Poems to a Horse

Oh my God

2010-03-19T05:18:00.000-07:00

I didn't post since last August?!!

It was quite interesting to go through the last few posts from 2009. Interestingly enough my name-list hasn't changed at all! It's not something I would have realized otherwise. Maye even if it's quite sporadic this blog is still good for something. It's a bit like revamping your room and find a photograph that displays you with a childhood friend you haven't talked to in years. Or an old diary ;-)

What is different from last year is the situation in uni. I indeed quit Engineering. It just wasn't my thing, I was not happy, I realized that it's not something I want to or could do for a living. I took up Architecture back home in October, and it's one of the best decisions I've done in a while. That's what I'm meant to do (though I'm pretty sure it's not healthy to feed my perfectionism to such a degree), I love the creative side to it, the ability to express yourself and actually CREATE stuff. There's nothing more satisfying than seeing the physical result of your work! I can't complain about grades either.
It's also handy to be closer to home and family again. I don't see them too often, but I can whenever I want to, and that gives me so much comfort =)

On another note, I am in love! I met Tobias back in October at a party at my friend Karla's that I visited in Karlsruhe. So yeah, a couple of months after I moved away from Karlsruhe I started dating someone who lives right there. Nice timing, guys!

I got an award

2009-08-16T03:10:00.000-07:00

Maybe this makes up for never being handed one in the non-virtual world?

Thanks to Rachael, who tagged me to this award-thingy on her blog Isatou (http://isatoubee.blogspot.com/). I felt quite honoured. Her blog is lovely, mine is awfully empty!
(The rules for this award:
- List 10 random things about yourself
-Tag 10 other bloggers with the award (write them a comment so they know they've got it!)
-Link the person that gave you the award)

10 random facts about myself

I can't for the life of me stand red socks. I would rather were uggs or crocks, and that counts for something!
I've been working on a construction plot for a months now. We are building six houses, it's great fun
I do 2. in order to take up a study of architecture in October. I am very excited!
I am German yet seldom read a book written in German. Reading in English is my main practise in refining my English skills.
I've been a vegetarian since I was 12 years old. I haven't eaten a single piece of a dead animal since. I HATE talking about it though and wonder why people always expect me to justify this "habit".
There are a million reasons why I want to live in the UK, one of them being that our clothing-stores suck compared to the British ones!
As of late I'm pondering the idea of naming a future potential son Calum Fox Leopold, despite it being very VERY animalistic (Dove Fox Lion) - [peaceful, smart, strong!]
I just moved back home after almost a year of living away for uni. I have mixed feelings about it
My absolute favourite movie ever is Pocahontas.
I prefer people who are evil, blunt and honest over honey-greasing, always-friendly sunshines. Funnily enough people always assume I rather classify as latter :/

My tagging-worth recommendations. Those are all awesome ladies!
Hayley's http://hayleywillis.blogspot.com/
Rebecca's http://rebeccasmindlessmadness.blogspot.com/
Carly's http://dontyouknowitsgoingtolast.blogspot.com/
Jackie's http://aswelivesowelearn.blogspot.com/
Cristina's http://forbiareads.blogspot.com/
Sofia's http://chimericalsofie.blogspot.com/
Meg's http://foreverythingareason.blogspot.com/
Laura's http://a-passing-afternoon.blogspot.com/
Jessica's http://jessicasjotter.blogspot.com/
Kati's http://omgthisisentertaining.blogspot.com/

Procrastinating procrastination

2009-07-30T10:40:00.001-07:00

I'm a genius! Some people blog as a way to procrastinate more important things to do (work? household?), but I seem to manage to neglegt blogging itself because it's too much work.

So actually I was going to post a link to the name-blog I aspire to set up (Of course I will keep up with this one as well, like usual. HAHA), but I have no idea what to name it. I want a fancy, spunky, catchy name - A blog's moniker seems to require the same characteristics like a person's name for me ;-)

If you have any ideas let me know.

I can't wait...

