Saving a Space

I'm saving this space for when I have time to right something. Will edit later. Apparently today is Cyber Monday. Missed it.

Here's a poem to hold you over:

New World
By Shel Silverstein

Upside-down trees swingin' free,
Buses float and Buildings dangle:
Now and then it's nice to see
The world-from a different angle

fridaiia

I'm going to have to make this short, since someone might turn the internet off.
And if I post this on Saturday somebody DID turn it off.

Everything's good in Germany! I went to Berlin last weekend, I've made a few friends (and reconnected with old ones), I'm  taking German classes, forgetting to blog et cetera. Life is treating me pretty well.

I can't wait to go home though. I miss my family and friends so much. I honestly didn't think I'd miss them so much but being away and doing what I'm doing here makes you really think about what matters and what doesn't, and you realize exacly who are the most important people in your life. The ones that are still contacting you and the ones that you just think that it's easy to be away from, it really doesn't make a difference. - Only three weeks!

NaNo count: a bit more than 10.000 words, I quit!
I still show up to the group I'm meeting to write with, lovely group of a few German girls I really like.

The christmas markets here in Mainz just opened yesterday, I went and it's beautiful! I promise I'll post pictures when I get home and find the camera cable, before christmas.

Have to go!
x

Thanksgiving always makes me sleepy.

And we didn't even have turkey this year, since there's a scientific reason for why you feel sleepy after eating turkey.

Anyway. I drove home from Tampa yesterday, and it HAD to rain as soon as I left my apartment. It happens to me every time I have to drive on the interstate, I swear. Midday Tampa traffic + thunderstorms = horrible driving experience. But I made it home to Ft. Myers in one piece, luckily.

I spent all day yesterday and today cooking. It was excellent, and my house still smells amazing hours later. I made two pies and a few loaves of pumpkin bread and a cake for my brother's birthday yesterday. He's 18 now. It's odd how all of my siblings are adults now (except for my little sister, since she's 10). It feels like yesterday that we were just little kids.

I'm not going Black Friday shopping tomorrow. I feel like I'm the one 19-year-old in the country that doesn't. I hate crowds and I remember the horror of having to work at Wal-Mart on Black Friday last year, so I feel everyone's pain that has to work tomorrow. However, I do have to go out at some point to get new glasses. I'm just replacing my lenses, but I still have to venture to the evil world known as the mall. God help me.

Hope you girls are having a great week!

Behind in the Times

Hey guys, missed my day again. I've been sick all weekend and haven't felt like doing much of anything. Don't want to go to class today, but I should. My medicine isn't helping my motivation at all. I feel like there's a cloud betwixt my ears.

I don't think I mentioned this, but I've always been a fan of comic book Super Heroes. When I was a kid I used to watch all of the super hero cartoons that came on. I admit that Marvel was my favorite, but DC wormed its way into my favor with the Justice League Unlimited and Teen Titan cartoons. I don't think that I've ever read a DC comic, but I have read some of the revamp Marvel ones.

I've been watching the Young Justice cartoon lately, and I like it. But it gets me back to thinking about the DC universe. Now I'm a little bit more caught up on the Batman universe in which the large amount of people Batman has trained/adopted become known as the Bat Family in fanon and it's crazy, like everything in Gotham.

The DC universe is interesting because it has evolved in a creative way. Let me take the character Robin, sidekick to Batman, as an example. The first Robin was Dick Grayson and was created in order for boys to connect with a character in the Batman comics with some success. Years later the Robin character fell out of favor and they wanted to add freshness to the character so they changed his personality a bit and gave the Robin the name Jason Todd. Fans hated the new Robin so the creators were forced to kill him off. Later, when they decided to bring the Robin character back in the franchise they named him Tim Drake. Because of his past popularity Dick Grayson's Robin was brought back in the spin off Teen Titans and eventually Tim Drake was given the spin off Young Justice. That is what really happened.

This is the modern revisionist history of the Robins: The first Robin was Dick Grayson who decided split from Batman when he got older and joined the Teen Titans. He later went solo and became Nightwing and temporarily Batman. Jason Todd was killed by The Joker, or at least that's what Batman was lead to believe. Jason comes back as the Red Hood, a "superhero" that kills and becomes this great critic to Batman's policy of never killing. Tim was taken by the Joker once and it drove him insane. He seemed to have gotten past it and, like the Robins before him, he left Batman and joined Young Justice. Decades in the future his insanity takes the best of him and he becomes the new Joker.

In the end they all become this twisted family, which fits in with the modern trend of grim storylines in comics. Batman has always been dark, but never this convoluted with pessimism, which is why I prefer the cartoons to the comics right now.

