A new chapter

I'm finally in Göttingen! So much so quickly, where to begin? My last few days in Kiel were fabulous. I finished my German course and of course spent lots of time with my friends. I think everyone from our close group was feeling apprehensive about losing our little community, but at the same time we all have cool projects to look forward to all over the country, and hopefully plenty of opportunities to visit with friends in new places. I’d love to see Berlin, the Dom in Köln, and more of the southern part of Germany. My group already has plans in the works to meet up and celebrate Thanksgiving together. Leslie had a fabulous idea and we spent time after the last dinner before Andrew left writing little notes to one another for moral support. I’m saving mine for later.

We had our farewell dinner with the teachers and staff from the Lektorat Wednesday night. The department secretary decided that we couldn’t leave Kiel without sampling a local “treat,” so she sent the restaurant staff on a quest to find echt Kieler Sprotten. Apparently if you grow up in Kiel you consider yourself a Kiel Sprott. The name comes from a local delicacy… small smoked herring. Whole. And when I say “small,” I mean about five inches long. To eat them, you pinch off the head and munch your way up to the tail fin. Very crunchy, since they aren’t de-boned. Also very fishy, although I guess that’s to be expected. I had two, and as much as I respect Frau Dico and admire her taste that’s about enough for a lifetime.

After the meal the plan was to go to a local bar for their Jazz jam session night, where Amanda and Jacquelyn were going to perform. (I can’t express how awesome the both of them are… I could listen forever.) By the time we got there the playbill was pretty booked up, unfortunately, and the place was so smoky and crowded that waiting two hours plus for a slot just wasn’t possible. We thought we’d go back to the Burse and get a little concert or have a party in the downstairs bar, the plans kind of fizzled. Disappointing, but I’m sure we’ll hear more fabulous music at Thanksgiving and at the Fulbright meeting in Berlin this spring. And I won’t be in total withdrawal, since I bought Amanda’s CD. You should too.

I got home and finally got to bed after 2am… and then woke up at a little after 6 to throw my last stuff together and check out of my dorm room. I made my train with no problems, although wrangling all my stuff is always a challenge. I read and slept during the 3-hour trip… and then we got to Göttingen.

Ahem. Traveling by train is different from other modes of transportation in a few important ways, one of which is that you’ve only got a couple minutes at the stop to get off, and other people only have a couple of minutes to get on. So, I get up from my seat when the train finally stops, and by the time I have my luggage halfway together the walkway is clogged with incoming passengers and I’m blocking their way. Then the train starts to move. After a brief panic and some rather frantic attempts to communicate, a helpful fellow passenger calls an employee over and I find out that I can get a trip back from the next stop. So. Unexpected detour to Kassel, but I finally get to the proper place only an hour and a half late. My host-mother had called that morning while I was traveling and arranged that her son would call my cell when the train had arrived and tell me where to meet him… but for whatever reason his calls weren’t going through to my phone. Even so, we found each other as soon as I got off the train, which was a huge relief.

Göttingen has prettier architecture than Kiel, and I can’t wait to get a bike and start exploring. I’ll take some pictures, but right now I have no idea whether I’ll be able to post them. Supposedly the family has dial-up, although we haven’t talked about internet access yet. That might have to wait until I get into my dorm room… but hopefully there we’ll have DSL or something equivalent. I can’t live without e-mail!

The house is old (200+ years) and beautiful, and the family seems wonderful so far, very social and fun. The mom, Christina, is a nurse. The son that I met today, Martin, will be moving to Berlin in the next couple of weeks to start his new job at a hospital there. He got his M.D. yesterday. I haven’t met the rest of the family, but the dad, Wolfgang, and the other son are also both doctors. The older daughter is a teacher, and the younger is studying to become one. I’ve set up my little room… not quite sure where I’ll put the suitcase-full of other stuff or the box of cold-weather clothes that’s coming later this week, but I think I’ll figure something out. I took a few pictures, but I think an internet connection with greater bandwidth is required before I can post them.

