Well, I finally finished my project for work. Week before last I worked 80 hours, didn’t leave the house for six days, and animated like a madman to finish the scenes for the video game. And that still didn’t cut it, so I spent last week tying up everything and sending it off to work.
And now I can breathe a little easier.
Well, actually I can’t. I’m still suffering from cracked ribs or something from when I coughed myself silly. And there’s the lingering breathing problems that seem to be some kind of asthma. At least I’m not contagious.
Saturday Matthias’ father took us to a castle in the town of Bueckeburg. The Counts of the surrounding area have lived in this place for hundreds of years, and their family still lives there and owns some of the other castles and fortresses in the Schaumburg area. One of the interesting things about this castle/palace at Bueckeburg is the ball room. Evidently the church has occasionally rented this pink marble room for youth dances. Now if that wouldn’t be cool! I’m not much into dancing, but throwing a party in an old castle sounds like a grand idea.
Outside of the castle there was a small antique store. We asked them to pull out their maps, and they did. I have had a fascination with maps ever since before I even read Tolkien, but Lord of the Rings sealed my love for it. I’ve been drawing them since 6th grade when my reading teacher read parts of the Hobbit to us and gave us the assignment to create a map, write a story in that world, and draw pictures of the characters.
Isn’t that coolest assignment ever? I wish I could remember the name of that teacher, because she might very well be one of the most-influential teachers in helping me choose what I want to do with the rest of my life.
But anyway, back to the maps. I picked out five of these (reproductions, unfortunately) and wish that I could’ve bought them all. Most of the ones I did get are medieval drawings of cities I’ve already been to whether on this trip or when I was an exchange student here twelve years ago.
So, now with my employer project done, it’s time to do a little work for myself. I’ve already started back on Nethermore. I haven’t done as much writing as I’d have liked, but I’m back into it, and that’s what matters.
And now this week we’re going to Munich! I’ve been excited about going back to southern Germany for several months now. We may hit some of the more interesting towns on our way down, stopping in Nuremburg for the night and then moving on to Munich by Wednesday. I don’t know what’s planned for the rest of the trip. But maybe we’ll make it into Austria or Switzerland or maybe even Northern Italy.
One of the places I’m really excited about it going to again is Neuschwanstein. Everybody’s seen pictures of this castle. It’s the one on which Disney based the Disneyland castle. It’s so beautiful that it’s surreal.
So today I realized that I only had a backpack that was way too small for all my clothes for a week’s trip. I went into town to see what they had there, and went to the grocery store on the way back to pick up a few food items for the trip tomorrow. I must’ve looked lost as I was looking for Ziploc bags (although I’ve been to this grocery store many times before) because a lady came up to me and asked if she could help me.
How do I explain a Ziploc bag in another language when I don’t know the name for “little plastic bag thing”? So I told her, “I’m looking for a small plastic pocket sacks that one can put things in like gummy bears and stuff.” She was very nice and gestured for me to follow her back to the meat department where she pulled out two sacks with handles and put all my groceries in them. She thought I was tired of carrying what I was going to buy! I thanked her and later found the Ziploc bags in another part of the store. I wonder if I could have just said, “Ich suche Ziploc” and that would’ve been enough.
I found the coolest bag ever! I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but I’ve always had a fascination with backpacks and luggage and plastic containers to store things in. Maybe it’s OCD or something in my head that figures everything has to be organized. This works in theory, since my stuff looks like it’s always in random places. But I assure, it’s organized!
So anyway, this bag works as a duffle bag and a backpack. You can zip the arm straps handily away and stuff this thing as full of clothing or chocolate or whatever, throw it over your shoulder, and then travel to places like France, Vienna, and Orem and eat your chocolate there. And you have enough room for the spare clothes in case you get a little messy eating that chocolate! Ooh boy, I’m on one today. Let’s just leave it at: I like my bag.
Anyway, I’m standing in line at the cash register. By now I’m pretty good at being able to get around and ask questions (though I may not understand the answers), so I was asking some questions of the lady at the register. I’ve got an American accent like you can’t believe, and I probably structure my German sentences like Tagalog sentences. If I keep my mouth shut, nobody can tell I’m not from around here. The moment I open it, it’s like spray-painting my face bright green. After I started talking, the girl behind me in line visibly craned her head to get a good look at me. Or maybe she just thought I was attractive. I mean, she was cute, too. Maybe it wasn’t my accent at all. Maybe it was Chemistry. But alas, I will never find out.
