Mom and Fräuline Maria

08.03.2010

Hallo!
It is most certainly time for an update. I will start with when Mum came to visit =)
So, Mum landed in Basel on February 17th and I went to go meet her. We’re so lucky that we were able to meet and I was so happy to have her in… Europe, with me! We stayed in Basel for 1 night in a really cute little hotel, the Münchnerhof, only finding it after getting sort of lost using the street trams in Basel. The next day we spent in Basel looking at the sights and just generally having a relaxing time. So nice. We went to a really nice museum and I could’ve spent way longer in there but we had to catch our train to Freiburg. And, while in Basel, we found a really nice veggie restaurant, Tibits, which we now have dubbed as being our favourite restaurant in Basel =) .
We took the train to Freiburg and stayed there for a little bit, biking around to check out the sites, including going up the Münster tower (even though it was technically closed… thanks nice Münster-tower operator for letting us do that anyway… =) ) I think Oma and Auntie and Meesch will be coming to Freiburg in the summer for a bit, too, before we all head to Singhofen. Still not sure about their plans…
On the Friday, we took the train to Nassau, which was so nice, even with tons of luggage (I left a suitcase in Singhofen of stuff i no longer need and also gave Mum some of my stuff to take back).
Anyway, Michie met us at the train station in Nassau and we all drove up to Singhofen to Tante Christel’s house together, which is where we would be staying for our time there. Because they work really late, once we got there, we just quickly said hi and unloaded our stuff and Tante Christel showed us where we would be staying- in B’s old room, which Tante Gustel also used. Very, very cosy and warm and clean (which was a very welcome change from my, although clean, rather cold room in Freiburg!). I really can’t remember too much about what happened then but I know we watched some TV with Jan and Leike (Tante Christel’s new puppy) didn’t like us very much, even though she was fine with me when I met her back in December. Ah well. And we had brötchen… and then…. hmmmm… chatted. Very nice!
Hmmmm…. I really wish I could remember what happened every day we were there, but, I can’t even really remember what I was doing an hour ago, so, … details may be lacking. The next day would’ve been Saturday and I think we… oh okay, yeup, i remember. We walked to the Dorfslädchen where Little Carmen works and said hi and picked up a few groceries. And later that day we went to go clean Susi’s house. Her Putzfrau was supposed to clean it that weekend, as far as I recall understanding, but then didn’t for some reason, and Susi’s birthday was on the Sunday and she had lots to do so, off we went to help out with that for a few hours. And once we got everything sufficiently clean, we had Chinese food from the place in Nästetten (sp?) that I had gone to in December with Susi and the kids. Mom and I picked it up but got kind of lost, nah well. Carmen and Jochen came by while we had dinner =) and then we went back to Singhofen. Oh, I think we also may have gone on a really beautiful walk with Tante Christel and Leike that day as well, though I don’t quite recall. Around the village, it would’ve been, and through the fields. Yeup, pretty sure we did that- beautiful. Oh, and I helped Susi bake vegan cakes! She said she was too lazy to go get eggs from the chickens that day anyway (oh veganism, you are so practical =) ) but Mum and I went and collected them later for her anyway. … I am still confused as to why people would eat eggs, I mean… it’s just such an incomprehensible concept to me at this point. Anyway!
Sunday was Susi’s birthday and she was having a brunch buffet at a Hof to celebrate with the whole family. It was so cute- they made a special table of vegan products for me and cousin Oli (can’t consume milk products) and one of the things they included was tofu. Just… cut up plain tofu. That’s so cute! I mean, who eats tofu like that?! Hahahah, ah German farmers… that was really kind of them. I hope they didn’t try it like that, though, or… their chances of going vegan and saving some animals will be greatly decreased.
After brunch, we went on another walk with Leike and Tante Christel through these snowy fields overlooking Nassau and I really regretted not bringing my camera but oh well. Then it was back to Susi’s for cafe und Kuchen, but I mostly was just running around and cleaning up dishes for people, so I was pretty happy I was there and hopefully helped out a bit. I think so. Thennnnn… then then then…. hmmm… I do not recall. Oh, yah, okay, we cleaned up once everyone was gone and had brötchen for dinner.
Monday! Was Diensche’s birthday and… okay… hmmmm… I think we may have driven to Nastätten that morning. I think. I don’t really recall.

Okay, have to go because I am in the train and we’re almost arriving- Vienna!

Thursday, March 11th, 2010

…. and now I am sitting at a Starbucks in the main train station in Munich. Amazing! Hahah. More about that little journey later.

