I find this article very amusing, because two of the three determining words in the spelling bee are German words. If I had never taken German, I would be right there along with the other 98% of America who have no idea what the words Ursprache and Weltschmerz mean, much less know how to spell them. A closer inspection of a clip of the spelling bee shows that the moderator did, in fact, pronounce Weltschmerz correctly.

Since we're leaving for Prague tomorrow, Jeff, Ronda and I went down to the train station early today and bought our tickets. I'm so excited! Now Jeff and I just have to figure out if we want to go to Berlin afterwards, or come straight back to Tuebingen, or what. By the time we were done with this small task, it was 10:30, meaning it was time for Ronda to go to Stuttgart, time for Jeff to go back to bed, and time for me to work on writing a presentation I have to give the week after Prague. So that's what I've been doing for a solid 4 hours now (which feels like a heck of a lot of work to me, sadly), and as a result, on the bus going back up to my dorm, I came up with an extremely deep thought, which is as follows:

If you have two M&Ms in your hand, and one is red and one is brown, which do you eat first? Because the one you leave behind will inevitably melt a little in your hand (if you eat M&Ms as slow as I do), so which color stain would look worse? Red, which could be construed as blood, or brown, which could be construed as dirt or silver nitrate or poop?

So that's something for you to ponder while I'm away in Prague. You can leave a comment and share your own Deep Thought!

Have a great week.

There's only one statement that has any truth to it in this video. Can you find it?



And in regards to the very last line of the video: If it's true that none of you really matter to us (a false statement, I feel), things would be way different if we weren't the most powerful country in the world. I have a feeling you guys wouldn't give a crap about us, if you could help it.

I think the British guys who made this video are harboring a bit of resentment stemming back from 1776...

Sometimes I like giving myself random, pointless challenges. For example, I'll swear off chocolate for months at a time. It's not that I'm eating any healthier - I still eat candy and the like - it's just that suddenly, there's no chocolate anymore.

So the newest challenge starts today: to survive the rest of the week only on pocket change. And I'm going grocery shopping right now... This is sure to be lots of fun. But you haven't been a college student until you've tried something like this.

Life has been adventure-rich lately. At least Ronda and I choose to call what we do "adventures", because in reality it's nothing more than picking out a small neighboring town within the area covered by our semester bus pass, and going to explore it. Still, it's a lot of fun. And if we hadn't done it on Thursday together, we would not have run into a Father's Day Bierfest, as well as signs for a Weinfest this weekend.

So you can guess what we did today. Yes, that's right, we went back to that small village and invaded their Weinfest. I'd post pictures of our adventures, but Ronda took them all, so you'll have to become friends with her on Facebook and then look at the pictures.

Spending the entire weekend with Ronda inevitably ended in me contracting her illness. So now I feel like crap, I napped 4 hours today, my head is throbbing, and I desperately need to go make some soup. But at least tonight I'll be able to do some homework, and maybe recover enough to go out tomorrow for Armin's going-away party. If you know anyone who is in Germany and can bring me homemade chicken noodle soup, I'd be much obliged.

In case you were wondering, here's the link to that article.

I find it fitting that the dude's name is Wasser, and he does marine research. Just one of life's little coincidences, I guess.

I was reading an article in the Seattle PI pertaining to the UW biology department, when I realized that after being in Germany, I don't know how to pronounce certain names.

Namely, I'm talking about those last names that are of German heritage, but have been Anglocized. Example: Wasser becomes "waaa-sir", but to my eyes, it looks like "Vah-ser" pronounced with a British-like accent (aka, the R doesn't come out very strong).

Oh man. What am I going to do when I'm back in the states? Just go around mispronouncing everybody's name?

This weekend's seminar finally came to a close today at noon. Of course, they always fly past quickly, but since I got a total of 7 hours sleep the whole weekend, I of course was ready for it to be over.

I have a lot of thoughts about the seminar, ranging from the very positive for the somewhat negative. Right now, though, it's time to relax in the park down in the city. Play some cards. Knit. Nap. Chat. Nosh a bit.

So I'll come to all of those thoughts later. Bye...

The word "movie" is a very weird word indeed. Why don't we write it "movy" in the singular form?

Weekend seminars with the VdDAC do wonders for my German.

Shouldn't we be allowed to have more than personality? It isn't really a disorder. I guess what I'm trying to say is I have different moods, ranging from happy social butterfly to extreme asocial, and I think with that range, one should start using different personalities to describe it, instead of just "moods".

AHHHH!

As planned, I cleaned my room today. With the help of the Barenaked Ladies and a (very unusual) desire to clean, I really did a number on it - I even polished the linoleum floors. I put out a rug that had previously been stored under my bed, along with some light curtains, and I like the result - it makes the room warmer.

