This one's mostly a picture post. That is, a post of pretty places... and plants which I purposefully took pictures of today for the primary purpose of posting on this plog. I mean blog. Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
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| The lovely entrance to the campus |
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A nice big field. I played volleyball yesterday - can't really remember the last time that happened... but it was lots of fun. In the background is Dorm 1 (of 2). My room is the upper left one; you can see the window behind the leaves.
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I'm going to go on a little excursus here: I wish there were a mini-exclamation point, or some sort of punctuation that shows a little excitement and emphatic expression, but not too much. For instance, in the above caption, I couldn't decide whether to place an exclamation point after "it was lots of fun" or simply a period. I went back and forth 3 or 4 times before leaving it with just the period. I feared that the exclamation point might have given the impression that I'm slap-happy about playing volleyball and that you might imagine me with this sort of expression on my face:
But that's not the case.
There's a problem with using a period though, too. Isn't it a bit oxymoronic to write that something was "lots of fun" and then to punctuate that with a boring, matter-of-fact period? I can just imagine someone responding sarcastically, "Oh sure - sounds like you had a blast!"
See my dilemma? In the end, I decided the period to be the lesser of two evils.
Just so you know, this sort of thing actually goes through my mind quite often regarding punctuation.
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| Top left is my room. |
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| A nice place to sit and have coffee and enjoy the sunshine (while it lasts). Sehr gemütlich. |
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| An interesting thing about Germans is that they like their drinking water spritzig, that is, fizzy. If you ask for water in a restaurant, they might ask "Mit oder ohne Gas," which is "With or without gas (referring to the carbonation)?" Weird, right? Not a big fan. |
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Aufenthaltsraum = Common Room
I've already watched a couple movies in here with some fellow students, and this is where I've been coming lately to use the Wi-Fi internet since it's not reachable in my room and the ethernet connection isn't set up yet. The Hausmeister (landlord) is on vacation, so I have to wait until next week. |
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| Library all the way on the left and the (as in the only one) lecture hall in the middle with the big windows. |
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| Administration Building |
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| I don't quite know what to say about this, except that I've heard it's gone unused for a while now. And that I hope it stays that way... |
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| Die Mensa = The Cafeteria |
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| Lovely view from the cafeteria. It makes me think of the dining hall in Jurassic Park... |
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New students learning Hebrew
Haha (in a Nelson-from-the-Simpsons voice)! |
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| I like this tree. As I was helping Frau da Silva rake leaves the other day (aren't you proud of me for voluntarily doing yard work, Mom?) she told me that it's a "Platane." Well, I just looked it up and, sure enough, it's from the genus Platanus. In English, it's a sycamore tree or plane tree. Now I know what Zacchaeus climbed up. |
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| This is how I looked after playing 2 hours of Fußball(soccer) this evening and getting the ball kicked right in the face from about 4 feet. |
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| I was EXHAUSTED. And my face still stings. |
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| More battle wounds. |
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It's worse than it looks. I can just tell it's going to develop into a big fat blister...
But it was lots of fun! |
Nice pictures! Keep your face out of the way of balls.
ReplyDeleteDavid and I were just saying today how weird it is to think you are there now! Sounds like you are enjoying it so far! I like Frau da Silva :)
ReplyDeleteType how you feel Peter! You're not writing a novel. lol, this is your life.
ReplyDeleteThis was such a great post! I liked the Nelson voice. I liked the battle wounds. If you can see them from the picture they must be really bad. I know that cameras don't pick up bruises as crazy as they look in real life!
I liked the jurassic park room!
The campus is really pretty! It's all woodsy.
I liked the outside altar and pulpit... and your comment about it. Lol!
One question... that plantain tree... does it grow Plantains?? Plantains are sooo good!
Grace, I like that you liked so many things in my post! :)
ReplyDeleteNo, it's not a plaintain tree though the German name sounds similar. So no plaintains unfortunately.
@ Caleb: haha, yeah I'll do my best.
ReplyDelete@Jessica: Yes I'm definitely enjoying it here so far. Frau da Silva is indeed very nice. Hope you guys are doing well in FW!
You are hilariously weird!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteHi Peter, I just figured out how to get my BlogSpot going so I could connect with your Blog - pretty good for an OLD lady, don't you think? Hope you're okay after your accident with the soccer ball!
ReplyDeleteLove you, Grandma
Hi Grandma - it's great to hear from you here in the blog-world. Well done indeed!
ReplyDeleteHi Peter, I have to remember to go to your blog. Great post!
ReplyDeleteBTW, your excursus (hey, how come the spellchecker doesn't know excursus?) about punctuation is spot on. Today must be National Punctuation Day or something. I see that Heath Curtis over at www.gottesdienstonline.blogspot.com did his own excursus on the "Oxford comma," which was informative: now I know what that's called, besides agreeing with him about keeping it.
Your blog made me laugh so hard. ( or !) I can just see you setting up the camera to take pictures of yourself; you're so funny. Notice there is a crucifix behind your injured head. I too love the lonely looking altar and pulpit. Is that a green and white Travelocity gnome in front of your dorm and by the picnic table? The campus is beautiful. love, mom
ReplyDeleteDad, my Mac knows the word excursus. :P
ReplyDeleteMom, that's just a generic garden gnome in front of my dorm, not the Travelocity one... I like that you noticed that, though... and the crucifix above my head. :)
My PC knows the word excursus too, but this site does not. There's a squiggly red line under it right now.
ReplyDeleteThe line disappears when the comment is published.
ReplyDeletePeter, I heard that you saw my dear mother-in-law at Octoberfest, and she told me you were on your way to Oberursel. Yay! Michael and I were there in 1999-2000, and the campus still looks as beautiful as ever. You have such an advantage in that you already speak German so well. Thanks for posting these pictures. It's fun to relive the good memories. Incidentally, your room was occupied by Pfarrer Hans-Heinrich (Hansi) Heine, now in Hermannsburg, while we were there. If you ever head north, you'll have to visit the Heines. It was in that room that we first met the esteemed Roland Ziegler and got to know him over Kaffee und Kuchen.
ReplyDeleteViel Spass in Deutschland! Janet Frese
p.s Michael also got kicked in the eye while playing Fussball. Must be some sort of twisted initiation rite for Americans.
p.p.s. keep posting pictures of food, specifically Doener, Schnitzel, and....basically everything.
Peter, I loved the post. It made me laugh for so many reasons! John got many war wounds from the few soccer games he played. And I think every exchange student for the past half dozen years has helped Frau Da Silva rake leaves! =) And I feel lucky, because as a girl, no one can form too strong of an opinion about me based on my use of exclamation points; however, I would totally have judged you in my mind if you had used one. Good choice with the period!
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to more posts placed on Peter's Plog!
Ponica Preus =)
@Monica: thanks for commenting! Now I feel even better about my punctuation decision. Hope you and John and the kids are all doing well!
ReplyDelete