Catching up

After another weekend away from the blogosphere I am slowly, slowly starting to catch up with all the blogs I like to read. If I haven’t left you a comment yet I will soon… there’s just so much to get through!

My friend’s visit went well. There was lots going on, but we managed to fit everything in and get her back to the train station in time on Sunday. So I think we can label the weekend a success.

And now, after over a week of day trips, fun and visitors, today’s task is to write and submit a proposal for my dissertation, which I will hopefully be starting to write in September. Wish me luck… I’ve never written a proper dissertation proposal before! (For my Bachelor’s dissertation we had to submit a plan but it was nothing like what I’m expected to do for this one!)

How about some good news for a change?

The essay I did for Text Linguistics last month has been returned to me.
I got 67%… subject to the approval of the exam board. A pass at Master’s level is 50%, and I can’t see the exam board reducing it by more than 17% even if they do change it. So I never have to do Text Linguistics again. Woo hoo! I would say this calls for a celebration but as I’m trying very hard not to spend any money I don’t actually have anything to celebrate with.

My other piece of news is that I’m going to Rome. My mum is taking my brother as a treat for finishing his A-Levels and she asked us to go along so we could have one last family holiday before little bro goes off to uni (my sister and her boyfriend are going too). It was all arranged over the weekend… all that remained was for me to ask about time off then we were going to book it. Then, on the day that I was supposed to ask for time off, I lost my job instead. This left me with lots of time on my hands… but made spending money on a holiday seem a little bit wrong. So I told my mum we couldn’t go. Then the boyfriend decided that he still does want to go… and offered to pay for me as well. So we booked it… and I am now torn between feeling excited and incredibly guilty. Also, next time I’m at the employment agency (which will be whenever I get the forms back from my boss) I’ll have to inform them that I plan to leave the country and get their permission. Yes, you read that right. People who are on unemployment benefit in Germany are allowed to leave their place of residence for a certain of number of days each year but have to ask the permission of the employment agency in advance. I’m hoping they’ll let me off if I tell them it was all booked before I knew I was going to be unemployed and cancelling it would only cost more. Keep your fingers crossed for me, ok.

Normal service can resume (tomorrow)

Just a quick post tonight because I am tired. I worked hard all day (translated over 2,000 words!) then came home and finished an essay, which I have just handed in. It’s now 20 past 10 (which isn’t really that late I know) and all I want to do is sleeeep… preferably until next week, but as that isn’t an option until 6:40 tomorrow morning will have to do.

But… I have internet! The men from Kabel-BW were here today and after about an hour and a half, during which we had to collect the keys to the cellar from my downstairs neighbour then head aaall the way back up the stairs to disturb my poor next-door neighbours (who were having tea at the time) to get into the loft (the entrance to which is in their flat) where the men spent ages trying different cables to see if any of them actually caused power to flow through the cable sockets in my flat… yes, it’s all very confusing. The nice men did eventually manage to get it sorted though, and they left me a modem and a telephone, so now I have a landline and, much more importantly, access to my lovely, lovely blog and to facebook and my email and all those things I have been missing sooo desperately.! I worship thee oh Kabel-BW, providers of the internet!

And now to bed. I shall write something more interesting tomorrow. After I catch up on all my favourite blogs. I have missed you all, my dear blogging friends, and I shall be round to see you as soon as I can. Promise!

I love being young and a student

Paris was brilliant. I had a wonderful, wonderful time.
It was great to see my Grandma, to see how happy she was that we had all turned up in Paris just for her. Unfortunately I missed the initial reunion and didn’t get to see her face when my Aunt who lives in New Zealand walked into the room, but I’ve been told it was brilliant. It was also nice to see said Aunt who lives in New Zealand. I think the last time I saw her I was about 16. That’s a long, long time ago. It was also nice to see my 10 year old cousin who I hadn’t seen since she was about 4 and my 4 year old cousin who was one the last time I saw her. (From reading this you’d think i’d been estranged from my entire family for years! believe it or not, there are people that i see fairly regularly. Just not the ones who live in New Zealand. Or anywhere south of the Tyne for that matter…)

The title of the blog post is something my cousin said at the Louvre.
You see, since 4th April this year there has been a new scheme. At certain places those who are aged between 18 and 25 and members of the European Union can get into places for free. Until August I fit into this category. So I got into the Louvre, the Arc de Triomphe and the Pantheon without spending a single cent. And for all those place that are not part of the scheme I had my student card with me for cheap entry. Yes, I love being young and a student. But why oh why did they have to introduce the 18-25 thing now when I only have another 3 and a half months left before I turn 26. (Arrghh, OMG, 3 and a half months?!? How did my birthday get so close so fast??).

