Love Machine

My science experiment kitchen. I find the most interesting things in there, today there is a marinating dish of something on the table, and I really couldn’t tell you what it is or was…some kind of slab, or something which I’m not even sure was alive once or not. The Spaniard also likes to have large chunks of flesh in tinfoil left on the top of the fridge, I also share a fridge with her so it’s chalk full of meaty…somethings.

Okay, well I have my fair share of experiments too... and my French roommate who happens also to usually be high on something or rowdy with the Spaniards at 4:30 always seems to walk in at the climatic part of my disaster and proceeds to tirelessly make fun of me for it. Luckily for him, the only thing he eats are frozen superstore pizzas. I’m actually not kidding, every night there’s one or two pizzas in the oven. Every night. I’ve never seen him eat anything else, I think someone should call an intervention.

So my latest creation is some sort of casserole on naan bread...which seems to be oozing much more than expected (especially considering I’m trying to eat it like pizza). I was grocery shopping today and was intrigued by the spongy, squeaky qualities of the eggplants, not to mention the colour…hot damn. So I get an eggplant, along with a friendly zucchini and bring them home with me.

Another quick comment on our kitchen, our knives…they’re so atrociously dull they probably couldn’t cut a plastic bag (I came up with this analogy as I was trying to use it, but I admit to honestly having no idea how difficult cutting a plastic bag would be, and there is such varying thicknesses as well, I’m sorry for any confusion) To give you an idea of how one must operate these knives, I’ll use the example of the tomato that I added to my umm…let’s call it ‘dinner’ for giggles. Okay so I had this tomato (one of the more ovally ones, so it certainly wasn’t like I was trying to go after one of those dastardly cherry tomatoes or something) To cut this little creature, I firstly have to puncture it to get an opening started, and then I can somewhat saw around the edge and work my way in. At times however it gets to the point of wild slashing aimed at the cutting board. Luckily if I were to hit anything at all with the knife, there would be no damage (similar to flailing with a fly swatter…though I don’t recommend that one). I also learned the unequivocal joy of “cutting” eggplants. It reminded me of slicing into a very very tiny whale. I admit to not doing that too often, but if you get the chance, practice on some eggplants first.

So it turns out I’m so intrigued with these natural eruptions of sweet spongy whale fleshy bags of joy that I’m going to try to see what I can do with them. Unless you have a very good reason why I shouldn’t- such as the case with brussel sprouts, which I was until recently very unaware of the hospitalizing qualities of them- be forewarned! And no, it wasn’t me who was hospitalized, or you would have a full fledged description of the pastel everything’s and odd smells and I have no doubt I could have a heyday describing the food, and to answer your question, yes the individual with the brussel sprout…incident is now back home and has the sprout gods cursing down acid rain upon their unsuccessful bodily raid.

In other news…it’s really (sailor mouth) beautiful here. Holy (sailor mouth) wow gosh dang. I spent the bulk of my day, besides going to the bank, and grocery shopping, at the park. I actually think I’ve found paradise. You know all of those famous for no reason classical paintings by all those dead white guys (description geared towards those who didn’t just do 3 years of excruciatingly painful art history, as well as those who did), well I found what they were painting, and it’s only about a 7 min walk from my front door (in the other direction of the canal right outside my front door). So I packed up my art supplies and canvas, which very conveniently fits in my tripod case and trucked on down to the park. My only other real experience with the city park was during the torrential downpour during the bicycle story…so it wasn’t the most positive one in the world. So yeah. Beauty. So I lay there for a good few hours drawing the flowers and sculptures around me and when necessary, positioned myself as though I was drawing the continual stream of lusty couples enough to make them awkward and to leave…heh…I found it relatively entertaining and seemed more socially acceptable than making violent dry heaving noises, though despite out language barrier, it may have gotten the message across as well. Needless to say though, I think I’ve found myself a comfortable working space for the next few months.