Plenty of adventures coming up shortly… officially getting my dorm room, touring the lab on Monday, finding a new church, registering for classes! Compared to all this, the course in Kiel really was a vacation. Still, I can’t wait to get crackin’!

Four days and counting

I leave Kiel for Göttingen bright and early Thursday morning, 8:12 am, and will arrive before noon. I have only six more classes at the Lektorat, three more dinners with my friends here. We've already lost one... Andrew left this morning for his snazzy Jounalism orientation in Berlin. We went to one of our favorite spots last night to see him off:

What an attractive bunch... L to R: Inese's friend, Inese, Felix, Leslie, Mike, Abi, Jennifer, Amanda (in front), Andrew, and Meghan.

I've got a list of stuff to do before Wednesday. Packing, shipping a piece of luggage, changing my address (again!) at the bank and getting online access set up, University forms, not to mention a little homework. I really don't think I left everything to the last minute this time, but it feels like I've suddenly got a million things to take care of.

The food report: it's been a good week for me. I did dinner on Wednesday and made my brownies again last night. Every time they turn out a little better, which is reassuring. This batch was decorated with a picture of asparagus (Spargle, auf Deutsch) in honor of Andrew. I helped make pancakes with Amanda, and they actually turned out! We had a couple of really good soups this week too. I really should be collecting recipes...

The project for Friday's Schriftliche Übungen class was to give a 10-minute report on a subject of our choosing. I couldn't think of a topic to argue until the night before, but it worked out really well... I delivered a treatise on the benefits of Ballroom Dance (Turniertänze,) complete with a musical example. I translated one of the Kenyon club's favorite quotes and it so amused the professor that she wrote it down:

Tanzen ist eine vertikale Äußerung von eine horizontale Begierde.

Ten points and some German chocolate to whoever leaves the first comment with the English version! The other presentations were great. Jennifer gave an impassioned if controversial speech about keeping half-human half-extraterrestrial babies, and Andrew gave a more formal version of his now-infamous asparagus rant. Apparently the fact that the Germans have an official "asparagus season" (outside of which the succulent spears are difficult to obtain) grates on his native Californian culinary sensibilities.

Friday night was fun. One of our teachers invited us over for drinks and then out to a club. Most of the Burse folks left early to head home and celebrate Felix's birthday, Meghan and Abi and I went out dancing with Sander and his friends until about 4am. Definitely not something I'd do every night, but it was fun.

I don't know if this will be the last post before Göttingen... if so it might be a while before I get my internet access set up. My contract with the Studentenwohnheim (dorm) officially begins the first, but for at least a couple weeks my primary residence will be with my host family. I can't live without internet, though, so getting situated will be high priority. Until then!

Today I...

• Slept in
• Turned in a paper
• Took a test
• Went to the store
• Cooked for 8 (mmm... stir-fry!)
• Took a nice walk
• Finished a sappy movie
• Did my homework before the day it's due
• Went to bed happy

Hausaufgabe

(Gladly accepting constructive criticism)

Auslandssemester als Pflicht

Ein Auslandssemester ist ein gutes Unternehmung für die meisten Studenten. Zuerst gibt es berufliche Vorteile, wie zum Beispiel mehr Aussichten auf den Arbeitsmarkt, insbesondere für internationale Berufe. Außerdem sind die Abwechslungen von die Mentalität der Studenten einen großen Pluspunkt. Man lernt durch diese Ehrfahrungen mit anderen, verschiedenen Leute zu arbeiten. Ganz wichtig ist, dass man ein Verständnis für eine andere Kultur bekommen wird.

Das Konzept ist nicht jedoch ohne Falle. Erstens braucht man Zeit für so wichtig eines Erlebnis. Man fahrt Land und Familie ab, und auch Pläne. Das kann eine große Schwierigkeit sein, vornehmlich weil spätere Lebensziele warten müssen.

