Mamma Mia, Here I Go Again

You get a special surprise song of the day because Christoph's been whistling ABBA all evening. Sometimes the two of us are very much alike, although I can't whistle.

Last night, Christoph and I were super-productive and totally have scenes 6-8 all edited together and as pretty as it goes (sometimes "pretty" is a very dubious label). Now if Anja would only finish up her little UFO animation, we could really get some work done. . . *ahem.* Also, we annoyed Basti by being in his room and on his computer, but it was a sibling-rivalry kind of day, anyway.

Did you know that German tv has been obsessed with scientifically/celebrity-anecdotally proving that men and women are different? Somewhere in the middle of flipping channels last night, we stumbled across yet another clip show about the sexes. Sure enough, as the tv said it would be, Christoph was in control of the remote and I was doing most of the talking. So we're keeping up the stereotypes. Also, we watched the world weather on CNN because it is fascinating, even if the dude kept standing in front of Germany. Did you know it snowed in Pakistan? It looked like about as much as we have, but the tv guy was acting like it was a big deal. Maybe Pakistan doesn't get much snow.

The sun came out today, at least briefly. I totally saw sunshine AND patches of blue sky on my walk from Bahnhof to school, and it made me so excited. In general, the snow is pretty much melted from the side walk- even Aichach has the mushy mess to a minimum (I worked pretty hard on that alliteration- appreciate it!). But then I was stuck in a school building all day, so I don't know if the pretty weather held out.

I got to sleep in (until 7!) this morning because I never have a first period on Wednesday, and second period Reli was taking some kind of test that I figured I had no chance on, since it probably did not include a "Draw A Picture of a Bible Story" section, which I would beast. I hope the Sunday School room is still decorated with my artwork, because it was pretty and educational.
My excitement about sleeping in was greatly diminished when I discovered that Christoph had no first period (but did have a second) and was STILL asleep when I left the house to be at school in time for third. This is all kinds of unfair.

Biology today: we made an incest family tree! Seriously, what is up with my Bio curriculum?

History: sometime when I apparently wasn't paying attention, we fought WWI, and it's time to discuss the Weimar Republic, also known as Germany's miserable first attempt at democracy! I feel sort of sorry for Germany, because their first democracy ended so terribly, and also because instead of George Washington, they have Bismarck, who is actually a jerk and set the country up for failure, if I understand things right. Also, I think it's funny (but often useful) that my history teacher announces every time he is abbreviating something on the bored, even obvious things like "D" for "Deutschland."

Art! Yay!

We "ordered" pizza for lunch- something like 13 of us all made requests of Andy and he took two people with him to pick up all the pizzas- it was somehow incredibly entertaining, but you probably had to be there, because there is no way to describe in words the attempt to fit 13 pizza boxes in one classroom-sized trash can (we totally succeeded) or the face people make when they come in the K12 room and discover that it reeks of pizza.

Tassilo told me today that Hooters is coming to Germany. I am excited because their chicken wings are fabulous, and the idea of a German Hooters is hilarious. Too bad it's going to be up north somewhere. I am certain it will spread south, though.

Zimmy and Max and maybe some other people apparently went to both McDonald's and Burger King for lunch (I am guessing BK for food that is halfway edible, and McD's to try to win WM (World Cup) tickets from Monopoly). In any case, they were wearing Burger King crowns (best invention ever) when they returned, and Zimmy had some sort of balloon on a stick from McDonald's that would make the ultimate scepter if he were some sort of Fast Food Emperor.

Math is about the most frustrating thing ever, because I can totally do all the little pieces of the equations like 10 times faster than my classmates, but I can't get the pieces together in the right order. If I figure out a certain piece by making some sort of formula (and I've done this), I have no way of checking myself because I still don't know what I'm doing. Anyone know how to do integral calculus? Want to explain it to me?

Chemistry Moment of the Day: Viktor went to move the overhead so he could see the board. As soon as he touched it, Petzi yelled "He's stealing it!"
The funnier moments of Chemistry related to Frau Collin being very hard of hearing, and do not translate well to text.

It is really terrible to not get home from school until 6:30 pm. There's something kind of cool about walking home from school in the dark, though, in a really twisted way.

You wanted pics? I am too lazy to figure out where Phillip stuck my camera after fiddling with it (it is probably downstairs near where I left it, but I don't feel like going down all those stairs to get to it), but I do have a picture of me and Nadja from Sunday, being cold and yet happy because filming was almost done for the day!

Other people seem to like occasionally mentioning their home state in posts. Because I hate to be left out, I guess I'll tell you that the German newspaper today had a blurb about Virginia carrying out the 1000th death sentence since it was made legal again in whatever year that was.
Yep, I've got an awesome state. And it's getting well-represented overseas, too. (Bush AND Kerry were on tv today, but I didn't really pay attention- I think it was this recent Iraq scandal thing?)

Song of the Day Has Been Replaced

With "Snowy Sidewalk Report of the Day," because, you see, Awesome Songs are limited, but Mother Nature is not. So it snowed last night, meaning I met the sidewalk-snow plow (why yes, we do have mini snow plows for the sidewalk, and they tend to get their job done faster than the big ones) halfway to the Bahnhof- there was probably 1-2 cm snow on the bits of the sidewalk the plow hadn't gotten to yet, which is a pleasant amount when it is fresh. Aichach, however, is never a pleasant place to walk- I was amazed this morning to find relatively clear sidewalks- apparently it did not snow as much there, and the snow had mostly melted, leaving a rather nasty mush in most places. The afternoon was little better- it started snowing again as I was walking to school, and continued through first and second periods, resembled freezing rain in third period, thought about stopping in fourth, and was done by fifth- I think I even saw the sun briefly! In any case, it must have gotten warmer during sixth period because my walk to the train was entirely mush and yuck. Didn't bother to pay attention to the Hochzoll sidewalks because Basti drove me home from the Bahnhof.

Speaking of snow, you should check out short story "Snow Blitz" by Sylvia Plath if you can find a copy. . . it is pretty awesome (yes, Dad, I am reading the book you sent me. Of course I will enjoy anything by Pioneer Valley writers, or didn't you know that Smith and Hampshire are buddy schools?) And if you still want to get in the snowy mood, play the Arcade Fire's "Tunnels" while you are reading the story. It would have been song of the day if I was still doing that sort of thing, just because it has the line "And then our skin got thicker from living out in the snow," and also because the story in it is geil.

I'm also going to give you a nice report on the progress of the video, mainly because Christoph and I were pretty productive yesterday, and Nadja is probably endlessly curious, and the rest of you wish you could be here for the fun (bzw. torture) of editing the video. So the first scene (Scene 2) is totally done and pretty and we even got fancy with adding in our own foley and everything, professional-style. We've gotten the raw footage for scenes 6 and 7 seperated into bits we can use and bits where nobody knew their lines (guess which group is bigger). We are also creating all sorts of very rational explanations for the thousands of mis-en-scene mistakes, and have enough creativity left over for semi-awesome transitions (bzw. ways to piece together monologues from 3 takes because our actors can't say the line right all at once). And Christoph proved his worth as a cameraman (after not noticing the person/chair/building/whatever in the background of multiple shots) with the coolest shepherds-walking-through-the-wilderness shot ever, which we even managed in one take (otherwise impossible with us). Also, we finally know how to work the stupid video program, since Premiere apparently hates us, so we're stuck with Magix or whatever this thing is called. So maybe it won't take us two weeks to finish the next scene.

