Traveling

YAY! This week, on tuesday or wednesday we are leaving for Bavaria and Austria! I'm really excited to visit Vienna (I think that's the name of it in english?). We're going to visit friends, and my old roommate Ulrich, it's going to be so much fun! We might even do some camping, (yay! my first german camping experience!)

I don't know if I'm going to have easily access to internet, but if not I'm going to come back with many pictures to show you guys what it was like!

Stress...

Moving here is really interesing, but MAN is it complicated. This week I recieved a letter from the Uni-Assist organization (they make sure all international applications are complete, and then only forward them to the Universities). Anyhoo, the letter stated that four of my applications were complete and therefore sent to the appropriate universities... AND that I should make sure that I was in fact registered in each university to pass the DSH, the second and hardest one (I alreay passed one in Canada - really hard and 5 hours long!). Well, for three days I have been so stressed out about this. I had no idea I have to make sure I'm already signed up for the test! After browsing the universities'websites for a while and not finding any info on the dates of these exams, or how to register, I finally find a student guide in which it suggests to international students to arrive in Berlin 2-3 weeks before the semester starts... enought time to find an apartment, but NO mention WHATSOEVER of the test. I'm assuming the test can't be sooner than 2-3 weeks before, but hey, with these german universities, trust me, YOU NEVER KNOW. So, just to be sure, I write an email to the office for international students to get the details and to know, if I should register to all universities, or only at one?

I get an answer 5 minutes later. Since it's sunday, I'm expecting an automated response saying that I should expect to receive an answer on monday the earliest, but NO, it's an automated email just referring mt back to the stupid website! ARGHH.

At this point I just start to cry and drag myself to my boyfriends computer, and OF COURSE, within 20 minutes he finds a link using google describing in detail the exam and explaining that when an international student is accepted, although they do have to pay the fees to pass the exam, they are AUTOMATICALLY signed up for the exam, and we receive at the same time the convocation and precise dates and adresses. Couldn't the letter from Assist just simply explain that? apparently not.

Service here is not the highest point. I have worked MANY different jobs incustomer service, in a department store as saleswoman, a gym as sales and customer service rep and assistant manager, and man, these people here are barely polite! It's like it would kill them to actually be nice or smile to a client. Sheesh!

With the universities it's the same, even worse. Although there are pratically no fees to study, (only semester ticket and student union fees, approx. 200 euros), it is SO HARD to get information. The website is not well structured, and of course completely in german, and whenever you try to contact one of the offices by email, either you get an automated response like I just did or you just never get an answer at all (happened to me many times). You can only call during certain hours, and I'm not talking 9 to 5, I'm talking like 8AM-9AM monday to wednesday!!! For me, in Canada and Virginia Beach, I mean, my poor boyfriend had to get up a 2AM to call the universities ( my german wasn't quite clear at 2 in the morning), and even then, calling during the open hours,we repeatedly did NOT get an answer, left messages, and did NOT get our calls returned.

Every tiny step of the way towards registering for the university is a totally new obstacle and so complicated. I'm so happy to have my bf here to help me, and I sincerely do not understand how other foreign applicants who don't know any german people manage.

So, now that i'm sure about how the test goes, I'm going to buy a preparatory book for the exam and study for the next month and a half/2 months... It looks pretty hard, but I am a quick learner, and when I really put my mind to it, I can achieve pretty much anything, so... here goes nothin'!

To my fellow Canadians...

You Know You're From Canada When...

