sometimes, i find it hard to concentrate on the foreground:

snowy mountain reflection

whenever i have to communicate with the “scholarship bureau”, it makes me want to quit everything, start a new life, and then shoot myself (in that specific order).

i’ve applied for a scholarship again this autumn, and got a letter saying they needed my master’s certificate in order to process my request. they actually wanted evidence that i had finished my studies, so they could think about giving me a scholarship for finishing my studies.

the only aspect that separates them from the vogons is that (hopefully) they won’t read their poetry at me.
in the end, however, it’s worth the hassle.

on day 3, we drove from spitzkoppe to swakopmund.
on the way there, we had several stopovers: we botanized in the desert, visited the lichen desert [G] near the coast (in both the desert and the lichen desert, fog is the major source of water for life), took a look at the cape fur seal colony (the biggest colony of , up to 250.000 animals!) at cape cross [G], and eventually drove down to swakopmund.
the little seaside city somehow had an odd sense of “you’re-not-safe-here” to it, which was probably because of all of the security guards and special guards for the parked cars in front of supermarkets…

for the night, we stayed in bungalows at swakopmund restcamp [G]. it was an o.k. place to spend a night - photos of the facilities are in the gallery.

[view photos: spitzkoppe to swakopmund]
[view photos: spitzkoppe to swakopmund - the botanical side]

[view all posts of this group]

today, after a 10-hour-workday, i felt bad for not preparing enough stuff to work on for the busride home.
just stared into space like everybody else did.
30 minutes lost forever.

the post title refers to work-related advice from a close friend:

“you don’t need to jump from tree to tree like a wild monkey, collecting every coconut you can find, fearing you could miss out on something otherwise…
you might end up having too many to bear, losing all of them and having to pick them up yet again. in short: you need to chill!”

i have to say: i do feel related to that monkey.

my mind is so clogged up with organic chemistry that i even found ethene on a bottle of wine:

ethene reflection

i’m glad that exam is over now…

i’m off to switzerland in a few minutes, but before i go, i’d like to share this with you:

(tom showed it to me, saying “that’s how we wake up every morning.”)

the direct product of several study breaks (probably too many):

photos of day two, showing the drive from windhoek to spitzkoppe - namibia’s very own version of the matterhorn. ;-)
you wouldn’t believe the night sky out there, VERY far from all the light pollution of modern civilization… i’ve never seen the milky way so clearly!

the weather was so nice that evening, that we decided to ditch the tents and sleep open air on the sandstone massif - almost exactly here: [G].

the photos were split into “travel” and “botanical” photo albums.

[view photos: windhoek to spitzkoppe]
[view photos: windhoek to spitzkoppe - the botanical part]

[view all posts of this group]