International dinner

This time I let the pictures speak, also due to the fact that I'm still struggling with my hangover. Thanks to our camera woman Kamila, I can present the international dinner of our MoCoMa students in a proper way. But just to say, my German potatoe salad has gone down quite well;)

Back in Munich

Thanks to father's day, Volker's holiday and a little surpise we had five days without work in a row to spend together in Munich. Well, it gave us enough time to explore the city in a absolutely new way. My clever boyfriend had the great idea of enjoying the sun in a beer garden he has recently visited. I really like the atmosphere at those places and therefore was looking forward to have a snack and some beer with him. Just one little problem occured. Volker could not really remember the name of the station neither the way how to get there. Of course, it is not appropriate for someone who is living in Munich to have a quick look at the map that can be found at many train stations. It sucks 'cos one should know the way around. Relying on his sense of orientation, which is not always right, we first took the train and later changed into the tram. We went through the whole city until Volker decided it would be better to get out of it and take the return direction. He just got this weird idea of the beer garden to be on the other side of Munich. Guess what: it wasn't:) we ended up being at a tram station in the nowhere of Munich and lauging about ourselves. We even made friends with a little Asian guy who did not understand us at all but joined us on the bench and making fun. Finally, we took again the tram and went to the place where we decided the first time to turn around. We recognized that we only had to take one station further and we would have reached our desired beer garden on the first route. Nevertheless, I can only recommend not to look at any map when you get lost. Its heaps of fun! Even if you desire something very desperately at the end of your little journey. You will enjoy it even more! At least we did. Prost!

Paris but not Paris

It was all about the Normandy actually. I went to Paris to pick up Sascha and Louisa (for those who don't know them: my cousin and his girlsfriend). It tell you, it took us at least two hours to decide on where to go and which route to take. It just did not work out, one person being half sick and indecisive, one person proposing too many alternatives and being indecisive herself and one person being indecisive only. At the end we chose the way through the country side to get an insight into the nice landscape of that region. Unfortunately, I fell asleep most of the time due to my little flue. Yes, it was me being half sick! Finally, we arrived at the coastline. The ocean, the sea, the waves, the air. I have been waiting for it so long. A little history lesson for some of you: it was the Normandy where the Allies arrived in Jue 1944 (on the D-Day). My Cousin tried to find some bunker as vestige of the battles. But he did not really succeed. All in all, it was a really nice day. In Rouen we had a little lunch somewhere on a bench in the city center. We just grapped sandwhiches, cheese and rocket salad out of the super market as well as radisch and awesome salami from the market. What else do you need to be happy? ;) Of course, I don't want to keep back the dinner story where we went to a cheese restaurant in Caen. I was asked before by Sascha and Louisa whether this suits my appetite. It did. Nevertheless, I tried to order a omelette without any cheese. The waiter wasn't able to fulfill my desire.

Gent by boat

GGG: Great idea, Great wether and a Great bunch of people.. Off we went! Two hours and two boats, allowed for four people each- no doubt, we had to make it five. Cruising around by ourselves.. the direction was given. Nevertheless, we enjoyed!

Finnish traditions

We all have different traditions on the first of May. I really like the Finnish one! When students finish their studies (recognized the difference between finish and Finnish) they wear a cap with a little symbol of their university on it. After the students get their degree, they are not allowed to put those caps on their heads again, though. Apart from, and now pay attention! the first of May. On this particular day, people celebrate, have a picnic in the park and wear the caps again. Well, the fun part of the story is that the cap actually looks like a seaman's cap to me:)
Anyhoo, Jonna (a Finnish girl of my program) invited us to join her and other Finnish people for the first-of-May-picnic...

