Let's go, jump, trust

Funny how things work out

2011-05-24T05:18:00.000+02:00

Sometimes I contemplate how things have turned out the way they have. My latest pondering is how I became friends with some wonderful people in Chicago.

Back in 2007, a few days after I graduated from college, I sent an email out to rec.sport.disc looking for a team for sandblast. This is a mixed beach tournament in Chicago that I had wanted to attend for the past three years, but had been unable due to working/being out of town. But I was going to play in July of 2007! I remember I sent the email out pretty late at night looking for a team for myself and my friend, Cree. We were two ladies looking for a team, which I knew would be no problem. When I woke up the next morning, I had an email in my inbox. It was from Matt P, a player out of Chicago whose team was called "How to Stuff a Wild Bikini." I decided to accept the first bid, since I knew I would probably get lots. I emailed him back right away to tell him the good news. As the day went on, my inbox was flooded with about eight more bids. When I read some responses, I was almost kicking myself because the teams sounded like so much fun! But I stayed with the person I promised our bid to.

The emails that got sent out before the tournament from the team made me excited to play with them, there were definitely going to be some great characters on board! And then came the actual tournament. It was so much fun, one of the most fun times I had experienced at a tournament up until that point. I decided to play for this fun group of people the following year, it was even a question. However, I then dislocated my shoulder a few weeks before the actual tournament, and therefore had to sit out. The year after that (2009), I and my fiance were signed up!A few days before the tournament I had an appendicitis and could not play for yet another year! But finally in 2010 I made my second appearance at Sandblast!

the reason I started writing this because this coming Sunday, Richard and I have been invited to a BBQ that is hosted by a couple that played on the original sandblast team, and all the following years. We have since played Fall League with them, and been to many planned and impromptu parties. We have spent much time with other members of the team on and off the field as well. This is a great group of people that I look forward to spending much more time with. How things work out is incredible. I would not be affiliated with this great group if Matt hadn't been the first to respond or if I had waited to pick from all the bids I received. I am good with how it worked out.

Moving and Stuff

2011-03-31T01:59:00.000+02:00

This Saturday, Richard and I spent the evening with our friends, the Berrys. It has been wonderful to live near another married couple, and we are sad to move away from them (although it seems like they are looking into buying a house, at some point). Because we are moving, we cooked dinner at their house, Italian Sausage Sloppy Joe's. It was definitely good, I think that we will be making them again.

While we were there, between doing our laundry, we played Settlers of Catan. I first played this game while I was in Tuebingen, and didn't particularly care for it. We played it with the Berrys a few weeks ago, and I warmed up to it, understanding the rules better. I think it will be a long time until I win, but am looking forward to playing again. I told someone this week that I had played Settlers of Catan, and they had never heard of it. This was foreign to me because in my world, everyone has at least heard of it! It was Spiel des Jahres in 1995 (German award for Game of the Year). I attempted to explain it, but came up very short!
To wrap up: if you haven't played it, or Carcossone, or Ticket to Ride, do it!

If you don't know, we are moving on Sunday. We have spend 18 months in our current apartment. It is longer than I had anticipated, but we made it through. We are looking forward to having normal ceiling heights, a bigger kitchen, a place to entertain guests, and living in a really great neighborhood. My commute will be an adjustment, it will turn into about an hour each way. But this will only last a month, and then I start my clinicals. My first one is in Round Beach Lake and Wheeling. A good driving distance away. Which means that we will have to buy a car. If you know anyone near the Chicago area who is selling a compact car, get in touch with me!

Hope to update soonish!

First snow of the 2010 season

2010-12-04T19:11:00.000+01:00

We had our first snow of the season last night and today. I had planned on going to Montrose Beach to watch friends run in the Santa shuffle, but after considering the small amount of sleep I would probably have gotten, and needing to get work done, I decided to stay home. This morning, Richard and I took a break and played in the snow. We both have new boots this season, they kept our feet warm and dry, Richard also has a new hat which he is really excited about. Here are a few pictures from our (short) adventures.

Cookies and Studying

2010-12-02T05:01:00.000+01:00

When I have a lot of studying to do and and am procrastinating, I sometimes end up baking. I am pretty sure Richard is a big fan of this form of procrastination. I wanted to make something over the weekend, but didn't get around to it. Attempted again yesterday, but realized that by the time the eggs and butter warmed up, I would be too tired to do it.

When I got in today, I was determined to make chocolate chip cookies. I found a great recipe for them. It does call for 1lb of butter and two cups of sugar (divided between white and brown sugar), plus chocolate chips and walnuts, it is hard to go wrong. They turned out great, gooey in the middle, crisp on the outside, and now we have chocolate chip cookies for a couple of days!

Now back to studying. Three exams is all that stands until the end of my fall semester.

Coffee and Candy

2010-11-30T06:27:00.000+01:00

Tonight, Richard, Marge, and myself ventured into Logan Square. We needed to find a coffee shop that was open until at least 10pm. Our normal places we like to head close at 8pm or 9pm. So in the hunt and knowing that Marge would be able to drive, I searched outside our normal stomping grounds (Ukrainian Village).

We found an incredibly charming place called Cafe Mustache. This place was definitely a locally owned coffee shop. The coffee they use they obtain from Bridgeport coffee. They serve ice cream from iCream. The music is played from LPs, and none of the tables match. I enjoyed a hot chocolate with drip coffee added to it, Richard had an Earl Grey tea, and Marge had a simple cup of coffee.

On our way home, Richard requested an adventure. Marge suggested Margie's Candies. We drove by, it looked open. When we investigated, the door said they were open until midnight! Definitely good to know. We shared a brownie sundae, and I thought that their hot fudge was the best I ever had. Across the street is a 24 hour burrito establishment. Sounds like a great Saturday night combination!

Hey Blog, what's up?

2010-11-27T07:03:00.000+01:00

It is now 2010, in fact, it is almost not 2010 anymore.

I have been married for about a year and a half, I have been in grad school for about the same amount of time, and have been living in Chicago for the same amount of time.

Sometimes I like to look back at old emails that Richard and I wrote. Right now, a friend of mine is in a long distance relationship. The couple are incredibly happy, they finding the difficulties of long distance. He says it is hard, but then also says that it is nothing compared to what Richard and I went through. But what we went through is different to anyone else, not easier, not harder, different. But their cuteness of the new relationship wears off on me, so that is why I like to look at old emails and pictures of us.

Richard's sister, Vikki, just had her first child. Her name is Maddy, and she is the most beautiful little girl I have ever seen. It makes me sad that we don't know when we will actually meet Maddy and spend time with Richard's family next. Thank goodness for skype and video chat. It is still difficult.

But good things: my semester is almost over, and will have a whole month to be relaxed and do projects I have put off. A month to spend stress free time with Richard and other friends in the city, and in that month is Christmas, New Year's, and my birthday! Hooray!

A couple of days

2009-08-13T02:32:00.002+02:00

Something old: my grandmother's necklace

something new: my dress

something borrowed: Andrea's pearl bracelet

something blue: my engagement ring

Our wedding was fantastic! The ceremony was very short, but still very sweet, and fun to have in a courtroom! The weather was also great, warm, not too warm, but then again, every thing is cooler by the lake. We had a small reception at Lake Michigan, at the dunes! There was an area that had picnic tables and bathrooms (well, they were more like latrines). Our photographers seemed to be having so much fun, as were we as we were all dressed up, and enjoying our first few hours as a married couples (and then the weeks following, we are definitely still enjoying it!). Andrea made an incredible meal. I very much wish she would cater our blessing for next year.

After the wedding, we traveled up the Lake Michigan side of Michigan, never seeing the lake until Traverse City! Our honeymoon was perfect, spent at quiet lake house on Lake Marion, near Charlevoix. We relaxed lots, ate lots, laughed lots. We had fireworks our first night there and watched the sunset on our last night there. Our hosts were incredibly giving, made us feel at home (but better, since we had no responsibility while we were there).

We drove back home through Michigan's upper peninsula, and we saw lots of Lake Michigan then. We look forward to going back through there, being able to spend lots more time up there.

Now we are in Chicago, getting adjusted, finding our grocery stores, pharmacies, filling out paperwork and enjoying summer in the city.

2009-07-24T17:28:00.002+02:00

July 24th-the day I get married:

This morning was spent eating cereal, petting adorable dogs and chatting with my soon to be husband, maid of honor and her husband. We have discussed how it feels very un-wedding-like. The four of us plan to spend some time at the fair before getting married at 3:15pm this afternoon. It looks like good weather, at least not much if any preciptation.

So yeah, soon I will be Mrs. Lorrine Shelmerdine. sounds good.

Fine, fine, here you go

2009-07-02T06:56:00.002+02:00

Yes, yes, as I have been bullied into it, I will write another blog entry. Umm, been busy? Nothing's going on? Both of those are completely untrue!

I haven't been busy, since my last blog post, which was apparently in April, I was sometimes busy, May was busy, finals and then visiting Richard, but this month has been all right.

Visiting Richard: fantastic! We did lots, like play a tournament, hang out with his family, met his mother and siblings, did lots of walking, did lots of running (half-marathon!). But then we had to say goodbye, and that was absolutely no fun. Yes, I did know that I would be with him again soon, but we hadn't heard from the Embassy about the interview, I was starting to get worried. But at least neither of us got sick this trip, which was a huge plus!

A few days after I came back to the states, Richard received a letter from the Embassy inviting him for an interview on June 8th! I believe that was 11 days later. We were all very nervous, but it turned out that we had in fact done everything correctly, we have a legitimate relationship, hooray! And he was granted his visa. Well, at least told that yes, he could come over to America and marry his dream girl. The visa arrived via courier a few days later to his flat in Plymouth. He now has a very colorful visa sticker in his passport. All the cool kids have those (some even have two!).

Then a few days after that, we purchased his one way ticket. Goodness, those things are expensive If you can help it don't:

purchase a one-way ticket
purchase a ticket in June if you are flying in July (and probably August)
ever stop being a student! You get great discounts

But we got it, and that is what matters. Richard will be arriving on July 14th!

But wait, there's more! We still have to find an apartment, am currently on the look out for that. This is not really all that fun, but we will find a place, and it will be awesome, and our place (well, ours and Colleen's, our future roomie).

Right, so he lands on the 14th, we then get to play one of the greatest tournaments ever (yes, I mean ever, and I have played some kick-butt tournies). On the shores of Lake Michigan, we will partaking in Sandblast on the 18th and 19th of July.

The following Friday, we intend to get married! hooray!

So yeah, lots going on. Should blog more though, it is fun. But I am keeping myself busy by watching the Bachelorette. I know, it is a terrible show, but I just can't stop watching, so much drama!

Post St. Patty's day weekend

2009-04-02T06:47:00.002+02:00

Yes, I am aware that I am a little behind, but that is fine. My last entry was about my pre-saint Patty's day weekend (had nothing to do with St. Patrick's day, mind you), this was a very different weekend.

Well, it starts on Friday: Maria had invited me out for a five mile run. I thought, sure, why not? Yes, I was a bit apprehensive, but didn't want to show it. Well, we ran five miles, not in a fast time, but a moderate time, and it was good, it was really good. I can run five miles, I can run five miles! Yes! It was fantastic to achieve that.

After the run, I had a great shower, then got my stuff together and caught the train into the city. Richard and I were actually able to chat while I was on the train. Normally I can't hear him very well when he calls the cell phone, it is really strange. But it was great. Got into town, sun was shining, and went over to Joe's. We chatted about this and that, laughed, it was good. Katy came back in. She was visiting and came on Monday to Crystal Lake. She then went into the city on Tuesday (a beautiful day). I couldn't join her until Friday. She was at a conference, and on the Friday night, the Goethe Institute had the show Faust in a Box. I have never seen Faust, but it was very fun. I got to use some of my German and also meet other German speaking people. Including a Valpo grad who started the Tuebingen program and has also spent a year in Guestrow, which is on the way to Berlin from Greifswald! There was also delicious food to be eaten. Although I craved some Apfelschorle. Hmm, must remember to make some.

Saturday was spent largely lounging for me. Katy was off earlier in the morning, so Joe and I debated with each other for a few hours. It was good to hear his point of view on matters, it doesn't really change mine, but I like to listen to different perspectives. We both then got ready for Spring League! Katy came in, we packed her car, and went off to play ultimate. Joe beat us to the fields riding his bike, we were in a car (we also got a bit lost). It was a glorious day. I met my team, they seem like a good bunch, we then played two games, lost the first, won the second. My shoulder was good, and I even did a few lay-out attempts. My knees were muddied up for proof.

The drive home went smoothly. My shower afterwards was fantastic! I then took Katy to Portillo's. I seem to forget that even though it is a chain, it is only a chain in the Chicago-area. The food was delicious, at least I thought so, but Katy ordred a much too big burger, oh well. We then headed to the movies and saw He's Just not that Into You. It makes me very, very glad that Richard is that into me. There were quite a few cringe-worthy moments, but I could also see myself in that character.

The next morning was more sun! Katy packed her car and headed back to St. Louis and I headed to Naperville to watch some ultimate. My friend, Mark, was in the for the tournament. It was fantastic to see him and watch him play some. I also was able to watch the Valpo Women's team. When I got there, they had just started a game against UIC, great. I cheered loudly for Valpo, and after the game, introduced myself to the UIC team, because I am hoping to play for them, it was a bit strange, but they were very receptive.

I was able to quickly chat with Richard, but then we had guests over to celebrate my dad's birthday. Yeah, it was a great, great weekend. Not enough Richard (or Wayne and April) but I can't get everything.

Pre-Saint Patty's Day weekend

2009-03-23T17:30:00.002+01:00

I want to state first that in no way am I aggravated at the parties involved in this story. This is just a very strange bit of instances that happened at one time.

Well, Friday went smoothly. We had a work outing to go lazer tagging, which was fantastic. We played three games of 20 minutes (truthfully, 2 would have been enough, but it was still fun). The team I was on lost all three games, but still very fun to shoot "lazers" at your co-workers, and to be trash talked about it as well. Afterwards, we headed to Buffalo Wild Wings and had a delicious "dinner." Courtney and I were observing no meat Fridays, which is quite the challenge at BWW's, but we were able to pull it off. The wings on the table were quite the temptation, but we stuck to our nachos and potato wedges.

