Some of our majestic Michigan wildlife








































The above Big Bucks were out behind the house one morning when I got up, and so I snapped a picture. They are a little bit confused, I think, because they not only come out at the usual deer times of morning and evening, but also all day long to graze the squash and apples back there.




































These mama and baby deer were out in front of the house this morning eating some apples. They were really close to the house, and seemed unphased as I stood in the window and took their picture. They just went about their breakfast.






















We see this turkey and his friends behind the house by the pumpkin patch periodically.


















These racoons were eating apples in the deer's place one morning. They're cute, but also pesky: they will eat the vegetables from your garden and are also carriers of rabies.

I guess I forgot how many wild animals we have around here, even though I grew up with them all around me. Each day I am surprised by all of these creatures. But my brother has also supported my observation that there are actually a lot more deer than usual this year. They are coming out all day long, not just in the morning or evening, and are coming very close to the house and the people, as you can see in the photo of the fawn, he's between the house and the mailbox. They are also not so scared of people: I went for a jog in the woods, and some deer just stood staring at me about 10 meters away, and I went for a bike ride one evening, and the deer just stood in the road staring at me. And when they decided to run away, they didn't go the opposite direction, but right in my direction, nearly knocking me off the bike. Please, hunters, please: hunt a lot this year, do some major population control, because I don't want any of these deer to run out in front of my car. I've never hit a deer, and I don't want to any time soon.

A trip to Canton



















Everybody gets a friendly welcome lick from Sammy!















My brother caught (and was bit by) this praying mantis!

Today we went down to Canton, MI, to celebrate my niece's 11th birthday. It was a beautiful sunny day, and we had lots of delicious foods, including chicken and ribs from the barbie, potato salad, noodle salad (good times and noodle salad!), delicious chips and dips, vegetables and dip and of course, cake and ice cream! All in all, a super duper birthday party. I love all of the delicious foods in America, a prime example of which is our majestic selection of soft serve ice cream:











We didn't stop here today, but did last weekend!

On our return trip to Beaverton from Canton, we got caught in a pretty wild thunderstorm with tons of lightning. I tried taking my first lightning pictures, and got a little bit. It was a really pretty storm, because all around the big group of black clouds was a very intense orange sky. Very neat. See below.

















































































So there you can see the red sky all around the storm cell, as well as just a bit of the lightning right in the storm cell. The lightning was much more impressive in person, though!

Culture shock!

-the cars are big
-the streets are wide
-the people are big
-there is constantly music on in every store, and in the mall it's overstimulating because there's mall music and then each store has its own music
-there are tons of billboards along the highway
-there are so many wild animals everywhere
-there are no sidewalks
-where there are sidewalks, nobody's actually walking on them
-nobody uses a bike for transportation
-there are no buses, trams or trains
-it's so quiet
-it's so dark at night
-you can hear crickets, lots of them
-everybody's so nice
-there's no grafitti
-people look each other in the eye

The strangest thing is that things that used to seem so big seem so small now, and some things are just so different than I remember them. I remember there being action, and now it just seems so quiet. Everything goes so slowly now. It probably always did. The animal noises in the woods never used to make me nervous. I'm so used to not looking at people in the supermarket, and here everybody is saying "Hi!" to me. Huh. I'm vexed.

Tom Kitten

This is my new cat. Somehow he fits all of the interesting, unexpected things that have happened lately just perfectly. You see shortly after we'd given up the job search in America for this year, and shortly before I got the e-mail about the great job that I now (almost officially) have, he turned up on my parents' road, just a tiny kitten, half starved to death. Someone hadn't been able to kill him, so instead they chose to toss him out on a road with nearly no houses on it to certain death. My parents heard him meowing by the road, picked him up and rescued him, even though they had already decided that they would have no more pets. Tom could hardly move (he really was almost starved to death), but they nursed him back to life, giving him milk and food. And then, while I was in Michigan in June for my interview, he was attacked by a larger tomcat. This tomcat bit him in the back, leaving him nearly paralyzed. After that he had some difficulty walking, so my parents once again nursed him back to health, and he managed to gather strength and learn to walk properly again. Now Tom Kitten is an active, thriving little tomcat himself, very playful and friendly (and hard to get a good picture of because he's always jumping around). And if I get all necessary approval, he will be coming to live at my house as soon as I have one!

Bye, Germany

Bye, Dresden.

Bye, Frauenkirche.

