My month in review - January

I have been really struggling with writing this review. My overview of December came easy to me as so much was happening and all of it tangible and easy to describe, however January was different. Most importantly, because it was my last month in the UK and that involved a lot of tiny little heartbreaks and goodbyes. Additionally, even though I feel like the month has flown by with me running around most days, a lot of it was just me meeting friends in the pub or in a restaurant for dinner and that seems a bit trivial to write about. I will attempt though to give you a bit of a peek on what I’ve been up to.

When I left off last month it was 00.00 New Year’s eve and I was with my friends in Paris celebrating the holiday. As the clock struck twelve we cheered and moved on with the party. I have always spend New Year’s with my family and that’s always been amazing and fun but spending it in a tiny apartment with some of my closest friends was just really special. We sang Dutch songs, which we normally loathe, and drank and danced till late. Finally, we all collapsed and slept for ages.

The next day we went to see the Eiffel Tower, as we had only little time left and going to Paris and not visiting the city’s main attraction seems a bit mental. Anyway, it was very foggy so despite our best efforts I guess we can only say we’ve seen half of the Eiffel Tower. Still, walking around the city with my girls made for a great day. Finally, my friends brought me to the station where I took the train back to Derby.

After I came life started again really quickly. I got a new housemate who quickly became a great addition to our household and an amazing new friend. I introduced him to some of the other people I’d met the months before and we had all the fun singing karaoke in the pub, going out for nice dinners and dancing in the club. It made my last month so much easier as I was busy all the time which made it impossible for me to mope about the fact that it was almost over.

I also managed to reconnect with some people that I hadn’t seen in several months. More surprisingly, they were all so friendly to me and I’m so glad that I had the chance to say goodbye properly to everyone.

At work things were also coming to a close. During my final weeks I worked hard on finishing my internship assignment and preparing myself mentally for my final evaluation talk. In the end this turned out to be no problem at all. Like with my previous evaluation, in my head I’d already failed even though my supervisor was actually incredibly nice and positive about how I’d done. So, my business plan was handed in and my internship was evaluated with 9s and 10s and that was it. After 6 months I finally pulled the door shut behind me and I walked away feeling like my chest was going to crack open from all the emotions going through me.

That same evening my housemates and I had a bit of a goodbye dinner. It was actually the first time in months that I’d eaten together with any housemates, and it felt great knowing that I’d met these people and that we’d shared these couple of months or weeks together.

The next day was odd. I had to pack but I also wanted to say goodbye as around dinner time my sister and brother in law were set to come over for our mini-break and I wanted to say goodbye by myself beforehand. By the time I’d packed up it was already late though so I just took a quick walk along some of my favourite spots and then got home just in time to open the door to my visitors.

Our plan was to stay in Derby for the weekend with a day-trip to Nottingham. That day-trip lasted only a couple of hours though because the weather was horrible and there’s really not that much to see. Mostly, we just spent the weekend sitting in various pubs, which especially my sister really enjoyed. For me it was the perfect ending to a semester in the UK.

Monday morning we got in the car with all the stuff, I handed my keys back to my landlady and we drove off to visit Bath. We got there by the end of the afternoon and checked in a lovely Airbnb. It was honestly amazing. We stayed in that night and ordered pizza and lay on the couch watching Netflix. The next day we did explore the city by doing a bit of shopping, getting the most incredibly carrot cake ever and visiting the Jane Austen centre where we dressed up as characters from that time.

After that we got in the car again and went on our way to Brighton. Which is when things got a bit inconvenient. As we were cruising along in the pouring rain all of a sudden our wipers stopped functioning. As it was both dark and very rainy we immediately stopped driving and called the AAA. It took them almost an hour to get there and after that the guy spend maybe another hour trying to fix them but unfortunately nothing worked. Finally, we drove after him to a garage in a nearby town. It was the kind of town that you do not normally go to unless you like know someone there and that’s where he left us. The car would be looked at the next day so we had to find accommodations for the night.

I ended up calling several hotels, finally finding one that was overly expensive and quite far away but that was at least had a room available. Additionally, all the taxis in the environment seemed to be taken so we had to walk for about an hour through the rain to get there. Still, when we got there I felt relieved. The people there were incredibly nice and they immediately got us food and told us they would help us out in the morning. We got a delicious steak from them and finally collapsed in our beds for the night.

And that was January for me. I can’t believe I’m leaving it on another cliff hanger. I promise next month will be less interesting. In any case, I hope you liked reading about my month. As I’m writing this way too late at least February is already largely on its way. See you next month!