Yesterday a couple that is also staying where I am in Italy arrived from England where it was remembrance day. My parents also had the day off because of this occasion. My dad ended up asking if there was such a holiday in Germany. I have now been thinking, if we celebrated this in Germany there would be people up in arms, because this would be glorifying Nazi-ism, and celebrating what they did.
Obviously living in Germany does make me sympathize a little bit with this side, because despite what side you were on, you lost people that you loved, which I am not right with in any case. After all, I have many colleagues and friends who have never been able to meet family members. I think it is a clear indication that history is written by the victors.
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
My last week was full of situations - here is a breakdown
Thursday - I had to transfer my rent for the month. Upon doing so I was in such a rush that I left my card in the machine. Didn't realize this until Saturday, so I was able to pick it up on monday morning
Monday - had to tell my roommates that I was moving out
Tuesday - got back from choir and my roommate locked us both out of the house by leaving the key in the door on the inside, and then shutting it
Thursday - trying to take out money for Italy I realize that my account is locked out, from when I went left my card in the machine. Had to order a new one, which arrives during the week I am in Italy. I would prefer to have this card in Italy though
Friday - having to clean the entire apartment by myself
Monday - had to tell my roommates that I was moving out
Tuesday - got back from choir and my roommate locked us both out of the house by leaving the key in the door on the inside, and then shutting it
Thursday - trying to take out money for Italy I realize that my account is locked out, from when I went left my card in the machine. Had to order a new one, which arrives during the week I am in Italy. I would prefer to have this card in Italy though
Friday - having to clean the entire apartment by myself
Sunday, October 27, 2013
Sunday history lessons
I would say that I am quite a nut about history. I love learning about history and have since I was young. Do I regret not studying it - no, because I have a job: yes, because I would love love love to work in a museum.
Today, instead of going to church I decided to take a little trip to the Schlossmuseum. I also find it quite saddening to think of how long I have lived here and haven't gone. I am quite embarrassed with how little I know about Darmstadtian history. When I think of Darmstadt I just think of farmland, and rural life because outside of Germany, now one knows about it. Before I came here, what I did I know of this place...??? nothing. But some real stuff happened here, and it really is not an insignificant little corner. Although there wasn't a King here, there was a earl and then later a duke who was in charge of this area. I did know that there was a connection to two daughters being ladies in waiting for Marie Antoinette at Schönbrun in Vienna.
The Schlossmuseum was quite nice and it was super interesting to hear things about the city that you are living in and help you appreciate things and find out why they were there.
One of the hospitals, that is still very active was actually a gift to an old Princess (Elisabeth).
But the biggest history-gasm of the day was finding out that the daughter of Queen Victoria (the Queen Victoria) married a minor prince of Hessen, which was the lineage for the Tsarina Alexandra of Russia who passed along haemophilia to her son Alexei stirring up the whole Rasputin thing in Russia prior to the first world war.
Also, Alexandra's brother Ernst Ludwig who is super important in Darmstadt (was a duke) who was very influential in the Jugendstil movement is the Godfather of Prince Charles
Minde blown!!
I am certainly going to need to learn many more things, because these discoveries really get my blood pumping with excitement.
Today, instead of going to church I decided to take a little trip to the Schlossmuseum. I also find it quite saddening to think of how long I have lived here and haven't gone. I am quite embarrassed with how little I know about Darmstadtian history. When I think of Darmstadt I just think of farmland, and rural life because outside of Germany, now one knows about it. Before I came here, what I did I know of this place...??? nothing. But some real stuff happened here, and it really is not an insignificant little corner. Although there wasn't a King here, there was a earl and then later a duke who was in charge of this area. I did know that there was a connection to two daughters being ladies in waiting for Marie Antoinette at Schönbrun in Vienna.
The Schlossmuseum was quite nice and it was super interesting to hear things about the city that you are living in and help you appreciate things and find out why they were there.
One of the hospitals, that is still very active was actually a gift to an old Princess (Elisabeth).
But the biggest history-gasm of the day was finding out that the daughter of Queen Victoria (the Queen Victoria) married a minor prince of Hessen, which was the lineage for the Tsarina Alexandra of Russia who passed along haemophilia to her son Alexei stirring up the whole Rasputin thing in Russia prior to the first world war.
Also, Alexandra's brother Ernst Ludwig who is super important in Darmstadt (was a duke) who was very influential in the Jugendstil movement is the Godfather of Prince Charles
Minde blown!!
