I am Waitin' Til I Don't Know When

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

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

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

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

That's me!

That's my house!

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

That's the bus stop!

That's the train station!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

That's What Friends Are For

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Remember, Food is Love.

He's Got the Whole World In His Hands

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

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

Blame it All on My Roots

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

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

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

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

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

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

Say What You Want

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

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

Do You Believe In Life After Love?

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

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

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

Let Me Be the First to Shake a Helping Hand

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

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

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

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

I Know That I Have to Go

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

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

I want to live at church, too.

I've Learned to Dream Without You

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

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

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

Put on My Blue Suede Shoes and I Boarded the Plane

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

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

I Love You More Than Life

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

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

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

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

Smell My Feet

We had trick-or-treaters, and I took a dark and mysterious photograph!

Trick-or-treaters are rare and special in Germany.

We're Gonna Party Hearty

Well, we did party pretty well, and I even remembered to take pictures! Aren't I so good to you? You do not want to know how long I had to fight with Photobucket to bring these pictures to you.

So I woke up and had breakfast and started making my blueberry muffins and then Miri came by and then Petra and then there were just people everywhere and we were cooking and setting up and it was chaotic and awesome. Rather than try to remember details in any decent order, I will simply show you the pictures and tell you about them (which I know is a huge deviation from my usual style, but you'll live through it):

So this is the table before anyone ate at it, and also before we managed to find enough chairs to put around it. If you look closely, you will see how awesome Petra is at putting fake flowers and leaves and candles places in a way that is really pretty to look at.

This is Petra making something or other- maybe it is potato salad? I don't know because we made so many things yesterday, but it looks a bit like potato salad, right?

Those are my blueberry muffins- don't they look great? They tasted very good, too, and were a huge hit with the Germans, who do not actually ever make muffins.

This is Miri showing us the recipe for the pasta salad that we (Miri and I) made- it was a pretty good pasta salad, if I may say so.

This is the pasta salad in progress. Just to prove that we made it ourselves.

This is Miri sitting rather satisfied after having mixed our pasta salad.

This is Jessica (Rosi's granddaughter) mixing the pasta salad. I also promise that it is the last picture about pasta salad.

This is a table full of German cake- don't they look delicious? Rosi's daughter Nicole made them, and I ate them with gusto.

This is Miri putting a cake on a doily, and Rosi maybe showing us how big something is?

I am like a walking H&M advertisement. And that little girl adores me.
Now comes a big huge shift in time to that evening!

Here are Michi and Gustav and Gabi and Rosi sitting all sociably on the couch, probably looking impatient because Norbert isn't back with the bread yet.

It is Petra and Miri and Ulla and a large beer! Somebody must have said something entertaining, because they are all laughing.

Check out this sexy picture of the table. Enjoy my amazing photography. Be so jealous that you did not get to eat at this table.

Look at that buffet- doesn't it look so delicious? And that is hardly everything that we ate.

People immersed in conversation very late at night- here we see Gabi's hair, Hans-Werner, Christina, Martin, and Norbert.

Ulla, Michi, Christoph

Gustav and Rosi checking out the night's pictures

Miri and I are tired but adorable.

Cristoph, Gabi, Hans-Werner, Norbert's shoulder

Of course, we partied into the wee hours of the morning, and then I slept in very very late and hung out around the house and Miri and I went to see Flight Plan, which was a pretty awesome movie (just like Mary said it would be).

Might as Well Jump. Jump!

Song of the day, thanks to Antennae Bayern's "Classic Rock Hit" Weekend, is Van Halen's "Jump," whose lyrics do not translate well to text at all.

"I promise you all the details you're used to sometime later tonight. . ." so that was sort of a lie, because it is now 10 the next morning- sorry about that.

So I stayed home from school to help Rosi with shopping and we bought all sorts of things, many of which I have never seen before (I have officially picked out and bought a leek, and man those things are huge) and then we came home and started making a Tiramisu Torte and I left part way through because I had to catch a train to go to Augsburg with Miri, where we hung out and shopped (yes, I spent more money at H&M) and ate Döner and then I had a Mary Raines experience at the streetcar stop on the way home (ask Mary about waiting for buses if you are clueless) and it was pretty awesome- Miri is a great person to shop with and I got some great shirts for going out and a purse for going out and a watch because I've been needing a watch for quite some time. And I rode the train home without trouble all by myself and the we made a quiche (I think it will be a very good quiche, and I cooked the bacon and vegetables, including leeks, for it- the fancy French cheese that we bought for our quiche was so amazing, too) and then we made dinner- ground pork patties that the Germans call Frikadellen and potatoes and some other vegetable that I've never heard of, but was delicious. After dinner, I spent too long doing my hair to go to a Hallowe'en party with Miri, then I went up to Miri's house to finish getting ready and we were very fashionably late, which I don't think is fashionable in Germany, but it was okay cause the party was actually pretty lame. I did remember that Bavarian beer is way stronger than Kölsch, which will always be my favorite beer. Mostly I sat around somebody's apartment with people I don't know (also many people that Miri didn't know either) and discovered that Germans are terrible at karaoke if they don't know English that well, because most every song is too fast for them to read and sing at the same time. And not terrible in the funny way- terrible in the sitting there sorta silently for a while until the chorus comes, and then singing the bits that you know but still singing really quietly. Apparently, Bavarian beer does not make them better at karaoke. So Miri and I were the first to leave the party because we were bored and kaputt and I came home and thought about blogging, but I was kaputt and so I peeled off my party clothes and fell asleep. And now there is cooking going on and I need a shower (although I feel really weird since I just showered yesterday and normally I only shower every other day here because more often is really just excessive)

Also, if you were planning a European vacation, I should warn you that my school breaks are all different now, so you may need to change some things. The new times are as follows:
-January 1-5
-February 27-March 3
-April 10-22
-June 6-17
Also, if you would rather fly into Munich than Frankfurt, that would make it far easier for me to pick you up, since Munich is right there, and Frankfurt is 3 and a half hours away.

Sultans of Swing

Having realized that my recent song of the day mix is getting a little too "lite," I have today chosen a song that Antennae Bayern tells me is an "echter classic rock hit." (echt means real) Dire Straits is probably one of the most rocking bands I can think of, anyway.

