Owner: Lucid In Deutschland URL:http://www.lucid-sphere.net/blogs/ Join Date: Thu, 10 May 2007 07:13:41 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: A Floridian's journal * Expat life in Germany. European travels, cultural observations and culinary delights in Germany and neighboring countries. Site statistics:Click here
What's your BIO awareness? 2007-05-09 11:05:58 source: clean-water.uwex.edu This Friday night is Nacht der Umwelt at the Green City office in Munich. I hope to check it out just to gain more awareness with what's going on with the environmental scene in my home town. It's time I find out how things compare to what I know from my Florida roots.
Have you taken your carbon footprint test yet? I require 1.7 planets to live. One point seven planets! And my main source of transportation is powered by me. I got the link from another expat at Letters Home to You in the article documenting another sad example of our capability to be so hypocritical and disgusting. Some speculators are going too far with the, "take advantage before it's too late" gaggle. I wonder how much more human impact are we causing by creating ECO adventures and wonderparks in the name of imminent global catastrophe. Have we finally found a way to make serious blingo off of tree hugging and saving cute baby polar bears?
I'm pleased that there is a renewed intere
Sign up for InWeDay 2007-05-09 09:03:02 In the spirit of Internationalism, I just signed up for International Weblogger's day.
Just what is it? Not so out of the mouths of babes - I've taken it from the source:
International Weblogger's day is an effort on behalf of the bloggers of the world to unite them in a petition to the global community for such a day as an "International Weblogger's Day". While yet an unofficial event, webloggers can commemorate the work of their peers by celebrating this day with posts on their blogs and meetups.
"In Me" Wish List 2007-05-08 14:38:18 Wish lists rock. I don't have to guess what my sister wants or buy her something she hates and deep down I wanted for myself. Maybe I'm supposed to know what my close friends and family want, which I'm pretty good at that from a well-being perspective. But I suck at grasping the material desires of others. Even for myself most of the time I'm at a loss. My birthday is in January and I never know what I want and I don't know what to tell people who ask. The primary reason is that everything is gone after December 25th and I'm gifted out, both giving and receiving. But then the ideas seem to flow during the summer months and then ::Poof:: are promptly forgot. Here's my scramble to piece the little sticky notes into a list before they get thrown away. Maybe these will spark some summer time wish listing in you.
The sweet tooth in meNerds Rope AssortedAmerican Candy. God I love American candy only because I'm chemically tricked to like it. I just had my first Nerd Rope experience
Diagonal approach 2007-05-07 09:44:40 This is a travel blog that doesn't travel. Sorry about that. It'll be another month before the traveling begins. The only thing that traveled this weekend was the bed. Alex got a wild hair and half suggested late last night we should place the bed in a diagonal position. I said okay do it now. Seriously. So he moved it and now it's a little tight around the edges but an interesting change. (The furniture moving may have got the neighbors below to find their wild hair as well, hehe.) All this spend of time at home has made us consider more improvements to the apartment, but most of all, really enjoying life and our company together. It seems we've found our whimsical side of our relationship again, it moved when I moved to Germany. And there was a bit of chase to snatch it back.
Maybe it's true the first few years of a couple's life together are a bit tough. I guess I wasn't ever fully aware how much because there were so many unfamiliar and exciting moments and only a few pi
Wellness Tag 2007-05-03 11:40:07 source: AcostaRecently I find myself comparing the English and German word equivalents and seeing which I like better. I'll stick with the English word tender over the German version, zart, it's an auditory oxymoron. But sometimes English goes a stray for me and I want to run from my own language. Take the English butchery of gynecology, and you get the short and whiny: Gyno. It's not even a word. What's worse it rhymes with rhino, which is not something I want to visualize during an exam. The voice of Lois Griffin of Family Guy (Hey, I visited the Gyno today.) echoes in my head when I think of this unword. Ugh, it is concussion inducing. To me, the word in German, Frauenarzt, sounds so much better. Neutral. Tender.
Okay, maybe you know where I'm going with this. I had a wellness visit with the Frauenarzt yesterday. My first annual medi-pelvic excursion in Germany. Although, I must confess I cheated. Here's how it happened..=> Read more! Read more:Wellness
Connecting Students 2007-05-03 00:41:05 Germany is slowly changing its university system to take on a few characteristics from the American system, like naming three elite universities in Germany -two just happen to be in Munich (TUM and LMU). But for more than one reason, Germany is still miles away from bringing valuable networking services to their future and current students, it's especially hard for us expats studying abroad.
