Archives for June 2008

It wasn’t meant to be.

June 30, 2008 filed under: about me

Damn. What a nail-biter. The game between Germany and Spain, that is.
I had so been looking forward to the European Championship final yesterday. It seemed like everything was possible for Germany after the incredible game against Portugal and the last-minute win over Turkey.
But yesterday, it was just not meant to be.

Spain just deserved the title more this time around. Their first major title in 44 years. Well, I guess it was overdue then… and the spaniardsÂ were just quicker, more alert yesterday.
Although, I still think the referee sucked.

It was kind of cool to be able to watch the game live… and from what I read across the Internet, some of my fellow Germans here did the same thing. Good for you! We need to keep up some German pride over here :) I hope I am still allowed to pout a little bit… even though our team just simply didn’t deserve to win.

What kind of game watcher are you? Do you sit still andÂ cheer or grieve in silence? Do you jump up and down, tear at your hair and bury your face?

I am the latter.

I can’t sit down if I am emotionally attached to a team [which really only happensÂ for a championship or something like that]. IÂ was jumping on the couch, collapsing on the couch, hiding behind it…Â the wholeÂ shebang. Oh yeah,Â and I swear, too. Occasionally.
It must have been pretty funny though. Â J can probably tell you all about it :)

Go Germany!

June 26, 2008 filed under: excitement, yes!

I was so tired this morning. You want to know why?

I stayed up until 1 a.m. last night, because I wanted to watch the rerun of the Euro 2008 Semifinal Germany vs. Turkey.
I had found out that ESPN broadcasts the European Soccer Championship LIVE, but of course, it was lunch time here and I was at work when the semifinal took place. So I asked J to look up if they would show a rerun later in the evening and they did!
I purposely avoided reading or hearing anywhere about the outcome of the semifinal throughout the day, because I wanted to have the “live” experience… I wouldn’t have been willing to stay up that late, if I had known the score already.

At 10:30 p.m., we got out our fan paraphernalia [= lanyard keychains] and pretended the game hadn’t taken place yet. The game was pretty exciting. Not the best game I’ve seen from the German team, but definitely a thriller literally until the last minute!

Why did ESPN rerun it so late? J thought it’s because not many people would be watching it. In prime time they we’re showing Baseball and NASCAR. We’re in the US after all ;)
The problem was that I was getting kind of tired and did fall asleep a couple of times for a few milliseconds and of course “missed” two of the goals *argh* but hey, we have digital TV where you can instantly rewind and re-watch everything :) I love it.

In the end, I thought it had been totally worth to stay up that late and only get about 4,5 hours of sleep. Today my weekend starts anyways, so I can sleep as much as I want later :)

Go Germany!

I am really no big soccer fan, but I do love the championships and I am excited that I’ll actually be able to watch the finale LIVE on Sunday [morning]!

It’s BBQ time

June 25, 2008 filed under: friends, fun!, my so-called life

Susi invited me for a BBQ in her newly arranged backyard last weekend and we had some serious catching up to do. I think we hadn’t physically seen each other since March [correct me if I am wrong] when I came out to see her for her wedding reception. Time really does fly these days… it’s already the end of June, people!

First she gave me a tour of the house – really, really cute [Susi, you should seriously post some pictures from the interior some time] – and I got to meet the newest addition to the family, Apple. What a sweetie. I was about to put her in my purse and steal her [just kidding].

I brought my new camera and we sat down in the living room and Susi, who has become a DSLR veteran by now, gave me some hands-on instructions on how to go about learning the settings. Valuable advice.
Then we moved to the backyard, munched on some raw vegetables with yummy dill dipp and waited for the other BBQ guests to arrive.
It was really nice sitting outside in the sun, the food was absolutely delicious and we had a great time! :)

I stayed until 6 p.m. andÂ then made my way back home through a big wall of smoke… Northern California is burning. Seriously. Over 8000Â “dryÂ lightning” strikes wereÂ unleashed byÂ an electrical storm andÂ set more than 800 wildfires around Northern California. Pretty crazy.Â But besides the big pall of smoke that is hanging over our heads, we’re ok.

In Memory of George Carlin

June 24, 2008 filed under: f*ck that

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I don’t know why, but sometimes, when a famous person dies, it just freakin’ bothers me. George Carlin, my favorite American comedian, died on Sunday.Â He died way too young.Â He was only 71 years old.
You might be laughing right now. But seriously. It just bugs me whenÂ people, who make a difference, die before they are at least 100 years old or something [and I didn’t even get the chance to see him perform].
George Carlin was hilarious, provoking and daring. He didn’t mince matters.
I could link you to hundreds of youtube videos right now so you could see for yourself. [Just go and type in his name and videos will pop up. Take the time toÂ watch and listen – but heads up, he uses offensive language sometimes – don’t you come back here and complain.]

As a foreigner, understanding and appreciating humorÂ in a foreign languageÂ can beÂ a real challenge, but even if you’re not American and English isn’t your first language, I am sure you’ll get a kick out of what George Carlin had to say.

He’ll be missed. Damn, I miss him already.

Friends

June 21, 2008 filed under: friends, fun!, my so-called life

The last weekend was awesome. Girl-time with my best friend for the first time in months!

