Working Holiday

Oh yeah I forgot to mention that I'll be off for a week starting from tomorrow to work at the NOVA ROCK in Austria. I've been a fan of the Prodigy since the age of five when I first saw "Firestarter" on TV.

Ambiente 14

A few weeks ago I had the awesome opportunity to work at the Ambiente Fair 2014 in Frankfurt to my old boss Akiko! Ambiente focuses on consumer goods around the themes of Dining, Giving and Living meaning a loooot of home design and tiny luxury items. I was in heaven!

getting inspiration for Exhibition Stand Design

The curtainwalls are actually really long candles of the Company!

I made the most of my free pass and scrolled daily through the loveliest unaffordabilities whenever I had toilet breaks the chance. The Frankfurt Fair is gigantic so even tho I spent over an hour before and after my shift no-matter-how-tired walking around the different sections I could not manage more than a half of it!

Working with Akiko and her other colleagues was fun and the hours flew by really quickly.  I was happy to notice myself more confident and socially talented than at the Early Bird two years ago. To top that the International flair made me very happy of my language skills in German, English and Japanese and I even got to use Finnish a few times!

Some companys really put their heart and money into getting new customers. I for sure was impressed by it all. Might this be Bloomingville?

House Doctor for sure made me drool and I wish they could have sold some of their items after the fair...
Not that I left all empty handed tho! Some of the exhibitors DID agree to part with their sample items after the fair with some really student-friendly prices! I'll shoot some of my shoppings soon enough to show where my hard-earned money actually went into haha.

Mashpotatoes

Sorry again for the lack of posts and my granny speed in updating anything in here. The University is ON and I've been tackling nights and days with my miniature buildings and physics homework. Thank goodness my Mauzibum (bf) is a mathematical genious and a patient mind. Even better that my oh-so-wonderful roomie Jan is studying physics and can explain all my questions and beyond! Can a mathematically-handicapped girl get luckier?!

Last week went in a blurr -literally- as I was down with a cold and on Aspirin most of the time. I made several trips to our local drugstores to stack up my winter supplies and as I'm a sucker for good service, I of course went for the most expensive shit, double packages and some just-incase-purchases. They're just so damn nice at the pharmacy! Over-educated and always interested in your personal health. I suppose I can't get enough of the attention and thus fall for shopping. At least quality meets price in this hut!

NOTE TO THE DRUGS: The Aspirin causes sense of Euphoria as side effect! --> I stared the sun in the train for 2h, thinking how beautiful the world is and on my class trip I told my friend Robbie how much I love class trips and having friends.. Oh yeah, side effect confirmed. I was high for 6h. Bepanthen for Nose and Eyes when you have damaged skin is the BEST lip balm according to the pharmacy personel! Confirmed, I love this stuff and of course bought double package for winter. The Bath Salt just looked and smelled delicious but is yet to be tested. Pure impulse buy.

 As said before, last week was eventful in many ways. On Tuesday my year architecture and interior design students went on an excursion to Insel Hombroich in Düsseldorf. It's a sort of hidden park where you of course pay to get in first of all, and then run around in the wild to different buildings or pieces of art placed randomly here and there.. I wasn't so impressed about the architecture nor the art (not my cup of tea) but boy-o-boy did I have fun with my classmates! The weather was autumnly pleasant, I got to know my four group members a bit better and running in the nature made jokes funnier and my sweaty cheese sandwiches oh-so-tasty. This 13-hour hyping and hopping didn't naturally cure me at all and instead I was totally burned out the following days...

I'm such a fan of Elena's long hair ♥

..and talking about the following days: I had a job-interview at the word's coolest shop for handicrafts on Wednesday! I got to know this shop on my first week of University as it is one of the main places to get my materials needed in architecture. I fell in love with the place immediately as it has simply E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G you could possibly imagine and need in any kind of handicrafts from drawing to jewelry making to sewing. Wrapping papers from heaven, crayons in hundred shades, ballpointpens between 1-100 euros, paintbrushes -dozens of different sizes, sketching blocks, rulers, cards, papers, sprays, pearls, stamps, scissors, stones, wool, wood, clay, glitter and glamour. Certainly I needed to ask for a job in my personal heaven?

more impulse buys and happy home moments

A week later I had an interview and 10 minutes later I had a job. It's not much, only Thursdays from 10 o'clock to 14:30. My hourly wage is smaller than before but my personel bonus should cover the damage there. After all, I'll be needing a lot of stuff and the prices in this paradise are also sugary. I'm also excited about the chance to learn more about the different materials in various fields of art and to be able to use that in my studies and later career perhaps. I already had a trial day on last Thursday and am very happy about the people I'll be working with. They were all really helpful and friendly and I'll hopefully fit right in ^^

Last and the least, a little sneaky peek about Halloween with my duckly darling, who visited me this dark weekend.

I'm a home cat and watching Stanley Kubrick's The Shining for the fifth time (ma man hadn't seen it yet) with Jello was all I needed this weekend. Jack Nicholson creeps me out in every role thus a warm nook in my honey's armpit was just the thing ♥

Early Bird

Yeah yeah it's been ages since I wrote the last time. This month has been somewhat the most hectic one! After Finland a huge load of work was waiting for me as Akiko, the Japanese shop I work in, took part in an Early Bird Life Style Exhibition! I was nervous as hell as I've never worked in a trade fair before and was also worried about my German skills with strangers. I have to admit, I was quite an ape the first day and rather a nuisance than help to my boss. I was just so dazzled with the enormity of the fair, starting a talk with those business people, addressing them formally, giving background information about our products etc. that I totally failed in taking orders and such.

