Where To Begin?

Thursday, I guess?

It was warm (okay, it was like 4, but that felt pretty warm) and the sun was out, in spite of the giant puddles all over the place. My walk to school was pleasant. I stopped by the bakery. I dawdled. Thursdays are like that. Then I got to school, opened the door to the K12 room, and discovered a river gushing from the ceiling into a trashcan. I closed the door again, looked around, and noted multiple leaks over trash cans. Fortunately, some classmates appeared, and we huddled to one side as men came and started taking the K12 ceiling apart and bringing ladders in and doing arcane things. My school is pretty ghetto, apparently. With our room out of order, we in the 12th grade took refuge in the library, which lacks couches. Sozi's highlight was watching the men on the roof outside the window, apparently digging a canal over the K12 room. English bored me to death, according to my notes, and then I decided that the totally dripping school was far too dangerous and that it was far too beautiful outside, so I went home. The fields between Aichach and Hochzoll are now crossed with rivers and dotted with lakes that weren't there last week. It's quite silly.
It was raining when I left the house on Friday, but the sun was out by the time I got to school, and the only note I have from school Friday is that the K12 room (now dry) really stank from being all wet. I got to leave early again because it was Report Card Day, and since I don't get one, I could skip the assembly where they were being passed out. Whoo!
Came home, chilled out, around 5, Anja called to get Philipp to get drinks for her, and we decided that I should go ahead to her then instead of someone having to drive me again. So Philipp and I went to the drink mart and, of course, neither of us had a euro for the cart deposit, proving that Germany is waaaaay too untrustworthy. (See, you have to put a euro coin in the slot on the cart to disconnect it from the other carts, and you only get your euro back when you return the cart to its proper place. Not so bad, unless you don't have a euro. Cases of drinks are heavy.) We perservered and went to Anja, where we drug the cases of water and juice and all my junk up in the tiny tiny tiny elevator (I hate that elevator) and then Anja and I played computer games until other people started showing up. It was Mädelsabend, of course, and so Franzi and Janika and Lea and Nadja all came and we immediately hit the kitchen, because we were hungry. We made some sort of delicious cheese-and-vegetable-based-thing-that-melts-on-bread and fruit salad and we also made lots of face masks, but those become important later. Post-dinner was Henna Time, during which we attempted to decorate ourselves with the henna Nadja bought. The package said to add black tea and mix until it was a consistency between toothpaste and mustard. Turns out that no one is entirely certain what that means, and I think we used way too little tea (which I said then, but no one believed me). Anyway, I used my crafty skills to cut the corner off a bag and use that to put henna on Nadja's arm, but it turns out that this method means you either get watery junk or thick paste, neither of which you want. Franzi was trying the paintbrush, and had no better results, so I felt better. I did smear a design across Nadja's arm, and other people got all decorated, but the end result was that Franzi's body markers (yes, such a thing exists) were way more useful and actually remained on the skin, unlike the henna. After that failed experiment, we decided the best thing to do would be to cover our faces in honey and eggs, so we did. People say that's good for your skin? I proved to be the only person who can have someone paint honey/eggs onto my face with a kitchen brush without cracking up. I consider this a skill. Of course, we ended up with sticky in our hair, and that was less pleasant. I'm fairly certain we then decided to point our now-amazing faces at the tv for a while, and we watched Love Actually in German and it was wonderful and we smiled and awwwed and sniffled at all the right places. Then came the cucumber-quark masks, from which experience there are apparently many entertaining pictures. Nadja promised to send them to me, so we'll see. [I went and ate dinner just now, so I've lost my train of thought entirely. New paragraph!]
