Bhopal Trip...

Lots to blog about...lots lots lots...I'm gonna start with my trip to Bhopal...there's more that I've jotted down notes for, and shall follow in a day or two...itching to blog all about everything on my mind!!!

I left for Bhopal on the 24th evening. We should have left earlier in the afternoon, but my dear workoholic father had to work till 4 pm...so we dropped Amma at the airport (she flew coz the drive would be uncomfortable for her) and then continued on our way towards Bhopal. We drove upto Nasik, where we halted for the night...on the way when we passed the ghats we saw a forest fire. Not one that was a hazard, rather one created by the forest department to clear the dry bush in order to prevent hazardous fires!! It was the first time I've seen a fire so I was quite awed by the sight...sadly I didn't fish out my brother's digicam on time and we couldn't get a shot of it!

We went by car coz we couldn't leave Schnapps behind and well...travelling with my Schnapps is entertaining, but very very tiring!! He simply won't sit still..curious about everything...barking at trucks, bikes, cows, goats, fields...clambering all over us to see from this window and that...whoa!!! And the hunt for a hotel which allowed dogs when we stopped for the night at nasik!!! Quite interesting, as I said...we finally got one hotel that said..."Dog will do as long as he keeps his pee out of our carpet"...I didn't know how to react at that statement!!! He attended most ceremonies and stole away all the attention from the "dhula"....hehe....he is a handsome dog after all!!! Even my new 'bhabhi' - Juhi - was enamoured with him!!!

We reached Bhopal the next eveg after having driven the whole day from Nasik onwards except for two short halts for meals - first after Dhule for "brunch" then at Indore for "high tea"....Indore was interesting to pass through, with the education zone road..which my brother compared to the "khau galis"...he said this was "padhai gali"...and then the flock of people from nearby villages who had come for some "mela"...they were all dressed in typical MP clothes, so all these women in sarees with their "pallu"s draped low over their foreheads, and big anklets, nose rings et al...and the HUGE "pagdis" of the men in vibrant colours...the way they commute piled up on tractors, or in matador vans...quite a sight....the drive itself is good...except for the bad roads in Madhya Pradesh and the number of animals I saw on the highways and ghats that had been run over, or the numerous over turned trucks, or the two sickening accident scenes I passed...I won't go into details coz it isn't worth upsetting your stomachs over!!! Its sad that ppl don't drive safely on highways and the narrow steep ghats! The amt of rash driving I've seen ppl do left me rather upset...

The city of Bhopal is awesome...I've been a few time sin my chilhood and last time was when I'd just given my 10th std exams...so like 7 yrs back....it used to be one dry mound of red earth...over the yrs the city has been transformed into a city of beautiful gardens...lots of greenery everywhere, charming bungalows, wide roads...quite a nice place to visit...it also has several lakes which are very very clean and a pleasure to walk ard in the evegs!!! Possibilities of there...you get wonderful Kosa silk, shoes and sandals much cheaper than BOmbay, the "Bhopali batuwas" famous with foreigners that are a work of art....ah well I dint have time unluckily...but did manage to pick up 2 pairs of sandals...LOL!! I could have done more if I had squeezed out more time in between catching up with relatives and attending ceremonies! Next time perhaps? Hehehe...

The stay in Bhopal itself was cool. Literally and metaphorically!! I got to meet all my chachas, chachis, buas and phuphajis...the marriage ceremonies themselves were ok...it was a small and simple marriage...keeping to traditions but not very loud and vulgar...except for the sangeet with the awful punjabi songs and the Baraat bit which I shall never be able digest!!

I sooooo abhorr the bit where you play this loud music on the road, have some poor kids carry lamps on their heads while you dance like idiots on the roads...extremely disgusting and declasse!!! I think the baraat arriving in a fleet of cars in a dignified manner is sooooo much more classy....I'll be damned if my "dhula" arrives in a vulgar display of music and gaudy dance!!! I have such a long list of "Will not happen at my wedding" I wonder if I'll find a guy whose family will bow down to my expectations of a classy, simple wedding!!! *Cross my fingers*

I got back last night...most uncomfortable flight...way too much turbuluence and a very wierd pilot!!! He swayed and kept dipping from one side to the other...I think he must have played alot with toy planes as a child and yesterday he was reminiscing!!! LOL!! Anyways I reached home safely without throwing up as I felt like several times during the flight...very wierd...not once did I feel odd when I was flying with Alitalia...guess thats the only point in their favour!! Hahaha!!!

Guess that's it about Bhopal....now it's back to Mumbai and studies...I have an internal assessment at Af today so I should get up now and revise my vocab and grammar...it's terribly rusty...sigh!!!

Until later, with lots more to add.....have a great day!!!

Exclusion, Indignation and more...

Have been missing for so many days eh? The last time I sat and blogged, something went wrong with the internet and I lost the whole big chunk..was so disgusted I just abandoned the computer..and I haven't been able to sit in peace and blog ever since then..that was Saturday!!!

Gosh I feel so odd...these days I don't even realise how time flies by...there just don't seem to be enough hours in the day to accomplish everything on my "To do Today" list! Hell but I'm not complaining..I'd rather be busy than twiddling my thumbs and wondering how to pass time...not for me the existance of a bored individual...I'd be suicidal if I had to live like that for long! Last week flew by, in getting adjusted to the old routine again...now I'm truly settled back in...and its fun to be doing that stuff again. I do miss Tasu on the bus journeys back home from AF, and get a bit bored, but then that time alone gives me time to think and generally 'be with myself' and sort things out in my head that I can't be bothered with during the day!

