Marie Damiana

Even though i seem not to be that politically active at the moment, do not read the papers and news extensively, there were some interesting events going on in the past weeks. well, ACT the college theater performed a Miller play 'All my sons', which in itself is quite political.

Well, and the the super-arse Pat Buchanan came to talk about a book he's writing. He stated that women are mentally not as capable as men, that they lack a certain will power and strength. So, he said, they belong into the kitchen, producing children and so forth. He is an isolationist and nationalist. How worse could it get? Racist. Yeah. And he admires Hitler. Well.

And then the sucker Chertoff, Secretary of Homeland Security came here two nights ago to receive an award TCNJ wanted to hand him over. Duh. Mean mean man.

I haven’t written anything in what seems a long while. Well, I had Spring break in between where I went home. Arriving on a Sunday morning my friend T picked me up from the FFM airport. We had a Sekt-Frühstück in my favorite pub on Berger Strasse and pretty much kept on drinking sparkling wine the whole day long. At her place another friend was just waking up. The three of us was taking a walk down to the river, I peeped into the newly renovated theater, and back to T’s place. At 9pm I fell asleep and slept like a rock for the next 12 hours. That Monday I went to the university, running some errands. Later I met up with two of my friends and went to eat delicious Turkish food in one of the best Turkish restaurants I know. In the night I arrived in Hamburg. Surprised my stepfather (who could hardly fathom me being the one that rang), and my little sister. I hang out with my family and had a great time. My father had birthday on Wednesday and he got all surprised. It was so lovely spending time with him! And with everybody. My other sister cried when I tipped on her shoulder from behind, thunderstruck she stood there, then with the instant realization following her tears rolled down. I had my sweet friend B sent to sit in our favorite café, drink a yogi tea for me and wait for my call. But when I went she wasn’t there, so I called her up. She was flabbergasted that I actually called our café and so forth. Five minutes later I stood in her door. She actually though I was an apparition. Well, and then we went to Berlin. There we visited a good friend of ours and another beloved one coming. C lives there and had birthday. The 4 of us prepared the party and made pizza. It was a sexy day and night. We were 5 people the next morning. We went out for breakfast and had a lovely time. Next afternoon I left to see my brother and his girlfriend. And he brought me the greatest news ever. I was the first one learning about the two getting a child!

I was so scared that I couldn’t reenter the US, but eventually I had no reason to scare myself to death. There was not a single obstacle, besides the Germans checking my bag, but that was fine, ‘cause I had nothing to hide. From Newark I took the train to Princeton, hitch-hiked to my host-parents and after saying hello sat down on my homework without a break.

On another weekend I drove to Philly with the History Club. We had an awesome time in the Constitution Center. I have rarely seen any such obscure patriotic madness than here. Really, I am not kidding. It told the American history from an extremely prejudiced, biased standpoint that I hardly managed to not fall into insane laughter and end up puking! Fair enough, after that I went downtown with a bunch of kids and had a real Philadelphia Steak. Despite some drizzling the day was definitely indicative of Spring. I shot some Springy pics of the cherry trees. When it got dark we met a tour guide to give us a ghost tour. She was a nice girl and it was interesting to learn some exotic facts about Philly.

The other day I went to New York City, met up with a friend and saw/heard “Fidelio” the only opera Beethoven has ever written. In the Metropolitan Opera!!! It was amazing! I stayed over for the night and did a private gallery tour. My ART class was assigned to see several galleries, which I did on that beautiful Wednesday. Later in the Washington Square park I met a sexy New Yorker who told me that it was the nicest day of the year. And I saw some extremely good art works in SoHo.

Oh, and then my friend from California visited me. He stayed for two days. Although we were sleeping in the same bed and stuff, I did not feel too close to him. To me it felt a little like having an invisible wall or something between us. I was polite and did not smack him too much, and yet, we never became intimate, never close, not as agreeable as we are when we chat. Usually I love being very close to people and don’t mind extreme nearness, but I felt relieved when he went, though sad, too. Sad that I did not know what was going on with me. I believe I found another piece to my puzzle of independence. I think that I got closer to myself during his visit.

For my art project (assignment: “Scale”) I chose to work on the toilet. I build steps leading gracefully from out of the wall onto the loo seat. I decorated the whole thing with plants in a fashion that they resembled trees. Then I placed miniature dolls around the whole arrangement and one into a paper boat that floated on the toilet water.

