Jason Witkowsky's Blog

Most of you who know me, know that i am quite spoilt by having the luxury of cooking and cleaning done for me at home (thanks Mom!). Six months in Germany was always going to be a challenging time for me, from this perspective. Well, i have been thrown in the deep end -- i can safely (?) say that i am floating - just about. On Saturday i made Spaghetti (or something that resembled it) and tonight i made Chicken Kebabs with mashed potatoes (ready-mix sachet type, of course). I am writing this entry to this blog which means i am alive, which is step 1 complete. Step 2, flavor - well umm, lets say it’s not anything to write home (to Mommy) about.....yet. We will worry about step 2 as the experience improves...for now I will just throw in plenty of garlic and salt.

On another note, I think Magdeburg is getting a little tired of my hand signals (and so am i :) so i enrolled for a German language course which is due to take place in about 2 weeks time. Hope this helps! I really need to start learning beyond phrases for ordering beer and food!

Talking about the weather is so mundane but recently the soaring temperatures in Magdeburg have caused the weather to be quite a hot topic (hehehehe). Temperatures averaging around 32 degrees have been experienced therefore it was necessary to take some action to keep cool. I opted for the conventional method by taking a swim with some friends at the Neustädter see lake (about 20 minutes by bike from where I stay). Others took the more unconventional method of keeping cool :-)

Attended my first "Blade Night" in Magdeburg today Sunday 16th July (yesterday). Having not roller-bladed for over 8 years, i was counting on the ice skating experience i had to pull me through. It was a bit of a shaky start and thoughts of putting my camera in my bag instead of my hand went through my head but after taking some "baby steps" it started to come back to me...slowly. Plus, the people in front of me must be thanked for acting as stoppers in the first few minutes of my blading experience. It was a 12km stretch and actually went quite quickly. There were lots of distractions on hand such as hot pants and short tops but i did my best to stay focused and i made it through without a scratch...just about.. I will post some pics on my online album soon...

Yesterday, in my pursuit to maintain some kind of level of fitness, i went for a 5km jog with a friend through a very beautiful part of Magdeburg called Rotehornpark. After about 3km, the scenery starting to get a bit hazy and it became clear that cycling fitness (which i am suppose to have some of) and jogging fitness are not directly related - or at least the muscle groups aren't! This became very apparent at the end of the jog when i discovered muscles i thought were suppose to be trained. My legs (still confused as to why they are not going in circles like they usually do for cycling) felt like jelly and i headed for the first chair i could find after the jog.

Tonight in Magdeburg they will have a "Blade Night" which is the Roller Blade equivalent of The Argus Cycle Tour - lots of people (they expecting over 10 000!) rollerblading in streets closed off especially for this event. Hope my legs will last and that i find a pair of skates that fit my feet size! Will try and send pictures - if i am able to stand upright for long enough...

For my German friends! - this is what tasty wheat is - although it definitely looks more appealing when it is prepared properly! (My sister Alexa will not be too impressed with this attempt of mine :) I'm not very familiar with the microwave here in my flat and it seemed to have worked better than i expected - so well the whole thing over-boiled. Ach mann. At least it still tastes good :-) Hope my room mate doesn't mind me using his bowl till i get my own! Also, today in Berlin, the Love Parade will take place! I had thoughts of going but had a change of heart

Just finished writing some first entries into my blog. Creating a Blog was much simpler than i thought. It's 7:30 in the morning and i have been up since 2am and now i am craving for some tasty wheat - one of my favourite cereals from South Africa.. Lucky for me, my mom thought ahead and packed a little tasty wheat in my luggage - thanks mom! I completely forgot about it and was pleasantly surprised to find it the other day. However, it was packaged in a soft plastic wrapper and would have looked VERY suspicious had airport security decided to do a random check in my bag. Right, lets see if i still remember how to make tasty wheat...

On Thursday 13th July, some members of our research team at ifak went to a meeting in Nürnberg (see map relative to Magdeburg). Nürnberg is about 375km south of Magdeburg. We went down by car - not just any car though, but an Audi A4 Avant - just perfect for my first time on the Autobahn :-) We didn't get much time to site-see in Nürnberg but we did drive past some interesting places. The meeting went well, and so did the trip back to Magdeburg, where ifak held a social function in the evening.

I'm currently in Magdeburg, Germany (map) on a 6 month research program (for my University CPUT) at the research institute ifak. I arrived here on the 4th of July and will be leaving for London on the 18th of December following which, i will return to South Africa on January 4th. Unlike last years trip in winter, this time round it is not unusual for temperatures to touch the 32 degree mark - best to spend days like these on the beach - even if it is only artificial ;-) A few German beers later and you can't won't be able to tell the difference. Current temperatures in Magdeburg can be viewed here - this should give you an idea of whether i'm at the office or the "beach" ;-)

My first blog and attempt at "blogging". The idea to create my blog was born from traveling overseas and wanting to keep friends updated with all things I'm suppose and not suppose to be doing. Let see how this goes...