julklapp and asshole kids

Here's a quote I probably would never hear in Germany:

"Yo, can you scooch the gun over so no one runs into it"

-my brother Cain, referring to his hunting gear laying on the dining room table

Last night I watched Pineapple Express in German with Rix and Timo.  I was pretty disappointed, because it's so much funnier in English.  I don't get what is with these people who translate movies.  Like, the German voices do a good job of syncing up with the movement of the mouths, but I think they purposely leave out some of the funniest comments.  Also, I think swearing isn't really as colorful in German as it is in English.  I have a hard time being creative with German swearing and still making sense. 

Today started off good because I didn't have to trudge to school until the 5th lesson, which allowed me to finally catch up on sleep.  7 hours of sleep in 72 hours was not fun, and I'm not even a student slaving away at college anymore.  So waking up without feeling like death was promising.  School went okay, nothing special other than stupid eighth-graders making me want to punch fist-shaped holes in their insolent little heads.  I don't understand how they can be so rude.  Almost all the other kids I teach at the school are generally pleasant, maybe a little wary but not usually rude.  This class, though, is the worst.  All the teachers hate them.  And I hate them too.  They take whining to a whole new level.  Example:  "Mrs. HAHHHHHHNNNN, I have a headachhhheeee, I can't write this test todayyyyyyyyy."  Did I mention that being referred to as "Mrs." really creeps me out?

I'd like to write more examples of these little jerkfaces and their annoying ways, but since I'm relaxing so nicely in my room I choose to block it out from my mind.  I'm happy because I went to my favorite Turkish stand and got a huge amount of veggies and fruit for around 7 euros, including my favorite PERSIMMONS!  Weeeeeee.  Now my planty-food arsenal contains, but is not limited to:  lychees, mango, kiwi, persimmon, potatoes, onions, spinach, lettuce, carrots, cucumber, chili pepper, avocado, and olives.    That's more than I had in the whole of December, I think...

Oh, and my flatmates and I finally did our Secret Santa (Julklapp)!  Since we were all at home last night for the first time in a while, we did our little gift-switching.  Lydia was very impressed by my gift of "American Party Cheese" in a can, Gobstoppers, Symphony Bar, and Combos Pizzeria Supreme.  My gift was from Rix, who gave me a cute little coconut shell with dried oranges and stuff on it and a little votive candle inside.  It's very winter-y.  It was also funny because the coconut shell came from a coconut Ricky bought like a year ago, and the coconut had been in the kitchen ever since.  He finally broke the coconut!  It was practically another member of the apartment!  I feel honored.

I'm brain-dead tonight.

GRR INSOMNIA

I hate not being able to sleep, and now it's getting ridiculous because jet lag usually never affects me this long.  I got three hours last night before getting up at 6:30.  Boo.

The weekend was pretty relaxing, spent the majority of it playing yahtzee, backgammon, and Risk with my flatmates.  I lost every single game I played, but that's okay.  I need to practice my strategy real fast.  Especially Risk.  I always get a stupid mission, like "free Asia and South America" or "Free the blue countries!  But if you're the blue army, capture 24 countries!" And of course I'm the blue army, go figure.  And how the crap do you free Asia?  It's huge and gets attacked from everywhere and is a pain in the ass to deal with.  Unless you have Australia, which is easy as hell to defend.  Gah.  One day I'll win a game of Risk.  One day.

That's about it, just wanted to check in.  I'm currently sitting with my flatmate Ricky in the kitchen, having my afternoon coffee and listening to goofy music.  I have nothing else important or interesting to say.

post-sylvester

Right. We had a New Year's Party, and I had a pretty malevolent headache pretty much all day yesterday. But now I'm all better. Some things Germans like to do on Sylvester (what they call it):

-blow up fireworks for a full 48 hours. This is fun for about half an hour. After that, I have a feeling they contributed to the headache.
-melt lead figurines on spoons, throwing the lead into water and seeing what shape you get. There's a list of shapes and what they mean. I thought I had a strawberry, but it wasn't on the list, so I flipped my piece of lead over and it looked like an Islamic lady wearing a burqa. The fortune for "woman" is that someone loves me! Unfortunately, I have a feeling that this somebody is Charlie, our cat, who likes my hair a lot and likes to take naps with me.
-eat doughnuts and soft pretzels

...etc. I don't really know if I made any resolutions. I don't usually make them. I want to make more paintings and play more backgammon and work on fluency in German and just do more stuff in general. I want to learn a third language and go to Scandinavia and Spain and grow my hair and take more pictures and write more creative stuff. I had an idea for a movie script the other night and I might take a crack at expanding it and doing a little project. And I want to read more books and ride my bike to cool places and be outside. Those are not really resolutions, though. Just some lofty goals?

And here are some pictures, since I don't usually post any and I should do more of that too.


