Happy ´Twenty-Eighth´ month, Fabi!

Fabian helps me around the house - for proof, see above picture taken while we were doing the laundry. He thought it was funny to wear a damp t-shirt on his head.
He surprises me everyday with a new word. For example, we were "reading" a picture book. I say: "Mira! Una media!" and he says: "Socks!" When and where and how did he learn that "media" is "sock" I have NO idea!...It´s shocking and a little creepy to realize the speed of his language development.

His favorite friends are Adrian and Emil, who he plays with constantly.

Fabian loves the playground, hates to ride the stroller, loves to run and has discovered corn. Starting from the month of September he will join a regular playgroup, twice a week, three hours a day. This will be our training for his kindergarden, which he will start once he turns 3 years old. Children here start kindergarten at that early age anyway and in Fabi´s case, it will help him develop his German language.

Erba Villa - Fiesta de Verano 2007

Muy divertida resultó la fiesta de verano del grupo hispanohablante del Erba Villa 2007. Tuvimos suerte con el clima porque además de escapar la amenaza de lluvia no hizo un calor asfixiante y más bien estuvo fresco. Hubo variedad de ensaladas, carne asada, cerveza y refrescos. No faltaron los ricos postres a la hora del café.

Los niños no fueron los únicos en divertirse con la tómbola y juegos. Los papás y las mamás también participaron en competencias que involucraron pepinos y buena puntería(!)

Extrañamos a todos los amigos que no estuvieron con nosotros; aunque la asistencia fue relativamente poca, la pasamos realmente bien.

Me gustas tu

A Mexican friend of mine (¡Hola, Rosalía!) is moving to Hannover. We had a farewell dinner at a new Mexican restaurant in Erlangen (Chilli´s) on Friday night, which happened to be the day that my good friend Librada (from Dominican Republic) was celebrating her birthday.

After dinner we went out dancing to E-Werk with "La Pachanga". (I like that word!) ¡Qué bueno volver a verte, Mauricio!

I heard a new song that I liked which happens to be by Manu Chao. I first heard about this singer from Irfan...and I thought it was funny that the lyrics of this song I liked, has a couple of lines in French. So...in reply to Céline´s song I leave you with "Me gustas tú".

Te lo dije muy clarito

Doce de la noche en La Habana, Cuba

Once de la noche en San Salvador, El Salvador

Once de la noche en Managua, Nicaragua

Me gustan los aviones, me gustas tú.

Me gusta viajar, me gustas tú.

Me gusta la mañana, me gustas tú.

Me gusta el viento, me gustas tú.

Me gusta soñar, me gustas tú.

Me gusta la mar, me gustas tú.

¿Qué voy a hacer? Je ne sais pas.

¿Qué voy a hacer? Je ne sais plus.

¿Qué voy a hacer? Je suis perdu.

¿Qué horas son, mi corazón?

Me gusta la moto, me gustas tú.

Me gusta correr, me gustas tú.

Me gusta la lluvia, me gustas tú.

Me gusta volver, me gustas tú.

Me gusta marijuana, me gustas tú.

Me gusta colombiana, me gustas tú.

Me gusta la montaña, me gustas tú.

Me gusta la noche...

¿Qué voy a hacer? Je ne sais pas.

¿Qué voy a hacer? Je ne sais plus.

¿Qué voy a hacer? Je suis perdu.

¿Qué horas son, mi corazón?

Me gusta el fuego, me gustas tú.

Me gusta menear, me gustas tú.

Me gusta la Coruña, me gustas tú.

Me gusta la lasaña, me gustas tú.

Me gusta la castaña, me gustas tú.

Me gusta Guatemala...

¿Qué voy a hacer? Je ne sais pas.

¿Qué voy a hacer? Je ne sais plus.

¿Qué voy a hacer? Je suis perdu.

¿Qué horas son, mi corazón?

Cuatro de la mañana

A la bin, a la ban a la bin bon ba

A la bin, a la ban a la bin bon ba

Obladi Obladá Obladidadá

A la bin, a la ban a la bin bon ba

Cinco de la mañana

No todo lo que es oro brilla

Radio Reloj

Fabi met Tina...finally!

Thanks, Tina, for a wonderful time!

noch ein Gesichtspunkt

Fellow blogger Céline reports about our trip to the Nuremberg Zoo. Feel free to use this online translator to understand her French.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6

Enjoy!

Newsflash

"Siemens celebrates 50th anniversary in Costa Rica"

"Costa Rica sets up Embassy in China" (we hope an Embassy in India follows soon...)

McDonald´s in Erlangen is being renovated (the children´s playarea).

Many stores located in Erlangen´s main street are closing up (they will reopen inside the new Arcade shopping mall this coming month of September).

Men at Work

I found this. I liked it.

Suiza Centroamericana

Hace unos días encontré el blog de una joven estudiante alemana, quien actualmente se encuentra en Costa Rica durante unas semanas para practicar y estudiar más el español.