As you can probably tell, I love the Robin story and I didn't even mention Damien Wayne who is all kinds of psychotic and Stephanie, the only girl Robin. Dick Grayson is favorite Robin ♥

In case you were wondering, the people in that picture to the left are this, from left to right: Red Robin/Robin #3/Tim Drake, Batwoman, Robin #4 or 5/Damien Wayne, Batman/Bruce Wayne, Nightwing/Robin #1/Dick Grayson, Batgirl/Barbara Gordan, Red Hood/Robin #2/Jason Todd. They're the Bat family. Yes, I'm a loser who knew that off the top of my head.

Stephanie, I hope you have a great Thanksgiving. Your shedule is nuts. I hope you know what you're doing. A common mistake many college students make is taking on too much and then ending up quitting. But if you believe you can handle it (and I've seen people handle impossible schedules before) I trust you'll do fine.

Alda, hope all is well with you in Germany.

Ciao!

It's weird that it still said Thursday, since I posted around 2am on Friday morning here. Oh well. I think Blogger keeps the date the same until it's the next day everywhere. But it's just a theory.

Alda, your idea sounds pretty interesting. I know a lot of people that don't really like to talk about what they write, so you're not alone. Also, I hope you have fun in Berlin! I wish I could go to Germany. I have family all over, and my Uroma lives in Stuttgart. My German is absolutely terrible, though.

Karena, posting late is fine. :) But I hope we can find a new blogger soon. I like having updates every day. I think we did for all of two weeks, though. It's unfortunate you didn't really feel too much of a connection with this guy. But maybe it's just a sign that someone better is out there. I met a guy last weekend that really seems to like me, but I'm not attracted to him (like...at all), and I'm still trying to figure out how to tell him without sounding too harsh.

Also! Firefly is an amazing show. I watched it while I was living in Alabama and I immediately fell in love with it. But then again, I'm a huge fan of both Nathan Fillion and Joss Whedon. So I may be a bit biased.

So, my week.

It's class registration week, and I officially have a spring semester from hell. My classes are as follows:

Biology II: Tues, Thurs 11:00-12:15

Biology II Lab: Thurs 2:00-4:45

General Chemistry II: Mon, Wed, Fri 12:55-1:45 (Exams are Fridays at 2)

General Chemistry II Lab: Thurs 2:00-4:50

General Physics I: Mon, Wed 4:35-5:50

General Physics I Lab: Mon 6:05-7:55

Modern European History II: Mon, Wed, Fri 10:45-11:35

Yeah, that's my schedule. Sometimes I doubt my sanity when I look at the amount of science classes I have to take, but I'm passionate about it. I also need all of these classes for veterinary school, so I have to take them at some point or another. Hopefully I don't have a mental breakdown at some point.

Thanksgiving is next week, so I have another week without my labs. And then after that comes finals, so I'm super super busy right now. Winter break is approaching really quickly, though, and I'm so excited. I'll be making a friend a Pokemon plushie over break, so I'll be keeping busy.

Hope you guys have a great week!

A Day Late, a buck short

So I missed my day. At least I have two extra days open since we still haven't found anyone to replace our missing blogger. Looking on the bright side!


Stephanie, it says Thursday for me as well, which makes no sense considering that Alda lives in the future and I'm several hours behind you. I don't think that it's possible to stick out in my town's All Souls procession. There were all kinds of people in different kinds of dress. If you happen to be in Arizona for the weekend of November 1st then you should come by. LOL.


Alda, a twisted love story you say? Sounds interesting. Hope you have fun with your friend in Berlin this weekend!


I've decided not to continue seeing the guy I was dating. There wasn't an emotional connection for me, but he was super into me so it was hard to tell him that I didn't want to pursue a relationship with him. He was understanding. Hope I didn't make the wrong choice. It's a good thing I'm really too busy to really dwell on it.


I'm busybusybusy! Trying to pass my classes, preparing for the holidays (Thanksgiving! Woo!), and planning to live in a foreign country is all wearing on me.


I've been watching TV seasons again. I finished Firefly a couple of weeks ago and really liked it. I know that it was canceled, but I think that it sort of works as a mini-series even though it was meant for "six seasons and a movie." The way they talked was particularly comforting to me, with their old west dialects. It's the way people used to talk in the region I'm from before urbanization and national value in education. You can hear it in the way people talk when they're around friends and don't know how to phrase a thought using the vocabulary taught in school.


Linguistics is interesting and in honor of the Linguistics MBA I just broke up with, I'll tell you something my geekness finds interesting. As far as linguistic diversity, Europe is one of, if not the, least linguistically diverse continents, dispute having great language diversity. That is because European languages are all almost in the Indo-European category, which follows similar structural rules. Also, speaking in terms of English dialects the US has several based on region and culture, but the UK has far more despite having less land area.


