I suppose this moment with at least half my college gone (including all my best buddies) is a good time to update you on what's happened since my return from Boston. Well, Tuesday started out as non-eventful as any, especially since there was no Katie. But then Jack decided that his stomach thing hadn't gone away, and that he wanted to die. I insisted that dying was not a good idea, and promptly spent most of my midday trying to make him feel better by running around and finding things for him and looking at him with concern and finally getting him to go to Health Services, where they told him that he had an appointment the next afternoon. Jack was insistent and they managed to squeeze him in, and determine that he might have an ulcer and should be tested. Got Jack back to dorms, Katie was home (yay!!), looked at Jack with deepening concern, ate food, decided that Jack needed this one over-the-counter thing the doctor had recommended and some Jello, went to Northhampton. CVS is across the street from the bus stop and had the Gaviscon, and had pudding, and had ginger ale, but did not have jello. Knowing that Jack was curled up in a tiny ball of pain and hunger in my bed (Tuesday was a day that Jack decided he liked my bed better than his), Katie and I walked half an hour to the Stop and Shop, where we bought vast quantaties of Jello, then walked back to the bus stop and came home, sweaty and aching and bearing goodies. We found Jack looking relatively chipper and watching Rammstein videos on my computer. We told him how much we suffered for him and fed him Jello, which made him happy, I suppose. Katie wrote an essay while Jack and I poked each other and we felt in general that Jack would live and life would be grand. Enter Wednesday. Get up, go to class, Jack doesn't want lunch, Katie and I eat, Jack goes to doctor for wonderful fun stool sample, Jack returns, Katie and I get out of class, lots of homework gets done. Think about going to Soul Force presentation, skip it because of homework, go to Yiddish screening to watch really long but really good movie version of the Dybbuk (great Yiddish play, great movie), come back at 9:30 to find Katie and Jack waiting more than anxiously, because we all need to do laundry. As in, are all wearing our final clean pair of underwear, Jack is wearing his two single socks that don't begin to match, I am out of pants and have 1 summer-time skirt left. Katie apparently has a vastly larger wardrobe than either me or Jack, because she wasn't as desperate, but she had a lot of laundry to do, too. We dragged all of our junk down to the basement and discovered a big Project Runway party, which we crashed while washing and drying our 6 loads (2 of blacks, both dominated by Jack, 1 small red load, 1 whites, 1 greens-browns of which Katie had none, 1 brights dominated by me). We watched that episode of Project Runway (the reunion special) a total of twice, thanks to the joys of reruns and of laundry taking forever. We also saw the Daily Show and the Colbert Report, making us very happy. Crawled into bed after bringing overflowing laundry basket back upstairs and slept until some loud person on my hall awoke me at 10 as happens every Tuesday and Thursday. Met Katie for lunch after her class (Jack having no appetite), went off to Yiddish. Arrive at Yiddish, waiting for prof Rachel, Katie calls, says "Jack's being taken off by EMTs and I'm not sure what's going on. I'll keep you posted." I say "okay" and proceed to worry, except then we spent the whole class discussing memorials and museums and Holocaust education and all these vaguely-related things because of the Eisenmann lecture happening (Eisenmann is the dude who made the Holocaust memorial in Berlin) and it was fascinating. Left class, called Katie, who had not heard from Jack and had no idea where he was. Spent some time worrying about him, finally heard at 5 (as we were heading off to the Eisenmann documentary) that he was on his way back from the hospital. Skipped documentary to wait for Jack, determined that he was not dead because they gave him good medicine and a prescription, decided to skip lecture to go to CVS to fill Jack's prescription. Went to CVS, discovered that Jack did not have his insurance card (not that he was with us either), discovered that medicine costs lots and lots of money if you don't have insurance, decided not to get Jack medicine. Shopped at neat stores until bus came (buses are infrequent in the evenings), went home, told Jack bad news, sat in Jack's room while bass pounded doing WWWII homework. Watched Jack want to die. Helped Jack pack. Convinced Jack not to die. Fell asleep. Met Katie for breakfast this morning (let Jack sleep), went to class, had lunch with Will to whine about bass-blasting hallmate (cannot repeat the names Will called him, but Will is undoubtably on our side), Katie's mom came to take Jack to airport. Jack left pretending to be alive, Katie is spending the night with her parents because I guess parents like seeing their kids sometimes or something. I went to Sound Patterns class, where Mark said he had hoped we wouldn't show up, but we definitely had a minyan, so class went on and we made pretty spectrographs of speech and I really love that class so much. Now I'm kinda lonely cause the campus is really emptying out, which is sad, but Katie comes back tomorrow, and Heather's coming up, and life should be fun.
Someone should come visit me sometime. Hampshire's a neat place.
1:30 in the morning update: Jack has a very good movie collection, and I am beyond glad that he left me his keys.
Friday, October 06, 2006
Monday, October 02, 2006
Dracula from Houston
So I went to Boston on my honeymoon this weekend and I guess I didn't tell many people I was going sorry? But ummmm Jack and I got married (I hope Jack's boyfriend doesn't mind) so Katie and Jack and I went to see Heather in Boston and it was great fun. Let me think back to
SATURDAY MORNING
Woke up early, realized SAGA opens late, thought about what to do for breakfast, decided to go across the cornfield to buy delicious pastries. Got on bus, went to Northhampton, waited in bus station forever, got on bus, went to Springfield, switched buses, went to Boston. Took some naps in there sitting beside Katie while leaving Jack to make new friends. Got off bus, met Heather, Jack felt nauseated. Went to eat food, look at Jack with vague concern. Got on T, went to Heather's dorm, met Heather's one roommate, discovered that other roommate was away for the night and that Jack and I got the bed (as opposed to the floor: very good). Immediately settled in to nap on each other puppy-style while Katie and Heather went to find Jello for Mr Stomach-Aching Texas. Ordered pizza, ate cookie dough, watched Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, fell asleep happy that Jack's feet do not remain frozen for too long.
SUNDAY
Woke up lateish, discovered that Jack was recovered but Katie's cold was still around, decided to head into city for Fun, got caught in a lot of rain and very very wet. Ate food and shopped a little bit and decided that the rain was too much and went back to Heather's dorm to put clothes in dryer and have a 4-person cuddle-fest on Heather's bed, which is a top bunk and makes things precarious. Cuddles turned into massages and then our clothes were dry and we were warm and happy so we got dressed and took more umbrellas and went back out into the city to shop and then try to find a restaurant without a name, which Katie said was delicious, and which was far away and hard to find. Got lost in the rain for a while, finally figured out how to get there, discovered that restaurant had limited menu that failed to satisfy Heather or Jack. Ate food, went home in rain, ate cookie dough/made cookies, watched Boondock Saints while being annoyed by random people from Heather's school (experience is showing that all-girls school girls are really scary in groups), realized it was 1 in the morning, went to bed (Jack and I on the floor because Roomie #2 had returned. Floor is not as nice as bed because Jack has this tendency to stay more than 3 inches from me and I thus get cold).
MONDAY YOM KIPPUR
Woke up late, dyed my hair (it is strawberry blonde- basically what it was before, but a more even color now), packed, went to South Station to check luggage, ate food, wandered Downtown Crossing for a while, got luggage, got on bus, slept on Jack while listening to Rammstein (Jack has taught me to enjoy Rammstein very very much) (also Katie did not come back becuase she and Heather are going to a concert tonight and Katie is coming back earrrrrly tomorrow morning but Jack has class and needed to come back today and I didn't trust him to make it home alone), switched buses in Springfield, got back to Northhampton, ate crappy pizza, got on bus to come home, called my mother, internetted.
Jack and I were going to wash socks and underwear but he has disappeared and I guess he is going to have a sock shortage tomorrow morning because I am too lazy to make him go do laundry with me.
SATURDAY MORNING
Woke up early, realized SAGA opens late, thought about what to do for breakfast, decided to go across the cornfield to buy delicious pastries. Got on bus, went to Northhampton, waited in bus station forever, got on bus, went to Springfield, switched buses, went to Boston. Took some naps in there sitting beside Katie while leaving Jack to make new friends. Got off bus, met Heather, Jack felt nauseated. Went to eat food, look at Jack with vague concern. Got on T, went to Heather's dorm, met Heather's one roommate, discovered that other roommate was away for the night and that Jack and I got the bed (as opposed to the floor: very good). Immediately settled in to nap on each other puppy-style while Katie and Heather went to find Jello for Mr Stomach-Aching Texas. Ordered pizza, ate cookie dough, watched Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, fell asleep happy that Jack's feet do not remain frozen for too long.
SUNDAY
Woke up lateish, discovered that Jack was recovered but Katie's cold was still around, decided to head into city for Fun, got caught in a lot of rain and very very wet. Ate food and shopped a little bit and decided that the rain was too much and went back to Heather's dorm to put clothes in dryer and have a 4-person cuddle-fest on Heather's bed, which is a top bunk and makes things precarious. Cuddles turned into massages and then our clothes were dry and we were warm and happy so we got dressed and took more umbrellas and went back out into the city to shop and then try to find a restaurant without a name, which Katie said was delicious, and which was far away and hard to find. Got lost in the rain for a while, finally figured out how to get there, discovered that restaurant had limited menu that failed to satisfy Heather or Jack. Ate food, went home in rain, ate cookie dough/made cookies, watched Boondock Saints while being annoyed by random people from Heather's school (experience is showing that all-girls school girls are really scary in groups), realized it was 1 in the morning, went to bed (Jack and I on the floor because Roomie #2 had returned. Floor is not as nice as bed because Jack has this tendency to stay more than 3 inches from me and I thus get cold).
MONDAY YOM KIPPUR
Woke up late, dyed my hair (it is strawberry blonde- basically what it was before, but a more even color now), packed, went to South Station to check luggage, ate food, wandered Downtown Crossing for a while, got luggage, got on bus, slept on Jack while listening to Rammstein (Jack has taught me to enjoy Rammstein very very much) (also Katie did not come back becuase she and Heather are going to a concert tonight and Katie is coming back earrrrrly tomorrow morning but Jack has class and needed to come back today and I didn't trust him to make it home alone), switched buses in Springfield, got back to Northhampton, ate crappy pizza, got on bus to come home, called my mother, internetted.
Jack and I were going to wash socks and underwear but he has disappeared and I guess he is going to have a sock shortage tomorrow morning because I am too lazy to make him go do laundry with me.
Friday, September 29, 2006
Pastures New
Oh dear I have been busy recently and not been updating. Ummm what have I been up to? Going to class, reading until my eyeballs explode and my larynx falls out, writing essays. I had a birthday in there and got awesome presents like an Oscar Wilde action figure and a Yiddish mug and I have all sorts of exciting pictures on my door now because Jack and Katie got crafty. And there was Mexican food and ice cream cake and a crazy German horror movie called Kondom des Grauens. And also the storytelling festival, which was amazing! I told to open it up, since I had a good opening story, and the other featured tellers were really great, and the open mic bit was so successful and there were so many talented people there with great stories and we definitely want to do this again. Spent this past weekend doing a lot of running around- had to go to Smith on Sunday to do research for WWWII, and holed ourselves up in the library for hours and hours to look at old magazines. Old magazines are actually awesome, but making photocopies is really expensive, and we had to miss the QCA meeting, which made us sad. I was kind of lazy on Monday, when I should have been doing homework, but I couldn't focus. I did manage to get Spanish homework done before Spanish class, which is worth something. And it was the Queer Safer Sex (Not Just For Queers) workshop, which included silly signs and a fashion show and crafttime and was great fun. Tuesday was a day for getting some homework done, because I realized that I had way more Yiddish homework than expected. Fortunately, I like Yiddish a lot. Wednesday was Advising Day and we weren't supposed to have classes, but we did have WWWII cause we took a different day off some other time. But no one else had to get up in the morning and Dulcey wanted to be social so we watched Fargo until 2 in the morning which meant Kari was sleepy when she had to get up early. But I got to spend my whole afternoon doing Yiddish homework, and trying to stay awake. And last night was Drag Wars! At Diva's!! Jack and Katie and I got ourselves all pretty as drag kings and queen and set off on a great adventure that involved waiting for a bus and then having a nice girl named Kate give us a ride instead of taking the bus and then discovering that Diva's opens later and going to the bowling alley where Jack was terrified of straight people even though we explained that this is Massachusetts and then realizing that Katie forgot her ID and Madelaine being really nice and coming to pick us up and run us back to get Katie's ID and then back to Diva's and then going in and discovering that almost no one was there and feeling awkward and waiting forever and Hampshire people showing up 5 minutes before the last bus would leave and then discovering that someone could give us a ride and then dancing and dancing and dancing and then drag performances by many pretty pretty kings and queens and then Rance won and we were so proud and then Jack got stabbed in the foot by a stiletto and then it was time to leave and some guy named Jeff who was supposed to be giving us and others a ride left early and gave no one a ride and then some other nice person said she'd ride back to Hampshire and grab a car and come back to get us and so she did but Jack and Katie and I got to chill outside Diva's for a while and feel silly but then we got back and made hot cocoa and had a foot massage session and were semi-insomniacs but I fell asleep at 4, my Yiddish homework not quite done. Will (my professor Will) called me at 10 this morning, and woke me up. I was so asleep that I wasn't sure which phone was ringing or where it was. Once I was up, I settled in to finish my Yiddish homework, and then Katie called and it was lunchtime, and I took my homework to lunch and finished it while gulping down chili and pizza and chocolate pudding (they finally had pudding again) and off to Yiddish, where I was barely awake but made it through (good thing Peretz is really really interesting) and then Katie and Jack and I went off to Northhampton to buy bus tickets because we have decided to go to Boston this weekend because Monday is Yom Kippur and we have no classes, which for me translates to exactly what fall break is, except that's next week. We came back for dinner, and then I spent some time transcribing phonetically Katie reading a thing from the Advocate, and then we woke Jack up (he was taking a nap) and started an essay-writing party. Towards the beginning of the party, Phil dropped by and promised us milkshakes one day, and we whined about the terrible bass-playing people in our lounge, and Phil said he can't do much more and we were sad. But then came hours of working on our essays. I finished mine about an hour ago, Katie just finished hers, Jack is working on his now. We've called Public Safety twice about the bass down the hall cause we're just so sick of it. The fact that we had to make the second call makes us wish Hampshire would be a bit better about taking disciplinary action. I am very sleepy but there are people and papers and computers in my bed. One of these days I will sleep, I swear.
Friday, September 22, 2006
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Jealousy
Mondays and Tuesdays are lazier days for mean than Saturdays and Sundays. I sleep in late and nobody (Jack) comes bothering me in the morning and my phone doesn't ring (Sara) until later in the day. I did have to get up yesterday morning cause I had a job interview, and if I didn't have class all day on Wednesday then I'd have a job, but now I'm waiting and looking into some other things. Did a lot of laundry yesterday, cause I needed to do a lot of laundry, and Katelyn and Jack did, too. We read while we were waiting for our wash (the alliteration in this sentence is an exampel of the alliteration David Kennedy loves using in this one book we have to read) and probably annoyed the other people who were around. We grabbed some lunch with Sara in her short break between classes and then we read until Katelyn had to go to class and then Jack and I were lazy and then I had to go to Spanish and I always kind of drag my heels to that class even though it's not bad at all. I just couldn't wake up and focus yesterday, but I swear I am learning Spanish, little by little. Grabbed some quick dinner after Spanish and ran off to watch Tevye with my Yiddish class (it's the movie Fiddler on the Roof was based on, except that it's more that they're both based on the same book by which I mean set of short stories by Sholem Alechiem which I am currently reading) and I adore Yiddish in ways you can't begin to understand. That language just makes me happy all over. After the movie came work work work and Katleyn and Jack and I plowed through Kennedy until midnight, when we were not done with 1 chapter and were so sick of it and sat down and planned that we will be very good students today and read the 4 chapters of Goodwin that we have left and we shall get through Kennedy on our own time and I am getting so tired of having so much reading to do. I couldn't sleep at midnight, of course, but I did manage to by 2, and I slept soundly until at least 10:30 and then did nothing more productive than make a carefully color-coded schedule representing me, Jack, Katelyn, and Sara and all of our classes until I met Sara to grab Jack and Katelyn for lunch until they all had to go to their respective Spanish classes. I went by the post office and discovered that I got 3 of my books for Yiddish today (I am only missing 1 now) and I've been sort of reading and sort of napping and being lazy but Katelyn should be back soon and then Jack should show up and we'll get down to business and really read until our brains explode.
