confused

So sometime I check this blogg to see if something new has been posted, as on newspaper sites or forums, only to find out every time that I am the "owner" of this blogg and the only one able to post stuff! oh well, so here's a couple of new lines to cheer me up on my next visit! ;-)

last friday I had my most important exam and guess what I did`: I was prepared ok, we got the question - 1.5 lines - which I read in a hurry, two words of the question jumped onto me and made complete sense as a question and so I answered the question with the two words. I wrote about 12 pages and 5 minutes before we had to hand the papers in I checked my neighbours Index. I read it, thought for a moment, read it again, and thought "No! NOOOOOO!". I read the question thoroughly for the first time then and noticed that what I answered doesn't really have to do anything wiht the question on the sheet. So well, panicked a bit and now I' stressed and impatient to get the result - which we'll get at the end of the year. I spoke with my professor already and now I hope something will come up so that even ion the worst case I'll be able to travel south in January.

Besides tha tnot much happened. I visited granny and grandpa on teh weekend to relax a bit and eat well but was happy again to go back to Heidelberg and start the preparations for the next test in the begining of December.
Intersting is a defect on my car. It sometimes looses it's power and doesn't accelarate anymore. When you restart it the problem is gone. So imagine doing 160 km/h, take the gear out and restart your car. Especially at night it's tricky cause you lights go off shortly. It's probably the air-flow meter.

It's cold now, aorung 7°C every day, the leaves have started falling from the trees and we have had a couple of awesome autumn days! I hope for some more so I can go and train the stress-chocolate of which I ate a lot off again.

Remarkable is Big Will's victory in teh Cape Odyssey! In 5 days he and his team partner ran 200 km cross country along the coast from Knysna (it was knysna?) to Stellenbosch. Respect my friend, good to see you are well again.

Oh ya, I'm still looking for a place to stay in Stellenbosch. So if anyone can help, there's a nice bottle of red waiting for you! ;-)

Cheers everyone!

stressed out

It's flippen freakin' me out! well, not that much actually but I am very tensed - In three days my probably most important exam has to be written and I am anything but prepared well! geez, and who could understand that even now with only very little time left, I take it easy and use every moment to distract myself from studying?
Well, exam is Friday morning, we'll go for booze right after and thne I can start preparing for the next test, probably begining of Decembre. Only then I'll get my result from this written test so the excitement will stay....

cheers, the germ

Yemen pics cont'd

Qat market in Al-Mukalla - former main port on the Red Sea










Playing at the coast of Bir Ali.












Marion and me.












Somewhere in the Tihama.













Tihama.












Our (Phd student) assistant Professor Leila with my hat and glasses.

























Al-Mukalla (I believe)














Camping at the souther coast, close to Bir Ali.








Traditional hut (kral) in the Tihama (a costal desert) at the Red Sea. Flippen hot and humind!









(as always click on the image to enlarge - worth it!)



Somewhere.























One of my favourites.











At a market, guy in the middle is a big fan of Hitler so he named his son Hitler!
Behind him left is a pic of the president, right a pic of Saddam Hussein!










Suq (Market) in the capital Sana'a.












Boy and his pimped bike









Mohammed Al Baidani, aka Mohammed Grosser, aka Balou, one of our amazing drivers.
In his cheek is Qat, the legal drug in the Yemen. You chew fresh leaves of the Qat tree, store them in one cheek and add more and more for about 3-4 hours. It takes tiredness and hunger away, looks disgusting and the men spend about 1/3 of the monthly household income on it.






















Terrases - amzaing how intensive they use their land and with what skills.
looking pretty, too.

a bit of South African history...

around 1700 in what is today Cape Town

"On her wedding night she [Elizabeth] walked in on her husband [Willem Menssink] having sex with the slave woman Susanna. [...] It was the beginning of Willem's many, and sometimes bizzare, tricks and cover-ups. The next time Elizabeth caught him with Susanny, he pretended to be beating her. When she caught himwith two slave women in the stables, he explained that they were stealing and he wa smerely chasing them. But then Elizabeth woke up one night to find Susanna in bed with her and her husband. This time Willem was short of a quick excuse, so he lay absolutely still, drooling from the mouth pretending to be mad. Another time, discovered having sex in teh attic, he put a basket over his head and ran off, later denying that is was him."

Max du Preez: Of warriors, lovers and prophets. Unusual stories from South Africa's past.

Hooray

Football language is universal











Free raisins - HOOOOORAY

What's new?

So I decided to do my own blogg to keep everyone updated. Initially it was thought for once I'm back in Stellenbosch but I'll see if I can put a few things up here about what's happening in my life.
That won't be much since all I'll do for the rest of the year is studying. I have two BIG exams left before I can move out of my place and travel to South Africa in January. There everything si set with Stellenbosch University where I was very friendly received from Professor Harms at the Mechanical Engineering Department when I told him I'd like to do my Thesis there. Roughly I'll do research on the public acceptance of Renewable Energies in SA. The thesis question as well as my procedure will be specified when I arrive in Stellenbosch. Stellenbosch just recently opened an Institute for Renewable and Sutainable Energy Studies which is linked to the mechanical engineering so I've been told that I can have close contacts to this Institute. I'm looking forward to the time ther and the challenge.

The Yemen
(click on the pic enlaaarges the image!)

















































At 11 August we came back from a three week field trip in the Yemen. We were 18 Students + 2
Professors, PhD Student and the wife of one of our professors. The time there generally was very good! The country is beautiful in the same way Namibia is beautiful, only different ;-) It's very dry in mos tparts of the country, incredible humid in the coastal areas, but barren. The highlands and plateaus were friendlier for agriculture, so were the slopes rising from the flat coastal areas up to the plateaus. The people there suprised us with an kindness I have never experienced before and we felt very welcome. Well. a couple of days we had military "protection" by guys who obviously enjoyed their opportunity to boss their fellow citizens around and pushed them out of our way which didn't make us their best friends but it wasn't our fault and the soldiers didn't want to listen.

I've sweated as never before! On some days I darnk 7 litres of water and still felt thirsty.

The country is beautiful, go and visit the Yemen! Oh, well, not my American friends though - you aren't "welcome to the Yemen"!














Now I'm back at my desk studying. It's getting fault here slowly - lovely! I really enjoy that. Did my 2nd bike ride today since I'm back (yaya, I know, went for runs more often in the past weeks) and the weather was just perfect. The first leaves are falling down and the late afternoon was shining.
I'm still prostituting myself at the train station (working at an "outdoor" store there) but only three more months are left - puh!

That's it for now....

mooi bly!

...soon!