Courtney OWU

Berlin is the second most populous city and the eighth most populous urban area in the European Union

2009-03-30T19:42:00.000-05:00

Just got back from Berlin, and I’m starting classes today! It’s been such a whirlwind these past few weeks- more has been going on than it seems should be come this time of year. The AJY visit to Berlin marks my second trip into the city, though I must say that I saw much more and came back with a much fuller understanding of the city this time. I of course still have not seen anywhere near all of the city, but I feel familiar with a good portion of it now, in part due to all of the walking my group did. Some of my personal highlights would have to be seeing the Berliner Dom (a massive baroque-revival cathedral that begs for multiple visits), the Reichstag (Germany’s parliament building), the Pergamon Museum, and getting to know a café that seems geared towards the area’s student populace. We saw so much, though, that it is difficult to summarize it simply.

German term: Genosse is an important term to know when discussing east Berlin or the GDR; it means “comrade”. It’s easy to presume that Komrad would mean comrade, because it does, but more in the sense of a comrade at arms or a Schulcomrad (a “class comrade” at school- a classmate).

Berlin pics!
And more!!

London's history goes back to its founding by the Romans

2009-03-25T07:42:00.000-05:00

It is a pleasure to be back in Heidelberg once again~ I spent the past six days in London and England seeing all that I could with a friend in the little time we had at our disposal. (My “spring break” just before the start of the summer semester!) I had originally harbored hopes of finally seeing St Michael’s Mount in the south east of England, but the combination of the train ride there taking forever, no airports making flights back to Frankfurt Hahn from there, and the cathedral being CLOSED for the days we were traveling caused me to sadly set this hope aside. Instead we did quite a lot more off trains rather than on them, although we did have a few lengthy train sittings as well.

On our first day out, we grabbed a two-our bus to the Frankfurt Hahn airport and then skipped over to London Stansted before finally taking bus, this one with an hour ride, into London. We dropped our things off at our hostel, which was actually the upstairs of a nice local pub before heading out to see what we could of the National Gallery. After that we grabbed some dinner at a pub and promptly returned to our lodgings to die before starting our trip in earnest. We had ordered “London Passes”, which help one avoid lines and can result in a hefty amount of savings. The next morning we hopped onto the underground and sped over to St. Paul’s cathedral before popping by the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, the HMS Bismark, AND Southwark Cathedral. We kept ourselves busy. On Saturday we intended to start with seeing Westminster (churches in the morning = PERFECT viewing with the lighting), but underground construction forced us to start with the arch before walking down to Buckingham Palace, where we looked through the Queen’s Gallery (largest collection of unnecessarily gilded things I’ve seen in quite a while! More than a few gorgeous paintings, though) and the changing of the guard. We ended up dropping by Westminster and the British Mueseum before the day was out as well, and I must admit that my feet were beyond dead with aching by the end of it. On the final day of our London Passes (one must use them on consecutive days for however many days one has purchased them for) we headed out to see Windsor Castle, where the queen was hanging out for the weekend. When we came back into the city we walked about and saw the Churchill Museum as well as the Cabinet of War Rooms. The next day, our final true day in the UK, we stopped by the Church of All Hallows before catching our train out to Salisbury. Here we grabbed a tour bus that informs the riders of Salisbury history as well as he history of several other towns and the area before dropping one off at Stonehenge, which I believe is perfectly described by one of OWU’s art history professors- Stonehenge is there on this big field, and right there is the overpass. I did hear that the Heritage Foundation is planning on moving the overpass, though, which would be brilliant. Whose idea was it to put it there in the first place? It was dreadfully windy that day as well, and the cold sliced through everything. We then hopped back onto the bus before stopping off at Old Sarum, another local ruin, before finishing the Salisbury adventures off with Salisbury Cathedral and another local church that has a Medieval doom painting of a uniquely large, complete, and well preserved sort.

German Phrase: Ich bin erledigt! is pretty much saying that you are dead tired and are done for the time being; I definitely was erledigt by the end of my adventures, and now I get to go on the AJY trip to Berlin! I swear the excitement never ends over here.

Some London pics here
and some more here

The Speyer Dom is, by virtue of its proportions,the largest and the most important; by virtue of the history to which it is linked– the Salic emperors

2009-03-14T19:42:00.000-05:00

The AJY recently took us out on yet another excursion- this one to Speyer, which is southeast of Heidelberg. I had no expectations and no idea what to expect as the train steadily took us there, but upon arrival I found it hard to want to leave. Speyer is a beautiful town with an amazing cathedral that used to hold the title of World’s Largest Building- something quite daunting if one takes into consideration how the mass of the building must have been humbling to those used to living in small huts. We briefly toured the cathedral and the crypts before touring a little of the town, seeing the Bishop’s residence and the remains of an old synagogue that houses the ancient bath house in the basement- a site remarkably unharmed in the whirlwind tragedies of the second world war. Most of the group left after seeing this, but I wanted to see more of the city and was pleased that several others did as well. We popped into one of the local cloisters- a beautiful experience, seeing a dozen nuns at prayer in such a setting. We walked around some more, taking it in, myself making mental plans of what to do upon my next visit. It’s only 45 minutes away by train, and during the week is peaceful and lower on the number of tourists- something I thankfully will take advantage of once my schedule here is clearer.

German term: I don’t believe I’ve taken a moment to explain the German term Dom. A Dom is a big cathedral that’s super special because it’s associated with the Kaiser for various reasons. (He may have had it built or something like that- it depends.) These are not to be confused with a Kirche, a church, which can verbally be confused with Kirsche (cherries), Küche (kitchen), and occasionally something as delicious as Kuchen (cake).

Speyer pics here

Frankfurt is the financial and transportation centre of Germany and the largest financial centre in continental Europe

2009-03-01T07:42:00.002-05:00

Off campus escapades continue!

Studying off-campus from OWU is a rather simple matter. It involves a few trips to Blake Michael’s office(director of studying abroad), the filling out of not a few seemingly pointless forms, and then some more forms to top it all off and to be sure it has a healthy dose of bureaucracy. Also, a few meetings in there. As well as a lot of other things I’m glossing over for time and interest’s sakes. It’s straight-forward, though, and there are a ton of programs to choose from. Being a language major, it narrowed my choices quite effectively down. There were two that I was looking at by the end of things, namely Munich or Heidelberg, and through some smashing decision making arrived here. It’s a very nice program thus far, and I’m looking forward to the rest of my semester here. There are nigh limitless possibilities for the student in the Heidelberg program; there are a ton of classes to choose from after taking the DSH, which is the German language proficiency test. That’s what the first month of study here is spent preparing for; the group that I am here with gets a go at it on March 12. One can also get a part time job, and internship, or any number of other exciting things. I myself just got an internship at a local elementary school, where I will be herding wee-ones about as a mystical Native Speaker of English. Quite a good time, to be sure.

Heidelberg is a lovely town, and exploring it has been quite a joy. I highly suggest a solo hiking of the Holy Mountain from the very bottom; none of this sissy tourist taking a car to the top stuff!! And please be respectful to the area while you’re at it; some of the tourists were less than understanding of the sights to be seen, and that’s just beyond the tacky Hawaiian button-ups the best of tourists are usually prone to. But more on Heidelberg another day. Recently we spent the day in Frankfurt, saw Goethe’s childhood home (if you honestly have no idea who dear Goethe is, please go Google him at the least; Germany’s Shakespeare disserves at least a vague awareness, don’t you agree? He’s a bit bawdy at times for my tastes, though, to be quite honest. Erlkoenig is a nice poem, though.) as well as some of the most important buildings in the Holy Roman Empire. Important stuff, really. After the DSH we’ll be taking a trip over to Speyer, a city near Heidelberg. We also have a group trip to Berlin as well as another group trip towards the end of our stay that will hit several cities, including Weimar, Goethe’s city of choice, in which not a few very exciting Ginkgo trees will growing, much to my delight.

A slideshow of some pictures from Frankfurt
More pics from Frankfurt

German Word: Germany has many options of public transport. You've got the Busse, S-Bahns, U-Bahns, Zuge, and more. It's fantastic. Bus is clearly "bus", but it's pronounced 'boose' like 'moose'. An S-Bahn is a fast train for traveling within a city, an U-Bahn is an underground, and Zug means "train". There are several types of trains, though, so one has to be careful of which one one uses depending on how quickly one wants to get where!

In an entirely unrelated note, Patrick O’Hearn is working on a new album, which makes me happy in ways that I can not possibly fully articulate.
Enjoy some classic Patrick O’Hearn music while getting excited with me about the new stuff to come!

Heidelberg, Germany is home to the jaw of the "Heidelberg Man", whose jawbone is the earliest evidence of human life in Europe

2009-02-23T10:38:00.002-05:00

You can see said jawbone just down the street from the American Junior Year at Heidelberg University HQ in a local museum. It's a nice little museum that's much larger than it seems, but unfortunately forbids photography. Do partake of some of the other photos I've amassed thus far in my travels abroad from dear OWU in the Heidelberg Program. Komm mit!

A slideshow of images in Heidelberg, Germany!
A few more that highlight many of the city's tourist attractions.
Just a couple more, including a shot of the AJY center, wedged between a record shop and a Thai restaurant right on the main street in the old portion of town.

350.org: Because the world needs to know

2008-09-11T20:11:00.001-05:00

I feel I could fill this entry with a ranting review of the National Colloquium’s opening and keynote speaker last night, but, in his spirit, I will instead direct my lovely readers to an important website. Please look it over and give it a think.

350.org

German Word: Denn die Welt muss es wissen. “Because the world needs to know.”

Dylan Thomas enjoyed frequenting several pubs, including the White Horse Tavern, The Mermaid, the Antelope, amongst others

2008-09-05T19:42:00.006-05:00

It’s probably bad to be going insane in just the second week! Once things get moving along at a better pace, they should be easier to deal with without me losing my mind. Until October is over, however, my schedule is less than pretty. (Although I’m slightly sure that this idea is only my naïve way of telling myself things will get better soon.) At least I have a steadily solidifying plan for my National Colloquium project! I plan to make OWU literally greener with my group, working to get more perennial plants, better bush care and pruning, and, of course, more trees. I also hope to work with some of the other groups, particularly the one wishing to work on collecting rainwater from the roofs. The current plants on campus rely entirely on the weather for their water now, and, in times of drought such as this summer, that can often lead to many of them dying, particularly some of the trees put in just last spring. Thusly, I want to somehow use the collected rainwater to help the plants out.

Other than that, I’ve dipped my hand into many a sinister soup this semester. MARRCA is doing well, and we need to buy more swords for the club already. This will be interesting, as our treasurer is in Spain. I’m joining the Modern Foreign Language Student Board and trying to help out with the horticulture club, too. Trying to keep all of the times straight along with my classes will and has been interesting… beware the troubles of getting into too many things! It seems innocent enough at first, but it soon creeps up on one!

German Word: In my German course, we’re seeing films. We’ve watched Der blaue Engel (The Blue Angel) and will be watching M on Sunday. Ich schaue Filme gern! “I like watching movies!”

Pictures!
The Delaware fair had the annual parade, by the way!

M

Kinoautomat, a 1967 film by Czechoslovakian director Radúz Činčera, was the first to allow the audience to change the course of a film with the press

2008-08-27T19:42:00.003-05:00

It’s only the first week back, and I feel surrounded by a homely chaos. I have two papers due next week, numerous emails I need to be sending even as I type this, homework to read through for tomorrow and Friday, books that need to be bought, practices to plan, a National Colloquium team to organize, and probably twenty other things that have entirely gone out to lunch for the moment. (Such as needing to get my paperwork updated for continuing as a German tutor; good thing I can take note of all of this at the moment instead of just forgetting it all!)

One sincere plus of today is the rain we got, however little it was, since we’ve had barely anything worth mention for nearly two months now. I still needed to water my plants this morning, as several of them had soil that was dried rather more than I was hoping it would have by now. (Bother with aridity and heat and such.)

German Word: Ich bin heute ziemlich beschaeftigt! I’m fairly busy today!

Pictures!

A room with a view!

This is just about the messiest I want the room to get. Just about. Maybe a little more.

I only brought the bare minimum when it comes to me having tea. Really.

The new stairs and walkway and fancy wall too tall and awkward to sit on are complete!! I add this shot to my “collection” of shots exactly like this save in different seasons. Yeah, I’m cool and obviously original like that.

Next week I will perhaps I will spend some time talking about my National Colloquium project. Until then, tschuess!

There is a species of lizards in South Africa that may be able to count as high as 6

2008-08-20T19:42:00.000-05:00

Just a few more days, and classes at OWU will be off to yet another roaring start. Until then I have plenty to keep me occupied; I’ve been working until 5-ish every day, and I’ve packed next to nothing for moving in this weekend. I’ll at least have Thursday off, and perhaps Friday, depending how things work out, so hopefully that will suffice for packing and getting those last cups of tea in with my oma before I’m off. I also need to get a few club things in order; since I’m this year’s MARRCA president, I need to email the other executives to plan our first meeting, how we’ll deal with the club fair, and a few other things. I also need to spruce up our club poster, which needs some updating and love to show how awesome MARRCA truly is.
Beyond that it’s mostly been mundane garden care due to this outstandingly dry weather we’ve been having; I find it sickening every time I hear the local weather man announce yet another “beautiful” day. How a dreadfully hot day after a long string of dreadfully hot days is beautiful, I may never know. I would take a rainy day any time.

German Word: A sonnig(sunny) day is usually considered schoen(pretty), but I’d take a day that’s verregnet(rainy) any time.

In place of pictures, a “packing for OWU” music mix for your listening pleasure:

Eurythmics- Sweet Dreams (are made of this)
Corey Hart- I Wear My Sunglasses at Night
Electric Light Orchestra- Roll Over Beethoven
Die Prinzen- Millionaer
Dave Gahan - Kingdom
Ryohei- the LIGHT
Daft Punk- Digital Love

The Wright brothers were two of seven children

2008-08-16T19:42:00.000-05:00

Today Delaware airport held an airshow! (I think it ran for a couple other days, but we came today, so…) My 88 year old neighbor Ed loves planes and used to fly a few himself, so we loaded him up in the car and headed out. (Ask him about the time he almost ran into something; there’s several versions, but he’s an amusing storyteller, even when he gets the stories all mixed up.) Ed had an outstanding time, looking at all the planes, wondering over their engines, their power. He kept insisting he needed to just have a few hours, and he’d have one of the planes he was most familiar with up in the air, just like he used to. Instead he mostly just talked with several of the owners, and even got what he says was his first chance to really see a helicopter up close. (Whether this is true or not, time may only know.) The pilot was very kind, helping Ed to sit in one of the two seats it had, explaining everything Ed wanted to know. (Ed tossing in not a few of his rather endearing “Good night!” exclamations at some of the information.)

Later on we got to see a model of the engine the Wright brothers used on their 1903 plane, as well as a to-scale model of their 1905 plane. Along with this model they had several little displays oriented to the younger crowd in hopes of sparking their interest in planes. Amongst these was a flight simulator for how the Wrights would fly their 1903 model, and Ed, who was reading a book on the Wright’s plane at the time, was ecstatic at getting a chance to try it out. There’s something interesting in an 88 year old man lying on his stomach, attempting to steer a projected image of a plane around the screen.

German Word: One of my all-time favourite German phrases has to be “Ich kann fliegen!!!!”, meaning “I can FLY!” I highly suggest shouting this before madly flapping one’s arms about for best results.

Pictures
For your enjoyment.

When cast into his role for the Monkees TV show, Mickey Dolenz had to take lessons to mime drum playing convincingly

2008-08-10T19:42:00.002-05:00

Mount Vernon had their Dan Emmett Days again, but this year I was unfortunately less than thrilled. Mickey Dolenz of Monkees fame graced the stage with his preseance, but he seems a shadow of what fame he once held. His performance felt very rehearsed, and rather than having a good time, he seemed only to want to name-drop all the big-names of yesteryear and some of today. The show would not be worth mention had his sister Coco not taken the stage; the first song she sang was perfect for her voice, and was the best of the show (well, the part I saw before leaving, anyway.) She sang another song, though it was not a good choice for her voice, but she still managed to entertain more than Mickey. Maybe something better next time around.

German Word: In English, if one were to say “I have an earworm.” Those around one would most likely think one either very eccentric or more than a bit off. In German, however, “Ich habe einen Ohrwurm ” is about the same as saying one has a song stuck in his/her head.

Pictures

At least I got this shot that somehow makes Mickey look pretty cool. What’s he hiding under that hat he wears all the time, anyway?

I have lots of excuses for how bad these shots are.

According to recent data, 1,307 Americans die annually by falling down stairs, ranking it highest in this sort of mortality

2008-08-01T19:42:00.013-05:00

Nothing terribly exciting this week; I went to work for Star Turbines moving around filing boxes with dust roughly as old as I am on them and ran around the Polaris area in a mad search for a ring my mother’s been wanting for her birthday present. One Amazon.com shopping experience later, and it’s in the mail. (A little late, but it’s only in part a gift from me, and my other items are on-time, so I don’t feel bad about it.) Classes lurk just around the corner, and I’ve started thinking more on what I want to drag back to the uni with me, how it will work with my roommate, and if there are things that I can hold off bringing until it’s colder and we’re more settled. (I’m still not sure if I want to haul a six-foot tall papyrus plant up three flights of stairs for a winter home. I’ll just have to see how heavy it is in its new pot, and how much room we end up having, I guess.)

German Word: I would recommend ambling around the OWU campus. One way to say “to amble” is zotteln. Heute zotteln wir um OWU! (Today we’re ambling around OWU!)

Pictures:
More from my trip around campus during the carshow; mostly a tour of a few pretty spots a visitor to OWU might consider that are not necessarily on main campus. (Meaning right around the dorms and academic area that tours usually cover. Off the beaten tour path, shall we say.)

I love this plant. I have no idea what it is, though I think it *might* be related to hydrangea (a.k.a. “hat plant”, see the 1960s for details.) They’re in several locations around campus, but this one is right next to the admissions office. So pretty whilst in bloom.

Day lilies are a staple of simple, beautiful gardening, I think. They were looking cheery along the J walk despite being entirely ignored by passersby.

This lovely little garden has more blooms in it than one would expect. It even has an herb section that is rather impressive! (The dill is insane and is probably six or seven feet tall!) Beautiful, and a nice resting spot or place to clear one’s mind near Austin Manor.

I couldn’t resist taking a few shots of the different plants featured.

Another little garden I adore; this one obviously belongs to one of the local churches (hence the cross incorporated into the architecture.) It’s a beautiful little spot, with the lushes, greenest, most inviting grass. Several well-tended Japanese maples, a small waterfall, and other elements work together to make this a peaceful, harmonious memorial garden. It’s always exciting to walk around Delaware and find these ‘hidden’ nooks and enjoy the experiences they offer.

