next new home

just a short post to say I have moved into town, town being Rosenheim, into a lovely old appartment shared with four others (only two of whom I have met so far). I love the flat and living in town is great (although shopping is a great temptation) and the flatmates I have met so far are really nice and there is a wool shop just across the road that sells reallyreally nice wool andandand. all good things so far! I am now rather tired from moving, buying stuff, and generally wandering around but still made it out to the cinema with Julia (who I lived at the farm with) and Nici (another MOP intern) to see 500 days of summer (in German, boo hiss). time to try out my new bed. had to buy myself a duvet and bedsheets and a towel in a funny shop called Mömax (Möbel Max), which has styled itself to look exactly like IKEA except that their colours are bright pink and green rather than blue and yellow. very amusing. it is funny to hear noises from outside again (other than the odd tractor passing and cow mooing) but also there is a guy in the flat underneath who has some kind of mental issue and shouts/screams/groans a lot during the night. thankfully I had been warned about this but it is still slightly eery. ooh, just remembered, one hour extra sleep tomorrow! my germanisms are worse when I am tired. better go to bed. buenos nachos! xx

moving into town tomorrow

my stuff is still spread around my room in a vaguely artistic way but sadly rather far away from being packed into my rucksack. as you can tell, instead of packing, i decided to update my blog. gotta love procrastination. anywhooooo, i have now been in Oberbayern for about 1.5 weeks and was starting to settle in - was because by moving again tomorrow lots changes. in the last 1.5 weeks I got used to walking to and from work whatever the weather was like: snow, rain, fog, frost, mud, sunshine. i got used to views of the mountains, walks down to the lake, complete darkness and almost complete silence in the evenings, a house heated by a wood oven, occasional fresh farm produce, etc. with my move into town I will try and get lifts to work with other people, be able to go out all the time, go shopping all the time, but hopefully also become involved in a more active social surroundings again. although maybe not so much for the first month as I don't really have any money, hehe. Rosenheim boasts shops (including at least two wool shops it seems - more knitting, yay), a cinema, a swimming pool, a library, a dinosaur exhibition, a couple of small museums and galleries, restaurants, and the Inn - the river that also runs through Innsbruck in Austria. more random knowledge: apparently the Austrian border is only about 17km away and it has been recommended that I visit Kufstein, one of the nearest towns in Austria, somewhat surrounded by mountains. talking about visiting, if I one day in the near future have some money again I not only want to see München but also Salzburg and, if Milan sticks around, Bratislava (only about 5-6 hours by train in the opposite direction to Basel). but yes first i need to move. then i need to settle into my new home, buy a duvet and bedclothes and a towel, and get to know my new flatmates. then hopefully it will be end of november at some point and the money situation will be looking up and life will pick up again. also of course at some point i need to think about what i am going to do after these six months. currently i have no idea. i am still playing with idea of doing a PhD, I actually rather like this idea, just no sure I have the time or energy to write a research proposal. otherwise I am thinking about staying in HR and maybe looking for a graduate/trainee scheme to join. sound good? maybe. what else? have met a couple of new people, work is picking up as I can do more and more without someone looking over my shoulder and spend less and less time looking over someone else's shoulder. although I have to remember I have only been working for just over a week so it is no wonder that I still have a million questions and am not capable to do everything and anything. Tuesday there was a "Musterverkauf" at work where they sold off some of the pieces, which were made but not put up for sale i.e. early versions of things that were later on changed before going to the shops. I bought new sunglasses and two armbands. a couple more sales coming up apparently so another reason to save a few pennies on other activities (although preferably not wool or swimming). ah yes, went to a delicious pizzeria on Monday with part of the international HR team, which I am also part of. yummyyummy. didn't honestly expect such delicious pizza in Oberbayern. usually I eat a proper meal in the canteen for lunch and then just have a bread and cheese and salad for supper but it seems I will eat the occasional meal out in the evening as well. not good for the budget. as you can tell I am currently somewhat obsessed by money or the lack thereof. i will survive, some would say. what other news? still not quite sure if I am going to graduation. sent off the form saying I would come but of course I only sent it off today (deadline was yesterday) so who knows. for Christmas I will be in the UK as well from the 24th to the 28th December, then back to work for a couple of days, and then possibly Switzerland (maybe even Basel) for new years. also looking forward to visitors coming here to see me, hopefully sooner rather than later - subtle hint everyone! ok, seems like I can't think of anything intelligent to write so maybe I should pack and then go to bed. xxxxxxx

p.s. pictures: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=154610&id=663901806&l=bad975c856

climate change and other vaguely related topics

above all this is for Jenny but also as many of you know I have an opinion on everything so I will write a little comment on climate change.

