Sunday, October 31, 2010

Summer: KALIMA Shuck-ti-day...?

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

It’s been a while ladies!

Early this week (last Sunday) my sister called me with an urgent request—my address!  Alright, whatever.  So, she calls me in the middle of the week demanding that I go to my mailbox.  At 11:30pm I remember that I need to go pick up that package or else risk the wrath of my sister, even though she is a few hundred miles away.  I grew up in fear, clearly.

This is what happened.



I’m sorry I don’t have a better picture—ie me in full regalia.  But, since I suck at taking pictures, this is what I found on someone’s facebook.  Yes, I am a RAINBOW FISH!  That mysterious package from my sister contained that wacked out hat, the glittery purple glasses (which provided UV protection, thank you very much) and the even more random pink, feathery boa.  Needless to say, I hung out at Goodwill and found a fantastic hand-crocheted teacher vest—in fiesta colors!  My skirt was made from wrapping paper (some people thought I was some sort of present). 

Anyway, I had a pretty good time at some med school-ish party.  There was nearly not enough dancing, but I danced with my friend Lilian anyway.  By the way—she is the Ninja Turtle.  My mom sewed that costume some 12 years ago.  Lilian was able to fit in the whole thing—including the one-sie jump suit!

So, this Halloween (and my secretly horrible addiction to Glee) brought me upon Rocky Horror.  So, I want everyone to get up, sing, and do the TIME WARP!!!!


This brings me back to Pearl St. Drag Parties!  LEROY!!  I mostly remember Tim on the floor to the meat-fridge in a floral print dress that, I think, belonged to Jenn's (Fey) mom.  This was pre-Tim&Jenn.  And, somehow four of us (unnamed individuals) tried a four way kiss.  Thank god that didn't pan out!  Those were the days!

In other news.  This is what we did in anatomy lab this past Thursday.


Yes, we took out the heart.  YES, it was absolutely AMAZING!  No, it is not as big as your fist…it is BIGGER!  Well, ours was.

Anywho,  I am well and I hope everyone else is TOO!

We need more posts.  Thank god for Claire--she is the SOUL of our blog.

Oh, and I would love to go camping over winter break sometime if anyone is interested!

Love you all,

Summer

Monday, October 25, 2010

Claire: Codo reaches a whole new level

Codo - Ich düse im Sauseschritt from Michael Klarfeld on Vimeo.


Film project at school last weekend + cheap beer + a wonderful song as inspiration = this video!

This was put together by my teacher mentor, Michael. I do hope this is but the first of many funny videos we make this year.

I suppose it's obvious that I'm having a jolly good time in Dresden. :-) I'll write more about it sometime soon.


Ach but before I go it's my moral obligation to tell you guys about this great resource where you can turn youtube video audio into mp3s: video2mp3.net. what a goldmine! it's brainless to use and takes about one minute for each song.

xoxo,
claire

Sunday, October 17, 2010

PUMBA KAT

Hallööööö liebe Kunden!


How the heck are you guys? I've been so out of the loop.

Hohkay, I wanted to write more but here's the deal: IT'S A SUNNY DAY. And I'd be a fool to stay indoors on a day like this. My sunny days are, like, numbered as November nears......
I also wanted to post some lovely pictures of fall foliage, but I can't find the darn link for uploading pictures! They'll come L8R

I'm having a great time. I'm wrapping up my fall break and on Tuesday I'm going to start teaching 4realz. I've had the past 2 weeks free and I took trips to Berlin, Kiel & Flensburg. These 2 northernly cities are 30 minutes apart, but Germans consider the difference to be profound. Actually they're right.

Berlin is wild! There's Germany and there's Berlin. It's super international, very funky, and the scene is constantly changing. In spirit, it's like a cosmopolitan version of Austin. It's only 2 hours away and I know plenty of people living there, so I'll visit fairly often. I'm very glad that I live in Dresden though-- in Berlin it would be hard to meet German people, oddly enough. Dresden is like this Baroque dream come true. Plus, it's the size of Austin and there is so much to do. Huzzah!

In Kiel and Flensburg I was reunited with Frederike & her family & her spectactular friends. I had a damn good time. We had a MUSTACHE PARTY and I got reacquainted with Fernet Branca y Coca, which is what people drink in Argentina. Listen, I think it's stupid to talk about drinking, but I'm going to make a brief exception: Fernet is something else. It's actually quite nice on your stomach and you'll have an opposite-hangover the next day. It is, however, an "acquired taste". (OK I'm done now)

But really, the best part of the trip was at the grocery store. I was buying said drink and some old man started pushing his shopping cart against me (instead of asking me to kindly move or going around me). Then after I grumbled some insults, he took out his knife and starting sharpening it. Fuckin weirdo.

Hmm this is already becoming long and the sun is beckoning me. I'm going to a "Hochseilgarten" with my housemates. It's a place where you climb shit, but it's not rock climbing.

But in a nutshell, I wanted to say that I'm back in Dresden after some, um, life-threatening adventures. I can't say that I've developed much of a routine yet. There is still so much to see and do, but I'm definitely carving myself a cozy little niche with the groovy new people that I'm meeting and at my home.


That's all for now, folks! BYE!! And check out this sweet Chilean music playlist that NPR compiled.

Besos,
Claire

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Andrea - P-I-Z-Z-A

So following Claire's lead, I wanted to put a video up that I thought would make you laugh. I think you will all get a kick out of watching this video, even if you weren't a fan of Mary-Kate and Ashley's sleepovers!! It's awesome.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wusGIl3v044

Sorry, I thought I would know how to embed videos by now but you should all know that I am really bad with computers. So click on the link to watch the video- trust me it will make you laugh.

