It's been way too long...

... since the last time i wrote here.

The current situation leaves me no motivation to write here. I am quite edgy and really feel how this unemployment is getting to me. I am sending applications, but the companies take their time and I can't do anything but wait.

After applying to many jobs in January now in February and March not much is happening. There are few applicable job ads and an immense number of internship offers. However right now I would like to get a real job first; internships are at the moment no option for me.

Anyways, since my last post quite a lot happened, although it didn't feel like much to me. It has been over a month already and during that time A. & I walked on the frozen Außenalster, I met up with my study friend F., who was in Hamburg, my grandmother died, I turned 25, we buried my grandma, A. & I went to Berlin and we had some great evenings with S. & R. here in Hamburg.

Overall it was a quite nice time and this weekend A & I are going to Aachen. My dad has his birthday on Saturday and we wanted to take part in the celebration.

Now I have to start packing and still send some applications. I have one interview next week, so I keep my fingers crossed.

~M~

Home-home!

Right now I am at my parent's place. It's the last weekend before Christmas, which A. and I will spend in Finland. Therefore I wanted to see my parents and my family still before the holidays and to bring them their present.

Yesterday I did not write, since I was most of the day in the car on the highway to Aachen. Today we had a pre-Christmas Christmas lunch and it was awesome. My mum made duck with a Calvados-apple-sauce and as side dish dumplings. Awesome!

My brother also came to eat with us and after lunch we had a nice dessert and coffee. We were still sitting long together and were talking a lot about everything and anything. It was really nice and actually somehow like Christmas already.

 

 Now my brother left and everybody is doing his thing. I am quite tired and dont really know what to do. The weather is not so nice and I dont have popper clothes here to go out anyways. Mah!

~M~

Keeping Busy!

Today I kept myself busy. I started directly in the morning: While A. was fixing herself for work I took the covers off our new sofa and put them into the washing machine. Somehow it is nicer to sit on a fresh sofa, you never know what the previous owners did with it.

Washing the first load got me into a washing-spree. I anyways had to wash two loads with all the covers of the sofa and pillows and so on. Since I was on it I washed a third load with some things that I had wanted to wash for a long time but always left out as the machine was full every time and the things were not so important to be washed.

While the machine was washing I was folding clothes and was cleaning up a bit. I let fresh air into the flat and was doing the dishes. I had lunch and went to get some cash for the rides on the weekend.

This weekend I am going home a last time before Christmas. Since trains are so bloody expensive in Germany I always going with a Mitfahrgelegenheit. There's a website, where people offer seats in their car when driving e.g. from Hamburg to Aachen and everybody who is interested can call and go with them - and that a lot cheaper than by train.

Anyways, I feel that my writing style s*cks today and that it is quite hard right now to find the words. So I will stop now and have something to eat. A. is still not home, she is in the Finnish consulate for a Christmas party, how nice!

~M~

Christmas Time!

Today we received an envelope with a beautiful Christmas card from Finland. A's friend K. thought of us and wished us Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2012, how nice! Furthermore our landlord knocked on our door and brought us a bottle of wine. And another neighbor, who locked herself out and whom we then lent the phone and some winter boots (so she could go over to a friend), left something at our door as a thank-you!

Anyways, before A. and I went to the other side of the city to look at a sofa and we decided to take it; that's our Christmas present to ourselves Now the problem is to get it to our place. We don't have a car nor one available for things like that. We are at the moment checking different offers to rent a car or transport services. We'll see how we will solve that, I will keep you posted!

One more thing I forgot to mention: Yesterday I signed up for a Swedish course, which will start in January. A. and I are nearly three years together and I still do not speak Swedish, which is - for me personally - quite disrespectful. Every time I am with her family everybody has to speak English just for me and I think it would be better if just one person - me - has to adapt, not twenty people. 

So that's it for now. Today was really a nice and eventful day. I am happy and hope this will keep for some time. On the weekend I want to go home to Aachen, but I didn't get any Mitfahrgelegenheit, yet. Will figure that out as well tomorrow!

~M~

Done!

I am done with everything basically. On Wednesday I had my thesis presentation and passed it with a good grade. This means that I am now not a student anymore and really have to look for work. I am unemployed now and that's something I dont want to be!

Anyways, now is weekend first. (Started this post on Friday last week!). I am back in Hamburg and am trying to fix A's bike, which is more difficult than expected. It's really getting christmassy here and we have more and more candles and lights everywhere. Also my mum gave us already an early Christmas present by making us a very nice Christmas calender.

In the time I again did not write - I wanted to but didn't find the time when I had the motivation and vice versa - we went to a concert of the Cat Empire here in Hamburg, which was nice.

 

Directly the next morning we took the plane to Cologne, where we were picked up by my brother. Together we went for the funeral of my grandma. She died in the age of 96, while I was on the Camino.

After that we went to Aachen. We were visiting my parents, the Christmas market and did already some Christmas shopping.

The next week was pretty eventless, but then on the weekend we had a full program. On Friday J. A's friend from Finland came to stay with us for the weekend. We did some tourist program with him and were walking around the city on Saturday. 

