Heute ist Sonntag

Hallo!  Ich habe leider für zu lang nichts geschrieben...

Some very important things have happened, though!  Very important indeed- shoes, candy, the whole show.  On the fifth, we all cleaned up our shoes for St. Nick.  Mine were particularly dirty- Alex is rebuilding the bathroom and I helped in take a wall out, and half of the wall turned into shoe dust.  From this photo you can see the difference.

Anyway, once we all had our shoes gut-geputzt we stood them all by the door, along with cookies for Nikolaus and some straw for his donkey.

In the morning, the shoes were filled with delicious treats!

Mmyes.  That's pretty cool.  Later that day (the 6th), there was an AFS chapter meeting, and I actually got to meet Nikolaus and his friend Knecht Rubrecht himself!  Mr. Ruby hit me a few times with a stick, but then they gave me a present, so alles war wieder gut.

Here's a nice photo of Vincent and me.  Geo's in the back, too, but I'm not sure I'd go so far as to say it's a nice photo of him.

And now, lots and lots of words of the day!

COMPLIMENTS of ALICIA HULL, another fantastic AFS-USAer.

I'll give you a real update soon, I promise!! In the meantime, Deutsch crash course:

There are a few good words and "special things" about germany you should know, less than a vocab unit in your german class, that would make adjusting here so much easier. here goes.


PHRASES AND OTHER THINGS

Ich muss pissen. - I have to piss. I have to drain the lizard. I have to "insert dirty word for peeing."es gibt..... - There is.....
genau - quite possibly the most popular word in deutschland. means "exactly"
echt/ wirklich - really
geil - horny.  Sometimes.  More often, it means awesome.
scheisse - Shit. except grandma's and teachers say it too.  And Germans also say shit.  And shit, but like shite.  They've got all sorts of fun words.
poopsen - fart. not poop.
Wie geil?!? - how cool is that!?!



** Nothing is open on sunday in germany. So if you happen to have an accident involving your arm and a bandsaw, you better hope you have it on a weekday... otherwise...well yeah, you'll be the awkward one-armed person in the room.**

** Everyone rides bike. Get it out of your head that this is a recreational activity. This is one of the main forms of transportation in germany. seriously.**

VERBS

müssen (must, have to)
können (can)
dürfen (allowed to)
möchten (would like to)
sollen (should)

kommen (come)
gehen (to go)
laufen (to run - medium speed)
rennen (to run - very fast...sprinting?)

machen (to do, make)
glauben (to believe)
denken (to think)
versuchen (to try)
finden (to find - an opinion)

haben (to have)
geben (to give)
nehmen (to take)

suchen (to search for)
erklären (to explain)

aussehen (to look like)
klingen (to sound)
riechen (to smell)
sagen (to say)
schreiben (to write)
lesen (to read)

verboten (forbidden)
weinen (to cry)
sein (to be)
schlagen (to hit)

ADJECTIVES

komisch - weird
seltsam - strange
anderes - other-ish
unterschiedlich - different
geil - dictionaries will say "horny" but every person will say "awesome".
lustig - funny
witzig - comical/funny
schön - pretty
hässlich - ugly
sauer - sour
süß - sweet
chic - chic
jung - young
alt - old
reif - mature
besser - better
perfekt - perfect
normal - normal
schwer - hard/heavy
schwierig - difficult/hard

kompliziert - complicated
einfach - simple or simply
langweilig - boring
interessant - interesting
wichtig - important
hammer - usually goes with gut to mean really cool/ awesome "hammer gut!" or "hammer geil"
schwul - gay.

Xmas in the US

Okay, two fake posts, and then I'll put up a real post later tonight.

FIRST:  a short presentation I wrote (and then gave in German) for an AFS meeting.  For all of you in the US, it may be quite boring.  It's basically just what you do every year.


ANYWAY.


Christmas in America.

Before we start, let’s get one thing straight.  Mr. Santa Claus, the celebrity among celebrities around Christmas time, ISN’T EVEN AMERICAN.