So yes, a lovely, lovely time was had by all. The only down side was the weather. On the Saturday it rained and rained and rained. Jan and I actually made it up the Arc de Triomphe this time (last time we were in paris it was New Year and everything was closed by about 3pm). The view from the top would have been so good it hadn’t been so dull and grey, and if the Eiffel Tower hadn’t been half hidden by clouds. The sun finally managed to sneak out on Sunday afternoon, by which time most of the party only had time to see one more thing before heading back to the hotel and then to the UK. But never mind, it was fun anyway. And my Grandma walked up all the steps to Sacre Coeur. I was elsewhere at the time (we went to the Pantheon and caught up with the rest later), but I am told she absolutely refused to use the lift. Not bad for an 80 year old!

Right… I have to go now and try to figure out what on Earth “narrative structure” and “the discourse historical approach” are. I have to write an essay on them by 7th May and stupidly I’ve managed to get through an entire year of Text Linguistics without doing any of the reading or understanding a single word of the lectures. Oh yes, I totally rock. Hmmm.

Not much to say…

I have just 5 words for you all:

I’m going to Paris tomorrow!

I just hope I’m awake enough to enjoy it. I’ve been working on an assigment all week (just handed it in), on top of spending my days doing ridiculous amounts of translation at work, and I’m now so tired my hands are actually shaking. Only going to get about 4 or 5 hours sleep tonight as well. Guess what I’ll be doing on the train?

Anyway, I must go. Hopefully Jan will finish what he’s doing in a minute so we can actually go home 🙂

One less thing to worry about

It seems there was a mistake in the module handbook for Translation in a Social Context.
The assessed piece is due in on 20th April, not March after all. Oh the relief! I did think it was a bit mean of them to expect us to compile an entire portfolio in 18 days!
Obviously I can’t put it out of my mind completely – I still need to find something to translate and run my chosen text by the tutor to see if it’s ok before I become internetless. But at least I no longer have to panic about it.

Must go now. Work beckons.
Have a great Wednesday everyone! (Is it really only Wednesday? Sunday already seems like weeks away…)

Extracts from my life

Alternative title: Can’t be bothered to write a proper post so here’s a list of whatever randomness comes into my head. With bullet points.

• Yesterday was the boyfriend’s birthday. I can’t believe I forgot to mention that! He is now 29 (nearly 30! Next year I am sooo going to take the mick!). I didn’t get to celebrate with him though – his “company”, for want of a better word (a research centre is not exactly a company really) is involved in some trade fair in Hannover and because the project he’s working on is being presented he’s gone up there to help set up. Then he’s going to his parents for a few days so I’m all alone until Thursday. He’s been away so much lately I’m starting to feel think we might as well still be in a long distance relationship!
• I feel a little better today. At least my sore throat has gone. Instead I just have a head that feels like it’s stuffed with wet cotton wool (you know, like too heavy and too light at the same time). And a blocked nose. But at least the sore throat has gone…
• I made a mistake a work this morning – I forgot to send our translation memory file to a translator (don’t worry, I don’t expect you to know what that is). The mistake is fairly minor but if it hadn’t been discovered in time (which it was) and sorted out it would have meant more work for the bosses wife when the translation comes back, so obviously she was not impressed. Later my colleague and I had some training on making offers for some of the more complicated jobs we get. I ended up completely confused and now feel like an incompetent idiot. Yay!
• Jan bought me some perfume on Saturday. It was a belated Valentine’s present, because he wasn’t here on the day itself and hasn’t had time to buy it since. I’ve wanted this perfume for ages and ages, ever since I spotted it at Newcastle airport when I went on holiday with the family, and now I have it. This makes me very happy! In case anyone was wondering, the perfume is Liberte by Cacherel.
• I actually managed to get most of my practice portfolio done for uni – I wrote the commentary and translation difficulties section on my tram journey home. Now I just have to type them up then I can hand the thing in and get started on the scary part – the portfolio that is actually going to be assessed.
• I was supposed to call the bank today to make an appointment for getting some forms signed. I forgot to take the card with the number on it to work with me though, and by the time I got home they were already closed. Cue more of the feeling like an incompetent idiot (I’m sensing a pattern here…)

That will do I think. I’ve managed to get a laundry slot in 20 minutes time and need to sort out what I actually want to wash. Then there’s food to cook, more stuff to pack and practice coursework to be typed up.
Am I starting to sound like a stuck record yet I wonder?…

I blame it on stress…

I feel ill today. Actually it all started when I woke up with a sore throat yesterday. I managed to forget about it for most of the day though in all the excitement of sorting out flat stuff. The soreness came back in the evening though, after Jan left. This morning it was no worse, but no better either, and I’ve been cold all day despite the fact that it’s a beautifully warm day. I’m also aching all over and my head feels like it wants to float away. And, just to add to my woes, I’ve discovered a patch of eczema on my hand. Usually I only get eczema when I’m stressed or if I use a product that I’m allergic to, and since I haven’t used anything new lately I’m going with the stress option.

