Archives for September 2006

SPF… muses

September 29, 2006 filed under: my so-called life

TGIF! And it’s going to be a good one… first of all, I am going to play. Kristine wants to learn about our muses. This is going to be quite interesting, I guess.

1. SomeTHING (not someone) that inspires you to do what you do. (work, hobby, donate, create..whatever)

Nature. It definitely inspired me to study Geography/Geology. I have always – since I was a kid – been fascinated by what nature produces and what I like about Geography is that it combines many different areas [geology/biology/anthropology] that can not really be seen as separate scienes, but have to be seen as ONE.
The picture was taken on a geology field trip through the Southwestern US. Taking the hike up to Delicate Arch [Arches National Park, Utah] was quite exertive, but SO worth it!

This is going to hurt…

September 28, 2006 filed under: nuisance

…the postal service, that is.

I received a letter from the “Deutsche Post” [= German Postal Service = GPS] today stating that the certified letter that I had sent to J at the beginning of August had indeed not reached the recipient. What a surprise! It didn’t say anything about the whereabouts of my letter though. I mean, it had a tracking number after all and yet they obviously weren’t able to locate it.

J told me about two weeks ago that he had received a note from USPS asking if he had received the letter. WTF? I mean, would I have sent an inquiry if he had received it? Is this what they call “investigation”? Asking the recipient if he had gotten the letter? I could easily have done that myself [in fact, I did. What do you know!]

So, while “doing its investigations”, the German postal service just kicked back waiting for the note from the USPS stating that J hadn’t received the letter? Wow, I am “amazed” by the effiency of this tracking system…[NOT]!

Anyway, to cut a long story short, the GPS sent me a form to file a claim and that’s what I am going to do. The letter had a value of $325 and that’s what I will get back from them, every penny of it, plus the postage. I didn’t send this damn letter by certified mail for nothing.

Ha, I win, and they lose!

The weekend-recap

September 25, 2006 filed under: family, my so-called life

Ã‚Â© Perfume

My weekend was pretty much filled with family activities. Friday night I went to the movies with Nina, Dirk and my friend Ira. We watched “Perfume”. Have you read the book by Patrick SÃƒÂ¼skind? It’s one of the most fascinating, yet repugnant books I have ever read. However, the director Tom Tykwer and producer Bernd Eichinger have done a really good job putting this story on celluloid [I have to add, it was a German production :)].

“In the slums of 18th-century Paris a baby is born and abandoned, passer over to monks as a charity case. But the monks can find no one to care for the child – he is too demanding, and he doesn’t smell the way a baby should smell. In fact, he has no scent at all.

Jean-Baptiste Grenouille clings to life with an iron will, growing into a dark and sinister young man who, although he has no scent of his own, possesses an incomparable sense of smell. Never having known human kindness, Grenouille l lives only to decipher the odors around him, the complex swirl of smells – ashes and leather, rancid cheese and fresh-baked bread – that is Paris. He apprentices himself to a perfumer, and quickly masters the ancient art of mixing flowers, herbs, and oils. Then one day he catches a faint whiff of something so exquisite he is determined to capture it. Obessed, Grenouille follows the scent until he locates the source – a beautiful young virgin on the brink of womanhood. As his demented quest to create the “ultimate perfume” leads him to murder, we are caught up in a rising storm of terror until his final triumph explodes in all of its horrifying consequences.”

[quoted from the back of the book]

It has a twist at the end though, so be prepared. If you haven’t read the book, this might hit you from left-field. I encourage you to read the book beforehand though. It will make you appreciate the movie more and you’ll have more of an insight into Grenouille’s personality.

Saturday night, my Mom took me out to a cabaret performance. She and my Dad have a ticket-subscription and since my Dad has left for a school trip last week, I got his ticket :) There were two performances by two comedians, each with his own stand-up comedy program. It was awesome. I do enjoy culturual events like that a lot. Both of the guys were quite talented and they were cracking jokes about stereotypes of us Germans. I wish I could quote some for you, but a) I have a hard time remembering jokes and b) they won’t be funny in English ;)

We also saw my Grandad and great-aunt this weekend and spent some quality time together. I can’t help but think that I have to spend as much time with them as possible as long as I am still here. It somehow scares me realizing that I really won’t be around much anymore in a couple of weeks [hopefully].

Speaking of which, there hasn’t been a letter from the embassy yet. Be assured, I will let you know as soon as there is.

SPF – the awful truth

September 22, 2006 filed under: my so-called life

Kristine is awfully curious this week about our deep and hidden secrets… so let’s make this a little therapy session :) Here are the answers to this week’s assignment:

1. Something you have outgrownÃ¢â‚¬Â¦

OMG! My old Doc Martens. I LOVED them… and I just remembered that they are still in my closet. You probably won’t believe me that they once used to be blue suede, since they are FAR from it now. I’ve worn them like ALL THE TIME and they have been to quite some festivals [= dirt, mud, and the like]. I think that’s where they lost their beautiful color. Yeah, and don’t they look USED?! I don’t think I can pull them off anymore.

Need to vent

September 20, 2006 filed under: nuisance

I am going to kill someone. Seriously. It’s probably not going to hit the right [= the responsible] person, but I don’t care at this point. I am so fed up with it. I said it before and I’ll say it again:

The postal service sucks.

Remember when they delivered my package with the wedding invitations to Jon’s parents about a month after our wedding? – although the person at the post office assured me that the package would not take more than a week – two at the most [and I sent it off in March!]. Jon’s parents had to send out replacement cards as wedding invitations, because they didn’t get the actual [= really nice] invitations in time, although I had sent them off 2,5 month in advance!

