Leute in Leipzig

Emma @ Sellerhausen

• Ashley • Season 1 • Episode 1

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Embark on a vibrant escapade with the effervescent Emma, an Irish University teacher whose zest for life and seamless cultural weave between her homeland and her newfound German community is nothing short of captivating. Our delightful guest, hailing from the charming Irish town of Dungarvan, brings a splash of humor and a dash of nostalgia as she narrates her transition to the dynamic streets of Leipzig. Emma's tale is a tapestry of early hangouts in local bars, academic pursuits, and her love affair with Leipzig's cultural scene, from festivals to serene lakeside retreats.

Get ready to explore Emma's bilingual upbringing and the serendipitous route that catapulted her to a role at the University of Leipzig. She regales us with anecdotes of her initial impressions of Leipzig—recounting the warmth of her first bar visit. Emma's journey is a testament to the power of adaptability and the joy of immersing oneself in a new culture, all while juggling the pursuit of higher education, a radio show and a passion for spinning 80s tracks as a DJ.

As Emma looks to the future, she doesn't shy away from sharing her ambitions and the personal milestones she's set her sights on. Whether it's her pursuit of a PhD, becoming a DJ, or writing a Irish Children's book, Emma's infectious enthusiasm is a reminder to embrace the unexpected turns of life's journey. Tune in for an episode brimming with spirited conversations, heartfelt reflections, and the embracing of two worlds brought together by one remarkable individual.

You can here Emmas Radio show every Wednesday, Friday and Saturday here:
https://raidiofailte.com/listen-live/?lang=en

Music from my Podcast via Pixabay.
Title: Good Times (Warm Acoustic Indie)
Artist: Marcobellonimusic

If you want to share your story, send me an email to leuteinleipzig@outlook.de
I would love to hear from you.

You can find me on Instagram and TikTok as leute.in.leipzig


Speaker 1:

Welcome to Loite in Leipzig, the podcast that explores the vibrant stories and diverse voices of the incredible people who call Leipzig home. I'm your host, ashley, and each episode we'll meet someone new, share their journey and discover the hidden gems in this beautiful city. Whether you're a resident, planning a visit or just curious about the city, you're in the right place. This is Loite in Leipzig, where every voice has a story. Hello everybody, and guten tag. Today I am very pleased to welcome an amazing and wonderful human being. During the day, she is an Irish professor at the uni and during the night she is discovering songs for her radio show. She has a mix of social charm, friendliness and is always a joy to have around. Plus, she is a big restaurant expert. I am happy to welcome Emma.

Speaker 2:

Hello, that's the nicest introduction I've ever gotten in my whole life.

Speaker 1:

Thank, you, I'm glad so, emma, a very important part of information. In which Stadtteil do you live? In which part of the city?

Speaker 2:

I currently live in Leipzig Ost. Everyone uses the Kaufland there as the kind of point of reference. So I'm very near to the Kaufland. I can walk there.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so please tell me a little bit about you.

Speaker 2:

Okay, well, you obviously introduced me. I think calling me a professor is a bit of a jump, but we'll get to that. Well, my name is Emma Power, or Emma de Puer in Irish. I'm Irish. I'm from a place called Dungarvan in County Waterford in Ireland, in the sunny southeast. I moved to Germany in 2019 after completing my Bachelor in German and Irish. I'd already lived in Bonn in the West for a year for my Erasmus, so I knew that I wanted to somehow return to Germany. So, yeah, I moved here and then I became a so-called professor. Ie, I teach Irish at the university. I'm not yet a professor.

Speaker 1:

But so, um, I would like to start a little bit with your um backstory, um, a little bit from your childhood.

Speaker 2:

So you said you're Dungarvan am I pronouncing it right, dungarvan?

Speaker 1:

yeah, that's your hometown. Did you were born there, or that's where you I was born?

Speaker 2:

yeah, it's, the county is waterford. I was born in the nearby city, in the hospital there, and yeah, my family are from dungarvan and um, yeah, I lived there up until the age of 20 and 20 yeah otherwise I was in in college in in the other nearby city. But yeah, for all of my life I I grew up in dungarvan. It's a small ish town. It's a big town in as it goes for towns in ireland.

Speaker 2:

A lot of people would know there's about just over 10 000 people living there okay um, but you know I'm not a big city slicker um, but I came from, I come from the center of the town. So I you call me a townie in ireland. Yeah, I kind of yeah, if anyone's listening, who knows who knows ireland like I am a townie. I'm not really a country, a country person. Um, and yeah, I grew up there going to school. My schooling was fully in irish. I suppose that's one of the main points about me. My primary schooling was fully, or? In.

Speaker 2:

Gaelic or in Irish Gaelic, whatever you want to call it nice, yeah.

Speaker 1:

So on the school the second language was English, like it was primarily we weren't yeah, we weren't allowed to speak English that was the thing.

Speaker 2:

The only time we were allowed to speak English was during the English lesson so to say um yeah, so I. I did that when up to the age of 11, and then I kind of didn't want to go on to secondary schooling in Irish because it was a smaller school. I wanted to stay in the town yeah um, and I went through my secondary schooling then in English, but I was fluent in Irish by then nice, and is that like an exception, like primary complete irish schools, or it's like a standard?

Speaker 2:

it's definitely not the standard, no um, but a lot of people would go through schooling in irish if. If there is a, it's called a guile skull. Yeah, guile for guile for irish and skull is school. So if, um, if there's a guile skull in the area, most kids would. A lot of parents would want to send them to that school. A lot of people wouldn't want to either, but I think it gives the child a very good advantage in life. They're already fluent in language, whether or not.

Speaker 2:

They go on and use it is another question, but it's um. Irish is compulsory subject in school in Ireland, so it can only set you up for a better chance, even just passing exams.

Speaker 1:

Nice, cool, and could you describe us a little bit your town like for our listeners? Like I don't know if you can in a way compare it to Leipzig. That's what we all have in common.

Speaker 2:

Compared to Leipzig, I can't compare. No, I can't. It's so. No, I actually can't. Um, it's a little seaside town. Um, there's lots of pubs there as there is now every time in ireland, um, but I suppose, um, yeah, no, it's, it's very specific when you're there and there's um, I suppose I love it and I love Leipzig. Maybe that's the one thing that I could, I could put together, but um, does everybody knows everybody.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, if somebody happens oh, everyone knows.

Speaker 2:

That's the thing. I think that's one of the reasons why I eventually wanted to leave, because everyone knows um. But yeah, if everyone knows everyone, um, when you go out in the night time, I think that's a big, actual, a big difference for me personally. If I, if I go out on a Saturday night in Dungarvan, I know I'm going to go out and meet old friends, old acquaintances, old colleagues from work, and you know it's such a social thing.