Maybe one day college classifieds will become a world-wide tool for students and those looking to connect with students. For now, for those studying in the US, there's CollegeMedium.com, a classifieds site that lets you target specific schools and search for items catered to students, whether it be a part-time job, roommate or cheap items to buy, or connect with other students. There's even something for those who aren't students, such as posting jobs, housing or items for sale.
The best way to secure an advantage is to keep connected and stay informed. Visit CollegeMedium.com and find out Read more:Connecting
Hirschau Option over Maibaum 2007-05-02 11:40:22 Yesterday's neighborhood Maibaumfest diddied up the Schlager hits as well as the average age of each party goer. This makes sense because there is a nursing home just across the way. So there wasn't much to report. No one stole the Maypole or tried to randoms it for beer. But apparently this is a tradition in smaller towns. Nope. The white and blue diamonded pole stood proud and tall against a cloudless blue sky backdrop and the tiny crowd sat on the bierbänke, maybe tapping their feet to the oompa band tunes.
Actually, yesterday was a better day for a bike ride toward the Hirschau (deer meadow), where few people go and we could enjoy the sun and listen to the wind rustle the leaves in the trees. I read about Süd Tirol and started plans for our vacation there at the end of Juli. It should be pretty relaxing with lots of biking and hiking.. oh, and eating to do. This got me pretty hungry so we headed to the Hirschau Biergarten for a plate of spareribs and spicy barbecue s
Monkeying Around 2007-04-29 16:56:58 My sis sent Alex and I a much needed care package from the States with this a card of a monkey. Her humor matches Alex's almost to the T, where I'm left scratching my head, they both are rolling on the ground laughing. So now the monkey card is posted on the bathroom door. Thanks Tiff!
It's another long weekend in Munich because Tuesday is a holiday. I think the equivalent in the US is Labor day. (The most of the world celebrates Labor Day in May because of the Chicago Haymarket Riot, but the US celebrates Labor Day in September.) There will be a celebration down the street around our neighborhood Maypole to welcome spring, although she already made her appearance a little early this year. I hope to take pictures of the town folk erecting the small tree at the top of the pole and maybe we'll hear the polka version of the song "The Safety Dance." Wouldn't that be fun?
Knokke 2008-01-08 04:41:14 I say any town with three k's in it's name has got to be something special (just don't throw any American History into this bit). Just like in German, you pronounce every letter, which gives you roughly: Ka-no-ka. Knokke is a posh town. In a nut shell, if you aren't wearing a fur coat, mittens, or hat in the winter, you aren't a regular visitor here. Serious.
We picked a pretty foggy day to visit Knokke in late December. With the wind and cold temperatures it was difficult to enjoy the normally beautiful scenery. I remember my feet were freezing that day and after 30 minutes of walking, I couldn't move my toes. Misery.
Besides walking there are plenty of things to do in winter on the shore. In the off-season dogs are allowed to play on the beach. Kids pedal bicycles or four-wheelers on
Holiday travel 2007-12-18 04:21:15 Things have been awfully busy the past couple of months. There just wasn't any traveling to report but we did discover a few lakes just south of Munich that I wanted to share. That will be another post for another day.
For now I am completely stoked that we are going north this holiday. Way north. First we will travel to Belgium and meet our friend for a short tour of Brussels [in German, Brüssel]. I'll have to brush up on understanding broken English because I've have no clue how to speak French, Flemish or Dutch. Is Flemish Dutch or is Dutch Flemish or are they completely different languages, ugh?! Yet, I'm looking forward to Belgium "french" fries, waffles, chocolate, and beer. Ew, so healthy.
Then we head to an island on the German coast of the North Sea, Amrum, a North Frisian Is Read more:Holiday
Revisiting the Provence 2007-09-10 05:35:50 As a child, my family pretty much vacationed at the same two places in Southwest Florida. From the time I was four until even today, there was always Maderia Beach and Lido Beach. The comfort in these types of vacations was that every year we could relax, explore the surrounding areas without the rush that we'd never return again. We developed a game for finding those hidden gems about these places. Now that I am older and practically exploring completely new territory as an expat everyday, this last trip was a bit of reprieve from the total submersion into the unfamiliar. Once again, we revisited Southern France - this time equipped with our mountain bikes, this time with more French under our belts and this time to awaiting happy and healthy friends and family.
