24 October 2012

Something for the Brain.

Hey hey out there!

Fortunately, yesterday began a bit later than Monday. My lesson started at 8:45 a.m. so there was enough time to get ready. The lessons are not too hard but it's okay, I think. The afternoon lessons are quite fun. We are discussing and playing games and the group is very nice to work with. Becky is my afternoon teacher.
The bad thing about the afternoon lessons is that there is too little time to get something to eat or to cook. I wasn't able to go shopping for the whole week and so I was out of food.
When my class is over at 2:30 p.m. the school tours start therefore there isn't time to eat either.

Well, I went a bit hungry (what would become more intensive in the evening) to the British Museum in the afternoon. It was quite a journey and it takes a lot of train changes to get there.

Outside the Museum.
Inside of it.
But the building of the Museum is very beautiful. It looks like an ancient greek temple from the outside. Our group decided that everyone should go inside on his or her own. I went with some of my morning class, though. We had just one hour because the journey back was so long, so we hurried to see the most interesting things.

Old Roman jewelry.
First, we looked around in some rooms where old vases have been exhibited. I think they were from Carthage and Syria. I have to admit, it was not that interesting for me. I'm not into ancient stones and combs and I was a bit annoyed as my 'companions' were just 'oooh'ing and 'aah'ing about it.
A Greek-Roman statue. It's Venus.
Then we came to the greek and roman vases which look more interesting because their handwork is really nice and beautiful.
There were some busts and sculptures but mostly vases and everyday things, too.













Andy Warhol <3
The next room was all about money. From the first button-coins to the chinese money and the first noticed banknotes. It was really interesting and built like a timeline.









Below stairs was the room of the ancient Egyptian culture. I'm afraid, I missed the mummies (heard about them, when I left the museum) but I saw something incredible: The Rosetta Stone.
Eh? Someone remembering my first presentation in English? Yes, it was the thing I was talking about hours. This stone was the first opportunity to translate the Egypt hieroglyphs.

The Rosetta Stone.


There were soo many things in that room! Huge Sphinxes, statues, these typical Egyptian faces...
Unbelievable.

The Japanese room entrance with a Samurai blade.
The last thing we went to was the Japanese room because I was adamant that we go. It was in the last floor, the fifth I think, but we used the elevator. My companions have been walked just an hour but already put their shoes off...A bit embarrassing.
It was really nice up there. There was a samurai sword blade and so many little things from the Japanese Edo times. Like books or mirrors. Everything was decorated beautifully.

In the last room of the Japanese floor was a bit contemporary art but not like modern art. More like pictures about Hiroshima or some nice ink drawings.


A really nice glass dish.
We traveled back early because the rush hour started. It was really horrible. Everything was so full and crowded. When I tried to get into the tube, the doors nearly cut my arm off. Even the train to Twickenham was very occupied. But I arrived at home safely.

So much to the British Museum. Some more things were happening until now but it's not the right time to tell it yet.

Have a nice time, wherever you are!
xoxo

22 October 2012

Here I am, London!

Hey Hey out there!

I have arrived. It was a long and sometimes unpleasant journey but now I'm here, at the language school in London.

I went to the airport yesterday morning. It was really early because I had to get up a long time before leaving. My parents drove me to the airport, I checked in and after a goodbye I went to the waiting room.
Sun is shining in the waiting room.


The back of my plane.

The flight was very nice even though it was very cloudy. The sun was shining in Frankfurt, but everywhere else were just rain clouds underneath me. I wasn't in the air a long time, but because of British Airways I got some cute little cokes and something that tasted like 'Balisto'.

The stewardess gave my two cans <3. 
Because of delay I arrived at Heathrownot before 12 o'clock. I collected my bags, was asked by a random airport employee how long I would stay here and went to the taxi stand. I was forced from another employee to take the third cab. And this was the one with an old man who didn't even know where Twickenham was...

He looked it up on a road map. We drove and drove but after a while he was just confused and didn't know where to drive! He always he never heard this road before. I was just annoyed. After a while he found it. But I had to pay the whole bloody price even though he was too dumb to drive me to my destination.
Nice start.

