The Voyage through my Life

Emboskada

2010-01-18T14:20:00.001-08:00

This time, I want to introduce you to a really great band: Emboskada. One sunday afternoon, Adriana suddenly asked me, whether I want to join her on this gig with many different bands. I never regretted going there, because the whole gig was great. There were many bands, who showed their talent. But probably the best band was the one of David.

This is Emboskada in full action, when we saw them for the first time. The atmosphere was incredible. The music is awesome and I am waiting now for the first CD to come.

This is a very special picture. Adriana and me are listening to and enjoying the music of Emboskada. You can see David in full action in the background. ;)

Emboskada in action the second time. This was just a few days later in a different place. What a great music!

Adriana, David and me.

Well... it was the 23rd of december. So, of course Christmas was a topic.

People

2010-01-17T19:35:00.001-08:00

Here are some of the people in Bogotá. This is just a small collection and doesn't go in the order of who I like more or less. :)

This is Lu Lin, one of the cutest and nicest people here.

With Miguel. Here I am bravely drinking Aguardiente, the national alcoholic drink of Colombia.

With Esteban and Charlie in T.G.I. Friday.

Julian, Esteban, and me.

With Martin and Matthias in La Candelaria.

Another case of christmas decoration. With Martin and Matthias.

This is Manolo! I live with him. :D

Pablo and Laura. My apprentices. We were about to prepare some Pizza. :)

With some of my apprentices: Paula, Laura, me, Luis.

National Planning Meeting with AIESEC EAN!

Again LC EAN!

Well, this is obviously me. This is at the National Planning Meeting of AIESEC.

Here I am in our branch 98 with my dear Paola. I love her! She is also known as the sponge, but she isn't a sponge anymore.

Adriana, me and Paola in the backyard of the branch 116. We just finished a great meal. :D

Pablito! Pablo is from Brasil and we work in tthe same branch of the company.

Pablo, Georgie and me.

Christmas lights in Colombia

2010-01-17T18:53:00.000-08:00

A very peculiar thing here in Colombia is the christmas decoration. It is all with lights in all kind of colors. They blink, the change color, they are a lot. I think, they are beautiful but they don't make me feel like christmas at all. On the "día de la velitas" (day of the candles), we went to la Candelaria to see the lights. But not only there, you can see the lights. They are everywhere!

Plaza Simon Bolivar with the giant christmas tree.

A church.

Lu Lin and I were hoping for some christmas presents, but nothing.... ;(

Flowers on and around the christmas tree... why not? They even use butterflies. They would freeze in Germany, though...

Miguel and me in between the lights.

In Café de la ventana in Candelaria (the historical center of Bogotá). Especially Camilo seems to be really happy!

Decorating Zona T - the party zone.

In a park with Matthias and Martin.

Another park with even more colors and blinky lights. You can feel like in a disco!

In Andino, a really cool shopping mall. I am holding my christmas present from the company in my hands: A six pack of beer.

With Adriana.

Apparently, also mammoths can be part of the christmas decoration in Bogotá.

Andres Carne de Res

2010-01-17T17:51:00.001-08:00

This is maybe the greatest bar-restaurant ever! It is close to my place in an area, which is called "Zona Rosa". ;) There are 4 floors from which you can decide, where you want to be. Lowest is hell, then comes earth, followed by purgatory and heaven. We chose purgatory... :D

This is outside of Andres Carne de Res. Believe it or not, the band plays outside.

The table with all this tasty and yummy stuff! I had a maracuya juice with milk. Sooo good! And we got all this fruits and stuff!

I want to introduce you to Miss "Bienvenido a la Tierrita" and Miss "Que te vaya bién" (Georgie). Crowns for the princesses all inclusive. We also got necklaces and chocolate. Maybe the waiter liked us. ;)

We even found some new friends in Andres D.C. They are sisters and we spent some really good time with them. At first they were a bit shy...

This is the sister, I had the best connection with. Right on this picture, we were planning a pyjama party.

Also Camilo had some good fun with the girls.

Another funny fellow.

Emptied the juices to the very last drop!

When we came the second time to Andres D.C. we got new company. Spacy horses with there christmassy horsemen.

Monserrate

2010-01-17T17:16:00.000-08:00

A month or two ago, we went to visit Monserrate, a mountain which dominates the city center of Bogotá. On the top of the mountain you can find a church, which functions as a pilgrim destination. From up there, you have a great view about a part of Bogotá. Actually we wanted to climb up there, but as the way was closed for construction, we had to take the funicular.

The wonderful view on Bogotá from the funicular.

We even had some visitors from Germany - Matthias und Martin.

All the buildings up there were made from white stone. It is really beautiful.

More of the view.

I think, this picture speaks for itself.

Haha, we had to scare a security guard, so that he takes this picture of us.

