72 days to Christmas...

No, I´m not the crazy type who needs to buy gingerbread as soon as it´s in the stores in early September. I will certainly not eat any before December. I don´t think Christmas songs have a right to exist out of advent, although I already heard some high-class interpretations of Jingle Bells in August. And "Last Christmas" should be especially and strictly reserved for the week before Christmas (only). I´d prefer not to be around though.

But - there are some very nice Christmas things that need some time for preparation and they are definitely entitled to cross this blog 72 days before Christmas Eve. It´s The 2013 Secret Santa Gift Exchange from  Kym over at Travel Babbles :)

 

 

via travel-babbles.com

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How This Will Work:

Bloggers will shop for Bloggers.
Instagram'ers will shop for Instagram'ers.
Tweeple will shop for Tweeple.
These picks are going to be completely random.
If you have a blog but want to only Instagram or Tweet, that's fine.
If you don't have a blog, Instagram or Twitter then you're SOL, sorry!

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This exchange is open internationally, however to keep postage costs down, you will be matched with someone from your own country.

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Sign Ups will be open until Wednesday, October 16th.
You will be notified of your gift recipient no later than Wednesday, October 23rd.
Follow your recipient for a couple of weeks to learn more about them / their favorite things, etc.
Please mail your gift by Wednesday, November 20th.

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On December 18th I will have a link-up here for you to share your blog post, Instagram post, or Twitter post to share your goodies, thank your Santa for being so awesome, and send some social media love their way.

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This is supposed to be an affordable holiday pick-me-up ... let's keep the value at/around $20.
Please only give something that you'd love to receive!
I strongly suggest purchasing tracking for your package.
Don't forget to include a card that reveals your name and all social media links!
I've debated writing this, but this probably won't be fun for you if your account is set to private.

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Sign up over at Kym´s blog, get creative, and have fun!

 Hurry up, the sign-up is only open until next Wednesday :)

Have a nice Sunday y´all, the autumn sun looks promising over here!

Friday's letters

Dear tax law studies, only two more exams (and 50 pages of master thesis) to go... I'm really at a stage where the monthly lessons start to seriously get on my nerves :/

Dear girls, can't wait to finally, finally see you again next weekend!! 

Dear Deutsche Bahn, you once more were what you are known best for: delayed. Nice you woke me up yesterday with a text that my train later that day was cancelled and I got three additional texts the following hours that two more trains are cancelled and three more are delayed. Based on this I was pretty impressed that I reached my final destination with only one hour delay. Anyway, 11 more train rides to/from Münster until I finished all lessons... I can't wait for the big graduation party in October next year, woohoo!!

Dear my lovely secretary girls, please get rid of all that colds & coughing soon, we urgently need you to get us out of this office chaos :)

Dear darling, it hit me hard that you might not come back to Germany next year. One year already seems to be overwhelming but another one? 

Dear ladies out there, check out Erin´s Pinktober-post over at TwoThirdsHazel, she set up a great Breast Cancer Awareness giveaway! I know everyone reads about breast cancer every now and then in the media or at your gynecologist, but this post is really worth reading. 

via Erin @ TwoThirdsHazel

Take care of you all,

               

I´m linkin up with Ashley today, visit her at

Hello October!

via

My colleague wasn´t happy as she turned over the calender pages yesterday. I, however, simply love fall. I don´t mind that it´s getting colder (finally time to dig out all the wonderful, colourful and yea - plentiful scarves, ladies!) and I can´t get enough of that golden sunlight, red leaves, snuggling in with a cup of tea/ apple cider and a book or going for a walk. Not to mention that October starts with a holiday over here and who ever complained about an extra free day? I myself use this free day to visit a lovely friend I met when I was studying in Munich. Seems like it´s been ages since then, but we promised that we would see each other at least twice a year and I´m glad that we still stick to it, although we may not hear much from each other for weeks sometimes.

But before I leave I want to wish you a beautiful golden October...

... go for a walk in gold leaves...

via

...prepare for winter time...

via

... enjoy the taste of a pumpkin chai latte..you can find the recipe over here

via

...decorate your house with all those wonderful leaves, branches, pumpkins and berries waiting for you outside and add a few (or more) candles...

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 so, get lost in autumn...

... cause all you need is a cup of tea and warm socks! Happy fall, y´all!

Half an anniversary...

  I know I wasn´t blogging for months now, life is just one crazy thing. Sometimes you look back and notice, that nothing special happened the last months. I mean, of course you celebrated birthdays, went out, met your friends, but it was just your everyday life going on. Not that this would be bad, not at all.

My life was pretty much like this the last years. Settled in, planned. Today is the best reminder, that many many things can change in half a year. Life can turn from precisely planned to having no plan at all, from feeling save to loosing your mind, from knowing what you definitely don´t want to doing exactly those things.

I´d never have believed if somebody told me back on New Year´s Day about all the things that happened since. I never thought the last six months could be so filled up with life, may it be the good or the bad days.

And therefore, this first new entry is for you, my darling...

Dear Aaron,

 

 half a year ago a car stopped and  - apart from everything a girl is taught by her mother from the cradle - I jumped in. You changed my life from the very first second and I´m blessed and thankful that you´re by my side. I hate the seperation we have to go through and sometimes it feels unbearable to miss you just one more day, knowing that it will be 365 days more to miss you. But there are those moments where I find myself thinking about you and starting to smile, just because my heart knows you´re somewhere out there. Even from a 5000 miles distance you can send me those perfect moments, no matter what´s happening around. Thank you for being my anchor in every storm and loving me on days I wasn´t very lovable. I wish I could give you just one kiss today... I love you.