Ginkgo trees are on the endangered species list party because of people taking cuttings and grafting in order to garauntee male trees

2008-07-26T19:42:00.007-05:00

This year we again attended the annual Delaware car show and cruise, though I spent less time with the cars since I was busy investigating the construction around campus and the news that some of our trees had apparently fallen during a storm. The new entrance into the academic side of campus is looking marvelous, with classy brick work and stairs that look amply wide and far safer than the nigh-ancient ones that were alright on a good day. ( A little rain, snow, or ice, however, could make them a bit tricky to navigate in a rush!) The construction was nowhere near done, but hopefully will not be in similar disarray when classes resume at the end of the month; detouring around them would be a bit inconvenient, particularly when heading to morning classes amidst the crush of other students.
Students on campus this fall can also rejoice because the gorgeous ginkgo trees on campus have gone to seed again and are preparing to drop their infamously stinky seeds all over the sidewalks. I cannot wait to inform my roommate, as she despises the stench, and our room is directly next to a female tree. I’m sure this will make her return to campus feel all the more glorious.

German Word: The new entrance to the academic side of campus is im Bau, or under construction. Bau comes from bauen, the verb "to build".

Pictures:
Just some shots from around campus before the downpour that threatened to drench me; thankfully I was on familiar ground when it hit and was able to sidle over to an area with an overhang.

Because sculpture involves the use of materials that can be moulded or modulated, it is considered one of the plastic arts

2008-07-16T07:42:00.000-05:00

This week I am proud to announce that I have taken the leap into 3D art and am attempting my first serious sculpture! (Art class back in the day barely counts, as those pieces stand nigh meaningless for me; I never enjoyed making the same sort of pots every time, scraping designs into them. Just not my thing.) I’m using Sculpey clay, which one bakes in the oven to set. Very fun stuff. I’m making what should turn out to be a roughly 1:12 scale model of my 7’ 8” (and two millimeters!) butler Ansgar Desmond Gottschalk. I’m still working on his head despite the hours I’ve poured into him, but I don’t think I’ve ever been quite this pleased with my work before; it’s simply satisfying. He still needs a lot of work, but I’m looking forward to the challenge.

German Word: Bildhauern and formen are both verbs meaning ‘to sculpt.’

Pictures:
Step one, make a basic skull.

Add eyes. One at a time, now.

Lips that look great in profile….

Then a nose, or the start of one, anyway… still working away, though!

White oaks are known to have lived over 600 years

2008-07-12T19:42:00.000-05:00

Good Guys car show was back in town this week, bringing with it thousands of cars and car enthusiasts. Now that I’ve attended a few years, I have a good feel for the show, but I always enjoy observing the various car enthusiasts and their rides. (One usually comes across a few super-rare cars that are at the least interesting, and one usually learns interesting facts about cars. For example, I saw a car credited to have inspired Hitler’s Volkswagen. Apparently its body design was well ahead of its time. It had a very nice look to it, I must say. The grill and front portion of the car on the whole were very fascinating.) It’s always neat to see the variety of enthusiasts, as everyone from the dust-covered biker to the dapper gentlemen in their sparkling cars with whitewall tires, and they’re all gawking at the cars, engines, and oddities on display, cameras, complements, and questions ever at the ready.

On a less enthusiastic note, I find myself worrying over our campus, as the recent storms have taken down a few of our larger trees, according to the news. I hope none of our ginkgoes have been damaged, though the loss of any old trees is sad. (I suspect the loss may be of white oaks, since a few of the larger white oaks on campus have large metal rods holding their trunks fast to avoid splitting already.) I will have to investigate in a few weeks when I get to visit Delaware.

German Word: It’s fairly common knowledge, really, but Volkswagen means “Folks car”/“Peoples Car”.

Pictures:

Iceland has some of the world's highest levels of economic freedoms as well as civil freedoms

2008-07-05T19:42:00.000-05:00

This week has been busy, with running about everywhere and the fourth of July. We went to the fireworks show up in Mount Vernon, where they were also holding their monthly car show. The turn out wasn’t large, but it was an enjoyable time, as we had brought along our 88 year old neighbor Ed, who talked our collective ears off with his endearing stories of the endless number of things he’s done. I personally was treated to a tale involving a dog, a Jeep, Boston, and the Navy boat Ed was on. I believe ice cream was somehow involved with all of this, but I find that I’m getting nearly as muddled with the details of all of his stories as he is. He may have enjoyed the spectacular fireworks more than anyone else there, so I’m pleased that we were able to give a lonely old fellow a nice time.

German Word: Island is Iceland, Grönland is Greenland, and the US is usually just referred to as Amerika, USA (ooo es ah), or die Vereinigte Staaten.

Pictures:
I gave bonsai a more official attempt recently, so behold the results!

Another attempt at growing a lotus; the frogs and fish keep destroying them!

Our neighbor Ed, looking cute after a day of working about his yard.

I would also like to add that having Icelandic pop songs stuck in ones head is intereting.

Dostoyevsky completed "The Brothers Karamazov", his largest work, only two months before dying

2008-06-25T07:42:00.002-05:00

Nothing terribly exciting has been going on for me here in Ohio; we’ve had some odd storms of late with our ADD weather, though nothing as terrible as it could be. Apparently the thunder from just the other night was the loudest that my grandmother has ever heard, but I find myself unable to comment since I was entirely oblivious. Yes, I somehow managed to absorb myself so much in the digital painting I was working on to be almost entirely ignorant of the storm raging just outside my window. Mostly I was concerned with the way the power was flickering and how this could effect my progress on the painting, so saying I was totally devoid of knowledge of the storm would not be accurate. I’m still not done with it, even now, though I’m much closer to completion. It’s tricky figuring out how to best add texture and detail to a digital medium; I must admit that I’m still very much a newbie to the digital art world, so I’m glad to have this piece to learn from. I am, however, regretting my choice to have my pope character wearing his ermine mantle, as fur is a pain. I think I would much rather slave over his six other rings that do not appear in the image than to work on another fur mantle like that again.

For my summer reading I’ve been savoring Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s outstanding The Brothers Karamozov. I say savoring mostly because of how I’m slowing getting through it, but not because I find it boring, because that’s quite far from any truth at all. I love it. I’m not sure how often people bust out laughing whilst reading this normally, but I find myself adoring every page and laughing at things that perhaps only my slightly out of date sense of humor can find amusing. I do, however, need to speed myself up and get through it, since I’m being pestered (in a good way!) about needing to read a few others books, so I need to at least get started on those within a reasonable amount of time. We’ll just have to see what draws my attention most these next few weeks; my art, my writing, my gardening, or my reading.

German Word: Today I thought I would introduce Sommersunnenwende, which, for one, is an excellent example of a long, slightly absurd, compounded German word thing. German loves to take several shorter words and cram them together to make a whole new one, and while this often works, it sometimes can result in words of a length that terrify an English speaker. Sommersonnenwende is short compared to some, and is only three words combined to mean “summer solstice”, which happened recently. It combines Sommer (summer, obviously), Sonne (sun), and Wende (turn or reveral, though it have several meanings.)

Photos:

A (small) snippet of the digital painting I’ve been working on. This is mainly my pope character’s Fisherman’s Ring, which has St. Peter on it, as well as a tiny bit of two of his other rings. I won’t go into the long-winded symbolism rant I could easily divert into here.

Our road, rain-swept and feeling all dramatic.

I’m fond of this picture for whatever reason; it’s just the texture on a flat rock in our yard. I’ll probably use it to add an illusion of texture to a digital work some day, but until then I can only be fond of it.

Such a nice evening… ADD weather can be nice on occasion, too.

Have I ever mentioned how much I enjoy taking pictures of our pond’s lilies? Because I really do.

Marimo is a variety of algae that forms round balls at the bottom of some lakes

2008-06-17T07:42:00.004-05:00

Last week I kept busy sewing and running about with my grandmother and aunt visiting from South Carolina. Ah, but how does this, if at all, connect to dear Ohio Wesleyan? During our travels we took a trip over to Delaware and made a stop into a little shop known as Captain Betty’s. Captain Betty, a lovely, eccentric woman of her late seventies who doesn’t look a day over fifty will go out of her way to make your experience in her shop a good one. Her wares, vintage clothing for men and women, are all in lovely shape, and many come with a free plethora of information. (The captain loves to talk, and her often very interesting anecdotes on the style or how its inspired something today do not bore.) Sadly you’ll have to visit Betty sometime soon, as she’s planning on taking her shop off to New York or Nashville soon, as she gets “none of the Delaware girls” in her shop; it’s a ‘city shop’ as she calls it, and most of her business seems to stem from New Yorkers from OWU, fashion designers, and other fashion-conscious individuals. We were only in search of a few items my aunt needed for her Civil War reenacting group (gloves[successful!], shoes [the pair was too small!], reticules [already packed for New York!], and handkerchiefs [found two!]). I also found a lovely vintage kimono in of red silk that is perfect for wearing with my hakama. (Okay, so it’s a little long, but the pants still lay the same, so it works and saves me from fretting over finding fabric right now.) I did have to make a small modification on it, as the tie that was sewn into it was made to have the wrong side of the kimono folded on top, so I did a quick fix, and now it’s perfect. As Betty says, she has great things. Check her out if you’re in Delaware sometime soon, even if you don’t plan on buying anything; she’s worth the visit.

Sunday my father and I attended an annual car show, I got a minor sunburn (surprise, surprise with my nigh see-through skin), Speed Racer showed up, and I was somehow coerced into dressing various dolls with a six year old. Within a couple weeks we can put the new goldfish I got him for the pond into the main pond (as long as it’s healthy and disease free, that is), thusly bringing the father’s day ‘festivities’ to a full end. The fish will stay around, of course, and the koi books, too, but that razzle-dazzle newness of the day itself probably won’t remain. I suppose that’s what next year is for.

German Word: Algae is Algen. Don’t tell me that’s not a useful term, because it definitely is.

Pictures:

There are about 70 species of water lilies around the world

2008-06-08T19:42:00.000-05:00

So this week Ohio has been back to being as ADD about weather as usual, causing to me shelf my sweatshirts again in favour of T-shirts and the like. Although temps in the low to mid nineties aren’t horrid, it’s been sticky, but my concern isn’t for myself as much for our small fish pond; the fish can sunburn or be cooked alive, which would not be good. So we’re looking into more ways of shading it. (Pergola, anyone?) The plants are thriving, though, with our water hyacinth and water lettuce making lovely comebacks after looking down from the nights in the thirties. Our first lily of the year bloomed as well, white and especially nice to see since this particular lily had not bloomed for us at all yet. (The one that bloomed last year has two flowers nearly ready to bloom, which will be beautiful!)
My aunt from South Carolina has come to visit this week. Mundane sounding, relatives visiting, I know. But, with her help, I should be able to finish off the Hakama (traditional Japanese pants. Google it.) They have pleats in them, and I have no idea how to work with doing the final one or two steps despite how simple they may be. She’s a pro at sewing, so she’ll point me in the right direction.
I’m also wanting to start a few other art projects soon… I’m itching to try out a few techniques for working with Sculpey that I found online through making a figure of my own, and I’ve been mulling over a few ideas for drawings that I haven’t gotten around to yet. Perhaps I can get on that during the hotter weather and sneak out to water my garden when the sun is not likely to turn me to dust like so many Draculas.

German Word: “Water lily” can be translated as Wasserlilie or Seerose. Interestingly, Seerose directly (literally) translates into sea or lake rose.

Pictures
Some shots of the recent lily blooming in our pond.

There is a breed of chicken known as "Buckeye" that originated in Ohio

2008-05-31T19:42:00.005-05:00

Summer has unofficially officially begun here in Ohio; we finally have weather that is not in the thirties at night… it’s about time, too, as the gardeners and farmers in the area need the warmth.
I’m missing campus and my favourite nooks to hide away in, but it’s be nice to spend time with my cat, get back into my garden (which finally is back to being just about presentable after much hauling off of weeds, pine needles and branches, and moving about of things from their winter huddle.)
Our pond is also getting exciting as it turns one, and will hopefully be outstandingly gorgeous soon. (I’m antsy to see our new flowers blooming, and I spotted the first of this year’s lily blossoms inching toward the surface today!) I also started two lotus seeds in my room just before the start of exam week, and they’ve sprouted like crazy. The seeds are procured not from a plant store or other store where one would expect to purchase seeds, but rather a craft store, from the large, dried pods of lotus usually used in dried/false flower arrangements in homes. I popped them into some soil yesterday and put them in with a lot of hope that the koi don’t get hungry enough to bite one of the delicate stalks in two!

German Word: Toll is a standard way of saying "cool" auf Deutsch, but if you want to sound more modern, hip, and get some odd looks from the older generation, geil might be the 'in' word for "cool" for you.

Pictures!
I had some great shots of our new koi swimming about and a shot or two of the large frogs that have invaded, but my camera decided to be angry and had a memory card error that deleted ALL of my photos. Most frustrating. So instead do enjoy this installment of random pictures.

Behold, a digital painting of a koi I did for my father's birthday.

This fellow is a character I designed for something I'm working on. He's not really bald, I don't think, but rather this is unfinished, and I am indecisive.

Our pond as of last year... it looks barren compared to now. By the way, there has also been some slight talk of maybe possibly getting a pond on campus. Huge maybe on that. But wouldn't that be neat?

Cool friends like these guys could hang out there while students toss various food hall items at them.

Faber-Castell sells the so-titled “Perfect Pencil” for 9 000 Euro. A deal, no?

2008-04-29T19:42:00.001-05:00

Things I should be doing:

~~- German presentation on Faber-Castell (PowerPoint, no length specified! Yay only having one day for the class to present?)~~ [edit: I love knowing how to make a classy PowerPoint fast when it’s a simple presentation on a classy company.]

- study for exams… yay

- Cultural Geography presentation- class version (20 minutes of me babbling on about Haiti with a focuss on Voodoun to a powerpoint that currently is not a little far from being impressive. Or done. Or existing much, for that matter.)

- get that book out and look it over… meaning study for exams.

- Cultural Geography final exam take-home test thing which involves a lot of pecking at keys. Might want to get on that, yeah.

- my first exam-exam is on Monday night. 7:30 PM. I should probably think about that.

- that ~~massive~~ “short” paper for German. (If 12-ish pages is short, but considering my topic it’s not really so bad… It just seems bigger, even when you have a nice chunk of it done already with a lot left to say. Thank you Faber for having such a long history and not releasing many numbers having to do with your business?) Mostly just blah of dealing with word thinking I am incapable of spelling anything and everything.

- I’m sure I’m forgetting something, and am too comfortable with my tea to bother with buggering about my schedule board thing that is the God of All Things Important That Are Due And/Or Coming Up. I love my GoATITADA/OCU. Keeps me sane when I can see a trip with my Oma not soon after all the angry fluorescent orange of tests and papers. But I digress. Oh, yes, and the Modern Foreign Language picnic is this Thursday. I can’t miss that. Very important! …it just got crowded out by the panic of my presentations, so.

Things I am doing:

- Doing a poor job of convincing myself that it is not time for me to sketch something.
- Typing this. Which is semi-productive, so yay?
- Listening to weird music with a beat. The beat is important to getting and staying on task!!
- Wondering at the popularity of some shows and how they ever managed to get on the television in the first place… that sort of thing sells, one supposes, and all of my roommates never miss it, so…
- Worrying about trimming my new acacia bonsai. And worrying about said bonsai being hit with a ball as one of my roommates practices juggling. Including kick-tricks.
- Feeling overwhelmed, as always, with the last few weeks
- Wondering if the above comment is worth my time, but knowing it cannot be helped
- Drinking tea. Always. Right now it is cold and supposedly green. Maybe a hot one later.
- Being a tea-snob and mentally complaining about the Welch room that stores their tea on the windowsill, which is a terrible storage place. I’ll spare you the details.
- Needing to finish this so that I can get back to doing something that will help reduce, at least in theory, the panic of these last few days.

German Wordness: Der perfeckte Bleistift!! ‘The perfect pencil’, and for so little? I swear Faber is just giving them away. I also read an article that their world’s largest pencil may have been beaten by a few feet. I wonder if they would send out German ninja (because such beings exist) to draw the world’s largest caricature and then erase it so that the pencil would shrink in size, allowing the Faber Bleistift to remaian der groesste Bleistift der Welt. I also contemplated them just breaking the lead, but that’s not nearly half as exciting.

Pictures:
It snowed here last night? What? Ohio is in the wind tunnel. And by Thursday it will be 70* again and no one need worry. Anyway, spring is in full fling, making campus gorgeous and delightfully smelly, in both good and bad ways. (see [or should I say smell?]: lilac bushes [our campus has a lovely range of lilac colours; everything from white to lilac to maroon to an antiqued pink!!] and crab apple trees. Beautiful trees, but not so easy on the nose when the wind picks up.)

Aforementioned acacia tree with obligatory kimono with fan design as a backdrop.

...and then it became startlingly clear to everyone why the university had bothered to keep such gnarled and deformed beings around.

Earth Day is just another scam thought up by the card companies!! ....wait....

2008-04-23T19:42:00.000-05:00

Earth Day was this week, and I am so on top of things that I still cannot tell anyone with 100% certainty which day it fell on. I have a guess that I’d be willing to bet a modest amount on, but little better. I, however, do not remorse this inability to identify days, because as far as I’m concerned every day should be earth day. (And I planted out six trees over the weekend and got two new ones in the mail, so not really feeling guilty about it.)
The university (I’m not sure of specifically what organizations or bits of it, but people associated with OWU, anyway) planted a few trees, including three red-buds and a buckeye, and possibly one other that I have not investigated closely enough to identify. This was heartening, as the university had several trees cut down, for what reasons I do not know, so I thought to myself that they were around one-up from where they were, calculating it out. And then I noticed the stump and piles of saw dust where the campus’s only larch tree was once located. No idea what they were thinking there… alright, it did look a little wonky, but it was an older tree with character, and the only larch on campus! At least it dropped enough pinecones to hopefully yield at least one larch that I can plant in its honour. (I’m bordering on Werther-level here, I know, but at least I’m doing something about it and not going to cry to Lotte about it before wandering about in the night like a wolf. Oh, Werther.)

German Word: Why would I use the verb ermorden, meaning ‘to murder’ for this week’s word? I wonder. (Werther, I know, I know. He should have just planted another walnut tree and made sure it survived. Honestly. Any nature-freak like that should at least put some effort into it.)

Pictures:

I'm so cool, I know, finding a large carp in the Delaware Run. There's a lot of these fellows in there, though.

Not labeled: how horrible my hand writing is. And, yes, that buckeye tree is smiling. He's happy to see you.

Tell your friends!

.

Although obviously not French in the least, Bach wrote some of his organ pieces in the French style of the time

2008-04-17T15:42:00.003-05:00

Campus finally feels like campus again. It’s an odd sensation, when one finally feels something click and thinks, “This is my campus. I’m home,” after a long, cold, alienating winter. I, at least, feel like the cold and layers of snow somehow barricade me from some essential part of campus that I treasure, something that has only returned with the flowers of spring. Perhaps it is merely that I am easily miffed about not being able to commune with nature whenever the fancy strikes me without pulling on eighty layers of coats and sweatshirts and five scarves. But I exaggerate. Campus is indeed in bloom, however, and the magnolia bushes and trees in particular are putting on a great show. Even the trees that I winterized in the room (yes, ignore what most people tell you; you can winterize trees indoors, at least small ones. The tiny ginkgo next to me right now is proof of this, though I do grant doing this with larger trees would be… tricky.) are sprouting tiny green leaves of their own. The end of the year is nigh, though, so enjoying such beauty while one can is even more transient than it first appears…. Everything seems to happen within the last month of things. I have so much to do within the next few weeks that I loathe thinking on it, but presentations and papers wait on no one, and meetings setting things up for next year are more than a bit important as well. I can, at the least, say that I know where and with whom I plan to room, so at least that headache is in order. (Setting up rooming for the next year is a peculiar “lottery” of sorts that seems more confusing and stressful than I am sure that it is.)

