SO.
Finally done with the Elks scholarship- that's good. I still have to write a halbzeitbericht soon, but I can worry about that later.
January went by fast! Like, really fast! New Years seems like just yesterday... I do not approve. Why is everything so fast?
Today it snowed alot. I read in the newspaper that this January was the coldest January in 13 years, and earlier this week I read that this winter was the coldest winter (so far) in 16 years. Just my luck, right? Cold cold cold... but like I said earlier, at least it's getting brighter! Anke was telling me about how in the summer it will stay bright until 11 at night... that sounds just lovely.
I didn't do too much this weekend; I spent most of it applying for that Elks scholarship. Friday, though, I went to Parkhaus, one of Luebeck's discos. I've been there a few times before, but this time it seemed like everyone was there. I know I've said it before, but Luebeck is cool like that- it's plenty big enough that there's always something to do, but it's small enough that you meet people coincidentally all the time.
In the Waldorfschule we just finished Projective Geometry, which is a kind of strange Waldorf math. The focus was on predicting the image of an original shape or picture onto a perpendicular plane. It kind of cool, actually. I'm not sure how useful it is, but it's certainly a good exercise in mental imaging. It forces thought.
Last week I also started carpentry, which is richtig geil. I built a little display stand last week, and this week I want to start a similar one, but without right angles- a little more askew, a little more Waldorf. We'll see how it works. I'll post photos soon.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Happy Sunday!
Hey everyone!
It's once again bitingly cold outside. I believe it was -13 this morning, and now it's -10, or somewhere around there. In any case, it's very cold. On the bright side, it's almost five and it's still a little light out! Technically sunset was at 4:43, but dusk isn't over until 5:23. Things are looking good!
Last Thursday I started a standards dance course, which is pretty cool. I didn't actually learn anything new that first day- most of the ground steps I learned at Hitzacker- but I'm looking forward to the continuation of the class. There's a swing dance class in March that I want to take, too. Swing dance always looked like fun.
Lotta is cooking Lasagna and it smells really good. I'm hungry.
It's once again bitingly cold outside. I believe it was -13 this morning, and now it's -10, or somewhere around there. In any case, it's very cold. On the bright side, it's almost five and it's still a little light out! Technically sunset was at 4:43, but dusk isn't over until 5:23. Things are looking good!
Last Thursday I started a standards dance course, which is pretty cool. I didn't actually learn anything new that first day- most of the ground steps I learned at Hitzacker- but I'm looking forward to the continuation of the class. There's a swing dance class in March that I want to take, too. Swing dance always looked like fun.
Lotta is cooking Lasagna and it smells really good. I'm hungry.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Good luck kids!
Today I hit rock bottom. I got back a french test- it wasn't bad, but the errors were absolute fail-errors. For one, I had written "ventana" when I meant "fenêtre"- I think that when I wrote it I got "fenêtre" confused with "Fenster" and assumed it was German... I don't know. And then later I wrote "gato" instead of "chat"- I'm not even sure where that came from. There was also a "manchmal" on there instead of "quelquefois", and a "name" instead of "nom". Fail fail fail... I'm so confused.
And then even worse! Valerie asked me for help with her English homework, and I tried to say the sentence "Hannah must use crutches to walk". I couldn't say "must" for the life of me, though- ever attempt came out as "musst", the german word, which sounds like "moost". Eventually Hannah corrected me. Hannah who's a German.
Fail.
Anyway, I'd like to take this opportunity to wish all you LHS kids best of luck on your midterms. Don't study too hard! Any honors history kids in grades 9-11, ask a senior for a history review guide. James, Vic, Sean, Mikey, and I, or some combination of that group, made some badass ones every year, they should still be very helpful.
Hopefully everyone will be less confused on their tests than I was!
Ciao.
And then even worse! Valerie asked me for help with her English homework, and I tried to say the sentence "Hannah must use crutches to walk". I couldn't say "must" for the life of me, though- ever attempt came out as "musst", the german word, which sounds like "moost". Eventually Hannah corrected me. Hannah who's a German.
Fail.
