relating to people

very often i've observed people noting on someone being too proud and therefore not being able to relate with people in the right way. for sure this happens often enough, but taking oneself for better than some other person is not the only way inhibiting a good relationship between them.
also the opposite, namely feeling too self conscious and less worthy than someone else, has really bad consequences, as obviously also under these conditions a relationship amongst equals is not possible.
in the first case, the proud person often tends to not take the other one seriously and might presume that their acting is only incomprehensible to them as the other person's motives are too stupid and plain as to bother with them. however, as can be seen often enough, this is quite not true.
with self-consciousness, ususally people devalue their own talents and identity, because they prefer to admire someone as often this is easier than focussing on the real reasons why they couldnt gain confidence in themselves. however, very often also this way leads to frustration, as people tend to feel resentful to others that miraculously always fail to see and appreciate their talents.
The solution to the problem of how to found a healthy relationship towards others can be found in a bible quote: >> "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: "Love your neighbor as yourself."<<-Matthew 22:37-40
Even for the non-believers I think this quotation bears acceptable wisdom. The first part brings to mind that people themselves are not the omnipotent power nor the most important entity on earth and therefore have some responsibility for their actions.
The second then states directly how a good relationship can be formed with others: By - first of all - loving your neighbour, accepting them as they are. But - and this to me seems crucial - it also says to love yourself. Neither more nor less than the others. There lies the trick which would resolve both issues mentioned above. On the basis of this balanced appreciation neither the pity of the proud for the stupid, nor the self depreciation of the self-conscious could grow as to threaten equal relationships.

wishful thinking

it would be so nice to travel to a place in europe where germans didnt make all that terrible mess during WW2... but i guess it's impossible, so i will have to get used to the knot in my stomach which is bound to form each time i read through a travel guide.

And there shall be jazz

or at least this is my plan after yesterday's success in improvising with piano and violin together with my cousin. I always wanted to try this but never could work up the confidence (especially not in public) as my very classical music education formed a safe but rather rigid corset to my experiments. And with improvisations... what if in the middle of performing you suddenly loose each other, the harmony, or the idea?!? what a terrifying idea! but - as so often in life, it does take surprisingly little for ending up in entirely new waters. and, consequently, once you end in there you have only two options - to sink or to swim... we opted for the latter and the result was simply fascinating! (probably more so for the two of us performing, as we had never before given it a try... what a mistake! ;) therefore, I have decided to try myself taking some more steps in that direction. if anyone of you has a good recommendation or tip for how to proceed, they would be appreciated very much.

The first steps

for my resocializing at my home are made.. in fact, it seemed to be surprisingly easy as two happy celebrations brought together a lot of people which I hadn't seen in a long time. It was a nice surprise though, that my four years of absence had a noticeable effect on the way the interaction between these people and me. When I left, with most of them (being younger friends of my parents) conversations only consisted in querying me about my where- and whatabouts but never I felt in the position to ask them personal things about themselves. In the end, who was I, being this dwarf that easily could have been their daughter?
Now I feel that my travelling and living abroad and on my own has given me quite some insights and ideas (of course not enough, so I will keep searching) and suddenly it has become possible to dive into the most interesting discussions with these people that have already so much more experience in life. Funnily enough, it even seems possible to tell them something new, so both parts win from the situation. As I was used to be unable to contribute, it is strange but very satisfying to not only draw from but also feed into that well of knowledge ;)

some borrowed wisdom

a train never goes faster than it's last car.

[a truth heard from martins]

lonely on the planet

it is an odd feeling and somehow takes getting used to..
but at the same time pleasurable and interesting as it is the foundation on which new structures start to form.

Ähnlichkeiten...