The moment my plane took off from Dresden this morning I started to cry. I've been saying goodbye to Dresden and to friends and even to Wilhelm for days, if not the last weeks. Every time I did something, like riding over the Elbe on my bike (on Friday), walking down my street (yesterday), seeing the sunset, looking at the Frauenkirche from Wilder Mann (yesterday) it was goodbye Elbe, goodbye Förstereistr., goodbye Frauenkirche...but it wasn't real until the wheels of the plane left the ground this morning and I realized that my feet wouldn't be on Dresden soil again for a while, probably not until next year. And then tons of memories started flying through my head...about telling friends I was pregnant back in 2005, remembering how shocked some were (standing in the kitchen of one language school), how excited others were (having lunch at Petit Maroc), about how I met my husband (an infamous escape story from an infamous idiot, but I should probably thank that idiot for chasing me away to where I found my Ger-Man!), about arriving here on February 3, 2003, getting lost in a snow storm on my first day, eating a bagel, the excitement of moving into my first apartment on Conradstraße, the excitement of my first very own apartment on Alaunstraße, assembling my furniture in that apartment and how much fun it was, the bubblegum smell of the Putzi toothpaste factory that took me back to my childhood at my grandparents' house chewing Big League Chew bubble gum, the first time I saw Wilhelm in the hospital and how tiny he was and how scary it was (but also remembering when I woke up from whatever drugs they gave me how I first asked "how is my boyfriend?")

Bye, street.

I've never left a place quite like this. In so many ways, Dresden is where I grew up, so much has happened. Sure, it wasn't easy taking off from home five and a half years ago, not knowing what would come next, but in so many ways, Michigan can always be my home base. My family is there and it's no problem to go back. I guess realistically it's no problem to go back to Dresden, we know so many people there, and it's so much easier for us to just go, no Green Cards, nothing...It's just scary to leave so many friends and so many fun memories behind. Of course it wasn't and isn't all fun in Dresden, our future looks a lot brighter in the United States (but we'll see about that when we get there), but we will be pretty uprooted for a very long time I think. We have such a nice network of friends and so many connections to various people and organizations in Dresden, I am very positively surprised by how many good friends and excellent business connections I made in just these past years. It really hit me yesterday how many good friends we have, thinking about our going away party (actually parties), and then everybody who spontaneously stopped by or called because they remembered my departure date. All I can say is thank you to everyone for everything. And see you soon.

Bye, Elbe. Bye, friends. See you soon!

2005: met
2006: had a kid
2007: got married
2008: moving to Michigan
How will we top ourselves in 2009?

Disaster after disaster

I hate moving. It's absolutely the worst thing ever, and I never want to do it again. Packing and selling and writing lists and taking photos, and then your hard drive crashes and everything is gone. Everything as in 5.5 years of photos, hundreds of audio CDs, tons of documents...And this the day after we bought a second hard drive to back everything up, but hadn't done yet. Well, maybe it's not really gone, it's actually probably still there in that little box, you just can't access it. I'm on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

The Party.

Disclaimer: This post is based on true events. The participants' names have been changed, and any resemblance to any real people, living or dead, is purely coincidence.

So yesterday evening we had our going away party because I will be the first of us 3 to leave next Sunday at 5:50 am. Lots of people came, and it was quite enjoyable to have a colorful mix of family, friends and colleagues and of young and old together playing, laughing and just having fun. The afternoon was rowdy with most of the family and friends with kids coming, and fortunately we have a big courtyard with playground where the kids could run around, color everything with sidewalk chalk, play ball and ride around on various cars, bikes and scooters. It was really fantastic to have the kids there having so much fun, and everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves.

