Barcelona

Yes, I know I have been rather neglective of this block lately. But hey, I am a busy women. Translations at work and lots of lots of working papers waiting for me at home ;-)

Plus, we've been on vacations. And I DID NOT take my computer with me!
AND I only went ONCE into an internet café for 30 min! And all this within a whole week. Why? We went to Barcelona. And look at this: it is a CITY! Not a tiny little village (sorry, Flensburg). And we had great weather. And a beach. And did a lot of research... that's the place we want to live!
This is one of the beaches we went to. About 1.5 hours from Barcelona, in Blanes. Good friends have family there and invited us for a day out of the big city. It was nice. I like small pueblos at the beach... as long as it is contemporary (say, for max. a week) and 30°C.
And this was the BEST paella I had in my life. EVER! Cheers to aunt Flora! You certainly made our day! (Oh, showmaster Tony as well... of course. Next time it's your turn to cook, jeje).

new challenges ahead

just to let you know who has been occupying my time after the exams:
tadaaaaaaaaa!
Me proudly presents: Pacco. The newest family member. (The hedgehog is just visiting)

June 12th: Dia dos Namorados

Brazilian Valentine's Day, remember?Plus a romantic dinner in a French Bistrôt (any memories on french Bistrôts).
Loved it.

Brazil World Tour: Brazil - Turkey

So, this is the proof. We went to the game. And we prepared this beautiful, beautiful linen. And nevertheless GLOBO DID NOT FILM US!
So, let me restate: Mum, Dad, we are on the internet. Ricardo and ValentinaAnd in fact we should have been a very special point in this white-red demonstration. There were about 21.000 people in the stadio (almost empty, there is place for 80.000, but the tickets were far too expensive), and I guess that about 20.500 were turcs. Roughly.
Yeah, the humilating result was 0:0. Although before the game my father and my husband were betting on 5:0 and 4:0 respectively (that would make 9:0?). At least I got to show off my beautiful flag! And summer is coming!

Ready... Steady... Aquarium

So, basically we have
1 Black Molly (in the picture) --> she is the boss in town.
1 princess (also in the picture, above the Black Molly). I have no clue which fish that is, but she acts like a queen.
2 clown loaches (Prachtschmerle) --> the black/white striped one, left side of the picture
6 Platys, (2 orange, 2 yellow, 2 chequered)
2 frogs
and 2 sheatfishes (the bigger one already has a name: Cesar. He is kind of shy).

Birthday - food and presents (and me)

So, last week was Ric's birthday. And you know, it is soooo difficult to come up with a suitable idea for male birthday presents. But this year, I was lucky. He mentioned once that some day he would LOVE to have an aquarium with some sharks and other sinister monsters. Well, he won't be able to put sharks in here, but at least some similar fishes (which preferably like sweet water, don't demand more than 60x30x30 cm , don't eat meat AND are about 1-3 cm long...)
So, in case you were searching the fishes... there are no fishes yet. Only next week, when we are hopefully sure, that the plants did survive the water, so the fishes will do either.


And this was the food for the official birthday party. Well, part of it. And the legitimate Guaraná is missing, because when taking the picture it was still in the refrigerator. So, we had chocolate cake (my speciality, not really Brazlian though), beijinhos e brigadeiros, pao de queijo with goiaba marmelade and, of course... caipirinha.
I think I have never eaten as much Brazilian food as I do now in Germany. Today we went to another friends house for lunch and had rice with beans and "espetinhos" (shashlik?). VERY tasteful.

Oh, and so you don't forget what I look like... this is me. With glasses for a change...

sun - sand - spring?

Note that these photos were taken in late APRIL! Global warming has had some nice consequences up here so far...

Scroll down until you find the beginning

So, to see the wedding in its sequence, scroll down until the pre-wedding-party. And then go up post-by-post...
Have fun reading and commenting...

The Day - the end

No further comments... but if you are interested to see other comments on the wedding, don't hesitate to visit my husbands blog: http://ricardocruz.wordpress.com/

He happened to be at the wedding too ;-)

The Day - Dancing

As in every wedding, the first dance was a waltz with Ricardo. Which I will spare you here, because waltz is really not our dance. Which is different with my dad, who still dances VERY good. So, first a waltz with my dad and then...

THE Salsa (Vivir lo Nuestro by Marc Anthony y la India) with Ricardo. In the long version.... and then we did some Salsa lessons, and some Merengue lessons and danced and chilled and talked and partied and had a great time.
With half of the people speaking Portuguese AND German, about 1/4 German and English, 1/5 Portuguese and English and some in between with all the languages mixed up in their heads...
So Julia: could you please translate from German to German for me ;-)






And in the end... chilling out (you can't wear a looooong wedding dress the whole night) with the perfect bridesmaid/witness, Kimberly. I am really happy that you came! You just make the party perfect!

The Day - Traditions

They tried to get the idea of a wedding cake out of my head by any means: you can't make it by yourself, it will be too costly, too much time, don't stress...
And in the end: it was all to surprise us with this WONDERFULL three-storey-wedding cake make by Anja and (mostly I understood) by her mom. You both REALLY surprised us and we loved it! The cake survived about 10 min after we took the first cut... too taste to be left alone it was devoured almost immediately. That's what a cake has to be.

Next stop: getting rid of the blue garter. Ricardo did his bet to get it off my stockings, almost without biting me. Than I threw it behind my back with all the unmarried men (which means: ALL present men apart from my husband (uaaaaaaah!) and my dad) behind me.
My brother (and witness/groomsmate) Daniel was the lucky one (?) to catch it. Now he has one year to get married, they told him. Which got him to answer one of the guests to be his bride. She hasn't answered yet, although he offered a big freezer to her when he moves to Shanghai...


