Jazzie's Blog

Telefonterror

2007-09-04T10:54:00.000+02:00

Do you know the feeling that you get when there are finally some days where you can sleep as long as you want to because finally you've got nothing to do the whole day? And do you also know the feeling when on these days two days in a row the phone rings at 9:30 in the morning? Yes. Wonderful.
So you wake up and run to the phone (it could be something important after all, they call you in the morning) and when you pick up the phone there's a PC-voice talking to you: "Hello. You have won. 15 000 Euro. All you have to do is call 0900...."
There's nothing else I can get so furious about than a call like that in the morning. But this time it was even worse...after a few minutes they call again (just enough time to go back to bed, cuddle yourself in and close your eyes) and the same voice begins talking again. Well, with the phones today you can't slam down the receiver anymore but I would have done it if it was possible.
Today, 9:30. The phone rings. "Hello. Yesterday I waited for your call hours and hours and nothing came (surprise surprise....). But I am pertinacious (as if I wouldn't have noticed by now) and I want you to get your prize. So please call..." I hung up and went back to bed.
9:35. The phone rings AGAIN. I can't stop myself from groaning but still I go there and pick up the phone, it could still be something important..."Hello. You have won. 15 000 Euro. All you have to do..."
I would have LOVED to talk to the people who are in charge of these telephone calls. And then I would have told them where they can thrust their 15 000 Euro-Prize in.
I hate these people!!!! You can't even swear at them because it's only a tape talking on the phone....

El Rompido and more

2007-04-08T15:03:00.000+02:00

Back from Spain quite a while now, university and working has soon become daily routine again. But still the shells on my desk and the pictures help me to get through exhausting days^^
The time me and Clemens went on our vacation to Spain was perfect, since there were almost no tourists there. So sometimes we had the whole huge beach just to ourselves....aaahh :-)
Our apartment was also huge and sooo nice...we had two sleeping rooms, two bathrooms, a living room, a small kitchen and a balcony. A little to big actually, but we wouldn't complain ;-)
Although it was often pretty windy, the weather was still fine and sunny and very good to go on day-trips. We've seen a lot: Sevilla, Córdoba, Portugal...Spain really is a beautiful country (and Portugal, too, of course^^)! And then the beaches....but have a look yourself...

Clemens on the cliffs

Me on Plaza de España in Sevilla

Beautiful garden of the Alcázar in Sevilla

Me in Ayamonte, a little town near Portugal.

Little ferry to "our" beach^^

Ab in die Sonne!

2007-03-11T16:52:00.000+01:00

My dear readers,
the next two weeks, I won't be here to blog. I know now you're sad and upset (haha^^) but the reason is that I'm going on a vacation to Spain! Andalucía, in the south. Me and my boyfriend will be in a nice apartment with the beach naerby, which is long and white there...aaahh :-)
I hope now all of you are gonna be jealous ;-)

Even more, now that you've seen the picture haha^^ I'm gonna post some more when I'm back.
See you then...

惡作劇之吻 ~ It started with a kiss

2007-02-27T00:04:00.000+01:00

A while ago Jamie, my friend from Taiwan, lent me some DVDs with a taiwanese series on it and now that I have holidays, I have the time to watch it. It's on chinese with chinese subtitles, so I have to pause at every long sentence, because I am too slow to read the subtitles and they are talking too fast for me to understand. But anyway, it's really fun to watch! The series is called "It started with a kiss" and in fact it's really stupid haha^^
It's a kind of high-school romance. A girl from a class with not-so-intelligent students falls in love with a good-looking guy from an A-class, who doesn't have any interest in her at all. After her house got destroyed by an earthquake, she and her dad come to live with an old friend of his - who is the dad of the guy she fell in love with. So they live side by side and the guy's mom wants them to marry one day, which is definitely not what he wants. Daily routine and funny scenes unfold and although the story is not really intelligent or something like that, after a while, you just can't stop watching (this is the thing with most of the soap-operas...).
The girl, Xiangqin, is really cute, and although she is a little stupid, she is adorable^^ Zhishu, the guy she fell in love with, is also pretty good looking haha^^
If you ever have the chance to get hold of this series (and if you know a little chinese^^), you should really have a look at it. I love it!!!

湘琴和江直樹
(Xiang Qin and Jiang Zhishu, the two main characters)

Happy Valentine's day

2007-02-14T17:28:00.000+01:00

And again, it's Valentine's day. Maybe you remember that last year, I wrote about how much I hate Valentine's day. I still do, kinda, but this is the first year I have someone I can give a Valentine's day's gift to and I am also gonna receive one hehe^^
But still I think that you can also make little gifts to the person you love the whole year. You don't need a special day for that.
And what annoys me most is that every stupid shop displays a sign saying "February 14th, Valentine's day". They could also write "Come in and buy heart-shaped stuff at a ridiculously high price because it's Valentine's day". Most of the stuff is so unbelievably cheesy...
I think if you want to make a gift, you should make something yourself. At least, that's what I'm gonna do.
I guess I don't really hate the day anymore but I still hate the way it's being commercialised.
What do you think about Valentine's day?

Here's what others think.
Kinda made me laugh^^

Jazzie's book recommendations: Eragon

2007-02-14T15:57:00.000+01:00

I am currently reading the book "Eragon" by Christopher Paolini. It is a book about the young boy Eragon who finds a dragon egg and becomes entangled into an ancient story about Dragon Riders. And before he even notices, he is part of a big adventure and near to death more often than he had ever expected. With an old man from his village, who has a lot of secrets, Eragon begins his journey to take revenge and to fight the Empire.

The book is really exciting and once you start reading, it is hard for you to stop. Everything is more or less realistically written, so you don't think twice about upcoming dragons and monsters, it just seems natural that they're there. What I also like is that there is a map of the country Eragon lives in on the first two pages. It makes it easier to imagine his journey.

If you would like to read a book about a foreign world and if you like fantasy, you should really have a look at "Eragon".

Experiences in China: Episode 2 ~ Peking is a village

2007-02-06T21:42:00.000+01:00

23.8.2006
Today, my friend Tanja, Klaas (another friend) and I began to look around for shopping areas in the city. He had discovered an old street with many little shops, the Dazhalanjie.
Pretty shabby there (the toilet in on of the hostels I used there was the most disgusting
toilet I have ever used in my entire life), but everything was really cheap. First of all we bought loads of CDs (for around 2 Euro each) and then we were lead by the shop-owner into a weird alley; "we've got more stuff there". His assistant unlocked a metal-door, put some curtains aside and pointed on many many illegal burned DVDs. As she locked the door behind us we began to feel a little funny but the DVDs were too seductive^^ And so cheap! Afterwards we found a very different kind of shopping on the Wangfujinjie. Huge, sparkling malls and bookstores which were also huge and sold every kind of books and CDs you could imagine. Peking began to be fun.
And despite these huge buildings and large roads (where 5-7 cars could drive next to each other) Klara, Niki and Clemens managed to spot us in the middle of the road, on their bikes (on the bike through Peking - typically Klara)! Haha^^ The world is a village. They stayed in a different Youth-Hostel and had different plans for the day, so we made plans with them for the next day and went back to our hostel.
Going back with the bus we created our sentence of the day. A man with glasses, about 30 years old, permanently stared at Tanja in a way that at first it was really amusing and then it began to get really annoying.
In the evening we ate some Jiaozi (something like chinese Ravioli), with which I had also
begun the day. And then the bed began to cry for me...

Sentence of the day:
"D'you like what you see?!"
- No, we didn't really say that but that guy's face would have
been wonderful haha^^

Weather:
Way too hot...

Experiences in China: Episode 1 ~ First impressions

2007-01-18T15:46:00.000+01:00

This year I spent 6 weeks with some friends (mostly with my friend Tanja) in China. Here are some of my experiences, from my Traveller's Diary:

21.08.2006 Peking
After a 9 hour flight (I was already fed up with flying after one hour) and a pretty long Taxi-Drive (with a lot of honking through the Chaos) we arrived in a Youth Hostel in a country, where people talk rapidly all the time, stare at you openly (either interested or hostile) and comment on your poor chinese
talking with a happily "wow, your chinese is really good!" (holy cow, I only said 3 words...). Fascinating.
Everything is pretty chaotic, dusty and...well..."ugly" would be mean but it kinda fits - but I like it!!!
The total Helplessness that overcomes you facing the masses of chinese characters (you haven't learned yet) is a little annoying sometimes, but you find your way through in the end. And when you peacefully eat your well-known McDonald's menu, the staring doesn't even bother you anymore.
And the park around the corner is kinda beautiful (although the buildings are pretty dusty).

Sentences of the day:
"What the..."
"I feel like the people here are lying to me" (concerning the comments on our chinese...)

22.08.
Today was a "look-at-culture-and-pretend-to-be-a-diligent-and-interested-sinology-student-day". Well, more or less. Me and Tanja went through the Forbidden City and found out that all
of the buildings look more or less the same. And, that the Chinese are not only weird, but can
also be annoying. Three times people absolutely wanted to take a picture with us (e.g. a group of
crazy youths). We are like SO great...
And the people with their stupid "Mongolian Art Exhibition" were also really annoying. They talked to you like hours until you finally knew what they wanted...man, they got on my nerves...
All in all, everything is rather beautiful but not really impressive somehow. But the Jingshan Park behind was really nice and you had a wonderful view. The best were the souvenir-shops there! Tanja and I got 4 chinese paintings for 20 Euro! We couldn't believe it...we had thought it was the price for one (and thought it was cheap) but it was the price for four!
The Beihai-Park was also really nice but the way back was SO LONG...and we had to go past a guarded military area. The policemen are really scary there. Stare at you in such a hostile way...
Thanks to the city-map we found the way back and could give our hurting feet a rest.

Sentences of the day (most of them we only thought):
Would you please...
- go home. (really way too many people here)
- dress your children better. (most infants in China wear pants with a hole at the bottom, so that they can pee whenever they want to and don't need diapers. Pretty gross...)
- stop annoying us with your stupid Mongolian Art Exhibition
- "My sister/friend/etc wants to take a picture with you" and again some grinning Chinese put their arm around you for the picture...

The good thing in China is that you can talk in german all the time (about them) and they don't understand a thing. Can be pretty funny sometimes^^

Jazzie's Music Recommendations: Carla Bruni

2007-01-13T22:01:00.000+01:00

I bought Carla Bruni's new album "No Promises" today. Her music is really
nice. It's music to lean back, relax and unwind. Changing between slow blues and more
vivid songs, Carla Bruni's voice is it what makes her music special. Her voice is a little
hoarse, but soft. All in all the album is best to be heard when sitting on your sofa, drinking
tea and watching a cloudy sky with little sun-patches inbetween and the whole day is
stretching out in front of you to be filled with: relaxing.
I love this kind of music recently.
What I think is an interesting idea, too, is that she took poems from popular authors (like Emily Dickinson) and made songs out of them. The texts and information about the authors is given in a booklet.
The album design is also very neat:

To get an impression, go to: www.carlabruni.com

I am trying to give my blog a better structure by creating categories. This one is the first. It will be followed by some more like Book Recommendations and reports of some of my experiences in China.

New Year, New Template

2007-01-12T21:30:00.000+01:00

Well, so I changed to the new Blogger-version. Up to now it is only annoying me...I have no idea how to put music into the sidebar now. And it took me SO long to figure it out in the old version T_T If anyone knows how it works, please help me!!
And why does Blogger always go mad when I try to put a picture in my post? You can't edit your post anymore as soon as the pic's in it.
Of course I want your feedback concerning my new template. I kinda like the fresh colours of this style.
Well, there isn't too much new to tell. I caught a cold, so I spent most of the last week hanging around at home trying not to wail too much haha^^ But lucky me, Clemens came every day to visit me, although I was really ill and only sneezing and coughing and wailing^^
Now I am finally beginning to feel a little better :)

Favourite song this week:
It's still "Morning yearning" by Ben Harper

Favourite music for chillin' recently:
I loooove "Kings of Convenience"! Their music is like soooo comforting!
And I also like Madeleine Peyroux pretty much, her music is also nice to just hang around.

What annoys me:
The new Blogger-version...
Having so much to learn...

New year

2007-01-03T23:43:00.000+01:00

A new year begins...

As last year, it is time to look back and see what the last year has been like...
I usually remember only a few events and things about the past year. The first thing that comes to my mind is working at the bakery in february which wasn't fun at all. So I gave this job up after a short while. But still I earned som money, which is the good thing that came out of it haha^^
In march there was this great 20's party my fellow student Sonja gave with some friends. That was the best party of the whole year! So much fun ~
In late may and the beginning of june I began to learn how to play the guitar and I loved it! Lately I don't really have enough time to practice but I still wanna learn to play some more songs, because the guitar is a really beautiful instrument.
July was the month of the Soccer world championship in Germany, what made everyone around here (including me) crazy about soccer for a while. Sooo sad we didn't get the worldcup but still Germany played better than expected. And then my parents and me made a trip to Tenerife, for a chill-out holiday. It was nice and I met a lot of new people there. Moreover, I had tons of time to do absolutely nothing. Wonderful :)
The end of august I went to China for 6 weeks! It was a really great trip and I saw a lot of the country. I could write pages about this trip but this is only a short review of the year, so that would go to far. If you're interested, I can write something more about China in another post.
And in August, me and my boyfriend got together *big grin* Since he also went to China, this was a good opportunity to get to know each other better. At the beginning it felt kinda weird, but now we get along really well and I am happy about that :)
The following months nothing special happened...just normal life, learning and stuff and then preparing for christmas and working and now finally holidays.
Which are going to be over soon, too, but that's a different subject...

Well, I can say that 2006 was as exciting and worth to remember as 2005 had been, which I never would have expected as the new year began. So, let's see what 2007 will bring for me^^
Wish you all a wonderful and happy new year!

Favourite song this week:
"Morning yearning" by Ben Harper

What I am up to recently:
I am decorating my room and cleaning it...it looks a lot better than before now and that makes me happy^^ Tomorrow I'm gonna go to a furniture-shop (I guess there is a special word for it in english, but I am too lazy to look it up now...) and buy some nice stuff to make my room morebeautiful. Maybe I'll post some pictures when I'm done with my room make-over haha^^

Tiny Grand Piano^^

2006-12-21T22:40:00.000+01:00

Some japanese toymaker created a fully functionable Grand Piano in a really tiny size. It is
supposed to be sold for 500 Dollars each. It is very difficult to play, since the keys are so small.
It's so cute^^ Wanna have one of these....

Favourite song this week:
"Lovesong No1" and "All that way" by Muriel Zoe

What I am reading:
It seems like ages that I read an exciting book and finally now I bought one again. It's called "Schatten des Windes" (The Shadow of the wind) and it's about a boy who finds a special book that changes his life. His life begins to get entangled in the story written in the book.
The Shadow of the wind on amazon

What I am yearning for:
Holidays...don't wanna work all day tomorrow and saturday >"< 但是沒辦法...

About love and life

2006-11-17T22:35:00.000+01:00
Recently, I read an article about a guy who is 24 years old and who never had a girlfriend before. The article really touched my heart, because a few months before, I've been in the exactly same situation - except the fact that I'm only 20.
The guy in the article just tells his story, in a matter-of-fact tone where you can only sense what he really feels. Most of all, when you know how he feels. I never knew there were many others being in the same situation than I was. People, who somehow missed to take part in the phase where you are in 5th or 6th grade and write each other little love-letters. Who also one day feel too old for little love-letters but never learned anything else to approach a person they like. They usually have a lot of friends, like what they do and are not unattractive. They have just been disappointed early and are now afraid to show their feelings. They hide behind a wall of politeness or friendship what they really feel because they are afraid. And they think that short "just-for-fun" relationships are too banal, they want something real, right from the beginning. And that's unfortunately not easy too find.

I am old-fashioned, I like it when a guy makes the first step, opens the door for me, carries heavy things for me and so on. I sometimes thought, I was born in the wrong time because everybody else falls in and out of love so quickly and I just can't imagine to have a boyfriend just for a couple of weeks, just for fun. I am just not that kind of girl. And that made it hard for me to find someone.
At my age, most of the guys already are in a relationship or they're just looking for some fun. I think it's kinda sad, that in our society you are looked at in a weird way when you're still single at the age of 20. In my opinion, a relationship should be something that enriches your life but not something that IS your life. But many people seem to think they HAVE to have a partner, otherwise something is wrong with them. And so they try and try one partner after another. But I think that there's more in life. I mean, love is a really big part of everyone's life and I guess everyone wants to have someone they love and who loves them in return. But still that shouldn't be the only thing in life. You should also have a life of your own to share with the beloved person.
So in the end it's no bad thing at all to have the first relationship at the age of 20, or 21 or, as the guy in the article, 24. Because by then you have built up a life of your own, you have your own interests and hobbies and you've got something to share.
I have waited for a long time but love never comes when you wait for it. When finally I reached the point where I was satisfied with my life the way it was, I found someone.

I would like to encourage everybody out there who is single without ever having chosen to be single. Love is worth waiting and hoping for it. But don't forget the beauty of the life you're living NOW. Love your life and love will come by one day when you least expect it.
Because life is also something worth to be loved.

Daily routine ~

2006-11-12T23:30:00.000+01:00
Hey everybody...
I was really too lazy to blog these days. Today's the only day since weeks I was the
whole day at home, doing some stuff that really needed to be done. The last few weeks I was mostly busy with university-stuff. Now we have begun to learn classical chinese, the language people wrote a few thousand years ago. It's kinda interesting, but really exhausting and a lot of work. New grammar, new words, history...and then there's all this other stuff to do...well I guess every student knows what I'm talking about haha^^
And besides the university I still need time to play the guitar, read, hang out with my friends and my boyfriend etc. ... why doesn't a day have more hours than 24?!^^

Well, there's nothing more to tell these days, except that I slowly begin not to hate other couples anymore...

Favourite song this week:
"Seaside" by The Kooks, a song which is definitely too short!

What I am reading:
"Dream of the red chamber", a very famous piece of Chinese writing, a story that takes place in the early Qing-time

What I miss:
Holidays....days with too much time to fill....>.<

Pictures from China

2006-09-28T10:50:00.000+02:00
I am still in China, now in Shanghai. Shanghai is really amazing! The buildings are just huge and every time you go around a corner there is something more amazing than before. The first day I ran around with eyes and mouth open but now I am getting used to it haha^^

If you would like to see some pictures from Shanghai, Beijing, Xinxiang and some other interesting places I visited here in China, go to

http://s93.photobucket.com/albums/l46/Weisimin/

Sorry I haven't written anything for such a long time, but whenever I go online I answer a lot of eMails and afterwards I am too lazy to blog >.<
So enjoy the pictures and see you again when I'm back!!