After our colorful afternoon of fun, coffee and cookies (mmm, and thanks to everyone who brought delicious sweets, especially the giant Dr. Quendt sampler, as well as other generous and very nice presents for all of us!), we moved on to the grilling part of the party, during which the beer started to flow and the meat was grilled! Our favorite neighbor stuck his head out of the window from high above the yard, and we expected him to complain about the noise and the grill, but amazingly enough he didn't. It's either because he's learned that whatever he says makes no impression on us whatsoever, or that he's heard that we will be leaving soon and going far away. Meat and cheese was grilled; olives, cheese, salad and other delicious antipasti were served; and once again, more beer flowed. Darkness fell, people with tired kids started to go home, then the rowdies showed up. They trickled in slowly, and though they are impossible to control, I was glad to see them, as they are always good for a laugh. These guys (and girls) are not dangerous (at least not to spectators, but I wouldn't want to get involved in their reindeer games), they are just the usual suspects and very likeable people. One woman performed debaucherous acts with three men at the party, on the balcony and in our bathroom. Another woman told woman one how she would like to begin some kind of relationship with the man woman one is also in some way involved with. Someone knicked the shit out of my chairs by using the chair seat to open beer bottles, red wine was spilled all over one table and seeped into the top, giving it fancy red streaks. I went to sleep at 2 am because all of this confusion was exhausting me, but my sources tell me that these uncontrolled acts of indulgence did not stop at our house, but continued at the bar until the sun came up. I can proudly say that my husband, my son and myself all behaved ourselves and managed to have a productive day today despite the late night. I'm not so sure about some of our other guests, though.

Party scorecard: A++ for entertainment value, A for effort, but an F for proper behavior. We just wanted to get all of our friends and family here together to say goodbye, not have a swinger party. Gosh guys, you can do that without us, I mean, we must be some kind of prudes to move to America...

Neonazis, I've had just about enough of you...

First you stole my bike back in 2005, and now you've stolen my name. See below:

"SKR" - "Skinheadkontrollrunden" nennen die Rechtsextremen ihre nächtlichen Touren in Sturmhauben und Springerstiefeln: Mit Taschenlampen und Schlagringen machen sie sich auf die Suche nach Opfern, wer ihnen in die Quere kommt, wird zusammengeschlagen. Die Männer überfallen Dönerbuden, attackieren das Büro der Linkspartei, fallen in annähernd militärischer "Marschformation" über Volksfeste her. Regelmäßig bleiben Verletzte mit Platzwunden, Schnitten und Prellungen zurück.

This is from Spiegel Online, one of my favorite news sources, and it tells me that you Neonazis are defaming me by naming your little "Skinhead control rounds" SKR. What you do in your "rounds" includes going around beating up Turkish guys who just want to serve some delicious snacks, some left-oriented political activists, foreigners (so why did you have to go and use my initials, rocket scientists?) and pretty much anybody else you don't like.

Neonazis, I don't like you and you probably don't like me. Though I've had some very shady situations in my time in Dresden, such as being hit on by one of your NPD party members (he invited me to an intercultural exhibition about Japan !?), being nearly employed as a simultaneous translator by a disabled former NPD party member to call a refugee camp in Africa to talk to his girlfriend (my friend who did take this job had the guts to ask the former NPD member if this didn't in some way conflict with his views, and he made it clear that he no longer beloned to "the party"), oh, yeah, and not to mention that you stole my bike three years ago.

Okay, okay, maybe I'm generalizing too much by mixing up the Sturm 34 group and the NPD--the NPD would certainly feel insulted if I am balling them together with Sturm 34. "No, no!" they would say, "we are just nationalists." Well, I don't care. For me you are all one and the same, and strangely enough, where the NPD is strong also seems to be pretty close to where Sturm 34 is carrying out their stupid "rounds".

I don't care about your slight shades of gray between the NPD and Sturm 34. You are offensive, disgusting bullies. I wish I could tell you to just go away, get out of this beautiful country that you are giving a bad name. I would love to do everything I could to simply have you deported to the moon or somewhere else where you only have each other to beat up, but I'll be going away first.

Hey!

Visit my sister site "Leaving the German Sector" if you want to buy some sweet stuff!!! It's cheap! And it's got to go!

Wanted: A new home!



















I really really hate to do this, but I have to use Remember White Rabbit as a platform to find a new home for my 2 guys, Rosie and Rocket. They are actually girls, and are each just over one year old. Because our move out of the country became finalized so quickly, there is really no way for us to organize taking them with us due to vaccinations, a place to live, etc, so they need to find a happy place to live in Germany! Unfortunately my 2 preferred bunny keepers also have no capacities for these guys, so if you or anyone you know can provide them a good home (and please don't tell me your stomach would be a good home for them, I've heard that one already and it's not funny any more), please contact me via a comment on this blog, email or telephone!

Neil Diamond said it the best...

