Well, well, I guess I have to admit my disability to update my journal here
in Germany :-(
My incentive to write is just not as high over here. Don't really know why.
But fact it is ...
Anyways, since the last entry (almost 3 months ago!) many things happened. You're about to read about
There are also tons of pictures ;-)
Beach Party in the "Element 5", Darmstadt
It was Thursday, December 26th. Boarding vacation and Christmas was just over, and we were in a happy holiday mood, looking at 10 more free days to party. Fabian was home in the Odenwald for the whole time and wanted to party hard. So we did. And we started with a bang !
We got word of a beach party in a club 5 minutes away from our home and since
it was damn cold we were longing for some warmth and summer feeling.
So we dressed up in shorts and slippers - and the mood was great right from
the start (still at home):
Below from left to right: My roommate Daniel (or Beavis on this picture), Michael, Fabian, Petra, my brother Carsten and some other guy living at my place ....
There are tons of pictures from the actual party, of which here is a roughly representative sample:
You might realize it wasn't even particularly crowded, but we just jad FUN ! :-))
New Year's party at our place
As Daniel and me liked our house warming party, we decided to throw another
party on New Year's. Cocktails this time.
One might expect a house full of really drunken people, but we weren't as bad
;-) - the Element 5 gang still feeling last Thursday in every bone.
Again, there are lots of pictures - taken with Fabian's, Michael's and my camera. The low quality pictures are with mine ;-)
And our red light really looks pretty suspicious from outside ;-))
You actually have to imagine the red color with every picture - just most of
them taken with flash ...
Carnival
Carnival in Mainz, at least for the Rosenmontagsumzug ...
After having a really stressful time directly before carnival it was the first
time in years that I was in a complete party carnival mode :-)
And party we did :-)
The day started of funny and with lots of painting faces. Actually this didn't change - we were painting again later ;-)
I was supposed to become a magician, but as this looked pretty weird I opted for Marylin Manson ;-)
Though the day in Mainz was pretty cool and funny, the evening was WAY better :-)
Remember Daniel and me visited Michael in Greifswald shortly after I came home
?
Constantly being amongst (mostly female) medicince students we joked around
that we could dress up as nurses on carnival. Well, Daniel said something like
"If you two do that I'm in" - which naturally neither Michael nor
me could resist.
So there we were, wearing nurse dresses, fake hair, red lipstick and pink cheeks. Guido (jokingly!) in the bus to the party: "Michael, you really look sexy in that dress! Mind if I hit on you later when I'm drunk ?" That pretty much casts it into words. We were the attraction of the evening.
FUN :-)) All the pictures are a click away, and here's a random sample:
Headbanging was pretty easy this evening ;-)
OK. Back from a great week of boarding, one day to go till Christmas and ready to post all the pics I held back so long.
First thing when back in Germany was to go to the Octoberfest in Munich with Fabian (working at BMW in Munich) and my brother Carsten who got back from a year in Yale about three weeks before me. Munich's a pretty cool city, and the Octoberfest is a fest of superlatives. Huge line-ups, big beers, a lot of drinking, great after-parties everywhere and a major hang-over! Sadly, I didn't take my camera in the evening, but I'd probably have lost it anyways ;-)
So, I can only offer a couple of shots from late at night and the next day. Some are actually taken out for the sake of our all good reputations ;-)
Two days after returning from Munich I joined Michael and Daniel on a trip
to Berlin and Greifswald, where Michael studies.
Accidentaly, I left my camera with Sylvie in Berlin, so there are no pics from Greifswald. Too bad, it would have been worth it ;-) On the other hand, it might be good that we couldn't take too many indiscrete pics. We had a real good time ;-)) Anyways, here are all pics from Berlin.
After returning from Greifswald, Daniel and me started renovating our new flat in Darmstadt. This took way too much time and effort. We painted the walls and in my room the colour would just fall of the wall. Someone before us apparently did a REALLY bad job for the wall was just peeling off like three layers beneath the surface. So we ended up not finishing the renovation at all until the term began. What followed was quite stressful, attending dozens of courses to figure out which ones to take and still doing renovations in the evening. And on top of that there were the even more stressful many many first years' parties ;-))
Anyways, in the end we finished renovating and by now really feel home here! That was really really important for me after straying for four months in Vancouver, California and Vancouver again. Here are a couple of pictures of my room and the flat.
