20 years – musings on the fall of the berlin wall

twenty years – what could happen in so many years? – a little girl can grow into a little miss – wars can be fought – people can attempt to change the world – cell phones can diminish to a midget of their original size  – and two countries can chant “wir sind das volk” and become one

angela merkel was just getting out of a sauna, when she heard – i was seven and for the first time in my life i watched the news with ardour – the people attempting to leave their country and crowd into the prague embassy, that was more exciting than any cartoon or silly movie could ever be – history was being written and i was right there

why o why did i leave berlin behind this past weekend to experience turmoil and despair, instead of staying for today and celebrating?

fall of the berlin wall – that is something so incredible, so huge, so historic and, for once, i am rather proud to be german and to have my own memories of “damals” – we even have a real piece of the wall at home – i know, i know, anyone can buy one in berlin, but let’s face it, who knows where those pieces come from – ours is real, someone was actually there and brought it back from the actual night of the fall and took it themselves

and how does the world celebrate? – everyone to their own fashion – l.a. demolishes a giant cardboard wall according to scrip – london builds a melting ice-wall – and a chocolatier in paris re-built part of the wall in chocolate – great!

there is many songs that describe this day – the scorpion’s wind of change of beethoven’s ode to joy, but this somehow is the hymn of the day

short magister story

i stumbled across my magister thesis the other day and was thrilled by the sheer size of it – i started reading and was amazed that i had managed to write something as interesting and good as that – i don’t want to be gushing myself with praise, i am not that great, but i am pretty damn proud of having accomplished someting like that – and here’s the very, very shortest version of my thesis – enjoy!

ps: my thesis is on the dynamics of mexican-american self-perception in prison in california – tough choice, but very rewarding in a strange way

happy birthday

not only one, but two quite important birthdays today – in my world at least

1. the internet is forty today – without the internet, no wordpress, without wordpress, no teacaro-blog, without teacaro-blog the world would be a sadder place – definitely for me
2. asterix is fifty today – without asterix, many a lonely teenage hour would have been disastrously boring and sad – according to three different quizzes in three different communities, i would either be miraculix, asterix or idefix – i’ll agree to the last

Du bist klein, süß und meistens auch sehr lustig. Aber wenn du jemanden siehst den du nicht magst, wirst du zum Berserker oder einer Wilden Kampfmaschine.

so, here’s to asterix and the internet – a very happy birthday and many more fantastic years

SoBe knows

SoBe is a brand of drinks i know from my stays in sweet california – i’ve gotten to love them not only for their great taste, but also for their caps, in which you find little bits of odd wisdom – i aspired to collect as many as possible and make it a daily happening to open my bottle and find my personal message from the lizards – an all time favourite being “i deserve this!” or “ever danced with a lizard in the pale moonlight” – it’s simply a state of mind you need for understanding the meaning of that – and if you drink your daily SoBe, you know and you never want to stop

here’s some cap examples i found on the internet:

chestnuts

why does nobody collect chestnuts anymore? – when i was little, it was my favourite sign that autumn was here, dig into the fallen leaves and rummage around for lovely, smooth, silky chestnuts – the things you could do with them – stick animals or just feel them laying smoothly in your hands – or feed them to the wild boars in the city reserve – so many possibilities and just the thrill of collecting and possibly climbing up in trees and shaking them so more would fall of – but today i saw bunches of chestnuts just lining the streets, forgotten and never picked up by a happy child – a sad sight, somehow making childhood, mine and nowadays, something unforgivingly melancholic and despreate, as if it isn’t really there at all

world wide web of wonder

the internet is a wondrous thing – while working all afternoon yesterday, i found some photographs of a lovely valley in austria – that happened to be the exact same valley, where my grand-parents liked to vacation once upon a time – thus i found myself compelled to look it up on the internet and after some random clicking and flicking, i found an article on a rock located above the wangalm, which is full of memorial plates for people who died upon the mountains – one of them is for my grandfather – it gave me the shivers that this very same plate was quoted, it’s “all ways lead to god, one leads over the mountains” being a sort of leitmotif for the whole article

