Kindergeburtstag: When a kid's birthday turns out to be a massive event!

Last sunday, my boss invited a lot of people from the office to come to his son's eight's birthday party. It was supposed to be a soccer party so everyone should come dressed up in the jersery of his/her favourite team (that's the story why I bought a Germany jersery, remember?).

When we arrived at the place, it turned out to be a big party room with foosball/kicker, trampolin, carussel, basketball and many many other games for kids and a part with tables for the older people to be seated with food and drinks and a hell of a lot decoration. They even had people to entertain the kids with soccer games (penalty shots), medals to be won and many more things.

But not only the kids were entertained... actually, the kids did not care much about the whole entertainment... they rather played on the super playground with all these games and possibilites than listening to a lady explaining... Thus, we were entertained. Danceing games for couples, penalty shots (the men even had to sing the hymns of their favourite teams, we women just had to name them), and musical quizzes.

It was a lot of fun, I can tell you and seriously everyone was acting as if we were eight ourselves. Look at the picture and the video of the dancing competition to judge yourself... Our boss and his wife won it by the way, though Warley and Wagner also turned out to be great dancers (some might say Helio being the boss of most dancing judges had a slight advantage) :D

[ooops, youtube just always stops before the video is uploaded... maybe I can do that when I have my own internet and am not in the hotel anymore]

Just Dance...

I went out to a very cool Pub/Club yesterday night. While from the outside it looked very posh, inside it was a mixture of an irish pub and a rock club, decorated with posters of bands from the beatles over kiss to nirvana. It had some space to sit, a nice dancefloor and a stage which was already filled with instruments for the band that would play tonight.

The band came on stage. They had a keyboarder who would have easily fit in a skate punk band with his outfit and piercings, next to him a guy with rhasta hair who could have been Bob Marley's missing cousin on the bass, in the middle the singer with long uncombed hair, a plaid shirt and a voice you could have put on a The Darkness record, the guitar player a big bear with no hair but big tattoes who would have not looked wrong on stage with Flogging Molly or The Dropkick Murphy's and last but not least a nice looking young guy on the drumset who, if he lived next to you, probably would walk your dog and mow your lawn on weekends.
Now, this is a crazy combination... What do you think a band like this opens up with (except for an amazing bass solo from the rhasta guy)?
Yes, that's right, they opened up with "Take On Me" from A-ha! :D Oh, did I mention it was an `80s Party? ;)

I had a real fun night there and it was interesting to see how brazilian girls dress up for a night out... The craziest dress I saw was what looked like a big golden "potato bag" but it fit with the girl that was constantly repeating her own little dance routine somewhere between "The Robot" and "Ententanz" (also known as the Hooters Chicken Song or something). But in general, the skirts are shorter, the high heels are higher (not below 10cm) and the lips are redder ;)
But apparently there is 5 girls on every man in Goiânia, so the competition is big... maybe that's it :D
But even though there were tons of willing ladies out on the dancefloor this one old and ugly guy in a glitter shirt kept hitting on my friend Sthela. Brazilians don't like to accept a "no, thanks" so he was coming back all the time to talk to us and trying to get Sthela to dance with him. His opening line (he tried it more than once with the same line) was always said to me: "Oh, you could you please introduce me to your pretty firend?" After the fourth time I still did not know his name but was so annoyed that I said "Okay, Sthela this is the weird guy in a women shirt; weird guy in a women shirt this is Sthela" Fortunately he did not speak any english, so Sthela and I had a good laugh and he was happy cause he figured I had said something nice about him :D

Now its a nice sunny saturday morning and Sthela, Nathalia and me are going to look for nice furniture... hopefully we find a nice and, most important of all, comfortable bed for me and a nice sofa and puff (yes, dear Germans, a puff... its a Sitzsack and said "poufie"... it has nothing to do with whorehouses) for Sthela.

Sao Joao - Gym Party on the Roof Top!

As everyday I went to the hotel's gym yesterday night and did my usual work out. When I arrived though, the girl at the entrance was wearing ponytails left and right behind her ear and had her cheeks colored bright red and with painted freckles... Upstairs in the gym, the room was decorated and outside on the terrace seats and tables were prepared. However, noone was there yet.

