Leeds on Søren's Blog

Reflecting 5 months in 2026

Sun, 31 May 2026 06:00:00 +0200

I am not good with those monthly reviews and I envy Jan-Lukas for his endurance in writing them. Nevertheless, I think it helps to reflect from time to time and this is what this post is about.

Although I won‘t commit to monthly reviews, I will grant this a new tag.

Blog

Over the last couple of weeks, I thought about this blog and how I want to use it in future. I want it to grow into my primary/single online garden - especially since I deleted all my social accounts.

Growing this garden includes migrating old texts from various platforms or backups to this blog. I did this with the Venice-Bike-Packing-Trip in January, and recently added the E5-Hiking adventure.

Next on the agenda are the texts I wrote during my time abroad in Australia, Brussels, or the UK, and our trip to Japan.

As another „bed“ in the garden, I added three new pages. /travel is about the places I (remember) visiting or living in, /wish is where I keep my public shopping baskets for someone else to click „buy“, and /bucketlist is something I didn’t have before but wanted to track now as a more generic list compared to yearly goals.

In terms of giving, I want to emphasize my participation in the „I‘ll read it“ initiative by Manuel - if you have a blog and look for new readers, sent it to me, and the „Ask Me Anything“, inspired by Kev, which gave me a fun little rabbit hole to explore after just one hour.

To give the garden a more personal touch, I registered a new domain including my first name - as many of you cool kids do. The migration is completed and both the old and the new domain point to this site. The new domain shall be a reminder to share a few more personal topics.

Running

Speaking of personal topics … I aimed at running a half marathon in less than two hours this year. The year started with a fast 10k, but then I was sick a lot during the preparation for the 21,1km. When I left home to take the train to the start of the half marathon, I didn’t feel confident to accomplish the 21km at all - but Garmin Coach said I can do it in 02:05h.

Lucky me, it went better than I imagined. 01:59:47 … 13 seconds, but … less than two hours.

I have one more 10k planned for mid July.

Cycling

The bike stayed in the garage, except for a few short trips to the supermarket. We plan to cycle around the Bodensee in September. But, less kilometers than last year.

Mobility

Seven months ago, we bought an electric car (BEV). I was happy with that decision after 2.500km, and couldn’t be happier today after 10k - with the increased petrol prices.

With the BEV, 100km cost us roughly 8€, while the same distance would cost us 13€ with our previous car.

The current price (0,45€/kWh) will become cheaper in future, as we have the possibility to charge at home now, where we pay less than on public chargers.

0,45€/kWh * 18kWh/100km * 100km = €8,10

2,06€/l * 6,5l/100km * 100km = €13,39

Volunteering

Currently, my engagement with the Red Cross is mainly on organizational, back-office tasks, as I have to be in office more often and thus have less time to join the weekly gatherings or the medical services.

I gave two First Courses and have a few more planned for the year. I enjoy „teaching“ a lot and hope that repeating the topic on a regular basis, helps me to be more prepared when I will be in an emergency.

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The first visitor

Mon, 15 Oct 2012 00:00:00 +0000

The first visitor has safely made it back home, and I’m sitting in my student room with a slight sense of homesickness and a cold.

E arrived on Wednesday, and I picked her up from the airport in Manchester. On Thursday and Friday, we explored Leeds together—strolling through the shopping district, drinking hot chocolate, visiting shops, wandering around the market, going to Kirkstall Abbey, and checking out the city museum. The weather was cold and windy throughout.

On Saturday, we went to York again—with almost the same program as before. It’s simply a beautiful place.

On Sunday, it was back to Manchester. From the airport, I made my way back to Leeds feeling quite sad. The visit brought on a strong wave of homesickness; the lightness is gone, and I feel like I did during the first days again—lonely. The worsening cold doesn’t help either.

Now, the more intense university period is about to begin. The first essay has to be submitted in two weeks, and after that, they’ll come one after another. So it’s time to work. For today, I’ve set myself the goal of refining the concept for the first essay, so that in theory only the writing itself remains to be done.

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the most excisting week so far

Mon, 08 Oct 2012 00:00:00 +0000

The most exciting week so far.

On Monday, I picked up my ticket for the rugby match. Tuesday was spent with the Photo Society—we went out for dinner followed by a photo walk. Wednesday started with university classes and ended with Varsity, one of the biggest sporting events in Leeds.

The city’s two major universities compete against each other all day in a huge range of sports: athletics, American football, badminton, cricket, football, golf, hockey, swimming, volleyball, and many more. There’s something happening all day long, with the rugby match in the evening as the main event. Unfortunately, I only managed to watch the women’s volleyball match and the rugby game because university kept me busy beforehand.

