Muffet Pie

FINALLY!

2012-01-04T19:13:00.000-04:00

It took over a month of pestering, but I finally got my 'testimonial' letter for my Master's application from my former supervisor.

I placed my application in the hands of Canada Post early this afternoon, for a *mere* $54.56 (no groceries for me!). This lofty price enables me to track the guaranteed, 6-day delivery of this package, which I will do furiously, non-stop, every day until it reaches its destination.

Ooooooh, pleeeeeeease, University of Helsinki, please accept me! I have invested so much time, effort and money into this application. PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAASE!

Oh, just another point-form update...

2012-01-01T20:01:00.000-04:00

So, yeah, I've not written anything here in over a month (just felt the need to state a bit of the obvious there). Oooooh so many times I've told myself to write, but just put it off...

That being said, my life over the last four weeks hasn't exactly been a barrel of monkeys. Let me try a brief recap:

JOB:
I've now been unemployed for one month. Oh, I've sent some resumes out here and there, but I can't say I've been breaking my back looking for one. I've applied for Employment Insurance from the government after many people have told me things like, "you pay into it your whole life, might as well use it" or, "Everyone's got to go on it at least once in their lives."

SCHOOL:
My application is complete and ready to send off to the University of Helsinki. I've gotten great feedback from the PhD student who reviewed my application. I got a recommendation letter from one of my former teachers. Now I am just waiting on a 'testimonial' from my former supervisor. I've asked her 3 or 4 times already, and each times she tells me I will have it that week. Then... nothing! I'm going to contact her AGAIN tomorrow morning. The deadline is getting closer! I do not understand how or why people are SO unreliable. It's positively maddening.

HOME:
I just completed 2 weeks of house-and-cat-sitting for a friend. I had a large house all to myself, and the solitude was beautiful! Now I am back in my cramped house with the ex-bf and my Austrian house guest. Luckily, the house guest will leave January 3, so there will be one fewer body crowding up the joint.

FAMILY:
Ups and downs! I'm currently not on speaking terms with either my stepfather or my Oma. Long story short, both said things to deeply offend me one time too many, I had a mental breakdown on Christmas day, ruined Christmas, and the rest is history. On the up side, I have spent a lot more time than ever with my Grammy & Grampy these past two weeks and I have never felt so welcome and loved by them. Grampy even gave us a rare performance on his trumpet, which was beautiful and heartbreaking at the same time. He is getting so old, so I will treasure that moment.

I'm sure I am forgetting much about the last month... but I have lots of free time ahead to write here.

I suppose a note about my New Year's Eve is in order... Basically I hated it more than usual, as it ended with me getting getting harassed by some drunk asshole who wouldn't take no for an answer at my local pub. I ended up just getting out of there as fast as I could and walking home alone in the rain. Ugh.

I'm going to take my shitty introduction to 2012 to mean that things can only get better throughout the rest of the year. Right? Well, maybe better after tomorrow's 8:20 a.m. dentist appointment.

Signs

2011-11-29T14:13:00.002-04:00

My job hunting plans got a bit derailed last night when my out-of-towner cousin called me to join her for a brew or two. Dammit! I still haven't missed any application deadlines though, so... procrastination = justified.

We went to a local sports bar with a two-for-one Monday night drink special. I didn't notice immediately, but when I finally looked above our table I saw this:

Blackberry pic by author.

If I were superstitious, I would say it was a sign that I am meant to go to Finland. As it stands, I am a natural born skeptic, so I will just take it as a reminder to keep my eyes on the prize.

Five more days of being a productive (?) member of society...

2011-11-28T14:32:00.000-04:00

It's my last week of work! Good grief! I still don't have a new job lined up... And with good reason: I haven't really looked for any.

I've been struck with these crippling bouts of writers' block whenever I sit down in front of a computer to update my resume. I'm suffering from this issue where I am under-qualified for good jobs and over-qualified for bad jobs. I just don't know how to find a happy medium and sell myself! I'm coming to terms with not finding anything in my field (for now). Anyway, even though my near-constant state of panic has immobilized me for the past week or so, I did manage apply to two government jobs this morning. Ha! One which I am under-qualified for and one which I am over-qualified for. Go figure.

I'm hoping to apply to a couple more government jobs by the end of today, as well as hit up one of the environmental companies which I had overlooked in my last round of resume-flooding. Next week, on my first weekday of unemployment, I plan to also register with a temp agency. Maybe they can figure out where I belong better than I can. Blerg.

In Master's application news, I have pretty much completed my "motivation letter". I'm just waiting on some critique from a PhD student at the University of Helsinki (re: my motivation letter sucks or it doesn't suck), a letter of recommendation from a past teacher, and a "testimonial" from my current supervisor. Hopefully I will have amassed all of these documents in their complete and final form by Friday so I can entrust them to the capable (?) hands of Canada Post.

Oh here's something that may or may not be weird. Recently, on a job site, I had some time to contemplate my rapidly declining life whilst standing in a big field of dead grass and rotting trees. Everything was tan and grey. Not particularly pretty, but somehow very calm and peaceful. The air was quite cool, but not too cold, so I just laid down in the grass for a bit and made a mental note of that quiet moment. Soooooooo, for the past few weeks, when I am at my lowest, I have been trying to mentally bring back that 'happy place', where none of my woes mattered and time stood still for like... 5 minutes. It does have a bit of a calming effect on me. Here are some Blackberry pics I took, in case I forget and need a visual aid:

So how soon until I go full-on crazy?

I don't care if Monday's blue, Tuesday's grey, and Wednesday too

2011-11-22T16:25:00.001-04:00

Well, I didn't get any definitive job hunting done on the weekend. Instead mom and I drank wine, ate, chit-chatted, watched a show about Cirque du Soleil that made me feel very out of shape, and went to the neighbour's yard for beers and a bonfire.

