Almost Christmas

Since I already wrote a really long entry, and then the internet decided to stop working sometime while writing it, I will now write about the last week with bullet points.

last Saturday-

• ice skating got canceled, sad
• but the St. Lucia celebration started earlier than I thought, so good for that
• girls with candles on their heads, singing in languages I can't read, and eating good food

Sunday-

• church and lunch with KSG, spaghetti for lunch, then baked apples with chocolate and marzipan for dessert, yum
• baking cookies with my flatmates, more yum
• meeting a german Fulbrighter who is studying in Greifswald, fun! We were at a cafe for two hours and I had had the biggest cup of milk coffee I have ever seen for 2€

Monday-

• Practicing with the KSG choir
• helping bake more cookies with KSG (reminder, KSG is the catholic student group), but more talking than helping
• met up with my new tandem partner. Tandem partners has nothing to do with riding bikes, but helping each other learn languages. She is German and wants to better her English, and I speak English and want to better my German.
  

Tuesday-

• Abi concert
• Abi is a term for the 13th graders, and now for the 12th graders in Meck-Pom. At the end of the year they take big tests that will pretty much determine their entire future, similar to the British A-levels. The concert was to raise money for the Abi Ball, kinda like prom, sorta.
  

Wednesday-

• KSG Christmas party, mass, food, then singing and silly presents

Thursday-

• Annual teacher dinner before Christmas. Good food, and it was nice to meet with my mentor teacher since we don't get a lot of time to talk during the school day because we are always running from class to class
• it was actually pretty boring since the teachers all know each other, but still nice

Friday-

• left Greifswald at 9am
• got into Berlin, looked for the cute boots I had seen five weeks ago, they were sadly no longer there
• left Berlin and came to Dresden
• Met up with Nadine, went to Frisbee training, the shoulder was fine, and we actually did some running drills, yay!
• went for dinner afterwards, it took about 30 minutes to get some noodles with garlic sauce, really, lots of garlic!
• Karaoke! But I only sang one song, and it was a duet, because apparently my piece of paper with my original song got lost somewhere, and the DJ apparently never got it

This Saturday-

• slept in, hmm, nice
• did some shopping with Nadine, still didn't find cute boots
• Nadine went back home, I checked out the Christmas market, really pretty. I saw Santa sing a song, with back up singers from A Christmas Carol, and also maybe a pirate?
• Made a delicious dinner, curry chicken with cous cous, leeks, and red peppers

Sunday-

• went to mass at the main church in town, beautiful, celebrated the fourth week of Advent (being reminded that tomorrow is Christmas eve!)
• had some yummy bagel sandwiches (yes, real bagels)
• took a walk down the Elbe River

We will be heading to Görlitz in about an hour to start the Christmas celebration with Nadine's family!

Merry Christmas!

Being Busy Rocks!

Hooray for being busy, I love being busy, it makes me feel like a normal person again. Fun story: on Wednesday I made dinner for the Catholic student group, made sloppy Joe's. Everyone loved it, of course everyone loved it, sloppy Joe's tastes great. After dinner and the discussion, I was talking to a few of the guys, and one said they were going to the student bar, which is right across the street from my apartment. I also said so, and Christoph invited me to the bar with his and his friends. And since I had already done my preparations for school, I decided to go. It was really great to meet a couple of people, have a drink and then dance for a couple hours. I didn't really feel out of place at all, which was great! Then I was invited to go ice skating with them on Saturday!

Yesterday was Frisbee and first physical therapy session, and today was celebrating Claudi's birthday and then meeting up with some Frisbee friends for a drink. And now I am going to bed so I can get up nice and early.

I can do that

Last night was the improv show. The group is called Improsant, I think it is a pun on the word
"Interesant" which means interesting. Anyway, I was expecting to be able to understand about 25% of it, instead it was the other way around, I understood about 75% of the show, which was really exciting! I even called out some suggestions, and they were taken. During the show, you could yell, "That sounds like a song," and then the people on stage would have to start a song. Great. It was generally pretty funny, but I also found myself critiquing the players. Here are a few things that would have made the show better: moving around, a lot of times, they would get caught in one position and make themselves comfortable, either sitting on the ground, or just talking to one another. Another thing was, the host didn't let scenes play out all the way, or they never really established a problem, so they were just people on stage trying to be funny.

And then today I was telling one of the other teachers about this, and then she told me that I should join the group. I said, yeah, if they wanted to do a show in English. Then she said, no I should just join the group, my German is good enough. Eek, but it does sound enticing.

Tonight I am helping make dinner for after mass, we are making sloppy Joe's! Woo! And right now I am eating Flammkuchen, what a great day.

The best moment of my day

Right, I only work 12 hours a week, but I also prepare for these classes, and each class is at least 30 minutes, most are an hour of prep. Ok, also I can use some lessons more than once, which is also really nice, because the lessons then get better and better. But looking at my work again, when was the last time I really worked all 12 hours? I can't actually remember, because either there was Math Olympics, where I didn't need to work because the school was being used for that, or I was gone at something else, or the teachers are sick. Here in Germany, especially in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, they don't have enough money to hire substitute teachers. When a teacher gets sick, then they either try to find a teacher who teaches the same subject and has that period free, change the hours around, so if the Math teacher has the period where the class would normally have English free, then they will switch is around like that, or they will just cancel the class. So one of my classes was canceled today, and one is canceled tomorrow.

Now, this was the not the best part of my day. The best part of my day was when I was grocery shopping. After hearing the words grilled cheese, that is what I decided to have for lunch. While I was in the super market, I was looking through the refrigerated section, sometimes they have single servings for some food, and I found Maultaschen! It was the cheap 1euro price is always is, and it will be delicious tomorrow for lunch. This is something that I ate all the time in Tübingen, and was sad to not find it, because it is really easy to prepare and also very tasty. Maultaschen is pasta squares filled with beef and spinach. Apparently it was made my monks during Lent, so they could hide the meat in the pasta, that way, God couldn't find it.

Advent time

This evening I went to the Advent concert my church put on. Unfortunately, I got there right at the start, and all the seats were taken, so I had to stand. The concert was really cute, there were three choirs plus a few pieces played by a small band/quartet, really, a lot of recorders in different sizes and a few other instruments. Me and some other students agreed our favorite thing about the concert was a little eight year old boy who help his music folder over his face almost the entire time he was singing but still looked like he was having a great time.

After the concert, one of the girls invited me to come to a thing she was going to, on the way we were stopped by some Spanish guys who were looking for their hotel, one of them spoke German, but the other asked if we spoke English. Claudi then said, of course, she does! He asked for our numbers so that we could go dancing next weekend. Oh Spanish men, so much more forward than any German guy I have ever met.

I spent the next hour learning how to swing balls on rope around and make it look cool. We went into a room that smelled like "people had been working there" as Claudi said (yucky sweat smell) and inside there were people juggling, playing with Devil sticks, and also with Chinese Yoyos, yes, I was wondering if they were practicing for a small circus. It was really fun though, and I learned a few tricks, and the girl who was teaching me was really sweet. As we were walking out, I was told about an improv group that practices in the same room, and they are going to give a performance on Tuesday, and am planning now to go. It won't be as funny as normal improv shows, because most jokes are puns or a reference to current events or culture, but it will still be fun.

Weird? Maybe

Is it weird if I had a dream that I was in the UK, and no one had a British accent? It was a really strange dream anyway, and I realized that circumstances around it were strange when I was actually in the dream, but the accent thing occurred to me once I was awake.

Oh yeah, I have also decided that I always want to have a token British friend.

Maybe it is a little too cliche to make this comparison, but you know how the Lion in the Wizard of Oz was in need of some courage? I feel like that is me. In the end, he had it all along, and again, I feel that is me. So if I know that I need courage, but that I also have it, what is the problem? The problem is getting the courage that is in me to come out. Life has been all right, been coasting along all right, and I am finally at a weekend where I literally have nothing to do, and it sucks, big time. Whenever I talk to friends and family, I always have fun little stories to tell them, but it is because things just kind of happen to me. I love being busy, I was busy all throughout college, between my classes, my jobs, and the clubs I was in, there was barely any time for anything else. So if you are reading this, and you do the prayer thing, please pray that I can find my nerve again.

YES!

50,348 words, and about 14,000 of them written today, but I am done! The ending is really bad, but that is all right, I guess I am an official novelist now. And I had about thirty minutes to spare before I left for the weekend.

so much ultimate

Ok, just because I seem to play frisbee every weekend, does not mean that this will become a strictly Frisbee blog, but I do have to blog about what i have done over the past two weekends, right?

