Why is my hair so frizzy?

While I had reminded myself that I would be returning to the land of humidity, that was clearly not enough. Leaving the airport was the first shock, wow, it is hot, but more than hot. Why did I leave Greifswald? At nights, one could wear jeans and light jacket (sometimes more was needed) and be extremely comfortable.

Then today, I took a shower, styled my hair per norm, and then a few hours later, realized that what is usually cute curls had turned into a big mess, more frizz than curls! So now my hair is pulled back, which also gets it off my neck. I wonder how long I will keep it long for.

Frisbee gatherings (part 1)

It has been now a week since I made my last post, and a lot has happened since then. I don't want to limit myself to a short post, and I dislike writing really long posts, so I will just continue to write retrospective posts. This one will be about last Thursday to whenever I want to stop.

My frisbee team in Greifswald is wonderful! At the beginning of the year, I was really wary of helping start one, but am so glad that Steffi pushed for it. Last Thursday (June 19th), we had our typical thursday practice, and at practice, we were trying to figure out where to watch the Germany quarter final game:
Daniel: We could go to Marktplatz
Ali and myself: No! It is too crowded there, we don't like the smoke, I can't because of my shoulder, etc.
Daniel: Ok, how about my place (which sounded like he said Marktplatz again).
Ali and myself: NO! We said no already, it is too far, etc..
Daniel: wow, ok, don't know why my place is so bad, it is close.
Ali and myself: wait, you said YOUR place? We thought you said Marktplatz again.
(note that Ali and I were not talking in stereo).

So after practice, 6 of us headed over to Daniel's. Well, actually 3 of us headed to the Real to buy dinner stuff, and the other three went to Daniel's. At Real was Sandra, Ali, and me, and of course had a blast buying food for everyone. Back at Dan's was him, Steffi, and Martin. We got there a little late, but then sat down to watch Germany beat Portugal in a 3-1 victory (and I missed Michael Ballack's goal (again!)). The food was delicious, the drinks flowing, and the camaraderie fantastic.

The next thing that we did together was on Saturday. I had originally planned for my going away party to be that day, cause it is the longest day of the year (normally, but this year it was actually Friday, oh well). But then after finding out that they wanted to take me out on Tuesday, we (I) made it our official Summer Solstice party, and then it can be a tradition every year.

After not packing during the day, I headed out to meet up everyone at the beach. I got there a bit late, but not the last to arrive. After waiting for Martin (who had told us a number of times that he would be late), we headed into the beach. But because Dan had a bottle of beer on the side of his bag, they told us that glass bottles weren't allowed on that day. We all had some thing in our bags that was made of glass, so we headed back out to drink some of the beer, at the salad Christian made, and when Martin did show up, we decided to have our bbq outside as well, then played stubby guts outside. Sandra and his friend found us outside, and we just had a great time out there, and it was probably less crowded, even though we ended up surrounded by bikes or the road. After we had finished eating, and Steffi and Flo left, we finally went into the beach. Some great things about Saturday's gathering:

• realizing that Lutz has a seat built into his back pack
• only having two Frisbees among 8 or 9 Frisbee players, but them being enough
• having someone random play stubby guts with us
• watching the sunset around 11pm at night
• meeting up with a bunch of people at the beach after losing them
  

Team Geist!

Team Spirit! I was lucky enough to be in Germany during the 2006 World Cup, and it was in Germany. The Germans show their country pride through their soccer team. It was incredible to see the flag flying out of every other window, people wearing it around them, face paint, and hugging and high fiving people they didn't know (Germans definitely have a personal space thing). And now the Eurocup is in Austria and Switzerland, not as cool, but still, it is great to be here. And the same thing is happening. Since the summer of 2006, some people have kept their flags out, but it is nothing compared to what I have been seeing in the past few weeks.

As an American, showing your patriotism has always come easy, we don't need a special day, or a tournament where our team will do well to prove this. Any day of the week we can hang up our flags, wear a flag on our clothing (as in and Old Navy T-shirt, or something similar), and ok, maybe we do need the fourth of July to paint our faces, but it isn't something that we think twice about. But now I realize that what we have and what the Germans have is something different. Yes, I do believe that a flag can help unite a country, but it seems like this is the moment, right now, where Germans are getting together and celebrating. It is not on Tag der deutschen Einheit (Reunification day, when East and West Germany became Germany again).