It is Eastern now and my friend D and his family had invited me over to their house for the holidays. I had gladly accepted their invitation. Yet I had to reject another friend’s. Yesterday was Friday and after classes and everything we took off. It is quiet here. I sleep in a big comfy bed without using my ear plucks. In the morning D, his mother, and I drove to see his youngest sister play this game. Later we went to the beach. The sun was shining, but the water was still chilly. In spite of the strong coastal wind the sun was so strong that we had 80 F/ 27 C, so I worked on my sunburn. Unfortunately I couldn’t find a small probe of aloe, but I think it got better. Oh, last night D, his sisters, cousins, and me went out for pizza and then we wanted to go to the movies, but the line was ridiculously long so we decided to go bowling. But we didn’t do that either, because it was so ridiculously expensive, so we decided to have desert. That is how I ended up going to Friendly’s for my first time. There I had a ridiculous chocolately ice cream something. This combined with the pizza (just 2 small pieces though) made my unhealthiest diet day of the year I guess. Starches and dairy I (try to) avoid. And rarely I eat meat or an abundance of candy.

My art class required a performance, which i gave today:


I let the class cross the whole campus to meet me in front of a dorm. There i welcomed them and told them:

"Six years ago, I crashed in the Desert of Sahara with my plane, a thousand miles away from any human habitation."

I held a long, thin rod with a tiny yellow flag on its top, to indicate that i was their "tour guide". And i went on:

“I was the pilot and had no passengers on board. My engine was broken, so i started fixing it. The night came. It was very cold. And on the next morning i was awakened by an odd little voice, asking me: "If you please - draw me a sheep!” “What?” “Draw me a sheep!”. Thunderstruck I jumped on my feet, blinking with my eyes, I saw a most extraordinary small person. I was wondering what he did there in the Desert of Sahara, a thousand miles away from any human habitation. Yet I finally did start to draw him his sheep.”

I slowly moved on, with gestures inviting my audience to follow me.

“So I took out my sketch book and attempted my first drawing. But the little chap complained that it looked sick, but he wanted a healthy one. The second drawing he didn’t like, he said it was a ram (Widder). I started getting upset with him. Still, I tried the third one, which he said ended up being old. But he wanted a healthy sheep that would live long.”

At that point I was leading the group down a hallway, taking off my flying jacket.

“Well, I tossed the drawings and got quite upset. I didn’t know what to do. The little man still wanted a sheep, though I couldn’t draw it. But then I had an idea. I took my sketch book again and drew.”

And as I was saying this, we approached the artwork I had built. It was standing in front of a mural (Wandbild) showing a painting of the cover page of Dr. Suess’ Oh, All The Places We’ll Go. And I sat down on it, saying:

“This is only his box. The sheep he asked for is inside.”

I looked at my peers and as they were not moving, not saying anything I got up again, ducked amongst them. Concluding I said: “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”


But the eyes are blind. One must look with the heart...

To whom does that sound any familiar?

is cancelled now. However it is still severe and inclement weather! The snow has risen up to my knees! Honestly, i can't recall walking in this high snow!! Maybe 9 years ago when i visited the Sierra Nevada with my family or when i was a little girl and the river Elbe froze (we crossed it), yet i cannot recall the latter.
In any way, the campus is aaall white and it keeps on snowing -since yesterday.

By the way, my mood has improved, my sleey mode seems pretty much overcome. Though last night when i went to bed my neighbors started fist fighting upstairs, throughing ice at each other, it was a hell. And outside, on the sidewalks masses of students started yelling and hollering way after midnight. And then, i was already dreaming, this snow man started hovering the snow, shoving the snow with an electric snow shovel thingy. I hated the school for that! First i thought somebody was cutting a tree trunk that might have fallen across a street, and because they couldnt remove it they would cut it into pieces. Nope, an electric snow shovel!! For about 40min. (No-one could sleep over such a noise.) Who has heard of that? And these things are incredibly ineffective, they remove snow, yet, but press the remainder tight to the asphalt to leave a thin layer of ice. What sense does that make? It might work out all fine if they put salt on it, but guess what, i haven't seen any salt whatsoever (and it is 2pm allready) The snow man returned early in the morning, jerking me callously from my sleep; it was not even close to dawn! But i am not writing this out of a grumpy mood, as a matter of fact, all this light bright snow is cheering me up!

