fun and not

One of the really fun things about traveling with other people, having done a lot on my own as well, is that you end up doing a whole lot of things you would never have otherwise done...for instance the Halloween walk at my God kid's school, and youngest REALLY wanted to ride a bike...Hanover is fantastic for this...so we rented bikes, for 7.50 a day...great. We had a blast and she is now a much better rider than she was; when it is flat.

We made it to the Nanas...thanks to the bikes. I took a million pictures, but haven't had a chance to post them....I will have to put up an entire album by the time I am done...like it better when they kind of trickle in...I can post more in total....

I also tasted one of the best hot chocolates I have ever had, though I have to say that the Catalans make WICKED hot chocolate, when it is good....but this was great....in a Dutch restaurant in Hannover...SOOO good....I think Hannover must have one n in German or English and two in the other because I keep seeing the signs both ways, either that or I am wildly distracted....

I also never would have gone to the local swimming pool...(and hopefully not picked up German foot disease while there. Didn't think of bringing flops) but the kids had an absolute BLAST. Youngest did develop a rash afterwards, we had a brief discussion about whether it could be jellyfish larvae again, and decided not.

Glad to be home though. Germany, or at least Hanover gets pretty hairy after dark, even if it is only about 7pm on a Friday. That wasn't so much fun, and what is it about all the groups of drunken/stoned teens, mostly boys, and the lone drunks with GIANT freaking bottles, and the fifteen year old girls on the trams with a bottle of vodka each?

What is that about?

They don't seem over fond of kids in costumes who speak English either...or at least they were practicing a very limited English vocabulary specialising in four letter words starting with F. Ho hum.

Not a warm and fuzzy feeling there. Kind of a nasty sour note to end off a charming day.

art and politics and illegal behaviour

Youngest and I went to the Modern Art Museum here in Hannover...does that have two n's or one? Not sure.

Whatever.

Youngest is kind of mixed about modern art...it is pretty broad overall. It has the advantage that much of it is installation art and interactive and more....playful that way. There is room for the audience that the 'masters' don't allow.

At the same time some of it is FREAKY

Freak you right out freaky...we saw work by Otto Dix, back and white ghastly grave site drawings done right after WWI...Youngest had a look in honour of Halloween after being warned they might be too much...she did a quick walk through.

There was an exhibit on about clothing and fashion..and dressing, I didn't honestly assess it all that much and it didn't seem tightly curated...at the end of it, there was a series of photos of models with brand names carved into their skin...scarred over. I am assuming photoshop work here, and the meaning seemed a wee bit obvious to me...not exactly startlingly original...and opposite was a series of fun house mirrors...come to think of it the juxtaposition was almost certainly deliberate, but with youngest there we were too busy turning ourselves into inukshuks, and elastigirls and multi-armed Hindu goddesses...we had more of a dance experience with it...and a giggle experience with it.....and the memory of the carved models behind us were not visible in the mirrors....at least not clearly...possibly intentionally.

Intentional or poor exhibition; I forgot to check if they were the same artist. I assumed not, but if they were it is somewhat more interesting than it otherwise would have been.

There was also a series of works by an America artist..forgive me I forgot his name as well...all the info was in German so I didn't really read it, working with light. Youngest and I went into a booth with a series of dials that changed the colour of the light in the room and was capable of quite fine differences...I took a series of (illicit) photos of youngest in different colour lights as I have an idea for something I could do with them. Would that be like sampling in music or copyright violation..hard to say....

Niki de Saint Phille is amazing, we still haven't seen the Nana's, which are so famous, and may not, we'll see...but they had an exhibit of her work inside....it was gorgeous from the distance, playful and colourful, but really very disturbing once you got up close. She seems to have gotten rather more sinister in her work...again I have an illicit photo...the Catalans are generally quite relaxed about photos in galleries (not the Picasso museum though), so I have developed bad habits...I may or may not use them.

This leads me to an interesting thought I read about and have been ruminating upon. There is a growing grey area with copy right issues...I am part of a generation that began to violate copyright rules...photocopying books for classes specifically...then came the kids sampling music, and there are songs out there that are OBVIOUS rips...then came the iPod and others and the quantity of illegal downloading is amazing, and then there are the movies you can rip etc etc etc etc...and I am part of this to some extent...I am taking - a few - photos in galleries of work...and don't see why I shouldn't honestly...if I use them as memory jogs, and may I add that the galleries are AWFUL at providing the images in an affordable way...you want to shell out seventy Euros for the book of a special exhibit. m'kay...postcards, only of the big ticket items, and regular material, not an image to be seen...