Okay, so, where was I? Yes… perfect bliss with the family, right. Okay, so, Diensche’s birthday was great. We walked down to their place from the Tankstelle (i think we walked… shame on us if we didn’t. It’s literally 2 seconds away…) and sat around and had Kaffee u Kuchen and chatted and I helped clean up and then later, we got PIZZA! They told me ahead of time that they’d ordered a vegan pizza for me, which was so kind of them. They even asked to make sure that the Teig (the…. crust, i guess it would be called) was vegan. I thought it would be like… a normal pizza sized pizza but, NO, it was massive! HUGE! Enormous! Gargantuan! And very, very tasty. I was grateful to the family for also eating it. I would have felt really baldy otherwise, having a whole gigantic pizza all to myself. Anyway, I put the vegan cheese mum brought for me from Vancouver on it and they seemed to like it (even though it was of, quite frankly, substandard quality, and not melted. hahahah… ah Mum. =) ) So, yeup, that was another wonderful day.
Tuuuuuuesday… hmmmm… I know that Mum and I went to Bad Ems one day. And I think it was the Tuesday. Pretty sure. It was so strange to be there in the winter- I always associate Bad Ems with summer and Oma and walking along the Lahn. Wonderful, nevertheless. And we found a great parking spot and dropped off an envelope for Tante Christel at the bank, so we were helpful too =)
Wedddddddnessssdaaaaayy….. hmmmmm…. did we go to Nassau that day? I don’t know. It is possible. And I remember one day we met Kyra with Little Carmen after Kyra was done with school and went to the Stadhalle for lunch in Nassau. They made me good mush =) Anyway. I think we also helped Susi’s with misten on Wednesday, which basically involved shovelling massive piles of horse manure onto a tractor to be carried away from the stalls. It was fun and we smelled great- what more could one ask for? It took like… a good 4 hours though! Glad we could help and even got to spend time with Sabrina, who was there too =)
Thuuuurrrrrrrrsdaaaaayyyyyyyyyyy….. hmmmm…. okay. Something good definitely happened. I really wish I could remember what. Oh, another random memory: watching the Olympics with Oli and Mareike and Tante Christel while playing with baby Mia. It could’ve happened on Thursday… but I am not sure. We probably took Leike for a nice walk and were surrounded by wonderful people and great experiences.
Friday: A sort of sad day. A rather sad day. Our last-full-day-in- Singhofen day. Ah what’d we do. Well, this is a bit closer to the present time, so I do remember it much better than a lot of the other days. We got up, had breakfast, chatted with Susi, announced that we would, in fact, be making lunch for her and Tante Christel that day, got encouraged by Susi to add vegan Tzaziki to the lunch menu, realized that we’d have to drive to Nastätten to get the ingredients for that, drove to Nastätten, came back, cooked, ended up with a delicious masterpiece of veganism, ate said masterpiece, got rave reviews, especially from Tante Christel, who had never tried avocado before! AND she loved the fake gyro stuff we bought and is planning on buying it again, last she told me. This is a big deal. This could mean some animals will be saved and happy! (Veganism: 8 billion Non-veganism: Zero… but who’s keeping track?) Then… we cleaned up and took Leike for a nice walk and I think we went to visit Tante Edith. Okay, reverse that order. First visited Tante Edith, Diensche (with whom I had a really nice chat. I’m so happy I can at least understand them better now. And hopefully I will keep getting better.) saw Mischie and Katha (whom I tried to convince to come to the family dinner that night.) and then took Leike on her walk. A long walk. We were quite late for the dinner. Woops.
Yes, so then we all had dinner at the Alte Post! It was fantastic ! What a happy, wonderful memory. Just sitting with the fam at the Alte Post. Herr Maxeimer (sp?) made me a massive bowl of delicious veggie soup, as he always so kindly makes a special recipe to accommodate my vegan lifestyle. And I was thinking about the summer and how we always come down from our rooms upstairs (still at the Alte Post) and then go to our table and get fed delicious breakfast. And I took a picture of our table… and was all… what’s that word… hmmmm… oh you know what I mean. Thinking about memories. That word. And thinking about this summer coming up and sitting at that table again.
Saturday: … packed =( Got ready to leave. Back to Vancouver (Mum) back to Freiburg (moi). But first to Basel again. We said our Aufwiedersehens (and it really will not be too long until we do see each other again. I can’t wait. I missed them before I left.). Oli, Susi, and Diensche came by to say bye and then Mareike so kindly drove us to the train station in Koblenz with baby Mia and then… off again. A rather sad morning. Like they always are when we say good-bye.
Basel was nice, as per usual. We stayed in the same cosy hotel and wandered around that pretty city and went to Tibits where they had delicious apple or some kind of fruit crisp. … yum. I think I will have to go back there very soon. (Oh wait, I AM.) And then we went back to the Münchnerhof and I showed Mum my favourite wedding dress site (wow, how embarrassing is that to admit? I mean, yes, it is a little depressing if I look at it and think beyond just fashion, but… well, the dresses are pretty and who says one can’t have a wedding dress or two to wear around the apartment with the cats? . Moving on.) She’s starting to look for designs for next August and I think we may have perhaps sort of maybe a little bit gotten an idea of what she wants. Which isn’t anything particular. Hahaha.
Sunday: Went to the airport with my Mum. Said goodbye until August. Wandered back to the city. Drown my sorrows at Tibits. Felt like I ruptured my spleen or something after I stood up. Wandered back to the train station clutching my stomach in pain and almost passing out. Got on train. Went back to Freiburg. Yeup. Back to good old Freiburg. I am grateful! I had a wonderful time and there are more wonderful times ahead.
But I don’t remember the ones I had between my getting back to Freiburg and my leaving for Austria. What did I even do? I ran some errands. Seriously, what did I do? Yikes. Bad.
Okay, so, yes! I went to Austria! My true intention for venturing into that country was to visit some friends studying there, but since they are too… disorganized, or maybe don’t really care all too much, we did not meet up, despite my contacting them several times. Well such is. And, I think I have lived enough even now to say a very sincere “Whatever.”. Which is harsh but… whatever. I met some great people on that little journey, including my first CouchSurfing hostess in Europe- Rebecca! She hosted me in Salzburg and I stayed with her in her dorm. What a nice person! I got my own little pull-out bed in her student dorm to sleep and explored the city a bit for almost two days. I would have stayed longer but… it was sort of blizzard conditions there so I said “So long, fairwell, aufwiedersehen goodbye” to Salzburg, semi-promising to come back in the summer when I have my Eurail ticket (Okay, that’s how I spent all my time in Freiburg! Figuring out that ticket with the help of Karl! Good I cleared that one up. I know you are all relieved. Hahaha) to frolic through the fields as nuns, such as Fräuline Maria, before me have done. But, yes, while I was there… the weather was ridiculous! Still a very pretty, big town but, yikes, I did not have any water-proof shoes and my feet were not happy. I saw some neat things, though, like Mozart’s home and the Festenburg and beautiful cathedrals and other nice monuments and things. I like wandering around cities and just checking things out. I don’t even feel the need to go to many museums, at this point (just keeping it thrifty and interesting!). On the Saturday, Rebecca and some of her friends and I went to an Irish pub, which was so much fun but smoky and therefore disgusting, but fun! Unfortunately, I was completely exhausted from traveling- I took an overnight route where I had to get on the first train after midnight, got to Mannheim, waited in a Subway for a few hours until the station opened again, waited in the station, caught my next train to Munich at 6 am or something, got my train to Salzburg from Munich. Long, long day/night. So, I left just before 2 am from the club and attempted to find my way back to Rebecca’s through the snow. Salzburg is small and I was just that tired that I left without her. No, I didn’t really know where I was going and, yes, I did get a bit lost. But, I did end up getting back to the dorms with the help of some friendly Salzburgers and a taxi driver who charged me 3 Euro for what must have been 30 seconds of driving. Oh well. I was back and in one piece!
What’d I do the next day. I wandered, of course! I don’t even really recall. Anyway. On Sunday, Rebecca and her friend and I toured a bit around Salzburg (attempting to find indoor opportunities to thaw whenever we could) and then Rebecca and I went to mass at her church and rode bikes there! It was so cool to ride bikes through Salzburg, kind of like the kids and Fräuline Maria did in the Sound of Music (… I think I may love that movie, hahah!) and then there was praise and worship afterwards and it was just great.
Then the next day… I went to Vienna. Wow. What an amazing city. And I even missed half of it, by the sounds of it. A girl also from Vancouver I just met on the
well. I just realized something very interesting. I completely missed my train. Yeup, I have been sitting here in Starbucks, taking up their precious real estate for over 2 hours, thinking that my train left after 9 pm, typing stuff, and missed my train because I read the plan wrong. I probably have missed several possible trains in the time being here, in fact. Brilliant. Brilliant and very, very typical “Emma”. So my new train, which i will not miss leaves at 22:43. I arrive in Freiburg just before 7 in the morning , after a couple of train switchings and waiting in… hopefully… train stations. Provided they are open. Oh MAN. ARRRRRGH. Okay. What the heck?! There is clearly something completely wrong with my brain. I will have it checked out once I am back in Vancouver, provided that I can actually get back to Vancouver. Maybe I will just sit in various locations of this massive chain of coffee shops for the rest of my life, missing travel connections. Oh this is depressing. Ridiculous, but depressing. Yeup, a good CAT scan is definitely in order. If I can figure out my life to get to that point. Highly doubt it.
Okay, so… Vienna. Yes. Well right now I find it difficult to even think about Vienna. But I will try. I HAVE LOTS OF TIME. Well, I got there a day earlier than planned (AH! The irony.) and even earlier in the day than anticipated, so I called my CouchSurfing host, Maria, once i found her place (after texting her on the subway. But she was at lunch with her cousin, so, I went to go meet them at the restaurant and wandered around for a bit until they were done, because I really didn’t want to disrupt her life or their lunch anymore than I already was. We all walked back to her place and her cousin slowly seemed to hate me less which was great! We chatted and then I set off to find some lunch, because I hadn’t eaten since the night before and was about to pass out. So I wandered. And wandered. And wandered. And then I found this really nice little veggie restaurant, ate food, left, wandered, wandered into a warm bookstore (because, Vienna, like Austria, was also freezing!) then I got a text from Maria about cooking dinner so I went back to her place a while later and we sat around and chatted with her boyfriend and another CSer from Spain, whose name I can’t remember but who likes me lots (woops.) and then we made dinner and then… chatted some more and then Spanish CSer left and Maria, Maria’s cousin, and Maria’s boyfriend were going to watch a movie and I was going to collapse into a heap of exhaustion.
The next day! I wandered. I saw tons, tons, tons of the city- and what a beautiful city. I think I went to a museum on the Hapsburgs and Sissi, ate amazing vegan food (they actually have veggie restaurants in Vienna! *eh hem… Freiburg??????????* and then I think I went and cooked stir-fry with Maria, and we used 2 types of Sake! Neato. Neato that all the alcohol evaporates when you cook it. Neato that I missed my train and will arrive in Freiburg at 7 am and then leave for Strasbourg an hour and a half later. Sorry. Okay. Soooooo… yes, 2 types of Sake! Sitting in STARBUCKS. Destroying my system with a lack of sleep and too many chocolate dipped, strawberry jam filled vegan croissants (well… okay, could there ever be too many of those? Maybe not… but maybe there could be a big lack of actual vegetables. Anyway.) Soooooooo… I think what I did the next day (yesterday) was the following: went to the Naschmarkt- a really nice open market with lots of stalls selling olives and Turkish delicacies. And vegan croissants. Then…. I wandered and wandered and wandered. And I found fair trade flip flops! How great is that?! I have been looking everywhere for ethical flip flops and, bam! Found them! I even attempted to order them off the internet but the company was out of order or something when I did try and didn’t get back to me. But I found these ones in a Welt Laden- cool! So, of course I bought them. Then I went to the Welt Cafe, because from what I heard, going to a Viennese cafe is a must. So I did that and got hot chocolate, but it wasn’t chocolate-y enough so I melted the rest of my chocolate bar from breakfast in it. It helped. Then…. I went along a street called Neugasse and found some very neat shops, including a hemp-y fair trade one where I bought fair trade slippers, since my Ikea one’s have breathed their last, and some for Alicia because she keeps talking about her fading slippers so that’ll be a b-day gift. Then I went to the Silberkammer museum to see just how rich the Hapsburgs were. They had so much silverware it was ridiculous, and quite beautiful, but I didn’t care all that much. So then I went to this little community run second hand place and… found some sunglasses that will a) stay on my face b) protect me in the sun (which I will encounter in the very near future!) c) almost look decent if I wear them in the dark =) and then I met up with Maria and we got dinner and the best Apfel Strüdel I have ever had and then went to a CouchSurfing get together at some little Spanish restaurant/bar and left pretty early. But I met some really nice people there! And it wasn’t crazy and there was a non-smoking section, so… great! =)
Today… I woke up. Did some pilates/yoga. Packed. Went to the Naschmarkt and met Maria there. Went to the cemetery where Mozart is buried and walked around there. Went back to Maria’s. Drew her a “thank you” picture on her wall in her CSing room. Said so long. Went to a Chinese veggie buffet. Almost missed my first train (which, had I caught the same train after that, would have probably meant getting back earlier than I will be now….), but I got that train! Met a nice girl from Vancouver and chatted. Bothered the train staff to try and get free water. Got 2 glasses of “tea” water (boiling) because I didn’t want to pay the 2,60 for a puny bottle of water. Almost died of thirst. Caved and bought the bottle. Made a mental note to carry a bigger bottle on my real journey. … and you all know what I am up to now. *sigh*

An epic post if there ever was one!

emma

PS- found a bio, vegan farm to volunteer at in the summer! LET’S ALL KEEP ARE FINGERS CROSSED AND SEE IF I CAN ACTUALLY MAKE IT THERE.

Aaaaaaand…. DONE!

Hallo,

life has been, as always, very interesting and busy. We are now officially done classes (as of yesterday at 11:45 am, for me.) and, more importantly… I AM DONE ALL MY ESSAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! EVERY LAST ONE! Ohmygosh. I am so happy. I finished last Sunday at about 12:20 am. It was great. Simply wonderful. What a load off. That last one was about 25 pages and I just sat and typed and typed and then… I typed some more. And finally it was done. Just… done. Definately not perfect (I don’t think it is anyway… but who knows, since my prof keeps refusing to e-mail me back about it. Great.) but it is done. And so long as I pass, I am a happy camper =)

So, what have I been doing with my newfound freedom? Excellent question. I got an idea. Actually, I got this idea way before I got any free time. It went like this.

“There was an earthquake in Haiti. Thousands and thousands of people and animals are injured, without food, and without a home. I bet vegan baked goods will help solve those problems.”

So….. I had a bake sale! An entirely vegan, organic bake sale which took place in my building. =)  It was just yesterday (officially, though I am still going to sell some more today) and it raised over 258 Euros thus far!  The money will be going to three different causes:

1.  The Christian Veterinary Mission

2. Food for Life

3. Stoves for refugees in Darfur (I know Darfur is in Africa… but they really need some help. And, I don’t want them to be forgotten just because they havn’t had a dramatic natural disaster there. They’ve got lots to deal with as is…)

The first organisation, I am not entirely sold on, to be honest. This is just because there website is a little disorganized when it comes to the whole Haiti issue, and because they promote people keeping animals for farming, which can be really unsustainable and a huge problem as time goes on (here is an article with a better explanation: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/court_and_social/article756623.ece ).  but otherwise I think they are a good organisation that has been really active in helping deal with the situation. The animals are so often forgotten in these sorts of scenarios (well… actually… in almost every scenario) and that should not be. I think it’s basically just because they cannot speak (human language. Unless it is some talented bird we’re talking about…) and because they do not look like humans (which is a pretty weak argument! I’ve met plenty of people who hardly look human. (Haha!)). Anyway. I think society has some thinking to do.

Food for Life is a great organisation! They distribute vegan food to people in emergency situations as there’s not much point in distributing food that causes other disasters while trying to clean up more visible, publicized ones.  There’s another one to think about!

