Fleet Foxes

FLEET FOXES!

...is the name of the band I just saw tonight. I have really enjoyed listening to them ever since a Mr. Bob Boilen (NPR's All Songs Considered) introduced a couple songs and later a live concert.

This is a weird mental image, but their music makes me think of drinking hot chocolate and eating tofujerky while it snows out. It is something about the bizarre but beautiful collection of sensory stimulation. Some of their music is almost folky religious in the Cat Stevens or the 'Spirit in the Sky' sort of way.


The concert was so good! There were a number of Americans and also a running joke about JZ and Coldplay doing a collaboration. At one point the main singer called out to some loud Americans, "Are we... countrymen?" and it was quite hilarious. I was in the first row... well, human row. I could have either swatted or hugged the main singer. This was also my first concert where I could legally drink a beer! That allowance made waiting for the opening act much more enjoyable.

In the middle of the set, the main singer started strumming 'What Child Is This?' and the drummer laughed and said, "wow, poignant." I really love snarky English words, clever countrymen, and Seattle.

My last thought for the night: the fact that Germans adore indie music pleases me to no end.

Brief Note: Children, Creativity

I really miss playing with children while nannying or working in schools and camps. It just always feels so natural. With a child, you can be a dinosaur, and that is totally acceptable. Would you like to be a knight? An astronaut? How about a cat?

Why, of course that can be arranged! Here is your sword/space suit/tail.


Kids are so intelligent and they never really get the credit they deserve. They are so imaginative and real. When do we lose those abilities? When does creativity stop being innate and start being something to list under the skills section of your resumé?

Class [once again]

I am in a really great mood tonight; I am over-eager, ecstatic and experiencing the pure joy that comes only from academia and class participation. I spoke up so much in class today and every time the professor grinned widely - it was a reassuring grin that at once acknowledged how difficult it is for me to communicate what I really mean articulately in German and thanked me for participating - and I really grasped the theme of tonight's class (cognition in animals, specifically corvids and apes). Although I am sure the professor thinks I perked up because one of the articles was in English, - and that is in fact partly true - it was also that the subject matter was interesting. I was frustrated though, because parts of the powerpoint were still in English, and when we explained theories, we had to use the English terms.... I wanted to know the exact translation to use for the paper later.

At the end of the class, I finally worked up the courage to talk to the guy who had mentioned in the second class that he had worked with autistic children. I asked him about opportunities in Munich and he gave me the name of a large program that I can find out more about online and can find lots of work or internship opportunities.

Coffee and Reading

I absolutely believe that the feel and quality of a city is dependent on the people that inhabit it. Yet all of the cafes, shops, restaurants, festivals, landmarks and the public transportation place such an important role as well. Would Portland be the Portland we know without Powell's or the Hawthorne Bridge? It would still be incredible, true, but not in the same sense because of that difference. Everything and everyone works together in Portland - the city that, ahem... works.

I don't think I will ever find a cool Portland-esque cafe here, no matter how hard I try. Now I am starting to realize that that's ok. The chique European cafes with warm paint tones, Indian art mingled with Rothko prints and pricy drinks that come with amaretti will have to suffice.

There is still that lofty and ultimately insignificant goal of finding that cafe, and I think the coming months will provide a good time to quietly and unassumingly explore and perhaps actualize it. For now, however, I have fallen peacefully into a Monday routine. I wake up around 9 or 10am and putz for a while, eating müsli, showering, checking email and preparing lunch. Then I bike over to Deli Star, a cut corner cafe on the same street as the LC Institute. I order a capuccino - though I plan to branch out, naturally - and set to work reading the intense psychology reading. Ideally, I would have already finished the article and not have to, as is often the case, print it out hurriedly at the university copy shop that morning.

At 1:20 I bike the half a block from the cafe to the Institute, which is housed in a beautiful old apartment building covered in ivy. By that time my mood is glorious and I am oh-so-thrilled to speak to people rather than read small text and examine graphs in German. This routine is a lot like my Ugly Mug [cafe] days in Sellwood during the year, and right now it is a welcome pattern. I just hope Munich does not become too routine for me and I adjust so much that I forget to explore. I doubt this will happen, though, as there are always interesting events and conversations to be experienced.

Photo Credit: wikipedia.org, manolotalks (Flickr)

Jubilance!!

So happy.

It was interesting to watch from overseas and in German. From midnight to 7:30 am I did nothing but watch, talk, hope, chew my nails, watch more, hope more and scream with glee periodically.


It certainly was an historic night.

I am proud right of the US right now and I feel comradery with my fellow citizens. This is a new and welcome feeling.