In the recent past I attended a talk and tasting on tea and its health benefits, an amazing and moving organ concert I dare not belittle with words, a talk by Dr. Deborah Lipstadt on her trial against David Irving (a case that involved Holocaust denial; if you’re interested, I suggest Google-ing it), and probably a few other things I cannot recall at the moment. In short, busy. Tonight I still need to run to a geology talk and go to Stammtisch besides my normal getting of things done! Fun? You bet your sweet bippy.

German Word: Ich moechte fertig sein… I want to be finished. Papers are just that exciting.

Pictures:

Ham-Will acting all cool one evening…

Robert Griffith is amazing, and you should give him a high-five for being being awesome.

Cool profs teach outside when it gets hot.

...yeah, the vague pun there doesn't really work, I know.

This is the Faerie Tree; he enjoys keeping a garden of violet flowers (not violets, though) in his roots every spring. His hobbies also include...

Noh has been a performing tradition that has continued since the 14th century

2008-03-30T16:34:00.003-05:00

It’s Sunday, and today I’m updating from the room I have my cultural geography course in! Exciting, I know, but it does have a certain feeling of cool in being the only one in a cold, computer-filled lab, typing away, trying to not be ADD long enough to use the mapping program only on these computers without changing the map colours thirty times…. So I thought I’d update my blog since I wanted to this weekend, and a break from maps is probably good for the health on occasion.
Friday OWU students had a special chance to experience Japanese Noh theatre a bit by meeting Matt Dubroff, one of a few Americans not only learning the traditional art of Noh, but making and performing English Noh plays with his modest troupe. He kindly explained a brief history of Noh, what the heck Noh is, and even gave some examples during his more formal afternoon talk; he also did two Noh workshops, showing people how to do some basic Noh movements and singing, but I unfortunately missed out on that part of it!! It was very informative, and I could easily rant on and on about his presentation, but I shall spare my readers and merely recommend researching Noh if the idea of the oldest still-practiced performing art which gives the main actor a wide range of responsibilities far beyond what one would normally expect sounds interesting. I find it fascinating, particularly since there is no rehearsal for a performance, and they only perform once.

German word: It feels odd writing about a German word after talking about Japan so long. Japan in German is Japan (the ‘j’ is pronounced like a ‘y’ is in English. There is also a certain emphasis that apparently should be used, but people will definitely know what you’re talking about it you say ‘yapon’.) Japanese is simply japanisch.

Pictures
Matt Dubroff explaining something to us. Yes, he was cool enough to wear a shorter kimono top that I cannot think of the specific name of at this moment. And he had a cool fan.

A traditional Noh setting…

This video was put out by the government of Japan, I believe, and is actually fairly informative and cool. The giant bell thing toward the end has been known to concuss and injure not a few Noh actors in the past.

Kabuki came about a couple hundred years after Noh and was seen as a theatre more for the commoners. (Noh by then had created a strong relationship with the aristocracy, starting with its true roots of Kan'ami and Zeami [Zeami chilled with the Shogun of the time and combined the courtly things he learned with him with Noh.]) Anyway, this is a sample of Kabuki. I love the wigs.

Audie Murphy, First Lieutenant, Third Infantry Division, is the Most Decorated U.S. Soldier of World War II

2008-03-21T19:42:00.001-05:00

First week back from spring break is complete, and wasn’t all that bad. I know a lot of people who had exams this week (I’m very thankful about the stress of having all of mine just before leaving... although worrying about what one got on those exams over break isn’t the greatest, even though one ends up doing fine anyway.) So this week has been fairly normal, with plenty of reading and lugging about of books. The rain was a spectacular change from the snow of late (namely the blizzard…. Go wind tunnel?) I had a lovely walk in the rain Wednesday, and it was superb. Most of OWU seemed to want to avoid the wet, but I personally find the campus at its most beautiful in a nice rain, the buildings nestled in amongst the romantically puddled sidewalks, roads that transcribe the street lights all melding together into this atmosphere nigh impossible to describe… Or maybe that’s just me.
Next week I’m looking forward to the Noh theatre artist who is coming to hold a workshop and presentation! I’m still torn on whether or not to go to the workshop, if only because I have no song or dance ability whatsoever, but learning more about the art of Noh makes it very tempting… I plan to invite my grandmother to the presentation the gentleman is going to hold, so hopefully she has that timeslot open!

German Word: Hase and hassen may look similar, but are starkly different! Hase is a noun meaning 'rabbit' or 'hare', and hassen is the verb 'to hate', so mixing them up would be more than slightly odd, but makes more sense if one sees something like "Ich hasse diese Hase." ('I hate this rabbit', not that you would ever say that, though you might.) "Ich hasse Schokoladehasen" would be another, meaning 'I hate chocolate rabbits.'

Pictures
For my birthday I got a WACOM tablet. In case you have no idea, it’s basically a thing you can plug into your computer that allows you to draw using a pen stylus, so it’s almost like writing or drawing on paper, only not. Tons of fun. Tons. It’s a bit tricky getting used to the whole different hand-eye coordination thing, but once one does, it’s very useful. My cultural geography professor, Dr. Fusch, recently started using one for a project he’s working on, which he told me about after I used mine to draw some diagrams for our midterm exam. (I got it mostly for academic use. I swear. Really.) I didn’t take much time at all to throw together the diagrams, but it was a nice option to have since he allowed us to draw things to help explain whatever it was that we were defining. So below I feel I should share some academic and slightly less academic creations I’ve tossed together with my WACOM.

Here I was supplementing my explanation of plate tectonics... Such detail is blinding, I know.

This rather complicated graph explains demographic transition stages. I won't bore you with the nail-biting, action-packed details.

This is one thing I started over spring break... I realize that it is slightly odd for someone to randomly draw a Cardinal for no apparent reason, but I insist my readers trust me on this one, as he is from something that I've been writing. He's slightly evil, as I hope you can tell. Still working with this one, as I'm hoping the frame-work ring and horrid green background imply, so suggestions would be great if you have any... The program ate two hours of work one day, so I lost a lot, got mad at it, and have only started fixing things again. I'm changing his hair (for the third time...) because I'm still not happy with it, and it's not supposed to look that combed back and long, so. Open for comments, as I said.

My WACOM came with two programs, a painter program and photoshop. Mostly I use the painter, because all the buttons in photoshop and it's general rawr-ness has scared me off, but I have played around in it a bit. So power... It's insane, and I love it, but I'm still learning. This is the first sketch I did in it; nothing detailed. The characters are from the same thing as the angry above fellow, but they're not grumpy or evil sorts. Not that that matters or is pertinent in any way whatsoever.

Also, this might be the best song to walk to class to ever. I might have to make a list of songs perfect for walking about OWU to, and this one is definately on there, rain or shine, and, yes, I was rocking out to this in the pouring rain, because I'm that cool.

'Mallsai' reffers to the many bonsai trees of poor quality available for purchase at malls, superstores, and other non-bonsai-oriented shops

2008-02-23T07:42:00.000-05:00

~*~WARNING~*~
Plant Rant Ahead

It’s probably bad that I already really, really, really want to get back into my garden and have dirt shoved so deep into my nails that I can’t dig it out for weeks, no matter how hard I try. It’s still freezing cold out, and the snow is nowhere near over, but I’ve got new ideas that I’m itching to get started… particularly a few bonsai projects. I know I should be contented with the ~~modest~~ number of plants in my room, which more than doubles what I had last year, but they’re all so lovely, and I want to get several of them into a larger space so that they can take off! But the bonsai things keep nagging at me, because I’m really rather excited about getting started on them. Here at the uni I have a few bonsai-ready plants, including the nearly 20 ginkgos from which I need to choose the one or two that I plan to bonsai (I think I have one picked out, because he’s little, cute, and injured in a way that wouldn’t heal the best for adult growth, but then again I have several that have had lawnmower battles!), but I’m not worrying about that until spring is swinging and I start to put the others into the ground. I also have Othello, my adorable Natal plum, but he’s more than a bit wonky (yes, wonky), so I’m not sure what style to grow him in. I might just go freestyle and forget traditional bonsai rules entirely, but I’d still like him to look cute. I’m also wanting to tend to my ‘accidental’ bonsais, meaning the half-dozen or more silver and red maples I started growing years ago that did not get transferred into the yard like most of my others, but rather got stuck into various pots and flower boxes since I couldn’t bring myself to kill them. So, years of not trimming them and letting them grow in the pots has made some pseudo-bonsais that desperately need some care so that they don’t overcrowd their little space and for general aesthetic improvements.

One of the downs of having a lot of plants at the uni has to be the aridness this winter… it’s been beyond brutal. I’ve been watering some of my smaller pots daily, and it’s sadly ironic since watering is supposed to decrease in the winter. I’m hoping this added stress doesn’t kill any of them, but they seem to be doing alright. I’m looking into building a terrarium now, which would at least solve the watering issues for those plants. On the lookout for a container of the size I’m wanting as of now. Also looking out for: Tamarind seeds or bonsai, and possibly venus fly traps of a healthy disposition. Huge possibly on that, though. After some research, venus fly traps are really picky about their lifestyles, but they’re so darned cute that I may have to give it my best shot either way. And I may have just read the best FAQ section written in the history of man, and it was on carnivorous plants. Links happily available on demand, and only for those with a sense of humor.[edit] I got a desert terrarium for my birthday, so any other terrarium plans are on hold until I free up some space in here![/ edit]

German Word: Plant is Pflanze!

Photos:

The BOMI department had a plant sale, so I *had* to show my support by getting a few new dearies, if only because it's hard to beat $2 for a little pot that has two adorable orange trees in it.

This is Dina; she's a succulent, and I swear she's grown at least an inch since I brought her home.

This fellow's leaves have the most amazing texture.

I'm in the process of rooting one of those brach-like things sticking out of the main body here... so soon I'll have two!

"Every single word emanates from the heart, and is not just uttered by the mouth."

2008-01-29T19:42:00.000-05:00

And yet again an oddly warm spell crosses Ohio, leaving many with dreams of spring as it tempts with its odd January warmth… All day today has felt like early spring, and even the damp and slightly chilly breeze couldn’t ruin the warmer temperatures, but after days in the single digits, I don’t see how they ever could entertain thoughts of doing so anyway.
Week three, and the quizzes have already begun. Ah, to be back into the grind again! At least the geology one was fun, as I had the chance to do the utra-professional student action of doodling a sea monster next to one of the questions. But, then again, I had extra time, and the question did have a lighthearted intention about it, so I think my cute, angry giant squid-like monster at least has some justification, if only a little. Next I get to look forward to a geography quiz, but that’s Thursday, so no need to stress tonight!

Tomorrow I get to sit about wondering if I’ll tutor anyone again, but I’m also to find out if my hours need modified… Two students in one of the mid-level courses are interested in having tutoring available but are unable to come during my current times, so I may have to shift things about, and of course right after I got used to the time! But I kid; it’s no big deal, really. The only bother is that I’ve enjoyed being able to wait for the lunch rather than trying to shove myself into the mass of fifty people trying to buy lunch where only about 15 can do so comfortably… So if I move things up too much, I shall have to locate a helm and hope for the best.

German Word: Stars are Sterne and the clear skies of late have offered a slendid view of them, and even Orion was cool enough to appear!

Pictures!
Still searching for interesting angles to take shots of University Hall at; I love the tower, but it’s always the star.

Welcome to Ohio Wesleyan, where buildings sometimes have random hallways with murals on them.

We talked about cool old maps like the on e below during cultural geography. Isn’t that exciting?

Maybe dualism like we discussed during philosophy. This picture is right out of our book!

Aristotle, who considered himself a geographer and not a philosopher, tutored Alexander the Great

2008-01-23T19:42:00.000-05:00

Second week in, and the first official week as far as I’m concerned, particularly since my schedule has changed!! Tai chi was cancelled (again…unfortunately…and I still miss it), so instead of doing that, I’m using the timeslot for my German tutoring. (Did I mention that I’m going to be tutoring German for the Modern Foreign Language Department yet…? I’ve a terrible memory for these things, and it was unofficial for a while, but I am! Not a ton of hours, not a ton of pay, but just enough to have something on the side, and I get to tutor German!! Which is a lot of fun! Sadly my services have not yet been called upon, but classes haven’t been back very long yet.)

Besides this excitement, I’m getting close to my textbooks, as they finally arrived!! So, a week in, I now get to play reading catch-up! It’s a fun game, particularly when one has two paid hours to play it during when no one shows up to ask how to say ‘to dance’ in past tense. I get easily distracted, however, as the Japanese tutors have already had several customers, and I must admit to having a liking for the language, so I start paying attention to that and talking with them a bit rather than reading up on whatever I happen to have on hand. I’ve thought of maybe taking Japanese here, but I’d really like to learn Finnish. (Yes, I am that random. No, I’m not going to explain why right now.)

…And we still haven’t gotten to the archery range. Which is frankly depressing. Particularly since our impressive group of eight was turned sadly away when Chuck revealed that his indoor system had a virus and was awaiting a medic via mail. Ah, soon, one hopes, soon….

German Word:

Pictures!!
Hear the roar of Grey Chapel! …or maybe not.

Snow clinging to campus, desperate to remain in control this winter!

I originally was trying to catch some of the steam that was coming from our heating system in a pic with these trees, but the wind foiled me, and thusly my attempts at being ‘artsy’ failed more miserably than usual.

I’m probably very weird for being obsessed with this door and wanting someone to dress up as Martin Luther and nail his 95 Theses to the door… If only because it doesn’t really even look a lot like a church, and that’s just a weird thought in general, but yeah. It’s still a cool building.

If you have no idea who Patrick O'Hearn is, I suggest you find out at http://www.patrickohearn.com/index.htm

2008-01-15T07:42:00.000-05:00

Ah, finally back on campus after a long winter’s break. A new semester of (hopefully) exciting classes has just begun! Rather tired, I peck at these keys today after a nice, moderately standard first Monday back. Arrive at class, role call, syllabi; all that. Dr. Flynn gave the morning a lively splash of amusement, particularly when he got even further off task by following up on his uestion of “Goethe or Milton?” for me; he asked everyone something and followed it up a bit until we were out of time, but my response and reasoning seemed to interest him for whatever reason. An hour of great humor later, and I was off to investigate my mailbox, food, and my book situation. For any reader who has had the blessed naiveté of worrying over buying more than one twenty dollar book at the local bookstore at a time, avoid university bookstore bookshelves for the sake of coronary and wallet health… Buying books online is the way to go when one can get the same book for half of the uni’s best price, and often in better condition. This is not to attack the university bookstore, per se, but the prices can be scary, and unfortunately a trend all universities seem to take in stride. But, when it’s unavoidable because one needs a book to do reading that week, well, it’s nice to have a place nearby that has it in stock.

Another welcome back to campus came in the form of puffy white snowflakes that drifted about lazily today, or, in my experience anyway, shot right into the eye with stinging speed and accuracy while its friends grab onto the coat to laugh and look on. It was, even with all the wind whirling it about, quite exquisite, particularly accompanied by my newest CD. I, like not a few others, joined the iPod and MP3 craze a year ago when I got an iPod Nano, and have sensed delighted in its wonders, carrying hundreds of my favourite songs with me on the way to and from class, having, essentially, a personal soundtrack for each scene of the day, just like in the movies, except here one can change the soundtrack when it starts to try and steal the spotlight too much. Today I finally got hold of my copy of Glaciation, Patrick O’Hearn’s newest album. Patrick who? Yes, I listen to fairly obscure stuff. Stuff most encounter in elevators on in the background of films, or automatically associate with a collection of music to meditate or do yoga to. Real, quality new age music does not necessarily associate itself with any of this (I cannot deny that some of it does; Patrick has done a couple of soundtracks, and his music is truly moving stuff!), and I could go on, but listening to an album inspired by ice whilst walking about our snowy campus was rather satisfying and slightly ironic.

German Word: So I've been using my little German phrase calendar thing, and it's lacking the exciting phrases thus far. Well, in my opinion, anyway. And some of the pronunciation guidelines look iffy, but that's another matter entirely. And let's be random this week. How does one say 'pope' in German? Der Papst, of course!

Pictures!

I sincerely hope this looks like over a hundred dollars in text books, because just these two set me back that much… Although that’s pocket change next to most of the science department book pricetags…

This is Byron surveying the cold weather and wishing he could sit by our pond again, but I feared losing him to the winter cold, so my bay leaf tree came to the uni instead.

A blizzard?!

Not really.

Zen Monks Composed Jisei, or Death Poems, According to Ancient Tradition, Often Using Forms Such as the Haiku, Waka, and Kanshi

2008-01-07T19:42:00.000-05:00

It’s January in Ohio, and it’s 64 degrees outside. That’s insanely unnatural. Insanely. It’s hard to believe that just a few days ago I wandered in a yard filled with several inches of snow and slush where now only mud and a few wanton puddles remain. I poked about my garden for a bit, still unsettled by the weather on the whole, worrying about how it may affect the welfare of my plants, tossing out a few tea dregs for fertilizer, and was not a little surprised to hear a few noises of spring.

I recently received a few book recommendations from Herr Kremling, and I’m very happy with the one that I brought home this weekend thus far. Zen in the Art of Archery is a fascinating read thus far, in which Eugen Herrigel goes out to explain more clearly the religion of Zen Buddhism, which, for many westerners, is nigh impossible if not impossible itself to understand clearly at all. Herrigel explains this, and how many of the phrases often used to try and describe Zen leave many highly confused, and he even explains how hard it was to find a master to study archery under due to previous experiences the masters had had with western students. I’m eager to finish, but I don’t want to rush through it, so I’m trying to savor it this week, particularly since I probably won’t be able to get to the archery range this week myself.

German Word: Now that I have a desk calendar filled with random German phrases, I can cheat a little in this section and just grabble a phrase from there every now and again. Unexpected uses for holiday gifts always bring added cheer, I suppose. Unfortunately I believe that I’ve already gone over the phrase it shows for today (the irony…), es schneit / it’s snowing, so I’m still on creative duty on this end of things. I don’t believe that I’ve given the translation of my favourite beverage, tea, which is simply Tee pronounced “tay”. Kaffee (koff-ay) seems to be more the drink of choice on campus, but a lot of Americans overall prefer coffee anyway.

Pictures!
My copy of Zen in the Art of Archery just hanging out, waiting for me to come back and curl up with a nice cup of tea, possibly green.

The rolodexes that I filled for my father…. They took forever seriously hours…. There were nearly 1000 business cards that I had to sort, alphabetize, staple to their little cards, and cram in there… But now they’re done and snazzy!

Danilo enjoying the odd weather… at least the standard non-summer Ohio sky looks normal.

The lack of snow and fact that I’m wearing a light hoodie rather than my heavy coat create an unsettling combo. The grass looks happy, though.