So why am I stressed you ask? Well, apart from the whole money thing (pleeease let my pay go in before the rent goes out!) there’s the fact that I’m moving in six days and yet anyone entering my room for the first time could be forgiven for thinking I haven’t even started packing yet. I’ve no idea when I’m supposed to get it all done either considering I have to work this week and I never get home before 6:30pm, ever. And that’s when I come straight home – if I have to go shopping or something it’s usally somewhere between 7 and 7:30. Except on Fridays when I finish early. And, to add to all that, I have stuff to do for uni. First of all there’s a practice translation potfolio due in tomorrow. I have done most of the actually translating part but still need to type it up, write an analysis (this text appeared in blah blah and has a target audience of such and such. The style of writing is such and such) and commentary (what problems I had when translating the text. Why I chose to translate particular things the way I did). That’s not soo bad though, it’s only a practoce. I should at least hand something in though as I completely missed the last one. But if it’s not finished the world will not end. Noo, that’s not a major problem. What is a major problem is the actual assessed piece of coursework, due on 20th March. Yes, that is 20 days away, I know. The problem is for most of those 20 days I am going to be without internet which kind of makes finding a text to translate online a little difficult. And I also have to find other texts to put into the portfolio. And the dictionary I usually use to translate is also an online one. I do have a very good paper dictionary, but it doesn’t have a forum where I can get help with particularly strange phrasing. Neither does it have Google to define words I’ve never heard of and show me pictures to help me figure out what’s going on. So I basically need to try and get everything but the translation difficulties part of that done by Saturday morning as well. And those are just the major things that need doing in. Add in all the normal every day things (like trying to get all my laundry done before I move out as it will be a while before I can afford a washing machine plus actually finding time to eat, shower breathe…) and you have one very busy Bev on your hands.  Soo I think I have good reason to be stressed out. No wonder I’m not feeling brilliant!

On a brighter note some of you may remember my Happiness is… blog from a few weeks ago. It was part of a competition by Odette, aka Little Miss Firefly and I actually won! Yep, mine was the first name to be picked out of the hat… metaphorically speaking anyway. Actually she used random.org to pick the winners, I just thought the hat thing sounded good. Anyway, enough waffling. Go check out Odette’s blog to see what I won. And in the meantime I shall get back to my attempts to translate and pack at the same time…

Saying nothing in many words

I don’t really have any particular point to make today (do I ever?), so I shall make this post a bullet pointy type list of whatever comes into my head, I think.

– I actually did something for uni last night, believe it or not. I downloaded the German text to be translated then, in the absence of a printer, copied it out by hand. The text is around 650 words long, I managed to write them all down without understanding a single one of them (okay, slight exaggeration. I did manage to get that the text is about all the money that’s been poured into building up East Germany and how it’s just not working). Hopefully by the time I get round to actually translating the text it will make more sense!

– Jan bought me Breakfast at Tiffany’s (the book) for Christmas and I finished reading it yesterday yesterday. It’s really good. Even better than the film, of which I am also a fan. I was kind of expecting that though – films are almost never as good as the book they’re based on. The main difference between the book and the film is the way they end. If you’re a fan of Hollywood happy endings don’t bother buying the book.

– I am ridiculously tired again, despite the fact that it’s only Tuesday. It may have something to do with the fact that I spent all day translating a 50 page user manual for some computer program. It was a very long day. Also, I still think employees should be given Wednesday off work. Who was it that decided we should work for 5 whole days in a row and only have 2 to recover anyway? And is he (I’m assuming it was a “he”) still alive? Cos if he is I’d like to track him down and kick him…

– My health insurance fund sent me a magazine. These people refuse to pay for my pill (that’s right Brits, there is no free contraception in Germany!) but they’re willing to waste money – not to mention trees – sending me magazines I will never read. Why?

– I just saw someone in Karstadt spend 303 euros on some wooden spoons and a set of pans. That means the pan set must have cost over 200. Is this normal?!? Also, the woman behind me in the queue asked the person at the till what the random vegetables she was buying were after they’d already been scanned in. Surely this is something you’d like to find out before you buy said vegetables?

That is all. I’m going for a shower now.

Thoughts

I’ve just been looking through some random stats on my blog. It seems my most used tag is “boyfriend” with a total of 43 times. Second is work with 22 uses and in third place comes books, 21 uses. I’m pretty sure that says something about me. I don’t know what but I’m pretty sure it’s misleading. How have I managed to mention work more often than books? Must do something about that.

I need to do a translation for uni. It was actually supposed to be handed in on Monday. Oops. Not even a month into the year and I’m behind already. Luckily it’s only a practice piece so I won’t lose any marks for handing it in late or anything. It would probably be a good idea to get on and do it though.

How is it Wednesday already? I’m sure it was only just Friday. I always thought putting the clocks back was meant to give us another hour. Instead I seem to have lost about 72.

Time going fast does have its advantages though. It’s pay day on Friday. And I get extra money starting this month. I’ve already had my wage slip and seen how much I’ll be earning from now. I’m going to be rich. Rich I tell you! (Actually I’m still going to be poor, but rich compared to what I was before. And at least I’ll be able to afford a few decent Christmas presents this year).

And oh my gosh, I’ve just realised my internship is half over already. Three more months to go. And after that? We’ll see… it depends whether the boss decides to give me a proper job.

OK, enough procrastinating. Time to get on with the translation.