svenmeetsworld

Montezuma's Revenche - another cacatory post

noreply@blogger.com (Sven Tomschin) — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 08:23:00 +0000

Urgent matters

After being half of a year in Mexico I totally agree on certain statistics saying that not sunstrokes or insect bites are the most common travel illnesses, but diarrhea. A wonderful initial position for writing a new cacatory post;)

Imagine the 40-60% of tourists who are affected by said illness. Then imagine 150.000 German tourists in Mexico every year. What shitty constellation that still gives fame to Montezuma, maybe the only Aztec ruler known outside Mexico.

What does he have to do with backdoor trots?

Montezuma ruled over Tenochtitlan, one of the most developed cultures in those times. They are the ones who say the world might end next year. He did his job quite bad – Tenochtitlan declined under his sovereignty. And he definitely wasn’t the most innocent here.

Montezuma was a very religious man. Religious means: he sacrificed a lot of his fellers. A LOT. He started wars just to achieve captives for more sacrifices.

So when the Spaniards arrived they had no problem in convincing the suppressed Mexicans to fight against their own king. Montezuma on the other side tried to beg the Spaniards to go with the help of gifts made of gold. That was as stupid as the fact that Montezuma didn’t even fight against the Spaniards when they eventually arrived in Tenochtitlan, thinking they must have been some kind of gods.

Too much mistakes in a row; he got killed and it is said that his course raised a new army under his reign; E. Coli troops.

**Moctezumas Rache: Der Origninaltext ist auf der Teff3-Homepage zu finden. Link**

One Week as a Vegetarian (Part III)

noreply@blogger.com (Sven Tomschin) — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 17:34:00 +0000

...not this week;)

Christmas Eve without meat. Let's see how that worked..

Days 5+6

After getting it right with the protein it was a lot easier to be veggie. You can really get stuffed by a salad as long as you don't forget the protein shake. Now I could try out some fancy new things: double cheese sandwich with cherry jam topping, spaghetti with salsa made of beans, orange-watermelon-banana juice, vegetarian pozole which is corn stew with mushrooms and squash blossoms instead of meat.

Another great thing is to recognize that eventually I don't really have to order something whenever I'm passing a Taco stand. This really feels like getting back my own self-determination.

Day 7

It's Christmas eve and my last hours of being a vegetarian. I was invited to celebrate that day at a friend's house - fortunatelly he is vegetarian and was responsible for preparing the food. So there was salad, lasagna and a fruit salad made of apples and nuts. Also vegetarian and very delicious: The Glühwein I prepared. It's kind of a German tradition to get drunk on every possible festive day. During christmas it's Glühwein that is helping a lot here. Red wine, rum, a few spices and sugar, altogether heated up to 90 degrees. So warm alcohole with lots of sugar...mhh yummy; that keeps you warm all night and in bed the next day;)

Speaking of the next day; yeah I had some fried eggs again. But when it came to choose between tripple cheese sandwich and cutlet sandwich I took the first one. Well, in that case it wasn't about the calories I guess. But seriously that week showed me that it's possible to live without meat. Not that I'm a vegeatrian now, but up to Men's health eating meat 1 time a week is far enough. There were some nice side effects that week as well:

- no feeling of having eaten far too much
- no sign of montezuma's revenge
- opened up my mind to a totally new life style
- got to know the taste of soy meat (well, at least it was an experience)

**Die vegetarische Woche ist vorüber. Und ich bin nicht mal über das erste bisschen Fleisch hergefallen. Vollblut-Vegetarier werd ich wohl trotzdem nicht...btw..geht das überhaupt?;)**

One Week as a Vegetarian (Part II)

noreply@blogger.com (Sven Tomschin) — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 14:19:00 +0000

No fish this week! But Tofu!;)

My vegetarian week goes on. This time with a personal low; and it's solution.

Day 3

After I went to the gym in the mornging I was hungry all day! I ate lots of bananas, made pasta, had some energy bars..Still I couldn't kill my appetite. After leaving my house with lots of everything in my tummy I was asked at a friend's house if I was hungry...Half an hour later. And I couldn't resist.

So I had some veggie-tacos and not being quite sure if I was hungry or not we went shopping. We went to IDEA what is IKEA but in Mexico. It really looks the same, just 5 times less variaty.

Anyway we had some Sushi afterwards. Without fish of course. The good thing is that Sushi in Mexico is not really similar to what Sushi is in Germany or, well Japan. You usually don't put wasabi and they don't consist that much of rice but are filled with cream cheese, avocado or mango. It's not unusual that the rolls are fried. And what should I say: The first time of the day I was full up!

Later that kept me thinking and I recognized that allthough I had lots of food that day I dind't have any proteins. That is why I could go on eating all that salad-something-crap and still wanted more.

So this was about to change.

Day 4

That day's resolution was to have more proteins. I started with cereals with milk. My roomie told me that I should eat soy meat for lunch. I was wondering what meat made of beans would look like. So I went to a natural food store.

Soy meat..a treat for the eyes

I think the lady in the shop couldn't really estimate my look when she showed me the soy meet - sort of disgust meets interest. It looks like in the foto on the side by the way. I was asking: "People really do eat that?" And my look became even weirder when she told me that they come with beef flavour or chicken flavour or anything similar. I was asking: "Why vegetarians eat meat substitutes that tast like meat?" She couldn't answer that;)

Soyfoods are low in saturated fat and contain no cholesterol. Soy is the only complete plant protein equal to animal protein and contains all eight essential amino acids. In addition, soyfoods are high in dietary fiber, iron, calcium, vitamin A, vitamin D, and other essential nutrients. I'm feeling healthier just reading that;)

In the end she sold me a package of already prepared soy meat. I cooked my everyday dish: rice, tomato sauce but with soy meat topping this time. And it was good acutally. It tasted a little bit like fish and I put too much garlic. But not that bad. And I wasn't hungry for hours.

**Rückschlag am dritten Tag. Ich aß und aß und wurde nicht satt. Später nach einem ausgedehnten Sushi-ohne-Fisch Gang fiel mir auf, dass ich den ganzen Tag noch kein Protein gegessen hatte. Also versuchte ich es am nächsten Tag mit Fleischersatz aus Soyabohnen. Nicht schlecht wenn auch ein wenig fischig**

One Week as a Vegetarian (Part I)

noreply@blogger.com (Sven Tomschin) — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 05:39:00 +0000

Since I came to Mexico I got to know a bunch of people with two certain qualities: either they are called Alejandro or they are vegetarian. Don't ask me why is that because I thought that both of them are not really Mexican "qualities". But this is what's happening to me at the moment. So I wanted to try it out (not the thing with being called Alejandro*g) and decided to live as a Vegetarian for one week.

