Arts and Crafts

Yesterday was an incredibly lazy Sunday because my Saturday lasted until after 4am. Remember the days of sleepovers when you'd try to stay up as late as possible? It's as though all of that childhood effort was practice for when I'd be living in Germany someday. They go out with the last train and come home with the first train. It's... exhausting. Due to my lack of Sunday motivation to go anywhere outside of a 40-step radius from my bed, my little home got a good cleaning, and I got a chance to have some arts-and-crafts time. My faaaaaaaavorite holiday for arts-and-crafts is just around the corner, and (nerd alert!) since I have to factor in the time it takes to send mail internationally, I allowed myself to indulge and let the fun begin even though it's still January!

Here are some sneak previews of what I've been crafting... (dear Emma and Rachel, I miss you and your craftiness)....

A disturbing lack of glitter, don't you agree?

Ein Schottischer Abend an der Uni Mainz

Suffice it to say, I just got home from a most magical 7 hours of volunteer work. I mean it. There was this Scottish evening tonight held at the University, and last week I'd received an email looking for volunteers. "Well, heck!" I thought. "Sign me up!" And, so, volunteer at this cultural evening in Mainz I did.

This evening was "The 253rd Burns Night"-- "ein Schottischer Abend an der Uni Mainz". Yep, I'd never heard of this either. Luckily, Wikipedia has an article about "Burns Supper" which is apparently also sometimes referred to as, you guessed it, Burns Night! It is a celebration of the life of poetry of Robert Burns and traditionally is celebrated around his birthday, which was January 25th. Wikipedia notes that you can celebrate the poet really whenever you please, however. You eat haggis, drink whisky, and make general merriment. Wikipedia even said that the evening "occasionally ends with dancing when ladies are present". There were ladies present tonight, and I will be the first to say, whew! was there ever a lot of dancing. Take all of this info with a grain of salt because 1) I got it from the Wiki, and 2) I didn't read past the introduction paragraphs. However, that summary is pretty spot on with what I saw tonight.

I've never before celebrated anything Scottish using another language (the minister from my childhood is Scottish and wore a kilt every Sunday and to everything noteworthy, so let's agree that I've my fair share of celebrating the Scottish way). I was to begin by helping with the Garderobe-- coat check, or as the signs for the Garderobe also said-- "Cloack Room". Bless the dear heart of the person who made these signs, but it was killing me. And then, I couldn't think of the right way to spell that! I knew "Cloack" was wrong, but with my brain switched into German-mode, I couldn't correctly spell Cloak in my head! "Clock? No. Cloh.... Noooo... Cl. um. erg." Probably took me 10 minutes to remember "C-L-O-A-K". German, you are scrambling my brains!

I was also asked to please help set up the beamer. Uh huh! We had a beamer there! But what does a beamer have to do with Scotland? In Germany, where beamers come from, "beamer" does not mean BMW automobile. Nope, here it means projector! You know, you beam the light onto the wall! I'd have preferred to be in charge of a beamer as we Americans understand it, but I got the projector.

There was much haggis. Much haggis. What? I should reference Wikipedia for this, too? Ok. According to Wiki, haggis is a sheep's "pluck"-- heart, liver, and lungs. It is minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, and mixed with stock. Tradionally it's cooked in the animal's stomach as casing, but you really have no need to be grossed out anymore, because normally now it's cooked in just normal casing. Just your run-of-the-mill bodily organs Mischung. I have to say though, it doesn't taste bad. So when you are offered haggis at some point in your life, forget what you have read here about the contents, and just go for it. You probably maybe might be glad you did.

Oh gosh, and then there was whisky. I think they had 25 different kinds of Scotch, the oldest having aged 18 years. That's the only one I tried (c'mon... I was working!), but there was certainly plenty of whisky enjoyed by the evening's guests. And then came the dancing! Oooo we learned Scottish dances for groups of 6, groups of 2, groups of 50, one big group... and there is a lot of twirling and "swinging your partner", aber ich weiß nicht was "swing your partner" eigentlich auf deutsch heißt. I marched around to "eins-zwo-drei-vier-fünf-sechs-sieben-acht" like a really happy, kind of giggly soldier-dancer. Hilarious. And super fun. And we'd all learn the dance and then before we were allowed to start dancing we'd all have to be correctly and logically lined up because after all, Ordnung muss sein.