Anyway, I'd like to take this opportunity to wish all you LHS kids best of luck on your midterms. Don't study too hard! Any honors history kids in grades 9-11, ask a senior for a history review guide. James, Vic, Sean, Mikey, and I, or some combination of that group, made some badass ones every year, they should still be very helpful.
Hopefully everyone will be less confused on their tests than I was!
Ciao.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Hitzacker (ehrlich!)
So I guess I failed with my last post- I planned to talk about Hitzacker and comment that nothing had happened since then, but I'm just a big stinky liar. I'll talk about Hitzacker in this one, though!
For anyone who's forgotten, Hitzacker was the Musikfreizeit that we went to over Christmas vacation. Musikfreizeit translates literally to "Music free time", but that's kind of vague... It was basically a week-long music camp. There were about 150 people there, all ages. Probably 30 or 40 were between 15 and 25.
side note: there's a heavy metal band called Mastodon. All of its songs are about hunting whales. I immediately thought of English 11H with Mrs. O.
I've been having a lot of trouble concentrating lately, but it's okay, because then I end up finding awesome whaling bands.
So Hitzacker. Everybody chooses a schedule they're interested in, and they follow that schedule for the week. Everyone starts off the day with breakfast together, and then a Plenum (another word that may or may not be used in English... it sounds greek though. I actually don't even know if it's German. Heck, now that I'm thinking about it I don't even know for sure what it means- the first time I heard it I just thought of the word "plebian" and assumed that ple- has to do with common people... plenum just means a gathering of people? It's kind of cool to be able to dissect words and derive a meaning even when you don't know what language the word is in. That being said, Plenum could just as easily mean something totally different entirely and I just failed. Maybe it means "after breakfast time", but I think not. In any case, language is cool!)
Regardless of what the definition of Plenum is, what it means is basically a big campy meeting. In addition to wake-up-in-the-morning type singalong songs and people that seem unreasonably happy for 9:00, there's also a rundown of important events and notifications. The Plenums were actually very well done, too- by the time they're finished, everybody has ohrwurms and is awake, and the too-happy-for-9:00 people seem justified in their jubilation, namely because everybody is happy.
Ohrwurm is a fantastic word in German that we don't have in el Muttersprache. Ein Punkt fuer Deutsch! It translates literally to "earworm", and it means "a song that is stuck in one's head". It's surprising how often you hear the term.
Following Plenum I went to Jazz Combo. After that was lunch, and then siesta. Siesta ist ein Punkt Spanisch- es ist viel besser als "Mittagsschlafs". After siesta was a standard-dance course, that was cool. I'd like to say that I'm a master salsa dancer now, but that's not quite true. I do know the basic step, though! That's got to count for something.
Next was a coffeebreak, and then chorus, and then Bigband (jazz ensemble). The day ended with dinner and then an evening Plenum.
That's just the day, though. Nighttime is just as important! Hitzacker was basically music by day, party by night, and I think that's a very good way to live. It's good that Hitzacker was only a week long, though, because in the whole week I got about 15 hours of sleep, and that's not a good way to live. Nevertheless, it was really fun.
In my attempt to explain what the week was about, I'm afraid I've missed the main point- Hitzacker was a really fantastic time because of the people there. I'd really like to go back next year and rendezvous with everyone- it was really surprising how quickly and how well everybody hit it off with each other.
Anyway, I've got a few pics (compliments to Mia on most of them- I was bad and didn't take any pictures that week).
For anyone who's forgotten, Hitzacker was the Musikfreizeit that we went to over Christmas vacation. Musikfreizeit translates literally to "Music free time", but that's kind of vague... It was basically a week-long music camp. There were about 150 people there, all ages. Probably 30 or 40 were between 15 and 25.
side note: there's a heavy metal band called Mastodon. All of its songs are about hunting whales. I immediately thought of English 11H with Mrs. O.
I've been having a lot of trouble concentrating lately, but it's okay, because then I end up finding awesome whaling bands.
