Hey, That's Me!

Although most of my writing is web-based, and I have some sense of where it will end up, I really never know if or when it will be published.  Today, I accidentally came across an article I wrote.  Since I do ghostwriting, it doesn't have my name, but still, it's cool to see my words in print.  After a bit more searching, I found two more. 

Travel Tips Article
Ultralight Tents
Alberta


 

Will Work for Cat Food

Long-Haired, Freaky Person Wants to Apply!

That's my new tagline.  What's a tagline?  Well, it's only the newest trend in résumé writing.  I think my tagline will attract attention AND show I have good taste in music.  Plus, I don't think it can make anything worse since my current résumé has not done a lot for me in terms of getting a job.  You would think that someone with 17 years experience and a Master's degree would have endless possibilities on the horizon.  Unfortunately, no.

I'm getting used to rejection now.  However, I do prefer it when companies ignore my job inquiry rather than when they provide a response.  It's much worse when they tell me that they don't want me working for them.  Of course, they don't say it like that.  They always say something like, "We're going in another direction."

I received a particularly irritating email today.  It said, "We carefully review all applications and consider each person for current or future opportunities.  We are moving forward with other candidates for this position."

Damn.  That says a lot.  First of all, they carefully reviewed it.  It wasn't just thrown in the trash.  Secondly, they didn't want to even bother with an interview.  Thirdly, I am not only unemployable now, but I also have no chance in the future.  Wait.  It gets worse.  This was from The Container Store.  That means I am unfit to sell plastic boxes with lids. 

I discussed my problem with a friend because it's probably a good idea to get a normal person's point of view.
"I keep blowing my interviews."  (pouting)
"Why do you say that?"
"Well, they seem interested in me until I actually talk to them." 
"What did you do?  Did you try to be funny?"
"I was really serious during the second one.  Oh.  Um, I did make a joke...during both interviews."
"You probably shouldn't do that."
"But they laughed."
"Oh my God.  Now, I understand why you were so excited about that part-time cashier position.  Did you make a joke during that interview too."
"Yes.  And I also did jazz hands."
"I don't even know what that is."
(I waved my hands in the air while making a really big smile.)
"Why would you do that?"
"To express my sparkly personality."

Upon reflection, I have decided that I am the victim of discrimination.  I'm not sure what kind yet.  Possibly because I'm a woman.  Maybe it's agism.  Or the fact that I'm so beautiful.  All I know for sure is that it can't be the fact that I say things aloud before thinking. 

Dogma

I just completed an 11 page personality test for a job (at a grocery store).  It was one of those things where they ask the same question 10 times in different ways to try to trip you up.  Well, I can remember how I answered the previous questions.  I'm not that dumb.  The problem is trying to figure out the "correct" answer.  When they ask: Do people say you are a creative person?  What is the answer?  Do they want someone with a wild imagination or someone who follows the rules?  Anyway, one of the questions was:  Are you eccentric?  I'm pretty sure the correct answer was "strongly disagree," but I clicked "agree" because that one is pretty hard to hide.

Recently, my friend, Bev, sent me an article from B.B.C. and she wrote, "So, you know how we talked about eventually heading to Malaysia to dive?  I don't know if you'd make it without being arrested."  This is a fair enough concern since I am...unpredictable.  But there was more to it.

The article stated, "Playing with dogs is a common sight in many countries, but not in Malaysia.   Many people in the Muslim-majority nation believe it's sinful to be in contact with a dog.  One man tried to help Muslims overcome their fear of the animal, but Malaysia's Islamic authorities said it was irresponsible and have launched an investigation."

Here's the problem.  I am obsessed with petting dogs.  All dogs.  Everywhere.  Fleas - no problem.  Possibly rabid - I'll take the chance.  I literally can't walk by a dog without my hand reaching out to pet it.  It's like a compulsive gambler walking by a penny slot machine.

I am writing this because if I go to Malaysia, and you don't hear from me for a few weeks, then you'll know where to look.

