Date: Sat, 12 Jun 1999 17:55:17 +0200
Subject: "The Periodic Adventures and the Adventurous Periodical of Marleigh," Issue 15

Hallo!

Wow, it's been a while since I've done one of these things.  I forget
what to write in them.  When last we saw our heroine, she was about to
head off to Stuttgart, so she could get to her plane to Boston on time
the next morning...

One thing that I never noticed on my previous trips to Stuttgart is that
the main part of the city is built on this hill.  A really steep hill. 
A hill so steep that most of the sidewalks have stairs.  So there I was,
with my suitcase stuffed to the brim with my winter clothes and things,
looking up about a hundred stairs that I have to drag the aforementioned
suitcase up.  For those of you who haven't seen my suitcase, it's huge. 
It held most of the stuff I brought to Germany.  I got one with wheels,
so I could pack it full without problems.  To make a long story short, I
finally did get it up the stairs and my arms didn't actually fall off. 
I was thinking as I got to the youth hostel that the climb was probably
good, since it was making me tired and I could get to sleep and be awake
at 4am to get to my flight.  It was not to be.

After I checked in, I went and found my room.  There were three girls
already in there.  One was switching between talking on a cell phone and
screaming at one of the other girls, who was screaming back.  The third
was totally engrossed in doing her hair and turning up the radio.  None
of them seemed to notice me coming in.  I did get them to clear off one
of the beds so I could put my stuff on it, though.  After that, I went
out on the balcony with my book to wait for them to leave.  I mean, they
had to be leaving soon, since they were clearly getting dressed up to go
out, and seemed to have gotten most of their make-up on already.  That
was 6:30ish.  I checked back into the room about every half hour or so. 
Every time I did, they were spraying perfume, hair spray, doing make-up,
or smearing some sort of cream on various parts of their bodies.  I was
begining to think they would run out of body parts to apply cosmetics
to.  Around 9:30 they finally left.  I didn't think they looked any
different when they left than when I got there, and the chemical smell
was totally unbearable.  I opened the window to air out the room and
headed to bed.

Five minutes later, this girl from Quebec named Maude showed up, talking
a streak in broken English.  Shortly afterwards, a German girl named
Christine showed up.  I had seen her on the balcony, also with a book. 
I guess she had the same reaction to the painted women in our room as I
did.  The three of us chatted until about 11.  Rather, mostly Maude
talked, Christine and I giggled.  Maude was really funny, she had been
travelling throughout Europe for a week or so, and was on her way to
meet a friend near Lake Konstanz (southern Germany).  She had a really
funny way of telling us of her adventures.

So I fianlly get to sleep, fully clothed so all I had to do in the
morning is wake up and roll down the hill to the subway.  I wake up on
time, get my stuff together, and head out.  Or rather, I try to head
out.  I get to the front door and find that its locked.  So there I am
in this youth hostel in Stuttgart at 4 in the morning, staring at a
locked door I can't open.  In my sleep-deprived brain-fogged sort of
way, I figure that the door really had to be unlocked.  I had told the
front desk people that I would be leaving at 4, and anyway, having the
door locked from the inside is a fire hazard, so it must be unlocked. 
Having successfully deduced that the door must be unlocked, I tried it
again.  It was still locked.  I start checking other doors to the
building, mostly in the dark since most of the lights had been turned
out for the night and the light switches weren't working.  The balcony's
unlocked, I'm starting to think that maybe I can reach this tree growing
next to it and climb down that, except then what about my suitcase,
maybe I can throw if over first...  When finally I'm starting to get
worried enough to think about trying out some of these wacky ideas I'm
having, this guy shows up and unlocks the door.  I guess he was supposed
to wake up and unlock the door for me, but he fell asleep.  Sigh.

The rest of the travel was relatively uneventful.  Tom met me at the
airport in Boston, and there was much smooching.  The rest of the trip
went so fast that it was largely a blurr.  I was feeling sort of sick
for a while, which was annoying, but got over it.  I saw Star Wars, went
to graduation, saw many friends, went to a wedding, caught up on my tv
shows, stocked up on Annie's Shells and Cheese, and just generally
enjoyed being in Boston.  It was sort of nice being in a place where I
could fully communicate with the waiters.

I got back ok, to find that one of my apartmentmates had been replaced. 
Christian moved out (hooray!) and a girl named Ahn moved in.  She's
American, and here to study at the university of Ulm for the summer. 
She's here with a group from the University of Florida, where she
usually goes to school.  She's off with friends now, so we haven't had a
chance to talk much (I fell asleep moments after I got back), but she
seems cool.  I also managed to get to work Friday.  Richard and Michael
congratulated me on graduation, Stefi made sure I brought pictures ("Did
you wear the hat with the thing?"), and Ralf wanted to hear about Star
Wars.  :)

German Word of the Week
Goethe = (pronounced GER-tah), Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, famous German
poet and philosopher

Yeah, so it's not really vocabulary, but it comes with an amusing
story.  As I mentioned, Maude was telling Christine and I about her
adventures in Europe while we were all in the youth hostel in
Stuttgart.  She was talking about visiting one particular city in
Germany for "the 100th anniversary of Goat."  Christine just sat there
politely, clearly having no idea what Maude was talking about.  In a
flash of insight, I realized that Maude was trying to say "Goethe," but
her accent made it sound like she was saying "goat."  I explained what
Maude meant to Christine and we all laughed a lot about it.

Honor and Glory...
	to Mom, Tom, Kate, Matt, Beth, Lee, Nana, Grandma, and Grandpa for
	   commencement related cards and such
	to Frau Albrecht, who booked my return flight buisness class
Dishonor and Notoriety...
	to containers of pasta coming open in one's luggage
	to oversleeping and missing the Saturday morning market

Tschuess!

Marleigh