Cynophobia

Hello Sunshine!

Welcome back to my blog on the official beginning of spring!
As you know, I've been to Berlin last week. I prepared a little video for you to share my experience, check it out :)

What did you think about my trip to Berlin? How do you prepare for leaving university? Do you want to do a master? Do you want to work immediately? How do you apply for jobs? What about you people already in the working world? What advices do you have?
 

And now, what am I so extremely afraid of? Dogs! Cynophobia is the fear of dogs. And please don't laugh. It is not just this little sensible fear or caution, it is a phobia so extreme that it really affects my life. I live right next to the river Rhine, but I can't remember the last time I went down to the river bank. For years I voluntarily haven't stepped foot into a park, forest or similar area where you usually happen to see dogs. Before meeting new people for the first time I always ask if they have dogs. I cross the street if I see one. Even if that means crisscrossing over and over again. Once I even jumped in front of a bus, because there was a dog on the pavement running towards me, or rather running in my direction, not necessarily towards me. The threat of a massive moving vehicle seemed smaller to me than the inexplicable threat of the dog. I can't describe why I am so afraid or what I am afraid of. Because it's not as easy as you think, when I panic I don't imagine the dog biting or attacking me, so to all you dog-owners telling me that it's okay, that your dog doesn't do anything and just wants to play, that doesn't help or calm me down, because that is not what I'm afraid of. Just the thought of the dog running towards me is almost unbearable. I am scared of literally all animals. I don't stroke cats or any other pets. But what I feel when I see a dog puts my fear of animals onto a whole new level, it is simply inexplicable. But I am determined to change that.
Does anybody else have a fear so extreme and indescribable as mine? Or does anyone else suffer from cynophobia?

Tomorrow is the start of my finals. I am REALLY nervous about that. We finished lectures on Thursday and now it's just my final exams, my Bachelor Thesis and hopefully job interviews. Wish me luck! By the way, I haven't told you the topic of my thesis yet. I am going to write about England as a tourism destination. My question is going to be "To what extent does the German perception of England reduce it to London, stereotypes and prejudices?". What do you think? For all my German readers, I will post the link to my survey as soon as possible, and you would make me very happy if you could answer it.
Due to my exams and Easter I will upload my next entry in two weeks time. I hope you don't mind. I'll see you all soon! And I'm wishing you Happy Easter and lovely holidays (if you happen to actually get some time off)!

Love you

Jen

 Can you believe it???!!! The first step in the right direction!!!! So overwhelmed!!