Far
We've been travelling far
Without a home
But not without a star

Free
Only want to be free
We huddle close
Hang on to a dream

On the boats and on the planes
They're coming to America
Never looking back again
They're coming to America

Home, don't it seem so far away
Oh, we're travelling light today
In the eye of the storm
In the eye of the storm

Home, to a new and a shiny place
Make our bed, and we'll say our grace
Freedom's light burning warm
Freedom's light burning warm

Everywhere around the world
They're coming to America
Every time that flag's unfurled
They're coming to America

Got a dream to take them there
They're coming to America
Got a dream they've come to share
They're coming to America

They're coming to America
They're coming to America
They're coming to America
They're coming to America
Today, today, today, today, today

My country 'tis of thee
(Today)
Sweet land of liberty
(today)
Of thee I sing
(today)
Of thee I sing
(today)

Like my great grandparents before me, I too am coming (back) to America! And soon! America, brace yourself for my German men! They have famous lederhose, and they will wear them.

How 'bout that?

Pretty neat, huh?

Don't count your chickens until they've hatched.

Huffing at the Plus Markt

Maybe I'm getting old, but I really wish that security guard would come back to the Plus Markt and at least stop the wild homeless Australian from huffing the gasses from various aerosol cans in and in front of the supermarket. You see, for a short time, there was constantly a security guard in my local Plus supermarket keeping loiterers (often various forms of drunks blocking the entry) from annoying shoppers and begging for money. These were the golden days of my Plus market, about 2-3 months ago. Well, he hasn't been around lately, and a perennial fixture of the Plus market, the Huffing Australian, has been totally out of control. The security guard was keeping him outside on the sidewalk, but now the huffing Australian has set up his blanket right inside the entry by the shopping carts, and today was the second time I've seen him IN THE BUILDING huffing gasses from aerosol cans. Why is this tolerated? I can put up with a lot, I can put up with the Huffing Australian talking to my kid, I can put up with the Huffing Australian making crazy noises, I can put up with the Huffing Australian barking at dogs in front of the store (as he did today, and the dog shut up). But I cannot put up with the Huffing Australian actually huffing.

Apparently the story on this guy is that he had a German girlfriend, and this is why he's in Dresden in the first place. Well, the love affair ended, and life soured, so now he more or less lives in the Plus Markt. He turned to drugs, and maybe because he's poor, he gets high by inhaling the gasses from spray cans. I actually kind of feel bad for him, because he's obviously in a very bad situation and a bit crazy, and people abuse him. What he needs is help, not some change from the shoppers, certainly not a donated can of hairspray, but rehabilitation. But he should not be huffing in a supermarket! Why is this allowed? Why are there police parading in riot gear when there's a little festival in the neighborhood, when there's a big soccer game, or when some rocket scientists build a tree house in a tree that's about to be cut down to make way for a bridge (protecting the guys in the tree house who are trespassing, I might add), but when somebody actually smashes some windows on a Turkish restaurant (or 3), or actually throws somebody out of a tram, or actually busts the mirror off of your car, or actually does drugs in front of your kid in the supermarket, there are no police to be found? Come on Dresden, get on the stick.

I'm turning Japanese I think I'm turning Japanese I really think so Turning Japanese I think I'm turning Japanese I really think so



Well, not exactly Japanese, but just a bit German. It's been 5.5 years, and, well, the influence is astonishing sometimes. Especially when I'm riding my bike. I've noticed that I've become very impatient with, say, pedestrians on the bike path. Normal rules of the road (or sidwalk for that matter) dictate that one is to keep right, at least in most western countries. Well, I boil over when I ride up behind a group of rocket scientists occupying the whole path, who don't even notice that they are walking on the bike path, then curse me for riding a bike at all. Then there are those brain surgeons who ride in the wrong direction on the wrong side. One of these jokers caused me to get verbally assaulted by a couple of senior citizens last Wednesday. I stayed over to let this guy pass the senior citizens rather than crowd him off the path and into a tree, but they got all worried that I was going to ride right into them and started yelling "The bike path is the red part!" Though most often cool-headed, I nearly yelled back "I know, I'm not stupid, but that guy is".

Another thing has to do with speed. I like to ride fast. And everyone else who doesn't ride fast gets on my last nerve because they are slowing me down. Somehow, I have absorbed this without even noticing. I always laughed when someone explained to me how slow drivers are dangerous because they are holding up the flow of traffic (which is something I've often heard here), but now I really understand what they mean. Get a couple of slow cyclists on a busy street, the fast guys can't pass them, then somebody brakes and the whole crowd goes down!

