2009 us pop song mashup

never a year like 2009

2009 - this is it!

2009 has been a busy year with many adventures, ups and downs, new aquaintances... cannot believe it's already been a year.

January, February and March

New Year's Eve - I didn't know by then
that I was going to move into the house we celebrated in

After recovering from New Year's, uni routine caught up quite quickly... as a freshly reborn Naumann stipendiary, I organised two seminars for the foundation: one on social networking sites and another one on the populist left wing party "Die Linke". Apart from studying and working, there has been plenty of room for pleasure: I went to the Oasis concert in Hamburg and also took some days off to visit the Berlin Film Festival "Berlinale". In February and March, my sister Nina moved in with me because she was interning at the photo mag Stern VIEW.

April, May and June

The second quarter of 2009 started with becoming film makers. With 3 of my classmates I managed to write a screenplay, cast actors, shoot the film and edit it within 5 days. Let me know, if you are interested in watching "Abschied nehmen" and I will send you a link.

During the shooting

After the stressful film production I took a week off and went to visit my friend Gabi in Granada. After two trimesters of studying together, I had to say goodbye to my dearest classmate Mia, who was an exchange student from Copenhagen. She has become one of my closest friends in Hamburg and I already knew back then how much I was going to miss her. Turning 25, I decided to celebrate my birthday in Hamburg for the first time. With the help of my friends and classmates, I managed to bake glutenfree pizza for everyone and even organised a huge TV to show the local football derby between Hamburg and Bremen.

dancing with Ben

In May, I went to the traditional Naumann Spring Ball, my first Naumann event being a stipendiary again. This years location: Magdeburg. Except for the pretty cliché gay bar "Gummibärchen" the city was not as ugly as I expected, the venue was beautiful and the weather was pretty nice... With the great support of two fellow Naumann stipendiaries Doro and Astrid, I organised another panel discussion for the Naumann foundation on developmental politics. We introduced our successful deveopmental project "Lebenschancen Malawi" to the audience and discussed the ups and downs of developmental aid.

glutenfree beer and meat = perfect barbecue at the river Elbe

In June, summer arrived and we were only little motivated to study. Instead, we organised some spontaneous barbecue sessions on Elbe beach or in the Stadtpark. I attended my first Alumni Summit and got to know a lot of nice Alumni from my 5-year-old uni. I also volunteered to organise "Thank God it's Friday" - a monthly meeting at which an Alumnus tells the students about his or her job and how he or she got there.

July, August and September

Summer in London. I spent three months in London interning at the Digital Department of Random House UK. I helped monetising a pub community called the good pub guide and learnt a lot about online and mobile marketing. Two of my DC friends, Anis and Diana, happened to be in London at the same time so we had a little reunion. Apart from that I made a lot of new friends among my colleagues, classmates and facebook.

celebrating Katharina's birthday with my flatmates K and Ash

The size of the city, the metropolitan atmosphere and the variety of different areas and ppl within London made me wish to stay longer than three months. During my stay, a lot of friends came to visit me and I could show them around and discover London with them. I went on a day-trip to Brighton, and spent a couple of days in Paris and Madrid - you get quite good deals from and to London airports. It has been four years since Germany's last national election and again I was in the UK trying to catch up with the news, polls and election campaigns. Together with my flatmate we followed the debates via livestream as if it was football. The only acceptable combination of parties won and I decided to fly back home at last...

October, November and December

After three months of working, I was quite anxious to go back to uni and study more. I was lucky because I was chosen for the only online project for this trimester.


Along with three classmates, I got the task to give an overview on the current online fundraising market and to develop a concept for social organisations to improve their profile on betterplace.org and hence make the most of their fundraising. The project has been quite challenging but also really great whenever we talked to organisations and realised how much they needed our help with digital and social media. Also, betterplace.org has been really helpful and provided us with any information we needed and a room to work within their office. So it actually felt like going to work. In the meantime, I moved to a new flat: I live in Winterhude now - quite posh, but I get finally used to it - and have the best flatmates and neighbours I could imagine. Even though uni eats up my life, Christoph and Söan ensure that I still have a social life and drag me to the Kiez and places like this. On the 23rd, I went home for Christmas and New Year's.

I wish you a Merry X-Mas 2009 and a Happy New Year 2010. Keep in touch and keep me posted. See you soon, xx Kati.

