Glühwein nach Oma's Rezept/ Mulled Wine after Grandma's Recipe

Ralf (Trixi's partner), Mirko, and Trixi

This is the mulled wine stand which Mirko's sister Trixi has at the Cottbus Christmas Market. Trixi has had the stand for 15 years. She sells Christmas drinks like mulled wine, lumumba (hot chocolate and amaretto), hot chocolate, and grog (hot water and rum). Mirko works in the booth preparing and selling drinks. I have been helping this year with cleaning up tables (removing empty cups and wiping up spilled drinks). It's cold outside, but it is fun spending time among Germans during this special cultural event.

Christmas Market with the Ultimate Frisbee Team

Laurie's Lumumba with whipped cream on top and Mirko's Mulled Wine with an almond

Mirko, Laurie, and Maik

Members of the Ultimate Frisbee team went to Mirko's family's mulled wine booth to enjoy some delicious Christmas drinks (mulled wine and lumumba).

Christmas Cookies

Josi and I made sugar cookies for the Ultimate Frisbee Tournament. After making the prizes for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th (the smileys), I decorated a few cookies for my own fun.

I also made cookies specially "Für Mirko" (for Mirko, my boyfriend) and "Für Trixi" (for Trixi, Mirko's sister).

England, Scotland, Wales, N. Ireland, and Ireland

Back in August/September my mother and I took a trip together through England, Scotland, Wales, N. Ireland, and Ireland. I know that it is bad of me to only finally now in November be posting something about the trip, but since my entrance into Facebook life, I have been neglecting the blog. But I will not quit this blog because I want Michelle to remain proud of me for maintaining a blog for a long time!
I was very excited to see chalk cliffs in England. I had learned about them in my geology courses and was dying to see such cool rocks with my own eyes.

Since Blogspot has changed it's blog creation settings to a level which only experts can figure out, I have to comment here on the photo below (instead of below the photo). That is Scotland, and of all the regions we saw, I have to say that I loooove Scotland. It's gorgeous.

So, if you'd like to see more photos from our trip, then please visit my Flickr page and enjoy!

Climbing with Mirko

Mirko is belaying me while I climb a cement rock in Guben. I enjoy climbing with Mirko.

Mirko climbs up the wall first and puts the rope at the top of the wall so that the rest of us can climb "top rope" style. He hooks himself to the wall along the way while I stand at the bottom belaying him. Mirko is a bit heavier than me, so belaying him is a mental game of me trying to be as heavy as I can (we also use another rope to hook me to the bottom of the wall!).

Mirko Mirko Bo Birko, My Mirko

Mirko playing with Bardo, a dog we dogsat for an evening. Bardo was such a wonderful jetty.



Mirko tending the grill at an Ultimate Frisbee party.



Mirko smiling at Laurie because he's so happy to have her as his girlfriend : )

Mirko is a native of Cottbus and studies something similar to me: soil and water management. He's working on a "Diplom Degree" which is the German equivalent of doing a bachelor and master all at once.

Dresden (finally)

I have been looking forward to visiting Dresden for as long as I've known that I was going to be living in Cottbus. So, for about a year. I never got around to it due to the weather, canceled school field trip, being busy, and being lazy. When Lili asked me last week if I wanted to go on Saturday when the weather was supposed to be nice, I said "yes!" The weather turned out to only be nice in the first half of the day, but we hid under an umbrella at a cafe drinking hot coffee when it decided to rain in the late afternoon.

The city reminded me of Prag, Czech. The facades of buildings in the old part of town all look so well cared for and are painted in light colors, like in Prag. I think that the inside of the renovated Kreuzkirche looks creepy and ugly. The broken sculptures resulting from WWII bombings have been left broken while the rest of the once ornate interior is now covered in a rough stucco. I recommend you click over to my Flickr page to see all of my photos from Dresden (don't worry, there's only about 10 photos) and their accompanying commentary.

Der Spreewald/The Spree Forest

People around here love to talk about the Spreewald and how fantastic it is. They say you can bicycle or stroll there, but that the best way to explore is with a canoe. So, I'd been dying to get my butt in a canoe! Thankfully, Lili came up with the genius idea of gathering her friends together for canoeing in the Spreewald as a way of celebrating her birthday! Wonderful idea!!







