Last update till 2004!!!

Hmmm....yesterday after I went home, I found Martin there. He had dropped in to give us the directions to his place since he forgot to do that on Thursday. Annika came a while later, so we left Saima and Martin alone (if looks could have killed at that time Saima's look would have murdred Annika and me!!LOL!!) and cooked dinner. Annika improved the left-over spagghetti from the party and we made some soup...voila - nice dinner for movie. We saw this really eerie movie - Picnic at the Hanging Rock - I've seen the movie before. It's based on a true story of the msterious disappearance of 2 young girls and their teacher when they went on a picnic to this hanging rock. The mystery remains unsolved - the whole movie has this wierd lazy, slow, and brooding feel to it, made intense with the music, use of colors and cinematography - its definitely an interesting movie to watch!!! After that movie they started another movie but I was too tired having been on my feet all day long and not even gotten a few hours of rest the prev night, so I went off to sleep.

Today we are meeting Dr.Ebeling in the anoon for icecream and coffee and early night. Tomm its an early night too, in preparation for my journey to Bordeaux, which I hope and pray shall be smooth!!!!

I promised to blog about Sweden - its much overdue and feels funny doing that now but it must be done (sounds like a punishment na?) - so here goes:

My first sight of snow in Sweden thrilled me to bits, even though I was already so tired. It was on the train to Stockholm - infact there were several people on the train who were going for skiing trips. It was so cool to see white landscape outside throught-out the journey. When I reached Stokcholm, Dini had told me that it had started snowing in Vasteras that day at 10 am and on their drive to Stockholm it was snwoing so heavily that they were scared my train would stop in middle...I'm really glad that didn't happen!! LOL!!

It was incredible - walking on snow for the first time, and Pauline even took a photograph of me with my first snow-ball - kiddish eh? I can't say how exciting it was to FINALLY see snow!!! I was expecting snow here in Magedburg as well coz on my retun journey I'd seen snow upto Uelzen but there's been no snow here so far, so I'm really glad that I managed to see snow somewhere!!! LOL!!!

During my short little stay in Sweden Dini, Bengt-olof and Pauline told me so much about their traditions and culture - thier folk-lore that is full of stories of gnoes, elves and fairies, about St. Lucia (who was blinded and late beheaded), and the speical food and drink for the festival. One drink I had there is found in stores only during Christmas and Easter time, and its sales are so much that they make Coca-Cola suffer losses during that period. It's a traditional drink, the recipe of which has been handed down one family through the years and is today avaliable in bottles!! Pretty darn cool eh? It tastes real nice too!! They also have a version of gluh-wine which comes in a non-alcoholic form as well, called Glugg. The meals I've already mentioned - with lots of pickled herring, meat-balls, ham, smoked salmon served with mustard sauce, 'Satan's temptation' ( it's amde with potatoes and anchovies), grilled ox-meat(for new year's eve) etc etc....the traditional dessert for Christmas is Milchries, which is quite like our kheer, only thicker. In it they put one almond and acc to legend, the person who gets it, is the next to get married - I wondered what it means if a married person gets it!! LOL!!!

Gosh I'm really lad I went there, even though I dragged my feet about it and was filled with so much apprehension before the trip and had such a tough time getting there - it was definitely worth it!!!

Shall stop now....but since I shall not blog now for a very long while - Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2004!!! Party hard, but be safe!! LOL!!!

Yakkity Yak

Hmmm...I'm here after a break of 2 days...on wednesday I'd blogged about our night partying - first the pub, then the impromptu party at our place. That was so incredibly cool ...I'm still like...'oh hog that night was so much fun' and today is friday!!!Hehehehe!!! Anyways on Wednesday we also got our letter from the Dept of Eng here stating our attendance and our participation in class - its not too fancy but I quite like it. It definitely states that we've done our bit here...after the last class of Janespotting (we didn't take a photo of this class coz we felt like stangers in this class) we saw 'Mansfield Park' - its an extremely thought-provoking movie and I'm very eager to go back home and read first the book, then Edward Said's article on it!!! I think it's the most 'intelligent' of JA novels!!!

I was sitting and thinking about what all I wanted to still blog about my Swden trip and I'm thinking I must do it tomm after making some notes about it, so I don't miss anything...gosh I can be such an organisation freak na? LOL!!! Anyways since I'm putting that off till tomm, which incidentally shall be my last blog till 2004 - coz I'm leaving for France on monday and when I return the comp room shall be shut for Christmas break and will re-open only on the 2nd!!! So well....before I digress too much and forget what else I still have to babber about....

