HMS-Abschluss

Back for Good

Es ist schon eine Weile her, seitdem ich das letzte Mal gebloggt habe. Eine ziemlich lange Zeit sogar, wenn ich ehrlich bin. Mein Austauschjahr war eine unglaubliche Erfahrung, welche mein Leben auch jetzt noch prägt und weiterhin beeinflusst. Sicher habt ihr euch auch schon gefragt, warum ich so plötzlich mit dem Bloggen aufgehört habe?

Nach der Rückkehr wurde ich so schnell in mein altes Leben zurück katapultiert und ich benötigte viel Zeit und Energie um mich in dieser Umgebung wieder zurecht zu finden. Es ist der Teil des Auslandjahres, über den man am normalerweise nur wenig erfährt: Die Rückkehr.

Mit gemischten Gefühlen kam ich damals am Flughafen Zürich an. Zum einen wollte ich unbedingt meine Familie wieder sehen, zum anderen wäre ich gerne gleich wieder in den Flieger nach Irland gestiegen, so gut hatte es mir dort gefallen. Ich fühlte mich zu diesem Zeitpunkt etwas heimatlos.

Mit diesen Gedanken im Kopf ging ich in Richtung Ausgang und lief gespannt durch die grosse Schiebetür hinter dem Zoll, wo bereits meine Familie und mein altes Leben auf mich warteten. Es war ein freudiges Wiedersehen! Bereits nach dem zweiten Tag fühlte es sich so an, als ob ich die Schweiz nie verlassen hätte. So als ob die Zeit stillgestanden wäre, während ich weg war. Doch obwohl alles so wie immer war, war doch alles ein bisschen anders.

Wer sich ein wenig mit meiner Schule (Handelsmittelschule an der Kantonsschule Enge) auskennt, der weiss, dass der Unterricht dort sehr anspruchsvoll und fordern sein kann. Als die Zeit in Irland zu Ende ging und ich langsam an den Schulunterricht in der Schweiz zu denken begann, bekam ich es mit der Angst zu tun. Und das ganz zu Recht, wie sich später heraus stellen sollte! Direkt nach der Rückkehr begann mein letztes Schuljahr vor dem Praktikum und somit auch gleich die Vorbereitungen für die bevorstehenden Abschlussprüfungen.

Der Wechsel war sehr abrupt, etwa so als hätte man ein Jahr Ferien und müsste dann gleich eine sehr anspruchsvolle Stelle antreten und das noch ohne Vorbereitung.

Wer mich kennt, weiss dass ich mir stets ambitionierte Ziele setze. Ich wollte daher auch diesmal nicht nur die Prüfungen bestehen sondern auch gute Schlussnoten erreichen. Ich legte mich also ins Zeug und arbeitete das ganze Jahr wie irre! Und es hat sich gelohnt: Doch es hat sich gelohnt. Ich bestand mit einem Berufsmaturitäts-Schnitt von einer 4.9 und einem EFZ-Schnitt von einer 4.8.

Momentan absolviere ich noch das obligatorische Praktikumsjahr. Ich wünschte mir für das Praktikum einen Platz an einem Zürcher Spital und das hat zum Glück auch geklappt. Die Abschluss-Diplome werden den Schülern am Ende des Praktikumsjahres feierlich übergeben. Ich freue mich schon jetzt darauf, denn damit geht für mich eine Aera zu Ende! Diese 5 Jahre waren eine spannende und lehrreiche Zeit.

„Doch wie geht es nun weiter?“, fragt sich der geneigte Leser. Ich kann euch beruhigen, ich falle nicht in ein tiefes Loch oder gar eine Sinnkrise. Ich gehe nicht auf Weltreise oder werde zum Eremiten oder rette die Wale (oder alles zusammen!). Dafür ist ja dann immer noch genug Zeit. Zuerst hole ich nun noch die Matur nach und zwar an der KME (Kantonale Maturitäts-Schule für Erwachsene). Dank meinen guten BMS Noten, darf ich hier prüfungsfrei im dritten Semester durchstarten.

Soviel zur aktuellen Situation. Doch das ist nur eine kleine Zusammenfassung, denn ich habe noch viel zu erzählen. Immerhin bin ich über ein Jahr im Rückstand, nicht wahr? Ich freue mich auf jeden Fall, dass ich nun wieder genügend Zeit und Musse habe um meine Leser mit Blogbeiträgen zu versorgen! Viel Vergnügen bei der Lektüre.

Surprise goodbye Party

An Adventure is coming to an End

There is a cake ready in the kitchen, a suitcase packed in the hallway and my, from this second on former, roommate standing in front of me… Luis is leaving today. He blows out the candles and eats his piece of cake with mixed feelings. Even though he is glad that he is going to see his family in Spain again in a couple of hours, he is sad to leave his Irish family and friends behind. “Trapped between two Worlds”. When I see him there, sitting and eating his piece of chocolate cake, I see myself at the very same spot in about a week.

Luis taxi arrived and honked a few times outside. Once again he said goodbye to all of us and got into the taxi, which then drove off without leaving a single trace which would indicate that it has ever been here. Like with my last roommate nothing suggests that Luis was ever in this house, and yet he has lived here for almost three months. Time passes incredibly fast. My room is now empty and quiet and my suitcase is placed on my former roommate’s bed, indicating an end of an amazing adventure that has started on the 21. Of August 2014.

My flight information also arrived a few days ago. My flight got postponed to the 8. Of June, which gives me more time to say goodbye to my friends and get a few presents for my two brothers which I haven’t seen for a total of 285 days (9 months and 15 days). I wonder if they have changed. They once told me that they both wear glasses now, I couldn’t take them serious, as they would look extremely silly with glasses, but it might be true. Another question which really bothers me is how my dog is going to react when he sees me. Is he going to be happy or bite me for suddenly vanishing? Maybe I can make him forgive me with a little bit of Irish dog food. The only thing that certainly hasn’t changed is my a little bit chubby and clumsy cat Leo.