I had to ring a doorbell on the first floor and a nice lady named Paula brought me to my apartment. I just met one girls who lives there, too. My room, which is right to a small corridor, is very undersized and narrow. I could hardly place my things. Especially, my suitcases are blocking the whole free room.
I will post some picture of it later. At the moment I'm too lazy to rum through the house.

Today was my first class. We have been categorized into different classes. We had to make little test which includes speaking, writing, grammar and vocabulary.
After that we had I little break and the classes started.
I'm not sure if I'm in B1 or B2 but it's somewhere in the middle. We are a course of about 10 people, only girls. Our teacher is the only men amongst the teachers (I'm a bit sorry for him). His name is Sebastian and he is really nice and encourages us to talk a lot.
Well, I did and now my throat hurts because it was too much.
My English classes start at 8:45 in the morning and end at 14:30. 

On the afternoon there is an excursion sometimes. Tomorrow should a trip to the British Museum, but nobody else but me want to go there so it's cancelled.
But today we went around Twickenham. It's really, really small.
There are some shops, that are very expansive, because Twickenham is a wealthy borough of London.
Bit they have a nice little park.
The entrance of the York Park.
In the summer people are picnicking here.



This fontain is called "The Naked Ladys". In front of it an
extreme independent singer and his camera crew.
I don't know why there are flowers at this time
of the year. But they are beautiful.










We went home to the language school and eat some nice pizza the school bought us (will be the only time I think).
And that was already the end of the day!

I hope I well get into London soon. The school gave us some information about the Oyster card and where to get. Maybe I'll buy one tomorrow if I have time. Today I just had time to buy me some water and cereals, because the timetable was so full and the groceries close very early.




But all around me is everything I need. A chemist, a waitrose (it's like our 'Real', the only grocery store here and, I'm afraid, as expensive as Real), a pharmacy and a lot of pubs.

So, that was everything about my first day. I hope you keep reading my block and I hope some more interesting facts keep filling that Blog.

Have a nice time, wherever you are!
xoxo




19 October 2012

It's the Final Countdown...!

Hey Hey out there!

I bet you have the song stuck in your head now. And I'm not even sorry!

But, yes, the countdown has begun. It was a bit to-ing and fro-ing but finally everything is as it should be.
I have to explain: As many of you know, I haven't had an internship in London, the original reason I wanted to go there. I want to study Media-Design next year (It's still written in the stars if it is going to happen...) and an internship would help me extremely to have a better chance of an university place.
So media internship in London? Sounds good. The website of the language school I'm traveling with said they could place my in every business area.
Well, it turned out they couldn't. I'm unplacable.

After a long time seeing my dream shattered (and the even worse message that my apartment has been let to some other language student, what means, I was at that moment without house and internship. The only thing left was the one week English course at the school), the nice lady from the agency called again. She apologized and said it would be possible to do a renewed finding to place me in another internship area. Administration or custumer service. Sadly, I was not very happy about that. I had an internship, it is true,  but it was not the one I needed. It wouldn't help my application, I would just waste my time I could use in Germany to do another internship.
I was hit rock bottom. So, no London, no new culture, no internship and, especially, I had to stay in Karlsruhe.
But things changed as the lady sent me some documents via mail. Caption "they found an internship".
It was a bit curious because I thought they first had to find a new one. I opened the mail and...
It was an internship in a children's book illustrator company.
I was so happy! Okay, it was not exactly the internship I wanted (photography, film, media design), but it's in the media sector and it's useful for my studies. And, people please, it is a children's book illustrator company! That is so awesome! I looked at some pictures they had done and they are really cute.

Well, there is one point: I have just a job interview at the moment. It could be possible I won't get the post. But there is a chance and I will take this chance and make the best of it.
Oh yeah, I got my apartment back, too. There was overbooking and I was there first. That is all I say.

So London here I come!
Sunday morning at 10:55 a.m. I'm going to sit in a nice plane to travel to Heathrow airport. I will have a one week intensive English course and on Thursday there will be my interview. And maybe... But just maybe, I will do an internship on a nice company for a long time.

I'm so excited! What will my roommates be like? Will I find friends? Will I get along, alone, in a foreign country?
And the most important: Will I meet Benedict Cumbe- get the internship?

