30 day challenge: 20

day twenty-How important you think education is

Education opens the world. The more you know, the more you can understand how things work and the more you can participate. Education is not only what you learn in class, but also what you learn by having conversations with others or visiting places.

I have always been very ambitious when it comes to school. In school I was used to being one of the best students. In university this changed a little and (I hate to admit), but this was hard. My parents always supported me schoolwise. They helped with homework and if I needed a book I got it. My entire family values education a lot. All my realtives went to university. My grandpa even managed to get a scholarship after the war and education was extremely expensive. I have 7 cousins. 5 study medicine and my little brother will too. My dad always asks if I have enough money so I don't have to work too much. He work prefer if I did not work at all so I would concentrate more on school, but I feel like I already do enough.

Have a great week!

30 day challenge: 6

Day 6- list 30 interesting facts about yourself

Hope I can find 30....

1. I only moved once when I was 6 months old, then grew up in the same time and then moved to the city Im studying now when I was 22.

2. Our family has had budgies since I was 8. We had about 8 since then. I lost count. The current ones are Jimmy and Janie (almost all have J names)

3. my favorite food is noodle caserole.

4. My favorite color is blue

5. I spent 4 months in South Africa and LOVED it.

6. My best friend and I have been best friends since grade 1 and now study together

7. I had leukemia when I was 13/14.

8. I only kissed 3 1/2 guys (one does not really count)

9. I would like to have a tatoo with my future kids' names one day

10. I always thoght abou getting my bellybutton pierced but never did

11. My little bother and me are 2 years 6 months and 2 weeks apart

12. I always wanted a cat

13. I always fall asleep on my belly, then shift to my side later

14. I originally wanted to become a Spanish and English teacher, but then the universities raised the level of proficiency you have to have in Spanish :(

15. I'm five feet 9 inches tall (always wanted to find out how tall I am in feet)

16. I knew Lance Armstrongs two books by heart in my teens and still can recite some of parts of them

17. my right foot is smaller than my left and my right hands smaller than the left

18. I can play the piano. Had lessons from age 8 to 18.

19. I always broke my bones when I was a kid because I was very active.

20. I don't accept people I only met a few times on facebook. They are not friends.

21. Hendrik and me are both the same age for about a month every year

22. My teacher offered to let me skip first grade but my parents prefered to not let me skip.

23. I drank some wine when I was about 7 or 8 and my parents were not loooking. I spit it out again immeadiately.

24. I learned to drive when I was 16 and drove around sometimes (very rarely). without a licence. My teacher was very surprised when I started driving school with 17. (In Germany you can drive with a guardian in the car when you are 17 and alone when you are 18).

25. I started to read mostly English books in grade 11

26. I never dyed my hair

27. I LOVE LOVE LOVE hot chocolate!

28. I wanted to marry a boy called Johannes in kindergarten and in elementary school I wanted to marry a boy called Hendrik. This current Hendrik's second name is Johannes :)

29. I watched "Jon and Kate plus 8" on youtube and do the same for "19 kids& counting

30. Its Hendrik's and my 5th anniversary today! Yay!

30 day challenge: 5

Day 5- A time you thought about ending your life

I regard life as a gift. And you are not supposed to decline gifts. In general I love my life. It' s not that bad after all; I have everything I need. Yet, there are certainly some days when I do not want to get up and don't want to live the day ahead of me. I had my share of the hardship of this world which causes me to be depressed sometimes. But every time I cry and don't want to do this or that anymore I KNOW that I will smile again. I would not want to miss all the wonders of this awesome world!

30 day challenge: 4

day 3- Your views on religion

I wrote several posts on this topic. Here's one who sums it all up from October 2011: It is called "My relationship with God" and since it says everything I have to say, I copy and paste it (please forgive for not writing a new post, but I could not say it any better).

My relationship with God

so this blog is going to be quite personal....

During the last weeks/ months I have pondered a lot on my relationship with God. I have always called myself a Christian. My parents are Christians and so they wanted to raise their children as Christians. I was baptized when I was a few months old and went to sunday school pretty much my entire childhood. I heard all the stories, prayed every night my entire life, first with my parents, then alone. I usually treated people with love and tried to help whenever I could. But does this make me a Christian? Probably not!

When I went to Middle school other things were more important. For example sleeping in late on Sunday mornings. But there was more to it. The church my family belongs to is rather old fashioned. They have sunday school for children, but nothing that follws. No youth groups, no nothing. I would not have had a problem to go to the adult church...if it was a place more teenagers went to. If you go to church on a sunday morning you can see about ten sleepy teenagers who are there because they are forced to go since they want to celebrate their confirmation soon. I did the same. Went to church every sunday for almost two years and never went back since then except for Christmas and Easter. I have always been kind of searching. But never found something I really liked. When I met Henny he talked a lot about Jesus which is one of the reasons I fell in love with him. When he took me to his church I did not know the songs they sang and they did not have the lyrics. I got frustrated because I felt so stupid. I was ashamed of myself: "You call yourself a Christian and don't even know the stupid lyrics?" Eventually, I stopped going.

