slave to the keyboard

I think must be the longest work bender I have ever done. And ptuiii! I have had it. I know she'll(the thesis) be comin' around the mountain when she comes, but boy I would like to hit fastforward and watch that horse's legs do triple-time all the way to the graduate school to hand this sucker in. I allowed myself a beer last night--the only one I have had since I returned from traveling and I nearly lost it. I was near euphoric. But then I had to reign it in because I am nowhere near done. Tomorrow I send off a draft to my advisors (Hi Thaisa and Nancy!) who have kindly allowed me to extend my deadline a few days and then I can go back to doing 9-5. That will be a relief.

Enough ranting. Here's a rave. I got cherries in this bag in Berlin and I thought it was very sweet. Obst means fruit in German. Check out that cute drawing.

This is a demolition site of a housing block in Leipzig (Grünau).

And I swear, Norway posts are coming soon!

a tiny moment of procrastination

i am really burning it down tonight and i need a break so i am blogging one more tiny thing. real fast! this is a cool picture taken at the art school in Leipzig. when i look at this i feel like it must be in Rome or something, though i have never been there. and the girl on the cel phone. priceless. historic + modern + art = this picture. wow, that was cheezy--save me from myself. back to work!

bestill my beating bärheart

when you take a kid into the meat shop in Germany they usually offer the child a little slice of meat and if you are really lucky, they give them one with a bear face on it. and there is owen doing his best berlin bär. precious. it's pretty amazing how much he was able to mimic the smile of the bear. i think he has been getting those slices on the sly and practicing for my arrival. comments, owen? he got those slices of bear-bologna special for me and boy was i a dancing bear. when i lived in bremen, for a while they had batman shaped designs. cutting edge.

home sweet home

click to enlarge

back on danish soil and very glad to be. it was a great trip and i have so much to tell you all, but duty calls. that is, i am running down a thesis deadline that will put me in really good shape so the blogs will be thin this week and mostly little moments from the trip. and really i have to rewind the clock because i pretty much stopped blogging in leipzig because it just wasn't fun to sit in front of the computer when i could be out looking at things. so, i will start with my last delightful day with owen leipzig. we went to a little lunch spot tucked away in an old building full of art studios and i got a chance to see some of the people i met while there, one more time. owen really has good people and this last moment couldn't have been any better. hi/bye all in leipzig! come to seattle and visit!

and this is owen his classroom/habitat. actually, i didn't get any pics of him in the photo dungeons which are probably more accurately his habitat these days. owen is a really hard worker. this picture is going out to his mom, Nancy. hi nancy! owen is doing great. and thanks again owen! i had such a good time.

alles jute

:: GOODBYE BERLIN ::



i took off from berlin, but not after spending some time at the Badeschiff(a floating swimming pool on the Spree River complete with sandy beach, sunbathing decks and a bar) and seeing Jamie Liddel play. and wow, definitely makes it into the TOP 5 of all shows, ever! he was incredible. he has a bit of a Jerry Lewis / Soul Singer / Church Revival schtick and boy, does it work wonders. i was spellbound by his movements, not to mention his incredible singing voice and creative power which he excercised in beat box loops and layers to create a musical army of himself which he then sang over. in short, if hasn't played in Seattle yet and there are still tickets, run, don't walk to get these. i also want to mention, in further support of JL that going to a show by yourself can be a downer, as many of you know, but i didn't even notice that i was by myself. FANTASTISK!




does anyone agree with this statement?


break
now i am in Leipzig, a town in the former East Germany with Owen and it feels really nice to slow down a bit. Owen is a lovely host and has bee treating me like a princess. he borrowed a bike for me to ride, has been cooking and inviting me to meet all of his darling and wonderful friends. the pictures are just shots from around town. there are still parts of the city that look pretty run down, though much of it has been renovated. the differences in texture between the new and old buildings, even new ones built during the DDR is astounding. yesterday was a holiday and owen took me to a barrbecue where i got to have a long conversation with a couple who were 19 and 23 at the time the wall fell and had grown up in East Germany. they were eager to share stories about their lives then, the wall-falling and what it has been like since. i can tell you all about that stuff when i get home.
tomorrow i head to olso via berlin. i am a bit travel weary, but excited to check out oslo.