Stoves for Darfur. Well, initally, this was going to be a Haiti-exclusive bake sale. But I have been a bit involved in trying to help out with Stand- an organisation that is working on aiding the victims of the Darfur crisis.  One of my floor mates came back from the library late while I was hanging up my laundry and made a comment after seeing one of my posters advertising about the bakesale for Haiti  about people forgetting about Africa (although he really knows nothing about the situation in Darfur. And I’d like to see him hold a bake sale for anything. … other than Fußball. =P !) Anyway, I really did not want to forget about Darfur any longer, and people should know more about it, so I decided to have another jar available for people to add their donations to (people got to decide how much they wanted to give).  Anyway. Stoves. Stoves are very, very important for the refugees. This is because without a source of cooking heat, the women would have to leave their refugee camps to get firewood. The men cannot leave the camps because they will get killed by the Janjaweed if they do. So, the women leave and will not get killed, but they get raped.

Hopefully what is made from the bake sale will help.

It was supposed to run from 3pm to 5 pm yesterday in my commons room, but people were either not home or were too lazy to come by so, after dropping off some baking at my professor’s house with Alicia, we went door to door throughout the building with trays of what I baked. I am so incredibly thankful for her help- I think I would have made about 2 Euros otherwise! (Well… maybe a bit more…) So we did that for about 3 hours and… ta da! We sold lots!

But there is still so much to sell! I’m off to do that now.

Otherwise…. what have I been up to…

Oh, okay, my friend Vlad (not Alicia’s neighbour, another Vlad) took me on a tour of his chemistry lab! It was so so so cool! (I AM SUCH A NERD.) All these tubes and equations and liquid nitrogen… neato. AND a beautiful view of the city- luckily we went on a clear and sunny day- now it is snowing. Yeup. Lotso white stuff…

Very exciting news: I have found not only decent, but the most amazing vegan, organic raw ice cream ever. And it is here in not-even-one-vegan-restaurant- Freiburg. I know. And I was completely not expecting it! I was on a tram and missed my intended stop, but I thought, “Okay, God. What’s your plan?” and just kept going. I found this little store at the very end of the line and… there it was: Booja-Booja ice cream. I almost had a heart attack right then and there (which would be almost impossible for me, considering I take in no unncessary cholesterol. Thanks, veganism.) Anyway… I couldn’t get it right then because I still had errands to run, but I went back the next day and bought 2 (VERY EXPENSIVE BUT WORTH IT) tubs.  Ginger and Maple Pecan. Yum yum =) … thanks, God.

Other equally, if not more, exciting news: my mum is coming to visit!!!!!!!! I am so excited!!!!! She arrives on Tuesday in Basel, Switzerland, where we will stay for a night, then go to Freiburg to look around (a lot of what we see will be new for me, too, unless we just hang out in my communal kitchen and behind my laptop.) and then it is off to see the family in Singhofen! I cannot wait. This is what was motivating me the whole time I was writing my essays- just get them done to be free by the time mum gets here! AND ENJOY LIFE! I cannot wait. =) !!!!!!!!!

Aaaaaaand whatelse…

time to bike home! In the snow! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!!!!!

gemmer

Hütte u Geburtstag

A quick update… but an update none the less!

Hallo,

let’s see. What has happened recently…
- I sat in front of my computer and typed my heart out.
- I finished nearly all of my essays (one to go… ONE TO GO! and i think i have my research question. I want this done by Friday. 20 pages? Piece of cake…maybe).
- I have been spending way too much money. I don’t know how it happens. It’s all on groceries! Well, I guess there are a lot worse things to spend money on than organic, vegan, as-ethical-as-possible fair =)
- Went to a cabin in the Black Forest with my floor-mates (and my laptop. Gosh he’s so clingy! haha!) It was so fun! We had to take a train, then a bus, then “hike” for about 45 minutes through the snow at night to get there, and you could see the stars so clearly- beautiful. Then the first night there we just sat around and they drank and I listened patiently (nah, just kidding. It was very fun for me too!) and I felt very lucky because I got to get to know a few of them better because I wasn’t stuck in my room typing. The next day we went on a super long hike! Like…. 3 and a half hours! In the snow! It was very beautiful but… I think I should stop trying athletic things, hahah. Then I worked a bit on some essays and then we made pizza and they gave me so much of the pizza (as in, it was set aside to be vegan- very much appreciated =) ) and then they drank drank drank and I helped refill their shots for a drinking game and everybody was so into it and having so much fun! And then there was some sort of dancing (hilarious! HILARIOUS! Oh it is great being able to remember everything that went on- why drink at all???) And then the next day (the Sunday) we came back.
- Finally sent in 2 of my essays to my prof for one class- i wasn’t sure they were write so I e-mailed him saying to let me know if I should change anything. Normally, no matter how much thought and effort I clearly put into my e-mails, I get a one “word” response: “OK”. That’s it. OK. Even if I ask questions that cannot be answered by 2 letters shoved together, that is what I get. Anyway, this time he actually wrote me a real response ! And it was completely positive too! No re-writing of essays for me, no thanks! Woo hoo!
- Now I am working on that last essay. Ugh it is such a drag. Must. Get . Finished.
- What else…
- 21st birthday happened the other day… it was so wonderful. Actually one of the best I can remember having. At midnight, right when it turned to the 27th, I heard this knock on my door, opened the door and there where a whole bunch of my floor-mates! They sang me a German birthday song that I really want to learn, hopefully with guitar, too. I was so floored! AND two of my floor-mates (including the emo boy who loves me. Still. Yeesh! and my wonderful friend, Lena) baked me a vegan carrot cake! I just couldn’t believe it! Because they say that my food is “Kahninchen Futter” (bunny food!). They even had a fresh carrot on the top. Then we all sat in the commons room and had carrot cake, which was very delicious. I could not believe it =) It was just so nice.
- Then… the next day…. or, later that day, actually… I went to the Stühlinger market and got some cheap apples and then went to my grammar prof’s office hours for help. Thennnnn… I came back home and studied a bit and then Alicia and my neighbour, Nils, and I made vegan French toast and it was really really good! I am glad to have impressed! AND, this is amazing- Alicia’s birthday gift to me is that she is going to be vegan for a month! I am so happy! That’s gonna save some animals for sure =) I plan on making her a recipe book to help her out. I just couldn’t believe it- so happy!
- The next morning, I failed my grammar test (actually, I don’t know that I did. It was just way too unreasonably difficult). And that niiiight we went to a club/bar called Kagan to celebrate my birthday, but I think that a movie night would’ve been just as good, if not better, because it wouldn’t have been smoky. Gross. Oh well, I think everyone had fun. But I was kind of sad at first because my friend was being really inappropriate that day, exceptionally so, and I just don’t have the patience for that sort of thing- especially on my birthday. So, I ranted to Lena and I think I will have to set some things a little bit more clearly. I mean, really, some things are just not acceptable.
… (…what the heck is she talking about????)
- Oh i forgot. There was a party at my building last last week and it was kinda boring but it was summer themed- something I will have to start thinking more about! As in… what am I actually going to do for 4 months around here?
- And. I am blenderless once again- I think I broke it and keep buying the owner chocolate to say sorry and offering to get a replacement, but she is going to see what the company says about the warranty. We shall see… I just miss my smoothies. And I wanted to make lots of other stuff! Ah well…
- I ordered my eco-friendly sweatshop free bikini! Mum will bring it with her when she visits in… a couple of weeks. Wow that’s fast.! Freue mich schon!
- I received my pretty (not necessarily warm… but spring will come soon enough) gloves in the mail from Dad. They are very very nice!
Okay, i am tired and am going to call it a night!

Gute Nacht,
emma

Kanada war echt schön…

Sonntag der 10. Januar

Hi,

So much (mostly good) stuff has happened since I last updated.  The biggest thing? KANADA!!!!! I got  to go home for Christmas and it was amazing to say the very least.  I had the best Christmas I can ever remember, which I never thought would be since one key little being was not with me this year for the first time in over a decade. I love her.

Well. Here is how it happened:

My flight left at noon on the 18^th of December from Frankfurt. To get there in time, I had to get up at about 5 am and take the train with 2 massive suitcases and a massive backpack to the Flughaven in Frankfurt. … but first i had to take my luggage down the stairs of my building, drag it out the bus stop,  load it on the bus, keep it from tipping over on the bus, load it off the bus, drag it to the station, load it on the first train, take it off the first train, load it on the 2^nd train, take it off the 2^nd train (now at the airport!!!!!!!!!! =))))))) ), balance everything up the escalator, check it in, and… freeeeeeeeee!!! The plane trip to Canada was great- Lufthansa took good care of me and even provided me with excellent vegan food- definitely not your “typical” plane food! I watched some movies and worked on some essays and before I knew it… we were landing….

I got through customs okay, except i brought back too much alcohol (Christmas gifts from my friend for her family so she wouldn’t have to ship it back) but I just played the dumb blond card and got through just fine =) and how smart is that?

After I got my baggage, I went to go meet my mom, who I was pretty sure would be picking me up (hahah!) but I got an even more wonderful surprise- practically my whole family was there! My Oma, Opa, Auntie, Cousin, and even brother showed up with my mom! That alone made the journey.  Then we went to go find the car and after we dropped off my Auntie, cousin and Oma at my Oma’s house, my mom drove with me back to my house to drop off my things and say a big smoooooooochie hello to Tiger. I was so happy to see her! (Both my mom and Tiger, hahah!) But I hadn’t really seen Tiger in months because she does not Skype with me.

Anyway…. I could probably go on forever, but it suffices to say that I loved my time in Canada and I am really looking forward to going back in August. I got to see lots of friends and family and relax for the most part. One thing I realize is really missing in Freiburg for me is that there are no mentors or even just elders of any sort to keep me grounded.  Or maybe that isn’t the case, but whatever it is, I feel like being in Freiburg, I don’t have the same expectations for myself as I do in Vancouver- in some ways, there are more, in other ways, there are less. For example, I don’t do nearly enough animal rights work around here. Sure, I signed up to be a part of the vegan club at the Uni Freiburg, but I haven’t heard from them at all, and this was in October that i signed up.  In other ways, though, there is lots more expected of me- like with laundry and cooking and stuff (which I really have to get to… or I will have no clothes left. Tuesday. Tuesday will be Laundry Day.) It’s just different.

Some things I really liked about Vancouver (only in a very slight order):

1. getting to see family and friends (and smooch Tiger <3 !!!!)
2. Christmas. That was wonderful.
3. balmy weather- it was 8 °C there sometimes- positive!
4. vegan food! Nachos at the Naam and an infinite amount of amazing OrganicLives creations- the city has things I can eat- woo hoo!
5. the ocean. Although I really only saw it once. Okay, twice, if during landing counts.
6. the mountains- they are really big. We’ve got some either very big hills or very small mountains here in Freiburg, though they are also beautiful.
7. familiarity.