You're not offended by the term, "Homo Milk." You understand the phrase, "Could you pass me a serviette, I just dropped my poutine, on the chesterfield." You eat chocolate bars, not candy bars. You drink pop, not soda. You know what a Mickey and 2-4 mean. You don't care about the fuss with Cuba. It's a cheap place to go for your holidays, with good cigars. You know that a pike is a type of fish, not part of a highway. You drive on a highway, not a freeway. You have Canadian Tire money in your kitchen drawers. You know that Casey and Finnegan were not part of a Celtic musical group. You get excited whenever an American television show mentions Canada. You brag to Americans that: Shania Twain, Jim Carrey, Celine Dion and many more are Canadians. You know that the C.E.O. of American Airlines is a Canadian! You know what a touque is. You know that the last letter of the English alphabet is always pronounced "Zed" not "Zee". You understand the Labatt Blue commercials. You know how to pronounce and spell "Saskatchewan." You perk up when you hear the theme song from "Hockey Night in Canada." You were in grade 12, not the 12th grade. "Eh?" is a very important part of your vocabulary and more polite than, "Huh?" Winter. Whenever you want it. And then some. There's German food, Italian food, Chinese food, Armenian food, American food, but NO Canadian food. You call a "mouse" a "moose". Contests run by anyone other than the government have "skill-testing questions" that winners must answer correctly before they can claim a prize. Everything is labelled in English and French. Milk comes in plastic bags as well as cartons and plastic jugs. Mountain Dew has no caffeine. You actually get these jokes and pass them on to other friends from Canada.

hey! I'm a crown! yay!

I am a Crown. I'm regal and proud. People instinctively follow my lead, so I don't even have to try. Sometimes it's a drag. What Sort of Hat Are You?

For this post you need Internet Explorer...

Sorry for those of you using Mozilla or Opera, but for some reason the pictures and text don't align right without ie...

Today we went hiking to the top of the Löwenburg! It was really fun. On our way there, we stopped to snack on blackberries. There are so many here, you can just basically stop wherever on the streets where you find them and eat some...






If you're tall enough to get the ripe ones...
















Here is where the beautiful path starts in the forest, and eventually brings us to the top of the mountain, where ruins from a castle await us... and my german boyfriend in the german forest =)







Almost at the top (1 kilometer from the ruins), there were sheep ( I wonder what they do when it rains really hard up there?) And a restaurant where people sit on the terrasse and drink... of course, beer!











Me on the castle ruins...






Room with a view... quite breezy, though =)




We could see the storm coming, so we had a pick-nick on the castle walls and came back down pretty quickly!








Here is a pretty good view from the town where my parents in law live, Bad Honnef, and where I am staying until we find an apartment in Berlin, in september.









And last but not least, here is a close up from a couple of houses in the city... Notice how they park on the sidewalks here, since the streets are too narrow (they where conceived for horses, not cars!)



So, that was my day! Do these pictures make anyone want to come visit me ?!?!?

I am chaotic

My bf has been naging me about how untidy I am and chaotic, etc... I must have to say that he was not always the clean freak himself... Even though now he's pretty good. He gets mad at me for the tiniest things. I'm not the queen of clean, but hey, I'm no slob either. To give you an idea, my bf took this picture to prove how untidy I am:




SHOCKING!!!!!!!


And as my friends will attest, as I was younger and in my teens, I was quite something. Honestly, you couldn't see my bedroom floor. So I think I'm just not that bad.

HA!

Worst party ever

Okay, so last night I attended my first official german birthday party... Man... I just learned that german nerds are the worst of all! No, I mean seriously... We get there, an the first person I see is this guy, mid-thirties, a lot of gray hair... These huge seventies glasses on, a black t-shirt with the face of a WOLF yes, those ugly t shirts I thought were banned in the 90's... And this WOLF t shirt is stuffed into really tight black jeans... that are held together by a brown belt with a huge gold medallion up front.Man.The other people all seem quite a bit nerdy, but hey, I tell myself I'm going to give it a go, I might have fun, you never know. It was supposed to be a garden party, with a BBQ, and all, and just as we arrived, although the day had started out beautiful, sunny and blazing hot, it started to rain. An dI mean POUR. Then it started to get windy and ended up being a full blown storm. So we moved the tables and chairs into the GARAGE. And the party was in the garage. yay.
We ate salad for a while, since the guys weren't successful with the barbecue before, oh, 10 pm. Anyways, I thought I should at least make conversation with someone, so I talked with a guy and his girlfriend, but she had this weird accent in german, I was having a hard time understanding her. SO she asks me :
her: asjlöle ajkldsaöken eei?
me: excuse me, could you repeat, I didn't get that? ( in german)
her:asjlöle ajkldsaöken eei? (exact same words, exact same speed...)
me: I'm sorry, but I don't understand, could you please repeat but just slower please? (still in german)
her: WAS STUDIERST DU? (tr. what do you study, but said in a REALLY simplified way and so slow it was like a video on slow motion)

