All posts filed under: Blog

November Afternoon

Published by Sula H.

Novembertag November is in full swing, and that’s when you actually get to see that autumn is at hand. On my way to class this mornings, I not only realized that the trees had beautiful shades of yellow leaves, but I noticed, too, that the sun was out. Naturally, I couldn’t resist taking a little walk with a dear friend after lunch. November ist im vollen Schwung, and das heisst, man merkt auch mal, dass Herbst ist. Auf dem Weg in den Unterricht heute morgen, fiel mir nicht nur auf, dass die Bäume ein herrlich gelbes Kleid angelegt haben, sondern auch, dass die Sonne munter zu strahlen versuchte. Natürlich konnte ich da nicht widerstehen, einen kleinen Spaziergang mit einer lieben Freundin nach dem Mittagessen zu unternehmen.

Why Bad Bananas Are Good for Business

Published by Sula H.

Warum schlechte Bananen gut fürs Geschäft sind … Someone left a bunch of bananas with me the other day without me realizing it. And since bananas have a tendency to change – gradually from good to bad – it’s needless to say by the time I discovered the bananas they were looking pretty bad already – almost black, with maybe a tiny bit yellow here and there. But if you’re anything like me, you’ll find that (almost) bad bananas are really good for business. Mine, at least were perfect in one aspect: they were perfect for making banana (cup)cake with my students (their first time baking ever). So, in the end we had a great little deal: bad bananas which are really good for baking, and students who are perfectly happy to mash up the bananas and add them to something they’ll relish afterward … Jemand hat mir kürzlich ein paar Bananen dagelassen, ohne dass ich es gemerkt hatte. Und weil Bananen dazu tendieren, sich zu verändern (Farbe und Geschmack, von köstlich zu ungenießbar) …

Getting Ready for the Season

Published by Sula H.

Und bald schon kommt die Weihnachtszeit Yes, yes, you’re right, it’s quite early to be thinking of Christmas already. But in cases such as mine, you can actually never be too early to start with the preparations. (Did I ever tell you that I enjoyed my first Christmas treats in September already, bought some decoration stuff, too, and a couple of Christmas themed ribbons in August? Yeah, well, I had to take advantage of being in a country where Christmas actually means something to people.) In today’s case, however, I’m talking about my annual Christmas card adventure. Adventure, because you never know when exactly those Christmas cards may arrive. Sometimes they get to their destination within 10 days after mailing them; and in other cases, such as last Christmas, they arrived late in February. And that’s why I’m concerned that I might actually be too late in the game already. But I’m also really excited, because as of this past weekend, I managed to finish crafting all my Christmas cards already! Now I just …

Finding Fall

Published by Sula H.

Den Herbst finden There, I found them … some traces of autumn. If you only look close enough, you might see quite a few signs that it’s autumn. And when you look even closer, you may find a place or two where the leaves, indeed, are yellow, and pretty, and all they should be in the fall. Da, ich hab sie gefunden … ein paar Spuren des Herbstes. Wenn du nur genau genug hinguckst, dann kannst ein paar Hinweise entdecken, dass es Herbst ist. Und wenn du noch ein bisschen genauer hinschaust, dann kannst du vielleicht auch ein zwei Plätzchen finden, wo die Blätter tatsächlich gelb sind und hübsch anzusehen sind, und alles sonst haben, was sich im Herbst so gehört!

Happy Leaks

Published by Sula H.

Von Glücklichen Löchern Guess, what this means … Ratet mal, was dies bedeutet: Well, it means 2 things. 1) That it’s raining outside, and 2) that the leaks in the lobby roof are happily thriving! Nun, es bedeutet zweierlei. 1) Dass es draussen regnet, und 2) dass die Löcher im Dach der Lobby ganz glücklich wachsen und gedeihen! Now, instead of just a few buckets here and there, our lobby is littered with them, and instead of getting fixed, the number of them increases, which also means that crossing of our lobby has become a great adventure, a struggle for survival so to speak, because you never know when you’ll hit a wet spot that might take you down! But then, who likes to have a boring life when there’s so much adventure to be had? Nun, anstelle von ein paar Eimern hier und da, ist unsere Lobby übersät mit Behältern, und anstelle dass die Löcher repariert werden, werden es immer mehr, was auch bedeutet, dass das Durchqueren unserer Lobby zu einem …

A Culture Week of Firsts

Published by Sula H.

