Everyone’s wearing a mask

It’s been a while I haven’t really had an idea what I could publish on this site.

But today there was a big Carnaval procession in the small village near Heidelberg, where I live. 37 groups were participating, about 500 costumed people of all ages had fun, were drinking and almost all of them were wearing a mask.

For someone who’s not used to this tradition, first it must seem weird, but actually, what is different to every other day in the year?

Sometimes, and I have to admit it’s mostly on “grey” days, not on “blue” ones, I get the impression that almost everyone’s wearing a mask all over the year. Every day in the morning he puts on the mask and then, after lots of days wearing the mask, he forgets how to strip it off. So many people are pretending their whole life to be someone they’re not and everyone is talking about the fifth season as if it was the only time in the year when one can finally be someone else. But I guess, most of the people saying these things haven’t even found their real “selves” yet.

I am not as depressed as it may seem, I just wanted to share this thought.

New city, new friends, new complications: NEW HOME

Yesterday I finally-finally arrived in my new flat in Heidelberg. For the next two years I’ll share a 2-room-flat with a big kitchen and bathroom with a 20-year-old German student in Ziegelhausen. It’s about 3 kilometres from the city center, but very comfortable to manage by bike, because the route is fortunately very flat.

When I arrived yesterday after a summer with lots of interruptions, I had a plan for this week. Not really complex, but still some stuff to do. Really motivated I took my bike this morning to begin with Point 1 on my list: the inscription in Ruperto Carola university.

Just having arrived in the central administration, I noticed that there were a lot of “stones” on my way to become a student in Heidelberg…some stones rolled away, the rest has to be overcome until 12th of october.

 

Nevertheless, I enjoyed the rest of the day: I had lunch at the border of Neckar with a friend from Regensburg and discovered the old city center by bike, dandering along all the shops and cafés you can find in Heidelberg. I crossed over the Karl-Theodor-Brücke, which is a really old bridge in old Heidelberg, and got really impressed by Hotel Ritter, a famous building in Heidelberg. In every case: Heidelberg is worth the trip and I’m almost sure that I will pass a great, great time in this university city the next two years… preconditioned that I manage the inscription. :-S

Finally awakening.

World Youth Day 2011. Everything’s different compared to 2005 in Cologne. Interesting press article in DIE ZEIT. 08/20/2011

Eine Art Charmeoffensive mithilfe der katholischen Weltjugend sollte es werden, ähnlich wie seinerzeit in Köln, wo der Papst seine Fans von einem Rheindampfer aus begeisterte. Damals lamentiert kaum jemand ernsthaft darüber, was das alles kostet. Aber das war nicht nur ein anderes Land. Das waren auch andere Zeiten.

Read article here.

X-700

I finally own a SLR.

The funny thing about is just, that it is not a digital camera, because it was introduced by Minolta already in 1981. This camera is older than me and still fascinating. I’m really curious how the pictures will look like as soon as I found out how to use it properly. =)

Maybe in the next 10 days in Italy.

Travel plans

Now that I just finished my thesis and passed the Master interview in Dresden, I can finally enjoy my travel plans which contained and will contain:

Dresden

Meran:

Bad Saulgau:

Heidelberg:

Koblenz:

Aaaaand… Brussels!

Moving out…

Before:

After:

Bye, bye, Marx!

Finally finished my Bachelor thesis.