Germany: Home, sweet home!

Loads of things have happened since I climbed into the airplane to Hannover last Sunday and HOME!!! Yay!
So... this is going to be a rather long post... just warning you! ;-)

I met Roman, the nice German speaking Russian guy at the airport in Piter, because he had a flight to Berlin 20 min before my take-off to Hannover. The flight was fast and smooth and I got out of the airport in Hannover within 10 min... Stood outside VERY suprised (had forgotten German efficiency and was flattered by the German Bundesgrenzschutz waving me through immigration control...). Right when I left the Terminal a car passed by, obviously looking for a parking spot... my mom!!! What a joy!!!


Mom and I having my welcome dinner on Sunday, December 20th
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Relaxing: Watching "Der Duft der Frauen"

It felt weird at first to be back in Germany and it took me about 2 days to adjust to speaking German with strangers in shops and streets! Arriving at home and unpacking boxes with my clothes and things was like Christmas, Easter and Birthday together!!!

I went to see a doctor... Turns out I had a nasty bronchitis and I have to take some stuff for 30 days.

I slept 10 hours every night during the first week in Germany.

I met my dad, who left my parents' flat in July and never came back. Apparently he moved in with his bi-sexual girlfriend who drives a sports car... No comment on that one. I still can't believe he just walked out of the door after 30 years of marriage...


The Christmas Market in Braunschweig


Bald nun ist Weihnachtszeit, fr�hliche Zeit!


Der Weihnachtsmarkt am Dom in Braunschweig

On Thursday Mom and I went to Köthen to see my grandma and aunt and uncle. They have two cats, mother and son... You can imagine my behavior :-) I wouldn't let the black and very soft little cat anywhere and he was happy to snuggle in my arms and fell happliy asleep!


Aunt Brigitte and Uncle Klaus


My grandma Elfriede


Me and the wonderful kitten "Teufelchen"


Anna and Teufelchen


The best mother in the world

I went to Bremen over the weekend and drank LOADS of Glühwein. We also discovered lots of empty beer bottles the next morning and decided that it must have been Philip, the invisible roommate... :-) Bremen is beautiful! Especially in December when there are Christmas Markets behinds every corner!


Böttcherstrasse in Bremen


Lovely pigs in Bremen


Das Weser-Ufer in Bremen


Anna and the Bremer "Stadtmusikanten"


Im Bürgerpark in Bremen


Stefan making "self-made" pizza: YUMMY!!!

I have been in Göttingen, my university town, since Sunday evening. Spicy Springroll is playing "Hotel Chen-Yu" again! (THANKS!!!) I had a Döner, went to the "Schlauch", had loads of Glühwein again. Chen and I went shopping... And last night we all ended up really drunk and went to bed early in the morning!


Chen-Yu (Spicy Springroll)


Chen and Anna in the Mensa


Mit Paul und Chenita auf dem Weihnachtsmarkt


Drinking Glühwein with Jojo


Paul found his Funktionsunterwäsche and was allowed to join us to the Weihnachtsmarkt!


Enjoying a strong coffee after a long night


Christmas Market in Göttingen


Weender Straße in Göttingen


Klausi


Klausi and Chen sleeping after partying ;-)


Chen and Sveenie in Cafe Zentral


Happy with 2 Donuts :-)

Tonight I'm going back to Braunschweig and Friday morning it is time to return to Piter :-( I really don't want to go back!!! I got used to Germany again... These two weeks have been exactly like I had pictured them... GREAT!!! Thanks to everyone for hosting and entertaining me! Will miss you all VERY much!

Abschied von Piter

It is funny :-) Since I have decided to go home, things have improved here! I had a fab week and went out with the ENJEC trainees last night! I wanted to show them my favorite restaurant, famous Zoom, but we were a crowd of 12 and there was no way we fit in :-( So, we moved on to another nice place and had a great time... as you can see on the pics ;-)

On my way home I passed Kazansky Cathedral and the beautiful fireworks show started! What a great end of the day!

@Göttingen: See you Wednesday!

Fireworks at Kazansky Cathedral 

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Jinau, Jenny and Igor 


Armen and Masha 


Armen smoking 


Mari Sophie and Jinau 


Anna smoking :-) 


Luise and Christina (with Samson in the background) 

Vacation in Germany

Dear friends,
I figured out that I can't wait till January to go home to Germany! Consequently, I just changed my ticket and will be home in Germany by 10am local time on Sunday (well... Airport Hannover).
I'm still sick and still live in that hotel, and nothing is gonna cure me unless I leave the country for a while and find some rest (which will result in heaving partying, watching German TV and traveling/visiting family and friends, shopping and all that other fun stuff I miss at the moment)!

@Mom: You are simply the best!!!
@Chenita: I CAN'T WAIT to see you!!! I wanted NOT to tell you that I'm coming, but there is no way I can keep the news to myself :-(
@Jojo: Hope you are in Gö and Döner and all that fun stuff is on!
@Dear Göttinger: Hope to see you all next week!!! Vodka is coming! ;-)

P.S. Um möglichen Verwirrungen vorzubeugen: Das Foto stammt nicht aus meiner Kamera, sondern kann der offiziellen Pulkovo-Seite entnommen werden :-)

Six months in Russia

Well, I took all these pictures with my Canon camera!!! No cheating anymore! ;-)