Thursdays are nice because I get to sleep in and then I also get to come home from school after 6th period like a normal person. School itself wasn't too exciting, although I can finally say that I really did understand math and it has me so very excited. . . otherwise just Sozi and English and Latin, where the teacher left the 5 of us that were there to work on some poster- proof that Germans understand how to trust students and have no worries about saying "I'll be in the workroom if you need me" and then leaving.
We are planning what to make for Rosi's birthday party on Saturday, and it is looking complex. . . I may be sick tomorrow and unable to go to school on the final day before fall break, so that we can get the party all taken care of.

And I have nothing more to tell you. . . guess I was boring today.

You Fill My Heart With Gladness

Song of the day: Rod Stewart, "Have I Told You Lately That I Love You?" Of course, I have told you recently and often how much I love German radio, but I'm still dedicating this one to the music that continues to steal my heart.

After a night spent in fascinating conversation around the kitchen table, I slept in this morning and Gabi (Miri and Michi's mom) drove me to school since we still aren't letting Rosi drive (for those of you concerned about her, she is doing pretty well, but I have to stop making her laugh so much because it hurts). So class started at 9:30 with Physics (I've given up understanding this one), then it was History, where I had trouble paying attention but I promise I will be better, because I want to make it my other LK, and then a little Pause and then two periods of Art, where people seem to think that I have incredible talent, but I think it is mostly that I like chalk and we are doing easy things like shading folds in cloth. It's encouraging to hear Zimmy congenially complain about how the exchange students are always really awesome artists, though. I really really do like chalk, too- I will have to get me some for artistic moments. Went to Berni's with Noiby and Zimmy and Jakob for lunch and met Berni's mom and brother and had noodle-cooking related adventures and also adventures of trying to get back to school on time and getting stuck behind a very very very old woman on a bicycle (we were in a car) and we ended up a minute or two late for German but it was no big deal. German was very boring, but it will be better when I finally get myself a copy of this silly play and read it (Schiller's Maria Stuart- even German plays are about British people, proving that England is the only place worthy of drama). Math LK and I feel like I'm totally understanding what is going on, although at a slower pace than everyone else. I am more confident in my mathing abilities now, though. Then it was on to English, where we discussed British social classes and I had no expertise to add to the conversation, so I didn't.
I am going to church tonight with Miri!

I Want to Stand With You on a Mountain

Savage Garden's "Truly Madly Deeply" wins the song of the day, beating out another song that, coincidentally, also used mountains as a metaphor or image or whatever.

So there was a gap in the blogs, and I'm sure you're all terrified that I fell into a German ditch, filled with strong Bavarian beer. This was not, however, the case. Instead, I was simply at another house, sleeping in another man's bed, drinking my morning tea from somebody else's cups.
I should go back to Sunday to explain this all, really. While I was still fast asleep in my own bed (I promise I will get up and go to church one of these weeks, really), Norbert and Rosi said goodbye to each other with an exuberant hug. Somehow, however, this hug triggered a strange cracking sound in Rosi's chest, which turned into an intense pain, so, sometime after I finished blogging on Sunday, after Miriam had come over, we sent Rosi to the doctor, and then we called Mike because we were bored. Talking to Mike is always fun, and we spoke English far too quickly for Miri, and we also tied up the phone line so Rosi couldn't call to say that her rib(s) was/were actually broken. She did manage to call the neighbor, however, who came over to let us know what was up, and we very quickly said goodbye to a mildly confused Mike and gathered things up to go to the hospital, where they decided it would be a good idea to keep Rosi for a few days. The hospital in Aichach is actually very terrible- the doctors and nurses aren't very friendly (even for Germans), but poor Rosi managed to survive there, although she is very happy to be home (I am also glad to have her back here). Of course, I didn't want to stay all by myself for however long the crazy hospital wanted to keep Rosi, so I went up to Miri's house, and her family is great and awesome (Miri's sister Michi is in my grade at school, so that made the whole getting to and from school thing easier, too) and I ate well and was made comfortable and happy and the cat even decided to like me. I'm glad to be back home, though, where things are quieter. And school is still school- no schedule, but that'll fall into place, and everyone is still really awesome- yesterday, I decided to take a free period instead of going to Berni's Religion class, and we (the other people with a free period and I) were bored, so we played musical chairs using someone's cell phone for music. This is pretty much proof that I have found the right school and the right group of people. I am also having a lot of fun in my English class, where the teacher, although teaching about America, knows nothing about America and can only make examples from England or from articles he read in the New York Times. I am being forced to explain a lot of things, and I hope I'm doing the country justice, not creating more of a problem. Otherwise, I am just chilling in most of my classes and trying very hard to understand what is going on- I think I understand the whole vector thing that they're doing in the math LK right now, but I still don't know what a vector is or why were are doing anything with them. If you know and want to tell me, I'd be most appreciative.

I promised you pictures, and I did get a few uploaded before things went crazy. I'll work on adding some more. . . in any case, all the pictures can be found at my Photobucket account (along with a lot of older, unrelated pictures). . . if you want an explanation of something specific, drop me a line in the usual ways and I'll try to clear things up for you. The pictures are basically in chronological order starting waaaay back in Tübingen, unless I go and take some more pictures and add them, which will ruin my chronology.

Why Do You Think We Should Suffer in Silence

Today's song of the day is yet another one of those awesome songs I've been meaning to honor for a long time- Robbie Williams with "Tripping," which, like yesterday's song, no American has ever heard even though it is one of the most popular songs here and I love it. Robbie Williams himself is a giant giant superstar here, from England, but somehow has not managed to get his success across the ocean.

Shortly after I finished posting yesterday, Miriam showed up and we walked her dog together, then I went to her house, then I went with her into Aichach to a cafe called Othello for "coffee" with one of her friends (we did not actually have coffee, but Germans call getting together in the afternoon for some sort of drink and talking and hanging out "drinking coffee.") Then there was some discussion of going to some dance place in some village, but Miriam and I decided we didn't want to go, and Miriam came to my house for dinner instead- this wonderful amazing pork roast and these German dumpling things and it was all so delicious and Miriam is a really awesome person to hang out with- she chilled for a while after dinner with a glass of wine and some tv and it was a really nice, quiet evening, and I won't tell you how late I slept in today- I am very nicely rested, though, and I am not planning on doing much of anything today.

