Hump Day

An American English idiom for Wednesday, the middle of the week, implying that you have to get "over the hump" before you can anticipate the weekend. The term was not originally intended to carry a second, more risque meaning.

What is Switching Tables? It is a three course dish which takes place in three flats. You prepare one dish together with your partner in your flat for two other teams, either starters, main or dessert. The general gist of it is to get to know new students, existing students and other university students around a good meal. To take place: Wednesday 21st April 2010.

Whether it's Australians being lazy Australians, Steph and I missed registration date and so no switching tables for us.. oops.

Instead, a small group of us congregated to Steph's apartment where she held her own version of switching tables. We got to indulge in some German maultaschen (delicious jumbo sized raviolis), salad and red wine - a pretty good alternative I must say.

Maultaschens are God's gift to Germans

Dinner scoffed, we started getting ready for Stella and student night.. it's party time people! No humps for us today!

Could it really just be Australians being Australians again, but 11:00pm is a good time to go out, right?

WRONG! We walked into to the club where everyone was going to meet. Uhm, actually, we walked into an empty club where the dance floor was still rugged and couched. Does Europe just simply fail to understand that humans are not nocturnal creatures?!

After returning from a lets-kill-time adventure to the ATM, we came back and luckily some people had started to arrive. We made idle talk with some acquaintances for about an hour before everyone started filing in. Once the place was jam-packed, and you could barely move, nor catch a gasp of fresh air.. it was such a fun night!

Some mother f**kers think they're born to dance!

Oh and, in case I haven't told you all, I'm slowly decreasing my alcohol intake and totally succeeding! I only had a couple of drinks that night which is a pretty major achievement seeing as I can drink (.. or skull) booze like water until I just get sloozy and cab myself home. Snaps for Cat!

Just dance - gonna be okay!

The next day, despite massive sleep deprivation, I made it out at night again to a BBQ with Stefan, Clara and their friends out in woop woop which was really nice. There was a battle between the girls and guys on what to watch on t.v at prime time - Germany's Next Top Model or a Soccer Match? The guys won, quite devastating.. but the worst part was that they didn't even keenly watch it (as us girls would've done with Top Model!). Boo!

Some of the very few photos I took - I'm getting lazy with my camera guys! No!

As a few Mexicans had arrived early for tomorrows epic party, the existing Mexicans decided to take them out. I left the BBQ slightly early (early being like.. 11pm remember) and made it out to An Sibin to meet them for karaoke night again, woo! Karaoke night is always great. There's nothing like singing to the Backstreet Boys on a Thursday night and having people call you and the other Aussie "Outback Girls". Because, you know, we all live in the outback there down under..

Oh speaking of, I saw this poster a friend had up on his apartment wall and thought it was just legendary:

"When the Prime Minister of Australia said that the country was full, even the kangaroos had a laugh".

Sun.. Sun.. Sunday!

“Sunday is the golden clasp that binds together the volume of the week”

There's something I need to just let off my chest, and I don't care what you guys all think. To that someone special.. I've really really missed you. Since leaving Australia, I can't stop thinking about you. Without you, my world is dark and my skies are grey. Literally. Believe me when I say - I love you, sun. Thanks for a wonderful Sunday ;-)

The day of the sun

Breaking news from Darmstadt Where-the-sun-don't-shine, we've had phantasmagorical weather for the past few days - all inclusive of sun, warmth, and the timely blooming of spring flowers.. AMAZEBALLS!!! I can't contain my excitement, seriously. I feel like I make such a big deal about the weather living here, but guys seriously, try living in a country where the sun refuses to shine for weeks on end. Its depressing - not figuratively speaking. I was speaking to a Brazilian girl, who like us, was use to sunshine almost 24/7. Sunshine through clouds, rain, hail.. everything. Sun so severe it can penetrate through your clothing. Anyway, she told me she actually did get depressed through the winter here so I really did thank the Gods above I missed the worst of it. I actually, truly believe, that no sun strips you of energy, you just don't want to do anything but lie in bed and snuggle. At times like these I wish I had a boyfriend but for now, bear-wanna-be-penguin will do.

