“Unpopular” Waves

Finally vacations!
After arriving Tuesday 11.09.2007 a bus ride took Andrea and me Thursday morning from busy Istanbul through the province to a Podunk! But what a beautiful one!

Two rivers, the Black Sea, woods, animals (mostly fish), waterfalls, a small fishing town, cliffs, sandy beaches…. and deeply red sunsets.

That was the best place to allow your brain to rest! We had wonderful warm (28 degrees) weather…. At least for me, Andrea, used to 40 degrees, was wearing a thick sweater…. J Changing our clothes with a bathing suit and off we went….. Where? The Beach! First thought and first destination….

What I did not expect was that the beach would be that great! No one was there, we had a good breeze, high waves, fine sand and water temperatures as sitting in your bathtub. It just trilled me!!!

In such situations I cannot believe how heaven must be like. I simply cannot imagine that there will be something more stunning than that view! Meditating on that the Lord planted some incredible peace into my heart. Rarely though, but sometimes being on earth you are actually close to heaven….

Beautiful German Sculpture

Liga and I went out for dinner yesterday! As so often, talking quickly took the turn to a spiritual conversation. I mentioned that God is molding me through challenges here in Latvia. I know, I am experiencing difficulties because God is cutting of edges in my personality and forming my character. So he is creating a more and more beautiful German sculpture. :-))

Until death will part you...

YES, with Gods blessing..... what else is there to say???
Ok, the bride looked beautiful and the groom was unrecognizable nervous...... both of them extremly happy! And the story has a Happy End!
Oh, I forgot a small detail - both of them are Pastors! .... at different protestant churches.... with nearly all of their friends AND family being pastors as well..... just a minor detail, I thought..... but it turned out, that being a pastor also means, the whole community will also attend your wedding ..... a very special treat, meaning this in a positive way! Eg. the freshly married couple stopped right in front of the church to receive hundreds of congratulations........ devoted friends, not knowing and being polite, lined up at the end of the queue :-))
But we did get lots of cake and fun too!

Weddingday

Weddingday for Eric and Julia..... started with a good breakfast among old friends and lots of coffee..... what a pleasure!....... And right, we also had to prepare the flowers decorations..... apart from talking...... so there was a bit of work waiting for us. Colletta and Birgit, as florists, had prepared most of it at home (brides bouquet, table deco), so left was only the church! The altar, benches, columns, background deco and exactly 24 bows with special meanders...... We were in our element and presented at 13.00 pm the perfect location...... for an adorable couple!

Dream day

But then it was Friday, 07.09.2007 and I was off again..... Germany for the weekend to participate at a friends wedding and then TURKEY!
Getting to sleep at 4 am....... after finishing work at late hours, packing my suitcase, cleaning my flat.... all of this did not provide for a long sleep..... which means that it was a bit clumsy!
Travelling the bus to the airport took me nearly 2 hours! I did remember, having written at least 3 lists with the top item MONEY...... that I needed some cash! And I knew a perfect ATM at the airport!........ Unfortunatly the cash maschine did not know me, cause as soon as I stuffed it with my card, it simply ate it!!! So, I needed advice....... and, right....... there was also a plane to catch!........ Latvia is now not exactly, what I would call "service oriented"...... in fact the nicely dressed blond lady at the bank counter just answered, she would not be the right one to attend to........WHO else????? ...... I was on my way to Turkey....... without a bank card..... with a bit of change..... but most important with a plane ticket...... right then......
Check in, business as usual I thought, not realizing that I checked in at the wrong terminal....yes all of this really happened..... and yes, it is still me, claudia.....
I bought something to eat, especially to mention also something to drink......the big bottle of water!!!!.....being very proud to care about drinking water...... and then, at the assumed gate, no flight to Frankfurt..... how is that possible, 15 minutes before take off??? .....None waiting there???..... well, as the Germans say: "Advantaged is who actually is able to read!!!".....
And then I was very quick :-)) ...... check-out through the basement of the airport with passport controll, running through the arrival hall to the other end of the airport, checking-in through customs, getting rid of my water supplies, passport controll again........ only to notice, I was in time, but the aircraft delayed for 30 minutes.....
To make this loooong text short(er), finally Ryainair brought me safe for Frankfurt Hahn!
But the dream day had not ended yet..... Eric, who asked me to take a bus from Hahn to Bingen, did not tell me, that the bus actually stopped at every corner on its way. I got a paid but guided tour around the "Hundsrueck" with free stories told by two older Ladies and the bus driver. Arriving in Bingen I knew everything about local bus companies and their potential best drivers...... Apart from travelling with the bus longer than taking the plane to Germany, I had my share of amusement......later that day, when arrived at the place for the celebration, being tired did not matter anymore....... To be honest, reflecting all of this, it was a dream day!!!