This week there were 2 articles on France in the papers...the first was about their new law concerning wearing anything that displays your religious affinities - I was very surprised to see it in the paper, because I had discussed this with Patricia when I was in Bordeaux. I personally think that the law shold be scrapped coz every person has a right to follow his religion and you can't impose rules on how he follows it...but then you wonder where one can draw a line? Yet banning the wearing of turbans/scarves etc to school is outrageous...next they will say that one shouldn't wear a 'salwar kurta' because that shows the community you are affiliated to and sets you apart as 'different' - is it so wrong to be different? And how can one live in such an exclusive culture today when boundaries are getting vague and people are spilling over borders into different cultures?

French Muslim Minister in Support of bBn

Muslim Women Protest Ban in France

British Sikhs Condemn The Ban

The other article did nothing to my blood pressure, luckily!!! It was just a travelogue concerning 2 cities in France one must visit - Paris and Bordeaux. Again it caught my attention because of my recent link wth both cities...what pleased me was that I'd seen all the places they mentioned in the article...and more!!! Unluckily I can't find that on the internet, so only those who see my Bordeaux album will see the article, for it is pasted on the last page of my album!!!

Speaking of french, I think I'll probably talk of this kind of movement to 'exclude' other cultures for my expose in Niv 3. Serious enought topic and I feel quite strongly about it....

Have some others things I wanna voice my opinion on, but that shall have to wait for later...SIMPLY MUST get up now and be 'productive!!!'

Changes....

Changes a plenty...I hadn't realised how much I'd changed in these short months...Can't converse on the phone at all..don't think of calling up anyone unless I have work and definitely can't talk to people at odd hours like 11 pm!!! Kinda makes life tough for me coz friends are wondering why I am acting snooty and don't call...sigh!

Plus I seem to have become even less tolerant...just can't say "It's alright anymore" as I used to...end up telling my friends how annoying or whatever they are being and getting this blank look from them...they aren't used to me being this blunt. No crap from others either...I just cut them off and walk off...jeez but I'm gonna lose my angel's wings very fast at this rate!!! LOL!!! I'm not yet complaining but well....

Ouch my mom thinks I must go shower coz it's lunch time..sigh...off I go...more laters....

My Encounter With An American Bimbo!!!

This happened when I was in a restroom of a Parisien Cafe...it was on my first day, just after I'd walked from the arc de la triomphe, down the Champs Elysees upto the Place de la Concorde (where the guillotine was during the French Revolution)...picture a buxom blond with pink lipstick and blue eye shadow...

Bimbo (B) : I wanna see the Danish palace....
Geetanjali (G) : *smile*
B : Do you know where it is?
G : I am not from Paris..what does your guide book say?
B : Is it in Paris or in Denmark?
G : I wouldn't know..I'm not from France or Denmark!!!
B : Well I wanna see it...
G : Why don't you look up a guide book and see what it says? Or ask one of the guys in the cafe?
B : What city in the US did you say you are from by the way?
G : I didn't say I am from the US...
B: But you speak good english...
G : There are other countries in the world apart from the US where people speak excellent english...
B : So where in UK are you from?
G : Guess again...
B : Then it must be Australia...thats the only other country...
G : Nopes wrong again...I'm from India...
B : But isn't that a small village in Asia?
G : (Mentally) I wonder what the sentence for murder is???? *fake smile* No it isnt..It's a big country with a lot of very intelligent people who speak better english than most Americans...excuse me I need to use the loo....

ARGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

Busy Bee Me

Phew...yesterday was a hectic day...I kept going in and out of the house the whole day..or rather right upto midnight. But I've managed to get alot accomplished, even if my legs felt like stone by the end of the day with all that walking around. Posted all my 'thank you' letters and photographs today...feeling good about that! Also managed to finally get some texts photocopied and read up a bit...AF was good as well. The prof was still recovering from the illness that kept her away from class on Wed, so she didn't tear into me as she is normally known to do!!! *Jaan bach gayi, lekin mera carefully prepared speech went down the drain!!* LOL!!

Returned home in a hurry changing buses to save time of waiting for my tardy 222 - gobbled down puranpuris and headed out again. Mocha with Kunu - it was nice. We had the Kahlua Mousse Cake...divine...there was a hi-society party happening as well with Star News and NDTV cameras hanging around...that bit was funny! Caught sight of some minor celebs as well...oh yeah I'm back in tinseltown for sure!!! :)

Gonna be another full day today since I'm going out for dinner...was looking forward to relaxing and being 'askati' on the weekend but doesn't look like I'll have that luck either...with a visit to town on the cards (for tomm) and a pooja happening on Sunday that I must attend...ah well there's always next weekend...or wait I'm leaving for Bhopal that weekend...the weekend after? LOL!!!

Dragging myself back into action...

Been going to the University...and well it's so terribly boring..I mean while I'm there it's like alright - specially since its Veveina's class so it's actually quite interesting ( we are doing Eugene Ionesco's "Amedee")...but the bit with getting ready to go there and actually getting there can be such a drag...and then by the end of the day I'm like, Ok the day is over and what have I achieved..NADA!!! I hope classes wind up soon so I can get down to some serious studying...guess I should have things in order by next week, coz by then I'll also be done with this initial "I need to go out everyday" phase!! With Kunu in town I've been out daily and well, just been loafing.

Yesterday I FINALLY went for AF...and guess what? My prof didn't show up..so I left within half-an-hour! It was such a joke...bah! ?Ofcourse I've discovered who the prof is - and she ain't the nicest of ladies..quite a bitch actually..Niveau 3 ain't gonna be fun at all..brilliant! Welcome back to the real world Geetanjali!!

