Always the same...

It's always the same with my university. Before I went to Spain to walk the Camino I wrote my supervisor an e-mail letting him know that I wouldn't be available for my colloquium, my presentation of the thesis, until the middle of November. Just two days into the walk I received an invitation for the colloquium two days later, which I did not read until some days after the appointment.

Anyways, this wasn't my fault that I could not attend the date. When I was back from the walk I called my supervisor and asked for an appointment for a specific period of time and he said that this shouldn't be a problem. Since I did not hear anything from him I called several times to ask for the date, but received no answer.

On Tuesday I received an invitation for my colloquium again. It was supposed to be less than 24 hours later. Since I am at the moment sick or rather fighting an upcoming cold I canceled and asked for a later appointment and also an earlier notification. I think it is incredible to receive an invitation for such an event less than 24 hours before. 

Christmas is coming!

Anyways, somehow I did not expect anything else than that from my university and can't wait for my presentation and with that my studies to be over. The invitation to the colloquium already means that I passed my thesis and am graduated if there are no big discrepancies between my thesis and my presentation. Now my supervisor "will try to reschedule for next Wednesday" and I will prepare for that day.

Nevertheless right now I am a bit annoyed and can't wait for this whole thing to be over. Maybe that also derives from the fact that I am sick and don't feel like doing anything. It's one of these sicknesses where you are too good to lie in bed, but too bad to do anything productive; bloody annoying!

Garfield came to visit!

Anyways, I will now dress and then open the windows to get some fresh air in. Now that the heating is on all the time it's really needed to change the air in the apartment every day once or twice. 

~M~

Starting a Routine!

I am in Hamburg! Actually I am here already for a while. After my last post I still went to visit my grandma in the retirement home and then caught my ride to Hamburg. The drive was ok, not too many hold-ups and rather relaxing. Despite the fact that the driver was listening to very weird music very loud for something like over an hour it was ok and from time to time quite communicative.

When I arrived in Hamburg I took the bus home and A. picked me up from the bus stop close to our flat. We then went out to eat, since neither A. nor me were up for cooking something. We walked the few hundred meters to Winterhude and were eating in an Indian restaurant.

The weekend we spent mostly at home, the weather was simply not nice enough. We went grocery shopping on Saturday though and when we biked to the Stadtpark on Sunday we found the cutest ice cream parlor in Hamburg. The two best things are: it has the best ice cream in town and it's just around the corner from our flat.

We used the two days together to get used to each other again and organized our stuff in the flat a bit. Really living together is a huge difference to occasionally being in each others flat for some time. We were cooking together and were enjoying a nice bottle of wine or a beer with the food.

The new week then started early. A. had to go to work and I had to get to work as well; of course not really work, but I wanted to go to the university library to work on my thesis. I biked there and spent the morning reading and writing. I already made some progress and am quite confident that I will be able to go on in this pace of working. After working for some hours I met up with A. for lunch and went home afterwards.

A. cutting the TV to be able to plug a cable in!

Today I stayed in, I needed to do some more research and had to have internet (which I don't in the library). The morning was quite efficient: I did the dishes, fixed some things in the flat, did a virus check on my PC and was drinking coffee. Despite doing all these things I actually did some research and wrote some 400 words for my thesis.

Now I am waiting for A. to come home. She already called and said she has to do overtime, but I hope this wont take too long. This afternoon we maybe go shopping to Hamburger Meile still, depending on how A. feels upon return.

~M~

Prague

I am back from Prague already for two days and now I finally found the time to write here. After coming back on Monday night I was working on Tuesday on my thesis proposal and had a meeting with my supervisor. This morning I was working on it again and will sign up for my thesis tomorrow or on Friday; then it is official and I will have three months to hand the thesis in. So, no fooling around then!

Anyways, I went to Prague on Friday morning or rather in the middle of the night. I had to get up at 4 o'clock, had to leave the house at 4.30 to catch my train at 5 o'clock; the first of three trains that brought me to Frankfurt Airport. At the airport I met A., who came from Hamburg and we took the flight together to Prague.

In Prague we went to the hotel, but since it was so early - something like 10.30 a.m. - we could not check-in yet. We left our luggage and walked around the area. We bought some snacks and went down to the river to have an early lunch. On the way back we found a small cafe in a park, which most probably has the best coffee in Prague!

When we returned to the hotel we could check in and had a nap. After all we both had been getting up quite early and were tired from traveling. After something like two hours we got up, fixed ourselves and took the tram to the city.