I also get all competitive when I pull up to a stop light and another cyclist crowds up really close to me just dying to take off faster than me. You see, my bike looks sort of like a bike a grandma would ride, but actually it's pretty fast. I've witnessed this phenomenon in cars at stop lights as well, you've got some little guy in a tiny hatchback who thinks he's all big and tough with his customized exhaust pipes, and the driver of the car I'm in starts commenting about how the other driver "thinks he's going to pass, but he's not!!!" and floors it when the light turns green, leaving the other guy in the dust. Unintentionally, I do the same thing on my bike.

This whole thing doesn't just apply to unwritten traffic rules, either. I've been told in the past by certain friends and family members that I even sound German when I speak English now. Well, a couple weeks ago, someone who I consider a language expert was cracking up for the first five minutes of our conversation (in English) and told me that I sound like a German who speaks really good English. And even non-German Europeans have difficulty hearing where I come from when speaking English or German. I've often been asked whether I'm Scandinavian!

One final note: the normal greeting for friends, family, business partners and colleagues is always a handshake here. I like this, and find it's a very civil way of saying hello, though some of my fellow Americans avoid it like the plague because it's not the American way. My policy is when in Rome, do as the Romans do. So, yesterday one of my closest friends, a fellow North American, came by, and though we've always avoided the handshake with one another, we did it! Somehow automatically, it just overcame us. We shook hands yesterday. Then had a good laugh at ourselves. Because...
We're turning Japanese we think we're turning Japanese we really think so!

Wow, what a dangerous place in which I live!

But somehow I'm still convinced that I'm safer here than in the United States...

I can hear my neighbors partying outside as I write this.

Anyway, we talked about this word "public viewing" in class today, and it's interesting to see that this guy used it, too. But maybe his English is just German-ized! I still say "public showing" or "public screening" is better, because "public viewing" smacks of going to see a dead body...

U.S. Embassy Warden Message: 6/25 UEFA Championship Semi-Final Match

June 24, 2008 Warden Message:
On Wednesday evening, June 25, Germany and Turkey will meet in the semifinal round of the 2008 European Football Championship in Basel, Switzerland. Various cities in Germany have set up viewing areas for the public to watch the live broadcast of this game. The “Fan Mile” in front of the Brandenberg Gate in Berlin is expected to draw up to 500,000 German and Turkish fans, Frankfurt am Main will host a public viewing area at the Rossmarkt, and Munich is setting up a large public viewing area at the Olympic Stadium where 30,000 fans are anticipated. Similar events are planned in other cities and spontaneous celebrations or demonstrations related to the match may occur throughout Germany.

Because of the high fan interest in this prestigious semi-final elimination game between Germany and Turkey, there exists the possibility that disturbances, including violent disturbances may occur before, during or after the match, which begins at 20:45. At a minimum, post-game celebrations will likely result in traffic congestion in larger cities. Crowds celebrating previous German and/or Turkish victories have blocked streets and rocked vehicles attempting to pass through them.

We remind American citizens in Germany that even mass gatherings and demonstrations intended to be peaceful can turn confrontational and possibly escalate into violence. American citizens are therefore urged to avoid the areas of demonstrations if possible, and to exercise caution if within the vicinity of any demonstrations. American citizens should stay current with media coverage of local events and be aware of their surroundings at all times.

The above Warden Message was borrowed from: http://www.eurotrippen.com/

I love larvae!

We've had a terrible problem with plant lice for the last couple of years on our balcony and even in the house on our plants, until someone showed us the solution last week at Willy's birthday party: larvae! Ladybug larvae to be exact. Those little guys chowed down on the lice, freeing our tomatoes, sunflowers and beans of lice overnight!

Behold!
























The little guys with wings are the lice, the black and red guy is the larva. Look at how he eats!
























I realize these larvae aren't the most charming creatures, but they have solved a problem that has been giving us a headache for over a year. Therefore I adore them and search the bushes in my yard for more each day, carefully placing them on my plants which are just covered in delicious bugs. Yesterday I saw one at a restaurant and had to contain myself, I nearly started praising the little bug on our table.
























If you don't believe me that those creepy little guys are going to turn into ladybugs, here's your proof.

Since we didn't do anything fun last weekend...