I was sure glad I didn't drink whisky and then spin around as many times as I did on that dance floor, or I probably would have tossed up some haggis, to be quite frank. Also, it started snowing! This is the second snowfall Mainz has had this year, and while it wasn't much, it was the good kind with big, fat, fluffy flakes that are ripe for snowman-construction. And that's just what happened on my walk home. 2 very miniature snowmen (one was a snowlady) were constructed and properly named (Roberto and Sofia), and then I mourned the fact that my German cell phone is camera-less. They were picture worthy. I hope they have a nice, snowy night together on the bench where they live.

And now I'm home. Soaking wet ballet flats, tights, socks, and pant-hems. But really loving my Scottish night in Germany.

Plus, I keep starting out the word "Scottish" by spelling it the German way-- "Schot...") and then I have to stop and correct myself. I'm telling you, I have scramble brain from German.

State of the Union 2012

One year ago, I was sitting on the steps in the Gallery of the House of Representatives. The room was filled with the members of both of the House and the Senate. All 9 judges from the Supreme Court were in attendance. The Secretary of State and other members of the President's Cabinet were there. The Vice President was there. All of those big-wigs were on the floor of the chamber. The First Lady was seated in the wing of the gallery to my right, and most others had seats in the gallery. I counted myself lucky to be seated on the stairs, fighting for space among camera men who flitted in and out. And there I was, watching the President give his State of the Union address. I could listen without anyone around me cracking jokes or arguing with the TV screen. No TV commentators. I sat, listened, and for the first time really ever, paid close attention to the contents of the speech in its entirety. It was one of those "DC moments" that I experienced now and then throughout my time in DC. Something I got to do that most people probably don't (or maybe that most people don't even want to do). But it was things like that which I consider to be a special part of my life in DC. It was through opportunities such as being live in attendance to the State of the Union which I will never forget and that I certainly grew from, in some small way.

This year, of course, I am in Germany-- approximately 6,000 miles away from the chamber of the House of Representatives. No helicopters will be buzzing over my house this year. I'll have to show no badge or ticket to anyone. I likely won't hear much about it tomorrow when I wake up (although, these Germans like to stay informed, so who knows) other than through my Facebook feed. But I'll be up. I'll be awake at 3am to watch it stream live over the internet. I will transport myself back to that chamber and listen to the words that will be spoken. I will do my best to come to my own conclusions about what will be said, and I'll remember how special it was to have been there.

Whether the President's policies are those you support or those with which you vehemently disagree, I encourage you to listen in tonight! I'm sure many networks will stream coverage, or certainly replay coverage tomorrow, but I know the White House link is also planning to show the charts, statistics, and other info that the President and his team have based some of this speech on tonight. Might be interesting to see.

Kaffee Stunde

Howdy, readers! I'm in Starbucks right now. That's right, I'm drinking coffee that is familiar to me, in a setting that is familiar to me, and I ordered from a menu that I can read (well, who can actually read a Starbucks menu though?). I'm home!

Ok, I'm not home at all. I'm in Germany still, so don't get too excited. It's funny to me how something as little as sitting in a Starbucks can transport me back to my homeland for an hour. Now, the whole point of travel, for me, is to leave my environment to see how other people live life-- not to go somewhere far away just to spend all my time and energy recreating homeland familiarities. However, I've come to appreciate what a simple cup of coffee does for my long-term stay abroad. It's rejuvenating. "Ein Tall Filterkaffee" and I almost don't even care about the fact that I don't remember the last time I was in the sun or how many potato-based things I've eaten in the last week.

And in 40 minutes, I'll step back through the door and into my German world. I'll go home where that German-language book is waiting for me (that's right! I'm reading in German!), flip on the radio and hear German commercials and weather reports, and review the applications that I've sent off in German to German companies. But you know, I'll feel a little more at ease while I do it, knowing that if I need it, a piece of my homeland is just a cup of coffee away.

I do stay away from the "finding-a-piece-of-home-in-a-mcdonalds-cheeseburger" thing though. I have to draw the line somewhere.