Last night I went to see a hockey game; Frankfurt Lions vs. Sinupret Ice Tigers from Nürnberg. I finally got to see a hockey game again. I miss watching hockey games. Not just the game though, but the atmosphere of a hockey arena, the smell of the ice, the smelly hockey players and the atmosphere …yes, good old memories came back to mind.

It was in the morning when my brother called and asked me if I wanted to go see the Lions game that night, and that he had free tickets and didn’t want to go. Yes, I wanted to go. Knowing that three of my ex-collegues like hockey too, I sent emails to them asking if they wanted to come. Well, in the end it was only one of my friends, Stolli, and I who went.

We didn’t get ticktes for seats but at least we could pretty much choose where we’d stand during the game. I wanted to be in the first row. Sure, you don’t have a great view of the game and can’t tell if the refs are taking right decisions when calling offside, but at least you get to see parts of the game real close,  get to see the players’ faces and the hits. Well, it’s not like there are many hits comparing to the NHL, but there are some and there were quiet a few that happened right in front of us.
At 7.30 pm the game finally started. In the first period both teams played a very fast and physical game. Both teams had quiet a few chances to score but the two goalies, Ian Gordon and Dimitrij Kotschnew, did a great job. However, the Ice Tigers managed to score in the 19th minute of the first period and took the lead.

Break. Stolli  and I went outside for a cigarette where we met another ex-collegue and his wife. The whole family goes to see pretty much all the Lion’s games and have seasonal tickets for pretty much the best seats.

Stolli and I decided to get back to our spots before somebody else would take them and watched the second period. It was a pretty intense game and the fans tried to support the Lions as much as possible. The Ice Tigers had quite a few shots on the Lions’ net but Ian saved them all.
32nd minutes into the game, the Lions finally scored their first goal. During a powerplay, Jeff Ulmer, right wing of the Lions, took a slap shot and scored.

A few minutes later, the Ice Tigers were shorthanded again but managed to score anyways. The two defense players of the Lions had failed to stop Aleksander Polaczek again and he was on a breakaway. The Nürnberg Ice Tigers lead 2:1 when the second period was over.

Stolli and I went outside to buy some French fries, when we met Klaus and his family again. The fries were the most disgusting fries I had in a long time. I am sure they haven’t changed the oil in the deep fryer in years! Gross! I really can’t recommend eating fries at the little place right in front of the arena. Well, at least I know for next time!

For the last period Klaus and his wife took Stolli and I to where they were sitting since two of theirs friends didn’t show up for the game and we could have their seats. The last period started and we had a whole new perspective on the game.

The player seemed to be tired and the game wasn’t as fast at the two first periods had been. However, three minutes before the period ended, the Lions were on the power play again. Chris Taylor, former NHL player, scored and the games was tied. Just before the 3rd period ended, another player of the Tigers had to leave the ice again and had to sit in the penalty box.

Overtime started and the 6,500 fans where screaming and yelling and supporting the team as much as possible. It was an incrediable atmosphere in the arena. People wouldn’t stay in their seats but everybody watched the game standing up. The Overtime period had just started, when Chis Taylor scored again – the Frankfurt Lions won 3:2.

Winning the game in overtime let the Lions gain two more points and get back to 2nd place in the DHL (German Hockey League). Good job guys!

Tuesday – 1.30 pm: Our weekly meeting of a still “top-secret“ project started right after English class. Before we actually started working, we went to the cafeteria to prevent Rebecca’s and my death due to starvation and after we had lunch we went to the café on campus “Zeitraum“.

Our project started last week. Ten people were attending the meeting. Exactly one week later, we were only half of the people we started with; Flo, Rebecca, Sebastian, Tobi and I.

Sebastian, Tobi and Rebecca were discussing the topics and Flo was writing the results down, and I was checking out some stuff on the internet and Kersten came online using an instant messenger. He’s the member of the our “secret project“ who was sick Tuesday and had stayed home. After chatting with him for a bit and trying to let him know what we were discussing, we decided to try using a video conference so that he could participate in the meeting without having to get out of the house. It worked out great! At least he was able to follow what was said, we could hear what he had to say and  he could even see us… just too bad he didn’t use a web cam as well… it really worked out much better than I’d expect a video conference to be (especially using a wireless connection)…

I guess we’re becoming more and more online journalists and are starting to use WEB 2.0 features more an more to our advantage…

Video conferences are definitely a great option to use when somebody cannot participate in person but I generally prefer when people are actually attending. (Maybe I am hoping some other members of the group may read this and feel a little more motivated to join our meeting next week again!)

