I meant to write from the first day I left Montreal (July 7th), but adventures, travels and fun time got in the way..So here I am, in November, recounting the summer stories, or at least the ones I can remember.
July 07 - July 22: I visited my sister, who lives in one of the prettiest cities of Germany, Flensburg. She lives with her family there and oddly enough, has a job working with an international humanitarian organization, even though she's in a tiny place (Flensburg has the population of ~170.000). I admire her a lot and though I have told her this, I feel I need write it again.
Peggy is someone I really look up to, perhaps not for everything, but definitely for her ideas, sense of style and personnality...oh, and her egoism is amazing. I swear, she takes care of herself better than anyone I've known, even though seeing her hard at work and with her kiddies (most of whom are in mid-teenage years and going through crises every day), one would think this woman should be committing suicide. And by committing suicide, I don't mean tomorrow, the next day, sometime soon, I mean NOW. Those kids, I tell ya, can be a handful...But she deals with them amazingly well [and sometimes not so well, but that's another story for another time].
She and I have this conflicting and maybe hypocritical way of being. We both believe in altruism, helping others and in our own ways, we try to do this. Yet, we are also very involved in our looks, meaning we think of ourselves a lot. So, often, I (and I think my sister, too) wonder if it's ok to go to Amnesty meetings while wearing a Dolce and Gabbana, or whether I can volunteer for a charity while wearing a Prada. I know, it sounds horrible and it makes me look like a stuck-up person, which I don't care about. The only thing I'm worried about is not being perceived as stuck-up by those whom I want to help. I try to do that with my personnalité, and I am pretty sure my sister uses the same system. Ok, so now that that's been cleared...
What did I [and by "I", I mean my sister's family and moi] do in the two weeks I was at my sister's? Well, I...
1-...went to a few local beaches that were popular with jellyfish...disgusting as those sea creatures felt when you touched them, they looked beautiful.
2-...tanned in those same local beaches and overheard conversations Albanian men and women had...Most of the time, it was gossip about so and so cheating on her husband, so and so losing a job, so and so being deported back to Kosovo (this was the sad story, usually, and was followed by "awwww, that's so sad. Where are the kids going to live now?"
3-...visited Hamburg a couple of times. It's a beautiful city, but it sort of felt like a bunch of city suburbs put together to creat a...city. Does that make sense? I know, it's weird.
4-...went (-ish) to Denmark, as it was only a few minutes drive. Danes come to Flensburg in thousands, doing their groceries and shopping in the city, as here, they pay less tax. They're often seen with truckfuls of German beer, crossing the border. Germans say "long live the Danes" when they count up their euros at the end of the day. :)
5-...partied with my 15- and 16- year old nieces and the 19-year old nephew in one of Flensburg's hottest teenager bars [and by "hottest", I mean, it didn't really do much for me]. I danced all night with Nina, my niece and protected her from German bullies who kept doing the eye candy thing. I felt good I was with her and they couldn't do much, but what happens when I'm not there? I wish there was a thing I could do, but as a typical, worrying uncle, I think I'd cause anger if I did do anything.
6-...shopped around with ma sista and got a brand new pair of Birkenstocks, which she was shocked at seeing for the first time. Her exact words were the following: "What?? You're going to buy a pair of Birkenstocks?? I thought they were only made for doctors, nurses and people with foot problems." A few minutes later, upon seeing them "THESE are Birkenstocks??? Wow, they're nice...but not quite my thing (her thing = a Ferragamo or a Hermes)." So, happy with that, we followed to an Armani store, where things didn't seem to be so expensive, compared to Gucci / Versace, etc.
7-...visited an ancient cemetery on my own. Peggy had lots of work to catch up on (she took some time off work so we could hang out), so I said I wanted to visit a cemetery and take some pictures. She dropped me off and drove on. Bad idea. A guy who noticed I wasn't from there started following me around. I have two theories as to who he was: A-some guy wanting to rip me off, or B-a guy looking to hook up. Either way, I wasn't up for getting my camera, ipod, wallet with VISA cards and money stolen and I definitely wasn't up for having sex with some guy who meets random people AT A CEMETERY. It may be hot for a Goth, but not for me. I'm not into the scene. So I hurried out of the place, found a busy street and went shopping. Once again, I was saved by the marvels of commercialism.
8-...spent time with my nieces. It was so so great to have a few girly-ish nights with my two nieces, one of whom is planning on being a teacher (awwww...) and the other, well, I think she will be a gangsta girl. So, I got introduced to Eva's (teacher) inspiration. The girl would totally make an amazing hag. She is into Marlene Dietrich, Dinah Washington, Marilyn Monroe, all the actors of the 30s, 40s, 50s...I was amazed at seeing her movie and book collection. That being said, I think she's also a spoiled brat. My sister favours her over my other niece because "she at least knows what she wants to do with her life." That and she works at a call centre, something Nina does not like to do. She prefers sucking money off her Albanian/Montenegrin boyfriend, whom I also met. She treats him like dirt, but he puts up with it. I love the fact that she can be that way, confrontational, I mean, and not regret it one bit.
9-...spent time with my nephews. One of my nephews is 11 and he's already 5'10, has a foot size 13 and at school, is known as "the defender of the bullied." That being said, Denis sucks in school. He doesn't study as hard as he could and when I say that, I am not biased. He is a very intelligent kid who just doesn't want to study.
My other nephew is 19 year-old Uwe, who is similarly intelligent, but too lazy to study, meaning school is not for him. Until recently, for almost a year, he lived in a hotel suite in Hamburg, spending a lot of time online in the nighttime, playing poker online, and sleeping off most of the morning. I have to say, he's the first person I have met who hasn't had one loss, ever since he started playing for money. By the way, he gave me pocket money. Isn't that amazing? Kinda embarrassing, since I should be the one giving pocket money, but very kind nevertheless...Guess how much he gave me? 400 euros, so I could go visit friends and family in Kosovo...I was stunned and so inspired and humbled at the same time. I love it when my family shows signs of generosity.
10-...was a spectator in a court process for a Kosovar man accused of beating up a German guy. The lawyer defending the man was so hot (in a geeky way), I can still remember him. Sadly, he didn't really do much for the guy. so, what happened? There was a bar brawl, and supposedly, according to a German woman who seems to have seen and heard this firsthand, the Kosovar guy, along with a bunch of other guys, decided to beat up the victim, the German man. A Russian woman who saw it all happen said no such thing took place. Nevertheless, the judge sentenced the young man to two years of probation (the lawyer asked for six months) and payments of 500 euros every month to the victim for two years. Talk about German justice. We now know whose words are considered more important..
The reason I saw the whole sentencing process was that Peggy was invited to be the interpreter in any cases of misunderstanding (like when the judge asked the man "do you work anywhere?" and the man enthusiastically and proudly exclaimed "Yes, at the local McDonald's" and the judge asked Peggy to clarify where he worked because he couldn't understand where the excitement came from)
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