And then I realized that in America, we don't have anything like this that we come together for. While we do the parade thing, and the fireworks thing on the fourth of July, I have never stood in a group of people, all watching something, and then cheering loudly together, it isn't about religion, it isn't about politics, but something that is so much more simple, and that seems to make it so much purer. While we do watch the Olympics, we usually watch that in the comfort of our own home, we don't ask, "Oh, where are you going to watch the finals of the 100m?"

Of course sports is a big deal in the states, but to a completely different degree. It makes me realize how apathetic we can really get about the international scene. We have our own sports (football, basketball, and football), but they are sports that we are good at, and other countries don't really care about them. Yes, I have football fever, but hey, I have had it since about the age of five.

Not Again!

Since I put up a quite mysterious status on facebook, people have been inquiring. But I didn't want to write anything up until I had talked to my parents. Well, I just got off the phone with them, so here is what happened.

On Tuesday, one of my 11th grade classes had practice for the dragon boat race (this is a boat that fits about 25 people and you paddle on both sides). Carsta said that I could at least participate in their practice, to kinda see what it was all about. They asked if I was stronger on my left side or right side, I said right, naturally. What this meant was that my left arm would be the arm that would do the general swinging motion and my right arm would be pumping the paddle through the water.

After being told how to do it a few times, I thought I had kinda gotten the hang of it. We had left the dock, and were paddling against the current. We then turned around and decided to practice the fast strokes. We did the first set, and all seemed good. The next set was a set of 15 fast strokes and 30 regular speed strokes. During the fast set, somewhere in there, while I was bring the oar back down (or maybe up, not sure). The left shoulder became dislocated (again, this happened in November). At first I thought it was like last time, and that it would pop right back in, so I didn't say anything. The student next to me saw that I had stopped paddling and asked what was I wrong. I informed him what had happened, and he then informed the guy in charge of the boat.

Yay God moment here: we happened to be right by the dock. They got me out as quickly as possible (which was clearly not rushed or quick) and called for a doctor and an ambulance. As I was waiting, they sat me down, and my vision started to get really strange. It didn't get blurry, but pixilated, and I couldn't really make out too much, and my hearing also went strange. Everything was in a murmur, could still understand when people were talking to me and I could respond, but it just wasn't clear. The ambulance came, they gave me an IV and some crazy drugs to stop the pain. After they secured the arm, put me in the ambulance and drove me to the hospital.

I have never taken hard drugs before, and I never want to, this was an awful experience. I couldn't make out anything around me, I didn't feel like me, and clearly had absolutely no control over anything, even my own thoughts, I just wanted the whole thing to be over. But then the drugs started wearing off, and the pain was awful. Now add in that everyone is speaking German to me, and I am trying to respond as best I can in whichever language comes first.

The doctor was able to speak English to me, which I was incredibly grateful for. They had to take X-rays to make sure there was no damage to the bones. Thank goodness there wasn't, and after getting more drugs, they put my shoulder back into place. I was then given a totally sweet brace, because the ligaments are stretched out, and so I have to wear it for 10 days, then I get to see the doctor again. What a great send off from Germany!

When they asked if I had anyone to look after me, I said that I could call Carsta and probably spend the night at her house. And she happened to show up right at that moment (yay God!). She did take me home, and of course made me feel as comfortable as possible. The drugs made it so that I couldn't keep any food down, and I was also exhausted from the whole experience.

It doesn't really hurt now, but only have one arm to do things is a pain, oh well, it is what it is.

intertwining

On my start page, I have the weather for three places: Crystal Lake, Greifswald, and Plymouth (England). Right now, it is apparently 21 degrees C in all of those places. Is something of importance going to happen right now? Is this a sign for something? I guess I'll find out.

My last tourney update from across the ocean (for a while)

As my adoring public (ok, Wayne) has mentioned, I have yet to update about last weekend, so here goes!

