The whereabouts

Procrastination Station

2010-08-29T08:35:00.000-07:00

Well apparently it's nearly been a year. I admit lots has happened and I even find myself in entirely new city surroundings now..aka Berlin.
I good excuse would be that I haven't really stayed in one spot in the past few months, but that also raises the question of how I could be visiting such exotic and interesting places and not sharing my mischief with the world!?
Portugal called in Feb...a cold rainy but wonderful trip in short
Feb and March...the Italian countryside in an Art monastery was the name of the game
April-July: Holy Cow India! Well dang...it was excellent. I did much writing and will probably post my adventures on here as well to get an "E" for Effort.
Upon my return I spontaneously moved to Berlin mid July and a month and a half later I've secured myself a new apartment and will be moving in a few days.
It's short and sweet but it will have to do for now!

2009-11-10T08:28:00.001-08:00

2009-11-10T08:20:00.000-08:00

Hibernation is an appropriate term. I still do things sometimes though...an update includes same ol' circus training, painting here and there, cooking, photoing, the odd little trip, preparing to start writing my final thesis and wallowing in the tides of uncertain futures...how poetic. I still can't decide if I should run away to the circus or a monastery.
Canada calls for another Christmas visit, and I admit I'm relatively giddy about the whole prospect...
Anywhoodles...that's enough of a sign of life as far as I'm concerned...I'm a terribly unreliable blog writer...

Immer Zeit

2009-11-09T08:18:00.000-08:00

Possible

2009-06-13T14:13:00.001-07:00

Finding Kindness

2009-06-10T12:31:00.001-07:00

Some lovely thoughts from my mother...

My belief was that kindness

was the territory of the timid

belied by their martyrdom.

My belief was that kindness

was the tool of the rich

to flaunt their superiority.

My belief was that kindness

was a prescribed social nicety.

Turns out - I was wrong.

The Dalai Lama says,

My religion is kindness.

It was the kindness of strangers

that started it.

Random acts and sweet surprises

that made me realize

The world's machinations are

greased by generosity.

Turns out - that to realize a truth

at times it needs to be

out of context.

The Dalai Lama says,

My religion is kindness.

Then it was the self-view

that cemented it.

Discovering that kindness for oneself

can be the most difficult

for this North American soul.

Kindness that cuts through contempt

to provide warm relief and release.

Turns out - that repeated applications of kindness

gentles the mind.

The Dalai Lama says,

My religion is kindness.

Turns out -

Kindness is a force

and

Peace is it's twin.

Turns out -

Kindness creates potential

for love of ourselves

and

love by others.

Turns out -

Kindness is a necessity

on the road to freedom.

The Dalai Lama says,

My religion is kindness.

Hairfull

2009-06-09T16:27:00.000-07:00

I've decided until I get my eloquence with the English language a bit more rejuvenated, I will supplement my blog with new photos...never seen before on the internet!

Astroturfer

2009-06-07T05:20:00.000-07:00

Baque

2009-06-06T12:45:00.000-07:00

Well Berlin was lovely, more on that later...

Brrrliner

2009-05-26T11:40:00.000-07:00

Next Performance !

See me here as well making trouble for Blacklickorish Latex

The time of day

2009-05-10T07:31:00.000-07:00

Well I suppose I haven't really updated the world (whoever happens upon my page really) in my recent activities as of late...aka, what I actually DO on a regular basis.
I'm in my third? month of German classes here, and doing intensive classes, so everyday for 5 hours, and then usually going to University after that and umm...that's about it really. As of April also I've been spending far too much time at the gym, and I'm sure I'll write something nice and descriptive about the gym "type" as well...aka the people I come into contact with on a regular basis there. Let's just say there is FAR too much testosterone in the building. I'm still doing as much circus as possible and also have a performance coming up in Berlin...I will post that goodness separately, and probably next. I've also made myself a new website (don't run off and check it yet, hold yourself!) because I decided that I didn't like it and am remaking it all, but in flash this time, so I have about a third left to go and will let you know when it happens, or at least I'll let you know eventually! Probably sooner rather than later due to my excitement over it. I've also started taking singing lessons again which is nice, and have a fantasy of being a lounge singer. Possibly on a cruise ship.
Another fun fact is that I just finished a Master Cleanse. So I get to start eating tomorrow again after 15 days of drinking lemon juice, maple syrup and cayenne pepper, as well as my protein drinks just to make sure I didn't loose any of my massive hulking muscles. It's been an experience, much easier than expected but I'm discouraged to write about it due to the overwhelming amount of text and experiences posted all over the internet, I'm frankly bored to death of everyone and their damn personal experiences...so I won't write my own. Maybe later.
I've decided I need to do more writing in order to preserve those moments every so often in life in which you wish to relive...but well, that can wait for now, my balcony and the sun are calling me first.

Easter Feaster

2009-04-20T07:13:00.000-07:00

Here we are yet again, and I'll do what I can to catch up with this amazingly productive and exciting life I lead here (not an OUNCE of sarcasm here...)
So yet another sacrificing and reviving of good ol' Christ has occurred, and I went down to Fetish Evolution in Essen to celebrate and spend some time with the darling Engineers of Desire (www.engineers of desire) from London.
Just a few photos back from the thang...I admit I was quite reclusive and spent most of the time in the pool/sauna/steam room in the hotel and didn't really DO a whole lot but I did hang out with Thomas Adorff aka Beauty of the Abyss Photography (www.BeautyOfAbyss.com) and here's some of the results...clothing from EOD and myself..

