Today was a nice day! Yesterday I felt a bit bad at work as I had to get help for everything. Everything was new and I felt that I had nothing to contribute with. Today was a bit different. In the morning I walked Lillie to school and went back again as I first had to meet around 9:30 (might change later). Here I prepared my self for the day by taking a shower, dumping some chocolate bars in my back and finding all the papers that I needed to bring.

At work I went to the secretary and she helped me fill our the remaining papers. I took 2 hours free from work and went out to get a bank account (whoo! now I can transfer my money). I searched a bit on the net with help from Wolfgang and it seemed that I could get a free student account by one of the banks. I went there and they turned out to be very very kind! I think I was there 1,5 hours, drinking coffee and being explained everything about the German bank system. The woman helping me was very nice and curious about what I was doing here in Germany, my girlfriend, how I met her, etc and we had a nice conversation. After leaving the bank I felt proud of my self! For 1,5 hour I had been speaking about difficult things related to banking IN GERMAN! I never knew that I could get so far with my German.

Today I got keys for my work, and I am happy that they already trust me that much. I also got to work a bit further. My exact assignment was explained to me and I started doing some brainstorming and made a draft roadmap as well. Cool, now I feel that I am contributing! YES!

Lívia came early today! :D :D :D So niiice! Juhuuu!!! I have kind of ran out of money, but Líllie is very good at helping me! She really is... it really does feel like we are a small family!

I have been feeling very tired these last days, and it is not that I have worked that hard. I guess it is because I am concentrating speaking and understanding German the whole day long... if so, I guess it will better with time. It is weird. I have been at my work for 2 days now, and it feels like I have been there for weeks...

First day at work

So today was my first day at work and I was kind of nervous... not really, but I had no idea how the people would be or welcome me. Finding the place was my first problem as it wasn't situated in the University building as I thought. It turned out that it is the building right next to where Lívia studies German! Cool! Next week I will ask if I can get my lunch break (at least some of the days) around 12:20 so that I can meet up with her :) Would be nice!

The people turned out to be very nice and friendly! Really, a lot more than I expected. A guy called Wolfgang is helping me along my way and my first day mostly consisted of configuring my new computer, installing the required software packages. I also had to learn to use Eclipse and set it up to check out the *many* required CVS modules and make them build.

The day was really relaxed. About an hour after I arrived we went to drink coffee and eat cake together as it was the boss' birthday! Around noon we walked to the Mensa, which is the university cantine. Mensa is a really nice place and you get really good food there for a very affordable price (around 2 euros for a nice meal ~ dinner). Unfortunately, I am out of money and cannot join the rest of the week. While walking there I talked a bit more to Wolfgang and told about my Brazilian girlfriend. It turned out that he had just arrived from a vacation in Rio de Jeneiro where his girlfriend had been doing an internship =)

Puh, I signed so many papers today :S You have no idea how many things you have to sign just to do an internship! Well, some are also due to the fact that I am working for a company owned by the state (university). Then you are in fact working for the state and you need to sign various papers for the sake of national security :)

I called Liu when I got home and she was very excited to hear about my day :) Her guest family didn't arrive which meant that she couldn't go to be so early as usual :( Anyway, she would take the next bus so I started to prepare dinner... unfortunately, the parents still didn't arrive and she came even later :S Anyway, the dinner sucked :P I dropped a big amount of peper in it and :S it was almost uneatable :S so much for trying ones best :P

Sunday, I love sundays!

Sunday was a perfect day... Really, in any way possible. We woke up relaxed, spend two hours eating and talking and enjoying that we had a whole day together. We looked at some of all the old pictures we had, both some I have taked various places I have been, but more important those we have taken of us. It is so nice to relive some of these very nice moments that we have had together, and Lillie also told me that she is very happy that we have these to look back at.

Around five, I think, we went walking a bit. We ended up walking to Innstad and then later to Ingling which is in Austria :) So, cool that Austria is so close by... and what a wonderful walk was that!!!

On the way back we met the German teacher of Lívia and her Brazilian (hihi :)) husband. They both seemed very kind. We walked a bit further in the city of Passau and took the shortcut back to our place.

