laurahartmann's blog

I had imagined Friday night as the perfect homecoming: seeing my parents and friends and having the first Munich beer in three months (no offence).

So you can all guess that didn’t work out as planned. Finding out that my flight had been cancelled because of extreme snow closing the Munich airport (I know we normally tend to boast about Germany being amazing when it comes to coping with the snow) and the Lufthansa helpline unhelpfully hopeless, I left for Heathrow in a hurry (sorry about those dirty breakfast plates in the kitchen, flatmates) to find out if any other flights were heading towards Munich at all.

Then the first snowflakes started to fall on Gillingham just as I got on the train. A bad sign? Most definitely.

Germany’s meteorological office had warned of severe rainfalls for today.
And while the rain was indeed pouring down outside all day, no one would have expected the political thunderstorm that hit newsrooms across the country just after the lunch break – including the one where I am on work experience at the moment.

Federal president Horst Köhler announced that he will step down, only a year after he was re-elected.
He says his decision is a consequence of the comments he recently made about the German mission in Afghanistan.

For those of you John, Lucy and I haven't yet talked to about it: our Amnesty International Society has organised an event for tomorrow, Thursday, at 6 pm in the Pilkington Lecture Theatre.

Eight days before Barack Obama's inauguration as President, the German current affairs magazine Der Spiegel published the world's "wishlist" for the next President: e-mails and quotes by international leaders who express their expectations about his presidency.

There must be something special about Woolworths. At least that is what I am being told and, since I somehow managed to live through a childhood deprived of "pic'n'mix" and the likes, I can only guess what it is that turns the closure of a store chain into something of a national tragedy.

It is a busy Tuesday morning in Woolworths' Chatham branch and the shop's aisles are buzzing with customers in search of a Christmas bargain, with at least a dozen queuing at the tills, their arms heavy with sweets and toys.

So Barack Obama is the new President Elect, has defeated the gloomy threat of aMcCain/Palin presidency and brought change not only to America, but, if I understand today's headlines of newspaper web pages correctly, to all of us.