Standard formation world championship

the title tells everything about my last weekend. the WM was in ludwigsburg, organsied by my club. so I got to help out too! I was responsible for the second slowakian team: interklub bratislava. a very nice and fun team (that spoke english) and very nice trainers that spoke german. I was reponsible for them to be there on time, on the dance floor on time and had to do some little organisational things that had to be done.

the best thing was though that they got into the final round, and 6/8 there. the team was so happy, and I was very happy for them. oh yeah my club also became world champion, with all 1s. very cool, but i msut say that i found the running up teams extremely strong too. what was less cool was the aftershow party organsised by them: foreign clubs werent really welcome (well they said they were but it didnt feel like it). alcohol (and you know formation dancers love alcohol, especially sect) was very very expensive and there were a ton of grannys sitting about waiting for the home team to arrive. I fled as soon as possible. so did the winning team later, to a rather...lets say proximity of low order bar.

the great thing is i got to meet and see lots and lots of world class formations for free and up close: elblag form poland, vera tyumen from russia or braunschweig from northern germany, to name the top teams apart from the 1 tcl. it was a very special day, a great audience and amazing dancing. I must check whether im to be seen on tv :D

pictures to come

im 18. how weird is that?

18

I am on the verge of a nerve crisis. in less than 4 hours ill be 18.

18 the coming of age. a new part of your life. yes I think i am ready for that, but then again i am not very good for change, I seem to be cautious of changes. my childhood is over. officially. what a scary thought. since ever before i could remember I have refered to myself as a child. I remember the first time when I was spoken to as "sie" the formal you in german. I was bewildered as it did nto fit into my world conception. since a few years now I follow descartes: cogito ergo sum. I think therefore I am or simply: I am...but I am not. I am responsible but I dont feel like a dusty rusty boring grown up.

In four hours Ill have a ton of priviledges: ill be able to vote, drive a car(once I get a liscence), have all the alcohol I want, stay out all I want, work all I want and get punished all society wants. yeah the last not quite a priviledge.

it feels so awkward. I turned 16 yesterday, and now all the sudden im 18? the far away ominous 18 age all kids wish for and dread at the same time. im confused. I dont know what is to await me, and yet again I dont want to get older. especially not on a horrible day like tomorrow where all i get to do is write essays and study.

3 hours and 15 minutes. oh no the clock is ticking.

Stephan was right yesterday: you can only use the time once.

IB, EE and more

school is eating meslowly in bits. its too much. i either lack motivation or it really is too much. i am dying for ome time for mysef, btu not getting it. well this week i am. i have fall holidays. "holidays" that is...actually i ahve time to do my EE my german world lit, my tok essay, my english essay, my history ia and oh yes, study for my meidcine test. *hellooo*???

I have spent my day today at the chemistry lab of a local company trying to piece together my EE. its going GREAT. (thats sarcastic) after 4 hours extraction and 30 minutes destillation I am left with some scraps of green muck glued to the wall of a flask. after scratching it off and pasting it onthe little crystal of the IR spectrometer i see...nothing.

Especially after my last reporst card I am utterly pessimistic about school. Im not doing well, Im not doing as well as i should be doing. bye bye medicine that is for me then. or i can already send off my application to hungary where they will take me with 28 points and a heap of money.

ok the youtube song is over. i need to get somehting of the many undone things together. tok yiipiiiee....?

what does the american constitution mean by not "abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press" (Bill of rights, article 1)? what can you really say? and why will some things you say get you into trouble (think of the denmark comics about Islam a few years ago if you need a dramatic exampe)? while others wont?

Despite taking history, I am by no means a well enough reounded expert on this topic to be able to discuss it, but I am still allowed to question and give my opinion. If my questioning is inconveniant, please excuse it by the fact I know no better.

I made a comment today, well more of a satirical snigger about some current affairs. It was one of the comments where you say: yeah I can see where you are coming from, but of course that is so over the top, ill acknowledge and dismiss. you have your fun and forget it-usually. but instead I got a lecture: youd get real problems if you said that in the wrong place. But it was not meant seriously?! was my reaction. Of course it was outrageous, over the top and hugely insensitive, I was aware of that all along, but that was the point, to get the point across. so why is it often so missunderstood? and why is it so difficult to express ideas and then disclaim them; people always end up saying you said them.
People so easily get offended by a blunt truth not packaged correctly? In the healthcare system I can understand that, and have witnessed the difference wording can make myself. In society, and the way it works, and especially about other people I believe that it is much easier to acknowledge something worded more straightforewardly than about yourself. again I think you can acknowledge and get on with it.
I am being deliberately vague. and yes I believe I need to justify myself even though the lecturer probably will never read this. enough of a tok rant. back to work now.

boring by day great by night:kreuzberg

thurday evening we have free time. I had asked half the class if they wanted to go to kruezberg with me. my room wanted to go back to the hotel, and though t kreuzberg was too dangerous-k i had expected that. qunetin wanted to do something with the guys andcharlotte had to warm up after the cold rain shower this morning. so after a shopping spree through all the shops you can also go to in stuttgart, the two girls i was with decided to go to the hotel. I mumbled something like "meet with cousind" "meet with alice" or something.as we were not allowed out by ourselves, but at that point i had already given up. i fi wanted to go to kreuzberg i would hsve to do that all by meselves. so after a detour in mitte i took the u and s bahn to morizplatz in the middle of oranienstr. in the middle of kreuzberg.

