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~

Back to Uni!

I am sorry, that I didn't post for two days, but I really didn't feel like it. I had to come back to Bad Honnef and had to overcome the novelty of being alone again. After spending 3 months 24/7 with A. it is an odd feeling to suddenly sleep alone and to not have someone to talk to all the time. I also did not do anything, which I actually feel bad for, during the weekend; I didn't leave the house.

Anyways, today my uni started again. Slowly, but it started. I had my first and only lesson at 2 o'clock and so I didn't put an alarm for this morning. I got up around 10.30 a.m. and had lazy breakfast and was drinking coffee. I watched the news and was following the recent developments in the Japanese nuclear power stations. Although I am not really scared by the immediate threat of nuclear radiation, I am still worried for the people and for the fact that we might soon have a second (or even a thrid and fourth) Tschernobyl.

The afternoon in uni went fine, I had the first lecture of Change Management, which seems to be a quite interesting course. The only thing I dont like so much about it are ll the concepts and models we will be supposed to learn during this course. I am generally bad in remembering and using models and therefore this course might be a bit more challenging!

Nevertheless it was quite interesting and some new things came up. I touched this topic already in Helsinki during some courses, but never pursued it in depth. So I think I am ok prepared, since I have a basis and thought about change management already and it is not totally new to me!

Now I am back home and dont really know what I will do. Tomorrow I'm off again and I guess I will go to do some grocery shopping and maybe finally start my internship report or think about a topic for my thesis! Uni has started and I am looking forward to my last semester in Bad Honnef!

~M~

What to do!?

This is a very complicated situation at the moment! A. is going to Hamburg soon to take the job she got offered. She would be stupid to turn it down; it's a job in her field, she does not get ripped off of fooled by her employer (at least as it seems) and most importantly she as something to do and a proper profession until I am finished with my university.

Anyways, this job is in Hamburg. We had hoped that she would find a job in the Rheinland-area, meaning Bonn, Cologne or Düsseldorf. The plan was to find her a job close by and to move into a flat so that I or maybe we both could commute to job or university. However it turned out differently and now she will go to Hamburg.

As I said, I think this is the right thing to do and although I am not happy about the fact that we will be apart - again - I am all the time telling her to take it. Therefore I see no point of staying in Aachen and decided to move back to Bad Honnef. The problem is that it is two weeks before the start of the semester, my dad and my brother have rented out all rooms and flats are hard to get at the moment. I am anyways trying and tomorrow I have a viewing for a room; let's keep the fingers crossed!

This problem was basically what was occupying my brain all day and was causing a little fight between A. and me. Obviously the situation is stressing me and therefore also A.; She still... well, let's say, she has respect before the challenge the job will bring. Although I am sure she will manage, she is a bit scared and worried not to be able to do the job properly. In the end she is still a perfectionist in one way!

We were trying to distract ourselves and went out for a nice walk in the morning, had then an amazing Thai-lunch, my mum made, and finally we had coffee. Then in the late afternoon the cravings got worse and worse and we could not stand them anymore, went to Holland and got ourselves SIX packages of Stroopwaffles. We then enjoyed them with a tea and some Mensch-ärgere-Dich-nicht!

~M~

Totally Mad!

I did not write yesterday. I was not motivated. The answer I was supposed to get on Monday is still pending. Today is Wednesday, so you can understand how mad I am.

I can not understand, that my university is not seeing the urgency of this case. I am supposed to start the internship in 12 days and don't have a flat, no flight tickets and do not even know if I can start any way. I am so annoyed at this "elite" university. They are preaching us good customer service, but what we get is not what they tell us. If I would have liked to be treated like sh*t I could have gone to a normal state university. Since I didnt wanted to have that my parents and me decided to pay sh*t-loads of money per year for my education. And trust me, for that kind of money, nobody would liked to be treated like my university treats me right now.

Especially, since I am waiting all the time and have to check my e-mails at least every 15 minutes, since every hour earlier or later can make a difference, as mentioned before, I am unable to do anything. I am sitting the whole day by the laptop instead of lying at the beach. This is not like I imagined my summer. I am totally pissed and would really like to tell the stupid people from my university what I think of them, but I will wait until everything is sorted out and I have my final papers in hand, when I finish with university. If I would ever have the choice again, I would never ever go to this university again. The teaching is good, but the administration and the way "customers" are treated is crap.