The lake has most beautifully frozen, the snow is just amazing. Really, therefore i will add some pics later when i get home!

seit ein paar Tagen fühle ich mich ganz komisch. Hänge nur rum (auch wenn ich noch studiere), schlafe viel, bin die ganze Zeit müde, mag mich kaum bewegen, tue nicht wirklich was.

Die letze Woche war anstrengend. Ich habe viel studiert, ein paar Mal bis 3 Uhr morgens durchgepowert, intensive Seminare gehabt, Vorlesungen von Gastrednern besucht (Dave Zirin, Sue Niederer), gearbeitet...

Wahrscheinlich bin ich einfach ein bisserl geschafft. Wenn ich mir überlege, was ich eigentlich noch alles tun sollte... Ich muss mich darum kümmern, was ist, wenn ich wieder nach D zurückkomme, uni-technisch v.a., den amerik. Führerschein wollte ich gern machen, dumme kleine Sachen, die danach nur schreien endlich erledigt zu werden!

Heute hat es wieder zu schneien begonnen. Und es soll bis Montag weiterhin weiß vom Himmel kommen. Innerhalb ein paar Stunden wuchs die Unschuld schon eine große Faust hoch. Obwohl es vor einigen Tagen hier T-Shirt-Wetter war, sind die Temperaturen wieder dermaßen in den Keller gegangen, dass wie nur bibbernd den Campus überqueren können.

......nun bin ich wieder voll im Unistress inbegriffen.


Kaum eine Woche ist um und ich stecke wieder bis zum Hals im Stress. Wie mache ich das nur? Dafür habe ich dieses Semester am College of New Jersey super spannende Seminare. Gut, es sollte mir eher ein leichtes sein German Literature zu meistern, allerdings wird es da schon heftiger mit Literature of the United States, wofür ich wöchentlich ein fettes Buch verschlingen muss. Ich hab's ja nicht anders gewollt und mich auch drauf gefreut. Wenn das alles wäre, würd ich auch mit aller Muße lesen können. Dann habe ich jedoch noch einen Kurs, der eigentlich für Graduate Students (und ich bin Untergrad) angelegt ist, belegt: ein Core Seminar US Cultural Critis Saints and Satans oder so. Und dafür muss ich etwa 2 Bücher lesen. Heute habe ich das 3-Stunden Seminar geleitet und musste mich deshalb ganz besonders vorbereiten. War aber gar net Mal so übel, stellenweise hat es sogar richtig Spaß gemacht. Es ist vornehmlich ein Diskussionskurs und so sitzen wir gemütlich auf bequemen schaukelnden Stühlen am runden Tisch und debattieren heiß. Als viertes habe ich mir etwas ganz ausgefallenes überlegt, um meinem akademischen Hirnbetrieb zwischendrin mal eine Auszeit zu gönnen, nen bissl anders denken beim: 3-Dimensional Design. Im Fine) Art Department. Darin habe ich gerade die Aufgabe 2 Würfel aus Kartonage zu bauen. Hierbei wird das Problem des Zwischenspiels von positivem und negativem Raum behandelt. Quasi: Stell dir vor der Würfel sei solid, nun nimm einen Teil, beliebig viel, weg. So ungefähr. Sehr spannend.

Dieses 3D-Projekt wird besonders interessant an dem Punkt, wo ich mich gerade ein kleineskleines bisserl mit der Gaia-Forschung beschäftige. Und Physik. Quantenphysik. Betrachtet man ein Atom etwa, und zerlegt es nach dem heute gültigen wissenschaftlichen Standard in seine Einzelteile, d.h. Neuron, Elektron etc, dann besteht der allergrößte Teil aus "Leere". Einem Raum in dem anscheinend gar nichts ist. Würde man das Atom also vergrößern, vielleicht auf die Größe von Rothenburg ob der Tauber, oder die der Insel Baltrum, dann würde vielleicht die Insel komplett aus "Nichts" bestehen, während der Atomkern vielleicht der Größe einer Orange bestünde. Die Relationen sind sicherlich nicht richtig, hoffentlich aber auch nicht völlig falsch. Es soll hier nur einem Eindruck dienen. Jedenfalls ist doch die Frage, wenn alles alles alles aus Atomen besteht, Atome aber zum allergrößten Teil keine nachweisbare Substanz haben, was ist es dann, was uns alle und alles zusammenhält???