God, I mean I'm a foreigner, not stupid.

Anyways, pretty much no one at the party were interested AT ALL about hearing from Canada, what I'm doing here or anything, which I found weird, cause if I met a foreigner in Montreal I would be damn curious about finding out about their country and all...

Oh Yeah I forgot to say, there was some music and if I remember well, the first song was from the star wars or lord of the rings soundtrack, and it didn't get much better after that. When the rain stopped, they put on " I like to move it move it"
from the Madagascar sound track and started dancing around in the garden. Priceless.
I did find one cool thing though... The guy let us in to his appartment and there was this swing chair that rocked here it is:


Here are the more interesting details about how german birthday parties work:
1. you don't bring alcohol or food. the birthday person is expected to invite everybody over and pay for all foo dand booze.
2. you are expected to bring a present. they are oppened at midnight.
3. There's always food, and not chips or something, FOOD: home made potato salad, greek salad, pasta salad, obviously sausage, and some meat, bread and tzatziki...
4: basically, on your birthday it costs you a lot to have your party (the is although really cheap here) but the rest of the year you get invited to all the other parties for free!
good concept!

Peanut Butter???

I taste like Peanut Butter. I am one of the most blendable flavours; I go with sweet, I go with sour, I go with bland, I go with anything. I am practical and good company, but have something of a tendency to hang around when I'm not wanted, unaware that my presence is not welcome. What Flavour Are You?

I stick around when not wanted??? wtf??? whatever. As my answer, I will post anyways and believe all of you still want to hear about my life.

I DID IT! Today, I went to the city (Bonn) ALONE! Yay me! And I actually had fun too. I showed the way to a lost tourist (nasty buggers...stay home! ;)

So anyways, since I was in the city all day shoppng, I obviously had to use the bathroom a couple of times. Luckily for me, there were some pretty much everywhere and in every department store. The thing is, there is always a lady sitting at a table in front of the bathrooms, just sitting there in front of her little table with a plate in front of her... WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO???

Actually, when I got to the mcdonalds and saw there was a weird little lady THERE TOO, I actually understood these are the people that clean the washrooms.

aaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh.

Let me tell you, I have never seen a mcdonalds bathroom so clean! Now I understand (hehe Cendrine *wink wink*)

anyways, I bought three really cute tops that were on sale for 5 euros a piece (7,50$CAN)

It feels so good to finally be able to buy some stuff.
1) On the way over here, I was allowed to bring a total of 20kilos on the plane ( needless to say, only clothes and the BARE NECESSITIES... okok, plus two or three really cute things I just couldn't bring myself to box)
2) I've been planning on moving here for a couple of years now, so EVERYTHING in my appartment was second hand, knowing I couldn't bring anything and that we were leaving eventually... My mom actually offered me at some point to buy me this whole set of really cool pots and pans, but of course I had to say no, knowing I'd have to get rid of them. The only "Kitchen" thing I brought with me here are my cookbooks and a cute little design measuring spoon my dad brought me back from san francisco... it was just too cute!

Which reminds me, my parents in law are just the coolest. Since they knew that we would need, well, basically everything, they've been keeping everything for us! Pots and pans, glasses, plates, bowls, bed linen, towels, you name it! heck, I even have a coffee machine! (never had one before!)

