Royal Blog

It is time...

2010-02-20T13:56:00.001-08:00

... to expand my kingdom to other countries.

I'll start by conquering Portugal- the invasion is scheduled for March the 7th, 13:15.

So I decided to reanimate this blog to keep you posted on the combat action.

Busy bee...

2009-05-17T10:02:00.000-07:00

Since the "Eisheiligen" (according to my dictionary "the blackberry winter") have come and gone without frost, I decided it is time to take my Dionaea out of the fridge and into the sun.
This picture shows how I kept them in the fridge during their hibernation:
I dug out the rhizomes last autumn, wrapped them in moist paper towels and put them in an old honeyglass. Prepared that way they spent the winter in the fridge.Today Iplanted them in pots again.
This time I chose a very simple substratum: pure turf.
Here are the rhizoms- amazing that they cast out even in the fridge:

And here's the rest of the equipment:
I added three Osmocote fertilizerpearls to every pot- I hope that gives them the energy to pitcher very soon!

I also repotted my Ventricosa-Hybrid. Her pot became a little too small for her. Also pure turf this time, but no fertilizer pearls.
The roots:
(@Winnie: Ich finde, die Wurzeln sehen nicht so fit aus, was meinst Du?)
The plant:

The plant in the new pot- notice the little pitcher:

Another Nepenthes-Hybrid of mine is very busy pitchering.
Just some pictures for you to enjoy:
Here's one pitcher, already full-grown, but it hasn't opened yet:
Here it is opening:

The open pitcher:

And, since I already had the camera in my hands, a picture of my beautiful flat:

Things to do...

2009-05-08T07:38:00.000-07:00

... after I finished my Thesis.

Well, since I study again now I thought it might be time to check on that list again.

arrange my flat properly

Done that and gosh- it's beautiful. I shall take pictures, which prove it.

buy a good camera and take amazing pictures of my amazing plants

Didn't do that. Spent all my money on holidays, but now it's on my list of things to do before I die.

buy some fancy dionaea clones and a n.hamata, n.bicalcarata, n.albomarginata 'black'

Well... dionea is something you can't get in winter, but after the "Eisheiligen" I will do that.
And I'm on a list for the nepethes... (and added a n.macrophylla, can't believe I didn't want that one before...)

DIY: Aquarium --> Terrarium

I'd still like to do that, but unfortunately I don't have a place where I can keep the Terrarium...

go to Lissabon, Moscow and England

Well, managed two out of three. :)

have a phantastic minibreak with tobi

I surely did that.

learn C#

Duh. Really should have done that. Or maybe C++.
But I'll do that in the winterterm. There is a lecture, which makes things so much easier.

learn how to do in vitro tissue culture to propagate carnivorous plants

I don't think I will ever be able to do that :/
But I have babys for the first time now. N. lavicola x trusmandensis.

let my hair cut

Huhm. Actually I cut it myself. Not too pretty.

Plaetzchenbacken!

And so many that I really didn't want to eat them anymore.

repair my PC

It's like new.

visit the botanic garden

I did. Several times. Gonna go again in June, when there is a Rose Exhibition.

So... actually nearly 8 out of 12. Fairly good I think.

Well the other list with the New Year's resolutions... at least I stopped gnoaring Fingernails. For now.

Exciting news!

2009-05-04T13:48:00.000-07:00

First one:
I'll be an aunt!
No, I don't marry somebody, who is an uncle- my sister's pregnant!
Third month now (which apparently means, that the biggest risk of loosing the baby is gone)- the baby will come in November.
Everybody here is so much looking forward to it- we all already love the baby, though we don't know it yet.

Second one: (not so exciting)
I'm a student again. Now in proper Engineering. It's just a master and most likely I'm gonna manage in 3 terms, which makes one and a half years. And afterwards I'll hopefully get the really good jobs and PhDs, not just the mathematical ones...

Third one: (maybe not exciting, just sad)
Back there again.

End of University...

2009-02-25T14:30:00.000-08:00

I got my thesis back.
I finished University.
I got a 1.8.
Which is a 2 (second best mark) but fortunatly still sounds like a 1 (best mark). Hrhr.

Mysterious phone call

2009-01-21T14:11:00.001-08:00

Somebody called me today. Somebody, whose phone number begins with the same sequence of integers as the professor's phone number.
You know... THE professor... the one... at the chair... with the interesting topic...

I wasn't there, when this somebody called.

SO gonna call this person back tomorrow at 8 am.
SO EXCITED!

Stuff...

2009-01-19T01:02:00.001-08:00

I know, maybe it's not really interesting for you, but since my life is just waiting for answers, "internetting" (oh yeah, german people use this word now...), watching stupid stuff on TV and antsy bustling around in the hosehold, this was a big event for me.

I got some greek-yoghurt-cultures from Lakelands to go with the Easy-Yo-yoghurtmaker, which I don't have.
But honestly, which culture just works with ONE particular yoghurtmaker? So I got it.
Yesterday I wanted to try it and now look at the packages of the cultures I normally use and the Lakeland one.

The normal one:

The Lakeland one:
Both of them:

I guess I'll have to experiment with it...

While writing this lousy post, I decided to write another boring post, where I will tell you about my toothpaste-problem and afterwards, I will do something better then internetting, watching TV, ... so I really have something to talk about.

