Making this space ours

Ever since coming back from Copenhagen, Martin and I have been busy redecorating our flat. Maybe it was that practical Scandinavian design that got us.

Not really, we just needed to organize our space better and to make it feel more comfortable to live in. We’ve been living here for almost a year now, but hadn’t put much effort into creating a space that we were proud of or overly happy about. We commute long distances and are crazy busy in our everyday lives, so after we got enough furniture to make things liveable, decorating took a huge back seat.

But there’s something about starting off the new year that inspired us to do something nice with our space. We’ve been rearranging furniture (this makes such a huge difference!), reorganizing, cleaning, buying new (to us) furniture, and selling off/donating things. It’s feeling and looking great!!!

Now that I’ve written that, it seems lame to tell you that I’m not going to include pictures in this post. The problem is, we’re on this wireless internet surf stick thing which is not always the fastest with uploads and I don’t have a camera  (this is not true anymore since I have a camera on my phone and Martin’s sister gave me her old camera!). But trust me when I say our space is looking good. Nothing fancy, just better placed and more functional pieces.

I love living here!

I also feel like wishing you all another !HAPPY NEW YEAR! because today is lunar new years eve. So, have a good one!

2011 – A Year of Learning

2011 was a full year for me. It felt like there were more ups and downs than other years, and this is my recap of the highlights. I think everyone should recap their year this way. It feels so good!

UNIVERSITY

I survived my first year of grad school! Phew. It was nothing short of insane and my vacations were full of work. But I am happy to be a part of a group of smart international people. I am the dumbest one in my class, so I’m learning a lot!

A PUBLICATION UNDER MY BELT

I co-authored a review article on the health effects of Bisphenol A (BPA) and got published in a journal. This will look good if I apply to a PhD.

RESEARCH & WORK

Lots of research was done throughout my year, but I actually got paid to work on a project that was funded by the UN. It was a short stint because the project got cancelled. I also taught English once and it was fun.

HOME LIFE

We moved to a much nicer and bigger flat in March. Since then we’ve been feathering the nest and enjoying our centrally located area.

EATING WELL

I learned to make Indian food! I also turned vegan on my 30th birthday. It’s an on going process so I’m not 100% vegan yet, but I tell people I’m vegan so I can keep myself accountable.

GETTING OLD(ER)

Oh yeah, I turned 30!! NUTS!

SEEING THE WORLD

2011 was a big year for travel. I probably spent a cumulative 3 months travelling. Countries visited: Germany, UK, Netherlands, Belgium, France, Denmark, and Canada.

MY VISITORS

6 people (not at the same time) visited me from Toronto. It was a pleasure to host them all in our phat pad.

LEARNING GERMAN

It was my first time taking intensive German classes. 9-12:!5 everyday (except Tuesdays) for 3 months. Martin reports that my German improved a lot and that I am now functional with the language. (I thought I was functional well before! ^_^)

DRIVING STICK

I got my German’s driver’s license and was added to Martin’s insurance policy. Can we say vroom vroom? I also learned to drive stick shift and have been driving regularly since. The fastest I’ve driven EVER was 190 km/hr (306 miles/hr) on the Autobahn.

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Now onto 2012, which I’m very excited about. HAPPY NEW YEAR AGAIN!

NYE in Scandinavia

We’re wishing you a Happy New Year from Copenhagen!

Can you believe it’s 2012? Wowww.

December 31st was our favourite day in Copenhagen so far. Which is saying a lot because everyday here has been terrific.

We weren’t sure what we would do to celebrate New Years – you know, asides from actually being here, which is a celebration in itself! – since Danes tend to stay in for NYE and we don’t have any  friends here to invite us over. We did get a delicious homemade pastry from our downstairs neighbour after we let her in to use our oven, so that’s kind of like a dinner party.

Our NY day was spent exploring and enjoying being tourists, but we came home early to make dinner and relax. We’re renting a flat so we have a kitchen, and were able to host our own dinner party for 2. keke. From our windows, we watched other people host their dinner parties, and they watched us too.

In the evening, we decided it was time to head out to the ‘cool-fun hangout area’ to see what was going on and to grab a drink. Well, we got there and all the bars were closed! Danes really do stay in for New Years!

The streets were not empty though, far from that. People were out walking and shooting fireworks. We walked a few hundred metres over to the canal and hung out there until late. The atmosphere was lively and happy.

