Things I Did Today

Today was pretty laid back. I hung around in my jammies and made some homemade soup. It was tasty :D

I also spent some time with my friend Wikipedia. I know it is not an academic source, but I do kinda enjoy the random things you can learn off it. Like today, when I started by looking up Steven Strait and 10, 000 BC and ended the session by reading about the Dionne quintuplets. It was an interesting afternoon for sure.

I plan to spend this evening watching movies and possibly Skyping. So if you need me, you know where I'll be.

The Wave

It's a book. My grade 10s are reading it and in order to keep up with things that the teacher is talking about, I've begun reading it as well. The thing is though, that it is kind of a terrifying book.

It begins with a question asked by a student in a history class in high school- Why did no one try to stop the Nazis? The teacher decides to try an experiment on the class: He wants to show them why the Nazis were able to take power. From there, things go down hill at such an incredible rate. At first no one sees what is happening: not the students, not the teacher conducting the experiment, not the parents.

The experiment explodes out of control. People start to get hurt. It becomes a replay of a totalitarian society but in small town America. And that is what makes the book so scary- because the author shows just how fast and easy it is to fall into that trap. Which then makes you re-consider Germany's actions and see how easy it would have been for them to fall into the trap. Which then might cause you to stop and think.

It could have happened anywhere.

This book was based on the real life teaching experiment The Third Wave, conducted by Ron Jones in Palo Alto, California at Cubberley High School in 1967.

Names

1. YOUR SPY NAME (middle name and current street name):
Jessica Jean Rose-Street

2. YOUR MOVIE STAR NAME (grandfather/mother on your mom's side and your favorite candy):
Martha Haribo

3. YOUR RAP NAME (first initial of first name and first three or four letters of your last name):
E-Bru

4. YOUR GAMER TAG (a favorite color, a favorite animal)
Blue Dawg

5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME (middle name, and city you were born in)
Jessica Jean Tofield- hmmm. clearly based on the awkwardness of this name, I am not cut out to star in the soaps. darn the luck

6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME (first three letters of your last name, last three letters of mother's maiden name, and then the first three letters of your pet's name)
Bruyck Nor

7. JEDI NAME (middle name spelled backwards, your mom's maiden name spelled backwards):
Acissej-Naej Kcyd - wow, that's pretty intense. I guess that's what two middle names will do to your Jedi name :)

8. PORN STAR NAME (first pet's name, the street you grew up on)
Jake RR201. I think this classifies me as having the least popular stripper name ever. Although I could get lucky and start a trend with it. Move over Candi and Bambi--> Jake RR201 is coming through.

9. SUPERHERO NAME: ("The", your favorite color and the automobile your mom drives)
The Blue Impala- this one is pretty sweet. i wonder what my super power would be though?

10. YOUR ACTION HERO NAME (first name of the main character in the last film you watched, last food you ate)
Juno Gouda. seriously random

Classics

I was feeling kinda sick this afternoon, so I spent it wrapped up in blankets watching classic movies. First up- X-men 3. not so much a classic but i enjoyed it anyway. After that I watched Adventures in Babysitting, which was one of my favorite movies when i was younger (please no Twister or Jurassic Park jokes!) I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed it.

Another movie I watched this afternoon was Juno. I know it's not really old enough yet to be considered a classic- but I'm pretty sure given time it will be. I think Ellen Page does a good job and I also think the dialogue is pretty funny. What I didn"t realize is that Ellen Page is also in X-men 3. Interesting and random. Just thought I would point that out.

Now all I need is some popcorn :)

Did You Seriously Just Ask That?

I would just like to point out that when someone comes up to me and asks me what I am doing when it is completely obvious,they usually get the You're-an-idiot stare of death.

However, this morning I was so taken aback by it, I couldn't even form a sentence.

As I was midway through cleaning the bathroom, Quentin came in and said, "So you're cleaning the bathroom this week?"

