25 Things I am looking forward to going home for.

Blah Blah Blah, lists aren't proper writing, blah blah.... I couldn't think of a better way of presenting this post so I just wrote a list of reasons why I am looking forward to going back to the UK! There is an equal, or maybe even longer, list of things I will miss and why I don’t want to go back. But this will make me far too depressed about the fact in 3 weeks’ time I will be on a flight back to the UK so I won’t write it now.  

In no particular order, I am looking forward to: 

1. Food. I could probably name 25 different food items and meals I am looking forwards too but that would be dull.
2. A proper cup of breakfast tea. I haven’t had anything other than green tea in far too long.
3. Quiet. Spain is loud. But then I am going home so there is unlikely to be any peace there.
4. Not having to use plug adaptors. Hate them, hate them, hate them.
5. Pounds. I have given up trying to convert the cost of things in shops, so I will probably be able to budget a bit better back in the UK
6. Probably should add something about seeing my friends and family…
7. Fluffy warm towels. It’s the simple pleasures.
8. Which brings me on to radiators. I miss being able to make things, including myself, toasty.
9. I am so looking forward to being reunited with all my shoes. 2 pairs on rotation is not cutting it at all.  
10. ROSIE CUDDLES
11. Being rid of the vpn to watch iPlayer. Or any TV in English come to think of it! Dubbed telly drives me mad.
12. No longer nearly dying every time I cross the road. Thank god for the green man as I can’t get used to looking the wrong way when I cross the road.
13. Not sounding ‘posh’ compared to every other single person I meet. Yes I have a British accent, no I’m not from Downton Abbey.
14. Lined paper. What is the obsession with squared paper?
15. Not being charged at every cash point which is not your bank. So much effort. So much thinking ahead.
16. Shops being open on a Sunday. Nope still not used to everything being closed on Sundays.
17. No longer having to master a Spanish keyboard. Typing on a computer at work takes nearly double the time! Who even knew they were different?
18. Understanding things. I still don’t really know how my phone contract works, I just go into the shop and point.
19. Not feeling weird for wanted to eat dinner at 6.30. It is not the afternoon, its tea time!
20. Ann the tea lady. Nuf said
21. Having a haircut. I am far far far to scared to go here. Probably irrationally but I am way to fond of my hair to let something happen to it.
22. Not feeling so young all the time. Who knew that in most places they think you are crazy for doing your masters at 21…
23. Phone Calls. Facetime and Skype are too much effort for me and I have never been a fan!
24. My fluffy blanket. And a double bed. Not that my bed at home is a double but I am sure here is a seriously small single.
25. Not having to do lab work. I have realised I am much too emotionally unstable and over dramatic for lab work. I think undergrad teaching labs taught me that, but working here has double confirmed that I am way too nervy and on edge to work in a lab full time. It’s not good for my health!

That blue sky! Just one of the things I'll miss. Overcast isn't going to cut it.

Also: Every single thing on this buzzfeed is right - especially the one about boredom - weighing out 25 vials on a Friday afternoon makes the whole weekend seems more fun!!!! 

http://www.buzzfeed.com/floperry/ways-being-a-science-student-changes-you-forever

More photos than words.

I actually can't be bothered to write much at the moment, but I want to post something about my family's visit to Barcelona a couple of weekends ago. So I thought I will just post some photos instead! I am by no means a photographer (however I do remember when I was younger I would try and take arty photos - such of as the carrot sticks glass at a family dinner....) but I do love to look at photos I have taken, so here are a few of my favs from the few days!

View from park guell across barcelona.

Another! And ad you can see the weather was lovely. Slight
change from what I would expect in Oct. 

Family Selfie 

View of the old Sant Antoni Market from the hotel! 

Food. Yummy Paella at the top of the shopping center which looks out of plaza Espana.

We drank a fair about of vino blanco, 

FRANGELICO TIRAMUSU. BCN girls I am sure you will appreciate this! 

I have posted pictures here before but I always enjoy the magic fountain! 

We went to the Camp New. Want to come back one day to watch a match! 

Another day, another selfie!

Beach - again showing the lovely weather. 

Slightly addicted to cafe con leche. 

