Budapest

So from June 19th - 22nd, I decided to go to Budapest! Since I didnt have class on Thursday I wanted to take advantage of this extra long weekend. I went alone because no one really wanted to go this time as well. My train left at 5:41 am super early again. The sun comes up way too early in Weimar lately, around 4am the sky starts turning blue, and it makes it hard to sleep! The train ride was 13 hours, it was super long. From Dresden to Budapest was 9 hours....with almost no air conditioning, it was hot and squishy and pollen flying everywhere, it wasnt the most pleasant. I got to Budapest almost 7pm. I met Sandor, who drove me to the hostel and told me everything I needed to know. We got there and honestly wasnt even a hostel at all. It had 3 rooms and 5 beds. It was more like an apartment share which I liked even more. It was only me and a 30 year old Brazilian, Bernardo lol. I was pretty tired so i just stayed in.

The next morning, I went on the free tour. K. so maybe Im just dumb but i did not know Buda and Pest was two different cities lol. who knew? and that is pronouced Budapshhhhhest. But anyways went to all the touristy spots and learned a little something. lol had to cam whore to take pics =( Met some Canadians from Western University and and old Australian couple, who were really nice! I then just wandered around Vaci the giant tourist street and the main market place. It was really really hot that day more than 30 degrees, around 5pm I had to take a break it was just so hot. I ate a lango in the food court upstairs and honestly really disappointed =( it wasnt freshly fried and tastes like langos everywhere else. I then had to go buy a summer dress and swimsuit because i couldnt take the heat. The internet told me not to bring revealing clothes so i didnt bring shorts...wow what a mistake, Budapest is a giant city everyone else is wearing shorts, tank tops, tube tops, short dresses, h&ms and zara everywhere....wear what you want. I bought some fresh strawberries at the market and sat by the Danube for the sunset. So romantic....by myself FML. After a long day of heat and walking i slept early again like a loser lol.

I decided to get up early to check out the flea market on the other side of town. oh ps. the metro system is so easy to use there! After wandering around for 2 hours I just gave up, could not find it =( and a little bathing suit mishap. I checked out the other tourists site in that part of town, the castle the monument etc. I decided to treat myself to a Hungarian lunch at a restaurant i read in a guide book. I had veal stew with these pasta like things. It was pretty good, the most expensive meal that trip a little overpriced in my view. I spent the afternoon at the largest Hungarian bath house, very nice! outdoor pools in the sun, and got a great tan =) Met Andrew and Jamie, Americans from Boston, and not to mention pretty cute! I made it back to the hostel just before the evening storm and fell asleep on the couch. Went out for a quick dinner.

Bernardo and I then went out that night, because i did want to at least check out the nightlife in Budapest, which according to him was amazing. We went to the first bar which was cute, kinda like Germany lots of people sitting outside and just drinking. Then to another in the Jewish district. There my Coach bag brought Thomas, from LA to me! We got along perfectly =) Bernardo then took us to this club but by this time I didnt even have enough money to get in. Thomas lovingly walked me back to the hostel at 4 am. Bernardo came back shortly saying it sucked inside so im glad i didnt go =) After hanging out we finally went to sleep at almost 6am. Got up at 7am to head to the train station home and I was scared I was going to miss my connections because it was late! but after a few runs I made it back =) GREAT TRIP even though my parents hate me traveling alone. , met some great people and did not get robbed like I was scared to. good weekend away from Weimar

Queen's Day in Amsterdam

The last weekend of April was Queen's Day in the Netherlands, so Karoline and I went to Amsterdam for the weekend! The train was about 8 hours i think? We left at 5 am, so I was super tired. Luckily Karoline's friend Nick let us stay with him =) We got there on friday and just walked around the city. Of course we had to try a space cake, and I did catch myself starring at a lot of things after lol. I also had to try FEBO! food that comes out of vending machines and the fries there. Later we went out for dinner had some real meat again and for Queens night, just a big party on the streets. And a mission to figure out the night buses home

The next morning was Queen's day. Again the transportation was a little hard because of the street closures. The whole city become a giant flea market, there were some cute stuff but I just didnt want to carry it around with me. In the park little kids were having their own stands, cupcakes were very popular! Also you can throw things like eggs, wet sponges and oranges at kids. But we found this 10 year old who drew our portrait...it was....unique. The rest of the day we just walked around, to the different areas for parties and free concerts. The dutch have great music! I also tried a croquette which was actaully really yummy! But my feet were so so so tired and wearing flats...people just kept stepping on my feet.