He estado disfrutando leer su blog, ya que además de practicar un poco mi alemán, me entero de sus impresiones de nuestro país. Por ejemplo, se está hospedando con una familia en Heredia (!), le gusta los plátanos maduros y la cajeta de coco. Ya fue a los rápidos y pronto irá a Montezuma y a la Isla Tortuga.

El blog de esta joven es la primera fuente de información que sus lectores (familiares y amigos) tienen de Costa Rica. Quien lee su blog se entera que allá "las mujeres se visten con ropa muy tallada", que "a los hombres les gusta piropear a las mujeres" y que "la prostitución infantil es un gran problema en el país".

¡Pero eso no es nada! Esta muchacha iba caminando con una amiga (compañera de sus clases de español) y vio como a su amiga le quitaron la cartera...¡en pleno día...en Heredia! Empezaron a gritar y de alguna manera recibieron ayuda, recuperaron la cartera, llego la policía...

Yo estoy tan impactada y triste como si me hubiera pasado a mí. Me acuerdo que hace mucho tiempo esto pasaba sólo en otros países, luego empezó a ser algo que se escuchaba sólo en San José centro, de noche...ahora es en cualquier parte, a cualquier hora.

Le conté a Ishan y ni se sorprendió. Me dijo que con todas las rejas que ponen en las casas en Costa Rica, se entiende que no es un lugar seguro. No sé como fue que llegó a ser esto así, pero lo que no me quiero imaginar es hasta donde llegará.

Imagine...a dream come true (Updated)

Imagine one day you quit your job and then visit different far away countries.

You document your trip with a blog and a video that shows you doing a silly dance everywhere you go. The video gets an incredible amount of attention on the Internet.

Imagine that a company offers to sponsor you on another world trip, so you can make another video of yourself dancing in different places (as part of their advertising campaign for their new product). They´re sure LOTS of people are going to like it...and they are right! And then...you become even more famous on the Internet.

You can stop imagining now because this is exactly what happened to Matt. He´s from USA and was working in Australia when he quit his job in February, 2003. He made his first video after travelling in 2003 and 2004.

At the end of 2005, he made a second trip visiting 39 countries in all 7 continents. This is the second video. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

When I first saw the video I loved it immediately. Then I found about Matt´s travel journal and have been following his recent news. He got interviewed, he´s been in the news and keeps getting all kinds of different offers. He also got quite a few video responses in YouTube.

Now he´s travelling a third time to make dancing video clips with fans. You can sign up to join him if he stops where you are.

In this day and age, to be getting so much attention can be quite a responsibility. People (his fans!) keep asking him: "What´s your message?", but he (originally) didn´t have one, he was just travelling and dancing.

Travelling changes you and it makes you grow. Besides doing what he likes and being an inspiration to other people, this "lucky backpacker" made awesome videos to show that the world is a wonderful small, big place.

UPDATE: The song of the video is adapted from "Sweet Lullaby" by Deep Forest.

-The vocals of the song belong to "a girl (..) named Afunakwa. She comes from a place named Fataleka in the Solomon Islands. The song she is singing is a traditional lullaby named “Rorogwela.” The recording was made in 1970 by a UNESCO ethnomusicologist named Hugo Zemp. ”Rorogwela” is part of the oral tradition among the Baegu tribe, passed down through generations for who-knows-how-long, and was thankfully preserved while there were members of the tribe who could still sing it."

-The video of the song is director Tarsem´s retelling of the myth of the Hindu god Ganesh's trip around the world.

I just love to know about the stories behind the things that catch my attention.

Do you speak English? / Sprechen Sie Deutsch?

Bericht wom Wochenende

It´s "Summer Party" season! This weekend was a nice busy one!

On Saturday, we went to the "Deutsch-Koreanisches Sommersfest" that took place on the Unisportzentrum right across from our building. The food was great! I had some "Gemüsepfannkuchen" (vegetable pankaces) with soja sauce and sesame seeds. Fabi loved the vegetarian sushi and managed to get a whole piece in his mouth at one time. Then he had a huge ice cream cone. We also enjoyed the Taekwondo demonstrations that took place. Lots of people -of ALL ages- practice that sport here.

In the afternoon Fabi and I headed out to "St.Sebald Kindergarten Sommerfest". That´s the kindergarden where Fabi will probably go to. There was a lot of food (German style: meat, potatoes, green salad, beer, etc), but Fabi and I were stuffed. So Fabi played with other kids and I met a few friends. Among all the Germans there were families from Venezuela, Nicaragua and Spain, also from Bangladesh and India. Fabi bought 6 Tombola tickets and won three prizes. There were also games for the kids and lots of yummy cakes and desserts. Fabi thought it was a birthday party and kept singing "Happy Birthday to you" and asked for the cake. He did have a piece of cheesecake, but I´m sure he was wondering who the birthday boy or girl was. We stood in line for him to get his face painted, but he then changed his mind about it. At around 5:30pm I took him home for his nap. Then I went grocery shopping for the week.