Passing all the Taco stands for now this seems impossible to me. Nevertheless Saturday 18th dicember 2010 at 00:00 a.m. my vegetarian week began...

Day 1

It's all started with having a look into my fridge. The turkey ham I already got to my roomie. I wasn't quite sure if you could eat the 5-minutes-china-noodles. On the package it says "beef flavour" but I really doubt that there is really meat inside. I called a friend of mine who told me: no meet flavoured soup or china noodles or whatever. So I had some cereals. I really thought that I couldn't do anything wrong with that. Cereals+milk+banana....Well, yes you can! Did you knwo that there were different types of vegetarians?

Ovo vegetarianism includes eggs but not dairy products.
Lacto vegetarianism includes dairy products but not eggs.
Ovo-lacto vegetarianism includes animal/dairy products such as eggs, milk, and honey.
Veganism excludes all animal flesh and animal products, including milk, honey, and eggs, and may also exclude any products tested on animals, or any clothing from animals.
Raw veganism includes only fresh and uncooked fruit, nuts, seeds, and vegetables. Vegetables can only be cooked up to a certain temperature.
Fruitarianism permits only fruit, nuts, seeds, and other plant matter that can be gathered without harming the plant.
Su vegetarianism excludes all animal products as well as vegetables in the allium family: onion, garlic, scallions, leeks, or shallots.
Macrobiotic diets consist mostly of whole grains and beans.

So after 10 minutes living the vegetarian way I already failed to be an ovo vegetarian, vegan, raw vegan, fruitarian, su vegetarian an macrobiotic dietist. Well, at least I decided to keep the eggs. That is why I'm officially a lacto vegetarian this week. Nice to finally find oneself.

Later that day I went to the supermarket. I never had to think that much about what to buy .. or what not to buy. Is hazelnut spread ok? Yoghurt? Cheese? In the end I bought a lot of rice, tomatoes and beans. I recognized that I'll have to cook a lot if I don't want to live on chocolate all week long. So I had rice, tomatoe topping and vegetables. But I couldn't quit the feeling of being hungry! Maybe it's the new feeling of don't stuff myself with meat?

In the evening there was the first really hard moment. I was helping to paint the walls of a friend's room. Still hungy of course. And he offered chinese food..with meat! What a burden to eat bretzels in that moment...

Day 2

I'm with a vegetarian today. There is orange juice, salad and a main course made with lentils and rice (of course;) Really good acutally. The popcorn and coffee afterwards killed my appetite entirely. In the evening I had more rice and a power bar.

I'm feeling good - is this already detoxication?

**Diese Woche versuche ich mich als Vegetarier. Der erste Tag war hart, denn ich konnte irgendwie meinen Hunger nicht stillen. Außerdem habe ich mich mit meiner Milch im Müsli schon für vielerlei Art von Vegetarier disqualifiziert. Der zweite Tag wurde zum Glück besser**

My first pilmgrimage

noreply@blogger.com (Sven Tomschin) — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 22:01:00 +0000

The sacred cloak (not the flag!*g)

It was 12th December 1531 when little Juan (what other name he possibly could’ve had?) gave proof to a Spanish bishop that Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared to him: his cloak showing her picture and the flowers blooming on the hill of Tepeyac where then the first sanctuary in honor of Ms. Guadalupe was built.

Now there are three of them. The first one is too little, the second one is sinking as a result of the weakness of the ground, the third one looks like a huge congress hall. No wonder, it was built by the same architect who built the Aztec Stadium and the National Anthropology Museum as well - all three of them count to the most visited edifices in Mexico City. The Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe is even the most visited sanctuary in the world. About 20 million people visit it annually. But in the night of the 12th December people really having a blast in the city and 6 million people crowd the streets in the north of DF.

The entrance to the basilica

So we started our tour about 2km from where there is the basilica. That is pure luxury in comparison to where the Mexicans start their tour that can take up to weeks. There are people walking hundreds of kilometers starting from where they are living. Some are walking barefooted, some crawling on their knees.

The coolest thing is that on the way to the sanctuary there are people giving away something to eat and to drink. I love the Mexican food it is so good and cheap. And here you’ll get it for free! So after 10 minutes we had all kinds of sweets, coffee, rolls, juice etc. in our hands and were walking up De Guadalupe Street. There weren’t that much people in the streets because we went there at 8 pm. The real party starts at midnight. Just in the end right in front of the basilica it got stuffed with people wearing drawings on their back, priests splashing holy water into the masses, ambulances and speakers announcing: “Pepe from Puebla is searching for his girlfriend Carmen. Carmen from Puebla please come here to meet your boyfriend Pepe”.

Starting the tour

People sleeping in front of the basilica

Inside the basilica there is not much more to see than said cloak and thousands of Mexicans praying to Virgencita to cure their illnesses or change their life or something. And passing all the pilgrims sleeping on the ground in front of the sanctuary (ok, the winter here is not the same as in Germany. But still it’s freaking cold at night!) you’ll have a stunning view over Mexico City right from the hilltop of Tepeyac.

**Am 12. Dezember pilgern um die 6 Millionen Menschen zur Basílica de Guadalupe in Mexiko Stadt; der meist besuchten Kirche der Welt. Vania, Fabian und ich waren 3 davon und konnten auf dem Weg dorthin dem kostenlosen Angebot mexikanischer Küche frönen**

Anti-Anti

noreply@blogger.com (Sven Tomschin) — Sat, 04 Dec 2010 19:59:00 +0000

There was this one party night when I was told the following in a conversation with an abrupt ending: "I don't like drunken people" (poor one..being at a party at 4 a.m.). "Also I don't like the smell of cigarettes" (that I understand). "As well I don't like it when people drink coffee for I don't like the smell of it" (and I was gone).

After that I had a chat with the friend who was with me at the party and we defined 5 types of Anti-people you never would like to have around. Those people are not just against a certain behaviour, but they ALWAYS want to talk you out of doing something. It's more than having principles, those guys just suck for not having the capability to accept other people's gustoes and destroy a gathering with comments noone wants to hear.

1. "I don't like the smell of coffe"
Coffee is great. Shut up and drink your milk.

2. "I hate it when people need alcohol for partying"
Of course alcohol is not healthy. Seriously, although science guys couldn't find out whether one glass of red wine is healthy or not. We all know it's never enough with one glass of wine. But do we learn from the headache the next day? No.
But isn't it obvious that those people who are strictly against other people drinking alcohol are always standing in the corner complaining first that the others drink alcohol and later complaining about the others having fun?