The bouquet was thrown almost immediately afterwards. This time Susann was the lucky one (not hesitating to inform her boyfriend about this happening almost on the spot by sms. So here you see Susann, Daniel, me and Ricardo (and my boots).

The Day - More Games

Next step, selling the underwear we got the night before. The young man in this picture I am trying to sell the hot pink pants to was not as delighted as he seems on the pic. Actually he was even kind of rude, even though I offered him the customized PINK underwear and even the matching bikini-part for his girlfriend. He went away without taking anything. But I had some fun showing off my sailsperson talent I somehow gained during my time in the call-center selling electricity.

And just for you to know: We had almost everything in our little basket. Only that it was raining so hard, that few people were in the park. Even Borussia-fans were scarce, so we only sold 5 pieces and then went home for the next topic our magic wedding planner Vanessa (THANK YOU! YOU ARE THE BEST!) had prepared for us.


And this time it was: red and white balloons. Every guest received a card to write his/her wishes for the newly-wed and tie it to the balloon (the card, not the couple). Then they were altogether sent into the sky. Such a romantic thing to look at. Although I am still curious what people wrote on their cards...

The Day - Games and more

So, this is what a happy bride looks like. One that still has a lot of plans in her head but is ready to face them all...

Be aware world, I am coming. And now I am in two!
















And with me are my powerfull wedding-boots. A present from my caring mom that would not have her daughter running around in the park in the middle of march (which is NOT spring yet, although the flowers thought so) in open sandals.

Next step: cutting our way through a bed-linen in heart-shape. What you can't see in the photo: we were handcuffed. But that did no harm, as I simply pulled Ricardos left hand as far as I needed my right hand to cut...
Teamwork, I'd say.

And then, as we were not home yet AND our home in Flensburg was a little bit to far away to have everybody looking how Ricardo carries me through the door, he carried me through the heart. Under a rose-leave-rain (well, and some real rain from heaven... but they told me that this meant blessings to the marriage from very high above, so I'll just leave it at that).

The Day - Ceremony

The Wedding was to take place in this nice little place called "Torhaus". Originally the entry to a castle with surrounding parks, today it is used as an exposition place for modern art. Luckily the exposition during our wedding did not interfere too much in terms of colour and space. Some tiny pictures on the wall and weird sculptues we just put back into one corner.


And anyway, people were supposed to look at the bride: me! In my pale pink dress, with the ice-princess scarf (borrowed from an unknown friend of a co-student. Thank you Irina, for making that possible!) and the really beautifull buquet.

Which was REALLY marvellous. Please note especially the "chessboard-flowers" (flower of the year 1993) that usually only flowers in April/May (http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schachblume). But as our wedding day had to be 17th of March (thanks to Santana, but that is another story), AND the flower just matches my dress perfectly, it somehow decided to bloom sooner this year.
Thanks for that.

OK, and this is probably the most important bit of the ceremony: signing the contract as I like to call it. First time signing with my new name. Well, 2nd time. I had to do a sample signature already when applying for my new IDcard...

Pre-wedding activities

The night before the wedding, there was a little pre-wedding party with those guests who managed to arrive (or had to, due to long- distance- travelling) early. Basicly we had same karaoke and... tadáaaaa, we got those really nice pieces of underwear we were to sell the next day in the park. After the wedding. Meanwhile the guests were keen to see us trying them on. Doesn't Ricardo look soooo sweet with his "real-Joop!" pants? I am wearing the matching bikini-part to his bra. Just that you can't really see the flower, as I dressed darker ;-)

beach

We went to the beach today. To get our heads a little clearer.
It was freezing cold and very windy.
Loved it nevertheless.

apartment

OK, Ladies and Gentlemen, I know that I HAVEN'T BEEN POSTING FOR QUITE A WHILE. And NO, it is NOT because I am spending all day in bed with Ricardo (although with that weather I wouldn't mind doing that: 4,5°C and rain). Rather it is because we had to furnish a whole apartment and exams are coming up... So, take a look at what our home looks like now. So, you ring the bell and we open the apartment for you. That is, what you'll be seeing first. The 'hall' with the door opening to the kitchen.

Then you turn around and close the door behind you, nicely decorated with a Brazilian flag. Just to let you know that you are now in a place somewhere between Germany and Brazil. Or in both countries.

Saw that door on your right when you closed the entrance door? Yes, that leads to the bathroom. The only room we weren't able to re-paint. So the design isn't quite what we wanted it to be... but sometimes you have to compromise. So we tried to cover part of the horrible wall with that nice black/white calender we got for Christmas. And well, we have a bath tub, which is definetly is a plus.

Now we crossed the kitchen and entered the living room. Looking back, you get a nice view of the kitchen with our nice green spot on the wall. There is still a clock missing in the middle of the spot, but we are working on it. After all we do not want to put ANYTHING up there, but we are still searching for the perfect simple clock...

OK, now turn around and appreciate the living room. We painted one wall partly in dark red, so our nice Hundertwasser-Paintings would fit in better (by the way, it's the "Rainbow-House" and the "Cathedral of Marrakech"). And instead of a Sofa we opted for a nice cosy corner full of pillows.
And the other wall? Well, books, books, papers, books and some decorations ;-)


So, satisfied?
Back to my studies now. CU later ;-)