No dumbass. I just thought I would come in, do most of it and then not finish. *sigh* That child is clearly suffering from a bad case of Captain Obvious Syndrome.

Mad Skillz

I just thought I would take a moment to brag about my mad skills for a second here.

Yesterday while riding my bike, with a backpack full of groceries and another bag of groceries hanging off the handlebar, I managed to pull a mitten off and dig my pop out. I finished my pop, put the lid back on and managed to balance all the groceries and myself as I continued riding and reached out for the garbage can I was passing. I then neatly dropped the bottle in without stopping OR falling.

Did I mention that this was accomplished in the semi-dark too?

I shit you not- no way could I even make this up. Also, I'm not going to lie- I felt kinda like a superhero. Thinking about it now however, I wonder what my superhero name would be based on this? Maybe the Balance-anator or Mad Skillz? Any ideas?

Fantastic

At the time of this post I had:

28 Days, 15 Hours, 23 Minutes remaining until I am at home (according to my Facebook countdown)

Also- this is awesome because apparently the countdown clock keeps ticking :D
Fantastic. I will see you then.

Ikea in Cologne

Last week Meg came to visit and we wandered up to Cologne to visit Elise. Most of our day was spent at Ikea. We wandered and took a bunch of pictures and saw some stuff in the store. i think our favorite part was the kids toys :) We went to Elise's house afterward and she shared some of the really tasty muffins she baked. We then wandered down to the train station to catch our ride home.

I have some pictures, but i can't make them work- so i will again later.

Getting It Out

I am a bit angry. Mostly at my blog. Thus, no posts for over a week.

The purpose of this blog is not to write stories that are only humorous and lighthearted for the folks back home to read. This blog is to tell you about what I have been up to and new things I've seen and done. This blog will also be used to rant.

Dear reader, if you don't want to take my bad stories WITH the good- don't read. It is that simple. Do I tell you what to write? No? Funny how that works, isn't it?

Thanks for letting me get it out as passive-aggressively as possible. Have a nice day.

Only Average

Just before Christmas, I wrote an English exam with one of my grade 10 classes. It took me substantially less time- but, in the end- I came out only average :( Ironically, it is apparently quite possible for me to fail English.

Playing with Food

The result of playing with my food:

There is nothing more satisfying than finding a bag of letter shaped gummy candies and then using them to refer to yourself in the third person :D

Blackout

I work at a pretty nice school, but it has a lot of power outages. Like yesterday when the power went off 3 times within 2 hours. It was bunk. Part of the problem is that they are constructing a new wing at the school. I think another part of the problem is that the construction company keeps tripping breakers and cutting the wrong wires.

Efficiency at its finest.

Monkeys

I couldn't even make this up. One of the kids in my 9th grade English class had a couple small fuzzy looking toy things on his desk. We were doing a writing assignment when he put up his hand to call me over. I should have known better, this kid is not known for his work ethic. Even so it was still a surprise when I got to his desk and the following happened:

Student- Oh Teacher, I'm glad you came over- I wanted to show you my monkey.
Me- Excuse me? what Monkey?
Student- my little Monkey- I like to play with my monkey, see- I am kissing the monkey. (picks up fuzzy monkey toy thing and kisses it)
Me- You do know that monkey is also English slang for man parts?
Student-Monkey? Really? Oh crap- I feel like an idiot.

I was laughing so hard I almost had to leave the room.

(Repeating this conversation in the staff room led to me learning at least 5 new German slang words for man parts- It was almost as awkward as the original conversation about the monkey)

Another Frustrating Day

I was going to tell you a funny story that happened this morning in one of my classes, but my last class of the day kinda ruined my good mood and then i got locked out AGAIN. So right now i am pretty unimpressed with the whole situation here and the funny story will have to wait until tomorrow at least, because i am in a pretty foul mood now.

sorry to disappoint.

Ewww.

There are a lot of new flavours that i have come across in the last 4 months. Kiwi yogurt was one of the more untasty of these. but i have also had lime-raspberry flavoured things as well.

