May we surf your couch?

Planning our 5 day trip to Budapest in two weeks and I have been looking for a couch to surf for days now.

Couchsurfing

We have the two first nights covered, the last three are still open. We could always go to a hostel, but couchsurfing is just an unbeatable experience (did it last time in Albania). It's actually how I met my boyfriend :).

Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Disappointment

Today I got the mark of a difficult exam I had on February 1st. I got a "C". Although the stuff I had the learn for it were pretty intense, I'm really disappointed because the feeling I had coming out of it was really good. While I didn't think I was going to get an "A", I was silently hoping it would be a "B". I probably shouldn't complain, as my marks are, in general, pretty good, but I just find it so demotivating to work really hard and then get a meh result. I can't help but ask myself if my German was an obstacle to clearly expressing my answers to the questions or if I just really didn't get the content of the class...

Oh well, at least I passed, I guess. In 6 months I will (hopefully) have my masters degree...

pure, simple, true

Sometimes I feel like throwing my hands up in the air
I know I can count on you
Sometimes I feel like saying "Lord I just don't care"
But you've got the love I need To see me through

Sometimes it seems that the going is just too rough
And things go wrong no matter what I do
Now and then it seems that life is just too much
But you've got the love I need to see me through

When food is gone you are my daily meal
When friends are gone I know my savior's love is real
Your love is real

You got the love
You got the love
You got the love
You got the love
You got the love
You got the love

Time after time I think "Oh Lord what's the use?"
Time after time I think it's just no good
Sooner or later in life, the things you love you loose
But you got the love I need to see me through

You got the love
You got the love
You got the love
You got the love
You got the love
You got the love

Sometimes I feel like throwing my hands up in the air
I know I can count on you
Sometimes I feel like saying "Lord I just don't care"
But you've got the love I need to see me through

You got the love
You got the love
You got the love
You got the love
You got the love
You got the love

Greetings from paradise

Well the day before yesterday I landed in Dubrovnik, Croatia and spent the day yesterday lying on the beach. The weather is amazing, the water is clear blue and the people are friendly. Today I m in Kotor, Montenegro, which is nested in a breath-taking fjord, is plastered with white marble tiles and surrounded by huge palm trees. I really feel like Im finally winding down!! Having in any case a lot of fun!!!

Medimax Customer Service Sucks!

So, my exams went well, all my marks are satisfying. This week I was giving an intensive french class (4 hours a day) and working hard before my vacation.

This weekend being my last weekend before I leave (on Thursday), I wanted to buy the few last things I need etc. Including a small fan I can plug into the van for the over-30-degree-Celsius-temperature in Greece. Off to the local Medimax (german appliance store).

It's Saturday, obviously the day of the week where the most customers are there. I look around and see only one fan, and it's definitely too big to bring in my luggage. I look around on my own, trying to find a smaller one by myself. Nada. In a country where air conditioning is a week breeze of very humid, slightly-cooler-than the-surrounding-temperature air, I thought they would be bound to have at least more than just one model of fans. I finally give up, and look for a salesperson to help me out. It didn't really matter if they did have more or not, it's just that since I was already there, I wanted to be sure I didn't just miss their "fan" section before going home. Double nada. At the other end of the store, in the electronics department, I spot two fat-bellied-men that look like they work there, but they're deep in conversation. I start going through the departments, and finally find a lady in the cd and dvd section. I stand next to her, she just doesn't take notice, so I ask her kindly:
- "Excuse me maam, I was just wondering: I'm looking for a small fan and in the section next to this one I saw one, but it's pretty big and I'd like to know if you have other models".
She looks at me and just says:
-"That's not my section".
To which I (still kindly, but getting annoyed) reply:
-"Yes, I'm aware of that but there's nobody in that section and I just want to know if there are other models"
to which she answers, obviously annoyed
-"how should I know, I told you to ask somebody in the other section".
Mind you, I am used to bad customer service in Germany, but this just bugged me so much, I had to say something. So I answered:
-"Ok, thanks, great customer service by the way".
And THEN, she answers
-"well, if you're going to put in a complaint or something, I can go with you and look for another employee with you".
At that point (we were at the entrance of the store), I just gave up and said:
-"No thank you, I prefer for my money to pay the salary of someone who offers proper customer service, I'm sure I'll find another store where they carry fans."
She looked at me as if I had two heads, I wished her a nice day and I went off.

I don't get it. Especially in these times, where so many companies are going bankrupt and so many people are losing their jobs, you would think people here would MAYBE consider offering BASIC customer service? I get that Germans don't like the whole "hi, how are you, have a nice day" thing, and that's fine, but is it really that much to ask for? All I want is not have to BEG the employees to show me where the merchandise is so that I may PLEASE spend my money in their stores!

Medimax Schönhauser Allee, you suck.

I met Lady GaGa!!!

Last night I went to GaGa's show in Berlin and stuck around and got to talk to her and get her autograph afterwards... The show was amazing, and although I haven't been a groupie since my 16th birthday, it was fun being able to see her upclose and personal :)

Exams, exams, exams...

2 out of three survived, will be getting the marks shortly, last one up tomorrow.

Actually I know I'm really not using this blog to its full potential, but I'm hesitant to kill it off, since I might want to start using it again some time...

For example, posting vaca pics in september (pictures of croatia, albania, macedonia, montenegro and greece!)

Next I will be giving an intensive French class at university, and the week after I'm flying to Dubrovnik, where the bf will pick me up in our beloved van. Bliss!

My parents in law will be in Berlin for a week while we're away, and they'll be staying at my place... OH lord, let's hope this goes well! One thing is for sure, there will be an incredibly big summer cleaning before I leave!! And they'll finally get to meet Pouki-Helmut :)

I love Berlin in the summertime, it's so pretty and warm and bright!!