Spoke to Hardo on the phone yesterday...really looking forward to having him and Annika here in Feb..really miss Annika alot...ah well just a few more weeks! :)

Back Again...

I've been away for so long that I'm drawing an absolute blank on what to blog about now....I have way too much to update, so I dunno what to do...skip that stuff and resume from the present or update? Gah that can get tedious....guess I'll drop references as and when they strike me...
Been back 'home' for a week now....got back into the rhythm of things here. Yesterday I resumed with classes at the University and had planned to resume AF as well, but terribly lazy. Somehow I'm dreading it this time..but I think I'll start from tomorrow...the longer I put it off the harder it will be...sigh!!

Today I'm at home all alone with Schnapps...was supposed to have gone to the beach with Kunu baba who has come down for the week..but he ditched me! Hmpf...so I'm home feeling awfully guilty of having bunked AF again...shall defi start going from tomm...and before that I must organise my notes for MAII as well and write out all my thank you letters so I can post them soon....time to get back into order Geets!!

Soon to come...

1. Historical tid bits, Trivia
2. Restaurants, Cuisine
3. Places visited
4. People I met
5. Train journey and fellow travellers!!!

The blog below was just something to whet your appetite and this I hope shall make you hunger for more!! Hehehe!!

Mon sejour en France...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

I didn't do much for New Year's eve -just stayed at home here with some friends with some good food and wine...and saw some incredible fireworks at the Uni-Platz at midnight and then settled in to watch a movie - 'O Brother Where Art Thou' featuring George Clooney - and talk till the wee hours of the morning...but it was nice and cozy..a bit odd not celebrating New Year with my closest friends as I usually do, but nice all the same to celebrate it with new friends!!!

Hmmm...my fabulous trip to France...it was pretty phenomenal I have to say!!! For one, the journeys to and fro were so wonderfully smooth..ofcourse as Patricia said after my adventure to Sweden I am an expert at travelling by train within Europe so anything would seem smooth...but I must say the pleasure of having trains arrive at the destination on time, and getting to the next platform by walking not running is great!!! Hehehe!!!

Bordeaux - that's where Patricia stays and I spent 4 days with her, spending Christmas with her family. That was cool...her fiance Bernard is a nice guy - very typical French I would say , could almost fall in a stereotype!!! I also got to meet her mother, brother, his 'paxi', daughter, Bernard's mother, friend and father...and with these people I had to talk in French...incredibly slow and rusty French but I spoke all the same - and understood most of what they said!! Felt pretty good after nearly 3 months of not understanding anything of the conversation that flowed around me in German!!! Met some of her friends too - she's got a cool circle of friends and I really liked how they are with each other - I guess that comes with so many years of knwoing each other...pretty darn nice !!!!

The stay was fabulous as I said- Patricia and Bernad showed me around Bordeaux, walking around the city centre which has amazingly beautiful buildings and this labyrinth of streets filled with cottages, shops and cafes!! The cafes and restaurants were the best feature of the trip - we ate out once a day, and were at a cafe/pub/wine bar twice...'THE' French way of doing things as I was told..and do I love it. As I told Kunu on the phone...do the French know how to live in style!!

On Christmas eve we were at Bernard's mother's house for dinner...a traditional dinner, but then I ate very traditional and typical French food through-out my stay in France - and loved the cuisine!! I am a big fan of 'Foie Gras' now - it is simply mouth wateringly delicious!!! *Smack my lips* LOL!!!
The next day for lunch Pat and I were at her mother's place, while Bernard spent the day with his father. After lunch we drove down to Lacaunau, which is a beach on the Atlantic ocean shore...as Pat told me, if I knew how to swim and had the stamina and will oer (and insanity to try) I could swim across to New York from there!! Luckily though it was cold the day was clear so we had a nice long walk on the beach...and I realised then that I do miss even the beache back home...that's on my list of things to do when I return - walk to Versova beach and watch the sunset from the rocks there.... On the 26th we drove to St Emilion which is a village where some of the world's best wines are produced...though the vineyards were dry, the day was charming. The village is a heritage site so you can imagine...maze of streets winding up a hillside, church and houses dating back to the 12th century, restaurants set in wine cellars...utterly captivating!!! And a most memorable day and great way to wind up my stay in Bordeaux!!

Pat and I spent 3 days in Paris from the 27th to 30th. Her friend who works at the National Assembly had let his stay at his flat while he was holidaying in Switerzerland, so we had an increbible flat (filled with books - he seems to be a voracious reader and I was duly impressed - more by the books than the locality, or his salary which was also mind boggling!!!)...I had a great guide in Pat. Bernard was living in Paris till a few months back so Pat knows her way around and knew just the right places to visit. Ofcourse I did the Eiffel Tower bit, going upto the top, despite my fear of heights!! Beyond that we walked around alot - Opera house, Invalides, Pont Alexander (the most beautiful bridge in Paris), Montmartre (seeing houses of writers, cafes where famous artists, writers etc had rendezvous, Moulin Rouge, the cafe in 'Amelie' etc etc), Sacree Coeur, Notre Dame, Village de Saint Paul ( an area where only antiques are sold), Hotel Ville, Galleries Lafayette, Samaritaine (in which we had coffee in a restaraunt giving us a fabulius view of the Seine and the city at sunset and twilight!!!) .....more so much more that I can't put in an email!!! My mind is bursting with memories of the trip...if I liked the way the French lived from my stay in Bordeaux I was floored by Paris...as I said...I want to go back and stay longer...and be richer this time!! HEHEHE!!!

Hmm...now I'm back in Magedburg...short stay here...just packing up, winding up....am I dying to return home. 6th...the day is approaching fast and I couldn't be happier!!!