However, yesterday i came across something even more out of the blue than normal and i wasn't even in a hippie type store like planet organic. i was just at the regular grocery store when i came a cross Aloe Vera-Rose flavoured yogurt. Being not particularly adventurous when it comes to food, i gagged a little and quickly walked away. it was disturbing to say the least :s

Easy Life

This is one of those fun surveys that always pop up everywhere:

Put your iTunes on shuffle. For each question, press the next button to get your answer. write it down don't cheat. blah, blah, blah- pretty straight forward...


1. IF SOMEONE ASKS "Is this okay?" YOU SAY...
Write this Down- George Strait

2. WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY?
You never even call me by my name- Merle Haggard. So does this mean i am too cold to bother remembering people's names?

3. WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
If i said you had a beautiful body (would you hold it against me?)- Bellamy Brothers

4. WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE?
A real fine place to start- Sara Evans

5. WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?
Firecracker- Josh Turner

6. WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?
Shameless- Garth Brooks

7. WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
Take me away - Avril Lavigne.

8. WHAT IS 2+2?
Counterfeiter's blues- Corb Lund. Does the math add up?

9. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?
I love Rock and Roll- Britney Spears

10. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Wasted- Carrie Underwood. I don't know how this applies specifically, but the possibilities are ENDLESS.

11. WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
I'm not ready to go- i'm not even sure if that's the actual name of the song even- damn limewire.

12. WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
You ain't much fun- Toby Keith. well, i'm currently not much fun- does this mean i am finally a grownup?

13. WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Down in Mississippi (and up to no good) - Sugarland

14. WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
Amazed- Lonestar. Wow- didn't see that one coming. lol.

15. WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?
Stupid Boy- Keith Urban. well- he did have the misfortune to get shackled up to me... he couldn't've thought that one out too well

16. WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
International Harvester- Craig Morgan- this is another one of those doesn't make sense ones

17. WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
She'll leave you with a smile- George Strait. HAHAHAHA. I couldn't even have planned this one to end up funnier.

18. WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?
Stayed til two- Gord Bamford

19. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
Leave a light on- Garth Brooks- that's right- the iPod has asked you all to remember me. lol.

20. WHAT'S THE WORST THING THAT COULD HAPPEN?
We'll burn that bridge (when we get there) Brooks and Dunn

21. HOW WILL YOU DIE?
Bat out of hell- Meatloaf. Indeed.

22. WHAT IS THE ONE THING YOU REGRET?
Lovebug- George Strait

23. WHAT MAKES YOU LAUGH?
I never promised you a rose garden- Martina McBride

24. WHAT MAKES YOU CRY?
Hair in my eyes like a highland steer- Corb Lund. ???

25. WILL YOU EVER GET MARRIED?
Alberta bound- Paul Brandt. K- what does this even mean?

26. WHAT SCARES YOU THE MOST?
Standing outside the fire- Garth Brooks

27. DOES ANYONE LIKE YOU?
As If- Sara Evans. HAHAHA. wow- cause that wasn't a major blow to my ego :)

28. IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME, WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE?
Apparently nothing: I like it, I love it- Tim McGraw

29. WHAT HURTS RIGHT NOW?
If you see him- Brooks and Dunn& Reba Macintire

30. WHAT WILL YOU POST THIS AS?
Easy life- Finger Eleven

So what have we learned?

not so much really. now would prolly be a good time to re-sync my iPod with some new material.

A Few Big Dates

I'm getting into the spirit of things here with the whole Big Dates of the 2008.

1) wrote my last university exam at the end of April
2) graduated in May
3) Nora turned one mid May
4) brutalized both my ankles camping in late August
5) left for Germany on Aug 31.

It's nothing particularly exciting, but it's the best i've got so far.