Merry X-Mas Jack Bauer

Merry X-Mas everybody

It’s the little things that make big dreams happen

500 days of summer

"Author's Note: The following is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental. Especially you Jenny Beckman. Bitch."



Best film I have seen in a while...

Pinkelpause

Irgendwie sympathisch...

How to make Viral Videos!

Copenhagen 2009 opening film

Fröhlichen Nikolaus

Merry X-Mas Jack Bauer

Mensch ärgere Dich nicht

Weltaidstag 2009

google wave - have you tried it, yet?

the google story

Throwing Sheep in the Boardroom

twitter in plain English

facebook in plain English

Hast Du einen Organspendeausweis?

Vertrauensfrage

Den Koalitionsvertrag zum Download gibt es hier.

Liebe ist...

Gesehen in der Sendung mit der Maus.

That's what we can learn from the States: Failure to Success

Never underestimate the power of a great story

Twitter in real life

peinlich: Kerner und Gäste über Twitter...

Incredible India - I am coming

Und trotzdem haben wir ihn gewählt: Herzlich Glückwunsch!

Oder sollte man alles nicht so ernst nehmen?

#

Und noch was. :) Keine Angst ich hab gewählt!

Bye, bye London

Und noch ein liberaler Wahlwerbespot: bald ist's vorbei

Animalogie

Show your love

Social Media Revolution II

Investieren statt Neuverschulden

The candle problem for dummies: great insight into intrinsic motivation

Whopper vs. facebook friends

Rette Deine Freiheit

Statistics guru Rosling debunks myths about the "developing world"

Die Wahlwerbung der Julis erinnert an die Piratenpartei

Die reine Wahrheit! from Nerd 555 on Vimeo.

Korrespondenzartikel London II

Die richtige Wahl

Trafalgar Square: the 4th plinth

I have found my favourite spot in London - apart from areas like Camden, Islington, Notting Hill, ... that are really nice - one of my favourite London sights is the 4th plinth on Trafalgar Square. At nights the atmosphere reminds me a little bit of the DC memorials...

At the moment there is a modern art project taking place called "One & Other" taking place on the 4th plinth. "The Fourth Plinth is the name given to the empty plinth in the north-west corner of Trafalgar Square in London. It was originally designed by Sir Charles Barry and built in 1841 to display an equestrian statue. There were not enough funds available at the time to create a statue and so the plinth was sometimes referred to as the 'empty plinth'." Read more here.



Check out this video - the youtube description reads: "A man faints next to the plinth, a performer 'loses' his biclycle, and a helicopter lands on the square" I am so sorry I missed this performance...

No. 10 - Jörg again

Wer mitmachen will, findet alle Details hier.
Bitte denkt daran, die Karten per Luftpost zu schicken
(kleiner Aufkleber),
sonst brauchen sie ewig bis sie da sind - so wie diese hier!

There is an app for that

Cityboy

I finally finished Cityboy by Geraint Anderson. It was really painful and digusting reading it, mostly because you have the feeling that it is slightly exaggerated but then it might as well be true...



I have some investment banker friends and they would not be my friends if they behaved like those greedy idiots of this book. But I do feel really sorry for them having to work in such an environment. It is probably even more disgusting when you are a woman...

Anyway, I am happy that I am done with this book - although it was quite fun to rub it in the faces of all these suits I met in the tube every morning. Next time, I move to London I def move (North)East (Shoreditch, Angel, Camden, Islington... I am coming!).

My next book will be Business stripped bare by Richard Branson. I have already read the intro and the first chapter today and it is so much more fun although the topic is quite similar. And of course, it is a Random House book!

Notting Hill Carnvial 2009

Well, I went to Notting Hill Carnival today and expected Brasilian dancers and amazing costumes... instead it was just masses of drunk British people who were NOT dressed up. Their only aim was to dance in the streets among all the others... more like love parade then Carnival I guess. Police was leading people safely through the less crowded streets. The only way to survive was to adapt! We went to different dance areas (pubs or trucks with music) and enjoyed the bizarre event. What struck me most was that some residents offered their loos to ppl for a quid. If not you had to visit the dixie toilets.

When I went home after a nice meal with lots of red meat at a Turkish restaurant in West Ken, I checked the website which told me that tomorrow will be the main day of Carnival but I decided not to go again and check out Greenwich and the Zero Meridian instead.

