Oh my god I'm home.
And jetlagged, after 3 legs of sleepless, stressful flights.
more on this tomorrow.
Californian air is the best thing ever.
31 July 2006
25 July 2006
I wanna go home!
München, Deutschland
Yeah yeah. bitch moan, i know. Still, I have pretty much had it with Germany and all its Germans (and non-Germans). The whole place smells like an ash tray, all of Munich is overpriced (for a relative drop in quality from the rest of the world), technological advances seemed to have passed Bavaria by (cash-register AND a scale in a grocery store? ridiculous! You must weigh all your produce before hand. But only those that are sold by the kilo. some of them are marked. others are not. many are marked incorrectly. BUT, if you weight it and it is pro Stuck (by the piece), the cashier will think you're an idiot. ... S/He will, in fact, also think you're an idiot if you (a) do not have exact change (b) DIDN'T weigh something that you should have, or (c) don't speak with a perfect Bavarian accent. Just the top three, but oh trust me, there's more.)
What else... Oh, the University. That is not an "oh" as in, "oh! i know", nor as in "oh, right", but rather "oh god why". Stuck in the stone age and elite about it, this is a great place for you to test out your language skills if you are a masochistic self-hating freak. The profs care more about the layout of your paper than the content, they don't trust the internet as a source, but their libraries are filled with books so old that many are, under the dust, fading to the point of illegibility. That's for the German department. The Spanish department has a decent selection of literature-related books, but nothing even remotely recent (or objective) regarding the history of Spain. I therefore had to sift through books for my final paper on the Arab rule in Spain, with the only available resources being written either by Nazis or, more likely, members of the Spanish inquisition. Neutrality= nonexistant and the Christian church is (but of course) always in the right. Fabulous. Screw that, I'm using Wikepidia for some VALID information.
That paper is, of course, due on Thursday. 10+ pages, and what have I done? The introduction. I have no motivation other than to go home. I know this because, although it's like pulling teeth to force myself to sit and write even 1/2 a page for a class, I spent the first half hour after I woke up to pack everything but the clothes I will need for the (breathe. say it) 5 more days I'm in this damn country.
5 days in which I have to take my theater final, write that paper for my history class, finish packing, move to Jay's room (we have to move ALL our stuff to do this), clean my room (without the availability of any cleaning supplies. Vaccuum cleaner? But surely you jest), and turn in my key. Oh, and close my bank account and help one of my profs translate some speech thingy into English and not kill my hallmates.
The last one, I regret to say, will be tricky. I somehow managed to slip under the wire to gain access to a hall that seems to require its residents to be lazy, rude, loud, messy, or stupid. Over-achievers that they are, the rest of my hallmates tend to push themselves that extra mile to achieve excellence in all 5 categories.
Let's just go through the run-down, shall we? And no, I don't know names, so i'm going by ethnicity or appearance.
We have... (1) obnoxious Chinese girl who hocks (don't even know how to spell that) up phlegm at every possible moment (especially while she and/or others are in the kitchen cooking) and who's German is impossible to differenciate from her Chinese, and who seems to be a bit of a shy pisser, as, when she is in one of the TWO hall bathroom stalls and someone uses the other, she will wait until the other is long gone before breathing. Never mind that she uses the one stall with a seat to do this. Jay and I are tempted to bring a novel and just see if she'll pass out. (2) her idiotic blonde roommate, who does not seem to function if the hall TV is not turned on (i swear she lives on the couch in the main room), never cleans up her dishes, and is incapable of distinguishing between a bathtub and a shower. See, the shower is next to the bathtub, in one room. Using one effectively occupies the other as well, as you lock the main door to do so. The shower is tiled, with a slightly raised rim on the floor to prevent flooding. The bathtub has a faucet and a movable showerhead, but no curtain. There is a spot on the wall (about 6+ feet from the ground) upon which you can hang the showerhead. If you are idiotic enough to do this, the water goes straight onto the floor, missing the edge of the tub by a few feet (at least we have good water pressure?). Blondie cannot seem to come to terms with this, and every time she takes a shower, she simply MUST do so in the bathtub, leaving a small lake behind, without using a towel or the provided giant squeegy to clean it up. (3) Loud Asian guy. He sings loudly and out of tune (in English) every time he walks down the hall. He spends most of his time on the balcony immediately next to our room talking (either to himself or to a friend, I don't know) so insanely loudly that it wakes me up in the mornings, and I can hear it well after I've left the building on my way to the U-Bahn. He also has a penchant for high-pitched and piercing laughter. again, loud. (4) our newest gem, man-who-cannot-breathe-if-not-using-a-cigarette. I think he's french, but the cigarette thing beats that out as far as descriptive features go. He smokes non-stop, normally in one of the two balconies on our hall, though leaving the door open so as to share the joy with us all. One of these two balconies is the one immediately adjacent not only to my room, but also to the kitchen's two giant windows. He doesn't bother to shut them before lighting up a pack.
