The redhead is not a fan of sore losers.

Today, my soccer team had a game against a team that had not lost yet the entire season. Notice I said "had". We won 2 to 1. Our team played excellently and everyone was on their game. After the two goals we made in the first half, however, the other team began getting very unnecessarily aggressive towards us. I was not in for five minutes in the first half when somebody had tripped me and I had a bloody knee.
     So we won, we were happy, we sang a song. "Wir sind schwarz und wir sind gelb. Wir sind die geilste Club der Welt. Wir sind schwarz und wir sind gelb. Wir sind die geilste club der Welt!" (We are black and we are yellow. We are coolest club in the world! x2) It's our theme song. Maybe it was mean, but at least we tried to shake hands with the other team after. We got to shake the coachs' hands and the hands of 6 girls from their huge team. The rest ignored us.
      This game was a home game, that means they changed and showered on our turf and before they left they decided that to show us just how bad they are at losing, and left the showers on. Jeeze. Thanks for the sportsmandship. Funny how that really would never happen where I live in America.
       Hope my team at home is doing well, heard you guys had your first game! Tell me how it was, who won? How are the new freshmen, etc.
Love <3
Deni

The redhead is currently yawning her face off.

What? Don't judge. Haven't you ever yawned so hard you felt like your face was gone?
I, regrettably, did not go to sleep as well as I would have liked to but the good news is that today is a Friday.
     In Germany, there is no such thing as TGIF (Thank goodness/God it's Friday) but everyone is always happy about the weekend and gladly express it.
     This week and last week I had barely any school because of Abi. Abi is the short version of "Abiture" which is this really big scary test that all German students take to finish Gymnasium. They are the German final exams, except, from my perspective they seem much scarier because the test last hours and hours. I heard from one of the girls that took the final exam for German class and she told that it would be for six 45 minute school periods. UGH. Could you imagine? But at least this week it was nice for me, leaving me with only one day of afternoon school in the last two weeks (SCORE!).
     Today in German class we got a book called "Am kürzeren End der Sonnenallee" (or "On the short side of Sun Alley"). It's about a boy living in east Berlin on a street named "Sonnenallee" which is a very long street but for some reason the very last little peice of it was cut through by the wall and this boy is stuck on the Soviet Union side. It's saitical and kind of funny. I like it so far. I read it until I fell asleep in the Green House today. The cactuses and I, you know, just chillin'.
     I'm baking cookies with a friend this weekend and it's also my MOMMY'S BIRTHDAYY!!
     I'm going to have to write her an email.
Hope you all are good and dandy. Many smiles.
Deni

The redhead contemplates Patriotism.

       Before I went across the super-sized puddle from the second state ever inducted into the union to Southern Germany, I could not have been decribed as very patriotic. I never really enjoyed saying the Pledge of Allegiance because it felt exclusive and cult-ish to me, especially as I grew older and out of elementary school where we all seemed so much more enthusiastic about everything. I felt a bit brainwashed by the amount of patriot jargon they injected into our glorious system of public education. As a child I loved my country, saw none of it's flaws and all of it's advantages and beauty. I had nothing to compare it to, I barely knew that there was any other place to be or to live.
      As adults grow into their "acquired tastes" or the things that in childhood you always categorized as "yuck" they also grow into criticism. They become more balanced in view (notice I said "more balanced" not "completely balanced") and see that it is not perfekt, it is not all sweet and colorful and sing-along. Some of the world is ugly. As I came to the rebelious stage of my life, I didn't really learn anything new, I mean I had had two rebelious teenage sisters. What I did do was begin confirming the exoctically wild claims that they as teenagers made and making my plan to change the world. Along with this came disparaging loss of hope in our government and all institutions.... the "MAN" if you will. (Please note that this phase of life took part in the term of George W. Bush and therefore was rather logical in that...) So patriotism was not the biggest on my list, in fact I kept hearing about places, other countries and continents where things were different and asking myself why we weren't like them.
      But as I arrived in Germany, I learned two things (well a lot more than that, but I learned two important things relative to the idea of patriotism) those were that I liked some things in Germany and some things I didn't liked. (revolutionary as a thought, I know) Germany was smaller, more city-like, their buildings are as tightly packed together as the people in the public buses are at 7 am! You can ride your bike to the store, you can freely go almost whenever you want, whenever you feel like it. Germany has bakeries, Germany has really kick ass board games, Germany has the German language!
       But sometimes, like those nights walking back from soccer, I miss things like the stars. The open heavens, one of the original natural wonders of the universe, winking at us every night, but the light pollution of Europe makes it hard to see those stars as well as one would from say, my three-acre backyard. And there were more. Thanksgiving, the Super Bowl, the possibility of already being a learning driver, my mother's american pancakes on a Sunday morning! They are a connectedness that, despite some of their faults and stupidities, they are the smell, the taste, the familiarity of home. And that is why I am a patriot. Not because I love everything the United States has ever done, or will do. Patriotism is not about politics (although having Obama as a president is pretty rocking), patriotism is about home, about the people, about the food and love, and though I do love Germany and consider it, as of now especially, at least a second home, it comes only after the place I was born, the place I grew up, the place I now in it's mysteries and faults.

