Meet Hetty!

I was getting a little tired of living all by myself and even more of all the dust in my apartment and the fact that I had to clean my floors all the time...and I found the perfect solution for both: Hetty! I ordered her on Amazon, she came to me on Thursday and immediately did a great job by cleaning all the floors. She watched Shrek with me afterwards :)

Apart from Hoovering I am superbusy either at work (I am finally out of training and doing real stuff and not just a little of it) or enjoying Dublin summer (yes there is such a thing) with my colleagues and friends on different terraces and balconies. I have a lot that I want to write about, but expat life is busy with watching the world cup, especially if you support the Dutch and the Germans at the same time like me. I am getting a little nervous about the finals, because right now both teams are on fire and since the DACH and the Benelux teams share the 5th floor it might get interesting there. Hoping for the best, but I am really happy that I left the Netherlands :) But I am going back for a short visit the weekend after the world cup, which I am already very excited about.

My world just became perfect :)

Yesterday I discovered the Buffalo store in Dublin. Yes, it's the same Buffalo that made shoes with very thick soles in the 90s that you'd rather not be seen with - but they only make pretty shoes these days. The store is conveniently located in Exchequer Street. Of course I had to visit it immediately and what I found there made me whole - pink ballerina flats covered in pink-silver paliettes that can be turned to create ever new sparkling effects. Now is that in itself already totally awesome, but I was even happier because I already own the matching purse, Coniurata gave it to me for Christmas. I had been contemplating buying the matching High Heels for a while, but they are Peeptoes and maybe just a little "too much". That is why discovering the ballerina flats made me a very happy girl. They also had them in blue-silver.

Coniurata is visiting me these days and we hit the shops yesterday (thanks to them being open every day). It was the worst weather ever, but who needs good weather for shopping anyways and the city was much less crowded because of that. We got many pretty things and I also went to Schuh to get a pair of Irregular Choice shoes. I had decided on a black suede High Heel with a flower sitting on it, but unfortunately it wasn't available in my size. It was, but only in another store in Dublin or in Galway, but even more unfortunately they couldn't get it for me from those stores. The shop assistant proposed several times that I looked for another black shoe that I liked...SERIOUSLY? I was a tiny little bit disappointed. There will probably be other nice exemplars crossing my path soon, so I shouldn't be too upset. We paused our shopping for a little bit of Brunch & Jazz at Hugo's, which was very pleasant.
Today it's time for some Dublin sightseeing...let's see how long we can stay away from the stores :)

Apartment decoration: Mission accomplished!

After my visit to IKEA on Sunday I now have everything in place in my apartment (well except for my kitchen towels, I still have to find some hooks to stick to the wall) and I am loving it even more now. IKEA in Dublin is somewhere north outside of the city and I took the bus there, which allowed me to get to know another (a little less prettier side) of Dublin, but from the safety of the top floor of a double-decker bus. I bought a lot of useful things like hooks and a pan but also many many decorations, most of which I used for my bathroom which was still quite bare. I have posted two pictures of it...I decided to make it feel like a beach. Obviously I'm not completely there yet, but I will go to the beach here very soon and see if I can find some shells. Also, if you are near a beach and they happen to sell postcards with pictures of that beach I would love to get one so I can put them up on my wall :)

Unfortunately I got a cold again (the second since I arrived), stupid Dublin weather. It always looks nice and sunny when in reality it is not that warm because of the wind and also it changes within 15 minutes to bad mean rain. The air conditioning at the office then just does its part...luckily there is some nice medication that contains paracetamol and caffeine that already got me through the day and a very fun training. I will go home very soon and lie in bed until it goes away, because I have more fun training tomorrow and then the day after Coniurata is coming already to visit this weekend and I need to be in very good health then. I have a lot of sightseeing to do with her since I haven't really done a lot of it until now and I've also planned many other cool things.

The Washerdryer

I recently came across one of these...right here in my apartment. By accident, I discovered that my washing machine has a built-in dryer. This accident was me trying to do laundry but also pressing the „dryer“-button and therefore ending up with very hot, but still dirty laundry that had detergent smeared all over it. It was still a happy moment, as I have been a huge fan of my dryer in the Netherlands that made my towels warm and smooth. On friday, I tried the magic. After the washing part of the laundry was done, I switched to drying. When I came home later my laundry was hot, but unfortunately also steaming and still WET. There is probably a reason why in continental Europe we have two different devices fort his. Good thing I also have a rag to air-dry my laundry. Maybe I can put it into the dryer-washer afterwards to make it all warm and smooth.

