WWGD

What would grandma do??

or in my case: WWSD??

It's been a little over a year now...

I left sunny California and went back to Germany.
So crazy. In some ways it feels like it's been forever. Very strange feeling.
Everything is different over here. I can't really name it. I guess one has to experience this for themselves...
Classes still go till mid of July and the exams will last another month!- Nice. (not!!)
I'm thinking about my summer time a lot. Maybe I'll make it to Berlin eventually. We'll see.
One thing's for sure though: I'll spend my September in CA again :D
I can't wait.... where's the fast forward button when we need it?? The rewind one is also fine with me.
Seriously.

Uk well it's been another long awesome weekend. It started with my friend's B-Day-party Saturday. Sunday my sis, my friend T and me went home to my parents and stayed there till Tuesday.
We went to pick strawberries. Very delicious. I couldn't help myself eating half of the ones I picked :P
And later on BBQ at my grandma's. My aunt and cousins came too. The have the most amazing backyard. It's like this fairytale garden full of blooming flowers and animals running around. The kids were playing with the baby chicks and baby geese. So cute. The babies were just following my cousins everywhere.
Also my mum, T and me went to this lovely little town in the Netherlands. T has never been there before. So we had her try all the different dutch foods we think are typical for this area.
We went to this sweet shop called 'Jamin'. There you can just choose whatever you want and in the end you weigh it and pay. The licorice is the best. And some other things as well.
Then quick stop at the dutch Aldi ( a grocery store). There we bought some food and stuff.
I love their Vanille Vla which is this type of pudding. If you go there you should try it. Some really like the choclate one. ANd for those who can't decide ther's always the dubble vla ;)
Speaking of I should have some later ;)

Y-day I had some classes in the morning and my afternoon ones were cancelled. I didn't really mind ;)
In the afternoon till late at night there was this thing on Campus. They had a stage and food and beer and whatnot. Also some bands performed on a stage. It was all open air in the middle of Campus, the grass area part. Just check out the video & the pics and see for yourself ;)

Even though it rained earlier that day y-day night was perfect. There will be another party tomorrow night at the same location. It's called "Beach-party". Funny thing though there is no sand on Campus. But well that won't be an obstacle. Apparently they are going to get some sand for some areas at least. Shall be fun. ^^

It's far too early in the morning....

No egg hunt this year, but still a typical Easter

My Easter wish has been granted:

beautiful weather for the long weekend. Awesome ^^

On top of that I had lots of family downtime. Nice!

Our family's easter tradition:

Easter Sunday we always have a big family breakfast at either my aunt's or my mum's. This year my aunt was our host.

It was quite warm, therefore the table was set in her backyard. She served all kinds of food and eggs in all its varietys: cooked, scrambled, sunny-side up...

Afterwards we sat down in another corner of the backyard: talking and enjoying the beautiful weather with chilled drinks and ice-cream...

I played with my little cousin: jumping on the trampolin, soccer, and what not... It was so much fun and a good workout at the same time ;)

Gosh how that reminds me of my Au Pair time, and of how much I miss my kids!! (Well well, I can't wait for September to come, that's when I'll see them again :D)

Last year's Easter:

A.'s hostfamily invited me to their easter dinner (as my family is jewish ;) ).

It was pretty awesome. They are such lovely family.

They also had an Easter tradition: an 'egg-cracking-contest' (that's how I'd describe it at least). I loved that part. So fun and such nice company. It sure was an Easter I'll never forget. :D

The first ones to try...

and here we go again...

A. got into the next round

But lil M. just had a better technique I suppose... ;)

I wasn't so bad myself, but I lost against the older finalist

The final: Little M. ruled ^^

Anyways, back to this year:

Sunday afternoon we also had  a BBQ with my grandma. Soo delish & sunny! 

This Easter was really nice, too bad my dad had to work in the mornings... other than that no complaints :)

Monday was the last day to relax in the sun. In the evening my sis and me took the train back to Essen. It was quite crowded, but we were lucky enough to get seats for the whole ride ^^

Today I had one class this morning and I'll have another one this afternoon. In between I should be running some errands.... nothing too stressful though.

Yet tomorrow will be another busy college day. Not so much looking forward to that :P

volcano part 2

...Stockholm: We arrived early in the morning. On the same day there were like only 5 planes total that arrived at the same airport. None were allowed to leave. And neither was I....