Now I am going to wait - again - for an answer of my university and hope to get it soon. Because of the delay, the room I was interested in was given away, the flight tickets cost double the price and my contact person in the company is in her well-earned holiday. A big THANK YOU to my university! Maybe I will send them a bill for my extra expenses, because of the delay, I really should do that.

~M~

New Ways

Since March I am sending already applications for my internship. I actually planned to start it already in June in order to have the possibility to work in the winter, after finishing my internship. I sent since then over 50 applications to locations all over the world. Vancouver, Honolulu and Cape Town were the highlights.

During this process I realized, that it seems to be totally common to just not answer e-mails anymore. I mean for me it would be fine to get a single line telling me that I can't do my internship with the company. However, it seems, that students and potential employees are totally worthless in nowadays business society and that they are not even worth an impolite answer, not to mention a polite answer.

Anyways, I was sending application over application and got maybe a 5%-8% response rate, meaning, I got on more than 50 applications maybe five answers. This is in my opinion very disappointing and embarrassing for an industry (I was sending nearly all my applications to 5***** star hotels), whose core values are respect, valuing the customer and perfect service. Since I am not paying money, but require time and therefore costing money, I reckon these values don't count for me.

All the answers I got were "No's" or "Maybe's". The "Maybe's" generally gave a "Yes, but..."-answer and then didn't answer anymore on my positive responses. Even tho I sent several reminders to the companies I never got anymore answers.

After a while having this trouble with the applications you start doubting yourself. You start thinking, that you are not good enough, that your grades or your application is too bad, or whatever. You come up with a thousand things, what could be the reason for a negative or even no response at all. It's sucking all your energy out and you start feeling bad, when talking or even thinking about internship applications.

Now, lately, I had again a "Maybe" from a company from Stockholm. I even went there without having an appointment to just say "Hi". I was anyways in the city and so it was no big deal. The reaction of the responsible person was actually quite positive and it also sounded promising, that I would get the opportunity to work with this company. However, the responsible person couldn't give me a definite commitment and told me she would contact me as soon as she would know something about the internship.

Then after three weeks - I was maybe too eager, who knows - I just sent as a reminder an e-mail, to ask how the situation would look like. My job was dependent on the performance and position of the company in the particular time. As an answer I got then - maybe as act of defiance - a definite "No". Again a bitter setback.

As in the following days, I did not have the energy to brace up again, sit down and search for new companies to send applications to. Even when talking about it I felt how disgusted I was by the topic "internship". However, I then sent an application to another company in Stockholm and got a response. It was short, it was impolite, but it was a response; better then nothing. After sending my CV again, since the responsible person could not open it, I am now waiting for another - hopefully positive - response.

However, the same day I got another e-mail from a company, which first sent me a "Maybe"-answer and then didn't answer anymore after my positive response. They asked me if I would still be interested in an internship with them. Since I do not have anything yet, I answered positively again and asked for more information. Today, after the weekend, I got more information and now have to consider taking it.

The offer sounds good, the job would be nice. The only problem is, that the job would be in Oslo. Oslo is the most expensive city in Europe and even tho they would pay me quite good I have to consider this factor. Further I would like to stay with A., who has an internship placement in Stockholm. Although Oslo and Stockholm are "just" 550 km away from each other it would be quite hard to see each other on a regular basis.

It is a difficult decision, especially since I have such a disgust towards this topic lately and dont want to think too much about it. I know that I am still young and always say that you should go wherever life takes you, but this is a really tough decision.

I will have some days to think about it now, since we are going out with the boat for three days. I hope the sea will calm me down a bit and I will have enough time to think about my next step.

~M~

Packing and Cleaning!

This is so weird. I have nearly everything packed, my room is empty and it smells like detergent.

This morning S. came back from Åland and I picked him and J., his travel company, up from the harbor. It was good to see him again after such a long time and it scares me, that we wont be living together anymore now. We had so much fun together and he was an awesome flatmate. I hope and well, I know we will see each other soon again!