5 nights

After almost two years of long distance relationship, the bf will be moving back to Berlin - and back in with me - next weekend. I can't wait! Only 5 nights alone and then we'll be together again - for good! No more sad goodbyes, no more three weeks or more apart, no more saying good night on the phone!!!

Tonight we said goodbye for the last time for hopefully a very long time.

On Friday I'll be driving our van from Berlin to Cologne and Sunday we'll be driving back together.

Bliss!

Pure gore

I won't waste too many words on Salem's Lot: cute, made-for-tv, ok vampire movie. A bit long, and too many details, but nice special effects (when the vampires appear). Not that good, tension could be better. C minus.

Now, on the the real horror movie. The remake of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003, starring Jessica Biel) is a masterpiece of gore. The viewer feels uncomfortable in the first minutes of the movie and the tension just goes up and up until the end of the movie. The epitome of horror. Of course, being a slasher movie, there are lots of blood and guts, but it's well done. You feel the filth get under your skin. I give it an A, just because at some point there are things that seem unrealistic, but for a remake, I'm really impressed.

ugh, I still have goose bumps...

G'nite!

I want the last hour and a half of my life back!

This weekend, to celebrate my first weekend "off" in months, I rented 3 horror movies and will be reviewing them here. Tonight, I watched "Mother of Tears" , original title La Terza Madre, an Italian horror movie made in 2007. The plot goes like this: during construction work, an old unidentified coffin is accidentally dug up next to a cemetary close to a church in a little town in Italy. In it, the pastor finds bones and an urn, a talisman and three statues. He sends it to a museum in Rome, and asks an old friend, a historian of art, to analyse it. Two curious employees of the museum are however intrigued and decide to open it without him, which triggers a series of mysterious murders perpetrated my demon-like creatures and an ugly little monkey. Bear with me. In all of Italy, people become more violent and the crime rate goes drastically up. One of the two museum employees who survived and her boyfriend decide to try to get behind all of it. Witches from around the world arrive in Italy and hunt them down. They find out that the urn and talisman belonged to one of three witches who used to rule the world in the 1800s (?!) and that the parents of the employee, who she never met, were white witches who died trying to combat evil forces associated to a sister of this witch in Freiburg, Germany. And the employee hears the voice of her dead mother while fighting demons and japanese witches.

As if the plot wasn't lame enough, the acting is horrible (fake italian accent: "you meen dis ouse is fool of ghost?"), the "special effects" are at the most a nice try (spontaneous combustions, blood pooring out of all bodily orifices etc.) and the music is the classical horror movie spoof. It's almost comical.

Conclusion: Illuminati meets Army of Darkness meets Witchcraft. D minus. Save your money!

The other two movies I will be reviewing this weekend are THE protoype of slasher movies, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (remake of 2003) and the vampire thriller Salem's Lot.

stay tuned!

survived!

I am pleased to announce that my brain has (at least partially) survived the multiple assaults on it during the past weeks and that my two papers have been given in. Now, please excuse me while I go sleep for a week or two...

I fell in love with a movie and its soundtrack...

I've been refusing to watch Twilight, thinking
a) it's a teenie movie
and
b) therefore it must royally suck.

I was soooo wrong.
I watched the movie this weekend, and looooooove it! Can't wait for New Moon!

Here's a video of Paramore, a band I've been listening to for a couple of months. Songs of theirs are also featured on the Twilight soundtrack and I really think they're gifted. Listen to it, there aren't that many bands in the same musical category and with female lead vocals which are as good as they are!

oooh, I should've become an ASTRONOMER!!!

*** thoughts after watching Contact, with Jodie Foster***


I'll tell you a little secret about me: I've always been fascinated by alien life forms, ever since I was a little girl. I would stand on my balcony and look up to the sky, wondering...

Roswell & Area 51, bring it on!!

*sigh* so many things to do, so little time...

Dear Reader,

(I'm pretty sure you're the only one who still comes by - understandably). No, I haven't joined a street gang, nor ran off with the circus or gypsies and haven't cracked under pressure (until now at least).

I handed in a very important paper on Monday and will be handing another one (a bit less important) on Tuesday. When I finish my Master studies, I will never write anything again, I swear!!!

Looking forward to the summer road trip, I hope the canadian embassy will process my passport application quickly.

On another note, I talked to a good friend of mine back home and she told me our 10 year high school reunion - which I missed and it was really getting to me - was actually boring. I'm starting to realize my home is really here now.

I'm starting to gather info on getting a work permit for after my studies and apparently it'll be simpler than I feared, since I'll be considered an academic and that apparently makes it easier for all things immigration here.

What else? Hmm, not much. Heard back in sunny CA all hell brooke loose because of proposition 8.

Yesterday it was 30 degrees in Berlin and there was a thunderstorm. I like thunderstorms!! (and watching late night horror movies alone - at least when I'm brave enough to finish them)

Enough rambling. I'm alive and ok, cancel the search party...

Overdrive

I was at school yesterday from 8 AM to 6 PM (noon to 4 there were no classes)
then I went to meet with my professor to discuss mythesis until 7pm.

I got home, did 30 minutes of cardio, had dinner and from 9pm to 11pm I did some more work for university.

around 1am I was woken up by neighbours who thought it would be a great idea to play guitar and sing "kumbaya" with all their windows open. I politely asked them to stop, but they were not happy about it. I was so mad it took another 30 minutes to go back to sleep.

This morning I got up an hour earlier to finish my resume of last week's seminar in my statistics class, am now at work and will be shortly going home to finalise my notes for tomorrow afternoon's literature presentation. and do some cardio.

I feel like my brain is fried.