I have another confession. I’m not sure what the first one was, but I won’t be presumptuous to call this my first one. Oh damn, I forgot what it was. Give it second….yes! There it is- internet! My confession is that my internet is down and that’s why I’m writing such an eloquently and girthy post. Which defeats the purpose of having no internet because I need it to post my ramblings. So I’m sorry, it didn’t get this long from pure love for whomever is reading it, though good chances if you are reading it, I think you’re special. Especially you…yeah..you. *wink*

In more exciting news, it’s laundry day! And wow am I stretching this post into oblivion. Though I promise this topic is worthwhile. Sort of. My replacement shoes are. Another one of those ‘something is causing Robekkah pain, therefore she’s going to write about it so you can laugh at her’ moments. It’s these damn flo flog whatever they are, making me walk like a cat on something really prickly and cold…like a frozen sea of hedgehogs. You know those stupid looking foam shoe things that erupted into popularity a few years ago? Well my mother, bless her got me a pair in case I had particularly raunchy public showers to use here from the infamous Welk Mart in Vernon. A brief description for anyone not experienced in the Welk Mart experience. Chaos. Cheap, cheap chaos. It’s wonderful, and smells something like what I imagine a Chinese factory to smell like, and has EVERYTHING you don’t need. For example these foot apparatuses. They fit fine and are cute enough to look like I just stepped into a pile of gelatinous black space goo but my problem here is that I washed my little cloud slippers (black fuzzy clouds…but with no clouds…they’re just black fuzzy slippers) and in the process of washing them and as I wait for them to dry out on my radiator, I’m stuck with…these. My boggle (issue) is that whomever decided to design them, added for extra convenience little spikes to the bottom of the shoe. Not the bottom one walks on, noo but the part your foot sits on…yes we’re pretending feet can sit for the moment. Okay so there is painful spikes stabbing me in the feet, perhaps I just have particularly wussy feet but I’m not thrilled with this experience!! All of my socks are also wet, so I don’t have any extra padding…tough life I know. Hence the whole frozen hedgehog thing earlier….

I also found a tiny hovel last night and made t-shirts with a bunch of very lovely ladies...and now have two new (Free!!!) shirts!

Anyways. I’m sure you have something better to do by now, so I’ll leave you with a few of my titled “love machine” photos…enjoy~

Short and Sweet

Well I got myself another free room. And continual free rooms in London actually whenever I wish. Go me! Making friends is a good thing.

I currently however find myself in a tiny strange bar type thing in Dortmund Hauptbahnhof (main station) listening to Ricky Martin and being the only person in the bar besides two old regulars it seems and two less than thrilled waitresses who have seemed to warmed up to me (aka stopped glaring) and gave me a vegetarian version of something with bratwurst but without…which turned out to be only bread and cheese however they thoughtfully threw in a quarter of a tomato, three cucumber slices and four radish slices. Mmmm….lunch. I also need to find myself a way back to Hamburg. I have a train ticket, but it was much more expensive than previously hoped, so the plan was to find an internet connection (why I’m in this strange little place) and carpool it over home for cheap and still having a one way ticket back here to do the same later …however it’s 3:30 already after some doodling this morning and considering I didn’t have to pay for any of the places I slept in…I may give in and use the expensive ticket instead of making two tickets out of it. Sometimes I think I’m too cheap. Then again I won’t tell you how much I just spent on material. But I got a wicked deal…so this weekend was an entire disaster as far as the actual event and expo went (no one showed up) But I made some awesome contacts, friends and well generally had fun, and also got to perform twice….anyways…I need to wrangle myself a train…and attempt digesting this cheese…..*gurgle* and yeah…finishing my essay as well…of course….hehe.

You inspire me, Mr.Frumble.

I think I have really spastic planets. Or they’re feeling guilty for the week I just had. They should feel guilty…the planets…yes. I wrote my dear mother an email last week and it ended up being about an entire page thing after thing that had happened to me that day that made it equal Mr. Frumbles Worst Day Ever. For those of you who are missing out on Mr.Frumble, well he’s a sweet little pig with a pickle car and worms for friends. I’m glad we got that cleared up.

I do admit I had a pretty unfortunate morning but things seem to have turned a tiny corner.I was pondering whether to go or not to Dortmund this weekend after the news about my essay (yes, it’s on it’s way…I’m umm…taking a break) but I had already bought my train ticket and well I work better when I’m out of the house anyways…less things to clean and procrastinate with. This morning however I managed to break my power adaptor (meaning I can’t plug in my laptop or anything else from north America that needs an outlet) and when it snapped and I got umm…zinged lets call it, it also blew the rest of my sockets so I’m looking forward to not having any light when I go back home.