When we came back I started packing the rest of my stuff. Most of it was already taken by my parents home to Germany or is already in Ekenäs, where I am going to stay for the next couple of weeks. I dont know what I am doing now. I dont have an internship placement yet and no job in Germany. So instead of hanging around in Germany and not doing anything I rather stay here in Finland, where I have at least A.

After most of the packing was done S. and I went down to the city center. S. wanted to buy still some things for his father, as a birthday present and for another friend. So we went to Esplanadi to a souvenir shop. After S. found what he wanted we went to Stockman and S. bought an ice hockey jersey of the Finnish national team, as a souvenir for himself.

When were back in Kannelmäki I cooked lunch. We ate and sat there talking. There and also before in the city we both, S. and I, realized how much we will miss this life here in Finland. Ok, Helsinki is not the most beautiful, not the most lively and not the best located city in the world, but we were living here for almost one year now and had our life here with a lot of fun and memorable experiences. It is and will always be a part of our life and I can say it is a good one.

After the lunch we started cleaning right away. We were emptying the cupboards, decided what to throw away and what I will take to Ekenäs. We were cleaning the cupboards and the dishes. It was actually not as dirty as I expected it to be. Then S. called his mother in Spain and I emptied my room in order to clean the floor. Now I am sitting here writing. The smell of the detergent gives me a small headache. Maybe it's also all the thoughts running through my head, all the good memories. Even tho I was complaining about this city and this flat all the time it is hard to leave. But I know that live goes on and that changes mean progress. And progress is always good!

I just have one night left. Tomorrow I will leave here! It is a weird feeling!

~M~

Eventless day!

Today nothing really happened. I cleaned a bit in the kitchen and I was doing other stuff here in the flat and on the internet, which came short during the last couple of weeks. It's always good to have a phase like this, just to catch up!

~M~

A lot to do!

I am back in Helsinki. I came yesterday late evening. After these days in Stockholm and Ekenäs it was weird to come back. In the meantime nearly all exchange students left, Kannelmäki and especially the houses are quiet and dark in the evening. It is almost scary.

Anyways, the reason why I came back for some few days is, that I have to empty my flat, have to take all my stuff, which is left, out. But I also came back to pick up my visa from the Russian embassy. I went there this morning and thought everything was fine, I saw my passport, ready to pick up, through the window of the counter. But when it was my turn came the disenchantment; I didn't see that there was a note on the pick-up-paper I got from the embassy. It stated, that you just receive the visa, when bringing this paper plus the confirmation that I paid the fee. Since I did this online and didn't print it out I didn't get my passport back. Also all my pleading to check if the payment was registered as received were turned down. Now I am stuck here in Helsinki at least until Monday.

However, after this negative part of the day I went to the train station, where I met up with S., a German girl, who is doing her Au-pair here in Finland. I met her in the German school, while working. Since I hadnt been working for a long time I hadnt seen her. We went to grab a coffee and then, when the weather cleared up, we started strolling around the city. We went through Kamppi to the German school, where I just said "Hello and Good-bye" and thanked all the people for the good time and opportunity to work. Even tho I was there just every now and then I really enjoyed the work and the company there. Anyways, S. and I were walking on, through the city and through parts I have never been before. Actually this is such a shame. They are directly at the center and I've never been there in the last 9 1/2 months. We were talking, laughing and just having a good time. Then we went back to Kamppi and had ice cream while sitting in the sun. We split up round 2 o'clock, since she had to work.

I went then to Pasila. I still didn't had a print out of the payment confirmation. I had called A., since we used her bank account for the payment, and she agreed to send me a screen shot of the payment, when coming home after work. So I sat down at a PC, was checking my mails, reading news and doing stuff and then finally got the mail with the picture. I printed it out and now I hope, that the embassy will accept it on Monday. If not I will tell them to stamp my visa as invalid so I can get my passport back and then I wont go to Russia. Lets hope the best.

