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Sunday, August 3rd, 2003
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7:42 pm
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could write a more philosophical entry, but i don't feel like it, so instead you get this rather more factual stuff:
got back from Urlaub Part 1: Vienna and Prague with Mely this morning at the ungodly hour of 6am. it was fun, relaxing (at least in part) and historically fabulous. (have decided that i want to be a medieval archaeologist when i grow up. it has been duly added to the list. :P) wrote zillions of pages in travel journal -- i may post excerpts at a later point if yall feel like reading it. those of you i'll see this month can just ask me for it.
Urlaub Part 2: Strasbourg Visiting Danny commences tomorrow at 12:35pm. i will be gone until 4-ish-pm on Friday the 8th. i will then proceed to pack like a madwoman until around 1pm on the 14th, at which time i will get on a train to Frankfurt with all seventy tons of my luggage. i will then fly to New York, where i will spend the night at  sessa's house before catching a 2:30 flight to Dulles, getting me all the way home sometime in the vicinity of 5pm on Friday August 15.
dunno when i'm heading back to school -- probably sometime like two weeks after that point. my classes start the 2nd, so i have a bit of leeway.
I WANT TO SEE YOU. leave comments saying when you're free, or just call sometime on or after the 15th. i may actually have a party sometime in the four-or-five days after i get home, as i believe most people will be home until the 20th? further bulletins on that as i work it out.
so yes. them be's the news. i am now off to sit naked in Mely's room watching MST3K and knitting vienna socks (yes, i bought yarn in vienna. shup.) while she packs. more later.
current mood: relaxed, and vaguely oily
current music: mely poking through drawers
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(26 comments | comment on this)
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| Saturday, July 26th, 2003
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2:42 pm
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...and one for Mely (ignore this if you don't know her) 'cause she can't make polls herself. (whee, having a paid account. :))
Poll #161091: Mely's Address List
Open to: all, results viewable to: noneWhat is your address?
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(comment on this)
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2:40 pm
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am in vienna, enjoying my Urlaub immensely. never knew it was possible to relax so quickly.
however, i forgot my address list, so if you want a postcard, please fill out the following poll.
love yall, see you the 3rd. :)
Poll #161089: Addresses again!
Open to: all, results viewable to: noneWhat is your address?
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(comment on this)
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| Friday, July 25th, 2003
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6:18 am
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5:56 am - good riddance
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| Thursday, July 24th, 2003
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7:57 pm
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oooohhh i really want to go here. really REALLY really.
things that are currently stopping me:
*i can't figure out how much it costs to get there. DAMN bahn.de for not telling me how much RBs and REs cost. :P although i have to go to the Bahnhof tomorrow anyway, so i guess i'll just ask then.
*i can't get anyone to go with me, unless  Amy decides to come or i magically find someone between now and the 9th of August. (hah.) and i think Amy's going to be traveling with Heiner. sigh.
*even if i DID know how much it cost to get there, it takes three and a half hours to get there and more like four or five to get back. and while this does not so much bother ME, i am known for my ridiculously high tolerance for long travel times, and it will probably deter anyone who i might otherwise have gotten to come along. wish Sonja weren't playing a gig that weekend. *wishes for a car*
maybe i'll just say fuckitall and go alone. but you know, Renfaires just are NOT as much fun alone as they are with someone to poke around with. (i've discovered that already twice this summer; i don't really want to remind myself again.)
sigh.
Renfaires at home are just never gonna be the same for me again.
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(comment on this)
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| Wednesday, July 23rd, 2003
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12:09 am
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in Mainz. or, more accurately, in the general vicinity of Mainz. spent the day hanging out with Staab, who i had missed and who is excellently entertaining even when he thinks he is being boring. the Rheinhessisch countryside is GORgeous. i decided i didn't feel like going home, for no apparent reason, so i will spend the night in his sister's room and go home in the morning. it's not that we're doing such Madly Exciting Things, or anything... just that doing non-exciting things somewhere else, with someone else, is somehow more enjoyable.
Staab is currently making a stuffed black panther fly. he accuses me of writing a novel-length journal entry. this is just because he never has more than two sentences worth of stuff to say. :P (or at least, not in his own journal. he suggests that i write that he is torturing me in his dungeon, and Germany is horrible, especially where he lives, so that you all will be confused and think i have weird friends.)
that said.
i'm getting rid of my stuff. O_o Sonja will get my plants tomorrow, and i'm making a list in my head of all the little things (note cards, hole punch, hangers, crap like that) to give to Riggs for the next group of exchange students. hard to believe i'm leaving in three weeks. the longer i stay here -- despite all the angst and settling-in issues -- the more i really enjoy it. somehow i will have to get money and come back.
current mood: happy
current music: staab talking (or, according to him, being obnoxious.)