It was a nice escape, but as soon as I returned to the city on Monday all my job/school/life anxieties came rushing back full force and punched me in the guts. I have found some job postings completely unrelated to my education that I will apply for tomorrow, so I haven't been a complete waste of space these past few days.

Monday also marked the day where I gained access to the 'motivation letter' questions for my University of Helsinki Master's program application. There are seven questions to answer, some more challenging than others. I plugged away at it yesterday during my downtime at work (erm... all day at work was my downtime) and got a good chunk of it answered. I've kinda sorta neglected it today out of gloom-induced laziness, but I did see this at the mall on my lunch break, reminding me--in a roundabout way--to keep pushing forward:

Santa's Sauna. Blackberry photo by author.

I sent this image to my Finn, who instantly pointed out that there is no chimney on this sauna, and thus it is here that Santa may very well meet his untimely end.

Nothing new to report here...

2011-11-18T15:42:00.001-04:00

Oh wait, there is one new news item, and that is...

...that I did not get the job I had the interview for a couple weeks ago. Sobs! So I am still faced with impending unemployment in two weeks time. Yikes! I had another little cry-on-the-phone-to-my-mother session about it last night. I was going to post in this blog about it last night too, but I was afraid of what dreary, "poor me" bullshit I might post in my exaggerated state of despair.

I have to keep pushing forward! I'll have access to the University of Helsinki master's application come Monday. I've just asked a former teacher to write me a letter of recommendation for the program, and I am quite sure he will agree to it (I was a dream student!). I have also received some encouraging replies to my inquiry emails to people at the UH. So all of that is positive.

I'll head to my mom's place out of town tomorrow so I can have some peace and quiet to prepare my documents and application for school, as well as get my shit together to resume job hunting. My mom recently lost her job too, so we can team up on this one. Or annoy each other to death. I'll let you know which it is... ;)

Ice Princess

2011-11-15T15:44:00.002-04:00

Okay, I want to talk about ice skating. It's something I do enough of that maybe I could even call it a hobby? (I have to remember that... whenever someone asks me what my hobbies are, I always draw a blank). I attend a recreational skate here in Halifax about 3 times a week. Sometimes less, sometimes more, depending on the weather and which venues are in operation. Dare I say it is my favourite thing to do?

When I was preparing to leave for Austria, I wasn't sure if I wanted to take my skates with me, since the winter was almost half over and I wasn't sure how long into the year the indoor rink would remain open. I eventually opted not to take them.

Soon into my exchange, some of the Austrian students organized a trip to the rink for the newbies. Being from Canada, there were some heavy expectations laid on me to be a wonder on blades of steel, especially from the students from Mexico, Indonesia, southern Italy and other such countries lacking in the true northern experience. I actually ate all of this up and did nothing to refute these expectations (quite the opposite, actually)... but god knows my ice skating skills are a century removed from Kristi Yamaguchi's (I was going to use 1980s Canadian ice princess Elizabeth Manley as a reference, but it makes me feel too old).

Anyway, though my skating may have been (somewhat) impressive to those who had never before set foot on a frozen surface, the horrendously dull blades of the rental skates made me feel as wobbly as a newborn fawn (I think they are pretty wobbly, right?). I have never before experienced such poor quality ice or skates. Gawwwwwwd, Austria! Get with it! To be fair, I think Austrians focus more on skiing as the quintessential recreational sport, and with good reason (more on that later). Thankfully, everyone was so busy trying to help keep the Mexican students upright, that no one seemed to notice that my skating was not as spectacular as my boasting would have implied.Or maybe I just imposed higher standards upon myself, coming from this hockey-lovin' country (not to mention being my own worst critic).

There is no real point to this story. It's Tuesday, and I am at work, just biding my time until I can hit the ice in a few hours. I need a little break from my job/school application stress. Skating is my 3 hours-per-week, temporary stress-buster.

Austria, Turkey, and Belgium at the Eisbahn. Photo by author.

Oh yeah, I have to give props to the fiercely determined girl from Malaysia. She started out not being able to stand up, but an hour later was ready to turn pro!

Sobs!

2011-11-14T17:43:00.000-04:00

Huh. I know I said I wanted to post some lighter posts... but I guess that's not in the cards just yet.

'Cause really, I just want to type about how I bawled my eyes out on the phone last night to my mom. Basically, I just felt overwhelmed to my tipping point. I bawled about not having a job in 3 weeks, about not having any hope of finding a job, of not getting accepted to school, of NO FUTURE, and any and every other nugget of self-pity that I have swimming around inside my skull.

I also got annoyed when she asked if I only chose Finland because of a boy. I just said no... In my tearful, blubbering state, I sure as hell didn't have the mental capacity to explain that what started as interest in a boy soon developed into a genuine interest in a specific education. It's one of those things that if someone else said it to me, I would think, "yeah, right". I'm sure that's what my mom is thinking. Erm, it's not like I haven't dropped everything and moved for 'love' before...

Ah, whatever. I'm just going to push forward. One week until the application period opens. And a bazillion more days until I know my fate....

The Current State of Affairs... in a nutshell.

2011-11-10T11:38:00.000-04:00

I don't even know where to begin with updating... I think I will just give a somewhat brief overview of things before getting into specifics.

Let's start with...

AUSTRIA:

My six-month exchange was a major learning experience. Maybe not so much in terms of school, but maybe more about myself and personal growth (or lack thereof). I feel so lame saying that... shouldn't I know myself pretty well now that I am in my dirty thirties?

I had good times and I had bad times in Austria (including some legal issues that I will save for another post), but I wouldn't trade any of it for the world! I did some traveling to other beautiful and fascinating European countries. I met some great friends who have become some of the most important people in my life. Though I would not necessarily want to stay in Austria forever--or even necessarily want to go back there-- I was certainly not ready to come home.