Once it hit midnight, OMG, everyone stepped out of their dinner parties to view the fireworks. There were fireworks everywhere. You could turn your head in any direction and there were fireworks. People even set flare lights into the sky, which looked like static red stars in contrast to the bursts of lights around it.

There were so many fireworks that people wear lab safety goggles! Picture people in evening gowns and tuxes (they really get dressed up), wearing goggles. The rubber ones with the elastic band. That’s how many fireworks come out on NYE.

Martin and I found a bench by the water and cuddled up under the lights. It was really really nice and sweet, and we are both so grateful to be here together.

Hope you had a nice new years eve too, but more importantly, that you have an awesome 2012! Be well.

Chance happenings in rural east Germany

Before I forget, I wanted to show you a picture of a pack of wild pigs we ‘ran into’ while we were walking Martin’s parents’ dog.

There are 8 of them and they were scurrying across the field a few hundred metres from us. They sort of ran a big detour around us, and the baby was always lagging behind. You can click to enlarge.

This sighting was a first for Martin too. And funny thing was, before we left for the walk, I asked him whether we would see wild pigs. Talk about foreshadowing.

btw, we are in Copenhagen now!! We got here today. It is simply amazing here. Almost as amazing as wild pigs. Or maybe just as amazing, but in a different way.

Also, I’ve been updating twitter more frequently. It’s easier than updating the blog and I link to my feed on the right ——->

Twitter is fun so consider signing up and tweeting me! @jiskca

I cut my own hair!

Happy Christmas Eve, y’all!

I celebrated this fine holiday by giving myself a much needed hair cut.

Everyone thought I was crazy but I desperately wanted one so I looked up some tutorials on YouTube did it. It was very easy and so much fun!

I have a lot of hair!

Here is the after shot, right after a shower.

I love the result! There’s so much texture and movement. I hadn’t gotten a cut since June when I was in Toronto, so this was much needed.

What do you think?!

Berlin at Night

We took a day trip to Berlin yesterday, and it was so much fun!

Here are some pics:

Potsdamer Platz and pieces of the old Berlin wall.

Brandenburger Tor at night.

So awesome.

It’s Holiday Time

Things have been busy here, but also happy and productive now that I finally have my pre-thesis topics.

It’s my last week of German classes and I’m really relieved about that. I’m tired of German class! I’ve just spent the last 2.5 months going to German class almost every single morning and I’m pooped.

The good thing is that I’ve learned a lot and met some great people. The craziest thing is that I have a social life that operates entirely in German. That’s completely nuts to me but I’ll take it!

Martin and I are heading out-east tomorrow and won’t get back home until the new year. Eeek, I gotta pack! We’re going to see his family for the holidays; first to Oma’s and then to Martin’s parents’ place.

It’ll be nice to get away. Martin’s family lives in idyllic small towns and for a city girl like me, it is so cool to experience.

His Oma lives in this super cute little town outside of a university town, with narrow cobble stoned streets and an old church (of course!). The town is known for handmade pottery that has a distinct blue and white pattern traditional to the area, and is surrounded by all these rolling hills that make you go WHATTT.

Where his parents live is also crazy beautiful. They live in a smaller farming community with endless fields in every direction. There’s also older church that looks like it was ‘hand made’ with rocks, and across from that a large castle that hosts the town’s Christmas market!

Holy eye candy. It makes me want to live in the country too. But Martin distrusts me whenever I say this. He thinks I will change my mind the next day and then cry about how I want to be in the city. He’s probably right, lol.

I’m hoping needing to get tons of work done in the next few weeks. The country back drop will be perfect for that. Plus I get to break for holiday fun, so it makes writing less lonely and isolating.

I’ve been meaning to tell you that we’re going to Copenhagen for New Years! Just Martin and I. I’ve never been to Scandinavia and always thought I’d make it to Stockholm first. But Copenhagen is not too shabby either. What better way to get acquainted with Scandinavia than to experience my first Scandinavian winter! And don’t think I can handle it just because I’m Canadian. I’m a weenie Canadian, okay?

Hope you’re all getting excited about the holidays and that you get a BREAK, even if it’s just a little one. Take care and have fun!! Warm wishes from me to you.

Please help me with a topic!

Okay, so I’m having trouble with school.

I’m about to write my thesis, but before I get there, I have to produce 2 projects. The best use of effort is if I use these projects as a basis for a thesis.

Except I don’t really know what I want to write my thesis on. I chose classes based on which professors I liked and who I want to work with (medicine & law).