Weekend in Liege without Liege

Relaxing, beautiful, hilarious, sleepy, hungry, sunny, drunk, chatty, hearty... all words and a lot more would describe my weekend I spent near Liege. Spontaneously, I was invited to go with some people of my former (! - Juchu) Dutch course to the Wallonian part of Belgium. I call it the trip to Liege although I have never seen a single house of this city. We actually stayed in a tiny village close to Huy, which no foreigner knows and therefore leaded us to keep the name "Liege trip".
South Belgium really impressed me. I did not expect it to be so different compared to the Flemish part of Belgium. It is quite hilly with greenish landscape and fresh smell - it made me feel being on real holidays! (Someone may raise the question what real holidays are) Anyway, go and visit Wallonia!
We had so much fun with our little Erasmus group - as Xaver would call it now;).. At the end of the two days we were so organized in buying food, preparing it wherever we spent the time and visiting the region. Of course, I would like to thank Sybille in this moment, who took care of us being one of the representatives of the French-speaking-Belgium-part and having the women-gene of feeling responsible for the group.
At the last day we actually had the pleasure to be guided around in Huy which ended up in walking around for 10 minutes until we reached the city center and had a drink. I should add that I tried peach beer the first time and fell in love with it immediately.
Oh yes, I definately have to mention my first experience with a festival in Wallonia. Pierre had his first concert on Saturday whereas the expression "festival" made me think of a huge place with masses of people. I was joking to prepare the girls with T-shirts that would have single letters of the "PIERRE" name on it in order to support his performance as cheerleader. I should not have mention that because when we passed a little shop, it actually sold - for whatever reason - shirts for very cheap money. Xaver could not resist and reminded me of my great idea which I had considered as purely joke before. Well, you can imagine what happened. Of course, he had to buy those shirts and even contributed some pens so that we could prepare the letters properly . It was basically Antonio and Vincent bringing in their creativity in order to make us cheerleader appear as beautiful as possible.

Portuguese fish at the Polish place

Dear Ana, you tried your best!! No doubt.
But I have to tell the story about your glass crash:).. As we all know you wanted to prepare nice portions for each of us using everyhing that can possibly be found in the kitchen and is steady against the oven's heat. Well, it did not work out that well, the oven got a little massy, but finally the pan was happy to
contribute to your delicious dish:)

May I present you: the European Commission!!

Our second visit in Brussels was so much fun! - only eight of us going with Rik again and having a look at the European institutions. After two hours walking and listening to his story how he took possesion of an old Jaguar over Ebay we could convince him to have a rest at the European Commision's place. You should have seen us students - exhausted form walking and fighting against the Belgium wind - eating our sandwhiches in the entrance hall whilst people in suites passed us busily.

frites, frites and frites

Just wanted to show what a means to have a choice if French fries!! You stand in front of the display and its so hard to make a choice!! French fries with chicken, French fries with pork, French fries with other meat, French fries with vegies, French fries with tomatoe sauce, French fries with tomotoe sauce AND vegies............
And soo cheap, only 9 - 10 Euros for each tasty dish! And a waffle for dessert. Well, my bday is soon and diet drinks are welcome:D

Brugge

Ok guys, I know it has been a while! .. Anyhoo, I want to tell you a little 'bout Brugge. I say 'little' cos we have not the discovered the city as we were supposed to do. We had that wonderful organized trip by some Belgium students which included some entertainment tools in order to keep us excited. Unfortunately, it did not work out all the time. We started off with a quiz answering questions as quick as possible to collect points. Since the reward for winning was only an applaus from the two other groups I was not really motivated to look through the supplied brochure of Brugge to find the appropriate answer. Well, for some reason we lost the game:)
Due to the fact that we finished the game in less than an hour and the well structured time table of the Belgium students calculculated nearly two we had some time for walking in single file. To be hinest, Tom who responsible for the 'event-project' was making an effort to talk about historical aspects of Brugge. But can you imagine a bunch of 45 students concentrating on one person talking? We had fun with taking pictures again.
Before having lunch, the Brugge trip offered us a visit in either a beer or a chocolate museum. I was so excited to know more about the brown gold that I was even dealing with Yasmin, the other 'supervisor' ( if you want to call a student even younger than me like that) because I was originally put into the group of beer visitors. Finally, the guide through the museum was so disappointing that I had to reward myself for bearing the tour with some chocolate of the museum's shop.
Nevertheless, we had a great time in Brugge. I bought a pair of spring shoes in the afternoon and went back to Brugge just yesterday to return them. I just pretended that size 41 fits me...

Finally sun!

What a beautiful day! Gent was so busy of people sitting in cafés, at the water or just walking around downtown. I can barely describe that feeling of seeing the clear sun for a whole day. Going out and taking a deep breath, the warmth growing from inside.. like a battery being reloaded!! WOW!

