David & die Kernigen - Alles Gute von oben

Eine wunderbare Band aus dem hohen Norden, die es doch bitte zur ECHO Aftershowparty schaffen sollen!

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Before Christmas I had some time to be creative and the following pieces were brought to life. 

A new calendar for 2012 for my flat mate Theresa.

Two examples of the 1000 christmas cards that I made for family & friends.

A scarf for my good friend Julia to keep her warm and cute.

It's too cold outside to fly,

SO I took the train to France. When I came back from the toilet, I saw my seat with all the things I spread over it and I thought "If anyone walks past this seat and sees all this stuff, he must think that a (quite messy) grandma is sitting here." I didn't make a picture but on my seat where a big old red leather bag from the 1950s, a knitted beanie and gloves from light brown wool and, to make the impression complete, a ball of light pink wool and a half finished head band with the crochet hook pocking out of it. 
The only thing speaking against the grandma-suspicion was the shere amount of things lying on the seats. As people who spend a lot of times in trains know, old people tend to sit on their seats very rigid, holding the handle of their luggage and do not dare to take their coat off, always ready to jump right up when their destination is called out by the conductor.

If I could give one gift to you, it would be convidence.

Convidence. Without it we are nothing. People will believe that we are nothing. With it, we might still be nothing but people might not recognize it and still believe we are everything. 


I tend to loose my convidence about something small like a mistake at work, a lonely night when no one I try to call picks up the phone and a pimple on my nose. Is it allowed for small things like this to take our convidence away? Probably not. That's why we envy those people that accept their little flaws, take them it, embrace it. I want to be like those people. How do we become like one of those people? Should we care less about the opinions of others? Should we read less into looks and comments that they throw at us? 


Or are we affected this much by comments made by others because we have the impression that we would just be a bit more considered.  That we would not comment on an obvious and stupid mistake someone has done and that we would tell our opponent that her outfit looks amazing today even if there is a little red spot on her nose? Shouldn't we all make it our goal to strengthen the convidence of the ones in need when we see it crumbling? 


Trying to put a smile on the torn face that just wants to hide from the world... 
Lure somone out of his or her shell to enjoy the beauty of the world...


And probably even more important: Believe in ourselves, in our strength and talents. And in our ability to be exactly the person that we want to be. 

This is the end. This is the beginning.

2011 is nearly over so time for some recap. I experienced going over all the stuff that happened this past year to be very comforting. I thinks it's important not only to look where you want to go and what you want to achieve the next months but also to look back and look at all the great successes you already celebrated as well as the little moments that warmed your heart. 

It was the year of travelling. The year started in Stockholm where I celebrated New Year's Eve with some Erasmus friends from Linköping. We did cheese fondue before we fought our way through heavy snow fall to the outdoor museum Skansen to see the fireworks and hear the choir singing. 

From there we went to Kiruna in Lapland with the night train where we have rented a little cabin. It was unbelievably cold and frosty but so so nice to be in the middle of nature and seeing northern lights shining down on us in bright green colours. 

Then it was time to get to work and finish my master thesis. I held my presentation at the end of February which meant the end to life as a student and also to living in the Netherlands. 

Because ony five days later I started my internship at Paul Hartmann AG in Heidenheim. I met wonderful people there that helped me through the ups and downs of working life. We hang out at the weekly Stammtisch in pubs and went to the traditional spring fest in Stuttgart wearing leather pants and Dirndl. 

Weekends and holidays were used for going back and forth to Sweden to see my love. Although we only had a few hours together, we did some really nice things like bike tours, picknicks on trees and swimming in icy swedish lakes. 

And every now and then I managed not only to see my family but also some friends that I met in Sweden as well as some from my home town. Being reunited was very nice and always very special and brought me to places I haven't been before like Vienna, Freiburg and Braunschweig as well as to places I haven't been in quite a long time like Münster and Cologne. 

I also ran my first 10 km race in June in Heidenheim and made it just under an hour. Preparation and the actual race were tough and since then I never did it again. But it's definetily on my list for next year to do it again. 

When the internship was over, Clément and I did a kajak trip around the archipelago just outside of Stockholm. We had a tent, food and water and spent four nights in the wilderness. It was quite an experience feeling so far from civilisation. 

In the beginning of July, I started working in a summer camp for children close to Heilbronn. Clément had the chance to work on two organic farms not too far away from me to we could see each other every week for some hours. 

And then it was time for some real holidays and we went to the Island Oleron in France and spent two weeks surrounded by long sand beaches, blue skies and sunshine. From there, we went to Paris and I really fell in love with this beautiful city! 

On the way back, I did a job interview which at first didn't sound very promising as they just wanted to get to know me and not being sure if they really have a job for me. And then, only one week later I found myself searching for flats in Ulm! Since October I am officially a researcher at the Center for Neuroscience and Learning at the ZNL. It's a lot of fun and I feel like I am at the right place at the right time, which is a very nice feeling.

And then the year end with all the usual traditions. Christmas ball, breakfast with the whole family on the second day of christmas and watching Astrid Lindgren movies with my cousins at my grandparents house.

I spare you with all the drama that took place when I had to work on my thesis and couldn't seem to finish it on time. When I missed the train to the airport and had to take a taxi for 80 euros to still catch the flight to Sweden. The uncertainty when I was looking for a job. The frustration that came with every rejection.... 

So all in all 2011 was quite a good year for me and I hope that 2012 will be just as good and maybe even a bit better :) 

Happy new year, my dear friends!!

Let it snow...

And if there is no snow yet whereever you are at the moment, you can check the weather report and go to where snow is. 

Or another idea: Just google "Let it snow" and see what happens :) 

Be merry! It's christmas soon!