Saturday Post to Brighten Up Your Day

Feeling the need to connect but nothing extraordinary has been going on. Nothing short of ordinary is going on. 

While procrastinating, --the most productive part of my day, I find. -- I stumbled across this video and just wanted to share it.

This might just be inspired by the fact that I was sitting in the park today, minding my own and eating a sandwich while watching the little kids in a playground, when some girl came up to be and sort of half-yelled, half-snarked a comment at me. All I caught from it was, "schlecht." Bad. I asked her to repeat herself, because many a person has asked me for direction-related advice and I thought maybe she was one of them, but she just kept walking. Neither Nick nor I had any idea what she had said. He thought maybe she assumed we were watching our own child at the park and she was disapproving of our existence.

I laughed.

Please know some things about me. I am terrible with children. I'm kind of wigged out by the little buggers. My plan with Rita's kids, when she decides to bum them at my house, is to toss them outside with a couple of crackers. My motto: They'll be aight.

So needless to say, no I was not watching my own kid there, but I was watching the kids. They were funny and I'm grounded by their joy. Nick asked me today if I would go on the merry-go-round with him. I said no. Not because I would get motion sickness (Though I totally would!) but because the parents would think I was insane.

Today I realized I am caught between not being able to be a kid and assumingly old enough to have them.

Terrifying.

I really had no goal with this post beyond showing a funny video but I guess if I did have a moral it would be to go find an otter and race the crap out of it. If your area is lacking in otters, as much of Germany is, go do something you loved to as a kid. Play legos, eat an ice cream cone (in a cone!), rekindle your imaginary friendship. I don't care, just let go and be happy for fifty seconds. It'll be good for your soul, promise.

Seperation Anxiety

Having guest bloggers was great and cool, a nice little kick-back from this ever growing journal of mine, but I would be lying if I said I didn't miss it. In fact, I sort of felt like a toddler who had the biggest, bestest, new bike on the block and I was letting the neighbor kids give it a whirl. My blog. Mine!

I kept a diary as a kid for maybe a couple weeks but kicked the habit after my sisters found it and tormented me over it. I was über-embarassed I remember, though I couldn't say over what. Having someone read my thoughts was just invasive, I suppose. So here I am blogging my way though six-months of my life and I ask myself, why do I blog? Where's the difference?

Aside from the glaring reasoning of keeping friends and family updated I would say I blog for me. It's relaxing and looking at my desk covered in notes of jots and squiggle of blog ideas I'm starting to depend on it for just a little bit of me time. It's my memories that I would like to share. The real stuff.

Coming to the conclusion that real life memories aren't just made up of the perfect little picket fence pictures of a smiling family isn't hard. Has anyone even gotten together for a family photo recently? It's yelling and shoving and running into the cold and freezing wind while posing on a tractor to get that shot to hang in the living room so you can show off what a gorgeous family you can make. Those are the pictures you look at and see, 'Smile, damnit! We're a happy family!!'

OR you might see this.

I call it : reality

This is why I blog. Because this was after we had just lost Grandma at a shopping center, Jared couldn't get ahold of his Army buddy, Bobbi had just ridden a freakin' lion, and quite frankly I believe Rita and I were sick of each other and Bobbi's rolled-up jeans. So I hugged her the biggest little-sister hug I could and nuzzled her with my face in the most ironic 'I wuv yew, Reedah!' hug I could summon.
( Side story though, Mom wanted to snap this picture but had to pose it three times before it was right. That's life, baby!)

I blog because reality is taking Jared to the Wilhelma Zoo and getting caught in the giraffe house while it hailed outside for almost two hours entertaining ourselves by watching a three-year-old lick the hand rail up and down. ...And back up again.

I blog because I don't want to forget about how Sonja had Granpa convinced for twenty seconds that there are bears in Germany. Yes, the infamous 'Teddy bears'. I heard they can rip a Grizzly in two!

