Bad Phone Call

Bad  Phone Call

When the phone rang a few weeks ago I knew this was going to be bad news. I didn’t even want to answer, something told me not to.

But I had to, and so I did.

When I heard the voice of Karma’s vet, I silently passed the phone on to my mom. I didn’t even want to hear what he had to say. It couldn’t be good news, he usually e-mails us good findings. And of course, it was bad news. He told us that Karma is very sick and that it is serious.

After an hour of crying I started praying. After that I felt much better, but I knew, the worries would come back with the night. I didn’t want to sleep, I was too scared of the dreams the dark would leave me with. So I started looking at old picutres. I ended up looking at pictures of Karma and cried myself to sleep.

To make a long (& stupid) story short, the next time the phone rang it was good news! She was already much better and our vet told us that in a couple of days she will be galopping on the pastures again.

When I heard the good news I cried again (normally I am not that whiny, haha) and I can’t even describe how good and EASED I felt!

Sometimes I forget how much she means to me ..

And off she goes!

And off she goes!

Today Cara & I made a huge step forward.

We went to the park where we met up with the group of people we usually walk with once or twice a week. There are always about 4 to 8 dogs and it’s a lot of fun to chat with their owners.

Cara has only once been off-leash and this one time didn’t go too well. For the past couple of weeks she has always been on her 65ft leash.

Tonight she was very active, she was running around crazily, fetching all the sticks I threw and played with the other dogs. Especially with this one dog, Puppi. When the two dogs ran into the trees in a zigzag I just let go of the leash. We have practiced this before when she was about 5ft away from me. I let go of the leash, call her, she comes towards me, gets a treat and I take the leash again.

But this time she didn’t seem to hear me. She and the other dog ran toward a little steep hill that is placed in the middle of the park. I called her again but the two dogs were gone. Unfortunately, right behind the hill is a street.

Scared for Caras life (I already saw her crash into a car as it was dark already!) I called for her again. The owner of the other dog also called his dog. Nothing moved.

All of a sudden, on the other end of the hill I saw a flashing red light, a light like Cara has on her collar. The light grew bigger and bigger and there she was, galopping towards me, her ears flying. I knelt down and she ran into my arms and almost threw me on the ground. As we have trained, she sat down immediately and waited for me to praise her. And I did! I stuffed a handful of treats into her mouth and hugged her close to my heart.

The other people told me she was great and when I asked for how long Cara was gone, they replied ’30 seconds, at most’. It felt like minutes!

Writing about this still makes me all teary, I always knew my dog is awesome, but THIS awesome?! How do I deserve her?

Something that is making me worry though, is her eye condition. On Wednesday we noticed that her eye is really red and watering. It has gotten better but it’s not all gone yet!

Cara scaring us

It has been going well with our new dog. I taught her how to sit and lie down and she isn’t pulling anuymore while on the leash. She also knows to come here and we are training her how to wait at the moment.

I had a lot of friends visiting and they all admired and adored Cara especially when she began pulling those cute looks and staring at you with her large puppy eyes.

But it has not always been that easy going. There are days where she ignores me completely and I am calling her name and running after her like a fool in the park and there are days where she escapes into the brushwood while on the long leash (20 metres), and gets caught up in there so that I have to crawl in the dirt on my knees, branches scratching my face.

But I still love her. That’s why I was about to cry when Cara happened to be really sick on Sunday. She had a very bad stomche ache and was whining all day long. She was fine while I slowly stroked her stomach, but as soon as I stopped she was wincing and cranking her back.. It hurt seeing pain in her eyes and the sound of her restless nails clicking the floor made my ears ache.

She was constantely at my heels and begging me to sroke and cuddle her. And I just couldn’t say ‘no’ to her pleading eyes so we spent the whole day on her pillow .

I made her some tea and on Monday morning she was much better, it still frightened me though, up to that day I didn’t know how much she means to me already.  

sickl Cara seeking support

Eating healthy

It was in the summer that my mum and I had one of our lovely ‘eating healthy’ discussions – but the other way round. Usually it’s the mom telling her child to eat their veggies but with us, it’s different, it’s me telling my mum to make me some veggies.

I know it sounds crazy but I love fruits & vegetables.