We had a great time. We had 3 kayaks and 1 canoe with 3 people in each. I found the kayak interesting because when I was in the rear position I had peddles with which to steer.

It was nice to be out in nature, especially on a weekend when I was writing a paper for Freshwater Restoration Ecology. It's one thing to read and write about waterbodies, but another thing to get to touch algae and look at big, leafy plants growing on the river bottom (these two are important characters in my paper, also known as cyanobacteria and submerged macrophytes, for those of you who want to learn big words).

Now, to give my honest opinion of the infamous Spreewald: it is nice, but no wild territory. The hand of man is written on every inch of the place, which gave me more of a feel of wandering through an amusement park than a forest. It's experiences like this that make me miss the United States. The more western parts of the United States, that is. I once had a professor at Au Sable Institute in Michigan tell this joke while we were taking a nature hike:

Prof. Bouma, "How do you figure out which way is north if you can't see the sun?"

Students' responses, "Look at the moss on the trees."

Prof. Bouma, "No, look for which direction a satellite on someone's roof is facing...because in Michigan there's always bound to be a house relatively nearby to where you think you are lost."

I actually did use the sun to help us navigate when we got a little lost canoeing. I want to thank my mother for teaching me how to read the sun. It's been a very helpful skill to possess, whether I'm in a foreign city or a forest.

Learning Fast

Sometimes we have the luxury of learning slowly, but other times the hassle of washing blankets and sheets is way too much and lessons need to be learned fast. As previously (and joyously, I might add) mentioned, Tiao Tiao now enjoys hopping up on my bed. The downside to this is that he also enjoys going to the bathroom on my bed. I think it is because he feels like he is on soft Earth or something like that and he "digs a hole" in my blankets (i.e. shifts the top blanket around) where he can go to the bathroom. After two instances of "bedwetting" I decided that I had to think like a mother and figure out a solution to my child's problem. Knowing that I couldn't change his behavior, I sought a solution in which I had control. What does a mother do to protect a bed from "bedwetting"? She puts plastic under the sheet. So, I looked around my room, found out I possessed enough large plastic bags, and tried it out. Worked like a charm. He "dug" through the top, easily washable blanket, and did his business on the plastic. The plastic was super easy to clean, meaning much less cleaning work for me and I get to go to bed in a clean bed.

Here's a photo of my solution and Tiao Tiao's work

From the Kitchen

I got up this morning wanting to eat something that would make me really happy. Since it was a noontime breakfast I knew that whatever I ate, it was going to be a sandwich, but there are a lot of options when it comes to sandwiches. It was on my to-do list to go for a jog this afternoon, so I wanted the sandwich to be hearty. I contemplated a grilled cheese sandwich, but when I opened the fridge I saw the eggs and ham and had the brilliant thought that those two could go really well together with cheese. While the egg was frying I scanned the kitchen for any other ideas for stuff to make my sandwich experience amazing. My eyes landed on the pickles. I contemplated the pickles, but thought they might be a weird addition. The idea of a related and possibly more appropriate food popped in my head, cucumber, but upon investigating my veggies I realized that I've currently got zucchini and not cucumber on hand. So, my pickle argument seemed to be supported and I went for it. It turned out to definitely be the right decision! What a tasty sandwich! I didn't take a picture because I wasn't sure how it would turn out taste-wise, but here's the list of ingredients so you can make one yourself!

Whole wheat bread (buttered on the insides)

Gouda Cheese (or any other white cheese) sandwiching the rest of the ingredients

Slice of ham

Sliced up pickle

Fried egg

Enjoy!

Scarabaeidae

For those of you who don't know Latin, that title says "Scarab Beetle".

My fantastic friend Lili did my homework for me and found out that my beetle from Park Branitz is most definitely a Scarab Beetle. You can find a picture of one of his relatives at the following website listed under the name Protaetia aeruginosa (near the bottom of the page).

http://www.kerbtier.de/cgi-bin/enFSearch.cgi?Fam=Scarabaeidae

As I mentioned before, Lili is now working on a study project where she is to capture and identify beetles...after skimming down this webpage I do not envy her. Beetles are creepy, like spiders. But, maybe I'm just negatively biased because I think my specimen from last week was barely hanging on to life as he lay on my desk. Due to his ghost movements, he got chucked out the window. I know, I'm an awful person (I live on the 4th floor with a cement sidewalk below). But in my defense, alive means alive and dead means dead; in between is not allowed!

