Oh hey guys. So remember that whole thing were I was going to blog all the time? Yeah... sorry. But hey, better late than never!
Ok, on Thanksgiving I took an ICE train to Köln, Germany to visit my godmother Uschi. We hadn't seen each other for over three years and she greeted me at the station with a long, silent, tearful hug. As we rode the trams back to her tiny apartment the words started flowing out. It was so nice to be back together, and took a long time to catch up on current events in each other's lives. To those of you who know (read: Caitlin), she lives in a different apartment now. It's less than a block away from other old one (closer to the church), and is even tinier if that's even possible. However, there was a small room downstairs that she could rent out from the building for me to stay in, so I actually got my own bedroom and bathroom. There was no internet though, so I was in virtual blackout for the five days I was there.
After putting my stuff in my room Uschi and I started cooking lemon chicken (our substitute for turkey) and potatoes for dinner. She'd invited some friends to celebrate an American holiday with a real live American. While we waited for dinner to cook we watched the movie 'House of D'. Here began her attempt to educate me on all the best movies made by mankind. It was like taking a mini film class, and I found it quite interesting to see her unique taste in movies. They tended toward heartwarming, occasionally starting out tragic, and often touching on topics of religion and family. There were also thought-provoking movies, beautiful movies, and cheesy movies. All in all I quite enjoyed myself.
Around 7 the guests arrived and we gathered around the (rather beautifully set) table. I'd made mashed potatoes, and we had rice, salad and chicken. A very modified version of Thanksgiving. I made everyone at the table go around and say what they're thankful for. It was a new experience for them but some of them really seemed to like it. Among the guests was one of Uschi's other godchildren (she's got a lot), Phillip. His English was nothing near perfect but he made up for it in enthusiasm. He wasn't shy at all about making mistakes, so we were able to carry on a satisfactorily lively conversation. There was also a pregnant couple and a single mother with her 10 year old daughter. The man in the couple works in Utrecht and speaks Dutch, so we had a good time comparing notes on culture and languages differences between Germany and Holland. It was a lovely evening, although I had pangs of missing my family's celebration back home.
The next day we had Uschi's parents over for lunch. They're quite old and live in a retirement home now. However, they still get out quite a bit, and we had a nice lunch together. I hadn't seen them since I was 10, so it was a big deal. Trude (her mom) doesn't speak very much English but can understand it pretty well, so we spoke in a mixture of German and English. Wolfgang, on the other hand, was extremely interested in using his English. He had lots of stories to share too, most having to do with why America is better than Germany. This ticked off his wife, but he ignored her.
After lunch they took a nap and Uschi and I went for a walk in the park nearby. Later Uschi went to work and I watched Alfie by myself... ah, Jude Law. Then I attempted to get some homework done. That being fantastically unfruitful, I went to bed (no trolling the internet! weird).
Saturday was a lazy day, and I discovered a historical fiction book in English on her bookshelf and started reading it. I was soon completely engrossed, and we spent the rest of the day reading, watching movies, and having long talks. Sunday morning we were out of bread so Uschi sent me out to the bakery to buy rolls. I managed a whole purchase exchange (plus some minor pleasantries!) in German. I was rather pleased with myself when I got back, but Uschi wasn't surprised, saying that my accent is great, and she can't hear anything American in it. I know she's just being nice, but it's good to be affirmed that I haven't lost all my skills.
The next day we went out for Turkish food with Phillip. Then we decided to be lazy and stayed inside with two cool dudes called Ben and Jerry and watched more movies. I read until bed.
Monday was my last full day, and we tried to make it count. We had lunch with her parents in town at a steak house (god, nobody in Germany eats vegetables). We visited the Dom and biked to a tower across the Rhine where we could get a panoramic view of the city. We were there right before sunset and had a breathtaking view of the church, river, and city laid out below us in the golden sunlight. The bike ride back home went across the bridge that is known for it's locks. For years lovers have been taking padlocks there, writing their initials on them, and locking them to the fence. Then they throw the keys in the river to symbolize their everlasting love. I vaguely wondered if they take lock cutters to the divorced couples, but it was mostly very romantic and interesting. I took a bajillion photos, mostly of the super cool old fashioned locks.