2009-03-27T17:28:00.000-07:00

... for these to arrive!

I've ordered them from H&M, and they actually should have made their way here yet! Hurry up, dear lovely pair of must-have shoes =)

Yesterday on the train

2009-03-27T14:52:00.001-07:00

If I had to choose only one subject to rant about for the rest of my life my pick would easily be the "Deutsche Bahn" our German, no longer state train-company.

When I drove from Mannheim to Karlsruhe on Tuesday with Karla (needless to say, on detour, because they only run their proper connections every 50/70 minutes), we burst out in laughter as another train with "Reisen mit der Bahn schont ihren Geldbeutel" - "traveling by train gives your purse a break" drove past us. Nothing about this mess has ever given me a break, my purse is surely the first to agree with me there. It is a save fact, that this company realises profit with no end, yet all measures they can think of is making the tickets even more expensive. Oh no, I should take that back, they introduced this *aweome* bonus-system, that gives me whole 10 €uro back once I've spend 1000€!!

I seriously believe in public transport, I believe it's the best invention ever - You don't have to drive your own car, you don't have to give a shit about parking, you can read whilst you travel without becoming sick. You are seated with actual space (as opposed to fully packed cars on their way to a vacation-resort), you can play cards with your co-travels, with them being either your friends or new people you get to know, if you plan on travel a far distance, it surely gets you there waaay faster than your car, the routes in general are far more beautiful than the car ones. And first of all these things - it saves our planet. It would work a wonder if only it was run differently.
This is why it's so ironic that driving by car is still less expensive, the fact that all fronts speak pro-train and still we have countless of cars running across the country on the Autobahnen shows how ridiculous gainless it is from the financial side. If I ever become influential I will make a point in changing this situation, someone else in such a position should do that NOW and stand up for planet earth!

So yesterday I got on the train to drive back home, and what did this stupid thing do? It just stood at the station for a whole 20 minutes before it even departed. Of course this ruined my chances of catching the next train, which I had to switch to in Heidelberg, it arrived a whole 15 minutes after the next had left. I went complaining and got to travel in a better alternative train, which I had to wait *only* 10 minutes for.

Because there's always a bright side to everything, I got to know a fellow Deutsche Bahn -complainer. She had sat opposite to me in the belated train, we've had eye contact smirking about our weird seat-neighbours (they both talked English with a German-accent when talking to each other. Haha, we still haven't figured out why) and started small-talk, before we discovered we're of the same age and both have taken up our studies in fall. She's from where I study now and we have plans to go out for drinks when we're both in Karlsruhe at the same time.
She studies in Frankfurt, I'm a wee bit jealous, Frankfurt is so beautiful, I went there with Svenja last Saturday, we have had such a beautiful day walking along the Main, just talk and enjoying the first rays of sun.

Name likings - the male version

2009-03-27T14:14:00.000-07:00

Because I forever neglect the boys, even though I'm pretty content with my top-choices at the moment, here follows the boy-version of my favourite names at the moment. They aren't in any particular order. I probably should have done alphabetic, but I can't be bothered, ha!

Fox - English, "fox" Generally a transfered use of the surname - Simple, spunky and out-of-the-box
Calum - Scottish form of Latin Columba "dove" - Pure perfection
Simon - English form of Hebrew/biblical Simeon "hearkening" - My brother's middle-name, common yet refreshing
Stuart - French version of occupational surname, "stewart", introduced by Scotish Mary Stuart - In deed cool, I am in love with the nickname Stu
Friedrich - Germanic "peace and power" - Very, very old-fashioned, so much that is starts being fresh again!
Rufus - Latin "red(-haired)", derived from a pet-name, in use since the 17th century - So British to me =)
Levi - Hebrew/biblical "associated", third son of Leah and Jacob - Soft and gentle
Eliot - French via Hebrew "Yahweh is God" petform of Elias, first used as surname - Simple and to the point

Name likings

2009-03-13T16:20:00.000-07:00

If it had to name a girl right now, I would pick from following list:

