New In: black purse

Since I'll start working soon, I thought I'll need a more business appropriate black purse. So here's my new baby :-)

I'm so fond of it - the purse is quite sturdy and well-made, although of course it's not made of real leather.

It retails for only 1700 DOP, about 29.50€, in Villa Con in Santo Domingo. For this price you can't expect real leather. But nonetheless it's very lovely.

 

 

 

 

The boutique is:

Comercial Villacon

C\ Manuela Diez No. 86, Esq. hemanos Pinzón

Villa Consuelo, Santo Domingo, RD

Tel: +1 809 538 4591

 

I can't wait to wear her back in Germany. But for now, I'll be enjoying beautiful sunshine in the Dominican Republic...

 

 

Universal Balance

Don't you feel like the universe has its own balance? For every bad event there will be a happy event. 

But unfortunately, it also works both ways...

While I parked at a café waiting for my friend to be done with work, somebody scratched my car trying to get out of the parking lot... So annoying... It wasn't even all that narrow :-(

Fortunately, I've got his contact information and I wrote an email to my insurance but I'm not sure what happens next. 

Hunting a new Place

Hey everyone,

How are you doing? I've been hunting apartments like a maniac... I've written tons of emails and called agents to gather appointments to take a look at the apartments. The city seems to be quite popular. All the agents don't even bother to really read their emails. Besides, good apartments are instantly gone. Well, but that's the same in every bigger city I guess.

 

When I drove south, I was worried, I wouldn't have enough appointments. But I was lucky enough to get those for my top 2 + some additional Plan B material.

 

Day 1

I only had one appointment (30min from work).

Pros

• That apartment is huge!!!
• The owners were nice
• They have a cat that seemed to like me
• No commission

Cons

• Long way to work... And I don't know how long it'll actually take. 30 minutes are the minimum
• The owners live right underneath

I told them I was interested and within the same day, they told me, I could have the apartment. I should come and see the contract the other day.

Since I spent the night at a friend's house, I told them, I'd come around lunch time. Then, I cancelled all of my Plan B material because the apartment was pretty amazing. There was only one l really wanted to see.

Day 2

From formerly 5 appointments I only kept one.

Pros

• Short way to work (only 10 minutes)
• Beautiful apartment
• The kitchen is red... And it is so much cheaper than the other (also smaller but still ok)
• Owner doesn't even live anywhere close
• Supermarket on the other side of the street

Cons

• Commission for the agent

This was definitely my favorite out of the two. I didn't even care about the commission... This was perfect.

I was so sad because I was almost sure, they wouldn't be able to pick me within the next couple of hours, especially because there was still an agent between me and the owner - a very busy agent that had another appointment right after my tour. Although my hopes were down, I told her anyway that I needed the decision as soon as possible because I've got another offer and answered her questionary with copies of my work contract and my paper...

 

I spent two hours in the parking lot of a supermarket thinking about what to do. I called my boyfriend and several other friends for advice...

While I waited, I found this chocolate by Lindt: Hello, my name is peanut butter: Wanna go nuts with me? So great to finally have chocolate and peanut butter in a German praline. Frau Shopping raved about it as well << click >> but I just couldn't find it in my normal supermarket.

 

Then, I decided that I would take a look at the contract but NOT sign it.

 

Only two hours after I've seen the apartment - I just drove my car into the street of the first apartment from the day before, when the agent actually called to first scold me for not having mentioned my phd on the questionary and second to congratulate me to the apartment.

 

The bottom line

Mention your phd with your name, even if they don't ask. I didn't know, it would be useful (especially after all the Guttenberg scandals of the past couple of years)...

 

Small Update

Hey everyone,

How are you doing? I have been quite busy recently but I want to give you a small update on my life... I got a job in research and development in a Swiss company which will start in December. This time everything worked out perfectly. 

I went to a very long 3h job interview. They wanted me right away, as they've told me. I got the contract via email a week later. Last week I signed the paper version. Woohoo!!! :-)

Thus I need to look for an apartment. I won't be moving to Switzerland but very close to the border. I'll keep you updated about the next steps... 

[Job Applications] It's good... but it's also bad...

Hey everybody, how are you doing?