Because McSundays and BigKing Saturdays need to be remembered along with pointing at a wall mimicking a pinpad saying, 'Beep boop boop beep beep.' in order to keep Grandpa thinking your buying tickets for the train. Because Dick towers are funny and sometimes when you want to learn a new language you just make up your own. Die schmümste derphf eine 'meima Stchall! 'Du bist das beste Pferd im Stall.'

Because everyone has a story to tell...
Mine just might be a little more hectic than others.

The Trails We Blaze

Amusement parks in Germany are slim to none. Water parks, however, are another story. I present to you...

Fildorado!

Halfway through our stay at the water park did I realized that Fildorado was a play on words with El Dorado, the supposed lost city of gold. This just led to thinking of The Road to El Dorado and singing Disney songs and the rest of the day with Phil Collins stuck in my head. Who hasn't been there?

Uplifting Disney melodies aside, it was a pretty awesome trip. The water slides were timed leading to many a race, there was a wave pool, and a quite possibly the very first three person chicken in Germany. Jared, Nick and I wowed youngsters with our ability to stand three high on each others shoulders. I think we started a trend.
Oh right. So Jared. He is my cousin who randomly popped up to visit from Italy as the rest of my family left. Surprise! He walked into Abele's with his mongo-army bag and Mom introduced him with a warm, "Look what we found!" Sonja just stared at her, trying to figure out who exactly the 'what' was and slowly said, "I don't believe you just found this person." Two thumbs up for German hospitality.

All the family is gone now, leaving face-palmingly large piles of homework and no excuse to procrastinate by going to water parks. Bummer.

Bruno Mars Can Read Minds!

I own a Snuggy.
I can't remember the last time I combed my hair.
I finished p90x last year while messing around getting a college degree, and yes I'm really proud of that.

 So honestly, apart from a few groping related items (What exactly do guys accomplish shoving their hand down their pants?),  I felt like this song was made for me. Too bad I'm going to spend the rest of my day at a water park.  More on that after, I suppose.

Bis spater!

Answer: Volcanos, Brawls, Pimples, and Me

Question: What are some things that erupt?
e·rup·tion/iˈrəpSHən/Noun
1. A sudden outpouring of a particular substance from somewhere

That sudden outpouring of my particularly pent-up substance from my brain erupted at five pm Thursday evening in my apartment before an open window during a thunderstorm.

 It was a hot day. Not just a hot day, but the kind of day where start to consider moving to Norway because all of your clothes feel tight with sweat and your hair is constantly plastered to your forehead and just for this reason do you have a bah-gillion errands to run in a country where walking as a form of transportation is highly supported. This may have also have been the last day of my family's stay here. The morning was a rush of getting to the airport, picking up tickets and finding certain family members toilets. After that I whirwinded back to Tübingen, no easy feat, let me tell you, and literally climbed half a mountain to turn in a form. Cry me a river, right? Sure will. Then I'll use my five hundred and sixty dollars I got back from that form to build a bridge over my teary canal.

I'm chalking a lot of this stress up to the fact that I am not a people person (Bobbi would probably call it something along the lines of an anxiety disorder but I'm not a huge fan of the big words), I had a grade-deciding presentation that week, another big one in the coming week, two of these annoying little forms staring me straight in the face and daring me to forget about them, and waaaaay too much estrogen in my life. Don't they make a pill for that?

But everything worked out. I got back to my apartment and just opened the window to breathe. Then it started. I kid you not, the sky opened up and let it all out. It thundered and shook my apartment, lightning crashed, and the wind picked up and blew all the teeny-tiny rain droplets into my face. The kind of refreshing wet that can only come by a flash heat storm.
 Heat storm, my butt.
 That was me letting out a sigh after my past weeks. That's how much energy I had pent up in me waiting to bust out. Enough to shake buildings. After it finished rampaging, everything smelled new and good. The pavement, instead of sizzling like before, had steam rising off of it and as I walked to my bus stop, EcoSneaks squishing through puddles, I was feeling one hundred percent better. At that moment, Nature and I were on the same page. Deep, man. I know.