Cas from EOD and myself showing off her wears

From the models and makers whatsit

Return... to sender

2009-03-01T07:09:00.000-08:00

It's been exactly a year...I've kept my promise of slacking off considerably, but well, perhaps I can muster something up here in the next little while to keep the world updated, because I know it's very much a dire piece of knowledge!

Zirkus

2008-08-19T09:57:00.001-07:00

Well as you've heard, I'm living/working/playing at a circus...soooo I thought I'd give some visuals....enjoy~ entrance!

The bar in the restaurant

The front of the restaurant

The side of our practice tent

The kiosk! (where the sweet popcorn and candy lives)

On the right is the main performance tent, and the left, our eating/social tent.

On the right- eating tent, on the left- performance tent, big blue in the middle, is the training tent!

From a performance we did:
Left to right....Christopher, Leoni, Me, Neele and Gregor

Hair!!

Dis.place.ment

2008-07-29T11:39:00.000-07:00

One tiny action, which seemed more like common sense to me seemingly was a bit of a politically risqué move apparently. Things in internet land are incredibly irrelevant and comically inexistent, however creates such a stir regardless.

My incredible crime is that I joined a group, on facebook no doubt, in support of Canadians against the NAU. The Nihilistic Advocacy Utopia. Or was it the Nutella Action in Uruguay?

Ahh silly me. Okay okay, it was the North American Union being the acronym. I have yet to be completely revealed to as to why there was the fuss against me protesting the agenda of the corporate/financial/military elite of North America planning to unify Canada, USA, and Mexico into a new continental block with a fancy new border around the perimeter of North America. To put it in short that is. Not to mention the shiny new military plans etc. and while none of it is democratic to begin with. If/when I do find out what the fuss is about, I’m sure I’ll let you know.

Could it be that after moving to Germany, I need to give up my identity as a Canadian, and because I’m lumped into the generic whole of North America as it is while I’m here, what’s the difference between Canada and the US anyways? And just add in Mexico because they’re cheap labour. It’s time for me to drop my u’s, my new colours, whoops…colors are yet to be defined. Red probably….umm….white and who knows what else.

I admit I continue to have tiny identity crises since being here. I’ll never be German, (well…unless I decide to be incredibly dedicated and not leave for the next decade and give up my Canadian citizenship of course) and yet I don’t know when Canada will be my home again. Then again a country doesn’t define who you are, but it can be a good place to start. Don’t we all need something to hold on to? I seem to have let go, and I’m not entirely sure where or if I’ll land. Oh how deep.

It is true though, being displaced from everything I’ve ever known and the decision to live here has made me more self reflective than I ever remember being. I have opportunities and choices that I never had to deal with before. Join a circus? Not an option, so don’t dream about it. Anyways. I’m going to the beach. And discovering myself.

You seem to have a Sylt infection.

2008-07-27T04:34:00.000-07:00

Well. Here we are. I seem to write that far too often. News news. Well. (un)Luckily for you I’ve had a few blog worthy experiences between last night and this afternoon. After a week and a half of living at the circus, (thanks to those of you who cared to notice by the way) I find myself with less exciting news than well one would seem, living at a circus and all. So here’s the scoop. Besides the fact that I could seriously indulge in some sort of icy creamy substance at the moment. Weather report by the way. I’m feeling a little bit ADD in terms of writing as you’ll soon notice. Weather report! Who doesn’t love to talk about the weather? I know you do. It’s funny how it’s the worst excuse for a conversation we have. That, and how long my hair is. And Brittney spears. But more on her later.

Okay. So the first week I was here, we had torrential downpours everyday. Cold, torrential downpours with thunder, and rain so loud it wakes everyone up in the middle of the night threatening to claw through the roof and instead actually just pooling up so much it finds the cracks and slowly drips a few inches away from your head as you sleep causing you to wake up in a mildly damp pond of ceiling/roof whatever rainwater. So we moved luckily. We as in myself and the three girls I’m sleeping with. Well, not sleeping with in…umm…sleeping with like sleeping in the same room together, not together, together…(unfortunately). Anyways! These storms were so extraordinary that when you look out the window, there is no longer rain, it’s more or less just all water falling from the sky. Well that’s what rain is. Obviously. What I’m talking about is the effect of standing under a swimming pool. Alright, so this swimming pool is suspended, and you happen to be under it as whatever was holding all that water up decides to disappear. This was not rain, this was the North Sea being relocated. Seriously. I’ve never witnessed something like this before. This was a very regular occurrence and I was starting to think that I had just moved to an island for the summer where I will be wearing my winter jacket for the entire duration. Today however, it’s decided to be +35. Nice breeze, blue sky, cloudless. Of course the sky is blue, irrelevant…would it change colours on an island of northern Germany? Well...actually…

