Result: German Language Proficiency Exam C1

Last Thursday, I received the result of the German Language Proficiency Exam C1. When I saw the A4-envelope addressed at me in the mail box, my heart started pounding. It could either be the result from Goethe-Institut or the returned portfolio from architectural companies I applied to recently. Then I saw the school name “ZHAW”, so I got even more upset. What if I failed? All these months without an income and so much free time during the day would be an waste. I opened the envelope nervously and saw that I received…

Biggi’s blog

Peter’s sister Biggi is going to write her first blog during her trip to Argentina. It’s not up yet, but check out http://poocs.wordpress.com/ after December 10th. The name “poocs” comes from a reverse of “scoop”.

Olympia Boutique

When we lived in Stuttgart, we were bored to death with the ordinary selection of clothing in this industrial city of Germany. After we moved to Zürich though, Olympia Boutique opened its door to the style-savvy young kids and made us think twice about moving back to Stuttgart. Adjoining to the art gallery, their new storefront is very simple and reminds me of Berlin and Scandinavia. We did not buy anything, but Peter was tempted to buy a wallet from Comme des Garcons and a sweater from Cheap Monday. He immediately put away those items when he felt the weight of my stare and the hidden message behind it.

I thought the selection has calmed down, and I missed the previous selection with crazy colors and fun motif. Maybe it’s hard to sell unordinary clothes to the Stuttgart crowd who are famous for their stinginess. Maybe the boutique has moved on to the next level of fashion and I am behind the trend. Or maybe the dark colors are simply in.

Christmas Market in Germany

It’s a Christmas market season in Europe. Germany is a host to many Christmas markets, and the one in Stuttgart is known as the largest Christmas market in Europe. (Nürnberg takes second place.) When we went to Stuttgart last weekend, the market was already set up, and you could smell mulled wine called Glühwein in the morning air. Despite Germany’s official entry into recession, the main street was packed with Christmas shoppers. We bought some bottles of local wine to bring to Japan, and I bought a cute salmon pink bra at COS, a sister store of H&M we don’t have in Switzerland.

The Global Gender Gap Report 2008

According to the Global Gender Gap Report 2008, Norway has ranked Nr.1 in gender equality. It is widely accepted in Europe that Scandinavian countries are way ahead in gender equality than any other countries in the world. It’s not that women are bossing around men, but they just share life in equal manner. My Norwegian friend works in a hospital and supports her family while her husband mostly takes care of their son. After the birth of her first son, she had a year of paid maternity leave, which is unheard of in any other countries. When we traveled to Sweden (Nr.3), we also felt the gender equality, especially when we saw men pushing strollers or picking up children after school.

Of all the countries I’ve lived, Germany comes in 11th place, following Switzerland 14th, United States 27th, Thailand 52nd, and oh my god, Japan is ranked 98th!! No wonder, because Japan is a country that never grows out of its traditions. Only a few years back, Japan used to rank much higher, but perhaps with the fall of economy, people stated curling back into its traditional roots, protective and ignorant.

That makes me wonder how much my girlfriends in Japan are earning and the differences in salary by gender. I heard and read often that women are getting paid less in Germany and Switzerland. However, if Japan is ranked 98th, then the difference in salary must be even greater. I can understand why many Japanese women seek to study and work abroad, so that they can demonstrate their true abilities away from the male dominated society.

Trails

Last night was the award ceremony of the young Swiss designers/artists at the Museum Bellerive. Since our friend Ivan aka DJ CEO Müller won the highest award with his Rap History, (Yoohooo! Right on, Ivan!!!) we went to congratulate him and share the festive moments at the museum.

Of all award winning art works, the most astonishing and inspiring work was the Trails from Lukas Zimmer. His new development for Firefox enables users to compile a visual library, a collection of images you like on Internet and eventually make it into a book. You can download the Trails from today.

I always stumbled on some amazing images on Internet that I want to keep, for the same reason people like to bring home sea shells.  However those images are not so much in demand as to use it as a desktop or send it to friends. So this would make it possible to keep my favorite images in the bookmark, and without always having to click the link to access the image, I can always have a quick look at them by scrolling down the visual library.

Lukas Zimmer used the images from NASA website as an example, and I discovered some beautiful images from the space that I had never seen before.

