Alice says goodbye!

Since I am back in Canada now, my Alice in Wunderbarland chronicles have come to a close.

I have started a new blog http://www.girlinspots.blogspot.com/, so feel free to check that out!

Thanks so much for reading all of these months.  Tschuss!

Leaving Germany

Today is my last day in Germany! Sad sad, but I am super excited to see my friends and family when I get back to Canada tomorrow. These 5 months have been wonderful and I am already anxious to return to Deutschland ASAP.

I still have some photos to post on the blog from Berlin but for now I need to finish packing and spend some quality time with my favourite German!

When I get back to my homeland, I will fill you in on all the details on Berlin AND my new blogging adventures which I am quite excited about!

Auf wiedersehen!

Aww, it's Max's (adorable) home town!

Hello wonderful blog readers,

It feels like a long time since I have posted, sorry about that! Max and I are heading to Berlin for the weekend  (my last weekend in Germany - eek!) so I promise I will have loads of lovely photos and stories to share upon our return. In the meantime, I wanted to share a few photos of Max's home town that I took yesterday.

Max is from a small town called Bad Bergzabern and it is just adorable! I have been there quite a few times since arriving in Germany but yesterday was the first time I took any photos. 

Must finish packing now. Have a great weekend everybody! 

PS: The last photo is of the pharmacy - take that Shoppers Drugmart.

Drawing, cooking, stenciling, and cat trapping.

Much to my surprise, I totally defeated any chance of having a 'case of the Mondays' today by being super productive! I love that feeling of realizing 'hey, I have actually done a lot of shit today. And you know what else? I am not completely drained of energy - in fact, I feel rather good. Go me!' 

I have taken up drawling a little, so today I bought some water colour pencils and a new sketch book. I have never used water colour pencils before but they are quite nice as you have a lot more control than if you were using paints but you can just add a little water and make everything much softer. I am not very artistic by nature so I have mostly been drawing little cartoon cats and flowers. However I have been practicing figure drawing via youtube tutorials and with one of those wooden figure dolls (like in those back pain medication commercials!), so hopefully my art skills will improve a little. Otherwise I may wind up with a sketch book full of kittens. 

I am also working on another little art project with Max using stencils. On Friday we went to craft store and decided to buy some blank canvas tote bags and black fabric spray paint and experiment a little. Anyways, I thought it would be a neat idea to spray paint pictures of the things I would usually carry in my bag on the bag. This proved to be more difficult than I originally expected as it is kind of hard to find stencils of things like pens, sunglasses, etc. I also discovered I really suck at using an exacto knife, so Max has been cutting out the stencils for me. So far he made me a great stencil of a camera which will certainly be going on the bag and then one of scissors and one of an apple. I tried to make a stencil of a lipstick but it turned out looking pretty deformed. Needless to say, I will have to finish the bag another day and possibly head back to a craft store to just buy some stencils rather than cut them all out ourselves. On the plus though I have found a great stencil of a deer head to put on a plain grey sweatshirt of mine. 

I am hoping to finish all of my crafty projects by the end of the week - so I will certainly share the finished results here. 

I also cooked a really tasty dinner for Max and I today. I am especially proud of myself because I didn't use a recipe and it was my first time making fish. Here's my makeshift recipe:

 1. Chop up a bunch of veggies - I used red and yellow peppers, red onion, and a lemon.

 2. In tinfoil (or a casserole dish if you're fancy like that), place down veggies, fish, and more veggies in  layers... Like a fish sandwich only instead of bread you use veggies.

 3. Then add the juice from one lemon and lots of salt and pepper on top of everything. 

4. Bake for 45 minutes or so.

5. Eat.

Success! And look how colourful! Food Network should be calling me up any day now.

In other exciting news, I have been accepted to college! My foray back into the education system will officially commence come September and I am really quite happy about it. 

Also I dropped a roll of film off today so expect some new photos up later this week! There should be some interesting shots so I am excited to see how it turns out (knock on wood) - think strange tree forts and decaying house boats. 

