Overdue Introduction

Who are all those people in the pics u say? well i will be getting to that now!

In the picture below which was taken the 2nd night we were in at the Uni Rez.  There are 6 new coops (including myself), 2 old coops (in the back) and to the far right our Project Manager.  Now for names and some shpiel about each. :)

Starting from the left going right:

Front Row
Bernada: moving on lol

Annie Choi:
She is a 4Ath year student from Operations Research program in the Math department.  Working on Database and Queries. She finds OR useless and is worried about what is going to happen to her.  We refer to her as the mom in the group well she acts very much like an asian mom. She worries about all the things us young'n don't think about until the last minute!  We always need someone like that when travelling for sure.  She travels tirelessly and HAS TO SEE everything there is to see.  She has realized though there is more to travelling than buildings and sites such as the social scene and FOOOOD.  Which is awesome and of course the natural beauty in cities.  The gorgeous night pictures are from her fancy camera which she is still getting to know how to use.

Funniest Moment: Getting off the train at 9:15am and hearing this emotional cry 'Why don't they have a BUSSSSS'??? lol jokes b/c when u catch the later trains there ain't no bus u walking DOWNHILL :) to work.

Jeff Kao: aka annoying asian :)
He is a 2B student from Systems Design Eng as well.  Working on Translation of websites.  What can I say love the dude.  He  is the funny man, the joker, the man who keeps us from killing each other lol.  He is a smart ass too.  He is a good resource for me at work.  He misses his g/f of 8 years and is my company when coming to drinking.  He is from scarborough and can pull the caribean accent anytime and a mean asian accent.

Funniest Moment: We were waiting before going out and we were both bored out of our minds and I was getting royally pissed of waiting.  So he was drinking in my apartment and said 'give me a sec'.  The man grabbed two bottles of beer, filled them with water to create two notes and well made an ass of himself!  He blew into the bottles to create two notes one after another and sang the circus song.  It was a sight to see and i have to tape it.  Needless to say i was entertained like a kid watching a clown, I COULD NOT STOP SMILING lol

Adam Sultan: aka the one and only Mr.GPS
He is a 4A C&O and Computer Science student.  Working on new IBM TOols.  The man is half Pakistani and Russian (what a mix). His parents met at Uni of Waterloo and fell in love when doing their Masters i think.  How cute is that!  The man can find anything in a city all he needs is a map for a second.  I know how he does it because i was amazed in Prague at how he knew the short cuts.  Well turns out the man just uses sense of direction, no streets, no signs, no nothing.. just adjusts his path according where something is.... it works!

Funniest Moment: When he walked around i do not know which city possibly Munich with a big greasy stain near his butt on his sweat pants. I did not tell him ... well because it was funny for me.

Nicole Wilson:
She is a 4A Pure Math student.  Planning to do her Masters in Fluid Mechanics hopefully in Germany.  Working as a business analyst pushing for solutions and processes.  This is her second time here and last time she was the only person here and it was during the winter.  She is a vegetarian and yes, Adam is her b/f : )  She is good company and can talk talk talk talk lol but all her expressions and words are in honesty.  She does not like being bugged about what she eats and can sing unbelievably well. 

Funniest Moment: Well since she does not eat meat she needs to know how to ask 'Is there meat in the sauce' well the translation is 'Ist there fleisch in de sauca' (we assume anyway).  The four of us (Jeff, Adam, Nicole and myself) spent a good number of hours just singing in our hostel room in Munich and when we left to go out we did not stop.  When on the train full of Germans Nicole started singing 'Jeff, ist there fleisch in de sauca... ist there fleisch in de sauca!!' I could not stop laughing... the Germans around us did a good job of keeping a poker face b/c i lost it lol never forget that!

