Winter bliss

So it has become all wintery and snowy and cold. Today's dawn with all its blue and violet hues was just breath taking.
Still, I feel the weight of getting up too early for almost a month. I hope I'm not getting sick.

Greetings.

Two hours

When I was unemployed, two hours could mean anything. But mostly they meant nothing to me and went about their business without bothering me. Two hours in which I slept, decided to go out to buy something bad to eat, read some blogs, maybe wrote a job application if I felt like it, wrote in this blog or tried to write a novel. Or I just watched a whole batch of Japanese or Korean Drama.
Believe me when I say I was so sick of it!
Yes, one can get sick of having too much spare time at your hands.

Now, the opposite is quite true: Two hours free time are very, very precious.
While I'm being trained more and more in doing my job (which is actually quite simple in some ways and complicated in others), I get to do more and more stuff at work. I haven't managed to do some major errors yet, but the day will surely come. Even though I can already predict that one day I'll find that job rather boring, I'm very happy at the moment as my colleagues are nice and my bosses are splendid. The atmosphere at my working place is very down to earth and most people are smiling. If there is - by chance - nothing to smile about they'll go on to joke about it.

Anyway, the previous workdays have gone by so quickly. I can't really believe it. Soon, I'll get my first wage! Woohooo!

Two hours now have a completely different meaning to me.

This is my second blog year. Hope you are in for the ride.

Greetings!

P.S. I tried to take a picture of the alps. I try to catch a glimpse of them every morning at dawn and every evening in the twilight, when I'm taking the bus to and from work. It's really a breathtaking sight and the alps are very near. Actually, many of my colleagues are going skiing or snowboarding on the weekends. I might need to learn skiing after all....(again)....

New Horizons

My first week at my new working place is over and I've already learnt a lot. I wasn't bored and am confused in the right kind of way. You know what I mean: the way that urges you on to learn everything that you can possibly learn about the matter. So I'm looking forward to my second week.

As I am living in Bavaria now I can see all the things the whole world keeps talking about when talking about Germany. I've always wondered about some silly prejudices about Germany and the image of dirndl and lederhosen-clad Germans, sausages, huge amounts of beer and pretzels.
Well - now, I'm right in the middle of it. Yesterday, I went for a shopping trip to Munich and boy, did I see every single one of those things. There was even a fast-food-kinda-booth for pretzels:

You can buy the basic butter-pretzel there. But also pretzels with cream cheese or even Leberkäse (the original Bavarian meat loaf). Oddly enough, they are also offering coffee drinks and mashed (Bavarian) potatoes with different toppings. My butter pretzel was really good and next time I'm trying the mashed potatoes.

(The first picture is Bad Tölz at dawn. It was my first day at work and I missed my bus and had to wait for over an hour to take the next one. I was really embarrassed by this and called my workplace. Fortunately, they were really nice about it.)

Christmas Bonus

Sorry to bother you again, but I just wanted to show you our Christmas tree 2011. We bought new glitter balls this year at Lauscha, where all glitter balls are originally from. The years before I decorated our tree with old glitter balls from our family. We've even got some from the 1950s. And we normally stick to traditional colors. We never intended to buy something in Lauscha - we just wanted to show some friends our Thuringian forest. But then - we saw a Christmas tree in white (frosted and with a luster like a pearl), green and tea brown (however you call it) glitter balls and fell in love!

I totally love the owl. (Can you spot it?) (And we spent most of pre-Christmas to fold Bascetta-stars to put them into the branches.)

The tree was from our garden.

(Pictures taken with the Lumix DMC FZ48. My mother got this camera for her birthday in late november. I'm very jealous. )

Yes, I just love this owl.

Now, hush, to bed I go. Good Night.

Christmas Markets No 9

Christmas time this year has been kind to me. I visited no less than 6 different Christmas Markets all over Germany. That's not bad. Not bad at all. (Normally I'm happy to see two different Christmas Markets in one Christmas season.)

This last picture was taken two days before Christmas Eve in Weimar. This Christmas Market has been voted the best Christmas Market of the World by the bloggers of CNNGo.com. See the article here.
Sadly it was a rainy and grey day. Which is odd as my visits in Weimar are normally sunny and much more welcoming. See picture for reference:

(Same spot in summer. It's a normal weekday market.) I love Weimar and just can't recommend a visit enough. It has atmosphere. History is all around (the good and the bad) and you can find many things in its crooked backstreets.

For me Christmas is already far, far away. I'm back in HD, collecting my stuff, sending some home, packing up the rest. It is just unbelievable how much I could fit in this small room of mine. And I totally need an e-book reader. All my books are way too heavy.

I hope I find time to write before leaving. I don't know how my internet connectivity will be for the next two months or so as my pension won't have wifi. Fortunately a friend lends me an internet stick, but the connection might be too slow for uploading anything here.

Only two days till leaving! Still can't believe it.

Christmas Markets No 8

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas with your loved ones. I - for my part - did. Sadly, our Internet broke down and I wasn't able to post some pictures I took earlier. These pics are from my last visit to the Heidelberg Christmas market. Once again - sorry for the poor quality.

Christmas Markets No 7

Christmas market booths in front of the Munich city hall.

Here I am. Sorting my things and throwing away stuff. Stuff I wouldn't throw away if I could help it. Stuff I'd love to give to friends if I'd knew they want it. But sadly, they don't. (Really, it's just old pens - most of them not working anymore -, some tea no one would drink, tons of copies from Japanese and English books (I swear I wanted to read those!!), seminar notes (I'm always thinking that I surely will need them again - but really it's about the definition of literature in different cultures and I'm fairly sure they are not going to ask me about that in my new position.)

Thank God I was quite well organized with my Christmas presents this year. The rig rag scarf for my father is finished and a crochet scarf for my mom will shortly be. May take some pics and show you.

Greetings!