3. "I don't like pop. Or rock. Or electro. In fact, I don't like music"
Those guys are against party in whatever possible appearrance. Not that they are against the clubs you are suggesting (what could happen if you're in Hamburg or something...). They also are against having a drink at home, BBQ-picnics, snowball fights etc. So the best thing that could happen to them is you sending them home while you enjoy your life, isn't it?

4. "Why do you kill animals?"
It's totally ok to be a vegetarian. Or fruitarier. Or I-just-eat-apples-ian. Anyone who already has seen what happens in a slaughterhouse understands that. But what is it with those guys whose only small talk topic is how they nourish themselves? One day we brought potato salad to a party, because a friend who gave the party asked us to bring something to eat for her anti-meat roomie and his anti-meat friends (often there is more than one of them). So we brought potatoe salad. I was stirring it with a knife when said roomie told me: This knife already cut meat. I won't eat this salad. ...

5. "It don't have fun and I don't know why"
The worst ones. Because there is always a reason why they dislike what's going on - the other people, the weather or their own stupidity.

**Es gibt einige Arten Mensch, die man nicht um sich haben möchte. Hierbei gehts nicht um Verneiner oder Prinzpienreiter, sondern um Leute, die absichtlich ein Happening zerstören möchten, weil ihnen etwas nicht passt. Und die Themen sind of die gleichen: Sie sind gegen das Trinken von Kaffee oder Alkohol, Musik, Fleisch essen oder sowieso gegen alles.**

What cacatory post!

noreply@blogger.com (Sven Tomschin) — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 19:00:00 +0000

I adopted a word! I'm a proud linguistic father!!!

SaveTheWords.org is a really cool homepage where you can adopt a word and hereby help to keep it from extinction. So my word is cacatory - isn't it a cute name?

cacatory (adj): accompanied by loose bowels; exp: For the diners, the effects of the chicken cacciatore, alas, were cacatory.

flicker: g_u evaporato

Cute name, shitty meaning;)

I scanned the www a little to get more information about my little baby and stumbled upon this web page here. Forthright, a.k.a. Steve Chrisomalis is listing some rare words, and cacatory is one of those. The idea behind the page appeared very interesting to me. He says he encountered Googlewhacking in 2002, where people put any two legitimate English words into the Google search engine to find as a result a single page containing both words. Now he took that idea to extremes and searched for extremely rare words which are found in some dictionaries and yet which are found on no web pages that are accessible through search engines.

He points out that the word cacatory goes back to the 17th century and is now in danger of extinction. So I scanned through the 1230 google results for cacatory. And let me say, it's not the fact that you won't find it, but the result is poor.

So there is Larissa Lyons blog - she describs herself as clown, tax analyst and a pig castrator, and is into writing erotic stories for women (interesting combination...). She also adopted cacatory and describes her experience the following way:

First off, let’s face it…those of us with very…um, elevated?…senses of humor still find enjoyment in simply saying the word shit. But now, we have a fancy word to say it with. And we’re no longer talking about plain simple poop, of course not. We’re talking about the smelly, gassy, runny cacatory type of doo doo.

Sweet, but I think I won't erase shit in my vocabulary for doo doo*g
Another example is that guy from some kind of advice-from-a-doctor hompepage.

2009-12-27

Dear Dr sb, My age is 30 years. I am unmarried. My problem is that some time I am suffered either in constipation or in cacatory (Pechesh/ need to go in toilet). Mostly I also have gas trouble. Pls suggest remedy.

Didn't work well, because:

2010-01-03 (!)

I am waiting for reply. Any one can help me.

... poor one.

But that's it. Didn't find a lot more cacatory content!

So how to spread the word? I don't want to post childish youtube videos or something...But how else get the attention for a noble thing like that. Ahhhh, cacatory, here you are!

**auf SaveTheWords.org kann man Wörter adoptieren, um sie vom Aussterben zu bewahren. Ich habe cacatory bekommen (etwas, das Durchfall hervorruft). Dieser Blogeintrag ist mein Beitrag zur Bewahrung des kulturellen Erbes!**

8 Things I Hate about Hamburg

noreply@blogger.com (Sven Tomschin) — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 15:44:00 +0000

There is a saying in Germany pointing out that there is no one who could say from the bottom of his heart he likes Berlin and Hamburg likewise. To my mind this is wrong. A lot better would be: The people who like Hamburg never got to know Berlin. Seriously, from all million-inhabitants-metropolises in Germany; Munich, Berlin, Hamburg and Cologne (from time to time), Hamburg definitely is the most disappointing travel destination. And I’ll give you 8 reasons why is that.

1. Is this beer or lemonade?

There are about 5000 sorts of beer in Germany. Two of them come from Hamburg: Holsten and Astra. Let´s say they aren’t amongst the top 1000. And there is this thing to mix up beer with lemonade, called “Alster”, like the artificial lake in the city center. To my mind the same way you shouldn’t swim in the Alster you shouldn’t mix lemonade with beer.

2. Sightsearching

Let’s see what Hamburg’s tourism incoming points out as highlights:

Beatlemania

- the harbor quarters (well, it’s a habour in the end…)

- the hamburg philharmonic hall (not built yet)

- Reeperbahn (Hamburg’s red-light district. There is lots of party going on, but Amsterdam is a lot cooler though)

- Michel (a church, that is just a church in the end. It’s the same with the town hall by the way.)

So nothing special over there. Of course, there are a few exceptions, like for the Kaiserkeller (where the Beatles started their carrer), the Unilever building in the harbour and some locations at Reeperbahn. In comparison to the other big cities in Germany quiet nothing indeed.

3. The clouds are hamburg's sun


Very expensive flats in hamburg and clouds

The northern part of Germany isn’t known for it's good weather. A friend of mine summarized it quiet well when she woke up in the morning, watched out of the window, saw the cloudy sky and said: I think, we already reached today’s grey maximum (Ich denke, wir haben den Tagesgrauwert erreicht).

4. Where is the party again?

When you look into the party reviews in Berlin journal’s the pages are crowded with what you can do for having fun at night. In Hamburg it’s not about pages, it’s about lines. Although there are some cool places to be (Uebel und Gefährlich, China Lounge f.e.) you would've problems in doing some serious club-hopping.

5. Wanted: Championship

The hamburgs (or even more funny: hamburger as they are called in Germany*g) love their football teams HSV and St. Pauli. But St. Pauli never won the championship, and the last time HSV got the trophy was centuries ago. So what’s the excitement all about?

6. No Kebab at night

Hamburg-the city that sleeps at night. The metro closes at 11.30 pm during the week and as already mentioned the party scene is not that developed. If you’re not too drunk you would not want to go to Reeperbahn after 3 am. But where to head then? And even more serious: Where to get something to eat then? After my last party in hamburg I needed hours to get to my hotel. And doesn’t matter where I changed the tram, I couldn’t find any open restaurant at all.