People that want to read up on Kerstens point of view while video conferencing with us click here.

“ …
I’m preparing for the breakdown

Your t-shirt lost its smell of you
And the bathroom is still am mess
Remind me why we decided this was for the best

Because I miss you love
…”

Those words really touched me. I knew it was over – we just spoke on the phone and we had decided that this was for the best. For days – weeks the song “Miss you love” by Maria Mena was the background music to my life – it was like the song was written only for me. I listened to the song all the time and if I didn’t listen to it, I kept singing it in my head. It expressed exactly what I felt and I guess helped me realise and accept the feelings I had but I still didn’t know how to deal with them.

Sometime in June 2007:
It was in the middle of the night when I woke up. Something was wrong. I knew it. Something between us had happened. I couldn’t sleep anymore. I turned on the TV.
A beautiful song! By a beautiful singer I had never heard before. Beautiful, very emotional lyrics… lyrics that made me cry. I was sitting in that dark room in the middle of the night, listening to a song I never heard before and cried. I guess I knew that something was changing and that I had to accept it – it was just a matter of time.

“…
So why can’t you just hold me
How come it is so hard?
Do you like to see me broken?
Why do I still care?

Poor little misunderstood baby
No one likes to see a sad face
But I can’t remember life without him
I think I did have good days
I’m sure I did have good days

So why”

“I wrote that song when I was still in a relationship but I realised one person already had one foot out the door – he had one foot out the door.” Those were Maria Mena’s words when I met her last Thursday in the studios of HR3, a radio station in Frankfurt. I had won a “meet & great” – a meeting with Maria Mena. She performed a few songs accompanied by an acoustic guitar. Before singing a song, she would always introduce the song and explain why and when she’d written it. After her performance we had some time to take pictures, get autographs but also speak to her and ask her a few questions. It was great having a chance to meet her, see and listen to her sing live and see how she presents herself so naturaly. She is one of the few artists that I believe is honest about her songs and doesn’t write them to make the money off of it but writes because it’s her passion; that’s the way she likes to express herself and make her feelings understood.

“…he had one foot out the door.” I never put it in words that well, but I guess that’s a pretty good way of explaining how I felt that night that I woke up, couldn’t sleep and watched the video of “Just hold me” by Maria Mena. Something was changing in my relationship; I just didn’t know what it was.

The next morning I checked on the internet who the songwriter was, what her CD was called and bought it two weeks later. The day I bought it I heard the song “Miss you love” for the first time and it became very important to me. It explained again exactly how I felt and what I was going through “I wrote that song when I was going through a break-up of a long distant relationship. I still missed that person and it wasn’t easy. … That song helped me.” (Maria Mena)

“…
I know the distance is a factor
But I stretch as often as I can
I hope to reach our hand any day now

Please don’t blame me for trying,
To fix this one last time
I have a hard time as it is

Because I miss you love
…”

No, those songs weren’t written for me, but it seemed like somebody had gone throught what I was going through. Maria Mena’s songs and music helped me go though a very rough time last summer. I was very frustrated when I didn’t get tickets for her show in September. It was sold out – I didn’t try to get tickets fast enough. So I was even happier when I won the “meet & great” last week and had a chance to see her perform live, not even ten feet away from me and meet her, a very authentic, friendly and very beautiful person.

Maria Mena is coming back on tour in April next year! Her first show will be in Offenbach, April 1^st. I am going and don’t even have to worry about the tickets this time: She invited me to her show! Thank you, Maria!

Yes, that’s right! It happened today when I was in our little Café “Zeitraum”, which is located on Campus (which is much like he Oval at Abbott) when I looked outside the window and – SNOW!

I like the snow! Sure, it’s cold and it sucks going to school early when the roads aren’t cleaned and therefore very slippery. But it’s SNOW! I like snow so much better than rain. Dry cold air, the smell of snow in the air, sunshine… yes, the winter is back and I am happy about that. It’s just too bad that our winter won’t have as much snow as the winters I spent in Canada. Here are a few pictures of how the roads, the sidewalks and the streets looked like when I was still living in Canada…