I Got Presents Today!
That I bought for myself, and that are for a class. But I am kind of enamored of the growing book collection on my dresser, so you get a picture of it. Enjoy.
Sunday, September 17, 2006
Second Skin
I once again have a big collection of great pictures, but they're going on the Butterfly Paper this time, if you're interested.
Thursday went down pretty much exactly as planned... it was rainy and gross, and I spent my morning doing various errands and being lazy, then I waited for Katelyn and Jack outside their class and Jack was very prissy and made me walk him to the bus stop with my umbrella so he wouldn't mess up his hair and only then could I meet Katelyn for a quick lunch (and SAGA was the most crowded I have ever seen it and I have no idea why) before Yiddish. I like Yiddish class an awful lot. At some point, we were discussing something about God that must have been at least vaguely blasphemous (maybe in connection to the Kabbalah? I don't remember), and the phone rang, and we determined that we didn't have to answer it, and my amazing professor Rachel started laughing and said "I just keep thinking I'll pick it up and it'll be this voice 'This is God. Stop telling them these things.'" and we all laughed heartily. Also Yiddish literature is just really neat. It was somewhat less rainy after class, and I ran around doing a few more errands and running into people I know, then I grabbed Katelyn and took her to knitting circle, where she learned to knit and I ate chocolate cake. Also the knitting circle people gave us the leftover cider, which Katelyn and I vowed to heat up in my kettle later and drink during our homework party. We had dinner, and then I went off to my storytelling meeting. We've got some neat stories for the festival on Friday, and it's going to be great. We're doing audio recording, and I'll let you know if it gets put up somewhere that you can access it. Once we got all the storytelling details ironed out, I headed up to D4L, where the fabulous sign decorating was going on, and I took those pictures that I already posted. We left the signs to dry and Katelyn and Jack and I were good little children and went to read the first two chapters of the biography of the Roosevelts (Franklin and Eleanor), which is actually quite interesting cause the Roosevelts are very interesting peoplen who had affairs with other women all the time. We put the cider in my kettle and made it hot (somehow, cider takes FOREVER to heat up, unlike water for tea, and it makes boiling noises long before it is even lukewarm) and drank our cider and were happy people while reading, although the cider left residue on all the mugs and in the kettle and I had to do dishes (which I did, um, yesterday morning :s). Sometime after we finished reading and talking to each other and bothering each other, we went to bed, and then it was Friday.
We got to sleep in on Friday due to not having WWWII class cause Aaron's out of town, and so we went for breakfast-brunch-lunch together, and then it was time to hang our amazing fabulous gay signs. I took pictures, they're on the Butterfly Paper. We love our signs. I did have Sound Patterns Friday, and I am going to kill the next idiot in my class who can't understand that the phonetic alphabet isn't the alphabet we spell with and just cause "ai" looks like the letters in "rain" doesn't mean it's pronounced like "rain" cause "rain" is "ren" phonetically and "ai" is the sound in "bite" and God this is not hard rawr. But we'll be done with vowels soon and consonants won't be as tough for these people to understand, I hope, cause I really like this class and I hate when Mark gets stuck explaining the same thing over and over cause people won't catch on and ignore the completely non-phonetic English spelling (non-phonetic for a reason, mind you, but non-phonetic nonetheless). Also I like talking about the Great Vowel Shift because it sounds so cool. After class, I picked up my big giant giant packet of Yiddish readings which is more than 2 inches thick and we grabbed some dinner and wanted to go to the Holyoke Mall to buy pretty things to make Jack a pretty pretty drag queen. Unfortunately, the only bus that will get us from here to the Holyoke Mall runs between 9 am and 5 pm on weekdays only. Not so good for us. So we entertained ourselves by reading for WWWII like the responsible students we are, and somehow Katelyn and I ended up bugging Jack in his room until at least 2 in the morning, which is not that hard to do. I stumbled back across the hall, exhausted, and collapsed into my bed to sleep sweetly.
I slept until I heard the local high schools having some sort of cross-country event outside my window, and so I closed the window and slept again until someone started pounding on my door, and I hoped he would go away, but then Jack was beside my bed poking me and telling me I left my keys in the door the night before. I glared at him in his chipper, freshly made up and pretty state from my tangle of blankets and pillows and unwashed hair, and then he asked for breakfast and I told him I'd put pants on and join him and I did. We then found Katelyn and went looking for a bus to get us to Northhampton (since the Holyoke mall was impossible) and had issues reading the schedule right, but ended up with an hour to kill, which we spent getting Jack more food (he is always hungry) and we ran into Alex and he criticized my eating of apples and then took the core that I had left and ate it and I thought that was pretty weird and gross cause who eats apple cores? We did catch the bus into town, and promptly went off to the thrift store, where we found all sorts of amazing jewelry for Jack and Katelyn and I bought matching velvet jackets cause velvet clothing is God and we had fun in the thrift store. Then came our general other shopping purposes: Katelyn bought some yarn to knit her girlfriend a scarf, we wandered through the neat used music store place, we went to CVS to buy Jack a bunch of makeup (although the boy already owns way more than me and Katelyn and Sara combined), then to Haymarket for lunch (I had the most delicious tomato and mozzerella sammich mmmmm), then shoe shopping at various places and I got new shoes but Katelyn failed to find any. Caught the bus at Smith and there were some annoying Mt Holyoke girls on it and I am glad beyond glad that I go to a school with boys at it, because all-girls school girls are incredibly annoying. We played Mad Libs on the bus because we bought Mad Libs because Mad Libs are great. We got back 3 minutes after SAGA closed (they have the weirdest hours on weekends), so we ordered a pizza and truly intended to do more reading, but we bought all those new toys, and we had to play. We spent forever blasting Madonna and getting Jack all pretty (pictures on Butterfly Paper, except that I forgot to get a picture of the finished product, so you'll have to imagine) and Rance dropped by to do Jack's eye makeup and do a little dance to Madonna (I love that boy he is so funny) and, just as we finished, Jackson called and asked if we wanted to come over to his mod and watch the L Word. Feeling vaguely guilty that we keep turning down the people over in the queer mod when they want to hang out, we decided to make the trek last night, mostly so we could show Jack off. Jack can not walk like a girl. Or sit like a girl. Or be at all ladylike. I spent most of the night telling him what a terrible girl he is, and he mostly ignored me as is his way. We ended up choosing bad lesbian movie over the L Word, and Better Than Chocolate is a truly bad movie that we laughed at an awful lot amid the strange, slightly awkward conversations that always happen at the queer mod and that are the main reason we don't spend more time there (that and that it stinks in there cause they don't clean well or something). It was so amazingly foggy when we made the trek back across campus, and absolutely beautiful, and the night air was so exhilirating. Jack and Sara wanted to watch a movie, but Katelyn and I weren't in the mood, so we went for a long walk that turned into sitting on a bench having a long talk and it was really good for both of us, I think, so sit outside and discuss everything until Katelyn finally looked at her phone and we realized it was 2:23 in the morning, and decided that we wanted to go to bed. I went to collapse in my room, only to discover that I had taken my pillows to Jack's room earlier because he has only one tiny flat non-pillow and that I had failed to bring them back. Jack was still in Sara's room, but he was almost done, and he returned and made me retrieve everything belonging to me, not just my pillows, and then I slept soundly and happily for many hours.
Thursday went down pretty much exactly as planned... it was rainy and gross, and I spent my morning doing various errands and being lazy, then I waited for Katelyn and Jack outside their class and Jack was very prissy and made me walk him to the bus stop with my umbrella so he wouldn't mess up his hair and only then could I meet Katelyn for a quick lunch (and SAGA was the most crowded I have ever seen it and I have no idea why) before Yiddish. I like Yiddish class an awful lot. At some point, we were discussing something about God that must have been at least vaguely blasphemous (maybe in connection to the Kabbalah? I don't remember), and the phone rang, and we determined that we didn't have to answer it, and my amazing professor Rachel started laughing and said "I just keep thinking I'll pick it up and it'll be this voice 'This is God. Stop telling them these things.'" and we all laughed heartily. Also Yiddish literature is just really neat. It was somewhat less rainy after class, and I ran around doing a few more errands and running into people I know, then I grabbed Katelyn and took her to knitting circle, where she learned to knit and I ate chocolate cake. Also the knitting circle people gave us the leftover cider, which Katelyn and I vowed to heat up in my kettle later and drink during our homework party. We had dinner, and then I went off to my storytelling meeting. We've got some neat stories for the festival on Friday, and it's going to be great. We're doing audio recording, and I'll let you know if it gets put up somewhere that you can access it. Once we got all the storytelling details ironed out, I headed up to D4L, where the fabulous sign decorating was going on, and I took those pictures that I already posted. We left the signs to dry and Katelyn and Jack and I were good little children and went to read the first two chapters of the biography of the Roosevelts (Franklin and Eleanor), which is actually quite interesting cause the Roosevelts are very interesting peoplen who had affairs with other women all the time. We put the cider in my kettle and made it hot (somehow, cider takes FOREVER to heat up, unlike water for tea, and it makes boiling noises long before it is even lukewarm) and drank our cider and were happy people while reading, although the cider left residue on all the mugs and in the kettle and I had to do dishes (which I did, um, yesterday morning :s). Sometime after we finished reading and talking to each other and bothering each other, we went to bed, and then it was Friday.
We got to sleep in on Friday due to not having WWWII class cause Aaron's out of town, and so we went for breakfast-brunch-lunch together, and then it was time to hang our amazing fabulous gay signs. I took pictures, they're on the Butterfly Paper. We love our signs. I did have Sound Patterns Friday, and I am going to kill the next idiot in my class who can't understand that the phonetic alphabet isn't the alphabet we spell with and just cause "ai" looks like the letters in "rain" doesn't mean it's pronounced like "rain" cause "rain" is "ren" phonetically and "ai" is the sound in "bite" and God this is not hard rawr. But we'll be done with vowels soon and consonants won't be as tough for these people to understand, I hope, cause I really like this class and I hate when Mark gets stuck explaining the same thing over and over cause people won't catch on and ignore the completely non-phonetic English spelling (non-phonetic for a reason, mind you, but non-phonetic nonetheless). Also I like talking about the Great Vowel Shift because it sounds so cool. After class, I picked up my big giant giant packet of Yiddish readings which is more than 2 inches thick and we grabbed some dinner and wanted to go to the Holyoke Mall to buy pretty things to make Jack a pretty pretty drag queen. Unfortunately, the only bus that will get us from here to the Holyoke Mall runs between 9 am and 5 pm on weekdays only. Not so good for us. So we entertained ourselves by reading for WWWII like the responsible students we are, and somehow Katelyn and I ended up bugging Jack in his room until at least 2 in the morning, which is not that hard to do. I stumbled back across the hall, exhausted, and collapsed into my bed to sleep sweetly.
I slept until I heard the local high schools having some sort of cross-country event outside my window, and so I closed the window and slept again until someone started pounding on my door, and I hoped he would go away, but then Jack was beside my bed poking me and telling me I left my keys in the door the night before. I glared at him in his chipper, freshly made up and pretty state from my tangle of blankets and pillows and unwashed hair, and then he asked for breakfast and I told him I'd put pants on and join him and I did. We then found Katelyn and went looking for a bus to get us to Northhampton (since the Holyoke mall was impossible) and had issues reading the schedule right, but ended up with an hour to kill, which we spent getting Jack more food (he is always hungry) and we ran into Alex and he criticized my eating of apples and then took the core that I had left and ate it and I thought that was pretty weird and gross cause who eats apple cores? We did catch the bus into town, and promptly went off to the thrift store, where we found all sorts of amazing jewelry for Jack and Katelyn and I bought matching velvet jackets cause velvet clothing is God and we had fun in the thrift store. Then came our general other shopping purposes: Katelyn bought some yarn to knit her girlfriend a scarf, we wandered through the neat used music store place, we went to CVS to buy Jack a bunch of makeup (although the boy already owns way more than me and Katelyn and Sara combined), then to Haymarket for lunch (I had the most delicious tomato and mozzerella sammich mmmmm), then shoe shopping at various places and I got new shoes but Katelyn failed to find any. Caught the bus at Smith and there were some annoying Mt Holyoke girls on it and I am glad beyond glad that I go to a school with boys at it, because all-girls school girls are incredibly annoying. We played Mad Libs on the bus because we bought Mad Libs because Mad Libs are great. We got back 3 minutes after SAGA closed (they have the weirdest hours on weekends), so we ordered a pizza and truly intended to do more reading, but we bought all those new toys, and we had to play. We spent forever blasting Madonna and getting Jack all pretty (pictures on Butterfly Paper, except that I forgot to get a picture of the finished product, so you'll have to imagine) and Rance dropped by to do Jack's eye makeup and do a little dance to Madonna (I love that boy he is so funny) and, just as we finished, Jackson called and asked if we wanted to come over to his mod and watch the L Word. Feeling vaguely guilty that we keep turning down the people over in the queer mod when they want to hang out, we decided to make the trek last night, mostly so we could show Jack off. Jack can not walk like a girl. Or sit like a girl. Or be at all ladylike. I spent most of the night telling him what a terrible girl he is, and he mostly ignored me as is his way. We ended up choosing bad lesbian movie over the L Word, and Better Than Chocolate is a truly bad movie that we laughed at an awful lot amid the strange, slightly awkward conversations that always happen at the queer mod and that are the main reason we don't spend more time there (that and that it stinks in there cause they don't clean well or something). It was so amazingly foggy when we made the trek back across campus, and absolutely beautiful, and the night air was so exhilirating. Jack and Sara wanted to watch a movie, but Katelyn and I weren't in the mood, so we went for a long walk that turned into sitting on a bench having a long talk and it was really good for both of us, I think, so sit outside and discuss everything until Katelyn finally looked at her phone and we realized it was 2:23 in the morning, and decided that we wanted to go to bed. I went to collapse in my room, only to discover that I had taken my pillows to Jack's room earlier because he has only one tiny flat non-pillow and that I had failed to bring them back. Jack was still in Sara's room, but he was almost done, and he returned and made me retrieve everything belonging to me, not just my pillows, and then I slept soundly and happily for many hours.
Friday, September 15, 2006
Our Favorite Drag Queen
So Rance dropped by Jack's room a few days ago while we were printing out gay signs (they are all hung now, pictures forthcoming), and he is the most beautiful drag queen ever, as evidenced by these pictures that Jack took and insisted I give him credit for. I especially like how he got himself in the mirror in that one:
Time Bomb
We decorated our beautiful signs last night! By which I mean Jack and Katelyn and Tabitha decorated them while I supervised and was very critical and ate Jack's chocolate. These pictures do not capture quite how amazing these signs are, but it's a good start, and I promise to take more at the hanging party today.
Thursday, September 14, 2006
Only God
Did I tell you about how Jack and Katelyn and I are making a list of extensions of God? First, we were just very certain that God is found in chocolate pudding. Then we realized that God is also certainly found in Oscar Wilde. Then Jack decided that God is Oscar Wilde made of chocolate pudding, but Jack's a little weird and also an atheist. Now we've been working on a list on Jack's facebook wall for a while, and the most huh-worthy contribution came from Frank (Jack's boyfriend, whom we all adore): "that numbness of the lips that you get after eating lots of oranges," which we are still trying to figure out. Any insight would be appreciated.