So Hitzacker. Everybody chooses a schedule they're interested in, and they follow that schedule for the week. Everyone starts off the day with breakfast together, and then a Plenum (another word that may or may not be used in English... it sounds greek though. I actually don't even know if it's German. Heck, now that I'm thinking about it I don't even know for sure what it means- the first time I heard it I just thought of the word "plebian" and assumed that ple- has to do with common people... plenum just means a gathering of people? It's kind of cool to be able to dissect words and derive a meaning even when you don't know what language the word is in. That being said, Plenum could just as easily mean something totally different entirely and I just failed. Maybe it means "after breakfast time", but I think not. In any case, language is cool!)
Regardless of what the definition of Plenum is, what it means is basically a big campy meeting. In addition to wake-up-in-the-morning type singalong songs and people that seem unreasonably happy for 9:00, there's also a rundown of important events and notifications. The Plenums were actually very well done, too- by the time they're finished, everybody has ohrwurms and is awake, and the too-happy-for-9:00 people seem justified in their jubilation, namely because everybody is happy.
Ohrwurm is a fantastic word in German that we don't have in el Muttersprache. Ein Punkt fuer Deutsch! It translates literally to "earworm", and it means "a song that is stuck in one's head". It's surprising how often you hear the term.
Following Plenum I went to Jazz Combo. After that was lunch, and then siesta. Siesta ist ein Punkt Spanisch- es ist viel besser als "Mittagsschlafs". After siesta was a standard-dance course, that was cool. I'd like to say that I'm a master salsa dancer now, but that's not quite true. I do know the basic step, though! That's got to count for something.
Next was a coffeebreak, and then chorus, and then Bigband (jazz ensemble). The day ended with dinner and then an evening Plenum.
That's just the day, though. Nighttime is just as important! Hitzacker was basically music by day, party by night, and I think that's a very good way to live. It's good that Hitzacker was only a week long, though, because in the whole week I got about 15 hours of sleep, and that's not a good way to live. Nevertheless, it was really fun.
In my attempt to explain what the week was about, I'm afraid I've missed the main point- Hitzacker was a really fantastic time because of the people there. I'd really like to go back next year and rendezvous with everyone- it was really surprising how quickly and how well everybody hit it off with each other.
Anyway, I've got a few pics (compliments to Mia on most of them- I was bad and didn't take any pictures that week).
My combo, playing Who Shot the Sherrif
the Thema was the Carribean, I think it was well-played.
Yo ho, a pirate's life for me...
Hannes is quite dashing, to say the least.
Jugendchor!
Sinja and me on a treasure hunt!
And more Jugendchor- Basti is to my left, Arne to my right, and they were my roommates. Cool kids.
Bigband
That's all for now, folks!
Hitzacker (endlich)
Hey there everyone.
It's been a while, sorry. I've been busy, and, to be honest, not all that much too interesting has gone down in the last week or two.
School is back, snow is still here, vacation is over. It's been a little warmer- usually it hovers around -2 or -3 degrees (27ish F), and it snows every once in a while. We've got about six inches now.
Street plowing isn't nearly as thorough as in the US, but nobody really seems to care. That being said, on the way to pick up Leone en route to school last week we got pretty stuck, but a bit after a little push and shove we figured it all out. It meant I didn't need to go to my first half hour of German.
One of the lovely advantages of not-so-plowed streets is auto-sledding. It's like waterskiing, except there's no water and it's cold and you're on a sled on your bum and not your feet and there's no boat and no skiis. It is just a fun, though! We did that today, good stuff. The car got stuck again, but it's cool because Alex has a bamf tractor that was essentially born to extract autos from snowbanks. And to carry wood.
Friday was the last day of my German epoch. I think I've already explained what that means, but just to be sure I'll clarify- the Waldorfschule has an epoch system (I think that's also a word in English, but to be perfectly honest I'm not sure any more). What this means is that for 4-6 weeks we have a hauptunterricht, or main lesson, two hours every day. After that we have assorted core classes.