And now, to end things on an adorable note: here is a picture of Fredo stuck in a chest. 

Adventures in Amsterdam

Hello all! 

Max and I had a great time in Amsterdam this weekend! It was definitely one of the most exciting cities I have visited so far. We only spent two days there so it was a pretty whirlwind trip but we managed to squeeze in a lot of sight seeing. 

We arrived on Saturday afternoon and took the metro down our hostel, which turned out to be kind of sketchy. It was odd because, it was very run down and dirty looking but there were some surprising comforts. For instance, the shower looked a bit like a scene from Saw (flashback to terrible Beausoleil basement shower), it was dark and dirty but then it had one of those amazing rain-like shower heads that hangs straight down from the ceiling with an infinate supply of hot water! And the dorm rooms looked very WWI hospital room esque but the beds were super comfy and the pillows were wonderful! All in all no complaints, and I guess the lesson learned here is don't judge a book by its first few chapters? 

Hostel stairs, watch your step.

Er anyways, after we dropped our things at the hostel we proceeded out into the downtown of Amsterdam to do some exploring. We did some walking around a little shopping district before stopping at a cute little cafe for a few drinks. It was an adorable bar with a very charming bartender and a great deal of drunken English customers. There were also two slot machines in the bar and one man who insisted on continuously trying his luck and therefore losing a great deal of money.

After the cafe we headed to the Red Light district of Amsterdam. This is where all of the naughty business happens. I found Amsterdam so strange because it is this very charming looking city with these lovely rivers running through it with old boats on them and old cobble stone streets with tall, crooked houses - but then there is also heaps of prostitutes and marijuana. You really can smoke marijuana just about anywhere in Amsterdam, they even sold it in the lobby of our hostel. I will say this: in Amsterdam, there is a big difference between a cafe and a coffeeshop. Anyways we walked around the Red Light district for a while, which was an odd experience for me. The streets are filled with neon signs advertising 'Live Sex Shows' and  the windows of the buildings are filled with prostitutes, ready and waiting in their sexy outfits, on display for your choosing. I don't really have a problem with prostitution - if some one wants to have sex for money that's their business and that's fine, but I also get the feeling that a lot of these women didn't grow up wanting to be a hooker and have perhaps fallen upon hard times and that makes me very sad. Needless to say, I did not partake in any sex show viewing or prostitute purchasing. We did however, take a trip to the Erotic Art Museum in the red light district which was fun. 

The next morning we woke up and headed out in search of pancakes! The night before at one of the pubs we were at I had picked up a little ad for The Pancake Bakery - which boasts Amsterdam's best pancakes. The Pancake bakery was situated along one of the canals so we had a nice walk on the way there. 

Followed by some delicious pancakes that, dare I say, almost rival the Hoito's. 

Look at the size of that baby!

Max feeling  jealous and stupid because he ordered an omlette.

After the awesome breakfast, we explored the neighbourhood a bit and took lots of photos. Then we headed to the Van Gogh museum. I love Vang Gogh so I thought the collection  was great, but  the museum was quite crowded and they didn't offer any student rates - lame. After that, we walked through the downtown entertainment district for a while before heading back to the hostel to warm up. On our way back to the hostel we stopped at an amazing vintage shop called Bij Ons Vintage and we both bought new jackets! Mine is a wonderful mustard coloured wool blazer with a fur collar and clear plastic buttons - so 70s! 

Last night, it was absolutely freezing so we ended up going to see a movie to keep warm. We saw 'The Last Three Days' and let me just say, it is truly an awful film. What is it about Russell Crowe that makes me want to punch him in the face so badly!? Anyways here are a few pictures of Amsterdam at night!

  

Today we left Amsterdam around noon, and I was quite sad to leave! I would have loved to stayed a bit longer and have more time to explore that wonderful city!        

Leaving Amsterdam with my trusty suitcase and new vintage coat!