Speaker 2:

I'm not really meeting anyone new very often I'm more so kind of returning to a crew of people that I might have seen in years. But when I go out here in Leipzig, I wouldn't know. You know you walk into a bar and you wouldn't know many people. And if you, if you did run into someone, I would be like, oh, what are you doing here? You know, you don't even know, I suppose for me I don't know a lot of people, enough people to say, oh, I know this person is always in this bar, or this is their local, or this is where they hang out. So I think there's more differences, I think, than similarities.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, okay, cool and it's interesting that you say that, because I've heard a lot of people that say that leipzig is a big town like you can meet everybody in, just like a couple of places like there's not very it's not very varied. That's what I've heard I do agree.

Speaker 2:

I think maybe half the problem is I don't go out as much as I used to in Ireland. I've kind of I'm living a much quieter life here. So I do agree with that. I do recognize more people here as I go along my daily life, but in Lungarvan when I go home it's oh hi, emma, well, emma, how are you? Oh, you're home. When are you going back? How long are you here for? How are you? And they kind of even know what's going on with my life in Germany, but that's also because I overshare on social media. I don't think that's.

Speaker 1:

And from your school classmates. Did most of them stay in the Nongarvan or the younger people tend to leave the place.

Speaker 2:

There is not many people left in ungerman, but there's not many young people left in ireland at all.

Speaker 2:

Ireland has a big um emigration culture goes back quite a long time I suppose. But ireland is quite expensive and um job opportunities. You'd kind of have to go to a bigger city, but again, there's not many big cities in Ireland. You've Dublin, cork, galway, etc. But some of my friends um are still in Dungarvan. Um, a couple of my good friends are there but they've nice teaching jobs. You know, and you know that you can have a good life there if you get a if you get a job.

Speaker 2:

But I suppose moving, moving abroad or moving to a bigger city, you've definitely more opportunities. You know, there's only so many schools in in the town, there's only so many I don't know computer companies that someone could get a job with, whatever they've studied, you know. So, um, when I do go home it depends on the time of the year who I might see yeah.

Speaker 2:

Christmas I don't go home, so I don't get to see everyone who home. It depends on the time of the year who I might see. Christmas I don't go home, so I don't get to see everyone who returns. It depends. A lot of my friends live abroad now, so not in Germany, so we all kind of have to maneuver around times and somehow try and meet, whether at home or on the continent somewhere.

Speaker 1:

Okay, interesting, or on the continent somewhere okay, interesting and um would you say you had a nice childhood yeah, yeah, no, I've.

Speaker 2:

I've such fond um fond memories of, and I love coming home um. My grandmother lived right down on the seaside, looking out over the bay, and it was, in my opinion, the nicest house in the whole yeah of the town, not from, not the house itself, but where it was.

Speaker 2:

You know, and I really I'm very close with all my cousins um, and we all used to spend time there. Um, I I loved school. School was great. I I was, I was a good student. I made lots of friends there. Um I was able to meet then friends in my um, in my, around my home, like my house. I've also friends um from from the countryside as well, who would, who would often come in. So there was lots going on when I was younger and I was able to meet most of the young people of the town and that in turn then allows me to, you know, meet them all again when I return home. But my childhood was great, it was.

Speaker 2:

I can't, I can't complain nice and you grew up with brothers or sister my sister Siobhan, um, just me and her in the house, and there is four years between us, so it was, I suppose, for a couple of years. You know, I was a teenager and she wasn't. But yeah we're, we're close again now, which is good. She lives in leipzig too, so um, we've, we've reunited, yeah, in another country yeah, that's nice, like having family here, I suppose it's.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you have a little yeah, exactly yes and um. So after high school you studied in uh ireland.

Speaker 2:

Your bachelor I moved to cork city, which is probably yeah, it's the biggest city on the south coast, and I did a four-year course in. Originally it was, um, supposed to be German, spanish and Irish, but I gave up quite quickly on Spanish. Well, I did two years and then I did my third year abroad and I just couldn't do the, the, the Spanish classes, with the teacher translating everything into German, and then I had to go home and translate the German into English and then back into Spanish to understand. You know what was going on. So I gave that up. But I studied in Cork for three years. I was there and it was a four-year course, one year abroad, as I said, in Bonn. So that's, I have a big place in my heart for Cork also. I love Cork and there is a rivalry between waterford and cork, so my county in that county, sports wise, but I love it, I love the city, it's you know, um, I couldn't tell you now how many people live there, but it's giving leipzig vibes maybe.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, kind of, yeah, it would give. It would give leipzig vibes. Um.

Speaker 1:

Is it also like a student?

Speaker 2:

city. Yeah, definitely, it's probably yeah, there and Dublin and Galway would be the three and Limerick maybe the four main cities, student cities. There's other smaller ones as well, but so don't kill me if anyone's listening saying well in here. But you know, cork is kind of the biggest one for the south because there's two. There's two colleges or the university and an institute of technology, so you have a lot of students coming in every year okay, nice.

Speaker 1:

Um, when I think about ireland, it doesn't I don't know like, personally, it doesn't come to mind that it's like an island. Yeah, like when I picture like an island life, like Ireland doesn't come to place like, do you feel like you come from an island?

Speaker 2:

well, from where you come from now, islands are much different than Ireland. Um, very good question. I suppose the first time I realized that I was I I suppose I became aware of Ireland being an island is when I actually moved to Germany, to Bonn, and I was able to just get on a train or a flix bus and go to another country. I was shook, I couldn't believe it. Whereas anywhere I would want to go, in Ireland I have to get on a plane, unless I get on a 24-hour boat to France or across to the UK. But you know you have to like going abroad is such a is such a thing in.

Speaker 2:

Ireland because you have to go to the airport, whereas here you can just get your bus or your train across. Like you know, when I was in Bonn I was able to go to Amsterdam, I was able to go down to France, over to Italy, like no problem and same. Here we can go. You know, we can go more east or south. So yeah, that's one big thing. Um, I suppose the other thing is the sea and where I come from. Obviously I'm not from the Midlands, but where I come from there's sea I can. I've a beach readily available whenever I want to but it's not the island life beach with a bikini.

Speaker 2:

The beach for me in Ireland is a big winter jacket and the wind blowing in your face, but I love that I used to go to the beach when I was hungover to have like I don't know, I used to get my friends to drive me to the local beach after a night out, just to kind of let the wind blow all my sins away from the night before.

Speaker 2:

And of course there are sunny days, but I wasn't on the beach on a sunny day. You know, I don't really associate it with that, but swimming is always cold. You know, it is an island in one sense, but it's also the cold type.

Speaker 1:

And in summer is it like that the cold, the cold type, yeah, and in summer is it like that too depends on the summer.