Today, Lívia told me that she don't think that she can live without me. I don't think I can live without her anymore either. I really don't think so... I love her so much. My love, you are so precious to me! Eu te amo, mais que tenho palavras!

Me in Ingling :) You see the Innstad (part of Passau) in the background.

Bad Schallenbach

Today Lívia and me went with her guest family to Bad Schallenbach in Austria. This was my first time in Austria and we wasn't really going to see Austria, nah, instead we went with the bus to an inside aqua paradise :) It was really a cool day; the whole time I was with my girlfriend and we enjoyed being together, trying some of the fun rides in the water coasters and enjoying the sun when we swam outside!

In the evening the family drove us to our home and we enjoyed the rest of the day together, went to bed and slept so quiet knowing that we didn't have to get up early the following day!

Btw, it seems that people here in Bayern (and where we were in Austria) say 'schwümmen' and if it wasn't for the sch and the n at the end, it would sound exactly like Danish 'svømme'. Funny that they also have an [ø]~[Y] in this word!

One of the things that you really notice here is that they diminiative ending is not -chen, but -l. It is almost impossible (OK, excaterated) to find a shop not ending with -l. You, thus, also hear people say 'oan bissl' (ein bisschen), mei madl (mein mädchen) etc... funny =)

I guess, this is probably also the area where the popular Didd*l* figure comes from.

Me swimming in Bad Schallerbach

Today was a weird day. Lívia had to go to the family early and could first arrive here late... and I was kind of experiencing a writers block, so I didn't feel like writing and get mad at myself for not being able to produce anything of value.

Anyway, I ended up sleeping during the day and felt terrible when I woke up. I took a nice bath and it helped a bit. Bah, still very bored and just wanting to be with my love :S so in order to kill time I started clearning up my computer and managed to remove like 4 Gb =) In the evening Lívia arrived and my mood increased enormously! and I ended up having a quite nice evening!

Yeehoo, my dad wrote me an email :) Made me really happy. He also said that he and my mom looked forward meeting Lívia =D

What a nice morning! Before we went to sleep, Lívia told me that she didn't have school today... well, it was more a wish than the truth and we both knew it =( Anyway, we both slept too long, kind of on purpose and had a very nice morning. Next week I start with my work so this will probably be the last time :/ I picked Lívia up after her school and we went into the center of the city to find a new swimming bikini for her. The last one unfortunately ended up in the dryer and now only fits a 10 year old Lívia ;-) Puh, that wasn't an easy task! The bikinis here are awful... I don't really hope Germans wear these but they probably do :| Anyway, after looking in 3-4 different stores (and looking very carefully) we went back to the C&A and found one that wasn't that bad... now the only problem was finding one that actually fit :S At last we succeeded and since we had around 30 minutes before the bus arrived, I went buying a döner kebap... YES! Whoo! Soo nice tasting. Still not tasting so well as in Copenhagen, but there is a world of difference between the quality here and the lousy quality in Groningen.

Since Lillie went to the guest family later today, she also went to me a little hour later. A long with her she brought a recipe and some ingredients... hahah.. unfortunately, she forgot some of the ingredients and we were out of pasta =D hahah... anyway, there is a solution to everything and we ended up eating a nice dinner :)

Anna (one of the people that I am living with) asked us yesterday if we wanted to come along to a pub and maybe later a disco, so around 22:00 we went out. The pub was situated at the other end of the city, so we walked for a very long time. Luckily, having Lívia by my side makes everything 1000 times nicer =). Liu have also started talking a lot more Portuguese to me and I slowly understand more and more... so nice! Which is something I cannot say about the pub. It turned out to be more of a disco pub that a pub in the traditional sense. Though, there is nothing wrong with that, this pub was extremely crowded. It was impossible to move, impossible to talk and it was clear that it wasn't the place where we would get to know new people. Lívia hated it and so did I, so there was no point in staying there.

On the way back we dropped by one of the Passau info-standers which makes it possible to surf the city webpage. It also makes it possible to check other websites (though it is kind of unhandy with on-screen-keyboard) and I went to check my mail.

I got an mail from Jan-Willem, and it seems like they found someone to live in my room! Yahoo! I should have replied to the person earlier but I first got Internet today... I hope everything will work out... would be really benificual for me!