 

Two thumbs waaaaaaaaay up for sure. I just loved it.

… but all good things must come to an end (although I don’t really believe that), and so, it was time to say aufwiedersehen to Kanada and head back to Germany. Not that I don’t love Germany, it’s just… different. And cold.  But my room in Germany is warm- brownie points- although the rest of the country is freezing.  I think I’ll miss that next winter, hahah.

So, Mum kindly drove me to the airport early in the morning and I was off again. I brought some delicious snacks from OrganicLives on the plane, as well as some raw brownies I’d made, which are excellent, I must say.

We got delayed in Calgary by 2 hours, but I was able to notify Mum who notified Susanne who was kind enough to pick me up from the airport in Frankfurt. My second flight was okay except I was seated next to a creepy older gentleman who was reading Cosmopolitan.  Yah…

Susi, Luki, and Jan met me at the airport and we went to McDonalds. They ate at McDonalds. Then we went to Ikea and the boys ate at Ikea. Then we went to Subway. And the boys ate at Subway. Thennnnn we went to some other furniture store and i almost passed out i was so tired. Then we drove to Holzhausen (!!!!!!!!) and I tried to stay awake, which I did.  We made lunch for me and Susi and then I visited Tante Emma and then we went Schlittenfahren (Toboggoning)- it was so much fun!  Oddly enough, I can’t really remember what else happened while I was there, but I know that the next day, we went to visit family in Singhofen for a couple of minutes and then Susi drove me to Mainz to catch the train so that I wouldn’t have to umsteig… hmmmm…. transfer (???) trains from Nassau. I appreciated that so much I cannot even express it.  I had my normal massive backpack and then a MONSTER mother of a backpack- a backpacking backpack I got in Canada, which could very well have broken all the bones in my body it was so heavy- and then a maaaaaaaaaaaaaaassive suitcase. My Auntie gave me lots of clothes I wanted to take back. What?

So then I took the train to Freiburg and Alicia met me! I was so eternally grateful! I had rearranged some of the things from my backpack to my suitcase, but still, it would’ve been totally unmanageable without her help. So then we bussed on home and chatted and she surprised me with one of the most wonderful Christmas gifts I have ever received- a collage of our time in Freiburg. I was so touched- it was incredibly thoughtful. She even framed all the pictures in a selbst-decorated frame and hung it on the wall in my room with a red ribbon. It is amazing and I will cherish it forever.  I just looked at it again and it is really, really nice.

Other than that, I have a bit more exciting news. Ready? Point form time.

-          My dad ordered me vegan pleather gloves so that my fingers will no longer freeze when I am biking. This is big news. I swear I have almost gotten frostbite a few times; it is so, so cold here.  The gloves I’ve got now definitely do not cut it. I hope these new ones are warm enough…. but there are options. I found a hemp pair, too (also vegan, as I found out) that have fake lambs fur on the inside.  Anyway. I am stoked and I hope they get here really soon!

-          I will definitely not have to take any more courses after I am done this term. Definitely not. I thought i would have to, because I am one elective credit short of my grad requirements, but… I e-mailed my advisor and everything is A O K!!!! That means more time for freeeeeeeeeeeedom!

-          That wasn’t really point form at all…

 Okay. I am going to go make some lunch before this guy, who confessed his love for me in the form of a card which he gave to me with a present which I opened on Christmas morning, gets back from Stuttgart because he said he would help me look over my German presentation which I have on Wednesday. How awkward. I mean, I said I wanted to just be friends but… what else do you say? I live on the same floor as the guy! I couldn’t just be like, “Um, no. No way.”  Ugh. How awkward. Good thing I’m outta here reeeeeally soon! What I will do when I am, exactly, I am not sure. Actually I am not at all sure.

Okay. Time to skidaddle.

<3 gemmer

Singhofen!!!!!

Freitag, den 11. Dezember, 2009

Guten Morgen!

As I type this, I am sitting in a train on the way to see my family in Singhofen… finally!  We’ve been trying to figure out when would be best for me to visit for a long time, and, I guess this would technically be the last chance before Christmas break. … I am going back to Canada next Friday. I can’t believe it, that was SO fast! Only… three, and a bit of a month, months.  Anyway, lots of exciting stuff ahead, and there are also some things to update on (not particularly interesting for the most part, but nevertheless, a good way to keep a bit of a record of goings on.)

Let’s see…

I know I went to a nearby town, Breisach, a couple of Wednesdays ago. I had gone there in September with a couple of schoolmates for a project on places to travel in the area, but I wanted to go back. So… I did.  I spent a lot of my time there doing homework, as the shop I had wanted to look in was closed for a couple of hours once I arrived, and because i had lots of homework to do.

Okay, was noch…

There was a pirate themed party at my building. It was pretty much really boring, the party itself, but still nice to see friends. My friend Nate taught me how to play a bit of Blackbird on a guitar I borrowed from my neighbour and I dressed up as a pirate =) I used my Dirndl top as part of the costume- so versatile! I could be a pirate every Halloween from now on because getting ready is just so easy =) . So that was that.

On the school front, I have been crazy busy. Way too busy, in my opinion. On the … first of December or something like that, I wrote my first real school test in Germany for my Environmental Policies and Green Business in Freiburg class (which went very well),  and had a mündlichen Referat (oral presentation) on Monday with my friend Jenna. We presented on Bio products, but I don’t know how well it went. Mal gucken.  And then yesterday I wrote my Grammatik III test, which I studied so inefficiently for, yet studied lots for. 

I will maybe write about what has happened since last Friday, since that is what I can actually remember. Here goes.

Friday- I worked a lot on my take-home exam for German 310. Ugh, that class is completely ridiculous! Fortunately it was cancelled both times this week, so I got back 3 hours that would have otherwise been very much wasted.  Then, Laura from Canada came to visit that evening! It was so great to see her- she’s just finishing up a portion of a European study program in France and came to visit Germany before heading back to Canada for the Christmas break. She’s already been in Freiburg, but never for the Christmasmarkt, so we checked that out with two of her other friends from Basel. i just looked out the window and noticed that there are quite a few apple trees in people’s backyards that are completely neglected. Nobody picks their apples. Hmmm. Anyway. It was wonderful to see her. She went back to Karlsruhe that evening though, as her Oma lives there. Then, there was another party in my building, a Christmas themed one, so I went home and did some homework before going there. It was fun, way way way better than the pirate party. More people, better music and lots and lots of DANCING!  But, I don’t like it when people  (especially my friends) get so drunk and say inappropriate things or try to do inappropriate things. I like people sober or drunk and just, happy and nice.  But at least I got some (rather sheepish) apologies the next day, hahaha.  Anyway, I got to have a really nice conversation with a new friend, which also made the evening/morning great!

I went the next day to the Stühlingermarkt- it is like the Münster market, just smaller and better, in my opinion.  I found Bioland apples for 1,99 Euro/kilo, and a couple of neat shops in the area, too.  I think I just did homework for the rest of Saturday, or maybe I didn’t and did something else I forgot.

Sunday: Went to mass at the Münster and then came home and Jenna came by to work on our Referat and we watched Home Alone (Kevin allein zu Hause, auf Deutsch) with Alicia and my neighbour. It was so soooooo helpful to watch such a familiar movie in German! I understood everything. And I love that movie. So much.  And I love Advent, so much. And I can’t wait to be back in Canada for a bit for Christmas =) Then another floor mate, who rents out the big bedroom, had us over for tea and cookies to celebrate Second Advent. Really nice.

Monday: Woke up and did NOT have to go to German 310 (WOO HOO!!!!!), worked on my Referat then went to my Green Business class, then gave the actual presentation in my Mündliche class, then went to Capoeira, then got home and read an e-mail from my Global Environmental Governance prof saying we had class from 8 til 12 the next day. Tried to get ready for that little surprise, went to bed. Got up went to this ridiculous class, worked really hard on not falling asleep, ummm… probably went grocery shopping or something after that…. homeworkhomeworkhomework… stuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuudying for Grammatik….

Wednesday: NO GERMAN 310!!!!!  So, no class all day!!!!! I went to the Stühlingermarkt again and bought the most enormous apple I think I have ever seen. It is sitting right by my computer as I type =) Then I went to my Grammatik Prof’s office hours (really helpful!). But something REALLY exciting is… she told me about a farm nearby as well, where rescued animals go. And apparently I can volunteer there. So, I was thinking, since the earliest I’d be able to get out of my rental agreement is March 31^st, I could take an SLI (Sprachlehrinstitut) class, maybe Mandarin, during March, because they have sessions from the 1^st til the 24^th, live in Freiburg and go volunteer with the animals! It’d be great! I still have to check the place out, though.  I told Vlad about it and he said he has been there, but that they have an electric fence at the top of the monkey cage. Hmmm…. ?????

Got home. This boy who lives on my floor who loves me made soup for us for dinner and, exciting news-  I found fresh kale at the Stühlingermarkt, so  I made my amazing Kale and Avocado salad. Such a good salad. Anyway. Then there was Englischtutorat, where me and Alicia speak English with people from our building who want to learn English, and then we went and studied in Vlad’s room until 2  am for Grammatik. It was hilarious! Alicia was starting from the most basic stuff at about 10 at night, things like, “So, what exactly is a definite article? And what are the cases?” She can speak German, but, oh mi gosh, I couldn’t believe she was just starting to study the night before, and stuff that we weren’t even going to be tested on. And we watched a hilarious version of the Safety Dance music video during a break, and then Iscandar visited, because he was going home the next day for Christmas and wanted to say goodbye (maybe just to Vlad, but we were there anyway). Then…. left at about 2…. feeling quite accomplished. I needed a place to study, by the way, because 2 of the lights in my room are not in good form. The one over my desk does not work at all and studying at night was really hurting my eyes. Have to write the Hausmeister about that…

Aaaanyway. Woke up a few hours later and went to write my exam, which I think went okay, then went to class, then came home, baked cookies for Lukas and Jan (Dreena Burton ones, they love them!) went back downtown to meet with my Global Environmental Governance prof. Started taking notes for an extra essay she wants me to do because I don’t know anything about poli sci, typed typed typed, got a few things for this weekend at Alnatura, went to spaghetti place with Janelle, Ashley, Heather, and Alicia. Went home. Packed a bit. Went to the Tanztutorat, where I learned the Cha Cha and how to Waltz, apparently (I didn’t know that’s what it was until Cindy, the one who co-taught the dance class, told me on the bus this morning), then… packed a bit more after saying bye to everyone. And now I am here! And now I am going to do some homework.

