More pics from the week

I thought I would include pics of Jan and I riding. I even wore a cowboy hat for effect. What fun! And there is a pic of Lex and I. Can you tell we're related? lol.

Go go Speed Racer

Sadly the week has flown by and Jan is flying back to Frankfurt. After SLC and LAX. hee hee. It was a good week, however. I especially enjoyed having the week off of work.

Well, after our lovely weekend in Des Moines, Jan and I drove back to KC. I had studying to do, so the nice German that he is, Jan offered to drive. And he was doing a swell job until he tapped me on the shoulder and said, "um, Kate?" At which point I looked up and saw flashing lights in the rearview mirror. Oops.

I told him to pull over and then Mr. Stick Up His Butt Highway Patrolman pulled us over. Jan handed over his driver's license (totally in German, mind you) and I offered to translate, but Mr. I'm Too Cool Policeman said it was unnecessary. He then preceeded to assume Jan's place of birth was his middle name. Reject.

I'm sorry to say we did in fact get the ticket. A whooping $115 for going 14 over the speed limit. Well, I'd not had a speeding ticket before so at least it was interesting. Jan was a bit disappointed. He had hoped for more excitement. I told him he's lucky, b/c more excitement might have meant handcuffs and being hauled to a police station in the middle of nowhere. lol.

The rest of the week we chilled, saw family, saw the Plaza, and went horseback riding b/c Jan had never sat on a horse before. Crazy, huh?

Oh, he also went to class with me, and got up the nerve to speak up in class on the last night. That was fun. We were arguing theory and it was quite enjoyable.

That was my week. Next week I have my interview for my scholarship. That should go well, it's on my birthday, after all! And since I'm probably the only person who applied for any Uni in Deutschland.....lol!

Das ist's. Tschuess!

Besuch in Des Moines

Jan is visiting, and once I got the message that he was on another flight and I had not, in fact, lost my German as I thought, things went much more smoothly.

We headed up to Des Moines early Saturday, toured the Sherman Hills old homes (very nice), then went to the Oktoberfest where we had lovely German food. Mmm! Wienerschnitzel u. Spaetzle! I was in heaven. We also drank just a bit.

Then we toured some bars, played some pool for American culture, and went to more bars.

Today we slept in, had a lovely breakfast with croissants and coffee (ahhhhh), walked around, got F&O's (I'm practically drooling just thinking of it), and went out to the Somerset Winery for good wine and fun music. It was a great day weather-wise, and we sat there for a few hours. Now our roast is almost ready. It really does sound like we've spent the entire weekend eating! lol.

The pics: Jan and I road-tripping it, me in Auntie's garden, me in Iowan vineyard-age, Auntie at the winery and the cool old maple tree outside of Auntie's.

Ok, dinner's ready, I'm off. What a fabulous weekend!

: )

German Eval

The German evaluation at KU went beautifully! The lady said I spoke with "near native fluency", which means she was being awful generous, b/c I would never say that! And she also said she highly recommended me for the scholarship. That was a plus. Next up it's the mandatory tea time (feel free to laugh, I did) on Friday, before I pick up Jan.

I'm a bit behind with school work still. If only I didn't need to go to work, I could sit at home and study all day! But money must be made.

On an entirely different note, anyone want to comment on what the Pope said, really meant, and if people ought to be so outraged? I find it interesting. I will hold my opinions to myself for now, however.

Einen schoenen Tag an allen!

: )

Argh!!

Those are my sentiments about the weekend.

First my computer died on Friday. So after work on Saturday (which went over, grr) Dan and I spent 7 hours trying to fix it. We had to delete everything and start from scratch. It was so sad. I lost some documents and all my music. Sadness. Luckily I had backed up old documents and pics, or else I would be one way sad Kate. Still, there is work to do on it, and I just don't have the energy.

Then I tried to print the readings for this week at Mom's, but then the printer went haywire and I couldn't fix it, and then Mom's car broke down and I found lots of little bugs in the rice. (ok, so that sounds a little crazy, but it's how the day worked.)

Und was auch nervt sehr, ist wenn Maenner einfach ein SMS nicht lesen koennen! Manchmal sind sie so bloed, es ist unglaublich. Ich entschuldige mich zu den guten Maennern, die gut lesen und aufpassen koennen.

Tomorrow is KU. (Cat, it's the German evaluation for the scholarship I'm applying for.) Hopefully I can get some studying done, I'm quite behind at this point. Darn it!

Ok, sorry for all the negativity. I did, for awhile, decide I needed to de-stress, and I wore Mom's cowboy hat around. That got a good laugh.

