Introduction

August 2000
September 2000
October 2000
November 2000
December 2000
January 2001
February 2001
March 2001
April 2001
May 2001
June 2001
July 2001
August 2001

August 2001

12 August 2001
Sunday

This may be the last entry I write in my Hamburg journal. I am no longer in Hamburg, but I am still in the aftermath, so to speak.

At the moment I am in England with Kevin. I have still not finished my paper on Mary Rowlandson. Yes, I know I'm taking a very long time with it, but I'm mostly done. I've done the really hard bit already, so the rest should be easy to write. The hardest thing will probably be to pare it down after I've written, because it's looking to be a 20-page paper, though it was actually supposed to be 12-15. (Oops.)

Leaving Hamburg was complicated. I had everything organized and arranged, so waiting was the hardest part. Saturday morning I woke up, took a shower, and threw my sheets and towels in the wash. Contrary to previous experience, they were washed and dried by about 10am, and I had nothing to do for a couple of hours. I thought about calling Kevin from the pay phone downstairs, but the prices were exorbitantly high, so I decided to go out and buy something for breakfast instead. I passed Mara and Hillary's dorm on the way, so I buzzed Mara's room to say goodbye. She was trying to clean her room and glad of help, so I took some paper to the recycling bin and then left to get both of us some food. She offered me money, but I declined since I had more than I would need and was going to give the rest away anyway. We talked a bit when I came back, and she gave me a romance novel for the plane. I also knocked on Hillary's door and said goodbye to her.

Back in my own room, I waited around for nearly another hour before becoming too impatient and setting off for the post office. I had a couple of packages which I wanted sent to MHC rather than Texas, but since they'd arrive in just a couple of weeks even by surface mail, I had to mark them "hold for fall semester arrival" and send them as late as possible. This meant going to my local post office after noon on Saturday, since the mail left at noon. If I got there afterwards, my packages would go out on Monday. You just can't depend on surface mail to be slow these days...

Then I took my last journey to Rothenbaumchaussee 34, to give back my bedding and keys. I got DM50 in exchange, which I left for Caitlin Bo. I had been complaining to her a few days before about how we'd all get this money a couple of hours before we left, when we had no use for it any more, so Caitlin said I could give it to her, and I agreed. She said she'd pay me back, I told her not to worry about it because it was worthless to me anyway, and she told me not to try to convince people not to give me money. :-)

My neighbor from 508 (whom I've mentioned before, I think) was in the hall that morning, and I told him I was moving out. He offered to give me a ride to the airport and rearranged his schedule to make time. He was to come by between 15:00 and 16:00, and by 15:40 I was worried, so I started packing up to leave. Just as I was going out the door, however, he came down the hall, much to my relief. We left in a hurry, and I forgot my bathrobe, which I had intended to trash but instead left hanging on the back of the door (which is of course why I didn't see it). The rest of the room was pristine, so I hope Herr Koch didn't hold it against me.

It's quite lucky that I got a ride to the airport, because I wouldn't have made it otherwise. I'm used to having heavy luggage, but this time I outdid myself. My big black suitcase weighed 35kg! Ulp! The weight limit, printed on my ticket, was 20kg, and I knew that beforehand. I simply didn't think it would be that heavy. All in all it was 50kg, of which I had to pay for 20 (DM236,40). I got through, but I was determined not to do it again on my flight to Dallas, so yesterday I shipped several packages. That was £85.16, expensive but definitely less so than American Airlines would charge me, I'm sure! I'm not sure if it's enough weight taken off; my big suitcase now weighs about 24kg, which is a definite improvement but perhaps not enough. We shall see.

Last weekend (3-5 August) Kevin and I enjoyed ourselves at this year's Clarecraft Discworld Event (CCDE). Basically we camped in a field for a couple of nights and talked to other Pratchett fans. The best part of the weekend for me was painting my own Clarecraft figures; there was a small selection of unpainted figures to buy and tables set up with paints and brushes. Kevin and I painted all but a couple of the figures; first we did Ruby and Detritus, and then I decided it was a lot of fun and wanted to do more. The same day (Saturday) I started Scraps, which I was doing for Kevin since he likes dogs, and Kevin painted the Duck Man. Sunday morning we were in the barn as soon as it opened, whereupon I touched up Scraps as much as I could, having seen numerous flaws in the sunlight outside, and then started Death and the Swan (one figure). Both of those pieces turned out pretty well, though I think Scraps is marginally better since I messed up Death's face by not making the gray wash thin enough. :-( It was a learning experience, anyway, and I can't wait to do it again!

I also can't wait to get home. I have been using other people's computers for nearly a year, and I'm itching to tinker with my own. Specifically, I want to install Linux. The next time I write an entry here, I will most likely be running Linux. Exciting, eh?

19 August 2001
Sunday

This really is my last entry, because I think that after this I am going to start a blogger instead. Maintaining this is simply too much trouble. It's nice for something that's going to stay around and document my year, but for normal everyday life... nah.

I've done a good bit since coming home. Right away I set up my computer and installed Linux. Unfortunately it wasn't as simple as I had hoped, and I had to reinstall twice (i.e. 3 times total) - but other than wasting time, that wasn't too bad, since I hadn't customized anything yet. I won't go into that in too much detail here; I'll save it for my Linux page. If you're not that interested, I'll spare you the detailed explanations.

I got in touch with my long-time friend Al and even went to her roommate's birthday party yesterday. That was fun, and I enjoyed catching up with people I hadn't seen for ages (I guess I knew about a third of the people there), but I really didn't like the restaurant. There was a jazz band, playing background music far too loud to be background, and at times I couldn't even hear what I was saying! Besides that, the service wasn't good; a server reached over me to put a piece of bread on my plate, and his arm came so close to my face that I jerked back. I was not impressed. I decided to give about a 10% tip anyway, since that's standard, but when I got the bill, they put an automatic 20% gratuity on there! I was a bit shocked, but I was really steamed when they returned the credit card receipt for signing and included a space for "additional tip"! I crossed out the 20% and wrote in my own, considerably less than what I would have given, had the tip not already been included! I know that waitstaff depend on tips, but they still need to earn it. A tip is not mandatory. Sheesh!

However, I did have fun with the people there, and it seems I'll be hanging out with them again soon. I feel relatively re-integrated into my home (it seems that Hamburg was a dream a long time ago), but of course I shouldn't settle down too much since I have to leave again in two weeks. I guess the real test will come when I see MHC and the changes that have happened there during the year.

This page created and maintained by Laurabelle (send WebMail).
Best viewed with Internet Explorer or Netscape 6.