First period German, and I still hate Schiller. Fortunately, we have finally finished this stupid play, so hopefully I will never have to pretend to read Schiller again. And as tragedies go, Maria Stuart is one of the most pitiful. I mean, yeah, the heroine dies and she was innocent and all, but what about the random other innocents dying, and maybe also random guilty people? But no, subplots are too complex for Schiller- no love story, no back-room political jockeying, just one good guy (girl, Maria) and one bad guy (girl, Elizabeth) and a bunch of boring British lawyers debating things. And the death doesn't even happen on stage- we just get this message that Maria's lawyers have fled the country, so we assume she is dead. How anticlimactic. I can't believe I sat through this thing for all these weeks.

Had second period free today, which is always fun because lots of other people have it free (everyone who is neither Catholic nor in Math LK) and we discussed the Simpsons (this is normal), and I tried to explain the concept of Family Guy, and why it is better than the Simpsons, but I failed miserably, because Family Guy is impossible to explain. We also discussed beer, in particular differences between beer and beer policy in the US and Germany, Soccer and other sports, and curfews (why yes, it was basically a room full of boys and me. This seems to happen a lot. Do you think it has to do with there being 107 boys born to every 100 girls? I learned that in Biology.)

Math is third period, and I had to giggle to myself when the teacher said "Now, don't faint, but I'm going to give you two worksheets. You don't have to do them all- we'll do part in class, and you can do the rest at home if you want." There were maybe 15 or 20 math problems on each worksheet. How are Germans so much better at math than me and yet do so little of it? I also was amazed to hear "I don't care how you do the problem, as long as the answer is right," which I thought was the opposite of every math teacher's opinion, but I guess I've finally found a sensible one. AND I managed to do 60% of my math homework, although I don't know if any of it is right, but this is a huge improvement- I might have a chance of not staring at next week's test and writing "Math Hard. Can't Do." Might. I have, however, discovered I am much better at mental math and fractions than Germans- I have seriously watched multiple classmates reach for a calculator to figure out the decimal equivalent of 1/3, which made me wonder why I am so lost in class.

History made me realize that maps are really fascinating- for some reason, my history teacher always brings a huge map that vaguely relates to his lesson and hangs it in the room, then never refers to it, but I and many of my classmates stare at it, reading whatever random detail instead of listening to the lecture. Maybe it is because it is large and colorful, or maybe its just a weird thing with History LK people. I was also incredibly entertained by the c. 1919 parliamentarian-socialist pamphlet that was set up as a set of their opponent's arguments and then the reason these arguments are wrong. The final argument, something about elected officials, had this reply: "We agree with this statement." It was a pretty silly way to end a persuasive pamphlet, I think.

There is supposed to be a huge test in Reli tomorrow- I am so sleeping in late, because I have been to maybe 4 Reli classes total, so I have no hope. Yay for not having first or second period!

I Give Up on Songs

Mainly because the iPod battery died today and I am too lazy to plug it in to charge. . . or rather I forgot to grab it before I got on this afternoon and I don't feel like getting it now and plugging it in and waiting forever, so I'll just be riding the train musicless for a bit.

Anyway, the snow is totally cleared off the sidewalks in Hochzoll (I've found out that I cannot pronounce this name to save my life, and I don't know why), making the walk to the Bahnhof rather nice, and of course meaning that the sidewalks of Aichach are a solid sheet of ice, making me late for school (again).
English today was some sort of listening comprehension from a British radio program about a suicide bomber consisting mainly of interviews with people with thick Yorkshire accents so that I, the native speaker, had trouble understanding, and my poor classmates barely had a chance. As some sort of karma towards my teacher, he had the embarassment of having his laptop screensaver come on with very loud rock music in the middle of an otherwise serious lecture while some important people were observing our class. It was pretty funny.
German included a good deal of freezing because Herr Friedl decided he should open every window of the classroom (it was maybe 1 outside- maybe) to let in "fresh air." When we told him we were freezing, he said "better frozen than suffocated." I'm not sure I agree, but Germans put a strange emphasis on "fresh air" anyway.
In general, I was rather disappointed that the sun did not come out today- weekend is over, back to gray gray yuck.
My free period included the fun of watching a classmate try to get comfortable to sleep on the couch. When another noted that he didn't have enough space, he replied "It's more space than in Zimmy's bed Saturday- there were three of us then," which is rather entertaining out of context (I know the context and will not tell you).
The lunch break included Viktor and Niko working out every possible way to win at Tic-Tac-Toe, and then half-jokingly planning to do a Facharbeit (think thesis but in the 12th grade) on it.
And Biology is one of my favorite classes because I actually know what is going on, and the teacher loves to randomly call on me to answer questions because I totally know the answers. I always like genetics, and I am going to beast this exam on Friday, provided the German language doesn't kill me. Bio also had some gross slides of genetic disorders and other slides of charts that our teacher had to try about 5 times to get facing the right way, which was pretty funny.

I have submitted my first college application (last years notwithstanding)- this one to Hampshire! I have also used an electronic check for the first time, which makes me feel sort of grown-up and cool. Anyway, cross your fingers or press your thumbs or do whatever your culture does for luck because I really want this one!

Computer update (because you care so much): We've (this means Christoph) determined the monitor works, but the computer somehow died in the process of being unplugged at Anja's, put in a box, driven here, sitting in my room for 24 hours, and being set back up. Your guess is as good as mine, and probably as good as a lot of other people's, people who know more than me.

And I edited yesterday's post because I was tired (or was it under the influence of alcohol?) last night and forgot things, so go back and read for the full (well, closer to full) story!

BEGIN LIFE PHASE HOCHZOLL

Weekends are Pretty Cool

In case, you know, you weren't aware.

I don't really have much Bock to type the whole account up for you, but I love you all enough that I guess I should, and I'll even be chronological, or at least I'll try. I can't promise not to randomly throw German words in, though, so get that dictionary out.