this group of random travelers happened to record their feelings on the internet, but it is a very nice thought that many come upon that rock every year and all of them read of my grandfather and thus remember him, just as we do – we all leave or trails on this earth and sometimes they make wondrous things happen – my grandfather died many years ago and it still hurts, but it also makes me happy to realize he might have died that day on that mountain, but will never be forgotton as long as this plate is there – and even more wonderous – we chose the quote because that was what he had photographed years before on an other mountain on an other plate – life is so inspiring and even in death we refuse to give up and keep on being there and pointing the way for generations to follow – a truly comforting thought

chopin was my first love

sadly, i never looked this cool, when playing the piano – but i miss it – why does a piano have to be so great and big and my place be so small?

ah, the fun of random memories

i found this video on my computer and was remindedof a party i held in california one day long ago – i prepared a lot of food and drinks and invited all my friends over to our wonderful apartment – i think that was the day i invented the famous carola orange punch (alcohol not detectable at first sight, you see – with campus police and such busting parties and my beloved roomate then being underage…) – anyways, the party took a funny turn, when we ran out of glasses and used jars instead – or when someone decided it was time to demonstrate his view on american truckers and what they look like – in the end, my roomate and friend neha, the crazy girl from india, a pre-med, who’d do her spare time painting in her scrubs – jon, the funniest british guy, i have met in all my live, who’s never learned that the brilliant california sun poses a great threat for his delicate white british skin and who emerged from a long day at the beach and a cold shower afterwards looking like a lobster time and again – and myself were cleaning up and decided to commemorate this memorable moment by taking a photo of ourselves – unfortunately, jon hit the recording button on my camera and the perfect shot was lost – but we got this short clip – and i can truly say, here it is not true that a picture says more than thousand words – this speaks truly for itself and the crazyness of a california exchange year – giggle, giggle, damn, damn, weird, random, funny, oh my god, hilarious

julia and elmo

my next birthday-wish is somewhat unrealistic – i want to be five years old again – be able to fit into all the cute children’s clothes in the stores – laugh my head off over silly sesame street clips – have no worries beyond tonight’s dinner and tomorrow’s play-dates – don’t be embarrassed by the amount of teddy bears and such in my bed – be happy and carefree and candidly starry-eyed about the world around me

maidenhood memories

i feel melancholic and in the mood for girlie childhood memories and crying at cheesy movies from the past – here are some of my favourites – oh, i feel the tears welling up in my eyes – get the kleenex ready and join me on a crying blast from the past

immenhof – horrible quality, but ohhh, i loved it – and i didn’t even like horses all that much

nesthäkchen – the music alone makes me melancholic and longing to be little again and having no worries, but the loss of marbles and how my gerda-doll would be dressed tomorrow

sissi – how i wanted to be a princess – oh, i still do

anne of green gables – for ever and ever and ever my favourite book in the whole wide world – and i love the movie as well – where, please, is my gilbert?

aula am wilhelmsplatz

the chairs are more comfortable, but everything else is unchanged – the same mighty kings look down upon the audience and the same formidable ceiling attracts attention – oh, the people have changed – i was there during my first week of university and look how i have changed during those seven years…

today was the formal graduation ceremony of all graduates of 2008 of my faculty – social sciences – at the georg-august-university of göttingen – it was impressing and it felt great to have so many people acknowledge one’s achievement – german politician rita süssmuth held a speech – parents, grandparents and proud friends took millions of photographs and my diploma was given to me with a handshake and a smile, not just via mail or handed out randomly at the registrar’s office

even though it’s been ages since i actually finished my magister studies, it now feels completely real and i am ready to start something new full time – my p.hd. plans are ripening and i am looking forward to be getting back to the libraries and study halls and – most of all – the books of lore and learning

happy birthday

lots of love and thanks for lots of laughs and fun – life without loriot would not be the same – and it will always be funny, no matter how often you watch it

happy memories

voíla, my first real youtube-video – i’m kinda proud – it’s not perfect, but i still think, it’s pretty cool

yes, we can!