Other than these specific four pains-in-the-ass, general annoyances abound: food stealing (and someone actually stole the TOP to one of my icecube trays. not the tray, just the top), inability to clean dishes (esp. common ones), using can-openers and sieves with meat (the former for cutting, the latter for thawing), inability to go to the bathroom without (a) peeing on the seat (b) stuffing the toilet with paper, or (c) leaving a trail of crap in the bowl, although there's a toilet bowl brush thing in every stall. They leave hair in the shower. they take the time to STUFF IT DOWN THE BATHTUB DRAIN, they're obnoxious, they're dumb, and they just keep on living. Honestly, at this point of filth, I'd expect them to have died off from eboli or siphilis or something, but i think they're pretty much immune to everything by now.
I live with cockroaches.
I have no motivation, and no interest to do anything. I tried distracting myself with video games for a bit, but now i've beaten donkey kong and dungeon master and am sick of frying my brain. I'm sick of germany. i'm sick of feeling so BLAH. I wanna go home.
*sigh*. Just 5 more days. On the plus side, Jay and I went to the zoo on Saturday and it was WONDERFUL and I have tons of lovely pictures to sort through.
...right after I take my last final and write this last paper of course.... which I don't want to do.
Germany has, I realized today, given me total and utter disillusionment regarding academics. I hate the university here. I hate that it makes me hate it. I hate that this year has, instead of broadening my horizons and igniting my will to learn (as my semester in Chile did), killed my morale and made me consider, on various occasions, dropping one or both of my majors, not to mention quelched any and all interest in pursuing graduate study in languages, or at all, for the time being.
Damn.
Is it home yet?
What else... Oh, the University. That is not an "oh" as in, "oh! i know", nor as in "oh, right", but rather "oh god why". Stuck in the stone age and elite about it, this is a great place for you to test out your language skills if you are a masochistic self-hating freak. The profs care more about the layout of your paper than the content, they don't trust the internet as a source, but their libraries are filled with books so old that many are, under the dust, fading to the point of illegibility. That's for the German department. The Spanish department has a decent selection of literature-related books, but nothing even remotely recent (or objective) regarding the history of Spain. I therefore had to sift through books for my final paper on the Arab rule in Spain, with the only available resources being written either by Nazis or, more likely, members of the Spanish inquisition. Neutrality= nonexistant and the Christian church is (but of course) always in the right. Fabulous. Screw that, I'm using Wikepidia for some VALID information.
That paper is, of course, due on Thursday. 10+ pages, and what have I done? The introduction. I have no motivation other than to go home. I know this because, although it's like pulling teeth to force myself to sit and write even 1/2 a page for a class, I spent the first half hour after I woke up to pack everything but the clothes I will need for the (breathe. say it) 5 more days I'm in this damn country.
5 days in which I have to take my theater final, write that paper for my history class, finish packing, move to Jay's room (we have to move ALL our stuff to do this), clean my room (without the availability of any cleaning supplies. Vaccuum cleaner? But surely you jest), and turn in my key. Oh, and close my bank account and help one of my profs translate some speech thingy into English and not kill my hallmates.
The last one, I regret to say, will be tricky. I somehow managed to slip under the wire to gain access to a hall that seems to require its residents to be lazy, rude, loud, messy, or stupid. Over-achievers that they are, the rest of my hallmates tend to push themselves that extra mile to achieve excellence in all 5 categories.
