Rant

Where to begin….
Well, today marks the first Friday night I am at school in Köln, living with a German girl, in a student residence. You might picture the scene with us talking or getting ready, perhaps with a German beer in hand…..Doesn’t sound so bad right?….
Well let me paint the real picture. It’s 10:30…-that’s pm…..I’m laying on my bed looking at my computer screen….., there is no one in my room….oh and did I mention it’s a Friday night?!
So, here I am on the bed,( which is one of the three articles of furniture that take up a small portion of my decently sized, plain white walled and concrete floored room). I have a small single mattress on a wooden frame, a desk with wooden chair and a closet.
Now, you would think that in a Student Residence, on a Friday night you might here sounds like people having a goodtime getting rowdy in the hall, perhaps a holla here or an outburst of laughter there….up until about half an hour ago, I was living in a “Übenhaus” or in English, a Practice house….you see, I’ve come to realize I don’t live in an ordinary Res, I live in a building with people who live, breath and sleep with their musical instruments. It is not uncommon for piano students to bring their pianos with them and have them in their rooms. I imagine so they can fall asleep on the bench and wake up in ready position to start the next day of practicing as soon as their eyes open. I’m pretty sure that if these people ever found how much I practice, or don’t practice, I would be shunned for life. For example,
The other night…oh wait, actually every night, 2-4 Russian girls, (friends of my roommates), come over and laugh and speak Russian in the kitchen (that is a whole other story). I sit with them for a while, smiling and trying to laugh a bit when there is a joke and they burst out shrieking (and one of them really, really shrieks) even though I have absolutely NO clue about what is so funny (please stop and picture this right now, because I think it will make you laugh….).anyway, so this one friendly girl asked me what I had done that day, and it was the one and only day I had practiced piano, for maybe 45 minutes…..so I told her somethings including practicing.
Then she asked “are you practicing tons?”…and I said “mmm not sooo much yet”
She then said (oh, and this was the shrieker ;) “ya me neither…..3 hours max. HAHAHAHAHA….shriek, shriek………………….shriek” (as if she was embarrassed about it)….
I nearly fell off my chair……laughing that is, because of course that is so ridiculous! (I’m pretty sure, basically certain, that 3 hours in one day is the max I’ve ever practiced in one day…..IN ALL OF MY LIFE!!!)
Anyways, I’ve find myself sidetracked. The basic point of this rant is that
#1. The people here are insane musicians,….talented, hard workers which I musically respect and bow down to…..but I never think that I could be that way or would want to be that way.
#2. I live in a place where I listen to people practicing AAALLL day. (my roommate is a violinist who practices no less then 4 hours a day….in her bloody room, which is right next to my room…..and I’ll be the first to say that she is freaking amazing, but I still don’t want to hear it all the time, along with the percussionist, clarinetist, and pianist that live somewhere below me. The mix of all those instruments practicing at the same time can not be called music.
#3. I hadn’t mentioned this before, but it rains here 5 times a day, which added to the cold weather, equals cold and rainy days, damp clothes and gross hair ;)
#4. I need to make some friends that love sports, because I want a running buddy to run with along the river…but I just don’t know how to find these people because I live with musicians, go to school with musicians and meet the friends of my friends who are also musicians!!....haha the hard core musician world is a different one that I don’t quite fit into.
#4. I must learn Russian now too, because everyone I meet in Germany speaks Russian. And when they know German and Russian, they always choose to speak Russian.
#5. Oh yes! It’s a Friday night and I am alone in my room, yes there are some Russian girls in the kitchen, I presume drinking tea….which I really like to do, but we did that last night, the night before, and the night before that, and today is Friday so we should (in my opinion) be doing something else ☺
#6. I miss my friends….I’m thinking about what they might be doing on their Friday night……perhaps going out to the ranch?...hanging out with awesome people, perhaps out on a hot date (cough Ali Hogg;)…which leads me to thinking about the last time I went out on a hot date….and a hot date does not include Matty the trucker wanna be, who loves trucks and shooting cats.
Maybe I need to fall in love…..then I would have something to do on a Friday night right? Everyone in love has something to do on the weekend….And if I wasn’t out with McHottie, then at least I could be dreaming about him….hahahaha
Please friends, don’t worry, #1, this is me, and #2, please refer to rants 1 through 5 to see that there is zero chance of that happening.

Ok, I love you all soooo much! And my life is not all bad at all, I’m just a bit bitter a the moment and wanted to share. I hope my misery and sarcastic-al comments have brought at least a small smile to your face!! I must go now and dance to the bongo beat downstairs and drink tea and laugh in the kitchen with my musician friends.
Thcau!!

Das deutsche Mädchen Katrina