Truly Princessy Pictures

 This might almost be a little outdated, but I wanted to share it nevertheless. On the day that I left the Netherlands my dear friend Jennifer, who is a passionate and by now also professional photographer took pictures of me in Utrecht so that I would always remember the city. They are also a very pleasant Souvenir of all the fun times we had together (which are a lot, because we know each other since High School). There are more pictures on her blog. And just in case you are getting married, are pregnant or want some nice pictures of yourself for no apparent reason, give her a buzz! She is truly awesome :)

http://www.jenniferhejna.de/wordpress/?p=1271

Irregular Choice Shoes

This weekend the weather was very very nice in Dublin. Some mean people already said that this was the summer already, but I refuse to believe this and treat this as a preview for many nice weekends to come. I have not been able to fully enjoy this one because I had to study. On Wednesday I have the first of the Google Certified Professional exams and I want to be well-prepared. Still, after studying on Saturday and a little bit on Sunday morning I decided it was time for a treat and I walked to town along the Liffey and hit the shops in Grafton and O'Connell street. I have seen many nice things, but the thing that amazed me most and that I really wanted to share is a brand of shoes I found in "Schuh" on O'Connell street. They are called "Irregular Choice" and I fell in love immediately...really funky cool High Heels and also some pretty flats. I can't wait for Coniurata to visit and go get myself something pretty :D 

Welcome to the Adventures of a Cosmopolitan Princess

Those of you who visit this site more often might have noticed that things have changed in the last two weeks. Since there were some other things in my life that changed in the last months I decided it was time to make changes here as well. From „The world of Christina“ I changed the title of my blog to „Adventures of a Cosmopolitan Princess“, which describes more accurately what this all is about.
I chose the title because it captures best what I want to write about: the things that make my life princessy and me therefore a princess and also the things that make me cosmopolitan, like the awesome places that I visit and the interesting places where I live. After two years of mostly travelling adventures and one or the other update on my life, I will also write about more concrete and more princessy (and maybe sometimes a bit trivial) things in my life. Like very special pretty things I discover and feel the need to share, nice locations I find or an exceptionally good (or bad) book that I read. Since travelling and discovering the world is still one of my favourite things to do, I will of course continue to write about that, too.

Whereas the meaning of „cosmopolitan“ is probably clear to most of my readers and how it could apply to me, there might be a need to elaborate on „princessy“, especially for those who don’t know me in person ☺. To most of my friends it is no secret that I am a little princess on the inside, manifesting itself for example through the purchasing of countless pink items. I have only recently made complete peace with the existence of that princess. For myself, I was always a little afraid to be shallow, as if pink and pretty things were the only things I cared about. Luckily I have proven to myself once and for all that this is not the case by writing a scientifically relevant thesis and getting an awesome job. Also, this new situation brings along possibilites that I didn’t have before – evenings and weekends free of thesis-writing, studying, working or AIESECing, an income to spend on princessy things and space for myself, in my apartment. I will put these new resources to good use.

Until then, take a look at the pictures of my apartment if you haven’t already done so!

My apartment

First days at Google...

The other day I dreamt that I had graduated and got a job with a small communications agency somewhere in the Netherlands who hired me just based on my CV without even interviewing me. I had also decided to move to Enschede, because that was in the middle between my work and my parents and kind of nice and cosy. Already during my dream it dawned on me that these were not really wise choices and I started regretting. I was stuck and very miserable. And then I woke up and realized I was living in Dublin and working for Google :)

I haven't really started working yet because I will be in training until the beginning of June, but I have already learned a lot about my future job...I will be optimizing Adwords campaigns for the German retail market. So I will be looking at numbers and statistics and little Adwords advertisements, reviewing them and creating new and better ones. That is something that can make me very very happy, since it involves numbers and words in the most awesome media context there is right now. I also made some changes to my blog...since I will have a small Adwords-Account for myself I will use it to practice with it, but I decided it needed a relaunch before I can do so. I'll work on that in the next few days, but I am distracted by other things to do at Google, numerous social activities and moving into my apartment. Actually, I will only do that tomorrow, because my shipment from Germany still hasn't arrived. It will come tomorrow at 9.30 (best timing ever), but at least that gives me all weekend to unpack and get settled. Until then, I am staying at the hotel. Which is of course nice and cosy, but most of the other Nooglers have left so it is getting a bit boring and it would be really nice to have more than one room, a kitchen and all my stuff again. Luckily that will all be the case when I wake up on Sunday morning...if it isn't just all a nice dream :D

Sooooo...Dublin!

