I’ve uploaded the first six of what’s going to be an indefinite number of pictures on flickr. I will upload more, but it’ll take some time because I cannot think of more than six witty, yet informative descriptions for my pictures in a row. The stories will follow too, but at the moment I’m busy with updating my iPod (I just reached letter J in music collection, but everything up to that has a picture now) and catching up on TV shows. Apparently three shows have already been cancelled. But I wasn’t too interested in either one of them. Head Cases maybe, but it looked a lot more boring than it sounded when I read the synopsis.

I must write to Zingerman’s and ask them if they ship to Germany, and if yes what products I can order. I don’t trust the customs in terms of time management, so I’d better order some cheese that doesn’t mind waiting in a German customs office for approximately seven to eight weeks, but will only gain quality from the extra time in a moist environment.

Also, I started stitching today. My time as a productive hausfrau has just begun. And I wondered where to get my extra expensive but rich in flavor olive oil plus the fleur de sel. Thanks again, Srahfamily. Now I’m totally addicted to good food.

The good news is: I am the proud and – might I say – caring owner of a beautiful iPod.
The bad news is: I can never again buy anything anymore.

But I really thing it was worth it.

We’re back. We could have stayed a lot longer. There were just many things that we had no time to do and we kept saying „Well, we have to come back for this“. I hope we will.
Thanks to Caitlin, Srah, Srahmom, Srahdad, Laura, Charles and Caitlin’s family in Pennsylvania for making this trip as great as it was.
Pictures and stories will follow. For now I’m a little bit exhausted.

I don’t think I can sleep tonight. Which won’t make much of a difference since we have to get up at 4 am anyway. That’s 4 1/2 hours from now.

And I don’t think I have everything packed and ready.

I know it will all turn out okay, but right now, I’m so nervous I feel sick. Damn.

Was it a millionaire who said „imagine no possessions“?
A poor little schoolboy who said „we don’t need no lessons“?

The Other Side of Summer – Elvis Costello

Flights booked and confirmed? Check. Yes, BA knows that we’re on the plane. Good to know.
Suitcases organized? Check.
Done loads and loads and loads of laundry? Check.
Minor research on Chicago public transit? Check.
Traveller’s cheques requested? Check.
Called Caitlin? Check.
Credit card? Check.
International driver’s license for the husband? Check.

Been prepared for the mess that goes along with a mere trying of renting a car when you are only 24 and have a credit card, and your husband is old enough but doesn’t have a credit card, which unfortunately is something no car rental company can appropriately deal with? A big fat non-check.

GAAAA! Somebody should have told us before. Our hopes lie in the few rental companies I found late this night that are either not that anal on young driver’s and/or accept payment in cash and/or are willing to deal with the fact that the driver and the person who pays isn’t the same person. I can only wish we won’t be disappointed when I call them tomorrow to find out if I can dare make my online reservation.

We so need to leave this country.

What lesson did I miss?
All of them I guess.
But learning them again will kill me
Oh yea, that didn’t work

Bird Flying – Golden Palominos

[Insert happy giggling here]

I talked to Caitlin today on the phone for the first time and now I’m even more excited to come to Chicago than I was before. I was actually nervous calling, because it seems so weird to call a person you only know from the internet, but then it must be even weirder to actually fly across the ocean and stay with a person you only know from the internet, so weirdness is a relative thing. But then it wasn’t weird at all, just really, really, really nice.

Only five more days until our flight takes off and takes us over the ocean. We have nearly nothing planned, but so far it’s all been good, so although I already picture everything that could possibly go wrong, I’m pretty sure that we will have lots of fun and it seems the best way to make things up as we go along.

Chicago, here we come!

Here comes today’s foreign affairs‘ lesson. The Germans, as you might or might have not known, are going to vote a new parliament tomorrow. It’s actually one year earlier than it should have been and here’s the short version of how it came to be so:

Germany has two major political institutions, the Bundestag and the Bundesrat. The Bundestag is voted once every four years on the same day in all of Germany and also votes the chancellor. So we vote for the parties and then they get to send people to the Bundestag based on the result of the votes and then the Bundestag votes the chancellor. The Bundesrat (as far as I know, so don’t sue me if you find out I got something wrong) consists of the people voted for in the „Landtagswahlen“ which are elections held in the different regions of Germany every four or five years (I don’t know exactly how often). So it can happen that the leading party of the Bundestag isn’t the leading party of the Bundesrat and that’s kind of bad because nearly everything (in terms of new laws and such) has to go through the Bundesrat first, so if the majority of the Bundesrat is of the opposing party nearly nothing gets done because everything that has been decided in the Bundestag gets rejected in the Bundesrat. Mighty big fun.

So, after the last Landestagswahl here in Northrhine-Westphalia the Bundesrat was nearly 100% CDU (the more conservative party) while our leading party in the Bundestag and therefore chancellor was SPD (the more democratic party). This is when the chancellor decided that the elections should be held one year early, because it was clear that with so many differences in the Bundestag and Bundesrat they were facing a lot of difficulties in the future.

So, tomorrow evening we are either going to be very happy or very angry. Or, on Thursday we’ll either take the vacation of goddamn victory or we will flee the country. I must admit that I have never been so afraid of an election before… and it doesn’t look all that good. And though I try to stay away from political opinions on my blog, let me just say that I would welcome a change a lot. So, that should tell you as much as you need to know about where I’ll make my little X’s tomorrow.

PS: If you didn’t understand anything about what I said about the German political system or why we have early elections (I’m a little unclear about that myself), do yourself a favor and don’t ask me, consult a better source. Like Wikipedia or something. I’ve heard rumors that there are people who are actually smarter than me.