Jogging

My friends told me that once you are over 35, you start noticing the decline of your physical strength. A month before turning 35 years old, I decided to exercise more frequently. I ride a bike for an hour to my German class twice a week. On the weekend, I go jogging for an hour with Peter. But this morning, after I came home from grocery shopping, I suddenly wanted to go jogging and make it a habit. If I waste my time in front of computer, why not utilize the time for something meaningful?

I quickly changed into my jogging wear, which is not really the professional gear that real runners wear, wore my sneakers and left the apartment before I change my mind. The sky was gray, and the field behind our house was still foggy from the morning mist. I ran fast when passing by people, just to make me look good. But when I run up the steep slope, I almost gave up the idea of jogging. Then I remembered that I wanted to stay fit for the day when our kids arrive. Would I be able to lift them up without straining my lower back? This thought really helped push my heavy butt forward. When I finally reached a flat ground, I saw a lady jogging towards me. When she passed by me, I gave a quick glance at her and saw her gray hair. There is someone who is jogging so fast and steady at her age! That motivated me to run all the way up to the hill. Once I reached the top, I looked down the small village we live in and saw a tram running through our neighborhood. It looked like a lego land with real people moving.

As I run down the hill, I heard the 12 o’clock bell from a nearby church. When I got closer to our apartment, I realized that I went jogging at the wrong time. In Switzerland, school kids come home for lunch. And there are like 3 schools near our apartment. I saw some elementary school children walking home, poking dead insects or hiding from a classmate around the corner, just like I used to do when I was a school girl. As I approached the nearest school, all of a sudden I was running against the tide of students pouring out of the gate. To avoid a collision, I took a side street which I had never seen before and took me to the unrecognizable residential area. It took me a while until I found our apartment again.

When I came home, I said to myself “I did it!” and hoped this jogging thing will not end today but at least last a few more times.

My Own Worst Enemy

We gave up on our favorite TV shows “24″ and “Prison Break” because they’ve gotten boring after so many seasons. Stories did not fall into place any more, and even somebody who is amateur like I could find little contradictions here and there. Eventually the thrills were gone. And then we were just watching to see who will leave the show next.

So we started watching a Canadian show called “ReGenesis” recommended by Auntie Mieko in Japan, who also gave up on “24″.  Peter also discovered “My Own Worst Enemy” starring Christan Slater, who plays a normal family-man father who does not know that he is also a FBI agent.

My favorite show is still “The Mighty Boosh” from England, but I hope to find some more interesting shows like “State of Play” and “Midnight Man”. They were the best ones I have seen this year (but they are not new shows). My hope is high for the British TV stations.

My Own Worst Enemy

State of Play

Barack Obama’s victory

While Europeans were deep asleep, the next American president was elected. The coverage on the presidential campaign was scarce in Europe amidst the world financial crisis and humanitarian crisis in Kongo. If the newspapers write about this presidential campaign, then they were mostly interested in Barack Obama’s racial profile, unfortunately not so much in his policies.

According to the statistics, Americans who voted for Barack Obama were mostly young people between 25 to 35 years old. The older the Americans are, the more likely that they voted for McCain. I guess young Americans wanted a change in their country. They saw that 8 years of Republican regime is about to end as a failure, rather a disaster to the world economy and peace.

The next 4 years will not be easy for Barack Obama, who has to restructure the country and regain trust from other countries. I wonder how the world will react to his leadership, especially in Europe where its politics tend to be on the right side.

20 Minuten Friday

Today the first issue of 20 Minuten Friday, which Peter has been working on as an art director, was distributed in the German speaking region of Switzerland. The sister of this magazine is a free newspaper called 20 Minuten and is distributed in the morning during the weekdays. 20 Minuten Friday is distributed free every Friday afternoon, and the profits come solely from advertisement. The target audience is female btwn 20 to 30 years old, but I think Peter’s mental age and interest in fashion and gossip well suit this job beyond gender.

As you can see, he is one of the oldest and few male staff in this editorial team.

Growing up in the female dominated household and married to a macho wife, poor Peter knows the logics of women. So this is not a mere coincidence, that his debut magazine happened to be a girl’s fashion magazine. (I secretly think (now openly) that Peter wanted to be a girl, because his favorite lyrics is “if I was a rich girl…”)

The first issue is about the life of Lindsay Lohan, who I don’t particularly find interesting at all. But the layout turned out to be great, in comparison to boring and 90sh design you often find in major Swiss magazines.

Good job, P-san!!  And congratulations to all of your team members!!