The winter holidays are over here and the uni starts again in two days. At this time I constantly think how much I liked that Edinburgh had all the exams before Christmas and how much I don’t like that it’s not the case here. In the upcoming month I have a presentation (Referat) and three tests… and after that I also have to write a Semesterarbeit (a ~15p. academic paper in German (!!!) ). Another thing that makes me anxious when I think about it, is that I want (and need since I don’t get anything extra from SAAS because I’m not from UK) to find a JOB… And just to make it all “nicer” there is a pile bureaucracy to deal with at the end of the first semester before the second semester starts.

So overall I’m not feeling very optimistic about upcoming two months. In fact, thinking of it makes me want to crawl under the duvet with a nice book which has nothing to do with uni curriculum (I’d prefer running away into the hills, but it’s a bit too cold for that now).

From a more objective point of view, this is probably the result of having nice Christmas/New Year holidays and having to get back into studying/working rhythm (I bet you know what I mean). The most efficient way to deal with it is to dig into work and work through everything step by step. If you are in a similar position now, best of luck!
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Now about something less serious. I spent this New Year with a friend in Freiburg and we were lucky enough to have a few days with lots of snow and relatively good weather (according to the locals you rarely get that in this time of year (especially snow in Freiburg itself)). So we decided to use this opportunity and go up to Schauinsland and Feldberg.

Here are a few pictures:

View from Feldberg

Alps in the distance

Also in case you want to climb Feldberg in winter or just walk around there on foot I would strongly advise to have waterproof trousers. Having or renting  Schneeschuhe (7 euros for half a day, walking sticks included) might also be a good idea. We did it without snow shoes and although it’s a funny and interesting experience when you end up knee-deep in snow after every step you make, it can also be a bit tiring.