Finally, finally Google Earth has new maps. Finally I can see our house like a really shape and not just a blurry greenish-brownish area. I also found my parents‘ house, the house I lived in in Bonn, My aunt’s house, my grandparents‘ house, the house we lived in in Cologne, all of the schools I went to and the street where Andreas lives.

Talk about things to keep you from work.

I hardly ever buy fruit. It’s not that I don’t like fruit, I just forget to buy it. And when I remember to buy it, I forget to eat it.

Right now I have two delicious oranges on the kitchen counter, waiting to be eaten. I just never think about it. And when I do, I’m not in the mood for fruit.

Apparently, with fruit, I always lose.

Nevertheless I think it’s really nice that one of the guys at work gave me a blood orange before he left today. I may or may not eat it, but at least he restored my faith in mankind. And goodness. Or something.

How the hell am I going to keep up two blogs? What was I thinking?

I know that I intended to use my other blog mostly for information about translating and related things. But it’s already clear that I want to put some of my personal stuff up there, too. So, how will I decide what’s going on this blog and what’s going on the other?

I guess it will all come down to random and totally unpredictable decisions. We’ll see how that works out.

I started a new blog documenting my aspirations of becoming a translator.

Unfortunately for some of you, it’s in German. This has several reasons, one of them being my wanting to write in my native tongue for a change¹. Besides, since – if all goes well – I will be writing about school and translating a lot, it makes sense for this blog to be in German since I would like it to be a resource for other aspiring translators.

It has a nice design, too. But it’s not mine. I wasn’t in design mood last night, so I used an existing WordPress theme. I like it a lot, though.

—
¹I noticed that I actually like writing in German. It just feels very different. It’s strange.

The story goes:

I sat on the couch and wondered whether I had locked the car.
I figured I hadn’t since I couldn’t remember doing it.
So I got up, put my shoes on, my coat and my scarf, too.
I went out in the cold and walked all the way to the car.

And it was cold.
It’s late March and it’s cold.
I hate that it’s cold.

I got to the car and checked and it was locked.
Of course.
Because I would never not lock the car.

What can I say. At least I can be proud to be paranoid.

Monday evening my grandfather died. Now it happened. It’s strange. In a way I guess we’ve been waiting for it to happen. It was clear that he wouldn’t live a lot longer, so it surely wasn’t a surprise.

Still, when my mother told me it came as a shock. I guess it always does. There’s this quote from Buffy (and no, I don’t feel weird quoting Buffy when talking about my dead grandfather) when Tara says: ‚It’s always sudden.‘ Yes it is. You know it’s going to happen and you know that it’s not a bad thing and considering how bad he was these last days, probably a relief, but it’s still sudden.

And sad. And shocking.

Another strange thing is that I had planned to come see him on Monday after work, but then I had to work late and couldn’t leave until 7 and when we got home this was pretty much the first news I heard. Strange to think that if I hadn’t worked so late, I would’ve been there when he died. But I also think that this maybe was meant to be. When I left him on Sunday he seemed really fine and even managed to speak about three words. None of which I could understand, but I know how exhausting it was for him to even say ‚yes‘, so three words – regardless of what they were – were an amazing effort. I remember how at one point he held my hand and held it real firm and I was amazed by the strength he still had left.

So these are the last memories I have and I think that this may be a good thing.

He died when he was 94 years and as far as I can tell he had a pretty good life. There’s not much more to wish for.

So, if I’m going back to school, I plan on taking at least beginner’s courses in at least three of the following languages:

Portuguese, Dutch, Japanese, Swedish and some eastern european language (preferably Czech or Polish). Finnish is always an option, but it might be hard to find good language courses.

I hope I can stick to my plans of seizing the opportunities that going back to school offers.

I don’t believe the last two days actually were a weekend. I spent around 5 hours at my grandfather’s, one to two hours cooking, about one hour grocery shopping, another half hour bringing my husband to work on Saturday and fetching him later, about two hours helping my husband with some things for work, about an hour helping my cousin scan some photos and photoshop them and I had an approximate of three hours to myself. The rest I believe was minutes in-between that were too short to actually use them for anything remotely useful or relaxing.

Oh, and I spent three hours watching the finale of German Idol and solving Sudoku-Puzzles while watching. At least I can say that when I’m doing not-so-useful things, I’m multitasking them. Procrastinating to the power of two. Or something.

First of all, we have a winner at the German Idol and I’m happy with the results. The finale actually was pretty boring, considering that both guys could really sing. I’m watching for snark, not talent.

Anyway, here’s one advice I’m giving to all past, present and future contestants: Don’t ever ever ever sing Robbie Williams songs. It just doesn’t work. I don’t know why, since I don’t think that Robbie actually has the bestest voice in the universe, but somehow I have yet to see someone try himself at a Robbie song and not fail. Even those guys who can sing can’t do it.

It’s a mystery. Don’t ask, just trust me. It never works.

I just came home after spending four hours with my grandfather. Or rather, my family and my grandfather.
I couldn’t spend time there alone, but I’m always grateful of someone else is there and if I have the time I will come, too. It’s strange to see how much he has changed since last year. About a year ago he was at my wedding and he brought me flowers and stayed there until the evening.

Now he can’t even get up. He just lies there and breathes. But so much better are the moments when he realizes we’re there and despite everything you can see that he’s smiling.

I try to stay calm while I’m there, but the minute I left the room knowing that my aunt and uncle were still there, because they couldn’t bring themselves to leave, I started to cry. Not so much for my grandfather, but because I see how hard it is for them. He has lived a very long and hopefully mostly happy life, and if dies now that’s just the way I know it has to be. I can prepare myself for that. But seeing my aunt and uncle with tears in their eyes just breaks my heart.

I just hope that everything will be okay.