Updates on my adventures and misadventures during the summer (and a little extra after).
 

Four months after... (December 2001)

Where am I now?  I've finished another work term, this time doing serious damage with video games and having lots of fun with it (my ultimate dream job... with my Second-Favourite British Guy of All Time, Mr. Bond, James Bond), and in a month, I'm headed back to school.  But before that, I'm off to travel again, this time for Christmas hols in sunny, shiny California. 

How did the summer end?  Well, towards the end, I was feeling travelled out but still managed to squeeze in trips to Amsterdam (very fun), Nordeney (obscure but very pretty and let me (1) ride a ferry on the North Sea, (2) see some seals, (3) spend a cold day on the beach just relaxing and almost getting dive-bombed by killer kites, and (4) contract a case of nasty epizoonosis), to the doctor's office in Hannover to cure said-case of epizoonosis since it was grossing and stressing everybody out at work, to London (thanks to cheap RyanAir tickets I heard about from this nice South African girl in Salzburg), and to Frankfurt where I met up with my bosom buddy Rocilyn.  I have also mastered flirting, I mean "being friendly", to an art form as was proven in London and Amsterdam and to an extent, at work too.  Work was good and got a bit hectic towards the end, but ended well with the supervisors taking all of us Canadian co-ops out for beer during the last week.  In fact, the theme of the last week in Germany was BEER and DRINKING, with all of us getting together for a B.Y.O.B&B BBQ (Bring Your Own Bratwurst & Beer) at Dave and Kurtis' place two nights in a row on the last weekend, and the supervisor-coop dinner/drinks outing the Monday after.  That taught me two things:  drinking games can be fun and 11 Canadian co-ops x (6 bratwursts/pack) = 66 bratwursts + beer + Irish cream + James Cook rum + salads aplenty = a fitting end to a choice summer.

Overall Grade for the Summer: A for AWESOME
 

After 98 days... wow, less than a month to go!!!

I cannot believe that I have only 28 more days to go!! In exactly four weeks, I will be on a plane back home, probably with a big stupid grin on my face. I will also probably be somewhat sad to leave Hannover and Europe. I think I'll miss the people I met, most of all, if you know what I mean... wink!! Some(one?) DEFINITELY more than others. Bad news -- here are the places I wanted to visit but could not, due to some reason or another: Prague (no visa), Bratislava (scared off by a traveller's story), Copenhagen and Malmo (takes 14 hours to get there, so can't squish it in a weekend), Rotterdam (probably also can't squish this into one weekend due to $$$ issues), Bergen-Belsen (failed mission due to public holiday), Weimar (seems not interesting enough). Anyway, it'll all be over soon, and have I updated my page nearly enough??? NOT.

Addendum:  I take back what I said about Weimar.  Now I want to go, but have run out of weekends and $$$ to go there, thanks to shopping.
 

After 77 days... I've gone a little over the two-thirds mark

Hard to believe that as of today, I have only 49 more days to go!! Yay and mini-boo. This weekend I go off on my first major trip flying solo, on my own, to Budapest, Vienna and Salzburg. In the 43 days since my last update (okay, I've been slacking off, plus I encountered some technical difficulties with the FortuneCity Site Generator HONESTLY!), I managed to land a September job, yay! I've also been to Paris, back to Berlin and Potsdam, Rome, Florence, Milan, Cologne and Bad Honnef, and Munich. I've also decreased my homesickness level to almost zero and increased my flirting, I mean "friendliness" skills to about 75%. As for technical skills... what technical skills? Just kidding. I've learned a lot more of JAVA (not C++, sheesh!) and I've been making decent progress on my super top-secret killer project.
 

After 34 days... Hey, I've already completed ONE MONTH!

I find myself writing "All righty then..." A LOT MORE OFTEN than I usually do (which is never). I've had my first unsuccessful trip -- not my fault though, but I lost some precious DMs and a very valuable travel day. Went to Hamburg, Celle and this weekend, PARIS yippee!! Been applying to jobs like a maniac, gave myself the gift of shades and most importantly, two key words: Okey. Dokey.

I've settled into my home for the next four months. I've done some grocery shopping, laundry and other domestic chores, that I would usually not do if I were living at home. Been hard at work (schyeah right!). Gone shopping. Went on quite a few weekend trips to Hameln, Bremen, Berlin, Potsdam, Heidelberg and Baden-Baden.
 

Pre-Trek Jitters

Okay, guess what? Tomorrow, I officially start my trip. Everything's packed and sorted, I've got my travel books (thanks Lisa!), four months worth of clothes, medicine, toiletries, some Ramen noodles (!), shoes, notebooks for writing stuff down, CDs and other things which defy logical reason. There's even a Canadian flag to cheer on the Canadian hockey team in the World Championships. Sometimes our family is so organized and well-planned, it's scary. 

I still cannot believe I'll be going to Europe for 4 months *by myself*, i.e. no family. All our major trips so far have been hauling everybody along, which has been super-fun. Well, that's enough rambling from me for now. I promise the next installment will be more exciting... unless, for some perverted reason, you actually LIKE hearing about the stuff I've packed. I do. Heh.
 

Not-So-Mental Checklist

Did I mention that I like making lists?

This isn't really a picture I took. It just came with the webpage building software I'm using. Pretty sneaky, huh?

Check back soon for my latest adventure... 

Auf Wiedersehen!!