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(5 comments | comment on this)
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| Monday, July 21st, 2003
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5:36 pm
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well THAT was a longer break than i intended to take. but i did spend some of it productively, anyway.
MUST FIND HONORS PROJECT GOING TO DIE. maybe the letters of Hildegarde to Henry II? wonder if i can get those online. wonder if i could slog through a German history book on her. otherwise, i'll have a busy-ass two weeks of Nothing But Research when i get home. gotta email Isaac and find out when the honors proposal is actually due. (knowing my luck, the 2nd of September. if this is the case, i will proceed to Hate Everyone.)
tanyrate, if i fail this linguistics exam none of it will matter anyway. :P off i go home to study some more. man, i hate the IPA.
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(comment on this)
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4:22 pm
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gahd, what is it with me doing quizzes? what is this, three this year already? four? people should stop making such highly entertaining quiz results.
( ahahahaha )
current mood: procraaaaaastinating
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(1 comment | comment on this)
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| Sunday, July 20th, 2003
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9:12 pm
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i am, apparently, a snarky gothy knitter.
i think this is the best description of me i have heard in a good long while.
and yanno, if i didn't have 122 people on my friends list (i am not making this number up) i might perpetuate the meme. you never know, i still may... let's see how sick i get of studying for linguistics. :P
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(3 comments | comment on this)
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5:10 pm
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random disconnected stuffs:
Staab is coming to Germany! and he will be in Mainz, where i can go for free, and i will visit him!
dude, this is the best news i've gotten all week.
( ticket info for Mely )
so apparently weekend early-afternoons are the best times for schwarzfahren. in the four train rides i have made in the past 24 hours (to and from Frankfurt twice) i got asked for my ticket once. part of this was, of course, because the Saturday 13:35 train was absolutely bursting at the seams... but the two today were pretty quiet, and nary a conductor was in evidence.
other train anecdote: yesterday, on the full-to-bursting train, i found myself sitting on the stairs with a bunch of seats to one side and a little landing area (also full of people) on the other. in the seats were a bunch of drunken skinheads yelling at some turks (and, tbh, most of the rest of the train.. fortunately it didn't escalate), while on the other side were these two adorable little boys, one African and one cappucino-colored somethingorother, playing with a spinny top. as i said to Kirsten about it: sad and ugly on one side, cute and hopeful on the other. ahh, the world. :P
OH MY GOD SO FUNNY. (from chaobell by way of Tucker) i have no idea what the game is or anything like that, but you really don't need to. ahhh, the snarkiness. *giggles insanely*
linguistik klausur on Tuesday. no longer terrified, just worried. have been studying on and off for the past week, am about to go into overdrive. I Can Do This. (then, and only then, will i start worrying about everything else. if i ain't around much this week, that's why. :P)
think that's all for now. Further Bulletins as Events Warrant.
current mood: naked!
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(5 comments | comment on this)
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| Saturday, July 19th, 2003
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12:51 pm
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went to Bingen yesterday to commune with Hildegarde. dunno how well i succeeded at that, since apparently the physical Hildegarde is currently everywhere BUT Bingen, but i had a lovely time anyway. wandered through some old churches and a castle, (including sneaky sneaking through the church which is, while not the original, on the same ground as Hildegarde's original abbey) saw the Hildegarde Museum and was, as i always am, awed by the sheer gorgeousness of the Rhine Valley. someday i will get into the Mauseturm, i don't care WHAT i have to do. nothing gets to look that beautiful from so far away.
it was a long, full day, but i already wrote about it in my travel journal, and besides it doesn't look as good written down as it did to live it. the two and a half rolls of photos i took do it more justice.
and now, off to Frankfurt. again. hoboy. hope they'll let me buy two student tickets with one studienausweis. (Mely, i'll let you know.)
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(1 comment | comment on this)
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| Thursday, July 17th, 2003
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4:37 pm
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| Wednesday, July 16th, 2003
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1:01 am
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oh. my. god.
remember this?
