feifei

my blog...

2010-01-12T17:50:00.000Z

... moved here.

art

2009-12-13T19:00:00.000Z

The last weeks have been a little less boring and I feel a lot better :}
I went to see the Botticelli exhibition, the art for the millions, saw the film 2012, had a nice brunch, ...

Städel

Schirn Kunsthalle

cute!

2009-12-09T08:15:00.003Z

boring!

2009-11-16T18:30:00.001Z

It's been raining all day - again. I've been watching 'sex and the city' and 'gilmore girls' for hours and hours for the past 4 days. I bought the complete series collections....

I am soooo BORED!

Living in a big, interesting city, nothing I really have to do for university, enough to eat, drink and wear.... it's killing me.

At least I finally got my iMac to Gravis (the CPU was broke or whatever) and back. After two months!! Pah, that's how lazy I am!

This post is depressing!

2009-10-25T14:00:00.002Z

Willy-Brandt-Platz

2009-10-23T20:00:00.000+01:00

The Besieged City 围城

2009-10-19T18:20:00.001+01:00

We went shopping today and I found a Chinese book at Hugendubel! I know this book from a lecture I took during my last semester in Würzburg. It's in Chinese characters plus pinyin only, with some minimal vocabulary help. I wish there were more books like that available in Germany!

The Besieged City

Campus Westend

2009-10-18T09:45:00.000+01:00

Very impressive building - can you see the tiny yellow truck?

Art history is at Campus Bockenheim :[ but I could study German philology at Westend...

art history

2009-10-17T18:00:00.002+01:00

(I took this with my crappy handy camera)

I'm studying art history in Frankfurt now. I already met some nice Chinese girls who are studying with me and I hope this will help me keeping my level.
We got a lot of vouchers for Frankfurt's museums and other cultural activities and I wanna try to really get to know Frankfurt in the few years I'm living here. (In Würzburg that didn't work out.)

I definitely neglected my blog for too long, my english seems weird.

this week

2009-09-28T19:00:00.000+01:00

We have all our things in Frankfurt, now we are cleaning our rooms in Würzburg. Tomorrow we'll leave for Osna and be back in Frankfurt on Friday. I hope we have internet by then. I'm also really looking forward to buying a washing machine on Friday :}

moving

2009-09-28T05:45:00.000+01:00

We are moving to Frankfurt am Main today.
It's not Berlin but better than Würzburg.

2009-09-25T15:20:00.000+01:00

lost roll 006

2009-09-05T21:15:00.000+01:00

still watching 24hBerlin

more mini

2009-07-29T18:55:00.000+01:00

That's the view down from our university (Hubland),

in the background you can see the Festung Marienberg (on the little hill in the middle).

This is our main library

Fujifilm instax mini 25

2009-07-28T18:20:00.000+01:00

My first mini polaroid!

(The camera really is ugly)

simon's cat

2009-07-27T14:00:00.000+01:00

new video!

roll 007

2009-07-25T15:30:00.000+01:00

I will upload more on flickr tomorrow.

Osna

Studentenwohnheim

letter boxes

sunset in Würzburg, July 8

turtle

2009-07-24T18:30:00.002+01:00

This is one of my three water turtles. I got them in 1998, at that time they were really tiny, now they are almost 20cm long. They live in my mom's mum's garden. I took this with my sister's Fisheye about 6 weeks ago.

sprockets

2009-07-22T14:00:00.001+01:00

I brought another roll (no.7) to the developer, will pick it up and scann it on Friday.
Here are two pictures of roll 5. I really like the sprockets but don't know what to do with the colours. They are just not right...

das Ende naht

2009-07-21T20:00:00.000+01:00

Noch 3 Wochen, 2 Tage, 18 Stunden, 30 Seiten - eine Thesis.
Heute hatte ich die letzte Prüfung meines Lebens (wenn ich will)!
Ich habe mich in Frankfurt und Berlin beworben, aber wo wir hinziehen entscheidet sich erst in 3 wochen. Und egal welche Stadt es wird, ich weiß noch nicht, ob ich dann wirklich weiterstudiere. Im Moment ist es so toll fertigzusein, dass ich mir nicht vorstellen kann, diesen scheiß nochmal von vorne anzufangen.
Heute Abend wird erstmal gefeiert und morgen geht's los mit der Thesis :}

scanns

2009-07-13T17:30:00.000+01:00

I got an ophthalmitis (Augenentzündung) three days before my first exam, great. I will go see a doctor tomorrow, hopefully I won't have to wait for too long. I have to learn!!!
I picked up my photoscanner today but it's not as great as I thought. And to that most of the pictures are underexposed.

this one is double/triple exposed

German?

2009-07-07T19:30:00.000+01:00

I just read some old posts of mine. I like them better in German I think. I would write more if I would write in German.

