There was no talk of Trick-or-Treat, there is no talk of Turkey. It seems I'll have to wait till sleighs to glimpse our homegrown Holidays.

On Thursday, a friend and I made our way to a bar that apparently was an old morgue, though, despite the painted bare feet and toe tags upon the entrance way, I’m not fully convinced. The night was good. Nevertheless I have nothing more to say; the morgue possibility was all worthy of mention.
Saturday I went into town with plans to meet a class group. I was quickly wrapped up in a mass of people gathered for some all important but still unknown reason. Then I was enwrapped in their procession, then at their assembly, all done with a whistle in hand and buttons/pins that were given out with never ending urgency. I could have constructed myself a shield and built a shelter for a tiny child. As well as whistles and ammo to fight their foe, they also handed out ear plugs to protect all participants from the booming ruckus. I can only hope their prepare-for-repercussions attitude is no foreshadowing of their probable loss in this battle.
They were demonstrating against, as far as I can tell with my wanting understanding of their language, the proposal of a new freight train line that would run above ground through a residential area in Freiburg. It was an impressive protest; even mayors from several locations in the area came and spoke adamantly against the proposal.
Once I had heard enough of this whistle-blowing ceremony I went to a reading, as I had initially planned. This weekend in Freiburg several contemporary writers came and read. I went to see Lutz Seiler, who writes among this century's most prominent in Germany. He read the beginning of a story for about 45 minutes, and everyone smiled the whole time (everyone being a real number somewhere between 250-400 people, the preciseness of which I leave to your imagination, do have yourself a ball); there was always something to laugh about. This story really gets interesting…here.
After the reading, the professor of my contemporary poetry course, myself, one other student from the class (who is a man well into his eighties who knows an incredible amount about history and literature and life), and the aforementioned Lutz Seiler went out to dinner together. Lutz and I talked about his time in New England among other things (very indirect and weak family shout out, he thinks New Hampshire and Maine are beautiful) and much about translation. He was happy to talk with me. We exchanged email addresses and post addresses and he is sending me his works and the various attempts that have been made for English translations. I eagerly await them.
Otherwise this weekend contained much writing and research, though I found all of interesting. I wrote a paper about the “can we teach intelligent design in schools” controversy in the U.S.

It feels like spring here. I don’t really like it. The weather doesn’t match the order of things in the least! It’s just confusing.

Until next time!