So, last weekend I played Ultimate Frisbee in Leipzig with mother tongue, yay! The weekend actually started on Wednesday when the trains decided to strike on Thursday and Friday, and I found out later that only 15% of the trains in the east were running those two days, great. So I jumped on a train Wednesday night to Berlin and spent the next few days hanging out, running errands and relaxing in the city, of course it was great. Due to my previous post, I made tacos for dinner on Thursday for Russ and a work friend of his. And they were delicious, we even had guacamole! The two of us headed out to Leipzig around 7pm on Friday.

We got to the city, and through some confusion, went out to dinner to a great place called Volkshaus, or the Folk house. The food was wonderful, and Ben, another Fulbrighter met us there. We talked and ate until the place closed down around 2am, and then thought it would be a good idea to go to the bar across the street. We finally got to the sleeping hall around 4am and then continued to stay awake while drinking Glühwein and throwing a frisbee around. Because of the small amount of sleep and other elements, the next day was not the most pleasant day. The team was fun, per norm, but we did not do very well, which is not the norm. We actually ended up losing all our games during the weekend, but some of the best teams in Germany were also at the tournament, and we really are only a pick-up team. I have become used to losing, and have found that no matter how Mother Tongue does, the fun part of the tournament is the hanging out with one another.

The most interesting thing that happened was after a few of us left the party. There were four of us, and on our way to dinner, Katy (who was with me, yay!), Ben (the other Fulbrighter) and I found a bar called The Old Rebel, literally. It was a bar that was full of confederate flags and cowboy things. So on the way back to the sleeping gym, four of us wanted to see if it was still open. It was, so then we decided to go in. The boys got beer and we sat and looked around for about 20 minutes, and during that time we all were kinda freaked out with all the stuff that was on the walls, and even somewhat of the people who were working there.

The week passed, and I will write more about that later, but if I want to write about Frisbee stuff all together. So this weekend was Winterflug in Berlin. It was a tournament full of really good teams. I had heard about this tournament in September, and was invited to play on a team that didn't make it on the list. Then another team picked me up, who was first on the waiting list, and also didn't get onto the actual list. This was two weeks ago I officially found out. Thankfully, my lovely friend, April, pointed out the women's team from Mainz, she said they were a fun team to play with, competitive but still spirited. I found the contact info for the women's team and sent an add for myself, asking if they needed any pick-up players. It was about two days later I heard back from a different woman who would be the captain for the weekend, and said they were in need of 1 or 2 players, and I was very welcome to come play!

My journey started on Friday and I didn't really have plans when I got in. Luckily, my friend, Julia, took refuge on me, and I crashed her friend's birthday celebration, meaning her and her friend where at her boyfriend's apartment cooking pizza and heating up Glühwein and they were more than happy to have me over. We danced and sang and ate pizza, and it was so fun being with just ladies. Then Rob came back in, and we went out for a birthday drink!

I met my team on Saturday, and melded with them right away, which was great. It took a while to learn all the names and then match them with the faces, and who plays what, and so on. We lost our first three games on Saturday. The third game ended up being 13-14 the other team, and it all came down to the last point. That team went onto third place, the first team we played took second, and the second team we played took fourth, awesome. But we did end up winning our next three games and took 9th place, which is all right by me, at least winning a few games.

After our games, we went out to dinner, there were nine of us ladies, and then one guy. We walked around for about 20 minutes looking for a place to eat, and finally finding a place that had a lot to offer food wise, but the food wasn't great, oh well. The party was great fun, I danced with my team for about an hour, it was really warm, Russ came to the party, Nadine from Dresden was there, and of course Rob and Julia.

We only played two games on Sunday, won them both, got a floor burn on my hip that is pretty bad and also dislocated my shoulder in the last game. Here is the story: it was probably only a few minutes into the game, and one of my players threw me a disc in the endzone, thrown pretty well, and wasn't hard to get. I had to jump and reach for it, but no big deal. Somewhere in there, I threw my left shoulder out. After catching the disc, I end up on the ground and can't really move because there is so much pain. Luckily, there is a doctor in the gym, he comes over and starts moving me off the field, and then the shoulder popped back into the socket, good! It wasn't too bad after that, iced it and it only hurt a little. I have been informed that I need to see a doctor about it which is what I will be doing this week.

And I may be heading to another tournament this next weekend, but just to cheer. Four students from Greifswald will be playing, so that should be fun!

Yup, I live in Germany, so I always feel obligated to go out of my way and not eat at an American chain, but right now I am just craving some Taco Bell. It is plain and simple. Do I want it because I can't have it? Possibly, but really, I just enjoy Taco Bell.

A not so great evening turned good

There are things that I wish I did every day, but just don't, one of them is just to blog, just to keep things interesting. Another is to take pictures every day, but I don't do that either. And the third is to email my parents a few times a week, which I also haven't done. The last mentioned thing resulted in me writing an approximately five page long email to them, which they may or may not read all the way through. No, they probably will, my mom will probably print it out to read, which I would also do with an email beast like that.

Since being back here, life is much quieter, which I dislike, but really fun things come up as well. Like Saturday: the Catholic fraternity invited us, other Catholic kids and friends, to join them on a hike and then lunch. I went unprepared, the hike lasted three hours, and I had no scarf and was wearing my cute Asics. However, I don't have real hiking shoes and it was fine. The shoes are still a little dirty, but that is the great thing about leather, they clean pretty easily. There only about 10 of us all together who went on the hike, and I only knew two people who were going. It was fun to meet people, and it was a perfect November day for it. After the long hike, a roasting pig on a spit was waiting for us! There were more of the brothers there as well. The problem was that once we got there, we stopped walking and it got pretty cold. Most of the time spent there was in front of the fire just keeping warm. The food was great! And most of the people there were really nice, but I was quiet almost the whole time I was there. I was cold and wanted to go home after I had eaten. The problem was that my bike was locked up with Jonathon's, because we came together. And he didn't want to leave right away. Which meant we stayed until about 7pm when the remaining guys decided to finally pack up.

I was quite miserable for about three hours, sitting in front of the fire, not talking. But once we were back in Greifswald, and the bikes were unlocked from each other, I relaxed a lot, and was also able to take my coat off. As silly as it sounds, taking my coat off made a huge difference, just being able to relax. So the evening ended great, had my first Glühwein, hot spiced wine, and joked around with the guys for the next few hours. It made me really glad that I had stayed in the end.

Finishing good books

Whenever I finish a good book, I put it down, am silent for a while and think about the ending and how all the characters got there. And then it makes me want to cry because such a beautiful book has come to end. I just finished East of Eden, which was my first Steinbeck book, and supposed to be his best work. It was a difficult book to really get into, it was interesting all the way through, but there was nothing pulling at the story line. Reading good books makes me want to join a book club, so that I can discuss about symbolism and meaning behind books like this. It is also good to read "classics" especially now that I am out of school, because it forces me to think about what is going on underneath the obvious, and now I have to challenge myself to think critically.

Finishing the book today was wonderful, it helped make my night great. It was a quiet friday night, but I finished the novel, wrote some more on my novel, talked with a cute waiter, and then chatted with Ryan once I got back home. And I also got two pieces of mail, one was my train card, yay! I have been waiting on that for about 2 1/2 months, and also a halloween card from Bethany. The rest of the weekend should be pretty good, something with the catholics tomorrow, and then trying to get people together for frisbee on Sunday.

Oh! I went to my first Frisbee training here in Greifswald, and it was wonderful. There were about 20 people there, more girls than guys, and it was people who really wanted to be there. Of course by the end of the year, if we still have 10 of those people left, that is great, because then we will have more new people then. We are already talking about tournaments to go to, they have already made a yahoo group. I have always wanted to captain a team, and this just kinda fell into my lap.

A Few Things I have Learned

After spending three days in Berlin and talking with a Brit the whole time, I thought I would share a few things I have learned. It is a bit unfair, but the rest of the world knows American slang much better than America knows the slang of the world. This is not because we just refuse to learn about other cultures, it is because American culture has become part of other cultures, maybe that is a problem, but I didn't start it, and I can't really fix it. Here is what would happen, we would be having a perfectly normal conversation, Russ would throw in some term I had never heard, generally out of context I would figure it out, but sometimes I had no idea.

• To lampoon someone is to make fun of them
• if you were to go into a supermarket in London and ask for a zucchini and an egg plant, they would have no idea what you were talking about. Instead you should ask for a courgette and an aubergine (which is more common, apparently)
• this one made me laugh for approximately two minutes: carriageway=highway, I think, but I was imagining a horse drawn buggy in the Lake district
• and the funniest one, I said that short hair suits me, because I am a spunky girl. Russ started giggling like a 12 year old boy. The word spunk refers to semen, oh dear.
  