Bank Holiday weekend: day-trip to Brighton

Today I went to Brighton with Ulli and Christoph (both fellow HMS students). Unusual to German punctuality, we almost missed the train due to Ulli who was actually the only one of us who did not party all night long the night before... we (Christoph) also managed to buy the wrong train tickets (single instead of return for the same price) but the South Western train employee made our day by believing our story and friendlily exchanging our tickets. We went to the beach immediately and caught some sun rays - these moments are rare in this "summer". I think I got tanned most but on the other hand I almost froze my a** off as I had not taken the wind and the
< 19° into account.

Christoph has also been a freelance journalist in his youth

we are actually in Brighton not Dubai...

On the way back we met some German girls who were obviously drunk and talked pretty good English among each other due to her Italian company. Christoph, the little "Spießer" asked us to sit down somewhere else which of course was understood by the girls. Ulli and I had so much fun mocking Christoph all the way back for believing German was a secret language in our neighbour country. However, the girls were really nice and even helped me to find my way back home. Of course the train was delayed and I missed the last tube, so they took me to the bus stop and even offered to sleep over in their place. Danke!

Michael Jackson Flashmob in Hamburg

No. 9 Cheers

Danke Heidrun!

Wer mitmachen will, findet alle Details hier.

Blumentopf: Geh zur Wahl!

Lebenschancen Malawi Trailer

Dies ist der heute fertig gestellte Trailer zum Film unseres Entwicklungsprojektes Lebenschancen Malawi.

Hilfe für Malawi e.V.

Watch: The Inglorious Basterds

I watched it today and I am still thrilled - best Tarantino movie so far! Watch it in English to enjoy all the accents and if you watch it abroad - do not say you are German, keep running!

Umfrage: Mediennutzung von Bewegtbildangeboten im Internet

Ein Kommilitone von mir hat eine Online-Befragung im Rahmen seiner Master Thesis entwickelt. Es geht um Mediennutzung, vor allem um die Nutzung von Bewegtbildangeboten im Internet. Also das, was seit einiger Zeit fast jeder von uns gerne macht: sich Videos auf YouTube und Co. anzuschauen.

Er würde sich sehr freuen, wenn er Euch für zwei Dinge gewinnen könnte:
1. nehmt teil!
2. leitet den Link an möglichst viele Freunde, Bekannte und Verwandte weiter !

Hier ist die URL: http://ww3.unipark.de/uc/hh_fak4_mfoos/8126/

Da inzwischen auch immer mehr „ältere“ Surfer diese Möglichkeit nutzen, wäre es toll, wenn Ihr den Link auch an Eure Eltern und sonstigen Verwandten weitergeben könntet!

Durch Euer Engagement kommt hoffentlich eine ganz vernünftige Teilnehmerzahl zusammen und die Umfrage wird aussagekräftig. Natürlich bekommt Ihr die Ergebnisse auch am Ende per E-Mail zugestellt, wenn Ihr möchtet.

Jeder von uns, der schon einmal selbst eine Umfrage gestaltet hat, weiss wie wichtig eine kritische Masse ist!

Vielen Dank für Eure Hilfe,

im Namen von Markus und mir!

Michael Jackson alive??

Obwohl Nachrichtenseiten wie “Bild.de” und “Daily Telegraph” über das Video berichteten, handelt es sich lediglich um ein Fake, hinter dem RTL steckt. Der Sender will den Viralspot als Aufhänger für einen Beitrag “Wie leichtgläubig sind Verschwörungstheoretiker?” zeigen und die Sache aufklären.

Ursula von der Leyen und die Pressefreiheit

Korrespondenzartikel London I

Beautiful Moments

100 years of special effects

8. Postkarte

Danke, Toni!

Wer mitmachen will, findet alle Details hier.

Paintball

before...


and after...

Social Media Revolution

Inspiration: Lammbock

Dieser Artikel, über den ich heute gestolpert bin, hat mich an einen meiner Lieblingsfilme erinnert...

"Pub employees at center of drug investigation
By: CHRISTOPHER RUVO In: The Intelligencer

You could get more than pepperoni and cheese with your slice at the Pizza Pub in West Rockhill. Pennridge police say employees of the Pizza Pub were selling cocaine out of the bar on the 1100 block of Bethlehem Pike. (...)"

