theinbetweenismine

just a girl living the expat life

Archives for July 2006

SPF… before I am heading to Berlin

filed under: friends, this and that

spf

Kristine gave us another task for this Friday. We are supposed to post pictures of the following:

1. Something Mean looking.

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Emma is my sister’s cat. She’s the sweetest cat ever and she has never bitten or scratched anyone before. I am going to miss her a lot, so I wanted to take some pictures to take to CA and put on my fridge… and there she is, looking all mean. I don’t believe she agrees with me moving to the States soon.

2. Your weapons

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My supercute, thinly-strapped 4″ high heels… I love them and they look awesome, but if you don’t watch out, I could use them to pierce your eyeballs ;)

3. Your Hiding Place

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Well, this used to be the place in my old room at my parents’ place where I would sit and talk on the phone or read or watch TV or write letters… or just hide from the world. It was either this couch or my bed. Seems to be a pretty common hiding place if you ask me.

So, I am going to Berlin today. I’ve spontaneously decided a few days ago to get a train ticket [I am still using my Weltmeister Bahncard] and keep my promise to visit my friend Silke who moved to Berlin a few years ago. I’ve known her since we were 3 years old and we went to school together. Since I have two more penfriends there, I am making this a “go and visit your friends”-weekend. I’ll be back on Tuesday. If you don’t hear from me beforehand, you’ll get all the news when I get back. Have a great weekend!

Staying cool

filed under: my so-called life, this and that

The only way to stay cool these days is to move around as little as possible, have cold drinks and ice-cream and go swimming.
And that’s exactly what I did :)

On Monday I went to the public spa pool with my aunt and my cousin Nicki. She had brought her godchild along. Yasmin is 13 [naturally looks older like most of the teenage kids do nowadays] and she asked my cousin how old I was. My cousin told her the truth, but she wouldn’t believe her and asked me again to confirm what she had just heard. Then she told me that she thought I was not a day older than 24. Ah, you must love that girl :)
I have to say, it was the first time in maybe 8 years that I had been to the public spa pool in my town. A lot has changed [we have two of these fancy water slides now], but then again, so much looked exactly the way it was when I was there the last time. The one thing that left me dumbfounded was the admission fee… 3.60 are wholly freakin’ expensive for a spa public pool.

Yesterday I had two tutoring lessons [which are a pain in the a** on hot days like that] and then Silke picked me up and we went to an ice-cream place in my town [with the best Italian gelato ever, I have to add]. She only lives about 20 minutes from here and it was really nice that we got the chance to meet up and spent the afternoon together.We chatted about this and that and hardly noticed how time flew and the first time we looked at the watch, it was 3 hours later.

Today, I had two tutoring lessons again [yes, I tutor every day right now] and then I went to the spa pool again. It was really the best idea to spend the afternoon there with the occasional leap into the pool. It’s the only way to stand the heat [unless you have a sprinkler in your backyard!].

Time to relax

filed under: friends, my so-called life

sankim

So I spent Friday with Kim. It was great to have her here with me. We had a fun day relaxing in our backyard, playing SPF, chatting, reading and just enjoying the nice weather. I did my best to cheer her up after feeling so down all week.
In the evening, we had a BBQ with my parents and afterwards I took her to Mönchengladbach for the last-minute rehearsal for Pia’s and Mike’s wedding. The other guys were already “singing and dancing” when we got there. I bet they had a whole lot of fun at the wedding this weekend :)

Saturday morning, my Mom usually goes grocery shopping at a local farmers market and then meets up with some girlfriends for some coffee :) She returned with a nice gift for me yesterday: workout pants from Tchibo. I thought they were so cute.
I love that store. It’s almost as addicting as Ikea. They have changing product lines and they have everything from clothes to electrical equipment to home accessories. It’s awesome and usually good quality.