Best of all: they want to buy a new bed, so we're getting everything from the old one: mattresses, bed frame n all! combined with my bf's washing machine, couch, sound system and a lot of other little pices of furniture, we're pretty much set!

I was really worried that settling in here would cost us a wholelot, but I can tell you that with all of this from my parents in law, I can now sleep a little easier!

Breakfast. Yum.

ok, so I was chatting on msn with my friend Avril, and since she was for one year in Australia, I ask her what what the weirdest thing there. She starts describing this weird breakfast or snack: white bread with butter, and then sprinkled with chocolate or candy sprinkles... Absolutely yuk! Sprinkles and butter??!? So anyways, I find it so totally disgusting and ridiculous that I tell my boyfriend about it.. Guess what. THEY HAVE IT HERE TOO!!!! This frenzy has apparently spread world wide somehow (oh lord!) So here is a picture of my boyfriends breakfast this morning. Enjoy!

Köln

On the way back home, we took a Gondola that went over the Rhine and took pictures of Köln:

The ZOO!!

Today we went to the kölner zoo! here are some photos:



I have absolutely no idea what these little guys are, but they are sooooo cute! I want one! (In german thy're called Erdmännchen, which means litteraly little people of the earth)I want a little person from the earth!



Can you believe they actually have raccoons in zoos here! They used to have also skunks and squirrels, but they don't anymore. They should have a miniature mcdonald's counter in there, so the raccoons could actually eat what they're used to...



I think these little guys are supposed to be German prairie dogs :) I wonder if they can take care of lambs...

And last, but not least, the german version of a hot-dog (minus two bites):

quote of the month

"C'est le sourire qui rend heureux, n'attends pas d'etre heureux pour sourire"

translation: it's smiling that brings happiness, so don't wait until you're happy to smile.

source: Les Entretiens d'Outremont

Ouuuuuccccchhhhhhhh!

yesterday I went on a 12 kilometer hike in the mountains here,

the Siebengebirge!

This is the view I had from a small peak.
It was a great hike, actually here the forest looks alot like in Canada, not too different anyways...
I am discovering today muscles I did not know that I had. nuff said

Fake ID :)

So, I thought that my years of altering my id cards were over, but apparently not. You see, here to obtain a 12 euro monthly junior ticket for public transportation, you need to either be under 21 (whch I am not) or have a student card (which I do have, but has been expired for a year)without this junior ticket, a monthly pass costs 200 euros... hell, a one day ticket to Cologne and back costs 20 euros!

So, I bravely searched into my memory, went back into my years of debauchery and found a way to alter the expiration date of my student card.

And it worked! I am now proud owner of a junior ticket! wuuu-huuu!

okok, maybe the fact that I went up to the booth alone and speak german with a very cute little french accent helped... but it was really my professionnally altered card that did the trick!

I still got it!

my pirate name

okay, it's cheesy, but I' aloud to, I'm having a shitty day!

My pirate name is:

Captain Grace Bonney

Even though there's no legal rank on a pirate ship, everyone recognizes you're the one in charge. You can be a little bit unpredictable, but a pirate's life is far from full of certainties, so that fits in pretty well. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from fidius.org.

shitty day

today was really shitty. my bf and I are now always together, after a year of long distance, and let me tell you it is not easy. sometimes I wish I was back in montreal and sometimes he wishes I was back in montreal. it's hard to find things to do on my own here, I don't know anybody and we're in his parents house for the moment, so I don't feel especially comfortable lounging around their house. So it's hard for me to just go out and get a life here. I so wish he could understand that. And that it's hard for me to be here, I don't know how most things work. it sucks.
Trust me, if I were back home, I would always be out, visiting my friends, and whatnot, but here, what can I do to not always be in his way? Go hiking in the mountains alone? go downtown do have a cup of coffee alone and read a book? go to the island here nearby and have a picknick alone?

