update part 1

Man.  I'm sorry I've been such a slacker about updating.  It's just that lately I've been finding it difficult to find the the motivation to sit myself down and type anything.  Even e-mails.  Maybe I'm slowly entering the process of becoming a hermit?

I guess I will just make a list, since the caffeine hasn't kicked in yet and my brain is still tottering around like a two-year-old who occasionally bangs into the coffee table.

1.  The arm is almost healed.  It looks suspiciously different from my other one, though.  The doctor said that if we hadn't put a cast on it right away, it would have had to be operated on.  This is my last week of Krankengymnastik (physical therapy), so amen to that.  

2.  The weather has gotten to be very pleasant, so whenever possible, my WG piles into Ricky's cabrio and we depart Hamburg in search of a quiet meadow.  Last weekend we found one with a creek nearby and laid out blankets and basked in the sun and ran around full of glee.  It was awesome.

3.  The big thought that has been occupying my brain lately (I know, sometimes it's only capable of one task at a time) is what my relationship to my WG would be like if I understood every single thing that is said.  My fluency is decent, but I still miss stuff when something is said too fast or too unclear, or when there's a pesky verb in there that I don't know.  This is partly a good thing, because it forces me to be very neutral when judging my housemates.  I am pretty certain that if I had the fluency of a native speaker, my opinions about my flatmates would be very different.  More background information, stuff like that.  This also means that every day is incredibly interesting for me, because the process of getting to know my WG is never dull and constantly changing.  I've noticed, for example, that Anne is slightly OCD and very easily annoyed by lack of orderliness.  So when she's mad, she cleans feverishly.  Timo will go to great lengths to avoid conflict.  Lydi is almost never in a bad mood, but always talks to someone when she's angry and afterwards is cheerful again.  Ricky, on the other hand, always peaces out when he's angry and takes a drive or a walk.  And since he has a new job (his old job at Cafe Gnosa left him constantly pissed)  he is much happier and more relaxed.  Also, he recently cut all his beautiful curls off and looks very, very different.  For the better, I think.

To be continued, because it's time to go earn my meager living!

sleepy

I am sleepy.

That is all.

Also, Lydia broke her foot.

Will update later, calm down.  Jeez.

quick explanation

Ricardo and Lydia had to do this thing for university where they study communications design where they had to conceptualize and design a playground.  Then, one day in the kitchen, Lydia was lazily playing on the internet and realized that there are indoor playgrounds in Hamburg that might actually let adults play too.  Thus, my WG decided to go to Rabaatz in Hamburg-Stellingen, where they have an over-18 night once a month.  The word they chose to describe our planned mischief-making?  "Austoben,"  which roughly translates to rioting, scampering around in a wild manner, or "to rage oneself out."  

It was pretty awesome and we were jumping on trampolines and having good wholesome fun when I decided to try out this weird little thingy.  It was made out of wood with two small planks and four wheels, and it was something of a cross between a skateboard and a unicycle.  You stood on it and made cycling motions with your legs and apparently, if you have inhuman balance capabilities, you can move yourself along at a surprisingly snappy pace.  Unfortunately, I do not have such abilities, so what I did was fall, with lots of momentum, and land mostly on my left elbow.  Ow.

I didn't want to go to the doctor, even though I couldn't tie my shoes or straighten out my arm from the pain.  I figured it was just a bruise.  But I could barely sleep the entire night from the throbbing and in the morning I couldn't move my arm at all, so Anne called up this doctor in Wandsbek (one subway stop away) and Timo took me there.  After getting a sufficiently annoying cast and an MRI, it turns out that the one bone in the elbow joint smashed against the other one and made lots of hairline cracks in it, which is why it hurt so much to straighten the arm.  Anyway, I got a week off from work (apparently if the rowdy kids knocked into me it would not be good) and Lydia and Anne washed my hair for me after Ricky made fun of me because my head looked disgusting (I couldn't wash my hair very well with a cast on).  Luckily since then I've graduated to an ace bandage, but I still have to go to physical therapy so that I can eventually straighten the arm again.  Really, really annoying.

Yesterday I went with Ricky and Philipp to meet some other friends of theirs and grill outside in the fields of Meck-Pomm (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the state to the east of Hamburg).  The weather has been encouragingly warm recently and it was nice to get out of the city.  My goal this week:  learn how to make stuffed grape leaves!