Auf Wiedersehen!

I fly to Konstanz tomorrow to start my year abroad - currently homeless and catless. It's certainly not ideal but I'm hoping for the best. My cat has decided to disappear the weekend before I'm due to leave but in doing so we have uncovered her underground ring of adoring fans and feeders. She also goes by the name Tina - a reference to her "teenager" characteristics, all the boys chasing round her and leading her dedicated gang of other young cats. Bet they don't know she still suckles the pillows!

Come back soon!

Hopefully she'll come back before I leave tomorrow. Hopefully she's safe and abducted in the home of a jealous unrequited lover and she'll be able to make her escape and return home.

So, yes, I'm leaving extremely early tomorrow to make my move to Lake Konstanz in Germany - despite the fact that I haven't yet found anywhere permanent to live. So I am spending the first night in a hostel - after that I'll be humbly living off the generosity of strangers via CouchSurfing until somewhere can be found. Apparently I'm not alone however, there are still a lot of people who haven't found anywhere to live for the semester - which isn't very reassuring really.

Exploring Konstanz for the first time

On my first evening I'm going to a Stammtisch (German for "regular's table") at the Hafenhalle, which is basically an opportunity to meet and socialise with other new Erasmus students in a typical German bar. Hopefully I'll meet some nice, interesting people and maybe even someone else who is still looking for somewhere to live.

Anyway, I ought to start getting myself prepared - I'm going to be living out of a suitcase for quite a while...

Tschüs for now! (Not entirely sure you can use it like that - I'll keep you updated)

Sunset over Lake Konstanz