Checkpoint: Springtime

The first quarter of the year is almost over, let's see how we are doing so far!
I have successfully finished my semester abroad in Spain, I have worked to catch up the classes I missed in Germany and I am currently preparing for my upcoming finals. My boyfriend applied for a master in Coventry, Glasgow, Manchester and Edinburgh and has already been accepted unconditionally at two of the universities and conditionally at another one. I have also started to apply for several jobs in those cities and have recently been to a brunch at the career loft in Berlin as well as to the ITB, Internationale Tourismus Börse Berlin, the World's leading travel trade show, to get some information, to build connections and to apply for jobs. So I guess in that part I / we have been very successful. I also continued to eat healthy, muesli, yoghurt, fruit and vegetable snacks at uni, smoothies and healthy meals in general. I don't drink any, seriously not any, unhealthy drinks. I don't like any fizzy drinks, so that already excludes most soft drinks, and most juices are too sweet for my preferences. So if I drink juices, I only drink the 100% fruit ones and mix them with water. I can't drink coffee because the acid makes my tummy hurt. My only weakness is ice tea. But I can live without it, especially since the sugar and caffeine make me feel a little bit dizzy. So I don't drink anything unhealthy. On the contrary, I drink loads of water and tea (not really tea, because it's neither black nor green tea, but mostly herbal infusions). I drink about 2.5 litres a day, and that is really what all of you should be drinking. Okay, I lied, my other weakness is strawberry milk. I love love love it! But I only drink it on special occasions, such as when I need more motivation to study for my exams. If I want to drink something different I prefer kefir, buttermilk, whey, ayran or lassi, which are all dairy products, but completely different from drinking milk. Kefir is originally a Russian drink. It is really thick and slightly carbonated due to a process of fermentation of the milk. It has lower milk sugar and actually helps people with a lactose intolerance. Buttermilk is a low fat by-product of the butter production with zero dietary fibres. Two bottles of buttermilk, or 1l, cover the whole daily consumption of Vitamine B2, B5 and B12 as well as calcium, potassium and phosphate. Whey is a watery and almost fat free by-product of the cheese or curd production. Many athletes use it to support muscle growth; it is a really good drink for after your work-out, and definitely more natural than those powder protein shakes. Contrary to kefir you should not drink it if you suffer from lactose intolerance. But it can help regulate the blood sugar for people with type 2 diabetes. Ayran is the Turkish national drink made from yoghurt, water and salt. Very similar is the Indian drink lassi which helps digest the spicy food. You can drink it sweet (with puréed fruits, typically mango) or sour (with cardamom and cumin). As you might guess from the four previous drinks I prefer the savoury version. What else? I have signed up to a gym where I can also go swimming and take part in the classes, such as yoga or Pilates. And I am really motivated to get fit this year! Since I can remember I had problems falling asleep, and I mean serious problems. The absolute worst time was when I was about 14, 15 years old. I lay awake in bed almost all night, terrified, don't ask what I was scared about, I don't know, but I was absolutely terrified, sometimes even too scared to just move a tiny bit and turn on the lights. After a couple of hours I usually fell asleep out of sheer exhaustion. But it got better. From 16 to 20 I at least wasn't scared anymore. I still found it almost impossible to fall asleep, but I wasn't afraid anymore. And recently things improved even more. I still take about two hours to fall asleep, but I am more or less relaxed during that process, unlike before, when I was incredibly nervous and constantly had to move and turn around, because it was almost painful not to move. And I am so thankful that now I can lie in bed relaxed. But I am still trying every method there is to fall asleep. Herbal infusions and valerian help me a lot. I am also trying various meditation methods and really hope that my holidays in an ashram in Nepal will finally teach me how to meditate, to relax and to fall asleep. And I hope that this will enable me to reach my goal for next year. Yes, I already have a goal for 2017: I want to face my fears. What exactly does that mean for me? I'll tell you next time!
Since a few months I am really into meditation and living healthy and I am currently learning a lot about Ayurveda. So I hope I can share my knowledge and experiences with you soon! But I can already tell you one thing: Remember when at the beginning of the year I told you to get up early, between 8 and 9? That is really just the first step. We all should get up even earlier than that in order to live healthy and fully enjoy the day and live up to our full potential - Carpe diem! So I am currently trying to always get up before 8 o'clock.
How are you doing?

And now, since I love ice tea so much, I want to tell you how you can prepare it yourself without sugar or flavour enhancers.

1.    Prepare 1,5l of black tea.
For a fresh and summery flavour I highly recommend Lady Grey, Kusmi Prince Vladimir or similar Russian blends. I used Prince of Wales, a smoked black tea.

2.    Add the juice of half a lemon.
(If you want to add sugar, do it now while the tea is still hot, and don't  use more than one tablespoon.) I used lime and no sugar.

3.    Let it cool down for two hours.

4.    Put it in the fridge for another two hours.

5.    Add ice cubes and serve. Enjoy!

Since I firmly believe you should not drink any caffeinated drinks after 3PM I recommend you prepare the tea in the evening, so that it can cool down over night and you can enjoy it the next day.

What do you think? Do you have any secret tricks for healthy living? I have also tried several smoothies. Are you interested in recipes?

