meine erste Deustche Regatta.

on wednesday, i met my friend/german teacher, ana, for sushi. i was scolded by an elderly german man on my way home. i was riding my bike between the old bridge and the dam bridge. it is quite narrow with trees on one side and metal poles on the other. i appraoch him as he is almost to the end of the area with metal poles...so i slow down, let him walk ahead a bit, then ding my bell so i can pass him. well, it had been raining...no ding - more of a funny click noise. i slow down and begin climbing off of my bike, because i felt pretty sure he didn't hear my "ding" and wasn't going to be moving over. he suddenly turns and grabs my handlebars. i was shocked. he tells me something in german, i give him a blank stare, he tells me again. then i shrug my shoulders in confusion and apologize. a minute later, i processed what he said: bicycles forbidden. not true. he then proceeds to tell me where i am allowed to ride, and this area i just came from is too narrow. i don't know who appointed him the bicycle police, but i'm allowed to ride there. max wore a hat almost all week that is his "pippi longstocking hat." it is a hat that is actually too small for him but has two straps to velcro under the chin on babies....when these are left undone, they hang down and become "pigtails" like pippi's hair. (use your imagination here.) he wore the hat to kindergarten, to sports class, and everywhere in between. he kept telling us throughout the week that he pippi longstocking. as i handed a banana to tom, he told me something that i didn't understand. while refusing the banana, he told me again. i finally realized he said he didn't want a dirty banana. haha. it had a few brown speckles on the peel. it would never cross my mind to call that a dirty banana, but i understand exactly why he thought that. friday evening was bath time. as usual, the bathroom was flooded when we were finished. i don't know why rubber duckies have holes in them. i find it rather dumb...then they just get moldy on the inside. however, max accidentally discovered that by pressing the duck against his stomach, he could make a noise that sounded like passing gas. he and tom thought that was really very funny, and i was of course laughing because they were laughing so hard. now for a bit on rowing. friday afternoon, i went to the boathouse to help load the trailers. we had two. while i have done this so so many times for clemson crew, i was a little useless on friday. everything is in another language, and i don't know where anything goes because i'm still pretty new. i attended my first german regatta on saturday and sunday in mannheim. it was also my first sculling regatta (that is with 2 oars for each person). i was so scared on saturday. my stomach was hurting, and i thought i might throw up (i didn't). i think i was at least 50x more nervous than when i stepped on the plan to move to germany for one year. we raced 2 doppelvierers (quads). i won't be asked to join the olympic team anytime soon, but the girls i rowed with are still speaking to me, so that is a good sign. i survived the racing, i didn't fall out of the boat, and i kept my breakfast down. pretty successful. i rowed with 2 german girls and the other american girl, jess. for a while, they were speaking english for me, but i told them they didn't have to. i always feel bad when they do that. i sat in the bow seat...it is normally the bows job to look and make sure that the boat is staying on course; however, they told me not to worry about anything but rowing. haha. i think they knew i was in over my head. the weather was not so fabulous. it rained all day on saturday. considering it is mid-late april, i find it crazy that we needed to race in long pants and long sleeves. the race was 1500m and in a bit of a different setting than what i am used to. we were racing in a harbor, and trailers were parked between huge containers or along the railroad. in true german style, there were concessions where you could buy bratwurst and bier and such. because i was nervous, i managed to do more stupid clumsy alison things than average. yesterday, i managed to trip on some oars. of course that makes a big noise, then everyone turns to look. sometimes when i am standing with the other german girls, someone i don't know will speak to me. i'm not sure if they are able to figure out from a smile and nod that i don't really speak german or if they think i'm not so bright. all in all though, it was a good experience, and i enjoyed it.

here we are. rocking the Heidelberger Ruderklub unis.

parked in the containers.

spring is coming, i think? sean's tree.

die alte bruecke.

freihande!