Unfortunately it was very busy at one point was just crushed between two people, pushed around and could barely breath. There were also a lot of drunk people, angry drunks who kept starting fights. We saw a guy completely knocked out on the ground and the ambulance had to come. There was also a guy that i swear could crush me just by clapping his hands. People peeing and garbage everywhere...Yeah it got messy and frankly unsafe compared to Oktoberfest in Munich and Carnaval in Ovar. And getting home was a mission and a half....the trains schedules were all off and some werent working etc.

The next morning we went on the free walking tour and actually learned stuff beside all the parties. lol and yes. saw some hookers. But then I was super dumb and bought the wrong train home, luckily they let me on anyways. The train was so packed that for most of it we had to sit on the floors =( but nonetheless it was a crazy trip, definitely worth going once. not more.

ps. Orange is their national colour, its everywhere that weekend.

It's been a while! School and April updates

It has been a very long time since i've blogged. Its now the end of May! So we chose our courses again in April, this semester I am taking:

On the Road / Weidemann Project: All handmade printing, as you can see the photo we had to make a poster about kurt weidemann, a german designer. It was done with screenprinting ( I finally got to learn!) and stamps cut out of linoleum, which I gave myself the biggest cut on my hand =( We are also supposed to make some layouts for a book with handset type. But of course this class is SO UNORGANIZED that I honestly dont know if it is going to happen. There is just no information on what we are expected to do, its very annoying, this class is kind of a joke. But late April we took a trip to the Leipzig printing museum which was kinda neat. I got to see metal type made in front of my very eyes! 

My other classes include my masters seminar, The Public Sphere, which is ok, not learning much but at least its in English. Level 7 Deutsch (finally getting better at german!) and Presentation Technique which is honestly do whatever you want to do kind of class, and of course im doing mine on cupcakes.

In April we celebrated Andreannes birthday with a great dinner, Rinats 24 hour long birthday bbq then turned party, Tory's birthday as well. There was also the 2nd semester erasmus party at ckeller. We also had a goodbye party for Mac. and lots of park time since it was so warm.

March In Weimar

When I got back from my travels I took the german intensive course. It was my 3rd time in level 4 *sigh* I was supposed to be in level 5 but they didnt have enough space, but nonetheless i still learned alot =) Now im in group 7 woohoo! The new group of exchange students also arrived, alot of americans! but no everyones great. We celebrated Giorgios birthday with lots and lots of food. Francesca made the best lasagna ever! One night we went out for a Ewerk party that did not exists and decided to try to start a fire which did not work at all. So 2nd time around we had a big bbq =) being true Canadians we just used sticks and some hotdogs, while everyone was being all fancy with steaks and grills. Atleast we had chocobananas! and of course we had some lovely sunday brunches. Once Karoline made some potato doughnuts and we loving decorated them.

Turkey

Again, im super behind on my blogging! So after Portugal, on Tuesday March 8th it was off to Turkey. My flight left 9am from Porto to Barcelona where I had a 3 hour stopover then to Istanbul. The first night was crazy, I got there at 10pm then my water bottle exploded in my bag, had to line up for a visa, the customs guy was super dry, the airport kept calling me because it took me so long to get out of the customs line to get my bag, by the time I got out it was 11pm. Off to the hotel, the driver did not speak any english it was dark and getting really sketch. Luckily I arrived at midnight super tired. Did I mention I arrived during a snow storm?

