May 2006 Archives
In 1989-1990, when I was 17 and 18, I spent a year in Düsseldorf, Germany as an exchange student. Toward the end of the year, I spent two weeks on a short-term exchange in Kleve, a smaller town on the Dutch border. The mother was 34 and recently divorced, her children 9 and 5. They were a wonderful family, and I visited them a few other times. When the mother reverted to her unmarried name, though, I lost touch with the family.
Yesterday, I decided to Google the kids, Nils and Birke, who would now be adults. Given that Birke's name is unusual, I was delighted to find that she wasn't just online, but had recent pictures on Flickr. Nils and Birke are now grownups.
But it gets weirder.
Some of the pictures were taken in New Haven.
It turns out, Birke used to be the au pair for a family in New Haven. She's very close to the family, in the way that I'm close to my German host family in Düsseldorf. She keeps coming back to live with them.
But it gets weirder.
The father is an architect and adjunct professor who co-taught one of the design studios last semester. Moreover, one of my good friends here works for him. Through her, I've on a friendly basis with his architects!
And of course it turns out that she'll be in New Haven for a few months, later this year.
Birke credits a number of things in her life to the visit of a 17 year old girl when she was 9. I credit a number of things to a sweet family with a 9 and a 5 year old. We're both delighted to see the things we have in common now. I can't quite believe all of this. I may be the queen of the small world, but this is the smallest world coincidence yet. It keeps making me cry with joy.
I was in NYC Thursday night, where I met a number of people: Jane, Jane-who-works-with-Jane, Jenn, Heather, Olof and Leonora. Last stop of the evening was dinner at Peasant, a nice Nolita restaurant. I had skate wing, and unfortunately, I think that it was either bad or more likely, was served with some kind seafood I can't eat (I'm allergic to mussels, clams, scallops and so on), or was near it.
By 6 a.m. Friday, I had a splitting headache and stomach cramps. Since then, I've eaten a few triscuits, a few tortilla chips, a few crackers, and a bowl of rice and chicken broth. Still have the headache, but the stomach cramps are subsiding.
Tomorrow, I go to Seattle for the Microsoft Social Computing Symposium, and I hope I'm recovered by then. This has been miserable.
Finally, I've found one of my favorite ever things: Primiti Too Taa! Created by Colin Morton and Ed Ackerman in 1988, it is a typewriter animation of a Kurt Schwitters sound poem. I saw it at an animation festival in 1989, when I was 17, had it on video, and then lost it.
Finally, yay Internets, there it is again. You can even watch it directly as a movie file. I believe it is also on the film festival circuit again, according to the Primiti Too Taa site.
eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
bo.
kwie!
We didn't kiss goodbye. But we did take this picture. I think the grinning ebullience says it all. The nicest part is that a year later, it still feels this happy. I love you, Enrique.
In about 40 minutes, I'm scheduled to give my final presentation in our year-end review. I'm terrified, since these things are critical and my project needs some tearing into. Here's hoping that the kind of criticism won't be like the urban ecologist at my last crit. One hopes that won't be the case.
In addition, one year ago today, Enrique and I met. One year. Yay us! (Is it fitting that we're doing our final presentations on our anniversary?)