That day I decided I had to change my eating habits, knowing that my mum won’t support me (year for year I was poking in my meals telling her I’d rather go to bed hungry than eat my peas and now she isn’t motivated anymore to make us anything healthy) I started to google and stumbled across this blog written by a young girl who has been eating raw for almost a year and is feeling great.

I spent the whole night reading her blog, jotting down notes and decided eating raw is what I wanted to do! It just felt right.

I started the next day and slowly I adjusted to my new lifestyle.

School started a month ago and lately I became quite lazy and ate for supper what my mum made and yeasterday we had another of those earlier mentioned dicussions and my mum told me to eat 100%  raw for one whole week and then she’d think about cooking more vegetables.

I accepted the challenge and here I am eating the yummiest raw zuchhini spaghetti in the world!

(and by the way, I am feeling as good as never before and simply by adjusting my eating habits I lost 3kg in 6 weeks and I never had to abstain from anything!) 

Cara Mia!

A few weeks ago i had one if these cliche "dream-come-true"-experiences: my dad finally gave in and allowed me to have a dog. 

Ever since I was little I wanted to have one. Every time I saw one on the streets I ran to pet it, every time i saw a little puppy i simply had to cuddle it. 

But my dad always made clear that he doesn't want me to have a dog.  
I don't know why but when we asked him that night (once again) he simply said "fine". 
Bewildered with excitement I went to the animal shelter with my mum and I already saw myself walking out of there with a dog walking next to me. 
But under these hundreds of dogs there wasn't a single one, I would have considered calling mine. Most of them had behavioral problems or didn't get along with other dogs/animals. 
I was so frustrated that I almost gave up. But that's when my mom found a tiny announcement on the Internet that talked about a private shelter with a picture of a scared looking dog that reminded me of a cow. 
Against my will, she asked if the dog could stay at our house for one day, to see if she fits into our lives. 
She doesn't. But we fell for her. 
I don't know if it was smart to keep her but I adore her and I am willing to invest a lot of time into her to make her a well mannered and well behaving dog. 

It's been a little over 3 weeks since she spent her first night at our house and she is absolutely wonderful. She sits on my lap and I stroke her and rub her belly for hours, she already knows how to sit, lie down and walk correctly on the leash. Only 3 weeks ago she pulled me through the park. 

(both photographs by my incredible friend Denise)

Trapped

Today hasn’t been a very good day. I woke up in a very bad mood. On those days, usually, I go to my favorite Starbucks Café, sit in one of the cozy chairs with my Moccha Frappucino, stare out of the window and let my mind spin. Afterwards I normally feel much better.

But when I arrived today, I saw, that all of the coxy chairs were taken. Bad omen!

I ended up sitting in one of the hard, wooden chairs, sipping my Frappucino. There was no window and my mind wouldn’t spin as always. That’s why I left Starbucks in a bad mood.

I paved my way through the mass of people, constantly bumping into someone (or someone into me). I wanted to say sorry but people didn’t even look up, didn’t seem to notice, just kept walking.

I was waiting for the train. The train station was crowded. The air smelled of cigarettes and sweat. Birds everywhere. My train arrived and I squeezed myself through the doors, elbow to elbow with a dozen other people. Quickly I took one of only few available seats. Right before the doors closed an elderly woman made her way into the train, leaning on her cane. All of a sudden everyone else was staring out of the window, pretending to not see the woman.

Have people always been this rude and ignorant?!

I gave her my seat and she smiled at me thankfully. 

People were standing in front of the doors when I had to get out. Somehow nobody heard my "excuse me, please" and nobody moved an inch. I literally had to shove people aside to get out. 
Confused and angry, I went home. 
I walked slowly through the little streets, passing hooting cars with enerved drivers, rude bycicle riders that didn't care to ring their bike bell, walking past unfriendly neighbours that didn't bother to smile back or say something. 

I feel trapped in this busy, fast world with its unfriendly and rude inhabitants. Right now I am wishing for nothing but wide open spaces so I can avoid people that don't bother to say they're sorry after stepping on my toes.  
I want to leave Europe in the fall, get away from the busy life and enjoy some nice days somewhere in the countryside. 
Any ideas?

Adventures in Germany & Croatia '12

Going to Germany always feels like coming home. Knowing, that there is someone waiting for us to arrive, always makes me really excited.

