Reunion

I was kind of glad when I just heard that this day was the hottest day of the year. I hope, they didn't mean so far, though.
I woke up to a computer with a broken sound card, so basically, it's a really sad day today.
But my new friend Nhala, a Rhodesian Ridgeback, was left at my house in preparation for "her" holiday, where she's going to spend 14 days here. Quite much for such a baby.

On our way back from a really exhausting walk, we met Jessy, who used to be my best friend back in primary school. It was great to meet her so we decided to meet up again later and she took her French Bulldog Bella with her. Bella is 9 months old, and therefore only 3 months older than Nhala.

 

The dogs had a lot of fun and played all the time, although it was really hot and Nhala was still exhausted from our first walk. But at least she made a friend whom we're going to meet again when she's here.
We also went to Jessy's home and I met another old friend of mine: Nika. This tiny Pekingese was already there when I met Jessy, and she's now 15 years old. I wonder if she recognised me, I did of course!

Party all day

No, the title doesn't make any sense. Why? Because I fookin' went out to go for a fookin' walk with a fookin' 15-year old friend to spend some fookin' time in the fookin' nature.
And I'm fookin' 18!!
So why do I need to tell you where I go and when I come back?
I have no idea!
It's a walk, I don't even look at my phone to see what time it is.
Ugh.
Well, anyway. So I went outside with Dilara again because she was worried about me and kept asking me if I wanted to do something with her. So in the end, I said yes. And it felt good to leave the house (apart from getting yelled at for it). And of course, I took some photos as well. Because I had a photoshooting the day after. And I needed to practise.

On Holiday with Mr Guitarro

As promised, I'll tell you about the past 8 days today. My friend Muz from England came to visit me and my family in Mönchengladbach. We really had a lot of fun, starting with a trip to the music store in Cologne (where I found the perfect guitar for only 75€, but didn't buy it - the regrets!!). After Muz and my brother spent some time testing guitars, we decided to go back to the city centre to get something to eat. It can't be unseen - Cologne at night is just stunning. The restaurant was beautiful, too, and I'll definitely be back in summer when it isn't too cold to sit outside by the Rhine.

We also had some full English breakfast that Muz cooked for our family. It didn't only look great, but tasted wonderful! I become hungry just thinking about it, haha.
So last Saturday, it was the day Muz originally came to Germany for - my birthday party, home in Paderborn. It's too bad we didn't really have time to do some sightseeing in my beloved hometown, since there's a lot to see. At least I could listen to him playing my guitar Susi and the party started just some hours later. We had to wait until 3am for my best friend to join since he had to work, but we still enjoyed the party at that time, although we were only 7 people left and everyone was tired as fcuck. We danced, played Twister, ate cake and my best friend's girlfriend even played the violin for us. What a night! I love having my favourite people around.

 Of course, we also went to take some photos in the park! The weather was shitty during the whole week, but we find some hours of sun to go outside and enjoy. I'm not really satisfied with what I made out of it, but it was fun at least and Sammy had fun playing model for some ball fetching in return. I didn't really dare to take Barry off the leash, but he seemed to like Muz, although he also appeared to be scared of him at the same time. Weird dog, I have to say. We spent the rest of our time studying and eating a lot of chocolate (I forgot what real food tastes like) and earlier today, we had to say good bye at the Düsseldorf airport. I really hope my English skills (especially the pronunciation) improved and I'm sure that we'll see again this summer. I wanted to do some travelling this year anyway! So exciting!

Sugar dogs

Yesterday, I went to the city to spend time with my best friend's girlfriend Dilara. We still had a lot of time so we decided to go to Borchen to walk her dogs and take lots of photos.
She has small tiny tiny dogs (and I love taking photos of tiny tiny dogs), a Dachshund named Yara and a mixed breed puppy called Sunny.

It was fun because I finally could take some nice shots with my new lens and I can feel that I'm finally getting used to it. Especially the action shots were quite nice and despite the high aperture it's also great for taking portraits!

I was really tired after our walk, but we definitely had a lot of fun and I think the dogs enjoyed it as well. I don't really know what to say about it because the photos speak for themselves. Maybe I'll have the opportunity to take more shots of these two girls someday. But at least I know that I really suck at people photography and need to learn more about it.
And tomorrow will be my little brother's communion and I'll probably take my camera with me because we're going to the zoo. So exciting! And I'm really glad to see him again. I hope you enjoy your weekend - I am, despite the fact that I have loads of studies to do (only finished half for today and it already took me 3 hours).

No school evuuurr againn

School time is finally over!
I feel so bad for not writing for such a long time, but I just didn't feel like doing it.
The last week was my last week of school ever! I feel like I'm a bit boring, because I as the only one who didn't use the time to get drunk and party. I really enjoyed it, though! In Germany, we usually spend our last week of school to dress up to different mottos, for example: First day of school, gender swapping stuff, heroes of our childhood etc. I was ill for two days, but I still enjoyed this week which was full of sunshine and laughter.

I'll probably miss my friends, the choir rehearsals (which I'll be still attending until the end of the year) and the French courses with my favourite teacher ever. Each one of us wrote her a letter and we collected them together in a note book. She told me later that she'd never been this happy about a present before.