By then it was getting quite late and things start blurring. We watched Save the Last Dance. Lea went home. We had something like smoothies. Franzi and Janika gave themselves trashy drag queen/five cent whore make-up (bright red lipstick, blue eyeshadow to the eyebrow, giant eyebrow pencil beauty marks, etc). We discovered that I hadn't brought a sleeping bag, although I was incredibly certain that I had. I borrowed Anja's. I guess it was around 4 when we finally got to bed? People say Nadja's handy went off at 6, and that's likely. Franzi and Lea were sleeping in the living room (Nadja, Anja, and I in Anja's room) and woke up at 9:30 or so. Within the next half-hour, we older, sensible people awoke (rather against our will- the phone rang once or twice) (it should be noted that this is about what time I get up on a totally normal Saturday) and we had breakfast and cleaned up a bit and there was some strange motorized spinning ball? It's impossible to explain, but it dominated our morning. Franzi and Janika's parents came, and I got Piff (the only boy up at home) to come pick me and Anja up (it being Basti's birthday and all) and came home and showered and I think I'm going to end this sentence now. There was Basti's Birthday Lunch, and then Basti's Birthday Afternoon Tea and Cake, where things got stranger. As we were chilling, enjoying the delicious cake Steffi had made (although Steffi was not yet there), Philipp suddenly looked strange and then had a random and fully unexpected seizure. (Before you freak out, he is fine now.) See, two years ago, he had a burst blood vessel in his brain (is that what it's called in English? "Brain hemorrhage" sounds entirely wrong.) and, according to the doctor that came with the ambulance (an English word for Notarzt would be nice), this sort of thing is relatively normal, but no one bothered to say that two years ago. So, you know, we were surprised. Ambulance came, things were crazy. Philipp remembers nothing of this. Ambulance left, my host parents packed things for Philipp and left, Basti and Steffi and Piff and Anja and I played the Autobahn game (you get cards, you build roads, it's fun) and the "Who Am I?" question-based game (me and Piff and Anja v. Basti and Steffi; they complained that people we picked, such as Red Riding Hood, were too difficult). Eventually, Basti and Steffi left and Piff and I settled down to watch the Olympics, and then my host parents called and said that since they needed to stay with Philipp at the hospital, two of us should go to the theatre in their place. To a play starting in one half-hour. Piff claimed that he needed to stay home and figure out the details of going snowboarding with his friends Sunday (today), so Anja and I headed off downtown with tickets to a play we had never heard of. It turned out to be a really funny play about late30somethings at Christmas, people who are starting to wonder if their marriage works and if they've made the right choices. Also a really funny puppet version of the three little pigs. It was great, which was a pleasant surprise. Of course, it lasted until 10:30, and since Anja and I had been up until 4 am the night before, we were happy to get home (Anja dropped me off and then took Basti's car and drove herself home). Host parents were back and reported that Philipp was doing okay and being kept overnight but should come home in the morning, and I collapsed into bed.
Fortunately, church was later this morning (11) because of the Magic Worship Service. I woke up around 9 or 9:30 and moved slowly into my day. My host dad came home with Philipp at 10:30 or so, and dropped him off, and then we went on to church (my host mom staying home so someone would be with Philipp, since Basti was at Steffi's and Piff was snowboarding). So what is a Magic Worship Service? First, it's a bad translation on my part. Second, it's an awesome magician doing magic tricks and throwing in cool little messages. It was funny and lots of fun and we had lunch afterwards and I discovered that potato salad is the German version of macaroni and cheese- i.e. we had about 10 different kinds in the potluck sidedish smorgasbord. Also, I had veal? It was good. After lunch, the magician gave a little workshop for the youth group and I now have a length of rope to practice fancy knotting tricks on, and I know how to make a flat die (singular of dice here) and a few other fancy things. Heehee. Eventually got home, determined that Philipp is, indeed fine (well, he's not allowed to drive for a year), and Anja came over again and that meant more games! We (me, Anja, Philipp, my host mom) played Mahjong and it is not at all like the computer game but it's fun, even if I lost really, really terribly. This is what happens when Piff isn't here- I lose, and I can't comfort myself by being better than him. I started writing this blog, then it was dinnertime, I saw Germany win a gold medal (I think) and was most upset and Piff came home but then left to take Anja home and I think that brings us up to date.

Happy, Mary?