Last weekend our beautiful summery weather took a turn for the worse, namely a rainy, cool turn. So we just sat around home and tried to decide what to do, and ended up doing nothing except a little cleaning. But so that nobody thinks that we're suddenly incredibly boring, here's something we did a couple weeks ago--a little trip to the Dresden Botanical Garden. It's tucked in a little corner between the Volkswagen factory and the Großer Garten, with its entrance on Stübelallee. And it's free of charge to go in! I never knew this, and that's why I never went there before-- I preferred to save my admission money for other things like the zoo or museums rather than just some plants...





































































These are some of the more colorful things that struck my fancy, but are not by far all of the most interesting things. They have a whole tropical house, where the turtles also live, just full of neat-o plants and fish, as well as a cactus house, which pretty much knocked my socks off. We saw many of the same kinds of cacti with which we stuffed an entire suitcase on our return trip from Barcelona, as well as a lot of the same plants that we also stole...or borrowed, or maybe liberated is better...from the Canary Islands. It seems I've become a bit of a plant enthusiast in the last years, so I wonder why I didn't go to the botanical garden before. Probably just because nobody said "We're going, do you want to come?"

And to answer what is probably your most burning question right now: no, I didn't steal anything from the Dresden Botanical Garden. But I know somebody who knows somebody who dressed up in a white lab jacket, went in there, opened a terrarium and got away with a special kind of cactus...but this was years ago, when Dresden was a little bit like the Wild West.

Another Marathon Tour

Last weekend, in honor of yet another holiday weekend in Germany, aka "Workers' Paradise", we biked/skated to Meißen. This constituted a round trip of approx. 50 kilometers once again. It was a lovely day and because of my allergy to sunscreen (I get red itchy welts, it's fantastic) I am actually getting a decent tan for the first time in my life. Enjoy the view even if you didn't work your muscles or get a sunburn on the way.














No, I didn't edit this picture to make it look more interesting, that patch of bright yellow is a rapeseed field, of which you can see many these days due to organic fuel production.















We don't need that silly World Cultural Heritage Site in Dresden, you have nearly the same view on the way to Meißen too! Build the bridge!













This sign was spotted along the way at a (not so famous) bridge construction site. Just in case you don't happen to notice the painfully obvious fact that the bridge is not even near completion, they put up this sign.
















We arrived in Meißen, took a couple pictures, and turned around for the ride back...



















It's balloon season again! On a different majestic spring day, we spotted a whole bunch of balloons getting ready for takeoff by the Elbe. This particular one tipped over a couple of times while the passengers were already in the basket. I think I would've disembarked at that point...
























Here's another one the same day floating by the Frauenkirche.

On the wrong side of the tracks in Senftenberg

Yesterday we planned a sporty day at the Lusatian lakes (Lausitzer Seenland), which are actually flooded strip mines. It's a string of many lakes with bike and skate paths more or less around all of them. We mistakenly planned to start at Senftenberg, leaving Dresden-Neustadt at 10:52 on the train and arriving in Senftenberg at a little after 12:00. Just running to catch the train was enough exercise for me. First I felt optimistic about seeing a new town, but slowly my optimism faded as we wandered through the town looking for the Senftenberg lake, seemingly going in circles. When we finally found the lake, the bike path, which is supposedly also a skate path, was actually not so good. It was no problem for me and Willy on the bike, but for the two skaters among us, the bumpy brick path was not ideal. Then it started to thunder and get dark. We consulted a restaurant on the path about where the good skate paths are (this area is advertised as a great skating area) and they had no idea. Luckily after nearly losing all hope, some other people on the path stopped us and said we were going the wrong way, because soon the path would turn to gravel. Fantastic. Thanks for the tip. So we got out of Senftenberg as quickly as we could, locating another bike path which would take us to the next village, Kleinkoschen or Grosskoschen or something like that. Here we could supposedly start on the great path around Geierswalder lake. Well, after someone on the street sent us in the wrong direction, we finally found the path, the start of which was a lovely slippery mud. After getting through that, all hope was nearly lost because there was no place to sit and have lunch, and then we saw a police boat on the lake seemingly searching for a corpse. So we pretty much just sat in the mud and threw back our sandwiches, and after consulting on whether to just turn around and go home or continue on and try our luck, we tried our luck. We were able to ride/skate for about 15 minutes on a really good path and started to feel better about our trip when we reached the street and what seemed like the end of our nerves and the path. We checked the map, and it looked like we could continue on (but the paths in Senftenberg were also marked as good skate paths on this map, so who knew?), so we continued on. And as luck would have it, we finally found the good paths! From here on we were able to bike/skate around 2 lakes, we also finally had sunny weather and better moods. Finally we were able to really just ride and ride for about three or four hours.



