Meegan, your inbox is full. Empty it already. ; ) I can't leave you more messages until it's empty! hee hee.

A lack of satisfying salsa

Last night after work and school, I headed over to Mon's to go salsa dancing. We were going to go to Skybox, but it got canceled there so we went to NV. Well, it was a nice club, great music (live band!), but it was mostly people who are in a dance club together and mostly dance with each other and like they are rehearsing for competition. It doesn't look like they are having that much fun. I would rather go and just relax and have a good time. So we only stayed for about an hour.

We then drove by the other place where salsa was supposed to be happening, but sadly it was not. So we went home, put on our pjs, ate food we shouldn't, and watched t.v. Ahhhhh. Bliss. I love hanging with Mon. I think we're trying the salsa-ing again on Saturday.

School is going well, keeping me busy. I have a language evalution on Monday at KU, I actually have to drive to Lawrence and try to figure out where to park and where this building on the huge campus is. Goodness gracious. I mean, come on, like my German would be a problem! Sheesh. hee hee. Stinking hoops.

I think that is all the news, I am still trying to figure stuff out job-wise.

It is definitely fall here and I am loving it. So beautiful.

: )

Fingers Crossed

Ok, so I finished the rough draft of my app to study at the University of Hamburg next fall. I want to write my thesis there. I'm planning to do it on Turkish immigrant integration into German society. KU has a scholarship for ONE grad student to go to the Uni next fall. Keep your fingers crossed!!

Other than that life is busy. I'm trying to work in more tutoring, I may have a position dealing with intercultural communication and diversity training in the near future, though only part-time. How exciting!!!!!!!!!! And tomorrow night Monica and I will dance our little hearts out at the Madrid. Good stuff.

I love my 701 class. The prof is awesome. Tonight he made a point about the modernizing world and how there tends to be a lot of lonliness for those of us following our hearts and dreams and bouncing from place to place, leaving behind family and friends. It just rang so true. Funny that it was brought up in class.

I hope everyone else is doing wonderfully. Big hugs!

: )

A not so sleepy KC

Monica and I went out Friday night (which I waaaay needed) and hit First Fridays downtown, where the art galleries open up and the street performers come out and it so reminded me of Europe! I loved it! We saw lots of modern art (a personal fav) and heard awesome music. I almost lost one of my favorite sweaters, but this nice musician found it for me.

Then we hit the Plaza and got a delicious coffee drink. I don't think I should be allowed so much sugar and caffiene that late at night! Poor Monica. It was a blast though. The next morning we got up too early and hit the big farmers' market, ohhhhh. I love that.

This weekend Auntie was in town. We fought viciously with a very cool yet complicated ceiling fan and we thought it was going to win, but in the end we got it hooked up. Whew!

Tomorrow it's more studying. I just can't get enough!

Sadness in Kate World

E and I broke up today. I think I've spent a good deal of the day in tears, sadly. But it will be all right. I really want him to be happy and hope everything goes wonderfully for him, and I'm sure I will feel better sometime soon.

Tonight Monica and I are hitting the First Friday art thing in KC and I think it will be awesome. And this weekend Auntie is coming to visit. Yay!

Uni is keeping me busy, had a great class last night and some of us went for drinks afterwards at Barley's. Always great fun!

I hope everyone has a fun holiday weekend!

: )

Non-boring normalacy

(I realize normalacy is not a word, but I think it fits better so I have chosen to use it. Deal.)

Things have gotten back to normal for the most part. Work, Uni, work, seeing people. Ahhhh.

I am being good about jogging and it's not so bad. Especially at dawn or dusk, such lovely times. I went for a walk tonight at dusk and the sunset was so beautiful. We have some of the most amazing skies here in the Midwest. I love it.

I have an interview at a place I really want to work for next Wednesday. Keep your fingers crossed! And I might be getting more people to tutor, this time in German. I hope it works out! Juhu!

Ok, so while studying tonight, I came across an interesting section on scientific reasoning/methodology, etc. It says that an assumption of science is that "Truth is tentative. We noted earlier that truth is dynamic and constantly changing. What is true at one point in time may not be true in the future. Truth is always relative to the existing state of knowledge. As scientific methodology is applied to increasing numbers of observations, what most thought was once true may be modified." So you could use an example of something like people thinking the world was flat, or that the sun revolved around the earth. What do you think about that statement, that truth is relative and changing? I thought it was really interesting, especially b/c it and other articles argue that the point of science is not to seek the truth, but to explain things to the best of ability. I sort of disagree. I think science aims to discover the truth. Opinions are welcomed and encouraged.

