"So...you're a Jersey Girl, huh?" and other short stories

Sungmi and I went back to Sankt Gallin yesterday to see Hamlet, which wound up being alot of fun. We got tickets to the art museum, then snuck into the nature museum and took pictures with all the taxidermified animals. The play itself was in German (sweet), and was like 80's techno-fied, with everyone wearing trenchcoats and carrying guns. The stage was also at like a 70 degree angle, and at the end of the play, all the 80's gold curtains in the background starting blowing and all the actors fought their way against the fake wind for like 10 minutes. Which I really didn't understand and which I'm pretty sure wasn't in the original.

On the way back I made friends with 2 random African dudes until Sungmi pulled me away and said I shouldn't talk to strangers. Then, after we got back to Konstanz, we got stopped by a group of German boys, who asked us if we knew of any bars in the area. I repeated the question to Sungmi in English, and all of a sudden the boys got super excited and Lead Boy said"You speak English?" "Yeah." Where are you from?" "New Jersey." At this, Lead Boy took a step back, looked me up and down for like thirty seconds, and said "So... you're a Jersey Girl, huh?" I don't know how people in Germany became acquainted with Jersey Girls, or what stereotypes the label implies here, but I do know that Lead Boy was looking way too excited for his own good. So I got out of that one real fast.

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There have been alot of banging noises coming from Chinese roommate's room the last three nights (and just for the record, I know for a fact she's in there alone.) Yesterday German Girl Roommate and I sat downstairs for like a hour brainstorming what on earth the noises are and why on earth CR is making them. This is how the conversation went:

GGR: Maybe she's building a table.
Me: Maybe she's building a pirate ship.
GGR: Maybe she's building a really BIG table.
Me: Maybe she's digging a tunnel.
GGR: To CHINA!

So it's settled by popular vote. CR is currently working on a tunnel back to the motherland, and with the amount of effort that's emanating in sound waves from her room, I expect it should be done in a few days.

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A little bit of background: GGR, before she started school, backpacked Australia for six months. She's madly in love with the country, her boyfriend is Australian, and every shirt she owns has Australia, Sydney or a kangaroo on it. Basically, she's in the process of converting from German to Aussie.

Transformation complete? Today I walked downstairs to find her making a Vegemite sandwich, at which I promptly dropped everything I was carrying (my laundry) and yelled "Vegemite!" Because I'd never actually seen the stuff before, but here was GGR, slathering it all over two pieces of bread. She let me try some, and just for the record, it's disgusting. It's beyond disgusting. If everything disgusting in the world had a contest for the world title, Vegemite would beat out McDonalds, Burger King, and vegan food hands down. GGR laughed at my mad dash to spit it out, shrugged and said "More for me." And threw some more on her toast. It seems a bit strange to me, in retrospect, that my vegemite virginity got taken out in Germany of all places, but these things happen I guess.

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Today I went to the student riding hour at the local barn, and guess what! I'M RIDING NEXT MONDAY! Jaysus Christ Mary and Joseph I am GETTING ON A HORSE! Hooray! I am SO excited! But so anyway, today as we were all sitting around hanging out, one of the girls on the equestrian team came up to me and said "Do you want to come blah-blah-blah with us?" Except I didn't know what she was asking. In the past, it has proven wiser to clarify the question first, but in this case I figured I could just apply Just Say Ja wisdom and just agree to come along. So I did. I followed her into the ring, and that's when I met Franz Ferdinand, the giant vaulting horse. Because apparently we were vaulting.

For those of you who have never seen vaulting (horse vaulting), it's basically gymnastics on horseback (go look it up on youtube). People get up there and do all sorts of funky tricks while the horse is cantering around in a giant circle, but let's clarify something: Tina rides horses. Tina does not do cartwheels on them. But Tina tried anyway, and because the real horse was sick, we used Franz Ferdinand the wooden horse. It was hard, but fun. I didn't do cartwheels, but I did do some pretty kickass handstands, and next week when the horse is better, I'll get to try it on a real, live, breathing, and hopefully standing-still horse. See? One more example of Just Say Ja policy working out to cool ends.

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first class tomorrow, will let you know how that goes. adios!