It's actually a very picturesque area when you finally get there. It's also good for amateurs because the landscape is very flat, thus making the ride easy.




















This rock is in memory of the villages Sorno and Rosendorf, which were where that water is now. Apparently the people in those villages weren't too well informed about the plans for their towns, they just weren't allowed to make any major repairs on their houses starting in the 1960s and were told to move out in 1970 to make way for the coal mines. I guess that's just the way it is when you live in a communist dictatorship where everybody owns everything and nobody owns anything.
























Here's a closeup of an informational sign on the path, you can see how they mined the area. These machines are like the ones we saw on display in Ferropolis.
























We found this little gem in Sedlitz, a monument to the founders of the German Reich. These actually aren't as rare as you might think considering their historically loaded symbols, there are lots of them still existing in villages. It was erected in 1911 and says "In memory of the fallen, in recognition of the living and to the emulation of following generations." And Sedlitz was the end of our journey around 7 pm. We'd hoped to find a watering hole where the boys could drink a beer and I could get some ice cream, but we only found a closed restaurant and another shady little dive with a private party. After getting stared at by the townies, we called it a day and just waited around at the train station until our train came.

Remember White Rabbit!























This white rabbit was spotted in the Bahnbogengalerie by Bahnhof Mitte in Dresden. Not only is this outdoor gallery worth seeing because of the white rabbit, it's all around pretty interesting because it shows lots of Saxony's and Dresden's sights in a nice artistic presentation. This one is one of the less colorful pictures, others are more colorful and in different styles. It's a good use of otherwise boring old walls.

Nice legs?!?

Today it happened again...I was riding my bike and some construction worker whistled at me. I looked around to see if maybe some attractive young blonde in a tank top and pants was riding around flashing her muffin tops, but no, I was the only person for miles around. Maybe there was some interesting news on the radio in his truck? No, I didn't hear any radio playing. So he must've meant me, because I saw him look out his window at me...maybe he's legally blind. Come on, what's there to whistle at about me? I'm wearing my fat pants today, the ones I bought this weekend because all of my other pants are either worn out or don't fit me any more after having a kid, breaking my knee cap and being sick for a week and lying on the sofa and eating ice cream the whole time. Perhaps he had his beer goggles on?

This happened to me about a month ago, too. I was riding to one of my classes in Striesen, and I'm sure you know by the end of that ride I was huffing and puffing and sweating in the shape that I'm in. Well, some construction worker was standing by his truck and yelled "Nice legs!!" I had a skirt on, but a long one that covered my knees even on the bike. Maybe he was joking? I looked back, and as he was staring I just laughed as loudly as I could. It must've been a joke. And good lord, both of these times I had on my very sexy and attractive bike helmet too. What is wrong with the world?

Either way, after putting on my fat pants and sweating my a** off on the way to work, it does feel kind of nice to be objectified a little...

This is Colonel Sanders. I'm pretty sure he didn't come to Dresden and give somebody a crash course in frying chicken.

Friday's lesson

Since today too is a day off for my students due to my illness, I thought I would keep up with what I started on Wednesday, that is an online lesson so you can learn something even in my absence. This is hopefully the last one of these, as I will be returning to work on Monday, as long as I don't get sick again on the weekend.
Today's lesson is:


DFC - WTF??


A while ago, maybe a couple weeks ago, while strolling along Königsbrücker Strasse I noticed that a new place would be opening up. The windows were all covered, and one could only read the sign "Coming soon: DFC" I thought, "Oh great, Dresden fan club or Dynamo fan club or some such idiocy. A bar for football rowdies just around the corner from my house. Fantastic." Well, it turns out my suspicions were unfounded. This place is something completely different: Dresden Fried Chicken. And this leads me to the core of today's lesson. Upon hearing the words "Dresden Fried Chicken", I immediately asked myself "WTF??" I believe I even said it aloud, out of earshot of my child of course. The words to this abbreviation are "What the f*+/k?" You see this abbreviation often in rather lower class English "literature", websites and email. But I mean really, you have to admit, you'd have asked yourself the same. Come on, we're not in the South here, we're in Dresden, about the most white bread place I've ever been to. So who knows how to make fried chicken here? I'm pretty sure it's not Colonel Sanders. I know they have a long tradition of broiled chicken here, stemming from DDR days. You can even still see the broiler vendors at the street markets, selling hot broilers to the hardcore Dresdner even on icy cold days. And don't ask me what got East Germany hooked on broilers, so hooked as to even use the English word for them (and this is a phenomenon that really only is in the East). But that's off the point. There's a big difference between broiler chickens and fried chicken. I'm a vegetarian and even I know that. So what's up with this place? I think I'll have to go into the field and do a photo expose. Who wants to bet me that what they're actually selling is broilers under false pretenses? Any takers?