Saturday was where things got a bit sticky. Woke up, chatted with Richard, then with Heather. We had our plans set, she was going to pick me up at the train station, we were going to drive to Lincoln Park, meet up with Kim and Co for her birthday/St. Patty's day celebration. I then worked on her present (can't say what it is because she hasn't gotten it yet). Showered, and got all pretty looking. I am starting to practice doing some sort of up-do for the wedding, so I tried that out, and left for the train. I decided to drive the Nissan to the station, and leave it there. That way, my parents wouldn't have to pick me up on Sunday.

While on the train, Heather called. She had just woken up from her nap (because she had just gotten back from New York). She would not be ready to pick me up when I got in. Well, I will just call Joe and see if I can hang out with him for about an hour. He was home and that went smoothly. Got into the station, took the green line down, he met me at the El stop. Joe and I chatted for a while, I got some dinner, had a beer, and laughed lots. We looked at his pictures from his trip to Germany (none of the people I know! Actually, none of people at all).

At Joe's, I got another call, this one from Kim. She was calling to let me know that they were getting really tired, and would be heading home soon, so don't bother coming into the city. Umm, well, I am already here. Silence. She said I could come meet her, but I wasn't near Lincoln Park. It really wasn't a big deal, I would figure something out. She had been out since 10:00am, and I would be exhausted as well. Ten minutes later, Heather called, and then asked what we should do. Because of her nap, she was now quite awake. I said I would love to see her. I could go out to Tinely Park, and meet up. But the next train was leaving the station in 30 minutes, and I would not be able to make it there in time. And the train after that was in 2 hours. Awesome. So she came and picked me up (and is a saint for that).

Heather arrived at Joe's (after a bit, and I got a little worried. I didn't want to call because she would in Chicago, and driving and cell phones don't mix in the city). I hopped in the car, said goodbye to Joe, and we were off. We missed the poorly marked exit for the interstate, got yelled at by another car, and got honked at. Really, Heather, you are awesome, thank you for coming to get me and putting up with all of that! But we turned around, didn't let the shouts freak us out (too much), and you always get honked at in the city. An hour later, we decided to go to Apple Bee's, because the local bars would be loud and really crowded. It was a really good evening, and we chatted about all kinds of things.

Sunday, we got up, heather made some breakfast, and drove me to the station. I had decided to take the 10:48 train out of Tinley so I could catch the 12:30 train out of Chicago to get back home. I had about 40 minutes between trains in the city, and it only took 15 minutes to walk from one station to the next. Well, when we drove up to the station, there were lots of young adults wearing green, very excited and on their way to being intoxicated. The South Side Irish parade was today. Heather had hoped that all these people would be on the train before, but no such luck. They kept coming and coming and coming. Metra (the train company) had even booked two extra trains to take all of these people to parade. Heather and I were waiting at the end of the platform. The first train arrived, and it was already fairly full, and there was no way to get onto that train. I decided to take the next, which would arrive ten minutes later. We then went to the other side of the platform, which was pretty empty of green clothed persons. The next train was a little late, but not as much of a rush on this end to get in, and I even got a seat all to myself! But the train had to wait for the middle cars to get loaded. This happened at most stops, people were thrown off the train, there were fights (none the car I was located). It is supposed to take an hour to get into the city, it took an hour and a half, and that was with the train going express over the last five stops. It arrived in the city at 12:30.

This meant a 2 hour wait for my train to get me home to Crystal Lake. It was a beautiful day, so I walked a bit, attempted to talk to Richard, but we had a bad connection, got a sandwich, and it was time to go. This ride had no complications or delays, and I finally got into Crystal Lake. I walked over to the car, crawled through the passenger side (because the driver side handle broke off during the cold winter) and put my key in the ignition. But nothing happened when I turned it. Looked down, and saw I had left the lights on. Great.

interesting, but then sad

2009-02-28T18:11:00.003+01:00

My day has consisted of:

Speaking to Richard at 2am (becasue he is at a tournament, and wanted to catch him for a bit), he is in England.

Then waking up to an email from my friend Choi (currently in Singapore).

Then writing to my friend Ali on Skype (in Germany)

And speaking with my friend Jon (friend from Valpo who is currently in Cairo).

Yeah, it is pretty great thinking that I have friends all over, but then the other side of it is that they all really are so far away, and that isn't much fun at all.

Even though I never cared for the articles, I really do love the language

2009-02-18T05:37:00.002+01:00

It feels good to read German and really understand it. Granted, it is second year German and I should hope I understand it. I get nervous that I have lost it all. I am currently tutoring a sophomore in high school German, he isn't bad at it, just needs to gain confidence, and put the effort in. We went through some readings and questions today, it was really fun to read German out loud, in my somewhat correct accent, ask questions, understand, all of that. This has inspired me to read one of my German books, let's see how that goes, but I need to keep working at it, put the effort in.

When I opened up to the first page, a picture fell out. I have no idea when this picture was put in the book and have no idea why it was there. But the other person in the picture used to infuriate me. And now, I just looked at, thought, how odd for this to be here, and thought back to the time it was taken. It feels so long ago, and hey, if I saw this person again, I wouldn't be angry or upset. But it also made me think of Richard, and how amazing he is. I hope this person is doing well too.

Does the library carry children's books in German? Could I get them in interlibrary loan? Need to look into this.

Flying in style

2009-02-13T07:58:00.003+01:00

Yes! I don't even have words to describe the feeling I have right now. Some of the wedding plans have changed, and this meant we had to change some other plans. We have been looking for flights for me to come visit, because it is important that I meet his family. I found some fairly inexpensive flights going over, but then the price kept up little by little. Then I found another flight, not direct, that was quite a bit cheaper, but overlapped with my last final this year (ok, I only have 2, but it is still my last). While I was looking around tonight, I found two direct flights that were cheaper than any other direct I had found. It was still a little pricier than the non-direct, but not by that much. And the two flights had a pricetag difference of about $6, it was either Virgin Atlantic or British Airways. After reading about both, I decided to spend the six bucks and purchased the British Airways flight.

I will be leaving Chicago O'Hare on May 7th, arriving at Heathrow on May 8th at 9:20am. Direct flight! then I get to celebrate Richard's 27th birthday with him! I will be visiting for 16 days. In that time, we hope to play an Ultimate tournament, visit with his mum, dad, and sisters, meet his friends, run a half marathon, and watch quite a few movies. Only 83 days until I leave to be with him.

Oh yeah, Wayne and April are awesome.

Wow, the year is in two parts: Germany, America

2009-01-01T08:19:00.004+01:00

Hmm, it is now officially 2009, and I am very excited for this calendar year. But let's look at last year (taken from my very handsome fiance's blog):

Most Focussed Period
End of August to mid October-physical therapy application

Most "No way! Is That Real?" Moment
to my lovely ring, after knowing the guy for less than 9 months

Lowest Point
I would say Jan. 1, 2008, so really, uphill from there

Best Feeling

Realizing the amazing friends I had made in Greifswald when they all showed up at the train station. Wow, I miss them.

Most Pivotal Moment
Being honest, telling him that I wanted him to be more than just a great story

Most Humbling Experience
Listening to Bethany's stories from her times in Senegal, like when she fell off the back of a truck

Favourite Weekend
His birthday weekend. Berlin, the people, the weather, playing Ultimate on sand again, my boyfriend

Most Successful On-Pitch Moment

At Splatsch (or Splash), calling a play, then doing that exact play, which ended up in me scoring the point

Toughest Day In Work

umm...I worked this year? Possibly dealing with some campers at the science camp (but really, I am so grateful to have jobs that I truly enjoy(ed)

Most Satisfying Day In Work

When my role playing cards worked out with my favorite class (9a, in case you are wondering)

Longest Wait

5.5 months: Bristol Airport to Chicago O'Hare

Most I-Can't-Believe-I-Just-Got-Away-With-That Moment

Getting three extra days off from classes to visit Richard in England

Highest Point

the night before, being totally vulenerable and honest

This year has happened in stages: post New Year's, lots of Frisbee, but so uncertain where everything was going. In that time I researched the idea of Physical therapy, and then decied I was really happy being single. Then Richard walks into my life. We get to know each other, I am in love for the first time, make incredible friends in Greifswald, visit berlin every other weekend, then leave Germany. That was so hard, so much harder than I thought would be. Had you asked me just four months before that, it would have been fine. Then I get home, have to wear a brace and work a week at camp, observe physical therapists, love that, continue building my relationship with Richard, and reconnect with friends at home. Start community college, be enthralled with academia again, apply to physical therapy schools, have weekly melt downs that I won't get in, and wait and wait and wait. Richard arrives! We get engaged! I get sick, he gets sick, he leaves. Wait, file for his visa, wait, wait, and then, right at the end of the year, and acceptance letter from the University of Illinois at Chicago! But still, more waiting. I am ok with that.

just some thoughts

2008-12-02T05:57:00.002+01:00

It snowed here, our first real snow. It was supposed to know a lot on Nov. 29th, but it came the next day, and not enough to get snowed in. I took Roscoe, our 15 year-old dog out for a walk tonight. It is so much fun to watch him run around in the snow. He is a siberian husky, and just loves it. It seems like the colder it gets, the more he loves his walks, the less we (the humans) like taking him on walks, it just seems cruel. But watching him run is wonderful, and watching him slip on icy sidewalks is scary. Had this happened even a few years ago, it would have been hilarious, but he has been slipping and falling a lot more often. But he just gets right back up, not phased, where as I feel like I have just had a mini heart attack.

On a totally different note: I have decided to clean out my inbox for my email, because it has just gotten out of hand. And it is quite fun to go through lots of old emails, read through some of them, realize I owe a few people emails. It is like a timeline. For the past emails there have been lots of emails from richard, then before that there were lots of emails about Paga, and I am remembering my excitement of all of that. I just read over Sandblast emails from 2007, and wow, that was a fun tournament. There was one email talking about Poultry days, and I can't wait to play that tournament, for the first time, and it will be with Richard (hopefully). I miss lots of people, I miss seeing Wayne and April at random times during the year, seeing Rob every other weekend, and my Greifswald team.

Oh yeah, Richard has asked me to marry him. What is he thinking? I am ridiculous, but I guess that is part of my attractiveness? And he asked on a Frisbee, literally, he got it printed on there. We are going to have one great life together.

Tales of the night, and other random happenings

2008-10-19T04:55:00.002+02:00

Last night was Alison's going away shindig, and she wanted to celebrate in the city (Chicago), which makes sense. Up until Thursday night I wasn't sure what I would be doing, where I would be staying and the like. But my high school friend, Angela (not that she is in high school, but a friend I made in high school) was up for going and said I could crash at her place. We haven't seen each other for a few years now, so it was really fun hanging out with her.

It was half price wine bottle night, and most of the people who were with us ordered the white wine Riesling, with Angela and I starting that trend. Really, how can you go wrong with a Riesling? The Germans are good at a lot of things, and that is definitely one of them. We chatted, took pictures, laughed and even danced some. We all looked fabulous, but then again, we usually do. Kim had a swedish guy hit on her, and Alison was quite the social butterfly, needing to go from one group of friends to the next. Overall, it was pretty great.

When we were kicked out of the bar, it was raining, so getting a cab was next to impossible. After a few failed attempts to grab a cab (because they were all full), we were just going to take the El home. On the way to the station, Angela saw a guy hailing down a cab, she then spotted the cab, and hailed it down. The cab stopped for us, two girls, not for the one guy. He then came over to us, and we thought was going to yell at us for stealing his cab. Instead, he asked if we could share the taxi since we were going to the same area. While driving, we ended up having a small Dr. Phil session with Brett, our new found friend. We got out at the same spot, he picked up the cab fare and requested us to come to a bar and grab a drink. But the bar was closed, and we were wet and cold. Sorry, Brett.

Another exciting thing that happened today was that I bought a timbuk2 bag! These are great bags, yes, trendy, but also very durable. It is a laptop bag that I don't need now, but will hopefully be using a lot over the next few years when I can ride my bike to classes. They usually go for over $100, and it was on clearance at Marshall's (didn't even know I could buy it there) for $30! And it even has a pink middle stripe. Exciting.

Where am I?

2008-10-08T23:36:00.002+02:00

Sometimes, I forget which timezone I'm in, and will "calculate" what time it is for people who email me or post messages on my wall. Then I remember that we are in the same timezone, or maybe they are just an hour ahead. One day, all the people I care about will be in the same timezone as me, ok, probably not, but that would be really great if that could happen.

What a Triumphant Return!

2008-09-30T05:48:00.003+02:00

It has been about three months since I last had a weekend that was filled with ultimate. And it has been about 3.5 months since I last did any regular kind of exercise. This weekend was the new beginning! I attended my second Huctoberfest, with a very different team, and it had a very different feel. About a week before the tournament, I found out that a good friend of mine had just moved to the Milwaukee area. Since I hadn't picked up with a team yet, I asked if he wanted to play and we could get on a mixed team together. He was down with it. I emailed the tournament director about five minutes after he agreed, and then heard back the following Monday (and that wait took almost all of my patience) that a team wanted us, hooray! The best news was that it was all experienced players and all out of college.

I drove up on Saturday morning after a very fun work party (the presidental debates had never been so fun). It was early, but I wanted to get my shoulder taped up, which I did, and watch the Valpo girls play a bit, which I also did and also played a few points with them. Once I decided that I had a good warm up, I met my team's captain, who was very cheerful and friendly, said hello to Ben (who was foolishly carrying a bunch of stuff and didn't drop it when he saw me running at him).

The team met, most of them knew each other, and it took me a ridiculously long amount of time to learn names, normally I am really great at this. Our first game was tough, the other team had a lot more subs than us, and also seemed more in shape, but we took it in the end, awesome, first win! We then had a ridiculously long break, which I talked with the VU girls, heard all the latest gossip, talked with a guy who had just spent the year in Germany as well (and didn't play with Mother Tongue, foolish of him!), ate and sat around some more.

Finally it was time for our second game. We came out strong, took the half 7-2, they then had a decent rally, but we were able to finish it 13-9 (maybe). The team is called Madtown Boozehounds, from Madison, and have a giant glass boot that is filled with beer, and that is always their post game call. I decided not to drink any, and apparently where I was in the circle would have led to my demise since I do not know how to drink from a boot properly, and would have ended up with beer spilt all over me, thank God I double tapped and didn't drink.