i'm not sure if you all have noticed, but i've been doing pretty well living a life free of stupid accidents. well....on thursday evening, i was grating cheese. i also managed to grate my little finger on my right hand. another classically smooth alison moment. needless to say, it didn't really feel so wonderful. on friday, i went running on the philosophenweg. i didn't put a lot of consideration into the fact that this is a trail through the woods, and it had been raining a large portion of the week. at some points, my feet were sinking into the mud. i thought i was doing quite a good job watching out for slippery areas, then my right foot slid out from under me, and my hand hit the ground. not so bad, but i guess that officially breaks my very long streak of not falling on my face. friday evening, i babysat for hannah und sophie, my neighbors that are 6 year old twins. i'm not sure if you remember the last time i kept them, but their older siblings were home to translate when i needed help. haha. i would like to say, i was left all alone with them this time, and we spoke entirely in german. well, they did make me count to 60 in english. we completed a puzzle and then played "verstecken" (hide and go seek). they asked me if i knew how to play. haha. this is definitely a world wide game. they also asked if i could read them a story at bedtime. i'll let you use your imagination on how well that went. overall though, i would say the night went fairly well considering the language barrier. i had fun. saturday we were to row in the evening rather than the morning. so i first went shopping a bit, ate lunch, met my friend tzu-ning for ice cream, and had a beer with tzu-ning, ricardo, und his wife julie. i can count on one hand the amount of times i have eaten in american establishments, but yesterday i was really craving subway. so, i decided to go for it. today, i am craving yellow gatorade. i think i need to talk to my friend and see if she can get some from the army store. while eating ice cream with tzu-ning, my phone dinged because i had a new text message (sms). it was from ricardo, who wanted us to come have a beer. well, then i also see we can't row in the evening because the water levels are too high (that happens a lot lately), and some of the other girls have already exercised. considering i had just eaten subway and had an ice cream cone in my hand while reading that, i decided i would just have to stick to the scheduled 6pm for working out. saturday evening. 6pm. working out alone. how fun. and now this morning, we worked out at 9.30am. my body is tired. this afternoon, i am proofreading my friend's thesis. she is german, but has written her thesis IN ENGLISH about the changing geography (and some other things) of china. i'm completely impressed. sometimes i'm not sure if i don't understand the sentence because it is worded a bit strangely or if it is because i know nothing about the geography of china in the new midong area by the something mountains in some basin. if i ever manage to speak/read/write german half as well as she does english, i think i will be satisfied. the most exciting news: i just rode my bike freihande! no hands! woo hoo. it wasn't anything impressive compared to what i see people do, but i've been practicing. i didn't ride so far, but i was able to take my hands off for a little while on several occasions. hey, i've still got 4 months to work on this trick. maybe i will be ready for a unicycle by the time i get home. here are some good looking boys that i know:

tom in green. i love this photo.

max in blue. i didn't tell him the glasses are upside down.

geburtstag party.

on monday, we had a birthday party for max and tom. it was a few weeks late, but it took a while in order for everyone to be healthy and in town on the same day. moritz, isabel, eugenie, thaddaus, and cecile came to celebrate. eugenie (pronounce like aww-jho-knee) and thaddaus (pronounced like todd-e-ohs) are another set of twins that are a bit younger than max and tom. everyone sings happy birthday in english! the kids ate brownies and such. the moms + alison had cake. or if your name is tom, you ate mulitple pieces of cake, chocolate, and two servings of ice cream with strawberries. it was really pretty astounding and impressive. everyone played with the trains, rode on the bobby cars, and played with bubbles. we had to frog-shaped bubble blowers and 5 kids. i was referee. i speak english with max and tom. i must speak german with moritz, eugenie, und thaddaus. eugenie und thaddaus speak french as well. however, i know about 5 words in french, so that doesn't do me any good. it was madness for a little while. to the best of my memory, bubble time ended in someone getting bitten and some crying. moritz bit tom more than once on monday. sabine and nils decided maybe this was a good thing. hopefully now he will think twice before biting max. it was a busy afternoon and therefore it flew by. then moritz and his parents stayed for dinner...thai food (i'm a big fan). when sabine and i were putting the boys to bed, tom had gas. we started laughing and asked, "who was that?" max: the alison. hahaha. he of course had a very charming grin to go with that. i'm rowing in a regatta in a few weekends. i know that i am terrified because i had a dream two nights ago. it involved climbing into the boat but forgetting my oars. then as i am attempting to climb out of the boat to get my oars, i somehow managed to sink the boat. we then had to swim to the bottom of the lake to pull the boat up. i've tried not to think about how scary rowing with two oars - instead of my usual one - in german with 3 rowers that are far better than me will be. apparently my subconscious is worried though. yesterday during lunch (tuesday), max and tom were reading letters to me that they brought home from kindergarten. whenever they are fighting over identical toys, we say...hmmm, this one says: tom benjamin herzberg or max sebastian herzberg. yesterday, max tells me the letter says alison herzberg. hahaha. when i tell him that i am alison york alexander, he refuses to believe that is true. in the mind of a 3 year old though, why am i not alison herzberg? i live in a house where everyone else is herzberg. in the afternoon, we went to feed the ducks. max was having none of that. so i held him. i don't blame him at all...those things are vicious. when the swan showed up, we cleared out. he was bigger than max and tom together. then we were off to the playground. as we were walking between the ducks and the playground, tom tells me: alison, pass mich auf. wir haben nuer ein tom. kein andere tom in kofferraum. (something like this. their grammar is probably better than mine). alison, watch me/pay attention to me. we only have one tom. we don't have another in the trunk. hahahah. sometimes when the boys are playing rough, sabine or nils will say, be careful with max/tom/alison/papa/mama...we only have one whoever and we still need them. tom just wanted to make sure i didnt let the ducks eat him. max sings all the time now. it is so cute. they are constantly making me laugh. they say so many cute things, but once again, i can't remember all of them.

how typical.

this is the one photo we took while my friend jade was visiting. haha. that is her boyfriend thomas beside me...i thought the picture was only him. oops.

yep. that giant chocolate thing is good.