Above, a few pictures from my weekend in Dortmund, earlier this month. You can click them to see larger versions. On the left, a stained glass window showing a Stadtplan (city map) of Dortmund. Center, a different church in downtown Dortmund. And on the right, a barbershop quartet called Vocal Spectrum, from St. Louis, Missouri. They were outstanding. As you can probably guess, I was sitting on the balcony beside the stage when I took that picture. The sound was incredible anywhere in the hall.

It's Friday! In just a few minutes I'm off to pick up Marty from work (I was driving the car today). This weekend we are hoping to go see the movie Starsky and Hutch, which is playing at a couple of theaters here.

The weather is awful here right now. Last week it was so gorgeous -- sunny and warm. I was walking in the English Garden without a jacket! And this week it has snowed every day. Every single day! I think this must be winter's last stand, though.

I have a new seat on my bicycle and I can't wait to try it out. Come on, spring!

Hope everyone has a good weekend!

Taken from the Zugspitze
March 19, 2004

Mountains, hotels, toys, and sausages.

Busy weekend here. On Friday, Marty and I went to the Zugspitze with a group of his colleagues who were going skiing. Marty skis a little, but I don't ski at all, and I didn't think the freakin' Zugspitze was the best place for me to start as a beginner! So Marty went skiing, and I just enjoyed the company, the scenery, and the weather. Such a gorgeous day. It wasn't very cold up there (to answer your question, Tina), and in fact, some people were sunbathing in lounge chairs right on the snow. I took a bunch of beautiful pictures of the mountains, which I would love to share if I can just make myself get them online.

Yesterday I spent much of the day trying to line up our hotels for Italy in May. We are going to Tuscany (staying in Florence and Siena, with daytrips to Pisa and possibly Fiesole) so I've been trying to find places for us to stay. I'm using Rick Steves' latest Tuscany book (2004) and a few other resources, and I have hotels for all our nights lined up except for three in Siena. Of course, I still have five or six enquiry emails out to hotels there, so I hope one of those will work out. I am really looking forward to the trip.

Somewhere in there I also managed to find a room in Rothenburg ob der Tauber for when Katynka is here next month. We thought we'd show her something besides the inside of a beer hall this time around. Although last year was certainly lots of fun.

Last night, Marty and I went to see an awesome German movie, Good Bye Lenin. It was a terrific story of a Berlin family's experience of German reunification. It was released a year ago here (I remember that it was new when we were in Berlin last March). Marty and I must have been the last people in Germany to see it, and I think it's actually already out on video here. But we were lucky enough to find it still playing in a small theater out in Gräfelfing, late last night. Anyway, I understand it's being released in the US soon, so keep your eyes open for it. It's really excellent.

Today we drove up to Nürnberg for the day, and visited the Albrecht Dürer house museum and the Nürnberg Spielzeug (toy) museum. Nürnberg has been an international center for toy manufacturing for over two centuries, and they really do have a wonderful toy museum there. (The current exhibit at the Bavarian National Museum here in Munich -- Die Welt im Kleinen -- is comparable, though not as big a collection.) We also took a walk through the Sebaldus church and looked at the photos on display of the post-war rebuilding of Nürnberg. We had a lunch of Nürnberg Bratwürstchen at the Albrecht Dürer Stuben, and after the museums we finished up the day with cake at Cafe Kröll, my favorite.

Plus I did my German homework. Well, most of it. Although I still have to do my English.

Edited to add: Yay! We have a hotel in Siena!

On the Zugspitze
March 19, 2004

Wie eine Fledermaus aus der Hölle...

I made Hackbraten for dinner tonight. Now I can't get that song out of my head.

(Better the Fledermaus out of Hölle than "Who let the Sau raus," though.)

In addition to my German class, I have started taking a nonfiction writing class (in English). This is a correspondence course with lessons that come by e-mail and assignments to do and turn in for feedback. I like it so far, although I think my first homework assignment really took me much longer than it should have.

For my first assignment, I wrote an article about a horse that terrorized a flea market in Daglfing last weekend. True story!

