7/8-7/10: saw you address them to your megaphone

Sunday 7/8:
Sunday I got to sleep in. Thank goodness--we got home at 2am on Saturday night and I'd left the house at 730 that morning. Bianca and Norman and Sarah and Chris came by to pick me up around 1130 and we went to the zoo in Stuttgart. (I should make a cheat sheet of who all these people are. Hm.) All the animals had little babies... 3 month old tigers are SO CUTE. It's a good time of year to go to the zoo. I learned a bunch of animal names in German and they did in English. I really like talking with Bianca. She's very good at speaking slowly and clearly and in real German, not the dialect, and talking around words I don't know also in German so I learn a lot talking with her. She knows some English, too, and between her English and my German we can get most things across. I feel much less dumb then. Many of my younger relatives who know English just try and speak English with me, which doesn't do me much good (though I guess they like practicing). Others who speak little or no English often just talk really quickly and I understand nothing. The dialect doesn't help, either. It's great to talk with Angelika about things in English because hers is so good that we can talk about just about anything, but it's also great to talk with Bianca and feel competent with my German. Oh! Also, I told a little story in German while we were at the zoo--we were looking at the giraffes, and my dad's really funny about giraffes. He asks you if you know what sound a giraffe makes, and when you say no he just sticks out his tongue and says that's the noise it makes. I managed to get that across in German and everyone laughed and it was great!

At night, though, when we were eating dinner back here (blueberry pancakes... man, german pancakes are so much better than american pancakes), everyone was talking so fast and I got really frustrated, finally. They were just talking amongst themselves about nothing important, but it's just frustrating and boring not to have any idea what's going on but it would have been rude for me to just get up and go away and I think it's probably annoying that I am always asking everyone to speak slowly so I can understand even when they're just chatting like that. Anyway, I was so tired and frustrated, I cried a bit when everyone left and I tried to think of what I'd do at home if I was feeling so crappy.... I would drink some wine and take a bath and read in the tub (god I'm so spoiled!). But I couldn't do that, so I came and sat in the computer room and poked about on the internet for a little bit while Oma and Monika took a walk and Jurgen watched some tv in the living room. When they came back, they all invited me to have a glass of wine and a snack and we looked at photos from Monika and Jurgen's trip to Florida last year and spoke some slow German. My grammar is terrible, and I don't know a lot of words, but at least I can communicate some things.

So, Sunday was the high point and low point of communicating up 'til then.

Monday 7/9:
Oh man, was that really only yesterday? What on earth did I do, anyway? Let's see. Had lunch at Tante Lisa's--more pancakes, with cherries. Yum. I understand very, very little when Oma and Tante Lisa talk, but I did read a random article in German in a magazine while we were there. Then Angelika&Mareike came by and took Oma and I to Schoemberg, a slightly larger town than this one, where we did a wee bit of shopping. I bought a Vokabeln-Heft (vocabulary notebook), a gift or two, fancy yarn, a magazine for German reading and some snacks.

After dinner, Roswitha and Heinz came by and we looked at photos from Julia and Daniel's wedding and also photos on my computer and had a long conversation about apartments and rent and living being expensive, all in German, and I understood a lot and could speak a lot. It was very good. I stop being able to understand German around 9:30, though, when I start to get all tired-like.... it takes so much concentration to understand, however, now when I get in the groove of it I understand more when people speak more quickly. Still not up to regular speaking speed so much, but I don't feel so constantly lost anymore. Oma was all proud... cute. :)

Tuesday 7/10:
Ahh, today. Finally catching up! Today I woke up at 10 and stayed in bed 'til 11 because it's the only time I get to myself at all. Life is hard for solitary creatures! ;) Anyway. Walked to Angelika's... she started to teach me how to knit socks with five needles while Oma tended to her sister. I'm actually making legwarmers, which are easier, but still hard. The yarn is awesome, all blue and green and purple, and the wee bit I've done so far looks cool. Mareike took her first steps alone last night, and I got to see her walk today. She is so cute (also, kids are the same everywhere, and that is kind of comforting when everything else is different). We played with her for a while, too. On the walk back home Oma and I stopped at the bakery and I got something yummy with marzipan. Monika made fresh strawberry ice cream for dessert, too. Yum yum yum. What else? Ah, yes, we went for a long walk again with Monika's Irish friend, this time in the woods. She and I talked about the differences between America and Germany and Ireland with work and health care and whatnot. Everything is so interesting! I had a good scare falling about five minutes into our walk--my ankle twisted a bit and decided I wasn't standing any more. It's fine, but I ripped the knee of my jeans (man, I have two pairs I like, and now one's been busted twice!) and my knee a little. When we got back Bianca and Norman were here for a bit. I had my 2nd dessert, I knitted a bit more, I took a shower. Mmm, yeah.