Thursday's lesson

Since I had so much fun writing yesterday's lesson, I thought I'd do one for my Thursday students who are missing out on my presence today. Today's lesson is

Feed a cold, starve a flu.

This is a common saying you hear (or at least that I heard) in the United States when cold and flu season rolled around. I realize that it is actually the end of cold and flu season right now, but a lot of people are sick again, if not with a cold or a flu, then with German weather disease, due to the constant changing of temperature, precipitation and sunniness.

This saying is, in fact, a myth. I often heard that one should really do the opposite, that is, starve a cold and feed a flu. That too is a myth. In reality, what one should do in either case is to eat enough to satisfy your appetite, and drink even more. But not alcohol! That dries you out. You need to be drinking water and tea, especially.

Unfortunately, I only just found out that this saying is a myth a little too late. I have been really feeding my cold with the hope of recovering faster in relation to how much I eat. I tried to improve my chances of recovering faster with calorie rich foods, such as chocolate, ice cream, popcorn, grilled cheese sandwiches, creamy soups, gummy bears... So maybe when I reappear to the outside world, you will find that I have recovered and gained a nice set of muffin tops, too. (See below)

Today's Lesson

Sadly, since I lost my voice due to this nasty cold I've come down with this week, I had to cancel all of my classes today and tomorrow. But that will not stop us from learning! Though I can't tell you any funny stories this week, I can write you something from which you can learn. So, this week we have an online lesson, honoring my new favorite English term:

Muffin Tops

In its original, literal meaning, this term refers to, logically, the delicious, crispy tops of muffins. See below. They are better than the bottoms of muffins because they are crispy but not dry, and not so moist and possibly unbaked like the rest of the muffin, usually covered with the muffin paper.











In these pictures, you can see that muffin tops come in different shapes and sizes, some flat, others round, but all delicious. There are some places where you can buy just muffin tops with no actual muffin. I do not believe in this. They might it well call it what it really is, a cookie.

Now, we continue on to the figurative meaning of muffin tops. This is a relatively new slang term, originating in about 2003. Muffin tops refers to that fat that sometimes peeks out of one's clothing when wearing tight, low-cut jeans and a shirt that does not offer enough coverage. This term emerged at about the same time as the fashion trend for extremely low-cut jeans and pants. Older terms for this same anatomical phenomenon include "spare tire" and "love handles".









As with literal muffin tops, you can see that these come in various shapes, sizes and colors. This fashion problem can happen to men as well as women. The figurative muffin tops are usually not crispy, unless sunburned, and are certainly never delicious.

I really, really want this t-shirt. Oops, does that tell you something about my voting preference? I hope I'm not breaking the law by writing this.

Mom: What's your favorite band?

Willy: AC/DC!

Mom: What's your favorite song?

Willy: Big Balls!

This is an actual conversation which we had this evening at the dinner table. For the uninitiated, Willy is only 22 months old...

Connoisseur









These are not only a few of my favorite things, but also Wilhelm's. In keeping with his taste at the age of 2 weeks (see Rock'n'roll baby, June 2006), he is a great connoisseur of music, demanding "muckes" or, starting today, "music", whenever we enter the kitchen or living room, our prime music rooms. Of course, I ask what he'd like to hear, maybe the Beatles? "Beatles, ja" he says. How about Belle and Sebastian? "Still blue" he says, reciting the lyrics of The Blues are Still Blue, one of his Belle and Sebastian favorites. (I am not exaggerating, he really recites that song.) Then I suggest Sufjan: "SUF-jan!" he says. "Ja! SUF-jan!" So I guess that's what we'll play. Then the whole thing continues. We don't just listen to the music, Wilhelm then goes to the speakers and greets the music, saying "Ooooh! Muckes!" then comes to me, hugs my leg, and pleads "Dance!" Well, what can I do? I pick him up and we dance. Then he looks deep into my eyes and says "Sing!" This could go on for a good hour or more. And I can't really complain, the kid has good taste.