Maybe I will practice knitting, or I will finally buy a good camera and take lots and lots of pictures in the botanic garden.
Maybe I will take the aquarium and make it a beautiful terrarium (which right now is a bit useless, since my plants don't pitcher anyway (I hate the heating)) or do anything else from my list...
Or I could buy a better computer and get some good games for it...

Addiction councelling

2009-01-07T12:18:00.001-08:00

Took a test.
Here's the result:

Ergebnis: Die ideale Sucht für dich ist ...

Alkohol

Unser täglich Lobotomie gib uns heute. Welche Droge schafft es, Hirn, Leber, Milz und geschätzt zehn andere Organe gleichzeitig und mit militärischer Präzision zu vernichten und dabei noch so köstlich nach Feierabend und Jugend zu schmecken?

Zugegeben, manchmal dröhnt der Schädel, rebelliert der Magen. Aber wer ein Kampftrinker werden will, und genau das empfehlen wir dir, sollte daran nicht scheitern. Du hast schließlich keinen Bock auf irgendwas, dass du nicht im Laden kaufen kannst. Etwas, wo du am Ende noch große Wegen laufen musst, wo du Stress hast. Alkohol ist billig und einfach zu besorgen. Wir wünschen dir ein fettes Prosit auf die Abhängigkeit!

Cheers!

PS: http://www.die-suchtberatung.de/drogentest/frage1.php That's the URL, if you want to find out what YOUR drug is.

word clouds

2009-01-06T13:57:00.000-08:00

I've discovered word clouds.
No, not I discovered them. Sylvia did. And showed me.
The word cloud is supposed to count the words in your blog and print the most common ones in a cloud. Size of Word correlates with the frequency, the word is used in the blog.
So I tried it, when I was at the Valentine's house for a splendid holiday and got a loveley little cloud.
I was proud, that the words "Tobi" (my boyfriend), "parents" (my parents) and "thesis" (my thesis) were in the cloud. That shows that I talk about the really important things in life, like love and family and job.
(Still, the word "bloody" was bigger, how embarrassing.)
And now I wanted to redo the cloud to add to my blog and it is completly different- though I didn't change anything. Weird isn't it?
I thought, the website would just go through all the words and look how often I used them, hence ALWAYS create the same cloud...
How disappointing. (Oh, disappointment was one of the words in the cloud.)

Oh and another thing I discovered on holiday was a shirt. On the New Year's Eve party a girl wore a shirt saying "Not born a princess, but if the crown fits...." (or something equivalent, I don't remember Exxxactly.)

Entry in Queen's log.

2008-11-26T10:27:00.000-08:00

25.11. 20:27: Thesis finished.
26.11. 9:00: Thesis brought to copyshop.
10:46: Fetched thesis (and payed 60 Euro for it).
11:01: Handed thesis in.
11:30: Can't be happy about it anymore because I have been told that, though promised,
I won't be able to write the doctor's thesis I wanted.
19:36: Drinking beer and wondering, what to do instead. Feeling lost.

Bloody Thesis!

2008-11-02T01:27:00.000-07:00

Hi there,

I thought, I just let you know the reason for not blogging. That's it:

I plot things with matlab. These pictures are all wrong, but pretty, aren't they?
I think about framing the next one and decorating my staircase with it:
And that's what you call "Mathematics"....
But I have to admit, now, in the end, when I can already see where everything is going and when every hour of work gives me a new page in my thesis... it actually starts being FUN!

Pizza!

2008-06-15T03:35:00.000-07:00

Always dreamed about your homemade Pizza being as good as the ones in italian Restaurants?
Well, I did.
And now I found out how to do it.
Bake it in a pan instead of in the oven.
Delicious!

TUMMS, GNTM

2008-05-22T14:28:00.000-07:00

Wow, TUMMS is over again. It always is too early...
When I was at TUMMS a program for pupils with interests in Maths 2003, I fell in love with it. And since I study, I keep in touch with it. First, I was just a student, who was there to answer questions and now I am part of the Organization- Team. It's mine, now and I love it.
And I dare say, this was the best TUMMS ever (actually I say that after every TUMMS, but this time it's for real!). Matthias, my partner and I were a little afraid of this year's program.
There were 120 candidates and we could take 30 of them. So we took the best. And they all were really really good.
When I read the applications, I felt stupid.
So, since we had the creme de la creme of "in maths interested pupils" we thought.... those pupils might be... well... we feared, they might not be able to communicate; might not have any social life or social skills...
But it was SUPER. The first TUMMS without any problems. The group was phantastic, everybody got along very very well and it was a very nice, but though exausting week!

Second news: Germany's next top model is on air again.
And just right now, in that moment, I am very very desperate because the coverage on prosieben.de lags... oh no!

PS: I know, what you're thinking right now. And no, it's not true. I can have a relationship, which is going very well AND watch Germany's next top model. Both is phantastic.

