Hello! My name is Luise (miraculously, my actual first name was still available as a username!), I live and study in Germany- but will move to England in a few months- and I recently realised that I'm gay. Coming out has been alright so far, probably because I have been very tentative doing it: I told a handful of close friends, who have been amazingly supportive and open about the matter, and my parents, who prefer not to talk about it and, whilst they have not said or done anything overtly negative, are not thrilled. I am fine with that- they are a conservative bunch, I'm not terribly dependent on them, and as long as they do not actively seek to harm or undermine me, we can continue our affable-if-somewhat-distant relationship without any disturbance. Since I will be moving out of Germany in a few weeks (London! So excited!) and will probably meet a lot of new people, I have decided to treat my move as a chance to come out of the closet more or less completely. I'm somewhat anxious about doing that, but I'm determined not to lead a life of secrecy, and this is an amazing opportunity. Other than that, I enjoy learning languages (currently working on Mandarin), literature- I am very geeky when it comes to Victorian literature and German literature,which means I have very strong opinions about which Mann brother was the better writer and am willing to vocally defend said opinions loudly :lol:- and an occasional hike. Great to meet you all!
Hi Luise. I'm Cam :welcome: to EC. Are you moving to London for more studying or work. Your attitude to being out and proud when you get there is great. Wow! Mandarin. That's awesome. I don't think I'm capable of learning another language. I find the different tenses etc completely confusing. The people here are friendly and supportive and I'm sure you'll find many like minded people on the site.
Thanks so much, you two! Cam, I'm moving for more studying- or well, it's not exactly studying in the sense of 'studying law', which is what I normally do. I got the opportunity to take a year off from that and spend a few months in London and another couple of months in Beijing as part of a language exchange group. Technically, I will be studying English in London, but since my family is part British and I grew up speaking English, that is more of a formality than anything else. For the most part, it's going to be me having fun with some friends and a lot of history classes before I set off to Beijing and the real studying starts. That's the nice thing about Mandarin: No tenses, no conjugations, it's lovely. But don't ask me about my handwriting...:lol:
Shame it's not the other way round studying hard in Beijing and then off to London to recover and party. Sounds great though.
Nice to meet you Luise... I was in Stuttgart when I was younger when my dad was stationed there. Hope you have a good time in London!