Sony field trip

the Sony office building in Weybridge

After work (1pm) Ulli and I visited Christoph - my future flatmate at Sony where he currently writes his master thesis. Here are some impressions from our field trip.

Unfortunately, we were not officially allowed to take pictures inside the building, so you have to believe me when I tell you about the "Minority Report" like non-touch screen, the Sony 50% discount store, the silent room, the chill out room, the fun room, the fancy cafeterias...

Inside the chill our room we found three massage chairs - if you have never tried one, you def should!

We also visited the Mercedes-Benz World Museum which is close-by.

At home we cooked a nice gluten free pasta dish - just a little too spicy for my fellow chef.

Watch: Beaufort

I went to the Random House Beaufort Screening today and the film really got to me. Before the film started there was a brief Q&A with author Ron Leshem who impressed me as well. Read the NYT review of his book here.

interning at random house digital: sex, drugs and rock and roll...

Just a quick update for those who wonder what I am concerned with @ work.

Still, the Good Pub Guide is my major project. Since David, who is responsible for the site, is on annual leave this week, I am in charge of approving licensees who want to join the page, updating the pub news and twittering about pubs!

vwt office and other media companies building

There will be a new sub page called "blog" soon which I am currently developing with vision with technology at the moment. This is the agency that developed the GPG website and they have a real fancy office with a start-up-atmo in Islington. It is also my task to recruit interesting and motivated bloggers who blog about all kinds of different perspectives on pubs such as pub crawls, pubs in Yorkshire, beer drinking women, pubs as business hubs, etc. It might be quite obvious that I very much like that project.

As we are still a young website we also need to tell the people we are out there and generate traffic via XML feed partnerships. It is my task to analyse the market and see who is a good fit for our trusted brand.

Also, we still need many more licensees to use our website to promote their pubs - so I have been talking to the major UK pub companies, breweries, etc. Talking on the phone to publicans with various local British accents - no probs anymore! :) Plus, the beer and liquor industry within the UK is quite complex and most of them are far behind the new media developments - I might even think of applying to work for a renowned brewery in my own social media department next year...

Since David is on holiday, I might be asked to help some other colleagues here and there and finally get to know what all the others are doing. Nicole asked me today to write a book review for a high ranked book on youwriteon - a very interesting, though pretty ugly looking, author's community.

Jenny asked me to help her researching ways to promote our Ann Summers' erotica audio books (click on the link to listen to free samples). She also told me to inform IT that I will spend some time on dodgy sex websites in order to research. So, yes, I am basically concerned with booze and sex at work. What is that going to look like on my CV?

Mehr Geld für Bildung!

Denkanstoß von der Piratenpartei

British habits

Alright mate? Cheers! I am a British robot again.

Instead of coffee I have a black tea with milk and loads of sugar in the mornings. I eat crisps for breakfast, lunch and dinner. And sometimes in between. I order Caffè Latte at the Café Nero counter and although I know there are mostly South Americans or Europeans behind the counter I pronounce "Latte" in the way the English think Italian sounds... although I know it does not.

I always take my umbrella and my sunglasses with me because I know it will rain and then be sunny later.

If I run into people, yes, even if I just slightly touch their bags when I hurry past them, I excuse myself. Sorry all day. 24 hours. I say sorry when there is not gluten free dish on the menu. I say sorry when I have the feeling my German guests are not saying sorry enough. Sorry, sorry, sorry.

I queue no matter how long the queue and no matter what reason for queuing. I know that unlike in Germany old retired people will not overtake me and queuing really is the fastet way to everywhere.

I read the free metro newspaper on the train. I am used to tubes being late or being out of order due to people on the tracks. My mind immediately keeps figuring out an alternative route to where I am going. Tfl's journey planner is in my head. And it is actually working properly without mixing up postcodes all the time.

My bathroom is made of wood and the pipes are so old that the plumber is a regular guest!

I go for after work drinks at 5:30 pm although I know I can only handle one cider without having dinner. And I say yes if somebody wants to get me another one.

I ask my fellow workmates how they are. Every morning and whenever I meet them in the bathroom or elevator. We exchange small talk about our weekends and we do not spare binge drinking stories and at what bar we got beaten black and blue. Or how much money we wasted on drinks and that we should not have gone home with that fat English girl...

