Eine kurze Nachricht

My mother is leaving for Ireland tomorrow with my sister. I'm going to miss them, and I'm a little sad that I'm not going too. But instead I think I might be going to Switzerland to hang out with my cousin. That is, of course, if she actually answers my messages.

Oh and I also finished translating that thing for my stepdad. Hallelujah.

Reunion

So today I had planned on going to see one of my best friends with another bestie of mine. It had been planned since the very beginning of the week.

And then something miraculous happened.

Not only did our plans not get cancelled (which to be honest is something that does happen relatively often), but two of my other besties joined the fun!

It was the first time in years that the five of us had all been in the same place at the same time. We made pancakes.

We also acted like the silly little things we are. We played with kids toys, and messed around... We gossipped too, about pretty unimportant things. It was fun.

We also did a few psychological tests just for the giggles. Cause that's totally what everyone does for fun theses days.

All in all it was a lovely fun filled afternoon. I hope we don't have to wait another two years until all five of us are in the same room together again. That would suck.

Blood test

I had a blood test today, because my doctor wants to see if I have anything wrong with me. It's funny cause I'm almost wishing that there is, cause then he can just fix it and poof, I'll be all better.

I'm probably fine though. I always am. I mean I've never had a blood test that didn't end up with completely perfectly normal results.

I just hope I don't have an iron deficiency cause I had a fellow vegetarian friend who had that, and she's not a vegetarian anymore cause her doctor basically told her "eat meat of die". That would really suck.

I didn't faint when they were taking the blood either, and usually I feel really bad so that was kind of cool. I seemed like less of a wimp than I usually do.

Marissa's driving

My friend Marissa had a driving lesson today and I went with her. She's learning with a new instructor because her previous one was a witch (I can confirm this because she also "taught" me and managed to put me off driving forever).

Anyways this new instructor lets her bring a friend during the lesson for moral support. This was the first time I had come with her because usually it's her best friend that goes with her.

She did quite well, at least I think she did. She was certainly doing better  than before, where she could hardly get into the front seat without being on the verge of a panic attack.

If I ever try to learn how to drive again I'll do it with her new instructor. She seems much nicer.

Never forget

I was remembering something really sad today. Something really quite awful.

You see I live in a region of France that was extremely affected by the second world war. Like it wasn't just occupied, it was actually taken over and made part of Germany. Young men were forced to join the German army or watch as their whole families were sent off to prison camps. The "Malgré Nous" they were called.

And so when I was fifteen years old my school decided that some of the older classes should go to see Stutthof, because we were all studying the war, and because we lived so close. Stutthof is a concentration camp.

It was the most horrible place I've ever been to. And the worst thing is that you don't realise it at first. You don't realise that you are standing in a place were so many people have died. It seemed like a regular school outing.

I think we all realised it wasn't at different points. I think we all realised where we actually were at different places in the camp. Different triggers for everyone.

The full horrible nature of what I was seeing became clear to me when I saw the Gallows at the top of the camp. They had placed it there so that the random person they decided to hang on the morning of every day would be seen by all the prisoners.

For others it was the crematorium, or the little 2m square rooms that would be crammed full with twenty people, or the room where the experiments took place. I think most people understood when they saw the pictures in the museum though.

I'm not sure why I thought about this today, or why I'm even talking about it. Maybe because we all need to remember every now again, to remind ourselves that those horrible things really happened, and not far away either. No. They happened here.

Never forget.

Doctors appointment

I have to go to the doctors tomorrow afternoon and I really don't want to. Although that's hardly surprising, after all hardly anyone wants to go, seeing as if you do have to go it means you're sick, and who wants to be sick?

Bleh.

It's not exactly an exciting prospect is it? Having to wait an hour and a half (if I'm lucky) in the waiting room surrounded by other sick people.

Positively joyful.

Oh well. I suppose I'll finish my book in the waiting room, maybe listen to some music. I wonder if i should just bring my laptop and watch a film.

In any case I have no choice, I have to go. Really I should have gone today, but I am a very talented procrastinator.

Sidenote n° deux

My brother, Liam, came sixth in the junior world championships of canoeing.

My brother is a boss, and I am so incredibly proud of him. He's so cool. Damn it. As if my self esteem wasn't already low enough I have to have a talented brother. I love you man.

You go little bro. Four for you.

In case of a zombie apocalypse

So I've been reading and watching the Walking Dead, and I like it. It's really quite unbelievably depressing, but it's also pretty cool.

The people also seem to really dense at some moments though. I mean come on guys, it' a zombie apocalypse. Don't just put your guard down before checking if there are any zombies in the area that might, you know, want to eat your brains.

Seriously though dudes. Pull yourselves together.

I keep thinking that in the unlikely event that I actually survive the first wave of such an apocalypse, I try and find myself a small island with no dead people on it and live there. Fish to eat, camp out, etc.

Zombies can't swim right?

Elephants don't need shoes

The other day my mum, my sister and I had our lunch outside in a small park in Germany. It was nothing fancy. Just some sandwich's. Caitlin actually had icecream. It must be nice being a child. Sometimes at least.

Next to us was a small enclosure and inside there were lots of little plastic chairs shaped like little elephants. There were pink ones, and blue ones, and green...

Very cute.