Anyway, the German epoch is over. I'm not going to lie, I went into the epoch pretty disheartened- I hated the normal Deutsch classes, and the thought of two hours every day was agonizing. Now, though, I'm a little sad to see it go. Somewhere in the middle of the epoch I think I crossed an invisible border of verstandis, and after that point I really enjoyed the texts and stories that we read and analyzed in class. There's not really an equivalent at LHS- it's not a german language class, and it's not quite a german literature class. I guess it's like an analytical-literature and philosophy class. Whichever. Ich fand es gut.
We also had a math test on Friday which I kicked butt on- I was really proud because I wrote my last answer as 5 * sqrt(2), and the given answer was sqrt(50). Not that that really matters, but it's the little things in life that make it what it is, right? Nice job, Mr. Tarr!
This weekend I went with a few friends to Riverboat, a disko in Luebeck. I liked it a lot there. The music wasn't as good as at Parkhaus, the other disko I've been to, but the mood was better. It was a pretty classy place, for a disco. It's also cool, because I was planning on meeting just three friends, but I ended up running into ten other kids I knew. It's nice when things work out.
My hair is too long again. I need a haircut.
It's been a while, sorry. I've been busy, and, to be honest, not all that much too interesting has gone down in the last week or two.
School is back, snow is still here, vacation is over. It's been a little warmer- usually it hovers around -2 or -3 degrees (27ish F), and it snows every once in a while. We've got about six inches now.
Street plowing isn't nearly as thorough as in the US, but nobody really seems to care. That being said, on the way to pick up Leone en route to school last week we got pretty stuck, but a bit after a little push and shove we figured it all out. It meant I didn't need to go to my first half hour of German.
One of the lovely advantages of not-so-plowed streets is auto-sledding. It's like waterskiing, except there's no water and it's cold and you're on a sled on your bum and not your feet and there's no boat and no skiis. It is just a fun, though! We did that today, good stuff. The car got stuck again, but it's cool because Alex has a bamf tractor that was essentially born to extract autos from snowbanks. And to carry wood.
Friday was the last day of my German epoch. I think I've already explained what that means, but just to be sure I'll clarify- the Waldorfschule has an epoch system (I think that's also a word in English, but to be perfectly honest I'm not sure any more). What this means is that for 4-6 weeks we have a hauptunterricht, or main lesson, two hours every day. After that we have assorted core classes.
Anyway, the German epoch is over. I'm not going to lie, I went into the epoch pretty disheartened- I hated the normal Deutsch classes, and the thought of two hours every day was agonizing. Now, though, I'm a little sad to see it go. Somewhere in the middle of the epoch I think I crossed an invisible border of verstandis, and after that point I really enjoyed the texts and stories that we read and analyzed in class. There's not really an equivalent at LHS- it's not a german language class, and it's not quite a german literature class. I guess it's like an analytical-literature and philosophy class. Whichever. Ich fand es gut.
We also had a math test on Friday which I kicked butt on- I was really proud because I wrote my last answer as 5 * sqrt(2), and the given answer was sqrt(50). Not that that really matters, but it's the little things in life that make it what it is, right? Nice job, Mr. Tarr!
This weekend I went with a few friends to Riverboat, a disko in Luebeck. I liked it a lot there. The music wasn't as good as at Parkhaus, the other disko I've been to, but the mood was better. It was a pretty classy place, for a disco. It's also cool, because I was planning on meeting just three friends, but I ended up running into ten other kids I knew. It's nice when things work out.
My hair is too long again. I need a haircut.
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Foto post!
I've got a few more nice photos from Winter Ferien that I'll put here, and then I'll get to Hitzacker musikfreizeit later- I didn't take any photos that week, I need to get some from Mia.
Anyway, these are nice:
Anyway, these are nice:
Alex, auf den See
Schlitten fahren!
Marzipan is best eaten with apples
25th!
On the 25th we had a really fantastic Thanksgiving/Christmas dinner, compliment of my folks. Sven came, and he, Anke and I spent much of the day cooking. It all payed off, though- the meal was fantastic.
The stuffing called for air-dried bread; we didn't want to wait.
Some good looking birds (and Bio!)
Mia with her new camera
A feast!
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