phoenix-rose

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Posts posted by phoenix-rose

  1. Posted

    ok so since it's only Jade and I, we decided to change to Sudkreuz as the meeting place.

     

     

    Meet 9:15 am at Sudkreuz.

     

     

     

    train is at 9:26 am Suzkreuz RE 3 platform 6

     

    change in Angermunde arrives to Szczecin at 11:28.

     

     

     

    Leaving at either 16:55, 17:55, or 18:55 will get there.

     

    if anyone's interested please feel free to PM either Me or Jade. :)

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  2. Posted

    ok so if we decide Leipzig for the Balloon festival -

     

    Berlin HBF - 8:24 am track 3 on IC 2152

     

    change at Bitterfeld to track 5 for the RE 92705

     

    arrive Leipzig - 09:58 am.

     

    That'd give us a chance to figure out exactly where the festival is. ;)

     

     

    Looks like the train to take back would be at 18:11 pm - RB 26366, changing at Lutherstadt Wittenburg to RE 33116, then getting back into Berlin at 20:41.

     

    How's that sound?

     

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  3. Posted

    ah too Bad, Paul!

     

    Hey Jade - re Hamburg - did you see this? Might be some great night photography there this weekend, with the harbour lit up blue and the cruise lines coming through port.

     

    http://www.thelocal...0730-28845.html

     

    and speaking of night time photography - Lepizig:

     

    LEIPZIG

     

     

     

    Festivals

     

     

    Saxonia Balloon Fiesta

     

    What's more majestic than summer's blue sky filled with a rainbow of hot air balloons? Be dazzled in Leipzig this weekend as dozens of the heavenly orbs take flight.

     

    Price: Free

    Location: Silbersee

    Times: Thursday, July 29 - Sunday, August 1

    More Information: www.balloonfiesta.de

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  7. Posted

    Well, guys, it's my last weekend (I think) in Berlin before the move to Ireland. Anyone got something special planned for the photography group outing? My big camera is already being sent over there, but I have my little hand held one and would love to see everyone before I move... so... let's do something!

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  8. Posted

    i have an idea for the TOMORROW (if someone wants to try for this contest)!

     

    http://tourist.visitberlin.de/en/node/279449

     

     

    Be present, at Potsdamer Platz on 15/07 at 6:15 pm, the helicopter starts on the Potsdamer Platz with a 2.6 ton heavy piece of the Berlin Wall. The colourful relic is currently standing on the area in front of the Bahn Tower, and on Thursday night will be flown about 100-metres up—to the newly opened PANORAMAPUNKT on the Kollhof Tower.

     

    Submission Deadline is Wednesday, 21 July, at midnight, and the prizes are ok too.

     

    Good Luck!!

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  9. Posted

    Forgive me for being practical, but if you move to Germany, you may want to start taking German classes sooner rather than later. Unless you absolutely want to be an English teacher, jobs here will be hard to find. Not impossible, just difficult. In addition, you'll be VERY reliant on her for translating everything from the most basic bill to complex employment contracts. This is very taxing on anyone and no matter how patient they are, could put extra strain on the relationship - love or no love.

     

    As another thought - you mentioned she was going to school for nursing or nursing management. If your girlfriend speaks English, could she not transfer that degree (with very little trouble - but maybe taking some exams stateside) to the US? I know that in most places in the US, they're always seeking skilled nurses, nurses assistants, and so on. If she has the degree and some practical experience - and if it is able to be taken with her and used in the US, would it not be easier for her to move there until you can get your German skills up to par?

     

    She can get her experience - you your German - you both can see how it works out - and then return to Germany (possibly married?) and go from there.

     

    In the end, stuff is just that - stuff. It's the relationships with the people that count the most.

     

    Just a thought from the edge.

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  10. Posted

    My Dr is Dr. Abhari - and luckily, two of the doctors in this office do speak English. They're really good, and try to make you feel comfortable. Plus, since they're used to alot of cultural differences she discussed with me what to expect before the exam. Even though I knew - it was still good because she recognized that different places handle the nudity issue differently.

     

    http://www.abhari-beckmann.de/NewFiles/framesite.html

     

    They're over by Checkpoint Charlie - which could be a bit far from wedding - but possibly worth it. Good Luck!

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  11. Posted

    The supposed reason for that is because buildings in the us are built out of wood on both the inside and out - and also the plaster.

     

    More buildings in Germany "won't burn" because they're concrete - at least according to German logic.