Helen

Today, my friend Karina, who was visiting me for the weekend, and I went to Shakespeare's Globe Theatre to see the Greek play "Helen". In contrast to my obviously uneducated friends, I knew the story of Helen of Troy from my Latin classes at school. We bought 5GPB tickets for the Yard like the poor crowd in good old times. In contrast to a concert, you do feel your bones after 1,5 hours...

The plot - in case you were not taught Latin or Greek at school:

"Seven years have passed since the end of the Trojan War and Menelaus, King of Sparta and husband to Helen, is making his slow and painful way home. When his ship is wrecked on the coast of Egypt he stumbles upon what seems to be his wife lingering outside the royal palace. But if this is the real Helen, who was the beautiful woman stolen by Paris, for whom all Greece took up arms?"

Nottinghill Portobello Road and Market

Portobello Market in Notting Hill is one of my favourite London attractions. It takes up most of Portobello Road and stretches for around two miles. Every Saturday, it is a popular destination for Londoners - like me - and tourists alike. I drag all my visitors (tourists) to Notting Hill - in case we wake up before 5 pm. Fortunately, the area is only ten minutes by bus from where I live.

Apparently, George Orwell, author of 1984, seemed to have lived in Notting Hill.

My latest shopping treasures.

Of course, there is a café Nero on Portobello Road where you can have a real strong coffee to keep you going. And Market Thai, my favourite Asian restaurant is also located on Portobello Road.

Man without a face

I saw this artist Saturday close to London Bridge. I know my camera is not the best but hopefully you can see that he does not have a face!

Just do it!

Today, I went home at 4:30 p.m. I told my boss I was about to leave now. He looked a little bit startled but said it was alright. I passed all my colleagues on my way out. They were still working like busy bees. Usually, I am one of the very last ones. But after calling twelve pub companies and having been put through and through and through to the right person, I just wanted to get out of the office asap. It hit me when I was in the elevator: I got confused with the times - I was supposed to work until 5:30 p.m. - one more hour to go... Anyway, I decided not to get back upstairs and to enjoy my early day off.

Danke Jörg - No. 7

Wer mitmachen will, findet alle Details hier.

What the F***k is Social Media?

What the F**K is Social Media: One Year Later

View more documents from Marta Kagan.

Gluten free UK - gluten free London

As I meet more and more coeliacs I thought it might be helpful to collect some gf intel for my blog. Feel free to add within the comments section or send me an email and I will post it. Cheers!

GF websites:
- gluten free London facebook group
- charity for coeliacs website
- gluten free London blog

GF supermarkets and what to find where:
- Wholefoods near High Street Kensington tube station: they have gf beer! :)
- Sainsbury: gf naan and much more
- big Tescos: great bread "genius" and "ener-G"
- Waitrose: have not been there, yet

GF restaurants:
- Giraffe: it's a chain. They have an allergy information menu which leaves you quite a choice
- Hell: This is a pub that serves gf pizza and it tastes like Pizza. WOW! Finally! They import the dough base from New Zealand. :) And they deliver as well...
- imli: Indian tapas AND they have a gf menu! :) I had some problems after but I don't dare to blame imli for it...
- Italian cotto: They have gf Pizza, Pasta and Tiramisu... If you are a coeliac and you enter the place you get a very special and warm welcome by the owner. They do have two completely separate kitchens. I met a Belgium guy who had not eaten Pizza for 8 years. He was so happy! Unfortunately, the restaurant is closed 22.8.-7.9. But you should definitely give it a try!
- Japan Centre: Really good sushi: they prepare you gf Sushi if you ask.
- Market THAI in Nottinghill: now they know! :) The staff is quite helpful and the food is good and cheap
- Preto: Brazilian Steakhouse: You have to ask someone to talk you through the buffet, but honestly: it's all about meat and that's gf! :)
- Roka: they know what gluten is and prepare each dish gf if you ask. Good quality Japanese food!
- Table d'Hôte du Palais Royal: this is a really good restaurant that looks like it used to be a brothel. I ate my first Foie Gras there. The chef said she was sorry she did not have gf bread. So cute. Okay, to be honest - it's in Paris. :P
- Thai Café and Restaurant: Really good Thai food! Ask for gluten and wheat free dishes! The food is definitely worth the effort!
- Thai Metro: really good Thai food. I just mentioned I was a celiac and the waitre created a dish for me out of his head - amazing and delicious. Reminded me of the bok mafia chain in Hamburg which is also amazing!

