I have a week's worth of school stories because I have been disinclined to blog them before!
Mostly they are from Reli, which went and turned into the coolest class. On Monday, we were talking about theologist/philosopher Frankl (who has some cool ideas), and at some point there was a diagram on the board that Robbie didn't get, and this was Viktor's explanation:
V: You're you.
R: No, I'm-
V: No, listen. I am I, and you are you.
R: Oooooh.
Wednesday was Last Reli Class Before the Ferien, meaning we goofed off and talked about an out-of-class get-together. Surreal moment: Herr Rothmann is suggesting things and says "Well, we could go see a movie and get a beer afterward." Before you worry that I am going drinking with my teachers, we decided to go bowling instead. Then we played Mafia, which is a pretty fun game. Maybe I'll teach it to you one day.
Art on Wednesday included an awesome German pun courtesy Matthias, who is not actually in our class, but in Music. He came in asking for colored paper. Now, in German, the word for color is Farbe, and the word for colorful is farbig. As it happens, the word for paint is also Farbe, because German is cool like that. So Matthias went on to ask if we had paint, and it came out "farbige Farbe," which had us all laughing for reasons that should be obvious. Fortunately, this remains funny in translation as "colorful paint," especially when whoever commented thereafter "no, sorry, we only have black and white- no color!" (A similar occurence, also from Matthias but in history today, doesn't translate as well- he said "ausländische Länder," which sounds so funny in German but just means "foreign countries" in English)
Sozi had me all thoughtful today- we were discussing America of all things, and the whole torture scandal, and how much we should allow people to do in interrogations to get information. The death penalty got pulled in a bit as a similar and equally current theme (Schwarzeneggar's recent act was HUGE news over here), and I daydreamed a bit and remembered my Frankenstein essay from last year in English, in which I wrote about how good cannot eliminate evil (the core of our discussion arising from the idea that, in a pluralist system, every majority must protect the minority it disagrees with, and our effort to define why that is). Quote from my essay (yes, I have it on hand, yes, I am a dork):
Frankenstein is a novel in which opposites find unity. "Almost every critic of Frankenstein has noted that Victor and his monster are doubles," (302) [George] Levine notes, going on to explain that "the civilized man or woman contains within the self a monstrous, destructive, and self-destructive energy." He fails to notice, however, that these two, in addition to being so entwined, are necessary parts of each other, unable to exist seperately. The two must balance each other, lest either become too powerful and destroy the other, only to find that in this destruction, it becomes the evil it sought to eradicate.
I go on to talk about how civilized society is all injust and the barbarian has to come use violence to restore the rightful order, but that doesn't necessarily apply here, where we are discussing terrorists and the American government. Here, it is even harder to decide who is civilized, the world leaders who produce Lynndie England, or the religious zealots who blow up buses full of children. It's harder to know who will restore justice, because neither side seems to have much respect for the other. The important thing is that both sides continue to exist, and all the other sides, because our society is truly pluralistic- nothing is a simply toss of a coin. I was thinking about Narnia, too, specifically the scene where Aslan kills the White Witch. I still hate this scene- yes, the White Witch is evil, but if Aslan is supposed to be the perfect good, how can he eat her face? In the movie, there is this little moment of fear in her eyes just before he tears into her. It ruins Aslan for me. I don't care that he goes back and resurrects every one of her minions, that he forgives them all- he killed her just for opposing him, when you pull all the morals out of it. Morals are relative, you see. They are defined by the ones in power- in the mind of terrorists, blowing up a church filled with innocents is the most moral thing they can do- it is serving this cause, this god they've created- people don't just die for things, not like that. I read a fascinating editorial (was it Richard Cohen? It might have been. . .) stating that all the finger-pointing about the Iraq war, all the stories about oil and power and revenge and whatever don't hit Bush's actual reasoning- in his head, he was getting rid of Saddam, a true Evil. Other causes were secondary- the number one was democracy, no matter the cost. It makes sense to me, looking at the man's actions. I can never agree with it, but I see exactly what he was trying to do- he has made his own morals, and he judges good and evil by his scale. The thing is, it is a Universal Truth that good doesn't destroy. Generally good people and causes destroy, but that is because the good is bound up with the evil. As long as it's still in some sort of balance, as long as both forces are still struggling with each other, we are okay. We fight to keep good over evil, but the moment good becomes so powerful that it can destroy the evil, it becomes evil, through that very act of destruction. It achieves nothing. And should evil become powerful enough to destroy good, it takes over power and sets a new standard of good. It becomes the new moral authority and starts seeking an evil to eradicate. These are the things I've worked out in my brain. I am trying to find out if there is a way to end the struggle, if in accepting the balance, things become easier, but I am still unsure. If you find all of this boring or incredibly silly, let me know, and I'll learn to write on paper again.
I had English today, too, and Herr Kütz reminded me of warm-ups, which don't exist in Germany! It was kind of exciting. I had to explain the Chipmunk Christmas Song, and the class laughed at some point when Herr Kütz read something (from America) that mentioned Hannukah and Kwanzaa, too, and I was confused. Hannukah's not funny, it's just another holiday. I really wanted to explain it to prove my multicultural abilities, but mostly I only got the chance to tell them the Festival of Lights is Hannukah, not a strange name for a Christmas tree. They knew what a menorah is, but I get the feeling that they have no idea what Hannukah actually is all about. I forgive them for having no clue on Kwanzaa (although I see far more black people than Jews here), but, if this were America, there would be a Jewish History Month out of guilt or something. I swear there's not anti-Semitism (you'd hear about it if there were- I have an unexplainable soft spot for Jews), just a sort of ignorance. Kind of like pre-anime-craze America with regards to Japan. We knew it existed and we had done horrible things to it, and maybe we'd met a Japanese person once, but that was about it. It's sort of sad, because the Jews have an amazing culture and oral tradition, and Yiddish is the sexiest language ever.
History was exciting because I finally knew what we were talking about- the Great Depression! I even got to remind my teacher of the difference between Teddy and Franklin Roosevelt. I think my history teacher tends to kind of forget I'm there, which is strange because the class is small, and everyone knows me because we always have free periods together (LKs tend to be like that), but normally I have nothing to contribute anyway because it is way out of my depth. Not today! Also, another moment of Matthias showing his ability to say really funny things:
Herr: Does anyone know what it's called when the stocks are going up?
M: Rising?
(class laughs)
H: No. . . do the terms bull and bear mean anything to you?
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