So what have I been up to? Well, on Tuesday, in addition to taking a bunch of pictures, I had no class. I met Sara at 10:25 and made sure she got her laundry started, then we went to the bridge for breakfast, then we moved her laundry to the dryer, then I did some serious syllabus-crunching (I have these amazing new time management skills and I'm not totally sure where they come from but I love them), then I had to get Sara and Jack on the bus at 12, then I met Katelyn for a fast lunch before she had to go to class, then I got Sara's laundry out of the dryer, then I started calling around looking for a work-study job, then I ran around filling out some applications, then I had an interview, and, no, I don't have a job yet, but I'm waiting to hear. Sometime after I finished all this, Katelyn finished her Spanish class and came by to hang out and then Jack and Sara got back from Mt Holyoke and Spanish and then the homework party started, and got interrupted for dinner, and continued until Katelyn and Jack had written their essays (Sara did join the homework party later, and I took pictures that I'll upload eventually), and there was some doing of other homework, but then certain people got distracted and we moved to Jack's room to work on our beloved gay signs. They are all printed now, and, as soon as we get some time, we will begin covering them with feathers and sequins and shiny things and hanging them around. I will take many pictures. After printing all the pictures, Jack kicked us out of his room and I went to waste time on the internet for hours until I fell asleep.
Of course I forgot to set my alarm early enough to meet Aaron (I blame Jack), but he's cool with it. Turned in our essays in wwwii, talked about the essays a bit, listened to awesome radio programming. Went to post office, Jack got 4! packages, but one of them is a present for me so I guess it's okay. Jack gets a whole lots of packages, though. Ate lunch, did homework, bought Jack a Rosh Hashanah present (this is a long and mildly interesting story. also I discovered that Rosh Hashanah is my birthday this year), went to sound patterns where we talked about vowels and then spanish where we had a dance party and played with plastic vegetables. Went to dinner, more homework until Jack and Sara couldn't take it any longer and decided to watch Queer as Folk. I was good for at least an hour and kept reading my Yiddish, but then I needed a break and so I went down to watch with them. Jack stole my boa and Sara yelled at him about getting feathers everywhere. Watched QaF until Sara kicked us out, came back and finished my Yiddish reading before 2 am. Slept.
Today's plan: shower, go get mail, meet Katelyn for lunch, go to Yiddish, go to knitting circle, dinner, go to storytelling, have wwwii reading party, perhaps decorate signs.
So what have I been up to? Well, on Tuesday, in addition to taking a bunch of pictures, I had no class. I met Sara at 10:25 and made sure she got her laundry started, then we went to the bridge for breakfast, then we moved her laundry to the dryer, then I did some serious syllabus-crunching (I have these amazing new time management skills and I'm not totally sure where they come from but I love them), then I had to get Sara and Jack on the bus at 12, then I met Katelyn for a fast lunch before she had to go to class, then I got Sara's laundry out of the dryer, then I started calling around looking for a work-study job, then I ran around filling out some applications, then I had an interview, and, no, I don't have a job yet, but I'm waiting to hear. Sometime after I finished all this, Katelyn finished her Spanish class and came by to hang out and then Jack and Sara got back from Mt Holyoke and Spanish and then the homework party started, and got interrupted for dinner, and continued until Katelyn and Jack had written their essays (Sara did join the homework party later, and I took pictures that I'll upload eventually), and there was some doing of other homework, but then certain people got distracted and we moved to Jack's room to work on our beloved gay signs. They are all printed now, and, as soon as we get some time, we will begin covering them with feathers and sequins and shiny things and hanging them around. I will take many pictures. After printing all the pictures, Jack kicked us out of his room and I went to waste time on the internet for hours until I fell asleep.
Of course I forgot to set my alarm early enough to meet Aaron (I blame Jack), but he's cool with it. Turned in our essays in wwwii, talked about the essays a bit, listened to awesome radio programming. Went to post office, Jack got 4! packages, but one of them is a present for me so I guess it's okay. Jack gets a whole lots of packages, though. Ate lunch, did homework, bought Jack a Rosh Hashanah present (this is a long and mildly interesting story. also I discovered that Rosh Hashanah is my birthday this year), went to sound patterns where we talked about vowels and then spanish where we had a dance party and played with plastic vegetables. Went to dinner, more homework until Jack and Sara couldn't take it any longer and decided to watch Queer as Folk. I was good for at least an hour and kept reading my Yiddish, but then I needed a break and so I went down to watch with them. Jack stole my boa and Sara yelled at him about getting feathers everywhere. Watched QaF until Sara kicked us out, came back and finished my Yiddish reading before 2 am. Slept.
Today's plan: shower, go get mail, meet Katelyn for lunch, go to Yiddish, go to knitting circle, dinner, go to storytelling, have wwwii reading party, perhaps decorate signs.
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Homework Party
We're having a homework party, and I'm done with my essay (unlike a certain other two people), so I took some pictures.
Although you might think Katelyn is sleeping against my wall with a computer in her lap, I swear to you that she is working very hard on her essay. Harder than Jack, at least.
Imagine me slouching and typing and chewing on a knitting needle at the end of the bed, and you have exactly what our homework parties look like to an impartial observer. Exciting, huh?
I like how Jack looks really intent on what he's doing here. Especially since he was totally not.
Ah, the piece de resistance. I meant this picture to be of Jack's really awesome amazing attractive earrings that I love to play with, but then he scratched his nose. We had a hearty laugh and he insisted that I include this picture.
Although you might think Katelyn is sleeping against my wall with a computer in her lap, I swear to you that she is working very hard on her essay. Harder than Jack, at least.
Imagine me slouching and typing and chewing on a knitting needle at the end of the bed, and you have exactly what our homework parties look like to an impartial observer. Exciting, huh?
I like how Jack looks really intent on what he's doing here. Especially since he was totally not.
Ah, the piece de resistance. I meant this picture to be of Jack's really awesome amazing attractive earrings that I love to play with, but then he scratched his nose. We had a hearty laugh and he insisted that I include this picture.
My Room, Part I
Now that Rose has posted a bunch of pictures of her room, I feel vaguely obligated to do the same. But I'll go that extra step and label things. Maybe I'll even get pictures of people taken sometime.
I Am A Man of Constant Sorrow
Actually, I'm just going through a phase where I love both bluegrass and the word "man." More on that later.
First, I have to tell you about going to Amherst and the crazy free workers-communist bookstore where Jack and Katelyn had to buy books for their media class and there was the longest line in the world cause I guess Amherst or some college with departments sends a bunch of their students there to buy things. We spent most of our time in line looking at a book of drag queens, so it was not time wasted. Then we went to Ben & Jerry's and answered the question of the day (how many stomachs does a cow have?) and got a 10% discount and ate delicious ice cream. Then Jack complained for a long time about how there are not enough gay men around (we think he is crazy, but he comes from gay Mecca) and we got on the bus and came back to our darling Hampshire and we finished watching Ed Wood and got some dinner and the internet still didn't work so we decided to do homework instead. Jack and Katelyn went to read for their crazy media class and I sat down and wrote my essay that is not due until Wednesday but it's a pretty terrible essay and my goal was to be able to edit it, which is currently happening, but I am getting ahead of myself. After I finished my essay, Jack wandered by having just showered, and decided that he needed some tea, and that I should use my fancy new teapot and tea filter to make fancy relaxation tea (which is orange-cream flavored and so delicious thank you Mary I love you) and we relaxed and drank tea and then Jack went to bed cause he's a sucker with 9 am classes. I settled in with some Scrubs for a quiet evening, and then Sara dropped by and decided she wanted to learn to knit, so I taught her at 11:30 at night, and then she eventually headed to bed and I slept as well and I love sleep.
I slept in and was lazy this morning, until Jack called and said "Are you in your room? Good. Katelyn and I are coming to make some hot chocolate in your kettle. See you in a bit." So I put pants on and put the kettle on and washed mugs and they showed up and we had hot cocoa and continued the list of gay icons for our crazy gay signs until it was time to meet Sara for lunch between her classes. After lunch came more of the gay sign making party and these are going to be the best signs in the world and I am so excited about them. I suppose I will eventually post them for you to enjoy. I had to leave Jack and Katelyn with the signs while I went to Spanish, which was less scary than last time cause they got rid of the crazy people who already know Spanish. I met a girl from Mt Holyoke who was nice, and some other people, but I am somewhat saddened that I don't have buddies in there yet. We were pretty happy when we took a break and discovered the signers were having a Mexican food party, and we crashed it to enjoy their mini-burritos and fried bananas. After Spanish, I grabbed the trusty buddies I always grab and we had dinner and then Katelyn and Jack and I rushed off to the bus stop only to determine that we did not, in fact, need the bus we had rushed to, so we decided that the prefix man makes every word better and it only made sense if you were there. Let it be said only that we were going to get on that man-bus and go to Manherst to buy some man glitter for our man signs. Then Jack and I had a big pretend fight in which he stole my shoe and I chased him around and I ended up emptying his pockets and filling my own with his belongings. Then we got on the right bus and relied on a girl from my Yiddish class to make sure we got to the Hampshire Mall right
and then we found all sorts of amazing glitter and pom poms and ribbons and fun fun things at Target and Joanna's. And of course the buses to get back had to be completely inconvenient and we got stuck waiting outside at UMass for half an hour (as Jack froze because he is from Texas and an incredible pansy) but we finally got back to our beloved Hampshire and sent Jack to do his Spanish homework, which he totally procrastinated on forever while Katelyn and I hung out and drank tea and edited my essay for a while and Katelyn decorated my window and added some beautiful pictures of Whitman and Oscar and Bosie to my walls. At some point, Sara came up to help Jack with his Spanish and then she came to have me plan her morning for her (she has to get up at 9:30 so I can grab her at 10:30 to make sure she starts her laundry and then go to breakfast with her and she has to buy milk and I have to buy my Spanish book and Sara has to move her laundry to the dryer and get it out and be ready to get the bus at 12:30 to go to her Spanish class) and I think I am turning into everyone's mom and I'm not sure how or why cause I am hardly the most responsible person. I continued my mom-ness after sending Sara to bed when Katelyn and I sent Jack a note that he needed to be working on his homework and he replied that he was depressed so I took him some tea to make him feel better and then left him with space to finish his homework. Now Katelyn and I are sitting on my bed talking while Jack showers (he did finish his homework) and we're vaguely considering sleep but not really.
First, I have to tell you about going to Amherst and the crazy free workers-communist bookstore where Jack and Katelyn had to buy books for their media class and there was the longest line in the world cause I guess Amherst or some college with departments sends a bunch of their students there to buy things. We spent most of our time in line looking at a book of drag queens, so it was not time wasted. Then we went to Ben & Jerry's and answered the question of the day (how many stomachs does a cow have?) and got a 10% discount and ate delicious ice cream. Then Jack complained for a long time about how there are not enough gay men around (we think he is crazy, but he comes from gay Mecca) and we got on the bus and came back to our darling Hampshire and we finished watching Ed Wood and got some dinner and the internet still didn't work so we decided to do homework instead. Jack and Katelyn went to read for their crazy media class and I sat down and wrote my essay that is not due until Wednesday but it's a pretty terrible essay and my goal was to be able to edit it, which is currently happening, but I am getting ahead of myself. After I finished my essay, Jack wandered by having just showered, and decided that he needed some tea, and that I should use my fancy new teapot and tea filter to make fancy relaxation tea (which is orange-cream flavored and so delicious thank you Mary I love you) and we relaxed and drank tea and then Jack went to bed cause he's a sucker with 9 am classes. I settled in with some Scrubs for a quiet evening, and then Sara dropped by and decided she wanted to learn to knit, so I taught her at 11:30 at night, and then she eventually headed to bed and I slept as well and I love sleep.
I slept in and was lazy this morning, until Jack called and said "Are you in your room? Good. Katelyn and I are coming to make some hot chocolate in your kettle. See you in a bit." So I put pants on and put the kettle on and washed mugs and they showed up and we had hot cocoa and continued the list of gay icons for our crazy gay signs until it was time to meet Sara for lunch between her classes. After lunch came more of the gay sign making party and these are going to be the best signs in the world and I am so excited about them. I suppose I will eventually post them for you to enjoy. I had to leave Jack and Katelyn with the signs while I went to Spanish, which was less scary than last time cause they got rid of the crazy people who already know Spanish. I met a girl from Mt Holyoke who was nice, and some other people, but I am somewhat saddened that I don't have buddies in there yet. We were pretty happy when we took a break and discovered the signers were having a Mexican food party, and we crashed it to enjoy their mini-burritos and fried bananas. After Spanish, I grabbed the trusty buddies I always grab and we had dinner and then Katelyn and Jack and I rushed off to the bus stop only to determine that we did not, in fact, need the bus we had rushed to, so we decided that the prefix man makes every word better and it only made sense if you were there. Let it be said only that we were going to get on that man-bus and go to Manherst to buy some man glitter for our man signs. Then Jack and I had a big pretend fight in which he stole my shoe and I chased him around and I ended up emptying his pockets and filling my own with his belongings. Then we got on the right bus and relied on a girl from my Yiddish class to make sure we got to the Hampshire Mall right
and then we found all sorts of amazing glitter and pom poms and ribbons and fun fun things at Target and Joanna's. And of course the buses to get back had to be completely inconvenient and we got stuck waiting outside at UMass for half an hour (as Jack froze because he is from Texas and an incredible pansy) but we finally got back to our beloved Hampshire and sent Jack to do his Spanish homework, which he totally procrastinated on forever while Katelyn and I hung out and drank tea and edited my essay for a while and Katelyn decorated my window and added some beautiful pictures of Whitman and Oscar and Bosie to my walls. At some point, Sara came up to help Jack with his Spanish and then she came to have me plan her morning for her (she has to get up at 9:30 so I can grab her at 10:30 to make sure she starts her laundry and then go to breakfast with her and she has to buy milk and I have to buy my Spanish book and Sara has to move her laundry to the dryer and get it out and be ready to get the bus at 12:30 to go to her Spanish class) and I think I am turning into everyone's mom and I'm not sure how or why cause I am hardly the most responsible person. I continued my mom-ness after sending Sara to bed when Katelyn and I sent Jack a note that he needed to be working on his homework and he replied that he was depressed so I took him some tea to make him feel better and then left him with space to finish his homework. Now Katelyn and I are sitting on my bed talking while Jack showers (he did finish his homework) and we're vaguely considering sleep but not really.
Sunday, September 10, 2006
Lovesong
Nothing is sweeter than lying on the grass in the sunshine with my pretty Clara.
Yesterday was laundry day, and me, Katelyn, Jack, Madelaine and Tabitha descended to the basement to take over the 3 washers that were working (of 5) for hours and hours until all of our clothing was washed. I also did my phonetics homework, meaning that we had some great long discussions about whether there is a vowel at the end of theatrical, and what it might be, and the best way to pronounce beneficial and such. Somewhere in the middle of this, a fire alarm went off and we complained, but not as much as we did when it went off at 2 am. After our incredibly successful and widely acclaimed laundry party, we decided it was time for the highly anticipated gay sign making party and Tabitha went off to gather craft supplies and we made a list of essential gay icons for our signs and a list of people who will be receiving gay signs, i.e. people who live on our hall. Then we went to get food cause Jack was starving as always, and it was thunderstorming and beautiful and then we returned and my internet no longer worked, but neither did Jack's and neither did Katelyn's and we figured it was a building-wide issuem and decided to have a movie fest instead, starting with Ed Wood. Halfway through Ed, Heather showed up and we left Katelyn and Heather some space and Jack and I went to bother Sara and use her microwave to make the once-again-starving Jack some ramen and ended up watching Igby Goes Down and ordering pizza and hanging out until we went to bed.
Slept in this morning, discovered my internet still does not work, but Dulcey's does (she lives beside me) and Lianne's does (down the hall) and Dillon's does (across from Sara, so downstairs) and we're greatly confused. Grabbed Sara and Katelyn to go to library to get internet (Jack realized he had forgotten to wash his binder yesterday, so he was off to the laundry room again) and stayed there until Jack and I exchanged the following text messages:
me: I have your wallet.
him: Die Krappen!?
me: What are you trying to say, sweetie? Did you lose your mommy?
him: Damn you.
me: Kisses!
him: I need to get lunch before SAGA closes at 1!
me: I'm coming.
And so we went and ate for a while and then Jack finished his laundry and now we are relaxing on the grass in the sunshine and things are biting me and we are thinking about doing homework but we are so lazy. I have an essay to write for WWII and so do Jack and Katelyn and maybe we'll get to that today. Maybe the internet in our rooms will come back, too.
