Saturday, May 21, 2011
Zoos around the World
Did I mention I love zoos? Here are some memorable tidbits from some zoos I've visited in the past . . .
Friday, May 20, 2011
Tierpark
I went to Tierpark (zoo in the former East) with my parents last week for the first time. I really like zoos and animals, and Tierpark in particular is a really fantastic, green zoo with lots of space for the animals as well as the visitors. I even got to pet a lemur! A fluffy, friendly, black-and-white ruffed lemur. All in all an excellent visit.
Anyway, my parents and I were hanging out by the reindeer when we spotted . . .
I suppose we would have reacted differently if we'd seen him in front of the puma cage or the elephant exhibit or the camel farm, but of course, he had to be checking out the reindeer. I'm sure he was scouting out the best reindeer for his sleigh for Team Christmas 2011. Ha!
Speaking of reindeer, this is probably the best 9-second video ever to have existed. I don't know of anything else that could make me laugh so hard in 9 second flat, over and over again. As a matter of fact, I don't even need to watch the video anymore . . . all I have to do it think about it and I start snickering.
Anyway, my parents and I were hanging out by the reindeer when we spotted . . .
I suppose we would have reacted differently if we'd seen him in front of the puma cage or the elephant exhibit or the camel farm, but of course, he had to be checking out the reindeer. I'm sure he was scouting out the best reindeer for his sleigh for Team Christmas 2011. Ha!
Speaking of reindeer, this is probably the best 9-second video ever to have existed. I don't know of anything else that could make me laugh so hard in 9 second flat, over and over again. As a matter of fact, I don't even need to watch the video anymore . . . all I have to do it think about it and I start snickering.
Ahem. Okay. Time to go running now.
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Groggy
Groggy afternoon update.
After coming to Germany, I've found quite a few similarities between German and Japanese people.
Well, okay, maybe I'm stereotyping, but I do think it's true in a lot of ways. In any case, we have more common qualities than either of us do with . . . say, Italians.
Off to class then!
After coming to Germany, I've found quite a few similarities between German and Japanese people.
Well, okay, maybe I'm stereotyping, but I do think it's true in a lot of ways. In any case, we have more common qualities than either of us do with . . . say, Italians.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Handy Dandy
Just came back from handing in my portfolio. That was it. That was the best I could do in three months time. I'll find out if I get invited back for an exam around the end of June. If there are no ecstatic/hysterical posts toward the end of June, that's probably because I'm sitting quietly in the corner of my room weeping. Haha! Well. All jokes aside, I'm glad it's finally out of my hands. Now I can start to relax . . . kind of. Will keep drawing and practicing, though.
I've also been playing around with the blog. Let me know if the new format is hard to read or distracting. The background is actually taken from a piece that I put in my portfolio.
Anywho! Today's comic is inspired by Tze's post "Always handy to have chopsticks." Tze is a Dutch cartoonist of Taiwanese descent living and working in Frankfurt. I stumbled onto her blog from a link on the octopus pie website, and got excited when I found lots of commonalities between us (female Asian polyglots of multicultural background living in Germany and drawing webcomics, in short). She draws and writes about food, cultures, sweets, more food, and a variety of episodes in her daily life. I'm always impressed at how well thought-out her stories and sophisticated her style is---sorry if I've unconsciously stolen any ideas/techniques! Anyway, this comic deals with a common theme of ours---random moments when we're reminded that we're, well, Asians. haha. Anyway, go check out her blog!
Oh, and the model of the woman with glasses is a former boss of mine. She's American, but she's lived in Japan for nearly 40 years now and is, well, pretty much Japanese in a lot of ways. I just couldn't stop smiling at how cute she looked when she was making us tea and dipped her old cooking chopsticks (saibashi) into the kettle to fish out the tea bag. One of those moments when you forget that she's actually American.
Righty. Off to enjoy the rest of my day. I'm going to allow myself to have guilt-free fun today, and then it's back to German homework and drawing tomorrow!
Jesus. Long enough post, eh?
I've also been playing around with the blog. Let me know if the new format is hard to read or distracting. The background is actually taken from a piece that I put in my portfolio.
Anywho! Today's comic is inspired by Tze's post "Always handy to have chopsticks." Tze is a Dutch cartoonist of Taiwanese descent living and working in Frankfurt. I stumbled onto her blog from a link on the octopus pie website, and got excited when I found lots of commonalities between us (female Asian polyglots of multicultural background living in Germany and drawing webcomics, in short). She draws and writes about food, cultures, sweets, more food, and a variety of episodes in her daily life. I'm always impressed at how well thought-out her stories and sophisticated her style is---sorry if I've unconsciously stolen any ideas/techniques! Anyway, this comic deals with a common theme of ours---random moments when we're reminded that we're, well, Asians. haha. Anyway, go check out her blog!
