Dancing with the Stars is called ‚Let’s Dance‘ in Germany. Yes, because we’re stupid. Yes, I know it’s sad.

However, that show just gave me back my faith in mankind. I mean who wouldn’t believe in a better world after seeing eight celebrities smiling their freaking soul out while cha-cha-chaing to Madonna’s ‚Hung Up‘.

It’s hilarious. And weirdly cute.

On Friday I learned that there’s a very dangerous combination of shortcuts that one should only use in moments of absolute concentration (i.e. not on a Friday afternoon). Here it goes:

CTRL + A (starting the desaster)
CTRL + C (happily going along with it)
CTRL + A (doing it once again because it’s so damn handy)
CTRL + V (joyfully continuing the catastrophe)
CTRL + S (killing it once and for all)

My shiny new program that I had been working on all week. Gone. And no-one to blame but myself and Windows’s oh-so-very-helpful shortcuts. Yeah, thanks a lot for that.

Fortunately my colleague was able to retrieve from the depths of who-knows-what. So, I don’t have to do it all again. Phew. I learned my lesson anyway.

I started my other blog to write about translating and all the things around it. I write in German, because I want to tell stories about school and my general experiences, so that people in a similar situation (either thinking about majoring in translating or already doing it or, you know, whoever is interested in it) may have a helpful resource.

I hoped that maybe I would find a blog like that, but I found none. I did find several blogs by translators or the like, but that’s different. I wanted a blog about what it’s like to learn all these things, so I could have an idea of what is expecting me. Either way, I took the opportunity and created my new blog, which naturally, isn’t solely about translating and language and school. I am not the kind of gal who keeps things purely informational. I have fun with my blog and I hope other people will, too.

That’s that.

I don’t, however, want my non-German-speaking blog-readers to be uninformed about what the plans are right now.

The plans are: Jamie goes back to school in October. I can major¹ in Literature Translating at the University of Düsseldorf. It’s supposed to take four years and three months, but that’s just what they say, so I guess it might take a bit longer. I will take courses in English, French and German, and (hopefully) learn how to translate literature from English and French into German.

This is the only University in Germany offering to major in Literature Translating and I’m glad it’s close enough by, so we won’t have to move or anything. I will just have to get used to longer train rides again.

So, these are the plans. Shiny, are they not? It of course will depend on how my husband’s job is going. Right now all seems pretty well. A friend of ours is designing a website for him – probably as we speak, he already has held trainings for some major companies (Microsoft, anyone?) and apparently is a genius at what he does. I am so amazed with the feedback he gets I can’t get over it. I constantly tell him how proud I am.

Of course I will try to find a well-enough-paid job, too, but if possible I want to keep it at only a few hours a week, because I don’t feel I have any time to dawdle. I want to do this, but I also want to do this as fast as possible. If everything goes as planned I might have my degree when I’m 30, which is no problem at all. But somewhere between that and 35 it would start to be a problem, considering we want a family and all.

Now, I will have to decide what to do with my old job, where to find a new one and a lot of other things. There’s not a lot I want to cut back on other than amazon expenses and food (maybe). Let’s hope my husband continues to bring in money. I also wonder if I should catch up on PHP and become a kick-ass blog expert, so I can earn a bit of money designing other people’s blogs. Or something. Right now I love the whole freelance idea. Working from my computer whenever I want to. In my pajamas preferably. Listening to music. Fact is I believe that I can concentrate a lot better with my music playing. But try to explain that to my boss.

—
¹I think the term major is not actually right in this context, but considering all the differences of the German and the US college system, it’s the best I can come up with.

Ehle: Thank you for agreeing with me.

Jamie: You’re welcome.

Ehle: We should combine forces and take over the world.
Ehle: I’m free on Tuesday. Do you think you can schedule a takeover on Tuesday?

Jamie: Tuesday’s fine with me. How about after work? That would be around noon your time.

Ehle: Noon is good.
Ehle: I’ll set my alarm.
Ehle: I’m usually a good 20 minutes late, so just wait for me.

Jamie: Where do we start?

Ehle: I don’t know.
Ehle: I think we should watch some alien movies, and use their plan.

Jamie: They usually start with the White House, New York or a trailer park in the middle of nowhere.

Ehle: My money’s on the trailer park.
Ehle: New York smells like urine. I want to avoid it if possible.
Ehle: Maybe we can find a way to detach it from the rest of the United States, and let it be its own little continent somewhere.

Jamie: I’d want to wait until this season of Apprentice is over.
Jamie: I can’t miss that.

Ehle: Oh, of course.
Ehle: Maybe we can strike a deal with The Donald. He funds our takeover, he can be King of the Continent of New York.

Jamie: And we shall all worship his hair.

Ehle: yes.
Ehle: His hair will be on all coins.

Don’t try to call me on Tuesday. I already have plans.