So Friday night started out at the Church Table Tennis and Foosball Tournament, where I proved that I have less athletic talent at Miniature Games than at the real ones. Christoph and I managed to score 10 goals the entire evening in Foosball (and had 20 total scored against us) and table tennis was far worse, but it did involve black light and white gloves and fun. I was a far more successful Mini-Sports Photographer, and I'll eventually load some pics up for you (yes, I took pictures, which is apparently the only thing my camera can do. . . I guess I should have told you first that we re-filmed the bit of the video that my camera killed, after having made an unsuccessful trip to Saturn, where they were fairly certain that my camera model, which I had in my hand, did not exist). After church Phillip (host bro #3, for those of you confused by the plethora (I hate that word) of names cropping up here) and some of his friends were going Out, and I went along. We drove into Augsburg and parked somewhere and set off looking for some bar that we never found, and ended up instead in a random cafe whose main Vorteil was that we could have a table, all the bars being randomly super-super full for Friday at 10:30. So we hung out and it was fun, especially since it was not outside in the cold (Nadja and I have determined that Augsburg is the coldest city in Germany). We wandered a bit post-cafe but decided there wasn't much to do, ended up at Burger King, and came home too late, meaning I slept too late on Saturday. Because I was unsuccessful at Calling Berni (granted, I wasn't home much to try, but the times I did only gave me that terrible "nicht erreichbar" recording) about the Party people at school were going to, I ended up heading over to Anja's apartment, where Phillip got her new laptop set up and un-set up (set down?) her old computer to transport back here for me. I stayed at Anja's and Nadja and Nadja's Stuttgart friend Vivi came over and we made chili (I made dessert because I am awesome) and hung out and played board games- I am in love with the Palace of Allahambra, and not just because I got more points than the game board says is possible. There was also the fun of checking out Anja's Abibuch, which is sort of like a yearbook except that you only get it your final year, and everyone gets their very own page where somebody writes something about you or something like that. We wrapped up our evening with some strange Celebrity Diving Tournament, at Christoph's insistence because he was coming to pick me up and didn't want to miss too much of it while unterwegs. I slept Saturday night to be up for church in the morning, and we spent today FREEZING while getting 3 whole scenes filmed- the whole shepherd sequence is done, but it was very, very cold outside. At least I could be all bundled up- our poor actors were stuck out in a sweater with Random Vaguely Bibical Costume over it, huddling around tea lights in the snow. I used my afternoon for homework (why, yes, I was studious) mainly because I feel obligated to at least look like I tried on the Bio test Friday, and because I have to give Steffi's notes from the whole first two months of class, when I wasn't there, back on Tuesday. Of course, I didn't really want to study for Bio, so I also spent a lot of time trying to help Christoph translate a thing for English class, but it turns out that I don't know German and he doesn't know English, so our combined forces make for pretty pitiful translation. Fortunately, Phillip knows both German and English, so the homework was saved. Seriuosly, though, how would you translate "Earned Income Tax Credit?" How about "Medicaid?" (we found words for both of these and more). Tonight, went to the Christkindlmarkt with Basti and Steffi (Basti's girlfriend, a different Steffi from the one in the last sentence), Simone (Steffi's sister), and Andrea (a friend). Christkindlmarkt is sort of like Christmas Bazaar meets County Fair in the middle of a city- lots and lots of booths selling traditional Christkindlmarkt foods and drinks (Glühwein) and Christmasy crafty things. I am too lazy to take my camera places, so I am going to mooch off Blair's pics (isn't that Christmas tree so tacky? We were all horrified.) Also it is cold, but that is why there are hot, alcohol-based drinks for fair prices. Steffi and Basti had these giant coupon collections from the newspaper, and we based most of our purchases on them. This included trying a drink called the "heisse Oma," (heiss=hot) just because it had a funny name and we got 50 cents off. We bought one and passed it around and it was something like egg nog with white wine or whatever- it was delicious, auf jeden Fall. Unfortunately, the Christkindlsmarkt closes pünktlich at 8 (the stall we were standing in front of, from which we had bought drinks and not yet gotten our 2€ Pfand back, turned its lights out and started putting the blinds down as soon as the church bells started ringing 8 pm) so we were home in time for dinner. Christoph and I tried to get my computer set up, but of course it suddenly doesn't work (it was working just fine at Anja's yesterday, mind you) and of course Phillip is already gone, so we'll see what happens there. Maybe technology doesn't like me as much as I thought. . . in any case, this blog still works, and I'm out of things to tell you. . . there were certainly awesome, funny things that I could add here, but note the "kein Bock" from above, and consider that I have to get up at 6 again tomorrow and I still don't know if I'll get to school on time because the train tends to be slow. So I'm going to take a shower and think about sleeping, maybe.

END LIFE PHASE OBERGRIESBACH

Snow

You know those Grandpa stories about walking to school in the snow?

They're true, and I'm living them. It's not as bad as you think, because it is not all that cold (in fact, the movement + warm clothes keeps me from feeling cold at all) and it's rather pretty when you're not in a hurry to get to school by 7:45 (when class starts) and your train was late (arrived at 7:35) and it normally takes you 25 minutes to get from train station to school. So I was 15 minutes late for history, but Germans don't count tardies, so it's okay.

Chemistry Highlight of the Day (Because I know you can't live without them)
Frau Collin was discussing some sort of fear of being shot at school by angry students or something.
Chubie: That's like not going to the bank because someone might rob it when you go in.
Petzi: Good thing there's online banking!

German Highlights of the Day (Sometimes this class is so boring, and then there are days like today, when it is so funny)
Herr Friedl wrote four lines from the play on the board.
HF: What do these four lines have in common?
Viktor: They're in German?

Tobias has to summarize the end of Act 5 for class on Monday, and he had a question about one of the characters.
T: Herr Friedl, I don't know who this guy is- did he show up in the play before?
HF: Yes, it was Act One. The Act you slept through.
T: Oh, right.

And then I wished the train would come to Aichach much earlier because I hate waiting until 1:40 when I get out of school at 12:55 (I was at the train station at 1:20). . . I did at least not have to walk home from the train station because Basti came to pick me up- this means less dealing with snow and earlier lunch, which pretty much makes me really happy right now.

I'm halfway doing English homework and I found a rather interesting article on religion that you might enjoy, because I thought it was pretty good. If you really like it, grab Shaw's Androcles and the Lion, because it is basically the same idea plus a clever play and a lot more communist undertones.

Final Thought:
"An electronically transmitted voice is not a real voice. We've all grown used to these simulacra of ourselves, but when you stop and think about it, the telephone is an instrument of distortion and fantasy. It's communication between ghosts, the verbal secretions of minds without bodies. I want to be able to see the person I'm talking to. If I can't, I'd rather not talk at all."
Don't ask me how computers fit into this scheme, as this quote is c. 1967, but I love the idea, and a copy of the book it's from, Moon Palace, would make me pretty happy, in case you were wondering.

Insert Song Here

So it turns out I'm not switching schools because the school here is too overcrowded (rather like a certain other school I know), so I get the privelege of getting up super-early and riding the train and then walking half an hour to get to school. After walking 20 minutes to the train station from my house. I am telling myself that the exercise is good for me. I mean, I like my school, but a bus would be really nice.

I'm settling in here rather well and feeling pretty good, minus the lack of sleep (today, my classes started at 9:30. I got up at 6:45. Tomorrow, class starts at 7:45.)

So Germany's new cabinet is in place, and they are patting themselves on the back for having six women and a dude in a wheelchair. As an American, I giggle, because they still all look alike, and I know for a fact that there are People of Color in Germany.

No English today because we had a big class meeting consisting mainly of three administrators basically begging the smokers not to throw their cigarette butts on residential yards, the smokers having been moved to smoking in front of houses because the school is now a "smoke-free zone." It was actually very pitiful to see these three grown men standing up there saying things like "We don't want to restrict your right to smoke, but please just do it out of sight of the school." And then they halfway suggested that people maybe not smoke during the school day, but it was very weak and they pulled back from that idea.
Germany is crazy.

Then I had a free period and the discussion included these fun tidbits:
1: You know they found a case of beer in the K13 room once and they locked the whole class up until-
2: Until the case of beer was gone!
1: *laugh* No, until they found out who did it.

If I woke you up in the middle of the night and asked you if this was sugar or salt, what would you say?

A really, really long discussion about the Simpsons, because there is no Family Guy in this country.

And then we capped off the free period, proving that these are Germany's best and brightest, by discussing interesting ways to torture and kill lesser animals (insects, frogs, etc).

And then a period of history and it was time for another nice, long walk to the train, and I got there 20 minutes early because the train comes at a terrible time. And home for lunch and trying to make the video work: Christoph got the video from my camera to work in some form, but the audio is all out of sync. I've spent the afternoon messing with it, but we are now giving up, because it is just too much effort and we get about 10 seconds right, then it slides out of sync again, so we are going to just film again with Christoph's camera because his likes the computer.

The joys of video.

Even When I Dream of You

Song of the day is Aerosmith's "I Don't Want to Miss A Thing" because I love how Steven Tyler goes all crazy and screams in the middle of it, making it a true power ballad.