So what do we do? Go on line and get what someone else ripped.

Or take a picture.

I am part of a generation, growing up with the internet that believes that access to information, and image and music should be shared, not owned....sold only to the higher bidder. That information is for all of us, for our education and improvement. I keep finding myself having this argument over and over and over again. Sometimes with people of my own generation...can we as humanity ever get ahead if we keep on hogging the ball...environmentally, financially, socially and intellectually? I don't think so and I think this is what got us where we are.

Then there is the marketers argument, (the uber-capitalist, no?) if I post a photo of her recent work, and mention her name on this blog, that is probably copyright infringement, but it is also free advertising?

Where is the line on that, and what is illegal with all of this...?

I suspect the answer to this question will divide down on generational lines.

My boss in Spain thinks I'm an anarchist. Maybe.

I think there needs to be a radical redefinition around the rights of the individual in comparison to the rights of the whole..and that is a global whole. I move against current "globalisation"here don't I. I do want to move towards moral globalisation, don't you think that would be a good idea?

On that note, you may want to check out this video...though it talks to Americans, it speaks beyond that....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vknHKTy1MLY

Really. It makes me ashamed.

and may I add that I HATE firefox spell checker? Can I get some suggestions here please, not just that obnoxious teachery RED UNDERLINE pointing out my errors in your purely American spelling? GRRRRRRRRRRRRR. Good old google; type the word in, you get related sites and a spell check.

Cold wimpy carb needing Canuck...from Spain.

I may have to rescind my Canadian passport, it is so COLD here...and we are not dressed for it at all. I don't like it *whine*

It has been odd being here in a way, there is no time change between Hanover and BCN, but we have been through one. I didn't know how Spanish we had become. I am making dinner at 4:30 and we are going to eat at 5:30. The kids will be in bed by 7pm. I usually start cooking then, still early by Spanish standards, but. Youngest and I are a little out of whack, like a three hour time change. Hungry and the wrong times....

It is partially because the kids I am here with are younger, partially because we all have to get up at 5:45 am in order to get into school on time (OMG) We have to leave the house at 7 am when I usually roll groaning pathetically out of bed, and school here ends at 3 rather than 5 or 5:15.

Whacked with the time.

We've been eating a lot more meat here as well, which has been utterly delicious, but my insides are not used to it...and I am finding that I am hungry a lot and kind of droopy...need those carbs for energy I guess. Odd how it affects you.

What do you mostly eat? We are a carb family augmented by fruits and veg..proteins...meh not so much...virtual veggies, the kids are...so proteins arrive, often the combined type, and if they have one good serving a day, better two, I'm happy. We seem to be thriving.

Where do you fall? Carb? Meats? Dairy? Vegan?

Just asking.

Hanover, day 1

Hanover was sunny.

Everyone was totally surprised.

Seems it basically rains ALL THE TIME.

Youngest and I decided that we should seize the glorious weather and wandered around the city. It was however fiercely cold. Bought Youngest woolly socks it was so bad. Brrrrrrrrrrrr.

It's a lovely city, the parts we have seen.....there is this cool red line the tourists can follow through the city, which we did for part of the day...that was neat too...Youngest was most enamoured by it.

I am hoping for one more sunny day so that Youngest and I can go for a big long bike ride around the town where we are staying....outside of Hanover. Fingers crossed.

Gotta go sleep, we have to get up WAY to early for this camper, and I was up WAY too late last night.

Cheers,

O

Sleep

OMG stayed up WAY to late talking.....

OMG

I just adore Nomad...sorry way to tired for a link...maybe later.

I adore her kids.

Now I am trying to cook sausages for breakfast. Hmmm.

Packing

I like packing.

Brings things down to a nice minimalistic vision of what we need.

I always bring a lot of books.

I think I might even remember my toothbrush this time!

Skulls and mushrooms

Messenger account? Check.

Zune? Check.

Don't talk to me about youngest's MP3, that is another topic.

Youngest scored her first basket in a game....a three pointer no less!!!! She is playing WELL. The team won, get this, 45 to 4!!! As youngest put it, they OWNED that game.



Halloween decorations...giant wall decorations of a skull filled chamber, think wallpaper here ladies and gentlemen, five by three foot spider/skeletons wall hangings, masks, scars and the skull from I know not what monsterous human. Hamlet would get a hernia lifting this sucker were it not made from foam.