Cora Yeung: miss dedicated to her man
She is a 2nd year Math/Business Student.  Working as a QA and Test Plan coordinator. She is the second youngest and the reason for her nickname is because she is very dedicated to her new b/f.  She calls him everyday and talks to him on MSN everyday.  He waits for her call everyday. Alright enough about that i think we get the picture. She is our mini PM and she hopes to return to work on the following term or staying here for another couple of months which is most likely. She loves to try different types of food when travelling. She loves salads from different places. Well she just loves ethnic foods :) and she has made me realize it is worth investing in it when travelling.

Funniest Moment:  When at Fruling's Fest (the Spring Festival) in Stuttgart she bought the huge mug of beer.  I could not believe she bought it and that she could even hold it.  She is sooooo tineeee.  Yes and she impressed me by drinking quite a bit of it.  In the pics u can tell the effect of it :).  She giggles like a maniac when drinking which is sooo cute too!

Ruslana Zbagerska: our PM
She is a graduated UW student from Software Eng and CS.  She worked here when on Coop and did such a good job she is now a fulltime here.. (am a little big jealous : D)  She has a Ukranian background and is great company.  She has impressed with her ability to balance different types of roles.  She has to be our friend, our PM and she is a new employee here.  So she has to make everyone happy basically.  She has to balance her time with everyone and make sure all is well.  Kind of tough if u ask me lol but she does it well.
FUnniest Moment: When she says 'Fair Enough' to everything alll the time.  And one day we all decided to say those words even when it was uncalled for.  She did not catch on but which made it pretty enjoyable for us.

The two students in the back are Jennifer and Lasse (from Denmark). Jennifer left when we got here and Lasse left last week.  So did not get to know them much.  But from the looks of it they seem and seemed really nice.      

Alright done with coworker intros! Tschuß!!

Massive update time:

May 21 weekend
Friday
Alright did not plan any trips because it was a normal weekend and was hoping to take it easy.  This almost happened :)
Friday was Carlos A Hoyos going away party.  He was our mini boss here from New York for like 2 weeks.  Awesome Colombian for any ladies interested, single and successfull.  So went to this popular fallafel place called Veggie voodoo.  And then sat outside the bar patio and had drinks.  He also grabbed me a Paul mug from the bar ; ))  Carlos is crazy he has been coding since he was 13 and is a coding maniac at IBM for the PTT tool.  u have to see him work to understand what i mean lol

Saturday
Since all the shops are closed all of Sunday i was planning to shop with Cora on Saturday but didn't.  Instead went to Alex's hometown in Heibronn?? lol He had the car so all three went to his parent's house and had mom's food :) and played the piano for them since they were soooooooooooooo nice!.... His mom iron's and washes his clothes ...just had to say that... lol  The city was small and adorable the house was all wood and had ancient furniture that they do not even use but use for decorative purposes the air there was really nice and the lake is nice as well.  At night my boss IMMI Henne wanted us to watch EUROVISION an extension of the American Idol but with people from each country in Europe participating.  Gracia was representing Germany and she was realllly good but my fav was Greece, England for performance but song wise it was a group from Morocco.  Anyway the competition happens every year and my boss is a strong fan so we went to his house had bbq and watched. and YES GREECE WON!!!

Sunday
Hot day and chilled mostly. Made banana bread and gave some to Kata.  And then played some soccer, beach volleyball and basketball lol pretty pathetic performance on my side but oh well i tried :) but the view from the field onto the valley is gorgeous so worth just being there.  Phew NEXT!

Tschuß!!

Alright so where to start...I live in the Allmandrig Residence at the University of Stuttgart

My Building and Room

I live in a four people apartment with one complete bathroom and one not complete lol.  The kitchen is shared.  There is no microwave, and no freezer with the place but my roomies is loaded has the freezer PHEW!!

The room is quite big actually and the view is AMAZING.  I am paying 257 euros and it is worth it.  The room faces a small lake and the conservation park so yeah u can imagine it lol.  There are alwazs people walking around and sun bathing on the grass and of course at night it seems to be the popular spot to have bbq under my window.  :)  My two roomies have a balcony and i am SOOOOOOOOOOOO jealous bc that is awesome and thez have a hammock and everzthing but thez said they will share lol.  Oh and on setback there are bugs and there are no insect nets which is kind of annoying but iäm getting used to the bees and field flies :)

I can hear a church bells ring which is so sweet!! and i have yet to find it.

