I deleted that last post because it was irrelevant. My computer is fixed! Yay!
I had a great weekend. On Friday I made a German grammar poster and went to bed early and slept in Saturday morning. Saturday I went to the adorable Pforzheim library, then bought some pens and pencils because I am addicted to German school supplies. I went to Franziska's house, a girl from school, and Aline and Karo were there too. We watched some movies, including Amelie and one that was oddly reminiscent of "The Great Outdoors" -- AAAAAAHHHH!!!! Franziska lives in a beautiful appartment with many plants and high ceilings and she has a bunk bed. We ate toast with cheese and pinapple and a lot of Fanta and chocolate. It was really fun. I hope that I can get together with the nice girls from my school again soon.
I am sort of at a loss as to what to do with the rest of my vacation. I am dying to go back to Heidelberg, but apparently wanting to do this on my own is bizarre. I mentioned my idea to Alex, and his reaction was, "NO, get someone to go with you!!" So instead I will probably be watching some movies and knitting and reading English and being boring. More later.
Sonntag, Februar 22, 2009
Sonntag, Februar 15, 2009
there is nothing left to fear now now that bigfoot is captured
This will be a short post, becaue I have to get started on an essay I must write for AFS. This is making me way more stressed than it should.
I had a nice weekend. Went to Karla's birthday party, which was in her house, not in Candela. She has just a host mom, an older woman with grown-up children, who seems really nice and lets her do really whatever she wants. I think about nine people stayed over, which would not go in my host family's house (the rule is ONE FRIEND AT A TIME. This is tough because sometimes with people who I don't know so well, like the other exchange students, having more people over kind of breaks the ice a little and is less stressful.)
No run-in with the police. We ate yummy pasta salad with curry paste and played games and watched movies.
I am feeling a little weird about the halfway point of my exchange. Although I feel better about school, etc, I still feel sad a lot of the time (I'm sorry, complaints) and my German leaves something to be desired. I guess mostly, I'm worried about regrets. Right now, this feels so, so normal to me, being here, and I'm afraid I won't even really realize I was here until afterwards. Even though my goal is to take every opportunity, that isn't always easy, especially in school, where I literally have NEVER raised my hand or contributed anything in some of my classes -- therefore many of my teachers believe that I don't speak ANY German. It's silly, but I'm afraid of looking stupid -- my first month here, I was brave about asking people, speaking German, trying everything. And it's like a little of that has worn off, and now I just feel like a non-fluent, weird, nerdy girl.
I just want to bring something back with me after this is over: a couple new friends, conversationally fluent German, more confidence, a bigger world view. And it would be nice if I could come back having seen some of Europe too, because I don't know when I'll be back. I have pretty realistic expectations, and plus, these are all really in my control. I think I just need to step it up a little, try harder in school, and stop writing and reading English every day. So we'll see.
I had a nice weekend. Went to Karla's birthday party, which was in her house, not in Candela. She has just a host mom, an older woman with grown-up children, who seems really nice and lets her do really whatever she wants. I think about nine people stayed over, which would not go in my host family's house (the rule is ONE FRIEND AT A TIME. This is tough because sometimes with people who I don't know so well, like the other exchange students, having more people over kind of breaks the ice a little and is less stressful.)
No run-in with the police. We ate yummy pasta salad with curry paste and played games and watched movies.
I am feeling a little weird about the halfway point of my exchange. Although I feel better about school, etc, I still feel sad a lot of the time (I'm sorry, complaints) and my German leaves something to be desired. I guess mostly, I'm worried about regrets. Right now, this feels so, so normal to me, being here, and I'm afraid I won't even really realize I was here until afterwards. Even though my goal is to take every opportunity, that isn't always easy, especially in school, where I literally have NEVER raised my hand or contributed anything in some of my classes -- therefore many of my teachers believe that I don't speak ANY German. It's silly, but I'm afraid of looking stupid -- my first month here, I was brave about asking people, speaking German, trying everything. And it's like a little of that has worn off, and now I just feel like a non-fluent, weird, nerdy girl.
I just want to bring something back with me after this is over: a couple new friends, conversationally fluent German, more confidence, a bigger world view. And it would be nice if I could come back having seen some of Europe too, because I don't know when I'll be back. I have pretty realistic expectations, and plus, these are all really in my control. I think I just need to step it up a little, try harder in school, and stop writing and reading English every day. So we'll see.
