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

January 2001

6 January 2001

13 January 2001

18 January 2001

27 January 2001

6 January 2001
Saturday

That line right above is the first time this year that I've written '2001' - and of course, as always, I got it wrong. I always do that; I write last year's date until March or so of the new year. I guess I should pretend I grew up in China or something, because the Chinese New Year is in February, I think. Still a month off, but not as bad.

I can't remember exactly when I wrote my last entry, and I'm not online right now. It must have been the last week before Christmas, anyway, so I'll start then. It was a very boring week, actually; I basically worked very hard to get a lot of stuff done (mostly school work) before the break, and I did in fact manage to do everything I really wanted to. Friday I went to class and then came home, finished up packing and things, took a shower, and went to bed early.

Saturday morning Kevin called me at 3am (wonderfully sweet of him!), and we talked for a few minutes before I got up and put on the clothes I'd laid out, ate breakfast, put my toothbrush in my suitcase, and headed to the bus stop. I was actually 40 minutes earlier than I had planned, since I allowed myself more than enough time to be a bit late; the 5:08 bus was the last one I could take and still get to the airport on time. I ended up catching the 4:28 one, the very first of the day, which got me to the subway [1] station 17 minutes early, just early enough to have made me late if I had taken the next bus in 20 minutes. I was the only one at the station, but when the subway came (again, the first of the day), it was full of late-night clubbers lurching home. I felt quite incongruous with my suitcases and "bright-eyed and bushy-tailed" mien. Okay, I wasn't that awake either, but at least I wasn't half-drunk like many of them.

A change to another subway, then another bus to the airport. On this bus I met another Smith student, Romney, who was also heading out on that still-dark morning (it was about 5:30 at this time, if I remember correctly). We hung around together and with Romney's friend Alex, who had come along, until it was time to head to the gate and board.

My flight to Paris was nothing special, though it was quite nice to be able to walk off the plane, collect my baggage, and walk out of the airport without going through immigration. I didn't have to walk very far through Charles de Gaulle Airport to get to the train station, either, and once I'd changed money, bought a ticket (49 FRF), and visited the restroom [2], there was a RER train already waiting. It took me to the station 'Chatelet-Les Halles,' where I switched lines to the Gare de Lyon and walked through the bowels of the train station until I surfaced at the train listing. I was two hours early for my train but had missed the previous one by some five minutes. I had considered taking that train, but I decided that it was cutting the time quite short, and I opted to allow myself a little more leeway for delays. As always, I didn't need quite that much time, but it was still the better decision.

Upon my arrival in Dijon, Martine met me on the quay and led me out to Jean-Louis, who was at the car. They talked French at me, which I (in my very tired, slightly deranged state) barely understood; I tried to speak French, too, but my attempts were only mildly successful. Eventually I had to succumb to a nap, after which everything was much better. My initial inability to speak French was doubly frustrating because I felt that I should be able to speak it, and I simply couldn't; however, during the week my fluency came back, and by the end I was speaking more or less normally. One satisfaction was that even though I often forgot words, my accent was as good as ever, i.e. flawless.

On Sunday Martine, Jean-Louis, Gribouille (the dog), and I made the 6-hour drive down to Cannes, where we spent the next few days (until Wednesday, when we drove back). We arrived about 16:30, and in the evening we opened presents [3] just before Christmas dinner, which consisted of raw oysters, smoked salmon, foie gras, cheese, and bûche de noël. It's a rather strange dinner, because the first three courses are actually all appetizers; however, I enjoyed it. I had tried oysters before, at Christmas four years ago, and not enjoyed them very much. I ate one, not very well, and didn't care to try another; it probably would have been better if I had managed to get the whole oyster on the fork and not had to slurp the trailing end of the slimy shapeless thing into my mouth. My other mistake was trying to chew. However, this time I put lemon juice on first and had a little more style, so I managed to eat one after another until the whole plate was empty. I wouldn't order them again, but I can certainly eat them politely now. The other noteworthy course, the bûche de noël, is probably what is called a yule log. The only place I've really seen them is in France, though I think they might be an English thing too. Jean-Louis picked ours out, and he picked very well; it was Real Chocolate, so even I enjoyed eating it. I think I must have ended up eating about half that thing during the few days it took us to finish it off.

