...catching up on July!

oops... its been a month again since I wrote last... welllll... there goes my discipline (read: scatterbrain) and my good intentions (read: forgetfulness) and 4 weeks have passed like nothing.

During the weeks I've been working quite a lot, already cumulated quite some extra-hours that I can take days off for sometime... So far (and I guess it'll stay like that) my internship has been just great. Of course, first days are as they usually go. On my fist day, my placement coordinator, Kristian, showed my around the public (land-side) area of the aiport, both public terminals, the general aviation terminal (GAT) , and the Cargo buildings, the hangars, the visitors and administration area... we did quite a lot of driving and then walked around the grounds for about 4 hours in the afternoon! I seriously thought I'd never find a single place back again, and if I did I would certainly never get back out of this jungle! I really thought it couldnt get any more, but there was the next day - when I got my security pass... so we could go airside, to the non-public-area, I went into the hangars then... and we walked for the whole day over the apron (= Vorfeld in German)... got to have a drink in the Emirates First Class Lounge which is seriously just like a 5 star hotel, just missing the bedrooms! hmm... of course I was introduced to never ending amounts of people... only few of whom I remembered. I was shown 'my' office also! I sit in an office only with Tania, who is responsible for the promotion areas througout the airport. I've got a huge desk, with computer and phone of course but we also share a fax, printer and scanner just with the two of us! by now I got to know her better of course and we really get a long well!
My supervisor at the FMG (airport authority) is really nice, but quite a weird little dwarf also... talks without an end.. never actually heard him talk about anything else than airlines, airports, aviation-personnel... etc.... just last week he tried to give me some advice for my leisure time in munich, telling me to go to the 'flyaway' - a party every tuesday which supposedly is visited by 90% of airline/airport personnel only! pfff... FREEAAAAK I think, but I get along with him!! (actually if I hadnt known better I would say he just jumped out of the latest harry potter... a bit of a mix of a houseelf and Mr. Weasly (just leave away the red hair, and replace it with no hair at all) hahaha... pheeeeewwww... now I gotta make sure not to let him know about my blog :P

anyways, enough of work! I've also met quite a few people here in munich, all through the StudiVZ, a german student network. Have gone to the movies three times.. seen Harry Potter 5(of course), then 'Transformers' in the Sneak, of which I was very positively surprised, and finally 'THA SIMPSOOONSSSS' ... that was simply hilarious! 'I'm here to leaaaad - not to reaaad' hahaha..pffff... if you havent seen it yet: GO, and remember to watch the trailer also ;)
last weekend then I went to the olympiapark on Sat where I met up with some people for some beers in the beergarden (you gotta love 'em!) and sunday met up with a bunch of guys in the 'Englischer Garten' (largest park in Europe actually!) for some more beers... :D ... then yesterday met up with a friend again... and today I'm taking a Beer-break :P, to start through tomorrow on the weekly cracker-barrel (Stammtisch) with the StudiVZ people!

soo... thats it for now... today I finally finished (so sad) the last (is it really?) Harry Potter book. Its been the best so far I think... loved and hated it... totally nerv racking, fascinating... an absolute page-turner! So now I'll go and start my next book 'Millionär' from Tommy Jaud!

good night...

learning Bavarian

Dear all...
anybody who has not realized yet how valuable it is to understand and speak a language: think about it, and all those of you who are German but not Bavaria: DONT COME HERE UNLESS YOU HAVE A DICTIONARY! Unbelievably I really thought I would at least understand this weird way of communication, if not even speak some bits and pieces of it... but reality proves me wrong.

Thursday - 15:15 MET - Munich Airport: I should just have touched down with Germanwings flight 4U 72 from Cologne. However, the flight was delayed for 1,5 hrs. Damn it? no way... happily I was able to spend another extra 1,5 hrs at CGN Airport - after having been there 2 hrs in advance for check in.... how nice.... and then, even better... the delay is caused by a missing document for (yuhuuuu) a COMPLETELY NEW AIRCRAFT! It was actually going to be the first passenger flight this Airbus 319A should fly! So great! How lucky can I be??? ... entering this plane with care not to break/mess-up/miss-to-see any detail of this miracle of technology I floated through the rows looking for the perfect seat to inaugurate: 14 F - a beautiful number, describing a even more marvellous seat. Just at the right front side of the wing with a perfect view of the freshly painted, perfectly shiny wing.... with newly shinging letters saying 'Dont walk beyond this point' and onto the Airport building... ahhh..... I'm still in a haze...

ok.. well, it stopped eventually.... maybe at the point that the friendly (at least I guess so) employee of the Deutsche Bahn at Munich Airport tried to help me to buy a month-pass for the subway network of munich. well, to say the least, he didn't speak any of my languages and I didnt speak his...