HOME:

Now that I am back in Canada, I've been faced with a few tough decisions and challenges. Nothing major--my life is hardly so exciting--but just your typical stress-inducing issues that many people face at one point or another.

My living situation is odd. My 6-year relationship has been called off, but I am sharing my tiny house with my ex, an Austrian house guest, and my cat. It is at times awkward, often crowded, but generally it just feels temporary, so I am not overly anxiety-ridden about it. Things should be different in the new year when my house guest is gone, the ex follows through on his plan to move to England, and my cat and I must find somewhere new to live.

On the job front, I went back to the job I held before I left for Austria. What sucks about it is that they replaced me when I left (understandably) and could only offer me a four month contract upon my return. The company is experiencing some difficulties right now, so they are not in a position to extend that contract. I am waiting to hear back from another company I had an interview with last week, but there is a very real possibility that I will be unemployed as of December 2.

FINLAND:

Honestly though, I am not panicking about a long term career yet because what I really want to do is pursue a Master's program in Finland. If I don't get a new job in my field, I am okay with taking a shit job until I can get back to school. That is, if I can get accepted to the program with my somewhat unusual credentials. I've already contacted someone about it, and she did say I am eligible to apply... but I still feel a lot of uncertainty or a lack of confidence that my credentials are good enough.

Another truth: The reason why I even considered Finland in the first place was because of a Finn I met on my Austrian exchange who had/has become a key player in my life. As I explored the possibilities of going to Finland, however, I stumbled across this Master's program (Multidisciplinary Studies on Urban Environmental Issues). Everything about the program appeals to me. I read every square inch of their website and it feels like the program was specifically tailored to my interests. Now, if I can just convey that sentiment in my application...

I will be absolutely heartbroken if I am not accepted. In just over a week the application window will be open. I'm so nervous! After I apply I will not know if I am accepted or rejected until April or May. How much is that wait going to kill me?

So... I guess that's where I am in life. I'll try to write some posts that are a little more fun. ;)

Oops!

2011-11-09T15:44:00.000-04:00

So much for writing a travel/expat blog! It would appear that I barely made it through one full week of my 6 months in Austria before giving up on and/or forgetting about my bloggy blog. I guess I was just too busy having fun/being frustrated/being miserable/being happy to keep it up.

I'm back home in Halifax now and I am in a weird kind of re-adjustment period. Changes have been made; everything is uncertain.

Is there some way I can resurrect this blog (*yawn*... again????). I'm thinking about it.

My ideas of what I can post are thus far as follows:

- posts about what I did (or can remember doing) in Austria and the other countries I visited in my 6 months abroad
- posts about this weird phase I am in right now
- posts about trying to get to Finland (there is a Master's program I ~~want to do~~ am dying to do through the University of Helsinki starting in the Fall of 2012)
- all of the above

God, I wonder if I can make this blog work this time?

Oh, by the way, I made it to Wels...

2011-02-16T08:53:00.003-04:00

It's been almost one week since I arrived in Wels. I've thought about posting a few times, but I was either busy or just flat out got lazy. This post is going to be kind of lazy too, just going to give quick updates:

My flight(s): Horrible! My first flight, although delayed, was fine, the looooonng layover was fine, but the flight from Toronto to Vienna on Austrian Air was a nightmare. There was absolutely no leg room, which sucks if you have somewhat long leg like me, and the food was gross. But that wasn't even the bad part. Directly in front of me were two families with babies who cried and screeched the whole time. One baby actually did cry, without stopping, for the entire 7 hour flight. No joke. I got no sleep. By the time I got to Wels I had been awake for about 36 hours and may have gone insane.

My buddy: Thankfully the "buddy" assigned to me by the international office turned out to be really nice and really helpful. I heard that some of the exchange students have not even been able to contact their buddies or they were being brushed off by them. My buddy picked me at the airport in Linz, drove me to my residence in Wels, helped me register my residence with the Austrian government, helped me get a sim card for my phone, and gave me the address of a place to find a second hand bicycle. She even gave me a gift: a bag of Austria's famous Mozartkugeln, which are round chocolate balls with nougat and marzipan centres.

Mozartkugeln

My room: No roomie! Woohoo! I was actually supposed to get roomate, but a mixup with someone else's room landed me in a single room. I pay 400 euros per month... I have no idea if that's a fair price or not? The room itself is about the same size as your standard residence hall single room, but it is new (about 5 years old), has lots of shelving and closet space, a big window, adjustable heat, a mini fridge, a large desk, a surprisingly comfortable single bed (with a goose down comforter!), cleaning service (!!!), and my own washroom which is larger than the washroom in my house in Halifax. It's pretty great, honestly.

The food: I pay "half board" at the residence, which includes breakfast and a choice between lunch and dinner. So far the food has been pretty gross, but what can you expect from a residence cafeteria? I'm told that the menu is on an 8 week rotation and some weeks are really good, other not so good. Hopefully this is one of the not so good weeks. I haven't had a chance to eat at any restaurants yet, but I am familiar with traditional Austro-Bavarian meals, and the first word that comes to mind is "disgusting".

The people: So far I have mostly met exchange students from last semester, including a girl from Mexico who lives a couple floors above me. She introduced herself to me right away and has been taking me out with her friends to "make party" every night since I arrived. It's a little bittersweet, though, since all the fun people I am meeting are leaving. Some already have left and the rest are leaving within the next week or two. Even some of the Austrians I've met are leaving by April to go do work terms. I really, really, really hope that when the rest of the upcoming semester's exchange students arrive, they are just as fun and want to do some travelling.

