the greatest gift

Song(s) of the month - July 2013

Just found this song by Avicii and I think it will become my new favorite summer song, at least until the new Album of White Lies comes out next month. So excited. Listened to a couple of their new songs already and I love them very much even though they are not as dark as the older ones. So here are Avícii's Wake Me Up and White Lies' There Goes Our Love Again, although Getting Even is even better which you can download for free on their homepage






 Enjoy!

 

Missing someone ...

Having this feeling quite a bit lately


 

A Daddy’s Letter

Still trying to make time to update this blog, i will find that time, very soon, i promise. until then I might post some stuff that I found, liked, inspired me a little... Today A Daddy’s Letter to his Little Girl About Her Future Husband. Very true and there is always the hope that it is reality for a lot of people.
 Take care!


 

Christmas calender day 7th - 26th

so since I don't want to spam on my own (not because I am so very very lazy ;)) I summed up the last 'few' songs from my Christmas calender.
December 7th
December 8th
December 9th
December 10th
December 11th
December 12th After so many depressing songs here a funny one to cheer things up a bit
December 13th Glad Lucia Dagen!
December 14th
December 15th
December 16th
December 17th
December 18th
December 19th
December 20th 
December 21st
December 22nd
December 23rd
December 24th
December 25th
December 26th

PS: I am really trying to update some stuff here but I am sick for almost a week now, managed to go my good friend Janine's wedding but because I didn't rest much I am still carrying around a head ache and though thought and not to forget that runny nose. well what doesn't kill you makes you stronger but during the past days i wish it would kill me because strong isn't a word that i would use for my state of being at the moment. But I try my best.

Christmas calender day 4th-6th

a bit late but well

December 4th
December 5th because there was a tiny bit of snow today while it snowed in every other freakin part of the country :(
and December 6th

 Happy St. Nicholas Day! hope you all cleaned your boots!

 

Christmas calender day 3

So today I was baking my first Christmas cookies and what better song to accompany this than with a Rolf Zuckowski classic! In der Weihnachtsbäckerei

updates: 1. letter of recommendation

So let's start with the update where i left of, in July. I finally received my letter of recommendation from my internship and wow it was worth waiting for. When i read it the first time I literally cried. Nobody has every used so many nice words about me before. I actually felt competent! :D Not that I would do so very often (especially since i am such a university failure). But well decide for yourself! Here are some quotes:

Ms R's contribution to the Book Fair was vital to the Consulate's success at this key event.

Ms R assisted with [several official visits (shouldn't mention the specifics, SBU you understand! ;))], demonstrating a high degree of organizational competence and reliability.

Ms R [wrote several drafts and remarks for the CG and the two Officers.] Her texts were clear, relevant and readily usable, something greatly appreciated by the users of the material.

Ms R also expertly created and maintained information about restoration of the historic Capa building in Leipzig.

Ms R was an effective translator, providing quick, accurate translations of press articles or internally generated documents as needed.

Ms R provided regular input and updates for our social media sites, breathing new life into these increasingly important communication tools. Her style, consciously pitched at a youthful audience, resulted in consistently fresh material for the Consulate's official Facebook page. (how can you make updating fb and twitter sound so important and noteworthy?)

Her willingness to learn and to get involved with a wide variety of activities is noteworthy.

..... These were my favorite parts! I have now idea about whom they are talking in this letter of recommendation but I hope to meet that person one day or maybe even become her! ;) Tomorrow hopefully more on my trip to Copenhagen in July and well everything that followed afterwards. :)






PS I thank leo.org and wikipedia for the useful help during my internship! :D

Christmas calender day 2

December 2nd Today I am sharing one of my favorite German Christmas songs with you which i listened to during most of my childhood. My old GDR records are just the best. Enjoy! Vorfreude, schönste Freude Happy 1st Advent!