03.09.-06.09.2007

Working in between my seminars and vacations, I better do not mention!

Friday 31.08.2007

Friday, after seminar, I was absolutly tired! Recreational stress...... Poor little me! Too many things at once! So I spontaniously decided to go for a looooong walk in Oberhausen.
FIRST I saw "Schloss Oberhausen" .......a project redeveloped by Eller & Eller Architekten...... by the time they worked on that, I started my first profession with them in 1992..... Is it truly such a long time ago??? PUH!...... As usual I took millions of pics from glazing details etc......very unspectacular for someone watching me....
Then I discovered the enclosed memorial place for nazi victims next by. A tour into german history again reminded me, that many of the germans suffered from world war II, not only other nations....... I just lost this perspective being in Latvia, experiencing the opposite site of argumentations ........ and next to this working on the extention of the Occupation Museum in Riga.....Viewing such pictures again makes me wonder, to what extend human nature is capable to destruct.
Also in that memorial hall was a architectural competition display to reconstruct the place.....
Old habit - lots of photos......... :-))
Trying to relax my mind.......which is not easy in front of all these buildings everywhere.....I found........ obviously what????....... a ZOO!....... Is this Gods way of telling me to become a child again? .........Well to be honest, this question comes along, if you have been to a zoo twice a week and the last time I saw living animals in this kind of setting was with my grandparents at an age of 4-6 years........ It gives me something to think of.....
Children at that age need to be in bed by 19.00 pm...... that's also why the animal park closed at that time..... leaving me, to mature quickly!...... There were ships on the channal next to the park AND rowboats with lots of sportive men!
All in all a nice evening with lots of "Ruhrpott" experiences, that I missed for years!
Praise the Lord for giving me this time AT HOME!

Thursday 30.08.2007

Thursday it was planned to visit Nicole and Sandra..... crazy Architekts like me..... in Dortmund. We met at a restaurant in the city......forgot the name, getting older...... which was build according to our architectural diplome project suggestions. What a joy to see some reality of what sometimes is just paperwork! And to see that our diplome study had the effect to preserve the existing monument, to redevelope the site and to return the preserved garden & building back for public access to the inhabitants of Dortmund.... wow what a feeling!

Wednesday 29.08.2007

After Kristina returned to Latvia it turned out that I became guest myself, visiting as many friends in the area as possible.....
Wednesday (of course after having these exiting seminar days) I stopped by in Essen. Exactly in front of family Morbachs door, the highway jammed up, to I took this as a direct sign to drop by! Ronja, Leonie and Birgit were at home, very surprised but also happy to see me. Marcus came home later from office. We talked long hours....
By the way....will Ronja (my grown up Godchild) visit me in Riga???

daily lunch break

How to enlighten a work day? One possible way is to intensely spend lunch times. People asked how I spend my daily life in Latvia- here is one of many small things I do throughout the day - EATING!
Here are 4 options of these sacred minutes:
FIRST eating out at a cafeteria with collegues..... ensures, I get some fresh air, exercise and regular minutes of daylight.
SECOND taking yummi left overs from home made, night time prepared delicacies.
THIRD eating something...it does not really matter, cause food in this case is just filling the stomack.
FORTH forgetting to eat at all....
BUT thanks God to our perfect office coffee maschine...there is always a coffee break :-))

A rememberable cooking experience happened to take place at my flat, during night and without electricity....as you can see on the pic!

I came home to find my flat cut off from power since a few hours already.... fridge dark, freezer dripping... some food wasted! And in order to save the rest of my supplies, I spend a few hours cooking serveral dishes for a hugh amount of people.... so it looked like! In fact it was just me, having the need to organize, whom to stuff with all this tasty food.

Working on improvements here

Just to let you know...I just started pouring out my thoughts in the public... so there are some improvements down the road, when it comes to writings or additional features in this blog.
Eg. I plan to give you some insite on my spiritual life as well...maybe you like to discuss spiritual matters with me through your comments????
Comments in general are very much appreciated!
Annother option could be newsletters or even translation of this page into german or latvian....
You see, lots of things to do.....