Leaf Beetle of Park Branitz

This morning I gave a tour of the locally famous Park Branitz with a classmate for our Cultural Landscapes and Historical Gardens course. While on the tour I came across this fantastic beetle on the path! He is so pretty that I just had to take pictures and bring him home!




I tried to do my beetle research on the internet and identify him, but I think the best name I can provide is "Leaf Beetle". There are thousands of leaf beetle varieties in North America and Europe, so perhaps this is sufficient. But, my friend Lili is in fact just starting a study project on trapping and identifying beetles, so perhaps she could help me narrow down an identification! Or, if you'd like to do some browsing yourself, I found the following website which is pretty interesting

http://www.biol.uni.wroc.pl/cassidae/European%20Chrysomelidae/index.htm





I like how the word "pleasure" ended up getting in the shot! It was indeed a pleasure to find this little dude.

Bunny on the Bed

Usually I would have to lay claim to having put an animal in a place it doesn't necessarily want to be, but I have resisted forcing Tiao Tiao up on my bed. Last night I was sitting at my desk working on something when I heard a new noise behind me. I turned around to find Tiao Tiao sitting up on my bed! I was wondering if he would ever hop up that high or if he even could. Turns out he just needed to get bored exploring the main floor before he had a desire to seek new horizons.



He fits right in!

Tiao Tiao, Hans, and Frans United

Tiao Tiao is settling in to life with me. Last night he met Frans and Hans!

Frans met Tiao Tiao first nose to nose and after sniffing each others faces Frans put his paws on Tiao Tiao's face to get a better sniff of Tiao Tiao's head, but Tiao Tiao backed off. Rats followed rabbit and vice versa, exploring my room together. I think Tiao Tiao was a little overwhelmed though because the first opportunity he got he went off to the living room and sprawled out there.



Hans was a sneaky boy and investigated Tiao Tiao's abode.



Frans returned to an old hiding place to find that Tiao Tiao had renovated and made the nest even homier (that's my newest apartmentmate and animal lover Paola).

Oh my goodness, Oh my goodness, Oh my goodness!!

During my childhood years my mother enjoyed watching made-for-tv movies in the evening. I didn't ever watch these movies with her, to my knowledge. But, one time I did walk in on a movie and acquire a vivid memory which has haunted me for years since. The title of this post expresses such excitement because I finally found out what movie the haunting scenes came from!! And I just watched the movie! Oh my goodness, Oh my goodness, Oh my goodness!

First, the two scenes which have haunted me, making me scared of the outdoors at night and of people who sit in the dark. In my memory there is a teenage boy trudging across a backyard in the dark with an ax dragging behind him. Then there's a teenage boy sitting on the edge of his bed in the dark but when a little light shines on him you can see that he has blood all over his face.

So, how did I find the movie? Accidentally. I am a fan of the tv shows "How I Met Your Mother", starring the actor Neil Patrick Harris, and "The Big Bang Theory", starring Johnny Galecki. I was browsing the IMDb website for information about the "Big Bang Theory" actors and actress when I came across information saying that Johnny Galecki made a movie with Neil Patrick Harris back in 1993 titled "Sudden Fury: A Family Torn Apart". My curiosity was piqued and I checked out the information on the movie. The plot summary triggered the haunting memory of my mother's movie, so I decided to find the movie and find out if this was "the one".

AND IT WAS!!!!!

What a relief. Now that I have some context for my haunting memories I can possibly let go of the fear associated with them. It's really not a scary movie, but I was only 7 when I first saw the scenes, so they made a big impact on me. It is a decent movie and I encourage you to check it out. You can find it on Youtube in 10 minute segments.

AOK Spokeswoman (Unofficial)

Last Summer the health of my skin decided to majorly go on the fritz for reasons I don't know. I first began using cheap, harsh products which just seemed to anger my skin more. Then, when I was a guest in someone else's home I saw a different brand of face wash and decided to give it a try. During the couple of days I tried it out, I found that my skin seemed to like it. So, when I returned home I checked out the full line of products this brand had to offer.