Schließlich muss man diese Faktoren überlegen, bevor einer Beschied gemacht werde. Endlich entscheiden Studenten sich zwischen Persönlichweiterentwicklung und Schnelligkeit seines Studiums. Das ist eine persönlich Entschluss, und musst deshalb keine Pflicht sein.

*****

In other news, I'm cooking dinner tomorrow and have no idea what. Yikes!

On a lighter note...

I can't believe the ship has almost sailed on this one, especially since I'm currently in Kiel!

Thanks to Adam for the link to International Talk Like a Pirate Day, auf Deutsch!

Ach, du Landratte, zu den Haien für dich schicken, bei Störtebeckers Bart!

A political post? On Alaina's blog??

Maybe it's because I'm an outsider looking in, but I find the whole German electoral process strangely fascinating. I spoke to the final outcome a little early yesterday, although I was right on the money when I said things were complicated. The results are almost all in, and the will of the people is... completely obfuscated by the system. The analysts are busy analyzing, and the politicians are of course plotting out the fastest way to the top of the heap.

For the incumbent Schröder, this seems to include vociferously insisting that the people have spoken and that he is still Chancellor, by dint of not being the biggest loser. Merkel is lacking the bravura, but so long as Dresden's delayed vote isn't swung out of kilter by the Grünepartei and SPD's anticipated aggressive stumping she still has only a narrow advantage in parliament to work with. Will the greens be swayed from their alliance with the SPD by the indomitable 2002 CSU candidate Edmund Stoiber? The Bavarian governor would need his party's full support for such a plan to move forward, not to mention the FDP's position. Will Schröder attempt to rebuild burned bridges with the newly formed Linkepartei, which garnered a respectable 8.5% overall? The Left certainly holds a card or two in Dresden - a commited voting block and a candidate with an assured seat. Will either Merkel or Schröder concede for the sake of a SPD-CDU union, and would a grand coalition actually function? She has the numeric advantage, but he has the willpower. None of these options is particularly likely, but something has got to happen in the next weeks or there will be no government.

The critical moments will be in the coalition negotiation. Schröder has an ace up his sleeve already, in his insistence that the CDU and it's southern counterpart, the CSU, must approach the negotiating table as separate parties, thus diluting their bargaining clout. That seems a little hard to swallow after the parties campaigned as one, but the loophole requires acknowledgment. If the push is successful, Schröder's next move is still cloudy. Will he aggressively court the bit players and attempt to hold Merkel's alliance off entirely, or will he accept either the CDU or CSU as a partner and shut the other faction out in the cold?

The final tally remains to be seen, but the German population waits with baited breath.

Up and down... and up

Huh, it's been a while again. Just the highlights, I guess...

Monday night was the CDU rally in Kiel. I've been rather apolitical my whole life, but folks in the group wanted to check it out, so I tagged along to give it a try. Germany had a massive election today, and the big deal has been the decision between the sitting Bundeskanzler (Chancellor) Gerhard Schröder and the challenger, Angela Merkel. It's an interesting situation, because the special election was called basically because after the last election the government couldn't work. Germany has a whole lot of political parties, and as near as I can tell there were enough folks in opposition to Schröder in high enough places that he couldn't get stuff done. Thus, a recall.

Here's my proof that I actually went to this thing. Yay blurry-cam... There were lots of supporters, of course, and also some protesters, inside and outside the rally fence. The kids with dreadlocks and green party signs were outside for the most part, but I did see a woman chuck a bottle of water in the direction of the incoming politicians. If you want some incisive commentary and better pictures, I'd suggest Andrew's blog. We've talked about it a little in my German classes. The process is pretty complicated here, especially given the number of political parties.

The results have just come in in the past couple of hours, and it looks like Germany has its first female Chancellor. Now the parties have to finagle themselves into some sort of pecking order, decide who is for and against who, and get down to business. Sounds humongously complicated to me!

