Hi everybody,

this time it took me a bit longer to write something again, but I just felt a bit lazy the last days and had to deal with a lot other stuff first.

So what's new? First of all we got to meet two really nice girls which will study with us, Carmen alias Amanda and Maria :) Then we spend a lot of time at the beach, the mall, the city, went to a couple of Bars and finally found German Beer :D The one Bar at the City has Paulaner. In between I got to talk with a lot of you guys, I just love to hear all the news from all over the world. By the way, hi Mazen, I didn't forget and said hello from you ;)

Last weekend was like you all know Stefans Birthday, I made him a card, which I loaded up to his facebook, but for all of you who didn't see it, I will put it in here as well :D  After he was taking congrats all morning, he didn't see that our hostmom and me prepared "Käsespätzle" for him for lunch, I hope he liked them, after it was my first time making spätzle, the family also blew up ballons and as dessert he got a big cake with a lot of cream and everybody was singing. Then I thought what else would he like... and after we didn't have enough food already Claudia and me decided to bake triple fudge brownies, yam. So I just hope he enjoyed the day. In the evening then was Oscar night and we even got to watch about the first 15 minutes together, then Stefan was talking again :) After a while I couldn't stand the spanish talking over the normal oscar speaker voices anymore, so I found myself a livestream showing online, I am just happy that we have kind of fast internet. It was so fun watching and commenting everything with Florian, who was watching in Germany. If you read this, I am sure in maybe ten or twenty years from now, we will be there ;)

Yesterday then was on one side a good on the other a bad day. So good things first, at lunch the family said they think that they can already see an improvment in my spanish that really made me happy and I am going to continue working on it :) Then in the afternoon I found out that I still have problems with my paper work from home, most of you know what I mean, I can just say 8 month and I am still waiting... But luckily I have the greatest friends in the world thanks so much Börni, Lila and Jannis and also Ugur for always being so nice and making my days all better.

Now to come to an end I have a question, because I had a little discussion today and I would like to know what you think about it. Somehow the topic colonies came up and that Spain and Portugal did great and now many many people speak spanish and portugese, but anyways I said yeah one reason could be that they are directly at the Ocean and then I was told that Germany is directly at the Ocean, too, but for me the Baltic Sea is no Ocean it is just a Sea with a connection to the Ocean. I will put  a questionnaire to this on the side ;)

Talk to you all really soon, Miss you guys

A big Hallo from far far Away :D

The weekend is over and I thought it is about time for a new post :)

Like I told you guys we wanted to go to Santiago on friday, we went already on thursday then, plans change quickly over here. For the trip we had to get up early, what is early? In Chile 7 am is early ;) In the car we were told that we go an a bit longer way, so we can see some of the area. And it was really beautiful we drove up the hills and down the mountains through the countryside. On some spots you had totally amazing views. On the way we also got a little inside on the history of Chile. Then we arrived at the house where Yolandas mom and sister live. The first impression was great you drive through the gate and just see a house and a lot of gras all around and in the background you can see the mountains. We got out of the car and were friendly welcomed by everybody and then a few people started running, we weren't fast enough closing the gate and one of the horse was gone, but happily only for 5 minutes. Yeah that was the next thing there were 2 horses just walking through the garden :D  Now everybody changed in their bathing suits and relaxed in the sun next or in the pool. Then suddenly 3 other cars arrived with more people and cooking could start. That's anothere nice thing, I have never seen anybody having a kitchen in the garden... It was really like this, you have a little pavillion thingy open to everyside, just a roof and on the one side is a big freezer, kind of like in the grocery store just not as big as there and some shelves and a big stove. Then right behind it outside under a tree was a sink to wash dishes and get water. It was a totally relaxing day, spend most time laying in the sun, in the afternoon we got the german newspaper from chile to read and the man of the house came home, who has lived a few years in Germany and knew german and english, so finally somebody we could talk to ;) Then his son in law came as well, he is french and knows some german as well, yeah :) It got late and we started to pack up and drive home, this time we took the way directly through the city and I have to say also I haven't seen much of Santiago yet, I already love it. I totally have to go again pretty soon.

Friday was a more quiet day I went to the City for a while, but it was sooo hot. At the moment they also have a ton of events down at the beach and some famous people show up from time to time, so the blog streets and you have people everywhere, but it's nice to watch, it's so funny how some screaming girlies jump up and down on the outside of a fence to get a look to a star, I didn't even know who the person was... Next week the Festival the Vina will start so and everybody is preparing for it, then the real famous people come, I think this year Sting will be here and Carlos Santana and I forgot who else, I'll tell you later.

Then all over the weekend I did a lot of stuff with the family and I took a walk with Stefan out to the Mall which is nice, I did a lot of window shopping. In Zara you can even find sometimes still the Euro Price tags. Yesterday we went to the fair for a few minutes and ate Churros while Isi went on a karussel.  I also got to talk to Giulia and Clara, which was soo nice, finally seeing them again. In the evening then we had game night again and Stefan got a new minus record of all times from everybody, which came pretty sudden after he played good in the first round. I was middle like always not very good but also not that bad.

