(Photo by Rachel de Joode)
Hi, my name is Danielle. My closest and oldest friends call me Danie, but my family doesn’t like it. I’m 27 years old, and I live in Berlin, Germany, but I hail from Canada. I grew up in a West Coast town called Campbell River*. It’s situated on Vancouver Island, British Columbia (it’s not called Victoria Island, though I hear that a lot). It’s a great place for hiking and skiing, which will always be passions of mine, but I’m also a city girl, so after I graduated high school I moved to Victoria* to attend Univeristy of Victoria and study creative writing. I loved living in Victoria and still consider it my home, and I value my time in the writing program, but after a year I decided I should follow my heart and study vocal jazz. I moved to Nanaimo* (famous for the Nanaimo Bar) and studied jazz vocal at Malaspina University College (now renamed as Vancouver Island University, as they were granted full university status a few years back).
(Photo by Raul Gallo-Gau)
I finished my associates and headed off to Berlin, Germany, as I had always wanted to live in Europe. My mom was born in Germany (though she grew up in Victoria) so the capitol city seemed to be a great place to start. I fell in love with the city and here I am!
I’ve been a sort of Jill of All Trades in Berlin. I now study Marketing at Royal Holloway (because I wanted to study at a UK university, but didn’t want to actually move there and leave Berlin!) but I’ve done writing and proofreading work, seamstressing, retail and even a couple of extras jobs.
(In Athens, Greece)
My interests are varied. I love music, writing, books, TV (it’s gotten much better over the past few years!), making clothes, cooking, travelling and gardening. I’m a passionate person, and I’m often drawn in by politics. Issues close to my heart are feminism, sustainability, business, economics and immigration. I appear rather preppy on the outside but I’m also a closet fantasy buff and steampunk fan.
(Getting ready for a boat tour on a visit back home in Campbell River)
Other noteworthy facts about me: I’ve worked as an extra and I appear as a blur in a black car in the beginning of Final Destination II and a blur in the background of a Becks ad that ran on MTV in 2011. Most of the music I listen to now somehow stemmed from the Beatles in some way, shape or form…basically, if I could draw a diagram of the evolution of my musical interests, the Beatles would be in the centre. I live with a cat named Petzi; I guess you’d call him ‘my’ cat, but it’s more like he lives here and I feed him sometimes…like a typical cat he likes to take over the space. I’ve always wanted to go to Japan, but I haven’t made it yet.
*These places are linked because a lot of people don’t really know where they are!