I wearing store products Machi-belt and a button brooch.

Working at Early Bird was boring actually. You're justs standing around endlessly while waiting someone to come and show enough interest in your product for you to make your sneaky entrence and small talk. Mornings were naturally long and the real customers apeared only after noon.

Boss Designer

Both of us bored we also bonded quite nicely with my lovely boss. Nothing to do but talk, gossip, make jokes and taiji the most of the time. I'm glad about my job. It's the best.

After my job was done I still made some rounds at the fair to see the other stands. My favourite department was "Living and Decorating" the interior design wing. I was amazed how much time, money and effort was put into a single stand, how much lovely useless deco-items fit into the world and how low the prices for the bigger companies are than for a private person.

Overall a nice change to my normal routine and a sweet extra for my wallet.

Remember to click the photos for bigger images!

Baby Talk

I was babysitting the sweetest lil kiddy last Monday and Tuesday. I had honestly no idea babies could be so damn cute and nice! The tiny Martha here was smiling and laughing the two days through and we had no single problematic situation whatsoever. What do babies really do? This one was mainly yodeling, playing, sleeping, eating and peeing happily. If she did cry it was only 5min for hunger. A problem solved by Babytea or bottled Momma-milk.

Waking up in the sleeping sock.

I was acting silly the whole time around her, not getting enough of snuggling her and making "awws" at every single smile and sound Martha made. Walking outside people stared at me with the You're-too-young-to-be-a-momma-face and shaking their heads but I was walking in a dream.

I can't really explain the wonderful feeling I had then. Feeling somehow so damn proud of going around with such a lovely little creature even she isn't mine. Like normally I'd rather avoid those fragile, loud little monsters! Don't they usually bellow beyond the imagination, turn violet with rage and create a circus if their needs aren't immediately satisfied??

Contently dozing in her babybag.

Rationally, beeing at the edge of my periods, my hormones were driven insane by the smell of the baby alone. I've been suffering from emotional Baby Fever the whole week since, which is totally not like me! Gotta keep my head cool and wait another 10 years for that to happen haha.

Sorry for the crappiest shittiest photoshopping. I have no idea/time/energy how to the get rid of the white edges gaaah.

いらっしゃいませ

Getting the previous whining post off my heart I can move on to the happy topic of introducing my work place! Hopefully this won't bring me bad karma & get me sacked. Ironically I was never employed by a German but a Japanese. Let me intorduce you the loveliest little shop.. 

Akiko

When asked I would describe Akiko a small Japanese design shop. The items sold are either handmade by the owner & her crew or imported from Japan. In Akiko's you can find a variety of fabrics, yuzen and origami paper, accessories, dishes, clothing and stationery with a Japanese touch. A pro seamstress is also available if one wishes to have a bag or a cloth made at the store. The owner organizes Origami Workshops few times per month for small groups. She doesn't do it for the money but for fun, she told me.

The job came to me via a friend to whom I do babysitting at least once a week. She is friends with the shop owner and heard that Akiko is looking for new personnel. I dropped by the next afternoon to introduce myself and fell in love with the shop immediately. To my horror however Akiko started the interview in Japanese as she had heard that I can speak some. I stumbled trying to explain that my Japanese is not that good. Thus we continued in German and I handed my CV over. I felt excited and welcomed by the small woman wishing I could stay.

Now I'm having a testing period of 2 months, working twice a week. It's not much but it's a start. In the best case I won't only improve my German but my Japanese too. I hope to gather work experience that'll be useful in the future.

  

Immigrant Life

So I told I had some good news to share and here they come. Ladies and gentlemen, prepare yourselves for I am proud to tell you that I have finally found a job!

As some of you know this has been a huge operation and an obstackle here in Germany. I have given around 25 applications (via internet, phone calls, personal visits, friends), done interviews and hours of Probearbeit (= work trial). I have asked in Cafés and clothing/interior design shops, thinking my German and my previous work experience would get me that far. I had signed myself up for the public employment agency, gotten an official work permit, a wage tax card and registered myself as a Hamburg citizen. I have smiled and sweat, started a zillion times over but nothing seemed to work. I had fought myself through the Sea of Bureaucracy yet it wasn't enough to get my ass employed.

I'm still not sure about the reasons. The local students seemed to crab jobs right before my eyes without troubles. Why do they doubt my ability to work? Why do they doubt my liability?
Is it my poor German? Nationality? That I'm not a local nor a student? Insurance problems or taxation? There is no problem as I am an EU-citizen and have taken care of the official papers needed. Whatever the reason, I have now become somewhat of a professional in looking for work. I am not afraid of the process. This trial has given me strenght & knowledge. It left me skeptic & frustrated. I feel like second class sometimes. I'm a good girl with good grades, language skills and experience of life. Why do I get treated like this outside my country?

What did I learn?
When your dream employer after a job interview tells you "Wir melden uns" with a hope-giving smile on their face, it actually means "Wish you a nice life" and you will never hear from them again.

 Pictures from We♥It