catching up...

It has been a while and lots has happened since my midway through birthday month-blog entry.

There was Halloween:

Immediately after that, on November 1st to be exact, there was a road trip to the dentist in Mexico. The answer to the question "How was it?" will be answered with: "As good as a root canal in Ciudad Acuna can get! We had fun!" Thank you, Ryan and Carly, for coming with me and holding my hands!

Then, Lauren, Eric and I finally made it to the corn maze at At'l Do Farms - (Texan for "That Will Do") This MAiZE is owned and operated by James and Patti Simpson. This is also their picture that I got from their website. The pattern looks different every year and this year it was this eagle. And believe me, it was not as easy as it may seem, but it was fun getting lost and running in circles like laboratory rats. Just that we had the advantage of being able to tell each other ghost stories for entertainment...

After the corn maze, there was a bungee jumping thing - whatever you call it. Only Lauren and I could go, but we did great! No screaming on Lauren's part. I did scream trying the backward flip, which I managed only to scare myself with it and to convince myself not to try it a second time... After just another birthday I would like to live through Christmas this year, because I am going to visit my friend Allison in Utah!



Okay, since I have to seriously study because the end of the semester is approaching, I will update again soon! In the meantime: fly high!

Midway Thru Birthday Month

So, now the month is almost over and other worries are taking over that so far had been suppressed by my birthday euphoria. I guess, it is always good to go back to normal from time to time... Little things keep cheering me up, though; I talked to Tanzbär today and to Claudia and it was great! I miss my friends in Germany so bad!!!! Can't wait for the summer to roll around sometimes.

Other people have finally realized they forgot my birthday and wrote a belated email, others still do not remember. (At least I know that they are bad with birthdays, so I forgive them ; ))

Well, without further ado, I will post some of the pictures we took at the party Zach and I had together. It was a natural thing to do, since my party was on his birthday (Oct 12th), we both turned 24, and some of his friends were invited to my party anyway...

So, enjoy the craziness; it was a fun night! Thanks, folks, for coming!

Birthday Month

It is funny how on special occasions I sometimes do not feel like capturing the moments on photo... This was the case on my birthday, October 8. But maybe that is because I would like this whole month to be a birthday party, because I am determined to have fun in life now. So far, it is working out well!

The weekend before my birthday I went out to Miss Becky's barn twice and got to ride Paycheck, a very sweet and fun horse to ride. Needless to say, my legs are still sore... Also, I went salsa dancing twice that week and had incredible fun both times! And what more can I ask for than to have dance, horses, and friends in my life?

So many of my friends (those with good memory for birthdays) have either sent an email, called, or even taken me out to lunch! It was a lovely day, even though it felt a little strange mixing work and celebration throughout the whole day... I finished the night by having dinner with Beth, who was the first person to welcome me here in Lubbock after my move here from Louisiana. We went out to this great Italian restaurant, which has incredible food and tasty house-wines... Of course our plans to go home and do more work after dinner were thwarted by the too enjoyable consumption of that said wine. I had to have an espresso just to make it home safe... So, it was good!

And the loveliest things of all were to hear from people that are so far away, or have so very little time that we hardly ever get to talk on the phone! Taking all that into account, I could not have wished for a better birthday. And I hope to top it all off with the party this coming Friday, to which I invited even people I do not know yet. But I thought that would be a good opportunity to get to know my fellow English grad students... Some people say I am taking a chance inviting people I do not know, but I rather think they would tend to hide on my bed with one of my books than up and trash my place... they are English majors, after all!

For the picture I therefore include a pretty one of the cotton fields around here - they are like a scene from a fairyland... little cotton balls sticking up all over the place tinged in orange purplish sunset at the end of the long Texas road of red dirt...