Okay. So what else. Actually, what spurred me to write in the first place was my Friday night. Last night actually. Well, think of Germany. Not large lederhosen wearing, accordion playing men with absurd facial hair drinking beer and bratwurst, but rather the geographical blob that is the Germany. Now Germany, go up to the very top and you’ll meet the Danish border (you learn something new everyday) Under this border, about an hour away on the coast you have chunk of “anchor shaped” land suspended in the North Sea, completely and utterly self obsessed, to nearly a fetish but I’ll get to that later. Okay so on this tiny, I mean, miniature chunk of land, one can drive from the top to the bottom in less than an hour- that kind of tiny. On this flea of geography, there is the main village of Westerland, outside of Westerland is another village, Wenningstedt beside that village is where I live. Today however there was some sort of deal happening in the village outside the village. For those who are familiar with the shanty of Lumby, you may relate to this. There was a yearly summer event in the villiage of Wenningstedt today, in which I was actually asked to perform in with the circus, and would have been happy to do so if they had not asked me to do so last night. Anyways. This was worse than Vernon. Worse as in only one bad waterclour stand to look at instead of four, and the usual gem collectors, bored elderly making crafts out of bizarre things etc etc. It was quite the party. A party nearly half a block long. A party with the average age or 60, sort of like where I went last night, but we’ll get to that. I did however learn some fun facts while looking Wenningstedt up on good ol’ wikipedia though. Wenningstedt is known for the red cliff and the Denghoog stone grave, a walk-in grave made of huge stone walls from 3000 BC (fun fact, I can see the Denghoog from the door of my trailer). Sylt (the island), which occupies an area of 38 square miles (99 square km), is connected by rail with the mainland via the 7-mile- (11-km-) long Hindenburgdamm (causeway). A magnificent beach extends along the smooth west coast, where the Red Cliffs of glacial moraine rise to nearly 100 feet (30 metres). The island is dotted with prehistoric megalithic tombs and other structures. Blah blah blah, also symptoms include being suffocated in Sylts self absorption, trampled by massive, looming, obnoxious and absentminded tourists, drowned in overpriced everything, sneezing, painting your white picket fences whiter once a week and joining a circus. Funny how things work out eh? Prehistoric megalithic tombs don’t have to eat the same bean salad for lunch everyday at least. I’ll be so full of absurd glee when I’m able to cook for myself once again…food with real flavours and all sorts of crazy things.

So it turns out that you’re going to have to wait like the patient little audience that you are for the next installment on the Friday night to remember due to my battery doing its little flashing dance thing. Ta~

Ner.d.

2008-07-11T09:37:00.000-07:00

Alright. Well I'm staying. Honestly. I was formally accepted to my school last week after an entrance exam, and I finished my final exhibitions yesterday so it's done. Somewhat like dinner. I start school again at the end of Sept and until then, I'm moving to a tiny island in Northern Germany called Sylt and working at a circus school teaching children. That about sums up life. I feel you need to be informed about my new found home, now that it's official. I'm also a nerd, and do this kind of stuff in my free time, and decided to post it instead of telling everyone my facts in person. Here we are.

Vernon to Hamburg:

68844.4 football fields
8.26132e+6 yards
152062 pools
4.43840e+6 smoots
1.64179e+7 πεχυα
4078.92 nautical miles
8.03650e-10 light years
1.39833e+7 black cubits

You can fit 27.96661821013329.....etc Germany's into Canada: 9,984,670 km² (Canada's size) 357,021 km² (Germany)

Canadas population: 33,315,000
Germany's population: 82,217,800

After Irish, Germans are the second biggest consumers of beer in the world. The average beer consumption of the country is 119 liters per person per year.
Angela Merkel, elected in the 2005 elections, is first woman chancellor of Germany (she's a big football fan too, heh)
Berlin became home to the biggest train station in Europe in the year 2006.
Football is the most popular sport in Germany and ‘The German Football Association’ is the largest association of its kind in the world.
German Autobahn is the oldest, and one of the densest, motorway networks in the world.
Germany...
became world’s first country to adopt Daylight Saving Time (DST), in the year 1916.
is a member of NATO, G8, G4 Nations and the European Union (EU).
is one of the few countries of the world where Holocaust Denial has been declared as a crime.
is the homeland of numerous renowned scientists and theorists. They include Albert Einstein, Max Plank and Werner Heisenberg.
is the largest economy, and the second most populous nation, of Europe.
In case of iron, steel, coal, cement, chemicals, machinery, vehicles, machine tools, electronics, food and beverages; shipbuilding and textiles, Germany is the largest producer in the world.
Many great philosophers of the world, like Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche and Heidegger, were German.
The tallest church in the world, Ulm Cathedral, is in Germany. It is 161.53 meters (530 feet) high.
The Wurzburg Residence of Germany boasts of housing the largest fresco ceiling in the world, measuring 7287 square feet and done by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, a Venetian painter.
World's most colorful caves (as per Guinness Book of Records), Fairy Grottoes, are in Germany.

Hamburg <3>Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (German: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg).

1,8 million inhabitants – second largest city in Germany
an average of 340.000 visitors per day
6,44 million overnight stays in 2005
20,7 million business dayly-visitors
8% of the city area are waterways
22% take up modern and historic park grounds
Hamburg is the third largest Musical city in the world

Me being silly:

Time Zone: GMT+1 ( daylight savings: GMT+2 )
Country Code ( telephone ): 49
Area Code: 40

Currently Hamburg has 79 museums.
Hambubrg has nearly 4o theaters.

41% of inhabitants are Christians, 10% of them being Catholics. Muslims (mostly Sunni) are 12% of the population. About 39% profess no religion. There are also large numbers of Hindus and Sikhs.

Hamburg is the birthplace of the Hamburger. This is not a myth. The beef patties a German immigrant from Hamburg sold in the 1850s in New York allegedly were named after the butcher and then became a generic term.

Hamburg is famous for kicking off the Beatles' musical career in the early 1960s. They often played at the Star Club located in the St. Pauli district.

Hamburg is the birthplace of Alsterwasser (a reference to the city's river Alster with two lake-like bodies in the city centre thanks to damming), a type of shandy, a concoction of equal parts of beer and carbonated lemonade (Zitronenlimonade), the lemonade being added to the beer and has me mildly enthralled.

The many canals in Hamburg are crossed by over 2500 bridges, more than Amsterdam and Venice ombined. Hamburg has more bridges inside its city limits than any other city or town on Earth.