I arrived at my families home not long after... having enjoyed another hour of searching for the right place to obtain my ticket and then back to the subwaystation on Munich Airport...

ok ok ok ... I get the point, you might get bored... so I'll carry on a little faster (cant get any more interessting than the beauty of check-ins... customs... A320s and Boeing 737s.. the sound of a starting turbine or the smell of kerosine in the air anyways).... Well... Friday I spent the day with my folks here... did some shopping and at night I met with some StudiVZ-Network people for the Summerfestival of Munich University. It was a great night and I am starting to famliarize my family with the fact that people my age might go out some nights... and that nooo...11pm is actually not considered LATE!

so... here some facts I've learned so far:

- Munich is soooo beautiful
- in Munich the weather is nicer than in Holland :P :P :P
- Bavarians are quite discriminating in their lanugage: check this:
- a 'Neger' (negro) = beer with coke
- a 'Russe' (russian) = wheatbeer with lemonade
- a 'Schwuchtel' (gay) = beer with apple juice

so... tomorrow I will start my internship! I have to say I am quite excited and a bit scared - well, first days I guess are like that... I hate them. having to remember thousands of places, names, things, rules... not knowing anything yet, not being able to contribute anything to the work yet (despite making copies or cooking coffee)... always being in the way and hindering the actual continuation of work... but well... that will go over... I'll tell you about it soon!

and now, I'll go to bed,
Grüaß eich (greetings to you)!

moving

hello everybody,
once more I am moving again. Today is the last complete day I spend in Breda this year, tomorrow I will be going to Germany, staying at my parents house for a few nights and leaving for munich on Thursday. So, anyone who intends to send me sth. by antique-paper-based-mail... ask me for my new address first... as I dont wanna publish it here.

Its weird to be leaving again... today I am packing (which I should be doing right now actually)... and I feel somewhat out of place. Yesterday has been my last working day at the ikea... and like last days usually are, I didn't even notice any of the small things that used to annoy me (like customers standing in front of a product with a humongous price sign on it asking for the price etc.) and it was just a perfect working day and I will seriously miss it! I guess next year I'll return, but I'll try to get another job in sales instead of logistics.

so that for now, I really cant think of anything funny, amusing, entertaining or in anyway more interessting to write for you... and I should seriously get going with packing up otherwise I will still be stuck here at Christmas.

happy new year,
Claudia

last days everywhere

it dawned on me just now that the end of this semester is actually there and that its over and that its a turning point once more...
how comes? well... everybody's leaving! not here (well also but that somehow wasnt clear enough for me to notice!) Friends who were still in HK or China this semester are packing up and actually leave these days to return to whereever they are from... new people came to check out my room and its subrented once more... which means that I'VE GOTTA BE OUT OF THERE... so soon!! end of the week I'll go!!
well, maybe thats the point that actually made it that clear! who knows!

well anyways I just wanted to let that know!

oh... and I have to quote what anke just said (you should know for that that there is a family living in the flat above us with an active kid of about 3 years old we guess!)... Anke: "dat kind ga ik echt nog een keer afslachten!!" (in very nice words: someday I'm gonna kill that kid!) and later: "all die kinderen gehoren afgeslagen gewoon!" (All those children should be slaughtered!).... now, that just to show how nice and children friendly my roommate is! (the kid can be annoying though... especially at those times (read: always) when it decides to enjoy a jog (read: stomping run) around the flat (read: especially above our living room). grrr

oh and since I worked all day I have an another weirdes customers anecdote to share: I was actually asked today whether we also have any articles which do not attract dust, as the whole flat of that special customer gets dusty all the time... now isn't that weird? never heard of such thing as dust setting upon stuff in any other place... must be quite a new thing! maybe she should invent something totally new to prevent it also, such as CLEANING!! weeeiiirdooos

I gotta go now... so I'm leaving... adios

... as the world turns

so.. after 3 months of bloglazyness a new entry!

What has happened during this time? well a lot but I am not gonna write all that now... just shortly,

I was quite busy studying - I am somewhat more focussed on that here than I was in HK!! Well, now the semester is coming to an end - I am in the middle of exam week now and I am too lazy to study so I rather write this!

I have had a bunch of interviews and a bunch of internships for which I was accepted... so I cancelled some quite nice offers and decided in the end to go to (reaaaly far ;) ) MUNICH!! Yoohooo... I will live in my favourite German city for 6 months. (oktoberfest, beergardens, hiking, skying, .... :D ) - I will actually be going there in 2 weeks already.

As I am moving again we are currently also looking for a new housemate who wants to rent my room in Breda for these 6 months.

While being lazy last week I found somethign nice online... for all of you who love china as much as I do.... or who are interessted in languages and find enjoy funny misconceptions... check out this site: http://www.chinglish.de/. Even though it is a German site the chinglish signes themselves are of course chINGLISH - and as such relate to English... and should be understandable for you... I loved this site, kept me from doing anything or more importance (which would be basically everything I suppose) for at least an hour... some great examples and even one of those that I fotographed myself was published there before... here it is again, as a little sample of what you can expect.

So... what else? I've been working quite extensively at the IKEA those last months and well, now I have to stop again... next week = last week already... but I hope to return next spring when I'm back here again... I cant deny it, I'm addicted.

Other than that I've had a great semester. My roomies Anke and Antoinette are in the US on a fieldtrip now, I miss them already especially cuz I wont live together with wode jia zai Breda (my family from Breda) for the next half year and then Antoinette goes on exchange (which means a trip to Finland for me ;) ) and Karo will write her thesis already... it shows in a weird way how quickly this great time of studying here will be over. Still feels as though I just started, but actually half of it is over... :(

ohh.. and last weekend I was at Festival Mundial again. This time the weather wasnt as fortunate as last year, but THE CAT EMPIRE made just the perfect compensation for the rain... damn is that Felix Reidl (leadsinger) cute... hot... yummy.... (*schmacht*) here some more pix...

rain :(

Martina and Pieternel!

The Cat Empire

soooo this it is for today... will keep this blog updated when I'm in Munich... promise to write more often also ;)