Anyways, I went home after that, put my laundry in. While it was washing I cooked lunch and ate. Then I put my stuff in the dryer and now I was watching streams online. I love these lazy days, even tho I wish there would be better weather and more company. It's pretty lonely here in the flat, since S., my flatmate is on Åland. But soon he will come back and then I go back to Ekenäs and A. I miss her already... after just half a day... incredible!

~M~

Long time since...

It has been a long time since my last blog post. A lot has happened since then and I will try not to forget anything. However, I am not so much in the mood to post something right now, I reckon and so the post might be pretty short.

I am in Ekenäs right now. A. and I came back yesterday from Stockholm where we visited H. and L. two friends of A. It was a really nice short trip and so needed. We went on Sunday morning with the day ferry to Stockholm. We had a cabin, since it was for some reason cheaper than just a deck passage. We spent the 10 hour aboard with sleeping, eating loads of junk food we brought along, watching MTV, walking around, checking out the shops and looking out of the window. Not so exciting.

Anyways, the time in Stockholm was really nice, even tho H. & L. had to work most of the time and could not accompany us in town. However, we did a lot of things and even went into a museum, but the main activity was obviously shopping. One important thing we did is, that we checked out the (potential) internship places. We popped by those companies, A. just to say "Hi" and I just to get an answer and also to say "Hi". My visit however was not that successful, since they could not give me a definite commitment for my internship placement, since they don't know if they will have enough work then. On the one hand it shows me, that they would really take care of me and make sure that I have something to do and that I learn something, but on the other hand I still dont have a safe internship placement.

Now I am back in Ekenäs, as mentioned and will leave to Helsinki later today. I will go on searching for internship opportunities and hope I find something.

Tomorrow I will pick up my visa for Russia.

~M~

Nearly done!

I have one more exam tomorrow and then I am done. I just finished one more assignment and sent it to the teacher. Tomorrow is my last exam and then I my exchange time in Finland at the Haaga-Helia University is over.

I dont really know if I should laugh or cry, it's mixed and weird feelings.

I was before in the city center with E., one of the tutors, and S. for a beer. It was really nice, we went to a small local brewery, which makes the beer just for the own consumption. It was a really nice beer and so much better than the Finnish mass-production. We were sitting there for like two hours and then E. met up with two friends to go to a stand-up comedy show.

This morning I went to the Russian embassy and applied for my visa. Now I am waiting desperately until next Wednesday to pick it up. I hope it will work, since I had a missed call on my cellphone, without a number, when I came home. I hope they did not call because something was wrong with my application. They did not call a second time. I will wait until tomorrow or Friday before I pay the visa fee. Just to give them chance enough to call me again.

Anyways, I am tired and will watch some TV now!

So long...

~M~

First Day of Real Spring!

This day was awesome! It was 22°C (finally) and I was a lot outside. It started with a long walk this morning with A. here in Kannelmäki. We walked pretty far and were enjoying the warm morning sun. For lunch we went to Pasila and met S., who went to the city center before to take pictures.

After lunch I had a group meeting and A. and S. went to a park overlooking the harbor of Helsinki. As far as I know were they sitting there in a café and were enjoying the good weather. My meeting took about two hours and afterwards I called A. to ask where they were. We agreed to meet up on Esplanadi, the one and only Boulevard of Helsinki. In the middle of the street is a nice and wide park, where you can sit on the benches and just observe people walking past.

This is also what I did, while waiting for A. and S., but instead of looking at people I was reading a book. It was so nice and warm, that I didn't had to wear a jacket nor a pullover. However, after a while there came a cold wind and since I anyways feel a tini-tiny bit sick, I put my hoodie on - just in case. On the way back it got even better, since we got free Nescafé® in front of the train station.

Now I came back from Pasila. A. took the train back to Ekenäs and I am alone again. It is now really weird. She took all her stuff from here, emptied out here space in the closet and the cupboard. My parents left Finland today and took also a lot of stuff with them, as I mentioned before and now I really feel, that the time here in Helsinki is soon over.

However, I am going with A. to Stockholm for two days, soon and right now I am planning already the next trip. This time I wanna go to St. Petersburg and Moscow. I actually planned to go by train, but when I - more as a joke - checked the flights I realized, that they are way cheaper. There is one airline, which is flying within Russia for super low prices. The trip from Moscow to St. Petersburg costs just 14€. I will inform myself a bit about this airline and see if I really wanna fly with them.

