Festive exuberance

Montag, 01.01.07

Time at xmas just dissolves and before you know it, it’s the new year. It was so good to see my sister and friends, bringing a little bit of London with them. We had a very active 2 days touring the city; seeing the xmas markets, going up the Dom, ice skating for only €5,50, eating sausages and pork knuckles but the highlight has got to be the Bier Bike! Everyone’s reaction to the surprise was priceless. During the 2 hour hire, we cycled around the city, seeing all the sights and the bemused Germans whilst drinking from the 20 litre keg of Kölsch. It was hard work especially after a big Brewery lunch but we got a chance to revive our energy as a brake wire snapped puncturing one of the back tyres whilst we were crossing a major junction. We continued with the beer during the half hour where we waited for the boss to come a new tyre. It is definitely miles better than celebrating birthdays drinking champagne in the back of a limo in London. Check out www.youtube.com/profile?user=elainennium for some videos!

Before everyone went home for xmas, Lisa hosted and cooked a full xmas dinner with all the trimmings including the stuffing, pigs in blankets, roast potatoes and a nut roast from Holly and Eeva. We even celebrated an early new year with sparklers on the balcony, even playing a few rounds of consequences. Fantastic evening, shame I had to work on my presentation for the morning once everyone had left.

On one of the last days of college, some people organised a screening of ‘Some Like it Hot’ complete with nachos and comfy chairs. Although it was dubbed in German, it was a pretty good film. Later on, with all the students that were still in Cologne, we went out enjoying yet more Glühwein.

Christmas Eve was spent with a Chinese Christian group, accompanying a friend who also isn’t religious. It was a great insight, listening to Chinese Christmas carols for the first time and enjoying great food from the steam boat. It was another Chinese gathering on Christmas Day, as the 4 of us who live here cooked dinner together improvising from our combined ingredients. It was a chance to get to know people I have barely spoken to. There was a real mix of food and drink, from Scottish shortbead to Polish vodka and Chinese tofu!

My parents arrived on Boxing Day, visiting for a few days. We braved the cold, and walked around the city, going up the Dom where I saw my first snow in Germany although it was just on the borderline and only lasted for 10 minutes. I have never had so much pork, potatoes and beer in such a concentrated time period.

So, out of the exchange students, it was only Anita and me who were in Cologne to see in the New Year. After making sushi for dinner, and lazying around watching Family Guy, we went to a friends’ friends’ flat to celebrate and watch the fireworks. It was on the 3rd or 4th floor and had a great view of the fireworks which were going off everywhere as it got close to midnight. Almost 45 minutes of constant fireworks across the horizon, it was totally amazing! But people were lighting these from the roads so when we got a taxi into town, the driver had to weave his way around all the debris. The party animals that are the Germans!

So, it is 2007 already. Only 6 more weeks of college left and 2 months til I return to England.

Blurred vision

Montag, 11.12.06

The last two weeks were a blur. It was constant meetings, busy setting up an exhibition for the end of one project whilst starting 2 other projects. The two new projects, coincidently both stem from London. One is ‘Play : Second and First Life’, the collaborative project with my college and the other is with a guest tutor who teaches at the Royal College of Arts. The first few weeks of Play will be researching whereas the other project titled, ‘Me, only better?’ is only a week long. Tomorrow is the last day ending with project presentation in the lecture theatre promptly at 17:30. It has been a tough project; all about critical design, not designing to solve problems but to ask questions through design. Very interesting aspect but demanding with deadlines everyday which is frying my brain. It has been interesting to work with various people, sharing the thinking process albeit a few hiccups but the finish line is in sight.

Fingers crossed for the rain to stop soon. It would be good to have nice weather when the guys come over in a few days and also, I’m tired of cycling in the rain. The worst part is actually not getting wet but getting water in your eyes!