So I started my workout and did not wonder anymore about it. When I finished an hour later and wanted to leave, one of the trainers told me to come back up later for the party. I am "just" a hotelguest, who is thus allowed to use part of the gym for free without really being a memeber, but Daniela said "You are a hotelguest, right? Well, you are here all the time, so you should come up anyways to get to know some more of the 'students'"
I thought that was very nice, especially since they new that, living in a hotel for nearly two weeks and not knowing the traditional brazilian food eaten on Sao Joao's day, they knew I couldnt really add anything to the potluck dinner.
So of course I went upstairs later and met some really nice people. I was introduced to everyone as "This is Anna, she comes from Germany and will live in Goiania" and everyone was really interested in what I do here, and how I got here, and, and, and... :)

My hour on the treadmill was quickly cancelled out by all the food I just had to try (Anna, do you know this? No? Oh, you have to try it, its really good! ... Oh, look, something new, its traditional, you should try it! ... No, but seriously, I made those and all my friends say I make the best! You really need to take some! ...)
But I must admit, it was all very tasty. Food here is heavy, but very tasty.

Later on, two guys that work out in this gym brought a guitar and sang live Sertaneja Music, which is the traditional music here... country music, that is. Most of the party guests were dressed up for this day, with plaid dresses, strawheats or plaid shirts and cowboy hats, and knew how to sing a long.
I did not really get into the music, it is not bad, but really, a little whiney... (For the Germans among you readers: The singing is a bit like Xavier Naidoo in portugese, although the music is a little happier)

Most of the evening I spent talking to Cynthia (who introduced me to many people and showed me around), Junio (the personal trainer of the gym who also prefers rock music over sertaneja and who would tell everyone that I seriously jumped into the non-heated pool at night) and Diego, Pedro and another guy whose name I unfortunately forgot (who are the youngest members of the gym with 20 to 23 years). They were very interested in what I do and how I like it here, and of course they wanted to talk about soccer ("Bodouskee", "Swinestygar", and "Balakke" meaning Podolski, Schweinsteiger and Ballack). Fortunately I learned a lot about soccer through my friends, the worldcup and the eurocup so I was actually able to talk to them about some things.

All in all I had a lot of fun, but one last random story stays to be told:
While we were all partying outside on the roof's terrace there was one guy still exercising inside and he was the reason why Diego and Pedro did not get to work out, they were just too irritated... It was a skinny, longhaired, tall guy in a white muscle shirt and colorful '90s shorts. Shorts, meaning short. Really short.
Do you know the episode of FRIENDS where Phoebe has this super active and sporty boyfriend? No? Well, let me tell you: Phoebe's boyfriend in that episode and the guy yesterday have two things in common: The very short shorts, and the fact that they are not wearing any underwear... Like the friends, we could have needed a Gunther too yesterday night, to tell the guy that he is showing way too much skin.

Pictures of Hotelroom View

Here you can find some pictures of the city center... some "Plattenbau" high buildings and, compared to other LA Cities, quite some trees!
And of course, a picture of my first ever soccer jersey :)


And for the really curious ones a little video with pictures of the city! I did not make it myself, I just happened to found in on youtube :)

Winter Weekend

It is winter, here in Goiania. At least that is what the lady in the elevator told me today, dressed up in a long sleeve blouse and a jacket. I look up at the infoscreen and it shows me 21°C and it is not even noon yet...
However, this clearly explains why I was the only person at and in the pool the whole saturday. The otherones must have stayed inside, wrapped up in a big pullover drinking hot chocolate.

But seriously, this winter season here is weird. I was shopping in the big shoppingcenter on sunday, and C&A is selling big boots and warm wollen pullovers. What I needed was new short jeans as my airshipment arrived but is still held in storage until I am able to move into my new home (I am with appartment nr. 4 now and it is still not 100% sure if it works out).

In the end I found great new short jeans, and an adapter for my PC which thus finally works again, and a couple of new CDs which are just amazingly cheap here. My new favourite to listen to while working is the Soundtrack of "Into The Wild" (a movie which you all should watch, by the way, if you haven't done so already).

