Ein historischer Tag Aside from the blackout we had to deal with yesterday, another thing happened of almost historic dimensions. At least here on campus. Because, yesterday was the day the heaters were turned on. Yap. You got me right. And no, of course there’s been heating in some of the foreign faculty apartments. But from some of my previous posts, you may know that 1 1/2 years ago, some of us moved into a brand-new building. A building in which construction hasn’t concluded yet. And while we’ve had other means to keep us warm and comfy in our apartments, the day has finally come when we actually have radiators to do the job. Except that they do such a poor job of heating that we’ll probably have to continue using our other means … Neben dem Stromausfall gestern, gab es noch eine andere Sache, die passiert ist. Eine Angelegenheit von fast historischer Bedeutung. Zumindest hier auf dem Campus. Weil nämlich gestern der Tag war, an dem die Heizung angestellt wurde. Jap. Ihr habt richtig …

Von schlechten Nachrichten und glücklichen Ausgängen We’ve been lucky today. How so? you ask. Glad you asked, so I can tell you. Well, here’s what happened. A couple of days ago this notice was posted on our notice screen: Heute hatten wir mal wieder Glück. Was für ein Glück? fragst du. Ich bin froh, dass du fragst, denn so kann ich’s dir sagen. Also, die Geschichte ist folgendermassen. Vor ein paar Tagen sind wir über folgendes informiert worden: The sign said that on Wednesday, we pretty much wouldn’t have power all day! Meh! What do you do when the power’s out and you can’t do much of anything? Well, at least we got prepared for this ahead of time, and so I got prepared myself. I charged my computer, my cell phone, put some extra stuff to work with on my cell phone, etc. But then, here’s the lucky thing. Instead of being out of power all day, shortly after noon the electric devices in my home started moving again, which made me realize that …

Vorbereitungen It’s the weekend, and for me that means I have a bit time for crafting. So, I’ve been crafting away today, creating little Christmas trees, ornaments, and lanterns (keep checking my Digiscrap Corner where I’ll be sharing things in the Hybrid Hub over the next couple of weeks). Needless to say, I’m getting into quite the Christmas mood …  Off to find some of the good ol’ Christmas music that must be sitting around somewhere … Es ist Wochenende, und für mich heisst das, ich hab mal ein bisschen Zeit zum Basteln. Also bin ich heute ein wenig kreativ geworden, und hab ein paar kleine Weihnachtsbäume gebastelte, Christbaumkugeln, und Laternchen (haltet ein Auge auf meine Bastelecke in der Digiscrap Corner, wo ich euch in den nächsten Wochen alles zeigen werde). Ich muss es gar nicht erst erwähnen, die Bastelei bringt mich so richtig in Weihnachtsstimmung … Muss los, um mal nach der guten alten Weihnachtsmusik zu suchen, die hier irgendwo noch sein muss …  

Nationaler Heizungstag National heater day has come, and that usually is a highly anticipated day. You see, November here can get quite chilly some times (we’ve even had snow by early November in the past), but no matter how cold or warm it is outside, the heaters only get turned on on November 15th, which is – ta da – today! Except, I’m not really as dependent on the heaters in my apartment. I have an A/C to keep me warm. Hold on, you say, A/C? How does that keep you warm? Well, I say in return, my A/C can also be used as a heater. So, I don’t need to wait for national heater day in order to have a warm and comfy home … Der Nationale Heizungstag ist endlich gekommen, und dieser Tag wird in der Regel sehnsüchtig erwartet! Es ist nämlich so, dass der November hier durchaus recht kühl werden kann (vor ein paar Jahren hatten wir Schnee schon Anfang November). Aber ganz gleich wie kalt oder warm es draußen ist, die …

Teile in Bewegung Check this out: Seht euch das an: Yes, it’s exactly what it looks like, which means, “tomorrow” really happened. Just as they said, the workers were ready for me when I got back from class today, not only ready to look at the floor again (which they’ve done countless times before), but actually ready to take action. So, they finally did it … they cut up the hallway floor which has been collecting mold over the last couple of months. But unfortunately, this is only part of the problem, and more unfortunately, it’s only a very small part of the problem. The bigger problem, the bathroom floor, from where all the water causing the mold comes, they still don’t want to touch, so I guess I have to keep on fighting to make my home livable again. Ja, es ist genau das, wonach es aussieht, was bedeutet das “Morgen” tatsächlich passiert ist. So, wie sie es gesagt hatten, haben die Arbeiter auf mich gewartet, als ich heute aus dem Unterricht kam, nicht …

Etwas regt sich If you’ve been following me for a while, you’ll know that all year, I’ve been having trouble with my home (water damage, turning into mold). These couple of months things have gotten so bad that, yes, I had to abandon the place and move elsewhere, to stop getting sick from the poor living conditions at home. And I was told that there’ll be no way of solving the problems with home … But now, hope’s stirring, because today, there was a knock on my door (that is the door that I borrowed together with the apartment I’m borrowing these days from my friends who are absent for a couple of months). And the person belonging to that knock is one of the people responsible for keeping our building together. He wanted to inspect my apartment (yet once more!), and says that maybe tomorrow he’ll send a couple of workers to see what can be done. Now, I know that “tomorrow” can mean a whole lot of things here (it meant an entire …