Der deutsche Wal

I'm an old old man

2009-02-04T07:53:00.002Z

It was said to me once "You're an old soul".
The lady who I quote was hit by revelation and it came out. It's quite true.

I knew it at the time but had never been able to put it into words.
My soul has been allowed to become old.

I remember when I was around 19/20 I caught myself thinking "I've done less than a third of myexpected life span and I've had this much crap to deal with already. I've got to do this at least twice more."

You are as old as you feel. I'm around 60. I've found that people who know me comment on my tiredness, I think that's why. I AM old and tired inside and it shows.

I totally understand the fountain of youth. I totally understand the phrase "Youth is wasted on the young". I am no longer younger young because I have let myself become gnarled and caloused in order to stop the world from couasing so much hurt.

But, "you are as old as you feel", right? How does one regain the fountain of youth; the joy that runs unbridled; energy to face the day; simple humble optomism?

How does one regain the self that one has lost to the world's afflictions?

I'm thinking that's what this year's theme will be for me. I do hope so. It's an exciting thought.

Tim the E-Grade

2008-05-31T09:30:00.003Z

I've been wanting to se ethis one for ages.
it's one of brecht's best, bust Mother Courge is way more famous, not that i actually know what that one is about.

Anywho, for all lovers of jazz, "Mack the Knife" (as in the song) is the main character of the play and said song is the opening number.

I was given the opportuniy to attend the onening night event by Grace, my well-placed parner in free ticket 'crime' (ie she scored free tickets from her work). Go grace! I was well-placed as 8th choice in her list of friends to take. Very strategic placing, eighth.

I'd love to right a review and/or synopsis, but that'd be spoiling the whole thing. If you want to find out more, go see the thing.

What's even better is the day before I, in my own wording, reached E-grade celebrity status. I've been a part of the University of Auckland German Drama Company since 2002 (with a break in 2007) and got recognised as such on Thursday evening. That at least the second, maybe the third time i've been dubbed "The German (Play) Guy". Since it's happenned on more than one occasion, i decided that "E-grade celebrity status is MINE!" would not be too far a conclusion to make.

I've yet to confirm the exact details of what constitutes the difference between E-grade and D-grade celebrity status, but am assuming that the fact that my acting career so far has been accomodating to a rather niche market, starting to find acting opportunities in English might make some difference. How to acheive that goal is slightly beyond me; I'm still trying to navigate the murky pathways of the 360 degree programs at the UoA.

First-Years

2008-05-19T09:02:00.002Z

The first years are tough, everybody knows this.

Settling in takes AGES. Hence the plurality of "first years".
Becoming part of a business and knowing the ropes, which, naturally, are myriad, takes time and having to work through all of this and internalising the various ways in which to pull said ropes take even longer. Anyone who has been through the first years knows that they have to be tough.

First-years however are whiney little sods, who have no respect for education, have no concept of the cost that they have agreed to invest, nor how much more cost they place upon us who actually have a vested interest in our futures.
Damn first-years. Why oh why do stage one courses have to be populated with first-years?

I have a couple of assignments coming up, designed not to invest knowledge or skills into me, but purely constructed to test my ability to take notes, to summarise information and to present information.
Useful skills, you might proclaim, and right you would be. Also, completely missed the point you would have.

I'm currently employed as a notetaker for the disabilities unit at UoA and have been so since my very first semester (something they do not usually indulge in, but i was granted a chance due to neccessity and prevailed). I do NOT need to have my notetaking abilities analysed.
Damn first-years. If they were all smarter maybe my intelligence and skill would not have to be insulted in such a grotesque manner.

If you've, my ever-loyal reading public, have ever graduated from Uni / College, never go back to stage one again. You will be surrounded by people you will be convinced are inferior to you.

If ignorance truely is bliss, then your average student goes from a state of euphoria to one of utter horror in 3 short years.

Geology Terms

2008-05-14T04:58:00.002Z

Slaty Cleavage (for those who are dyslexic, this could be an unfortunate term)

Schistosity - how schistic its cleavage is.

Felspathic - having the qualities of feldspar

Apatite - the standard example of a rock with hardness of 5 according to Moh's Hardness Scale.

Unsure habits

2008-04-12T10:12:00.002Z

I have well and truly come to the conclusion that I am a habitual traveller.

Every few years if I've been in the same place, I get itchy feet and need to do SOMETHING. whether it be a visit, or moving everything in my room around, something HAS to change.

So, i'vebeen back the sum total of just over 3 months and i've already started to look at going again. I've been telling people that what i need right now is stability, and that IS true, but habits are hard to break. well, this one night be easier, since it's an expensive one to indulge.

Last Friday the was the exchange fair at UoA, of course I stuck my nose in and had a looka round, not expecteing to find very much, only dreams, or "that-would-be-nice" sort of ideas. But low and behold what turned my way, but the university of Hawai'i.

So i'm planning a degree in Geology and Physics. Geophysics will be in there somewhere too; it make sense. Hawai'i is excellent on both all counts; if not all three. Which it is. so AND on all three. yeah.

So what i come to is two problems:
a) How on earth do i finance it all THIS time?
b) [more pertanently] What became of me wanting stability?

a)'s gonna take a bit of time to work out, but if I go through the UoA exchange program, I won't have to pay US fees, which will save me tens of thousands.

b) however needs thought. I DO need stability. I do need rest from travel, yet here I am planning another move.
I mentioned something along these lines to a friend and she asked me if I was running away again. The last trip to Germany had a bit of that in it, but that's all mostly resolved now. This move..... I'm not sure. Realisticall it makes sense. It would be wonderful to study somewhere that's a recognised leader in the fields I'm studying in. Hawai'i also has a Meteorology program. considering that that's what I'm plannign on getting into after this degree, I could simply transfer there and earn the dgree from Hawai'i straight off. It would make for better chances for getting a job on the international market after all. it'd just be WAAAAY expensive.

Ah, I am torn. I am a creature of habit and my habit is to wander.

Quote of the day

2008-04-12T10:09:00.001Z

"It's about 95% brains and about 10% good luck." - Christina Stewart

"I'm not a trekkie, i'm a Vulcanologist!" - yours truly (currently studying Volcanology)

Disloyalty and Hypocrism

2008-04-07T11:02:00.002Z

I vowed as a young and naive 5th former never to touch neither Physics with a 10 foot barge pole, nor Geography with a 20 foot. i am now studying both and enjoying them both emmensely

It has to be said, that I never vowed to not become a Geographist or a Physicer. i DID vow never to become a missionary or an English Teacher. The first i have succeed in keeping and regret it, but the second I followed through and didn't enjoy it. That one I at least got right.

So, I am now a traitor to the Arts, having tasted of their nectar and the joys of philosphising split verbs and applied end tag particles, and moved on to the valient work of Tesla Coils.

Anyone who hasn't seen one of these working has not lived.

Today in Physics we found out what happens to a Gherkin when you hook it up directly to a mains socket. Seriously! That lecture pointed out the properties of resistance that way. The thing glowed. Just try passing an electric current through a subject-to-object-raised pronoun - it wouldn't glow, i can tell you that much.

When I got back to uni and starting telling those who asked that I was planning on going for Meteorology, and hence for the moment, getting a major in physics, by far the most common reaction i got (from science students) was, and I quote, "Welcome to the Dark Side."

Quotable Quotes

2008-03-31T21:43:00.002Z

You can go off life, sometimes, and then it surprises you with something wonderful.
- Peter Whale, esq.

Kinda summarises me at the mo. I've gone off the life thing; living is a pain and annoying, but then every so often something happens to make up for it all. I'm still waiting right now.

Flights

2008-01-03T23:02:00.000Z

So, I'm on the last pitstop before the last leg home. Man, I'm glad to be almost there. However, flying with emirates from auckland to dubai via both sydney and bangkok is a bit much. Not only does it add 3 to 5 hours to the trip, but the sheer number of times you have to go through the security clearances! grrrr.
I met a Woman in Maryland who had had a hip op and consequently set of the alarms every time she went through. she had proof and everything but, without fail, she would be taken aside and checked every time. She said that she should get a loyalty card - 10 times check, the 11th she gets to walk.

I'm currently reading the 13 1/2 lives of captain Bluebear by Walter Moers (good luck getting a copy in English in NZ). Fantastically imaginative and wacked I'm treying to think of a comparison and nothing comes to mind. In any case, this is a very recommendable and readable book, so you should all learn German and then I'll lend it to you.

I'm hungry and have no Aussie Dollars. stupid non-unified currency. I saw a bunch of Timtams on a confectioner's store and started missing home. Only 4 hours to go!!!!!

The Weekend.

2007-12-10T16:04:00.000Z

I had a visitor this weeekend all the way from Kiel. Ryan's a language assistant from Scotland and is likewise looking forward to leaving. Misery loves company. Since he was in the area and most likely wouldn't be back anytime soon, Heidelberg was on the to do list. It's one of those things that everyone has to do.
Apparentls in Japan the official 'to do' list for Germany is:
-Rothenburg ob der Taube
-Neuschwannstein
-Heidelberg

The first I did in 2004, curtesy of a South African, Neuschwannstein was in 2001 curtesy of Dad and Heidelberg was 2007 (twice). I can proudly say I've Germany like a real Japanese.

Heidelberg at night(ish)

Ryan meets the locals in Karlsruhe

Christmas in Karlsruhe.

Hometime!

2007-12-01T20:35:00.000Z

3 weeks til I'm gone! yay!

So, Karlsruhe hasn't really been that enjoyable, as the reading public can possibly tell from the lack of blogs I've been putting up about the place and its beauties.

Only 13 more working days until I can go and I still have to figure out how to get a classified about selling my bike in the local paper. Can't find their offices anywhere.

I'm REALLY looking forward to being home. It feels like coming back to Germany as a language assistent was like driving into a cul-de-sac. Now I have to get myself out in order to be able to carry on forward.

Well, all in all it hasn't been a total disaster. I know that I'm not likely to persue a career in teaching. Putting in masses of effort for 45 minutes' worth of potential education is frustrating. Maybe acting would be better. At least then the people want to be there. They might even pay attention.

For any of my beloved students of the WHG in Durmersheim reading this: How'd you get hold of the address? I'll talk to you on Monday.......

Quotable Quotes

2007-12-01T20:31:00.000Z

These all came up recently and amused me, thereby getting bonus points.

"How excessively descriptive."
- Not funny in itself, but I love the style of the phrase.

"It's far too early in the morning for it to be early in the morning."

2 not-quite besseller books:
'Humility and how I attained it'
and the sequel: 'The pinnicle of Modesty'

Music is that which expresses what we can't say with words, but about which we cannot be silent.

Quotable Quotes

2007-11-12T12:51:00.000Z

"Das muss ja ein Sehenswurdigkeit sein"
- Jenny Lohse

Flights

2007-11-11T13:01:00.001Z

Update: I'll be back in NZ by the 5th of Jan.

Airing cupboard

2007-11-11T12:59:00.000Z

Here's a challenge for everyone: what's the German for "airing cupboard"?

So far all I can work out is that there isn't a word, because the don't have them. I've been over here for over a year and only last week did I notice that no-one here knows what they are. I was annoyed when I first got here that my flat didn't have one, but...

I think I'm getting far to used to the place. The little things are slipping past me.

Boredom

2007-11-11T12:53:00.000Z

"Human being make life interesting. Did you know that in a world full of wonders, they managed to invent boredom?"

- Death
The Hogfather, by Terry Pratchett

Kiel

2007-11-10T14:09:00.000Z

I visited another languages assistant from Scotland, Ryan in the autumn holidays for a weekend and these are some of the resulting photos:

This first really is there to point out the stupidity of people. Either people don't realise what traffic lights are there for and so need reminding, or have no idea what this light symbolises. An obvious solution to this problem is, of course, to repeat the symbol again. Just like an Englishman trying to be understood when he's overseas.

This one I was surprised by. Of course it had to exist somewhere, but that I found it was just fun.