20 Things that are REALLY weird here

2006-09-07T14:15:00.000+02:00
1. They have totally modern malls but when you want to use the toilet you find a toilet on the floor you have to squat over....but still the taps are automatic
2. The people here squat on the street...next to banks or even ON the banks
3. They spit on the floor, accompanied by a horrible sound....it is just so gross...
4. In the Youth Hostel we stayed in in Beijing, a guy was playing the Tuba
5. Chinese people talk VERY fast and VERY loud and ALL the time
6. They stare at you like an alien if you've got blonde hair and blue eyes
7. They even stop on the street or turn around to stare at you (sometimes they stare admirably, sometimes hostile)
8. When you are looking at an item in a shop, they come from behind to show and try to sell you something totally different
9. They always tell you your Chinese is "really good" although all you've said so far is "Nihao" (hello)
10. Taxi drivers don't know their own city, sometimes you know the way better than they do although you have been in the city for 5 days and they live there
11. Chinese people don't have rockmusic...all they listen to are cheesy love-popsongs
12. They take pictures of you (sometimes secretly, sometimes they ask you)
13. Children cry "FOREIGNER" at you, but they mean it in a nice way
14. People say to you directly "you are beautiful", even if you don't know them at all
15. They can never admit they did something wrong, even if a haircutter coulours your hair and it turns out blue he says "no that's not blue, that's...ergh..." (no, I did NOT invent that)
16. People ALWAYS try to get in front of you when you are lining up for something..."the survival of the fittest"
17. People working in banks are unbelievably slow and they only open 3 out of 6 counters although the bank is full of people
18. The poeple are afraid of rain, when there are only a few drops, everybody hurries away or take their umbrellas out
19. They have traffic lights but nobody cares if it's green or red
20. Every interesting scenic spot is turned into a touristic event which is filled with chinese tourists with neon-coloured hats and a tourist guide who has a flag in his hand and tells them everything they need to know about the temple/the pagoda/etc

I'm in CHINA ~

2006-08-27T15:13:00.000+02:00
Hey everybody!

I know I promised to blog something but this is the first time I've got enough time to do so. Right now I am in Xinxiang, which is a city situated about 7 hours by train south from Beijing. The last 5 days I spent in Beijing with my friends from university and it was so much fun! We saw many many interesting places, like the Great Wall, the Summerpalace, the Forbidden City and huge shopping malls where you can get everything for a ridiculously cheap price. Beijing is not very beautiful but the buildings are huuuge and there's a lot to see.
Now Xinxiang is a very different city. We are living in a kind of hotel on the campus of Henan Normal University, where we have a 4 weeks language course. The hotel is good, although my romm-mate Tanja and I don't have any bathtub, so the whole bathroom gets flooded when you try to take a shower. I hope we can get another room soon...
Xinxiang is really not beautiful. It's incredibly hot and humid and when you leave the campus, there comes a funny smell out of the river...
The internet-bar I am in right now is in a small building, which looks like a garage or something but it's crammed full of modern PCs. The people sit on the street, drive around on nearly breaking-down cars or bikes and everything is dusty and looks like a road in Africa.
Although today we visited the inner city, which wasn't like that at all. They have big malls there and everything looks like a normal asian city. Maybe we shouldn't have taken the way down that other road the day before....

But since our university is big and modern and since we have come here to learn, I guess it'll be ok. Still I'll be happy when we arrive in our hotel in Shanghai the end of September, when it'll begin to cool down...

Favourite song this week:
"Blacksmith's Milan" by Jay Chou. The song is so much fun ~

Most used phrase today:
"It's just SO gross..."

What I am reading:
If I find the time, I read "The Zahir" by Paulo Coelho

What I am missing:
The rainy, chilly weather in Hamburg....

Trip to the beach (Part I)

2006-08-13T20:56:00.000+02:00
Yesterday me and my friends made a little trip to the beach (at Wittenbergen in southern Hamburg). The beach there was really beautiful. I didn't even know we've got such a beautiful beach here! Clemens, my friend from my Chinese-class, had told me about it and so we took the subway to Blankenese and he brought us to the beach in the car. I brought my guitar and we grilled some meat and sausages. At the beginning it rained a little but since it were only a few raindrops it was kinda romantic and created a special atmosphere. As the sun began to set the water turned to liquid gold...soooo nice^^
It was a real nice day and I hope we can go there once again soon! Enjoy the pictures ~

Clemens, Me, Max, Matthi and Jamie
Everybody with umbrellas^^
Max and Jamie

Trip to the beach (Part II)

2006-08-13T20:12:00.000+02:00
Matthi, Denis and Clemens

Later we went to Jamie's house and as Denis fell asleep we put stuff on him and he didn't notice at all haha soooo funny^^ ~ Friends are something nice

Back from Tenerife

2006-08-08T23:06:00.000+02:00
Hey everybody!

I know it's been ages since my last post (sorry^^"), but now I'm back with some nice pictures from my two-week holiday on Tenerife!!! It was really relaxing and so much fun and I met loads of new friends. Look at the pictures, imagine the sound of the sea and enjoy ~

This was the view from our balcony...soooo nice^^

This is one of the swimming-pools at night.

Gigantic cactus and me^^

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I would like to show you guys some more pictures but unfortunately blogger won't really let me...maybe I'll post some more later!
Well well...now that university is over until october, my days are really relaxed lately. Yesterday I spent the whole day (after picking up my visa for China) together with a friend from my Chinese-class (Clemens) in a Beachclub down by the river Elbe. And it's just soooo nice there. The sand is like on a caribbean beach and they have unbelievably comfortable couches there. We spent nearly the whole day doing absolutely NOTHING, which was really nice haha^^
Sunday, when Max from Taiwan is here, we're all gonna go there again. I am already looking forward to that!
Favourite song this week:
»Layla« by Eric Clapton
Since the song plays a role in the manga »NANA«, and I didn't remember the tune, I went to a store and listened to it. And now that I have the song on my PC I love it so much!
In the manga, there's this girl whose father named her after the song, so whenever she's sad, she listens to it cause it makes her feel calm. And as she's really down, a good friend of her learns to play it on the guitar and then comes to her appartment to play it for her. I love the scene.
What I am reading:
I read »Kare First Love 6« today. I love that manga, since it shows the daily life and problems of a japanese couple experiencing first love. It is so cute and many of the shops or actions in the story remind me of my holidays in Taiwan^^
I'm also reading »Hitched« by Zoe Barnes and »The meaning of Tingo«, which is a book with extraordinary words from around the world. Some of the words are really funny, e.g. tingo is a Pascuense word from Easter Island meaning »to borrow things from a friend's house one by one until there's nothing left«. In this manner the book presents several expressions from different languages, which is quite funny. My favourite one is koro (Japanese): the hysterical belief that one's penis is shrinking into one's body hahaha ^______________^ The Japanese are really weird ~
For more information you might go to: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4248494.stm or just have a look on google....
What annoys me:
My arm still hurts from this stupid immuinzation I needed for China >.<

Aus der Traum vom Weltmeister

2006-07-05T10:22:00.000+02:00
Since this is a post for all german soccer fans, I'm gonna write it in german. Hope nobody minds. Next time I'm back in english^^

Was haben wir gezittert...gehofft...mitgelitten....wie schön wäre es gewesen, wenn wir die WM im eigenen Land gewonnen hätten. Und jetzt ist es vorbei. Es fällt ein wenig schwer, sofort umzudenken auf: "Hey, wir sind Dritter, das ist doch toll"....denn das ist es...aber enttäuscht ist man irgendwie trotzdem ein bisschen.
Aber erinnern wir uns an die tollen Momente der deutschen Fußballmannschaft...
...wie Lehmann zwei Elfmeter gehalten hat (du bist unser Held^^)
...wie beim Spiel gegen Schweden ein Tor in der 6. und dann gleich eins in der 12. Minute kam
...wie sehr wir jetzt alle Klose und Odonkor lieben^^

Und erinnern wir uns auch an dieses Gefühl der Zusammengehörigkeit, das uns die WM gegeben hat, die Möglichkeit laut grölend und fahnenschwenkend durch die Gegend zu laufen, ohne dass man schief angesehen wird. Fußball lässt uns unseren sonst immer versteckten Nationalstolz endlich mal ausleben. Freuen wir uns über all die vielen Deutschlandfahnen, die immer noch in den Fenstern und auf den Balkonen hängen und an den Autofenstern flattern und erinnern wir uns an den Freudentaumel, den jedes gewonnene Spiel ausgelöst hat. Und schließlich an das Abwerfen der norddeutschen Zurückhaltung, das fremde Leute dazu brachte, sich gegenseitig freudestrahlend "Schlaaaand" zuzurufen, ohne sich dabei mit ihren Fußballhüten, Fußballtrikots, Fußballtrillerpfeifen und Deutschlandfahnen albern vorzukommen.
Und jetzt noch mal alle zusammen, weil's so schön war:

DEUTSCHLAAAAAAAAND!!!!!!!!

Campfire in the garden

2006-06-18T18:52:00.000+02:00
Friday my friend Nina and I celebrated our birthdays at her house. We had planned to celebrate in the garden, grill sausages and have a campfire. When I arrived at her house to help her with the preparations, it began to rain. No, actually it began to POUR! That was so mean, it hadn't rained the whole day, it only started in the evening...
We were so disappointed and decided to make the party inside the house. But fortunately it stopped raining later and so around 11 pm we were able to go out and start the campfire. And it was so much fun! My friend Denis played the guitar and we all sang and had a great time. So in the end the party was really great!! Although we had a lot of work cleaning everything up the next day...
I wish I could post some pictures but unfortunately I hadn't brought my camera.

On a different subject I want to show you a video from John Frusciante (JOHN!), RHCP's guitar-player, of whom Nina and her friend Anni are big fans, so I kinda couldn't get around to listen to his music, too and I really like it. This video is actually only about his everyday-life but I like the song.

Favourite song this week:
»Murmur‹ by John Frusciante...the song is so crazy but after listening to it a few times, it's fun!

Best song to listen to at a campfire:
»Nothing else matters« by Metallica. It's just such a wonderful song!

Best song to listen to when it rains in summer:
»Summer Rain« by Big Bang (thank you, Clemens^^)

What I am learning:
Playing the guitar^^

Learning how to play the guitar

2006-06-08T14:49:00.000+02:00
I started to learn how to play the guitar and it's so much fun! I wanted to learn it before but now that my friend Nina found a guitar in her attic and started telling me she wants to play, well....I want to play, too.
Fortunately a friend of mine plays the guitar and so he can teach us ^______________^

On Monday he left his guitar at my house (hehe), so Nina and I had a lot of fun playing around with it.

The only bad thing is the pain in your fingers...but you learn to live with it....^^"

I loooooove it!!!!

H-O-L-I-D-A-Y-S

2006-06-03T23:59:00.000+02:00
Phew! Finally the time of learning every evening are over for a whole week. I really needed this vacation this time. My exam was good, not that difficult actually.
I told myself not to look in our Chinese-book this whole weekend haha^^

Tonight I watched the movie "Elizabethtown", together with my friend Eva. I finally got the DVD and I just love the movie so much. It's not only a movie about love, but also about life. And the music is so wonderful. In this movie, everything fits together and after watching it, you always feel so calm and nice and warmed from the inside.
If you want to know more about it or listen to the soundtrack, just click on the link in my sidebar and enjoy.
I especially love this picture and the atmosphere it creates. Can't really explain why.
To get the Elizabethtown-feeling while reading my post, listen to the title-theme:

60B - Nancy Wilson

My favourite song this week:
»Hard to concentrate« by the RHCP. It is a really nice song with a cute text (see sidebar).
What I am reading:
I began »Land der Töchter« by Namu Erche. It's a story about an ethnic minority in China (The Moso), where women are more important than men. Pretty interesting.
My favourite drink recently:
I totally love "Beck's green lemon" because it doesn't taste like beer at all (I don't like beer) and it's just so tasty!!

The Flying Spaghetti Monster

2006-05-25T00:40:00.000+02:00
Many of you may wonder about the title of this post now. No, I am not taking any drugs, nor am I drunk or anything like that. Recently I've found a joke-religion about the Flying Spaghetti Monster
who created the world. It is just so absurd that I have to post it and I really love the idea!! Where can I become a member...?
To see a video of a FSM-sighting, go to: FSM-Video

On a different subject I want to share a song with you, which I really love recently. It is a very old german song (it's even old german language which you can hardly understand today; comparable to Shakespeare's language in English) which a friend of mine came up with since she learned something about it in class. It's called "Am Morgen fruo" (= During the early morning) by Walter von der Vogelweide and it's sung by a girl called Aurelie , who also has a hompepage sharing songs like that one with others (in german). I wanted to put it in the sidebar but it somehow won't work T_T Maybe you can download it yourself on the page if you're interested, just type the title into the search-field. So instead I put a Jay Chou song in the sidebar again, which I also like very much.

Favourite song this week:
"Am Morgen fruo", as just mentioned.

What I am reading:
"Traum unserer Generation" by Zhang Xinxin, which is a really nice book. It's very thin and I am reading it during my subway-rides. Today I read a very cute part of it I will tell you about in a different post (it's getting to long here).
"Paula" by Isabel Allende, also a very interesting book.

What I am learning:
Stupid annoying chinese grammar...>.<

Eichbaumsee and RHCP

2006-05-12T16:51:00.000+02:00
I know it's been a while that I've posted something but I've been pretty busy lately. A lot to learn, two presentations (one of them next week >.<) and going out with friends since the weather has been FANTASTIC! Every day I was like "I really have to work on my presentation today" and then I looked out of the window and next I was sitting with a friend at a lake or going downtown with another friend etc. 你不努力不行! haha^^ Speaking of this lake: It's called Eichbaumsee, it's somewhere near Hamburg (great description, I know ;-)) and it's just so beautiful there!! They have a large beach with white sand around the lake and there's also a river nearby. Everything is surrounded by a big park. I'll probably celebrate my birthday there; everyone sitting around a fire and one of them playing the guitar...soo nice :-)

On a different subject I want to share a really funny video with you. It's "Dani California" by Red Hot Chili Peppers. My friend Nina has become a big fan recently and all she is listening to is RHCP-music haha^^ I also like some of the songs, especially this one. Try to guess every band they are representing in the video, we guessed all but one!

> I removed the video since it annoys me that it starts every time I open the blog. If anyone really wants to see it, just go to youtube.com, they've got it somewhere there<

Favourite song this week:
"Snow (Heyho)" by RHCP (although yesterday was the first time I listened to it)

What I am reading:
Still "Borrowed tongue" by Tao Yang. It's really recommendable. It's about a woman who fled from China to Taiwan with her family, who now tries to face the ghosts of her past. It's about her problems with family-members, friends, moving so often and life in general and the style is really nice to read.
Note to 我們中文班的學生: You can find it in our AAI-library (after I've returned it).

What made me laugh this week:
Yesterday, I went to a Egypt-evening in university, along with two friends of mine, Nina and Denis. When we went downstairs, a little girl came running up, stopped, looked at Denis, began to laugh and ran away. It was so funny hahaha^^

My neighbour Li - Chapter 2

2006-04-27T23:42:00.000+02:00
Hi everybody ~

I am sorry that I can't post the story in english but that would be too much work, really. I have barely enough time to write it in german...
Recently I am a little busy, I have to prepare two presentations for the next 2 months and the vocabulary also is a lot. I am not used to being busy anymore haha ~

Oh and... yay! I got a job now at an institute which employs people who help not so good students with their homework and to get better (I don't know how to call it in English) and the payment is REALLY good!! I am so happy it worked out because I really wanted this job! I love working with young people, or people at my age and moreover I can improve my own skills (in English and Spanish, e.g.). *dances around happily*

Favourite song this week:
"Ironic" from Alanis Morrissete's "Acoustic Jagged little pill" The acoustic versions are so nice! And I love the lyrics: "It's like 10 000 spoons when all you need is a knife..."

What I am reading (is there actually anyone interested in these book revisions? I mean, I like them, but...) :
"Gattenmord" (Husband-kill) by Li Ang, a taiwanese writer. The book is written in a very nice style, but the contents are horrible...it's about a woman who is treated like a dog or even worse by her husband who is a pig-butcher. The description of him slaughtering pigs really makes you wanna thrwo up...gross. Although it's actually a good book but the descriptions didn't HAVE to be that detailled...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And here we go with my story:

