Some Pictures

Amsterdam! For Max's birthday.

In the fields near Max's parents' village... Just like home, playing on the hay bails!

The village church, behind vineyards

More fields, with corn, wheat, potatoes, turnips...

Picking cherries! The best I've ever eaten!

At a 3 day music festival... fun times and my favourite German band!

In Paris for Nati's birthday and the best chocolate banana tarts!

A Belated New Years Story

I'm having a lazy Sunday and have finally found the time to blog...

We spent a week over New Years in Berlin, oh Berlin, Berlin, such an incredible city. We stayed with Max's sister, Lena, and spent most of the time with Max's friends. Most of them have come to visit us in Bochum in the last 6 months too.

the view from Lena's window

We had a wonderful time and on New Years Eve had a small party with Max's friends in an apartment which has a spectacular view over the City Centre and was perfect for watching the fire works.

Holger, Phillip, Florian, Robin & Max

... such typical German namesMe & Holger... umm... singing?

There is German New Years tradition called Bleigießen - lead casting or pouring. You take a piece of lead and heat it on a spoon, over a candle. When it's melted you pour it into a class of cold water, and it instantly solidifies, taking a form, called a Glücksfiguren - fortune or luck figure. Then you decide what it is and recieve your new years prospect. For example a ball - do more sport or a mushroom - luck comes with diligence/effort or a spoon - careful with hot things or a cat - don't be so stubborn and so on. This was mine...

We thought it was a sail boat or yacht, which didn't exist, so we took sail - go on a big journey. Max had a horseshoe - tight relationship in the future. We all found this somewhat contradictory until someone suggested that a big journey and tight relationship could mean marriage! HAHA.

Winter Wonderland

We've had snow before, but always just a sprinkling, like icing sugar dusted over a cake, which melted and disappeared again after a few hours during the warmth of the day.
But last Sunday night it started to snow, continuing all day Monday. Life was on pause, no one went to work and university was canceled until the roads, footpaths, train and tram lines were cleared.

"hmm... how shall I get to work today?"

This man was swearing and cursing as the pram kept getting stuck in the snow.

All week the days have been between -5° and -10° and the nights even colder. The 10 centimetres are still lying around, covering the land, slowly turning to mush.

Above and below: The church and tree outside our livingroom/kitchen window.

It's beautiful, no doubt about that. The normally dull, grey, sleeping winter scenery glitters and shimmers with reflected sunshine from a blue sky. But the sun holds no warmth.

The view out our bedroom window.

Everyday I wear woolen stockings, knee high woolen socks, several layers, a thick winter coat, a scarf and gloves - the half of which needs to be taken on and off every hour or so. Every time I step outside my nose starts to run, and my hands and face feel like they've frozen off.

To be honest, I hate it. Snow is all good well for a skiing holiday, but to go about daily life in such conditions is hell. I never want to leave the house.

Above & below: Bochum Uni, where Max studies and I have my German classes.

My European friends all laugh at me. The Russians don't bother with more than a jacket.
I'll take sunshine and 40° any day.

A new beginning of blogging

Time for you to know.
Know what?
Well, I thought it was about time to keep in better contact with Oz and friends far away. Having a blog seemed to work well last time.
To answer your questions...
Yes, I'm still living happily with Max in Bochum, Germany. We have a 2 room apartment, 10 minutes walk from the centre of town.
Yes, I can speak German. No, not perfectly. Fluently? Maybe. Sometimes I think and dream in German, but I always speak English in my sleep. I sit the exam in March, then I can officially speak German.
Yes, still teaching English. Adults. About 15 hours a week. For a school called Inlingua Yeah, I really enjoy it.
Please leave me a comment at the bottom, even if just to say hi. Words in green are links, if you want to know more about whatever I've written.
There's more coming... stayed tuned.