Lastly but not least...

The longest German word verified to be actually in (albeit very limited) use is Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz. [which, literally translated, breaks up into: Rind (cattle) - Fleisch (meat) - Etikettierung(s) (labelling) - Überwachung(s) (supervision) - Aufgaben (duties) - Übertragung(s) (assignment) - Gesetz (law), so "Beef labelling supervision duty assignment law".]

*sigh* I'm in love.

Alright, so here we are and to finish this sucker off, I'm going to woo you with a few photos:

I didn't take any of these by the way, because I'm lazy and instead of editing mine, I decided to borrow...it gives a better idea of Hamburg...or something...I'm just being lazy...

Anyways, thanks to the lovely people on Flickr for lending their arts

THE Hamburg Beer...

Main Station

City Hall

If you take the train on the right, you'll get to my place.
Or take the left and transfer to U2 at Berliner Tor.

On the Harbour

Wired for weird

2008-06-30T14:45:00.000-07:00

Well it’s gotten to the point where you get so far behind something it’s intimidating to go back…I have been writing…just not umm…posting…

Far too much exciting news though…I realize I haven’t written about London, Berlin, Italy, my mothership visit, the cast on my arm, my last weekend with 50,000 people on an abandoned soviet air field, visa and school news as well as running away to the circus for the summer, while living on a little island. Anyways, all that can come later. Here’s a whatnot I wrote the other day and a picture I drew….fingers crossed for tomorrow!

You are weird.

Okay. ?

It’s funny how we brush past such glimpses of what it supposedly means to be part of this human race. I was sent the sweet little note of “You are weird” and of course I replied without much thought with a “I thought that was a given?”. The problem is though, weird. Why did I deem it as an insult? Probably because it was meant as one, however why. Is that really such a bad thing? It’s less about me being weird and more about the idea of our ability to make uniqueness such a terrible trait. But we knew that. I’m not saying anything new here, I’m very aware. What am I attempting to sputter out exactly? Or could it be another one of my momentary hits of reality. Momentary I promise you. I did spend a little while looking at the statement given to me though. You are weird. Of course, technically and denotatively meaning more to the supernatural, weird however usually in meant in such a way. It’s nice to think people think I’m ‘unearthly’ though, not quite the case. However, here I go again getting all ego wrapped up here, because really, it’s not about me. My point, that is, has less to do with me and instead what there is to be afraid of in something possessing something a bit out of the norm. Yes, of course artists are angsty and different and whatnot, we’re all tortured and the young ones are emo. Which in itself is contradictory due to the harder to try to be out of a group, the more you create one for yourself. But we already knew that. So what am I saying here? Well…who ever knows really…

Thanks for understanding.

2008-05-02T06:39:00.000-07:00

Well I arrived in London, and am never coming home. Thanks for understanding, and feel free to visit~

Love Machine

2008-04-22T14:02:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-18T13:53:00.000-07:00

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.

2008-04-13T11:25:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-10T09:06:00.000-07:00

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

Specialties

2008-03-27T07:35:00.000-07:00

Life is funny. Do you believe in fate? Things happening for a reason? Coincidences? I’m sure you’re all saying, geez…is she going to go on another one of her pseudo philosophical rants about purpose and whatever it is that she tends to rant about. If you had one question to be answered, what would it be? I may be questioning why exactly I’m sitting in my hotel room on a Saturday night watching Cuban salsa dancing competitions with German commentators…they have legs of steel honestly. So much for that pseudo philosophical rant…sorry about that. I do seem to be constantly overcome with coincidence and opportunity though. Does it happen to everyone, or do I just notice? I’m not one to say I’m particularly special, but it makes one wonder if they’re alone in their experiences. Which is silly of course, due to how many billions of tiny humans are living on this earth, there is no doubt it’s been done before, happened to someone else before and no, you’re not alone therefore making you special. Nice illusion though. I’ve been pondering a bit though about what I really want out of this whole life thing. I know what I’m striving for, I just don’t know why or what I want out of it. My goodness sorry for my funny little incident stories have now turned deep and thoughtful. And no I haven’t been drinking. Alright…so story for the day I guess, I’m in Essen and there’s a big runway show at the end of this weekend convention thing and like the little sneaker I am, I get myself into the model reception etc etc and get myself into a party last night convincing them I’m modeling for the show blah blah. So today I’m going to get myself a backstage pass because well…we all need one of those. I was heading down the stairs to find the guy in charge to fit me with a designer and give him some delightful story as to why I don’t have one already. On my way down the stairs a designer comes running up to me, and mistaking me for the shows stage director, Kumi ([namedrop] she’s an internationally acclaimed model who also happens to be bald but wears wigs all the time) Tells me that one of her models dropped out and needed me to find her a new one. Well I told her I wasn’t Kumi, but I was an available model, and well we all lived happily ever after, and I was able to bop along and get myself a backstage pass. The end- time for bed! Okay…and a few pictures…

More looming building...

More things on other looming building

Just a Hamburgian straße mit Haburgers

U Bahn is my friend!