I walked out expecting a colourful pulsating community of international people. I see a scruddgy imbiss, aldi and grey communist era living blocks. but i dont give up yet. If i have learned something about berlin it is that you have to look around a bit before you find the truely cool places. so i continued my hunt for something edible and preferably oriental. I came across a bio store, several turkish pubs, and suddenly stood before a cinema. the "babylon" had heard of it before, as i had conducted some internet research for "off cinemas" which my driving instructor had ranted on about for half an hour. the notice that had stopped me was the following poster:
followed by Spanish OmU 19:30. it was 19:15. I quickly figured that id theoretically have enough time. and almodovar definately seemed to be interresting enough- he is famous enough in the spanish speaking world that no beginners course can pass without his mention. I decided I wanted to have a look. curiosity had won over my foodthirsting stomach.

I entered a corso sized dark red cinema room wiht a good meter distance between the rows of chairs (plenty!) with my becks lemon (common if you break the rules you might as well do it properly). and saw a really good film. I cant explain what made the movie so good from the contenct or the message, its jsut the sort of movie where you pay 7 euros to sit behind a 2 meter giant where you have to twich each time you want to read the subtitles and dont regret a moment.

I jumped out of seat the moment the movie was over- a pity because i actually enjoy watching credits in cinemas, it feels like part of the movie, and gives a bit of time to think and ponder before the world comes back. well i went back to the ubahn and the district was as transfrmed: the lonely frightening bars and restaurants had transformed to lively locations for evening diversion. I was intrigued to sit down, get a strange sounding food and keep my senses open, but due to time constraints I had to adjourn the session to...to? well to when?me at the alexanderplatz on my way back to the hotel after my detour.

we dont want to be upscaled

the rebellion of survival of the suburb culture against the evils of commerce is on

I walk along an absolutely great neighbourhood. Cute cafés, restaurants from all around the world and independant clothing boutiques flank the read. It's cozy, familiar, cool. and not too high priced.
Prenzlauer Berg, "prenzelberg" is a berlin district that has experienced the first stages of gentrification. It has become a hip artsy neighbourhood.It has attracted atention and enough money for renovation, and most importantly it has attracted a mix of sors: od DDR remaining elderly, families, hip artsy students. All the old truely bohemian stores are of course all moved out it already is too expensive for that due to the second wav of gentrification. but the places of commercial exchange, more, of entertainment have an independant enough flair compete with the boring, unimaginative and expensive coffehouse milieu found "unter den Linden". but surely enough gentrification will not end here. estate prices are still nowhere near maximum, especailly so close to the center. the dilemma is born: an indepted city whith over 15% unemployment, a financial crisis, and more. In the middle of the city you nw found a vacant brown feld site. what to do? of course the government is going to take the most logical step: sell and get money.
A 700 people new upper class neighbourhood is now implanted into prenzelberg.
it is a great solution for you, who has the money to buy a flat, send you kids to the private school at the other end of town and boast at the next champagne ball about the flairfull independant district you live in. but mercedes and co. do not really fit in. more money means higher prices, not only in estate but also in cafés, restaurants ect. the living of the "indigenous population" is at threat for they cannot afford the 2 euro more for a starbucks that you can summon on a day to day basis. the original charme of the district is lost. upstriving artists get replacedby the everyday brands, students get pushed away, and once starbucks moves in everything is officially known to be lost to the well to do middle aged population with pseudo coolness and a porsche.
in gentrification a district only as a small speck of light in which it really is cool: when a artist scene has been established, the money starts to flow and themiddle class starts coming. gentrification on the one hand means a better living: better apartments, a nightlife and coffeeculture. on the other hand it contains an inbuilt mechanism of self destruction. so why dont the people just live with it and get out when the prices get too high or when the luxury apartments make them feel like animals in a zoo? well, its their life and culture these people have made for themselves. of course they will defend what they love! (the theme of the other half of the world literature). if not its just a mask to cover up that gentrification has eaten itself long ago.

long time no write

I guess the italy parts never are going to get finished. anyhow I have done pretty uch nothing in the rest of my holidays...well, I did work at the hopital in Esslingen... no internship, it was real work! but other hand, that is not interresting, and eats quite some time too. so now school has started agan and I have spent a week in berlin, on a class trip, which I WILL write about

Italy: Tirrenia and Marina da Pisa

the place I stayed at.
The two small coast towns are quite cute. a typical tourist town center, with overpriced icecream, pizza restaurants, bars and nto to forget those typical dark skinned vendours that sell everything: food, clothing,fake gucci bags, bracelets, everything. but luckily some do not get annoying about it, whilst others dont let go of you, especially if you have shown some sort of interrest.
Appart from the sardine private beaches, the really really really cool thing about tirrenia was the small green WWF protected strip of mediteranean forrest. very cool.
more to come

