Club der Kulturen

Last night was great for many reasons. We danced to the Beatles, German pop song "Mein Herz tanzt" and awesome songs that I have on Just Dance on my Wii at home. Then we played Twister and I won! And then I played the piano, which had been in the room all night and I hadn't noticed.

Playing the piano was amazing. I haven't played for maybe a year and I talked to a guy who can't read music but can improvise really well- I want to do that too and he showed me that improvising is based on the left hand doing an arpeggio chord sequence, similar to the guitar, like CAFG, and playing an awesome tune with the right hand. I had two problems: coordinating the different fingerwork of both hands and thinking of an awesome tune. Everything I played sounded melancholy. It was sad when I remember how I used to think of awesome songs I used to think out and play. Indeed I wrote down some songs in a pink sheet music book, but I haven't seen it for maybe eight years. I should try and find it again.

I still remember the song my first proper boyfriend sang and played on the piano for me in the school music rooms. It made me cry. I wish I had the music and all the words so I could play it. The melody, first verse and chorus are still with me and I'll never forget them.

So in summary: Becky is made happy by crazy dancing, playing Twister and pianos. It was also incredibly lovely to sleep overnight in the student club which *made* my time in Chemnitz. Almost all my Chemnitz friends worked or work there, or at least went to one of the many evenings there: English Club, French Club, etc. I am even directly responsible for one of them joining, who now leads the club. And I can belong to this ever changing family like community twice a year when I visit. The sofas were very comfy, the brunch was awesome: we had a Moroccan chef with us and I managed to persuade them to play the German Cluedo (Clu-Eh-do) with me.

I went Go Karting this evening which I was terrified about but was actually amazing, even if I did come last. Alhough it was a bit sad that when we had a race, the German guy who was winning all evening stopped driving when someone overtook him. He couldn't cope with not winning I guess.

Tomorrow I look forward to lunch (Mittagessen) in the Mensa (student cafeteria), a lecture demonstrating Christmas science experiments and ballet in the evening. I hope I wake up in time...

Pass auf euch auf!

In Chemnitz

Scheiße, it's annoying using a German keyboard. At home I can switch between English and German, but here there's just German. And I still don't know how to find the @ sign so I have to keep copying and pasting it, which "geht mir auf den Keks/geht mir auf den Geist" i.e. is also annoying. German is weird - 'It gets on my biscuits' means its annoying!

Just watched KiddieContest - a child's version of X Factor. Pretty cool actually. The kids sing German words to American (Ami) and English songs. I loved the song about not being able to survive without her mobile phone (Handy) and the winner who sang about pocket money (Taschengeld) being hard to come by in the recession (Wirtschaftskrise), but again necessary to pay for his phone and taking girls to the cinema (Kino). Not sure if it would be really sad to buy the CD of the KiddyContest. It's still rare to hear German pop music with German lyics so it would be quite nice.

It was a bit sad I guess that all the songs involved Youtube and Handys. Is the spirit of childhood disappearing to technology? Although the song I want to stay young/small (Ich will klein sein) was quite moving. It was also annoying that after the programme lots of toys and games were advertised. Do kids spend all their time on Playstations now? More annoying - do girls really want to buy Barbie on a horse and a fake baby advertised by a woman with a horrible shrieky voice. Surely they would prefer a mini remote control car that can drive over everything including someone's arm and that can sneakily be hidden in your pocket? I hope my brother doesn't see that advert...he doesn't need to hide yet more stuff!

Chemnitz is nice, the Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas market) is beautiful and the snow covering everything magical, although my feet are constantly soaking, its hard to avoid it when the snow is half a meter deep and no one is cleaning it up. My boots don't go up to my knees unfortunately.

Went to see my first ever opera yesterday: "La Boheme" by Puccini in Chemnitz's Operhaus. It was much better than I thought, like a play or musical, just in Italian and you had to keep raising your head to read the subtitles. I don't know if it had a serious message and it lagged towards the end, but I always like seeing people that live in artistic communes, there was a painter, writer, philosopher etc. Although it was a shame that the artistic types were all men, and the only two women were obviously love interests. I've never heard of a female artist with a male muse.

Today I went Christmas shopping and was very excited to see an Adventkalendar which had neither a picture nor chocolate behind its big square doors, but instead a book for each day of Advent. This is truly awesome, but it's too big and expensive to take home with me I think. I wonder if they exist in London? Now I'm going to Club of Cultures or Club der Kulturen - CdK for a baking and pyjama private party. I am loath to leave the warm flat to soak my feet yet again, but it should be very fun.

Pass auf euch auf! (Take care!)