7. Come on, grow up

Hamurg-musical city. Funny to promote the city like that with a zero-variety of musicals. There are three Disney-related movie/musical adaptions going on at the moment: Lion king, Tarzan and Sister Act. Nice, but definitely not classy. Another two facts were kind of interesting to me:

A Hamburg-inhabitant-stereotype

Hamburg’s “cathedral” (Dom) is a funfair in the end. And smoking is officially prohibited but neither the people nor the establishments care. I mean, it isn’t difficult to install proper aircon, is it? Why do all cities can do it, but Hamburg not?

8. People from Hamburg

They say that people from the northern part of Germany are very reserved. But my stay in hamburg taught me, that hamburgs are really nice guys. We were helped without asking and got to know some really cool people. So this is my 8^th hate fact: I can’t write anything bad about people from hamburg!

**8 Dinge, die ich an Hamburg hasse: das Bier, die fehlenden Sehenswürdigkeiten, das Wetter, die nicht wirklich große Partyszene und somit auch ein Nicht-Angebot an Nach-Feier-Fast-Food, der Trouble um die Hamburger Fußballvereine, die magere Auswahl an guten Musicals trotz der Bezeichnung "Musical City" und dass ich nichts über die reservierten Hamburger schreiben kann. Die sind nämlich cool und können ja nun nix für ihre Stadt;)**

**Mehr Szene-Infos aus Hamburg von mir gibt es überigens auf ThreeWords**

Why do you have that awkward mustache?

noreply@blogger.com (Sven Tomschin) — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 23:50:00 +0000

In a bar at Reeperbahn/Hamburg (what is comparable to the red light district in Amsterdam..but without any glamour) we talked to some guys from England. One of the guys had this freakish-looking mustache. We were all like:

...well, maybe not*g

After a while a friend of mine asked the question I had in mind from the first moment on but didn't dare to ask. Well as a women I think she was in a better position asking that: "Why do you have this awkward mustache?"

And the guy wasn't insulted at all. I thought he'll tell us about all the advantages growing a mustache could have, like for example:

Anyway, he told us he grows his mustache for charity reasons. That answer seemed a little strange as well, but after a little research I have to say he really stands up for a great project. Let me introduce to you: the Movember.

The rules are simple, start Movember 1st clean-shaven and then grow a moustache for the entire month. The moustache becomes the ribbon for men's health, the means by which awareness and funds are raised for cancers that affect men.

He got £317 for looking a lot
cooler after having grown his mustache
uk.movember.com/mospace/761948/

Women can participate as well. She raised £538 with a little paint uk.movember.com/mospace/684644/

Mustaches grow better on men's faces than on women's faces, well except for this beauty blog: fraumitbart. Now there is the clue: A man is 35% more likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer than a woman is to be diagnosed with breast cancer, experts say. Don't know if a men's beard grows 35% faster than a women's beard also. Maybe someone should ask the woman from the blog...

The projects runs astonishing good:

- Last year in the UK alone, £5m was raised.
- Halfway through the month, that heady total already crushes the $7.8 million raised by 35,000 men in Canada in 2009
- 627,000 mustached men have raised more than $100 million over the last four years

Movember is an idea conceived by a few fellers in Australia in 2003 – to bring back the moustache for one month a year and do something good for men’s health. The Mo Bros as they are known, set themselves on a course to create a global men’s health movement.

Nowadays the money people raise by growing a mustache is donated to the Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF) and Livestrong, a nonprofit organization founded by Lance Armstrong that fights to improve the lives of people affected by cancer.

Don't know what it is with you but I'm definitely thinking about growing a mustache the next year;)

**Im "Movember" lassen sich Männer in bis heute englischsprachigen Ländern Oberlippenbärte wachsen um damit für gesundheitliche Aufklärung im Bereich Prostatakrebs ein Zeichen zu setzen und um Geld für den guten Zweck zu kämpfen. Ich find's super und werd mal in November 2011 drüber nachdenken;)**

Encore: Berlin

noreply@blogger.com (Sven Tomschin) — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 09:53:00 +0000

Let's put another Dj(ane) from Berlin [Anja Schneider] and watch some pictures:

After writing my last blog post I stumbled upon this intersting book: Smiling Berlin. Lasse Walter shows Berlin's mentality via pictures. The coolest ones I could find I like to share with you.

...

Brunching in Berlin takes hours and hours. Love to watch the crowd consisting mainly of the three PARs:

-party hoppers

-party poopers

-parents

...

Graffiti is part of the Berlin cultural self-concept. There is said to be a graffiti saying "Pups mal" (Just fart)

There is art in every corner of Berlin. Sometimes there is a stylish store, or a painted wall (of course, there is East Side Gallery where they painted on the Berlin wall what is now the biggest freestanding outside-painting in the world), or just a mushroomish kind of thing:)

... Never leave a place out where you could be creative;) ... Dancing outside in the streets is the greatest. Unfortunatelly Berlin no longer carries out the Loveparade (neither does another city after what happened this year in Duisburg). But there are a lot more festivals in Berlin where you can freak out: Karneval der Kulturen, carnival, festivals inside the different boroughs or the Christopher Street Day where about 600.000 gays and friends are going crazy half-naked.

**Noch ein paar Berlin Impressionen fürs Fernwehkonto hier**

A virtual Berlin party night

noreply@blogger.com (Sven Tomschin) — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 10:49:00 +0000

Berlin is a great place to be. I've lived there half a year while writing my final paper for my studies. Kind of a crazy time being the student by day and.. well the student at night as well*haha
Today I'd like to post the most special things Berlin had to offer while I was there. Let's start a virtual party night!

00.00 Getting in the tram (S-Bahn)

Berlin's tram is not very cheap but in exchange it's punctual (of course;) and an experience as well. I love to watch the people who are in the same waggon with me. Berlin consists of different boroughs and every single of them has it's own style. So there are the polo-shirt-wearers from Ku'damm, the village people from Schöneberg and the people from Prenzlauer Berg who, let's say, don't care that much;)

If you're lucky you'll get into an illegal party going on in one of the waggons of the S-Bahn circle line. But keep your eyes open for the police so that you don't have to pay the surcharge!

But personally to me the best thing is the sound you hear when the tram is leaving. Watch Paul Kalkbrenner recording that certain sound, the most popular electronic DJ from Berlin:

2:00 Getting the party started

Partys in Berlin start late and go on. And go on...The excess supply of good and interesting partys is both blessing and curse. Underground partys are what Berlin is famous for. But with the fame there come the masses. That is why the Watergate which was set on the 8th place in the list of the best clubs of the world (DJmag) two years ago is now overcrowded and not worth anymore the trouble of standing in line for an hour or so.
The good thing is that the event people are very inventive here. There was this one party when I had to go to the bathroom and got into a room where there really was a toilet, but a dj booth right next to it and dancing people around it. There was this other party where you could get your face painted at the entrance. Or those illegal partys in the woods of Karlshorst.