We had our last presentation yesterday for Lange's class - had to compare what we learnt about city cultures in Britain with the case of Mumabi (but obviously!!)...it went damn well. Lange was impressed that we took the trouble to make a hand-out and get some statistcs and stuff from the internet and well the class responded damn well. After class we went and gave him the gift we had brought for him...he was very pleased. Infact all 4 profs that we gave gifts to as a little 'thank you' were pleased with the gifts...infact today when we gave it to Dr.Ebeling she insisted on taking us out tomm either for a concert if she gets tickets or for coffee at the least!!! Anyways so yest, we had a party for Jigi's friends..had also invited our own friends Annika, Hardo and at the last moment Martin...but the party was so frustrating. Jigi was trying her best to treat us like her poor country cousins who have no brains, and no knowledge of anything, by talking in German. Things have been boiling for several days but last night was the limit...I was anyways close to a foul mood and her behav put me off completely...so much that I walked out for 45 mins in bet and took a long walk to clear my head out, and prevent a violent outburst which is not desirable. So incredibly glad I'm going away for 8 days coz I think otherwise she'd have a volcano eruting one of these days and wouldn't know what to do!!! Hmmm....Saima has to cope..God BLess Her coz she's more put-off than me and aint very good at concealing her emotions and playing the diplomat!!!

Anyways yest party was pas-mal, Annika stayed till 6 am..I didn't sleep at all...just went straight for class today...this way I function as normal..shall sleep early tonight and sleep till late tomm morng and get back to normal...kinda like coping with jet-lag. I've done this before....so I know what I'm doing....anyways today we spent the entire day with Annika. It was cool...we ate at the Mensa, met Poonam while walking back so had tea with her (surprisingly she'be behaved well since she got the hint!!!) and then went to the video library...Annika took Wiemann's permission to take out videos and the VCR for the holidays...so these guys will see movies to entertain themselves...I want to see some of them -the novel based ones - so I've asked them to keep those for after I return...

Hmm....think I shall stop now...shall blog tomm...final blog of the year 2004!!!!

Busy Bee Me...

Whoa....me is really busy these days..hahaha!!! Yesterday after I left here I headed home, grabbed a sandwich and headed out again. Its our last week of class here, so we took a photgraph each in Wiemann's and Breunig's class - I'm gonna meet them today to big them adieu!! LOL!! Anyways class was cool as usual and it was so great that we got a photgraph of the class - now I do not have to rely merely on my memory...Anyways after class the group going to Mumbai for the excursion was meeting up for a discussion and then going to a pub. Wiemann invited us to join the group...so we went for the discussion and gave our 'vishesh tipni' on the project hypotheses and later we went to the pub with those who didn't head home. Jigi dint come..and boy did she miss the fun. We were at the pub till midnight..it was so cool...I can't imagine sitting that informally with ANY of my professors from back home...sat there and talked to quite a few people, exchanged stories about our travels in Europe/India, joked with the professors, has a tiny discussion with Wiemann about possibilites of doing Ph.D in Germany..etc etc...I finally had a glass of dark German beer and quite liked it, but I think I enjoyed my Irish coffee much more...and I am still a wine person!! LOL!! At around 11.30 some of us realised we've not eaten and are hungry...so well we all headed to our flat..and at midnight we walked in - Annika, Susanne, Hana, Dietmar Fricke(that's the prof of the Politics group!!!), and this other babe whose name I can't spell!! And then we cooked something and generally had an impromptu party....that was like soooooooooo cool. Jigi was upset coz we partied without her and then we had our friends over, but hell, we can't not to do stuff coz she doesn't wanna!! Last night was awesome!!!

Now this morning we got up early and discussed how to make the hand out for our last presentation and I've been here for nearly 2 hours working on that....just gonna blog now and leave. Gotta meet Breunig and Wiemann and then we have our last JA class. And ofcourse today is the last JA movie - Mansfield Park. Tomm night we are having that party...so I'm looking forward to that now...shall blog more tomm...still got loads to update on...but bloody tired of this comp room for now...until tomm...don't do anything I wouldn't!!!

My Grand Adventure in Sweden!!!

Whoa...I have ALOT to report!!! Lets begin with the party on Thursday night...that was cool. The buffet was truly amazing and we met quite a few of our classmates there...they also had great music playing and an extremely crowded dance-floor. So crowded that I decided not to step in!! Hehehe!!! But it was cool to just hang out with our classmates...even though we were the first to leave since we had to travel the next day.

Now my grand trip...it was an adventure!!! LOL!! I left Magdeburg at 2 pm...I was to change my first train at Wittengerge at 3.30..only my train was 30 mins late!! So obviously I missed the connection...I had to wait at Wittenberge station for an hour and a half...and the station is the worst I've seen in Europe..cold, unheated, no rest-rooms, no coffee vending machines, or cafes-nothing!! Anyways I caught the next train to Hamburg, after going 'sprechen zie english' and getting a translator who helped me change my reservations!!! At Hamburg I was forced to spend the night, coz the next train was in the morning...so I did the 'sprechen zie english' again..and found out that Hamburg being a big city has enogh ppl speaking english...and anyways went to a tourist info centre and then to a hotel and checked myself in for the night.