Things to do while waiting for boarding...

So all out there,
I´m leaving to the States to see my sweetheart after two months of Skype, Facebook and What´s App. I can´t tell how excited I am. Sometimes I thought this day would never come.

I followed the friendly advice to be at the airport three hours before departure, because security controls for flights to the US may take longer than for other international flights etc.

It took me 20 min. Including dropping my suitcase.

And that leads to this post: How to waste time at the airport?

1. Be happy you´re a loyal T-Mobile customer, because that guarantees that you can access any Telekom hotspot for free internet and you are not tied to looking into your smartphone. I mean, I love my IPhone (all my friends can tell), but you can´t stare at it for 2-3 hours, right?

2. Take a seat and be sure you make friends with your neighbor. Cause you will need someone to keep your seat when you want to grab a coffee or go to toilet. It´s only about 100 seats for 600 passengers in this boarding hall.

3. Write tons of messages, cause once you arrive at your next airport (mine is Atlanta) you will have another 6 hrs until your next flight departs. You will be happy to find some answers waiting for you :)

4. Take a deep breath and relax. Yes, you will really be with your darling in a few (or more) hours.

5. Keep fingers crossed for friends who are in examination right at the time you lucky girl are already done with it and going on vacation.

6. Write a blog post and find out it´s another 1,5hrs to go.

Just because... I finished my exams. And ended up unemployed.

 First things first: I passed my second state examination yesterday.

I wasn´t really happy about this yesterday, because the oral examination was a 5-hours-lasting mess. I mean, a examiner can ask you questions. Nice answerable questions, where you have to say something about. And they can ask the other type of questions. About the last paragraph you would´ve never learned, just because this paragraph is so unbelievably unimportant. So unimportant you have never heard about it during seven years of studying and legal clerkship. And you will probably never hear about it the following 30 years of working as a lawyer.

So, my grade wasn´t was I dreamt about and this just sucked. But well, 25% of my former colleagues didn´t pass the exam at all, so from today´s perspective I´m happy that I PASSED MY BLOODY EXAM, YEA!!!!!!

Which leads to that fact that due to insurance reasons today is my first day of being officially unemployed. This is kind of strange. I always had a plan. When taking the A-levels back in June 06 I knew I would start studying in October that year. After studying I knew I would do my legal clerkship. But today.. I don´t know what I will do in four months. I have no plan beyond June 8th (and the plan is going on vacation and spend time with my sweetheart). I´m not really worried about my future, I´m sure I´ll find a job. But for a to-do-list and plan-making obsessed person like me it is really strange to have no plan.

Ah well... I have one: Packing my suitcase. Write a guide for my brother how and when to water my plants during my vacation. Watch a movie without feeling guilty because I should better learn. Yes, sounds good, I´ll do this now...


I´m linkin up with Lisette from Northern Belle Diaries today, visit her blog!

 

 

One last weekend in law jungle. Learning craziness takes over.

 This weekend is the last one I will spend in law jungle. It´s a secret place only law students have ever entered. And since then we are fighting throughout this raw and incomprehensible thicket. 

This weekend I have to fight with hanging lianas of penal law, climbers of administrative law and the giant tree of civil law. And there are the promising flowers of tax law orchids, but careful -  if you look at them too close you will get lost.

So, of course every law student starts the fight through the sheets, unscared and brave, prepared with the mighty weapons of statute texts, bright-shiny markers, textbooks, commentaries and the hope to get what was promised as "student life". 

And then, we get into the big Facebook-ambush. Straight forward. It´s a big island in the middle of the jungle, promising an escape of white and blue. And as you´re already bloody exhausted by the hard five minute work you´ve already done (preferably flipping a book open and reading the index) you choose to stay juuuuuussssttt for a little, a tiny little while. 

And the crucial problem is: Now you´re trapped in just another jungle. But one which makes so much more fun (and sense). I mean, isn´t it vital to know what happend last Friday night (while you were trying to learn)? And who can live without knowing what pictures your neighbors at your daily photo challenge took? Facebook as well knows how to show you what your blogging friends are doing, so you just have to take a sneek peak at the latest posts.

Luckily, many other law students also find their way to Facebook island during their time in jungle and soon a little chitchat is going on. Mainly about what you should (and don´t want to) learn and you soon work out a strategy - you´ve done enough for today, the others haven´t done more than you. It´s okay to stop learning.

And yes, facebook cares for you. Really, it does. It collects all your browsing behaviour just to give you that subtle reminder on the right sidebar that you have to prepare for life after law jungle. Because once I´m out I will go on vacation. And I haven´t booked a hotel for next Saturday night. You see, it was like a act of self-defence to follow Facebook´s friendly advice to click through booking.com and expedia.com and hotel.com and trivago.com..... That´s how I landed in travel jungle, which is placed amidst of facebook island.

So trapped in distraction suddenly a hole opened under my feet and I landed here, because shirking away from learning isn´t enough. I had to tell you *LOL*

And now I´m going back to my tax law books, which were patiently waiting for my return. Stupid things, they just never run away when they have the chance to...