December is coming!

For the last few weeks I've been saying that this year I want to buy an advent calendar that actually has good chocolate in it; otherwise what's the point of getting excited everyday to open your advent calendar if the chocolate tastes like the cardboard that its packaged in? (Apart from the cute pictures that are usually behind the chocolate). So today I got a little surprise from Joerg...

A Lindt Advent Calendar!

It's the same size as my upper body and the back of it shows 10 different chocolates that are hidden behind each door. It's all dark chocolate and nut free! Perhaps the only sad thing is that I only have 24 doors as in Germany the 24th of December is Christmas, but as I will be flying back home on the 22nd Dec it doesn't really matter that much :)

I'm already excited that in two days I will be able to open the first door!

Larissa

Skype

I'm writing a post about Skype because it appears impossible to actually send a complaint to them. Since MSN and Skype combined (although really it's more like MSN no longer exists, and Skype is the same as it was before) it is possibly the worst instant messaging programme ever. Okay the video calls are still okay - apart from 70% of the time when I try and call my family the camera refuses to work, and if I'm logged into hotmail.com and Skype and someone calls me I get double the ringing on my laptop; but instant messaging isn't instant at all, its slow, delayed and frustrating. I reinstalled Skype in the hope that maybe it would help these problems, and when it didn't I tried to write an email to Skype telling them how bad their system was.

However trying to write a complaint to them is maybe even more frustrating then the instant messaging! Instead of just having an email address to write to, they have lots of drop down menu's that you have to choose from (and the problem you have is never in any of them) and then afterwards you can either write in the "Skype community", which is where all the same complaints are but no one helps or you can get "Chat support" where someone talks with you - although there is a wait time.
If technology is so high to create Ipads and phones that are basically a computer, then why can Skype not get a lousy instant messaging service to work correctly, like MSN has done for the past 10 years?!

After this rant here is a photo of a bunny with an ice cream cone on it's head to calm me and other frustrated Skype users down:

Stuffed Peppers

Just a short post on stuffed peppers that we made yesterday.

Stuffed with rice served with ahem more rice (we accidentally made too much!) and a tomato and basil sauce.















Yum!

Museum Mensch und Natur

After our trip to Botanical Gardens we walked over to Schloss Nymphenburg to go to the "Museum Mensch und Natur". This is basically a science museum that's also suitable for children. We went at around 15:00 on a Saturday so it was pretty busy with lots of little children - a contrast to the peaceful Botanical Gardens.
It's only 3 euros to get in and will keep you entertained for quite some time!

It starts off with how the world started...

Then goes onto to tell you all about Minerals and rocks...



Then Dinosaurs and Evolution...
It goes on further to the more Science part of how our brain works etc and at the end there's a fun room full of quizzes and games! My favourite part - although little children kept wanting to join in our quizzes and generally messed it up.






Seeing Botanical Gardens and the Science Museum was quite tiring, and we left just as the sun started setting (which is really early now!)

Botanischer Garten

On Saturday me and Jorg went to the Botanical Gardens in Munich. As it's already Autumn, the majority of the plants outside are gone but you can still go inside and have a look around. It costed only 4 euros to get in.

 There are plants from all around the world!

We went on a Saturday lunchtime and surprisingly they weren't  many people there (probably because it's no longer Summer). In some rooms we were the only people and it made it so peaceful and quiet.

Every room is like going into a mini jungle, with plants and  trees everywhere, in this particular room there were even plants hanging from the ceiling!

There are no annoying flies or insects inside, which is a plus; however there were cute turtles! 

Compared to normal tourist locations, Botanical Gardens is really peaceful. It's probably better to go in Summer so you can see the gardens in full bloom, although inside does get quite hot (even in Autumn) so I don't want to imagine what it's like in the Summer and with more tourists!

Halloweeeen

So this year I decided to dress as a mouse for Halloween. Not very scary, but I didn't feel like going out and buying an entire costume, so this is my DIY Halloween costume! Last night I went to the Halloween party in our bar downstairs; where I discovered the sweets bowl (it was considerably lower after I was done with it) and there was free punch called "Blood Bowl" (it really did taste as horrible as it sounds).

Before the party a friend came round to mine where we made mulled wine and got ready

In Germany you can buy pre made mulled wine like this one, where all you have to do is heat it up. Mulled wine is my favourite drink in the winter, if you want to make it too all you need is red wine and some spices! Here's a recipe I found: http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/mulled-wine--4584

I made my mouse ears out of my hair and although I did get mistaken for an anime character it was quite a success! Here's the Youtube tutorial that I used: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZH3mbWIyDZQ

In the morning Jorg came round and we made a (veggie) English breakfast! Oh how I've missed it.

(Tomatoes and fried bread are hiding underneath)

Happy Halloween!