This was found out in Laboe, which is an hour's boat trip north of Kiel. It's a beautiful place with almost nothing happening there. Nice. Anywho, after the success of the Kiwi car, I thought I was on a role...

This is a random statue. Every place in Germany has them, I'm almost sure it's part of the constitution. Anywho, this looks like it should have some heroic story behind it, but since we were out in Laboe for an afternoon and everything (read: the non-existant library where we could ask about local history included) in Germny shuts down for the weekend, like 1980's New Zealand, any attemp to find out who this hero is was firmly bound to the ground.

We saw this on the trip out to Laboe and decided to check it out by walking back to it before catching the boat for the return trip. It turn out to be a memorial to the Germany u-boat soldiers whose lives were lost in the two world wars. I forget the exact number, but it was like 400,000 lives. the figure on top of the pillar is a bronze eagle, now green. Very German. (For those not in the know, the Bundesadler (federal eagle) is the symbol of the Federal Republic of Germany)

Another view from Laboe. Looks like a painting, doesn't it?

This, believe it or not, is a (bad) picture of the canal between the north see and the 'ostsee' (I think it's the Baltic sea in English, but geography was never a strong point of mine. I just like to run around in the stuff, rather than remember what it's called)

Oh Joy oh Rapture!

2007-11-05T17:31:00.000Z

So, last week was a blast!
Well, this last weekend particularly. Firstly, Liz Schwidder, who I know from last year in Naumburg was here on a round-Baden-Württemberg trip, which was great. We get on well, both being kids of divorced families. We think similarly on top of that.

Anywho, the most important thing was a decision on Friday, which was really a culmination of my time here in Karlsruhe so far.

I'm coming home. I've had enough of this palce and want out.
Basically I've not liked Karlsruhe and my job here since I arrived. I'm feeling stressed for seemingly no reason, am doing a job I know I don't like and am wasting time.

So, no details are available as of yet, but I'll be home sometime around New Year's. Don't know if just before or just after, but either way at the end of the year somewhen.

The modern world

2007-10-30T22:17:00.000Z

So, it has been pointed out to me in no unsubtle terms that I haven't updated the blog in a while. A good friend asked me whether I had found a flat yet, when I'vebeen in one for almost a month. whoops.

So, I am in a flat in Karlsruhe in the west-city (the suburb is actually called that. They're even more unimaginative with place names than the kiwis). It's a 5-person flat with me (the kiwi, just to add the emphasis), a chinese guy, lebanese guy, a german girl and a slovakian girl.

Communication is a little strained at times.

I thought I would be great having other language learners and people out of their own countries, but it's more a case of people can't really communicated effectively and so people don't talk or hang out. It's getting better slowly, since it simply takes longer to get to know each other, but...

Um Um Um... I was up in Kiel over the weekend, visiting Ryan, whom I met at the orientation meeting for hte language assistents and (for those who will get the reference) mentioned in The Email. (For those who want to know what The Email is about, email me asking about it and I'll explain or just send you a copy.)

Kiel is um um um... OK. It's not as bad as people make out; ie: that the only bit worth seeing is the habour and the rest is concrete and ugliness given architechuralitiness. It felt quite pleasant, but there're better places. We went to Hamburg for a day to see around. Didn't see much, just the bits which are famous everywhere, for example the red light district, which is claimed to be the safest part of all Hamburg, due to the huge number of police there. Go figure.
The Reeperbahn (the red light district) is like K-road, but imagine that the K-roady bits spanned the ENTIRE length of K-road. It is actually counted as one of the tourist attractions of the Hamburg and not just for the obvious reasons. It's huge!

Anywho, it was great to be out of Karlsruhe for a while. I've got a visitor coming this weekend from Mannheim, a friend Liz whom I met last year through friends in Naumburg. So we're planning on visiting the area, because Karlsruhe's really lacking when it comes to touristy stuff...

So, um...

2007-10-24T16:50:00.000Z

Well, I've had a few elbows stuck in my ribs for the lack of recent postings. Sorry. Life here hasn't been that eventful. Well, it has, but not stuff that I thought would be interesting. I don't want to rant and rave too much, it'd get annoying for the reading public.

Anywho, the first thing is the visa, which I continue to not have. A state, I'm sure you will agree, which is a little less than perfect. So I'm waiting for my appointment, which is the 16th of Nov and that's just when I'm allowed to go in with my details and say, 'This is what I want'. then they tell me that it'll take a full two working weeks to print off a sticky bit of paper and put it in my passport. yay. Then and only them I can take said stickyness and show the bank people and yell loudly, 'Ha! I told you all that I am allowed to be here! Tim 1, Bank 0!' I am SO looking forward to having and EFTPOS card again.

Other than that..... Hmmm....

I was in Strasbourg, France for the NZ vs France game. ooooh the shame.
I was there with a small group: 2 USAians, a Brit and another Kiwi (for Ruth: it was Shan). Aynwho, Shan and I got up to sing the Nat anthem and we were applauded, which was nice, and the first half when NZ was doing well we had people grimicing in our direction, especially when a try was made. Anywho, after the second half we became very quiet and decided the sneek out as quickly as possible. We were, of course, noticed doing so and almost the entire pub applauded us on the way out. It was very friendly, as it should have been and the Frenchies thenselves were absolutely overjoyed to have beaten NZ.

Hmmm... what else.....
Am living myself in here (to use a bit of Denglisch) slowly. It's taking time to meet people, but it's happening slowly. the person who did my job last year is still here and has her birthday tomorrow, so I'm going along hoping to make friends. We'll see how it goes.

Miss you all terribly, am looking forward to Aug next year, when I'll be home at some point for some as yet unknown period.

Change of Mind

2007-09-25T13:34:00.001Z

Well, I got called up yesterday by flat that I saw and loved offering me the room. Yay!

So, I'm nowhere near as down as yesterday, at least my major problems are solved, ie: I can now actually get the visa I need.
Well, the rant yesterday, as much as it was / is true, doesn't really have much application to today. now that I'm not suspecting to be thrown out in two days onto the streets of Karlsruhe, I'm feeling like this year might just be faceable.

Am hoping to get a laptop at some point in the next two months, then I may be able to load up some photos from the last two weeks.

Karlsruhe's nice. But...

2007-09-24T14:25:00.000Z

I'm quickly getting to the point where I think I'll pack it in.

I'm a language assistant at a school in a place called Durmersheim, which is slightly south of Karlsruhe, which is about 20 minutes away from France, in south-west Germany (Baden-Württemberg). I'm currently having a hell of a time trying to find a flat: since this is a student town, all the flats are sutdent run and they prefer their own. The school is ok and just barely ok. The people are friendly and caring, but totally useless when it comes to anything practical. They're required to help with flat finding and getting things set up, but they first re-found the papers that they lost informing them that I was coming about a fortnight (if that) before I arrived and the only real help they've given me so far is telling me about the website that most people use to find a flat.

That's the backstory. Currently I'm about to be thrown out of the flat of a friend of mine that I'm supposedly crashing at until I find something else, because one of the flatmate's girlfriend is moving at some point in the not too distant future and I'm currently occupying her spot. This was told to me not by ANY of the flatmates, but by a collegue (also a friend, thank God) of the flatmate who said I could crash there. I'm in a half a mind to set root untill they tell me themselves.

I gotten myself totally lost on the way to school today. Decided to go by bike, which isn't that hard, only about 45 mins apparently. Took me 1 1/2 hours. They signpost nothing here that's not on the road. I couldn't even find the bike track.

To top it all off I almost ran over a girl of all of three on my bike. Great.
Today has sucked.

In England!

2007-09-03T14:57:00.000Z

The bonnie Isle has me once more.
Finally I have good long chance to relax. One ofthewonderful things about both Dad Graham being retired is that life proceeds at a thoroughly different pace. Most delightful.
Am still not over jet-lag, having gone to be around 3am and getting up at 11, but i'm working my way towards it.

Tonight we're going to see Twelfth Knight with John Lithgow. Not sure where, but I'm looking forward to it. I was told not to do any homework on the piece, as it's usually not needed. Supposedly not one of Shakespeare's best comedies, but very accessible. We shall see. Anywho, it's got John Lithgow in it, so my expectations are high.

Other than that, mostly it's eating, sleeping and doing Sudokus here. Aaahh, blissful

Texan Delights

2007-08-30T01:57:00.001Z

I was told authoratatively that THE tourist thing to do in Dallas is the Rodeo, but since I fly out friday afternoon and it takes place friday night, that was simply not to be.

However, to recant the events of the past three days, I shall start at the most important of all: I finally had time to sleep.

Monday I arrived feeling like I had just walked off a plane, which, coincidentally, I had in fact just accomplished (this should point out how tired I was at the time). Can't remember what we did, I think it was mostly drive through Dallas, looking at such impressive monuments as "God's Microphone", or the stadium that was too small (looking quite sizeable in and of itself) and of courses passing churches with the same problem. One in particular that we passed had a huge steeple out the front and looked like it could envelope any traditional Anglican church in the Auckland region, including St Paul's on Symonds St.

Ultimately, I have not found America to be that different in terms of 'stuff', it's merely the scale that's gone wrong here. Everything is HUGE. There are differences in the thinking, of course, and I think I've understood quite a bit here, certainly enough to answer my own questions as to why it is taking over the world; but's that's all for another blog. Someone remind me to rant on the subject sometime.

(Somes names have been changed in the following paragraph for security reasons)

Anywho, back to Tuesday. I went out to [Dayglo's Happy House of Linguistic Radiaton], at which both [Goliaat and Tulip] (with whom I am staying) work. [Goliaat] is the President and [Tulip] works in the Medical Clinic. I've been thinking about going to this place for years, but it never seemed like the right time to do so. The school, when you get right down to it, trains people to go into random places and countries in the World and translate the Bible into the local vernacular language. An adventure and a half I always thought this to be and still do, but the timing is always wrong. If it were, I would have $40k at my disposal to pay for the courses.

I sat in on and was instantly drawn into a class on phonetics on Tuesday morn. They were having a practical session onwriting in phonetics, haveing previously studied and certain group of sounds, in this case implosives ( for those of you to whom that means something). After that, we went to Phonology and in essense did Phonemes and Allophony, or lack thereof in the speakers' minds. And then we went onto the delightfully named SLACA (Second Language and Culture Aquisition), how to learn a language and foreign culture for yourself.

All of the above however, were all undergrad courses, or rather 'certificate' courses; the basics of what's needed to be a translator. Today ( Wed) I went to some of the graduate courses, which dealt far less with linguistics and more with practical things about translation - Culture, Language and Mind (how people think / understand and interpret the world and of course, how this affects and is affected by language), skipped Discourse analysis, went to chapel, then Principle and Techniques of Translation, or something to that effect. All field-based stuff that every budding translator will come up against. fun fun fun.

Tomorrow? Who knows? I'm planning on calling Mum at 3am here, so I'm going to be pretty tired tomorrow. Might just lie in and sleep the day away. It's not like I don't need it.

Lone Star

2007-08-27T15:23:00.000Z

I fly out today for Texas, the 'Lone Star State'. Apparently that pretty much sums up the whole nature of Texas. They can do it bigger and better than anyone else, so why bother thaking note of the others?

Am staying with family friends, who live just outside of Dallas. should be very interesting. I'm expecting huge hats, boots and deserts, but who knows what'll be there.

Arrived back to Maryland from Wisconsin via Illinois, Ohio and Pennsylvania two days ago. There was one Marylander, me and four brits in the car. The brits found the lack of their own culture somehoe freeing, or rather maybe they just acted they way they do in pubs back home everywhere here. Either way, it was a hilarious, yet crass, trip. Lots of fun.

Plans thus far: Texas till friday, fly to England sat, stay there and sleep for a week at Dad and Graham's place then on the germany on the 7th. Have yet to work out what I'm doing in Germany in terms of places to stay. I have friends in Karlsruhe, just outside of Durmersheim, where I'll be teaching, so there's always that back up if official plans don't work/happen.