My weekend actually started at 13.22, when I caught the train to Rostock and had to pedal as fast as I could to get to the train station, so I would have enough time to ask if anyone had room on their group tickets. Two guys did, which meant I payed 5euros, instead of 8.50! Once I got to Rostock, I met up with the guy who was driving all the way to Duesseldorf, and he decided to only charge my 25 euros instead of the advertised 30, again, awesome! After being in the car for about six hours, and that was with only minimal traffic, he drove me all the way to the fields (it was about 10 minutes off the highway, score!). But I didn't really know where to go once he dropped me off, so I walked around in the rain for about 30 minutes. Luckily, some of my teammates had arrived and were setting up the tent, so I eventually saw them (thanks Adam for being so tall).

That evening we were only 6 tongues, with the oldest being Garrett, who is 24. I guess the young kids were the ones who were willing to brave it out with the rain. Well, Sonia apparently arrived on Friday night, but came in so late that everyone was in bed. That night we met Kyle, a student from OSU. So of course he knows Toan, and we both got really excited!

A few more tongues slowly arrived the next morning, including Choi who called me up around 7.30am and Meike who arrived during breakfast, and we shared a very long hug. We were still only 9 deep for our first game against the team from Strasbourg. After scoring the first point and being somewhat tired, Kyle was warming up with his team next to the field, so we called and gladly played the game with us. We were also quite lady heavy, which was quite fine. We had the wonderful Lanna again, and it has been really fun to see how she has improved during the year, she has quite hot hands. The first round of games were only 25 minutes. It was really a strange set up, with having four games that were 25 minutes, then the second round of pool play, they were 40 minutes (again, still quite short). Anyway, Wayne showed up in the middle of the game, and Katy made her way to the fields as well (since she came with him and Ian). We won the game 5-2, which is a surprise for MT to win their first game, but a good surprise.

By the end of the game, we had all of our players, which included Ian! Ian tore his acl last year, so it was his first tournament back, and he is always a fun person to have around, and he brought his kids, which was also really adorable! And Ifan, who lives in Duesseldorf, so why he was late, I have no idea.

Our second game was against the German masters. They were using this tournament as practice for worlds. We knew that it we were going to lose the game, but we still fought for every point. Our two greatest points happened in that game. One was one that Louis, Ian's 11 year old son scored, which is great in itself. The other was a long throw to the endzone that our opponents' appeared to have d'ed, but instead of catching the disc, they knocked it down, and it was then fobbling it's way to the ground between about four people, two from our team, two from the other. And as it was doing a ping pong trick against all four of these people, Ian just kinda of grabbed it out of the shuffle. That is why you always try to catch your D's.

Game three was against a team named Bad Skid II (yes, it is a terrible name). It was a team made up of mostly high schoolers, and then three older guys. So the older, more experienced guys would throw it long so the young players could just run to the endzone. We decided to throw a zone on them, which was pretty useful, but then they adjusted to it, and ended up winning it 6-5 (I think, Wayne?).

The last of the 25 minute games was against the host of the tournament, Frisbee Family. Biscuit had trained with the team for about 6 months, and really didn't like them so really wanted to win. And that is just what we did. We won 6-3, I think. It was a total surprise, because when they sounded the horn, I looked at the score, and thought, well, dang it, we lost, but no, the score was in our favor!

After the first pool play, we had a break, and Sonia and I were going to go for a dip (the tournament was called Splash, because it was next to a pool, and that was included in the player's fee) but it was a bit too cold for me, and then it thundered, so they called all the swimmers out anyway. Instead, I decided that napping was a good option, and then had time to hang out with the team and eat a little bit of something.

Our afternoon games have completely blurred together (and I wrote down in my notebook on Sunday how the weekend went), we tied our first game, and then lost the other two. It rained in between the games, but never while we were playing, which was pretty sweet.

After the last game, we had to rush, rush, rush to catch the U-bahn into the city. Since April came along to be our wonderful motivator and also reservation maker, she found a fantastic Mexican restaurant. I know, anyone who has been to Germany, will think that good Mexican doesn't exist, but she found it! A group of us shared a pitcher of delicious margaritas, they gave us complimentary chips and salsa and my meal was a combination of beef with raisins and bananas. It was different, and worth ordering, because of trying new things.

