one little thing can revive a guy, and that is a piece of rhubarb pie.

You have probably heard the "Interrupting Cow" joke:
"knock knock"
"who's there?"
"interrupting cow!"
"interrupting c-"
"MOOOOOO!"
There is also a variation called "Interrupting Starfish," in which the interruption is a splayed out hand in the face. My friend also came up with a version, "interrupting completely uncalled for," which can range from a gentle, friendly smack to a full on tackle. Which is sort of what it felt like the world did last night.
My sword fighting group has been renting practice space from the Ann Arbor Community Center on Main St. for about 6 months. Every week, they're there from 7-9 on Wednesdays, and almost every week they go out for food afterwards (I say 'they' because I'm not usually there, just during the summer). Being at least somewhat eco-conscious, and not wanting to fight for parking, we usually carpool, leaving our other cars in the lot at the AACC. Since we're the last people there, we didn't see that this could be a problem, and we were never alerted to that possibility. Well, last night, we came back to find only one of the cars of the four cars and motorcycle that had been left still there. Needless to say, minor panic ensued. We were "greeted" by a lady, who informed us that our cars had been towed. To be fair, there is a sign that says unauthorized cars will be towed, and we were using their parking lot as storage for our cars rather than pay for parking elsewhere for the hour we were gone. However, let me repeat that this has been happening for six months, and nothing has been said, no warning has been given. Even though the janitor has been there all the time. Also, why does the building manager leave while there are still patrons in the building? He left at 8! That doesn't make any sense, and if he didn't leave, he could have told us that leaving our cars was not ok. No where in the contract did it say that we had to clear out of the parking lot at risk of being towed. It was never said unofficially either, which also would have sufficed. The lady did not see this as necessary, however, and was extremely unpleasant about it. Apparently, psychic powers are assumed, because heaven forbid she should have taken 30 seconds to warn us about their "stringent" parking lot policies. We should have known. As one of my friends put it, logically, why would we leave our cars where they were likely to be towed? so clearly, we had no idea it was a problem. It's never been a problem at any of the other rehearsal spaces we've rented. Why didn't we ask then, was the lady's response. PERSONAL PET PEEVE ALERT: you can't know what you don't know! By which I mean, you can't ask a question if you think you're doing something right. You only ask if you think there might be something wrong.
Now, I can understand that she was frustrated because she'd been called back to work at 10:30pm, and I can understand why they don't want people freeloading in their parking lot, and that she had no way of knowing they were our cars. But she had no call to be so rude, and she had a lot of call to apologize for not warning us, which of course she didn't do. I'm pretty sure she just lost our business. She certainly lost mine, because no matter how tired and cranky you are, you don't act like that to patrons. Even if they're wrong, which in this case, we weren't.
Then it turned out that it costs $235 to be impounded, even for 5 minutes. bollucks.
and that was my evening!
exactly 6 weeks, not that I'm counting...

I am a magnet for crazy, difficult bosses

my mum says this is just the hospitality industry. At least Fritz (my boss in Germany) spoke a language I could understand...
I am not particularly enjoying my job at Kang's Korean restaurant. The work itself isn't too bad: I basically do everything except cook, but the place is small, and all it requires is CONSTANT VIGILANCE (not to channel Mad-Eye Moody...) to make sure there isn't anything I can be doing at any moment. My much maligned so-called protestant work ethic-- by which I think people mean the inability to see work and not do it, and the ability to see work, period-- comes very much in handy. I make slightly less than minimum wage, in an under the table, pays-in-cash job, but that's so much more than I was making looking for a job earlier this summer.
However, I work 12-4 every day except Sunday. This doesn't sound so bad, until you realize that it precludes doing anything that would take the whole day, ever. Also, when I asked for the week to go on my family vacation, Mr. Kang blew his top and totally chewed me out. Mrs. Kang, who handles the employees, was fortunately much nicer about it, and gave me the time, but still, I'm afraid that I can't take too much time without losing my job. This rather inhibits my summer. I have two friends visiting from Germany (yay!!), but I will not have much time to spend with them. I am currently trying to reach Mrs. Kang on the phone so I can angle for a few more days off, without the tirade from her husband. we shall see.
that's pretty much it for now, folks. Am counting down the days until I leave, not because I don't love the people here, but because I am (after a week of work) ready to not be- if only somewhat- stuck in this job, and oh so ready to be in London!
Did I mention that I got my housing offer? I will be living in a small dorm on the grounds of Lambeth Palace (where the Archbishop of Canterbury, head of the Anglican Communion, lives). This is right across the river from Parliament and Westminster Abbey. Also, it isn't too far from the Strand, where all my classes are, and I'm sure there's convenient public transport. It is, after all, London.
you may be jealous now.

