November 2006

Last Christmas I gave you my heart ...

Yup, Christmas is coming. Today I heard Last Christmas by Wham for the first time this year on radio. You know what that means: Christmas is around.
I remember the trip with Markus to New York for Christmas shopping. It was the trip where I also met a nice guy. Markus picked me up at home in the night. If I remember correctly it was 3.30am. I sat in his car, he turned on the radio and the next song coming up was Last Christmas. We both thought that it perfectly fits to our trip. We heard that song hundred times during that trip. Not on purpose, but it was on everywhere. So this song became the theme song for this trip.


Jenny, thanks for an legendary trip to the Big Apple. I hope we'll have many more. Your bosom friend Rita

A couple days ago while I was looking for a magic book that I've bought during that trip I found a collage that Markus made for me with pictures of the trip. "Rita and Jenny on tour". Rita and Jenny were the names we referred to each other. If he was a girl his parents would have named him Rita, and my name would be Jennifer if I were a girl.

Ok, back to the collage. He wrote some very nice things on it. I've translated some of them and put them in those gray boxes and scatter them all over this post.


You are and you will always be my soul mate. Whatever may happen, I hope this will never change.

Sadly, we had some issues right after the trip. I haven't seen him since April. But I can't forget the absolutely great times we spent together. He was "my big sister". I would be so happy if we were still so close like in that time. *sigh*


I would go on another trip with you anytime. I'll never have a better friend than you.

Actually I was thinking that I'm over this drama. I really was sure this is over, but when I found that collage it really hurt very much. Again. Last time we exchanged some short instant messages I said that I'm sad we're not good buddies anymore. He said that we still are, but each of us is busy and we kind of adjusted our lives and moved on.

Stick to your principles. I'm not the only one who loves you the way you are.

Jesus, it's amazing and frightening what feelings a little song can bring up on a Monday evening...

Happy Thanksgiving

Yet another great US holiday I would love to spend with my friends in New York City. Alas, I'm still stuck in f*ing old Germany where people don't even know what Thanksgiving is. Anyway, I hope you're having a blast at your turkey dinner. Happy Thanksgiving everyone.


Thanksgiving promise: I know, I wasn't blogging much lately. Somehow I feel very uninspired. I'll be back in a few days.

Carnival

Here's another one about German customs. Today: Carnival. Every year on November 11th, 11.11am, a very annoying time starts and lasts till mid of February. Sigh!

Fortunately it's not a big deal in my state, but in many cities there are big parades, people dress up, and no matter which channel you switch on, the f*ing parades are everywhere.

I don't want to be a party-pooper, but I just don't get why people just freak out for no reason, and why such sh*t needs to go on for almost 4 months...

Martinstag

Today it's St. Martin's Day in Germany. On a cold day Martin rode on his horse when he saw a hobo. Martin didn't hesitate, ripped his coat in two and shared generously.

It's a German custom that little children sing special St. Martin songs while walking with self made lanterns in small groups after sunset. In some areas there is also some "Süßes oder es gibt Saures" ("trick or treat").

I remember doing that in kindergarten as well. It was big fun. After the walk with the lanterns all kids and parents went to one's home where there was hot chocolate for the kids and mulled wine for the adults.

Happy Birthday, Mom

The birthday marathon in my family continues. Today's Mom's birthday.

Happy Birthday, Mom. You're the best Mom ever!

And I really mean it. Many people are saying that their Mom is the best. But mine really is. I'm very thankful to have such an amazing mother.

She's coming to Stuttgart today and going to pick me up later, then we're gonna have dinner together in a very fancy restaurant in her town. It's my favourite restaurant, the food is just amazing. They're preparing everything from scratch. And they bake tiny little cookies to serve with a coffee after dinner. They are sooo delicious.

I'm gonna be back on Sunday evening. Take care.

High in the sky

Today I had a cup of tea on top of the Fernsehturm (television tower) in Stuttgart. It was the first television tower in the world, and it has become the technical prototype for nearly all television towers throughout the whole world. It was built from 1954 to 1956. Before that time they only had big antennas to broadcast television signals. You can see the tower from nearly every place in the city. It has been landmarked 20 years ago and is a famous buildig for this area. There are 7 floors in the head of the tower. Two observation decks, one floor contains a café, one floor hosts a restaurant, one floor for the kitchen, and the lowest floor of the head is for the technical staff. You can have a wide look over the city, the vineyards of the Neckar-Valley and then over the Swabian landscape to the Alb in the South over the Black Forest in the West and the Odenwald in the North.

Last time I've been on top of the tower was back in school or with my family when I was about 7 years old. I hadn't planned the visit of the tower and unfortunately didn't take my cam with me. Actually Jim wanted to buy a kitchen for his new appartment, and I joined him. But the shop was very crowded, we didn't even get a parking lot, so we decided to have a tea on the tower instead. Hence, I took this picture off their website. They say that the Space Needle in Seattle was built by someone who visited this tower and liked the idea of a rotating restaurant in the sky. I've been told that a picture of this television tower is in the Space Needle. I regret I didn't take my camera with me, but you can have a look at the live webcam here.

Update: The restaurant is closed since last year. They did some reconstruction on the head of the tower last fall (and I guess they ran out of money), but I've read that they're going to perform plays up there. It'll be a theater up in the sky.
Talking about money. The webpage says that after 5 years they got back all the costs of the tower just by the visitors. I can't believe they've earned that much just by the elevator fees.
And something else I forgot to mention on Saturday.