By the time we got back to the party, it was 1am and there were probably only about 20 people at the party (this is a tournament that had 23 teams). The tongues were all hanging outside, and then the bar man decided to be nice to us and give us drink specials (ok, Garrett did haggle him for them), but then once he found out that we were playing them again in the morning, all of sudden the drinks became free. I held back from drinking too much and, with Katy, was just enjoying watching Garrett, Ben and Adam be hilarious. Kyle hung out with us, and gave me a huge compliment on my playing, which still makes me feel great as a frisbee player. We (me and Katy) eventually went to bed, but the boys were determined to win the party, which I heard ended in an arm wrestle which they managed to pull out with the W!

Unfortunately, the next morning didn't go so well, seeing as we lost, quite badly as well. I guess Niko did his job the night before. We were playing quite sloppily, and he was just sitting in his chair watching our drops. Right before last point was called, Ben told him to get out of his chair and play a point. We were on offense, but of course dropped the disc in the endzone. And then we heard Wayne call out, "All right tongues, once the disc comes in." Those of us on the sideline had no idea what was going on, but once the offensive player established his pivot foot, all the tongues on the field (except for little Annabell (Ian's daughter) ran and tackled Niko. The player with the disc put up a long pass, which they managed to drop (probably so scared from little Annabell). We were then able to work up in the field, with a catch and completed pass from Annabell, then eventually a throw to Jo in the endzone, which she had to grab it in between to guys. And she did, then spiked the disc, and it was the greatest point ever.

Our next point was against the French team again, because out of 23 teams, we managed to play two teams twice. But this game was far better for us, and we won. We brought the zone back, and it worked very well in our favor. I also got my first point of the tournament here. Yeah, first point, which is really surprising. Normally I am a top scorer for most teams I play on (unless I am handling), but I just couldn't get open in the endzone, or would pull myself out to handle so we wouldn't clog. Another thing is that it was an open tournament, and we came as a very mixed team. Most teams had a few girls, but would usually play 1-2 at a time, and we usually had three girls on the line. Since I am quite speedy, I would always match up or be matched up against a male, so I usually played in the middle.

Our last game was played against the team from Hamburg, they were only 8 people deep, but were all tall men, oh goody. So we put up a zone, and it worked beautifully, they just kept throwing swill. Awesome! I scored another point, which came from a great D by Wayne and intensity from the cup. It always feels good to win the last game.

We ended up 13th out of 23, so not so bad. Everyone else jumped in the pool, but I had to rush into the shower and get my stuff together. Katy was great enough to wait for me to get showered and ate and chatted with me. It was sad saying goodbye to her, but at least I know that I will be seeing her. When I went to say goodbye to everyone, they got out of the pool right before, so I couldn't find them as quickly as I needed, which was a huge bummer. And the my ride was a bit late, but again, the ride went smoothly again. We got into Rostock at 20.10, but I had to wait until 21.00 for the next train, then wait another hour at another train station, so I didn't even get home until 23.30, but it was all worth it (as it always is).

Not worth the tears

This week I got to go to the same class three times, and it was really nice. We have been talking about the Aboriginal people in Australia. The best thing about it is that I know exactly what they did the lesson before, and I am able to easily build on it. Before I started today, Carsta (the real teacher) gave back their tests. Some people did well, and some people didn't, and that is how it always goes. But there was one girl who was sitting in the front, a smart student, who started crying. Clearly, the test went much worse for her than she thought it did.

I remember tears like that, when you just can't believe that you did so poorly. The first time I remember crying because of my grades was in 3rd grade, because I had gotten a C on an English test (that was back when I was better in English than other subjects, not the same now), and it continued through high school with bad math tests, then through college (thanks organic chemistry). But I think the tests that affected me most were my German tests. This is a subject that I absolutely loved, and getting a bad grade meant that I wasn't as good as I wanted to be. Now I look back on those tears, and I realize that these things aren't worth crying over. Grades aren't worth all that much. Yeah, they are important, and they will be important again once I am back at school, but I just look at where I am now. Even with the not perfect grades, I was still able to spend two years of my life in Germany, and one being on a Fulbright scholarship. Work hard, but learn first and get the good grades second. Can someone please remind me this when I start up again in the fall?