Last but not least, I bought my first ever soccer jersey! It is a Germany jersey and it says my name and the nr. 5 (-> birthday) on the back! I need it for a party I am invited to next sunday.
Amazingly, what a World Cup and a Euro Cup (both of which I enjoyed and really followed) could not do, Brazil does in less than 2 weeks! :)

Here a little proof on how much "winter" it is:

Fingers Crossed

So apparently all of you crossed your fingers very well!
After a couple of really disappointing appartments, we by chance found a really nice one. Brand new and ready in 10 (brazilian) days... The owner of the place accepted the offer that I put down regarding what has to be done in the appartment and what rent I can pay.
But do not stop crossing your fingers yet, cause the paperwork still has to work out and I do not believe a thing, until I can sign it...

At work I learned a lot about numbers today. I love numbers, don't get me wrong, but this was really really a lot. And a lot of background to understand the numbers...
I was rewarded though with a great lunch. Ornellas, who explained me all those numbers, took me to his home for lunch as his wife had invited me to come over.
This was not just very sweet, it was also very yummy!
Especially the meet, which was cooked with the bones, onion and garlic, some vinegar, spices and wine in a big pressure cooker and it was super soft.
Unfortunately I could not eat as much as maybe brazilians do, because the weather is very warm and the food is very heavy... ...and I did not want to fall asleep in front of my PC three in the afternoon ;) I hope they did not think I did not like it, because I just ate one plate...

It is the weekend now, and I am happy to be able to enjoy the sun for two days, cause it gets dark here relatively early (pretty much exactly when I leave work ;). I brought some sunscreen 50, which I will definitely need and cannot wait to use.
The hotel pool and gym is on the top floor so it also has a very cool view which I so far only saw at night... I will take some pictures and post them, as soon as I have a working pc in the hotel...

Paperwork

Hallo Ben! Schön dass Du auch da bist! ;)

I had thought I would never get to that point, but: all necessary paperwork is done. Now, thats not completely true as my drivers liscence and a home are kinda necessary too, but I can receive a salary now, I am fully legally here, fully employed and on payroll.

I will look at three more apartments this afternoon, and as me crossing my fingers seems to not have been enough effort for my house hunt so far, I ask you all to cross your fingers too!
I still do not have an adapter for my PC, so I will let you know tomorrow if your efforts in fingers crossing and Daumendrücken have helped.

First Days in Goiania

On sunday night I left Sao Paulo to go to Goiania. I flew from Congonhas Airport, which is the crazy airport I wrote about some days ago. It is really crazy. The way to the runway looks like your in a car or bus, driving down Calle Serrano / Hohenzollernring / Grande Cote...

The first night was awful because I litterally got the worst room in the hotel. It was so loud, you cannot imagine.
However, I was supposed to start monday morning with house hunting, so that was something to look forward too while trying to fall asleep everytime a big truck passed by and woke me.

House hunting started off really terrible. The first place didnt get the keys, the second place didnt feel right, the ones we found by chance didnt feel good either. In the end, we passed another company and just went in to ask if they had something, and they did.
I looked at two possible new homes which both were really nice, though the first one just felt "right"...
Now, guess what? It AGAIN did not work out. I really really could bang my head against a wall right now. Again I had two days to be happy about it and feel good, and again I learn later that unfortunately its not possible. This time, because the landlord apparently changed his mind and wants to sell it now instead of renting it. And, as if that wasnt enough, the other pretty place (which I thought would be a good alternative just in case) will not work out either, cause its around 360 Reais above my budget(about 125 Euros) and he will not move a little bit at all. And well, I am not willing to pay above budget for the back-up choice, therefore the house wasnt perfect enough... so, househunting can start all over again.

But there are good news as well.
The people here in the office are really nice and all very helpful. So far, I am not of much use to them, because I still dont have access to all the systems (but at least I have a pc and a phone and a seat)!
Yesterday I spent nearly all day doing paperwork for my workbook (which I think is a bit like the Lohnsteuerkarte in Germany) and for my bank account.

Hopefully tonight, I get to buy an adaptor for my PC at home. The batteries are empty and there is no place in the hotel room where the plug fits... I went to one shopping mall yesterday, but unfortunately they didnt have one...

Lets wait and see.

The Crazy Roadtrip

As we couldnt spend the whole nice weekend in Sao Paulo while nobody is in the city, we decided to follow the traffic jam and head to Campos do Jordao.
Luckily, Sandra got a car and a navigational system, so we thought it would not be a big deal to drive where everyone else is going too.