I spent the first couple of years of my life in Germany, I grew up surrounded by really nice people with funny accents and ate the most delicious foods, like the Thuringian sausage for supper.

I never noticed how beautiful Germany is and how characteristic most of us Germans are; until we moved.

Now we go back twice a year and we stay with my aunt & her family. We grew up together and she is more to me than just an aunt.

We didn’t really do much that is worth jotting down, it was really hot and we prefered to stay inside the cool house. I went to walk with her dog 3 times a day though, Sally & I took very beautiful, long walks.

And we cooked together every day. 3 women, 1 kitchen, many ideas means a lot of different dishes!

It always makes me sad when we have to leave again, I love Germany, I love the people living there and I love my aunt & uncle and their children!

We went back home in order to re-pack because only a few days later we left for Croatia.

The drive to Croatia was long, we were stuck in a traffic jam at the border to Croatia for 2.5 hours! Out of boredom I started waving at children in the cars next to us, I made a lot of new friends that day, haha!

We all were so glad when we finally arrived at Porec. Porec is a tiny city at the coast.

We immediatley unpacked and explored the town. It is such a charming place to be!

It was a very nice trip, we always had about a hundred degrees and I sure got tan.

This happened by accident but I like it a lot!

On a ship to a town that was once led by Pirates

Soil in Croatia

Summer Sadness

For today it’s just going to be a few pictures.

Karma

Karma

The ground quakes as you gallop. The air quivers as you whinny. My skin is bestrewn with goose bumps as you breath into my face and into my hands. My hand shivers to the softness of your fur, to the touch of your velvet nostrils.

No one will ever understand why I love you as much as I do. And that is okay because I don’t have the words to tell them. I fail to put our relationship into words.

They’ll never know, that a touch of your soft mouth is as soothing as a mother’s hand’s caress, that sobbing and crying into your mane is as if softly crying into a pillow at night and that you licking the tears on my face is as consoling as nothing else in this world. 

There wil be more posts about her following soon!

Me

Introduction

Well, I thought it was time to write a few words about me, eventhough there really isn’t much to tell.

I always find it very hard to describe myself, I never seem to find the right words.

But I’ll try.

First of all, I am no ordinary girl. My whole family isn’t ordinary, we are different from other families. But different good.

Eventhough I haven’t spent much time on this earth yet, I know a lot about it, I’ve seen a lot of it. More than some people get to see in their whole life. We travel a lot, go to many different countries. A few times a year we pack our bags and go some place new. And we move a lot. We are not nomadic, but we have lived in a few different places.

I have made many, many friends, I wouldn’t want to miss anymore. As I can always count on them, they can always count on me.

Generally, I am a person that gives up a lot for her beloved ones. I stay up long at night to listen to a sobbing friend on the phone, I wake up early to accompany a friend to the airport and say goodbye, I skip a few hours of school to pay a visit to a heart-broken friend that needs someone to talk to.

Still, I am imperfect. I make mistakes, and many of those, too! But I try to learn from them and give my best to never do them again. I am a very optimistic person. I’m usually not the one to moan or fuss about something, if I’m annoyed about something, I do something about it. I open my mouth and I say what I think. This characteristic caused me to not always make friends, a lot of people can’t stand to hear the truth. 

There are a lot of people, special people, that have made me who I am today, I am very thankful, to have those people in my life, they made me an original, different, a non-stereo-type.

They are the ones that tell me to stop dreaming. I am a dreamer. Usually I dream about what my life would be like if my parents wouldn’t have made one specific choice.Who I’d be now.  But that’s a different story .. you might get to hear it one day.

I think it’s time I stopped talking about myself, I could go on and on (didn’t I say there was not much to tell? Funny, how there is, if you take some time to think about it .. ) and would probably bore you. 

snapshot

Summer

Summer

I love the summer. It means so many things to me. It means children screaming and laughing joyously out loud. It means water splashing and dripping and wet little feet on the hot ground. It means poofy hair, dried from the wind. Sparkly eyes, wide smiles, loud laughter, cold and wet skin, shiny teeth, happy faces everywhere.

Children running aroung licking ice cream, leaving behind drops of water on the ground.

Excited people running yards as soon as the little melody of the ice cream truck comes close.

Everyone is digging into melons, oranges and other fruit, juice is running from their chins.