Amung the Düsseldorfinarians

2008-03-25T14:25:00.000-07:00

Düsseldorfian? Düsseldorfite? Düsseldorfinarian. Yes that must be it. However I now find myself in Essen. With the Essenarians…Essenites. Well this I admit was a bit of a whim. I do believe it’s Easter or something of the sort this weekend…or as I was told yesterday by someone “Happy nailing!!”. Easter is actually a pretty big deal in Germany…and I find myself in Essen. Essen is quite small and an industrial sort of town. I stayed the night in Düsseldorf last night at a particularly sweet hostel after quite an entertaining day of discovering methods of transport. Apparently stand by doesn’t exist here by the way. It gets into quite the story of odd fate when I get into it because the only reason I didn’t have to pay an arm, leg and my firstborn was because of my roommate which was only because I had left my keys in my door when I left in the morning. So I had been at the airport discovering frightening prices and was on my way to the train station when I realized my keys were definitely missing in action. So here we go. Of course it’s raining (it’s always raining, and when it isn’t, it’s hailing) and I head home full of curse words and hope that they actually are in the door of my room. Saving you my story as to how I got in the building, they were in the door. My roommate was also there (Tite) But I found out it’s actually Coyte? Pronounced cthiyte? Who knows. Anyways there he is in his skivvies because no one else is home, and he just woke up (at 1pm by now) and so I told him my little story of the morning and he takes it on to find me a ride. There’s a website here which organizes carpools to other cities because not everyone drives here or owns a vehicle, and it’s mildly profitable for the drivers as well. So Tite decides to escort me there and buy me breakfast on the way (I’m really spoiled here) and help me find my ride. Driving was quite an average middle aged guy, and along for the ride there was a very vogue Asian girl in high heels to Milan and back, another middle aged white woman with an interesting face and a Turkish younger guy as well, and another guy who sat up front so I can’t give tantalizing details on him. The little problem here was there were only 4 seats for passengers, and five of us. The middle aged German woman was the last to come in, and well…she was the least likely candidate to sit on the floor. So being the nice whatever Canadian, I sit on the floor ( I think I would have been the only one to offer anyways…) So four hours later on the floor of a sort of mini van camping vehicle thing, I was in Düsseldorf. Beautiful actually. Their transit is absurdly complex though, and of course the first person I ask for help is deaf…but well, I make it where I’m going eventually: to a sweet little hostel which turned out to be very enjoyable. The hostel was beautiful actually, and it looked as though it was attacked by art students, with big painted walls, murals and posters complete with big wooden spiral staircase. I’d recommend it…if you’re in the area. So it was raining. Though Düsseldorf has a reputation for an absurdly bopping nightlife I decided to stay in and watch The Core? with a few others who were staying there…terrible movie by the way (it’s the one where they decide they need to drill into the center of the earth to save the world or something). Anyways there’s about fifteen of us bumming around and we get to talking, and it turns out that 4 of the other people there (all females actually) were Canadian. I swear these Canadians are everywhere…like a fungus…a pretty nice, peacekeeping fungus luckily. There were Italian guys, one Brazilian, three Americans, a guy from Hong Kong but living in England (I admit I don’t think I’ve met an Asian with an English accent before), and there was a smattering of a few others as well. I ended up hanging out with the Canadians/Americans the next day and we all went to a castle together which was quite delightful, and I got to hear all about their sex lives…lovely.

It seems to be ‘escort Robekkah’ weekend. No, not Escort Robekkah…but I’ve had a strangely large group of people taking me places (especially train stations). So I head to the main station in Düsseldorf and ask these little old ladies where it is. My German is good enough to ask and understand their directions, but one of them didn’t speak a word of English and decided to take me there, find my ticket for me and be a little strange about it all. She was quite sweet and round, and had these eyebrows…they were completely scratched on in black pencil in a ^ shape but still with floating eyebrow hairs surrounding the artistic forehead endeavor. So she took me around and actually wouldn’t leave me alone until she asked a man if he spoke English, it turns out he was south African and took quite the liking to me. She departed after apparently passing me off to this other fellow who I admit I wasn’t entirely sure about (part of that could have been the lacking of the bottom half of his two front teeth). Regardless though he decided to follow me around the train station and wait half an hour with me for my train to Essen, all the while being very excited to speak broken English to me. My train finally comes thank whatever! I make it to Essen and while asking a teller guy where to go, he informs me he can’t help me, but the man behind me says he can. So he escorts me to my next train and sits and talks with me for a while. Swedish I believe and at the same conference thing here this weekend. Well I haven’t even indulged as to why I’m actually even here. I found out last week there was this big event thing and conference for alternative models and photographers, clothing designers what have you happening here which I was asked to model for. A business trip of sorts… It turns out the most famous models etc are here in all their dressed up glory and even made friends with me. So here I am. Internet here is disgustingly expensive, so I’m going to wait before posting this and there may be another insurgence of story time on the end of this. But for now...I have a wild clothing exhibition to attend to….

The Mechanical Joy

2008-03-14T11:12:00.000-07:00

I know, it’s been a while. I’m terrible and have been awfully antsy this week and well I’m sure I could make up millions of delightfully believable excuses as to why I haven’t written more….because it’s one of my favorite things to do. Sometimes when walking somewhere, or especially when late for something I sit and ponder excuses, which later usually get used. Though recently (in the last day or so) I’ve been pondering as to what to write about (that’s really what took me so long) and I know I mentioned a whole bunch of things I was going to write on later, and thought I would describe the characters I’m living with, but instead I had one of my disturbingly comical experiences resulting in enough pain to give me some sympathy, but still make it an entertaining story.

So it all starts with this fuzzy little something, I’m going to reserve details in case the special someone to whom I sent the special thing to ends up reading this before actually receiving it….you’ll get the dirt in a later post, don’t you worry. I’m not hiding secrets from you, I promise. I wouldn’t do that to you. Hehe. Anways, I was going to head down to the post office. There’s one relatively close so I thought I would ask about a bike, because we have ones the building owns which you can rent for about a euro a week.

