2012 in review
2012 in a map
January
The new year started quite boring, but had some nice nights out in Cologne.
February
Best carneval ever - far away from Rhine river. Escaping the long weekend to Dresden and Wroclaw was a brilliant idea! Being the first time in Poland made me more curious. After that, removal of my wisdom teeth should start, but didn’t work fine.
March
Semester break, 3 papers to write and still a tooth to remove before I had to go to Harz mountains for a field trip. 
April
On Easter Holidays I went for a hike with friends which was really nice. And I had a job interview for an internship at Deutsche Bahn in Frankfurt, but I declined by myself because it wasn’t what I expected. New semester began and the courses were so damn boring which increased my frustration about the chosen Master programme.
I participated in a discussion for an urban project in my hometown regarding the conversion of a large industrial area. My concept and ideas were later discussed in committees of the city, so it was a small success.
May
Realized that summer in Bonn is really nice and somehow like vacation! Discovered an awesome lake to swim near Brühl (picture below), places to chill at Rhine and Sieg river, we started hanging around more and more at Hofgarten or Alter Zoll. I also visited friends in the awesome city of Münster and at the end of May I took a flight which leads us to…
June
After being in Poland my first time in February I wanted to see more! At the end of May we took a flight to Katowice to visit Krakow, Auschwitz and mountains of High Tatras. This was probably one of my best vacations so far where we had a lot of fun and saw plenty things. We left right before Euro 2012 started which was a big part of my evening activities for the rest of the month. And I had a very nice weekend for a friend’s birthday and Altstadtfest in Trier which made me miss this town.
July
Started with a weekend in Belgium’s finest shithole Bruges and the insight that you have to be careful with belgian beer. We also went to the coast in Oostende but when we arrived, the weather changed and it was way too cold to jump into the water. And on our way home we drove into a Tour de France passage!
We also figured out that the confluence of Rhine and Sieg is a new favourite spot for spending an evening outside. I visited a friend in Hannover which is a quite ugly city and at the end of the month I went to my only festival this year: Riez Open Air which was nice as always, especially Against Me!
Also, probably one of my most frustrating semesters ended, the only course I enjoyed a little bit was my french course that I took voluntary to fill up my schedule.
August
To finish this semester I had to hand in two papers that I wanted to write in August, but this month was dominated by procrastination before my 6-week-internship at BBSR started.
I also did a 2-days-cycling trip with two friends from Gerolstein via Eifel National Parc to Aachen, where I improved my daily record up to exhausting 90km :)
September
I was an intern at BBSR in Bonn and during semester break, most friends in Bonn were not there, so I spent more weekends in Cologne. A nice thing about the internship was, that the institute was situated close to Rhine river in front of Siebengebirge.
October
I spent some days at Lake Constance with my parents, but I had to leave on Thursday to get to the La Dispute show in Cologne after a 7-hours-train-ride. It was a nice chill-out vacation, but I don’t need to go there again. Weather in October was crazy, especially that over-20-degrees-kind-of-summer weekend which we used for a hike at Siebengebirge. Also, the last Cologne outdoor Kiosk tour of the year was possible during those warmer nights. New semester started, but I had no expectations any more, I just wanted to finish my courses.
November
I had a job interview in Munich and it was good. I got an internship at the company for urban transportation, which will start in march. So I have to figure out how to manage the rest of my studies (including big field trip, master thesis) and how to get a flat in Munich - challenge accepted.
I finally went to a concert at Aetherblissement in Cologne again, one of the best concert venues! And I visited a friend in Mainz where I haven’t been a long time, but I still like this city!
December
Figured out that “Geo-Party” in Cologne was way better than in Bonn.
Became a damn quarter century old, spent the holidays completely in bed, still sick and bored what brought me to writing this review of 2012 ;)
Conclusion
I really liked the summer in Bonn, but during the past months, not only the study programme but also the city is frustrating me more, because some friends left and it hasn’t a lot to offer for my interests (especially concerning alternative music), so I was getting more attached to Cologne. But on the contrary to frustration and procrastination I had some really nice trips this year, especially those to Poland! :)
Next year will be full of challenges like finding my way in a completely new city and finding a topic for my Master thesis, so I’m looking to the year 2013 with mixed feelings.
