Date: Wed, 17 Feb 1999 18:10:35 +0100
Subject: "The Periodic Adventures and Adventurous Periodical of Marleigh," Issue 1

Hello!

It was suggested that I send out a periodical email on what I've been
doing.  At first, I thought that was fairly cheesey, and that I would
only write personal email.  On the other hand, several people have
mentioned that they'd like to get one, and I find I've been writing a
lot of nigh-identical letters anyway, so I figured I'd go ahead and do
it.  

The list of people I'm sending this to is fairly arbitrary.  If you
don't want to keep getting these, let me know.  I figure they'll
come out about once a week, or whenever I feel like it.  Also, if
there's someone else I should be cc'ing these to, I can add them to my
list.  Feel to forward these to people who might be interested.

In general, I haven't been doing much exciting.  I went to see "Die
Hochzeit des Figaro."  I thought it was going to be in Italian, and was
by Rossini.  Apparantly I was thinking of "The Barber of Seville."  The
one I saw was by Mozart, in German, and the sequel to "The Barber of
Seville."  Thus, Figaro appears in both of them (the Figaro song that
you've probably heard is from the Barber of Seville).

Fasching:
Fasching ended today.  I only went Thursday night.  There were lots of
people dressed up in rags and masks and bells.  People in the same clubs
would often wear identical costumes with a patch on the arm, saying what
the club was.  There was this wierd ritual where a decorated pole was
put up in the town square, in front of the cathedral.  It took a crane
and a fire truck with ladder (it had a hand-cranked ladder, it was so
cute!) to put it up, then a bunch of burly guys pounded stakes around it
to stablize it.  The the crowd rushed in and patted it and danced around
it.  I still haven't gotten a good explaination of what it was all
about.

The little kids have been dressing up for school, Thursday - Tuesday. 
It's all very cute.  They don't seem to have the rags and bells theme,
though.  I saw lots of cowboys and indians, as well as a spaceman and a
chinaman.  I see them walking to school as I wait for my morning bus. 
It's adorable.

Roommates:
The roommates are Sabine, Michael, and Susanne.  Sabine and Michael get
back from vacation today, so perhaps I'll get to talk to them some
more.  Susanne spends much of her time with her boyfriend, Frank.  I
don't see her much.  We seem to keep different hours, I'm home in the
evening, she's home during the day.  O well, I shall get to know them
better over time, I suppose.

Work:
Work is a bit dull at the moment.  I'm doing glorified data entry.  I'm
scanning in a bunch of covers of books for a database.  The pay off, I
hope, is that I get to learn a bit about Lotus Notes when I'm done with
the silly scanning bit.  Then I'm going to request quite pointedly for
something more intellegent.  Hopefully by next week.

My group is the MMI group (Man-Machine Interaction).  There's four
people, Richard (he's the guy I was emailing while I was still at MIT),
Michael, Stefanie, and Ralf.  I share an office with Ralf and a guy
named Joachim.  Soon, our group will move to a different building.  Then
I shall have my own PC, and can leave this silly laptop at home. 
Joachim doesn't have much work to do at the moment, so has been spending
the last few days downloading Elvis Costello music from the web.  For
some odd reason, I thought Germans were more productive at work than
Americans.  O well.

ICQ:
Kate convinced me to download ICQ.  I did.  My ICQ number is [***********]
ICQ is a way to talk to people in real time, amoung other things.  I can
only use it at home, so look for me on weekends or in the evening
(evening here = afternoon there).  If you want to get ICQ, it's free at
http://www.mirabilis.com  You need a computer and an internet
connection.

Word of the Week:  
Alan requested a "German Word of the Week" to impress his
friends.  That sounds like a fine thing to do.  This week's word is...

der Fruchtzwerg, -e = wierd yogurty food
(die Frucht, -umlaut e = fruit; der Zwerg, -e = midget, dwarf, or gnome)

We have a computer at work named Fruchtzwerg.  I asked Ralf what it
meant.  He says that Fruchtzwerge are little yogurt cups of various
fruit flavors.  They have lots of vitamins and stuff added to them. 
[Side note:  Germans seem to be obsessive about drinks and stuff with
extra vitamins.  I suspect this is because the typical German diet
consists chiefly of meat, bread, and cheese.  Note the lack of a major
food group.]  Anyway, Ralf came in to work this morning with a pack of
Fruchtzwerge for me.  There's three flavors, apple-pear,
strawberry-cherry, and tropical fruit.  Joachim was jealous.  Ralf never
brought him Fruchtzwerge.

Honor and Glory...
        to my cousin Beth, for sending me chocolate chip cookies
        to having bakeries every 50 feet
Dishonor and Notoriety...
        to the weather.  There was a blizzard this morning.  Snow
	   going sideways.  Sigh.
        to the Alien Registry Office, for only approving my registration
	   until May (don't worry, I just get it renewed then, I don't
	   get deported.  Though getting deported would be exciting.  :)

I think that's about it.  If you have any questions you want answered in
the next issue, or think of any other weekly articles that should be
included, let me know.  I reserve the right to quote people in later
issues.  ;)

O yeah, and I'm still doing that personal email thing as well, so don't
stop writing.

Tschuess!

Marleigh