in which it is continued

Probably the most exciting thing that happened this year was a huge surprise, courtesy of the University of Chicago Scavenger Hunt. Scav Hunt! It's rather a long story, but let me attempt to explain this phenomenon. The Scavenger Hunt is a UofC tradition, in which most of the campus goes temporarily insane for one weekend, and the rest is made miserable by the insanity. The Chicago Tribune has this to say about it, and a little closer to home, the Chicago Maroon (the university paper). It is described as the largest scavenger hunt in the world, and comprises some hundreds of items to be found, begged, borrowed, built, or performed. In addition there is a road trip, and this year they added things like Project (scavvie) Runway, and Top Scav Chef. More importantly (as far as I am concerned), this year they added the Scavven Warriors. That would be one member from each team who, among other things, could recite the alphabet backwards, swim 200 meters without stopping, pitch a tent, navigate the transportation systems of three major US cities, have a basic knowledge of the weather patterns of the continental US, and have seen several specific movies. Further requirements included a passport, and being over the age of 21. Except for the movies and the alphabet, I fulfilled all of the requirements, and knew I could learn the alphabet backwards and watch 10 or so movies in the weeks before Scav Hunt. Also, I had no midterms due around that time, and my UT show wasn't going up until two weeks later. Thus, with great apprehension, I agreed to be Broadview's Scavven Warrior. At this point, we still did not know what we would be doing. We only knew we would be gone (for all intents and purposes) for the entirety of Scav. The great day of list release approached, and still, I had no idea what was about to happen. We were told to pack a small bag with *everything* we would need for three days, and deliver it at 10pm on Wednesday night to the judges. When I delivered my bag, I had kept out things like my cell phone, ipod, extra pair of jeans (which I had planned on wearing), shoes, toothbrush... things which I was expecting to need that night. Just goes to show, always do *exactly* what the judges tell you! They told me to put my phone in, as I wouldn't be needing an alarm clock, but gave me no other information, so I went back to my room to try to focus on a few last bits of homework. List release was at midnight, but in keeping with tradition, the list had to be found, or won, not picked up, so it wasn't until 1am, after an hour of fruitless attempts at sleep, that I heard the list party returning. At last, you may be thinking, she will find out how she will be spending the weekend! But no! Item 20 of the list merely had this to say:
"Have your pre-selected Scav Warrior outside the Reynolds Club at 3:30 a.m. Thursday morning. They must be alone and they may not have any extraneous packages, bags or accessories. And, since it will be late into the evening, the attire for this event is evening-wear. Evening-wear with a bathing suit underneath."
There went my plan to have an extra pair of jeans. Good thing I'd packed one. Also, no toothbrush or ipod for me. And since I'd already packed my swimsuit, I had to borrow one, as well as a dress. Also, unless I wanted to spend the weekend in heels, I would have to wear normal shoes with said dress. I spent most of the remaining two hours finding these things, and then *tried* (and failed miserably) to sleep again. And thus, 3:30 am on a chilly Thursday found me standing outside the student activities center, in a ball gown over a swimsuit. We were met by several judges, gratefully reunited with our bags, fed jello, blindfolded and bundled into cars. Yup, you read that correctly. Our driver talked a lot about woods and camping, and said it was a long drive, which disappointed me, because there isn't that much terrifically exciting camping within reasonable driving distance of Chicago, at least not worth that build up. However, when we stopped, and were instructed to take our blindfolds off, we were at Midway airport, and the judges were handing us our itineraries to Las Vegas. seriously. I was boggled. We had to wait for security to open, we were so early, and people kept asking if we were a wedding party (9 people in tuxes and nice dresses in an airport...). We were met at the Las Vegas airport by a limousine, which took us to the Stratosphere, where we were staying. The flight, hotel, and limo were courtesy of Scav!