Guess this is it for now, the details of my trip shall be filled in soon...perhaps on my return to Bombay...but they shall come for they are worth sharing!!! So be patient, and the fruit shall be sweet...LOL..it sounds funny translating the Hindi saying into English!! Ciao for now...

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!!!!!

Ola Ola Ole!!!

Back with an improved mood....got OK yesterday itself....Shopping did the trick!!!LOL!! I'm incorrigibe eh? Initially just buying rice for dinner improved my mood...but then buying a perfume totally made the sun shine through the clouds and rain...muhahahaha!!!!Shopping so improves my mood every time....stereotypically feminine in this aspect eh? *Sheepish look*

Anyways last eveg for Annika, we cooked dinner...I made alu ki sabzi in dahi gravy and another mixed veggies thingie in cheesy gravy...Saima and Jigi made the dal and rice. We had bought a bottle of white wine for dinner and Annika brought along red wine for dessert...so we finished off both last night itself...with Annika and me drinking most of it, since Jigi took only a glass of each and Saima doesn't drink at all!!! LOL!!! You guys must be thinking I'm gonna end up an alcoholic by the end of the trip!! Well, yest, the red wine was like...well almost like grape juice...so obviously it was not even like having alcoohol...do I sound like I'm justifying myself here? Coz I''m sooooo not doing that....anyways dinner was cool. Annika is great company, the food was delicious (*Wink*) and so was the wine!! Muhahahaha.....

This morng I slept in late, then came straight to the library for a rendezvous with my emails and some books....not sure of how the weekedn shall progress from this point...so shall stop for now....until Monday...cheerios!!!

PS Thank you to those of you who read my blog yesterday and/or my emails and sent me 'cheering-up' emails....very heart-warming gestures!!!

Homesick

Feeling grumpy and lo today...its raining too...not in the best frame of mind to blog...defi don't wanna blog about the misereable state of my mind...whole situation makes me homeisck and very un-communicative, as my flatmates are discovering!!! Ah....they are discovering the thorns on the rose...muhahaha...shall blog later when I'm not feeling like a grumpy bear...adios amigos until then!!!

La Di Da....

La di da...lets see now...where should I begin? Ok...I stopped with Hardo...we called him up on Tuesday evening and got him to come around on Wednesday anoon. So he came...looking all embarassed and very awkward..and it WAS awkward coz Saima and Jigi were giving him a cold shoulder and acting like he's a paraiah!! Anyways I told him I found his vanishing acts very annoying and that this is no way to get rid of a problem, if there is one in the first place..I mean not talking inly creates problems!!! Anyways one I had that out I was back to normal with him..he stayed for a very short while...but well...I talked to him about his stay in Mumbai...he might stay in our bldg in Suku'sf flat if all works out....*Cross your fingers*

Then we went and booked out tickets for the trips..rather Saima and Jigi booked for Paris and I booked for Amsterdam as well....yippeeeee!!!! Joyous me!!! Europe here comes me....brace theeself for I'm crazy..LOL...OK Kidding!!!!

Class was fun..this was one of the better presentations...actually last week's was damn good as well. This week was a comparison between the BBC and the Ang Lee adaption of 'Sense and Sensibility' and the book....the girls structured their presentation like a talk show with the guests being Jane Austen and Emma Thompson...pretty interestingly done and covered the points as well!!! After that, the second half of P&P...I think I'm in love with Colin Firth, a.ka. Mr.Darcy...today we saw 'Bridget Jones' Diary' with Annika and well he plays a Mr.Darcy in this film as well..for those of you who don't know the film is full of quotes from P&P and Darcy is modelled on the char of the original JA Darcy...it was fun!!!!!

Today after class , with yet another good presentation about ethnic groups in London and gender troubles in the city, I went to talk to Ebeling about this article I found on the internet about english in India and ended up saddling myself with a semi-presentation..bravo Geets!! LOL!!! After class we saw the movie then came back home for lunch...which like the past 4 meals was eggs again....we've been lazy in the kitchen this week!!!! Studied at home (I'm feeling proud of my studying these days..hope this phase lasts till my travelling begins!!), while Saima went to the library...I waited for Hado actually....after he came and left, I left for the library..so I'm in this haven of books right now, sitting in front of the computer....what a pity, eh? Yeah I'm hinting that I'm gonna stop now....just a last point...my old ticker has been acting funny for the last 2 days...had to prop myself up and sleep last night coz I was feeling suffocated lying down....had to finally break into the 'dawai peti' I carried along...sigh!!!!

Country Hopping!!!

Hmmm....I've started remembering home more and more these days....sleep every night thinking of the luxuries of being home. So I decided I must keep myself really busy in Dec or else I'll never last the one month more I have to be here...LOL!! Anyways today morng literally crawled by...then we had fun for a while b4 it lapsed into vague boredom again in Breunig's class!!! He is simply too vague and allows way too many interpretations for the class to be of any worth...anyways in Wiemann's class today was a presentation by 2 girls on housing and fashion in Mumbai. It was funny...also coz one of the girls wore a salwar kurta and the other a sari (borrowed from Susanna who was in Mumbai last year)...the second girl wore the sari all wrong so I wrapped it for her...only she was wearing her petticoat and blouse over her jeans and teeshirt so it looked quite clumsy!!! Well the presentation was fun...very funny at times...like when they spoke of 'chauvinist parties' right after leisure in Mumbai and Wiemann thought the 2 points are linked and asked us if chauvinist parties are a new trend in Mumbai, something like the opposite of feminist parties...we totally cracked up...he too, when he realised his faux-pas!!!