Und in diese Richtung gehend verstehe ich auch meine Aufgabe. Der "negative Raum" (negative space) entspricht in meiner Vorstellung der "Leere" eines Atoms. Ich kann zwar den Würfel vorgeschriebener Maße nicht ganz willkürlich zerkleinern, so muss auf jeder Achse, x,y und z, jeweils ein Punkt bestehen. Ist das überhpt verständlich?

Der Mensch besteht aus Atomen, wie alles andere auch. Aber was formt unseren Geist, was ist die Energie die zwischen uns herrscht? Die Liebe? Was sind Gedanken? Wie werden sie von uns als atomare Ansammlung beeinflusst?

Atome sind keine starren Gebilde, ständig in Bewegung. Weiß man auch nicht, ausser wenn ich es mir gerade genau anschaue, wo sich ein WIRKLCH Neutron befindet, welchen Aufschluss gibt es uns dann von der Interaktion einer Ansammlung mehrer Atome. Was tauschen sie ununterbrochen aus, welche Informationen fließen? Da jeder ständig mit dem Rest des Universums im Fluss ist, kann man strenggenommen auch keine einzelnen Objekte mehr völlig vom Rest trennen. Stellte das nicht unser westliches Konzept der Individualtät völlig infrage? Tauschen bestimmte Atomhaufen, zB 2 Menschen, mehr Informationen/Atome/Energie/Liebe? aus als eines dieser beiden Haufen es mit einem anderen täte?

For 10 days i stayed with my dear friend H. in Seattle. We went to one of my favorite places: the Pike Place is a Farmer's Market right next to the lake. We drank lattes in her favorite coffee shop. We soaked in a hot tub in the backyard of Mom's. I cooked tons of different delicious meals. We relaxed watching movies. I danced Salsa.
And now i am back in Princeton, New Jersey. My sweet host parents let me stay here while they are still sunbathing in Florida. The break was a wonderful time-out from most of my school-related stress. Though i feel a little heart-sick. Missing too many people too much.

Dear all!

I send the warmest, best loving New Years greetings out to you!!! Frohes Neues Jahr!!!


In der Nacht vom 19. auf den 20. Dezember fuhr mich letztenendes ein Maedel aus dem office zum Bahnhof, wo ich den letzten Zug nach Philly nahm. Somehow i really did manage to find the right bus outside of the deserted Philadelphia main station way past midnight. The bus would bring me to a dead, abandoned street somewhere else in this city where a second bus picked me up. That one would bring me to the airport. All the way from Trenton. NJ, to Philly Int'l Airport, PA, i felt like being pretty much the only white woman. I liked that, it was just like being in another foreign country. The bus drivers waren sehr freundlich! Am Flughafen musste ich noch viele Stunden rumkriegen bis ich einchecken konnte. Weil ich aber mein halbes materielles Leben in 2 Taschen bei mir hatte, wollte ich nicht riskieren meine Aeuglein zu schliessen... Naja. My plane took off at 8. The wonderful pilot gave us a special sight-seeing trip over the Grand Canyon. The sky was cristal clear, so the view was just amazing. My brain was exploding, i was jumping up and down on my seat. In my excitement i went to the front inquiring if i might see the pilot... no: 9/11...

Zwischenstopp: Las Vegas, Nachmittag: Oakland, CA. Ein merkwuerdiger door-to-door coach verfuhr sich in El Cerrito, wo meine Tante wohnt. Der voelligst betrunkene 2te Gast war bereits abgesetzt, als ich mit dem indischen Busfahrer mich ueber Inder unterhielt. Er bemerkte, dass ihm schon einige Male aufgefallen ist, dass Inder und Deutsche ja so gut zusammen passten. Interessanterweise ist er nicht der einzige von dem ich diese Aussage hoerte.

Bei meiner lieben Tante roch es so wunderwunderbar. Ein liebevoller Empfang, Tee und deutsche Kekse. Es war Nachmittags und ich war voellig ko. Abends kam noch ein Gast.
Nachdem ich einen irrsinnigen Trip hinter mich gebracht hatte, konnte ich endlich um zehn Uhr einen 48-Marathon hinter mich bringen und kuschelte mich suess ins improvisierte Bett im Wohnzimmer bei Weihnachtsbaumduft.

Gluecklicherweise holte mich mein Freund zwischendrin fuer einen Nachmittag bis zum darauffolgenden ab. Die Zeit mit meiner Tante und meinem Onkel habe ich sehr genossen, nur war auch seine Schwester da und das hat mich teils doch angestrengt. Heiligabend hat meine Tante gaaanze viel gekocht und vorbereitet, ua gab es ein mehrere Generationen altes Familienrezept/ Heringssalat (und obwohl ich Hering sonst gar nicht mag: dieses hat mir sehr gemundet!!). Well, am 25. waren wir beim Weihnachtsbrunch mit Champus. Und so weiter. Viel war gewesen und ist passiert.