Finally the Prayer mountain

A house with a large map as carpet..... soft music.... lots of light..... a prayer walk way for meditation...... and a huge wooden cross at the top of the hill, to be seen from the highway....

We spend the afternoon in silence, reading the bible and praying!

The Neanderthal man & the zoo

If you try to impress foreigners with archaeological funds..... time planning would be of help! Note Mondays, all Museums are closed - nationwide and already since centuries! So "maybe they changed the habit" does not apply to Germans!

So we went for the obvious.... the Zoo!!!!... Funny how easy expressed baby talk, lightens the day of mature people, when approaching neat penguins.....

Strolling like Kings

Hopefully, when you have been to Duesseldorf, you took your Lamborghini, a nice blond Lady, your furs, even when 30 degrees, credit cards and your stylish poodle...... and stroll the Koenigsallee - SHOWTIME!!!

Unfortunately at 21.50 pm, we just wanted to have some ice cream, at a bar opened until 22.00 pm...... what can I say, we did not have the poodle!

But given roses from a patriarch (my dad) .....helped to overcome!

Conquering roman empires

Saturday we went for a loooong walk... through the Urdenbacher Kaempe, a natural basin, fludded each year by the river Rhine..... walking the riverbanks......taking the ferry boat to "Nowhereland", as a Duesseldorfer has troubles to understand pleople from other destinations than our home town, especially Koelner are veeeery strange species (they do drink light beer instead of dark)...... learning about how to make pottered juwelry..... sightseeing old roman "stones" in Zons, as my brother would say...... having ice cream and diner AND sore feet, when returned home in the middle of the night!

And what I also should mention, because we are female, we talked all day!!!

Bird eyes view

We spend the first evening at Duesseldorfs tower, with a beautiful sunset!

Kristine arriving in Duesseldorf

I would learn for my future and Kristine would explore Duesseldorfs sights...this was how we we planned our trip to Germany. I printed maps, explored Duesseldorfs tourist web sites.....only to find, Germans are NOT prepared to host non-german speaking guests! Mh....
The airport is still international territory, but as soon as you step outside, hitting the train station, buying a ticket starts giving english speaking people headaches! But Kristine managed.... surely she has her own funny stories!

Seminars

• Specifications, BOQ, tender documents
• Reconstruction of monuments or existing buildings
• German building regulations
• Building on-site supervision
• ENEV 2007, German building energy regulation
• Personal project & time management

.....and who would like detailed info about above mentioned.... I got piles of nicely written materials :-))

But never the less, I had fun listening, drinking coffee and meeting old collegues!

23.08.- 03.09.2007 Seminars in Germany - General

Waiting patiently mostly pays off ....and so I finally happened to get days off work, to attend professional seminars. Why Germany? The challenge of listening to architectural explanations in latvian language + understanding any of this, was even to much to dream about it! So I decided, to keep it basic and enjoy my native tongue.
I am aware though, most Germans....as every normal nation, not to mention the Americans especially..... traveling the world....Mallorca and Turkey..... still think, German...or what ever language you like to fill in here.... will be understood and spoken everywhere... so, why the necessity of learning a new language??? .... or even using school skills????..... but to be honest, finding german or even english speaking seminars in Latvia, was a No-Go area. Even the question at Rigas chamber gave great pleasure to my phone contact. So this is...not the only.... but one of the stories, why I am a very loyal miles-and-more account customer.

Dilemma

Well now I am cought somehow....
Where do I start and what would be interesting??? My daily life or activities??? Mh.....thrilling! Maybe I post some old stuff as well? There are some wise FRESHmen/woman thoughts about my time here in Latvia...old pics too....but lets see....starting with my recent vacations is a quite good approach!

Catching up with digital inventions

Hi to everyone OUT there!!!
Yes, mh, I also wanna spread my thoughts online!
As I was never keen on technical or digital inventions, this great opportunity hit my conscience pretty late. Meditating throughout my vacations changed my point of view, that there is some catching up to do!
Catching up with regular notes for friends, family and myself! And as I formerly just did this through writing in my diary...I just found out to travel without heavy luggage and still being able to remember experiences, is quite compelling! (Of course I still agree, a booklet & pen at the beach makes a better impression than just carrying a laptop and flipp-flopps)
So my effort here is exactly, to share these important threads with you OUT there somewhere.....and as I know, you are spread literally all over the world, this BLOG is a great way to tell you about what happened or what will be down the road....
Hope you like, what you get!