...and this?
get a load of this.
the awesomest thing that has ever happened to me just keeps getting awesomer.
someday i'm gonna have to find that dude and thank him. not, i imagine, that this is the kind of thing he'd want to be responsible for...
current mood: I AM THE COOLEST EVER
current music: Ode to a Whiny Jazz Major
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| Monday, July 14th, 2003
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11:56 pm
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my head has been hurting on and off (mostly on) for the past two and a half days. after a shouldn't-have-been-necessary hour-and-a-half nap this afternoon, it seems mostly to be better... i'd been sleeping, i'd been drinking water, i've been eating pretty well. only reason i can think of is that this month is the first non-artificial period i've had in a very long time (minor pill-related fiasco back at the beginning of April, i've been off them since then. only just started bleeding again last month, but that was so short i i didn't really count it). i never used to get headaches before, but i suppose it's possible.
been studying for my Linguistics final. bought a notebook today and have started filling it up with key words and notes and whatnot. the material isn't hard; it's the vocabulary that gets me. i could take this test without studying if only it were in English. (and about English grammar. but i'm pretty good at German grammar.) as it is, i'll be fine as long as the phonetics section is reasonably short (German has WAY too many vowel sounds, and i for one have great difficulty distinguishing between the short and long ä and e) and he stays off the dialectical stuff. we looked at a map of German dialects the other day, and it was truly frightening. i may have to scan it so you can all share my terror.
been taking a lot of notes in cursive lately. not entirely sure why; i haven't written willingly in cursive since about the eighth grade. i always liked my grandparents' handwriting, though, and printing can be so... boring. i should start writing letters in cursive too. make me feel all old-fashioned.
on the subject of which: those of you who have been writing me letters are encouraged to keep it up when i go back to Ohio. and those of you who haven't been should start, especially as the postage will become cheaper. i like letters.
orchestra concert tomorrow night. it's nice to be playing again, it really is. i haven't said much about it over the past few months but i really do enjoy it. makes me miss Cheilek. we're playing three pieces -- a Vaughan Williams symphony, a piece of an opera by Saint-Saens (no vocals) and a piano concerto by Tschaikovsky, in ascending order of preference. i'm sorry, i can't stand Vaughan Williams. i just can't. and Tschaik... he just makes my blood burn. there's something amazing about the way everything fits in, especially with the piano floating over the top of it all, or drumming away like thunder underneath. gives me goosebumps every time.
we're doing an arrangement of the soundtrack to LoTR as the encore. silly, but i have to admit i like it.
i'm out of cookies. someone oughta send me more. not that i'll be here for THAT much longer. (man, what a scary thought.)
i really don't want to go home... much as it's insane over here, i'm just starting to settle in. just getting used to it. next time i come it better be for a year or more. i've been thinking that i should wait a year after graduation to try to come back... partially so i can save up some money, but also so that Rosie will be a sophomore in college, and could conceivably try for a DAAD scholarship at the same time i do. i can't think of much that would be cooler than being in Germany with Rosie. i wonder what their criteria for "staying academically active after graduation" are...
wonder what i'd want to study. gotta go to Bingen this Friday, Hildegarde's waiting for me.
current mood: studious
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(4 comments | comment on this)
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1:01 am
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on the third (and probably final) unrelated note for the evening:
i want humongous hair clips.
like, industrial grade. hair clips so big that they cause normal hair to cower in terror, or at least look twice and go "dude, who NEEDS that?"
i want to be able to braid my hair, fold it in half, fold THAT against the back of my head, and clip it. one clip at the bottom, one at the top. i want to be able to get rid of my hair, comfortably, for 16 straight hours. (bobby pins do not work for this. they will get rid of the hair, but they hurt, and after three-ish hours they start working themselves loose.)
normally, i can't find a hair clip that will hold all of my hair ONE time, much less folded over on itself.
i have been looking on Google for three hours and have found NOTHING. i may have to resort to finding someone who knows how to do really small detailed metal work and having a pair custom made.
if anyone ever finds me hair clips like this... well, i don't know what i'll do, but it will be impressive.
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12:54 am
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hee hee... i loveAlice.
judedreamS: on an unrelated note, i don't think i'm allowed to buy pickles anymore :P
Alice: .....