Wels: It's pretty tiny! You only need one day to see the place, really. It's got a quaint, picturesque city centre, and not much else. Within the first two or three days here about 8 people told me how boring it gets. The night life consists of three very small bars, all on the same tiny street. The upside is that beer is very cheap and the bars are open until 4 a.m. Generally, I think Wels will be less boring as the spring begins, as there will be more festivities and colours in and around town. As soon as the sun comes out (it has been overcast since I got here), I want to post some pictures of this place.

There is lots more to type, but I'll save it for another day when I'm bored.

Tschüss!

On My Way

2011-02-09T17:15:00.002-04:00

I'm writing this half asleep, since I woke up at 3:20 a.m. to catch my first flight. I'm now waiting out the final half hour of longest layover ever at Toronto's Pearson airport, and then I'm off on my flight to Vienna.

I'm going to miss my beloved little boy, Mason (my cat). Even though he is kind of a pest and a jerk, I dote on that little bugger.

It's Mason! Taken last night as we said our goodbyes.

I wish I had more to say right now, but I'm starting to doze off...

P.S. A man just sat next to me in the pre-boarding area and he really smells bad. Please don't let him be sitting next to me on my 9 hour flight!

Acting

2011-01-21T11:35:00.001-04:00

It's been a while since I've updated... but truth be told, it's been a very uneventful few weeks.

I've basically just been counting down the days until my last day at work, which, by the way, seems to be taking its good old time.

I leave for Austria in 19 days. I can't tell if I'm nervous, excited or generally non-plussed. I guess it doesn't seem quite real yet.

Last week NSCC asked me to answer some questions and to send in a photo of myself so they could post a blurb about my scholarship to their internal website. I find it very difficult to pose for serious photos and keep a straight face or smile like a normal person, so natch this resulted in some cheesy "acting" by yours truly:

Photo by my better half.

This is not the photo I sent in, by the way. I toned down the cheese factor on the one I sent.

An unedited (my name is spelled wrong in the third paragraph and I was later informed that it was edited so that my name was spelled wrong throughout. Oh good.) PDF version of the article can be seen here.

In other news, I have been thinking of getting a half sleeve tattooed on my left arm for ages now. I would like to get a small part of it done before I leave, but seeing as I only have 19 days left here in Halifax, I may have put it off for too long. I have to find out today or tomorrow if the tattoo artist can squeeze me in before I leave.

Untitled!

2011-01-03T10:19:00.000-04:00

This post is kind of a mish-mash of things, no singular theme.

First off, happy 2011! (I almost just typed 2012. I'm getting ahead of myself!)

Secondly, I did start a "photo-a-day" blog as I mentioned in my previous post. It's a tumblr blog and you can go to it here or by clicking the link on the sidebar. It's only my second day of posting, so I may be premature in linking to it. I really hope I can keep it going, at least for one year.

What else...

I'm leaving for Austria in 37 (!) days. The school has recently sent me the contact information of my "buddy". My buddy is a current student at the school who has volunteered to help show the incoming international students their way around and try to answer questions about school/Wels/Austria/other. I'm going to email my buddy (it sounds so cheesy!) later today and just try to touch base. I'm actually kind of excited to meet her!

Finally, I'm investigating potential hang out locations in the Wels/Linz area. A woman I've exchanged a couple emails with through an Austrian expat website has told me of a pub in central Linz called Chelsea Pub which shows all of the EPL footy games and is supposedly a popular place for foreigners. I'd like to find a similar place in Wels, where I'll be staying, but it's good to know that Chelsea Pub is only a short train ride away when I am in dire need of footy and beer.

Potential hang-out spot: Chelsea Pub, Linz, Austria (source)

That's all for now. Type soon.

Photography hates me.

2010-12-29T11:41:00.002-04:00

I am such a bad photographer. I feel that good pictures are part and parcel of a good blog, so I fear that my limited photgraphic skills are going to play a role in making this bloggedy blog sub-par. My hopes of sharing endless snaps of Austria's beauty may simply end up a conspicuous and embarrasing display of my lack of talent.

Having a low-end, much abused digital camera probably doesn't help in the quality department, but I could never justify purchasing a decent camera. For one, I would rather spend that money on clothes or other frivolous items (recovering shopaholic with periodic relapses). Secondly, I carry around pretty much everything I own in my purse and I don't think my shoulders or back could stand the extra weight and strain of a "good" camera. Thirdly, my Type A personality is none more apparent than with my considerable lack of patience. I never wanted to take the time to learn about cameras, about photo composition, lighting, blah blah, blah.

So what do I have? A Sony digital camera that is scratched to bits from its home on the bottom of my purse. The lens is filthy, so several of my pics end up with spots where there shouldn't be spots (I like to call them UFOs). I think the camera is 7.2 megapixels, but I can't be too sure as the letters and numbers have long since rubbed off. These days I tend to use my grainy, off-colour Blackberry camera rather than dig that old thing out of my bag.

And what do I do? I take hasty, crooked, poorly-lit photos. Generally, I think I can at least centre a photo, but that is Step One in a million, I'm sure.

As a Christmas gift to my Oma, I compiled photos I had taken on our trip to Germany in 2007 into a wall calendar. Everyone marveled over my photographic abilities, but I had to confess that I sorted through an infinite amount of garbage before finding just enough pics to fill up 12 months worth of calendar pages. Hey, when you take almost 800 pics, you are bound to have a few that turn out okay. Right? (In my case, just barely...).

Long story short, I've been contemplating starting one of those photo-a-day blogs for 2011. The issue is that I cringe at the thought of me being able to produce that many decent photos. Hey, I guess if it sucks, I can always hit delete.

The Holocaust Memorial in Berlin.
Photo by author.
(I made this one crooked on purpuse. Ha!)

P.S. Leaving for Austria in 42 days!

Plätzchen

2010-12-21T11:29:00.001-04:00

There are only 50 days until I leave for Austria and oh, right, 4 days until Christmas.