I first started with just the AOK Regular Wash Gel for Clean Skin Above 20 Years Old. To accompany this I would use a "calming" face mask about once a week. I eventually decided that perhaps it would be just as effective or more effective and definitely more economical to purchase a face moisturizer. I first went with just the AOK nighttime moisturizer because I couldn't imagine that there should be such a huge difference between day and night creams. But, eventually I caved and got the AOK daytime cream as well because I could tell that the nighttime cream was working and I trusted that the daytime cream would provide additional benefits.

The conclusion here is, with this suite of AOK facial skin products my skin has gone from scary to nice. Sure, my face isn't yet perfect, but most people's aren't. I think the reason this product line works so well is because even the wash gel keeps the skin hydrated while it washes away yuck. When skin is properly hydrated, it is elastic and can process yuck in a reasonable fashion.

Thank You AOK

Branitzer Park in Springtime

During the winter holiday break on December 30, 2010 I had paid Branitzer Park a visit after dusk. I took some fabulous photos at that time. But, in a couple of weeks I will be giving a tour of the park with a classmate for our "Cultural Landscapes and Historic Gardens" course. So, I took Steffi along last weekend for a visit on a warm, sunny Spring afternoon.



This "pyramid" is a signature feature of the park which appears in all the tourist advertisements. It turned out to be more visually appealing than I expected. The landscape architect and his wife are buried under the pyramid.

Homemade Cherry and Apple Cake

Steffi and I baked a very typical style of German/Austrian cake last weekend. It consists of making up a batter, adding fruit (we used cherries and applies), then plopping on little chunks of buttery, sugary dough.




It was incredibly delicious. We actually made the cake because Christin had left a bottle of whipped cream behind when she moved out and we needed to use the bottle before it expired. What a great excuse, right?

New Semester

My second semester at Brandenburg University of Technology (BTU) in Cottbus is nearly two weeks underway. Here's a little summary of the classes I'm taking.

Cultural Landscapes and Historic Gardens

This class actually belongs to another study program called World Heritage, but it's taught by a professor I know and it sounds interesting. It's also a sociological break from my natural science classes. We'll be learning about the history of various landscape and gardens styles in a sort of historical perspective of why these particular styles were popular during their times (e.g. influence of the enlightenment).

Environmental Modelling

In the lecture we'll learn about the theories behind different modelling methods and then in the exercise class we'll learn how to model with the computer program MATLAB.

Applied Geology

This class is like a mixture of Geochemistry and Hydrogeology. During the exercise portion of the class we have to do math. Yuck.

Freshwater Restoration Ecology

With my Aquatic Ecology background from last semester I'm now trying to move on to a new level of activity dealing with waterbodies.

Social Change and Continuity

Another social break from natural sciences, this class looks at how economic systems have developed in unique ways around the world.

Methods of Water Resource Management

This class will take place for just one week in June, so I can't give a first-hand impression of the subject yet, but I think the title explains a bit why I'm interested.

Ultimate Frisbee

Springtime is here which means frisbee outside on the soccer field! I attended once already and it was great fun playing outside. We got a little dirty and the brisk evening air was refreshing compared to the stuffy gym.

The Rodent Room

My room is being taken over by male rodents.

As you all know, I've had two adorable rats, Hans and Frans, under my care since around October. Yesterday the Easter Bunny moved in as well.



I have acquired this year old bunny, name Tiao Tiao, from a neighbor of Lili. The neighbor was giving Tiao Tiao away and I figured that since I've managed to figure out how to keep two rats alive, I could also welcome a rabbit into my heart and home as well. I'm letting Tiao Tiao get acquainted with the apartment today and it is really heartwarming watching him hop around. I do have to keep an eye on him though because he likes to nibble! I can tell he's getting comfortable here already because he just lay down against my open bedroom door : )

I hope that my entire rodent clan can be friends in the future. They have now spent one night in neighboring cages and Tiao Tiao has met Frans through the rat cage bars, but I am going to try and wait at least a week before I introduce them to each other with no cage barriers.