Later when I got home, Jigisha had news. Yesterday we had gone to Poonam's place..she's a girl from Kanpur who has been here for 3 years and knows about all these short bus trips...anyways today Jigi went and got info from there. Saima and she will go to Paris the weekend I am in Sweden. They were also looking at a trip to Amsterdam the weekend before I go to France...I've decided to join them for that...quite excited about that...December shall be fun...just gotta get past Sweden travelling, then I'll be an ace at this....Muhahahaha!!!

Tomm is another busy day (THANK GOD!!!!!!!), and the second part of 'Pride and Prejudice'...looking forward to that as well....also today we went to speak to Lange about confirming our return tickets, since Hardo is missing to help us out. We ended up calling him just now coz he's absconding with our elec bill and we gotta pay it before Dec 1st...he's coming around tomm...getting very annoyed with his constant disappearing....grumpf!!!!

Bas I guess....babbled enufff na? Until later....

Nerdy Geets!!!

I'm tired again today of typing....so I think this will be a short and to-the-point blog!!! I mentioned the confusion with my reservation for the trip to Sweden on Sat...well after that I went to the Hauptbanhof and changed my reservation to a day route...this one has me travelling back to Magdeburg during the day and back by evening..which is so much more feasible....still a bit nervous, but I am sure I can manage now...shall defi learn and grow-up more with the experience!!! Ironically I'm not the least bit nervous about travelling to France even tho I'm travelling alone even there....guess its coz I do know French and am staying with Pat.....really looking fwd to the visit to Bordeaux (wine producing country..hehehe!) and then Paris!!!

After that my whole weekend was spent studying...I managed to complete quite a bit...basically I realised that I'm here for only 6 more weeks out of which the last 2 weeks I shall be in France and then wrapping up...so that means only 4 weeks...since I do not want to go back and find myself burdened with alot of MA studies I maximise the use of this free time I have...got out the books I got from the library and the stuff I've carried with me and really accomplished alot this weekend...have planned to cover even moret in the coming 2 weeks...so that I can leave for Sweden & then later for France feeling quite carefree!!! :)

OHHHHH!!! I got one of my flatmates high this weekend..she wanted to try wine..so we went to this pub in our area...only I convinced her to have Baiileys afterwards coz I wanted company...now I dont find that strong at all ...but she got high with just 1 glass of wine and a small shot of baileys...felt terrible about that...but well we had fun so wat the hell!!! :) It's totally amazing how alcohol costs the same in a pub here, as coffee...infact beer is cheaper...I still can't get over it!!!

Hmm..Ok enough hitting at the keyboard...plus I have the nerdy urge to return to my studies..LOL!!! So until tomm, adios amigos...be good and don't do what I wouldn't!!! Muhahahaha!!!

Experiences A Plenty...

Was here this morning early...infact I got up, went straight in for a shower and left immediately for the comp room. I wanted to check my mail from home and do something about the Sweden trip..I didnt realise this when I made the reservations, but my return journey route is rather wierd and requires me to stay at Hannover station for 4 hours in the middle of the night...since I'm travelling alone to Sweden, I pretty much went to pieces when I realised what a blunder I'd made...anyways after a call home last night and some serious thinking, I realised I can change the route to a day time route..that way only some money for the reservation will go down the drain if at all...got that sorted out now, so feeling confident again.

Hmm...two things I forgot to mention earlier. The first was the gift Sudha didi gave me..its a miniature house..and is gracing my study table right now, till it gets to its 'real' home where it shall grace our living room. :)
Second...this was very wierd and perhaps our first 'racist' encounter if I may call it that. On tuesday we got an anonymous letter stating that its the first and last warning we are getting. In it was stated that we talk too loud, party all trhough the week and our food smells!!! That was sooooooooo bizarre coz we do not talk too loud, do not party thru the week and how does one control the way our food smells?? The warning was that if we don't whisper and control the smells the police shall arrive at our doorsteps...anyways we consulted Annika who's sister-in-law is working with an attorney and our suspicions were confirmed...its probably from a cranky old racist and he can't harm a hair on our bodies coz none of the things he mentioned are crimes!!!

Seems like this week I'm gather plenty of experiences, am I not? :) All for the better I hope...

Exhausted....

Not gonna say much today coz I'm really exhausted today...had a very tiring day. Was feeling totally lethargic in the morning and dragged myself to class. After class we had gone to reserve our seats for Sweden...Saima and Jigisha aren't coming coz its expensive, but I reserved my seats...only now I'm confused..it's a long trip and well...at night and I gotta travel alone...waiting for advice from home!!!
After that we went shopping...skipped lunch...now soooo exhausted....gonna sleep early tonight and relax tomm....need the rest this weekend. Until Monday then...bonne weekend mes amis!!

Happy Happy Happy

Hmm....I'm happy today...Sudha didi sent the photos of the Heidelberg trip, so I got to see them and posted them on my Yahoo briefcase...so damn cool. Also yesterday was a cool day. It was darn wierd actually...I had gone to the library to read and to check my mail..I returned early thinking I'd get enough time to eat my lunch...on the way I got a call...it was Kunaal...obviously I was thrilled to bits...it was so cool to be talking to him again...god I miss him!!!

Anyways when I reached my bldg the wind was blwong such that my hair was all over like Medusa's snakes...and I realised that I'd forgotten my keys at home!! Saima and Jigisha weren't there...so I was sooooooo upset...luckily a Chinese family left the door open for me to atleast enter the bldg. Then I camped on the steps till Saima returned half and hour later...gobbled down my meal and ran to class.