Austria has been a good excuse for me to refrain from going all out on presents this year, as everyone knows I am trying to save as much money as I can for the trip. But I love to give presents, so this year I took my culinary skills (or lack thereof) to my Oma's kitchen and enlisted her and my boyfriend's help in baking my gifts to everyone.

We made several types of cookies, including Butterzeug (my favourite since I was a kiddie), Glasierte Honigkuchen (honey cakes), and Pfeffernüsse ("pepper nuts"), as pictured in the crappy Blackberry pic below. God I hope they're edible!

It's an Off-white and Tan Christmas! Photo by author.

The hardest part--aside from my disdain for cooking/baking/kitchens in general--is to not eat all the gifts before I get a chance to hand them out. My will power is pretty non-existant in the cookie department.

No Canadians Allowed!

2010-12-17T13:05:00.001-04:00

Remember this post and this post, where I wrote about my confusion on how to get myself to the Austria - Germany UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying match? Well, I think I may be back to square one. I know how to buy tickets, but it would seem that I can't. Unless I've lost something in translation, the gist I am getting from the ticketing agency in Austria is that I must be a citizen of one of the countries playing in the match in order to get tickets. Booooooo-urns!

I guess it's understandable if that's the case... It is probably preferable for the Austrian and German teams to have a stadium full of fans with a vested interest, rather than a bunch of non-plussed neutrals. But still! It's a little more nationalist than I am used to.

I wonder if citizens of other countries are allowed to buy tickets closer to game time, just to fill up nosebleed seats that may not have sold... I'm not going to give up hope just yet!

But what I am going to do is start Plan B: obtaining tickets to a UEFA Champions League match. Bayern Munich plays Inter Milan in the next round... can I catch their game in Munich? Fingers crossed!

Allianz Arena, home of FC Bayern Munich. Photo by author.

It's Official...

2010-12-07T22:08:00.000-04:00

I am now legally allowed to stay in Austria for six months!

My visa application was approved and I picked up my passport with visa at the post office yesterday. This trip seems more and more real as I slowly get everything checked off of what once seemed like a never-ending list.

63 more days until I depart!

Photo by author

New Header

2010-12-06T00:09:00.002-04:00

Okay, bare with me... I am brand new at photoshop and just attempted my very first custom header above. It's far from great, but I have to say I am proud of myself for actually figuring out how to make one at all!

It's a work in progress. In the future I hope to make it a little more representative of whatever this blog is supposed to be about...

Christmas Markets

2010-12-02T16:26:00.001-04:00

My Oma grew up not far from Nürnberg, Germany, which is home to one of the most famous Christmas markets, or Christkindlesmarkts (literally Christ Childs market). She's told me about the Nürnberger Christkindlesmarkt several times, and I hope to someday experience it for myself, as I've only been to Nürnberg in September/October. As one of those annoying people who loves Christmas (and who sneaks out some decorations as early as November), this would be a dreamland for me! I love Christmas lights! I love markets! I love the outdoors! I love drinking wine! I love drinking wine at a market outdoors surrounded by pretty Christmas lights! (Or, at least I think I do...)

I've been reading a lot about the Christmas markets in Austria, which are apparently very similar to the ones in Germany. This makes me regret that I will not be going to Austria until February, long after the Christkindlesmarkts have packed up and cleared away for another year.

For now I will try my luck at the German-style "Christkindlmarket" that is happening this weekend here in Halifax. I doubt that it will give me the true German or Austrian Christkindlesmarkt experience, but it is better than nothing. Hopefully the rain forcasted for the weekend won't put too much of a damper on things.

Nürnberger Christkindlesmarkt (source)

Getting closer...

2010-11-26T14:46:00.001-04:00

Finally! I have all my millions of documents together to apply for my Austrian visa. I just recieved my confirmation letters from the school and the residence this morning and I picked up my criminal record check at the cop shop on my lunch break (no adult convictions, FYI).

I just have to make photocopies of everything this weekend and I am ready to apply next week. It is going to feel GREAT to get all this paperwork behind me.

Blurry Blackberry pic snapped by author.

(Only 75 days until my departure!)

Countdown.

2010-11-19T08:28:00.001-04:00

I've gotten a little busier at work, so there isn't much time to "waste" in the blog world right now. I like being busy at work because it makes the days fly by instead of drag on and on and on and on...

Not only have I been counting down the days until I leave for Austria (82 as of today), but I have also been counting down the number of days left I have at work: 49! (this does not include weekends and holidays). It's not that I don't like my job--I'm a field tech for an environmental consulting firm and I really enjoy it--but when you have something big on the horizon like a 6 month move overseas, it is hard to keep from mentally "checking out" before your contract is up. I'm sure constantly checking the calendar, counting and re-counting days doesn't help to keep me particularly focused on the present, but really... I cannot stop.

Oh, I also bought myself a cheap-o advent calendar from the grocery store to assist in the countdown until Christmas. I'm counting down the days until I get to open the door for the first little waxy-chocolate "treat" (12!).

Driving myself crazy with numbers. ;)

Micromanagement

2010-11-15T09:47:00.002-04:00

86 days until I leave for Austria! I'm getting a little more nervous with each passing day.

I haven't applied for my Austrian visa yet. I'm still waiting on a confirmation letter from the school and a confirmation of residence. All of my other documents are assembled and ready to go.

The waiting drives me absolutely insane. I'm a control freak, a perfectionist, a worrier. I like to get things done ASAP. I guess you could say one of my biggest 'faults' is that I have a tendency to want to micromanage things (just ask any of my patient and understanding lab partners from school). I don't like to delegate responsibility away from myself, so waiting for someone else to prepare a vital document makes me feel anxious and completely out of control.

