a minor disaster

"it's becoming clear to me that no one fully knows what he is saying... just take a good look at someone trying to talk: every time he opens his mouth it's an experiment and a gamble, often a minor disaster." -hugh prather

yep, that pretty much sums up my relationship to the german language!! =)

ok, so to be fair, since one of my pet peeves is when people take quotes out of context, he goes on to explain how friends are the ones who love you anyway, despite the fact that you're constantly making a fool of yourself, blah blah blah. but since another of my pet peeves is people who are constantly trying to be profound (and seriously, if you read the guy's book, i'm so sorry!), i felt the need to abridge the quote and add the blah blah blah to hugh's profundity =) besides, it's funnier that way.

yes, i did just say "profundity"... can we still be friends?

cultural differences??

seriously, i do not understand people here. they find out that my brother is coming for christmas, and they all freak out because he's only coming for a week, and that's just stupid, and how is he supposed to see all of germany in a week, and can't he just stay longer, etc etc etc. (though i guarantee you, not a single one of them would go spend more than a week at a time with their siblings!) and then, when i ask them what we should do while he's here, they all suggest going to london or paris or something!!! what!??!! yeah, i don't get it either...

and then, after i declined a few french fries, laughingly saying i'd already gained enough weight since coming here, this girl says to me, "but that can't be true, we're so much healthier here in germany than you are in america."...(me rolling my eyes) oh, i'm sorry, you're right. silly me, i must be mistaken. i mean, what would i know about my own body or eating habits??! are you kidding me?? who are these people?!??!! (did i mention that she then went on to suggests ways i could work out everyday?!!)

but this one's my favorite...
this is an actual conversation between co-workers, which took place over lunch:
woman: dessert sounds good, but i'd better not. i have to be careful about what i eat at the moment. (turns to me and says) i weigh 62 kilo--i've never weighed this much before!
man (sitting across the table from us): how much do you weigh?
woman: 62 kilo.
woman2: really? more than me? that's hard to believe.
man: but that's completely normal, isn't it? besides, it's november, and our bodies have to prepare for the winter.
woman: perhaps, but i'm developing a little belly!

ok, now let's try to imagine this conversation took place in the US... oh wait, this conversation would never happen in the US!!!! seriously, how many american women would voluntarily tell someone how much they weigh? and in the presence of a man? and what man would dare to just flatout ask a woman how much she weighs? and then for another woman to volunteer the info that she weighs less than the woman who's concerned about her weight?? talk about rude! bit of a cultural difference, eh?

the best part of the whole conversation, however, was when the woman went on to explain how she and another co-worker had compared belly fat in front of another (super tiny) co-worker, who had voiced concerned about her own appearance...
hilarious. maybe we're not all so different after all =)

let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!!

it snowed here!!! people kept telling me that it rarely snows here-or at least that it rarely stays on the ground for long when it does snow, so i was a little concerned about winter here. i mean, winter without snow is one thing when you live in california, where you at least have the ocean and sunshine as compensation, but a long, grey-brown, slushy, dirty, wet and cold winter?? hmmm...lieber nicht, danke.

so imagine my surprise and delight when i woke up this morning, and there were already a couple of inches on the ground! and it just keeps coming! yay!! (seriously, i know, i'm like a little kid, but you have no idea how happy this makes me!!) and then, when i got to the bus stop this morning, the younger kids decided it was the perfect opportunity for a snowball fight, and since the bus that was supposed to come at 7:30 never actually showed up, they got to play a little longer--and we all had a legitimate excuse for missing half of our first classes... not bad, eh? =)

it's lovely, it's grand. it's just beautiful. i love snow. i do. granted, i don't have to drive in it, or shovel, or scrape off my car, etc. (but seriously, people who whine about snow need to get their priorities straight!)

useful member of society

i've had several conversations with people in the past few months about...(cue scary hitchcock music)...the future. or, more specifically, MY future. great. because i almost know where to start, right? there's been, as usual, discussion about whether to do something interesting or something i'm passionate about or fascinated by vs. doing something useful or meaning or significant in some way. (dramatic rolling of the eyes.) and, also as usual, i'm completely frustrated and even more confused at the end of each of these conversations.

and then, a couple of things happened. well, several things happened, actually. no, no great epiphanies or moments of enlightenment. (well, i suppose it depends on your perspective...) but i spent saturday afternoon helping a friend clean out the apartment she's going to be moving into. (elle, it's kind of on par with cleaning your apt. in whittier after lisa moved out. you wouldn't believe the stuff we found--the highlight being a half-set of dentures left in a cupboard above the refrigerator. yum!) but cleaning grease and dead spiders out of cupboards and scraping old wallpaper off of the walls... i don't know... it was good. most of the time here, i feel like a shadow of who i am--or who i should be. but on saturday, for half a second, i was a useful member of society. and then i started reading t.s. eliot again. and somehow it all made sense...

