101 places to see before you die!

101 places to see before you die!

A statement that does now decorate my room. The walls here were quite awful so I am trying to cover as much as possible with posters and pictures.. Two posters from Vienna, 1 picture + the Austrian flag are already there; a picture wall is planned and now this poster as well.

Checking all the recommended places, I wonder if it is sad that I can only cross out 8 out of 100 places (not sure if moon really counts^^), giving me 8% I have done already. Bearing in mind that I am 23 years old, and the expectancy of life for men is 76,17 years in Austria (btw: 76,37 in Netherlands and 80,61 (!!!!) in Andorra - I have to move to Andorra!) I allready reached 30 % of my life. So in the final 70 % i have to make up 92 %, even tough I am not really happy with the idea of visiting Island for example ;)
The first step of broadening my horizont has been done already this week, as I bought 8 traintickets (there are only 7 left - you're welcome, Raluca! ;)) at the low-price-special-offer-i-dont-know-what-they-actually-really-sell-shop "Kruidvat". Buying them was quite funny as the first store did not have them anymore and therefore the sales person explained the way to the next shop to me... I had no idea about how to get there but luckily another customer a beautiful ~30yr old woman asked me outside the shop if she should get me by car to the store. After first being a little bit afraid of getting in a car with a stranger (my mum always told me not to do so, unless they offer sweets to me xD), and then hoping this might turn into an erotic adventure, 10 minutes later, I stepped out of the car and reached the Kruidvat where I got the tickets. (13 € for driving around 24 hours through the Netherlands).

So my next trips:
today: Haren
tomorrow meeting Ben in Rotterdam;
5-6 March:  Aisesc Party in Maastricht
26-28 March: Paris ft. Amsterdam (oke Kruidvat wont help me much with this)
2 April: Bremen - who wanna join me there?

Utrecht, Amsterdam, Den Hague, London are on the waiting list where no date is fixed yet and Vienna could become a trip for late October :)
Any other suggestions where to go?
New York would enable me to cross out 3 more spots on the poster.. I mean I have to think efficient - right? :)

Besides that I am really feeling fine here. I got used to the daily life, used to working, used to riding the bicycle.
But still of course I am missing my friends and therefore looking forward to the last April week when the Zierer-Creek (as it seems) will become reunited.
Also looking forward to all the other people (FH-Roadtrip???) that plan to visit me so that they can cross out 1 of the 102 places (Groningen incl.) they have to see before they die ;)

Dadj

A first recap: You know that you are in Groningen, when...

4 more hours - then its 6 weeks that I 've been in Groningen; time to make a first recap. Trying to do this funny - sorry if it is not and sorry to all the Dutch people that might be offended by my following statements ;) dont worry, I am really exaggerating - I love being here! ^^

You know that you are in Groningen, when...

...you never ever need more then 10 minutes to go somewhere within the city by bike
...you have not one "Netherland Idol" but 4 similar shows on TV
...people are interested in different cultures
...a big beer means 0.33
...going out means: vorglühen starting at 11pm and leaving the house at 2 am
...you can party every day of the week
...some people get drunk at noon
...some people get drunk in order to study better the next day
...some people play games that were cool 10 years ago
...you can almost not dance in a club because the clubs are too small
...all the girls are tall, and when you look at their shoes, they were sneakers and no high-heels
...you always meet somebody you know accidentally when you go out (this also already counts for me!!! :))
...students have an own cinema-room within their studenthouse
...people stay approximately 7 years or longer in the same studenthouse (some even until they are 42 ;) )
...26 people can live in the same floor and still like each other
...you dont get tomato+salade in a quarter pounder because that would be too healthy
...there is always mayo on the eating table
...you always eat sandwichs at lunch
...you never have to eat dinner alone, unless you want to
...people understand and speak englisch, even the old lady at the cashier
...there never is an old lady at the cashier but only young people
...people give their keys to the cashier in the supermarket
...the cashier is friendly and polite
...people make more fun of people from Friesland than Germans
...the official language is actually copied from German but with a very weird dialect (eg. pronouncing the "g" very strong), so that you only understand half of what the people are saying.. x) .. well or German is copied from Dutch ;)

Pictures of Groningen can be found on my facebook (http://www.facebook.com/album.php?id=1144811054&aid=197834).

Below: me & Promo Bear ;)

Is Valentine's Day stupid?

14.2.2011

For a sentimental and emotional person like me, Valentine's Day is perfect! Especially now, as a single its ideal to lie in the bed and cry tears - In particular when you are stupid enough to watch pictures of the past, of the person that you spend the last three Valentine's Days with. But being stupid, is apparently something I should get used to, as being stupid also brought me to my single-life and therewith to lying in the bed right now alone. Being stupid, also something, referring to the last weekend, when a friend of Austria, who is studying in Utrecht visited me in Groningen. Not that his visit was stupid (thanks Martin, it was really cool!), more my alcohol consumation stays in connection to stupidity. And this after writing last week about alcohol and destroying health? just stupid..

Anyway Valentine's Day: Is it stupid that mankind need a particular day where you honour the one's you love? Shouldn't you be capable of doing this anytime you just want? But are people so self-responsible that they would do so? And what about days like birthdays and christmas then? Why do we need these days to give gifts to somebody, instead of doing it just whenever we want to? I dont care much about my birthday anyway - as in summer people always forget you...