What we did not know is, that our GPS had no freakin idea about reading maps and finding way that are "usuable". Thats how we were lead from the highway through a little city and against a oneway street. Now, we wondered, but did not think that just because of one oneway street the GPS would be totally wrong. Afterall, there were NO SIGNS for a one way street and if it wasnt for a coconut dealer that waved at us like a berzerk, probably nobody would have noticed us. Not even ourselves.
So we turned the car around and followed "Uschi's" (thats what we called our GPS as it is the stereotype name for a dumb german girl) advice. We headed towards the road "SP 50" of which we thought it was a highway. Well, let me get straight to the point: It is not a highway. Barely even a real street. But we were supposed to drive on it for "more than 40 kilometers".
I can tell you, it was an adventure. It was a tiny street full of holes and red earth, partly the street fell down the cliff, the curves were extreme and when Sandra and I did not stay silent because we were concentrating so hard on the street, all we would ever say was "oh my god", "do they always go this way? there must be another way?!" or "they should use that as Formula 1/Rallye/DTM racing track". Sandra was driving, I was the co-pilot... "careful, sharp right".
But: We were really really happy about the view we had from there. We went very high up and due to the way the street went we really had the view of a lifetime.

Here is a little video (dont listen, we talk weird):
[oooops, this follows tomorrow. not enough battery]

In the end, the trip took us 3.5 hours instead of two and when we finally arrived in Campos do Jordao. You must imagine it like this: We came from the left, down a hill and lined into a huge traffic jam with cars from Sao Paulo. So there was another way! And it was apparently very full (while our way was empty...) Probably we would have stood an hour in the traffic jam if we had found the right way right away, so whatever.
The town is really cute. Its a bit like the St.Moritz / Aspen of Brazil where people just go to show of their expensive cars and clothing. Against all stories it was not cold at all, though it is higher than 1000m. Noone cared though, they all were wearing fur, and hats, and gloves, and boots. Only Sandra and me were in T-Shirts :)

On the way back we decided to lock "Uschi" away in the glove compartment and to just follow the Sao Paulo signs, in order to find the other way. Following signs really wasnt easy as mostly there weren't any, but we made it.
It was faster and a lot more comfortable to go this way with police lined up everywhere and many people on a three lane road. But: It was kind of boring compared to the start.

What a crazy adventure this was. And one thing is for sure: Der Weg ist das Ziel!

And now some pictures:

Sandra's Housewarming

Sandras Air Shipment arrived faster than thought in her appartment (and she packed a whole lot more than me... I should have packed more... ;). As it is also partly furnished she has a bed, a kitchen and table and chairs, but best of all: She has a Churrasco on her terrace!
As she had packed pots and pans and plates in her air fright, we decided it would be a great idea to spend the evening at her appartment to have a little housewarming party. Unfortunately everyone we know here is away for the weekend or had to work today, so we decided to cook some spaghetti and open a red wine and relax.
As we were shopping we looked at the meat and I asked her if she by any chance had a churrasco, more jokingly, but she said yes, so we decided to put a big piece of meat onto it, just like I was taught by Gerwin (my former boss who had spent years in Argentina practicing how to grill meat).

Her appartment is really great. It is over two stories and very open with a big terrace. On the terrace there is even a jacuzzi which unfortunately is not cleaned yet. From the terrace on can see a faked Eiffel Tower all across the city and tons of big houses of course.

As it is still very rainy we decided to not go to the beach this weekend, but rather go out in Sao Paulo tonight and then make a day trip to the mountains on Saturday. More about this later.

Hortitec 2009

As I was pretty much done with all organizational things in the office, I did not go to Bayer on Wednesday but joined Franziska (whom I know from Bayer CropScience in Germany and who is here since 2007) to go to Hortitec, an agricultural fare, in Holambra.

We left at 6:15h in the morning to avoid the heavy Sao Paulo traffic and got to Holambra around 08:30h. Holambra is supposed to be a little Holland Colony with windmills, hollad style houses and, get this: they have "drempels" and the funny signs for them too but they forgot the one and only famous holland holiday sentence "let op drempels!" :D Okay, I know you wont understand this if you are neither called Elli nor Toni or Lucky but whatever ;)

The fare was a little outside the town so we started to take a look at the fare. Bayer had a very nice stand there and one could look at many many nice flowers and vegetables from seed breeders and at big agricultural machinery too.
It was actually very interesting and I learned a lot, especially about the cotton and tomato markets.