Big Dates in 2009:

JUNE 1- Return to the AB, CA. This is something I am really stoked for. Am i stoked for the whole finding a job/figuring out what i want to do with the rest of my life once I get there? Hmmmm... not so much.

François the Second

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you... François the Second:

I made him out of the whole inch and a bit of snow that fell here last night. This is only the second time that the snow has actually stayed on the ground without melting immediately this winter. The last time it snowed it was gone the next day, so i thought i would make the most of it today. I asked Joey if she wanted to help, but she has a cold and wasn't really feeling up to it, so i made him myself.

The people here in town are not accustomed to driving in the snow really, we didn't even have rain let alone snow for Christmas. Things are moving very slowly around here today and people are bundling up more than normal to face the killer snow :)

People in this Blog

As per Kirsty's suggestion, here is a quick run down of the people who have appeared in this blog:

The Family:
Lena and Alfred- host parents
Toby and Leo - their oldest children, they don't live at home
Joey (aka Jovanka)- youngest daughter, my age- a lot of fun.
Quentin- youngest son

Other random people appearing:
Megan- friend, doing the same ESL program, from SK.
Aaron- friend, doing the same ESL program
Nick- friend, doing the same ESL program- also conveniently lives in the same town as me
Antje and Alex- I work with Antje, Alex is her husband.
Claudia- my mentor at the school.

I hope this helps and that i didn't violate any FOIP type issues.

Useless Knowledge

I was updating my blog just a bit ago, when i came across a random fact that actually deserved to be followed up on. I can't vouch for the accuracy or usefulness of the study's findings, but it's an interesting idea nonetheless. It was about the effect of human drugs on spider and how it effects their ability to spin webs. Check it out:

http://www.trinity.edu/jdunn/spiderdrugs.htm

My Bad

I may or may not have accidentally changed the color scheme of the Family's upstairs hand towels. I washed them last week while cleaning the bathroom. It seems that despite the fact that i washed them in cold, the couple of red towels may or may not have gotten extra friendly with the white ones...

Frick. It's not like they haven't all been washed a million times before. And besides- no one really seperates their laundry, do they? I just hope Quentin doesn't notice or he will never get over the fact that i insulted his masculinity by forcing him to use sorta pink towels. Again- laundry sucks, i may start sending it out- nah, we all know i'm too cheap for that, i'll prolly just keep turning stuff pink til my wardrobe is entirely that shade. my bad, indeed.

Ugh.

I think I may have a problem (and no- it’s not the sort of problems that you all have been telling me that I have for years). When we were watching the Dark Knight yesterday, I had trouble understanding what they were saying- they were speaking too fast! Now, my problem is that I am not sure if they were just literally speaking too fast or if I have forgotten how to hear native English speakers. I’d like to think it’s b/c I have been hearing and speaking so much German lately that I am forgetting my English, but the truth is, my German is shit and now apparently, so is my English. So I want to know if they just spoke really fast in the movie or am I forgetting my English? And if I am forgetting my English and my German is still pretty crap- does that mean I will soon be unable to communicate in either? Frick. I already have problems with word order, isn’t that enough???

Weekend Away

I went over to my friend Antje’s house this weekend. It was pretty fun. We ate raclette, which is some sort of melted cheese dish that Germans seem to be crazy about (here’s the Wikipedia link- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raclette). It was pretty intense. During dinner Antje had also made some sort of vermouth type drink thing that was tasty, followed by several beer. In fact, I think you could say that me, Antje, and her husband Alex, had several beers. And lots of Schnapps. It’s all about the schnapps after a fatty meal. I’m not sure why though. It was good fun.

Antje getting the Raclette ready

And we watched The Dark Knight. I thought it was ok, but I didn’t really get it- is it some sort of prequel? I also thought the Joker was insanely terrifying. He was seriously well acted.

Antje made waffles for breakfast today too. It was really nice. I had a pretty good time this weekend.