Disappointment

2008-05-14T04:44:00.000-07:00

Sunday we've been in the Opera again. Music was nice, singers were great, but the stage setting... grrr...
Does this look like the flying dutchman? (Picture source: staatsoper.de)
Half the play took place in a fitness center. The actors were dressed in neon-colored sport dresses. It was annoying.
So glad I had a student ticket and wasted only 10 Euro on this ***.
No wonder after the show there were "booh- shoutings".
Why can't they just play old operas the old-fasioned, lovely way with real costumes, a nice stage and no ugly modern stuff, that doesn't fit and spoils the whole atmosphere?
When I was in Alice in Wonderland, there was a very modern scenery, too, which was ok, since the debut performance was just in 2007.
Modern opera- modern production. Old opera- old fashioned production, that's how it should be!
The problem is, that everybody thinks it's great and good to make something new out of old pieces of art. But I'm sure, Wagner'd rotate in his grave, if he could see this mess.
And anyway- if I went into a museum and painted a pink mustache on a Rembrandt portrait to make it fancy and new, to live out my creativity, to express myself and adjust the old man to modern life, I'd go to jail. But if anybody does this to the opera or theatre, it's considered to be art and I have to pay and suffer by watching it.

The Queen's Palace

2008-04-18T13:03:00.000-07:00

You all know, that I'm living in a house with my family.
What you possibly didn't know is, that the 2nd floor of this house has it's own kitchen and bathroom.
My parents very kindly decided to move out there and gave it to me.
Isn't it lovely?
My own flat, but still in touch with my family. So, at the weekend, when nobody's at home, I have my very own empire and during the week, when my parents live here, too, everything is just as it used to be.
Fabulous.
First, I was very concerned. I felt very very guilty to make my parents leave their home. But then, on the other hand, they didn't use the kitchen anyway. So I am very successfully repressing my sense of indebtedness and enjoying my own four walls.
Take a look at it and be happy with me!
First, my kitchen:
Now, my 'living room'- in fact, the whole flat except of the bathroom is one huge L- shaped room:

Well, of course, nothing is quite finished yet, since I just "moved out" on thursday.
But I already feel very comfortable and at home.
Oh, last picture, my adorable pinboard. Look at all these piggies!

Rome, sweet Rome...

2008-04-10T00:53:00.001-07:00

Yes, hurray, we have been in Rome again!
It was the most wonderful holiday of my life, I guess. The weather was perfect- sunny enough to show off with my brand new RayBan- sunglasses but not too warm.
We spent a lot of time strolling around the town, visiting some churches and enjoying the Dolce Vita.
First picture on the right shows, that in Rome even waiting for the bus (which we had to do a lot, since the roman bus drivers drive only if they want to and most of the time they just don't really feel like driving...) can be fun.
Then the necessary standard-pictures of the Castel Sant'Angelo, the Ponte Sant'Angelo and the Basilica of Saint Peter.
By pure chance we came around a very interesting exhibition:
Leonardo da Vinci- you all know him- did some technical drawings- you all know them- and in this exhibition, they built models of his inventions. So you could always see Leonardo's drawing and the realisation of his ideas at the same time, which was both beautiful and interesting.
The exhibition was near the Piazza del Popolo, where we took another very touristy picture of ourselves (notice the sunglasses!).
The lion on the same place and I got along very well.
So after all the studying we finally got a chance to look on the bright sight of life...

Tomorrow...

2008-03-26T03:09:00.000-07:00

... is the last exam. Ever.
Then I will reanimate this poor little blog, that I disregarded so much in the last time...
as well as my plants (hope, I'll manage to reanimate THEM again...) my room... actually everything.

Well, my next project will then be to learn to wave properly, which is essential for a good queen, as I found out here.

New Year's Resolutions

2008-01-10T12:01:00.000-08:00

I still bite my fingernails.
And I will go on. At least till February, when my exams are.
I didn't cook gnocchi yet.
And I won't, because in February, I will have my exams.
I didn't post for quite a long time. Because... you know.
The last time I took pictures was on Christmas Day. And I didn't have the time to post them yet.
Because in February...
We had a lovely Christmas. We didn't celebrate for years, but this time, my big sister and her boyfriend invited everybody. So they came: My parents, my grandparents, grandaunts, a friend of my father and his girlfriend (girlfriend? Do you say that for people aged 50 ++ ?), my little sister and her boyfriend and me and my boyfriend.
Since my sister told everybody to bring a little something to eat, everybody brought enough to feed a whole army.
And presents.
And my father fell in love with his home- grown Christmas-y decoration (which really smelled nice):

It's my party...

2007-12-09T12:40:00.000-08:00

... and I cry, if I want to,
cry if I want to, cryyyyy, if I want to....
you would cry, too, if it happened tohooo yoouuuu...

No, I didn't cry and it wasn't exactly a party, but a nice evening in an italian restaurant with Tobi, Jan, Lena and Luise.
Here are some pictures!

Alice in Wonderland

2007-11-22T22:09:00.000-08:00

As I told you before, we have a subscription for the Opera this season. Last saturday it started, we watched Alice in Wonderland. It was confusing, but the music was not as bad, as you would expect from a modern piece of art.
The most exiting part of it was obviously, that Kent Nagano himself was conducting.
Since the opera was quite boring, I didn't have to focus so much on it, so I spent most of my time and my brain's powers on making plans, how I could arrange a meeting with Kent afterwards.

