Thursday, March 26, 2009

So Sweet...


All of you people with low iron levels rejoice!!! Here's some of the best and sweetest news a blood donor could ask for:

Nestle Nesquik Plus contains 15% of your supposed daily iron intake (and for you health crazies, only 150 calories when mixed with milk).

What a great excuse to mix yourself a hot chocolate everyday!!!

(Image from http://lewebpedagogique.com/3moulins/2008/03/)

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Winter Trip to Germany

Finally!
Sorry. There's nothing like another eminent trip to get ya to try and get the last one written up. In case y'all didn't know, I've got train tickets booked for Amsterdam Monday, and some more for Avignon and Marseille in two weeks for our spring break. Nothing like train tickets bought and paid for to make you feel the tinglies in your feet.... :)

So! Germany with A&U. I've decided to write it up in a special way.

Hameln
Historical:
The legend of the Pied Piper ("Rattenfanger"). Apparently in 1284 a strange man came to the town to rid them of their rats, and when the villagers refused to pay came back and stole all their children away. Apparently there is some kind of historic background to the legend, despite being widely known for the Grimm brothers version of the story. (Something to do with the city's inhabitants being called "children of the city", though from there I don't really know how the spinoff went...)

Favorites:
  • the massive city theme of rats: a giant golden rat on the bridge, a rat/pied piper fountain, the rats painted along the city to guide you through the main areas, the various business affiliations ("Rattenfangerhaus" restaurant, "Leseratte" (german equivalent of bookwork) book store, sugar rats, shillacked bread rats at the tourist shops (I bought one)...etc, etc. A collective town effort, we'll say!
  • the Pied Piper version of the Glockenspiel on the facade of the Hochzeitshaus
  • the "pancake" house we went to for lunch, like a hybrid version of an omellette and a pancake, delicious!





Erfurt

Historical:
Being on the Eastern side of Germany, Erfurt was a glaring foil to most of the Western parts of Germany I've visited so far. Still in the process of recovering and building from all those years under the GDR, its interesting from that standpoint. I was also really interested in A's part in its reconstruction of infrastructure - what an accomplishment, to help a city get back on its feet! I loved visiting Germany with A&U because of all the personal ties they have with the country and the various cities. Also would like to thank A&U's friend Mr.H for giving us a tour of the city. (You guys laughed when I took this picture at the Thuringer, but look how gorgeous it turned out!)
Favorites:
The GRAFFITI!!! A street artist goldmine, hands down some of the best photos I've taken on the trip, if not all year. Have promised to send A&U pictures of the massive street art display I plan on making in my appartment next year if my new roommate is willing ;)




Weimar

Historical:
Known for being the home base for both Goethe and Schiller. The Buchenwald concentration camp is also situated nearby, but we didn't go there.
Favorites:
  • I got Goethe's "Faust" in a bookstore there (even though I have no idea whether I even like Goethe's works, but I'm romantic like that). The cash register was one of those old ones with buttons like an old type writer and made of wood.
  • A&U brought me to this gorgeous timber frame restaurant and I had the BEST dark beer of my life (sadly, nothing will ever come close, and I don't know if I'll ever find anything comparable in Canada...): Kostriker. Yummm!
  • U was so cute when we took this picture, "Three great writers, Goethe, Schiller and Zarah!!!" (you know I was loving every second of it)

Monday, March 23, 2009

My favorite writer right now...

... is a blogger.

Am mortified (in a snobby literary way) but its true. I've never read anything online like this woman's blog, I just got page after page after page. Of course, you know which one it is - the blog of Belle de Jour, the London call girl. She writes how I want (hope!) to write, of everyday (and not so everyday) things, sometimes poetic, other times funny, or just plain raunchy, hahaha. I like that about blogs, you're reading about the change of character in the author rather than fictional puppets. It makes them so much more relatable - knowing that somewhere out there this person is living their life just like you are.

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On another note, this made me fill up with pride - even though I'm not American, but I guess it doesn't matter. He's got big shoes to fill.

[I'm afraid I saved this a while ago and neglected to note where I got it from the internet - sorry for pilfering your photo, whoever you are]

Thursday, March 19, 2009

BERLIN BABY!!!


Several weeks late, but better than late than never.

During our winter vacation, I was lucky enough to be invited to visit my German friends A&U for the second time. Staying with them was a little slice of heaven, like being surrounded by family and the familiar even though I was in a country that wasn't my own trying to decipher a language I've never spoken nor understood. I think Germany will always have a special little place in my heart for that. It lets you belong to a little piece of it.