New Years

No I did not go out and party. I stayed home and read a book. Through out the evening starting at about 8, I heard several fireworks going off in the night. But I celebrated by staying inside and warm in my pj’s. At 12, I heard a lot of fireworks going off, so I walked to the window in my room and watched fireworks from at least 3 different spots in town. I think the idea was that everyone buys their own and sets them off themselves from their backyards and the streets in front of their houses. It reminded me a bit of scenes from movies with cannon explosions or weapons fire at night. The air was filled with smoke from the things and whenever a new one was lit, it exploded against the smoke and perpetual cloud cover of the Ahr valley. It made me a bit lonesome for home so I skyped my family and gave them the Happy New Years. Even though it was only about 4 in the afternoon.

It was a pretty useful call- I got some sweet tech advice from Kim and managed to clean a bit of the junk off my computer. I also learned a bit about disk cleanup and the Run application. Interesting stuff. Kim also gave me some helpful advice about buying an external memory drive. I am running out of space and I have a lot of stuff on my comp that I can’t bear the thought of deleting. So external memory it is! I talked to Andy and Beth as well.

One person that I didn’t have a chance to talk to was Mom. So, Mom, if you’re reading this- Happy New Year. I’ll skype soon :D loves.

Wrapping up Christmas

I know, it's a terrible pun, but I just couldn't help myself :D I've started getting complaints again about the lack of posting. Again- I'm sorry, I have left you all out of the know.

Quickly then- a wrap up of Christmas:

Christmas Eve, the Family and I sat down for a normal Abendbrot with the normal assortment of open faced sandwiches. In acknowledgement of the season they set a nice table. We opened presents after supper that evening. It was very interesting how they did it. They didn't put names on the outside of the packaging, but rather they wrapped the gifts and one at a time they went to the tree selected a gift, opened it, and guessed who it was from and who it was for. It was fun. I got a pair of simple and classy earing from my host parents. I really like them. A couple of noteworthy gifts - the female condom Joey brought back from her trip to Ghana and gave to her mom. Also the dress Joey brought back for her sister- it was a bit low cut and their dad's eyes just about popped right out of his head in disbelief and not-my-daughter-y. It was awesome.

The Tree and Leo picking a present

Quentin, Lena, Joey and Me and Lena

Leo, Toby, and Alfred

After the present opening, we all sat around in the living room and drank some beer. Also awesome. A bit later we went to the street party at the next door neighbour's and drank some mulled wine. We also had a small bonfire in the middle of the street. It was rather strange but all the neighbours came and huddled around the fire, bundled in their winter jackets. (I got some strange looks when i came outside jacketless, but it was a balmy 5 degrees outside and with the fire I didn't really need one. However, I keep forgetting that they tend to stare when I forget to bundle "appropriately" for the "freezing cold" *sigh*)

The bonfire


Joey, Lena, and Lutz and Karin (our neighbours) bundled up for the fire

At about 12.30 Joey and I decided to go the bar (of all random places to go on Christmas Eve). I was really surprised that it was open at all, let alone so late, but Joey assured me that it was open to cater to the needs of the home for the holidays college crowd that had had enough of their families for the evening. Sure enough it was packed. It was also a fair bit away. The trains stop running early in the Ahr valley, so we biked. Basically we got kinda cut at the street gathering, hopped on our bikes and rode the 10 km to the bar, where we sat, drank more, chatted and rode home. I don't suggest cycling while cut. It is potentially dangerous :s

Me and Joey and Joey, Marie and her sister

However, while at the bar, Joey and I met up with a few people we knew. I also saw a guy wearing a sweet vest, and Joey's friend Marie offered to take my picture with him. But, just as we were getting up to go get my picture with the random dude, he put his coat on :( We got the picture anyway, but you can't see the awesome vest. Man- the guy must have thought we were out of our minds nuts!

Random dude. You can tell by the tie that the vest was seriously awesome

We got home at about 4 am and there were still a few diehards at the bonfire. The next evening we had some roast deer and other assorted tasty food type things. It was pretty good :)