2007-11-12T03:54:00.000-08:00

Just looked at the date of the last post and saw, that it has been one month ago, that I've been posting the last time. Amazing.
So, beeing rememberd of this blog by 'ahems' in the comments, briefly the news:

First news: Yes, "Tobi, my boyfriend".
I split with Michael beginning of August and now have Tobi. He is friendly, attractive, much nerdier than I am and he's head over heels in love. His inamorata is beautiful, her high quality brushed metal body takes your breath away and her name is "Baby" (like the girlie in "Dirty Dancing"). Surprisingly, I am not too jealous of her. Maybe, the reason is, that after the necessary half-an-hour-encouragement-dance, that Tobi executes for her every day, she produces a delicious cappuccino...
Oh, she has a homepage, too, where she publishes some pictures of herself (Baby Twin) and the rest of the Gaggia- Family.
A picture of Tobi (seen from the usual 6- bottles- of- finest- russian- vodka- perspective) is on the right hand side (of my blog, not of her hp, she wouldn't publish pictures of him (Oh, so sad, these stories of unrequited love...)).

Second news: I stupefy. Ok, I admit, maybe it is not that new, I have had this sneaking suspicion for quite a time, but now it is official: I have lost one fourth of my wisdom in form of a tooth.
It feels uncomfortable, but I guess, that's life, you loose one thing (tooth, wisdom) and gain another (inflammation).

Oh, and, do you know the merde series by Stephen Clarke?
Read the first two and I am thrilled. So funny. Highly recommend those books!

Finally back...

2007-10-15T11:47:00.000-07:00

Back where?
Back home:
Yes, I arrived back home. After my loveley loveley trip to Moscow, I went to Vienna with my parents and Tobi, my boyfriend. It was a wonderful holiday, full of Rubens (loved and adored!), white wine (loved and enjoyed- always there for me, true friend!) and diseases (not loved, not adored, but still always there for me). What could be more pleasant?
Back in the past:
This weekend we had the annual TUMMS get- together and I met some close friends from "my" TUMMS, TUMMS 7 (now it is TUMMS 11)... it was nice to talk to them and it felt like being back in these old times...
Back at university:
Nice on the one hand . I enjoy some lectures and I like having mathematicians around. But on the other hand this Semester will be full of work. A lot of work. Ugly work.
I will face my final exams in spring and I will have to start preparing now. No, actually some weeks ago, but what the hell...
Another nice thing: I have another nice offer for my "Diplomarbeit". Geometry. Nice topic, nice professor. Guess, I will do it.
Now I will leave the blog and you again to spend some time with my father and my good friend, the Sauvignon blanc.

And more explanations...

2007-09-24T09:37:00.000-07:00

... or not?
I'd fancy the idea of a quiz...
Let's say... a bottle of cheap russian Vodka for the first one, who names the sightseeings on the pictures correctly?

...and explanations...

2007-09-22T11:07:00.000-07:00

The picture on the top shows a fountain in the VDNH (Allrussian Exhibition Center). If I hadn't been there on my own, I would have forced my company to take a picture of me, dancing around in a golden dress with the girls...
The second is the grave of the unknown Soldier with the eternal fire.
The third one shows me and a cow in front of my favourite restaurant, Mu- mu.
I'm the one on the left, holding the baloon.
Fourth picture is an old man selling stuff on the street. Typical for Moscow.
And the last one is the Church of Christ the Saviour. Inside, there is more gold. Actually, the whole church consists of nothing but gold.
I decided to put one of my bedrooms in there, as soon as I reached my major target- world domination.

Pics...

2007-09-22T10:33:00.001-07:00

2007-09-10T11:25:00.000-07:00

Руссия!

2007-09-10T10:48:00.000-07:00

I finally arrived in Russia. Not today, but on Saturday.

I haven't had the time to take a lot of pictures yet, so just few pictures of my home for the next three weeks, which I share with Ira, Lena and Samy.

You can see the floor, the kitchen and the bathroom. Pictures of the girls and our room will follow.

Oh, and you can see Samy, the mean cat, who always tries to bite and scratch me. If she doesn't get me, she takes the plant. Proof is the following picture.

Free Hugs!

2007-08-22T08:52:00.000-07:00

Today, I saw and experienced something too wonderful to be true.
A guy stood at the Marienplatz with a big sign saying "Free Hugs".
Since I've been feeling a little lonely lately, of course I went and grabbed one.
For a second I have been tempted to ask for seconds, but then I thought of my boyfriend and just went home.
The atmosphere at the Marienplatz changed so much, just because of this boy! Normally, everybody there is grumpy and tries to run as fast as possible, no matter, how many people they have to push aside. Today, people kept standing around, chatting and of course looking, who has the courage to accept the offer made on the sign.
There were a lot of people, who seized their chance... I don't know why, but I really think, that it is sweet of this boy to give all of them a little comfort.
But quite sad, how many people there are, who think, it is nice to be hugged by a complete stranger.

Most likely this young man just lost a bet. Or marries tomorrow or something like that. But nevertheless: what a good idea. I wish, there were more people like him.

Why...

2007-08-21T11:26:00.001-07:00

... I didn't post for such a long time and won't start within the next one and a half weeks, has two reasons:
a) I have to work. Everyday. Eight hours. Or more. Depends on how much money I want to earn.
b) I spend my internet- time reading this! I found it at Sylvia's blog and think it is really funny.
Since my sound card driver didn't show up again, I don't have alternatives anyway...