*****

Hmm, what else happened this week? I've got only two weeks left in Kiel. I'm excited about Göttingen, of course, but not so much about the prospect of shaking my life up yet again. My host family and advisor are ready for me, but I still feel really unsettled about the whole thing. Give it time, I guess.

*****

Ah yes, Thursday. Thursday was hard. I had a really frustrating Hörverstandnis class. Listening comprehension is still my weak point, but it's unquestionably obnoxious to bomb an exercise that I know how to do, if only it were written instead of oral! I can mix up correlative and subordinate clauses with the best of 'em. Give me two sentences, and I'll put them together in a second. Unless I have to remember all the words in the sentence at the same time. That's just not nice.

So I cried in class, which was pretty embarassing. Sure, there are plenty of other things going on in my life, and the fact that I hadn't broken down yet meant that it was probably overdue. But in class?

I got a nice pep talk from my teacher afterwards. The poor sound quality of the recordings makes it hard, the exercise itself is geared towards students in a higher level than my class, nobody was getting it totally right, yadda yadda yadda. What really frustrates me is that there isn't much I can do. Memorizing lists of words doesn't help, and the grammar and structure isn't really a problem. But that's book-learnin', and I could do that all day. How do you study hearing a language?

You live immersed in it. One day it just starts to click.

Grr. I want that day to be NOW.

So I went home for lunch, had a good cry, made myself a sammich and some hot peppermint tea. And felt SO much better.

Later that night we had another movie. This one is called "Das Wunder von Bern" (The Miracle of Bern) and is sort of about soccer, namely the 1954 German world cup championship team... but it's also about postwar German culture and family life. Sappy sweet ending and sympathetic characters, with gorgeous cinematography (as pretty as "Amelie," in my book) and some cathartically gritty moments. Maybe I was in the right mood for it that day...

*****

Friday we attempted to relocate our Kultur class, ostensibly so the teacher wouldn't have to commute from Flensburg (he ended up just cancelling class) and so we could join some other Burse residents in a trip to the Flensburg brewery. Things started okay... Nice train ride, amusing movie about the history of the brewery. After that, I was mostly bored. I was too fried from class to pay attention on the tour, so I spent an hour or so looking at pipes for no reason. Then we get to our dinner and taste testing... "Dinner" is bread, butter, some kind of fish salad, and a dubious table meat. I tried the fish stuff and ate butter bread.

Okay, I knew going into it that beer isn't my thing. I didn't want to drink anything, but with a little encouragement I tried the Radler, which is half lemonade. EUGH. It was like lemon pledge with a beery aftertaste. The Pilsener, the Dunkel, the Weiß... a little sip and... never again. The only thing I could really drink was the Malz, which was like a carmelized ginger ale. It was also alcohol free.

Folks wanted to stay late and go dancing, but I started to feel like the whole thing had been a bit of a waste, so after we walked halfway across town for a bit more food I picked up the early train home. Little did I know I'd have to wait 40 minutes for the last bus... So. Foul mood.

*****

The next morning we had a group adventure planned to the open-air museum in Molfsee, with a scavenger hunt. I woke up about five minutes before my bus was supposed to be there, so that didn't so much happen. I blame the brewery tour.

Actually, that wasn't so bad. Since I didn't do Molfsee I had the chance to go to the Chor-Schnuppen-Samstag event, an invitation for new folks to try the choir, which had been advertised at the concert last week and at church. I got out my handy-dandy map and had a bit of an adventure. The music wasn't very hard, the choir wasn't very good... but it felt wonderful to sing - loud! - for a couple of hours. I haven't exercised those muscles in too long. I introduced myself, and got to read the text of a couple of songs aloud to the group so they could hear how English is supposed to be pronounced. I don't think it made much of a difference, though...

At the break, we had coffee, tea, and cakes. Homemade confections from all the adorable little old German choir ladies! I could do that any day. I sat next to the token tenor and we talked about the popularity of classical choral music in the U.S. versus Europe... and the universal lack of male voices in choirs. I started to feel pretty good about my German again, which was just what I needed.