Speaker 2:

I suppose yeah, um, if you get a good summer, a hot day would be you'd be hitting 25 26 degrees celsius, which you know is good here as well, but, um, anything above that, we're dying, and I think everyone loves it for the first four days and then, if it goes on further, everyone's complaining because our houses aren't built for the heat, like they're, they're built to hold in heat, um so, but you could also have a really wet summer, and it's just raining constantly, which has happened most of my life can you describe us like.

Speaker 1:

Okay, my picture from my, from my home country, of an island is the because we have islands too. Yeah, uh, like this, um, like the sand and the palm trees, and like gold sand and the blue uh water, the water of blue skies, and blue skies maybe, but I suppose yeah, long.

Speaker 2:

No, you have a nice coastline, if you're lucky. You know where I'm from the local beach, if you look don't ask me north, south, east, west, I don't know but you're back with your face to the water. You look left. There's a lovely little cliff face there and you can go along and, um, there's nice. Yeah, there's. There's lovely greenery, not palm trees, but greenery around. Um, ireland is quite green. It does live up to the expectations, I suppose. Um, and the water.

Speaker 2:

If you're on a windy autumn or a spring day, you know the water is quite rough, it's crashing, but I, I really it's quite cathartic to listen to. It's really nice. It's really peaceful and it's not much. You sometimes get the ebb and flow, you know where it's calm. But for me, when I used to go we'd make a point to go when it was a little bit more windy and um, I don't know, there's just a totally different feeling on an irish beach. Don't get me wrong. In the summer you can have really really nice days on the beach, but I was never really a beach a summery beach gal.

Speaker 2:

Up until recently I wasn't. So you'll have more kind of nice and, depending where you are, like if you're on the west coast of Ireland, oh my God, the views are breathtaking. I haven't even travelled the whole west coast. I want to do it eventually. Um, but it's. It's not more. It's not so much a relaxing by the beach thing it's more so. Wow, look how lovely it is the wind in your face. If it's calm, you know the sun, but again you know it's the Atlantic Ocean as well.

Speaker 1:

It's quite wild yeah, nice, but it Okay. So you made the decision to come to Leipzig. Can you draw us a picture? How was your life in this moment when you decided, okay, I'm moving there.

Speaker 2:

Well, I'd actually already decided I was going to come back to Germany when I finished my Erasmus. I loved living in Bonn so much. I made so many friends. It's such good fun that I said I'm going back. I don't know what I'm going to do, but I'll go back for however long I don't know. So I'd finished my bachelor and spent the summer in Cork working in a cafe, and I decided then that I was going to move in the January of 2019. And some friends were moving also that were coming from both Ireland and other countries, mainly France, actually some friends that we'd all we'd all known each other from Erasmus, so we were obviously going to go to.

Speaker 2:

Berlin, where do you go? If you want to go to Germany, go to Berlin. But a friend of mine said, well, I don't know, maybe I heard about Leipzig, leipzig could be good. And I was kind of saying, oh no, you know, no, you know. And I said, oh no, I think I'll still go to Berlin. And I had another friend who was going to come and she then couldn't, and there was a lot of people in the mix of when it was happening and then, um, some friends moved before I did, because I I wanted to save up money yeah they were of the opinion.

Speaker 2:

Look, we'll come over, we'll arrive, we'll live in a hostel, we'll find a place. I don't roll like that no.

Speaker 2:

I can't arrive with no plan, I'll implode. So I waited until January of 2019 to move over and I had enough money to save up. Sorry, I had enough money saved up so that I had time to kind of explore, settle, see what I wanted to do. I booked um to do a month b1 course, b2 course, even though I just got my bachelor. In German my grammar was, and still is, shocking, so I wanted to kind of brush up on that.

Speaker 2:

But I also thought I could make some friends yeah so I'd arrived and then, um, I yeah, I had no plan. The plan was six months. I did, I found an apartment for sublet for six months, until July, and I thought perfect, I'll return to Ireland for September and start a master's in German Irish relations, believe it or not. And I had that in my head.

Speaker 1:

And then everything changed so your plan plan was basically come to Germany, six months work and then return for the Masters.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, just brush up on my German. I had my Irish. Obviously. I was living in Ireland. I could practice that whenever I wanted to, but I wanted to gain more experience in German. Yeah, work in a cafe, something like that. I I wasn't picky, I had plenty of experience in in most fields so I was able and I could speak, so I wasn't worried about it.

Speaker 1:

Um, yeah, six months and, as a irish citizen, you can just come here and work. Yeah, yeah, no, yeah, no one asks any questions okay, and did you research the city before, like, or you just went with the flow and let like you convince yourself okay, it's not berlin, but I looked up some videos on youtube and like what I don't know like five top things to do in Leipzig.

Speaker 2:

And then they do these drone videos of Leipzig, you know, and yeah, obviously. Then I heard someone say, yeah, it's the new Berlin HypeSig, like all of this kind of stuff, and I was like, yeah, cool, whatever, like whatever. I honestly didn't mind, and I suppose the other thing was I wanted to practice my German. Yeah. And I thought well, actually you're right. Berlin, I have less of a chance of practicing my German. Yeah. In Leipzig. You know I presumed that I didn't really think about the sexist element. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

That's a whole other situation. But yeah, I thought, fine, let's go there. I lived also when I lived in Bonn. It was a Bonn, it wasn't Cologne. You know, I lived near the big city. So I was like, yeah, it's the same idea. I know Bonn is closer to Cologne, but I thought, yeah, whenever I want to go to Berlin, I can just go to Berlin.

Speaker 1:

So you made the decision, you came to Leipzig, and how was it at the beginning?

Speaker 2:

Like, where did you stay? Like, where did you live? I stayed with a friend, so the friends that had already moved over.

Speaker 2:

They had a VG and they had in just at Angerbrücke, just over the bridge, at the tram stop there, which, yeah, contributed to my experience. So when I arrived it was a really cold winter I don't know if anyone's here in 2019 it was really really snowy. I remember in the first weeks um, the lakes in the little lake, or ponds, whatever you want to call them in in Clackapack were frozen over. I was able to walk on those. You know, I hadn't really in Ireland we don't really get snow, especially when you're beside the sea there's not much snow unless you're in the mountains. But we wouldn't really have heavy snow ever, maybe once or twice every six years. So for me I hadn't really seen proper, proper snow. So that was exciting.

Speaker 2:

Um, we, we lived in this little vacay together. There was a third small room where there was a couch that they found Suverschenkin on the street. I don't even want to think about it, but um ran to primark the day I arrived and, um, you know, bought a duvet and pillows and kind of set it up and tried to hide the fact that they found. They found thank god I didn't get any disease, but they found it on the street, um, and I was able to live. They found the people. My friends in the VK had found the, the, the couch on the street, but it was like a pullout bed and that was.

