Easter Weekend in Bremen
lightbird writing, as usually.
As for the Easter weekend, there was hanging out, and there were discussions.
There was Esben's organized Weser chillout - he had found a great place for sitting outside right behind the Weser stadium, with general slacking and guys playing football with a dalmatian and Magnus taking a dip in the river, while yelling; "This is summer in Norway!", and Benedikt scaring away ducks, because some of the other Erasmus students fear birds.
There was also the combined birthday party of Magnus, Felicity and Chris, celebrated at Paddy's Pit, and once again I received smiles about being the only one ordering non-alcoholic drinks, all in all, the curiosity about this is slowly setting down. The pub is a funny place, officially Irish, but we heard just a single Irish song during the whole evening, the door to smokers' area was never closed and the three birthday people had to empty a pint of Tabasco-enhanced drink., which was hard, if judging from the looks on their faces. Also, I'm slowly getting to know the Turkish people on Erasmus (although still can't remember a half of their names), and some of them we went to - or attempted - the Osterfeuer on the other side of the Weser river, but we apparently had mixed up the time and missed it. Some people we met showed us the pictures of the fireworks, though, and we came back to the celebration, claiming that we saw the fireworks but were so amazed that our fingers froze on the shutter.
Easter was peaceful, with a festive breakfast organized by our landlady (something like this hasn't been happening... since childhood, I think?), and my South Korean neighbour Bora and I discussed colours we avoid in our artwork - Bora's is purple and my least favourite is brown. Which made me put a new challenge - the next piece I'll make shall be coloured just in different shades of brown. Also, I learned that while Southern Germany (like Bayern) is perfect for tourists, it's hard for outlanders (especially from a different race) to infiltrate as citizens, even if you would have lived in the same area for 2 or 3 decades. Also, there is a difference in attitude if an outlander lives in Groepelingen (west of Bremen) or in Das Viertel (center, where we live). Groepelingen = isolation, Das Viertel = cool. I should visit Groepelingen soon.
Today (Monday) there was an organized breakfast for the Erasmus students, which I partly missed due to the reconstruction of the building (couldn't find the entrance) and arrived when food was gone, but gallons of juices were still there. There was a small Easter gift hunt, in which I managed to find one of the prizes due to lack of fear of crawling through bushes and swampy areas. Flik, however, got my free drink voucher for tomorrow's welcome party - there's an introductionary lecture in Immunology on Wednesday morning, and guess what's my priority :). Then, another chillout by the Weser, with some fast food and beer buying on the way. Nothing much special about it, except the fact that the number of Diptera has apparently increased around there since Saturday.
What else?
Yes, realized that I had actually missed the other Erasmus students and, after Thursday's emo blog entry apparently decided to improve the situation. Elena and I are planning a karaoke night soon. Also, my photographic crisis is slowly retreating, and I'd been having it... for almost six months?
And I mentioned discussions at the very beginning;
1) about personal life taking vicious circles. I'm currently pondering on a break-through. In a way, it still makes me chuckle, when for once I turn serious in an online discussion, and Matt says; "Liva, you need sleep", which sounds almost like "Liva, you are drunk". Well, he's just not very used to my tendency to finish a discussion, not matter how uneasy it it :-p. If seriously, I miss this kind of discussing (a bit) since leaving Latvia.
2) I sensed a question in this - why write so intensively as I do? Firstly, because that was what Infanta and I agreed upon. I'm keeping my part of an entry per 3-4 days, mainly due to my OCD tendencies :-B. Is this easy? Not really, otherwise I'd probably hardly write at all. Secondly, my memory in the last several months has been as whole as Swiss cheese, and I'll take these written words as the ultimate proof that something has or hasn't happened.. even if I never read this again, which will probably be the case.
Do I write everything here? No, by far not.. even if all that's been written so far seems to detailed, don't worry, my consciousness capacity is still much larger than that.
One last thing. I'm having a visit on Friday. That will be funny because I feel no need to communicate in Latvian, also with the 3 Latvians I met today, ha ha.