After a little bit of Icelandic Rock Fog trouble I made it to Dublin last Wednesday. I was supposed to leave Monday morning, which of course did not happen. So I booked another flight for Wednesday morning and things were looking really good until I got a text on Tuesday at 10.30 pm with another flight cancellation and by that time, all other flights on AerLingus were fully booked until the weekend. I got a little upset and started looking into train, ferry and Eurostar arrangements when I randomly checked AerLingus' website again wednesday afternoon and actually got on the Wednesday night flight from Düsseldorf to Dublin. I checked in immediately, booked a train, packed my bag and left. And without further inconveniences I arrived in Dublin a few hours later. Somewhere in between booking the flight and leaving I also managed to make appointments to view apartments on Thursday and on Thursday morning I arranged a few more viewings. The second apartment I viewed was actually perfect (or so I thought): 15 mins walk from the Google office, big living room, huge balcony, decent furniture...so I agreed to take it. Really enthusiastic I went to have my first Guinness with some fellow Nooglers (which is an abbreviation for new Googlers...not nerdy at all :P). Unfortunately on Friday I received a call that the landlord decided to give the apartment to somebody else. I was a little upset, but a "welcome to Dublin"-seminar, held by Google and their Relocation Specialists distracted me. And I even got more distracted later at night when we checked out some bars. We discovered this awesome guitar player at the Porter House, which also brews their own beer. I had a chocolate beer, which was actually quite tasty. I've also had more Guinness and I am already over it. Heineken it is - for now. On Saturday morning I got up at 9 (even though I only slept for 4 hours) to view some more apartments and since the housing market is kind of busy around the end of the month I wanted to be early. I viewed three more places and found a really nice place which is only 2 minutes walk from the Google office, 15 minutes walk to the beach and 15 minutes walk to the city center. It is also cheaper than the first place, but that is only because the landlord gave me a 100 Euro rent discount, since I am female, German and work for Google. Right... We went out for dinner on Saturday but I headed home immediately after since I had some sleep to catch up on. On Sunday we went for a very nice Brunch at...I forgot exactly where...but there was Jazz music as well. Today I checked out the stores downtown and found some nice places to spend my first salary :) Work will start tomorrow and I am very very very very very very very excited. I hope I can find some sleep tonight, since I forgot my sleep and nerve-calming tea in Münster. I'll also go sign the lease for my apartment tomorrow, so that I can move in on Saturday once all my stuff (that I am having shipped from Germany) can be delivered to my new place. Until then, I am staying at a great Bed&Breakfast (Waterloo House just in case you need a place to sleep in Dublin) with a bunch of fellow Nooglers, which is great fun. Google did an awesome job at selecting me some company :P. The atmosphere is very international and everybody has an exciting story. Until tonight it all felt like a big vacation (even though it starts to be a little like home already too), but that is going to change tomorrow when I work starts...

Googletastic :)

Last august, after my internship and before I really got started on my thesis I enjoyed "unemployed" life for some days, drank beer at daylight and watched trash-tv. I didn't like that lifestyle, so the last half year, while I wrote my thesis I was nervous about finding a job, since at the moment the world economy is not waiting for me to graduate. Except for some experimental applications I had put my job-search off until after graduation, because writing applications and preparing for interviews is exhausting and an awesome reason (as if I ever needed one) to procrastinate the thesis.

Still, when I e-mailed with my friend Natalie, who I know from AIESEC and who now works as a recruiter at Google, I sent her my CV and grade lists anyways. And two phone interviews later, on february 10, I found myself on a plane to Dublin for even more interviews. The next day I had my interviews at Google's EMEA headquarters there. I was really nervous before, but my interviewers were kind and fun and even though they made me think hard from time to time, it felt more like nice conversations than actual interviews. After enjoying a great lunch at the Google canteen I went back to Utrecht. During the next day my confidence positive feeling about the interviews faded and I came up with more and more things I should have said and done differently until I finally got an email from my recruiter saying she had only heard great things so far. It would still take two to three more weeks for different committees and the management teams to look at my papers and only then a decision about hiring me would be made. So I started waiting again. Luckily I went on vacation in the meantime, otherwise I would probably have gone crazy. I returned from my vacation on Sunday and still had to wait until the end of the week and those were crazy days. Things got even crazier when my phone rang Thursday night and I actually got the job!!! Starting on April 26, I will be Online Media Associate at Google in Dublin. I will be working in the Adwords Account Management team for the German market. So I graduated a week later having an awesome job at an even more awesome company waiting for me :) Well-organized as I am I found a new girl for my room within 24 hours so that I could leave at the end of March. I packed my stuff, sold my bed and had my dad bring my stuff to Germany. There I repacked it and now it is waiting for the movers to come pick it up and ship it to my (still unknown) address in Dublin.

I am leaving next monday and I am very very very excited! But even though I went to Berlin for Easter and had a lot of things to do last week, not having something to do and not being on some kind of mission bores me a little. Also, apartments in Dublin are always "available immediately" so looking at apartments too much ahead of time doesn't make sense. So I look at apartments online and hope they're still available next week, because I can't wait to have a place for myself! Until then I play with my Wii (I finally got one), make cakes, hang out with family and friends and wait for time to pass. And I am very pleased that this state only lasts for one more week :)

Christina Brauer, M.Sc.

