another journal flashback....bear with me!

I had so much fun reading back through my whole summer of '93 journal, that I just had to share another entry. This one was from June 10th--my 18th birthday. It was my second time in Germany as an exchange student, but I'd only been there 4 days at this point. I think the whole entry was a good read "as is", but I did a little editing again--mostly the places where I erupted into a paragraph or two of broken German....

Thursday June 10, 1993

I'm laying here in my German bed and watching the sun come up over the tiny village of Berg. The birds are singing beautifully. Even "chirp-chirp" sounds kind of foreign here. About an hour ago the church bells were ringing. It feels good to be back. I really missed this place! Two years was a long time to be away! I'm not sure when I'll be back again, so I'm going to (try!) to enjoy every moment of my stay.

Well, it's my birthday today--the big 18!!! WOW! I feel SO old! I'm even getting a wrinkle.

(entry finished that night:)

At breakfast, there were all these presents surrounding my plate. I think this is a German tradition (?). Miriam gave me "Beauty and the Beast" in German (Die Schoene und das Beist). Her brother gave me chocolate. Her grandparents gave me roses. And her mom gave me perfume and is paying my way to Paris. Pretty cool, eh? Breakfast was eaten in silence though. Miriam's mom and brother know some English--but not a whole lot. Dang!--I wish I knew this language better. The Germans always ask these deep, probing questions about sexism and racism and politics and I have NO IDEA how to even begin to tell them what's in my head and do it "auf Deutsch". I can tell them things like :Wie viel ist eine Luftpost Briefmarke fuer diesen Brief? (How much is an airmail stamp for this letter?) and Schau mal! Die vielen Zebras! (Look at all the Zebras!). That's helpful, right?

After breakfast, I called my American friends Stoney and Heidi and invited them to my party at 4:00. The party was a lot of fun. I got to meet all of Miriam's friends and her boyfriend, Rolf. He kind of gave me the heebie-jeebies. He gives those low-waisted hugs where it seems like he's trying to touch your tushie. Everyone brought me presents. Mostly gummis and chocolate. I'm going to get so fat!

When Stoney and Heidi arrived, we all sat out on the indoor porch and attempted a game of German Scrabble. Then everyone walked to the Berg Eisdiele and got some ice cream. From there, we went to the most dangerous place in any German city : THE PARK! Seriously, the things they pass off as playground equipment here are like suicide toys. No wonder there are never any actual children in the parks! Heidi and I played on the teeter-totter LAYING DOWN--and then the two of us got on one side and made Stoney get on the other and nearly LAUNCHED him! HA! HA! Next, the three of us got on a wooden bridge and were jumping up and down and hollering (like this: aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!). Some old, cranky guy on the bike path came and yelled at us. He said we were annoying him and for us to come down. We just pretended we didn't understand a word he was saying (though we did. Angry German people are surprisingly easy to understand!). We started jumping again as soon as he left! TOO FUNNY!

On our way back from the park, it started to rain--light at first and then coming down in buckets. We all linked arms and danced around singing the "Brady Bunch" theme song and then made a conga line down the street, splashing in every puddle we could find. My poor Doc Martens! Bettina actually sat down in one of the puddles and pretended to swim. We were all just living in the moment! When we decided to finally go inside , we were soaking wet, but laughing our heads off. It wasn't exactly what I pictured my 18th birthday party would be like, but it was fun nonetheless. Better get to sleep now. I have German Chemistry class in the morning. Yeah--like I'm gonna understand any of that.....