He listens so attentively to everything I say..

Both days of the weekend, my roomies and neighbours have had breakfast - wait, brunch - wait, lunch .. wait... okay the first meal of the day at 14:30 - out on the balcony to soak in all the sun we possibly can. I can't even remember the last time I had a proper meal outside in the sunlight. It was incredible. Inconceivable.

Nom nom nom

After our Sunday facestuff-fest, a large group of us, correction: all of Darmstadt, flocked to the Herrngarten which is one of the oldest and biggest parks in the city. Its direct translation is Gentlemen's Garden because, actually quite coincidently, many many years ago each Sunday gentlemen and their ladies would come to this are with all intentions to just simply enjoy the place. And on this Sunday, enjoy the place us ladies and gentlemen did.

Pullin' up a patch of grass and pluckin' at some strings, such is the Darmstadt life.

Besides trying to inconspicuously (or if you maintained your beach body throughout the winter, very much conspicuously) get a tan, the day was so filled with activity and simple sports which I hadn't even seen, yet played, for so long. It's what I love the most about living here in Darmstadt actually, the people are a "different crowd" to what I'm use to. Throwing a frisbee, playing air pingpong/tennis, strumming on guitars, riding bikes, volleyball, card games, clapping games - it's just oh-so COOL.

Enjoying the simple things in life... and losing weight while at it!

On the topic of people here, I'm finding that the more people I meet, the more my faith is being restored into humankind (don't worry, I'm not going to reveal any life epiphanies here). It's merely the fact of meeting so many people from different walks of life and getting to know their outlook on life and living. I'm beginning to really see that "doing something" with friends doesn't need to involve alcohol, night time or money. I have a great example of this but I'll tell you after inserting a few more photos to break up this paragraph. Keeps you guys interested right? Akin to kiddies reading a picture book.

The cool kids do it.

I met this guy at the Italian party that I told you guys about last month. He was just dancing around, drinking, partying, having a great time, smiling, laughing, jumping about, etcetera etcetera. Easily the hottest guy I've seen here in Darmstadt too, without a doubt. So, as a matter of usual practice, I automatically assumed the following: hot guy = douche.

Anyway, I bumped into this guy on several occasions, always the life of the party, up on stage at the karaoke bar.. everywhere I went. Each time he'd have his posse, and they'd always be bouncing around everywhere, making jokes, singing super loudly, trying to charm people.. ugh, sleaze-balls! I just remember everytime seeing him, I'd tsk and roll my eyes.

Me.

The day we went to Cologne, I arrived at the train station and saw him there and just thought, GREAT. He was the one who started all the singing and yelling like I had told you all about. Was this guy seriosuly drunk at 6am in the morning?! But proceeded on with the day I did.

I remember saying to myself on the train to Cologne that I was going to put in a effort to get to know everyone who was there with us, and one of the first people I spoke to was a pleasant guy from Brazil who was friends with him. We spoke in broken porteuñolish which was difficult to the max, but there was one sentence I caught that just astonished me. He told me that his friend in subject didn't actually drink at all, and hasn't had a lick of alcohol for several years. WHAT?!

EH?!

Naturally, the next person I was intrigued on approaching was him himself, and lo and behold, truth. For no medical reason, for no religious reason, for no health reason, the boy just didn't drink. I couldn't comprehend this whatsoever. He was always the life of the party.

I actually got inspired. He had learnt over the years on how to have fun without alcohol, and how to in fact have more fun than the people who were drinking! The whole bouncing around thing, its all attributed to energy. The kid just has so much energy, and really is simply a bundle of joy. He turned out to be a rather reserved kind of person, and the getting on stage for karaoke was just a show of confidence which I'm sure he has had to build up in order to keep up with the drunks around him. You can tell when you talk to him, that he is the sweetest soul. He just wants to make people smile and life by showing his own infectious smile and laughter. What an incredible outlook on life.