Speaker 2:

It was the width, if you can imagine a couch, an L couch from Ikea. That was the width of the room. It just fit either side, okay, and it was almost the length of the room. It was a really, really small room, but I was able to settle there for three weeks it was actually three and a half weeks until I found an apartment myself in Goulas, would you believe. Wow.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So the first weeks, you know, I was catching up with my friends, we were just having a time, we're having a great time, and I was supposed to then start my um Bezwe German course in the February. So I had three weeks of kind of yeah, just exploring Leipzig, and because my friends had been here already, they were able to bring me to the places you know the hot spots so I kind of had a little mini tour guide from, but from the, from the lads.

Speaker 2:

So, um, I wasn't totally lost when I was here.

Speaker 1:

It's quite nice, yeah, and how was it living in gold? It's like.

Speaker 2:

It's like for me it's very far away in the north, yeah yeah, um, at the time my friends were like, oh no, don't go to goldis. And I was like, no, I found because this it worked out perfectly the guy that I wanted to do the under meter the sublet from. He was going to Russia until July and I wanted to leave in July or August. So it worked out perfect. The price was nice. It was a studio flat but it was shaped so well that you walked in and it was kind of almost in a C shape, if you can imagine that, that you walk in and you turn left. The kitchen is. When you walk in, then you turn left and there's a living room and then you turn left again and there's a little nook for the bed. So it didn't really feel like a studio and it was really nice. And I was right on copy plats. So you had the S-pan, the bus and the tram. Okay.

Speaker 2:

Like it was. It was perfect for me. Yeah, bus and the tram, okay, like it was. It was perfect for me. Yeah, and because again this whole six months thing. I was like whatever, who cares, yeah, but it did get a bit, yeah, it did get. It did feel a little bit far, especially after a night out, um, I have to say. But when I I found my job then in the March um of of 2019 in the university, so you arrived on. In January.

Speaker 1:

In January and you found the job on March.

Speaker 2:

I found the job at the start of March, maybe the end of February, but I got offered the job in March and it was in the university, so it was actually I got it during the semester period, so I was supposed to be starting then in April.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and then I thought, wow, okay, well, well, I'm definitely going to stay for longer than six months. So this job you found it already in leipzig. You didn't have any idea of the job in ireland no, I found.

Speaker 2:

Someone sent it to me. A friend of mine living in bonn, um saw it on facebook. It was from university leipzig, um Facebook saying University Leipzig is looking for an Irish teacher. Please send your lally, lally, lally, lally, lally, including PhD. Like I didn't have any of that. How old were you? 20, 22.

Speaker 1:

So 22, you were sending an application to be a professor in the Uni Leipzig.

Speaker 2:

Look, it's not a professor, a teacher. I'm not entitled to that, that title. Yet, yeah, to be, to be the irish lecture teacher. I don't know, I don't know the, the terminology, the jargon here. The irish teacher, yeah, for um, the bachelor of, well, it's under the the ba Mindehain Sprachen minority languages European minority languages um, under the Sorbian Institute for Sorbistic, which is a minority language in this area in the east of Germany. So, yeah, I knew nothing. I said my, I've actually saw it myself. And I thought, oh god, no, I don't have a PhD, forget about it. But someone else sent it to me. It was like, did you see this? And I was like yeah, no. And she was like Emma, if you don't apply for that, you're such an idiot. And I was like okay fine, whatever yeah whatever.

Speaker 2:

So I drew up my CV in Irish and wrote everything in Irish and sent it off um, and I remember I was on a little day trip to Prague or a weekend trip and I got a call. I was standing at the Charles Bridge in Prague, loads of tourists around me and someone called me, and it was the current, like the lecturer of Irish at the time, and he's from Donegal, which is the north, like the most north part of Ireland.

Speaker 1:

So the telephone number was an Irish number, no the German number.

Speaker 2:

But he spoke to me in Irish and I hadn't spoken Irish in months because I'd finished my bachelor in the June of 2018. This was now February. But the other thing is, I'm from the south. I speak a Munster Irish dialect, okay. And he's from the north. He speaks an ulster irish dialect. That's the names of the provinces. So have you seen dairy girls on? Okay, if you're from the north, you speak quite melodically in english as well. You speak up and down like that and the accent can be quite difficult. I'm butchering it, but anyway, imagine that, right, in english, it's still difficult for someone you know to understand because they're not used to it. I hadn't heard a Donegal Irish accent in years and because I wasn't so well read on the different dialects, I really had to concentrate on what he was saying. Obviously, all the tourists were around me had to concentrate on what he was saying. I, obviously all the tourists were around me. I did my finger in my ear being like yeah, hello, like in irish as well, trying to trying to talk to him.

Speaker 2:

He did a quick little ask me a couple of questions in irish and then passed me over to another woman who spoke to me in english. Okay, she asked me questions and she was like okay, okay, we'll get back to you. And then hung up the phone and I was like okay, okay what was that? I definitely botched that one. Anyway, like I'm definitely not getting that job um, but yeah, and then I?

Speaker 2:

I got an email on a Sunday evening on the same Sunday no, a couple of weeks later, I think, um, and they offered me the job. They were like please accept as soon as possible. I actually low-key, actually, I know this. They had picked someone else before me, but he wasn't actually in germany and he pulled out. He didn't actually end up wanting to come in the end, so I was the second choice, but who cares?

Speaker 1:

wow, amazing. Yeah, we're in a vacation in prague like you didn't. You weren't expecting. No, no, no, no, life changing.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, phone call yeah, like I don't, if, if I don't even know what, what I'd be doing right now without this, because I really didn't have a solid plan beforehand this, really just this is. This is such an impact on the rest of my life since then, over the last five years. It's unbelievable. Nice, I wouldn't. I definitely wouldn't be sitting here with you right now.

Speaker 1:

Wow, yeah, amazing. So you were settling in, like you told me, you had a couple of friends that came before and you were going out like what were your go-to places at the beginning? What did they show you from Leipzig?

Speaker 2:

one of the first experiences of Leipzig I had was actually in Am Canal over in Plagwitz have you ever been? Yeah, it's a little. For anyone who hasn't been, it's right on the corner of a little actually my friend lives right near it now but, um, it's a little corner bar, local bar and smokers bar. I had also not really often been in a smokers bar either, um, and you know you can get schnitzel at two o'clock in the morning there. So we, we spent one evening there and I'll never forget it.

Speaker 2:

There was a drunken sax saxon man at the bar okay kept coming over and talking to us and he barely any teeth in his head and I couldn't understand him because he had no teeth, because he spoke fully saxon, like I couldn't and I had never heard it before you know you gotta imagine I'd come from some learning hochdeutsch in the university and when I was in bonn, you know, they don't.

Speaker 2:

There was a little bit of kölsch in bonn, or a bunch or whatever you want to call it, but you know never anything like this. And he was super drunk as well. So mix all of that together. I was like where am I?

