I Know

It's been 59 years since I've updated. Go watch the Olympics or something if you need entertainment.

I guess I never told you about Wednesday? My notes tell me I got up early and went to school, only to find out that my Reli teacher wasn't there, meaning I had second period free in addition to first, and could have slept in. I wasn't happy about that. In Bio, I had a giggle over the official-even-in-German scientific term "sticky ends." I wrote some things that were apparently funny from the lunch break down, but I don't find them funny anymore. I apparently spent the rest of the day analyzing the German educational system, noting that a 13/15 is basically a 99 in American terms, and that Germans still believe in the bell curve, which worries me. I hurried to get to the train station and did manage to catch the 4:40 train, and I went all the way to Augsburg to buy postcards for you, beloved readers. Watch your mailboxes sometime in the next few weeks. (If you wanted chocolates, you were supposed to e-mail me. You have a few days on that one.) I got home at 6:30 and prepared to collapse, which I did for some time. I drug myself out of bed at 1 in the morning to chat with other accepted Hampshire students, and it was a good time, despite the late hour. I got back to bed at 3, and was not particularly happy to get up at 7 the next morning, but 7 is better than 6. My notes for Thursday say I got to tell my whole Sozi class about how American college is super-expensive and they are NOT allowed to complain about paying €1000/year. We're doing a random debate unit in English, and I have a lovely quote from the anti-television side: "You know, think of all those hours people spend in front of the tv. Imagine how much money they'd make if they spent those hours working!" So, couch potatoes, you heard the man. Get another job. History is currently devoted almost entirely to gay Nazi conspiracy theories, so it's fun. Also, although I have no idea what the context is, I have the sentence "One option would be January 33rd" written in my notebook. That night, Piff and Basti and Basti's friend Daniel and I went to see Michael Mittermeyer, who is basically the funniest comedian Germany has to offer. I laughed extra-hard when he made fun of Americans, and the whole show was simply hi-larious. I'm glad, because a lot of German humor is, frankly, lacking. I got home at midnight and dropped right off to sleep, glad that I got to sleep in until 7:30 on Friday, because it was Field Trip day. I went to the Hochzoll Bahnhof, where I was supposed to be meeting my class, at 8:22, waiting for their train to come at 8:24 so we could get on a train together and go to Munich. Well, no train full of class. I waited. I watched the train to Munich leave. I kept waiting. Finally, I gave up and went home, where I found someone's cell number and called to ask what was up. As it happened, in the time it had taken me to get home, they'd made it to Hochzoll, and my host mom drove me back to meet up with them. We waited for the next train to Munich and then took the U-Bahn to the Ministry of Science or Whatever, and the U-Bahn adventures reminded me of Mid-Year, except there were only 19 of us this time. The Ministry was boring for a while while some bureaucrat talked about his law for higher education reform or something, but they gave us ham rolls as soon as we got there, so I thought that was pretty classy. After lunch, a bureaucrat who used to be a teacher started talking to us about how Bavaria's state government is set up, and it was vaguely interesting, but after a year of Mr Cox's first-hand experience, I always felt kind of ripped off when this poor guy had to give us third- or fourth-hand accounts. Bureaucrats in general do not give nearly as interesting presentations as real politicians, I noticed. But, hey, we had snacks and free lunch, and that's pretty cool. We also toured the Bavarian State Capital Whatever Building, which is only 4 meters shorter than the White House, by which I mean it is totally pretentious and not at all practical. We got to sit at the table where all the ministers meet weekly, though, which I guess was supposed to be exciting. I got home at 5, I think, and went to church about an hour later for youth group's re-showing of the UFO video plus special outtakes. So kind of like a DVD release party, if we had a DVD. And I made Philipp come pick me up when we were done, so he missed the first half-hour of the Olympics, about which he is still naturally upset. At 10 pm on Friday, DYC called me! I was very happy to talk to everyone, although I am still quite convinced that I didn't get to talk to everyone (I can't tell you who I didn't talk to, but there was someone) and some people don't talk long enough, but Pat and Betty talked forever and made up for it- I really miss them (also the rest of you!). I went to bed after that phone call, and finally got to sleep in Saturday, and went to Gabi and Markus's wedding at church, and I don't have any fun weekend stories. Sorry. I am resting.

And watching the Olympics. There's a naturally sad tone in the house that we didn't win the men's 15+15k skiing thing just now (did you guys see the #4 dude totally fall at the beginning and break his ski, then have to start like 30 seconds later, but end up getting silver? That was crazy!), but I am gloating a bit about the US's superior snowboard half-pipe skills. Because the US really sucks at the Winter Olympics otherwise, you have to admit.