So there it is. Just 5 minutes ago I'm pretty sure I told you I wasn't going to babble on about life epiphanies but I guess I did, oops. I sure hope it was worth the read though because I try myself, and even preach to others, to give people a chance. You really don't know someone until you put in the time and effort. People are constantly surprising me, sometimes in bad ways yes. But when you find little diamonds here and there, it really makes it worth doing. You learn and you grow, and you open your mind up to so much more.

Ahh, life, so beyond words. So surprisingly wonderful.

Socially Offensive

My neighbours were looking fierce going to their "politically incorrect" themed party.

Moooooove bitch, get out da way, get out da way!

Orange faces, white necks, blue eye shadow, pencilled eyebrows, visible bra/bra straps, high g-strings, tramp stamps, o.t.t boots, stringy bangs, coloured tights, crop tops, checkered scarves, chewing gum, dangly keychains, celtic cross necklaces, large hoop earrings, thick headbands, copious amounts of hot pink lip gloss...

Politically correct THIS!

... putting the ASS back into CLASSY girls!

Too funny for words. I Heart (practically) Roomies.

How I Turn You On

"Bailamos.. Te quiero amor mio, te quiero."

Embarassing is when your neighbour says your wallpaper is embarassing.

Okay so yes, I might just be obsessed..

But please, seriously.. can anyone really say that this isn't the hottest wallpaper in the world?

My Rooms been Bugged!

I return from a week-long holiday to find my room INFESTED with bugs!!!

Melting Easter chocolates: I guess leaving a smudge of brown 'poo' adds to the authenticity..

Who has the best roomies.. hey?

Tell me.

Tell me!

Yo, Buzz Me.

How on this planet did I forget to mention a week ago that Stefan had finally returned home? He's the bees knees. Which I think means that he's the best. Why? Bees carry pollen back to their hives in sacks resting on their legs. It's tempting to explain the phrase as alluding to the concentrated goodness to be found around the bee's knees, but there's no evidence for this explanation.

Stefan in a past life

Anyway, upon his return I realised two things:

1. A lot of the homesickness was because of the empty house - almost immediately after they all came back, I've been so content.
2. I never had a fear of being by myself when I'm older, I now do.

The dorm has been flooded with life. I can't believe how famously we all mesh. Breakfast is now my favourite time of the day, I actually get up earlier so that I can join in on all the morning gaiety. Tonight Clara and Stefan are hosting a fondue party with friends from their class here which I'm super duper excited about. Both literally and figuratively speaking, it should be a messy night.

Forget love, I'd rather fall in chocolate.

Living next to us are four girls who Clara, Stef and Jakob are tight with (yo). I met a couple of the girls 2 nights ago when they held a BBQ to celebrate the celsius tickling 15 for the first time in 4 months. Barely understanding anything that was going on (they all speak in German on my request, I want to learn pronto!.. schneller!) their demeanour alone cracked me up - the girls are just hilarious. BBQ night: fun, fun, fun!

It's karaoke for the Brazilians and Mexicans on Thursdays and despite the fact that I'm Australian in nationality and Asian in appearance, I was invited - wootang! The Mexicans decided pre-drinks at Gonzalo's dorm in Karlshof. Shucks, I was the only girl there but I felt right at home. These guys are just always laughing and up for a good time. Best part is they don't try to get into my pants -- its fresh*. The whole night, again, I barely followed anything that was going on although I understood a lot more of the spanish than I had of the german so at least I gathered the general gist of the conversation. Few beers downed and no tequila shotting at all (shock horror), we headed to An Sibin for karaoke and met up with the Brazilians and a few of the Spanish for songs, sing-alongs and what else but more beer.

Topped a great night out with Germany's 3am alcohol sponger, a Turkish doner kebab - truly wunderbar!