Spanish Food

There are 4 foods from Spain which stand out in my mind. There's the paella, the hamburger, Sangria, and the Cafe Americano. (All photos, except for the last one, courtesy of Lili)

Paella

There are many varieties of this dish, but what they all have in common is a bed of seasoned rice and some sort of meat and/or vegetable on top. Lili and I tried a standard seafood paella and then a local Valencian paella that had chicken (pictured). While I enjoyed the seasoned rice, I can't say that I was totally blown-over with joy about paellas in general because the whole concept of it didn't seem very unique. I also learned through the experience of eating the seafood paella that eating crustacean seafood is a waste of time. The animals are so tiny making for a very small amount of meat and it is incredibly difficult to get the shell off.



Hamburger

The Spanish know how to make hamburgers. We saw signs for them everywhere and digested some ourselves one day. What makes them so fantastic!? The ingredients: beef patty, deli slice of ham, onion, lettuce, tomato, and a sunnyside-up egg. I made one last night myself. Soooo delicious.



Sangria

We had a very Spanish meal one day of paella and Sangria. Sangria is a cold red wine drink with slices of fruit floating in it. I found it to be quite tasty because the fruit added the extra fruitiness which I have always believed red wine should have (because it's red and red says fruity!). Having had already tried German Gluehwein during the Christmas season, we found ourselves identifying Sangria as a cold version of Gluehwein (because Gluehwein is a hot, red, fruit-filled wein, for those of you who forgot).



Cafe Americano

I have not even had my 1 year annisversary yet of being a true coffee drinker, so until I did some research a couple days ago, I was really not knowledgeable at all about all the different terms used to describe specific types of coffee. I was first taught to make coffee by pouring drip coffee into a cup about 3/4 of the way full, adding a spoonful or so of sugar, and filling the rest of the cup with milk. At home I have changed this to adding water to instant coffee, adding two spoonfuls of sugar, and filling the cup with only a tiny bit of milk. So, in Spain I didn't know how to order coffee... On my first try I agreed when the woman said "cafe solo". I thought this meant a single coffee. As you can see in this picture, that is not what it meant.



No, my cup does not just appear smaller, it was smaller. I think I ordered espresso. So, I learned that with enough sugar, even a tiny cup of espresso can taste good. Perhaps you are thinking, what did Lili order that her cup is so big? She ordered "cafe con leche", which means "coffee with milk". So, why didn't I order that? Because I learned already last summer that when "coffee with milk" is ordered at a coffee shop, they fill half of the cup with milk and only put in half a cup of coffee, and that just tastes boring. On my next attempt to order coffee I tried to describe that I wanted "coffee black" because I figured that with the little amount of milk I usually add, I could probably survive with no milk. I was informed that what I wanted was "cafe Americano". I didn't quite understand the logic of calling it "Americano" because it doesn't describe from what region of America this style of coffee originates, but it tasted right. When I did my coffee research a couple of days ago in an attempt to answer this origin of name question, I found out a couple of interesting facts. First, I had not found a "normal black coffee" like I thought I had. Rather, "cafe Americano" is watered-down espresso, typically served at coffee shops as the equivalent of "normal black coffee". Second, this style of coffee originated during WWII when American (United States American) soldiers poured hot water into their coffees. And if I had already been at all into American coffee culture, I would have known that this name "cafe Americano" is normal in American coffee shops like Starbucks. Ah well, sometimes ya gotta travel halfway around the world to learn about your home.



Here's a quick lesson for all of you who have ever wondered what is with all those crazy coffee names.
Espresso Varieties (water forced through ground beans by pressure):
Cafe Americano -- diluted with water
Latte -- diluted with milk
Cappacino -- diluted with milk
Machiato -- diluted with milk

Coffee:
Drip Coffee (water passes through ground beans by gravity)
Instant Coffee (ground beans freeze dried)
Cafe con Leche, Cafe au lait, caffe e latte -- diluted with milk
Frappucino -- cold coffee and milk, typically with additional flavorings

Where is the love?

Yesterday evening I was flipping through t.v. channels taking advantage of the approximately 80 channels we get. I found the near-end of a "Mythbusters" episode in which the team split a car perfectly in half with a rocket. That was pretty sweet. I came across a reality show on VIVA, which is the German equivalent of MTV, and watched a 19 year old girl go on a mission to find a guy to have sex with her because it was her opinion that she was definitely too old to have not had sex yet. I didn't watch this show very long because I was disturbed that such a show even existed.