What a difference a month makes

Sonntag, 3.12.06

So soon it is now the last month of the year. The run up to Christmas now in full swing. Definitely an improvement from November. Just went to the xmas markets in the centre of town. It was very busy and I had no hands to take any photos as I was holding onto a nice warm glass of Glühwein [mulled wine]. No doubt I will be back there soon, there are food stores a plenty.

I went to my first Flohmarkt [Flea Market] yesterday and got myself some quite authentic different Kölsch branded wooden handled bottle openers for 1,40€. Jen and Hamish haggled some bargains by getting a bike for 15€ and a standing fan for 1€! The fan is for a project, and not weather! On my way home, I gave some guy directions practising my German; hope he got there in the end. Although, whether I did it in German or not may not have affected the quality of my direction giving!

Illusion

Sonntag, 26.11.06

It has almost been a week since I broke my bike lock. But that hasn’t stopped me from cycling as I haven’t gotten round to getting a new one yet. This is mainly because I’ve continued to wrap the broken lock around the bike with its neighbouring post which so far has worked since my bike still remains. However, I have suffered a few cuts from the sharp metal ends from where it has been cut so I will be getting a new lock soon! That is unlike Anita’s case as she didn’t lock her bike at all, and inevitably it got stolen although she doesn’t mind given that the seat was broken anyway so whoever has it now won’t be having a comfortable ride!

Unfortunately, I have to admit that in the past few days, I have been ein bisschen homesick. I have had a dip in motivation in working especially there are no deadlines just yet. I have otherwise spent most of my time in college, either in the Gute Stube [café] or on the internet in the computer room and then watching episodes of ER, Saturday Night Live and 30 Rock when back at halls. No wonder people say November is the most depressing month of the year. However, December is almost here so things should be brightening up; should make a visit to the Christmas markets which have recently started and counting down the 20 days til the gang comes over.

Bad bike day

Dienstag, 21.11.06

Since I last wrote, things have been quite ‘normal’; regular days at college during the week, going out for Kölsch at the weekend, although that is not necessarily restricted to those 2 days, sandwiched between working on projects and going for ‘Kuchen und Kaffee’ [cake and coffee] on a Sunday afternoon.

I had left my bike overnight at college since it was raining heavily after having dinner at a local Brauhaus [Brewery House]. As I returned to it today to go home and get ready for badminton, I was greeted with several souvenirs from birds. That didn’t particularly bother me, but I was already in a hurry to get back so I could squeeze in a trip to the supermarket to contribute to the joint dinner later. When I went to unlock my bike shortly after to go to badminton, I exerted too much force in turning it so it deformed, then eventually breaking, leaving half the key still in the lock and rendering my spare key useless.

Luckily, after a few attempts myself to save the lock, I bumped into Frank who was able to eventually cut it. I made it to badminton on time but unfortunately, there were already too many people. So I rode back home, am now writing this before meeting Eeva and Joanne again for that dinner.

Karneval season begins

Sonntag, 12.11.06

Yesterday, on the 11^th November at 11:11am was the celebration to the start of Karneval Season, the 5th season of the year. I struggled to wake up in time to make it to the Old Town to witness the beginning of the season. It was quite funny to see all these people dressed up in a variety of costumes waiting at the bus stop! As I walked towards the Old Town, I saw a parade of drummers as well as a brass band playing some traditional German songs with the passing crowd singing and dancing. I just don’t understand how people could start drinking at this time! After fighting my way out of the crowd, I headed back home to do some food shopping and work before I participate in the drinking. I don’t think I would have coped drinking the whole day.

I joined Eeva and Holly to cook dinner at Joanne’s before we ‘dressed up’ in random outfits we had; I was wearing a scrubs top with a witches hat whilst Joanne had the trousers with an afro wig and hat. Eeva and Holly shared a Santa outfit with a punk like wig. Out on the streets, people were just singing, dancing and of course drinking. There was so much broken glass around although there were people pushing trolleys filled with empty bottles to earn the 8 cents a bottle. Apparently it is a tradition to throw your bottle at the ground once you’ve finished but it was pretty dangerous and it was almost like walking on a carpet of broken glass. We soon joined the others at a bar and had a good laugh trying on all the different wigs and hats. It continued to another bar/club and then another before I decided to call it a night. I will need to improve my stamina if I am to survive the festivities for the end of Karneval at the end of February. It will be 4/5 days of constant celebrations just like yesterday.

