Weltenwanderin

Picking Fe. up at the airport

Meeting F. and M. for breakfast picnic at Torrey Pines State Park

Driving downtown in style with my new car flag.

Birthday cake at the harbor with Fl., S. and our nieces.

USS Midway

Barbecue at Ocean Beach


Birthday Boy:

It's been quite a while since I wrote my last list of this sort but a few days ago I just felt like it!
Really I think one should make these lists a lot more often...

1. Having found a brilliant bread recipe
2. The scent of fresh bread all over the house
3. Cold Stone
4. Neighbors who know how to jump-start a car
5. Sleeping in
6. My own, awesome guitar
7. Garden Volleyball (Beach Volleyball is overrated...)
8. Having discovered the benefits of foot powder
9. World Market
10. Sending off my uni application
11. Being able to communicate with and understand my sister in less than three words
12. Having more than three words to say to each other anyway
13. My graph paper writing pad
14. "I'm gonna get a Border Collie"
15. Favorite students ;-)
16. Tabs and chords on the internet
17. Looking forward to the future
18. Family
19. Three-day-weekends
20. My fountain pen
21. Making plans
22. "Bouncy"
23. Wanting it all!
24. Neglecting my weblog because there's too much going on
25. Tutoring
26. World's Best Sister!!!
27. Not having to want to count to 25...

...comes and goes but at the moment I really wish I was in Germany. Why? Because of the Soccer European Championship, of course!
There, I might be in Muenster now, wearing my World Cup Shirt from 2006, cycling through the streets with my German flag around my shoulders. Why - because I can! And because we just won the first game against Poland.

Admittedly, it wasn't easy trying to figure out how to watch the game from over here. I knew there was the Yahoo! Liveticker, through which I had followed the match between the Czech Republic and Switzerland yesterday. But reading what's happening doesn't compare to the excitement of actually seeing it live. So I had searched far and wide and discovered that the German public television channels have a live stream online. But just how disconcerting is it to discover the moment before the game starts, that for whatever reason that doesn't work, either.
Then, I decided to give the good old TV a try and was happy as Larry to discover that we receive an ESPN channel that showed the game! It was interesting to hear the commentator's perspective (some American and an Irish bloke), who thought Germany did a really decent job.
It was rather nerve-wrecking for me (like all the national soccer games...) but we won our first game and I'm already wondering whether there's a TV at school that I could hijack on Thursday to see Germany's next match.

I never used to be into soccer. When Germany was playing the final against Brazil in the 2002 World Cup, I was standing on the side of some Scottish road in the pouring rain, wondering why the hell that road existed in the first place when there were no cars coming by anyway. (Duh!)
Then in 2006 my housemates in England were so excited about the World Cup in Germany and I just caught on fire with them. We spent so much time in the pubs there, watching the games and 'preparing' our final exams during half-time. I realized that I like soccer and even more so, I realized that I like being German. I never expected that but I ended up singing along when the German National Anthem was played before the matches and I realized that the English in the pub around us didn't mind at all - what's more, they seemed to show some sort of grudging respect.
Then, back in Muenster, I watched the games on a big screen with thousands of like-minded people. And yes, we are German and in those moments, we have every reason to be proud of it.

Now I am in the USA, where patriotism is an everyday thing. There are American flags in every street and the national anthem is sung before every event. I think I wouldn't be ready for that in Germany. It would freak me out, I guess history is still to recent and the collective guilt is still embossed in our heads. In soccer, however, patriotism has its place and I am glad of it and in a way, proud of it.
Okay. maybe Germany isn't the greatest of countries, but it certainly isn't the worst and maybe it's not an achievement to be German but it's not an embarrassment unless we allow it to become just that (for example when some German idiots dig out racist comments before the game against Poland - but luckily they are not representative for the majority of Germans. Unlucky, they are just louder...)
German - it's quite simply what I am, it says so in my passport! I never had a choice in the matter but at the same time, I refuse to be ashamed of it just because some people in Germany feel like it's the appropriate attitude to display. Here in the States, Germany is generally viewed so positively and with genuine interest that it made me wonder why we are still so very hard on ourselves.
Soccer championships are pretty much the only time when we can celebrate our nationality. And for that purpose, I wish I was at home now, to celebrate our German soccer team, and maybe also us Germans at the same time.