He’s a poser.  In fact, he’s not even real.  He was invented by the Spaniards, right after the developed the California coast.  San Louis Obisbo, San Fransisco, Santa Anna, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, BAM!  Santa Claus.  They couldn’t stop at making cities, they had to make a magic man that flies around the world and sits in chimneys, too.

Actually that’s not true.  Mr. Claus actually originated a little closer to here- his legend stems from the story of the bishop Nikolaus, aus Turkei.  But with a title like Santa, we need to extrapolate these things, you know?  Anyway… Mr. Claus is the symbol of Christmas in America- his jolly face, button nose, fat belly, sack full of goodies, and his reindeer-driven sleigh are omnipresent come the Christmas season.

But we’ll get to that later.  First, there are a few things you should know.

The US is more than 75% Christian.  We also have Jewish people, though, so the Christmas season is never limited to just Christmas- for every couple Christmas trees, you have a menorah or two.  Also, Christmas Caroling isn’t complete without the yearly rendition of “My Dreidel” or “Shalom Chaverim”.  I’m pretty sure “Shalom Chaverim” isn’t a Hannukah song, but I’m not totally sure.  Maybe it is.

Anyway, you know it’s Christmastime when the electricity bills start to rise.  Not only do the heaters start coming on for the winter, but every house also puts a bajillion and fourty-four Christmas lights outside their house.  Lining the gutter, draping the roof, along the walkway, in the massive stuffed reindeer out front- Lights, lights, lights! 

You can also tell it’s Christmas time when people start putting up Christmas trees.  Like here in El Deutschland, we have Christmas trees- usually pine, conical, and decorated with loverly ornaments, lights, popcorn, and topped with a star or angel.

Christmas starts with the day after Thanksgiving (okay, who am I kidding.  It starts the day after 4th of July) and culminates on the 25th, Christmas Day.  Usually, small children across the country unwrap their presents the morning of Christmas.  Santa Claus, the aforemention fat chimney-raiding man, distributes these presents underneath the Christmas tree and in stockings, which are hung by the fire with care.

Oftentimes, families either go to the Christmas Vigil Mass, at midnight of Christmas Eve, or to a Christmas Mass the morning of Christmas.  Afterall, Christmas originated as a celebration of Baby Jesus’ birth.  Usually churches have nativity scenes set up during the advent season, and on Christmas the baby Jesus is placed in the manger.

While not widely observed, the official end of the Christmas season is Epiphany, 12 days after Christmas.  Auf Deutsch, Epiphany heiBt Der Tag der Heilige Drei Konige, and it celebrates the arrival of the Three Kings to Jesus.
And to close up this presentation, I think it would be just fantastic if we could all sing a Christmas Carol or two together.

(Now we sing Jingle Bells)

FIN

Turkey Day

Hey guys, I just logged onto Facebook and found out it's Thanksgiving... sooooo....

Happy Thanksgiving!


Tim

Weird stuff...

So I'm mostly writing this down for my sake, but you can read it too, if it pleases you.

I had just finished writing an essay and was about to submit it to on an online essay forum for peer review, but then the forum told me that before I could submit another one of my essays I had to make corrections on two more essays- it's a good system- you only get feedback if you give feedback.  Anyway, I corrected one, and then read another one.  It was about dreaming, and very intriguing.  Anyway, I was wandering through Wikipedia, following links, and I came across sleep paralysis.

I had forgotten until now, which is partly why I want to write it down, so I don't forget again, but last week I had a funny dream.

When I do dream, I always know that I'm dreaming.  Always.  Usually I don't remember them, but when I do, they're pretty cool.  With full consciousness, I also have full control:  If I don't like you and you're in my dream, poof!  No more. If I don't like where the dream is, poof!  it's somewhere better now.

Anyway, last week my dream was at a high school reunion, 10 or 15 years from now.  It started off pretty normal, chilling with the guys, etc.  Then I saw the father of one of my friends, but my friend wasn't there.  I asked his dad where he was, and he responded by saying he had died, and invited me to follow him.  I followed him, and he led me into a smaller conference room, where there were six or eight other people I hadn't seen before, in suits, gathered around a table.  The father of my friend explained to me that his son had died after experiencing something very popular, and he was trying to expose that very popular thing and demonstrate its accountability for his son's- and, he said, other peoples'- deaths.  Anyway, he then handed me an ipod and asked me to put the headphones on, so I obliged.