The next morning had to get up at 7 to join a walking tour around Istanbul, holy geez it was so damn cold i was not expecting it. I only had a pair of flats with me it was snowing like a bitch my feet were freezing. But I went to all the major sights saw the blue mosque, st. sophia, Topkapi Palace. I really loved the mosques, it was definitely interesting. I took a quick walk around the grand bazaar, dear gosh it was a maze in there and i totally got lost, and it did not help that a million men are yelling out at you to get your attention or make you buy things, yeah i was super uncomfortable there the first day. I would have liked it a lot more if it was so cold and if my feet werent soaking. I had to go and buy new shoes in the modern side of Istanbul, on one street you could find a kfc, burger king and a starbucks. I ate dinner at a cafe and was getting sick with a huge cough =(

Then I took an overnight 11 hour bus ride to Cappadocia. It was seriously a bad 11 hours. I walked into the bus station and felt all the eyes on me, I was the only Asian and of course carrying the pink-est bag, and the male to female ratio was like....pretty much all male. I was told that I needed to change buses once but no it was really 2 times and I had no idea. No one on the bus speaks english at all, the only words they would know was 'ticket, water, tea' after figuring out how the seating works on these buses i sat beside an old turkish lady. I felt so bad for her because i kept coughing every few minutes and it was so uncomfortable it was no sleep at all. But she was so nice, when the bus people would ignore me when i wanted some water she would ask for me and even though she spoke 0 english she helped me out with the bus changing deal.

I got to Cappadocia after bugging the people around me every stop to make sure where i was going. I met up with a tour with 3 japanese med school students and the guide was no more than 30 so it was nice to have people around the same age. We took a hike down to the valley and saw the pigeon houses, it was super muddy thank god i bought those new shoes. We then went to the underground city. After a huge hotel mix up later i was dying tired i think i slept about 6-8 hours in the past 3 days. I got seriously sick. seriously. i had a fever and was just dying in my room. After many bottles of water and tylenols i had the strength to get up for dinner which was actaully really yummy grilled chicken and a rice pilaf with herbs and dried fruit. Later I decided that i could not take that bus back and booked a flight out. It was very unfortunate because I was supposed to stay in Cappadocia one more day but I was just so sick and I had a great day there with the group.

I flew back to Istanbul dying on the flight, literally just slept in my hotel room for a day, like i was sick. The next day I got up feeling much better but still had a cold. The weather was finally beautiful and warm. I walked down to the spice market, it was amazing in there! so many colours. There were spices, teas, candies, scarves, carpets and so many colours! I bought some souvenirs there and kept wandering around the outdoor markets around there so much food! by this time i got used to all the people haggling me. Even though i was alone it was a lovely day.

The next day I got up at 5:30 am yes that early to catch my flight to Izmir. Crazy early got there and joined a day tour to Ephesus. The weather was amazing seriously even hot. Turkey weather seriously confuses the fuck out of me one day it was snow storming the next i was wearing a tshirt. I saw the major sights of this once greek and roman city and saw virgin mary's house, the old city, etc etc. The library was amazing so many details, just so mannnyyyy tourists! it was insane. After the tour I spent sometime on the computer to make sure I had everything planned out to go back to Weimar. Flew back to Istanbul and the next morning back to Germany.

Turkey was such an interesting place! Every city i went to was so different. Even though i got sick i really enjoyed it and really recommend it =) even for a single tiny asian girl. Did I mention the apple tea is friggin amazing?

Porto And Ovar

Finally getting around to blog about the rest of my trip!

So then I went off to Porto and met up with Afonso and Constanca. Nuno was super nice enough to drive me up there =) We all met up at a cute garden teahouse where I met some of their friends, again they all speak Portuguese so i was kinda just there. I then went back to their apartment which is super cute, its very new and looks like ikea haha. We went out for dinner with their parents and had the greatest sandwich of my life, i repeat greatest sandwich: Francesinha! all sorts of meat covered in melted cheese and a tomatoey sauce. I would kill for another one. The next day we walked around the city and went to some of the tourist places and strolled around the city. The next day I went to a foundation and Gaia. THANK YOU to Afonso and Constanca for showing me around and letting me stay with them!

We then made our way to Ovar, Afonso and Constanca's hometown. Their house is so beautiful! Again we walked around the city and went to the shore. The next day qp and karoline joined us. It was Carnaval weekend! so at night we went out for dinner with their friends, called the drink team and the beers just did not stop coming. We continued to party throughout the night and people were wearing their costumes, a lot of very sexual costumes...haha. it got really cold at night and by 4-5am i was freezing, the sun came up and i was tired and finally got home at 7am. The rest of the day was pretty much wasted with me sleeping. and at night repeat except we got home at 3am. The next day I just pretty much chilled around and met a lot of their family, grandparents, aunts etc it was really neat to see into Portuguese people's houses. Magic Monday night came along. We had an amazing dinner cooked from their mom. She cooks so well! There are the chicken deep fried balls they were so good they just melt in your mouth. I put on some mouse ears and called that a costume and went out for the carnaval. There were a lot of people and of course alcohol everywhere. After some churros and a giant hotdog later I was ready to go home at 4am because I had to fly out to Turkey the next day at 9 am, it was hard.

