The party with champagne is in Europe.

Ohlala. This apartment is a mess. My room is a mess. I am a mess. Why?
Because we had a house party last night. And even with the biggest effort it is impossible to keep it clean when 40 guests drink, eat and dance. So today's agenda is obvious: clean the place ... clean the desktop. Last point is the reason for me being a mess. I survived another stressful week and now a huge pile of work (especially financial risk management) awaits me.

But I don't want to complain. Our party last night was a huge success as we all had a great time. And my special raspberry-pineapple-punch turned out to be as delicious as the following photo promises.

Raspberry-Pineapple-Punch
(750ml prosecco, 100ml Martini, 400ml sparkling water, 300g pineapple, 400g raspberries, 100g brown sugar)

As already announced last week I began this week in France where I had a champagne tasting and visited my future university. During our stay I also visited two apartments in which one my friend and I will maybe move in by August.
Although my friends called me the "Japanese tourist" due to my great Canon camera I couldn't keep my hands of taking pictures. In the end I am the only one who has some souvenir pictures that I show you now.

Tasting Champagne Rosé

Champagne Cave

City Hall

Cathedral

To finish off today's post - believe me, it was hard enough to write down all so far as I am incredibly tired - I want to point out to a political and economical topic.
On Thursday I took part in a discussion of how Europe's future will develop. The two speakers were a politician and a scientist who obviously had two different opinions, one from a theoretical, the other from a more realistic point of view. The discussion was more a huge blabla with no concrete solutions given. Nevertheless it showed that there are a lot of questions that especially the younger generation has to think of in order to guarantee the balance of Europe, and also the world. How do we implement the thought of Europe in the different nations' minds? How will the expansion policy of the European Union be continued? How shall rules be respected neglecting political motivations? What can I - as simple inhabitant - do to improve the situation?
Those are enough questions to bother you, but I thought of giving you some impulse and sharing my thoughts. Next week will be as adventurous as the previous one, therefore stay curious!

France, my second home

Good morning my dears, 

This weekend I am back in France again. Though, this time it is not at my parents near the Swiss boarder, but the heart of champagne: Reims.
Here I will continue my study program in September for another two years, so it is worth to visit the city at least once before. We only arrived yesterday night which is why I will postpone further story-telling to next week.

Lake Geneva

It is not as if last week was any kind of boring. The opposite!
Main event was clearly the Business Cup Final that took place on Thursday and Friday. Besides workshops and lot of food, our main goal was to solve the business cases as best as we could. Actually we achieved: We won the competition although we couldn't believe it at first. Probably we underestimated our capabilities. What I liked most was that I met foreigners from Bulgaria, Czech and England giving the days an international touch and some important significance. Well, the trophy money was also a highlight.
What must not be neglected is my weekly cooking session with a friend. This time on the menu: Rice with spicy chicken and almond broccoli topping. Yummy! So much better than any canteen food here in university.

Rice with spicy chicken and almond broccoli topping

Last but not least, I owe you photos from last Sunday as sun was shining brightly at the lake. Oh, I forgot to mention that I started snowing again yesterday. Therefore I try to force spring to come back by looking at sunny photos. C'mon spring, where are you?

Jeans - American Eagle Outfitters / Shirt - Only / Scarf - somewhere from Africa / Shoes - Tamaris / Sun-glasses - Ray Ban

Spring!!!

Tourist guide

Bonjour,

You are wondering why I greet in French? Easy. I am home at my parents who live in France. Despite only a short weekend I enjoy every single minute of it, even another fallback to illness.
But I am not alone here: two friends from university accompanied me in order to visit the famous Geneva Automobile Fair and so we combined my family stay with their big wish. They went there on Friday - returning fascinated - while I was in my former school to hold a presentation about my university. Yesterday we all three went to the city where I was the perfect organised tourist guide, so we took some great shots from all over.