The following weeks and months are going to be very exciting. I'll spend the next 4 weeks studying for my exams, although I'll get a visit from England tomorrow! And I'll take many many photos when I'm at my mum's for sure. Also, I hope my English is going to improve during that time, but maybe it will get worse because I'm mixing up all the languages at once. Horrible, haha! I'll keep you updated!

Writer's block

IT IS HORRIBLE
I wrote so many blog entries in January, February is nothing compared to it.
Although everything is going well, really!
No exams until April and I already got my education exam back: 14/15 points! And 15 is close to impossible! I'm so happy, and I didn't think I could do it, since my teacher stressed how unacceptable it is to only write around 10 columns in 5 hours.
As I already showed you in my last entry, I spent my weekend taking photos for my art project. But I also got up early on Saturday and used the great liked to take some photos of Sammy. I'm not satisfied, but keeping in mind I was so excited because of the sunrise that I even forgot to empty my bladder before rushing outside, it's no wonder. Some are great, though, and I would show you if I hadn't forgotten my SD card in Mönchengladbach - oh well. In two weeks, maybe.
I'm also busy making plans for my birthday party, because two friends of mine will come to my house from quite far away. I'm really happy to meet them, also because I haven't met them before.
I absolutely can't complain about my life right now. Of course, some things could be better, but I got back to simply living life as it comes and enjoying every day of it. Also, I'm a bit distracted by all that stress that's still ahead of me.
Enough for today. I've been cleaning my room and I don't know how to go on, because I'm starving. Hope you have a nice week!

Animal Language

I really think it is fascinating, how everything changes between you and an animal, if you just try to understand it, to feel how it feels and to "speak" to it, so it understands you. I could spend quite some time just with studying about animal language and actually getting in touch with the animals. And as I want to be close to the nature, it really makes me happy to be able to communicate with a living creature which is not from my species.

 The dogs and me

Photo: Sarina Weber (2014)

The dog is the major part of animals I get in touch with. when I took my experience proof certificate, I learned a lot about dog language, although I already knew a lot about it. Learning about it really improved the relationship between Sammy and me. I understand her. I have to admit, sometimes, I'm still a bit moody and unfair to her, but nobody's perfect, neither humans nor dogs. I can also see who doesn't understand his dog, or who simply doesn't care about what his dog is trying to tell him. Okay - I won't deny that sometimes, I really really really don't know what Sammy's trying to tell me. For example, when she's lying in her basket, she looks at me as if she was waiting for something. And I really don't know how to react in that situation! Most often, I just turn around and try to ignore it, because I know that, if Sammy actually wanted something, she'd find a way to tell me. I'm really excited to learn more and maybe to find an opportunity to be really close to a dog someday. I would lie if I'd say that Sammy just isn't the right dog for this because she's living too far away.

The birds and me

(2013)

It is not difficult to understand these cute creatures, but it's really difficult to get through to them and to make them accept me as a member of their "family". I was at a similar point some time ago, but I did the mistake to let it wind up when I got a boyfriend. I really have to work with them every day to make them trust me again, and for now, all I'm doing is to lie my hand into their cage. But it's really interesting how they react: I can check if they're scared or not, if they allow me to get closer or not. Saphira usually is super sceptical, but also curious, always hiding behind Lilla and making a long neck to see everything. Yesterday, Lilla could even clean herself when my hand was lying on their perch. When I got closer, her eyes were widening, her breathing became faster and she eventually made a step towards Saphira. That was the point when I took my hand back to show them that I wouldn't hurt them. And using my voice, I could give them the possibility to try to understand me, too. I often see that they're listening and they react to my voice and know when I'm adressing them. They are really clever and it's really exciting to use the right language to communicate with them.

The horses and me

Photo: Vilma Alderheim (2013)

Horses are still a big mystery to me. I remember when my neighbour took me to one of her riding lessons and after that, I really wanted to take some, too, but my mum didn't allow me to. I actually rode a horse for the first time when my sister took me to her Egon in preparation for my Sweden vacation some weeks later. Being in Sweden, Vilma's mother complimented me for my riding posture and the skills I had after only riding once my life. I really enjoyed the weeks in Sweden and got in touch with the horses a lot, but I'm just at the beginning of learning how to understand them and their body language. It's really fascinating, because they are so big, strong and also strange, which makes them interesting. This year, I'll probably go on an equestrian holiday near my town. Riding is an expensive hobby and there is a cheap horse ranch where I could take riding lessons this year, but in a holiday, I could use a lot of time for only one horse and apart from the riding sport, I'm just really interested in how a horse communicates and how a human could get through to it, as I read it in my friend's blog posts. I really like the idea and hope to realize it.






You can see that I don't love languages for the linguistic aspects only, but mainly for the communicative aspects. This sums it up quite well. As a person who feels happy and confident out in the nature, I'm not only interested in nordic languages, such as Finnish or Swedish (they spend a lot of time in the nature, more than Germans at least) but also in the "animal languages". I would like to hear your thoughts about this. :)

Signe and Joy