I'm back!

And I really did try to read all of the backlog of entries, but um...I don't think I can catch up on that volume. So if anything really exciting happened in the last week that you want me to know, you'll have to tell me again.

The short of it: teenagers are great, Germany is gorgeous, I wish I spoke better German, since the American kids came mostly at the end and instead of translating, as I'd expected, I ended up massacring the language. Seeing teenagers really committed to doing something good, and seeing how brothers and sisters who are close to each other really make a difference in helping and supporting each other, was really good. I also ran into a number of people I knew from past stays in Germany, which was really cool. A kid I was primary teacher to when he was seven is now a missionary in Belgium (so, he's 19 now--do I feel old or what???).

And now since I'm massacring the English language as well, I will stop to do a meme that at least two people tagged me for.

1. The rules of the game get posted at the beginning.
2. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
3. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5-6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read the player’s blog.
4. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.

What were you doing ten years ago?

Hm, in 1998 I was finishing my masters degree in ESL at the University of Illinois. We lived in a miniscule apartment owned by the university and I still had a year to go. That was also the summer we drove to New York, NJ, and MA with our oldest, who was around 6 months.

What are five things on your to-do list for today (not in any particular order):

1  Hug my family
2. Lie down.
3. Read a book.
4. Brush my teeth.
5. Completely space out and empty my brain and enjoy having the youth trip behind me!

What are some snacks you enjoy?

Any kind of German chocolate (especially if it's Lindt's Weihnachtsschokolade, and yes, I know it's Swiss, not German)
pistacios (and yes, I know it's misspelled)
corn chips (I notice my body craves corn and misses it whenever I'm in Germany for a long time--they don't each much corn here.)

What would you do if you were a billionaire?

Pay off all debts.

Help out my family with financial matters.

Find a way to fund education in Afghanistan. I can read. It's not fair that they can't.

Donate to the Perpetual Education Fund (a fund in places like South American where otherwise smart people who don't have money can get loans to study, and then replenish the loan as they are able so others can study.)

Go visit Britain

Do lots of genealogy.

Buy lots of books!

What are three of your bad habits?

Jumping to conclusions
Not being patient enough
Not liking housework (I would rather read!)
And, no doubt in someone's eyes, not dressing my kids in Strumpfhose all the time.

What are five places where you have lived?

Bonn, Germany
Olmue, Chile (thus my screen name)
Arkansas Ozarks
Charleston, SC
New Jersey

What are five jobs you have had?

Fast food slave
illustrator (university press, educational materials)
editor (university press, educational materials)
writer, of course! (even if I'm still working on the financial renumeration part...)
MOM :)

What six people do you want to tag?

Um...I have no idea how many people have done this so if you want to do it and haven't been tagged, go right ahead!

various pictures of where I've been lately

Which of course you can feel free to skip.

There are many street musicians in Germany; they're a part of the landscape. I've seen this guy a number of times in Nurnberg. I have no idea what you call his instrument, other than "interesting."

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You can see them bigger at my Flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/55411057@N00/

And more... (local festival)--and tracht

So here we have what most closely would correspond to America's idea of the county fair, minus the animals. Lots of towns have a "Kirchweih" (Bayern) or "Kermes" (Nordrhein-Westfalen) every year where you have rides and food booths and if the town stores beer in hobbit-like holes in the hills, they open the beer cellars and set up tables and serve the stuff. It is a huge family-friendly local event. You have probably heard of Oktoberfest; that is the best known, but there are hundreds of smaller ones.

Anyway, one of the big elements of this event is that it is one of the times when it is perfectly normal for people to dress up in Tracht, or traditional outfits. I think there is only one age where it is not cool to wear Tracht, ie teen. People in their 20s until death can wear it, and children can wear it, but about 12-19 or so it is not so cool.

There is no one Tracht for Germany, by the way. "Germany" is an invention of 1870; before that it was a region of small, German-speaking kingdoms. And each town within those kingdoms will have its own variation of Tracht. There are whole clubs dedicated to people wearing their local Tracht and doing dances and singing traditional songs. But I think you will recognize all of these variants as German.

Here we have the kind of Biermadchen sort of Tracht:

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