It's all quite exciting really, not having a clue what's going to happen, nor having any clue in general.

Trippin'

2007-08-21T00:13:00.000Z

I am currently in the room of a friend of Cait (my friend from Delaware, who was an echange student to NZ and I am now visiting, although this is not at the present time underway, as she had to go to an interview for a babysitting job)

What the German for 'to babysit'? - babysitten. Ich sitte baby. I always get this mental image of a vast German woman forcibly teaching little children to learn how to hold their breath by applying pressure in the form of her own volume from a vertical direction.

Anywho, to get back on track, I have finished up in Maryland, simply have to turn up at some point to pick up the rest of my gear and have been through Pennsylvania.

Cait mcGee picked me up on the 11th and we came back to her Grandmother's place, where we met up with Cait's mum. sorry: 'mom'. The next 4 days were spent at a place called Eagle's mere in the Pennsylvania mountians (or some varient on the concept). An absolutely stunning place. It fells untouched by the modern world, even though the houses are huge and sell for half millions. It has the same families coming back for holidays year after year, or rather holidays after holidays, so everybody knows everybody and is related to half of them.

After that we went down to Schwenksville to the annual Philladelphia Folk music Festival, which officially finished today. Terrific and incredible only begin to describe this fest if used in a literal sense. I loved this fest. It had all the wierdos with none of the wierdness which is associated with them. The people were friendly and safe, accomodating and concerned. It was basically a secular Parachute; it had a very similar feel to it.

Tommorow i fly out to Wisconsin and cheese and hopefully then road trip back to Maryland and fly down to Texas. More updates as stuff happens.

Unbooked

2007-08-11T03:45:00.000Z

So, I'm on my official last day here at Camp Pecometh before I have to leave the property and only have the next two weeks organised. I have two flights to book, one to shorten, a trip through the chunnel to organise (ie: get Dad to organise, praise be to God for parents) and several trips around Germany to gather up all my gear to somehow fund. Yay! At least the next month will not be uneventful.

Was planning on posting each week, but that kinda didn't ahppen due to the lack of internet thing. Suffice it to say, that after about 6 weeks I was ready to finish and after 8 (now) I'm not sure that I could do another camp. I could do this for a summer, but not much more.

Thankyou to those who sent mail/notes/books/cards for my birthday, they were very much appreciated. I miss you all and am looking forward to coming home in 2008.

Internet!

2007-08-03T22:17:00.000Z

So, we finally have the internet back in the staff lounge, so maybe communication will be a little more regular for the next week.

Week 7 out of 8 is done and dusted. This week was "Late Night with Jesus" Camp, when we do a whole bunch of biblical holy stuff and all sorts of other things inbetween. So I've been teaching things like sacrifice and confession, and doing high ropes courses, tubing, tye-dying and various other things. Good bunch of kids in all, even if they were shy to begin with.

Last week was "River Runners", which is supposed to consist of Wakeboarding and water skiing, but the boys I was with only wanted to do wakeboarding, so that's what we did. Anywho, I'm now completely sold on wakeboarding and have aspirations to take up Hanggliding. Even if it is actually spelt with 1 'g'.

Went to Washington D.C. weekend before last and read Harry Potter 7 last weekend. Oh! so satisfying.

For those who have not yet read the book, Harry kills Hermione on page 658 (American version, which has more pages than the real version due to layout differences.)

Washington D.C. felt like an amusement park without the rides. Lots of stuff to look at and once you got in everything other than the food is relatively cheap. Well worth it. saw Lincoln himself in all his idolotrous glory. No-one was praying to him for his advice. We did however read the Gettysberg address, which was , naturally, very inspiring. The best reaction to this was from Tom, a brit: "America always was a good idea."

Belated emails/postings

2007-07-20T21:47:00.000Z

So, we had a storm here a few (read: many) weeks ago, which fried the telephone lines from the admin building to the staff lounge. Consequently, any chance of internet access has been non-existent for 4 weeks. Today I finally went around to one of the other councellor's house and commandeered (sp?) their computer to bring this sad news to the world.

Rest assured, I'm still alive.

Camp's been fun, amazing, frustrating, insane and everything else that one expects. I'll have to post several times to try and include it all and get up to date. They're putting a all-new ('all-american' should be in there as well) all-weather wiring system in, which'll take a while, but will prevent the same thing happening again.

God bless technology.

The councelors have organised a sightseeing trip the Washington D.C. tomorrow. Am quite excited. Hopefully will have many a photo to post on the blog.

Woche Eins, endlich mal Was auf (schlechtem) Deutsch.

2007-06-22T22:47:00.000Z

Die erste Woche ist vorbei und die Kinder, trotz alle Mühe, haben mich nicht total fertig gemacht, fast, aber nicht ganz. Ich hatte sechs der 'Schätzchen', einer davon mit ADHS. Ich glaube aber, dass es überhaupt nicht diese Krankheit hat. Der Kleiner war einer die Beste der Kinder, absolute kein Problem.

Heute sind alle Kinder weggegangen, also ich genieße jetzt die Freiheit hier und endlich die möglichkeit, emails zu antworten. 27 hatte ich in meinem Inbox!

Was haben wir diese Woche denn gemacht?
Meistens gab's Wasseraktivitäten Kanu treiben, Schwimmbad mit Rutsche, Paddleboarding (windsurfbrett ohne Segel worauf die Kinder sitzen und sich mit den Hände bewegen) und Splashdown, was aus aus viele riesige aufgeblasene Plaste Dingsbums, die in der Mitte der Fluß schwimmen, worauf die Kinder klettern können. Es gibt da ein Trampoline und zwei Icebergen, ein 'Katapult', an dessen Ende einer Sitzt und auf das andere Ende springt ein Zwei, damit der Erste in die Luft geworfen wird. Ganz toll; ich wurfte einen meinen Campers wenigstens 140 cm.

Week one

2007-06-22T22:39:00.000Z

I've got time to go to the computer!
I got paid!
(I do this job for the kids, honest)

I have random camp songs stuck in my head!

Mmm bla went the little green frog one day
Mmm bla went the little green frog
Mmm bla went the little green frog one day
and the little green frog went Mmm bla blalalalala

But we all know frogs go (clap) la di da di da
(clap) la di da di da
(clap) la di da di da
We all know frogs go
(clap) la di da di da
they don't go Mmm bla blalalalala

So, I am now infected and shall share the joy just as soon as I can hunt you all down.

One week in

2007-06-16T02:07:00.000Z

Things be going well.
One of the other councelors was convinced that I come from Nebraska, not NZ, so I thing I've got the accent down.

Today a bunch of us went to Wal-Mart to get much needed stuff; part of the plan was to make our way to the bike section and try them out on the floor before leaving, but this didn't eventuate; I was too busy trying to find a tote (this being a big ol' plastic box. Go figure)

The first camp starts on Sunday and I'm down for 'Riverside' which is the most basic of all camps and they do a bit of everything. It's with grades 3 - 5, which pretty similar to what I've been doing previously, so it should all go well.
Should I survive, I'll post again.

Arrivals

2007-06-08T15:04:00.000Z

I think I'm finally getting over international flying. That, or 7/8 hour flights are just the wrong length of time. This lfight reallz took it out of me. Flights from/to England to /from NZ are usually ok, as you can sleep on the plane and the timing works, but as it appears, between America and Europe, it's a completely different story. Anywho, i was shattered.

New York was not as impressive as I thought it would be, in that it is exactly what the pictures and steriotypes say. It is HUGE! We got a mini-van thing (which was effectively like an NZ taxi in that you order it, rather than hailing it) to get taken to the hostel, which a student hall of columbia university, and there I got chatting to a couple from Texas called Lauren and Demetrius. I asked them what the point of a doorman was, since as far as I was aware American are able to open doors for themselves. Their answer was basically along the lines of 'it's a way for people to make an extra buck'. Fair enough; my thanks to them (should they ever read this blog) for their fine introduction into the New Yorkian mentality.

Didn't manage to get any sightseeing done, but who knows what's happening at the other ned of the summer? So far everzthing is going well. I've arrived at camp (the name 'Camp Pecometh' is actually Pe-Co-Meth, which stands for Peninsula 'Co' Methodist Church (we"ve forgotten what the 'co' stands for, will ask again)

The first week here is all about training, so the kids start arriving on the 17th of June, this sundaz the rest of the staff arrives, so there'll be 70 of us, and until then all I have to do is learn to save drowning people in a swimming pool and not get sunburnt.

The people are friendly, but due to the fact that thez're still only setting things up, I haven't been exactly told what's going on, because not much reallz IS going on till Sunday. On the up side, there's a guy from Germany here, so I'll be able to practise.

Old habits are hard to break

2007-06-08T14:46:00.000Z

One of the first lessons I got in Germany was the difference between 'mit', 'bei' in reference to 'Spass' (fun).

Viel Spass damit = have fun (with that thing)
Viel Spass dabei = have fun (with that activity)

This has meant that the phrase has become something of a catchphrase for me in Germany, which was fine until I went to Mannhein.

There I went on Sunday to the church of mz friend whom I was visiting and meant an American, Joe, who invited us to a BBQ at his place, because he had been having BBQs and people kept on bringing meat, which was now reaching something akin to critical mass.

Joe happens to be an American officer and dropped us off home after the BBQ. He mentioned just before driving off that he was most likelz going to get posted to Iraq, because most people do. So what do I say as a final greeting?

"Have fun in Iraq!"

Unterwegs

2007-06-06T11:03:00.000Z

So I am off.
Sorry for the wierd Englsih, but the fre imternet computer has a korean kexyboard, which is WAY too small and is also mislabelled.

Checking went fine, they have self-service desks here, which is nivce. Shorter cues. However, the baggage checkin is still done manually and of course the lady ) Ha!) at the desk was tzpicasllxy efficient asbove all else.

I got given a packed lunch, which is fantastic, but unfortuneately I here really early andall the interesting stuff in hte airport is on the other side of the checkin bit where you have to get rid of all your food. Suck.

So IÄve stuffed down most of the unallowables and have one roll left and absolutely nil Bok to eat it.

-and whatÄs more this message looks ike test code. YaY for Korea!

Travel plans, for the die hard fans

2007-06-05T20:33:00.000Z

I leave Naumburg tomorrow, the 6th of June at 8:35 am by train,
getting into Frankfurt airport at 11:44.

11:44 - 12:36 I walk around lots, looking at signs on the sly because it's big there and I'm lost and not wanting people to figure it out.

12:37 - 1:57 stand in various queues.

1:58-1:59 get baggage checked in and visa gets thingamied, whatever it is that they do.

2:00 presicely. Walk away from the check in desk full of the confidence that my luggage will arrive in Kennedy airport in one piece, safe and sound without having anyone search through it, nor with any single eclosed item having moved.

2:10 realise that I'm lost.
2:11 - 2:43 look at books in the duty free book shop and wish that I had enough cash on me to buy some.
2:44 - 3:00 think about looking for the right gateway. Might be helpful to know.
3:01 realise that there is no screen telling me where my flight leaves from
3:02 feel the chill run down my spine as I realise I've forgotten my flight number.
3:07 Wake up out of my fear-imposed stupor and start running around looking for an departure screen
3:08 - 3:19 Cursing the architect that planned Frankfurt airport.
3:20 find the screen.
3:21 remember that my flight plans are on my boarding pass.
3:22 read departure screen and discover that my gate is 12 km away on the other side of the terminal
3:23 - 3:29 Discover teleportation by beating light to the goal.
3:30 get on flight sit down and avoid the glares of the other passengers who've been made to wait by my inconsiderate previouse absence of puntuality.

3:30 - ? sleep

? - 8:45 pm (Am East Coast time) Wake up walk out and do battle with the forces of Beurocracy.
8:46 pm fail.

Total time: 11 hours and 15 mins.

Off Again!