Speaker 1:

what am I doing here? Um like that. That was, uh, saxon telling hello, like saying hello, hello welcome, welcome home, emma, I was, it was.

Speaker 2:

it was quite funny actually, and the lads that I was with, like they were egging him on more. You know, they were, see I, I couldn't even communicate with him, whereas since they'd been here a little bit longer, they'd understood it some more. So, yeah, we were there, and I'd often actually go to Bayerhaus as well, which is just behind Wilhelm Leuschner Platz. Bayerhaus, it's kind of a craft, not a craft beer bar.

Speaker 1:

That's on the bayerischer bahnhof um. No, no it's.

Speaker 2:

It's nearby our bahnhof, but it's by our house I think it's still open. I'm sure it is. I haven't been there in years, so but they have three pool tables there and it's like a big hole and you can get all different beers. You can get kölsch there, you can get um points guinness, you can also get like lots of different german beers. But how I found it was the guy that I was um going to sublet from invited us there to sign the contract of the apartment yeah so he invited when we had some pints together and that's how I found it.

Speaker 2:

So that was one other place. And what I?

Speaker 2:

I suppose this isn't eating or drinking, but I started climbing, I used to go to block, uh no limit in in the east as well, um, which was quite far, I suppose, from the west. And then when I moved to Golas, it was, it was a bit closer, but it's still not the closest. Nothing's close to Golas. So but, um, yeah, I'd spend a lot of time there because, again, you have to remember, I didn't have a job for the first two months, so I was free to do whatever.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, okay, nice and nightlife like bars.

Speaker 2:

Nightlife we used to. Where was I? Oh, of course. Yeah, I've obviously went to EFZ for the first time and I hadn't been to a big club like that since Bonn two years prior, um, great night.

Speaker 2:

Lots more friends had come to visit, who we knew from Erasmus as well, um, so we had a really, really, really, really good night there. But I actually hadn't been there since then. Like I, the last time I was there then was actually last year. I gave a big, big, big break between it. I'm not I used to love it in bonn, I suppose because it was so new when we traveled to cologne to go to techno clubs.

Speaker 2:

I'm not as much on that buzz anymore, but I have to say we did have. We did have a great night there, but other than that, um, we spent a lot of time on the carly again, nothing too underground um at all, but um, yeah, there were some good nights, but also in that little vg that we started in like we'd often just hang out there okay, cool and well.

Speaker 1:

You came in winter and how was that transition to spring summer in leipzig, like?

Speaker 2:

yeah, lovely see, I knew it was going to come. This is the thing I lived in germany before. I knew that just because the winter is cold doesn't mean I have to suffer it for the whole year, so I was eagerly awaiting spring and summertime. We went to melt festival in the summer, in july, okay, um, which is near enough to here, not too far, about an hour and a half away from here, um, we went for the four days there, our famous festival, yeah it's, it's big enough, it's it's where splash festival is and all of those in.

Speaker 2:

I don't ask me to pronounce it, I don't know. Okay, anyway, cool area, um, and a really nice festival, a nice mix of techno and hip-hop and um, bonnie vere were there actually, but then you also had yeah, you also had then, like um sudan archives. You had, um, oh, bicep were there. Like there was a big mix of of djs and bands and you know, skepta was there.

Speaker 1:

Stormzy was there, so it was a nice mix for me nice, you like, got to know the the lakes around Leipzig and everything yeah, the first one obviously was going to be Kazi, and that was a big thing.

Speaker 2:

We'd cycle there um quite often the first summer. But I have to say I'm not a cosy fan anymore. I'm not a cosy stan. I can't vouch for the cosy not anymore too many people too many people too many people, too many. Everything can't find a spot. Like you know, if you want to be there, you got to be there at eight o'clock in the morning, and that's that doesn't sound relaxing to me. I'm more of a Mark Ledergersee gal which is very nearby or I love.

Speaker 2:

Well, I don't love it, I enjoy it. It's not my favorite, but it's nearer to my house. It's the Naturbad Nordost, up behind Eisenbahnstrasse, up up north.

Speaker 1:

Behind the Eisenbahnstrasseße you go through Marienpark.

Speaker 2:

You cycle the whole way through Marienpark and then you cycle another little bit. There's a, there's a lake there. It's smallish, but right beside it there's um a Lidl yeah there's a little sauna. I've never been to the sauna, but there's like a Finnish sauna and there is an ice cream shop and it's all grass around it really and. I don't know how clean it is, but look how clean is. Annie Lake yeah, but it's. It's not crowded it's quite nice and I would suggest going there.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah nice, I've never heard about it. There you go, I'll play on a new lake to get to know in summer.

Speaker 2:

It's not like groundbreaking, but I like it because there's lots of grass and you're kind of I don't know, there's not loads of dirt after you come out of the water and you're dirty, muddy feet. There is more grass there.

Speaker 1:

It feels nicer for me. Okay, nice and uh what? How was the change of uh uh from goal is to to this part where you have your friends or everything near like? It's a place near the Kaufland right?

Speaker 2:

yeah, yeah. Well, I suppose it's a specific situation, because I was so excited to move and see all of my friends after being in. You know, lonely Golas, and I move finally and I'm still on my own because it's COVID and you can't see anyone and you're not allowed and you know, going out there's not you. You can't really explore the place like what cafes, what's here?

Speaker 2:

I couldn't do any of that, so it was. I felt a little bit lonely, I have to say, and I suppose being in the apartment on my own, and it was fun in one sense because I was able to, you know, decorate it and I was able to keep myself busy.

Speaker 2:

I had plenty to be doing and again, it was fun in one sense because I was able to, you know, decorate it and I was able to keep myself busy. I had plenty to be doing and again it was during the semester period or the semester break, so I didn't have to teach, I didn't have to do anything. So it was quite nice. But I really don't feel like I discovered where I lived or I really reaped the benefits of where I lived until 2021, I think. I think a whole year passed. I think I really do feel, and even at that, you know, we were still in 2021, going in and out of lockdown and stuff, um, I did, I didn't, I didn't really, um, appreciate anything. The only good thing that I did know immediately was the tram journey was only 10 minutes other as opposed to 40 minutes on the out to goless. That was one one very big plus that I had. The tram from zemtokum to goless was 40 minutes.

Speaker 2:

40 minutes, ungefähr 35 maybe you get the s-band but tram if you wanted to go direct tram, it was about 40 or 35 minutes whereas it's 10 minutes, so I was able to leave when we were back teaching in person yeah. I could leave later in the morning, like I didn't have to get up as early yeah everything was just easier, everything was more accessible. I cycled a lot more. Everything was more available by bike. I didn't like cycling from Golas yeah so socially I didn't.