There wasn't much to do in Cannes, actually, particularly since it rained the whole time we were there. I slept a lot, read, and relaxed. We did, however, take a walk every day, which was quite pleasant in spite of the naff weather, since the temperature was in the range of 13 degrees as opposed near-0 in Hamburg. I thought it quite balmy, almost tropical, and of course rain hardly bothers me any more. Wednesday was the drive back to Dijon; Thursday a walk around central Dijon, laundry, and repacking; Friday morning off to the train station.

My travels on Friday actually went fairly smoothly. There were slightly difficulties, such as finding my way in the Paris airport; unhelpfully, there were no flight listings at the train station, so I had to walk in the wrong direction before realizing that my terminal was the other way and heading back past the train station. They didn't make it very clear, either, that "Zone 10" on the flight listing meant that I had to check in at a particular place, so I waited in a very long line before being told that I had to go somewhere else. It was another long walk, but at least there wasn't a long line there. From then on, it went pretty smoothly in that airport, through the previous flight to London (scheduled two hours before mine) hadn't even started boarding by the time mine left, I think. I'm not sure why, but it must have been aircraft problems or something, I'm not sure. The oddest thing is that it didn't seem to affect my flight, because we left more or less on time.

I got off the plane at Heathrow and then had to go through immigration. That was harder than it's ever been before; usually I don't get much trouble, and these days traveling between EU countries (except to and from the UK) is even easier. However, this time I got asked everything about my stay, things like "Whom are you staying with?" and "What is his address?" and even "What is your area of study?" (he had seen my German visa and was, I assume, checking to see that I actually am a student). I was quite taken aback by the string of questions, but eventually he did let me through. Kevin said that I must have stood out as unusual because I'm a single American female with a German visa flying in from France. I guess they don't get too many of those.

After waiting for century-long minutes for my suitcase, I followed the signs saying "way out" [4] and "nothing to declare," eventually surfacing in a mob of waiting people, one of whom was Kevin. He bought razor blades and visited the restroom, and then we headed to the car and, after some difficulty getting out of the parking lot [5], were on our way to Wales.

The weekend, spent at a New Year's AFPmeet in Wales, was a bit more crowded and smokey than I would have preferred, but still enjoyable. I'm not going to provide a full account; if you really care, you can look at alt.fan.pratchett or search on Deja for meet reports. The only things I would comment on are that Sunday morning, those of us who were awake (about 6 of us) congregated downstairs in the living room with our books and read. I think that shows our common bookish nature. Later in the evening we discovered that there were games on the TV, including something like Minesweeper, so we played that as a group, calling out advice and such. It was strange but fun.

On New Year's Day Kevin and I came back to his home, and the rest of the week has been pretty calm. We've made a couple of excursions, including one today to Stratford-upon-Avon. We managed to see all but one of the five Shakespeare houses, because the last one was the only one of the five that closed at 16:00 instead of 16:30, and we got there at 16:05. It was a slight disappointment, but I'm not terribly disappointed. I got enough of Shakespeare anyway.

Happy New Millennium!

13 January 2001
Saturday

There's not much I can say about my last few days with Kevin. We pretty much hung out until I had to leave on Thursday afternoon. Instead of flying to Hamburg, I flew to Lübeck, which is a very tiny airport in the middle of nowhere, and thus much cheaper. There's a bus to the center of Hamburg directly from the airport, so it's actually more convenient for me than Hamburg's airport, even if it takes a bit longer.