Worst Impressions

This is me pretending to be a business woman.  I know.  I'm not fooling anyone.  Here's how it began.  I've been doing freelance writing for the past couple months, mostly writing articles, blog posts, and copywriting which is great.  I've written about all kinds of topics and have learned a lot, not just about the process but about all kinds of weird things.  For example, I wrote an article titled Fun Things to do on an Oil Rig.  I also wrote a particularly embarrassing one titled Male Celebrities Who Love Cats.  Despite amusing myself immensely with such interesting topics, it doesn't pay well right now because it takes time to build a reputation.  I actually worked for a client in India who paid me 250 rupees per hour.  In case you're wondering, that's $2.00 an hour.  But it's either do this, or watch endless episodes of New Girl on Netflix.

In my quest to find a job that will actually provide me with enough money to move out of my parent's house, I have applied to over 30 jobs, most of which I am way overqualified, so I had to dumb down my résumé.  I had one interview to be a cashier.  They never called me back.  I took that as a no.  Therefore, I decided to go in a different direction and apply for jobs in which I had no education or experience.  Weirdly, I immediately received a request for an interview.

I spoke with the overly perky, Heather, on the phone and asked her about the job because the website was unclear.  She told me it was marketing and sales.  I would manage customers for Staples and get new ones.  She asked if that was something I could do.  Naturally, I had no idea what that meant, but said yes.  She told me to dress business professional.

After our conversation, I went to my closet and tried to find something businessy.  It was a disaster.  I've been wearing shorts and flip-flops for two years.  I don't even own any shoes with backs on them.  I Googled "business professional."  There were pictures of women wearing pant suits, high heels, and panty hose.  This was an even worse than I imagined. 

Clearly, a trip to Goodwill was in order.  I managed to find a black jacket which didn't look too matronly; although, it did have shoulder pads.  I also found some high heels that were only slightly too big.  Along with a few items I actually owned, I was able to create an ensemble that gave the impression that I knew how to dress myself.

Then, I called up my friend, Jeff, and asked, "How do I pretend to be a professional?"
"What is this job?"
"I don't know.  Marketing and stuff."
"What will you be doing?  Is it customer relations?  Will you check inventory or data?"
"I don't know.  You're not answering my question."
By the end of the call, I still didn't know how to act like a professional, so I painted my nails with clear nail polish because that seemed like something a professional lady might do.   

When I told my parents about the interview, all my mom heard was the word, marketing.
"Is it telemarketing?  You don't want to do telemarketing!"
"No, it's not telemarketing.  It's a fancy job.  I had to buy a jacket."
"Did you have enough money for a jacket?"
"I bought it at Goodwill for $7.99.  And I left the tag on, so I can return it if I don't get the job."
"Can you see the tag?"
"No, it's hidden.  It'll be fine."

The preparation for the interview mostly involved me trying to decide whether or not to wear make-up.  I applied eye shadow, then spent 10 minutes trying to rub it off since it was obvious that I don't know how to pull off this look.

The interview started off well.  Megan was impressed that I lived in Cambodia, so we chatted about that for a while.  Then, the real questions began.  This is the part where I had to answer appropriately, mostly by lying.
Megan asked, "What is a weakness you would like to work on?"
What I thought: Sales.  Selling stuff.  Pretending I like people. 
What I actually said:  "Well, nothing that would interfere with the job.  Of course, I have weaknesses.  I talk to myself - kind of a lot.  And I feel weird wearing high heels." 
This made her laugh, so I figured it was a good answer.
"Where do you see yourself in 3-5 years?"
My thoughts:  Living on a beach.  Not wearing a pants suit.
What I said, "Being happy with what I am doing."
This seemed to please Megan as well. 

Evidently, my perception of the interview was different than Megan's because I never heard from them again.  Excuse me while I go look for a telemarketing job.  In India.
 

Cross-Curricular Studies

(Note:  Radek was indeed able to clarify the meaning of the weird astronomical clock.  He began by saying, "I liked your blog post."  This was surprising because it was not followed by the usual "but..."  This could only mean that I not offensive enough.  Anyway, he said the calendar's purpose is to determine when Easter will be in the future.  One can check it and exclaim, "Oh, lookie here, Klaus!  I was just wondering when Easter would take place in 2019.")