And then I came across the channel which does the international evening news in English (British English, but I'll forgive them). I decided that based upon the random snippets of news I had been hearing on the radio and reading online that I should be a good citizen of the world and watch the international news. So, I sat through news on about 4 countries before I was totally depressed and renewed my old vow to not watch news. People are simply mad. There's the Russian Caucasian "rebels", the Sudanese elections, the Afghan elections, the Catholic priests, the Michigan militiamen (this one didn't make the international news, but I've seen it online), Israel not backing down on stealing Palestinian land, peaceful Jordan getting caught up in spy scandals, and the Iranians trading fuel for weapons with China. I realize that it is these insane people who give us content for history books, but history books are always too big and heavy anyways, so we could use a little less history.

As I was washing dishes in the kitchen this morning I heard the song "Where is the love?" by the Black Eyed Peas on the radio and I think it speaks very well to my feelings. Either use this link or find the song yourself on Youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjeL-CfwqOI

Back from Spain

Lili and I have returned from a lovely vacation in Spain.



We had some beautiful Spring weather, visited interesting art museums, learned some Spanish history, walked old narrow streets, saw unique architecture, and relaxed in parks, on beaches, and in coffee shops. My wallet disappeared while in Madrid, but the sly street thievery of the Spaniards didn't ruin my trip because most of my money was not in the wallet. The cities were full of dogs, so despite the lovely time we were having, I was doggy-sick and glad to visit the animal shelter in Cottbus yesterday (where I walked a mini-Molly! Click on "Arthur" on this website http://www.tierheim-cottbus.de/intern/page/main.html). Spanish cities also contain a lot of smooching couples and motorcycles, so I was Steve-sick as well.

Please visit my Flickr page to see pictures from the trip.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/larriettasimon/
If you click on the "Spain: March 2010" icon on the right side of the page, then you can see the photos in chronological order. Feel free to leave comments!

Holiday: Spain

I will be on holiday in Spain for the next two weeks, but here's your homework until I get back:

celebrate my one year anniversary of being in Germany/Europe on March 15.

I know, can you believe it? Aside from two weeks back in June 2009 when I was in Michigan, I've been living here for a year. Crazy. Almost half of the time I lived in Erlangen, Bavaria, while for a little over half of the time I have lived here in Cottbus, Brandenburg. I've really enjoyed living here and I am looking forward to my next year and a half.

Doggy Crush: Leo

This is Leo and I have a doggy crush on him.



He's a lovable black lab from the Cottbus Animal Shelter. I mentioned him last week in my post with the small dog and ducks.



Leo's great characteristics are 1) his visual similarity to my number one dog Molly 2) his heartwarming, golden colored eyes 3) his medium length, soft black coat 4) his energy and enthusiasm 5) his calm and 6) his enjoyment of petting, scratching, hugs, kisses, etc. We sat on the river bank today watching the rapids and river flow. It was so nice to have a dog who sat next to me looking as curiously at the river as I was. As I sat there stroking him, he eventually lay down and proceeded to share with me in imagining how beautiful our lives could be together. Actually, I was coincidingly thinking about how much I'd love to live with him, but how I can't because he would freak Steffi out and I would always have to fear a lawsuit because as a dog he is a biting liability (he wears the muzzle because of his dominant temper with other dogs).

So, I just take lovely photos of my crush and treasure the time we have together.

Just Some Lipsmackin' Fun

Those braces did a nice job, didn't they?

This photo is my "artist" tribute to the album cover of a musician, Ben Arthur. (Please note that the quotes mean sarcasm.)

Closing in on a decision: Calling all Devil's Advocates

I make difficult decisions by conversing with myself. I have been going over and over in my head and out loud with people my dilemma about which department at the school I should become involved in. I've decided that I need to decide now, so I put one last push of effort into researching the two departments. The following is my decision, that is, unless any of you can give me a good Devil's Advocate argument to make me think some more. But, you only have until Wednesday morning (German time) to post your comments or send me an email.

Maybe it's because the out-of-this-world character of soil fascinates me. The fact that I don't yet grasp all of its secrets intrigues me. It makes me want to know more and understand more about this entity which is so important to my life and yet generally just gets trampled upon. I don't want to just manage the land, I want to understand it too. I want to see the data and find out for myself what it means: how did humans affect it, what should we do or not do about it, etc.? The environmental planners may feel like they are making a difference when they push paper, but I feel like I make a difference when my hands are literally dirty. I want to know about Soil Protection and Recultivation.