Today is one of those days when you wake up from the dream after you kiss the girl instead of before. That means that the sun came out and there is blue sky and that made me about the happiest person ever and I am totally in love with the world, even though it is colder than yesterday.

Packing was somehow easier this time, mainly because I allowed myself to use these three backpacks that I have and then other random plastic bags- how did I end up with so much stuff? How am I ever going to get it all on an airplane again? I'd take pictures, but the camera is somewhere in a suitcase.

After glancing through the camera manual, I may have a solution, and if it works, Christoph and I are not going to be very happy. Camera manual insists that I must plug the camera in before I can get video off of it- a very silly insistence, but if it is true at least we save ourselves the trouble of filming again. Wish I'd known yesterday, though.

One Day We May See A Woman King

Today, Angie officially became the Chancellor of Germany.

I went to school in the snow.

My free period involved poster-related excitement- we have all these great posters for the K12K13 party (kind of like Prom, minus dresses and plus free beer) that the Sparkasse had made for us, and there were couch-climbing adventures to hang them in the windows, and then Max came in and got all upset because we aren't allowed to hang the posters at school because they advertise free beer. We are, apparently, allowed to hand out the 5000 flyers that we have (and that also say "Freibeer"), and Noiby became very popular with some fifth graders because he was giving them out to EVERYONE. I have three at the moment- want one?

I saw the sun briefly in Sozi. Well, not literally, but I looked out the window and the gray sky was a much brighter gray than normal. It made me really excited, because I have not seen the sun in days. It is a good thing I do not depend on photosynthesis, because I would die.

There were bus-related mishaps on the way home, mostly because three buses in the morning somehow become only one bus in the afternoon, although there are apparently other buses that I just don't know about. Anyway, I ended up in a place whose name translates to Cowbrook, and you can imagine I was unhappy. Miri came to pick me up, but I still froze (it is so cold here).

I got the wrong train time written down somehow, so Anja and Nadja ended up an hour early at the train station because I got on the train an hour late. They killed time at the MiniMal and bought exotic fruit that was oddly delicious and reptilian.

I was on a train because I went to the Steger's (where I will be living as of tomorrow evening) to edit the church video (a familiar task). Of course, video cannot go easily, and Christoph had all his footage nicely imported and ready, and then my camera decided it did not like the computer or something. Computer reads camera, computer has camera's special software installed, but neither camera's program nor any other will read camera video information. Finally got DVD player to play movie, but could not edit the clips, which is what we need. Hours of Christoph and I trying to troubleshoot and Anja and Nadja being bored (playing Uno, drinking tea, eating cookies) and we finally gave up and edited Christoph's footage and are hoping someone will come up with a solution. Travis, how did you get the video off the camera before? In any case, we tied up poor Sebastian's computer all afternoon, but he had best get used to not using it much, because it seems that Christoph and I will be playing moviemakers for the next few weeks. Success is currently hard to forecast.

Fun trivia: My birthday is September 22. Christoph's is September 23. Anja's is September 24. I am precisely one day older than Christoph, which I will use to every advantage possible (I am certain there is some advantage in there somewhere).

I have decided that a house dominated by males has better vibes or something than one dominated by females. 3 of the 6 colleges I am applying to are all-girls, and a fourth just went co-ed a year or two ago. Maybe these are bad choices, but I will figure that out later.

Special Notes To People Who Are Awesome and May Or May Not Realize It:
ROSE: Rosi thinks you are like the sweetest person ever, and she is probably right. Thank you SO much for everything you've done- I keep saying it because I mean it! You ROCK and I need to bake you cookies or something, because cookies are one of my few talents.

Buster: I keep meaning to call you, but I have been all busy! You are so awesome, and I want to thank you publicly and also call you and talk because we haven't talked in a while and we should! I promise that life will slow down in a bit and you will get a magical surprise phone call from me.

One Particular Starry 11 O'Clock I Went Down By The Water

An old man with a burlap bag said, "How you doin', my daughter?" He put in the hole of his old rusty crawler and fed me three pills a day to keep me from gettin' taller.

Fortunately, I escaped.

Actually, I just rode the emo train into super-super-busy-life-is-awesome-weekend: after People Rock Friday came Saturday with more phone calls (Tootlez is my personal hero and I promise that I am going to visit Jesh and bake cookies or something) although they made me miss my train, which meant waiting an hour and then Adventures in Augsburg trying to find the church from the train station- I actually didn't have too much trouble, thanks to some rather nice old ladies, but I also worked out how to do it with public transportation because it is a LONG walk, even for German standards. And the lock-in was awesome- I love hanging out with Nadja and Anja and the kids in the youth group are so funny- picking out costumes for the video was hilarious, and Franzi kept me up late asking me just about anything she could think of in English. And it was FREEZING in the church so I didn't sleep well but adrenaline got me through the day- we filmed scene 2 of the video (which we will try to edit tomorrow- I hope the software I have is decent and likes Christoph's camera) and after church I had adventures involving being in such a hurry to get to my train, only to end up 15 minutes early. But at least I got to wait in the train, where it is warm. And then I went to Aichach, where David picked me up and we went to his house for an awesome Bilingual Thanksgiving, because David's mom is American and his dad is German and the whole family is bilingual and it was so awesome to be surrounded by people who speak English and German pretty much at the same time, and we'd switch languages from one sentence to the next and I felt totally normal in that environment, somehow- they had two other guests- an American woman who married an Austrian and they're living in Munich, where David's older sister Lidia lives- I am definitely getting myself out to Munich to hang out with Lidia sometime soon because she was awesome and seriously has a perfect Midwest accent, which is somehow comforting. I stayed a while (there was pumpkin pie, made from fresh pumpkin because there is no canned pumpkin here!) and came home and Miri was here and we hung out a bit and I was so exhausted but I had to make some phone calls related to the last few posts. . . you see, I'm moving again. It's a complex situation, but I'm okay with it and I'm 95% certain that I'll be moving in with Anja's family- the details will get put into place tomorrow and I'll probably move Wednesday. I don't know yet if I'll switch schools- we're still working that out, and I promise to keep you updated.
I was so sleepy when I got up this morning- I ended up staying up until 10 last night and 6:15 came far too soon, and I am still exhausted. . . it was snowing as I walked to the bus and kept snowing all day- I cannot believe I went to school at all. It's melted into yucky mush on the streets, but the grass is still all white because we haven't seen the sun yet, and it'll be dark in half an hour anyway. Fun random school moments:
-Chemistry had me confused for a bit when they started doing equations with the element J- I was fairly certain that there's no element beginning with J, but then I found out that it is the chemical equivalent of x. Then came German, which reminded me of Dailey's class when I took a few quotes out of context:
Herr Friedl: So what did they call her? A Satanist? A Socialist?
Student: (answer)
HF: Right! A sadist!

HF: Was ist ein Bastard?

Yes, Schiller is great literature. (This is irony- Schiller is terrible and I miss Shakespeare SO MUCH. Even Shelley's better than this dude, and that is saying a lot because I hated Shelley.)

In English class, the conversation turned to the moon landing (anyone who wants to hook me up with a copy of Moon Palace because I'm too lazy for Amazon would make me pretty happy) and this exchange took place (it=moon landing):
Herr Kunst: And it happend where?
Jakob: On the moon. . . .
HK: Right!

And Religion somehow produced the idea that a person doesn't have to shower after getting married because, hey, you're married, it's not like you have to impress anyone anymore.

I love Germans.

Winter Has Arrived

Sort of.