*I have a pre-conceived idea of Mexican men being egotistical sleazeballs.. for no reason in particular, of course.

Spanish speaking Italians from Brazil in Germany?

There's one thing that sticks out to me in Darmstadt, and that's the number of Spanish, Mexican and Brazilian people living and studying here. That 'Italian Party' I told you about was dominated by the hispanics, so much so that I don't think I even met one Italian sole there. The Spanish students are here in the plane-loads due to close tertiary agreements between Spain and Germany; the Mexicans and Brazilians, I have no idea. It kind of works out amazingly because I've been trying to learn Spanish for quite some time now so passively I'm learning, hooray! Need I mention the men, again?

Here's how most of the night went down..

PRE-PRE-DRINKS: Johnny and I had decided to check out the International Generations Meeting (a sit-down party for students) before heading out, arriving to free beers, wines and champagnes - oh and delicious wraps and pastries. I got to meet a few "friends of friends" which was fantastic, but on the whole it was full of older people and I couldn't understand the German conversations going on to save my life. Johnny and I snuck out, fresh beer in pocket.

International Generations Meeting

PRE-DRINKS: We headed to Karlshof* which is the only other, and much, much, MUCH bigger student housing complex in Darmstadt. We got to meet a lot of Steph's friends, who generally were - yep you guessed it - Spanish, Mexican or Brazilian. Some of the girls had dressed up as the Italian Mafia which was fun to see. The pre-drinks here had reminded me so much of my friends back in Australia - the craziness and hilarity of it all was almost identical.

There's a couple of the 'Mafia'

DRINKING TIME: The Italian Party was hosted in the most random room I had ever seen in my life. It was just that, a room. A big one though. There was no bar, no anything really. Just a whole bunch of people in the one space, dancing, boozing and having a blast. Two of the girls I was with had bought along a bottle of wine to share. In a drunken stupor, we managed to somehow pop open the plastic cork with a fork. Each taking several large swigs, we headed back into the party. I had somehow ended up holding the bottle --"Someone please take it! I look like an alcoholic!" .. "I'm already drunk, you keep it" & "I'm waaaaay drunk". To my girls at home -Laura, Lex, Rach and Rob (okay so you're not a girl but you're as good as one to me) - you guys all know my history with wine bottles in clubs. Not good! ..Yet funny.

Happy snaps

Messiness.

Amazingness.

Viva Spai.. Germany!

*This complex houses over 1000 pupils and is notorious for their wild parties and dominance of the student social life. I'm not one to shy away from parties, but the quieter, cleaner, closer and less crowded nature of Nieder Ramstadter (my student complex, which houses approximately 400 students) works for me. Sharing my dorm with 10 others instead of 4 doesn't sound that appealing to me, nor my liver.

Return of the Roomies

The past few days have been the best days of my life in all its simplicity. All week, I had been sitting at the door like a puppy dog, longingly staring out the window waiting for my owners to come home.

I know how you feel, man.

In the midst of my depression* and cries for help, Gamze had organised a bowling night (followed by a trip to the Aussie bar!) on Monday so that Johnny and I could meet another American and another Australian (Josh and Steph) who have been living here for several months now. Steph, who comes from Sydney, is very adorable, and we've been getting along great which I'm so happy about. She's introduced me to a few of her friends as well and the girls act just like my girls at home.. it's complacency like I've never known it.

Gamze and Germany's ridiculously huge cocktails!

Steph and Josh with Monday's half-priced cocktails

The string of good events for me had officially started off with Jakob returning from Spain on Tuesday. I was cleaning my room and when I heard a key turn in the door, I literally ran out to the kitchen and screamed in his face like a madwoman. It went a little something like this:

C: JAAAAAKKKOOOOBBBBB!!!!!!

J: Hallo!

C: I'm so glad you're back, you have no idea! I've been so bored without you guys! The house was so empty. Man, it's so good to see you.