Amsterdam and more

Hallo Hallo!
I know I know…. I haven’t written for a long time… sorry. I can think of few reasons for this; reasons not excuses. Firstly, incredibly busy! In the last month I have spent no more than a few days at a time at home, since I went Amsterdam, then Berlin twice and then Munich and inbetween that working. Second is a slightly weird language type thing, which I shall try to explain. I have bursts of desire to write, sentences and descriptions form in my head, and I have to get them onto paper. But recently that hasn’t been happening. It seems I may only have so much space in my mind or in my life for words and writing. And since my main purpose for bumming around in Germany is to learn German, when I can, I try to live my life in German; speaking, reading, writing and studying, so I wander around trying to translate stories in my head into German instead of just writing them down. Strange. Third, Nico had most of the photos, so I waited till I could put both story and picture up together.

Well, where to start? It has long since turned to autumn here, and everywhere the streets and landscapes are filled with Autumn colours! The days are often quite warm, but like in Australia the mornings and evenings get rather cold, although the scale is shifted a little to the colder side here. Nevertheless, I was able to enjoy the last of summer here, and since sunshine is rather more valued, the streets and parks have been filled with people obviously enjoying the warmth, me usually one of them…

This is the Englischer Garten and Ice Stream I wrote about in the last time in Munich.

And me… this is my ‘I am happy to be here’ pose. You may have seen it before... and you may see it again...

and now… the story begins… AMSTERDAM!!!!

A picturesque city of tree lined canals and bridges with their fairy lights reflected in the water, quiet pedestrian and bicycle only streets, old tall narrow buildings with simple yet beautiful decorated facades and of course one mustn’t forget the Coffee Shops and to thank the Dutch for their tolerance.

We rented bikes and made like the locals, wandering around without a plan, admiring the city’s atmosphere and experiencing everything and anything we came a across that took our fancy. We took a boat tour, went to the Anne Frank museum, watched a free concert in a park, went to a little art gallery, found an amazing second hand English book shop, strolled through the flee market and tulip market, and enjoyed all the usual pleasures of drinking coffee and beer, eating and chatting.

We stay with a girl from Couch Surfing who lives in a student complex build from shipping contains, all stacked on top of each other...!!

Have you ever seen such a house?

And...happy to be in what is definitely the most beautiful city I have ever seen.

What came next… BERLIN x 2!! But, sorry, I am all out of writing energy, that can wait for next time... which I promise will be soon-ish.

Hallo Deutschland!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hallo beloved readers!! Now comes some photos and stories from the country that is now my new home!!

Das war auf ein Fest (This was at a party/festival) in Siegen, the home of my wonderful friend Lena! She lives in a Wohngemeinschaft (the dictionary translates this as 'share house community'). I wanted to use the German word, because there is really a sense of community to her house; 5 or 6 people live there, share one tiny kitchen and seem to always be having fun! It's a beautiful old house in the Altstadt (old part of the city); tall and narrow, with 4 stories and each room a different and peculiar shape! Das Haus ist so süß!! (The house is so cute/sweet). So... the weekend I was in Siegen was the 'Fest von tausend Lichtern' (Festival of a thousand lights), in which the entire town becomes a party. All the bars and cafes along the main street stay open all night, there are food stands selling Wurst und Pommes; typisch deutsches Essen (sausages and hot chips; typical German food). The main attraction of the festival was a wonderful piece of art in the gardens of the Castle. With a thousand candles, with white paper bags around each, a maze was formed, through which people could walk! It was so wonderful to watch and even more incredible to walk through; romantically magical! So, for this evening, Lena’s house mates turned their front window into a bar, and the Kirchplatz (Church Square) which is directly in front of their house, into a beer garden type setting. This is what you see in the picture! It was a wonderfully fun and atmospheric evening; good music, beer for €1 ($2); candles and fairy lights; interesting people with stories and jokes to share in a colourful mix of German and English; and of course the wonderful Lena and her friends, most of whom I knew from the last time I was in Siegen (10 or so months ago now)!