2007-06-05T14:07:00.001Z

So I'm off tomorrow to New York.
Naja, it had to happen, everybody goes there at some point.
I have one day to organise a social secruity card.

But then it's off to Maryland!
So the next leg of my travels takes me to Summer Camp.
9 glorious weeks of taking care of and teaching kids 24/7 for 6 days a week.

As much as I'm looking forward to it, I do ask myself why I am not more frightend...

Pavlova

2007-06-05T13:36:00.000Z

So, after having talked about trying to prove my native kiwi status for 9 months, I finally managed to give baking a Pav a go.

To get rid of all suspense right at the beginning: it collapsed: not bad for the first try; least it was edible.

Starting off:

Baking:

Adding some personal touches:

(they had some caramel left-over and felt like donating it)

The finished product:

Apprieciative Photos:

The remains:

It was given 4.5 stars out of 5, because a few of them said it was too sweet.

Not bad for the first effort.

Wierdness in Mannheim

2007-05-31T21:56:00.000Z

Mannheim has a wierd sense of Art:

This one I can kinda understand. If the French in Paris can have a giant bronze thumb, why can't the Germans have a foot in Mannheim?

As far as I know, some artist thought it would be great to lock bikes of various shapes and sizes to lamp poles. Most of them are pointless, but this one's a little different: the rear tyre is more suited to a moped or a small vespa and it's got a spiderweb on it. (look on the main frame, close to the font)

Refreshing to see death in his angelic form, rather than the skeletal reaper. The really old fountains in Mannheim (which aren't really that old: Mannheim was made to look old) have lots of fluff with null explanation. The only figure I could definitively make out in this one was Mr Harvest himself.

The uni library has a series of these balls along the outside, which all have the same image carved on both sides, so they can be appreciated from inside as well as out. Each ball is individual (as far as I could see) and, like the fountains, totally without an explanation or a point.

Mannheim und Heidelberg

2007-05-30T11:27:00.000Z

Last weekend I drifted over to Mannheim to visit. I misread my train ticket and so turned up an hour after the train had left - go me.

I got another connection, but instead of have to change trains once, I had to change an unconfortable 4 times, with 5 - 10 minutes between trains. Much fun.

Anywho, I managed to make all the trains (sometimes delay can be helpful when they happen to other trains) and landed in Mannheim about 3 hours after what was planned.

This is the Rathaus (Town hall) in Mannheim. It's split into two: the left side is the Justicial bit and the right side is, 'logically' since the church and state are split in Germany, a church. Each has a statue above the door.

The statues: the left one is Justice (notice the lack of a blindfold. It doesn't exactly inspre fath in the legal system...) and the one on the right in Piety.

There's lots of random artwork around the city, but in this picture you can see Liz, whom I was visiting (hence the point of putting it here).

Liz grew up in Naumburg and went to the Heilsarmee, where it appears she was something of a phenomenon. There is no plaque or explanation of the foot at all, it's just there.

Mannheim has lots of fountains, and this one took my fancy (me having a love of origami). All the animals and objects in the fountain (well, almost all) are made like origami figures.

Language stuff- ups # 2,372

2007-05-30T11:06:00.000Z

Rent (eng) = Miete (germ)
Pension (eng) = Rente (germ)

Much to the delight of my landlady, I told her today that I was going to pay her my pension.

Fruitsalad

2007-05-21T16:48:00.000Z

So to continue the topic of wierd German salad habits, to day we had tomato salad and fruit salad.

The tomato 'salad' was made of tomato and mozzerella (fair enough); about one mozerella ball, chopped into cubes (and you know how small those things are to begin with), to about 2 kilos of sliced tomato. Tasted nice though.

The fruitsalad. I may have mentions this one before, due to the presense of the despised dutch delicacy witloof (otherwise known as chicory). That I could deal with; it made the salad less sweet; and considering that the basis for the salad is canned fruit (staple diet the world over), this was tolerable. But today, the addition of carefully sliced and cubed avocado gets the award for the most surpirising culinary experimentation of the month. It too took away from the sweetness of the fruit, so basically if they got rid of the chicory, the thing might taste really good.

Americanische Bureaukratie

2007-05-16T14:19:00.000Z

So, Ich hab seit zwei Wochen ungefähr nicht ge-blogg-t und das alles danksei den USA.
So, i haven't blogged for about two weeks, and that's all thanks to the USA.

Finally though, thre's a bit of movement. I received today my interview time (with oh-so helpful and encouraging comment: "there are several applicants all booked for the same time, so please expect to have to wait" or something to that effect. great. I'm thinking 'several' means 'fourty to perhaps one hundread and sixty, if it's a good day') But I'm not complaining! I'm glad that the stupid thing's even been organised, even if it is next Monday at 9:30 am with a 2-hour train ride to boot.

Anywho, the holidays started today, hence all plans for next Monday being totally scrapped, so that I can do battle with the forces of evil. Hoorah.

News Finally!

2007-04-30T13:35:00.001Z

I recieved a very unofficial email today in response to one of my own send in hasslement of the Oberigkeit (the powers that be) saying that I've been aaccepted for a second year in Baden-Württemberg

Yay! Go the Schwäbisch!

Die Heilsarmee

2007-04-24T18:40:00.000Z

A thought crossed my mind: why not introduce the people I spent the most amount of time with. That might be a good idea.

The youth goup at New Year's.

Helga the humble, fearess leader of the intrepid Fishies (the youth group's name). That's me on the right, for those who don't recognise the handsome bloke.

Nora and Jonathan. She's from West Germany (Wessie) and he's swiss and lets you know it. His english accent is very good. However, no-one believes me since his grades don't agree.

Henning and Julia, siblings of the ever-smiling Nora. Likewise smiley. Julia is loud; my favorite quote from her is "Waaaaagh!", very war-like and was accompanied by her appearing through an excessively quickly-opened door. The father of these three (and the eldest, who's not yet shown) is american, so they speak english with decidedly strong accents. Unfortunately for Henning his accent is decidedly strongly German rather than Ammi (american).

Julia (again) and Anna. Both are in the 12th year and are thusly sitting their end exams in April. Both worry too much. I'll be VERY surprised if either of them fails or even does badly.

Jenna, technological-genius-in-training.

I don't have any other photos of these two. Will attempt to procure some.
Sonja on the left and Christin on the right. Sonja's a native German, who speaks english with a beautiful French accent

Sina from Baden-Württemburg; speaks Schwäbisch (a thoroughly entertaining German dialect). This is incredibly impressive so I'm told. I'll have to learn some....

Justus, Henning (again), Rahel looking incredibly bored (sister of Jonathan, above, equally swiss). She only does this when she's not playing the piano, so most of the time she looks happy.

My Right Foot

2007-04-24T18:14:00.000Z

I like bruises. Not having them per se, as they tend to make their presence known, but watching them change like autumn leaves is quite cool.

Consequently in the last two weeks I have taken various photos of my foot. Some out of the joy of colour, but mostly out of sheer boredom. Enjoy.

This is about two days later. Nice and fat.

About one week after the fact. Swelling slightly down, but the bruising's really coming up.

Almost two weeks after. I love the green around the toes!

I don't have any current pictures; it's currently nowhere near as colourful. Check back sometime and hopefully I will have been bored/fascinated enough to take some more.

One foot in the grave

2007-04-19T15:30:00.001Z

Went to the doctor's today again and got told off for not using my broken foot.

Medics are annoying. The first emergency doctor told me to do nothing for two weeks, then normal things were ok, like biking and swimming, but not hard sports, where it could be re-twisted. Mum (qualified nurse, who definitely knows her stuff) says dont use it for at least 6 weeks and today the doc said put weight on it already, get it moving.

I don't know what to do. Well, yes I do, but that I get told all sorts of contradictory stuff is annoying. Anywho, mass pain-killers and ice-packs galore should ensure that I get back to school next tuesday.

Cake

2007-04-13T16:08:00.000Z

One of the staff, the Groundsman to be precise, has his last day today and to celebrate brought in a bunch of cakes baked by his wife. All was going perfectly normally untill I got told what the cakes were called.
Most of them were safe and unassuming, then came the chocolate cake.

No normal cake this!
Thin sponge base
thickly covered with thickened butter-creme
Various nuts strewn over
Covered with partially-set melted chocolate.

This monster was incredibly addictive. It was called 'Fressdichdumm Torte'.
Quite literally translated as 'Eat yourself stupid Cake'

Thanks

2007-04-11T11:47:00.000Z

Thanks to all who've left consillatory/supportive/acknowledging/ordering comments and or emails.

The foot's ok-ish. Thanks to the leg brace I got given the swelling in my ankle's gone down quite a bit. The only thing is that now the rest of my foot's started to swell. woopie.
I'm all drugged up on pain-killers so I slept well last night and am not totally forced to stay in my room with my leg up. The Boss here told me at lunch that I'm not allowed to stay in my room and be unsociable. And that just 'cause I missed breakfast for the last two days out of tiredness and self-sympathy.

Anywho, the point being, thanks for your support and sympathy. You all rock.

(For full coverage of the foot-saga, see the blog-post invalidation )

Language Lesson # 36

2007-04-11T11:37:00.000Z

'Nein' (No) is boring. The Germans have, like most place, come up with a thousand ways to say no, even if it is just to try avoiding impoliteness.

A quick list made today:

Nein (no)
Das kannste vergess'n (you can forget that)
Das kannste knicken (you can fold that)
Das geht nicht (that doesn't go)

German lesson # 17

2007-04-09T19:33:00.000Z

This one's nothing new even to people starting to learn German, but for those who've not yet had the priviledge, here's the absolute ultimate in cliqueiness:

Foreign places / overseas : Ausland (out-country)
Not foreign place (ie: Germany) : Inland (in-country)

Foreigner : Auslander
Foreign: Ausländisch

(sch = sh)
(ä = e [sort of])

Invalidation

2007-04-09T17:42:00.000Z

Volleyball is dangerous.

I was at my church's easter outreach today and after everything was done and people were going / gone, a bunch of us were playing around with a volleyball.

The ring of people got gradually larger and so consequently the game became far more active. The ball was flying out of the ring and I ran after to catch it and keep it in the circle. I jumped spectacularly, made a beautiful textbook dig and saved the game!

Then promptly landed badly on my foot, heard a loud crack from my ankle and was rolling around on the floor in agony.

After about half a minute of me not playing, people thought, "well, that's a long time to stay on the ground..." and came to investigate.

I got a scarf wrapped around my foot (after the shoe had been removed) and that was then thoroughly watered. nice idea I thought. Anyway, it helped a lot to calm the pain somehow.

I got taken to the hospital. we completely failed to find the emergency assistance area, even there were arrows pointing to it all over the place, so we went to the main entrence a hobbled along through the halls to the correct place. Basti, who drove me there, went to get a wheelchair when we came to the conclusion that hobbling really wasn't much of an option.

After much filling in of forms and following of beaurocracy (which turned out to be pointless anyway when one of the nurses realised that my insurance had nothing to do with foreign places at all), I got taken to a doctor who said her name (which I of course completely missed, then x-ray and I was marched out the door again. The picture above was taken before going in the the röntgen-room (Mr. Röntgen found out about x-rays).

Anyway, long story short, I ripped a tendon in my ankle and can't do any sport for two weeks (so much for bike-riding to school) and then no rough sports for another four (bang goes my judo career). Depending on how much I trust myself, I could bike to school in the four-week period, but I have no idea if that'll be a happening thing or not. I'll keep you posted.

Me climbing the steps at home and me with my foot.

Not Words

2007-04-05T12:20:00.000Z

They use a fantastic word here:

Ein Unwort

(An unword, imword, not-word)

That's a word that absolutely everybody understands, but that noone says exists. The sort of words whose meaning is clear, but you won't find in any dictionary.