Energy efficiency

The building lights at night turn off and u have to turn on the floor lights ur self when u get in.  And it goes back off again.  Kind of scary at night but i must say it is efficient use of energy.

Students

There are people from all over the world at the school residence.  From spain, france, asian countries, turkey, arab countries and US and more.  How do these people here about the Univerity i have nooooooooo clues lol Most of the German students speak English and international students speak way more languages like sometimes 3,4 languages crazyee stuff.  There are some indian people but i have not met any.  And i am sure i have seen and heard tamil music but have not located the person yet though lol

ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMIES :) my fav topic

There are three of them two boys and one girl.  I have not yet met the girl but the other two are Alex Weidmann and Christian something.  Alex and Christian are both the same distance away from the school and speak english pretty well.  Alex is not as good but he is practicing or i am forcing him too lol.  I will have pics of them sometime but for now a description should do. 

Alex

He is awesome lol.  When i met him the first morning i just got out of the bathroom and was a mess.  And he just got up and it was pretty awkward and embarassing.  He has curly blond hair, 5'9, medium built and really nice.  Oh he currentlz looks pink because he was playing outside too much.  He can cook a mean Uncle Bens and even tried my Chai Tea.  The other coops adore him too cause he is one of those people that makes u feel at home and just listens to all your problems.  he is better than a close girl friend lol  He is on the shy side but hangs out with the party animals which is gud for moi lol  He studies Electronics and works at Phillip in Stuttgart for two months and will be going to Norway to learn more english.  booo i shall miss him for sure

At the beginning he would get tired when speaking english bc he would have to think really hard he said lol but now it is better i think Oh the man is obsessed with snowboarding.  AND the most entertaining thing about him is that he likes to grinding to any song.  I mean like old classics, slow fugees anything hahahahahah okay enough about him or he will pulp me!

Christian

He is more on the quiet side and i have to badger him with questions to get him lively.  he is a good contrast to Alex because when relaxing i can talk to him and when i want to party and joke around the other one is good company.  he is studying Environmental Studies and has no interest in America lol  He is 5'11 lean and has light brown hair.  He goes home during the week and comes back on sunday.  I hope he will come out with us once and just chill but that might take some work.  His english is better and i think he enjoys my weird personalitz and finds me amusing which is AWESOME! lol

oh and Alex said something which still haunts me. He was referring to the fact that i invited Christian to a club and how he was surprised i did that and that i talk to him so much and get him talking.  And the ass made this comment: He said: 'I cannot do what you do, you talk non stop without breathing' Still not over that comment sigh!

Okay so that is it for now for the res the pics will do the rest of the typing.  I shall move on to the work in the next one. toodles peeps

Bibi

Guten Morgen all,

Weather: Sunny yet cloudy with medium wind

At work it is 11 am.  Alright i realized i missed out on some content for the last blog so I have to add it here and then move on to the more interesting stuff for the ladies lol

Stuttgart

Did i mention that the transit system is very efficient here. AND that there is no one checking your ticket to make sure youve paid. I thought that was insane you just enter the station and get on the train and leave the train INSANE.  It is completely an honor system and yes on a random day someone unidentifiable will jump up and check everyone to make sure u have paid and supposedly there is two warning but then u in trouble.

London

Make sure if u have time to just drop by Hamleys a huge toy store in London on Oxford street.  It is i believe 6 floors with a different theme on each floor.  Girls, Boys, Lego, Video Games, Stuffed animals, Hobbies are the differentfloors. Now the reason y i want u to check it out is because of the barbie dolls in the girls section.  Especially the hotest barbie i have ever seen in my life.  I was staring at her for a while hahaha. SHE WAS HOT man!  She had on a chocolate evening gown with gold big earrings and long beautiful hair wow she blew me away and she was in a special case and cost 59 pounds.  Yep she made my day. Oh and on every floor there are exhibitions like on the Lego floor has lifesize creations in lego of characters in Harry Potter and stuff so pretty neat.