After settling in I roamed around a while...saw the Christmas market in Hamburg and just strolled through the streets...returned to my room for dinner and slept early. The next day I got a wake-up call at 6 am...my train was at 7.20...so I got ready and left...I figured now things shall go smoothly...little did I know what was awaiting me!!!

The train from Hamburg to Kopenhagen was a eurocity express....it goes upto Puttgarten on the German border and then onto a ferry which take the train across to Denmark -Rodby. That was soooooooo cool..the whole train on the ferry...and then you can go upto the deck and sit there while you cross the sea..its awesome. I went right up and even stood out for a while but I had to come in coz it was raining...

Anyways the train got later after that....so I reached Kopenhagen 30 mins late...I had 5 mins to spare so I ran to the platform for my train to Stockholm...only to find out I'm on the wrong platform...ran to the right platform...but there was no train...I thought I'd missed the train, but there were still 2 mins to departure time, so I caught a guard and asked him. He checked up and told me that the train was cencelled, but I could catch a train to Malmo Central from the next platform in 1 min....huff puff...just managed to get on the train...

At Malmo I got a reservation for the next train to Stockholm..so now I was going to reach Stockholm at 7.40 pm instead of 6.20 pm...over 12 hours late!! I was so misreable and depressed and tired and homesick...I was sitting there trying hard not to cry and getting all worked up in the process when a tissue appeared under my nose...the man sitting next to me asked what's wrong..and well, I just spilt out my dukh bhari kahani to him...he was very nice. He sat with me till his daughter arrived and offered to stay till my train came..but there were only 15 mins left so I told them not to wait...very nice people. But was I misreable at Malmo - I just wanted to go home...home, as in Bombay...made several plans to fly home from Stockholm...hahaha!!! But also decided to drop the trip to Amsterdam coz that will be too tiring - which was good, coz I later found out that the trip to Paris was very badly organised and Saima and Jigi were having second thoughts about the next trip anyways...

Anyways finally boarded the last train to Stockholm, which was on time!!! LOL!! It was snowing all the way to Stockholm....so yeah, I saw my first snow and once in Stockholm even felt it!!!! Yipppeeee!!! I reached Stockholm and met the Rabergs on the station....

They drove me straight to their home in Vasteras, a 2 hour drive from Stockholm...they are really very nice people...they made my trauncated stay in Sweden very very special. When I reached their home, they made me relax while dinner was prepared. I saw a video of the St. Lucia's celebration that morning with Pauline. Dinner was marvellous...Dini had prepared a traditional Christmas meal for me and they had palced 4 snow-men around my plate to cheer me up!! We chatted over dinner and it was 1.30 am before I slept. I styed with Pauline in her flat coz Dini and Bengt-Olof are re-decorating their house. Anyways Pauline's house is very charming and cozy...the best part of the house is her collection of 50 dolls from 40 countries. Bengt-Olof travelled alot, so he got back a doll from every country he visited for his daughter...and today she has an amazing collection!!!!

The next day they showed me around Upsaala, where Pauline is studying Commercial Law. The Upsaala university is the oldest university in Northern Europe and very prestiguous...the whole town is a university town...very charming and nice. My grandfather has also studied in Upsaala for 6 months, so as Dini said , this was the third generation of the family visiting Upsaala!!! That felt cool...even tho I have never met my grandfather, I felt like hey...now there's a link...sounds odd, eh?

Anyways from Upsaala we drove down to this Christmas market...that was cool. I tasted some Reindeer meat there and well...I've got some dried reindeer meat back to take home. They told me how to serve it in traditional Swedish style...cool eh? They had interesting stuff at the market...lots of gnomes, elves etc dressed for Christmas...I was told that Sweden has a lot of folk-lore revolving around gnomes and such creatures...so Christmas market is full of them...there were also ginger-bread houses made by school children..beautiful ones that reminded me of the story of 'Hansel and Gretel'....

From there we drove around Vasteras..they showed me a viking grave etc...and then back to their house. We had traditional Advent's tea and for dinner, Dini once again cooked a traditional Swedish meal - this time one that is served for New Year's Eve!!! As I said, they made my trip very special...I feel that I've returned with new friends - no longer just Papa's friends, now MY friends!!

We went to bed early but I was so nervous about my journey back that I hardy slept...got up at 3.30 to get ready and left for the station at 4am. We had to leave early coz of the snow...that makes driving tricky..and well...I didn't talk about all the snow...that shall follow in my next blog...coz that deserves a seperate blog by itself!!!!

I left them loaded with gifts and even food for the journey!!! Surprisingly, as hectic was my journey upto Sweden, the journey back to Magebdurg was just as smooth....trains were on time and I changed trains very smoothly...returned home and Annika dropped in to find out about our trips...so we talked and it was midnight before I slept....