Ríona - Irish "queenly" - I can't think of a more pretty name
Ella - Germanic "other, foreign" - On my list since technically forever. I fear it will be quite common here in a bit
June - English "june" - Spring
Rachel - Hebrew "ewe" - I'll possibly never stop to appreciate her feminine harshness
Holly - English "holly" - Simply lovely ♥
Ffion - Welsh for Gaelic Fiona "white, fair" - Awesomly simplistic!
Esther - Persian via Hebrew "myrtle" or Persian "star" - So wonderfully strong. Back on my list!
Anaïs - Catalan for English via Hebrew Anne "He has favoured me" - Partly to honour my sister, whose middle-name is a variant of Anne as well
Felizitas - Latin "happiness, luck, good fortune" - My own middle-name
Ione - possibly Greek 19th century coinage - If music was expressed in only one name, it would be Ione!
Maeva/Maeve - Irish "intoxicatin, she who makes drunk" - Don't you just love the meaning? ;-)

I'm still alive

2009-03-13T10:45:00.000-07:00

Keeping up with my blog isn't one of my strenghts, that's for sure!

I'm on semester-break, facing a 5-week-long stay at home. No working, no learning, just being lazy and enjoying it.
Uni is not quite working out as I planned it (Haha, I guess that's what I get for too high expectations). I failed the math-exam and I'm pretty sure the mechanics one went just as badly. That's life!
I've come to realize that I've become a whiny person. Really shocking considering the fact that I loathe whinyness and constant complainers - If you're not happy with your situation, then change it! So I guess I need to do that - suck it up, work harder next semester and if the results don't improve then look into optional studies.

A 17-year old ran amok on Wednesday in Germany. It's sad that it has comes so far again, makes you wonder how much suffer he had to went through to see this reaction as his best option... Killing a bunch of random, innocent kids as his last deed, the association that will always be made with this late boy now...

I am grateful for my sheltered family-life. My awesome friends I can always turn to, who understand me and who are interested in how I feel and care for me without expecting something in return. I wouldn't trade my friends or my family for anything! =)

My best male friend should return to Germany after 8 months in Australia soon. I miss him, and we haven't coped too well with staying in contact, he's all over the place (well, Australia ;-)) I can't wait to catch up with him!

And I'm going to London in April!

Life isn't too bad after all!

Ah, the good times.

2009-01-05T06:49:00.000-08:00

Resolution about two and a half weeks back at home.

It's not as if I left planet earth when I moved to Karlsruhe a mere two months ago. In fact my homesickness drove me back home every other weekend to be with the loved ones again. I anticipated Christmas-break for a very long time (okay, that was also because classes suck at times and I felt like I needed a break from maths!) and was so happy when mum drove down to fetch me on Friday before Christmas... I wanted to go back to Karlsruhe by Sunday, after two days non-stop fighting with my spoiled little teengaed princess-sister.

Family, don't we love and hate them at the same time? It's the place where I can be myself - and brace yourselves I AM myself there, to their dismay at times.

My sister is of the opinion that she needs to live a life that is way above our financial standards, and she's just so darn stubborn and selfish with it. I won't go into detail, because I decided not to bother anymore. I'll be back to Uni tomorrow and will pretend she doesn't demand the things she does, it's boggling my freaking mind!

Christmas was still nice, it always is after all. I got my presents in advance (back in November when I moved and needed all the new furniture), but it isn't about presents anyways. My mother got me the same ABBA Cd I got her. Quite funny, and a define sign that we know each others so well (And both are a stuck in past when it comes to music, Haha!)

My Sheela, I'll miss her. In fact I miss her already, that's probably to worst part of all of this. I feel so guilty for leaving my baby at home =(

But the best part about my stay here was definitely spending time with my friends, the real friends that can never be replaced by any accaintances at Uni. I saw my girls every single day in those two weeks, and we didn't get sick of each other. I get so sentimental when I think about the lack of cuddly DVD-nights, game-board-session, drunken nights in the pub (or everywhere else for that matter) and shopping-tours with them. It's just not the same when they're not around!