Bobbi's Blog

Last day of the trip and I had my sister Bobbi blogging five minutes before she had to leave for her flight. Tour-Guide Bobbi made her debut in Germany and saved the day many a time.

And just because I was asked this already, Bobbi is indeed a girl. And her middle name is Rae.



I have to start off saying that I had a fabulous trip and would like to return again some day. With that being said there would be a few things to note that may also help me in the future and anyone else headed this way.

1. Learn some of the language. The communication barrier was the biggest difficulty. I need to know what is going on around me. I have always been "in tune" with my environment- which may be where the criminal justice part of me comes out. Being out of my comfort zone and not understanding what others were saying made it much worse.
Everyone on this trip dealt with the communication differently. I tried to pay more attention to body language and  similar sounding words. Mom started using only 3 word sentences and hand gestures. Picture a Chinese immigrant speaking broken English doing the YMCA. Grandpa however continued to talk like he was still at the States in Cindy's bar on a normal Tuesday. Many people did the "nod and smile" because they had no clue as to what he was saying. It didn't bother him though. Grandma and Rita kept on the down low and just politely spoke when asked questions.

2. Learn dating norms. I unknowingly hit on plenty of people. It wasn't after my 3rd tour around the town that I was informed by smiling at someone walking down the street it was showing that you were interested or attracted to them.

3. Prepare for stronger alcohol content. In Munchen we went on a brewery tour. After 3 of the stops Grandpa, Rita and myself were feeling pretty good. Rita and I made friends with the polka band, took some pictures, and were proudly the only ones to polka dance our way out of the Hofbrauhous. No big deal if you don't get lost and have to find your own way back to the hotel with a colored map not knowing which direction is up. The erotic shops that surrounded our area all started to look the same.

So those are my few notes to self and tips for anyone else planning on coming to Germany.
-Bobbi

Guest Blog: Grandma... Fun Abroad

Hello from Deutschland,

I've only been here for a short time and I already know one German name. Deutschland. Germany in German.

Hate to say having a great time, but it's true. Nick's parents are doing a wonderful job of keeping us well fed and entertained. The country is rolling land, wonderful trees, and the flowers are at their peak. It makes it beautiful. Nick and Rebecca are excellent at showing us around. A great experience was riding in very tiny cars on very narrow roads with curves. Oh my gosh, so many things have happened. Our stay at the black forrest was great.

It's Sunday and we just finished a wonderful dinner with Sonja and Ulrich. Tomorrow we leave for Munich. The people there will be happy to see us come with our Euros. Many more things to tell when we get back.

I guess that should about do it. ... For now.

Grandma Gentner

Tony and Friends

Working our way through the family tree brings us to my sister-in-crime Rita.

Hallo, and Danke for letting me write to you. Those are the only two German words I know, and for the next few days we are going to Munich without our guides. So, I will be able to tell everyone Hi and Thank You.
I am being cultured here in Germany. I have learned a few things about different ways of life.

First off I have made a new friend, Tony. He is this 10 year old boy that has this awesome bike!! Even though he didn't speak any English I am sure he has gone off some sweet jumps!! He is my new BFF. So I wanna give a shout out to Tony: HALLO TONY.

Tony and his sweet bike, I think it has pegs!

Secondly, it was an adventure driving to the Black Forest. I don't understand the driving system.
It needs to be noted that the Germans are like the most eco-friendly people ever. But, a little contradicting when if comes to driving. We did not turn on the A/C because it would use too much gas. Ok that makes sense to me. But someone needs to teach them about cruise control and gas mileage.

Brake lights mean nothing. If someone ahead of you taps their brakes, you don't slow down, you don't acknowledge them slowing. You simply wait until you are just about to rear-end them and then SLAM on the BRAKES! All is fair in love, war and now driving in Germany.  Also with the hills and curves it was a trip...I have never ever been car sick until then (and I like roller coasters). I will be much more calm driving down I-69 or I-75 from now on.

