The 100th post...

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post number 100.

Unfortunately, I can't claim to have anything deep, meaningful, particularly witty or even necessarily particular in any form whatsoever. It's like watching the preview for a cool movie, then going to the theaters to discover...they took every single funny part out and put it in the preview, leaving nothing undiscovered (ex. Schultze gets the blues or Saving Sara). The disappointment is almost as shattering as discovering the easter bunny and santa claus are part of a cruel adult conspiracy to give you stuff. Except without the chocolate.

Right now, right this very second, there are probably about eight or ten things I should be doing instead of typing this. But seeing as I am not at my house and am unable to clean my room (pity; it is desperately in need) which is my usual method of avoiding responsibility, I am evoking my long-dormant creative impulses and hoping to come up with something sounding like English.

Incidentally, the word "Englisch" is one of those words I can never pronounce quite correctly in German; or rather, it is one of those words quite similar in both languages that I forget which one is pronounced which way. "Post" is another example. And English words stolen by the perfidious Germans "party" "muffin" "to go" and the infamous and incongruent word for Cellphone "Handy", which doesn't exist in English but should. These words are ones I, strangely enough, insist on pronouncing in a highly inappropriate German fashion (imagine what German must sound like to result in the clichéed accent in English... vas do yoo zink?), which results in "moffin", the unholy cross between baked goods and a Jim Henson character. The Germans, for some incomprehensible reason, continue to pronounce the word more or less in the American fashion. Blast.

And a summary of my evening last night:
Kinds of berries:
- Raspberry = Himbeer
- Strawberry = Erdbeer
- Currant = Johannisbeer
- Blueberry = Heidelbeer
- Blackberry = Brombeer
- Wineberry = Keine Ahnung
- = Josterbeer
- = Stachelbeer

I work lots. I like to complain about how much I work; it helps me feel justified for the fact that I am completely and thoroughly at fault for my current situation, and my obsession to take on too much stuff should not be rewarded with pity. Please, I take cash or money order. And ice cream.

But I won't be working for too much longer, which is good because I am increasingly find that the time periods in which I am supposed to be working and the time periods in which I absolutely have to be somewhere else are tending to coincide with unfortunate and increasing regularity. Sleeping is an activity for which I have little time and less patience, and increasing necessity.

In case I have given you an improper picture of my life, let me qualify by saying that I spend most evenings either out with friends or with Boyfriend, or both; my refusal to give up on my social life may eventually affect my grades (except for the part where I take everything pass/fail). My work is fun and varied, and I spent yesterday morning translating a presentation on Urban planning from German to English for a cadre of 19 Northern Irish, which was a lot of fun and makes me wonder how I can incorporate experiences like that into whatever my future career may be. If only I could speak French.... I am otherwise translating documents, working on project descriptions, going on tours, chaperoning foreign guests (the week before I spent two days with a group of Koreans, which was a lot of fun even though only one of them spoke English). There's always lots to do, and the documents that make it my way constantly impress me as to the variety and depth of the projects perused by the organization.

I feel like I am towing a metaphorical ticking clock around with me on a string (which has, strangely enough, had an inverse effect on my punctuality), like the Fall of the House of Usher except not. And except for the part where my ever-well-meaning professors compensate for the multitude of public holidays--or are living out some form of scholarly sadism--by planning numerous block seminars at inconvenient times, scheduling recitations for 8 am on Friday mornings and generally inhibiting me taking a weekend that stretches from Friday to Tuesday. Or they forget to inform me until two days prior that their class is now three hours earlier than planned, of course at exactly the same time that I am supposed to parler en francais.

My sister is coming this weekend and I am happy. I haven't seen her since last summer, I think, and it will be at least a year before I see her again. Bloody atlantic, making travel so difficult....

"Procrastination is like masturbation... at first it feels good, but then you realize you're just screwing yourself." While this would have been a much more attention-grabbing intro to the Oral Interp speech I competed with in high school (I tried to be all motivationally and such, comparing procrastion to the more socially acceptable acoholism) it does remind me that I have about 50 pages to read before tomorrow, and class in a few minutes...

Déjà écouté

I can’t tell you how many times I have had the following conversation in the past two weeks, because I stopped counting after 10….

- So, when are you leaving?
- July 26th
- That’s not too far off.
- I know.
- What will you do when you get back?
- Study for a year, finish my Bachelor’s, move back to Europe. I want to study in Geneva, in International Affairs.
- Sounds cool. Are you looking forward to going back?
- No. Not at all.
- Why not? Don’t you like the States?
- I miss my family and friends, and occasionally the landscape—I’d like to have a 3-week vacation in CO and then come back here. I’ve got friends, a boyfriend, a lovely apartment, interesting classes, a job, a life, and I live “in a postcard,” as my mom says. There, I get to start over again, find which of my friends are still there, make new ones, move again. I don’t have anything against the US, I just prefer Germany. (today’s addition: even if it does rain all @§&%ing day)
- Can’t you stay?
- No.
- Why not?
- Because there are about 35 good reasons why I can’t: my scholarship runs out, my residence permit, my flight, my maximum leave of absence from CU, my student loan deferment, my apartment….
- Can’t you just finish your studies here? Can’t you transfer credits?
- And lose much of what I’ve done, yes.
- Wow….
- Yeah.
- So what will you do with your boyfriend?
- What is there to do?

Don’t ask me that.

I swear to you, this gets repeated practically verbatim on an almost daily basis. That should take care of 90% of the conversations I will have over the next three months…




Freiburger Webcam



Reflecting my mood and the weather:

Fire and Rain – James Taylor


Just yesterday morning they let me know you were gone
Susanne the plans they made put an end to you
I walked out this morning and I wrote down this song
I just can't remember who to send it to

I've seen fire and I've seen rain
I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end
I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend
But I always thought that I'd see you again

Won't you look down upon me, Jesus
You've got to help me make a stand
You've just got to see me through another day
My body's aching and my time is at hand
And I won't make it any other way

Oh, I've seen fire and I've seen rain
I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end
I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend
But I always thought that I'd see you again

Been walking my mind to an easy time my back turned towards the sun
Lord knows when the cold wind blows it'll turn your head around
Well, there's hours of time on the telephone line to talk about things
to come
Sweet dreams and flying machines in pieces on the ground

Oh, I've seen fire and I've seen rain
I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end
I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend
But I always thought that I'd see you, baby, one more time again, now

Thought I'd see you one more time again
There's just a few things coming my way this time around, now
Thought I'd see you, thought I'd see you fire and rain, now