Portugal: Lisboa, Coimbra & Aveiro

I LOVE PORTUGAL, I really do its amazing here. I flew out from Berlin on February 24th and landed in Lisbon. Nuno got me from the airport and we stayed at his friend Rui's apartment. The first night we went out for small tapas like dinner, we had chouriço, which was on fire, codfish, baby fish with vinegar, cheese and bread. It was simple but so good and apparently very Portuguese.  Then we went to a Fado house, traditional singing with guitar and a lot of emotion. The next day we walked around Lisbon, the city is all up and down, lots of hills. We saw a few sights like the elevator. We stopped for lunch where I had Bacalhau, codfish with potatoes and eggs. yummy. It was nice the weather was really warm that day and we just sat on the patio for more than 2 hours. We went for Ginjinha, a cherry liquor. After we went to Rui's dinner party with his coworkers (he works at a bank!) At night we went for drinks, it was pretty cool there were people all over the streets with open alcohol unlike Canada!

On Saturday we went to the beach! We had some pastries in the morning for breakfast, so YUMMY.  It was almost 2 hours away with car, even the car ride was nice with the windows open and even stopping on the side of the road was nice. There were roads lined with trees and white houses. The beach was AMAZING, there were cliffs where we sat for a bit and you walk down to the ocean. There was no one there when we got there, got to make some first footprints! it was so beautiful! I even took a nap on the beach. First time I got to wear tshirt and shorts in February in my whole life! After the beach we went to Sines, another town for cakes and coffee. Later that night we drove to Coimbra, Nuno's hometown. It was definitely my favourite day here.

In Coimbra, we walked around the town, to the park, the square and to a cafe looking down. We went for lunch with his parents by the river, the family is so nice and welcoming. We then went to the old part, it was again very up and down and lots of stairs. haha and called the 'back-breaker' I met a few of his friends and had coffee. It gets pretty chilly here at night. We went back to his house and was lazy, watching the oscars. His house is super nice with an amazing view and the cutest dogs!

The next day we went to get pastries in a nearby town. LOL on the way Nuno got pulled over by the cops because they thought he was smuggling an asian aka me. We died laughing the cops was like where is she from, Canada, the cop looked so confused had to pull out my passport and all haha great story. But we got to the bakery, these tarts....changed my life. They were so so so good, the star shaped ones with egg custard and a little burnt on the crusts. MY GOD....foodgasm. There were also the flaky tarts and long ones all with egg custard. SO GOOD I cant get enough, I want more just thinking about it right now.

We then drove to Aveiro, about 30-45 minutes away from Coimbra where Nuno studies. I stayed with his roomates which were very nice. We walked around the river which was really cute with Daniela. We then had another pastry, this one was amazinnnnggg too, so sweet the way I like it. It was like a thin cookie and instead all EGG CUSTARD. I even bought a little jar, which I cant wait to dig into. Just chilled around and now in the library while Nuno has class.

Whew! long post this is just Portugal part one. But THANK YOU NUNO, for showing me around for the whole week. seriously Portuguese people are so so nice!

February In Weimar: Birthdays and Goodbyes

I haven't blogged in a whole month! The semester has now finished. There were a lot of birthdays in February! We celebrated Karolines, Ivos, QPs, Monika and Francescas! Nuno threw and auction party, selling his old stuff which was really funny. There was also a great parties by the train station one night, and two at the product design space. lots of fun. We also celebrated Chinese New Year with hot pot night, which was sooo good because my room mates bought the Little Sheep brand soup base, mmm im drooling just thinking about hot pot again. Also German health care system is very annoying finding a 24 hour doctor and pharmacy was a mission, please open things on Sunday!

But since the semester was ending there were a lot of goodbyes =( Adam left first so I had dinner and chilled around on his last few days. Toli had a great party at in the cellar. Then it was John where we all went out for dinner and then went back for apple crumble and hot chocolate, it was so good! Then we had an epic brunch with Francis and Nuno. Serena made us an amazing Gorgonzola rice. Also had to say bye to Pentti, Kamil and Dominika. Im going to miss you guys so so so much!