This and many more questions you are going to see next time!
Here's a random picture of the Eiffeltower from two years ago
because there was so much text in this post. 
Have a nice time, wherever you are!
xoxo

14 October 2012

Pretty Off-Topic Post #1

Hey hey out there!

As many of you know I'm a casual cosplayer. That means I'm not too much into cosplay but if I'm planning one, I make the best out of it.
I'm also a newbie at this topic. I know much about it and I'm fascinated about costumes (the reason why I manage to waste hours on the internet to search for nice pictures) but I have never sewed one by myself. My first cosplay was Light (the costume which I got my nickname from), but it was all bought. And I think a real cosplay has to be a self-made one.
So my first real costume was the Lady Loki I made for the Gamescom in Cologne this year. I'm very proud of it, because I had never sewed before and it looks...well... really O.K for that circumstance.

To cut a long story short, I wanted to wear my beloved costume at the FBM (Frankfurter Buchmesse) again. On the one hand because it was very expensive. For example the fabric is synthetic leather and I had to tinker a golden helmet and wand/crane-thingy (of course not it's not real gold...!). On the other hand four months haven't changed my Avengers obsession my Lady Loki cosplay results from.

The FBM is a wonderful exhibition, especially for cosplayers. It's so colourful and interesting. It would have been perfect for me to perform my costume but there was one barrier: Rain and coldness.

The weather forecast predicted partly rain and temperatures under 10 degrees. No good preconditions for props that are made out of water-soluble paint and building material. And for a mini dress without sleeves and tights.
Well, there was no way but to leave my costume at home and enjoy the exhibition as a lurking paparazzo with a nervous release-finger.

Kyo at our trip
I had so much fun anyhow. We drove off from Karlsruhe at half past nine. We?
Yes I went with my really good friend Kyo and her incredible likable girlfriend Reita. It was so much fun at the trip already. We sang 'Gangnam Style' and tried to dance to it, while Reita was driving us fast but save to our destination: Frankfurt.







It was Saturday, so it was a very crowded day. But in the morning there weren't that much people yet. The first cosplayers we saw was a Nazgûl and some Uruk-hais. I noticed the whole exhibition was under the theme of Middle Earth because of the new movie 'The Hobbit- An unexpected Journey' that is going to be released this end of the year (And I'm going to see it - hopefully - in London).
There was a monstrous book at the curtilage of the building. The whole day the people from Middle Earth were passing by. Elves, Hobbits, Gandalf, Orcs... So awesome.

The curtilage is the place where the cosplayers sojourn. There is a beautiful fountain in the middle and thousands of eating booths. The people sit on the ground, talking and laughing or just leaving their things behind. Some photographers (like me...) were on the road, some were very creepy, some nice. One made me a compliment about my camera (my baby...!).

The curtilage and the crowd

Reita's crêpe. It was a normal one.
Of course we got hungry. I wanted to eat pizza or soup but I forgot there was a soup booth and the queue at the pizza booth was so long I decided to go to the just a bit shorter queue at the crêpe booth. I waited a felt hour until I got my crêpe with way too much Nutella and just a baby slice of banana. There was just mud on my paper plate and it was a horror trip to eat it without smearing my face with the brown mush.
Buuut...it was delicious! And so sweet I got sick after it...



Beautiful wigs
Inside on the upper floor was a little cosplay corner. But because of the temperatures outside it was very crowded. You could barely see the beautiful stalls with comics, wigs, middle age costumes and merchandise. The photo corners, where cosplayers were photographed and allowed to buy their own pictures, were as famous as every year.



The elevator to the upper floor
Outside we made a little photo shoot with some acquaintances of Kyo's. Kyo and Reita made a partner cosplay (The names wouldn'd say anything to you, sadly). I made some nice photos of them. They were so AWESOME. I can't stop loving them!
Aren't they AWESOME?!

We became tired and went home early. I think it was 5 o'clock. We made a stop at Burger King, drew some nice things at the children's game desk and the day was over soon.
At home I fell in my bed like a sack of potatoes.

Well, that were my expressions of the FBM '12. I'm so glad I went there, with or without costume. Thank you, Kyo and Reita to make this possible to me.




Have a nice time, wherever you are!
xoxo