All posts tagged: random

Blame It On the Internet

Schuld ist halt das Internet! After a several month hiatus I’m back in business. And just so you know: Nope, I’ve not been hiding. I’ve just been battling what’s called SPIC-disease, aka Severe-Poor-Internet-Condition disease. Yup. I call it a disease because it certainly needs intensive care and treatment if there’s ever to be a cure for it (though we’ve been informed that the powers that be are trying to work on it; we’ll see about that). Fact is, that right now we share our internet connection with tens of thousands of  students of whom many only have one goal as soon as class is out: crowding our limited internet space and slowing down everything. For me that means that I only have a very tiny window of when I can actually access my wordpress site (the one that allows me to create posts and then upload them to the internet). This window of opportunity begins to phase out by around 10 a.m., and once the afternoon rolls around, things have deteriorated to a state of …

Of Routers and Historic Events

Von Routern und historischen Ereignissen Since we’ve been talking about historic events here these days, let me add another one to my list. This one, however, should be marked as a historic day in my personal bibliography. The day when my router finally got a password! Da wir in den letzten Tagen nun schon über historische Ereignisse sprechen, erlaubt mir, ein weiteres Ereignis zu der Liste hinzuzufügen. Dieses, allerdings, zählt zu den “persönlichen” historischen Ereignissen: Der Tag an dem mein Router endlich ein Passwort erhalten hat! You see, the story goes like this. Pretty much 7 years ago, I got a router to access the internet at home more easily (yap, you don’t need to tell me that it’s a pretty old router, I’m fully aware of that but hey! it still works!) So, when I got that router 7 years ago, for some reason there was a glitch with the password, and no one could figure out how solve the problem, so after a whole lot of ballyhoo the pros from the computer department …

A Tough Nut

Eine harte Nuss So, here’s the dilemma: When I went shopping for the Christmas holidays, I discovered they were selling hazel nuts in the supermarket – something I hadn’t seen around here before (hazel nuts are a typical “snack” during the Christmas season in my family). So, of course, I had to get myself a bagful of them. Assuming, that is that my nutcracker, of which I know that I have one, must be sitting at home in one of my kitchen drawers, patiently awaiting his opportunity to be of use. But soon after I got home, I discovered, nutcracker had gone off, wandering about, and was nowhere to be found (something that’s not too infrequent here as my kitchen is pretty well equipped and people often come knocking on my door asking for this or that). So, here I am, having this wonderful collection of nuts, and no way of actually enjoying them … Hier ist mein Dilemma: Als ich kürzlich für die Weihnachtsfeiertage einkaufen war, habe ich entdeckt, dass sie im Supermarkt Haselnüsse …

Speedy Journey

I’ve reached a milestone the other day. Never in all my history have I ever mailed off my Christmas cards this early. But it did it. In hopes that this year, they may actually arrive at their destination in time. Officially, they’re supposed to arrive within 10 days. But last year, those 10 days translated into 3 months (funny how what means 10 days to some means 3 months to others, isn’t it?) But they did arrive finally (in early spring of this year), giving me motivation to try mailing my Christmas cards no later than mid November. Speedy journey, dear little friends! Ich habe kürzlich einen Meilenstein erreicht. Nie in der gesamten Geschichte meines Lebens habe jemals Weihnachtskarten so früh verschickt. Aber ich habs getan! In der Hoffnung, dass sie dieses Jahr zu Weihnachten ankommen werden. Offiziell heißt es, dass sie innerhalb von 10 Tagen ankommen sollte. Aber letztes Jahr sind diese 10 Tage zu drei Monaten geworden (ist es nicht interessant, wie was 10 Tage für die einen heißt, 3 Monate für andere …

11/11 – Or Cheaply-Buy-Things Day

11.11 – Oder Hol-dir-ein-Schnäppchen Tag Mail and delivery services are busy these days. Why? Because we just happened to pass November 11th, or double-11 as it’s called here. And while I don’t need to discuss why 11/11 is a special date (most people will catch that this is a more special number than say 7/15, unless 7/15 is your birthday, of course), around here it’s an especially special day. Because the biggest internet retailer of the country puts everything on sale (talking about the Black-Friday effect, large scale). Needless to say that everyone rushes to take advantage and buy things, and so, like I said, mail and delivery services are exceedingly busy these days! Postzustelldienste haben zur Zeit besonders viel zu tun. Warum? Weil wir gerade den 11. November hatten, oder Doppel-11, wie sie ihn hier nennen. Und während ich hier nicht besonders erklären muss, warum der 11.11 ein besonderes Datum ist (die meisten Leute werden schon wissen, dass der 11.11 ein etwas interessanteres Datum ist als der 15.7., es sei denn der 15.7. ist …

