so sitting at K's computer which is has a wonky german keyboard so there might be a few transposed z's and y's (ooh, and ä's instead of apostrophes, that's kind of fun) having arrived yesterday evening. M and i left AC at 7 in the morning after an insomniac night for both of us - i couldn't sleep because i was nervous about not waking up in time, and apparently he couldn't sleep because he decided he needed to drink all three of the really strong local beers that someone had given him rather than leave them in his fridge (not such a good idea as it turns out) but we made it one piece to angers (driving through torrential rain, which just seemed to validate the decision to leave), and onto the train to paris, where we went our separate ways. i got the bus to the airport, where i spent a tragic and semi frantic fortyfive minutes trying to decide which of my treasured paint-stained possessions to ditch, because lufthansa was going to charge me 150 euros in overweight luggage fees (as it turns out they are very strict on the intereurope flights). i finally winnowed it down to only 50 euros in overweight luggage fees, and put the rest in a shopping bag in the nearest trash bin, feeling _very_ pathetic and sorry for myself, duly checked in my main luggage and then realized there was absolutely nothing to stop me from pulling the shopping bag out of the rubbish bin and incorporating as much as i could into my previously weighed-and-cleared carryon bag (they have a limit of 8 kg carryon to start with, but then you are allowed to buy as much duty free booze as you want?? someone explain this to me). i decided if anyone questioned me that i would say i had bought the grotty tennis shoes, several paperbacks, and some extra canvas in one of the duty free shops. hey, it could happen. anyway. airline adventures. the really sad part was that in my frantic last minute reorganization of my bags, the little goodie bag of local honey, camembert, and olives that i had put together for K&M ended up in my carryon, and was deemed liquid by the evil security lady and taken away. i personally question all three of those judgements (creamed honey, still unripeish camembert, and olives? semisolid if anything) but i figured i was not in a position to quibble at that point.
kate met me at the airport in hamburg and it has been lovely lovely to see her again; we went out for dinner last night (with husband M) to a tapas place in downtown kiel and for a walk around (followed by a very satisfying sleep of nine solid hours without a break), and then today a lazy traditional german breakfast of rolls with mystery sausage, liver, quince jam, nutella, etc.
K and I went for a run together down by the port where they have seals (seals! so cute. seehund auf deutsch. i have now tripled my german vocabulary. i can say yes, no, and seal. i got K to write down on a piece of paper for me, 'i am so sorry i don't know how to speak german' 'one hot chocolate please' and 'do you speak english?' and with yes, no, seal, and my cheat sheet i think i can survive for a long time.). down by the harbour they also have submarines, which is kind of spooky, since you don't usually get much chance to see submarines in regular civilian life- they had two pulled out of the water for routine repairs - and also huge monster ferries which go to norway. we had lunch at a little pizzapizza place downtown, then wandered home for tea. so far it has been a fine balance between calorie consumption and expenditure and not much else OOH except we dug K's cello out of the basement and had a go at playing duets which was pretty funny since neither of us has really touched a cello since we were old enough to vote. it sounded horrible, but i have to admit it really made me want to try it for real again. there is a woman in my choir who is a professional cellist and occasionally gives lessons to adult students... hmmm.... wheels turning...
anyway. seeing K again is really nice; we are having a good time together, and it is so much fun to find how instantaneously the connection is reestablished and how little either of us has really changed since we were 12. eek - more later because M's sister has just arrived and i need to play hostess (M&K have run out to the grocery store).
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