After class I was talking to Wiemann about the presentation...he said it was good and was very happy that we laid such a good groundwork for the films that will be screened later in Jan...when my phone rang again...this time it was home...since I had to duck out suddenly I later ran down to apologise to Wiemann...after that was 'Pride and Prejudice' - a part of the Austen movie screenings....I never liked the book when I had it in FYBA but I totally freaked out on the movie. We just saw Part I yesterday and now I can't wait for next Wednesday to see Part II. Really like this concept of screening the movies....

After the movie we went to Annika's house (again) for dinner :)...Raghu, her other Indian friend also came along. She had made 'soul food', i.e, Veg-au-gratin in Sweet cream and there was beer. I must confess I still don't think much of beer though it was definitely better than the ones I've tasted back in India. The Schnapps she offered after dinner was infintely better...I tried the one she has made with Schlea berries...excellent. She has also made some with garlic and chillies but I refused to touch that...we had a great time last night...Annika is really fun...she is also so dead serious about learning Hindi that we played Memory with hindi alphabets..LOL!!! She's cool!!

Anyways, we got home at 1 am and then Saima and I were talking till 3 am (Jigisha dint come for dinner)... Luckily we dint have lectures today coz of a student demonstration so we could sleep in late. The demonstration was to protest the decison to shift the humanities faculty from Magdeburg university to Hall university. This is being done despite the fact that the faculty, tho only 10 years old, has 2000 of the university's 10,000 students...yet another demonstration of the world's preferences of the sciences over the arts...ICK!!!

Anyways yesterday I also got to know that the photos I'd posted home have finally reached..so kicked about that...now my parents know exactly where I live and how my flat looks...:)

Castle Link...

Tourist responses to the Castle

The Heidelberg Castle... A Walk Through It's History

I took this from a site..so it's in the voice of a tour guide...thought some of you might wanna read about the history of the castle...Here goes:

"We begin our exploration of the castle at the main entrance, with its little guard house and walk into the former gunpark, used for weapons practice in former times. Prince Elector Frederic V changed the gunpark of the castle into a pleasure garden for his wife Princess Elizabeth Stuart. We walk past an engraved stone reminding of the time the poet and mayor German writer Goethe spent in Heidelberg, meeting here with his lady-friend Marianne von Willemer. Nearby we also find one of our many exotic trees which decorate this garden nowadays, a Ginko Tree (Ginko biloba) which Goethe also imortalized in a poem.

A few steps onwards we reach the first sightseeing terrace with a lovely view on the city and into the rhine valley. Here I will give you some details on the city and its past and present history and the buildings we are able to see from this viewing platform. Turning around we aproach the Fat or Thick Tower with statues of our two most important Princes of the castle, Prince elector Ludwig V and Frederic V. Ludwig V built most of the fortifications of the castle making it into a fortress, Frederic V transformed it into a Palace for representation. especially the Gardens were his most famous work, the "Hortus Palatinus" considered to be one of the most beautiful gardens of his time.

Walking along the Moat, in which deer and bears were kept, we reach the Elizabeth Gate, the birthday gift of Frederic V for his wife Elizabeth Stuart. (Ironically the gate faces outwards, so though it was intended that she draw open the curtains and see the gate, she had to walk outside to see the carving on it!!)

Walking past the main entrance we go a bit into the large garden area behind the Castle, a beautiful park for strolling around and a favorite place of the Heidelberg population to spend weekend afternoons with the children when the weather is good.

The Courtyard is impressive, 600 years of history surround us. Melac , the general in charge of the french troops, just needed a few days to burn it all down in 1693. The first building right next to us, the Ruprecht building, is the entrance if you choose to take an inside tour of the buildings. During the inside tour you will see the interior decoration of the Frederic building , the Knightshall with the miniature replicas of the castle before and after the destruction, many objects that were found during escavations and the Chapel of the castle among other sights. If you have time we can even climb one of the towers.

The Frederics building is a german reaissance building with lots of statues of the princes electors on the facade, among them the builder Frederic IV.

Our next building is the Ottheinrich building, called the most beautiful italian renaissance building north of the Alps. Next to it we walk up a spiral saircase which leads us into the Graimberg room. Count Charles de Graimberg is the Frenchman responsible for the fact that the castle is still around. He did the first arqueological excavations here and iniciated the local history museum. Leaving this room we walk up 2 floors into the Frederic building to admire the interior of this building rebuilt 1900 in the Neo Renaissance style under the initiative of the Margrave of Baden Baden. Most of the furniture and objects we find in this floor are from his private collection. Lovely stucco ceilings and marble imitation floors and wooden Doors and Doorframes await us in the corridor. Going down into the first floor where we find furniture of the period the building was built, the 17 century, mainly from Italy, and pictures of the princes Electors of that period and their family. Climbing down further we reach the chapel which can be rented for marriage ceremonies. In the chapel as well as the preceding floors we find the original statues from the fasade. Leaving the chapel we go into the Cellar to admire the huge wine vat with some 220.000 Litres capacity (55.000 gallons) just as impressive is the small one with only 45.000 Liters.

Tax wine was stored in these barrels, taken care of by the cellarmaster and court jester Perkeo, tiny in size but always very thirsty, drinking daily some 18 bottles of wine as the legend tells us. (He apparently died when he drank water!! LOL!!)"

That's all I got from there...I shall post any links to better sites on the history if I find those..btw what's in brackets is my own addition... :)

Just A Lil Something...

