My trip to munich

 

 

A Picture says more than a  thousand words

check for yourselves ;)

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the definition of friends

 

The social media has changed the over all meaning or usage of the word friend and that scares me. Facebook wants to make me believe that all the people I have added there are my friends? I have to be honest with myself and possibly a lot of people most of these contacts are acquaintances or people I know or don’t know. I am not condemning the Internet or social media, that would be blasphemy because I am a part of more than one online community and I would feel honored if I could consider some of the amazing people I had the opportunity to get to know online my friends. But sadly I haven’t even met them. They let me be a part of their lives via the twitter feed they post or through their facebook profiles or their amazing and inspiring blogs.

Even in real life many people can’t be considered real friends. A nice tweet came my way but sadly I forgot who sent it. It said ‘A friend is a person you can call after a year and talk like it was yesterday!’

Friends? What does a person qualify to be my friend? A topic I spent a long time thinking about and now it is important for everyone who may get mentioned below to know that I am not setting out to hurt you! I value everything you say, write or do!

Let me start with BiancaLuL she is a fantastic girl I met while twittering. She is part of the German Lupus Selfhelpnetwork , well a member and so we kinda run in the same circle. I learned a lot about her through our connection on twitter and in later stages on facebook. Not only Lupus connects us we found out that we both have a love for Handball (the german version.). Sadly we haven’t met yet but maybe someday because I have family near her place and I myself live in a touristic region in southern germany. (Bianca this is an invitation, I am moonlighting as a tourist guide ;) )

But is she a friend? Facebook and Twitter would like me to name her that. On that note what is that system on Twitter? I follow your tweets you follow mine and that makes us friends? Sorry but I think it isn’t like that… we can be acquaintances who keep each other updated through twitter.

But it isn’t only Bianca who has this ‘fate’ in my head. I would love to consider her a friend but there is one important part missing in our connection. We haven’t met and I never talked to her in person and that is an integral part to a friendship for me. Not only the connection via internet. Sadly for me I can never really think of some amazing people out there as my friends and I want you to get to know them too!

They are Christine ‘The Spoon Lady’ [bydls.com] , Tiffany [TiffanyandLupus] and Kimberly [ChroniclysILLy] and all the other Lupus warriors in my twitter list!

These three ladies seriously inspired me again and brought me to the point to refresh my activities with the Lupus Network in Germany. Due to my studies at the university and other life struggles I had let down my efforts to a point where I wasn’t helping anymore (bad girl I know!) Thank you for brining me back on track!

As much as I want to say you are my friends, my heart wants to but my head wont let me … YET! If I am ever in the states I’ll tell you and if you let me I’ll visit you or you come visit me and we will see if we are compatible in real life!

Okay so what makes a friend?

A friend is the person I can talk to about everything, on the phone, in a café or else but I have to have met that person face to face! (In the same space not only via a webcam!)

Please remember this wasn’t meant to hurt you!

Sound off below!

A handy travel aid

I love to travel but there is this nagging thought in the back of my head what would I do when I am abroad and in a country where I can’t communicate? What can I do in case I get a flare and have to explain to a doctor what is going on if we don’t speak each others languages? I mean I can write in English and I learned Spanish and French in school also but I am German and in case of emergency I am not sure I could explain Lupus in any Language.
This problem was recognized by some amazing people who then created an awesome book called the Butterfly Traveler. In it you can find the translation for 1400 words and phrases you could need on vacation, in the hotel and most important at the doctors office. The 12 languages include Russian and Greek. The guide is easy to handle and you never need to be scared again. There is only one problem, you can’t really buy it anymore.
I found one offer at amazon.de [http://www.amazon.de/Butterfly-Traveller-Multilingual-International-Traveller/dp/3933185343] it is from ELEF the old name for Lupus Europe.
Now Imagine what you would do on a vacation when you get a flare?!
I would panic for sure, that is just what I do ;)!
But then I would remember my neat little helper and use it to find a doctor who can help me!
You don’t believe it can work?
Try me and post a challenge for me,either here or on twitter @lalez88 with tag #butterflytravel! [and specific language if you like]
I’ll try to answer as fast as I can [as soon as I read your message!]

Trying out something new

 

Did you know there is a Windows Live Blog Tool?  The Windows Live Writer!

It is free!

On top of that I think it looks pretty good. It already has the general look of my blog imported (you need an Internet connection for that) but you can work offline and create drafts to be reworked at a later time.

The features you can insert are Hyperlinks , A single Picture or a whole Album!!!!

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but you have to have a LIVE ID (aka hotmail email or else) and then has the server to work. What do you say? Cool or don’t use?

Tables, Maps

This is where I live

Tags, Videos 

german TV article mentioning LUPUS

and more you just have to download the plugins.

That is awesome, right?!