Early March in Cottbus, Germany

The snow is melting and temperatures are warming up a little. Songbirds are providing an outdoor soundtrack.

I'm not usually much into small dogs, but this little dude had soft fur, a cute face, and was pretty friendly. I walked an utterly fantastic black lab last week who let me hug him and stroke his thick, soft coat. Sadly, I didn't get a picture of that big lug. The fishing ponds are still frozen, but the snow has mostly ceased covering land surfaces.



The ducks have been active all winter in the unfrozen Spree River and I have been particularly intrigued by this non-mallard duck variety, mostly because it isn't mallard. Some internet searching has lead to me knowing that this is a Common Goldeneye pair.

Books: Spanish, Food, Soil

My one month of vacation has arrived. Plans are made to spend two weeks in the middle of March in Spain, but what to do with the two other weeks?

Lili asked me on the evening on which my vacation began if I was planning on reading any books during the vacation. Up to that point I had been making a mental list of tv shows and movies I wanted to watch, but her question reminded me that the university library here at BTU Cottbus is amazing. So, the next day I spent some time in the candy factory of knowledge picking out a stack of interesting books. There were tons more books which intrigued me, but the library has labeled the best books as being restricted to in-library use. While it is nice to keep these best books available for all to use, it greatly reduces the likelihood that I will ever read them because I like to read books at home in bed or on the couch, not in the cold, uncomfortable library. Oh well, my bounty is still contains some great books.



I am kind of picky when it comes to choosing my reading material because I know that I am going to invest a lot of brain power and time to reading, so it better be worth it. Let's analyze my current selection.

Starting on the right end we have books to acquaint me with the Spanish language. I have no intention of actually learning the language in the sense of building sensible phrases and such, but I want to feel comfortable reading signs, listening to conversations around me, and communicating with a word or two.

Next we have a couple of books written by people with particular passions. "Stolen Harvest" is a book written by an Indian activist about the modern global food system. It's an incredibly depressing book, but I'm more than half-way done, so soon I will only have the lingering sadness. The next book is "Exploring the Tomato". This book is basically a history of the tomato from it's wild roots to its modern genetically controlled status. I plan on bringing this book with me to Spain as my entertaining, light reading! I get enough crime and comedy through the tv shows I watch. Educational tv shows are interesting but I struggle to stay tuned. So, I turn to books for educational fun. I can read as fast or slow as I want and they contain way more information than educational tv shows.

The next section of my books are about good soil quality. One of the books deals with soil pollution while the other deals particularly with the role of organic matter in soil. I find both of these topics intriguing. Soil looks so simple to the naked eye, but it fascinates me how complex it in fact is.

The final book section contains books covering anthropogenic soils. In all the introductory education on soils, we think about soils out in fields, but so much of the earth is covered by urbanization, so I am really excited to crack open the "Urban Soils" book. On a related theme we have the final book, "Brownfields", which discusses how to remediate soils which have been majorly polluted and destroyed by human activities.

When picking out books I pretty much follow my instinctive desire. After having assembled my instinctive collection of books, I pondered what this particular combination says about me. I came up with the following ideas.

I like food. I like how it tastes, how it smells, and the energy it gives me to move and think. Food grows in soil. Soils need to be of decent quality in order to grow decent foods so that they can create healthy humans. Sure, everyone is going to die someday due to either a disease, accident, or homicide, but I don't think that we should mask millions of homicides as diseases. Humans are intelligent creatures, but often we don't fully use our brain capacities. We all play roles in this system, whether we directly realize it or not. I don't want to be a part of the higher levels of this food system. I want to do my part at one of the most basic levels: soil. Perhaps my work as an individual won't have much affect, but I will feel wholesome getting my hands literally dirty.

Goofy

I use this word a lot. It just seems to be so applicable to so many people and situations.

But, I have been finding out that foreigners don't learn this word during their English educations. This is problematic because as I said, I use this word a lot, and "goofy" isn't really a simple word to explain.