Manchmal sind die Leut wie ihre Hemden - kleinkariert!
Aber noch schlimmer ists wenn die Hemden sind wie die Leut ...
:)

the wedding

The original reason for my trip to the Baltics was the invitation to attend Diana's and Andrej's wedding in Vilnius. It was a very big and happy celebration with a lot of surprises (including a thunderstorm which nearly washed us away into the river and a lot of tasks to challenge the newlyweds, they however managed everything very bravely! ;)
I felt very touched when witnessing their union in the beautiful church Peter and Paul. Here is a picture of the really 'just married' couple with all their fancy assistants ;)



we celebrated till late in the night (or early in the morning, as you define it) and of course we had a lot of fun, food, dance, and play, meeting friend or just making new ones :)



the morning after brought a few tired faces, however the mood was good and everybody appreaciated to spend a relaxed day in sun and nature.
Concluding, I just really wish all the best for Andrej and Diana and hopefully we will all meet again soon ;)

Estonian joke

logout

or prepare for "but who is this guy? - oh, WHOSE account is THIS?!?! - sorry, I declined your friend offers for you...."

taxi directions for riga

Taxi Directions

Taxi from the airport to our office will cost about 10 Ls (about 15 Euros)
Taxi from bus station to our office will cost about 2.0 Ls (about 3 Euros)

CAUTION: All taxis at the bus station will OVERCHARGE you. Tell them you will NOT pay more than 2.0 Ls for the trip to our office. If they hassle you write down their license number, taxi company name, driver's name and color of taxi. We will file a complaint.

Red colored taxis at the airport are honest. We offer prepaid taxi coupons to/from the airport to our office, hotels and city center. http://www.rigataxi.info/


Print this email and show it to the taxi driver.

like south tyrolians

are latvians and lithuanians when engaging in discussions about their 'dialects' :)

What became of the frog?

Maybe some of you remember the controversies following the opening of the first official exhibition at the Museion of Bolzano. The bone of contemption was a particular artwork, showing a crucified frog. What followed were long and fierce public discussions about respecting religion or feeling insulted, paired with claims to have the thing removed. However, hardly anyone seemed to find their way to actually analyse the work in question and the ideas the artist might have had with it (proving what people tried to reject - that bolzano in fact is a little too provincial to easily digest modern art).
After leaving Bolzano I lost track of the matter, until it reappeared this morning at the breakfast table. A quick search brought the result that (fortunately, in my opinion) the decision was reached to leave the exponat, even though some parties are aiming for more control on exhibitions to come (which I wonder if it will not ruin the purpose of a modern art museum, which should spark off controversies to make people think).
In the course of browsing on this topic I found a post on an interesting blog, dedicated to the issue of democracy and media in south tyrol. If you are interested in these issues (and understand German) I highly recommend you to look through it. Even if I do not agree with everything stated there, it is food for thought as well as refreshingly contrasting to some of the south tyrol media.

finnish humor

Linda Lines, a Finnish ferry company excels with a particular kind of humor.
After the scene is set already by fog, rain, storm, and some waves, only the matching soundtrack is missing. Something relaxing, calming, maybe?
Like - the soundtrack of TITANIC?!?!?!

packing again

after recovering from the wedding by spending some relaxed days in and around vilnius (with typical lithuanian weather) we're getting ready for the next destination of this journey: tallinn. hopefully joining for this part are olga and andrejs which hopefully will bring the eeepc so we can test the gratis wireless theyre supposed to have there ;)
will go now, to prepare for the 9 1/2 hours bus trip which i guess will leave me rather tired. (btw, i noticed some strange thing: there are all this stickers in busses here, with prints like 'united airlines berlin' or 'freistaat bayern'.. i wonder if this is where all the used german vehicles end up.. sometimes it actually nearly feels historical which is great fun!)

arrived

after a wonderful flight Lithuania greeted very nicely with a lot of sun, but luckily less boiling temperatures than Bolzano :) Vilnius was the first place to be visited and I really like the old town, which is so varied and quite spacious, which I found surprising.
On the next day, we travelled to Visaginas and a house in the countryside where I attended the first 'hen night' of my life. Good fun, and also very multicultural :) In the end everybody scraped together some English and also some of my Russian reappeared, which caused amusement.
One thing is also quite interesting: I'm now meeting the families of my friends ;)
ok, wedding preparations need to go on ;)
have a good time

Getting ready to fly

Time was rushing by very quickly, so now I find myself already checking the timetables of the trains to go to the airport. Somehow on my return to it this time Munich showed me a friendly face and when meandering around it yesterday, some sense of 'home' came to me which I did not expect after these few days. (I also realised that I dearly need to brush up on my historical knowledge of my town, on my way from elementary school to university I managed to forget nearly everything..) Now I wish you a nice time, maybe I will write something from Lithuania, maybe not..
best wishes :)