My Medicine Topic So Far…

I’m investigating how social media has impacted disaster medicine in the past decade, and use recent disasters (e.g. Japan hurricane) as case studies. Disaster medicine is medical response/treatment during a disaster. I actually just learned that, because I’ve been bouncing around topics like a crazy person right after I formally submitted my first working title.

My problem with this topic is that I’m not really excited about ‘disaster medicine’. Like I said, I just learned what it was. There are endless topics I could do, but what gets me most excited is incorporating social media somehow. I love what social media is doing to online conversations. I also think it’s a relevant and timely subject.

If you have any ideas about how I can incorporate social media with a health issue, please come to me ASAP!!!! It would really help. I have already exhausted my brain storming muscles on this, and need to solidify a topic SOON.

Now onto my Law Topic…

I’ve submitted 2 topics for consideration and both have been rejected as being too administrative. I need a topic that poses a problem, not just something I describe. Oops! I forgot. Law is not descriptive, it’s proscriptive. *sulk*

I have managed to narrow my law topic down to 2 choices. One is looking at the treaties involving intellectual patenting of FOOD and how that affects agriculture; Another is law + disaster medicine (since DM is also my medicine topic so far – but I obviously haven’t developed this too well in my head yet).

Both topics I find tricky (because I find law tricky in general – isn’t that why we have lawyers?) and am not that excited to start.

Anyway, if you’ve read this far, maybe you have some ideas? LET ME KNOW!

Being Thankful

Martin and I celebrated American Thanksgiving here in Germany!

As a Canadian, it’s really weird celebrating Thanksgiving so close to Christmas time. But it was Martin’s American-loving German friends who set up the dinner party, and any excuse to get together with friends over food and thankfulness is a good thing.

Being thankful is something I have to reflect on often here.

It ain’t always easy being an ex-pat, and sometimes I get caught up with the stress and frustration of living abroad. In those moments I have to remind myself just how lucky I am to be able to live the life I’m living today.

So in the spirit of the holidays, here goes:

I am grateful to be a Canadian. That’s already a big WIN in terms of the nationality lottery. I’m so thankful to have been born and raised in a country that provided me with all the basic necessities that so many people in this world live without, plus more. It’s easy to be consumed with our ‘first world troubles’ that we forget that more than a billion people in this world don’t even have access to clean drinking water. That’s a link to Charity:Water, btw. You should check it out if you haven’t already. It’s a charity with a very different structure than other traditional charities.

I am grateful to be living in Germany. Okay so I’m still in my adjusting phase for living abroad (within the first 1.5 years), but it is really lovely here. Quality of life is high, cost of living is low compared to other developed countries, my tuition is FREE, and I get to be with Martin. Also being located in central Europe is super convenient for easy travelling.

I am grateful to be in graduate school. Without school, I would feel so isolated here. School gives me a chance to make friends, learn something that interests me, and to feel like I’m moving forward. These are all difficult things to accomplish when you’re out of your home comfort zone. School gives me the time and space for that.

I am grateful to be learning German. I’m taking classes everyday at the community college. As a university student, I get a discount and that makes classes very affordable. It comes out to something like less than 2EUR per hour, and the quality is great. Learning another language has always been my goal, and it’s only now that I’m motivated enough to do it. It’s really neat being able to communicate in another language.

I am grateful to be a vegetarian/vegan. This is one of my biggest accomplishments! I have been living a vegetarian lifestyle for 17 years now on my own volition, and am now starting to become vegan. This is not easy, particularly socially. But I am grateful to have the drive to achieve this and to know that this is how I want to live.

I am VERY grateful for my good health and the good health of my loved ones.

I am grateful to live a simple, stable life. We live in a good area in a nice apartment, and fortunately can afford make rent and buy food. We live on a tight budget and don’t have a lot of material trappings (nor a desire to accumulate), but it enables us to concentrate on things that matter to us.

Last but not least, I am grateful to be with my partner, Martin. We were in a trans-Atlantic relationship for so long, and that was no fun. Now I get to see him everyday and that is really the best. Being with him has taught me so much about relationships, about myself, and has changed me for the better. He is also really cute, so that doesn’t hurt!

Hope you’re all well and that you had time to reflect on thankfulness over the weekend. Let me know sometime what you’re thankful for too!

All good looking guys…

Last night me and a friend of Martin’s were talking about good looking guys.

She said most good looking guys are either gay or dating an ugly girl.

I immediately turned to Martin and said, “OMG, you’re gay!!”.