Tschüss

<3 gemmer

PS- Almost forgot- One thing that happened is I went on the most uncomfortably cold fieldtrip of my life. IT WAS FREEZING. I seriously thought I was going to have a heart attack. And it started snowing. But I heard a lot about renewable energy in the Regio…. too bad none of it sunk in!

And, very exciting- I now have access to an amazing blender. A friend of mine rents it out for the semester and I have already made a cheesecake mousse, made of millet, cashews, agave, and lemon juice. I just had some. Delicious. So many more possibilities with a blender!

Later…

So, I arrived in Nassau, and was greeted by Tante Edith, Little Carmen, Kyra, and Benji, and was so so so so so so so so so happy to see them. It was amazing. I gave them all really big hugs =) I can’t even believe I am here. It is so strange and wonderful.

Little Carmen, Kyra, Benji and I drove back to Singhofen, and Tante Edith stayed in Nassau to have her hair done. We went to see Tante Christel at the Tank Stelle and I saw Ollie and Jan and the new puppy, Leika.  Little Carmen and Kyra went home and Tante Christel gave me delicious Linsen-Suppe and delicious chocolate pudding and I just couldn’t even believe I was there.  We chatted a bit, and, it seems as though they don’t really know what to do about me, but that’s okay because I love them.  I can understand them better than they think, it seems, and I know they are all really busy, so I feel a bit badly for visiting, but I really wanted to see them and I think they want to see me too.  Anyway. Then Little Carmen and Kyra and I went to Nassau again to pick up Melissa- she is very blond now-  and went back to their house. And I looked in the attic with Kyra and saw where we stayed for so many summers so long ago. And I miss it, I definitely miss it.

We looked at some fotos from Freiburg and all the goings on there with Melissa and Carmen and Kyra and then Kyra made a Facebook account so we could keep better in touch (I should really just go on WerKenntWen more… ooops.) and we had dinner and then, well, they arrived before dinner, then Kyra and I went and talked with two of her friends, or, her semi-boyfriend and his cousin, whom she also kind of likes (yes…) and it was really hard because I almost completely have no voice- I don’t know what happened! This of all weekends!

Then, we went up to Tante Christels and I went and saw my liebe Susi, working so hard as per usual. She is so awesome, i don’t even know how she did it but, she somehow was able to make all of this amazing vegan stuff, like chocolate covered almond mound things and cupcakes and cookies and omigosh! It is all amazing and I feel so ridiculously lucky and spoiled and like I wish I had done way more for them.  We sat and chatted and Mereika and little Mia were there. I havn’t seen Mia since she was a new born and wow, she is so cute! It was wonderful. Just, sitting and chatting (or…. listening to them chat)- couldn’t have asked for better.

When we went outside to go to Holzhausen, it was snowing. I have never, ever seen it snow in Singhofen. Probably because I have only been here in the summer… what a blessing, though- so cool! And then we drove back to Holzhausen and I chatted with Susi and Lukas and drank some tea and ate some delicious Norwegian Christmas cookies Susi baked in all the spare time she has and looked at fotos from their Egypt trip. And now I am about to go to sleep in the room I stayed in last summer. It is so crazy to be back here. I want to visit all the time, but I know we’re all busy. Once I get this semester finished up, I can visit more and for longer. And now I am going to go to sleep in bliss.

Sonntag der 13. Dezember, 2009

Hallo,

So, jetzt sitze ich wieder im Zug, nur diesmal fahre ich Südlich.  I just transferred in Koblenz , and left Nassau at 13:16.

Yesterday was wonderful. I got up pretty early, because I wanted to be able to help Susi a bit with whatever. When I “worked” there last, last summer, I usually only got downstairs a bit before 10 am- yes, a very lazy way to spend a month of summer. sigh. Anyway, got up, had breakfast with the kids once I peeled them away from the xbox or game cube or wii or whatever it was they were playing with, as Susi’d requested, and then we did a bit of homework. I helped them with math and German, and Jan, all of 8 or 9 years old, read through my German, hahah.  Then I went and visited Tante Emma, my Ur-Opa’s cousin, whom I was named after.  It was really nice to see her and chat- I find it so easy to talk with her. Normally, that is. Yesterday I could hardly talk. Meine Stimme war fast weg! Trotzdem, war’s sehr schön. Wie letztes Jahr, im Sommer. Nur Drausen war Schnee, haha.  Then I went back to Susi’s and met the boys- I think I am passing where we were last year on the Rhein, when we went for a hike with Inge and Walter and Susi and them; it was boiling hot, if my memory serves me- and we headed up to the Ranch where Susi was. It was really strange seeing the cherry trees I’d always pick from covered in snow and totally bare. We stayed there for a bit- I swear I recognize this bit of the Rhein really well. Yeup, dieses Stück sagt mir was.- but it was really cold and I was pretty much not able to help with much,- I am passing by castles I recognize. We took a boat years ago out to this building I am looking at. It’s in the middle of the river.-so I went back to the house with the boys and they got ready to go to Nastätten, the same town in which I always went grocery shopping last time. Then Susi came, we went to Nastätten and had delicious Chinese food and some kind of fried fruit for dessert, (which I could definitely had done without…). She, now, it wouldn’t technically have been “forcing” because she did not pry my mouth open and pour the Lychee Schnapps or whatever it was down my throat, but, you know what I mean. So frustrating. So so frustrating. But anyway, it was really nice to sit with them and have Chinese food, in a restaurant, which I don’t think I’ve done since my last night in Vancouver and just to be with them. Then, Lukas needed a new fountain pen and we literally stayed in the stationary store for, what I am sure must’ve been, 45 minutes. Gah, ah well. Then, went to Schlecke- 14.53, I just just just saw a sign on a Vinyard that reads “LEBE VEGAN”. I am stoked, that was amazing!  I think I am going to contact the DB and ask where we would’ve been at 14.53 and then make some new friends here, hahah!- Schlecker and Susi bought shampoo and things and then we went back to Holzhausen and got ready for- Bingen, I was near Bingen when I saw the sign…- the Weihnachtsmarkt in Rüdesheim!!!!! It was so beautiful and wonderful!!! I loved it. We parked in a Lidl parking lot and then walked the rest of the way, but of course had to stop at McDonalds first…. (?????????? Yes.) and then we were there! It is, I think, much nicer than the Freiburg Weihnachtsmarkt, although the one there is nice too. This one was huuuuuuge! So we just walked around and ate and ate and ate and ate and they drank drank drank drank and- ugh, this lady across from me keeps staring at me.- and then my Mother called! From Kanada! It was pretty tricky talking with her, because I couldn’t actually really talk, but good thing there was a quiet leather store I went into so I could hear her, hahah. It’ll be nice to be all together again in the summer, and nice when she comes in February, I think. Then, we went into this special Christmas store, whose name I forget, and then we went to try and find Sabrina, but she’d called Susi 5 times and SMSed a lot, too, but it was too loud to hear to Susi didn’t get the message until it was too late and Sabrina had to leave. So we just missed her! Anyway, then we went to go sit in a restaurant and eat, and on the way I found…. Lebe Gesund! An organic, vegan company that make excellent apple chips (as well as other delicious things), so I was very happy.  Then we went to a sort of Italian German restaurant, I guess, and it was again, nice to sit with such a great number of family members. Who all was there… hummmm….: Michie, Susi, Deensche, Melissa, Kyra, Jochin, Little Carmen, Olie, Mareika, Mia, and the two boys.  Then we drove back to Holzhausen and listed to some pretty interesting Christmas music along the way, but not before stopping by McDonalds on the way back to the car, hahaha. Oh gee….  And then Susi and I looked at old photos until very very late, and there were even a few from us when we visit in the summer, which I found very nice, and drank tea and I ate these amazing Norwegian cookies she made. Will definitely be making them myself.  Then it was time for bed. Then I woke up, had a shower, had breakfast with the fam (fresh squeezed orange juice… yum =) made me very much think of OrganicLives and Gorilla Foods and raw-friendly Vancouver =)  )  then I packed my stuff and Susi sent towels along with me, and bed linen, for which I am unbelievably thankful. Having one rather thread-bare towel is not fun, especially on laundry day, where it sometimes isn’t dry by the time I need it for my shower. Problem no more! Same goes for the bed linen. And, she schenked me some hand towels as well, which used to be my Oma Bertha’s. =) . We went up to the ranch and let the horses and the ponies out in the field to run around in the snow. Animals are so amazing, they just are incredible. OH, speaking of which- when we came back from the ranch yesterday, there was a box sitting in the front hallway. Lukas opened it up and… there was a ver frightened, beautiful rabbit inside. I could’ve cried. The box was way too small for her and who knows how long she’d been in there already. And she was really scared. So I just sat with her, with the box open, until Klaus took her up to the ranch. I named her Inge, like Ingwer, because of her lovely ginger-brown fur.  I don’t know when it will happen to her,  but I think that all of the bunnies get killed. And eaten.

So, Sabirna met us and then it was off to Singhofen where I got to see Kata and Deensche and Tante Edith and Onkel Helmut and then we went to Tante Christel’s- this lady keeps staring; really annoying- and went to the Chinese restaurant of the sister-in- law of the Chinese restaurant people we went to yesterday in Nastätten, just this time in Nassau, with Susi, Sabrina and Tante Christel. Oh, and Tante Christel gave me a card =) I don’t know when I should read it, maybe on the plane…. we will see. See if I can wait til Weihnachten, same with the Geschenk von Deensche. Then we went to the train station and said some goodbyes. But it was not nearly so difficult, because I will be seeing them again in 3 weeks. And then again in February, and then again in May (at the latest…). And I love them.

Just got through Mainz and am on my way to Mannheim.  Then umsteigen, und dann nach Freiburg.

Tschüss,

emma

Verletzt! Und noch was

I can’t really remember where I left off. And I can’t access the internet right now to check my blog because I haven’t got wireless, so, I will try my best. It’s been a little while for sure.