Last game of the day, another win, don't remember all that much it, maybe it was close, maybe not, we had fun. After all this, Ben and I ate at Jimmy John's, where he ran into someone he knew in college, which is always awesome, then just went back to his place, made cookies, watched a movie, then slept. He is currently living in a pretty sweet two bedroom apartment, I got my own room and bathroom, sweet!

Day 2: I wake up and my muscles are not happy with me. I find the energy to get everything together and pretty much stumble to the car. When we arrive at the fields, it is fairly dead, and our opponents showed up right before the game was supposed to start. We started with a 4 point run, they then went on a four point run, we took it to half, they rallied back, but we ended up with the win, awesome.

Game #5, they started off strong, got the first 2 points, we got nervous, and went on a 13 point run to win the game. It was quick and sweet.

The last game turned into the championship game, even though we were playing round robin. We both entered the game with 5 wins and no losses, this was for all the beer mugs! We went back and forth and traded points, and they took the half. It was our first time not leading at half time. They then got the next point, and thought they had it. We then came back, and it wasn't about getting all the scores, it was about getting the next one, and the next one. We found ourselves up to 12-10, on the endzone line, with a timeout called, set up, should have been an easy in, but the dump pass (a pass behind) got screwed up somehow, and it was a turn. They ended up getting that point, but we then did get the next point. And with that point, we won! Our prize was glass beer mugs with a sweet drawing of a stereotypical German lady on it, does it get better than that?

The sun peaked out, we had cake for Julie's birthday, yeah cake! Got some team pictures, and general merriment was had. The drive home was nice and relaxing, got to talk with Richard, he looked up my root and made sure I was going the right way (thank you!).

It is now Wednesday night, and I am still feeling the aches and pains of this. My calves were most angry with me, but now it seems to be a muscle that is pretty much on my hip. But the best part is that my shoulder stayed in the socket! And I wasn't terrible. It was really fun.

What, I have been out of junior high for almost ten years?

2008-09-21T16:56:00.003+02:00

TEN YEARS AGO I ...

1. went to St. Thomas School
2. played lots and lots of sports
3. wanted so desperately to be cool
4. but also learned to just be myself
5. finally didn't mind wearing a uniform to school

FIVE YEARS AGO I ...

1. started my freshman year at Valpo!
2. got straight A's for the first time
3. met and spent time with people I would not have in high school
4. had a boyfriend who loved Ultimate, and I didn't
5. was attached at the hip with Andrea

TWO YEARS AGO I ...

1. had my last year at Valpo
2. felt like I was in in a constant struggle with Valpo Ultimate
3. couldn't face Dr. Engerer first semester, but second semester all was well
4. my roommate and I couldn't do homework together, we never got anything done
5. worked harder on an application than I had for anything in my life

ONE YEAR AGO I ...

1. went to Greifswald, scared and alone
2. spent a lot of time in my room before finally getting out
3. helped start another Ultimate team in Greifswald, which turned out to be amazing
4. spent Christmas with a different family
5. fell in love

YESTERDAY I ...

1. helped paint the house
2. finished my room with hanging some stuff on the walls
3. went out with Emily and we talked about our boyfriends nonstop
4. ate a delicious meal!
5. learned how a room full of people were connected to one another

TODAY I ...
1. will go to church, yay!
2. work on some homework, finally
3. talk to Richard
4. watch the bears play
5. Attend a fairly impromptu emmy-wear-your-prom-dress-party

TOMORROW I WILL ...

1. have school all day
2. face the reality that Richard has different work hours
3. talk a walk with the dog and my mom
4. give blood
5. go to a Dancing with the Stars Party

Got this from Heather's blog. (I would like to note that with the years, I was looking at pretty much the full academic year)

A break from my normal life

2008-09-15T05:43:00.003+02:00

On Friday I called up Andrea, just for a general hello. To my surprise, she said that Daniel had a college fair in McHenry, and asked if that was anywhere near me. I said that it was the next town over. It was great, I met up with them there, then Andrea and I went to Panera, sat and talked for a good two hours. When Dan was done with the college fair, he also joined us. All was put right in the world, since I hadn't seen the Jarratts since February, and Richard (my boyfriend who lives in England) saw them in July. The best thing about the visit was that it wasn't a huge thing, it was us getting coffee or tea, just sharing a few hours with each other.

That was this weekend, and next weekend I get to visit with Emily. We haven't seen each other in over two years, so it will be great. I am excited to giggle with her, exchange stories, and laugh about jokes that were made five years ago.

And in two months, I get to share moments with Richard. Just two months..

3 things

2008-09-08T23:04:00.002+02:00

1. It really bothers me that my math instructor doesn't put a line through his 7s. I feel as a science/math person, that is what you do. It also bothered me today when my Anatomy and physiology instructor didn't put a line through her z, and she wrote the word, "enzyme" all over the board. The z isn't as bothersome as the 7, but for both I want to run to the board and just cross them. Does this mean I am too nerdy? Or just really meticulous?

2. My mother and I were watching the Bears play yesterday (they won, incase you hadn't heard), and a commerical for Monday Night Football came on.

my mom: What, they have Monday night football too?"

me: Yeah, it is fairly popular. What did you think?

my mom: I thought that the Sunday night football made up for the Monday night football.

3. In my bio course today, two other students were talking about the Bourne movies. I said that I really like the second one, mainly because about half of it takes place in Berlin.

student 1: Have you seen the first one?

me: Yeah, but I only saw it when it was in the theaters.

student 2: How old are you? (in a very surprised manor)

Isn't this what you do in college?

2008-09-07T16:28:00.003+02:00

How long does it take to find someone chucking around a disc on a college campus on a Saturday? Would I have had better luck had I been meandering around during the week? I am at NIU this weekend, took the GREs, it went all right, not great, not terrible. Afterwards, my brother and I were watching TV, and then I decided that it was an absolutely beautiful day, so decided to take a walk. After getting turned down to go on the walk with me, I just went by myself. Because I spent a week on the campus, I had an idea where some open field lie. So I walked all the way to where they were, no one was there! All right, it is kinda on the outside of campus, it would be like trying to find someone at eastgate when no teams are practicing. Then I decided to just walk through campus, keeping my eyes alert for any flying discs. Didn't find any on my way in, decided to walk to the downtown area, didn't find any on my way back. Really? How many students are there at NIU? Way more than at Valpo, and my odds of finding someone, anyone throwing a Frisbee there must have been better than I found yesterday. Way to be lame, NIU.

On my honor...

2008-08-28T06:26:00.002+02:00

"I have neither given or received nor have I tolerated others' use of unauthorized aid."

This is a statement that would end up at the end of tests, quizzes, homework, papers, etc. As one of my professors said once, well, really if you want, you could just come and write your name and sign the honor code. That would make something complete. I would get points taken off of some homework assignments that didn't have the honor code. And now I still find myself wanting to write it on the top of my homework and most likely my tests once they start happening. Oh, the honor code, I miss it now. Once I realized the value of it, I was quite grateful to Valpo for implementing it however many years ago. Now without it, I can't ask to take my math tests in another room, and taking a bathroom break during an exam will most likely be frowned upon. But I can still follow it.

Yikes

2008-08-20T05:40:00.002+02:00

Last Friday, I went out with a high school friend of mine, we were going clothes shopping for him. I was a bit surprised when he suggested stores to go to. There were a few stores that were the "it" stores when we were in high school, and I slowly stopped shopping at these places (well, I only had a few items anyway). The one that surprised me the most was American Eagle. This store is typical high school. When we walked into the store, it intimidated me a bit. All of the clothes were so "trendy" that I just wanted to throw them on the floor, because that is what is going to happen to them anyway, they will eventually just end up on the someone's floor, under the bed, forgotten about. And their clothes don't even fit that well, there are hoods on things that don't need hoods, as well as strange pockets.

After AE and headed to the gap. And I let out a sigh of relief. There was almost no one in the store, it wasn't stuffed with as many clothes as it could fit, and the styles were much more classic. Yeah, there are a few trendy things here and there, but their clothes usually fit well and will be in style for many years. The sales associates were very nice, not overbearing, and made you feel comfortable.

All Smiles!

2008-08-13T20:41:00.002+02:00

School starts in 5 days! Last year when I got my diploma, I was done with school, done with tests and papers and quizzes and homework. But then this past year I came across a profession that seems to fit me very well, and now I am really excited to go back to school and learn. Taking time off was such a great idea for me. Granted, I am taking courses that will be difficult because I never really had any interest to take them in undergrad (except for Stats, I wanted to take it, but it just didn't fit into my schedule). I ordered my books today, and because I am not a freshman who just buys her books from the bookstore, was able to save a whole bunch of money by buy them online and purchasing old editions.

And in exactly three months Richard will be landing in Chicago! The long distance thing isn't great, but he is great, so it is worth it. And three months, it will fly by since I will be in school and working, and trying to get back into shape.

And right now, I gotta go and continue cleaning my room. We picked out the paint for it, and most stuff has been moved out. I can't wait to not have pink walls!

Can't they be the same?

2008-08-09T22:16:00.002+02:00

Here is what I want:

my boyfriend to be in the same city as me
to play some club ultimate
have my own place
be already accepted to a PT school

Here is what I got:

my boyfriend lives across the ocean
a bum shoulder that is keeping me from any kind of exercise at the moment
living at home
attending community college

So right now life isn't exactly how I want it, but I can wait, and I can work to get what I want, and hopefully what I want and what I need are the same thing (and always asking God to lead where I am going, and he will lead me somewhere great, already has).

I want to be like her when I grow up

2008-08-06T06:28:00.002+02:00

My mom is a super hero. That is really the only way I can describe her. My room is being redone, I have probably blogged about this before, but right now (well, when I came home) my room looked like it did when I left for college, which is how it pretty much looked when I started high school. When my family moved into our house, my grandmother said that my room couldn't have the beige carpet that the rest of the house has, they had a girl, so it should be pink. Which then led to the pink walls, the pink bedspread and pink blinds. Don't get me wrong, I still really like pink, but not the whole room.

The solution: paint the room, get a new bedspread (we can't really do much about the carpet and blinds), and also organize the room and get a new bed (a full, no more twin!). So we are moving the furniture around, getting ready to paint, and this evening when we were moving the bookshelves, we found a mouse's nest. Yuck! That was definitely my reaction. My mom said that I had to put on gloves and put it in a plastic bag and throw it out, and I got kinda scared, what if the mouse was in it? When I came back up the stairs with the bag, my mom was putting on the gloves and she was the one who picked it up and threw it in the bag (I threw the bag in the garbage outside). But like I already said, she is a super hero.

were you this smar?

2008-07-27T16:13:00.002+02:00

I met the most adorable child on Friday. He told us that he is 3.11, meaning 3 years and 11 months, his birthday was in two days. I was then told that if I told him what year I was born, he could tell me how old I am, impressive for an almost four year old.

me: I was born in 1985
him: (immediately) masters, you are doing your master's because you are 23.

What! How does a little kid even know that? I don't care, he is adorable!

Seriously, again?

2008-07-17T23:03:00.002+02:00

The last time I tried to give blood, they said no because I am American. So I went back today, was all excited because I am hoping to get some work done on my tattoo this coming week, which means a whole year without being able to give blood again. I went in today, but didn't make it very far. After I filled out the paper work, they then took my pulse and my blood pressure. Usually my iron can be a bit low, but today it was my blood pressure. The woman who was measuring it found it to be a bit low, then had another woman come in and do it, and it was also too low. Oh goodness. They said I can come back next week, just get the blood pressure higher. How do I increase my blood pressure?

In other news: NO SURGERY! Hooray! I went and saw the doctor yesterday, he said that I need to go in for some physical therapy and then see him in three weeks. I also don't have to wear my arm brace anymore. Hooray! But he said I should stay away from running for a month (since my shoulder is so week, and if I fell, it could be really bad) and at least two months for getting back into Frisbee. But at least now I know what is going on.

And to go with that, I made an appointment at a sports physical therapy place not too far from my house, which means I should be able to walk there, or ride my bike if we can get that fixed.

And then the best news yet: Richard booked his flight and is coming over to see me! Ok, it isn't until November, for Thanksgiving, but at least I know when I will be seeing him next! Yeah, I will still be taking classes, but I have one class which ends at the end of October, so when he visits, my latest class ends at 1pm and I will have Fridays off!

Tomorrow I head into the city to hang out with cool Frisbee people, what a good weekend.

Slowly but surely

2008-07-15T22:14:00.003+02:00

Things are coming together. I have noticed that when I have something to do, I am much more productive, and when I have not too much to do, then I end up lying around a lot more, and being more tired. But, soon my schedule will be fuller, and therefore I will be doing more all around.

Tomorrow I get to go back to the orthopedic surgeon, hopefully will get some answers regarding my shoulder. Wearing a shoulder brace for a month is not fun, and I just want to not wear it anymore (truth, not actually wearing it right now). But yeah, I am prepping myself for surgery, which will be awful (not the actual surgery, the recovery).

And I called some more physical therapists places today, one got back to me, and I will be shadowing with them on Tuesdays and Saturdays. The place isn't too far from where I am, and they do more with sports rehablitation. And I did find a pediatric therapy place that is about 3o minutes (with good traffic). They weren't there when I called, but it would be go there as well.

This weekend is Sandblast! This is a beach ultimate Frisbee tournament in Chicago. Since I started playing, I had wanted to go, and finally was able to make it last year. After one incredible weekend of awesomeness, we all said we would come back, well, most everyone is back, with a few (great) additions. We are adding to more VU girls! And Cree asked if I could help coach them, something I am more than willing to do. It will be really hard to just watch and not play, but with a job, it will make it much better to do this (and trying to work on my tan). Pretty much the only thing that can ruin a beach tournament is rain, the forecast isn't looking too good. But hey, rain didn't ruin Paga this past year, I ended up having one remarkable Paga experience.

Science Camp. . . umm, awesome

2008-07-13T00:53:00.002+02:00

Right, just got back (last night, kinda late) from science camp. But the week was great, there were ups and downs, of course. I am not gonna write up a big long thing, but instead write in lists (which I clearly love).