2

„Tiantian!“
Die Stimme meiner Mutter drang aus dem Wohnzimmer an mein Ohr. Ich kletterte über einige Umzugskisten, die momentan mein Zimmer dominierten und ging zu ihr. Sie reichte mir einen Teller mit einem Kuchen darauf.
„Hier, bring das rüber zu Herrn Li“.
Ich nahm den Kuchenteller vorsichtig in beide Hände und balancierte ihn zur Tür, die meine Mutter für mich öffnete und hinter mir schloss. Ich klopfte an Herrn Lis Tür, während ich mir größte Mühe gab, den Teller nicht fallen zu lassen.
„Moment“, kam seine Stimme gedämpft von drinnen, dann ein Husten und das Klacken mehrerer Schlösser, ehe die Tür geöffnet wurde.
„Hallo Herr Li, ich bin es, Zhou Tiantian, von nebenan. Meine Mutter hat einen Kuchen für Sie gebacken“.
„Oh, vielen Dank. Komm doch herein und trink eine Tasse Tee mit mir. Und dann schneiden wir den Kuchen gemeinsam an“.
Ich fand es unhöflich abzulehnen und außerdem sah der Kuchen sehr appetitlich aus. Dennoch hatte ich immer ein wenig Respekt vor älteren Leuten und fühlte mich in ihrer Gegenwart daher immer etwas angespannt und unwohl. Sie verströmten eine Aura der Weisheit und die Tatsache, dass sie so viel mehr vom Leben wussten als ich, erschwerte es mir häufig, einen Zugang zu ihnen zu finden. In Gegenwart älterer Menschen kam ich mir immer furchtbar naiv vor.
„Vielen Dank“.
In Herr Lis Wohnung roch es nach gekochtem Reis und Putzmittel, außerdem hing ein schwacher Duft von Räucherstäbchen in der Luft. Die Fenster waren, wie bei uns auch, mit Roleaus versehen, die die heiße Sonne daran hindern sollten, die Wohnung zu sehr aufzuheizen, jedoch dafür sorgten, dass es tagsüber in der Wohnung nie wirklich hell wurde. In taiwanesischen Wohnungen herrschte daher ein permanenter Dämmerzustand, solange, bis jemand das Licht einschaltete. Herr Li besaß viele dunkle Möbel und auf einer Kommode stand ein kleiner Altar mit einer Schale abgebrannter Räucherstäbchen davor. Daher also der Geruch.
„Setz dich doch, mach es dir bequem, ich koche uns Tee“.
Ich setzte mich auf den Rand des großen, dunklen Ledersofas und sah mich um, während Herr Li geduldig und mit sorgfältigen, präzisen Bewegungen Tee aufsetzte. An den Wänden hingen Fotos von einer sehr schönen Frau in verschiedenen Altersstufen. Es schien wie eine Art Chronologie. Angefangen bei einem Bild, auf dem sie kaum älter sein mochte als sechs Jahre, bis hin zu einem, auf dem sie mit grauem Haar zu sehen war, etwa in Herr Lis Alter. Auf einigen Bildern war Herr Li ebenfalls zu sehen, doch die meisten waren Einzelfotos, auf denen sie lächelte, mit Schmollmund in die Kamera schaute, unter einem blühenden Kirschblütenbaum stand, vor einem imposanten Gebäude oder lachend mit beiden Händen das Peace-Zeichen machte. Vermutlich seine Frau. Doch wo war sie? Ich hätte es gern gewusst, doch ich traute mich nicht zu fragen und so schwieg ich und gnibbelte an meinen Fingern, wie ich es immer tat, wenn ich nervös war. Während das Wasser kochte, drehte Herr Li sich zu mir um.
„Und, wie gefällt es dir hier, in Taipei?“
Ich lächelte in Erinnerung an die Faszination die mich am vorigen Tag beim Anblick der hohen Gebäude ergriffen hatte.
„Es ist der Wahnsinn“, antwortete ich. Herr Li lachte freundlich.
„Ja, die Gebäude hier und die vielen Menschen sind schon beeindruckend, wenn man zum ersten Mal hier ist. Aber du wirst dich schnell dran gewöhnen und dich nach der Ruhe auf dem Land zurücksehnen“.
Das glaubte ich nicht, dennoch nickte ich höflich.
„Na ja, wer weiß, ich habe mich schließlich auch nie nach dem Leben auf dem Land zurückgesehnt, ist doch stinklangweilig dort. Hier habe ich wenigstens immer Menschen um mich und bin nicht so einsam“, fügte er lächelnd hinzu.
„Sie haben auch auf dem Land gelebt?“, fragte ich interessiert.
„Oh ja, aber nur bis zu meinem sechsten Lebensjahr. Als ich zur Schule gehen sollte, zogen wir nach Taipei“.
„Fast wie bei uns“, sagte ich. „Wir sind auch hier hergekommen, damit ich auf eine bessere Schule gehen kann“.
„Ja ja, das ist für die meisten Leute der Grund. Die Kinder sollen es mal besser haben als man selbst. Ach, am Ende muss ohnehin jeder selbst entscheiden, was er mit seinem Leben anfangen will“.
Der Kessel pfiff und Herr Li stand auf, um den Tee fertig zu machen. Ich hatte nicht ganz verstanden, was er mir mit dem letzten Satz hatte sagen wollen, doch es klang ziemlich klug.
Während Herr Li mit dem Tee hantierte, betrachtete ich weiter die Fotos an der Wand. Die darauf abgebildete Frau war wirklich außerordentlich hübsch. Ihre Zähne waren weiß wie frisch gewaschene Wäsche und ihre Haare glänzten so sehr, dass sie manchmal fast violett erschienen. Doch das Schönste an ihr war ihr Lächeln, das sich in ihren Augen widerspiegelte und einen sofort in seinen Bann zog.
„Gefällt sie dir?“, fragte Herr Li, der offensichtlich meine interessierten Blicke bemerkt hatte.
Ich wurde rot und sah betreten zu Boden. Ich hätte die Bilder nicht so anstarren sollen, nun hatte ich sicher einen schlechten Eindruck gemacht.
„Du brauchst dich nicht zu schämen, nur weil du Geschmack hast. Sie war wirklich eine außerordentlich schöne Frau, meine Meiling“.
Er lächelte und sein Blick glitt in die Ferne seiner Erinnerungen.
„War?“, fragte ich. Meine Neugier hatte meine Scheu besiegt.
„Ja, leider ist sie vor einigen Jahren von uns gegangen“, sagte Herr Li und zu meinem Erstaunen verschwand das Lächeln nicht von seinem Gesicht.
„Das tut mir leid, verzeihen Sie bitte, ich bin furchtbar unhöflich!“
„Das muss dir doch nicht leid tun, so ist der Lauf der Dinge, mein Junge“.
„Aber es war unhöflich von mir, Sie danach zu fragen“.
„Das ist schon in Ordnung. Sie hatte ein langes und schönes Leben und ich habe so unendlich viele schöne Dinge mit ihr erlebt, dass ich nicht undankbar sein kann. Außerdem glaube ich, dass ihr Geist immer noch hier bei mir ist“. Er zwinkerte mir zu und mir lief ein eisiger Schauer über den Rücken bei der Vorstellung, der Geist von Herrn Lis Frau würde hier im Zimmer herumschweben.
„Wenn du möchtest, erzähle ich dir von ihr“.
Ich nickte heftig.
Herr Li stand auf und holte den Tee aus der Küche; schenkte uns ein, legte jedem von uns ein Stückchen von Mamas Kuchen auf den Teller und begann zu erzählen. Der Wind brachte die Glöckchen an dem Windspiel, das auf dem Balkon hing, zum Klingeln, sodass Herrn Lis darauf folgende Erzählung vom beständigen leichten Klang kleiner Glöckchen untermalt wurde. Ich stellte mir vor, dass der Geist seiner verstorbenen Frau das Windspiel anstieß, um auf sich aufmerksam zu machen.

„Der Tag, an dem ich mich das erste Mal von ihr verabschieden musste, ist mir so klar und deutlich ins Gedächtnis gebrannt, dass ich mich an jedes Detail erinnere. Wir waren beide sechs Jahre alt, sollten bald in die Schule kommen, als ihre Eltern beschlossen, nach Kaohsiung zu ziehen, du weißt schon, ganz in den Süden. Nun ja, wir waren damals die besten Freunde gewesen und hatten kaum einen Tag ohneinander verbracht, also war das damals für uns das Ende der Welt. Am Tag des Umzugs trafen wir uns wie immer auf einer bestimmten Brücke über den Fluss, doch anders als sonst sprachen wir kein einziges Wort. Es war ein kühler Morgen, der blaue Himmel versprach jedoch einen sonnigen und heißen Tag. In den Bergen hing noch der Morgennebel und die Luft war feucht. Wir standen uns gegenüber und sahen uns einfach nur an. Es gab vieles, das ich ihr sagen wollte, doch die Worte blieben mir im Halse stecken und so schwieg ich. Ihr schien es ähnlich zu gehen. Sie war schon damals außergewöhnlich schön gewesen, mit ihren glatten, glänzenden Haaren und ihren großen, unergründlichen Augen. Ein leichter Wind spielte mit ihren Haaren und obwohl ich noch so jung war, wusste ich, dass ich mich gerade von meiner ersten Liebe verabschiedete. Ohne etwas zu sagen überreichte sie mir eine Halskette, die sie immer getragen hatte und auf der das erste Zeichen ihres Namens, das für Schönheit, eingraviert worden war. Dann drehte sie sich abrupt um und begann zu laufen. Das letzte, was ich von ihr sah, war ihr Gesicht an der Heckscheibe des Autos ihrer Eltern und den traurigen Ausdruck in ihren Augen, der den in den meinen vermutlich exakt widerspiegelte. Das Auto verschwand um die nächste Biegung und da stand ich dann, allein auf der Brücke und allein auf der Welt. Allein blieb ich nicht lange, schließlich begann das Dorf langsam zu erwachen und die Menschen eilten hin und her, zum Markt, zur Arbeit oder zur Schule. Doch auch wenn ich von Menschen umgeben war, fühlte ich mich so einsam wie nie zuvor in meinem noch so jungen Leben“.

Herr Li machte eine Pause und nippte an seinem Tee. Während er sprach, hatte er die Augen die meiste Zeit geschlossen gehabt oder gedankenverloren die hellgrüne Flüssigkeit in seiner weißen, dünnwandigen Porzellantasse betrachtet. Ich war von seiner Erzählung in den Bann gezogen. Während der Minuten, in denen er mir von seiner Jugend erzählt hatte, hatte ich die Szene genau vor Augen gehabt, gesehen, was er gesehen hatte; gefühlt, was er gefühlt hatte. Meinen Tee und den leckeren Kuchen hatte ich völlig vergessen, nur Herr Lis raue, ruhige Stimme und seine Erinnerungen hatten mich erfüllt. Doch nun schwieg er, starrte gedankenverloren in seine Teetasse. Ich wagte nicht, ihn anzusprechen, obwohl ich darauf brannte, die Geschichte weiter zu hören. Doch als er nach fast einer Minute immer noch keine Anstalten machte, weiterzusprechen, nahm ich meinen Kuchen und begann zu essen. Als ich ihn aufgegessen und auch die Teetasse geleert hatte, hielt ich es nicht mehr aus.
„Herr Li?“
Wie aus einem Traum erwacht, sah er zu mir auf, seine Augen waren wieder klar.
„So weit für heute. Komm mich nächste Woche wieder besuchen, dann trinken wir wieder Tee zusammen und ich erzähle dir ein bisschen mehr“.
Ich war enttäuscht, warum hörte er schon nach so kurzer Zeit auf? Doch wohlerzogen wie ich war, erhob ich mich ohne Protest, verbeugte mich kurz, dankte für den Tee und den Kuchen und wünschte meinem Nachbarn einen angenehmen Tag. Vor unserer verschlossenen Tür blieb ich stehen. Drinnen hörte ich meine Mutter, wie sie die Schränke einräumte und dabei leise vor sich hin sang. Doch ich wollte allein sein und über Herrn Lis Geschichte nachdenken, also setzte ich mich einfach vor die Tür, zog die Knie an und stützte mein Kinn darauf ab. Mit Blick auf das von außen verhängte Fenster im Treppenhaus, das mit roten Glücksbringern geschmückt war, begann ich nachzudenken.

Not too much to tell

2006-04-20T19:02:00.000+02:00
Well, it's been a while that I posted something, but there isn't really that much to tell. I am going to university every day, doing my courses and learning. And then I go home and relax, hang on the phone, or learn again haha^^
There is a seminar about Chinese philosophy which I wanted to attend, but the teacher is just so chaotic and unorganised...first, she talks like she is about to cry, then she is really nervous and most of the time you don't even know what she is talking about or what you are supposed to do. It was horrible!! So I decided to drop it. Today I went to one about China's history from 1911-1949, which is really interesting! I didn't know that you learn that much when the professor just knows how to talk!!
Since there is nothing exciting I can tell or show you right now, I decided to post the first chapter of a story I am writing right now. Unfortunately for most of you, it's in german, but maybe some people can read and enjoy it and tell me what they think about it!

Favourite song this week:
"Sunnyroad" by Emiliana Torrini

What I am reading:
"Waiting for snow in Havanna" by Carlos Eire, a book about a boy from Cuba who is sent to USA after his 12th birthday.
"The City" by Xixi, a hongkong story. I wouldn't recommend this book, it is kinda weird.
But Xixi also wrote some shortstories; a couple of them were published in "A Girl Like Me", and they are REALLY good! Mostly the first and the second one. Xixi's style is very nice to read. The first story, which is also giving the collection its title, is about a girl doing make-up for the dead as a job and the problems she therefore has with friends and men; the second one, "The Cold", is about a woman finding her freedom in leaving the husband her parents chose for her. There are recites from Tang-poems inbetween to show the main character's feelings, what makes the story so special. My recommendation of the week.
I also like Xixi's explanation of her writer-name: As a child, she liked to play hopscotch and the character "xi" 西 looks, as she says, like a girl with a skirt standing in a square^^

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here we go with my novel:

Mein Nachbar Li

1

Ich war zwölf, als wir von unserem kleinen Dorf im Osten Taiwans in die Hauptstadt zogen. Die hohen Gebäude und die vielen Menschen faszinierten mich und so stand ich mit offenem Mund und großen Augen auf dem großen Platz vor dem Hauptbahnhofsgebäude. Noch nie hatte ich eine Straße diesen Ausmaßes gesehen. In beide Richtungen fuhren in einem nicht enden wollenden Strom Busse, Autos und vor allem Mofas mit viel Lärm und Gestank vor meinen Augen hin und her. Selbst ein Schalten der Ampel auf Rot vermochte die Lawine nicht aufzuhalten; wie von Zauberhand gelenkt bewegten sich Menschen und Fahrzeuge einfach aneinander vorbei, ohne sich gegenseitig zu beeinträchtigen. Und wie viele Menschen es waren! Mütter mit Einkaufskörben und kleinen, sorgsam gekleideten und frisierten Mädchen an der Hand auf dem Weg zum nächsten Markt; Geschäftsmänner mit raschem Schritt in modischen Anzügen, das obligatorische Mobiltelefon immer am Ohr; junge Mädchen in Schuluniform in kichernden Grüppchen auf dem Weg nach Hause oder zum nächsten Einkaufstempel, in dem die neueste Mode in buntem, schillerndem Ambiente feilgeboten wurde – der Gehweg war voll von ihnen und sie alle liefen in organisiertem Chaos hin und her. Die Kulisse bildete das zweithöchste Gebäude der Stadt, neben unzähligen anderen hohen Gebäuden, die zu großen Teilen verdeckt waren von Leuchtreklamen und riesigen Plakaten, auf denen für Dinge geworben wurde, von denen ich teilweise noch nie etwas gehört hatte oder deren Zweck mir reichlich fragwürdig erschien.
Und mitten in diesem Gewühl, mitten an diesem wuseligen Ort, der vor Leben nur so vibrierte, stand ich mit meinem Rollkoffer in der einen und einer Plastiktüte in der anderen Hand und kam aus dem Staunen nicht mehr heraus. Die Stadt war alles und noch viel mehr, als ich mir jemals hätte erdenken können und ich hätte gut und gern eine ganze Stunde dort stehen können, in die Betrachtung des Ganzen versunken.
„Tiantian! Nun steh da nicht rum und starr Löcher in die Luft“.
Auf meine Mutter schien die Stadt einen weniger nachhaltigen Eindruck gemacht zu haben.
„Tiantian!“.
Widerwillig wandte ich mich dem glitzernden Antlitz der Stadt ab und dem erschöpften und gehetzten meiner Mutter zu. Ihr geblümtes Sommerkleid mit dem glockenförmigen, hin und her schwingenden Rock war faltig und durchgeschwitzt und ihre sonst so sorgfältig zurecht gemachten Haare klebten ihr auf der Seite, mit der sie am Zugfenster gelehnt hatte, am Kopf. Sie nahm meine Hand, die, die die Plastiktüte hielt, in die ihre und zog mich über den Platz zur nächstgelegenen Bushaltestelle.
„Lass mich los, Ma, ich kann alleine gehen. Ich bin doch kein Baby mehr!“.
Doch meine Mutter ließ nicht mit sich reden und zerrte mich unbeirrt weiter durch die Menschenmassen. Gesprächsfetzen und dröhnende Motorenklänge drangen an mein Ohr, vermischten sich zu einem Lautbrei, der einem Kopfschmerzen bereitete. Die Abgase wurden mit Hilfe der dichten Wolkendecke, der Hitze und der hohen Luftfeuchtigkeit zu einem Smog, der einem das Atmen erschwerte. Schließlich erreichten wir eine Bushaltestelle, an der meine Mutter intensiv den Fahrplan studierte, während ich mir weiterhin den Kopf verdrehte, um auch ja nichts zu verpassen, was an diesem aufregenden Ort vor sich ging.
„Halt nach der Nummer 306 Ausschau, okay, Tiantian? Den müssen wir nehmen. Also schrei laut, wenn du einen siehst, hast du verstanden? Oooh, ich werde hier noch wahnsinnig in diesem Durcheinander!“.
Die Hitze hier war wesentlich drückender und unangenehmer als in unserem Dorf, was meiner Mutter offensichtlich zu schaffen machte. Sie kramte in ihrer Handtasche und förderte einen kleinen Papierfächer zutage, mit dem sie sich hektisch Luft zufächelte.
„Da kommt unser Bus!“, rief ich laut und deutete auf das große, mit farbenfrohen Werbeanzeigen versehene Gefährt mit der Nummer 306, das gerade an der Haltestelle einfuhr.
„Na, wenigstens kommen hier die Busse im Zweiminutentakt. Komm mit und pass auf, dass du nicht verloren gehst!“.
Wieder packte meine Mutter meine Hand und zerrte mich zum Bus. Ein Anzeigedisplay über dem Kopf des Busfahrers zeigte an, dass an dieser Haltestelle beim Einsteigen bezahlt werden musste und so warf meine Mutter die 30 Yuan, die die Fahrt für uns beide kosten würde, in die dafür vorgesehene Metallbox neben dem Eingang. Wir ergatterten noch zwei freie Plätze, ehe die anderen Menschen in Scharen in den Bus strömten und jeden Quadratzentimeter Sitz- und Stehfläche belegten. Mit einem Zischen schlossen sich die Türen des Busses und er fuhr viel zu schnell und holpernd an. Meine Mutter seufzte und fuhr sich durch die Haare.
„Was bin ich froh, wenn dieser Stress endlich ein Ende hat“.
Ich wusste nicht so recht, wovon sie sprach, denn für mich begann gerade der interessante Teil des Umzugs. Ich drückte mir die Nase an der Fensterscheibe des Busses platt, um von den an mir vorbeirauschenden Straßen, Gebäuden und hohen Brücken auch ja nichts zu verpassen. Hinter jeder Kurve erwartete mich eine neue Überraschung.
Meine Mutter und ich zogen nach Taipei, damit sie einen besseren Job finden und ich auf eine bessere Schule und später auf eine bessere Universität gehen konnte. Glücklicherweise lebten mehrere Geschwister meiner Mutter in der Hauptstadt und einer ihrer Brüder bot uns sogleich seine Hilfe bei der Wohnungssuche an. Er fand eine gute und verhältnismäßig günstige Wohnung in der Nähe eines großen, modernen Einkaufszentrums für uns. Wohnungen in Taipei waren aufgrund der hohen Bevölkerungsanzahl und des begrenzten Platzangebots unglaublich teuer und so hatten wir Glück, dass mein Onkel Beziehungen hatte, die es ihm ermöglichten, eine sogar größtenteils möblierte Wohnung zu einem guten Preis zu finden. Da wir so unheimlich viel hatten, das es mitzunehmen galt, war in dem Umzugswagen kein Platz mehr für meine Mutter und mich gewesen und so hatten wir uns mit öffentlichen Verkehrsmitteln durchschlagen müssen, während der Fahrer des Umzugswagens sich durch den Verkehr auf der Autobahn kämpfte. Mein Onkel war so nett gewesen, den Schlüssel für die neue Wohnung bei einem der Nachbarn, dem alten Herrn Li, zu hinterlegen, der versprochen hatte, am Tage des Umzugs zu Hause zu sein.
Ich blickte zu meiner Mutter, die neben mir saß und zu schlafen schien. Sie hatte mir nicht gesagt, an welcher Haltestelle wir auszusteigen hatten, daher hielt ich es für klüger, sie zu wecken.
Die Busfahrer in Taipei schienen alle nach dem Motto „Hauptsache schnell“ zu fahren, ungeachtet der Verkehrslage und Beschaffenheit der Straße, was zu einem Fahrstil führte, der einen bei jeder Unebenheit in den Sitzen auf und ab hüpfen ließ. Schließlich erreichten wir unsere Haltestelle. In dieser Gegend waren weniger Menschen unterwegs, doch die Gebäude waren auch nicht kleiner als in der Innenstadt. Aus den Geschäften, an denen wir vorbeiliefen, drang angenehm kühle, klimatisierte Luft. Am liebsten wäre ich vor jedem der Geschäfte stehen geblieben, um mich abzukühlen, doch meine Mutter zog mich weiter. Meine Hand in ihrer begann unangenehm zu schwitzen.
„Ma, kannst du mich nicht jetzt mal loslassen“, quengelte ich ungehalten.
„Wir sind gleich da, Tiantian“, war ihre einzige Antwort.
Vor einer baufälligen Treppe, die zu einer Stahltür hochführte, blieben wir schließlich stehen. Meine Mutter überprüfte die Adresse anhand des Zettels, den sie sich geschrieben hatte und suchte dann nach der Klingel des alten Li. Kurz nachdem sie auf den Klingelknopf gedrückt hatte, erklang ein Rauschen aus der Sprechanlage, dann eine kratzige Stimme.
„Ja, bitte?“.
„Hallo, guten Tag, wir sind von der Familie Zhou, die neuen Mieter“, sagte meine Mutter mit ihrer freundlichsten Stimme, die sie sonst immer verwendete, wenn sie telefonierte.
„Ah ja, ich habe mich schon gefragt, wo Sie bleiben. Kommen sie rauf, vierter Stock“. Der Summer ging und wir wurden eingelassen. Im Treppenhaus war es entgegen meiner Hoffnung unwesentlich kühler als draußen, aber wenigstens der Fahrstuhl besaß einen Ventilator. Im vierten Stock erwartete uns Herr Li bereits an der Tür. Er war ein sehr alter Mann mit vielen Falten im Gesicht und an den Händen und vollständig ergrautem, wenn auch mehr oder weniger vollem Haar. Trotz seiner etwas gebrechlichen Erscheinung schien er noch recht fit zu sein. Sein Händedruck war fest und seine Stimme zwar kratzig, aber kraftvoll. Die kleinen Fältchen um seine Augen vertieften sich, als er uns lächelnd begrüßte.
„Li Xia, hallo“.
„Zhou Xiaohua, sehr angenehm. Das ist mein Sohn Tiantian“.
Herr Li nickte mir freundlich zu, ehe er meiner Mutter die Schlüssel überreichte.
„Wenn Sie irgendwelche Probleme haben, ich will Ihnen gern behilflich sein“.
„Oh, vielen Dank, wissen Sie, dieser ganze Trubel hier in der Stadt – ich bin das einfach nicht gewöhnt“.
Herr Li lächelte und verschwand mit einem kurzen Gruß wieder in seine Wohnung.
„Wir haben gar kein Willkommensgeschenk für ihn mitgebracht, ich werde gleich morgen einen Kuchen backen“, sagte sie, als sie die vielen Schlösser der Tür nacheinander aufschloss. Da die Klimaanlage nicht eingeschaltet gewesen war, war es auch in der Wohnung schwülwarm. Meine Mutter warf ihr Gepäck auf das Sofa und stellte zunächst die Klimaanlage an. Ein angenehm kühler Luftzug durchströmte die Wohnung. Ich zog meine Turnschuhe und Socken aus und genoss es, barfuß auf den kühlen Fliesen zu stehen. Die Wohnung war wirklich nicht groß; an das Wohnzimmer war, abgetrennt durch einen Tresen, die Küche angegliedert; es gab ein Schlafzimmer mit Bett und Schrank und ein Zimmer mit einem Bett für mich. Die restlichen Möbel würden mit dem Umzugswagen aus unserer alten Wohnung kommen. Erschöpft ließ sich meine Mutter auf das Sofa sinken und fächelte sich weiter mit ihrem kleinen Papierfächer Luft zu. Ich stand auf den kalten Fliesen und sah aus dem Fenster auf die vielen Gebäude um uns herum, atmete tief die klimatisierte Luft ein.

