finally...

work is getting done. After having been a slacker for the past week and a half or so I have finally managed to get some good work done. This morning I came to the office before 10 and started working on my outline for chapter 1. It is not perfect, but I am starting to flesh it out and it looks much more substantial than it did this morning when I started. When i asked a friend of mine for advice on how to start writing she simply said "Just apply thee art of sitting thee ass in thee chair" (by the way Thanks Chica it obviously helped!) and that's just what I did this morning. Now I have extended my outline from 3/4 of a page to 4 1/2 pages and it feels really good to look at it. I am not so worried anymore now for Brian to return from his week away in Scotland, as I have actually something to show him.

Let's see what else has been going on... yesterday Neil and I went to see "The Notorious Bettie Page" at the Picturehouse. An interesting film about a Pin Up girl in the 50s. The first bit dragged on a bit, but the second half was quite good, and there were so many familiar looking actors in it...

I have been back in Exeter for a whole week now, but I haven't really gotten back into a work mode. Well, to be really honest I haven't really tried yet. I went in to the department Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, but didn't do very much besides catching up with people and seeing Brian and admitting that I haven't done any work yet. But still it was good. Wednesday I didn't feel too great in the evening so I stayed in rather than going to see some friends and watch a film. Thursday I met a friend from uni for lunch at Wagamama and then we went to see "Cars" at the Odeon. I thought it was a great film. The animation was fantastic (certain shots looked like they were actual film rather than animation) and overall I thought it was very well done. After the film I met with Neil and went to the library to finally get a library card after having meant to do that for the past year and 11 months that I have been in Exeter. Friday I helped Neil shop for some new clothes (for work and a wedding) and in the evening we cooked dinner and later watched Fargo. Saturday we went to a wedding in the afternoon. It was really nice. The service (held in both English and German) was at the Cathedral here in Exeter with a drinks reception afterwards. After that we went home and relaxed with a bit of food and yet another film. This time Donnie Darko. Very odd film, and I'm quite confused about it all. But I did enjoy it, it made me laugh a few times, and I thought Patrick Swayze's character was hillarious.
Today I have just been pottering around not doing much. I went into town to enjoy the sunshine in the afternoon and then spoke to my mom on the phone. That's about it...

back in Exeter now

I got back to Exeter last night after a very stressful journey. First lots of flights to Heathrow were delayed so when we arrived lots of other planes had also arrived and it took forever until they even let us know which baggage carrousel our suitcases would be on. Because of that I almost missed my bus. But I just barely made the bus so I caught the fast train as well and got into Exeter around 11:30 last night. The train journey was ok, just had a bunch of drunk guys sitting around me, so I tried to bury myself in a Sudoku book and listened to my iPod and ignored them. Anyway, I am back now and am enjoying a cup of tea with my breakfast!

holidays are almost over now

and another three weeks went by just like that. I can't believe that I have been at home for three weeks, but oh well. I had a great time. We had a few family birthday parties to go to and my mom and I went to the baltic sea coast for a few days and then we also went to see "We Will Rock You" in Cologne. The musical was really good. Maybe only for people who like the music by Queen, but it was well done. Even the German version was made well. Now I really want to see the English version as well to see how they made the story work. In the German version they put in a few references that English is dead now, and therefore there is no more rock music. The reason they gave that no one spoke English anymore was that Germany won the Football in 2010... we can dream I guess... and who knows what happens in the future. But anyway, it was great fun, and the singers were awesome.

lets see what else did I do while I was here... oh I read a book by Haruki Murakami called Norwegian Wood. It was really good, a very sad melancholic mood all the way through, but a very beautiful story still. I will see if I can find another one of his books as they sound very interesting.

oh I also promised to put more pictures up... so here they come:

My mom collecting shells and stones on the beach... you won't believe how much she found, we had an extra bag for shells and one for stones, and then another one for some sand from the beach. She has all these ideas for decorating, I will tell her to send me pictures when she is done ;)

In the background you can see a few of the sand scultures from the sandsculptures festival we went to as well.






Here you can see some islands in the background, but primarily I took the picture because of the sailboats that were floating around on the sea. The windconditions must have been extra good those few days, we saw them wherever we went.





open water... in the background you could see the opposite coast of former East Germany, but the photo doesn't show it. It took us forever too to figure out what we could see all the way over there. At first we thought it would be Denmark, but when we looked on a map we realised that the coast where we were didn't even point towards Denmark...



And here now a few more pictures from the sandscultures festival

back home

My mom and I have just returned from a short trip to the Baltic Sea coast here in Germany, and we had a great time. Not much time to blog at the moment though, so just a few pictures for now. I will try to write more later today...

These things are called "Strandkörbe" in German and are fairly typical for the beaches in Germany. I have no idea what they are called in English... the literal translation would be "Beach baskets", but I doubt that would be correct. Anyway, we rented one for a day, and it was quite nice and comfortable!



We also went to a sandsculpture festival, it is amazing what they can do with sand. Here a little overview of a few of the sculptures, but more later...

Landesgartenschau in Winsen

we went to a garden and flower exhibition today... so I thought I'll put up some pictures... some are good, some are not so good, but who cares really ;)




these two will have to do for now, as it takes forever to upload them. more to come soon...

holidays here we come

we have finally managed to book a few days holiday. We are off on Wednesday to the Baltic Sea coast for three days to a place called Dahme. We didn't find a whole house or flat to rent, but a nice little hotel only 200 metres from the beach. We are also hoping to go to the Sandworld exhibition near Travemünde as well, but we will have to wait and see how the weather develops. For the following week we have booked tickets to go see "We Will Rock You", the Queen Musical by Ben Elton. That should be fun, my mom and I have been wanting to see if for a while and this was the chance to do it. I'll write more when we come back!

home, sweet home

...or something like that anyway. I got here on Saturday evening, after almost missing my flight. I got to Heathrow in good time, but all of the self service check in terminals were out of order or crashed every time I tried, and so I had to join the queue at the Lufthansa check in which took forever. then of course there was another queue at the departures, but in the end I made it though to the gates even with time to spare before they let us know which gate the plane was leaving from. Sunday we went straight to the first family party, my aunt's birthday. It was nice to see them all again, but the more I am away the more I realise how much living abroad has changed me. But oh well... then Monday my mom, my aunt and my cousin, and me went to my grandma's house to visit my granfathers grave as it would have been his birthday. It is a nice little ritual we have together, and it is nice to sit down over lunch and remember him with all his little oddities... then on tuesday my mom and I just didn't do much. We thought about our little holiday, but decided that renting a house in Denmark would be too expensive at € 1000 for just a week, so are now thinking of going to see "We Will Rock You" in Köln, maybe "Starlight Express in Bochum, and maybe also go to Vienna for a few days while I am here. If we go to Vienna I really want to go see the Siegmund Freud Museum, that should be interesting, but otherwise I am not that picky about what we do.
Yesterday was another family birthday, my other aunt, but that was just a small gathering probably because it was in the middle of the week and most people had to be at work still. Today not much has been going on.