See you soon

Jen

The Lake District and Cumbria in general

I used to call Cumbria my home for about two years. When I was 16 I moved to Boarding School in England to do my IB. I lived in a teeny tiny village in the countryside. And the nature up North is just so beautiful! Vast green meadows with sheep and cows, hills from which you can enjoy the view over kilometres of beauty and tranquillity. Meadows, lakes, the seaside, hills, mountains, beautiful little villages, there is just so much to see and to do in the Lake District. I lived right next to the Lake District and next to a tiny little bay almost like mudflat. This area is ideal for hiking trips or long walks on a public footpath. There is so much to see! Morecambe Bay, Arnside, Grange-over-Sands, Levens Hall and of course a million different walks. The nearest city was Kendal, a pretty small town. You can also do excursions to Lancaster or Ingleton Waterfalls, which are really close to Cumbria as well.

Mudflat hiking tour to Chapel Island June 2011

Arnside

The railway bridge between Arnside and Grange-over-Sands

 

 

 

 

Ingleton Waterfalls

Levens Hall

 

Heversham

This photo was taken between Milnthorpe, Heversham and Levens, somewhere in the meadows. But this is what the nature looks like everywhere up there in Cumbria. So green, so vast, so peacefull! I used to walk these meadows almost every day for two years.

Kendal with my boyfriend Marc September 2015

Last September, just after finishing my internship in Lanzarote my boyfriend and I went on vacation in England. We drove by car from Cologne to Calais, took the ferry and then continued our journey to Oxford, where we spent two nights. It is a beautiful but very expensive city with a lot of interesting buildings and monuments, including the University of Oxford of course. We met up with my roommate from when I was living at Boarding School and had a lovely, sunny day. Then we continued to drive up North, to our actual destination Windermere, where we stayed in this adorable Bed & Breakfast. We spent a wonderful week doing all the touristy sightseeing, visiting my old school and home, meeting up with my "neighbour" from Boarding School, trekking through the nature, simply enjoying ourselves! This was the very first time my boyfriend had been to the UK and the main purpose was for me to show him everything so that he could make up his mind whether or not he wants to do his master over there. Obviously there are so many more places like London, the rest of England, Scotland, Wales... But I think showing him my favourite places with enthusiasm is the most convincing, and it worked, because he applied to four universities in England and Scotland. So let's see how everything is going to work out!

Lake Windermere

Orrest Head (Windermere)

 

 

Bowness

 

Morecambe / Morecambe Bay

We visited Windermere, Bowness and Ambleside at Lake Windermere, bought handmade fudge and spent our evenings in the pubs, eating the typical pub food such as Chicken Tikka Masala, Steak and Ale Pie, Fish and Chips, Sunday Roast, etc. , taking part in the quiz night and playing our little travel Monopoly. We had so much fun! We went on a long walk and day trip to Arnside, Milnthorpe, Heversham and Levens, the area where I used to live. Everything still looks exactly the same, it was just like coming home again! We visited Lancaster and went shopping, a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do. :D

 

Kirkstone Pass

There are just so many cute little sheep in England, up in the mountains they also happen to block the street sometimes or walk alongside your car. We decided we wanted to enjoy some more of the beautiful nature and drove to Lake Buttermere for a nice walk. We had some lovely sunny days and some absolutely grey and rainy days, but we made the best out of it.  We went to Kendal to meet up with my friend and go to the museum. We stayed almost an entire day at Holehird Gardens in Windermere and we drove up to Penrith and the nearby stone circle Long Meg and her daughters. After a week we had to say goodbye again and drive down to Dover. But all in all we had a great time!

More sheep

Lake Buttermere

Penrith

Long Meg and her daughters

And more sheep hehehe

Holehird Gardens

 

View from Holehird Gardens over the Lake District

It is such a beautiful and diverse garden, I could put a million more photos, I absolutely fell in love with it, but I don't want to bore you, so I'll just end it here.

There are so many possible excursions you can do in Cumbria! You can go on a boat trip on Lake Windermere, you can hike up to the highest mountain of England - Scafell Pike, you can visit Carlise and its castle, Furness Abbey, Haverthwaite Railway Museum, Sizergh Castle, Ullswater and so much more!

I really hope you are as much in love with Cumbria and the Lake District in particular as I am! I'll end this with two last photos.

See you next time

Jen

xx

 

Haverthwaite Railway Museum