Dienstag, Februar 10, 2009
why i am in germany
People often ask me why, of all places, I decided to come to Germany. This is a much more common reaction to learning that I am an exchange student than you might expect. There is an overwhelming attutide of: you could be in France, South America, anywhere? Why here?
Here are the reasons:
1.
"Kafka often made extensive use of a trait special to the German language allowing for long sentences that sometimes can span an entire page. Kafka's sentences then deliver an unexpected impact just before the full stop—that being the finalizing meaning and focus. This is achieved due to the construction of certain sentences in German which require that the verb be positioned at the end of the sentence. Such constructions cannot be duplicated in English, so it is up to the translator to provide the reader with the same effect found in the original text.
"Another virtually insurmountable problem facing the translator is how to deal with the author's intentional use of ambiguous terms or of words that have several meanings. One such instance is found in the first sentence of The Metamorphosis. Another example is Kafka's use of the German noun Verkehr in the final sentence of The Judgment. Literally, Verkehr means intercourse and, as in English, can have either a sexual or non-sexual meaning; in addition, it is used to mean transport or traffic. The sentence can be translated as: 'At that moment an unending stream of traffic crossed over the bridge.' What gives added weight to the obvious double meaning of 'Verkehr' is Kafka's confession to Max Brod that when he wrote that final line, he was thinking of 'a violent ejaculation'. In the English translation, of course, what can 'Verkehr' be but 'traffic'?"
2.
3.
Here are the reasons:
1.
"Kafka often made extensive use of a trait special to the German language allowing for long sentences that sometimes can span an entire page. Kafka's sentences then deliver an unexpected impact just before the full stop—that being the finalizing meaning and focus. This is achieved due to the construction of certain sentences in German which require that the verb be positioned at the end of the sentence. Such constructions cannot be duplicated in English, so it is up to the translator to provide the reader with the same effect found in the original text.
"Another virtually insurmountable problem facing the translator is how to deal with the author's intentional use of ambiguous terms or of words that have several meanings. One such instance is found in the first sentence of The Metamorphosis. Another example is Kafka's use of the German noun Verkehr in the final sentence of The Judgment. Literally, Verkehr means intercourse and, as in English, can have either a sexual or non-sexual meaning; in addition, it is used to mean transport or traffic. The sentence can be translated as: 'At that moment an unending stream of traffic crossed over the bridge.' What gives added weight to the obvious double meaning of 'Verkehr' is Kafka's confession to Max Brod that when he wrote that final line, he was thinking of 'a violent ejaculation'. In the English translation, of course, what can 'Verkehr' be but 'traffic'?"
2.
3.
Montag, Februar 09, 2009
little voices mimic you
Today I had... one of those days.
The recipe for these days is simple: I get no sleep, am exausted, as a result my German becomes really bizarre, I feel awful about it, and then I decide I have no friends. Then something really small pushes me over the edge, and no matter where I am -- school, Leopoldsplatz, the dinner table -- I start sobbing uncontrollably and muttering encouraging words to myself.
The last day I had like this was exactly two weeks ago. I had gym, was on a team with a group of people who could actually play volleyball, and got angry with me when I messed up, and as soon as I reached the dressing room after the class I erupted into tears. Verena and Franziska and Rhonia ran away, but Aline talked to me and hugged me and it was really sweet.
This time, I bought the ABSOLUTE WRONG TICKET to go to Sinsheim on Wednesday. It was my fault for being such a Dummkopf. I thought I was buying one that arrived in Sinsheim at 9:00 instead of one that left Pforzheim at 9:00, and I DIDN'T EVEN LOOK to make sure the time was correct before I purchased it!! I just felt like a failure. I ran to the Volkshochschule and locked myself in the bathroom, not caring who threw me out since it's not a public bathroom and my yoga class wasn't until three hours later. In that moment everything felt impossible to solve. There was no way I could go back and ask for another, it was too embarrassing, and for the same reason I could not ask my host parents what to do. I ended up concluding that my only option would be to not go at all -- to tell the AFS volunteer who is having me come to the school where she works and talk about America that I couldn't go -- but my plan was foiled when Regina asked me how buying the ticket went as soon as I walked in the door.