Alice: *head spl0de*
judedreamS: *laugh*
Alice: yeah, that's a weeeee bit on the unrelated side
judedreamS: i SAID it was unrelated
Alice: pickles? why not? but...pickles!
judedreamS: because i bought a jar
judedreamS: and i opened it on Friday
judedreamS: and now i have one left
judedreamS: and by "opened it on Friday" i mean "opened it at midnight between Friday and Saturday"
Alice: ...today is...sunday?
judedreamS: yes.
Alice: that's...uh..math..ow.......ow....24+12+7 = 43 hours?
Alice: how many pickles in a jar?
judedreamS: it doesn't say. but as far as i can figure it's a 670g jar
Alice: 16 grams an hour...of course, you slept, so...0_0 lot of pickles
judedreamS: yes.
Alice: are you actually a pickle?
Alice: aha!
judedreamS: *tastes arm*
Alice: i knew it!
Alice: ...*munch*
judedreamS: no, i appear to be a bottle of sunscreen.
current mood: giggling insanely
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12:04 am
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| Saturday, July 12th, 2003
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7:29 pm
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and now some chick from Russia. as Mely says, i am international bekannt, y0. funky.
off to Schloßpark again. more trommelling must be done. despite the fact that just about all my knuckles on both hands are currently in varying states of bruisedness. small price to pay.
current mood:  mellow
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(7 comments | comment on this)
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2:13 am
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start of stadtfest tonight, which shall apparently run for the next two straight days. nevermind what i said about the Uni-Sommerfest; THIS is the Herndon Festival. only with a million more people, and spread all over the city and around a big castle. i swear, you could not turn AROUND without running into a silver-jewelry-vendor. O_o
decided at around 7:30 that i'd had enough of being inside. after Ky very kindly fed me the remains of his last night's grill party and i made an unsuccessful attempt to get in touch with Mely, i grabbed my camera and the newspaper addition i'd been handed in the bus this morning and headed down the hill. poked around the Marktplatz for a while before heading up to the Schloß to see what was going on in the park.
everything.
the Schloß itself was blocked off for the fireworks display -- exciting to see the firemen running around -- but the rest of the top of the hill was COVERED in people, performers, vendors, their trucks, little tables to stand and drink beer at, and a million other things. it was still a bit early yet, so it wasn't as disgustingly crowded as it got around toward 10, which meant i had a nice while of wandering around windowshopping. it's amazing how many things are sold by vendors Everywhere You Go. i found the same cheap pewter necklaces they sell at the Herndon Festival -- found them about five times -- and like i said, the ring vendors were EVERYwhere. on a less-expected note, i found a children's-toys vendor who was selling the Witch, Ruby, and Jeremy (three puppets belonging to my mother, my mother, and my aunt Margaret respectively -- Christmas presents of years past. Ruby is the physical manifestation of my mother's inner child). i stroked Ruby's hair and was quietly homesick for a minute or two.
however, all of this was forgotten the moment i turned around, because on the other side of the path was a tent set up by Trommelladen, the local percussion shop. (yes, we have a local percussion shop. i need to go visit their store now instead of drooling at their drums from afar, i think.) the owner and two of his i-think-sons were sitting on a bench outisde it with big ol' drums, making a wonderful primal rhythmic noise. for a couple of agonizing minutes i stood and felt my palms itch -- do you have ANY IDEA how long it has been since i held a drum? -- but as soon as i saw some random woman walk by, grab a drum, and start playing, that was IT. i went and grabbed one myself and played with them until they finished, at which point i took over one of the ones they'd been using and sat down on the newly vacated bench and beat my hands smooth for 45 minutes. (i would have kept going longer but they wanted to let the other instruments be heard for a while.) i was mostly just drumming on my own, but after about 15 minutes this little boy -- he couldn't have been more than five -- who had been watching me for a little while came hesitantly up to the drum next to me. so i spent about 10 minutes giving him simple beats to follow and playing with him a bit. YAY for children. i think all children should get to play with drums. real ones. they're fabulous. once he got distracted and wandered off i went back to my more complicated rhythms, accompanied occasionally by the brothers and other random people who wandered by.
when they took my drum away i went back to wandering... by then it was getting pretty late and a little crowded, and i was getting thirsty. thank heaven for water bottles and bathroom sinks. :P no way i'm paying 2,- for a dinky bottle of carbonated stuff.