Finally Bogotá

2010-01-17T16:38:00.000-08:00

I am in Bogotá for already 3 months now and didn't write anything about it yet. I want to change that, of course. ;) So, let me introduce you to Colombia's capital... the city where I spend 6 months in a traineeship, working as a German advisor.
Here are some pictures:

Those are the streets that I see every day, when I walk to my work in the morning. Huge streets and a lot of cars everywhere. And the city also doesn't lack people, of course.

This is right next to the house, where I live. It has a lovely view onto the mountains. Isn't it nice? And it is really close to the most important party area of Bogotá. Haha!

In Bogotá you can find a very interesting mixture of old and new buildings. Very nice!

This is me fitting into the city.

This street is one of the bigger ones here. It is called Calle 80 and also gives us a wonderful view on the mountains. Before I moved to the place, where I live now, I had to go all along this street by bus to get home. And it is a long street...

Following legends, this is the place, where Bogotá was founded. But unfortunately they say that about other places as well... ;)

More places and people

2009-02-22T23:39:00.000-08:00

As I already told you in another blog entry, we had a party for Gosia, as she was leaving some days later. I got some more pictures and, of course, I want to share them with you.

We started the Good-Bye Party at "La bebe", where we had something to drink and some dancing. We stayed there until maybe 10p.m.

Afterwards we went to Gosia's place, where the AIESECers from Navodari partied longer. The party was everything for me: frustrating, funny, boring, exciting, full of good and bad things.

These are Valy and Poto. They are the male part of AIESEC Navodari, both crazy and amiable. As it was a good bye for a Polish girl, the Polish wodka wasn't missing. Don't the boys look very happy with the bottles?

Upside down... I want to turn the whole thing upside down. I'll find the things they say just can't be found...

This is a riddle. I want you to find the forth person in this picture.

This was the team in the end. From left to right: Valy, Magda, Claudia, Me, Gosia, Poto.

Last week on wednesday, we wanted to spent a nice evening with Gosia. We met her at Tomis Mall and went for a really good Shaworma at Cin-Cin (where I also had y very first Shaworma). There we met Iulian, a guy from AIESEC. It was so great to have a last evening in such a small round just with 4 people. This is always better to have an intense good-bye with people, and this really was a special good-bye. We bought a bottle of wine after our dinner and went to the beach. docens of steps led down to the beach and somewhere in between we sat down on a little wall, had a fantastic view over the sea and talked to each other. I felt very melancholic at one point of time. The whole sight had something really romantic...
But let me just shortly tell, what happened as well:

This is Iulian. Actually he is a really nice guy, but this evening he was really bad behaving, or at least a bit carefree. When we went to the beach, we had this bottle of wine which we emptied. Gosia put a message in this bottle and wanted to throw it into the sea. Therefore, we went to something like a quayside at the beach. It was a nice way from asphalt in the past, but now all the surface of the quay is broken and huge pieces loom out of the sea. Magda, Gosia and Iulian didn't have any problems to pass these pieces, but I wore high heels, as I didn't know that the plan will be to go to the beach. Thus, I needed help form the other, which they also provided. But at one point Iulian became really carefree. He just grabbed me from the front, held tight to me and jumped from rock to rock. As he couldn't see anything anymore, he stumbled and we both fell. Iulian had a wet foot (he was suddenly standing in the sea) and I had a scraped leg.
The worst thing was then that we suddenly realized the time. It was 20min to 11p.m. and the last bus to Navodari was about to go at 11p.m. from the main station. This meant: running! Over the sand, up the stairs (there were many stairs leading down to the beach) and to the next cab. With a newly wounded leg, this was definitely not so nice. But in the end, everything was still fine. :)

Three girls in the mountains? No. This is the quayside, I was already talking about.

Preparing for the global Village. Yesterday we had a Global Village at Traian High School together with the kids. That meant, we also had to prepare some food to show how we eat in our countries. Therefore, we went shopping on saturday right after the trainings in the high school and afterwards to Narcis' place to prepare all the food. We had a fun time doing this.

I'd call this a very well-balanced meal.

Look! A bathtub full of cabbage. It is just hidden under a thin layer of pasta... :)

Woah!! Finished with cooking! We prepared six meals in about 5 hours! As we could only use two hot plates at a time, it took ages until everything was done. But I'd say it was worth it! We had: Two polish dishes (Faworki - cookies, and sth. from cabbage, pasta and sausage), two Taiwanese dishes (a soup and baked chicken), and two German dishes (Kartoffelsalat - potatoe salad, and Fleischklopse - meat balls).
From left to right you can see: Me, Madeleina, Polly, Narcis, Flo, Magda

The Global Village is about to start. The students are waiting for the presentations to come. Actually there should have been much more students, as there are 78 subscribed for the program.

Sitting and watching the presentations. From left to right: Mihaela, (don't remember her name), me, Flo (my trainee buddy), Elena (a student), Ramona (OCP of the project).