One of my roommates…Tite? Tight? Teit..? It’s pronounced Tight…so for sake of humorous text, we’ll keep it that way, so Tight knows about the bike situation, so I go to him to see what the low down is with the whatnot and stuff you know? It turns out a whole bunch of the bikes need air in their tires etc, and I’ll be able to get one next week, so in the meantime he gives me the key to his bike. Sounds good right? He’s certainly not a tall guy, and well, it makes sense that his bike wouldn’t be too absurdly large for me. Wow. Wrong. The seat comes up to my ribs about. So after a few very painful hobbling attempts around the garage I decide it’s either now or never, the sun has come out (it was raining all morning) and I have to make this work one way or another.

Alright, so my feet can’t touch the pedals. Before hitting the end of the block (about 20 feet) I had lost my shoe but of course couldn’t get off the bike because my leg bairly reaches over the bar, so in a sideways one legged hobble thing, I kick it in reverse…(my one useful shoe-d leg that is) back up, get the shoe on somehow and sort of continue my wobbling venture sort of down the street. I make it to the first light and I seem to have to stand on my tip toes in front of the seat and even still, this is not a comfortable venture.

None of this is a comfortable venture. And now I have a pillow on my desk chair.

So I make it to the first light and there’s a mother and two small people (children that is) on the other side waiting to cross. So to put it short, my ship capsizes in the middle of the street trying to get back up on the pedals and I end up with them all laughing at me. Everybody rides bikes here. I’ve seen the tiniest infant children things riding bikes without training wheels, and well…here I am, some sort of half grown person unable to work this contraption. It only gets better from here.

So I get some sort of control with this machine thing and decide to go down a back street rather than ride in traffic quite yet. You’ll never guess what I found next.

Cobblestones.

Now to keep this as little detailed as possible due to the mental imagery of those persons close to me to not wish to know about the unfortunate state of some of my anatomy during this experience, I’ll just leave it to…well I was very, very uncomfortable. Cobblestones, sort of crouching on a metal bar and well, okay, you get the drift. So I have all sorts of fun with this, and actually have some sort of system worked out by the time I get to the post office, though getting off of it is a whole other story making me very thankful I’m as flexible as I am.

The people at the post office were very sweet and thinking I was a little bit of a joke, still played along with me and didn’t charge me an arm and a leg either! Just 12 something euros! I was thrilled~

When heading out this morning, before I actually got on this two wheeled torturing apparatus from hell, I was having these lovely thoughts of biking through the massive city park which is just a few blocks away from where I am, and maybe biking downtown and I even got carried away with the idea of biking somewhere in Europe (you know you always hear your parent’s adventurous friends who just came back from Tibet going off and doing a bike tour around Europe).

Okay, well I hear about it. I’m not sure about your parents. Or who is actually reading this for that matter. Alright, diverging here. I was having these lovely thoughts of having tree-trunk like thighs and seeing countryside blahhh blah blah. So instead I find myself wanting to quit this experience as quickly as possible and begin to head home. So I decide to take a different route and get lost in the biggest park in Hamburg. And then, ohh you’ll never guess! You know that point in a movie where a whole bunch of hilariously unfortunate things happen and one character says to another “Well at least it couldn’t get any worse” and it begins the torrential downpour...

I got a torrential downpour. Did I ever. I was wearing about 3 layers including a big down jacket and all of me was completely soaked, and a few cars did me the courtesy of driving into a puddle for me and completing my dampness by filling my shoes with muddy street water.

Another delightful addition to my venture was the fact that we’ve had a few big storms lately and there were branches all over the bike path, so it was sort of a maze of death and water and rain and more water and me in the middle of it trying to touch these miserable little pedals with my miserable little wet toes and a chronically uncomfortable seating situation.

I made it home (obviously) to tell the tale, and well, maybe I’ll leave the European adventures and thunder thighs for another bike…and another day. Speaking of buffness, I’ve also begun doing yoga and crunches to counter my addiction to these German pretzel things…but they’re so amazing, I can’t help it. So I eat them. Lots of them. Yumm. They’re like 30cents each too. Yumm. Okay I don’t eat THAT many…but well, we really need a new topic here. Like all my lovely photos for you! These were taken with the others, but enjoyable nonetheless….hopefully?

And you know, it never hurts to keep those comments coming….if anyone actually reads this that is, and well if you don’t…I suppose I should stop referring to you then shouldn’t I? Imaginary friends aren’t as harmful as one would think…enjoy the photos…

The street I walk down on the way to the U-Bahn with cute little European shops etc.

A doorway I enjoy in the same block as me

Artsy boat shot anyone?

Artsy train/bridge shot? I actually quite like this one...

Well...you'll never guess who this is...and yes, I've resorted to holding camera self portraitures...
(I've also begun growing trees out of my head)

One of my favorite pictures so far of famous German bobble trees and some sort of clock which has some sort of significance I'm sure, heh.

Vegan Hamburger

2008-03-08T01:50:00.000-08:00

Here we are.
In my attempt to keep you all in suspense without over saturating and becoming a little too zealous with this blog, it’s begun to turn into more slacking than suspense really…so well here we are once again. So as I sit here between the buffering of ‘Dead Like Me’, and gnawing on a mango pit (you know mangos are actually amazingly inexpensive here) I’m doing my best to forge from my brain all the delightful little lines I had thought up for you over the past few days.

