the sky was filled, with stars adorn

after your post, julia, i regret not having posted last night. this little post just for you was ready, but i never got to posting it, cos some lovely and difficult physics problems kept me up all night. i have been telling about your b-day for the past week to all my classmates (the one with ears!), but last night a series of events culminated in a very catastrophic end. anyway a day later yet, i wish you a bright and cheerful belated birthday and wish that your best years are yet to come.

long ago, when i used to be less able at writing poems, i would scrounge the net for random lines and then put them together. this is one of those poems saved and passed on from comp to comp because i think it puts it all very nicely.

Disclaimer: some modification from the original has been done cos my 13 year old self didnt know much about life.

/to my dearest amie...

Happy birthday, you’re not getting old,
Stay in the game, it’s not time to fold.
Wrinkles and grey hair, are just a new look ;)
Countless experiences, you should write in a book.

A little reminder to show that I care,
but too far for the cake to share.
memories of good times reappear,
Has it already been another beautiful year?

wishing you a happy 19th year ahead
charming rainbows of violet to red..
On this day, when you were born,
The sky was filled, with stars adorn.

love,
pragathi
from the land of far far away!

first ridiculous news of london: or the frustrating inability to celebrate a decent birthday

I have now been at my new london "home" for almost a month and I have to have another ridiculous birthday to remind myself of the fact I do actually want to keep up scribbling in here.

so what is so horrible? is it sleeping half the day? noone being around to share it with you because everyone is studying? (apart from yourself of course) or the alck of cake? of famliy? of presents or of the habitual friends I have sporadically seen the last few years? perhaps it is jsuzt the realisation that birthdays are not special days anymore. It seems as though few people really care, epecially not the people posting on your facebook wall, you have never, or perhaps once or twice talked to in your life. but every year I am hoping and sort of expecting my birthday to be speical not only to me and my parents, but aslo to my friends around me. but half never notice I even have a birthday and then are all surprized when I tell them in may (when they ask) it was my birthday in november. adn the other half are not in my near vicinity.

so what have I done today? I have slept long. treated myself with chocolate breakfast and lazed around bored the rest of the time. ok. david did cook me lunch, and I did get a bday card from my roommate grace and from amanda. and jsut now two little cakes from eva (thank you so much by the way) but the tristsesse still prevails. i dont know why. I think I am just not made for bcelebrating my birthday. and for getting ooold.

Stuttgart 21-stuttgart is going down

Yes this had to come at some point. I do not know if you have heard about the restructuring of the Stuttgart train station, but it is the cause of massive demonstrations. like nothing id ever expected from swabian masses. and now one thing is clear: a huge number of political parties have made themselves hugely unpopular. Aparently the situation escalated earlier today. Its getting ridiculous. And concerning. Take a look as long as the link works!

http://www.tagesschau.de/inland/stuttgartproteste100.html

The letters of petition against the half destroyed train station. so much money and so much more for a questionable project.

My last day here. As already Katy Perry said: "Ill never be the same-if we ever meet again", and Stuttgart wont be the same either. And thus the train moves on. the second half finally leaves Stuttgart, then next stopping point, first Bonn then London.

friends are people that believe in you even if youve given up all hope

A couple of days ago I received the following, and its so sweet i have to publish it, instead of having it rotting in my inbox to be forgotten soon:

"Sus viajes son interesantes, y definitivamente en la Universidad vas a estar muy bien y pronto serás la mejor doctora, de eso estoy seguro, difinitivamente el cambio que tienes que hacer es mucho pero te vas a adaptar facilmente, tu energia me lo dice."

summer's end

the countdown to uni, that means work, commitment, getting up early, studying and all that stress is on. 4 more days at home, and Im down with a cold. super, yippie yeay. -.-

but looking back. I have not wasted a second of my off time. Ive been to berlin, and the netherlands, costa rica, paris, bonn and zürich. what a nice travel list. I have met many people, I have learned spanish (which I hope to intensify at uni; they offer language courses, even though my mum wants me to take mandarin). I have my driver's liscence. I went snorkelling, surfing, and swinging through trees. and I have, I hope, the self confidence that I know I can get things done by myself.

but most of all I have gotten IB shit out of my system, starting with my general mental state, to (hopefully not too much) my brain. I have had plenty of time off, and whilst wanting more and more of it, I actually think I am quite ready for new brain food.

aaaaaaah london im coming!!!!

ps.

Jürgen and Me in Paris :) for the sake of having the photo somewhere I wont misplace it ;)

...y los momentos hay que vivirlos hay que vivirlos...

one week to go. one week left till uni. One week left till new life, new friends, new place. new everything. Im worried, Im scared. Costa rica seems so far away-as does india. the two places I now would like to be.

but I have one more week to go. Instead of blogging about Stuttgart 21, the unbelievable sums of money and the complete trashing of one of the few last good buildings in this place to be replaced by some underground ugly with a lot more overground ugly, I am ranting about uni. Instead of wallowing in the sounds of the accordeon player in Zürich, who played organ and orchestra pieces on one instrument, or Xavier Naidoo whom I was lucky enough to experience live, with no more than a microphone and a friend with a guitar in front of maybe 70 people, I am going on about how I will miss everything and everyone- or even better, not blogging at all.

And again this blog entry is accompanied by a song: yo no sé mañana by Luis Enrique. Right, salsa. It means as much as "I dont know tomorrow" and is one of those curious songs, that taken out the sexual subtext connotation goes for pretty much everything in life: on the one hand a perfect description of what I am anticipating in London: I have got no clue whatsoever. On the otherhand a life philosophy I try being a scolar of: whatever happens, happens. So instead of worrying, just do it and enjoy doing it, cuz everything will work out differently to what was expected and everything will work out well in its own way, even if it sucks at the first throught.

but thats what I am doing right now. I am worrying about the unknown ghost. I am scared of nothing and everything, of hating uni or my roommate, of being homesick, of loosing my boyfriend, even though deep inside I know I should stop worrying cuz Ill be way to busy to hate it, and london is so big im bound to find people I like. and Jürgen just rocks so much im sure it will work out even if a 400km distance is existant for an unknown amount of time.

...and the moments, you have to live them, you have to live them...

so what am I fussing about?

The island of the men and milking cows

The last two weeks in CR I spent doing voluntary work. First on the isla tortuga, a very touristy place, at least between 0900 and 1700 when the tourists are there and then in el silcencio, an eco friendly cooperative, where I saw and learned lots about the countryside of costa rica.

Ill put up some pictures:

The Island...a dream

The people I worked with. a total of around 11 people were on the Island. 2 volunteers, a cook, a woman working in the giftshop and a lot of guys. all people from nicaragua and good workers. the only problem: I was hit on 24/7. I'll write up the "names" so I wont forget them: I had cone names in german for talking behing their bck in german with Julia so they wouldnt notice:

left to right: der vati; Noel, der böse; der neue (just came on our last day); Ernesto, der kleine süße; Leister (the only one without a nickname) this guy hit on me sooo much; der Doktor. missing is "der fette" who hit on the other julia.

The last two days I woke up at 4:30 to go cow milking. work started at 5 am, just after the sun rose. fresh milk does taste really good though, and the experience was worth it...the experience of watching pigs being slaughtered is rather questionable though...