The country presentations. All in all we had 9 presentations, with Polly (Taiwan), Magda (Poland) and me (Germany), and 6 groups of students for the six regions of Romania. I unfortunately don't remember, which region of Romania these guys presented, but the clothing is great! Many students really had cool traditional clothing for the presentations. I liked that very much.

Magda and me with one of our students. :)

Narcis and me after the Global Village has ended. She is a really cute girl. I like her very much! We were both really exhausted, as the cooking took us so long the last day, but you can also see that we are more than happy, that another exhausting event was finally finished.

Woah!!! I found a Trabbi! And what a Trabbi! I'd say, Germany is never very far away from you. This jewel I found in Navodari not far from where I stay these days.

Nostalgia

2009-02-22T11:13:00.000-08:00

Minulla on sinua ikävä, minun ystävä! (I miss you, my friend!)
:-*

Places and People

2009-02-22T08:42:00.000-08:00

Ok, this time I will just show you some pictures from last week. I will only tell some short words about the people or or the places. But soon there will be more coming! I am just so tired, as we had a Global Village today, where different countries or regions are presented. This was a bit exhausting in the end.
So, let's start with the pics...

This was on my third day in Constanta. We were in a club called "La bebe". It was really nice and in the end we had a really good Tequila together. The girl is Gosia and the guy is the one with the funny name: Erwin.

Here we have Cretzu. I love his hair! :D

May I introduce you to Sex on the Beach? He is friends with Mojito, a street dog whom we know. ;) Mojito is always lying at our bus stop and in the nights, he comes with us, when we are walking through Navodari.

Me and my Polish Girls!

Puppies!!!!! I want one of them!

You can find this kind of block of flats everywhere in Constanta. I really like them. They are not as boring as the ones we have in Chemnitz.

Look at my great students, how they are working and thinking! :)

This is near the Ovidius University Campus. I kind of like that building. But don't ask me, why!

This Elephant is standing in Navodari. I really wanted to have a picture of it, as it has this funny bear and lion doing gymnastics with it!:D

The Eagle is somewhat cool! Right next to the elephant.^^

Now, finally I can introduce you to Mojito! He is the dog of Magda.

:D

So, let’s have fun, Girls!

2009-02-16T06:04:00.000-08:00

The first day in Constanta was very interesting and adventurous. First I slowly started the day together with Ramona; I had a shower and afterwards my first Romanian dish, called Samale (I don’t actually know, how it is spelled). It is minced meat with cabbage and also some sour cream is put on it. Very good. :)
Then Magda came, the Polish girl with whom I will work in the same project. We went to the city to meet more people. Another Polish girl was there (Gosia), a Japanese trainee from Galati (Tomomi), and a Romanian AIESECer.

So, we went to see the city and the coast with the famous Casino from Constanta. It was awesome. Everything looked so different from a typical German city. New houses were found directly next to old ones, some of them were just collapsed and of greyish color, others had bright colors that almost caused aching in your eyes. When we visited a church and came out afterwards, some little boys were following us and asking for money. When we didn’t give anything to them, they kind of attacked Gosia with sticks. Afterwards we went to the Casino, but it was closed for renovation, so we had to corrupt the guard. 3 Lei for each of us were perfect for him to let us in. Thus, we had some minutes to have a look around and I am sure, it will look gorgeous, when it will be finished.

After some more time at the coast we went to meet another Romanian girl and together with her we had some fast food: Shaworma (or however it is written). It is comparable with Kebab but they put French fries in them as well. Just so tasty!
Having had some coffee in another place later, we had a very interesting illegal ride in Poto’s car (he is a guy from the Local Committee) with 4 people in the back. In Navodari, where I am staying now, we had a nice get-together with more AIESECers and some very tasty pancakes and plenty of sunflower seeds. But the evening still wasn’t finished by then. Another hour or more at Magda’s place, then a walk to Gosia’s place to bring her home, let time go by fast enough. But on the way through Navodari we found many new friends. A bunch of dogs was following us and we felt as free as to give them names like Jägermeister and Mojito.

The next morning we had to get up again quite early, because we wanted to meet with Tomomi again. Of course, also this couldn’t happen without some corruption: We wanted to go one stop by bus without taking a ticket and some ladies stopped us. We actually would have had to pay 50 Lei for each of us and our data would have had to be taken. But in the end we paid just 50 Lei for us all together (it is around 12 €) and we could go off the bus.

Bad girls, bad girls, what you’re gonna do…

We then tried to get into a zoo for less money but we didn’t succeed, so we went on to the beach, as Tomomi doesn’t have a beach in Galati. On our way we saw a very nice front yard of a restaurant and actually we just wanted to take some pictures. In the end each of us had one wish, as we all threw a coin into a fountain, and a waiter wanted us to have some coffee inside. That was the wish he made, when he threw one coin, and it became true. We went inside and ordered something to drink and to eat. For just little money I got the best Tiramisu ever and the hot chocolate was also really good.

Miami? No, Mamaia.

