May: Last month in Germany!

Good day, everyone. A month and a half to tell you all about – I'll try to do it briefly.

The main thing that's happened within that time is that I moved from Hamburg to the south of France. I've been here for about two weeks now. However, you're still in the dark about my last 3 weeks or so in Germany, so I'll fill you in...

Remember last time I left you I said that there was a school trip to London coming up, and I didn't want to travel there and back on the coach with them? Well, that trip happened and it went really well.

They did what most tourists do: walked and walked and walked. It was almost too much walking – for me anyway.

Of course, they saw all the main London sights. But for me the best part was when we let the kids loose in a certain area for a few hours. That meant the teachers and I could go to a restaurant or pub, have a nice meal and a few glasses. In this time, the teachers also had a chance to meet my boyfriend. He'd heard a lot about them; they'd heard a lot about him. And it meant they could all speak German together. They liked him a lot!

I think for the two teachers who went on the trip, the fact that I was there was a relief for them. On the Tube for example, they only had to follow me. No going to the wrong platforms, no getting on the wrong trains.

I think for all of us, the musical 'We will rock you' on the Wednesday night was the highlight. They were in London for 4 days in total. They left on the Thursday night, leaving me to stay on there until the Sunday night when I flew back.

Towards the end of my time in Germany, I tried to spend quality time with the friends I'd made there. A week before I left, a group of the teachers and I went to a top-class restaurant at the back of an industrial estate. It was a buffet. A plate there cost 35Euros. Because it was my last few days with them, they 'invited' me as they say in German, which means I ate for free.

And the night before I left, we went to a bar together where I was showered with a few presents. I was a bit overwhelmed. This came after a day of presents at the school when the pupils applauded me and said 'thank you' and 'bye'.

Perhaps the sweetest present was an album of our trip to London which had been put together on a Mac. Apparently it was sent off and returned as a book, and that's how it was presented to me – so sweet.

All I all, I'll never forget the folks I worked with in that school. Lovely people who were nothing but nice to me. I hope I see them again.

Of course, there was the young English-speaking crowd with whom I shared the Hamburg experience. We had a few nights out too. We met up as many times as we could towards the end – mainly to get as many drinks down our necks as possible. The last full weekend in Hamburg was a good one! But after it was over, we decided to meet up one last time on my last night – for food – and 20 litres of beer, between us that was.

It was a brewery with good reviews and obviously, this 10 litres of beer thing went down well with us too. We wanted it to be a kind of traditional German last night. So, we ate and drank. Afterwards, some of us went on to the Reeperbahn. It was busy there even though it was a Wednesday because the next day would be a Bank Holiday.

That was my last night in Hamburg. The hope is to see the guys I met there again. I know it'll be easy to see those again who live near London, but I really hope I don't lose contact with the rest.

The next day involved the mighty task of moving to France – moving a whole room to France with a 23kg weight limit. Thank God, I'd already shipped a suitcase back to my mum in Croydon the day before. I also bought a new suitcase as I knew the other one wasn't going to cut it. Packing and tidying took all day. Going to the airport I just knew the bag was going to be over the limit. I wasn't wrong, it came up on the scales at 37kg. I was told I would have to go and buy another suitcase, transfer some stuff over and get the main bag down to under 23kg. I had no choice so that's what I did. That left me 100Euros out of pocket and I went on my merry way. Left Germany.