We walked around the main squares and went over the Charles Bridge. On the other side of the river we turned away from the main tourist routes and walked the backstreets. We came along a small bridge with many locks on the rails and then to a wall with loads of graffiti. In the wall was a small entrance to a backyard, where we found a small local restaurant in which we had our dinner.

The next day we slept long, enjoyed the breakfast buffet and eventually took the tram to the city or rather the castle. We walked up the old castle stairs and were hit by the masses of tourists. We walked further, enjoyed the view from time to time, took some pictures and finally went into the castle.

The castle was way too full and over crowded by tourists and tour groups. Everything had an entrance fee and the line-ups were just insane. I could not really enjoy the beautiful buildings and the surrounding, it was simply too full. A. felt the same and so we decided to leave the castle.

We went down to the part of the city where all the embassies are and walked to the backside of the German Embassy. Back in 1989, when Germany was still divided in two parts, many Germans from the East went to Prague and climbed over the fence of the Embassy of West Germany; their hope was that they could leave Prague to West Germany and flee the political system in the East. As a reminder of this time a Czech artist has created a sculpture of a golden Trabbi with long legs, which is now located in the backyard of the embassy.

Anyways, the weather soon changed and we went for lunch and a beer in a restaurant close to the dancing building. The goulash-soup was good and I enjoyed sitting down; my legs and feet were hurting already a bit. 

We then walked around the city a bit more, went back to the hotel and used the vouchers for a welcome drink we hadn't used before. In the evening we went again to the city, had some cocktails and then went back to the hotel, when it started raining.

On Sunday morning it was still raining when we got up. So we did not hurry, had a relaxed breakfast and went to the city despite the rain. We walked into a cafe to have another morning coffee - the instant coffee in the hotel was not really good - and started to write postcards.

After the rain had stopped we walked around the city again - what else should you do during a city break ?! - and were trying to stay away from the tourist centers. We found a nice restaurant not far away from the center, which had reasonable prices and had lunch. While waiting for our food A. went on writing her cards.

In the afternoon we went to the hotel, A. had another coffee and we picked up our sparkling wine we had bought the day before. We also changed to summer clothes, since it had gotten quite warm after the rain had stopped. 

We took our sparkling wine and went up a hill opposite the city. We were walking around the park and were taking some pictures of the amazing view over the city. Then we found the spot with the best view over Prague, sat down and were enjoying our sparkling wine. 

In the evening we had our dinner in a traditional brew-house and were enjoying the atmosphere and the good music played by a concertina player. After the dinner we again walked around, sat on one of the islands and were having a beer.

The Monday morning we had our breakfast and packed our stuff. We checked out and left our luggage in the hotel. We visited the "yellow market", a market with loads of stands of Asian immigrants mostly selling counterfeit clothes and other things, mostly worthless rubbish. Anyways, I found a nice scarf and bought it.

 

We then were going back to the city and visited the Jewish quarter shortly, but again there were too many people and it was simply too full to enjoy it. We had lunch and slowly moved back to the hotel to pick up our luggage and headed to the airport.

All in all we had a great time in Prague and I am so thankful that A. and I got this trip from my parents for Christmas! I really like Prague and am happy that I was there again! We were walking a lot, we were eating a lot and we were drinking a little. Despite the short rainy period Saturday evening and Sunday morning we had awesome weather.

In the end we flew back to Frankfurt, A. went further to Hamburg and I took the train back to Bad Honnef. Now I am here, preparing the last things to write my thesis and will start writing it next week. I already have done some formal work and prepared the Word-document according to the requirements. Now I just have to sign up, write and hand it in... if it would only be "just" that ;-)

~M~

Hangover Day!

Today is a typical hangover day! I'm sitting around all day, watching TV and stumbling through the internet. The hangover comes from yesterday's party, which was very nice.

Anyways, on Monday morning I got up early. I went to the bank to change money for the trip to Prague on Friday. However, Bad Honnef is a very small town and the bank just gets once a week foreign currencies; this always happens on Friday afternoons. Since they did not have the money that I needed there the clerk told me it would be easier to just cash out money at an ATM in Prague, so that's what I'm gonna do.

On my way back home I still went to the bakery to get some fresh bread and also bought a croissant for breakfast. Back home I ate and then started learning for the exam, which I wrote that same afternoon. Before going to uni I still had lunch to be fit. The exam, my last exam in the university, went fine and I'm quite sure I passed it. After the exam, we went up to our student bar to have a beer and still be together for a while. In the evening we then went our for a couple more drinks, which was nice.