We then had only a short time to be at the beach, as LC Conference was starting then, where the next EB was supposed to be elected. It was cool to get to know all the people from the LC and I had some nice talks with people. And I got a very cool Welcome package inlcuding e.g. a German-Romanian tourist guide. So, I can learn some Romanian now. :D After LCC we went to Club Phoenix, where I ate my second Sharowma, and had some more nice talks.

In the end we had a small party again in Navodari with Magda, Gosia, Tomomi, Claudia, Mihai, Valy, and Poto. It was very nice. :) We listened to music, talked a lot, played Mafia and even exchanged some massages. After the boys were gone, we girls actually all wanted to sleep in Magda’s bed, which is really huge. My German friends understand what I mean, when I talk about a “Spielwiese”. :D But Gosia and I had a very nice talk until late in the morning and therefore we then just took the bed of Claudia.

The next morning we unfortunately had to say good bye to Tomomi and Mihai, who are really very nice. But they are from Galati and therefore had to go back to their LC. Afterwards Magda and I used the time to work on our outlines for the weekend, as we were having a meeting with the whole LTBT (Learn Today, Build Tomorrow) team the next day. We were very efficient and in the end we had some really cool outlines for Saturday and Sunday. This was also actually the first day that we didn’t leave Navodari. In the evening, Gosia came again to our place and we watched the movie “Juno”, which is really good and very funny. :) After the movie Gosia went home and Magda had an appointment, so that was the first time in the last days since Saturday that I was alone. It somehow was a strange feeling, as you get used to people around you so quickly.
As I already mentioned, we had a meeting with the LTBT team the next day, so we went to Constanta and met at Deli’s place with the rest of the girls. It was nice to see people from the project and as we bought some felt 20 different candies, before we went to the flat, we also had some really good snacks. I tried funny Romanian candy and one thing was the funniest. It looked like “Bauschaum” and I guess, it even tastes like this. As I have never eaten Baumschaum, I can’t tell the difference. :D
When we were finished at Deli’s place, we went to a club called “La bebe” to have a drink with more AIESECers. It started slowly for me, but in the end I had so much fun. I stayed longer with Gosia, Julian and Erwin (Yes! His name REALLY is Erwin ;) ), to have some tequila. It was just so hilarious with them.

And this is me, enjoying the seaside. :D

No Easy Start to a New Adventure

2009-02-16T05:58:00.000-08:00

When I went to Constanta in Romania to start my internship, I took the bus. The bus was supposed to take 36 hours to go from Leipzig airport to Constanta and I didn’t know why it takes so long. Now I know:

4.30 p.m. the bus leaves from Leipzig airport
5.30 p.m. first stop at Aral gas station
6.00 p.m. stop in Dresden to wait for more passengers for half an hour
7.05 p.m. stop Agip gas station
8.30 p.m. stop Praha to wait for more passengers for almost an hour
11.45 p.m. stop in Brno to wait for more passengers, afterwards I needed to ask another passenger to reduce the volume of his music (which sounded through the whole bus)
1.45 a.m. stop at rest stop, I had to ask the passenger again to reduce the volume of his music, as people wanted to sleep (he wasn’t very amused by this)
4.05 a.m. stop in Budapest to wait for more passengers
4.55 a.m. stop at rest stop, had to use a toilet which was very shitty (filled to the brim)
7.05 a.m. crossing of the borders to Romania
8.00 a.m. stop in Lugoj to wait for more passengers
8.40 a.m. stop at bus station (don’t know why, we just waited there for 20min or something like this)
10.30 a.m. stop in Deva where the first children were begging for money, afterwards a Romanian girl changed her seats and was now sitting in front of me, and she used buttons with sounds on her cell phone
12.15 - 55 a.m. stop in Sibiu, it was really warm outside and actually quite nice, but the guy with the loud music was seemingly still annoyed as he was spitting after me
3.00 p.m. stop at rest stop in Dedulesti
5.40 - 10.10 p.m. stop in Bucuresti to wait for the next bus to take, watched “Anger Management” and had to use the second very shitty toilet (just a hole in the ground and afterwards no tab water to wash the hands), also when we sat in the bus, the other passengers started very loud conversation (I just wanted to sleep and have my peace)
10.20 p.m. stop at a gas station (I don’t know the reason, as we were only sitting there and waiting for the bus driver for 15min)
01.30 a.m. finally reached Constanta!

I was nicely welcomed by Ramona, with whom I was in contact all the time before, to spend the first night at her place. Having arrived at the house where she lives with her family, I just saw a bunch of puppies falling over each other. It was six of them and only 4 weeks old. So cuuuuute! I will definitely take one of them to Germany when my internship will have ended. :D

Better laugh or cry?

