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.

Experiences with football and German bureaucracy

Good news gang! After heaps of paperwork, I finally got my visa yesterday so I am no longer an illegal alien! Germany, you are mein bitch.

I realize my last few posts haven't had too much to do with life in Germany but fear not faithful blog readers, for I have now experienced a very important part of German culture! On Sunday night, Max and I went to go see a professional soccer football game! Note: I will hereby be referring to soccer as football, when in Rome... 

You can probably deduce just from reading this blog that I am not a big sports fan. I can only think of one other occassion where I attended a professional sporting event and that was when my parents took me to see a Vancouver Grizzlies game in like 1998. I also don't watch sports on TV very often so as we were heading to the football game my main point of reference was of course the Quidditch World Cup from Harry Potter. And I must say while the football game was not quite as cool as quidditch, it certainly did not disappoint! 

Football is wildly popular in Germany and the fans go all out. We went to go see Max's favourite team, Kaiserslauten, play against Cologne (Köln in Deutsch). Everyone was wearing the red and white team merchandise (most commonly a scarf) and some people even bring massive team flags to wave around. The game ended in a tie of 1:1 and it was actually really exciting to watch. My favourite part of the game was when a little cat came out and ran all the way across the field! 

If you ever find yourself in good ol' Deutschland you should definitely try and catch a football game, it is a great way to experience some real German culture. Also, since I am leaving Germany at the end of next month I want to compile a list of some very German things I should do/see/eat/drink/etc. So if you have any ideas of stereotypical touristy activities I should partake in before I venture back to Canada send them my way!

Not too much else happening here at the moment, except the weather has been absolutely lovely, hovering around 10 degrees for the past week or so! This morning I went to school with just a wool blazer as a coat and was very comfortable! Other than that I have been keeping busy with my new German class each morning and most of my afternoons are spent defending myself from Max's increasingly naughty cat Fredo, who has developed a large appetite for my feet.

I hope you all had a lovely weekend! Tschüs!

What's your sign?

While doing my usual internet perusing today (by today I mean last Friday, I thought this post needed a good edit so I let it sit for a few days), I discovered that there is a great deal of cyber chit chat going on about zodiac signs right now. Apparently, some omniscent individual from Minneapolis named Parke Kunkle (seriously?) has gone ahead and spoiled everything by telling us our zodiac signs are off by about a month because of the earth's 'wobble'. Instead of getting into all the details I will share this clip with you and let my favourite funny man, and fellow Taurus, Craig Ferguson explain some of the 'science' behind the new zodiac signs.

Now, I realize zodiac signs are kind of silly but I read my horoscope every now and then, and I feel very well suited to my Taurean status. So when I read about all of this new sign business I felt a small wave of panic wash over me, 'but I don't want a new sign!' I thought. I decided to investigate further. I was not pleased with my results. In the amount of time it had taken me to do a simple google search, my astrological world had been turned upside down. I am now an Aries.

But here's the thing, I am really not an Aries at all! I browsed through many a weird hippie astrological web page to see if there were any connections at all between my character and the Aries sign and here are some of the highlights of an Aries:

Arians are intrepid and aggressive. When needed, they can almost always muster the inner-strength to face any challenge. Always competitive, Arians never lose sight of what is in their best interest.

Nein! Nein! Nein! I can barely 'muster the inner strength' to get out of bed before 10 AM most days! Challenges? I hate 'em. If it had said 'always competitive at board games' then maybe I could have a little Aries in me, but for the most part, I am not a very competitive person. But if we ever play Balderdash, I suggest you watch your back.

They much prefer action to allowing things to settle on their own. They are never afraid to take chances or follow their impulses.

Uh-buh. I am the total opposite of this! I often struggle with every day decisions on what to wear, what to eat, etc. and important decisions are never ever made without creating a pro/con list and then humming and hawing over it for a month or so.

Aries is well-suited to become a fire-fighter, surgeon, mechanic, dentist, professional athlete and entrepreneur.

Fire fighter. Enough said.

Now let us review some of the highlights of a Taurus, my true sign.

Taureans love pleasure and material gain. For them the outcome is all that matters, and it only matters if they have gained. Their ultimate pursuit is "the good life" in every sense of the phrase. Taureans are also great lovers of the arts and all things beautiful. They need to be surrounded by beauty to be happy.

Now that's more like it! See, I can't help that I love clothes and shoes and other pretty things - I was born that way.

Taureans are often seen as stubborn. However, what some see as stubbornness is actually the Taurean's will to stay their chosen course to reach their goals. Bulls are pragmatic and dependable, and left to trudge along at their own speed usually attain that which they seek.

I think I am actually just stubborn. But I most certainly have been going  my own pace for the last few years trying to focus on figuring out what I would like to achieve in the future.

Taureans are well-suited to be bankers, artists, accountants, musicians, gardeners or any profession that requires patience, determination and a strong beauty aesthetic.

Now these careers definitely seem a bit more up my alley. Although I'm not sure how the career of an accountant requires a strong beauty aesthetic - I will have to ask my dad about that one.

So to conclude my highly scientific astrological analysis, I have decided that I will remain a Taurus. The blood of the bull has run through me for 20 years now and I shall not be having my Taurean status yanked away from me by some one with the name Kunkle.

