“there was a guy, an under water guy who controlled the sea...”
It’s been nearly two months since I last updated my journal. I feel like I have good reasons for being so distant, but that doesn’t change much. I’ve become even more distant to those whom I’m already physically distant to, and I’ve even become distant to my friends in Kiel. I owe people e-mails, pub dates, phone calls and visits and I’m not sure I’ll deliver on any of these before it becomes too late. I feel guilty and overwhelmed and my natural instinct to retreat only compounds this problem. Ugh. In any case, let’s see if I can update you on what happened since May Day.
- Karita and I went to Celle and Hameln . It was a fun, yet rainy trip. Celle’s very beautiful and Hameln is kind of kitschy.
- I took a trip on my own to Hannoversch Münden, Göttingen, Quedlinburg and Goslar. Hannoversch Münden was nice, but not worth the trip, Göttingen is a really neat university town. Quedlinburg has a ton of pretty half-timbered houses and Goslar was the bomb. You guys should really check out that place.
- This semester, I’ve been taking a course called Jylland: samfund, geografi og historie or Jutland: Society, Geography and History. In any case, its aim was to take a 9 day excursion throughout Jutland at the end of May. It was utterly amazing. I took over 1000 photos while I was there and we had nearly perfect weather. I saw amazing things and afterwards, Tim Peters and I made a website as part of the excursion’s exhibition. It’s not 100% finished (but it’s getting closer every day). It’s in German and Danish, but even if you can’t read either language, there’s still some good things to see on the website -such as the gallery and the 2 megabyte map that shows in detail where we were.
- I visited Heidi in Magdeburg and we traveled down to Lutherstadt Wittenberg to see a re-enactment of Martin Luther’s wedding. It was a blast to see her and fun meeting her other fullbrighter friends.
- I was hit by a car. It wasn’t serious, but I had to get stitches in my chin. For a while, I couldn’t shave there, so I had to grow a goatee. Now I just have an ugly scar there.
- I finished my semester here at Kiel. It makes me quite depressed to think that my official classroom learning of Swedish, Icelandic and Danish may end here. Even if it doesn’t, I don’t know when I’ll ever start up learning them again, and no matter what I’m definitely going to miss having Torsten as my Danish teacher.
- Kiel has grown on me and I’m feeling torn. I don’t think I’ve officially told everyone yet, but I will be moving to NYC come September. Part of me is super excited about going back to the US, but part of me doesn’t want to leave Kiel. In any case, it doesn’t matter because I have to go.
- I have a girlfriend. This is a recent development. This, of course means I have really bad timing. Her name is Antje and I went and visited her parents outside of Rostock two weekends ago.
- I’ve been having a lot of health problems that have required a lot of x-rays, ultrasounds, CT scans and MRIs. I had planned to travel around during the summer, but it doesn’t look like I’ll have that much time thanks to more and more hospital visits. I have one tomorrow and one in a week. It makes me depressed to think that all the traveling I had planned and all the places I wanted to visit will go unvisited because I have to visit doctors instead, getting painful procedures done. I talked to my mother last night -at one point I mentioned wanting to stay two weeks longer to travel a bit. She just told me it was “time to grow up.” I guess she’s right, but honestly, growing up is the last thing I want to do.
I can’t think of anything else to write right now. I’m planning on having an Abschiedsparty before I leave Kiel. But let me know if any of you want to get together before I leave. (Lasse: we never finished our bike ride.) I’m still looking for a roommate in NYC and a job. Let me know if you know of anyone in need of a roommate or any job possibilities for me.