Let's just go through the run-down, shall we? And no, I don't know names, so i'm going by ethnicity or appearance.
We have... (1) obnoxious Chinese girl who hocks (don't even know how to spell that) up phlegm at every possible moment (especially while she and/or others are in the kitchen cooking) and who's German is impossible to differenciate from her Chinese, and who seems to be a bit of a shy pisser, as, when she is in one of the TWO hall bathroom stalls and someone uses the other, she will wait until the other is long gone before breathing. Never mind that she uses the one stall with a seat to do this. Jay and I are tempted to bring a novel and just see if she'll pass out. (2) her idiotic blonde roommate, who does not seem to function if the hall TV is not turned on (i swear she lives on the couch in the main room), never cleans up her dishes, and is incapable of distinguishing between a bathtub and a shower. See, the shower is next to the bathtub, in one room. Using one effectively occupies the other as well, as you lock the main door to do so. The shower is tiled, with a slightly raised rim on the floor to prevent flooding. The bathtub has a faucet and a movable showerhead, but no curtain. There is a spot on the wall (about 6+ feet from the ground) upon which you can hang the showerhead. If you are idiotic enough to do this, the water goes straight onto the floor, missing the edge of the tub by a few feet (at least we have good water pressure?). Blondie cannot seem to come to terms with this, and every time she takes a shower, she simply MUST do so in the bathtub, leaving a small lake behind, without using a towel or the provided giant squeegy to clean it up. (3) Loud Asian guy. He sings loudly and out of tune (in English) every time he walks down the hall. He spends most of his time on the balcony immediately next to our room talking (either to himself or to a friend, I don't know) so insanely loudly that it wakes me up in the mornings, and I can hear it well after I've left the building on my way to the U-Bahn. He also has a penchant for high-pitched and piercing laughter. again, loud. (4) our newest gem, man-who-cannot-breathe-if-not-using-a-cigarette. I think he's french, but the cigarette thing beats that out as far as descriptive features go. He smokes non-stop, normally in one of the two balconies on our hall, though leaving the door open so as to share the joy with us all. One of these two balconies is the one immediately adjacent not only to my room, but also to the kitchen's two giant windows. He doesn't bother to shut them before lighting up a pack.
Other than these specific four pains-in-the-ass, general annoyances abound: food stealing (and someone actually stole the TOP to one of my icecube trays. not the tray, just the top), inability to clean dishes (esp. common ones), using can-openers and sieves with meat (the former for cutting, the latter for thawing), inability to go to the bathroom without (a) peeing on the seat (b) stuffing the toilet with paper, or (c) leaving a trail of crap in the bowl, although there's a toilet bowl brush thing in every stall. They leave hair in the shower. they take the time to STUFF IT DOWN THE BATHTUB DRAIN, they're obnoxious, they're dumb, and they just keep on living. Honestly, at this point of filth, I'd expect them to have died off from eboli or siphilis or something, but i think they're pretty much immune to everything by now.
I live with cockroaches.
I have no motivation, and no interest to do anything. I tried distracting myself with video games for a bit, but now i've beaten donkey kong and dungeon master and am sick of frying my brain. I'm sick of germany. i'm sick of feeling so BLAH. I wanna go home.
*sigh*. Just 5 more days. On the plus side, Jay and I went to the zoo on Saturday and it was WONDERFUL and I have tons of lovely pictures to sort through.
...right after I take my last final and write this last paper of course.... which I don't want to do.
Germany has, I realized today, given me total and utter disillusionment regarding academics. I hate the university here. I hate that it makes me hate it. I hate that this year has, instead of broadening my horizons and igniting my will to learn (as my semester in Chile did), killed my morale and made me consider, on various occasions, dropping one or both of my majors, not to mention quelched any and all interest in pursuing graduate study in languages, or at all, for the time being.
Damn.
Is it home yet?
07 July 2006
As the semester winds down...
