New Year, New Tea

Happy New Year everyone! 2015 already! Good lord and deary me, etc. And also, greetings from Chemnitz! Yes I am back in this sunny(ish) town, after a frankly delightful holiday involving mainly spending time with my family, the ridiculous tiny dog, and as many friends as would see me. I returned to Germany on Sunday, bringing with me humous, pitta breads, cheddar, and four types of tea which amounted to only several hundred teabags. Other than that, there's nothing much to update you on, so as a break from routine, I've decided to treat you to an inventory of my New Year's resolutions.

I am one of those infuriating people who loves New Year because of the fresh start and all the new possibilities that this brings. I love making resolutions, and I don't get too upset when they're immediately broken, because normally, who even cares? This year is no different, and I've made a long list of resolutions, aims, and goals for 2015, which I will now share with you.

• Learn more German

This is a fairly obvious resolution, as the goal for this academic year was to become fluent in German. However, unfortunately this has not yet happened, and does not look likely to happen unless I stop dicking about the whole time and actually make some kind of effort. So my resolution is to do an hour of German study per day. This sounded like a lot to me, but if I want final year to not be such a huge shock to my system that I spend the entire first term wandering around Manchester vaguely crying, I should probably try to create some kind of work ethic again.

• Read more non-fiction

Watching numerous episodes of University Challenge with my mum over Christmas alerted me to two things: firstly, that my general knowledge is very poor, like, exceedingly poor, and secondly, that getting a general knowledge question right gives a warm feeling akin to the buzz you get when you achieve a good mark on an essay or piece of homework. If you're thinking that my dependence on validation from academic areas is tragic, then you may well be right but I'll thank you to keep it to yourself. Anyway, I love learning new things and pointless facts, especially if there's a chance they'll come up on University Challenge and I can prove to Jeremy Paxman's stupid smug face that I DO KNOW THINGS, it's just that you always avoid my areas of expertise, i.e. very basic linguistics and facts about the horn. I hate you, Jeremy.

• Learn the countries of the world

Along with general knowledge, my geography is abysmal. Perhaps learning the location of every single country in the world is slightly ambitious, but I'm nothing if not overly optimistic about my own capabilities. I've downloaded a fun game on my phone, snappily named 'Location Maps Of The World Countries Quiz', which is helping me on my way. I'm starting with Africa, so feel free to join me in learning where Eritrea is, and the geographical differences between the Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. My high score is 1,789 though, so good luck...

• Go to the cinema once a month

The cinema is great. We should support it. Seeing films in German is good for language practice. I can afford it. I have no excuse.

• Read one book a month from the Chemnitz public library

This sounds fairly doable, even at the painfully slow rate at which I read German. If I'm especially sneaky, I can read non-fiction, thereby killing two resolutions with one...book.

• Send one letter/card per week

Receiving post is super fun. It's really easy to send things. After only a small and quite subdued struggle, I worked out how to use the stamp machines outside the post office. I can afford it. (Sending a letter or postcard to the UK costs 75 cents. It's seriously fine.) NO EXCUSES. N.B. If you'd like to receive post from me, just say the word! I'll be so flattered that you took the time to read this that I'll go on a postcard buying spree, and possibly even treat you to a pink plastic replica of the Karl Marx head.

Did you think I was joking? I never joke.

• Become ambidextrous

A lifelong dream. Don't stop, never give up, hold your head high and reach the top. If you can dream it, you can do it. Reach for the stars.

• Keep up this weekly blog

It turns out that writing this is actually surprisingly fun! I thought it might become a chore, but it is actually very enjoyable as well as being good writing practice, an easy means of keeping any interested parties up to date on my life, and a way to shamelessly attention-seek on the internet. So thank you to all of you who have told me you've read my blog, and an even bigger thank you to those who've said you liked reading it! I love you all.