Nyepi - Day Of Silence

On 12 March 2013, Bali celebrated "Nyepi".
Nyepi is a day when people aren't allowed to turn on the lights. It is really dark on that day, and we can’t go out of the house.
When I startet to live in Bali, it was very, very disturbing because I couldn't do anything. 
But actually it is fun and helps to fight against global warming, because no one is outside, no energy wasted and no pollution.
Before Nyepi many rituals are performed by the Balinese.. first they pray at temples and make "ogoh-ogoh" - a symbol of the evil. One day before Nyepi people make a "ogoh-ogoh"-carnival. The "ogoh-ogohs" are brought around to show throughout the community.
After the carnival, the "ogoh-ogohs" will be burned, because they are a symbol of evil. Burning them is a symbol of destroying crime. 
This year I watched the "ogoh-ogoh" parade in Nusa Dua.
Here are some pictures:

Winter Comeback

Last week the spring finally got his breakthrough – we thought!
It was wonderful, the sun was shining, just wearing normal clothes and a trenchcoat was enough! Finally, no scarfs, no gloves, no hat!! It was just wonderful.
I took a ride on my bike to the Georgengarten, read a book and took some pictures.. It really felt like spring!

Looks good right? Well on the next day it started raining and getting cold again. Since Saturday Hannover is covered in snow AGAIN! I think I can speak for nearly all the people here: We don’t want snow anymore!! Were’s the Spring?

Please spring, If you hear us: Come back!!! We need you!!!

Stockholm–Capital Of Scandinavia

In the end of February I went to Stockholm, Sweden.
We (my boyfriend and me) got a very cheap ticket from Lübeck to Stockholm. It was just for two days – actually that’s the reason why the tickets were so cheap.

We arrived at Skavsta Airport – it’s about 1,5h away from the centre of Stockholm.
We took quite a long time to find the right “tunnelbanan” (subway) to Slussen.
Our place for the first night was about 5 minutes away from the station. We stayed at the appartement of a very welcoming and friendly old lady.
It was already 6pm when we arrived there, so after freshend up we searched for some restaurant. First we went to the old part of the town (Gamla Stan), but all the bars and restaurants we found didn’t look that good. So we went back to Mosebacke still starving, ‘cause we didn’t eat that much the whole day.
Finally after more than one hour walking arround we found some Taco Place which looked kinda nice. (Turns out that was some kind of Fast Food Restaurant which is in nearly every part of Stockholm).

On the next day we met with an old friend of my boyfriend – he showed us Stockholm.

The wonderful view from the balcony of the appartement

First we went to the Hostel we would be staying for the night.
Afterwards we went to the Vasa Museum. The Vasa is an old ship, which sunk in the sea close to Stockkholm. After more than 300 years under the sea they lifted the whole ship and put everything that was left on the ship in a Museum. It was really amazing to see this huge ship!

Vasa

Vasa

After our visit at the museum we just walked around Stockholm. Took some pictures here and there, talked about the really good looking people Most of them have a really good taste in Fashion. So it’s actually a lot of fun to just watch the people.

Close to the Vasa Museum

We are definitly going there again, just two days are not enough.
And we didn’t get the chance to go to Junibacken… Actually it’s a place for children, you can find all the characters from the Astrid Lindgren books there!! I’m really curious about that place! I guess some part of me still wants to be a child.. But seriously, if you haven’t read the books of Astrid Lindgren or watched the movies you need to go to a library or a bookstore and start reading/watching!!!   

Beauty Of The Winter

 
During the last two months there were several times when Hanover was covered in snow. Sadly not during Christmas or New Years Eve.

Two weeks ago it looked really pretty in the garden close to my campus.
So between some classes I went there and took some pictures – Capturing the beauty of the snowy Hanover.

Wilhelm-Busch-Museum

Bumi Manusia

Last week when I went to my moms I overflew all the books she has.
She has literature from all over the world – european, american and asian..
Actually she has a looooott asian books (most of them translated to german )…

I just finished reading a chinese book, called “Das rote Kornfeld” from Mo Yan. (I don’t know the english title). It was published in 1987.
Well, because I needed a new book to read I searched for a book at my mom’s. And I found about ten books from Indonsia! Some of them even written in Indonesian! My mom bought them back in 1992 when she visited Indonesia for about two months.
In the end I borrowed “Bumi Manusia” from my mom. The book is written by Pramoedya Ananta Toer.
Until now I had no time to start reading the book, but I’m really curious about it

Picture Of The Day

Guess what!? Today I found some “Rambutan” in a german supermarket!
They are much smaller than rambutans in Indonesia and not that tasty.

“Common Ground”–La Biennale di Venezia

The “Study Trip” to Venice included a two-days-visit at the Biennale. Actually the exhibition was the reason why we went to Venice.

On the first day we visited the Arsenale. It was really interesting and we were very excited, for the most of us it was the first time visiting the Biennale.

Here are some impressions from the Arsenale:

Actually I don’t remember to which architects which picture belongs.. There were too many impressions in a too short time.
The third picture belongs to the part of Zaha Hadid and Patrik Schumacher… Thats one of the pictures I can remember where I took them

On the second day we went to the Giardini… It was also very interesting, but the same as in Arsenale – too much impressions.. !! I really don’t know how to handle with so much input in so short time.
I really liked the part of Norman Foster. I think he did a great job interpreting the topic “Common Ground” and combined his interpretation with one of his projects (the HSBC in Hongkong).
Actually I focused on Fosters participation in the exhibition because afterwards I had to do a presentation about him. So I’m a bit prejudiced about his work at the Biennale, because if I’m honest I just overflew the other projects.

Here are some pictures from the Giardini:

Some Drawings Of Foster

In front of the Canadian Pavillion

Russian Pavillion

Even though it was too much input I’m looking forward to the next Biennale in 2014. And in 2014 I’ll make sure that I bring a lot of food to exhibition… (The food there is very expensive and not that delicious…)