There are more, but I can't remember them all, those were just the notable ones. I also turned into something of a wine-o, sharing in the drinking of three bottles and also going to a Weinerei. This place was great, you pay 1euro to use the glass, then you drink which ever kind of wine you would like to try, and then pay however much you thought the wine was worth. I had three glasses, and somehow we stayed at the place for about three hours. Then, after leaving that place around 2.30am, we walked by another bar, and Russ says they serve the best Mojitos there, so we walk in, and after coercing the bartender to serve us (because they were closing down), we go to a kebab house. We say good night, and the guy at the place says good morning. Berlin is so much fun. Sunday morning was me getting up for church (woo, three in a half hours of sleep), and then doing the Berlin thing and going to brunch. Berlin brunch= eating and talking, and then eating and talking some more. Then you have to talk a bit before you can eat more. We outlasted two groups of people at the table next to us.

Happy November

Wow, two months down, eight to go, then no idea. Right now, if I can get a job in the city (Chicago), I have an amazing apartment with a great roommate. When I am not living in the moment, I am always thinking about what I will be doing with my life. That scares me too much, so I just focus on the near future, like next year. There is a big part of me that wants to move out to Seattle, but over the past few weeks, the idea of staying in Chicago isn't as bad as I thought. I got homesick while driving up to Berlin yesterday, I was listening to the Boxer, which is a favorite song of Heather, and thinking of really living away from the girls in the city, and away from my family, it seems harder than before.

It is november, which means that it is National Novel Writing Month. The V-girls (hmm, I kinda love that name for us) were all going to do it, and I had no desire to write a crappy novel, but now I am excited to do it. I started this morning, right now the words are coming easily, but in a week or two, it will become a chore. After I decided to sign up for it, I persuaded four other people to do it as well, so I have a pretty strong support group and already getting encouragement from them.

Today I am in Berlin. I always used to love Frankfurt, and I do, for sure, but the more time I spend here, the more I love it. Right now it is gray outside, but I am inside a super trendy restaurant that offers free WiFi, and I love it. I also have great people to visit when I am here, and so far make me feel incredibly welcome. We'll see how it goes in a few months when I drop in for the night when I am on my way to somewhere else.

Why one is never too old for Halloween

Thursday I went to my favorite city in Germany, Frankfurt. Unfortunately, the day before, Andrea got yucky sick and went home. It was really strange since we had been eating and sharing all the same food, and we had been on the same public transportation. So I did Frankfurt a bit solo, which was not nearly as fun since I have already done the tourist-y things in the city. After getting Andrea on her train, I headed to meet up with Joe for lunch. Wayne also met up with us, and showed us the wonder of eating outside from a chicken vendor. We all got half of a grilled chicken and fries, yum! Lunch was fun in general, as it should be with two fun gentlemen like that. After getting the keys to Wayne's and Joe's place, Wayne took me back to his place. The day was filled with nothing. I watched Sideways, good film, and also went grocery shopping. April would be making Mac 'n cheese for dinner. I got all the way to the store (which is about a 15 minute walk) and realized that I forgot the grocery list back at the apartment. Shoot! But I did know most of the ingredients, and it was fun attempting to find cheddar cheese. I had to go to three different specialty stores before I found it.

After dinner and chatting with April, Wayne got home, and we headed off to Frisbee training that was underneath the lights, which was so cool. It has been a really long time since I went to an actual practice, and I knew a least half of people there, maybe more. After practice, we went to the Irish pub for a drink, where our waiter harassed a few of us for ordering hot chocolate. We weren't really sure if he was joking around or not (sometimes I wish the waiters were working for tips).

Friday was a very lounge-filled day, I slept in, ate some mac 'n cheese for lunch, watched TV, then finally headed over to Joe's, because I wasn't sure if Katy and Aine were coming into town that night. I found out later they were not going to be, and I was kinda bummed at first, but it was nice to stay in for the evening. I did some more grocery shopping, watched Gilmore girls in German, and read from my current book.

Saturday was wonderful! After Katy and Aine finally arrived, we headed back to Wayne and April's, where they supplied us with fun costumes, we had a tiger, a pirate, a doctor, and a hula-girl costume. They also gave us cake and tea and fun conversation (per norm). We then met up with Rachel, a Brit who is also an English language assistant where Katy lives. We made dinner, decided on who was going to be what character. We didn't get to the pub until around 10pm, but karaoke wasn't even starting until 11pm. We submitted our first song, "Don't cha" by the pussy cat dolls. Did you know there is a big rap part to the song? Cause we didn't, fun times when that came on, so we just danced. There were a lot of American soldiers at the pub, some were really fun and talked to us during the night, some others weren't so much, they were still fun, but in a different way. I later sang a KT Tunstall song, and then the four of us sang, "Holla back girl" by Gwen Stefani. We danced and sang throughout the whole night, and met a handful of characters. We took a cab home, it was my first time getting my own cab, which was a bit exciting.

This morning was spend with more lounging, returning the costumes to Wayne and April's, and then having a quick dinner together before Aine headed back home. And the second week of my break begins!

Did you know that Munich is pricey?

Left town on Thursday, went to Berlin, left Berlin on Friday, came to Munich, left Munich today, am now in Ruesselsheim. I took the bus to the train station, which sounds completely normal, except that I had 20 minutes from when the bus left my stop to getting onto the train. Well, somehow, it took 20 minutes to get to the train station. Ok, maybe 19, and then I ran and met up with the people I was riding with, and then found out that the train was 10 minutes delayed. I arrived into Berlin, met up with Russ, we had an incredible Vietnamese dinner, followed by wine and good conversation at a bar by his place.

I was kicked out of the apartment by 7.45am, because he or his housemate don't have an extra key. This actually turned out fine because I then took about an hour in half to just relax, and I started figuring out my characters for my book that I will be writing during November. The ride down to Munich went quickly, almost no traffic, but the occasional snow flurry (what?). The driver of the car was able to fit 7 of us comfortably and we talked for about half the trip. After arriving, I thought it would be nice to take a stroll in the English Gardens, but the snow and rain deterred me from staying very long. That night fell asleep around 9.30 because Dan and Andrea were coming the next day, and I was exhausted.

Meeting up with Andrea and Dan was quite joyful, per norm. We headed back to were were were staying, figured out that we would visit the Potato Museum and then see more museums because it was night of the long Museum. The Potato Museum did not meet our expectations, but was still pretty cool, a few rooms filled with information about potatoes. Then during the night of the long museums, which we payed 15euros and then got entrance into any museum until 2am. We went to the art museums and up the Olympic Tower, saw Munich at night.

I woke up earlier than Dan and Andrea on Sunday to go to church. It was a walk from the train station, and ended up being on the 5th floor of a building in the middle of the street. The service was nice, it was nice to have service in English. The priest was really nice, and asked what I was doing in Munich, invited me back, and gave me a year calendar. He also introduced me to the other Yankee at the service. We ended up going out for lunch afterwards. Then Dan and Andrea met up with me, and we went off to the German museums, where I learned about caves and science and other fun things like that. We ended up only having 2 hours there, which is enough for me. That night we stayed in and talked with one of the guys in the house. And then Andrea and went out for drink, decided that the restaurant we were at was too expensive, so we left and then bought a bottle of wine from the gas station (don't judge).

Monday was GRE day for Dan and Andrea. I walked around, found the theater we would later be visiting, found the used english Book store, and ate a cute little bakery. After the GRE, we went to the state opera where we saw a beautiful ballet. Our seats weren't the best, but we did get student prices, which always makes our wallets happy. Andrea is now a full ballet fan, and we both want to become ballerinas.

Dan went home today, Andrea and I did some touristy things, we saw the Glockenspiel, which is not nearly as cool as you expect it to be, but the tour guide next to us making fun of it made it more enjoyable, we went to breakfast with Patrick (the guy that I met at church) and then lunch with Robin (we stayed at his place, he was in Mallorca). And now we are here with Katy, which is really nice, because it is less expensive and also more relaxing.

Quote of the night: I am trying to convince Andrea to read the book I just read.
Andrea: I like short stories, I don't have to commit to them. Wow, this next one is 30 pages, it isn't that short.
me: Then commit (pointing at my book).
Andrea: No! I just want a one night stand!

Beaches, Towers, Rivers and Ruins

Katy left yesterday and I am already looking forward to seeing her again, well, her and a whole bunch of other people. Here is what our adventures held for us over the last few days:

I woke up a little earlier than Katy did on Friday so I could ride my bike 4.5km to pick up the package my parents sent. It was a pleasant, sunny, but also quite windy day. 4.5km, no big deal, I have done that before. It turned out to be longer than I was expecting, and once I got to the post office and proudly presented my package slip, the worker who helped me, looked at me and said, "well that is nice, but your package isn't here." It was actually dropped off at the post office which is very near where I live. Yes, this does make sense, but I followed the address which was on the front of the post card. Once I made it to the post office, I found out I had to pay taxes on it, which was frustrating. And the women there said the debit card machine may not work. In the end it did, which was good, since I had a total of 5 euros on me.

