Hunting for a Home.

Sometimes I like to be organised. When I have little control over something, I want to throw myself into the things I can change and make sure I do a good job. When it comes to the year abroad, I can do little at the moment besides post forms away, book my flight and train journeys (done, oh my god), and search for a place to live. So in between working a lot in the shop and doing some work experience at a local paper, I've been consumed by finding the perfect Wohngemeinschaft ("living community", a German flatshare) to set myself up in for the year.

Everything I've read on my new favourite website Third Year Abroad and what I've heard from previous Year Abroad-ers at uni has pointed to WG-Gesucht as being the best place to find a flatshare. The university in Halle did send me a link to their residential services but I don't want to go into halls in Germany. I'm too scared of living with loads of other international students - probably a lot of fun, but not fantastic for my German skills as I think I'd be tempted to just speak English all the time. And I definitely don't want (and probably can't afford) a flat to myself. All of the WGs on WG-Gesucht seem to follow the same template: washing machine in the bathroom, and the flatmates like to cook together but also have time to themselves sometimes. Sounds ideal. I'm in.

I actually found the perfect flat very quickly, but it fell through! The room was huge and bright, the flatmates seemed awesome, there were two balconies... what more could I really want? I even started making a Pinterest board of how I was going to make it my own and looked up the best bus routes to Ikea Leipzig (though I hinted to my mentor teacher first, in case I could coerce her into taking me in the car). The flatmates chose me, I was over the moon, and I sent all my forms to the letting agency straight away like a good little slave to bureaucracy, only to receive an email over a week later saying that the owner doesn't want to let me the room. Oh. OK. My would-have-been flatmates were fantastic and tried to do all they could to help, but the new owner of the building won't play along. So it's back to WG-Gesucht and stressing out!

What I will say, though, is that I've found everyone really friendly so far! One girl who I replied to a little too late said that she would put me in touch with a friend of hers who needs a flatmate, and offered to meet up with me when I get to Halle! And a friend of my girl Lara has also passed along the details of someone she knows who has a furnished room to let. Maybe contacts are the way?

Hopefully I'll be back soon with better flat-related news! And despite my lack of success so far, I'm still really excited to move out of my parents' house for the first time. I might be terrified of the year ahead of me, but despite my general uselessness (can't cook, can't fix things, can't do much really) I couldn't feel more ready for this aspect.

Hallo, Halle!

While I was in Barcelona the email arrived that I'd been waiting for since finding out my Bundesland. Since finding out my application had been accepted. Since applying to go, even. I might have been shaking a bit when I opened it. What if I was going to a little village miles from proper (read: urban) civilisation? With two buses a day and no trains? Where everyone would know everything about everyone else because they all lived on the same street? This was the nightmare that had haunted me for months. But it was not to be! A letter from Saxony-Anhalt's education department revealed I'd actually been placed in a school in Halle an der Saale! To be honest, this was even better than I'd hoped for. I'd been gearing myself up for a medium-sized or small town. And instead I'm going to a university city, still small compared to Glasgow, but full of people my age and bars and shops. Perfect, as my Stevenson scholarship requires me to enrol at a German uni during my assistantship and Halle's Martin Luther University is huge.

I'm so excited to be going to Halle. It looks like a great city, small enough that I won't get lost but bursting with people to get to know. I've already begun looking for flats and they're all gorgeous and CHEAP. I can't believe the price difference between the flats there and what people pay for in the UK. I've had two skype 'dates' with potential flatmates, and I'm currently quite stressed but excited to finally fly the nest and hopefully land on my feet in a lovely flat. Preferably with a balcony, because that is the essence of the year abroad, is it not? Sitting in the sunset with a glass of wine, wondering how many people in Scotland can do the same. Though in my case, the glass will probably be replaced with a bottle of beer.

The school looks good. Quite normal, I suppose. It's a kooperative Gesamtschule, which from what I can figure out is pretty close to a British comprehensive school. It's in the Neustadt area of Halle, separated from the rest of the city by the river Saale, but by the looks of things still very reachable by tram or bus. From what I can figure out, HaNeu (amazing nickname, isn't it) looks a bit like Cumbernauld. Though, as my friend pointed out, perhaps Cumbernauld just looks like socialist East Germany. I'll be teaching kids from 10 to about 17 or 18, I think, and my lovely contact teacher Anka has informed me that the school is holding its first ever Highland Games this year. Interesting.

Is this an ex-Eastern Bloc country or a Scottish new town? You decide...

I'm doing work experience at a local newspaper this week and in every spare moment between jobs all I've been able to think about is Halle. Besides finding a flat, most of the worries I had are gone, and now I just can't wait to get on that plane and see what Germany's all about! I'm so happy for my friends too, as everyone's finally found out where they're going and everyone seems pretty happy! I can't wait to make Deutsche Bahn my best friend and travel around to see them all.

It's going to be a good one, I think!