So, that is why, sixth week of Spring quarter, I was basking in the bright sun of Las Vegas, rather than racing around stressed to the max under Chicago's cold, unfriendly skies. Don't get me wrong, usually I prefer the midwest, but it was a cold spring. We had a list much like the road trip's, finding interesting places and people, rather than objects like the regular list. Here are my photos, and here and here. This was a truly surreal trip, with no foreknowledge at all. There was also a very low level of sleep happening, which probably didn't help the surreality. Anyways, there are way too many stories to tell, like swimming with sharks, and trying to enter last minute into an international swimsuit competition, or pretending to get married (twice!). We gambled, walked the entirety of the strip, got kissed by showgirls, and talked to a lot of people. Ask me about it sometime, if you want your ear talked off. :)
Now we're basically caught up to the present. This summer has been less than ideal, as it has taken me more than a month to find a job. However, after thirty some applications to various places, Kang's Korean Restaurant on S. University has hired me, practically on sight. Go figure. Hopefully that will continue to work out. The other less pleasant news of the summer is that I have had two eye operations, one unsuccessful, in an attempt to treat my dry eye, before I go blind. So, no pressure, right? They started by plugging my tear ducts, but the plugs touched my eyes, so I had to have them taken out the same day. Then they tried temporary plugs which could go in all the way, as they would dissolve. This was to find out if plugs would work out at all, and if it was worth pursuing that. Turns out it didn't really help, so now we're trying steroids. That's right folks, my eyes can't enter the Tour de France anymore. Aw, shucks, there goes a life dream... ;) On the up side, having the plugs not work means that they won't try another method of blocking the tear ducts, that is, cauterizing them shut. I wasn't too much of a fan of that one. So, we'll see what happens. The likelihood of my going blind seems pretty low, as there seem to be a lot of different treatments, and I get to try all of them, before I will go blind. Regardless, I'm not really supposed to wear contacts ever again, except maybe for a few hours at a time.
On a happier note, I have finally begun to take riding lessons on a regular basis. I found out a year and a half ago, while visiting and riding with Kate, that I have a bit of a knack for jumping horses. I rode again with Kate last December, but was only able to set up lessons here this summer. I'm loving it, and if I could afford it, would ride every day, all the time.
Other things this summer were a lovely family reunion with the Strothman (my maternal grandmother's) family. Very interesting, and I finally learned a little more about the woman who originally wore my heirloom ring (she was my great great grandmother). Later in the summer, my close family will be going back to Georgian Bay to sail.
The other exciting news is that I will be studying abroad at King's College London this year. I am currently fighting the visa application process, which is a little discouraging, but otherwise am really excited. I will be living in a small dorm on the grounds of Lambeth Palace (sooooo coool!), and my classes are on the Strand. Words cannot contain my happiness about all this. I will be taking really cool classes, including one on performance of Shakespeare, which will be in collaboration with professionals from the Globe theater and will culminate in a small production. You have my permission to be jealous now. :)
And that's just about all my news for the present. Of course there are a lot of details I'm leaving out for the sake of brevity, so please ask if you want the whole story. I will try to keep this updated on a somewhat regular basis in the future, and then posts can be of a more reasonable length.
Sorry about all the hyperlinks, but I wanted you all to have access to my photos, without having to repost them.

In which it all begins...

