theinbetweenismine

just a girl living the expat life

Archives for March 2009

I read

filed under: about me, books

Yeah, so I can see the question marks pop up over your heads: What’s so special about it?

Well, I should have said: I read again. FINALLY.

For this to understand and to understand why this is such a big deal to me, you have to know something about me: Ever since I learned how to read, there was practically a book glued to my hands at all times. I wouldn’t go anywhere without some sort of reading material on me and at family gatherings, I would hide in a corner or on the couch and read until I fell asleep.

In the last year or so, I didn’t get to read much AT ALL. Very frustrating, because reading is not only a nice hobby, but also a relaxant for me. Not being able to read means not relaxing as much as I should sometimes. Bad!

Well, it looks like I got my reading mojo back though. I’ve read a total of three books since January (which I think is not a bad average considering that I don’t get much “me-time” these days) and the best thing is that I happened to find this website where you can trade your unwanted paperbacks for books that you would like to read.
This is so cool!
The basic idea is quite simple:

1. You type in books you want to give away
2. Your receive requests from others for your books
3. You mail your books and receive points
4. You can ask for books you want from others with your points

Signing up is completely free, the only thing you pay is the postage to send off your books to someone. The books you receive are free (as the sender will pay for the postage). Sending books by media mail only cost you $2-3, which is a pretty good deal compared to the option of buying a new book. It’s still a better deal than getting a used book from Amazon’s Marketplace ;) And a plus: You get something in the mail from a “real” person!  :)

Since I don’t have many books right now which I could give away (many of my books are in Germany for obvious reasons), I spontaneously went to the local thrift store last weekend and bought a whole bunch of paperbacks for $1/each. Now I have some reading material for the next few weeks and ultimately some books that I can exchange through the website (oh, it’s called “bookmooch“, by the way, and there is also a German site of it, if anyone is interested).

As for me, I am hooked!

An open letter to VS

filed under: f*ck that, FYI, my so-called life

Dear Victoria (Secret),

you know we’ve had a somewhat bumpy relationship all along, even though I liked you and I gave you another chance over and over and over again, while you kept disappointing me every single time.

You claim to have a bra for every size of woman, but to be honest, you don’t have to offer much for me. Does that make me deviate from the norm? Maybe. It definitely means that you have to improve on your bra lines. This is ridiculous.

And what’s up with your latest email messages, trying to convince me that you have the “Perfect One” for me now?
You sent this email to me a gazillion times and finally I gave in last night to come and see if you really meant to make peace! You even hired Heidi Klum to leave an impression with me and hey, you almost had me there.

But let me say it plain and clear: even your “Perfect One” is NOT EFFIN’ PERFECT, do you hear me?!
I am sick and tired of your false promises.

Ok, I’ll admit that for the first time in… oh, YEARS!…  I did find one of your bra styles somewhat satisfying. But you should have a whole array of bras in my size that fit me! And not just a simple plain T-shirt bra, thank you very much. What about the very nice, fancy-schmanzy bra with all the embroidery? Why doesn’t that one come in my size?

Don’t contact me again until you really have something to offer.
It’ll take quite a bit of effort on your part for me to come back and actually try one of your bras again.

Not-so-terribly-sincerely,

me

Tagged!

filed under: about me, books

It happened again… I got tagged by our fabulous Ulli and what else can I do other than obey to her wishes??

Right!

So, she was asking “What’s on your night stand?” and here’s a picture of mine.

My night stand

You can see notes if you click on the image (which will take you over to Flickr).

Here are the people that I tag… Kim (because she needs incentives these days to blog more often ;)), Carolina (because she likes to play!), Katelin (I hope she reads this, because she’s always up for a little tagging game) and Susi (because she hasn’t blogged in over a month!!)… and everyone else who wants to play!

I want to know what’s on your night stand! :) Leave me a comment if you played!

Always worth a (photo) journey…

filed under: food, my so-called life, photography, travel, USA

J and I spontaneously decided to spend a night in San Francisco as a belated birthday celebration and we searched for a last-minute hotel deal on Saturday morning. Little did we know that we would hit the jackpot, because we found a ridiculous deal for a one-night stay at the world-famous Fairmont!
My fingers couldn’t hit the “book” button fast enough!!

The Fairmont San Francisco

We arrived in the city in the late afternoon and checked into the hotel. It’s beautiful from the inside and we had a fantastic view from our hotel window.

I realized once more that SF is such a photogenic place.
As I am trying to get more “photo-time” in, I was pleased to find out that I’ve indeed started “working” with my camera a lot more. I took some decent pictures this time around. My favorite:

Coit Tower at night

We headed out to dinner a little later and had Italian food at “Ti piacerá¡”  in Nob Hill.
Fantastic bruschetta, fettuccine Alfredo with prawns and spinach salad!
The only thing I am really missing on the menus of the Italian restaurants over here in the US is tomato soup. A really good, chunky and creamy tomato soup made from scratch. You just can’t get it anywhere (as you can’t tuna pizza, but that’s a whole different story)!

Sunday morning we enjoyed the nice hotel room for as long as possible. We checked out right before noon and decided to take a walk through Nob Hill and North Beach before heading back home.

We like to walk!