I also got an email from my Gronings teacher and it was an email that warmed me a lot. He wrote very nice words about my accomplishment (the essay that I wrote) and told me that I got a 9! (out of ten)! YES! =D

When Lívia and me arrived home we were both very tired...and soon went to bed. I had a really nice night... slept so deep, so happy, feeling so safe and without worries and the morning was just as nice! Living with my Lívia is a dream come true!

Before we felt asleep we listened to music and it is unbelievable how much music can make you remember about specific times in you life... I have been thinking about this many times and when listening to one of the songs that reminds me the most of my love, she told me that that song reminded her very much about me =)

On a side note, we took a picture together this morning that was a kind of failure, but in many ways also very cool... I manipulated the picture a bit and it turned out really really nice... I might post it later :)

My first visit to Geko

20: [My first visit to Geko] Today I got my first peek at Liu's class as she forgot her umbrella and had to go back into the class room to pick it up. I came around 12:20 to pick her up at her school and afterward we went to the city in order to buy a special kam to use for making her hair glad. After finding a reasonable one, we went to one of the stores of her guest family. Lívia mostly goes there wednesday as she can drive home with the guest mother. I was there, I think 45 minutes, looking around in the store and talking a bit with one of the shop expeditiens called Canina. She showed me and Liu some of her drawings and I drew a funny drawing for her, which she liked a lot. The store is called Geko and they mostly sell alternative things. Like in the shop we were today you can buy hash pipes, water pipes, punker equipment, gothic things and a lot more (just mentioning the things that cought my sight). In the other store they mostly sell things imported from asia (Thailand mostly as far as I know) like beautiful figures, juwery, buda's etc.

Petra, who is the guest mother, didn't have the car today so Lí had to take the bus anyway, but now she didn't have to do it on her own. The rest of my day was quite boring. I worked a lot on my paper for Advanced Computer Graphics and Visual Environments, but I am not getting that far... The teacher expects 10 pages written text and I am stuck at 5,5 :( Actually, I don't really see the point in filling the paper with lots of non-important aspects just to make it unnecessarily long. Doing my work a travel agency called and wanted to sell me a travel... hmm...

When Lillie arrived she brought a mail that my father sent for me and her =D NICE! Really made me happy! Liu brought her 'føntørrer' and together we made her hair glad. I think I am getting OK as doing it, which is good as I have to do it two times a week.

Lívia and me originally planned to do a picknick today, but she has a test tomorrow so she had to study with her friends. I also have to turn something in tomorrow but I don't think I can make it on time and I know the teacher will accept even though I turn it in a couple of days later.

Two of Lívia's friends, Luciane and Patrícia came by to study with her. I let them study and started working on my paper... but I couldn't really concentrate. The girls had a lot to talk about and weren't studying that seriously :P hihi...I kind of felt like joining them and having a bit of fun, but I still doesn't know the other girls and they were speaking Portuguese so I continues working on my paper. I also really wanted Lívia to study as I know it is very important for her.

Unfortunately, after two hours I missed my girlfriend and couldn't really concentrate anymore so I went to sit next to her. Unfortunately it wasn't so nice as I couldn't follow the conversations and thus couldn't participate. I know Lívia could feel that I wasn't so happy and afterward I feel really bad letting her feel that.

It is important for her to have a nice time with her friend and to study and I don't want her to feel that she cannot do that - I *really* don't. Well, we only live together for 4 days now and I haven't really gotten used to it yet. With time everything will be different... =) everything takes time. I have to get used to Lívia and me not only doing nice things together =) We probably both need to and we will.

Next thursday, we will go out with her friends and it will be a great oppotunity for me to get to know them. I look forward to that as this time I basically only said 'hi' and 'bye' =)

Lívia gave me a photo of her with her new hair :) and apologised on the back for cutting my hair... hahah ...hehe, don't worry my sweetie... I don't mind and I allowed you to cut me :P Thanks for the picture though. I loved it!

In the evening Lívia felt like eating an ice cream and I actually did to, so we went out (half past eight, I think) and bought two ice creams with two balls :D sooo nice! really cool walk and I felt very good.