Anyways, I will go on planning and then to bed. I have to get up early tomorrow. Even tho it is a public holiday I will do a lot for uni!

~M~

Packing

It's really weird, I am packing!

I am not going to leave Finland soon, but still I am packing. My parents are here visiting me and since I brought so much stuff in the first place it would be too expensive to take it home by plane. They are with the car here and so they can take a lot. I packed my backpack already once, just to get all the stuff in there, which I really wanna keep here and to see how much I get into it. I have figured out the rest, which is going to the suitcase and several boxes and then home to Germany.

It is an awkward feeling now. My wardrobe is so empty, my cupboard is nearly empty and stuff, which I didnt use in the whole year, but were filling this room are gone. Even tho it shows me with how few you can live a normal life it will be weird to wear all the time the same clothes and to live the next three weeks in a basically empty room.

On the other hand it's nice, I know what I have, I know that it will fit into the backpack and I dont have to plan what to pack where and worry about not getting everything in. I really feel now that I am getting closer to a change, and as I wrote before, I love changes. Really... I am moving forward!

~M~

Productive Morning

Nice, this was a really productive morning. I got up early, did my laundry, dried and folded the clothes. I was working for uni, cleaning my room, bringing down the bin and made my bed.

Now I am taking a break, listening to music and being shortly on the internet to write this post. My parents are coming today to Helsinki and I hope they bring better weather. After the couple of days in Ekenäs they are now coming to visit ME! Even tho they are not staying at my place I hope to see them and guess I will spend a lot of time with them.

Therefore I will go on later with the cleaning of the kitchen, corridor and bathroom. I will also bring some more order to my room. We anyways have had to clean and now we finally have a real reason ;-) Also, since we all are moving out soon it is good to start, otherwise it would be too much in the end.

I will also start later on, since I now have all my clothes here and clean to start packing. I have to pack all stuff I need in my backpack and hope I will not exceed 20kg. The rest will be packed into my suitcase and into several other bags, boxes and my laundry basket. I have to have that done until the 11th or 12th, since my parents are then leaving and going to take the stuff back home to Germany with the car.

It's a weird feeling, that I have to think about what I need for the rest of the time here already. It seems like yesterday since I came here, now it is soon over and I have to move on. But somehow it feels nice and especially exciting, since I dont have a clue (yet) where I will go and end up with my internship.

Anyways, I love changes, I love to move on, I love to experience something new!

~M~

Spring is here!

Spring is now definitely here (in Turku at least). A and I were just sitting outside on a bench enjoying the sun. Before that we had a walk along the river down to the castle and the harbor. The grass is green, the trees are sprouting and its nice and warm in the sun. The wind coming from the sea is still pretty fresh, but if you find a calm corner you start sweating right away!

I am now sitting here on the couch, was folding my washed clothes and will maybe start packing soon. I am leaving Turku again this evening, since I have to be in uni tomorrow morning 8 o'clock. The last workshop of the Business Planning course will then give us the possibility to finalize our business plan. It is weird to know that this is, among others, one of the last reports I am going to hand in here in Finland and if you see it like this also one of the last of my studies. After these reports there will be just my internship report, one or two reports in my last semester and then my Diploma thesis. Crazy, three years of studies are nearly over! Where did the time go?!

~M~

Loads to do

This was a long day in uni. I was there from 8 in the morning until 5 in the afternoon. The last course I had brought bad news. It was the first and only meeting with this lecturer and now we have a huge project to do, which is even more annoying, since we are already halfway-through with the period. But it's always the same with this guy; I had one course with him before and he put all instructions for the assignments online like three weeks before the end and also just after us going to the department head. Anyways, it's like this, I have to take the course, since it's mandatory from my uni and can't do anything about it.

I am now in the 4th phase of sending applications for my internship. New destination is Mauritius, which A. and I chose randomly from the world map. I hope that it will work this time and that I don't get anymore rejections, since it is pretty depressing in a way. I reckon this issue about the internship is occupying my sub-consciousness all the time and makes me feel weird and unbalanced.

