THE END

Because of the type of person I am I cannot write this blog out of order... it will annoy me and seeing as I have a few posts from recent events lined up, I need to write this conclusion to my year abroad before moving on!  So here it is, a few facts and figures about my year abroad to amuse you all!

Total number of plane journeys: 21
Total number of countries lived in: 3
Total number of countries visited: 10

Average temperature (Austria) :  Somewhere between 5 and -10 (on bad days -20!!)
Average temperature (Spain) : 25-35
Average temperature (France) : 25-30
Conclusion? - I loved having proper seasons so doing a winter country in winter and then a really hot one from February onwards was a great plan - although it was a bit of a shock to the system!  I honestly cannot say which I preferred...

Average wake up time (Austria) - 5am
Average wake up time (Spain) - 8/9am
Average wake up time (France) - 7am
Conclusion? I do waking up early pretty well - in fact I would rather get up early!

I took only one small and one large suitcase to each destination and only ever paid for 4 kilos of excess luggage (coming home from Spain).

My purse got stolen twice but I never lost anything vitally important.  The loss of something special someone gave me, hurt me more than anything else.

I made 2 surprise trips back to England - one to Durham and one home.

I went the whole year with only a mini hairbrush and no hairdryer.

English is a ridiculous language to learn, not from a grammatical point of view ( Austrian pupils 'you have only one gender pfft!') but from a pronunciation point of view.  Think wind & wind....though, thought, through, tough etc etc

Things I have learnt:

- It is ok to be self-confident.  Whilst before I always thought self-confidence (not that I am always confident! :P) would be perceived as arrogance, I now know that it is not. There is a big difference.  Self-confidence is knowing you can do something and doing it, arrogance is talking about knowing you can do it and rubbing it in people's faces!

- Asking for things is ok.  I have always found asking for what I want hard... now it is much less of an issue!

 - I can now stand up for myself a bit better.  I was never a massive push over, but sometimes I will stay quiet rather than say what I want to.  I still do this, but when I really care I may now say something!

 - Germanic cultures suit me better than Latin ones.  However living in Spain has definitely taught me to value being a little more relaxed about life.  There are things worth getting worried and stressed about, but most are not worth it - life is too short.

These are just a few little comments!  The year abroad was a truly amazing experience and a genuine opportunity to see Europe and get by alone.  I certainly learnt a lot that cannot be taught or read in a text book.  Most importantly I met some fabulous people along the way.  Some I may never speak to again but the time I spent with them has enriched my life and some I know I will speak to for a long time, wherever they may be!

THE END