Thursday, 19 September 2013

Hannah goes… Newcastle

Today I want to tell you how I ended up here in Newcastle Upon Tyne, because I’m sure I didn’t tell everyone (although it seems like many knew that I was “going to England” before I even completed my application o_o ) Anyways, let’s start from the beginning.
As many of you know, I recently finished my undergraduate studies at the University of Hamburg with a Bachelor degree in English and American studies (or simply English language and literature). After my exams were all through, I started looking for a Master programme that would interest me, and at the same time help me get a little bit away from linguistics and literature and a little more in the direction of business management. I checked different universities in Germany and England but just could not find the right one. After my boyfriend got into Newcastle University, I checked their programme list and finally found the perfect one: Cross Cultural Communication and International Business Management. It was an excellent combination of continuing what I had already studied and adding a direction in which I wanted to go. So I decided to apply there as well. Almost three months of anxious waiting and nervous daily e-mail checking followed the application, until I finally got an e-mail in the end of August stating the words I wanted to read!


Woot! But since it was already the end of August and the semester would start in September, there wasn’t much time left to deal with all the official stuff that had to be taken care of...
- Apply for university accommodation.
- Cancel the contract with the landlord for the flat in Hamburg.
- Store everything I wanted to keep in my sister’s basement and attic, as far as space would allow. (Luckily my parents were willing and able to drive by my place several times a week to pick up stuff and drop it off at my sister’s).
- Sell all the furniture I did not store.
- Buy a big suitcase (or rather make it a belated birthday wish)
- Cancel several contracts, such as GEZ, gym membership, internet, etc.
- Apply for financial support from the German government (BAföG)
- Already vote in the upcoming election, since I knew I wouldn’t be around for it
- Order a new ID, so I wouldn’t get in trouble flying back next year with an expired one
- Officially de-register from the address I would soon not have any more
- ...

After everything was settled, I could finally book my flight. By then I already knew that I did not get into university accommodation, but I also knew that I could live with my boyfriend, who left about a week before I did and already found a room.
At least without the trouble of having to look for private accommodation myself, I ended up in this apartment with four bedrooms, three of which have double-size beds. So at the moment, this apartment is housing 7 people. Three couples and one unlucky single. One couple is from Italy, one is from China, and another German will live in the single room. It sure won’t get boring around here. I just hope that we will keep getting along as well as we are now. =)

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