So that was the story of my first grand adventure....very eventful and great fun, despite the tension in between....I shall blog more tomm, but for now I must stop...more details shall follow on my blog...about the snow, Swedish customs, etc etc...

Shopping...

Hmmm....I went shopping again today. Got assorted little gifts and a jacket for bhaiyya. Unfortunately Saima was tired and hungry by then so we had to return home...I could have done a bit of window shopping after that as well, or even finished of my shopping today itself. Now I shall have to go one more day before I'm done with my money-spendig spree!! LOL!!! On our way home, Saima expressed concern over packing. So when we came home she started sorting out her stuff...she has just been dumping her shopping...so she had no idea how much she has shopped. Anyways I figured I'd also see how much place I have so I don't have to worry about how to pack when I get back from France. Saima will have enough time during Xmas week to do all this, but I won't. Put away the stuff I bought and the few clothes I know I won't wear any more. Think I can manage but not absolutely sure...if I need to, I guess I shall borrow a bag from Hardo or worst comes to worst buy a small duffel bag, tho I hope I don't have to do that. *Amen!*

Gonna go to the Xmas party tonight at the campus...thought we better attend atleast one party on campus, plus the buffet in this party has recd rave reviews for the past three years. But I shall leave early coz I wanna sleep early and be well-rested for my weekend travelling...can't afford to be tired. The butteflies have gone away for now, but I still hope that the journey is smooth...both ways...no missed trains or other hassles please!!! *Touchwood*

That's it from me till Tuesday...have a good weekend and prepare yourselves for a long blog/email from me on Monday!!! Hehehe!!!

Yosie!!

''So here I am, this is me, there's no where in the world I'd rather be...''

OK the last bit ain't true. There is another place I'd rather be...or shall be in a month, less than actually...whoa Geets your record is so getting stuck...skip to the next track b4 the blog loyals turn traitor!!! LOL!!

Hmmm....secnd last week of lectures. So, today we spoke to Wiemann about getting some kinda certification of our attendance and the presentations we've made - so that we have some kinda proof of this brief stint here, incase we decide to do our Ph.D - this would look fab on our CVs!!!

Had an interesting lecture. We've started 'Mansfield Park' in the Janepsotting class and this novel, as some of you might know and should know, is a very diff JA novel that can be read a from a feminist POV as well as a Postcol POV. Obviously this is the reason I was persuaded to attend the lecture initially even tho I was not fond of Ja then and I was getting just 3 of these lecs. Anyways I'm dying to get back home and read the book...unluckily its not available in the library here and this is one time when I'm restraining myself from buying a book - 2 reasons. 1. EXPENSIVE. 2. WIEGHT!!! LOL!! Sounds funny thinking of the other shopping I'm doing...muhahaha!!

After class we came here. Gonna sit today and plan out what we shall talk about in our last presentation next thursday. Not gonna have time next week to do anything except prepare the hand-outs. SO shall do this well in time and in an organised fashion. Also managed to find an amazing study of Mumbai as a City online, which I shall give Wiemann to copy for those who are going for the excursion. It will be a big help to them for their projects. Angelic am I not? Muhahahaha!!!

What else? Oh yeah....

THE CASE OF THE MISSING KNIFE!!

Our knife broke some time last month so we bought a new one. Now day before yest we cut the pizza with that knife. That was the last we saw of it. The next morning when we wanted to cut the apples we looked all over the house and even searnchd our trash, but its disappeared into thin air!! Totally bizarre!! -Infact yest when we came home we found the cake sliced and arranged on a plate and got totally spooked out. Later when Jigi had returned from Raghu's place, she told us she had cut it before we had to rush out. Were we relieved to hear that!! LOL!!! The mystery of the knife however remains unsolved....

Incidentally this is the last time I shall blog about this, but those two are REALLY amazing. Jigi was forced to stay at Raghu's place till we rescued her with a SMS, and they were making plans to gate-crash on us today again. She had to be blunt and say that we are busy. Man oh man...am I amazed!!! And that shall be the last....bitching about them leaves a sad, bad taste in my mouth....don't even feel wicked. Just pathetic....grumpf. I've lost my devil's horns...LOL!! JK!!! Just dont wanna dwell on this any longer...not healthy...

That's it for today....gonna go home and be nerdy tonight. YEEEHAW!!! :)

GROWL!!!

I do not believe this. We called up Raghu to tell him that we want to return his VCR tomm, but b4 we could broach the subject he demanded it back...juvenile behaviour if I ever saw one!!! Anyways Poonam also arrived uninvited and forced us out ofthe house. We are in the library on the pretext of studying at 8 pm for chrissake...HELP!!!!!! WAT A DAY!!!!!!

More tomm...until then...Lord save me from such namunnas!!!

La di da...

