Shiny Blue Passports
October 26, 2009
My German class today was less of a class and more of an informational meeting. It lasted all of an hour and the professor spent the biggest part of it fielding questions from some guy (I shall call him Moses) who seemed he would want to teach the class on his own were his German not so ridiculous.
"That's how you're going to teach us? I've spent two years teaching English and I always found that it's better if you..."
The professor was extremely patient but the rest of the class started shifting uncomfortably after his third attempt to explain to Moses that no, we will not be using standard text books for the time being and yes, he would be required to bring paper with him to class. Yes, every day. And a pen. Yes, a pencil is okay, too. We all clinched our water bottles and looked at the ceiling. Would he ever shut up? More importantly: Would he be back tomorrow?
After what seemed like ages, we were dismissed. I cheerfully said goodbye to my neighbor, pulled out my ipod and almost had the earplugs in when You-Will-Never-Guess-Who popped in front of me.
Damnit.
"You speak English??" he asked eagerly, blocking my way out the door.
"Um... yes. I'm American, actually. From the US."
Excitment was written all over his face. Shifting his bag to his other shoulder, Moses proceeded to tell me he was from Jordan, how surprised he was that no one else in our class spoke English, and that he was really lucky to have found me, a native speaker. I smiled and replied as politely as I could as we left the building, hoping he wasn't planning on following me home.
Fifteen thousand questions later we reached the bus stop and, after admitting that I wasn't planning on going straight home, he offered to accompany into the city center. I didn't really mind at this point because I figured I could just deal with him until we reached the train station and then hop on a bus home, citing laundry as an excuse.
Yeah, right.
We ended up at some generic cafe where he insisted on paying and began to talk. We talked and talked and talked. In fact, I learned very much about Moses today: where he's from, what he's studying, how much he misses his mother's cooking, what he thinks about this country's education system, his friends' names, and what car he used to drive before he sold it to come to Germany.
I also learned what Moses loves to do most: write poetry.
Did I want to hear some? Of course. Nothing would thrill me more. Please, read your poetry to me while I sit here and attempt to slit my wrists with this teaspoon.
Pulling a pad of paper and pen from his bag and using his cellphone as a dictionary, he slowly began translating the Arabic stanzas into English. I tore my croissant apart with my fingers and stared determinedly into my coffee.
"I do swear that my love for you increases daily..."
My spoon hit the ground. I ducked briefly under the table and tried to compose my face into something resembling a neutral state of interest before popping back up.
"I do swear that I will be by your side every moment..."
I couldn't look at him. If I did, I would have laughed. I dug my nails into my palm instead and started doubling numbers in my head. I knew it couldn't last forever. Eventually he would stop translating his saccharine poetry and I would be on my way home listening to the Glee soundtrack and kicking the seat in front of me.
"I do swear that nothing will separate us. Not mountain nor hill..."
I tapped my coffee mug, my eyes darting every 5 seconds to the bus stop directly behind me. Another bus gone. I'll take the next one...
"I do swear that I will love you until the day I die."
I don't remember what I said exactly when it was all over. I think I used the words "lovely" and "nice" at least twice each. In fact, I was still telling him how much I liked it as the bus doors closed in front of me.
He's bringing me a properly translated, handwritten copy to class tomorrow.
Day one.
Labels: typical
What is your quest? What is your favorite color?
October 24, 2009
Rames and I watched Paranormal Activity last night and it was such a let down. I'm really picky about my scary movies, see -- I'm not a gore fan and I don't like watching 90 minutes of someone getting tortured/slashed/dismembered. But haunted house movies are totally my thing. That's why I was really pumped about seeing PA; I'd read that it was horrifying and I was looking forward to being scared.
What the hell, though? The first 30 minutes were utterly boring and the rest of the film was a jerky hand-held camera adventure of really stupid people going to sleep... and waking up. With their door wide open every night, I might add. Granted there was approximately 5 seconds of some vaguely interesting thing that happened to them around 3 a.m. every night but nothing overly startling. I went to bed and, after Rames was finished making fake demon noises outside of my door, I fell into a nightmare-free sleep.
Lame.
If all goes to plan (meaning there is no sudden, inland hurricane swooping into Strasbourg) I'll be jumping out of an airplane tomorrow. Skydiving! The weather looks promising right now so the chances of it happening seem pretty good. If this is my last blog post, you know what happened.
Es kommt darauf an, was man daraus macht.
October 20, 2009
Last week, I spent four days working at Interlift 2009, an elevator fair in Augsburg, Germany. On paper the job doesn't sound bad at all; 9 hours a day filled with menial tasks such as getting drinks and preparing Hawaii toast for potential clients is no big deal, right? I would like to truthfully say that I came away from my very first elevator fair with valuable marketing knowledge or memories of a great experience but I cannot. However, I now know why employees at fast food chains occasionally spit in your food.
Our week's sustenance:
To say I had a sugar buzz by the end of each day would be an understatement.
The weekend was low-key: Saturday I spent in a coma and Sunday was Rames's birthday which was spent lounging about and participating in our ongoing Phase 10 tournament. We went out to dinner at an Asian restaurant which has a fabulous buffet -- you can prepare your own dish by personally selecting your own meat, veggies and sauces to throw into the wok. They bring your meal directly to your table when it's done and mmm did I have a lot of mushrooms. Rames amused himself by having kangaroo, crocodile and ostrich and, while I had a taste, I just can't bring myself to believe these animals are for eating.
