for not having continued my posts like I said I would. But I hope you understand. If you have any questions about Rome or anything else, don’t hesitate to ask. 

I hope all of you are fine and have a great time, wherever you are.