Oh, and the model of the woman with glasses is a former boss of mine. She's American, but she's lived in Japan for nearly 40 years now and is, well, pretty much Japanese in a lot of ways. I just couldn't stop smiling at how cute she looked when she was making us tea and dipped her old cooking chopsticks (saibashi) into the kettle to fish out the tea bag. One of those moments when you forget that she's actually American.
Righty. Off to enjoy the rest of my day. I'm going to allow myself to have guilt-free fun today, and then it's back to German homework and drawing tomorrow!
Jesus. Long enough post, eh?
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Status Update
So there are Facebook voyeurists, but there are also Facebook exhibitionists who provoke the stalkers by unnecessarily sharing private details. It's like trying not to stare when your neighbor's prancing around her living room naked with the lights on at night.
Monday, May 16, 2011
Have a Break
I think I might be finished with my Aufgabe. Or almost finished. I'm waiting for the ink to dry while listening to the Eels. I think I'll go running now to clear my head.
Btw, there are some awesomely-flavoured snacks in Germany. I bought a bag of Schinkengeschmack chips (corn chips? some kind of corn-based snack), and it tasted exactly like what bacon would taste like it if it were in chip form.
That being said, I don't know if any country can beat Japan in totally bizarro-flavoured snacks. I just ran a quick Google search for limited edition Kitkat bars, and I found crème brulée, ramune (basically Sprite), strawberry shortcake, cherry-blosson-maccha-green-tea, brown-sugar-and-kinako-soy-powder, candied sweet potato, soy sauce, wasabi, coke, strawberry cheesecake, "European" cheese, mandarin, orange-and-chocolate, muscat grape, apple, yuzu-citrus-and-pepper, banana, miso, honeydew melon, taro, chili, peach . . . yes.
Actually, I found the link to the official Japanese KitKat website with a list and photos of some of the weird flavours they have. I imagine it would be a fun job to engineer new KitKat flavours. Ha!
Oh, Japan.
Btw, there are some awesomely-flavoured snacks in Germany. I bought a bag of Schinkengeschmack chips (corn chips? some kind of corn-based snack), and it tasted exactly like what bacon would taste like it if it were in chip form.
That being said, I don't know if any country can beat Japan in totally bizarro-flavoured snacks. I just ran a quick Google search for limited edition Kitkat bars, and I found crème brulée, ramune (basically Sprite), strawberry shortcake, cherry-blosson-maccha-green-tea, brown-sugar-and-kinako-soy-powder, candied sweet potato, soy sauce, wasabi, coke, strawberry cheesecake, "European" cheese, mandarin, orange-and-chocolate, muscat grape, apple, yuzu-citrus-and-pepper, banana, miso, honeydew melon, taro, chili, peach . . . yes.
Actually, I found the link to the official Japanese KitKat website with a list and photos of some of the weird flavours they have. I imagine it would be a fun job to engineer new KitKat flavours. Ha!
Oh, Japan.
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Spring Clean
Ack! I missed a day again! Blargh. I'll try to do a double update today (one more later on in the day) to make up for it.
Ooh, we got tickets for Brecht's Die Dreigroschenoper today. My first Brecht, ever! Definitely am going to need to do some pre-reading and researching so I'm not completely confused. So exciting!
I've actually been on a pretty good streak comic-wise. I've been good about actively collecting comic material. The thing is, I write things down on random pieces of paper---electronics manuals, U-bahn tickets, corners of homework handouts, inside of textbooks, backs of supermarket receipts---so I often don't find my notes until I start cleaning out my bag or my room:
It's like finding money you hid in your room and forgot about. Awesome!
More awesomes here: http://1000awesomethings.com/
Ooh, we got tickets for Brecht's Die Dreigroschenoper today. My first Brecht, ever! Definitely am going to need to do some pre-reading and researching so I'm not completely confused. So exciting!
I've actually been on a pretty good streak comic-wise. I've been good about actively collecting comic material. The thing is, I write things down on random pieces of paper---electronics manuals, U-bahn tickets, corners of homework handouts, inside of textbooks, backs of supermarket receipts---so I often don't find my notes until I start cleaning out my bag or my room:
It's like finding money you hid in your room and forgot about. Awesome!
More awesomes here: http://1000awesomethings.com/
Friday, May 13, 2011
Sorry! ... Wait a minute!
Oh, and it's Friday the 13th. Exciting?
More he-larious passive-aggressiveness at: http://www.passiveaggressivenotes.com/
More he-larious passive-aggressiveness at: http://www.passiveaggressivenotes.com/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)