     

    Thing is - that the building OUTSIDE won't burn as much, but the inside will. Thus, you do end up with death traps where the stairwells / hallways go up and take the people trying to escape with them. I can remember that this happened - and was a huge discussion about it - in the last couple of years, but never heard more about how the lax laws about smoke detectors/etc have improved (or not).

     

    To this day, I'm thankful I chose a low floor apartment - I can get out any window with but a small issue. The trade-off, of course, is that I (or burgler) can also get in, so I can't ever leave my windows open...

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  12. Posted

    Most airlines actually recommend that you DO NOT sedate your animals when flying. Just like alcohol on flights acts differently than alcohol on the ground - the same is true for animals and sedatives.

     

    Generally speaking - if you come over and you have a pet with you and the pet needs to go through customs - for the Vet inspection and so on, I would think that they should wait for the owner to be there. They did that with me and my husky and I have heard several others say the same. Otherwise, if they're not inspecting because you're coming from within the EU - LUCKY YOU!!

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  13. Posted

    I'd just leave it on the doorstep if it's a secured building. Where I live, I can see directly down to the front door and can see if it's a post person. Because my building is secure (and all the doors can't be seen from the street) I will take a package and then leave it for my neighbors. It saves them a trip up/down the stairs.

     

    Otherwise, I've had them do similar for me - which is great because I've found that often the lovely blue card gets mixed in the shuffle of werbung and newspapers I get on a daily basis... :blink: But then again - I think that the post person takes a special pleasure in stuffing them in between the pages of the newspaper...along with my letters, cards, and etc.

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  14. Posted

    Two thoughts here - but I'm not a parent - I just remember my little brother going through something like this.

     

    a) could be the result of a growth spurt - that maybe she's grown a bit and her bladder size hasn't quite kept up.

    B) bladder or kidney infection? could try having her drink cranberry juice and see if it helps/doesn't.

     

    if it is a behavior issue, then yes, I agree, try to not get upset about it. You could always do the "shun" thing and as parents, start pointing at her and laughing, or have her friends do that (calling her a baby/etc) and embarass her into not doing it. Sometimes pure pressure is a way to get the behavior issue to change.

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  17. Posted

    Sorry folks, it seems normal.

     

    My first year in Germany - on the 4th of July, the high was 55 F (13C) and rained off and on all day. For the picnic some friends and I had, we wound up with heavy jackets and leaving once the sun set (too cold). That was pretty much the entire "summer". After 4 years in the "lowland" countries, I realize that this is our summer. About the best weather we'll get is in April / October - and it rarely gets above 30 C. We should be investing in SAD lamps (to be used all year).

     

    I was never so happy as to go to Egypt on holiday - because it seems I'd forgotten what the sun looked like... Of course, the resulting blinding of the native populations from my pale white reflective skin may have had its consequences, but at least I got to bake like a lizard (lobster?) on a rock and be warm for a while. :D

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  19. Posted

    Sorry guys - I've been having internet problems all weekend. Wound up not going to the festival in Werder since I thought everyone was going on Saturday to the protests and it got voted down.

     

    Next year maybe. :)

     

    Otherwise, I work the weekend - and after that i'm not sure what after that.

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  20. Posted

    Looks really great Lolo - but you need a spell checker/ proof reader ;). May need you to do up one for me too, but I'm still messing about with mine to figure out what I want to put up there.

     

    Re Werder - I'm going on Sunday I think - if the weather's good. Otherwise, I'll have to see how I feel on Saturday - I've got some errands to run since I broke the shower curtain rod in the bathroom - would like to get that fixed to prevent flooding. :)

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  21. Posted

    Awesome pictures of Teufelsberg. Sorry I didn't make it, but I did need the day off to rest and recouperate from alot of extra time in Ireland.

     

    For those wondering, there's a flickr group at:

     

    http://www.flickr.com/groups/_toytowngermany_com_berlin_photo_meet/

     

    for the Toytown photo group.

     

    In there is also a decent list of ideas if someone wants to add to it or use them. :)

     

    http://www.flickr.com/groups/_toytowngermany_com_berlin_photo_meet/discuss/72157616436093802/

     

    This weekend's suggestion? (other than trying to figure out where the May Day Riots will be in Kreuzberg's May Day celebrations...)

     

    The Baumblütenfest in Werder an Der Havel -

    24. April bis zum 02. Mai 2010

     

    http://www.werder-havel.de/t10.htm

     

    I was here last year - and the weather was fantastic. I would suggest meeting a bit earlier than we were before (and maybe bring a bicycle if you have one) because if the weather is nice, the place will be packed.

