weitere Infos über den Alltag

You know those entomologists who go into the Amazon to catch insects? That’s me every day. Each morning I trek into the steaming lavatory (or WC, as they call it here) to shower, and each morning I discover a new species of bug previously not known to live in our “bungalow.” Today I was especially lucky to find not only mosquitoes, flies and spiders, but also three very large moths.


One of them (which looked like a bird dropping) was unfortunately no longer there by the time I’d gotten my camera.

Speaking of bugs, in order to protect myself from being covered by mosquito bites during the night, I recently purchased this lovely silver net (Fliegengitter) to cover my window. (Apparently Sonnenbühl Ost doesn’t believe in window screens.) Well, it cost me €5,50 (or like a trillion US) and it sucks. It came with “tape” (Klebebände) to put it up, but it’s only one sided, and the other side is covered with these brail-like bumps that you’re supposed to press the mesh onto. Nonetheless the Gitter falls down more often than it stays up. So I duct-taped it to the sill, but it still falls down. Plus it looks like one of those metallic sheets they put up when the bad guys quarantined ET. That was a good purchase.

But anyway, to keep with the “daily life” theme of this post, let me tell you about the every-night excitement of the EM (European Soccer Championship, or Fußballeuropameisterschaft – yes, that’s one word). So there are one or two games a night, and most Europeans go crazy over them. People drive around honking and screaming and celebrating until 3 or 4 am basically every day. It’s awesome! The last game that Germany won, fans ran into the street and were draping passing cars in the German tricolor, sometimes not letting them pass until they’d called out every one of the German players’ names.

So apart from watching soccer, what have I been doing recently? Well, this Saturday a few of us went to Meersburg again.


We took the ferry there.


It’s much prettier in the summer.

Then yesterday a bunch of us Ostians went to the beach, laid out and swam.

And this Thursday I’m off to Oslo to see the Stokkelands and will head back to Constance on Monday.

Exkursion Meersburg

I've got more photos!

I've had free time recently to doodle a little!

This one you might recognize from somewhere. Anyone? I've also painted a little, but no photos yet. Here's a shameless plug: If you haven't checked out my website yet, click here to see more of my loverly art!

On Wednesday we went to Meersburg, a small touristy town only a 15 minute ride by ferry (Autofähre) from Constance.


This photo is of Kirsten and me on the Autofähre. It was chilly on the ride. It was probably only 40°F that day. It's not a very good photo, but I know you all like seeing my smiling/grimacing face.


Here's a photo of Burg Meersburg, a somewhat redundant name. In English it would be "Castle Castle on the Sea." Here is where our tour of the ridiculous structure began. This time the German tour was led by this hilarious man. It was a blast. He teaches one of the sections of the language course. The tour itself was much better, but the subject of the tour (mainly these two castles in Meersburg) was really trashy.


So this is what I mean by "ridiculous" and "trashy." This young man was dressed up in what is apparently supposed to be garb from the Middle Ages. He was also wearing jeans, and that sword is definitely plastic.


These are skulls of very, very small deer. The Burg had skulls and animal heads all over, but they were very poorly kept up. There was also this moose head whose hide was almost completely decayed off. It was sort of disgusting.


Then there were these bizarre putti-babies with antlers for legs. (It's a chandelier, too!)


Here I am in a room with just suits of armor. And yes, that is the infamous Sir Pumpkinhead on my right.


Did I mention Meersburg is actually really pretty, tho?


This is the shoreline on the way back to the ferry. Five seconds after I took this photo, two swans swam up. Swans are all over Lake Constance.


And this one is for Teri. Not only is the region warm enough for magnolias, but also for palms. But yeah, I concede, it wasn't very warm at all during our tour of Meersburg.


And here's a photo of Germany giving the finger to political correctness.

Well, happy Easter all (or Frohe Ostern, as they say in my country)! Rolf Egenberger is coming down from Augsburg to spend the day with me in Constance this Saturday, and then I'm probably going back with him for an Egenberger family Easter celebration! He told me they're having something like a "small Oktoberfest" in Augsburg for the holiday.

So my language course is almost finished - only one week left! Next up is my tour of Germany, and then back to "real" life: The semester begins April 19! Expect another post after Easter holiday is over, and things open up again (ie, so I can use wireless).