München, Deutschland
Right then, updates are, it seems, in order. In recent news, Katja, my German Studies advisor came this week to visit the program and to talk with her advisees that are currently here. Seeing her (after I recognized her - it's been so long that it took me a few minutes) was great, but it made me miss LC a lot. Such is life, I suppose. I am also having recurring dreams about LC - dreaming about moving into my appartment, unpacking, swimming, using the free gym, having real classes... And also very exciting: due to a strange series of events, I will be roomming again with my roommate from freshmen year! Rigel, whom I adore, lives in Portland and so had planned to stay at home instead of shelling out her life savings on the extremely over-priced (and yet oh-so-posh) on-campus appartmemts... But when one of my 3 roommates pulled out in order to take advantage of a chance to travel to Chile (woo-hoo!!), Rigel changed her mind and filled the spot. On top of that, Jay lives pretty much right next door, as does Summer, one of the crazy LC kids I swam with way back when, so I=quite excited. Unfortunately, I don't really know my other two roommates, but shall hope for the best cuz, really, masking-tape barriers would be a little immature at our age. Indeed. Either way, Rigel counts as 2 or three roommates with her personality quirks (i can't wait to live with her again - I need that daily dose of crazy or things just get boring ~_^).
Weather here is weird. One minute it's gorgeous and humid and hot as all hell and then the next there's a thunderstorm. Very strange. I do love the wind and stormy weather though, provided I'm already indoors, of course.
Jay and I are finished with the written part of our final joint paper for Theater, which we turned in to a tutor for language-related correction... Hopefully we'll get it back on Monday, finish up the costume and set designs, and the cd of music, and be essentially done with that class by Wednesday. Hmm. On top of that, I have to turn in my final papers for Toledo y Madrid and for Spanischer Lyrik this week as well, so then the weather needs to shape up and get gorgeous so I can spend my last weeks here lying in the English gardens. Mmmm, sun-napping bliss and the scent of heavy-duty sunscreen. ^_^
In other news, Jay's parents and 2 of their friends are coming to visit on Tuesday. I'm therefore trying to finish up my class presentation asap on that day and then run off early with Jay to meet them at the airport. Maybe there won't be any thunderstorms that day... Silly weather.
Right, as I've successfully wasted a good hour or so writing this, I'm now going to get back to my Seminararbeits. Spanish middle-age history: prepare to be my biatch.
Weather here is weird. One minute it's gorgeous and humid and hot as all hell and then the next there's a thunderstorm. Very strange. I do love the wind and stormy weather though, provided I'm already indoors, of course.
Jay and I are finished with the written part of our final joint paper for Theater, which we turned in to a tutor for language-related correction... Hopefully we'll get it back on Monday, finish up the costume and set designs, and the cd of music, and be essentially done with that class by Wednesday. Hmm. On top of that, I have to turn in my final papers for Toledo y Madrid and for Spanischer Lyrik this week as well, so then the weather needs to shape up and get gorgeous so I can spend my last weeks here lying in the English gardens. Mmmm, sun-napping bliss and the scent of heavy-duty sunscreen. ^_^
In other news, Jay's parents and 2 of their friends are coming to visit on Tuesday. I'm therefore trying to finish up my class presentation asap on that day and then run off early with Jay to meet them at the airport. Maybe there won't be any thunderstorms that day... Silly weather.
Right, as I've successfully wasted a good hour or so writing this, I'm now going to get back to my Seminararbeits. Spanish middle-age history: prepare to be my biatch.
Weltmeisterschaft 2006: a rant
München, Deutschland
That's right: soccer. Or football for the non-Americans. Or hell for anyone who simply wants not to deal with it at all. That would be me, by the way. Out of a strange sort of luck (or perhaps lack thereof) I've been in the hosting city of a soccer world cup three times so far. The first was when we moved to Palo Alto in the mid '90s, the second was when I was at Lewis and Clark in Portland during the '03 Women's cup, and the third is right here, in Germany while the male teams push eachother around and pretend they didn't and the fan effect is so widespread that classes are cancelled and, with doors and windows shut, my room shakes from the cheers and chants that resound through the city.