And on that note, I think I should go to bed. I still have German homework to finish before class in the morning.

And that's Herr Hackbraten to you.

More About Books

Gert has been posting about old music and books, lately. She was apparently a big Noel Streatfeild fan, as was I. Theatre Shoes, Ballet Shoes, and When the Sirens Wailed were three of my favorite books as a child.

But nothing compared to my love for Enid Blyton, and particularly her boarding school stories. I believe my first Blyton school story was "The Naughtiest Girl in the School," the story of a spoiled little rich girl who was sent away to Whyteleafe, a progressive co-ed boarding school for youngsters (I don't think she was more than 8 or 9) where she was taken down a notch or three by her peers.

The most interesting part of school life at Whyteleafe was that the whole school was more or less governed by a semi-communist system run by the children themselves. Any money a child brought to school or received as a gift was freely deposited in a communal bank and then doled back out as pocket money; all punishments except the most severe were voted on by the community; and the children spent their free time working in the gardens to raise vegetables for the school or taking care of school animals. In the course of the three "Naughtiest Girl" books, Elizabeth learned to be a responsible, rule-abiding member of the Whyteleafe community (although she certainly had her high-spirited moments, even to the end).

Oh, you can take a quiz about The Naughtiest Girl Again! I scored 80%, despite not having read the books in at least twenty years!

(And OMG! How stoked am I that there is a real Whyteleafe School? Check out their lunch menu from last July -- yummy tuna fish flan! And you can even buy T-shirts! Hee. That is so fabulous. I think I want some of those verruca socks for the swimming pool...)

Enid Blyton also wrote my favorite school books, the Malory Towers books. Here's an enjoyable review of these books that probably does a better job of laying out the basics than I would. I loved these stories of girls living together away from home. I'm not sure what was so appealing about that -- I'm positive I would have hated boarding school if I'd ever been sent there myself -- but clearly, the idea of being in a big group of girls without parents around is is a recurring theme in the imagination of many little girls. I first read these books around the age of seven or so, I think, a little later than the Naughtiest Girl books, and I've reread them many, many times since then.

You can take a quiz to find out which Malory Towers character you are. Unsurprisingly, I was Sally.

For some reason I never read the St. Clare's books, also by Enid Blyton. I finally bought them all a couple of years ago when we went on vacation to England, and read them for the first time then. I enjoyed them, but I think I should have read them first as a child, for full engagement of my imagination.

I do think boarding school, with its justice and discipline being dished out by peers (officially or unofficially) is a compelling idea for many children. After all, the boarding school setting is integral to Harry Potter, surely the most popular children's books of the current day.

Bibliography of Blyton's school books:

Naughtiest Girl
1. The Naughtiest Girl in the School (1940)
2. The Naughtiest Girl Again (1942)
3. The Naughtiest Girl is a Monitor (1945)

St Clare's
1. The Twins at St Clare's (1941)
2. The O'Sullivan Twins (1942)
3. Summer Term at St Clare's (1943)
4. The Second form at St Clare's (1944)
5. Claudine At St. Clare's (1947)
6. Fifth Formers at St Clare's (1945)

Malory Towers
1. First Term at Malory Towers (1946)
2. The Second Form at Malory Towers (1947)
3. Third Year at Malory Towers (1948)
4. The Upper Fourth at Malory Towers (1949)
5. In the Fifth at Malory Towers (1950)
6. Last Term at Malory Towers (1951)

and

The House at the Corner (1947) - included because the two youngest children (twins) want to go off to school at Whyteleafe, and finally are allowed to at the end of the book

What I'm Reading

I have way too many books going at the moment. Briefly, they are as follows.

The Diary of Anne Frank by Anne Frank
I am rereading my original copy of this, bought at a school book fair in England when I was ten or eleven years old. After I finish it, I'm going to read it in German. Recently finished: The Last Seven Months of Anne Frank by Willy Lindwer, a book of interviews conducted with women who knew the Franks in Amsterdam and also later in the camps.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J. K. Rowling
The first book in the Harry Potter series, but the British version (the American book is called Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone). Marty gave me the British series for Christmas, so I am rereading these now too.