Language stuff-ups # 14

2007-04-05T12:16:00.000Z

I went to the locals pools with a bunch of students the other day and was reminded of one of my earlier attempts at communication:

futtern - to feed yourself
füttern - to feed something/one else (eg to feed a baby, a pet)

Bascially I was trying to say how I fed my cats in NZ, then everyone either started laughing, or their jaws dropped.

The choir

2007-04-04T08:16:00.000Z

So, I belong to a choir. It's small and hardly professional, but we keep our conductor on his toes.
The conductor, a Herr Hickl ('Hi-' like 'he' (he she it) and 'ckl' like in 'ankle'), has been described not so much as a person, as a phenomenon (this in a good sense). Basically anyone who dares be counted as 'youth' in Naumburg has learnt guitar for at least a semester from Herr Hickl. He's the kind of teacher who remembers every student he's ever had and can name them on sight after 20 years.

Everyone knows herr Hickl.

Herr Hickl is the guy on the right, behind everyone else. This is the only photo I've got of him, unless you want a fantastic view of the bald spot on the back of his head.

Anywho, we had a concert not long ago in a castle (ahem, 'castle' i should say. Think: BIG renovated house now used as a youth hostel)

part of the choir plays the boomwhackers (sounds great don't it?) Basically these are long plastic tubes that produce a specific note when they are hit. Apparently they look cool when they played, but your hands really sting after using them.

Choir members:

Christoph, Anja, Markus

Carolin, Sandra, Carolin's sister (whose name has momentarily gone on vacation)

Carolin is not pictured, but her sister has Sandra in a nice arm lock

Anne

Linda (playing the orange boomwhacker in the above photo)
Herr Hickl, Sebastian Hickl (when forced into it), Ulf (no pictures, sorry)

Creative writing, the uses of

2007-04-04T07:24:00.000Z

My dad's a tutor for the open university of England, or london, or somewhere over there. He was saying last year that he always has problems writing comments of people's reports, so he's using his free-paper-per-semester this half year to learn about creative writing.

here's his latest assignment, they were doing poetry and dad decided to write a sonnet:

Marking Open University Essays

Mrs Smith forgets her PT3
And Colin sees no point in sentences
Or punctuation, eager though he is,
While Janet sprinkles the apostrophe
Like pepper - not, though, where it ought to be -
And Bill, describing the advantages
Of Hospice Care, has made the topic his,
And says that contraceptives should be free.
To write encouragement is quite a task"
A super essay - on a different theme!"
The good, the bad, the truth, behind a mask
Of paedogogic analgesic cream,
Polite and comforting, and they don't ask,
And I don't tell: "Your essays make me scream!"

(printed with permission)

Suckage Update

2007-03-27T18:55:00.000Z

So, everything's even moreup in the air than it was before.

I went to the Visa office in Naumburg and they said that if I could prove my acceptance of a second placement as a language assistant and financial support for the three months inbetween (which is now possible due to parental intervention, go parents!) , then then can extend my Visa to cover the time inbetween. So good news on that front.

The other thing is that I also had a brainwave: why not fulfill another dream? I've been wanting to do the whole camp councillor in America thing since I was in first uni. Now finally the dates fit, so why not apply? Who knows, you might get in. So, that's what I'm waiting on now.

If the language assistant job goes through, I'll be away until junish next year; If just the america job works, then it'll september/october this year, otherwise I'll be having a holiday in Europe for as long as the money is there. Who knows, something else could turn up.

The USA in my Home

2007-03-25T19:50:00.000Z

I had a visit this weekend from Cait, a friend from the USA I met through AFS (international exchange organisation).
I told some people and made a mistake: she's from Delaware, not Maine.

That's Cait 'n' me waiting for the train to go to Weimar and Cait in the Cathedral in Naumburg

So Weimar has famous people, or had at any rate and as was said last post, they don't let you forget it.
There's four majors:

Goethe telling the building next to him off and Goethe and Shiller; both poets and thinkers, so of course they're in Germany's good books

Wieland, who just seems to be famous without having done anything worth noting

Herder, famous priesty person

Of these four there's plenty of statues, Goethe especially, but then there's masses of busts around of random famous people, statues of dead military-like people. The statues are just everywhere.

Every town in Germany has a flag, or at least most, here's the one for Weimar. Cait thinks it's designed to inspire fear.

Then there's the Palace and the surrounds:

This is the palace. Cait and I went in to look around and found no welcome desk, but a sign saying that this was the site of the old gestapo and secret service interrogation centre. joy.

(I couldn't get the whole thing into one good photo)

This is the building opposite the palace and on the plaque in front claims to be the Residenz. On our map it was labelled 'public toilets'.

Weimar

2007-03-25T19:07:00.000Z

Weimar is important.
Not big, partially impressive, not entire quaint and IMPORTANT.
They don't let you forget this point.

This is the home of the 'German Classic'. There's a story that Napoleon came into the city, letting his army loot and pillage and demanded to see the Duke. Not being around, the Duke-ess came out and said 'My husband's not in right now, but if you have to take a hostage, take me and don't destroy the city. Oh and by the way, I'm related to important Russians who support you and you don't want to annoy them' (or something along those lines). Napoleon was also met a local tailor who said 'look at the culture a knowledge abundant in this city. We are cultivated people and have a educated, thinking Duke. Please talk to him, discuss the matter and leave our city free.'

Napoloen then walked out of the city, a few years later returning, not with the best army in France, but with the best actors.

Anywho, this place bred thinkers and poets, which is the main reason why the Germans love it so much (Germany calls itself the land of thinkers and poets). They plaster the names all over the place, including street names. Unfortunately they have more streets than famous people, so they had to steal some names from other places.....

As far as I know, 'Kegel' isn't a famous person. A 'Kegel' is a cone and there were no cones to be seen on Kegelplatz.

Icthus

2007-03-25T19:04:00.000Z

Living, Powerful and Sharper than any Sword... (Heb 4 : 12)

Ampelmännchen

2007-03-25T18:52:00.000Z

These are the East-German Ampelmännchen (Little Traffic Light Men).
They're being gotten rid of in some areas (incl. Naumburg) and being replaced with standard boring Ampelmänner when they break. These things however are cult.
I found an 'east-germany' shop in weimar, basically all they sold was based on the Ampelmännchen:

Keyrings
Teeshirt
Stickers
Sweets
CoffeeMugs
Snap wristbands
Boardgames
Window-hangers (they look like bike reflectors)
Lamps
Stationary

the list goes on...
These things are cult.

Terminology

2007-03-23T09:18:00.000Z

You know how 'Anchorman' or 'Anchorwoman' sounds way better than 'Newsreader'

Well, the same phenomenon happens in German, as I discovered yesterday:

Words for housemaid / house cleaner

Putzfrau : cleaning woman (like 'newsreader', says exactly what it is)
Reinigungskraft : Sanitation Force (don't that sound responsible and mighty?)

or, my personal favourite:

Bodenmasseuse : Floor massager

Language Stuff-ups # 365

2007-03-23T09:07:00.000Z

In volleyball Germans basically use the same terminology as English does, but just translated.
A dig is when you use your wrists to bounce the ball.
A digger (ie: big roadworks truck) is called a Bagger.
To dig a volleyball is 'baggern'.

Unfortunately, a short German 'a' sounds very much like an english 'u'.......

Shakespeare's name

2007-03-18T17:52:00.000Z

"How's he spelt it in your copy?"

Salad

2007-03-17T17:34:00.000Z

Common-variety North-European salads take a bit of getting used to - the notion that cabbage doesn't need to learn how to swim, hasn't exactly made it into the minds of the average citizen - but what got served up today really broke the biscuit.

Background knowledge: The most useful and accurate description I have ever found of the North-European salad is to be found in "The Xenophobe's Guide to the Dutch". This is a specific sub-spiecies ofthe phenomenon, but the principle behind it can be readily understood. It goes something like this:

The salad. This is served up as a side dish, usually accompanied by bread, upon which it is to be smeared. There were previously only a few types varieties of salad, all of which were a gleaming white (which, of course, denotes the health quality of the product). This has changed with the times: nowadays you can find pus yellow (chicken curry salad) and nuclear red ('american', please note the total lack of description of the ingredients). Whichever of these salads you dare to put on the menu for today, be it mussel, chicken curry, mackrel etc, what you will get is mush. The flavouring in the salad is not there to be healthy, nor is it there to give it a flavour: the salad is comprised of 90% mashed potato (hence the smearability of all salads) and 10% something else, which merely provides a name.

----------------------

In germany, they're slightly better. Rather than filling the air pockets inbetween the lettuce leaves with mashed potato, they opt for dressing. Since the basic requirement of German food is to be 'sättigend' (to stick your ribs together), there is rather a lot of salad served up. It takes a lot of lettuce to stick your ribs together. The bigger the bowl in which the lettuce is, the more dressing that can be therein contained. The dressing has become, one can infer, the basic unit of the salad; the rest is just extra stuf to which the dressing can cling. Green leaves have become a form of public transport from the bowl to the mouth.

Today however, something quite different got served up: Sausage salad.
Take a luncheon sausage, slice thinly, then cube. Add one third of a cucumber, to which the same punishment has been applied. Pour on the dressing. Two named foods are too few for a salad, so what else can we add? OH! what goes well with sausage? CHEESE! Take one block of edam/emmentaler, slice thinly, then cube. Add to the pot. Mix thoroughly.

Sit back, relax and enjoy watching the colesterol of your guests rise.

Gas, Rural Aromas and Explosions

2007-03-16T10:13:00.000Z

Naumburg stinks. Literally; metaphorically it's great, but nasally, it has become exceedingly 'interesting and colourful' in the past two days. It has been stinking very rurally here. The place is surrounded by farmers, who mostly grow turnips, which get turned into treacle. Of course, turnips need ground and need to be fertilised. It seems that's what's up at the moment and the fertiliser, one can infer from the smell, is VERY biodegradable.

Bigger news:

Part of the main street on the way to Roßbach from Naumburg is being redone and has been being redone for about two years and according to locals knowledge, there's no end in sight before 2009. Nice to see German efficiency at work.
Anywho, there's a whole row of old, ugly buildings that need to get knocked down because they're old and ugly. Unfortunately, some are still occupied, such as the one pictured above.

Well, the one pictured above WAS occupied right up until it ceased to be a house and became a firework instead. The family was being forced to leave and didn't want to. Fair enough, noone likes having to move. There was some hassle with a gas tap and a spark (all accidental, I'm assured) and voilà, no more house.

Stuff on Offer

2007-03-10T20:21:00.000Z

Naumburg has lots of stuff to offer in terms of landscape and walking tracks and stuff to fill in the 'man, I'm bored' times that generally turn up during one's life.

The main river that flows by Naumburg is called the Saale and flows quite fast. I can't really imagine anyone calling it astoundingly pretty, but it's the closest thing to a beach they've got here and I'm not that good a judge of rivers in any case.

Anywho, the point is that there's a (Nordic*) walking / cycling path that runs alongside it for quite a way. A one point you pass a bunch of grape growers, or something that appears to be grapes. ANOWHO, the point is: there's a bunch of houses there. The hills get quite sheer at times and so people have had to improvise. The featured pictures are my two favourite houses of those on offer to the viewing public. One (left) looks like it's been built into the 'very rock' as Gimli would put it, the other (right) is a Schlößchen, 'little castle', but I'm not sure that it is officially so. It merely looks cool.

*Nordic walking is walking at a pace WITH METRE AND A HALF LONG POLES. It makes a big difference, it seems. You can use them to walk, carry them in one arm, carry them in the other arm and when that gets boring, you can hold them over your head!

I really don't get the sport at all.

Suckage

2007-03-06T08:17:00.000Z

I got talking to another Foreign Language Assistant from Canada on Monday last, who is now doing a second year. She did what I was planning on doing: staying here over the summer, got inspected when she was routinely pulled over while driving and got kicked out of the continent.

Blast it all. Apparently staying on a bit was fine about two years ago, if you went and got the right stamps in your passport, but now they're all tight about anything - two weeks maximum is apparently what you get as an extension, before you have to leave Europe in its entirety. No more skipping over the border into Switzerland for this little Von Trapp.