View from FINEC to Kazansky Cathedral and Kanal Griboedova
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I felt quite sick on Friday and went home (to the hotel) at noon :-) I spent the day in bed, sleeping, reading Harry Potter (yes, in Russian and I'm counting CHAPTERS now, not only PAGES) and watching movies. Same routine on Saturday, but went out to attend two parties: The official Welcome Parties for the four FINEC trainees (kindly ignoring the fact that I have been here for 6 months, Sonya for 3, Laura for 2 and Rosa for more than 1 months...) and an ENJEC Welcome Party (for a trainee who had arrived 2 hours earlier from the USA and had a nice jetlag). Both parties were lovely, but I was glad to get home around midnight and spent the entire Sunday sleeping, reading and watching movies :-)


FINEC Trainees: Laura, Sonya, Anna and Rosa

The ENJEC trainees are fun people! Well, some of their stories are no fun at all! They had a projector stolen the other day and AIESEC is giving them a terrible time! One of the them is being stopped by the police every day and spends a lot of time at the police station, because he looks a little too dark. Another one of them loves to sing "Oh, pump it up, oh pump it up" when setting up an airbed, which won't have any air in the morning! A fourth person can't decide whether he prefers Olya, Tanya or Katya... I keep telling him "Tanya"! :-)
Two other of the ENJEC trainees hooked up with each other; well, we don't know exactly WHAT happened, but testimonials are sure THAT something happened.
These people are simpy great and I will miss them all!!!


ENJEC Trainees: Jenny, AIESECer, Luise and Daniel


Samson and Mari Sophie from the "castle"


connecting the AIESEC LCs: Igor and Anna

Yeah, things are not too good here at the moment! I guess that six month in one place is a little too much for me ;-) And I miss my own bed... I did a little counting over the weekend and I have lived in 8 different apartments this year already; not just spending a night, but LIVING! And hopefully I will move this week into my 4th apartment in St. Petersburg ;-)
Today six months ago I arrived in St. Petersburg... Great summer I had here, but now I somehow feel that I'm ready to move on...
Ignore my whining! I'm sick and I miss real TV! ;-) And I miss - as one of my smart friends pointed out to me: European men! Nothing against Russians, they are great! But everyone above 25 is married!

Plans

It is getting darker and colder in Piter and the daily routine is annoying! I have spend a great deal of time thinking about my vacation and Christmas and Siberia and Germany and Poland:-) Quite a lot and quite difficult "to get under one hat". So this is what I have come up with:

I have a flight to Hannover on December 18th and will change it (if possible) to January 1st or 8th and spend a week in Germany! (@Göttingen: Are you guys there then?)
I would like to fly from Berlin or whatever other place in Germany to Poland and go to Krakow, Wroclaw, Warsaw and Lublin (@Ania, Yuan and Pawel: I would LOVE to see you!!!) I would like to spend at least 10 days in Poland and then go to Kiev, Urkaine :-) From Kiev to Moscow and see all the things I haven't seen yet :-) and back to Piter...

Then, in March or April I want to go to Novosibirsk and Irkutsk for 2 weeks... I'm waiting for the ticket sale! (@Akadempeople (I'm sorry, but there are just too many people I want to see): I hope to see you!!!)

My visa expires on April 20th, 2006 and I'm planning to leave the country on that very day... to Riga! And flay back home with Easyjet to Berlin and find a job in Germany.

How does that all sound?
You think traveling in January is crazy?
What are your plans?

The long November weekend

Uih! This was a long and desperately needed weekend with lots of social activities! I met loads of new people, all of them from different countries and all of them unique and funny!

Igor, the Serbian guy who grew up in Germany took me out for a drink on Thursday and we met up with Roman, a Russian guy who speaks fluent German. Later the "castle people" joined: Sam from Kenya, Mari Sophie from Norway (the "Norwegian prototype" as she says herself), Masha from Ukraine and Armen from Armenia. AIESEC rented them a "castle" as they call it, because the fridge doesn't work (they use the window sill), their toilet didn't work for the first 2 days, the kitchen stinks of cat piss and the sink does not work. There are several other horrifying facts about that flat, but they have a good laugh about it...
I met them all again on Friday evening and also Shekar from India and Jinau from China who lives in Germany. They are all from the other AIESEC Commitee in town, from ENJEC... I was trespassing ;-)
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I bought a new winter jacket on Saturday, some "altrosa"/pink thingy... which seems to match the local houses ;-) Laura and I went to Shlisselburg on Saturday, which certainly a highlight... especially if we compare the trip with Sonya's and Rosa's trip to Moscow:
We had rain and they had a perfect blue sky. We were walking around in the mud and got dirty and they walked around on solid streets.
We had fun anyway... just taking the train and the feeling of going away for a day was great! We found a very nice, cheap local cafe where we stuffed ourselves with delicious Russian food and were in such a good mood afterwards that we decided to take the later train back to the city :-)

Peter fortress


Stuck in the mud


Anna in her new jacket (note the matching colors of the houses)


Laura (also note the matching colors of the local houses)

Saturdaynight I didn't sleep, but walked into my hotel room at 8.30 in the morning. AIESEC ENJEC had organized a Global Village party in Igor's apartment... Global village means that everybody has to bring a typical dish or drink from his/her country. It was delicious! Almost all the "nations" cooked something, only the Germans and the Irish showed up with a vast amount of beer :-)
Global Village

Laura and Anna having fun :-)

Last people standing... 7 am: Christina, Armen, Luise, Sam and Anna in Igor's kitchen

Yesterday I finally started watching "The Pianist", which I had bought a week ago. Has anyone seen it? It is one of those movies which I consider excellent, but will never watch again! The images are haunting me...

The rest of the weekend was great and my dear co-workers keep asking me, why I look so happy today... Have a great week!!!