Fully stuffed cars everywhere, enerved parents behind the steering wheel, excited children waving to strangers from the backseat.

Wind in your hair, hot sun on your skin and time to do the most important things to you, that is what summer is to me.

What is summer to you?

Splashing Ocean   

Tiny island in the mediterranean sea

Travels

Traveling

I hate, how many people I know have never been outside their country. How they have never experienced different cultures, how they have never met different people with different views of the world.

I refer to myself as a very lucky person, my parents are travellers. Together we travel the world, we fly to the most exotic countries, talk to their inhabitants, look at the world from their point of view and let them show us their world.

I have met so many amazing people, seen so many amazing things and ate the most mouth-watering foods in the world. I just can’t keep myself from sharing my experiences with you.

I will start off with a little trip to india my family and I took in 2006.

We took a plane to Dehli, a very large city. We took a cab to our hotel. It was hot. The cab smelled. It was loud outside. So many cars! The streets were old, the cab was jumping up and down all the time. There were too many people sharing one car. I saw one car with 9 people in it.

On the other side of the road I saw many people. Poor people. Beggars. Sick people. Almost naked grown-ups and children. Limping people. Injured people. Loneley children. But all of them with a huge smile on their face.

Because of the traffic we didn’t move very fast. I took my time to watch a little girl, she wasn’t wearing any shoes, she was dirty, her hair wasn’t combed but she looked very happy while playing with her friends. She turned to look at me in the cab, at the moment we started driving again. She had a huge grin on her face.

The hotel was very steril. We didn’t want to stay there very long so we explored the city. The city it was very modern, lots of shops and shopping centers, well dressed people, many expats. We went out for dinner that night. We had very delicious food. I have eaten indian food before, as it is my favorite type of food, but never real indian food. It was so good!

We stayed in Delhi a couple of days, went to museums, explored the Jami Masjid and went to the Lal Qila.

Then we left for a little village, outside of Delhi. The sister of a friend of my dad’s lives there and offered us a room to stay in in her big house. She had her husband pick us up. We squeezed ourselves into his car, where his two sons and niece where already sitting. The streets where nothing compared to the ones in Delhi, I must have bumped my head at least 5 times. After about half an hour of driving we finally arrived at the house where we were staying at. The woman introduced herself as Madhu, she wore a dark blue sari and showed us our room. It was a tiny but very nice room. The house was a house of normal size and I was wondering the whole time how 8 people fit unter that roof.

Madhu made amazing food, whenever I had the time, I helped her. She showed me how to make traditional indian food.

Her husband took us to the plantations every other day, we helped him with his work out there. Afterwards we got to meet the people from their village, they were excited about my white skin and my blond-brownish hair. They couldn’t stop touching and combing it.

At the end of the village there was a very poor family, they made very beautiful hats and scarves. I couldn’t resist, so I bought this beautiful golden scarf. The woman who made it was so grateful, she’d give me a handful of indian cookies and shake my hand every day.

Madhu and her family were so nice to us, in return I showed her how to make some european food, she was amazed by the herb-muffins I made with her, she has never tasted anything like that before.

It made me very sad when we left, the people were so kind to us, they have taught & showed us so much, but I am thankful, I got to see this part of india, too, not only beautiful Delhi and its mostly rich people. 

I hope, that one day I can go back to India, as it is a very special country, whit its cows on the streets, the beautiful saris the women wear and the huge grins you can see everywhere! 

Outside Delhi

Madhus daughter

Heat

Heat

I love the heat. I have always loved the heat. While everyone was looking for some shade to sit in, I was enjoying the sun to the fullest, trying to caputre evey ray of sunlight.

I love the way the heat makes the air flicker, I love the way the heat smells, I like how every stone and every blade of grass feels warm to my feet as I step on it.

But what I love even more, is the reliefing thunder storm, after a long, hot day.

I enjoy sitting on the front porch while the rain tickles my feet and the lightnings lighten up our whole street. The air smells of rain, so fresh und prickly.

The thunder makes the earth quake. Drops of rain are falling from the trees onto my shoulders. I love the feeling of raindrops on my skin, it makes everything feel so real.

I am always looking forward to those long and hot nights. They make me sweat, make me dream. Make me dream crazy stuff, let my imagination run wild, let me explore whole new worlds. 

Taken after a very hot but nice day in nafplio, greece