My first school holidays...

... as a teacher that is, hehe!

Well, I've done it: I somehow managed to work seven weeks as a new born teacher. And now I'm officially on holidays. Although, I have to say that there's quite a work load waiting for me 'cause the next weeks are going to be much more stressful than the last 7. I'll have to teach and prepare more and more lessons and my lessons will be supervised.
All in all I really enjoy teaching in primary school, but it's new for me and mistakes are to be made and learned from ;-)
Subjects I'm teaching at the moment are mainly English and Music for 3rd and 4th grade. Lessons are very lively, as in both subjects there's a lot of singing, speaking and dancing going on.

But enough for school at the moment, I've got some fresh and hot audio stuff to recommend. If you've got time and money check out the following:

Babyshambles - Shotter's Nation:

Just like the infamous Libertines' I simply love the sound of Pete Doherty and his Babyshambles. It's got that druggy, punk-rock attitude while having a perfect songwriting, both the music and the lyrics combine smoothly. Doherty's one of the best in his genre - forget about all the tabloid scandals, just listen!

Pinback - Autumn of the seraphs:

Despite the heavymetalish looking album cover, this is american Indie-Rock in perfection. One of the underrated and - sadly - not very well-known bands. The sound reminds the listener of nothing else but: Pinback, actually! Warm guitars, multi-layered vocal tracks, melodic songs and very good lyrics. Vaguely comparable to Death Cab for Cutie maybe, but without the many sad parts ;-) But listen yourself.

Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam:

Mmhh, this Band is special. Working as a collective of 4 members (with each of them having his own solo projec) those four guys create a sound which is psychedelic, delayed and a bit electronic but still based on Indie-Rock. The lyrics are just as psycho as the sound. So for all of you who might wonder why the hell I'm recommending this album, here's the answer: it's funny and something completely different and I love listening to it... And in parts - or better: once in a while - you're reminded of all the great bands, I love that much: Modest Mouse, Pinback, Beta Band, and so on.

Okay, I think that's enough for today, but I promise there'll be more soon...

is it already september?

hello my dear friends!

i think this blog has seen better days for sure. as time goes by, new web services - like facebook and others - find their way into my conscious mind and as a result a new profile under my name occurs sooner or later.
so all of you who actually want some updates on me, check out the fresh facebook link to your right.
my flickr page needs updating too, but i promise i'm going to post some new pix soon (can't be that difficult!)
nevertheless, i'll try to keep this blog alive a bit longer, maybe i'll find some time to write more in the near future, as the last couple of months weren't that busy-busy: exams, end of exams, relaxing, holidays in germany, chiling out, having a party, a great week at verena's & alex's place in ldn, a nice weekend at clemens' japanese-style flat in brighton, partying in germany, relaxing and chilling out up until now!!!
although time to post on this blog might be the one thing i won't have in the upcoming weeks, as i'll start my practical teaching education next tuesday - and as excited as i am, it'll be quite stressful too, i reckon.
well, that's it for the moment. see you soon, stay fresh and rock on!!!

it's done!!!

finally, i've done what i somehow couldn't think oof doing anymore: I FINISHED MY STUDIES!!!

some weeks ago i had my last exam and i still can't believe that years of studying have finally come to an end. but that's how it is: i'm free to do whatever i want to - at least up until early september, that is...

and now i'm enjoying this freedom to travel a bit around germany (i was at the art basel a couple of weeks ago and then at the documenta in kassel, too: a lot of nice and intteretsing art to be seen there, i really liked that!).
maybe i'll go to england in august but at the moment i'm based in augsburg and my body decided to catch a cold which i hereby welcome and i'm trying to get it out of my system at the moment.

next friday we'll have a "guerilla-lesershow" and so i have to decide on texts i want to present. you see, not much to do for me at the moment and i'm definitely enjoying that, believe me. i can concentrate on watching crappy tv-series, listen to hilarious music and meet friends all day long or just have a long lie-in if i want to. i don't want to make you jealous, but i have to say it as it's a bloody fine feeling (until it gets boring, but that might take a while...)

well, that's all for now. i'll promise to post more in the future and maybe even refresh my flickr photos soon.

i hope you're all fine out there and that you're happy with whatever you're doing at the moment.

see you all soon.

"worth"-case scenario: make the best of it...

as you know my reason for not posting that much these days is that i'm studying hard for my final oral exams at the moment. but today something very surreal happened and i've got to put down a few lines here.

imagine me, sitting at my desk in the library bent over books and sheets, trying hard to get all the stuff into my head to make ends meet gradewise for my exam tomorrow afternoon.
suddenly my mobile rings: a strange number i don't know appears on my display - the only thing i can tell is that it has to be somebody calling from within the university building. so i answer the call and to my surprise it's the person who is going to hold the exam tomorrow, asking:
"where are you?"
"why? i'm in the library - studying..."
"well, you should be sitting in front of me as your exam is now!"
"no, that can't be. i'm supposed to be in tomorrow, i doublechecked it..."
"but you're on my list, so either you can arrange to come over here, or you'll fail the exam!"

WORST-CASE SCENARIO, isn't it?

i was totally confused, but sure that something on the exam schedule must have been changed and i didn't check it in time, or whatever. so i packed my stuff and ran over there, adrenaline pumping to my veins, but actually not really nervous. although i had to sit an exam i wasn't as prepared for as i wanted to...

half an hour later it started and i just talked and talked, realizing that i wasn't blank, but instead could answer most of the questions...

and half an hour later they sent me out to discuss my grade, let me in again a couple of minutes later to announce my grade: a "1" which is the best grade you can make in germany. i couldn't believe it, and still can't. well, that's the best way to handle a scenario like that: just try to make the best of it - which i surely did, hehe...

that's all for today, it was a stressful but in the end veeeery nice one for me!

hope you're fine out there and see you soon!

SumMeRsuMmerSummeR

yes-yo-yippie-yeah!

it's mid-april in germany and one can't believe it: summer's here. it's got about 27 degrees celsius and everybody's out on the streets in this nice town - well, everybody but me...'cause i've got to sit at home and study study study for the last bit of my exams: still 9 to go. all oral exams, starting next wednesday and the last one will be at the end of june.all the written exams have already taken place, and i think it went quite well most of the time. but i'll see.

so all that stressful studying is my excuse for not updating this blog since january, by the way. nevertheless, i just wanted to let everybody know, that i'm still alive, quite busy at the moment but happy indeed: the weather is nice, i'm gonna finish my studyies soon and the summer won't be over by then, i hope.

well, that's it for the moment as i don't really have any incredible & interesting news - studying is indeed quite boring i reckon - but i promise to keep updating this casbah once in a while. at least i managed to get a new blog layout - which has to be slightly adjusted i think - let's see.

so see you and enjoy yourselves!

p.s. here's a nice pic i shot at the "pinakothek der moderne" in munich



p.p.s.: check out the new modest mouse album "we were dead before the ship even sank": not only one of the best album titles in years but hilarious indie-sound from portland, oregon. just the way i like it... my favourite songs: florida, fire it up, dashboard, and the rest of the album, actually ;-)

Happy New Year my friends!

here we go...

i want to wish all of you a happy new year. i hope 2007 is going to rock your world (and mine of course)

hopefully all of you had a nice new year's eve and possibly the best start into 2007. i definitely did have a bloody good party. just click the silvester-link to your right, there might be some pix online.

now it's back to work for me, there is still a hell lot of work to do: my final exams are starting soon!

see you all soon and good luck...