What this basically means is a)I'll most likely be in NZ from June to August (yay!) and b) I'm not going to have a summer for about two years. (BOO!). again. (BOOOOOOO!!!!!)

Well I'm just hoping that the weather in NZ is still being extremely wierd, so that this winter will be as scizophrenic as the one that just been in Europe: it couldn't decide which season it wanted to be at all, just like a normal day in Auckland *nostalgic sigh*

How Great thou Art!

2007-03-03T18:50:00.000Z

We sang this in Spanish at church this week. Very cool.

German:
Du großer Gott, wenn ich die Welt betrachte,
die du geschaffen durch dein Allmachtswort,
wenn ich auf alle jene Wesen achte,
die du regierst und nährest fort und fort.

Chorus:
Dann Jauchzt mein Herz dir, großer Herrscher zu,
Wie groß bist du (x2)
Dann Jauchzt mein Herz dir, großer Herrscher zu,
Wie groß bist du (x2)

Blick ich empor zu jenen lichten Welten,
und seh der Sterne unzählbare Schar,
Wie Sonn und Mond im lichten Äther zelten,
gleich gold'nen Schiffen hehr und wunderbar

Chorus

Chorus in Spanish:
Mi corazón se llena de emoción.
!Cuán grande eres, o Señor! (x2)
Mi corazón se llena de emoción.
!Cuán grande eres, o Señor! (x2)

To Acquire a New Soul

2007-03-03T18:31:00.000Z

I found this quote in one of the old textbooks:

To Aquire a New Soul

It was justly said by the Emperor Charles V, that to learn a new language is to acquire a new soul. He who is acquainted only with the writers of his native tongue, is in perpetual danger of confounding what is accidental with what is essential, and of supposing thattastes and habits of thought, which belong only to hisown age and country, are inseparable from the nature of man. Initiated into foreign literature, he finds that principles of politics and morals, directly contrary to those which he has hitherto supposed to be unquestionable, because he has never heard them questioned, have been held by large and enlightened communities; that feelings, which are so universal among his contemporaries that he had supposed them instinctive, have been unknown to whole generations; that images, which have never failed to excite the ridicule of those among whom he has lived, have been thought sublime by millions. He thus loses that stupid contempt for everything beyond the wall of his empire, which was the effect of his former ignorance. New associations take place among his ideas. He doubts where he formally dogmatized. He tolerates where he formally execrated. He ceases to confound that which is universal and eternal in human passions and opinions with that which is local and temporary. This is one of the most useful effects which result from studying the literature of other countries.
- Views and Vagabonds (1912) by Rose Macaulay

It sucks to say it, but when I read this I was struck by how I've come up against this (mostly harmlessly, but once or twice in a serious way) almost everyday since I got here: the way I walk, the way I talk, the way I think, the way I react. It all gets commented on at some point.

I've always thought of it as 'being able to think outside of your own culture'. It's nice to finally find someone who can express the concept better than me.
NB: I'd like to add that not just the literature, but the very culture of other countries has the same effect; even more so, since literature is more or less an output of culture.

A sammlung from deutschy stuff

2007-02-26T21:59:00.000Z

Last weekend i was taken to Bavaria to see a real footbal game between Bayern München and Wolfsburg. No huge game was this, but as an introduction to the phenomenon that is German football (which is apparently huge in Malasia) was more than adequate. We ate that evening in the old-style inn and I got given a Maß for being foreign. Excellent!

Anywho, this prompted me to think: what else have I gotthat's typically German? What do I have that is German culture incarnate?

This is the result (so far):

Gluhweinstiefel (Mulled wine Boot). Apparently this is how Mulled Wine is supoosed to be drunk. I'm just glad that the Germans are so health conscious that they make these boots every year, rather than expecting people to provide their own.

Maß glass. This is the type of glass that getsServed during Oktoberfest.This is one of those typical souvenirs thatEveryone has, but noone buys.....

Left: Sandmännchen (little sand man)
Right: Räuchermännchen (little smoking man)

The Räuchermännchen are a christmas thing, the turn up everywhere and are little more than insence burners, but of course, it being christmas, the incense is pine-needle scented.

The Sanmännchen I don't get. I was given it for christmas and was told that it's typically German, but not how or what it's to do with.

A German mark, original. Worth about the same as an NZ dollar.

German Efficiency

2007-02-20T20:20:00.000Z

I learnt a lot about how they get stuff done here yesterday when I was handed this do-it-yourself confetti kit. At least I now know how Germans spend their free time...

The writing says:
(Top)
Confetti-Making Kit

(Middle)
1. Good Luck
2. Cut the individual confetti pieces along the dotted lines
3. Colour in the confetti on both sides, or cover with crepe-paper
4. With wild laughter, throw the confetti about

Wernigerode

2007-02-19T19:16:00.000Z

Wernigerode! Capital of the Harz Mountains. They're well named, they're smack bang in the middle of Germany.

Wernigerode Schloß

The ex-rector of the house moved there to ministerise the local catholic congregation there, which was the whole point of the mishtrip. The house here was last weekend abnormally empty, not a single soul to be seen, save yours truely, so we took the opportunity to go visit.

Me, Winfried (the ex-rector),

Katharina Exner (aka, Chefin) and her husband, Matthias

It was quite impressive: very quaint, wasn't a target at all in either of the world wars, so the houses are all original, rather than having been rebuilt. There's a fantastic one there - the smallest house in Germany (according to Johanna Exner, age 10, fountain of all knowledge; although in this case, I think she's right).

It has an area of 15 square metres, half that of my little flat, and apparently used to be owned by a family with 7 kids.

Apart from that, the place has all the expected traditional quaint german things:

Quaint german Rathauses, Quaint german modern art, and last but not least, quaint east germans posing for a photo.

That last one was taken in the Tierpark (Animal park, effectively a small zoo) Of all the thing there I found these the most impressive, goodness knows why;

Real Wild Boar! With piglets, man those things are fast.

Anywho, they were fantastic to watch.

Nooks and Crannies

2007-02-13T21:00:00.000Z

I keep on finding stuff like this in Germany: Random places that are quite quaint.

This one's in Naumburg. I only discovered it the other day. I find it a pitty that none of the fountain work in winter. Mind you, that's simply 'cause I want to see them working, rather than thinking that it would be a good idea if they were going.

This one's also in Naumburg. It's simply house ornamentation, but I find it cool.

Karl of Karlsruhe fame (a city in West Germany) Was buried under the Main square in his town. He has his own pyramid right ontop of his tomb.

Münich had a Lion parade some time ago (see earlier posts) This is a new lion I found on my latest excursion there.

Exners - the Visiting

2007-02-13T20:07:00.000Z

I got visited by some of the Exner kids the other day. Frau Exner runs the home here and her family lives in one of the units. The girls needed some time out from the rest of the family, so we played cards and various other board games until they found my camera.

This is Franziska (Franzi). She found my santa hat and began trying to knock Johanna unconscious with the bells on the end.

This is Johanna. It'ssupposed to be a photo of her smiling and giving a thumbs up. Hasn't quite got the knack of self-portraiting yet.

This is us just after the camera got knicked by Franzi. Please note: Johanna is willingly doing maths that has nothing to do with her homework. This rare event had been captured for the millions of blog fans to see that miricles do happen.

This is Philipp (that's not a spelling error). Eldest and therefore default leader and carrier of parental ill tidings. He came to tell the girls they had to go home and sleep (their bedtime is really early, because they have to up at 5:30 or 6am or something insane like that). Philipp, however, stayed on til 10.

I'm not quite sure what was going on in the photo. I think he was sneezing.

Offensive, Explosive and Highly Dangerous

2007-02-09T20:47:00.000Z

Mum send me Marmite from home a while ago (Go Mum!!!!)

I have been dying to try it out on the unsuspecting locals, but either continually missed breakfast, or forgot to bring the jar with me. However, finally, my memory worked. At breakfast it was decidedly not a hit. The collective opinion was that it tasted of Maggi/Oxo cubes.

Offensive Material

Dinner was a different matter. Having already been exposed to the 'offensive', 'explosive' and above all, 'dangerous' substance, they, one by one, tried it out. Firstly they tried it plain, or rather one or two courageous/mad people did. Then the ingredients list was closely examined. The couldn't believe it was 80% yeast; neither could I, come to think of it.

Having thus confirm that it does taste of Maggi stock (or as one put it, of dried beer), they then got creative. They tried it with cheese, tuna (in tomato sauce), cream cheese and lastly with Überrübe, which is treacle made from turnips (sounds 'fantastic', doesn't it. For those not in the know, marmite and sweet stuff tastes really good, better than with cheese. If you've never tried marmite and golden syrup, try it now. We'll wait for you)

So, I'm quite proud to say that, in some sense, Marmite is a success here.

München Wieder!

2007-02-04T09:39:00.001Z

Once again in Munich!

I don't know what it is about this place, but I keep on coming back here.

This time I'm visiting a friend of my father's, Michael Staebler (who was a Foreign language assistant at my dad's school eons ago). Since he's been through the traumatic experience that culture is and lived to tell the tale, he's well aware that everyday life is fascinating to the non-initiated. Hence cane the invitation to me to visit.

Photos to come.

Shuffling

2007-01-28T20:10:00.000Z

The students, in general it appears, don't know how to ripple shuffle. That's the one where you hold the cards so they all flick downwards and mix together, pick up the resulting pile and flick them all downwards again, so that it becomes one pile, rather than two interlaced piles.

Top photo is wolfgang practising, bottom photo is the guys (Wolfgang, Tim, Mario, Maximillian) playing with either cards or the coffee thermos.

Skifahrt

2007-01-28T19:30:00.000Z

Me with my snowboard (Newly rented)

The Domgymnasium Naumburg has a yearly ski trip, to which I was invited (Go the Dom!).
We left early (just before 7am) on Sunday morning and came back late, due to snow piling up on the Autobahn, on the following Saturday, which meant 5 whole days of snow-filled slopes. Man, were we optomistic!

We go to Balderschwang (very south Bavaria) while it was still green. You could see the grass. For anyone who knows about the area (which, naturally, everybody does) this is a bad sign for anyone wanting to go skiing. We thought to ourselves (which means the teachers thought to themselves, and I just happened to be in the area while they were thinking; I had the honoured task of finishing off the cake) about how to solve the problem of the lack of snow. Simplest answer: go somewhere else. Being mountains, there's areas which are sheltered and don't get snow as readily as other bits. We therefore headed off to Grasgehren the next day, where the snow, what little there was, had huddled down with other patches of snow for mutual encouragement and comfort. The winter here has been so mild that I'm sure that the snow doesn't know if it's meant to be there or not. (see photo)

By Wednesday the whole place was white. Up until now when I've been in places which are covered in snow (which has been regettably not often enough), the trees still look green... well, green covered with white. Here the trees looked grey, not a single speck of green could be seen anywhere, it was amazing! (see photos)

The whole week was soooooooooooooo much fun. I've decided that I'm giving up languages and interpretation, moving to

Swizerland and becoming a ski slope operator, just so I can use the slopes regularly. I have bruises all over, on my knees especially. You'd be amazed how easy it is to not stand up properly once you've been strapped into one of these infernal machines (as you can see, it's a bit of a love/hate relationship with the 'board, but I really don't want to give it up)

Ankle deep in the snow

I like this week

2007-01-17T08:46:00.000Z

This week has to be one of the best so far here. Most likely 'cause it's such a contrast to last week.

(Note: last week sucked a couple of major lemons. The small-town syndrome kicked in big time and the fact that there is next to no-one my age here, hence no really good friends, was a constant theme)

Monday: German Classes! finally. Another Foreign Language Assistant in Leipzig has organised classes for a bunch of us, so at least I'll have regular contact with other people who understand my situation. The class was relaxed and lots of fun. There's only 6 students so far, so there's lots of opportunity to talk to the teacher and ask specific questions.

