I’ve never been good with pain, haven’t had much experience with it either. I’m sick often, but that’s always been more about feeling weak and feverish than about being in pain. So right now, I’m pretty damn uncomfortable, because there’s something wrong with my back (maybe from my first try at yoga — I might have been a bit too enthusiastic and pulled something).

Sitting in class was awful, and then walking around afterwards was even worse. So I’ve been sitting (more like lying) on the couch all afternoon, because I simply couldn’t face going out there again and being in so much pain again. And I couldn’t even spend the time on my laptop, because sitting straight hurts, too. Took painkillers (called my doctor — his wife/assistant told me to take them three times a day), although I don’t like taking painkillers more than once a day, but it’s not helping a lot.

Am I a wimp? I sure as hell am. I am very aware that there are a lot of people that go through life with chronic pains much worse than this — but this is the first time for me, and it’s making me pretty miserable.

Not the most interesting entry in the world — but I just had to get it out, just so I know how ridiculous I am, moaning and whining like this. My apologies. Time to get off the comp anyway.

I’ve never actually taken part in an ebay auction (I paid the asked-for price for my camera), so this is a first… So far it’s looking good for my Elf dress — but still five minutes to go, so everything could change!

Oi, this is pretty nervous business — don’t think I’m cut out for it.

ETA: Yay, I got it! 50 cents more than I had planned, so that’s okay. Pretty, huh?

So I’ve been home for a bit more than a week now, and it’s starting to feel normal again — but not completely, because uni only starts next Monday. I’ll have to go and pick up my Salome paper then, which seems to have been accepted but needs some corrections done.

Have not yet started to work on my fieldwork paper, because I discovered that my supervisor is in Africa until the new year, so there’s no hurry whatsoever. Not that there is a deadline or anything, we can take as long as we want to, but I have to finish it this semester if I want to keep to my schedule.
I have difficulties as it is, because both in Medias and German Lit there are no interesting classes in which to write the second paper I was counting on writing this semester. Sucks — Salome was already a compromise class, not something I really wanted to do, and now it looks as if I have to write my second German Lit paper in something I’m not really interested in as well. Oi, I’m just so wrong for German Lit! (Can’t be helped, though, not without prolonging the time until I get my MA unduly… *sigh*)

So next week uni life will have me again, which means right at first to stand in line to sign up for yoga and ballroom dancing, because I totally forgot that it’s now possible to do so online and went to the website much too late. That’s going to be fun… But I’m hoping that Sibylle (who’s coming home from England today – yay!) will have to do the same, so I won’t be queuing there all by myself at 7am.

In other news, my little brother is writing his first uni paper, in Cultural Anthropology (one of his minors, at my prompting *g*). He didn’t do anything during the entire break (driving my mom crazy with it, of course), and now he hasn’t done anything else but write all week long. Problem is, he has a second paper due in History (his major)… Oh, he’ll learn that he has to take care of those things himself, that no one will make him do them. Eventually. 🙂

Tomorrow my parents will take Michi and I to a castle/hotel that they might end up having their 25th wedding anniversary at. You have to know that this won’t be until 2005, but my mom fell in love with that place and they’re obviously booked out already until Easter 2005… So we’ll take a little trip over the German border and have a look at it.

Another trip Michi and I are thinking of doing is to go to Gruyère (in the Romandie, the French speaking part of Switzerland) to the John Howe exhibition. After all, when will be the next time for us Lord of the Ring nuts that something like that will happen in our own country?
Speaking of LOTR — in November I’ll indulge myself and go visit my friend Märrie in Bonn, just when the big RingCon will happen there. The fan in me can’t wait to see John Rhys-Davies (Gimli) and Craig Parker (Haldir) and lots of other interesting people! I’m also hoping to be able to go in costume — I’m currently looking for an affordable dress to wear as an Elf… Heh, fangirling is fun! 🙂

I don’t as a rule go for that kind of political demonstration in my journals, but I thought this was important…

After about 27 hours of traveling I arrived in Zurich yesterday, where my parents picked me up. I’m still a bit tired (woke up before 7am this morning) and haven’t done much so far: decided on my uni schedule (not looking very interesting, I fear), sorted through all the emails that accumulated in the past two months, watched the extra material on my new “Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” DVD and been updating my poor, neglected websites.

Can’t be bothered right now to be social (sorry, folks – but I’ll pop up at LJ tonight or tomorrow, I promise), but will probably update the travel log with the latest news. The trip was great, of course, and I’ve had countless interesting and wonderful experiences, both during the six weeks in New Zealand (a country that I could see myself living in) and the two weeks in Australia.

Details can be found in the travel log, where also some pictures will eventually end up – none from Australia, though, because I managed to delete them all accidentially. That’ll teach me to fiddle with my camera (a lovely Canon Digital Ixus v.3) after 18 hours on the plane… 🙂

It’s good to be back, in a way, although I’d have loved to go on for a while longer and see more of Australia. Plus, the weather is much nicer down there! *g*

Tonight I’ll go to the movies with Michi and my mom, to see the Maori movie “Whalerider”, made after a book that I read on the plane from Auckland to Sydney. Looking forward to seeing it, now that I have some ties with Maori people and their culture… More later, tired of sitting in front of the computer now (although I’ve really missed my cute little laptop *g*).

On the road soon – my brother will come with me to the airport and help me pass the time until I have to board. Excited, of course, and trying not to let it get to me.

Last night, riding my bike home from meeting Sibylle and the M&Ms (aka Martin and Matthias) in town, I had to think of all the people I’ve met while traveling. I have so many cherished memories of places and times spent alone – but there are always people, too. So many of them, and still vivid in my mind, no matter if we haven’t heard from each other in ages or never even exchanged email addies…

I could make a list, of with all those people I met in 99 in Canada and the US, 2000 on the Isle of Man, 2001 in Namibia and last year on the East Coast, because I still remember them all, their names and faces, the stories we exchanged and things we saw, be it for a couple of hours on a bus or for several days in a youth hostel or on an excursion.

Thinking of the fact that I’ll be staying in NZ with a couple I’ve met almost four years ago in California and that I’ll be meeting up in Brisbane with Willa, who I met last year in Washington, DC, makes me very, very happy – and I can’t wait to see who I will get to know this time…

So this journal will be quiet the next two months – but the travel log will hopefully be filled with tales of beautiful places and interesting people.

Slowly I’m starting to feel a bit melancholic, because more and more good-bye emails are arriving in my inbox. As much as I’m looking forward to the next two months — online time will be very limited and there won’t be many opportunities to read my friends’ blogs and LJs.

But I’ll still be around on email, and I’ll try to update my trave log regularly. And of course there’ll be my study blog, of little interest to anyone but me probably, but probably the place that I’ll update the most (daily if possible).

My parents called last night to say good-bye, too, I’ve met several friends, and will see Regina once more later today. Sibylle and I are supposed to meet up tonight for ice cream, and I hope we will.

My bags are packed, the train to the airport tomorrow chosen, and the typical pre-trip mix of dread and anticipation is setting butterflies loose in my stomach. I probably won’t be sleeping very well tonight — I never do. But then, I’m not sleeping well anyway because of the heat… 🙂