sonstige / miscellaneous

How do I even continue... I apologize for having neglected my blog for so long. Although I shouldn't make excuses, the lack of internet in my dorm does make it difficult to have a large enough block of time to attend to thinking/writing. As a result, I don't have much to offer today than a quick laundry list / overview of the highlights of the last few weeks. =)

I most recently returned from a mini-trip to Freiburg, which is near the Swiss border and about 3.5 hours away by train. The motivation for this trip was to spend some time with my dad, who was heading down there for a conference. He was also here in Marburg but spent most of his time with business dealings. My mom was here the previous week, and in the weekend between, the three of us assembled in Valencia and Madrid for some family time. Madrid, I have to say, is now my new favorite European city that I've visited.

I'm having difficulty facing the fact that I'll be leaving Marburg in less than 2 weeks. I will miss rowing on the narrow Lahn river, our weekend program excursions, trying to learn how to salsa dance in German with 3 other girls and no guys, cooking with great anticipation what turn out to be terrible and unsatisfying meals, etc. =) But more than anything, I really will find it hard not to be able to see the same faces on a daily basis anymore, where get-togethers with our new friends will require a significant amount of travelling. I'd so much rather stay here with the rest of the Fulbrighters for the remainder of the year than begin my project in Heidelberg.

On a completely unrelated note, I'm beginning to experience some difficulties expressing my ideas outloud or internally. =) Part of this is that it is becoming increasingly difficult to think in purely one language. I've found that German is often simply better at expressing an idea that I would have otherwise only been able to express in English. For example, German I find to be, in general, a much more verb-laden language - 9 times out of 10 there are 2+ verbs for a particular English verb. On the flip side, German seems to be less adjective-rich than English. It is really incredible to me how true at least anecdotally linguists are when it comes to theories of the relation between language and thought. I feel that German sometimes forces choices between two different ideas that doesn't exist in English. For example, if one wants to say, ''I've only had 3 beers,'' one has to make a distinction between using the word ''erst,'' which implies one intends to keep drinking, or ''nur,'' which means one is done. (Hopefully it's the former.) =) The other interesting thing is that German almost always requires a gender reference. One cannot just be a teacher, a candidate, etc. One is either a teacher or teacheress (the English equivalent of a feminine ending), an author or authoress, etc., which forces the language to be either sexist & exclusive or awkward. Just something I've noted...

Tonight is the first night in a while that I've decided not to cook. I've been sorely disappointed with my cooking lately. It just tastes awful. Much of it is the lack of cooking supplies (I only have 1 pan, for example). But yes, tonight will be a night where for no particular reason I plan on eating out. =) Bon appetit to that.