Caitlin wanted to go play with them, so she did, along side another little girl, who left shortly after Caitlin got there. Intimidated by her maybe. God knows Caitlin is a loud thing.

But a little while after I saw that little girl again, and she was being giving out to by her mother. She had lost her shoes and her mother was not happy. I can understand. I mean I know I'd be mad if I was tired out by looking after my kid, and all I wanted to do was go home, but couldn't cause my kid had lost her shoes. Of all the things to lose.

Turns out she'd left her shoes under one of the little elephant chairs. She had to climb over the enclosure to get them again while her mother watched exasperated.

I'm not sure why I just told this story. I guess I just thought it was cute.

Cakes and coffee

I went to Starbucks for lunch yesterday with a good friend of mine. It was pretty cool. I had to take the bus into town and then I actually had to find the Starbucks without somehow managing to get lost.

I think she was a little worried about that to be honest. She knows that my skills at losing myself in places I'm not supposed to be able to get lost in are relatively good. She was sending me messages the night and the morning before I took the bus, making sure I knew where to go.

Kind of nice really though, that she was worried. It shows that she cares.

In any case I didn't get lost.

I found the place and I found my friend, and we had cookies. It was nice it really was. We didn't stay for very long though. She had to go back to work.

Still it was nice to get out, just to have some cakes and coffee.

Lost in translation

I've been translating an interview from French to English for my Stepfather. He wrote it you see, and I'm not entirely sure why, but it's important that he have an English version.

Hence my frantic translating.

I'm not a translator. Translating is hard! I mean, yes I am fluent in both English and French, but that doesn't mean that it's easy to go from one to the other just like that!

It's bad enough having to figure out what the equivalent expressions are, without having to worry about not losing the actual sense of the original sentence.

Jeez man. Damn it.

Not that I'm not pleased to help out. I am. I mean I like my Stepdad, and I'm really pleased that he trusts me enough to do this. It's just that he's a little impatient. He wants it done fast, which I totally get. But I can't go very fast cause it's hard, and I can only do a little at a time or else my brain melts and I get it all wrong. Which would be bad.

Yeah. I really don't want to mess up.

And so I do a little every day, and slowly (far too slowly for my poor Stepdad) but surely I am getting there. I'm about halfway done now, which pleases me immensely.

Also I'm just going to end this by adding that the subject of the actual interview is really weird. Like actually really fucking weird.

My sisters tonsils

My sister got her tonsils out the other day. Poor thing.

She was very brave though. My mother says that she didn't complain at all when she was taken into the operating theatre, and instead of being shy with all the unknown doctors and nurses she just chatted away, like the chatterbox she is.

The operation was a quick one too. She went in at eight o'clock, and she was out at eight thirty.

I went to see her at the hospital the afternoon after the operation. She was still a little drugged, so she was really quiet and sluggish, and she didn't really seem to notice or comprehend what was happening around her. It was so strange, because I'm used to never being able to get a word in when she's in the room.

She came home the next day, and the poor thing is sore. She doesn't want to eat or drink very much because it hurts her throat.

She's getting a fair amount of ice cream though, so I guess it's not all bad.

Still I'll be glad once she'd properly better again. I miss my hyperactive, chatty, bratty little sister. She's grown on me.

Dolphins

I love dolphins. I've always loved dolphins, ever since I was really young. My teddy that I've had pretty much since I was born, and who I still sleep with today, is a dolphin.

I've been thinking about dolphins a lot lately. It's quite funny really. It's such a strange thing to be thinking deep sad thoughts about.

Dolphins man. Dolphins.

Did you know that the dolphin that played Flipper in that TV show killed herself? I think her actual name was Cathy, and she committed suicide because she didn't want to live in that concrete swimming pool by herself anymore. Isn't that just the saddest thing you've ever heard?

A beautiful, magnificent, fantastic, absolutely marvellous creature being so unhappy. A free soul locked up in a concrete water filled cage for our viewing pleasure.

It makes me feel sick. I hate it. I really do. Dolphins are supposed to be wild, and free, and happy, and beautiful. They're supposed to have the whole ocean to play and swim in. They are NOT meant to be in swimming pools jumping through hoops to the loud obnoxious yelling of humanity.

I was on facebook the other day and I saw a picture of a girl I had gone to school with, and who is actually in Florida for an internship. She was petting a dolphin. She was petting it, as if it were some pet. And I'll bet that she has no idea, or maybe she just doesn't care, about the fact that that beautiful dolphin would be so much happier free.

There's nothing more amazing to see than a wild dolphin. I should know I've seen one. I was very young. Maybe six, or seven and I couldn't swim without floaters. There was a wild lonely dolphin who lived along the coast. We don't know why she lived alone. But from time to time she'd come into the bay and play. And so we'd play in the water too, but we were always very careful to leave her alone. She came to us not the other way around, and my father was very blunt when he told us that she was to be left alone. "She is wild, she's not tame, she's not a toy, if you hurt her she will hurt you. Don't try and grab her, or touch her. Just watch, and swim a little distance away"

It was one of the  most wonderful things I ever did, and I never even came that close to her. A real, wild dolphin.

I saw a whole group once too. Swimming into the sunset. It looked like a painting, a painting of a perfect moment.

Dolphins are beautiful and they should be free. And the fact that some of them aren't makes me sad.