Festung Königstein

After visiting Pfaffenstein, we went to visit a fortress up on a plateau. We took a trolley up the mountain side and then wandered around. It was a beautiful day and quite nice to wander around and learn about the history of it, most of which I have forgotten. :) Anyway, here are pictures.

Comprehension

While in Cottbus, we stayed with John's host family. When I had met them a few years ago, neither of the parents spoke any English. Now they speak a little bit of English. For the first couple days, they tried to speak in English to me but we had quite a few miscommunications. Then they just spoke German and John translated every now and then.

During the visit, I tended to "tune out" when John was talking to the family. I watched their facial expressions, gestures, and other non-verbal signs to try to get the general meaning of the conversations. Sometimes I did, sometimes I didn't. When I couldn't get the general meaning or people seemed in deep conversation, I just tuned out, thought my own thoughts, or watched them talk. I was frequently reminded of a study that I frequently quote when giving presentations on the importance of visual information for people with communication difficulties. The study, done in 1998, found that only 7% of meaning is in the actual words said. That means that 93% of meaning is derived from visuals and other factors such as they way things are said (voice volume, tone of voice, prosody, etc).

By the end of the visit, people commented that I seemed to understand their conversations quite well. However, I don't think I did. I just tuned into the 93% of the meaning, laughed when others laughed, and mirrored their facial expressions. That made them think that I understood the actual language said.

This experience made me wonder if this is a part of what my clients/students experience. At first, I felt frustrated and utterly confused at not being able to understand the language. Then I just tuned out. Then I watched for other cues. If we had stayed longer, I probably would have understood more (but I kept thinking in Spanish). But then, I probably would have gotten more frustrated at times as well. And at least I had a translator to explain things to me. It is no wonder that some of my clients display challenging behaviour.

What I found most interesting was that my communication partners highly overestimated my comprehension of German. I also find that happens in disability. People associate overall language comprehension with social skills. If a person is social and able to negotiate a social situation/have a conversation, then they think they understand other things/everything. However, this is not always the case.

Pfaffenstein, part 2

Here are more pictures from the hike.

Pfaffenstein

On our second day in Germany, we were taken to Pfaffenstein to got hiking. It is a rock formation, possibly a low mountain range. We started our hike by going up a trail. We then climbed steps. And more steps. And more steps up the rock. Some places got quite narrow but it was absolutely beautiful. The trees actually reminded me of when we used to go hiking up in Northern Wisconsin on summer vacations.

Once we basically reached the top, the host father asked if we wanted a radler. I thought he meant once we reached the bottom of the hill. Nope, he meant at the top. There was a pub on the top of the mountain/hill!! So, we stopped to enjoy a radler in the nice sunny weather. We then explored the top of the rocks and headed over to a well known rock, Bararine. We weren't able to hike out to it but were able to get a bit of a view. We then hiked down the back side of the rocks and had a much easier climb down. After we finished, we stopped at the pub at the bottom of the formation for lunch.

Cottbus, day 1

We arrived into Berlin pretty early on a Saturday morning since we had one of those nasty 6:30 AM flights. John's cousin had stayed with use the night before and her flight from Spain was late so we ended up only getting about 1 1/2 hours of sleep! Needless to say, we were quite wrecked.

Anyway, we got up god awful early and took a taxi to the airport. While at the airport, we saw a child being carried by a man. The child was making strange noises and pale. I thought he might have been seizing but I'm not sure. The man set the child on the floor and when I looked back again, he was doing rescue breathing. Ambulances arrived a couple minutes later. I really hope that the child was OK and able to be revived.

So, back to the story. We arrived in Berlin, got our rental car and headed out to Cottbus to stay with a family that John had lived with for a year when he was a teenager. We arrived and they had this large dinner of pork roast, sauerkraut with pineapple (really tasty), and potato dumplings. After dinner, the "guest dad" suggested we take a long bicycle ride. I suggested we take a nap, especially after such a large meal. We opted for the nap but went for a bicycle ride after the nap. We then sat outside (it wasn't raining!) and had a barbecue. It was a wonderful evening.