QUESTIONS ~

2006-04-08T18:10:00.000+02:00
Hey everybody!

Since I really liked Okami's idea, which was later stolen by Joe, well, I'm gonna steal it, too haha^^

This is up to you! You can ask me whatever you want and as many questions as you want to but only one per comment, please. I don't promise to answer everything but if the questions don't get too personal I will try to answer them as good as possible. So now this is your chance to ask everything you always wanted to know about "Jazz" (if there is anything you want to know about me...).

I hope it's no problem for either Okami or Joe that I am copying this idea...^^"

ps.: I added some new links to my linklist and also linked some blogger-friends. The same I did on my other page which also has a new title now (Jazzie in Taiwan). I decided to share recently taken pictures on this blog and use the other one to write something about Taiwan and post pictures from Taiwan for people who are as interested in that island as I am^^

Chinesepod.com

2006-03-30T23:34:00.000+02:00
Yesterday I found something very interesting on the internet. There is a site, www.chinesepod.com, where you can download mp3s with Chinese lessons or discussions for your ipod or mp3-player (I still love the chinese word mpsan-player^^); every day a new one. You are first introduced to the topic in english and then you listen to a dialogue in chinese 3 times. Afterwards the two speakers explain some of the vocabulary (in english, too) and give you useful information about the new words and about how to use them. They speak very slowly, so it is easy to understand, even for beginners. Well, ok, you have to know at least a little Mandarin to understand the whole thing but I am only learning it for half a year and I understand most of the podcast.
There are also discussions fully spoken in Chinese for advanced learners.
A really interesting thing!!

The same site also exists for English, www.englishpod.com
Just wanted to share this with you, since I am totally enthusiastic about the whole thing!!

Favourite song this week:
It's still ›Hips don't lie‹

Favourite album this week:
›Fisherman's woman‹ by Emilian Torrini
http://www.emilianatorrini.com

What I am reading:
›Das Schmetterlingskästchen‹ by Santa Montefiore - really a very beautiful book! Best to read in summer on a deckchair in the garden while listening to music by Emiliana Torrini^^ (unfortunately I can only get the part with the music here...)

›Selected stories of Xiao Hong‹ by Xiao Hong - shortstories taking place in China

What I've learned today:
Chinese Vocabulary! 很努力地學習 ~ haha^^

Heute mal was anderes (only in german, sorry)

2006-03-13T23:58:00.000+01:00
Hier mal ein paar interessante Fakten über mich. Ist schon ein bisschen älter, aber das meiste ist noch aktuell. Wer von euch Lust hat, kann ja das ganze kopieren, für sich selbst ausfüllen und mir eMailen (oder auf den eigenen Blog tun, wenn man denn einen hat). Würd mich drüber freuen, ich mag solche Sachen!!

Also, viel Spaß damit...

This is me

Name: Yasmine Drewes
Wo geboren: Hamburg
Wann: am Dienstag, den 27. Mai 1986, gegen 13 Uhr
Wie (Kopf-, Steiß-, Zange-, Saugglocken-, Kaiserschnitt): Kaiserschnitt
Heimatort: Hamburg
Geschwister: keine

Sozialverhalten

Freizeitgestaltung: zu Hause rumgammeln, mit Freunden rumgammeln, Musik hören, lesen, Klavier spielen, telefonieren, eMails schreiben, chatten, shoppen, herumreisen (wenn das nötige Kleingeld da ist), fernsehen, spazieren gehen, zeichnen
Nahrung: alles außer Labskaus (igitt), Oktopus, Tofu und Dingen, die irgendwie eklig aussehen und schmecken
Sportart (aktiv): Tanzen (Choreografie)
Sportart (passiv): zugucken, wie Skater auf die Schnauze fliegen, Fussball (wenn WM/EM ist), Eiskunstlauf
Was du gerade bist (Schüler, Student, etc.): Abiturientin J
Berufswunsch/Traumberuf: Ich wäre gern Schriftstellerin, aber wie soll man davon leben...?
Was und wen würdest du auf eine einsame Insel mitnehmen? Meine besten Freunde und sämtliche Dinge, die man so zum Überleben braucht, sowie meinen MP3-Player (oder Denis mit seiner Gitarre, da braucht man keine Batterien^^) und was zu lesen
Phobien und Ticks: Phobie: hab Angst vor Spinnen und ekligen Krabbeltieren; Ticks: viele, z.B. dass ich dauernd meinen Pony in Form zupfe
(Schlechte) Angewohnheiten: Mittagsschlaf und dann spät ins Bett gehen
Mit wem hängst du am liebsten rum? Milana, Jamie, Matthi, Denis, Milan, Ly, Ina etc. und natürlich N-Chan (Nina)
Seelenverwandt mit: Meinem Vater (irgendwie)
Mit wem lachst du am meisten? Denis, Milana, Jamie, Nina
Wen von deinen Freunden kennst du am längsten und seit wann? Carina, seit dem Kindergarten
Mit wem telefonierst du am häufigsten? Jamie und Milana
Wie oft am Tag beantwortest du deine eMails? Zwei bis Dreimal
Verliebt in: Niemanden im Moment
Traumfrau/Traummann: Dunkel und gutaussehend…
Tagaktiv oder Nachteule? Bin eher ’ne Nachteule

Musikalische Entwicklung

Erste CD: Backstreet Boys Album
Lieblingsmusik bis zehn Jahre: Früher war mir Musik eigentlich relativ egal, ich mochte, was meine Eltern gehört haben
Mit zehn Jahren: Backstreet Boys, Spice Girls
Mit vierzehn: Melanie C, Vanessa Amorosi, Santana
Mit siebzehn: Rade, Zoe, Santana, Norah Jones
Heute: Morcheeba, Estopa, Gentleman, Wir Sind Helden, Jay Chou, Jack Johnson
Instrument: Klavier
Wann und wie hast du dein jetziges Instrument gelernt? Mit zehn Jahren hab ich mit Klavierunterricht bei der Jugendmusikschule (bei Frau Winter) angefangen
Schon mal vor Publikum gespielt/blamiert? Ja, beim jährlichen Klaviervorspiel früher und bei zwei Chorkonzerten, wo ich mitgespielt habe, blamiert zum Glück nicht wirklich

Sonstiges

Ich gehe ins Kino, um: Einen guten Film zu sehen
Lieblingsfilme: Ice Age, 50 erste Dates
Lieblingsschauspieler/in: Meg Ryan, Julia Roberts, Colin Farrell, Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom
Lieblingsfernsehserie: Früher Ally McBeal, heute die Sarah Kuttner Show
Lieblingsbücher: Sooo viele, Der goldene Kompass und die beiden Folgebände, sowie „Die Zeugin“ von Sandra Brown
Lieblingsgetränk: Der gelbe Tee, Der grüne Tee (beide von Famila^^) und Orangensaft
Liebster Ort: Zu Hause und im Urlaub
Lieblingszitat: Wenn das Leben dir eine Zitrone gibt, mach Limonade draus!
Lieblingsreiseziel: Spanien und Taiwan
Lieblingskleidungsstück: variiert häufig, im Moment mein schwarzer Rock
Lustigste Erinnerung: Block Haus (LOL Milly) und Lloret de Mar
Lieblingsname (männlich): Robert, der klingt in vielen Sprachen gut
Lieblingsname (weiblich): Lucy und Abwandlungen davon (z.B. Lucia) und Amélie
Schlechteste Note deiner Schullaufbahn: 4- in Mathe in der 7. Klasse
Beste Note deiner Schullaufbahn: 15 Punkte :-)
Talente: Sprachen, Klavier spielen
3 Dinge, die du in deinem Leben erreichen willst:
1) Glücklich verheiratet zu sein
2) Ein Buch veröffentlichen
3) Einen tollen Job finden
3 Dinge (wirklich Dinge, keine Menschen), ohne die du nicht leben kannst:
1) Das Telefon
2) Das Internet (voll der Kommunikationsjunkie ;-))
3) Musik
Was wirst du wohl nie verstehen? Dass Männer wirklich so einfach gestrickt sind
Wann hast du das letzte Mal geweint? Als ich mich mit meiner Mutter gestritten habe
Was schätzt du an anderen Menschen besonders? Wenn sie zuverlässig, ehrlich und lieb sind
Was magst du an anderen überhaupt nicht? Unzuverlässigkeit, Arroganz, Unhöflichkeit ohne Grund
Was war das dümmste, was du jemals gemacht/gesagt hast? Witze über die „polnische Urgroßmutter“ zu machen, ohne zu merken, dass das Mädchen wirklich Polin war
Wenn du einen Tag lang unsichtbar wärest, was würdest du tun? Irgendwo hinfliegen, wo’s toll ist, z.B. nach Japan^^
Was würdest du tun, wenn morgen das Ende der Welt wäre? Versuchen, so viel Zeit wie möglich mit den Menschen zu verbringen, die ich liebe
Die Welt muss gewarnt werden vor: Desertifikation (hups, zu viel Erdkunde gelernt^^), wahnsinnigen Politikern mit Macht
Die Welt darf nicht verpassen: Fällt mir grad nichts zu ein

Glauben

Glaubst du an…
Die Liebe? Seltsamerweise ja
Gott? Nicht im allgemein üblichen Sinne
Die Zahnfee? Haha, nein
Liebe auf den ersten Blick? Nein, aber an Verlieben auf den ersten Blick
Leben auf anderen Planeten? Ja, das All ist unendlich groß, da gibt es bestimmt noch irgendwo Leben
Den 7. Sinn? Ja, hab ich manchmal auch
Déjà Vus? Auch das kenne ich, ja
Ein Leben nach dem Tod? Schön wär’s, aber nein
Dich selbst? Ja

Im Moment

Was hast du gerade an? Ein schwarzes Top und meinen schwarzen, weiten Rock (natürlich auch Unterwäsche), sowie zwei Armbänder und Socken
Was hörst du gerade? Das leise Summen meines PCs
Woran denkst du? Dass ich gleich zur Schule fahre und wir unser Abi feiern!!!
3 Dinge, die um dich herumliegen:
1) Mein Telefon
2) Ein Buch
3) Das neue Album von Morcheeba
Was siehst du, wenn du aus dem Fenster schaust? Einen leicht bewölkten Himmel und einen Baum (hab eben erst festgestellt, dass das Ding Blüten hat)
Wer ist noch alles mit dir im Haus/in derWohnung? Meine Mama
Wie spät ist es? 18: 25 Uhr
Welches Datum? 14. 06. 2005

The roaring 20's Part I

2006-03-06T00:09:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I went to a 20's party, Philipp's, Sonja's and Ise's birthday party; they're friends from university. They rented a bar, "Bar Josephine", which had a pretty antique style; that fitted very good. The party was just SO great!! Of course, I took many pictures because a lot of people dressed up in 20's look, which was really fun! They also played music from the 20's a little and we drank Absinthe (I like it, actually^^). One of the best partys of the last years!! Here are some of the pics:

Me and Sonja (I love her hat^^)
Dancing ~
Kirsten and Clemens
Philipp (he looked so cool in this outfit haha)

The roaring 20's Part II

2006-03-06T00:01:00.000+01:00

Rhena and Natanel ~ 好可愛^^
Jan Wiemann with Sonja's hat haha, he looks so funny!

Look what Absinthe can do to you.... ;-)

The roaring 20's Part III

2006-03-05T23:58:00.000+01:00

Philipp and me
Rhena and me
Sarah and Kim
Kim, Sonja and André

"What can I do for you? Anything else? Have a nice day!!" *smile*

2006-03-02T19:44:00.000+01:00
Hey everybody...
*phew* I worked today for the first time and it was pretty exhausting. You have to stand like all the time (except for a 15 minutes break, where a collegue was talking to me incessantly), you have to be friendly all the time and smile...and after a while you get so confused, because it's so much you have to learn so quickly!! Like, what bread is called how and how thick the slices gotta be for every bread and and and...
After 5 hours I was really happy to go home without any need to be friendly to anyone anymore haha^^

Well, I don't really wanna imagine what working after a few hours of Chinese class will be...><

Favourite song this week:
»Nine million bycicles« by Katie Melua

Thing I've learned today:
How to use the bread-slicing machine...I guess I will forget everything again argh >< 太複雜了~ *sigh*

Somewhere over the rainbow

2006-02-25T23:37:00.000+01:00
Do you know these nights when you are alone at home and you feel lonely for no particular reason? You have friends to meet on the next day and you also haven't been lonely the whole day; there is a lot you can do, nice movies on TV, blogging, reading etc. but still you feel this weird loneliness inside of you? I feel like that right now. I can't really say why (ok, maybe I could if I thought really hard^^) but these phases are good for being creative. One can write the best shortstories and songtexts in a mood like that and I want to present you one I wrote last october, being back from all my trips and rethinking everything. It is a song about a feeling we all know, when you realize that happy memories can never be preserved but in in your head.

THOSE TIMES

I remember all of us
Just sitting there, in the warming sun.
There were also fight and fuss
But soon swept away by a gentle breeze.
And we had so much fun.

CHORUS:
I remember those times
They are gone forever
Like lost lines
Gone, but still on my mind
Be replaced by new ones soon
But these will be gone, too

When I look at the pictures taken,
They seem so far away
My memory is awakenin'
And I can't find no words to say
How much this pain is achin'
Inside of me
'Cause memories are all they'll ever be

BRIDGE:
Happy moments I want to cling to -
I want to hold on
But I have to let go
I know that they'll be gone
With the first rays of the morning sun

CHORUS 2x

ps: Additionally to these lines I want to share a song with you which I really really like, above all, when I am in a mood like this. It's from Israel Kamakawiwo'ole and is called "Somewhere over the rainbow".

Jobbing ~~

2006-02-20T14:23:00.000+01:00
Hey ho, I worked for a few hours today at a bakery (Hansebäcker), which will tell me next week if I get the job. I will earn 5,50 per hour, not too much, but well...I need the money for the f****** "Studiengebühren" arrghhh... Anyway, it was kinda nice, the people were nice and the work is not too difficult. And always be friendly: "Hello, may I help you? Do you want the bread in slices? Can I do anything else for you? Have a nice day!!" and so on...haha but I was kinda good, I guess, a little slow, but hey, I am a beginner...

Then my dad installed XP and a new HD on my PC, so it's faster and better now haha^^
Well, there's nothing too interesting to tell right now, so maybe I'll post something interesting later, but I am tired now....just wanted to keep you in touch!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

@ Joe: Hey, if you read this: I am sorry I don't write comments on your blog anymore but whenever I try to open your page, my PC freaks all out and makes crazy stuff...so sorry ~ maybe there's something wrong with your page...? I don't know but my dad freaks out when I ruin the newly installed XP, so I guess I can't visit your site for a while...><

Valentine's day...

