Mirko Sledding a Scary Hill

Christmas in Hamburg

Mirko and me sledding!

Mirko bowling.

Oh Christmas tree (and Mirko)

I spent Christmas with Mirko's family in Hamburg. It was a relaxing time.

Glühwein nach Oma's Rezept/ Mulled Wine after Grandma's Recipe

Ralf (Trixi's partner), Mirko, and Trixi

This is the mulled wine stand which Mirko's sister Trixi has at the Cottbus Christmas Market. Trixi has had the stand for 15 years. She sells Christmas drinks like mulled wine, lumumba (hot chocolate and amaretto), hot chocolate, and grog (hot water and rum). Mirko works in the booth preparing and selling drinks. I have been helping this year with cleaning up tables (removing empty cups and wiping up spilled drinks). It's cold outside, but it is fun spending time among Germans during this special cultural event.

Christmas Market with the Ultimate Frisbee Team

Laurie's Lumumba with whipped cream on top and Mirko's Mulled Wine with an almond

Mirko, Laurie, and Maik

Members of the Ultimate Frisbee team went to Mirko's family's mulled wine booth to enjoy some delicious Christmas drinks (mulled wine and lumumba).

Christmas Cookies

Josi and I made sugar cookies for the Ultimate Frisbee Tournament. After making the prizes for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th (the smileys), I decorated a few cookies for my own fun.

I also made cookies specially "Für Mirko" (for Mirko, my boyfriend) and "Für Trixi" (for Trixi, Mirko's sister).

England, Scotland, Wales, N. Ireland, and Ireland

Back in August/September my mother and I took a trip together through England, Scotland, Wales, N. Ireland, and Ireland. I know that it is bad of me to only finally now in November be posting something about the trip, but since my entrance into Facebook life, I have been neglecting the blog. But I will not quit this blog because I want Michelle to remain proud of me for maintaining a blog for a long time!
I was very excited to see chalk cliffs in England. I had learned about them in my geology courses and was dying to see such cool rocks with my own eyes.

Since Blogspot has changed it's blog creation settings to a level which only experts can figure out, I have to comment here on the photo below (instead of below the photo). That is Scotland, and of all the regions we saw, I have to say that I loooove Scotland. It's gorgeous.

So, if you'd like to see more photos from our trip, then please visit my Flickr page and enjoy!

Climbing with Mirko

Mirko is belaying me while I climb a cement rock in Guben. I enjoy climbing with Mirko.

Mirko climbs up the wall first and puts the rope at the top of the wall so that the rest of us can climb "top rope" style. He hooks himself to the wall along the way while I stand at the bottom belaying him. Mirko is a bit heavier than me, so belaying him is a mental game of me trying to be as heavy as I can (we also use another rope to hook me to the bottom of the wall!).

Mirko Mirko Bo Birko, My Mirko

Mirko playing with Bardo, a dog we dogsat for an evening. Bardo was such a wonderful jetty.



Mirko tending the grill at an Ultimate Frisbee party.



Mirko smiling at Laurie because he's so happy to have her as his girlfriend : )

Mirko is a native of Cottbus and studies something similar to me: soil and water management. He's working on a "Diplom Degree" which is the German equivalent of doing a bachelor and master all at once.

Dresden (finally)

I have been looking forward to visiting Dresden for as long as I've known that I was going to be living in Cottbus. So, for about a year. I never got around to it due to the weather, canceled school field trip, being busy, and being lazy. When Lili asked me last week if I wanted to go on Saturday when the weather was supposed to be nice, I said "yes!" The weather turned out to only be nice in the first half of the day, but we hid under an umbrella at a cafe drinking hot coffee when it decided to rain in the late afternoon.

The city reminded me of Prag, Czech. The facades of buildings in the old part of town all look so well cared for and are painted in light colors, like in Prag. I think that the inside of the renovated Kreuzkirche looks creepy and ugly. The broken sculptures resulting from WWII bombings have been left broken while the rest of the once ornate interior is now covered in a rough stucco. I recommend you click over to my Flickr page to see all of my photos from Dresden (don't worry, there's only about 10 photos) and their accompanying commentary.

Der Spreewald/The Spree Forest

People around here love to talk about the Spreewald and how fantastic it is. They say you can bicycle or stroll there, but that the best way to explore is with a canoe. So, I'd been dying to get my butt in a canoe! Thankfully, Lili came up with the genius idea of gathering her friends together for canoeing in the Spreewald as a way of celebrating her birthday! Wonderful idea!!







We had a great time. We had 3 kayaks and 1 canoe with 3 people in each. I found the kayak interesting because when I was in the rear position I had peddles with which to steer.

It was nice to be out in nature, especially on a weekend when I was writing a paper for Freshwater Restoration Ecology. It's one thing to read and write about waterbodies, but another thing to get to touch algae and look at big, leafy plants growing on the river bottom (these two are important characters in my paper, also known as cyanobacteria and submerged macrophytes, for those of you who want to learn big words).