Once I got back and opened my package, which was filled with winter apparel and other fun goodies my parents packed inside, it was go time. Meaning shower, breakfast and get our stuff ready to go because we were going to Rostock! Our train left around 2pm, and were taking the bus (my first time here in Greifswald!). While we were rushing out the door and I realized that we didn't pack our sleeping bags, whatever, we could deal with that. We made it to the train station with time to spare, bought our ticket and waited patiently for the train. Unfortunately, that train was never going to come. The German train system is on strike right now. This isn't as bad as it sounds, but it isn't good. They are mostly striking with the local trains, and not even all of them, and generally only on Fridays. Unfortunately, it was a Friday and we happened to be lucky enough to have our ride canceled. We only had to wait about 40 minutes for the next train to take us to Stralsund. The problem then came with our connection. Our connecting train only train only ran every two hours, which meant we had to wait an extra 1.5 hours in Stralsund. This actually turned out to be really nice because it was a sunny day, we decided to hike the 221 steps up the tallest church tower and get a great view of the surrounding area.

Our train to Rostock was running, but 15 minutes late, we were fine with that, as long as it was running. Once we boarded the train, we had a nice and relaxing ride to the city. Shaun, a fellow English Language Assistant was going to meet and host us for the night. He lives on the outskirts of the city, and needed to take the S-bahn to meet us at the train station. These trains were running earlier in the day, and then around quiting time, decided to strike. This meant that Shaun was about 45 minutes late in meeting us. The rest of the night, things ran smoothly. We had dinner, went to a local student hang out, and then to a student club. The music at the club was always good when we weren't dancing and always poor when we were dancing. Once we got back to the room for the night, we had to decide how we were going to sleep. Shaun offered his bed, while he slept on the floor with his sleeping bag. I took the floor and slept with a thin fleece blanket and my coat. My pillow was a pair of pants and I slept at about two hour increments.

Saturday was another glorious da light lunch, we headed back and caught the train home. No problems with transportation this time. During lunch, Shaun asked this, "So if the pope is the highest up you can go, who does he confess to?" Which of course made me laugh, and I informed him that while the Catholic church does have a hierarchy, the pope can, in fact, confess to any other priest. But I do see his confusion. The thing Katy really wanted to do was to see the Baltic sea, and we finally did that. We took the train to a part of town called, Warnemünde. It was beautiful. There were beaches and ferries and seagulls and lots of people out enjoying the last of the nice weather. We didn't do anything spectacular, the view was enough for us. After a reasoning.

After the no sleep and making dinner on Saturday, Katy and I were beat and decided to stay in, which was great since I fell asleep at 10.30pm, the earliest I have been to bed in a long time. But we had church to be up for on Sunday. The weather stayed great, and walked and were late to church. Afterwards, we had dinner with about eight other students. They made lasagna and we had pudding with cherries for dessert, delicious. The last thing we decided to do was walk along the river to the beach. This is about an hour in half walk, but we didn't care, and we actually had four other German students join us, which was somewhat of a surprise. When we finally got to the beach, there was some complaining about how it isn't a nice beach, but one of the guys just said, We walked here to come to the beach, and we are going to the beach! Of course, I loved it, because I love the beach. We christened my new Frisbee and piqued some Ultimate interest while doing that.

There are also ruins of a monastery right around there, and since I hadn't seen them yet, and Katy hadn't either, that was our last stop. They were founded in 1199 and then pieces of the monastery were used when building other buildings in town. It still makes me wonder how they built such strong buildings hundreds of years ago, so that they are still somewhat standing, and today we build something, and it has to be taken down after 20 years or so.

So Katy left yesterday morning, and I spent the whole day laying around and relaxing, which I completely justified since we were busy the entire last week. Now I am figuring out my schedule for Fall Break, which is coming up soon, as in, leaving Thursday afternoon to start my adventures!

Things are more fun when you are entertaining

During the last week I:

• went to the German Sauna championships. This means I watched people sit in a sauna that was 110 C for as long as they could, very survivor style, "outlast." Early in September I carpooled down to Cologne, and the driver called me up on Friday to tell me about this exciting event. Hey, once in a lifetime, right?
  
• Stayed after church on Sunday, and ended up staying almost three hours talking with the students there, yay!
• picked Katy up from the train station!
• Went shopping with Katy, she got cute new shoes that are my size and we also picked up a whole bunch of food. That night (Monday) we made some chicken currey, the entire kitchen was a mess, but the food turned out great! She then made a cake, which was also good. My flatmates saw that we had a cake, and asked if it was one of our birthdays, and looked really worried that they missed mine. But once we told them it was not a birthday and that they could have a slice, they were quite excited.
  
• We attempted to find the karaoke bar, but there was none to be had on Tuesday night, but we did go to H&M and I finally got my jean mini skirt that I have been searching for. Am I too old for this article of clothing? Not when paired with tights and boots, which means I need to buy some tights and boots. But we did then go to two different bars, one was chic with a happy hour, and the other was intellectual with a whole bunch of people playing board games.
  
• My mentor teacher invited us on Wednesday to see the cranes. I guess when all the cranes fly south for the winter, they stop at the island of Hiddensee. Unfortunately, my camera's battery ran out, which I now know how to keep it from doing. But it was quite the sight. There were hundreds, possibly thousands of birds flying in, and their landing was so graceful. I could really learn a thing or two from them.
  
• And today was field trip day with the 11th grade class! We took the bus to a city that is near Rostock and did a high ropes course. It kinda freaked me out, because there was no safety for the carabiners, we weren't wearing helmets, and the guys who were running the course were casually walking around checking on us. However, it was fun to spend time with Katy on a course like that. It was hard not to be in counselor mode, trying to get the students who were scared to just do it. Most of the elements weren't too challenging, but maybe I have just told myself so many times that I am going to do it, because if I don't, then the campers get really scared.
  
• After we were finished with climbing, two other teachers, Katy and I went and looked out at the sea because we were right next to the beach. It is pretty amazing to think that somewhere out there is Sweden. Then we made chocolate chip cookies and brought them to the "Grill Evening" for the Lutheran, Catholic, and non-denom group. It was wonderful! I met new people and talked with the students I have already met.
  

Tomorrow we are going to Rostock. Katy is leaving on Monday, which is sad. But I start my fall break on Friday, which is great, and I found out yesterday that I essentially have a two week break, instead of a one week break, sweet!

Doin Stuff

The entire month of September was spent figuring out life, and while this is still happening, I finally have something concrete to do. On Tuesday, Carsta and I figured out a schedule. It isn't done, I only have ten hours right now, and we need to get 2 more in, so I am still in the process of asking teachers if I can come. I would really love to help out with the 5th and 6th graders, but they already have enough people helping (but they don't know my energy!). On Thursday, I half taught four classes. Some of the times I didn't exactly know what I was doing, but winging it has generally been a strong point of mine. For an eighth grade class, I had them do a small debate with one another, and then talked about dating with a 10th grade class, they were quite unresponsive.

Then I was done, and it was good to relax, but when I relax, I don't just relax, I become a sloth. Since I still don't really know anyone here, and don't really know how I go about meeting people, life is slow. Usually I can be quite the social butterfly (as seen with my tendancies to meet everyone at Frisbee tournaments), but this is such a different situation than I have ever been in. I did do something constructive today, I went running, and it felt so good. I haven't gone running in months, it was me, my ipod, and paths I just took. I am one step closer to my lifetime goal of running a marathon.

And now I am going to buy new bedding and an alarm clock!

Sun in Berlin was good this time

Over the past week, I have traveled every single day, and now I am done, for a while at least. Yesterday I had the opportunity to travel to Berlin. Over the weekend, I found out that two of my teammates were going to concert and they kinda invited me/invited myself, and they were both really into me coming. The band we went to see is called The New Pornographers, as Joe says, "pure rock heaven." During the car ride back to Frankfurt, I listened to a bit of what they have to offer, and it was pretty remarkable.

I took the train into Berlin, and Russ was a bit late picking me up, and then there was some confusion on when Joe's train was getting in. In the end, we were in a cab and both of the guys tasted some of the pastries I had purchased in Greifswald (it was so good that I wanted to share). After dropping off our stuff we went to the gig. The concert was in a basement bar, low ceilings, smoky, no food offered, but a really cool place. The opening act was pretty good, just one guy with a guitar. He is the kind of guy who is average attractive, and then once he starts singing, he becomes extremely attractive, and then we found out he was British! The place filled up pretty quickly and the band came on stage.