Italy

I am starting another series of anecdotes of my italy vacation i am currently on. TIs my last day, and I just discovered the internet terminal of the hotel, so i am going to finish at home.
this year I have a short vacation. not viositing 5 countries, no, only visiting 3: holland for IMUNA, switzerland, as a drive through and Italy, near Pisa where I am at this moment.
It was another one of those ad hoc situations. exactly one week ago my parents phoned this hotel they had found online and reserved a room for the night. we got packing, left and found ourselves 650 km furhter south that evening.
the hotel turned out pretty nice, nicer ythan those thing I have stayed in the last few years. no cockroaches like in macedonia or rusty bathtubs, no wood powered heating like in romania and no tiny room giving space for 3 beds and 3 beds only like in slovenia. Dont understand me wrong, I had absolutely nothing against all these hotels, but a nice one is a good change for once.
The little town Tirrenia we are in, is located between the port city of Livorno and Marina di Pisa, where the Arno river flows into the mediterranean sea. It feels like a tourist town, almost a linear settlement along the coastline, though i suppose it only is full of tourists in summer. thats not quite my favourite holiday situation, but it has a nice beach, clear water , sunny weather and gave me time to read my english assignments.
The day trips we took were to Pisa, Florence and today we are going to halt in milano, if we ever get out of here.
that leads me to a last point. my parents. its the last holiday i spent with them, and even though I like my parents and get along quite well with them, there are things that annoy me, the slowness my dad exhibits when he wants to leave the hotel, even to go to the beach, and simply the lack of hanging out with people my age. its awkward meeting people with parents at your back, even more so if you speak good 5 words of the language. but i am here for and with my parents after all and despite all the bitch fighting that occasionally arrises we get along better every day were here.

end of school

an entire year has passed. one more to go. this year the end of school felt completely different again. even though there was this urge to get out, which started even earlier than last year, we did have exams pretty much the last week. this meant that a last push was necessary. and all at once i was studying studying studying and all the sudden...POOF! schools out. I go to IMUNA, which I PGAd this year, I get my report card and i have off. that went way too fast for me, but I think another great problem is that unlike the other years where summer holidays were two months of trying hard to forget as much as possible, so hat our brains are like "squeaky clean sponges" (mr garvey, the mid IB break does not do that fr me. I cannot let go of school, even though I have been off for two weeks now.
maybe thats because of the homework, I have finished my third and last book for english yesterday, and now "all" I have to worry about are one english essay, one history project my flunked math paper 2 and especially my Extended Essay, all of which are vast (ok, tiny compared to exams but still) parts of my final IB grade.
school should be over, but effectively it is not. Its still the same people, with one exception, the same workload and hopefully the same teachers. we had class the last day and probably are going to continue just where we left off in august. on fluffy "hello welcome to the year stuff" .
Actually i dont want to press the "shut down" button, cuz i know what i do now i dont have to do later, when i want to do other things, like dance, study or sleep.

mnammnammnam

majestät brauchen milchschaum :P

scala and kolacny brothers

yet again i was spending (wasting) my time on youtube in search for the best soundtrack to get me motivated for work.

-> dont try it, it wont work

but instead, when i listened to one of my favourite german songs "hungriges Herz" from the berlin band MIA, I stumbled across a cover version.
At first I really did not care much or it. I found it way too soft, as if washed with fabric softener. I read the recent comments and went back to the original. but one comment never left me:"es kommt doch immer darauf an wo man das lied hört. beim bestuhlten scala konzert passt hunriges herz 100%ig in das wundervolle ambiente. auf einem sommerfestival ist es aber mindestens genauso toll das lied beim mia-gig mitzusingen. dann würde ich von der scala version nichts wissen wollen..." it shows that eeryhting is a matter of perspective. I went back to the scala cover, and noticed to my delight that they had made covers of many different songs, which I flipped through. In the meantime I fell for the band. by now their cover of creep is under "fave links" and the CD in my player.

what I really like is that these girls really can sing. they get the choir acoustics perfect: whistper, loud soft. this creates a real goosebump feeling. secondly, they take the songs and do their own thing with them but still manage to keep the meaning. this means that they can cover a whole range of artists: marylin manson, placebo, kylie minogue, die ärzte, rammstein, U2. thirdly, the arrangement also is pretty neat. often it just is piano played by the conductor, sometimes strings, percussion, depending on what the song needs.
It is calming music mixing the traditional elements of choir with modern texts, meanings and sounds. currently my favourite song (which I have on CD) is the cover of joga by björk.

the girl choir from belgium are playing a gig at the street festival in saarbrücken the first week of my summer break. I hope that i can go see them (yay its even for free) and perhaps meet with some friends from jsut over the border at the same time.

