A French-Fragrance-tastic Day and The Quest To Find Saturn (featuring the first weekly special)

Who would have thought it, but it actually is possible to have a great day in Mannheim. I think I judged this city prematurely. Seeing a friend for the first time in over 4 years probably messes with perceptions but still.
Starting from the train-station, stopping by at Starbucks for a coffee (how original of us) we went on a cosmic quest: find Saturn. This is less exciting than it sounds... its a media-store (Canadian equivalent: Best Buy). My friend needed a media card. We ended up in Kaufhof (Canadian equivalent: The Bay). Why? Because my sense of orientation sucks! Here we spontaneously decided to amuse y'all with a less than official review of a selection of fragrances and I decided to make this sort of thing a weekly special of my blog. Here it goes:

Oh before I start, please picture this: Two girls entering the fragrance section, walking around, pointing and giggling. Both faces suddenly turn serious, business-like. Then one takes out a notebook and a pen. The other takes a bottle, sprays some fragrance into the air and both girls simultaneously bend forward, sniffing frantically. Short pause, pondering expressions, a short discussion and the first takes a few notes. Repeat.

1) Urban Motion from Puma
Rating: 7/10
Sophie: "A pleasant breeze of Nothing"
Carolin agrees in silence.

2) Cool Water by Davidoff (woman)
Rating: 9/10
Carolin: "I'm gonna buy this eventually."
Sophie: "If we smell like her (Evangeline Lilly), maybe... over time... we'll look like her, too..."

3) Euphoria (the new one) by Calvin Klein
Rating: 10/10 because Carolin owns it
No comments

4) Insolence by Guerlain
Rating: 2/10
Carolin: "One point because the negativity of the name actualy applies to the fragrance..."
Sophie: "... and another one because the bottle is kinda cool"

5) Very Wild by Mexx
Rating: 1/10
Both of us: "No! Just... no."

6) Christina Aguilera by Christina Aguilera
Raring: ?
Sophie: "... I didn't smell anything..."
Carolin: "Me neither."

7) One Summer by Calvin Klein
Rating: 7/10
Sophie: "Fresh!"
Carolin: "Nice!"

8) Black Star by Avril Lavigne
Rating: 5/10
Sophie: "Very Lollipoppy."
Carolin: "But an extra point for being Canadian!"

We left the place and headed for the book store, loathing or ability to smell ourselves against the wind but enjoying the wide open space around us, caused by a number of 180° turns of people who accidentally came too close.
After a few minutes we had the store almost to ourselves because our fragrance-tsunami caused a three-story-wide evacuation. Not irritated by this in the least we spend a full three hours in there having the time of our lives (you see, here in Germany they let you READ in bookstores). As you can probably guess I bought some more books...

We had some Kebab for lunch and another coffee (or so the Starbucks people thought... we used their outdoor chairs, pretending to be customers) and then went home to gather some energy for the fragrantic finale: a movie. By the time we got to the theatre our extended air bubble must have reached the pleasant-submerged-whiff-of-a-fragrance level because all of a sudden people got a lot closer. The movie itself was amazing. I'm not sure you'll be all able to see it because it was a little French production but if you can, GO SEE IT! It is called "Parlez-moi de la pluie". Its very funny and very sad in its frenchy kinda way...

Have a good weekend y'all and please don't buy me a fragrance for Christmas!

So I went shopping today...

Station 1: Bakery. Butter Croissant... mhhhhh

Station2: Bank. I'm a little scared to look at my online account balance after that visit because I took Euros out of a German Bank machine with my Canadian CIBC card... Hellooooo additional fees.
Note: when they made me choose a language I picked English..

Station 3: Café. It was a little Italian coffee-stand to stay as true to its size as possible. I had one pretty expensive but reeeeally reeeeeally good coffee while sitting on a little wall near a huge fountain, looking at people from the Pirate-Party making fuss about the upcoming election (No kidding, that party exists)

Station 4: Gravis computer store (sells Apple stuff). I went in looking for decent headphones. I left without any headphones but with dreamy eyes and a lot of frustration about my meager financial status.