Radek told me there were two streets in Lübeck called Heaven and Hell.  Since they weren't listed on my tourist map, I checked Google maps and discovered they were very short streets that led to a small grouping of flats, hidden off the main road.  I decided it was best not to go straight to Hell.  I should at least try to enter Heaven first.  When I reached the place where Heaven (or Himmel) should be, I couldn't find it.  I walked up and down the road and saw one walkway, but it didn't have a name.  Obviously, I took this as a bad sign.  I was not meant to be there, so I went in search of Hell (or Hölle).  That proved to be difficult too.  Again, I found myself in the right spot, but there wasn't a street sign.  Now, this was really troubling.  I was stuck in purgatory! 

Eventually, I wandered down a nearby walkway and found my sign.   It was in the form of a small chalkboard on the side of a house, and it read, "Höllen Marmalade.  Bitte spende in de Bnetkaska."  Beside it was a box with some samples. 
                    
Hell was quite lovely.  There were lush gardens, bright flowers, butterflies flitting about.  And they had cable.  After this, I didn't see the point in going to Heaven. 

One day, Radek and I were discussing what to do for the day, so we looked at the map for ideas.  He asked me what I wanted to do.  I said, "I like nature," and suggested going to the forest.  He replied, "The forest?  There are just trees."  I pointed out a nearby botanical garden, and we opted to go there.  Radek said he had never been there and didn't know it existed.  This was not surprising.

The garden was small but included an impressive variety of plants, trees, and flowers from around the world.  Each had a little plaque stating its country of origin, and occasionally, we would see a plant from North America.  Radek kept asking me to name these plants.  I explained that America is a big place, and it would be impossible for me to know them all.  This didn't stop him from teasing me and continuing to ask.  I didn't mind because I have serious doubts as to whether Radek can name one tree in Germany. 

Radek informed me that I "like to do things for old people."  After looking around at the other visitors, I could only agree.  We were by far the youngest people there.  Therefore, we decided to be old people, sit on a bench to rest every thirty feet, and discuss our health problems. 

I decided this wasn't such a bad description of myself, particularly coming from someone who had recently asked me to shave his back.  Radek told me he was like a dog and needed his coat shaved in the summer when it was hot.  As an elderly spinster, I had no problem with the request.  I said, "I've never done this before, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to be really good at it."  And I was. 

We wound up walking all around the city, through parks, past various monuments and statues.  After a while, Radek looked at me with amazement and said, "I can't believe you are walking."  Like many people around the world, he was under the assumption that Americans are lazy, out of shape, and want to drive everywhere.  I laughed and clarified that this was only an accurate description of "most Americans." 

Radek pointed to these unusual circles on the ground and asked, "What do you think these are?"  I mumbled something about how maybe they were pipes but was mostly dumbfounded.  He explained they were metal barriers which could be raised to stop an invasion of Soviet tanks.  They were in front of the bridge (which could also be blown up to prevent troops from crossing), and this would allow the people of the town one day to flee. 

It was really interesting, but I couldn't help wondering - Did he really expect me to guess correctly?  Who would guess that?

Deutsch is a funny language.  Lots of signs began with the word, bad.  Jeez, maybe their art is crummy, but that doesn't seem like something you should showcase.   It turns out that "bad" means "by the water."  The beach is bad.  Lübeck is bad.  The toilet is bad.  Everything is bad.

"Ausfahrt" means "exit."  That makes sense, as farts usually are looking for an exit.  Also, "Die" means "the."  Sign everywhere declared that this or that should die.

And then there were words like this.  Not only do they contain too many syllables, but they sound like a sneeze.  According to Radek, Germans have a fondness for shoving phrases together and making them one long word instead. 

Well, eventually the time came when I had to leave Germany.  So, I said Goodbye.  Auf wiedersenen.  Adios.  Au revoir.  Adeus.  Farvel.  Do widzenia.  Tot ziens.  Arrivederci.