And now I must sleep. Good night.
As for the Easter weekend, there was hanging out, and there were discussions.
There was Esben's organized Weser chillout - he had found a great place for sitting outside right behind the Weser stadium, with general slacking and guys playing football with a dalmatian and Magnus taking a dip in the river, while yelling; "This is summer in Norway!", and Benedikt scaring away ducks, because some of the other Erasmus students fear birds.
There was also the combined birthday party of Magnus, Felicity and Chris, celebrated at Paddy's Pit, and once again I received smiles about being the only one ordering non-alcoholic drinks, all in all, the curiosity about this is slowly setting down. The pub is a funny place, officially Irish, but we heard just a single Irish song during the whole evening, the door to smokers' area was never closed and the three birthday people had to empty a pint of Tabasco-enhanced drink., which was hard, if judging from the looks on their faces. Also, I'm slowly getting to know the Turkish people on Erasmus (although still can't remember a half of their names), and some of them we went to - or attempted - the Osterfeuer on the other side of the Weser river, but we apparently had mixed up the time and missed it. Some people we met showed us the pictures of the fireworks, though, and we came back to the celebration, claiming that we saw the fireworks but were so amazed that our fingers froze on the shutter.
Easter was peaceful, with a festive breakfast organized by our landlady (something like this hasn't been happening... since childhood, I think?), and my South Korean neighbour Bora and I discussed colours we avoid in our artwork - Bora's is purple and my least favourite is brown. Which made me put a new challenge - the next piece I'll make shall be coloured just in different shades of brown. Also, I learned that while Southern Germany (like Bayern) is perfect for tourists, it's hard for outlanders (especially from a different race) to infiltrate as citizens, even if you would have lived in the same area for 2 or 3 decades. Also, there is a difference in attitude if an outlander lives in Groepelingen (west of Bremen) or in Das Viertel (center, where we live). Groepelingen = isolation, Das Viertel = cool. I should visit Groepelingen soon.
Today (Monday) there was an organized breakfast for the Erasmus students, which I partly missed due to the reconstruction of the building (couldn't find the entrance) and arrived when food was gone, but gallons of juices were still there. There was a small Easter gift hunt, in which I managed to find one of the prizes due to lack of fear of crawling through bushes and swampy areas. Flik, however, got my free drink voucher for tomorrow's welcome party - there's an introductionary lecture in Immunology on Wednesday morning, and guess what's my priority :). Then, another chillout by the Weser, with some fast food and beer buying on the way. Nothing much special about it, except the fact that the number of Diptera has apparently increased around there since Saturday.
What else?
Yes, realized that I had actually missed the other Erasmus students and, after Thursday's emo blog entry apparently decided to improve the situation. Elena and I are planning a karaoke night soon. Also, my photographic crisis is slowly retreating, and I'd been having it... for almost six months?
And I mentioned discussions at the very beginning;
1) about personal life taking vicious circles. I'm currently pondering on a break-through. In a way, it still makes me chuckle, when for once I turn serious in an online discussion, and Matt says; "Liva, you need sleep", which sounds almost like "Liva, you are drunk". Well, he's just not very used to my tendency to finish a discussion, not matter how uneasy it it :-p. If seriously, I miss this kind of discussing (a bit) since leaving Latvia.
2) I sensed a question in this - why write so intensively as I do? Firstly, because that was what Infanta and I agreed upon. I'm keeping my part of an entry per 3-4 days, mainly due to my OCD tendencies :-B. Is this easy? Not really, otherwise I'd probably hardly write at all. Secondly, my memory in the last several months has been as whole as Swiss cheese, and I'll take these written words as the ultimate proof that something has or hasn't happened.. even if I never read this again, which will probably be the case.
Do I write everything here? No, by far not.. even if all that's been written so far seems to detailed, don't worry, my consciousness capacity is still much larger than that.
One last thing. I'm having a visit on Friday. That will be funny because I feel no need to communicate in Latvian, also with the 3 Latvians I met today, ha ha.
And now I must sleep. Good night.