When we got home we warmed some of our leftovers from the other days and after eating we went to watch 'The Village', but it was mostly me who watched it as Lívia was tired and had to sleep for her exam tomorrow. I guess that we will watch the end again tonight :) Good luck tomorrow my sweet!

NB: Wow, in Germany you can buy rugbrød (nld. roggebrood, deu. roggenbrot) that tastes just like that you buy in Denmark! Gosh, I have missed this sooo soo so so so so so so so so so sooooo sooo soo soo so sooo much! Can I ever return to the Netherlands again?! *-)

Schönes Wetter

So unbelievable nice weather today! I brough Lívia to school again and this time we were only a bit belated. =) Already improving. After Lívia went to her guest family (she is au pair for those who don't know) I decided to go out and buy an adapter for my computer. It proved to be quite impossible. All adapters were from German socket to Foreigh socket :S and I needed a Danish socket to German socket adapter. Anna told me that my best chance for finding such one was going to MediaMarkt. She explained me the way and I walked and walked...wow...I think for around 40 minutes and suddenly the pavement stopped :S I thought 'shit' - I walked so long and now I had no idea whether I could actually get there by foot! I decided to follow a small path to at least make something out of my walking and heh! there I saw the MediaMarkt! On the other side of the railroads... another 15 looking for a way to cross and I was there! :S Shit! Their selection of adapters were even smaller and the boxes used weird screws which meant that I couldn't open them and many my own adapter! Anyway, I looked a bit around and decided to buy a phone for the room =) Now my walk wasn't totally wasted!

Walking home I got a bit sun burned :( but after using some cream I felt okay again. Looking at the different kind of equipment that I had, I found out a way to connect my laptop! Yes! In the evening Lívia came to pick me up with her friend Luciana. We went to the city to get something to drink and later we went to my and Lívia's place to make dinner - quite nice.

Wohoo...the first night living mit meiner Schatz has passed and it feels so good =) Lillie, I love you! In the morning I broght Lívia to school... felt really nice doing so! Felt really like being husband and wife..really nice. Unfortunately, we got there way too late - a bad start èh? and Lívia also went home earlier :S. Oh well... we have to get used to living together, doing our things and *of course* that takes time. Finding the balance is always hard.

It is our 3 months day today. Our relationship has evolved very quickly... maybe a bit too quickly for us to adapt to... It has been 3 great months though, and I am sure that when we get used to our new life, things will be even greater. I really love being with Lívia... she makes me feel happy, relax and I am so many great moments with her. I think she thinks the same, or I know, though I also know that she requires some more time to adapt to everything.

So many things has happened in her life: New country, new culture, the relationship with me, being away from family and friends, thinking about studying in Germany, etc. She has to find out what she wants to make of life and that is not easy - I know. I will be there for her though and help her as much as I can. I know what I want now... has taken me a long time to figure that out. Whatever she wants to do, I will be there for her and if that means that I for instance have to move to Brazil, I will do so. I want her to be happy and follow her heart. I don't want to be a chain on her leg. Her happiness means a lot to me. I want a girlfriend that is happy and that can share her love with me.

First day in Passau!

Today I arrived in Passau and my love came running to pick me up. All in all it was a wonderful day. Lívia was supposed to bring me to my rented room and then go back to school but she decided to stay =D The room is really nice. Quite big, nice colours, lots of stuff from Brazil... really really cool and the other girl living here, Anna, seems quite nice as well! Lívia had understood that there were internet in my room but unfortunately it isn't so which means that I won't be online much and my blog won't be updated so often. Actually, I can't use my computer yet (or not for very long - only 2 hours of batteries left) as I forgot to bring my power adapter! A bit later today, Claudio, a friend of the guy which room that I am renting, came by to explain me about the house and introduce me to the people. He seemed kind of nice, and he showed me many picture of Brazil and enjoyed seeing my pictures of Denmark, the Netherlands etc. My phone doesn't work here so I couldn't sms my friend Christian as I had promised... kind of stupid :( and really hard for me to arrange things with people now I am without phone and internet! Anyway, I borrowed the phone of Claudio and later went to say hi to Christian. In the evening me and Lívia were supposed to drop by but her phone was out of power and we didn't see the sms that Christian sent before it was too late. I went there and noone were home. In the evening Lívia and me cooked nice food together and after doing shoppings here, I must say that food is a lot cheaper in Germany than where I shop in the Netherlands.