Sunday:

Arrived with Ellen, we were put right to work in the chem lab, both had on sandals and were working concentrated chemicals, probably not the smartest thing.
All but about five campers had arrived about five minutes after we started accepting them, yup, we really were at science camp.
Met the campers, they were great, excited to be there!

Monday:

Huge storm first thing in the morning. I was going to get to the lab early to set up, got about four steps outside, and realized I didn't want to risk my life.
Ran around and made indicators while Ellen stalled, it worked out.
Can't really remember the evening, but it was probably great, found out that one of the campers goes to Cary-Grove, awesome!

Tuesday:

Trip to Fermilab!
Then stopped and saw some bison (well, this was still at Fermilab).
we then stopped at a mound made my a glacier, and Andrew (our resident geology grad student) was able to explain about the formation of the land we were on.
Went to Mango's, played mancala, at ice cream, and sang karaoke! Some of the boys tried to rap "Bye, Bye, Bye" at least they did the dance
were supposed to watch a movie, but that fell through

Wednesday:

Made our own indicators in class
watched bottle rockets, got a little sunburned
most of the campers complained about having to watch the movie beforehand, but then all were captivated once they got a bit into it (it was Gattaca, props to Ellen for being the rock star who suggested it).
Then to the observatory, saw Jupiter and looked at the moon (it was sweet)

Thursday:

played with Luminol, had a great laugh with both classes about the world "solution" and "Pipette" (pronounced pie-pet in case you were wondering, I also know my campers' favorite variations of pie, one said cow pie, would like to see him eat that).
rained, so afternoon stuff was moved around, then tried to deal with something that was way beyond me.
my team won in the bowling competition, was promised a trip to Fatty's (it was quite the suckers bet, seeing as we were up by a lot when we eventually set the terms).

Friday:

lessons were kinda lame, made slime and hung out, then tie-dyed
cleaned up in the afternoon
campers went home, it was sad, but also glad to be done
tried to go to Fatty's, Ellen is too young! Ended up at O'Leary's, and the rest of the staff came too, it was a great way to end!
Had some car problems, but nothing serious, like I said, didn't get home until about 12.30am, yuck.

Concert/Coincidence in the Park

2008-07-02T04:15:00.002+02:00

Every Tuesday, the park district offers a concert in the park. They have been doing this for years, and the concerts always vary, sometimes it is a band, sometimes a choir, and the genre varies as well. Tonight, a family friend was performing in the choir. It was a nice act, and since it is so close to the fourth of July, many of the songs were patriotic themed.

Going today reminded me of a time from my youth. When I played on a specific soccer team, a few of us would get together on Tuesday nights at the park across from the beach, practice, get eaten by the mosquitoes, then head over to the beach. Us girls would jump into the lake to cool off, then we would eat pizza and enjoy the concert. This was something that I have always cherished from my teenage years, it was something simple but so great.

I haven't seen my coach in about six years. I played on his team for about four years, and we had a great group of core girls. As I was walking around taking pictures of the concert and the people at it, I heard someone yell my name, I looked around, and saw a couple waving at me. At first I didn't recognize them, but then it hit me, it was Dave and Sarah! As I said, I haven't seen Dave in so many years. It was so much fun telling them what I had been up to, and what I am going to be doing. We agreed that it would be great to get together (the core group of girls) sometime over the next year. I really hope that we do that.

Why is my hair so frizzy?

2008-06-27T19:14:00.002+02:00

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)

2008-06-27T15:28:00.002+02:00

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!

2008-06-20T21:40:00.003+02:00

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!

2008-06-12T16:05:00.003+02:00

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

2008-06-08T14:47:00.002+02:00

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)

2008-06-07T10:41:00.002+02:00

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

2008-06-06T11:51:00.002+02:00

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.

2008-06-04T13:12:00.001+02:00

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

2008-06-03T22:38:00.005+02:00

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.

Meets and Exceeds the Hype

2008-05-24T10:52:00.008+02:00

While my mom and I were watching The Holiday last Christmas (2006), she commented that she would like to take a vacation to a quaint English town, something that has rolling hills and a beautiful landscape. Yesterday I was taken to the perfect spot for this vacation. Dean has lived almost his whole life outside of Dartmoor and for the past two months has been talking about its beauty. Of course, I believed that it would be a lovely place, but I never imagined that it would be like all the movies show it to be. His dad and stepmom picked us up and we all drove out to the country together. The first place we went was just so we could climb a moor and take a look around. Magnificent! All over there are sheep just roaming around we also got to see some ponies (and even a little baby pony (a foal)!).

After this, we headed to Princetown, and there I discovered that my cheap €10 sandals were falling apart. We also visited the tourist information center. We first thought it was one sign with a map and a little information on the town. But 10 steps further there was a real tourist information center, complete with interactive displays for all ages.

Our last stop was Tavistock, the cutest, most cliché English town I have ever seen. There were stone buildings all over. I bought new sandals there (adorable pink and black sporty sandals for £15) and we also walked in and out of cute little shops (like a butcher's place that had jars and jars of typical English toppings. What is chutney? I never really got the best answer, but I guess will have to experience for myself at sometime). After enjoying some ice cream, bought from a truck that had Devonshire written across it (I was told a few years ago, that 1. it isn't pronounced Devon-SHYRE but "sure" and 2. it is just Devon, no shire), we walked along the river, which apparently has wild salmon swimming in it.

The end the afternoon, we headed back to Michael (Dean's dad) and Pam's place. The day had ended up really sunny, and we enjoyed a relaxing afternoon in their garden drinking tea and eating homemade cake.

Today, I get to see Plymouth, take a picture by the sign where the pilgrims set out from, and eat a pasty.

Really, I tried!

2008-05-20T17:36:00.002+02:00

In two days it will be exactly one year from when I got my tattoo. Although, I was told that Germany had different standards about giving blood, that it was either 4 or six months. Over the weekend, one of the Frisbee players lost my pen, but then gave me a pen from his bag (after I hasseled him jokingly about it). And on the pen was the number and hours for the blood bank in Greifswald. Perfect! And while we were waiting for the U-bahn (kinda like the metro), another player, Ali, said he was going to go in this week to give blood (you get 20euros in Germany for giving blood).

After working it out, we met up today at 4pm and headed to the hospital. We filled out our forms, and I even got to write that I was born in America and grew up there, and in case you were wondering, it is 4 months from when you get a tattoo until you can give blood again. I had enough iron in my blood, am healthy, everything seemed fine. You have to go into three separate rooms. The first is the iron and verifying you are who you are. The second is where they ask you questions about how you are feeling and about medication you are taking (why they don't combine rooms one and two is beyond me, hey, it's Germany). Then you finally give blood. Well, I only made it to room 2.

The doctor asked when was the last time I had been the states. August. All right, and I grew up in the states. Yes. So am I now living in Germany for good, or what? No, I will be returning home in about 5 weeks. Oh well, then, because you aren't staying in Germany, we won't be taking your blood today. Something about the blood being successful or something, maybe then they can follow up if they needed to. So, sorry, you won't be giving blood today.

Hey! My blood is just fine! I thought there was a blood shortage! Maybe it is because they turn down perfectly good applicants!

BUM (Beach Ultimate Mitte)

2008-05-14T23:12:00.005+02:00

"Yeah, I am pretty stoked for the upcoming beach tournament in Berlin."
"Lori, you do know that there isn't actually a beach in Berlin, right?" My friend, Matt, kindly pointed that out to me a few weeks ago, a fact which I clearly knew. Berlin may be land locked with no big lakes, but they do like their sand volleyball in the middle of the city. This past weekend was a long weekend in Berlin, again, and got to play some Frisbee on the sand.

The weekend actually started on Thursday, when I caught the train into the city and went to Rob's. We had a good chat and made icing. It was then time for me to meet Dean at the airport, woo! It was his birthday, and what a great present. That night, the three of us went out and got some delicious, American style cheeseburgers. They were huge, and I was even able to get it cooked medium rare (they like to cook all meet to well done here). When we walked in, I asked if the kitchen was still open, in German, but after sitting down, I heard the waitress speaking English with a typical American accent. Almost everyone in the place was a native English speaker. But I don't care, because it has been over 8 months since I have had a decent burger.

We slept in the next day, lounging around and enjoying the quiet morning. But we were still able to get out the door by 1pm to do our small walking tour of Berlin. We went to the basic sites, Alexanderplatz, where the TV tower is, down the Brandenburg gate, and then the Reichstag. That walk, with stops all over the place ending up being about seven hours, but it was sunny the whole time and I was wearing shorts!

After a terrible night's sleep, because we opted to stay in the gym, it was time to play some ultimate. Dean met up with his pick-up team, and they were all a bunch of really great guys, and I met up with Dresden women's team. It was their second tournament as a women's team, and I think they are going to be great after some training and getting some more girls. We were 10-11 players all weekend, which is a great number for the beach. We weren't expecting all that much, but we ended up winning 3 games, but also getting demolished in two others. I handled a lot more than I would prefer, but it is good for my playing, just keep getting better at everything.

The sun was out the whole weekend, which really makes a beach tournament. We met a lot of new people. I took Dean, Robert (another Fulbrighter) and his friend Sebastian out to the great Viatnamese place. That had been my 5th (and final) time there, but because of the specials, it was still spectacular! The Sunday night party was great, some dancing and a lot of socializing. I didn't spend as much time with the team as I normally like, but I don't regret that. Katy was also there, which is always a fun time. We spent a little bit of time with the Frankfurt team on Sunday night, and they brought their own freeze master hat, and I am pretty sure we freaked out the women running the ice cream stand. But what would you think if about 10 people just stopped moving/talking in front of your kiosk?

Dean and I watched the open final together (oh Monday, it was a 3 day tourney), and we were just sitting there, watching frisbee and playing fantasy frisbee (I lost pretty badly) with the sun shining down on us, perfect.

Well, dang it

2008-05-06T17:33:00.002+02:00

Fiddling: (from the unabridged Random House Dictionary) 6. to make trifling or fussing with the hands (often fol. by with): fiddling with his cuffs
So when someone says that he is "fiddling with the remote" it is, in fact, proper grammar.

The weather continues to be fabulous. I haven't really done all that much in the past couple of days. On Saturday I went to the beach, and they have started charging people to enter, bummer. After deciding that I haven't spoken enough German lately, I paid the 1.50 entrance fee. We were going to try to meet up with some Frisbee people there, and Martin was there, hooray! He also brought friends, then Lutz came, and more friends came (some left, well, one), and I ended up spending about seven hours at the beach. We were throwing a frisbee, lounged around, and grilled, wonderful!

And Sunday I went for another really long. I keep pushing myself, this time I was out for 70 minutes, yes! There is a half marathon in Crystal Lake in September and I would really like to run it.

And now it is only 2 days until I leave for Berlin! Hooray! It is Dean's birthday, plus seeing all of those wonderful frisbee people, plus a three day tournament on sand in the middle of Berlin.

Happy May Day!

2008-05-01T11:06:00.004+02:00

The weather this past week in half has been incredible, sun every day, and it continued to get warmer and warmer. We had some showers last night, and I enjoyed the moments of riding my bike home through a light drizzle and enjoyed the smell of a spring rain. During Frisbee practice, one of the girls said that she had to leave at 8pm because a friend of hers (who I also know) was coming to her place to watch a soccer match, Chelsea vs. Liverpool. I made a comment about how I like Chelsea because I really like the player, Michael Ballack. So I basically invited myself over, but she and her boyfriend said they were more than happy to have me over. Chelsea won in overtime, and the night was half English/half German, which is always funny. Then I enjoyed the rest of my evening with my window wide open and chatting on the phone.

So quite a few weeks ago, I got to spend the week in Berlin with a whole bunch of Americans, and that was great! Katy and I roomed together. Maybe I have blogged about this already, but she put my name down to room with, and I put her name down and we hadn't even asked the other person before doing it. We all arrived in Berlin on Saturday (all being me, Katy, Rachel and Aine met us up there). After a night out with Rob and some other Frisbee Fulbrighters, we checked into our hotel. What a place! It was a four star hotel, and we were on the 33rd floor and we had a view of the city, at least the west side of the city. After looking through all of the material given to us, we called up some bath robes and slippers and had a fun photo shoot. The week was filled with meeting lots of new people, learning about different projects people have done, being surrounded by academia, and appreciating musical talents of others. There are many different types of Fulbright grants, you can do research, be a visiting professor, study music under a great teacher, and teaching assistants. They had our evenings planned for us, but never too late, and we were able to meet up and relax with other people. One night we were able to enjoy listening to the musical talents of some scholars, there was opera, piano, tuba, and even a modern piece where the players had to use 3D glasses to read the music, which they didn't even have to follow. The last night they pretty much threw a party for us at a local club, and of course we danced the night away. I was able to dance about 15 minutes of pretty intense swing, and even got flipped a couple of times (it was great dancing with someone who was a great leader). Katy decided to stay in Berlin until Sunday, but I had to get going because I was meeting Dean up at the airport on Thursday.

A little of this, a little of that

2008-04-26T12:11:00.008+02:00

As has been requested, I am going to write a blog entry, and maybe write about what happened when Katy and Rachel was here, but then I also have Berlin, and then when Dean visited, goodness!

Hmm, all right, some highlights: Katy and Rachel visited me about a month ago. They live down south in Hessen (around where Frankfurt it) and their two week Easter break came after Easter. Katy thought that it would be good to come visit before the Berlin conference, and I agreed, and then we invited Rachel to come as well, because she is lovely. They got here on Tuesday (April 1st) later than they were expecting, but when you are doing the car pooling thing, you can't say exactly when you will get somewhere. Oh well, we then missed the bus to go to the beach, but it was such a great day out that we walked it down there. We were about an hour late to Frisbee, but there were still 7 people on the beach, so with the three of us, that was 10! I always love watching Katy play, and she is getting better and better. Plus the students from Greifswald are always fun to play with, we seem to have a really great team dynamic so far.