How long does it take for mail to come from overseas? Long enough for me to have a minor mental breakdown, I'm sure. ;)

Remembrance and Forgotten Film.

2010-11-12T10:13:00.006-04:00

Yesterday was Remembrance Day here in Canada, the day we remember and honour those who served our country in wars, past and present.

This always makes me think of the time I visited the Canadian National Vimy Memorial at Vimy Ridge in the north of France. This monument was dedicated to the the Battle at Vimy Ridge and Canadain soldiers who died in World War I.

I'm no photographer by any stretch of the word, but the settnig was absolutely perfect that day. The sky was clear--other than a few soft, white clouds--and it was slowly beginning to change from blue to the pinks, oranges and purples of dusk. The tall white monument looked absolutely breathtaking against the late afternoon sky. I thought to myself, these pictures will be the best I have ever taken!

But I'll never know. This visit took place in the days before digital cameras were popular (1998, to be precise), which meant carrying around a bajillion rolls of film on your travels. Sure enough, that particular roll went missing somewhere along the way. I believe it was left in a hotel room in Paris, but who knows. If you were to flip through my photos, I am missing a chunk of my trip between Bath, England and Paris, France.

My photos end here, with a terrible picture of a Roman bath in Bath:

(Photo by author)

And they start up again here, with a picture of Frederique (I can't believe I remember his name 12 years later!), a random we met on the streets of Paris:

(Photo by author)

Besides Vimy Ridge, the film also included pics of the white cliffs of Dover, a picture of a Coronation Street fruit machine I snapped for my mom, and who knows what else. I have always wondered if someone else found the roll of film and developed it.

Vimy Ridge, by the way, is a beautiful monument inscribed with the names of Canadian soldiers who died in WWI and who have no known graves. There are two tall, white towers (one for Canada, one for France) and 20 human figures with different symbolisms such as sympathy and mourning. On the way to the monument you pass through a vast expanse of field and forest which still bears trenches and landmine craters from the war. The fields are also littered with unexploded landmines from that time. It certainly gives you food for thought.

Nevermind

2010-11-11T12:31:00.003-04:00

Well, I feel like an idiot. Yesterday I wrote about my woes regarding obtaining tickets for the Austria - Germany Euro 2012 qualifying match in Vienna in June. It turns out that it is as simple as visiting the website of the Austrian national footy team 4 to 8 weeks before the game and purchasing tickets online. Duh! And, based on ticket sales for the Austria - Greece match coming up next week, the prices should be relatively reasonable.

I guess I have an English Premier League mindset, where tickets can be so hard to get for a home game of one of "the big four" it could require the sale of your first born. I had subconsciously refused to believe that it may actually be easy to see an international qualifying match.

At any rate, I feel much more confident about potentially seeing my beloved Deutschland team in action (and much more stupid about my internet searcing abilities, or lack thereof).

Footie help. I need it.

2010-11-10T11:48:00.003-04:00

I am a big football fan (soccer, to most North Americans), so of course one of my first thoughts when I found out I was going to Austria was to find out what games I could attend. I want to see everything from lower league club games to Champions League games to Euro 2012 qualifiers.

But! There is a major obstacle in the form of $/€/£. I certainly will not be able to afford to flit off to whichever host country to see big games for hundreds of dollars whenever I feel like it, so I will stick to catching lower league games. LASK Linz, anyone? FC Wels?

But I did hope that I would be able to splurge on at least one game, the game of choice being the Austria v. Germany Euro 2012 qualifying match in Vienna on June 3. But holy! How hard are tickets to get to these games? I spend a lot of my downtime at work searching for tickets online. So far I can only find third party sites that sell them at inflated prices, and the longer I wait, the more those prices go up. Also, some of these sites look very sketchy, so I do not want to risk losing a couple hundred dollars for nothing. I need a European football fan to help me with this one! HELP! At this point it looks like the closest I will get to this game is wandering around outside the stadium.

Oh, and the reason I want to see this game so badly is that I am a long-time supporter of the German national team and would LOVE to see their awesome current squad in action. This is why I heart "die Mannschaft":

1. My favourite footie player of all time is former German national Number 1, Olli "King" Kahn.
2. I am of german descent (german father, canadian mother).
3. The Canadian national team is garbage and will never make it to a major competition (or even have their games aired on TV for that matter), so we often look outside our country for a team to support.
4. The German team performs consistantly well in all competitions (historically not much flair, but they get the job done!).
5. Mesut Özil is one of my current favourite football players. He was awesome at the World Cup!

Mesut Özil (source)

Now I want to talk about my favourite club teams, but I will save that for another post.

Roomie.

2010-11-09T12:23:00.001-04:00

The international department of the school I will be attending in Austria is going to set me up with a room in one of their residences. When I filled out the accomodation forms, I checked off the boxes for a single room in one of the three buildings.

Today I got an email from the director of the international office telling me that they cannot guarantee that I will be able to have a single room, and would I mind sharing a room? I reluctantly responded that I would share a room, but would like to have a single room should one become available at any point.

I'm now feeling kind of dismayed at the prospect of having a roommate. This is why:

1. I'm 30 years old and feel that I am way past the roommate age.
2. I cherish my privacy and "alone time".
3. I cherish uninterrupted sleep.
4. My boyfriend plans on flying over to visit at some point and the roomie may not be okay with him staying in our room.
5. If things don't work out it will be an absolute drag to look for new accomodations.

Ugh. I guess the best I can do is hope for one of the following things:

1. A single room becomes available.
2. The roommate turns out to be awesome.
3. It will be easy as pie to find other, affordable accomodations.

I don't mean any disrespect toward you, potential future roomie... It will just be a major adjustment on my part.

Annnnnnnd speaking of pigeons...

2010-11-08T09:55:00.001-04:00

Okay, last post about birds for a while...