Let’s see now…. Not this past week, but the week before, I started this new class called “Global Environmental Governance”. I know. It sounds so perfect, right? Well, I think it will be very interesting,  but it is a “Hauptseminar” or, from what I can tell, defiantly not an easy elective choice for commerce students like myself! But with a title like that, how could I not participate? So anyway, I went to my first class where everything for the term was outlined, including the requirement of presenting on a topic. I volunteered to go first because: a) I wanted to get it over with. Like ripping off a band-aid. b) Apparently am not that nice to me sometimes. My topic was Principles of Sustainable Development. Some of the readings included the WCED report and the Rio Declaration, and 2 other articles by people I am assuming to be scholars. It was an interesting read, for sure, but I honestly had no clue what I was doing. There was no real outline for the presentation, so I met with my prof on the Friday before the Tuesday I would have to present to talk about it. Really confusing. But I thought I would at least be able to make a decent presentation and incorporate the things she required.  So, according to her recommendations, I went to the library to brush up on my Regime Theory (????), using some of the books she’d suggested.  This was a ridiculous process, I am still kind of baffled. Anyway, I got to the library and, you are not allowed to take your bag or coat in. No. You have to give your student card or some piece of ID to get a key for a locker to put your things in. You may retrieve them when you are finished perusing. But I thought this would be ridiculous, as I intended on just finding the books and checking them out. So, I asked the librarian if I could just leave my things behind the counter. Fine. Then, as I had never used the library system at the Uni Freiburg (…. nor at UBC… actually) I asked the librarian for some help. Okay, I don’t know what the big deal was, but she was seriously the most unhelpful administrative employee ever. Ever. I kept having to go back to her desk to ask her for help and she kept giving me ¼ answers and finally I just got her to show me exactly how to find the books. Which literally took 20 seconds.  I would have neeeeeever found it otherwise. And it wasn’t like it was any unreasonably strenuous activity for her. Just. Ugh, maybe you had to be there? So, I wanted to take out said books but it was only 1 or 2 in the afternoon, so of course I could not. 1 or 2… what does that have to do with anything? A LOT. Because you can only take out books on Fridays after 4pm of course! (??????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!) And they have to be back on Monday at 6 pm. Ridiculous. Sooooooooo I just sat there and went through the books for a bit, got some information I thought would be helpful, and left before 4. I wouldn’t have been able to take out the books anyway, actually, because I hadn’t registered with the Uni library yet anyway. You see, this is not automatically done, as it is at UBC. One has to go to this little building at the end of a parking lot behind the cafeteria on Rempartstrasse to do this. And they require proof that you are, in fact, a student living in Freiburg.  We did this on Wednesday, and it was, as can be expected, a little more challenging than it needed to be, because they wanted to see our passports, which we don’t really carry around on our person. 

Anyway. I got my information and went home to start working on this presentation. And that is what I did that weekend. I worked on my presentation. Friday night, Alicia and I went for a walk to the Seepark, and climbed up the tower that is there. Saturday night, I was skyping with Heather and telling her about how I had no clue what I was actually doing with this project and, bless her, she came by to help me.  So I am going to make cookies for her tomorrow.  I had “finished” my project before midnight and sent it to my prof as we had agreed, so that she might check it over. Then on Sunday, I met Monika to go to the Muenster, which was really nice. And then I went for a little bike ride around a bit of Freiburg and then went back.  And then I saw Alicia and she wanted to make some food so I went with her to her kitchen and Vlad stopped by and we were all just chatting. I thought it would be a neat idea to walk up the side of the cabinet while propping myself up with my arms on the counter. I did that and injured my sternum, I believe. Whatever it is, there was a really loud “crack” kind of where I think my sternum is and some pretty horrible pain. Moving at all was quite difficult.  And it still is very painful.  More on this in the next chapter.

Okay, so, I had sent my prof my presentation on Saturday night, yah? Well, I had really hoped to had gotten it back on Sunday. It wasn’t anything huge, but I got her reply on Monday afternoon,  basically saying that I had to redo…. basically everything. So, grand. I had her recommendations (which were much more… concrete this time around), but they still didn’t make a lot of sense to a business student like myself.  But I tried to figure it out and did the best I could and missed capoeira class (which was probably a good idea anyway, given the sternum).  The next morning, I went to the computer facilities well before class so I could print out my speech and a handout for the students. And to go over my presentation again. I felt pretty organized, sort of. But I actually was not, because my class on Tuesdays starts at 10 am not 11 am, as I had, for some reason or another, conveniently decided. I got a text from Heather at 10:15 asking me if I was going to show up.  Um, yah? Of course. Wait…. AH! Good thing class actually just starts at quarter past, and that the computer centre is so close to where my class is held. Anyway, I still showed up a little late and had to give a presentation on a topic I really didn’t understand for over an hour in front of my class. It was GREAT. And they asked questions- not just the students, but the prof and the assistant. And I answered them, to the best of my non poli-sci ability and stood there, trying to concentrate on what was being discussed, but also thinking about how I would make up for my ECTS credits, should I not be allowed to take this course due to my insufficient abilities. But all bad things must come to an end and this was no exception!  And it sounds as though I passed, which is wonderful.  After class, Heather and I attempted to study for an Environmental Policies and Green Business in Freiburg exam and then met with our friend Muzi and went grocery shopping at Alnatura. Then, I went home to meet Alicia, because she said she would go to the clinic with me to see if I was all in one piece (which it seems I am not, because there’s kind of a bit indent around my sternum where I don’t think there was before. But I can’t be sure, because I’m kind of boney anyway.). But she was sleeping and wanted to continue sleeping, so I just went to the clinic and got sent to a 3 or 4 different departments about 11 different times, because all the admin at each department were convinced I was supposed to be in another ward. Then I got to talk with a really nice secretary and my insurance from UBC worked! It was great! I didn’t have to pay anything up front =) And then the AMS just takes care of it from there, I think. Have to look at that again. Then I met a doctor who seemed pretty unconcerned and told me that I am a young woman and should be fine, but just in case, I should come back if it does not get better.  Then I went home and….. then Wednesday happened….. Oh yah, Wednesday. Okay, well, I was supposed to meet my friend Andie for coffee on Tuesday, but I couldn’t very well do that because I was at the clinic, so we rescheduled for Wednesday.  *exciting news: I booked my train ticket to Singhofen!!!!! I’m going to go visit my family on the 11^th of December =) I can’t wait! I also got a BahnCard 50, which means I will get 50 percent off all train ticket prices in Germany. Yes, it cost a lot, but I went over some banking and I have been living pretty cheaply thus far. Und, es lohnt sich.**** Aaaaaanyway. I met Andie for coffee at 4 ish. We went to this cafe in the Uni and then sat in this auditorium called AudiMax (i think. The students are actually camping out there and protesting against the German university system because they have to pay a whole 500 Euros to study each semester. And some other stuff that’s actually valid.) and chatted. I think it was supposed to be a semi-date, but I think I will pretend it wasn’t because I’m just not interested. (Sorry for crushing your dreams, Mum.  Your daughter is not interested in a nice German boy she met at a Christian youth group. (Seriously, that’s how I know him!) Um, plenty of fish, right? Riiiiiiight.)    And then when we were leaving, we met some of my Canadian friends by chance, which was really hilarious because…. Eszter was there and she is just so funny. And also because… hmmmm… how to explain this…. well, okay, another girl who was there, who this other guy who likes me very much, went out with because they met when they were a little bit drunk and drunk people just do dumb things, and I guess he thought it proper to ask her out once sober, but I am pretty sure they are done (according to him) and…. can you see what I mean by it being odd? The whole situation? Yes? No? Maybe? Egal.  Then I went home and can’t remember exactly what I did, but it probably included wasting time on the internet and doing homework.

Thursday….. hmmmmmm…. oh yes. Well, I can’t remember much of what I did at all on Thursday, but I do remember I went for a walk around the Seepark with some other people in my Stockwerk (part of the building) and felt very proud of myself for associating with the Germans.  Then I hung out with Alicia and Vlad and we did homework (well, Vlad and I did. Alicia drew Vlad doing homework). 

Friday: My Vauban day. There is a “super eco-friendly” part of the city called Vauban and I had always wanted to bike there and check it out, see what kind of neat shops and things were there. So I did that and the shop selection was quite disappointing but no matter. I probably just missed a whole bunch of them. It was such a beautiful day though! It was really sunny and so so so so warm! I didn’t even have to wear a jacket or mittens or toque or scarf while biking. It was like June in Vancouver, just amazing. I also stumbled upon this student hippie commune along my travels. I am very happy to not be so interested in that all anymore. Well, not interested, but, part of it. It’s just so…. I don’t know. Ineffective? I think being able to hold one’s values and integrate into society regardless is very important. And, others should be able to take you seriously, too, which I think is difficult sometimes, when people are so alternative and extreme. Anyway. Good on them in any case.  Then I biked back to the Innenstadt and went grocery shopping and to the Weltladen, a fair-trade store I buy very expensive (but ethical!) bananas at. And then went home, and met a friend from my Stockwerk along the way, and I went with him to Lidl to get dish soap and then went home and intended to study, and Alicia came by and asked if i wanted to go with her to Lidl to get food, so I went with her and saw Vlad along the way. And we stood in line at Lidl forever…. and then…. I went home and attempted to learn but didn’t for a good while. And then I did. And I think this post is getting a tad long, so, I will be signing off soon.

Today (tentatively planned):  Avoid doing laundry until tomorrow. I think this is actually practical, because there is a big party on our Stockwerk this evening and if people are smoking, I don’t want their disgusting smoke fumes to get in my clean laundry. So there. I am also definitely going to get out of bed at some point and go back to the clinic, because I am in lots of pain.  And I am also going to study more and take some more notes for my essays, which I would love so much to be finished before I go back home for Christmas.  Thennn….. is the Stockwerksparty. I have to “man the bar” from 1 til 2 in the morning. So maybe I’ll have a nap today as well.

 

But I will definitely stop writing this entry now. Chau!

 

<3 gemmer

Long time no post… oder?

Hi,

Lesseeee… where was I?

Maybe the last thing that happened was Halloween. The last “major” event, I mean. Well, I didn’t realize it was Halloween until about 4 pm when I was grocery shopping, which makes me kind of sad. I did not carve a pumpkin. But, I did buy a pumpkin and will cut it up and eat it.  Then I did homework, went over to Adrienne’s house to meet up with the others who were getting ready there and we went to Chris’s because he was having a party there. Stood around. Etc. Went to Stusie bar and danced a bit, but the music was not so good.  Hmmmm… there was a super duper creeper there. This guy was just… wow. Unbelievable. But he did not bother me because a) I was not one of the slutty “police” officers b) I did not give him any chance and c)  I gave him very mean looks.   Then lots of people left to go to the Jazz house, but some of us did not. I didn’t want to pay the cover, anyway.  Then…. we went home kinda early, maybe 2ish? Not sure. That was Hallowee- a very different sort of Halloween than the kind that I am used to.