Yesterday was laundry day, and me, Katelyn, Jack, Madelaine and Tabitha descended to the basement to take over the 3 washers that were working (of 5) for hours and hours until all of our clothing was washed. I also did my phonetics homework, meaning that we had some great long discussions about whether there is a vowel at the end of theatrical, and what it might be, and the best way to pronounce beneficial and such. Somewhere in the middle of this, a fire alarm went off and we complained, but not as much as we did when it went off at 2 am. After our incredibly successful and widely acclaimed laundry party, we decided it was time for the highly anticipated gay sign making party and Tabitha went off to gather craft supplies and we made a list of essential gay icons for our signs and a list of people who will be receiving gay signs, i.e. people who live on our hall. Then we went to get food cause Jack was starving as always, and it was thunderstorming and beautiful and then we returned and my internet no longer worked, but neither did Jack's and neither did Katelyn's and we figured it was a building-wide issuem and decided to have a movie fest instead, starting with Ed Wood. Halfway through Ed, Heather showed up and we left Katelyn and Heather some space and Jack and I went to bother Sara and use her microwave to make the once-again-starving Jack some ramen and ended up watching Igby Goes Down and ordering pizza and hanging out until we went to bed.
Slept in this morning, discovered my internet still does not work, but Dulcey's does (she lives beside me) and Lianne's does (down the hall) and Dillon's does (across from Sara, so downstairs) and we're greatly confused. Grabbed Sara and Katelyn to go to library to get internet (Jack realized he had forgotten to wash his binder yesterday, so he was off to the laundry room again) and stayed there until Jack and I exchanged the following text messages:
me: I have your wallet.
him: Die Krappen!?
me: What are you trying to say, sweetie? Did you lose your mommy?
him: Damn you.
me: Kisses!
him: I need to get lunch before SAGA closes at 1!
me: I'm coming.
And so we went and ate for a while and then Jack finished his laundry and now we are relaxing on the grass in the sunshine and things are biting me and we are thinking about doing homework but we are so lazy. I have an essay to write for WWII and so do Jack and Katelyn and maybe we'll get to that today. Maybe the internet in our rooms will come back, too.
Saturday, September 09, 2006
Always
Of course Saturday morning is the morning everyone decides to take a shower at the same time. Grr waiting hate.
So what have I been up to? Everything. Let me think. Thursday was a day for sleeping in and being lazy for a while... then it was Yiddish Lit, which I ADORE. I am one of 3 Gentiles in the class, and it's at the awesome awesome Yiddish Book Center which is FULL of super-old books that are all in Yiddish and I am pretty sure that if I just knew the Hebrew alphabet I would be able to read them pretty well cause Yiddish is just German with a funny accent. I don't even mind too much that it's a 3 hour class, cause Rachel (our prof) breaks it up pretty well and who doesn't love reading Yiddish stories that are hilarious and sad and sweet and perfect? Then I hung out with Monica for a bit and then it was off to Convocation, the official start of the school year. Bagpipes led us in what they called a processional, but since it's Hampshire, it was just a crowd of people walking toward RCC with some bagpipes ahead of us. Then there were a bunch of speeches, and Ralph ranted about Don't Ask Don't Tell for a while and Katelyn swears it related to something cause I guess she listened but I was really just there to get my Hampshire button and now I have my official button and Jack and Sara were all "oh we are going to take forever to come back from Mt Holyoke and miss Convocation and now we have no buttons" and I am all "hahahahaha." After Convo, there was a cook-out and we ate hamburgers and watermelon and sat on the grass like Hampshire students (Madelaine reports that Amherst students are waaaay too prissy to sit on the grass and it makes us laugh). Then Katelyn and Jack and I were good little students and retreated to our rooms to read Watch on the Rhine, a play from 1940 about how the US needed to enter WWII. We acted it out and had so much fun with it and you should have been there but you weren't. Katelyn told Aaron about it at her meeting with him yesterday and he said he wished he had been there, too. In between reading, I went to meet up with the storytellers, and we're planning a festival for the 22nd and I'll be telling and have to find a story soon! Also while I was in the meeting Jack made a very important impulse purchase completely without me and I am deeply offended that I was not there for that momentous occasion, but I will be certain to be around when the package arrives. Also we hung out and played lots of very loud very gay music cause we're awesome like that. Had World War II class on Monday and we talked about the play and the essays we have to write for Wednesday, and I made Jack and Katelyn like 2 minutes late and Jack glared at me and then he later drew on my foot while I was trying to say something in class and it tickled and I ignored it and it was very difficult. He didn't even draw anything pretty on my foot. I love this class cause Will and Aaron make us think and make us push our ideas and I feel like I am learning so much that has nothing to do with World War II. Then it was lunchtime, cause Jack had overslept and missed breakfast and was going to have some sort of fainting spell if we didn't feed him. Jack had no pockets in his pants, so I somehow inherited his keys and wallet, and of course took full advantage of this new power by not giving him his keys back when he wanted them and we had a nice long glorious pretend fight about it but now my big duckie is missing and we're going to have to get Phil off searching for it. And then I felt a little bad about accidently locking Jack's keys in my room while I went to Phonetics, but I felt less bad when he tried to send me angry text messages about it, except they didn't show up until 5 hours later, and so I had a good laugh about his terrible phone service (and probably mine too). After Phonetics class (which is 20 college students sitting around trying to make weird vowel sounds and it's awesome), Katelyn came by and made Jack vaccuum his rug (this makes sense if you have ever seen Jack's rug) and then we hung out for a while and got some dinner and waited for Katelyn's girlfriend Heather to come and take us to Northhampton, and then she was late, and there was hanging out on a bench and being tall, and leaf fights, and I decided that I need to poke Jack all the time and more leaf fights and then Heather finally came and we drove to Noho. Noho is full of awesome stores, as you know, and I bought a teapot and a tea filter and I am a happy girl. Then we stood in the longest line to get ice cream at Harrell's but it was amazing ice cream and made us really happy too. Then we got lost for a while trying to get back, with 4 people crammed in the back seat of Heather's car, and then we finally did get back and decided it was time for a Queer as Folk party and so we watched QaF for 3 hours in Katelyn's room and then I went to sleep and now it's half an hour after I first checked the showers, so I think I am going to go see if one is open now, or maybe venture to another hall to use their shower.
So what have I been up to? Everything. Let me think. Thursday was a day for sleeping in and being lazy for a while... then it was Yiddish Lit, which I ADORE. I am one of 3 Gentiles in the class, and it's at the awesome awesome Yiddish Book Center which is FULL of super-old books that are all in Yiddish and I am pretty sure that if I just knew the Hebrew alphabet I would be able to read them pretty well cause Yiddish is just German with a funny accent. I don't even mind too much that it's a 3 hour class, cause Rachel (our prof) breaks it up pretty well and who doesn't love reading Yiddish stories that are hilarious and sad and sweet and perfect? Then I hung out with Monica for a bit and then it was off to Convocation, the official start of the school year. Bagpipes led us in what they called a processional, but since it's Hampshire, it was just a crowd of people walking toward RCC with some bagpipes ahead of us. Then there were a bunch of speeches, and Ralph ranted about Don't Ask Don't Tell for a while and Katelyn swears it related to something cause I guess she listened but I was really just there to get my Hampshire button and now I have my official button and Jack and Sara were all "oh we are going to take forever to come back from Mt Holyoke and miss Convocation and now we have no buttons" and I am all "hahahahaha." After Convo, there was a cook-out and we ate hamburgers and watermelon and sat on the grass like Hampshire students (Madelaine reports that Amherst students are waaaay too prissy to sit on the grass and it makes us laugh). Then Katelyn and Jack and I were good little students and retreated to our rooms to read Watch on the Rhine, a play from 1940 about how the US needed to enter WWII. We acted it out and had so much fun with it and you should have been there but you weren't. Katelyn told Aaron about it at her meeting with him yesterday and he said he wished he had been there, too. In between reading, I went to meet up with the storytellers, and we're planning a festival for the 22nd and I'll be telling and have to find a story soon! Also while I was in the meeting Jack made a very important impulse purchase completely without me and I am deeply offended that I was not there for that momentous occasion, but I will be certain to be around when the package arrives. Also we hung out and played lots of very loud very gay music cause we're awesome like that. Had World War II class on Monday and we talked about the play and the essays we have to write for Wednesday, and I made Jack and Katelyn like 2 minutes late and Jack glared at me and then he later drew on my foot while I was trying to say something in class and it tickled and I ignored it and it was very difficult. He didn't even draw anything pretty on my foot. I love this class cause Will and Aaron make us think and make us push our ideas and I feel like I am learning so much that has nothing to do with World War II. Then it was lunchtime, cause Jack had overslept and missed breakfast and was going to have some sort of fainting spell if we didn't feed him. Jack had no pockets in his pants, so I somehow inherited his keys and wallet, and of course took full advantage of this new power by not giving him his keys back when he wanted them and we had a nice long glorious pretend fight about it but now my big duckie is missing and we're going to have to get Phil off searching for it. And then I felt a little bad about accidently locking Jack's keys in my room while I went to Phonetics, but I felt less bad when he tried to send me angry text messages about it, except they didn't show up until 5 hours later, and so I had a good laugh about his terrible phone service (and probably mine too). After Phonetics class (which is 20 college students sitting around trying to make weird vowel sounds and it's awesome), Katelyn came by and made Jack vaccuum his rug (this makes sense if you have ever seen Jack's rug) and then we hung out for a while and got some dinner and waited for Katelyn's girlfriend Heather to come and take us to Northhampton, and then she was late, and there was hanging out on a bench and being tall, and leaf fights, and I decided that I need to poke Jack all the time and more leaf fights and then Heather finally came and we drove to Noho. Noho is full of awesome stores, as you know, and I bought a teapot and a tea filter and I am a happy girl. Then we stood in the longest line to get ice cream at Harrell's but it was amazing ice cream and made us really happy too. Then we got lost for a while trying to get back, with 4 people crammed in the back seat of Heather's car, and then we finally did get back and decided it was time for a Queer as Folk party and so we watched QaF for 3 hours in Katelyn's room and then I went to sleep and now it's half an hour after I first checked the showers, so I think I am going to go see if one is open now, or maybe venture to another hall to use their shower.
Thursday, September 07, 2006
Big Disco Ball
Ah, Wednesday. My day of full classes. (Further investigation has revealed I have no Spanish on Fridays, so Wednesday is my only crazy day.) Woke up early-ish, chilled until I met Sara and Katelyn to walk over to our tutorials, found out that Jack has Acting before WWWII, which he didn't bother to tell me, enjoy having a history class where I understand what is going on again yay for English. Wandered to Post Office, Central Records, ate lunch before Sara had to go to her next class, headed back to Dakin, where I discovered that my ethernet cable reaches my doorway, meaning I can sit in my door and yell at Jack while we each check our e-mail. Went to Phonetics class, taught by an awesome bioacoustician named Mark Feinstein, and I'm excited about this class. Went to Spanish, taught by an awesome Columbian lady named Nubia, who promises weekly parties where we will eat food (such as Columbian food and Argentinian food) and dance and sing songs. Also there are waaaay too many people in my class who have already had Spanish, which angers me because they should probably be in some higher class to allow true beginners the option to truly begin. Grrr. Laughed a lot in that class cause Nubia is a funny lady who makes us laugh. Ran to dinner while on the phone with a neurotic Jack who always thinks we will be late, ate quickly, still got to showing of Modern Times early, gave Jack a hard time. Watched Modern Times and laughed at Charlie Chaplain for being a funny, funny man. Came back to Dakin, retreated to Katelyn's room to read Charles Lindbergh biography, apparently written by out-of-work trashy romance novelist, since half was about Charles's escapades in Florida with his wife (using thinly veiled metaphors about mangroves and ibises) and the other half was about Lindy being some sort of anti-Semite isolationist who maybe hated Jews but maybe just didn't really care about Jews but certainly singled the Jews out many times and there's this one picture where it looks like he's Sieg Heiling, but he's really doing the Pledge of Allegiance and gosh he was friends with lots of idealistic young college men. Also people in the 1940s had really, really funny names, and also Katelyn kept having to say "ovation," Jack and I had an argument about my ability to pronounce "tribune" affecting his ability to pronounce "tribune," and by the end of the night half of Jack's clothes were scattered across Katelyn's bed and we have no idea why. We have a 3-page Lindberg speech to read still, and also a play, and Jack's off-campus for Spanish tomorrow, and it's Convocation and various other early-evening activities. While reading aloud may be a whole lot more fun (and it really is), it also takes a whole lot longer. Le sigh.
Fun fact: Katelyn lives on an all-female hall (although, unlike sub-free, males are allowed to come on the halls (sub-free means no substances on the hall ever even in your body) and also apparently chill in a girl's dorm and sit on the bed with a girl and randomly peel articles of clothing off while reading Jack is really strange and I adore run-ons) and they have a cutesy sign on the bathroom that you have to turn when there's a boy in there.
Addendum: and then the fire alarm went off at 1 o'clock in the totally friggin' morning. The rumor I heard was that it was our detested lounge dwellers, who probably are chuckle-headed enough to do such a thing. Sleep now angry grrrr.
Fun fact: Katelyn lives on an all-female hall (although, unlike sub-free, males are allowed to come on the halls (sub-free means no substances on the hall ever even in your body) and also apparently chill in a girl's dorm and sit on the bed with a girl and randomly peel articles of clothing off while reading Jack is really strange and I adore run-ons) and they have a cutesy sign on the bathroom that you have to turn when there's a boy in there.
Addendum: and then the fire alarm went off at 1 o'clock in the totally friggin' morning. The rumor I heard was that it was our detested lounge dwellers, who probably are chuckle-headed enough to do such a thing. Sleep now angry grrrr.
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
I've Got You Under My Skin
Silly blog, I feel compelled to tell you my every move when I really want to sleep. It's only 11:31, but I had to get up early. I can sleep much later tomorrow.
Tonight was wonderfully chill. After heading over to Jackson's mod to hang out and watch Margaret Cho and also watch Jackson's modmates stock their fridge, I came back and grabbed Jack and Sara for dinner, and then Jack and I decided it was time to do our homework. Earlier in the afternoon, Jack was chilling in my room, unsure what to do with himself, and I suggested he read the assignment while I knit. Then I suggested that he read it outloud so we could both benefit, and he laughed and took it as the joke I intended it. Only at dinner did we realize the genius of this concept, and we locked ourselves in Jack's room shortly thereafter and proceeded to read the entire 45 pages aloud to each other (I took even pages and he took odd. We stopped mid-sentence when the page stopped mid-sentence), having far more fun than we should have as our ability to pronounce the big silly words the author loves broke down (your word of the day is "desiderata." Jack's is "proferred" and mine is "indefatigable," cause we each had to say those words frequently and never could) and Sara occasionally stopped by and told us we were very cute. I also learned that Jack can't say numbers when he is reading out loud, for which I teased him mercilessly. And he teased me mercilessly for always changing the pronounciation of place names when I read them aloud. I am pretty sure all future readings for this class will be accomplished this way. Our reading was interrupted by the all-important hall meeting, in which Phil shared his 7 pound bag of candy (I love Phil) and talked about hall stuff and confirmed our queer status and we decided that we need to get together and make a big sparkly gay sign to make the other halls jealous. And we set quiet hours on weekends until 11 in the morning, which makes me happy. Then Jack and I kept reading, then we finished our reading and sat on his bed and talked until Sara came back from hanging out with her Mt Holyoke friend Karina, and then the three of us talked a bit but realized we are all super-tired, and it is sleep time.
I am so happy about my schedule, and happy that classes start tomorrow.