I remain right though. you could criticise that despite great dynamics, the many voices take away the edges which destinguish many artists and songs, but in the end I must agree that it all depends on where you are. a few days later I was back on youtube and clicked on the hungriges herz cover again. this time I didn't get bored half way through, but now value the cover as much as the original, because both carry the message of hurt love in their own way.
the picture is from the choir's website www.kolacny.com

mshff

when i wrote my entry previously i realised in a shock that we've had this blog more than a year. this means pragathi has been gone for more than a year.

its unbelievable how quickly time can fly, i still can remember casablaca like yesterday, the roaming around town (I actually know a lot more cool places i could ahve taken you to now), bugging teachers and driving fellow students insane.

time for a news update. a lot has changed. ISS has changed. the atmosphere of a desperate clinging, the suspense before the potential fall, the depression so to speak, is gone now. with the new headmaster, not that much has changed, but you can feel a completely different atmosphere. despite tense financial crisis, there is new hope. desperation has moved on, and teachers and students alike notice it.

but what concretely is new? the lunch stand has moved back into the fishbowl, they also sell soup now, and a brezel for 45 cents, good for the poor hungry student (eg. me), the necessity of a weekly assembly is gone, and next year we shall get better fieldtrips again. the this years one was horribly organised.

on the other side, the down sides, which mark iss life are still there: mr. t and my new "wonderful" tok teacher, a not (well) functioning student coucil, too much homework, too many assessments and the usual people you dont care much for seeing.

social life is much the same too. theres the ppl that drink and go out, and the ones that dont, and the americans. nothing really new. then endless on and off of couples: let me see, maddie and michael are going out, jeff has a gf in 10th grade, yannik and jule on their second run etc etc etc.

as for my own aspirations im still into medicine and of course dancing. I still am passionate about things i like and probably annoy everyone with it, and apart from a slight german diction reform (i weeded out most of the slang I hope) and a weird love life, its as you know me :). well to the last part I must add that fayes love life is definately much more interesting. Im not too keen on mine rumouring around school.

this time in a year im free(of school/to visit india). wow, rather scary thought(the schooll part).

I dance again

yesterday I went to ballet lessons in my dance club in ludwigsburg. My feet have been itching for the pirrouettes, the jumps, the excercises on the "stange", jsut as my body has yearned or complete control, form finertips, to body weight to non sticking out body parts, to head motions, everything has to be paid attetion to at once.
yes, i used to dance. i started before I can remember, i must have been 5 or 6 years old. I vaguely remmember my first ballet school, it was near to where ISS is now, but when the teacher changed, i went somewhere closer to home. of this i remember much, plastic fingernails, a new colour each week, pointing my arms, my stomach, my neck, my bum, correcting my heels to point forewards. then her voice, a slight foreign accent, and rather strict. she made the girls cry a couple of times, but not me, as far as i can remember. I was always good, never the best, but good. I stopped when I hit puberty. It was too much peer pressure saying ballet was stupid, i didnt like the other girls there, had no connection with them. thats something which i thnk i could now get along with, btu not insecure me at 12 years of age.
The ballet fever never rerally left me. it was my ballet teacher who encouraged my mum to buy me my first latin shoes, when we met her coincidentally downtown. On her advice from then, i started up dancing more intensely again, with the formation, and now im back where i started: ballet.
Its scary to realise how much i have forgotten. the french names of the excercises sound familiar though, in a really good way. my new teacher, male, american and also with a foreign accent noticed that. yesterday, when i sneaked into the beginners group, and then watched the advanced one, he called me over and told me my body was good for ballet. I was happy, even more so as it seems like i will be better than an S class latin dancer, who started with me yesterday. im still rubbish at latin, so that gave me a bit of an ego boost.
so lets see where it gets me. I enjoyed the almost empty class (5 including me, 4 in the advanced class), which means everyone can be paid special attention to and left with the promise of coming by next week as well.

india on big screen: a movie review

a few hours ago i watched slumdog millionare.

It is like a greek tragedy: the story is known. an indian boy who lived in the slums wins at who wants to be a millionaire. but as my language teachers repeat like an ancient magic formula, its not what you write but how you do it, the suspense, the empathy, the "leserlenkung". slumdog millionaire fulfills this basic sucess formula. take a story that can be told in a sentence and make it somehting special.

I remember a few scenes where i turned to my accompaniment in horror, disgust, i just couldnt see it, didnt dare to see what i knew was coming: misery, torture, pain hurt. the movie has a strong undertone of what reality is like for "poor" people or people that arent as priviledges as we are. it surely contains all the above: loosing loved ones, hunger, interrogation, child labour, dirt. ...ouch.but its good that an entertainment movie talks about this.
of course slumdog millionainre is not the first, blood diamond, hotel ruanda, seven years in tibet etc, etc,etc. but for me slumdog millionaire has a take home message. i just have to work out what it means for me, but ill have the night to sleep over it.

then theres the touching scenes. the other part of the movie; a love story worthy of a huge bollywood export hit, and truely touching scenes.
one of the ones that sticks out goes somethign like this:, the protagonists favourite movie star is coming to his slum. of course like all the others he wants to go see him, but hes been locked up in the bathroom...shitplace or whatever the propper term is, by his older brother for taking too much time. he sruggles to get out but cant. what does he do? hes faced with the decision, shit and moviestar, or no shit and no moviestar. he takes the shit.