Exams start in 8 days and 18 hours.

scanner

2009-07-02T15:00:00.000+01:00

So, I will get my own photo scanner next week and finally be able to get all my negs scanned. Almost. One roll got lost in Osna or Berlin but I still have the hope that it'll appear somewhere.
The great thing about this scanner is that it can do middle format which the Diana normally uses as well.

Exams start in two weeks. Thesis deadline is in about 6 weeks.

blub

2009-06-21T09:55:00.002+01:00

I drew this about a year ago on my nintendo ds.

moleskine

2009-06-20T19:30:00.001+01:00

I know they are very simple and not good at all. Hopefully a little interesting though. Sadly I'm not patient enough to draw something "real".

roll 005...

2009-06-12T18:00:00.003+01:00

...is up on flickr. Diana F+, 35mm film...

roll 004

2009-05-21T15:00:00.002+01:00

A few days ago I picked up three other rolls from the developer. The second roll of Fuji Velvia turned out a little better than the last one. I'm so relieved. Can't wait to have them all scanned.
Today I taped the developed film on my window and took pictures. Some of them were too dark. But here are some of my first real analog photographs ever! YAY! (They are all square, but because of the taping at the window I had to crop them.)

Fuji Velvia
Shutter Speed: 1/60 second
F Number: F/11
Focal Length: 110mm
ISO Speed: 50
Taken: May 15

Another thing... a few days ago I ate a lady bug. Not on purpose of course. I made a green salad with tuna and corn, suddenly I had a lady bug's wing between my teeth :[

"... and I refuse to clean up"

2009-05-20T21:30:00.000+01:00

lovely weather

2009-05-17T00:00:00.000+01:00

buhuu

2009-05-16T14:40:00.001+01:00

Just got back from the developer and almost the entire film is black :'[
It was cloudy outside when I took the pictures but I thought I made the right adjustments. But obviously I did not.
I used an ISO 120 film and did not expose long enough. Damn it.

For the next few times I will use cheap discounter film.

Edit: the film is ISO 50 not 120.Graaah!

35mm

2009-05-15T14:00:00.000+01:00

I have no classes on friday and today we wanted to go into the library and start writing our thesis. I forgot my student id which also is my bus ticket, so we had to walk up the hill instead of taking the bus. As we were locking up our stuff in front of the library I noticed that I left my macbook at home as well. Great. And I wasn't even in a rush.... but obviously distracted. Or just not thinking about what I was doing. So I just trained vocabulary. I will start with the thesis later today or tomorrow.

Right now I'm really crazy about the Diana. I'm changing lenses and films and take a lot of pictures. I bought the 35mm-back as well and will now use a discounter's 35mm film. The back comes with four different frames so I am still able to take square pictures.

first steps

2009-05-14T17:00:00.000+01:00

Brought one exposed roll Fuji Velvia to the developer today. I can pick it up on Saturday for just 2,75€!

I will upload the whole roll on flickr and my favorites here on the blog. I just hope the photos are not too crappy. It was just a test roll to try out the Diana and I am quite sure I forgot to adjust the lens to the distant several times. Digital photography is so much easier!

Diana F+

2009-05-12T16:25:00.002+01:00

I got a new camera!

The package already came last Thursday, but as I went home for the weekend I didn't open it until yesterday in the evening. I tried to get the film in and take a picture but it didn't work. At some point the film just wouldn't move. So I had to open the camera up again, roll back the film and start again. The Diana uses 120mm film instead of the normal 35mm and is completely mechanical. I use Ilford Delta 400 film. Through a little hole on the back of the camera I can see the back of the film.
Now the film moves and I already saw a 3 on the film, buhuu. After taking a picture I have to roll the film to the right until I can see the 4. But I'm not sure when to stop. Where does a photo start? The time I can see the number? Or do I have to keep rolling until the number is on the right side? But there I can't see it.

I figured it out! I had to start over once more and two or three shots are lost but now I know how to do it! Yay!
Take a picture when the number is visible trough the hole on the back. Roll until the next number, take a picture and so on...

beginning of the film

countdown to the first exposure of "1"

there's the "1"!

Fisheye

2009-05-10T22:00:00.000+01:00

Last year my little sister got a Fisheye for her birthday. Here are some of the pictures she took:

I took these

this semester sucks

2009-05-05T09:30:00.000+01:00

I should be sitting in my course about "traditional Chinese characters" right now, but I was just too tired (it's just for fun, but I feel bad not going). One week into the term and I already feel exhausted. This term should be qingsong (轻松) -relaxed. I have all of my credits except for one seminar and this term's language courses. But suddenly there was something like ambition lightening up inside me and I decided to do two more lectures to polish my grades up and to go to "traditional Chinese characters". That means to get up at 7.30 four days a week. To that I will have to start writing my bachelor thesis soon. WHAA....!

cut no. 2

2009-05-03T18:30:00.000+01:00

My second linolcut, copied from a sketch I did in a botany course in 2005. It's a cross section through the shoot of Cucurbita pepo (spaghetti pumpkin). I didn't print it yet.