Anyways I manage to whip together food for the next week in about 10 min..okay…so food for a day with the day I eat, and shuffle myself out the door trying to convince myself this isn’t the worst idea in the world and I’ll survive despite my ranging hateful and mischievous planets. They’re actually getting all the blame. So I get to the train station with half an hour to spare before my train, in that time I speed walked to find myself an adaptor (how I did that I’m still not entirely sure, they’re hard little suckers to come by), and made it back for these LogenBretzels things that I’m entirely addicted to from this one place in the main station (well they’re everywhere actually) but these ones have the perfect amount of salt on them, are only .60cents and are kept warm so they’re soft and ohhhhhhhh soooooo gooooooood. I make it to Dortmund, a city of about half a million, and well turns out it is sort of grey and ultra consumer land with it’s famous shopping district.

Okay well I made it there after being seriously and very intensely glared at for about three hours of my trip by this woman in the other set of seats across the aisle but facing my direction. A brief unintentionally judgmental character sketch (though one does pass slight judgment after being mutilated with eye daggers): I’d say mid forties, dyed hair with half root and half very obviously not natural blonde, Caucasian, glasses, oversized pink, brown and green horizontally striped shirt over a particularly substantial figure. Taking 1.3 seats substantial. Across from her, from what I gathered and him calling her mother, was her son, I’d say 16? On the duration of our trip, she whipped out three hefty sandwiches from her bag and they visited the on train restaurant once. So you can have an idea of the ummm…girth of her son. A lot of my character studies through drawing or writing are more disheartening than one would think. I find the most interesting people however so many don’t seem to be particularly joyful. But what do I know, I just watch. As much as I love people watching a lot of it does nothing more than give me more sympathy for the human condition and more of an understanding as to how little I know. So yeah….I got some good glare action…every time I looked up from my crocheting or essay I was met with what I interpreted as burning hatred…but well…what do I know, I just watch.

Speaking of characters, before I moved on to my Dortmund ramblings, Thursday proved to be particularly interesting. Because I had not known about something and had to go to this tiny but stunning part of town I had never been to before, and because it took forever to get my insurance whatnot paperwork done and it happened to be a absolutely gorgeous day and I decided to do a detour before heading back to the U-Bahn and because (I know this is going to be an absurdly long sentence) I decided to turn around and splurge on lunch at a cute little thai café (okay it was only 4 euros, but I don’t like to dine out) and I went to sit outside that I met another person I very much enjoyed. It was yet again one of my right place, right time things. I won’t go on much about them because I really have gotten sidetracked for at least a page here, however they’re completely intriguing and have some really interesting people, places and things that I really look forward to looking into, and to make my Hamburg experience even more diverse and meaningful. I also think I have a lot to learn from them, but forward march here, back to


Well, I had a hostel I was planning to stay at despite their website not working I found quite good directions and made it there easily…however it seems to be closed….yeah…I don’t know either! So well it’s only about 15:00 so I suppose I have time to find a new place before it gets dark and I start cursing or feeling sorry for myself.

So hey- I have a phone! News –flash-! It was about 20 euros and feels like a tiny toy but hey it works! Despite the fact that I don’t know what it says because it’s all in German…So anyways, where I was going with this…I phoned up a photographer friend who is also down here for the same do (same deal as in Essen more or less) and asked her what she was up to and she delightfully told me that well, her friend booked a room at a hotel with them but was unable to make it here until tomorrow….so I get it for free.

Honestly…this hotel room is bigger than my entire apartment, kitchen, living space and bedroom included...(minus the 5 other roommates) with a bathtub! Fridge! Microwave! What seem like leather couches! A bar! Well you get the point…so I’m staying in this mansion of hotel room and feeling rather princessly. I even had a bath adorned with shampoo for bubbles! It was quite nice until my bubbles popped and I remembered I was soaking in my own filth. I suppose it can’t be THAT bad…it is my own filth at least. Floating filth… Okay…I’m done with that.

Internet I’ve also discovered, as I did at my previous hotel stay is absurd. Ahhh yes 12 euros for one hour. Or hey- 33 for 24 hours! So I went to an ice cream shop and stole wandering internet signals. Borrowed. Yes…borrowed. The good thing is though I end up typing away in word documents rather than flipping through my millions of open tabs diddling about. Good for me, bad for you. Hehe.

I think of so many clever things to write on here in my daily life I’m in constant blog description mode, but at least it makes life half entertaining to me at times. I suppose it doesn’t say much…because well I think they’re clever and I’m easily entertained…. More pictures anyone?