Eine Kulturwoche der Neuheiten So, here I am, talking of how there’s nothing really new to share with you, when in fact it’s actually a culture week of firsts. Like today. It’s been raining. And while rain really isn’t anything new, that it pours down on culture week IS! So, for the first time, culture week, which actually is an outdoor event more than anything, has been taken inside, into the big gym on campus. Da bin ich also, und rede davon, dass es eigentlich nichts Neues über die Kulturwoche zu berichten gibt, während diese Woche tatsächlich eigentlich eine Woche voller Neuerungen ist. Wie z. B. heute. Es regnet. Und während Regen an sich nichts Neues ist – dass es während der Kulturwoche wie aus Strömen gießt, hat es in der Tat noch nicht gegeben. So wurden zum ersten Mal alle Aktivitäten, die eigentlich Open Air stattfinden sollen, nach drinnen, in die große Sporthalle verlegt. And since it’s Africa Day, here are a couple of pics … Und weil heute Afrika Tag …

Of the Representation (and Misrepresentation) of the World

Published by Sula H.

Ok, though I’ve shared about culture week in previous years, this one’s something new in all the events: Instead of the foreign faculty (who’ve been involved with Asia day in the previous years), this year the foreign students are mainly involved with hosting today’s activities and events. So, if anything, it’s nice to see native people represent their own countries, and not a bunch of foreigners trying to show-off what they think is interesting but what might not at all be representative of the place. Like my age old battle with my colleagues trying to get them to understand that we don’t have Vikings running around in Europe any more, nor Roman soldiers wielding javelins and conquering archaic queens (the way my non-European, or should I say, American, colleagues love to portray Europe, and each year I’m thinking: you show off all of America’s modern, fashionable ways, so why can’t you do that with Europe, too? But I have to concede that one of the arguments one of my friends is giving me is right: …

Culture Week – Here We Go Again …

Published by Sula H.

If I’m not mistaken, culture week was the content of one of my first blog posts ever. And now, I’m into the blogging journey for three years already, and here goes culture week again. To be honest, there isn’t much new to be said about culture week. But, it is a big event at our school, so I can’t just not blog about it. So, maybe I might note that it’s interesting how the first day is always “prepared” by our domestic faculty, who don’t end up preparing anything at all because they have local workshops present local art and design projects (basically turning our main square into a big fair). So, it’s only the foreign community (faculty and students) who usually go berserk about getting ready for culture week and preparing yet another event that’s bigger and better than ever. We’ll see the results later this week. But for now, I have some pics from today that I can share …

Missing Autumn

Published by Sula H.

I heart fall. Sigh. The problem is that around here there’s never much of autumn to be had. Not the way autumn has to look for me, with golden leaves, sweater weather and all those good things you do on a windy autumn afternoon. Here, you neither get golden leaves (they’re usually green, brown, and gone), the weather is sweat-er weather, meaning it can still get comfortably hot during the day, and I usually don’t have time for doing good things on a windy autumn afternoon. Oh, well, maybe I should mention that autumn afternoons here usually aren’t windy anyway. So now you know why I miss autumn!

Waiting for the Tennis Courts

Published by Sula H.

It’s been a while since I’ve been back, but there’s one really sad news for me so far. I was really looking forward to grabbing my tennis racket over the October holiday to hit a couple of balls. But not only have I been too sick for much exertion lately (the mold in my room has been getting to me), the other side of the story is that the courts have been undergoing repair and that repair meant no chances of playing. Except, when I walked past there today, I made an exciting discovery: People on the courts! I may have to go grab my racket and just forget about blogging and all that!