2008-09-27T15:38:00.000-07:00

Today I was at a housewarming party with some AIESECers. Also the new trainee from Russia (Olga) came with me to the party. So we met Jukka and took the bus together to the party (also we met Thomas in the bus). At the party many AIESECers already have been and even more were coming throughout the evening. And when the evening went on, I really had fun with them... but at some point Olga and I wanted to go back to Hervanta, since we both were tired and then the time came, that I really turned quite sad. I mean, I really look forward to Germany and to see Christian again, but meanwhile it seems to be harder for me this time to say Goodbye to Tampere this time, as if I know deep in myself that I won't come back here for a longer time now since I have to really continue my studies here. So this is the reason, why I want to show you how nice it actually has been for me in the last few weeks.

This is near Keskustori (the city center) at the barrage. It wasn't the best weather to take pictures, I guess, but it definitely was a really nice day. It was my first sunday back in Tampere and I was going to meet with Marianne, one of my friends (she was the tutor of the German friend I came to Tampere with). We met at Café Europa, which is a fancy place especially for internationals to meet at. It really is comfortable with all the different sofas and armchairs in there. There isn't any furniture suiting the next one. So we sat there some hours and talked a lot about different stuff. It really was so nice to see Marianne again. She is a very cute girl and amazing person. :)

This place is at the end of Hämeenpuisto, where I went to find Ulla, who kind of hosted a stand for a city run. It took me ages to actually find her (and I wasn't even near her when I took this picture), but this way I at least saw this place and the park belonging to this fountain. When I finally found her (I searched her over an hour and found later that I walked past her twice already), she and her friend served me special hot chocolate - with mint liquor! I didn't know how much those two girls already had but I guess it was not little. We had lots of fun together there. In the evening I wanted to go to Klubi with them to see a Pink Floyd Cover Band, but I felt so tired and shaky when I went back by bus, that I decided to stay at home that evening. I continued shaking in my bed as well.

This place is really close to the place I stayed (I moved today, since Olga arrived and she got my place in the flat share) at and looks gorgeous! It is just a small lake compared to typical finnish lakes but still it looked so nice! The weather was awesome and I fed ducks and squirrels (we have loads of them here!). I want to have a similar lake in Chemnitz as well! :(
And also the squirrels are really tame here. They come very close to you and want something to eat. I tried to get some pictures of them, but they are amazingly fast! But you will see it later as well.

These are the two crazy friends of Marianne (actually the one in the back isn't one of them - the second one is hidden behind the one in the front). I don't remember what they were doing here, but I guess, Niko wanted to tickle Markus.
I took this picture at an Italian Dinner. Except of the three I was coming with, I didn't know anyone and since I wanted to be polite, I didn't eat much at this Dinner (also there wasn't really much to eat: some toast with ham, two bowls of pasta (one with pesto, the other with some minced meat), and some fruits with Nutella on top). But in the end I had to pay 3.50€!! It really was just little food and for many people - I guess, we were about 20 - and still it was this expensive! And think, what could they actually have prepared with 70€!? Italians are exploiters!

I took those pictures at university. Since autumn already arrived in Tampere, you can see the most amazing colors everywhere. I never know where to look first.

This was at Pakkahuone, when there was the Welcome to Tampere-Event for new students in Tampere. AIESEC also had a stand there and I was there as well for about 2 hours. I kind of liked the gorilla incidentally standing around there.

Here I was at a DVD evening with my former tutors, Jenni and Tiina. Both of them speak German, so this was a German day for me (I already met Tomasz - who is from Chemnitz as well - for lunch and Markus - my former tandem-partner - for coffee), just talking in my native language all the time. :) The day was a really nice one. Lunch in Pinni b, in university, is almost always good, but unfortunately of all things we caught exactly one of those rare days. For coffee Markus and I went to Aamurusko, which is one of my favorite places here in Tampere and where you can have a brilliant hot chocolate and fantastic Munkkis. In the evening we had some really good food and a cute movie (Kiki's Delivery Service) and although I felt a bit ill before at home, my batteries were woken up again at Jenni's place and we really had a cool evening.

Ok, I already told you that squirrels are amazingly fast. I want you to play this little game with me. The game is called: Find the squirrel!

So, just for the case, the game was too tough for you, here a successful picture as well. :)

Well then... I will go to sleep now, since I am really tired. Let's see, when I am going to write again. Maybe the next post is already written in Germany. :/
But still, I really look forward to see my boyfriend. :D

There and back again.