.. and there are the best electronic DJs in the world. Seriously, there is no other place on earth with such a variety of perfect electronic party nights. Just give Geschwister Schuman a try to convince you:

By the way, of course the clubs around Warschauer Straße and Ostbahnhof (Berghain) are the coolest. But I was said that there is a new underground scene coming up at Ostkreuz (K-pax that you can see in the youtube stream, or about blank f.e.).

7:00 Getting a bite

Berlin is famous for Currywurst (sausage and curry dip) and Döner (doner kebab). There is no better way to leave a party. The invention of currywurst is attributed to Herta Heuwer in Berlin in 1949 after she obtained ketchup, Worcestershire sauce and curry powder from British soldiers. It's important to know that there is currywurst with sausage casing and without. Last one they eat mostly in Eastern Berlin. And because of the party is going on over there you'll probably get to know currywurst without casing;) The oldest currywurst you get at Konnopkes in Prenzlauer Berg. They introduced the currywurst to Eastern Berlin in 1960. Yeah, this is my style of sightseeing.
Döner is made of meat, salad and three sauces that vary in Germany, but in Berlin you get garlic, herb and a spicy sauce. Yummy

15:00 Getting entertained

In summertime you could chill in one of Berlin's parks or artificial beaches at the Spree. In wintertime you'll probably go to one of the after-hour-clubs. Anyway in the afternoon there is some cool stuff going on in the Mauerpark. Someone is singing over there and about 2000 people are watching him! A star? No, just an ordinary guy doing karaoke. Definitely worth seeing it!

18:00 Getting some sleep, cuz we'll start again:

00:00 Getting in the tram (...)

**Partytouren in Berlin starten wohl gegen Mitternacht in der S-Bahn. Der Osten der Stadt hat einiges zu bieten mit dem Ostkreuz als derzeitiger Geheimtipp. Eine Currywurst oder Döner nach der Party gehört genauso dazu wie das Karaokesingen im Mauerpark**

Social Media in Tourism Marketing

noreply@blogger.com (Sven Tomschin) — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 20:11:00 +0000

Me at GATE

This time I'd like to share some interesting information about a more business related topic. I was invented by the non-profit organization GATE to present on the topic "Social Media in Tourism Marketing".

Why is it important to deal with Social Media?

Why is Social Media important for the tourism industry?

What is Web 3.0 about?

Social Media in Tourism Marketing

Social Media in the Tourism Communication Process

GATE Social Media

View more presentations from vorsprung.

More information on "GATE - Netwerke, Tourismus, Kultur e.V." here (german)

**Die gepostete Präsentation macht Euch fit für die touristische Vermarktung mit Hilfe der Social Media**

Jiabao! Tell us about philosophy!

noreply@blogger.com (Sven Tomschin) — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 11:07:00 +0000

Wen Jiabao (68)
Premier of People's Republic of China

A few days ago Hu Jintao was elected to be the most powerful person on the planet (Forbes). So I think it's time for having a closer look on what the Chinese government is standing for. Lately I read about Wen Jiabao who is perceived as a liberal voice in China's ruling elite, and about his favourite reading while travelling. Adam Smith - The Theory of Moral Senitments, and Marcus Aurelius - Meditations. So maybe take a look here.

Ugh! - philosophy in short

Adam Smith was kind of a guru in my university economy courses. He is known for his thoughts about the free market. Also his book An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations gave birth to macroeconomics. So he really was a genius assuming that he wrote abouth free markets and macroeconomic in a time when there was no such thing as economic science known.

Quite up-to-date were his thoughts about the inefficiency of decreasing interest rates down to zero. Anybody remembers the FED decreasing their interest rates to 0,25% and bought $600 billion of treasuries to stimulate the American economy and avert deflation? Smith would turn his grave...

In his book Meditations he assumes that people are watching each other's actions and estimate what is good or wrong by sympathy what could be translated with having a similar culture. Actions are jugded on if they are based on commonly shared rules and morals than on benefit.

Marcus Aurelius on the other hand was a 2nd century Roman emperor. It was not easy for him ruling over the country with my great-great-etc.-great grandfathers the German tribes becoming a pain in the ass for the emire. So he started focusing on what anyone should do while there is war: writing an autobiography and dealing with stoic philosphy;)

Stoics were concerned with the active relationship between cosmic determinism and human freedom, and a life in accordance with nature. They thought that the best indication of an individual's philosophy was not what a person said but how he behaved (what is similar to what Smith said). Furthermore they believed the mind to be a "tabula rasa", so that individuals are born without built-in mental content and that their knowledge comes from experience and perception.

Aurelius himself didn't really was into Christianity and he disliked laziness and pomp.

"Get rid of the judgment, get rid of the 'I am hurt,' you are rid of the hurt itself."

"Or is it your reputation that's bothering you? But look at how soon we're all forgotten."

He cherished the expression of opinon and equal rights for anybody. To my mind this is today's second most important contribution when thinking about our modern society.

**Chinas Premierminister Wen Jiabao liest auf seinen Reisen Adam Smith und Markus Aurelius. Smiths ablehnende Haltung gegen ein Zinsverbot und Aurelius' Forderung nach freier Meinungsäußerung sind wohl immer noch sehr moderne Ansätze**

Invasive Pokémons

noreply@blogger.com (Sven Tomschin) — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 11:10:00 +0000

Half of German men can't think of a life without alcohol. Obviously it's hard for Germans not to drink alcohol in a country where there is such a broad acceptance. There are even several ways and words for having alcohol in the morning:
- Frühschoppen (drinking wine in the morning)
- Weißwurstfrühstück (wheat bear and veal sausage for breakfast)
- Sektfrühstück (breakfast with sparkling wine)
- Katerfrühstück (the hangover breakfast, lots of times combined with beer to kill the headache).

What sounds funny is dangerous in fact: The "matrix of harm" (university of Bristol) shows alcohol in the fifht place, following heroine, cocaine, hypnotics and methadone. By the way; 9th place: nicotine, 14th place: lsd, 18th (!) place: ecstasy.

Nevertheless another drug gets into our pop-culture: The cane toad. Yeah, thats the one from Simpsons:

The cane toad even got a facebook homepage. Unfortunatelly just one person likes it - not to compare with paul the octopus (1800 likes) or black beauty (30.000 likes...anybody explain me that, pls). Why is that? Well, the cane toad seems to gain popularity not because the people love its drug-producing super power, but because it is said to be the best (or worst) examples of an invasive species.