Sadly, “our” university lost both matches—and the overall Varsity competition—but it was still an amazing experience. Rugby is basically fighting with rules. I probably should have read the rules before the match instead of afterwards. It would have saved me from constantly wondering, “What just happened? Why was that worth five points when the last one was only three? Why only two points this time? Why has the referee blown the whistle again?” Even so, it was fantastic to watch.

The atmosphere was intense, too. Not because of the game itself, but because the security measures in the stadium were so strict. Fans from the two universities had to stand in opposite sections, the exits led in different directions, and they tried to avoid any contact between the groups after the match. Apparently, things can get a little heated from time to time. By the end of the evening I was completely soaked and freezing cold, but it was absolutely worth it.

Even better, I sent my photos to the Photo Society, who passed them on to the university. They ended up being published on the university’s Facebook page as well. And after looking through the album, I’d like to make the very modest observation that I think mine are the better rugby photos. ;-)

Friday brought my personal low point of the week. I logged into the online exam portal of my university back in Bamberg and was greeted with the message: “You are no longer enrolled in this degree programme (No degree awarded).” Excuse me… what?! It seems that only one of my master’s programmes was affected, so it’s probably just a system error rather than anything to do with my leave of absence, which was my first thought. Anyway, I sent an email but haven’t received a reply yet. Oh, how I love university administration…

On Saturday, we took a short trip to Liverpool. I wouldn’t call it spectacular, but it was definitely a nice place to visit.

Sunday was Carnage. It’s a party that takes place across the UK this week and can be summed up like this: there’s an overall theme (this year’s was “Pimps and Hoes”—which, to be fair, doesn’t look much different from a normal night out here), and you spend the evening hopping between different clubs. In our case, there were six of them. There’s a recommended order, but you don’t have to follow it.

Your ticket is actually a T-shirt, which you collect the day before and then customise. In keeping with the theme, most people cut away as much fabric as possible while still technically leaving it recognisable as a T-shirt. On the back is a checklist of the clubs and various challenges to complete throughout the night. It was a lot of fun. Another nice thing was that everything started at 8:00 p.m. (after all, there was a lot to fit in), so by 3:00 a.m. we could head home with a clear conscience and still have something left of Monday.

This week I’ll be having my first visitor. Let’s see how well we can make it work in the rather modest conditions of my student accommodation.

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York

Sun, 30 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000

We went to York. Not New York — just York.

Until the beginning of the week, the city had apparently still been affected by flooding, which we could partly see on the drive there. But today the sun was peeking through the clouds, and we got to enjoy a wonderful day in what is supposedly the most beautiful medieval city in the kingdom.

We started with a short guided tour and then had about four hours to explore the city on our own. I lost my “usual” group, so I joined a group of French girls instead. First we wandered through the city center, then visited the tower, walked through the pedestrian zone, and briefly stopped by the Viking Museum. The entrance fee was fairly expensive, but even more “discouraging” was the fact that the museum tries to recreate the Viking era as authentically as possible — including the smells.

For lunch, we ate in a small pub rather than the recommended one. Waiting an hour for lunch seems a bit silly to me when there are perfectly good alternatives.

The finale — and the highlight — was chocolate. We visited a chocolate museum with a small café, where we warmed up again with hot chocolate, marshmallows, and brownies.

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Lake District

Wed, 26 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Daily life is starting to settle in. Last week was mostly filled with university classes, which were only moderately interesting. On Thursday, the exchange program invited us to a group dinner followed by a headphone disco. The food was absolutely delicious, so diverse and international. Samosas are my new best friends.

The headphone disco was an interesting experience as well. Instead of blasting music through speakers, everyone listens through headphones. The funniest part is walking into the room expecting loud music, only to find it almost completely silent. You can just stand there and watch people dancing to music you can’t hear. It’s brilliant! And when someone starts singing along, it’s absolutely hilarious. The music itself was great too, so we ended up having a really fun evening.

At the weekend, we went on our first bigger trip. The four of us rented a car and drove about three hours northwest to the Lake District, one of the largest national parks in the country. Thank goodness for smartphones—we would have taken several wrong turns without them.

The village where we stayed had no mobile signal, so we stumbled across our first truly beautiful hike almost by accident. We walked around a lake before climbing a hill with a fantastic view, then made our way back down. Fish and chips for dinner, followed by a full English breakfast on Sunday morning—two more items checked off the bucket list. After that, we took a short boat trip and walked back along the lakeshore before heading home. All in all, it was a wonderful weekend and we came back with plenty of great photos.

Since Monday, it’s been full speed ahead at university. I’ve submitted my first assignment, and now I’m sitting in the library preparing for the classes ahead.

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The first week

Wed, 19 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000

The first week is over. A lot has happened, and the first routines are starting to settle in.

The term paper for my semester in Bamberg still isn’t finished.

Things at the university here are getting off to a slow and relaxed start. That’s bachelor’s life, I guess. I like that everyone calls the professors by their first names and that they show up wearing dirty sneakers.