The pictures are from a park near/in Cottbus. It was a wonderful bike ride through the park. Note, both John and I took pictures on this trip and I am not going to try to differentiate who took which pictures. They are all "our" pictures (John is getting quite good at photography).

Potential

Throughout my life, I have been able to see potential in things. I see a situation or object as it is currently, but I also see "what could be." As a child, this meant taking a scrap piece of fabric and draping it on my dolls to create different clothes. I could make a dress, a skirt, a shirt, etc from a piece of fabric without sewing it. In school, my thinking/seeing in terms of "what could be" made me a better student. I am curious and enjoy learning. I was an avid reader and read the novels assigned to my sister (she was 6 grades ahead of me) when I was in middle school.

In my personal life today, I sometimes see in photographs. Light catches my eye and I find myself framing the image, whether I have a camera or not. Sometimes I will pause to look at how things appear from different angles. It also affects my knitting but not quite as much yet. I see yarn that I like and I think, "What could I make with that? What other yarns could go with that?"

In my professional life, this ability to see "what could be" is a double edged sword. It helps me to be able to see potential in the people that I work with. It also helps that I can see that small changes can have a large impact on people. It aids me to be driven in my work because I see myself as a work in progress, always striving to improve and be better at what I do. The challenge is that I frequently see the potential in a situation and can get down when reality is a long way from the potential. I get quite frustrated in these situations, especially when I don't know how to help the potential to become the reality, or at least a bit closer it. However, the most frustrating is when others appear to not want see the potential or strive towards it.

The poncho

Before posting more on Berlin, I am going to post pictures of the finished poncho. I am really impressed with how it drapes and it is fun to play with. Lisa took pictures of me modeling it and playing with the bottom of the poncho and I really hope that K likes it. It got mailed some time last week so hopefully she got it before going to camp this week. If not, she'll get it when she gets back from her week at summer camp.

I am also really proud of this project because it is my biggest and first "real" garment. OK, I made the hat but that is an accessory. :) This project, I modified from the beginning and had to rip a few times and then modified again. Finally, I got a finished project...

Back in Lodi again

Today we got back from a bit over a week in Berlin/Cottbus Germany. For those of you have been reading a while, you know that means LOADS of pictures! I tried really hard to fill my 2 gig memory card and may have if I hadn't run out of battery power instead! I had three camera batteries at one time but seem to have lost one and I guess I need the third if I am ever going to fill the 2 gig card (which is a personal mission). Still, we managed to take over 1,000 pictures on my camera. Yep, that's over 1,000 pictures to sort through, rotate, and decide which ones make the cut for posting. Guess what I'll be doing for a long time (after my battery recharges enough to transfer the pictures)

So, we had an early morning flight today (but not as early a the one going to Berlin), got back early afternoon, got a bit of lunch and then promptly spent an hour reading all the email from the last week! The kitties also demanded a bit of attention once they got done being mad at us for leaving in the first place. Now, we just need to motivate to start laundry, charge camera batteries, buy food, sort through the massive amount of yarn I acquired in Berlin...

Gee, a nap sounds pretty good.

Happy Friday

Today is a Friday before a bank holiday weekend. That is the August Bank holiday and the vast majority of people in Ireland have Monday off. Hurray! Today was a good day indeed. I had an OK day at work. The sun is shining right now and it feels warm. After work, I went down to This is Knit to get a bit of advice on how to fix some mistakes (that I don't know how I made) on K's poncho and got some knitting needles. But the wonderful thing is that the poncho is finished! I actually took it off the needles last Friday and then blocked it earlier this week. I still need to fix the mistakes but essentially, it is done! I will post pictures of it another day. I also did a bit of shopping for my step-niece's birthday present. I found something at Boots when I went in to get pain medicine. I also found Diet Cherry Coke in the boots near my apartment. Now, I love Diet Cherry Coke and I had never seen it before in Ireland. It tastes a bit different than it does at home but it is still yummy. And now I have to clean the apartment...