The name Alaric is apparently derived either from the Gothic Alareiks or from Germanic elements, ultimately meaning "noble ruler"

2007-12-26T19:42:00.000-05:00

The hustle and bustle of the holiday season is finally winding down a bit before it climaxes yet again in the excitement of New Year’s Eve. Hopefully everyone had a good time, gaining some nice things and memories without the holiday pounds hitching a ride on cookies and pies and such. I know that I got not a few cool things and memories this past week; I’ve been on the run nearly every day since I got home from exam week! Saturday I was in Hocking Hills for celebrating with one side of the family, Sunday over at a family friend’s, Monday I opted out of a trip to Amish Country for a short reprieve, Tuesday was pure chaos, and today I went to the archery range with my father to test out my new bow before heading to an outstanding sushi lunch.
I was not at all expecting to find a new bow in my hands this season, but upon spotting the suspiciously shaped box, I had to entertain hopes, and they paid off in the form of a late sixties, early seventies Kodiak Bear recurve bow. He’s lovely and gorgeous, and he even has a special bowstring that Chuck kindly made custom to match him as a gift! (Didn’t I tell you he was great? Even though the bow’s been fired before, it’s rather touching to be the first to fire the first arrow off of a string made by such a man.) I’m also getting new arrows to go with him, but Chuck had to order the correct sort of shafts, so I’ll be getting those within the next couple of weeks.
In other news, I now have a delicate glass teapot that is excellent for showing off flowering teas. Flowering teas are something best experienced in person, but these teas come packed in tight little balls that open up and bloom not unlike an exotic flower before the eyes of anyone with a glass and boiling water. My grandmother was rather excited at having found a glass pot perfect for this, so I’ll definitely have to have her over again this week to test it out again and let her get some use out of the teacup I found for her in one of the Delaware antique malls.

German Word: Es ist mir kalt! I’m cold! Seriously. But it’s my fault for wearing wooden sandals around the house without socks when I know how cold it gets in here. Just remember never to say Ich bin kalt, which would be the direct translation of “I am cold” to avoid an awkward faux pas. If your house is hot, unlike mine(warm, perhaps, if I commandeer the cat, much to his displeasure), you could say warm(pronounced ‘varm’) instead, unless, of course, you’re just fine and dandy, in which case you could just casually say mir ist gut.

Photos!
Making tea with my new teapot. That questionable-looking, dark ball thing is actually some of my blooming tea stuff before the blooming action.

Just add some boiling water and….

This one is called faerie blossom or some such nonsense, but it’s gorgeous. The other one I tried out took about a minute to open, but this one rocketed out, shooting up that streamer of white flowers. Very pretty in person!

Last but certainly far from the least, Alaric Frederick, my new bow! He’s a bit tall to easily get in a photo easily by himself, but perhaps next time I go shooting I can get some shots of us together.

The traditional day for St. Nick's Day is the night of Dec. 5, when he'd drop gifts in children's shoes or leave coal. Also check out Krampus.

2007-12-06T19:42:00.000-05:00

Apologies for the total lack of updates for so long! Things got a bit crazy before Thanksgiving break, and having multiple exams and papers (sometimes on the same day) make things ever so fun and exciting, particularly when one becomes ill at the start of the week. Still enjoying coughing spats from that on occasion. Luckily I have plenty of work in our last two weeks to keep me company through the joy of pseudo-illness, which is never fun all alone.
In my English course we’ve been working with Milton’s Paradise Lost, which I adore, and might even beat Spenser’s Faerie Queene, which I had not a little fun reading. It’s always heartening to know that not all of the literature one is required to read for classes isn’t as dreary and tedious as it often may seem! Things in-class are shifting to finishing PL off and looking towards review for our exam and also our large, semester-long projects. We’re each compiling our own poetry anthology with a variety of texts based on a theme of our own choosing, which has been an interesting experience, as we must ‘get off the tour bus’ as Dr. Prindle puts it. This involves us poking about online and in books other than the text we’re using in class to find lesser-known texts that will really shine. I’m working an angle with weaponry and swords (surprise, surprise), and I’m so far using familiar things like Hamlet all the way to obscure things and sword manuals one would rarely commonly read anywhere outside of interest groups.
Archery has been going very well as well; we’ve been going just about weekly, with only a few exceptions. A few new people from the dozen or so that responded with interest have gotten to go with us, which is always a lot of fun, if only to see what interesting ways with which they attempt to nock their arrows. (One would be surprised, trust me.) Chuck, the proprietor, has unofficially adopted us and is beyond amazing when it comes to helping us out. It is beyond words how amazing he is. If you have any bow, gun, or hunting needs, go see him at Delaware Sports Center on 36/37.

German Word: Kaese is cheese. What? Exactly.

Pictures!
Bartok, a resident King of Cute on campus. He belongs to someone in a SLU, I think, but no feeding him or letting him in the dorms! Forbidden!!

Yes, my aloe has grown unspeakably huge. I’ve had him for a year, and I think he’s tripled or more in size.

A rainy day on campus… it was so lovely out! I love walking about campus in the rain; it’s gorgeous. Now it’s covered in snow and slush and ice and more slush. Not as fun as the rain.

Straight out the glass roof of Ham Will… it was such a nice day. =)

The word 'autumn' is derived from the French word "automne", and came into common use in the 16th century

2007-10-22T19:42:00.000-05:00

Last Thursday I presented myself with the usual college question: do I procrastinate some more by finally updating my blog, or do I grab that book and finish studying for my exam tomorrow? The exam won out, as it rightly should, and there was much rejoicing. Papers and exams seem to be popping up all over the place for a lot of people I know; I have a five page paper due Wednesday myself! I would say that I at least have tai chi to look forward to on Wednesday, but, alas, I do not. No, it has not been canceled for the day for one of eighty reasons; it has been canceled for this module entirely. And I assure you that I despaired not a little upon opening the email that informed me of this, hoping that it was somehow a mistake, but we didn’t even have class today, so I am now sure of its demise. I refuse to loose heart entirely; I shall continue my tai chi studies outside of our classroom, and perhaps contrive a method of getting to one of Master Nathan’s classes in Columbus.
In other news, it’s finally acting and looking more like fall around campus! The trees are look gorgeous as they take on their bright fall colours, littering every sidewalk and patch of ground that they can. I took a few pictures during the time that I usually reserved for calming down right before tai chi, but now shall be the time that is merely time again now. I have a few of those shots below, as well as a few of campus I took later on.

German Word: If one recalls, I have before mentioned that summer is sommer. Fall/autumn is Herbst (hairbst)!

Pictures!

The First Longbows were Difficult to Master, Namely Due to their Estimated Drawforce of 80-200 lbf

2007-10-10T19:42:00.000-05:00

Much excitement this week!! And more to come, too, as mid-semester break looms at the end of the week! Papers must be written, tests taken, and all semblance and sanity lost as it is thrown haphazardly to the winds!!
MARRCA is definitely keeping to its word of branching out this year, and I’m more than proud to announce that the bud that was once the idea of doing archery is now developing very nicely!! With not a little help from Sam, our extremely talented smithy, and her roommate Lindsay, I have assisted in this cultivation! We’re now aiming for having at least one practice a week since we located a range that is not far off; the gentleman running it (the amusing Chuck of an earlier entry, for any avid readers that may or may not exist!) has been outstandingly helpful… his digital range is amazing, but I’m still torn between feeling like an idiot and awesome when Chuck’s various customers walk by, notice a bunch of girls actually doing archery, and stop to watch for a bit. (At least Chuck offers advice, tips, or tells one something random when he’s watching rather than chuckling and moving on!) We shot for over an hour (I think, as I am awful with time), and there was never a low point, not even when the board kept falling asleep while we were taking aim.
On Saturday the MARRCA fun continued! We took our annual trip down to the Ohio Renaissance Festival!! This is always a blast, as many club members suit up in roughly period garb and carry one of the wasters around, causing not a few of the vendors and workers to drool with envy! The full tale of the adventure is long, filled with silliness, and fraught with battles between savings accounts and high priced boots, shinies, and other things of immeasurable prettiness… I would be happy to recount more of it for those interested, but I unfortunately must cut it short for now, since I really should be looking into writing my paper on Tai Chi Chuan Yang style and getting my reading for Friday done since I’m booked Thursday night with archery, Stammtisch, and what will prove an outstanding National Colloquium film. (Do the Right Thing is the film, and I’m looking forward to it, if one could not note!!)

German Word: This edition’s German word is actually a phrase! Ich weiss nicht (ish vice nisht) simply means ‘I don’t know.’ Because, honestly, ich weiss nicht.

Pictures! Some shots of us at the archery range and at the Renaissance Festival! Both were ten times more fun than they appear.

Yay group shot-ish! Our president is the bold fellow in the kilt. =)

Last year’s president, Susan, joined us as part of an after-graduation visit!

MARRCA is a very serious club. We don’t laugh. Ever.

He may look all innocent in this picture, but this knight does an excellent King Arthur impression when followed by a Patsy clacking together coconuts found in England. African or European…? You make the call.

We may or may not have been contemplating how to distract the knights so that we could ‘borrow’ some armor.

And seeing as how MARRCA is such a serious club, it should come as no surprise that we would never be found testing out the possible uses and durability of padded combat items originally intended for small youths.

No, we would never be caught doing such a thing. Unthinkable.

Gunther von Hagens Performed his First Autopsy at Age Seventeen

2007-09-25T19:42:00.000-05:00

I have noticed a slightly unsettling pattern with myself. I look forward to the end of each week, thinking happily of my days off and how next week will somehow be better, that next week I’ll have just enough time to breath easy so that I can catch up with my sleep and sanity, but then ‘next week’ never seems to get here… Possibly a space-time paradox not uncommon for college life…. Thank goodness I have plenty during the week that does not involve my nose being buried in Shakespeare, Goethe, and Microsoft Word documents. There is always MARRCA, which received a recent spotlight in the OWU school newspaper, The Transcript. It’s great to have some press, even if we were misquoted a bit and come off as not a little cheesy, but press is press, mostly. Tai Chi has also been amazing… I’m clinging to it, and admit that I probably study more for it than any other class. (Granted it’s hard to beat a class that you can study for by just standing a certain way… so awesome!)
More importantly, I was given an unforgettable chance last Wednesday to view a famed exhibit that has stopped by Columbus- Gunther von Hagen’s Koerperwelten (“body worlds,” or the title it has been given for its American tour, Bodies)! This exhibit has gained much press, both for and against it, but I must say that one needs to experience it before running with the critics one way or another. Bodies, for those who do not know, is an extraordinary display of the human body, for it takes actually human bodies that have gone through von Hagen’s unique plastination process, whereby the body’s fluids are all removed and replaced with silicon. Sounds a bit disgusting, a bit odd, a bit out-there the first time, perhaps, but when one sees these gracefully posed and poised forms, a whole new level of appreciation opens up. Walking amongst the displays, I smiled to myself as I watched almost every guest bending and moving their limbs as they studied the corresponding ones in the cases; bending their wrists, feeling at their carpals and tendons; it was moving how much each of them must have been taking from seeing what lies within them on display. The Bodies exhibition in Columbus has 21 bodies and over 200 organs on display, all of which are humbling and inspiring all at once… I highly suggest giving it a visit, or, if nothing else, google it for a bit… photography was not allowed within, so I have no photos of my own from inside, but I did get a couple shots of the line as we left… amazing. It’s very good to see so many people coming out to such an event as this…

~*~ Special THANK YOU and shout out to Dr. Kremling for being awesome, and also for coming up with the idea to go to Bodies and following through with it fantastically. I honestly cannot thank you enough for this opportunity. ~*~

German Word: Also super-secretly embedded above, the original German title of Bodies is Koerperwelten, literally translating as Body Worlds.

Pictures!

Gunther van Hagens, creator of the Body Worlds exhibition

Body „slices“ similar to those one will find in the last section of the show at Easton. Don’t miss the chance to touch a real brain and liver in this area as well!!

The room filled with veins and arteries is probably my personal favourite… Dyed so beautifully and presented so well... It is hard to see how one could not call this art after seeing this room, let alone the rest of the displays.

Watch the amazing line wind around the building…

The Chance of Senior Citizens Falling Can be Reduced by 47.5% with just Fifteen Weeks of Training

2007-09-12T19:42:00.000-05:00

A few weeks in, now, and my first exam looms like an adorably pouting storm cloud just above the horizon. It’s in botany, so that shall be exciting. The Friday after that I have several ‘plant spottings’ due for botany as well, but I must admit to hanging my head in dorkiness when Professor Wolverton said that most American’s don’t really take in the plants around them. I go in the other extreme, delighting in seeing how many oak trees I can spot, how many ginkgos I can get to grow in my room, and examining whatever tree or other plant I find interesting along the sidewalk or in the park during sword club. (I do not, however, suggest pausing to see how many seeds are left in a dropped pine cone during a roundel fight unless one is quite experienced in it; it often causes confusion.) Botany, however, though we may seem a perfect match, is not my favourite class this semester. And no, not even the class pertaining to my major gets that honour; tai chi has taken the proverbial cake and run with it like there’s no tomorrow. It’s an amazing class. Absolutely amazing. It’s not for everyone, since one has to have a certain type of patience for it, but it’s so insanely rewarding, and it’s great to have a class based on personal growth, not test grades or other performance things. Just show up, give it your best for an hour, and come out feeling great. I practice the form we’re learning nearly every day, and I still haven’t tired of it, though I wish I knew more.
The first Stammtisch of the year was last Thursday, and it was quite enjoyable. Dr. Kremling rejoined us after his sabbatical, and a few new faces also showed up. The new Smith hall provided the setting, and things were a bit busy, but this did not hinder our conversations, and things even got lively when I reported on the controversial Bodies show that is currently in Easton. Dr. Kremling and I had had a fabulous catching-up chat over some coffee the Sunday before, and the topic of this show came up, and we considered the possibility of seeing this exhibit before it leaves the area as a German fieldtrip, seeing as how the creator of it is German. Very interesting, and I definitely want to see it, but first we need to test the waters on who would be interested in going in the first place!

German Word: Schlafen. A very important verb to any college student! It means ‘to sleep!’

Pictures! One day before tai chi I had a half an hour or so, so I wandered about campus feeling very calm and artsy, as I had just finished going through the form. (Sort of like studying just before class, I guess.)

Slocum; this is a companion piece to the winter shot I got last year. I like the lighting, though the camera barely does it any justice.

Just a shot of a walkway in front of the academic area. I saw some people studying and felt it very ‘college.’

A less traditional picture of University hall… most people like to focus on the wonderfully dramatic tower, but it’s pretty from many angles. One can spot the German room and Herr Kremling’s office from there!

I love the trees in this one.

I adore this tree. Adore it. It has to be one of my favourites on campus, but I probably have fifty of those.

The sulfur spring!! I honestly don’t think the university talks this random little piece of scenery up enough, so I try to tell everyone I meet. Very important. Elliot hall, one of our academic buildings, was originally an inn people stayed at during their visits to what they believed to be the miraculous healing water that just happened to smell like eggs. Elliot used to be where University Hall now sits, but was waddled over and to the side, where it now resides amongst some trees and lilac bushes.

I offer no explanation beyond the fact that I love this thing.

The Term ‘Halberd’ Probably Originates From the German Halm (staff) and Barte (axe)

2007-09-03T07:42:00.000-05:00

The insanity of the whirlwind first week is complete, and now for week two!! My intention was to get a blog up after day one, but then several things came up, bowed stiffly, and demanded that I promptly deal with them before doing anything else, including sleep. One of these pressing, ever-important matters was getting MARRCA organized for its first meeting of the year and the club fair that took place on Wednesday. The public relations officer of the club, Michele, met with me a few times, and we brainstormed all sorts of ideas that we went over with the entirety of the executive base during the roughly hour-long meeting executive meeting on Tuesday. Plenty of changes this year!! One of the biggest changes is in our meeting days, which are now Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays for any and all interested, at five, still at the gazebo in the park next to the fire station across from the SLUs! Other than that, we’re planning to try and branch out this year, hopefully getting into polearms and more hand-to-hand, but we’re also thinking of looking into sword and shield combinations, though that was set aside in the past. Mostly we thought about what to do once we’d wrangled in some willing new followers, and we have managed to interest a few, so hopefully we can implement some of these ideas. I still have some secretarial duties to finish up, including sending out not a few emails. O the insanity of it all…
Class wise things are no less crazy… I still haven’t quite burnt the schedule into my brain so that I may wander on autopilot while the rest of the mind wanders amongst its many and favourite trains of thought. It’s hard to say which class I like the most, but I most definitely most excited about Tai Chi. We’ve only met for practice twice, but I’m totally in love with this slow-moving martial art that teaches one how to use body more efficiently, to give it a short and very lacking definition. I’ve been doing it daily, and it instantly calms and focuses me, which is very hard for me to do sometimes. (Read: extremely hard to do a lot of the time due to the eighty things that I want to and should be thinking about instead.) Botany looks to be, well, botany, and if one is a foliage fan such as I, that’s a very good thing. Our first lab is this Tuesday, and I cannot wait!! My English Renaissance course had me a bit worried at first as nearly every introduced themselves as upperclassmen, most majoring or at least minoring in English. This in itself is really nothing to worry about; all of my German courses have been with almost purely seniors and juniors, and there is absolutely nothing to fear of them. Honestly. A lot of them are very nice and helpful, and once you get past those awkward first-day introductions, what class one is in fades to nothingness, but it always bothers me despite knowing this, mostly because I enjoy being neurotic about everything. The reading load is also intimidating, but Utopia, our first read, was not bad at all, and discussion thus far has been interesting. I look forward to our full-book discussion today in, as Dr. Prindle aptly puts it, “the cool, technology-friendly environment of Beeghly Library.” (Meeting there is nice, particularly when it’s hot out and the normal meeting room is brutally un-air conditioned… We’ll be seeing clips to go along with the lesson, so it’s not as if we’re there solely to burgle AC, though I think that would be cool in and of itself as well.) And lastly I come to German. Again I have Herr Wolber, we’re working with Goethe, and reading Die Leiden des joungen Werther. Great review, but now for the new stuff. We’ve started by reading some of Goethe’s poems in their German glory, and we’ve already hit on two that I’ve done more than once already. Gefunden has never really been on my list of favourite German poems, and the sappy interpretation my high school German teacher suggested for it only exacerbated its low rank. We also interpreted Erlkoenig, which I quite enjoy, and getting to hear a different interpretation made it all the better. And somehow, due to the original work’s wording compared with the translation provided by Herr Wolber, a brief comment about the elf king and a wedding dress came up, which I cannot lie about causing not a few grins as I did a quick sketch involving the version of the king I used in my poster design in a highschool project involving the poem and a wedding dress. Where your imagination takes this, I leave to you.

German Word: Gefunden (geh-fun-den) means ‘Found’ and Erlkoenig, though having no true meaning itself, is often translated as ‘elf king’ or ‘erl king.’

Pictures!