We also discovered that Rosi's camera's USB cord works with mine, so I'll get some pictures loaded for you guys.

Hoy mi amor esta di luto

Today's song of the day, or maybe it's really the song of the year, is Juanes's "La Camisa Negra." My readers still living in America have of course never heard this song, but I promise that it is really awesome and everyone in Germany is grooving to it pretty much all day long. Google tells me that it is about a guy who has a black shirt, but I think there is probably a deeper meaning that requires actual knowledge of Spanish.

Last night was pretty sweet- after eating a very fast and very delicious dinner, I hurried down to the train station to catch the train to Augsburg, but then Steffi got off the train and told me that the others were running late, so we needed to wait a bit. Soon, Maria and Vronni and Tie showed up in Maria's car, and we decided to drive into Augsburg instead of waiting half an hour for the next train. Maria had no clue where we were going, so there was lots of back-seat navigating going on. We made it, and managed to park (and I discovered that German parking garages have a whole floor reserved for women) and stopped by Burger King to let the people who were not as lucky as me get a quick and less delicious dinner, then it was on to the bowling alley, which was in the top floor of some mall-ish building. Got shoes and lane and had fewer bowling adventures than Allyson did in Berlin (you will have to ask Allyson for that story, I cannot do it justice) but still had fun- I managed one strike in our three games of the evening, and nevertheless bowled about an 80 each game, as did everyone else (excluding Tie, who is a boy and thus managed to be halfway good at bowling- his first 2 games were a little over 100, then in the last game he kept getting all these strikes and spares and we decided to hate him). We also had mediocre bowling alley pizza. Back into the car for more adventures going home (Maria still didn't know where we were going) and we stopped by Maria's house to pick up Vronni's car and then Steffi, Vronni and I went to check out the Orange Club, which just opened 2 or 3 weeks ago in Aichach. It was a pretty decent club- good music, lots of people (although I knew none of them), also nice looking. . . we hung out there trying to talk over the loud music and mostly failing until about midnight, then Vronni drove Steffi and I home and I peeled off my clothes that reeked of smoke and slept long and comfortably. This morning, Rosi and Norbert and I went into Augsburg to shop and discovered that the center of the city has been turned into a slope for snowboarders today, even though it is warm enough that I only need a jacket when the wind blows. It was pretty awesome to see random snowboarders, though, and we chilled at a cafe and had Wurst and then picked up some cake for this afternoon and some bread for tomorrow (where else but Germany can you get a loaf of fresh-baked, still warm bread for 99 cents?) and now I am home again and sleepy but very happy.

Since the World's Been Turning

It's a Billy Joel kind of day. . . and I'm picking "We Didn't Start the Fire" because I can, and also because we have been starting some fires in our fireplace recently to keep warm- brrr it is cold here when the sun isn't out!

Umm. . . after dinner, we fought with my handy for a while, only to determine that it is dead beyond our ability of revival, so then we fought with Rosi's handy for a while to figure out how to put it on silent so I could take it to school without worry of it ringing during class (since I no longer trust myself to be able to turn phones off and back on successfully). There were multiple phone calls to Norbert, but we eventually figured it out all by ourselves while watching the Horse Whisperer (I had completely forgotten that it was Scarlett Johansson in that movie, back before any of us knew who she was). I didn't bother to stay up to watch the end, and I still did not get enough sleep- I am tired today. Had to wake up at 6:15, and Steffi came at 7:05 to walk with me to the bus stop. Successfully rode school bus to school and chilled in the K12 room with Steffi and others who also had first period free. Then came English, in which I spent the class explaining the concept of neighborhoods and suburban life and the like, hopefully in an accurate way (it is actually really hard to do). Then that wonderful thing the Germans call Pause, then a period of Bio (I totally remember the stuff we're discussing AND I understand it- yay Gregor Mendel!) and then Physics (no hope here) and then Pause (socialization is very good, especially when there are couches to sit on) and then Math (I switched to the basic class instead of Berni's LK, and I understood something like half of what we were doing- I have definitely figured out that I never learned this stuff in America, so they're a bit ahead of me (apparently the opposite of everyone else's math class experience), but it doesn't actually look hard, once I figure out what these formulas are that they're using and why they are using them. Then came German, in which everyone else took a test on something that I haven't read, and I read Dorian Gray, skipping most of chapter 11, which is 20 pages of Oscar Wilde showing off his knowledge of dubious Renaissance trivia. I'm into the last third of the book, though, when the chapters get short and full of excitement, and I've completely stopped using the dictionary- I may not know every word that I read, but I totally understand everything that's going on, and I'm still picking up on a lot of the symbolism and whatnot. Anyway, rode the bus home with Steffi and Rosi's still out- she had Spanish class this morning and some other errands to run, so I am home alone and was going to upload some pictures for you, but I can't find my USB cord, and the computer doesn't have a DVD drive. I am going to keep searching, but I don't know what I can promise you at the moment.

Addendum 4:58: still no USB cord luck, sorry guys. Rosi came home with cake and then Steffi popped by to invite me bowling this evening (yay!) and then Miria showed up shortly thereafter to see if I wanted to do something, and I promised her that we will get together on a night when I am not bowling, and then she hung out and talked with us for a while and Norbert arrived and it's all busy here now. And I'm going bowling! I am very excited- it will be oh-so-much fun.

Your One Desire

In honor of their current German tour, the Backstreet Boys get today's song of the day (having won a tough fight) with "I Want it That Way."