If I ever teach an English course, I need to make sure "goofy" is on the vocabulary list. If any of you have influence upon English language education in foreign countries, please teach this word.

In the process of me learning German I feel like nouns and verbs are super important while I can get away with a small supply of adjectives and adverbs. But, when I speak English with my foreign friends, I find that it is through the language of adjectives that I express myself and can be descriptive. Apparently, all parts of speech are important. So much to learn...

Bodyweight Study Complete

For the past five weeks (35 days) I have weighed myself every morning first thing when I got up and every night right before climbing into bed. I additionally kept track of how many hours I slept each night, exercise I did, and any notable stresses or health issues.

So, here I present to you the graph. The weight change value (in kilograms) was derived in the following way: each day I would take the difference between my morning and bedtime weight to see how much I had gained or loss throughout the day. Then, the next morning I would calculate how much I had lost over night (always loss). The difference between my gain/loss over the day and loss overnight is the daily change.



The first thing that surprised me during the study was how much weight I gained during each day and lost at night. I had never really thought before too much about my daily food accumulation and nightly energy burning. And getting a good, long, unstressful night of sleep often, but not always, affected how much I burned at night.

My eating habits were variable during these five weeks. I confess to putting conscientious effort into eating with the goal of increasing my weight during the first couple of weeks of the study. But, my body wasn't really liking all of that food, so I cut back.

The second week I was very stressed about a presentation which I knew would go horribly and you can see how my weight went down that entire week. Take-away message: stress is unhealthy.

The final few weeks of the study show much fluctuation. I would love to make a general statement about showing a tendency to always gain during a certain time of the week, but there is at least one peak on the graph for every day but Sunday.

My weight from the entire data set had a range of 4.84 lbs. The difference between the averages of all my morning and bedtime weights was only 1.2 lbs. I consider this to mean that my weight is relatively consistent around the weight which it fluctuates.

During the study I often wondered, does the weight of the food I eat transfer directly to the weight I gain? I was curious, but not crazy enough to weigh all of my food before I ate it...

While we are on the topic of weight, I would like to comment on healthy habits. The Yahoo! homepage loves to supply us with all sorts of articles listing ways to improve health, relationships, city to live in, etc. Well, in this theme I came across this list tonight, "6 Easy Slim-Down Strategies". Or, as I would more properly call the list, "6 Ways to Have a Healthy Body".

1) Weigh yourself daily
2) Keep t.v. viewing under 2 hours a day
3) Eat 4g of fiber at every meal
4) Sleep at least 7 hours per night
5) Drink 8 glasses of water per day
6) Stick to an 8-hour work day

I think this is a pretty good list. In summary, it says to eat healthy, get exercise, keep stress low, and sleep well.

I can't claim to do all of these things super well, but in general I try hard. I know that I have a naturally high metabolism which is simply genetic and I do not have the ability to gift this to any of you who are trying to lose weight. But, in addition to my natural ability, I also put effort into making my diet, exercise, and sleep contribute to the betterment of my health.

I am not a great Ultimate Frisbee player, but I go twice a week to run around like an idiot, sweat, and lower my stress (or temporarily raise it, as that is really the case, but it all works towards the best for the functioning of my body). I drink water all the time which has the consequence of people thinking I'm weird because I go to the bathroom so frequently. I'm a night-owl, but that doesn't keep me from getting my 8 hours of sleep! I just sleep later into the day! One weakness of mine which I used to be great about but have fallen out of the habit is eating an apple each day. It's not just a saying! It really is good to eat an apple a day! My habit has now turned into a banana every morning, which is also good, but not as great as an apple every day at lunch.

I wish you all the best of health!

My Head on Paper Again

I should be studying for my exam Tuesday and so I am trying to keep myself away from the television this evening. But, even without the tv my head keeps fantasizing, so I get the same unproductive result.

This is an old image which I look at often. I saw it for the first time on the western coast of Michigan's Lower Peninsula when I was on the Michigander Bike Ride (a week long bike ride tour) in the summer of 2004. I have embellished my drawing with a little fantasy. Missing is Lake Michigan on the horizon behind the forest to the west (left) and I have converted a forest into a wheat field.

When I saw this scene, I thought it was just so idyllic. A perfect little farm house perched on a hill surrounded by a lush field full of sheep. If only you could really see inside my head...