2008-09-12T14:52:00.000-07:00

Ok, back in Tampere. After 3 months in Germany it feels weird to be back. But maybe it is still so unreal because the journey was so uncomplicated. It started already on tuesday, when I went to Hesse again, to stay two more days at my boyfriends family. On thursday I first went to Darmstadt by train, then to Frankfurt Hahn by bus and went to Tampere by plane and in the end I was picked up by my scottish flat mate. All worked out just as it was planned and I dodn’t have any problems. I didn’t have to pay extra money because of too heavy bags, I didn’t have annoying seat neighbours (quite the difference... some nice and crazy guys from another organisation called „Round Table“ going to some kind of a conference. They entertained me the whole flight and even invited me to something to drink. All the other times I had some really fat people sitting next to me squeezing me into the very last corner), our plane didn’t crash into any houses (since it was 9/11), and so on. So altogether I had a nice (and a little bit exhausting day).
The place where I am staying the next 3 weeks is really nice. The first night here I slept extremely well and I hope it will be the same today. ;)
Today I went to Keskustori – the city center – to meet Tiina, my former tutor and Germany-loving friend. We had some real good food in a Mexican restaurant called „Pancho Villa“ and afterwards we met Jenni (my other tutor) for a coffee. I didn’t think beforehand that the weather would be so cold already. It is mittens-time!! And after I got a running nose I thought it better to stay home and have some tea. I don’t want to risk a cold in the short time I am here. ;)
So well, let’s see what will happen the next few weeks.

Adventures and new friends

2008-09-12T14:29:00.001-07:00

The last week of august I visited the family of my boyfriend. We stayed one week there (in Hesse) together and had some really nice trips to Darmstadt, Aschaffenburg, Frankfurt and several other smaller places. And guess what... it is a cool region. I got to know my passion for figs, we have been hunted by flying aunts and dung beetles, we saw some funny clothings of people in a metal club and got squeezed in between thousands of people during the so-called Mainuferfest in Frankfurt.
And also I found a new good friend, called Gustav (nickname „Gustl“).

Let me intruduce you to Gustav. :) He is a lion!

Flying aunts as far as the eye can see.
This was at the donjon of Breuberg. The have been quite nice there, but at the Otzberg they were quite nasty. Christian had to fight them.

We tried to behave in the churches. Sometimes it was hard to resist.

He tried to eat my ear!

Another lion in Darmstadt. He was really cool.

:) Isn't this nice? A fantastic desktop background, I would say.

They didn't attack us, but the dung lying around.

Miltenberg - a wonderful little town in Bavaria having a picturesque Old Town.

What a beautiful place...

2008-05-23T04:16:00.001-07:00

I love Tampere. And that because of reasons I want to show you through some pictures that I have have made lately. I think you will understand me, once you have seen the pictures.

It seems so empty...

2008-05-18T23:53:00.000-07:00

I have packed! Almost all my stuff is in bags now. Kerstin will leave today and go back to Germany. She will take some of my stuff with her in her car and thus I will stay in my little room with just the necessary stuff for the last week. The last week? It sounds odd. Better not listen to that words... I don't want to grasp the idea of what it means...

Two days in Stockholm

2008-05-18T23:44:00.000-07:00

Last weekend Liane, Julia and I were in Stockholm, the maybe most beautiful city! The journey started in a chaotic way, since we missed our bus, which goes differently on saturdays. Still we could catch the train and we were off to Turku! In Turku then we indeed almost missed the train then.. At the main train station the trains were so completely tight in the schedule, that we just had about 2 minutes to get the one to Turku Harbour. But we got it and just e few minutes later we could already see the Viking Line - the ferry which would take us to Stockholm.
Our room was minuscule, but nice. And we had a mirror instead of a window even as we had a cabin above the water line. Already 5 minutes after we took step onto the ferry we could see masses of people with more masses of alkohol under their arms. Unbelieveable - how fast can you be to get yourself alkohol??? It was loud, it was crowded, but all in all a really nice experience. As I have already had a travel by ferry with Kerstin when I came to Finland, the vibrations were not new to me. After a short and not restorative sleep we arrived in Stockholm and already the first step out into the harbour told me, that this is a beautiful city!
But well... let yourself being convinced by some pictures... :)

Some of the streets really looked awesome. Luckily we didn't lose our ways. :)

So nice!!! Just like in a fairy tale. Where is the bunny walking along saying, he doesn't have time?

The harbour. I felt like having a swim.

Me. Obviously. :D

Another possibility to jump into the cooling refreshing water, since it really was a hot day. I actually got some tan there!

I love that picture.

Pispala

2008-05-04T12:26:00.000-07:00

Gone mad now? Guess, it's Vappu!

2008-05-03T00:07:00.001-07:00

On wednesday and thursday we celebrated something called Vappu. As I understood, it was the Finnish labour day on thursday and every year whole Finland is going crazy on Vappu. And you really saw the changes immediately: Suddenly there where masses of people in the city center, the Hämeenkatu (the main street in the city) was completely blocked, there finally was a market at the market place (!), and the Finns where also drunk in the mornings, not just since early afternoon. ;)

