On Christmas Break
Dear Constant Readers,
Finally a break most of us have been expecting, yes? I don't know what all everyone receives, in Trier we get two weeks. Last year at Wesleyan we got a month or so, which I think was almost too much time.
I can't recall what all I've said already, so I may be repeating information. I was invited to go to Switzerland with three other friends, a trip which I almost took until a friend of mine from Germany invited me to spend Christmas with her, which I was quite happy to hear: I wanted to see Christmas with a German family. Yesterday and the day before, though, I felt a bit empty I wouldn't be in Switzerland with my other friends. I wasn't having second thoughts, but as I've spent that last three months with them, spending the holidays with them would have also been fun. But I am very pleased to have decided to see Charlotte again. Exactly three years have passed since we had last seen each other. We met on a Christmas trip to Cancun in 2002 while both studying as exchange students in Mexico, and since then I've sent her a card and called her every Christmas, so it's a real treat to be spending it with her in person. Knowing her was one of the pivotal reasons I decided to study in Germany, in fact. It's funny how contacts work throughout life. Out of all the exchange students I met in Mexico, I've only stayed in contact with a very small few, and here it will likely be very much the same, however, I've never been one to need a large group of friends. The main obstacle with many of my friendships is that they are scattered literally all over the globe. I used to sometimes joke that my MSN contact list looked more like a UN membership list.
Last Friday three other guys and I all went to Cologne to watch a soccer game. After playing tourist for a while we made it to the game and had fun, and then took a crowded and rowdy ride back to the trainstation, where we eventually caught a train to Koblenz, to make a connection back to Trier. Unfortunately, unforeseen by us, the connection didn't come for another 6 1/2 hours. As it was already the middle of the night and we had no desire to venture out into the freezing weather, we sat in the trainstation McDonalds for the duration of the nearly 7 hour wait. What sounds miserable and incredibly boring was actually very enjoyable, I thought, although I do not want to repeat it in the near future. It was good to get some stuff off our chests, and tell stories, and overall just to get to know each other better, although there's always the risk becoming comfortable enough to tell an embarassing story from one's youth, only to regret having opened up that box again. Maybe it was exhastion talking. But I still had a great time. I hope not to do it again soon.
What more to discuss about this week? I was looking over some of the comments that I've received at blogger. I don't ever receive email notifications from that website, unlike I do with Facebook, so I don't always know that I have received a message. But in anycase I was looking through the comments and saw I had received one from a fellow at a place called Media Movers Inc. and that he had responded to my comments about subtitling or dubbing movies. I was interested, and surprised, to see that I had received such a comment. Although my blog is on the web, and thus quite open to most of the world, I didn't think that people other than those who know me would bother to read the thoughts of a college student from a small town in the Heartland of America. It makes me wonder how it was found, and how small the world can be. In any case, it didn't anger me of course, it was kind of flattering, actually.
If I were home chances are good I'd have sent of Christmas cards by now. But I'm not at home, and have barely finished writing most of them, two days before Jesus turns 2006 yeas old (actually, I heard He was born in the spring, but who's counting? Tradition goes a long ways).
Fortunately, they are also New Years cards, so they still count! :-)
Well, I recognize this note is a bit shorter, but I am exhausted already. I spent another day in the Weihnachtsmarkt in Mannheim, and I need to get to bed now. I'm coming down with the cold again, no good since I'm with a friend again. So I'm going to sign off here. If I don't publish a note on Christmas, here it is: A Merry Christmas to all! If you don't follow the Christmas tradition for reasons of religion or other, Happy Holidays, all the same! Well wishing should always be welcome, I think. :-)
Yours truly,
Tristan
Finally a break most of us have been expecting, yes? I don't know what all everyone receives, in Trier we get two weeks. Last year at Wesleyan we got a month or so, which I think was almost too much time.