No matter what

Haunted Room

This night while I was still fully awake I heard a weird noise: it sounded like a hiss that came from different directions within my room and reached different noise levels. I have never heard that sound before and could not figure out where it was coming from. After discussing horror movies with my flatmate Ashley for an hour in the kitchen just before I went to bed, my first thought was that I must be imagining it. But then after a while the sound came back. I did not hear any tripping noise that would lead to the conclusion that it must be an animal making that noise. So I concluded it must be a supranatural power - not that I believe in such things... When I finally heard some human noise in the hall I jumped out of my bed and found Katharina. I dragged her into my room and she heard that weird hissing as well. Thank God - I was not crazy! Edward had to get out of his bed as well and tried to scare the monster away. But to our suprise - he did not hear anything. We all decided it would be best if I shared tonight's bed with Ashley. I woke her and told her the story but she was still drowsy and could not make much sense of my story.

Even now, two weeks later, I sleep in my own room again, I have not figured out the noise and it did not come back. My friends are indecisive if it was a rat or a snake. I just wish that I will never find out...

Chips vs. Fries

I love fries! Besides, it's basically the only thing I can eat when I want a snack. With only a filter coffee in my stomach, I was craving fries for lunch when I met with Anis and Nicola. We decided not to go to Mc D but to support the local pub at the corner. I ordered a bowl of fries when the emo looking girl behind the counter asked me if I wanted CHIPS. Seriously?

Bouncy Castle Party tonight

Did not go in the end because the Jubilee line is under construction during weekends and it was raining as usual. :(

Danke Nils!

Heute kam endlich die langersehnte Postkarte von Nils aus Münster an! Merci!

Wer mitmachen will, findet alle Details hier.

Geht wählen!

In unserem Alter sind wir Vorbilder. Wenn wir wollen, dass unsere jüngeren Geschwister, unsere Nachhilfekinder, unsere Schüler wählen gehen, dann sollten wir das auch!

Watch the original here.

Westminster Abbey

Today, my friend Gabi who was visiting me, my flatmate Jo and some other friends went to the Westminster Abbey Evening Service. Obviously, we were tourists and no regulars but they let us in. This church does not exclude the nonbelievers. Reverend Edward J Lewis conducted a fresh and short service - surprisingly entertaining. Also, his sermon was quite modern. In it he even quoted Henry Ford:

"Whether you think you can do it or not, you are always right."

Soko live @ Dingwalls

My home is my castle

I have been living in a couple of crazy flat-sharing communities before. The first and maybe craziest one: of course my own family. In 2005, I moved to Nottingham to live with people among who I was the only European (back then Romania had not joined the EU, yet). In Muenster, I lived with Michael who constantly reminded me that I should follow his example and study instead of going out far too often - we were both finishing our degrees back then. 2007, I spent two months with Raquel's family as a kind of adopted child - I realised that when Mama Carmen offered to wash my underwear the day I moved in. Last summer in DC I shared a room (!) with a girl from Mumbai and then later with my blue French Sophie. In Hamburg - for the first time in my life - I actually lived alone! And I survived.

Now, I live with three girls in a beautiful flat in West Ken - and I am loving it!

Jo, who went flat hunting for our precious home is our mum although being the youngest one among us. She is only 20 but already working for Freshfields, Bakers and the lot. I know she will be either First Lady or President herself one day. She is also responsible for all the Ivy League student champagne brunches on hangover Sunday mornings. For now, she teaches me how to cook delicious meals and always takes care of my gluten free diet. I am gonna miss her loads when she leaves at the end of this month.

Katharina, who does not want to be called "Kati" is my next door neighbour. She is the best conspirator whenever you are on a dodgy Sherlock Holmes' mission and you don't know where to start from. Also, she puts you down to earth again whenever you get caught in a self-induced drama which happens probably once a week to either one of us.

Halloooo? Ashley is our Princeton princess from Texas, Houston! She takes care that we speak English or Chinese only. She is a crazy red haired girl who plans to go into the film business. We share some future dream in which I am going to provide her with a screenplay she is gonna turn into a great film. Maybe I could write about my encounter with David Hasselhoff or George W. Bush who she both knows through her parents' country club. Let's see!

Ashley (right) with her German boot camp drill instructors...

Statistics

As some of you know: i love stats.