New discoveries

Freitag, 10.11.06

The past few days have been a bit different from usual. After a short spurt of badminton on Tuesday evening, I joined Joanne and Jen to go to a concert at the Dom. It was quite something. We arrived just as it started at 8pm and there were lots of people; all the pews were full and many more were standing at the back. It began with some solo organ performances before the adult and children choirs with a big ensemble finale accompanied with a string orchestra. The intensity of the music was heightened by the vast interior space of the Cathedral which echoed in the still crowd. With everyone so quiet and still throughout the concert, it gave me a chance to admire the Dom without the usual business of tourists and cameras during the day. When the performance came to an end, an hour and half later, the audience literally went wild and some were very generous with their donations on the way out. I was really glad I went, definitely worth missing some badminton for.

After class on Thursday, I went downstairs to the Gute Stube [Good Room?] which is the college café run by the students. At last, the building works have almost finished and a hot spot to surf the net whilst enjoying a coffee. A more social spot than sitting in the computer room, although easily distracted to play fussball or to have some free soup and snacks. Where does the college get the 15€ a day budget for the café to spend on the students? And I think its pretty cool that students are also in the process of making the furniture, designed by a Professor, to go in this new café.

Later that evening, a group of us from halls went to Salsa class at the university nearby. It was my first time going to a dance class and had fun trying to learn the moves and steps.

Today, a group of us Internationals went to Bonn to see the Guggenheim Collection. It was really good as there was everything from architecture to painting to installation to sculpture. The museum was fairly busy with several tours running simultaneously. It was funny to see the tour leader speaking in to a microphone with the participants each with a radio receiver and earpiece although they are not more than a few meters apart. Such a shame I wasn’t allowed a camera into the gallery, there were so many great photo opportunities and not necessarily of the works!

Lazy Allerheiligen

Mittwoch, 01.11.06

It has been a rather lazy day for the middle of the week. Today is Allerheiligen [All Saints Day] which is a national holiday since the Catholic Church is most dominant in Germany. Woke up just before noon after getting home around 5am from the party. It would have been earlier if it wasn’t the heavy rain which kept me indoors. The party was good fun, plenty of laughs and drinks. Shame that not everyone dressed up though!

Spent the day washing 3 loads of clothes which meant countless visits back and forth to the laundry room in an attempt to try and wash the loads consecutively although that wasn’t successful. There were too many people wanting to wash clothes in the one and only machine in the building!

I was also trying to set my computer up to get connected to the internet again but with no luck. Can’t seem to get an IP address from the DHCP server; whatever that means! So that means, sitting on google tomorrow at college to try and find an answer.

As a slight compensation, I watched the first 3 episodes of Lost season 3. I was only meaning to watch one episode but of course couldn’t resist as it was sitting there on my computer. :)

Body clock yet to adjust to Daylight Saving

Dienstag, 31.10.06

I almost forgot to turn my clocks back over the weekend. My computer automatically changed its settings but didn’t think to tell me about it. So I was quite close to being very early for German class on Monday. Since then, I’ve had the feeling that it is much later than it actually is, something that I had never encountered before in England.

The weather is now back to ‘normal’ feeling quite brisk in the morning and evenings. I left my gloves at home today so my hands were a bit numb whilst I clutched onto the handlebars and trying to warm them up as I waited at the traffic lights.

Tonight, I’m going to my first (!) Halloween party at Lisa’s, which I helped to decorate when I was round hers making my outfit last night. I had no clue to what I could dress up as and didn’t want to spend too much on it either. So, it should be interesting, especially as I won’t be scary, just merely echoing a German advert! But at least, there are no classes tomorrow as it is Allerheiligen [All Saints Day], a bank holiday.