Kirchen in Lübeck

Out of all the churches I visited, St. Mary's was my favorite because it was so bizarre.  It looks like all the other churches from the outside with the gothic architecture.  Although, it has the distinction of being the tallest church in Lübeck.

On the outside of the church, a small sculpture of the Devil rests upon a large, rectangular stone.  According to legend, when the church was first being built, the devil thought the building was going to be a drinking hall.  This appealed to him because it would give him the opportunity to tempt many new souls to the dark side.  He decided to help the construction workers, so the work would be completed quickly.  When the devil learned that the building was meant to be a church, he became very angry, and picked up a gigantic stone to hurl at the wall of the church.  However, one of the workers saw this and promised the devil they would build a wine bar across the street.  The devil was satisfied with this arrangement, and tossed the stone beside the wall instead, where it lays to this day.  (Across from the church, there is a wine cellar in the town hall.)

Twelve scenes of Christ's life are intricately carved from olive wood to create this ornate altar.

It's not often that one finds a science exhibit in a church.  This enormous, and extremely complicated astronomical clock depicts the positions of the planets, moon phases, and zodiac signs.  I stood in front of it for about 10 minutes, trying to figure it out.  The informational brochure was written in German, so that didn't help.  I still don't know exactly how it works.  I'm sure Radek could have explained it all, but he wasn't with me on this outing.

During World War II, on Palm Sunday, the Royal Air Force practically leveled the entire town in an air raid.  The original bells, which hung 60 meters high, crashed to the floor where they remain today. 

Stained glass titled "Death Dance."

St. Jacob's Church features the one 16th century organ that survived the bombing raid.  I wasn't that impressed by it.  Neither was this guy. 

Hey, it looks just like the hymnal I used as a child!  Except it's all in Deutsch.

A small chapel is dedicated to the victims of shipwrecks.  In 1957, the Pamir, a Lübeck sailing ship, left a port in Buenos Aires.  Soon, it encountered Hurricane Carrie which caused the boat to tilt drastically and eventually break into pieces.  Out of the 86 seamen, only six survived in one of the lifeboats.  The rest drowned or were attacked by sharks.  This lifeboat was brought back on the Passat and placed in the church as a reminder of the tragedy.

Lübeck Cathedral (or Dom) is located next to the river, surrounded by grassy parks and leafy green trees, giving the most lovely setting of all the churches. 

Strange heads were carved on the sides of this pew, each head was unique in its design.

A series of photographs inside show the Dom after the air raid.



 

Free Berlin

"It was a bright day in [August] and the clocks were striking thirteen."  The opening line of George Orwell's novel came to my mind while walking around Berlin.  Plain rectangular high rises dot the former communist portion of the city suggesting sameness and uniformity.  Instead of signs declaring, "Big Brother is Watching You," there were equally ominous signs like this.

If it hadn't been for the multitude of performance artists, street fairs, and activists for peace in Syria, one could get the sense that Russian tanks might suddenly emerge around the next corner.  Berlin has been slowly transformed since the wall's destruction which began on November 9, 1989.  Now, it's a metropolis with a mixture of cosmopolitan shopping malls and restaurants with bits of history scattered about the city.

Our first stop was Checkpoint Charlie, the most famous checkpoint between the American and Russian border.  This is what it looked like before.

Now, the blockades have been removed, and a monument has been erected.  Two soldiers stand there all day holding American flags.  Similar to the guys in front of the Queen's Palace in London, they seem to have been instructed not to smile, but they do squirm around quite a lot.  It makes me wonder what mistake they made to end up being stuck with this job.  It's not quite the dreary scene that it was between 1961 and 1989 though.  In fact, there's a McDonald's next door if you get a hankering for a Big Mac.