The redhead likes Mark Twain...

     I haven't actually ever read a book by Mark Twain, but I have read his critisim of the German Language and on one point he and I can agree whole heartedly: German is a very complicated language for an english-speaking person to learn. Like gender articles. I had and Mark Twain definitely had a problem with gender articles at first. I mean, why? Why does one need to categorize everything into it's own gender and section of the table? (Or maybe that's just my liberal mind seeing the German language as a metaphor for society....)
     But nevertheless, it can be annoying... what was even funnier (as Mark Twain also expressed in his critical peice "The Awful German Language" ) was that words like "Rock" (in english "skirt"), and "Uterus" (in english "uterus" (duh)) were masculine while the word for girl, "Mädchen", is neuter.....
     Or how about the fact that the word "sie" can stand for six different englisch words (as Mark Twain also pointed out). "Sie" can refer to "she", "her", "you" (polite form), "it", "they", or "them" in a sentence. Mark Twain went angrily on to say:

"Think of the ragged poverty of a language which has to make one word do the work of six -- and a poor little weak thing of only three letters at that. But mainly, think of the exasperation of never knowing which of these meanings the speaker is trying to convey. This explains why, whenever a person says sie to me, I generally try to kill him, if a stranger."

     Now, on this subject I tend to agree with sometimes being confused as to which meaning is a sentence is being used, but instead of seeing it as "language poverty" as he put it, I see it as a lovely guessing game, albeit, sometimes an annoying guessing game,  but either way, it is in no way an indication of poverty.
     But I noticed that Twain never turned the tables on his own english-speaking mind to that of a german-speaking one. For example, imagine an exchange student coming to America (or England, NZ, Aussie, whereever) and the student is suddenly being forced to learn (for the umpteenth time, I might add) about the reproductive system of the human. Then, this poor confused exchange student will be forced to learn that the canal between the uterus and the ovaries is not something logical, like say "Egg Canals" or "Egg Tubes" or something, but instead the simple "Fallopian Tubes". Why English? Why?
         (If you really want to know why you can click here to learn about a guy from Italy who supposedly "discovered them (because you know, it's not like they were there before....))
       In German the word for these magnificent Canals is "Eileiter" or "Egg Leader" (sort of), which apart from being logical always makes me think it means "Egg ladder" because the word "Leiter" can also mean "ladder", but enough gabble-di-goo. I only know these things because of my Biology class today, in which I learned about Codoms, the Period, and other controceptives to stop pregnancy, because in Germany they don't just tell you to abstainf rom sex. I must say the best part of the video was probably when the cheerful, couragous Boy with the 80's style haircut bought his comdoms at the local store and then threw they up and caught them again celebratorially with a cheesy smile. It was rather hilarious and made stay for afternoon school not so terrible as it normally is.
     Other than my day, I would strongly suggest reading "The Awful German Language" by Twain (which is linked above in the second paragraph) , though the title bothers me (because german is fantastic), it is quite funny to read and very well written in general.
     Have a pleasant day.

The redhead has learned shocking things.

Today, I learned that the German company Nutella is going to be sued by an American mother for being unhealthy.
....

What's that sound I hear? Oh, right, it is the sounds of me... BANGING MY HEAD AGAINST A HARD SURFACE REPEATEDLY.
Nutella, a CHOCOLATE spread, is UNHEALTHY? NAHH, really??!!
    My question for you all is, WHERE THE HELL DO THESE PEOPLE COME FROM? Why is it that the people who tend to do things like this always end up coming from America?
Answer choices:
a) These people are everywhere, the only difference is that people in America are more loud-mouthed.
b) New Jersey
c) These people are not entirely at fault, in fact, it is American society that teaches the American people from a young age that you can have anything you want and be anything you want with total disregard of others.