Not gonna say much today, despite wanting to...its coz I'm really tired today...yesterday we were in the computer room till 9.40 and then we went home and cooked dinner. After dinner Saima and I had to sit and prepare ourselves for the presentation...we still had to deal with our core matter...so it was 2 am by the time I slept...this morning I got up at my usual hour and got ready...we had to meet Wiemann to organise for the scenes we wanted to screen and to pick up the hand-outs whihc he copied for us..we met him at REAL yesterday eveg and I must say this again..he's a really cool professor...defi the friendliest, most approachable and most interesting one as well...if only he was younger and had a lil more hair on his head...hahaha!!! *Wikked, eh?*

Anyways we got that organised and went back home for lunch before leaving again for the class...I think our presentation went well even though it went on for longer than expected...shall talk to Wiemann tomm to find out what he thought of it coz we didn't get to after class....

Hmmm...gosh I finally can breathe in peace now after two weeks...last two weeks have felt hectic...but it also feels good to be busy and not just being in a foreign country and sitting at home instead of gathering experiences...but now I'm gonna focus on absrobing in evrything slowly, unwinding so I'm all geared up for Sweden and France in Dec, and ofcourse even studying for MA II which has been ignored for the past one week or so....

Was thinking last night before I slept of all that we spoke about with Didi and it struck me once again that there are these very strong similarities amongst all of my cousins that I too share...guess the family links and common ideologies and values do show somewhere don't they? And its precisely that, which makes it so easy to relax with a family member even after years of seperation as opposed to the distance one feels when seperated from a friend for just a few months...not that I'm hinting at any distance I'm feeling from my own dear friends...I've realised ofcourse who really care about me, and who are not gonna be aorund for long in my life..but I'm glad and I'm grateful that the ones I truly cherish have been my true friends as I hoped for!!! * Merci Bon Dieu!!*

Shall stop now...think I'll go home and have an early dinner and get into bed...YAWN!!!

Heidelberg

Even before I start I have to say this : the trip beat all my expectations and I am extremely glad I got the opportunity to go there and see the city...to say that I was thrilled with the visit is an understatement...now to get on :)

Well, we caught the train from Magdeburg HBF at 8.01 and we had to change twice on the way to Heidelberg. The second train (an ICE) we were in crossed from East to West Germany and that was the most scenic part of the trip since we crossed alot of countryside..on boht sides of the train were hills rolling out...vast expanses of green countryside, dotted with the trees in shades and hues of green, red and yellow...I shall never tire of seeing them. Occassionally we spotted a village nestled in the hills, with their white-washed cottages and red roofs!!! The most charming sight ever...not to mention the sight of sheep and cows grazing on the hills, or those of horses running across fields, or even those of the little woods we spotted on the way...
Ofcourse when we entered Frankfurt, it was slightly different. It being a big city, we spotted many factories spewing smoke into the atmosphere, way too many buildings that hurt my romantic senses at that time (hahaha!!) and well, I was vaguely reminded of Blake's 'London' and his 'black-appalled churches'!!!!
We caught the last train from Manheim to Heidlberg, a Regional Bahn as compared to the earlier Inter City Expresses we had travelled in during the day, so it was slower and very quaint too!!!
At Heidelberg station I FINALLY got my Eurail pass validated and then we waited for didi to pick us up!!! Didi arrived and took us immediately down to the Old city area where we were left at our means to roam, around and absorb in all the sights and do as we please...and we did. The entire area is a treat to the senses...the charming cobbled streets are lined with old cottages, an amazing range of shops that were extremely irresistible (all three of us shopped!!!), and innumerable cafes, bakeries, restaurants, pubs and inns!! The walk was definitely a delight...the University building, the church, the student jail are all in these magnificient buildings, but nothing can compare to our first sight of the Heidelberg castle. Mindblowing, Awesome, Breath-taking...take your pick...the sight of the castle looming over us, nestled in the hill...I can't find the words to describe how it felt...we stood there for several mintues just taking in the sight before we got busy clicking photgraphs...and did we take some!! :)

We walked down to the Neckar river valley after that, and well, I didn't think it possible but it just kept getting better. The river runs through Heidelberg and on one side is the market are of the old city and on the other bank are rows of these old cottages and beyond that the hills...it was the most charming sight ever!!! We walked down the length and then over the Bridge...when we turned around, we just stood there gaping...why? We saw the castle...the sun had set by then and the castle was alit with soft glowing lights, looking down on the city in all its splendour...I think I won't be exaggerating if I say that the experience was very close to the sublime.....nothing more I can say will describe the moment....

Heidelberg Castle on the Web

It doesn't quite catch the essence, but well take a peek!!!

We walked back leisurely after that to meet didi at the Bismarck Platz, and after that we headed to Didi's house. She lives in a small town near Heidelberg and has a very nice three storeyed house. It felt sooooo good to be staying in a proper house, even if it was for only two days and the house not exactly fully furnished since Didi has shifted so much in the past that she's not collected much furniture!!! Anyways, we had a nice light dinner of soup and salad and talked till we decided its bedtime!!!

The next day, we had big plans but did just one thing...we walked up to the castle...the view of the city and the entire river valley, from that height was simply breathtaking...I went quite crazy clicking photgraphs. Inside the castle is an Apotheke (Pharmacy) Museum that traces the development of pharmacy over the centuries...most fascinating. I thought several times of Appu, coz she would find it most engrossing!!! After that we took the castle tour - our guide a German descendant who was brought up in Canada was a really charming guy with a great sense of humour making the historical details very interesting, and well, the tour more memorable!!! I will go into raptures again if I begin to describe each sight from the different levels...so I won't go into that again. The castle itself has an amazing history that I shall try to get in here a little later...we spent almost the whole day in the castle, and then went for a long lunch. Ironically we ate Thai food in Germany, since there were some problems with who eats what...Didi settled on a Thai restaurant, saying everyone will get something of thier taste there!! The meal itself was sumptuous...and very filling (I had duck in sweet and sour sauce with rice and white wine!!)..so much so that we slept without dinner!! Before we went home, however, we stopped at IKEA, a Swedish furniture store...Saima and I were drooling over their modular furniture and the various set-ups they had...