Went mushroom hunting, all of us. LOVED IT. Eldest managed to slide face in down a cliff (a low one with lots of duff at the bottom. Dignity hurt more than anything, though she has some good scrapes). We didn't eat ANY of them. Though we also found a partial skull (well partial jaw) of an animal..goat??? Two molars were still there, one loose.



14 year old boys can JUMP! We've been watching some basketball and some of those boys have a seriously advantageous weight:strength ratio. But it won't LAST. bwahhhahahahahahah

A rich and extensive vocabulary...that I cannot use.

Getting the Halloween party organised...shopping, planning, talking other families into letting the kids come trick-or-treating, explaining what trick-or-treating is (in Catalan)...debating if I am a cultural imperialist imposing my foreign (possibly dominant) traditions, blowing that away like so much dust in the wind, yadda yadda yadda......

Finished work till I get back from Germany...teaching teens is fun, especially the older teens.

Cannot understand why I cannot get Eldest's messenger account to function properly. She should be able to send messages even when her contacts are off line, but it just ain't happening. Grrrr.

Woke up in the wee small hours of the night because I had to sneeze. Now that was a first.

I couldn't get back to sleep. That wasn't.

Poopety poop.

Teens taught me new very bad words.....never dull.

Running and barking (and carrying and climbing and and and

Had one wild 10 or 15 minutes today...you know when everything happens simultaneously?

Got up to pick up Youngest from school...I was just out the door when the grocery delivery guy shows up - early. Not complaining, but.....

I turn around, take Chuck BACK upstairs and lock him in. He is not best pleased. That anti-barking campaign goes right out the window. He started to go for a walk, then got taken back and locked up and then I am go downstairs with a strange guy who is going in and out of the building THE HORROR!

THEN

I start carrying the stuff up the multiple flights of stairs, and let me tell you when you shop for three weeks, it's a few trips...I have still left Chuck inside because he will get into the groceries otherwise...or might.

Good thing I had arranged with the man to pick up youngest at school if he didn't see me there.

On about the third trip up, with groceries piled at the top of the stairs, the bottom of the stairs and in between....the phone rings.

Now let me tell you, our phone almost never rings....so I unlock the door, drop the groceries INSIDE...and run to the phone, setting off another volley of barking, again undisciplined. It is Eldest, sick at school.

Ho hum

First of all we have to figure out what to do about it...do I have to go there, do I need to speak to a teacher, how sick is she..yaddah yaddah yaddah...

We decide she can walk home. I go out the door, part way down the stairs, it rings again...I have to go get her.

Incensed dog is locked BACK in the house again...(woof woof woof) and I run down to Youngest's school. Can I just say here that life was easier when they went to the same school.

I found the man there, explained why there are groceries EVERYWHERE, and ran to the school. May I add that it was raining. We are not well equipped for rain...I have an umbrella and all, but my oh my...it isn't the norm.

WHEW

That all took, about 10 min,

Eldest is fine...I suspect she felt crappy because she left without breakfast....the Man and Youngest brought the groceries in (except the bags outside the neighbour's door, they were probably unsure if they were ours) and everyone ate at some point.

Sometimes the day just up and seizes you, no?

Defeat

Working with the dog...he looks kind of cowed, and all we have been doing is saying firm no's .... he looks sort of sad. GUILT! Though he is barking less.

We tried spraying him with water for a day a while ago; he was so traumatised we stopped it quickly...he was starting to buck and shy everytime we came near him. Issues.

On another note, I have been feeling so defeated by Catalan lately. It is getting me down. I kinda don't even want to try.

*sigh*

I am trying to convince myself that this is the stale period just before I make a breakthrough to another level of skill. I think not though. I am still missing so much around me (hear that with a whine m'kay?) and I still confuse people and make the most ridiculous statements.

Blech.

The fact that I have been to two of the last seven classes doesn't help, and the fact that one of the books hasn't arrived from the publishers doesn't help either as it has the answers to all the exercises, along with the grammatical explanations. Makes it a little tricky to figure out what's going on.

FRUSTRATED.

I have NEVER been good at handling frustration.

Cranky cranky cranky.

The Catalans describe some students as formigas. Ants. They plug along and work really hard, but they don't get very far for all their effort. It doesn't mean they don't get there in the end, but it is a long slog. I am a formiga with languages. I keep reminding myself that I can still get there in the end.

Then I can start on Spanish.

I shouldn't post so late at night. It makes me sound more down than maybe I am for most of the day.