That's enough thought for one night. Now I'm off to bed.

: )

Nochmal an der Uni

Uni started again last night and it was great! I really love my first class. They restructured it, and it's not the scary methods class I thought I'd be taking. And there are people from all over the world in it, which always gets me excited. So I am very ready for the semester to start!

Other than that I am just working and hanging out. I've been trying this "jogging" thing again. It's ok if I go at a snail's pace, but that's ok. Meegan, you'd be proud. Ok, maybe not. Maybe you'd just laugh. BUT, last night I jogged for 30 minutes and it didn't feel like torture, so in my book that is improvement!

I was planning on a mini pool party tomorrow but I think it will fall through again, which is ok. I am going to pick up my pics, don't ask how many I printed off from last year b/c it is a scandalous number! And Monica and I are going to see Rent at Starlight. That should be interesting.

I hope everyone is well and enjoying wherever you are in the world.

: )

DDR

No, it has nothing to do with the commie side of Germany. It is the craze of Dance Dance Revolution! Are you laughing as hard as I am now? I think it's only appropriate.

So James and Sam have been having DDR parties, and I have to admit, it's pretty stinkin' cool. Therefore, this Saturday I am combining my pool party with the popular DDR-age. Above are some pics of the party at S&J's.

The last pic is just my dog and I. I missed him sooooooooo much!!

On a more serious note, at church last Sunday, Thom was taking about his time at Uni, and how he had to take this class on Islam. He sat next to some self-proclaimed Muslim Feminists, and one day he had a discussion with them about their hijabs. Basically, it came down to the (somewhat?) Western view of women "over there" being oppressed and not treated equally. They countered that they felt more free, b/c they were not forced to be a size 2, wear high heels that killed their feet, and dress "sexy" to be taken seriously/appreciated or promoted. Instead, they are taken for the work they do, their abilities and intelligence. There's no pressure to be bulimic, and they aren't as obsessed with appearance as we are. So they felt that the Western woman is much more restricted than they are. Very interesting! I must admit, I've never thought of it that way, and was very appreciative to be presented with that p.o.v.
Any thoughts?

August Already?

All right. So I admit, I've not been keeping up with my blog. But I just am not having the crazy adventures one has while living abroad. Although, I am enjoying reading Kate (Aussie)'s blog about her new life in Japan. I especially appreciated the thing about carrying the mattress through the trains and being stared at. Would have loved to have seen that! Or having a new apartment, but without elec., gas, etc. Ahhh, the many joys! How I miss them!

I might have another small German group to teach English to. I am quite enjoying the tutoring. I just hope I have enough time for it all when school starts. Which is 1.5 weeks. And my teachers haven't ordered books! What does that mean? Hmmmmm.

Do you see how boring this is compared to my Germany blogs? No mold invasions, bugs claiming my bathroom, and if I'm considered the reject it's not because I'm the ignorant foreigner that can be written off.

That said, I am enjoying being home. I woke up to a thunderstorm this morning and it was heavenly. I can go barefoot and swim when I want and the time is really flying by. I can't believe it's already August!

E is still in Ktown til next week and he's still working on the thesis. I'm ready for him to finish and get his butt over here for a visit! However, it looks like that could be October. Schnoeffle schnoeffle. But Jan might be coming to visit around the end of September. Very cool.

It is almost Meegan's birthday and I am a rotten friend b/c I'm still idea-less for a great b-day gift. Do I lose super-duper friend points?

I think that's about it for life in KC. Oh, my room is almost completely organized. A month after returning home. Meegan, I bet you're proud of me for the procrastination. I learned from the best!

: )

No News

There is not much new here. Life is settling down again and I am settling into it. I am working and Uni doesn't start for another month or so. I do, however, start my tutoring job next week and I'm so psyched! Juhu!

Aber natuerlich vermisse ich Deutschland, und am meisten die Leute dort.

There is a man at work that is German, and I love having the opportunity to red' a little Deutsch.

Ummmm. Yep. I think that about covers it. The heat here now is pretty intense, but I love it. Some things about home are so nice. Like listening to the cicadas at night, or chasing fireflies. Ahhh, the lovely Midwest. (and not the South!)

My Half-Ass Rant

Cat and I were talking this evening and she mentioned how these people in her biology class think that doing things half-assed and not working hard are cool. And actually, when I thought about it, it seems a lot of people (sadly often younger people) tend to take this viewpoint. "Yeah man, I didn't do the work for the presentation but the boss thinks I did and didn't check it." Or "I was supposed to help my mom out but she didn't even notice that I only swept the floor instead of mopped it." Ok, so maybe those are sucky examples, but I think you get the drift. Why is it ok or even cool to not try your hardest and be rewarded? Isn't it ten billion times better to give something your all or at least do what you are supposed to and then be proud of the results? Why are we praising twits who think that doing less than your best is not only acceptable but favorable? It's appalling and highly disappointing.