Hmm, another thing we did was go to Rügen, yeah, I am jumping ahead a few days, but that was really the grand highlight of trip, other than going out after Frisbee on Thursday with a few other players and staying out at the bar for a few hours with lots of laughing and slapping people's head (sorry Katy). Anyway, Rügen was great. It is the biggest island that Germany has, and the smallest national park. We took the train up there. It was quite the overcast day, so there weren't too many people out, but we enjoyed the time anyway. Before we hit the park, we walked around a port, and there I had an incredibly yummy fish sandwich (which was less than a euro!) and Katy and Rachel both got waffles. I took about 300 pictures that day, we ate sandwiches that probably had some sand in it (since we put everything in my bag, and my bag was recently on the beaches of Rimini). And the hike was beautiful! The island is on the Baltic Sea and has white cliffs facing it. No, I don't know if they are like the cliffs in Dover, seeing as I have never been there, but these were breathtaking, even in the cruddy weather. A highlight from that trip was meeting an older gentleman on the path. We were about to turn back, but he informed us that we were about 400 meters away from a gorgeous outlook, and then there was also a little restaurant we could go to if we wanted to rest. So we found the outlook, which was great, and then went to the restaurant. Katy and Rachel got some coffee and cake, I got some hot chocolate. Oh yeah, there was also a little children's play area! It definitely revitalized me and the sun came out for our walk back to the train station.

I will write about Berlin tomorrow, but here is what is going on right now: really not much of anything. I have been able to chat with some friends from home recently. Heather and I are going to have the greatest combined party ever! But I am afraid that her all important 23rd birthday will over shadow my homecoming party, since it is Michael Jordan's number. We are gonna play a mix of jock jams and German pop the whole night, get excited. I also talked with Emily, which was amazing! I have been running more, and that makes me feel really great. There is a half marathon in Crystal Lake in September, and I am pretty sure I am going to sign up for it, which means I have get running. On thursday, I ran my first practice ever! We had eight people show up, which is fine, enough to do drills and it makes explaining things a lot easier. I tried to run a hard but fun practice, and the people who were there said it went really well. And we will be heading to our first tournament in May, and we have 13 people signed up to go, woo!

And today is April 26th, which means exactly 2 months before I fly home, some people are really excited and some people really aren't, I am both.

How my yesterday was great

2008-04-24T09:49:00.002+02:00

Here area few reasons why my yesterday was amazing!

The weather continued to be bright and sunny. While it isn't as warm as at home (we reached the low 50s in Fahrenheit), it is still enough to get pretty much everyone outside walking/running/on their bike.
Instead of going to class, I went on a bike tour tip with an eighth grade class. They are a really sweet class that I haven't gotten to know enough and I am still struggling with their names. But the teacher who invited me on the trip was great and kept telling me their names every time I asked.
I brought along a frisbee, and got about ten kids really excited about it. Mostly girls, but hey, that is who I am usually trying to recruit. It was really great, we played on the beach, and you don't have to be the best at sports to like it (at least at first).
Some of the students and I had a great conversation, I asked them what they wanted to be when they grow up, they asked me about where I was from.
Angelina (the teacher who invited me) and I went out for a "coffee" meaning I had a hot chocolate. We chatted about lots of things, mainly school, but it was still nice to be outside of the school setting with her.
I had my first outdoor on the grass Frisbee practice yesterday. There were about 25 people there, mostly beginners, but they all seemed very happy to be there. I got a lot of responses for our upcoming tournament, and it seems like many people are looking forward to Monday and Thursday practices.
Went to the KSG afterwards, and people there seemed happy to see me, and I was happy to see them! The presentation was about being Christian and the politics of Germany, I pretty much zoned out for about an hour in half and caught myself day dreaming a lot.
Spoke to friends last night on the phone, woo! First, spoke to Dean, a Frisbee friend I met in Italy, then I actually got to talk to Ryan, for a whole hour! That was the icing on the cake, since we haven't talked like that in months.

And now I am done for the week, get to plan a practice for today, and basically chill out.

Paga: Monday, finally, the last day

2008-04-21T19:44:00.004+02:00

After the terrible weather on Saturday, waking up to the sun on Monday was quite a blessing. It was our last day of play, one game, and the weather looked great. We would be pairing up against the American Gladiators again. We had beaten them pretty easily the first time, but we knew that it wouldn't be that easy. Our team was pretty much ready to go, we were clearly tired, but maybe it was the good weather that energized us. The game started out like most of our other games, they were able to get about four points on us at some point. There was part of me that thought, well, I guess this is it, again. At one point, the score was 9:5, them. We then scored the next point, and the two point cap came on, so game to 11. And then, we seemed to get into a rhythm. We weren't playing to win the game, we were playing to win the point, which ever one it was. That was a big difference, at least with me, just fight right now, and then we will worry about the next point. We then found ourselves up 9:10, the American Gladiators then scored another point. And there we were, universe point, who ever scored the next point would go home feeling like winners. There were probably a few turn overs in that game, but then there was a beautiful put to the back of the end zone, and Mike was there, layed out, dragged the line, and caught the most beautiful disc I think I have ever seen. Best Paga ever!

They were pretty bummed to lose the game, but we were still able to have a great post game chat and played a few games. Brendan led them in a common Irish cheer, and then the played Cowboy, princess, spoon with us. If you know mix and mingle, then you know this game. If not, when someone shouts out cowboy, you get into a pair, one player gets on all fours, and the other is the cowboy. For princess, it is partners again, and one of the players picks up the other (like you are carrying them over the threshold). And spoon is for three people, and you have to lay on the ground and spoon with two other people. As the game started, a player on the other team made eye contact with me, and we then were the first in the cowboy position. You are supposed to mingle with everyone, but the two of us stayed close by each other. After a while, both teams caught on as people were getting eliminated, and tried to keep up separated, but he would just rush over and we would end up not getting eliminated. At the end, there were three of us, two American Gladiators and me. They called out princess, and the other girl was shocked that he still threw me into his arms. For the win they wanted to play pokey, but I knew that I could never win at that, so I suggested that we play slap, where you try to hit the other person's bottom before they hit yours. I ended up losing, but then one of my players took him out, so I feel like it was victory in the end.

The rest of the day was quite restful. The nice weather didn't stay that much longer. The Austrian junior team won the juniors group, and it was a team that I got to play a few games with back in September in Erlangen, which was so fun to cheer them on at Paga! Huck Finn (and American team) won the mixed section, Bliss won women's (for like the 8th year, out of 10) and Scandal won open! Scandal is a team mostly based out of Chicago, and I met their captain last time I played Paga, and that was so great to cheer them on!

It got cold and rainy, and the shower was greatly appreciated. We had to say good-bye to our duke that night, went out for dinner, had to walk a few kilometers in the rain and wind, but the place we at ate was pretty wonderful and not touristy. They gave us real portions for what seemed like a bargain compared to what we were used to paying at the beach. Then it was time for the last party. But the last party was actually a bit lame. Maybe we were all just tired and didn't really want to mingle, but it was kinda quiet. The teams I had been hanging out with (besides my own) had all left. Around midnight, a player I had met the first night was going to the British pub in town, where all the British teams end up. Yeah, not only do they see each other all the time in the UK, but they decide to have their own party at a british pub? But hey, that turned out to be more fun than where we were. Five of us headed down there. I got to chat a bit with Russ, and then I looked around. Yeah, a whole bunch of people who already know each other, that's not intimidating or anything. But I was determined to mingle, went to the bar, got my beer, and noticed a cute looking guy in cast at the bar, hmm, easy conversation starter. Well, what started as a simple story (he broke his arm a week before Paga, so sad!) turned into an eight hour conversation! We even got kicked out of the bar, then watched the sunrise over the Adriatic. Perfect way to end Paga '08? Yes.
Bottom Row: Holly
Second Row (from left): Maria, Mike (Chunk), Jan, Bojan, Choi, Chelsea, Thierry
Top Row: Simon, Anna, Brendan, Michael, Bob, Ines, Andy, Lori, Martin, Emily

Paganello: Sunday

2008-04-20T17:16:00.002+02:00

This is it, this was the day that made everyone miserable at Paga. The weather had been cold and windy, but not rainy, at least not too much.

Our first game of the day was not too early, so that was nice, but it was at this time that I noticed how tired I was. I thought that I was doing pretty well, but even with so many subs and not drinking all that much at the parties, and not even staying out too late, but the lactic acid was filling up quickly in my legs. This was my worst game by far. I had an extremely easy point block on me and an incredibly scrappy catch in the end zone. The thrower probably threw the disc two meters to me, and I was wide open, but for some reason, it still caught me off guard, and I fumbled with it twice, fell over, and ended up finally just holding it against my chest, which was how I kept posession of it. It was pretty much after that that I wasn't played all that much for the rest of the day. But I had also played a lot during the first two days of play, and Simon was trying to equal playing time (at least that is what I am telling myself). We ended up losing (again), with a score of 10:5, ouch.

Between our games we were all mingling, watching games and eating a bit. It was during this time that the cold rain started coming down. Everyone who wasn't playing ran into the giant circus tent, there was barely any room to move. That was something in itself though, fitting that many people into a small space. People were wet and cold, some were in good moods, some teams were trying to warm up for their games. I watched about ten minutes of another game before I gave up because it was so miserable out. The weather didn't let up for the rest of the day. And I am declaring those the worst conditions that I have ever played in, and hopefully will ever play in. Yes, I am from the Chicago area, and it gets cold and wet there. But I have lots of layers and cars to keep your stuff in, and also am always wearing shoes! That was the thing that really did it, it took about five minutes to lose all feeling in almost all of my toes. Both teams played really hard, the other team, Gronical D, called a lot of calls that normally aren't called at that level of frisbee, so that caught us off guard (like off sides). I finally got my lay-out D in the that game. For those of you who don't know, that is when I am on defense, and a disc is thrown to the player that I am guarding, and I need to dive to make sure she doesn't get it. It was something I had wanted all tournament. The teams kept just switching points, and the other team scored one upwind point, and that decided the outcome of the game. The final score was 7:6, them.

During and after the game, most of my team was asking how I was doing, if I was too cold. I thought that I was fine, and doing the same as everyone else, but apparently I looked a bit blue in the face. Our team had somewhat split up where we were staying , and some of the players' hotel was right by the beach, and Martin was going back to the hotel to warm up and suggested that I come. That was probably the best thing I could have done. It took about 15 minutes for me to warm up in the shower. Usually I am worried about my fingers and toes, but when my stomach took a while to warm back up, I realized that I really had been cold down to the core.

And our last game of the day, it was still cold and rainy, but it was the last game of the day. We went out and ready to finally win. It also helped that the team we played was pretty terrible. The only things I can really remember is standing and warming up by Alison (Si's wife) and hoping that my name would be called so I could go play some more. Early on in the tournament, two players had started calling me Hoff, which I am totally fine with, even encourage. But then Simon, who called the lines, started calling me that, but I wasn't used to that, I was used to hearing the e at the end of my name. Oh well, I still got to play.

I can't remember if it was this game, or if it was the last game on Saturday, but I made a play that I am still extremely proud of. Even though I have been playing frisbee for four years, I still feel like I have lots to learn, and really only learn when I go to tournaments because the teams I have played on were either at my level or below it. Anyway, one of our handler's, Andy, threw me a gorgeous disc to the end zone, but it was a floating and was a bit high. I needed to decide whether to jump up for the disc or turn and run for it. I knew that if I missed the disc, I would not have enough time to recover and run for it (which might have been a possibility on grass). In that split second, I turned and ran and had to lay out for it, but it was easily within reach. Things like that make me realize that I am getting better and playing smarter.

As I said, we had a fairly easy win with 5:11, finally! After the game, I pretty much ran into the tent, collected my stuff, then ran back to the hotel. But stupid me forgot that I was wearing another player's coat, and I had played the last point. When my name was called, I threw it to the sideline and totally forgot about it when I ran to the tent. I was reminded the next day of this, and went back to look for it, but it was gone, which sucks, a lot. It is just another way that I am still irresponsible. He said I didn't need to replace it, and it is one of those things I will pay forward.

That was also the first night that we didn't head directly to dinner, and had a fun time somewhat hanging out with the American Gladiators (mixed team from Chicago). We found out that we were playing them the next day for our last game. Food was great that night. The party was fun, we didn't dress up as anything crazy, it was the theme night, but oh well. I had made a bet with another player from another team the night before, and won that bet, so I got a free drink. After be bought my drink, we just stood next to the dance floor for about an hour in half talking to each other and other people who came up to us. It was quite fun just watching everything that was happening around us. We both had games at 8.30am the next morning, and were then really lame and headed back pretty early.

Paga: Saturday

2008-04-20T17:00:00.003+02:00

Here I go again, really, I will catch up soon, maybe today, that would be great. Just a little about today, the weather is finally nice. It is sunny and not too windy out. The temperature isn't the greatest, but this is a heck of a lot better than yesterday or the day before or the week before.

Anyway, Saturday of Paganello saw more losses, in fact, we lost all of our games, which was a huge let down. The first team was played was a team from the Czech Republic. The weather that day stayed pretty solid all day. Again, we came out not that strong against them. I can't really remember all that, but the score reporter tells me that we lost 15:3, wow, didn't realize it was that bad.

Our next game was against a team called Croccali. We had to wait for the game before ours to finish. There were two women's teams playing, both seemed to be pretty inexperienced and there were lots of turnovers. Our game probably started about 15 minutes late, but we were trying to warm up the whole time. The weather had turned cold and windy at this point. This was actually a game that we came out to fight. I think they were leading at the beginning of the game, then we actually were able to come back and take the lead. But it was quite heart breaking, because we lost 9:7 in the end. No one on my team was smiling or joking around after a close loss like that. The other team was quite keen on playing some post match games, but none of us were really in the mood. During the game they had us play, one of our players, Simon, hit another player, Emily in the face with his hand, and she ended up with a pretty bad bloody lip. It really just seemed to go with the mood of the day.

Our last game of the day, we played a team called Frizmi from Slovenia. It was a tough fight, but I think that we had lost the heart that we had in the previous game. It was getting colder and colder, and we had to play at dusk. They ended up beating us 9:6, another game we let get away from us because we couldn't start well. Even though we ended up losing, we were still in better spirits than the last game. We played the game "Find the Duke." Not sure if I have already described this, and if I have, oh well. My team was based out of Luxembourg, but we only had one person who actually holds a passport from the country. So we all had to go around and say a sentence in our native tongue. We had one player who was from Bulgaria, and the Slovenians understood what he said, so that was quite comical. When the duke was revealed they couldn't believe it because Bob, our duke, goes to university in Austria, and they have played tournaments with him. I think seeing their reaction to our game was really what brought our laughter back.