Hmmm....yesterday after I left from here I found out that Poonam and Raghu are both trying to invite themselves over. Managed to give Raghu an excuse but couldn't avoid Poonam. Most aggravating...to keep things short and simple, we gave an inch they want a yard. Seriously it amazes me how people try to get so close to you and act like they have full right over your free time and property even though you hardly know them. I mean sure it's nice to have people over and do stuff with others, but how aout giving us some time for ourselves? We have less than a month left and I'm gonna be gone most of the time, so we really wanna do stuff by ourselves now. I mean Raghu even wants to come shopping with us for chrissake!! Most pile-on behav...and irritating the hell outta me. Was saying we must return the VCR to him. I definitely don't want his VCR if it means that he must come come to our house daily and gen sit on our heads in our free time. And make us create free time when we have other plans. GRUMPF!!!!

Anyways yest we did see 2 movies -both total TP so I shall not talk about them!!! Today we have 2 lectures and then we are planning to study while Poonam bores Jigi wo couldn't get out of another session with her. Saima and I said we shall study(or atleast pretend to) so she gets the hint....god, they could learn a thing or two from Annika, who knows how to ivite herself over and well gives us some spcae as well. Plus she never forces herself on to us, the invitation just comes from us coz she asks if we are free and if we are not re-schedules. And she doesn't pile on, but shares the burdan...ugh!!!! Most irritated today with this state of affairs...why must people be like this and ruin things? Grumpf!!!

Also manged to burn my finger yest when I was taking the pizza out of the oven...wah!!! It's not that bad coz I immediately put my finger in running cold water and kept it there for like 5 mins till my finger started going numb with the cold and then applied Burnol. But well it still urts when you touch it..and I DID burn myself...wahhhhh!!!!

Getting more and more excited about my trip to Sweden as the days go by, but also praying the journey is smooth....pray for me people!!

*Crossing my Fingers Tight!!*

Luneberg, St.Nikolaus, Movies and More....

I must say at the outfront, that most of this has been copied-and-pasted from my email but the bit about the movies is new info so I guess you can just cruise down to that section and simply read....

As I'd mentioned on my blog, this was a trip organised by IKUS that organises such trips and other events for students Anyway we were to meet at the station at 5.45 am for this trip...god that was the only minus point in the whole trip...getting up at 4 am to get ready...and then walking to the stn...it was raining and well it felt like we are taking a midnight walk!!! Anyways once we got to the stn it felt nice n warm. The train journey was of 3 hours...so we reached luneberg by 9.30. They had organised bfast for the group at Cafe Melzer in the town
center. We had the top floor of the cafe reserved for us and the whole group at down to a sumptuous bfast for buns, ham, salami, eggs, freshly sliced tomatoes and cucumbers, a variety of sliced cheese, home-made strawberry and peach jams, and hot coffee....mouth watering yet? :)Tho I myself ate well, I was amazed at how much some of the others packed in...it was truly like making the most of a buffet...and this wasn't even the main buffet in the cafe, for we got a speical one at a discounted rate. The actual brunch buffet on the ground floor looked like way tooooooooo much to think of eating.

Anyways, after an extremely leisurely bfast, we walked on to the town hall where we had a guided tour organised for us. B4 we set of, however our lil group of Jigeesha, Saima, Raghu and myself managed to get a photograph with ALL the Santa Clauses in the town centre...ended up setting a mini-trend...LOL!!! Anyways the guided tour was cool. It was in English for one thing - LOL!!!

We saw St Nikolai church, which is where St Nikolaus is said to have come when he first landed on the shores of Luneberg. The panels in this church are very interesting...one panel shows blood flowing down which represents the crucifxion of Christ. And ofcurs the usual stain glass panel,s the altar, the bowl for baptising babies etc. Then after walking thru the old part of town and seeing the diff in the various facades which all seemed the same to me after a point, we saw the Old Crane. This crane was used to lift cargo when the river flowing thru the city was still used for water transport. It's operated manually by a treadmill...and our guide told us that the saying of walking the treadmill originates from this activity.

After we finished the guided tour, we met up again (Jigisha had gone on the gerna guided tour unlike Raghu, Saima and myself), and headed to the Christmas Market..this was down a slope. Luneberg was a salt producing city and in the 16th cen, salt production made so much profit that the city dwellers referred to it as 'white gold'...anyways since the city has a soft soil, the houses kept sinking till the idea of stabilising them with concrete came about. On ths one slope houses sank alot and there are even some houses that tilted backwards...they have been stabilised that way and preserved like that itself!!!

In the mkt we discovered that one of the organisers, Karin, was working in a stall serving gluhwine...obviously we all stopped there and had some!!! She was dressed in medieval costume...looked quite cute!!! After that we visited the St Michaelis church and St Johaniss church. In the latter, they have this MASSIVE organ that was lit up specially
for St.Nikolaus day....beautiful doesnt even describe half of how impressive it looked. Next we went up the water tower. The water tower is no longer used to churn water from the river (obviously), but they re-newed the struc in the 80s and opened it to public in 2000. Now one can go up to the top for a smal price and soak n the most breath-taking panoramic view of the town. It came quite close to the view of Heidelberg from the castle....I went up by lift while the others climbed up...and those 5 mins alone at the top were marvellous. The wind that day was insane, andI actually had to hold on to the railings so I dint get pushed back.