A sad/stupid story about human failure:

An introduction to Jamaica was made in 1844 in an attempt to reduce the rat population. The toad really lives on rats, but doesn't eat the big ones. So the invasion of the toad had no big influence on the rat population.

Later on the cane toad was introduced to Puerto Rico to eradicate pests from sugarcane. It seemed really to be a success and quickly they were introduced to Hawaii, Australia and a bunch of other countries. Unfortunatelly later they found out that not the cane toad but a spell of bad weather was responsable for the decrease of the pest.

Nowadays the density of the cane toad is significantly lower within its native distribution than in places where it has been introduced. The toad even takes huge steps evolutionary steps: They evolve longer legs for spreading even more quickly. Little pokémons;)

Speaking of Pokémon...

The cane toad's drug is said to be even more intense when the toad is frightened. The people from Drawn together will demonstrate this to us:

**Die Aga-Kröte sondert Sekrete ab, die einen Rausch auslösen. Sie gehört auch zu den invasiven Arten, aufgrund der Fehlannahme, sie beseitigen Ratten und Zuckerrohrplagen. Blöd gelaufen**

Pontius Pilates

noreply@blogger.com (Sven Tomschin) — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 11:36:00 +0000

There are quite interesting trends going on in Germany. The new "religion Pontius Pilates" leads people to turn their back on the pope and pray for a better body fat percentage. Means more and more people leaving the church while gyms are requiering new customers every day.

Religion in Germany is split in three - 1/3 Catholics, 1/3 Protestants, and 23,4 mio people with no religious denomination make another 1/3. In the eastern parts of Germany even 70% don't have a denomination. An all-over trend in Germany: Don't get up when the bells are ringing on a beautiful Sunday morning.

That doesn't mean that Germans are atheists, or pagans. There is almost no activism against the church or rise of other religions, except for the Muslim religion because of our friends of the growing turkish community.

When I wrote an article for the Mexican-German newsplatform Treff3 I tried to get to the bottom of this phenomenon (See article: http://bit.ly/bVwKix). I asked a few 50+ what happened to their faith. Mostly the answer was that religion simply was no longer part of their daily life in former Eastern Germany. For example seculare facilities replaced religious institutions. Of course, there was some governmental passive aggression but in fact believing in God never was a forbidden act. In the end people stopped on their own believing in God - the same what happens in Western Germany today.

The castle where my brother got married

Recently I was asked: "But where are you Germans get married then?". The answer is: In lifeguard towers!;)

A few years ago people got married in a small not very chic room in the public authority. It was so small that members of the family had to wait outside and of course there was no rice throwing in the corridors in there. But in the last years people discovered great places to get married. Obviously there are a lot of castles in Germany. The fun fact is that you can get married in a lot of them. But also churches start to wed people with no denomination. And in Binz where I come from you can get married in a lifeguard tower. So how fun is that?

Getting married in a lifeguard tower -
isn't there a children's dream
coming true?

**Zu einem Drittel haben die Deutschen keinen Glauben. Ein steigender Trend. Aber wo heiraten die Ungläubigen? Na in Rettungstürmen natürlich;)**

E-Commerce in China

noreply@blogger.com (Sven Tomschin) — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 12:34:00 +0000

E-commerce in China

View more presentations from vorsprung.

Just a few facts already convince of the importance for comapanies to play their role in the rise of e-commerce in China.

--> 420 million internet users in China
--> 97 million users in Social Networks
--> 140 million Chinese netizens will shop online by the end of 2010

This presentation is about the development of Chinese e-commerce, the Web 2.0 landscape, the target groups and their online commitment and gives implication on e-marketing in China.

**Die Präsentation gibt einen Überblick über den E-Commerce in China**

Let's celebrate Bavaria's poverty!

noreply@blogger.com (Sven Tomschin) — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 10:13:00 +0000

Bavarian white sausage, sweet mustard
and wheat bear - a typical German meal?

What to wear when there are 40°C in Bali? Leather pants!

Germans are not really into their own culture. That is why we know a lot better to dance children songs than traditional dances. That is why about 90% don't know how to sing the national anthem. That is why festivals with no deeper meaning (Carneval, Oktoberfest) are a lot more successful than festivals with a historical background.

Anyway when we were asked at a wedding in Indonesia to "wear something German" almost everyone had something traditional on. Few wore soccer shirts - kind of a traditional dress as well:) But why do we discover our cultural conscious only when we are in foreign countries or/and totally drunken? The answer is: For Germans traditions are fun. But not more.

I read an article saying that without prejudices from abroad there was no national identity. Even more astonishing seemed the following statement to me: "Succesful development of a national identity is to reframe negative prejudices into positive ones as long as everone has forgotten that those constructed qualities aren't self-made".

I'm not an expert in ethnology but I'm a bit into tourism. And there are really a variety of examples for creating something what seems to be special out of something that isn't special at all:)

Still my favourite king:
Ludwig I.

The best and most well-known German example is the Oktoberfest. Allthough it is already 200 years old it has not so much to do with German tradition. Bavary was one of the poorest regions 200 years ago. Mainly farmers living there who produced a lot of beer. What sounds awesome today was nothing special in those times. Beer was the poorer people's drink. That is why when Ludwig I. got married to Therese in 1810 he not only invited people from almost everywhere in Bavaria but also offered wine - what was a lot posher those days. The festival was repeated the year after but it got a bit costly to offer wine again. That is why it became a beer festival. Also poorer people qualities (drinking, knocking other people out etc.) became now the "good Bavarian qualities". So in fact nowadays we celebrate Bavaria's poverty and a penny-pinching king;)

Or what about people in Berlin know for their sharp tounge ("Berliner Schnauze"). So they are known to be unfriendly, brash, naughty, crude, rough - and those qualities are seen to be the Berlin experience. Hilariuos;)

Celebrating traditions

Or let me give you an example from where I come from. That reagion is known for a certain language called Low German (Plattdeutsch). In fact I don't know anybody speaking that language. The government even had to pass an anti-discrimination law so that people could fill in documents in public administrations in Low German. But when it comes to tourism there are How-to-speak-Low German-courses, events with traditional dances and you can buy traditional clothing at souvenir shops. Those clothes we don't even wear when we go to Oktoberfest-alike festivals in Northern Germany (Kieler Woche).

So maybe this is a German thing. Let's enjoy the real foreign traditions then and have a few Doner Kebab (Turkey), Sangría (Spain) and dance a little Sirtaki (Greece)...

