Ice Ice Baby!

Good morning,

Unbelievable, but we have minus 3 degrees while I am writing this. Temperature fell about 20 degrees within the week as I enjoyed nearly summer weather last weekend. Admittedly I am a little jealous that it snows in a lot of parts of Europe but here snow is far away.

Ducks in the park

I only give you a short recap of last week and some randomly taken photos. But I am on my way to a brunch with a very good friend that I see nearly daily at work but we never find time to talk about personal stuff - so we dedicate this beautiful ice cold Sunday to our friendship.

As already told you my mother arrived and it felt pretty good to have her here. We did a lot of walking, a bit of shopping and we spent some time in cafes and restaurants talking (and eating evidently). On Tuesday night I met with other interns to do some after work where we head to a club with a live band. Definitely a plus because I adore live bands. The big minus was the DJ afterwards who played primarily minimal and the other people were mainly 30+. Excuse me, but I don't want to marry someone nor am I ready to get pregnant. The next night out was then on Thursday at the French night. I missed so much speaking French that I decided spontaneously to go there alone. Fortunately there were other like-minded people and I cannot wait to go to the next round in two weeks. Finish of the week was a friend who came to spend yesterday together. Brrrr. We sat a lot at Starbucks drinking a hot chocolate.

French night

After work

Releasing endorphins

Happy Sunday!

Castle's walk

I truly wondered longtime what I could post today and rewrote this post dozen times.
On Tuesday night after a successful day at work (first project finished!) I walked home for an hour in beautiful sunshine and relatively warm temperatures. I felt so happy, especially because my Mom dropped in the night before and will come back in a few hours to spend another two days with me. Friday afternoon I got even more positive feedback at work, we there celebrated two birthdays with delicious apple cake and I finished the night having dinner with a friend.
Arriving back home I talked to my Spanish room mates then. It was the first time that we had some serious discussions: They are here because of the crisis and looking for some jobs. Even with full bachelor and master studies they don't find any and are getting nervous as their savings begin to shrink more and more. It was then that I realized how much I am blessed with my life. So far, everything went quite well, I always had options to live my life and had never to fear that there is a point screwing my plans.

Before only talking about personal and social issues, I want to shift the topic to notes on my smartphone that I have been scribbling for a while now. I compiled a few ideas I want to write about and will start with one of them today.

One note was "Karl Lagerfeld". Admittedly, I am not an expert in fashion or design but nevertheless he is one of my favourite designers. On one hand I have been liking Chanel's styles for years, on the other hand I watched a few reports about Lagerfeld himself. In those he appears sympathic and honest - of course with a certain disposedness to creative crazyness that is absolutely allowed in his metier. Thank you Karl for your inspiration.

I love the black jacket in 0:42 and the adorable black dress in 0:51. So classy!

Well, this is all I can tell you today. The upcoming week will be more filled with some plans I can talk about. Enjoy your Sunday and the next week, thank you for reading.

Sweet week

My dear readers, a little story for the beginning: 
Once upon a time I read this post on Emily's blog. I have never tasted such a cake but instantly resolved to do so or even to bake one myself when time goes by.
The next day I went to my favourite cafe where a large choice of cakes is offered. Before stepping in, I already saw the cakes arranged on the cupboard and there it was: the berry-meringue pie. Without hesitation I ordered the high cake and felt like heaven on earth with the first bite. Well, it wasn't exactly Emily's pie, but it was kind of the same. What a coincidence.

Berry-Meringue Pie

As promised last week, I owe you an appendix to the Oktoberfest. I had a blast of a time because I met 20 of my college colleagues. After having exchanged thousands of stories (4 months seem like forever!), we spent more than 12 hours in of the festival tents'. Although being extremely tired in between, we all stayed the course - luckily I only drank little beer, in order to benefit from Munich the next day. Despite all the fun I would recommend a reservation the next time because it is far enough to enter the tent at "only" 5 PM.