That leaves plenty of time to enjoy life. We’ve been to various pubs and clubs and got to experience some of the quirks of British nightlife. During the day, weekends are for sightseeing. And I played squash for the first—and probably only—time.

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Timetable ✅

Fri, 14 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Yesterday we went to the Freshers’ Fair, an event showcasing all the university clubs and societies. Here, they’re called “Societies.” It’s quite different from Bamberg, where there is one larger student group organising a variety of activities. Here, every interest has its own society: Cheerleading, Hiking, Martial Arts, Paintball, and many more. The fair took place in a huge sports hall that was completely packed with people, tables, and purple balloons. It’s nothing like the orientation events in Bamberg.

The weather wasn’t particularly good, so I carried my camera around for nothing. However, I’ve already learned that it never hurts to bring an umbrella— even when the sun is shining.

In the evening, L and I attended an event organised by the International Students Club: a kind of pub quiz held in a church. We came in second place. Afterwards, we joined a pub crawl with the exchange students.

Yesterday was the most academically interesting day so far: library and course orientation. IT problems continue to be part of the experience. My personal data is now finally correct, but I’m still not listed as an active student and therefore can’t enroll in any courses. The Erasmus coordinator has the patience of a saint, and in the end we all managed to put together our timetables.

One piece of bad news for me: here I am once again considered an undergraduate student and am therefore only allowed to choose undergraduate courses. I won’t be able to transfer those credits back to Bamberg. Oh well. At least things are finally moving forward.

Afterwards, I went out and bought even more warm clothes. It’s getting cold.

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The first day at university

Tue, 11 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Today was the first day at the university. As a flat, we walked to campus together and attended our respective orientation sessions. Unfortunately, mine wasn’t particularly helpful, as the questions being discussed were things we already knew, and for anything more detailed we were simply referred to the Erasmus coordinator.

Getting the data in the university system corrected would have been unnecessary. It was still wrong on my student ID card, so it had to be printed again.

At lunchtime, I worked on my term paper for Bamberg. Motivation was low, and progress was slow.

In the afternoon, we went to a “Tea and Cake” event hosted by the student association, followed by a trip to IKEA. Despite some initial doubts, this afternoon left me feeling very positive about the next 100 days. I met many fellow students there, especially L, who studies the same subject as I do and has experienced similar organizational problems. A companion in suffering.

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The first day

Sun, 09 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000

The first full day in Leeds is coming to an end. After the exhausting last few weeks and very little sleep last night, I actually fell asleep over my laptop. Things are off to a great start.

Today, I headed into the city again, this time to the tourist information center to pick up some material on what there is to do in this beautiful city over the next few months. On the way, I accidentally stumbled across the visa check-in for international students. It doesn’t apply to me, since as an EU citizen I count as a “home student,” but it was good that I stopped by because we discovered an error in the data the university had on file for me. I also learned that the first week at university generally consists of parties. Stereotype number one: confirmed.

In town, I bought a SIM card (finally reachable again at a reasonable cost and with mobile internet on my phone) and some cheap plastic tableware (it only has to last a few months, after all).

In the afternoon, I started working on the last term paper for my semester in Bamberg.

In the evening, there was a campus BBQ. It was a nice idea, but the execution left room for improvement. Hungry and in a somewhat mediocre mood, our flat soon headed back home and, in doing so, missed the first party of the semester.

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Leads 1

Sat, 08 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Here we go again. Five years after I set off for Sydney, I’m heading abroad once more. Once again to a Commonwealth country, this time to the motherland itself, the United Kingdom. More specifically, to Leeds. The university there will be my alma mater for the next semester.

The preparations were a bit stressful again. I attended birthday celebrations in Dresden, visited family in southern Germany, went on an outing with colleagues, packed my belongings into moving boxes, painted, cleaned, and finally moved out. Goodbye, first apartment of my own.

I flew from Berlin. I barely slept the night before, which made for a very relaxing flight. As soon as I sat down in my seat, I fell asleep and didn’t wake up again until we landed in Manchester.

Once there, everything somehow felt like Australia again. Foreign-language announcements all around me, people hurrying about without even taking the time to enjoy the advertisements on the walls, and finally, border control. Unlike in Australia, however, this time I belonged to the privileged (EU) queue, where there was much less traffic, and I entered the United Kingdom in no time.

I quickly picked up my backpack from the baggage carousel—it was already waiting for me—and then stepped into the English world.

The university had organised things very well: right outside the airport, “buddies” in purple hoodies were waiting to welcome us. We were still waiting for someone whose flight had been delayed, and then a bus would take us to our respective dormitories.

The room is quite sparse, but it will do for the time being. Five of us share the apartment: three English freshmen, away from home for the first time, and two exchange students.

I spend the afternoon exploring the route to the city center and the university, wandering around a bit, reading my book in the sunshine by the riverside, and finally doing some grocery shopping.

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