**Es ist schon eine lustige Sache, regionale recht negativ besetzte Eigenschaften für den Tourismus in positive Traditionen umzuwandeln. Oktoberfest, Berliner Schnauze und das Hochhalten der plattdeutschen Sprache, die eh niemand spricht**

A 250km Flight

noreply@blogger.com (Sven Tomschin) — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 11:53:00 +0000

How I like those evenings sitting together with my father, having a beer and talking about the old days. Yesterday he told me the story about te flight of his mother Hildegard Tomschin from former Prussia (what is mostly Poland now) to Germany. An interesting story I like to share with you.

It was the year 1944 - in not more than a year after the Second World War was over. The people in Prusia started to flee to Germany fearing the Russian Red Army. My grandpa had to fight in the German army and therefore my grandma hat to flee on her own - accompanied by three little children. My father wasn't born yet. She started her flight in Potęgowoto and settled down in Heringsdorf in the end - a distance of more than 250 km! 250 km westwards during wintertime sleeping in barns, barracks or near the road.

Flight from (A) Potęgowo to (C) Heringsdorf via (B) Świnoujście. Binz in the upper left side is where my parents live today.

She came to Świnoujście in April 1945. The month before Potęgowoto was conquered by the Red Army. Świnoujście had a big harbour and lots of refugees got on board of of the ships there. Unfortunatelly there was this night when the Allied Forces sent 650 American bombers to Świnoujście. The bombs took away the life of 22.000 people. My grandma wanted to get on board of one of the ships the same night. But the ships were overcrowded so she couldn't get on any of them. She hat to go on further by feet and heard the bombs fall.

8 km further she settled down in Heringdorf and fortunatelly the war was over soon. Let's hope that those unbelievabe stories will never repeat again.

**Meine Oma Hildegard Tomschin ist über 250km im Winter von Potęgowoto nach Heringsdorf geflohen. Eine der unglaublichen Geschichten die einen hoffen lassen, dass uns so etwas nie erneut widerfahren wird**

Coffee is fattening?!

noreply@blogger.com (Sven Tomschin) — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 09:04:00 +0000

I adore every single of my several cups of coffee a day. What I don't like is watching my abdomen grow (especially after weddings, holidays and weekends at my parent's). Yesterday I read that coffee hinders the uptake of iron into the blood and therefore leeds to hunger attacks.

Reiner loves coffee..obviously

So I tried to get a little bit more information about if I really should stop drinking coffee if I wasn't really into looking like Reiner Calmund. And the results are promising. There are a few studies stating out that coffee has no effect on blood pressure, pulse rate or the level of blood sugar. Luckily science people could also stop with those myths that coffee boosts the cholesterol level, favors gastric ulcers and withdraws water from the body.

But there is a variety of advantages (sports+drinking coffee). It increases the fat burn and the metabolism. And the most important thing: It gets you a kick in the ass at times you're too tired for doing sports. And seriously: Doing sports more often should be better for the abdomen than some hunger attacks made in iron-no man's land:)

There are just the ones who say, you're missing some deep levels of sleep when drinking coffee late at night. And there is evidence that tired people eat more in the course of a day.
But who is drinking coffee at night? It's time for beer then!*haha

**Kaffee soll die Eiseneinlagerung behindern und somit zu Hungerattacken führen. Glücklicherweise wiegen die positiven Merkmale von Kaffeetrinken diese wieder auf**

Why I dislike woman's quota in flash mob management

noreply@blogger.com (Sven Tomschin) — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 10:11:00 +0000

Another woman took her seat in a DAX company's management board. That makes...two!
Therefore the number of women in highest management positions doubled since April this year. That's kind of positive, isn't it?;)

In Germany we are confronted with a variety of gender issues theese days. To my mind it's a very important thing to support women to occupy higher management positions. But is a politically enforced women's quota really necessary?

A McKinsey study pointed out, that "diverse companies" generate profits that are 48% above average. I just give you an -->!<-- for that and I can tell out of experience why is that. While my studies I often enjoyed working together with women. By the way: International Tourism Management is a course that would need a men's quota;) So working intergender-ly is often quite a lot more complicated. As a man it is hard to walk the narrow line between beeing polite and getting heard his opinion without getting accused to be a total jerk. But always I was astonished about the very good results..

I like to give my most challenging but successful projects as an example. Yes, I was accused to be a total bitch*haha We had to develop a new marketing idea and fastly we decided to investigate whether a flash mob could be a possible marketing tool or not. Our first result was: it couldn't. But then (1 day before presentation) one of the girls started arguing that of course it could be the case. My kind of male thinking was: "Stop it. We're finished. Let's add some nice pictures to the presentation and say that it wasn't possible". But this is not how it works for women.. So we discussed at first and screamed in the end;) But well, as a result we had this presentation at the ITB Tourism fair in Berlin about a new interesting product and generated a hugh media echo.

"We would like to develop a concept for a flash mob tour by taking advantage of the fact that flash mobs can be a form of travel. Core product remains a flah mob but we like to develop a touristic frame." Great stuff and the economy doesn't stop seeing flash mobs as a useful ad gag. Today I discovered the newest T-Mobile ad: http://www.tnooz.com/2010/10/27/news/flash-mob-at-london-heathrow-airport-social-media-fodder/

When working together with women brings so many advantages why shouldn't be there more of them in higher management positions?
I think that'll change in a few years. Here is my theory:

There is an Austrian study pointing out that women AND men in higher management positions not only acting in an androgynous way. They also look like that and therefore look-alike;) Some advertisment in the latest edition of Men's helth kept me thinking that there really is a change in society and how men more and more expressing well their female side:) Two examples

So following the saying birds of a feather flock together I think in the future it doesn't make any difference whether you're female or male. It's important to be androgynous;)

**Zusammenarbeit mit Frauen ist nicht immer leicht, aber meistens erfolgreich. Meine Theorie: Frauenquoten kommen längst zu spät weil mittlerweise ein gesellschaftlicher Wandel zumindest im Management eingesetzt hat; weg vom Geschlechterkampf hin zum androgynen Miteinander. Mal sehen, was das der Mode bringt**

Replacing Paul - but with whom?

noreply@blogger.com (Sven Tomschin) — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 08:39:00 +0000

The saddest thing in Post-World Cup-Germany just have happened: Paul the octopus died. You know this was this stylish little feller who predicted 8 soccer games during the World Cup 2010 correctly - a probability of 0.39%.

Reading in tears all the news about Paul I recognized he was not the only animal predicting soccer games. There was hamster Hansi as well. And Mani, the parrot from Singapore. But in the end all of the others couldn't predict Germany getting beaten by the Spaniards. Neither could almost 80 million people in Germany...

So now here is my question: Who could replace Paul?