vimeo

2009-05-01T21:15:00.000+01:00

I just got a vimeo account :}

slide

2009-04-30T18:30:00.001+01:00

This is actually a real house standing in Suffolk! There is a video on this site (the site didn't open just now, but I suppose that's because of my slow connection).

print it

2009-04-24T00:30:00.002+01:00

plans plans plans

2009-04-17T11:20:00.011+01:00

I'm moving to Berlin in 3 months and two weeks. That's the plan. I am still not so sure what to do there. One option is to make another BA in art history of East Asia together with learning Japanese and Korean. The other would be to start a job training as a merchant. The first one would be easier for me, because I know what it will be like and I know that I can do it. And maybe I could visit Tokyo and Seoul. Never thought of that before just now. That would be amazing!
To get a job scares me, although it would be great to earn my own money. The other good thing about the job is to get to understand business. But there are other ways to do so too....

This term I only have to take four seminars and that means only four exams at the end plus the Thesis. That's the one big advantage of the Bachelor - no big final exams.

Yesterday I bought a linolcut starter kit. The last and only time I did a linolcut was in school about six years ago. I would love to get a real press or do some silkscreening but my little room is already stuffed with all my things.
I just realised I didn't take a picture in 3 months :[ that's terrible.

I'm following a lot of so called design blogs and save my favourite pics to get ideas for my new flat in Berlin. Most of them are about windows, beds and books. I have about 120 pics already. Here are my most favourite.

I Power

2009-04-08T20:00:00.001+01:00

Long time no post.
Classes don't start until 23.April and I just don't know what to do with all time.

Maybe this will help me....

Berlin Polaroids

2009-03-17T15:00:00.005Z

I spent a few days in Berlin and it already feels like home.
I went shopping a few times, saw the basketball match between Alba Berlin and Ludwigsburg, went to an exhibition of Andreas Feininger at the 'Bauhaus Archiv', went to the 'Musem für asiatische Kunst' and watched the original versions of 'Milk' and 'Benjamin Button'.
And took some polaroids:

17.3.09

orangeyourude

2009-02-18T11:00:00.001Z

Some weeks ago I posted a comment at one of the blogs I read. I didn't mean to say anything offending. It was this post: a slice of... and I wrote something like "I really like the colour combination but it looks more like a hat than a cake."
The other comments are all like "Oh, I love it", "You are so great", blablabla. The whole blog is just flowers and love and happiness, it's silly. But when one single person gives a little well meant critic, the comment gets deleted. And this by a grownup who actually earns money with her desings. It's just ludicrously and rude!

joseph o. holmes

2009-02-13T17:00:00.004Z

This place is covered in stickers and scribbling! I have never seen a place like that before!

cbgb

exams are over...

2009-02-07T10:00:00.002Z

... and I am so happy!
I was sick for the last three weeks, went to the doctor about four times, when I should have been concentrating on learning. I don't go see a doctor unless it's really serious. The first week I had the biggest pain. After that was ok I got the worst cough. I was coughing without a break, couldn't even sleep. And I just had to go to my classes because they all did a little repetition for the exams. Then from Tuesday to Friday I had 7 exams.
Today my cough is almost gone. Not because of the medicine I got (that almost did nothing) but because I just drank lots of tea and ate tons of cough drops. Oh, and I lost about 2kg. When I am stressed I just forget to eat, I just don't get hungry.
Now I have to write a term paper until Monday, but I hope I get a few more days. For now all I have is the title.
This term really sucks.

Some weeks ago I found a fun application to turn your digital photos in digital polaroids. Poladroid

It's not the same as real polaroids, but how do I make them digital? I don't have a scanner.

Argyle Academy

2009-01-15T15:00:00.004Z

I don't draw ...ever (at least not to earn money). But I get distracted all the time, especially when I have something important to do. Found this in my google reader:

Drawn by Mike Lowery from the Argyle Academy

merry christmas!!

2008-12-24T09:00:00.003Z

I sent this to all my good friends and family this morning. It's so much fun, I've watched it myself about a hundred times :]

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Fensterbrett, Regen und die Nacht

2008-12-05T18:00:00.001Z

There's probably no God

2008-11-25T18:40:00.002Z

click here!!!

2008-11-23T22:15:00.000Z

widgets

2008-11-20T17:00:00.006Z

some of my favourites

caution!
stupid jokes
countdown plus
Grinch Xmas countdown
English German dictionary
dancing critters
festive lights , you even can create your own festive lights
sing that itune

(all links except the last two ones go to apple.com)

I know I don't have many, so please share your favs!

three wonderful days

2008-11-16T11:00:00.004Z

Wednesday evening Corbi and I decided to drive home to Osna next weekend. I have to get away from university for some days and I really want to see my mom and sister. So excited, it makes everything easier here already.