Tuesday: Salsa dancing. Actually Bachata (I had never heard of it either). It was really simple to get the basics and it looks quite good. Next time we're doing Merengue, assuming the class doesn't get much bigger and everyone else wants to start it as well. The teachers danced a few of the dances that they teach, so that everyone knows what they look like. Merengue is cool - lots of twists, turns and throwing each other around the dance floor.

Wednesday: I have only ONE class! I like Wednesdays. The only thing is that it's at 8am. Then I have sport classes all afternoon: judo through the school, then a wierd Judo/karate class that just started up, so I'm not sure that it really knows what it wants to be; and lastly Volleyball in the evening. I suck at volleyball, but it is fun. There's a whole bunch of people from my church who do volleyball on Wed, so it's a good chance to get to know them more.

Thursday: Nothing special, just work.

Friday: MY BRACES ARE COMING OFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Plus packing for the next week

Saturday: The school has it's open 'day' in the morning, so I'm being official and foreign and English-speaking. I haven't yet been given any official tasks or places to be, but I think it'll involve talking about NZ.
Then: apparently they have a stonehengy-like thing in the area and one of the students is taking me there to show it off. She was/is a tour guide there, so knows all about it.

Sunday: up early, I have to be in town by 7am. yay. The school Ski week starts then and I'm tagging along. That's one of the nice things about being 'the foreigner', everyone's been inviting me all over the place. (don't expect a blog nextweek, but hopefully there'll be photos. The only chance I have to put up photos is at home, and the connection there is not the best.)

One Week left!

2007-01-12T14:58:00.000Z

Finaly - The stupid things are coming off!

Braces suck - never get them (unless, of course, your parents decide to inflict them on you). But now thank goodness, they're coming off next Friday. Yay yay yay!

In some ways I feel quite lucky, I was old when I got them, 22 or something extreme like that, so I was told they'd have to be on for longer (lack of growth etc etc), but they're coming off within two years: 20 months to be exact.

I shall be celebrating next friday.

The computer's down

2007-01-09T13:09:00.000Z

So, the comupter at home is once again on the fritz. So, there'll be photos put onto this blog when it's working again.

Last week: visiting Dad & Graham, Visting Shakespeare.

It was wonderful to once again have the opportunity to not have to speak German, be German or think in German. What do I do? I miss the people, food and language of course.
*emotionless tone* I love Irony.

I went to England on the 2nd to visit dad and Graham, who recently got themselves hitched in the English equivalent of the Civil Union (I think they call it a civil partnership, but I'm not sure). So in England at the very least, I have a step-dad. The photo to the right is the best that I have of them, dad's the one on the left.

We had very lazy week, which was wonderful. The most strenuous things we did were going to Stratford-Upon-Avon to visit the birthplace of Shakepeare (the very room even!) and the house of Anne Hathaway, who became Anne Shakespeare after an indiscretion with consequences. We finished off the day by seeing 'The Merry Wives of Windsor - The Musical" with Simon Callow (You'll know his face) and Judi Dench. It was fantastic, do go to England to see it.

The rest of the week was eating, sleeping, doing Su Dokus and buying an MP3 player - very stressful work.

Now it's back to work for two weeks, then I'm going on the school Ski Trip at the End of Jan, then a three-day week, then Holidays. I love it here.

Visual Aides

2007-01-01T18:23:00.000Z

So, back to old computer. About a month after the new Rector moved in, we started having problems with the internet connection and his phoneline - both kept on cutting out. After a while we worked out that they were cutting out at the same time. This was a clue.

So, having got the workman in the for fifth time, or something around this number, it was decided that the internet connection for the volunteers and me was not to be used, so that the rector wouldn't have to worry about his phone line cutting out.

The rector is out tonight. Yay.

There is another computer in the house which ahs an internet connection, but it lacks a USB port, and so there haven't been many photos of late; but tonight, hah!, tonight I am once again in the realm of the visually aided!

This 'ere is the Naumburg Cathedral, the only tourist attraction for miles around. It itself is actually quite interesting, with lots of little stories about how it was built and random metaphorical sculpture / banister rails. If you look back through the blog, somewhere (early on, I'm pretty sure) there's a picture of Ekkehart and Uta, two of the financiers of the Cathedral (=Dom). They're both found inside the church.

I was given a wonderful book for Christmas called "Nichtweihnachten" (Not-Christmas)
The following a couple of the cartoons from it (translations are underneath):

"The Fly-Catcher Works!"

"I couldn't finish writing 'Pony' and now I'm worried what I'm gonna get given!"

('Po' means 'bum')

The Human Buttock/Chair Interface project

2006-12-27T15:04:00.000Z

Check this out:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/3911789a10.html

It once again proves how weird NZ news really is.

For all of you who would like to get a copy of the recipe for German Lebkuchen, please see the comment at the end of the post It never ends! .

Christmas was fun - one of the nice quaint things about Naumburg is that it was designed by the ex-East German govt to be nice and quaint. It's been exactly (or pretty much) how I thought it would be. We ate German food, sang German songs, went to a German Messe (catholic Mass) and Walked through dark clammy German Fog. Other than that, it's the same thing with the same sentiment. It was picturesque though.

The snow went south for the summer, but couldn't get over the mountains, so it's been visiting relatives in Bavaria. The locals expect it to return mid-january, then overstay its welcome and last until the end of March.

I rode home on my bike yesterday after being at a christmas party that some people from my church had organised (rather they had an open home and people turned up). When I left to go home, I found that the seat of the bike had frozen, with a nice thin layer of ice covering it. The things these people have to put up with! It's little things like that, that you don't even think of that really make the difference between here and home.

It never ends!

2006-12-18T18:46:00.000Z

Opera, again, for free.
I know what Helene Hanff felt like when she wrote "The Duchess of Blomssbury Street"
(For those who've not had the pleasure, this is the sequal to 84, Charing Cross Road. This is a direct instruction to you all: Read these books. It's a must for everyone interested in Anglo-American intercultural relations. )

So, the Opera this time was in Erfurt, for a change from Leipzig, and was based on Hansel and Gretel. We had 47 students, all aged aproximately 10 years and three teachers. Well, two teachers and me. Being opera, it was thoroughly unsurprising that the kids were bored silly, until the explosions started.

This was, unfortunately, towards the end of the 2nd act (ie: pretty late in the whole thing). The witch was incovertly shoved into her large and conviniently man-sized oven and everyone celebrated; just long enough for the shrieks of joy and elation to die away before the oven exploded, signalling the end of the witch by her being turned into a giant cake of Gingerbread.

I'm open for logical explanations of people exploding into gingerbread, if anyone can find one. If not, then illogical ones could be fun.

Warm and Sunny

2006-12-11T20:32:00.000Z

It's started to rain. Finally!

It's not particularly pleasent, being the onset of real autumnal weather, but at least it's finally got itself going. The weather here has been nice up til now, but the locals say that they usually have had a dump of snow by now.

I've come all the way from NZ to Germany - the heart and soul of Christmas and not one little snowflake do I see... I can only assume that the weather is going to stay unusual and dump a whole lot of snow ready for christmas day itself.

I'm doing a series of lessons on Christmas in New Zealand this week: Traditions, differences and images. It's turning out not to be so much of a lesson as a talk or speech. Mind you, the point of the class is oral/aural exercise, so I'm not sure if it's a bad thing or not. I found these two pictures and thought they'd be a hoot.

The problem I've got is that the major difference is that it's summer here. The rest of our traditions come from England, and the know those already. How do you strech out 'It's summer there' for 45 minutes?

I'm pretty sure that I'll stretch it out for just 20 minutes, mumble a bit, then get the kids to compare Germany to New Zealand for the next 20. Passing around weird Santa pictures, such as the above, will entertain them for a couple of seconds as well.

If anyone has any ideas on the subject, please leave a comment, believe me, I need the ideas!

Operatic Christmas

2006-12-04T18:08:00.000Z

It's Christmas time! Yay Yay Yay. Christmas really is a German thing, no one can do it better.

My dad and a friend of his, Graham (who loves classical music and opera) was over last weekend from England and he brought me a tree (see picture). It's great in a kitsch kinda way. I like it.

The whole place here turns around christmas. If you go walking around Naumburg (which, naturally, all of you reading this do) you can find little yards where someone has set up a mulled wine and bratwurst stall, or another one selling random christmas decorations or presents. I even found one stall that was selling real Israeli jewellry.

When dad was here we went to Leipzig on Saturday, wandered around, saw Auerbach's Keller (for those not in the know: this was a student pub that Goethe (BIG German author that no-one understands, Like Shakespeare) liked so much, he wrote it into his masterpiece. Once he did this the pub became a big hit and is now once of the most posh, elite places to dine in Leipzig), wandered around the christmas markets, saying 'ooh',' aah', and 'isn't this quaint'. Then Graham pulled out tickets to go see the Magic Flute that evening and proceeded to educate me about opera, how it is meant to be seen and what the plot of the Magic Flute actual is and means (to which dad said: it happens to be anything that you can read into it).

The Magic Flute was great. Plotwise, it's weird, so go look it up. The fun thing is that it's given me a taste, that was followed up the next week by 'Lohengrin', a rather heafty opera by Wagner.

One of the teachers from the Dom Gymnasium (where I work) tries to get to the opera at least once a month. This month it was Lohengrin. She happens to have good contacts and goes with a group of students, so that it's cheaper for her. Sneaky sneaky. Lohengrin makes more sense than 'Flute', but it's Wagner. The teacher in Question, a certain Frau Runkewitz (she's an absolute classic!), said to me before the opera that she's always been afraid of Wagner, and now I know why. It's hard to sdescribe, but Wagnerian opera really does take a lot of effort to watch, at least Lohengrin did.

His most well-known piece (or so I think), is the Ring cycle, which last for 5 nights running and has been known to cause not-quite-fit-enough sopranoes to faint halfway through particularly difficult arias. Wagner is serious business.

So, this last month has gone very well I am pleased to say. I've been to Leipzig about three times in the last 4 weeks, seen two operas, got most of my christmas shopping done and have only three weeks of teaching before the holidays begin. All's well.

Avoidable Stuff-Ups # 97

2006-12-04T17:55:00.000Z

'Köstlich' was presenting me with a bit of trouble. I thought it meant 'bargain', or 'cheap'. It turns out to mean 'delicious' or 'tasty'.

Interesting methinks. I researched the word and found out that it comes from 'kosten' (obiouvsly enough), which means 'to taste'.

'z' is pronouced in German as 'ts', so 'kotzen' is pronounced the same as 'kotsen'

'kosten' = 'to taste'
'kotzen' = 'to vomit'

I'll let you figure out what happened...

Halle

2006-11-29T20:35:00.000Z

All of the FSA's (Fremdsprachenassistenten(Foreign languages assistants)) from Sachsen-Anhalt met in Halle this week to discuss how the first 2 months have gone.
It took all of 2 hours out of 3 days.

As far as I can tell, the whole point of the exercise was that we get to know each other, so that if stuff gets bad or we just want to complain, or have something to do in the weekend, we've got other people who're there and experiencing the same stuff as ourselves. Good idea, really.

My opinion of Halle has changed. I used to think that it was this old, worn down/out, old junk heap in the middle of Germany. Now I know (from what the other FSA's have said) that it's better than Magdeburg, the capital of Sachsen-Anhalt. So I'm happy that we've got the prettier of the two old, worn down/out junk heaps.

It's actually not that bad. The main problem that it has is the same problem throughout the area: post WW2 and post East Germany, people left for the West and abandoned their property, which is now sitting in the middle of the city deteriorating and noone can do anything about it.

I'm feeling far more relaxed about what I'm doing. My Mentor teacher met with the other mentor teachers and he said that they were impressed at what I was doing in the school. Maybe he just painted a nice picture, but everything seems to be going well.