This morning then we went to a little spot with a great view over the City and I was just there for a minute and a car pulls up and people getting out, in that moment I already knew I am not alone, Germans are here :P and it was like it the came closer and were talking german. I wouldn't have said anything but after Yolanda heard they are from Germany she told them I was too... They were nice people from Nothern Germany and here to visit.

That's about it from me again, at the moment I am waiting for lunch to be ready and afterwards I guess we will go find a copy shop to finally get everything we still need for the studentsvisa, which we will hopefully have soon so we can do all the other office running and also get a cell phone.

So hasta luego and keep me posted about what's going on in the rest of the world!

Follow Up - Semester End :)

And because it was so nice, here is another one, soon to be continued on Stefans blog ;)

Some changes in plans, looks like we don't travel this week, but there is a reason ;) We probably go to Santiago over the weekend :D

Just a little thing to remember good old times :)

Welcome from the great country of Chile,

another week has gone by. All in all I sadly have to admit nothing very interesting happened. Most of the time I was busy working on the finance case studies, which I finally finished. Thank you Anni and also Jurriaan for printing ;) Then there was the beach time with relaxing and a couple of times walking around the city. And of course not to forget all the great chats with you guys, being at Annis Birthday cake eating event was really almost like being back in DEG and all the interesting, sometimes wierd, but really great and fun talks with?, yeah, you, Ugur, who gave me Motivation to go on working :D , you already saved my day again today with your great guest book entry ;)   (--> I already told him I will write something ;) )

So now to what's new. Stefan and me finally came up with a place we both want to travel to, the only bad thing is we tried to book it, but, wierd system here, you can't book the bus online, if you don't have a tax number... Anyhow, doesn't matter we will go tomorrow into the city and try our luck with booking it directly, I can just hope that the people will understand what we want from them :D Oh, yeah you might want to know where we actually want to go to now ;) It's a city called Pucón in the lake area of Chile, which is about 900km from Vina and will take us 12 1/2 hours in a night bus. I will search a picture and put it in here ;)

Then last night we had a game night with the family here, primarly to learn more spanish and spend some time with them. It was fun, we drank a lot of peach wine and played a game which seemed at the beginning a bit like romée, but it wasn't and I forgot the name, something what sounded close to karaoke, but it was fun.

Okay I will go on with studying spanish now, after I have to improve fast, so I will be ready to talk, when Sergio calls to practise :D

Miss you all

weekend again!!!

Hi friends and family,

it's me all over again :D

It is weekend and we are in Chile now for almost 2 weeks. I am still working on my finance case studies...just takes up too much time.

First of all I want to add something to my last post, I actually found the best beach spot now and therefore also the best idea about jobs on the beach :D At the one place they put up those high tables, really nice and clean and they are offering massages and just a few meters away from there are those nice relaxing things up on the beach, which kind of look like beds, just to be there and enjoy the day... The best day to go to this part of the beach is saturday afternoon, then all the companies which bring out new products are giving out samples ;)

Last night then we did something for our education and went to a classical concert we got invited to. It was actually pretty good. I loved the arena where it was located at and it was really impressive with all those instruments playing together, muy lindo.

Today then in the morning or lets say more around noon after we had breakfast around 10.30, Claudia came and asked if we want to join going to the Derby ( the day before, at the beach, we already got tickets for free entrance ;) ) so we thought why not, finance can wait lets go. I needed some distraction anyways after I couldn't await the big game ( SUPER BOWL ) to start.

Then like so often already Yolanda, Claudia, Isi, Stefan and me climbed all in the car and drove to another part of the City. The ride is always already pretty exciting, one little girl in a car seat and 4 people in a little car going up and down the hills of Vina, but actually yesterday on the way home from the concert we had a car next to us with 4 or 5 kids on the backseat, that was already almost scary, don't even want to think about what could happen, if they need to go a bit harder on the break once... Back to the story so, we went to the Derby, a bit annoying was, we were supposed to pay for parking also we just parked along the street... a bit wierd. Anyways we were there and first of all Claudia went to buy some tickets or she set money on one or two horses, then we went over to the place where you can see the horses race. Isi just loved watching all the caballos and Stefan had a good time playing something like catch with her :) Then the race started and it was really interesting and the people all got up from there seats and it was big excitement in the air and a minute later it was all like before, just a few more happy faces and some sad people. All in all it was really great being there and see something live you usually only know from TV.

When we were back home we had lunch, today Salad, like always, then Steak with Rice and French Fries and afterwards fruits --> really healthy and so good tasting, we always have a ton of fruits and veggies in the house.

Later on the big game finally started and I have to say it was really really really a big game, I literally almost died a couple of times of excitement. I have to say since my time in the US I became a fan of American Football and through Larry I got to know the Steelers, since then I try to at least follow some of the games, which is difficult with the time difference, but the Super Bowl is still a big event and especially this year with the Steelers being in it again, like in my first Super Bowl ever in 2006 where they won against Seattle, just that it was a lot more exciting this year, especially towards the end where it looked like the Cardinals would win and I wanted to throw something at the TV, but I knew the Steelers would try something in the last 3 or so minutes and then in the last minute got a Touch Down  --  YEAH --  27:23, what a game... Thanks Maren and Stefan and also Anni to share this event with me.

That was all about my great weekend, hope you all had as great of a time as me

Lots of love from here :)