I went dog sledding last March. The day was extremely cold, about minus 40 degrees. The night before Sean and I went up North to Mont-Tremlant it had snowed another 50 centimeters. We had so much fun dog sledding. It was great. However, the person guiding the sled really gets a good workout. It’s not as easy as you may think. It’s a lot of work getting the sled in the direction you want it to go, especially when you are in the forest and you’re scared to hit trees. It’s hard to get the sled out of the snow when it gets stuck and it’s hard to get the sled stopped too. However, the hardest part for me was to hang on to the sled when I actually fell of the vats and couldn’t stop the sled anymore. I was dragged behind the sled, I was nowhere near the break, and I had a hard time holding onto the sled. Those dogs can run extremely fast and I really didn’t have a chance to get back onto the sled. It was pretty embarrassing and I was scared knowing that if I’d let go of the sled the dogs would keep running and I would have to make my way back to the farm on foot. Yes, that really happened to me. I even have a video of it, but you can’t really see me but only hear me scream… so I don’t see the need to put it here…

I would love to go dog sledding again and if you should have a chance to go, you should go too. It’s a great way of spending time and experiencing nature in a totally different way. The dogs are so happy to run, it’s hard to hold them back. I am sure it’s an experience I’ll never forget and I am sure you wouldn’t either. Try it if you have a chance to!

Suddenly lightning hits the castle and splits it in two! A huge thunderstorm and Lovis gives birth to a child – Ronja. She’s the daughter of the leader of a band of robbers. Ronja Rövardotter – Ronja Räubertochter – Ronia Robber’s Daughter - Røverdatter Ræningjadóttir or however the story written by Astrid Lindgren may be titled in your language is one of my favourite books and movies of all times.

It was today that I turned on the TV while trying to get my school papers all sorted and by zapping through the channels, I instantly had to think of my childhood – Ronja Räubertochter was on TV. Ronja was one of the heroes of my childhood. I wanted to be like her! She did whatever she wanted and thought was right, even if it was very hard for her from time to time.

Ronja Räubertochter, her parents and the robber clan live in a forest in which not only another robbers clan is living (as well as a boy named Birk, who’s Ronja’s best friend) but also mythological creatures, such as the rumphobs, gray dwarfs and the cruel but beautiful wild harpies.

While watching that movie, I had to think back of many moments in my life in which I may have been influenced by Ronja in my reactions and decisions. One of these situations may have been my decisions to stay in Canada, far from my family – just like Ronja had decided to live in the forest with Birk rather than in the castle with her family. The result of her decisions were very often comparable of what I have experienced, such as homesickness, worrying about her family and fear of what the future may bring. I always admired her for being self-confident, fair, nature loving, curious but also the afraid little girl that was very careful with the decisions she made.

I think even up to this day Ronja is one of my heroes and I’m sure that somewhere inside of me is a little Ronja that comes out every once in a while.

Other students in my class call me “Gerrit-Goupie”! Why? Well, my social software teacher, Gerrit van Aaken, did what bloggers do: he’s put my link in his blog and he mentioned the live-blogging I did in his class on Saturday. He  didn’t only put my link in his blog but also posted something on twigger too. Ever since my blog was mentioned in his blog my own blog-stats seem to have exploded! I am not the only “Gerrit-Groupie” with that experience though: Flo, who did some live blogging as well, had a lot more visitors to his profile too. The whole inter-linking seems to work!

 How I found out about it:

It is Monday morning, 8.30 am and I am heading to my first class. I am tired as usual. At least I have my morning coffee from the “Zeitraum-Café” and not one of those coffee machine coffees that consists of hot water and some powdered coffee that never really dilutes and sticks to the bottom of the cup. I love the “Zeitraum-Café”. It reminds me of the Oval-Coffeehouse I used to work for when I was still at the John Abbott College in Montreal. Anyways…

On my first break this morning I slowly walked down the stairs, still tired, when another online-journalism student, Kersten, came up to me and called me “Gerrit-Groupie”. Slightly confused I responded : “what do you mean?”. He told me that I had very many visitors to my blog and most of them went on it because of Gerrit van Aaken’s links to my blog. I didn’t believe him at first but while checking my stats later I found out: he’s right! I never thought people would actually read what I post and I am not sure they do. However it seems like they click on my profile. J I even met some people that were on my blog – even though they don’t know me in person but read my teacher’s blog regularly. It’s so weird to stand in front of somebody who is telling you “hey I know you, you wrote what happened in your class in your blog” – WOW!       

I am surprised at how many people actually seem to click on blogs and I feel honoured that people click on my blog! Especially since it’s only been four days that I have been dealing with the topic of social software and only four days that I have my own blog!

Thank you for your support!