I'm still looking for a job. I actually can't believe it takes that long but ok. That's how it is... Meanwhile here's another one of my stories...

First of all, to my background, I've got a phd in (medical) physics and I speak several languages such as German, English, French, Spanish and also Mandarin Chinese which is also my second mother tongue.

Anyway, I went to a job interview. The guy that interviewed me was pretty young and he apparently had never done anything like that before, as he was very confusing and going back and forth with his questions. At one point we talked about the company's locations which is about everywhere in the world, when I mention that I speak Chinese as well. And this is his exact quote:

Well, that's good... but it's also bad... because if we talk to the Chinese, they might only want to talk to you but I'm the boss and they are supposed to talk to me.

Then he also added that he gets head aches from talking English in America because his English is so bad.

Now, what am I supposed to say to that?! Thanks for being honest. I'm speechless...

Nail Art: Cherry Blossoms

I know, it's not really the season for cherry blossoms but somehow I wanted to try out this little nail design.

 

 

I used the following products:

1. As the base: Essie - Grow Richer
2. Main Color: Catrice Ultimate Nudes - 01 Karl says très chic
3. Black branches: Essence Colour & Go - 21 Fabuless
4. Essence dotting tool
5. White blossoms: P2 color victim - 030 virgin
6. Red dots: Catrice ultimate nail lacquer - C01 Red Butler
7. Top coat: Essence studio nails - better than gel nails

I think the main color from Catrice is a little thick which I don't like too much but it looks nice once it's on the nails. One coat is quite opaque but I used two nonetheless because it wasn't the same on all my nails.

 

How do you like my little flowers? Somehow I think it's still fall appropriate because of the rosewood nude polish which is a great color.

 

 

Travel Tip: Masks

Hey everybody,

Hope you've had a great weekend. Mine was very relaxing...

Since I'm about to leave for a trip again, I thought I share a travel tip from some YouTube beauty gurus. Use a mask whenever you fly long distance. Because of the air conditioning the air is very dry. Thus giving back moisture to the skin by applying a mask is perfect. I do that mostly, when the lights go out because it's not as embarrassing... But actually I shouldn't care.

When I'm done with my mask, my skin feels absolutely great because it absorbs almost everything.

 

Here are a couple of mine from the past few trips... I can recommend #1 and #3 from the German drugstore DM. I didn't like #2 because it contains alcohol which dried out my skin instead of helping me. #4 are great tissue masks from Taiwan. I love these and I'll buy more, when I get there again. Unfortunately, it won't be any time soon...

 

P2 volume gloss gel look nail polish #080 grande dame

I'm in love with these strawberry raspberry colors. Thus, seeing this new volume gloss nail polish by P2 (080 grande dame), I just couldn't resist...

Here you see only one coat of polish, using clear base and top coats. It is long wearing as well - holding up for 5 days without tip wear.

Day light

 

At night using flash

 

It actually quite reminds me of Essie - too too hot. In the bottle it looks similar.

 

 

But on white paper and also on my nails, you can see the difference. Essie is much darker and a bit more raspberry-like.

 

 

I just don't look the new P2 brush not because it's wide but because it's irregular which makes it a little challenging to paint.

 

 

Outfit #20 Business Look

This was my business look for the way to Beijing. I even got a blazer but it was just freaking too hot to wear on the way...

Pants by Zara, blouse by H&M, blazer by New Yorker, shoes by Deichmann

 

Actually, I survived almost two working days in this outfit because I started the day with a 2h train ride to a business meeting on the day of our flight. Otherwise I would have chosen something else for the plane and the weather. Between the meeting and the flight, I worked on my notes, some more background information on the physical matters and company. We went straight to the airport (1.5h by car, 11h flight) and straight to the Chinese company. No time to shower. I didn't see any showers at the airport in Beijing either (is that a German thing?) but I wished I did. Thus I'm glad I had some refreshing wipes for a small touch up and only changed the blouse at the airport.

Btw how do you like my suitcase? I got it at the Taipei Nightmarket in Shilin when I went to Taiwan with my dad. I love the color, the size and the fact that it turns 360° on its four wheels... All that for only about 25€.

So anyway to my makeup.