New blog design and photos - hoorah!

So I have done some fiddling around with my blog layout, I think it suits me fine. I had fun today playing with ink and scribbling out my blog title a bunch of times before settling upon the one you see now!

Anyways I don't have too much to report other than I started my new German class today which went very well! Other than that it has been a pretty low key week here so far. It has been raining a lot this week so I haven't really been in the mood to be out and about. Max and I are going to Trier this weekend to visit some of his old friends and do a bit of sight seeing so hopefully the weather cooperates!

I got some photos deveoloped yesterday so I will share some of the good ones with you now! Enjoy.

Much delayed photos from Spain

So the holidays sort of got in the way of me posting about our trip to Spain last month. Sorry! So I thought I would share some more photos from our trip now! I am still getting some film developed from Granada and Madrid so I will just be posting some pictures from my digital camera for now.

Speaking of photos and such, I ordered a vintage camera off of eBay the other day - exciting! I love the shots I have been getting from my film camera but I don't have a flash for it yet and it is pretty bulky to carry around all the time. So I decided to invest in a more compact film camera that I could bring out at night and carry around on the day to day. I wound up purchasing a German camera called the Agfa Achromat from 1960. It's fairly small and comes with a large attachable flash and a leather case - score! Perfect for nights out on the town.

The Agfa Achromat

Now on to the photos from Spain! First up is Valencia. Max and I only spent one night in Valencia, on our way from Barcelona to Granada, but it proved to be a lovely city and a relaxing change of pace from the business of Barcelona.

After our stay in Valencia, we took the train overnight to Granada. Max and I agree that Granada was definitely the most fun stop on our trip through Spain and it also had the yummiest (and cheapest!) food! Granada is known for having some of the best tapas in Spain, there are tapas bars everywhere and when you buy a drink for 1.50 or so, you get a free tapas with it - amazing! We also went to a flamenco show in Granada which was a really cool experience. Granada was also great because we got to visit our dear friend Zena!

Our last stop on our journey through Spain was Madrid. I have to tell you, Madrid is pretty cray-cray. Our hostel was down town and when we emerged from the Metro station it was like Times Square. The streets were absolutely packed! One of the coolest things we did in Madrid was our trip to the weekly flea market, El Rasto. It's the largest flea market in Europe!

So there you have it folks! I hope you enjoyed the photos. If you want to see even more photos from our journey through Spain you can check out my Facebook page. It was such an amazing trip and I would love to venture back to beautiful Espana some time soon!

Also I am redesigning my blog this week - I have had my blog up for a few months now so it's time to branch away from the blogger template and create something more unique. If you have any cool ideas throw 'em this way. Tschüss!

The strange and foreign activity of studying

I reacquainted myself with studying today. I have had about a year long hiatus from school now, and have therefore been able to avoid the joyous activity that is studying. However I have signed up for a new German course this month and tomorrow I have to write the placement test to see if I qualify for the 'level 2' class.

So today I trudged down to Starbucks, my translator in tow, to practice German for a few hours. I feel fairly confident about my abilities in German. If asked to describe my language level I would say I have acquired an adequate tourists' knowledge, meaning I can fairly easily navigate through a restaurant or shop on my own. The thing that often stumps me is the fact that German has three genders for nouns: masculine, feminine, and neutral. This means there are three different ways to say things like 'the', 'to', 'not', and 'a'. You also have to modify the end of each adjective you use to describe a noun to ensure it matches the gender. On top of this, there are seven different ways to pluralize nouns in German. It's these little tricks that tend to frustrate me and drive me to ask 'sprechen sie Englisch?' more often than not.

However, the studying went well for the most part so I think I should do well on the test tomorrow. Aside from the studying we have had a really great weekend in Heidelberg - the temperature has been lingering at a lovely 10 degrees the past few days so it has been really pleasant outside. Yesterday was a beautiful day so Max and I went for a walk along the river (which is flooding over now due to the temperature increase), and I managed to snag a few photos as the sun was setting.

OK this is an awesome photo because you can actually see our apartment in it!

RIGHT THERE SEE!?!?

The flood! AHHHHH!

Our side of HD

Other side of HD

Notice how there is no snow or ice in sight!? Amazing. I could certainly get used to the 10 degree winter.

In other exciting news, we seem to have gotten a lot of new shops and restaurants in Heidelberg over the holidays! Tonight Max and I went to a new restaurant called Moschmosch which is a Japanese noodle bar and we loved it! The menu is pretty specific to noodle and rice dishes, and each of our ramen soups were delicious. The decor is also wonderful - very modern and tranquil. Moschmosch even has its very own super cute cartoon spokes person!

Isn't she adorable!

I hope you all have had a lovely weekend as well, and have rested up for the work week ahead! My German class doesn't start until Thursday so I still have a few days to sleep in before I head back to school. Max and I are thinking of taking a trip to Trier next weekend which is the oldest city in Germany. I hope the mild weather hangs around until then so I can sight see in style!

Before I sign off I want to share one more photo with you! I often catch Max's kitty Fredo lying around with his tongue partially out of his mouth, and this morning I managed to snag a picture of his goofy little expression!

Here is Fredo looking shocked to be having his photo taken.

And here he is again, less surprised -but tongue still out.

That's all for now. Wish me luck on my test tomorrow!