On the second Day of Christmas (we have three in Germany, 24.-26.) my dear friend finally picked me up. I was looking forward seeing him and spending the coming days with him, however i wished i would have had more time with my family. Anyhow, i was excited about the prospect to enjoy several reeeeally lazy days. And that is pretty much what we did. We were lazy. Bumming on the coach, watching several movies, at home and in the movies (with rocking chairs!), ich habe gelesen, he bakes me breakfast, ich habe ihm Suppe gekocht, he took me out for dinner, wir waren mit seinen Freunden unterwegs, we went out bowling and for pool. I picked a party for New Years Eve.

Silvester hat eine Freundin von ihm gekocht (wir waren insg zu viert) und danach sind wir alle nach San Francisco reingefahren, zu einer 80s NYE Party. Ich habe so viel Spass gehabt. Seriously, it had been a hella long time since i enjoyed a party this much. And i was dancing, drank some wine, and played Twister, well, had a lot of fun. We left early. Wieder noerdlich nach Sonoma County, wo mein Freund wohnt, schliefen wir bei seiner Freunding fuer ein paar, max 3, Stunden, standen auf und fuhren wieder zurueck, weil mein Flieger um halb neun ging. Die letzten Tage hatte es so erbarmungslos geregnet und gestuermt, dass ganz Nordkalifornien unter Wasser stand, mudslides, sogar Evakuationen... ich hatte bereits Schiss, dass mein Flieger nicht ginge. Well, but since midday on the day of NYE it neither rained nor drizzeled. The night was actually quite clear so that i could watch the stars from the car. I did not see any fireworks though.

Well, the stay was great and i hated thinking about saying good-bye, besides hating saying good-bye anyways. That was a short night, once more. I met a winemaker couple who invited me to visit them whenever i come to Sonoma again. They were very friendly and i liked them right aways, sehr sympatische Leute! The plane landed in Seattle. Auf der labyrinthischen Suche nach meinem Gepaeck trafen sich meine liebste Freundin H und ich nun endlich nach so vielen Jahren wieder! Ich muss sagen, nach allerkuerzester Zeit habe ich mich bereits wieder an sie "gewoehnt". Es ist witzig, denn mit ihr stellt sich jedes Mal ein vertrautes Gefuehl ein.

Sie wohnt im Herzen Seattles in einer 8er WG in einem kleinen Zimmerlein. Ich mag den Geruch um sie und so fuehle ich mcih hier recht wohl. Am Abend sind wir rueber nach Redmond gefahren, wo wir Mom und ihren neuen Freund, der uns chinesisch bekochte, besucht haben. Afterwards we soaked in the hot tub for an hour. Later we drove back to the city. Das war gestern.

Today we slept in. With the groceries we bought i prepared some delicious breakfast. Then we ran around U-District and regaled ourselves over some yummy de-caf coffee with soy milk (what a bizarre ting). Nachdem wir unsere Zeit und Vorhaben fuer die nachsten 2 Wochen zu Papier brachten, liehen wir uns einen abstrusen Film aus. You should really watch "Nothing" some time. This is a very cranky, eccentric movie. I liked it!

OK, i am leaving my room, the College, ultimately the State, and finally the East coast in the next 10 minutes. This whole taking off and moving was (and still is) such an enormous awkward shitty mess, that i should talk about it in several days from now. Then i will have the proper humour looking back on it, laughing at this ridiculous situation!

But there is still one final i must write. And this sucks! So i will have to do that while sitting for many hours in the Philadelphia airport. Hopefully i will get there tonight!

Wish me luck, friends!

So now, because i do not want to withhold this beautiful piece of knowledge to my English speaking readership:

While I was wandering through the snow-covered campus we wondered why people put salt on the sidewalks. What is it that is actually happening to the snow? Well, this hp http://chemistry.about.com/ gave me an answer in English (slightly changed):

“How Freezing Point Depression Works

When you add salt to water, you introduce dissolved foreign particles into the water. The freezing point of water becomes lower as more particles are added until the point where the salt stops dissolving. For a solution of table salt (sodium chloride, NaCl) in water, this temperature is -6°F under controlled lab conditions. In the real world, on a real sidewalk, sodium chloride can melt ice only down to about 15°F.”