"We actually have to speak about that," I said. I ended up confessing the whole thing -- although I did tell a little lie and say that I didn't buy the new ticket at all, because I had to change trains four times. I DID have to change trains four times, but I think it's better that she doesn't know I bought the ticket because that seemed like the line between partial and total humiliation. The ticket was only nine euros. So I guess I paid nine euros to save myself from total humiliation. This is acceptable.
And my host parents were extremely nice about my inability to figure out my route to Sinsheim on my own. I often feel funny about needing them for anything -- they remind me often that they "don't have time for that." No time to remember my schedule for me or make me lunches or make my bed. All things that a 16-year-old should be able to do on her own, but as a result, I feel just... weird about asking them for help. But in this case they were very, very kind and Alex (completely refreshingly figuring out this plan in about ten seconds) is driving me to Sinsheim on Wednesday. All is well.
Tomorrow I have Sport!!!!!! But I am trying not to take it too seriously. And now I should make myself a hot water with honey and lemon and e-mail Tang and go to bed. Gute Nacht.
The recipe for these days is simple: I get no sleep, am exausted, as a result my German becomes really bizarre, I feel awful about it, and then I decide I have no friends. Then something really small pushes me over the edge, and no matter where I am -- school, Leopoldsplatz, the dinner table -- I start sobbing uncontrollably and muttering encouraging words to myself.
The last day I had like this was exactly two weeks ago. I had gym, was on a team with a group of people who could actually play volleyball, and got angry with me when I messed up, and as soon as I reached the dressing room after the class I erupted into tears. Verena and Franziska and Rhonia ran away, but Aline talked to me and hugged me and it was really sweet.
This time, I bought the ABSOLUTE WRONG TICKET to go to Sinsheim on Wednesday. It was my fault for being such a Dummkopf. I thought I was buying one that arrived in Sinsheim at 9:00 instead of one that left Pforzheim at 9:00, and I DIDN'T EVEN LOOK to make sure the time was correct before I purchased it!! I just felt like a failure. I ran to the Volkshochschule and locked myself in the bathroom, not caring who threw me out since it's not a public bathroom and my yoga class wasn't until three hours later. In that moment everything felt impossible to solve. There was no way I could go back and ask for another, it was too embarrassing, and for the same reason I could not ask my host parents what to do. I ended up concluding that my only option would be to not go at all -- to tell the AFS volunteer who is having me come to the school where she works and talk about America that I couldn't go -- but my plan was foiled when Regina asked me how buying the ticket went as soon as I walked in the door.
"We actually have to speak about that," I said. I ended up confessing the whole thing -- although I did tell a little lie and say that I didn't buy the new ticket at all, because I had to change trains four times. I DID have to change trains four times, but I think it's better that she doesn't know I bought the ticket because that seemed like the line between partial and total humiliation. The ticket was only nine euros. So I guess I paid nine euros to save myself from total humiliation. This is acceptable.
And my host parents were extremely nice about my inability to figure out my route to Sinsheim on my own. I often feel funny about needing them for anything -- they remind me often that they "don't have time for that." No time to remember my schedule for me or make me lunches or make my bed. All things that a 16-year-old should be able to do on her own, but as a result, I feel just... weird about asking them for help. But in this case they were very, very kind and Alex (completely refreshingly figuring out this plan in about ten seconds) is driving me to Sinsheim on Wednesday. All is well.
Tomorrow I have Sport!!!!!! But I am trying not to take it too seriously. And now I should make myself a hot water with honey and lemon and e-mail Tang and go to bed. Gute Nacht.
Sonntag, Februar 08, 2009
you know what i mean, happy loving couples in matching lamb turtleneck sweaters reading ideal homes magazine
I swear I have a life outside of writing rambling blog entries.
I had a lovely weekend. Thursday I had my first classical guitar lesson. (Music career update: I really did not enjoy playing the accordion that much. I wished I did, but accordion lessons just weren't as fabulous as I'd hoped, so now I've decided to pursue the classical guitar instead, and I'm really really happy about it so don't criticize.) The lesson went as follows:
Guitar teacher: Hello. Let's say "du."
Me: Good.
Guitar teacher: Do you already play the guitar?
Me: Not really. I can play C...G...D...
Guitar teacher: Do you play another instrument?