The party that night was held at a club, which was pretty great. When we got in, we first watched the freestyle competition, which was so impressive. Then it was about midnight, and the open team I was chatting with the night before found me and bought me a drink, since I had pretty much stopped drinking alcohol from New Year's. We all danced the night away and the DJ for the second half of the night was Simon from my team. About a third of our team was on the last bus home, which probably wasn't going to bode well for us the next day, but hey, we were just having a good time bonding, right? That is important for any team.

Rimini: Friday

2008-04-17T19:49:00.004+02:00

Yes, I am aware that I haven't updated for about three weeks, and for that I apologize. Hopefully you are ready for an influx of updates. Last I left off I had probably just left the Thursday night party. We ended up leaving pretty early (for Paga). One reason was because we wanted to get a good nights sleep, the other was because we didn't want to get totally drunk, which meant we just watched other people do that, and that is only fun for so long.

Anyway, we had three games on Friday, and our first was at a great time: 10.30am! The other team was seeded much higher than us, they were the home team, play together normally, and also play on the beach. My team was made up of 17 people (yes, that is a lot, especially for beach). We had 7 women, or maybe 8 (one of our female players came in really late and ended up missing the whole day because she was so exhausted). Needless to say, we got beat pretty badly the first game. The final outcome was 15:2, yikes.

In between games, a few of us headed over to the merchandise tent. I knew that I would only be looking, since coming to the tournament was pretty much breaking the bank. While we were over there, I saw a player with a "Chicago Ultimate" bag, and therefore had to talk to him. He ended up playing for a mixed team that is mostly based out of Chicago called the American Gladiators and we were going to play them our next game. I then met a whole bunch of the other players, and got a little homesick. And on top of that, they were staying at the same hotel as us, on the same floor! So that made for a fun rest of the tournament. It was great playing them the next game as well, and we won! My team had my say the talk at the end of the game, since I could speak to them on their "native tongue." The final score of the game was 10:6.

Our last game of the day was against the paris team. We needed to win this game in order to move into the top bracket. Before the game, I chucked around with Choi, a girl from Singapore who is studying in Austria this year. She is absolutely adorable. It started to rain a little, but I was refusing to believe that the weather could go sour. It did end up holding off (that day), and even though we were psyched up to play, the Paris team came out really strong. We would give up at least four or five points at the beginning of the games, and coming back from that was really hard. I felt like I didn't play very well, except for a totally sweet grab at the end of the game. It was the last point DeLux scored. It was meant for someone else on my team, but floated over him and I was able to grab it before it flew out. Unfortunately, it extended my right arm a little too much, so it was aching for the rest of the day (but was fine the next day after taking some ibuprofen). After the game, they played a few games with us, and then I got picked up by two (attractive) french men. While I was sitting on their shoulders, another girl on the team tied a piece of cloth on my ankle, which is a Brazilian thing. I got three wishes. Two of my wishes came true (they were that no one on my team would get seriously injured, and that we would have a great time). The final score of the game was 9:5.

We had our only full team dinner after that, and I think we ended up being 22 people all around a huge table, and it took probably about 3 hours to get in and get out. I got to sit by the team coach, who has been playing ultimate longer than I have been alive, so it was great just chatting with him and the other people around me. We finally showered after dinner, which was marvelous, because sand ends up everywhere. Most of the other teams had already gone and were desperately looking for food.

The party that night was quite a bit better, mainly because I ended up meeting an open team and chatted with them most of the night. Choi and I had grabbed some water and were heading back into the party tent. While heading, we saw some people playing a game that looked similar to something I had learned at camp. So we started chatting with them. They were both American, and one of them is a grad student at U of I! And then I said I played for Valpo, and he said that they would have played me then. I then said, well , you would have played our open team. But no, he coaches the women's team at U of I. Then I realized that I had seen him, or at least. Most of the women on the Valpo team really don't like him, I had no problem with him. We then walked into the tent with them, and then another player came up to me, and was like, "Lori, do you remember me?" Clearly I didn't, but then he said, "It's Alex!" Click! Alex, met him at Paga in '06 at an ice cream shop, him and teammate, then I got him set up with Wayne and April for World Cup stuff. Anyway, Alex was playing with this team that I had just met, crazy! Anyway, I went on to meet the whole team that night. Choi and I finally rejoined our team for the last 45 minutes we were there and danced the night away. It was lovely!

Rimini: Wednesday and Thursday

2008-03-29T13:51:00.002+01:00

As my last post ended, I was taking a flight to Venice. Everything went as planned, and getting to the bus was really easy. I am really glad I looked into all of that before I left for Berlin. But the bus was about 20 minutes late, which got me to the train station later than I had hoped. I then attempted to purchase a train ticket with my debit card, and it kept rejecting it. Well, the machine didn't even say it was rejecting it, it would just go back to the original screen. Which meant I had to stand in line for a ticket, which was fine, but that forced me to miss the train that would have gotten me into Rimini an hour earlier.

In the end it all worked out, got to my hotel safe and sound, and then walked to the beach to check it out while the people I was meeting up with were having dinner. Two years ago I met a guy from London named Mathias. He did not play at paga last year, but this year his mixed team got a spot! As I was waiting for him and his girlfriend at the bar, some other ultimate players came down, and we started chatting. It was a nice night of just meeting people (mostly British players), but I also met a kiwi girl living in Mainz, and of course recruited her for Mother Tongue. Around 3am we decided it was a good idea to throw a disc around on the beach, and it was a good idea.

The next morning most of us checked out of the hostel because we were staying at hotels with our teams. A few of us walked into town to check it out a bit, we also went to the beach, and I met up with some other people I had met two years prior, which is always fun. And then finally I met up with my team! I only knew one person on the team before the tournament, so it was really fun to see him and then meet everyone else. When I first met them, they were throwing a disc (of course) and for about the first five minutes, all throws that were thrown to me, I dropped. But it takes me about ten minutes to warm up my hands. After that, I was throwing with only one person, and was making layout catches, so I felt a lot better.

We then headed to The Barge, the Irish pub that is right next to the beach. One of the players (mike or Chunk, whatever you want to call him) asked if they could call me The Hoff, and I ecstatically agreed, because I have wanted a good nickname for a while, and Hoff is the obvious choice, but it was only this summer when people seemed to have recognized that.

The team had split up and were in a bunch of different hotels. I took the cheap option and was sometimes wishing I hadn't, but in the end it all worked out (since there was a team from Chicago on our floor, which is awesome). Back at the hotel, I met some of our other players, and then we all went to the Thursday party. We all got food (since we got there earlier than most) and everyone else had some of the terrible wine they serve. I had decided to not have any this year. I met up with two other Christian guys and we watched guys on stilts fight each other, it was intense. The team ended up at the barge again, played some pool, watched people get drunk, and were back in our hotels around 1am, which is pretty early for Paga, but we were getting ready for the ultimate!

Retrospective posts- Berlin

2008-03-28T21:35:00.002+01:00

A lot has happened over the past two weeks, so instead of blogging it all on one post, I have decided to separate what happened on different posts. This first post is going to be when I was in Berlin between March 15-19:

I took a noon train into Berlin, which was really great, because it meant that I wasn't rushing around, trying to get things done, I had time to make myself breakfast and take out my garbage, yes! The train ride was quite uneventful, which is always nice. I only started chatting with the girls who I rode with once we got off the train. Rob and I hung out for a bit, then went food shopping. It is always tricky to go food shopping on a Saturday, because if you forget something, that is it, no going out on Sunday. After making dinner, we headed out to get some karaoke, but the place was a real club, not a little bar that is tucked away, so instead we went to what looked like a very private bar. It was really small, and everyone looked at us when we entered. Then, one of the guys started singing with the help of a cd, weird.

I went to church on Sunday, and it was packed again. I really like that church, it has a really good feel to it, there is definate spirit in the church, unlike many churches I have been to in Germany. It was palm Sunday, and they had the kids come up and help pass out the palms, then they also had the kids parade around the church praising with all their might, it was both adorable and moving, if that can happen. Rob and I met up for brunch and we went to the vegetarian/vegan breakfast buffet place. This is something I would never have looked into had I not become a vegetarian during Lent. It was both delicious and inexpensive because they don't have a set price for the brunch. They say to pay between 4-8 euros, but not what you think it is worth, but what you can pay. So when I come back to Berlin and have a real job, I will then leave the 8 euros for the brunch. And then of course we took a walk through the flee market, and I got Mark's christmas present! It is awesome.

On Monday, we decided to have a little get together. Since we are all adults, we now like to do adult things and had a wine and cheese party. There were seven of us all together, lots of cheese and some wine. Out of the seven of us, five of us are Americans and five of us play ultimate (although not the same five).

After sleeping in on Tuesday, running some more errands (I went on a search to get a basic halter top, and didn't find it, walked around for a few hours on both monday and Tuesday looking for it). Came back to the apartment, watched a movie, and then went out to dinner with Ben (Fulbighter and Ultimate player) and his parents. It was really nice to meet them. Ben has been playing Ultimate since high school, so his parents know all about the game, which is really great. I think this is something I will be educating my parents in this coming summer (are you reading this Mom and Dad?). Then Rob met up with the two of us for a drink later that night.

And Wednesday, Wednesday I showered, had breakfast, and then flew to Venice!

Come on

2008-03-14T23:52:00.002+01:00

Train scheduled has been checked, bag is mostly packed, extra credit put on phone, all right, let's do this!

Always a happy end

2008-03-14T14:50:00.002+01:00

Last night we at Frisbee practice, we had three teams of four play. One of the teams was white, the other was black, and the other was the colored shirts together. Someone started chearing for them, saying, "Go Jamaica!" And then we all started to cheer "Cool Runnings" and Kirsten suggested that we call our team that, because even though there were struggles, it was always a happy ending. Live the Dream! I just finished watching Cool Runnings online, and I have never seen it before. It was good, your basic come out of nowhere with no chance story. The East Germans made fun of the team the whole time, but in the end, when the Jamaicans proved to have more dignity and determination than the other teams, the captain from East Germany said, "We'll see you in four years." Unfortunately, it was the 1988 Olympics, so he would not be seeing them again in four years.

I will be packing soon, because it is officially Easter break! I am leaving for Berlin tomorrow, and will be spending a few days hanging out there, hopefully picking up some stuff I couldn't find in Grefiswald (like a medium sized moleskin notebook, is it really that hard to find?) and then on Wednesday will be flying into Venice and then taking the train on to Rimini.

like a mongoose

2008-03-10T16:24:00.002+01:00

Only nine days until I fly out to Italy and only four days until I go to Berlin. Easter Break is starting, and I have been looking forward to it all year. In fact, the goal of this past weekend was to not get injured, because of the upcoming tournament on the sand. Unfortunately, I could not manage that one thing. But don't worry, it isn't bad.

This weekend was another ultimate Frisbee tournament and it was in Goettingen, which is in the middle of Germany. I ended up leaving on Thursday night and getting in after midnight. But two Mother Tongue players picked me up from the train station (Lanna and Garrett). We didn't really do much that night which was fine. We spent most of Friday baking bread, well, Lanna did at least. She made bread for the tournament, so while we were out getting some ingredients we met up with two other players, Adam and Ben. The bread took a while to make, but I didn't have anything to do in the process, just sitting and talking and laughing. Although, I did "ask the internet" how to grate a zucchini, without that, it could have been a travesty. Ben, Adam and I left Lanna to the bread and nap and went to find a park the throw a Frisbee in. The first place we headed ended up being a cemetary, the second place was a botanical garden, and we finally just threw it around in a little playground. On the walk we also climbed a tree and found a hippopotamus. Pictures were taken, but Adam warned me that we would never see them again, since Ben's computer is broken.

That night we met up with Meike and I also met up with the Dresden women's team. We spent much of the evening at a going away party for a girl I just met, but we were told we were very welcome to come. Meike and I left earlier, but I stayed up until the boys made it back it back to the gym. Although I had other Frisbee players plus the 2006 women's ultimate national game to keep me entertained. We ended up going to sleep around 3.30am.

The rest of the team (Wayne, April, Matt, Julia, Robin and Katy) showed up on Saturday morning because they were celebrating Julia's birthday the night before. The ultimate was great! I played for two teams, and loved them both. I spent most of my downtime with Mother Tongue as well as meeting new people. By the time I leave Germany, I will probably know pretty much everyone who plays ultimate frisbee. Neither team did very well playing wise, but it was the first Dresden women's tournament and Mother Tongue didn't have as much experience as normal. However, there was really great chili and a great atmosphere.

I would have to say that the best part of the weekend was at dinner. We went a delicious Indian restaurant, props to April for getting us the reservation. Our reservation was 8.30pm, and entered the place at 8.32, although we did give ourselves about two hours from our last game to getting there. So at dinner, somehow or another, we started telling really silly jokes. And even though they were bad jokes, and actually got worse during the conversation, somehow that made it all the better.

And the party was also really amazing. We did a Fulbright beer race (there were four of on the team this weekend), also played beer pong and flippy cup. I switched to pop pretty quickly because I just don't like the taste of beer. It was fun bringing out American culture to the table. After staying up ridiculously late, we realized we were never going to win the party (the last people there), and finally crawled into our sleeping bags around 5.30am.

Both of my teams ended up in the "Chumpionship" bracket, MT won both of their games on Sunday, and Dresden lost. The teams played each other in our last game, but I had decided that I was a tongue before going to the tourney.

some other highlights:

we had another player join us who had contacted me a few weeks ago, he is also from the Chicago area, and a few weeks ago met some girls from my university in Mexico playing frisbee
favorite line of the weekend: "she is short but aggressive." "like a mongoose."
I decided to have a really great game on Saturday, and then went on to do that, with the help of the team, and Ben who assisted at least 2/3 of my points
my injury was getting a blow to the outside of my right quad from a girl's knee. No bruise yet, but I might get one in a few days/weeks lower down on a joint, so either the knee or the ankle
Wayne and April are and always have been awesome
Matt injured his foot because he kicked a wall. He was mad at himself after a play and then was out for the rest of the tournament.
Garrett (who didn't play with us, but is a MT player) broke his write playing flippy cup. He slipped on some beer on the floor and tried to break his fall.
Katy got her first MT score, and cheered louder than she did, but that is to be expected, right?
I left the gym for the train station at 3pm and finally opened my door to my room at 10.45pm

Saying good-bye was no fun, and I was almost on the verge of tears even though there will be at least one more MT tournament before I go (right, Wayne?). But it is just thinking, these experiences are now numbered. And now I am going to nap so I don't get sick.