Juli visits Paris

Maybe you expect some impressive descriptions about the capital of France. Unfortunately, this is not what you are going to hear. I was planning to have a relaxing weekend with Sascha, my cousin, and this is what I indeed did. I have not done anything that can be considered sight seeing, which should not lead to the opinion that I have not explored Paris. I have even seen more interesting parts of the city than I did two years ago. I had to go to places that do not present the typical part of Paris - I mean the beautiful houses with those little balconies and fashionable shops. Even Paris has a china town where you can eat very good and cheap, it has malls that are fed up with shop chains everyone knows and food chains you see all over the world; it even has an area where the business world has its seat with some little skyscrapers and modern sculptures. Strange, isn't it?;)

I don't want to forget talking about a big problem concerning eating habbits. On Saturday we went out with friends to a Basque place. We met at 8 pm. Sascha's friend was suggesting to have drink before going for dinner which I could not believe since in Germany I am only used to have a drink afterwards. Anyhoo..of course, I adjusted to the French proposal:) After we had finished our aperativ we went back to the Basque place. It was 10 pm at that time and as being German I was really looking forward to get some food. Unfortunately, the bar was very busy so that every table was occupied. Waiting outside Sascha told me that it will be another hour 'till we get a table, so he got this bottle of wine with plastic cups to brigde the gab in front of the bar. Can you imagine my face hearing that!!???? Having dinner at eleven although I was prepared to have it at eight!!! Stupid me!
BUT I can tell you, it was worth to wait!! I even tried snails; of course they come with white bread. I am so proud of me:) If I would not have liked them I've had enough water to wash them down. In France you always get as much as you want. The same with wine, but this one you have to pay:)

Let's talk about Brussels

Brussels, lets see... Mhhhh.. Yesss... Please! If anybody of you is coming to visit me some time don't ask me about the Brussels' history. We started walking around at 9 in the morning, passing by interesting building, nice streets, weird people, rich people, awesome structure sides, beautiful parks, busy markets.. excuse me if I forgot to mention something.

I can remember our teacher talking to us, but my brain just cannot reflect all these information. Our group was too busy with taking pictures and having fun with each other, laughing about stupid expressions in different languages. Obviously, I have a different system of prioritising so that pictures and playing child is more worth to remember:)

Anyhoo, I can definately say that Brussels should be visited by anybody who is coming to Belgium. I promise that I will grasp more information and keep it when we go an the 29th of March to see the European institutions.

I give it another try

Well guys, I think I have to overcome my not existing internet connection and try to find other ways to update my blogside. I will be as much as possible in my favorite cafe called 'Vooruit', not because it is very cosy but because it has wireless lan!


Alright then, lets start with the pleasant part of life. As some of you might know I went to Brussels on Thursday a week ago. I realized that there are actually more chocolate places existing in Belgium than I ever had thought of. Amazing!! I am so glad that I am not staying in Brussels. From my story "Cup of Coffee" you should have experienced that I am already struggling with the little pieces of chocolate served with coffee. But having the all these shops at every secong block would definately not work for my willpower neither for my body. This has nothing to do with sweets anymore. Look at the prictures I took! It's jewelry!

My favorite donkey, funny monkeys and Volker:)

Sorry Volker, but I have to admit that I fell in love with this donkey! He was just sooo cute. Look!, the way he was cuddling with me:)..
But let's start the story from the beginning on. I spent a beautiful day in the Nuremburg's zoo with Volker. The sun was shining the whole day!!! (I tried to absorb as much as I could in order to take some sunshine to Gent, but unfortunately it did not work out since the first day back in Belgium started with rain again. Damn it!)

I have not observed animals for ages.
It was so much fun to watch the monkeys and just
laugh about them. I actually felt like laughing about myself 'cause their gestures and even some mimics are so similiar to our human ones.
Isn't it nice to have many generations living togehther at one place? Did you recognize the grandparents, parents and kids? Don't worry I didn't neither;) But I wanted to show this nice picture where the monkeys appear like a great family sticking together...

I know that I should not mentioned Volker and me in the last part of my small report, but I was so excited about the animals like a little kid. Nuremburg was like holiday: sleeping in, waking up and having Volker at my side, cooking together, laughing together - just enjoying every minute with him. I could talk about many highlights of my weekend but one of the best was the professional massage I went to with Volker shortly before I had to leave Nuremburg. Finally I got what my parents and my sister had lots of
times in Thailand!!

A cup of coffee

Look at this: Belgiums try to make up the lack of normal milk with some nice chocolate and egg liqueur!! Indeed, it is still draining me that I cannot get a Latte Macchiato anywhere in Gent, but I can get used to it to have some chocolate instead:) The liqueur I just drink to numb my sorrows....

Most beautiful candleholder

I just want to demonstrate one of the world's best improvisational candleholders. Of course, it was not my idea! Pat, you are a genius..

The weather sucks!

I thought German weather can be horrible, but what we experience in Gent currently is even worse! The weather just doesn't even give you a slight chance of predicting it for a few hours. You can google it and try to be clever - nevertheless, it will fool you. It says rain in the news, but the day starts nicely with sunshine and you think: "Great, lets go for a walk!" Wrong decision!! Cirsumstances in Gent can turn around in minutes and you'll end up coming home completely wet, and for good reasons you did not consider to take an umbrella with you.