                            

Oscar season has officially begun!

Since Germany is a whopping six hours ahead of Eastern time, I got to live stream the Oscar nominations this afternoon for the first time! I am an Oscar fanatic but I have never actually watched the nominations being announced. I feel sorry for those poor fools in Hollywood who had to be there at 5AM this morning! The Academy tends to nominate predictably so there weren't too many surprises this morning - they did ten nominees for Best Picture again (which I hate). The King's Speech got the most nominations (12) of the lot - I found it kind of boring, but Colin Firth is always amazing. Anyways,  now that Oscar season has officially kicked off I will share some of my yays and nays for this batch of nominations.
Click here to view the full list of nominees.

YAYS 

1. Javier Bardem's nomination for Best Actor for Biutiful: To be honest, I haven't seen this movie yet but I love Javier Bardem and I am sure he is spectacular. More importantly though, this is the first time an actor has been nominated for best actor for an entirely Spanish speaking role. I like that the Academy had the balls to do this, because there are a lot of great foreign language films made each year that only get a nod for the foreign language category when the acting performances are just as great as those in the Hollywood big budgets.

2.  10 big ones for the Cohen Bros: Joel and Ethan Cohen earned 10 nominations for True Grit including Best Picture, Best Actor (Jeff Bridges), Achievement in Directing, Cinemetography, and Adapted Screenplay. The Cohen Brothers can do no wrong in my eyes. While I am not a huge fan of Westerns I really enjoyed what I saw of True Grit (have yet to finish watching it, but its high on the list), and I think it was an interesting genre for them to explore.

3. Exit Through the Gift Shop's nomination for Best Documentary Feature: Since 'Waiting for Superman' didn't get a nomination, I have a feeling this film is going to win and I really hope it does because I am so curious to see if the ever illusive Banksy will show up to the awards, and if he does - will he wear a disguise or something? Will he accept his award? I don't know! Exciting!

4. The Kids are All Right gets a Best Picture nod: This was one of my favourite movies I saw in 2010 and I am so happy it is getting some awards show lovin' even though it was a summer release. This movie is just so full of heart and each of the actors give such a raw, emotional performance. I would really love to see this film win Best Picture (sadly I don't think it will), but I think Annette Benning is a real contender for the Best Actress category (after the almighty Natalie Portman, of course).

5. Harry Potter potentially an Academy Award winner: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows got a few nominations for visual effects today, yahoo! Not the most important awards of the night, but I love all things Harry Potter so I had to give it a shout out.

NAYS

1. Inception gets a whopping 8 nominations, Dayna continues to scratch head: I could write a whole blog entry about how baffled I am about Inception getting a Best Picture nomination but I don't want to obsess so I will keep it (kind of) brief.  There is no way in hell it will win Best Picture so I don't really need to worry about that but even the nomination pisses me off. A lot of the nominations for Inception are for visual effects which makes sense. Visually, it is a stunning film.  However, what angers me the most is its nomination for Best Original Screenplay to good ol' Christopher Nolan. I realize he wrote the movie and that takes a lot of hard work and talent but the whole 'dream within a dream within a dream' concept of Inception is not in anyway Nolan's original idea. There is a Japanese anime movie from 2006 called Papurika that explores this concept, and even an old Daffy Duck cartoon. Now, everyone can gently remove their noses from up Christopher Nolan's ass and lets call a spade a spade: Inception is just yet another action movie with good visual effects and it is therefore not worthy of any Academy Awards! The end.

2. 8 Nominations for The Social Network:  A lot of people think that The Social Network is the front runner for Best Picture, I like to wait until the SAG awards to place any bets as they usually hold more influence then the Golden Globes (which the Social Network won). I am not as peeved about this one as Inception, but I was not as taken with The Social Network as most people. It's a good movie, the acting performances are all fine and the story is told in a smart way to keep things interesting - this movie has a lot of potential to be boring, and it's not. But, as my mom would say 'there's nothing wowsville about it.'