We then went to the weihnachtsmarkt and browsed the stalls, enjoying all the good smells, cheerful music, and overpriced pretty wares for sale. Uschi wanted to go to mass at the Dom, and I last minute decided to join her. It was kind of boring and awkward, but I got blessed by the priest guy, heard some pretty singing (Uschi is a damn good singer!) and it only last 45 minutes so it wasn't the worst. After that we went to starbucks to skype my mom, and were actually successful! We had a very joyful German/English conversation, and I managed to convince Uschi to join the 21st century and get an email address. Hopefully communicating overseas will be a little easier now...
That night we stayed up late talking. At one point we started playing music, and Uschi mentioned that the song playing was a foxtrot. I asked her jokingly if she'd care to dance, and she proceeded to lead me in the best foxtrot I've ever danced in a cramped German kitchen. We ended up dancing well into the wee hours, everything from waltz, to swing, quickstep, rumba, salsa, jive, tango... you name it. Apparently during our three years apart we'd both been learning how to ballroom dance, but she was a natural for leading and I have always preferred following. It was beyond words to share something I love so much with her, to realize she loves it too. I always get overjoyed when I dance with a good lead, but having it be one of the dearest people to my heart was a wonderful and unexpected plus! It definitely made me miss Caitlin though.
The next morning I got up early, we had breakfast, and I finished packing. She took me to the train stations and we had coffee while we waited for my train. We had one last good discussion, one last tearful hug, and then she stood and waited to wave at me through the window as my train pulled out of the station. She is such an incredible sweetheart.
NOW: Back to Amsterdam.
After Germany I came back with just enough time to change clothes and eat something before I went out to see Yann Tiersen with Blue. It wasn't what I expected (experimental rock, not beautiful piano/violin/accordion music), but it was still impressive and awe-some.
The next morning I woke in full panic mode.
What was I thinking, going to Germany? It was November 30th and I had exactly 12 days to start and finish my month-long research project. My nerves were calmed somewhat when I got to school and found two large packages for me! One from my dad, Rowan and Reis and one from Daniel, Caitlin, Paul and Kat. I annoyed all the other girls with giggles and 'awww's for a good hour as I unpacked and read everything. But I got back in their good graces by sharing the delicious cookies Daniel had baked for me (good boyfriend).
The next few days were full of frantic interviewing, volunteering, reading, and writing.
Poetry, Parody, Pranks, and Presents
On December 4th my host family celebrated Sinterklaas. Now I know I've already discussed this holiday in a previous post (specifically, in the youtube post of a David Sedaris reading), but it was such a big deal that it is worth noting again.
By this time everyone in my host family (including uncle) understands that the Dutch traditional 'santa's helper' of a white person in blackface, dressed up to be a very slave-like buffoon who fills your shoes with candy if your good is an offense to American socializations about race. Our culture is a lot more sensitive about the whole white/black power dynamics than theirs, but they really can't fully grasp why it's such a big deal to us. Although I have refrained from commenting on this cultural tradition after the first couple weeks in an effort to be open to new cultural practices and ways of being, I found that
everyone keep bringing it up around me. It appeared that they wanted to hear, from the horse's mouth, what was wrong with their holiday... over and over. Needless to say, I got pretty tired of discussing it.
So on December 4th, when Jules (the uncle) came over and we had dinner and then celebrated Sinterklaas, it was only natural that it would come up again.
The evening started out with us eating Moroccan soup (not a tradition. Turns out this holiday has no traditional foods except papernote, a hard, coin-sized cookie). Then we went to the living room and opened presents. Each of us pulled a name secret santa style, and I pulled Stephany's name. I made her an American cookbook full of my parent's recipes. She loved it, especially my dad's...
stylistically written instructions.