Fountain in Parc de Ciuttadella. 

This is just a sample of a few photos. I ate a lot more, but my family judge me for taking to many photos of food so I have to cut back on my habit when I am with them. 

Time is going too quickly here. My flight home is in just over a month now. I finally feel like I am making a 'life' here and getting settled in and I am going to have to leave. 6 months isn't enough. Give it another 6 months and I may have even got to grips with the language,,.. 

Anyway, looking forward and I am excited to be back in Soton in the New year , and obviously to see everyone over Christmas, and a few other British things I am missing. I am already lining up the meals in my head I want when I get back. And also all the things I need to do which I am too scared to here, like getting a hair cut! 

Also I wanted to note how refreshing it is here to only just be seeing xmasy things in the shops. I am hoping it will make December and the lead up to Christmas more special this year as it hasn't been rammed down my throat quite as much as I know it would have been at home!

What's the big deal?

I was just sitting on the bus the other day and I suddenly thought 'why is being here so different?' and it made me think. Really what difference does it make that I am in another country? It shouldn't really should it? I can still pick up the phone and talk to my parents. I can still probably get home within about 5 hours. I can still go to the shop and buy food. I can still pretty much do all the things I did when I was living in Southampton.

There is clearly a difference from living at home with my parents, but why is it different from living at university? Loads of reasons. That's why. And its more than just a new flat.

Sometimes when you are just in your own little world its hard to know why living away from your home country is so much harder then living in a new city within it. You wouldn't have your old friends there, you wouldn't automatically know what bus to take to work, you wouldn't know what time the local shop was open until, you wouldn't be able to remember the names of all your new flatmates friends... the list of similarities goes on.
But the point is in your home country; the place you grew up; the place where you have lived all your life, you know how to find these things out.
You take so much for granted in your own country. You know where you can go for a cheap dinner. What shop on the high street you will be able to by plasters in. You vaguely know what time the bank will shut. You know the the nearest supermarket will be a Tesco/Sainsburys/Asda. You know that you will be able to look up all the train times on national rail. That you just need to search for a post office to send a letter. Little things you don't even know you know.

Obviously I live in a Country with a language barrier. But I don't this would stop all the problems. Yes, its genuinely tiring to keep up whilst listening to a foreign language all the time until you actually switch off completely. You stop even trying to understand what the people around you are talking about let alone what they are saying. But that's not the real issue. The issue is everything is new. Sometimes I wander around a shop looking for something as simple as a notepad before I realise there is no way the local supermarket is going to sell one. They would in the UK. I could go to Tesco express and buy one within 5 minutes of my house.

The cultural differences are always there as well, and I am only just starting to really notice them. People eat at different times, people have a different work life balance, TV shows are on at different times, appropriate clothes are different. For example in the summer here it all revolves around family but once the summer starts to leave it all becomes much more work orientated. Not that that's a bad thing, but its something which is different. And I couldn't go much further without mentioning greetings. I WILL FOREVER BE AWKWARD WITH THE CHEEK KISSING. FULL STOP. This might just be an ingrained part of my personality or it might be that its just so different from the UK I never learnt as a child what you should do. But I have a strange feeling I will have to stop myself trying to kiss everyone when I come back to England; here you kiss the person you have just meet when you are saying bye. But you don't kiss work colleagues in the mornings which I have come to understand you would do in France. Oh and I think the German's go for one kiss, and Romanian people have more of a hug involved. The list goes on. Good job I am used to awkward moments.

So why is it harder. It's harder because you have to think about everything all the time. You wonder if the person next to you on the bus is offended you don't speak the language. Its a constant battle of trying to 'fit in' without making it feel alien. None of these things are an issue in your home country. But it's not bad, it's a challenge. It has also made me realise I am willing to go for a job anywhere in the UK because at least I will be able to have a propa cuppa when I sit down at the end of the day in my strange new scary flat.

Next time I promise I will update you on what I have been doing! But for now here is a nice picture of Catalonia's independence day 'celebrations'

I cannot even begin to explain how crazy this was... I felt like the only person not wearing red or yellow on the streets. (I wasn't, and it would have been even more weird wearing the colours if I am not even sure if I support it or not) Quite a site really.