 

Face makeup

1) Instead of foundation, I was wearing the pink Korean Skin 79 Super BB cream with triple functions: whitening, UV protection SPF25 and wrinkle improvement which I've bought in Taiwan as well (500NT = 12.50€). I applied it using my fingers. Either I've got the right skin color or it really adapts but I've never quite believed that. How does the BB cream know which color I have?

 

2) Powder: Manhattan clear compact #75 beige (brush: Ebelin professional)

3) Bronzer: P2 sunshine powder #030 Bali heat (brush: Ebelin professional)

4) Blush: Essence LE flower grunge "Be Flowerful" (brush: Ebelin professional)

Eye makeup

My eye makeup was simple. It's my go-to-look. It's fast and simple. Only matt neutrals.

 

1) All over the lid: Essence Ballerina Backstage LE - Eye soufflé #01 dance the swan lake (application: finger)

2) Outer corner of the eye: Maybelline Color Tattoo #40 Permanent Taupe (application: finger)

3) Eye shadows: P2 matte dream #050 rose charm and #070 grey pleasure (brushes: Sigma tapered blending brushes E40 and E35)

4) Eye Liner: brown Catrice Gel Liner #020 It's Mambo Nr.2 (brush: Sigma eyeliner brush E05)

5) Lashes: Shu Uemara eyelash curler, Maybelline False Lashes Volume Express black waterproof mascara

5) Eyebrow Powder: Catrice Eyebrow Set (brush: Essence eyeliner brush)

 

Lips

1) Revlon Colorburst Lipbutter #050 Berry Smoothie

 

 

Beijing - The Imperial Mansion

My first business trip got me to this fabulous hotel in Beijing - The Imperial Mansion Beijing, Marriott Executive Apartments << click >>. It is a 5-Star hotel with excellent service.

My hotel room was three times as big as my appartment. There was a walk-in closet including a safe, iron and iron board... I had a whirlpool that I didn't use because it was too warm and I was too busy.

There was a kitchen, two flat screens, a living room area and some office area... I seriously didn't use half of my room.

Since most guests are international, there were also international plugs. I love these... I've bought quite a few products abroad and everything is so chunky using an adapter. Where can I get these plugs?

The breakfast was the only meal that we took in the hotel. So I can't comment on the restaurants. I liked the breakfast - it is mostly international standard... So there are eggs - freshly prepared in any style you want - scrambled, sunny side up, boiled, etc. I had omelette on both mornings, which is not on the picture because the chef was still preparing it for me. As you can see, there was also bacon, fresh fruits, and sweet potatoe. You could also have cereals, lots of juice, cooked and fried vegetables, ham, cheese, bread, etc. Coffee in China is horrible! Drink tea, if possible.

I didn't go to the gym or the pool. So I don't know about that either...
Anyway, I only stayed for a couple nights and didn't quite need such a huge hotel room but it was excellent and I enjoyed the whole trip.

Besides...
Unfortunately, I didn't get the job because it was coupled to the deal with the Chinese company. They don't produce everything themselves which the German company needs, thus it is more expensive than what the Germans expected, leading to the failure of the whole deal. It is too bad. Now, I'm back where I began...

 

Palms Garden - Chinese Restaurant

I love traditional Chinese food. It's really quite difficult to find a good place in Germany as most Chinese restaurants have adapted dishes that sometimes don't even exist in Asia. I hate all-you-can-eat buffets normally because usually there aren't enough customers so the food stays in the trays for hours which changes its flavor... Besides, Chinese food can be cooked within minutes. Whenever I'm hungry and tell my dad (he's a chef), he'll have the food done in no time. Unfortunately, I don't live that close that I could visit him every week. So I'm always looking out for new locations...

 

I live an hour away from Frankfurt but I still go to that restaurant Palms Garden because it is THAT insanely GREAT... Even though it is all-you-can-eat... but the Chinese Hot Pot is to die for... There are so many customers every day, not only on special occasions. Every time we need to wait for a table to be cleared. There are a bunch of Asian people every time. That's a very easy indication of great traditional Chinese food btw ;-) not only in Germany.

We always choose the half-spicy-half-non-spicy broth. But be careful - spicy really is spicy...