all is blended in with some great pictures of a very different place from here, the typical head nod which i couldnt destinuish fron a no until i realised it actually meant yes, the atmosphere of violence, dirt, tension comes across. so if you havent already, this is a movie well worth spending half your weekly pocket money on.

picture from http://dansemacabre.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/slumdog-millionaire-poster-full-1.jpg

avalanche

whilst pragathi over there was charming india (or at least bangalore) with her amazing english accent, I was out of the country once again- skiing with my mum in austria, in a pretty touristy place called ischgl.

driving there through a winding mountain road that sllthered its way through the valleys of giants, Ischgl was the second to last village before the high alpine road, which was not open due to snow.

the weather was wonderful. the right moutainside had no snow at all, at least not at 1300m (but surely above 1600m+). the left mountainside which was the one we skiied on, was still well covered in the white fluff.

you know that I dont especially like snow. it wet and sticks to you, is freezing cold and melts to a mush in your boots, down your back (if some ideot dared to do that) and well basically everywhere it gets. no usually snow really is not cool. but my attitude changes once im on the two long planks called skis. I all the sudden adore snow, find it the best possible invention ever and curse the spots its melted away from.

Ischgl was a completely touristy place: 4 star hotels basically made out the entire village. après ski bars lined all roads etc etc. cheese and getting money everywhere. but the pists for skiing were wonderful. great snow, nice and wide "highways" where you really could get nice speed,sun, and a big area which went over at least 5 valleys.

needless to say i enjoyed it, despite my slight sunburn on my forehead which came from not using any sunscreen...bad idea. travelling with mum is still great, (and cheap for me) and shes a plesant companion(most of the time;). plus shes also a pretty good skiier and has a car. two big bonus points. and no i dind not get covered in an avalanche. but so many had come down in the valley this winter that they were inevitable to notice-i even climed on one (without skiis).

on air!!!!!!!!!!!!

it was almost a dream..so exciting and pretty cool. it was just like any other day, got up early, walked around in a trance till my glass of bournvita (indian choco drink) jolted me to my senses, went to my door, shut the door and started studying.

i put on the radio, got fed up of why boron was a very inmportant element (some serious bore on stuff). so i sent radio 1 a message saying i wanted this song and that dedicated to this and that..and then i sent answers to a question on one of the only movies i have seen for a long time. hardly was i expecting it and then she called ---the RJ FROM RADIO 1!!!!!!!How COOOOL---!!!!

But somehow only to be a tad disappointed. She puts me on air for a show called Dosti Fatafat (roughly translated to FAst Friendship or something on those lines). basically a girl (or guy) asks a whacky question and the guys try to impress and then she exchanges phone numbers and you can become friends.. Well, the thing was she kinda called me at the wrong time when i was about to go and eat lunch. biut how could i refuse. it was the CHANCE...so we had a conversation,..sort of interesting. but i really couldn't scream or jump up and down with excitement cos my mom was just outside wondering how long i would be on the phone. so the disappointing thing was that i didn't sound all that excited (actually mayb even a little morose). so teh question of the day was

If you were to compare a mother-in-law(saas) and daughter-in-law(bahu) to a vegetable which ones would it be?

Point no 1 she gave me the topic
POint no 2 she gave me the question and askes me to ask it
Point no 3 if she had given me some time, i could have come up with an original question, mayb not quite as good but still..
Point no 4 it felt BOGUS!!!!!!!!!

anyways some guy called teja came on air and compared saas to potato and bahu to beetroot. they are good when cooked seperately but a disaster when mixed. i think the guy had a pretty good imagination (i hope the RJ didn't tell him t tell that..i don't think so). so we came on air again and talked again. and that was it. no contact with that guy again. no phone no. exchanged as promised on air (not that i've the time 4 tat)... but after all i came on air. AWWWWESome..(now i actually respect an RJs job, it's pretty difficult to handle people like me on air. you did a good job pavithra)


so that was one differnt thing that happened in my monotonous life.Since im learning physics right now, id like to add...

my life (right now) is like a monochromatic light, while yours julia is the visible spectrum...

apart from this my life is a constant rush, rush to the auto stand, rush to classes, rush to catch the bus, rush to college, rush to the phone, and sorry have to rush again..mums calling..!!!

pragathi.

sushi with lassi and hummus

I have gone to ISS for a very long time. If anybody knows what ISs stands for or what it should stand for then its me: commitment, diversity and openmindedness. these should be the true values of ISS society.

Sadly enough some recent people at the top of things messed this special spirit up a bit, but its slowly resurfacing. and even it the big guys do bullshit, there are always plenty of parents, kids and teachers willing to fight for their right to put in energy to make ISS life more enriching.

one very special event is the multicultural evening. In the past years it always was a performance paired with some food at the end of it. this year both the events got split up, and today was the food part. I helped in between piano classes with setting up, an d later of course with eating :) "julia you are a stomach!" was one of Blandine's remarks a couple of days ago. o:) yes I do eat a lot but its not that bad. I just adore food. especially indian food nad i havent had that in some time. so of course i raided the indian table as soon as i got there. I had mango lassi, and the infamous rice that had kept me alive, as well as the bread and chickpeas and samosas...it was all soooooo good. but i also had sushi, thai, hummus, chocolate "kisses", and at the end, a shotglass of red whine. and of course a handfull of henna. no multicultural evening without that.