School: got there early because Rosi had a hair appointment and chilled in the K12 room with the newspaper and the iPod and the few other stragglers with free periods and nowhere better to go. Berni was late, so I went to Geography with Steffi (who also lives in Obergriesbach), only to discover that I missed Sozi, where they discussed American elections and were very upset that I wasn't there. Norby spent a good portion of the Pause begging me to never miss another Sozi lesson. Then it was English, where they're discussing gated commmunities, and it's pretty interesting, although they're working entirely from one New York Times article with a negative and incomplete picture- I get to set the record straight tomorrow. Then math, where we discussed vectors and I maybe understood a lot more, although I still don't know what a vector is or why we want to do math with them, or how exactly we do math with something that's just a letter and a line- I thought that numbers were sort of necessary, but maybe not. Then it was Latin, which is really boring for me and I am not going to it tomorrow. And that was it for school today- the others had Sport later, but I decided to simply go home instead of trying to find lunch and/or worry about being back at school at whatever time Sport is. I discussed the whole schedule thing with Berni and Steffi and Norby and some other people and we bascially have my whole schedule planned, although we aren't sure if I want Art or History as my other LK (I'm leaning toward history)- now if I could just figure out who's in charge of giving me an official schedule, although I'll probably get myself into the necessary classes all by myself before the official thing works out. There's not a ton of choice- two LKs (English and History or Art), German, a choice of Sozi, Geography, or Econ (definitely Sozi), a choice of Biology, Chemistry, or Physics (I need two of them, and I know I can't do Physics, so that's an easy enough decision), a choice of Art or Music (already made- art), Religion, and Sport give me 30 hours. So now I'll work on figuring out who I follow into those classes and when, and I'll be set.
There was a minor crisis after school- my handy refused to turn on for reasons still unknown, so I couldn't call Rosi to tell her I was done. I made my way into the office and the secretary, after calling the other secretary, managed to find Rosi's number (good thing the school had it, since I don't know it and it is saved in my non-working phone) and I got in touch with her, but there were a few moments of panic. All worked out, and we had to go get the winter tires for the car in case we wake up with snow on the ground and then we stopped by the store for dinner fixings and pastries, which made our late lunch. Then I pulled out all my pictures and huge books of signatures and memories and we spent hours going through them looking at everything and I remembered how much I love you guys and how much I miss you (I like the German expression better- Ihr fehlt mich- it literally means that you are missing from me, that I'm incomplete without you). I need to get some of those pictures hanging on the wall. Send me e-mails and leave me comments- you've all gotten pretty bad at that, and I need to know what is going on with you as much as you want to know all of the mundane details of my life.
We're making steaks and potato skins tonight. Maybe not healthy, but I promise that I am drinking my orange juice and Rosi keeps telling me that I need to eat more fruit. . . but homemade potato skins! We even found cheddar cheese, although it is white cheddar and comes from Ireland, so it will probably not be quite the same.

I Don't Have a Song for Today

I mean, I could always just pick "Wake Me Up When September Ends," but I'd get kicked out of the indie club for picking Green Day, and I'm saving that one for a future month, one less close to September. November's song is also already picked out, and will remain a secret until then. So today I slack off and give you no song, mainly because the breakfast music selection provided no song, and I haven't had time for radio otherwise.

I watched way too much tv yesterday, which included the discovery of "Die Gerichts Medizinerin-" it is basically CSI based in Munich with the German Angela Lansbury, except that she is all full of sass and dialect (yay Bayrisch) and it's a pretty awesome show. No Numb3rs, but about as good as German tv can get.
Today: slept in-ish because I didn't have a first period, then went to school in the freezing cold (it was 0 when I got out of bed) and had Religion (Catholic, and a class I'll be dropping out of sheer boredom), Physics (sort of understood it, actually), History (actual German history- score!), then a double block of Art (one period of someone's presentation on Gustav Klimt, then a period of playing with chalk and light and shading). So that gets me through 6 periods, end of the day, right? No. It was, however, time for lunch, and Berni had some sort of meeting, so I went to some little German lunch counter thing with 3 of the guys (terrible taste in music, but boy cars smell good) and had a Schnitzel Sandwich. And then we went back to school to chill in our little K12 room with half the 12th grade (the whole class has 55 people, including me) until it was time for German- I love my German teacher, he is the funniest man with his thick accent and curly pageboy haircut and jovial manner. And Goethe is fascinating, no matter what my classmates say. Of course, then it was time for math, and I can confidently report that I still understand nothing. They start out with some totally normal parabola that I recognize, and then they start doing equations with more letters than numbers that are apparently just to find out perfectly ordinary things about said parabola, but I'm not certain because I have no clue what half the words these people say mean. I don't think I'll be staying in this math class. Then I dropped myself into the English LK (not that I have a schedule anyway, so I'm sort of making things up) and the English teacher is really nice, but they spent the class discussing their Senior Trip to be taken next year, the details of which are causing conflict, instead of doing English work. On to Biology, which is actually a nice class when not taught by Mrs Legard, the demonspawn that I had in America. The first half of class was still devoted to Senior Trip discussion, but then we focused on human gamede reproduction (how people make sperm and eggs), which I halfway remember (this is good) and which, fortunately, pretty much always uses the same Latin words for just about everything, so I can understand it without trouble.
Then it was 5, and school was finally over. I had 8 classes today, and was at school for about 9 hours (minus lunch break), but it didn't feel that long. There's a lot to be said for maintaining the 45 minute class- it is seriously much less draining than doing the same thing for an hour and a half. Not to mention the long, frequent breaks that Germans are accustomed to.
I like my new school a lot.
We are building a car port in the driveway to try to prevent freezing of the car in the morning. Wish us luck.

Love is a Battlefield

You know it is. Unless, of course, your love is German radio, in which case it's pretty much all sunshine and lollipops and Pat Benatar.