Ein typisch Staße in der Altstadt dem Siegen! A typical street in the Old Town of Siegen!
Schön, na? Nice, huh?
Das ist die Lena!! You may remember her from previous adventures such as 'Lena, Elina, Leila and Pele in Vietnam' or ' Weihnachten in Deutschland' (Christmas in Germany). This is Lena with my little gift to her: an Echidna! (Let’s play spot the Echidna!!)
Das ist der Michael! Hilarious guy, spoke terrible english (at times with deliberately wrong grammar) but refused to speak German whenever I was around. When he didn't know the English word, he simply replaced it with the German one!! It was so funny to listen to, but despite his lack of 'English knowledge', he spoke with incredible confidence, telling story after story!! Geil!! Cool!!
This old guy was so great too, a neighbor of Lena and partying just like the students! He had lived (been held) in England during and after the War, was so happy to speak English, and had so many funny and fascinating stories to tell!!

Das ist die Yvonne! A house mate of Lena's and a very fun, funny and friendly girl!!This was the next day, wonderfully sunny and warm! We (Lena, Denis, Laura und ich) went to a Lake just outside of Siegen and relaxed the afternoon away lying in the sun and chatting!

Das sind Nico und ich! A super super friend! You may also remember him from previous adventures such as ´Crazy Kunming Party Days‘ or ´Leila and Nico´s German tales`! I am currently staying with him in Köln (Cologne). Last week I spontaneously went with him to München (Munich), where we spent 3 wonderful days sun-baking in the Englischer Garten and swimming in the Eis Bach (Ice stream) whose current was so strong if you didn’t have your feet firmly planted on the bottom you would be swept meters downstream in an instant – which was extremely fun, like a waterslide!!
You’ve heard of nude-beaches… well this is a nude park! About 10% of the people there (mostly old men) were going about their usual park activities nude; sun-baking, swimming, reading, dancing, playing frisbee … you name it!
This picture is from a picnic dinner we had on the side of a street, where there just happened to be a park bench! We ate typical Bavarian food; Pretzels and a special type of cream cheese!! Mmm, lecker!!! Bavaria is mostly where the German stereotypes you may know come from, which is strange because Bavaria is very different to the rest of Germany (or so they all say). Bavaria is where that typical traditional dress comes from which shows lots of cleavage! Other typical Bavarian food includes Weißwurst (white sausages) and Liberkäse (meatloaf or literally liver cheese)! Yes, I ate it all, and it’s quite tasty! But perhaps the most important stereotype, is what you see in the next picture…!!







Maßbier (a litre of beer!!) in the Hofbräuhaus!! A huge and one of the most famous breweries in the world, which produces very famous very tasty beer and an incredible drinking atmosphere, with tradition Bavarian drinking songs and big wooden tables! Fun times!

PROST!! ZUM WOHL!!

Briefly in other news:

I have a job in Köln at a cool restaurant/Biergarten, where the atmosphere is incredibly relaxed, the boss is easy going, the other staff are all young and fun and the guests really friendly! I can’t quite believe how well things have worked out. At work I speak 95% of the time in German, which the first day was pretty tough, only understanding properly about 20% and guessing the rest, I thought that might be a serious problem for finding work, but it is really fine, and people are always patient and encouraging, and if I really don’t understand something, there is always someone who can translate. But now after 3 shifts it’s already so much easier, and I’m just generally understanding and speaking more each day that goes by!! Languages are so fun! Yay! Plus I’m getting lots of tips, since the guests can OBVIOUSLY tell I’m not German from the moment I say hello/guten Abend, they ask where I’m from and I have a little conversation with them in German or English! Plus the restaurant is attached to a Nova Art House cinema, where I can watch any film any time for free!! That was the short version! Tomorrow we are going to Amsterdam for a few days!! WOOOHOO!!

Bis nächste Mal! Till next time!

TSCHÜß!!