aus hamburg

i’ve had a german girl named rike staying with me for the past two weeks. she was exhausting–but in a good way. she kept me moving…not because she was persistant about seeing and doing everything, but because there were so many things i wanted to show her. memorable experiences were as follows:
1. we took rike to the lake twice. the first time, neither she nor i had any desire to get in the water, so we stayed in the back of the boat with our clothes on, cheering noah on and offering positive encouragement each time he fell while trying to “jump the wake” on his wakeboard. shortly before we left, noah decided to go for one last run. he jumped into the water and asked me to hand him the skis. since he had already drifted several yards from the boat, i had to shoot the skis across the water to him. i had no trouble with the first ski…but as i was placing the second ski in the water…well, i just kept going…and going. pretty soon both arms and my whole head were submerged. only knees to toes remained in the boat. i was later told that i was rescued only because my pockets contained the keys to the car…anyway, rike said my “swim” was worth the trip to the lake….i think she was disappointed when i stayed dry the second time through.
2. cheapo was good. rike bought it’s hard to find a friend. i was halfway hoping she would decide not to because she didn’t have enough money or something. i sort of wanted to get it for her. but hey, whatever works. she’s been listening to it a lot. i bought geogaddi and mason jennings’ new ep. both worthwhile purchases. i wasn’t sure about the ep the first time through, but it was only four dollars. also went to the aq on said cheapo day.
3. spent a weekend in northfield for camp hard rock…beer drinking songs and guinea pig scares played an important role…but i think the one dollar slushies at the cocoa bean stole the spotlight. at said camp i also wasted 24 seconds or so painting my toenails for the first time in my life. go all out or go home, eh? it’s amazing the things susan* could get me to do…
4. i took rike to her first half birthday party last week, which only goes to show that americans will take advantage of any excuse to party. they made me a cake. with frosting. and candles. okay, candle. but they baked me this cake and rike just laughed. but it was a nice surprise.
rike’s plane left today at 5:10pm. she was a great german. honestly, if you lined up all the germans in the entire world she would be my favorite. she read a lot. and left me some books** because they wouldn’t all fit in her suitcase. i won’t forget her. she was cool. every time we got in the car we talked about something substantial. drug and alcohol abuse among teenagers, former east and west germany, all sorts of things that came up in conversation only because she’s rike and i’m anna. she loved coffee. i spent a little too much time and money and a variety of gourmet coffee shops in the area. oh well. she was cool. i’ll miss her.
until later.
love anna
*m, you cut all that stuff out, right? i wanted to talk to you about it.
**including nick hornby’s about a boy and some german books that are way too advanced for me.