Wednesday evening we had a nice little party with AIESEC. We had the so-called Vappu-Sauna. It seems to be a tradition, to go to sauna every Vappu. So we had our sauna on the last floor of a building of Hämeenkatu and we had a wonderful view over Tampere. It was fantastic. Of course we ate a lot and drank as much as well... We also had a little program for the audience. 9 people of us entertained rest of the people with some Improvisation stand-ups. It was fun!
Afterwards (after we left the sauna and went to the bridge where a statue got a hat, which is quite a boring things to watch), we went to the friends of one of our people and continued our night there. We had self-made music there, more alcohol and we played a game called Mölkky. You could compare it with a form of bowling, if you are really imaginative. But the main point is: I won! :D I crashed them all!
The next day we all met again at Tammerkoski (the river) for a picnic. And of course also there have already been masses of people. This had one major reason: All the new students of the Technical University of Tampere were supposed to be baptised. In the Tammerkoski. So we sat there and this wonderful view on hundreds of new students, all in there overalls (a Finnish students tradition - every department or field of studies has another color for their overalls, and then there are certain kind of parties, where all the students wear these overalls and get signs which they can sew onto their overall), waiting to be dipped into the freezing water of the river. This baptizing lasted for hours. They started at 1pm and where still not finished at 4pm. After some time, Anja and I decided to get us some icecream. So we went and fought our way through the market and got our icecream. We went to Laukontori then, where the harbour of Tampere is located, had a coffee in one of our favorite coffee houses, and in the end went to Hervanta (the part of Tampere, where the Technical University is) with some friends. There we ended our day with more fun and another party.

Naistenlahti

2008-04-27T14:17:00.000-07:00

When I came home this evening from a friend living in Lukonmäki (we celebrated the orthodox easter with pancakes, something I am not able to pronunce, chocolate cake, and eggs, of course!!), I had to stop on my way. I really like this factory, which is situated not far form Lapinkaari. It always has this really nice lights in the nights.

Pori? What is Pori?

2008-04-27T14:10:00.001-07:00

Saturday we had another adventure. Liane, Julia and I went to Pori, the 10th-biggest town in Finland. It is a cute little town near the Baltic Sea with some really nice places around. We visited a wonderful church (the most beautiful I’ve seen in Finland yet), a nice little shopping mile, and the green island near the city centre. And I had my first ice-cream this summer. It was chocolate, of course. 2€ a ball. But it was worth it! So I had my ice-cream, Julia some hair in her face whenever we wanted to take pictures at one of the bridges, and Liane got some cool new shoes. Thanks to Julia and me, who pushed her into a shop. :D
So, all in all the day was really nice, with a lot of sun and a lot of pretty places to see.

Lazy Day................. :)

2008-04-25T15:10:00.000-07:00

Today I have a real lazy day. And I love it. After several weeks of not having a weekend off and after one week with 3 exams to write (on which I already have 2x 5, which is the best you can get in Finnish universities), I finally got myself a day off of all the tiring stuff to do. Today there was no learning, no going-to-the-shop-and-buying-food, no cleaning the room... Just eating, sleeping, watching DVD (MacGyver - it is wonderful!;) ), and writing with very nice friends in the messengers (Greetings to Dodo btw. :D). This is, what I needed. But well, I don't want to be too eager now, to write more... remember, this is my lazy day! :)

Fire Alarm... again...

2008-04-25T14:54:00.000-07:00

Thursday evening we had another of our countless fire alarms again. These alarms happen to occur once every other week. Most often the reason are students who fail to understand signs saying: "Smoking forbidden inside the house!" But well, that always is a reason to gather in front of Lapinkaari to enjoy the company of all those nice ERASMUS-students. And also this time we saw the firedevil among the people standing outside the building. Firedevil was responsible for the one real fire we had in our dormitories (because of not being able to read signs, I already mentioned earlier...). The firefighters are already quite bored to come to Lapinkaari all the time. Not long and they'll invite us for dinner. :) One of them even cursed in German: Scheiße! :D

Becoming a Trainer

2008-04-23T01:37:00.000-07:00

So, I had a seminar last weekend. It was called "Train the advanced Trainer". All in all it was real fun, especially when we had to give a spontaneous trainings about personal hygiene, sex and rock'n'roll, and similar stuff. We gave and received loads of feedback on how to improve our performance and I think I got many good points on which I can now work.
Also we had a funny game going on meanwhile: Mission Impossible. One task was to create a list with all the colors of the participants underwear. In the end there were at least three people with green ones. We also sang Happy Birthday in Latvian, decorated the room, stole the socks of Ulla, and kidnapped her little friend Esa (see picture). And we've done very well. :)

Now, during the week, I have to learn for all my exams this week. But this is quite hard, since I borrowed the first season of MacGyver... I'd rather watch another episode than concentrating on university stuff. But my first exam was already yesterday and the next ones will be today and tomorrow. Then I can go back to relaxing a bit.
Also have I talked to a friend of mine yesterday in Skype. We didn't have contact since last year and hopefully we will see each other again this summer. Slowly kind of a concept is developing in my head, where to travel this summer to visit friends in Germany. Leipzig, Bonn, and Florstadt should be on my list. :)

Oh, and did I mention that the sun is shining all the time and that I could already lie in the sun while studying? You should also try that. ;)
But now... back to studying. I don't want to fail my Finnish exam. Minun täytyy opiskella monta.

What's that?