Yesterday afternoon, we ended up heading back into Aichach to pick up Rosi's ring from the jeweler, and of course we couldn't leave without stopping by the shoe store and then the cute little café for hot chocolate and Schwarzwälderkirschtorte (I think Donauwelle is still my favorite German cake, though). And we finally wandered home to hang out and read and watch tv (I've become addicted to Numb3rs here, so you know where you'll find me every Monday at 9:10 pm- do you know that German tv stations start programs whenever they want, not just on the hour or half-hour? Prime-time actually begins at 8:15 here) and I went to bed relatively early so I could get up for school. It was so cold this morning- 1.5 degrees! We had to scrape ice off the windshield! In Rocktober! But I made it to school and found Berni in the K12 hangout room (we get a hangout room? With couches? Yes!) and she introduced me to everyone and it turns out that Bavarians are pretty much the nicest people in the world- everyone was super-friendly and asked me about home and how things are going here and made sure I was comfortable and happy. And the teachers are great, too- every one of them asked me about where I'm from and what I'm doing here and the like- something that only my English teacher did back in Köln. And they kept checking to see if I was understanding, even though I'm not really even in any classes yet because I don't actually have a schedule at the moment. I had a period of German first, and we read a really fascinating Goethe piece that I want to tie into some Shaw stuff I've read, and some Wilde too, and maybe a few other things- there are wheels turning, to say the least, and I won't bore you too much with my half-developed essay ideas. That's for the college admissions people to worry about. And then two periods of math- I can confidently say that I understood approximately 15% of what we did, and I am not going to be picking math as an LK (which Berni has). The teacher was really awesome, though, too, and I would have enjoyed the class if I had a clue what was going on (man do Germans have some weird ways of notating things in math). After that came Berni's Latin class, in which I sort of sat and listened and was bored because I know zero Latin and have no interest in knowing Latin. It's Berni's other LK, and it most certainly won't be in my real schedule. There were some Pauses in there, during which I hung out with the awesome K12 people- seriously every single one of them came up to introduce themselves almost immediately, and all of them are sort of watching out for me and making sure I'm feeling okay and getting integrated and it makes me feel good. After Latin came Sozi, which is Bavaria's name for SoWi, as far as I can tell, except that this class was more Government than Econ. And I love Government, so that is one class that I totally need to keep in my schedule- I must admit that Germany has a strange and confusing governmental system, and I want to learn all of its ins and outs. Did you know that Merckel's cabinet is pretty much decided? All the pictures of the new cabinet are in the paper today, and I cannot give you much more insight than that there are 6 women (including Angie, of course) out of 16 positions, which I guess is good. And then school was over, so I called Rosi and waited for her and felt all happy when a couple of the guys double-checked to make sure that I was going to get home and have lunch and the like- everyone here is so sweet and I know I'm going to make such good friends here and I'm so happy. Lunch was delicious, too (chicken, proving that we are not overly terrified about the bird flu, and potatoes with cheese- yummy) and I don't even have homework, since I don't actually have classes. I hope someone works that out shortly- I've been informed that the English teacher is sort of in charge of me (another nice detail they didn't think about in Köln) and I'll ask a bit tomorrow- since I'm still basically shadowing Berni, though, I don't have a first period tomorrow- maybe it'll be warmer when I wake up.

I just got a phone call from the Methodist church in Augsburg- I'm going to probably go check out their service on Sunday and they're sending me some info and the girl I talked to was totally nice and I'm excited- I've missed church.

They Put a Man on the Moon

REM wins the song of the day, thanks to my new favorite radio station, Antennae Bayern. It probably has a better mix than just about any other station ever, and Lionel Ritchie even told me today, via the radio, that Antennae Bayern is "the loveliest radio station in the whole world." The man knows what he's talking about.

Hmm. . . yesterday was Sunday, right? Norbert left around 11, meaning we are now without men in the house- no worries that we'll get stuck watching Fußball when there are good movies on tv. Went over to Petra's for coffee and cake and a walk that included two adorable kittens randomly deciding to follow us down two streets until Petra finally tossed them over a fence so they wouldn't follow us all the way home. Aren't kittens the best? And after the walk, Petra's son Markus showed up and decided that Rosi and I simply must stay for dinner, so we did. And dinner meant yummy goulash (the Germans make some good goulash, I must say) and so much Bayrisch that I simply don't understand, but I will learn this strange new language, I promise. And we came home much later than planned to watch tv (Erin Brokovich) and eat ice cream and relax because that is what Sunday evenings are for. And this morning, a nice lazy breakfast (German food, also delicious- I am going to miss me some Nutella after this year) and headed up to the school at 9:30 to meet with the principal- he was super-nice and seemed really interested in my whole experience this year and he immediately found another student, Bernadette, to show my around and answer my questions and the like. She seems really awesome and I'm going to meet up with her tomorrow and sort of observe some of her classes until I decide what I'm going to do- the principal thinks we'll mix some 11th and 12th grade classes for me, which is probably a good idea. We finished up at school and went to see about getting me registered with the city, which was totally easy and did not involve some giant 15 page questionnaire like in Niederkassel. And then we went to Aldi and got some pizza and some salad fixings and came home and made lunch and now I'm just chilling and reading the paper and internetting. . . turns out that Germany, or at least Bavaria, decided that it didn't like the concept of e-mail yesterday, hence the spaz on my end. But everything's back to normal now, so your e-mails have been answered or read or whatever, and you may resume your normal sending habits.

I'm Still Alive

I know you've all been terribly worried and curious, and I swear I am perfectly fine and happy.

So let's go back to Friday. . . got on the train and got to Augsburg with no problem and mixed emotions- relief and a little worry and the usual thing. And got off the train and Rosie and Norbert were there waiting for me and we clicked immediately- Rosie is the most awesome person ever and we are going to have so much fun together. Norbert is her boyfriend and comes down on the weekends and is also so much fun to hang out with- I swear I have not laughed so much in a long time. We stopped at Bonny's Diner, an American-style restaurant (complete with Blues Brothers statues, Casey and Mary!) and I had a delicious burrito (yay for Mexican) and then we came to Obergriesbach and my new house, which is so cute and comfy and wonderful. Of course, I had no interest in unpacking after having just packed up, so we watched tv and talked and hung out and then headed over to my Betreuer's house (I have a Betreuer!) because she was having all of her exchange students over for Bavarian food (not as delicious as Mexican, and Rosie agrees) and hanging out and I got to see Chris and Priya and Mike (Rosie thinks Mike is just about the most awesome person ever due to his social tendencies) and an Australian named Karl who is pretty much exactly like Chris (somehow Georgian and Australian accents even sound alike) and 2 Columbians and an Ecaudorian. And it's always fun to hang out with people you haven't seen in a while, and we stayed late and left all tired and happy and drove home through the thickest fog ever (I am now living in Fog Central) and crashed on the couch for a glass of wine and more hanging out until 1 am, when we finally decided to go to bed. And then Saturday was just as great- first we went out to find me some better shoes (I am now equipped for German winter and German walking) and we bought cake and looked at art and wandered around Aichach, where my school is, and it's a sweet little town and rather pretty to look at. And we came home and read the newspaper on the terrace in the sun (who said Germany had bad weather?) and I can totally read and understand German newspaper without trouble, which was a pleasant surprise (man I missed newspapers) and then Petra, Rosie's best friend, came over and we had cake and coffee (tea in my case because I still don't like coffee) and talked forever and Petra is a really awesome person, too. It did eventually get chilly as the sun started heading downward, so we went inside for Prosecco (which I find delicious) and more talking and hanging out until it was time to go to dinner- Italian! A real Italian restaurant run by real Italians where I heard more Italian than while I was in Italy. And the food was amazing and I ate too much and I like the German meal pace- they have no problem sitting around and talking for an hour or more after dinner, and it's really nice. And we stayed up late watching tv but that is okay because my bed is warm and fluffy and I have no trouble sleeping in late. This morning was American breakfast morning, meaning bacon and scrambled eggs and toast and it was so yummy- do you know that Rosie and I are going to make blueberry muffins? I am so excited- I have missed muffins so much. I am so so happy here and so glad that I switched and tomorrow we are going up to the school to figure out my schedule and everything, but I will probably (hopefully) not actually start until Tuesday. And then I've got 2 weeks of school and then a week of Fall Break- again! Yay for switching states. And my school breaks are all different now, so hold off on those travel plans- I'll get an updated calendar to you soon.