Old Town

Old Town II

Besides my home stay, my week was rather a disaster. I was unable to do anything because my head was full of thoughts about upcoming dead lines. All these stressful thoughts made me incapable to motivate myself and ended up in doing rather nothing. This means of course, that I now have a huge pile of things on my desk when coming back (let me tell you so far, that next week more deadlines and to-dos will make things worse. That I already know).
So what did I do instead of working intensively for university? Well, I had my first ice cream, I played soccer, I cooked another Potato Spinach Gratin and went partying Wednesday night. Some of my activities already reveal that weather turned a lot better - spring feelings - but actually it will be getting colder again next week. Although a fan of cold temperatures, I long to leave my winter coat in the closet and change it to my simple jacket. Don't you?

We are now preparing to leave soon, so I need to leave you now. Enjoy the rest of the weekend and have great week! Bisous!

Potato Spinach Gratin

Winter Soccer

Winter Walk

Culinaric highlights!

Happy Sunday!

Honestly: It's been weeks now that temperatures were below zero and that snow kept on falling. You all know that I love the winter but this time I have the feeling that I cannot use it properly. No skiing, no walking in the woods, no snowman-building. Hopefully I can ski at least at Easter some days when I am back home.

As already foreseen one week ago, my week was pretty filled with activities: Of course most of it I spent in university meeting my colleagues in order to finish one of our thousand projects. Coevally I felt that at least the half of my classes are a waste of time - profs talk about their lives, elementary-class-content is presented or no concentration is possible because all are talking about the night before. Thereby we come to our next topic, the Running Dinner on Thursday night. Another time my friend and me were arranged to cook the starter's plate and decided for an Italian salad with dried tomatoes, rocket, lettuce, mushrooms, pine nuts and feta, accompanied by puff paste filled with cheese. Afterwards we "ran" to our second stop where we had a vegetarian risotto. Finally we ended at an apartment where we a large bowl of sangria and another one with raspberry yogurt expected us. Obviously this night was very delicious and a lot of fun. It confirmed that it is my favourite event throughout the term!

Starter's plate

Another cocktail night

Since there were a couple of things to celebrate I was a lot in restaurants or bars to meet lovely people. Salad, tapas, cocktails... For me it seems like a good resume.
What I always wanted to know is whether you have a favourite dish? Or cocktail?
I find it rather difficult to specify but a good steak with fresh salad can make a dinner really wonderful.

Speaking of, I leave now to buy some fresh bread at the bakery because I invited some friends to have breakfast here. Bon appétit!

(Have you recognised: Since I am back at university, everything's about food. When weather gets better, I will certainly have some photos outside! Promised!)

Time Management

Good morning my dears,

Although my agenda is pretty full at the moment, I need this Sunday morning ritual to relax and calm down. Actually I would miss a lot not writing to you weekly and making thoughts about life and happenings. So let's go for another round.

After a quite annoying illness that lasted a couple of days, it wasn't very surprising that a bunch of to-dos created skyscraper piles on my desk: research for this topic, research for that topic, project plan for diverse projects, homework and revisions from last semester. Not to forget about all the social life that has to be cared about, too.

In the end I used this weekend to finish a presentation about modern budgeting methods (boring) with a friend that is only due in mid-April. But regarding our future dead lines we decided to put this forward to have this work out of mind. I see myself as a very good time manager and advice: note down all dead lines, set priorities and do some shifting. Proper time management helps so much, is a pain reliever and allows you to celebrate your work as we did yesterday night, drinking cocktails. And to even improve it, I got a scooter that allows me to be on campus within 5 minutes.

Cocktails and Finger food = Love

Besides my bunch of work, I spent most of the nights at home in order to risk no fall-back of illness. Instead I took the time to try a new recipe - Ginger Carrot Soup - and have a talk with my flatmates eating Lasagne.

Ginger Carrot Soup

Self-made Lasasgne

Next week will be as busy as this one, but I am however looking forward to it because we have some great events coming up. Thus I would like you to  be my reader next week. All the best!

Who are you? What have you sacrificed?