My Nieceypoo Turned 1 Yesterday
October 18, 2009
And Rames turns... today! I'd go take a picture of him sleeping but I'm not sure that would start his day on the right note. :)
Happy Birthday, Rames. xo
Labels: typical
Palm Trees and Tiki Huts
October 12, 2009
There will be no posting this week as I will be in Augsburg to work at what may or may not be an elevator fair. To be honest, I have no idea what's going on there. Our "booth" for lack of a better word appears to be tropical island themed:
and I will be serving drinks and making Hawaii toast. What inspires people to buy an elevator more than palm trees and tiki huts, I ask you? Yeah, I don't understand it either. I'm sure once I get there and see what is actually going on I will be able to come back and say, "OH, it was like THIS..." and Gaby will not be so mad at me for making fun of it. :)
I get to see Ronja, Luca and Stephanie today. Good thing, too. Ronja and I need to practice our circus act just in case I need to kidnap her and run away to Bora Bora.
Back in a week!
Labels: typical
Beating the Winter Blues
October 9, 2009
November through March are rough months for me. As someone who has been struggling with depression and the crazies for years anyway (though I am much better now, thank you), I am very easily affected by the winter blues. So, to combat being down this season, I've done a little research on SAD (seasonal affective disorder) and winter depression.
My "To-Do" list of sorts for the coming months:
Exercise -- For me, this will mean running at least 3 times a week regardless of the weather. I keep saying I'm a "fair-weather runner" but that really just means that the cold and rain make me lazy. I complain but running does make me feel better mentally and physically... and about pretty much everything. Except my knees.
Omega-3 -- Every website I've been to writes that taking an omega-3 dietary supplement beginning in the fall can really help prevent SAD, so I bought some!
Vitamin C -- This goes without saying, especially as I don't want the SWINE FLU.
Green, white and peppermint tea -- I think I made this one up but it always helps brighten my day. A generous dollop of honey and mmmm.
Regular sleeping pattern -- I sleep too much when it starts getting chilly and the wind is blowing and YAAAWWWN STREEETCH... so I'm going to start setting my alarm clock for 8 hours after I go to bed. Sleeping more than that just makes me tired/listless the next day.
I am going to print this out and hang it in my room. I have a feeling if I stick with this, things won't look so glum come January. :)
Imogene Martin
October 7, 2009
I just mentally went over the List of Things I Shall Not Blog About and, unfortunately, everything I'd have to say today would fall somehow on that list. I shall not let this deter me; instead, I shall show you something!
This is my grandma's old button can. Isn't it fun? It was the one thing besides her class ring that I received when she died. When I visited her when I was small, she'd always let me get out this button collection and sort through them. I'd practice sewing them on random things, make necklaces or just separate them into matching piles. After she died, my mom asked me if I could think of anything I wanted and this can of buttons was the very first thing that came to mind.
I miss her. xo
Seventh Moon
October 5, 2009
Seventh Moon is the worst scary movie I have ever sat all the way through. Let me ruin it for you:
So, these two typically American tourists have just married and decided to honeymoon in China, visiting the groom's family. They arrive on the WORST DAY EVER as it's the night the moon demons come out and kill you unless you present them a really awesome sacrifice like...
I'm assuming you can see where this is going, right? The two find themselves, naturally, abandoned in the woods next to a little village with a bunch of goats/chickens/dogs all tied up outside with candles and notes. The blonde asks, "What's thiiiis?" about a thousand times. When they get back to their car they see it's been covered with blood. They still don't get it. They get in their...
You know what? It doesn't even matter, that's how stupid it was. There's some running and screaming, the idiots figure out THEY are the sacrifices, the husband gets taken and the RETARDED BLONDE CHICK spends about 10 minutes of screen time looking for him in a cave like this:
And the worst part was the fact that the whole thing was meant to look like it was filmed with some sort of hand-held camera (by the same guy who did the Blair Witch Project) and you couldn't see a single thing. Even the parts which were somehow supposed to be scary were ruined because the camera was out of focus and pointing at a bit of trees in the background.
Brilliant.
Labels: review
Isabelle puts it best, as usual.
Roman Polanski raped a child, admitted to it, then skipped out on bail and has been living in Europe for 30 years and continuing his career - and Hollywood is MAD that Swiss authorities arrested him? HE. IS. A. FUGITIVE. CHILD. RAPIST. PEOPLE. A FUCKING CHILD RAPIST WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU.
Labels: quote
October showers bring... obesity?
Sportsbra. Shirt. Shorts. Shoes. Found my keys. Get ouf of the way, cat. Down the steps. Out the door.
Raaaaaaiiin.
I love October but the on-and-off rain showers make setting a running schedule difficult. I don't mind getting wet when it's warm enough but dodging pneumonia in the freezing cold isn't really getting my blood moving. Or my legs.
It's really amazing how a quick run can make me feel so much better about the day. I'd totally gotten out of the habit over the summer (I'm a fair-weather runner) but I ran recently and wasn't as out of shape as I thought I might be after a couple months of when the closest thing I came to running was glaring at joggers from the car window. I'm going to start up again if only to have a chance every morning to clear my head a bit.
If you're interested in starting up a running plan I really recommend the Couch to 5k program from Cool Running. It claims that you will be running 5k (3 miles) in just 2 months and while it took me a bit longer than that, the program really does work. The program starts off slowly but I really started noticing improvement within just a couple of days. Suddenly, I was running farther than I ever had before.
For me, it was hard to figure out if I'd been running a full 2 minutes or 30 seconds, so I used the Podrunner: Intervals. They are beat tracks you can download and put on your ipod. The music is fast-paced plus you hear one chime when you should switch from walking to running and a different chime when you should go back to walking. They were very, very helpful.
I'm going to start the program again myself, maybe pick up somewhere in the middle. There is noooooo way I can run a straight 3 miles at the moment.
I know this probably didn't interest anyone but myself but it's what I'm thinking about at the moment! You have to start somewhere, right?
Labels: running