it is 7:30 am in germany and i have been awake all night – by now, i am not sure if my excitement is due to the high amount of caffeine or the exceptional, wonderful, somehownot yet quite believable outcome of the presidential election in the united states – in years to come i can proudly tell, how i spent this historic event – i was helping to organize an election party with the democrats abroad at the english department in göttingen - we served food and drinks, but the early morning hours were spent intently watching and waiting for new projections – totally exciting and then, we had hardly expected it so soon, due to the impossible american coverage, where the essentials are left out to report people’s statements and endlessly repeat unchanged projections, mccain’s concession

amazing, america’s next president will not only be writing history by being a black man – he is actually a man with visions, a man, who will not simply be a puppet and let others lead, but who is not afraid to tackle a problem and sort it out – his speech was amazing – the true genius of america is indeed change – it is the true genius of human kindm but america has once again proven, that it indeed is the land of unlimited possibilities – anything can happen and the most unlikely candidate can become president because the people want to – when obama said: “america, we are better than the last eight years”, he was right and it is now upon him to prove so and to lead the united states of america into a new era

i am excited – american history was written anew just now – i still cannot quite grasp it and might be rambling, but i wanted to get this out right now, right this very moment, when excitement and fatigue are nearly cancelling each other out and the only important thing is this unbelievable happy feeling, that the world has changed today – a little bit, but for the better, that much can already be said

ps: need i even say, that i am incredibly jealous of all my american friends, who could actually vote and thus be part of this so much more than me, who simply watched from the sidelines?

yearbook yourself???

no way, i don’t have to do that – i’ve got my own pretty 90s yearbook photo – no nasty hairdo and funny clothes – just plain me, with fantastic make-up, long, long hair and a west kings robe – i felt totally cool and important and historic – really, those americans know what they’re doing…

charlie’s angels

saturday night – cocktail night – party night - and no party night is complete without an autotimer photo or two or three – just as many ’til you get the perfect one – so we tried for charlie’s angels, but somehow i think josie & the pussycats is a much more fitting pseudonym

my life of randomness

do you ever have the feeling, your life is just too absurd to be real? – no, well, that’s how i feel on a daily basis – there are just too many ridiculous and absurd things that happen to me – it cannot be normal – today i thought i’d had enough after the bakery incident, but things just got more and more strange, as the day went on – ending with a guy deliberatly making me and my bike crash into a street lamp, by sidestepping back and forward and me unable to evade him – i gave him a good talking to and got rid of the last bit of my built-up anger and tension – so this friday ends just as last friday has, with me being in quite a content and happy state – this deserves a toast – to happy times – and i know just the song that goes with it

ps: all my love and friendship, a pizza, loads of chocolate and laughs to steffi and andrei for the good times – and always remember - no wife without life

rasmus

this is rasmus, the cutest, bestest, most loveable cat i’ve ever had the fortune to meet – he died six months ago and it still hurts like hell to think about it – i miss his purring, his climbing up to try and sit on my shoulders as he used to do when he was just a tiny little kitty, his crazy notions, when he did something stupid in order to show off and say “hey, i’m here and i’m cute” – o, i simply miss all of him

whoooohoooo

i recently finished my master’s degree - that involved one written exam, two oral ones and a thesis – i did well in all of them, in some real great, in others still good – but i never really expected the final grade to be so exceptionally great – a 1,3 (only a 1,0 is better than that!!) – when i held my diploma in my hands today, i felt incredibly happy – those moments were like walking in sunshine, on clouds and at least ten centimetres above ground – i celebrated with a german speciality, called sanfter engel – champagne, orange-juice, vanilla ice-cream and white chocolate sprinkles, courteously provided by my favorite work co-worker, whom i will adopt as my older brother from now on – as the happiness wears off and i end the day, i look forward to tomorrow – i am now officially a magistra artium and the only thing that is yet to come is a phd because dr caro just sounds too great not to do it

dancing shoes and graduation dress

o, what a night – first graduation dinner with the parents and my three grandmas at a five star (*****) restaurant, with a deliciously cute waiter – príncipe camarero – then yet another theater premiere – i love opening nights and especially the after-show parties – food, drinks, friends and dancing – dancing the night away in my red dancing shoes, wearing my lovely new favorite dress – bought simply because celebrating one’s own graduation in a fancy restaurant is reason enough