Now, to give my honest opinion of the infamous Spreewald: it is nice, but no wild territory. The hand of man is written on every inch of the place, which gave me more of a feel of wandering through an amusement park than a forest. It's experiences like this that make me miss the United States. The more western parts of the United States, that is. I once had a professor at Au Sable Institute in Michigan tell this joke while we were taking a nature hike:

Prof. Bouma, "How do you figure out which way is north if you can't see the sun?"

Students' responses, "Look at the moss on the trees."

Prof. Bouma, "No, look for which direction a satellite on someone's roof is facing...because in Michigan there's always bound to be a house relatively nearby to where you think you are lost."

I actually did use the sun to help us navigate when we got a little lost canoeing. I want to thank my mother for teaching me how to read the sun. It's been a very helpful skill to possess, whether I'm in a foreign city or a forest.

Learning Fast

Sometimes we have the luxury of learning slowly, but other times the hassle of washing blankets and sheets is way too much and lessons need to be learned fast. As previously (and joyously, I might add) mentioned, Tiao Tiao now enjoys hopping up on my bed. The downside to this is that he also enjoys going to the bathroom on my bed. I think it is because he feels like he is on soft Earth or something like that and he "digs a hole" in my blankets (i.e. shifts the top blanket around) where he can go to the bathroom. After two instances of "bedwetting" I decided that I had to think like a mother and figure out a solution to my child's problem. Knowing that I couldn't change his behavior, I sought a solution in which I had control. What does a mother do to protect a bed from "bedwetting"? She puts plastic under the sheet. So, I looked around my room, found out I possessed enough large plastic bags, and tried it out. Worked like a charm. He "dug" through the top, easily washable blanket, and did his business on the plastic. The plastic was super easy to clean, meaning much less cleaning work for me and I get to go to bed in a clean bed.

Here's a photo of my solution and Tiao Tiao's work

From the Kitchen

I got up this morning wanting to eat something that would make me really happy. Since it was a noontime breakfast I knew that whatever I ate, it was going to be a sandwich, but there are a lot of options when it comes to sandwiches. It was on my to-do list to go for a jog this afternoon, so I wanted the sandwich to be hearty. I contemplated a grilled cheese sandwich, but when I opened the fridge I saw the eggs and ham and had the brilliant thought that those two could go really well together with cheese. While the egg was frying I scanned the kitchen for any other ideas for stuff to make my sandwich experience amazing. My eyes landed on the pickles. I contemplated the pickles, but thought they might be a weird addition. The idea of a related and possibly more appropriate food popped in my head, cucumber, but upon investigating my veggies I realized that I've currently got zucchini and not cucumber on hand. So, my pickle argument seemed to be supported and I went for it. It turned out to definitely be the right decision! What a tasty sandwich! I didn't take a picture because I wasn't sure how it would turn out taste-wise, but here's the list of ingredients so you can make one yourself!

Whole wheat bread (buttered on the insides)

Gouda Cheese (or any other white cheese) sandwiching the rest of the ingredients

Slice of ham

Sliced up pickle

Fried egg

Enjoy!

Scarabaeidae

For those of you who don't know Latin, that title says "Scarab Beetle".

My fantastic friend Lili did my homework for me and found out that my beetle from Park Branitz is most definitely a Scarab Beetle. You can find a picture of one of his relatives at the following website listed under the name Protaetia aeruginosa (near the bottom of the page).

http://www.kerbtier.de/cgi-bin/enFSearch.cgi?Fam=Scarabaeidae

As I mentioned before, Lili is now working on a study project where she is to capture and identify beetles...after skimming down this webpage I do not envy her. Beetles are creepy, like spiders. But, maybe I'm just negatively biased because I think my specimen from last week was barely hanging on to life as he lay on my desk. Due to his ghost movements, he got chucked out the window. I know, I'm an awful person (I live on the 4th floor with a cement sidewalk below). But in my defense, alive means alive and dead means dead; in between is not allowed!

Leaf Beetle of Park Branitz

This morning I gave a tour of the locally famous Park Branitz with a classmate for our Cultural Landscapes and Historical Gardens course. While on the tour I came across this fantastic beetle on the path! He is so pretty that I just had to take pictures and bring him home!




I tried to do my beetle research on the internet and identify him, but I think the best name I can provide is "Leaf Beetle". There are thousands of leaf beetle varieties in North America and Europe, so perhaps this is sufficient. But, my friend Lili is in fact just starting a study project on trapping and identifying beetles, so perhaps she could help me narrow down an identification! Or, if you'd like to do some browsing yourself, I found the following website which is pretty interesting

http://www.biol.uni.wroc.pl/cassidae/European%20Chrysomelidae/index.htm





I like how the word "pleasure" ended up getting in the shot! It was indeed a pleasure to find this little dude.