Phew - this weekend there was so much going on!
On Friday morning, I got up bright and early because it was the school's last pep rally of the year and the senior I'm tutoring in German twice a week had told me that two of the Airband Groups were going to perform there.
Airband is a competition where a group of students has to choreograph, rehearse and perform an act of some sort to a compilation of music, usually several different pieces cut together. There's often a motto, then they organise costumes for it and even a backdrop. Earlier this year, there had been the airband competition, which F. had gone to but I had stayed home because I was too tired. F had come home quite impressed and I was rather sorry I hadn't made it so I wasn't going to miss this chance for nothing.

Besides, I hadn't been to a single pep rally yet and the last one in the year was supposed to be the most fun one, too.

I then went home in F's car to prepare a few cakes for that evening's slumber party with the girls and for F's Kaffeeklatsch with her reading circle on Saturday.
I finished the cakes just in time to hop in the car to pick up a slightly tipsy F. from the monthly After Work Happy Hour at one of her colleague's.
Only two hours later we were invited at the parents' of one of F's first year German students. They were absolutely lovely and before we realized, it was already nearly 10pm by the time we said our goodbyes and rushed to the slumber party at R's place.
That was fabulous! This time round, we had invited two more of F's colleagues and they were barrels of fun! We sang songs, mixed drinks, danced, chatted, munched, played Taboo and half of the time we nearly peed in our pants because we were laughing so hard.

On Saturday morning we eventually all got up and the rest of them went and had breakfast somewhere while F. and I headed to the train station to catch my train to Pasadena.
I had promised to babysit my three nieces so S. and Fl. would be able to see "The Cure" live at the Hollywood Bowl.
I was really looking forward to seeing them again. Time is passing so quickly here, and before you know it four weeks have passed since I last saw them.
In short, they were adorable! I am definitely not the world's greatest babysitter and I don't really have very much experience with children that age apart from those three but they made it really easy on me! They didn't cry for their parents, they were really well-behaved and after dinner, the two older ones put on their PJs without me saying a word, brushed their teeth and went to bed. I sang them one song gave each a kiss and promised to come back after five minutes to check on them. By that time they were already fast asleep.
Another 15 minutes later, my godchild was also fast asleep. Unfortunately, I hadn't realized that singing her to sleep was a futile thing to do. She looked at me out of her pretty blue eyes with keen interest while I was singing instead of closing those eyes. When I stopped, it took another couple of minutes and she, too, was sleeping.
This morning I headed out in the morning and as agreed, F. met me at the San Diego train station. Turned out, her car had been towed over night in front of her boyfriend's apartment so we took the bus home, which took about an hour. Stuff like that makes you realize that San Diego is not a place to live without a car... :-)
And now, since she is neither the owner of the car nor on its insurance, she had to call up her Fulbright Exchange Partner in Germany, who rode her bike to another colleague's place to attempt unsuccessfully to send her ID and an explanation and everything else that's needed as a fax. She finally emailed it instead and now F. is going to try to get the car back with that paper. What a hassle! I think I'm going to bed...

Well, I'm not quite that obsessed yet although I'm tempted to refer to her as "my baby".
And my baby is - a guitar. Not just any guitar, of course. Theee guitar! An Ovation 6778 LX Standard Elite, in New England Burst Finish! Quite a beauty and long-awaited, too!

For the last couple of months I've been saving money to buy this guitar and the Guitar Center, where I went to try her out and buy her (notice how I refer to her as "she" because that's what the people in the guitar shop do as well!), took forever to actually get it delivered. Apparently Ovation had forgotten about the order - I had to get it ordered specially because they only had her in black - and it took two weeks longer than expected. I was really worried she might not make it in time for me leaving. But now it's all forgiven and forgotten and I'm brushing up on the songs I know and teaching myself new ones thanks to the tabs and chords on the internet because everything sounds sooo good on this guitar!!!