Especially when they track my personal performance, e. g. whenever I post a blog I can check how many ppl clicked on it and what browser they used, where they came across my blog and where they come from themselves...

I started measuring my blog's performance on 26 June 2008. My Spanish friend Gus told me how to do it.

Since then my blog had a total number of 3,173 page views up till now.
The busiest day so far was: 24 December 2008 with 105 page views
I guess you must have been quite bored on Christmas...

So, where do my visitors come from?

Here is the top ten:
1. Germany 2,300 72.5 %
2. United States 368 11.6 % (that's my DC friends)
3. United Kingdom 206 6.5 % (my old Notts buddies and new London mates)
4. Spain 103 3.2 % (Raquel & Co.)
5. Italy 20 0.6 % (Jendrik is now interning in Milan and must be quite bored)
6. France 19 0.6 %
7. Canada 18 0.6 %
8. Switzerland 17 0.5 % (thx Alex)
9. Belgium 14 0.4 % (Ellen?)
10. Australia 12 0.4 % (Steffi is currently an assistant teacher in Aussie)

Keywords that ppl use to find my page:
1. scribo
2. hamburg
3. augenringe (dark circles around the eyes) :)
4. pecsipedia (which indicates my blog has a good SEO)
5. getreideprodukte (corn products)

via search engines like:

1. www.google.de
2. www.google.ch

the top referring sites are:

1. www.blogger.com
2. www.facebook.com
3. r1rk9np7bpcsfoeekl0khkd2juj27q3o.friendconnect.gmodules.com ?
4. www.google.de
5. katiunims.blogspot.com
6. webstats.motigo.com
7. webmail.nurivo.de (thx Joerg)
8. www.google.ch

So, as you can see, webstats tell a lot! Even when you don't leave a comment, I can find out if you have been there lately... and you can, too! Just click at the small webstats icon on the bottom of the right column.

Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince

I have just seen the latest Harry Potter film with my co-interns and I totally enjoyed it. Go - watch it!

Lago di Como

Danke, Jendrik.

Die Karte ist eigentlichzu hässlich, um sie zu fotografieren, aber was soll's...

Wer mitmachen will, findet alle Details hier.

Politiker auf facebook

Endlich haben dank der Süddeutschen Zeitung auch Politiker facebook für sich entdeckt. Schöne Idee.

Blank is great!

Hey... if you wonder what I do at work all day. Watch videos like that and learn more about Social Media Advertising!

Pecsi

Pepsi hat in Argentinien eine Kampagne gestartet und sich selbst umbenannt: in Pecsi - das sagen 25 % aller Argentinier ohnehin zu dem Softdrink.
Im Pecsipedia gibt es noch viele andere Wörter, die lustig ausgesprochen werden.

No. 4 - macht weiter!

Danke, Chris!


Wer mitmachen will, findet alle Details hier.


PS: Ich hab immer noch sehr viel Platz an meiner Wand. :)

1,2,3 Postkarten

Danke, Resi!

Wer mitmachen will, findet alle Details hier.

top secret

I know my posts have been quite lame lately - don't worry my non-virtual life hasn't...

As my wise boss told me once that blogs have to be as clean as business cards, I spare you the adventures of last weekend. Plus, there should be a reason for you to call me and keep this a bidirectional conversation anyway.


I went to an art gallery opening on Kingsland road today. Hansel, my new Kiwi friend, hooked me up with a bunch of his international friends and we enjoyed some free wine and weird art in Shoreditch together. Then, we went to a great but cheap Vietnamese food place with glutenfree dishes and byo policy.

Postkartenaktion: Nummer 2

Danke, Kleine!

Wer mitmachen will, findet alle Details hier.

I'll kill her

Thank you, Mo!

SOKO - I'll kill her


Soko in London soon. Anyone interested?

transport against London

London is the biggest city in Europe and the 19th biggest city in the world (says wiki). Still, there is one thing that makes you crazy if you have been living in similar big cities before.

It's really hot in the tube, although there is no real summer in London. But air conditioning is not really included in the ticket, so you'll get a summer feeling whenever you are not alone in the wagon.

Free education on the go. Wherever you go: grab a free metro paper. It might help you not get bored on the loooooong way through London. And you pick up easily on what's going on here: Amy, Becks, Harry, Iraq, swine flu...