I always wanted to be in Stockholm, but not like this!!...

The airport was just empty except for all those reporters trying to get some good shots and interviews.

One as saying something to me in Swedish, which of course I wasn't able to understand. So she went on in English asking me about my thoughts about all this:

Considering I haven't slept the entire flight was super tired and stressed out, I even managed to answer her.

I think I said something like:

I was glad that I finally made it to Europe and that I was happy that no one was injurred. There are worst things than this. Well to sum it up it was a rather optimistic and positive response, with no anger or anything.

I guess I was just too tired to be frustrated or sth like that.... I don't know

What else: my cell had no reception; there was snow in the backyard (in April!); I had no swedish money and worst possible case: No possible use of my laptop as I didn't bring any adapter.Concluding no Internet and no connection to my family or anyone! Just my luck...

Mostly I was worried about everyone else being worried. Strange I felt bad for my family and friends not knowing where I was & how I was doing.

Later I bummed into that swedish guy from the plane. Just right before he was going to catch his train home. Luckily he gave me his adapter and the hotel had free wifi ^^ Made me felt so much better...

Here again I spent another 3 days and 2 nights. Usually I was waiting in line at the airport... for hours. Everyday the lines got longer and longer. I  constantlly kept on rebooking my flights, because sometimes they decided to cancel the flights just a few hours after I got booked onto it... Nice! - Not.

Finally they opened the gates on Wednesday. I was able to get on a tiny airplane landing the same night in Duesseldorf  :) My family was right there to pick me up ^^                end of story

Eyjafjallajökull - remember that one?

I sure won't ever forget. It happened about a year ago. The eruption of that volcano in Iceland in 2010. ...
with that gigantic ashcloud following that covered like almost all of Europe... Aaahhh... you see

Hundreds and hundreds of planes couldn't fly for days and days... and thousands and thousands of people were stuck on tons of airports and not just in Europe, even in the States... and I was one of them.

Today I can laugh about it. At that time I was still working as an Au Pair in California. I decided to surprise my people in Germany for a couple of days. Only my parents were in on this plan.

My first flight headed out on friday morning going from San Francisco Airport (SFO) to the O'Hare International Airport in Chicago. Arriving there my flight to Deutschland was cancelled!!... I was stuck!! uuuhh yaaa... not good

The airport was totally overcrowded & chaotic. The staff kept sending people all over. I pretty much spent an entire day pulling my 3 heavy suitcases all over the entire airport. I was booked on several different flights, but they wouldn't leave until the next day or even a couple days later!! Nightmare, I tell ya. I only had 9 days of vacation....

Ukay I'll narrow my stay in Chicago down: 1 day travelling & at the airport; 2 days & 2 nights at a Holiday Inn; I met people from all over & I was greatful for all my language skills; also I spend hours waiting for a couple of flights that were cancelled anyway. GREAT!

Fortuanetly I brought my american cell & laptop, so at least I was able to keep in touch with everyone.

Finally I was booked onto an overnight flight to Stockholm, Sweden... even in Business class. That actually was awesome!! Much more comfortable ^^

Also check this out:

That very plane was one of the first ones that was allowed to fly to Europe.

to be continued... 

Today was my last...

...exam for this semester (hopefully). YEAY!

It's been an awfully long time: I've had at least 1 exam each month ever since December!! Ya basically 4 months almost continually studying for exams... 
I'm ready to take a deep breath, but still have to wait for the results...
The afternoon I spent talking to some people and organizing stuff for my move.
I'm supposed to move beginnig of April, but I probably will have to change that. My parents are going to help me but they are too busy that time so it'll have to be end of March.
Now I have to find a truck for rent for little money.
Also I'm looking into a new Internet/telephone provider... man why are there so many different choices of both...
My result so far is a headache and first I thought a weird noise...
But the noise is explainable. I don't know if I should like though.
It appears I'm not alone anymore.


My 'other' roomie is back. It feels like he never left. BUT I am certain he did about 30 times!! I let him go out my window. I even tried the kitchen and the bathroom window. Gosh he must like me very much. I don't deserve that honour as I don't have mutual feelings for him.
This is driving me crazy... how on earth did he get back into my room?? AGAIN!! If only I knew. It's not like I can just let him out again. He's up on that ceiling (probably 3 meters/10 feet or even more).
Too high for climbing up a chair and getting him. Nope! Can't do!
Guess I won't be sleeping alone tonight, am I right Mr. Ladybug?! ;)

Some hate it, some 'love' it...