We spent a long while there, b4 walking back thru the town to the Salt Museum and then meeting the group again at the stn. Sadly the pub hopping plan got cancelled coz trains were re-scheduled due to some work on the tracks. Our trip back included a small bus trip as well from Bad Beevensen to Uelzen where we caught the train to Magebdurg. Reached home at 10 pm.

Poonam came up with us and we saw 'Great Expectations' and had dinner. I had waited to see this movie and now I'm dying to read the book and see what Charles Dickens wrote. And Oh, I finally understand why after seeing this movie so many (atleast of the male species) end up falling in love with Gwyneth Paltrow!!! LOL!!!

Through out the day I kept seeing the time and saying, at this time in another mthI shall be on the flight home, landing or at home. When we reached Mburg at night I said 'HomeSweet Home'..then I looked at the watch and said....hot damn in a mth it shall truly be 'HOME SWEET HOME!!'. The countdown begins...and wat a way to wind up my stay...coolies!!! :)

Sunday was spent lazing, watching movies and studying. In the eveg we went to Raghu's room for dinner. He stays in the univ-hotel. Cute lil cozy room with a tiny kitchenette. We made rotis/parathas for him in his room...and there was egg bhurrji and mixed sabzi and this south-indian style rice made by him. Good fun... on our way back we crossed the temp board... it was -1 deg!!!! We were so excited....Saima suddenly started feeling cold reading that and ran home.B ut Jigi and I stood there marvelling that we are not feeling cold, even tho temp was in the minus!!! Infact since it wasn't windy, I commented that I had felt cold the prev day but not at the moment!! LOL!!! This morng there was frost on the grass and our windows were all fogged....hope it snows soon.

I woke up this morng when I thought someone knocked on our door. But then thought it must be imagination, coz no one can get up without getting past the buzzer on the ground floor first. 2 mins later the buzzer rang... I ran to the door and Hardo was on the intercom saying'open the door'..so I pressed the buzzer, he repeated 'open the door..ur flat door'..I was flummoxed and asked him to come in first...then I went and got the keys..opened the door. And was stunned...there were 3 stockings filled with gifts hanging on the door handle, and a packet full of more gifts on the doorstep. Hardo had left them there...there was a note in the packet saying St Nikolaus visited us, tho it 2 days late. HEHE!!!

Hardo and his parents have truly made this very special for us. The girls last yr defi didnt have this.....:) Goody goody...our trip shall be double special!!! :)

And wat a way to wake up!!! Anyways after that we hung up the stockings on the windows as well as the window decoration biscuits ....as I told saima, we may not have celebrated Diwali/Id this yr, but we sure are celebrating christmas...the trad way. Advents calendars, baking, stockings et al!!! Feels damn good!!!!

The movies we saw ton Sunday...I've never seen so many ever before in such a short span of time!!

Thie first movie is based on Arthur Miller's 1953 play. It presents a convincing portrait of the way Americans consistently have denied personal responsibility for evil and projected it onto others. Here a sex-driven young woman (Winona Ryder) seeking to avenge herself on her estranged lover's wife, a zealous judge (Paul Scofield) who puts order above truth, and a self-serving minister (Bruce Davison) who wants to hold on to his power conspire with other members of the town to bring down a nonconformist (Daniel Day-Lewis), his godly wife (Joan Allen), a spiritual elder (Elizabeth Lawrence), and a handful of pariahs.

Although the original drama was meant to reflect upon the McCarthy witch hunts of the 1950s, this film directed by Nicholas Hytner, has more universal implications. It cuts to the heart with its revelations about the potentially destructive power of the urge for self-preservation, the chaos created by a society's fear of the unknown, and the great courage it takes to stand up to authoritarian zealots.

As one of the most sobering and prophetic films of the 1996, The Crucible compels us to recognize the shadow side of our lives, including the evil inside us. The ending also compels us to think about whether there is anything that we would be willing to die for.

The second movie I had seen earlier, but didn't know the name...I found out when I saw it...LOL!! Buffalo 66, where Vincent G (the director of the movie) stars as Billie Brown. Upon his release from prison and while desperately looking for a restroom and a pay phone from which to call his parents, Billie Brown meets Layla (Christina Ricci), a voluptuous teenager, whom he decides to kidnap on the spur of the moment (as if his new freedom has instantly ignited the old criminal drive). After a ridiculously funny monologue by which he delivers his naive motives, Billy convinces the young girl to succumb to his plan of visiting his alienated parents, Janet and Jimmy (Angelica Houston and Ben Gazzara) and fooling them into believing that he is something he is not: happily married and very successful.

