Scheisse (part II)

This week was better. I understood more of the discussion and more of the questions--I am learning much of the basic and backgrond theories upon which much of my course is based. So I don't feel quite so left behind: however, I will have to present on John Rawls and John Locke, so I better know what I am doing. But theory--reiterating and defending--is not my strong point, even in English, and I sometimes have problems with more abstract and philosophical arguments. If I read carefully, I understand.

Global Developments, the class that starts at 8 PM on the other side of town, is promising to be the most interesting. We had short presentations on books we had read (that was the 400 pages I spent last weekend reading), and I was able to present my bit with no major problems, and actually participate in the discussion. I feel most comfortable in this class, partly because we all speak informally (we address our teacher informally as well), partly because I know the material better than in the other classes, and partly because it is personally the most interesting to me. We are going to Bonn for a week to take part in a seminar, with large contributions from various government agencies to fund our little excursion. I am really looking forward to it, though the preparation is going to be murder (the two weeks previous I have two presentations due).

My Kafka class is also fun, and I can participate meaningfully in this discussion. Reading Kafka itself is enjoyable to me but requires a certain open-mindedness. The stories always have elements of the absurd, and rarely follow typical conventions in writing in that there is not always a relevance of the beginning and ending events, a climax is often lacking, and sometimes the stories just stop without warn--

A typical Kafka story: (translated and paraphrased). Blumenfeld is an old bachelor, and is lonely. He thinks about getting a dog but doesn't want the dog to dirty his house. He comes home one evening to find two small balls bouncing up and down of their own power. The two balls decide to follow him around and dog his steps whereever he goes, making him very nervous. He manages to go to sleep but doesn't sleep well because the balls keep bouncing up and down under his bed and follow him everywhere if he gets up. In the morning he has breakfast in bed so as to not reveal the presence of the magical bouncing balls to the maid. He manages to lock the balls in a wardrobe and leaves to go to work. On his way he sees the dimwitted kid of the maid and decides to give him the key to the wardrobe and the balls and hope that the balls will follow the kid and not chase Blumenfeld any more. He gives the keys to a pair of girls (the kid doesn't understand, as he's too dimwitted) and goes to work. (comment: at this point, your logical rational reader would expect an account of what happens to the magical bouncing balls, if they suddenly attack the kids or something or go try to find Blumenfeld. They are, of course, the absurd element to the story, which would normally have a central role. But no, alas).

At work, Blumenfeld manages a department at a lingerie factory, where he has two interns who have to stand behind their desks all day because there is no room. Blumenfeld campaigned hard to get an intern to help him with his duties, but since his boss hates him he received two interns, both of whom proved worthless and mostly served to annoy Blumenfeld. They always came in late, didn't do work, except when one of them decides he wants to sweep the floor and sets about trying to wrest the broom from the old janitor, who doesn't want to give it up. They get in a small fight and the boom falls on the floor. Blumenfeld yells at them.

The end.

One would have expected the story to be about Blumenfeld as a bachelor, as that is how it started, but it takes completely new twists and turns, and ends up somewhere completely different.

My class on Scandanavian Fairytales seems quite interesting as well, though I have a sneaking suspicion that some of the texts are in Danish--which I don't speak--though the class is listed as being available to students of all departments. We will see; I have to get ahold of the texts today.

In other news, I dyed all of my laundry a nice marine blue the other day, and I still don't know why. It's a lovely color, though, and marine blue socks are just as good as grey ones. It is interesting to see what items took the color and which didn't--I had a turqouise bra in there which did not take the color, but the straps did. It looks nice, I think.

Let's see.... the main contract on our apartment changed so I had to sign a new subletter contract, which reduced my rent by about 20 euros a month, and I am supposed to recieve the difference in what I had paid before and what I should have paid back again. Yay for money.

Since I have enough money to live on I applied for an internship at the Center for Political Education in Freiburg, as I seriously don't have enough to do with my time and hanging out in town just means that I spend money. At some point I will have a @#%#$ lot of papers to write, but whatever.

We have a new fridge! The Great Neighborhood Adventure involved borrowing a car from one neighbor, driving with that car and other neighbors to the friend of said other neighbors, who had a fridge and a freezer and a stove stored in the basement. We had to clean out the basement to get to the fridge, but it is a) working, b) big, c) free, and d) delivered. The neighbors even carried it upstairs for us (we live on the 4th floor).

I went hiking on Sunday, which was gorgeous, up Ravenna Gorge. Just a train ride away...
Sorry, no rotating on the picture.