Bunny on the Bed

Usually I would have to lay claim to having put an animal in a place it doesn't necessarily want to be, but I have resisted forcing Tiao Tiao up on my bed. Last night I was sitting at my desk working on something when I heard a new noise behind me. I turned around to find Tiao Tiao sitting up on my bed! I was wondering if he would ever hop up that high or if he even could. Turns out he just needed to get bored exploring the main floor before he had a desire to seek new horizons.



He fits right in!

Tiao Tiao, Hans, and Frans United

Tiao Tiao is settling in to life with me. Last night he met Frans and Hans!

Frans met Tiao Tiao first nose to nose and after sniffing each others faces Frans put his paws on Tiao Tiao's face to get a better sniff of Tiao Tiao's head, but Tiao Tiao backed off. Rats followed rabbit and vice versa, exploring my room together. I think Tiao Tiao was a little overwhelmed though because the first opportunity he got he went off to the living room and sprawled out there.



Hans was a sneaky boy and investigated Tiao Tiao's abode.



Frans returned to an old hiding place to find that Tiao Tiao had renovated and made the nest even homier (that's my newest apartmentmate and animal lover Paola).

Oh my goodness, Oh my goodness, Oh my goodness!!

During my childhood years my mother enjoyed watching made-for-tv movies in the evening. I didn't ever watch these movies with her, to my knowledge. But, one time I did walk in on a movie and acquire a vivid memory which has haunted me for years since. The title of this post expresses such excitement because I finally found out what movie the haunting scenes came from!! And I just watched the movie! Oh my goodness, Oh my goodness, Oh my goodness!

First, the two scenes which have haunted me, making me scared of the outdoors at night and of people who sit in the dark. In my memory there is a teenage boy trudging across a backyard in the dark with an ax dragging behind him. Then there's a teenage boy sitting on the edge of his bed in the dark but when a little light shines on him you can see that he has blood all over his face.

So, how did I find the movie? Accidentally. I am a fan of the tv shows "How I Met Your Mother", starring the actor Neil Patrick Harris, and "The Big Bang Theory", starring Johnny Galecki. I was browsing the IMDb website for information about the "Big Bang Theory" actors and actress when I came across information saying that Johnny Galecki made a movie with Neil Patrick Harris back in 1993 titled "Sudden Fury: A Family Torn Apart". My curiosity was piqued and I checked out the information on the movie. The plot summary triggered the haunting memory of my mother's movie, so I decided to find the movie and find out if this was "the one".

AND IT WAS!!!!!

What a relief. Now that I have some context for my haunting memories I can possibly let go of the fear associated with them. It's really not a scary movie, but I was only 7 when I first saw the scenes, so they made a big impact on me. It is a decent movie and I encourage you to check it out. You can find it on Youtube in 10 minute segments.

AOK Spokeswoman (Unofficial)

Last Summer the health of my skin decided to majorly go on the fritz for reasons I don't know. I first began using cheap, harsh products which just seemed to anger my skin more. Then, when I was a guest in someone else's home I saw a different brand of face wash and decided to give it a try. During the couple of days I tried it out, I found that my skin seemed to like it. So, when I returned home I checked out the full line of products this brand had to offer.

I first started with just the AOK Regular Wash Gel for Clean Skin Above 20 Years Old. To accompany this I would use a "calming" face mask about once a week. I eventually decided that perhaps it would be just as effective or more effective and definitely more economical to purchase a face moisturizer. I first went with just the AOK nighttime moisturizer because I couldn't imagine that there should be such a huge difference between day and night creams. But, eventually I caved and got the AOK daytime cream as well because I could tell that the nighttime cream was working and I trusted that the daytime cream would provide additional benefits.

The conclusion here is, with this suite of AOK facial skin products my skin has gone from scary to nice. Sure, my face isn't yet perfect, but most people's aren't. I think the reason this product line works so well is because even the wash gel keeps the skin hydrated while it washes away yuck. When skin is properly hydrated, it is elastic and can process yuck in a reasonable fashion.

Thank You AOK

Branitzer Park in Springtime

During the winter holiday break on December 30, 2010 I had paid Branitzer Park a visit after dusk. I took some fabulous photos at that time. But, in a couple of weeks I will be giving a tour of the park with a classmate for our "Cultural Landscapes and Historic Gardens" course. So, I took Steffi along last weekend for a visit on a warm, sunny Spring afternoon.



This "pyramid" is a signature feature of the park which appears in all the tourist advertisements. It turned out to be more visually appealing than I expected. The landscape architect and his wife are buried under the pyramid.

Homemade Cherry and Apple Cake

Steffi and I baked a very typical style of German/Austrian cake last weekend. It consists of making up a batter, adding fruit (we used cherries and applies), then plopping on little chunks of buttery, sugary dough.




It was incredibly delicious. We actually made the cake because Christin had left a bottle of whipped cream behind when she moved out and we needed to use the bottle before it expired. What a great excuse, right?