Speaker 2:

I didn't benefit too much, but I suppose I Even. At that, when I did meet my friends, we didn't all have to trek from Gólaes when we were meeting in the park or whatever. We all had a closer meeting point.

Speaker 1:

Okay, that's nice. Okay. Would you say you are settled down?

Speaker 2:

now.

Speaker 1:

Do you feel like you've settled down already in Leipzig?

Speaker 2:

In Leipzig, yes, yeah, in Zenrum Ost. No, I want to move again. Um, I want to settle. Settle into an apartment that I know that I'll stay in for longer. Yeah, um. So I want to be really brutal and you know, I'm really picky about where I choose next to go, because I hate moving I hate it with every fibre of my being, so when I move this time that's it Done. But in Leipzig in general, I feel really comfortable here. Me and my boyfriend talked about going to Berlin. To Berlin.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, because he's from Berlin, so I suppose it's always crossed the mind of know, but for me, I don't want to sacrifice my space and my comfort just to live in Berlin. If someone came with a beautiful apartment that was affordable in Berlin, no problem, I would go there in a heartbeat.

Speaker 2:

I would, and your job here say it again your job like I, I could, I could travel, I could commute, I think, um, but yeah, because I don't teach every day. So you know, I could probably join like a group all my classes. On certain days my boss actually commutes from berlin. But that's not going to happen, that's just hypothetically so here I I'm. I'm eager to find somewhere to settle down, um, you know, an apartment, I don't know where. I'd love plagvitz, lindenau. I love the canal, I love that area, like I'll. My day trip is to plagvitz, you know what I mean like I'll make a thing to go there and it's.

Speaker 2:

I just love it and I mourn I mourn the fact that I don't live there every time I'm there. So okay yeah, but in Leipzig in general I love it. I feel comfortable here. I um. There's still more to discover, in my opinion.

Speaker 2:

I don't feel like I've. I've run. I've run the city through. You know I haven't gone through it too much yet yeah, there is always. There's more and more new people moving in all the time. So you know you're not stuck with the same crew people are you ever um? But you know, I think there's a lot more to come um and there's more possibilities for me here, I think nice, and what would be your?

Speaker 1:

do you have like a routine already for your day or activities?

Speaker 2:

I. I get into a rut at the start of the semester break because, um, I don't, I just want to, just, I want to just rot for as long as possible. But my routine would usually be I'm, I'm on, let's say, let's say, in the summer semester I teach four days a week, yeah, but one of those days, on a Monday, for example, I just have one class at 11, yeah, um, so I probably I don't leave the house before then, but, um, in the summer I'm more inclined to get up early and kind of go out on the balcony, make my coffee or my tea, um, go to work and then in the daytime I love walking around my office is down near the Albertina library, so that's such a lovely area as well.

Speaker 2:

You're near Clare Park, um, I, I will just cycle around quite often, um, for my, because I, I don't have anywhere to be otherwise, you know, because I'm teaching, I have my teaching hours, but there's plenty more that goes with that. I'm more of a night owl when it comes to work, so I'll sit in the evening and do my work. I like to try and seize the sunlight of the day.

Speaker 2:

Um, in the summer as well, I like to try and get to the lake and or the one in the north, or down to Mark Clayburg at the weekend, um, but I also travel quite a lot. Like I, I'm in Berlin quite often and, um, I suppose now my routine as well in the last year is my radio show, that which you mentioned at the start. Like you know, putting that together, writing the script, coming up with the ideas, finding the music, and I'm trying to get back into a routine with that. I was quite good, but up around Christmas time I kind of would rush it all in in one night, whereas I don't need to do that like I do two shows a month, so I can, I should be just taking my time with it. But, um, I'm my own biggest enemy because I, because I don't have anywhere to be a lot of the time. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

I don't know, I'm on TikTok. So, I deleted TikTok this morning I thought, no, that's it, I'm done.

Speaker 1:

Wait, you're on TikTok like watching content, or you're making content. No, watching content, oh, okay.

Speaker 2:

Like I can't stop it's my podcast. Like I listen to TikToks like they're a podcast. Okay. And I try and find a long video that I can listen to.

Speaker 2:

That's like a minute long yeah but like, why don't I just find a podcast? So in the last weeks I've been listening to more podcasts. I've been um, turning the radio back on. I bought more books. I'm getting back into my own. I think I don't know what happened to me. You know, actually, I knew what happened to me when I finished my master's. I knew what happened to me when I finished my master's. I thought, no, I'm doing nothing now, I'm just. I don't have anything to do anymore. I have no obligations, just teach, and no one else is asking for me.

Speaker 2:

I can do it whenever, and since I finished my master's last year I've been on a downhill spiral. So in the last weeks I've tried to get my routine back.

Speaker 1:

Okay, nice, I think I know the feeling after finishing your studies that you say no, okay, yes.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's it. Do nothing more than the necessary to exist, yeah, and your justification for that is I deserve it. I worked so hard, but no, because then I end up feeling bad. That's the thing as well. I end up at the end of the day going well, what did I do today? You know so I'm, and again winter gets me down. So now that summer and spring and it's brighter longer and things like that. It's not going to be a problem anymore for me, I think. Nice.

Speaker 1:

And do you have any chill out spots?

Speaker 2:

Chill out spots. I love L laney fight park in the summer because I loved people watch, so I'm a big fan of people watching. I sit and I judge people's outfits not badly. I just say, oh yeah, I like that.

Speaker 2:

You know, I take inspiration from people and there's a lot of people in there yeah, so, and it's like a catwalk, you know one side of that park is you have the benches, yeah, and then you have the walkway and then you have the grass, so you can't not look. So that's one of the places in the summer that I love, because you also have cafe zack zack right across and they have the nicest cinnamon rolls, never mind cinnamood, in the center in the new place get away.

Speaker 2:

They do the nicest cinnamon rolls. And the other thing is they have really nice carrot cake. Um, and that's where my I reignited my love for carrot cake, from eating their carrot cake, and then I started making my own carrot cake and now I can't eat their carrot cake anymore because mine's nicer, because I put double the amount of oil in. But they do nice sandwiches. Their coffee's nice. I really like cafe tac tac. So it's kind of it's so close to my house, um, that's where I'd usually go. Uh, otherwise I um, I like, believe it or not, I love walking around the center sometimes and, again, I just love looking at people.

Speaker 1:

I just love people watching so you know, I'll do you. Do you do it like obvious that you're looking? No, I'm not obvious.

Speaker 2:

No, I don't do the staring, no I'm, I'm quite good, I'm good at the side eye and looking, and I'm not doing it anyway badly I just love, I'm just observant. Um, so that little park in front of zara, kind of near that, uh, near the church, um, beside hugendubel there's like a little park oh yeah, yeah, where's this?