Me: Yes, I play the piano.
Guitar teacher: So you read music?
Me: Yes.
Guitar teacher: Here are some papers. This one has a list of notes and where you can find them on the guitar. Here's some music. Now play. (Guitar teacher wanders away to the other side of the room and stares at the wall. Apparently I'm supposed to pretend he's not there.)
Me: (Plays pathetically.) Ummmmm.... (Starts over. Makes mistakes.) Uhhhh... (Plays the song through once. Makes more mistakes.)
Guitar teacher (returning): You're strumming with your thumb. People don't do that in real life. That's why you have fingers.
Me: Uh, OK. (Tries again.)
Guitar teacher: OK. That's enough for today. You did good; you can already play a song. Have a nice weekend. Bye.
So, not a complete failure. I have played the song lots since then and now I can sort of play it, but the strings buzz and I don't like holding the guitar classical guitar-style. But really, I am so motivated and excited to start playing the guitar because I love the guitar, especially mine at home, and finally I'm learning how to play something other than "The Times They Are A-Changin'" and multiple stupid songs I wrote. I also bought a UKULELE last week and I'm having fun; at first I was sure that I'd ended up with one of those awful untunable ukes (not surprising for 30€) but after a few days of tuning and re-tuning, it actually holds a tune okay, and five months without a ukulele has completely rekindled my love for the instrument.
On Friday I hung out with Alisa. She came to Pforzheim and we went to Konsumat and went shoe-shopping. I tried on some amazing shoes that I could not walk in, and she bought two pairs of shoes, and the woman working at the shop was nice. We went to the Pforzheim library, which is small but awesome, and I checked out an English book and two movies. Then we went to Karlsruhe, had pizza in a really nice restaurant, and went to a Kareoke bar. The Kareoke was fun, but I was recovering from being sick, so by the end of the night my throat was killing me, and it still hurts a little today. We were there with a couple of her friends, and we tried to find songs that we all knew... so unfortunately I didn't get to sing "Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)". The people there were mostly groups of five or so teenagers sitting together, except for this one man who was completely alone, and maybe 45 years old, with big glasses. He was an awful singer and he sang only totally German Volksmusik, so in between teenage girls singing pop songs there would be these ridiculous Volks-Lieder!! The other really funny thing was that the videos playing were not the real videos from the songs; they were terrible quality and often simply bizarre -- for example, accompanying the song "Candy Shop" was a video of Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum. Whoa, that's just not right?! Lots of ridiculous zooming in and out.
I slept over at Alisa's house and then drove back to Pforzheim. As soon as I arrived in the Bahnhof I heard people yelling. I assumed there was some kind of political protest going on, but no, it wasm the football fans. At least 50 guys yelling happily and waving blue-and-white flags passed by me on their way to their Bahn. I went to my bus, and five or six people inexplicably dressed as woodland creatures soon joined me. This is why I love living in Germany, guys.
When I got home, I asked my host family, "Did Karlsruhe win something?"
"Later," said Hans-Peter. "They're playing at 3:30."
Alex said, "Why?"
I said, "The men in the trainstation were very happy. I thought maybe Karlsruhe had won. I always know when they have lost, because sometimes I come in the train from Karlsruhe in the night, and they are drinking beer and screaming, and sometimes..." I made a hand motion as if I were slamming a beer bottle over someone's head.
My host family laughed. Hans-Peter said, "But Hamburg is also blue and white. They were probably here for the game, for Hamburg."
Me: "How do you know?"
Hans-Peter said completely seriously, "Oh, the Karlsuhe fans don't start so early."
I had a lovely weekend. Thursday I had my first classical guitar lesson. (Music career update: I really did not enjoy playing the accordion that much. I wished I did, but accordion lessons just weren't as fabulous as I'd hoped, so now I've decided to pursue the classical guitar instead, and I'm really really happy about it so don't criticize.) The lesson went as follows:
Guitar teacher: Hello. Let's say "du."
Me: Good.
Guitar teacher: Do you already play the guitar?
Me: Not really. I can play C...G...D...
Guitar teacher: Do you play another instrument?
Me: Yes, I play the piano.
Guitar teacher: So you read music?
Me: Yes.