Johanna

Hello,

I know I didn’t send very many emails in the past two month because I was very busy… so I figured I would give you a short summary of what has happened…

September:

Well, I quit my job at Hundert Grad, the advertising agency I had worked for since October 2006. I really had a good time and lots of fun working there; my colleagues were great and I really miss them already. However, the last few months I worked at Hundert Grad were especially stressful since we had to get everything done for the Frankfurt Internationl Motor Show which was in September. It wasn’t always easy to get everything organised but in the end everything went well and I had a chance to go see what I worked for… more about the Motor show later…

So yeah, I left Hundert Grad. It wasn’t easy and everybody that knows me knows how hard good-byes are for me and that I sure had enough of them in the past year, but it was a great good-bye. I got a university starter kit of books and a “Schültüte” (large cornet of cardboard filled with sweets and little presents given to children in Germany on their first day of school) in which I found an IPod nano with a collection of songs my colleagues put on it. A few of my colleagues had to leave early, some stayed ‘till late at night and we partied a bit and played foosball.

Even though I stopped working at Hundert Grad on a Friday, I had some tickets for the International Motor Show for the weekend as well as Monday. So Saturday my best friend Sandra and I went and Sunday I took my brother. It was pretty funny to see what Sandra and I liked about cars and what my brother’s preferences consisted of. Sandra and I looked at a car and when it didn’t look nice, we didn’t like it. My brother stood in front of the ugliest car ever and was like “wow, that’s awesome”. Apparently that car had some huge engine, great tires, whatever, I have no clue! It was fun though and we had a good weekend. The following Monday I went to the Motor Show again (yes, I can pretty much say I’ve seen it all!), this time with my colleague Stefan, who I have worked with in the production department since June. It was nice to spend a day at the Motor Show during the week because there were much less visitors than the days before. Most fun was the test track. Big cars as well as a lot of SUV models had to go through obstacles. It was great even though it was a little scary and I was so sure that our car would tip over… but it didn’t. Since I was at the Motor Show for three days, I did that test track a few times: Sandra and I took the Suzuki Jimny, Yannik and I took the Suzuki Grand Vitara, and Stafan and I took the course on a few times in various vehicles, including a Hummer ride.

However, most interesting to me was Suzuki’s exhibition since I had worked a lot on their products and dealt with their presentation at the Motor show for a few months. It was great for me to see all the things I had produced for Suzuki in the past year and how the International Motor Show visitors reacted to the different products. I am still very proud of my little rubber ducks – the cutest ones in the world!

Once the job was done, I really needed to go on vacation. I had worked a lot and was confronted with very many changes in my life that I hadn’t really dealt with and I wanted to spend time on my own; get my thoughts off things and think about very many things in my life. How to do that best? I accomplished a childhoods dream: I went to Iceland. I have always dreamt of Iceland since I was a kid, ever since I saw the movie Nonni and Manni that is. Here you can see the trailer and a few impressions of the movie which was shot in a place very close to where I stayed so that you can get an idea of how the landscape looked like.

But I didn’t only go to Iceland for sightseeing, I also went horseback riding for a week all by myself. Spending time on a horse’s back, being physically active all day, being surrounded by Iceland’s beautiful landscape and nature was so much fun and a great change. So when I left to go to Iceland, I left Frankfurt once again not really knowing where I would end up; I guess by now I got used to that and I love it! I flew to Reykjavik where I stayed in a little private bed & breakfast place. At night I had a chance to walk around Reykjavik a little and do some sightseeing. It’s a real nice place and such a weird feeling to know it’s a capital city and still so small. Sure, Ottawa isn’t big either but there are still bigger cities all over Canada. Knowing you’re in a capital city (and the biggest city of that country) and still having the feeling you’re in a large village is weird at the beginning. The next morning I took a bus that took me to Varmahild, which is a village (well, to me it was a few houses build fairly close to each other but they call it a village) in northern Iceland. It was a long bus ride but a great way to see Iceland’s beautiful landscape.