The incredible amount of ingredients for the hot pot is cooled in the open fridge (left picture). You can take small plates to carry them to your table. On the right-hand side, you can see the main ingredients for the dips. You can mix whatever you like. I mostly go with satay sauce (not saté as peanut butter but a Chinese BBQ sauce), some garlic and spring onions... There's nothing like great satay sauce... Yummy :)

On the lower pictures, you can see the normal buffet. I'm not a big fan of that but if you only choose the normal buffet, it's cheaper.

I mostly take a lot of seafood and spinach... There are also some weird looking mushrooms which aren't on the picture - I think they are called Miso in Japanese.

 

The dessert consists of ice cream, fruits (seasonal and canned), sesame rolls, cream puffs, fried bananas, coconut pearls, etc.

For dinner, we usually pay around 17€ per person (including 1€ for all-you-can-drink soft drinks). One little hot pot stove costs around 5€, which is enough for four people. So depending on the amount of people, it might be a little more than 17€... If you come during lunch time, it is cheaper but there's also less variety. If you don't chose the hot pot, it'll be less as well.

 

China, here I come again

Last week, I went to a job interview where I was spontaneously invited to go on a 4- day business trip to Beijing. It's only a couple days but I'm very excited but also anxious as I don't really know what I can contribute to the trip. If I pass the test, I will be signing the contract after the trip.

Now, I have two more weeks to prepare myself. Not only information about the company that we will visit but also some special vocabularies about the machines and stuff like that. Besides, I was asked to study a special treatment which is supposed to be quite promising. I will be reading publications and stuff about it, treating it like one of my research subjects...

I must say, I'm still quite baffled that I was asked to join the trip. On the second day, I told a couple of my friends about the offer and one of them jokingly said "maybe they want to sell you in China"... Don't hope think so... Everything seems quite legit. I got the flight information, the booking confirmation for the hotel. The company exists for almost 10 years. I've got the invitation letter and they will handle my visa. I hope everything will work out just fine... So long... I will keep you updated about my journey.

 

On Fire

Yesterday, I was out in Mannheim. Looking up into the sky I thought it was going to rain...

 

That was before I turned around and saw this... Really scary big smoke. I was afraid, it was something close to the main station but it was even in the next city.

Later that day, the news revealed there was a big factory fire in Ludwigshafen which was very persistent. It took several hours to kill it.

 

I don't actually know, how long people were supposed to keep the doors and windows shut... But even when the smoke disappeared in the evening, it still smelled like burned plastic and there were black ashy drops on all the parked cars in the area. Hope it really isn't toxic as they say in the news. Fortunately, nobody got hurt.

 

Nail polish: Essie Too Too Hot

Finally, it's summer time, the perfect time to wear bright nail polish. Good that I went shopping and bought Essie - Too Too Hot. It's a beautiful red with slightly pink undertone. Jettie from cholate-bit.ch calls it raspstrawberry - a mix of raspberry and strawberry. The perfect description I think...

 

I only needed one coat for this result but I had to repaint my nails after only 3 days, which is quite low for Essie. But maybe it will be more durable if I paint two coats. I haven't tried that yet...

 

Japanese Gifts

Thank you, Yoko! I love to get gift boxes from my friends, especially from far away... My friend Yoko sent me some Japanese sweets, a little pouch, and a postcard from Kyoto.

 

I use the pouch for my external hard drive now. It's so cute!

Do you remember my green tea posts? I love green tea matcha latte products from Japan. Taiwan has some products as well but they don't taste quite as good. Now, Yoko sent me these matcha latte langues du chat.

 

She also gave me these cute looking candy. I was a little afraid to eat them because I wasn't sure, if it was indeed candy. I've seen some soap shaped as pralines some weeks ago... Also it's quite a shame to eat anything that looks so adorable...

 

I liked the green tea langues du chat a lot better ^.^ I'm such a fan of green tea products.

 

[Job Applications] Anxious

I am anxiously waiting for a reply as I had a personal job interview for a small company around my city, where both of the bosses interviewed me. The staff is pretty young. They're all about my age, I believe. As my feeling tells me, we had a good connection. They asked me quite a lot of thoughtful questions, not a single one of these stupid standardized human resources question. (I'm planning on posting some of those as well...)