I always love these events, you really notice whats in such a school like ours. a few parents bringing in some dish, setting up some tables and putting effort in decorations, and voila! a great evening, and one of the yearly recurring events i will always remember as being part of ISS.

season ends

last saturday was the last of the series of 5 tournaments, which we had worked out buts off for- well at least the fat off our buts.
It was a great tournment. apart form the fact that the team is pissed off at some few undisciplined individuals that think they can do everything and anything but train, and that come drunk to the tournaments, and despte the fact my shoe opened in the first round, it was all good. we got the expected 4ht place, and an awesome party with the entire league afterwards in a weird club in bietigheim. all in all i had 3 hours of sleep (and am still trying to get enough rest into my system: not working well) with the 3 hours sleep on a tiny shared mattrace in our club home. but it was so worth it.

on the donwside, now the seasons over what will i do with my weekends???
ill think of somehting...

this and that

Its 2 am in the morning. im sitting in front of my laptop in a fancy dress with smokey eye makeup and my hair gathered up in a bun and decided i should finally write again, about recent events. lets start with the neares first and lets see how far i get. so yesterday/today (tomorrow starts after you have slept) I went to a ball. I had the usual trainign today. we did some rumba improv, to get the "feel" and become more self confident and more present, so that we loose to be afraid of doing things becuase they might possibly looks stupid, learn to touch the partner and of course to be sexy. after the training i was about to go t stuttgart to have some food wiht jürgen, when micha, a close friend of the formation puled his car to the sde of the road we were alking on and asked the simple question: feel like some food? so we ended up having asian (thai ad chinese) in ludwigsburg.
Micha often plans his evenign with people from the formation. dance and movie evenings are frequent. so as I had nothing planned i enquired his possible occupations. he stammered somehting about drinking in stuttgat of a movie and alcohl at his place, so i told him id think abt it, apart from needing to explain it to my parents.
2 hours later the call: " what are ur evening plans?" "ermmmm...nothing yet?" "im going to a ball. I have one ticket, care to come?" "hell yeah!"
so i ended up at a ball with micha, his mom and some friends of his mom. the cool things about balls are that age deosnt matter. you can really mix under 20 and over 60 and its ok. even if you dance a rated R version of rumba, its ok. yeah and thats what we did. we used some formation techniques we had practised earier to do some improv. very nice! dancing is somewhat like acting. you are yourself but at the smae time oyou dive int a bigger better show version of yourself. even though you normally are good friends with your dancepartner, and only that, you all the sudden flirt like hell, nad go back to normal after the music has stopped. i think it belongs to it, to play wiht partner, yourself and your movements and the possible audience.

so what else have i been up to since my las communication?
I started single dancing wth jürgen. or at least tired it out.lets see how that will work out. its lots of fun even though i havent dacned enough with him yet to feel secure.
I visited jürgen in his "home" town heidelberg. a beautiful place which is serious competition to london for the colest place to study in.
I did a night shift with my mum, being in the OP until 1 am, seeing 3 operations and then sleep.
and last but not least i did another henna tattoo on my hand yesterday. I was in a fight with m paresnts and needed occupation to distract me, so henna was what came to my mind. so now half of my left plam is decorated with a darkbrown line design. I got it off the internet very pretty.

but now i need to go to sleep. its 0222 already and i have training tomorrow. hence good night.

Fasching

it is february, about a month before easter. so whats happening in the sleepy towns of germany? right the "narren are los". the annoying neverentding trarrii trarraaaaa which can only be endred in at least a half drunk state, the costumes, the food, the typical dancing, the parades, all that has started again.

Fasching is different to halloween. the costume are much nicer. you dont have to be something evil or nasty, you can go as anything, an indian, a belly dancer, a prisoner, an astronaut, a kangaroo, etc. i share a love-hate for it. I adore getting dressed up, eating berliner or "fastnachtsküchle" and i dont mind a bit of alcohol either, on the other hand it does get on your nerves: the music is worse than at the cheesiest mallorca ballermann, or après-skiing party in austria. and the perpetual tv parades which get bradcasted instead of the usual rubbish istn't much better.