Oktoberfest Impressions

The majority of the week was rather busy due to a lot of work in the office. On one hand I appreciate the trust towards my capabilities and I am proud that I get so much responsibility, on the other hand I feel very much exhausted by the end of the day. The fatigue hinders me doing sports at night, instead I read easy literature or watch non-sense TV shows. But I think, I deserve days like that - especially when we have those windy and rainy autumn days. Or as yesterday - I cooked some soy spinach and rice. Check out the easy and fast recipe here:

Fresh spinach
Rice
White mushrooms
Fresh Ginger slices
Soy Sauce & Sweet Chili Sauce

Ingredients

 Cook the rice as indicated. When the rice needs to cook another 6 minutes, heat a pan and give a spoon of soy sauce into it. When the sauce gets hot, add some mushrooms. Then heat some water in an extra pot and cook the spinach leafs for 2 minutes before cooling them down in a bowl with ice water. Put the spinach into the pan, add more soy sauce and top the mixture with ginger slices. Serve the rice with the spinach and top the dish with a little bit of sweet chili sauce.

Bon Appetit

I would like to end with a quick fact that I absorbed while being on the way to work:
The 9th of October in 1701 the English colony Connecticut founded a college which is now Yale University. Since I love watching Gilmore Girls and Gossip Girl, I dream of graduating in this prestigious school with a master degree. Who says that blogs don't provide useful information?

Another fashion story

Good morning!

Those of you who intensively read my last post stumbled probably across the "Ballerinas for Oktoberfest". Actually, this is where I am sitting: In the heart of Munich after a crazy Saturday on the "Wiesn". So far I can only show you my "Dirndl" that I bought specifically for this event. More details will follow next week because here is so much going on - so many friends, so much beer, so many Bavarian traditions.

My Dirndl

However, let me give you a quick overview about last week.
Best day was by far Wednesday which was holiday. I managed to read hundreds of pages of the book Into the Wild, cooked some Indian-Asian pasta, started to write a few applications for the next summer internship and went for a walk through the rain - in autumn I appreciate those days so much.

Another important event was on Tuesday night, when I was invited to the pre-shopping for the new H&M collaboration with Anna dello Russo. The collaborations in the past touched me a lot more than the one with the Japanese Vogue chief editor - I still dream of those Jimmy Choos for example. Nevertheless I had a peek at the new collection in advance and enthused only about some earrings - that were out of stock within a few seconds. I ended up with no item but had a nice night at H&M, thanks to some champagne and snacks.

H&M at 9PM

Anna Dello Russo

Bling bling

What about you? Have you bought anything from the new collection?

Enjoy your week and thank you for reading. 

Autumn closet

Dear readers, 
Sometimes you must uncage your urge to live. Your urge to scream. To hate. To love. To feel. To jump. To cry. To laugh. Or in my case: The urge to buy.
During the last weeks I never was in the mood to buy anything. Naw, I don't like it. No, it doesn't fit perfectly. No, I want real leather and so on and so on. Therefore yesterday the outburst occured. To do so there is no better place than Primark as you can go crazy as you wish. And I did - see a glimpse of my haul.

Couldn't resist: Primark coat

Some shoes: Gabor, Primark and No Name (only for next week's Oktoberfest)

Simple cardigan & statement necklace

In the park

Sunday break with cake

The rest of the week is not worth to mention. Rainy days, some illness, a lot of sleep. Wait! There is one thing to tell: The canard with soya spinach and sesame potatoes that I ate yesterday night. OMG.

What are your plans for today? I will come up with a lazy Sunday, starting with some fresh breakfast from the bakery now. Enjoy the day and the autumn weather!

Where there is love there is life (Ghandi)

Autumn

Seeing falling leaves during the last couple of days, reminded me that summer officially ended by Friday. Not that I am particularly sad about it, moreover I appreciate the changing seasons a lot. But it also reminded me of my summer resolutions that I compiled in May. In order to close this chapter, I quickly want to check what I achieved and which plans have to wait until next summer.

• I celebrated my birthday in a park, not near the lake, but in Bern with a good friend. We had a cupcake and champagne. Not as entirely planned, but however a lovely birthday.
• I didn't rent a boat. But I did some river rafting and a harbour tour, so we can count it.
• Unfortunately, I (or my brother?) didn't find the time to learn how to drive a motor scooter.
• Well, I didn't ride through the Grand Canyon but in Yosemite National Park. I only hiked the Canyon.
• Two weeks ago I went to a flea market and bought a nice bracelet with turquoise stones.
• Twice I managed to play tennis this summer. And I'd like to continue but don't find the right partner to do so. 
• And eventually, I bought a new camera. I love my Canon 550D. 

You probably are interested how my Pilates went on Monday night, aren't you? The relaxing music and slow movement helped me to concentrate on my body for the first time. The aching muscles the next day confirmed that I did some sports and I therefore will go back tomorrow night.