Die Leiden des joungen Werther was So Popular that it Changed the Very Fashion of the Time and was Banned for Causing So Many Copycat Suicides

2007-08-28T07:42:00.000-05:00

I have arrived at campus! Huzzah! It’s really odd to walk about, seeing familiar faces, and think to yourself about how it feels like just yesterday you were here… I still think it odd that it was months ago that I relinquished my mailroom key and hopped into Chevelle to start my summer in earnest, but I’m back again, and I couldn’t be happier. Saturday went fairly well, and, despite some refreshing rain, I moved in without incident. I’m still getting used to the new set up, though; Welch and Thomson are set up quite differently from one another!! The only difficultly that I am having, however, is the same as last year; my computer is having trouble hooking up to the OWU network. Thusly, I write this entry offline and plan to post it as soon as I have the interweb with which to do so!
Today (Sunday) has been a joy, wandering about and seeing how many of my friends I can locate and marvel at their summers and changes. I had ample time to tour about the academic side of campus locating the rooms I’ll be traveling to this week as best as is possible with half of the doors locked, and even got to hear a few minutes of wonderful organ music in Grey Chapel! I also made a trip to the bookstore, which was shockingly barren. I only purchased one book, but since the funds that one can use in the bookstore had yet to transfer to my card, I could not take advantage of the lack of lines and buy all of them. My one purchase, however, caused me to shamelessly titter with delight as I nigh ran to the register; my only German book for the semester was precisely the one I had been hoping to read: Die Leiden des joungen Werther!! (The Sorrows of Young Werther) I will admit to a slight twinge of disappointment upon seeing that it is a dual-language for of the novel, presenting the German on the left and the English on the right, but despite this convenience and time-saver, I would almost prefer a pure German version, if only for the challenge. But, if the introduction is any indicator, this version is quite full, including even the introduction and a special poem that Goethe later added. I may start reading it tonight since I have no other pressing work, and it does look interesting.

German Word: As far as German verbs that any student should be familiar with, lesen is very important, and almost depressingly so for the college student. Lesen means ‘to read,’ which takes up more than a few hours of a day, particularly when one has been gifted with a generous professor.

Pictures! Yay new Welch room madness! The plant is Natalie, my rosemary bush that I’ve turned into a bonsai tree! And, yes, my action figures definitely need to have some more picture accompaniment, and I’m working on it. And no one seems to ever make their bed very often at all, if ever. And I don’t think anyone really cares… hrm….

The Legendary Swordmaster Miyamoto Musashi Completed his Master Work on Kendo( the Way of the Sword) Only Days Before Dying

2007-08-24T19:42:00.000-05:00

Next Monday classes start up once again! I’m super excited with an exhilarating dash of stress thrown in for good measure. I’m to move in this Saturday, but this year without the joy of climbing up to the third floor of Thomson to my tower-like domain; this year I’ll just be moseying in down the hall of Welch and making a turn. I’m crossing my fingers for good window placement, lest my dear plants not get the sun they love so! I do get to re-experience the going into a room without knowing a roommate at all, but this time I get to meet three new people instead of just one. (Hopefully none of us end up strangling one another over something as vital as having a welcome mat or not.)
Before I get too absorbed in contemplating my new rooming situation, I need to finish (read: start) packing. Last year I had no clue what I would end up wanting about, and I think that I have a better idea this time around, or so I believe, and general question marks remain, particularly on ever important details such as whether or not to bring both wooden swords the very first day. (I am, by the way, far too excited about MARRCA, a.k.a. ‘sword club,’ starting up again. If you’re at all interested, sign up to get an e-mail and come to our first practice once we get that worked out, or at least stop by the table we’ll have on the J-walk during the club fair!) But I digress! Packing! Last year I was so busy sorting out how to best cram my several-inch thick German dictionary in amongst my rolled t-shirts, CDs, and ramen noodles that I nearly forgot to toss in a few notebooks for class. (Thankfully if one is indeed far too excited about getting to the dorm to concern one’s self with thoughts of the schooling attached to this, the bookstore has a plethora of school goods both useful and ridiculous to remedy this.) This time around I’m just hoping that I don’t leave behind something that I intended to bring along. (As MARRCA secretary I get to watch over a few notebooks, which I purposely placed in clear sight so as to not forget, though I wouldn’t put it past my ADD-prone brain to let that slip.)
I’ve also been working on finishing up the pair of traditional Japanese pants that I timidly started a few weeks ago with help from my seamstress aunt. (I was terrified, you see, of messing up my fabric since the ‘pattern’ comes with no real pattern for making them; one has to measure and re-measure and neurotically worry about every wee detail.) I finally whipped them out in roughly two days, with liberal time for tea and chatting with my oma shoved in. I need to make a few final adjustments before wearing my hakama out, but they look lovely if I do say so myself. (I miss being able to lug out my sewing machine on occasion at the Uni, though I do know of a few people that bring theirs along, and, if I have the room this year, I may as well… I think I’m beginning to prefer the hand-sewn bits more, though, as they can be quite meditative, and sewing one’s own finger onto the fabric more than once is somehow symbolic despite its randomness and seeming idiocy; I like to connect with my art.)

German Word: I have often simply used the term ‘Uni’ in place of ‘university’ in my blog, or at least I think I have. (Perhaps not!) But this is an oft confusing thing when spoken, because I have confused not a few with statements about the ‘oo-nee’. In Deutschland one can shorten the term Universitaet (you-ne-ver-sea-tate) to simply Uni (as aforementioned, ‘oo-nee’).

Pictures! Here are a couple more pics from my pond; I almost fell in taking these, but then again I have next to no balance. Also a shot of my stuff once I finally got packed, and my hakama pants! Pleats may be the death of me…

‘I’m Into Something Good,’ the Herman’s Hermits Debut Single, Made Peter Noone the Youngest UK Male Vocalist to Reach a No. 1 Spot

2007-08-13T19:42:00.000-05:00

I am, probably ironically, one of a handful of college students that has never really attended any concerts, and granted one could still have a heavy argument against my claiming the relatively modest concert I just attended not being a ‘concert’ at all, really. It is the first that I’ve been to where I’ve actually heard of the band beforehand, and I’ve been rather excited in an extraordinarily dorky fashion that involved a lot of bobbing about to ‘I’m Henry the VIII, I Am!’ Herman’s Hermits indeed played a concert, outdoors, on a stage that shook under the vehement beatings of drum and high-kicking guitarist, and I must admit to having enjoyed it quite a lot. I’m not exactly up-to-date on what music stars of today are causing teens to have minor heart attacks, but I do know that Peter Noone, lead singer for the Hermits, caused more than a few coronary failures in his own teens, and still seems to have more than a few rabid fans even as he’s pushing into his sixties. (Side Note: Proof of still-rabid fans can be found in the woman from England that spent most of the concert yelling at Peter, trying to sing, causing him to give her a water bottle to serve as a microphone in hopes of hushing her up, and in the fellow standing near me who kept insisting the drummer throw him a stick every few minutes, even after being told that he just had to wait a minute.)

Concerts of varying sizes drift in and out of the OWU campus, but I’m rather sure none of them have involved a long sing-a-long spelling of H-E-N-R-Y while an aged rock star cheers you on, insisting that it’s the best rendition of the song he’s heard in Mt. Vernon, Ohio, though it has been done better near there, and I'm not sure how well that would go over with the college crowd nowadays anyway. But Mr. Noone did a brilliant job of keeping his concert engaging and amusing, cracking jokes on everything from the Columbus airport to the fact that one’s hindquarters creep up an inch a year once one reaches a certain age, which makes accessing one’s wallet only a matter of reaching to the shoulder. Brilliant overall, and I still love how he insisted that the group I attend the concert with not clap before he got on stage, citing that they ‘might be rubbish,’ but if that was rubbish, I honestly can’t wait to see a genuine concert.

German Word: Some music words auf Deutsch can be tricky, but just add a dash of accent and change of spelling in a few cases, and you’re gold. Musik is fairly self explanatory; just give a mild moo when saying the ‘mu’ bit. Konzert is just about as clear, with only two letters changing up from the English.

Pictures! Taking decent pictures at a concert is tricky business, particularly when one’s camera gets very grumpy with bad lighting, people moving at all, and with distance between the camera and its subject exceeding about four feet.

So here's the stage from behind.

The band rocking out once Peter removed his jacket, grinning about how not many British rock stars his age could do a concert without a jacket on the whole time due to fat. And, no, that's not fat; that's his butt.

I managed to catch this high-kick in action! That shiny line thing near his head is his foot!

Peter Noone and I just as he finished off signing an old "Hold On!" album for me. Super nice fellow in person; he loves to joke.

Genghis Khan was the First to Use Bows in Combat, Though Bows are a Chinese Invention, Not Mongolian

2007-08-06T19:42:00.000-05:00

Dorm rooms can be exceedingly lonely places when one’s roommate is out doing whatever it is that one’s roommate does when not in the room, and though plants help fill this quiet void, they’re not very talkative and don’t crawl about the floor very quickly, so a void of sorts remains. How to fill it? Thankfully OWU allows one to keep the small pets, such as rodents and fish, in dorm rooms! Intending to add a little moving creature to my mobile jungle of plants, I recently purchased a wee hermit crab named Gordon! He’s rather clumsy, so I firmly believe that he was intended for me. (We both seem to fall down a lot, so maybe we can work on our balance together with tai chi in those spare moments…) He’s adorable in my eyes, and I cannot wait to get him some new shells to paint up and make him trendy! (Granted that my idea of ‘trendy’ was last popular over a century ago…)
I also recently got a new bow string for my lemonwood longbow! I love traditional archery, no matter how often my arrows go whizzing past the haystack that I use as a target, and getting a few new arrows and a string to replace the broken one makes my week. The shop I had to go to is located just outside of Delaware, and Chuck, the rather animated proprietor, knew precisely the sort of supplies I needed. I had tried to acquire a new string elsewhere, and the bow ‘expert’ had the quintessential deer-in-the-headlights look when he saw a traditional bow, timidly muttering that they in fact did not stock anything for such relics. Chuck, however, was only amused that I used a self-bow from the 50’s or 60’s, which he correctly pinned down after seeing the bow for less than thirty seconds. This man breathes fletching; he’s bursting with information and history. Meeting him sparked an idea that I know had been shot down before, but I think I’m going to look into how MARRCA could possibly do maybe one day a week of traditional archery, but I know that this was shot down before, though the exact reasons fail me at this moment. Danger hazards are obvious and giant red flags, but I believe the lack of an expert hurt us as well, but I believe that Mr. Chuck would be more than ecstatic to lend a hand, as anyone who rattles off facts about Genghis Khan and Native American bow-crafting techniques would surely get along with a crazed group proudly reenacting the War of Roses in rondel battles after being briefed on the history of it.

German Word: German is a very cool language in and of itself, but then it has this really nifty habit of taking words and cramming them together to create new ones!! This can be a real time saver on one hand, or create word disastors on the other. For example, take ‘speed’ (Geschwindigkeit) and add it to ‘to cross over or exceed’ (ueberschreiten), and one gets the word for speeding, Geschwindigkeitsueberschreitung! This is super helpful when one doesn’t know a word, but can also create glaringly odd words that scream ‘DINGLISH!!!’ or ring very wrong to a well-tuned ear. I looked briefly in my German dictionary for the term for ‘hermit crab,’ yet found none. My solution? Take the term for hermit and add it to crab, creating Einsiedlerkrabbe! Is it anywhere close to the real term? Probably not. Does it work? Not really. But, if anything, it’s a good icebreaker at the local Stammtisch, and my old associates and I even got our German teacher to question whether or not our entirely fabricated terms were real or not. I’ll be sure to bring those up another day, though.

Pictures! Pet pictures. Adorable crab-creature or hideous thing that gives one the chills down the spine?

Lapsang Souchung is a Chinese Tea Traditionally Dried With The Burning Old Fishing Nets and is Quite Good With Sugared Ginger

2007-08-01T07:42:00.000-05:00

Well, the end of July brought with it the excitement that is the Delaware car show, and I was definitely in attendance. The cars were amazing as usual, and even the intermittent rain that had auto enthusiasts squeegee-ing and whipping down their cars vehemently did not keep them away entirely. I perused the cars, snapping the occasional photo, being sure to capture a few of the entire street to show the entire of Deleware transformed. (A large chunk of Sandusky street and several side streets are all shut down for cars to park and cruise along; it’s a massive car show for the small town, but it is frankly premium.)
I also took the time take a walk about the campus itself, which, unlike the boisterous street of Sandusky, was pristinely quiet and nigh a world of its own. I must admit that I missed the paths and trees and campus not a little despite living so near, and seeing the familiar fire station and park where MARRCA meets was quite enjoyable. (The lack of someone to rondel or practice 8-point with left a disappointing pang, but that will be solved in a few weeks when we meet anew to recruit fresh blood for our battlefields!!)

German Word: When one misses someone or thing, one uses the verb vermissen. For example, to say ‘I miss Delaware’ one would say ‘Ich vermisse Delaware.’

Pictures! The streets of Delaware abuzz with car show action! Even the Corns building donated its front stairs as the main stage for the staff of the show, but University Hall and the rest of campus was as tranquil as ever.

Koi are Considered Lucky in Japan, and Symbolize Love and Harmony

2007-07-27T07:42:00.000-05:00

Although my last entries may imply that all I’ve been up to of late is reading and going to films, this is not quite true. My family (read: my mum) got the idea that we needed a small fish pond complete with little waterfall in our backyard area, so it fell to my father and myself to design and build the thing, which included not a few shovelfuls of clay on ninety-degree days. (That was a joy, let me tell you.) But, at long last, we’ve managed to dig out a kidney, cover it in the necessary plastic, fill it with the necessary waters, coat it in necessary rock, and finally add a water lily and five amazing fish, all of whom I’m naming. We also ended up with a freeloading frog, who is absolutely a delight to watch swimming about and lounging on the lily pads, but my father insisted on naming either him or one of the fish the ever-so eloquent name of ‘Bubba,’ and I relented, not wanting a graceful fantail goldfish to endure such a lovely title.
Recently the Good Guy’s car show rolled through Columbus, filling central Ohio’s roads with classic cars from several decades of old. Though I did not make it down to the official event, my family and a few family friends did go down to enjoy the evening of cruising that occurs on Saturday night. The police were out in full force, but a few of the car hobbyists still could not resist showing off their rides with a few burnouts and screeches from tires, which gained them a quick ticket in addition to the cheers from the people-packed streets.
Car fans and anyone looking for an excuse to come and see Ohio Wesleyan’s beautiful campus should be sure not to miss out on this Saturday, seeing as the annual Delaware car show will be rolling into town, filling campus with cars that I’m sure not a few professors could fondly recall driving in their own college days. I’ll be making the event, and I highly suggest at least a short gawk at the cars, if only to relish the oddity of seeing Grey Chapel sitting solemnly behind cars with names like ‘Sha-Boom’ that fling flames.

German Word: Since we got a pond, it’s important to know what those cute scaly things swimming about in it are! Fisch means fish in the singular and is pronounced the same, but to talk about multiple fish, one says Fische (fish + uh ). If one has a happy little frog, he is a Frosch, which is pronounced as it appears.

Pictures!

The Food Dish Known as Ratatouille Originated in Nice, France

2007-07-26T19:42:00.002-05:00

A few entries back I offered up a humble review of the film Love Actually, but it’s been a while since it hit the theatres, and I would not like at all to imply that the college-goer is bound solely to the films in one’s own and one’s friends’ DVD collections; quite on the contrary! The Strand theatre just off of Sandusky offers the avid film-goer a good variety of the newly released variety in a beautifully restored historic theatre. OWU also uses the theatre to show films for the university, including the three shown for the annual National Colloquium, which, in a very broad manner of speaking, is a class/program the university puts on in which a general theme is selected, and the speakers are invited in to speak on it in addition to a few films pertaining to the matter being shown. Last year’s theme was ‘the citizen scientist,’ and I believe that this coming year’s has to do with cities and urban sprawl, but I am not entirely positive on that.
Speaking of recent films, I have had the excellent opportunity to see two films that are still out in the theatres: Pirates of the Carribean: At World’s End and Ratatouille! The latest addition to the Pirates series delivers an interesting end to the situation set up in Dead Man’s Chest, and even leaves an obvious hint of the next adventure that Jack, Will, Elizabeth, and company have in store. I, however, did not flock to see Johnny Depp as many a fan surely did, but rather cheered for Bill Nighey, the brilliant British screen actor playing the role of Davy Jones. In the previous film Nighey’s character was presented always fully digital, but a human form of the usually octopus-faced, pincer-armed Davy gets a few seconds of a fully human form. Overall a satisfying watch, and despite the blatant fan-service, it still managed to keep attention, and I give a nod of approval for all of the hat-tipping to true pirates of the day. Ratatouille, the latest in the growing pile of highly praised Pixar films, easily lived up to my expectations before deftly surpassing them. My personal favourite of the film is not the cute, fluffy star, but rather the tall, gaunt food critic Anton Ego, a.k.a. “The Grim Eater.” Ego strolled on screen and immediately won my heart with his dour personality and gorgeous animation; he may have the most beautifully stylized and animated fingers and hands that I have ever seen. Funny, inventive, and well executed, Ratatouille is definitely a must-see as far as movies of 2007 go.

German Phase: Das kommt mir Spanisch vor! (mostly pronounced how it looks, but say the ‘v’ in vor like it’s an ‘f’) A simple and useful phrase that is most accurately translated as ‘It’s Greek to me!’ However, when this good old Shakespearean phrase hits the Deutsch, Spanish is the language of choice to show how impossible to understand something is for one!

Pictures! A quick shot of the front of the Rave movie theatre in Polaris, a pic of Anton Ego, a capture of my 87 year-old neighbor trying his hand at archery for the first time on my long bow, and even a view of the Strand’s welcoming board thinggummer!

Ginnie Wade is the Only Documented Civillian Death During the Battle of Gettysburg, Shot by a Stray Bullet While Making Bread

2007-07-26T19:42:00.001-05:00

At the beginning of the summer, I mentioned that I was reading professor Olmstead’s latest book, Coal Black Horse. It’s been a while since I actually finished the novel, but I’ve been wondering how exactly to go about posting a blog entry on such an intense and deep novel without failing utterly in doing it proper justice, and I still believe that I won’t quite get this right, but I feel it important at least to mention either way. Professor Olmstead takes his readers on a journey with Robey, a young man who starts a boy, but, through his experiences on the road and in the chaos and brutality of the American Civil War becomes a man, but it would be a gross understatement to label this novel a coming of age story, because Professor Olmstead has stitched together a tale with a variety of threads, touching on subjects as ranged as religion, women’s experiences, and the truth about what war really is. An intense read overall, filled with gruesome details that often make the skin crawl, but definitely a good one as well. If one loves war novels, deep reads, and particularly if one is interested in studying English at OWU (specifically creative writing in this case, since Omstead is basically chief of that) I would suggest picking up a copy.
I’ve also had time to complete a few of the other books I mentioned, as well as one from my pile of ‘definitely read these as soon as you either find time or remember to, because these are guaranteed to be amazing and three quarters.’ Phillip Pullman’s final installment in his Dark Materials series did not disappoint, but next to my blatant love of Douglas Adams’s The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul, it stands no chance of getting any more pixilated time on this blog. (Apologies, Mr. Pullman, but it’s just a hard act to lead into or to follow- even great books pale next to novels by favourite authors that do not disappoint!) First of all, if one has not heard of Douglas Adams, please stop reading this dribble and take a few moments to at the very least Google him before skipping off to the local book shop or library to procure a copy of any one of his brilliant works. Otherwise, join me in celebrating the sheer brilliance that is Adams. The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul exudes hilarity and cunning in every word, and I found myself hooked even before a check-in desk in London’s Heathrow Airport explodes in what is finally deemed an act of God. “But… what god? And why? What god would be hanging around Terminal Two of Heathrow Airport trying to catch the 15:37 flight to Oslo?” (see page 70) Now try adding that mystery to a homicidal eagle, a Coca-Cola machine, a traumatically dirty refrigerator that lurks in Dirk’s kitchen, and the mystery of Dirk’s very recently deceased client, whose head was found this morning revolving on the hit record ‘Hot Potato,’ and one has *quite* the delightful conundrum.