I am certainly going to need to learn many more things, because these discoveries really get my blood pumping with excitement.
Friday, October 18, 2013
Bitte nicht Schubsen
The picture above translates to "please don't push - I have a yogurt in my Backpack"
A dear friend sent this to me the last time I had a slight accident with strawberry yogurt resulting in the destruction of my blackberry.
One would think that a person would learn from such an expensive incident.
I didn't
This time I managed to destroy a purse. Somehow now electronics or valuables were destroyed. It was only literature in the form of Ernest Hemmingway - sorry sir!
NO more yogurt for this girl!
Saturday, October 12, 2013
starting a life abroad
I am at the point on my life, and I think I have been at this point for quite some time, where I am strongly considering the move to live on my own. I have wanted to do this for a while, since before my roommate issues started. The strongest driver for this is just being able to have only my stuff where I want and being able to arrange everything how I want. I really have a difficult time allowing over people around me to have their own space and ideas about how things should be run. One thing I will miss is the occasional someone to talk to, but I think that the benefits outweigh the negatives. At this point I do not care to have roommates who are friends, because when I am home I like to be at home...and I like being by myself. Weirdly, this huffington post article made me realize - not all point are true but I find resonance with a lot of them.
One thing that really really sucks about moving out though is that it is so expensive. Moving out on my own automatically means that I will be paying more for rent (less travel) and I have to buy normal cookware and housewares for my place. I hate when you live somewhere and get used to using certain cooking vessels for different purposes, but then when you, or your roommate move out you don't have them anymore. The nice thing about living in winnipeg would be having family and parents that are always looking to get rid of things, and they can tide you over until you can afford nice things for yourself.
If and when this move does happen, I will be hitting lots of second hand shops!
One thing that really really sucks about moving out though is that it is so expensive. Moving out on my own automatically means that I will be paying more for rent (less travel) and I have to buy normal cookware and housewares for my place. I hate when you live somewhere and get used to using certain cooking vessels for different purposes, but then when you, or your roommate move out you don't have them anymore. The nice thing about living in winnipeg would be having family and parents that are always looking to get rid of things, and they can tide you over until you can afford nice things for yourself.
If and when this move does happen, I will be hitting lots of second hand shops!
Thursday, October 3, 2013
Deutsche Bahn - you have irritated me
So on 18.09 I decided it was time to buy my ticket for my trip this weekend to Munich. I did this just as I was leaving work...got home and found a coupon for 10 euros off. A little irritating, but whatever..I went online and wanted to see if I could amend my ticket. It looked like I could - there is a button that says "stornieren und umtauschen" which literally means cancel and exchange. When there is a button that says "cancel" I assume that when I am making the exchange I am going to cancel and get a new one. There is also a button under that says "stonieren" or cancel. I of course just wanted to trade the more expensive ticket for the ticket for which I could save my 10 euroes.
Today I checked my account balance and it looked a little low...a lot low...so I got a print out of my transactions and see that there was an extremely large charge from DB. So I logged onto my account and see that in fact I have two train tickets for my journey tomorrow. Not necessary. So I called in and the service agent tell me that I do in fact have to manually cancel the one ticket.
This website makes no sense. If I have to manually cancel anyways, why is there a button with the cancel and exchange option??!!! By cancelling today I have to pay a 15 euro service fee, meaning that using this coupon has essentially cost me 5 euros.
I called in to find out this information and said that it was misleading, and the service rep says that I should have called in...what is the point of having a website??!! It is also frustrating because I have so many options now of people that are driving to Munich with other Carpooling websites that I could have saved a lot more money.
Today I checked my account balance and it looked a little low...a lot low...so I got a print out of my transactions and see that there was an extremely large charge from DB. So I logged onto my account and see that in fact I have two train tickets for my journey tomorrow. Not necessary. So I called in and the service agent tell me that I do in fact have to manually cancel the one ticket.
This website makes no sense. If I have to manually cancel anyways, why is there a button with the cancel and exchange option??!!! By cancelling today I have to pay a 15 euro service fee, meaning that using this coupon has essentially cost me 5 euros.
I called in to find out this information and said that it was misleading, and the service rep says that I should have called in...what is the point of having a website??!! It is also frustrating because I have so many options now of people that are driving to Munich with other Carpooling websites that I could have saved a lot more money.
