moving right along.

home at last!

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 14:29:09 +0200

one of our many trips in the tram around Koln.

Sat, 15 Aug 2009 01:10:29 +0200

one of our many trips in the tram around Koln.

well

Sat, 15 Aug 2009 01:06:03 +0200

I didn’t expect it but the day ended quite emotionally. not to say that I am not emotionally tied to Koln. I most certainly am. I just thought I would be able to keep it together a little more. I got teary eyed when we hugged D and J and we saying goodbyes and outright cried after they were gone gone. it was really hard to say goodbye to such wonderful people. I really will miss seeing them every morning. and also at school.

I guess deep down that was the heart of my really being emotional. I’m a cryer you know.

"I’m gonna hug you."

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 19:21:07 +0200

“I’m gonna hug you.”

- me

beautiful Cologne on my last day here.

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 18:34:52 +0200

beautiful Cologne on my last day here.

D and J got us goodbye presents. as if the incredible...

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 18:31:00 +0200

D and J got us goodbye presents. as if the incredible once-in-a-lifetime summer wasn’t enough! I do not have enough words to describe my gratitude.

something that says Wagner on it.

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 18:15:49 +0200

something that says Wagner on it.

where D and J took us for the most delicious traditional Kolner...

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 14:11:34 +0200

where D and J took us for the most delicious traditional Kolner dinner I have ever had. maybe the most delicious dinner I have ever had. yeah, I went there.

"Switzerland is excited!"

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 11:06:00 +0200

“Switzerland is excited!”

- D

"you have a seriously overactive imagination."

Thu, 13 Aug 2009 17:14:47 +0200

“you have a seriously overactive imagination.”

- E, about me

a nice night for a walk in the rain

Thu, 13 Aug 2009 11:03:24 +0200

some items to keep in mind, as a preface:

when D drove us to the new flat this morning there were a number of blocked roads and detours and, well, we got fairly turned around and were no longer sure where the new apartment was. or even what direction it was in for that matter.
it rained all day today and the sky was still leaking sufficiently when we left work.
I no longer have a bike and have been walking to and from work since I got back from Amsterdam. this has not been a problem because it was a leisurely 20 minute walk along a route I knew well.

we go to work. we are working on a competition whose deadline is rapidly approaching and we stayed past dark. so here we are, wrapping up at work, wondering 1, where exactly we live and 2, how we are going to get there. D showed us on the map which street it was and then helped us locate the right tram to take from a station near our work. we printed out the map. E brought her bike on the tram.

once we got off we consulted our map and headed down a street towards where the street we were looking for was (Landgrafenstrasse). after walking to the next tram stop we finally ask the first pedestrians we’ve seen and they tell us to turn around and take two lefts. halleluih we find the street. so we begin walking down that, chatting and looking for any building that looks familiar. unfortunately D didn’t know the number and we had only our recollection of the façade we saw twelve hours previously and, you know, in the light to guide us. as we approach what appears to be the end of the street we start seriously considering the possibility of having to walk back to the tram station and sleep in the office; something we’d only joked about previously. at the end we turn around and walk back, studying each building much more carefully for the fragments of detail we remembered. and then, against all odds, we hit Durenerstrasse again and still have not seen it.

it is at this point that we realize there is a whole side of Landgrafenstrasse on the other side of Durenerstrasse. it was the first house on the right. two trips down the wrong way on streets but we finally found it.

and all in heels.

"we had quite a tour today!"

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 21:31:57 +0200

“we had quite a tour today!”

- D

goodbye flat, hello phone

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 01:17:33 +0200

tomorrow E and I are moving out of our flat and into J’s sister’s flat until Saturday morning.

as a result, even though it is only Tuesday, it feels like we are leaving tomorrow. I cleaned all my clothes, and am fervently praying that they dry by morning, scrubbed down the bathroom, emptied out the fridge and mopped the floor in my bedroom. I made piles for what I would definitely carry on and definitely check and then a separate pile for the could-go-either-wayers. I packed my suitcase and started planning out my outfits for the next fews days and what I would wear on the plane.

read: I began my ritual stressing about the flight and whether or not my luggage will be light enough.

could I wear more layers? how many more would I have to wear to save me any weight? if I wear more layers I will sacrifice looking cute. maybe I could put more in my carry on. should I send some stuff back in the mail? or maybe buy a cheap bag to carry on? how much is too much to fit in my rucksack? oh the questions won’t stop until Saturday morning once we are through the security and my suitcase is carried away from me.

in the process of packing and going through what things I really needed to bring home with me I did find my mobile phone. it wasn’t lost or anything, I just haven’t used it since I arrived. it was like a present I found in the bottom of my suitcase! I can’t wait to use it on Saturday. although all my RAM for where the buttons are is effectively gone. E thinks it’ll come right back though.