But! Thinking about pigeons inevitably led me to think about Trafalgar Square in London, England.

I took this picture of two complete strangers feeding the pigeons in Trafalgar Square allllll the way back in 1998, several years before the sale of birdseed was banned in the direct vicinity:

Pigeon mobs in Trafalgar Square, London, England. Photo by author.

The picture in no way does justice to the sea of birds swarming around our heads, hands and feet at the time. Wikipedia tells me that the number of pigeons in Trafalgar Square once peaked at around 35 000! I have to say, that even as a bird lover, I was apprehensive of spending too much time in this pigeon blackout. Who knows what kind of health hazards it presented (not to mention the constant fear of getting pooped on! Yikes!).

Speaking of birds...

2010-11-05T08:52:00.005-03:00

After yesterday's post I started to think about birds I may have seen on other trips.

As far as I can remember, the only birds I saw in New York were the world's grubbiest pigeons:

Pigeon over Manhatten. Photo by author.

Pigeon over Manhatten II. Photo by author.

Yes, I went to the top of the Empire State Building and took pictures of greasy winged rats instead of the cityscape. Tourist fail! But wait... you can kind of see Central Park in the background of that second one...

Do they have birds in Austria?

2010-11-04T11:54:00.011-03:00

For my 10th birthday, my parents gave me a copy of the Peterson Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North America. This continues to be my most prized and most often used gift, as it spawned 20 years of (very) amateur bird watching.

Before heading to Germany in the Fall of 2007, I purchased the Peterson Field Guide to the Birds of Britain and Europe.

(source)

In the three weeks I was there, I tried to squeeze in as much bird time as I could. Much of my time, however, was spent with 1 to 6 of my German relatives, none of whom shared the same interest in birds as myself. Nor was it always practical to ask them to indulge me: "I know we're flying down the Autobahn at 180 kilometres per hour, but can you slam on the brakes so I can get a better look at that buzzard on the fence we just passed?" To their credit, they were pretty excited to show me the hundreds of Canada Geese that had seemingly taken over Nürnberg.

I was a teensy bit dismayed that I had arrived too late in the season to see the storks nesting on rooftops. They had already migrated away for the winter.

This is not to say I didn't enjoy the birds I did get to see. They may be considered pests or common to most people around the globe, but I was thrilled to see bold, black and white magpies everywhere. They are easily my favourite bird... I even have a tattoo design in mind for two magpies on my left arm.

Hooded crow outside the Reichstag, Berlin. Photo by author

I was also thrilled to see the hooded crows that populate Eastern Europe. I snapped this picture of one hanging around the Reichstag in Berlin. Again, I am willing to bet most people in Berlin consider these guys pests, but I was just beside myself, like a kid with a new bike. Sure they look and act like our North American crows... but these ones have little grey vests!

I look forward to having lots of time to myself in Austria to try to spot some new-to-me birds. My field guide is at the top of my list of things to pack (dorky, I know).

I've been reading a bit about Lake Neusiedl, just outside of Vienna. It is apparently a bird sanctuary on the migration path of birds flying north from Africa for mating season. I'm hoping to take a bike tour around the lake area in the spring, either solo or group, to see what I can spot.

Until then, I'll content myself with our regular crows here in Halifax.

Not really about Austria (at all)...

2010-11-03T13:59:00.005-03:00

Today I watched with amusement (well, more like annoyance... I was in a hurry) as the woman ahead of me in line at the cop shop got all worried and flustered that we, Joe and Jolene Public, were mentally condemning her as a hardened criminal.

I went to the local police station on my lunch break to place an order for a criminal record check. In order to get my Austrian visa, I need to forward my criminal history (or lack thereof) to the Austrian Foreign Ministry.

The woman ahead of me approaches the wicket, and in a hushed voice says, "I need a C. R. check"

"A WHAT???" the annoyed lady behind the glass bellows.

"A ceeeeee arrrrrrrr check", the line lady says again, even more quietly (which, I might add, only serves to make the rest of us listen more intently).

"You mean a CRIMINAL RECORD check?" says the wicket lady, growing more visibly annoyed.

"Yes, yes... that... whatever you want to call it"

And on it went, as my lunch break ticked away. Wicket lady having to beat the answers out of this Nervous Nelly who was scared to death at what sordid assumptions we must be making about her past, and why on earth she would need a criminal record check. Weren't most of us there for the same reason? Probably. We weren't there to judge (though I had already judged her to be an epic time-waster).

It's funny how innocent people get flustered at the though of getting mixed up in the world of crime and punishment. It used to happen to me on occasion. When I was in university I used to get nervous walking past the security guard at the library of all places. I wasn't stealing books or chairs or copy cards, but I always felt a twinge of guilt nonetheless. And for what? Was I afraid the 90-year-old security guard was going to hobble after me and give me a stern talking-to in front of the other library patrons? Would everyone think I was the lowest form of criminal around: the copy card thief? I probably went into the library a hundred times before I realized that these were the most irrational of fears, and if I didn't get over my overblown aversion to authority I might go insane.

And ever since, I've been able to walk into the library confident and guilt-free.

What was the point of this post again? ;)

Cold Feet

2010-11-02T12:41:00.003-03:00

This morning I counted the days until I leave for Austria. Grand total: 99!

I have broken into the double digits!

This realization instantly filled me with dread. It seems so close now.

I'm scared to leave my comfort zone where I have a full time job, I come home to my boyfriend and cat every day, I have the material comforts of my apartment, and I have my mom just a phone call away (without having time zone constraints). I'm scared to not have a friend within a whole country. I'm scared of the difficulties presented by the language barrier. I'm scared of navigating alone through strange surroundings.