The rest of the weekend I really took it easy. The temperatures were still well above 90 F and I didn’t move any more than I had to. I read my book, worked on some letters and just hung out in the backyard. Oh yes, and I have this new obsession: Sudoku. Have you played it yet? It’s quite addicting. My Mom, my aunt and I spent the whole afternoon on these puzzles. With some cold drinks and snacks it’s quite a bearable pastime :)

It’s SPF again…

filed under: this and that

spf�

Stuff Unnoticed

Forentreff in Oberhausen 31

I have never got my ears pierced. For some people that’s like a big shock… “Are you serious? You don’t have your ears pierced?”… [like it’s something a girl HAS to do at some point during her life … most likely before the teenage years]. So, I’ve never got them pierced… the earlobes that is. I am wearing a little ring in my right auricle. Can you see it on the picture?… it almost always goes unnoticed.

My Wish

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Right now my biggest wish is to get my green card and be able to live with Jon. The whole immigration process has been going on for much too long.

Stuff Under my [Mom’s] sink

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Well, I have to admit… this is not my stuff under the sink since I am staying at my parents’ house right now. So I hope they will forgive me for showing off theirs :)

Happy SPF everyone… who else played?

WHAT’S UP WITH THE HEAT?

filed under: my so-called life, this and that

I am definitely not made for this weather. I am sweating without even moving. Is this supposed to be right? The thing here in Germany is that most houses don’t have air-conditioning. Houses here are just not built that way. We’ve had hot summers before.. YES… but not like this year [or 2003 for that matter]. We do have basements though. This is probably the only place in the house where you can go and don’t sweat.I’ve been pretty used to hot weather, because the Central Valley always gets freakin’ hot in the summer. I used to work with long pants and a sweater, because our office was blasting the AC while it was over a 100 F outside. I agree… you shouldn’t freeze in the office during the summer, but it was a lot more bearable than this right now. The worst thing: hot feet. They drive me crazy. I’ve been doing cold feet baths on a regular basis lately.
Browsing through some other blogs, I’ve noticed that we’re all in the same boat right now. So I won’t complain anymore ;)

I went to my gynecologist on Monday. Yeah, I know you probably aren’t too interested to hear about this, but if you are a woman, you understand what a sensitive matter this is. So I am moving away in a couple of weeks… to a different country. What am I to do? I had my gynecologist since I was a teenager. I don’t feel comfortable to go and see anyone else about my private parts.
But now get this: my gynecologist actually offered me to come and see him for the annual check ups :) Even though I won’t have health insurance in Germany anymore in a couple of months and I most likely only come home once a year [if at all]. Isn’t this awesome? There are nice people out there!

One thing we don’t really have in Germany foodwise is Mexican food. Yes, we do have some Mexican restaurants, but Mexican cooking is still very rare… partly due to the high prices for Mexican-style groceries. So whenever I come home for a visit, my sister asks me to bring tortillas… a lot of them. On Tuesday she invited me and her best friend for dinner and she made fajitas – a meal that Jon and I cook on quite often, because it’s easy, fast and soooo delicious :) We also had Caipirinhas… REAL good ones this time and I had three! Thanks God that I went to my sister’s place by bike.Yesterday my sister and I hung out with an old friend from College. She’s dating a French guy, she temporarily has a French roommate and we talked about the “chuckholes” of communicating in different languages. Ha, that was hilarious. We were sitting on the little patio attached to the back of her city apartment nestled between other apartment buildings and probably the whole neighborhood could hear us laugh!  This morning I met with Jessi in Neuss for some coffee. We met online and she’s married to an American as well. I got to meet her hubby too which was really nice. It’s funny how you meet people online who share the same experiences and  [have] face[d] the same problems. It feels really good though to be able to talk to people who understand. Thanks for the great time:) [I know you read this, Jess!]Now I am waiting for my girl Kim to get here :) She spontaneously decided to get a ride with someone today and stay with me for a night before she heads over to Pia’s wedding this weekend in Düsseldorf.