I made some pasta for dinner. I don't think this cooking thing is going to be so bad, either. When in doubt, broil some veggies, sliced peppers, carrots, or zucchini, with olive oil and a little salt and pepper. I didn't even know what broiling was before I got here. How did I ever survive?

*****

Which brings us to today. Most of the group took a day trip to Lübeck, but I stayed in Kiel and went to church. Today we had some guest musicians from St. Petersburg, a trio of opera singers. St. Heinrich's really is a very musical space, and it was gorgeous. Every week I really do understand a little bit more, but why oh why don't they have a Missalette here with the mass parts and responses? Maciej, one of the teachers from the Lektorat, happened to come to the 11:00 service and sat with me, which was nice, especially since he helped me with the right responses! He walked me home too since he lives just down the road, and we had a great conversation. He's leaving Kiel in two weeks too, going back to Poland for a new teaching job.

I grilled myself some chicken with lots of pepper for dinner. Another successful day.

I have a test tomorrow, so I should probably study a little. Maybe I'll go to bed early!

Life is good.

From a German computer...

I'm a total nerd...

Man, these keyboards are hard to figure out. Gott sei Dank für meines Laptop!

but reallz, whz put the z where the y should be?

ß... ö...ä...ü...€... okaz, that#s kind of handz.

But that#s not to saz I#m going to get used to it!

I'm a snob

I went to my choral concert Friday night, five local church choirs and audience participation! That would have been way cooler if I would have gotten there early enough to get a program... or a seat, for that matter. I wolfed dinner, ran through the woods, and got in the door about two minutes before everything started. The turnout was really impressive! Chamber Singers should totally tour Europe. We'd always have a full house!

Unfortunately, that's not to say that the music was particularly impressive... That's where the title of this post comes in. I'm a spoiled brat when it comes to choral performances. How is it possible for an adult choir to have a less mature sound than a college group? When the performers looked like they were having a good time, I felt a little better. But that was pretty rare. The liturgical pieces went well. When they tried to spice things up and get toes tapping, however, it just kind of fell flat. And then there was the attempted spiritual. *shudder*

See? I'm a total snob.

One really noteworthy, if unfortunate, social observation... I witnessed an interesting display of German masculinity: sometime in the fourth set, a man in the audience started to get rowdy. He was apparently drunk, and at one point he actually walked up to the conductor mid-song and started talking to her, loudly. The choir kept going as if nothing was happening, which was pretty darn impressive. A man from the back of the room (I later found out he had organized the event) went up and got the guy back in his seat, but it only lasted a few minutes. When he started making noise again, about ten men from all around the hall got up and formed a group to escort him out of the building. Standing in the back I had a great view of the whole thing, and one of the professors from the Lektorat (who also happened to be there a little late) accompanied the lot of them outside. It all happened really fast, but I was amazed at how organized it seemed at the time. I've never seen anything like this happen in the US.

I can't even imagine a drunk guy heckling Doc Locke mid-performance. Do choral directors have an onstage emergency contingency plan?

*****

Saturday was the group trip to Flensburg, the castle Glücksburg, and Tønder, Denmark. (Okay, enough linking for now, I promise!) The day started with a walking tour of Flensburg. The town has an interesting history. It spent a few centuries under the Danish crown and flourished as a trade center until the 30 Years War. The city was rebuilt largely on the value of the rum trade in the late 1700s, and by the time it fell under German rule in 1867 it was again a popular commercial city, becoming part of the Hansa confederation. The town escaped bombing during the second world war, and after Hitler's suicide the majority of the remaining Nazi governmental officials holed up there for two or three weeks until the Allies came through and made the surrender official.

A view of Flensburg and its fjord from the site of the old castle.

Why is it that on these city tours we always have to see the red light district? Looks normal enough... The tour guide made the point of telling us that the street is zoned for "mixed usage," which he seemed to find amusing.

