Thesis on the Meaning of Life

Ok . . . where to start. . . . well, I suppose I’ll start where I left off. Last Sunday my internet went out. It was tragic. I had written my blog already when I found out about this and found myself not being able to post it. The wifi showed up, but the router was not actually connected to the internet, so I couldn’t go anywhere. Anyway, so not only did I have nothing important to do this week, but I also couldn’t even waste time on the haven from boredom that we like to call the world wide web. It was terrible. I pretty much spent half the week reading book five of the Dark Tower in German, and still only got through sixty pages or so.

How to Impress Your Host Mom

On Tuesday or Wednesday or something like that I did something apparently super amazing. I was home alone; my host mom had an appointment that morning and said that she’d be back by one o’clock or so. By the time two rolled around I was hungry, and she wasn’t back yet, so I assumed it’d be just fine if I warmed up the leftovers from yesterday that was still sitting on the stove. There was only one portion left so I simply turned on the stove, warmed it up for a few minutes and then ate it (we have no microwave). While I was eating I watched some cartoons on the TV and afterwards I put the dishes away and started washing the three or four pans that were holding the food I had just ate. Well, right about then my host mom came in, thinking I was starving myself the whole time and was surprised to see me washing dishes. I explained that I simply ate the food that was sitting there on the stove and that I assumed that was okay. She was all impressed that I was able to feed myself without her. I am so “selbständig” according to her. Not only that but I was able to figure out how to turn on the TV all by myself, too! Sure, that involves turning on the power strip, the TV, and then the digital box, but come on, is that really that impressive? Apparently so.

Umpah, Umpah, Umpahpah!

So, as I’ve explained before, I joined this Blasmusik band that plays cheesy German polka music and such. You know, like the ones with the warbley male singers that you know of, but don’t really believe they exist. Well they do. And we have a warbley singer, as I just discovered today.

I have a heck of a time communicating with our director. Not only is he half deaf, so I have to yell in German, which is just uncomfortable, but I also don’t even know much music terminology in German, so it’s hard to explain to him what the problem is with me reading bari sax music. Apparently most in most Blasmusik the horn is played in the key of Es, (or Eb, whatever you like to call it). My horn is in F, and he knew that, but I had to explain to him that I can read Es if there’s not a choice, after all it’s not all that uncommon for a horn player to have to transpose, especially in orchestra. In fact I had to do that in high school quite a few times. The problem is that there are actually only a few parts that are written for horn at all, so the majority of my music is for bari sax. Why the bari sax and not the alto? I’m not sure, so I’d thought I’d ask. That’s where I went wrong. I tried to explain to him that if I read the bari sax music that I would have to transpose not only one note down from F to Es but also another entire octave for me to be playing the correct part. Let me remind you again that German is not my first language and the man was half deaf. I’m sure you can imagine the confusion that ensued thereafter. He thought that I was having trouble transposing into Es and I was trying to ask him whether or not I should be playing the part like it’s supposed to sound, an octave lower, except he couldn’t hear me and I had to yell words that I’m not even sure were German. Yeah. . . eventually the communication happened and he said that he doesn’t care what octave I play in, just play.

Anyway, that was an interesting rehearsal. Today I travelled with them to a small town about a half an hour away in Hessen. There was a small Fire Station fest going on with demonstrations and stands with currywurst, pommes, and such. We provided the backup polka. I even got to wear a fashionable blue blazer that says Ebergötzer Blasmusik on it. I’ve got some pictures that I’ll put up on facebook later, they’re pretty funny. Oh and a video, but the file is in a weird format, so I’m going to have to figure that out first. The video’s even better, because you can definitely see me being completely lost and faking it. It’s hard to sight read while transposing, ok? Especially with all the repeats, D.C. al codas, D.S. al codas, and alternate endings that are always present in such music.

Real American Food, Giant Hamburgers!

I decided to cook some hamburgers yesterday for my host family. Pretty American dish, if you ask me. So I used my family’s secret hamburger recipe and cooked them up some ginormous hamburgers. It was a beautiful day too, so I thought I’d be able to grill them, but of course some random clouds decided to roll in and rain on my parade - I mean the grill. So instead I decided to fry them. They were huge. I could barely cook three of them at a time in the biggest pan they had. Luckily I was able to pull it off and they were cooked all the way through with just the slightest bit of pink in the middle. Mmm. They were delish! Bonus: It was hilarious watching my host family (Marcel was also there) try to eat this monster on two buns while they (the buns were inevitably not very sturdy) fell apart slowly. It was great, I thoroughly enjoyed it, and they said that I could definitely do it again sometime. Today, then, they cooked me a very typical German meal: Schweinshaxe with sauerkraut and potatoes. That was delicious as well. I mean, that’s why I’m here right? The sauerkraut.

My parents showed me this giant grocery store in the outskirts of Göttingen called Real. You won’t believe it, but they sell maple syrup, Bisquick, and Pop-Tarts in the American section. And by american section I mean the one tiny shelf that houses American food. I’m so excited. Do you know what this means? I can now make Bisquick pancakes and strawberry shortcake! And they have Pop-Tarts. I always sent my brother Pop-Tarts when he was in Germany, but they have them here! Actually I’ll admit it’s not as good as it sounds. They are expensive and they only have strawberry unfrosted and hot fudge sundae. No cinnamon brown sugar, go figure. That is kind of a let down. Actually now that I think about it, I don’t even know if I have a toaster to use here. . .

Fußballverrückt

Oh my goodness, I have watched so much soccer lately. The young men played on Wednesday and Saturday, the old men (40s and up I think) played on Friday, and Germany’s national team played Belgium on Friday night as well. That’s quite a lot of soccer. It’s always interesting though, I think. Saturday’s game was especially intense. I believe it was a team we were suppose to beat, and we did, but not before the referee gave out about ten yellow cards or so. For some reason the other team was almost entirely Turkish, and I don’t know if it was because of racial tension or what, but the game was full of trash talk and a little too much pushing and shoving. The other team was really getting frustrated because we were winning or for some other reason and my host brother said something along the lines of “provoke him!” which caused him, who was only watching the game, to get kicked out by the ref. Overall, it was a pretty funny situation, but only because I was not playing, I think. The ref was a little crazy though. I probably would be able to play with them but I’m not really good at soccer, plus every time I play my right toe reminds me of how close it is to getting an ingrown toenail. So, the one sport I would not be able to play would be soccer, and that’s all there is to do ‘round these parts.

Ende

So, yeah. That’s about how my week went. Tomorrow I start my internship at the Uni. I’m really quite nervous. I don’t know exactly what I will be doing, but I just hope he makes me do some easy stuff to start out, because I don’t want to bother him all the time trying to clear up the terminology in German and such. I am excited about the notion of me having a month long bus ticket and there being a bus that comes in the middle of the night. Now, I might be able to do stuff like play ultimate frisbee in the afternoons in Göttingen. I hope all goes well, I’ll let you know next week.

Skez