Guitar teacher: Here are some papers. This one has a list of notes and where you can find them on the guitar. Here's some music. Now play. (Guitar teacher wanders away to the other side of the room and stares at the wall. Apparently I'm supposed to pretend he's not there.)
Me: (Plays pathetically.) Ummmmm.... (Starts over. Makes mistakes.) Uhhhh... (Plays the song through once. Makes more mistakes.)
Guitar teacher (returning): You're strumming with your thumb. People don't do that in real life. That's why you have fingers.
Me: Uh, OK. (Tries again.)
Guitar teacher: OK. That's enough for today. You did good; you can already play a song. Have a nice weekend. Bye.
So, not a complete failure. I have played the song lots since then and now I can sort of play it, but the strings buzz and I don't like holding the guitar classical guitar-style. But really, I am so motivated and excited to start playing the guitar because I love the guitar, especially mine at home, and finally I'm learning how to play something other than "The Times They Are A-Changin'" and multiple stupid songs I wrote. I also bought a UKULELE last week and I'm having fun; at first I was sure that I'd ended up with one of those awful untunable ukes (not surprising for 30€) but after a few days of tuning and re-tuning, it actually holds a tune okay, and five months without a ukulele has completely rekindled my love for the instrument.
On Friday I hung out with Alisa. She came to Pforzheim and we went to Konsumat and went shoe-shopping. I tried on some amazing shoes that I could not walk in, and she bought two pairs of shoes, and the woman working at the shop was nice. We went to the Pforzheim library, which is small but awesome, and I checked out an English book and two movies. Then we went to Karlsruhe, had pizza in a really nice restaurant, and went to a Kareoke bar. The Kareoke was fun, but I was recovering from being sick, so by the end of the night my throat was killing me, and it still hurts a little today. We were there with a couple of her friends, and we tried to find songs that we all knew... so unfortunately I didn't get to sing "Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)". The people there were mostly groups of five or so teenagers sitting together, except for this one man who was completely alone, and maybe 45 years old, with big glasses. He was an awful singer and he sang only totally German Volksmusik, so in between teenage girls singing pop songs there would be these ridiculous Volks-Lieder!! The other really funny thing was that the videos playing were not the real videos from the songs; they were terrible quality and often simply bizarre -- for example, accompanying the song "Candy Shop" was a video of Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum. Whoa, that's just not right?! Lots of ridiculous zooming in and out.
I slept over at Alisa's house and then drove back to Pforzheim. As soon as I arrived in the Bahnhof I heard people yelling. I assumed there was some kind of political protest going on, but no, it wasm the football fans. At least 50 guys yelling happily and waving blue-and-white flags passed by me on their way to their Bahn. I went to my bus, and five or six people inexplicably dressed as woodland creatures soon joined me. This is why I love living in Germany, guys.
When I got home, I asked my host family, "Did Karlsruhe win something?"
"Later," said Hans-Peter. "They're playing at 3:30."
Alex said, "Why?"
I said, "The men in the trainstation were very happy. I thought maybe Karlsruhe had won. I always know when they have lost, because sometimes I come in the train from Karlsruhe in the night, and they are drinking beer and screaming, and sometimes..." I made a hand motion as if I were slamming a beer bottle over someone's head.
My host family laughed. Hans-Peter said, "But Hamburg is also blue and white. They were probably here for the game, for Hamburg."
Me: "How do you know?"
Hans-Peter said completely seriously, "Oh, the Karlsuhe fans don't start so early."
Samstag, Februar 07, 2009
Dingern, das mir gefallen
1. Pens, pencils, compasses, binders, protractors, school supplies.
2. The anti-ethanol ad near the Hauptbahnhof.
3. Kareoke.
4. The trains and buses.
5. Bread, especially the delicious Brötchen that Alisa's mom bought for me this morning.
6. My English class.
7. Hand cream.
8. The Pforzheim library.
9. Those hard core hip-hop kids who greet each other by kissing on the cheek.
10. Terrible TV movies that I watch with my host mom.
11. Being able to sort of understand and speak another language.
12. Umlaut. ä.ö.ü.
13. My daily bus ride to school.
14. Making friends with people who are unbelievably different from me.
15. Brief moments when I really feel like I have understood something thouroughly and/or contributed something to my life here.
16. Feldsalat. (It's called sheep's ear salad or something weird like that in English, apparently. I sort of don't want the winter to ever end because I love Feldsalat so much.)