Yay!
On Saturday, Patrick Henry hosted the second annual German Theaterfest. As F. had rightly observed, we couldn't possibly host the event and not enter in a single category. I had quite rightly ovserved that I most definitely wasn't going to force my group to perform once more after their lack of enthusiasm at the last performance at Henry, right after spring break. F could do that herself, thank you very much. I had indeed vowed not to ever again be caught dead doing another play with anyone but those vows don't really count, I guess.

F. had found a German skit - about 10 minutes long, had rewritten it to make it halfway suitable for her beginners class and found five kids who were willing to rehearse and had time to perform this Saturday.
That was last week, 12 days before the Theaterfest. Since the alternative would have been for me to teach the remainder of the class (about 27 students, mostly freshmen), I decided to work with the theater group, practised their pronunciation and intonation and helped them memorise their lines one by one. Last week then, we started putting the skit together and worked on performance basics such as speaking loudly, acting together but at the same time facing the crowd.
I have to say, all five kids were great. They knew their lines, they acted well, they did a fabulous job and it all worked out perfectly when they had to start out the Theaterfest, being the first group on stage. The crowd laughed at all the right moments, meaning they had understood the kids' German and they had brought all the jokes across.

Unlike the year before, when only four groups in total had signed up and the German group at Henry won without competitors, this year there was plenty of competition. In the beginners group, there were two other schools. One act was significantly weaker - their pronunciation wasn't as good and some people forgot their lines. The third act, however, was an extremely well-done version of "Rumpelstilzchen", with beautiful costumes, good acting and very good pronunciation.
I was too warm and pretty tired after seeing all three beginners acts and went home after asking F to call me once she knew the result. I was pretty sure we were going to come in second and it didn't bother me in the least because I was proud of 'my' kids either way. They had done an incredible job, especially in such a short period of time. They had contributed great ideas when it came to props and acting and they had been a real delight to work with and I had told every one of them after their skit.

Imagine my surprise now, when F. called me to say that we had actually won!!! I was over the moon - I was sooo happy for my five actors and now I can't wait to tell them at school tomorrow and see their faces. They'll even get medals and awards and such! Well-deserved, I should think...!

On Wednesday last week, I picked up A. from the LAX airport. She has 4 weeks worth of holiday and decided to come to California. It was soooo awesome to see her again and it really didn't feel like 2 years at all since we last saw each other!
A. observed quite rightly how fitting it seemed that we had been together when my travels started off and once more now that they are about to come to an end.
We had such a great time together that I was really sad to see her leave this afternoon, when I dropped her off at the airport in San Diego, from where she flew to San Francisco.
At least it definitely won't take another two years until we see each other again, two months is more like it as I have resolved to come and visit her in September (okay, okay - four months, I know, but let's not start nip-picking here!)

Last week Thursday I still went to school in the morning, although I was happy that we had two cars available thanks to F's boyfriend who had lent us his spare one. That meant that I was able to sleep one hour longer than usual, which I was grateful for as we didn't get back from the airport until after one in the morning.
In the afternoon, A. and I just hung out around the house, did some yoga and drove through the Starbucks drive-thru to pick up some coffee and enjoy it on the banks of Lake Murray.
On Friday, we engaged on some serious sight-seeing, going to Horton Plaza for some shopping in the morning and then driving to Coronado for a walk on the beach and a glimpse on the famous "Hotel Del" before driving north along the coast to PB for a Cold Stone ice-cream, some more beach-walking and coffee at the cafe with the ocean view that F. had discovered late last year.
To round it all off, we went up to La Jolla to see some seals and pelicans.