Anyway, I might be a little over-qualified as I've got a phd and speak several languages. They believe that one of the bigger companies could offer more opportunities. Not that those bigger ones are trying very hard though. It takes several months just for the bigger companies to answer. Of course, there's a lot of competition as well and the human resources has a lot of work to collect and sort out candidates.

Recently, I've discovered the blog "From Science to Business" << click >>. It's made by a female biology phd searching for jobs. She made two internships and wrote more than 100 job applications in three months, just to get 4 job interviews. I think, that's quite a lot of applications and quite little output. Seriously, I don't even know, if I could have applied for 100 jobs in that period. Maybe only if I didn't match the profiles...

She believes that the cover letter isn't important so she used standardized cover letters for all the applications. I don't know about that... I believe the cover letter is indeed read. I got quite a lot of questions from there in my interviews.

A staff member of jobvector.de gave a big talk on a career fair about even personalizing the curriculum vitae. I don't do that either because I haven't worked in the industry yet. Maybe in the future, when applying for the second of whatever job... An American executive coach told us about the American way of writing cover letters. He pointed out that they are the most important part of the application. It needs to be sharp, especially the first sentences. He thinks that Germans need to sell themselves a lot better in order to get the job. Most German companies in that fair disagree by the way... ;-) but I can't deny that most American professional talks have been excellent and entertaining while most German professors think their talks are the best when nobody understands what they're talking about.

 

Recipe: Donauwelle Cupcake Version

Since my apartment doesn't have an oven and it's quite small, I bought a microwave-oven combination to save some space. Unfortunately, I can't bake any cakes anymore because the center won't become solid, while I have to be really careful with the top because it can burn easily. It's a mess!

Well, but I still like baking, so I switched to making muffins and cupcakes instead. This is how I make Donauwelle, a very famous German cake, as cupcake version.

Ingredients for the dough

• 150g of butter
• 150g of sugar
• 3 eggs
• 200g of flour
• 1/2 pck of baking soda
• A pinch of salt
• 1-2 tbsp cocoa
• 2/3 glass of morello cherries

Ingredients for the Buttercream

• 400g of sweetened condensed milk
• 250g of butter

200g of chocolate coating

 

Instructions

1. Stir the butter and sugar until it's foamy.
2. Add one egg after the other.
3. Mix the baking soda, the flour, and the salt.
4. Add it to the dough. Stir everything.
5. Divide the dough into two parts.
6. Add the cocoa to one part.
7. Drain the cherries.
8. Make the buttercream by mixing the sweetened condensed milk and the butter.
9. For each cupcake, add 1 tbsp of dark dough to your muffin cup, then 1 tbsp of light dough, and some cherries (about 5).
10. Bake them in your oven. 30min on 175°C. For my microwave-oven combination it takes 2x20 min on 150°C but it should be a lot faster in a normal oven. The second time it goes inside, I need to cover it up with aluminum foil.
11. Let your cupcakes cool down before the next step.
12. Pipe your buttercream with a pastry bag on top of the cupcake. If you can, you could form roses, but I'm not gifted enough...
13. When you're done with the buttercream, melt the chocolate coating in a water bath.
14. Coat each cupcake with 1 tbsp of chocolate.

Hope you like my cupcake version of the famous Donauwelle!

 

[Job Applications] Case Study

I would like to introduce a new category, matching my situation right now: Job Applications. I will start off with an example from a former job interview.

A new inhabitant of a little village goes to the next butcher to get some fresh calf's liver. The butcher tells him that the calf's livers are very popular because they are from his own cattle ranch of 300 cattle and he guarantees for their happy life on the alp. He only sells calf's liver once a week. Is it possible that he sells calf's liver for the whole village? Or was it a lie and he bought some more from a retailer?

My questions and assumptions were:

1. How many inhabitants does the village have? - About 500.
2. I assumed about 5 calf's livers are sold each week. That makes 20 a month which still sums up to 240 a year.
3. From 300 cattle, I assumed half of them to be female, out of which maybe 100 could be pregnant.
4. I assumed a cow to be pregnant for a year.
5. Every pregnant cow carries only one calf.

6. Not all of them can be butchered.

My conclusion was that there is no way, the butcher only used his own cattle, because his cattle herd isn't big enough to produce this amount of calves that would be needed to supply the whole village with calf's liver.