Alright, let's dissect.
a) Could be. There are uneducated, crazy people everywhere, every country has their share of dousche bags and dumbasses, that is balance of existence, without an opposite, things cannot exist. (It's the whole Yin-yang deal.) But on the other hand, it does seem that their are a lot more of these people in my good old homeland. This could attribute to the loud-mouthed tendencies of it's Natives or perhaos that everyone tends to assume Americans will do things like this so everyone pays more attention, or it is just simply true that their are in general more of these people in my country. Though I cannot exactly scientifically prove any of these completely.
b) Yup. (Nahh... I'm just kidding.... there are A LOT more dousche bags in Texas....) (dontkillmedontkillmedontkillme!)
c) DINGDINGDING. I believe this answer, though more annoyingly complex than blaming it all on Texas, has quite a lot more truth to it than many of the others. The American culture is one centered on the American Dream, a thought that was nice at first but in time can have repercussions.
When we think "American Dream", we think people who escape tyranny to come to the freedom and choice that is America where they shall live in the suburbs because they have a good paying job. We think of stories like Levi Strauss, the man who created the first pair of jeans in the old, wild west and became an insanely rich entrepreneur with his great idea. We think of having big things. Big houses filled with lots of kids, and big vehicles, limos, fancy stuff.
But America, let's have a reality check: How many of those people coming to America with the so called "American Dream" were ever happy victim to it's good repercussions? In fact, how many of those suffering from tyranny who came to your open friendly statements and arms and was actually admitted into and our country and accepted?
We need to begin realizing that we DO NOT own the world. We CANNOT have everything we want at the snap of our fingers and be living like we have because we have the "divine, sacred right of the American Dream". Someday, America needs to wake up from it's dreaming, because dreaming too long can eat one's life away and wanting something so badly that will most likely never occur is foolish. We cannot snap our fingers and recieve our life like a golden, certificate, we do not have royal blood lines that endowment is passed down into. In America, you have to look, work, you have to use your brain (*GASP*), in America you should know better than to sue a company for being unhealthy who's ingredients stand quite blatently upon the label. America should not spout excuses, it should change so that it must not tell them.

Das rothaariges Mädel zieht Sprachen lernen in Erwägung.

     Wenn Man in einer anderen Sprache zu sprechen lernt, befindet Man sich in einer komischen Welt inzwischen seine eigene Muttersprache und seine neue Sprache. Ich bin gerade da. Ich kann nicht perfekt Deutsch sprechen, nein, überhaupt nicht, aber jeden Tag geht es besser und jeden Tag probier ich mich zu verbessern. Ich kann nicht mehr. Nein, deutsch ist nicht das Problem. Das Problem jetzt ist Englisch.
      Englisch: Eine Sprache, die mich aufgezogen hat! Meine Englisch, jetzt entweder eine Mischung mit Deutsch oder ein leerer Raum, wo mein Gehirn sich nach ein Wort oder Zitat erstreckt und nichts findet. Es ist ein ungeheimliches Ereignis. Wie wenn Man etwas sucht, velleicht einen Schlüssel oder eine Uhr, nichts besonderes, und sieht es, weißt wo es letztem Mal war, aber es nicht findet. Und ich fühl mich wie Dori aus "Findet Nemo". Ich vergesse wightige Wörter und manchmal jetzt wenn jemand mich ein englisches Wort fragt, kann ich ihn nicht antworten.
      Ein hilfloses Gefühl.

The redhead has the FREAKING HICCUPS!