Over the weekend, we went to the desert to camp out in Anza Borrego. We drove there through the Cuyamaca State Parc and via Julian, a route that was new to me. In Julian we had some of its famous apple pie, which was absolutely delicious and thus strengthened we continued to the Palm Canyon campground. We got there in the heat of the day and set up camp straight away. After a little wait in the shade, we got restless (ok, I guess mainly I did - it's just in my nature...), and so we refilled our water bottles and headed on to the Palm Canyon Trail, a moderate 3.5 mile round trip to a palm grove.
Although one of the most popular trails, we didn't see all that many people. Instead, we ended up seeing some of the famous bighorn Borrego sheep that give the desert its name. At first we nearly walked past them, the A. discovered the first, I saw the second and as we turned, we nearly walked into the third one that was lying pretty much in the middle of the wash. They are just so camouflaged!!!
Then we had the biggest surprise as we took another two steps. Out of the bushes, two little ones hopped out in the open! They were soooo adorable and one of them even seemed inclined to accompany us. However, the older ones started approaching and we already saw ourselves attacked for what they must perceive as attempted Borrego Junior kidnapping so we marched on...

The palm grove itself was beautiful. We took a little picnic break there and thoroughly enjoyed the shade and the coolness of that oasis amidst that barren wasteland.
The way back was easy, all downhill and the sun wasn't as strong anymore.

Back at the campsite, we made a little campfire and of course, I had to have the usual s'mores. A. wasn't much of a fan of them but for me camping and s'mores just go together. Shortly afterwards, a roadrunner came walking by our site so close that we could have easily taken a picture if we hadn't been quite so surprised...
A. told me then that she hadn't gone comping for at least the past ten years and I have to say I wouldn't have guessed because she was great at setting things up and putting things down and didn't mind sleeping in a sleeping bag on a foam pad one bit. The only thing she was a bit worried about was our admittedly strange campsite neighbour who was pleased to find out we were German and then proceeded to tell us most enthusiastically about the two World Wars that he was so interested in.

But anyway, we had a good night and even woke up once or twice to hear coyotes yibbing, which I had told A. about and which both of us were eager to hear.
Once again, we were both amazed at how still everything is there. In dusk or dawn you might hear birds but mostly it's completely quiet and calm.

We got up bright and early with the sun, had breakfast and packed up as it was starting to warm up. In the car we discovered that it was only just past 7am as we drove off but it was sunny and the day had begun.
Since we were almost the only ones on the road at that time of day, I set the cruise at 20mph and literally cruised along, enjoying the view and the desert.

Every once in a while I pulled over to let occasional cars pass but we were still in tranquility mode until we reached the interstate and headed back to San Diego.

It was barely noon when we got there, so we decided to take another little drive up to Torrey Pines and take a walk on the beach.

How great is it to be in a place where you can start off the day in the desert and then watch the sun go down at the ocean! A's visit and the fact that I am showing her all of that also makes me realize how cool of a place this really is!

On Monday, A. took the bus downtown while I went to school. After school, A., F. and I drove to the Mission de Alcala, the oldest of the 21 Missions that were built throughout California. I won't go into too much detail about the history of the missions in general and this one in particular - those of you who are interested can read for yourselves.

On Tuesday, A. came to school with us, which was great fun. She had never been to an American High School and enjoyed the experience and the students were naturally interested in her and asked all kinds of questions. In the evening, we went to a Cheese and Wine place in Hill Crest and had a mixed platter there for dinner. It was sooooo much fun! A. and F. shared a bottle of wine and I was the driver so I stuck with water. Even so, I had a blast and I think even A. and F. found it hard to believe I was still completely sober. :-)

On Wednesday, I met A. after school at the zoo. Although we have a zoo membership, I still hadn't managed to go there before so I was in a real exploring mood. :-)

After satisfying our inner children, we drove to sunset cliffs for more typical California impressions... and had some In 'n Out burgers on the way home. Basically, we were really trying to get as much of California in this week as possible.

Thursday after school, A. and I went shopping in a nearby mall and in the evening, A. treated us to a delicious home-cooked dinner, with dessert and all.

How quickly those days flew by! I sure hope the rest of her trip goes smoothly and that we'll be able to catch up soon again in Stuttgart!