For the chemistry fans:

“Colligative Properties

Freezing point depression is a colligative property of water. A colligative property is one which depends on the number of particles in a substance. All liquid solvents with dissolved particles (solutes) demonstrate colligative properties. Other colligative properties include boiling point elevation, vapor pressure lowering, and osmotic pressure.”

Aaalso, als ich mit meinem Freund den Campus, welcher tief verschneit war, hoch lief, frug er mich, was dort auf dem Wege liege. Ich antwortete: Salz. Daraufhin stellten wir uns gegenseitig die Frage: warum. Meinen Begleiter und ich waren an der Tiefe der Antwort unterschiedlich interessiert. Ich wollte gerne wissen, was das Salz mit dem Schnee genau macht. Also machte ich mich auf die Suche nach der Antwort und fand sie flugs auf http://www.wer-weiss-was.de/.

Soviel ist klar: Salz (Natriumchlorid, NaCl –ach, wie herrlich sich an den Chemieunterricht erinnern zu können!) setzt den Schmelzpunkt des Wassers herab (und zwar auf –21,1°C!!! allerdings auf den Gehwegen bei –9° C), soweit ist ja alles klar. Was mich aber wurmt ist die Frage, WARUM das aber so ist?? Ein Jochen gab folgende Antwort (ich habe hier und da gekürzt und geändert):

„Das hat mit der Gitterenergie zu tun. So ein Kristallgitter (Eiskristall/Schnee) ist ein energiearmer Zustand. Hier liegen positive und negative Partialladungen schön brav nebeneinander, die "potentielle" Energie ist daher gering.
Salze bestehen aus Ionen, also elektrisch geladenen Teilchen. Diese können die Wassermoleküle aus dem Kristallgitter herausziehen und um sich koordinieren (sie bilden eine Hydrathülle). Diese Koordination wird durch die sehr viel stärkere elektr. Wechselwirkung mit dem Ion erzwungen. Die Ionen zwingen durch die Bildung ihrer Hydrathüllen das Wasser in eine flüssige Form. Dazu borgt sich das Wasser sogar Energie aus der Umgebung, die dabei kälter wird. Sogenannte Kältemischungen aus Kochsalz und Eis können bis -15°C kalt werden.“

Nun denn, später hat der Jochen noch mit einer Biologin, einem Biochemiker und einem Chemiker gesprochen und sich geeinigt, dass „sowohl die Hydratisierung und die Entropiezunahme für die Siedepunktserhöhung/Gefrierpunktserniedrigung verantwortlich sind.“ OK, und nun für die cracks unter uns noch ein Mal genauer:

„Die Gitterenergie muß gelöst werden. Das Ionengitter zerschlagen die Wassermoleküle selbst noch im Kristall, weil die Randständigen Ionen an der Grenzfläche zum Wasser ihre Ladungen im Salzkristall natürlich nicht symmetrisch absättigen können. In der Nähe der Ionen wird durch das EM-Feld der Ionen das Wechselwirkungsnetz im Eisgitter gestört, die Wassermoleküle richten sich in der Hydrathülle des Ions neu aus. In der Nähe des Salzkristalls gibt es also kein freies Wasser mehr, was für eine Eiskristallbildung zu Verfügung steht. Durch die stärkere Koordination der Wassermoleküle in der Hydrathülle wird Energie frei. Die Summe der Gitterenergie und Hydratationsenergie ist im Falle des Kochsalzes kleiner Null, die Reaktion ist endotherm, weshalb sich Wasser oder Eis beim Lösen von Kochsalz noch abkühlt. Das liegt an der sehr hohen Gitterenergie im NaCl-Kristall.

Damit diese Reaktion TROTZDEM läuft, muß die Entropie zunehmen. Diese ist in diesem Prozeß also die treibende Größe.

Daß die Entropie nicht alleine verantwortlich ist, erkennt man im Experiment an der Tatsache, daß dieser Vorgang nicht nur von der Teilchenzahl abhängt, sondern auch von der Art des Salzes.“

Toll!

wahnsinn! Dieses Wetter ist herrlich. Drei Mal oder so hat es geschneit und alles bleibt liegen! Es ist wunderbar.

