Markus efter Sverige

Tuesday 24th - 28th of June Our train was meant to leave at quarter past 6. But our alarm did not work and 10 to 6 Hauke phoned us with the words "Do you want to go?". This was the quickest leaving ever. We had no time to check, if we forgot something. I even wore my pyjama shirt the whole day. The trip back was easy and took of course a while, but at 6 in the evening we were back in Den Haag. Maritha had to write and hand in a report on Wednesday, because Netherlands did not have holidays, yet. So she worked on it Tuesday evening and whole Wednesday and I helped a bit with the spelling, because the report had to be in German. I never thought, that my old social science magazines from highschool would be valuable again one day. Everything went fine, she handed in at exactly deadline time. After so many days without sufficient sleep we slept as long as we wanted on Thursday and drove back to Friesland. Because we had to sit in front of the computer for almost two days, we made...

Sunday 22nd - 23rd of June After my unwanted long sleep I walked to "my flat" and took a shower. After that we had brunch like in old times in the flat of Ole and Hauke. With pancakes, of course. Since we only had two days in Sweden, and only this one with all together, we planned a bbq at a beach next to the sea. We bought a huge amount of meat and drove with two cars a few kilometer south of Sundsvall. The beach we chose was nice and empty. You could walk very far into the sea there. Like in my old holidays. It was an amazing feeling to stand that far in sea only hearing the sound of the water and the birds. Although it started to rain a little bit in between, the weather remained reliable and dry most of the time, but we did not really see sun anymore. So we grilled the (a lot!) meat, played frisbee and had funny time. After the meat was eaten, we made a big camp fire in the sand and waited until all the wood has been burned. That was a Midsommar event like I had imagined...

Friday 20th -21st of June I arrived in the late evening in Den Haag. On my way Germany won surprisingly against Protugal at the European soccer championship. But I do not really care. Anyway, I had some most amazing plans. After a short night Maritha and I traveled to Friesland, where I attended the first wedding of my life (as audience, of course). It was in Dutch and I did not get even the half of the speeches, but it was very entertaining. Entering the church was surprising. I am used that Dutchs are tall, but I was really almost the smallest person in the room. I guess, only the kids from primary school whose teacher got married made me look a little bit better. The evening I spent with watching the match between Turkey and Croatia, printing flight tickets and practicing my Dutch in a cosy talking round. The next morning we had to start early. Since Maritha had attended a party until early morning, I was allowed to drive. Although thought I would never see airport Weeze again, we h...

Thursday 19th of June 2008 For my first serious meeting and my first time to France ever I had to stand up very very early. Although I set the alarm to early half past 4 in the morning I was awake before as usual. I beat my alarm by 10 or 15 minutes every morning. No matter how early. So I stood up, and went first to Liège by car and after that to Paris by train. I guess, if I do not count a tank stop in Belgium in 2001, this also was my first visit in Belgium. From Liege we drove by train to Brussels and took the famous Thalys to Paris. Once I have been there, it was only rushing through the metro and getting to the conference building. I saw some things of Paris, but hardly anything to tell about. At the meeting itself I felt rather useless. I had a very annoying cold, so my nose kept me busy the whole day. In the end it even rained on the way back we almost missed our train back to Germany. I even get stucked in one of the metro doors, because it closed while I was jumping in. I was...

I finally got a supervisor from Mittuniversitetet. After three months I at least got a guide, but still did not have a real topic. Atos wants me to be productive in the project, of course. The drawback for me until now was, that being productive meant: straight forward programming. There was not really room for an investigation or anything academical and I cannot just make a protocol about what I work. But since today I think I have a topic. It serves thesis' requirements and Atos' requirements. The next step will be, to get enough time for the thesis work, since I could easily work all day long on the project without doing anything for thesis. Then I got to know a big surprise today. Next week on Thursday, I will travel to Paris for Atos. Of course not alone, but it is my first trip for Atos. Besides that it will be my first journey to France, but I do not expect to see anything more then metro and office. I will have to be before 6am at Atos in the morning and I will travel b...

Long ago since my last post, long ago since there was something big to tell. Routine sets in. Waking up in the morning, if I have to translate, then I have to stand up even 90 minutes earlier than usual. After translating catching the bus. One day I had a little bus adventure. First I overslept, second my bus was not going, third the busdriver of my new bus did drove into a wrong street and had to find his way back through tiny ways. Afterwards 8,5 hours at Atos and back home. If the weather is like now, warm and high humidity, I am only tired when I finally arrive home. Maybe a nap then and afterwards coming through the evening somehow. But of course there are more interesting things. Once I spent a weekend at my parents place making a small cycling tour and once I was in Netherlands again. One day I had to go grocery shopping in Vaals (Netherlands), because I figured out too late that I cannot get meat for barbeque in Germany on a holiday. Work is going so well. This week I had high ...

I skipped work on Friday. I would have been the only one at work and I had already finished every lonely job the week before when my supervisor has been sick. I made some shopping and recovered in bed from Queensday. In the evening I went out with Ulrich. In the third pub we met two friends of him and continued with them our pub tour. I finally get to know the locations. It is quite embarrasing. As Ulrich kept asking me "What have you done all the years, if you do not know these pubs?", I really asked myself how I could have missed the basics. Well, I never has been in Aachen in the weekends and during the week I studied. Two sides. The combination of both started in Sweden. But now I even have an idea what to show people who would come for a visit to Aachen (just call me). While I've been in the Netherlands my bike has been brought to Aachen. Finally. I was planning this since the first week I got to Aachen 4 years ago, but I always wanted to keep the bike at my parents ...