The craze that is the World Cup

2006-03-27T14:45:00.000+02:00

Friends of the sport of Football or Soccer...

As a German football supporter I was as happy as the next supporter about Germany winning the friendly against the US Eagles last week. 4:1 seems a big win, even considering the 1 goal the US scored should not have been allowed... Well in either way the press in Germany seems to believe we've already won the World Cup. Well I think all those that believe we are going to fly through the World Cup with flying colours will have one big and rough awakening.
Yes Klinsman managed to get a win but that still doesnt change anything about the fact the German team still cant really play very well... The first half was, lets be honest, boring and only in the second half did they manage to score goals. This aside the stars of the US team werent present and in my opinon would have made a difference had they played.

Well, as the World Cup is drawing closer let us wait and see if Germany can achieve anything worth noting this time around.

Where is my home?

2006-03-07T17:02:00.000+01:00

2005 KCL Intel Warball Crew
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Nate and Anne two of my fellow Londoneers at King’s last year started this discussion on belonging and I have decided to add my Senf…

Nate I agree with you and your description of the weird thing we call belonging and where is my home?!

I believe we should be applauded for making the effort of finding and making new friends at whatever place we happen to be at the moment. After my 3 years in Bradford, I was weary and didn’t look forward to making a new circle of friends in jolly ol’ London. This was thankfully taken off my hands as I met almost all the people I came to appreciate for that year in London during the first few days, some as my flat mates, some as fellow smokers, and some as my fellow and truly beloved boozing partners.

BTW I QUIT SMOKING… lets see if I can make it. Keep your fingers crossed!

Now back to the issue at hand… I personally feel that I will never really find just ONE place that I can call home anymore. East-Berlin is the city I was born in. A united Berlin was the city I grew up in. During my military service time I experienced Berlin in a whole new light – as a sparkly and vibrant never sleeping place. Obviously this over glorification was due to my stay in the asscrack of the world that was Dülmen. Once I moved to the UK Berlin became to me an even more magical place, where everything was shinny and beautiful. This sense was further strengthened by the fact that when I returned to Berlin it was only for vacation and extreme partying /stares longingly into the air. At first Bradford was an absolute nightmare of a place to live in for 3 whole years. Once I left Bradistan I started to miss it… but as I later figured out it wasn’t the place but more the feeling of belonging that was very closely tied to the community of people I associated with and not the actual place.

London proved a juggling act in many different ways. On the one hand Berlin still seemed the great place of my imagination yet I started to realize that London was a unique city that you either love it or hate it… I was undecided at first but quickly made up my mind. This realization proved mind boggling. Sadly this realization hit me only once I was back in Berlin. Since then I still enjoy Berlin as the best city in Germany. Yet I don’t regard it in the same lime light anymore. May be its just that my taste for party was spoiled by the sheer overkill of things to do and places to see.

Balancing work and leisure in a place like London proved itself very difficult but doable and does not need to be further explained… as I managed it.

Thirdly in a place like London you won’t get around the problem of juggling your circles of friends as some of them just don’t seem to be able to mix at times. Attempting to mix new and old circles of friends proved a challenge in its own right. And obviously the distances to overcome in a place like London called for a lot of dedication and will to make it work. And thankfully Nate moved to GC which made a lot of things easier for me and routes to travel a lot shorter. Nis thankfully was always up for meeting somewhere as long as it involved beer or intelligence. Sami and Saara lived across the park making live quite simple and great during an awesome summer in one of the places I guess I can call home.

I think I need to stop rambling and get to the point of what I wanted to say. Home is wherever you feel comfortable and you have friends, I think. I further believe that this sentiment can and will over time be split up between various places for people like us.

Let me know what you guys think.

The whole concept of blogs...

2006-03-07T11:34:00.000+01:00

Well,

here I am with my first entry to my blog... I never would have thought that I'd ever start one. I would look bemused when my friends where talking about their blogs.

Well as I am in between jobs I thought I might as well do something constructive with my time and at least get some writing practice in and learn something new... how to create and manage a blog.
You're laughing?! It's not that easy if you are clueless and most likely every 10 year old has better skills at it then me.

So bear with me it can only get better

Ein Berliner in Berlin

The craze that is the World Cup

Where is my home?

The whole concept of blogs...