At first, we were squished in the middle and I couldn't really see anything. Since I don't know the band, I don't know the songs. The best way for me to enjoy the show was then to push my way forward and take pictures on Joe's camera. I spent most of the show right in front dancing and making photos, it was great! I brought Joe up to the front, since he is the actual fan, I think between that, getting a whole bunch of photos, and then also getting one of the set lists signed by the band, I became pretty cool.

We weren't able to get food before the show, so we took a useless cab ride to a pizza place. We sat and ate and drank and ended up talking about religion. Then we went to a bar and met up with another Mother Tongue player, Rob, which was also great. Four Frisbee players hanging out in Berlin? Awesome.

We got to bed pretty late and then woke somewhat early because Joe was leaving at 11am, after tea, cereal and toast, we headed out to Alexanderplatz to have a look around. We decided it would be good fun to go up the TV tower and see the whole of Berlin. The day was beautiful, and it was so interesting seeing the huge city, still going through major construction. Joe then had to leave us, which was sad since we don't know when we will see him again. Hopefully at the latest, next July for Sandblast.

Russ and I then walked down the Brandenburg gate to see what was going on for Tag der Deutschen Einheit (German unity day, when the east and west became one country again). After some confusion as to where the free concert was, we walked over to the Reichstag and sat out on the lawn because it was sunny and warm. We spent the next two hours talking about things that are actually important to us. Even though the conversation was pretty heavy, we also laughed, a lot. We learned we have a lot more in common than I originally thought.

The rest of the afternoon was spent eating a wonderful meal from the Turkish place down the street from Russ and somewhat napping and just relaxing. Lunch was on the balcony. Finally, it was time for me to come back to Greifswald. We said good-bye, but I do have an open invitation to visit again, like when friends come visit, he is more than happy to house us (hint, hint), and of course there will be more ultimate tournaments.

Dreaming of Ultimate

Playing Frisbee with Mother Tongue has got to be similar to drugs. You are up, up, up, and then you go through withdrawal and it is all downhill until you can even start looking forward to the next tournament. This past weekend was my fourth tournament and it was in Erlangen. The weekend actually started on Thursday night when I traveled to Potsdam to meet up with a teammate. Bob cooked lasagna and we had a pleasant evening chatting. The next morning we took the train down to Erlangen, and we had rain to meet us there. It rained the entire day, we both bought umbrellas, got really wet, then finally just got something to eat. That night we met up with some other Tongues, first Russ at the station and then Biscuit and Meike joined at the restaurant. After I said I played at Beachfest last summer, Russ then got excited and said, "I knew I recognized you! You were fastest on the sand!" I guess it is ok to have that as a reputation.

Saturday was great, woke up early, nearly woke up the entire hall with my bouncy-ness. The whole team didn't even meet each other until the second game. It was cloudy in the morning, but the rain held off (because Joe from Chicago gave me his umbrella just in case we would need it at the field, and since we had it, it didn't rain. Had it not been packed, it would have rained). We won all of our games on Saturday, but didn't win the beer race. This was a race for two players on each team, a three legged raced with army crawling and jumping over a table, then drinking a Frisbee with some beer in it, and throwing a frisbee through a hula-hoop. It was good for laughter.

For dinner we went to a typical German Brau house, and the friendly Turkish team met us up there. A team from Istanbul played in the tournament, the funny thing was they were almost all Americans, but did actually have one Turk. Their captain played for Notre Dame, and graduated two years ago. Which means he was at White Smoke (the ND tourney) when Valpo went for their first tournament, and that meant that Valpo played against ND at their tournament, which means I had seen him play ultimate already, but of course didn't know it. Most of Mother Tongue made it to the party, we played "Never, ever have I ever..." and once the music got a little better decided to dance. Sean, from Turkey, turned out to be a great dancer, so we danced together most of the night, things like swing, the cha-cha and waltzing.

Sunday was also wonderful, except for losing one game, which was the championship game. That was kinda a downer, but not too badly. In between games we played the animal sound game, where you pick an animal, do a sound and a motion, and then pass it along. Check out the pictures for the tournament on this one. After saying out good-byes, I went with the Frankfurt crowd back to Frankfurt. On the way home, we drove past the Turkish team, and traffic wasn't the greatest, so we were able to conduct a few conversations with them, they threw Reeses at us, a camera was passed between the cars to take pictures, and email addresses were exchanged. Also, Carsten's car (the car I was in) reached 100,000km! Woo, what an event! Once we were back in Frankfurt, Wayne, April, Joe and I went out for Chinese. We were all sore and tired, but still made dinner last about two hours, maybe a little less.

Like I said, now I am going through withdrawl, luckily I get to see a few of them tomorrow because of the holiday on Wednesday!

being comfortable

Two things quick before I go again:
Last night I had the stereotypical German dinner. It consisted of Knodel (which is some kind of bread thing, kinda like a dumpling), bratwurst, and sauerkraut. And even though I don't like sauerkraut, I ate it anyway, because it would be rude to not.

The second thing is that I wish I could always wear jeans, a t-shirt, my hair in braids, and a cap. That is what I am wearing right now, and it reminded me that I love this look, the typical American look. It looks good on me.

Kites are not dragons

This past weekend I celebrated Kite Fest! Here is the back story: Drache means dragon and kite in German. So, I thought I was going to a dragon fest. Yes, that doesn't make any sense, but I was unaware that the tournament I attended was part of a full international festival. Anyway, it was kite fest, and I was a bit disappointed, but the weekend was still fun.


We had beautiful weather, which was great, because two weeks prior we had terrible weather at a tournament. Everyone who was there was walking around in shorts and a t-shirt. The tournament didn't start until noon, which meant we didn't have to leave until Saturday morning. The tournament was also a hat tournament, which means you don't go with a team, but sign up individually. My team was called "Ridgeback" and we were pretty terrible. The teams weren't distributed terribly equally, my team had more women than any other team. At first we were all a little unsure about each other, but throughout the weekend we were all joking around with each other. At the end of the day on Sunday, when we were done playing, five of us were all sitting together to watch the "All Star" game.

And because we got done around 1pm, we also got to walk around a bit of the international kite fest, and it was amazing. There were more kites in one area than I have ever seen. The colors were amazing, and they were everywhere.

And finally, here is the beautiful sunset I saw while riding my bike home from Steffi's house.

my art is good enough, I like it

One reason I dislike speaking English in public places in Germany, is because I feel like the people around me think I can't speak German, that I am just another American. Tonight I met up with a group of very cultural people. Greifswald offered a night called "Culture Night" which in theory seemed really cool, but we found there wasn't really that much to do, but it ended up being a really fun night. I was spending the evening with Steffi and her work colleagues. All people she works with from the physics institute. The reason we were speaking English with one another was because in our group we had one American (me), two Germans, one Hungarian, one Mexican, one French girl, and one girl from Chile. We decided that spending time with one another was enough of a cultural night, but we did do some of the activities. At first I was a bit nervous, because I didn't know anyone besides Steffi, but the group was really great, because of the diversity, no one knew one other person all that great, which made for a fun evening. During th evening, we went to a natural museum, made our own art, sat outside of a church and had dinner, went to a pub, made plans to do karaoke together, and I made a bet with one of them. It was a really pleasant evening and the ride home was good, I learned about chaos theory physics, which of course I didn't understand, but was still interested in learning.

And now I have to get to bed, tomorrow (err, today) I am going to Potsdam for a hat tournament, meaning you sign up, then they pick out of a hat who is going to be on what teams.

And I am going to push my glasses up a little higher

Today was a great day! The sun was out almost the whole day, and I was busy the whole day. The reason I am a huge nerd right now (and all the time) is because I just got back from watching Star Wars (in German) and the book I am currently reading is Harry Potter.

The day started out at 7.45 when Carsta (my mentor teacher) picked me up. This week is project week, so we visited her students at different companies throughout the city. We were originally going to do that today and tomorrow, but we were able to get it all done in one day. It was really nice meeting the students one at a time. The funniest thing that happened to me today was that one of her students is doing his internship at the Max Planck Institute for physics. Fun, the only friend I have here in Greifswald works there, but it is a pretty large building. She said he was working in plasma physics, and that sounded strangely familiar. We met with the student and then the professor as he was walking in. He invited us up to the offices. When we were walking down the hallway, I saw Steffi making herself a cup of tea! We were both so confused and then started laughing. She invited me to see her office, and I met someone else that she worked with. What are the odds?