Considering that today is February 14th... you can be sure that I'm talking about Valentine's Day! If I had to choose between hate and love than I guess I'd tend to pick love. On the one hand I'm being optimistic and on the other hand because last year's V-Day was the awesomest so far!
Pillow fight in San Francisco, I mean how much better can it get?!

Here some pics (didn't have my cam with me, so I have to give credits to my friends n the Internet ;) )

How on earth am I not to love San Francisco?!

Ukay n here a random video of that very day, so maybe u get an idea what I'm talking about ;)

Well so far today I had to take an exam, so that certainly was not the best part of my day, right?! Sure!

The only good part is that the rest of the day I can just do as I please (if that's the right way to put it ;) )

Yup, but I'm pretty sure you all will have a fabulous time, because why not?!

Always good to spread some love, so today's your day to make everyone see that everyday should be a day to show you care and to let'em know you love'em :D ... 

Spur of the moment kinda thing (is that right?!)

My less than 60 sec-gift for 2 of my friends, just because I felt like it and just because they were the only ones I saw after the exam, I'd probably have done more! So some other time maybe, folks :P


Today: After lunch at that college food place stuff thingy we went to that other place right across, it's like this cafe "Bruecke", pretty nice.
D. reserved a couch while I was supposed to get him a Cappuccino. I was gonna get a Latte Macchiatto and E. felt like a Cappucino aswell. Therefore I asked her to just get 2 of them (one for her and one for him). No problemo.


Except E.: "So what am I gonna say now when I order?
                 2 Cappuccini, please?!"
The barista overheard us & was just like: "You can say both! 'Cappucinos' is german and the other one is italian; so either way is fine!"


Never though about it before... so next time I order more than 2 beverages I'll have to remember: Latte Macchiati, Esspressi, Capuccini... :P


Uhhh, one more thing: gonna bake some delic version of Nm's Chocolate Chip Cookies laterrrr.... Yummm!!

drink tea when you're havin a cold...

Ukay still sick:
I'm havin a cold or the 'head'-flu or whatever that is I have...
doesn't really matter what it is, either way it's super annoyin...
Seriously, during my lecture yesterday & my other class my nose just wouldn't stop teasing me... Man how can I be more environmentally-friendly if I keep on needing those tissues constantly?! Sneezing ain't fun, everybody gives you those looks: ugh, stop spreading ur germs!
AS if I want to get everyone sick! I can barely stand it myself haha

Ukay the good thing though (yeah, surprisingly there is one):
I figured I'm supposed to drink more tea, so why not make my favourite?!
The one that seems to have magic powers!

I don't really know why I like it so much, but I do, I love it! So good!

(Peet's Coffee & Tea's) Xiao's Blend
Today was the first time I opened it in Germany and the smell was mesmerizing... surprisingly I was even able to smell it haha
Just what I'm sayin, like medicine, helps at the first instance ;)
and I didn't even drink it yet haha

First sip, right away oh yeah feeling and nostalgia...
I remember... I loooove it

distraction...

My friend I. told me about the 'Road Stop' today.
Now I wanna try it but... I have to wait for the right moment.

There are some things I'm looking forward to and some I'd rather erase.
Like my finals ... I sooo wanna skip them.

Things I can't wait for:
seeing my dear friends from all over the world (miss all my crazy and awesomest friends!!)
& one very important thing... SUMMER!!

How is it possible that there's still snow left?! The weather was pretty nice the last few days but it's gonna get colder again.... that means I'll most likely be seeing more snow this year.... ohhh man
Ukay Desi, enough time spend on keepin urself from studyin :P

One last thought: I'm pro healthy environment. So, Recycle people! Thanks :D

music... explaining... memories

Posted this on my fb, cuz I thought it was pretty awesome.

Thx D. for lettin me know bout this ^^

So these 3 guys made a mashup from tons of songs and only used 4 chords for all of'em.

check it out for urself.... I'm not the best at explainin.....uh that reminds me of another awesome video hahahaha

This vid aaaalways cracks me up!!

Good old memories :D

getting all nostalgic here ^^

and for my/our defense:

there must have been sth in that Indian food!! hahahahaha

Miss u, dude(tte)s, N., U. & V. !!