      And it is making me so (*hic*) angry I could freaking (*hic*) bite a hippo's (*hic*) face off and/or (*hic*) kick an innocent man in the (*hic*)... oh you get my point.
  (*HIC*)
   Let's talk about a few other (*hic*) annoying things.
   But first let me (*hic*) drink some freaking water or (*hic*) else I'm going to (*hic*) hurt myself (*hic*hic*hic*)
   (*Quickly empties the half of Nalgene Water bottle and waits patiently....*)
   Ahhh.... thank goodness.
   Now. Annoying things.
   The most recently annoying thing that happened has to do with my school here. It was not sooo bad but at the time all I could think coherently was "this would NEVER happen at my school".
   So in Germany, the schools are different. I have probably explained it before.... but the brief overview is we have a different set of subjects everyday and sometimes, depending on the amount of subjects, we can get out at noon and go home and sometimes we get out at 5 in the afternoon. The other important thing to remember is that substitute teachers DO NOT EXIST HERE. If a teacher has off one day or is sick or has a flat tire or just plain can't make it, we don't have that particular class. Yesterday the last two periods before lunch "fell out" because our geography teacher wasn't there. Now this can be alright normally, but it wasn't yesterday, the Tuesday, the 15th of March, because on Tuesdays we have afternoon school, something no one likes with good reason and to top it off it was THE most gorgeous day any one had seen so far, it was like summer. The sun was bright, the sky was sweet light denim and you could hear the day light hours falling through our hands.
    Sometimes it happens that a teacher can move their period so that it is earlier, in the time that we would normally have whatever "fell out". Our class representative went and tried to see if we could move our biology class that would normally take place after lunch break to the period where Geography should be. It didn't end up working out because though the teacher was there for the two periods half the class had already left for McDonald's.
    GROAN. The students rushing back were too late and teacher told us it would happen later like normal and everyone became angry at him for wanting his period when it was usually. More than half the class decided that they would just skip bio and leave while ten of us stubbornly remained behind.
    Now, I understand both feelings of students. I wanted to leave too, it's not as though I wanted to stay at school for another six periods and only be learning for two out of six, that's fruitless Zeitverschwindung (time wasting). But I wasn't going to just skip a class and punish a teacher because another teacher didn't want to or physically couldn't come to school that day, that is injust. It is good for the students sometimes to have more power to express problems with a teacher and be heard, to leave the school ground for lunch, etc. These are great and important priviledges that make me love the German school system, but I also love the American system in all it's capitalism because it is simple: You go to school, you stay in the school at all times, you attend all your classes. There are no aversions of schedule and the teacher is in control of all happenings within their classroom from the moment you enter the door. When the students have more power, they abuse it, just like every other human being would on a nice sunny day, causing rebellion where it was not entirely appropriate, and forcing a teacher preach to a classroom population that you can count on your fingers.
    Oh the capitalism of American public education, where art thou?
    The most positive outcome of the day however was introducing some friends to hackysac and in return being educated about German Hiphop and Reggae by the ones who know it best: my friends.

The redhead is showing her ugly face.. again!! *gasp*

Sorry I'm such a flakey blogger.
I need to work on that a bit.
    Today, I forgot the English word for the opposite of "rural" (which is "urban" if you were having troubles with remembering it too). Forgetting peices of your native language is tough to cope with. I find my self stuttering on words and forgetting "t"s and sometime I pronounce things with a strange accent that sounds like a stranger. But all I need to do is let a hard core "YEAH!" and you know immediately where I come from. No stranger could mistake a USA "HELL YEAH!" if their life depended on it.
     Among my language issues I also hate it when I feel like I want to express something and know there is a way to say it in German but can't remember and it is completely unmöglich (word of the day=impossible) to say in English.
     I've been reading a lot. My book shelf is full as of now, but then again the Mehrheit (second word of the day=majority) of the books have been dug out of my guest families basement and slowly devoured by my hungry eyes. I have started reading Mansfield Park (by my homie Jane Austen) but lately it has been over shadowed by the sudden appearance of first "Paper Towns" (a John Green book, which if you haven't read you should and if you don't know who John Green is you FAIL) and then later the "Millenium" series by Stieg Larsson!!! LOVEE.
        Lisabeth Salander is not someone one would want to grow up to be (because let's face it her situation is pretty shitty) but I definitely want to grow up to be as brave as her (or as bad ass (or as both)).....
        But other than books my life is well. My juggling is steadily becoming better, more consistent and more confident (if you want to see that or just me in general you can check out my youtube channel). My grades are pretty good the way I see it. I increased a whole grade level in my last Physics test! (YEAH!). And I have been writing some good poetry and as always, perfecting my German, or trying to anyway.
         Hope you guys had a great spring break. I'll post more, I promise.... maybe that's my lent thing, I will increase in my blogging! (Because I mean it's not like God has anything else too important to read, right?)