After the fare we checked out the little town, but really, the whole Holland thing is a bit of a marketing joke. They basically built normal flat bungalows and placed a holland look alike front before them. It looks like they forgot the movie set there when filming was over :D
Still, it was really fun! And of course, they have wonderful flower shops.

On the way back it started to rain very very heavily and we stood a little in the traffic jam, but it was still okay. At least comparing it to Sandras first driving experience that same day: It took her over 2 hours to go from Bayer to the hotel, in the rain and when everyone leaves for the long holiday weekend...

Here you can find some pictures:

Lazy Sunday in the Park

My sunday was really easy going.
I woke up not too early and the sun was shining so I decided to go for a nice walk around the area after breakfast. I found a sunday vegetable and fruit market in the roads not far from hear and strolled a little through the stands, of course not forgetting to take care of my wallet... It seemed really calm though and the market was really nice.

When I came back to the hotel my room was just being arranged, so I grabbed my Lonely Planet and sat down in the café next to the hotel entrance to wait for Sandra.
Sandra is also from Bayer CropScience and Germany and arrived in Sao Paulo only two days before me, so we are having the same troubles and issues with bureaucracy and the same experience of being completely new in the city.

We decided to go to the Parque Ibirapuera, which is not far from the hotel and can be compared to the Central Park in New York. It is the biggest park in Sao Paulo City and about 120.000 people (apparently) visit it every sunday. We were two of those today :)
The park is really nice and full with families on one end, and full of kissing and flirting teenagers looking like Emilie the Strange an other Emo Figures on the other end. In between one can find a couple of Oskar Niemeyer buildings and museums. We looked at the Ibirapuera Auditorium (which is also known as the "tongue") and we went to the Sao Paulo Museum of Modern Art of which the temporary exhibition is always free on Sundays. Most of the time though, we spent chatting and sitting in the sun.

Later on we decided to go have a nice drink and go to a Sushi Rodzio (aka "All You Can Eat"). So we drank a Sake with fresh Lytchee (or however you spell that) and had what felt like a ton of great Sushi and Sashimi.
And as I learned from Kaoru how to behave like a good Japanese, we took pictures of the Sushi ;) No seriously, I only took those pictures for Kaoru answering to her picture series of the Bento del Dia in Tokyo.

Here are the pictures from the park and the Sushi:

Feijoada and Caipirinhas

On Saturday I went to have a typical brazilian lunch: feijoada. It is a stew made of black beans and with meat. All kinds of meat, but in the restaurant you could chose whether you want tongue or ear or just sausage in it :D
With it I had Caipirinha, but not like we know it at home. I had it with Maracuja and it was soooooo yummy! And then I had one with red berries which was also soooooo yummy. Basically one can have Caipirinha with whatever fruit one likes and I love it =)

Later on we went to Matthias place, a friend of Susi. From his balcony I had a crazy view over all the high buildings of Sao Paulo, it looked insane! Especially when a plane flew by to land in Sao Paulo Congonhas, which is in the middle of the city (and the lights to lead the planes' way are built on top of the buildings!).

Here you can find a video of it:

Wurst

Sorry to all those readers who do not speak any German, but really, this post would not make anysense in any other language but German... =)

Einer meiner Kollegen, von denen ich gestern einiges Bereich Strategy und Forecasting gelernt habe, hat ein Jahr als Austauschschüler in Deutschland verbracht.
Als er ankam, konnte er genau zwei Wörter sagen. Kartoffel und Wurst. Und was das bedeuten sollte wusste er auch nicht. Es hatte ihm halt irgendwann mal irgendwer beigebracht als die essentiellen Wörter schlechthin.
Kaum in Deutschland angekommen hat ihm seine Gastfamilie zur Begrüßung einen Sekt angeboten. Alle hoben die Gläser und sagten laut "Prost". Rafael dachte er hätte das Wort wiedererkannt, schaute fröhlich in die Runde und sagte laut zum erhobenen Glas "Wurst!".

Es sei ihm so peinlich gewesen, erzählte er mir gestern nachdem wir in der Kantine waren. Ich fands aber total lustig und sagte das sei auch nicht peinlich, die Wörter seien sich ja auch sehr ähnlich. Da musste er auch lachen und sagte dass sei sehr nett, aber nun könnte er ja Deutsch und wüsste genau dass die Wörter sich so ähnlich ja nun auch nicht seien. Wär aber egal, jetzt wüsste er es ja und hätte zudem immer noch eine lustige Geschichte parat.