Now, I'm not saying we don't have our lazy days or just times when fudging a little isn't so bad. But on a day to day moral basis, why shouldn't we strive for our best and encourage the best in others?

Just something to think about.

Some pics with Megan

Megan and I enjoying the end of the World Cup, and Megan and I meeting Kate for lunch.

Head-Butt, Wussy Boys and the World Masters

If that wasn't an exciting World Cup game!!! Did you guys see the vicious head-butt?! WOW! I think that was probably the most entertaining (and very wrong) moment of the game! It made up for the fact that usually the soccer boys are little princesses who fling themselves down on the ground every time someone even looks at their ankles. In all fairness, they were much better today. Still it's sad the Germans couldn't be "World Masters" (Weltmeister), but it was still exciting and I for one am a bit sad that the WM is over.

Megan has got me running these last few mornings. Ok, ok, jogging. But wow is it painful! Great to have her here, though. To get even I kicked her butt at tennis last night.

So yeah, not really any news from here. Just chilling with Meegan.

Hope you all are well.

: )

Jet Lag

So I'm massively jet-lagging it. I didn't think it would be so much coming back. But I've been sleeping a ton and have been exhausted. Rosa helped me unpack the first day back so that was really great. However, I still have a few drawers to straighten out b/c we just emptied my bags. And I really, really need to reorganize my closet. It is a danger zone like you wouldn't believe! I need to throw things out and reject my pack rat tendencies, but it's just so hard! Rosa lent me the book He's Just Not That Into You and I am laughing my head off. Great, really. I would highly recommend it to any fabulous woman who is having trouble with many Mr. Wrongs, or just anyone in need of a laugh.

Megan and I have been lazy bums. We've rented movies, eaten ice cream and laid by the pool. My pale self is loving the sunlight and just begging for more. I plan to oblige tomorrow.

The readjusting here is going to take some time, I feel. But it is so good to have Megan here. (my family is of course wonderful as well! that was just an assumed and unspoken whatnot).

Life on the other side of the world. Ahhhhh.

Home

I made it, safe and sound. The day of traveling was long, but ok. I caught the end of the Germany game in the airport. I can't believe we lost like that! Dang it! I was so sad.

Today I am unpacking and doing lots and lots of laundry. I've realized I have way too much crap and need to clean out some stuff. Just like spring cleaning, only, well yeah, in July. : )

I am so tired. Holy cow.

I am already missing Germany like mad. I think I just need time to readjust. I was so sad to leave yesterday. I hadn't thought much about it and then it just hit me all at once and wow. Talk about the waterworks! It was really hard leaving E.

Megan and my aunt both come to town tomorrow. There's so much to do. But all I want to do is lay in the sun and sleep. lol.
Maybe later.

Darn Punctual and Efficient Germans

All right. So I planned on getting up at the butt crack of dawn to do some stuff since I was only supposed to have electricity until sometime between 10 and 12. Now, at home this would mean by 11:50 or so they would cut the power, however, not in Germany. No siree Bob. I slept in a bit late, got up at 8:30 and went into the bathroom and flipped the switch. Nothing. I tried again in my sleepy state. Hmm, that's odd. Yep, the Germans cut it way before they were supposed to.

My solution? Showering in the dark. Now, it would have been much more practical if I had a window in the bathroom. Lol. After awhile your eyes adjust and it's kinda fun. Maybe like camping or something. If I leave my bathroom door open and the curtains in my room open, just enough light seeps into the little bathroom and I can see a bit. Ahhhh, the joys of moving. : D

I had to sit on my suitcase to close it. Hmmm. Yep, that one's definitely over weight. Luckily E will be helping me with the carrying of the monster bags. And he's a dear b/c he's given me his room for the afternoon so I can actually get some things done, like the things I had planned on doing earlier when I was supposed to have electricity still. lol. Ok, ok, I'm complaining. Sorry. Am stopping right now.

So in 24 hours I'll be on my way home. Can't wait to see everyone. Am going to miss it here like mad. I expect way huge hugs when I get home. I'm taking Danny Tanner (Full House) hugs.

Hope everyone is well and I'll see you soon. Oh, my cell number is the same, so feel free to ring me as of Wednesday.

Mwa! : )