Oh, don't try to flirt with me now

2008-03-04T21:55:00.002+01:00

There are a few months were snow is expected, anticipated and even looked forward to. Yeah, everyone at home was complaining about snow for quite a few months, and I was complaining that we didn't really get any. Just on Sunday my dad told me the amount of snow fall for the winter thus far, and then I said that we maybe got about an inch here. One inch! But you know what? I dealt with it, and got over it. Once it turned March, that is when the snow season, in my mind, is officially over. However, Mother Nature has her very own sense of humor and right now it is snowing, and not just a little, but a lot. But hey, two years ago, the day before I headed to Italy we got snow (in April), and then the weather was perfect for the whole trip, maybe it will be similar to that.

Unplanned can be great

2008-03-02T12:47:00.002+01:00

Wow, right now I feel great! I thought this weekend was going to be completely boring. Everyone I know is pretty much not around. I don't stay in Greifswald very often, which is one reason I haven't really built many close friendships, but when I am here, it seems like no one is here. But, like I said, so far, it has been great.

Friday is the first day of the weekend, since I don't work on Fridays. It started with me sleeping in, then I met up with Carsta, we talked about what we were going to be doing with the 11th grade class, and then just basic chatting. Afterwards, I came back to my place and watched the entire season of Beauty and the Geek from last Fall. Yes, the entire thing, and it was awesome! That show is too incredible for words. After doing that, I went out to a student club and met up with an acquaintance, who had a final exam that day. We hadn't seen each other in about a month in a half, so I was pretty excited to see him. But he decided to get pretty drunk before arriving. But he somewhat introduced me to his other friends, and I danced/chatted the rest of the night with them, which I was more than fine with.

And yesterday I got a call from Carsta inviting me to a little birthday celebration for her husband. It was just going to be a small thing at their house with a few friends. Since I didn't have anything else going on, and it is always really nice to visit with them, I gladly accepted. Therefore, most of the day was spent at their place, I took a much needed nap since I stayed up quite late the night before, and dinner was good fun. I didn't talk as much as I normally do, but it was good to sit and watch and listen.

And now I am sitting here, planning on cleaning up my room. Today I got a very nice email from the captain of an Ultimate frisbee team I played with last summer. The beach tournament in Chicago was officially announced!

Things I am looking forward to:
Next weekend is another Mother Tongue tournament, love it!
In two weekends, I am heading back to Berlin, which is always great fun. Then, the Wednesday after that I fly to Italy! Yes, the tournament I have been looking forward to for about two years will be happening.
As week after that, Katy and her friend, Rachel, are coming to visit, and then we are all going to Berlin because there is a Fulbright conference. And that means we get to hang out with all the great people we met at the beginning of the year.

Yeah, things are looking good, plus, I booked my flight home, but that is incredibly bittersweet. Part of me wants to stay here, but the other part is looking forward to all the things that are to come next year and thereafter.

Why are high school students so hard to deal with?

2008-02-28T23:42:00.002+01:00

Argh, it is so frustrating to have classes that just don't want to do anything. These classes are really hard for me because I was an enthusasitic student in high school. If I had to spend my day in school, I should get something out of it, right? And of all the classes I took, German was one of my favorites, so I just don't understand when students don't really care about English.

On a brighter note, I did have one class today that went so well. Over the past months, I have noticed that I don't really need to prepare all that much for some of my classes, I end up doing a lot of things off the cuff, and unfortunately, they end up working. I say unfortunately because if they didn't work, I would spend more time prepping. Over the past few weeks, one of my 10th grade classes has been discussing violence, guns and school. We read some articles on the Columbine shooting that happened in 1999, and also read from a fiction book about the same kind of thing. Unfortunately, recent events at Northern Illinois University became a relevant topic. Since it happened, it seemed like a good idea to talk with the students about it. I gave them just what was on NIU's website about the shooting, and they had to turn it into a newspaper article. After discussing their articles, we started discussing the pattern of people who committed these acts. So I started generalizing, all of these people are male, why is that. And that is where they really started discussing. We talked about the generalizations, about how society has changed in the past 60 years, and how that might lead a person to become who they are. Even though the topic was grim, managing to get 16 and 17 year olds to actively discuss is encouraging to me.

And also this week, my mentor teacher and I were talking about one of the 7th grade classes. Apparently, once or twice a week, university students come in and teach the class (obviously when I am not there). These are students who are almost done with their studies, so they have taken about five years of school and plenty of education classes. While we were talking about them, she mentioned that I do a better job teaching than they do. Carsta said that these students (the university ones) come in with their lesson plan and have pretty much every minute planned out, they have no wiggle room. And in teaching, you need to have that room, because sometimes the students just take much longer to understand something I think is simple, but then the next time, they will rush through other things I thought would be hard for them. And often, we have to change lesson plans at that moment, because something I might think is great, the students will not respond to it at all. But it was good receiving praise, because I often feel like I am doing a terrible job.

just a few things I have done

2008-02-25T19:04:00.002+01:00

It has been about two weeks now since I last posted, sorry! Over the past few weeks some stuff has happened. After I got back from Berlin, I went down to Schwerin. It isn't that big of a city, in fact, it is the smallest German capital, woo! Gotta love the state I am living in. I visited another language assistant there. We took a walk, went out to see Keinohrhasen, which is a German romantic comedy. It was cute, but not nearly as cute as American romantic comedies, and had that strange German thing to it. We also watched an absurd amount of Family Ties, which was wonderful to revisit.

After all of my traveling, I just stayed around here for the weekend, and had a pretty boring weekend. Although, a new Frisbee player has been found in town! So I met in town with Steffi and new found player, Dan. He is Australian and shares lots of stories about life in Australia, there are so many deadly animals who live there, don't go swimming on the north coast if you are American, apparently.

The week was full of Frisbee goodness. I went to the beach on Tuesday night, because we are starting to have some practice there. And yes, the weather really is that good, I mean, it isn't like we can go swimming in the sea, but we can at least play outside on the beach without gloves, so that is something. The biggest problem is then that I get sand all over everything, oh well, it is good training.

And over the weekend I went back to Berlin, yeah, I just can't stay away. Although it is really easy to get down there and back pretty cheaply. We went to Poland, but there isn't any border control anymore, so I don't get the cool stamp in my passport. I knew it was open borders, but it is still probably a good idea to bring my passport, right? Well, I realized I had forgotten it as I was halfway to Berlin. Like I said, there was absolutely no problem. The day was bright and sunny, we ate really wonderful pirogies and then took a walk down the river. There was a small house party that night, and I got to meet some new people, but there were plenty of people there who I didn't really care to meet, but only because I knew exactly how the conversation would go. "Oh, where are you from?"
"The states"
"Yeah, where exactly?"
"Chicago area"
"And what are you doing here"
And then I answer, and then I ask about them, and then it seems like we run out of things to say. One on one is so much better than in a group setting. I was in charge of the dancing at the party, and there ended up not being any, mainly because it didn't turn into that kind of party, just sitting and chatting and laughing, then watchig music videos from the early 90s, and not just American, but German, Danish, Finnish and Russian, awesome.

The good weather continued into Sunday, so we went to play some sand ultimate. We got there at 2pm, and there was only one other frisbee player there, but by 3pm, there were probably about fifteen, and by the time we left, there were at least 20 people throwing, playing, or just being social.

This weekend I am in town, and then I am going to be out of town for about the next four weeks, but I love being busy.

Sunny and Warm on a February Sunday afternoon

2008-02-10T23:55:00.000+01:00

Today was perfect: perfect weather and a perfect way to spend a Sunday. After I went to church, I met up with Dan, Andrea, and Rob for brunch at the wonderful brunch place. We did the typical Berlin brunch thing, ate a lot, then talked, then ate some more. We stayed a little over two hours, and even ate outside! It was a little chilly, but for being February, we will take that. Then we took a walk to the flea market, another typical Berlin Sunday thing. It is fun to look through other people's garbage, and of course some new things as well (like some T-shirts with German on them, a rarity here in Germany). There were also people hanging out on the lawns, even some grilling today. I was the only person who bought something, but it was a great find! Goodbye, Lenin! for 4euros! We then meandered back to the apartment and packed up, then relaxed until we all had to leave. The train ride back was really restful as well, and am almost done reading The Time Traveler's Wife. If you haven't read it yet, read it!

Not my fault

2008-02-09T18:39:00.000+01:00

Yesterday we went out for dinner at the wonderful Vietnamese restaurant followed up by drinks at the Brazilian bar. I decided to get a non-alchoholic drink. We ordered our drinks, well, Russ and Rob put the order in, came back down the basement, and we waited about fifteen minutes. The bartenender apparently forgot our order, but still had them written down. When they came, there were four drinks with red straws and one drink with a white straw. We just assumed that the drink without alchohol was the white strawed one. I took a drink of my drink, and I thought it tasted a bit strange. Then we all tried everyone's drink, and everyon agreed that mine tasted like kool-aid and was way too sweet, and everyone loved Andrea's drink. After a while, I started to feel a bit light-headed, and I just thought it was a mental thing, since everyone else was drinking alchohol. A few minutes later I looked at what my drink had it in again, since I was still unsure if we had gotten the order correct. My drink was supposed to have milk in it, and Andrea's was not, but her drink was creamy and the drink in front of me was not.

Andrea orded a Mai Thai, which has quite a bit of alchohol in it, so it made sense that it had an effect on me, because Andrea also felt it after she started drinking it. Really, I was trying to be good!

2008-02-08T13:12:00.000+01:00

Remember the time when...

Katy and I were pirates?
another pirate at the party bought our drinks for us because I showed Katy my $10 bill?
we had to wait until 4am to go home?
Katy made shepard's pie?
we got our throats blest?
Wayne and April were awesome? (oh wait, that should be present tense)
we went to a local sports bar and stayed up until 4am watching a football game?
got heckled by Germans at said sports bar?
we got to Mainz way too early and stood out in the cold for about two hours for nothing?
Ben and Adam's phone seemed to run out of credit simulatniously?
and then they were really only 50feet away from us the whole time?
we went to a parade that was four hours long?
danced in the streets with garbage all around us?
saw the Marc Chagall windows?
had an old man lecture us on the Theater steps?

Yeah, those were good times in Rüsselsheim, Frankfurt, and Mainz

Don't hurt the parrot!

2008-02-03T13:30:00.000+01:00

One reason I enjoy spending time with Katy is because we usually eat pretty healthy (well, except for the large brownie sundaes we made yesterday). Today we are making quiche with spinach and feta cheese. On friday we made Shepard's pie, which we also ate yesterday. I got here on Friday around noon. We didn't do too much, I napped because I hadn't gotten much sleep the few nights before. At night we headed over to Mainz and helped celebrate Faschings (the German Mardi Gras). Her teacher got us tickets to a costume party, so we were pirates, somewhat. We had a few extra decorations, like a hat, a hook, a bird with an eye patch, but other than that, we just wore our own clothes. But most people came all decked out in their costumes, which is always really fun to see.

We got back really late (or early on Saturday), so we slept until 2pm on Saturday and spent the rest of the day hanging out at her place and checked out where the local Catholic Church was. This morning we went to church and like I said, we are now making quiche for lunch. Tonight we are hopefully heading to Frankfurt to visit with some of my favorite people and also to watch the super bowl. I am not sure who to cheer for. Thoughts?

Things got complicated, but ended up being even better

2008-01-29T19:42:00.000+01:00

First, I will say some things about my school experiences. As Bethany pointed out, I finally wrote about school, which I haven't really done yet. The first thing I want to mention is the ridiculously long bell they use at school. Maybe it is because I have never attended a school that used a bell that actually sounded like a bell. My grade school didn't have one at all, and my high school was no bell sounding, more of a ding. But at Humboldt, it is a bell, and it is always a bit longer than I expect it to be, so I always think that is actually the fire alarm going off. You would think that after five months I would have gotten used to it.

The second thing is about a new student in one of my 11th grade classes. We are currently reading Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and Tennessee Williams writes some of the parts in a southern dialict. I have gotten used to the German-English accent, but this new girl didn't have that. She said she lived in London for four months, so she has a really good British accent, but when reading a play that is intended to have a southern accent, it just sounded really quite funny.

And the title of this entry is about my search for a cheap flight to Rimini, Italy for Easter. I will be playing Paganello again this year. This is a huge beach tournament with teams from all over the world (there is even a team that is Chicago based, which I love!). I am playing with a team from Luxembourg, and playing mixed (guys and girls). And now I am at the point where the flight needs to be booked. Had I booked it a month ago, I would have gotten an even cheaper deal than I did, but I am doing it now (there are still two months until the tournament). Orignally, I was going to fly with Russ, but now he isn't sure if he is going to go, so he told me I should book my flight to get the best price. For the past few days I have been searching the cheapest way to do this, because as another Frisbee players told me, "You are either rich in time or money" and right now I am very time rich. The end product looks like this: flying out a day earlier than I wanted from Berlin to Venice for 20euros, and then flying back on the day I wanted from Venice to Hanover. Now, this seems quite strange, but the airline offers a train special, so I booked for an extra 20euros my train ride to get back home. The other reason I really wanted to fly with this company (TUI) was because they are German, and I can use my German debit card for no charge to pay.

Woo! Booked for Paga!

Somethig still...

2008-01-24T23:30:00.000+01:00

This week has been pretty good for teaching. On Monday, I taught the 11th grade class by myself, which isn't normally what I do. The class was amazing, we didn't have the most exciting lesson, but they listened really well, and we got through what we needed to without any extra hastle. I have been talking a lot about the election with the older classes, and today I found myself trying to talk about who Mormons are, and all that came out where the stereotypes that I know, hmm, maybe I should do a bit more research before I share with 10th graders that Mormons have 4 wives and think that Jesus fled to the US.