Class was also a bitch, the brochure class never wanted to end. It was always just sitting around, going in circles, watching a few people click around on the computer. You can clearly see everyone is falling asleep. On top it's pretty ugly...I don't understand why anyone doesnt want to tell him that, im sure we all know we just want to finish. Yes i am not impressed with this class at all 4 hours of literally doing nothing. They tell you class starts at 9.30 am only one there, everyone finally shows up at 10.30am, gets their coffee and we start working at 11am. like WTF.

Distance Conversation: The End

This week was the last week of my project class 'Distance Conversation' I honestly really loved this claass, you have no idea. This week we focused on type. The first day we presented our personal projects, mine was based on collecting funny tweets. From there I made 2 handmade posters with a typeface I made out of folding paper. I also made a bunch of spinning wheels, with tweets, which I still need to make the packaging for. I also made a type sculpture, which broke now but I have the photos! But others had amazing projects. Peggy made a book about Cuba with calligraphy and some silk screened bags, some guy photocopied over ink and paper about Japan, another collected pen testing papers from stores, there were posters, books and everything. It was such a creative variety! Loved it.

Then we were asked to photograph type around Weimar, from there we had to make a hybrid type. I choose a fancy western type with a stencil block type. We had to hand draw our letters until almost perfection. Then change it to create a more serious logo type. Mine is called 'Alpine Hills' teehee. Im still working on digitizing it now with fontlab.

At the end of the week Yomar Augusto (our prof) also made each of us a calligraphy poster. Mine says 'Cherry on Top' teehee im kinda really obsessed with the poster right now too isnt it pretty? He makes everything looks so easy its not fair. My classmates also taught me some slang German words which were really funny! The class was fun, chill and I feel like I got alot out of it. My fav class this semester!  I really loved this class and was inspired! I'm hoping to go to Rotterdam for another workshop if the dates and price works out!

Another week gone by: school and parties

So I had typeface design last weekend. Super boring as usual and very tedious but 'Talu' is the name of my typeface and it's pretty much done! its super cute and I do like it =) and as usual the prof gets uncomfortably close when he talks to everyone.

Sunday night, John brought over British Christmas Pudding that his mom made =) it was like a dense fruit cake with lots of brandy, that he then lights on fire! then served with a sweet creamy white sauce, (haha dont think wrong now there) A few days ago the Italians also made lasagna super yummy!

There were a few parties since I've gotten back. There was Pablo's birthday and he turned 23. We all had to bring something to eat with the number 23, and ate it to a beat. Pablo tanked 23 shots like nothing, I was ammmaazzedd. Then Thomas' birthday, his present was a fire extinguisher of course. Today was Tory's 21st birthday and we went skating in Erfurt. It was pretty expensive totaling up to 6.50 euros!

First week back from Christmas

I went back to Canada for Christmas for 2 weeks from Dec 18th to Jan 1st. Yay, it was so so great to see my family and friends again! went skating at Nathan Phillips, shopping at Eatons, massive baking day with Jen where we made cupcakes, fail gingerbread, microwave meringues and panna cotta. I also made sugar cookies with my mom and cousins. But the best time was definitely decorating the gingerbread house with my bro =) I also went to the ROM and AGO, free tuesdays and wednesdays! Destiny with sam, tiff and delano, hot pot with vy and new years at jfs! But coming back to Weimar made me very very homesick, its getting better now but I miss my family and friends so so much.

and of course I had to eat all the foods again: yum yum <3
- hot pot x 4
- kbbq
- Samgyetang (korean chicken soup) x 2
- bubble tea
- pho x 2
- curry beef balls, red sausage and sui mai
- all star wings x 2
- my moms dumplings, melon soup and risotto
- aunt amy's turkey and stuffing


I had my German lessons again on Monday and only me and another student showed up! so it was a 2 person class which I enjoyed very much, I learn more this way and I get more chances to speak and practice. Brochure class today was boring as usual. But the prof says my work is very 'North American' but did say he liked it which is good =) but I was spacing out as usual and he suddenly pulled a question in English, whoa...i was so not paying attention. But typeface design again this weekend bleh