What are Belgian hospitals like?

They are old (would you expect something different in Gent?), they are grey - mixed with some brownish- and confusing through too may doors. But they are multinational! Of course, everyone was speaking English when we entered the hopsital plus the nurse was serving Pat in Spanish a bit later - not to forget the German words every Belgian knows!
Anyhoo, I actually wanted to start explaing why we spend our time answering stupid questions, reading French and Dutch magazine in the "Wachtkammer" instead of doing some nice sight seeing in Gent, having a coffee and visiting the market as originally planned. (For all Germans: "Wachtkammer" sounds frightening but is just the "Wartezimmer":)

Pat had some pain in her big toe whist putting pressure on her foot during walking. On Sunday she rarely made it through her tiny room and therefore decided to see a doctor. I mentioned before the stupid questions we had to answer in the hospital. I am refering to the nurse who truely ask Pat whether the pain might come from the shoes she was wearing. I did not doupt the competence of Belgian nurses before, but at this moment my attitude just turned around. Especially when they discovered through an x-ray photograph that Pat's foot was indeed broken!

We could not believe it, nor could Pat!

Spain, Latvia, Germany and Cherry Beer!

After visiting Laura from Spain the one evening I decided to have a look at the apartment of Latvian Laura together with Spanish Laura and Pat. This time the Spanish girls were more creative in cooking and introduced us to Tortilla de Patatas (what other European people like me would just call an Omelette). Anyway, it was really good and if I get the chance to use a real kitchen (maybe at Volker's new place in Munich, which is supposed to be awesome) I'll try the new style of egg-and-potato-mix.
Coming back to what I actually wanted to do, namely making some comments on my favorite Belgium drink so far. I have never really been a fan of beer and therefore been one of a few that could not follow the beer-drinking-tradition of Bavaria. I kind of changed my mind since I got to know the cherry beer in Gent. I know that this statement will attract the anger of the many old-fashioned beer drinkers which may consider the red cans on the picture not a true beer, but I don't care! I make myself a beer drinker! Laura from Latvia (the blond girl) and Pat gonna join me.

Juli's Room

This is it!! My tiny but cosy room.
There not a lot of space for moving around, but for that I can use the streets of Gent. And I actually save money by not buying a blue tooth head set. Mine has a 2.5 meter cable and absolutely does its work! If you are good in calculating you'll have the size of my Belgium home;)

My first Spanish dinner:)

Friday night I cought up with Pat and Laura from Spain to have dinner together. It does not need a lot to discover that Spaghetti is not what you would call a real Spanish food. We just wanted to start off with the simpliest dish to prepare in order to give us the opportunity to improve in cooking.
Still, I had to explore that cooking attitudes are a lot different. As I remember I can get stressed whilst preparing a dish. In contrast, the Spanish girls took their time for chatting and did not care at all that the Spaghetti have been al dente already. Being a German girl, I am concerned about the time management in the kitchen. It is actually hard work to figure how much time each part of the dish will need to be ready for serving. Everything has to be finished simultaneously, am I right? ...
I thought so until yesterday! I was quite sceptical, though, since the Spaghetti had to wait a while to merge with the sauce. Surprisingly, there was no difference in taste. Maybe, I just did not realize since I was reallyyyy hungry....:)

That's a Belgium waffle! Or you better call it a whole-day-meal! It does not leave any space for other food at all for the rest of the day once you ate it. You know, i like sweet stuff, but biting the pure sugar and being reminded with every single bite to gain weight is not what I enjoy. So, I still try to find the perfect Belgium sweets for me. I'll let you know!

Damn! Wasn't winter supposed to be over??!

This morning I could not believe that is was snowing like crazy!! When I picked up Pat from Spain on the way to university I told her that it was snowing because she hadn'd had a look outside at this time. When she opened the door, she was stunning: "It is snowing?!". "Yes Pat, I told you!":)

Welcome Gent!

It was definately to early! I arrived in Brussels at 8:35 am in the morning. Hopping on the train to Gent gave me a first impression of Belgium. It seemed that everything I passed was old; either houses, streets or simply the train stations. How charming!, I thought:)

Gent was presenting itself in the best manner. It was sunny all day long which made me enjoy walking around in the city. From the first moment I liked Gent very much. I say "very much" consciously because I still want to give it the chance to upgrade to "absolutely wonderful".

But have a look yourself!!