On Wednesday also, a magister student whom I taking a class with told me that we are living in the same dormitory. She's so nice and asked me to come to a party she and her roomate were giving on Thursday. Her roommate is a Chinese and of course there where other Chinese girls at the party. I was a little intimidated cause they would all naturally talk Chinese to me and some other magister students were there as well. They are in the eighth or even higher, I'm in the fifth semester.
We played a crazy Chinese game. One has to say "haidao chuanzhang" (海盗船长 pirate captain) and point at another person. This one has to throw his arms up in the air twice and say "heixiu, heixiu" (don't know the meaning). The two people next to him have to do the same, not upwards but to the right or the left, depending on which side they are sitting. (it would look like this \\ || // ). The pirate captain has to point at the next one and so on. When you do it to the wrong direction you have to eat or drink something. One of the Chinese girls (who started the game) was very excited, she said "hao jinzhang" (好紧张), meaning "so exciting" or "so tense", all the time. We laughed so much!
And they made sushi and real, fresh Jiaozi 饺子, a Chinese speciality I think every single one from my class would be so envious, as you can't buy them here. Yummy!

On Friday we went to laby, but the music sucked! I just danced to one song and was in a bad mood. But somehow I am happy we went.

Yesterday Anna and her boyfriend, Melli and I went to the Senckenberg museum in Frankfurt (http://www.senckenberg.de/root/index.php?page_id=71&preview=true). The train ride was so much fun and the museum very interesting. I didn't bring my camera but took some pics with my moto. (I will ask Anna to sent me some of her pictures and add them later)

I'm sorry, my English once again seems to be so wrong. I read a lot in english but writing is a different thing.

last days of autumn

2008-11-01T11:00:00.009Z

I went for a little walk this morning because the sun is shining today.
In Bavaria it's a holiday today, so there is not much for me to do.
I kind of started writing one of the two papers I have to do this term. Not really sure about the topics yet.

I love the photos I took today :D

Majorca

2008-10-15T15:00:00.004+01:00

I came back yesterday from a short holiday on Majorca.
I'll just write about the nice things and leave out everything negative.

I took some nice pictures (but none worth to be uploaded). I saw Palma, Deia, Soller, Port d'Alcudia and Pot de Pollenca.
Yeah, that's it.

autumn

2008-10-03T15:00:00.001+01:00

Once again I'm in Osna for a few days. The maples are so beautiful, slowly going from green into yellow, orange, red. Autumn is my favourite season of the year.

home again

2008-09-11T16:00:00.006+01:00

Finally I am back in Germany (four weeks already!).

My fifth term starts in October and I don't have much to do at the moment. Just enjoying being home again, meeting with friends and family, eating good German food (unbelievable how much I missed that).

For a few days I was busy cleaning up my room, organizing and sorting out some stuff. I bought a white IKEA ps locker and it's great. More room for all my things!
I'm already scared of moving out of my little apartment (it's just abut 20m²) because there's so much in here.

Besides seeing my friends and family the one thing I was really looking forward to, was buying an iMac. I just had an 12" iBook with a tiny hard drive for three years, so it was time for something bigger :) I love my iMac!

last post from Hongkong

2008-08-11T04:30:00.003+01:00

We leave the hotel in two hours.
I dreamed about being in Osna the two last nights. It was very strange but I'm so looking forward to being back in Germany, in my room in Würzburg.

sightseeing

2008-08-10T15:00:00.008+01:00

We got to Hongkong two days later than we had planned. Instead of giving us back the money for the hotel our travel agency got us a room upgrade and a sightsseing tour. Six hours and it rained the whole time. Here are the pictures!

The Golden Bauhinia Square

View from Victoria Peak (you can see Hongkong's three tallest buildings)

House in Stanley (In the hill behind it there is living a dragon. Every morning he takes a bath in the bay, the hole is so that the house is not blocking his way and makes him angry.)

Aberdene

yesterday

2008-08-08T10:00:00.006+01:00

Yesterday we walked from our hotel to the Bank of China Tower so I could take some pictures. Our hotel is in the center, the district is called Wan Chai (in the north of the Hongkong island), we got there really fast.
I didn't know that they drive on the left in Hongkong and it's really strange. But not so dangerous as you have to cross most of the streets over bridges. There are so many skyscrapers and they are so near to one another. It's very chaotic, like a labyrinth and full of business men and women.

Hongkong is so different from Beijing and Shanghai. It's not a part of China. A part of the culture may be the same but the development, laws, politics, people, business... it's not the same. Even Beijing and Shanghai are far behind. But that's just how China still is, far behind.
(This is off topic.... Even in Beijing that is the political and cultural centre of China there are so many really, really poor and uneducated people. I know, they come from all over China and are mostly farmers but they behave like coming out of the Middle Ages.
The business men from Europe and America stay in the most expensive hotels, eat in good restaurants. They just see the good sides. But China is big, it's huge. There are over 1,5billions of people (that's not an official number but the true one) and most of them live in the country and have an income of about 100€ a year! )

Pictures from yesterday

Bank of China Tower

Hong Kong

2008-08-06T04:00:00.005+01:00

About 24 hours after we left our hotel in Shanghai we arrived at our hotel in Hong Kong.
The train from Shanghai South Station to Shenzhen took about 18 hours. Then we had to go trough passport control to get to Hong Kong. That took about 1 hour. After that we took the train to Jiandong (I forgot the Kantonese name..) and then a taxi to our hotel.
We have a typhoon here! Great! Rain, wind.. I hope tomorrow is better and we can go outside.

