Grapes of Wreath

Achievements of last week: The future of another country has been set back for a couple of years and Israel will be hated furiously for an extra generation.
Plans for this week: Meet Condoleezza for a cup of tea

It's another Monday morning to ask yourself: What the f*** is wrong with the Middle East?
A pilgerzone for maniacs, a diadvantaged area under problematic environmental conditions or a historical troublespot of cultural borderlines? You choose!
Only one thing I assume can be said for sure as an advice to the region: If the bombing story didn't work out in the last 50 years to get neither rid of Israel nor of Israel's enemies - why for God's sake (you choose, again) should it work now? Ever heard of trial and error? War is stupid but in an age of anti-enlightenment terrorist-paranoia that seems difficult to communicate!

Mallorca? Ibiza? - No Way

Dear Friends,

I am in Berlin, its warm and sunny.
People are nice and the food is good and goedkoop!
A summer in Berlin can turn out to be a real holiday experience! The latest fashion are the beaches along the Spree. They come along in different styles from Raggae to Wild West or classical Bier Garten flair.
The temperatures are great and the city has a lot of swimming facilities to offer.
I admit that all this is not a proper Mediterranean and the food and drinks are far from exotic, but on the other hand Berlin stands out with its large variety of music/ bars/ museums/ clubs/ beer/ a panda/ easily accessable drugs/ people with a funny accent/ boars/ war memorials/ confused street numbers and supernatural phenomenas
Which holiday resort has all this to offer? ;-)

Greetings Sarah

Christopher Street Day

After the revival of the Love Parade last weekend it was time again for the Christopher Street Day on Saturday! The difference between these two events was not realy obviously though. The political message was a bit drowned out by techno music, exhibitionism and fetishism but it might well be that there is less necessity of political messages. German gays are probably confronted with less hostilities than in the past or even some neighbouring countries. But since adoptions and equal treatment of cohabitations still has not been established some work remains to be done.

Lets get this started

Dont expect too much from the blogging issue, I am more convinced of good old emails but I will keep you uptodate of my where-about and put some pictures on when I am in Hongkong.

I left Maastricht at the beginning of July and enjoy the atmosphere in Berlin!
The last couple of weeks in good old Limburg were pretty emotional, a weird type of good-bye-atmosphere, wasn't it?

A summer of most extreme temperatures and a great city awaited me! Beside my current home being a nice place with a lot of summer options I am doing an internship at a company, for a first time no social stuff! Though I think I'll return to what I know best and I'm convinced of!

So far I can't say that I am very excited about the whole going-abroad story; that will only start a week bevore I fly off, so: I let you know!