Anyways, I will go to the shop now and hope I get some bread, which I can put into the freezer. The food producers will strike in the next days and it is predicted that there will be no bread and other stuff available. After the shop I will relax a bit and later go to the sauna to relax even more. I hope this helps me to take everything a little bit easier!

~M~

Day off

This was refreshing. I just woke up from my afternoon siesta. After the nice lunch that A. and I cooked I really needed that. We ate pasta and meatball-tomato-sauce! Super nice!

I didn't had uni today, which was nice. I slept long and had lazy breakfast and a slow start into the day. It was anyways raining outside and so there was no need to hurry to get out. A. went give back some kind of scarf, which she got for her 2-day-work on the IT trade fair and met up at the same time with her colleague. After that she was talking all the time about her and I think she really like to talk to a girl again.

I went to the gym and was doing my training. It was a good detox after the Sea Battle and I really needed to get some exercise again. As I wrote before, I have to get in shape again for the summer and round in not the desired one.

After my workout I wanted to meet with A. to have lunch in the uni restaurant in Pasila, but of course they close at 2.30 p.m. on Fridays. Therefore we went home and made the lunch ourselves. Now I am going to drink coffee and eat a piece of cake, the leftovers of S's birthday yesterday.

Btw.
Happy Birthday, Felix! I hope this year brings a lot of new and a lot of good things to you and hopefully some changes in everyday life and routines! I will call later and maybe we can talk!

~M~

Easter

I am back from Ekenäs. I spend there the first half of Easter with A's family. We were just staying so short, since A's parents went this morning to Canada, to visit their relatives.

It is amazing, one year ago I was the first time here in Finland and saw A. the first time after Tenerife. As I said in earlier posts, it is incredible, how time flies. I am already one year in the family and about 8 months here in Finland for studying. I have the same feeling like every New Years Eve, when you realize, that the year is over and you start all over again.

The Easter holidays we spent eating and seeing friends and family. It was good to be out of Helsinki for a while again. To just relax and not to think about anything. Now, since I am back, uni work starts again and I will do now some research for the next essay, which I have to hand in next week. Even tho tomorrow is a public holiday, we are going to meet up with the group to work on the project. Gladly this is in the afternoon. However, I will get up early and will call some more hotels to finally get an internship placement. The hotels I called so far didnt had anything available, as I wrote before.

But life goes on, I will not give up, tomorrow the sun will be shining again... for sure!

~M~

Finally off

I am done with this period! I wrote today my last exam and now I am off until Monday the week after. It is weird, normally I have this relieved feeling, but not this time. I don't know what it is, but I guess it's because I don't know where I am going after my year abroad, yet, and the time is running out!

Anyways, today I will still enjoy my life, I will go to the cinema tonight to watch Alice in Wonderland in 3D. I am so looking forward to this, I have never seen in movie in 3D yet... excited!

I was stumbling through the web today and came across an article, I've been reading before. This article is from the travel section of the London Telegraph. It is about a man from Japan who has traveled since 2001 from Japan, through whole Asia and then to Europe. The amazing thing about this story is, that he did all this (except of the passage from Japan to Korea) by bike and a rowing boat. During this time until now he covered 38 countries and is currently in Italy.
The guy, Keiichi Iwasaki, writes about his adventures and his life on the road in his blog. During his trip, which he started with 160¥ (about 1.30€), he performs magic tricks on the street to earn money. The article of the Telegraph also states that he was the first Japanese person to climb the Mount Everest from sea level without any transportation.
I think that a story like this is so inspiring. A person just realizes suddenly that he has to change his life, leaves home with nothing and is just going wherever life takes him. I envy Keiichi a little bit for this freedom in his life. He says, that he loves this way of traveling, "because [he] want(s) to see and feel everything with [his] own skin, [...] the air and atmosphere of the place." He also is the perfect example that traveling is not about getting somewhere, but about the way you go there. It's not the speed that is important, but the experience you gain from your trip. He is, after his own words, "traveling far, little by little".

~M~

Get crackin!