Also, gmail is apparently having issues, so I swear I'm not ignoring your e-mails- I just can't get to them. If anyone knows what's up and wants to clue me in, I'd appreciate it.

Go West, Young Man

After waking up to an empty house and puttering around for a while, I got a phone call from Mary, which always makes me happy, and she said that she needed to buy a winter coat and that we should go to Bonn. Of course I was more than happy to oblige her, and, to mix things up a bit, we figured out how she could get to Niederkassel and I could meet her there and we could then take a bus to Bonn. This meant that I figured out that I can indeed walk the 2 km to Niederkassel in half an hour and it is really not all that bad. And the bus was relatively prompt and things worked out nicely and we found Mary a coat in Bonn (we also found a lot of really silly fake-fur based coats that Mary refused to buy) and wandered around and ate pastries and somewhere in the middle of all that I got a phone call from Experiment. The news you've all been waiting for has come through, and tomorrow I am getting on a train and going to Augsburg, which is in the heart of Bavaria. Yes, Bavaria. I am terrified but relieved. . . I'll be living now with a 52-year-old woman named Roswitha Hübl who has grown children but lives alone, and I've talked to her briefly on the phone and she seems very nice and I have good feelings about her. I can't believe I'm leaving my beloved Köln, though- how long is it going to be until I see the Dom again? Am I going to miss Karneval? I'm determined to come back up for it, but who knows if that will work? Having heard the news, Mary was of course equally sad that I am going so far from her- who can she call now to go to Bonn with her? What will we do without being able to laugh about the silly things we find at Mr Music (today, we discovered bluegrass versions of The Who songs)? My poor emotions are all mixed up- I'm really glad that I'm getting a new start in a new place and I think this "family" will be really good for me, and as sure as I am that Augsburg is a lovely town, it is not Köln and it never will be Köln.

Everything I own has been packed, and it turns out that I have a lot more stuff now than I brought with me, so wish me the best getting it all on the train- at least I don't have to change trains at all, just get on and then off three and a half hours later. And all I've got is the Liz Phair song that's been pulling itself forward for me recently, although the directions are umgekehrt (backwards, but with more of a sense of being turned-around that I like and that isn't found in the English word):
And I'm not looking forward to missing you
But I must have something better to do
I've got to tear my life apart
And go west, young man
And it feels like I've got something to prove
But in some ways it's just something to do
My friends turn me around and say,
"You go west, young man."
That would be "Go West," of course, and I'm going east, and have already gone oh-so-far east, but the idea's still there.

Have I gone and torn my life apart?

I Can Fall Asleep

Yes, I didn't post yesterday. No, nothing exciting happened, that is why there was nothing. Please relax. I am still alive and well.

Today, I woke up far far too early and Anna and I went to Niederkassel to get on a bus to go to Bonn from whence we took a bus to Morenhofen (40 minutes), where Anna's aunt lives, and it is her birthday today. Why did we ride the bus? Because buses are fun. Elke and Verena followed and were much later than us, but of course also left much later. And there were lots of Germans at the aunt's house and we were sociable and ate soup and I found the absolute sweetest cat- I bent down to pet it, and it immediately climbed right into my lap and insisted that I hold it and I really miss cats. Around 1:45, Elke and Anna and Verena went to the other grandma's house to do some sort of moving of kitchen things, from which they have still not returned. I had no interest in cleaning grandma's cabinents, so I tried to call Mary (who would not answer her cell phone, for which I am still offended) and got on a bus and went to Bonn. In Bonn, I picked a direction from the giant bus stop and started walking, completely unaware that I was going in the opposite direction of absolutely everything. I wandered into a college brochure being played out before my eyes, and it was beautiful and it turns out that college campuses are identical in America and Germany, except maybe in the language spoken. I almost joined up with a random tour group for nostalgia's sake, but then I didn't. And I kept wandering, looking for stores, still unaware that they were right back where I came from, and then I saw the Rhine and hurried down to walk beside it for a while because it is pretty. Then I wandered through residential streets of Bonn forever, and every single house is really pretty, but I got rather frustrated until I found a map and discovered that I was waaaaay far away from the center of the city where everything is. Of course, cities aren't easy to navigate, and it still took me a long time and a couple more maps (those things need to be more frequent) to finally find the shopping center, by which point I no longer wished to shop. I did find some dinner (pizza and a crepe, not exactly healthy but yummy) and then I found out that I had about 30 minutes until the bus back to Niederkassel, so I slid into some bookstore for a while (I really miss books- I simply cannot read real books in German, and there aren't any good books in English here- anyone who wants to make me the happiest person ever can send me some Bernard Shaw) and then stopped into Mr Music and wandered back to the bus stop, where the bus was early. Only a 10 minute layover in Niederkassel and I am home and sleepy and Köln is so so so much easier to navigate than Bonn, although Bonn has much prettier side streets.

I have been reminded that the name the dino contest needs to end, so the winner is, by default, my mom, with the name Rosasaurus.