     

     

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  22. Posted

    Finally - FINALLY!! back in Berlin. Can't tell you how happy I am to be home.

     

    Anyhow, yes, the listening post looks great - but would like to confirm tomorrow am if I'm going. (not being a party pooper here, but just not sure if I'll decide to sleep in a bit since I have to go back to work Monday...) I am more likely than not to be going though. :)

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  23. Posted

    K try blowing it out first. See if that helps.

     

    If not, then take a q-tip and spray some glass cleaner on the cotton bud. Let it start to dry (no drippy wet), and then gently wipe it over the mirror inside and use the blower to blow it off until it's dry. See if that helps. I usually find that takes care of the spots for me because of how the mirror is angled behind the lens in my camera - it's not the spots on the sensor - it's the mirror where dust accumulates for me.

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  24. Posted

    When I first moved out of my parents house (I was working in high school and paying them "rent" so that we could keep food on the table) into my own apartment, I was in a 7 US dollar an hour job. It had no health insurance and after paying for rent,utilities, and gas/insurance for my old clunker of a car, I would have about 20 -30 dollars left over for an entire month worth of food. I could make it stretch by shopping at the scratch and dent store and the "over expiration" frozen goods store, eating a lot of pasta, and by growing extras in pots in my front window. If I scrimped and saved, I could buy clothes/shoes from the thrift store. This was "getting by", and what I called "poor, but surviving".

     

    The above was bad but "do-able". Even worse was when, after the first 10 months of the above, I got very sick and wound up in the hospital for 2 weeks. I made "just enough" to be above the medicaid limit - 50 cents an hour too much - and the bills for the stay were $45,000. The hospital made arrangements with me to where I would pay "only" 25 dollars a week toward them (and a bunch of charity money kicked in to help out) - but the bill was still well over $10,000 - a near impossible sum at the time, and I couldn't ask my parents for money - they were now relying on my little brother's job to help them pay their bills too. Moving back in with them was also not an option - they were clear across the US (I was in Utah, they were in Georgia) and no one had the money to pay for the gas to drive back.

     

    The result? I KNEW I was poor. I moved to an even worse apartment than the one I had been in - It was an attic apartment - where I had to stand on a cover in the floor to flush the toilet (it was the air vent) so the toilet's flush wouldn't back wash on the bathroom floor; the heater in the place had been condemned as a safety hazard (the slumlord owner came up and turned it on saying "to hell with the gas company's ruling") it was from 1910 and got so hot you could boil water on it - which I did rather than use the stove; and if someone else was using the water on one of the floors below me, I didn't have water until they were done. In the summer, the windows didn't open more than an inch or two, and being the attic apartment with a black roof - it got upward of 140 F inside (I would go snooze in the nearby park for a couple hours during the day when it was super hot). In the winter, the kitchen/bathroom windows didn't seal tightly so you'd get wind howling across the apartment and then snow flicking around the edges of them and piles of snow on the floor under them when the storms came.

     

    Saving money became an obsession - I was washing clothes with dish soap in my bathtub (rather than go to the laundry mat), and worked a full and a part time job (one during the day, the other at night)- neither of which paid more than $7 minimum wage - The first covered apartment/utilities; the second one paid the gas to/from the job and hospital bill and that was it (STILL no health insurance). I gave up the idea of going to college/university any time soon - and because there was no money left over for food, I was pretty much starving myself. If I got hungry - I was eating once a day - Ramen noodles bought by the case (24 packages for $8) and then raiding the work break room stash drawer for left over packets of ketchup, mustard, and barbeque sauce to put on top of the noodles for some "vegetables". It was pretty gross, but I was desperate. I remember days where I counted myself lucky - if a colleague offered me the rest of their french fries, half of a sandwich or "splurged" and shared some of what they'd made at home with me - I don't think they realized how bad it was - or if they did, they knew I wouldn't take money from them because I always thought someone else was "worse off".

     

    I did eventually, through the help of lots of really great friends, find my way out of being so poor. One of them let me move into the basement of their home where I paid rent only after the first 3 months (so I could build up a little bit of savings and get on my feet) and really helped me out more than I can say (taught me to budget, helped me figure out my strengths/weaknesses, and got me my first OVER minimum wage paid job with health insurance). From there, I also found better jobs - that paid better. I've still not gone back to school (I still want to) but I think that things have worked out for me (after all, I'm in Europe!) and I consider myself lucky and am VERY grateful to those friends of mine. I know that what didn't kill me made me stronger - and the result is that I have a whole other respect for people who find themselves in difficult situations - and/or the poor house because they got sick.

    18