I can't recall what all I've said already, so I may be repeating information. I was invited to go to Switzerland with three other friends, a trip which I almost took until a friend of mine from Germany invited me to spend Christmas with her, which I was quite happy to hear: I wanted to see Christmas with a German family. Yesterday and the day before, though, I felt a bit empty I wouldn't be in Switzerland with my other friends. I wasn't having second thoughts, but as I've spent that last three months with them, spending the holidays with them would have also been fun. But I am very pleased to have decided to see Charlotte again. Exactly three years have passed since we had last seen each other. We met on a Christmas trip to Cancun in 2002 while both studying as exchange students in Mexico, and since then I've sent her a card and called her every Christmas, so it's a real treat to be spending it with her in person. Knowing her was one of the pivotal reasons I decided to study in Germany, in fact. It's funny how contacts work throughout life. Out of all the exchange students I met in Mexico, I've only stayed in contact with a very small few, and here it will likely be very much the same, however, I've never been one to need a large group of friends. The main obstacle with many of my friendships is that they are scattered literally all over the globe. I used to sometimes joke that my MSN contact list looked more like a UN membership list.
Last Friday three other guys and I all went to Cologne to watch a soccer game. After playing tourist for a while we made it to the game and had fun, and then took a crowded and rowdy ride back to the trainstation, where we eventually caught a train to Koblenz, to make a connection back to Trier. Unfortunately, unforeseen by us, the connection didn't come for another 6 1/2 hours. As it was already the middle of the night and we had no desire to venture out into the freezing weather, we sat in the trainstation McDonalds for the duration of the nearly 7 hour wait. What sounds miserable and incredibly boring was actually very enjoyable, I thought, although I do not want to repeat it in the near future. It was good to get some stuff off our chests, and tell stories, and overall just to get to know each other better, although there's always the risk becoming comfortable enough to tell an embarassing story from one's youth, only to regret having opened up that box again. Maybe it was exhastion talking. But I still had a great time. I hope not to do it again soon.
What more to discuss about this week? I was looking over some of the comments that I've received at blogger. I don't ever receive email notifications from that website, unlike I do with Facebook, so I don't always know that I have received a message. But in anycase I was looking through the comments and saw I had received one from a fellow at a place called Media Movers Inc. and that he had responded to my comments about subtitling or dubbing movies. I was interested, and surprised, to see that I had received such a comment. Although my blog is on the web, and thus quite open to most of the world, I didn't think that people other than those who know me would bother to read the thoughts of a college student from a small town in the Heartland of America. It makes me wonder how it was found, and how small the world can be. In any case, it didn't anger me of course, it was kind of flattering, actually.
If I were home chances are good I'd have sent of Christmas cards by now. But I'm not at home, and have barely finished writing most of them, two days before Jesus turns 2006 yeas old (actually, I heard He was born in the spring, but who's counting? Tradition goes a long ways).
Fortunately, they are also New Years cards, so they still count! :-)
Well, I recognize this note is a bit shorter, but I am exhausted already. I spent another day in the Weihnachtsmarkt in Mannheim, and I need to get to bed now. I'm coming down with the cold again, no good since I'm with a friend again. So I'm going to sign off here. If I don't publish a note on Christmas, here it is: A Merry Christmas to all! If you don't follow the Christmas tradition for reasons of religion or other, Happy Holidays, all the same! Well wishing should always be welcome, I think. :-)
Yours truly,
Tristan
posted by Tristan | 3:44 PM
1 Comments:
Gute Verbesserung! It is still so cool to me to read about your experience and see how it overlaps mine. I fondly remember that Mcdonalds in Koblenz. I too had to wait there for a while (not quite 6 and a half hours though)...also, I am sooo jealous that you saw the Weihnachtsmark in Mannheim. I never made it there and realllllly wanna see a Weihnachtsmarkt....how was the one in Trier? By the way, my friend Fumiko from Japan said she met you and you were in one of her classes...she is a bit shy, so you should mention it to her. She is awesommmme! Okay, bis gleich hoffentlich!
Machts gut!
Libbi :)
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