Yes, it’s finally here: The day of the office move. Because this might be the highlight of my whole work placement, I am skipping the quirky introduction for today. This is going to be an article solely about work (you have been warned)! „Time to move on (1)“ weiterlesen
Autor: Marie Schmeissner
The second half kick-off
Has it already been four weeks? It doesn’t feel like it. I feel like it’s the second week… There is room for different interpretations for this statement. The first one is the optimistic one. If time goes by fast, it means you are enjoying yourself. The second one is rational. If this feels like a second week, what have I actually accomplished the last two weeks? The third interpretation can be made based on my prior articles on this site. If I have no sense of spatial orientation, I could also have no temporal orientation. That’s fair, but I would tend to believe the first two theses. „The second half kick-off“ weiterlesen
How friendly is Belfast?
This is another requested matter, this time it’s something I am qualified to comment on. I’ve witnessed random acts of kindness. It think it was yesterday when I saw and heard a woman warning another woman about the dog poop she was about to walk in to. They didn’t know each other. Last week I saw an elderly man in the distance, he fell over and it took mere seconds for the people nearby to rush to him and help him up. The important aspect is not that somebody helped him up, but that everybody near him was immediately concerned. „How friendly is Belfast?“ weiterlesen
What Belfast’s residents eat
This topic (refer to the title) was requested by my dad and I honestly have no idea what to tell you about it. I see and walk by a lot of people eating many different things. But I can’t tell whether they are real Belfastians (let’s use that term from now on). They could be tourists. I had lunch with a couple of co-workers a week ago, only one of them was a true Belfastian. He ate pizza. Adding someone to the sample: An Irish colleague in the bureau – desk facing towards me – always has some snacks stored on his table. What I see there right now is a half of a dark (70% cacao) chocolate bar, a banana, an orange and some package on which „organic“ is written on. Mysterious. Oh, and of course there is tea. Tea is probably the common ground for all Belfastians.
Uphill
After considering the title „Uphill“ before, this time it’s more than well-deserved that it opens up this article. Saturday we went up the mountain and it was exhausting as well as rewarding. The view was great and probably more than 500 pictures were taken at the top of the mountain. My personal favorites are shown below.
Random bits of information
I didn’t feel like doing a cohesive article today, instead I wanted to give bits of information on random thoughts/impressions I had during this internship. „Random bits of information“ weiterlesen
Signs of the city
Belfast has a lot of signs. The most common one I see is the „alcohol free area“ sign. It’s everywhere. I suppose this is a real issue here in Belfast. There are also a ton of signs which appeal to the pedestrians to keep the streets clean. No litter, no dog poop. One sign told me that the layout of a specific street recently changed. Another one displayed „Highway to Health“. That’s all definitely interesting. But can somebody tell my why they did not think about setting up street signs? Is that too much to ask for?
Spending quality time with animals
We didn’t plan to go to the zoo before we started this journey. We didn’t even know there was a zoo. On the day of our arrival in Belfast we drove by a sign that advertised it. Props to whoever hung it there. The tourist attraction worked on us. We went to the zoo. What you see on the left is a little greenhouse located there. (Finally adequate temperatures!)
Video calling someone else’s cat
I am serious. It happened again. Am I becoming a cat whisperer? Hardly. This cat wasn’t willing to interact with me either. The feeling was mutual. This cat chat was forced on me. The whole point of the video call was to live stream Pro7. That might damage my image significantly, but… I really wanted to watch Germanys Next Topmodel (it was the semi-final!). I wasn’t able to do it in Belfast, thus my sister spontaneously suggested to let me watch it with the help of a video call. I – in the shape of the mobile phone – was comfortably positioned on the table and could follow up the show surprisingly well on her TV. During one of the commercial breaks it was decided that I should talk to the cat. I guess that’s what happens when you tell your family members about your blog and they want to hoax you with it.
Video calling my cat
This might be my worst or best title yet. Doesn’t it sound like a good premise for a new RTL2 reality show? Or a new animal TV format for VOX? But it would probably turn out boring, nothing scandalous nor heart-breaking would happen. And I’d have to agree, video calling my cat wasn’t really that exciting, considering he ignored me the whole 5 minutes (I am sure it wasn’t intentional). Video calling humans – my parents and my sister, did make more sense. And it was nice to see them again. Even though there are some things I miss from back home, I am not homesick (yet).