Station 5: Book store. Knowing fully well that it is impossible for me to enter a book store without ending up buying one, I went in anyways, hoping to be able to withstand the temptation this one time. 2 hours later I left with 4 new books and a free booklet: 1) The Antichrist (in German) 2) Fight Club (in English) 3) German Constitutional Rights Report 2009 (in German... duh) 4) The Time Traveler's Wife (in English) and the booklet: 6 violations against the social economy - learn from the crisis (in German).
Note: I keep looking everywhere for a good biography of Elisabeth I (English or German) but its nowhere to be found. I concluded that writing one myself is probably the best solution.
Oh yah... I also got a free bookmark... and wait there is more in the bag... candy... mhhh

Station 6: Several Retails stores. None where very exciting. I pretty much just went into the fitting room to check out my ponytail from all the different-angle-mirrors (Oh yah... I'm still in the letting-my-hair-grow state of mind. Lets see how long that will last this time...)

Station 7-9: Grocery store and several little stores. Basic summary: I was on a quest to find tandoori-sauce. I failed. So I baught some spices some yoghurt and some ginger to try it myself...

That's it for now, y'all! Let the cooking begin!

Raspberries and lots of walkin'

So I went to Heidelberg today. It was painfully humid and I completely underestimated the distance between the main train station and where I wanted to go (I walked). As if that wasn't enough, the place I planned on going to NO LONGER EXISTS! Huh? That's right... because the University send out all those pretty pamphlets and maps to find the #1 location for exchange students to get stuff done and then decided AFTER sending those out: lets close down that thing because we want those foreign kids to walk ALL THE WAY THROUGH TOWN for nothing! Muahaha.
Fine, to be honest it wasn't that bad. Actually I didn't mind it at all. The #2 location was right around the corner and the people there were very nice and answered all my questions. This way I got a chance to see the city up close :D.

Getting back home I had a moment of inspiration: Raspberry leftovers (from making crêpes the other day) were mixed into a self-made Yellow-Pepper-and-Curry Sauce. This plus noodles resulted in a delicious avant-guard-cooking dinner experience.
All in all the day was great. I can't wait to go live in Heidelberg. The old city part is gorgeous ( I wish I had a camera) and organizing things is going smoother than I thought.

I wanted to write something else but I forgot...

Well... that's it, y'all!

Pickles and Lemonade

I made lemonade today. It looks like a biology project that will soon produce something hairy and alive but it tastes like heaven. It is very humid here in Mannheim right now, and living on the top floor of an apartment building does NOT HELP! Thus the lemonade...
I haven't been very productive recently. There has been lots of TV-watching, FiFa 2009 - Gaming and general internet-surfing. I'm planning to go to Heidelberg tomorrow, though. Look at all the nice buildings and get some administrative stuff done. Should be fun. Lets just hope the humidity goes down. Mayb we'll have a thunderstorm!!!
I'm a little hungry, I only had some chocolate cookies for breakfast. Food shall be made shortly! It wil consist of Pickles and whatever goes with it. Thats righ, pickles. Don't judge! I like pickles... especially after eating too many chocolate cookies.
So... pickles and lemonade here I come!

cigarette vending mashines

This is for all of you who didn't believe me: yes, there are such things as cigarette vending mashines!

Station number one, check!

Three weeks in the most beautiful place on earth. Eating the best food anyone could eat and doing nothing I don't feel like doing. Golfing even though I can't hit the ball, swimming in a lake at sunset several times a week, sunbathing to the point of itchy rashes on my arms (it turns out I have a sun allergy), and reading one 1000 page book after the other.
I will try to find a good foto of where I was but they are hard to find. Its called the Fränkische Schweiz. The name almost translates to French Switzerland but thats a little misleading to say the least.

Größere Kartenansicht

This is where my Grandparents live. I spent most of my summers and christmasses there. At least until I moved across the ocean. If any of you come to visit me at some point I'll bring you there. :)

Now I'm in Mannheim. For another 2-3 weeks. With my brother. To save some space I wont post another map but on the one above you can find it... just move left from the little A-arrow. Here I can do some organizing before going to Heidelberg, which is just below when you zoom closer on the map. Its not very pretty and very sketch but I'll try not to go out too much. ;)