I will upload some pictures later to this post.

This is in the train from Shanghai to Shenzhen. Three storey beds, alltogether about 42 beds in one wagon. At 10.30pm the light got out and everybody was quiet.

2008-08-04T15:00:00.006+01:00

Just some more photos I took in Shanghai (random order).

view from our room (both)

the train from Beijing to Shanghai

shop signs

2008-08-04T14:00:00.003+01:00

nanjing road and other

Shanghai skyline

2008-08-02T10:00:00.001+01:00

hel looks

2008-07-30T00:00:00.000+01:00

Today I was looking trough some magazines I bought here to photograph things I like because I can't take all the mags with me :(

I found this and you should have a look at: http://www.hel-looks.com/
There are hundreds of photos of random but really cool people. It reminded me of style-arena. I can spend hours looking through the pics.

just 12 more days :D

故宫

2008-07-29T08:00:00.003+01:00

Argh, I hate the photos I took today...

上海 Shanghai

2008-07-29T03:00:00.001+01:00

1000 km in 12 hours for 475¥ (ca45€) softsleeper.

I am so excited!
We will arrive on August 1st and leave on the 3rd for Hongkong. That's not much time, but we just want to see it and take pictures. Our hotel is almost in the city centre.

Today we're going to the 故宫 The Forbidden City, finally. It rained tonight so I hope it's not as hot as yesterday. I really melted away, it was awful.
Yesterday we got our diploma for this term. Last time I had grades that good was in primary school :)

9am

exams are...

2008-07-24T10:30:00.000+01:00

...over, YAY!!
We get the results on Monday!
I'm so happy! lalalalalalaaaahhh....

in 19days I'll be back in wü!

alone in Tokyo

2008-07-18T07:00:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I found a very cute comic book in our nearby bookstore. (It's part of a series from Japanese author Naoko Takagi.) It's about a little girl who dreams about starting her own business as a painter (插画家) in Tokyo. She doesn't have a real plan, never lived on her own before but just decides that she wants to live in Tokyo. There are many problems waiting for her but she never gives up.

Today we bought dictionaries at the Beida bookstore (I didn't even know there was one before) and I also bought a world map and some beautiful calligraphy postcards I will frame to put them on my walls in Germany.

last day (almost)

2008-07-17T12:00:00.001+01:00

Tomorrow is the last day we have class!
I won't miss it!
Exams start on Monday and I am finished on Thuesday at about 5pm.
The Monday after we will get our results.

∖(^_^)∕

good morning Beijing!

2008-07-12T03:00:00.005+01:00

The morning light is so beautiful!

Yes, we really did it!
We got up at 5 am and drove around the Olympic area (the whole rout was about 22km). Now it's 9 am, we just came back from the Bridge Café where we had breakfast.

Here are some of the pictures I took

It was so quiet

I like the dust here

Bird's Nest

photos coming

2008-07-11T10:00:00.001+01:00

Tomorrow Corbi and I will get up really really early, take our bikes, cameras and make a little tour to the olympic centre. I hopefully will take some beautiful and interesting pictures.
The last few days it has been warm but cloudy, but the forecast says tomorrow we will have 9 hours of sunshine...

This is what we made today at the clothingmarket XD
I want this photo machine!!!

1 months and 1 day until we will be back!

cleaning up Beijing

2008-07-10T09:00:00.003+01:00

One of our teachers told us that the beggars in Beijing are being transported out of the city. And I heard that they are closing some (or all?) of the clothing markets here.
They are watering the trees and flowers they planted every night. Every fence, wall and sign is painted fresh, they put new paneling on the shops' front.
There are bag controls in the subway station for security.
From next week on we have to show our student card when entering the Beida campus and they installed some video cameras on campus.
I also heard they want to do something about the traffic. Like pay you money when you don't use your car or something. I'm not sure how it works exactly. There also are some very annoying guys with whistles on the big crossings to control the bicycle drivers.

They are really trying to clean up for the Olympic Games.
But there is still so much dirt on the streets and people spit out or search for plastic bottles in the trash bins.

http://en.beijing2008.cn/12/12/greenolympics.shtml
http://www.sueddeutsche.de/panorama/artikel/383/186792/

who cares?

2008-07-01T07:00:00.000+01:00

I'm just writing to myself. Nobody cares, nobody is there.
Probably because I don't care much either. Or I don't show it enough.
But I really don't care much about the people around me as long as it doesn't affect me. But when they really annoy me like my classmates for example I get angry and upset. Every morning when I wake up I already think about how they will all sit there without saying anything. They just open their mouths when the teacher directly asks them (or to say something stupid in german). I will have to answer all the questions and then they think I'm an asshole. But they should be happy that I'm doing all the work and they don't even have to listen.
After class they would - just like me - be all friendly and smiling.
Most of them don't come to class regularly. The teacher is always surprised when everyone is there. And I'm always happy when they don't come.