[This picture is from when U dressed me up in her mountain climbing gear for a lark!!!]

Here's a little overview of the week
February 21st: Arrival in Hannover
February 22nd: Visit to Hameln
February 23rd: Visit to Erfurt and Weimar
February 24th: Further visit of Weimar and arrival in Berlin!
February 25th: Bus tour in Berlin
February 26th: Sad goodbyes with A&U who head back home, Solo adventures in Berlin begin
February 27th: Solo adventures in Berlin
February 28th: Catch the train to Strasbourg, surprise encounter with A&U at the Hannover changeover! and safe return to Strasbourg

More later.....

Inspiration and Breakthroughs


I haven't felt like writing in weeks. I don't know what it is. I feel like my creativity moves in cycles, just like people's hormonal levels. Usually the pinnacle of my creativity occurs when I happen to be reading, drawing and writing consecutively. And I need a good does of inspiration.

I find it kind of funny but the inspiration that triggered my newest cycle of creativity is a TV show called, "The Secret Diary of a Call Girl", a show based off of the novels of an anonymous writer, "Belle de Jour" who published a series of memoirs under a "nom de plume" to protect her identity and those of her clients.
[photo from Virgin Media, http://www.virginmedia.com/tvradio/galleries/drama/sex-ontv.php?ssid=10 ]

Here is the link to her blog (which prompted the publication of the aforementioned books):
http://belledejour-uk.blogspot.com/

I put it best in my diary, "...funny how the strangest things can inspire you. I think that would be the best and the worst part about being a writer - getting inspired...".
It'd be like having a job that necessitates you being addicted to crack except instead of narcotics you'd be addicted to ideas and literature. I'd be the most interesting addict in the world. On the downside when you hit the creative wall like I did for most of the month, it becomes a bit of a chore.

I like the way writing is going these days (though maybe for authors its become a nightmare), because so many people are writing blogs and learning to write - in a community rather than a little diary that gets tucked away in a drawer and never seen again. It gets me in the right frame of mind, of recording in my head the little moments of note of my every day life. Like my brother said, maybe its not as important what I'm writing about so much as how I write it. That's what it is. What I like about blogs. Some of the things people write about can be so banal, but its the personality that shines through that is intriguing, the way they describe those everyday events.

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I've had several breakthroughs over the past few weeks, mainly on how I feel about France.

I must admit, I'm still dealing with a copious amount of resentment with respects to being approached by random men basically anywhere I go. I'm not bragging, I've figured out that it doesn't really have much to do with how you look, but how you act. Despite learning not to make eye contact, not to smile, to ignore people as you walk through the street, and perfecting my very own version of the French I-will-eat-your-babies-and-then-smoke-a-cigarette-scowl, there's something I'm missing. There's a piece of the puzzle I'm still searching for, that will label me in their minds as "unattainable-and-out-my-league", and thus the being approached by bums while eating dinner and the poetry reading while I'm trying to draw outside will cease.

But last night a friend of mine made me see it in a different light. Instead of resenting my inability to spurn these individuals instantly (there is definitely a language barrier problem, as they never teach you in ANY class how to politely ask someone to bugger off - all I can think of in the heat of the moment is various French versions of "F*ck off" which seems a little excessive in most situations), I can, in a way, appreciate it. R was talking about how much of a great experience it was to live in a French city and learn how to deal with beggars, scammers (and in my case, men) since we're kind of sheltered where we both live at home. And he's right, what a life experience! Instead of thinking of how I love Canada so much more because I don't have to deal with those things, I'm going to enjoy France for the experience its giving me, for making me a tougher, stronger, and most importantly - fiercer! woman.
This pic is from my trip with A&U in Hameln earlier this month, but I thought it was appropriate in terms of my taking on the world ;-)

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Blarrghhh


Technology is such a pain in the ass.

What did people do after big trips when there were no digital cameras, no internet, no Facebook? I've spent like 2 hours today getting all my photos together, organizing them, uploading them.... Basically doing an inventory of my entire week. And then I pretty much have to Blog about it too right (I mean, that is why I started this thing...)?
Seriously though, 15 years ago, you would have just dropped all your film off at the store, done your laundry, and maybe visit your friends like two weeks later to show them your pictures. We really do complicate everything around us.

I promise I will get to blogging about my trip to Germany and Berlin, but lordy what a process!

On a less exasperated note I ate the best dessert of my life just a little while ago, macarons from the nearby patisserie. She wasn't lying when she said they were good. I would gladly pay 5 euros every week to have 3 macarons every Sunday. Like eating a gelato and wafer poof that neither melts or crumbles.....