Today, my invitation from Moscow arrived. So, tomorrow after work, I will go to the Russian embassy immediately to keep the visa as cheap as possible (still- it will be incredibly expensive) and then book my flight (which will be incredibly expensive now, too).
Of course, (why do I actually mention it?) the application form for the visa is not online, my beloved Error 404 appears, if I click on the link on the embassy's hp. And I need to hand in this bloody application form twice.
Not sure, if this will turn out right...
So, if I am very lucky, next week on Friday, when I will be through with my work at BrainLab, I will leave for Russia and hopefully Ukraine for a month! Hooray!
And an even bigger Hooray for the one- week's holiday in southern Europe (most likely Greece), I will be enjoying with my bf afterwards- SO MUCH looking forward to it!

New thoughts about Renaissance Artists

2007-08-15T05:44:00.001-07:00

Why didn't I know this, before I went to Florence?

Florence

2007-08-12T09:09:00.000-07:00

Wow, finally arrived back home (left Florence at about 9am and arrived here in front of my PC at about 11.40pm- would you believe it?).
Again... I didn't take any pictures, because I forgot my camera back home. But Christian took some with his mobile phone. Maybe I'll go and get them.
Now I know everything about the way from Gothic to Renaissance and of course Renaissance Architecture. Florence is quite a nice town, but I am not so sure if I'd go there again... there are so many tourists!
In front of the uffizi gallery the queue was enormous. I am sure, people waited about 5 hours to get in there. Since we reserved tickets, we got in a little quicker, but it still took us about an hour of queuing. Awful!
The plan for today was to go on with the tidy-up thing. But, when I walked into my sister's room (to get to the balcony to see how my carnivors are (Uh- did I tell you I have some? They are beautiful!)) I went past this huge stack of magazines... and I couldn't resist.
So I spent most of the day in bed reading this stuff... I can't believe how I managed to live without all this advice before!
Honestly, I didn't know, what to do, if I wanted to be like Kirsten Dunst (It's easy, I just have to buy a 21 Euro handbag at Mango) and now I know, what to say, if a man asks me how many other men I have had in bed so far (the correct answer is: "I can count them on the fingers of two hands.") oh and they said, that it is not okay to have an affair with your best friend's boyfriend (Wouldn't have thought about this myself...).
My life is saved. I am sure, everything, that went wrong so far is going to be better, now, that I know, what to do!

On the road again.

2007-08-05T23:14:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to say bye for a week. I'm off again. In Florence with my father and Christian, my big sister's boyfriend.
We'll have a good time there- at least my father and I will. Since Christian offered to be the guide to all the interesting sights, pieces of architecture, paintings and gardens, it might be some hard work for him...

2007-08-05T15:50:00.001-07:00

All the stuff I found!

2007-07-27T14:13:00.000-07:00

Wow, there are such a lot of things, that I wanted to keep as a souvenir to always remind me of loveley times, I have spent in my life.
So I put them somewhere in my pretty green room and yesterday, when I did some tidying- up, I found a lot of them again!
First: Valentin, a friend of mine, awarded me the highest honor, the Miss Maths 2004 sash. On the one side it says "Miss Maths 2004", on the other one "Queen of the Zero Vector Space" and it is decorated with pis and phis and es.
How pretty I look with it!
I am so proud!
Oh the same guy was the one, who taught me programming!
On the right is the list of advice ("Programmieren für Mathematikerinnen") he wrote for me.
Oh, and another nice thing I found was this bill:About 2 years ago, I visited my best friend for a weekend. Together with our chinese friend we made a lovely trip to Bamberg, which is a beautiful small city in the north of Bavaria. We went to a cafe there and had two cokes (2.50 each, makes 5 Euro), one Sprite (also 2.50) and the Chinaman had some Apfelstrudel, which was 3 Euro. Makes 10.50 alltogether. So far, so good.
But: if you look a little further on the bill, you can see, it says, that it is 5.36 netto + 16% tax, which is 1.45 (huhm? I always thought 16% of 5.36 was about 0.86?), which makes together.... 10.50!
Wow. What a nonsense. But people seem not to be able to calculate properly. Or cancel, as Alex found out here.
So, now I am quite done with all the pictures I wanted to show you, just one more.
Last week, I didn't feel very good, so my beloved sister Clara and her boyfriend James went to the municipal park and stole flowers for me to cheer me up.
I have never seen flowers so pretty and beautiful. And they smell very nice, too!
I put them on my bedside table, between my terracotta piglet and my stone tablet, saying "A friend loves at all times". So anytime, I look into my room, they make me happy.

2007-07-26T07:50:00.001-07:00

European English

2007-07-20T14:23:00.000-07:00

Yes, I'm back from France and yes, it was wonderful and no, right now I am too tired to tell about it.

Just have a look on what Stefania showed me some days ago:

The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will
be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was
the other possibility.

As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English
spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5- year phase-in
plan that would become known as "Euro-English".

In the first year, "s" will replace the soft "c". Sertainly, this will make
the sivil servants jump with joy.

The hard "c" will be dropped in favour of "k". This should klear up
konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter.

There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the
troublesome "ph" will be replaced with "f". This will make words like
fotograf 20% shorter.

In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to
reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible.

Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which hav e always
ben a deterent to akurate speling.

Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent "e" in the languag is
disgrasful and it should go away.

