System down

High ( and low ) lights of the week:

- monitor of my laptop is down, but apparently there is a spare monitor at the AYF office. I'll use that briefly to at least back some documents and photos up. And then ....? I dunno.

- never ever ever mention "Hochdeutsch" to anyone who speaks German. I made a cultural blunder and instead of saying "I'm foreign" or "German isn't my native tongue" or "could you speak more slowly?" I said "sorry, I only understand hochdeutsch" and that earned me a rant from some drunken Schwarzwalder at 10:15PM at a stop for the streetcar. It eventually became apparent to him that I wasn't/am not German and so I got a lecture about "When in Rome, do as the Romans do. Why don't you speak schwarzwaldisch? Why don't you understand it?" Uhmmm because they don't teach that in schools. Sorry. Anyhow: reminder to self to be not only conscious of regional cultural politics and subscriptions, but also to consciously ACT on what I know.

+ I've been pretty productive during my week off of school. Reviewed and memorized and copied a lot of Botany, but it's still going to take a while to actually write the whole of my 3-5 page EU essay. Will try to get around to brainstorming for a History and a Botany term paper.

+ Got a responses about course equivalencies for History.

- Aer Lingus changed my itinerary and now I'll be arriving in AND departing from Dublin at exactly 11.50AM on August 7th. Geez, guys. We'll see how it turns out and if I need to spend a night in Dublin I can find a couchsurfer to help me out.

+ Last Friday I met up with Peju, a fellow couchsurfer, who is from England but is living in Germany and used to study in Freiburg. We went to a house/coop party in a nice part of town ( I got a little lost biking there ) and had a good time dancing/listening to reggae. I love meeting new people!

+ Watched some of a BBC series on Robin Hood with Mary. It's hilarious. I think Maid Marien (?) got her wardrobe from Hot Topic.

That's basically it. Feel free to e-mail me.