Long time no read

Just received a letter from my dear Irish friend. She included a poem which I am gonna post to everyone - Don't Quit!

Don't quit

When things go wrong as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all up hill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest, if you must, but don't you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As everyone of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about
When he might have won had he stuck it out;
Don't give up though the pace seems slow-
You may succeed with another blow.

Success is failure turned inside out-
the silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far;
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit-
It's when things seem worst that you must noch quit.


Fits my mood very nicely.
Lots to think about at the moment plus all "daily" stuff: writing a diploma thesis, tutoring 1st year students in programming (they have 4 weeks left till their exams), trying to reconcile my mice and to find them a new terrarium...

Don't quit!

Birthday Mail and a day in Bremen

What a surprise when I opened the compartment of this funny Packstation, the Deutsche Post-locker for self-pick up.

The box didn't look like it came from somewhere in Germany - quite exciting to find it came from Brasil!

My dear "Brasilian brother" Felipe had ordered a birthday present for me - awesome! I think my favorite are the pale pink (sorry for the pic) earrings...

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Next day: Emilia coming to visit! She'd spent half a year in Bonn and her last stop in Germany would be lovely Bremen.

She arrived around noon we started by walking through city center - stopped by the Bremen Town Musicians :)
The Schnoor quarter is definately a must - cute houses in tiny streets...
Last thing we did was visiting Botanika, a rhododendron museum in the middle of rhododendron park. Ok, not too much to see in winter, but still nice! Who would have guessed there's so many different kinds of rhododendron?



Too soon it was time for Emilia to catch the train back to Bonn - shared it with soccer fans (Werder Bremen vs. Borussia Mönchengladbach 2:0) and people returning from Karneval sessions...

New kitchen

Here's our new kitchen!

After 25 years they finally decided to change all kitchens which meant emptying the old one on Wednesday night and on Thursday morning watching the caretaker working ;)

What's new:

• Fridge ist bigger ;) And it has a freezer compartment - Ice Cream!!!
• Hobs are no longer on top ot the fridge - which is wise but now they are right in the middle - weird!
• Layout of the shelves is different, seems like there's less space now

What a mess behind and underneath: found coins and an old scratched ABBA record in there....

The unhappy hamster

Programming results came through: 13 out 27 failed, a lot more should have, including all 1st-year's...
Next chance for them is mid-March.

Damn, 15 weeks of working with them and still it didn't get into their heads. What can we do? How to teach programming to novices ? Any suggestions?

This is how we're teaching it: Java-Hamster-Modell (german only)

Busy, busy, busy

How busy life has been - last blog was more then a month ago...
Project is done - well, almost done. Still have to write a documentation. As well as writing out the presentation a friend and I gave on SAP NetWeaver.

Last year ended being busy - this year started in just the same way. Lots of things to think about!

But, starting on Friday: Vacation! At least a little bit. Going home for 2 weeks - birthday time ;)

Lots of plans for next semester: writing my diploma thesis (still deciding about the subject ;), tutoring again, hopefully continuing spanish and sports, and, and, and...

And the best: People coming to visit! Emilia from Finland will come to Bremen for a weekend, Felipe from Brasil comes in early July and - yes - we're going to watch the soccer semi-final in Dortmund! Keeping my fingers crossed for Mari to be able to join us in Berlin afterwards!

So much about my plans ;)
Keeping myself busy, busy, busy....