It’s Game Time Once More

Es ist mal wieder Zeit zum Spielen It was game time, once more. Except, this time I didn’t get to play with my university students, this time, I got to play with those who are a head (or a couple of heads shorter). We spent a lovely hour with the kids from one of the orphanages around here, and I guess, they were happy about our visit, and so were we …   Es hieß mal wieder “Spielzeit.” Nur, dieses Mal hab ich mal nicht mit meinen Universitätsstudenten “gespielt,” diesmal durfte ich mal mit denen spielen, die einen Kopf (oder mehrere Köpfe) kleiner sind. Und wir verbrachten eine nette Stunde mit den Kindern von einem der Waisenhäuser in der Gegend, und ich nehme an, sie haben sich mindestens genauso über unseren Besuch gefreut wie wir …    

Why Bad Bananas Are Good for Business

Warum schlechte Bananen gut fürs Geschäft sind … Someone left a bunch of bananas with me the other day without me realizing it. And since bananas have a tendency to change – gradually from good to bad – it’s needless to say by the time I discovered the bananas they were looking pretty bad already – almost black, with maybe a tiny bit yellow here and there. But if you’re anything like me, you’ll find that (almost) bad bananas are really good for business. Mine, at least were perfect in one aspect: they were perfect for making banana (cup)cake with my students (their first time baking ever). So, in the end we had a great little deal: bad bananas which are really good for baking, and students who are perfectly happy to mash up the bananas and add them to something they’ll relish afterward …   Jemand hat mir kürzlich ein paar Bananen dagelassen, ohne dass ich es gemerkt hatte. Und weil Bananen dazu tendieren, sich zu verändern (Farbe und Geschmack, von köstlich zu ungenießbar) …

Traffic Phenomenon: Parked In With My Bike

I did something crazy the other day (October Holiday). I did. Despite the fact that all those in their right mind will do everything to avoid going into town or out of town, I took my bicycle and went into town. And I learned something. I learned that even bicycles can get parked in in our town – parked in, meaning blocked by the ton of other vehicles that are parked all around me so that there’s almost no way of getting out. You see, I always knew that it’s possible for cars to get blocked by other cars while parking. But now I know that around here, people are just as capable of blocking a bicycle so that it’s almost impossible to get out.

How to Clean a Bike

If you happen to have a bicycle, you’ll know that every once in a while it’ll need cleaning. I’ve had my bike for several years now, and not once did I really clean it (aside from washing off dust when I couldn’t see the color of the bike anymore). So, the plan is to hopefully clean my bike very soon. The problem, however, is that I don’t even know where to find stuff you can use for cleaning bicycles. Back home, I could go to pretty much any bike store or even some department stores/supermarkets and I’d be able to quickly find exactly what I’m looking for. Here, however, things are a little more complicated. Because I don’t even know where to begin looking for something like that. My first guess, of course, was the bike store where I got my bike. But a quick stop brought no success. But then, in one of the supermarkets I got my creative juices flowing. I found something you use to clean cars. That’s not too far off, …

A Hero of the Special Kind

I have a mind for traveling. So, today, I’ve been out and about for a very long, short day (because my day will be lots shorter – 6 hours, to be precise – than the average day is). I also got to spend lots of time at various airports, and then I got to meet my hero – who went out of his way to make sure I’d catch my connecting flight. And when I say “out of his way”, I really mean, he went far beyond anything I’ve ever experienced before: he organized a vehicle to quickly get me from one terminal to the other (and he came along with me to make sure I’d find the right check-in counter immediately); he called at the check-in counter before I arrived so that all my stuff (boarding pass, luggage tag, etc.) was ready before I even got there; he by-passed the line to get my boarding pass and stuff to directly hand it over to me and take care of my luggage, and he showed …