We’re looking for a new place to live and work. Today we saw the first place that was love at first sight. It’s in Friedrichshain, which is hopping, not too far from where Helmut works, and we can get to by subway. The place itself is a split-level apartment out back. The graffiti outside on Samariterstraße is awesome. Some shops have their whole front graffitied, and this isn’t just a bit of spraying, masters of the can are at work. The whole area is being developed, but I think graffiti belongs here and will be back. Anyway, the place we looked at would be my office downstairs, and we’d sleep upstairs. An industrial-style staircase leads upstairs. A small area out front to put some big planters for a bit of a patio. A small terrace upstairs. Very open living. We’d have a guest bed on a hung ceiling that we could build in, with a ladder leading up. No walls. Like a factory floor. What do you think?
I didn’t really mind who won, as none of my favorite players were involved. I tended towards Spain because the Barca players have such longstanding friendships, which I think is really cool, and I think it’s very sexy when men can sense what other guys around them are about to do. Go ahead and groan. Helmut was saying noticeably more women are turning into football fans. Well, yes, we like watching men, don’t we, and perhaps more women are willing to admit it these days. I really like intelligent and strategic play, and was deeply impressed by Spain’s midfield in the game against Germany. But it’s pretty easy to see who Helmut was for. It’s down to all his years of sailing up there with youth groups, for starters. Oh, I love the Dutch, too. As I say, I didn’t really mind one way or the other.
We watched the match for third place in “Café Schau ma moi” (which means “well, we’ll see” in Bavarian), the smallest beergarden in Munich, a courtyard with just two or three little tables and a barbecue, us leaning and looking over the wall, feeling completely at home. Today we watched Spain and Netherlands foul each other endlessly and needlessly sitting lakeside at the Strandbar on the Ammersee at Stegen, not far from where we sail. We decided to leave them to their dirty tricks at half-time, and drove off into the beautiful sunset, catching the end through the radio, with snippets of news wafting in from everywhere.
Overall the World Cup was a marvellous feast. Thanks, Schland, respect, Thomas Müller, and grosses bisous to all of the players for your incredible perfomance!
Jack Johnson has a new “feeling good” record out, “To the Sea“, which sounds just right at these temperatures. I stumbled upon it because of the Eisbach thing. In a friendly interview he explains where his music comes from (his influences range from a family friend singing Cat Stevens to learning the Minor Threat songbook) and what went into the song “You and your heart” (would you believe Jimi Hendrix?).
Watch you when you say
What you are and when you blame
Everyone, you broken king
Watch you change the frame or
Watch you when you take your aim
At the sum of everything
Chorus:
But you and your heart
Shouldn’t feel so far apart
You can choose what you take
Why d’you gotta break and make it feel so hard
You lay there in the street
Like broken glass reflecting pieces of the sun
But you’re not the flame
You got the people passing by
Because you know what you don’t like
It’s just so easy, it’s just so easy
(Chorus)
You draw so many lines in the sand
Lost the fingernails on your hands
How you gonna scratch any backs?
Better hope the tide will take our lines away
Take all our lines
Learning English? Add “I” to make “I watch you…” Leaving out words is called “ellipsis“.
Chris requested a post on surfing in Munich yesterday. He’s heard of the Eisbach, the “ice creek” canal alongside the Isar River, and its “Welle” near Haus der Kunst, in the English Garden. Lie by the banks of the Eisbach in the sun and it’s a narrow channel indeed, but jump in and it’s a wild stream (pictures). There are several waves and waterfalls you can see from the air, but the bridge at Prinzregentenstraße (red arow) is where the action is. That’s where Walter Strasser built planks into the Eisbach some 30 years ago to create a standing wave. At first the surfers used a tow rope attached to the bridge to waterboard. Then they discovered that there was no tension on the rope, and they could actually ride the wave hands-free, and Isar River surfing was born.
Bathing is prohibited, and you immedately know why when you jump in and give yourself up to the current. It’s absolutely delicious on a hot day, and very popular no matter what the rules say. My brothers Chris and Larry once went in at New Years’, those crazy guys. As for the wave, none of the surfers have ever been seriously injured. It’s the bathers who sometimes drown.
So the debate about how to handle the surfers has gone on for years. The City of Munich long wanted to legalize surfing, but the park and the creek belong to the State of Bavaria, who refused to bear the risk. However, last year the City and the State agreed to exchange parcels of land, so that the 80 sqm around the wave recently (18 May) became City property. A documentary film, Keep Surfing (don’t miss the gorgeous trailer!), released on 20 May, reviews the history and culture of this wild heart of Munich.
Brazilian tourists explain the difference between river and ocean surfing: On a river, the wave comes from the front. And surfers talk about the “arena” that this little inland paradise creates for the surfer:
PS: Coming to Munich this summer? Bathing in the Eisbach is actually officially allowed, and very much recommended , in the Eisbach section that flows through the park around the swimming pool at Maria Einsiedel, the most beautiful place to go swimming in Munich.
I’ve had two classes that went completely wrong and taught me a lesson for life. Both were with teen classes where I was substituting for just that session. They were years apart. Since I’d run a teen after-school program that was rewarding for everyone involved, and had experience teaching (and reaching) adults, as well as running business courses for trainees, I thought, “This will be easy. It’s just one lesson. Pick a topic that interests them and give them a productive task”.
Having just my 90 minutes and a very short brief on “where they were in the book”, I launched into my “lesson plans” relatively quickly, extending the subject to areas I thought would be more fun, viz. I had one class creating and marketing a new type of hamburger in groups. The other was given the task of defining the role of dwarves pre-Christmas and writing a letter to Santa to invite him to a meeting and to present their complaints.
But what I totally forgot is that when working with a group of young people, the way in is to build trust by listening, by being there, where they are. These two classes were complete and utter disasters, and I still blush when I think back on them. The hamburger group was so busy texting on their phones (in any language but English) and beating each other up and talking about how hungry they were that I had to let out early so they could run to McDonalds. I found out later that they’d been told they wouldn’t be given jobs with that company just the week before, so their motivation was below zero. What a missed opportunity! The other class just thought I was nuts, and didn’t really make the connection to the business skills they expected me to teach them. That class, I found out later, was mostly intererested in finding out more about living in the US. Instead, I dumped stuff on them, and didn’t even give them a chance.
Third time lucky. Give me another class to substitute in, please.
For a great summary of trust building read Sue Lyon Jones’ post on Ken Wilson’s blog right here.
My exciting news this week is that we’re moving to Berlin. Helmut has a new job. He told me a few years ago that he didn’t want to climb the social ladder (Karriere machen), but here he is, with new challenges. So babe, this song is dedicated to you, with all of my love. Keep it in the middle. You can rock or you can leave.
When you get elevated,
They love it or they hate it
You dance up on them haters
Keep getting funky on the scene
While they jumpin’ round ya
They trying to take all your dreams
But you can’t allow it
Cause baby whether you’re high or low
Whether you’re high or low
You gotta tip on the tightrope
englisch lernen mit liedern
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