I miss my dog.

After class today, I decided to make myself a tuna fish sandwich (a good choice). As I was taking the tuna out of the can and transferring it to the bowl, about 1/5 of it fell onto the floor. As I was cleaning this up, I thought to myself, "If I were at home, I would just call to my dog to come clean it up and also enjoy it." But I am not home, so I had to clean it up and threw it away.

And the sandwiches are delicious.

Plymouth and such

Another retrospective post! The last post was all about visiting Dartmoor (I am sorry, but the first thing I think of is the street that is in my sub-division, and it is not nearly as wonderful as Dartmoor, England). So that was Friday. Then on Saturday, we had cloud cover for most of the day, but we still made it out to visit Plymouth. The city was also quite cute (not nearly as cute as Tavistock). It was nice, because we had another lazy morning and then went out to the town.

Our first stop was to get a pasty. This is typical of the area and is kind of like a pastry filled with potato, peas, some kind of meat, and whatever else they throw in there. It was tasty, not sure if I would eat them all the time, and probably try the other kinds, but I had to eat the traditional Cornawall pasty (is that right?). Then we walked more into town, visited the newly opened museum. There were only about two rooms that we could walk through. One of the room was a bunch of giant pots, and I thought they were gorgeous. Richard didn't particularly agree with me, and I was reminded that we have very different artistic tastes. Over the past few years, I have developed a love for more modern art. The second room was photographs, and we each found different prints that caught our eye.

We then walked through the mall, so busy, but I forgot that it was Saturday. We stopped in a few shops (one was the Disney store!) and eventually ended up at the Barbican. This is the very cute part of town, the port. We walkd by the Plymouth Gin distillery, bought pastries from the oldest bakery in Great Britain, and eventually ended up at the Mayflower memorial, woo! I had a lot of fun there, doing crazy poses and being excited about the American flag. Unfortunately, the Mayflower didn't actually sail from there, it sailed from what is now a pub, and specifically the women's bathroom.

We ended our day out in town by going to church. England moved their celebration of Corpus Christi to the weekend, so I was pleasently surprised to celebrate it as well. Some of the service was sung in Latin, which is always fun and interesting, and it was interesting to hear old songs sung in English. In America, most our songs are post 1950s, and I could see where they were taken from. The priest was quite funny, but a few jokes in the homily and then in the announcements, but I felt like I was the only one audibly laughing. After church we stopped at a supermarket on the way home, and we made tacos! It was Richard's first taco experience.

Since we were so cool and went to church on Saturday, we were able to sleep in on Sunday, and leisurely make our way to the train station. Sunday was Frisbee practice in Exeter. There were seven of us from Plymouth going, so we were hoping for a strong turn out from the players in Exeter, and apparently our expetations were too high. When we arrived, the fields were bare. About 20 minutes later some other players trickled in, and by the end of practice we were up to 12, so we were able to play 6 a side, which is actually quite tricky when you are used to playing 5 or 7. After sitting around, talking and chucking a disc, we made our way into the city. Yet another cute little place. We stopped on the water front, then went to the cathedral and finished at burger king because I was so hungry.

Monday was our lazy day. The weather was lousy so we decided to just stay in that day, which we were more than happy to do. We watched the rest of Top Gun (a movie that I had yet to have seen) and part of Ever After. That night was the meal, the real reason I went that specific weekend. The most fun part was getting dressed up all fancy. I put my hair up, wore my lovely bridesmaid dress (thank you, Andrea) and even wore some make-up. Richard was a bit speechless when he saw me, which made me feel even prettier than I already did. He looked quite dashing himself, in his gray suit and blue tie (it is sad that boys don't get the options we girls do).

And then I returned to Germany on Tuesday. But before we did that, we made some totally sweet videos:



And then here is the follow up:



And you can find pictures from the weekend here.