The husband, wonderful as he is, got me the Sims add-on ‚Open for Business‘, so now my Sims can stay at home all day and sell stuff in their front yard. They could sell things inside, too, but as of now I really don’t have a florishing business and I don’t want a bunch of people crowding my living room and buying nothing. Nothing, I tell you. They’re the worst effing buyers in the world.

Sure, they’re contemplating that bowl of five-day-old mac and cheese for hours, but hard as I try to have my Sim-husband talk to them, they just won’t buy it. And it’s just 7 Simoleons, guys. That’s a damn bargain.

I accidentally put up one of my tables for sale and that was gone in no time, which is not that surprising, considering that I bought it for 115 Simoleons and sold it for 52.

Since I prove to be the world’s worst business-gal I had to send my Sim-me to work as a campaign helper or something. Somebody’s gotta bring some money home and the Sim-husband right now is doing a lousy job.

Also, we¹ got robbed. How tragic is that? The next morning my Sims did nothing but run around in their house crying over all the things that were stolen. It was a sad way to start a day.

—
¹The Sims-we. Not the real we. My life is not that bad.

I really really want to make some Shoo-Fly Pie. I tried to find a German recipe, because a) I still don’t know how much a cup is supposed to be and b) some of the ingredients confuse me and I would prefer someone telling me the German equivalent.

I had Shoo-Fly Pie in Nappanee, because I read it was great and because I had to find out what Shoo-Fly Pie is. The name doesn’t exactly give anything away. As far as I know there are neither shoes nor flies in it. God, I hope I’m not wrong.

And so, because I’m a sucker for all things super-sweet, I recently decided I want to make one, too.

Hello, Amish people, anyone care to give me the recipe? In German, preferably. I’ll take Pennsylvania Dutch, too, especially since I’d like to know how that works anyway.

Office hours are just not for me. Maybe that’s part of why I am not too fond of what I’m doing. Anything between noon and approximately 3 pm is just not the best time for me to work.
I am good in the morning and I’m also good in late afternoon and early evening. I’m probably best at night, but as long as I spend eight and more hours in the office during the day already I just don’t feel like working at night. Sorry.

Unfortunately I can’t just go home around noon and come back a few hours later. I also wouldn’t exactly want to, since that would mean an additional hour each day of commuting. Still, considering the rise and fall of my ability to concentrate during the course of the day, it might be a good idea.

I bet my boss doesn’t think so.

No, I don’t watch a lot of crime shows. For example, I can say (without lying) that I have never seen a complete episode of any C.S.I series. Nope. None.

The only two crime shows I currently watch are ‚Bones‘ and ‚Close to Home‘. But ‚Close to Home‘ actually is a law show, so I guess the only crime show I watch is ‚Bones‘.

It took me a time to realize it, but ‚Bones‘ is a really good show. They do a really good job when it comes to character development, the cases are interesting and vary a lot, and most of the times the writing is really good, even funny. The Christmas episode was really sweet, too. I might have cried. A little.

Not-so-very-long story short, I just wanted to say that I really enjoy watching ‚Bones‘. This might not be the most interesting thing I could write about, but considering that this show got dumped by Television Without Pity pretty fast, I felt it was my viewer’s obligation to mention that it’s a show I genuinely enjoy for everything it has to offer.

So, on Saturday we finally drove to Düsseldorf to check out the fancy bookstore I read about. It was awesome. Lots and lots and lots of books, bagels for breakfast, everything I could possibly want.

Plus, I got the A1-experience of feeling like a tourist in a town that is not even 30 minutes away from where we live. Strange, but strangely fun. Andreas told me how to get to the Japanese district, but we didn’t make it, since we wanted to get home early because we had friends coming over that night. Next time, then.

Also, I accidentally stole something. Yes, it’s possible. You may or may not be aware that I am one of the most honest people in the world. There are just so many things I will not do because I think they are not allowed and I’m either afraid someone will call me on it or I just feel bad doing them. Lying is one thing. I think I don’t even suck at lying, but I feel so bad doing it. In my view it’s one of the ultimate and worst relationship spoilers. I can’t lie to my husband. I may not tell him something right away, but I will not lie to him. Same with mostly anyone who means the slightest bit to me.

So, yes that’s me. And I accidentally stole something. A magazine. But it was more of a poor paper quality book magazine that I thought was for free, because it was right there with all the other free book magazines. They’re mostly advertising anyway. It’s book advertising, so it’s interesting enough to read. I only discovered at home that it was supposed to cost a Euro.

Yeah. Sorry for that. Next time I’ll know. Only I won’t spend a Euro on it. I will just not accidentally steal one. Sorry again.

Well, sometimes I feel like I have no other chance but double-post, writing nearly the exact same blog entry twice, one for each blog.

Now, here’s why I am a media junkie. Check out the pictures at flickr for notes.

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

I definitely need help.