Yesterday morning I got up early again, had breakfast and went to the uni to work on my thesis proposal. Now I started the tentative outline and will go to my supervisor after coming back from Prague in order to talk to him about the structure of the thesis. In the evening we all met up at the house of our colleagues, who had invited to celebrate the very last exam - some people had their last exam on Tuesday afternoon.

The evening was fun! The flat was too full and it was too warm inside and so everybody was sitting outside on the parking lot. We were sitting around talking and some people played Flunkyball, a drinking game, which wasn't really FlunkyBALL, but rather FlunkySHOE, since we didn't have a ball for the game.

After some time the police came - as always in Bad Honnef - and ended the street party and so we went to a close by bar, where we spent the rest of the evening. It was a good evening and I was talking to many people. I especially liked the conversation I had with F., who I had done my Hotel Engineering project with; we talked for a long time about everything and anything.

I stayed until something like 4 o'clock and went home in the pouring rain. I hadn't brought a jacket and was just in my polo shirt. Luckily there was a lot of paper waste standing at the street and so I took a big piece of cardboard and used it as an umbrella.

This morning I woke up early, for whatever reason, drank loads of water and was just spending the day inside. In between I made lunch, baked Camembert with jam, one thing I always ate on Tenerife in my favorite tapas place!

~M~

Along the Rhine!

This morning I got up rather early. I had breakfast and packed my stuff. At 10 o'clock, when the library opened I was there. I was working a bit on my thesis proposal and was learning for my last exam on Monday. After something like 2 1/2 hours I was simply too tired and not motivated anymore; it was way too warm in the library and the weather was just too good, I couldn't stay in the library!

I went home and fixed my lunch and was eating it in front of the TV. I had coffee and was checking my facebook meanwhile. I felt bad for not going out, but I simply didn't know what to do; I didn't wanted to walk through the woods again, I didn't wanted to go to the island, but I also didn't wanted to stay in.

Then suddenly I had an idea. Since I didn't wanted to walk in the mountains today I decided to walk along the Rhine where everything is flat. I quickly did some research on the internet, just to know where I wanted to walk and then I left.

I walked down to the Rhine and walked upstream, or in southern direction, however you want. I walked along a tiny path directly by the water. I walked from Bad Honnef over the border into the next Federal State, Rheinland-Pfalz, passed the next small towns, Rheinbreitbach and Unkel and then stopped in Erpel. 

From Erpel I took the ferry to the other side of the Rhine, to Remagen. From there I walked back, downstream or in northern direction. I walked and walked and hoped that the weather wouldn't change. It was super hot the whole day and in the afternoon the air got humid and thunderstorm clouds were coming up.

I was hurrying back. I didn't had anything to protect me from the rain and still had to take the ferry from Rolandseck over to Bad Honnef. Luckily it didn't start raining and when I arrived back in the flat the sun was shining again.

After all I calculated, that I walked some 20km+ again today and now my legs and feet are hurting. I still dont have proper shoes for such long hikes, which makes it a lot worse in the evening. However, I have to say I really like hiking nowadays. I always loved walking, but this walking over longer distances with a clear destination is something else and I love it!

 Now I had dinner and afterwards watched a movie. I am knackered from the day, but it feels good. I wont set an alarm tomorrow, I need to sleep long every once in a while! Tomorrow I wont be doing anything for the thesis proposal, I will focus on the preparation of my last exam on Monday!

~M~

Good News!

This day was nice! I got up this morning as usual, had breakfast and went to the library to work on my thesis proposal. I was contacting some people and was going through sources for my thesis. It was kinda exhausting and exactly the work I will not like about the thesis.

Anyways, I spend basically all the time from 9 in the morning until 1 in the afternoon working, had just a short break in between and went then up to the office of the supervisor I would like to write with. I had to wait still for some time, since there was a girl before me. When it was my turn I presented my progress and emphasized that my biggest fear was, that he would not take me - he had mentioned in the meeting before, that he was close to not accepting anymore students as thesis-supervisor. Then came the good news: He answered, that I should rest assured, that I was in, that he would supervise me!

I was super happy and went home relieved. I made lunch and cooked my paprika long enough in order to kill all bad germs on it. I really don't want to get the EHEC-infection. Then in the afternoon I was relaxing a bit and later I went out for a walk through Bad Honnef and down to the island of Grafenwerth. I wanted to move a bit and enjoy the nice late-afternoon-sun. It was really nice!

 

Now I am back home, after 1 1/2 hours walking. I will fix my dinner and then maybe go out to watch the eurocup qualification game between Germany and Austria; It depends if the others are going or not. I dont really want to be "alone" in the bar, that's no fun!

~M~