wended my way back down to the Schloß since it was almost 11, which was when the fireworks were supposed to start. oh dear GOD was it a good time to be non-claustrophobic. O_o dark, sweaty, smoky, and PACKED. i managed to find a place pretty close to the fence -- standing room only, but my knees had been bent holding a drum for the past most-of-an-hour, so i could deal -- and proceeded to read Sophiechen und der Riese (ten points if you are not Mely and can tell me the original title of this book without any further hints) by newly-purchased blue penlight for fifteen minutes while waiting for the fireworks. Good thing i always come prepared. such a wonderful book too. whoever did the translation deserves the most fabulous thing i can think of.
fireworks happened. i'm an American from DC; i've seen better (it didn't help that the Schloß was in the way for some of the lower ones.) but the Mozart accompaniment was something new.
after fireworks, (and a 15-minute hiatus during which i sat and read my book again while waiting for the worst of the crowd to clear) i contemplated going home but discarded that idea in favor of hunting more drums. after standing for 15-minutes in stop and go foot traffic (nonclaustrophobia is my FRIEND) i wended my way back up into the festival area, where i discovered that Trommelladen had packed up their bench. :( however, on my way back down i discovered that the some African dudes, who had been selling statues and various other things, had gotten their drums OUT. one of the dudes noticed me eyeing a drum and motioned me to a chair, where i spent the next half hour in blissful rhythm before they too had to pack up, but with promises that we could come back tomorrow. my GOD i love drums.
i think i need to get a drum. there's something relaxing and calming about beating out rhythms with your hands, especially when they get more complex and you start switching hands. it's very meditative for me. i can't actively concentrate on what i'm doing, because then i get self-conscious and screw up, but at the same time i can't allow my mind to wander because then my hands forget what they're doing and i lose the beat. it's a very narrow sweet spot, but when i find it it's FABULOUS. now if only drums didn't cost around $200 each... not like i could fit one in my suitcase anyway. :P
hauptprobe for orchestra tomorrow during the day... there WILL be more drumming at night. mark my words.
current mood: good-tired
current music: beats in my head
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(10 comments | comment on this)
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| Friday, July 11th, 2003
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3:43 pm
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2:58 pm
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ahh, what wonderful things happen when everyone thinks "ahh, everyone else will do it; no one will notice if i don't."
we were supposed to have a breakfast-thingy at one of the local Gymnasiums today, with an English class taught by a friend of Herr Riggs. sixteen of them, sixteen of us. peachy keen, right? well, a few of the Americans had said previously that they couldn't make it, so Riggs told the teacher (Herr Engelbert, i think?) that there would probably be more like 12 Americans for the 16 German students.
guess how many people actually showed up?
TWO.
that's right. Shawn and i were the only ones who bothered to come. i felt so bad for Herr Engelbert and his class... they'd all gotten breakfast prepared, made coffee and tea and these neat little cherry tart things, and then none of the Americans bothered to come. Herr E looked really hurt. and honestly, i was a little pissed off myself. just about everyone had said they were going to come, at one point or another. we talked about it in class YESTERDAY and no one cancelled -- Rachel H. actually changed her mind and decided to come yesterday. and yet NO ONE SHOWED UP. rude, rude, rude.
sigh.
what it basically meant was that instead of having an interesting couple of hours in their class, the German students went to an Abi-events-planning meeting for an hour (Shawn and i were just about bored to tears) and then we got to talk to them for maybe a half hour, in between Herr E. having Riggsy tell the Germans about BCA-in-America possibilities. (i wished he hadn't, since i was having a pretty good conversation with the guys i was sitting with. sigh. every time i start to meet someone interesting, something happens to prevent me.)
so yeah. that was a nice round FAILURE. argh.
current mood: annoyed
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2:15 am
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some of the truest words i have heard in a long time, courtesy of idoru: there is something terribly wrong with the fact that the speculum has not changed in design in something like three million years, and was invented by a man.
preach it.
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12:13 am
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idea stolen shamelessly from Alice, because i am interested (as evidenced by the long ass comment i left her):
Poll #155430: The Religion Poll
Open to: all, results viewable to: allAre your parents religious? Are you? Are your siblings? Are/were your grandparents?
please leave explanations in the comments! i thought about putting a text-box in the poll, but then realized that i used 4300 characters... O_o but i'm interested in knowing. :)
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(30 comments | comment on this)
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| Wednesday, July 9th, 2003
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8:00 pm
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aight, this is the weirdest one yet. i've been friended by some dude whose LJ is almost exclusively in Swedish.
whaa..?
(wonder if she's related to me. long shot, but you never know.)
current mood: O_o
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impressed
16 (27.1%)