So during our adventurous car ride, we listened to the radio. I knew that America's #1 export was entertainment, but I didn't realize it was that big over here. My interpretation of the radio was like this:
Radio DJ: bla bla bla something something something....Pink "Perfect" bla bla bla
then Pink come on the radio.
Along with that on the play list was Rhianna, Katy Perry, and of course Hanson's "Mmm Bop" (now for you young kids Hanson is the older version of the Jonas Brothers) Can't wait until the Jonas Brothers catch on over here. Its gonna be CRAZY! Their European tour should be very successful.

My sisters and I re-lived our childhood as we ventured out into the Black Forest. The scenery was Beautiful! Mom described it like Hawaii. We seen water falls (and of course we climbed onto slippery rocks to get cool pictures of us by it). After that we found this old bunker from WWII and like 12 year old, we dared each other to go in it. Slightly creepy, yes. Very cool, of course!

Sisters: I'm in the black, Becca is standing up and Bobbi is in the so very German scarf. 

Bobbi found a few snails, (like Tony and I's friendship was quickly established, The snails and Bobbi hit it off wonderfully). She even helped one cross the road so it wouldn't get squished. She is quite the ....well I can't think of a good word to describe a person who helps a snail cross the road.

That is all I have for now, danke for this experience.
Rita

Family Bonding

AH! They're here, and my oh my are they American.

Family showed up just a few hours ago and we've already played a game of Ultimate Frisbee (Kudos to Bobbi and Rita for joining in.) and ate ice cream. I'd call that a success.

In order to bring this to you family-fun style, I decided to add some guest bloggers to my queu.
Everyone, I introduce to you: my Mother.

Mother is here even though the sugar beets aren't planted. I'm trying to enjoy myself but I'd relax more when the crops are in. We were already called 'dumb Americans' after not being able to find the luggage claim. The little bit I've seen of Germany I am amazed at the speed of cars. It's either stop or 50mph around a curve. Including the buses, which need new brakes. Tomorrow I get to rent a Mercedes A Class to drive to the Black Forest. This will be a challenge.
 When Nick said the subway is just outside the door he was not kidding. It's just outside the door. Tonight will be interesting with the subway going by every 5-10 minutes.

We will have many stories to tell with Grandma and Grandpa in tow. Would not have made it to the airport if we would have listened to Grandpas directions in Detroit. Good thing I was driving.
I never realized Grandpa could talk so much to total strangers about anything that has happened in his amazing 78 years.

Hope all is well with Jonathon and Allen bachelor-ing. It will be amazing to know what they will eat after the casseroles I made run out. Good luck, Jonathon on your ball game. I miss you both.

-Debbie.

(PS Also, to anyone who has written me an e-mail and not gotten a reply. I'm really sorry. I have not gotten any of them I have not replied to. My family just informed me of everyone that has tried to contact me and again I apologize to you guys. Uncle Tom, I have not gotten anything from you. Call and we'll get it figured out -Becca)

When I Grow Up

For various reasons, I know in my future I am not suitable enough to become a:

     -Customer service representative
     -High school guidance counselor
     -Anything in child care

Along with my crippling inability of being comfortable around people, especially the little ones, and low level of patience, I have also learned today that I am a terrible planner and can therefore add one more to the list. Travel Agent.
As wonderful as it is to have family coming to visit me (next Tuesday for anyone who hasn't heard from either of my sisters or grandparents in the last three months) planning their trip for ten days is a monstrous undertaking. From sleeping arrangments, to food planning, to advanced homework assignments, to spending literally over six hours today on my laptop attempting to find a train ride that just goes to Dachau in four stops or less c'mon Deutsche Bahn! Whew.

As seen in my last post, I have begun procrastinating all of these things. Why? Probably because I didn't realize next Tuesday meant in FOUR DAYS. But more likely because I need help back at home deciding what type of ice cream flavor is better that night. Winging it just goes better sometimes, but unfortunately here winging it just doesn't fly. (There's a great pun in there somewhere.) It's hard enough trying to figure out my own going-abouts in German and Germany without wondering what a group of people ages ranging from nearly eighty to twenty want to do whilst in the beer capital of the world. Huh. I think I may have just answered my own question...

