smile.

I'm soooo happy because this past weekend I got to see Karin for the first time in about 4 months! The only person other than my mother to see me off at the airport before leaving Canada :) She even brought me back a little present that I SUPER appreciated because it is only Canadian. Classic that is...wink* It is so nice to see a (more than) familiar face in such an unfamiliar place. On Thursday we will make our way to FUSION festival!! (http://www.fusion-festival.de/ if you want to know more) So excited! I had no idea about this festival until Karin offered me an extra ticket she had bought while we were in Canada, and I thought why not?! Turns out it sounds even more awesome the more people I talk to about it. The tickets even sold out in a VERY short period of time! So I will be gone from Thursday until Sunday.

I'm not exactly sure what will happen after that but I may go to Berlin after Canada Day to see Sophia who is doing her internship there. I'm hoping to get a better impression of Berlin than I did the first time I went in early March: cold, bitter, miserable ice-land of loneliness and frozen hands. HA! Anyhow, we will see because I am still waiting on a money loan/transfer from the parents...please oh please come soon! I did manage however to book a cheap flight through ryanair to Stockholm yesterday (14 euro), now I just need to find a place to stay. Hopefully couchsurfing can help me out. Crossing my fingers.

After waiting an absurd 7 days for my film to be developed, it finally came back to the Budni (the drugstore I usually get my film developed at for around 5 euro). And to my frusterated surprise I found that each of the three films I dropped off were priced at 18 euro each! EACH! That is about 60 euro for THREE rolls of film! I was convinced that there had to have been some kind of mistake. The envelope felt a little heavier than it normally does so I looked inside to find that there was a large bundle of plastic slide carriers...I found a sales associate and asked them why it was priced so high and why my negatives were in slide carriers. You probably figured it out by now, but it turns out I was using SLIDE FILM. My god, am I dumb. I should note that I bought about 9 of these rolls because they were priced at 50cents each, for the 'expiry' date was in May. I guess I just didn't read the label close enough. I am NEVER, EVER, developing any more slide film at the Budni. I would rather wait until I get home. That is just way too expensive. The plus side of this fiasco? SLIDE FILM IS AMAAAAZZZING! I pretty much love most of the results I got and I will be scanning them soon so I can put some up for you to see :)

I spent today sleeping past my alarm (deciding not to go to class anyhow because the prof is a dink and won't let me show anything if I'm late anyway. Fuck it), waking up to coffee and words of philosophy with Rubén, going to Karin's to see her place during the daylight and taking her back to my part of town to show her my place! We also had a yummy Chinese food dinner! Oh, what a good day!

So that is just a little update! Tomorrow I will pack, paint, and pen(?) / try to be as productive as possible before leaving.

lovexoxooxlove



(extreme happiness)

where did the time go?

Okay, so I suck at blogging. I will try harder :)

It has been close to a month since I have last posted something. I will try not to bore with everything that has happened since then, only the good stuff. The end of May came as quickly as it started. The weather started to get a lot warmer in Hamburg, which was a nice excuse to go shopping for summer clothes! But no worries, I ended up going to a really neat/cheap store called 'monki' that had a nice sale on: a graphic tank top for only 2,50 euro! And I may just have some goodies for some specials someones back home ;) Although I had to buy summer clothes (since it felt like the North Pole when I got here) I was/have been/still stressed about money. I have honestly not been extremely frivolous, but alas it is not easy to keep an eye on it. Therefore, I had to ask my parents to give me a hand. This will of course come with paying them back while working during school, but it is the price to pay for a once in a lifetime experience(?). No regrets.

The days leading up to my trip to Edinburgh were filled with grill parties in Stadt park, cooking dinners for friends, going out until 6am on a Friday then partying again the next night until 6am for Multi-Kulti. Crazy. Multi-Kulti is an event organized by having different 'nations' set up a flat that consists of decorations, games and food from their countries. I really enjoyed eating the food in Italy, France, and in Spain. I was also really fond of the jello shots in Scandinavia, 2 for 1 euro anyone? Oh, and can't forget the drinking games in Germany. Long night, for sure. Pictures soon.

Just came back from Scotland the other night, laaaate at night. Ryanair, oh ryanair, our flight was delayed for two hours so we did not make it back to Hamburg in time to catch the train home. Night buses and walking: not fun. BUT it was certainly worth it considering the round-trip was only 16 euro! And not to mention the city of Edinburgh is cute, amazing, and beautiful! Did a lot of walking around (keep in mind Edinburgh is quite hill-y), so this made for some sore feet by the end of the day, but it was worth it. I can't wait to develop my film! Went to two degree shows, one in Edinburgh and one in Glasgow. AMAZING!! Honestly, so inspiring. I only hope that my fourth year show can be as amazing as these talented students. Lots of ideas though. I will for sure be bringing them back to UBCO to show other fourth years. We will make this unforgettable.

So here I am now, still stressing about money, a little about school as well. But no matter because KARIN COMES TO HAMBURG IN TWO DAYS, HOLY SHIT!! Sooooo excited! THEN, we will make our way to FUSION!!! This month is going to go by so fast! I only hope a money transfer from home gets here quick so I can eat and pay rent! After Fusion ALEX will be coming back as well! Feels so good to think about seeing some friends from home(?) again, haha.

That is sort of all that is planned for now. I want to go to Stockholm and Copenhagen as soon as classes end, but I haven't booked those trips yet. But I have booked my flights for LONDON to see EMMA when she is home!! So stoked!! And then after all that it will be close to the end of July, oh and my birthday, and then it will be home time. But let's not discuss that yet....

I promise to post some more because there usually is some event or party going on to talk about how crazy me or other people are :)

P.S. Three words: World Cup insanity.

heartslove&morelove

Nicole



Scotish planes.