Once again once we got home, we started talking and I must say I really enjoyed talking with Didi. We were talking about scary experiences and how I find bungalows scary...we got onto the topic of our first week in Magdeburg when the radio had started playing in the middle of the night and I was so freaked out, thinking someone is in the house...and ofcourse the sounds the radiator makes when the pipes expand and contract due to the cold and heat...pretty darn wierd!!! We traded stories about such experiences and didi's own experiences when she first went to Maine to study...felt really good!!!

The last day there, we went to Bruchstal and Swetzingen. At Bruchstal, there is a palace which has all these figures painted on the outside but till you aren't really close you think they are sculpted onto the outside wall!!! It was really very interesting...Swetzingen Palace has the most amazing gardens I've seen. Even though it is autumn and things weren't as gorgeous as they are in summer, I could imagine how wonderful the place would look...the garden has sections with a Moorish style, Italian style, Greek temple, a grotto, some Scotland-type ruins, ducks and swans in a lake, formal British gardens, an Orangerie....I wish I had more time to stroll through at leisure...actually I wish I'd been there in Summer...

We caught out train back home after that...rather, trains, since we had three changes this time..we were exhausted by the time we got to Magdeburg and were actually relieved to be 'home'!!! Nothing like 'home' even if its a temporary one, is there? One interesting experience was on the Regional Bahn from Seesen to Braunschweig - we had to sit in the smoking compartment coz the non-smoking was full. In there was this very scary looking girl..but her looks weren't what we found fascinating...what was fascinating was the fact that she was making her own cigarettes!! She had a box full of tobacco and a machine that she used to actually make a cigarette!!! I think I gaped too much, coz she was shooting daggers at me later!!!

Ok I'm tired typing and its past 9 pm...must go home now...tomorrow is our presentation on Bollywood/Mumbai...shall be abck however in the morning to add more...I'm not done yet....

Ode To Autumn

Read it on my Literary Mosaic!!!

Happy Happy Happy

Well as the title says I'm happy today. Why? Because today Hardo finally came around to meet us and he was his usual self again. Saima and Jigisha(who btw refers to him as our `caretaker') didn't miss him much and even confessed to having gotten used to his absence, but it was rankling me...so I was very happy to see him and even told him so. I was glad that some stupidity with his profs wasn't gonna have a backlash effect on us. Infact today we talked about the excursion and its so sad that other people less qualified than him have been selected but not him. I have nothing against the others, but it makes no sense to leave out the one person who knows maximum about India from amongst those who applied...even more than the profs...ofcourse then we realised that, that is the reason he's been left out. Very disgusting in my opinion...and very unfair too. And he can't do a thing coz if he objects he could lose his jobs with the depts of Socio and English....gick!!! Anyways he is such a sweet fella, he got each of us a loong stemmed rose to apologise for his absence last week....very charming despite his rough and ragged appearance....LOL...wish he could read this...he'd blush I'm sure!!!

Anyways today Saima and I gave Annika some more hindi lessons...Saima is quite surprised that despite my lack oof vocabulary and dluency in Hindi, when it comes to grammar and spellings they are as faultless as in English....infact this sunday both oof them had requested me to start correcting their grammar and pronounciation like I do with Hardo...dunno whether to be flattered or embarassed!!!

Leaving for Heidelberg tomm...looking forward to spend the weekend away froom Magdeburg, seeing the area, meeting didi and staying in her house which will be much better equiped than ours..will feel more like a home...ah but I've started missing my bathroom at home, my blue coffee mug, the kitchen so clean and equiped, the dining table, the music system, the awesome speakers on bhaiyya's computer, the TV with english channels (not German).....

Was talking to Saima today before we met Hana (she's from the Czech Republic..dunno if I mentioned it before) and she said that Jigi and she envy me for my daily emails froom home and friends...in addition to my weekly calls from home and the call from Kunaal, I have recd a package from home, a card from Nitin and a looooog letter from Kunu...they think I'm very lucky!! I agree....I am indeed very lucky to have such wonderful family and friends....*toouchwood*!!!!

We were talking with Hana and she said that she doesn't like the weather here...its cold..that surprised us coz we assumed so was the Czech Republic...then she explained that to her, cold comes along with snow...she doesn't like the greyness of the sky, the bare trees and the cold wind here...ofcourse for us either of the two are a first experience...I do hope it snows here before we leave, but I have also enjoyed the experience of the cold autumn as well...seeing the leaves change colour and fall...knowing what it feels like to be pushed forward by the wind against your back, feeling your cheeks flush with the cold wind blowing into your face, your eyes smart with the winds speed...its been a wonderful experience and I'm savouring each moment as much as I can....

I also love the atmosphere here in class...profs like Wiemann, Breunig and Ebeling encourage us to voice our thoughts openly and accept most of our views and interpretations, so it feels very different from the sessions back home where we simply absorb what the prof says...interacting with the profs here, specially Wiemann has made me feel more confident about my 'intelligence' (if I may say so!!!) and I think that's one reason why I was so chilled out foor my presentation on Tues and also why it was so well recd!!! :)

Changes changes...so many changes I observe outside me and in me...food for thought...for you and for me...shall leave you to them and take mine with me...must walk back to the apt and pack for the weekend...Bonne Weekend to my blog loyals!! :)