Then I’ve had problems with letters that I sent or should have received from a pen friend in Berlin. Within the last like 5 months, two of her letters never arrived, a third one got here after two weeks. I mean, seriously. What’s the deal?
I wrote a complaint to the postal service and they basically told me to fuck off that they are really sorry [blabla], but that there is nothing they can do about it because she didn’t send the letters by certified mail. Therefore, there is no way they can track back where the letters got lost.

Ok, so I am a smart girl and I learn from things like that. Jon asked me to send him a letter with some important documents a while ago and I was kind of hesitant because I was worried it’s going to get lost again. But hey, they just told me that a letter which is sent by certified mail has a tracking number and will be scanned and recorded at every postal office that it passes through, plus, Jon has to sign for it on delivery. It shouldn’t be a problem then, right?

So I sent a certified letter to Jon at the beginning of August. August, 8th to be precise. And do you want to have a guess? Right. You got it. The letter never arrived.

I am not overreacting. I told myself to calm down. Think. They said I can track this letter. So I typed the tracking number into the tracking system on the postal service website. “The letter must be stuck somewhere…”, I told myself. However, the only info I got was that the letter was deposited at post office XY on August 8th. [Ahm yeah, well , I know that. Thank you very much.]

So, I filed another complaint with the postal service and received a response that they are investigating the matter. I have yet to hear back from them. This is just ridiculous.

As you can imagine, I am pissed.

Soccer, party and a headache

September 18, 2006 filed under: this and that

Friday night we went to watch one of Dirk’s soccer games again – we, this is my Dad, my sister, her friend Heidi, Dirk’s Mom and me. We had access to the VIP area again and had some drinks and snacks before the game.
The game was great and MÃƒÂ¼nster won against Bochum II with 2:1 in the 89th minute. What a thriller! Dirk, who plays defense, almost scored, because he always kicks the free kicks and corners.
Afterwards we went to a pizza place with Dirk, his team mate Alex, his parents and his wife Rebecca. It was Rebecca’s birthday and we wanted to celebrate a little bit.

Saturday was my Dad’s birthday. I helped my Mom with chores around the house and went shopping for the party. It was amazingly great weather on Saturday, so that we could have the party in our backyard. That has not happened on my Dad’s birthday for years. Usually it is cold and rainy in September. My Dad had about 20 guests and the last guests which were Dirk, Nina, my aunt and my cousin left around 2:30 a.m. :)

Sunday we slept in late and recuperated from the party. The weather was not that nice anymore and it was a good day to spend on the couch. I finished the book that J recommended to me called “Riptide” by his current favorite authors Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child.

Today was a little crappy as a headache has been bothering me all day. It definitely has been the change of weather that caused it [or PMS – choose as you please].
I will take some aspirin now and go to sleep.

Happy Birthday, Dad!

September 16, 2006 filed under: family

Today is my Dad’s 57th birthday!

This is one of my most favorite photos of us. It was actually taken a few years ago, but it has been my favorite ever since. It very well reflects the relationship that we have. I have always been “Daddy’s girl” and I am so happy that I am still in Germany to celebrate with him today and I know that this is also the greatest gift I can give him. I know it is hard for him when I am not around [and I am not going to be around much soon].

We’re going to have a little party for him tonight and I am so excited about it, because it is always nice when we have people over to celebrate :)

Happy Birthday, Dad, and I hope you will live a long and healthy life. I don’t know what I would do without you! You’re the best Dad in the world!

SPF

September 15, 2006 filed under: my so-called life

Ok, so Shaun over at randomandodd.com was responsible for this week’s SPF and he concocted a real challenge for us. I am up for it… even though I am not sure I am going to be crowned with success here, but I will give a try.

1. Your TV

Since the weekend that I spent at Kim‘s place, I have been mildly addicted to FÃ‚Â·RÃ‚Â·IÃ‚Â·EÃ‚Â·NÃ‚Â·DÃ‚Â·S and since I don’t have a DVD player in my old room, my notebook is serving as my TV right now [and it does a really good job, I have to add!].

Protected: Phewww.

September 14, 2006 filed under: bureaucracy

Quality time

September 13, 2006 filed under: LDR, marriage

So it’s back to LDR again.
The last week with J was awesome. It’s amazing how much more important every minute of the day seems to be if you know that you only get to spend a couple of days together with your honey.

J arrived on Thursday, September 1st. I picked him up at the airport and surprised my Mom and Dad. They both thought I was visiting one of my friends when I showed up with him at home. Surprise = successful :)
In the evening we showed up at my sister’s place. She was totally flabbergasted to see J as well. I guess it really is baffling somehow if someone, who you expect to be 6000 miles away on a different continent, shows up out of the blue.
We also surprised my great-aunt and granddad on Friday afternoon, but we gave them a fair warning, because I was afraid that they would get a heart-attack if J just turns up on their doorpstep.

Friday night, Nina, J and I drove to MÃƒÂ¼nster. Dirk plays soccer for PreuÃƒÅ¸en MÃƒÂ¼nster in the Regionalliga Nord and we got VIP passes. It was awesome. I have never been to any of Dirk’s soccer matches before [yeah, yeah, please don’t ask me why], but it was fun! Having a VIP pass, we were allowed to park in a special parking lot behind the stadium, we had access to the VIP area [where you get free drinks and food] and roofed grandstand seats :)
J was all excited. He totally enjoyed being there and seeing Dirk play. I usually don’t like soccer matches that much, because some of the fans really go overboard during the matches. So did the fans of Armenia Bielefeld, who were yelling some really unpleasant things and also threw firecrackers into the adverse fanblock.
In the end, MÃƒÂ¼nster won and Dirk came up to the fence and shook our hands. Yeah, there might have been some jealous fans standing behind us… I must admit it was kind of cool to call one of the players my brother-in-law :)