Und am Freitag war letzte Vorlesung und jetzt quaele ich mich mit Klausur-Vorbereitungen. Aber mein Freund von der annern Kueste ich immer noch hier, noch nicht abgeschoben und noch ganz real an meiner Seite (in diesem Moment, wir sitzten im Computer-Raum); ich geniesse mein Leben gerade.

Naechstes Semester belege ich ein Seminar ueber Drei-Dimensionales Design, wodrauf ich mich super freue. Ich habe gerade fuer Academic Writing ein Projekt gehabt, in dem ich viele Zeichnungen gemacht habe/ Entwuerfe fuer ein Riesengebaude... und das hat mich voll geflasht. Ich bin so hyper endlich wieder was kreativ zu gestalten. Und da kommt mir dieser Kurs ganz recht! Absolut das richtige. Und viel lesen werd ich, ich mein, nich Text buecher, sondern Literatur.

Aber jez steht Weihnachten vor der Tuere. Da flieg ich ja an die Westkueste. In San Fran. ist's warm! Meine waermste Weihnacht wird dies! However, es ist bereits 1 Uhr morgens und naja, ich mach mich mal los...

viele Kuesse

As forecast promised:

It snowed last night!!! Unfortunately i missed the start of it by 30 minutes (1-1.30am) and my friend was already fast asleep. So i caught him in the morning, walking in the virgin snow, enjoying the whiteness. It was hilarious watching him! He moved as if walking on glass, afraid he might slide (even though it was melting already and not slippery at all).

Just this moment i finished another paper. But it is night again and I wanted to have worked on another paper much more than i actually did. Gosh, my language! I am tired. Well, let's see what the night brings!

Hi friends!

One day it is so warm that you wear just a shirt and the other it is frickin icy. But now, I guess, it is gonna stay cold and will gradually get colder as the year's end draws ever closer. Tonight it is supposed to snow. My dear friend who grew up in India and had lived in central California for several years now may encounter his first real snow then! This is so exciting! It is like seeing the mountains or ocean for the first time... Therefore I really hope that it will snow and that we will be together at that time; i don't want to miss witnessing that!

Well, besides having had no sleep last night, because the heater snore monotonously under my window and a sexy man sleeping peacefully in my bed, I'm mentally in wonderful shape. Aye, maybe the latter is the reason why I feel good!?

I just have handed in the paper about the death penalty in New Jersey with special regards to mentally retarded defendants. Whoever is interested in reading it may send me an eMail with a request for the paper.

Weil ich hier nicht zu persönliches schreiben möchte, musst du mir schon eine eMail schreiben, falls du mehr Privates erfahren willst...

Yesterday, Wednesday, Nov. 23rd 2005, was the official close-down day of the College and everybody had to leave until noon. So my friend D., his friend and I met at 10.30 and to take off to Toms River, direction: East coast. I got my friend’s mom a bouquet, we picked up their other friend and went to Rainbow for some brunch. It is funny how little I am used to this greasy food. I had egg, besides potatoes, and sth disgusting named Canadian Bacon, coming with toast. A typical American dish. On-campus I avoid these kinds of food and rather eat salad twice a day, trail mix (Studentenfutter), and fruit. I drink water and tea usually, coffee every once in a while, but never soda. Well, being confronted with this “American food” turns my stomach topsy-turvy. In the night we went out for the most recent Harry Potter movie and I ate tons of chocolate, which was pretty good, although way too much. Even tough I drank several cups of tea during the day, I did not feel too good. My herpes tickled my lips Tuesday night and this made me feel a little afraid if I might have taken things too serious the last days. I am wondering if I had managed to maneuver myself into a situation I feel uncomfortable in and find myself having troubles backing out again. Well, some of you might remember that last year I had promised myself to figure out what I really want. This is definitely a constant struggle. And esp. this year, I happened to find myself in situations I felt uncomfortable in. Because I acted too quickly, too fast and with too little reflection and consideration beforehand. Well, just lots of thinking does not always help. Tell me, what is your strategy to find out what it is that you really want and desire?!

So, next to and after meeting my friend’s friends for lunch all of us drove to the ocean. That was the only thing I really intended doing while I’m here. Even though I was actually thinking of it, but let my thoughts not result into action, I happened to come inadequately dressed for the weather. The brisk cool wind was a freezing sharp one when we arrived by the sea and make me freeze my a** off. We walked down this most beautiful sand beach, the barrel waves breaking in perfect routine into the dark blue water. The foamy water splashed back from the direction the water rolled in, flying backwards with the wind. The sky was clear, light blue and the sun shone on us from its Fall afternoon ankle. When we came back to the car and even when I sat on ‘my’ bed with the second and third cup of tea, reading, my bones were still frozen stiff and I had a hard time warming up.