Today has been a weird but nice day. I got up quite early as I had to pack the rest... getting more and more excited but at the same time it is also weird to leave all behind and take the next step in my life. I packed very slowly and tried relaxing a lot. Around 12am Ljena came by to say good bye and wish me a good journey. She brought nice lunch and strawberries :D Later, Jens also dropped by and he stayed until I had to leave. On the way to the train station I was chatting to Jens and he almost got driven down by one of the crazy busses that you find everywhere in Groningen.

Today is the day before I leave to Passau to live with my girlfriend and to do my internship. I am very excited and also very afraid. Everything will be different, I know, but I am sure we will make it work. I still haven't found anyone to live in my room so it looks like I have to pay for two rooms :S Well, the company told me that they would pay me a bit as well...but I am not sure now much nor when I will get the money. We'll see... In the evening some people in my house arranged a 'borrel' for me - a kind of good bye ceremony. I liked it, especially since I got to talk to José about myself and my life and she told me that she now understands me a bit better and had gotten me a bit wrong. It was kind of nice getting something settled before I left. Everyone in the house told me that Lívia and me look so lovely together... They have all seen us, but noone told this before. José even said that she had seen us walking in the city a couple of times and we looked so happy together... but ofcourse we didn't see anything as we were lost in each others :P

Mei dank oan myn Fryske freonen! of in ieder geval die mensen ik de laatse jaar een beetje Deens heb geleerd!

I used to believe I would end up at a cartoonist...

heh...once I used to draw as well... but now this is all I can come up with ... practise practise ...and maybe I can draw cartoons again...



...but first fullfill my dream about making music! nah, I mean... being with my love =)

BEING WITH MY LOVE, THAT IS WHAT REALLY MATTERS FOR ME!

More than anything else! Love you my Lillie!!!!

Today I had visit from Jelena. She is the one who wants to make a children book based on my Dutch poem 'Het Konijntje' =) It was quite nice. We talked a lot and drank some coffee ...later we went to her place where I got to say hi to her boyfriend Richard. We picked up her laptop and went back to my room :) where we listened to each others music collection.



Jelena gave me her cartoon book 'Saiso - a year in the life' and signed it by drawing a picture of me =)

My love sent a picture of herself and her friend by her friends mobile phone!!! sooo lovely :) makes me miss her soo much :) but soon we are together - almost living like husband and wife. Totally excided! Lívia, ich vermisse dich und ich liebe dich mein Schatz!

... really excited about my future

Uh woke up with a bad bad throath :( Actually it started hurting before I went to bed yesterday evening :( Yesterday was quite a boring day. I started working on my Paper about a Groninger song. I had hoped to find a better song to analyse and my teacher also gave me the number to a known singer who is having a radio program where they play Groninger music... unfortunately, I didn't get in contact and I really had to start working on the assignment so I just started with the song that I had already found.

This was basically what I did yesterday. It was kind of hard really concluding something from the song, but I think I did quite well. I had to write everything in Dutch so that also limited me a bit... I hope someone wants to correct it a bit for me before I turn it in!

The days are getting closer and I feel quite excited! It is unbelievable how Lívia can make me feel. When I think about her I get this undescribable feeling in my whole body ... and the same just when she pops up on MSN... I just love her so much! Lets this last forever!!!

Great exam!

Today I had an exam in my AVV course which is 'Groningen Low Saxon, an introduction to'. I am quite interested in Low Saxon as most people know and that was also why I decided to join this course.

Unfortunately, I started quite late and missed the first 3 our of 7 lectures :S which means that I had to do some self studying in my non-existing spare time. I was supposed to read the last part of the book yesterday but many things kept me away from doing so, which resulted in me having to get up quite early this very morning.

It is a very nice book but at times it is quite hard for me to read as it uses a different domain of the Dutch language and thus a lot of new terminology. It also often explains phenomina with words that only native Dutch speakers know and understand... Because of this I felt that I missed a lot of the points in the book, and didn't learn as much as I wanted to.