Now, keep in mind that this whole time I was totally aware that I asleep and dreaming, and totally in control of my dream the whole time, and intensely curious what this guy was about to show me.

Anyway, he played a song that I know very well, and for the first eight or ten seconds nothing happened.  Then I was totally paralyzed- I woke up, and was aware that I was awake, but was completely paralyzed.  I had full waking consciousness (not really any different from dreaming consciousness, except I wasn't in control of my surroundings any more)- the only things abnormal were that I was totally paralyzed and I could still hear the song playing.  I panicked- it's scary to not be able to move- and started to hyperventilate.  I was lying face up on my bed, looking at the ceiling, arms by my side (sort of like the Petrificus curse in the Harry Potter movies).  I was really freaked out- I think it's the only time I've ever hyperventilated from fear.

Anyway, then the song ended and I could move again.  It was some weirdass stuff, though.  Very weird.  I didn't like it.

Hallo!

Hey everyone.

On Donnerstag I had a concert with the Luebeck Swing & Fun Band. That was pretty sweet. We played some great songs, here are my favorites:

"I Wish"- richtig fantastisch, with some fantastic Bone parts. LHS Jazz band could take this on for the last concert of the year, if it's feeling daring. Really a fun song.
"Spain"- a very cool song, with cool Sax & Bone parts alike. Very catchy.
"Thieves in the Temple"- Also very cool, and a little simpler.  Sweet bone parts.  LHS Ensemble really should play this, it's very cool.
"Summertime"- A standard, and fun to solo on
"Chicken"- Fast and catchy
"Sam's Boogie"- another really simple one, would be great for solo practice for the Ensemble.

These songs are really great, check out the links if you've got time.

The set was very long- like, two and a half hours.  I don't think I could have played much more, my lips were pretty numb after that.  Anyway... some photos to follow.

I should be finishing up my USC and UCLA & USB apps today or tomorrow, and then there's only UPenn, but that can wait til January.  Of course, then there's scholarships.... :(  it goes on.

Ciao!

Munchen II

So.

I had some free time Friday night, so I did some wandering around the city, looking for something to do.  There was a poster on a wall by the subway that said there was a Jazz Jam, so I followed the signs and ended up at the University- which, Nelia, happens to also be called LMU, except it's Ludwig Maximilian Universitat, not Loyola Marymount University.  Fast, though.

Anyway.  There was a strike and a student demonstration, there- Christian told me later that it was because the Stadt wanted to raise fees for going to university, and the students didn't like that.  I can see why.  Anyway, the building was totally taken over by students- I don't think I saw a single person over 25 there that night.  There was a big central hall, with maybe 200 students in it, and they had a big demonstration in there talking about their rights and their plan of action and their objections and all sorts of fun stuff.  It was funny, though, how absolutely un-American that was: every single student had a beer in hand, and ninety percent were smoking.

Anyway.  In all the hallways kids had set up little booths either with information on the strike or with food, so I have some nice literature now.

In the other end of the building the jazz band was setting up.  Check out the guy's sweet bass in this picture... it was very cool.  Anyway, they weren't ready right when I got there, so I left and bought a beer, and talked to some of the students in one of the main halls.  Anyway, by the time they did get going they were really good.  It was these three in the photo, but later a trumpet, trombone, saxophone, and another guitar came.  They played a lot of songs I knew, too, which was cool.  They opened with Chameleon!


Anyway, they were literally playing in a hallway- it wasn't a concert hall or anything.  After they started playing, kids started flowing in.  By 10:30 it had gotten sort of crazy- not like, out of control, but just in the sense that I had no idea what was going on.  I mean, everyone was still smoking and drinking, but all the sudden there were dogs running around, and everyone was dancing, and some guy was yipping into a portable microphone, and then the lights went out, and there were fire dancers, and then fire dancers with more fire... I have no idea where all of the stuff came from, but it was a really good time.  A really great night.  I took a video, here's a link.

From Munich