2006-02-13T21:04:00.000+01:00

This morning I went downtown to finally find a job. The sun was shining and the weather was really nice, cold, but nice. I asked around in every shop I would like to work in. Well, I haven’t found a job yet, but I have a lot of telephone numbers where I can still ask and I applied at Balzac Coffee over the internet. I hope they take me, I looove Coffee Shops (though I don’t go there very often, since they are horribly expensive)!!

Yesterday, my friend Julia and I watched the movie “Spanglish” together, which was fun. We hadn’t seen each other for half a year because she had gone to Australia to work there as assistant teacher (I would have loved to do that, too >.<). We’ve never been that close but we’ve always been pretty good friends and it feels good to see that some friendships don’t change althought you lose contact for a while.

And now another thing:

I HATE VALENTINE’S DAY!!!!

And I can tell you why. 3 weeks before it, in every shop they begin to put up hearts in red and pink and other pink and red stuff and you see signs saying “February 14th, Valentine’s day” like, EVERYWHERE. They begin to sell everything with hearts on it as “Valentine’s day gift”, and no matter how hard you try you just can’t escape it! They tell you over the radio, on TV, on the internet…
This may be nice if you’re in a relationship, but if you’re not, it is just ANNOYING! I mean, they make you feel as if there’s a special club but you’re not in it. Even if I wanted to buy a Valentine’s day gift, I have no one to give it to…SO!
And what I hate most about it, is that it’s all just commercial! I mean, if I gave somebody I love a gift for Valentine’s day, I would make something myself, like putting photos together or writing in a book why I love this person so much or something like that, but I wouldn’t go and buy a heart-shaped something for a ridiculously high price. Maybe I will think different in a couple of years and ok, it is kinda cute from my dad to buy a little pot with roses and a heart in it for my mum but still…

Tell me what you think about Valentine’s day but please don’t tell me what your boy-/girlfriend gave you for it…

Favourite places to hang out in Hamburg:
Einstein (Bramfelder Chaussee), The Lloyds Tea room (Asien-Afrika-Institut, Edmund-Siemers-Allee1), SOHO (it is so cool^^, dunno the address), Block House (of course!), Kramer Amstsstuben (so cute!, they are next to the “Michel”)

ps: Nina had the new Jack Johnson album on her Mp3 player on Saturday! Yay!! I loooove Jack Johnson's music....I will post a song here later, when I've decided which one from the new album I like best.

News from me ~

2006-02-09T20:52:00.000+01:00
Now my exams are finally over *phew* We’re getting the results tomorrow, so maybe I can tell you then. But I think I was pretty good. I did my best!
Last weekend I had so much to do >< Written exam on Friday, working on my presentation together with Thuy and buying gifts for friends from Taiwan on Saturday, learning for the oral exam together with Sarah and meeting Milana and Jamie to give her the gifts (her father took them to Taiwan for me and Milana) on Sunday…then there was the oral exam on Monday and the presentation on Tuesday and finally I was kinda free! Yesterday some friends and I together went to the canteen (after the lessons) and we didn’t have to learn this time, since holidays start next Monday. Yay!! ^_________^ Afterwards we went to a really really nice bar called SOHO where I’ve never been before but which was just so nice! You had a water-view and the walls were showing movies. On these walls, there was a strange light, that followed you…somehow everyone had the impression it was following them at the same time, which was kinda scary cause we couldn’t figure out why…spooky…
Today I went to Jamie’s mom (Zhang Mama^^) to learn together with her and she told me a funny story: There are busses in Taiwan, where you have to pay getting off and there are busses where you have to pay getting on it. Once, there was one woman from a different country who wanted to take the bus. As she wanted to pay, the bus-driver told her that she had to get off and then pay (in chinese). So she went outside and tried to give him the money from the outside, since she kinda misunderstood the phrase. Hahaha ~ So funny^^

In the afternoon, I went to the haircutter’s and had my fringe cut in a different way. It looks really good and exactly the way I wanted to have it!! Sooo cool haha^^

Ok, that’s it from me so far.

Favourite song this week:
“Nocturnes” again (see sidebar)…it’s just so cool!!

Favourite TV-Series right now:
Friends!!! I love it since Rhena gave me some parts of the series on DVD...it is so terribly funny!!

Most hated chinese character this week:
Don’t have one…yay, no new words for 7 weeks!! I like holidays haha^^ Learning vocabulary that excessive can get exhausting after a while…

So much to tell today ~

2006-01-31T22:25:00.000+01:00
I’ve been kinda busy lately, there’s a big exam on friday and an oral exam on monday and a presentation on tuesday...>.< Anyway, there’s always a little time to blog^^

Last week this friend of Jamie’s and mine from Taiwan, Max, came to Hamburg and since Jamie had to go to university all day on Thursday and since Thursday is my free day, I decided to show him around a little. It was fun! First, we went to Hamburg Harbour, which is kinda famous, as it’s been the “gateway to the world” in former times. The weather was typically Hamburg – a grey sky and muddy grey snow. But anyway, Max liked the snow (there never is snow in Taiwan), so it was ok. Afterwards we went to a really old little street which is just so beautiful! It looks like Hamburg looked about 80 years ago, with old houses and very narrow alleys and we went to a little café which was just so antique and old and so cute^^ Before we went back to Jamie’s, I showed him the government hall and we bought a souvenir for his sister in Karstadt (haha). At Jamie’s house, we all had something cooked by their former neighbour who came to visit and we all had a lot of fun. On Friday then Max came with me to university to see my Chinese-class (he was interested because he studies Sinology, too) and that was fun, too. Though it was somehow weird to talk Chinese to him (I felt kinda stupid, cause he always used words I haven’t learnt yet >.<). Anyway, in the evening Jamie, Max, and some of my other friends, we all came to her house to hang around and sing Karaoke. It’s unbelievable how good Max sings!! You could literally cry about the beautifulness of his songs^^ Lucky me, I have a CD with his songs^^ Speaking of CDs…he also brought a CD and a DVD from Jay for me ^_______________^ The DVD contains all the music videos to the songs of Jay’s new album and also parts of one of his concerts in Hongkong. I was happy like a child^^ I loooooove Jay ~~ Jay 4eva ~~ lalalala ~

On Saturday me and my parents went to visit friends of my parents’. Their daughter has got a newborn child, Leon. He is such a cutie!!! I couldn’t stop touching his tiny arms and legs and his soft baby-hair…babies so make me say things like “doozydoozydahdah hihihi”…I’m gonna post a picture of him later here, you’re gonna fall in love with this baby instantly, I promise!!!

Favourite Song this week:
"Black Sweater" from Jay's new album (what else did you expect...)

Favourite chinese charakter this week:
糊塗 (hutu), it sounds like a Pokémon or something hahaha
I also love 公共汽車 (gonggongqiche), it sounds just SO stupid^^

Most hated chinese charakter this week:
講義 (complicated and useless; it means "teaching material"....)

Hips don't lie ~

2006-01-25T01:18:00.000+01:00
Just wanted to share this video with you, because I really love it (I love the song, too). It's from two singers I both like a lot: Shakira and Wyclef Jean. Enjoy!

HIPS DON'T LIE (Shakira)

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ps.: Isn't this red skirt wonderful? I love that!! And these white clothes they're wearing at the end look just sooo cool!! *totally in love with the video*
pps.: Sorry for stealing your idea, Joe, but I just couldn't resist putting the video here, too >.<

About Love & Life

2006-01-22T11:35:00.000+01:00
Guess it’s been a while since I wrote something here...
Well, I don’t really know what to write, there is nothing too interesting to tell at the moment. I am going to university every day, learning chinese, working on my presentation and homework and so on, so nothing special.
But I am really relaxed lately. Though there’s pretty much to do for me, I am totally satisfied with my life right now. And that’s so cool! Like, from the beginning of being a teenager, I always wished for a boyfriend. The others always had boyfriends and I knew that the ones who were single like me would get a boyfriend before me. And so they did, one after the other. Some of them broke up again, but at least, I thought, they had had a boyfriend. I always felt like something was missing in my life, I wanted to have little stupid gifts for Valentine’s day (ok, I still want that, but that’s different^^), I wanted someone to refer to as “my boyfriend”, all that stuff. The problem only was that the boys I fell for didn’t fall for me and the ones that liked me I didn’t like that much (I think everybody knows that). And although I know it’s not realistic, I still believe in “true love”. Sometimes I wonder why I can’t be more like other girls, who have something going on with boys just for fun. But I’m just not like that. I often think I’m born in the wrong time, since what I think about love is so old-fashioned. Anyway, currently I experience a phase where I am satisfied with my life the way it is and where I think I don’t have to have a boyfriend to give my life “the little dot on the i” as we say in german. And I like that feeling!

Yesterday my friend Jamie had her birthday party! Her mom cooked chinese food and it was JUST…SO…GOOD…*sigh* I ate so much my stomach hurt^^ Well, we sat together and talked and watched TV and played silly games; it was fun. It felt good to see my friends again, as we don’t see each other that often anymore since school ended.

And next week a friend of Jamie’s (who is also a friend of Milana’s and mine), Max, comes to Hamburg for a couple of days!! Soooo cool ^___________^
And who knows, maybe I can talk a little chinese with him…

Favourite song this week:
“Nocturnes” from Jay’s new album^^
Most hated chinese character this week:
鍛 (it’s somehow weird)

All at sea

2006-01-16T18:32:00.000+01:00
I still love the Shakira video very much but I wanna share another one with you, which I also like a lot. It's a song from Jamie Cullum's ›Twentysomething‹ album. I like the imagination of sitting at sea and just enjoying the calmness, the beach, the waves and the fact of being alone with your thoughts without anyone or anything bothering you. While watching the sea you can totally let your worries behind you and get your head clear.
Unfortunately I don't live anywhere near the shore but we have the river Elbe here, which also has a little beach where I often go to in summer. But also during the wintertime it's pretty nice. I love the smell of the water and the noises the birds and the waves make. I hope that one day I can live near a river or at the seaside, so I could just go for a walk along the beach whenever I want to.

ALL AT SEA (Jamie Cullum)

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Besides I recently saw an Andrea Bocelli concert on TV, which was really nice! I never really used to listen to his music before but now I also found one of his albums in the library and the music is so nice and calm!! Perfectly to relax and dream. Moreover he translated all the texts in the booklet into english, so that everybody can understand what he's singing about.

Favourite song this week:
Nothing changed here...

Favourite album this week:
›Cieli di Toskana‹ by Andrea Bocelli

What I am reading:
›Am Ufer des Rio Piedra saß ich und weinte‹ by Paulo Coelho
(I don't know the english title but it's gotta be something like ›At Rio Piedra I was sitting and crying‹). I really like Paulo Coelho, there are always so many intelligent phrases in his books! My favourite book (ever, by the way) is his ›Veronika decides to die‹ which is a book that totally changes your view of life for a while. It is amazing!!!

What I've learned today:
Uhm...not too much I guess...a little vocabulary again.

ps.: You can still watch the Shakira video at http://jazzielilblog.blogspot.com/2006/01/hips-dont-lie.html. I put it somewhere else on my blog to prevent both videos from playing at the same time.

My year 2005

2005-12-31T01:58:00.000+01:00

Since 2005 has been one of the best years of my life, I want to make my own personal yearly review now. Firstly, to remind myself of all the good times I had and secondly, to share the memories with all of you, with those who were part of them and of course, with everybody else who is interested, too. Come with me and look back…

January
The year began as usual but the final exams were constantly on everyone’s mind in school. In your free time you began to learn, to gather everything together you need, to try to find out what exactly the exams will be about and then the last week of January came. All you did was learning or worrying when you stopped learning for having a break. All the time you asked yourself “why am I not learning?” and even if there wasn’t anything left to learn, when you knew every single word or mathematic task by heart, you still learned and repeated everything just to make the bad feeling of “Oh my god, I am not learning, I HAVE to, it’s the final exams…” go away.
Me personally, I used this last week to learn, together with my friend Julia, for the maths exam, since my other exams were later in february, so all I could think about on the last days of this month was maths…
And then February came and with it, the exams.

February
For me, February 2005 represents learning together with a grey sky. This mixture made me so depressive that I began putting up postcards from Fuerteventura, shell-bracelets and coloured scarfs everywhere in my room to cheer me up a little. The thought of going on vacation to Gran Canaria in March also helped a little^^
So at the beginning of this month, I learned for English: Second Generation Asians in Britain (I can still say that really fast) and Shakespeare (Love and Comedy); and Spanish: Niños de la calle (how often did I say this line this year…) and, surprise surprise, inmigración (I so hate this subject now…). To sum up, I can say that I learned way much but always felt like I wasn’t learning enough. But well, that’s the way things are. Oh and did I mention we were the first in Hamburg who had “Zentralabitur”? (it means everybody in the whole city gets the same tasks and nobody, not even the teachers know exactly how these will look like). Yep, lovely, I know. So on February 15th, after the last 5 hours spent in a room thinking about niños de la calle, I was FREE. Matthias, Jamie, Denis and I drove back in Matthias’ car, as always, and we were so happy we let the windows down and shouted out loud. I’ll never forget that!! In the evening we celebrated and some of my friends and I went to a bar where Jamie got all red in the face because of one sip of cocktail haha^^

This is how we felt after the last exam...

March
March was relaxing and fun. On Nina’s birthday we went to the movie’s to watch “Constantine” which was…well, let’s change the subject here. The next morning (it was f***ing early) my parents and I went, as I just mentioned, to Gran Canaria for 14 days and it was SO nice. The first thing I did when coming out of the airport-building was crying out loud: “SUN” since I hadn’t seen the sun for what seemed like MONTHS. I was yearning for sun as never before. The vacation was fun, I met a girl from my spanish class there and, together with her, her sister and a group of boys from Bavaria we met, we had a lot of fun. Of course I had a lot of fun with my parents, too, we made some trips, hung around at pool and beach and enjoyed the warm weather and the fact of having nothing to do. I think I never needed holidays that much in my life.
When we departed, we had to get up at three in the morning. Oh. My. God. You don’t wanna know how that feels, really.

April
Somehow I have not too much to tell for April. The only thing I remember about this month is the “Wir Sind Helden” concert I went to with Nina on April 24th. It was really good!! At the end I nearly catched something they threw in the audience. Well, nearly…

May
May. I remember May with a big sigh because May is the month my class and I went to Lloret de Mar (Spain) for our final trip, the “Abireise”. But first, we got the marks for our written exams on May 9th. I was so happy about them!!! But others were also pretty sad, so that made me a little sad, too.
But then our vacation. The bus-trip was so horrible, I will not tell you anything about it here. I could write pages about this vacation but since this is supposed to be only a short review, I try to keep it short. It’s not what we did on our trip, it’s the time we spent together that still makes me wanna cry with emotion when looking at the pictures I took, because we are never going to be together like that again. And we had so much fun, some friendships got a lot closer than before and although we had some fights and broken hearts, Lloret de Mar is still a memory I take out from time to time, to look at it, smile at it, hug it and then put it away again.
*wiping a tear from her eye*
Did you ever imagine me being that emotional? haha^^

June
The weather was sweet, we had no exams to learn for (except the oral one, but there was still one week without classes for that) and we had our “Mottotage”, where we dressed up in funny ways and went to school like that (like everybody in Hawaiian style etc), where we sometimes just sat around on our little hill, singing Hippie-songs while Denis played the guitar and everybody except us had to go to classes…
June 13th was the date of our oral exams. Mine was in geography, two subjects I liked (Desertification and China’s economy). So the learning was ok. Before, I calculated that I needed 10 points (which is a B-) to get 1,3 in the end, so I really hoped for it. I was anxious as everybody but I was pretty good and afterwards, when I went back to the room I had had my exam in, my teacher went like “Yasmine, we are satisfied, you were pretty good and so we decided to give you 14 points”. 14 points!!! I hadn’t even dared to think what it would mean getting something higher than 10 points ( I really wanted to have 1,3, but that’s a different story). But then I calculated again and I got 1,2!!!!! I promptly called my parents to tell them the news and they were delighted, too. That was one of the happiest days this year!
It also was the last day of my school-life and Matthias, Milana, Jamie, Denis, Milan and me were about to cry when we drove back in Matthias’ car from school for the LAST TIME ever.

On June 24th it was our final party, the “Abiball”. Everybody dressed up, the girls in fancy dresses, the boys in suits. Wow, everybody looked just so nice!! We talked, we ate and drank, we remembered 13 years of school, we got our final report cards, we danced (it was so hot, you could hardly move without melting), we (the girls) took our shoes off because our feet hurt in them haha^^ and we celebrated until 5 in the morning in a Hotel that fitted all the 250 guests. It was a night you’ll always remember.

And on June 27th…*drums* …(pause)…Milana, Jamie and I started off for our long planned trip to Taiwan!!!!! Again, I could write pages about this but that would be too much. This trip is another thing I will always remember. The flight was long and exhausting, the city (Taipei) big and exciting and again we had so much fun. To see a part of it, just go to http://www.jazziespictures.blogspot.com/
Sitting in the train to Frankfurt Airport we just couldn’t believe that this dream really was about to come true.

July
Again, Taiwan. The vacation lasted until July 10th. I will definitely return to this wonderful country, I promise!!! (getting emotional again…)
Afterwards I had a nice summer holiday with my parents at our holiday house in Otterstedt. Sitting in the garden, enjoying the (rarely showing) sun and still thinking about my trips and my friends from school and how much I’m gonna miss not seeing them every day. Jamie was still in Taiwan, Milana in Bosnia and the others were away, too, so I couldn’t even call them…
But then August came.

August
Another month, another trip, haha^^ I really saw a lot of the world this year. In August, I visited my friend Sarah in the USA. It was the first time I traveled alone, so I was pretty scared, but it was ok, I met many nice people along the way I could talk to. But then the passport control…just read the post about it I wrote somewhere in september and you’ll know what I mean.
Arriving, I found Sarah and her family greeting me with a big teddybear and some balloons and then the real vacation began. Again, I could write pages here…(me, repeating? Nah, never…^^)
We went to Long Beach Island (Beach! Sun! Sea!), New York (I had always wanted to go there), Philadelphia and some other nice places and I learned how weird it feels talking german after two weeks of constantly talking english. It feels like your tongue is tying up in knots…really weird. Oh and I tried the grossest thing I ever drank in my life – Bubblegum soda. You should never, I literally mean NEVER try it. Really. Believe me, you will regret it.

I always think of this trip when I listen to the first notes of the Jack Johnson CD I bought in “The biggest mall on the eastcoast”…

September
And still no school to go to. I began missing it. In fact, I began missing it the day it ended. Not actually SCHOOL, you know, but the fact of hanging around with your friends every day, the nice last few days, coffee before GMK to stay alive, ergh, awake (“Coffee?” “YES”), the funny words in biology (I guess I wouldn’t have survived biology without Denis’ stupid jokes), all these things. I began worrying about university, if I did everything right and at the end of this month, I began getting SO bored because I SO had nothing to do…

And, September also was the month this blog came to life.