People rock. But if you are trying to call me after about 1 pm today, I am not going to be home! I am going to church for a lock-in and will be there until at least Sunday afernoon. . . but thank you in advance for offering your couch to me, and I think the Big Bad Experiment Beast has been beat back, at least temporarily (I wish I had a word for temporary that started with b) and I love you ALL.

And for those of you stuck in worry on the other side of the pond, please keep praying but relax because the current Mood Pendulum is firmly on the side of "Life is Pretty Okay Most of the Time, and People Is Sometimes Kind."

Words Broke

I need a hug.

(For the 95% of you who don't know what's going on, things are just really tough right now and I'm running out of places to turn. My soul is turning bitter.)


Addendum 3:34:

And then the phone started ringing off the hook and it turns out that I have the best friends ever. . . I am so grateful, guys. I would be so lost without you. Rose, Dustin, Buster, Nadja, MARY- I love you all so much and I am so glad that I have you guys here for me.

Can You Feel The Love Tonight?

It snowed today.

American Idol is just as terrible when it is in German and called "Deutschland Sucht Den Superstar."

There are processes at work at the moment that make me disinclined to blog. . . I'll explain things better soon.

I am Waitin' Til I Don't Know When

Today's song of the day is the Arcade Fire's Nieghborhood #4, aka 7 Kettles, and it even gets a lovely italicised quote, because I'm in that kind of mood.

It's not a lover I want no more,
and it's not heaven I'm pining for,
but there's some spirit I used to know,
that's been drowned out by the radio

So yesterday at school did not include fun anecdotes- sorry, guys. It was Michi's birthday and that meant delicious chocolate, and Sozi remains so much fun and tomorrow I get to do a mini-presentation on American political party organization, which basically doesn't exist, so it's going to be a really, really short presentation.

Today was a no-school day because it is Random Catholic Holiday, so I went to Augsburg on the train and I wanted to do a big photo diary, but it was rainy and that discouraged me from taking pictures on the streets of Augsburg. I did take a few pics, though, and I will share them with you!

That's me!

That's my house!

That's my watch! Better get to the train!

That's the bus stop!

That's the train station!

That's me in the H&M dressing room, being sexy!

That's the dressing room again- I bought that shirt and that jacket!

That's the train station in Augsburg, and that's my train!

Well, that was it for pictures- I'm really bad at taking them, obviously.

Otherwise, I am listening to my iPod's "Songs That Are Sad And Appropriate To The Weather" mix that it is making up all on its own from my apparently very mellow music collection. All I want to do is keep typing all the lyrics that in some random way apply to me, but I won't because that's not cool.

Yesterday had a song of the day, too, and I am only going to tell you that it was also depressing and that I picked it based entirely on the video the Trio made in 11th grade starring Zach that made all of us want to cry. Those of you who weren't in Blu's video class that year miss out, sorry.

My iPod has taken pity on my mood and is now playing a song about gummy bears.


This is Mary Raines, and she is the most awesome person, so she is getting specially mentioned in my blog. I do not know how I would make it through this year without Mary, and I am still bummed that she is now on the other side of the country from me, because it means I have to go to Karstadt alone when I want amazing candy, and buses aren't fun anymore. Mary Raines, you continue to amaze me and I love you dearly.

That's What Friends Are For

I can't recall hearing an awesome song on the radio today, but I did wake up singing Elton John/Dionne Warwick/Gladys Knight/Stevie Wonder's "That's What Friends Are For," a song that plays in the Kinder Friends commercial on tv, and that seems appropriate for today, so my earworm picked well at 6 this morning.

Today's entry is going to consist of fun anecdotes from school, because today was full of them, meaning there was lots of laughter, some of which I might be able to electronically transmit.

Starting in Chemistry (always funny anyway):
Chubie: It's so cold in here!
Tobi: We could huddle around the bunsen burner for warmth.
-
Today in Chemistry we played with some sort of poisonous liquid, or rather Frau Collin did behind like 3 windows, but we were still all coughing from the fumes. After going through this long process of being super careful with the Brom (this is the German name, I am too lazy to find the English one) she went and squirted like a whole dropper full on the behind-windows-for-protection lab counter. She did eventually get the Brom mixed with the Hexan, and then brought it out of the glass case thing to show us the reaction, meaning there was a flask of liquid producing some sort of white fume right in front of where I was sitting. A snippet of Chemistry class conversation:
Student: Frau Collin, is this solution poisonous?
FC: Um, not that much. I mean, I'm still alive. (picks up flask, removes protective cover, things spews smoke although it is totally not hot at all) It smells rather nice, actually (class is coughing) Who wants to smell it? (takes large whiff herself, has coughing fit) Well, it's still a bit too strong, we'll wait a little while.
Then she lectured for a bit and then a few brave people did smell the thing, and we all left Chemistry with a cough that we didn't have before and my throat's still a little sore. Fun, fun.

There was an English test today, and Herr Kunst figured it was silly for me to do the reading comprehension bit, so he told me I could try translating what they were supposed to read instead- without a dictionary. He expected me to get through about half of it, but I finished the whole thing (it wasn't quite a page long, typed), so I think that means I'm pretty cool, although I had very little clue what the German word for "equality" is nor how to express the concept of "working class."
That was not supposed to be a funny anecdote, more of those follow.

Religion:
Currently reading some weird passage that led to group work where my group did a mini-presentation on why Food equals Love. You see, love is a chemical reaction produced by hormones in the brain, which is fueled by food- without food, your brain doesn't work and you can't love (or do many other things for that matter, but that's beside the point). Children love their parents because their parents feed them, and pass that love onto other people through food and otherwise taking care of said people. It's this big cycle, you see. What it has to do with religion, I don't know, but I was pretty hungry during class and I wasn't feeling inclined to love anyone, then I ate some chocolate chip cookies in my free period after religion, and I felt much more able to love the world, and I also loved myself for making yummy cookies, although they look rather flat and wrinkled.

Lunch Pause (or that hour of the day when 5 or so Germans became incredibly creative and hilarious):
Niko: Did you know that 70% of British children don't know French Fries are made of potatoes?
Sebastian: What?
N: I read it somewhere. 70% of British kids.
S: What do they think they're made of?
N: I don't know. . . eggs. . . fat. . . who knows?
Someone who wasn't listening: What's this theory you're talking about?
N: Right, the French Fry Theory- we aren't certain what's in them, but we're hypothesizing. . . (we all collapse into laughter)

French Fries somehow led to talking about Cookie Monster, and it turns out that most Germans do not know the difference between Sesame Street and the Muppets, and are fairly certain that Bert and Ernie and Kermit and Miss Piggy are from the same show.

Then Michi started a huge debate when she asked (related to physics homework): How do you convert cubic cm to cubic m? Niko started this long explanation in which he ended up having her divide something by a million, which I'm fairly certain isn't right, and then Sebastian went to get some conversion chart that he had, but that was for things like cm to inch, and then I had to tell them all what an inch is, and went on to explain things like ounce and gallon and foot and then we still didn't have an answer for Michi and, the longer I listened, the more confused I became. We only stopped when Viktor went to pour himself some apple juice from the carton sitting there, and stopped because it had some sort of chunks in it, and the sheer disgust made us forget cubic meters and centimeters and math in general. Also, pizza showed up.

