Shelby's Life and Whatnot

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Another rainy day in Hamburg. Is summer ever going to arrive? At the rate we're going we'll be gone by the time it gets warm.

And speaking of being gone, the final decision has been made: we'll be leaving Germany at the end of this month. The financial situation worked out mostly, but it still required a large contribution from us, and that's money from the house fund. But the biggest reason really was that I changed my mind. I had thought that my trip to the bay area would have been reenergizing, but instead it made me really, really homesick. I came back and told Kevin that I didn't want to stay here. We have one more big trip left to London and Ireland and that should be awesome. Then we'll move forward into the next chapter of our lives. I feel much more at peace with this decision.

My internet connection remains poor. I think they moved the router and I can't get as strong a wireless signal. It will be nice to go back to reliable high speed connectivity.

Our book club will be discussing The Da Vinci Code on Tuesday. Kevin and I have been trying to participate remotely. I really wish we could be there for this discussion. It's sure to be interesting. Both Kevin and I remained unimpressed with the book (you can find his review here) but it sounds like some of the club members vary from liking it to really liking it. Susan, our other remote member, enjoyed it. So it will probably be a great discussion.

When Scout and I were on our walk an elderly woman came up to us and started chatting in rapid-fire German, petting Scout at the same time. I honestly didn't understand a word she was saying but I could tell by her inflection that she wasn't asking questions. I caught "Eleven years," "alone," and a word I think was "arm." She looked rather sad so I think she may have been telling me that she lost her 11 year old dog. I matched her sad look and nodded my head in what I thought were appropriate places. She seemed satisfied with my response(s) and gave Scout a final ear scratch before heading on her way. She really was quite nice, as are all of the people who approach Scout, I just wish my German was stronger.

And speaking of German, I missed some major lessons in my class. I was really lost during our discussion of prepositional phrases and I don't think I'll be able to catch up with that. We are supposed to have a test at the end of chapter 9, which I believe certifies that we completed the beginner course, and Matthias has stressed several times that prepositional phrases are a big part of the test. I'm not even sure I'll be around for the test anyway, but it sounds pretty tough.

There were only 2 of us in class yesterday--me and Lisa, the Indonesian woman. Lisa drives me crazy. She's quite young, around 19 is my guess, and is very dramatic. She pops up and leaves the room at least once per session (the class is only an hour and a half long) and makes it a big production to leave the room and to return. But the thing that drives me the most crazy is her voice. It's so high pitched she could shatter glass. It's like nails on a chalkboard. But my days there are numbered so that's all right.