The movie reminded me of the theatre of the abusrd - the repetitive dialogues, the make-up, the characterisation,the feeling of aimlessness,....quite an interesting movie to watch!!!

We started seeing 'The Death of a Saleman' after we got home from Raghu's room, but fell asleep after and hour, so shut it. Shall probably finish seeing it tomorrow or day-after! Lets see....today Saima and Jigi are seeing P&P once again...they are addicts...LOL!!!

Hmmm..I think this is it for today...been here for over 2 hours now. Kinda tired of the sound of the printer which is right in front of me...and of typing too!! LOL!! Ciao!!

Update

As I said we saw a movie that dealt with the holocaust..atleast partially. Alan J. Pakula's adaptation of the William Styron bestseller, `Sophie's Choice' (1982) shows considerable hubris in reducing an epic tragedy to a paragon moment of melodrama. That gesture already risks an extreme understatement of the horrors that comprised the Holocaust of World War II, an event that the movie takes care to demonstrate was a nightmare afflicting several people besides the Jews. It incorporates one woman's narrative as a survivor of the Holocaust into a larger, crushingly banal story of a young, Southern writer's coming of age in the big city of New York.

The movie by itself was not that great...but the character of Sophie, played by Meryl Streep was very touhcing and ofcourse Streep herself is marvellous. Oh...the movie also has Peter Nichol - a very younf Peter Nichol, with a Southern accent - it was great seeing him in a role besides John Cage in Ally McBeal.

Today in Ebeling's class we were discussing New English literatures...my area of interest....I was the expert amongst the students and I have to say it felt bloody good to be quoting critics and talking about who said what, and what are the features of which author!! Ah....great thanks to Bharucha for teaching the subject so well as to inspire my interest in it and urge me to read more about it and understand it better. I'm still highly ignorant, but I'll get there someday and after today I'm even more encouraged!! :)

Not planned much for today, just studied for a while here at the library. Initally had planned to go to Annika's for baking but I got late, so I came back to the library to study since Saima and Jigi were watching P&P again and I can't see it again so soon!!! Gonna sleep early tonight coz for the Luneberg trip we have to meet at the HBF at 5.45 am!!!YAWN!!!

PS Did some more shopping today...Muhahaha!!!

Toodle Ti Tum!!!

Yesterday I finally got my tickets reserved for the return....and it feels soooooooooooo good! I'M flying back on the 6th Jan, 2004....shall be back home by 6th night...OMG just a lil over a month and I shall be smelling Mumbai's foul, polluted air again...hot damn but I can't wait to get back!!! Muhahaha!!! In high spirits since yesterday...LOL!!!

Hardo had dropped by yesterday and we had a nice little chat....the excursion to Mumbai seems terribly organised...I had no clue what the criteria was when they selected students, now I also find out that they are flying from Frankfurt...and not only are they taking the flight from an airport further away (Berlin is ideal for Magdeburg), but they are also paying more and are gonna have 2 stops in between. Logic? I see none...and I'm damn kicked to be saying that....you know how proud the Germans are about their efficiency and oragnisational skills right? Well...lets not bitch too much about them since I am still here!!

Saw Emma yesterday as a part of the screening of the Austen movies...when I'd tried to read it in FYBA I'd fallen asleep thrice before I gave it up...and I think that is one of the reasons why I never liked JA before this -I associated her with a sleeping pill!!! Anyways the movie wasn't bad. It pales in comparison to S&S and P&P, but well better that what I expected...Gwyneth Paltrow and the others were good...but I do have one question...why exactly do people swoon over her...she's good...but is she THAT good? Hmmm......

Also saw 'Colour Purple' yesterday night, at home. I had done the book (by Alice Walker)for my paper on feminism in TYBA. Infact that's the reason why Saima and I wanted to see the movie...and we are both so glad we did. Its got amazing performances by each one the cast and well....brilliant movie to put it in nutshell. DIrected bs Steven Speilberg, it stars Whoopi Goldberg in her debut, and Oprah Winnfrey amongst others.....oh god!!! I gotta post a review of this book on my Literary Mosaic..its a MUST READ!!!

Colour Purple - Synopsis

Went for a shopping spree today after class. First we dropped by the video library to see if Annika wanted to see a movie with us tonight, then we headed out...I picked up some cool maal. And as usual, shopping has worked wonders for my spirits and moods!!! Looking forward to dinner tonight with Annika and then the movie...I think we are watching something that delas with the holocaust...shall obviously blog about that tomm!!!

Movie Time!!