The past couple of days I've just been getting back into my life in Hamburg, switching from vacation to RL. [6] I got a lot done yesterday, mostly housework and things rather than educational, including laundry and food-shopping. It turns out that I did have lots of food available; I just didn't think about it because it's non-perishables rather than fresh stuff. Speaking of education, though, I have lots of work to complete before the end of the semester. I hope I have enough time to do it in.

I'm trying to work on getting an internship for March, during the mid-semester break. I would like to work in a museum; there are a couple of hopefully-opportunities in Hamburg, and Gabi has contacts in Karlsruhe (near the corner of France, very far from Hamburg). I worked on my resume today, and we'll see what turns up.

The weather here is freezing, 0°C every day. When I look out my top-floor window, all I can see is freezing fog (but it's not that bad from the ground). On my way to the Smith Center today, there was a bit of light snow falling. It doesn't feel that cold to me, though. I went out today in a short skirt and didn't freeze (though it's wool, and I'm wearing furry boots).

For Christmas my host parents gave me a leaf, painted with a French scene and framed. It occurred to me a couple of days ago that it's like me - a leaf from an American tree, painted over to look French (or German). I really don't know what nationality I am any more; I have an American passport, but I feel more European than American. It was strange to go back to France and realize that I felt more German than French. Where do I belong?

18 January 2001
Thursday

Just before the Christmas break I had a burst of insanity [7] and volunteered to organize an AFPmeet in 2002, the anniversary of the founding of AFP. You can read more about Afparty. There's not much more to say about it; it's going to be some time in 2002 (probably February, March, or April), and I have absolutely no idea where to have it or anything. My problem is one of distance (time and geography) but mostly of complete lack of experience and ideas.

Need I say that volunteers are enthusiastically sought, with force if necessary? :-)

I am, however, trying not to go crazy with end-of-semester things. The German university system is very different from the US one; in the USA there are assignments and things throughout the semester, and then at the end there's a bigger, final assignment. In Germany, however, the pattern is mostly a huge paper (at least 10 pages usually, if not more) and no other grades for the semester. Not only that, most of what goes on in the class has little or nothing to do with the graded assignment(s), so there's no reason (besides habit, for me) to read and prepare for class every week. It's possible to do nothing for two or three months and then write a paper or something and get credit for the class. Oh, and also there often aren't any deadlines; students can turn in their papers even years after the class. They simply don't get their Schein until they've completed the work. Amazing.

The Schein is another weird thing about Germany. It's a piece of paper that says you've taken a class, and the grade you got in it (if it was graded; mostly classes at the Uni-Hamburg are pass/fail). People don't register for classes or anything (just show up for the class), and there's no official transcript or anything. If you don't like the grade you got in a certain class, just throw away the Schein. If you're finished with all your classes and just about to take the Abschlussprüfung to graduate, but you left the folder with your Scheine on the bus, you can't graduate. You'd have to take all those classes again.

I have a bit of nostalgia for France. The system was sort of the same, with fewer graded assignments than I was used to; however, I was really outside the system. I didn't need to do anything; I did what I wanted to, including reading the books and things, but I didn't stress about my failing grades, and I didn't take the Bac [8] at the end of the year. It was a vacation for me. However, now my situation is more complicated. I'm sort of outside the system, because I'm not trying to get a German Studienabschluss (degree), but I'm still trying to work within the German system in order to get credit from my American institution, which is not impossible but still slightly tricky.

My lecture course is, as I've said before, an example of the differences between the US and Germany; normally German students don't get credit for lectures. They merely go and listen for their personal edification. However, I need credit, which means that I have to write a paper. This may be a problem with this professor, because he's a big shot who has better things to do than grade papers for a lecture class. I still don't quite know what we're going to do about that, but at least I'm not alone; I've got a tutor for that class!