Backlog

2006-11-22T21:35:00.000Z

I save bunches of photos for my blog on the computer, but I don't use them all and they just sit there doing nothing. It's very un-german. They should start learning how write in C++ or something applicable, that would be german.

Miriam of Bavaria plus friends. They wanted fun, so we crashed in their church's youth rooms for the night. It was this lot that produced the copy of 'Reli-Tabu' (see one of the previous postings). Miriam is the second on the left, in pink. It's hard to miss her, well, the pink really, it kinda attacks your eyes.

Elias and a statue of one of the characters in the Magic Flute. We went pine-cone hunting one day and happened to go through this 'suburb' (four streets making a square. Calling it a 'hof' ('yard', but bigger) would be more accurate). One of the people who used to live there had played the same character (the one pictured) for about 40 years or some insanely long time. Anywho, all the neighbours loved him and he apparently was well known because of this character that he played, and so when he carcked it, he got a statue. Pity he never saw it.

I went to a German gallery of modern art. See above. The black thing on the top is a foot. The bottom one isn't. Don't ask for details, since none exist.

These two were awesome! I went for a walk around München with Adele (who needs no explanation) and we happend to be passing through the palace park when these two were playing. Nothing special, but I am going to have to learn the accordian at some point. I'm enrolled at the local music school in Naumburg, but the teachers have no extra time for me and of course I arrived to late to get into a class at the beginning of the year. I'm down for Accordion or Oboe (both being nicely weird), so we'll just see which happens to be free first. The only problem is how to get the accordian to and from home on the bike....

School and Home

2006-11-20T20:31:00.000Z

My School. The Dom Gymnasium (Cathedral College) in Naumburg has a long history, dating back...um...ages. At least 500 years or so, it really is old. Thankfully that has nothing to do with where I work. The Dom gymnasium is actually our other campus, affectionately called 'Das Zwerghaus' (the dwarf house) because the younger kids are there (years 5 to 9). The building in the photos above is the once-upon-a-time Lepsius Gymnasium, named after Richard Lepsius, which was melded with the Dom Gymnasium a few years back.

Richard Lespsius helped Armenians when no-one else would. That's all I know of the story. You've got access to the internet; look it up and tell me about it.

This is sunny little Roßbach, population 306 + 1. The hazy buildings you can't see in the backgroud are Naumburg, well, a bit of it at least. The building on the right, foreground, is part of the St Michaelshaus, where I live. The spikey thing is the St Elisabeth's Church, which runs when someone wants to open the doors and give the place a good airing. Its windows are on at an angle and the bell never chimes on time. I've tried to see how fast or slow it is, but it seems to not be able to make up its mind. Sometimes it's 4 minutes fast, others it's 7 minutes slow.

Avoidable Stuff-Ups # 91

2006-11-20T20:26:00.000Z

I went to see Borat. Incredibly offensive. I think I injured myself laughing.

Anywho, I was asked how it was. I wanted to answer "Krass, in beide Sinne" (I'm not sure if that's even grammatically correct). It means "Krass, in both senses". 'Kras' is an extreme, it can be incredibly good or incredibly bad, so I was meaning it was both excellent and offensive.
What I ended up saying was "Kras im Badezimmer" : 'Kras, in the bathroom.'

The other staff 2

2006-11-20T18:15:00.000Z

Success! My collection Grows ever more.

First up: Frau Schneider. She is the man (if I can say such a thing). She was one of the first people who welcomed me here and made me feel welcome. In the beginning before I really got to know people, she was one of those people who knew what it is like, setting up a new life in a new place and so on.

Seocond is Frau Becker, likewise manny in all things. Her class, 7d (13 year olds) played up a bit, but she really knew how to tackle problem students. Her control was amazing! She knew the right thing to say at the right time. This is the kind of teacher who is MEANT to be be a teacher.

Fraus Schunke and Regel. Friendly and down to earth. Schunke took me with her class to this random farm today that had a whole bunch of fairy tale character made out of straw. Not the sort of thing you see everyday. Her words of the day were 'na' and 'drollig'. Drollig: cute and childlike and funny. 'Na' is like 'eh' - al purpose word that ou can use for everything. At one point she had a complete conversation using (almost) only this word.

Frau Melder and Frau Hörold. Actually these two have little to do with each other, except that they both teach the 'dwarfs', as the younger pupils are 'lovingly' called here.

So, that's a total of 10 out of 12. I'm increasingly convinced that there's not 12. I'm going to have a recount and see what comes out...

Peoples, Persons and Friends

2006-11-12T14:40:00.000Z

These are Birte and Torsten. Birte hates photos, so these have been waiting around till I got a good one of her. Basically, Birte and Torsten just plain rock. They keep me sane through their own special, God-given brand of madness. Torsten has recently turned 21 (these photos were taken on the day before his brithday), Birte is still marching along at 20. Interestingly enough Torsten has the same birthday as my brother. Go coincidence!

This is Phillip (I hope I've spelt that correctly, Germans seem to do that often: have a normal sounding name and spell it weirdly. Weird-sounding names spelled normally are bad enough). Anywho, this is Phillip. likewise deranged, but I'm not sure to what degree. He lives and studies in Zeitz, where Birte and Torsten also study, so He's not around all the time.

These last two are two of the volunteers that work at the house. Left is Benny, tall, competant in English and does Ballet; right is Rebekah (I choose the weird spelling because, as previously stated, this is Germany). Rebekah isn't a full-time volunteer, unlike Benny. Her sister, Uta (see post 'The Staff' ), is here full-time, in theory, but R. comes and works here during holidays, semi-regularly as far as I can work out. Her sarcasm can pretty much only be matched by Frau Exner's or by Uta's. Both are nicely mentally unbalanced.

Adventure and Daring

2006-11-12T13:55:00.000Z

Well, the lastest adventure has been done before in sunny new zealand, but there it's usually only done in the same way as here by accident, or by people who are driving home from Parakai at 1 in the morning, are overtired, know they're going to Germany in a few months and therefore need the practice and have passengers in the car who need to be jolted awake by a nice little shock. Going the wrong way 'round a roundabout is kinda fun.

The subtle yellow machine is called 'the bully'. I'm not sure how you spell 'bully' in German, but that apparent the word for 'van'. Every car of this shape can be called a bully.

The second little machine is the Exnermobile. The mobile that moves the Exners (For those not in the know, the Exners, or at least Frau Exner, runs the house I'm living in).

Frau Exner had been saying for a while that she wanted to see me driving, and finally got her opportunity: My bike was broken and needed to be taken to the shop, I needed to be dropped off at school and Frau E. needed to go the bakery. We needed to use the bully, in or der to firstly get the bike to the shop and then pick up the bread. They picked up a LOT of bread. Anywho, the excuse is that the last person who used the bully had parked it far to close to the wall, therefore a lithe and nimble person was needed to get into said van. However, no-one like that was around, so I got the job. The driving was fun, though slow, since I don't know the roads here well.

The Exner kids (of which there are four. They make a very good alarm clock - they go off at about 6:30 every morning on the dot), well two of the Exnerites were going to youth group on Friday. Frau Exner had had enough of the day and basically didn't want to drive, so got me to tag along, which I do quite happily, the Exners are mad (ie: fun).

So much driving was done, with no damage to poles, cats, fountains, pedestrians, nor even to reputations.

Old snaps are hard to delete

2006-11-09T21:18:00.000Z

Here are some photos of old that I took while amusement hit me, hope you like them.

Religious Taboo! That's right, now christians and atheists can join together for a night a raucus fun. You avoid talking about it in daily life, and here you can earn points and win for the EXACT same thing!

The Naumburger Oktoberfest. This thing gets everywhere. The only improvement on the genuine atricle, is that this one actually took place during October. The beer was cheap, the music far too loud and incomprehensible, but the dancers didn't seem to mind. The thing i just didn't get is why Naumburg was celebrating the wedding of a Bavarian prince...

Man, the Germans are great - if they don't have it, they'll get it. Apparently once upon a time germany imported 10,000 cubic metres of sand, dumped it in the Englischer Garten in Munich and had a beach party. After the weekend, when all was over, they picked up the sand, carted it off to another city and began again...

The surfing, though, is very impressive. Running through the Englischer Garten are a couple of rivers, and one of them had this little trough in it, making a small perpetual unmoving wave. The people upon hig merely made the trough a bit deeper, and voila! Instant unmoving perpetual wave in the middle of a continent.

Avoidable Stuff-Ups # 84

2006-11-07T07:58:00.000Z

A couple of the volunteers from the home and I were in the local and somehow the topic of being handicapped came up.
Physisch behindert (physically disabled) was first then should have come geistig behindert (mentally disabled); I, blinded by my own brilliance, promptly turned this into geistlich behindert (spiritually disabled).

Karlsruhe

2006-10-30T13:47:00.000Z

Karlsruhe was great!
I spent the week on a couch, well, only bits of it really, when the sky closed its eyes. I stayed with a friend, Shan, who I met in May this year, via a good friend, Ruth. Wellington keeps on throwing out all these cool people. Why do they all leave? I thought Wellington was the place to be...
This is Shan. The photo's on a weird angle 'cause we were on the kitchen floor checking out a map of Germany.

Karlsruhe got it all, a Zoo, a Hauptbahnhof (mind you, everywhere's got one of them) ana a big statue of Karl. Karlsruhe got it name from this rich guy, Carl. He was the brother of some richer guy (probably an emperor or something similar), who said to the C-man, go make a town for yourself. Carl, being a good little brother, promptly did so.

The story goes that he was looking for a good spot to build his pad when he got tired, sat down, leaned against a tree and rested. Before getting up he thought to himself, 'this is a cracker of a pozzie' and so Karlsruhe (Karl's rest) was born. Mataphorically speaking.

The zoo is quite central and not huge, but it's got llamas and elephants. This i know because it also has a pedestrian bridge going over the top of it, so you get to look in without paying. Excellent advertising.

On the last day shan and I went to Carl's palace, which is in the centre of the town, even though the town is mostly south. There's a few ring roads, with the palace dead centre of all of them and lots of roads going out from the palace, so you can pretty much see the palace any where you are. If you keep on going in one direction in Karlsruhe and don't see the palace, don't worry, you'll eventually come back to where you started, since the only place that can happen is on the ring roads.
On this trip to the palace we were overtaken several times by a troup of unicyclists (aged roughly 7-12) They'd only been learning a couple of months, but they were incredibly good.

They aren't actually holding each other up here, they just suddenly decided to ride like that.

So go to Karlsruhe! It's not usually on the tourist trail apparently, but they've got stuff there.

The Other Staff

2006-10-30T13:19:00.000Z

Here are some photos of the staff of the English department at the Domgymnasium. They say that there's twelve of them in all. I've been making a list to help me remember their names (me being terrible at remembering names) and none of them can actually figure out who the twelve are.

I've decided to try to get photos of them all and catalogue them. It has just occured to me that this is a very pokemon-esk untaking. Eg: Some of the teachers are everywhere no matter where you go in the school (and we've got two campuses) they're their before you. Others noone has even heard of, plus there's this elusive and mythical twelfth english teacher....

Here are some of the common variety teachers:
Herr Volker Hörold
Frau Andrea Dörfel (the blond one)
Frau Heidi Wolf (The one by the window)
Frau Monika Beller (The one left over)

Frau Beller isn't actually an english teacher this year, but this is apparently a major exception. She's in there to make sure i get the whole set. Besides which she's almost always in the english teacher's room, so she's an honorary english teacher at the very least.

I thought it was a french thing.

2006-10-22T16:26:00.000Z

Horse. I ate horse gulash today. It looked like cow, and when i asked they said yes, it is cow....

...

and horse.

It tasted quite nice, but it's still horse. Pig, sheep and cow are ok - they're not graceful - but horses are. If cows could do ballet or martial arts or something, then they'd get some respect.
I bet that's why equestrian events are so big. The horses figured out that if they jump lots and jump well, then people'd stop eating them. It does make life tough if someone's trying to eat you...