Tonight was wonderfully chill. After heading over to Jackson's mod to hang out and watch Margaret Cho and also watch Jackson's modmates stock their fridge, I came back and grabbed Jack and Sara for dinner, and then Jack and I decided it was time to do our homework. Earlier in the afternoon, Jack was chilling in my room, unsure what to do with himself, and I suggested he read the assignment while I knit. Then I suggested that he read it outloud so we could both benefit, and he laughed and took it as the joke I intended it. Only at dinner did we realize the genius of this concept, and we locked ourselves in Jack's room shortly thereafter and proceeded to read the entire 45 pages aloud to each other (I took even pages and he took odd. We stopped mid-sentence when the page stopped mid-sentence), having far more fun than we should have as our ability to pronounce the big silly words the author loves broke down (your word of the day is "desiderata." Jack's is "proferred" and mine is "indefatigable," cause we each had to say those words frequently and never could) and Sara occasionally stopped by and told us we were very cute. I also learned that Jack can't say numbers when he is reading out loud, for which I teased him mercilessly. And he teased me mercilessly for always changing the pronounciation of place names when I read them aloud. I am pretty sure all future readings for this class will be accomplished this way. Our reading was interrupted by the all-important hall meeting, in which Phil shared his 7 pound bag of candy (I love Phil) and talked about hall stuff and confirmed our queer status and we decided that we need to get together and make a big sparkly gay sign to make the other halls jealous. And we set quiet hours on weekends until 11 in the morning, which makes me happy. Then Jack and I kept reading, then we finished our reading and sat on his bed and talked until Sara came back from hanging out with her Mt Holyoke friend Karina, and then the three of us talked a bit but realized we are all super-tired, and it is sleep time.
I am so happy about my schedule, and happy that classes start tomorrow.
My Schedule
Just got back from meeting with Aaron, my advisor (also Dean of Faculty), and we got my schedule all fixed up and pretty. Just look at it:
Yep, no classes on Tuesday, just Spanish on Monday evenings, a little busier Wednesday and Friday, but overall lots of nice sleeping in and free time. Free time which I suppose I will be using for doing a lot of reading and writing for my tutorial. Got the syllabus today and bought my books (3 big thick huge things and a play for this one class) and the first essay is due the 13th. I'm gonna read for a bit now until Jack gets back from meeting with Will (our other prof and his advisor), and then I might bother him until we go and grab Sara from the library to get some lunch. I've got a meeting about work-study at 1, and a hall meeting at 8 (where we will hopefully deal with the loudness and find out once and for all if we are in fact the queer hall), and Sara's friend from Smith (or is it Mt Holyoke?) is coming by this evening. Classes start tomorrow!
Yep, no classes on Tuesday, just Spanish on Monday evenings, a little busier Wednesday and Friday, but overall lots of nice sleeping in and free time. Free time which I suppose I will be using for doing a lot of reading and writing for my tutorial. Got the syllabus today and bought my books (3 big thick huge things and a play for this one class) and the first essay is due the 13th. I'm gonna read for a bit now until Jack gets back from meeting with Will (our other prof and his advisor), and then I might bother him until we go and grab Sara from the library to get some lunch. I've got a meeting about work-study at 1, and a hall meeting at 8 (where we will hopefully deal with the loudness and find out once and for all if we are in fact the queer hall), and Sara's friend from Smith (or is it Mt Holyoke?) is coming by this evening. Classes start tomorrow!
Monday, September 04, 2006
Black Hole Sun
(Yes, I am just clicking on iTunes and making it pick a random song to name my posts. I am feeling uninspired).
Woke up with a sore throat this morning, which is definitely Jack's fault. Glad he made me take my kettle last night cause I needed tea. Two cups in the hour before I left my room, during which I read e-mail and then talked to Jack and Jackson who wandered by, and then realized at 9:33 that I had to meet my orientation group at 9:30, and so I threw clothes on and threw the boys out and went off to find that the group had not left me, and we took a nice big walking tour of campus to figure out where stuff is. Then we took a nice long walk to Flavors, the awesome ice cream place where the cows that produce the milk are literally in the field behind the ice cream stand. It was wonderful. Came back, knitted for a while, met the dean who leads the knitting circle, talked about knitting circle, generally hung out with fingers covered in yarn. Now I am going to go grab Sara and we are going to venture to the post office cause I haven't checked my box yet. As a reminder, here is where you should send me stuff:
Kari Collins
Hampshire College Box 354
Amherst, MA 01002
USA
Please send me things I like mail.
We are pretty sure that we have confirmed the rumors that F2 is the queer hall.
After post office adventures came dinner and then wandering around and some plant-related harassing of Alex by Jack and then Jack by me and then all of us by Alex and probably some other combinations maybe, and then we played cards until it was time for Kate Bornstein's lecture. She was AMAZING. I won't go into details since this is a family blog, but she talked about gender and sex and identity and desire and power and God and gave us all "get out of hell free" cards and was generally one of the most awesome ladies I have ever met, inasmuch as she is a lady. Then we went to watch Velvet Goldmine cause Jack's packages arrived today and that means all his movies are here and we only just finished and I have class at 9 tomorrow, so I think I will sleep.
Woke up with a sore throat this morning, which is definitely Jack's fault. Glad he made me take my kettle last night cause I needed tea. Two cups in the hour before I left my room, during which I read e-mail and then talked to Jack and Jackson who wandered by, and then realized at 9:33 that I had to meet my orientation group at 9:30, and so I threw clothes on and threw the boys out and went off to find that the group had not left me, and we took a nice big walking tour of campus to figure out where stuff is. Then we took a nice long walk to Flavors, the awesome ice cream place where the cows that produce the milk are literally in the field behind the ice cream stand. It was wonderful. Came back, knitted for a while, met the dean who leads the knitting circle, talked about knitting circle, generally hung out with fingers covered in yarn. Now I am going to go grab Sara and we are going to venture to the post office cause I haven't checked my box yet. As a reminder, here is where you should send me stuff:
Kari Collins
Hampshire College Box 354
Amherst, MA 01002
USA
Please send me things I like mail.
We are pretty sure that we have confirmed the rumors that F2 is the queer hall.
After post office adventures came dinner and then wandering around and some plant-related harassing of Alex by Jack and then Jack by me and then all of us by Alex and probably some other combinations maybe, and then we played cards until it was time for Kate Bornstein's lecture. She was AMAZING. I won't go into details since this is a family blog, but she talked about gender and sex and identity and desire and power and God and gave us all "get out of hell free" cards and was generally one of the most awesome ladies I have ever met, inasmuch as she is a lady. Then we went to watch Velvet Goldmine cause Jack's packages arrived today and that means all his movies are here and we only just finished and I have class at 9 tomorrow, so I think I will sleep.
My Lady's House
I don't actually have a lady, but if I did, her house would be Dakin, because Dakin is the best house. Today, in bullet-list form (I love bullet lists- if you don't, I don't care)
-meant to sleep in, but everyone else on the hall got up and was opening and closing our dorm's loud doors, and I got up at 8:30 anyway. Ate my chocolate crossaint while talking to Jack (and making him jealous of my crossaint), wandered through the rain to meet orientation group at 10. (by the way, Kace, we don't call it o-week. your school is weird.)
-drew a picture and painted a flowerpot
-went back to room, met Sara for lunch, ran into Jack, found pudding, had much happiness
-met up with orientation group again to walk to Eric Carle museum of picture book art. Love this museum. Looked at all the pretty pictures (they have a Wizard of Oz exhibit right now!!), bought giant rubber duckie for $4, saw more kids in an art museum than ever before.
-toured dorms with orientation group in effort to discover where we all live. still think dakin is awesome and merrill is twisted and confusing and hopeless.
-went to explore the basement of dakin with Sara, found laundry room and rec room, went back to Sara's room and chilled until dinner
-ran into Alex in dinner line, determined that we must stick together so I could trade my short ethernet cable for his super-long ethernet cable (as agreed yesterday but then we lost each other), ate dinner with Sara and Alex and Morgan, decided to have a big Queer as Folk party with Sara's dvds after dinner. Called Jack to come to QaF party. Had popsicle battle with Alex (that I won no matter what he says), presaging continued attempts of Alex and I to prove that one of us was in some way superior to the other. I am superior.
-went back to Dakin while Alex went to grab his ethernet cable, made the trade, grabbed supplies for QaF party, put Sara's pudding in Jack's fridge
-went to basement, watched wonderful beautiful beloved cheesy funny Queer as Folk (also fought with the dvd player for a bit cause not a single remote had batteries)
-returned upstairs, ambivilated between my room and Jack's, settled on his, listened to music and talked and ate pudding and drank tea
-Alex and Morgan decided to return to Merrill, claiming "lateness." the three remaining settled in to chill, complain about the bass down the hall
-at 11:03 (quiet hours start at 11 on weeknights), wonderful beloved awesome beloved intern Phil came up and told the bass party people to shut up, we told Phil we loved him
-at 11:23, the bass started again
-at 11:30, Phil returned, party people claimed they forgot, bass stopped for good. tonight at least.
-talked, learned to play hearts, did semi-okay at hearts, taught Jack to play capitalism, remained in 2nd throughout capitalism
-decided we were tired and broke off, asked Jack if I could just retrieve my mugs later meaning all stuff I had in his room, he said sure meaning just the mugs, drug my kettle and tea bags back across the hall and teased Jack about being silly
-wrote blog from bed using power of new super-long ethernet cable for which Alex gets much love
-sleep
-meant to sleep in, but everyone else on the hall got up and was opening and closing our dorm's loud doors, and I got up at 8:30 anyway. Ate my chocolate crossaint while talking to Jack (and making him jealous of my crossaint), wandered through the rain to meet orientation group at 10. (by the way, Kace, we don't call it o-week. your school is weird.)
-drew a picture and painted a flowerpot
-went back to room, met Sara for lunch, ran into Jack, found pudding, had much happiness
-met up with orientation group again to walk to Eric Carle museum of picture book art. Love this museum. Looked at all the pretty pictures (they have a Wizard of Oz exhibit right now!!), bought giant rubber duckie for $4, saw more kids in an art museum than ever before.
-toured dorms with orientation group in effort to discover where we all live. still think dakin is awesome and merrill is twisted and confusing and hopeless.
-went to explore the basement of dakin with Sara, found laundry room and rec room, went back to Sara's room and chilled until dinner
-ran into Alex in dinner line, determined that we must stick together so I could trade my short ethernet cable for his super-long ethernet cable (as agreed yesterday but then we lost each other), ate dinner with Sara and Alex and Morgan, decided to have a big Queer as Folk party with Sara's dvds after dinner. Called Jack to come to QaF party. Had popsicle battle with Alex (that I won no matter what he says), presaging continued attempts of Alex and I to prove that one of us was in some way superior to the other. I am superior.
-went back to Dakin while Alex went to grab his ethernet cable, made the trade, grabbed supplies for QaF party, put Sara's pudding in Jack's fridge
-went to basement, watched wonderful beautiful beloved cheesy funny Queer as Folk (also fought with the dvd player for a bit cause not a single remote had batteries)
-returned upstairs, ambivilated between my room and Jack's, settled on his, listened to music and talked and ate pudding and drank tea
-Alex and Morgan decided to return to Merrill, claiming "lateness." the three remaining settled in to chill, complain about the bass down the hall
-at 11:03 (quiet hours start at 11 on weeknights), wonderful beloved awesome beloved intern Phil came up and told the bass party people to shut up, we told Phil we loved him
-at 11:23, the bass started again
-at 11:30, Phil returned, party people claimed they forgot, bass stopped for good. tonight at least.
-talked, learned to play hearts, did semi-okay at hearts, taught Jack to play capitalism, remained in 2nd throughout capitalism
-decided we were tired and broke off, asked Jack if I could just retrieve my mugs later meaning all stuff I had in his room, he said sure meaning just the mugs, drug my kettle and tea bags back across the hall and teased Jack about being silly
-wrote blog from bed using power of new super-long ethernet cable for which Alex gets much love
-sleep
Saturday, September 02, 2006
The Way Things Work
To give you a sense of Hampshire life, or at least the sense that I have of it, I am going to list the things I have done the past few days in general order, without excess commentary. Assume that there is much meeting of awesome people and making of friends going on during all of this. (Not listing all of the awesome people, much as I love you all, 'cause I'll leave someone out and feel bad. Also I keep forgetting names.)
Friday
-sat in some assembly about hampshire academics that I honestly do not remember
-broke off into tutorials, met my awesome two profs of said tutorial (which is just one of my four classes that has a different name because the prof is my advisor so QUIT ASKING ME) and discussed that book that we were all supposed to read and most people at least skimmed parts of and determined that none of us, including the profs, understands it but had a really cool discussion anyway that was really a discussion and not those high school things where the teacher tries to drag any sort of comment out of anyone while looking at the answers in front of her.
-stood in a long line to get lunch
-went to take a "student survey" for which I will be paid $50 and which consisted of me evaluating social dilemmas or something but it was multiple choice and I knew I was at Hampshire when the faculty dude giving us the survey was reading the required instructions and said "remain inside the ovals. I know this is Hampshire and that goes against our 'it's okay to go outside the lines' policy, but this is the last time you have to stay inside the lines. After this, you can go wherever you want."
-went to a program about sexual assualt that actually had really powerful amazing speakers and included actual discussion within an auditorium of over 400 students. got fodder for many future jokes about the word "consent"
-stood in a very long line for dinner then sat with some random folks to meet new people
-thought about going to the 80s dance being offered, until Jack from across the hall came by with a cold and I made him tea, and then Dulcey from next door said something about watching Harold and Maude, and the next thing I knew I was in some dude's room (still not sure who it was) watching Harold and Maude with a bunch of people, of whom I knew about half their names, and laughing and laughing. We were in the dude's room cause he had a double and we all had singles, so he had space for all of us.
-slept until my alarm went off and then it was
SATURDAY
-avoided the breakfast line by being late and sat with some random folks to meet new people
-met up with the orientation group to go watch PSAs made by the house interns to tell us about the rules and issues that might come up living in the dorms and whatnot. People who know what the DYC Rules Video at Blackstone was will have an idea of what was going on. Dakin House had the best video, I must say, but perhaps I'm biased.
-listened to "high on hampshire" presentation, which was about the use of substances at Hampshire
-sat in a circle on some sort of platform in the middle of a field with a random group of first years and older students to discuss something that happened last night that upset us in an angry fashion, not a scared or sad fashion, although there was a bit of sadness. Noticed how amazingly the older students discussed these things, had one of those "wow I am at Hampshire things are so different here" moments
-stood in the longest line yet for lunch
-decided not to go to the talk by the author of the book we had to read that we all at least skimmed but none of us liked, instead went to Jackson's mod with Jack and Sarah to watch queer movies and hang out and laugh a lot
-went to dinner early, circumventing most of the line and discovering the dual joys of having a wide selection of tables and discovering that there are sometimes pies for dessert. mourned lack of pudding, which was at lunch yesterday and we have failed to find again, although Jack and I make relgious pudding runs. laughed and laughed at truly offensive jokes.
-met some of orientation group to walk across cornfield and buy half-off pastries. not sure which part of that activity was better. plan to eat pastries for breakfast and thus avoid the long line and waking up before 9 associated with SAGA (the dining hall)
-went to hear Elaine Brown lecture. fell in love with Elaine Brown, figuratively. knew I was at Hampshire when things that would be considered incredibly liberal at home were the conservative things here, felt inspired for activism but totally overwhelmed. love my school more than you can imagine.
-returned to room, checked facebook, realized that a girl I had not yet met said she had a present for me. wandered over to merrill, discovered merrill is really twisted and confusing and impossible to navigate, found her room anyway, she gave me tea and we talked about kettles for a bit. love this school so very much.
-am now sitting in my own room, glad that the bass-blaring folks down the hall are quiet, cause I'm exhausted and might sleep when I finish typing this. ADORE my school.
-update 1:14 am: the bass-blarers didn't exactly stay quiet, but they were at least intermittent. Jack showed up for tea, and we talked for what I guess was 3 hours. Tea and talking is good, even when it's late at night and you're braindead.
Friday
-sat in some assembly about hampshire academics that I honestly do not remember
-broke off into tutorials, met my awesome two profs of said tutorial (which is just one of my four classes that has a different name because the prof is my advisor so QUIT ASKING ME) and discussed that book that we were all supposed to read and most people at least skimmed parts of and determined that none of us, including the profs, understands it but had a really cool discussion anyway that was really a discussion and not those high school things where the teacher tries to drag any sort of comment out of anyone while looking at the answers in front of her.
-stood in a long line to get lunch
-went to take a "student survey" for which I will be paid $50 and which consisted of me evaluating social dilemmas or something but it was multiple choice and I knew I was at Hampshire when the faculty dude giving us the survey was reading the required instructions and said "remain inside the ovals. I know this is Hampshire and that goes against our 'it's okay to go outside the lines' policy, but this is the last time you have to stay inside the lines. After this, you can go wherever you want."