By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" with
"z" and "w" with "v".

During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou"
and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensi bl riten styl.

Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu
understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru.

UND EFTER ZE FIFZ YER, VE VIL AL BE SPEKING GERMAN LIKE ZEY VUNTED IN ZE
FORST PLAS.

Opera...

2007-07-13T13:38:00.000-07:00

... or not, that is the question.

Tomorrow, there is "Oper fuer alle"- Opera for everyone on the Max- Josephs- Platz here in Munich.
That means: They have an opera inside the building (Mussorgsky), where you have to pay a lot of money for your seat and they show it open air outside for free.
I guess, I will go there after studying in the library (which is just next door), if anybody joins me.

And if not.. well, I took out a subscription for the opera next year...
It will be wonderful, but I still have no shoes to my beautiful Marilyn- Monroe- dress.

I don't like Thursdays...

2007-07-12T13:12:00.000-07:00

It's one thing to spend a weekend in the library or two. That can be cool. But I seem to be living in the library right now and I have to admit, I miss my real home.
I miss the green walls and I miss my little piggy, that loves me so much!

So I decided to have a break. Next Sunday, my parents, Jamie and I will go to France! We will make a tour around the Elsaß, watch a lot of arts, drink a lot of wine and SWITCH OUR BRAINS OFF.
It will be wonderful. So much looking forward to it.

And I promise to take my cam with me. I will give it to James, he shall make a lot of pictures. :)

VV33k3nd !n 7h3 1!8|²4|²y

2007-07-01T11:51:00.000-07:00

Wow, I have spent a whole weekend in the library and (that's the interesting part) enjoyed it. Can you believe it?
It was loveley- we were a group of five on saturday and a "gang of four" (well.. not exactly, but at least there was one asian face among us, though it was Japanese) today.
It was loveley to have coffee breaks and lunch together.
Phantastic. Communication. Social touch. Not growing loneley.

I hope, we'll do it next weekend again, it was wonderful!

Oh, and I learned some nice stuff today: Leetspeak, or 1337 5p3ak, if you write it properly. This is what wikipedia sais about it.

Tomorrow, I will meet some people (e.g. James :) ) at the pizza hut for some all you can eat buffet. And guess what- I am just busy with charging my camera...

James is back!

2007-06-25T14:19:00.000-07:00

Hooray, finally it happend! James is back.
James is my sister's boyfriend, they got to know each other, when my sister has been in America.
He has spent about 2 month with us last year and we were all very much looking forward to him coming back and we expected him in May.
But he had lost his passport, so he couldn't get the visum for Germany, so whenever I asked Clara, if she heard anything about James, she answered "No". What she wanted to say was: "No, nothing new- he still doesn't have his visum and I don't know, when he will come here.". But I thought, she didn't hear anything about him (which wouldn't be his style AT ALL), so for me it was clear, that he was injured or dead or whatever.
SO GLAD, that he finally showed up!
He is a VERY NICE guy!
Last Saturday, my boyfriend (who is from Belgium, hence speaks french fluently) invited him (who has been on a french school, hence speaks french fluently) and Johan (who has been in France for one year, hence speaks french fluently) and me (who learned french at school, hence, doesn't speak a word) to his place to eat burgers.
So, obviously I was the only one, who wasn't able to communicate! AH!
But James saved me by talking german (his german is on the same level as my french- only difference: It took me 3 years of french classes at school to get so far- he just picked it up, when he was here last time.), so I didn't have to be ashamed of my french.
So on the average it was a loveley evening...
On Sunday (as usual in the last six weeks) we went to the "Biergarten"- it was a spontaneously cut decision: When I came home from the library at six, I contacted Johan, if he wanted to go out. He suggested the Biergarten and we decided, who has to call whom to invite.
So I called Tobi, a friend of mine (or actually Michael's), who has been with us in the Biergarten several times... when I got him on the phone, the first words he said were: "Oh, I have been waiting for your call the whole day long- I just couldn't believe, that we wouldn't go to the Biergarten this week...".
Am I so predictable???
Nevertheless, it was a wonderful evening and I am looking forward to next sunday.. ;)

VIENNA, TUMMS, ...

2007-06-04T14:55:00.000-07:00

Wow.. didn't post for such a long time, because I was so busy.
First, I had to face this operation (I broke my ankle last year and it was fixed with bolts- they came out last monday) and fight with a doctor (honestly, she was crazy, I had to hit her with my crutch, before she let me go- amazing, istn't it?), then I went to Vienna, where I spent a nice holiday with my parents.
We went to some fabulous museums, such as the Liechtenstein museum and the KHM (Kunsthistorisches Museum) and had a good time relaxing in the famous Viennese Beisln, drinking a glass of wine and chatting.
But what I liked best about the holiday was an eating out, when my father tried to order ordinary goulash and the waitress served him the wrong dish TWICE.
For understanding the fun I had, you might have to know, that my father is a passionate choleric person...
Well, on Tuesday 23.45 I left Vienna, arrived in Munich at five and started the TUMMS- program at 16.00...
The TUMMS is a program for pupils with a special ability in maths. I organzie and coach it and always have a lot of fun.
Since I didn't have a charged camera with me, I can't post pictures... here is one from the last TUMMS program in the theatre...

Operation...