I just have to keep reminding myself that I love to travel and that I love new experiences. I have to remind myself that people leave home for extended periods all the time, many do it for much longer than I will be. I have to remind myself that I have always been able to handle being alone and entertaining myself (I'm an only child, after all). I have to remind myself that this is an opportunity many people will never, ever have, so I can't let any moment of it go to waste. I have to remind myself that this will perhaps be the greatest opportunity for personal growth that ever presents itself to me.

Just a little bit of cold feet. I'm sure that by the end of my time in Austria, I'll wish I could stay longer.

Sprechen Sie Deustch?

2010-11-01T16:14:00.005-03:00

Whe I first found out I was going to Austria, I had big plans on getting a head start on Deutsch lernen. The school I will be attending offers beginner german lessons to its international students, but I wanted to get at least some basics down pat before going over. I dug out my german textbooks from university, got my boyfriend to download some Rosetta Stone lessons for me, and put some german lessons on my iPod to listen to on the bus ride to work.

Well, as it happens, life got in the way and the effort I put into learning Deutsch has thus far been minimal.

These are the attempts I have made to date:

1. I read a few pages of the beginning of my university textbook "Wie geht's?". Ugh. Reading textbooks when you are actually taking the class is boring enough; reading textbooks outside of the school context is a whole new level of dry. It's not working for me.

2. I listened to my "Learn German in Your Car" mp3's on the bus. The hypnotic, repetitive nature of these lessons had me nodding off within seconds. Good thing I wasn't behind the wheel! I'm starting to question whether learning anything in your car is entirely safe...

3. I replied to an online ad for private german lessons. This one was a fail because the person who posted the ad has not emailed me back. Ah ha! This one's not my fault!

Maybe soon I'll stop procrastinating and try out the Rosetta Stone computer program...

Yikes! Only 3 months left!

(source)

This is why I'm going away...

2010-10-29T11:07:00.005-03:00

Last February, my enviro engineering tech class was in the school laboratory when the director of our program and the director of the school's international office came in with an opportunity open to students in the enviro tech field. It was the chance to study abroad in Austria for one or two semesters at a Fachhochschule with a program similar to ours.

There were a couple of steps involved. First I had to send a transcript and answer 5 questions to be reviewed by the international directors of both my Canadian school and the Austrian school. Questions like, "why do you want to study in Austria" and "what do you think you will gain from this experience"? Standard fare.

I had a hunch I would be a shoo-in as the chosen candidate, as I had worked my butt off for the past two years to get the top marks in the class. I think they also appreciated that I am of German descent, had briefly visited Germany in the past, and thus may be better equipped to deal with culture shock. Sure enough, I was chosen as my school's candidate.

The second step was to win a scholarship called the Ernst-Mach Grant, so named after noted Austrian physicist and philosopher, Ernst Mach. This scholarship is open to anyone, from any country outside of Austria who wishes to study in a technological field at an Austrian school for up to 10 months. The application was legnthy and requested every minute detail about why I should be chosen, what I will do in Austria, and what I have done and will do with my life. I needed three letters of recommendation, two from my home school and one from the school in Austria. I don't know what kind of competition I was up against, I don't know what kind of competition I was up against, but the fact that the scholarship was open to students globallly made me seriously doubt that I would be successful.

Ernst Mach 1838-1916 (source)

Months went by and I still had no word on whether I had won the scholarship or not. One day in the summer I recieved an email from the international director at the school in Austria telling me that even if I did not win the scholarship, I would be welcome to study at their school and they would wave the tuition fees. It isn't every day you get an offer like that, so of course I was going to sieze the oppotunity, even if I had to pay my own accomodation and living expenses.

Finally I heard the news I was hoping (not overly optimistically) for: I had won the scholarship! This means that I will get a monthly stipendum that covers my accomodation, living expenses, etc.

I am choosing to go to Austria for 5 monoths. I would have loved to go for the full 10 months, but all the classes I wish to take are during their "Summer" semester, which runs March 1 to July 15, 2011.

I will be leaving Nova Scotia on February 9, 2011, provided their are no major snafus (I'm a natural born worrier)...

I'm going to Austria

2010-10-28T12:59:00.001-03:00

In three months I will be going to Austria to study for a semester at an Austrian Fachhochschule. A Fachhochschule is a vocational school, I suppose similar to our community colleges here in Canada, where you learn practical job skills for a specific trade or career, rather than the more liberal arts approach you would find in a university.

I completed an environmental engineering technology course here in Nova Scotia this past spring, and will be studying for a semester in a similar program in Austria as part of an exchange agreement recently developed between the two schools.

I thought this might be a good enough reason to resurrect my blog. Or, rather, start Blog No. 5, as I have deleted all but one post from the last attempt (a post I have been preserving through several now-defunct blogs, so I guess it is a little personal tradition at this point).

I would like to document my journey. From preparing for the trip, to my short time living in Austria, to my return to Canada or wherever I may end up.

Let's hope I can keep it going for at least the next nine months!

(source)

Remember the days when you used to get poop on your hands?

2009-01-11T10:58:00.000-04:00

The first week of school finished and successfully sent me back into a non-life of studying 24-7. This means I have no brain capacity left to write a decent blog post.

Instead, I am going to re-post something from one of my old, now-defunct blogs. It is a conversation I overheard over two years ago, but want to keep on the interweb for posterity. Lest we forget:

15 September, 2005

On my way to the drugstore to purchase some junk food, I overheard this loud exchange between a couple of the bratty kids (probably aged 9 and 11) who live around the corner:

Boy: Maria!

Girl: Whah?

Boy: I know why I smell poop!

Girl: Whuh?

Boy: I know why I smell poop!

Girl: Why?

Boy: Because I got it across my hand! (raises left hand and points at index and middle fingers) See? Right across there...

Girl: huh?

Boy: (quietly) I think it's my poop...

And then I just stopped listening...