White Mughals by William Dalrymple
This is a fascinating history book about English men who went to India in the 18th century (and earlier) and naturalized there. In particular it's the story of James Achilles Kirkpatrick, who converted to Islam in 1798 so that he might marry a Mughal princess. For anyone with an interest in Hyderabad this is a must-read. Totally engrossing. (I bought this in London.)

Glyptothek by C. H. Beck
A guide book to Munich's Glyptothek museum, which houses Greek and Roman sculpture. One of my favorite museums in Munich.

The Price of Loyalty by Ron Suskind
A book about Paul O'Neill's experiences as Secretary of the Treasury under George W. Bush. Marty read this first, and I picked it up when he was finished. He's currently reading American Dynasty by Kevin Phillips.

Was wollen Sie von mir? und 15 andere Geschichten von Doris Dörrie
Wir lesen dieses Buch in meinem Deutschkurs. Die Erzählungen sind kurz und ironisch, und haben immer eine unerwartete Spitze am ende. Die Themen sind Frauen, Beziehungen, und die USA.

Here are the Harmunichs in Dortmund after our fourth place finish in the 2004 Deutsche Barbershop Meisterschaft this weekend. You can see the final results here. We tied for fourth place with a men's chorus from Dortmund, the Bad Boys.

It was my first barbershop convention, and I enjoyed it very much. The concerts, in particular, were great. Especially wonderful were the Gas House Gang, the Ambassadors of Harmony, and Vocal Spectrum. These groups gave incredible shows. St. Louis, Missouri, is apparently a very musical city.

The best part of the convention was seeing how many people came from all over -- England, the US, the Netherlands -- to hear and sing and just enjoy barbershop. I hope I can always find a chorus to sing with, wherever I might live.

Someone is addicted to my Raspberry World Memory game. I mean besides Marty and me. Who on earth could it be?

My best score is 23. My worst is something like 79 (but I was on the phone at the time, so I wasn't really paying any attention at all).

The two decorative fellows above are (seriously overdressed) angels from the Bavarian National Museum, which I visited last week with Renee. I'd been to the museum before, but I had never visted the Krippen before (literally, cribs, but it means nativity sets and other types of religious scenes). They have an astounding collection of these Krippen, mostly hand-carved and dressed in elaborate costumes, displayed on lavish, theatre-like sets. See?



Well! I am off to Dortmund tomorrow with my chorus, for my first ever convention and competition. I will be sure to post a report upon my return. I only hope we don't encounter Bettina while we're there. (Not my friend Bettina, who lives in Linz, but this spider named Bettina who supposedly killed her loner owner in Dortmund.)

Now I need to pack and get some homework done so I can leave tomorrow in good conscience. Have a great weekend!

Snow, snow, snow, snow, snow. Not a blizzard or anything, just kind of... constant. Snow. All day. And now, in the last hour or so, it's started coming down more heavily. How I wish spring would come!

This morning I got up and heard that the Lord of the Rings swept the Oscars last night! I was excited, because I really loved those movies. And I don't think a fantasy film has ever won in the Best Picture category before. What a great accomplishment! Now I want to see them all again.

In other movie news, Marty and I went to see Master and Commander yesterday. It was playing at the Mathäser, which is a big, fancy theater downtown. Probably the most American-style theater in Munich -- however, they rarely play movies in English. Mostly they have American blockbusters, dubbed into German. But right now they're showing the original version of Master and Commander, so we took advantage of it.

We both really liked it! Now I'm wondering if I would enjoy the books, which were written by Patrick O'Brian. I had never really heard of him before we went to see the movie. But the characters were really interesting, and I think I'd like to check out the first book, at least. I think there are about twenty, total.

We're having Katynka's (famous) pot roast for dinner tonight, in honor of the news that she's bought her ticket for her next visit to Munich! We can't wait!