German Word: Animals are great and also a standard staple in most German students’ learning regime. One popular animal is the horse, or, auf Deutsch, Pferd, pronounced ‘faired.’

Pictures! Below, a shot of the haunting cover of Omlstead’s Coal Black Horse as well as a few shots from a recent family trip to Roscoe Village, OH.

Lapsang Souchung is a Chinese Tea Traditionally Dried With The Burning Old Fishing Nets and is Quite Good With Sugared Ginger

2007-07-01T07:42:00.000-05:00

The first chord of the longest organ song ever was struck on February 5, 2003, the next change of tone is scheduled for July 2008, the final in 2639

2007-06-26T19:42:00.000-05:00

This morning I was blessed with the amazing opportunity to hear a professional organ performer do what he loves for a great audience, and that’s putting it in the tiniest, neatest little box I could probably manage, unless, of course, one forced me to sum it up in one word, which would have to be me hopping up and down making one of those high-pitched, excited squeeling noises often stereotypically associated with youthful teen females when they find that their boy-band heart throb is playing a concert near them, to which they have the best tickets in the house, backstage VIP pass included. If I have not already made it clear in my possibly vague allusions in early entries, I am quite fond of the organ, and getting to hear OWU’s little beauty put through her paces was wonderful. Hearing her during German, as she admittedly ruins my attention span, is great, but that’s usually just a few bars drifting in, and never for very long. Huw Lewis, whose organ playing skills and merits did a tidy job of covering half of the back of the modest program when put into a shorthanded biography, gave a magnificent one hour treat to the American Guild of Organists and the handful of ‘townies’ and other outsiders such as myself and my Grandmother. Ou s’en vont, ces gais bergers by Claude Balbadtre started us off, and though I have absolutely no idea what that line of French says, and I’m rather sure I could find out with a minute of Googling, it was absolutely lovely. But, to be honest, things only got better. Mozart’s Fantasia in F minor and major followed by Bach’s Sonata no. 6 in G major? Brilliant. I seriously thought that there was no conceivable way that Lewis could outdo this, but then, of course, he did the ever so kind thing of taking that thought and easily brushing it aside just after pausing to adjust the pistons in the organ; Sonata on the Ninety-Fourth Psalm by Julius Reubke was moving beyond words. The floor literally shook with the power of the music, but even as the organ belted out these amazing notes, one had to recall the sweet, soft, bird-like whistling it had done not too long before. Such a magnificent instrument! Lewis received a well deserved and exuberant standing ovation at the end of it all, and from the satisfied twinkle in his eye, one could tell that he’d also had a marvelous time despite the sweltering heat. (The main disadvantage of the otherwise fabulous University Hall is its total lack of air conditioning, which, when the temperatures are soaring in the nineties, can be quite brutal. It does have a heating system, though, which makes interesting thumping noises that more than one professor has jokingly labeled as the ghosts of problem students, but more on OWU ghosts another day!)
The concert ended at ten, leaving my grandmother and me with plenty of time to wander into the downtown area on Sandusky Street. We walked along, relishing in the liveliness of the city, stopping in a few shops along the way, and simply enjoying ourselves. Super finds of the day include nice yet inexpensive butterfly pins, and oak leaf hair thinggummer from the Global Village store, and two antique teacups and saucers, neither of which match, but who really wants a fully matching set anyway? Once I finally arrived back home I made myself some (read: quite a bit of) tea and somehow managed to take pleasure in sipping it outside in the ninety-two degree heat while perusing the latest issue of the Newsweek magazine. (I admit to becoming addicted to Newsweek during my high school days with an enthusiastic and extremely eccentric economics, history, and social studies teacher who always had the latest issue about to use during any and all of his classes.)

German Word: As far as I’m concerned, the organ is the Koenig (ker-nig) and Koenigin of all instruments, meaning that I think it the King and Queen thereof. I have heard the term Kaiser falsely translated more than once as being ‘king,’ but I feel the term is more precisely ‘emperor,’ particularly since it is derived from our dear olde emperor Julius Caesar’s name.

Pictures! A few of the organ concert, namely of Huw Lewis, the nice fellow that turned his pages for him, and the lovely Ohio Wesleyan University organ in Grey Chapel. Sandusky street was lined with four tour buses of Organ and music enthusiasts on the ‘tour’ of Columbus organs with the AGO, so do enjoy my quick snapshot of those not long before they pulled away for their next destination of the day. Also note my teacup purchased during my day in Delaware, filled at that time with some of my blue spring oolong tea, which is quite excellent, no matter the season.

Hugh Grant Lovingly Refers to Himself as a ‘Laughtart’

2007-06-19T19:42:00.000-05:00

If there’s one thing that college students love, it’s films. One of my personal favourites has to be Love Actually, which features a myriad of big-name actors and actresses in an extremely amusing film all about love. I’m not usually a fan of the romance genre, but this is one romantic comedy that I enjoy quite thoroughly. Hugh Grant takes on yet another role as a fellow of no little awkwardness caught up in romantic tangly-ness, and he’s the prime minister this time around, no less! Bill Nighy does an amazing job as a burnt-out rocker trying to sell his cover of a famous song, but, as one can see from his opening scene, it’s a bit of a long shot. (He can hardly remember to substitute ‘Christmas’ for ‘love’ in the song during his recording session.) Allan Rickman also has his time in the light as a boss getting himself in a nasty bit of scandal… Kiera Knightly, Liam Nielson, Colin Firth, and many another big-name star gets twisted into the plots as well, since the film uniquely cuts down numerous stories of love that are all deeply intertwined to make one tale definitely worth more than one viewing. If one can procure the DVD for a long enough amount of time, be sure to watch the commentary and prepare to be highly amused as the cast and director let you in on all sorts of hilarity, including that the two Barbie dolls that Rickman’s wife in the film holds up are actually two Ken dolls that the crew modified to look the parts of ‘transvestite’ and ‘dominatrix’ for their few seconds of cinematic fame.
Today would be a great day for watching a film here in central Ohio, too, since a delightful rain is basting the countryside in its nurturing goodness even as I sit here with my tea and type this. It likes to rain here often enough, which is fine by me since I simply love a good rain, but I’ve heard more than a few grumbles whilst skipping across campus during a nice downpour. The sea of goulashes and umbrellas a rainy day creates is surprisingly artistic, but one must stay aware so as to not lose an eye in such chaos.
Also, a short special announcement for any Ohioans, organ enthusiasts, or folks interested in Ohio Wesleyan: as part of the American Guild of Organists’ pipe-organ promoting tour in the Columbus area, an organ concert is being held in Ohio Wesleyan’s very own Grey Chapel! It’s going to be at 9 A.M. on Tuesday, June 26th, and I highly recommend attending, if only to see OWU’s lovely organ in its glory. I’ll be there and shall report on it afterwards, and hopefully I can grabble a few nice pics of campus during these relatively vacant summer days.

German Word: Liebe means ‘love.’ Lieben is the verb ‘to love.’ So, to tell someone that you fancy him or her, simply sidle on over and mutter Ich liebe dich as you see fit.

Pictures: And to sum up my usually insanity, here are some pictures from Love Actually. The First is actually Hugh Grant stopping off for some tea and biscuits with myself and a friend, but we don’t brag about that much.

The First Father’s Day in America was Held in 1908 in West Virginia and was Inspired by a Mine Explosion

2007-06-17T19:42:00.000-05:00

Happy father’s day to all! Today I spent time with my own father at a car show, and even though his ’69 Chevelle SS 396 won no trophy we still had a nice time. Over two hundred cars showed up, ranging from the oldest of models to a Batmobile! Other than the sweltering heat and lack of natural shade where we were things went well; we saw many a nice car and the normal car show sort of activities (talking, sitting about looking at cars, watching people drool dangerously close to said cars, and munching on a variety of the normal picnic food stuffs.) My favourite car shows still have to be the Dream Cruise in Michigan and the one held annually in Delaware, though, since one is allowed to actually circle about the area in one’s ride. Sandusky Street covered in classic car goodness is rather awesome, so I’ll be sure to give that proper ‘journalistic’ attention.
Anyway, going back to some of the courses that I’ve selected for my third Ohio Wesleyan semester, I’m finally hopping into one of the many physical education classes offered. OWU has everything from ballroom dancing to yoga, and about fifty other things in between, but I opted for tai chi. I’m hoping to improve my horrible balance(although falling so often has turned me into somewhat of a pro at it; I don’t know how many people can fall down stairs gracefully, but I believe that I’ve done it more than a few times.) I also know a few people that have taken tai chi here, and they seem to have loved it, so I certainly can’t miss out on that.

German Word: Auto and Wagon (simply pronounced ‘auto’ and ‘vagon’) are both ways of saying car or automobile. Straigt-forward, no? The only part one has to watch out for is the gender assigned to these nouns, since Auto is neutral (das) and Wagon is masculine (der). My personal favourite way of referring to a car, particularly an older model, I picked up during my one-month stay in Germany a few years ago; the father of the family I was staying with excitedly pointed out a classic car and declared ‘Oldie!!’ with one of the most amazing accents ever.

Pictures: Just some automobile goodness.

In the 1700s Healthy Teeth from Fallen Soldiers were Stolen and Used to Make ‘Waterloo Dentures’

2007-06-16T19:42:00.000-05:00

Greetings all! Once again I shall speak of my upcoming classes, in part to tell of a few of the many great and exciting classes offered here at OWU, and in part to remind myself what I have to look forward to this fall. I’m taking an English course entitled ‘the English Rennaissance,’ which I recall sounding very exciting at the time I signed up for it. It’s another 300 level course, and will be my fourth such course counting the German that I’m taking, so I’m chipping steadily away at the 15 or so that I need to graduate! Huzzah! Science wise I had hoped to get into geology and botany, but the geology I wanted had filled, thusly leaving me with only botany. Alas! But I despair not, for botany is a love of mine, as is obvious from the ridiculous amount of time that I spend weeding and tending my two gardens.
Two of my absolute favourite plants to tend for are my dear gingko trees, who have grown from the wee seeds I saved from the hundreds dropped by one of the campus ginkgo trees. (So, in a way, I have a piece of campus with me always in these two darling trees.) The eldest tree I have dubbed Toivo, which is Finnish for ‘hope.’ He’s a few inches tall and has a puff of leaves at his very top and a crook in his trunk that he refuses to let anyone straighten, but I think it looks good on him and gives him that fashionable tree look so desired this summer season. Enfys(meaning ‘rainbow,’ a name I let a friend bestow upon her), the younger tree, has no two leaves of the same size, shape or location, and she lets them go for an all-natural look that keeps her chic. They’re currently sporting matching generic green planting pots and are enjoying their summer abroad.

German Word: Blatt can mean either worksheet or leaf, so when singing O, Tannenbaum, be sure to praise the tree’s leaves/needles and not its lovely green worksheets. (O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum, wie gruen sind deine Blaetter could technically be translated as either ‘how green are your leaves’ or ‘how green are your worksheets,’ which I fondly recall as a variation whilst caroling with my high school German club.)

Pictures: I went on a trip to the Hocking Hills area of southern Ohio today and took many a photo! Behold the splendor of Ohio’s south! Also featured is a pic of my grandparent’s cabin in Chestnut Grove. They currently run a cabin business there, where one may rent a wee cabin for a stay amongst the trees and nature and such, but enough of my blatant advertising for now.

In 1241 Mongols Collected Nine Sacks of Ears as Trophies

2007-06-14T19:42:00.000-05:00

Since it’s summer and most everyone is off and away from OWU, it’s a mite difficult to talk about what I’ve been up to there of late, so instead I’ll start talking of the classes I’ll be taking this fall semester, and I’ll even try to shed some light on the moderately confusing requirements for OWU students class wise. OWU is a liberal arts college, so basic class requirements fan out over all studies. One has to take a certain number of courses in the sciences and humanities, as well as a few other things, such as the newly introduced ‘Q’ course requirement for all classes after the class of 2010 (which is the group of freshmen from last year, just in case one did not know, or my wording made it unclear or confusing!) A ‘Q’ requirement, by the way, is just a trendy way of saying that one needs at least one course that is quantitative in nature, meaning math. Diversity and writing credits must also be met, as well as a certain number of courses in the 300 level. Don’t worry if this seems complicated or confusing, though; it’s fairly clear once one has seen it a couple of times, and one’s academic advisor has a handy sheet with all of this on there that can be filled out to see where one is precisely. Oh, and by the way, unlike a lot of universities, Ohio Wesleyan uses ‘units’ instead of credit hours. Most courses are worth one credit, but lab courses are 1.25, and physical education and other courses as well are worth .5 or .25! In order to graduate one needs a certain number of units total, which is why it’s recommended to take about 4.25 units of credit each semester.
As for classes that I’m to take next semester, the first I selected was my German course, since I am a German major and all. The next German available for me is another from the ‘advanced’ group of German courses; it’s entirely about Goethe and is with Herr Wolber. Goethe is the Shakespeare of German literature, so it should be a good time. I am wondering what work of Goethe we’ll be working with, but I’ll just have to wait for the specifics. (I’m holding out for The Sorrows of Young Werther, which was so hugely popular that it actually influenced the very fashion of the 1700s when it was released!)

German Word: The original German title of The Sorrows of Young Werther is Die Leiden des jungen Werther (dee lie-den des youngin’ ver-ter)

Pictures: Since this entry is rather random, so shall the pictures be! I have a blurry shot of a caterpillar who is currently living in my parsley, but I like him since I’m rather sure he’s going to be a monarch. (Always good to be on good terms with royalty, eh? Haha, I’m horrible about cracking not-at-all funny puns.) Moving along, I’ve also included a hummingbird I’ve lovingly dubbed ‘Fatty’ due to his adorable pudgy-ness for a hummingbird, and some more sky/cloud pictures since the pictures I attempted to take of my insane cat Ganon turned out rubbish. (Can you spot the snail-shaped cloud? And do be kind and ignore the telephone lines in the last one; it’s hard enough lining up a nice shot when someone is going 55-60 on a highway, but then someone thought electric wires would be a good call, so do forgive me.)

When you walk, it is bad to be fast or to be slow.

2007-06-09T14:42:00.000-05:00

Another week of summer is gone, and the excitement has either begun without my notice or is still stuck in traffic. At least I can now wave to it if I see it on the road, for I finally went through the process of getting my driver’s license! I’ve put it off for years, and it hasn’t been a huge deal, but I finally went ahead and got it, blurry picture and all. It might be nice to have it around campus once classes start up again, but Delaware, despite its modest size city wise, still offered plenty for me to see on foot alone. This, of course, is coming from someone used to living ten minutes from the closest place that people can recall having ‘driven through’ at some point, and whose backyard is almost literally a cornfield, so anywhere with sidewalks and a handful of shops is a big step up in size, but I’m fully aware that a lot of people are coming from the total opposite experience; I have great friends from both Indianapolis and New York, for example. It is, however, easy enough to either drive or commandeer someone with a car to drive one off to Polaris, where shopping and things to do abound, so it is not as if there is absolutely nothing around, and that’s ignoring all of Delaware’s lovely little areas. (I highly suggest a good wander about Sandusky Street if time allows nowhere else to at least get a fast feel for some of Delaware’s shops. The antique shops are nice, the Global Village store is a must-stop, and a store called ‘Mantras’ [I think] carries the most amazing green tea with pineapple in it, but skip all of this and go straight to the Mean Bean if time is really tight. The Bean is a regular stop for almost every OWU student and is thankfully included in our off-campus ‘points’ for card use.)
With no sword club to attend every week, I’ve been left to my own devices in the study of the blade. Thusly I pulled out one of the books I have on swords and sword fighting, The Sword & the Mind, which is a translation of ‘the classical Japanese treatise on swordmanship and tactics,’ as the cover puts it. Although it only has a small section on actual sword moves, it’s a great read, and it’s interesting to see the similarities between this eastern school and the western techniques that MARRCA studies. The tradition of Zen thought being central in samurai sword technique also makes it fascinating as well, and the metaphors and similies the original author used to explain and express these thoughts are beautiful.

German Word: Bohne (bo-nuh). A Bohne is a bean, and when a German student heads for the Mean Bean, it’s the Boese Bohne, a.k.a. Professor Kremling’s second office. Again, I highly recommend a stop in, and if you happen to see Herr Kremling there, do give him a Guten Tag for me.

Pictures!
And now for our regular picture break! I have a few here that show just how ‘country’ the area I live in is. They specifically feature the cornfield in my backyard, a lovely sunset, the vegetable garden that has consumed my time, as well as the large oak tree that dominates our front yard, whose name is Daniello. He’s simply lovely.

Dashi is a Soup Base Made from Bonito Flakes, Kombu, and Water

2007-06-02T19:42:00.001-05:00

Last Thursday was my grandmother’s birthday, so a special happy birthday again to her here as I mention my gift for her: fresh, home-made sushi and miso soup! Granted, none of the sushi I made was raw, but it was still quite good. Here I must however pause to clarify: I am in no twist or vehement turn of the imagination culinary beyond my basic abilities of tea, sushi, variations on boiled water, and now the miso soup (which is basically just timing one’s tossing of things into boiled water, but it overcooks easily, so it gets an honourable mention out there on its own.) Despite my lack of kitchen know-how, I still can roll a decent piece of sushi, and my Oma loves it, thus her main gift from me this year was tasty in nature. Below I have included a few pictures of my sushi fun, which actually ensued on the evening before her birthday rather than the day of, but it stretched it out, and she enjoyed it nonetheless.
On Thursday itself I was put in charge of watching a five year old friend of the family that is, through all technicalities, my god sister. Allow me to pause once again and frantically explain that I am in no way, shape, or form adept at the care of wee ones, but this one is well behaved and thinks me the bee’s knees for some odd reason, so I became her personal sidekick for a few hours. We wandered about, played about the swing, painted, coloured, played soccer where the rules changed every two seconds, and even had time to build a fort that my cat easily destroyed when he pounced on it in search of a treat. Good times overall, and at the end of the day she was still alive and well enough to get excited about the toy in her Happy Meal when her mum arrived, so I consider it a mission accomplished.
I recently received a rather interesting challenge from a good friend of mine: to fill her voicemail box. In true knightly style I accepted and immediately began to fill it with tidbits of insanity. Now, these messages are no petite communications by any means; the average is probably around ten minutes in length, depending on when the machine cuts me off, but I did manage a twenty-five minute rant fest, but my coup de grace just may have been my fifty-nine minute, thirty second masterpiece that would make the best filibustering senators nod with approval while wiping away tears of pride. I’ve also done my share of filibustering in earnest, reading from the dictionary and The Song of Roland, but I did spice things up with a short little ‘noir’ piece where I played the part of the PI giving the standard in-head monologue as the next case walked in my door.