I hate that they can make me feel so angry. But how can I change that, how can I not care?

20 days until the first exam. I can't wait!

lila

2008-06-30T13:00:00.002+01:00

I took this on June 27 at 7:48pm. I didn't change anything but the size.

shoot me a song - Ⅰ

2008-06-23T08:00:00.002+01:00

have a look at
http://www.lomography.com/ppp/
lomo.missions_

This is such a great idea for a contest or series (or for a new blog?). I will try to shoot a song every week just for myself and the blog. Of course not with my Lomo...

The first one is one of my most favourite songs "roads-portishead". It's an old photo I took in March this year while on the way to Beijing Opera. It was already a little dark outside and of course the bus we sat in was moving. The photo didn't turn out so good, but after editing I really like it. I changed to b&w with channel mixer, changed levels and contrast a little.

Wudaokou 五道口

2008-06-22T07:00:00.000+01:00

Some pictures I took yesterday and today (with my old casio exilim)

north

south

chengfulu

subway station

the bridge cafe (subway station in the background)

probably the most beautiful window displays in Beijing

Botanical Garden Beijing

2008-06-21T05:00:00.000+01:00

I'm still there

2008-06-20T14:00:00.005+01:00

... or here?

It has been like forever since my last entry! almost a month!

I now should be learning for my test in "minorities" next week or be writing my essay for international relations... but I prefer to write a new post :)

I wrote before about my stupid, lazy and annoying classmates. Well, it got even worse as I am improving and the differences are more and more visible (or rather hearable). 什么都他们不做！他们不复习，不做作业。连一个句子他们也不会说！For example the girl next to me has never done here homework all the time we are here.
She's always looking in my book, what I wrote. I hate that! I already try to write as less Pinyin (pronunciation) as possible. Sometimes it's kinda funny because when she is reading aloud (and she doesn't even know the easiest characters) she looks if I have writen the Pinyin but I haven't. That way our teacher knows that she didn't prepare the text :)
Hm, sounds mean, but I would help her if it wouldn't be EVERY SINGLE DAY !

Not in class I really like all of them, but during class it's just different... I hope they don't talk too bad about me behind my back. But I am sure they do :)

I... hm... kitsched my moleskin :)

and my handy got a new friend :D (I would like to know the translation of the Japanese)

I thought in Beijing there is no rain, but since last Friday we had four or five days with much rain! I had a not so nice getting lost in Beijing in the rain experience on Friday... already uploaded the photo after getting off the bus but maybe you didn't see it yet. I waited in a hotel I found while they were trying to get me a taxi for about an hour. Then I decided to take a bus. They were really nice to me, one guy even waited until I got on the bus to make sure I take the right one. I told him that I never went by bus before in Beijing and he was afraid I would get lost again :)

yay

2008-06-20T01:00:00.000+01:00

blogspot is working/accessable again!! but for how long...?

language partner

2008-05-25T16:30:00.000+01:00

Last Saturday I met with my language partner Li Xuan for the fith time. Every time we meet it's a little more fun, more interesting and I feel more and more comfortable talking to here. I am very lucky her German is almost perfect. It's like she'd already been living in Germany for some time, though she just spent two hours on an airport there once. Of course she doesn't believe me when I tell her that but it's true!
Naturally we speak some Chinese too. She is very patient :) She would let me think until I finish my sentence and she would repeat hers until I get it.
So, this last time we talked just about everything. It was awesome! She even knows some guys of the German national football team! And for a Chinese she is very open-minded I think.
Next time we will go to a bookstore and I will buy Pippi Longstockings in Chinese. Xuan told me that in China there are almost no modern novels/literature. And that would be to hard for me to read anyway, so I thought children's books would be a good start.

2 months and 18 days

stars stars stars ☆

2008-05-17T05:00:00.000+01:00

Hm, I can't read my blog or any other blog on blogspot anymore. I can't write or read comments.
I can post. But without reading it afterwards on my blog that's strange...

After I told Melli about the origami she showed me another cute thing you can do with paper. (There are just Chinese sentences in my head, my English seems weird.) I will surely send a lot of this paper to Germany! You just take a small stripe of paper and fold it around itself after making a knot. It's very simple but I am obsessed!! :D

a dark day

2008-05-03T04:00:00.002+01:00

It's 10 o'clock in the morning right now and it's dark as night! The street lights are off, it's raining crazy. About 15 minutes ago it suddenly became darker and darker. Then it started to rain, I could hear it coming from the south.... here some pictures, I will upload a video later.