Speaker 2:

little fountain. Sometimes I'll just sit there. I'll get a mac flurry sitting on my own. I'm I'm a lone ranger a lot of the time as well, that's. That's another thing about me, like, because everyone's working during the day so I'm finished teaching at one or three. I'm just chilling, I'm just nice in my own thoughts all the time, um, but yeah, and if I'm chilling with a friend, um, if I meet Megan, for example, we'll often meet in Rabed, even though I don't love Rabed yeah um, if you find a nice corner, it's, it's quite okay as well that's the Rabed park near the.

Speaker 2:

Eisenbahnstrasse. Yeah, I don't mind it. It's not my favorite park, but in the mornings it's quite nice, it's quieter, okay, nice.

Speaker 1:

And do you have any like uh bars or restaurants that you uh nice to?

Speaker 2:

I'd like to go, sorry okay, I'm not here for restaurant slander, but I don't. I think I don't think Leipzig has the most amazing, um, uh, variety of very good restaurants. Now, don't come for me, when I go to Berlin I make, but it's Berlin obviously. When I go to Berlin, I make a point to, you know, search out a really nice restaurant and treat myself to something that I can't get in Leipzig. I feel like Leipzig still has a couple of years to go until it gets the, gets to a level where you have really good quality food, um, but also, you know, there's more international people coming in and that's what you need for more food chains to open you know, um, but I used to.

Speaker 2:

I remember when I first discovered Café Luisa, which is over in the in Zentrum West, near the Schauspiel, near the theatre. Yeah, okay, yeah.

Speaker 2:

And I like going to the theatre sometimes and we would often then have we used to have dinner and drinks and things like that in Café Luisa. And I like Café Luisa because they have something for everyone. They have like some burgers, they have some pasta, they have a fish dish, a meat dish, starters, all that. So when I, when I went there, I was like, yeah, I really like it, but I kind of overdid it. You know, when you're eating somewhere all the time, like you, you know the menu and then when you had it last time, it's not as nice this time, et cetera, et cetera.

Speaker 2:

And then I went to the restaurant at the end of Karlheine Straße, which is one of my favourite streets in Leipzig, if not my favourite, I don't. I rate it way over Kali. To be honest, karlheine is the better version of Kali. But at the end there, just near the Kansum, right on the canal, there is Kaisarbad and I remember sitting in K kaiserbad and they have a really, really nice um garden in front as well, like with seats, and the inside is a really nice industrial style um building yeah a really nice um restaurant.

Speaker 2:

But when I sat down I opened the menu and I recognized the font and the style of the menu. Yeah, and I said this is I know this menu. I've seen this style before. Okay, this is weird. I'm a weirdo, so I knew I knew it like. So I started looking and I looked at the back and you know, it'll often tell you who owns the, the company yeah and I googled the name at the back of the company, at the back of the book, and I read I.

Speaker 2:

I can't remember his name now, but it was the restaurant owner, and he owns a chain of restaurants in leipzig, one being cafe luisa, which was where I knew the menu from yeah you have kaisa bad.

Speaker 2:

You have um, oh god, what's it called cafe no no imagine, um, it's on, it's on carly, it's um, it's right beside the, the zuppen familia there. I can't remember the name of it now it'll come to me but um, he owns that, or the little familia not the familia. But you get what I mean. Um it's called hang on fine cost no, hang on.

Speaker 2:

Oh no, folks, house, folks, house. He owns that as well. Yeah, it looks very fancy from the outside. It's actually not that fancy at all. Same same price and vibes as cafe luisa and um kaiserball, um, but they all have the same style of menu, just different with different specials, you know. So there's still a fish dish and a meat dish, but it's different to the other one. So I kind of rotate between them. He owns one or two, he owns one another, one down on Carly, like the little. There's a little fine cost down on Carly as well. Um, near the French cafe there don't ask me the name, I can't speak French, but yeah, I I rotate between those ones. Um, but I also I went to cafe mala once, which is just behind um, it's just near eismannstrasse.

Speaker 2:

It's a vegan vegetarian restaurant okay it's in like an apartment building, almost so. The back garden is is the size of like a, an inn and hove yeah delicious food, really really nice.

Speaker 2:

They change their specials all the time. Yes, another and my one of my favorite places are areas of leipzig as well, other than carolina is zentrum vest um, where you have the old plattenbaos, where you have um um stoned. You know the bar stoned and there's um there's a. There's a cafe there called Café Tú Nícht Good Café Tú Nícht Good, okay, and it's a little cafe really really nice. They change their special every day. They post their stuff online as well. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

So I really like that Stadtteil there. It's just, I suppose, when you yeah when you come out of the center ring of. Leipzig you just come across. It's really really near Café Luisa. If you come out of Café Luisa, go right and you're in that little Stadtteil there. Okay.

Speaker 2:

Love it so nice. And the last place that I really like is it's a pop-up pasta place and it depends where they act. They're in different places. The first and the only time that I I've had them once. I don't know, but I am a fan of their work. Um, they are often in the mdbk in centrum yeah they're in there on a certain day. They're called monopoly pasta and they they do handmade pasta. Nice, um, and I'm actually going there soon as well in another pop-up.

Speaker 2:

They're actually near rabit yeah so near to me, um, but they also are in linden now sometimes, so they're kind of around the place and they do again. There's like three things on the set menu of the evening. Two pasta dishes and like a salad but, okay, the portions aren't huge. But is pasta, our pasta portions, huge in italy? No, they're usually the kind of starter before you have your meat, your main meat dish. So um, really really nice, just fresh and simple nice.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, wow, that's a lot of places that I didn't even know they exist, like cool I'm a bit this this whole, this chain of restaurant, restaurants that that man owns yeah, it was like.

Speaker 2:

It was like fireworks went off my head. I was like, oh my god, amazing. Now I have three of the same restaurant just in different fonts okay, nice and it's good for I like it for guests because you know, you know when someone comes to visit you're like what you want to eat. They're like I don't mind, you tell me. And then you have to make the decision to go eat asian food or yeah no, we go somewhere where there's this, this distance and this, and you can choose so it makes my life easier for for guests and friends and things like that as well.

Speaker 1:

That's a very good tip. I'm gonna use it. Yeah, good, nice, okay, emma. Um, so what's with right now? Where do you find yourself? What do you have, uh, in works? Like, how's your, your life now?

Speaker 2:

okay, well, in my professional life if we shall call it that, um and my studies. I suppose they're intertwined. Now, as I work in the university, I just finished my master's and I'll be going home soon for my graduation ceremony. We have one of those in Ireland with the gown and the cap and everything. You don't do that in Germany, so I need to do that for the last time before I begin my PhD studies. Wow, starting soon in the new semester um, you will be officially a professor will I, though when?