German Word: A Baum is a tree, and the OWU campus is covered in a variety of gorgeous trees, including the endangered ginko.

Pictures! And to finish things off, I offer a handful of pictures, most of which feature my sushi and the making thereof, but the last is Riley enjoying the fort we threw together.

Ohio Is Within an Area Mother Nature Lovingly Refers to as 'The Wind Tunnel'

2007-05-24T21:58:00.000-05:00

With my first week and a half of summer break complete, I’m still finding it hard to believe that I don’t have classes on Monday or a paper due Wednesday! It’s nice to have a break, and I’m glad that the holiday is here at last, but now I have Ohio weather to grapple with for a nice summer! I am glad that the colder, fall-like weather held off until I was able to get my garden mostly into the shape I want it, minus the delay on seeding, and the frost hopefully won’t cause too much of a problem. My dad and I were able to get our vegetable garden planted as well, and we had to be careful to cover the little pepper and tomato plants to prevent death via the frost, but they survived, and our corn, beans and peas are even popping up now!

Not only have I invested my free time in gardening, but I’ve also thrown time into getting some reading for pleasure done. It’s nice to be able to read a good book for just the joy of it and not have to worry about having major quiz or journal and in-depth discussion/analysis on it. My reading roster currently has Ohio Wesleyan’s own Dr. Olmstead’s latest release, Coal Black Horse at the top, of which I’ve polished off the first few chapters. It’s very interesting to read a novel by someone you know from class, especially when you hear his voice, like he’s sitting there reading it aloud to you over your shoulder. My favourite part still has to be the upside-down boy which amused everyone at his afternoon reading in the library, but I’ll withhold a full review until I’ve completed the book, which has been quite enjoyable thus far. Next up is a lighter read, The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman. My tutorial class and I sped through the first two novels of his Dark Materials series, and not finishing it seems more than criminal. After that I plan to read The Song of Roland in its entirety since the exert I read for a course first semester touched me so deeply. (Saying that one reads a lot of good and interesting books while in college is a gross understatement, seriously.)

Besides reading I’ve also indulged in getting some art started now that I have more time. I’m working to get the lines finalized on a new painting, and I have several other drawings/paintings in mind as well. My creative writing is also getting more attention, but I’m still hovering over my final project for my tutorial, which was a creative writing piece that’s actually quite close to my heart. I impressed myself with being able to crank out its fifteen-and-a-half pages in such a short amount of time, especially since I’m very OCD about my writing, particularly the fictional sort. Being able to write a fantasy story to end our children’s fantasy tutorial was a dream come true, and it felt great to have that to look forward to compared to the exams offered up in other courses, so it also served as a bit of a stress reliever if one ignores all the worry I put into every detail.

German Phrase of the Moment
Es schmeckt or lecker are both ways of saying something tastes good, and are pretty much pronounced how they look. Es schmeckt directly translates as ‘it tastes,’ but it’s idiomatic and fun, if I do say so myself. Lecker is simply ‘tasty.’ Good phrases/words to have on hand while enjoying various treats this summer. (Or ‘Sommer’ ;) )

And now some pictures for your viewing pleasure, all taken from my home here in Ohio. I'll look into getting some of areas popular to visit from good ol' OWU soon!

The Average American Has a 1 in 714 Chance of Death by Fishing

2007-05-10T10:19:00.000-05:00

Hello again from the deep depths of nowhere time! These past few months (it’s been that long??) have been pure chaos with insanity lovingly sprinkled on top for good measure! A massive German translation project, plenty of essays, and a healthy helping of easilly 2+ novels a week has kept me busy on top of everything else, and despite thinking daily on updating, I somehow never found the time to take my mental blogging and turn it into the official stuff found here! In exchange for my long absence, I offer up a liberal helping of pictures from campus, which has been beyond gorgeous this spring. If anything helps to soothe the nerves, it’s definitely a nice lunch and a good book over by Grey Chapel coupled with a stroll amongst the trees.

MARRCA Update: elections were held earlier on, and though I didn’t get the position I originally set out for, I’m more than happy to announce myself as the official MARRCA secretary, AKA person that deals with all the paperwork and anything the president doesn’t feel like bothering with. I’ve actually enjoyed myself quite a bit, and even helped to update the club constitution! I’ve also been hard at work translating an original text for the organization, but that’s really as part of my German class. (Or is it part of my German class that’s really for MARRCA?) I also was knighted by Milady Susan, this year’s lovely president! So, if I see you about next year, I’m Lady Courtney of the Guiding Flame! (Susan, you have no idea how happy that has made me!)

And now a moment of super-special thanks to a few super-special people! My name was put forward for a Golden Bishop award by some super awesome ladies, so if you see Susan, Jen, Amanda, or Sam about, do be sure to give them a Roman salute and a HAIL CAESAR! from the heart for me. They deserve that anyway, but just make it extra-special for now.

Another massive THANK YOU!!! must go out to the German department here at OWU as well for choosing me as one of the students from the advanced level German to receive an award. And I’m not going to lie about how excited I am about what I’m getting! I wasn’t sure if it was going to be plausible, but Herr Wolber assured me that it is entirely possible for them to order a Middle High German dictionary for me! High German is what is most commonly taught, and Ohio Wesleyan doesn’t even offer any Middle High German courses at this time, but the translation work I’ve been doing for MARRCA is in Middle High German, and I’d really love to have a dictionary for it, so I’m beyond excited about that, and cannot wait for Herr Wolber to order one for me! Vielen, vielen, vielen dank!!!

Super nice people randomly exist all over campus!! Really!!! I have proof that they are not like so many elusive Keebler elves, only to be spoken of, never to be seen! I was in need of a pencil yesterday at the library, and not only did this kind maiden offer to let me borrow it, she kindly said that I could keep it!! Shocked, humbled, and not a little appreciative, I thanked her kindly and do so here again! Thank you!!!

Fun Facts!!!

~The small, adorable bunny that lives near University with waterfront property has a jacuzzi. I swear that bunny has it made.

~Mr. Roboto is an excellent song with which to walk to an early morning exam. Domo arigato indeed, Mr. Roboto.

~ You only need five computers and three printers to print out your final papers, and that’s only in one library trip with everything already typed and saved on a jump drive.

~The new Smith dining hall is open, and it’s hot, shiny newness has drawn in enormous crowds. It’s pretty tasty.

~The Mean Bean can make any day better. If that fails, go to Rocky’s, too.

~Sleep is friend and enemy. Beware his stuffed animal-clawed allure!

~ $0.55 can sure make your report look all cool and professional with one of those report covers. It also adds a burst of colour!

~Blogger is very picky and will be angry with your images if you don't use the perfect quotation marks. I'm serious.

German of the Day, False Friends Edition
This may seem like a really simple and obvious one, but Sommer is definitely just ‘summer.’ Just add a slight accent and put more of a ‘z’ sound to the ‘S’, and you’ve got it, by Jove! German indeed shares many a word with English, but one has to be cautious of the false friends as well, those tricky words that look like they could be English, but mean something completely different!! The word breit (pronounced just like ‘bright’) actually means wide or broad.

Massive Pictures Attack

As promised, many a picture! Most of these are near University Hall, where it is absolutely gorgeous!

Schmidt's, a German Restaurant founded in 1886 in Columbus, Offers an 'Autobahn Buffet'

2007-03-01T21:07:00.000-05:00

This week was crazy!! Sorry for the lack of updates, but I had plenty of reading for the whole first half of the week, and although I love updating my blog, being prepared for a class discussion overruled updating. Monday started the madness with the addition of the honours dinner to my schedule. I milled about in the humanities room being as helpful as a German major can be to such possible majors as theatre and art. (I still reserved hope that a German major would wander in, though one never appeared!) I had about an hour between this and my evening class with Dr. Olmstead, so I spent it with my German homework in the library, making the pages brighter and more exciting with every highlighted word. Tuesday was better class wise; though preparing the reading for Wednesday caused a slight loss in sanity!!
I thought that I could possibly take a breather and catch up on sleep Wednesday evening, but, contrary to this hope, I volunteered myself to deliver pizzas for MARRCA. The pizza shop in Welch allows clubs to deliver pizzas for a night in order to gain funds, and Sword needed volunteers, so, seeing as how Sword club has me quite thoroughly whipped, I signed up to deliver with Michele from 9 to midnight. We’re running for co-presidency of the club this year and were planning to use the time to narrow down our plans for our day of having control of practice to show members how it might feel to have us in control, but, due to constantly running between Welch and Stuy and our random conversations, next to nothing got done on that end of things. We have until Tuesday, though, and we’re narrowing down ideas rather than coming up with them, so no worries there! Overall, it was a blast, and everyone we delivered to was happy to see us. (Perhaps hunger had something to do with this…but I jest; people here are very nice!!)
And so, wearied by quizzes and chapters of homework, the adventure arrives on Thursday, my day of relative rest. Lack of sleep still fairly apparent, I enjoyed a giddy state of being most of the day, and a special shout-out goes to tea again for staving off illness, one of the top enemies of college students the world over!! I still attended Sword today despite the rain, though, but I feel the Naked fruit juice I had at Stammtisch makes up for any ill-will the weather may have had towards me. I enjoyed myself, and no one fell on the wide expanses of mud lodged neatly between the ice, so I mark it a successful practice. Arriving at Stammtisch rather damp, it was nice to join the table to warm up and munch a tasty salad. Sadly, Herr Kremling will be headed back to Mexico in the very near future, so his proverbially reserved seat will remain vacant, save the little index card with “Professor Kremling” scrawled upon it in looping script that indicates that a place is indeed always there for him, if only in our hearts and minds!
And, before I nearly forget(which I nearly did!), my birthday was Sunday, so my parents took me to one of my favourite restaurants in Columbus, Schmidt’s, Saturday night. It’s German, and the food there is excellent. Columbus, being the main major city that students have access to, is often driven to when the need to shop or just get out of Delaware for a bit strikes. German Village, a section of Columbus, should be on the list of places for any student here to see if (s)he hasn’t done so already; the history and feel of the area is great. (I feel like I should know; I’ve been on the tour of the area three times with my high school German courses!) Sunday night I returned to attend “The Triplet’s Birthday Party” as my good friend Shannon dubbed it; Shannon, Amy Beth, and I have our birthdays very close to one another, so we decided to throw on birthday party, which happened to fall on my actual birthday. As fate would have it, I hosted a prospective student that night as well, so Emily got to attend the madness as well.

German Phrase of the Day:
Alles Gutes zum Geburtstag! (all ess + goot ess + zoom + geh boorts tog)
What do these clumps of letters mean? “Happy birthday!” or, in an extremely direct sense, “all good to the birthday!”

And now for a mad clumping of pictures from Columbus and The Triplet’s Birthday Party respectively!!

The International Ice Patrol Classifies Iceberg Size; Some of the Smallest Icebergs are Classified as Either "Growlers" or "Bergy Bits"

2007-02-23T22:07:00.000-05:00

Another week, and now Spring break is but two full weeks away! I can hardly believe it! Midterms are looming, and the second module of my English class will be starting up as my ten-page German translation will be needing to be turned in! The excitement never ends!
Stammtisch this week was outstanding! As promised, Herr Kremling was able to get in contact with the three German organ builders putting up the new organ in a local church, and they joined our little round tables at Stammtisch! Stephan, Michael, and Andreas (I do hope I’ve spelled their names correctly!) dined with us, sharing their expertise and experiences with organs the world over. Stammtisch numbers swelled to the largest that I have personally seen them, which was encouraging, and a good time was had by all. So enthusiastic was there reception, that they were offered a chance to see Ohio Wesleyan’s organ in Grey Chapel on Saturday morning before one of them had to head back to Germany. Suggestions for getting a true feel of America were offered, and several Delaware eateries had their names put forward, and we talked past the “normal” Stammtisch timing, but it was entirely worth the time. Andreas even suggested that I stop by the church sometime to say hello and see the organ, which I hope to find time for in the near future! The start of my week is looking a little crowded, but perhaps I can stop in later in the week!
Poet Laureate Ted Kooser made a stop at Ohio Wesleyan on Friday, and he brought his astounding poetry with him. At four he held a small question and answer session during which students and professors had the opportunity to ask him any questions at all, for he indeed said he’d answer them. His perspective was very interesting, and his earnest answers made him a great speaker. What got him interested in poetry, one might ask? Girls. He had the group mesmerized, and, later that night when he read several of his poems aloud, he easily received vehement reactions. The audience laughed, cried, waited with bated breath, and hung onto his every word. His poems, though seemingly simple in form and easy to understand, garnered this strong feedback almost effortlessly. My grandparents were able to come in and attend, and both raved about him afterwards; everyone did, though: Kooser held a book signing after speaking, and all of his books sold out while the line clumped happily before him, each awaiting his or her turn to step forward and have their books signed.
Below are some shots of Koosner as he read as well as one of University Hall at night and some art placed on the lawn in front of Slocum.

~*~ SPECIAL!! EDITION SPECIAL OF THE DAY ~*~
Rather than the usual German Word of the Day, the special feature space will be given over to a poem by Ted Kooser that Professor Olmstead sent around campus via e-mail to help get out word of the coming of Kooser, so to speak. Read, savor, and, most of all, enjoy.

Student
By Ted Kooser

The green shell of his backpack makes him lean
into wave after wave of responsibility,
and he swings his stiff arms and cupped hands,

paddling ahead. He has extended his neck
to its full length, and his chin, hard as a beak,
breaks the cold surf. He's got his baseball cap on

backward as up he crawls, out of the froth
of a hangover and onto the sand of the future,
and lumbers, heavy with hope, into the library.

St. Valentine Was A Bishop In The Late Third Century That Was Matyred When He Refused To Deny Christ And Was Therefore Beheaded

2007-02-14T16:22:00.001-05:00

OWU actually CLOSED today! Afternoon and evening classes/events were cancelled yesterday, but no classes at all today! So yay, I finally have time to update! I think it’s a lovely Valentine’s gift for the university to give all the students~ a snow day. The snow is gorgeous here, and I have several pictures that I felt very tourist-esq taking. (Not many students try to get just the right angle of Grey Chapel while trying to keep moving with the flow of people and not drop anything!)
The sidewalks were pretty bad yesterday and this morning (for obvious reasons), but things are looking a lot nicer out on them now. It’s hard to get all of the sidewalks clear and safe for students, but usually they’ve been very clear and easy to traverse thanks to the groundskeepers. It’s still cold out though, so I’m staying in here to drink tea and get some reading done.
Later tonight a few of my friends are getting together to watch a film or two, so that should prove exciting. (I’m hoping for a comedy or action film or something other than the romantic comedies that most of them are so fond of… I’m doubting I could convince them to watch Schindler’s List or something like I Heart Huckabees today, but one can dream!)
Last Friday I was able to go to Professor Olmstead’s special reading of an exert from his upcoming novel Coal Black Horse. I’m glad a good amount of people showed up to listen; the reading was excellent and well worth the lunch hour sacrifice to attend it. I’m really looking forward to the Poet Laureate of the United States coming that Professor Olmstead keeps mentioning as well; that will be on the twenty-third for those interested!
I also got to go out for tea with my grandmother this weekend! We had a great time; the tea shop we went to, Aunt Ivy’s in Sunbury, is very good, and the white tea we had was excellent. (Not my favourite white tea, I must confess, but the smooth taste of Emperor’s White is hard to beat at all!)

German Word of the Day: der Schnee (think ‘dare sh-knee’) This one is fairly simple; it means snow. Snow is weiss (like ‘vice’), or white, and when it’s snowing, es schneit (along the lines of ‘es sh-knight’).

I considered labeling this first picture something seemingly witty like “SnOWU”, but thought better of it due to the obvious cheesiness. Yet I still mentioned it… hm….

Slocum Hall is rather beauteous in the snow; I now regret not going in to take some pictures of the snow on the stained glass roof there; that’s one of my personal favourite pieces of architecture on campus.

Ham-Will looks impressive in any weather.

I see this every day from my window. I am glad that my view isn’t bad!

The tree branches one can see in the bottom left are from one of my favourite trees; it’s nestled next to the back part of Thomson, and I have several pictures of it that I will spare you from. On a random note, it had a pair of shorts in it for several years until my friends Shannon, Selby, and Amy took up an effort to remove them. Washed and free, Shannon plans to wear them as soon as the weather allows again.

The Word 'Yeti' Comes From Tibetan, Meaning 'Bear-Man'

2007-02-08T21:07:00.000-05:00

This past week has been moderately hectic with random fun-time thrown in for good taste and balance. I had a quiz Monday that I know I did well on, the normal two-chapters of German on Tuesday, a hunk of reading on Grimms faerie tales for Wednesday in addition to my work for global issues, and then a frankly outstanding Thursday.
German started my Thursday out in the best of ways; occasionally I could catch auditory glimpses of the organ downstairs, which is one of my favourite things about Grey Chapel as a whole, and then we got to listen to several pieces of music off of a CD as a connection to the Romantic period, which we had discussed on Tuesday as a part of the reading. All of the operas were quite enjoyable, but Erlkoenig definitely took the proverbial cake. My high school German teacher did a massive German poetry unit at the start of my senior year, and Elrkoenig, a very famous German poem by Goethe that I rather adored. (Think of Goethe as something like a German version of Shakespeare in terms of his fame.) Herr Wolber offered another interpretation compared to the one I was already familiar with, but now I believe the two combine nicely and work very well. The focus I had seen before with it had been on nature being an unconquerable force that man often tries to fight against, but ultimately can never overcome. Herr Wolber presented it as a battle between the Romantic and reason, with the Romantic period’s ideals winning out in the end, and nature clicks with the Romantic rather well. Highly enjoyable either way, and it was rather hard not to sit there grinning to myself as I recited the poem mentally along with the singer. Wer reitet so spaet, durch Nacht und Wind?/ Es ist der Vater mit seinem Kind...
Later on I attended Stammtisch once again, and I believe I may be entirely sold on the concept. Granted, I don’t talk a whole lot, but I’m not always the talkative type. (I love to listen though, especially since the discussions are all/mostly in German!) Herr Kremling has been dropping in for the past two weeks while he’s back for roughly a month from his trip, and he did make a few valiant attempts at getting me to talk more. Perhaps I’ll bring along one of my German poetry books and read a favourite or two that we could then discuss. Most of us ended up staying until a half an hour after Stammtisch officially ends, and I had a great time.
I returned to the dorm, talked with my neighbor about her plants for a while, and then was whisked away by another friend to attend the so-dubbed ‘Crazy Night.’ Crazy Night entails a small group of friends from sword club hanging out, watching anime, and acting crazy to get off the week’s stress. Quite enjoyable, and proverbially chilling with one’s friends all night is great. (Not having to worry about getting my reading done for Friday also helped, since my class for the day was cancelled! Huzzah!) Crazy Night ended the day very well; I grabbed a cup of hot tea* and enjoyed some good music before calling it a night.
Friday is looking to be a great day for me as well; my grandmother is coming over to attend Professor Olmstead’s reading at noon with me, and we’re going to go out for tea together. Both of these events are guaranteed for a high degree of outstanding-ness, so the weekend will hopefully follow suit.

*Herr Kremling- I boiled double the needed water for my tea and tossed the second cup’s worth into the night, and it’s instantaneous turning to a burst of steam before drifting away is entirely worth the cold.