October
I figured out that university wouldn’t start until the end of October, so the boredom went on. But not long: My parents and I went to Otterstedt to restore our shed-roof which was so much work (again, there’s a post about it somewhere here). And now the rain still comes in…
And then – finally – university started!! Yay! Luckily, all of my fellow students are really really nice and the teachers as well, so I felt good with Sinology from the first day on and I still love it.

November
I had a lot to do with all of the new vocabulary and learning chinese became one of the most important things in my daily routine (I guess I am still annoying the people around me with chinese characters…). I also had to begin to think about christmas gifts, who gets what, who gets nothing (lol, just kidding ;-)) and so on. And the cold, rainy days began to become more…
I also met a few friends sometimes but most of them were too busy with university or jobs or whatever.

December
Christmas. Buying gifts, getting gifts, christmas markets, candy. Ohhh how I love it!! And it was nice again this year, I sat around the christmas-tree with my parents and grandma, we had potato-salad and sausage (it’s a traditional meal on christmas eve here in Hamburg), everybody liked the gifts I bought/made for them and I got very nice gifts, too, as every year. On 25th we had goose (it is always just so GOOD, I usually eat so much I am neither able to talk nor to get up) at my grandma’s house and on 26th I visited Jamie who I hadn’t seen for a month or something. Matthias and Denis came along, too and we throw snowballs at each other in her garden. It was fun^^

And now these are the last days of the year, a time to remember, a time to make plans for the next year, a time to tell your friends how much you love them and a time to make a big party!
Happy New Year everybody and I love you!!!

Wanna change my profile pic...

2005-12-26T17:35:00.000+01:00

Merry Christmas everyone!

2005-12-26T00:35:00.000+01:00

Why hate Christmas

You have to spend a lot of time in sticky, hot malls to find things for everybody

Everything is ridiculously expensive, beginning from the smallest mistletoe (10 Euro) to sending packages to friends living in other countries (8 Euro for a normal big letter to USA)

It is so much work to wrap everything up, make christmas cards, write christmas cards, prepare the meals, put up the christmas-tree, dress up nicely…

You wait for it so long and then it’s over after three days and you have to pack all the decoration away again

It never actually snows although you always hope for it

Why love Christmas

Seeing the expression on the people’s faces when they open the gifts you bought or made for them (making gifts feels as good as getting them)

The atmosphere on christmas-markets, the smell, the candy, the hot beverages…

You can sing christmas-carols without feeling stupid (have you ever felt like singing jingle bells in summer and then you realize that people look at you in a weird way when you actually do it? Uhm, probably I am the only one who’s like that…^^”)

You can also listen to christmas-carols like Last Christmas, Wonderful dream, White Christmas etc. etc.

They show the best movies on TV

Of course, the gifts (how long have you been waiting for me to write this line…? Haha^^)

You feel warm inside as all your friends think of you, sending you mails or letters or calling you wishing you a merry christmas

You can wear stupid Santa Clause hats outside without feeling weird about it because others do the same

Even strangers wish you a merry christmas

Buying and putting up a christmas-tree is so nice

The food…

The cookies

The chocolate…(uhm, I got a little carried away)

The feeling when you get up and everything outside is white

Sitting together with your family

Did I mention the gifts…?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As you might guess now, I am one of the christmas-lovers. Now it’s your turn, tell me, do you love or hate christmas and why?

I wish you all a merry merry christmas!!

Cookies, cookies, cookies

2005-12-18T20:54:00.000+01:00

My mom and I did some baking today and here are the results:

Such a pity that I'm gonna give them to others as christmas-gifts...they are so good...
And it's the first time we managed to make them look like on the picture in the recipe haha^^
I usually don't really like "Porcupine Tree", but this song is pretty good:
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ps.: There's also a new song in the sidebar. It's Christmas-time!!
pps.: I put the taiwanese song by Gigi Leung in the post below (the one with her picture) now, so you can listen to it again if you're interested.

Funny pictures and 米果 (rice-cookies^^)

2005-12-13T17:55:00.000+01:00
I finally got all my christmas-gifts *phew*! Now all I have to do is wrap them up...
Today I went to a big big Asia-supermarket and I found so many cute things there!! I bought a teacup with chinese writing on it (what else^^) and a bowl with bamboo paintings on it...soooo nice ^________^ Moreover I got some Guava juice (from Taiwan^^) and chinese rice-cookies. OMG they're so GOOD ~

And let me share some more pictures with you ~
My friend Nina and I had some fun with my webcam on the weekend...haha^^

By the way, this is a stone with a jellyfish-picture on it...(don't ask^^)
Favourite song this week:
»Bubble Toes« by Jack Johnson
Most hated chinese charakter this week:
Uhm let me think...it's 特別, I just can't seem to memorize it ><

Hello Kitty

2005-12-08T21:20:00.000+01:00
Hi everybody ~

Today I’ve done a lot, all morning I’ve learned vocabulary, read the texts in the book, made the exercises...but it feels good to get everything done!! And later I went to a mall to buy some gifts for christmas, luckily I got most of them *phew*
Uhm, there’s not much to tell today, I am just posting because I wanted to show you some pictures. First, the cookies I made last weekend:

And here’s what I got for “Nikolaus” (December 6th) Is this actually celebrated in the USA? In Germany, we put up (cleaned) shoes in the evening of december 5th and the next day, we have some candy or little gifts in it! I love it hihi^^
Isn’t it cute? It’s a Hello Kitty with bath and shower gel in it (the head is the cap).

我很累 ~

2005-12-05T22:18:00.000+01:00
Oops, I am so lazy >.< But I don’t really have anything interesting to tell, actually. It was just a normal week, nothing special, althoooough…I got a 100 points on the test I wrote on friday!!! Yay!! Dumdidum…dideldu...*celebrating*
The weekend was pretty nice, though. Friday I went a little christmas-shopping with my friend Nina and watched funny TV-shows in the evening. Saturday I invited some friends to come over, but nobody actually had time to come (right, Jamie…?!), so only Denis and some of his “girlie-friends” came over. It was pretty funny, anyway, although I would have liked Jamie and Milana to come, too. Sunday I was so tired all day long and so I only learned very little (bad girl) and later went to a fellow student (Eva) to drink some tea and chat with some other fellow students and two friends of hers. It was fun.

I borrowed a really good book from my teacher, it’s called “Gebrauchsanweisung für China (Manual for China)” by Kai Strittmatter. It’s really worth a reading!!

But as I told you from the beginning – nothing too interesting, so I just stop here and wait for some more interesting things to happen…

What I’ve learned today:
It doesn’t matter if I go to bed half an hour earlier than usual, I am as tired as always. Maybe I should try to go to bed around ten (it already is past ten now…), but I don’t think I’m gonna make it haha^^

Favourite song this week:
I like the songs on the CD my fellow student Sarah gave me: Thirteen senses – The invitation. They sound a little like Coldplay.

Most hated chinese charakter this week:
管 (guan) it somehow looks weird…(above all when I try to write it^^)

ps.: The title means "I am tired"

And the weekend’s over again ~

2005-11-28T15:07:00.000+01:00
Hey everybody. The weekend passes by that fast…but that’s ok, studying is still fun. My weekend was more or less fun, anyway. On friday my dad and I went downtown because there was a huge lightshow for the presentation of the new Porsche Cayman S. The show was really amazing! It was chilly outside, with snow and everything but we stood right in front of the boxes where music played, supporting the light show and it was all so beautiful. Afterwards we went to the christmas-market which was pretty nice, too. My first “Schmalzkuchen” this year, haha^^ Saturday was less fun, since I had to help to change the tyres of our two cars (summer- against winter-tyres). Oh…my…god…it was so much work and it was so f******* cold!!! After we had finished, I slept for two hours because of exhaustion^^ And on sunday I met my friend Milana to go with her around the christmas-markets again, which was really nice, too.

I know I just changed the song in my sidebar, but I have to change it again because currently I loooove “The closest thing to crazy” by Katie Melua. The song is sooooo nice and sooo emotional and it so fits to wintertime somehow. I would say it’s my favourite song right now. You should listen to it drinking a cup of hot chocolate and eating christmas-cookies or christmas-chocolate. Mmmhh^^

Tomorrow I am going to the movie’s to watch Harry Potter 4 (with my friend Marcel again). I’ve been to the movie’s that often this year, usually I only go there once or twice a year. But Elizabethtown is definitely my favourite of all the movies I watched this year! I am getting the soundtrack for christmas and when the DVD comes out, guess who’ll be there first to buy it haha^^

Talking of movies, yesterday and today they show “Die Luftbrücke” on TV, which is a movie about what happened 1948 in West-Berlin. The americans tried to keep the people alive by bringing food with planes, because the sowjets (do you write sowjets like that? Uhm, who cares) blocked everything. It is impressive how these people, who fought each other before, now helped each other and how they did it. At certain times, a plane landed in Berlin every 1,5 minutes!! I never knew about that, we should have learnt that in school instead of dry facts. If you have the chance to watch the second part of the movie tonight, you should do it, it’s really worth it!!

What I’ve learned today:
A chinese poem:

Chun mian bu jue xiao
Chu chu wen ti niao
Ye lai feng yu sheng
Hua luo zhi duo shao

Ok, I guess nobody’s interested in that but I couldn’t think of anything else^^”

Favourite song this week:
Read the post and have a guess. Difficult!!

Most hated chinese charakter this week:
Don’t have one yet, but I’m sure it’s gonna come…

Gigi Leung

2005-11-23T21:11:00.000+01:00

I put the song in here now.
It's sung by a taiwanese singer and I kinda like it^^ Enjoy ~

Gigi Leung ~ I wish I was

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我學習中文!

2005-11-23T20:52:00.000+01:00
The sentence means „I study/learn chinese“, which is what I am doing now most of the time. Learning new words, making assignments, trying to memorize and pronounce everything right….today I really had my difficulties with the chinese date. They say the year first, then the month, the day and lastly, the day of the week. It really takes me, like, 2 minutes or something, to say, e.g. October 1st, 1949 in chinese >< But I guess it’ll get better, I just have to practice a little more *phew*
Two people read a paper in “Provinces of China” yesterday and it was so funny! They dressed up in costumes of chinese people from the province they had their essay about and made a real show out of it. Our professor looked a little amused and said to them: “Ok, so begin with your…erm…performance…” hahaha^^ I’m only talking about university…but well, that’s what most of my life is about right now ~

Uhm, what else can I tell…ah, on Monday the weather was so nice and I thought to myself: “I should go out, as long as the sun is shining”, so I called my friend Denis and we went for a walk in some forest I’ve never been to before (it was kinda scary because it began to get dark…). But after we had walked for a while, we came to a field full of mist and from the distance, with some clouds and the sun setting behind it looked like some tibetan mountain-lake…it was REALLY beautiful! I so wished I had brought my camera ><

Oh and soon the christmas-markets are opening, yay! I loooove christmas-markets^^ The smell, the special beverages, the candy-stuff, all these little things you can buy…and the whole atmosphere!! Christmas-markets are the best thing of the whole winter-time, I am so looking forward to going there with my dad and then with my friends, too… Christmas-time is coming *jingling bells* ~

What I’ve learned today:
That there is a chinese word that only counts fish, roads and pants…well…

Favourite song(s) this week:
The songs on this Gigi Leung Album I have ~

Most hated chinese charakter this week:
還 (hái = also, still more…) It is so annoying to write it…><

PS, There is this cute guy in one of my courses^^ I would really like to get to know better…any proposals how to get there?^^

Penguins ~

2005-11-15T23:08:00.000+01:00
Today I watched the movie "The journey of the penguins" (or whatever it's called in english) along with my mom and my grandma. It was a birthday-gift for my grandma, since she likes penguins a lot. It was really amazing! The pictures are so intensive, not only the penguins themselves, but also the landscape, wow ~ really cool ^^ (got the pun?? haha)
I'm gonna post some pictures later, but not right now. I really have to learn to go to bed earlier >.<

See ya around ~~

What I've learned today:
I really don't wanna have a penguin's life! Amazing what they have to endure....

Favourite song this week:
»Learning to fly« by Tom Petty

2005-11-14T23:24:00.000+01:00

just need this real quick

I made it, I made it!!

2005-11-13T01:10:00.000+01:00
Yep! I made it! I managed to get the Jack Johnson Song into the sidebar although I don't know ANYTHING about html!! I am so proud of myself hahaha^^
I just tried around a little and finally I got it...hehe...now you can listen to various songs, I will change them whenever I feel like it. Have fun, folks and have a nice rest-weekend!!

La la la ~~~

And I added a new link to my linklist ---->

No other way

2005-11-10T20:53:00.000+01:00
Did I ever tell you I love Jack Johnson's music? It feels like a warm summer's breeze floating through your hand as you put it out of the car-window....
Or like sitting out on the porch on a hot day with a cool ice-tea and crickets making their noises around you...
Or looking up to the sky at the beach in the middle of the night when everyone else is asleep and the moon and the stars are out...
I guess you know what I mean, haha^^ Enjoy ~

ELIZABETHTOWN ~

2005-11-10T15:34:00.000+01:00

Have you heard of the movie Elizabethtown with Kirsten Dunst and Orlando Bloom? OMG he is SO cute, so I went right to the movies and watched the movie, along with Marcel, a friend of mine who was so nice to come with me. I love the movie! And the soundtrack is just so nice, too!! Have a look at the pictures and share my enthusiasm ~~

2005-11-10T15:32:00.000+01:00

So here's another picture. If you want to know more about the movie, go to www.elizabethtown.com the site is really neat!

DOM ~~~

2005-11-05T00:19:00.000+01:00

Tonight I went to the DOM with my dad. The DOM is a big big fair we have here in Hamburg, twice a year, once in summer and once in winter. And it was so much fun! It’s a pretty long time ago my dad and I went there together. First we went to eat and drink something and then we came to the “horse-race” where you have to make plastic horses run by throwing a ball into certain holes in front of you. It is played with 12 people. The second time we played, I nearly won, my horse only needed one more step…I was so angry, just ONE more uuhhh >.<
And we bought all this tasty stuff, like “turkish honey” (a pink/white sticky candy) and sweet almonds and so on ~~
We also went to these machines where you can get stuffed animals and I even got one! A little bear on a heart-shaped pillow^^ Aaand we got on the “Wild Mouse” which is a rollercoaster. It looks really not dangerous at all but the BENDS ~~ Oh my god, we really screamed haha^^ It was FUN!!
Moreover I found a really beautiful scarf in a little stand ^^
My chinese class is still fun, too. Although it’s beginning to get a little more exhausting, the vocabulary I don’t know gets more... Today we learned a word called “wuuhr” and somebody said, like, “howuuhr you” hahaha ~

What I’ve learned today:
Uhm…the words for history, geography, german and dictionnary in chinese^^

Quotation of the week:
“If life gives you lemons, make lemonade out of it!”
by Virginia Woolf

Favourite song this week:
Don’t really have one…
ps.: Actually I wanted to put some pictures on this post but somehow it doesn't work lately, it always says that the pictures couldn't be uploaded. Does anyone possibly know why this happens?

Chinese lessons and some other things

2005-10-30T21:45:00.000+01:00
Not that I didn’t have enough time to write, I was just being lazy ^^”
My first week as a university student was pretty good and interesting. I have now 12 hours chinese per week and that means, 6 lessons with our teacher, writing, practicing and stuff and 6 lessons in the language lab (where you get headphones and try to speak what you hear). It’s really fun! Imagine 20 people in a room, everybody saying aloud: »a, ai, ang, i…« LOL But it’s a good practice and soon we’ll be able to talk a little.
Well and then I went to a Proseminar which is like a lesson in school where you learn something about a certain subject, make presentations and then, at the end, write an exam. I thought I would do the one about chinese literature of the 20th century but the text about literature theory we had to work on at home was SO boring…I guess I’ll take the other one about provinces in China.

My weekend was pretty normal, I went to our holiday house with my parents, hung around, went shopping and stuff. When we came home tonight, I heard on my answering machine that my friends met at Jamie’s house on saturday. Wahoo ~ they've only got time when I’m not there... Murphy's law again...>< But that’s okay, I’ll see them next saturday in school, where we have a meeting with every ex-student who wants to come and some teachers. It’s gonna be fun I guess!!

Friday I began reading ›the ring‹, the japanese original (of course in german), which I got from the library in my institute. I always thought it was really really scary (from what others told me), but actually it is really exciting and not that scary. Actually I wanted to find some books from chinese authors but I couldn’t find any. Uhm, well, who cares…

What I’ve learned today:
To write the chinese word for »older sister« ^^

Quotation of the week:
»The one who doesn’t think in his own way doesn’t think at all«.
Oskar Wilde, britsh writer

Favourite song this week:
›Zombie‹ by ›The Cranberries‹

It stays in your head for ages…

OE-Days

2005-10-22T19:55:00.000+02:00
So, now I had my first two days in university. The older students showed us (the new ones) around and told us everything we need to know and it was fun (except for one boring guy who showed us the library. He was a teacher or something and OMG…we didn’t know each other but everybody had the same opinion: Make him come to an end, please!!! He was talking in such a slow and monotone voice, it was horrible >.<). And all the people are just so nice! I am really happy we all get along with each other so well. On friday evening the older students went with us to a little bar and that was really fun!! We talked a lot about everything and I found out that one of the girls was in holiday in the USA in a place only a couple of kilometres away from where I’ve been! She even knew the town my friend lives in. The world is really small ~
Later we played table-soccer (or whatever it is called in english). I thought I was really bad at it, because I always lose, but it turned out that I was pretty good actually! I was surprised about myself haha^^
But it won’t be always just fun, I guess. I will have to learn up to 80 new words in one week and that’s a lot! On the other hand that makes me capable of writing and understanding chinese very fast. I will be so happy when I can finally understand all the stuff I brought here from Taiwan like, e.g. the cards Kanjo gave me and Milana for goodbye.

Ok, I probably won’t have time enough to write next week, so don’t wonder where I’ll be, I’ll be learning ~

Pink hair and starting university ~

2005-10-19T21:21:00.000+02:00
Hey folks, it’s me again! (who else…)
Tomorrow university is FINALLY going to start. I hope everything will turn out fine and that I won’t get too confused. But we’ll see.