-went to a program about sexual assualt that actually had really powerful amazing speakers and included actual discussion within an auditorium of over 400 students. got fodder for many future jokes about the word "consent"
-stood in a very long line for dinner then sat with some random folks to meet new people
-thought about going to the 80s dance being offered, until Jack from across the hall came by with a cold and I made him tea, and then Dulcey from next door said something about watching Harold and Maude, and the next thing I knew I was in some dude's room (still not sure who it was) watching Harold and Maude with a bunch of people, of whom I knew about half their names, and laughing and laughing. We were in the dude's room cause he had a double and we all had singles, so he had space for all of us.
-slept until my alarm went off and then it was
SATURDAY
-avoided the breakfast line by being late and sat with some random folks to meet new people
-met up with the orientation group to go watch PSAs made by the house interns to tell us about the rules and issues that might come up living in the dorms and whatnot. People who know what the DYC Rules Video at Blackstone was will have an idea of what was going on. Dakin House had the best video, I must say, but perhaps I'm biased.
-listened to "high on hampshire" presentation, which was about the use of substances at Hampshire
-sat in a circle on some sort of platform in the middle of a field with a random group of first years and older students to discuss something that happened last night that upset us in an angry fashion, not a scared or sad fashion, although there was a bit of sadness. Noticed how amazingly the older students discussed these things, had one of those "wow I am at Hampshire things are so different here" moments
-stood in the longest line yet for lunch
-decided not to go to the talk by the author of the book we had to read that we all at least skimmed but none of us liked, instead went to Jackson's mod with Jack and Sarah to watch queer movies and hang out and laugh a lot
-went to dinner early, circumventing most of the line and discovering the dual joys of having a wide selection of tables and discovering that there are sometimes pies for dessert. mourned lack of pudding, which was at lunch yesterday and we have failed to find again, although Jack and I make relgious pudding runs. laughed and laughed at truly offensive jokes.
-met some of orientation group to walk across cornfield and buy half-off pastries. not sure which part of that activity was better. plan to eat pastries for breakfast and thus avoid the long line and waking up before 9 associated with SAGA (the dining hall)
-went to hear Elaine Brown lecture. fell in love with Elaine Brown, figuratively. knew I was at Hampshire when things that would be considered incredibly liberal at home were the conservative things here, felt inspired for activism but totally overwhelmed. love my school more than you can imagine.
-returned to room, checked facebook, realized that a girl I had not yet met said she had a present for me. wandered over to merrill, discovered merrill is really twisted and confusing and impossible to navigate, found her room anyway, she gave me tea and we talked about kettles for a bit. love this school so very much.
-am now sitting in my own room, glad that the bass-blaring folks down the hall are quiet, cause I'm exhausted and might sleep when I finish typing this. ADORE my school.
-update 1:14 am: the bass-blarers didn't exactly stay quiet, but they were at least intermittent. Jack showed up for tea, and we talked for what I guess was 3 hours. Tea and talking is good, even when it's late at night and you're braindead.
Friday, September 01, 2006
Caring Is Creepy
Moved in to my beloved Hampshire yesterday, am in the process of meeting many fine and awesome people, doing all these orientation things, some sillier than others. Impatient cause I want classes to start, hungry. Going to correct that last one by getting some breakfast now.
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Winding Road
Boston is a pretty great city, but it's raining, so I'm in the hotel room looking outside, wishing it were prettier. Got in yesterday (after grueling terrible terrible car ride that made me miserable), ate food, knit (all that's left on my first mitten is the thumb... still have to make the second mitten, of course), slept. Woke up today, went and looked at Tufts for Travis, got superiority complex when they talked about "majors" and "requirements," went into downtown Boston, walked in rain, looked at gravestones, looked at buildings, decided it was too wet, came back to hotel, went to lunch, returned to hotel, internet.
A List of Books I Read This Summer, Just Because:
The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende
Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
The Gangster We Are All Looking for by le thi diem thuy
That last one's my summer reading assignment and in progress, the 3 before it rank among the best things I have read. Ever. Up there with the Color Purple and Dorian Gray and the Talented Mr Ripley. I wanted to read more, but I got distracted by other things.
A List of Books I Read This Summer, Just Because:
The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende
Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
The Gangster We Are All Looking for by le thi diem thuy
That last one's my summer reading assignment and in progress, the 3 before it rank among the best things I have read. Ever. Up there with the Color Purple and Dorian Gray and the Talented Mr Ripley. I wanted to read more, but I got distracted by other things.
Saturday, August 26, 2006
A Good Flying Bird
I'm now in New Jersey, I hate cars more with each passing day, I'm sleepy. Lexi's developed a strange love for repeating songs, I have nothing interesting to say.
A Hundred Miles of Bad Road
Guess what? The Maryland Welcome Center has wi-fi! So you get a very very exciting update to say "I'm in Maryland now, on my way to New Jersey, which is a stop along the week-long expedition to Hampshire-land."
Trains are still way better than cars. I'd rather be having a cup of Earl Grey and some chocolate cake than mineral water and a granola bar right now, let me tell you.
Trains are still way better than cars. I'd rather be having a cup of Earl Grey and some chocolate cake than mineral water and a granola bar right now, let me tell you.
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Leave it to Pro 7
To give me a solid laugh today. So Piff and I were baking some cookies and had the tv on in the background. Know what today's mid-afternoon docudrama theme was? Airports. So first some silly thing where some reporter went to Frankfurt and watched people cry as other people came and went and we rolled our eyes and laughed. Then, oh THEN came "We're a Happy Family," the docudrama that looks at some family's life. And you know what today's family was preparing for? Their daughter's return after 10 months in America as an exchange student. Oh, Piff and I laughed and laughed and laughed at these silly people, all setting up a brand-new television and cleverly hiding it under a flag, and making a big banner, and counting down the hours ("oh she's in Washington with her 7 hour layover now") and putting a frickin red carpet outside their door. And the little brother who saved his allowance for "weeks" to get €14 together to buy flowers. And how they went to the airport and rolled out their giant banner and put a bow on the dog and stood. And stood. And waited. And Piff and I laughed at them, and they waited, and then their daughter came home and looked sort of scared and then acted all excited. Her luggage got sent to Denmark, ha-ha. Then she came back to her house and was all "oh wow red carpet" and walked up to the door but she had no house key, so she had to wait for someone else to come let her in. Then she walked in and was all "Oh WOW it all looks so. . . same. Like it always did. Huh." And then she was too dumb to figure out the tv was under the flag and gosh this thing was funny.
Our cookies turned out okay, too, even if Piff breaks half of them in the process of getting them off the cookie sheet and on to the wire rack.
Don't you dare go getting ideas about a red carpet.
Our cookies turned out okay, too, even if Piff breaks half of them in the process of getting them off the cookie sheet and on to the wire rack.
Don't you dare go getting ideas about a red carpet.
Introducing the Amazing Rockethead
For comparison purposes, a picture of me from last August, and a picture of me from May:
I spent Monday packing. Packing. Lots of packing, totally all packed up now. And I did my Abmeldung from Augsburg and I cleaned a bit and that was Monday. Yesterday, I got out of bed early and went with my host mom and Anja and Nadja to look at pretty castles and prettier mountains. We were kind of bad about taking pictures, but that's why I have the joy of hyperlinks. We went to Neuschwanstein and chose to just look at the outside cause the website has better pictures of the inside than is worth paying money to see for real. Then we went off driving through the mountains and stopped at the Plannsee for a swim and there was a weird guy there who talked to us and we decided later that he must have been a mailman but it was good swimming and we built towers from the rocks. Then back in the car and we drove to Linderhof, which is a very very pretty baroque castle that is mini-Versailles because Ludwig II really really hearted Louis XIV really. Totally pretty pretty place that doesn't let you take pictures inside but you should check it out sometime. Then we had dinner at the little restaurant there and I had real German Käsespätzle for the last time for a while, I guess, but I can totally make my own Käsespätzle. Then we drove home and stopped to stand on a mountain for a bit and then kept driving home. Somehow, a day in the Alps was what I needed right now- a day to go sit in this giant dramatic landscape and have my giant dramatic thoughts, or be able to finally ignore them, because these mountains have been here for so long and will stay here for so long and we can build our castles and highways and ski slopes, but even our tallest towers barely change that horizon, great beasts poking jaggedly into the sky.
I have a lot of things to do today, I guess, which is why I am awake early, I suppose (it is probably just nerves, really, and maybe the heat a bit).
And since I was asked, no, I am not going to be in any shape to play a mandolin this Sunday (hopefully those skills will come back soon, though!) but if the Sparrows want to change their program to include Lord I Lift Your Name on High somewhere, I will totally teach you guys how to sing it in German. Cause my German church is getting pretty good at singing it in English, and it is only fair. I promised.
Herr dein Name sei erhöht
Herr ich singe dir zu Ehre
Danke, dass du in mir lebst
Danke für deine Erlösung
Du kamst vom Himmel hierher
Zeigst uns den Weg
Und du hast am Kreuz bezahlt
Für meine Schuld
Und sie legten dich ins Grab
Doch du stiegst zum Himmel auf
Herr dein Name sei erhöht
I spent Monday packing. Packing. Lots of packing, totally all packed up now. And I did my Abmeldung from Augsburg and I cleaned a bit and that was Monday. Yesterday, I got out of bed early and went with my host mom and Anja and Nadja to look at pretty castles and prettier mountains. We were kind of bad about taking pictures, but that's why I have the joy of hyperlinks. We went to Neuschwanstein and chose to just look at the outside cause the website has better pictures of the inside than is worth paying money to see for real. Then we went off driving through the mountains and stopped at the Plannsee for a swim and there was a weird guy there who talked to us and we decided later that he must have been a mailman but it was good swimming and we built towers from the rocks. Then back in the car and we drove to Linderhof, which is a very very pretty baroque castle that is mini-Versailles because Ludwig II really really hearted Louis XIV really. Totally pretty pretty place that doesn't let you take pictures inside but you should check it out sometime. Then we had dinner at the little restaurant there and I had real German Käsespätzle for the last time for a while, I guess, but I can totally make my own Käsespätzle. Then we drove home and stopped to stand on a mountain for a bit and then kept driving home. Somehow, a day in the Alps was what I needed right now- a day to go sit in this giant dramatic landscape and have my giant dramatic thoughts, or be able to finally ignore them, because these mountains have been here for so long and will stay here for so long and we can build our castles and highways and ski slopes, but even our tallest towers barely change that horizon, great beasts poking jaggedly into the sky.
I have a lot of things to do today, I guess, which is why I am awake early, I suppose (it is probably just nerves, really, and maybe the heat a bit).
And since I was asked, no, I am not going to be in any shape to play a mandolin this Sunday (hopefully those skills will come back soon, though!) but if the Sparrows want to change their program to include Lord I Lift Your Name on High somewhere, I will totally teach you guys how to sing it in German. Cause my German church is getting pretty good at singing it in English, and it is only fair. I promised.
Herr dein Name sei erhöht
Herr ich singe dir zu Ehre
Danke, dass du in mir lebst
Danke für deine Erlösung
Du kamst vom Himmel hierher
Zeigst uns den Weg
Und du hast am Kreuz bezahlt
Für meine Schuld
Und sie legten dich ins Grab
Doch du stiegst zum Himmel auf
Herr dein Name sei erhöht
Sunday, July 23, 2006
Put Your Records On
Goodness I <3 Jesus Christ Superstar. I mean really. Last night's performance suffered a teensy tiny bit from accent issues (Judas especially) but only a little bit really. Otherwise, it was beautifully done and the director added some nice little sub-sub-themes via costuming: Herod showed up in a bathrobe, hooked to an IV, surrounded by nurse-themed background dancers. Naturally, I assumed he had AIDS, which is equally morbid and hilarious. When Judas did his zombie bit at the end and danced around the cross, his backup dancers were dressed in American flag vests, leading me to the assumption that some sort of blame was being laid on the US, with which I am not at all okay. I guess Americans are the new Jews? Another detail of the crucifixtion scene involved a dude with a video camera all up in Jesus's face, and Anja told me she interpreted that as Mel Gibson, which made me laugh. The Sanhedrin lacked the crazy onion dome hats they have in the movie, but they had some major bling going on and I guess that's cool too. Pilate OWNED his role, and was apparently some sort of understudy cause the guy that was cast as Pilate died 2 weeks ago eeep!? Also I realized that I basically have JCSS memorized, which I am sure will come in handy one day.
So today was my last Sunday at church, and the Official end of Nadja's work, although she's spending another month in Augsburg to do an internship, but this means there were many sad goodbyes. I have a wonderful big photo collage and all these memories floating around now, and I'm really going to miss my German church. So many amazing people who took me right in to their midst this year and were all a huge part of making me feel so at home here in Germany. By the last song, Nadja and I were both crying, and neither of us is sure we really want to leave. After church came Sommerfest, where we migrated to the yard of St Max (since theirs is green) across the street and grilled and ate and hung out and played around and painted giant musical notes and there was water and then there was rain at exactly the time things were breaking up anyway but it was short-lived and did nothing to stop the heat. Sommerfest was probably the best way to end my Augsburg EMK experience, and as much as I look forward to being back at Trinity, I really do love my church here and saying good-bye is very difficult. And since the Germans were always wonderful and worked their way through songs in English, I promised to teach you guys some songs in German, even if it's just translations of the songs you already know. It's only fair, really.
I plan to spend tomorrow packing, and probably also remember to de-register from the city of Augsburg. Tuesday is a trip with Eva and Anja and Nadja to Neuschwannstein and maybe some other things, Wednesday is when my host parents head up to Berlin for a meeting and Piff has his choir concert, and Thursday is when I fly. Nowhere near enough time. Sigh.
So today was my last Sunday at church, and the Official end of Nadja's work, although she's spending another month in Augsburg to do an internship, but this means there were many sad goodbyes. I have a wonderful big photo collage and all these memories floating around now, and I'm really going to miss my German church. So many amazing people who took me right in to their midst this year and were all a huge part of making me feel so at home here in Germany. By the last song, Nadja and I were both crying, and neither of us is sure we really want to leave. After church came Sommerfest, where we migrated to the yard of St Max (since theirs is green) across the street and grilled and ate and hung out and played around and painted giant musical notes and there was water and then there was rain at exactly the time things were breaking up anyway but it was short-lived and did nothing to stop the heat. Sommerfest was probably the best way to end my Augsburg EMK experience, and as much as I look forward to being back at Trinity, I really do love my church here and saying good-bye is very difficult. And since the Germans were always wonderful and worked their way through songs in English, I promised to teach you guys some songs in German, even if it's just translations of the songs you already know. It's only fair, really.
I plan to spend tomorrow packing, and probably also remember to de-register from the city of Augsburg. Tuesday is a trip with Eva and Anja and Nadja to Neuschwannstein and maybe some other things, Wednesday is when my host parents head up to Berlin for a meeting and Piff has his choir concert, and Thursday is when I fly. Nowhere near enough time. Sigh.
Saturday, July 22, 2006
Oh, Right
I meant to update this thing, didn't I?
So first things first, I'll start with July 10th. I got up super-early and went to school and got on a bus and went to Nuremberg, where there is a museum about Nazis. The bus driver was an entertaining old man who told us that we are legally obligated to buckle our seatbelts, and that the police sometimes control this, and that they run into problems in that they stop the bus to control, only to realize that no one is legally obligated to have their seatbelt buckled while the bus is not moving. At the museum about the Nazis, we saw various exhibits about Nazis, and they had super-neat eyewitness interview things that made it much cooler- hearing old ladies talk about how they competed with their friends to see who could see the Führer the most in one summer when they were young is much more interesting than looking at some sign about the Führerkult. Also they had those fun anti-semite children's books like "How to Tell a Jewish Nose" and little children's anti-semite artwork and those make me giggle and also a little sad. Best quote of the museum (from an interview): "We didn't know where they were taking the Jews. I figured it was somewhere like Israel- somewhere for them to all live together, which would be better for them. Instead of just being bankers and captains of industry, they might have to sweep a street sometime, too." After looking at the depressing past all day, it was back on the bus, where our driver told us he never brings movies cause having to listen to a movie is the most boring terrible thing ever and then he told us to look for sheep in the clouds. I found no sheep, although I found some other things.