So Carsta and I drove around all day, she ran into about six or seven people that she knows, maybe more. When were done, we sat in the city center and had some ice cream, well, she did, I had Sekt (sparkling wine) with strawberry cream in it. Lovely! After the day, I came back here, napped and watched scrubs until about 7.30, when I headed back out to the catholic student center (St. Joseph's). Daniel, one of the guys I met last week, asked why I bolted from church on Sunday, and I said because I am dumb. Again, we had dinner and chatted some. Then talked about the upcoming semester, I attempted to make a few jokes, they fell flat (like my jokes normally do) BUT I was able to be awkward and funny, so in the end, everyone laughed! And then we watched Star Wars. And now I am going to read some Harry Potter before bed.

when it is windy, I am riding my bike against it

Today, I biked around Greifswald for about five hours. It was really windy and I went back and forth across the city. It started with me riding to my bank, which takes about two minutes. The reason I had to go to my bank was because when I attempted to log into my account on-line on Saturday, it wouldn't let me. So I went in, and explained my situation. The guy who I think was the boss of the branch brought me into the office and was going to show me how to do it. And then he ran into a problem. It was not letting him in either, so he called whoever he needed to call and I guess they never really registered me or something. Then someone did that, but it still wasn't working. He then compared the TAN number that I had with the one they had on file for me, I guess they were completely different. So I had to get a new set of numbers and wait about five minutes. Finally, everything worked out fine.

Then I cycled over to Media Markt (their version of Best Buy) to see if I could get my camera fixed by them. I explained my situation to one of the women at the service counter, and she kept saying they couldn't honor my warranty from the states, and I kept trying to tell her I just needed it fixed, and then a receipt to send in. Finally, she understood what I was asking, and then had someone else help me. This guy was really great, and we were all ready to go. I would have to pay a fee to have it looked at, fine, do you take Visa? nope.

So I had to cycle across town to go to the bank, but I had to get across town anyway to bring in my last bit of paperwork for my scholarship. Handed that in, went to the bank, and walked around the city center for a while. The ride to the town center was long, I got a little lost, and the wind was against me. So I was taking my time and relaxing. Then I got back on my bike and went back. When I got there, the guy was ready to help, and just wanted to make sure that my camera really was broken. He put the battery back in, and, what do you know, the camera turned on! It was quite embarrassing, and I know how to put the battery in my camera, and I fully charged it as well. I was actually quite happy to have it working, because I have missed it over the past two weeks, and now I know I can bring it to Media Markt. After this finding, I bought myself a new pillow which I am extremely excited to try out tonight.

Then I rode home, and Katy was by her computer, which was wonderful, because we could then talk for about a half hour, not longer because I was meeting Steffi and some other girls for Frisbee at 6.30. I got back on my bike and rode back across town and taught someone how to throw a frisbee. Afterwards, three of us went to the restaurant next to the beach and ordered hot chocolate and laughed about cultural differences. It was a long, tiring, but good day.

Speaking German makes me tired

This past weekend was quite up and down. Saturday I found myself surrounded by a family and laughing all day. I spent the whole day with my mentor teacher and her family. She and her eight year old son picked me up. He is adorable (the son), as soon as I got into the car, he started asking em questions and telling me about himself. He would start talking really fast at points, and I would just nod my head and laugh where it seemed good. I ate lunch and dinner at their place. For lunch we had a very typical German meal, with schnitzel, potatoes and vegetables. And for dessert we had yogurt. Then we took a hike in the woods, and the dog came as well! As we were on our way out, the family stopped and saw that there were a whole bunch of mushrooms growing wild in a field of Christmas trees. I guess they know their mushrooms, because these were the kind you could fry up and eat! So we picked a basket full and got our hands dirty from the dirt.

After we got back, we had the traditional coffee and cake around four pm. There is a part of me that wishes I could drink coffee, it just seems so adult. But I really have tried. The family has another son who is about thirteen, and we played soccer in the backyard, which brought on much laughter, especially after the dad joined my team. And for dinner, we grilled, yum! After dinner, the sons and I played a game, because the youngest practically begged to watch a movie, but he would have to head to bed in the middle of it. When I left, I promised I would come back.

Then Sunday was filled with pretty much nothing. I went to church in the morning. The church was almost packed, there happened to be a baptism. It was really fun to join in on the sacrament. It made me sad when almost no one joined in on the baptismal vows. It was also quite surprising to see that the child was well over one-year-old, maybe they just wait in Germany. After church I saw some people I met on Wednesday. One of the guys saw me and waved. A wave that says, "Hey, come on over." I waved back and then just left. A second after I did that, I realized how stupid that was, but I felt so stupid that I couldn't just turn around and say hi. So spent the day reading and watching TV. Next time I will be bolder, because I am a bold, adventurous person (I have to remind myself that pretty much every day).

I don't have either

JD: Do you think it's out of line to take my best friend here out to dinner? I mean, this is like the end of an era. We've always been known as Turk and JD. Like when we were in college, it was always, "When are Turk and JD getting here?" And then in med school, most people were like, "When are Turk and JD getting here?"
Turk: We didn't have a car.

After going into town today, I have come to the conclusion that everyone in my city either has a kid or a dog. Now, I knew that a lot of Germans had dogs, they bring them everywhere! They bring them in stores, in the semi-mall, sometimes there is a picture of a dog outside of store telling the owners the dog has to stay out. I haven't ever really come across that in America, unless it was a beach or a park. Right, so if not a dog, then a kid! Maybe Tuebingen was really different, and maybe because a lot of the students aren't here yet, but every young couple appears to have a small child with them. And, a lot of times you see them riding on a bike with their parent, but not in a child seat, buckled in with a helmet. No, in a seat right in front of the adult, not buckled in, no helmet! Every time I see this, I want to stop the adult on the bike and ask them about this situation.

watch out, it's a long one!

Ok, I will be better. Over the past two weeks I have been busy, and also not busy. As a quick sum up of what I did:
Saturday Sept. 1- Slept in, then lounged around for a while, long enough so that by the time I went into the city to do a little sight seeing, everything was closed. If I thought stores closed early in Tübingen, I was wrong. It isn't terrible, but could be better. Everything closed around 4.30pm, which is nice for the store owners, but what about lazy young adults like myself?

Sunday- went to Cologne. Took a car-sharing trip there, it took longer than I had expected so I didn't get into the hostel until around 10.30, but since I had a cell phone, and I had been corresponding with another Fulbrighter, we were all right. I met up with her and three other people she had met, it was lovely walking around the city at night. We went to a karaoke bar, but by the time I submitted my song (You Drive me Crazy by Brittney Spears), they were all booked up. Of course they didn't tell us this and we just sat and watched drunk Germans make fools out of themselves.

Monday- Zoo! We went to the zoo, and it was fun, until I got really sad realizing how sad it was for the animals that were in the cages. Yeah, I know that is where they keep them, but it still sucks for them. Later in the day all the Fulbrighters came together and we headed off for the conference. I met up with Katy, which was wonderful, and met her fellow WashU alum is also here this year, and two other Tübingeners, and ran into even more while we were there. I met a lot of people, it became really tiring to sit down and ask the same questions over and over again. Most people gave up after day one. The conference lasted until Thursday. Wednesday night, two other Tübingeners were part of the talent show. We did a little bit of improv, and it was great! Everyone said so, we had a great crowd, which makes a huge difference. It was fun because we had never worked together before and I didn't have to lead the scenes. I kinda felt like a celebrity afterwards. Then we all left for our own cities, except I head down to Tübingen!

Thursday- I stayed with Kelly and Daniel, and we chatted about different things, mostly German, that aggravated us, and laughed a lot together. They seem to be doing really great, which, of course, I am happy about. She is always a great hostess. If I come to visit after October, they will even have an extra room. That night I met up with the new Valpo kids in town. That was really fun, until a German guy came up to us and decided to tell us how felt out American politics. It was not exactly the nicest way to put things, and eventually I said we were already late for an appointment. I took them to a great pub where we sat and drank our beers, Jen her Kiba, and talked and laughed some more. They all say they want to come visit, but it is far for them.

Friday- breakfast/lunch with Kelly, lots of talking with Kelly, then catching the train to Reutlingen, where I met up with Andrea! Hooray! It was great, great to see her and Dan, and also great to have something other than the wedding to talk about. We seem to get into step with each other faster and faster, maybe it is the seeing each other only a few weeks apart, I have really been appreciating that. We went on a shoe hunt, and both got a pair of new shoes. Hers were a little cheaper than mine.

Saturday/Sunday- tournament in Stuttgart. I played with Frankfurt, they aren't the best team, but they have fun. It was frustrating for me, but April continued to explain to me that they just started training with a real coach, and working towards something. We took 19th place, hey, not so bad for nationals, right? Well, there were 21 teams in total. The party was a bit lame, felt a lot like high school, or I guess now I can compare it to fraternity parties. It is weird feeling older than I am because most Germans are students until they are about 25, but right now I am not a student, nor am I working towards my career goal (which I am still seeking).

