Date: Fri, 18 Jun 1999 15:40:13 +0200
Subject: "The Periodic Adventures and the Adventurous Periodical of Marleigh," Issue 16

Hi All!

I was a good week for resting.  I'm over my jet lag now, I think, and
have to invent new excuses for why I'm always tired at work.  :)

The biggest event of the week was probably meeting, or rather remeeting,
Emma.  Emma's this girl from MIT who was briefly on the ballroom dance
team with me and who I took part of a German language class with in
January.  She's here in Ulm for the summer, also with the MIT-Germany
Program, arrived while I was in Boston.  I looked her up and we had
dinner on Tuesday.  She talked constantly the whole time.  I can
empathize, when you don't get to speak English in a while, you just
can't shut up when you finally get the chance.  Ted, Nick, and Gabriel
can confirm this in my case.  It was kind of funny coming from her,
though.  She's very open and blunt, and I learned more about her family,
her love life, her medical history, and other sordid details about her
in one evening than I know about most of my friends.

Anyway, we got along pretty well, and are planning to go to the market
tomorrow together.  She lives in the middle of town with two Swedish
roommates who abandon her on the weekends, so I figure I'll see her a
lot then.  She also can't find a coin-op laundry, so she'll be coming
over to wash clothes at least.  We're also talking about going to Rome,
but aren't sure if she'll have enough money.  She doesn't get paid very
much, I guess.

I've gotten to know Ahn a bit better (she's the new roommate, mentioned
in the last periodical.)  She was born in Vietnam, but is now a
naturalized American southerner.  It's cute, she's got a Vietnamese
accent and a touch of a southern one.  I can't imagine what her German
sounds like to Michael and Sabine, but I think they have trouble
understanding it.  Her German's not so great anyway, so we mostly speak
English.  I feel bad, since that often excludes Michael, but we try to
switch between the two when both he and Ahn are around.  I demonstrated
a Southern accent for Sabine last night, so she could hear what it
sounds like without the Vietnamese influence, and she couldn't stop
laughing.  Ahn is pretty outgoing and chatty, so I think having her
around will be good for us, get us all more social and stuff.

German Word of the Week:
die Kugel: ball, sphere

Not much of a story behind this one.  When you're ordering ice cream,
you order in "Kugel," by which they mean scoops of ice cream.  I
introduced Emma to German ice cream Tuesday.  She said I probably
shouldn't have done that.  I don't know, she didn't look too unhappy
with the discovery...

English Word of the Week:
procrastination

I taught my latin dance partner, Nils, about this one.  He likes to hang
out and talk after class instead of going home and writing his thesis.

Honor and Glory...
        to cool new people here to hang out with!
        to Kate, for lending me so many books
Dishonor and Notoriety...
        to slug-covered sidewalks.  Ewww!
        to the belated discovery of a vacuum, after I've been using a
	   broom and wet rag for cleaning floors

Tschuess!
Marleigh

PS:  My apartment plan for my return to Boston fell through, so if you
hear about something in Boston for around September 1st, do let me know.