Sunday, September 29, 2013
29-09-13
Todays plan was supposed to be a nice little trip up to Frankfurt to celebrate Oktoberfest. Due to some high shoes, a long dress, and turkish circle dance, one of my dear friends ended up spraining her ankle last night. This meant that our plans could not be fulfilled and I did not have any friends to go with. Alright, that sucks...
....but I was happy because I was going to be able to go to church. I think after going three weeks in a row in summer I was "churched out". Even during the week I was disappointed that I wouldn't be able to go this week or next week. Well as luck turned out, God wanted me to go to church this week.
I was also happy that I was able to go. I got into another little tiff with my roommate last night, because I asked him to wipe up after he spills his coffee. (Side note: if changing the colour of countertops was an art form, my roommate would be in the Louvre) I also had sent a group text earlier to him and my other roommate earlier saying (translated) "The front door was left open twice today. Please pay attention". He takes everything I say as a deep dark criticism. I also look stupid because last week I looked in the bathtub and saw hair and said - hey can you please clean that out - and he found my hair within the mix....a bit of egg on my face. So he said that he can't ever believe me now because I criticize, but then do the same thing. Sir, I do not pour coffee on the counter and not wash up. For him it is simply too difficult to admit that he perhaps erred. It is impossible to have an form of discussion because he turns immediately defensive or tries to shift the blame.
I wanted to go to church today, especially because I had a difficult time sleeping last night because I was a little distraught over what had happened. I also wanted to take the time and try and learn something and how God can help me handle the situation with more grace.
Grace is at the moment a huge theme for me, and I think for my dear father as well. It is easier to act with pettiness and sarcasm, but grace is something God has shown us, and how we should choose to interact with the people around us.
Anyways - I am very happy to go to church. I think it may have been the first time that I ever paid attention to the whole sermon. He was talking about how there are rules for living in a community, which then led to the ten commandments. The speaker then made a comparison to the fact that in Germany there are over 67,000 individual rules in the German Law Books...
Each law is based on some sort of situation. There would be no need for the law, unless there was some sort of precedent set. That is sad. Even if you are not a christian this is sad. Why do people try to do bad things to hurt other people? Why do people think that it is more important to think of the self? And Germany is much more community minded than North America.
I think people need to act with more grace towards each other. By treating each other poorly we simply encourage retaliation and acting rash does not make the situation better.
....but I was happy because I was going to be able to go to church. I think after going three weeks in a row in summer I was "churched out". Even during the week I was disappointed that I wouldn't be able to go this week or next week. Well as luck turned out, God wanted me to go to church this week.
I was also happy that I was able to go. I got into another little tiff with my roommate last night, because I asked him to wipe up after he spills his coffee. (Side note: if changing the colour of countertops was an art form, my roommate would be in the Louvre) I also had sent a group text earlier to him and my other roommate earlier saying (translated) "The front door was left open twice today. Please pay attention". He takes everything I say as a deep dark criticism. I also look stupid because last week I looked in the bathtub and saw hair and said - hey can you please clean that out - and he found my hair within the mix....a bit of egg on my face. So he said that he can't ever believe me now because I criticize, but then do the same thing. Sir, I do not pour coffee on the counter and not wash up. For him it is simply too difficult to admit that he perhaps erred. It is impossible to have an form of discussion because he turns immediately defensive or tries to shift the blame.
I wanted to go to church today, especially because I had a difficult time sleeping last night because I was a little distraught over what had happened. I also wanted to take the time and try and learn something and how God can help me handle the situation with more grace.
Grace is at the moment a huge theme for me, and I think for my dear father as well. It is easier to act with pettiness and sarcasm, but grace is something God has shown us, and how we should choose to interact with the people around us.
Anyways - I am very happy to go to church. I think it may have been the first time that I ever paid attention to the whole sermon. He was talking about how there are rules for living in a community, which then led to the ten commandments. The speaker then made a comparison to the fact that in Germany there are over 67,000 individual rules in the German Law Books...
Each law is based on some sort of situation. There would be no need for the law, unless there was some sort of precedent set. That is sad. Even if you are not a christian this is sad. Why do people try to do bad things to hurt other people? Why do people think that it is more important to think of the self? And Germany is much more community minded than North America.
I think people need to act with more grace towards each other. By treating each other poorly we simply encourage retaliation and acting rash does not make the situation better.
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