now why am i writing this? yesterday I went to one of these fasching parties. well not really, we had a tournament (4th place) which i danced and afterwards we went to our club to shower and celebrate the bday of two people of our formation.
It was the wildest shower ever. three showers and at least 7-9 people at a time, plus sect, plus shower "colour" plus loud house music. it was fun. then we all got dressed up-i was a gene in a bottle, with sparkly blue loosehanging pants, and a rather short ans small oriental looking top. but there was an arabian oil "scheich", an indian, a prostitute, several playboy bunnies in different montures, indiana jones, a tourist, a bumble bee, the flintstones, a football player, an astronaut, an persian princess, a prisoner, and surely lots more which i cannot remember. anyhow the alcohol was pouring. I wasnt drunk, but certainly a bit tipsy, however in compared to the majority of both the b and c formation, that was still sober. then, we danced a "durchgang" of our programme, b and c mixed. te b formation dacned the programme 3 years ago, a lot more difficult, so there were some couples doing extra continuals, roundabouts, arms and lankenaus, then there were those that moved up from c to b last year, which had the landeslige programme, and then there were a couple of us that have the current version programmed into our muscle cells. It was chaotic, nobody really go the entire thing toether; dacing a few passages, leaving out some others, doing arms or not doing them, and 3 versions of the thing. the moral is: my dance partner dances better drunk than the one i danced with yesterday ;).
then there was more alcohol, some more dancing, some pizza and other food. at around 8 pm, i started making sure my fave dance partner stops the acohol tap that was dripping into his stomach- he was drunk as hell-but he actually listenend! how nice.
then at 2300 my parents picked me up :( involuntarily I again was one of the first to go. as always. yippie yippe yeay, almost 18 and still not trusted out late. but it was a really good day, a fun tournament, an even more fun party, which i guess the theme of fashing made even more crazy than it would have been otherwise.

MUNISS

and yet another mun conference has passed: but htis time a special one. MUNISS, the conference hosted by our school. this year I had teh priviledge (and the dump of work) to be the Secretry general; signing up schools, giving out countries, Student officers, and all the other boboos of people that dont get their work done.
but all went fine. we cactually doubled in size became more efficient and did have an awesome newspapaer each day for which the press sweated blood and tears each day. however under te specialist eadership of helen and charlotte it all got done nicely.
the catering was also good. admins worked (they just did!), the food was yummy and fresh and the biscuits jsut again show hoe much you can do with well invested money (caaaaaloriiiies!!!!!! :D).
th debates also were of hih quality: the SC was raging and the GA also seldom got tired. i had a crisis crisis half the time so that i culd go aroud to watch and be proud, btu actualy had to work and stress, making up some crazy story about a bolivian military coup, which actually might happen! (yes, and thats the scary part)
further muniss stresses were the beamers. gosh i hate these things, as well as a non alcohol (so sucky) party, and of course the crisis, meeting over meeting, and jsut putting the last day, with the GA, the crisis and finally the Closing Ceremony together.
however the best part is that we are slowly bt surely attracting the schools attention. our director (who seems to be doing quite well) asked me for meeting right after the end, which ill have in two weeks, right after my one week fasching holiday the upcoming week.we might get XXL support from the school next year!!
after the conference i was so dead i was sleeping dead in school the next day. but it was still a great event i wouldnt have wanted to miss out on.

a weekend of dance

again I have spent my entire last weekend not doing the homework and studywork and school work which i was supposed to, but instead i occupied myself with the fine arts: dancing. saturday was a first league latin formation tournament and sunday a tournament of my own. here some impressions and pictures.

saturday: latin the real thing.


for the second time, I was priviledged to watch some of the worlds best ofrmations: the german league, containing the surrent german champs and vice world champs: ggc bremen A. but ot only this highlight, with their famous trainer Roberto Albanese was worth it: velbert, bremen b, aachen and lastly our A formation all were there too. so after the usual four hours training, instead of going home, I roamed through ludwigsburg having some lunch, before settling in to see the competition. at first it looked like wed have dream seat: right at the top, but that wasnt to be granted, as it was a fire exit etc. so we were lucky and got other awesome seats: fourth row at the front! this meant you couldnt see the pctures, but instead you could see the dancing, the facial expressios and the single movements.




now sunday. after getting up at 5 am to di the usual makeup programme. we drove to kirchkeim (teck), had two catastrophical "stellproben", practice runs, got shouted at, gpt ready, and danced an awesome tournament. the first one had mroe adrenalin in it,but i think i was better here. It felt good and was loads of fun. m fave scene was at the end of the prerun, when we wlaked off: I looked at the judge center middle, raise my eyebrows and smile, and see him make a cross. the more crosses the better.
now guess what happened. we beat backnang c and bietigheim A!!!!!!!! :D our two rivals! it was pretty close with a 33345, but enough. getting the results was a dream. we knew we had at least the 5th place secure, so when the team infront of us, backnang c, got a majority of 5th place, we knew we would be above them. half or tema was already jumping up and down (even though we were all like hsh you dint now the result yet) but then we were up! I couldnt believe my eyes when i saw the 3s. it was more than expected, but not necessarily more than deserved. the party mood afterwards was one of the best i have ver experienced, especially when the b team (2nd place) dressed up to a "bad taste" theme.
so here are some pics: (the yellow ones are us, the whack ones the bteam after the show)

debating till the last mark

teachers fights are interresting. there are those between horrible studants and horrible teachers-> the teacher wins. then there are those between good students and horrible teachers-> in the end the teacher wins. (though the student might get credited with some battles) and then there are the hardest battles of all. those when zou need one more mark to get the full score but the teacher just wont give it to you. and guess what -> the teacher wins.

this jsut happened in bio. my debating skills mun have hammered into me failed. my class debate skills failed and even my tok enduring skills were not good enough to up my mark to a 7 from 7-. grrrrrrrr. mr garvey pleeeeeaaase!!!! o:)

Fräulein Julie

provocant and selfaware the drama blasted the brains out of the modest and partially already chalked up audience. Fräulein Julie, a naturalist skandinavian drama written by Strindberg interpreted newly, with catwalk instead of kitchen, a mixture of tecktonic jumpstlye and discodance instead of the traditional walz, and the implied love story, (ok, even in the text its quite clear whats happening) the story of lust, seduction and sex, is stripped down and carved out, fitting to the drift of the time.