I always told myself I would find a church once I moved out. Last November this happened. Yet, by new years eve nothing had happened. I vowed to God that 2011 would be different. I vowed to buy myself a nice bible (not one of the old fashioned ones where you don't understand half of what you read) and find a church. And I kept my promise! I have been reading in my bible every evening and started going to church kind of regularly. Thanks to one of my old friends I found a group called "project 20 plus" which meets every second sunday. I have been enjoying these meetings very much. I still don't know all the lyrics and don't find a certain quote in the bible immediately, but I don't feel ashamed of myself because the other people don't make me feel ashamed. Thus, 2011 has been a good year in this area at least. My conversations with God have become longer and longer and I see people living their faith now which shows me how to do what I've always wanted: I praise God openly and love every minute of it. I once started a journey as a child in sunday school,got off track, but now I'm back. Stronger than before!

30 day challenge: 3

day 3: your views on drugs and alcohol

I don't take drugs (and if, I probably would not admit it on the internet, but I really don't). I tried a cigarette in grade 10 and it left me coughing for almost 5 minutes. Since then I smoked maybe 5 cigarettes, usually for special occasions like me graduation. I sometimes drink some alcohol,though. In Germany you can get beer from age 16 on and champagne and the other stuff when you are 18. So, I started with beer (usually mixed with coke) and tried quite a few other things as I got older. At my high school partys alcohol was usually involved. I enjoyed it, but never got drunk. I could always walk and remember the evening. I am a control freak and I don't want to loose control over what I say or do.
One funny story. If you read my blogs about my brother you know that he lives extremely healthy and usually does not touch alcohol at all. However, at my graduation prom, after the parents left, he stayed together with me and Hendrik since he knew some of my friends from swimming. My dad gave me a 50 euro bill and told us to enjoy the night. So, the whole group walked to the nearest petrol station to buy some alcohol. He was 17 back then which was why he could not buy anything other than beer. At the petrol station he took a bottle of liquor (Jägermeister) out of the shelf and gave it to me (since I had the money, ha). I was surprised, but did not want to act as the big sister who does not allow her brother to have any fun. My thought was that he knew what he could drink and he would not be drinking this alone. I was wrong! He was willing to share, but nobody really liked his choice. So within 2 hours or so he.drank. it. all. alone!!! He was not drunk or anything, just very relaxed and my friends thought he was funny. I was worried!!!!! But still very happy as you can see on the picture underneath. It was my prom after all (can you see that grin, I must have been VERY happy)

(henny,me,Nico)



At around 4 we decided to go home. Hendrik was driving. When Nico fell asleep on the highway, I got very worried since I thought this was a bad sign and wanted to wake him up, but Henny and my friend, who was in the car with us, said I shouldn't. Then, just as we wanted to leave the highway, Nico started to vomit. The buffet at the prom had been great and you know how much guys can eat..... Ok, so the end of my prom was standing in the driveway with Henny and my mom cleaning Hendrik's car which still smells on hot summer days. Funny story to remember. Trust your instincts and stop your little brother if necessary :)

30 day challenge: 2

day 2: where whould you like to be in 10 years?

I don't bring of anything big. I hope I will be (finally) working as a teacher, hopefully liking my job and not to be stressed out by it.
I hope to meet a lot of new people and make friends, not just aquaintances.
I hope my family is healthy and we can spend a lot of time together like we do today.
I hope I am married to a loving and supporting husband and have a cute baby or two.
I hope to have spend the year abroad I have been dreaming of since grade 7 and have travelled to a few countries.
I hope that I own a gorgeous house with rooms for each of my future children and big garden where I can tan and watch my kids play.
I hope I can still do as much sport as I do today.
I hope I can have a cat to cuddle by then.

Can't wait!

30 day challenge: 1

Since I am alwys searching for topics to write about, I was glad to fin the 30 day challenge over at Elle-oh-v-ee's blog. I like the topics and so I decided to participate. Im one day behing though :) And Im extremely busy because of all the exams (excuses, excuses).

So, here's the schedule



Day 1:Talk about your current realtionship.

Well, as you know my partner in crime is Hendrik. I wrote about our love story (listed underneath the heading if you are interested) so I won't retell it. Last year was not a very good one for our relationship. Somehow we both got frustrated/ overwhelmed. We had moved into an appartment in November 2010 and our love somehow was buried underneath all the dirty dishes and other houswork that had to be done. Since the horrible day in September we are slowly recovering which is harder than both of us thought. We both love each other and strongly believe in a future together. Some of my friends do not like get settled on a guy just now which is why they told me to just get rid of Hendrik in September. I don't want to and while some don't understand that we cling to each other we will continue to do so.
We met when I was 18, he was 19 which means that on Monday (January 30) is our 5 year anniversary (woot woot). We have lived through a lot together and Im proud of that. Today, I forgot my dictionary which I needed for my exam and he brought me it along whith some chocolate. We are both extremly busy so I spent a lot of time alone at the appartment while he works which is hard and leads to arguments but, how do you say, we are young and need the money (we are still both students).