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~

Busy, Busy!

I know I haven't been writing for two weeks again. But today is the first day of July and I felt I could start the new month with a post so that you get to know what changes the last month brought! Right now I am still in Aachen at my parent's house, but will leave in something like 2 hours. Before going back to Hamburg I am going to visit my grandma in the retirement home.

As I said, the last weeks have been busy and have brought some changes. Shortly after my last post I packed most of my stuff in Bad Honnef. I just left some few clothes and other things I don't need on a daily basis. The same day I left Bad Honnef I signed up for my thesis. Now I have three months to finish it and by now already two weeks of this time have passed.

With all my stuff I went to Aachen. A. was on her way from Hamburg to come and visit my parents again as well and so we met up that evening in my home town. We spend the weekend packing some of my stuff into boxes and into the car. We also went to my grandparents' flat to get some of their stuff. Since my grandpa died seven weeks ago and my grandma is living in the retirement home for over two years already we were free to take whatever we wanted to have. So we took some few furniture and also other things like vases and china for our new home in Hamburg. We packed it all into my mum's car, which she had lent me for the whole week.

My mum wrapping glasses!

We went back to Hamburg on Sunday and took two more passengers with us. When we arrived it was already late and so we had dinner at Subway before we unloaded all the things. We were too tired to unpack everything, though, and so we put everything just into the flat.

The next week we were unpacking my things and went to get more things. We bought a big closet, a bigger fridge and some other decorative things, like pillows and candles and stuff; you can tell: I'm now living with a girl! And, what's most important: I bought a used bike! This is really essential in Hamburg.

The week went by way too fast and was quite stressful. Besides getting new furniture A. & I also went to some kind of circus performance, for which she had gotten tickets over her company. Later that week we also went to a Midsommar party of Scandic Hotels directly at the Alster.

Not the circus tickets! Just other tickets I bought!

On Sunday I went back to Aachen and took some people with me. We had many traffic jams on the way and so the drive to Aachen took extremely long. We were even going off the motorway and took country roads for some time to avoid the traffic jams.

Anyways, the last week I have been here in Aachen. I went to the university library each day and was reading for and working on my thesis. Yesterday I wrote the first couple of sentences and hope to be able to continue working so successfully on it in Hamburg.

As I said before, I'm going back to Hamburg soon. I have most of my stuff packed again and will head to visit my grandma and then to the meeting point in 30 minutes. I can't wait to be back in Hamburg and will stay there for something like three weeks now. I want to get a routine in living with A. and working on my thesis in Hamburg.

~M~

Motivation-Gap!

I am lacking on motivation right now (again)! I dont know what it is, but I am not so motivated to go to work, at work and even after work. I reckon it is because I am not really involved into the daily business at work anymore, just doing gap filler work and also because my weekends are just too nice. 

The problem really is, that after work it is dark and cold, which means, that the only things you can do would be indoors; also, since you dont get enough light during the day you are generally very tired after work and in the evening, which kills the motivation even for leisure activities. On the weekends then you do so many things and feel how good it is to be with friends and to get some daylight. The weekend anyways is always too short, but in winter this feeling is extreme.

Anyways, my time here is soon over, which doesn't mean, that I do not like it here. Now that I get more and more acquaintances and friend the city becomes livable; It is really that you need like half a year to arrive at a place, it's just so bad, that, when doing an internship, you normally leave by then again. I had the same during my time on Tenerife, where I was working in a hotel. I met a German guy, who I hang out with a lot and also many other people with whom I had a good time. But exactly in the moment where they turned from acquaintances to something like friend I left again!

Anyways, I am now going to chill a bit. I had an early dinner, since I was so hungry. I am listening to The Cat Empire again and am sad, that I didn't manage to go to one of their concerts in Europe this year. I really have to see them live again, last time it was so great fun! 

~M~