17. Yogurt chocolate.
18. The fact that that word looks weird to me spelled with a Y now.
19. Having as much time alone as I'd like to. (Well, sometimes a little too much, but I generally don't mind being alone.)
20. Karlsruhe.
That was actually a lot harder than I expected. But it's refreshing to make a list now and then. I'm unsure whether the word above should be "das" or "dass." Normally, I'd write "dass", but the Rummy K box has recently made me skeptical.
2. The anti-ethanol ad near the Hauptbahnhof.
3. Kareoke.
4. The trains and buses.
5. Bread, especially the delicious Brötchen that Alisa's mom bought for me this morning.
6. My English class.
7. Hand cream.
8. The Pforzheim library.
9. Those hard core hip-hop kids who greet each other by kissing on the cheek.
10. Terrible TV movies that I watch with my host mom.
11. Being able to sort of understand and speak another language.
12. Umlaut. ä.ö.ü.
13. My daily bus ride to school.
14. Making friends with people who are unbelievably different from me.
15. Brief moments when I really feel like I have understood something thouroughly and/or contributed something to my life here.
16. Feldsalat. (It's called sheep's ear salad or something weird like that in English, apparently. I sort of don't want the winter to ever end because I love Feldsalat so much.)
17. Yogurt chocolate.
18. The fact that that word looks weird to me spelled with a Y now.
19. Having as much time alone as I'd like to. (Well, sometimes a little too much, but I generally don't mind being alone.)
20. Karlsruhe.
That was actually a lot harder than I expected. But it's refreshing to make a list now and then. I'm unsure whether the word above should be "das" or "dass." Normally, I'd write "dass", but the Rummy K box has recently made me skeptical.
Dienstag, Februar 03, 2009
i think i drank like five cups of tea today
Today I came home early from school because I am sick. Normally I bet I could have stuck it out, but I had Sport. Volleyball is awful under any circumstances, but when one is sick, it's attrocious. So I spent my day: drinking tea, sleeping, writing, and watching Desperate Housewives. My family at home is watching The Wire. I am watching Desperate Housewives. Katharina has the first season on DVD, and truly, I don't understand how a show could start out so terrible. In my experience, even mediocre shows are often at least a little bit clever in the first few episodes, but no. No, instead there are terrible puns, ridiculous storylines, and the most God-awful narrator I've ever heard.
Semi-related: my ONLY after school-activity in my second semester here is a weekly guitar lesson (my first one is one Thursday). This kind of terrifies me. I also have NO school past one o' clock -- which is good and everything, but I haven't really got friends, and there isn't quite enough time after school to drive to Karlsruhe during the week. I'm not really sure what to do. You would think, I'm in Germany, I'll figure something out, but I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH MY TIME.
Semi-related: my ONLY after school-activity in my second semester here is a weekly guitar lesson (my first one is one Thursday). This kind of terrifies me. I also have NO school past one o' clock -- which is good and everything, but I haven't really got friends, and there isn't quite enough time after school to drive to Karlsruhe during the week. I'm not really sure what to do. You would think, I'm in Germany, I'll figure something out, but I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH MY TIME.
Sonntag, Februar 01, 2009
Blogs, egoism
Reading my blog reminds me of something my dad said a long time ago.
Dad: Blogs are so irritating. All bloggers are egoists -- all they do is write about themselves!
Mom: But, you have a blog.
Dad: My blog has nothing to do with me!!
Dad: Blogs are so irritating. All bloggers are egoists -- all they do is write about themselves!
Mom: But, you have a blog.
Dad: My blog has nothing to do with me!!
It's like a mojito party out there!
This weekend, Tang and I went to Martha's birthday party. Here we are in party outfits:
Before we went to the party, we had dinner at the Thai restaurant in Karlsruhe called Chiang Mai. It is SO SO GOOD. It makes Pforzheimer-Thai food look so crappy in comparison. I had a delicious spicy rice noodle soup. Sorry this picture is so blurry.
Karen and Karla dancing. I like this picture because you can really see what Candela looks like.
We had mojitos.