One day I am complaining that nothing is happening and there is nothing to write about, and all of a sudden it is three months later, a lot of things happened I didn't find the time to write, or whenever I had some time something even more exciting was about to happen and I wanted to wait for it to include it in my blog.

On March 12 I (finally) graduated! I got an 8, which is a very pleasant result and in the end, I was very proud of my work. My results were partly what I expected and provided valuable insights in how consumers process metaphors in product packaging and how that influences their product and brand perceptions. My professors are even talking about publishing an article about it.
For now I am just very happy that I am done. Especially the last week before my presentation was a little stressful, I stressed about my presentation and also procrastinated the last minor adjustments on my thesis (which was almost ready a month before) until the last days.

At least I chose the location for my procrastination wisely, Coniurata and I went on vacation to Egypt during the last week of April. We did not really want to hang out in an all-inclusive resort for a week and we always wanted to learn scubadiving, so that is what we did. We booked our diving course online beforehand, at the Diving Center James & Mac. And it was perfect! Since the diving school is run by Germans everything was organized very well, even the (egyptian) drivers that picked us up from our hotel every day were always 5 minutes early. After my other travel experiences in the middle east, this was really pleasant. Unfortunately most days the drivers picked us up at 7.40 am and we did not get to sleep in during our holiday, but the diving was worth it. We saw many awesome fish (some of you were lucky enough to have me show them to you in my fishbook) and diving overall is just a very nice thing to do. Coniurata and I did not like the fact that we could not communicate under water, so we expanded the diver's sign language with more signs to point out cool fish. Our hotel was also very nice, it had different really cool beaches and our room was nice and clean as well. It was in the north of Hurghada with not so many other hotels around, so by leaving the street the hotel was on we were already in an authentic egyptian street (or what they call street). We liked it, because in the South, where also our diving school was located, there was a promenade with some bazars and everything was shiny and nice...it basically could have been anywhere where beaches and tourists are. Au contraire, when we stepped out of our hotel, Egypt hit us :D It was the perfect vacation, diving and the beach were perfect, we even managed to catch a little tan (two weeks would have been much better for that), we quickly found ourselves a gang of locals and expats to hang out with at night and had a great time. Unfortunately we were even more sleep-deprived after the vacation than before, but oh well...and there was one thing not so perfect: our luggage got lost and did not arrive with us in Germany. It was delivered to my house two days later. As "westernized" as all the hotels and touristy things in Hurghada are (there is probably Germans all over the place who keep things running), the airport is the weak link in that chain. Which is only authentic, so whatever. I spent the first two days back in Germany looking like a homeless person and wearing my brother's clothes, but oh well...

At this point I should start telling you that I will not be looking like a homeless person in the future and that I will also (contrary to my biggest fears) will not be unemployed. But since that is a long story and I am in Berlin right now and have awesome Hauptstadtstuff to do I will write about that another time. Soon.

On Graduating

If only more exciting things happened to me, I would have more to blog about. But no. There are not. The last half year has passed so quickly and I have no idea where all the time went. At the same time, it doesn’t feel like I have done a lot of things. I didn’t go anywhere exciting except for a short trip to Berlin in November. So apparently I spent the rest of the time working and writing my master’s thesis. Which makes sense, because the thesis is now a document of considerable size. And in the last few months, all my thoughts evolved around it, so even if I thought I did nothing, in the back of my mind I was probably still working on it. I had this interesting idea that I could just sit down and write a thesis and graduate. I thought just because it takes other people long, it wouldn’t mean the same for me. In the meantime I found out that this was probably a little naive of me. I got very frustrated from time to time, by my own (what I perceived to be) inactivity, by not working in a team of highly motivated individuals like I used to and also by having nothing concrete to look forward to. Because, let’s face it: the world economy is still not waiting for me to graduate and finding a job will be much harder that it was two years ago. During the summer the faculty department where I am writing my thesis decided that students have to conduct two studies instead of one...so that did not help either.

Luckily, I have the most amazing friends who never get tired (or at least not show it) of discussing my topics and issues with me, who help me collect questionnaires and who assist me with their design knowledge and skills. I am very thankful for that. I am also lucky that I still like my topic and I am conducting a research that is not only interesting, but also fun. I managed to combine my passions for language, marketing and beautiful things and I obtained very nice results in my first study, the second is to come next week. By now I have realized that one of the most important things it takes is perseverance, so here I am at the library, day after day. And since at Christmas I told everyone I would hand in my thesis at the end of january, this is probably a wise thing to do. And a good reason to get back to work.