http://www.china.org.cn/china/photos/2008-05/04/content_15054113.htm

origami

2008-04-29T09:45:00.001+01:00

折纸 zhe2zhi3 fold paper, my new new hobby :)
I bought a childrens book just an hour ago. I thought they had the paper at our supermarket but I saw it at Walmart. We will go there tomorrow. But I tried it with normal paper. I printed something at university for my seminar and accidentally took some other person's copies with me, that's why there are Chinese characters on the paper.

vacation

2008-04-27T07:00:00.003+01:00

The third day of our little May First vacation and I am already bored. Uni starts again on May 5.
I'm a little sick and don't feel like going out.
We will go to 789 next week, an artists' district in Beijing. I made a presentation last week about Ai Weiwei (艾未未) and Qiu Shihua (邱世华). I want one of his pictures!!
http://www.szarts.cn/artist/Shenzhenartists/2088.html

I miss Würzburg so much! I miss H&M, my little flat, just everything familiar. One more year until I am done with university, I can't wait. It's so einengend, we have to do what they want, you can't choose the course you want. I don't like that anymore. I want to be free. Really, really do what I want to, without any influence from anyone!!

哲学系

2008-04-25T07:00:00.005+01:00

I had so much to do the last week, I will write another post later.
Just wanted to show you some pictures of the building we have class in every day. It looks really beautiful right now! (哲学系, zhe2xue2xi4, faculty of philosophy)

Corbi took this one of me and Elina in the Puning tempel.

marathon test

2008-04-21T13:00:00.001+01:00

They blocked the crossing for over an hour! Some busdrivers got out to smoke a zigarette :)

http://www.spiegel.de/sport/sonst/0,1518,548521,00.html

Simon Tofield

2008-04-20T05:30:00.000+01:00

Do you remember the video with the cat I posted? Here is another one!

http://www.youtube.com/user/simonscat

uber, flickr or blogspot?

2008-04-19T10:00:00.000+01:00

I will stop posting blogs on uber.
I will upload my photos here first and some days later on flickr. so if you read my blog you don't have to look at flickr for new photos, they will be here first :D
Flickr is mostly for mine and Corbi's parents and for his friends.

visa

2008-04-19T09:00:00.002+01:00

There where some wrong news about the visa some days ago.
All students in China can finish their semester here and don't have to leave the country before the experation date of their visa.

But our teacher told us that there are more controls in bars and club. They installed videosystems and there are undercover policemen. If you get in an (serious) argument they can even make a blood test and if you drank too much you have to leave the country. He told us about some students that already experienced that.
And we have to take a copy of our passport, visa and registration form with us all the time.

So, everything is alright :D

Chengde

2008-04-15T11:00:00.013+01:00

April 11-13

On Friday we visited a part of the Great Wall in Jinshanling.

On Saturday we visited the Puning and the Potala tempel and the Imperial Sommer Villa Shanzhuang (in English it's mountain village, very strange...) with a trip through the park and to the observation platforms.
Puning tempel:

Potala tempel:
This is the view from one of the observatoin platforms

beautiful blossoms on the hills around the Sommer Villa:

On Sunday we went to the Sladge Hammer Rock, touched it and now we will all live 130 years!!!

We got there by a little cable railway

天安门广场

2008-04-07T07:00:00.002+01:00

Yesterday we went to Tiananmen Square. It's the world's biggest square （finished in the 1950s) and designed to hold one million people!We were the only westerners but there where many Chinese tourists walking around and taking pictures. One girl asked me to let her boyfriend take a picture with the two of us, she was very shy when asking but then put an arm around me for the photo :)The weather was cloudy but very warm and strangely I was in a very good mood. But to get there by subway was awfull. The system really sucks. You have to walk through endless tunnels and it's full and extremely hot on the trains, we had to change trains two times and at two stations we even got pushed in by a guy who does that as a job. I uploaded some of the photos I took. wikipedia and youtube are no longer censored, yay!!

Beijing Opera

2008-03-21T23:40:00.006Z

On Thursday we went to the Beijing Opera. I didn't really know what to expect, I had no idea how it would be like. The others said it's loud and awful but almost everyone of our group came along to watch it. And it wasn't that bad at all. It was a little loud and the way they sang was .... strange, not nice. But it was fun to watch anyway. They moved very exact and did some flips, the costums and make-up were nice too.I wouldn't go a second time but I think when you are in Beijing you should go to know what 京剧 is.

Fuwa!