2007-05-22T06:58:00.000-07:00

... yesterday.
I thought, I'd just go to the hospital, have the operation and go back home again.
But it's not like this. The foot hurts! I can't walk! And I will have to use crutches for the next two weeks!
And... I'm going to go to Vienna on Friday and I have the TUMMS- a program for pupils at my university next week!

AWFUL!

All by myself...

2007-05-17T13:01:00.000-07:00

Well, didn't post for a long time, because my life is boring...
I go to work two days a week and regenerate from it the rest of the week and that's it.

But Michael is not so boring. He has seized his Chance and went to the Ammersee to do a sailing course. It's four days from today till Sunday and another two days in June. Training + accomodation + food (Hah- Michael will ruin them by eating his usual amounts of food...) all together for just 100 Euro.
Crazy, isn't it? But the thing most crazy is, that only 20 people could take part. Of course there applied LOADS.
So.. being a bad gf, I hoped that he wouldn't be chosen for the course and I could spend the long weekend on a short break with him, but... of course... being a soldier of fortune, he won the lottery.
So now I am all by myself and so broken- hearted, that I spend my time watching "Germany's next top model" in TV, a totally ridiculous show, where lots of stupid girls compete in the field events "walking", "walking" and.... "walking".
Oh... and wearing dresses, of course. Or not.
I hate this show.

Since Milla, my favourite, has been sent packing.

So... of course I am happy for him, that he was the lucky one, who won the course and I am exited to hear what he will (hopefully) tell me, when I ring him tomorrow.

It's not my fault...

2007-04-28T09:08:00.000-07:00

...that I bother you with these details of my life, in which you are certainly not interested, it's Sylvia's. Just wanted to straighten that out first.

1. What time did you get up this morning? 7.39 - It's Saturday... time to sleep longer...

2. Diamonds or pearls? - Diamonds. Pearls are for bunnies.

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Don't remember. Too long ago...

4. What is your favourite TV show? That's a hard one. Either... "Wissenshunger"- a show, where you can see, how food is produced or "Zacherl"- my favourite cooking show. But they don't send it anymore.

5. What is your middle name? Anna. But don't tell.

6. What is your favourite cuisine? Mine.

7. What foods do you dislike? Anything with too much artificial sweet flavours. Oh and coconutstuff.

8. Favourite crisps? There are no nice ones in Germany. Vinegar and Salt in England is delicious!

9. What is your favourite CD at the moment? Hm. Hard to say. Elvis: More Gold of the King. Or maybe Stones: Voodoo Lounge. Not sure...

10. What kind of car do you drive? BMW 316 (well... I do not exactly drive it. But I owe one third and I could drive it whenever I wanted to...)

11. What characteristics do you despise? Bigotry and wastefulness and moralising and and and...

12. What are your favourite clothes? Beautiful dresses like in "Gone with the wind"! Oh, I'd LOVE to owe one of these..

13. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation? Can't say. There are even so many beautiful places in Europe...

14. Favourite brand of clothing? Don't have one.

15. Favourite time of day? Early Morning. When everybody else is asleep and nobody on the streets.

16. Where were you born? Dachau near Munich.

17. What is your favourite sport to watch? Don't watch any sports...

18. Who do you think will not respond? Since there is nobody who reads my blog and has an active blog and didn't post this yet, NOBODY will respond.

19. Person you expect to post first? haha

20. Pepsi or Coke? Sugarwater...

21. Beavers or ducks? What a weird question. But ducks of course. Sweet little things. Especially duffy duck. Nak nak nak nak nak...

22. Are you a morning person or a night owl? Both actually. Just not an afternoon person. Afterlunch-naps are my favourites.

23. Pedicure or manicure? Too poor for either of it.

24. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share? I work at BrainLab now. They do medical engineering- exciting!

25. What did you want to be when you were little? Surgeon or pathologist.

26. What is your best childhood memory? There are far too many good ones to pick out one special and name it best.

27. Do you have any Piercing? Ears.

28. Ever been to Africa? No.

29. Been in a car accident? No.

30. Favourite famous person of the opposite gender? Colin Firth. Definitely.

31. Favourite day of the week? Saturday.

32. Favourite restaurant? Twisted Bavarian. Beautiful restaurant with a library (where you could just grab books and take them home), comfortable armchairs and everybody speaking English. And greeting you when you came in. But it closed. :(

33. Favourite Flower? hyacinths.

34. Favourite ice cream? Haagen-Dasz Vanilla Caramel Brownie with caramel sauce.

35. Favourite fast food restaurant? muh- muh in Russia.

36. How many times did you fail your driver's test? None.

37. From whom did you get your last email? Tobias.

38. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card? Difficult... a soap store. or a kitchen store. or a book store. Maybe I find one which is specialised in all of these disciplines.

39. Bedtime? differs.

40. Who are you most curious about their responses to this? haha.

41. Last person you went to dinner with? Don't remember.

42. What are you listening to right now? Meat Loaf: The monster's loose and Michael lecturing about cotton buds and their package.

43. What is your favourite colour? green!

44. How many tattoos do you have? None!

45. How many are you tagging? Don't understand this question.

46. What time did you finish this post? 18:34

47. Favourite magazine? Never bought any. But I think I would love "Meine Familie und ich". :)

Ah, ah, ah beautiful suhunday...