(Kiel's is bigger.)

Meghan and Abi listen interestedly while the function of the bolt between them is explained. If you got in trouble with the church, they'd chain you up and passers-by could spit on you or otherwise make your life miserable. The eye of the bolt is worn almost completely through.

Meghan with mushrooms in front of the lunch restaurant. Some explanation: (1) Fungus biologists are crazy, (2) Meghan is a fungus biologist, thus (3) mushrooms are obviously awesome.

"Glücksburg" literally translates to "the castle of happiness." The tour here was completely amazing, but unfortunately no pictures were allowed inside, so all I have is this wonderfully backlit exterior shot.

The tour... how to describe it? Our guide reminded me so much of Ms. Mason, my high school world history/western civ teacher. Same dry, cynical sense of humor, and a seemingly endless store of wry anecdotes about the lives of historical figures. I'm no history buff, but storytellers like that always hold me completely captivated.

Highlights included the torture room in the basement, the "concubine's door" leading from the duke's room to the servant's stairwell, the supposedly haunted tower where a pregnant princess hung herself, the door to the other tower in which another supposedly "possessed" princess was locked and left to starve (must've been hard to be a princess back then!) and of course, the plumbing. Or lack thereof... in its earliest form, each tower had a "plumpsklo." (Klo, from Kloset, a cognate to the British "WC.") In this case, there was an actual closet in the room that contained a fancy (velvet-padded!) board with a hole in it, which led down to the artificial lake (*descending whistle... plump*) surrounding the castle. Full of very large carp. Which were often part of a royal banquet. An actual quote from the tour: "This was the earliest form of recycling."

Yup, totally channeling Mary Jo Mason on that one.

Our hour in Denmark was a little dissapointing. It reminded me of a trip I once took to Canada for 45 minutes. Nobody was really around, barely anything was open, and we had the wrong kind of money anyway. If F-bright can no longer afford a Copenhagen weekend, it might be better just to give this one up.

We did see this guy, though:

Cap'n Hook? No, we checked, behind his back is another regular hand. The plaque was in Danish, which is crazy. Our guide only knew a bit of the language, but he had enough to tell us that the scurvy scallawag here is a replica of a statue that used to stand on the wall to the city, "to scare away thieves and whores." I wonder if it worked?

*****

Friday night didn't go too late, although the group did stop by the 100th anniversary of the Forstbaumschule, a beergarden/brewery in Kiel. I had a great dream that night, though. I was in one of the tower rooms at the castle, looking out into the green algae-filled water of the lake. A giant fish (like, think a smallish airplane) slowly drifted out of the murkiness towards the surface, and disappeared back into the opaque water. A few more slightly smaller fish appeared and disappeared as I watched, and then the big one came back. I leaned out of the window to get a better view... and then I was falling. I must've been almost conscious at this point, because I realized as I hit the water that I was still bundled up in my blanket. Hmm... fish can't eat me if I'm wrapped in a blanket, right? (I love dream logic.) So I swam to shore from within my blanket-bubble. Then I was in some kind of ceremony celebrating my miraculous rescue... of myself... and all sorts of administrators and professors from Kenyon were there, and Magda, my writing teacher from the Lektorat. Tacci from the SAC gave a speech, and then started to translate it into German. Inner monologue at that point: "Huh, I didn't think Tacci knew German. Wait a minute... "gucken" durch das Fenster is definitely northern dialect, and I really doubt that she... Oh wait, I'm dreaming! In German! I'm dreaming in German!" And I woke up smiling.

It's one thing to dream that you are talking or hearing a different language. I'm perfectly capable of dreaming that I know Swahili and carrying on a conversation with native speakers, with my brain secretly playing babel fish. I know for a fact that I've had dreams like that... but it's quite another thing to dream the specific words, to think about the language itself. Definitely a landmark!