Oh yah, I dressed up as a Lumber “Jill”.

Last week I went to go talk with my Culture and Politics course professor about my research paper. I just wanted to make sure I understood what I was supposed to be writing about. Anyway, I am writing about the “culture” of veganism, the value systems that veganism employs. I’m so excited to write this paper!  I started a bit last night, with getting a few notes from Livestock’s long shadow and… wow, it is so in depth.  I could get all 20 pages from that alone. But I won’t, because I want to talk about the other reasons for veganism, most importantly, ethics. Anyway, my prof is this really nice old man from I don’t know where, and he’s concerned about endangered tigers, and I told him veganism can help with that and he’s “Very much looking forward to reading your paper”. Yay! A convert? Hahaha

I remember what else happened the week before Halloween. Mum went off to Whistler with Doug and I didn’t know and I was freaking out because I hadn’t heard from anybody in a while and I thought something went really really wrong and nobody was telling me. F-r-e-a-k-i-n-g out.  Because I had e-mailed my mum, left a telephone message and still heard nothing. So, I e-mailed the work account and my auntie kindly told me what was up!

What else have I been doing…. hmmmm…. I watched “Nightmare Before Christmas” with Janelle and Ashley. That takes me back.  I also got more minutes put on my phone. It is called “Gut haben” = “to have good”. Hahaha!

Aaaaaaaannnnddddd…. I’ve been hanging out lots with Alicia and Mr. Vovchka.  We play “Durak” (maybe that’s how you spell it)- a Russian card game. I keep forgetting how to play it, though. Ah well.

Oh, and on Thursday night I went to the Christian group and we sang songs and listened to a presentation which I think was called “Wer sucht wen?” or something like that. Really nice. Those people are nice; much finer folk than I.  Anyway, I think I will go again next week.

On…. Saturday it was my friend Monika’s birthday! It was very fun. It was very… interesting. We got there at about 10 and I hung out with Vlad and his friend and introduced people to other people and then played pool for a little bit and then went dancing and I learned this rrrrreeeeeeeeeally really cool dance from my new friend, Muzi (i think is his name, hahah!) and we were all learning it in a line and … i’m actually not that bad at it. *gasp!* I know. I am going to keep practicing.  Annnnnd… we left at around 3:30 to go home, but Vlad stayed there with this girl named Grizellda (???? sp ???) so me, Alicia, and our new friend, Lucho, walked back to the ESW and they were both pretty hammered, so I was truly the “DW”- Designated Walker. We all had a good chat. Lucho insisted on giving me his jacket. I wasn’t even cold, just a little confused after that. Insisted. I have never seen anything like that in my life ever.  So then we were walking and Lucho stopped to talk with some random guy he apparently knew from before and he was telling me in drunk Spanish and German what that was all about (actually…. the whole conversation we had on the walk was in Spanish and German. and English, a bit). Then we met two of the guys who live in my part of the building on the way back and walked with them. Then I peeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeealed all the lovely make-up off my face that Alicia had so kindly applied. And I went to sleep.

<3 gemmer

Und so weiter….

Hi,

So, the rest of what I did on Saturday went kind of like this: I was supposed to go salsa dancing, but it doesn’t start until late and i reeeeeally wanted to have a shower before they turned off the hot water and i was up until 5 am that morning anyway and i didn’t want to sleep through church again, so I did not go salsa dancing. But I will next time. Promise. To clarify- a group of the Canadians go salsa dancing every so often and this is my second time declining. Woops.

Sunday: Woke up. Read Bible. Did something productive, I bet, but I can’t recall what. Went to church at the Muenster. Came home. Was supposed to go help cook at Adrienne’s at 2 for dinner at 7, but that seemed a little ridiculous to me, plus I would be brining Alicia along later anyway, so, extra hands would make up for lost time yah? Anyway. We got there at 4ish after I was chatting with people and Alicia was done practicing tuba and then we made empanadas and Sancoche (verrrrrrrrrrrry yummy Columbian soup. mmmm mmmm!!!!) and everybody came over and ate it. Delish.

Monday: Woke up thinking about many things, including the pointless class I would have to attend in a few hours. Mondays are always so busy. I’ve got 3 classes plus capoeira. Anyway, after German class, I went to go print out some things from this place at the Uni that lets you print things out, including my course transfer sheet. Then I went home. Made lunch. Went to class. Went to other class. Tried to find capoeira class. Did not. At all. I think i found something better. I was biking back into town, feeling somewhat defeated, but also okay, because it was a really pretty bikeride anyway, and i saw this sign that said “Jesus Freaks” and I wondered- does Jesus Freaks here mean the same thing as it does in Canada? And…. yes it does! I found all this contact info for a Christian young-people group in Freiburg. They have church on Thursday nights. which is perrrrrfect, as I havn’t school on Fridays! God has good ideas for me.
Then I biked back into town and met Alicia at a tram stop and we chatted and went for Ashley’s birthday dinner where conversation led me to realize that I havn’t really got any talents (please don’t say something like, but you’re really nice and love animals- thank you for the compliment and kindness, but neither of those are talents!) so I was biking home and thinking about it and decided I should try to change that. I will try. I am practicing more capoeira now and Spanish and German. I’ll be a multi-lingual capoeira-chopping master. =) I wish I had my guitar here.

<3 gemmer

Back to school, back to school…

Monday, the 19^th of October, was the official day for school to start around here. At least for the Uni Freiburg.  My first class was just German 310, offered by UBC  and taught by our resident director. I’m quite thankful that he thought I didn’t understand anything in German 300, because I otherwise would not have been allowed to take this course and therefore would not have been able to have gotten the credits for 300 and 310. Just for the record…. it wasn’t that I didn’t understand the concepts, in fact, I’d learned them before. It was mostly that he makes no sense when he explains stuff and Heather and I were the only people who didn’t pretend to understand what he was saying.  So we get to take 310 too, a relatively easy course, and get credits.

My next class was… Environmental Policies and Green Business in Freiburg. I knew I wanted to take this course for a very long time. In fact, it was the only course I knew I could take, for a very long time. And it is great. We built things out of aluminum foil, like solar panel models and bicycles to represent all of the “green” things Freiburg does. Yah… 6 ECTS credits. And we get to go on lots of fieldtrips to local green businesses and apparently, I’m guessing for later classes this will become applicable, some background in economics is a good idea. And I’ve got that.

Then…. I had a Mündliche Übung course at the Sprachlehrinstitut (SLI), but we just wrote a really quick placement quiz. Then I was done and went home and then I went to go check out this other class (I can’t even remember what it’s called now…) with Heather. It started at 8 pm and was supposed to be in English but it definitely was not. So we sat there being polite for an hour and a half, waiting for it to end.

Tuesday:  I went to my Informatik I class. Yikes. It was all in German and…. ugh. It would have been very time consuming had I decided to stick with it. And only 8 ECTS credits for a lot of work. And a final exam at the beginning of March, which does not work for me.  But I really wanted to take it because I want to learn about computers and technology and things. Then. Then I went to the Geo building because there is some course offered pertaining to geothermal energy and I thought that sounded interesting. And it is in English.  So I rode there with Peggy Su and got to the room and waited around. And waited and waited. And nobody showed up. Some students came at about quarter past the hour, which is when the class actually would have started. They found a print out on the other side of the hall stating, in German, that the class would start next week.  Unimpressive. Very much so. So then I went home and then went to what was to be my next “tech-y” class, Search Engines.  And I got there, and waited around. And waited. And waited. And no prof showed up. But there were other confused students there. So I e-mailed the prof later and asked her about it. The class started on Thursday, of course.  (?????????)

Wednesday : German 310 was my first class. I was late because I was signing up for an Informatik I Übung, since I had still planned on taking the course at the time. But one of my housemates said he would sign me up, since I thought my class started at 9.00 and not 9.30, as 9.00 was the official time to sign up. But I just did it myself and then went off to be late to German class.  And then I don’t think I had any more classes that day…. so what’d I do?  I spent a lot of time on the ol’ computer, that’s what. Trying to be productive. Partially succeeding.  And then…. later that night I went to go give Alicia some papers she’d left in my room and to ask about the Grammatik class we were starting the next morning, but we ended up chatting with Vlad for a couple of hours, which was very very interesting.  Just the differences in perception of culture and roles and things, like, what the role of women is in the household. Apparently, it is to stay home and cook and raise the kids and look pretty. Hahahahaha. Ha. Haha. Good fun all the same, but by the time they were getting tired, it was about 1 am and the hot water was turned off and I was a little unhappy about that, because I really wanted a shower. I’ve taken showers here at 4 am, and it is so unpleasant.  It is COLD. But the worst was when I took a shower at 4 am and didn’t have a towel because my laundry was hanging in the basement, damp, and I had washed my bed linen, so I had no bed linen. I should have just not gone to sleep at all. But I definitely know I am brining towels and bed linen from Vancouver at Christmas!

Thursday: Got up early to go to this Grammatik class. Wrote a very short placement test, went to my next class- Culture and Politics. It is the first poli-sci class I’ve ever taken and I am looking forward to it.  The prof is really interesting and funny and speaks English.  And all I have to do for it is to write a 25 page essay by the end of the term and show up for classes. 10 ECTS credits.  And I’ll learn new things. =)

At 4pm, I had an actual Search Engines class. I don’t know why she hadn’t told me that I’d need some level of computer competence, but she didn’t and I was pretty confused for about an hour and a half. The thing is, though, I really want to take some sort of tech class! I know NOTHING about computers or technology or anything, but I think it’s really important. So maybe I can audit a course or something. I don’t know.  But I really shouldn’t keep living in such ignorance when the topic is so applicable for my future.  Will definitely take a night-course or something. Or ask people to teach me. Or just learn what C++ Java is with the help of the internet (which I know how to use! Basically….!)