One drawback from writing is that it somewhat takes over my thought pattern. Somewhat similar to when I read a book, everything I think about gets translated into the authors voice, and me, into third person. I really should have written more thorough notes, but well, shouldn’t we all? Something about a boat full of mud and the fire trucks being Mercedes. Another that comes to mind was something about the rain getting on my glasses after a comical day of wind, rain, and my bright green umbrella which apparently has an affinity for turning itself inside out, having what looked like hundreds of watery specks make the little green walking figure on the crosswalks somewhat kaleidoscope into hundreds of little green walking persons.

So since my past blog I’ve encountered far too much to indulge upon in my tiny window. I keep telling myself I’ll break them down into categories such as transit, graffiti, comical German oddities, roommates, food and well whatever else I can convince you to find mildly entertaining.

We’ll see how far we get with that though, I often wonder how long I can write about whatever it is that I’m doing here before everyone gets dreadfully bored of hearing what kind of amusing situation I’ve caught myself in. It could be me telling myself that because I’m not sure how long I can be frequent with these before one again, slacking off terribly.

Well, my stomach is telling me that I’m done this, despite how dreadfully tiny it is. I promise to make up with it’s stubbiness with some of my photos of recent ventures. If you also have the tiniest inkling to comment, feel more than free…you know…it may be appreciated, because though apparently my mother has informed everyone in her sphere of influence and beyond to the outer regions of her telepathic reach, I have no idea if anyone actually bothers reading my self proclaimed babble.

That’s all for me at the moment….enjoy….

Some sort of back alley I found

Not really sure...but it must have seemed worth documenting at the time...

Yes....we have flowers...daffodils etc are also in bloom

The U-Bahn station a 6 min walk from my house

Big looming building anyone?

Water and stuff!

Boats and stuff!

Soooo…..instead of going to Germany, I actually came home.

2008-03-04T16:30:00.000-08:00

To a point where it’s starting to weird me out, I feel far too comfortable here. It doesn’t really feel like I’ve ever not been here. I’m sure my mother would come up with a brilliant past life time karmic response something something. Love you mom. Despite her tenancy to get a little carried away with her theories (love you mom) you know…she may be on to something here…or there is something funny in the water. So I’m home. Good luck with the whole “Robekkah’s coming back to Kanada thing”. I’ve even started thinking in German…and I went the entire day without speaking English! I was actually pretty proud of myself there, after two days and being overly anal with trying to teach myself something…I think there is potential here (or else I’m so completely ensconced I’m starting to actually believe whatever it is that I’m thinking in German).

Anyways….

The inevitable has happened. My plane landed. What goes up must come down yes? I know I kept EVERYONE in such a terrible suspense, would she make it to Germany? Would she have her plane sucked into the ocean by one of those large…ocean…creatures….? Would she ever leave that dammed Heathrow Airport! I didn’t know the answer to that last one for a while, but yes, I did escape the now dreaded befuddled expanse that they apparently have some sort of backwards working order for. Anyways, yes, the plane, it was lovely.

Alright…I have a terrible confession…yes, we all knew I was unfortunately lax on the whole “I’m a vegan thing” but…the other option besides “chicken” or “ham” sandwich on the airplane was cheese. One half was the easy cheese that I could just take out and leave the sad molested version of what they were calling lettuce and tomatoes in the soggy plane bread along with the unidentifiable orangy goo smothered on the inside as well. The other half of the “sandwich” as we’re now going to refer to it as was soft cheese, luckily it was airplane food and so there is very little of anything, regardless though, I ate the second soggy breaded “sandwich” with the supposed soft goaty cheesy substance because well, the only other sustenance I scrounged up was a Subway muffin from Vancouver at the bottom of my bag. So yes. I ate it. I’m terrible I know. And it made me ill. There’s my tiny confession to all those who really well…could care less.

I also met a delightful lady on the plane who offered to feed me, cloth me, house me, take me in as her own, you know, the usual. She was lovely and so it’s nice to have another contact here.

So Hamburg. Dang. So here’s the fast of the lo down. My place is huge. Wow. Dorms in Canada….a third of the size. I’m living with six other people, we share three bathrooms, three fridges, a kitchen, eating room/common area thing. My dwelling has come equipped with a stupidly large desk w/ drawers (now we get in to the really exciting menial details) office chairs, big wardroby thing, one of those bench/box/storage things, a very large shelving thing, and you’ll never guess- a bed! Comes included with, for your comfort and enjoyment, one set of scarily clean, crisp and starched sheets, pillow, duvet thing, duvet cover…all very very white. Good ol’ Germans. I umm…borrowed one of British Airlines cute little blue and red striped blankets from the airplane though so it’s not quite so retina burningly white as well. I also found myself a plant. Yes. Found it. By the river. Yes, did I mention I live about 20 paces from a canal thing? Foot bridges…water… seagulls…one of those silly love swan boat things, you know, the usual. Anyways, yes. My plant. It’s lovely. I can see why no one wanted it. It’s the most painful plant I’ve ever met. I think I’m going to name it something badass like ‘Pain’ or something. It’s like a little palmy tree of death. It’s lovely I promise. And also rather umm…brown. The point is, I have some greenery now…or brownery. Plant life! Well….Plant! I like it alright! Well once again, my fingers got away on me a little bit…but well, that’s the way it goes.

Another highlight of my day…I was served beer in a bank. Thought I would mention that. (It was free too).

Anyways. I’ll give you some character umm…observations of my flat mates next time too, I’ve met three, and have two more to go.

I’m going to get my freezing self to bed now…I draped my radiator thing in wet clothes, even though it doesn’t know what turned on all the way actually means…I sort of get a tiny slow leak from it but not enough to counter my Massive bloody windows! Ooo Did I mention, I have massive bloody windows?! Well…not bloody bloody, but big! I have a corner room, so I have a skinny floor length window on one side and a really big tall wide one on the right side of the corner. Yeah…you’re going to get some Hamburg views at the end of this here. Enjoy~

(ps: mom, you’d be happy to know I found a “yoga mat”!)