The mix between American and German systems means that I have to get all my work done by February 26, whereas my German classmates have more time. However, I am even trying to rush things a little more. I'm going to lose about a week in February from spending time with Kevin, and I want to have completed enough by then that I can really enjoy that time rather than spazzing about what I should really be doing. I am actually quite impressed by my current lack of stress; I am managing to get a good bit of work done, without worrying about it. Planning and small steps (and incentive) are the key!

I must do more work now. I have an outline of my history paper due next week, but I want to finish it by tomorrow so that I can start writing sooner. No dawdling for me!

27 January 2001
Saturday

I forgot to say in my last entry that I applied for an internship at the Museum der Arbeit (Work Museum) in Hamburg. I have a little more than a month between the final due date for all my work and the start of spring classes; this time is called the Semesterferien (semester-break). I'm not too enthusiastic about having an internship; I think it's a good thing to do (good to put on a resume), and I don't want to say that I don't want one, but if I don't get one I'll be just as happy to have a long stretch of free time. Of course, with that attitude I probably won't get an internship; it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. Ah well...

I am quite interested in this museum, however; it's about the "impact the process of industrialization and the extensive social, cultural and economic upheavals to which it gave rise have had on man, society and nature" for the past 150 years, since the Industrial Revolution came to Germany. I haven't been there yet, but Jutta says that it's very interesting and very modern in its style, with lots of things to touch and play with. Everything on the website looks interesting, too. It would be very fun to work there. Unfortunately, I think it's not going to pan out, because I handed over my resume over a week ago (Thursday the 19th), and since I haven't heard a thing since then, I rather think nothing's going to come of it. I'm not heartbroken; it just means I'll have more free time.

The last week has been kind of up-and-down, and not very exciting. Productivity warring with procrastination, sort of thing. I've got a mere three assignments left; two are under control, but I still have to decide where I'm going with the other. To clarify, these are the (only) assignments I have to complete by February 26:

I'll be good on the transcription as soon as I find something to transcribe; it'll take time and concentration to do, but no research or heavy thinking. I've also got a good start on the history paper, with a pretty detailed outline that I just need to start filling in. The problem is my paper on Orlando; I'm still not sure exactly how I'm going to write it. I have many vague ideas, but I need to make them more concrete. I'm going to meet with the professor next Wednesday to talk about the topic, so hopefully that will help. I'm planning on finishing it after the history paper, anyway, so I'm not totally behind.

The one blessing with papers in Germany is that they are required to have an outline within them; once I've finished putting those headings in and leaving a couple of carriage returns between for text, I've already got a page or two filled. Oh, and they also require huge margins (about 4cm on the left). Whooopee!

Right, enough of that. I must get cracking on this history paper. Motivation!

February 2001

[1] Actually above ground right there, so not exactly a subway, but it's still called the U-Bahn, short for Untergrundbahn. It goes underground in other places. I'm still not quite sure what the difference is between that and the S-Bahn; I don't even know what the 'S' stands for.
[2] All facilitated by the fact that I went through there with my mother and friend Maggie in March, so I knew exactly where to find everything. It helps to know one's way around.
[3] I got a beautiful framed painting on a leaf from my host parents, black tights and a camera from my real parents, and a necklace from my aunt and uncle. The rest of my presents haven't arrived yet. They were supposed to be sent to England, but apparently no one's seen them.
[4] Why can't these British just say "exit"? It's always "way out," which I think sounds incredibly odd. More complicated somehow.
[5] I nearly said "car park." Argh! It's infectious.
[6] RL=Real Life, usually contrasted with internet, but I also apply it to vacation. See the Acronym FAQ for more info, on this and other fun internet acronyms.
[7] Quiet in the peanut gallery!
[8] Short for Baccalauréat, the test for graduating from high school in France. There are two parts, literature (taken at the end of première, eleventh grade) and everything else (after terminale, twelfth grade).
[9] Münchner Konferenz in German. Is this the correct English term? I get so confused. This is the problem with learning different bits of things in different language; it leaves me a very confused head and even more confused listeners, if they don't happen to know the languages in question.

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