Speaker 2:

when are you a professor? I don't even know. I'll be a doctor oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, doctor power doctor power, um, in however many years it takes me. So, um, yeah, and I'll be doing it on. I'll be continuing what I kind of did for my bachelor or for my master's excuse me, um, which is color terminology in.

Speaker 2:

Irish right. That's all I'm going to give you because I couldn't get into it, because I don't even know myself. So that's kind of an in the works. Um then, in my personal life we have my radio show that I do and I want to try and get into light djing, very light djing okay, what does it mean? I just want to be able to mix two songs together and play.

Speaker 2:

Okay for friends or yeah you know, I, I just I love 80s music. I want to be able to maybe in the future, next year's start 80s music nights once a month or twice every two months or something.

Speaker 2:

You know where you've disco and and things like that. I, I don't. I don't think there's a big um space for that at the moment in leipzig. There is that there's a gap there, I think my opinion now I'm I'm always looking for parties with disco music and there are don't get me wrong, but I want I want it to be a little bit more specific. Yeah, um, so I'd love to do that, but again I love saying yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll do it, but again, I, I don't have enough hours in the day but, maybe now, since I deleted TikTok, but yeah, and then the in the in my personal, personal, then I want to.

Speaker 2:

As I said already, I want to move. I want to find a new apartment, a bigger apartment. So in the next month I suppose, yeah, it'll be getting stuck into starting my studies, traveling home. I have a conference or two that I want to go to again, all to do work and study and learning in Irish, and you know broadening my brain and Irish, and you know broadening my brain, but in the, behind the scenes, then I am at the same time learning how to DJ and moving my entire life into a new apartment. So we'll see which one prevails out of all of those um.

Speaker 2:

I don't know. I feel like the PhD will suffer until. I sort everything else out but, um, I the last thing. And again, this is just that what I want to do. I want to write a book. I want to write a children's, children's uh, irish book on the topic of what I kind of did my master's on, loosely based yeah, interesting wow yeah, I want to do a collaboration with my boyfriend, um illustrate.

Speaker 2:

He do the illustration, I do the the writing. Nice again, I have the, the skeleton in my head. I haven't put one word to paper, but I have the concept. So that's, I suppose, half a quarter of the battle, maybe. So let's see, it might take two or three years, but it's, it's there somewhere.

Speaker 1:

It's a gold nice, like it's nice to have a project.

Speaker 2:

Well, you have many projects yeah, but again, when one finishes, I have the next one to come nice.

Speaker 1:

Oh, I like it sounds very, very exciting yeah everything like a very exciting future let's see.

Speaker 2:

Let's see what. I hope.

Speaker 1:

Everything works out thank you um the radio show. Like where can we hear you, like what's the name of it or how do we find it?

Speaker 2:

It's all in the Irish language, but that doesn't mean you can't listen, because I don't talk, for I talk probably in the hour. I talk for a maximum 10 minutes altogether. It's called Cri na nachtadí in Irish, which means the heart of the 80s.

Speaker 2:

Cri na nachtadí, but it's on a radio platform or radio station called Radio or Radio. In Irish, radio Fáilte. F-a-fáilte Fáilte is an accent. So if you look up Emma Power Radio Fáilte, if you even Google F-A-I-L-T-E, it'll come up Belfast. It's in the north of Ireland. Even google f-a-i-l-t-e, it'll come up belfast. It's. It's in the north of ireland and you should find me there. I'm on wednesdays, fridays and saturdays I'm repeated um. Wednesdays, german time I'm on at 9 pm. Fridays I'm on at 8 pm and saturdays I'm on at 2 pm in the day.

Speaker 1:

So if you just look, find radio volta um, you'll find me there nice playing music and chatting we'll give it a listen, thank, you good, you'll enjoy it, I think yeah, nice okay. Um okay, emma, it was a very, very nice chat with you, like very, very interesting to hear, like your childhood, like your points in your life, how do you decided to come to leipzig then, your life right now and your exciting plans that you have. I want to congratulate you on your masters and wish you a lot of luck in your projects, like I hope everything comes to fruition and, yeah, I'm looking for a new apartment yeah.

Speaker 1:

I hope it goes smoothly thank you.

Speaker 2:

I need all the luck I can get, I think. But thank you, and I really enjoyed um chatting. It's nice I don't know you don't for someone to sit and listen to me for an hour and actually get it all out. It gives me a bit of perspective on my life. I think as well to think about how far I've come, because sometimes it's easy to think you know, oh, what am I doing? Or I'm stuck here. Am I doing the right thing? But I think when you're telling someone it's, it sounds yeah. When you put it all together like that, my life is is fine, I'm good.

Speaker 1:

I'm glad that you can see that because, like I am amazed really thank you you From my eyes it's like amazing.

Speaker 2:

Thank you so much. That's so nice.

Speaker 1:

For this closing section. I want to give you the room or the opportunity to give a shout out, like if you want to give a shout out here for a restaurant, a bar or for yourself and your projects, like this is your space right now well, you've already shouted me out, haven't you?

Speaker 2:

for my radio show. Um, I suppose the other place or the place that I would, I would shout out. Let me think oh, I have it, and it was only a recent discovery of of mine, of mine is a bar that I'm such a big fan of now, and it's the Mensa Bar.

Speaker 1:

The Mensa Bar.

Speaker 2:

Most people probably know it. I don't know how, I've never seen it. It's up above again, on my favorite street, on Karl-Heinestrasse. You know the Konsum, that building.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, if you're coming from the top of you know the consume, that building.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, if you're coming from the top of you know where the tram stops. Um, you're coming from town, let's say, and you're heading towards it. Before you enter the building itself, where the consume is, there's another door just a little bit further behind it and if you go up to the top floor, it's a pool bar, a games bar. They have a big vitrine of every kind of board game you have I think I've been there it's.

Speaker 2:

It's unreal and all of the furniture is lovely mid-century modern ddr furniture. At the back, if you're a smoker, there's a whole section of um a smokers area. Yeah, best thing ever. I've only been three times, but that's my shout out and that's going to be my new hangout spot. That's why I'd love to move west. I'd be broke from playing pool all the time.

Speaker 1:

Okay, nice, okay well, thank you. Thank you very much again for for coming, uh, to the interview, to my show and, uh, yeah, I appreciate your time and thank you very much.

Speaker 2:

Thank you, sir.

Speaker 1:

And there you have it. I want to give you a big, big thank you for joining in and to tell you that your support means the world to me. If you enjoyed today's episode and want more content, make sure to hit that subscribe button. Also, don't forget to follow me on Instagram, tiktok and X at Loite in Leipzig. If you have a story to tell or want to be featured on the podcast, send me an email at loiteinleipzig at outlookde. I'd really, really, really love to hear from you, thank you. Thank you very much for sharing your time with me and until next time, auf Wiederhören, tschüss.

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Ashley

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