Ahhh yeah…more boats…I failed to mention I went on a boat trip umm…last weeknd? Weekend before? Who knows anymore really…yes two weekends ago, when the time change was...there was this thing with stuff organized by people but I showed up an hour late because well I had no idea, there was three others (exchange students as well) who were in the same boat too (AHH ha ha ha aha….I’m so funny) with missing the change so we all had a little adventure together that ended somewhere in a tiny village wandering the streets in the pitch black watching people through their windows. I may even steal a photo from good ol’ facebook from one of them just to umm…document the experience for you?

Boat.

More boat.

Boat boat.

Humans.

Our party included: María Elena Fernández Millares (Spain), Steven Coene (Belgium) and Mihaela Nita (Romania)boat.
Boat rope.
More boat.
...

Stabby Hamburger Oatmeal...and some love too

The feeling when your butterflies all start stabbing each other with the nearest sharp object they can find, I seem to be in that state these days. It’s funny how the things furthest away are the ones that you can't escape from and cause the most angst. Okay..well not really funny funny…but you know…funny. Funny like oatmeal that’s so old it makes you dry heave. Alright….I’m sorry…I’m not being very delightful here I know. Here’s the deal-i-o…I have a paper. A paper that decides if I get into my fourth year or not. A paper, that is twenty pages long. A paper which my professor failed to tell me the date because well he's leaving and doesn't give an airborne rodents hindquarters. A paper I just found out about yesterday which is due on umm…lets see…Monday. So yeah….four days. UBCo...I'm going to do terrible things to you in your sleep. This paper also doesn’t have a topic. Something about art…something ideas and VWaaaLA: the most masterfully written though provoking piece of my lifetime about to revolutionize the way the world thinks about art! Yeah…not quite. So okay I’m a little tense. Though I did make myself a party dress last night and go to a tea party. Yes, with other humans…very funny.

So I’m very aware it’s been eons since writing last on here, and yes, I’m terrible person I know I know, I’m sorry, my words aren’t worthy of being met with your glance etc etc.

Alright, now that I have that out of my system, lets all do a fun activity. Everyone who despises banking systems enough to run away to the woods with me, or possibly a pirate ship put up your hands! Okay…so maybe the vigorously stabbing butterflies have also made me a bit delirious…although the best part with an imaginary audience, everyone raised their hand! Except that punk in the back…and probably my mother too…we need to have a chat. (love you mom!)

There’s still a few good things happening in Canada apparently though. For one, my sweet, amazing (insert compliment x100) Grandmother had her 90^th birthday on the weekend. I mentioned in a previous post about sending a little something special to someone special, well it was her, and I sent her a teddy bear. A Steiff teddy bear actually which our family apparently started in Germany eons ago…anyways I’m sure you’re all at the edges of your seat reading this…ahhhh yes…what is she going to say about the teddy bear next?! Sorry to burst your bubble…nothing actually, just wanted to shout out to one of the hands down most amazing people I’ve ever met, and well without her, I wouldn’t be half the person I am today (which also implies that I’m more than half a person which is a good thing too).

Speaking of incredible people, it was also my grandfathers birthday on April 1^st so I wrote him a birthday message as well, resulting in teariness but well, he’s much more adamantly anti-self celebration, so I’ll keep this small even though he’s also hands down one of the most amazing people I’ve ever met as well and has taught me an incredible amount about life. He’s one of those people I can never get enough of being around because I feel like I have so much to learn from him and yeah…I miss him to bits too.

Okay teariness…moving on here…

I was going to write about all the people I’m around…my roommates in particular because well I’ve got quite the fleet of characters around me, not to mention school and my professors! Ahh yes…forgot to mention, I’m also at school now…that is the whole reason I’m here of course, ahh haha….not just to escape everything in Canada…yes…study…school. I have three classes. I’m such an overachiever I know, I know, thank you, thank you. I should get an award. I only had to take two classes, so well technically I am doing more than I need to but I have one fashion, a drawing class and a costume course. Tough life I know! My goodness I get sidetracked easily. But yes, I’m going to save my delightful character studies for another day here and do what I can to stop procrastinating and write something…but maybe vacuum and make some food first…I could use to do some laundry too…ooo and clip my toenails…my hair is also wayyyyyy too long, I feel like a very scruffy hippy…

And yeah…more pictures…

Arbitrary building I found one day...nothing special apparently

Somebody's castle...with two moats...decorative I'm sure

There was someone actually sitting on the slope fishing...I nearly felt like a paparazzi tourist

A bridge over the smaller moat before it poured rain on us