Bridge collapse

Last night, a bridge collapsed in Minneapolis MN. I heard about it today. My immediate thoughts were of my sister and wanting to know that she was OK. The bridge is was on Interstate 35W going over the Mississippi River. I lived in and went to college in that area for four years. For two years, I drove on the street under that river many many days in college. It was quite eery to read about it, knowing exactly where that road goes. Tonight when I got home, I had an email to let me know that she was OK. She then also called me later and told me that she had been on that bridge earlier in the day!

Tonight, I looked online a bit more and found some pictures on the BBC website. The pictures tell more than the stories probably could. It is just amazing that a relatively small number of people were hurt and killed considering it was rush hour and the bridge was probably packed. I hope that the recovery efforts go as well as they can.

Shopping

In September, we are going to a wedding at home. I recently found out that the attire is "cocktail." I didn't really know what that means and still don't really even after a Google search. My friend Ci is going to a wedding the same weekend and also needed a dress to wear to the wedding.

Last night, we went to a "color me beautiful" party at S's house and learned what colors are supposed to look good on us, what style of clothes to wear, and what our body shapes are. Armed with this information, Ci and I went shopping today after work. We headed out to one of the bigger shopping centres and shopped. And shopped. And shopped. Ci found a dress at Monsoon that looks absolutely fabulous on her. I found an outfit with potential at Coast but didn't buy it. We then had dinner and shopped a bit more. At 8:45 PM, we went back to Coast and I bought this top and this top to go with the skirt and have 28 days to return it if I find something better. I do like the outfit, though.

Reflecting again

This weekend I went through the entire blog! I started it Friday night and just finished. Granted, we did other things in between, but now every post is labeled. :) I know I reflect often enough, but by reading from beginning to end, I remembered some experiences that I had forgotten about.

Reading the blog made me laugh and tear up a bit at times. It also made me realize just how much we have done in the last two years. Our lives are a lot more active and I think more interesting than they were at home. I have far more misadventures. I think I have more adventures as well. These are some of my favorite things from the past couple years:

• J living here and going to the Porterhouse with her
• Barcelona
• Venice
• Giant's Causeway
• learning to knit
• getting lost all over Dublin
• losing my keys in the Liffy
• getting a personal tour in Germany

Wait and change

Change is scary. Change, by definition, causes insecurity. However, change is also exciting. And I keep reminding myself of that. There is a lot of change in my world right now. Well, actually it is the preparation for change that has been difficult. The actual change is yet to come. And I wait, and wait. I got impatient for a while. And now I am more patient.

Planning, planning, planning

Since we got engaged, I have been online many evenings browsing the web to help plan the wedding. We found our reception site online and signed a contract on Friday! We have a date and a location for the wedding!! I am quite excited and relieved to have the reception taken care of. It has been a challenge planning the wedding from this side of the pond (we're having the wedding at home) but also easier in some ways. I've been able to do almost everything over email. I know it isn't the same as seeing the site in person but we went with a pretty safe option. I know there is a lot of planning left, but at least we have one thing done. So far, the planning has been stressful, but fun. But then, I like to plan social gatherings. :)

WIPs and FOs

When I started knitting a mere 6 months ago, I told myself that I would have one work in progress (WIP) at a time. I did that for the first project. Well, the first few anyway. This weekend, I had 4 WIPs on my sticks! John teased me about that. I know that is a pretty average number of WIPs for a knitter, but I also kind of like having different projects going.

See, my wrist still hurts a bit even though I went to physio therapy and got some exercises for it. The physio said it was nerve and repetitive strain. So, I have to strengthen my back muscles, relax my neck muscles, and stretch the nerves in my arms/wrist. I am also supposed to "sit better" and "improve my posture." I don't know what that means. Overall the exercises are working wonders. I can knit about an hour a day on larger needles with no problems. It does depend a bit on what I have done at work, but I can knit! Since I am trying to sit well and not strain myself, I decided that working on the wonderful cable scarf/wrap would be a bit much for now (but see how far I've gotten?). Therefore, I have been working on K's poncho and have it about half done, I think. It is nice and relaxing to just knit, knit, knit on the larger needles.