The weather was beautiful and we stopped in North Beach for a late breakfast at Caffé DeLucchi, a sweet little street café with outside tables! Even though it was a busy Sunday in North Beach – which in fact might be the case every day of the week, come to think of it – we got a table right away.
I ordered a big cafe latte and a veggie omelet. J had Southern style biscuits and gravy. I really thought the food was great.

What sucked though was that our waiter was a completely incompetent jerk. Don’t get me wrong, I know that waiting table is a tough job (I’ve had some experience in this department) and I am usually not a complainer at a restaurant and very patient, especially when it’s busy.
However, I do believe that you need some organizational skills if you want to do a somewhat decent job as a waiter.
Well, let me tell you, this guy had ZERO organization.

I ordered my latte and there was no extra cream or sugar on the table. Something I would make sure is there before I even seat someone. He didn’t bother asking if I needed any.

Then he brought the food. It looked delicious (unfortunately I didn’t take a photo to prove it) and I started picking at the home-style potatoes, waiting for the waiter to come back with my toast and some ketchup/Tabasco.
He didn’t come. Neither did the toast or the ketchup.

I had also ordered some more hot milk (despite it being a latte, my beverage was WAY too strong for my taste. Remember my pickiness about coffee?) which of course he forgot as well.
I also noticed that we were not the only customers with missing condiments and toast, but that the couple next to us was also eating their breakfast without the aforementioned items.
By the time I got up to go inside and complain at the counter, because the waiter didn’t even come close enough to call him to our table, J was already finished with his breakfast and my omelet was almost cold. Terrific.

I could have managed to ignore some of his incompetence if he had apologized for the inconvenience and offered to heat up my meal or something. But he didn’t. He didn’t say anything at all.

Needless to say, we tipped him a lot less than usual (and J and I generally consider ourselves very generous tippers).

Regardless of the long and elaborate breakfast story, we had a fantastic time. San Francisco is always worth a trip, no matter how horrible the service at a restaurant might be ;)

At the coffee shop

filed under: cracks me up, FYI

I went to a Starbucks last week to make my first use of Sanni’s birthday present: a personalized Starbucks Gift Card. The following situation unfolded.

Cashier-Barista welcomes me and I order a grande latte macchiato. Cashier-Barista gives me a funny look, turns to Barista#2 and asks “Have you prepared a latte macchiato before?”

(I need to mention here that the Peet’s Coffee and Tea menu is WAY MORE elaborate then the Starbucks menu. Latte macchiato was not one of the Starbucks menu options and I felt slightly bad ordering something that was not on the menu, but then again, it’s NOT that weird of an order.)

Barista #2 turns around and looks at the menu, then shakes her head.
Cashier/Barista turns to me and asks “Sorry, what exactly is a latte macchiato?”

I am about to respond “Am I working at a coffee shop or you”?, but refrain myself and respond “It’s basically the same as a café latte, just that you steam the milk first and then pour the espresso on top of the milk, rather than putting the espresso in first and filling up the cup with steamed milk”.

Barista #2’s face lightens up and she says “Oh, so it’s an upside down latte!”, excited that she obviously knows how to fix that!

Yes, if you will. I prefer to call it a “latte macchiato”, thank you very much, but I’ll take the upside-down latte.
This time only though ;)

I feel so humbled

filed under: family, friends, good things, my so-called life

OMG you guys, thank you so, so much for all the sweet birthday cards, emails, facebook-messages and calls for my birthday yesterday!

I don’t know what to say. It meant a lot to me that so many people thought of me yesterday, especially since my sister (first and foremost) and the rest of my family were so far away.

It still, even after a few years now, feels weird to not celebrate my birthday with my sister.
Obviously, we each never had a birthday to ourselves growing up and always had to share it with each other, but you get so used to it that it really feels strange if we don’t celebrate our birthday together.

So, as you already know, my day started off with cupcakes. Made by yours truly. From scratch (that is actually the first question I was asked when I brought them into the office “Did you make them?” – “Ah yes, why is this such a big surprise?”)
I had decided to not take the day off this year, because my birthday fell on a Tuesday, but in retrospect, I should have just not listened to my own stupid “rationality” and spent that day celebrating myself – not working 10 hours at the office. Oh well. We’re going to celebrate a little more this weekend :)

Here’s a glimpse of what awaited me when I got home:

Birthday gifts and cards

It was lovely to open the letters and packages (and there are some more on the way, as I was told!) of people who were thinking of  me yesterday!

One thing I want to mention though is (also as a precaution for future gift sending): ordering stuff off the Internet and taking the shipping-shortcut by having the gift directly send to the recipient is GREAT! I do it all the time.
Just make sure that there is either a) a note in the package with a little message from you and/or b) make sure to tell the person – that you’re having something send to –  IN ADVANCE what to look out for (a UPS package with so-and-so as the sender, an AMAZON-package,… ).

I happened to open two of my gifts prematurely – which I hate! I very much like the anticipation of opening my gifts on my actual birthday! – and I also received two gifts where I have NO IDEA who sent them.

If one of the gifts (not necessarily pictured) was from YOU – please come forward and let me know, so that I can extend my heartfelt and sincere gratitude to you. I’d feel awful not thanking you for a gift, just because I didn’t know it was YOU who sent it!!

Thanks again for all the LOVE you sent me! It really made my day!

XOXO.