Fuits and Tennis Shoes

Now, as this might sound like a weird combination, these are the two things I really want to tell you about right now.

It is saturday today and I woke up at 8 already, even though I stayed up until 2am brazilian time yesterday watching a movie. I had the most amazing breakfast ever, and breakfast is probably the thing I like most about being here so far (well, I must admit though that I haven't seen that much yet)! Fruits, Fruits, and Tropical Fruits! And they taste soooo much better than the ones that we get in Germany after riping for weeks in a warehouse.

As it was still early and I had nothing better to do, I walked the four blocks to the shopping center Ibirapuera. On my way I realized that what Ulf told me on Thursday night was absolutely true. The people walking on the street keep looking at each other carefully. They look into your face as if they wanted to say "I saw you, I know what you look like..." The hotel I live in is in a barrio called Moema, which is pretty safe and many people are walking around on the street, but still one can see that people are always aware of what is happening all around them. It not like the dreamy wandering around like I prefer to do it in Cologne ;)

The shopping center is pretty big and with many different shops for all kinds of styles and things. However, what one can find most are tennis shoes. And I dont mean sneakers, but the typical white, shiny tennis shoes. Paulistas seem to love them, cause I saw at least 10 shops for tennis shoes on the three floors of the shopping center and they were all called things like "the world of tennis", "tennis no.1", "all tennis", ... I would have expected to find more soccer shoes to be honest ;)

Afterwards I went to the supermarket to get some water and fruits and now I am back in the hotel. Its 12.15 and I am wondering what to do with this beautiful day... It is at least 25°C outside, no sign of the coming "winter", so I willl go through my Lonelyplanet now and see what cool stuff can be done. Lets see what I find...

Madita grüsst Pims :)

I just watched Madita, a movie my sister gave me the last night in Germany.
We used to watch it when we were little and Madita and Pims remind me of ourselves when we were small...
Its like travelling 15 years back within seconds =)

Numb3rs

I can forecast here and now, that I will use a loooooot more numbers in my new job than I thought I would.
But thats okay, I guess I will get used to it :D

So, that was one thing I learned today. On my first real day in Brazil. Meaning, awake and communicating ;)
I spent all day with the three strategy guys and they explained me how the forecasting works in Brasil and one jokes in Brazil and pretty well also: How a work day works in Brasil. And I like it.
It was a long day though, I just got home, spending two hours in the every(fri)day traffic jams of Sao Paulo to get back to the hotel.

Its a friday night, but I think I am going to stay in and watch a movie. I just went to the "Tante Emma Laden" across the street and got some water and guaraná and the "lanchonette" next to it had a little bbq put up where I ate a yummy little piece of meat on a wooden stick ( I think in English thats a Kebab, but then a Kebab is something totally different in German, where what I ate is a Spiesschen; so whatever, I ate meat on a stick... :D)

Now all of that was a little chaotic, but I think you know me well enough to know that this is how my brain works ;)

Arrived

The moment I left my family at the security check, I really thought I did a terrible mistake leaving. 5 minutes later, the feeling was gone, but that was a shock second, really.

The flight to Madrid was, well, like always. And when I got off the plane I thought: Wow, nearly two years ago I arrived packed like this to live here for a while... mh, wouldnt be a nice idea to just stay here... maybe the next job... ;)

My flight to Sao Paulo was everything but always or calm. The news of the Air France flight really haven't helped me in being calm and unfortunately the weather did not want to help me either.
It was very turbulent and I did not sleep for more than half an hour in one session because I was woken up by heavy shakes every once in a while. Once over Brazil the turbulences were finally over and I got to sleep for another hour before landing.

In Sao Paulo they had the massive amount of 3 people ready to check the passports of two jumbojets who just arrived from Madrid and Rome... I stood there, half asleep for over two hours and was already scared that the driver leaves without me.
But of course, everything turned out well.

I checked into a nice little hotel, this time its a little closer to night life too, and had some rest before I had some appointments for work.

Tonight I will go to dinner with some people and I think its gonna be fun =)
On Saturday I hopefully meet Thais, Camilo, maybe Julio and some others for a little IE reunion, which would also be amazing.