Yet Pilates relieved some stress, I felt the day after that I can only badly handle no stress at all. Tuesday was the first day in my internship when I had 4 hours nothing to do. In the evening I had munchies for sweets and went to bed really early. In future I want to observe my behaviour to analyse what was wrong.

On Monday the freshmen started at my university while my year is in their internships. This brings memories back that I started writing this blog then and that I only met my good friends one year ago which actually feels like forever. One of them is currently here and we have a blast of a time. On Friday night we went to a nice bistro in the area, whereas we yesterday partied in a Salsa Bar. We are soon heading to have breakfast in one of my favourite cafes.

Some random pictures taken during the last week.

Waiting for the pizza

Movie museum

After month of no-cooking I experimented a little: Curry Pineapple Chicken

Northern lights

Feeling as if I betrayed you, my dear readers, I apologise for my unforeseen delay. At least I can come up with a plausible excuse: I spent the weekend in Hamburg at a friend's and had no Internet access this  morning. Only arrived a few minutes ago, I feed you with my post immediately:

Hamburg was as lovely as ever. As it wasn't my first time, I can only confirm former positive impressions. The water (Alster & Elbe), boats, picturesque Speicherstadt, modern Harbour city, Reeperbahn, fresh fish - yes, the city in Northern Germany has a lot to offer. Therefore I let pictures speak and it is your turn to make up your own mind.

Alster

Elbe

Speicherstadt

Marco Polo Terrace

Harbour

Hamburg

Since I only arrived Friday night, my friend and I, we had so much to catch up that we ended up talking in her room for hours. Yesterday we went to the city centre to do some shopping (unsuccessful...) and had dinner with college friends before we went to a house party in Harbour city. Today we did a harbour trip and met another colleague from school. To sum up, the weekend was less stressful than thought because we primarily hung out and enjoyed the short period together.

In order to shorten the post, I compiled the rest of my activities in some quick notes: 3 hours of cleaning are exhausting but the sacrifice was worth the result - our kitchen, bath room and hallway now gleam in new splendour /// As predicted last Sunday, I am now member of a fitness centre. I start tomorrow night with Pilates /// I finished my first own project at work and got very good feedback /// About 30 interns met on Thursday night for after work drinking. Terrific!

As I get up again in only 7 hours, I'd better go to bed now. Eventually I must work tomorrow. 

Thank you so much for reading!

Small recommendation for the end: Penso's music is very inspiring and I am always in mood for holidays. Perfect soundtrack for a beautiful weekend!

Penso - More Than Fine by PensoOfficial

Beauty to go

Dear readers, 

Of course I will promptly start with Friday night: Vogue Fashion’s Night Out. And it has fulfilled its promises to all extend. Fashion addicted people flooded the stores where we got champagne, water and diverse cocktails offered. As matter of fact, we headed to Burberry, DoDo (thank you for the delicious mango juice!), Louis Vuitton (thank you for this great Polaroid!), Longchamps, Prada, Gucci and Eickhoff. There we had the chance to meet Talbot, a German fashion designer duo, who designed individual dresses for paying clients. Instead of taking this opportunity, our make-up was refreshed by an Yves Saint Laurent artist who used a dramatic eye line and cherry red lips for me. Afterwards our nails were polished with limited Yves Saint Laurent nail polish in khaki. To come to an end: This night was pretty awesome and we had a lot of fun. Thank you Vogue!

Raspberry Cocktail at Tiffany's

Well, that's the event

Balloon at Louis Vuitton

Recreation

In the last weeks I have felt slightly imbalanced. In order to figure out what the reason behind this state is, I thought of it most of the weekend. Diagnosis: I am missing my sports. I only feel it now as I had so much physical activity while being in the United States that was reduced to nearly 0 activity here. On Monday I already pinned an ad in the tennis club to find a partner to play with regularly – no response so far.  Moreover tennis seems to become more and more unattractive to most people. Therefore I yesterday started a new plan: looking for a fitness centre. Today I want to continue this search (7 centres I want to glimpse at) and until tomorrow night I will be member of one. 

 

What about you? Is sport an important part of your life? Are you even member of a fitness center?

I am now on my way to a flea market before enjoying the sun at the beach. Probably one of the last summer days that we catch today! All the best and a beautiful week!