Anne, me, Rix, and a guest at our party

Melting the lead


A picture I took in September when it was warm and sunny...the complete opposite of winter in Hamburg. Le sigh.

back to regularly scheduled programming

I know I haven't posted in a long time...but December was really, really busy.  I did a lot of tutoring which didn't leave much time for doing awesome stuff and writing about said stuff in blog.  I also experienced a bit of stress in the romance department and in the what-is-my-future-department which made me pretty reluctant to write new entries.  BUT, I went home for ten days and it was just what I needed.  Going home always helps me reposition myself.  Being so far away tends to make me feel unsettled a lot, and I worry sometimes that I don't really know who I am because I'm away from everything I used to define myself.  So I guess spending some time back in PA was sort of like, "Oh, that's who I'm supposed to be!"  It's like when you can't remember someone's name, so you look in your old yearbooks and find their picture and then you can't believe you forgot it in the first place.  Some people think that traveling helps you remember who you forgot to be, but for me it's the opposite.   

I'll write more later, but for now I have to recover from yesterday's epic New Year's Party 2008.

bizzy

Yeah, I know I'm slacking in this thing real hard. But seriously, this week was, if I may, turbo busy.  I had to teach a lot at school which meant I had to prepare lessons, and I did a lot of tutoring because a bunch of kids have tests coming up and now they are freaking out because they have no clue about anything English.  Which means some nice extra money for me, but longass days, and the money is going to buying people Christmas presents anyway.  I pretty much spent the week praying for this moment:  Thursday night, when I can finally sit at home and not think about teaching a bunch of hormonally charged, anti-authority eighth-graders with filthy thoughts that aren't even creative.  But my room is looking pretty boss now, I've got little wooden chairs and a shelf and soon I'll get a sofa form my flatmate Lydia.  

I'll try to write something interesting soon, but lately I've been beat and can barely form whole sentences, let alone type a coherent blog.  I have also been having some nasty sleeping problems that end up with me being a zombie much of the time.  It takes me hours to fall asleep, and I noticed that I can't stop clenching my jaw.  Messed up.  And I regularly lose feeling in my toes, which freaks me out a little.  What if they fall off one night while I'm not sleeping and jaw-clenching?   Ugh.

dumb decisions as usual

Remember in my last post, when I said (and I quote) that I "do stupid shit ALL the time" and that "spontaneity gets me into trouble"? Well, last night pretty much proved that point. In my infinite wisdom I decided to meet up with a friend after tutoring and go to Haus 73 in the Schanze to have some beer and see a band from England play. Here's my timeline:

9:00: Band starts playing. They're okay.
11:30: Band stops, me and comrade hang around Haus 73 for a while until we decide to go.
Some point after 12:30: We realize that I have missed the last subway home.
2:00: I crash at co-conspirator's abode, dreading what is to come.
5:15: I wake up and drag myself to the bus stop. I look in my bag and happily discover a banana given to me by the Korean mom last night. I stuff it into my mouth and chew sleepily.
6:00: I arrive home. I peel off my disgusting-feeling clothes and wash the feeling of "basement" off my face. I slurp coffee.
6:30: I start planning a lesson I have to teach at 8:00. Good god.
7:25: I arrive at school. I am despondent and immediately drink more coffee.
8:00: I begin teaching a bunch of 7th graders about relative and contact clauses. I am slightly cracked out.
9:35: Crisis averted! I am successful. Becoming more and more cracked out by the minute, I proceed to grade 15 tests and complete a variety of other tasks. Coffee makes my tummy hurt.
13:52: Right now. I am not happy, because I still have four hours left at school, including my worst nightmare: Hausaufgabenhilfe. I hate Hausaufgabenhilfe, but thankfully I get paid for it so it's at least a form of hell that buys me stuff. I also have to tutor for two hours afterwards. I wistfully dream of 6:00, when I can trudge home, plod over to my room and pass out on my (freshly washed and nice-smelling, might I add) comfy little bed. But you know what? I don't regret going out at all.

My life might be ridiculous, but hey- at least I'm living it.

basking

Ah, to live in an apartment I like.  It's pretty much like having a new, happier life...living in a place with cool people and colors on the walls is practically heaven compared to my previous dungeon.

I would write more, but I have been out and about from 8 in the morning till around 9 tonight, and I am beat.  Tomorrow is a day-long conference at the school so I get a surprise day off, and I am going to sleep in as long as possible.  

I will write more interesting things soon, but I am not being lazy, I promise.  I actually ride my bike to school and back (unless the weather is bad) and that's around 11 km.  I used googlemaps to figure it all out!  Then today I also rode my bike to tutoring which ended up being around 12 km, so today I rode a total of about 23 km, which is a little over 14 miles.  I figure, since I don't have time on busy days to go to the gym, if I ride my bike everywhere I'll make up for it.  There are definitely some uphill segments too, and if I have my school stuff it adds a lot of weight and I have to pedal pretty hard.  

My friend Amy brought me chocolate and wine last night to celebrate moving into my new place.  After some wine, I forget what we were talking about exactly, I think it had to do with being bolder or something.  Anyway, she ended up taking out her notebook and writing down something I said:  "One, you don't know how DUMB I am sometimes.  Two, I do stupid shit all the time.  And C, spontaneity gets me into trouble."

Apparently, I am a wise sage.