One of my mates is going on maternity leave soon. So, I looked through some patterns on Friday and through my stash and found a little hat to make her. I finished it last night. I am quite happy with it and think it is really cute. I will definitely make it again for other people having babies. I was informed by someone I showed the hat to that it is definitely a boy's hat. Other people have said a girl could wear it also. I think it looks really cute on the doll but if she has a girl, she can certainly embellish it if she wants to.

Rain, rain, go away!

So, it has been raining A LOT in Dublin, and all of Ireland in fact. According to Met Eirann, June was the rainiest since 1958!!! It was also twice as wet as usual. Rain fell at the Dublin Airport 25 days in the month of June. And it doesn't seem to be stopping. I think it has rained most days in July as well. At least there was a bit of sun yesterday before it lashed. Today was just grey.

In the spirit of all the rain, here are the descriptions of rain that I am aware of:

soft day: a wet, light rain, a drizzle
lashing: this is the usual term for rain. It is supposed to mean rain with a lot of wind.
wet rain: this one I just learned. It is the term for big, heavy drops of heavy rain that no matter what protection you are wearing, you will get soaked.

Rarely, people just say that it is raining.

water water, I want water

Last night, I came home and John was doing dishes. He said that there was no cold water in the kitchen so he had burned his hands a bit doing the dishes. I said, "yeah, that happens" and started making dinner. While making dinner, we checked the pipes in the apartment and still no cold water in the kitchen (this has happened before). It was working in the bathroom, but not in the kitchen.

About 11:00 PM, we were getting ready to go to bed. I decided that I needed to figure out why our bedroom smelled musty (besides the fact that it has rained every day for the past month). I checked the usual culprits of the windows, floor, and carpet on the other side of the bedroom. Nope, not wet. I then started sniffing around on my side of the room. Yep, smelled musty. I picked up something that was on the floor. It was damp. I then checked the floor. Yep, it was damp. I then reached under the dresser. Yep, wet. I took out a pair of shoes that happened to be under the dresser. They had mold on them!!! Yes, I said mold on my sandals! I have thrown them out since they weren't comfortable anymore anyway. We then cleared off the dresser, took out the drawers, moved it and picked up the stuff that happened to be on the floor and vacuumed. Thank goodness for the Dyson. It cleaned well. We then dried it with my hair dryer.

During this process, we tried to figure out if we could see where the water was coming from. Nope, couldn't tell. We have two guesses. One, a couple bathtub tiles are loose and they could be leaking into the far wall. Two, it is coming from the walls/ceiling from all the rain.

So this morning, we wake up. John starts getting ready to shower. No water. None. Zip. He gets dressed and I go back to sleep. I got up a bit later and washed off with the face wipes I bought while in Galway because of their contaminated water. I then got ready to go to work. After work, I went to the DIY store and picked up the stuff we needed to fix the tub tiles. Now, you may wonder why we didn't just tell the landlord. Well, I feel bad because the tiles have been loose since we moved in and I've never said anything and it has caused water damage to the wall by the tub. So, I got the stuff and went home. I made frozen pizza for dinner because we still didn't have any water. John then started working on the bathroom and who should be at our door but our landlord giving us an update on the water.

In their infinite wisdom, the Dublin county council decided to turn our water off but not tell us. Apparently they verbally told the Internet cafe downstairs (they are supposed to give written warning). Well, they seem to have forgotten to turn the water back on! Oops. So, my landlord's plumber turned the water on and now we have water. We have also attempted to fix the tub so we'll see if it continues to leak and if it is the tub affecting the floor in the bedroom because that carpet is dry right now!

07-07-07

On Saturday, we tried to have a belated 4th of July party. As my future sister-in-law pointed out in an email, the date happened to be 07-07-07! How cool is that? Anyway, we tried to have a party but most people were out of town. Two people ended up attending!

Anyway, we decided that a party in the park would be nice. Now remember, this is Ireland and itrains a lot. It has also been raining every day for I don't know how many days (too many tocount). We almost cancelled and had people come to our place but decided to chance the weather. For the most part, it payed off. We had a little spread on a blanket in Herbert Park and enjoyed a lovely afternoon with the other two brave souls who joined us. And it only rained a little bit!