brownies, boats, Ralphy, and a pigeon

So Monday was a zoo, but I discovered the best fudgy brownie recipe ever. Another wonder from Epicurious for those times you only have cocoa powder and no real chocolate handy to melt down. I think I'll actually skip the real chocolate recipes for a while - I like this cocoa powder brownie recipe so much more! Jewell, one of the Americans in our Bible study group, finished her first thesis and I had asked her what she wanted to celebrate with. So brownies and ice cream were had by all. There are 2 more outstanding thesis' in our group, so who knows what'll be next?

Tuesday I met with a friend for breakfast and she joined the group of us who are trying to get into a univeristy rowing class. It's been super tricky to get ahold of the guy who runs the program, so we'll have to see what comes of it. Stefan and I drove down to the boathouse Tuesday afternoon and talked with a guy who confirmed a couple of suspicions I already had: the biggest boats they use are 4-man boats (not a fan), and the length of river they use is indeed a very short piece. If we can't contact the right guy soon, I'm going to just talk to the rowing club on the other side of town. I thought taking a class with friends would be fun for fellowship, and to learn all the terms in German, but we'll have to see.

Tuesday we met our landlord's elderly mother, who signs for him since he lives far away. We also met Ralphy who lives in the basement apartment. He's giving up his garage for us to use, which is nice of him. Ralphy-who-lives-in-the-basement-and-wears-a-pentagram-around-his-neck. Kind of weird, but repsectful. He'll move out in the next year when he finishes school. The Tille's, the couple in their 60's who live on the middle floor and basically run the house, had their apartment gleaming and glasses of orange juice for everybody. It was an ODD bunch, but a nice enough bunch. I kept laughing inwardly at the absurdity of the diversity around the table! I think Frau Tille is a total ham - she kept puttering around with the orange juice pitcher and making illustrative faces at me as she stood behind the others. I think she's got a dash of Beth Grace and Meg Herman in her. =) Stefan caught a few looks and told me later that he's convinced they only gave us the apartment because they like me, and that he's certain they like me more than him, ha ha! Everybody wanted to try out their english when we shook hands to say farewell. I think it will be a good group to have in the building. Much better than careless students tromping around.
So we left with a set of house keys, which is awesome. We're allowed to renovate as much as we wish before moving in later in July. This is helpful. We went upstairs and peeked in again and it suddenly seemed so much smaller. Drat! This is what always happens. But it will be fine since we've already measured everything and know it works. I'm just glad it's all official. Afterwards we went to the flooring place and scheduled appointments for measuring and laying a linoleum floor in the kitchen. For some reason that took forever, and we still wanted to get down to Ikea to ask some questions and schedule the measuring appointment for the kitchen cabinets. So we were blitzing down the autobahn when this happened:
I guess the damage is hard to see. You would think German birds would know that the autobahn, especially the fast lane, is off limits! A pigeon had been squatting in the fast lane and decided too late to up and fly off. We discovered that small creatures are not covered on our insurance and are now out several hundred euros on a new headlight reflector and cover. Thankfully this happened only one exit before Stefan's mother's house, so we were able to pull off and handle the situation. We had decided to skip dinner in favor of just getting the Ikea thing done with, but since it wasn't happening at this point, we ended up having a nice dinner with Stefan's mother.

Wednesday morning was then all about getting to the dealership to see if they had the parts in stock and could repair the car before our Friday morning departure date. We had to go early to be sure Stefan could explain the situation to the shop before heading out to teach at 8am. Meanwhile I've learned that 'Scheinwerferlicht' is the German word for 'headlight' and 'Taube' is 'pigeon'. I probably would've told the mechanic something like, "We were driving fast on the Autobahn and then there was a bird. We beat the bird and now a thing, like a lamp, on the front of the car is broken." Ach du Liebe! It would have started out fine, then deteriorated. Some words I will only learn as the situation arises.

Yesterday was spent in mid-panic as I tried to prepare for today's meeting at the university. Of course this morning was the one where the sock that matched my shirt ripped as I pulled it on, I forgot to eat breakfast, so I quickly slurped some yogurt so my stomach wouldn't growl during the meeting before realizing it was raining and I was late. Walking no longer an option, I rode my bike with my raincoat's hood up, sans peripheral vision. Of course the only spot left to lock up my bike was covered in shattered glass, so I kicked that around and apparently caused a scene. (yes, public drinking is still legal here) Keeping my eyes downcast to avoid the stares, I rushed inside and went about trying to find out where on earth this office was. Needless to say I was not feeling calm.

I found the office, shook hands with my contact, and promptly after sitting down and facing the woman at her desk she asks me what my area of study is. I told her for the past several years I had been copy editing research articles on the side and she said, "right, but what did YOU study?" So while I tried to explain to her that I had studied Theology and youth work and how I ended up doing what I'm doing now....I was now trying to ignore what was going on outside the giant glass window behind her up here on the third floor. A man on a crane was washing the windows, but grinning broadly and making extravagant swirls of soap with the brush and squeegee. I'm certain he was deliberately trying to distract me! All the moreso because later when I came out of the building towards my bike he was standing there finishing a smoke with his collegue and they looked at me, then each other, and laughed and walked off as I walked to my bike. Great.

I feel really out of my league, but something may come of this yet. The woman I met with seemed to like me although she hadn't seen any of my work. When the fall semester starts up she wants to have her department offer regular writing workshops once or twice a month and wants me to be on the (apparently very short) list of instructors. The chair of the physics department wasn't there, but I found out he's an American who speaks perfect German and has been managing as best as possible but feels overwhelmed and needs help now. So this could be interesting. A woman has been flying in once a month from Vienna to do a one-day seminar that's very broad. She mostly just writes the articles for people if they give her their science. Ghostwriting in science is way beyond me of course, but the point is she's busy and doesn't want to do more teaching, she likes her ghostwriting projects better. I seem like the only other option. Huh. I really feel like I need to find a course of some sort to take myself before I take on a teaching role. She also referred me to a woman who does what she does, but for the Humanities division of the university. I'll feel like an even bigger poseur if I go over there - those guys know their grammar! She thinks they may also be interested in my skills. Honestly, I told her I wasn't an expert, but she said "you've been exposed to this sort of work for a while and are getting good recommendations, so you're doing well!" I'm not trying to sell myself short, I just don't want to get in over my head. We'll have to see where this goes. I'm just hoping we can get the car back today so we can go visit the Prices for the weekend!