After arriving at the Lýtingsstaðir farm (another 30 min ride over a non paved road), we had lunch and started our first excursion with the horses – it was my first time riding tolt, a gait most horses can’t do but that most Icelandic horses can. It’s just as fast as the trot but much more comfortable for the rider, since the horse’s back barely moves. It was so cool going from riding western style to Icelandic horses and it was such a change, but it’s great and I love it! The horses have a beautiful character, are very sociable and so safe to be on. So we went horseback riding every day and did some sightseeing. We went to a Hot Pot and went to an old sheepcote which is considered a heritage structure since it is so old and traditional. We also went to a museum, where we saw a church as well as the old Icelandic houses with grass on the roofs; just like in the movie Nonni and Manni. Oh yeah, Nonni and Manni: We watched that movie one night! It was pretty funny since I was the only one wanting to watch it and everybody else in the group made fun of me. “It’s a kids movie” even though they’d never seen it. We watched part 1 of the movie that night. The next day I was sick and couldn’t go out riding and was sleeping all day. When I woke up in the evening I went downstairs and what did I see? The rest of the group was sitting in front of the TV watching part 2 of Nonni and Manni. They liked that movie too. The farm had a white horse like Nonni does in the movie (check the trailer and you’ll see it). Nonni’s horse was named Grani, which was also the name of the white horse on our farm. Next time that I’ll go back, I’ll take him out for a ride.

Another reason that I went to Iceland for was to participate in bringing a herd of about 700 horses down from the mountain’s pastures. It was an amazing experience to herd the wild horses with another 200 (mostly drunk) people to a valley in which the horses were then separated and brought to the farms that they belonged to. It was a big folk festival and it was amazing to see how so many people were drunk and couldn’t drive anymore but still hopped on their hoses and somehow made it home.

The week went by fast and on our last day we went for one last ride and had a little adventure: we had to cross a deep river. Röckvi, the horse I rode for a few days already turned into a real seahorse and brought us safely to the other shore. However, Svenni, the farmer, thought he’d be funny and pushed us so that Röckvi and I got caught up in the current. We drifted off, but got out of the water about 50 meters further down stream. It was so much fun crossing the river that I made my horse cross it a few more times. I am not sure how much Röckvi liked it but he swam through it as often as I wanted him to.

That night we were brought back to the bus and we went on our last long trip : back home. It was a great vacation and I am sure I’ll go back to Iceland sometime!

October:

Back home I had promised to call my ex-colleague Claudia (who’s only called Stolli because of her last name), since she didn’t work at Hundert Grad anymore and started a new job at a new advertisement agency. She said that she probably had a new job for me. I called her and not even an hour later I had my job interview with my new boss Fabian. So thanks to Stolli, I got a new job within 2 weeks. I am doing Point-of-Sale things right now, which is mostly finding ways of graphically presenting ideas to our customers so that they can imagine how the presented stuff would look like, I also brief visual display advisor. It’s fun since I get along with the people I work with and I can be creative too. Our customers are Disney, Benjamin Blümchen (a talking elephant, a character I loved when I was a kid), Die 3 ??? (3 detectives from Rocky Beach, audio-stories for kids but lots of adults still love them, so do I, I think I have pretty much all of them, some still on cassettes) and Barbie. Last week I only worked on a project for Barbie, which is pretty funny since I never liked Barbie when I was a kid, and I never played with her (I admit, I had two, but only because I got two horses with them!). So that’s what I do to earn some money… but what keeps me busy since 2 weeks:

I study online-journalism at a university of applied sciences in Dieburg. I have classes that deal with “what is journalism?”, media law, production techniques, writing skills, social software, etc. This is where this whole Blog idea comes from: The Social software class (thought by Gerrit van Aaken, van Aaken’s Blog). We need to deal with topics like social networking, podcasts, platforms such as myspace and facebook, blogs, etc. Up to now I really like going to university. I have made new friends and met great people. I am really looking forward to study for quite a while, even though it seems like I’ll be confronted with a huge workload soon; but for now I am motivated.

So, that is pretty much what happened in the last two month in my life – busy as always. This whole update got a little longer than I thought that it would and I am really happy if you made it all the way to the end and that you’re still willing to read my next postings…

Have a great Sunday and a good week!

Johanna

Hi guys,
I started studying online-journalism last week. Due to my studies at the h_da, a university of applied sciences in Darmstadt, Germany, I am supposed to have a blog. I am in class right now. We’re currently dealing with the topic web2.0, webblogging, podcasting, etc, which will most probably be part of my studies for the next four years as well as my career later on.

I would really appreciate if you’d support me by either reading my blog (somehow you can even subscribe my blog, but how? I really don’t know! My teacher just told me, that we will learn that later. So as soon as Ill find out, Ill let you guys know!) or even better: Comment! I would really appreciate if you’d drop me a line or two every once in a while, that will also keep me motivated to keep blogging… and maybe will help me stay in university

I am thinking of putting news updates and changes in my life on this blog-thing…may sometimes ask you for advice and maybe use this as a kind of communication platform to stay in touch with you!

Looking forward to the first comments you’ll post!

Johanna