What was really interesting this week was one of my eighth grade classes. I made up a cute little story that I traveled to New York, and that every place I mentioned that was very "New York" I found a dollar, and they had to figure out how many dollars I had when I left. It was cute, and they really enjoyed it. But what was really interesting is that three girls did a presentation on September 11th. I never really know what to talk about when that topic comes up, and of course it would since New York is a unit in the book. They gave a talk and then showed part of a documentary that was made. The clip they showed us what the planes hitting the buildings, and I haven't seen the images in probably five or six years, and it made me emotional watching it again. They then asked me what I felt and where I was when it happened. The teacher also shared what she felt when she saw it. The students in the class would have been 7 or 8 when it happened. And that just blows me away as well.

It hurts, don't it?

2008-01-19T23:32:00.000+01:00

This past week I was hit with a slight cold, yes, again. It wasn't anything terrible, but since I have been running around for the past however many weekends, this weekend I am being really lazy and staying in. I just watched an episode of Miami Ink, and I am extremely glad that I got my tattoo before watching an episode of that show. But it makes me miss home, like pretty much everything. And hey, if any of you reading this live in the Chicago area, and want to get a tattoo, go see my brother at Lunchbox Tattoo, he is awesome. Ask for Mark.

You Rock!

2008-01-18T13:22:00.000+01:00

I just found out that a friend of mine got recommended for a Fulbright scholarship for next year!

Vorsicht! Frisbee Review

2008-01-13T22:58:00.000+01:00

Vorsicht is a really great German word, it means, Be Careful, or watch out! I just got back from playing yet another Mother Tongue tournament. That would put me at three for this year, making it six overall. I left my room on Friday at 11.30am on Friday, and got back at 10.30pm on Sunday (today), 11 of those hours were spent on a train. The first six were getting down there, and I almost went crazy, mainly because I was tired but also so excited to get to Dresden.

The first great thing to happen was running into my new friend from Greifswald on the train platform. Matthias was traveling to Berlin, so that was about the first three hours of the trip. It was nice to have someone to talk to for the first part, but then the second half of the trip was extremely boring and uncomfortable, but that is what happens when you decide to get the cheaper ticket. Oh well, Biscuit was there to meet me at the station! And then we met up with Ben and Meike. The four of us made our way to the gym, put our stuff down, and found a local pub for food and spirits. On the way there, we passed a super shady, dilapidated apartment building. Most of the windows were busted, and there was one room that had curtains with some kind of wind blowing them around, but there wasn't really wind. While there, we talked and laughed, mostly about nothing, but still great, then Lanna and Garrett arrived. It was nice to meet a new tongue (Garrett), and we all got to know each other with small introductions.

Meike, Lanna and I left the boys to meet up with Robin at the gym and to claim our space. The night progressed from there, Robin came, hooray! The boys came back and had found a box full of stuff outside of the haunted house (broken down apartment building). Russ took a game called Labyrinth which was a bit wet and moldy on the inside. Finally, the last part of team arrived, Wayne, April, and newcomer Matt. Matt played frisbee, but took a 12 year sabbatical, this tournament was the start of his comeback! We had the world's longest huddle, heard some exciting news, and then helped make a potato salad. I crawled into my sleeping bag at 3.30am, but a few of our players were up until 4.30 playing games with the polish players.

Luckily, we didn't have our first game until 12.30pm the next day, but it still wasn't that much sleep. Our first game was against one of the Dresden teams (they had two teams since they were the hosts, and they can do things like that). We started slow, didn't know how we play together, and left with a loss by one point.

Our next game was against P7, from Prague, a team we often meet, but don't often beat. But we came into the game wanting to take it, with our first game behind us, our defense became more solid and the offense was coming together. We scored the first few points, which in the end were extremely helpful, because they started to catch up, but we came away with the win!

The third game we had was against a beginner team full of native English speakers. That was an easy win, but we didn't really put too much of a fight in it, which is always frustrating watching us make stupid mistakes. But since we won two games, and the way our pool worked out, we ended up at the top of the pool! Which meant we were put into the upper half of the teams, so the worse we could do was 8th for the weekend, not too bad.

Generally after this at most tournaments, you will maybe one, at most, two more games, but we had three games and played until about midnight. We lost the fourth game we played, but again it was only by one point, and that is always really frustrating. It was against Saxy Divers, a team from Leipzig, and they have two other Tongues on the team, so we couldn't be too mad about it. Game five was against Yellow Fever from Prague. We went into the game thinking we were going to lose, and that is exactly what we did. Had we not already been mentally beaten, who knows, there could have been a different outcome.

And by now we are all pretty much exhausted, but only one more game, so let's go out and give it our all. After the loss, we all came out hard. We played against Magdeburg, and they also came out hard and ready to play. We were up, then they were up, and then we traded points. They got the last point of the game, which meant we ended up in a tie, and since we were still in pool play, that was allowed. Everyone else on the team was excited by how hard we played, but I was feeling down about the tie, but after the post game huddle, my spirits were lifted.

Right, so it is midnight, actually, 11.30pm by the time we are all showered, and are hungry. Apparently, the pizza places have all closed so we can't call in for delivery. What? It is a Saturday night, and we are in Dresden, at a university! Instead we venture out looking for some food. Four of us got in the car and started driving around. Quite quickly, we found a Döner/Pizza place that was still open. We quickly put in an order for 11 pizzas. It really only took about 20 minutes to get all the pizzas made, and April, Matt, Garrett and myself took this time to just sit, relax and chat with each other. Back at the gym, the beer race happened, which are always really funny to watch, we didn't win, we never win. As we walked in with our steamy, tasty pizzas, most other players in the gym looked at us with jealous eyes. More time for team bonding, eating pizza, and then trying to bounce a ping pong ball into cups, this entertained us for 30 minutes. Then Russ and Ben ran to the other gym, took a few birdies (shuttle cocks) and made another game, playing badminton with discs. At this point, it was just Russ and Ben hitting it to each other, but later turned into a doubles game with a human net.

The party was great and had different elements. Mother Tongue spent the first hour or two in the gym, playing games with each other, then we finally made our way to the dance floor. Many of the players did dance, which was great, but there were also side conversations and more chatting. I got tired and went back to the gym and spent probably another 45 minutes in there, we had four person spooning action going on, always a good time. Then I went back to the dance floor, talked with Ian, the Brit who was playing for Dresden (and played with us on Sunday), danced until I was too tired to move, and then spent the last part of the evening talking to players from Dresden. Didn't get much sleep that night, but that is what the week is for, right?

We didn't play on Sunday until 12.00pm again, love it! Our first game was against Halle, and we came out to play, and were ahead for most of the game, but there was a lot of point switching which is frustrating. They used a zone, and we were able to get through pretty easily, but would get too excited in the endzone, and throw away more than we should have. We lost the game on the last point, due to my stupidness. I still want to go for the glory, so I threw a long pass to Russ who wasn't really open instead of a short pass to Biscuit who was extremely open! Turnover, then the girl I was guarding scored the point, dang it! The worst part, is that there is a picture of me throwing the disc away and Biscuit is in the shot, clearly open.

But the weekend ended on an up note, because we played the other Dresden team and took a pretty easy win, well, we won by three points, but we did work for it. We ended taking 7th overall, not to bad considering at our last tournament we took last, and didn't win a single game. But I think about the teams we beat, how they must feel. They are teams that actually train together and then there is us, a team who just comes together for tournaments, and it is never the same team. But we generally have a good amount of experience with us.

So yes, great weekend! Thanks to Wayne for organizing it, of course (he says I don't mention him enough in the blog). But really, great, and the train ride back was nice and relaxing. Now I still have to prepare for tomorrow, then bed!

What I really wanted for Christmas

2008-01-07T00:45:00.000+01:00

This is really what I wanted for Christmas: A Banana Guard. At first, it looks ridiculous, but then, when you think about it, it is brilliant. If you are still searching for birthday ideas, pink or purple are my preferred colors.

Something Wonderful

2008-01-06T23:35:00.000+01:00

There are moments when I want to stay here, but then I get on the phone with the beautiful people from home, how can I stay?

Back home, at least for a little while

2008-01-02T22:51:00.000+01:00

Since my last post, it has been Christmas and New Year's. Christmas was great! I spoke a lot of German and was warmly welcomed into the Schaarschmidt's house. We got there on Sunday, had fish for dinner, and I am talking a whole fish here, head and everything, it was delicious. The family was great, her sister, Cindy, spoke English without a German accent, really, she had a perfect American accent. Her husband was hilarious, it was nice to hear the typical American accent, and a lot of colloquialisms to go with it (although I still can't really explain "dibs" in German, like if you call dibs on something).

Germans celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve. We started the day by watching some home movies. Unfortunately, Nadine was sick that day, and spent most of the day in bed. Around 4.30pm we went to church, and I went to the protestant service with the family. I have been to protestant services before, and they are never the same, but really, it was kind of boring. I do actually like all the standing/sitting/kneeling the Catholic service offers. But there was a cute play put on by high schoolers, and it included a rapping Santa Claus (or Father Christmas). After church, we opened our presents, and I was given a bag of goodies, including homemade strawberry rhubarb jam, which is my favorite jam in the whole world. We had a light dinner, and then the relatives came over. I met Opa, and an Aunt, and then some cousins. They stayed at the house until about 1am, but I headed to bed around 11.30pm.

The next day, Nadine was fine, but I woke up sick, bleh! So I spent the day in bed. But it only lasted the day, and I was able to laugh a bit with Nadine and cousin Gina.

The Germans actually have two days of Christmas, the 26th is still Christmas. I still can't wrap my head around that concept. But again, another lazy day, I slept in and then a friend of the family came over. After dinner I went out with Nadine and met her best friend. It was really fun to meet her, and I also didn't feel out of place, we all just laughed and talked together. We went to the irish pub and made plans to live in Dresden next year, Nadine just has to find me a job.

We headed back to Dresden on Friday. Nadine had to work on her thesis, so I went out and worked on my novel, read a little, then found my boots! After searching and searching, I went in one last shop before heading back to the apartment, and I found a pair of black boots with a nice sized heal, not too tall, but still there, and they were a bit slouchy, within my price range, fit well, and looked really great. Yes! After showing Nadine, and her wanting a pair of her own, we went and threw a frisbee around, more fun, made dinner, and played air hockey at a really cool bar. Nadine and her boyfriend hadn't ever played air hockey before, so it made it even funnier.

On Saturday, I met up with Julia, another Frisbee friend, and we headed up to Berlin. We were staying at Rob's place, her boyfriend and a friend of mine. He went home for Christmas and would be getting back into Germany on the 31st (it is only the 29th). Two of her friends met up with us in Berlin, so we were quite the party. We went grocery shopping, had some food, napped, then I met up with Russ for dinner and drinks. I got in pretty late that night, but still woke up with the other girls. We went ice skating on Sunday, which was fun, but I got gipped out of a euro, dang it! We made dinner that night, and then played Chinese ping pong. This means that we went to a gutted store with almost no decorations in it, but a ping pong table in the middle of the floor. And you rent paddles, and get into the circle. When you hit the ball, then the person behind you is up, and the entire group makes a circle around the table. When you mess up, you are out. It was loud, smoky, but really fun. Only in Berlin...

Then it was New Year's Eve! Woo! Julia and I met Rob at the airport, and we waited and waited because both of his pieces of luggage were lost, great. It didn't take too long to get it sorted out, and then we headed back to the apartment for some naps. Shower, dinner at the great Vietnamese restaurant I had been to already, some yummy strawberry daiquiris, then a house party where I didn't know anyone who lived in the apartment,but it was still good fun! 3, 2, 1 Happy New Years! Watch everyone light fireworks, off every balcony in the area, from the street, everywhere. It was great until the homesickness set in, the first time in about 6 years that I hadn't been with Bethany, tears, text messaged to her, received a text message from her, more tears, then Russ saw me crying on the balcony, so he came out to cheer me up, and actually called her! He then spent about five minutes on the phone with her before I talked to her. It made me feel better, but also just as sad. But now I owe Russ, because 15 minutes on an English cell phone calling from Germany to the states, ouch (but when I called home on Palm Sunday from the Vatican, I was on the phone for a minute, and it only cost 1euro).

Leave the party late, or early morning, get back to the apartment, sleep in, then brunch, which just meant we ate all day. We left Rob's place (tranfser stuff to Russ's), sat in the internet cafe for an hour in a half, got to the apartment, are both exhausted, so we watch Big Fish.

Hmm, lovely, but very glad to be back home. I forgot my christmas present from my brother, so that was waiting for me. I asked for a threadless T, I got not only 1 shirt, but four! And they are all great! Here is what he got me:
Defend the Kingdom (which is what I am currently wearing)
Dark Side of the Garden (perfect for the Star Wars nerd in me)
Frida's Garden (perfect for the girly side of me)
And Don't Give up on your dreams (which I actually already own, bummer, but it still is awesome, and perfect for me).
So my brother hit a home run with this gift, I am excited to wear all these shirts!

And right now Jurassic Park is on the television in German, awesome.

Almost Christmas

2007-12-23T12:34:00.000+01:00

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!

2007-12-14T23:29:00.001+01:00

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

2007-12-12T13:22:00.000+01:00

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

2007-12-10T21:59:00.000+01:00

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

2007-12-09T23:25:00.000+01:00

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

2007-12-08T15:55:00.001+01:00

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.

2007-12-07T19:59:00.000+01:00

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!

2007-11-30T14:49:00.000+01:00

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

2007-11-25T22:10:00.000+01:00

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!

2007-11-14T00:48:00.000+01:00

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

2007-11-12T22:50:00.000+01:00

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

2007-11-10T02:00:00.000+01:00

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

2007-11-06T20:09:00.000+01:00

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

2007-11-02T13:57:00.000+01:00

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

2007-10-28T18:53:00.000+01:00

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?

2007-10-23T22:09:00.000+02:00

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

2007-10-16T10:14:00.002+02:00

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

2007-10-12T01:31:00.000+02:00

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

2007-10-05T18:06:00.000+02:00

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

2007-10-03T23:33:00.000+02:00

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

2007-10-02T00:59:00.000+02:00

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

2007-09-27T14:14:00.000+02:00

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

2007-09-26T18:24:00.000+02:00

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

2007-09-22T00:54:00.000+02:00

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

2007-09-20T00:21:00.000+02:00

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

2007-09-18T22:15:00.000+02:00

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.