Sunday night- back to Reutlingen! I don't think the excitement about seeing Andrea and Dan will wear off this year. Monday morning I took the train all the way back to Greifswald. It was a long ride, but a good, relaxing one. It was the first time I really enjoyed being on the train. Of course my muscles were really sore by that time, and my feet hurt, so sitting was wonderful. I just listened to my iPod (yay, God!), and the time went by.

Tuesday- I was supposed to start at school, but my teacher had a lesson she was filling in for, and it all kinda got muddeled up. She then said it would be best for me to register with the city and start the Visa process. This took far longer than I had expected. In Tübingen, it took all of 30 minutes, but here there was a big line, and registering and getting a Visa were two different things. And I am not even done, because they have to check with Tübingen to make sure of whatever.

Today- Actually started school! But I just sat in the back and listened to the lesson, quite boring, not what I was expecting. Maybe it is too much to ask for, to be the main attraction, at least for one day. But this is what other assistants said happened to them, they were asked many questions. I think tomorrow will be better, I am with my mentor teacher, and I explained that I wanted to be more interactive. Then after some sitting around in my room watching Scrubs, I rode into town again. Bought Harry Potter in German, a cook book, and a TV guide and then went to the Catholic student center, where on Wednesday nights they get together and hang out. I was really nervous when I got there, but the students made me feel really comfortable. They made Käse Spätzle, which I am always in the mood for, and just talked and laughed together. It was nice, being with about six other people, all who will just speak German with you. Maybe it was the being around that much German, but I got really tired, and was the first to leave. But they are all on break right now, and I have work tomorrow. Speaking of, it is pretty late.

I promise more of a daily/social commentary. I always think of good things to blog about, but then I never do, so it becomes boring such as this entry. Next time, it will be shorter and cleverer.

I have arrived

Goodbye to:

• mosquitoes
  
• free refills
• ice on my water or pop
• figuring out what the tip is
• semisweet chocolate
• peanut butter
• driving a car
• wireless internet
• being witty and funny when first meeting someone
  

Hello to:

• fresh bakery goods
• riding a bike often
• making my own food
• spending time in beer gardens
• traveling by train all the time
• cooler weather
• butter
  
• speaking lots of German
  

Today I arrived, and my adventure started. Yes, my adventure for this year actually started last year when I started applying (which was in July 2006). But yesterday I got on the plane, didn't sleep at all, got on a bus, then a train and then was picked up at the train station. I moved in, and to my delight, there was lots of of stuff left for me in the room, like lots of spices, and extension chords and even a television! I took a nap which was very hard to get up from, but I did so I could shower, which felt great. Then I took my first trip to the super market. I was sad to not find my favorite meal to make, so I will have to stock up on Maultaschen when I am down south. But then when I was about to make dinner, three of my flatmates were starting to play Monopoly and invited me to play. I was much quieter than normal, but made a few jabs here and there. Now to bed, hooray!

Planned and unplanned meetings

This past Saturday I took my last trip to Chicago for the next ten months. And it was lovely. The weather was perfect, sunny but not too warm. My day started with the train ride into the city. After I got on the train, a boy from the grade school I attended got on the same car as mine (Paul Roycroft). He was with his family and I chatted with him for about two minutes. Once I arrived in Chicago, I met up with my friend Rachel, also met her in grade school. She said while she was waiting for me (since I told her the wrong time), she ran into a couple who are parents of someone else we went to grade school with (the Houstons). We had breakfast together, me and Rachel, and it was wonderful. Rachel is the person you can not talk to for months or even years, and it would be as if you saw her yesterday. I learned about her crazy and wonderful family and her upcoming wedding. I told her all about what I know about my future. She walked me to the El and we said good-bye for at least a year.

I took the El up to Bryn Mawr, and as I was walking on the platform, noticed that a girl I went to college with was sitting and waiting for the train to take her back into the city. So we chatted for a few minutes and told her I would visit her apartment next July. The afternoon was then filled with Andy and Heather, so it was amazing. We dyed my hair, again, and had a good lunch and watched Lord of the Rings. After the good afternoon, I took the bus back into the city and was supposed to transfer to another bus. The first bus was late getting in, so I had to run from Michigan and Jackson to Olgilvie station in about 20 minutes. Apparently the new Batman movie was being filmed downtown and somewhat had to run through that. Somehow, I made it on the train on time. While I was looking for an empty seat, I then think I saw another person I went to college with! But since I didn't really want to talk to him (if it was him), I just continued walking. After many full cars, I came across a car that was near empty and sat down and relaxed. Oh Chicago, you are so big, but yet I still run into people when I am there.

Being an attendant in a wedding is fun

Last weekend was Andrea and Dan's wedding, and it was the most catholic, non-Catholic wedding I have ever been to. The first wedding I attended was quite a shock to me. Why was it only 15 minutes? Wasn't there months of planning put into this one day, and it all revolved around this ceremony. Later I was talking to someone, and they had commented how Catholic weddings are so long. So for the first Catholic wedding I attended, I made myself comfortable, I was ready for a few hours. Again, to my surprise at a wedding, it was only an hour. It was only a mass with a few vows put into it. We still celebrated the Eucharist and there was a wedding. Dan and Andrea's wedding was great, there were three readings plus the gospel reading and a Homily. While there was no Eucharist, there was lots of singing and of course the vows. It ran about an hour. Maybe it felt short because I was about to sob the entire time, because it was so beautiful, because two of my friends are starting their lives together.

The reception was also wonderful. We spent most of Saturday getting the hall ready. It started out as the church's basic hall and turned into a beautiful hall for a wedding reception. The tables were decorated with brown table cloths, and each had a picnic basket. Inside the picnic basket was a pink and white checkered cloth with excellent Rose wine. Around the basket were the wine glasses that Andrea spent the entire summer collecting and decorating. Everyone said it was a very clever wedding favor. The food was great, the pie was better, and my toast was written a during the reception. And by written I mean I made notes on a notecard. We saw them off with bubbles and a light rain. Oh goodness, there is another Mr. and Mrs. Jarratt in this world, lovely!

Cabin fever

Chiggers seem like nothing compared to what I am experiencing right now. First off, if you don't know what chiggers are, they are small bugs that usually live in tall grass and if you traipse through it, they will bite you. The problem is that you don't know they are biting you until you a take a shower the next day and find small red, extremely itchy red bumps in really awkward places. Anyway, I have an itch to go somewhere. When I am at home and am not working it gets really boring. Yeah, I am supposed to be cleaning out my room (which is no fun since I am not moving out, just moving to Germany. That means two suitcases. If you have ever seen the amount of stuff I have, that is a small amount of what is in my room). Saturday night I made lime squares for my family. The next day my brother ate half of the pan. Tonight, I made rhubarb pie and strawberry rhubarb, mainly because I just wanted to, it gave me something to do. Luckily, tomorrow I am working and Wednesday I leave until Sunday to celebrate Dan and Andrea. I am just a restless person, I like having things to do, places to be, it keeps me feeling occupied. I guess I will just see how working 12 hours a week is really going to be this coming year. Eeep.

Old Friends

Words & music by paul simon

Old friends,
Old friends
Sat on their park bench
Like bookends.
A newspaper blown though the grass
Falls on the round toes
Of the high shoes
Of the old friends.

Old friends,
Winter companions,
The old men
Lost in their overcoats,
Waiting for the sunset.
The sounds of the city,
Sifting through trees,
Settle like dust
On the shoulders
Of the old friends.

Can you imagine us
Years from today,
Sharing a park bench quietly?
How terribly strange
To be seventy.
Old friends,
Memory brushes the same years
Silently sharing the same fears

Sitting on the floor, sharing stories that are interwoven, remembering being a high schooler, and laughing at all of this combined is where I am right now. Someone on the train asked me what I "did." And right now, I don't "do" anything and it is pretty great. It is still hard to just enjoy having time that is not planned out, but being reminded that even if a story was seven years ago, it can still feel like it just happened and it can also embarrass you, which makes you grin even more. Is this song sad? Or somehow uplifting and comforting?

Lists and why they are great

Here are a few things I will miss about camp:

• Three meals a day cooked by the wonderful kitchen crew
• laughing at pirate jokes that aren't really funny
• telling my rockin' bed-time story
• playing the Canada Game
• sharing quick smiles with the staff since we aren't supposed to interact with each other
• talking about my week with my counselor manager
• driving Caroline's car
• going out on Friday nights with the staff
• being incredibly silly with campers
• watching the Gold Rush skits

Here are a few reasons why I am glad I am not at camp anymore:

• Andrea's wedding is less than three weeks away, and I get to help her with stuff!
• Having personal time again
• sleeping late
• meals that aren't chicken nuggets
• going out whatever day of the week it is
• watching TV with my mom and dad
• reading whenever I want to
• having more than two hours of personal time (do you see a trend)
• figuring out all this stuff for Germany before I leave for Germany

Camp was good, it was great. I grew as a counselor, but I don't think that I could do another summer of general staff. But who knows where I will be a year from now. The thought scares me and invigorates me at the same time.

