Markus efter Sverige

Since two weeks is "felt-spring". The month started with long waited for highlight as I had a small Nica-Reunion in Amsterdam. Although I spent most of the weekend in trains between Aken, Den Haag and Amsterdam, it was nice and worth the effort. I visited Amsterdam's flower market and even watched the local match of the world wide pillow fight. I looked like quite funny since you could only see a crowd of people and flying pillows and feather-clouds above them. In the end Kiki and I met with Ward for dinner in Nieuw Vennep. The restaurant "De Oude Molen" had awesome atmosphere and I can recommend everybody to go out there for dinner. One day Amsterdam Thanks to eastern holidays the week was rather short. Jens stopped by on Thursday and we started my second Dutch weekend. Again I spent most of the time in transit - either cars or trains. We had perfect weather, but as soon the temperatures were above 20 degrees my hayfeaver came back. That is a good reason to g

Without really having noticed it, March is over. A far too calm month, especially during the weekends. Since my flatmates had either exams or spent time away from Aken with their family and/or girlfriends, I had to realize: I really hardly do not know anybody here. I tried to involve some random people, but I also had to realize real life is not as easy as erasmus or traveling. People are rather confused and on distance when being asked out for a drink or a party, although it is really only about going out. Therefore the going out during the weeks (birthday pary, St.Patrik's day etc.) have been more exciting than the weekends. Anyhow, as winter ends, the calm time does, too. Almost every weekend is booked in April. And as I am talking about traveling anyway, I booked my flights to Iceland to join Sandra and Ulli. Awesome! And last weekend Philipp even visited for a short visit. Ulrich, he and me have been eating, drinking and talking all the time. First coffee, then dinner, beer (a

My first month as full time employee is over and things are going pretty well. Work is currently quite easy going. I have time to improve things. Most likely it will be worthless when the think-tanks behind the projects create new requirements, but that's ok, because I now get salary. The freshly graduated students I know all go the same prestige-track: first they buy a new computer. I did it, too, for my old one was barely working since I drowned it once during a legen-dary story (Hälsningar till Mainz, lil åpa). Considering the law of freshly graduated students a flat television in a minimum size of 60" will follow, right after a new by-far-too-expensive car and right before the super-duper dolby soround audio system with playstation 3 which gets lost in the living hall of my new huge single-appartment. I - dont - think - so. Instead I asked for holidays and I hope to get a response, soon. If everything goes well, I will escape the summer for two weeks in July. As I said, wo

My erasmus winter semester 2007 met in Sundsvall during the last weekend. Although I did not even spend 48 hours in Sundsvall it was toally worth money, time and effort to go there. I arrived on Friday evening, met the Spanish girls at Wayne's coffee, had dinner and then we awesomely partied in O'Learys. On Saturday we had brunch in the city, I visited Jonny and Marzena and joined the others later on for skiing near Sidsjön. Saturday evening we had a preparty at Johan's place and invaded later on the good old K århuset where I finally met Sebastian and Solène, too. It is quite funny to see the connections between the different erasmus semesters. After a good long sleep on Sunday morning we met again in the city for brunch, but only shortly, because the Dutchs and me had to leave at 12. They dropped me off at the trainstation. On the way we figured that I would only have 10 minutes between arrival of the train and closing of the check-in. When I had booked trains and flights

As constant readers know, I went on a last big trip before I start working in less than a week. I went to Nicaragua for a little bit more than 4 weeks starting 10 minutes before the new year. The trip was... intense. I missed the biggest attractions, but met a lot of nice people I hope to stay in contact with. There were treasure moments as well as worst moments. But still, it was the absolute right decision to go. Like a short movie of life, if you like. And since my job is supposed to give me a lot of freedom, it for sure won't have been my last big thing for this year. The amount of new stories is intense. By far too much for a blog. So I suppose, if you want to hear them, we have to meet. Since Christmas market in Aachen is closed since more than one month, I suggest a hot chocolate instead of Glühwein. If you make it to stay over night, we can exchange the chocolate with a few cold beers. And if I can trust my flatmates there should be some of this liqueur left :-) Costa Rica

These are my final days as student, for the trip to Sundsvall was a success. When Ulrich (surprise-guest) and I arrived in Sundsvall on Friday evening, it was too warm for snow and the streets were clear. But during the presentation next morning, it started to snow. Since then I have been in a snowy winterland. The weekend was beautiful. I somehow passed the presentation, I just need to make some corrections. Because of holidays it will take until February until I can apply for the master degree - until I receive it, it may take weeks or even months of bureaucracy. Anyhow, it is nothing that needs much effort, but patience. Sundsvall is pretty much the same like last February. They reconstruct the outdoor swimming pool to a kind of adventure pool and the campus at the university gets a new building. I was able to do everything that I wanted to do: A lonely night walk on the tiny paths in the woods while it was snowing and visiting Norra Berget and Alnön again. Sandra and Ulli have th