Last year we stayed with Read more:Provence
Tale of the Lost Blogs 2007-08-21 08:44:44 Looking for an old post? Ha! Chances are I've lost my entire readership (you know who you few are) so what does it matter?
I'm making strides to move my expat life related posts to the lucidindeutschland.net domain. I'll keep this site to write about our travels in Europe and abroad (New Zealand, Thailand, who knows?) with specifics on where we stayed, what we liked and disliked, and of course, the food. There were times when I tried to do this with past travel adventures but I just got bogged with the expat life stuff. Okay maybe just life in general. Yeh, I love to blog even if it will never make me a living or develop life-long friendships for me. Often times I say, what's the point of this? It's not even a real bedside journal. My justification is that in a way, it helps me retain wha Read more:Blogs
Week in Kastelbell, South Tyrol Italy 2007-08-03 02:05:26 There is something for everyone in Vinschgau - families, couples, singles, dogs, cats - especially for those with a love for the out-of-doors..and speck (ham). If you are afraid of heights, hate the sight of fruit trees, or simply must have a steady intake of [insert modern, processed object here], well, here may not be the dream vacation spot. The mentality here is bit like the Carolinas - these good mountain folk just want to be on their own, outsiders. But the smart ones know the benefits of belonging to a larger country, mainly education.
Here's a video slideshow of our trip, as a present to Alex from his parents for earning his Doktor-Ing. Google reduced the quality, but also our camera couldn't take the intense sunshine or we're just unskilled, hobby photographers. One day, I'll le Read more:South
, Italy
Out of Town - And BACK 2007-07-20 22:26:55 [UPDATE]
Ahhh, we arrived home safely and well relaxed, even with a little muscle soreness from all the mountain biking and hiking. Lots to tell...
oh and the commenting feature is back online
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we're on our way to Süd Tirol.
comments on all post will be closed for the meantime to reduce spam.
Take Care,
Heza
raising organ donation awareness 2007-07-18 00:00:00 BlogCatalog requested that this Wednesday (today) we write about the importance of organ
donation. The subject of life saving measures has been weighing recently on my mind and I'll admit I'm in the dark when it comes to organ donation in a foreign county. So here's what I've learned:
In 1997, Germany passed a transplant law that officially assigned the Deutsche Stiftung Organtransplantation (DSO) the role of coordinating the organ donation procedure and organ procurement. Yet, the number of people actually declaring themselves as organ donors is still rather low in Germany. According to a 2001 study, 82% of Germans polled are in favor of organ donation and 67% are willing to donate their organs after death. But less than 15 percent of Germans actually document this on a donor card. If no
ahh, Puerto Peñasco 2007-06-25 18:58:28 Just image: sunning yourself under deep blue skies on the Sea of Cortez shoreline while the sound of crashing waves carry you into a relaxing, hazy state of peacefulness? Rocky Point isn't just for those Spring Breakers living in Arizona, New Mexico, and California. You too can enjoy your piece of sandy beach heaven on the Baja coast via Puerto
Penasco rentals. No matter how long or short a stay you plan at Rocky Point, there are many ways to keep you and your family entertained: from sport fishing charters to combing the beach shore for signs of unique sealife. Oceano-Rentals provides a vast number of Rocky Point Vacation Rental Homes and Condos that are sure to meet all of your wishes and budget constraints.
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Disclosure
Blog Burnout 2007-06-18 07:08:23 Posting has temporarily come to a halt. I even missed InWeDay, which I'm sorely embarrassed about. I'm flooded with ideas but the of late computer issues have overwhelmed me and a spell of "what the hell am I doing here" has been echoing in my head causing me to reevaluate certain life paths and assumptions. Life is good, don't get me wrong. But when you know you could do better, it's time to get at the helm and tweak the course a bit.
Post should trickle back soon.. Read more:Burnout
Moving Day 2008-04-28 08:50:07 Well folks. Some time in the future Lucid-Sphere.Net will be no more. If you are looking for a post that was once at this address, please go here and just maybe you'll find what you've been searching for.
As always happy traveling and I do hope you update your links to
Your wandering gal,
Heza Read more:Moving
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