Mostly low key day today, but I'm still really tired. All this walking, and mountain air. I think I'm going to read a little and then head to bed. I forget what I'm supposed to do tomorrow, but Thursday I have to be up real early to take the train to Bremen to visit my friend Lily. So far we've planned to go see Harry Potter immediately, wander about in the city looking for things I want to buy, and watch the finale of Supernatural and maybe go to a museum. Ahhh. Sounds like a perfect vacation from my vacation!



I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but. I'm done for the night. Ta!

7/5-7/7: my dreams are haunted by armies, armies of ghosts

Thursday 7/5:
At Heiko's birthday party, after a couple hours of not understanding and not really talking with anyone (it was a long party) I finally managed to get people to speak slowly enough that I could understand what was going on for a bit... and totally astounded my Oma with how much I could understand. I also read several things in German, because I can read much better than speak or listen--I can go as slow as I want and see the word and say the word and take it apart and read the sentence three times until I figure it out with context. I guess my German isn't so bad after all, as long as I can go slowly. Oh, and I also got to try some raspberry vodka that Angelika raspberried with fresh ones from the garden. It was sooooooooo good.

Friday 7/6:
I didn't sleep at all Thursday night. I decided, though, that if I wasn't going to sleep, I had to think in German, so I spent the night digging around in my brain for German words and making sentences. I had a moment of triumph in the middle of the night when I made some fancy sentence work, and then was sad that no one would ever hear it. I got out of bed around 4, had a snack, looked out the window, sat on the couch, decided I'd go back to bed at 4:30... sleep still never came, though, so I had breakfast at 6 and then had a bit of time to fuss with my photos. The internet here is slow (it goes through something like two wireless points before becoming wired here... weird country internet), so I haven't uploaded too many yet.

Anyway. We (we being me, Oma, Angelika, Mareike-the-baby and Monika) set off for the day. First we went to Gummi-Baeren-Land and bought lots of gummy bears and candy. Then to Wallberg, a Truemmerberg (a mountain made of debris from WW2) in Pforzheim (the closest small city... the village my family lives in has less than 2000 people). Anyway, we climbed up this little mountain... there's a memorial on the top of the mountain, pictures of bits of the city before 1945, after the war, and then reconstructed. From the top, we could see sooooooo far. So many little red-roofed towns and trees. Everything is beautiful here. Angelika speaks excellent english, so she pointed out to me where many things were. It got windy and cold but it had finally stopped raining. I was really tired when we got back, from the whole not sleeping the night before thing. But then Monika's walking partner came over and they and Oma and I went for a walk. I forget her name.... she is from Ireland and thus speaks english, which is nice, and she's very nice, and we walked the scenic tour of Engelsbrand (this village where my family lives) to see what is here. And I took a zmillion more photos. We came back to the house and had some wine and chatted some more and then went to bed.

Saturday 7/7:
Friday night I slept a bit finally. However, I am sharing a room with my Oma, and she snores. And I am such a light sleeper. So I slept a few hours solidly from the wine and then was awake off and on the rest of the night from the snoring. Night was short, too... I was out of the house by half past seven in the morning to go to the farmers market with various family members (it was like a big vocabulary lesson and the smell of all those fruits and vegetables made me hungry). I woke up so grumpy and spent my shower grumbling to myself half in german (I decided if I was going to just rant, I had to do it in german). Of course, I'd been so frustrated with my Oma and she made sure I had something special that I'd like for breakfast.