Any creative people have ideas for my newest baby, the iShuffle (which makes riding the bus so much more fun)?

It's a Game of Give and Take

Song of the day for yesterday was "Love Don't Come Easy" or "You Can't Hurry Love," depending on who's singing it. Thanks to flipping through multiple radio stations yesterday, I think I heard three different versions.

So I bummed around the house and made it through 3 chapters of Dorian Gray in German, which, considering that I'd only read 3 chapters total since I bought the book, must mean my German is getting better. I still feel like I'm looking up too many words, but at least now I can read more than two or three pages at a sitting. And I found a really awesome radio station, after the flipping that led to hearing a few songs more than once, which is always funny.
And at 7 we all got on our bikes and rode to Niederkassel to somebody's house for homemade pizza (Germans find it totally normal to make their own pizza, on which they put strange but delicious things, and they eat it with a fork and a knife, which is difficult) and playing the longest game of Phase 10 EVER. Of course we had to play until it was over, which took until 11:30 (and I lost miserably) and then we had to wait until midnight because it would be Anna's birthday and we could sing to her. (What? All of sudden the Germans feel the need to sing the birthday song? Where did this come from?) So we did, and then I got on my bike (whose headlight doesn't work) and rode home very, very carefully in the dark dark dark through the farm fields. And went to bed.
Oh! I completely forgot to tell you about the other adventure in Köln late at night: Subway. After closing down one bar, as we were looking for another, we passed a Subway and the Germans decided they were hungry and wanted to check it out. None of them had ever been in a Subway before, so I had to explain the whole process to them, and it was very very funny. And, last night, as Elke was relating the Subway story to the other family, I found out that she was apparently surprised at the way the Subway employees construct the sandwiches so quickly "without love." I giggled and tried to explain that it is just a sandwich, and most people don't care if the meat is lovingly placed on the sandwich or not. Oh, these Germans.
And this morning I've got the house to myself because the Germans went to Phantasia Land, which is basically Kings Dominion, and, since I don't do roller coasters, I have no interest in being there so I stayed home. I am probably going to take my little self off to Köln to finally finish buying my birthday presents (yes, Dad, I will spend money) and go to the post office because I have postcards that I need to send that I wrote while in Italy.
But first I need a shower.

And the that-evening update:
I got myself very successfully to Köln (via Troisdorf, which is sort of like going through Dinwiddie to get to Richmond from Chesterfield) and indulged in Columbus Day shopping extravaganzas, which means that I got myself a t-shirt from H&M (it is very pretty) and the iPod shuffle that I have been coveting pretty much forever. I am already in love with it, and I will be sitting here for hours loading music now. But no more dragging the giant CD player on the bus! Yaaay! I did think about those German mp3 players, I swear, but they weren't any cheaper and they don't have iTunes or Apple stickers or anything. So I have a cute little white stick for my music now, and I am very pleased.
I also enjoyed some ice cream and a lot of walking around in the shadow of my beloved Dom, which is the most beautiful building I've ever seen- I really wanted to just lay out in the sunshine beside the Dom and sleep for a while. I didn't, though. Getting home worked out nicely- got on a train at 5 and was home within half an hour. When the train-bus connections work, that's faster than with a car. At those times, I like public transportation a whole lot.

I'll like it more with my new soundtrack.

And happy Columbus Day, by the way! (Also Thanksgiving to any Canadian readers I may have)

Life (the game) is pretty cool in German, and I've discovered that I nearly have that board memorized, which is sad.

You Sing a Sad Song Just to Turn It Around

So I went to Italy, and it was exactly like Germany but with big big big mountains.

Just to warn you, this post is very long (it's a week's worth, after all), so, if you aren't already on your lunch break, you might want to go get a snack or a drink or something and turn off the phone and jot down a little list of the other things you wanted to do today, 'cause you'll probably forget them after this. You can also take it in smaller pieces (it took me two days to write this), but I don't write capsule style, so that may not work out well. Don't be afraid to read it a few times- there's not much going on this weekend, so I doubt I'll have much more of interest to tell you anytime soon. I have also been slowly adding onto this post throughout the day, so if you read it earlier, you may want to go back and discover that I've added more as I've thought of new things. (Last edit 9 Oct 6:31 pm)

There is a new song of the month, because it is a new month. It is called "You Had a Bad Day" and it is by Daniel Powter and I love it because it is so pretty and German radio is playing it just frequently enough that it is coming up to replace "You're Beautiful." There were of course many songs of the day that you missed while I was on vacation, and today's, declared at some point after midnight last night in a bar, is Nena's "99 Luftballoons."