...or at least this blog does. In this post, I'm going to attempt to summarize the past 3 years or so, for everyone with whom I have not kept in such good contact (that would be most everyone, actually). For die die Deutsch sprechen, werd ich versuchen mal was auf Deutsch zu schreiben, aber es wird meistens auf English sein... sorry.
After graduating from Rudolf Steiner High School in 2005, I moved to Germany for a year, and worked at a Gasthaus through the Friewilliges Soziales Jahr program run by the German government. That meant that the government paid the Gästerhäuser Hohe Rhön, where I worked, to provide me with food, housing and insurance, and a stipend, while I worked. It was an amazing year: I learned a lot (and not just in terms of fluency of the language!), and made some of my closest friendships. It was hard though, both the work and living in that community. I came back a few days before Germany took third place in the WM (sadness), and thus experienced-- and was infected by-- much of the football mania of Germany. :) The picture above is a portion of the team, in front of the house where we lived, on the evening I left. There are more pictures of that year here.
In the fall of 2006, I started at the University of Chicago, which was a whole new flavor of hard work. I love it though, and it gets better and better (and my grades get worse) as I finish the Core requirements and focus on things which actually interest me, and more challenging classes. The UofC is on a quarter system, which means that we end in the middle of June, but we don't have to start until the end of September. Also, we get to take a lot more classes, which I love. My favorite two classes have probably been "The Young Shakespeare, " about the early plays, and the works that influenced them, with the world-famous David Bevington; and "Tolkien Medieval and Modern," with the equally talented Rachel Fulton.
I do a lot outside classes as well. I am active at Brent House, the Episcopal Campus ministry at UofC, and this past year, I was a peer minister. This meant that I helped Stacy, the chaplain, organize events, and so on. I was primarily in charge of music: I picked hymns for each week, and put together a small choir, which sang at the Tenebrae service I organized, and then at Evensong during Bishop Lee's visitation. Oh, that reminds me: Fall quarter this past year, I also got to go to the Diocesan convention for Chicago, as part of the first campus ministry delegation. I enjoyed it, and gave a short speech about campus ministries to the convention (talk about scary... way to many people in one room...). At that convention, we elected Bishop Jeff Lee, who I like quite a lot.
First year, I was a member of the circus, doing whip stunts, sword and firesword fighting and face painting. here and here are some circus photos. Here are some more photos from first year, of Fall quarter, break, Winter quarter, and again, Spring quarter, and again, and again. If you want any of the stories behind the pictures, please ask! I just don't want this post to be any longer than it already will be.
Let's see, what else do I do with my non-existent free time? Orchestra, of course! I play in the Chamber Orchestra, which, while it matches my practicing levels, doesn't measure up to other orchestras I've played in, alas. I think that's it for extra curriculars First year...
That summer, I went back to Europe, to visit friends, mostly in Germany: Peggy in Bonn, Heike in Passau, Maria in Salzburg, John in London, Rachel in Regensburg, and the Team reunion in Frankfurt, Hannah in Schweinfurt, Tabea in Hirschaid, and Schini and Thea's wedding back at GHR. Here's the rest of the summer, and the Michigan Renaissance Festival, where I worked for money, after years of working for free. On that subject, here are some more swordfighting pictures, from the summer of 2006.
This year, I was less trigger happy, and busier. I started taking ballet classes, but that really only lasted a quarter, as the school was on semesters, and the breaks didn't match up at all, so I kept getting behind. I also wasn't doing as much with circus, but I was doing a lot more with Brent House (as previously described), I was still in orchestra and I started working with University Theater. Fall quarter I worked with a professional costume designer on a production of Top Girls, Winter quarter I designed (by myself), the costumes for Loot. Spring quarter, I choreographed and trained the fights for Richard III, sometimes physically restraining the director, who was a little too keen on violence. (no, Griffin, you can't actually cut your actor's ear off. no.). I also did some safety training (and minor choreography) for Batboy: The Musical, which was a much better show than I expected.
Here are pictures of Halloween, winter break, and winter quarter.
Now, that isn't quite everything I wanted to put in this post, but I have to be done. so, TO BE CONTINUED!