"Glueck im Unglueck"

Howdy Speakers of the German Language,

since there is no translation of this proverb that I am aware of, I had to put it up in German. Apologies to everybody who does not know what to do with it. Here is the explanation: As you can see in the pictures, somebody smashed in my window on the driver's side of my truck. That cost me $ 200 to repair, using a used window already. Luckily, though, nothing was stolen out of my truck, even though I had my rollerblades, a book-sack full of riding clothes, and a radio in it; not to mention the truck itself that could have got stolen. (It is fairly easy, I hear, to break the steering wheel column and start it up with a screw-driver!) Since another car was broken into the same night and completely robbed, I did indeed get lucky, because something must have scared those people away. Also, my neighbor discovered the damage early in the morning and told me, which left me enough time to call the police and file a report without having to miss my own presentation in my Modernism class. I even found friendly neighbors and classmates to take me to school and give me a ride back, since I realized that the skillful and decorative plastic wrap on the hole of my window did not really allow me to see anything out of it and thus did not allow me to drive.
This all happened on Thursday. I got it fixed on Friday and now everything is good again. A big "thank you" to my friends and the gods for looking after me!!! My truck and I even survived a short but painful separation Friday night due to excessive drinking on my part to get over the excitement of the week. I had to leave my "Little Blue Cloud" at a very remote apartment complex and travel home without it... A "hurray" to friends who give you rides!

Lubbock's Cowboy Symposium

Howdy y'all,

after I celebrated the second week of school by not even showing up at the department today, I went to the 19th Lubbock Cowboy Symposium at the Civic Center. It was not as much fun as I thought it would be, mainly because of the lack of cute cowboys in my age-range there. But maybe they would have all shown up tonight for the music... I was too tired, though, and left with the excuse of going home to work.

Well, the symposium is supposed to keep the heritage of the cowboy alive and people from all over the great plains gather here for poetry and story-telling, music, arts and craft shows, book-signing and wagon chucking contests. Native Americans are also involved, according to the program, although I did not see any of them or their advertised activities.

Outside the Civic Center, the chuck wagons were arranged in the park, where there is another big stage for music as well as some little booths. One of those booths is filled with Victorian hats and parasoles. Their authentic looking cabin also advertised "catalog brides" and they invited me to be listed as one. I courteously passed on the opportunity, but not without taking a picture first, just in case I change my mind. This way I could simply email it to them to include in the catalog. I wonder, how much money I would get for marrying a desperate cowboy...?

Survival

That is what it's all about: survival. Getting through orientation without becoming so muddled up in your head that you do not even remember why you are in the classroom. Living through the first week that started out with the hopeful thought of "I have prepared well and should have enough time for everything," but quickly turned into "why the heck don't they get anything done and make me come to this office three times this week?" There is really no excuse-financial aid offices seem to suck throughout the nation... There were several Louisiana-flash-backs last week, but I think I managed to keep my attitude tuned to Texas friendliness. At least one guy was convinced: the secretary at the office, whom I greeted with "Howdy, your recurring nightmare has returned." But then again, he was also the only one who got my weather frog joke... I still don't understand why his colleague asked me, of all people, if it was going to rain or not. My reply was a dry "ribbit." As I said, not everybody gets me...

So, the first week is over and even the first long weekend is. How fast it went by... Wasn't I supposed to do at least three more things on my "to do list"? Well, I try to focus on the things I did get accomplished, but working ahead is not going to happen anymore. I mean, there are only 5,5 hours left in this day... Maybe some more catching up, then...?

Catch y'all later,

Ronja

Move to a New Life

So, here I am. In Lubbock, Texas, going through the tedious procedures of starting a new life at a new school. Unfortunately, the battery on my camera went dead and therefore I could not take a picture of my Little Big Cloud (my light blue Chevy Pick-up truck) fully loaded with pretty much everything I own in the States and have not forgotten in Louisiana... It looked quite interesting by the time I had made it here almost a week ago now. Since the blue tarp kept coming loose (a fact that actually detained me from making the trip on Monday because it was safer to turn around and repack), I am now known in two states as The Flapper. Despite all our combined efforts, the tightly bound tarp always found a way to break loose and flap happily in the wind on my way via Dallas to Lubbock.The tarp was the only thing happy, though; yet it tore it apart and eventually looked the way I have now felt for a week: torn.My visit with my pen-pal of 20 years Kissie and her family was a happy event, though. Thanks to her hospitality I could spend Tuesday night at her house in Dallas and continue the trip the next day, allowing me to arrive safe and sound in my new apartment. There, my friend Beth helped me unpack as well as over my first shock about my windowless and North-facing tiny place by serving me lasagne and cheering me up with a dinner at her house with two more of her friends.After I have now overcome my break-down of the week-end, thanks to my friend Allie (thank goddess, she is in Alaska right now allowing for a time difference of three hours so I did not have to wake her up bawling...), I can now enjoy the lovely hospitality and professionalism of the English Department at TTU. I am really looking forward to being here!