Today I went to Schwarzkopf as hair-model to get my hair dyed. That means that a couple of haircutters come there and learn new techniques of dying and we, the models, get our hair dyed for free. Most of the haircutters were really nice and friendly but one – OMG she was SO arrogant and unfriendly, it was horrible. First, I wanted to go there with my friend Jamie but it turned out that she couldn’t go, so my mom wanted to come along instead of her. And this woman told her in such an unfriendly way that they didn’t need her for what they wanted to do. So my mom had to go back home. And the woman was ugly, too. Not enough that her face was somehow ugly, no, she had this strange fringe-cut, that some hairs hung into her face in the middle, forming a kind of triangle (it’s hard to explain) and it looked really horrible (I couldn’t stop staring at it haha^^).
During the dying and stuff, I always get a little nervous and anxious because I don’t know what it will look like, so afterwards this PERSON came to me and got all annoyed because in her opinion I had annoyed my haircutter and made her insecure (she hadn’t looked insecure at all) and so on ><
My mom told me later, when I came back, that she had thought this woman was very unfriendly and arrogant, too. So it wasn’t only my opinion. But the good thing is, that my hair looks really cool now^^ It's a little darker than before with light blonde parts and a little light pink on one side. Maybe I’ll post a picture later ~
And I talked a little to the girl sitting next to me; she studies at the same university as I do and maybe we meet there once again. She was really nice! We exchanged eMail-addresses and headed home. And tomorrow’s my first day!!!!

ps.: I guess I have to change the picture in my profile once more, in this small size, it somehow looks weird....but not right now ~

What I’ve learned today:
I shouldn’t wail and talk too much at the haircutters ><

Quotation of the week:
“If you fight, you may lose. But if you don’t fight, you’ve already lost”.
Bertolt Brecht, german writer

Favourite song of the week:
Eyes on me, FF8 Piano Collection

H&M 4eva ~~

2005-10-14T15:11:00.000+02:00
Jazz is having shopping-fever again^^
The 18th H&M Store opened yesterday in Hamburg and of course I had to go there (I love H&M). My dad and I wanted to go to downtown anyway, so we also went to the new store. And it’s just so cool! From inside, it looks like an old factory and they’ve got all new stuff there and even a sectory with vintage-clothes H&M Designers found all over the world. I’m lovin’ it! Today, I’ve been there again and I bought new pants, a cardigan and a white stola (I have no idea if this word exists in english >< It’s a kind of scarf in triangle-shape). I love the stola^^ I always wanted to have one ~~
Ok ok, I’ll stop talking about shopping now!

Anything else happened? Um…nothing special, actually. Oh but yes, a friend of mine lent me Final Fantasy 8 for PC!!! OMG I always wanted to play it! I didn’t even know it’s available for PC. Waaahh, it’s soo cool, I love FF!! (There are many things I love today....) Although I liked some things better in Grandia2, for example the battle-system. But anyway, it’s FF, so I won’t complain haha^^

And on Wednesday, a couple of friends and I bought gifts for Milan and Milana’s birthday-party on Saturday. It took us a while to find the right things and when we finally found something, we had to wrap it up….
Haha, boys and wrapping up gifts *looool* Their wrapping got uglier and uglier the harder they tried. In the end, they put dozens of ribbons around it and OMG it is SO ugly! Hahaha ~~
Poor Milan ^^” Ok, that’s it for today.

Days to wait for university to start: 6

Quotation of the week:
Don't always say what you know but be always sure to know what you're saying.
Matthias Claudius, german writer

Favourite song of the week:
»We belong together« by Mariah Carey

Restoring our shed-roof....

2005-10-09T19:51:00.000+02:00
I haven’t been here for a while...hehe^^”
I’ve been pretty busy last week because I helped my parents to rebuild the roof of our shed which was a whole lot of work, phew! First, we had to destroy the whole plastic roof and then put all the waste and roof-parts into bags to carry them away and then build the whole thing with wood and stuff. It took us three days, but hammering all the nails in the wood was fun! I liked that haha ~
And finally everything is set with university, I’m gonna start october 20th (FINALLY) and my future professor told me I will be able to write a little chinese essay before christmas. That’s SO cool!!!! ^_____________^
On friday we celebrated my mom’s birthday, what meant going to the movies and eating Ice-Cream mmmhhh…
We watched “Mr and Mrs Smith”, which everybody said was good but I think it’s not that good….I’ve seen better movies.

Well, since I still have holidays, I gotta find something to do until october 20th….*sigh*

What I’ve learned today:
People can change in a way you never expected them to…

Quotation of the week:
“Vieles kann der Mensch entbehren, nur den Menschen nicht”.
(sorry I can’t translate that)

Favourite song of the week:
“My Yard” by Jamie Cullum

Being a student confuses me before it really begins....

2005-10-01T17:52:00.000+02:00
In our university, we have an “Orientierungseinheit” (OE) which means there are events for new students one week before the other stuff begins. I tried to find out when the OE for my subject begins but I ended up finding the exact time for any OE BUT mine….this is SO typical ><
And then on thursday I began wondering when they would send me all the stuff I need (like the university subway ticket and student id and things like that), so I tried to find it on the university’s homepage but without success. Therefore I called a friend who already is a student for several years to ask her if it’s normal that it takes so long and she told me that she thought I had to pay first and before october first. I was pretty shocked because I hadn’t even been sent the fee! So I kinda panicked a little and tried to call the university the next day but nobody was there, only one woman but she didn’t know anything (although she was very friendly and gave me a couple of numbers I could call). Sorry, but does ANYBODY work at university on fridays? I even called before 12 am!! But finally, FINALLY after what seemed like a 100 attempts to reach somebody, a woman took up the phone (I didn’t expect that, so at first I stammered around) and she told me that I would be send everything and that I didn’t have to pay yet because I will go there for the first time. I was SO relieved. And later that day I went down to go to the supermarket with my mom and what did I find in our mailbox? Exactly. A letter from university with everything I needed….I was like: “Are you kidding me?!” ><
I feel kinda confused about everything and I would really like to know WHEN I have to be WHERE…..I guess I’m gonna call there again on monday.

But we also had a very funny shopping day at the supermarket because I once won a credit note about 50 Euro, so we bought all the expensive stuff we would usually never buy (like: “aaahh these melon slices for 2,34 Euro…and this tasty instant chocolate cappuccino…^^”). That was fun!

And when we went to a mall today, I went into a shop which was decorated in such a cute way^^ Since the new Harry Potter came out today (the german version) they had spider-webs and dark satin and plastic spiders and stuff everywhere and the people who worked there wore witch-hats and wizard robes hahaaa ~~ It was so neat!!

What I’ve learned today:
It can be really relieving to be single – when I hear all the complaints from my friends who have boyfriends/girlfriends I begin to think that it’s pretty nice to be single…

Letter from an old friend

2005-09-28T13:12:00.000+02:00
I was so happy yesterday, a letter arrived, from my friend Fitore I haven't seen for six years. We were like best friends in sixth grade but she was a refugee from Macedonia and was sent back. And since she didn't know where exactly she was going, she couldn't give me her address and so we kinda lost contact, which was pretty sad. And then, a couple of weeks ago, I met a friend from the school I've been to before and he told me that a girl from his class still writes letters with Fitore and since we both wanted to write to her, too, we decided to send our letters together. And yesterday, I got her answer!! She told me she was really happy to hear from us and that she didn't forget us and she also put a photograph in it. And maybe she's coming to visit us in winter.
It' so nice to hear from old friends and it's so easy to write a letter to keep a friendship alive.

What else happened? I saw a whole Jamie Cullum concert on TV, which was sooo cool ~~~ OMG he plays the piano SO great, I was really impressed. And now he has a new album ^____^ I am buying way many CDs lately but I gotta have this one, too haha ~
Did I mention that he's pretty cute? ^^

What I've learned today:
(yesterday actually) Never hesitate to write to an old friend, they will always be delighted!

Quotation of the week:
»It's not beauty who decides who we love;
It's love who decides who we consider beautiful«
Sophia Loren

Favourite song of the week:
»Better together« by Jack Johnson

Photo-Album

2005-09-25T23:51:00.000+02:00
Hey folks,

I made a new blog, which is like a photo-album and where you can see pictures I took on my trip to Taiwan.
There will also be more pictures later.
To look at them, just click on the link in the sidebar (beneath Google-news and Piano Sheet music) or keep this URL in mind: www.jazziespictures.blogspot.com

13 days left to wait...

2005-09-21T22:08:00.000+02:00

My dad drove me to my future university tonight, to put my “Immatrikulationsantrag” into the postbox and I showed him the building where I’m gonna be studying soon. I just can’t wait!! The building is so beautiful and modern, and it’s got trees and a little café inside, all under a glass-roof. When I imagine me sitting there with future student-friends, I would love to go there and start studying tomorrow haha^^
But I guess after the first few weeks, studying chinese won’t be that much fun anymore, it will probably get dull from time to time, but at least I am learning to speak and write in chinese (more than the few useless sentences I know by now, like “my little sister is cooking rice” lol).
This is the building (inside), the AAI (Asien Afrika Institut)

And the weather was SO nice today! Yesterday I just thought about the last few weeks and how I was sitting, having breakfast outside on the balcony in the sun and that these times are probably over this year and today I awoke to a wonderful late-summer day. I sat on the balcony almost all day long, enjoying the last sunrays of the year, listening to spanish music and reading a nice book and it was just so neat. I hope tomorrow will be like that, too and moreover my friend Denis is coming and visiting me, I haven’t seen him for, like, a month or something ‘cause he’s been away for civil service. So at least tomorrow something is HAPPENING, unlike most of the days of my vacations…
When I began reading some spanish grammar today, so that I won’t forget everything I’ve learned in school, I discovered that I forgot soooo many words awww ><
What I learned today:
You can go from university to the inner city in about 5 minutes, it’s so nearby! I never knew that before.

Quotation of the week:
»The biggest sight existing is the world – go see it!!«
Kurt Tucholsky, german writer

Favourite song this week:
»In the name of the father« by Jay Chou

Jay?!

2005-09-19T18:26:00.000+02:00
As you might know, I am a fan of Jay Chou, a famous singer in Taiwan. And recently, I found a funny picture in the internet (scroll down):

This is Jay Chou today. Now look:

This is Jay Chou...then.
HAHAHAHA he is SO funny-looking ~~
But he's HOT today ^^

I'm gonna be a STUDENT ^_____________^

2005-09-17T22:57:00.000+02:00
I’ve been accepted from university!!! Ya ya ya ~~~~
Now the only thing left to do is sending this “Immatrikulationsantrag” to the university and then I am a STUDENT. A real University Student. Yay!!

The last few days were pretty full, at least for me (a few weeks before, going to the supermarket with my mom was something SPECIAL because I SO had nothing to do…><). Yesterday I met with a bunch of my friends in Einstein which is a restaurant where we always meet. It was so nice to see them all over again and to hear what they are all doing right now. Almost everybody has a job or does civil service so they hardly ever find time to meet me L But yesterday, we finally made it!!
And Jamie told us everything about Denis’ Love-Life because suddenly everybody was interested and she had asked for so many details OMG, it was so funny haha^^
And today I went with my mom and grandma for a walk and then my dad and I went downtown. The weather was so nice!! The sun was shining and it wasn’t that cold after all. And we ate chinese noodles^^
Then he drove me to Jamie’s house, I wanted to learn a little chinese and german with her mom once more and, of course, chat with Jamie. At dinner, we tried to teach her mother german swearwords and we laughed so hard imagining her saying “deine mudda” (your motha) to some german people in a supermarket LOL Jamie ^__________^

Hm, actually nothing interesting for other people, but funny for my friends ~

Comment if you want to, friends (und wehe wenn nicht^^) and others, too

English version of: My trip to the USA or: passport controls are so annoying...

2005-09-14T23:20:00.000+02:00
It seems like the only people reading my blog are english-speaking, so from now on I will write most of the posts in english. First of all, the english version of one of my previous posts. It’s a little longer and the end is a little different but so what:

Anyone who visited the USA in the last few years, will surely know about all these security checks and above all the passport control…
After 8 hours in a plane (don’t forget the hours of waiting for the corresponding flight at CDG-Airport in Paris) and without a minute of sleeping I finally arrived at Philadelphia International Airport, where my friend Sarah and her family had already been waiting for one hour because my plane had been delayed. Okay, I thought, just quick through the passport control and finally, FINALLY there. But no. I was already pretty pissed off because of a baby in the plane that had screamed PERMANENTLY for the last hour of the flight and then I came into a big room with a low ceiling in which somehow everything happened to be grey – the ceiling was grey, the walls were grey and the floor was grey with filthy yellow dots on it. Lovely, to begin with…
The room was crowded and I went to a line like: Ok, I’m gonna wait for another 15 minutes, that’ll be ok. Then I decided for the line next to me because it seemed to be shorter. Big mistake. The people in my previous line were a lot faster through the control and I had moved forward like a meter…and it just didn’t go on.
I was waiting and waiting, at the edge of crying because of exhaustion. After a while some people sat down on the floor and I did so, too. I began to read and from time to time I moved a centimetre forward in the line. After like and hour (what seemed to me like an eternity) it was FINALLY my turn and I was interrogated by an unfriendly officer:

(looks at my friend’s address, which I wrote on this green piece of paper I had to fill out in the plane)
“Have you been to the USA before?”
“No.”
“How do you know these people?”
“I met them on a holiday long ago.”
“Did you bring food?”
“Um…I’m not sure.”
“You’re not sure if you brought food?”
“Well, I brought candy if you count that as food…”
(totally unfriendly) “Did you bring food, Madam, or not?”
“CANDY if that counts.”
(unfriendly murmur)
“Please put your finger on this.”

Then two fingerprints and a picture were taken (I bet everybody looks so annoyed and stupid on these pictures) and then I was free to go.
My suitcase was in the baggage room, so I grabbed it and literally ran to the exit where Sarah and her family where waiting for me with a big teddybear with balloons around his belly…
(later they told me that everybody coming out of these doors had the same relieved expression on their face…)
Sarah's House:

So this was my first impression of the USA. But then we drove to my friend’s house and everything was so cute and neat and so TYPICALLY american (just like in the movies) and everybody was nice to me and I could finally take a shower…
After 24 hours without any sleep it was kinda hard for me to concentrate on the american accent and I was pretty happy to lay down and just let go – I didn’t even care about the bright light and two people chatting right next to me, I just fell down and fell asleep promptly.On the next day, they gave a big barbecue for me and family members and friends came there to say hi to me, so I forgot about the exhausting first day…

Ich mal wieder

2005-09-11T21:21:00.000+02:00
Ich hab so den Eindruck, dass es irgendwie niemanden schert, ob ich hier nun reinschreibe, oder nicht (ok, wahrscheinlich ist es auch so), aber na ja, ich tu's trotzdem mal. Dann ist das hier eben nur für mich selbst *hmpf* Vielleicht stolpert ja zufällig mal jemand über meine Seite und hat ein bisschen Spaß damit, das wär ja immerhin etwas.
Ich war jetzt am Wochenende mal wieder mit meinen Eltern in unserem Ferienhaus in Otterstedt und ich muss sagen, es hat sich echt gelohnt! Das Wetter war gut, man konnte schön im Garten gammeln und ich hab auch noch ein paar nette Klamotten im Schlussverkauf ergattert^^ (als würde mein Kleiderschrank nicht sowieso schon aus allen Nähten platzen...)
Meine Freunde hatten natürlich mal wieder nur dann Zeit, wenn ich nicht da bin und haben sich beim Billard amüsiert, ABER EGAL ~~~
Sonst gibt's eigentlich nichts neues. Heute ist ja der 11. September und ich hatte eigentlich gedacht, dass die da im Fernsehen wieder tausende von Sondersendungen wegen den Anschlägen bringen, aber es wurde nur kurz in den Nachrichten erwähnt. Als ich in New York war, haben wir uns ja auf Wunsch meiner Freundin Sarah den Ground Zero angesehen und ich muss schon sagen, es hat was Beeindruckendes, dieses riesige Loch mitten zwischen den ganzen Wolkenkratzern.....
Ok, das war's erst mal von mir für heute.

As long as my wings keep flapping

2005-09-05T22:14:00.000+02:00
Ich hab's ja schon mal vorgeschlagen, aber es hat irgendwie keiner drauf geantwortet T__T
Ich mach's trotzdem mal und zwar: Einen meiner Romane hier vorstellen. Diesen hier habe ich vor ungefähr einem Jahr fertiggestellt und das hier sind die ersten zwei Seiten. Falls irgend jemand ihn lesen sollte und eine Meinung dazu hat, schreibt doch mal einen Kommentar...ich komm mir schon so vor, als würde das hier kein Schwein lesen....*snif*
Aaaaalso...ahem....*räusper* Vorhang auf für:

As long as my wings keep flapping

Januar 2005

1

Jodie

Das heiße Duschwasser rann über meinen Körper und vermischte sich mit den Tränen, die meine Wangen herabliefen. Warum ich? Warum muss das mir passieren? Ich schloss die Augen und ließ das Wasser über mein Gesicht prasseln. So schön warm…»Wie lange willst du denn noch da drin bleiben, Jodie? Andere Menschen wollen schließlich auch mal irgendwann duschen«. Sophias herablassende Stimme drang wie durch Watte an mein Ohr. Ich drehte die Dusche noch weiter auf und hielt meinen Kopf direkt darunter. Und unterdrückte ein Schluchzen. Als ich circa eine Viertelstunde später aus dem Badezimmer kam, stand Sophia schon vor der Tür und wartete mit einem Handtuch auf dem Arm. »Na endlich. Ich dachte schon, du kommst nie mehr heraus«, sagte sie unfreundlich. Ich machte mir nicht mehr die Mühe, zu reagieren, sondern deutete einfach wortlos auf die geöffnete Badezimmertür. »Na, du hättest ja wenigstens mal das Fenster aufmachen können. Jetzt ist die Luft total stickig und heiß«, beschwerte sich Sophia, doch ich hörte kaum noch hin. In meinem Schlafzimmer ließ ich mich rücklings auf das große Bett fallen, dessen linke Seite unbenutzt und gemacht war. Eine welkende Rose lag auf dem Kissen. Ich sah zur Decke hinauf und versuchte, mein Denken abzustellen. Doch es war nicht möglich. Immer wieder glitten meine Gedanken in die Vergangenheit zurück.
Ich hatte Robert in einer Bar nach einem seiner Konzerte kennen gelernt. Das lag nun acht Jahre zurück. Doch diese acht Jahre kamen mir vor wie ein halbes Leben. Meine Freundin Mira hatte mich gebeten, sie zu einem Klavierkonzert zu begleiten, da unsere andere Mitbewohnerin Laura eine Grippe bekommen hatte und den Tag in Gesellschaft von einer Maxipackung Taschentücher und einigen Aspirin im Bett verbrachte hatte.