Christmas calender

I am back! It has been a while since my last post, I will update this blog during the next days but i want to start with my personal Christmas song advent calender which I am also posting on facebook and twitter. :) I didn't had much of a Christmas last year so i need to make up for that and spread some Christmas spirit, especially since I found my favorite GDR records on youtube and will for sure share some of these amazing children's songs with everybody. Enjoy the the little adventure through my little world of Christmas songs:

December 1st: Rajaton - En Etsi Valtaa Loistoa
Let's start with something Finnish. Finland's best a cappella group Rajaton with a song from the Finnish national composer Jean Sibelius. Is there a better song to start the advent time with? I don't think so! :P

And don't miss tomorrow when I share one of my favorite German songs with you in my childhood GDR version!


 

Song of the month - July

This months I want to share a song which I also found more or less by accident. I don't give much about music casting shows. At least not in Germany. But surprise surprise I really like some of the contenders of Finnish Idols and such things. So when I noticed that 'the Voice of Finland' was over I checked out some songs and well I have a new favorite. :) This guy was just 3rd in the competition but who cares? Not me because this song is just amazing! Still gives me chills!

Enjoy Jesse Kaikuranta with Vie Mut Kotiin!



Well what can I say, I am a sucker for good ballads! :)

Time flies - I don't

(at least not at the moment)
June is already over? How did that happened? Seriously the second half of the year started and I am wondering where the time went.

I am working my butt off, well literally just my legs since I can't feel them except for the pain every night after work but well no pain no gain, right? So since my last real post not much has changes. I am still doing other people's food almost every day, have 2 lovely flatmates and do spend many evenings just sitting in the kitchen talking about this and that. last night my flatmate M and i even cleaned the kitchen. Long planed by us and finally executed. Who need 15 pots anyway, so now our kitchen is a bit more organized and the basement storage space is not empty anymore :D

And I've been to the 4th of July party by the US Consulate General here in Leipzig. Not as a guest but I was there as a service team member and was even allowed to guard the toilets. What a special task! I had tickets for a 'Die Ärzte' concert (one of my favorite German bands) for the same night but I decided to work at the Consulate instead. Kind of stupid I thought but in the end it was worth it. To see everybody from the Consulate again was so awesome, I finally got my letter of recommendation (there will be an extra post about it later), I saw my English professor and had a nice chat with him, met some people I got to know while working at the ConGen (so great that my work actually made an impact), I saw my new bosses (they didn't saw me,luckily) and a colleague from another Subway store. So funny! Oh and of course I made a couple of Euros which is always good. Oh and my vacation is taking shape but I'll post about that also later. So enough for today. Need to get some rest before work and another 4th of July bbq. :) Have a nice weekend

I don't want to ...

Song of the Month - June

So there were a couple of options for this months 'Song of the Month'. Since I am now now one of those working people we listen to a lot of radio at work. I was never a big fan of German radio especially since they play the same songs every day and almost the same songs every hour which is so annoying when you have to listen to it 6 hours in a row. But still you start liking a few songs if you hear them on a daily basis. Well but I also checked out the latest Finnish single charts, as i always do when I need new music and there I found the perfect summer song. So perfect since summer officially starts tomorrow and the weather is getting warmer again (or let's say it was way too warm again during the last 2 days.
So here it is June's Song of the Month:
Elokuu with Saatilla. But maybe I should have waited 2 more month since elokuu actually means August. ;) And jeah the video is totally weird and well I think one shouldn't watch it, but the song is good. So close your eyes and just listen ;)

Other songs that almost made it are 'We are Young' by Fun, Marina & the Diamonds with 'Primadonna', Die Ärzte with 'M&F' (so sad that i can't go to the concert in Hannover even though I have a ticket :'( ) my favorite Finnish rapper Cheek with 'Sokka irti' and the wonderful 'Count on Me' by Bruno Mars, which just made me miss my best friends even more these past too weeks.

Feel free to share your summer songs with me. I am always up to to new stuff.

