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 below) 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 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.

Thank you for subscribing to this RSS feed. https://soeren.one/ is søren's personal blog. If you want to get in touch, please reply to this post via email.

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.

Thank you for subscribing to this RSS feed. https://soeren.one/ is søren's personal blog. If you want to get in touch, please reply to this post via email.

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.

Thank you for subscribing to this RSS feed. https://soeren.one/ is søren's personal blog. If you want to get in touch, please reply to this post via email.

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.

Thank you for subscribing to this RSS feed. https://soeren.one/ is søren's personal blog. If you want to get in touch, please reply to this post via email.

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.

Thank you for subscribing to this RSS feed. https://soeren.one/ is søren's personal blog. If you want to get in touch, please reply to this post via email.