It was a bit the same with the exam, as I was uncertain of the exact meaning of some of the questions; or because I had problems findings the right words to describe my answer or finding examples to show what I was describing. Anyway, no worrying =) I already got my result and I got a 9 (45 points in total) - unfortunately that is one point below 10 (46 points and above is required for 10; max amount of points is 49).

I am proud of my accomplishment. Who would have thought that a Dane would get a 9 in a written exam 'bout the Low Saxon variaties of the province of Groningen =)

Meu docinho, eu te amo muuuito!

True love,

looking at a picture of my wonderful you
fills my heart with joy and yes it's true
never have I felt like now nor been so sure
I hope to be with you forever, to call me yours.
one week apart and it feels like a year
smiling inside but on my cheek there a tear
I feel so incrediable happy that I can cry
and so sad that this moment I'm not by your side
I love and need you more every single day
I know, my love for you ...will never go away

The group part 2: Ola, me and Pedro!

The group part 1: Frank, Remco and Andreia

On sunday it was Koopzondag (Shopping Sunday) so the city way quite alive! Nice!

I wonder how it is living here,...

The center of Utrech City

Drinking Douwe Egbert coffee...

Was supposed to be a nice picture of Utrecht but some people refused to step aside...

The waters of Utrecht

Don't ask me what I am doing here =)

A modern café using IKEA furniture :) You see: Me, Pedro, Ola and Andreia

Another look at the same place.... right next to the University of Utrecht

What a view! This is the view from the place (De Uithof) where we went to a party the first night.

...well I am tired too :)

Ola is tired, but it looks like she had a nice weekend!

Ladybugs...all over Utrecht! The anti-violence animal!

Mmm...citruuuus...

Me enjoying a Hoegaarden!

Ola dancing to Brazilian Samba, unlike all Dutch people who were standing still as always!

Andreai, me, Pedro and Frank

Cheers! Salut, Chin-chin, Skål, Proost, Prost....

Andreia cooked a nice Portuguese meal for us :)

Pedro finally got his hands on some magazines in Portuguese

A view of Utrecht!

Uhhh...I love Nijntje! Don't we all?

...and it was just Easter!

Meu país do Coração - o país do meu amor! =)

One part of the group: Pedro, Frank, me and Andreia!

Oh oh Pedro...you need to be more careful when you drive!!! Didn't I tell you!

What is more Dutch ? :)

Soo lovely when friends re-unite! Here we see two of my big ones, Ola and Pedro!

Going to Utrecht!

So at last it is Friday again! I went to school in order to work on a project where we have to implement a new scheduling system for a real-time operation system... We didn't really get much done as we both felt tired and reading the documentation and the code just made us even more tired :(

Anyway, as the title states I am going to Utrecht today to meet up with some friends: Pedro (Portugal), Andreia (Portugal), Ola (Poland) and Frank (Germany). I really didn't have time this weekend and neither do I have money, but unfortunately Pedro is going back to Portugal next week and for good, so it had to be this weekend. I feel kind of sad for Pedro...He went back to live in the Netherlands as he got a job offer! But now he is here they "found out" that his education level is too high and suddenly he cannot get the job anyway (hm? only hiring stupid people? *-)) Well, I find that ridiculous and really unfair! If I tell you who the employer was you are all going to laugh,... so I won't do that... We hate them already!

Tomorrow it is apparently Hans Christian Andersen's 200 years birthday! Whoo! I love his stories! Download some of his best stories in different languages here!

Some have wondered what language I have been writing in the last couple of days. Is it Danish or Dutch? No, it is none of those two language, though the language - or the variety that I am writing in - has loanwords from both of these; most from the latter.

What I am writing in is Low Saxon. A language that has no standard dialect, which means that people who write in Low Saxon write in either dialect or in an inter-regional standard based on a group of related dialects. What I am writing in is the dialect of Groningen, thus the local dialect of where I currently live. =)

I heard from Lívia today that one of her aunts is reading my blog once in a while, so let me send my greetings to her!: Oieee, tia da Lívia! Tudo bem com você? =D

Whoo...Google upgraded my Gmail account to 2 GB! and added rich formatting!