2011 is nearly over so time for some recap. I experienced going over all the stuff that happened this past year to be very comforting. I thinks it's important not only to look where you want to go and what you want to achieve the next months but also to look back and look at all the great successes you already celebrated as well as the little moments that warmed your heart.
It was the year of travelling. The year started in Stockholm where I celebrated New Year's Eve with some Erasmus friends from Linköping. We did cheese fondue before we fought our way through heavy snow fall to the outdoor museum Skansen to see the fireworks and hear the choir singing.
From there we went to Kiruna in Lapland with the night train where we have rented a little cabin. It was unbelievably cold and frosty but so so nice to be in the middle of nature and seeing northern lights shining down on us in bright green colours.
Then it was time to get to work and finish my master thesis. I held my presentation at the end of February which meant the end to life as a student and also to living in the Netherlands.
Because ony five days later I started my internship at Paul Hartmann AG in Heidenheim. I met wonderful people there that helped me through the ups and downs of working life. We hang out at the weekly Stammtisch in pubs and went to the traditional spring fest in Stuttgart wearing leather pants and Dirndl.
Weekends and holidays were used for going back and forth to Sweden to see my love. Although we only had a few hours together, we did some really nice things like bike tours, picknicks on trees and swimming in icy swedish lakes.
And every now and then I managed not only to see my family but also some friends that I met in Sweden as well as some from my home town. Being reunited was very nice and always very special and brought me to places I haven't been before like Vienna, Freiburg and Braunschweig as well as to places I haven't been in quite a long time like Münster and Cologne.
I also ran my first 10 km race in June in Heidenheim and made it just under an hour. Preparation and the actual race were tough and since then I never did it again. But it's definetily on my list for next year to do it again.
When the internship was over, Clément and I did a kajak trip around the archipelago just outside of Stockholm. We had a tent, food and water and spent four nights in the wilderness. It was quite an experience feeling so far from civilisation.
In the beginning of July, I started working in a summer camp for children close to Heilbronn. Clément had the chance to work on two organic farms not too far away from me to we could see each other every week for some hours.
And then it was time for some real holidays and we went to the Island Oleron in France and spent two weeks surrounded by long sand beaches, blue skies and sunshine. From there, we went to Paris and I really fell in love with this beautiful city!
On the way back, I did a job interview which at first didn't sound very promising as they just wanted to get to know me and not being sure if they really have a job for me. And then, only one week later I found myself searching for flats in Ulm! Since October I am officially a researcher at the Center for Neuroscience and Learning at the ZNL. It's a lot of fun and I feel like I am at the right place at the right time, which is a very nice feeling.
And then the year end with all the usual traditions. Christmas ball, breakfast with the whole family on the second day of christmas and watching Astrid Lindgren movies with my cousins at my grandparents house.
I spare you with all the drama that took place when I had to work on my thesis and couldn't seem to finish it on time. When I missed the train to the airport and had to take a taxi for 80 euros to still catch the flight to Sweden. The uncertainty when I was looking for a job. The frustration that came with every rejection....
So all in all 2011 was quite a good year for me and I hope that 2012 will be just as good and maybe even a bit better :)
Happy new year, my dear friends!!
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