A final note to the concept of Valentine's Day, or love - or in this case actually: Sex. As Sevi told me, it is not possible to send porn-links via a private message on facebook (I havent checked yet) anymore, I want to mention that he will probably start a campaign to allow this possibility again on facebook. If you want to support him or not, is your decision.
It's your choice to say: is this stupid?

Martin and me celebrating this weekend @Pakhuis (or is this La Kastel?). I purposely took a picture where he has alcohol in his hand, and I dont xD

..no chance for daily routine..

Not sure, if this week's headline actually is something positive or negative, but anyway: it is definetly true for me. 2 weeks ago I got the feeling that somehow a routine appears here during my internship in Groningen, but as I had my troubles last week with my laptop, I got sick this week - so daily routine: keep patient, not yet!

being sick sucks, and why do we actually get sick ?
From Wednesday onwards I had heavy muscle pain and throat sore, had bad nights and was sweating a lot..Actually, if every week would be like this, I should have better stayed in Vienna. Being sick is much more fun when mummy and your family doctor are close :)
It seems my body showed me a sign.. immune system got weak in the last days, due to stress ? too little sleep? I would love to be healthy... I mean like really healthy, not having any problems with my body at all .. I know sooner or later there will be some serious issues.. everybody gets them I guess - but why? Incorrect usage of our body?
like Professional sports: overpracticing and taking huge risks... how much compassion should I actually have when I read about Hans Grugger almost dying, read about Rubert Kubica's accident or happenings during the Rally Dakar? Just a very few examples.. While professional sportsmen probably die when doing what they love most and by being aware of the risks they take, others somewhere in the world do not have any chance to decide how to die. Every death of a human is a tragedy - I am the last one, who does not take this serious - and I do not wanna compare the accident of a professional sportsmen with a child dying of poverty in Africa... just some thoughts..I dont judge - I dont rate...
like alcohol & drugs: As I am not experienced about drugs, I can only talk about the consumption of alcohol and immediately start wondering why people drink alcohol? I have no idea.. there are only a few drinks, that really taste good (Malibuuu or Amaretto :)) like some cocktails maybe.. But what about beer? Sure, some of you will say beer tastes good.. yeah..Idk.. remember the first time you tried.. you liked it? I didnt :D It is not that I dislike drinking beer.. I got used to it and its nice... but stil
back to the topic: Why do we drink? (I mean like the going-out-drinking; not having a nice class wine accompanied to your dinner): Do you wanna escape.. ? Do you dont want to behave tonight?, Wanna do things, you probably wouldnt do otherwise? Want the evil side in yourself to take over (btw. I saw black swan this week: niiice!), Wanna be more funny? Want to be more selfconfident when talking with girls? Wanna just let your self go? If these are not the reasons.. I am really curious what are your reasons? You can post them anonymous as a comment ^^
The conclusion for me: people are cowards, afraid of beeing who they would like to be and therefore need alcohol to become the person.. by that just destroy their bodies along the way...I am not an exception

Highlight of the week: collected my 50th poke/anstupser
Well..some of you were victims within an interesting experiment I made the last months.. since ~ October. I tried to poke/anstupsen (facebook) approximately 1 person a day :)
As most of you know, or can probably imagine: I am a huge fan of social media! I <3 facebook, I (h) Skype and I love online communication in general. It's an easy and convenient way of communication. I can easily chat with many friends the same time.. I like social activity more then just watching tv at home, if this social activity is not possible, it always is possible online.
So I used poking as a way of keeping "friendships" alive.. people I hadent spoken with for a few days/weeks/months.. I poked them (Its more fun poking with girls.. dont know why.. I guess its just a psychological issue :D) . Reactions were really suprisingly great, I did not carry out a study or something, but I have the feeling, that approx.
- 80% poked me back
- 20% (of everyone I poked) responded in a certain way besides poking back, meaning: starting a chat with me in the fb-chat, writing a fb-message or at least (just a personal feeling) comment and like my posts more regularly.
Poking is great! It is not the god of communication and the best way for establishing a friendship. But we all know there are some times when we are busy, and would really like to meet somebody, but we just dont find the time for this. Why not just poke? It shows the other person, you think about him - so let him know! Anyway, be aware I will continue poking around.. :)
"1 poke a day, keeps the death of your friendship away"

new spy mission
As my poking-experiment is over, I am already planning on a new mission here in my studenthouse. Unfortunately I can not give you any details, as sooner or later people involved in the experiment could read this too ;) I just hope Daan de Vries (btw. he did not receive any friendship invitations on facebook despite last weeks post in my blog; here is his link: http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=1765042949 - he would love to become your friend :)) and some other guys from my floor will be motivated to wear ninja suits with me :D haha

good night reading
Paul Watzlawicks "Anleitung zum Unglücklichsein" was complemented by "The Playbook" from Barney Stinson... my 2 books for the next weeks..  

only pictures of the books thisweek.. but next week I plan on making a first summary and recap of my first month in Groningen, so there will be several pictures be included :)
k&h Dadj