2008-04-13T00:50:00.001-07:00

After days full of rain last week, we finally saw some shreds of the blue sky yesterday. And today? I open the curtains of my window and there is snow outside. Snow mixed with rain. The raindrops sound very loud on my windowsill...
I think I have to get some chocolate to brighten up the day a bit. :)

The Adventure

2008-04-13T00:29:00.000-07:00

So, we didn't know where our journey will lead us. Three enthusiastic girls from Germany started a small adventure yesterday in the morning.
We stood in the Rautatieasema (train station) and wanted to take the next train to take us to any other Finnish city. Our possibilities: Helsinki, Haapanmäki, Turku, Helsinki again, and Jyväskylä. We didn't want to go to Helsinki, since we all have seen it already. Liane and Julia have already seen Turku before, and Jyväskylä we actually wanted to visit at another weekend, because a friend of Julia wanted to show us round there. It had to be Haapamäki then? Better ask at the information desk... How long does it take us to get to Haapanmäki? 1h 20min. And is there anything worth seeing? No, it is very small, just a few houses.
Not Haapanmäki then.
In the end we stuck to the original plan and went to Jyväskylä, also if there would be no one to show us around. It couldn't be so difficult to find some nice places to see. And right, after we arrived in Jyväskylä, we immediately found the tourist information and then followed the recommendation of the lady behind the desk in the office. We saw the Kaupungin Kirkko (the city church, which was closed unfortunately), some kind of a park with many steps up to the top (very beautiful), the observation tower (not high, but you see plenty of the city), a nature museum (with many padded animals, very interesting and impressive) and the Alvar Aalto museum (both ugly and interesting architecture to be seen). After this tour we went back to the train station and returned happily to Tampere.
During the whole day I always had the song of a friend in my head, which he sent me just the evening before. Also when it is more a sad song, it suited the day very well.
I spend almost all the ride sleeping and awoke just some minutes before we arrived back in Tampere. Although the day in Jyväskylä was very interesting and nice, I was really happy to be back here. I felt back home.
The last station on our journey yesterday was a Chinese restaurant with some really delicious food.

Happy day :)

2008-04-11T03:06:00.000-07:00

Today I feel fantastic. It is the first day since two weeks that I could sleep as long as possible. Not even the detonations (which are still part of our everyday life now) could wake me up. Therefore I woke up revived and relaxed. Is there any other way to start a day better than this?
Lazy as I am I first switched on my laptop and checked my mails... Why should I leave my warm comfortable bed? One very important message awaited me there: The phone number of one of my best friends. Immediately I called him. It was great to talk to him again. Curious as we both are, we asked each other about the things going on in our lives. And apparently there are many things going on. We talked more than 1 1/2 hours until we finally parted.
Now, having slept long, talked to my friend, had a shower, and seeing the blue sky outside, I feel great. I couldn't feel any better. :)
CK: Don't forget to tell FF my greetings. :)

Detonations next to Lapinkaari

2008-04-03T14:35:00.000-07:00

First of all - Lapinkaari is the dormitory I am living at. We all love it so much. Especially the amazing kitchens, where we all feel very comfortable... even bacteria feel at home there, and everyone knows how picky they are concerning their domicile. I will have to upload a picture some other day to show this lovely place.
And today it was really funny when I was at home around lunch time. Next to Lapinkaari there is a construction taking place and today they had to blow something up. It started with a loud slow hooting. The sound of the hooting became slowly faster until there was a detonation noticeable. It always lifted me a little bit up. Toooot-tooot-toot-womm!

SUCCESS

2008-04-03T14:33:00.000-07:00

Last weekend (28.-30.03.2008) I attended a conference of AIESEC in Helsinki. As usual here in Finland, we slept in a school, and as usual I don't even remember the name of the school. But nevertheless it was great.
I met many people from the last conference and also many new people. I even met a girl from Leipzig - Astrid -, who has been Vice President in AIESEC in the same term as me (Wer rockt den Scheiß? - SUNRISE!). And I have an assumption that every person I meet from other countries, has a really common name for Germans. There are e.g. André from Portugal, Sebastian from Colombia and Herbert (!) from Spain. Very odd. But also funny. :)
So, we spent a wonderful weekend in Helsinki with a lot of people, and workshops, and fun, and (for some people) alcohol. We also had some relaxing moments, when we brought a big mattress from the gym to the plenary and spend one session nicely cushioned. But something bad happened, too: Ernesti, the mascot of Tampere disappeared! :( He is now somewhere out there in this big bad world, all alone and maybe frightened. Or maybe he just has a hell of a good time...

The Beginning

2008-04-03T14:31:00.000-07:00

So, this is the beginning? My world starting to be constructed? My voyage through the world about to begin?

... Of course not. I have been lazy, you know... I am in Finland for 3 months now and finally I decided to open my own blog.

I will try to post as often as possible, or at least as often as there is something worth knowing.

Well... let my world get expanded.