Then I guess I did less interesting things for a while? The Monday after that (the 17th), I went to Munich with my history class! Another day of getting up super-early to ride a train to meet Andre to drive to a place to get on another train except oops we got on the wrong train and then got off and had to wait for the next one and hahahaha. Then we walked around Munich and saw such important things as Where Kurt Eisner Died (there is a plaque with the outline of his body) and various important buildings, pictures of which live somewhere in the depths of Butterfly Paper. Then we had a quick Burger King lunch and then off to the Residence, where they had shiny shiny crown jewels of the Bavarian Royalty, and a few shoddily reconstructed rooms (here you see an artist's interpretation of what this room used to look like, and this original chair that we found in the attic I guess!). Then I took a more sensible train that took me straight home because that was sensible.
Tuesday was Let's-Go-Out-For-Dinner night with the host family (minus Piff plus Steffi and Nadja), and we realized we had a whole big pile of reasons to celebrate: Anja had finished her thesis, Philipp was back from America, Basti and Steffi were back from Egypt, Nadja and I are each leaving soon (okay this is not a celebratory reason) and Piff wasn't home (that one's celebratory though). It was a fancy Italian place in a courtyard and the appetizer involved recognizably whole squids, which grossed me and Nadja out, although playing with them was fun. Then I had a veal cordon bleu dealie that was really delicious, so thumbs up for Italian place in the courtyard!
Thursday Roo from Canada was in Munich so I went to Munich and hung out with him and his awesome mom! We looked at really really awesome art at the Pinakothek der Moderne (I am a little bit in love with and very scared of Hans Bellmer now) and walked around Munich (I pointed out important locations and only needed the map sometimes) and chilled at the Hofbräuhaus, which is a neat biergarten, and in general had a fun time. Roo took pictures, and he's flying back the day after me, so I'll hook you up some time in early August, I imagine.
Today is Jesus Christ Superstar at the open-air theatre in Augsburg, and tomorrow is Sommerfest at church, so I guess I'll have more Things To Tell You.
I know, I know, I said that I would quit
All right, I promise, no more after this
You don't know how I've tried
To forget what it was like
I remember now
Why they called it Thunderbird
Before you fall, you have to learn to crawl
You can't see heaven when you're standing tall
To get the whole sky
On the ground you have to lie
I know, I know, I said that I'd desist
All right, I promise, no more after this
Not to be what I was like
Not to soar across the sky
Spread my thunder wings and fly
So first things first, I'll start with July 10th. I got up super-early and went to school and got on a bus and went to Nuremberg, where there is a museum about Nazis. The bus driver was an entertaining old man who told us that we are legally obligated to buckle our seatbelts, and that the police sometimes control this, and that they run into problems in that they stop the bus to control, only to realize that no one is legally obligated to have their seatbelt buckled while the bus is not moving. At the museum about the Nazis, we saw various exhibits about Nazis, and they had super-neat eyewitness interview things that made it much cooler- hearing old ladies talk about how they competed with their friends to see who could see the Führer the most in one summer when they were young is much more interesting than looking at some sign about the Führerkult. Also they had those fun anti-semite children's books like "How to Tell a Jewish Nose" and little children's anti-semite artwork and those make me giggle and also a little sad. Best quote of the museum (from an interview): "We didn't know where they were taking the Jews. I figured it was somewhere like Israel- somewhere for them to all live together, which would be better for them. Instead of just being bankers and captains of industry, they might have to sweep a street sometime, too." After looking at the depressing past all day, it was back on the bus, where our driver told us he never brings movies cause having to listen to a movie is the most boring terrible thing ever and then he told us to look for sheep in the clouds. I found no sheep, although I found some other things.
Then I guess I did less interesting things for a while? The Monday after that (the 17th), I went to Munich with my history class! Another day of getting up super-early to ride a train to meet Andre to drive to a place to get on another train except oops we got on the wrong train and then got off and had to wait for the next one and hahahaha. Then we walked around Munich and saw such important things as Where Kurt Eisner Died (there is a plaque with the outline of his body) and various important buildings, pictures of which live somewhere in the depths of Butterfly Paper. Then we had a quick Burger King lunch and then off to the Residence, where they had shiny shiny crown jewels of the Bavarian Royalty, and a few shoddily reconstructed rooms (here you see an artist's interpretation of what this room used to look like, and this original chair that we found in the attic I guess!). Then I took a more sensible train that took me straight home because that was sensible.
Tuesday was Let's-Go-Out-For-Dinner night with the host family (minus Piff plus Steffi and Nadja), and we realized we had a whole big pile of reasons to celebrate: Anja had finished her thesis, Philipp was back from America, Basti and Steffi were back from Egypt, Nadja and I are each leaving soon (okay this is not a celebratory reason) and Piff wasn't home (that one's celebratory though). It was a fancy Italian place in a courtyard and the appetizer involved recognizably whole squids, which grossed me and Nadja out, although playing with them was fun. Then I had a veal cordon bleu dealie that was really delicious, so thumbs up for Italian place in the courtyard!
Thursday Roo from Canada was in Munich so I went to Munich and hung out with him and his awesome mom! We looked at really really awesome art at the Pinakothek der Moderne (I am a little bit in love with and very scared of Hans Bellmer now) and walked around Munich (I pointed out important locations and only needed the map sometimes) and chilled at the Hofbräuhaus, which is a neat biergarten, and in general had a fun time. Roo took pictures, and he's flying back the day after me, so I'll hook you up some time in early August, I imagine.
Today is Jesus Christ Superstar at the open-air theatre in Augsburg, and tomorrow is Sommerfest at church, so I guess I'll have more Things To Tell You.
I know, I know, I said that I would quit
All right, I promise, no more after this
You don't know how I've tried
To forget what it was like
I remember now
Why they called it Thunderbird
Before you fall, you have to learn to crawl
You can't see heaven when you're standing tall
To get the whole sky
On the ground you have to lie
I know, I know, I said that I'd desist
All right, I promise, no more after this
Not to be what I was like
Not to soar across the sky
Spread my thunder wings and fly
Friday, July 14, 2006
My Current Project
Well, the wrongside of it at least (it looks pretty on the other side, I swear). Arthritis here I come.
(This and walking and drawing pictures is pretty much all I've been doing recently. Well, there was that trip to Nuremberg that was interesting. Wanna hear about it?)
Saturday, July 08, 2006
Wearing a Raincoat
Wearing a raincoat is flying around in a yellow rubber airplane made out of a raincoat. But if you think of that, you'll hurt your mind, and you'll need your mind for later on.
LEONARD BERNSTEIN!
5 July
Went to school for history and art. Picked up various studies and things from the year in art. Painted really cute picture. Promise to digitize it if somebody asks. Please ask. Portugal v. France, of course France wins. Alliteration.
6 July
Went to school to do Sozi Referat. Talked about immigrants and races and America. Went well. Came home, went to Gerhard's work to help the interns translate a thing about coating the emission material on some part of a lamp or something, discover special Osram words that nobody else in the whole world knows, discover that this sort of translating is hard, but boys are nice and not too bad. Get super sweet Osram swag. Really sweet.
7 July
Skip school, sleep a lot. A lot. Rain, gray, do nothing of interest. Miss pretty weather for going outside.
8 July
Today. Philipp home. Germany to play Portugal. Hope Germany wins. Can't write complete sentences. Update.
Went to school for history and art. Picked up various studies and things from the year in art. Painted really cute picture. Promise to digitize it if somebody asks. Please ask. Portugal v. France, of course France wins. Alliteration.
6 July
Went to school to do Sozi Referat. Talked about immigrants and races and America. Went well. Came home, went to Gerhard's work to help the interns translate a thing about coating the emission material on some part of a lamp or something, discover special Osram words that nobody else in the whole world knows, discover that this sort of translating is hard, but boys are nice and not too bad. Get super sweet Osram swag. Really sweet.
7 July
Skip school, sleep a lot. A lot. Rain, gray, do nothing of interest. Miss pretty weather for going outside.
8 July
Today. Philipp home. Germany to play Portugal. Hope Germany wins. Can't write complete sentences. Update.
Tuesday, July 04, 2006
I Think I'd Rather Spend the Day In Bed
"Kari, why don't you update with some sort of regularity anymore?" "Because I hate you all. Also my life is not that interesting, I swear."
26 June
Skip school, go to park and draw pictures instead.
27 June
Go to school, bored out of mind.
28 June
Skip school, visit Nordlingen, Heidenheim, Steiff museum, take pictures of churches.
29 June
Go to school, see duckies. Duckies are really really cute.
30 June
Skip school, Germany plays Argentina. 1-1 after overtime, Germany wins in the penalty shots, country explodes in joy, I cry a little. Get in car, go to cabin in the middle of nowhere with youth group (Piff "knew the way" so we of course got lost), roast sausages over fire, run around in the woods in the middle of the night in the pitchdark without a flashlight (but I did have those little glowstick thingies), watch boys build really big big fire, take lots of pictures, stare at stars, fall asleep.
1 July
Canada Day. Hang out in the sunshine, run around in the woods chasing Anja and Nadja and Jan except Jan hid himself somewhere and none of us could find him forever. Have water balloon fight that turned into water bucket fight because nobody likes waiting for water balloons to get filled. Dry out. Roast sausages over open fire. Roast marshmallows. Germans don't like marshmallows, sources say only Americans truly understand the wonders of a freshly roasted, gooey marshmallow. Play Wetten Das! with all sorts of crazy bets (including pajamas, cross-dressing, and hanging the clothes on our backs on a clothesline), win big. Make losing team run across big field to other house while singing songs about Germany becoming Weltmeister. Watch Truman Show. Watch boys build really really big big big fire (taller than Piff). Sleep.
2 July
Make paper boats, make storm to try to sink them. Hang out. Clean up. Hang out. Come home. Discover Hampshire orientation group is "Crafty Goodness and Exploration." Happy. Sleep.
3 July
Intend to go to school, oversleep, skip school. Go to park, draw pictures.
4 July
America Day. Skip school, make hot dogs. Think about going to park, drawing pictures.
Meta-note: I've gone and added Life Phases to my blog. Certain old entries now display a note "BEGIN LIFE PHASE ____" or "END LIFE PHASE ____." This stuff is probably more significant to me than you, but if you're curious how I sort my life (and it sorts into perfect periods of exactly 8 weeks), maybe you want to check this stuff out. Also you will probably see these sorts of notes popping up in future entries as phases begin and end.
26 June
Skip school, go to park and draw pictures instead.
27 June
Go to school, bored out of mind.
28 June
Skip school, visit Nordlingen, Heidenheim, Steiff museum, take pictures of churches.
29 June
Go to school, see duckies. Duckies are really really cute.
30 June
Skip school, Germany plays Argentina. 1-1 after overtime, Germany wins in the penalty shots, country explodes in joy, I cry a little. Get in car, go to cabin in the middle of nowhere with youth group (Piff "knew the way" so we of course got lost), roast sausages over fire, run around in the woods in the middle of the night in the pitchdark without a flashlight (but I did have those little glowstick thingies), watch boys build really big big fire, take lots of pictures, stare at stars, fall asleep.
1 July
Canada Day. Hang out in the sunshine, run around in the woods chasing Anja and Nadja and Jan except Jan hid himself somewhere and none of us could find him forever. Have water balloon fight that turned into water bucket fight because nobody likes waiting for water balloons to get filled. Dry out. Roast sausages over open fire. Roast marshmallows. Germans don't like marshmallows, sources say only Americans truly understand the wonders of a freshly roasted, gooey marshmallow. Play Wetten Das! with all sorts of crazy bets (including pajamas, cross-dressing, and hanging the clothes on our backs on a clothesline), win big. Make losing team run across big field to other house while singing songs about Germany becoming Weltmeister. Watch Truman Show. Watch boys build really really big big big fire (taller than Piff). Sleep.
2 July
Make paper boats, make storm to try to sink them. Hang out. Clean up. Hang out. Come home. Discover Hampshire orientation group is "Crafty Goodness and Exploration." Happy. Sleep.
3 July
Intend to go to school, oversleep, skip school. Go to park, draw pictures.
4 July
America Day. Skip school, make hot dogs. Think about going to park, drawing pictures.
Meta-note: I've gone and added Life Phases to my blog. Certain old entries now display a note "BEGIN LIFE PHASE ____" or "END LIFE PHASE ____." This stuff is probably more significant to me than you, but if you're curious how I sort my life (and it sorts into perfect periods of exactly 8 weeks), maybe you want to check this stuff out. Also you will probably see these sorts of notes popping up in future entries as phases begin and end.
Sunday, June 25, 2006
Swimming Around in a Lake of the Undead
I gots busy. Good thing I keep notes! Run-down of my life the past few weeks according to my planner:
6 June
Nothing.
7 June
Nothing.
8 June
Extend visa, catch fever, sleep and drink lots of fluids.
9 June
Pick up train tickets to Rome.
WELTMEISTERSCHAFT BEGINS!!!! GERMANY V. COSTA RICA 4-2 WHOOO!!!
10 June
Train to Rome: leave Augsburg 20:06, switch in Munich 21:03
11 June
Little brother's birthday.
Arrive in Rome 8:09. Meet Camilla at train station, breakfast at cute bakery, little tour of Rome (Piazza Navona, which has an awesome fountain, Campo di Fiori, Piazza Venezia), lunch with grandparents, Italian food is awesome, meet friend Adriana and go to Osservatoria di Monte and San Pietro, get pizza, go to concert, have trouble finding club for concert, get mini-pizzas to become a Real Roman, sleeeeeep.
12 June
Colosseum and ruins, Circo Massimo, Mouth of Truth, relax in park, gelato, WM FUSSBALL ITALY V GHANA ITALY WINS
13 June
San Luigi de Francese (awesome Carravaggio paintings), Pantheon, hang out in park, meet up with Dario and go to Gianicolo to see an awesome view, go to Olympic Stadium which is weird because of facism, dinner, watch Brazil v. Croatia, I hate Brazil, meet Camilla's uncle who was visiting
14 June
sightseeing: Piazza del Popolo, Via del Baubino (monkey street heehee), Piazza di Spagna, Trinita del Monti, Via Condotti, Fontana di Trevi, Quirinale, hang out with Camilla's friend Chicca who has access to tv in English!, giant dinner with 9 Italians who talk fast while Germany and Poland play a terrible game except then Germany got a goal in the 91st minute and won yay.
15 June
Meet another of Camilla's friends at Villa Borghese, hang out in pretty park, shop a little, it is HOT HOT HOT, come home to chill because of heat, make Adam give me play-by-play on England v. Trinidad and Tobago since I can't watch it, notice that Adam hates England, dinner with Camilla's grandparents delicious, watch last half of Paraguay v. Sweden which is yet another of those games where no one decided to score until the final minute (Sweden did), hang out with Camilla and her parents and talk about American history
16 June
Supposed to meet another Hampster (current student one year ahead of us) but can't find him on his cell phone, lazy lazy, see some churches and the river and stuff, go to party at Camilla's friend's house, thankful for the few people who can manage English conversations while drunk, want to speak German when drunk, go home and crash
17 June
Buy postcards and the like, be lazy, get train 21:55, Italy plays US, Italy sucks, final score 1-1 because US doesn't suck as badly as anticipated
18 June
Supposed to get into Augsburg 9:20, train is later than late, finally get back at 11 or so, come home, instead of dying, watch football. Croatia v. Japan is the worst game ever that ends 0-0 because Croatia and Japan are both terrible even though I had such hopes for Croatia after they held their own against Brazil. Brazil v. Australia, hate Brazil but Australia can't get a ball into an empty goal so no idea what to begin with this game. Father's day in US but not in Germany.
19 June
Forgot that my alarm clock lives in another time zone, overslept and missed German, not tragic. Discover I have no Reli, decide waiting nearly 2 hours for Bio is not worth it, so only a double-period of English. Read some sweet little story about an old-timey British boy's first girlfriend, doodle TMBG lyrics all over it. Realize that Germans don't quite get the meanings of deserve, impress. Decide to let it go. Spend newfound freetime planning Hampshire courses for next year, make lots of lists and point systems, have trouble committing, anyone who wants to help please e-mail me.