Also, I love the irony! You have been kept waiting for no reasons for 20 minutes for the next tube that's supposed to go every three minutes and they will inform you happily that "all London underground lines are operating on a good service"?

It is Saturday night, you have been partying and now you want to go home. Take the tube? Impossible, cause it's not running anymore. Not even during the weekends. So, you have to get accustomed to another map - the bus map with different names for the stops. Busses go to the city centre first and then spread across London. So, it takes quite a while to get where you actually want to go. And on the way, watch out that no one pukes at your shoes (already happened on my first night out!)

New record: 3000

Thank you - keep following!

Erste Postkarte ist da!

Danke, Neelu! :)

Wer mitmachen will, findet alle Details hier.

the good pub guide

First day @ Random House Digital:

I met my really nice colleagues but I did not manage to remember all their names, yet, so I have to figure out away how to talk to them without addressing them for the moment.

The canteen provides really nice gluten free food and serves coffee and tea all day.

My colleague David who i am working with is really cool and I will be working with him on the good pub guide. So I am actually working on two things I really like: online communities and British pubs (although I cannot drink beer anymore...).

About gpg: "Now entering it’s 27th year, The Good Pub Guide remains Britain’s bestselling travel guide. The only truly independent guide of its kind, its comprehensive updates, meticulous attention to detail and countless reader reports ensure that only the very best of the nation’s watering holes make the cut."

If you want to find out more about it, join us on facebook or follow us on twitter.

home

Yesterday, I finally arrived in London for good. No more comparisons to last summer in DC or what could have happened in Palo Alto if... LONDON its gonna be and I like it!

During the day I went with Jo and her friend Lars to Spitalfields Market at Liverpool Street Station. Its a place where creative ppl stroll around. The market was actually not happening that day but we had a weird iced tea in a funky café and watched the folks who passed us by.

After, we went to Regent's Park where we had a nice picnic with some LSE rich kids. Right there and then, I decided NOT to send my kids to a private school - at least not until they developed some character...


Größere Kartenansicht

At night, I met with a friend who showed me Shoreditch - his favourite place to go out at night and I fell in love with that area: its like my fav area "Sternschanze" in Hamburg. People were having pints sitting on the street, getting drunk, having fights, enjoying their night out. The area looks a bit dodgy at first - totally opposite of West Ken where I live.

Yesterday night I managed to get home like I was born in London. I took the night bus to Oxford Circus and then swapped busses to get home. In between I had two hot hash browns (Mc D gluten free breakfast) - almost as tasty as a "German" Dönertüte. I arrived at Kensington Olympia at 5:30 and decided to cancel our Sunday champagne brunch.

Neue Auflage meiner Postkartenaktion

Meine Wände sind noch recht kahl... von daher habe ich beschlossen, wieder eine Postkartenaktion zu starten - vierte Auflage! ;)

Für alle die das Verfahren noch nicht kennen:
ab sofort bekommt jeder, der mir eine Postkarte schickt, einen festen Platz in meinem Zimmer und eine Postkarte zurück (sobald ich eure Adresse habe, am Besten per Email an: KatrinSchmidt84(ät)gmail.com).

Hier ist meine Adresse:

Katrin Schmidt
17a Fitzgeorge Avenue
W14 0SY London
UK

Ich freu mich schon auf Euch!

Getting settled

1st day: getting settled
1st mission: finding a store with glutenfree food (24h big Tesco, mins walking distance) = accomplished!
2nd mission: getting a new UK simcard, prepaid and as cheap as possible (tesco mobile) = finally accomplished after arguing with the woman at the service desk that my phone is not simlocked and I won't need to buy a new one and with the cashier that that I can top it up right here and there....
3rd mission: finding the cheapest option for me to travel throughout London (oyster card) = accomplished - but is it really the cheapest?
4th mission: meeting with Anis, the Maltesian friend I met in DC last summer

We had a coffee at Coffee Republic (chain of course). Later that day, I met with Jo cause we were invited to a roof top barbecue of one of her friends. 26°C and roof top barbecue certainly made me miss DC less. This summer seemed to have potential!

The following day, Anis and I went to chill in Hyde Park listening to a free Reggae concert. Later that night he introduced me to his girlfriend and classmates, a quite lovely international bunch of ppl. How I missed that! We had totally glutenfree food at an Ecuadorian place near Holloway Road station. Worth the travel!

We made plans to dance salsa soon and I finally agreed I'd love London!