Anyway. Then we came home for a wee bit and I futzed with my photos... I didn't write anything because all I was going to do was complain about being tired. Angelika showed up to take us mountain climbing. We went to Bad Wildbad and took this wee little train up the steep part of the mountain and walked the rest of the way through the Black Forest to the Gruen Huette (how do you make umlauts on here?) and met up with Monika and Jurgen, who took the car around to the other side, and had lunch there. Then we walked the rest of the way out of the woods, past a lake, through swampness, to where they'd left the car. I took so many pictures of trees. The way we walked after lunch was full of wild blueberry bushes with big, fat wild blueberries. We picked a whole bunch and brought them home. Wild blueberries! Free for the eating! And a few early raspberries, too. So much yum! My fingers are still a little bit blue. Everything was just so awesome and beautiful there. We walked 8 or 9 miles at a high altitude... man was I tired when we were done! I kept almost falling asleep on the drive back.

THEN we had dinner at Heiko and Angelika's, and THEN Bianca and Norman picked me up to go to a Fest (Fair? Party? thing) in Stuttgart, about 45 minutes-1 hr away. I finally met Julia (who I wrote letters with about 10 years ago when she was learning english) and her husband Daniel. Julia is 6 months older than me and just spent 3 months in Africa. Anyway. We saw a light show on a tower and some fireworks (to make up for not being in America for the 4th of July) and ate some fried dough (fair food is the same everywhere?) and stopped at McDonalds for french fries on the way back to Engelsbrand. When I got back here, it was about 2am. Oh man. Bianca had given me some ear plugs to combat the snoring, and I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow and slept until 11am without waking or moving.

day two

I am still soooooooooooo tired. I slept from 8 last night to 1130 this morning, only waking up a few times, and I still feel like I could sleep for a week. Oh man. I can't tell if I feel crappy because of how tired I am or because I am fighting this cold still, but my head does feel a bit stuffy, especially my ears, and that sucks. I want to take a nap, but I probably won't wake up for ages, and then I'll be all mixed up. But tonight there are 20-some-odd people gathering for Heiko's birthday party and just listening is going to be exhausting. Everyone talks so fast it's hard for me to understand. Yesterday Norman and I spoke some troll at each other (point and grunt.. everyone can speak troll) because he has one year of english and I have 1.5 years of german and it was difficult. We got along alright, though, and only went for the dictionary a couple times. He's the one who set up the internet on my computer... we both speak that, at least.

It's rainy and cold, but today we took a walk in the woods. And ate blueberries picked off wild bushes. It's really interesting being here. So much of my family lives in this teeny little town. They all walk to each other's houses, to the bakery and butcher, to work, into the woods. There's a path in the woods starting a five minute walk from the house. There's a big tower you can climb and see everything, but it's wet and cloudy out today so I didn't climb it. Maybe some other day, and I'll take some cool Black Forest photos.

The internet is slow here, so I don't know how many pictures I will actually post, but I signed up for a flickr account today. So far most of my photos are of Marieke. We've established somehow that she's my 2nd cousin once removed (so complicated), and she's a year old and very cute. So far, my photos are taking a loooooonnng time to upload, and I'm not sure if I'll get sick of waiting before they finish. However. I am feeling too tired to think of things to say in any language right now, so I'm going to go fall over somewhere for a bit be dragged off for the party, oh god.

hallo aus deutschland!

I've arrived. I am in one piece. I have the internets, 'cause that was something common that we speak once my Oma went off to hello other relatives. There is much speaking of troll (point and grunt... anyone can speak troll) and consulting wee little books. But. My German is not actually as terrible as I suspected, and I can even make real sentences if I don't stop to think about it too much. \o/ (<--I couldn't make those keys on the german keyboard I was using before. Infuriating!) The flight was long but not too bad except for the the complete not sleeping and the end which was through stormclouds and rather thoroughly nauseating. Germany is pretty. Cars here are, overall, smaller and interesting looking. Anyway. I don't have a plug set up yet and I don't really know where in my suitcase the converters are, so I'mma go and try and speak some German. And perhaps remember people's names. (Oh man, it's only 10am there. It's 4pm here... only four more hours 'til I'm allowed to sleep......)

Okay, there's now a cheat sheet of people mentioned most often here up for your reference ;)