I understand that we can't always do everything together, I feel that here it's just so hard for me to go out alone... Today I really feel like I belong nowhere. I just want to get out of people's way. it sucks.

Beer

Here I am on a little island in the Rhein near Bad Honnef. In Germany, it is allowed to drink alcohol publicly, and in festivals you can bring your own booze, so it's not so expensive. Here even the wine is cheap. We had a bottle of really good french wine for 3 euros (4,50$CAN)... incredible!! And the beer here is cheaper than cola, and is so good!

okay, so here is my first list of Weird and Funny Things in Germany:

1. Cereal: they call it 'muesli', and you think of muslix, mmmmm, but NO! here cereal is just like bird food.
2. Raucherkäse: why in the world would anybody want to smoke cheese? salmon, yes, cheese, no!
3. Cheese for breakfast: not cheddar, nono, camembert, brie and emmenthal...
4. Cake for breakfast: here is the dream of every 5 year-old north american kid.
5. Taking a piss: apparently here people piss anywhere. I was on my way back from a festival on the island, and a family was walking way in front of me on the street. Then, in the bushes in a garden in front a house, something was moving. I stop, thinking a cute squirrel or cat is going to come out, but a grown woman, the mother of the family, ducks out and buttons up her pants!!! what the???
6. sausages: here everything is called sausage: ham, foie gras, peperonni, baloney, you name it!
7. Oil of OlaZ??? enough said
8. Toilets... hmm hard to explain... It took me 2 days to understand them, but if you;ve been to europe you understand.
9. Baths: it's like a normal bath with a showerhead, but no shower walls or curtains... how are you supposed to use this thing? I sat in the bath and showered sitting, but I haven't figured out yet just how I'm supposed to use it.
10. Flowers: the flowers here are absolutely huge, and ironically, the bees are miniature.
11. old people: old people everywhere: riding bikes, drinking beer on a terrasse at noon... I can tell you I don't think they have nursing houses here!
12. Meals: they eat weird hard bread with fine cheese or sausage on it and birdfood for breakfast, then they eat a hot meal for lunch, and in the evening they eat hard bread with cheese and sausage (no birdfood this time)... and claim that the evening meal is totally different from breakfast. right.

funny things (komische Dinge) 1

okay, so since I'm in Germany, there are so many weird and funny things. I had to wait 14 hours in Paris on my way here (tired!) so I went into the city, and wanted to ask someone for the way to the train station, and I obviously start to adress people with 'excuse me?'... Well, it seems as though in France people don't talk like that cuz people kept asking me right away what I had done and why I was excusing myself...
???
I'll keep telling you guys the weird things over here a little later...

Endlich in Deutschland!

I am finally in Germany since tuesday night. All here seems reaööy weird to me, and I am sooo tired cause I'm speaking german all the time, and I really need to concentrate to understand people all the time, but I am well and happy. The three days at mt mother in law's went by really fast and I must admit that we had lots of fun, talked a lot, we went to visit a castle in Kreveld (Burg Linn) and it was really just good old girl talk, about relationships, my boyfriends parents history...

We got to know each other pretty well, and I was really happy, cuz she told me that she likes me and would be very happy to have me as a daughter in law, so that's always a good sign. Friday night we had a family party, and everyone was really impressed with my german so I'm glad and relieved that I can talk with people without having problems. The other night I realized I was talking to myself in german!

that was fast...

Friends

Friends are one of the most important things in life. I've learned the value of true friends all through my life, and now, as I am taking the plane tomorrow night for Europe, I am torn between the utter excitement of my new life, and the sadness of leaving my friends here. I also realize that my true friends, wherever they are, whatever they are doing, will always be there for me, care for me, love me, support me, and most especially, always be there to support me living my life, even if it means being away from them for a while.

To my friends who've supported me so much and have been there for me, thank you so much, you will never know how grateful I am for your presence in my life.


(and avril, yes, YOU should feel concerned :)