German Word of the Week: Fraktur (mostly pronounced as it appears, but be sure the “ur” is pronounced like ‘your’ minus the ‘y’)

Fraktur is the German calligraphy script that scores of old German texts are in, so it’s rather valuable to most German students. It can be tricky to read until one is actually used to the lettering, but it comes fairly easy with a little practice.
Here’s an example using an exert from a poem by Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff:

Tina’s very pretty orchid she kept me updated on the blooming of:

Here’s a rose that Abigail got from Mr. Tom; the light was hitting it so nicely that afternoon that I had to take a picture, and my pictures are rather plant-themed today anyway:

My plants! I have aloe, bamboo, and lavender at the moment; before break I had several others, though. I’m so glad my plants are happy here; they’ve been growing like crazy. My aloe needs a new pot already!

And last in my little parade of plants is the set of pines in front of Thomson; their odd shape and canopy-like view from below endear them to me more than I can express. Or maybe I just like plants too much.

Finland is Europe's Third Most Sparsely Populated Country, With About Seventeen Inhabitants Per Square Kilometre

2007-01-29T22:07:00.000-05:00

This past week has still been hectic despite my hopes for things to maybe calm a bit going into week 3. I have to finish a novel for Wednesday, complete a take-home German test, and doing some other reading otherwise as of now! Yay, homework! I am glad that some of the reading is really interesting and engaging; the two short stories I read for my English course today were amazing. Despite being a late class that causes me to freeze to death, I’m having a grand time listening to the discussions and hearing what everyone else thinks. Since I just got back, I'm still rather on the chilled side and hoping that a little blog update will return the rigor of my fingers, if not my limbs!
Last Thursday I attended my first Stammtisch (the German department dines with students, speaking primarily in German)!! Before I’d always worried that being late might be awkward since I’ve always had sword club during the first part of it, but Professor Wolber said that such a thing should be considered no problem at all, so I came! It was rather fun; we ate in Ham Will since the usual place (Smith hall) has been closed for remodeling. Some students brought their own food while others just grabbed something in Ham Will itself. We chatted about various things, and I even got my translation project approved! I’m taking Medieval text from the swordsman Meyer and translating it into English for MARRCA! A considerable amount of the spelling is different, but I’m familiar with a lot of the sword-specific terms and rough concepts of what is going on, so I hope this will prove a worthy adversary that is neither too easy nor too frustrating!
Saturday night a group of my friends and I wandered down to the Mean Bean for some coffee and a sandwich. The Mean Bean serves great coffee, and their chicken salad sandwich is rather impressive. (Did I mention the cookies the size of your head???) The cold tried to mock us and our fun, but our group refused to let some wind, ice, and snow belie our enjoyment! Below you’ll find some pictures from our little adventure~ do enjoy them!

The cookies ARE the size of one's head!!!

Today’s entry also features the first installment of something I’ve been meaning to include for two or three entries now!! The German Word of the Day!! Today’s word is…. Der kämpfende Bischoff! The battling bishop! (I thought I should at least connect one or two of these things with OWU!)
Pronunciation guide:
Der (masculine form of ‘the’): think ‘there,’ but with a ‘D’ instead of the ‘th’
kämpfende (the verb to battle used as an adjective): something like ‘kempf-end-uh’
Bischoff (bishop): pretty much how it looks; ‘bisch-off”

On a Pirate Ship, the Loss of an Eye was Worth 100 Pieces of Eight, Left Arms and Legs were Worth 500, and the Right Arm 600

2007-01-23T18:07:00.000-05:00

Week two of the second semester commences, and the excitement has yet to end!
My classes are going well, and I have plenty of reading to keep myself busy highlighting and jotting notes down. I’m rather excited about several of the projects that I have coming up, like my German translating one. I get to choose a text (with Professor Wolber’s approval) and translate it; at the moment I’m looking into doing something for sword club if I can get the right texts together. I was originally considering something from a man named Talhoffer, but a lot of his work is relatively easy to find already translated; I’m hoping to find something that we can’t find anywhere else. (And then I have to hope that it’s in high German and not the old German, which is practically an entirely different language!)
While awaiting the new cameras for the OWU bloggers, I have been allowed to borrow an older camera from the Admissions Office. Therefore, picture fun had to ensue. Shan, Selbs, and I had a great time in Welch cafeteria dining, taking photos, and talking on our BananaPhones. Dinner is honestly never a bore when one has friends along!

Last Friday MARRCA threw a surprise birthday party for club president Susan! Happy 22nd, Susan! In the basement of Welch several members set up a lovely amount of balloons, streamers, and general happy bright party-ness! We played pin the tail on the donkey, musical chairs, and apples to apples. Susan even got to destroy a head-shaped piñata! A while after she blew out the candles of her beautiful cake, the pizza faerie showed up! He performed a short pizza faerie dance after demanding a signature for delivering the pizza. Overall the night was outstanding; cards were played, cake and candy were consumed, party-favours were given all around, and faces were even painted. We became Susan’s own army of Wodes! She did a lovely job of painting all of us, and I rather loved my green face paint lattice work and mustache. Sadly, the picture I have doesn’t really show my face paint at all. Most of us were about until around twelve thirty, and the last of us filtered out around one.
Otherwise my weekend was fairly low-key; I read for my English course and cleaned (!!!) the room a bit; I’ve been compulsively sweeping up the floor of late for no good reason whatsoever. My pile of class books is calling to be organized soon, but reading out of several of them at once prevents me from finding an organizational system I like as of yet.

The following are all from Susan’s birthday celebration! Pictures include party hits such as the Wode warriors, Susan blowing out her candles, and the remains of the pinata head!

Saladin Sent Richard the Lion-Hearted Fresh Peaches, Pears, and Even Snow from Mount Hermon When He Heard Richard Was Dying from a Fever

2007-01-17T00:06:00.001-05:00

Today has been chaotic! Wow! I spent the first half of the day enjoying my new German course, the one on nonfiction! I think it's going to be very exciting despite the lack-lustre, academic title fate bestowed upon it. We get to do research projects on subjects of our choice, and the book we're using is going to introduce us to a variety of random and pertinent vocabulary! Grammar is also going to be looked at in a practical manner, which is exciting for anyone that verges on giving high-fives for seeing someone use the subjunctive correctly like I do. I had time for a short breather, grab some lunch, and explain my misunderstanding about a class meeting time. (I'm extremely capable at making extremely silly mistakes at times, and I entirely missed that the time for one of my courses had entirely changed until this morning, after the first meeting had been held! Thankfully I didn't lose my spot; I've heard so many good things about professor Olmstead and his classes that I had to take one myself!) The second half of today saw me running back and forth between the book store and my dorm room; first checking book prices and realizing my modest pocket change would not do(I'm trying my best to be optimistic about book prices; I've been lucky thus far- my neighbor paid over $100 for one book!), and then to try the ATM machine in Ham Will. As luck would have it, the machine stopped service sometime between my leaving and returning, which allowed me to quest with a moderate level of excitement to The Bank in downtown Delaware. A few blocks and a wind-whipped nose later, I convinced the machine to provide me with the proper amount, which the bookstore promptly consumed all but $2.89 of. My prize? Six books, ripe for the reading and a slim, no-need-to-diet wallet! I get to dig into a healthy serving of Global Issues reading tonight as well!
It’s great being back on campus, seeing everyone and starting new classes! Tomorrow I get to attend my tutorial that I have with Shannon; it’s about children’s fiction. I’m rather excited about it! Shannon and I had a small ramen party yesterday when my computer freaked out, and I needed to borrow the wireless you can pickup from someone’s router there to download Window’s Defender. Our ramen parties are always fun, and AIMing someone two feet to the left of you can be hilarious, especially when you attempt to do so in an accent that doesn’t translate well to being written!
It’s getting colder here and finally acting like an Ohio winter, even if it’s a bit late and still giving us a relatively easy time of it. (Not that I’m complaining!) Some vague attempts at snowing made by the clouds today were not exactly applause-worthy, and a mass of squirrels still played in the grass. I saw seven(!) playing and eating in front of Thomson, their poofy tails twitching as they busied themselves with chewing on random things found on the ground. I still want to have a pet squirrel for our room; Abigail even liked the idea, since Kevin Bacon would make too much noise exercising all night if he came!

Klaus Nomi Came From Outer Space to Save the Human Race

2007-01-07T14:07:00.000-05:00

The last week until break is over looms… the final countdown! Grades are in, and I hope no one has gotten any nasty New Year’s surprises via the post! A whole new year is upon us, so cue the dramatic music, start the parades, and get the fellow with the tuba out front and playing. A lot of people like making resolutions, but I’ve never been that good at remembering to, so maybe I should give it a shot this year. I resolve to have a New Year’s Resolution! Suggestions appreciated!
I hope everyone is enjoying their time off and spending it how they want; I’ve been lucky with having so much time to devote to drawing, writing, and painting! I fancy character sketching the most, but sometimes I get a little over-zealous looking for the right references to add to the overall look. I spent quite some time scouring a Victorian reproduction sales catalogue before finding just the right brooch to hold a character’s puff tie in place, but it looks lovely, granted slightly modified. (I added to it and slightly changed the jewels and colour scheme.) The original piece is a reproduction of a Civil War mourning brooch, and the symbolism of one’s “loved one [reaching his/her] heavenly reward,” as the catchy description provided states, hopped up in down, waving its arms for me. Alas, but such time will be soon spent on more pertinent things!

('Artistic' interpretation of the brooch I threw together using Flash)
Getting back into the proverbial grind of homework will be a change from hours of shading and checking proportions, but I’m looking forward to several (read: most, if not all) of my classes, especially the tutorial I have with Shannon on children’s fiction! I also can’t wait to see what my German nonfiction class with Herr Wolber will be like! German 361, the German Novella course with Herr Kremling, was a lot of fun, and I’m going to miss not having it every Tuesday and Thursday.

Leeches Have Mouths With Three Sets of Jaws and Between Sixty and One Hundred Teeth

2006-12-22T12:07:00.000-05:00

Wow, this week has been packed full of excitement that was stuffed with a clam bake consisting mostly of dynamite and a fair share of grenades and motion-detector mines. Exams have to be the craziest first-time experience at college, especially if one has one in four classes. I have my Folklore exam in all of 25 minutes, so I thought I’d type the first half of an action-packed entry before running off to have breakfast with a few friends, swinging swords about, and acting rather foolish. It’s going to be an outstanding time. J
Back from the exam, hours later, and for the reader no time at all has passed! (That whole time concept has always intrigued me! I unfortunately missed out on the Time tutorial this fall, but my good friend Jubal had it, so maybe she could help enlighten me on the subject!) I’ve never had such a fun exam, with everyone talking about all sorts of things! My group had all sorts of subjects that we discussed the folklore of, ranging from a family’s thanksgiving traditions to folklore in film! Over all it was a rather interesting and unique approach technique to giving an exam! (Being the first to present to the teacher doesn’t help nerves, though, let me tell you! I had no idea where to start.)
Packing up for break is a bit of a bother! I have no idea what to do with an entire month of being away from here; what to bring home? What to leave?
At least I’ve had time to fit in all sorts of FUN(!) and EXCITING(!) things just before leaving! Shannon popped over several times this past week to watch some films, which was beyond outstanding. We saw Love Actually and Finding Nemo, neither of which I’d ever seen before. Very enjoyable, and a great stress reliever when those exams were beginning to loom! The smoothie party our neighbor Whitney held was also outstanding, and hopefully will become a weekly tradition! I also had time to put together a small Venture Brothers season 1 marathon with the one other fan I have managed to locate on campus. Go team Venture! Any idea how cool it is to spot an old high school chum while en route to sell some class books and buy some tea? It’s outstanding, especially when you get to talk with both her and your other high school friend that you never seem to see on campus(Jubal!) We did the standard catching-up thing, traveled about the bookstore for a bit, and I got rather excited that the bookstore bought all but one of the books I wanted to sell! And what’s wrong with a spare copy of Hamlet anyway?
Last, but most certainly NOT least, Abigail, my lovely roommate, bought me an amusing piece of vintage “fashion” as a holiday gift. It’s a small, obnoxiously fuschia-esq ‘hat’ that grips the skull. 1960’s, I think, but don’t hold me to that. I’ll post some pictures as soon as I have some, for this is one style that I certainly must bring back, if only for Abigail. Thank you again, Abs!

Harold Godwinson, Viking, Held a Bridge Alone, Slaying 44 Men Before Someone on a Boat Below Could Spear Him, Allowing his Allies to Ready Themselves

2006-12-15T20:22:00.000-05:00

Egads! I've taken my first university exam and now I have the second in just a few short hours! CHAOS! At least once that's out of the way most everything else should be fun. (Is it sacrilidge that I referred to taking an exam as being fun??)

M.A.R.R.C.A. (a.k.a. "sword club") held its last meeting for the semester on thursday, and it was a blast. Anyone not attending missed out on one of the best days yet! We had another "Zombie Day" like we did for Hallowween to celebrate the holiday season. One "zombie" is declared and draws from a hat the method that must be used to kill him or her while the humans group together and wonder what the bit of paper has written on it, because none of us have ever seen it before. It's rather tricky! Susan acted as our first zombie since she knew all of the papers(she wrote most of them.) We managed to disarm her and all of the zombies she managed to make(being killed by a zombie turns you into one.) We milled around for a while, failing miserably at figuring out how to kill her, and eventually everything went bad and no humans remained. As the rounds continued, the humans experienced more success, but it was still a blast running about. I was elected to be the first zombie for one round, but my death choice was a rather simple one, so I only managed to kill off Ross before being surrounded by death. Ross is an excellent first choice to kill, by the way, and he managed to turn most everyone into a zombie all on his own. :) Huzzah victory! Some of the papers read thusly, for those curious: you die if...
"you're killed by anyone that is not Ross or Kyle"(amazing when only Ross and another person are alive!)
"you are attacked by two or more people"
"you are wearing black. tough luck, that's the way it is."
and one even just killed you right out. I'm glad I didn't grab that one. :)

I also get to borrow two of the club swords due to the lack of meetings between now and my exam in folklore next week! Yay! They're so well crafted that I can't help but admire them now that I have time to actually look at their craftsmanship more closely. I can't wait to use them for the presentation, especially since I'm planning on teaching David a new technique I worked out with Michele. David is a MARRCA member that is conveniently in my class, which makes it much easier to swing a sword at him in compare to trying to get a non-member to cooperate without being at least a little concerned for his or her life! (Wooden swords can be rather intemedating when someone is swinging one at you with a death-stare, especially when you're not as experienced as the other person is.)

(Due to a continued lack of a digetal camera, I felt compelled to share this German comic by Joscha Sauer with you; it's about Yetis synchronized swimming! =] )

In 1838 a war was fought for French pasteries taken from a restuarant. This was the War of the Cakes.

2006-12-09T19:28:00.000-05:00

Egads! I spent forever getting a post typed up to put up here earlier this week, talking all about the sword club meeting and everything, and then my internet browser decided that it was unhappy with me and demanded that I close it and send off and errror report. I burnt with unspeakable rage! But at the same time it was rather amusing, because, had I not spent ten minutes fussing over my title, I would have had it up and safe. O well. :) I think my titles would be best spent instilling random factoids to the world rather than coming up with a prfound title that blows one's mind upon reading the corresponding blog entry. Where's the fun in that? Last entry's factoid was that the Great Cannon of Mehmed was a 42-inch bombard used by the Turks to attack the walls of Constantinople with 1200-pound boulders with a range of about a mile. The draw back? It could only be fired seven times a day.

Onto something more profound! Sword club this week was outstanding despite the ever-threatening cold. Yesterday was great, as we went over some attacks, several of which we already knew, or they were fairly close to ones we already knew. My favourite new move is called the Rising Falcon! It works best when you shout that just before performing it so that everyone is highly confused and higly aware that you're about to use it. ;) Not really. Basically, you start with the sword down and to your side, tip back. You slice up, and then flip the sword around so that the tip arcs up and loops back at the opponent again for a second fast blow; you then flip it back around and cut back to the original stance. Very cool looking, and it is currently my second favourite move from an aestetic point of view. Possibly third if you count the near useless "Archer's Guard," where one holds the sword like an arrow pulled taught in the bow and then throws it, hoping that 1) it goes where it was being aimed, 2) the pommel doesn't flip up and hit instead of the tip, and 3) that it slays the enemy, because otherwise a good pair of running shoes is highly recommended. Hopefully I can get my digetal camera soon so that I can actually SHOW all of you how this looks!

Exam week is looming ever closer, its gullet for crazed, frothy-mouthed, nervous students insatiable!!! Good thing my exam schedule is fairly low-stress after my lovely 8:30 A.M. exam next Saturday. Yea, a Saturday morning exam. The excitement abounds! Surprisingly, I am looking forward to a few of my exams. (Half of them, actually, but the mediocrity of one of the others and the dread of the massive review for the other help to off-set this.) For my folklore class we did independant research on living folklore today, and I ran with my project on sword club after pushing a few other ideas around. So, for my presentation I plan to fight with a fellow classmate that happens to be in the club with broadswords and rondels. It shall be wondrously amusing, weilding the wasters inside of Slocum. Maybe we can have a dramatic fight under the stainedglass, which I don't think recieves half the credit it should for how beautiful it is. If you've no idea of what I'm speaking of, ask me, and I'll point you to it, because it really must not be missed! Perhaps I can get some photos to put up here. Well, that's enough for today, I suppose. My German exam will be a great pleasure, and the rest of the days this semester will fly by, and then I'll be off on break, wondering where the time flew. Hopefully I'll have time to finish some reading and some art that I've been meaning to get to!

Guten Tag!

2006-12-04T19:39:00.000-05:00

Greetings all! I suppose an introduction is merited, no matter how brief or elaborate, eh? I'm Courtney, one of the new bloggers here at OWU! I'm majoring in German and something else (perhaps creative writing!), but I have a rather wide and random scope of interests. (Anyone else out there a Chester A. Arthur fan?) I'm a rabid member of M.A.R.R.C.A., which is OWU's outstanding sword club. We practice medieval and renaissance style sword techniques as well as doing some work with rondels, a dagger-like blade that you use just for stabbing. We don’t use real blades though! Really! We have beautiful wooden ones made by our own smithy, the lovely Sam! It’s so much fun, running about, strategizing, and learning to master 8-point! We love it when newcomers stop by, so stop by and say hello sometime on a Tuesday, Thursday, or Friday at five in the park across from the Women’s House and MFL house! Until I get my digital camera I’ll just have to put up some photos I happen to have taken during a practice for my upcoming Myth, Legends, and Folklore project.
Sunday my good friend Shannon hosted a prospective student, but since she’s in choir, she couldn’t show her around until after the choir concert! So we wandered about Deleware, viewing all the important sights, such as the Mean Bean and famed sulfur spring until the concert. I wasn’t really sure what to expect going in, but I was more than pleasantly surprised! If ever you get the chance to see the choir perform live, jump to it! It’s truly hard to explain how enjoyable the entire show was. I only wish the organ had gotten more play time, but then again I’m a dreadfully big fan of that organ. I love hearing it nearly every Tuesday and Thursday during my German class, its powerful, gusty notes drifting up to swirl amongst my notes on der Gruene and von Stoffeln! Wonderful. Truly wonderful.