The next day I was supposed to join a neighboring family to go to Nüremberg for the "Spanish Church Mission Sommerfest", but the allergy that I´ve had the whole week turned into a cold overnight. So I decided to stay home. The good thing is that I was able to catch up with iroining of all the clothes while I watched a couple of movies on my laptop.

I´m feeling a lot better. I don´t have headache, fever or any kind of pain except for nasal congestion which has calmed down but it´s still annoying. I should be fine again in a couple of days. I just hope Fabi doesn´t catch my cold...and if he does, I hope it will be as mild as mine is.

Este fin de semana pasado fue especial -porque además de todas las actividades de verano- a nivel mundial se celebraron los conciertos "Live Earth" en la fecha especial del 7.7.07.

Además, se anunciaron las 7 Maravillas del Mundo Moderno (de las cuales TRES! están en Latinoamérica):
"La Muralla China"
"Petra" en Jordania
"El Coliseo Romano" en Italia
"Chichén Itza" en México
"El Cristo Redentor" en Brasil
"Machu Picchu" en Peru*
"El Taj Mahal" en India*

*Ya visité dos, me faltan las otros cinco!

Schürhakengesicht / Poker Face

Aha!... I knew it!...Fabi can bluff! He tries to overact and point in a different direction when I try to discipline him. It´s something I´ve noticed lately...but I had no idea he had been tricking me for a long time. At least that´s what this article claims.

Sometimes it´s so obvious, that MasalaDad calls him "actor!"...and he gets furious and replies: "No! Actor no!" However, we do feel he´s a perfect candidate for an Oscar Award.

Hoy ha estado lloviznando...así que no salimos. Así estan las cosas aquí, en nuestro segundo día metidos en la casa. Por dicha el fin de semana pasado estuvo bien interesante y esperamos que el clima mejore pronto.

How we spend our rainy days inside the house.

Umgekehrt

¡pɐǝɥ ɹnoʎ uo puɐʇs noʎ ɟı pɐǝɹ oʇ ɹǝısɐǝ sı sıɥʇ

¡ɐzǝqɐɔ ǝp ɐɹɐd ǝs oun ıs ɹǝǝ1 ǝp 1ıɔɐɟ sɐɯ sǝ oʇsǝ

Via Boing Boing.

Tiergarten am Sonntag -Updated

We went to the Nuremberg Zoo.

Check out the pictures here.

En alemán, la palabra zoológico significa "jardín de animales" (Tiergarten).

UPDATE: Fabi now enjoys even more playing with his plastic animal toys. He has a giraffe, an elephant, a leopard, a gorilla, a zebra and a monkey among many others. The ones he saw at the zoo are now of particular interest to him. Did you know that when a seal barks it sounds just like a dog? :)

komisches Wetter

This is a picture of our living room window. Do you like my terracotta vase? Thanks to Nidhi&Vivek I can display its awesome bottle-shaped silhouette on my window.

As you can see, the picture was taken when it was bright and sunny outside, but the windows were still wet from the ocassional showers that we´ve been getting.

Sometimes the whole day will be gray; other days it´s cloudy and drizzling one minute, bright and sunny the next one. This is great if you like surprises, but not so much if you want to plan an outdoor activity. That´s the main reason I still have not been to the swimming pool yet. This changing weather makes it also difficult to decide what you should wear before leaving the house.

It´s suppossed to be summer, but we haven´t really felt the heat. We do get a lot of sunlight though, from about 5:00am until almost 9:00pm. I really like this part of the year because of the extended daylight. The days are longer and yet they are still not enough for me to do everything that I would like to.

"Summer" look? - Fabi dressed up to go to "Family Day"

Since I´m writing this post, I´ll also tell you that today was "Family Day" at a Siemens office in Nuremberg. Ishan, Fabi and I took bus no. 30 to Thon and then met the family who had invited us for this activity. The family consists of a nice couple who has a teenage son. They are from Pakistan and have been in Germany for as long as nearly as I have been alive. The man of the family came to Erlangen as a student when he was 20 years old ---and he lived in the Wichernstr. Wohnheim (the same one where I was as a student!). He says it was a great student house back in those days...only two floors where reserved for hosting girls. The rest of the floors were for the guys. Funny how things change. That student building was not at all flattering when I stayed there, but I´m happy to know that it has been renovated with new bathrooms and kitchens.

We all had a great time in "Family Day". Lots of food, drinks and other goodies. By far, Fabi was the one who enjoyed the most. After lunch he insisted to go stand next to the small stage where six musicians where playing southern U.S.A. music. The band had a cello, a keyboard and trumpets. Fabi jumped and danced the whole time oblivious to everyone around him who was smiling with delight as they followed his moves. When the band took a break and the sun was shining outside the tent, Fabi jumped to his heart´s content in one of those big inflatable toys.

With so much jumping and dancing, it´s no wonder he fell asleep on the bus ride back home!