Good morning,

The last two days I have spent in my darkened room while lying emotionless in my bed: I am ill. Feverish and with a cold I keep watching TV and diverse movies, like Breaking Dawn II. And only because our heating broke down by the beginning of the week and average temperature was by 14°C for a couple of days. Consequently my flatmate got infected, too.

Nevertheless I had a pretty fun week that included a house party, a dinner with friends, a pub crawl, first choir rehearsal (with a great Andrew Lloyd Webber medley) and a lunch that became a friend's and my weekly routine. Here are some snapshots.

Even healthiest food doesn't protect you from illness: Fish & Broccoli

House Party - full table

Where I complained about too much time last Sunday, I reverse this opinion immediately: a French essay about my internship, an English essay about new technologies, a presentation about modern budgeting theories, an essay about risk management and 2 projects where I am leader in both. One about a new strategy for our university canteen and the other about a benchmarking project for enchanting travels. All due in April. So no complaints about spare time, I will need it!

Enough talk for today: I will stay in bed and try to get even more recovered. This week I focus on university work and some revisions. What are your plans for the week?

A simple week recap

Monday. First day back in the holy buildings of university we are welcomed by an English test that made my hand hurt within less than 60 minutes. I should go back taking notes on paper instead typing everything down on my laptop or smartphone. The test turned out to have English lessons now on Monday from 8AM to 11AM. Thank you. To enlighten the day we went to a sneak preview at night that showed "Celeste & Jesse forever" - easy romance comedy and drama that I classify as a decent movie.

Tuesday. First classes that I only survived with a glass of red wine with my flatmates in the afternoon. Topics and projects are fine. Most of the work will be team work this semester, so I only cross fingers that teams turn out to be helpful and productive.

Wednesday. Even more project announcements. And a great night out watching football and seeing all my beloved friends. Football turned out to be uninteresting compared to all the stories we had to tell each other: Relationships, internships - Goaaaal! - friends, parties, cities... you know how the night went by.

Thursday. Welcome Back Party that I stupid girl had to organise as my former company sponsored it. Finding a way of transport was the hardest before and after the party but we managed it well in the end. At the party itself I distributed glasses for 3 hours before I could finally start enjoying myself. And I only stopped at 4AM. We all had very much fun.

Friday. Some hot chocolate with a friend, some afternoon nap because sleep was just too short the night before and then a "Lord of the Rings" night. We only finished the first movie and watched the second by the half. It calls for a follow-up. And not only because we had Haribo, crisps and cheese fondue.

Saturday. I slept until noon before watching Gossip Girl season 6. Then I went up to do some useful stuff but I couldn't force myself to go out as it snowed and snowed and didn't stop for an instance. Though, at night I ended up having dinner with my colleagues who will join me to continue the studies in France. We were in a French bistro and a Mexican bar, with wine, good food and even more lovely friends.

Sunday. I only got out of my bed to write to you. About today I can only tell you that I had lovely dreams and that I wish you all the best for the upcoming week.

Dear readers,
This week was full of events and I enjoyed every single part of it. How good it is to be back.
*And excuse me that I didn't shot a single photo. This will be changed, promised!

Study, buddy!

Happy Sunday!

Unbelievably I moved to my new room near university campus yesterday and have back my beloved internet access which simplifies blogging a lot.
In consequence I had a really moving week: last day at work, move out on Friday with my parents, move in on Saturday with my Dad, in between a stop in Bonn, first meeting with friends at university, ... I wouldn't want to miss these days.
What shall I say? It was really good to see my friends again. We talked for hours, drank some cocktails and are all looking forward to starting the new semester. I needed a lot of drinks as my moving days were exhausting: boxes up, 5 floors down again, packing, squeezing, sweating - well everything a move implicates. And some nightmares about my dragon landlord: I have never met such an unfriendly person.

So enough talk for today. Instead some pictures of the week.
Tomorrow is my first test, so we'll see how easily I can adapt to university again.
Enjoy your week. I will be here next Sunday again!

... oh and by the way: No, I don't miss work.

Last day at work with sparkling wine and finger food

Chaos

Best combination = marvelous book + Chinese noodles

Office system