While today was a wee bit stressful, I finally got it all figured out. Not saying it's going to work, but gal darn it, there is a haphazardly jumbled together idea of a plan on my laptop of the coming two weeks. Plus, I am just thrilled to see you guys soon. Start brushing up on your German.

Also, the biggest irony of my life would be if I actually ended up working in any of those areas listed above.

When In Germany,

...do as the Germans do and aufschieben. That isn't really specific to Germans, I think every college student procrastinates their work.

The problem in Germany is that your grades don't come from two or three exams, participation, discussion questions, and homework. It's just a Referat. Those are one giant presentation during a class in which you pick a topic relating to the subject on the first day of class, become a master in that topic, and formulate a speech long enough to teach the class for an entire period. That's how courses are set up here for the most part. The students teach the students. Cheap, simple, zen.

The side effects of Referat may include: hives, sweaty palms, headache, and fast or irregular heart beat. Oh, also procrastination. That's a big one.

It doesn't help that I'm a bit socially awkward. 

This is me in a nutshell.

I've always been an "old soul", whereas I prefer the term "mature". Going to college just kind of amplifies my awareness of that, especially in situations where since I can't communicate and my actions are screaming louder than my words.
Last night, I did act my age I suppose. It had been a rough day for some friends here and we decided to go out on a whim, and get a beer. Usually when this happens I just tag along and play the fifth wheel, but this time was different.

The place was literally a hole in the wall, (the hole was covered by a curtain) and walking in I got the feeling it was someones house. It was busy, which only took twenty people, because it was only one living room sized room with six tables in it. Kind of reminded me of TGI-Fridays style, only without being tacky because instead of fishing poles and ski shoes on the wall there was caricatures of Karl Marx. How classy.
Two guys were just playing a violin and guitar and being gypsy-like. I was told they kind of just go around from bar to bar and play for some cash. We stayed for one beer and headed back home. Everyone had to be up early the next morning. Lame? Maybe. Fun? Definitely. Good company, good tunes, good vibes, and better yet, they had my favorite beer along with a twenty cent rideable Mario on the walk back.

Not so bad, I guess.

Candles

 Today was a day of history. People say that just like how they remembered the exact second they found out about Pearl Harbor, JFK, or 9/11, they will too remember what they were doing the day Bin Laden was killed. I'm more concerned about what they are doing after.

Simple fact, I am abroad. I am a drop of American amongst a vast sea of international. I only read in the papers of people celebrating in the streets that "a monster will finally rot in hell." Taking too literal the metaphor of dancing on someone's grave people were so ready to don tap shoes that a sea burial was needed. Why such rage? Ire? Vehemence?
Because three thousand friends, family members, co-workers and otherwise human beings were lost at a mans' words.

 But humans are truly a diverse lot. Eva Kor, a spit-fire of a woman who survived the Holocaust in Auschwitz under Dr. Mengele. The Angel of Death did unspeakable things to his "patients". Eva Kor learned this first hand as her and her twin were subjected to surgical horrors. Things that would ruin the mind and soul of a person.
Ruined the lives of three thousand friends, children, grandchildren and human beings all at this one mans' words.

Eva Kor is still alive. So is her twin sister Miriam. They are not ruined, but surely broken. For many years Eva worked to put herself back together. She moved. She got married.  It took forty years, but standing on the ground where her family was torn from her outside of a cattle car, she forgave. With an Auschwitz doctor by her side she formally forgave those who had almost ruined her life. She said offering her forgiveness healed her, but it did not mean she would forget. Nor did it change anything that had happened. She lived.
I don't often think on coincidences, but learning about Eva today seems to me as a good a reason as ever to pass on this idea.

Terrible things happen in life. Tragic, horrid, mind-bending things. But hating only inflames them. When you hate, you only perpetrate a circle. When you forgive, you end it.