Thinking about it I've listed up the most important two points the follower should inherit:

1. I don't like octopuses. Seriously I don't. But Paul really made me liking those little bastards. Well as long they stay that dwarfish as Paul was. So The new oracle has some kind of responsibility. Stop people from thinking about their race to be ugly;) So my recommendation is to search for an inheritor who wasn't able to win a Heidi Klum look-alike-contest.

2. It should be an animal. That narrows our sample a lot. The point above made me think of a variety of Germans, mainly politicians;)

So now I'd like to introduce the two finalists:

There we got star-nosed mull (Sternmull) from Canada.

This animal the title of fastest-eating mammals, taking as short as 120 milliseconds (average: 227 milliseconds) to identify and consume individual food items. These moles also possess the ability to smell underwater, accomplished by exhaling air bubbles onto objects or scent trails and then inhaling the bubbles to carry scents back through the nose.

This is great: it smells underwater. So we can keep the Paul's old aquarium!

Mull's competitors: chironomids (Zuckmücken). You think those midgets aren't that funny than the star-nosed mega star? Well, in fact they produce nitrous oxide (laughing gas) from fertilizer in lakes where they are living in. So I could imagine some funny predicition ceremonies: Two aquaria each filled with food from traditional food where the soccer teams are from. So when Germany plays against Spain that would be Sausage vs. Paella. Now get a few people around the aquaria and wait on which side the people are laughing first. That would be fun just watching it;)

So, which animal is your favourite?

**Wer wird der Nachfolger von Paul? Ein hässliches Tier mit Orakelmacht, klar. Aber welches? Mein Vorschlag: Sternmull (kann in Millisekundenteil mit 12 Nasententakeln Essen ertasten, auch unter Wasser) oder Zuckmücken. Diese lassen aus Dünger Lachgas entstehen. Daraus lassen sich lustige Ziehungen entwickeln;)**

Some kind of cultural "treasury" - Gamelan

noreply@blogger.com (Sven Tomschin) — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 08:34:00 +0000

This morning I got up, had a coffee (of course) and turned psyradio.fm. Thats an internet radio devoted to electronic music. Very good music indeed, but listening to this certain song this strange feeling from Bali came creeping back to me. First, let me explain it to you. So there is this very let's say interesting music going on in every corner of Bali.
Uno, dos, tres, cuatro: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRS13e5R8GI

Nice, isn't it? So one day we went to the mall in Kuta. Personally I don't like malls that much - I don't know why but I always loose my company. This time it took me about 2 hours finding the others. Of course in every corner you could hear this BINGBINGBINGBING. Next morning (and a great night of party behind us) in the lobby we hear BINGBINGBING. In the afternoon we had this nice ceremony. Guess what: BINGBINGBING.

So this morning I got up, had a coffee (of course) and turned psyradio.fm. And now compare the following song with the song above. What do you thing? Sounds nice for a German song, doesn't it?;)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDQPVXUegPs

Follow me!

noreply@blogger.com (Sven Tomschin) — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 07:49:00 +0000

@vor_sprung

Wedding in Indonesia - Indian Customs

noreply@blogger.com (Sven Tomschin) — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 16:53:00 +0000

Go India!

The most beautiful bride and Burgitta from HK

First to say: India is not so much Bollywood then I thought. The party folk wasn't doing Indian linedance all the time*haha Although the Bollywood-alike-dances we shared were really fun. Furthermore the dresses were beautiful. And the food astonishing good (my most favourite: Dosa-->yummy).

When there are no gloves at hand...

But the greatest thing was to take part in the different Indian ceremonies. Not only, that the Indian guys looked great in their otufits (well, we were suited Indian-style the first night as well*hehe). The rituals were great:

So there was this one ritual where in the end the groom got his clothes ripped of. That was crazy! Nevertheless the jeans wasn't the best choice Ravi!;) There was the other one, where the mother fed his little boy the last time. And there was the one where I played a little part in.

Me with my new sister

Imagine a great Oktoberfest-pool-partynight. Of course we stayed as long as possible at/in the pool (unfortunatelly my camera did so as well...). So I really enjoyed sitting next to the ceremony the next morning. Suddenly I heard people shouting my name. What a shock! So the thing is there was a male family member of the bride needed. Because the bride's father wasn't really into washing the groom's feet with milk, I had to do my part as "spiritual brother". So I blessed the happy couple with flowers, smoke from fire and by touching their heads. Feels great to have a new Sis;)

**Halten wir mal fest zum Thema Indien: leckeres Essen, lustige Leute mit Hang zum Feiern und sehr farbenfrohen Ritualen. Mein persönlicher Höhepunkt war das Teilnehmen an der indischen Hochzeit als "spiritueller Bruder", da ein männlicher Verwandter der Braut gebraucht wurde, nachdem der Vater nicht wirklich Lust hatte, dem Bräutigam die Füße mit Milch zu waschen**

Wedding in Indonesia - German Customs

noreply@blogger.com (Sven Tomschin) — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 10:11:00 +0000

The beautiful bridesmades and -mate

Great great Bali

So this is my new blog starting with one of my most breathtaking journeys I've ever made. Breathtaking because of the very beautiful island Bali/Indonesia but also because we never stopped dancing while my best friend Irmela's wedding. She as a German got married to her Indian groom Ravi and altogether we enjoyed the most common customs of both cultures. What a fun this has been!

So we came to the wedding and after a short while our let's say luxury problems began: "I know I just went swimming in the sea. But it's so hot. I think I might go to the pool now as well":) The fact that in Germany cars drive on the right site let to kind of interesting conversations as well: "Watch out! The cars go on the wrong site of the road! And on the other site of the road as well!...Uh"

Dancing Matcon-Glow

In the very first night we all could experience the most visible connection between Germans and Indians: both like partying. A lot. The whole night. The coolest moments we shared together were dancing some funny German dances. To give you a clue what is meant by that I'll post the instruction to a song called "Fliegerlied". Britney, let's go: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DB33L5-H3-A&feature=related

Bride and broom

Yeah, Germans really do have strange things going on on a wedding. For example there is the porcelain-smashing-thing. So you bring broken porcelain, throw it on the ground (obviously the porcelain should break) and the happy couple has to clean it up. Eventually the bride and the groom become bride and broom *hahahah

Or what about this: Bride and groom compete against each other by cutting out a heart painted on a bed sheet. The one who cuts out his/her half of the heart last, looses and has to wear the partner right through the resulting hearty hole. Fortunatelly Ravi let Irmela win this time;)

**Die Hochzeit meiner Freundin Irmela mit ihrem indischen Freund Ravi gab uns die Möglichkeit, deutsche Bräuche zu vermitteln: Polternacht, Bacheloretteparty, Fliegerliedtanzen, Herz auschneiden***