Of course, the cleaner I use smells good coming out of the bottle, but 10 minutes later the chemicals get to you, and you can think is "Man - I really need to get that smell OUT of here." So my window's wide open and inviting the breeze in (but not bugs. Bugs are not invited.)

As I'm sitting here, I'm looking over my fall quarter schedule, making changes and shoving my physics quiz section around to make room for a German proctoring class. I look at my visual schedule, and wince at what this will do to my Wednesdays - four straight hours of class? And then a lab in the afternoon? Grr. But then I think of what those empty spaces on that visual schedule are going to mean. Eating in the HUB, talking to friends in the Quad, reading the Daily, working in a lab, drinking coffee around campus... and then of course, there are the empty spaces not shown on my schedule. Ah, Seattle nightlife, and especially in the fall: football games, Apple Cup, the bars, the house parties, the movie nights, the friends, the fun, the laughter.

I look out the window. Grey clouds partially obscure a demure pink-colored sky, and somewhere the sun is sinking below the horizon. A breeze nudges its way past my "new" curtain and greets my cheek, and all at once I feel like I'm back in Seattle in the autumn. A quick sensation, lasting no more than a fraction of a second. But it was a nice one nonetheless.

Maybe it was just all the reminders of life at UW - reviewing my schedule, running degree audits, listening to Death Cab. But I think it's telling me that I will be ready to go back and resume life in Seattle - as scary as it may sound to me right now.

Somehow the weekend flew past, even though I guess today is still the 5th day of mine (I know, I know, I'm spoiled), and I have a lot to read for class tomorrow. Class is at two. I should be able to get it done, but it's gonna be close.

The stressful homework situation mentioned above happens to me nearly every day in the States. But somehow, here, this struggle between one full day and the things that need to get done within its borders occurs maybe 5 times a quarter.

I'm so screwed when I get back to UW and actually have to do work - all the time!

Something amazing happened to me today.

The day was a pleasant one, starting with a birthday brunch for a friend and progressing to an afternoon boat ride on the Neckar river, complete with sun and sangria. We returned the boat to the rental place and took a position on the bank of the river, mostly because we weren't ready to leave yet, and plus we had sangria left to finish off. After almost an hour, we decided it was time to go home. So we packed up our stuff and got on the bus back to our dorms on the hill.

At home, I come in the door and decide to check my email. Since it's a beautiful day outside, and we still have a few more hours of daylight (as I write this, it's only 7.20 pm), I think that a walk might be in order, but of course for that I'll want my iPod with me. Usually, I've got the thing plugged in and charging, but as I look over to its usual spot on my desk, I realize I must have forgotten to plug it in yesterday, because it's not there.

I look in my purse, in my backpack, on top of my mini-fridge. All the usual places. Not there. Hmm. This happened to me the other day, and I freaked out just a little bit, before realizing that I left it in my cabinet in the kitchen while I was cooking. So this time around, I thought maybe it was in the cabinet again, although I honestly did not remember putting it there. So I went to the kitchen.

And lo and behold, my iPod is sitting on the windowsill. ON THE WINDOWSILL.

It had been there almost a full 24 hours. Just chilling in the kitchen. I had probably left it either on the counter or on the table, so it hadn't migrated far. Just to the windowsill.

What kind of awesome country am I living in, where my iPod is actually safer in the community kitchen than it would be in my own dorm room in Seattle?

All I can say is, thank God for the honor system, for small university towns, and above all, thank God for the Germans.

I've been told by half my readership (read: Jeff) that my blogging has recently been leaving something to be desired. This saddens me to know that I have deprived my readership of the goings-on of my daily life, when they clearly would have liked to know every little, mundane detail, but in order to understand my lack of compelling entries, we all must recognize two things:

1. Usually when I'm on my computer, I'm eating a meal. So I tend to watch and read instead of trying to write and chat, because I only have two hands and it's likely that one of two hands are covered in some sort of sauce. And I don't type one-handed.

2. The "so-I-went-to-the-gym-and-then-to-the-store-and-wouldn't-you-know-it-but-they-didn't-have-any-more-tomatoes-so-I-went-to-another-store-and-found-some!" stories are boring for me to write and even less interesting for you to read. Basically, if I don't have anything interesting to write, I'd rather not write at all.

So that's why I've been doing nothing but posting interesting links and stuff. Also, I'm lazy, the weather's nice, and school just started again, so there's lots to do besides just sit on my computer and write to the blank masses of the internet.

Someday soon I'll write a few updates about what's been going on, what's about to go on, and general musings that have been floating around in my brain for the last few weeks. What a treat for y'all...

But until then, another dumb link to tide you over. (I'm kind of obsessed with this flash animation at the moment, and I don't know why. But it's awesome.)

Oh my.

The sun's out! i'm going to go enjoy it...

And Now, I Bring You...

... the last thing I needed to read right before eating dinner.

Good God. Now I don't even want to have children.