So thats it for the day, I need a tiny bit of sleep before going out... Tomorrow at 8, I gotta be ready for a training day in office...

Abfahrt

Es ist alles gepackt, der letzte Businessplan bewertet, die letzte Versicherung gekündigt und seit heute bin ich offiziell kein Bürger Deutschlands mehr.

Oh, that was German.
Well, all is packed and all is organized and I am officially not living in Germany anymore. I left. I have it written here, with a blue stamp of the city of Leverkusen.

In half an hour I am leaving to the airport to check in and to leave. And finally there comes the point that Jenny thought would never come: I am scared. Not badly, but anxiously. I would lie if I said the Air France Crash wouldnt make me feel a little weird about flying over the atlantic, and yes, at one moment or the other I thought "What the hell am I doing here?"

But most of you know me well enough to figure that this mood doesnt last. There is no way back anyway, so why worry? Rather smile and laugh and wonder what awaits me. Happily.

Goodbye and see you when I landed ;)

24h

It is time to actually stick to my resolution and to write into my blog. In 24 hours my flight leaves for Madrid, where I will change planes to fly to Sao Paulo.

All this waiting and now it is finally time. Weird, somehow. And so much that happened and that had to be done in the last week.
I spent the last long weekend in Holland at the beach, got a little tan and enjoyed. Then of course, all the other things like packing needed to be done quickly as lying lazy on the beach does not really pack anything... I was in Rome for work from Monday to Wednesday night, so this didnt really help me in packing either, but I loved it. Finally, on Thursday, when I had a day off I really sorted things out as the rest of my stuff was supposed to be picked up on Friday morning. On Friday morning however, I was told that the people would run late and only arrive at tweleve, so all the rush for nothing ;) Once everything was packed I had to bring my car back to the rental station and drive by the bank to coordinate that I am leaving the country... however, they didnt really believe it and wanted proof (which I couldnt give, cause of course the offices were closed and I could only go on Tuesday). Also on Friday, Rémy's little daughter Julia was born. She is the cutest little girl on earth and I am very very happy for Ruth and Rémy!!! =)
On saturday I picked up my friend Jenny and we drove in a pretty convertible and nice loud music to the 30th birthday party of Schröder. On the way I dropped off a little joke birthday gift at another friends house. I am not sure what he is thinking about it (but he will never ever read this, so whatever) but I had my fun handing it to his dad who had no clue whatsoever who I am or where I came from on a random Saturday afternoon... Plus, if I say "or else I will send it to you by mail" I need to stick to it ;)
Either way, I spent a very very nice weekend in Herford and around and the party was amaaaaaazzing.

The only sad part was, that Vanni really started to cry cause I am leaving. It made me feel miserable. But then again, I am so happy that things are finally starting. We listened to some sad songs like Westernhagen's "Freiheit" and "Freunde" from Die Toten Hosen and in the end, the smile was back on her face. ouf.... I mean, I am far away, but not thaaaaat far... :)

Sunday we spent on the couch and on the terrace. Thats it ;)

On Monday I drove home, again with the opened car and loud music and to be honest: I felt like the cooooolest person on earth with my hair blowing in the wind... hahaha. Seriously. I loved it. And I heard a new song in the radio, which just fit so perfectly... It is called "Wir werden uns wiedersehen" (We will see again) from Selig.
Monday night I spent with baking cakes (though there werent as many eggs in the fridge as I was told, so I had to postpone the cheesecake to Tuesday morning) and had friends over to finish of the beers that were left over from my party in April. This time Jenny nearly started crying but then we said goodbye and see you soon, and I am back soon, etc. quickly and saved her from a messed up make-up ;) It is so weird to see friends worry so much and be so sad. Makes me sad. Yet, and thats even weirder but true, it also makes me feel happy because it shows me that those people are better friends then I could ever wish for...

Today was the last day in the office. And as weird it was to come back after 1.5 years, as weird it is to leave again. We had a ton of cake and coffee and nice speeches and well, I will be back ;) Hehehe.

Thats it so far. I will go now and "dine in the castle" with my parents, my sister and her boyfriend... it is a nice little restaurant here in town with a nice terrace and I think it is going to be a great last night.

By this time tomorrow, I will be somewhere over Paris ;)

Here the Toten Hosen Song called "Freunde" ("Friends")