Picture from http://www.staatstheater.stuttgart.de

Stripped is the right word. layer by layer the clothing fell. a panty under the rather short skirt was rather "normal". due to dancing im immune to such things anyhow. but soon the clothing fell. not only could you watch the actors change at the back of the "stage", the catwalk. but one of the coolest scenes, which really took your breath away was the final scene before it was clear the characters would sleep together: he still warns her: this is not good, stop whilst you can, im an arse. but she is the dominant one. Julie is superior, not only in class but in strongmindedness. her response is cool, calculated but still playful and highly seductive. she takes off her dress in front of him and cooly strolls off. he follows, also stripping on the way, with the same cool aprehension. like models on a runway, just that you know where theyve come from and where they are gong, theres more than that.

the end however still streched a bit. he loves me, she loves me, but he still only calls me "sie". she doesnt have as much money so she can go somewhere, hes an ideot that wanted to use me, but i still love him. no you dont yes you do yes i do. lets run away no i dont want to anymore, but i must, but i have money, but no not without my bird. forget him. no i wont go anymore, what will happen, you are cruel i want to kill you. inbetween some kissing some almost fighting, some vulgarities. but all in all it became brain overload. the firework of the beginning decrescendoed into wordy muddles of the soul that allowed the attention to dwindle away.

we all know the story in some way or another. the mutual affection is there, but somehow both dont really want to make it work. or one does and the other doesnt know or both dont really and think they do. the versions of love drama are numerous and neverending: the schoolfriend, the person everybody is gossiping about, at least if there is no better example the bollywood cheese. but i still think this story was packaged well. The director and characters had taken the original text and remodeled it, reinterpreted it and made it scandalous again, which is what naturalism was at that time. not that stripped people are something new in our time of playboy overload, but as always for some reason sex sells and works over and over again.

the future

yesterday in the public library i found a song i have been looking for for years at least since 8th grade. it is the end of the world by the famous rockband REM. it is about the world falling to pieces, being bombedwith total chaos, i dont know what else. But in the end "I feel fine".

" I feel fine" . Life goes on as it always does. all the sudden i took a full stop in my race of a life, to realise that nothing is of eternity. Until now i had simply lived my life, "flunked" around in school (you know i never flunk... but flunking begins at 99.5% of engine power), danced, did whatever, but signs are heaping up that i need time to think in the continual path of finding out who you really are, and what you really want. for one thing, i met my college advisor on friday. this is pretty straightforeward- may next year ill be out of this litte neighbourhood that "isnt quite am arsch der welt, but you can see it very well from there". small suburbian dream stuttgart. ideal for growing up, but there is so much more out there.

I realised i have to get my act togehter in school. i have it together, but its not going to be enough for what i want. its difficult, as i realise i have just spent another entire afternoon doing nothing, instead of studying for the urgent bio exam coming up. prags, it was so much easier to concentrate when there was somebody to study with-like you. i got pampered ;). the idea of applying in half a year, is scary. the idea to have a new life in a year and a half even more so. I will leave behind those friends that havent already left me- on the one hand thats terribly exciting and i can wait, on the other hand ISS and especially my formation has become rather important to me.

what i am living now is sort of like a dream- my passion of dancing, cool teachers for most of my IB subjects, my passion of piano, and the priviledge of spending time with one of the nicest and smartest guys ive met- a real exeption that can stand sometimes difficult me, and follow along at speeds most people get left behind at. ive come to care about him lots, but the clock is ticking, for the big dark cloud will outpour the flood eventually.

I am scared. I must admit. as always it is hard thinking of letting go of the things you love, of the people you love. but i guess you have to. perhaps the best advice i got in this matter is that its my life. its my decision. if i get admitted to some cool thing, be it uni, be it an exchange, be it a job, be it a dream, l i go there, despite formation, despite possible boyfriend, despite parental nagging. the gain outweighs the loss.

carpe diem- seize the day, treasure it and carefully lock it away in a safe place to remember, for thats the only litte piece of eternity we can take with us. and remember even if the world around you is sinking in chaos, you can always simply "feel fine".

pictures

a pictue sais more than a thousand words and that why i added some throughout the blog. I finally managed to upload everything important form my camera.
firstly some pics of the tournament on the 11th. ill just stick them in here as were already on the topic of pics







to finish it off here are some pictues from two days ago (the third)