 

There are a lot of similar case scenarios. The most famous is probably the task of estimating the amount of gas stations in a given country or city. One can exchange gas stations with anything else, like with cattle in my case.

 

The feedback from the interviewer team was quite positive. They liked my analysis and conclusion.

 

I made a bunch of assumptions which might be wrong because I still haven't checked them online but I don't think, it's important... The case studies are supposed to show the line of thoughts and the problem solving skills of the applicant. Actually, I think, everybody can solve that adequately. It's not that much about facts because that's something you can look up online.

 

What I didn't like about the case study was the fact that the interviewer tried to hide the obvious case study. He told me, he and his wife just moved to the alp and really thought about that question and if I could help them, insisting on the severeness of their question... Come on!!

Little Lantern for Tea Light

Hi everyone. Sorry for not posting in a long time. I have been quite busy. Anyway, I'm trying to get back on track...

I bought this at Aldi recently. Isn't it adorable? It is made of white ceramics and gives nice lighting for under 6€. Since it's kind of rainy and uncomfortable outside, it should be even nicer inside...

 

Running for the first time since forever

I can't even remember when I went running the last time. It must have been more than a year... I barely find any pleasure in it but I know it's quite effective when I'm trying to lose weight. So that's what I need to do. Since my boyfriend and me will replace another couple in a dance, he will have to lift me twice for an 8 count. I don't want him to crash - that would be quite embarassing... ˆ.ˆ

Anyway, do you know the app "Runtastic"? << click >>
I just tried it out today because I wanted to know how many km and how much time I would need. It's quite fun to have a little gadget. Not only useful for music but also for recording the whole process. I know it's kinda stupid but I feel better seeing the statistics afterwards - it's like To-Do-lists ;)

First you will need to log in, then press start. You can chose between different sports. While you're running, it'll tell you after each km how many you got. Because of the GPS it'll also be able to tell you your exact route. Next time, I'll try to run 2 laps or maybe around the lake...

 

I was sooo slow... Almost 25 minutes for almost 3km. I used to run 5km in under 30min. That'll take some time, until I get there again. I really don't understand why the hell I'm not fitter. I dance 3-4 times a week. Each time for about 2 hours. Last Monday I went to a breakdance workshop. Three hours and the pain lasted 3 freaking days.

If you have a heart rate monitor, it'll show up as well. I don't have one anymore, so I just listen to myself and to music ;) but it's good for beginners because otherwise you might be in pain.

So far I don't know the difference between the normal and the pro version. I think it's the lack of advertisement.

Negativity

For about two months I've been looking for a job now but it's a long process. I don't complain, I know it takes time. Rumor has it to be 4-6 months.

Yesterday at the party there was a guy from human resources of a company who asked me about my situation. (Last time we met, it was before my phd exam.) I told him, I was still looking. His response was: "I don't think, you'll find a job - the economy is really bad right now. We don't hire anyone right now."

Really nice... Thank you for over sharing. I didn't apply anyway but thanks to you, I know your company isn't doing too well! Isn't that like classified information? After that, I didn't even want to talk to him anymore.

One of my best friends also work for human resources but for a different company. She told me the exact opposite. Her company is almost desperately looking for people to hire...

Later that night the host told me, I should talk to that guy because he's in human resources and I should show him my application and what not... No thank you, not interested. I'm fine. I've had a couple telephone interviews and the first interview in person is coming up as well. I think, I'm okay. So far I don't panic, it's not that long and I treat it like vacations. I can sleep in, meet my friends, even finish up some research work for my upcoming publication... The last thing I want to hear is negativity from some random guy that I don't even know. I can't rush companies to interview me. And I don't want to be or look desperate because it might drive me to accept something I don't really want to do.

Sushi Party

Yesterday we went to a Sushi Party. Everybody brought some ingredients and we made sushi together. Look at all the deliciousness of last night...

 

 

The might not look as great as from real sushi masters but it was still great... Wouldn't you want to go to a sushi party as well?

The only thing I'm a little picky about is the handling of the food... I mean, I know everyone washed their hands before touching the food but I really prefer using tools like chopsticks and spoons. There's just too much hands involved. I don't know... The other thing is the dipping. I really like having my own dipping bowl, except for family or really close friends.