Viktor was studying something or other for art, and suddenly randomly asked (I'm sure it had to do with what he was studying): What's syphilis?
S: I think it's some sort of sailor's disease. . . no, that's malaria. Syphilis. . . it's an STD, right?
N: What? No way.
S: No, it's defintely an STD.
V: Yeah, he could have got it from monkeys.
N: What?! No! Monkeys?
V: He was sick!
S: Haven't you ever heard of furries?
N: Yea, like with hamsters. . .
S: No, hamsters wouldn't work, Niko. Not at all.
So after that weird conversation and lots of laughter, we somehow got onto the topic of the pope. Specifically, poping names.
Someone: Why'd he pick the name Benedict? (current pope) I mean, 15 other dudes already had it- wouldn't you want to be new and unique?
Sometwo: Maybe he liked the number 16.
1: Yeah, I'm going to pick this name just so I can put a 16 behind it.
Somethree: What if there were a Pope Jürgen?
2: You can't pick some farmer name.
This led to random naming of crazy potential Pope names, like Hans-Werner and Hans-Peter and Horst and whatnot, which was pretty fun.

Unfortunately, the lunch break has to end eventually, and it was on to biology, where I actually have homework: a paternity test! I think I am in the Jerry Springer biology course- we just finished up with hermaphrodites, and now it is on to how to tell if he is your Baby Daddy or not.

And Rosi was busy when I needed to get picked up after 7th period, so I rode the train home with Babsi and she's a pretty cool person and I'm glad I'm getting these opportunities to just hang out with random people and talk to them and get to know them.

And tonight was a nice continuation of hilarious anecdotes- Miri came over for dinner and for some reason was obsessed with tongue twisters, so I taught her to say the one about the seashells and the woodchuck and the sick sheep and she taught me German tongue twisters about goats and whisky mixers and fishers and we laughed and laughed and laughed and laughed. Laughing is very good- I like to laugh.

It was Numb3rs night- yay Numb3rs! And Mel Brooks' History of the World was on Kabel 1, so I flipped to it on commercial breaks and Mel Brooks is still the foremost comedian of our time, and I don't just say that because I find Yiddish accents to be the hottest thing ever, bok yok.

Remember, Food is Love.

He's Got the Whole World In His Hands

Yes, it's a silly song, but we sang it in church today and I like it, although the Germans put this weird pause between "world" and "in" that made it hard for me to sing along properly.

So I'm getting bad at blogging daily- sorry. Yesterday I slept in until 10:30 and then Rosi and I did some yardwork- raking leaves, mulching flowerbeds, etc- Miri showed up to hang out and help, too, which is good because it took both of us to lift the bags of mulch at Obi. Also it is fun to go shopping with Miri, for example when we were trying to find the limburger cheese that Rosi wanted for Käsespäztle, except that neither Miri nor I could find the cheese, and then Miri sort of asked this great old man and then she found it herself anyway. And we bought About A Boy because it is an awesome movie and because there is apparently nowhere in Germany to rent movies, or maybe people just never use this service, or maybe I'm just dense, but in any case we bought it and Rosi and I watched it yesterday afternoon and Hugh Grant is very pretty and Badly Drawn Boy sings very pretty songs. Then last night I cooked a chicken! Well, chicken breast, but still! I made a marinade (!) all by myself (plus a phone call to the Mom for double-checking of ingredients and directions) with lemon juice and Oil of the Olive and spices and everything, and then I cooked the chicken all by myself in the oven, but I made Rosi make sure it was done because I'm not 100% certain how to tell not-quite-done chicken from done chicken. But man, it was some good chicken, and I don't think we got the bird flu from it, and I feel so proud of myself for having made it because I have never made chicken before.
And then I slept last night and Rosi and I almost overslept this morning but I got ready for church super-fast and took the train to Augsburg and Anja's parents picked me up at the train station and drove me to church, where I actually went to service, and there was a blessing of child, which is baptism minus the part with the water and the vows and all, because I guess the mom or someone didn't want to do a full baptism right now or something. But the youth group sang a little song about an umbrella and gave the cute little boy (he was like 2) an umbrella and it was adorable and church is so great. And there were cookies after church because Methodists know that cookies are important and I got to talk politics a bit with Ulrich, which made me so happy, and Iris took a picture of me and asked me to write up a bit about myself for the church newsletter, which is awesome. And Nadja's friend was visiting from out of town, and we made spaghetti and I made salad because I am awesome at making salad (do you know that Germany has these great little packets of spices for making your own salad dressing, and I'm getting addicted to them because I feel so skilled putting the spices and the oil and the water in a little bowl and mixing it up instead of just pouring dressing out of a bottle) and we went up to Romy's apartment because she has more space than Nadja and we ate and hung out until Romy realized that she had to go to work at 4 and she also had to practice piano and get some other stuff done, so the rest of us went off to See Augsburg, considering that only one of us (Anja) is actually from Augsburg. And we went to the Marionette Museum, which is called the Puppen Kiste, and it's really cool- they have so many awesome hand-made marionettes, many of which are apparently key figures from German childhood movies that I have never seen, but it made me dream of a Museum of Rudolph and Friends, featuring all those classic characters from all those Rankin & Bass movies, because those were great movies. But I seriously am (re)considering a future in direction of toy-based movies, even though 95% of such things are now computer-based, and the only 5% that remain are made by students without access to computer animation facitilies. But how awesome would it be to go to work and play with toys in front of a camera all day? The production photos surrounding the puppet displays filled me with as much childlike longing as the dolls themselves- man do I want some fancy marionette knights and princesses and dragons, because I am still secretly 8 years old. And after the museum we went back out onto the frozen (not literally- I think it was actually 3 today) streets of Augsburg and peeked into the courthouse, which has this awesome gold-covered room on the top floor, but we didn't want to pay 2€ to go in, so we just sort of huddled outside the door of the room and looked in. Then we went to the cathedral, which made me miss Köln's Dom, although Augsburg's Dom is very pretty and also is not in the middle of construction, except for this one little scaffolded area. This one has something like 50 billion trillion altars in it, and I don't know why, but I swear that every wall or column or corner or whatever had a giant painting and an altar and a bunch of candles- it was weird, weirder than giant old cathedrals are all by themselves. And then we went to get some hot chocolate at Romy's work because we were frozen, and we headed for the train station, where we chilled for half an hour until my train came for me to get home, where I found Miri chilling and watching tv with Rosi and we hung out a bit and I decided I absolutely had to make chocolate chip cookies, but they turned out kind of bad, although they taste okay- it is hard to explain, and I think I am blaming German butter and German ovens for being disinclined to produce delicious cookies.

Blame it All on My Roots

I know, I didn't post yesterday, but I was out late and I was tired.

Let me think back to school Thursday. . . no first or second period, so I slept in and it was wonderful and then I had Sozi, which is always fascinating and fun- there was also the random moment of Noiby trying very hard to say Great Britain, but it kept coming out "Gweat Bwitain," which makes me feel so much better about my inability to roll the r in easy German words like "drei." Then it was on to English, and I can't say I remember what we discussed in yesterday's English class- must not have been that interesting. And then I was done, because my History teacher was doing something else. So I hung out for another period (fifth period) and then Andy drove me home cause he was done, too. Crazy German school- one day of 8 classes, then a day of 2 classes. Anyway, I came home and made chocolate cupcakes all by myself because I am awesome and because Rosi wanted to take them to her Spanish class today. And last night we went to a concert at Western City, which is seriously a totally cliche little Old West fake town that is right down the street, and they had "Germany's Best Garth Brooks Impersonator" and it was really great and fun, although I am not allowed to admit that (hence yesterday's song of the day). And then I was too energized post-concert to sleep, meaning I am extra-tired today.