OK, I'm done boring you.


The other series I'm watching is Friday Night Lights. I'm tired of people telling me how good it is and decided to watch it for myself. So far I haven't been disappointed. The people seem so real, it's incredible. The acting is terrific, the photography is beautiful and, most importantly, the writing very good. I don't think that I would like it as much if I had never experienced a high school football game. Understanding the weight of a high school football game, how little there should be and how much there is, is a careful nuance that I enjoy. Haven't finished the first season yet. I was going to finish it this week, but I gave up television this week to get things done more efficiently.


I got invited to a African diaspora potluck on Thursday, and that's all the socialization I have planned for the weekend. I have a big paper due on Friday, and that's my weekend. :P

11.11 - schnappstag

NaNoWriMo count: ca 7000 words.
I'll probably not finish, but I'll go as far as I can (as long as I dont die from laziness).
I've gone to a meeting with other people who were doing NaNo too, I'm meeting them next week too, it was nice but they spoke awfully much in German and I have really basic German knowledge - and it's way harder when people aren't even talking to you, I can't just jump into a conversation because I don't really have enough German to do that. Except maybe in my class when they're speaking, because the people there know about as much as I do!

Karena, nice make-up, I'm impressed! Some day I'll go to Mexico to celebrate Dia De Los Muertos because it's so cool and I love the thoughts behind it.

Stephanie, on the top of your blog it says "Thursday," you posted it at 22.39 in German time, so I guess it was the right time. At least here.

As of my NaNo novel, it's about a girl with huge daddy issues and it's a love story too in some kind of twisted way. I'm kind of shy talking about what I write, I'm also like that with my art, I don't really like talking much about it for some reasons.

I've read way more than usual since I came here, I finished my 3rd book now and I'm starting to read Ian McEwan's Atonement. It starts good, hope it will continue that way.
Next weekend I go to Berlin to meet a friend, it's going to be awesome.
Tonight I'm just babysitting, it's nice, I think I'll have to go buy tons of chocolate because I'm craving it more than a pregnant woman.

So I'm almost 2 hours late, but it's still Thursday somewhere on Earth.

So, I was sick for most of this week with who knows what. I spent most of the week either sleeping or reading Eragon, which I just started. I've wanted to read the Inheritance series for a while, and I guess since the last book came out this week, I'd get a start on it. It's good so far. I'm almost done with Book 1 already, and I just started it 2 days ago.

I read books way too quickly for my own liking.

Other than that, my labs were cancelled this week, and I don't have to wake up tomorrow morning to go to Chemistry since it's Veteran's Day. :D Not going to Chemistry is always a good thing. However, I have exams next week, so we'll see how those go. I feel pretty good about them, for once.

This month so far has had such a weird feeling for me, but I haven't figured out what it is yet. November and I have always had a sort of love/hate relationship. It's my favorite month of the year (if for no other reason than Movember/No-Shave November...because I'm really attracted to facial hair), but it's also the one that usually causes me the most trouble. I hope it's good to me this year. It certainly wasn't last year (though October was worse).

Karena! Your pictures are amazing, and that looked like so much fun. I've always wanted to go to a Dia de los Muertos celebration of some sorts, but I've always felt like I would stick out too badly. The one in your town sounds like a great time, too. And I love your face makeup. It looks fantastic.

I also look forward to hearing more about this guy. I feel like "liking him well enough" is a good start. It's a nice change from the immaturity I'm still seeing on my Facebook from girls who went on one date with a guy and they're convinced that they're in love. It's a wonder some of these people are the same age as me. I always feel like I'm so much older than my friends because I was forced to grow up faster than they were.

Alda, I think John did do a video like that when he was in The Netherlands. I can't remember when it was, but it wasn't too long ago. I love his Thoughts From Places videos. They're a nice change of pace. Good luck with your writing, though! What is your Nano novel about? I can't remember if you mentioned it or not.

And with that, I should probably head to sleep, even though I don't have class in the morning. I'm still battling this cold, so I hope it goes away by the weekend. I don't need to get my roommates sick.

Have a lovely week, ladies! Have fun writing. :D

I almost missed it again!

It's 11:57 PM here. I almost missed Monday.

Nano Count: 0 (I'm waaaaaaay behind). I think I really will do a poem a day.

Hello gals, my date went well. I'm seeing him again tomorrow. Not really sure how I feel about him yet, but I like him well enough.


Yesterday was the All Souls Procession in my hometown. Tens of thousands of people show up for it. It's a self-made parade, more or less, of people marching in remembrance of people who have died. People paint their faces to look like skeletons. I marched with my dog's leash in memorial. There were many personal alters and large memorials to groups that have died such as transgender murder victims, People who died from AIDS, and wolves killed. Some people made giant puppets too. There were musicians and dance groups who brightened up the procession, which felt appropriate because I don't believe that the dead are gloomy nor do I believe that the living should forget to have fun. In the end it felt like I was invited to the biggest, coolest party in my city. Here are some pictures my friend took. The one to the right is me with my face makeup.