First day of college

The first day of college is awkward for everyone, at least I thought so. I am reading, I am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe. I just finished a chapter where one of the characters spends her first night at college. The dorm is coed, meaning that the girls and the guys share the bathroom and that there are people drinking during the night. She is so taken aback because their RA had said no drinking in the dorm and she sees two boys disobeying this rule the very first night and in public. Charlotte then tries to get to sleep and finds that a few other students decide to have a party with loud music. Part of me sympathized with her, remembering how scary my first night at college was.
Going to school where you don't know anyone other than the people that I met at freshman orientation was exciting but also a bit frightening. I remember picking out my clothes so as to look good but also to look like I didn't put any thought into what I was wearing. Did everyone else do that? Or was that just me? My brother and I left earlier than my parents with all my stuff and ended up getting a bit lost in Chicago and my parents got to the campus first. There was so much to do, going to the registrar, signing up for my meal plan, filling out a survey, coming back to my room and seeing that my mom and brother had unpacked all my stuff (which was great except I had no idea where anything was for three weeks). If I hadn't met a group of friendly boys during the afternoon, I would have felt so lost. That night I stayed up and watched a movie and left the room later than I would have if I were home because I could stay as late as I wanted.
That worry feeling hasn't really left because I always find myself in new situations, soon I will be again in a new place for ten months. But Charlotte Simmons, I feel for you.

How sweet it is

I have been counting down the days, first I took note when Sandblast was announced. Then we attempted to put a Valpo team together for it, which failed. Then I had to bide my time until I could find a pick-up team since it is ultimate and organization is normally the afterthought. Cree wanted me to put a bid out for the two of us, which I was happy to do. I placed pretty much an add on rsd and got about six responses in ten hours, took the first one and apologized to the other teams. There were a few emails back and forth about the tournament, but a team can't really mesh over emails unless you already knew each other. From the time I arrived at camp, I was counting down the days until I would be able to play beach ultimate (my favorite way to play ultimate). And then it was here and now it is gone, which is sad, but it was one of my favorite tournaments of my life.

First really awesome thing, my captain applied for jersey sponsorship, and we got it, oh yeah! We had sweet jerseys that fit well and looked great. It was really just a waterfull of fun after that. I arrived at the pitches, found the team and we all started joking around with another. I love it when the tone is set great from the start. Most of the team had played together in the Chicago leagues, we had a few guests, one player from Texas, one from Lousiana, one from Michigan. These three were all linked to someone on the team somehow, and then there was me and Cree, the youngest players on the team, but it never felt awkward (unless someone was intentionally trying to make you feel awkward, which became Oren's job after he sliced part of his toe off).

The first day we went 3-1, we had a couple really close games which shouldn't have been close. Our last game on Saturday was for the bracket play, and since we won, we were in the quarter finals of the spirit division (meaning it was not as competitive and probably more fun for me at least). How hot was it you ask? Really, really hot. Ok, that is not an answer, but the only thing which made that day not so great is that the lake was closed.

After going out to Piece with my friends from college (that sounds weird, past tense now) I woke up crazy early on Sunday not feeling so well, but still excited to play more Frisbee. Sunday was amazing. I would be sitting on the sidelines thinking, man, I could just sit for the rest of the day, but then when it was my turn to go it, my feet started in a sprint towards the endzone and giant smile would appear on my face. We played well Sunday, well enough to the spirit division champions! Two universe point games (meaning the teams were tied at 12-12 or 14-14 and the last point determined the winner) and one of the greatest games of my life were played on Sunday. Not to down play the final, but the semi-final was amazing for me. So yeah, we won and the lake was open! During the half-time of the semi game, JW turned to me and said, "Foot race to the lake to cool off?" (I had asked him this earlier in the day), and we turned and ran, and accidently ran through another teams field while they were playing (But really, they were about to pull, we didn't run through a group of people, but the funny part is we were telling everyone who was not at the beach for the tournament to go around the fields, sometimes they listened, sometimes not).

It was good to win, it was good to play with a good team, it was good to have a lot of fun playing frisbee again. When I am not organizing and can joke around with my teammates, what a great time. It reminded me of playing with Mother Tongue again, and that makes me smile. Thanks How to Stuff a Wild Bikini.

(And for you non-ultimate players, if you got this far on the post, way to go!).


And to name off the people that you don't know:
Front row: JW, Oren, Vickey, Lori, Carrie
Back row: Jim, Matthew, John, Dan, Drew, Aaron, Nicki, Coco, Cree

Camp is beautiful and difficult

It has been three weeks since I left Illinois once again for Indiana. There must be some kind of deep down sense in me that wants me to be Indiana all the time (at least when I am in the US). Camp training started May 26th, we worked through Memorial Day. I always seem to work through labor day because Valpo doesn't take it off and Memorial Day, oh well, builds character I guess. Pre-camp was interesting, it was better this year than it was in '05 because I knew what to expect and I wasn't trying to compare it to Timber-Lee, instead I could enjoy it for what it was. The last summer I was here I came into the summer so negative, it took almost the entire summer to shake that off, but finally I did and fell in love with CYO Camp. The staff is all energetic (which is great).

The first week of camp went extremely well (for me at least and for camp). I was the fire building and outdoor cooking counselor. This means I facilitated teaching how to build a fire and we also got to make yummy snacks. The awesome thing about this activity is that you don't have to sell it, campers and counselors love it. The not so awesome thing is that you have to be constantly feeding or making a fire and you also smell like campfire, which at first is great but after a while is not and everything starts to smell like it, and you just re-wear clothes because what is the point?

This past week I was the creek stomping counselor, which is really a made up position because we are over staffed. When I saw that, it pretty much crushed me. One reason was because I was excited to have a group of my own and the other because that meant I would be an area counselor for the second week and the odds of me being the faith counselor for week three was small. The reason I wanted to be the faith counselor is that my priest from school would be saying mass on Friday. The week went much better than I thought, although to the dismay of other counselors getting sick and me filling in here and there, and also having my campers fall in love with Frisbee (yes!). The actual creek stomping part of the job was really lame, especially since I really don't know anything about nature.

And it is the weekend, which is lovely. This coming week I will be the faith counselor! Can you tell I am pretty excited? And it is also only three weeks until I am home to play in the Sandblast Ultimate Frisbee tournament, hooray.

For the times, they are a-changin'

Yup, it's been twelve days since my last post and a lot has happened in those 12 days:

1. I finished everything for finals!
2. Many parties celebrating how awesome we all are (two chemistry get togethers, a physics get together (where I talked to mostly chemistry majors), a German get together, senior week parties, Andrea's Birthday)
3. I dyed my hair red (it will stay for a month, and I like it!).
4. Graduation!
5. Moved back home (for a week, then it is off to beautiful Brown County and camp)
6. Got a tattoo with Heather, it was awesome, I was nervous. Yes, it did hurt, but I took some pain reliever beforehand, so I think that helped quite a bit. heather got up super early, because she is a champ, and took the train into the city then back out. After omelets, we drove to visit my brother. After an intense game of "paper, scissors, rock" she went first. She got a great shamrock to represent the trinity and I got a Celtic trinity to represent the trinity (and how I am a wanna-be Irish girl, not really, the symbol is really awesome). Afterwards, we traveled bought chocolate and ice cream from the chocolate factory on the way home, it was delicious.

All scratched up

Two classes down, two to go. Yesterday I worked fervently on my theology paper, the thesis: how to sustain a marriage by following the 10 simple rules to ultimate Frisbee. Writing is not my forte, but writing this paper was fun over half the time. I was still writing a paper, so it couldn't be too fun. It ended up being 10 pages, which is within the range, hopefully.

Yesterday also ended my econ class with the easiest final I have ever taken. It took me 40 minutes to complete it, which is pretty amazing.

Also, yesterday was the last capture the flag I will play at valpo. This was something my friends would do most Saturdays during freshman and sophomore year. We haven't done it yet this year and with graduation looming, we had to get in one more. I think we had around 20 people show up, representing all years of college kids. I was late because I worked later than I thought I would, and I also just forgot until Mark called me. My team won both games we played (with Mark on your team, it is hard to lose), and I am more scratched up not from CTF than I have ever been from that game, but the scratches make me smile a little, because it reminds me why my friends are so great.