Afterwards, we missed the Straßenbahn to Martha's house, so we had to take this weird night bus. We were all sleeping over at Martha's house, seven or eight girls. Most people had school Bahncards, but I (and another girl) had to buy tickets from the ticket machines that I FINALLY figured out how to use properly. So I ran across the street to get tickets and came back and we just caught our bus. I stamped my ticket in the bus and sat down.
In Germany, nobody checks your ticket when you get in the bus, but every once in a while the "ticket man" comes to check everyone's ticket. The ticket man came. My ticket was valid, but two others hadn't stamped theirs, so the ticket man started yelling "Raus, raus!!" and we had to get off the bus, and two other Polizei came and started yelling at us. Since the girls from Stuttgart and Manheim were staying with Martha, they took her to the police station to get her address, and told the others they each had to pay 40€. But they kept insisting that they didn't have the money, so finally they just let us go. Several people were crying at this point. But not me. It wasn't really scary at all, just a little irritating since we had to wait an hour for the next Bahn and it was cold.
Yesterday I had Waffles with Aline and Rhonia and Franziska from my class. It was really nice, and we are going to get together to watch movies the weekend after next. Aline asked me if it was boring for me in my village, and I said yes, sometimes. She asked me what I do with my free time and I responded, "Read, watch TV, computer." Yes, that is literally all. Isn't that embarrassing? She said, "Then we have to meet up more often." I hope we do.
Sort of related to my free time -- I picked a lame time to go abroad, creativity-wise. Before I left I was writing a lot and just getting into philosophy and writing music, and now, I feel purposeless. I spend a lot of time on the computer, or even just lying around doing nothing. I know I would be bored if I were at home, and that this is the right place for me to be right now, but I'm not feeling inspired in the same way I thought I would. And I think a lot of this has to do with being so alone, honestly. I'm not alone, and I have support, but at home, I spend so much time talking with my family or my friends about things I'm interested in or ideas or whatever. And the fact that so much of what I thought of as my personality might have come strictly from the people I was surrounded by depresses me a little.
Before we went to the party, we had dinner at the Thai restaurant in Karlsruhe called Chiang Mai. It is SO SO GOOD. It makes Pforzheimer-Thai food look so crappy in comparison. I had a delicious spicy rice noodle soup. Sorry this picture is so blurry.
Karen and Karla dancing. I like this picture because you can really see what Candela looks like.
We had mojitos.
Afterwards, we missed the Straßenbahn to Martha's house, so we had to take this weird night bus. We were all sleeping over at Martha's house, seven or eight girls. Most people had school Bahncards, but I (and another girl) had to buy tickets from the ticket machines that I FINALLY figured out how to use properly. So I ran across the street to get tickets and came back and we just caught our bus. I stamped my ticket in the bus and sat down.
In Germany, nobody checks your ticket when you get in the bus, but every once in a while the "ticket man" comes to check everyone's ticket. The ticket man came. My ticket was valid, but two others hadn't stamped theirs, so the ticket man started yelling "Raus, raus!!" and we had to get off the bus, and two other Polizei came and started yelling at us. Since the girls from Stuttgart and Manheim were staying with Martha, they took her to the police station to get her address, and told the others they each had to pay 40€. But they kept insisting that they didn't have the money, so finally they just let us go. Several people were crying at this point. But not me. It wasn't really scary at all, just a little irritating since we had to wait an hour for the next Bahn and it was cold.
Yesterday I had Waffles with Aline and Rhonia and Franziska from my class. It was really nice, and we are going to get together to watch movies the weekend after next. Aline asked me if it was boring for me in my village, and I said yes, sometimes. She asked me what I do with my free time and I responded, "Read, watch TV, computer." Yes, that is literally all. Isn't that embarrassing? She said, "Then we have to meet up more often." I hope we do.
Sort of related to my free time -- I picked a lame time to go abroad, creativity-wise. Before I left I was writing a lot and just getting into philosophy and writing music, and now, I feel purposeless. I spend a lot of time on the computer, or even just lying around doing nothing. I know I would be bored if I were at home, and that this is the right place for me to be right now, but I'm not feeling inspired in the same way I thought I would. And I think a lot of this has to do with being so alone, honestly. I'm not alone, and I have support, but at home, I spend so much time talking with my family or my friends about things I'm interested in or ideas or whatever. And the fact that so much of what I thought of as my personality might have come strictly from the people I was surrounded by depresses me a little.
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