Truth be told, I may be unfairly biased. As the LC soccer team volunteered to usher at the Portland women's world cup, I was in the unlucky position (and what are the odds, of all the aisles) to get run over by two streakers protesting the Addidas sponsership. Literally run over. So... that was special.
Still, unlucky history aside, spectator sports bore me. I'm all for the sports themselves (minus American football and baseball, as they are just time-wasters), but the obsessive need to watch the games... it elevates these players to godlike celebrity status and that can't be healthy. Note, for instance, the difference between professional women's soccer and professional men's soccer (which of course has far more popularity). The men's league is riddled with cheap stunts: tacky fouls, dives, fakes, fights, what have you. What's the difference in the leagues, besides the hormones? The men get too much attention, and they regress to childish tactics because of it.
Then of course there is the disruption. Not only the obvious problems: Germany is overcrowded with fans, who are often loud, drunk, and obnoxious, packing the U-Bahns and making much racket... The locals and the students living in Studentenstadt are no better, bringing TVs outside into courtyards and congregating into loud, drunk, obnoxious groups for the duration of the game and then for a few hours into the early morning. Watching the darn game is one thing. Making a huge deal out of all of the 50-60-something games is simply absurd. If it were in private, giving me at least the ability to ignore the cultish phenomenon, that would be one thing. But its not, so I'm not happy. On top of this, some of my classes have been cancelled so that the prof (or students - often both) could go see the game instead. ARG!
Fully irritated and rather bitter, my only interest in the game became a wish for Germany to lose, so that the loudest group would lose spirit and shut the hell up. Coincidentally, this apparently happened in the Italy-Germany game... Two goals in two minutes sufficed to break the German spirit good and well... so happy 4th of July to me on that count, the next game was so quiet that, had Jay not left to go watch it, I wouldn't have known it had happened.
Glad for the quiet, I'm also feeling a little bit sad for Ralf, our program director, who took the loss rather hard and is demanding a program-wide (week-long) embargo on such items as pizza, ice cream, and coffee. Just doing my part to spread the word.
I'm sure Italy is regretting that win right now. Yup. They sure are.... any minute...
Truth be told, I may be unfairly biased. As the LC soccer team volunteered to usher at the Portland women's world cup, I was in the unlucky position (and what are the odds, of all the aisles) to get run over by two streakers protesting the Addidas sponsership. Literally run over. So... that was special.
Still, unlucky history aside, spectator sports bore me. I'm all for the sports themselves (minus American football and baseball, as they are just time-wasters), but the obsessive need to watch the games... it elevates these players to godlike celebrity status and that can't be healthy. Note, for instance, the difference between professional women's soccer and professional men's soccer (which of course has far more popularity). The men's league is riddled with cheap stunts: tacky fouls, dives, fakes, fights, what have you. What's the difference in the leagues, besides the hormones? The men get too much attention, and they regress to childish tactics because of it.
Then of course there is the disruption. Not only the obvious problems: Germany is overcrowded with fans, who are often loud, drunk, and obnoxious, packing the U-Bahns and making much racket... The locals and the students living in Studentenstadt are no better, bringing TVs outside into courtyards and congregating into loud, drunk, obnoxious groups for the duration of the game and then for a few hours into the early morning. Watching the darn game is one thing. Making a huge deal out of all of the 50-60-something games is simply absurd. If it were in private, giving me at least the ability to ignore the cultish phenomenon, that would be one thing. But its not, so I'm not happy. On top of this, some of my classes have been cancelled so that the prof (or students - often both) could go see the game instead. ARG!
Fully irritated and rather bitter, my only interest in the game became a wish for Germany to lose, so that the loudest group would lose spirit and shut the hell up. Coincidentally, this apparently happened in the Italy-Germany game... Two goals in two minutes sufficed to break the German spirit good and well... so happy 4th of July to me on that count, the next game was so quiet that, had Jay not left to go watch it, I wouldn't have known it had happened.
Glad for the quiet, I'm also feeling a little bit sad for Ralf, our program director, who took the loss rather hard and is demanding a program-wide (week-long) embargo on such items as pizza, ice cream, and coffee. Just doing my part to spread the word.
I'm sure Italy is regretting that win right now. Yup. They sure are.... any minute...
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