3. What about Sofia?: I thought Sofia Coppola's new film Somewhere was nomination worthy, especially in the cinemetography and directing categories. I really enjoyed this film and I thought it was visually beautiful, I loved the theme of classic hotels and it showcased Los Angeles in an interesting way.

4. Only four Best Actor nominees - WTF Academy!?: (Note: This actually was a mistake, they have forgotten to list Colin Firth as a nominee on the Oscar website but I will keep my original rant in place because I feel these actors also deserve a nod to the great performances they gave this year.) Apparently only four actors are worthy of a Best Actor nomination this year!? Immediately, two performances came to mind that I felt were Oscar worthy. The first is Stephen Dorff's in the aformentioned Somewhere. The second is Ben Stiller in Greenberg. I know, I know - Ben Stiller is kind of a dud most of the time but his performance in this film is really incredible (the whole movie is great, by the way). Regardless of who is nominated, I find the four nominations thing really odd and I would have predicted Ben Affleck getting nominated for his role in The Town.

I usually try to watch all of the movies nominated for the big awards before the show airs, I have already seen quite a few of the Best Picture nominees and my favourites were definitely Black Swan and The Kids are All Right. However sometimes really great films can go unnoticed by the award shows and there are two films that I am really disappointed didn't get any nominations. However, everyone has different taste and to be honest, the Academy usually chooses to promote big budget flicks so they have a more mainstream audience. So I have to pay a small tribute to two of the films I really loved this past year: Somewhere and Greenberg. They are untouched by the awards shows but still loved by me! Here are the trailers to both if you want to check them out.

For those of you in Canada interested in getting some professional insight on the nominations, CBC Radio's Q always has a great discussion on the Oscar nominations. I think it airs at 10AM and 10PM but you can also listen on the CBC website or download the podcasts on iTunes. That's about it for my Oscar rant... Until the 30th when the SAG Awards air, of course. Tschüs!

Unusual weekend activities

Can we all just agree now that Sunday nights are the worst? Now that I have readapted to the routine of 8AM wake ups five days a week, I am really starting to hate Sunday nights. I generally love Sundays - a day of rest, nothing major to do just drink coffee and read, maybe do my nails, take a walk... Sundays are lovely. But the later it gets on Sunday night, there is a feeling of dread and panic that creeps up on me reminding me of the early mornings that lie ahead. Just awful...  

Anyways, I did something rather unusual this weekend - I went to the gym! To excercise! I haven't excercised in ages but I haven't been feeling the best lately, my energy levels are oh so low most days, so I figured some physical activity would do me good. I only worked out for about an hour or so but I felt very energized after and was happy to have done something productive with my Saturday morning. Max ended up getting a membership at the gym we went to, so I plan to tag along every now and then. I must admit though, I woke up this morning in so much pain, at first I was like 'what contorted position have I been sleeping in to make all my muscles ache simultaneously!?' But then I remembered my trip to the gym, 'Oh yes, this is the reason I never excercise.' Anyways I am quite sore today but I will try to perservere and hit the gym again later this week. If Snooki can do it, so can I!

Another new experience I had this weekend was giving little Fredo his first bath! We went to Bergzabern yesterday and as we were driving home this evening Fredo had a little accident and peed in his plastic carrier. So when we got home he was a bit stinky and in much need of a bath. Considering the usual amount of 'tude Fredo has, he handled his first bath pretty well. 

Poor Fredo was quite scared after his bath, I tried to dry him off but he was terrified of the blow dryer and ran under the bed to hide. He was cuddling with Max a bit later but I think my giving him a bath has done some damage on our friendship.  

I hope you all had a lovely weekend and are feeling less discouraged about your next week of school or work than I. Here are a few photos from Fredo's first bath! Sorry for being such a cat lady, I really can't help it. Tschüs!

Into the sink he goes!

Attempting escape.

Pre-bath happier times.