*****

Another landmark, and I promise I'm almost done with this giant post... I made dinner tonight! Spaghetti and tomato sauce with bits of chicken. Okay, I made the entree. With lots of input. But still, it was my dinner night and we didn't end up eating carpet or sawdust. I'm giving myself mad props for that. Next time, I'm going to have beverages... and side dishes... maybe even dessert! Oh, the possibilities!

Good pictures

Andrew has a snazzy camera and takes much better pictures than I do... I fully intend to gank the shots he took at Bergfest (especially of my much-acclaimed brownies) but until then anyone interested should go here and check out his awesome shots from Husum.

And so it goes.

Yikes, it's been a while again! Thanks to folks (specifically Beto, Mike, Kara, and Bryan) for the recent spate of comments... Venting into an unresponsive computer is well and good, but it's really nice to be reminded that there are people who love me somewhere on the other side.

So what else is new this week? Classes are classes. Somehow I'm the diva of my writing class. I'm slowly learning to be more brave and speak up, even though it sometimes takes a painfully long while to find the right words. It's been an uphill battle so far...

Now for the downhill, though. That's right, I'm past the halfway point. Six weeks in Kiel is just long enough, I think, to start to feel at home... but in less than three more I'm packing it all up and striking off on my own for Göttingen. Scary!

I do like the fact that instead of a mid-term exam we had a party! Wednesday night was the "Bergfest," a logical enough name for the midpoint. We've hit the peak. It was a great night; our teachers and program directors brought the beverages, and we were responsible for the food.

Hmm... how do I always end up talking about food?? Anyway, homemade pasta and sauce, salad, hamburgers, fruit salad, apple pie, ice cream, s'mores, and yours truly made the brownies. My world-famous, hand-made-from-scratch, fabulous brownies. With almonds. And nutella frosting. (Yes Jen, I thought of you.) They came out more like cookie bars since the pan was too big, but they were no worse than usual... and I'm slated to cook for everyone on Sunday! I'm thinking pasta. We'll see how it turns out.

After dinner we went inside for a presentation by our performing artists... Abi read a theater piece, Amanda played trumpet, Jennifer sang, and Jacquelyn sang and played piano. We heard a truly amazing trumpet solo by Allen Vizzutti called "Cascades." So many notes, so fast, in such a wide and wild range... and Amanda played with total poise and control. Mind bogglingly awesome. We heard a couple of pieces from Schumann's Dichterliebe, Handel's "Let the bright seraphim," "Spring can really hang you up the most," "Summertime," Hoagy Carmichael's "Stardust," and of course Abi's scene. It was from a play she'd written in collaboration with some German artists, centering on a young girl who is dying in the middle of a field during the war. Very. Intense. I came away from the whole show feeling like I'd just seen something magical. I love that feeling.

Must... find... musical... outlet!

We went back out on the lawn for dessert. (Nerd alert: Of course I wrote messages on my brownies with the frosting. One said "Fulbright Kiel 2005" and the other said "Deutsch macht spaß!") Herr Langer, one of the program directors, had brought a guitar and started strumming away, and somehow it turned into a few of us singing Beatles and Rolling Stones songs... total flashbacks to Friday Guitar at Kenyon! I think I impressed folks with my encyclopedic memory for obscure song lyrics. Unfortunately I had to leave a bit early (hitched a ride with Jan rather than walking all that way at night) but hopefully we can do that again.

Tonight I'm helping with dinner, and then going over to St. Heinrich's for a choral concert at 8pm. The church choir and four other local groups will perform. Yay a cappella Christian music auf Deutsch! I'm going to try to introduce myself to the choir director before next week's "Chor-Schnuppen-Samstag."

And then tomorrow is the day trip to Flensburg and Denmark! I'll bring my camera.

New link listed

And mom said he'd never make anything of himself...

(no, she didn't really)

(maybe just implied it a little)

(just kidding mom!)

Pirates! and Klingons! and Physics! (oh my...)