20 June
Arrive at school to find it covered in white curtains, loud music playing, people in Scrubs standing on roof talking into loudspeaker. Realize this is the famed Abistreik, something like a senior prank. Dance party without actual dancing instead of first 4 periods of school. Have to go to history, nobody pays attention. Have to go to Sozi, Herr Lang doesn't want to work either, discuss Abistreik, look at picture, have argument about whether "park bench" implies simply a certain type of bench, which may or may not be in a park, or a bench of any type that is in a park. Hitzefrei declared on a day we have no afternoon classes (Hitzefrei is when school is cancelled due to heat), go home, play around with courses more, do things on my to-do list but not actually able to check any of them off.
21 June
Too hot for anything, got a good grade on my painting in art, too hot to fall asleep in math even, trying hard not to work, just so so hot, mail postcards, Argie v. Holland, 0-0 because Argentina just played with all their substitutes and neither team really cared because they knew they were moving on to the eighth-finals. First day of summer.
22 June
Alarm didn't go off because I forgot to turn it on, skip school that was just Sozi Schulaufgabe, discover crazy racist ice cream that is delicious, have long discussion with host mom about racism
23 June
Train ran late, kind of paid attention in school but nothing interesting happend, decide to never go to German or Math again and so go home early, do nothing of terrible interest.
24 June
Start uploading pictures of Mary's visit to Butterfly Paper, Jugendrestaurant, in charge of dessert, make best darn mousse from the package ever, watch Germany v. Sweden, great game, 2 goals for Germany in first half, Sweden sucked. Back to kitchen, remain there for next few hours as Jugendrestaurant happens, clean up forever, watch Argie v. Mexico- tensest game ever, 1-1 after 10 minutes, then no more score for the rest of the game and then it had to go into overtime and I bit all of my fingernails off but then Argie scored at 98' and then life was good and the game ended and Argie won and now Argie's going up against Germany this Friday and Piff and I are probably going to kill each other.
25 June
Officially no longer under Experiment's control, which makes me happy. Still want money from them, will get some. Still uploading pictures, go look at them and enjoy and ask questions if you are confused. You can finally see what my amazing city looks like, and also what Munich looks like, and also what my hair has looked like since Berlin since I dyed it but after all the Berlin pictures were taken.
6 June
Nothing.
7 June
Nothing.
8 June
Extend visa, catch fever, sleep and drink lots of fluids.
9 June
Pick up train tickets to Rome.
WELTMEISTERSCHAFT BEGINS!!!! GERMANY V. COSTA RICA 4-2 WHOOO!!!
10 June
Train to Rome: leave Augsburg 20:06, switch in Munich 21:03
11 June
Little brother's birthday.
Arrive in Rome 8:09. Meet Camilla at train station, breakfast at cute bakery, little tour of Rome (Piazza Navona, which has an awesome fountain, Campo di Fiori, Piazza Venezia), lunch with grandparents, Italian food is awesome, meet friend Adriana and go to Osservatoria di Monte and San Pietro, get pizza, go to concert, have trouble finding club for concert, get mini-pizzas to become a Real Roman, sleeeeeep.
12 June
Colosseum and ruins, Circo Massimo, Mouth of Truth, relax in park, gelato, WM FUSSBALL ITALY V GHANA ITALY WINS
13 June
San Luigi de Francese (awesome Carravaggio paintings), Pantheon, hang out in park, meet up with Dario and go to Gianicolo to see an awesome view, go to Olympic Stadium which is weird because of facism, dinner, watch Brazil v. Croatia, I hate Brazil, meet Camilla's uncle who was visiting
14 June
sightseeing: Piazza del Popolo, Via del Baubino (monkey street heehee), Piazza di Spagna, Trinita del Monti, Via Condotti, Fontana di Trevi, Quirinale, hang out with Camilla's friend Chicca who has access to tv in English!, giant dinner with 9 Italians who talk fast while Germany and Poland play a terrible game except then Germany got a goal in the 91st minute and won yay.
15 June
Meet another of Camilla's friends at Villa Borghese, hang out in pretty park, shop a little, it is HOT HOT HOT, come home to chill because of heat, make Adam give me play-by-play on England v. Trinidad and Tobago since I can't watch it, notice that Adam hates England, dinner with Camilla's grandparents delicious, watch last half of Paraguay v. Sweden which is yet another of those games where no one decided to score until the final minute (Sweden did), hang out with Camilla and her parents and talk about American history
16 June
Supposed to meet another Hampster (current student one year ahead of us) but can't find him on his cell phone, lazy lazy, see some churches and the river and stuff, go to party at Camilla's friend's house, thankful for the few people who can manage English conversations while drunk, want to speak German when drunk, go home and crash
17 June
Buy postcards and the like, be lazy, get train 21:55, Italy plays US, Italy sucks, final score 1-1 because US doesn't suck as badly as anticipated
18 June
Supposed to get into Augsburg 9:20, train is later than late, finally get back at 11 or so, come home, instead of dying, watch football. Croatia v. Japan is the worst game ever that ends 0-0 because Croatia and Japan are both terrible even though I had such hopes for Croatia after they held their own against Brazil. Brazil v. Australia, hate Brazil but Australia can't get a ball into an empty goal so no idea what to begin with this game. Father's day in US but not in Germany.
19 June
Forgot that my alarm clock lives in another time zone, overslept and missed German, not tragic. Discover I have no Reli, decide waiting nearly 2 hours for Bio is not worth it, so only a double-period of English. Read some sweet little story about an old-timey British boy's first girlfriend, doodle TMBG lyrics all over it. Realize that Germans don't quite get the meanings of deserve, impress. Decide to let it go. Spend newfound freetime planning Hampshire courses for next year, make lots of lists and point systems, have trouble committing, anyone who wants to help please e-mail me.
20 June
Arrive at school to find it covered in white curtains, loud music playing, people in Scrubs standing on roof talking into loudspeaker. Realize this is the famed Abistreik, something like a senior prank. Dance party without actual dancing instead of first 4 periods of school. Have to go to history, nobody pays attention. Have to go to Sozi, Herr Lang doesn't want to work either, discuss Abistreik, look at picture, have argument about whether "park bench" implies simply a certain type of bench, which may or may not be in a park, or a bench of any type that is in a park. Hitzefrei declared on a day we have no afternoon classes (Hitzefrei is when school is cancelled due to heat), go home, play around with courses more, do things on my to-do list but not actually able to check any of them off.
21 June
Too hot for anything, got a good grade on my painting in art, too hot to fall asleep in math even, trying hard not to work, just so so hot, mail postcards, Argie v. Holland, 0-0 because Argentina just played with all their substitutes and neither team really cared because they knew they were moving on to the eighth-finals. First day of summer.
22 June
Alarm didn't go off because I forgot to turn it on, skip school that was just Sozi Schulaufgabe, discover crazy racist ice cream that is delicious, have long discussion with host mom about racism
23 June
Train ran late, kind of paid attention in school but nothing interesting happend, decide to never go to German or Math again and so go home early, do nothing of terrible interest.
24 June
Start uploading pictures of Mary's visit to Butterfly Paper, Jugendrestaurant, in charge of dessert, make best darn mousse from the package ever, watch Germany v. Sweden, great game, 2 goals for Germany in first half, Sweden sucked. Back to kitchen, remain there for next few hours as Jugendrestaurant happens, clean up forever, watch Argie v. Mexico- tensest game ever, 1-1 after 10 minutes, then no more score for the rest of the game and then it had to go into overtime and I bit all of my fingernails off but then Argie scored at 98' and then life was good and the game ended and Argie won and now Argie's going up against Germany this Friday and Piff and I are probably going to kill each other.
25 June
Officially no longer under Experiment's control, which makes me happy. Still want money from them, will get some. Still uploading pictures, go look at them and enjoy and ask questions if you are confused. You can finally see what my amazing city looks like, and also what Munich looks like, and also what my hair has looked like since Berlin since I dyed it but after all the Berlin pictures were taken.
Monday, June 05, 2006
Alibis
Yes, winter has refused to release Germany from its bony clutch- it is still cold and gray here, making me pretty unhappy for a few days, but now I'm used to it.
Yes, you are whining because I haven't updated. Deal.
Hmm. . . went to the theatre Monday, saw Woyzeck, which is a classic German play about men peeing where they shouldn't, apparently. It was interesting. Spent the night at Berni's house, which mostly meant crashing in her brother's room, then waking up and eating breakfast and not having to walk to school for once, which is nice! History was pretty cool on Tuesday- we talked about Marxism and I stayed awake for the entirety of that topic, which is quite an accomplishment for me. It also marked the second day in a row that one of my teachers was all "Communism and Christianity are basically the same idea," which everyone knows already because duh and Shaw. (Confused? Grab a copy of Androcles and the Lion from your local library and read the prologue.) We spent Sozi whining about how the Berlin trip planned for next September has to be either moved or cancelled due to some teachers whining. At some point, Herr Lang said "Well, the sex change process takes longer than 6 months, so you're out of luck," which I wrote down. Don't remember the context on that one. Wednesday was art exam- went to school, had Reli, remembered that there are parts of Job (bibical) that are actually cool, went to Art, painted awesome awesome picture of girls swimming in bottle cap- a hope for the summer that will one day come. Even if I have to move to the Southern Hemisphere come November, I am getting summer this year. English was pretty enterating on Wednesday- I have the quote "An increasing number of officers who are out have had a very good experience in the navy." written down, and a note that we played Homos through History by speculating about Alexander the Great and Shakespeare. Not exactly revolutionary, but I got a chuckle out of the fact that no one else seemed to know these things. Thursday. I don't remember much about Thursday. I have the folowing quote written down from Sozi: "Anyone know they'll be busy 14-15 December? Mom's birthday? Grandma's? Someone's funeral?" Also, I apparently stayed awake in history, although I did not absorb a single fact. I had all of 2 periods on Friday- there was a chemistry exam that meant I had no Bio, there was no math, and I skipped German because there is no reason to wait 3 hours to go to one of my more pointless classes. So got up, went to history, where we apparently listed every single labor union in the history of Germany for the whole class. I slept. English was more time-wasting- we discussed some literary text, and by "we" I mean "people that are not me" and by discuss I mean "half-answer boring questions while reading the text line-for-line while Kari doodles They Might Be Giants lyrics all over her paper instead of paying attention." After that, I went home and uploaded pictures for a while- Picasa's being all flickery, so it's taking forever, but Berlin pictures are slowly filling Butterfly Paper. That night was lock-in at church, where we built rockets and watched Spiderman and played games and did not sleep. Got up next morning, drove to field in the middle of nowhere (Piff got almost lost on the way), sent our rockets into the sky all fizzzzzzzzzz boooom whooooooooosh booooooom fall down chase through long grass and wildflowers. I just like hanging out in fields full of wildflowers, really. Was half-asleep the rest of that day, stayed up kinda late anyway, went to church Sunday, turns out wearing red isn't a Pentecost requirement in Germany, had Communion and it was the very same service of word and table as in America, just in German, which made me super-super happy. I really wish the Germans would do Communion with some sort of frequency, because I miss it. Went to the go-kart place that afternoon with the bros and go-karts sure are fun because zzzzzzoooooooooooooooom fast. I am stil sore but that's okay. Ummmm, not a whole lot more going on. Today is Ferien, and I'm off for two weeks! Woo Pentecost. Heading out bowling shortly, incredibly lazy today, need to do a bunch of things that I am happily ignoring.
I slept in today and woke up to a really great conversation, and I'm using the power of the internet to hook me up with a bunch of country music cause I'm in that sort of mood. A mood for bittersweet country love songs about people being far away.
UPDATE: Guess who won at bowling? Steffi's little sister Simone. We played 3 games and in the first two, Basti beat me by about 2 or 3 points each time- so just barely. Piff was farther ahead, in competition with Simone, Steffi fell in various places. Then Game Three. Final Scores: Simone: 125. Kari: 124. Piff: 121. Basti: 102. Steffi: something less. I BEAT THE BOYS. WHOOOOOOOOO. This is possibly the first time in my life I have beaten my brothers at bowling. Ha.
Yes, you are whining because I haven't updated. Deal.
Hmm. . . went to the theatre Monday, saw Woyzeck, which is a classic German play about men peeing where they shouldn't, apparently. It was interesting. Spent the night at Berni's house, which mostly meant crashing in her brother's room, then waking up and eating breakfast and not having to walk to school for once, which is nice! History was pretty cool on Tuesday- we talked about Marxism and I stayed awake for the entirety of that topic, which is quite an accomplishment for me. It also marked the second day in a row that one of my teachers was all "Communism and Christianity are basically the same idea," which everyone knows already because duh and Shaw. (Confused? Grab a copy of Androcles and the Lion from your local library and read the prologue.) We spent Sozi whining about how the Berlin trip planned for next September has to be either moved or cancelled due to some teachers whining. At some point, Herr Lang said "Well, the sex change process takes longer than 6 months, so you're out of luck," which I wrote down. Don't remember the context on that one. Wednesday was art exam- went to school, had Reli, remembered that there are parts of Job (bibical) that are actually cool, went to Art, painted awesome awesome picture of girls swimming in bottle cap- a hope for the summer that will one day come. Even if I have to move to the Southern Hemisphere come November, I am getting summer this year. English was pretty enterating on Wednesday- I have the quote "An increasing number of officers who are out have had a very good experience in the navy." written down, and a note that we played Homos through History by speculating about Alexander the Great and Shakespeare. Not exactly revolutionary, but I got a chuckle out of the fact that no one else seemed to know these things. Thursday. I don't remember much about Thursday. I have the folowing quote written down from Sozi: "Anyone know they'll be busy 14-15 December? Mom's birthday? Grandma's? Someone's funeral?" Also, I apparently stayed awake in history, although I did not absorb a single fact. I had all of 2 periods on Friday- there was a chemistry exam that meant I had no Bio, there was no math, and I skipped German because there is no reason to wait 3 hours to go to one of my more pointless classes. So got up, went to history, where we apparently listed every single labor union in the history of Germany for the whole class. I slept. English was more time-wasting- we discussed some literary text, and by "we" I mean "people that are not me" and by discuss I mean "half-answer boring questions while reading the text line-for-line while Kari doodles They Might Be Giants lyrics all over her paper instead of paying attention." After that, I went home and uploaded pictures for a while- Picasa's being all flickery, so it's taking forever, but Berlin pictures are slowly filling Butterfly Paper. That night was lock-in at church, where we built rockets and watched Spiderman and played games and did not sleep. Got up next morning, drove to field in the middle of nowhere (Piff got almost lost on the way), sent our rockets into the sky all fizzzzzzzzzz boooom whooooooooosh booooooom fall down chase through long grass and wildflowers. I just like hanging out in fields full of wildflowers, really. Was half-asleep the rest of that day, stayed up kinda late anyway, went to church Sunday, turns out wearing red isn't a Pentecost requirement in Germany, had Communion and it was the very same service of word and table as in America, just in German, which made me super-super happy. I really wish the Germans would do Communion with some sort of frequency, because I miss it. Went to the go-kart place that afternoon with the bros and go-karts sure are fun because zzzzzzoooooooooooooooom fast. I am stil sore but that's okay. Ummmm, not a whole lot more going on. Today is Ferien, and I'm off for two weeks! Woo Pentecost. Heading out bowling shortly, incredibly lazy today, need to do a bunch of things that I am happily ignoring.
I slept in today and woke up to a really great conversation, and I'm using the power of the internet to hook me up with a bunch of country music cause I'm in that sort of mood. A mood for bittersweet country love songs about people being far away.
UPDATE: Guess who won at bowling? Steffi's little sister Simone. We played 3 games and in the first two, Basti beat me by about 2 or 3 points each time- so just barely. Piff was farther ahead, in competition with Simone, Steffi fell in various places. Then Game Three. Final Scores: Simone: 125. Kari: 124. Piff: 121. Basti: 102. Steffi: something less. I BEAT THE BOYS. WHOOOOOOOOO. This is possibly the first time in my life I have beaten my brothers at bowling. Ha.
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