Hannah at work, as a rehabilitator

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 16:41:47 +0200

me: this is ok.
D: what is?
me: we can listen to this song for just a minute right?
D: yeah. if you need it, yeah ok.

it’s that time of the year where I am thinking about...

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 23:58:34 +0200

it’s that time of the year where I am thinking about haircuts. can I pull off this cut or do my eyes need to be gigantic like Twiggy’s?

as of late

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 20:15:46 +0200

I have been noticing an increase in the number of times per day that I get this question:

“you have been living in Germany for three months and you don’t speak any German?”

ahem. excuse me. I know some German. I can say hello and goodbye and excuse me and thank you and “can I please have a baguette?” quite well. E and I just learned how to say “I don’t speak German” last week too. apparently “sprechen sie Deustch” means “do you speak German?” and that doesn’t really make sense.

we tried at the beginning to learn a lot of words and use them at stores and restaurants. but more often than not people immediately knew that we didn’t really speak German and they would switch into English. something about the way we say the words must not sound authentic or maybe it’s a facial expression thing. I’m banking on the facial expression. I mean why else would people laugh when I say nein? how could I be saying that wrong?

eventually I just stopped trying. so no, I don’t speak any German. I regret not learning more of the vocabulary but I am convinced that you really need to enroll in classes or get a tutor to entensively learn and master a foreign language. the concept of just “picking up” a language is outside the realm of my understanding at this point.

Design Modelling Symposium Berlin 2009 | Case Studies

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 19:46:39 +0200

Design Modelling Symposium Berlin 2009 | Case Studies:

y’all! my professors are presenting the result from an independent study that myself and four other students at Georgia Tech worked on this October at a design symposium. check it out! especially if you are in Berlin.

"you know, sticking ‘Who’ in front of everything doesn’t make it hurt less. just..."

Sun, 09 Aug 2009 21:42:30 +0200

“you know, sticking ‘Who’ in front of everything doesn’t make it hurt less. just wastes time!”

- Mayor of Whoville

so

Sun, 09 Aug 2009 20:48:35 +0200

just a little bit tired of being alone.

new bathing suit

Sun, 09 Aug 2009 19:00:23 +0200

I woke up late and the weather was still not very good. it was only 68 degrees and I could feel a significant feeling breeze when I stuck my arm out the window. but I had kept telling myself all weekend that I was going to go swimming so I was in a connundrum.

I put my new suit on and pranced around the flat in it for a bit trying to decide whether I wanted to pay to ride the tram out to the swimming pool, pay to get in and not swim because it wasn’t hot and then pay to come back. finally I decided that I would just wear the suit around outside and see if the weather warmed up and maybe then I would go to the pool.

so I left the house looking beachy with my suit on under some bright coral jeans, a light tee, sunglasses and sandals. I got a lemon ice cream and walked toward Heumarkt. this way if I decided to just go home I wasn’t too far from home and I could take the tram that stops at Heumarkt if I changed my mind about the pool.

it was back and forth the whole way there. yes, I am going; I have no other plans for today. no, it’s cold and I will leave immediately. yes, it doesn’t matter about the sun not being out because it’ll be fun to see the gigantic pool. no, it’s not worth the money to just sit outside. yes, no, yes, no.

when I got to Heumarkt, the exact tram I needed rolled in immediately and I just got right on. so I went.

and it was very cool. the stop I was getting off at was actually the stop for the big sports stadium (stadion) in Koln. there were a lot of public parks and open areas for people to play pickup futbol and other sports and there was a big pool complex. there are supposedly eight different pools at this complex. I only saw six but maybe they also count the sauna or hot tubs or something.

six pools! there was a big deep dive pool with a dive platform that had several different heights, a lap pool with starting blocks, a mid depth pool for just swimming, a shallow pool that had a big water sprayer that all the kids were going crazy with and two pools that the two water slides fed into.

it was a little too chilly for me to swim so initially I just sat outside in my suit and enjoyed the cloudy sun. but eventually it did get a little hotter and I played around in one of the shallow pools to test the water temperature. it was bone chilling. but I persisted and swam in the mid depth pool for a while. I also tried the water slide. this was obviously more for kids but I thought I would try it anyways. it was cool that there were slides but the one I rode on was just ok. it was kind of slow. but I did get my head wet when I slid out of it!

I sun dried for a bit and watched a futbol game going on nearby and eventually went back to Heumarkt.

I am so glad I went! there weren’t as many people as I had hoped to see because the weather was less than stellar but it ended up being a great day and a fun diversion. although use of the showers and locker rooms is pretty much nonexistent and I saw a lot of boob.