Luna got a framed fake article about her future self and all her achievements as well as a hockey glove (she plays field hockey) from her dad. Alex got a fictional story about his future travels to Suriname, accompanied by a homemade diagram of the story made by Luna. Blue got a
very elaborate gift from Stephany. It was a box made to look like an old film camera, but when you opened it instead of film it had a looooong scroll of paper full of photos of Blue, poems in English and Dutch, and fun quizes such as "how hipster are you?". At the very end it had a real old fashioned film camera in a case with a new roll of film. Jules got wine glasses and a martini shaker from Blue. And I got the largest and most elaborate gift of all.
When it was my turn, my gift had to be shoved across the floor to me; it was almost too heavy to lift. When I opened it I found a lovely two-page poem written in English that started out "Hinkle Hinkle, Little Star". It also had various photos and gag gifts relating to my stay here and my host family. But below these small things, under another layer of wrapping was, lo and behold! 25 kilos of premium Moroccan sand. That's right, a sandbag. Jules, my secret santa, had known I wanted something light I could take home with my in my suitcase. So apparently he got the crazy idea to find the heaviest thing he could and wrap it. This could quite possibly be the most elaborate and strenuous gag gift ever. He literally biked that bag of sand home from the shop, wrapped it, then biked it over to my hosts' house and somehow got it up the spiral stairs without me even noticing. In a wheelchair. This guy is bamf.
So after I realized I was the proud new owner of enough sand to stop any leaks in the nearby dyke, I got to the real gift. Underneath the sandbag (he wasn't going to make it easy for me) was a lovely bag from the nearby coffee shop that says "make good coffee, not war!" And I'm told there's a tee-shirt coming as well. So all in all we had a great time, everyone was very creative and it was a wonderful holiday.
Now, back to the black men. We decided that, to honor the holiday, we should listen to David Sedaris as a group. After laughing our way through it was had a small discussion and pretty much resolved the discord around little black Piet. Then, inspired by my dad's green eggs and ham crepe recipe, I did a dramatic reading of "green eggs and ham" by Doc. Seuss and realized that I still have most of it memorized from childhood. They were all enthralled by it, and I felt proud to introduce such revered English literature into their lives.
On the 6th we had Sinterklaas at SIT, and my secret santa gave me a lovely poem about how she wished I was single) and a beautiful necklace. Definitely lucked out! I gave my person a super long poem about coming to visit me and a Seattle magnet. :P
After the holiday I spent two more days interviewing. Then from Wednesday the 7th to Saturday the 10th I did nothing by work on my paper. I literally did not leave the house from Thursday to Saturday. And by 5 pm Saturday evening, I had 46 pages of first draftyness. I went out to celebrate with some ladies, and we ended up bar hopping late into the night, getting hit on my Polish Canadians who knew where Bellingham is, singing Karaoke for one song (total eclipse of the heart), and squeezing ourselves into an incredibly packed hip-hop club and attempting to dance. I walked home with Lily around 2:30 and spent the night at her house.
Between that day and now I have edited, printed, bound, and turned in my 56 page research paper. I have lost my prezi virginity (check prezi.com if you're not familiar. but be warned: powerpoint will forever after seem inadequate), given my 15 minute presentation, and finished my practicum at Main and Female (by decorating their christmas tree with dildos and festive baubles).
I AM DONE.
Such a weird feeling, having completed the last of my study abroad assignments. It's just me and Amsterdam for the next four days. Then: Off to Denmark! I can't believe how time has flown, it seems unreal. Maybe it just hasn't hit me yet.
But whatever it is, I sure an ready to have a good time!
Oh, and by the way Rowan: I wore holes in the bottoms of the boots you gave me! I took them to a cobbler today to get them fixed so they don't leak in the rain. I almost just bought new shoes, but they're so worth fixing! I still love them :)
Now, my bucket list for my last days:
- Visit the Anne Frank House (I
know, I just haven't gotten around to it yet)
- Visit Rotterdam
- Mail a box of stuff home (or maybe two boxes...)
- Go out dancing
- Watch 'Love, Actually' with my host family
- Sleep in! :)
See you all in 15 days!