It’s going to be quite difficult to buy a few gifts for my brothers as I don’t really know what they like anymore, except for Porridge, somehow my little brothers are crazy for that stuff, I don’t even know why. It tastes like cardboard (Maybe because I ate it with water, rather than with milk…) in my opinion, but I mean if they like cardboard, I can get them as much cardboard as they want.

To Colin and Ben: Expect half a ton of porridge in my suitcase. I just got to find a way how I can smuggle it into Switzerland. Maybe I can find a corrupt customs officer who I can bribe… If you want to bring the dog to the airport put him on the leash, I don’t want to get bitten by a sulkily dog just because I haven’t petted him in 9 months…

School Trip Pictures

My first School Trip

The sun is shining and not a single cloud is in sight, the perfect morning. But the nice weather also has its downsides, school got pretty frustrating over the last few days. It’s quite hard to stay motivated if you see kids playing outside in the beautiful weather while you are sitting in a dark room studying French. But not this week, because this week is special… It’s a School-Trip Week!

On our first trip we met a Danish school class that came over here to Ireland just to visit our school and get to know the Irish sports a little bit better. We were allowed to wear casual clothes that day, which made me really happy. I still remember how it felt like when I’ve worn my school uniform the first time – it was amazing, but my red jumper which I used to wear with so much joy lost its uniqueness. It’s like if you would eat your favourite food every single day, slowly but surely it will lose its taste until you really want to eat something else.

Anyway we gave those Danish students a tour through the school building until a private bus arrived which brought us to a special Gaelic sports site. I’ve never seen such a pitch like that. It looked similar to a normal football pitch, but the goals had two huge poles attached to them. (You see those goals on the pictures). An Instructor came and split us up in three groups: Gaelic Football, Gaelic Handball and Hurling. The Instructor first explained us the roles of all the sports and then let us out on the pitch. We played a sport for about an hour and then the groups rotated to another one. I’ve never played a Gaelic Sport before, they’ve never taught us any of them in our PE classes in Adamstown (The fact that we don’t have a sports hall may has something to do with that). I was extremely excited and couldn’t wait to go out to the pitch and practice what they just taught us.

All of those games are difficult to explain and have loads of rules, and no one likes rules right? That’s why you can find three videos here who explain and show you how those sports work. But I can already tell you what they all have in common, they are pretty rough…

Gaelic Football explained:

Hurling explained:

Gaelic Handball explained:

After I’ve played all three sports I have to say, that I don’t really like Hurling. It’s quite dangerous, as the change to get hit by such a hurling racket or the “sliotar” (the ball they use) is incredibly high and the little helmet doesn’t really protect you against this huge wooden stick everyone is swinging around on the field.

After we were finished trying to tackle people on the pitch we headed to the Croke Park stadium which was extremely impressive, as it was absolutely and utterly huge. We even got a tour through the whole stadium. This school trip was awesome and gave me a memory I will never forget. Luke, one of my friends, even took a few pictures while we were on that trip…

Tomorrow I’m going to upload a little picture gallery of that day, stay tuned 🙂

January Exams Results

My last holiday here in Ireland just ended and school started again. During those amazing two weeks of pure freedom the weather changed from the usual unpredictable, rainy and windy climate, to a sunny spring weather. Unfortunately, I totally forgot to blog during that time, but don’t worry, I got loads of new stories for you guys.

I finally got the results of my January Exams back. I had an average percentage of 65%, (40% would be a pass) which means if this was my Leaving Certificate I would have had 405 points from a maximum of 600. The Mail I got from Adamstown Community College which contained my results can be found below.

I’m just an exchange student and won’t have to do my Leaving Certificate here in Ireland, but if I did it here and got 405 points I would have had access to those college courses:

I know that 65% isn’t a top result, in Switzerland this would barely be a pass, but here in Ireland it opens hundreds of doors.

I had a quick look at the nearly endless list and I saw colleges that taught law, Forensic & Environmental Chemistry, Marketing etc. for less than 400 Points…

Saint Patrick’s Day 2015

Irish Tim(es)

What day is it tomorrow? St. Patrick’s Day!

(Yeah, I know it looks embarrassing, but everyone is going to look like that tomorrow) 🙂

Stay tuned for a post full of pictures of tomorrows huge parade in the City Centre of Dublin!

The New Roommate

English:

There are some full suitcases in front of my door. Eduardo’s cupboard is empty and there is an opressive silence in my room. Even his Mexican flag, which used to decorate our room so nicely, has disappeared without leaving a trace. It looks like he has never been here.

Eduardo’s time as my roommate is unfortunately already over. Even though he’s  only going on vacation and will be back to stay another week before he actually returns to his native Mexico, he will no longer share a room with me. His successor is already on his way and will move into his part of the room tomorrow. Eduardo will be staying in Conor’s room for his last week in Ireland, after his return from  holiday. It’s going to be very strange to have a new roommate.  I have been sharing a room with Eduardo for almost half a year and now he is leaving and he will be replaced by someone I have never met before.

Now you probably want me to talk about the new roommate, who is already on his way to Ireland while you are reading this. Well, I would love to tell you more about him but the only thing I know is that he is from Spain.

If you were just thinking about Spanish stereotypes, I couldn’t blame you as I did exactly the same to be honest. 🙂

Let’s just hope that this mysterious perhaps Flamenco-dancing new roommate is friendly and polite.