The watery goodness looking to the left!

On the other side of the river canal thing from me

Near the walkway by above

View from my window

View from the window II

View from window III

Below my window- see the grass is greener!

My building!
The other side of the watery canally thing

Watery Expanse Surpassed

2008-03-03T14:37:00.000-08:00

Well so it happens that I find myself at the other side of a rather vast expanse of water...

After a severely enjoyable stay in Vancouver and Victoria, I seem to have ended up in a rather backwards and frustrating place, better known as the Heathrow Airport.

A little more on Vancouver and Victoria, because well I suppose that’s where I existed for the past few weeks. A morbidly obese thank you to both Joann, Adam and the girl for caring for me to the point of spoiling me to bits, and I enjoyed every moment. My time in Vancouver included all sorts of delights, and my rediscovering mild obsession with repetitive motions, and thus knitting and crocheting. My lack of knitting needles however on the plane made for thumb-twiddling in its place. Overall I had an extremely enjoyable time, but to keep this as keyboard clutchingly entertaining as possible I’ll delve into a few of the more colourful events of the past few weeks.

The first to come hurtling to mind is that of my trip to Victoria. I had decided during my stay in Vancouver that there was no possible way I would be able to be so close and yet not be in the awe-inspiring presence of the nothing short of brilliant Opposite Octave… if you don’t know him already, well, you probably should and he and I have made some of my hands down favorite pictures. Ones you’ve come to know and love such as our rendition of ‘bloody wedding dress in an alley’ and the exhaustingly spectacular pictures of me in unitards, and mustangs. Now that you’re completely familiar with his work, I’ll also add in that he’s also quite the sweet guy…in that sarcastic bitter kind of way, but we all love him to bits regardless. His other half is also magnificent, known as ‘the girl’ or Kirsten Hofbauer and we made beauty which is also on the way to your eyes. Before my mildly ego massaging session of ‘the girl’ and Adam, there is also a bit of a story as to how I got there.

The Sunday before heading out to the island, I did a photoshoot with another friend of mine by the name of Ron Skei up in Sechelt …and so fine, dandy, I find my way to the ferry and make it to and from Sechelt without hitch. However when on my way to Victoria, well I assumed I would just head back to the ferry terminal, because, well…how many ferry terminals can there be really? Coming from Vernon, there’s only one of something, especially in terms of ferry terminals, which are a bit of a bigger deal. So…we plan to meet up on the other side around 10:30 after taking the 9am ferry, meaning I had to leave the house at some ungodly hour around 6am. So fine, mucus filled eyes and all, I head down to the bus stop (I actually met an interesting young guy waiting for the bus that morning, though he didn’t strike me as being the brightest crayon in the bucket conversationally, he was kind enough to offer up some gum which I gratefully accepted due to my atrocious morning breath…however…though I’ve been heeding the warning from the dentist man to not chew gum with an ‘appliance’ in…well, I gave in and then discovered that the ‘appliance’ and the gum actually adheres disturbingly well…and had to deal with that for the next few hours…)

Alright, so fine.

I arrive at the ferry terminal 20 min early and with some sort of gummy plastic concoction habitating in my mouth. I go to the counter and ask for a ticket to Victoria…and the lovely but also less than florescent coloured crayon woman behind the glass informs me that well…there is a ferry to Nanaimo…so that’s the ferry I obviously wanted. Heading up to the thing with the stuff at the place (ferry waiting holding tank place) I met yet another interesting, this time moustached character who upon talking to let my situation be spelled out quite clearly to me, which I was thankful for, despite him finding me enjoyable to follow. So fine. I was now in an unfortunate mood and in no mood to listen to the next little old woman who came up to me and decided to tell me about her life story and pine over her husband. So after some senior counseling, I end up on the other side and manage to sneak my way onto a greyhound bus going to the station in Nanaimo.

My luck was with me when upon arrival there was a bus just about to leave to Victoria and I managed to pounce upon that opportunity with success…with the added bonus of some somewhat drug induced bus-mates… So when it was all said and done, it took me something around 8 hours to make it to Victoria.

Now as said previously, I’m not entirely meaning your brain to leak out of your ears with complete boredom….so to add some spice to it?...I’ll let you know my current situation. I seem to not be able to escape screaming infants from the beginning of my flight in Vancouver….so that made for a particularly enjoyable plane ride. And so did free alcohol. Honestly. I was appalled…free…nothing is free, especially not booze! I can’t say I didn’t really take advantage of it…and with some gravol, plane food, beer and mini vodka and cranberry juice I knocked myself out enough to sleep through nearly the entire flight and woke up an hour before landing where I currently am…stuck.

London.

Damn you.

The security was so absurdly long that I missed my flight. That’s right. Not happy. Really not happy. Next flight? Ohhh yeah…..it’s in five hours…. That sucks.

So here I am blabbering away to whoever has gotten this far down to actually read it. In theory I’d like to update with these silly bloggy things every so often and include pictures and well insights as to my currently scandalous activities. As for the moment though...due to the strange outlets here and my lack of my converter, my laptop is threatening death on me….and I have two and a half hours left. JOY! So in the meantime, I think I’m going to go find someone with a delightful accent and learn some London slang, and if I’m lucky, some really humorous curse words.

Thanks for reading, and enjoy my latest collaboration ~ Until that next time zone, *insert lame Rick Steves line*