And I had to get up all early to take the bus because Rosi has Spanish on Fridays and can't drive me even though I didn't have history, and thus no first period. So I just chilled in the K12 room while I wanted to be in my bed, and then it was English class, where we are still talking about things that have to do with British farmers, so you can imagine it's not precisely interesting, but at least it's a chance to hear some English. Then Chemistry, where we burned various gases for reasons that I'm certain were very good, but mostly I spend Chemistry laughing at funny things that Tobi and Tobi and Chubie say. And then Bio, and my knowledge of how people end up with extra X or Y chromosomes and what that does to them is now larger, so that's always good. And math is still confusing, but I'll survive.

Went grocery shopping, Betreuer is stopping by tonight, which is awesome because it means that I still have a Betreuer!

Fun moments of the school day:
It is St Martin's Day, which is apparently a big holiday in Germany involving small children wandering the streets with laterns and singing. But it also means that Zimmy and Max came to school with the most awesome ties ever- Zimmy's depicting a glass of beer being filled from a keg, and Max's with a bottle of Absolut- this goes under the category of "only in Germany." At some point, they each made photocopies of their ties to hang on the wall, beside the giant giant Elizabethtown poster (Chubie works at the movie theater and keeps us hooked up with this sort of thing. This poster is so huge, though- I recall that when he brought it, someone commented that we shouldn't hang it up, but turn it into a comfy bed. I still think this might be a good idea.) Also there was the random St-Martin's-Day-related confetti that showed up in the Pause, and the Math teacher's reaction to Tinta's confetti-besprinkled head.
Chemistry is always good for fun moments, especially where fire is concerned. As Fray Collin prepared to light the gasoline (I promise that I am safe here), she realized that she had no lighter and for some reason did not want to use the matches in front of her (I'm sure this reason was also very scientific), so the conversation went something like this:
FC: Do any of you have a lighter? Any smokers?
Us: No. . .
FC: What? Not a single smoker? That's not usual, is it?
And then she went to find someone who did have a lighter.

I think I've made Germany look pretty bad with those two examples- I swear that there is not really much substance abuse going on. Really.

Say What You Want

Today's song wins just for having a banjo and being played on German radio. I miss songs with banjos. It is called "Powerless" and it is by someone named Nelly Furtado, who is apparently of Portugese origins and grew up in Canada, and it turns out that the song has awesome lyrics, too, in addition to sounding like a bluegrass band backing a pop singer, which is fun.

Oh, Wednesdays. Went to school for second period only to find out (along with everybody else) that Religion isn't happening today and we all could have slept in (for some reason almost no one in K12 has a first period on Wednesdays). And then it was time for Bio, where I went to a different class because my unofficial schedule works that way, and it turns out that this class is so much more fascinating than the other, although the teacher is maybe not as cool. But we're talking about gender determination and all the things that can go wrong chromosomally in that process, and gender is one of my intellectual passions, so I was totally happy. Then it was history (in a part of the school I never knew existed) and it's also the most interesting stuff ever, although I have no context for this information. And then two periods of art, which consisted of the longest presentation ever on Kandinsky (and I like Kandinsky) and then one on Rembrandt, who is cooler than I thought, although now I forget why. And then something like 10 minutes of actual art-making time, even though it was a double period. Then I went to the Berufschule for lunch with Noiby and Gellie and had delicious Pommes (french fries) and then it was time for German, where Schiller is still the most boring writer ever- there is a reason German lit doesn't get read outside of Germany. And then Math, where I went to the Grundkurs, and they are doing exactly what I didn't understand in the LK, and I understand what is going on in the LK now! Math must hate me, but at least the GK is slow and maybe I'll get it this time around. Then it was English, which consisted mostly of some tangent about various school systems (meaning mostly hearing horror stories about teaching sixth graders) and also the teacher offended me deeply by talking of media and communications classes as slack classes that people take instead of learning foreign languages. I've spent five years trying to convince people that just because I'm on a computer instead of listening to a lecture it doesn't mean that I'm slacking off- try editing a video sometime! And it's not like the Germans write papers about everything, so they should appreciate a class that watches the news and then discusses it analytically. Grrrrr. Anyway, then it was on to Chemistry, where the teacher is a half-deaf old lady named Frau Collin (I can remember this name) and the boys are terrible to her but it was so funny and she spent half an hour trying to get David and Tobias to tell her what the last lesson was about (every German teacher asks one student about the last lesson at the beginning of each class. I don't know why, but the Germans stress about this a lot- it is apparently a big portion of their grade) and they did not do well, and I don't know what it was about either, but there was lots of laughter as the sky got increasingly dark and then we spent the final 15 minutes of class sort of taking notes and also laughing while Chubie played music using his cell phone that the poor old lady could not hear. Really, there's not much else you can do in 10th period- it was literally dark and all foggy when I left school (Andy, who also lives in Obergriesbach and has a car, drove me home) and Rosi made some sort of German dish featuring cherries and a heavy dough and I have no idea how to describe it to you- it was yummy, but way too filling and I don't want to eat again for days. And Miri came by to eat, too, and to hang out, and I shared with her my fear of the phone and she decided that we must teach me to get over that, but I don't want to because phones are really scary. Like cars, except that I don't have nightmares about them, and they scare me more. Anyway, I'm missing CSI, and I'm happy that I only have 3 periods at school tomorrow (German schedules are so terrible) and so I'm going to end with my joy that Kaine won in Virginia yesterday. Yay!

Do You Believe In Life After Love?

Cher is pretty much the best possible way to start your day. If you don't believe me, you have obviously never started your day with Cher songs.

So it turns out that getting a schedule is something of a hassle, and I'm still just patching things together on my own, mostly like I have been. Germany could seriously benefit from the discovery of guidance counselors. But I checked out the history LK today and it was awesome- just like an AP class, and the teacher is really cool and nice and I was fascinated by something about Otto von Bismarck's fight against the Social Democrats in like 1878 or something- I didn't even know that Social Democrats existed in 1878, nor did I know that Bismarck was really involved in the whole leading of German parliament post-unification. Nor am I certain what Germany did between unification and World War I. So I hearby declare all of my history instruction inadequate, even if I got a 5 on both the AP US and World History exams.
We went out to dinner tonight because we were too tired to cook and we went to the cute little Greek restaurant in Aichach and it was delicious. And then Gilmore Girls started its "new" season on Vox, so that was pretty exciting, too. And I don't think I have to go to school until second period tomorrow, but I'm not totally sure. Figuring this sort of thing out is on my list of things to accomplish, I promise.

So you know I'm into blogs, and that includes reading other people's, and since other people aren't as great at updating as I am (I really do spoil you), I'm always looking for new blogs. And tonight, anticipating this need, Hampshire sent me an e-mail with the address of the blog that is basically what you will be reading here a year from now, if all goes according to plan. Don't believe me? I pulled this line out of the most recent post: "even included drag queen songleaders, which are necessary for pretty much every event ever, especially like, church functions." Doesn't that sound like something I'd say? So it's seriously keeping me awake later than I should be, but if you want to read it because I love Hampshire and because it is fun to read, I'll give you one of these little texty links.

Let Me Be the First to Shake a Helping Hand

Today is one of those days when there's a big fight for song of the day. "Have A Nice Day" wins, though, mostly because I needed to find out if it was really by U2 or Bon Jovi (my inability to keep these two bands seperate falls under "shameful confessions.") In case you don't know, either, it is in fact Bon Jovi, and also a pretty cool song.

You know what tastes really good? Apple juice and bubbly mineral water mixed together. The Germans call it Apfelschorle.

Back at school, should have my schedule tomorrow morning, which means I'm going to have to start actually working (something I did not do today).