2007-04-22T11:01:00.000-07:00

... this is my my my beautiful dahahay...
and it was, but not only a beautiful sunday, but a beautiful weekend.
On Saturday, i spent the whole day with my favourite hobby: cooking. My beloved sister and I went shopping and afterwards prepared a feast of lasagna, noodles with a delicious aubergine sauce, banoffee pie and an amaizing very very rich doublelayer (no- doublefilling, triplelayer) chocolate cake. Since we don't want to become incredibly fat, we froze most of the stuff.
In the evening, I went to Traunstein to see my parents. We had a loveley evening, drank beer (or wine in case of my parents) and solved the worlds biggest problems by talking. Of course.
Today we made a trip to Salzburg. Beautiful city, good company, phantastic weekend.

More victories...

2007-04-19T03:10:00.000-07:00

Our Diploma consists of (I think I once mentioned it here) 5 parts: three big exams (applied maths, pure maths and a third one you may choose freely) , one "Diplomarbeit" (equivalent to the master thesis), one "Projektarbeit" and the second subject (engineering for me).
Yesterday, my project was over. I worked at the chair for combinatorial geometry for nearly half a year, wrote a project thesis about it and gave a speech in front of the whole chair on tuesday. So now I am through with the project, got a very good mark and- which is even better- some offers:
When my thesis supervisor asked me to his bureau for a feedback he said: "Well... if you want a job, just come here, I'll give you one. Oh- and when you are looking for a "Diplomarbeit", I'll give you one as well." Isn't that just perfect? A complete success, a glorious victory... *whisper* and thank god now it is over...

Victory...

2007-04-12T16:12:00.000-07:00

Today I celebrated a glorious victory against the evil forces of my computer.
Matlab, the program I use frequently crashed some weeks ago. Without any traceable reason.
Today, when I really needed Matlab to work on my talk for tuesday I decided to use my boyfriend's PC, for his Matlab always works (*whisper* because he never uses it). So I copied my data on his PC and tadaaaaa his Matlab crashed as well. Being very clever I instantly deduced that the reason for the breakdown of this powerful program might be hidden in my data files. So I started deleting... and at some point... I won- it works again!
I celebrated this victory with friends and a quiz game (Spiel des Wissens) -we had a wonderful evening and gained enough strength to enter combat again tomorrow morning.

Happy Easter!

2007-04-08T07:49:00.000-07:00

Today, we have been at an Easter Festival in the Olympiapark. On the average it was boring. It didn't have anything to do with Easter, it was just a huge advertising battle. And moreover I couldn't even grab one of the Shrek-Ear-Hairbands. My only comfort: Because I draw a television tower (in the children's Bastelzelt) I got a beautiful crown... Don't I look very queenlike with it?

\Edit: Michael with the crown: very queenlike, too...

Shattered dreams...

2007-04-03T04:25:00.000-07:00

I've been on the hunt again this morning. SO HAPPY when I found the sweets I loved so much when I was very very small, and the best: they are sugarfree! So I bought them. So for one moment, one tiny little moment I thought, Germany might be on its way. They sell soap sheets and nice sweets... maybe someday they sell acceptable toothpaste- who knows? But when I opened the package of sweets, I found this: Only one good violet candy. Only one! I sent an Email to the company, I'm curious, what they answer.

Treasure hunt...

2007-04-02T11:11:00.000-07:00

I've been on the prowl on saturday and guess, what I cought. SOAP SHEETS!
Yes, they finally sell them in Germany. Unfortunately, they are not as pretty as my "old" ones (which even had the name "Pretty in pink") and they don't smell "fruity" at all, but they have one main advantage: they are very small and stored in a hard plastic box, so you can carry them around in your trouser pockets. Isn't that wonderful?

Dictionary...

2007-03-29T14:30:00.000-07:00

When I was about 11 years old, I found out, that a granduncle (or great- uncle? The dictionary tells me both versions are correct) was married to an english woman, Rosemary. So I visited her, met her family (her daughter Sylvia's blog: http://www.sylviavsblog.blogspot.com/) and saw a bit of England. From this day on I came to England once a year and I never knew, why people would say, that english people are weird. But now I know.
Last week, when I tried to detect how much a pint is in litres I found a table in webster's student dictionary saying that 12 inches is one foot, 3 feet is one yard, 5.5 yards (or 16.5 feet) is one rod or pole, 40 rods is one furlong and 8 furlong (or 1760 yards or 5280 feet) is one mile. Not enough, no, in England people have different measures. Not only Linear Measures (the ones mentioned above), no they have additional chainmeasures and weird surveyor's measures and even weirder dry measures. Not even one of them follows a traceable system.
I wonder, what they originated from. That might be interesting.
Under "P" the dictionary has another interesting word: pickpocket. That is my word of the last week. Because I thought, after the successfully (no- gloriously!) passed exam I deserved a holiday, I have been in Rome with my boyfriend and another friend. But I won't be able to post any pictures of this wonderful holiday, because- yes, of course now you all now- the camera has been stolen. On the last trip in the metro to the airport. How sad... Nevertheless, though the roman waiters have the same level in brazenness as the roman pickpockets in dexterity (is this the right word? I just heard it in computer games...) it has been a very nice holiday and I enjoyed it very much.