Seriously, I have to get outta here! I dont wanna write the exam tomorrow! I just came back from my first exam, which was pretty easy and should have been good. Still I am annoyed somehow at this uni.

Yesterday, while learning I got so fed up and watched this video again:

The Longest Way 1.0 - one year walk/beard grow time lapse from Christoph Rehage on Vimeo.

It's from Vimeo and was created by a guy, who was walking over 4000 km in China for over one year. I feel really stuck right now and need to travel again. The winter here in Finland is taking way too long now and always after few days of warmer temperatures it's snowing again and it gets cold! I would really need summer or at least spring now. It's even worse to read then the blog entries or Facebook statuses of people, who are traveling right now all over South America and Asia. This really gets me sometimes. But I know, that soon I will be somewhere else and that makes me happy. It is anyways just one year more in uni and then I'm free to do whatever I like to do... so I just have to hang in there!

I also have to get crackin now with my internship. All my applications I've sent so far were rejected and it seems pretty hard right now to find something, because of the economical situation. I hope it will work out soon. The problem right now is also, that I was/am so occupied with my uni stuff that I do not really find the time to apply somewhere. Anyways, I already planned to work on that the first three days of the Intensive Week.

At least I have something to look forward to right now. Next week I will be going to Vaasa, to a huge students happening with loads of people and loads of party. And next months there will be the Sea Battle, a booze-cruise... and hopefully higher temperatures! I just keep that in mind and it will get me through my learning now!

~M~

Back home... for 4 days!

Now, to not create a extremely long post, I decided to split up everything I did during the last weeks. It's easier for me, as I can update my blog in different stages and it's easier for you to read and follow through! Also it feels better for me, as I am filling my blog a bit and get some more posts per month ;-)

On the 30th of December A. and I went with a really early flight from Helsinki to Düsseldorf to spend New Years with my parents. They picked us up from Düsseldorf Airport and we drove directly to Siegen, were my grandma is living. She was brought a couple of months ago into a retirement home, as docters found her incapable of living alone anymore. It was the first time for ages that I saw her and it was really good. She is still energetic and was so happy to see us all. Her enthusiasm is really inspiring and it is incredible to see that a person in the age of 94 can still be like that. She was unwrapping the presents we brought and was obviously touched by our visit.

It was good to be home then later. Aachen is still my hometown and it is always nice to be again in the house you grew up in, to see the surroundings changing, to see how time changes everything. A. and I went to the city during these days a couple of times and every time i saw something new and something changed and this made me realize how long I've been away for.

New Years Eve we spent with my parents at home. I haven't done this since I was 14 and this made it even more special. I also made my brother stay home and celebrate with us, which made me really happy. It is amazing how the spatial distance between siblings can bring them closer together. I realized this the first time, when my brother went to the USA when I was 13 and now I feel it again, since I am away all the time. The separation makes you understand each other better and let you enjoy the few time you have together instead of fighting over nothing like when you were small.
After the amazing dinner (thanks to my mum) we went out to celebrate the new year on the street. After shooting some rockets and nearly getting killed ;-) by one mislead rocket we, my brother, A. and me, went to the city to go to a new years party. The line-up however was so long and not moving at all, so that we decided after 15 minutes queuing and not moving a bit, to grab some cocktails. We sat there until 3.30 a.m. until the bar closed and then decided, since the line up at the club was still not moving, to go home.

The next day was a hangover day and we visited my other grandma, who is suffering from dementia and therefore also living in a retirement home.

The 2nd of January 2010 (god, it's really weird ... I am all the time typing 20010 :-D) we started packing our stuff and preparing for Paris, where we went the next day. This also included going to the city again and grabbing one more time a coffee at Starbucks and more important printing my desired T-Shirt with a striped Mini in the front. I love it !!!

Anyways, the next morning meant getting up early and leaving to the train station to go to Paris. It snowed loads (for this region of Germany) during the night and so we were more sliding than driving to the station.

It was a great time in Germany. It was good to be back again, even tho I love to be "on the road". But it is always good to know that there is a place on earth where somebody is always welcoming you and where your roots are... Thanks mum, dad and F.

~M~