New quote of the week, a la Leslie:

"Johhny Depp has changed the face of pirating forever."

So Friday evening was spent wandering around the waterfront at the Hafenfest, an annual end-of-summer event with lots of booths for food and sundries, not to mention pirates. German pirates nowadays apparently come in two varieties, per our observations: old, grandfatherly buccaneer or Cap'n Jack Sparrow.

The pirate ships in the harbor have some kind of show that involves shooting cannons, which also involves me shrieking intermittently from the pier. *BOOM* (eeeek!)

A prime example of pirate form A.

Sorry for the blur... I can't take pictures with my own camera. Here we see both varieties of pirate. They are certainly bilge rats... Abi told me that Old Pirate tried to cop a feel, and Meghan reported that Johnny Depp guy was very stinky. Them's pirates for you, I guess.

After the pirates we hung out with Sander, one of the teachers at the Lektorat. He invited us over to go clubbing, but first of course we had to pre-party at his place until 1am, because the party never gets started until really late. I don't know how people can live like this... Learned that Germans have no concept of the "Amaretto Sour" and wanted to cry. However, I managed to stay awake for the dancing, which was fun. Got to bed at 4:30 am.

Random internet flotsam of the day: I think I could actually stand a chance in this competition, provided the "personality" component does not require the contestant to understand or speak Klingon.

Another side note: the guy who invented the Geiger counter lived right next door to the Burse. Max Planck is also from Kiel, so there must be something in the water... Yay science!

Lots of random fun

One of my teachers today told a classmate during an exercise that she writes like a sports reporter. I, on the other hand, apparently write like Jane Austen. I don't think it was particularly meant as a compliment, but I'll take what I can get.

Things which make me extremely happy:

• Gummibärchen (exactly what it sounds like)
• Chocolate bars with 85% cacao
• Science
• Intellectually stimulating reading material
• Hearing from my host family
• My voice teacher either has a new baby or will very shortly
• The weather in Kiel this week
• My new rain jacket (for next week)
• Care package from home!

Phrase of the week:

"Region 1 gaydar"

(copyright 2005, Mikey)

And now, at long last, the fun photo montage!

The enterance to Max-Kade-Haus... no ocean, unfortunately.

The kitchen, from the front door. Sorry about the blur!

Another angle, the table and the spiral staircase, up which I had to haul TWO 70 lb suitcases.

Looking down from the staircase.

A view of my balcony from in my room.

Oh yes, did I mention I have a balcony?

More of the room from my door. It's very big and I don't have enough stuff to fill it, which is a new problem for me!

From the other direction. All in all, a nice place. It's okay to be an exile.

Some of the swans I mentioned in an earlier post. The same swan family, I believe.

Pretty...

Oh, and of course I have to have pictures of the awesomest dinner ever! Two days of prep. Mexican food in Germany? Of course!

For the carnivores...

The whole spread. Handmade tortillas, fresh quacamole, pico de gallo, mango salsa, refried beans, vegetable fajita... I'm convinced that I will never eat this well again in my life.

Happy and hungry! L to R: Meghan, Abi, Jennifer, Mikey (head chef), and Andrew.

We invited a couple of international students at the Burse to eat with us and then join us later for Museums Nacht. It was a really cool evening. On this one day for $4 (student price) you can go to any museum in the city between 8pm and 11 or midnight. Extra buses ran all night, and every venue had entertainment and special events. There was a DJ at the aquarium, a live jazz combo, a bar, and food at the Schifffahrtsmuseum, and a bar and lots of things to see and do and buy at the Stadtgalerie. I'm the only bike-less one in the group, so I planned to walk and bus around and meet up with folks. Inese, our new Latvian friend, had another idea... and I ended up piggybacking on the basket rack on the back of her bike. It's a little rough, very hard to balance, and you can't see anything. Don't let the smile fool you: I'm scared out of my mind!

What on earth am I doing?

I'm finally caught up on pictures, so I guess I can take some more now... until next time!