Emily: woman. When absolutely necessary.
Tuesday, November 28th, 2006This weekend in Bonn, Gio and I decided to do a little shopping. For him, we got a new pair of shoes (his looked like he had robbed a streetperson and in the ensuing scuffle had rolled into a barbed-wire fence), and a nice new shirt that’s red and black and slightly shimmery; ie. good for showing off his nice new belly in the evening (ever since Greece he’s been working out, most likely to show Davide up). He also got a haircut because I was complaining and he was saying it was good until Christmas and I am the girl so I won.
We also aquired several items of clothing for myself, most notably black leather high-heeled boots. Yes, you read correctly. I don’t know how things are going over there in N. America, but here in Europe they’re almost a uniform requirement for anyone under about 35 years old and of a normal bodily volume. These types of things of course are unacceptable with my habitual wardrobe, and so several other pieces needed to be aquired. I own dress shorts!? And a skirt!? Dude! That’s too weird! After much consultation and wringing of hands, I also acquired a rather spectacularly smart long dark grey coat, since the boots don’t exactly work with my ski jacket. Several other personal changes were mandatory, most notably the requirement to learn how to walk all over again. We went practicing in the evening and had dinner at the Bonn Mongolian Grill (not bad). Result? Well you’ll have to wait and see.
Another highlight of the weekend was the Bonn Christmas Market. In my fair home country the pre-Christmas season is synonymous with plasticised commercialism and the incessant piping of putrid syrupy Christmas carols over loudspeakers. Here, although of course stores are exhibiting chirstmas ornaments and extra amounts of chocolates, it seems somehow toned down a notch in commercialism in the larger stores. Instead, in the pedestrian area in Bonn, small wooden cabins have been erected in all available spaces, in which handycrafts and peculiar seasonal foods of all manners are sold. Interspersed are the inevitable beer wagons of Germany, fairground rides for small Children, and classical musicians busking. In the evening it is all lit glowingly for a positively cozy effect! Two things of particular note are Mandles (roasted, warm sugar coated almonds sold in triangular plastic bags, mmmm) and Gluewine. It is spelt with an umlaut over the u instead of an e, but is pronounced glue-wine. We tried it despite some initial apprehension about the adhesive content, that proved to be unfounded. It is red and warm and spiced, and it extends the cozy glowy exterior feeling into the interior of the body in a very pleasant way.
Last night I travelled back to Leiden with Gio since I had to participate in the Mars 500 study ESA/ Russian meeting. I won’t say very much about that (very secret, shh) except that if you want to know all about it it’s all on the Russian’s site: http://www.imbp.ru/Mars500/Mars500-e.html (not so secret, shh anyway). If I thought being locked in Concordia, Antarctica for 9 months was bad, these guys actually stay inside their tin can for 500 - 700 days. I hope they pay them well.
The introductory phrase of the last paragraph “last night I travelled back to Leiden” is misleading, actually. We were offered a ride by one of Gio’s colleagues and his girlfriend, both very nice, but a bit… well, lacking in organizational skills. We finally decided to leave Cologne just before 10 at night, except couldn’t because they lost the garage. We started running around in circles asking complete strangers and eventually found the garage, but when we tried to get out a metal gate came down and blocked us. Finally they figured out how to pay, and how to move the gate, etc., and then their GPS was out of batteries and we sat waiting for 15 minutes while it charged. We stopped along the way several times, got lost (yes, even with the GPS), and throughout this time the girlfriend kept going around to the trunk, rummaging compulsively about, and coming back. We still don’t know what she was looking for and if she located it and kept wanting to check to be sure, or if she never found it. I fell asleep at some point after midnight, and we arrived home at 2am. We had to wake up at 6, so this was a bit painful. In any case, we’re still alive, for which I should be grateful I suppose.
C’est tout!