2008-03-14T09:00:00.002Z

The first two weeks at university are almost over. It's no longer as boring as in the beginning because the teachers now know how much we can and they talk faster and we can talk some more as well. But some of the boys in my class don't pay attention most of the time or just don't get what the teacher is talking about. They don't even look up the new characters at home. To be in Beijing at the Beida is such a huge chance to really learn how to speak Chinsese fluently and they just sit there, waiting for class to be over. I think that is the most stupiest thing one can do. In our course called "colloquial language" (口语) one of us has to make a little presentation every lesson we have. Today it was my turn and it really went well. I was a little nervous but my hands didn't shake and my voice didn't either. I am so happy that we have to do it and that we only are 9 students in our class. That way I can get used to it and be comfortable the same time :DMy presentation was about the Fuwa (福娃), the olympian mascots. I bought some erasers to show the others:

first days in Beijing

2008-03-01T18:45:00.002Z

I feel like waiting, walking around and carrying heavy stuff is all we did the last three days. On 27 February at 1pm we arrived at Beijing airport. We had to wait for about two hours for the arrival of some other people from our university, until the bus brought us to Beida from where Corbi and I took a taxi to our hotel. We arrived there at about 7pm! Beijing is so big! For the first time in my life I had and still have a jet lag. And I was worried because we were the only ones without a flat. So I could sleep until 4am that night. We wanted to get up at 6 to meet with our agent Michael to see some apartments but we woke up late at 10am. Michael called and told us we can see an apartment in half an our. We really had to hurry! The flat was a disappointment, it was 4,5km away from Beida. That means about one hour to get there. Not possible.I'm not able to describe all the waiting... we were back in out room at 4pm. Yesterday we had to check out from the hotel at 7am because we had a little introduction at the university at 9. So we took our luggage with us (we took a cab) and put it down in an office of the university. During the meeting Michael called again and told us about another flat we could see at midday. We left our luggage in the university's office, saw four other flats, made a decision, got the money (for the rent), collected our luggage, put it down at some friend's apartment, ate (for the first time that day at 5pm!), met Michael at 5.30 to sign the contract, waited for the landlady until 6.30, read and signed the contract, bought bedclothes at 8.30(!!!), went back to our friend's, went to bed. That night I even could sleep. Today in the morning we moved into our apartment!!We went to the shopping center across the street to get dishes, cleaning agents, food and some other things. Including everything we didn't spend more than 100€. Beijing is even cheaper than Taipei!The landlady and Michael came again to clarify some things and we got an internet connection. After all that we (mostly me) cleaned the whole flat and got out things from our friend's. The only thing that is left to do before monday is to buy two bicycles. It just takes about ten minutes then to Beida :) bicycles are very cheap here as well, between 8 and 15€ if you don't want it to be stolen right away. Tomorrow we don't have any appointments!!! Now I can worry about how our teachers and courses will be like :/

puh

2008-02-17T17:30:00.006Z

I am in Würzburg and there is nothing I have to do. At least not right now.
In about nine days I will arrive in Beijing and before that I just have to clean up my room. But that only takes one day. So, what else is there I can do? Yesterday I almost spent the whole day reading. I read some blogs in my google reader (ok, most of that are pictures), I read news on Spiegel Online, Neon and "The cider house rules" by John Irving. I just found out it's "Gottes Werk und Teufels Beitrag" in German. What a stupid "translation", I hate that! It's like "Fracture" and "Das perfekte Verbrechen" or "Mermaides" and "Meerjungfrauen küssen besser". There is an endless list of examples. Why is it even legal to change the name of a film or a book?
I sometimes thought it would be nice not to have to work. Hm, that really is nice. But not to work is not. Yesterday I realized I can't really enjoy my free time when there is nothing I have to do following it. I get bored really easy.
I'm glad the semester in Beijing starts on March 3 and in the four days before that we will be busy finding a nice apartment.

My favourite little things -they make me happy.

vacation

2008-02-10T16:30:00.000Z

All my exams are over!
I don't know all my grades yet, but I am sure I didn't fail in one of my exams.

Now I'm in Osna for some days before I will move to Beijing in 16 days! I had much fun in Hyde Park yesterday, danced a lot.
I will have one week in Wue before the flight and so much I want to do. It's a little stupid because I will be back in about 7 months and live in Wue at least for one more year, but I want to go to eat in a pancake restaurant and visit the residence, see some friends (that's not stupid, I will miss them :'( ) and go to the Laby(disco). Some things I have to do is going to a dentist -what I really hate, buy some medicine, clean up my room and decide what to take with me to Beijing. I want to learn some Chinese as well. Compared with the people from my semester who were not in Taibei last year I have a little advantage, because I know how it is when all teachers only talk in Chinese to you. I also know that it is not as hard as one might think to live in a different country. And my Chinese grade this year is one of the best :D Anyway, I want to learn so I won't forget too much.

Today I went for a walk and took some photos. I'm so happy, after formatting my mac, Photoshop is working again :)

frozen

2008-02-10T16:00:00.000Z

I found this in another blog

pimp your ipod

2008-01-31T16:00:00.001Z

YAY!! Today I had my oral exam in Chinese. We had to read a short part of a text and I made only one mistake. Then my teacher told me that I did very well in the final exam we had on Tuesday. I asked if I had a 2 and she answered it's at least a 2! I am so happy! I was so studious this term and finally I get a good grade!
I rewarded myself with a nice design for my ipod :D

berlin

2008-01-26T15:00:00.000Z

Seeing Lennart's pic "fall park" on dA reminded me of a picture i took in Berlin.

favourite commercial ever

2008-01-13T23:10:00.000Z