This picture was taken on New Years Eve. I look horrible, but hey I was drunken. No need to look good when you get wasted, there's nothing sexy about it at any rate ;-)

Happy New Year to everyone who reads this. I love to have some followers now =)

Greetings from Karlsruhe

2008-11-10T12:35:00.001-08:00

It's been a while since my last entry. Wow.

So, I'm now a citizen of Karlsruhe (actually I'm not, but the state people don't have to know ;-)), I moved into my room a week ago but it still looks a bit messy. My desk is loaded with paper stuff all over the place (nice way to procrastinate learning for uni I tell you) and there are still some boxes with minor important things to unpack (maybe I should just send them back home. Haha).
Anyways, University started 3 weeks ago, this coming Friday I'll have fulfilled my first month as a University student, and time is flying by. It's fun, it's exciting and quite a bit overwhelming. The homesickness kicked in after I went home to my family for the weekend and then returned back here into the little new world of my own. I just mustn't think about it, but enjoy all the new faces that are being added to my acquaintance (and friends!) list.
Classes are not all that exciting, it's just math, math, math, mechanics, mechanics, math, mechanics. No such bridge-building yet (or only to a minimal degree).

This is one of the first nights I actually spend in my room, I've always had plans for the evening last week (and before that I commuted right back to Darmstadt when uni ended...), it is indeed depressing I have to realize. Thank god I bought the Sex and The City film today, that will keep me entertained, though the mechanics-exercise-sheet should rather... You see, I am still the very old same.

Leave me some comments, all you that aren't in denial (or oblivion) of this neglected blog.

Politics - Part 1

2008-09-09T05:35:00.000-07:00

My political point of view.

That's it.

Gig(i)

2008-09-07T12:45:00.000-07:00

...or Sheelchen, Sheelz, Pila, Pille, Pillchen, Chille-Pille, Meelchen, Ila, Macke, Macke-Songe, Shee, Hund, Sheely, Sheelchen-Peelchen, Chilli, Ee

Rarely called her actual name, Sheela answers to all those above.

It's crazy how important this bundle of wool is to me. I've been taking care of her for a little over five years now, and I'm not ashamed to say that she's my little baby - An innocent, pure being looking up to me like I could never fail.

She makes me happy!

I Love Globalization

2008-08-27T12:00:00.000-07:00

Just don't ever quote me on that title!

Some people tell me I should get a life, but I just love the Internet and the social aspects it's adding to my day.

I've always been fascinated with traveling - seeing new places, discovering mind-blowing landscapes, sight-seeing famous buildings, learning about other cultures, and trying to pick up words in foreign languages.
Some random day a few years ago I set myself a goal: Becoming fluent in another language, so that I could be part of the internationalism I've always longed for (I'm jealous of each kid being brought up bilingually, it's a gift!). English was it (and will always be).
So how to go about it? I've been learning English in school since grade 5 (the baby-English from grade 3&4 don't count), I had decent grades and learned well enough - But you can't develop a feeling for a language if you only ever apply it for 4x45 minutes in school each week.
I was brainy and combined my goal with my love for names - I joined an online-community for names (babynamesworld.com, hands down) and started posting right away. This happened two and a half years ago, meanwhile I had chosen the advanced English course for the final high-school years and I (and my teacher) detected increasing English-skills on my behalf. It worked out and still works. I realize, my English is still awkward to English-speaking people, but that's alright!

I am proud of my English-skills, I think I made that clear above, but with becoming part of BNW, something else should start what enriched my life more than I ever thought this to be possible: Online friends. Yes true and faithful friends, just the same as in "real life" (I don't like this term, because this what I am just writing is part of my life as well!). They add up to me, know my flaws and problems, have an open ear and understand me (despise never having met me).