Today is Thanksgiving. Up on the second floor I can smell all of the delicious preparations from the kitchen downstairs since early this morning…. My friend and I took a walk through in the forest park with a beautiful creek. It was not that cold anymore and actually a gorgeous day. We had some good conversation and when we returned his family had already started arriving. I happened to really like this family. Before we started dinner all of the maybe 13 kids jammed into 2 cars drove to the next soccer field to vent their energies and create some stomach room for turkey. All but myself romped and ran after the ball, I withdrew to rock and read on a teeter-totter on the playground. Yet, a boy, maybe 8 years old, sprang on the other side of the teeter-totter and we started chatting. I quickly found out that he does not celebrate, anything, because he was a Jehovah witness. Well, his father came a little later and I going through some indoctrination. It was interesting to hear about their customs. How far apart they are from the rest of the World! And he pointed out various passages in the Bible proving this and that. However, I did feel a tiny little bit relieved when my friends called me to get back into the car to drive home.

Uuh, and then the feast began! The whole Thanksgiving dinner was so extremely delicious that I won’t find the appropriate word for it. After the turkey and stuff I went out with all of the kids to play manhunt. Hide and seek in the neighborhood. It was a lot of fun. When we were called back in we ate some most delicious baked goods. M., my friend’s youngest sister, tried various card tricks on me. I love that. And I had a wonderful time. When everybody left and after we cleaned up most of the dirt we watched some James Bond and went to bed not too late. Next morning/ noon my friend drove me to Princeton. We had a snack at Small World’s Coffee and walked around on the Princeton University Campus.

He, then, brought me to my friends’ house where I found the secret key and sneaked in. A whole wonderful house just for myself! My hosts would not return before the following night. So I relaxed. I had brought some of my schoolwork, I settled, went to the store to get me some lettuce, cooked tea, tried hard to study. Next day I sat in the winter garden working, I took a walk and then a bath. I genuinely enjoyed my stay! In the evening I would start some serious preparations for the dinner I intended to present my returning friends. They enjoyed potato soup, fancy salad, and Andalusian fish/ tomatoes and onions served under baked fish. It was super delicious. F and I sat and chat until like 3 in the morning, so the next day I was a little worn out. Monday morning I drove back to the campus and am having an extremely extremely strenuous week. Though, I am fine. The weather is funny. It is warm but started raining like insane.

die Halloween-Datei ist um noch ein paar Bilder erweitert...

For today I had organized this German Cake and Coffee Social event. It is still a tough lesson for me to learn that I shouldn't count on people. Because i knew beforehand that i don't want to organize the whole thing just by myself, i kind of allocated different small tasks to other people. But in the end i happened to do the most by just myself. And this meant the work and stress was all mine. Sometimes it bugs me that i do not trust other people more. But such days proove me the opposite: i should not rely on other people! I have not really made my mind up yet. All i know is that if i wanted something to be done the best way: i do it by myself. When i am in charge of it, it is just me to blame. In this case i could not condemn other people they haven't done what they promised to do; i would know how much i did myself and if it wasn't enough, well, then i still knew that i tried my best...

Nonetheless, the Social was a great success. We raised quite some money (donations) for the Club. But: i ate these delicious cakes from morning till night. And at 6.30 we -with the Int'l Club- had a Swedish Meatball Event where i ate 4 miniture balls. I had only ten minutes, 'cause then i had to hasten to the ConversationHour which was great. We talked about squadding in Germany and the RAF. Afterwards was the German Movie Night, we watched the fun movie "What to do in the case of fire?" ("Was tun, wenns brennt?").

Der Kerl ist erst ein Mal wieder da, muss aber Dienstag wieder zurück und noch mehr Papierkram erledigen. M. tut mir irgendwie wirklich leid, er leidet und das ist keine schöne Sache zu sehen. Er hat mir, fand ich ja wirklich zu süß!, seinen Lieblingsfilm geschickt, da er ja nicht wusste, ob wir uns jetzt überhaupt wiedersehen. Hätte ja sein können, dass sie ihn gleich in Untersuchungshaft behalten hätten. Auch wenn er gerne schmutzig redet, er sagt auch sehr liebe Dinge ;-) Nur zu dumm, dass ich noch nicht klar bin, was ich will.