J: Well, I'm not glad to be back. I have work tomorrow.

So that was about the extent of his happiness in comparison to mine. Then for the rest of the night I lingered around him like a bad smell, asking him about his holiday all the while having a massive cheesy grin and stars sparkling in my eyes.. it was like meeting the Backstreet Boys or something equally as incredible.

Wednesday then brought about the return of the showers, and having my first high-pressured shower of hot water was my very own kind of heroin - be gone, red bucket! Once Jakob had retired to bed, I joined a multi-cultural group of students (Australia, America, Brazil, France, Italy, Turkey and Finland attended) to venture out to a Cuban bar for our Ella's birthday and take advantage of happy hour and cheap cocktails - what a great night! Ella has a motorised wheelchair and well, how could we not take advantage of that as well? Fun times were definitely had.

Happy Hour had surely turned into happy hours

Thursday arvo after class I returned to my dorm to find that I had forgotten my keys inside. So I messaged Jakob to see when he'd be coming home - "7pm". Devastating. Determined not to sit outside in the freezing snow waiting for him to come home, I texted Marc (the French) to see what he was doing and luckily he was "doing homework but its not very exciting", which I kind of just took as an acceptance to my visitation. I like Marc, he's one of the very few other foreigners who I think I'd be friends with in any circumstance. He had packets and packets of sour gummy lollies which we annihilated in a matter of minutes, and streetviewed Paris; he was my very own personal tour guide. After that, we lounged on his bed and watched Johnny Depp's romantic motion picture "Chocolat" which I absolutely loved. Cest la vie, oui?

That one's Marc.

Friday also delivered its goods. Clara returned from her vacation and again, I ran to the door but resisted bowling her over in all the flurry. It also meant I had to bid adieu to her plant which was kind of sad. The plant had pretty much been my only friend while my roomies were off having fun, frolicking in the sunnier parts of Europe. Pretty depressing, right? But I'd gladly swap vegetation for Clara anyday.

On a completely random note, check out my snow art from a week ago and then it today!

and now

I'll be meeting up with Steph for a glass of wine tonight with some of the other girls before heading out to "The Italian Party" which sounds messy. Then tomorrow morning I'll be missioning it out to Karlsruhe for the weekend to see Johannes before he leaves to China!

It's nice to be able to say that, things are finally going great.

* I over-exaggerate, I wasn't feeling that bad really. I have a feeling Germany will be fantastic.

Shower Your Mercy on Me

Jetlag still hasn't left me yet. I've got a curfew of a 6 yr. old school kid on a school night, and I'm waking up early enough to watch the Americans march during an olympic opening ceremony before watching the sun rise. It's frustrating feeling like a zombie at uni, and being dead to not only the day, but also the night.

However I always knew there was a greater purpose for everything bad that happens to me.

For the past two days, I've had men in clickity-clack boots marching through my dorm, hammering, tugging and cracking tiles in an attempt to restore cold water in my bathroom.. at 6:30am in the morning. Ludicrous! Thank god for Mr Jetlag being my personal alarm, which I can only assume would be much MUCH more pleasant then being woken up by "ish tsha gehnasha shti booshta rashca" and BAM BAM BAM. Oh and did I mention one of the plumbers has the Simpsons theme song as his mobile ring tone?

Here are some awesome before and after photos for your viewing:

to

Okay so I lied, the before photo is of the other bathroom but its basically the same. I just never realised I would've needed to take photos of my shower..

Due to this construction site (favourably occurring on the other side of the wall where my bed lies..), we've had no water coming to either of the bathrooms, except for our kitchen sink and one toilet. As such, I have been surviving like a poverty-stricken cherub. Bathing with a bucket and sponge, freezing my ass off as the water droplets freeze and dry up on my skin the moment of contact. Oh, and the hot water freezes over in a matter of minutes so total showering time? ... 1.3 minutes. FML.