There's Jackie from Minnesota, in whom I found my lost twin or soul mate, whatever you want to call it. We don't generally agree about everything, but we discovered so many equalities in our way of thinking, it's not even funny.
Indy from the Netherlands, I've known the longest. Oh if I think about all my boy-troubles she had to went through with me. If I ever felt like I couldn't talk something over with my girls, it was Indy I turned to, thanks for that sweety - We will meet up eventually - Amsterdam is calling for me.
Luz from Wales is a person that fascinated me right from the start, she's opinionated and not afraid to show that. I'm sure we'd have a blast on a girls-night out - Good thing visiting the UK ranks high on my To-Do list!
Jaz another Dutch girl - she understands my humor and I hers. I can spend a night chatting to her and I never regret to have stayed at home in order to do that.
McKenzie from Michigan, who is one of the sharpest characters that ever crossed my way. Honesty is her biggest virtue and I value her for that much more than she knows!

Our internet-community is a gift. I thought hard about this, but I couldn't find an equally mixed gathering of people I could have all the discussions or talk with in real life. Where would you find a middle-aged mum of four agreeing with a teenaged name-nerd fronting against the French Oxford student living in the UK in a discussion about abortion? This would just never happen if it wasn't for the Internet - What brings me back to the title - There are in deed some things that are just lovable about the dreaded globalization

What's in a name?

2008-08-27T07:05:00.000-07:00

A lot more than Sir William Shakespeare makes us want to believe!

"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet." - I enjoy the idea of tryndee parents using this as an excuse for their offspring's burdening so-called "name" of Madison, McKenzie (sorry lady nimue), Neveah or any other random smush of suf-and prefixes.

Taking Romeo & Juliet's dramatic fate caused by conventions (so names if you want so) as an argument would impress me, yes, it would! But how absurd is the picture of McKayleelynn's mother being familiar with medieval dramas?!

This leads me to my point - Names make up an impression, a picture, a general idea of the environment a person in growing up in. I realize that a great percentage of those stereotypes might be nothing more than plain (and stupid?) prejudices, but the fact that they exist should lead us all to think about this a bit more - Especially those who are actually naming a child, a person a freakin' human being!!

Let's take Marie and Marley - Two combinations of almost equal amount of letters, the first three being exactly congruent. Similar in sound, somewhat rhymy. So, if we take these names out of any social context, we might say, that they're one of a kind.

But as we can't deny social circumstances, aka the world we live in, we have to differ between Marie and Marley.

I bet you that if asked to point out the more classy one, 95% of people would pick Marie over Marley. If asked to pick the one who's more likely from a poor environment an equal percentage would pick Marley.

Names develop throughout history, those who have formed a tradition of use as first-name are more likely to be recognized as decent, worthy names. No matter how hard we try to deny it, Marie will only bring along a sophisticated, traditional charm, whilst Marley counts as the cool, trendy and "unique" kind of name (I realize some people might prefer latter to former, but that isn't the point...).

It isn't about sounds (that's why I picked two similar sounding names) and it isn't about familiarity either (The Americans of you won't know too many Maries or Marleys). I could easily have picked Elizabeth and Neveah to point out the difference between "good" and "bad", but I wanted to make sure this isn't about stereotypes only (thus the less common examples).

Tradition equals class, Made-up-ness equals lack of education. It's easy like that!

I won't even start go on about the advantages of a legal name... Maybe next time around.

It's... a blog!

2008-05-31T07:37:00.000-07:00

Poems to a horse. Just as expedient will this blog be.

I don't know what crept over me, but at this stage I fancy having a blog. Blog = An option to procrastinate the important things in life. Mind you, I found many ways to do so, hence if you see a new entry I probably deal with a serious stage of it.

So yes, poems to a horse. Thanks Shakira for this wonderful picture in my mind, it gives me thrills to an extension that I name my blog after your song, you must feel special.

Poems is not exactly what you should expect though - Watch out for either crappy English babbling or grammatically more correct babbling in German. I have yet to decide what my readers demographic profile should look like.