At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;
Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is,
But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity,
Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards,
Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point,
There would be no dance, and there is only the dance.
...
What we call the beginning is often the end
And to make an end is to make a beginning.
The end is where we start from. And every phrase
And sentence that is right (where every word is at home,
Taking its place to support the others,
The word neither diffident nor ostentatious,
An easy commerce of the old and the new,
The common word exact without vulgarity,
The formal word precise but not pedantic,
The complete consort dancing together)
Every phrase and every sentence is an end and a beginning,
Every poem an epitaph. And any action
Is a step to the block, to the fire, down the sea's throat
Or to an illegible stone: and that is where we start.
...
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

from the Four Quartets

another list! woohoo!

it was recently pointed out to me that i have not made it generally known how amazing things have been here in germany. so i will herewith attempt to remedy that...

things i love about germany and/or künzelsau:

people saying hi to each other on the street or when they enter a room or restaurant or cafe, or really just anytime they feel like being friendly
how people apologize for accidentally killing the tiny spider or bug that lands on their t-shirt or windshield
that where there is fruit, there are fruit flies, and people sweat. that's life, and it's ok!
cats and small children playing in my neighborhood
places where the houses are so close to the road, that they're practically IN the street!
there are towns with city walls with houses built into them!
buying my bread from the baker
the words "genau" and "Tschüss" =)
that the germans use english words more often than i do!
the vineyards in the sunlight in october
kaffee und kuchen
old ladies with purple hair
the view along the road where i (used to) go running
people who think my accent is cute (all two of them!)

i could keep going...

sure, smalltowns in the middle of nowhere have their drawbacks, but i've experienced profound and astounding kindness here, and even if the rest of the year is absolutely shitty (and it won't be!), it will have all been worthwhile. (and someone please remind me of that, the next time i start complaining!!)

in other news...

so i cut my hair. (i know, amy, i know. don't even say it!!) it was, as usual, a rash decision, and i haven't decided yet if i like it or not.

i also saw my first chimney sweep last week. did you know such folk still existed?!?!? i wouldn't have known what he was had i not been informed.

chim chiminey, chim chiminey, chim chim cherreee, a sweep is as lucky as lucky can be... chim chiminey chim chiminey chim chim cherrooo.....

for real.

oh, and you know how you always see pictures of old european woman with headkerchiefs, floral shifts and sturdy shoes out sweeping their sidewalks? welcome to my neighborhood on the weekends!! (only sometimes there are men out sweeping, too!!)

things i miss about ann arbor

Kerrytown and the farmer's market
tree-lined residential streets full of solid victorian houses with porches (and couches!)
walking past the selo/shevel and clay gallery windows
soup from LeDog!
the bucks and sweetwaters (in that order!)
brick buildings
24/7 internet access
monday nights at Arbor
breakfast at greek's
Old Fourth Ward =)
the dawn treader
late night jimmy john's runs (with linford!)
walking to the bucks before it's light out
the Diag and walking across campus and feeling like i was a part of something

the details

so. going back to france and the travel drama...

i have an interesting track record when it comes to traveling. it doesn't seem to matter whether it's a last-minute, thrown together, whatever happens happens kind of trip or an organized, well-thought out and well-planned excursion--something (or everything) always seems to go wrong!!

and more often than not, i mean, let's be realistic, me, organized, planning ahead?!?! who are we kidding?!??!

in the couple of weeks before fall break, there had been talk of a trip to paris, which i thought it would be fun to combine with visiting mel. i mean, as long as i'm going to france, why not, right? so but i hadn't really confirmed anything with mel. it was kind of like, hey, can i come visit? sure, come on over. ok, cool, i'll probably come on the weekend sometime. the end.