I got my essay down to 497 words, mostly because I found some awesome editors who know who they are and are getting Milka bars for their skill. If you want to read the quasi-done essay (and feel free to point out anything you'd change in it still- everything can still get better), drop me a line at the usual place. And if you're super-interested in reading things that I write, I'd love to have a person or two glance over my supplemental short answer writings, which I'm starting to crank out because I'm so on top of things.

I Know That I Have to Go

Yes, I'm quoting Cat Stevens today. No, I did not actually hear Cat Stevens on the radio- it is the Boyzone (I'm not asking about this band) remix that is all current and popular in Germany at the moment. Awesome song, though. (It's called "Father and Son" if you're still clueless)

What an awesome day. I got up far too early and we got almost lost on the way to church because Rosi didn't trust my map-reading skills, which are actually quite good. But we made it and I found Nadja pretty much immediately and she is just the coolest person- we were a little early, so she showed me around the church (she lives at the church, you know, and it's not as weird as it sounds- there's lots of apartments as part of the building). And then it was time for Sunday School, which was the same time as church for reaons I didn't totally grasp, and we filled shoeboxes in a tradition that my home church knows very well (ask my mom if you are clueless here). And then the pastor (who you can imagine as Peter Jackson except German and a preacher) invited me for lunch, and Nadja and I made some salad (I am pretty good at making salad, you know) and we ate Frikadellen with the pastor's neighbors, who are a young couple and the girl was getting ready to cut the boy's pretty pretty hair all off, which made me and Nadja sad for the pretty hair. Then Nadja and I hung out for a while and walked a bit through Augsburg (it was very cold) and talked about everything- youth group, movies, how pretty Tübingen is (Nadja's from Stuttgart) and more- it was one of the best conversations I've had in a while. We continued to hang out until the Russian musicians arrived- you see, there was this awesome concert tonight of these Russian floutists who were really good and then also these two Russian dudes who played guitar and some instrument that is maybe called a zitter- I don't know, but Rosi said it is a Bavarian tradition. The guy playing it was not Bavarian, however, but he was very pretty and his fingers moved very quickly over the strings in a way that had me and many others fascinated- the boys must have played 3 encores, and it was really cute because their German was not that great and they had these awesome Russian accents and their final encore was both of them playing the same guitar at the same time, which was pretty awesome and funny- I demand that the Sparrows work out this skill by the time I return- it is a Certified Crowd-Pleaser. Anyway, Nadja and I were mostly responsible for making sure that the Russians were well-fed, so we got cake to them (and of course ate some ourselves) pre-concert and served them pizza (also fed ourselves like good Methodists) post-concert, where I was also mildly shocked to find beer being served at church, but this is Germany, and moreso Bavaria. And now I am home after spending (I now realize) about 12 and a half hours at church, and I couldn't be happier. I didn't sing one hymn today, or even attend any sort of service, but just being in the building was enough to give me back this grounding that I didn't even realize I was missing.

I want to live at church, too.

I've Learned to Dream Without You

That's not really true. . . I still dream about you, you know. My dreams have been weird since I've been here. . . some of them telling me what I didn't want to know, but what I've since accepted, others telling me things that I still don't want to hear. And others are just plain silly, but they're rare. I've been having more dreams that make me wake up feeling tense and stressed lately. In any case, today's song of the day is Joana Zimmer's "I've Learned to Walk Alone," which is a very pretty song, and one that I like to sing, along with the current and past songs of the month.

So today started off kind of slow- slept in, nice slow breakfast, went to Segmüller, which is like Ikea but expensive and probably higher quality (except that I love Ikea) and it was super-crowded because they're having some sort of sale and it was full of Christmas stuff, which made me sad because it is not Thanksgiving yet and you aren't allowed to have all the Christmas stuff out this early, are you? Anyway, we bought a stand for the decanter (yes, for wine) and also looked at dishes and saw a lot that were cute but didn't buy any today. Then we came home and ate Lebkuchen and I worked on my applications (yes, I am so good. . . got the essay down to 517 words and I feel better about it- thanks to everyone who's helped me so far, and I'm still accepting anyone who wants to volunteer to read it) and then we had something like broccoli casserole for dinner that was very yummy (the Germans call it Auflauf) and then Martin and Ulla came over and they are some of my favorite people to talk to so we talked and talked for like 3 and a half hours and we had a bottle of good Champagne that led to a bottle of Prosecco and if I'd had less to drink I wouldn't be telling you this, or maybe I would. In any case, I am going to have a headache for church tomorrow, but I am going to church, because it has been far too long and I miss it and it is a real Methodist church and everything. Also they are having a lock-in on the 19th, and I am excited about that- it should be awesome, too, because lock-ins are really great.

It is late, though, and I should probably go to bed because church is at 9:30 tomorrow.

Put on My Blue Suede Shoes and I Boarded the Plane

I've been feeling kinda bluesy lately (just the music, not the sadness or the drunkenness, depending on your language), so today's song is Marc Cohn's "Walking in Memphis," although Alannah Myles' "Black Velvet" is my earworm.

So I didn't blog yesterday because I was worn out from staining the carport and then buying gravel to fill in the area around the carport (yours truly handled all the hauling of 9 15kg bags, thank you very much)- Rosi and I worked very hard without men, although it was apparently the day of the GQ Man of the Year awards in Munich. And then Miri and Rosi and I went out for pizza (which was delicious) and I went to bed before midnight, which isn't normal for me here on fall break.
I also managed to wake up before noon (10:30, to be closer to exact), and we went into Augsburg this afternoon for shopping- I bought a Patricia Highsmith book (in German) so I can finally finish Dorian Gray without worry that I'll have nothing more to read, and I bought a pair of wonderful pants at H&M (I also left behind so many other things that I wanted because I can't spend my whole budget for November in one day). And I had a Döner at my new Regular Döner Stand- the guy was super-nice and we chatted a bit while I ate and he gave Rosi a free cup of tea and everything. I now refuse to buy my Döner elsewhere. We stopped and bought some groceries on the way home and I still did not find canned pumpkin (long story) but I did buy some mandarin oranges to eat because they are delicious. And now Rosi's got a friend over and I'm chilling with a glass of Prosecco and thinking about working on this whole college app thing, but I don't really want to.

I Love You More Than Life

Guess what? It's November! That means that we have a new song of the month! Do you know what it is? Do you remember October's song of the month? (it was Daniel Powter's "You Had a Bad Day") November brings a happier song, a song that I picked out a while ago and that I still really love. It is called "Love to Be Loved by You" and it is Marc Terenzi's song about being married to Sarah Conner and being prettier and more European than you. (Yes, astute reader, Terenzi is actually American. But he is married to a German, which still makes him more European than you.)
I have a song for today, too, but I am not going to tell you what it is because I will get kicked out of the indie rocker club.

It was taco night, which means delicious! I also made the tacos all by myself (using a Mom-sent taco kit), and impressed Rosi and Miri with my mad taco skillz.

Last night I watched movies based on classic horror novels starring people who were also in Much Ado About Nothing, and both movies that I watched were really good. Can you guess which movies they were? Is there maybe a prize if you know? I will give you a clue that these movies were made in the 90s, so that you do not get confused by other, similar movies.

I am working on my College Application Essay, and I am in desperate need of people to read it and tell me if it is terrible or not, and how I can fix it so it is less terrible, and the like. You probably do not know, but my writing has actually gotten really bad since I've been here, which is depressing and worrisome. So if you love me (even just a little bit), drop me an email (oneseventy at gmail dot com) and tell me that you will read my essay, even if you think that you can't help- you can read, and that is enough. The more people, the better!