I don't really want children anyway but if I did I would worry about what kind of world they would grow old in and what kind of world their children might be born into. I don't think it should be taken lightly that some of us have seen the Aletsch Gletscher in its current state (or its state many years ago in some cases), that we have dived stunning coral reefs and currently that it is snowing down to a few hundred meters above snow level in Bavaria in October. although I suppose people like most of us will somehow be able to afford a reasonable life. tbh I don't actually seem to have a strong opinion on climate change or at least I am not the eco-type as I know I love my laptop too much but there a few related things I believe in possibly slightly stronger than the average 23 year old: buying local products - importing exotic fruits from places like chile and south africa has a massive negative impact on the environment and unless they are fairtrade there is no reason to do so. fairtrade and organic do not rule the food world but buying locally should. ideally in the (veryveryvery) long run this would also encourage third world countries to learn to live off their own produce rather than importing unnecessary rarities (this I experienced first hand in Honduras). secondly, using public transports and bicycles more - quite often it is so much faster especially when travel is associated with larger cities. it also makes people move even if it is only walking to the bus. imagine how much money you could save by not owning a car. thirdly, not having electrical appliances that are hardly ever used plugged in and i promise I try and remember to unplug my chargers and suchlike when they are not charging anything.

this is as far as my opinion currently goes in these matters. as I said this post is for Jenny and for Blog Action Day www.blogactionday.org

snow in Bavaria

Thursday, 15.10.2009, 20:50, Baierbach, Stephanskirchen, Bavaria, Germany (almost Austria), snow is lying on the ground, the last fruits were rescued off the trees, the geese are being killed tomorrow, the mountains are hiding in the clouds but are beautiful when they appear and my room is very cold as I opened the window for a bit.

For everyone who still doesn't know: I am in Bavaria for six months interning with Marc O'Polo international in their HR department. Marc O'Polo make clothes, nice clothes, somewhat expensive if you are not employed by them, check out the homepage if you want to get an impression (www.marc-o-polo.com I think). Currently I am living on a beautiful old farm in the middle of nowhere, which for all its beauty is very inconvenient for which reason I am moving into town hopefully as soon as next weekend. Town being Rosenheim, largest town in Oberbayern (after Munich obviously) with 60'500+ inhabitants. Back to civilisation. Baierbach where I currently live probably doesn't even have 100 inhabitants and also doesn't even have a village shop and the bus only runs a couple of times a day. In the snow without a car life is not so interesting here but at least now the internet works so I can communicate with y'all.

Today was my first day of work and my brain is still trying to process the complete and utter information overload. I have a whole folder of stuff, info, processes, etc that I need to understand and be able to use and have been shown many things on the computer already too and even attended a meeting. I think it will take me about a week to get past this stage of just soaking up info and doing what I am told like a robot. At least everyone in the team seems really nice, I even got a little welcome plant for on my desk, hehe. The Swiss chocolate was also highly appreciated and hopefully increased their appreciation of me too.

I have so much I could write about I don't even know where to start. Having neglected the blog of the summer there is so much time missing where I wrote my dissertation, surpised Lena in Winti, went on holiday to Liverpool, spent one day here in Bayern to be interviewed for my position, went back to the South coast of the UK and soaked up some sun in Bexhill and Brighton before returning tp Switzerland for two weeks where I mainly spent time with friends, eating, drinking, and being merry. And now here there are so many things I could tell you about like how beautiful the Simssee is (one weekend destination: the Herreninsel on the Chiemsee but that might have to wait until the Spring) or about the other girl living here who talks so much but I am so appreciative of as being here alone would be incredibly lonely or many other things. As I don't have the energy to write about everything or even decide what few things to write about I am just going to leave it as it is.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxo