Ok I haven`t posted anything during the last year, so shame on me. I am very sorry about that. But now sitting here in Leuven, Belgium after that sad soccer game I get the feeling that it would be time to say something.
Ok, we lost and that`s bad enough. Even worse is the fact, that we lost against Italy, the team of mothersons whose biggest talent is to fall and hold their leg or head, even though there haven`t been any attack of another player. So I`ll never ever get a pizza again. Anyway my own Dinnete are much better!
BUT, still I am very proud of that team we had, because they were great and they gave us some very great moments and evenings with lots of beer, friends and all that cars blowing their horns by driving through our city. We had so much fun, hadn`t we. And now, we shouldn`t be too sad. Many people thought, this team wouldn`t even make it to more than the first round but they won against Argentina.
And there are other more important things than soccer, right?
So what I want to say is: I loved that patriotism that I felt walking through the streets of Germany, because I am proud to be German and I don`t think we have to hide behind anyone. I loved to see all that flags and I`d love to see some of them even though the championship is over. We are Germany, you are Germany, I think we should keep that in mind, eh?!
Guys we are proud of you and proud of us. It was a great time. Thanks!

Canada Day!

On Canada Day we went to Toronto, where we met another German, Beate.
We spent the day in the city, enjoying the ceremonial atmosphere, going to the harbor, resting in a park and doing some shopping. In the evening we visited the Canstage Park to see the Shakespeare play, "Much ado about nothing", which was really great.


Left: Breakfast at Second Cup (Sven, Jessie, Beate, oh I don't know that one ;-), Jörn Marten). They say that coffee there is soooo good, that you want to get a second cup! :-)
Right: Matt, the only real Canadian in our group on Canada Day and Jessie.


Left: We all tried to be as much Canadian as possible as you can see. :-) We even took that big step and got some tattoos!!! As you can see, Sven and I have been very proud.
Right: Big party at the harbor! :-)


Left: We saw that poor guy at the train station and as we are very kind, we collected some money for him. ;-)
Right: Shakespeare at the evening, a great end of a great day.

YEAH, finally it rained!

I couldn't believe it, but yesterday - after days with 30 degrees celcius and an incredible humidity - it finally started to rain. It was a big thunderstorm, but it really cleaned the air. Wow, this feels good now. Didn't think that people can be so happy because of a thunderstorm! :-)
I even thought about flying home just because it is cold in Germany! But now, I'll stay a bit longer! ;-)

Bruce Peninsula

On the weekend I was very lucky because I could join Sascha, Sven, Jörn Marten and Matt on a camping trip to Bruce Peninsula.
On Saturday we went to Tobermory because we wanted to do some kayaking. Jörn Marten and Matt went on a day trip whereas Sascha, Sven and I only did the half day trip. We used the waiting time for showering and some hiking, which was really good and funny.
Our campsite was a very nice place near the Cypruss Lake and Matt was brave enough to go swimming, the rest of us didn't dare to go into the water.
Later Jörn Marten and I had a visitor on the campsite. A really big racoon. I did a good job in protecting us! ;-)
Sunday started with rain and we were a bit afraid that it wouldn't stop, but it did. We had great weather and I could take some awesome pictures of the scenery there.
Altogether, it was an absolutely phenomenal weekend, which I will never forget. We had so much fun and such a good time. For me it was the best weekend ever!!! :-)


Kayaking! It was great, we could see very old ship wrecks there!

Some nice impressions! It was so beautiful there!

left: Boys playing! ;-) No, the water wasn't cold!! right: At this time, it was not very warm, but that changed dramatically!

Jörn Marten, me, Sascha Sven and Matt.
Thanks guys for the awesome weekend!!!

Boston and New York!!!

At the 27th of April, Barbara and I finally started our trip to the United States. First destination: Boston. It was a quite long way and only crossing the border and changing the bus made us realize that Canada is much more friendly!

Boston
After a whole night in a Greyhound bus we arrived in Boston at noon and had to find our way to the youth hostel.
We didn't want to waste time and therefore started our sightseeing tour immediately. Boston is a very nice city. There is the historic part like the Massachusetts State House, then the harbour and there are the skyscrapers, but they don't seem that huge. Everything looks just very nice. On the first evening we went to the Boston symphony hall, which is well known for its great acustic. You see even in the US you can do something cultural!!! And I really enjoyed it!


Boston, the view to the harbour. Trinity Church next to a high-riser!

We enjoyed our lunch break in the park, where a squirrel couldn't stop trying to get our food. It was quite hard to save my donut.

The Massachusetts State House and part of the campus of the well-known Harvard University!

This was also very nice, the Faneuil Hall Marketplace, with lots of food and little shops.
And when we walked home from Harvard University we could catch this great view!

Cape Ann
On the third day we took a train to go to the coast and do some hiking. Unfortunately it rained all day. But as we are tough girls, it had no influence on our plans. And so we were quite wet when we came home on that evening. But it was a great day as well! Only the pictures look a bit cloudy!



New York
On the first of May we left Boston to go to New York. I was very excited, because it was a big dream of mine to visit this city. And it is amazing and very diversified. There are the wealthy and successful managers rushing on the streets buying hot dogs for 2 Dollars from very poor looking guys. There are the great skyscrapers and the crapy houses, the very expensive shops and the guys who sell the cheap souvenir shirts. It all togehter. The Times Square with all the lights and advertisements and the awesome Central Park! We spent a lot of time in the park, like we did in Boston. It was a very good time to go there, because all the trees had just become green and everywhere were flowers. After the very long winter and because of the fact that Waterloo still looked like a mess when we left, I was very impressed by all this colours!!
One evening we went to the Broadway Musical "Chicago"! It was fantastic.


Two of my first impressions I got of New York! Central Park on Sunday afternoon, it was quite crowded there as the weather was very nice. If you walk through the streets and want to see the sky, you get what you see on the second picture!

We took the ferry to Staten Island to have a nice view to the skyline of Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty. Luckily she was still there, even though Sascha, Sven and Jörn Marten visited her the week before. ;-)

New York at night, how it looks from the Empire State Building! It was great up there.
Another night image: the Time Square, with all the lights and advertisements.

Ground Zero! It's a big construction site there and next to it the St. Paul's Chapel. This little church got not damages on September, 11th. What is very interesting and nearly a miracle.
If you go further down, you reach the Wall Street, where all the money is. Unfortunately I couldn't find it!

The Brooklyn Bridge. We walked nearly to the other side but then we didn't dare to really leave Manhattan. We spent this day together with Emilie from France (left). We met at the bus station in Buffalo and decided to meet in New York again, as she was going to Philadelphia first.

Yeah, finally I found paradies. At the Times Square is a big Hershey's chocolate shop. And it was hard not to buy this bar of chocolate. At least, I got a picture of it.

Holidays!!!

Hi everybody!
I'm going to the USA for a week, if they let me in! So don't expect any e-mails (as if I would ever write something ;-)). Hope, I have a lot to tell when I'm back.
The last few days have been a bit hard for me. Most of my new friends moved out of CLV what made me very sad. I still had a lot of work. Barbara from Germany is in Waterloo to visit me, but until now we couldn't do very much, but that will change with tomorrow. We're planning to see Boston and New York!!!
Take care! And to all who are travelling right now: Have fun!!
Looking forward to see you again.

Some pictures of the last days!

Bea and Thomas invited me to what I called "Henkersmahlzeit"! Two reasons to be sad: 1. It was our last dinner together and 2. it was the last time in the legendary Unit 20!
Sven, I hope the legend moves with you!! ;-)
Fabio actually had problems to close his suitcase. I think he was not the only one!


And on Sunday (24.April) winter came back! yippie, but I assume I was the only one who was happy to see snow. Even the geese couldn't believe it. Their fault, why do they come back so early, we are in Canada!

On Sunday evening we (Barbara on the right and I behind the camera) invited Martina and Lutz for dinner. As currently there are not many people left in CLV, I thought we should keep together! It was such a nice evening. I enjoyed it very much!
Oh Lutz, I hope you like my new update!! ;-)

Our groundhog!

In front of our unit there are 2 very big holes, which belong to our lovely groundhog. He's so cute and we love him. But unfortunately not everybody thinks that way. Some days ago we saw a man putting poison in the hole. Until now the groundhog is still alive.



By the way, have you ever seen such colors on a German sky?

Schwäbischer evening!

I decided that it is very important to bring some Schwäbische culture to Canada. Because my Schwäbisch dialect is not very well understood - some German guys (I don't mention any names) even said that my English would be better than my German - I thought I try it with food.
What could be better than Dinnedle.
It was a funny evening but I don't know which ingredient caused this strange behaviour.

first photo: Jörn Marten, Thomas, Bea, Sven and Phil;
second photo: ups, that's me instead of Thomas, but at this time everything was still "normal" ;-)

Ottawa, the capital!!

The last big destination on my list, that was left to visit in Ontario and Quebec was OTTAWA. And so I took my chance and joined the group to go to the capital of Canada for a weekend. It was the first weekend of Winterlude, which is said to be North Americas greatest winter festival. We had the chance to see beautiful ice sculptures and most of us went ice-skating on the canal, the world's longest skating rink, which is about 7.8 km. I didn't dare to go ice-skating (I was too afraid to break my legs), so I just walked quite a long way on the ice, which was great as well.

The Rideau Canal, where many people went ice-skating! And a fabulous ice-sculpture!

On Saturday I even had the chance to meet a friend, who is in the same exchange program as I am. He can be very lucky, because he is allowed to study in such a great city. I loved being in Ottawa.
I walked quite big distances, because I just wanted to see as much as possible. And I even had enough time to go to the Canadian Museum of Civilization. It was very interesting and one could spend 2 whole days in it. There I could see many artifacts of the Native people of Canada and get a quick survey of the Canadian history.
Altogehter it was again a great trip!


A monument; Fairmont Chateau Laurier, similar to the Chateau Frontenac in Quebec

The Parliament from the outside and the House of Commons in the inside!


The National War Memorial;
I guess every big city in Canada has a Cathedral-Basilica of Notre Dame. Well, at least there is one in every city I've been to so far. But this one was extremely beautiful!!

A pole that I saw in the Candian Museum of Civilization. Maybe I spent too much time in this part of the museum, but I find it very fascinating!
The second picture shows our youth hostel, which was a jail before that and it was also the site of Canada's last public hanging. We had to sleep in former jail cells, but I slept very good.

Dogsledding!

I had this great opportunity to go dogsledding. The event was organized from Wilfried Laurier University, the other university in Waterloo and I had enough luck to get a place at the trip. So we met on Friday evening and drove to the Algonquin-Park with a school bus (5 hours!). We spent the night in a nice and funny motel and after a good breakfast (eggs and bacon naturally) we went to the dogsled people where we got a 1 hour introduction. I became a bit scared but still I was very excited.
And it was even better than I had expected. Ok, our dogs were a bit slow, I think we even had the slowest dog-team, but it was great. The weather was perfect, blue sky and not too cold. After telling us 10 times that we would have to wear at least 3 layers of clothes even I became a bit afraid of freezing to death. I've never worn that much in my life and it wasn't always very helpful. Whenever we had to go uphill we had to help the dogs but you can hardly move - not to mention run - if you wear that much. I realized I have to do more sports...
Altogether it was the best day in my life. It was a big dream of mine to once have a chance to go dogsledding and finally it came true. And for these few hours I could forget everything and just enjoy!!


Our Motel and our nice school bus!!! Maybe you can understand that this is not the appropriate bus for a long journey!

Just perfect!

Me and my dogs!

Montreal

Being in Montreal after being in Quebec was a bit disappointing. Quebec was just perfect for me and Montreal couldn't top it. Anyway I took many nice pictures. We arrived there at New Years eve and found ourselves in a very weird youth hostel. Even the Travel Guide said: Either you like it or you hate it. :-) No comment!
It was really warm in Montreal. After days at minus 20° you start sweating at 0°. Funny how your sense for cold can change. I used the time difference and called my family at 12.00 pm German time to wish a Happy New Year. That was cool.
For our New Year's celebration we went to a kind of strange club and there was no firework in the city.


I never want to hear again that I am small!!!! (Paul, me and Sven)

The next day we (Sven, Sascha, Jutta and me) were the first who left the youth hostel (after a weird breakfast experience) and started our tour through the city. Since Sven and Sascha had been in Montreal before they were just perfect guides and led us to the most important places. Ok, we were not that lucky, because it was New Year and every shop was closed. And I was looking forward to shopping so much. The entire underground city was closed what was a bit disappointing, but instead we climbed Mont Royal (which I -no offense- want to rename to Hill Royal :-)) and had an awesome view over the whole city.


At the harbour.


Basilique Notre-Dame from the inside and outside.

In the background Mont Royal. :-) I think nearly every inhabitant of Montreal was there for a walk. No wonder the city was dead! On the top, there is a big crux, an emblem of the city. A bit kitschy but nice.


That's what you see if you stand on "Hill Royal"! :-) Great!!

On our last day we only went to the Olympic Park where the Olympic Games of 1976 took place. The weather changed again. It was freezing cold and our ride home was quite exhausting, I think we had every weather: snow storm, rain, rain that froze on our window,... . But finally we came home and finished great holidays!


Parc Olympique. It was funny to see the 2 German flags.

Quebec

After skiing and Christmas we went on to Quebec. We arrived on Tuesday evening and started immediately with exploring the city. It's such an awesome place. I love Quebec, I would want to live there. It's like an old European city with a city wall and those great looking "old" houses. It's hard to find something comparable here.
Before I came to Canada I saw a picture of the St. Lawrence River in a book and I could hardly imagine that it really looks like that, but it does. I was so happy this evening, just because I could see this.



On the next day Sven, Sascha, Fabio and I started our tour through the city. Quebec is in the French part of Canada, so we were glad to have Fabio, our Swiss-German fellow with very good French knowledge. First stop was the Basilica-Cathedral of Notre-Dame.

Quebec is not that big and in a day you can nearly see everything. Very big and very nice, the Fort Frontenac, a big hotel, unfortunately not our hotel. But our youth hostel was nice too.


We went with a ferry over the river to the other side and it was worth it, we had an awesome view. But our viewpoint was too cold to make the long-awaited lunch break. *freeze*

This river ist amazing, I couldn't get enough of it. Ok, it is just ice, but you should have seen it.


Nice street with many little shops; Place Royal
We realized, in Quebec every street and every place is just beautiful.

Christmas break!

Skiing in Mont Tremblant.
Long ago I decided to join some people who stayed in Canada for the Christmas break and wanted to go skiing and travelling. We, a group of about 24, started on the 21st of December in the middle of the night and arrived - pretty tired after 9 hours of driving - at our chalets at noon. Distances in Canada are not the same as distances in Germany and what Canadians or Australians call a mountain is sometimes just a hill. Espescially our Swiss guys were a bit confused about this denomination.
Unfortunatelly I cannot post any pictures of me skiing. Who knows me can imagine why. I was just too fast to be caught by a camera! ;-)
But I have other nice pictures.


Our chalets. They were so nice and cozy. I liked it there.

Snow!!!!!! Mont Tremblant, where some of us skied.

On Christmas Eve many of the group wanted to go out for dinner. Only 4 Germans wanted to keep alive the Christmas tradition. I was one of them. We had a great dinner at home with the Christmas tree on our side (Sven brought it with him to the chalets) and later we walked to the next village and had luck, because the Christmas mass had just started. Altogehter we had a perfect Christmas Eve. After we were all back it was time for "secret santa"!

Advent

Time flies and on the 28th of november we had 1.Advent! For us it was not a normal sunday. No, Sven announced his Unit as the Christmas Unit and he had all rights to do so as you can see on this picture.

So, we had a tree and snow (thank Sven), but we wanted more!!!

Two weeks before 1.Advent Sven and I made 2 very big Christstollen. And then we met every Advents-sunday to drink tea and eat Christstollen and our "Weihnachtsbredle" made by Sven, Thomas, Bea and myself. We had a great time!


First Advent!

Sven, Thomas, me and Phil after an Advents-tea!

Before the 4. Advent Sven and I made a very big baking session to be prepared for Christmas!
We had even more cookies than on the photo!

Some facts!

For all, who cannot imagine where this famous Waterloo could be. Here's the answer. You see, Canada is not that small, I mean it is actually very big. It is the second largest landmass and so, I have a lot to do here. Ontario is three times bigger than Germany but there only live approximatly 11,500,000. That little part, with the two dots is the most populated one in Cananda and the whole country has "only" 32,201,200 inhabitants.

Chicago!

Chicago, Illinois, USA: Another big city! We started at about eight on Thursday evening and after a very long jouney and an intersting stop at the border we finally reached Chicago at 7 in the morning. After a little break we started to explore the city. At the beginning the weather wasn't that good, but we were just happy to see something different than university! Friday night we went to a Jazz Bar (an absolute must) and on Saturday we could even see Mickey Mouse at the Magnificent Mile Lights Festival. On our last day we had luck, the weather was perfect to go to the Hancock Observatory and have an awesome view over the whole city and Lake Michigan.


Skyline of Chicago

Our awesome view from the 94th floor of the Hancock building!

in the middle of the city; the Hancock building


by night; Bea and Thomas talking to a strange man

Once more: Toronto

Studying in Waterloo is very hard and we thought that it would be good to have a little break. What could be better than going to TORONTO?! We had a great day, took lots of pictures and we also had a very funny lunch in Chinatown. I think, I was the only one who was not able to eat with sticks. But for me it was an easy decision, because I didn't want to die of hunger with a full plate in front of me. :-)
I also bought a very warm (I hope it is) winter jacket in Toronto. Now, winter, where are you???


In the background: CN-Tower

China-Town, very interesting, cheap and lots of "gruschd"!

That's Toronto too. Looks very nice, doesn't it?

Farmers Market

My favourite activity beside studying is going to the Farmers Market. I love it! It's awesome!!! You can buy fresh fruit and vegetables (which is not that expensive), bread (real bread), Oktoberfest sausages and Landjäger. Hmmmm. I think you all will understand why I love it. The first time I was there, the women who sold the bread just explained in German, that Sonnenblumenbrot is very popular. I was a bit surprised when she started to talk in German. I think I eat more healthy here than in Germany, ... sometimes. :-)


There are always many people on the Farmers Market. For me it's 30 minutes by bike.

What's that?? And this strange noise, can I hear Heino? Ich muss weg!

It's true, some people really drive with such "vehicles". On the Farmers Market you can see many Mennonites. I hope I can find out more about them.

CLV

There are a lot of crazy people in CLV and so there are also a lot of crazy parties here. But life is not only party and I'm not sure, but I think I came here to go to university, right? Well, it's like every Uni, lots of work and I hate assignments. I was so glad that day I got my last "Schein" in Germany. No more assignments! But now.... ;-)
Back to the guys that live in CLV. There are many Germans and a group from Switzerland. And once, two nice swiss, Bea and Thomas invited me to a dinner. We had "Röschti". Hmmm, yummy!

Ryan and PowWow

I had the luck to meet Ryan. He is Norman's friend and lives and works in Waterloo. He's very nice and tried to help me as much as he could. Thank's Ryan! Once I went with him to a PowWow, a ceremony held by the native american people.

It was a big journey from Toronto to Waterloo. And in the end we had a big muscle ache, because of our heavy suitcases. But finally we made it. The first days here were very exciting. In which direction do I have to go? Oh no, where am I now????
But it is a nice campus, a little bit bigger than Ulm, but only a bit! We had a lot of BBQ's and I think that's the reason, why they have to pay study fees.
The weather was horrible for me. It was very humid and hot. I mean, I came here because everybody told me that it will be VERY cold.

Toronto

View over Toronto from the CN-Tower! You can see the whole city. It's amazing!

Algonquin Park

I really enjoyed this view. I hope to see more next year.
Unfortunately I didn't see any bears or moose. Only frogs, turtels, birds. I even saw more animals in my first week on campus than in Algonquin Park!!

Niagara

Wow, that was amazing and the canadian part is much more beautiful than the american! Clearly!!!

The adventure begins!

After arriving in Canada I thought it would be a good idea to see something of Ontario.
So I decided to visit the Niagara Falls first. After that I made a quick excursion to the Algonquin Park. Great, I love it. I stayed in Huntsville in a B&B where I got Martha's world famous breakfast (I miss it) and where I ate awesome icecream.
Then I went to Toronto. Huge city, too big for small Dani, but very multicultural.
Soon, the orientation session of our program started and then I went to Waterloo.