'You Don’t Have to Be Pretty'

A friend of mine just posted this on facebook. Nice blog entry and still true even though it is 6 years old. Something people should keep in mind!

My favorite part is this:
'You Don't Have to Be Pretty. You don't owe prettiness to anyone. Not to your boyfriend/spouse/partner, not to your co-workers, especially not to random men on the street. You don't owe it to your mother, you don't owe it to your children, you don't owe it to civilization in general. Prettiness is not a rent you pay for occupying a space marked "female".' 

I would just add a '(wo)' before 'men' since women can and are very judgmental as well.



 

Age ...

Why did nobody tell me that when I had my birthday scare 3 weeks ago? ;)

Leipzig part 2

So I am behind on a few stories here and since I might be without Internet for a while, since we are switching contracts, I should better finish some posts here.

So I am  in Leipzig for almost 5 month now. Totally crazy! So many things happened. I finished my internship, moved again, got a job and still didn't manage to get much done for uni which totally sucks but I am on to it.

For the internship part. Well it was pretty cool. i learned many things, met many cool people and could really imagine working for the foreign services in the future. The only bad thing came afterwards. 2 months are gone and i still haven't gotten my letter of recommendation. Obviously the people at the consulate think we just worked there for the fun of it. Will write another email tonight and hope that this whole thing is behind me very soon. Weird is also that I didn't learned much about the US during my internship. Maybe because I new already so much but it is strange anyway. But I learned tons about Germany and the region were I am from (Saxony-Anhalt) and now living (Saxony) which might be good fro the future. And I learned that just because people work for a government doesn't mean that they are necessarily smarter than an ordinary student. And it is obviously much harder to work for the German foreign services than for the US state secretary. ;)

As I mentioned , I moved again. After sleeping at a friends place for a week and staying at my parents place for another couple of days I was very fortunate to find and apartment with 2 lovely flat mates.  the two girls and i get along well and I think we'll have a good time together. After sleeping on an air mattress for 3 weeks I finally have furniture. More about the decoration of my room in another post, very soon. :D


Luckily in the same week that I found my new flat I also found a job. I am working now part time at Subway, the sandwich store. I never thought i would stay there more than a couple of month but who knows. The salary is super bad but the people are very nice and I get free food for every shift I do. So i am very lazy in cooking lately but at least i am eating healthier. And I worked over 50% more than I should this months. Not that I will get that extra money right away (stupid German tax system) but at least i can plan my vacation to Copenhagen for July now without worrying that i won't have enough hours in July.

So much for now!

better late then never

Here a little flashback on my trip to Finland in March. I know it is already the end of May but i was busy and well better late than never :D

So from March 1st until March 8th I was in Finland, in Lahti, Turku and Helsinki to be precise. And I am so glad that I have so amazing friends there. I never had to pay for any accommodation just for trains and buses which were super expensive as always. But well it's Finland after all.

In Lahti, usual, I went to the Lahti Ski Games. Same procedure as every year you might say, just that this time I didn't have so many friends around. But well with 2 Katrins in the city I still had a fun time including a night out with dancing and watching ex-skijumpers, coaches and Nordic combined athletes getting drunk and hitting on ugly old women. Well if they need it! :D
Oh jeap and then there was 'some' wind again. looks like every 3 years or so Lahti weather just sucks. So half of my comps were canceled and this year i didn't had a press accreditation so no place to sit and warm up. Really need to work there next year to make it fun again. :)
But to spice things up I almost killed myself. Totally by accident of course! Stupid Steffi doesn't listen when people tell her: Don't walk over the frozen lake. Steffi just sees ice fishers on there and thinks: If they can do it, I can do it! I ended up ankle deep in water and knee deep in snow, made it to the shore, totally exhausted and scared as h*ll. After almost crashing my car a couple of years ago, I think this was the second near death experience in my life. I hope the last one. At least i won't go on a frozen lake ever again!

Oh and in Lahti I finally had the chance to watch an ice hockey match again (Ok not true I watched a regional league match in February in Leipzig but well that doesn't really count). It was a pretty cool game. The Pelicans from Lahti won, who later came in 2nd in the Finnish championship. Nothing compared to a match Turku but  we have the second biggest arena in the country so of course the ice hockey stadium in Lahti looked kind of cute to me. :D

And this year I got another cool souvenir from Lahti. During the last 2 years I started (thanks to my friend Katrin) collecting bibs (start numbers) from different Nordic Combined athletes. and this year I got one from my favorite ski jumper. Too bad that he fel in exactly the bib from the team competition that i got but he was Ok in the end and kind enough to sign the bib. Now i will have to frame it together with my Mikko bib from last year and then i will have some cool wall decoration in my new room.

All in all I was from Thursday till Sunday morning in Lahti. And if i say morning i mean my bus to Turku left at 4am! So after dancing half of teh night I spend the rest sleeping in the bus, or well trying.

I arrived around 7am in Turku, went straight to McDonalds, the only one in Turku and the only place open that early on a Sunday. I had 2 cocoas (I LOVE OBOY!) and killed 2 hours before surprising my friends. Oh my goodness. Who would have thought people could be so happy to see me. Surprise visits are just the best. I was for 2 more days in Turku and went on Tuesday morning to Helsinki to visit other friends. :D Seriously it is so awesome to see people again who you are so close to but haven't seen in 6 or 9 months! 
I then did some sightseeing with my friend Laura and just relaxed the last days in Helsinki.


I had to fly back early in Thursday morning. early means i had to be at the bus stop around 5AM. And of course the troubles started already there. i didn't have enough money for the bus and was almost kicked out of it again. But a nice man gave me the 15c that were missing. Can you believe it that somebody makes such a fuss about 15c. Ok in Germany nobody would have borrowed me that money and i would have been kicked out of the bus for sure but in Finland it was a surprise for me. The whole bus was full and nobody besides the driver would have checked if i paid or not and in Turku the bus driver would have taken me in for free but well Helsinki people are always different. So and then the bus driver almost drove the wrong way and we were so very late that i nearly missed my flight. So much stress so early in the morning. But also no surprise here, always when I travel everything just goes wrong. But I arrived eventually in Berlin were I spend the rest of the day.

Unfortunately the weather was really bad so i didn't really do anything besides waiting to meet another friend for diner. Around 9pm I finally caught my train back to Leipzig. Totally exhausted and somehow i caught some stomach flew on the way which made my next working day a very short one.

So much for my trip to Finland and Berlin. Don't know when I'll be back home in Suomi but everybody, especially the people in Turku told me to move back. Well if it was that easy. But I think if I ever go back for longer I might not leave again. third try is the charm, isn't it?

Next trip: Copenhagen in July. I hope! :D



 

ESC - the recap

Wow this Eurovison Song Contest sucked so badly. Not just because I could barely watch a performance because my computer is a piece of junk but no this voting result is a shame for Europe. That Denmark barely got points is so sad but that Sweden won and ALBANIA, a song which doesn't even deserve to be called music got more points then Estonia and Germany. Seriously, I don't get it! And Sweden didn't even give points to Denmark! The Balkan countries are perfect in giving neighboring countries many points even if the songs suck but Northers and western Europe really need to work on this.

 Ok Estonia became sixth in the end, and Germany, which had for the first time since 2004 a song that I actually liked, became 8th which is Ok. And Serbia who became third had a good song as well. But poor Iceland and poor Denmark. Amazing songs and in the end just 20th and 23rd place out of 26.
Ok i am way to flipping exhausted after today and this week to wait for the officially pages not to overran and working again, so I will update the results tomorrow. If i manage before my evening shift.

But Conan was as always right:

Good night everybody!
 

in case you didn't know ;)