And a quick update on my life: School is good -- I'm starting to become really interested in my thesis project but it really still hasn't picked up as much as I thought it would (i.e it is much easier than undergrad and I have a lot of free time (I'm sorry, Summer!)) Today I decided that I don't want to waste evenings in front of my computer anymore so from now on I am going to try to watch the sunset from the hills whenever I can. Today I hiked up a hill, did some sun salutations on top of the hill and then read my book (For whom the Bell Tolls - by Hemingway (who also lived in Idaho!)) until the sun went down. It was the perfect evening and I can't wait to do it again tomorrow.

Speaking of routines that I am establishing for myself: Every Saturday morning I bike down to the farmers market and buy all the produce that I will need that week. I have been cooking the best food, I wish I could throw a pot-luck/dance party for all of you lovely ladies and you too, Chett.

Things with Michael are super, if you were wondering. He came up to vist me two weekends ago and he is coming again in another two weeks. Long distane kind of sucks but we are making it work and it's not as hard as I thought it would be. I'm really happy with him =). On the subject of boys... I am going to Denver at the end of October for a big geology conference and I'm probably going to see Josh. I wouldn't consider us friends really but things are fine between us and I'm actually grateful to him for breaking up with me because I am 100 % certain now that he was not right for me.


Besides that, I don't really know what else to update you on, nothing much is new- maybe that's why it took me so long to post a real entry. I'm glad to hear that everyone is doing well.

hope to hear from all of you soon.

Andrea.

Claire: booty from the new wave treasure chest!

Dear friends, here's a quick entry before I leave for Berlin tomorrow.

It's overdue that I share this masterful German song with you guys. It's cool (read: hilarious) on so many levels, so where do I begin to dispel it's wonder? It's just as entertaining to watch the video as to listen to the song. Firstly, the video just grabs you from the very beginning: these pyschadelic, swinging mirrors lead to the entrance of a tan, balding man wearing a muscle t-shirt. Then appears a munchkin man wearing some glasses that might have belonged to Elton John. Eventually a blonde girl enters the scene and she's supposed to be an alien bringing love to planet of hate. I think she's struggling to keep a straight face throughout the whole shenanigan. Everyone acts and sings together to tell of the epic encounter of love and hate in outer space!!

By the way, most Germans roll their eyes at me when I tell them how much I love this song. I suspect that you guys will too, heh heh.




Here are the lyrics. It's worth listening to the German version too because the rhyming is both silly and clever. I translated the song into a pretty rough English, but somehow that seemed appropriate.

Seit 2.000 Jahren lebt die Erde ohne Liebe.
Es regiert der Herr des Hasses.
For 200 years the Earth has lived without love.
The Kingdom of Hatred rules.

Häßlich, ich bin so häßlich, so gräßlich häßlich:
Ich bin der Haß!
Hassen, ganz häßlich hassen, ich kann's nicht lassen:
Ich bin der Haß!
Ugly, I am so ugly, so horribly ugly:
I am the hatred!
Hating, such hateful hating, i can't stop it:
I am the hatred!


Attention, attention.
Unknown flying object approaching the planet. -
Identify unknown flying object.

Codo der dritte, aus der Sternenmitte bin ich der dritte von Links.
Codo the Third, coming from the stars i'm the third on the left

Unknown flying object identify says: Codo"

Und ich düse, düse, düse, düse im Sauseschritt
und bring' die Liebe mit von meinem Himmelsritt.
Denn die Liebe, Liebe, Liebe, Liebe, die macht viel Spaß,
viel mehr Spaß als irgendwas.
And I speed along, speed along, speed along in a fast pace
and I bring the love in my spaceship
because the love, love, love, love, it's really fun
much more fun than something


We do not need any love on this planet:

Tötet Codo! Vernichtet die Liebe!
Kill Codo! Destroy the love!

Codo aus der Ferne der leuchtenden Sterne:
Ich düse so gerne durchs All.
Codo from far away, from the bright stars
Ich love to speed along in outspace


Und ich düse, düse, düse, düse im Sauseschritt
und bring' die Liebe mit von meinem Himmelsritt.
Denn die Liebe, Liebe, Liebe, Liebe, die macht viel Spaß,
viel mehr Spaß als irgendwas.
And I speed along, speed along, speed along in a fast pace
and I bring the love in my spaceship
because the love, love, love, love, it's really fun
much more fun than somethin
g

Objekt überwindet den Hassschirm.
Object has penetrated the Hate bubble.

Ätzend, ich bin so ätzend, alles zersetzend:
Ich bin der Haß.
Acidic, i am so acidic, entirely corrosive
I am the hatred.

Mächtig, unendlich mächtig, und niederträchtig.
So ist mein Haß.
Powerful, infinitely powerful, and wicked.
Such is my hatred.


Und ich düse, düse, düse, düse im Sauseschritt
und bring' die Liebe mit von meinem Himmelsritt.
Denn die Liebe, Liebe, Liebe, Liebe, die macht viel Spaß,
viel mehr Spaß als irgendwas.
And I speed along, speed along, speed along in a fast pace
and I bring the love in my spaceship
because the love, love, love, love, it's really fun
much more fun than something


Here are a couple other German New Wave gems. Don't take them seriously, just sit back and laugh! Or dance?