Vampire Princess in Russia

After I was back it took me some time to get over the jetlag and the fact that it was Christmas vacation, everybody was in town and there was something going on every night also didn't exactly help...but the good thing is: I had a pleasant occupation while I was lying awake every night.

I already mentioned how on the night before my birthday I went to see the Twilight movie. All my friends had exams to study for, so I went by myself. Which felt weird, because everybody had somebody else there and they were all looking at me wondering why I was alone, but whatever. I remembered a conversation I had years ago with my mum and my aunt about going to the movies alone...only grown-up, independent people do that. So there I was, on the night before my 24th birthday, being all grown-up and independent. Watching a Vampire-Teenager-Movie. And it was great. I am happy I didn't read the book before I went, because then I wouldn't be able to appreciate the movie as much as I did. As soon as I left the movie theatre I decided: I want a vampire for myself. Immaculate beauty, immortality and unlimited financial resources: that's what I've been looking for all the time. And if I could convince him to make me a vampire too, even better: immaculate beauty, immortality, unlimited financial resources and no need to sleep. It sounds just too perfect to me. But oh well, my birthday passed, no vampire came. Other interesting things happened on my birthday: I had to show my ID at the LCBO and I had a nice potluck at my place and played Werewolves with my friends. I wanted to buy the Twilight books but looking at everything I had already bought and trying to pack everything I realized it wasn't a good idea. So on the day of my departure, when my huge suitcases were checked in, I bought the first book at the airport. When I couldn't sleep in the plane, I read it. And I kept reading...because I couldn't sleep for a while. On Friday, I was done with the first book (I had bought it wednesday night), so I bought the next one. My brother gave me the third for Christmas and I bought the fourth right after the holidays, because I had finished the third already. I have always been a fast reader, but I also liked the story very much, I had plenty of time because I couldn't sleep at Central European Time and I didn't really have anything else to worry about. Of course, I had to find something to do and reorganize my life etc...but that doesn't really work when the rest of the world is on vacation so I kept my mind busy obsessing about vampires. I was very well aware that that was a bit stupid maybe, but well...it kept me busy for a while. And even though the books are an easy read, I have read much more stupid and trivial things in my life. Every book from the Twilight series borrowed the theme from a classic, the first one is based on Pride and Prejudice, the second on Romeo and Juliet and the third on Wuthering Heights. I don't know about the fourth, but I will figure it out at some point.

Things got less intense when the holidays were over and it was time for me to embark on my next adventure: we had planned it for a long time, I managed to get a visa even against all odds, so on December 30th Niels and I went to St. Petersburg to visit our dear friend Mariya. I hadn't seen Mariya since she visited me in Copenhagen in the summer and I hadn't seen Niels since the end of June when I was last in Utrecht, so those were very pleasant reunions. We had a lot of fun in St. Petersburg, because Mariya had her hilarious friend Oksana with her boyfriend visiting as well. On the 31st of December we went to explore town with Oksana and her boyfriend. Unfortunately we were not very well prepared, we didn't have a map or a guidebook and our Russian friends were neither, even though they pretended to be. So we walked around a bit and ended up going to the Hermitage, which is the Russian version of the Louvre, basically. It is really impressive. We just spent an hour there, because it was about to close and for some reason we didn't go there earlier, but I was very impressed and decided to go again. It would also be a great place to have a party. Mariya had chosen a different place to celebrate the New Year, a very stylish club in downtown St. Petersburg. For the impressive fee of 90 Euros we could drink as much as we want and there were free cigarettes and free fruit (this becomes important at a later point of the visit). It was a great party and we had a lot of fun. I wanted to be a vampire in the end of the night. Check facebook for pictures.

The next morning, after I recovered from a slight headache, I was wondering why everything I had in my handback was sticky and covered in weird dirt. My party companions couldn't help solve that mystery so it stayed a mystery...until the next day. When we were on the subway - OMG the St. Petersburg subway is the most beautiful subway I've ever seen (well aware that most of them are ugly but whatever, it is REALLY nice). The stops are all decorated, some with statues, some with mosaics, other with art-decoish elements...really cool. And very very very deep. So much for the subway. Unfortunately it is forbidden to take pictures in there. - but we were sitting in the subway and somehow Dimmo, our Russian friend got into a discussion/fight with a smelly drunk homeless woman who then pretended to call the police. The way she did that was hilarious: she searched for her cell phone (deepest subway in Europe + cellphone = not working), finally found it, held it upside down to her face and immediately started talking. She could have grabbed anything and would have used it as a phone, I imagined her taking a remote control out of her bag, or a banana. When I thought of the banana, I had to laugh like a crazy person for a while. In that moment I had solved the mystery: out of all the free fruit at the party I had grabbed a banana and put it into my purse. I don't remember what I was thinking...but that explained the little mess I found the next morning. We were not able to recall what happened to the banana itself. The rest of the time in St. Petersburg we spent walking around in the cold, freezing and visiting sights. It is a truly beautiful city. The only reservations I have are about its cuisine (which we didn't really try but the things we heard and saw were sufficient) and the absent friendliness and english language skills of its inhabitants. I would like to go again in summer, when it is less cold.

It's been a while...

It indeed has been a while since I last updated my blog. And, I wouldn't be me if there weren't a million things happening in the meantime. As always, I will start at the beginning by telling you the primary reason for not writing anything while I was still in Canada, although the majority of my friends already know because of my moaning: My computer died!!!

I spent the whole first weekend of december in Toronto, hanging out with the MC and having a great time and when I came back on monday morning, I switched it on and BANG: screen went black and after consulting the helpdesk at the university and a nice gentleman at the store I knew: this was it. I had anticipated something like this would happen at some point, but I was totally not ready for it. I spent two days being miserable and crying, but then I continued working on other people's computers, the university, etc. Anyways, my life kind of turned into "a shallow hole" like Danny called it, since I was in Guelph, everybody was having exams, it was freezing cold outside and I had to save the money I planned spending on trips to buy a new computer at some point. I was longing to go back to Germany, where there were my parents' laptops waiting for me and eventually they were going to buy me a new one...

But I still had some time left in Canada, I had my birthday, I saw Twilight for the first time (I will dedicate another blog entry to this at some point), packed up all my stuff, and spent the last days with the dear friends I had made there. Then the day of my return had come, with my suitcases packed, each weighing exactly 50 pounds, I went to Pearson Airport which was a mess so short before the holidays. Everything went smoothly, I had the Twilight book to help me through the night because unfortunately I wasn't really able to sleep. I had a stopover in Zurich, which was quite funny. I was dressed the way Northamericans dress when they travel, because it is most comfy: trackpants, sweater, scarf and had two huge heavy pieces of hand luggage. There was I, sitting between all the bankers and businesspeople on the Lufthansa morning flight to Dusseldorf. But oh well...it was worth it. I guess that also scared the customs people off to search my luggage for goods I should be declaring. Honestly, I don't think I had anything I should have declared, so I looked rather innocent.

And on the other side of the door my dear family was awaiting me!!! That was soooo nice!!! Of course instead of driving straight home we took a detour of the Ruhrgebiet because my Dad had things to do there and we had to drop off Andreas at his place in Dortmund. So when I was home I was exhausted and had only two hours to rest, because Wiebke and Wouter came at night. We went to the Christmas market, chatted and eventually they went to bed, because they were tired and I was jetlagged. I spent the whole Christmas vacation catching up with friends, partying and reading :) and eventually went to Russia for New Year's. It was really nice to be home and see that, even though I was gone for quite some time, things haven't really changed. Friends are still friends, family is still family and it is great to have them around!!!

I'll hopefully be able to tell you more about my trip to Russia, my Twilight obsession and my new exciting life shortly...