And onto the stuff you actually want to read about, now that my overly wordy introduction is through:
I'm going to start with Friday, because I got home late and was too sleepy to finish blogging (for which I apologize to those of you who forgot I was going to Italy and thought that I maybe fell off the face of the Earth). Mary and I had the most awesome (and perhaps shortest) trip to Bonn to buy her a train ticket to get back from Brussels, where she is at the moment, and I'm jealous, because Belgium has the best chocolate and french fries ever, and because she isn't here to hang out with me right now. But we did buy some really amazing chocolate at the big Kaufhaus thing, and ate it on the bus and it was so so yummy. Also I saw Mary's house (and finally picked up that card from my mom that I forgot in Tübingen)! And then there were public transportation adventures which involved getting on a bus to get back to Niederkassel and getting there only to find out that the bus to Uckendorf literally left 3 minutes before my bus from Bergheim arrived and that was pretty annoying but I got home and ate and Katrin came and whisked me off to mandolin orchestra, which is really truly an orchestra that plays classical music and has lots of mandolins and they were all excited and found me a really old mandolin to play but the music was hard and I barely managed to get a few notes in. Next week they say they will have a better mando that I can keep for the year. Did you know that European mandolins are smaller than American ones (everything is smaller in Europe) and have this giant bulge on the back that makes them so so hard to hold? It's going to take a while to get used to the thing.
So I got up super super super early on Saturday and got in a car and spent 10 hours with 3 children (children are almost as bad as cows, but at least they don't stink)and drove through Baden-Württemburg (state containing Tübingen) and I got too excited when I saw the little 4-part trash cans that B-W has and NRW doesn't that make recycling so easy in public places- I still miss those trash cans. I cannot explain how terrible I feel not recycling things when I throw them away at the bus stop, which only has one trash can. And we drove over the Neckar and I got all sentimental, but we didn't actually pass Tübingen proper. BW is still a magical state, though. It had to end, though, and then there were mountains everywhere and, somehow, Italy looks exactly like Austria, which looks exactly like Bavaria (where I'd rather not spend too much time), and everyone speaks German, although they have thick accents that are difficult to understand. And Italy is full of old people who hike these super-super-super huge mountains, no matter what the weather. And I tried to hike, but the air is so so so thin that I barely made it the 100 or so yards to the next farm thing and I was ready to collapse because I absolutely could not breathe. I think I know what it feels like to have an asthma attack now, and it is not at all fun. I took myself back down to our little bed and breakfast and put myself into bed and watched a lot of CNN, including a really awesome episode of Larry King (randomly playing at like 10 in the morning) featuring Judge Judy, who is now my hero. This was maybe the highlight of my vacation, which is sad. We did go down the valley one day, which is infinitely more fun than the mountain, and we walked along some path that follows some sort of German-Italian irrigation system, and then it rained so we hurried back to the car (Italy has the worst weather ever- fog and rain and clouds and freezing cold) and then we went to a real city and it made me very happy- there was even actual Italian on the signs in this city! (I determined that I know more Italian than many of the people I talked to while in Italy.) And we ate pizza that was slightly above mediocre and we went in every single outdoor sports store to try to find Anna a pair of hiking boots and ended up going back to the very first store and buying the first pair that she liked. But I got to see a real Italian city! Italy apparently loves chestnuts, and it is apparently chestnut season and that means random street vendors roasting them and it smelled like Christmas at Maymont, which made me all happy.
A Few Awesome Things About Italy:
Italy has shutters (you know, like on windows), and Germans are fascinated by them
Italy has soda in CANS- I wanted one so badly
Italian towels are actually large enough to cover one's body- the German word for towel is "Handtuch" and they truly do give you a little bitty hand towel for showering, which is really not enough and still annoys me
Italian weather is terrible, Germany wins this competition (it is all warm and sunny here)
Italian radio is also awful, no matter what language it's in. It did, however, provide the entertaining discovery of a "clean" version of "You're Beautiful:" "she could see from my face that I was flying high" (those of you not familiar with the song will have to be incredibly creative to figure out what usually goes in place of flying)
Unfortunately, we did not spend very long in the city, and I was otherwise really bored. Came back on Thursday and I still don't like spending 10 hours in a car and there was some really crazy bad wreck on the other side of the Autobahn at one point- a white van literally on top of some Porsche, as if it had decided to park there, and then like 4 or 5 big trucks that were somehow involved and as we passed there were ambulances and police cars and a helicopter and everything- it was insane.
AND, at some random rest stop in Bavaria, I found DR PEPPER. Germany does not, excluding some Kiosk that Mary found in Bonn (and of course this rest stop), actually have Dr Pepper, and I'd forgotten how amazing this soda is. Not only that, but the label claimed (in English) that Dr Pepper "solves all your problems." For a little while at least, I swear it did (the batteries in my CD player found new life, the radio started playing awesome songs, the weather turned prettier, and we got out of Bavaria, which is always a good thing). We got home and I slept all happy in my own bed, able to finally sleep in now that I am not sharing a room with an 11-year-old who likes to wake up at 7 and watch tv.
So then came Friday, which was strange and difficult and I ended up visiting Experiment's office and we have come to the decision that I will be switching host families. No, there wasn't any big huge crisis, nor are there really even bitter feelings or anger or any of that. . . mostly we just somehow don't fit. We like each other well enough, but there's not really the close relationship or friendship or whatever necessary to happily live together for a year. We're just too different, and it's mostly a relief, now that I've realized that I've just been kind of living beside these people, not with them, to know that I'm going to start over and maybe have that really awesome host family experience that everyone else seems to enjoy.
Also Maja, who was one of our Betreuers in Tübingen, is totally working at Experiment now and she was there and I got to see her and that was really nice and she had good advice and made me feel better about a lot of things. Also she made me a cup of tea, and tea makes lots of things better.
But I'm not leaving yet (hold onto any mail you planned to send, though), and last night we headed into Köln and it was wonderful because I love Köln. We went on some ghost tour thing, and it turns out that all of Köln's ghost stories are pitiful and mostly involve some vaguely interesting haunting that got magically cured something like 100 years ago or someone dying in a medievally violent fashion, so there's not much spooky left to see. I do, however, now know all sorts of Kölsch folklore that I can share with everyone who comes to midyear when I take you to all the coolest hangouts in Köln! (Also the lame hangouts that happen to have cool statues- every single story had a corresponding awesome statue) And then we went closing down the bars (2 of them, as a matter of fact) and I am not going to tell you how much Kölsch I enjoyed, but it was delicious. Did you know that there are all sorts of songs about Köln that Germans know and love to sing and that they play in their bars and every single person in the room sings along? It's weird but cool and I really want to learn these Köln songs.
I slept in too late today, but I was also out too late last night.
And I bummed around the house and sort of worked on my English homework but not really (considering I'm not 100% certain I'll be going back to this school, I wonder if I should bother) and played some German game called Niagara, which won game of the year for 2005, but is actually not all that great. And ate sauerkraut, because I am, after all, in Germany. Then there was watching of Bridget Jones and eating potato chips and drinking something that is related to wine but not as aged and doesn't have as much alcohol and is sweeter and actually tastes good (ignoring Mary R's opinions). . . I forget what it was called precisely, and a German name probably wouldn't help you. It tasted exactly like sparkling cider, however, and I enjoyed it.
Now I'm picking through Dorian Gray (I just finished the third chapter and I'm starting to give up on looking up all these words because Oscar Wilde thinks it necessary to tell me exactly what kind of carpet Lord Henry has in his library, and what flowers every single thing reminds him of, and overly long metaphors that have nothing to do with the good parts of the book) and, obviously, internetting, and I don't want to sleep because I slept in too late this morning. Oh, the terrible spiraling relationship with my bed and my pillow and that comfy comfy blanket. . . I don't have to get up tomorrow morning, but I should maybe try to be out of bed before quarter to three.

Moving On

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