View of Canada

I was talking to some of my roomates and their friends about canada.  And out of nowhere my roomate Alex (nicest guy ever) mentions Toronto Raptors with a huge smile on his face. lol that is all he knows and guess y.... it is because of Vince Carter.  Weird how TO hates him but he is what made us known to people internationally. 

GERMAN BOYS

There can not be creatures nicer than these.  Amazing ability to make u feel welcome and comfortable.  They go out of their way to be nice and just amaze me still.  And their names haha i love them: Phillip, Alex, Markus, Wolfgang, Stephen, Dominik and Paul (polish) and some others i cannot even attempt to spell because i am still trying to figure them out :).  Now their personality is quite interesting they range from shy to outgoing and they are very very modest about their english skills.  They all say i am not good in English and just keep on talking for hours lol it is quite funny and when i tell them that they are perfectly good in English they get all modest and say no no not good my english is not good. :)  Some are intersted in coming to america and some are not.  They all seem to slightly resent the fact the american influence is changing the culture in some ways.  Like certains festivals in germany are becoming more popular bc the american celebrate it.  And the music is also popular here and sort of hindering the ability of local artists.  But i find that most germans are very very proud of what they have and would not think to leave the country for work and permanent residence which is awesome.  They know what they have is just amazing.

Physical Appearance

Most are lean, tall and range in hair color from blond to light brown and the Germans have the most amazing range in eye color. crazyzeeeeeeeeeeeeeee from like aqua to like an impossible green to a sea blue that it hurts to look at their eyes.  The girls here of course are gorgeous and flawless in skin tone.  I have not met that many because the school has mostly male students and my two roomates that i have met are male as well.

So all in all the people here are great and german men are worth the trip lol :) no worries to those worrying haha

Okay next I will talk about the residence and then work and the other coops with me. 

 Tchuss, bibi

thanks to those putting comments on the site like maria b and vincent lol.. and actually to clarify i have gone drinking 3 times lol and it has been 6 days since i have been here haha

Hey alllll,

there is sooo much to tell.  Ive decided to just talk about the city of Stuttgart for now and then move onto residence and my awesome roomates.

Okay so the city is awesome and it is the perfect size for a city.  it has an amazing landscape with small beautiful houses and with tiny hills everwhere.  It is soo green. lol

It was beautiful the first couple of days but today it is raining.  Stuttgart has an amazing energy efficient transit system even bigger than the one in toronto.  There is no garbage around anywhere but the city and surrounding communities are soooo clean.  We could learn from that for sure.

Culture perks:

German commercials are hilarious and i love watching them, washroom sign in europe is WC NOT the woman and man sign(i learned that the hard way), the vegetables here are sooo tiny here like one third the size (insane), the keyboard is german here and ooooh man the letters z and y are switched so that is y i am having trouble , oh and they love everything sparkling even apple juice.

German notions about Canada (beware very sad):

Most of them think there are only white people there and that it is always white.  Snowboarders want to see Vancouver but other than the interest is low in seeing Canada.  They also think that we drink alot to keep ourselves warm in our little houses in the forests lol jokes ... no worries i am teaching them 

It was funny though but even in london when we (3 asians and 1 brown) were asked where we were from and we said Canada, they would be like no really where are u from :)

What else about Stuttgart or Germany...um the Love Parade is a popular thing, went to a Spring Drinking Festival INSANE i am telling you... i am going there like 2 more times for sure the people dance on the table to old english songs.  The Spring Festival goes for two weeks ending May 8th.  Oh and german boys seem to like nurse outfits on almost any woman of any age... do not say i said that lol

Next time i will talk about the rez and my roomies, bisoooooooooooou miss you all loads and will write soon

bern bern