then, the thing with paris didn't work out at the last minute, and i was still trying to work out the details of getting to perpignan. too many options and loose ends: flying (this would involve going to london first, not to mention getting to the airport in the first place), mitfahrgelegenheit? (the online ride-board thing, involves getting in touch with other people who are just as undecided about their plans as i am about mine...not a good combination!), and the train (booooooring, more expensive, and takes foreeeeeever). plus, i was hardly at home at all, which meant, no chance to look online.

soooo, saturday afternoon, i get online, determined not to spend the entire break _thinking_ about how to get to perpignan but rather to just pick something and go for it. so i found a train leaving around midnight that would get me to perpignan around 1:30 the next afternoon. fine. so i email mel, not knowing if she has internet at home or checks her email regularly, and then i go pack my bag.

of course, the fabulous thing about living in the middle of nowhere and not having a car is...that it can take hooooouuuuuurs to get anywhere. i took a bus and then a train and then another train, and like 3 hours later, was in stuttgart, which is really only about an hour's drive from here, where i got my ticket for france and found out that i would have to get from one train station in paris to another in order to get to perpignan. fabulous, considering my nonexistent command of the french language...

so after a long night in a traincar with a filipino couple from munich and an american student--hmm, was it his nalgene bottle, the ipod, or the norcal t-shirt that first gave it away?!?!-- i get to paris and manage the station switch by having a nice chat in german with one of the train conductors. several hours later, we're getting close to perpignan. i haven't heard from mel, have no idea if she knows i'm coming or not, and i starting to think about whether i not i know enough french to find her--or, worstcase scenario, somewhere else to crash!

get to perpignan, no mel. i wander around the train station for a few minutes hoping against hope that mel will miraculously appear, but since i still don't know if she even got my email or knows that i'm coming, it doesn't really make sense to wait around the station. i decide to try to find an internet cafe or something and start walking. i've made it a block or so, when i think i hear someone call out my name. i look around. sure enough, it's mel... i don't think i've ever been quite that happy to see someone in my whole life!!

long overdue

so now that i have 3 weeks worth of blogging to catch up on...

this is what it looked like here a couple of weeks ago:




not bad, eh? =)

the leaves are a bit browner now, and the vineyards aren't quite as bright anymore, or maybe it's just that the sun doesn't shine as much now that it's november. *shrug* november's a weird month, though. i mean, october gets all the good press with it's brilliant colors and golden afternoons. and there's halloween! =) and then it starts getting colder and darker, and next thing you know, it's december and christmas, and everyone's wondering what happened to november...

i let it go

I wanted to sing you a song
This gift I was given has all come out wrong
I wanted to give you so much
I came all this way just to hand you a (broken) crutch

I let it go
This life I know
Seeds that we sow
May come to dust

I let it go
One thing I know
What's real will grow
Inside of us

I wanted to lay by your side
Take this small world and open it wide
I wanted to write it all down
Your skin was the paper your pages unbound

Lonely is just how I feel
Alone in the world and the world's a wheel
Spinning these thoughts in my head
I tangle with you and we hang by a thread

There may come a day when this dream dies
Fair enough fair enough
Until then we lay down our own lives
Fair enough fair enough

-Over the Rhine

in a nutshell

since i haven't posted anything in the past, umm, two weeks or so, here are the highlights (or lowlights, depending on your perspective):

german breakfast(s) =)
IKEA
improv theatre
hours and hours in various trains
getting from one train station to another in paris without having to try to speak french!!
Mel finding me in Perpignan! (lack of phones and internet access can make travel plans really exciting)
being in a CITY!!!!!!!
little french kids in halloween costumes
eating burritos!! (have i mentioned that i miss mexican food!?!?)
shopping (in a town with more than 3 stores)
palaces and castles that used to have moats!! how cool were moats, seriously!?!?!?
more travel drama, nice french train folk and not so nice french train folk
a scenic train ride through switzerland
seeing signs in german again!! and trying to understand swiss german =)
arriving (mostly) in one piece in konstanz...

ok, that's the cliff notes version. more details about the travel drama to come--because there WAS travel drama. lots of it!!

on the road again

p.s. i'm in france. zqnt to see so,ething funny? this is hoz it looks zhen i type on the french keyboqrd: nice; huh? did you get qll of thqt? yeqh; itµs zeird. ok; iµll zrite ,ore lqter, becquse it tqkes too long to type for reql on this thing =)