I hopped on the train Friday afternoon to go and meet her in San Francisco. The train ride is a pretty straight shot from here and should have only taken me about 2,5 hours [including riding the BART for the last stretch of the trip] to get into the heart of the city – if it hadn’t been for the bus bridge between two train stations, because the tracks in between were under construction.

Considering that there is no passing track that could have been used, Amtrak planed it out pretty well. There were buses waiting at the train station where we had to get off and at the other train station another train was already waiting that would take us onto the rest of th trip. At least there was no waiting time involved.

I stepped off the BART at around 5 p.m. and had two more hours to kill before I would meet my friend at her hotel right off Market Street. I walked around, did a little ~~window~~shopping and then received her text message: “I am here! Where are you?”

OMG!

Well, I was just around the corner and not even 5 minutes later I was standing in front of her hotel room door. She opened the door, we hugged each other and even though I was thrilled beyond belief to see her after almost 6 (!) months, it felt like I had just seen her for coffee the other day. It’s amazing to feel so close with someone that there is no weirdness whatsoever, even when you haven’t seen each other for months!

After about an hour of initial catching up at the hotel, we took the cable car up Powell Street to North Beach and went to have dinner at an Italian restaurant. We sat for two hours and just talked and talked and talked.

The next morning we had a yummy breakfast at the hotel [50% LH discount – can’t beat that!] and then got ready for a full day together in SF. We decided to walk rather than take the cable car/BART and walked along Grant Street through Chinatown, to Washington Square in North Beach to Lombard Street and then down to Fisherman’s Wharf to catch a glimpse of the Golden Gate Bridge and walk on to Pier 39 to visit the sea lions :)

Besides the fact that I had made a really bad shoe choice for the day [6 blisters – 3 on each foot and the necessity to buy some flipflops along the way, because there was no way I could have made it any further with my shoes – and I totally thought they were comfortable, but apparently not for a day of uphill and downhill walking in SF], we had a FANTASTIC day.

Even though the weather forecast had predicted overcast skies for the weekend, it was a gorgeous, sunny day.

We sat at the pier with a smoothie and enjoyed our precious time together [and both got a little sunburned].

In the late afternoon we walked all the way back to the hotel, taking a little break at Union Square where we sat and watched the people.

Since we were both a little tired [Ira obviously more than I due to the jetlag on top of the walking], we decided to have dinner at a restaurant across the street from the hotel. It was another Italian restaurant [we both didn’t mind!] and they had an interesting variation of bruschetta with goat cheese and really good pasta!

Then we went back to the hotel and had a little “pyjama party”… with more talking until Ira fell asleep around 9 p.m. and tv-watching [The Notebook – just LOVE the movie!]

In the morning we enjoyed the breakfast buffet one more time and at 11 a.m. it was already time to say goodbye again :( Damn. Why do good times go by so fast all the time?

Ira and the rest of the LH crew were going to be picked up at noon and I decided to walk some more and practice a little more with my new camera :)
See more photos here.

No summer without…..

June 17, 2008 filed under: about me, lists!

Fabulous tagged me and so I obey… so here’s my list of things I can’t do without in the summer:

1. Ice-cream

I am a real sucker for ice-cream. No summer without ice-cream for me. This is why I have already stocked up in my freezer :)

German Speakers of S

June 11, 2008 filed under: fun!, my so-called life

WeÂ joined a German meetup group a few weeks ago and we had our first meeting last night. I was really thrilled that someone had finally started a new German meetup group here. I was hoping to meet some new people, possibly Germans :)
There was a huge response for this meetup group and 17 people had RSVP’ed YES for last night’s meeting. It ended up being “only” 9 of us, but I think that was a decent size for a first meeting.

We got coffee at Starbucks and then sat outside and just introduced each other and chatted about anything and everything. It was great! There were 6 Americans and 3 Germans. The Americans all really made an effort to speak in German the whole time. I thought that was awesome, because you tend to easily slip back into your native language when conversation becomes to difficult. But those guys really made an effort to live up to our group’s name “German speakers of S”.

I think this is going to be a fun group! We’re planning to meet about twice a month and I am already looking forward to our next meeting.

I am in love!

June 9, 2008 filed under: excitement, yes!

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I finally treated myself to the long-anticipated and longed for Canon Rebel XSI. I received an offer that I just couldn’t refuse… 15% off the regular price. Awesome!
You probably think that I have too much money to spare, which – I assure you – I don’t… but sometimes you just gotta live, you know?
I had saved up for this baby for a long time and it’s technically my very-belated birthday present, remember?, and not just a spur-of-the-moment-purchase.

Anyways, it’s absolutely amazing to hold this camera in my hands.
I am so in love!
If I only knew what to do with it…
I definitely have to learn a lot to be able to use it to its full potential, but maybe that gets me motivated to take a photography class or something. [Well, scratch the “maybe”, it DEFINITELY motivates me]. I can’t wait.
I spent the weekend just reading the handbook that comes with the camera and trying to get this “mirror-shot” the way I wanted it.

I know some of the terminology of photography already, but still have to figure out which setting does what.
Any tipps and tricks on how to use a DSLR are highly appreciated.
I am sure I’ll soon be longing for more lenses and all those accessories that people warned me about ;)