And what comes after moving in is the flat warming party.
As the host I can't say anything to whether it was good or not, but I know one
thing: I had big big fun ;-))
And then, there was a week of snowboarding. Petra, my brother's girlfriend's sister was looking for two more people to join in for a trip to Val Torens, France. So, Fabian and me decided to go about three days before departure. I was damn lucky to get a bursting cheap combo of board, bindings and shoes for 250 Euro - and it actually turned out to work really well !
Departure was planned for Saturday night (the 14th), and there was no need to hurry until Petra called at Friday morning and saif we're leaving Friday night. Everything got a little bit mixe up then, especially Fabian who could only leave his workplace in Munich at 6:30 pm probably had a pretty stressful time being ready and packed and in Darmstadt at 11:45 pm. Anyhow, it all worked out and we had a great vacation. The fourth person in our appartment was Daniel (not my roommate!), a guy from Darmstadt whom we didn't know but who turned out to be really cool and fun :-)
And this time there are many many more pictures to see :-)
Funnily, my roommate Daniel planned his snowboard vacation just during the same time period and he and the guys he was going with turned out to go to Val Thorens as well. Not even in my holidays, I can get any piece ;-))
I got back to way_more_relaxed mode by now. Too relaxed? Can't be. Realized I'm almost done with my stuff I need in CompSci, just need to do my minors and thesis. Thus, math and psyc wil govern the next year - plus, I might get some research done and will definitely have more free time than in Vancouver.
Anyways, no time to talk about studies, is it ? I gotta tell you tons of things that happened here
These are the topics I'm looking forward to write about - and I have pictures for all of them. I hope I manage to post this until Saturday. Cause that's the day I'm gonna go boarding again - one week in Val Torens, France. Bought equipment the other day and can't wait to hit the slopes :-))).
BTW: It's fucking cold here, minus 15 degrees celsius. That may be normal for Quebec or warm in Canada's interrior. But in Germany this is NOT normal at this time of the year!
ARGHL!! The term starts today, and the renovation isn't even done yet. Not to speak of furniture and the real moving business ...
Oh well, it'll work out. But my free time equals zero :(
Not the big update, that'd be too fast ;-)
Just a note that I'm going to Berlin today with Daniel and Michael, the two buddies I didn't get rid of since highschool ;-) We'll be there for a couple of days and then go to Greifswald for another couple of days. Well, Michael has to stay a bit longer. Two more years ? Longer ? Dunno.
It was good to see them again - but then, oh well, through email I didn't really
feel any distance anyways. It was really good to see mom and dad. They're gone
now, though. Vacation. Happy for them :-)
And I began to realize how much I miss everything. When I was down in California,
I missed Vancouver. In Vancouver, I missed a couple of things about California.
And now I miss everything. And the fact that I don't know when and if I come
back doesn't quite help :o(
Gotta keep myself busy for now. When back from Berlin, Daniel and me are moving into our new flat he organized in Darmstadt. Alicenstr. 33 for those who might know Darmstadt. Mail address and phone number to be posted soon. Email always works ;-)
There's also enough work at university. Not that I was particularly motivated to do it. Oh well, let's see. Wanna get finished soon. But not work too much. Possible ? Dunno. Need to work in a team. Hopefully I'll find one.
Anyways, I gotta pack. We're leaving in 8 hours and I should get some sleep, too...
ARGH, over a month without a single entry. SORRY ! Man, and that although tons of stuff happened. Back to Vancouver, conference in Ithaca, back to Vancouver, back to Germany, Octoberfest, etc.
So many really cool things and some very bad things ...
Need to do a MAJOR MAJOR update soon. Have to run now. Looking at my potential new flat with my buddy Daniel.
Take care and stay tuned. I'll do the update soon ;-)