We saw the first three of the 16 movies we got from the video-library yesterday. Annika came over again as I said so we saw movies that were her recommendations..actually this morning when I saw our pile I realised that ten of the movies she insisted we take...LOL!! Anyways she's this BIG Renee Zellwegger fan (she even made us see 'Bridget Jones' Dairy') so yesterday we saw two of RW movies...the first was 'A Price Above Rubies' (1998). In it Sonia (RW) is a member of a closed Hasidic community, who doesn't feel comfortable about religious rules and restrictions, and constantly breaks them, upsetting her relatives. Pretty interesting movie...the second one was a silly light movie for TP - 'Nurse Betty'(2000) with RW, Morgan Freeman, Chris Rock and Greg Kinnear...no comments coz well, it was a TP movie.
After Annika left, I made Saima and Jigi watch 'Little Women' (1994) with Winona Ryder and Susan Sarandon. This was one of my favourite books as a child and I've read it umpteen times...Jo was one of my favourite characters and pretty much a childhood idol I guess. I had seen the movie the first time when our school took us for it and then again on TV, yet I was amazed when I could quote lines from the book/movie and remembered scenes so well....truly love the book...and so glad that both Saima and Jigi liked the movie!! :)

Today we went and paid up for another trip - to Luneberg...like for Wittenberg this is also organised by the IKUS. The trip includes a visit to the famous Christmas market in Luneberg and well sight-seeing and pub-hopping...cool eh? Its on 6th -Nicholaus Day...there's a legend behind that too. Nicholaus was like a herb-man(shaman type of guy) of ancient Germany. He is said to have roamed around with a huge sack giving people herbs and medicines and curing them. After his death children were told that if they were good Nicholaus would come and give them sweets...so on 6th Dec all children leave their shoes outside the doors for gifts and sweets. Very similar to Santa Claus and the stocking hanging..only that comes from Sweden.

Guess this is it for now....until tomm...:)

Ice.skating,Baking and More....

On saturday after I left the library and gt home, Saima informed me that Annika had come by with a suggestion that we go ice-skating in this rink near the Elbe River... and I was like YES YES YES!! Raghu also came...he's the same guy who was explaining the silent movie to Annika...hes doing his PhD here,; his thesis is on cure of epilepsy and he conducts experiments on rats' brains!!! Nice guy...a bit boring initially but later u realise its coz he's so simple and well, quiet, unlike me!!!


It was really great...apart from Annika, who obviously knows how to ice skate, I was the only one who'd done any skating at all....anyways initially at the rink we were like kids grasping the wall and trying to get our balance right...luckily the lil skating I did as a kid helped and by the 3rd round I was skating without support...and without falling even once. Till I got all confident, saying I'm the only one who hasn't fallen so far and I wont now, coz I'm skating fine (conceited lil me thought I was an expert within 2 hours!!), and skated straight into the middle....with that many ppl ard I lost my sense of oreintation and splat went down on all fours...ouch, but my knees still hurt and I'm sporting a gigantic purple bruise on my right knee. Ah well, it was still great fun....later that night we invited Annika and Raghu over for dinner. Annika got along 'bhaji-ish pulav' and I made alu ki sabzi (again) and egg curry(again)...I am cooking alot but I cook the same stuff over and over again...LOL!!! Since Raghu wasn't getting any food he got his VCR which he left with us for as long as we want....yeah we raided the video library with Annika today and have gotten like nearly 15 movies to watch....shall post the complete list soon, but some of them are Great Expectations, Colour Purple, The Crucible, Death of a Salesman and others too.....

Sunday we spent at Hardo's place for the first advent sunday...oh god that was brilliant. OK..before I plunge into the details, before xmas they have, like, wat's called advent sundays...so they get this advents calendar in which there is a window for each of the 24 days preceding xmas and behind each window is a chocolate. Annika had given us one, but Hardo's folks gave us one each..so we have 4 of them now...LOL!! Hardo's parents ar really nice...I mean...they were treating us like we are their daughters or some thing!!! Anyways we had gone there to bake cookies and window decorations....that was cool. We first made cookies with wheat flakes and coconuts in the dough, then simple biscuits with normal dough but we decorated those biscuits with all sorts of sugary stuff and last, but not the least, we made window decorations which we can string up till Xmas and later eat up!!! I made a ginger-bread man, or rather a biscuit man...which turned out quite funny actually!! LOL!!! What was a bit awkward was that we ended up being gifted all the cookies we baked, plus lotsa more stuff along with the advents calendars... OH!!!! How could I forget!!! The feast his mom had prepared...Jesus!!! My mouth still waters. I'm SO glad I eat all meat...there was this thing with pork slices in a yummy sauce made with apricot and spices, chicken on a layer of sauerkraut, green cabbage with ham....and the Xmas cakes and the pies...ok I am drooling just remembering the peach tarts!!!! We were there at his place the whole damn day, saw his computer, played with Loki(his dog), browsed their library (all in German sadly) and well had a great time ...got home at night...

Today we spent the day with Annika...I got up late coz I was studying till 2 am last night...anyways after getting ready Saima and I went around to Annika's to say hullo, but ended up staying there the whole day...we got the cassettes from the video library and now we've invited her over for macaroni and soup and movie-watching session tonight...yipppeeeee!!!!!