The funny thing was that also A's cousin T. from Canada was in Europe; he had some kind of conference in Amsterdam and had some days before and after to travel around Europe. As it goes they quickly changed their plans and instead of staying in Amsterdam the whole time they came to Hamburg to meet up with us.

J., A., and I wearing funny hats!

Even better, G. a girl from Canada I had met on the Camino, who was also traveling around Europe happened to be in Hamburg that exact same weekend as well. So we invited her over to our place for the evening. After some wine and beer we all went out together and had a good night-out in Hamburg.

After that weekend I went back to Aachen. I still had my mum's car and had to bring it back. Also I finally had gotten an appointment for my colloquium for that Wednesday that I didn't wanted to miss. I stayed in Aachen from Tuesday until Thursday and then came back to Hamburg.

The weekend was relaxed again. A. signed up for the Hamburg Marathon in April and on Sunday we went to L&A's place to have some Glühwein and play some board games. I really enjoyed that afternoon and it for sure would have been a long evening if A. would not have gotten sick exactly that day.

Now she is in bed already for four days, had a fever still yesterday and I am trying not to catch the cold. It sounds so bad, but at the moment I am sleeping on the couch, the bedroom is a quarantine zone and I am staying as far as possible from A. However at least Saint Nicholas came to her and brought her flowers instead of twig (here in Germany Santa's helper, Knecht Ruprecht, brings a twig to children who misbehaved during the year); I reckon that's how he treats sick people.

 

Anyways, I eventually fixed A's bike, made some really nice goulash and yesterday I used the time to bake an apple pie and make some roasted almonds. I will never get bored in the time before Christmas!

~M~

Wrap up!

For a long long time I did not post here. In the last five weeks this was mostly due to the fact that I was walking the Camino de Santiago, the Way of St. James, in northern Spain. Before that there were some few things that I would like to wrap up in this post. About the experiences of and on the Camino I will write in a separate post later on.

Now to start with: I handed in my thesis one day before deadline and during my walk I received the message that my thesis was accepted and that I am invited to do my colloquium. This basically means that I am graduated if no tremendous discrepancies between my thesis and my knowledge become apparent during my oral exam. Furthermore the Finnish University has prepared my maturity test, which means, they also accepted my thesis. (Short note for better understanding: I was doing a double-degree program, my thesis is accepted as Diploma thesis in Germany and Bachelor thesis in Finland. With this I am going to receive - yes, I am pretty sure, that I will pass the last two tests - a German Diploma and a Finnish Bachelor).

Anyways, in the time before the Camino my parents visited A. and me here in Hamburg. My dad had also some work related meeting here in the city and so they extended their stay over the weekend and we were spending time together, which was very nice.

Then later also my brother came to visit. We were doing some tourist stuff, were going around the city by tour-bus and were also visiting the Miniature Wonderland, the world's biggest model railway system. It was quite impressive and also funny to see what ideas the makers had and how many details the put in. In between we were sitting by the Alster enjoying our beer and the last days of summer in the city.

Soon after that A. had her birthday and we were celebrating it here at home. A. had taken the day off and so we were enjoying the day. In the evening we had some people over and later headed out to the city.

Shortly before leaving to southern France, my starting point of the Camino, our "pet" Garfield, a cat that is living here in the neighborhood paid a visit and for the first time since we are living here came into our flat to explore it. Now it already is a habit and he regularly checks out the whole apartment.

 

For now this is all that happened before my walk. I then went to Aachen to buy the rest of the gear needed and eventually left Germany by train via Paris to the South of France to a small village called Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port. From there I started my walk to Santiago de Compostella. About the walk I will post later on, maybe today, maybe tomorrow or later this week, depending on how I feel!

~M~

Last Month

I haven't been writing for over a month. The problem is, that I am not really in the mood to do so and I am also not really in the mood to take pictures. This all is because my life is kinda dull a.t.m., due to my thesis. Anyways, here some pix with few annotations!

Having a picnic at the Alster

 Sitting in the park of Hamburg's University Campus during the Campus Open Air Festival

 

 Having some people over at our place before going for a night-out

Sitting by the water after the night-out on Reeperbahn, or how you call it in Hamburg: Kiez

 Having a cocktail at home after A. left to Finland

 My mum leaving, as chef for a youth-group of 50 people, for a two week trip to Denmark

Chilling on a pier at Mühlenkamp in the sun after A. returned from Finland

 Sitting in front of Balzac Coffee on Mühlenkamp talking about my thesis with A.

 

Getting some more furniture for our flat - little by little we are changing the flat to a home

 Putting something green into our flat... sorry, home

 A nice mansion spotted during a hike through the Alstertal

 Opening a cask of beer

That's it, folks! I hope to find more motivation in the next month to write and to take pictures. However, there is not so much to take pictures off, since the weather is pretty bad and not summery at all. Also I am writing my thesis still and come now into the last month, so I really have to get crackin'... I will make it though!

Anyways, I will see how I feel in the next weeks and if I find the time and energy to write here!

~M~