I think that the procession started as an observance of All Souls Day, which is a holiday in Mexico, by Mexican-Americans. It's evolved into it's own event and has a lot of Pagan influence. It's still an event that is meant for communion with the dead. It's not the same All Souls that is celebrated in Mexico, much to many people's chagrin, but not mine. :)

Time for sleep! Goodnight ladies.

no photoss

It's kinda funny that we all took the week off at the same time. And by all I mean us three (and sometimes two) that are still here.

NaNo word count today: 2880 words.
Can't believe I'm behind, it's only the third day and I'm feeling all lazy. But... I think if I'm behind I'll catch up on the 18th of November (in two weeks!), because then I'm going to Berlin to visit a friend and that's a 5 hour train trip for me - woohoo! I'm doing it John Green style. I think. Didn't he have a video where he was in the Netherlands and took a train to be able to write? Think so. Maybe it was a dream. Anyhow, that's what I'm going to do!

I'm sitting here with an Icelandic wool blanket, drinking red wine and eating chocolate here. Later in life, when I move out, I'm definitely going to be the girl/woman with the glass of red wine every evening. My head's so light. I'm such a lightweight when it comes to alcohol.

Stephanie, nice costume! I want to dress up as cheshire cat when I get the chance. There was some kind of halloween here in Germany but it wasn't very big. I got one group of kids asking for sweets but that was about it. And my 6 year old host-child (haha, sounds serious! The kid I'm babysitting, I mean) went to a halloween birthday party and came home with a cape and a bag full of candy. Verrryyynice.

I'm going to write down all the series I've been watching. No internet = TV series!! And 3 books. Which is kind of much if I compare it to the amount of books I've read for fun for the past years. Huge progress.
I've watched
seasons 2-5 of How I Met Your Mother
season 1 of True Blood
seasons 1 and 2 of Blue Mountain State
seasons 1, 3 and 4 of Big Bang Theory
seasons 1 and 2 of Modern Family
and also episodes of Glee, Secret Diary of a London Callgirl, Fóstbræður and too many movies.

That's a lot for 5 weeks, and I'm probably definitely forgetting something there.

On the other hand I'm almost finished with my Sketchbook Project book. It looks awesome I must say. I'm super proud of it, I must say. I'll probably finish that one on my flight home to Iceland, 19. December or when I'm back home.



Karena! NICE, how did the date go?
and more importantly... Congratulations on your internship! It's amazing!
And in Chile. That's awesome too. I'm probably going there sometime in the next 10 years, just saying!

Both your hair and broccoli look good.

Germany fact of the day: Germans aren't good in English, even though they think they are.

Is it Thursday yet?

No? Well, I'm updating early, since I haven't in a while. I also have a paper that I'll be working on all day tomorrow, so I won't have any time to post.

So, I think I last updated two weeks ago. Let's seeee, that was homecoming week, I believe. So we'll start there.

First of all, we lost our homecoming game. It's a sad day when that happens, but homecoming week itself was so much fun. There were random events all week, and Thursday & Friday night there was a carnival across the street from my apartment. I went early on Friday with my friend Melissa, and there were no lines at all. We rode all of the typical carnival rides, and then went to watch the homecoming parade. I think I acquired 34 strands of beaded necklaces from that parade. We also accumulated large amounts of candy, and I ate funnel cake for the first time in about six years.

Oh, and I was wearing a Pikachu beanie and everyone kept yelling "Hey, Pikachu!" at me. Sadly, I do not have photo evidence.

Halloween was this weekend, guys! And I do have photo evidence of that! That's a picture of my friend Sam and I, with Bridget in the background. I was dressed up as some version of the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland, and she came as the Mad Hatter. We didn't even plan it, so I was so excited to see that she dressed up that way. :D

There were two parties I went to. The first was Sam's on Friday night, and then my roommates and I threw a party on Saturday night. I think I went to sleep sometime around 6:30 AM on Sunday morning after having a rather eventful night. I haven't had a Halloween this fun in YEARS, so I was so happy that this year turned out so great. It's my favorite holiday, so spending it with friends and generally making fools of ourselves was something I really needed.

I should probably get a start on my European History paper, so I think I'll end this now. I'll leave you guys with a picture of my ex-boyfriend turned close friend, Corey, dressed up as the Tenth Doctor from Doctor Who. Somehow guys, he isn't a nerdfighter. Yet. Though his level of nerdiness never ceases to amaze me.

Best Wishes!