Sommer 1996

»Aber ich interessiere mich nicht einmal für Klassik«, wandte ich ein. »Ja, ich weiß«, seufzte Mira. »Aber du bist die Einzige, die heute Abend Zeit hat. Wenn du eh nichts vorhast, kannst du doch auch mitkommen. Es wäre schade, die Karte verfallen zu lassen. Jetzt komm schon«, bat sie und hielt mir die Karte hin. »Also gut«. Ich nahm ihr die Karte ab. Klavierkonzert, stand da in großen Frakturbuchstaben. Robert Cain stand darunter. »Robert Cain? Nie gehört«, sagte ich und steckte die Karte in die Gesäßtasche meiner Jeans, um mich wieder dem Abendessen zuzuwenden, das ich gerade zubereitete. »Nie gehört? Er ist einer der bekanntesten Pianisten von ganz Amerika. Er ist fast so berühmt wie Richard Clayderman und du sagst, du kennst ihn nicht?«. Mira war entsetzt und fuhr sich durch ihre kurzen, schwarzen Locken. Mira kam aus Spanien, genauer gesagt aus Málaga und ihr Temperament war ziemlich feurig. Sie war klein und drahtig und ihre dunklen Augen hatten schon so manchen Mann um den Verstand gebracht. »Nun reg dich doch nicht so auf. Immerhin weiß ich noch, wer Robbie Williams ist«, scherzte ich und warf eine gehackte Zwiebel in die Pfanne, woraufhin es laut zu zischen begann. »Robbie Williams«, wiederholte Mira abfällig, »ist überhaupt kein Vergleich zu Robert Cain. Weißt du eigentlich, wie gut der Typ aussieht?«. Sie lächelte und kniff mich spielerisch in den Arm. »Der ist bestimmt genau nach deinem Geschmack«. Ich zuckte die Schultern und wendete die Zwiebelstückchen. »Mal sehen«. »Ach Jo«, sagte Mira und schob sich eine Haarsträhne hinter das Ohr. »Es wird Zeit, dass du mal wieder einen Kerl in dein Leben lässt. Du wirst immerhin bald dreißig! Wie lange ist das jetzt noch mal her mit…wie hieß er noch gleich…Pablo?«. Ich drohte ihr mit dem Kochlöffel. »Erwähne diesen Namen nicht! Es sind jetzt drei Jahre und meinetwegen könnten es auch gerne mehr sein«. Mira lachte. »So ist’s richtig! Der Kerl war ein Idiot«. Ich kippte die Zwiebelstückchen auf einen Teller und legte das Fleisch in die Pfanne. »Ja. Da hast du wohl recht«. Mira schwieg eine Weile, ehe sie erneute ansetzte zu sprechen. »Und da wäre noch was…«. Ich sah sie kurz an. »Was denn?«. »Tja, also…nach dem Konzert wollte ich noch in so eine Bar, denn ich habe gehört, Mr. Cain geht immer nach seinen Konzerten dorthin, wenn er in New York ist«. Ich grinste und wendete das Fleisch. »Du bist unverbesserlich, Mira-Schatz«. Sie grinste auch. »Na ja, was soll ich sagen. Wer nicht wagt, der nicht gewinnt«. Wir lachten beide. »Setz dich doch schon mal hin, das Essen ist gleich fertig«, sagte ich, während ich die restlichen Erbsen und Wurzeln vom gestrigen Abendessen in die Pfanne gab. Nach etwa fünf Minuten war ich fertig, allerdings waren die Erbsen und Wurzeln ein wenig angebrannt. Ich schaffte es nie, sie rechtzeitig herauszunehmen. »Ich bringe eben unserer armen kranken Maus was rauf und dann können wir essen«, sagte ich und ging mit einem Teller zu Lauras Zimmer hinauf. »Klopf klopf«, sagte ich und öffnete die Tür. Laura sah sich eine Sendung im Fernsehen an und lächelte ein wenig, als ich hereinkam. »Wie geht’s dir?«. »Beschissnd«. »Na dann…hier, ich hab dir was zu essen hochgebracht«, sagte ich und stellte den Teller neben dem Bett ab. »Dange schönd«, sagte sie und schniefte. »Ndu schaffsd es auch ndie, die Erbsn nichd anbrenn zu lassnd«, fügte sie hinzu und lachte, worauf gleich ein Hustenanfall folgte. »Na ja, guten Appetit und gute Besserung«, sagte ich im Hinausgehen. »Ich geh nachher mit Mira zu diesem Konzert. Sie hat mich überredet«, erklärte ich. »Alles glar. Wiel Schbaß«, sagte Laura und nieste, als ich die Tür schloss. Mira haute schon kräftig rein. »Wir müssen uns ein wenig beeilen. Es fängt um acht Uhr an und ich will nicht zu spät kommen«, sagte sie mit vollem Mund und unterstrich ihre Aussage, indem sie mit ihrer Gabel auf die Uhr deutete. Ich sah hoch. »Ach, wir haben doch noch mindestens zwei Stunden Zeit«, beruhigte ich sie und nahm einen Bissen. »Es wird voll sein. Ich will auf keinen Fall etwas verpassen«, sagte Mira und piekte ein Stückchen Fleisch auf ihre Gabel. »Schmeckt gut. Auch wenn die Erbsen ein wenig angebrannt sind«, sagte sie kauend. »Nun hackt doch nicht alle auf meinen Erbsen herum. Ich mag sie so«, sagte ich trotzig. »Ist doch nur Spaß«, erwiderte Mira.

Vor dem Konzertsaal war es noch voller, als Mira erwartet hatte. »Mann, der Typ muss ja wirklich berühmt sein«, sagte ich bewundernd. »Hab ich doch gesagt«, meinte Mira. »Aber über sein Privatleben ist fast gar nichts bekannt. Er lebt ziemlich zurückgezogen und zieht nicht gern den Medienrummel auf sich. Ich weiß nur, dass seine Frau vor einigen Jahren verstorben ist. Seitdem ist er solo«. Ich war immer noch begeistert von dem riesigen Andrang. »Die Karten müssen ein Vermögen gekostet haben«. Mira schniefte gespielt. »Mein halbes Monatsgehalt. Aber das ist es mir wert. Verstehst du jetzt, warum ich die Karte nicht verfallen lassen wollte?«. Ich nickte. »Ja. Vielleicht wird es ja doch noch ein schöner Abend. Obwohl ich eigentlich vor dem Fernseher gammeln und mich mit Chips voll fressen wollte, so wie jeden Samstag«, sagte ich. »Dann ist es mein Verdienst, wenn du keine fette Tonne wirst. Geht das hier eigentlich gar nicht mehr vorwärts?«. Es ging. Allerdings sehr langsam. Nach etwa einer Stunde Wartezeit in der Menge waren wir endlich drinnen. Der Konzertsaal war riesig. Und so beeindruckend. Auf der großen Bühne stand ein schwarzglänzender Flügel. Fast jeder Platz war besetzt. Mira und ich saßen zwar ziemlich weit hinten, hatten aber einen guten Blick auf die Bühne. »Ich hab ein Fernglas mitgebracht«, sagte Mira. »Dann können wir besser sehen«. »Gute Idee«. Ich sah auf die Uhr. »Es ist schon kurz nach acht. Wann fängt es denn endlich an?«. Mira zuckte die Schultern. »Müsste eigentlich jeden Moment losgehen. Hast du dein Handy ausgestellt?«. Ich nickte. »Klar«. Wir sahen uns eine Weile im Saal um. Die Decke war immens hoch und wo man auch hinsah waren Menschen. Hauptsächlich Frauen. Aber auch viele alte Leute. Eigentlich bestand das Publikum aus so ziemlich allen Altersschichten. Plötzlich ging ein Raunen durch die Menge, das sich schließlich zu begeisterten Jubelrufen und Klatschen entwickelte. »Da kommt er, da kommt er«. Mira hibbelte auf ihrem Stuhl herum und schaute angestrengt durch das Fernglas. Ich konnte das Gesicht von Mr. Cain nicht ganz erkennen. Ich konnte nur sehen, dass er ziemlich groß war, schlank und gut gebaut. Seine Haare waren schwarz und kurz. »Er sieht so gut aus«, seufzte Mira. »Nun reg dich mal wieder ab. Gib mir auch mal das Fernglas«, bat ich. Mira reichte es mir und ich sah hindurch. Mr. Cain winkte ein wenig der Menge zu und lächelte. Eine Reihe strahlend weißer Zähne kam zum Vorschein. Sein Gesicht war schön geschnitten und seine Augen strahlend blau. Wenn er lächelte, konnte man kleine Grübchen auf seinen Wangen ausmachen. Er sah gut aus, ja, das musste ich zugeben. Aber er war nicht mein Typ. »Und?«. Ich sah zu Mira hinüber, die mir das Fernglas fast aus der Hand riss. »Wie findest du ihn?«. »Joa, von der Bettkante stoßen würde ich ihn nicht«, sagte ich grinsend, »aber eigentlich ist er nicht mein Typ«. »Um so besser«, sagte Mira. Allmählich legte sich die Unruhe im Saal und es wurde still, als Mr. Cain sich an den Flügel setzte. »Das ist ein Steinway«, flüsterte Mira mir zu. »Das sind die allerbesten«. Ich zuckte die Schultern. »Kann schon sein. Du weißt doch, ich verstehe nichts davon. Ich war noch nie besonders musikalisch«, flüsterte ich zurück. »Ja, scht jetzt«, sagte Mira und ich blickte gespannt auf die Bühne. Im Saal war es jetzt so still, dass man eine Stecknadel hätte fallen hören können. Als Mr. Cain schließlich zu spielen begann, war ich wie verzaubert. Die Musik klang so wunderschön. Denn auch, wenn ich selbst nie Musik gemacht hatte, ich liebte sie. Ich stand eigentlich auf Jazz und R’n’B. Klassik hatte mich nie interessiert. Aber das hier…es war so schön, dass ich lächelnd dasaß, die Augen geschlossen und lauschte. Mr. Cain spielte an jenem Abend auch modernere Stücke, aber das meiste war klassisch. Als das Konzert nach zwei Stunden und zwei Zugaben schließlich zu Ende war, wünschte ich, es wäre ewig weitergegangen. Ich sah Mira an, die ebenso verzückt lächelte wie ich. »Hat es…dir gefallen?«, fragte sie mit rauer Stimme. »Gefallen ist nicht das richtige Wort«, sagte ich abwesend und zwinkerte mehrmals. »Es war…grandios«. »Ja, nicht wahr? Es war noch besser, als ich es mir vorgestellt hatte«. Ich nickte zustimmend. »Der Mann ist ein Gott, was das Klavierspielen angeht«. Mira lachte. »Sieht so aus, als hätte ich dich auch mit dem Cain-Virus angesteckt«. Ich lachte ebenfalls und erhob mich, um meine Kostümjacke anzuziehen. Es war ein warmer Sommerabend und als wir aus den Konzertsaal heraustraten, blickten wir in einen wunderschönen Sternenhimmel. Mira atmete tief ein. »Hach, war das herrlich«. »Und wo ist jetzt diese Bar, zu der du noch wolltest?«, fragte ich. »Gehen alle seine Fans dahin? Dann wird es verdammt voll werden«, sagte ich. Mira schüttelte den Kopf. »Mhmhm. Das ist ein Geheimtipp«, sagte sie mit verschwörerischem Unterton. »Na dann sollten wir darauf achten, dass uns niemand folgt«, scherzte ich. Witzelnd und gut gelaunt spazierten wir durch die laue Sommernacht.

Meine Reise nach USA oder auch: Passkontrollen sind doch was Nerviges...

2005-09-04T18:52:00.000+02:00

Wer in den letzten Jahren selbst mal nach USA geflogen ist, kennt ja sicher die diversen Sicherheitsvorkehrungen und vor allem die Passkontrolle...
Ich kam nach 8 Stunden Flug (nicht zu vergessen die vorherigen Stunden Flug nach Paris und Warten am CDG-Flughafen) und ohne auch nur eine Minute Schlaf endlich am Philadelphia International Airport an, wo meine Freunde schon seit einer Stunde auf mich warteten, da mein Flug Verspätung gehabt hatte. Na ja, dachte ich mir, nur noch schnell durch die Passkontrolle und endlich ENDLICH da. Aber weit gefehlt. Nachdem die letzte Stunde im Flugzeug ein Baby PERMANENT gebrüllt hat, war ich schon ziemlich genervt und kam dann in einen großen Raum mit einer sehr niedrigen Decke, in dem irgendwie alles grau war – die Decke war grau, die Wände waren grau und der Teppichboden war dunkelgrau mit schmutzigen gelben Punkten. Sehr aufbauend schon mal...der Raum war voll mit Menschen und ich stellte mich in irgend eine Schlange und dachte mir: Ok, dann warte ich halt noch ne Viertelstunde. Die Schlange neben mir sah kürzer aus, also ging ich dahin. Big Mistake. Alle Leute, die in der vorherigen Schlange vor mir gewesen waren, waren schon längst durch die Kontrolle und ich hatte mich vielleicht einen Meter vorwärts bewegt...und es ging und ging nicht voran. Ich wartete und wartete, vor Erschöpfung bald dem Heulkrampf nahe. Irgendwann setzten sich einige Leute auf den Boden, was ich dann auch tat. Ich begann zu lesen und bewegte mich gelegentlich zentimeterweise in der Schlange vorwärts. Nach ungefähr einer Stunde kam ich ENDLICH dran und wurde von einem ziemlich unfreundlichen Officer ausgefragt:
(sieht auf die von mir angegebene Adresse meiner Freunde) „Waren Sie schon mal in den USA?“
„Nein“
„Woher kennen Sie diese Leute?“
„Aus einem Urlaub“
„Führen Sie Essen mit sich?“
„Hm...ich bin mir nicht sicher“
„Sie sind sich nicht sicher, ob Sie Essen mit sich führen?!“
„Na ja, ich hab Süßigkeiten, wenn Sie das als Essen ansehen...“
(total unfreundlich) „Führen Sie Essen mit sich, Madam, oder nicht?“
„SÜSSIGKEITEN, wenn das zählt“.
(grummel) „Legen Sie bitte Ihren Finger hier rauf“
Dann wurden zwei Fingerabdrücke gemacht und ich musste noch ein Foto von mir machen lassen (ich wette alle Menschen sehen auf diesen Fotos derbe genervt und beschissen aus) und dann konnte ich endlich gehen.
Mein Koffer stand neben dem Gepäckband und ich riss ihn mit mir und rannte förmlich zum Ausgang, wo mich meine Freunde mit einem Teddybären, der Luftballons um den Bauch hatte, empfingen...

Die übertreiben es da echt total mit ihren Sicherheitsvorkehrungen, zum Beispiel hat vor ein paar Jahren irgend so ein Irrer die Liberty Bell in Philadelphia angegriffen (ja, es gibt so viele bekloppte Menschen auf diesem Planeten....) und seitdem muss man durch Sicherheitsschranken wie am Flughafen, nur um eine GLOCKE zu besichtigen. Aber na ja...

Soviel erst mal dazu.

Begrüßung

2005-09-02T21:53:00.000+02:00
Hi, ich bin's nochmal (wer auch sonst...)!
Ich wollte erst mal alle begrüßen, die sich mein niedliches, kleines Blog (eine Art Webtagebuch, für die, die den Ausdruck nicht kennen) ansehen. Hallo ihr!!
Wenn es euch gefällt, ihr Anregungen habt oder einfach irgendwas dazu sagen wollt, könnt ihr auf 0 comments klicken (die Zahl ändert sich natürlich mit der Anzahl der Kommentare) und was reinschreiben. Würd mich freuen^^

Und hättet vielleicht jemand Interesse dran, wenn ich hier Teile von meinen Romanen veröffentliche?

Okay, das war's erst mal. An meine Freunde: Hab euch alle ganz doll lieb ~~~
Viel Spaß mit meinem Blog!!

2005-09-02T13:12:00.000+02:00

Ein Bild aus meinem letzten Urlaub in den USA ~~~
Genau so ein Bild haben wir auch in der Karibik gemacht,
wo wir uns vor acht Jahren kennen gelernt haben. Ist
also so eine Art "Remake"

2005-09-02T12:46:00.000+02:00

This is me!

Ja! Ja! Ja! Ich hab's geschafft!!

2005-09-02T10:11:00.000+02:00
Bin ja so stolz auf mich...^^"
Ok, das Bild sollte eigentlich ins Profil, was erst beim zweiten Anlauf klappte, aber NA JA. Ich bin ja noch Anfänger, was das allseits bekannte "Bloggen" angeht...
Machen wir mal so ne Art Tagebuch draus, natürlich bleiben die ganz geheimen Gedanken außen vor (enttäuscht?^^)

Hab mir übrigens gestern Princess Ai Band 2 geholt, der ENDLICH mal rauskam. Seltsamerweise hatte ich grade am Tag zuvor darüber nachgedacht, wann das Ding denn nun endlich mal rauskommt. Irgendwie gruselig ><

Hm hm...ok...lassen wir das erst mal so...

Mein erster Eintrag

2005-09-01T21:55:00.000+02:00
So. Alles bisschen kompliziert....mal gucken, ob das hier überhaupt klappt (ich bezweifle es^^")

Jazzie's Blog

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Ab in die Sonne!

惡作劇之吻 ~ It started with a kiss

Happy Valentine's day

Jazzie's book recommendations: Eragon

Experiences in China: Episode 2 ~ Peking is a village

Experiences in China: Episode 1 ~ First impressions

Jazzie's Music Recommendations: Carla Bruni

New Year, New Template

New year

Tiny Grand Piano^^

About love and life

Daily routine ~

Pictures from China

20 Things that are REALLY weird here

I'm in CHINA ~

Trip to the beach (Part I)

Trip to the beach (Part II)

Back from Tenerife

Aus der Traum vom Weltmeister

Campfire in the garden

Learning how to play the guitar

H-O-L-I-D-A-Y-S

The Flying Spaghetti Monster

Eichbaumsee and RHCP

My neighbour Li - Chapter 2

Not too much to tell

QUESTIONS ~

Chinesepod.com

Heute mal was anderes (only in german, sorry)

The roaring 20's Part I

The roaring 20's Part II

The roaring 20's Part III

"What can I do for you? Anything else? Have a nice day!!" *smile*

Somewhere over the rainbow

Jobbing ~~

Valentine's day...

News from me ~

So much to tell today ~

Hips don't lie ~

About Love & Life

All at sea

My year 2005

Wanna change my profile pic...

Merry Christmas everyone!

Cookies, cookies, cookies

Funny pictures and 米果 (rice-cookies^^)

Hello Kitty

我 很 累 ~

And the weekend’s over again ~

Gigi Leung

我學習中文!

Penguins ~

I made it, I made it!!

No other way

ELIZABETHTOWN ~

DOM ~~~

Chinese lessons and some other things

OE-Days

Pink hair and starting university ~

H&M 4eva ~~

Restoring our shed-roof....

Being a student confuses me before it really begins....

Letter from an old friend

Photo-Album

13 days left to wait...

Jay?!

I'm gonna be a STUDENT ^_____________^

English version of: My trip to the USA or: passport controls are so annoying...

Ich mal wieder

As long as my wings keep flapping

Meine Reise nach USA oder auch: Passkontrollen sind doch was Nerviges...

Begrüßung

Ja! Ja! Ja! Ich hab's geschafft!!

Mein erster Eintrag

"What can I do for you? Anything else? Have a nice day!!" smile

我很累 ~