Friday:  NO SCHOOL!!!!!!!!!! Isn’t that smart planning? A long weekend every weekend! I did my laundry (which was basically dry by 5 this morning- convenient) and cleaned my room. I also bailed on this guy I was supposed to meet for a “tandem” lesson. That’s when he learns English and I learn German. But it was raining lots and I really didn’t want to meet him in the first place- he’s so hyper and I don’t even know him. He just randomly showed up on my Stockwerk one day (alright, I think he used to live here, egal!) and apparently we’d already met a few days before and he wanted to exchange numbers so we could do this “tandem” lesson. So, unable to say no, I said “ Ja, dass wäre sehr gut!” (“Yeah, that’d be really good!”)  and then he just started texting me and calling me to set something up. But I don’t want to! I’m BUSY and NOT INTERESTED.  There are many other people he could have arranged this with. I know that. I am not interested.  So I’ll ask my friend if she wants to take my place for that instead.  Only problem is, I think he may be in my Culture and Politics class. Woops. I write, “may” because I couldn’t really remember what he looked like.  Aaaaanyway, so I texted him and told him I had a cold (which is true) and that I didn’t think I should go out that day (which was also true), but then I was Skyping with Heather and she was going to go to Ikea, and I had this clothes-drying rack I had to return from there anyway, and I’ve been putting it off, so I said I would meet her there. I’m a bad person. And God sort of got me back for it. Because, it took me a good 2 hours to get there, in the rain, because of weird bus schedules.  But at least I returned it! And got 10 Euro back.  And walked home, which was much much faster than busing. Waaaaaaz faster.

Then….. I…. worked on some homework, which was no easy task, because people kept messaging me and trying to arrange things, which is all well and good, but, kahmahn.  So I did that and then Alicia told me to check my Facebook, so of course I did, and Vlad had invited us for martinis that night. So then we did that at about 10ish, except I don’t drink, remember????? And they both knew that, but people just don’t comprehend this concept. I don’t know, I don’t know why people try to peer pressure me into it. The more they do, the more I don’t.  Maybe I am stubborn (… I am. I just am.), but it isn’t like I try to pressure people into doing all the wonderful things I do. I don’t outright tell them that they should be vegan for ridiculous reasons, like, it’s fun and , it tastes good and don’t you like feeling buzzed? Basically, I say why it is good, I don’t ask them why they aren’t.  I hope.  Maybe it is difficult to explain, but, I accept that some people are just the way they are, and sometimes they change. But only if they want to. If people don’t want to do something, they won’t do it. If they feel that living without cheese would be such a travesty, they will continue to eat it, regardless of whether or not they are hurting somebody in the process.  Same goes for other things from or of animals. And other things. If people can do what they want, they will do what they want (or at least what they think they want, or what is socially acceptable, regardless of other factors). I don’t think I’m articulating this point very well.   Anyway, it was fine last night.  There wasn’t much peer pressuring and I didn’t drink any martinis. It was really nice- we learned a Russian card game- which I forgot how to play halfway through, some of the Russian language , and talked and watched funny things on Youtube and listened to music and showed each other pictures of our friends. And, Vlad made martinis and Alicia and he drank the martinis, which got to be less and less juice stuff and more and more martini stuff as time went by.  And Alicia made popcorn in a POT! Isn’t that amazing? I think so. Had I known how to do this, I wouldn’t have felt so defeated about both of our popcorn makers being broken, and would have used a pot back home in Canada.  So we did that all til 4 this morning and then they were getting tired so we cleaned up and Vlad gave us chocolates,  hurrah! And then I went to my side of the building and put my basically dry bed linen back on my bed and didn’t even attempt a shower.

And then I woke up and intended on going to the Flea Market but Adrienne hasn’t called me, so I sat here and typed this instead. And then I will be meeting Heather at the market downtown and I would like to take Peggy Su to the bike doctor, because her gears sound odd. And I was supposed to go salsa dancing tonight, but I pretty much don’t want to, as I’d rather sleep and wake up at a decent time tomorrow.  

My goodness I can ramble.

 

<3 gemmer

London and back!

Hi,

This past week was great- my friend Heather and I went to London! I havn’t been there for about a decade, but I remembered it still and I’ve always wanted to go back.

Last Monday afternoon, we took the train to Basel with Ashley (who was going to Turkey). We caught our flight and got to Gatwick…. at about 10 or something in the evening. Maybe later. Then we took the train to Victoria Station in London and Heather’s friend met us and showed us where we would be staying. His co-worker wasn’t in London that week, so we got to use her flat, which was pretty great!

The next day we explored the city and wanted to go on this walking tour, but we just walked everywhere ourselves. I can’t really remember what happened every day, but it was very nice. It was weird to see all the places I’d seen 10 years ago with my family and to be there again, seeing the same things, at a very different stage of life. Particularly Trafalgar Square and the Crown Jewels (which were AMAZING and as sparkly as ever) and Buckingham Palace. So, yeup, we just wandered around the city and got very good at using the Tube transport system, so we could easily go back and know what we were doing.

Really unfortunately, I didn’t get to see Sarah, Kiara, or Karyn, which was a big reason for going to London. They live quite a ways outside, and I thought we were going to meet in London, not me go all the way out there, even though I would have. Time was just a little limited. Also unfortunate was the London Eye! Yes, it was nice to see the whole city from way up high, but for almost $30…. no thanks. Well, I just won’t ever do that again. Just not worth it. But we went to the Tower of London afterwards and it was so amazing!!!! It was like its own little village, back in the day. A lot of historical artifacts and interesting things to read and the jewels, of course, and an exhibition on King Henry VIII. Very educational and interesting, perfect for my nerdy side (a very big side).

Something funny happened in London. Sort of. Okay, it was our last night there, and the night before, an unexpected guest showed up at the flat we were staying in. She was really nice and had a key and knew the flat owner,  and she needed to stay there that night. So we all went out for an amazing vegan dinner (I miss vegan restaurants so much…) and got back and went to sleep. The next day (our last day) Heather called her friend and apparently, the woman who stayed with us the night before was NOT supposed to have stayed there, and the flat owner was freaking out and really mad and apparently chucked out all our stuff and it was in storage. We found out about this at about 7:30 that night, so we went all the way from Soho back to the flat to try and sort things out (or at least get our stuff). Fortunately, she had not put everything in storage (which would have been locked by that time) and we just went and got our things from her place and left. Now, our flight left at 8 the next morning, so we spent the night in the Gatwick  airport.  But before that we went for dinner at Saf again (I absoloutely love that place, it is like Radha, just a bit more upscale. Yeah… I spent all my money in London on vegan food and fair trade socks. Actually. Oh well.) and took the train out to Gatwick. And then a bus to the airport. And then slept in the airport before check-in. It was freezing. Completely freezing cold! But we managed to get a few hours of sleep in anyway and then were off back to Basel, and then to Freiburg.

Final thought on London: I like that city, very very much, but I don’t think I will be making any sort of effort to go back this year. I will, however, be travelling through the English countryside and also visiting Ireland and Scotland, if all goes according to plan. It’d be awesome to work on an organic farm during my travels there (there’s an organization that does that. It’s great!). I really want to go outside of London and visit my friends (I think I’m actually in shock that I didn’t see them. Big frowny face.) and look at some smaller towns, but especially so in Ireland. We’ll see….

So, on Friday after we got back, I don’t really remember what I did. I was supposed to go out for my friends birthday party (first of two) but was so dead tired that I did not. Instead, I rested up for…

 

SATURDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yes, yesterday was a really exciting day! It was GREAT! You know why??? Many reasons, but especially this one: I got a bike. Finally. I finally got a bike. I went to the Flohmarkt in the morning, about a 20 minute walk in very very cold rain…., and found this beautiful bike there for 45 Euros! (50 with the basket.) Her name is Peggy Su and she is pink and a “pegasus” (?) model (old school) and has a Donald Duck bell. The basket on the back is oval and pink, too, but a lighter pink than Peggy Su herself. I love her so much and she is beeeeeauuuuutiful! I just need to get some sort of contraption for powering the light at the front. So, I’m happy. I also found a really useful purple purse at the Flohmarkt, nearly new black boots for 6 Euro and some hair clips for 0,50 Euro. I think I did pretty well.

Theennnn… I got home, finished up a bit of laundry, and went grocery shopping with Alicia, which was really nice but really cold. It was exciting, though, because I found fresh kale for the first time being here. I just had a kale and avocado salad. That is exciting. Then, while I was about to pay at Lidl, I could not find my wallet. That’s because I left it on the bus. So, I kept busy trying not to freak out and I power walked back to our Wohnheim to try to get in touch with lots of important people who would help me cancel credit cards and the likes, when I saw a bus (same number we were on, opposite direction) and went to go ask the driver who I should call from the bus company for help. He asked me what my name was, which I found strange at the moment, and I told him. He had my wallet!!! YAY!!!!!!! Many thanks to God for that one. That would’ve been scary. And quite the pain.

 

Then we made food and watched Charlie Brown- the Great Pumpkin. I baked cookies for my friend who helped me fix my computer, but the oven on our floor does not work, so I went a floor above, but I don’t really know how to use the ovens here, and the girl who showed me how clearly didn’t either, so it was all un-preheated and well, they took a while but apparently they were edible, which is great. Oh, and I didn’t have baking soda. But I used a Dreena Burton recipe, which seem to be fool-proof (even this fool proof). And now I know to preheat the oven!

Later that night, we went to our friend Lois’ and got ready to go out, because I thought this was going to be the 2nd birthday thing for my friend Ashley (ohne Dreads). We went to the Mensa (one of the many student/uni cafeterias in the city) which had been converted into this giant club. So so so so so many people were there! It was really fun, because I like dancing and dance I did. It was excellent, because people were not allowed to smoke inside (a few did, but very very few. and one time it was weed, so that just smells like skunk and not cigarettes, which oddly enough I prefer). I didn’t want to stay that long, but I think we ended up leaving at about 3:30 am. I brought Peggy Su with me (not in the club…) and was going to ride back home, but Alicia does not have a bike, but she did have sore feet, so she rode Peggy back, and I walked beside. It was really really nice! Then I slept until 12:21 pm today, when I got a text from Janelle about going to pasta tonight. I missed church, which I’m not so happy about, but it was AMAZING to get to sleep and not use an alarm clock and actually just sleep and not wake up because of being stressed and not being able to sleep. Wonderful wonderful.

Then I read my Bible a bit and organized my room a bit and have been trying to answer an e-mail from Susi, but my internet is still not really working that well.And I tried to make up a schedule with Alicia for our courses, but that didn’t go so great so she made one for me. School school starts tomorrow. I can’t believe it. I was getting quite used to hanging around doing not much. Sort of. Well, for me it felt like not much. But school will be good! Hopefully not too much work, though…. mal gucken.

<3 emma