"Katja, what should I wear for our outing today?"
"Oh Dieter, your green pants and vest will be perfect!  I'll wear my blue outfit with the jacket I sewed from a quilt."
I'm not sure what it is about Europeans and green pants.  I noticed it immediately when I arrived in Dublin.  Three guys walked by with green pants.  I momentarily wondered if they may perhaps be really tall leprechauns, but one was listening to an ipod, and none of them were dancing a jig or carrying a pot of gold.  I thought I could escape it, but unfortunately Germany (and likely much of Europe) has become obsessed with green pants.  They were everywhere.  Someone should really alert the embassy before this trend crosses the Atlantic.

Radek pointed out the stone trail that marks where the Berlin wall once stood.  It zigzags around the city with no apparent logic. 
"I always imagined it in a straight line.  Why is it all over the place?"  I asked Radek.
"It depended who got there first."

Well, that made sense.  At the time, four armies were converging upon the city, and all of them wanted to take control of as much land as possible.

When the Soviet Union took over control of East Germany in 1949, an estimated 2.5 million people fled to the west.  The communists realized this was a problem.  Who was going to do all the work?  Therefore, they began to close the border to keep more citizens from leaving.  In this famous photograph above, even a Russian soldier is seen leaping over a barbed wire fence to freedom.  "Sieg heil, Democracy!"

Another one of my misconceptions was that there was just one big wall along the border, similar to the Great Wall of China.  But less great.  More like a fairly good wall. 

Initially, that was the case.  The Russians realized that this was not enough to keep people from crossing the border, so in typical Russian style they created a hazardous maze of tank barriers, landmines, electric fences, automatically-triggered guns, and control towers every 300 meters.  In other words, nobody got across.  Not even Frogger. 

Although most of the wall has been destroyed, small sections of it are preserved, so tourists can take selfies in front of them.

Bernauer Straße (the weird B is pronounced as an 's' making it Strasse) was my favorite part of Berlin.  A long portion of the wall remains almost fully intact along this street, and goes on for kilometers.  At this point in the day, it became cloudy and rainy.  Everything was grey.  Grey buildings against a grey sky and a grey wall.  It was the perfect atmosphere for the scene.  One area still had the tank barriers, extra walls, and guard towers.  It was easier to get a sense of how impossible it was to cross.  This didn't stop people from trying though.  At least 136 people were killed in attempts to cross the border between 1961 and 1989. 

Many people did manage to escape however.  Since the wall was built next to a street lined with houses and apartments, initially people were able to climb out windows and run for it.  Once the Russians caught on, they increased security measures and demolished the homes adjacent to the wall.  This led people to become more creative.  For instance, they built a series of tunnels that went under the deadly wall zone.

There's more to Berlin, than the wall.  There are beautiful cathedrals such the Berliner Dom, museums, government building, statues, and monuments.  Radek and I walked throughout the city, visiting all the popular tourist spots.  He kept asking me if I would like to actually go inside some of the buildings because, after all, I may not get the opportunity to visit again.  I would always look at the price, go into mild shock, and decline.  Berlin is incredibly expensive.  However, we managed to spend two days there doing everything for free. 

Our only expenses were hotel, food, and the subway.  I should point out that Radek's idea of accommodations is very different than mine, so I let him choose the hotel.  It was literally the fanciest hotel I have stayed at in at least 10 years.  I decided that was best because when he saw my guesthouse in Thailand, he said he was "shocked."  I replied, "Good thing you didn't see the last place I stayed at."

The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (or Holocaust Memorial) contains a football sized field of 2,711 large rectangular concrete slabs that vary in height.  The sign didn't give any indication of the symbolism behind the design, so I began to wonder what it meant.  The slabs reminded me of gravesites, but that didn't really make sense.  Radek's first reaction after inspecting a couple of them was different.  He pointed out some large cracks in the cement and said, "There is something really wrong here.  This shouldn't happen." 

After wandering around the monument for a while, I decided that it's main purpose was to serve as a giant playground.  It was a great place to play hide and seek.  The slabs made nice benches for people to sit upon and have a snack.  They also provided some fun jumping opportunities for children to leap across from one to the other. 

When I got home, I researched the monument and learned that it was "designed to produce an uneasy, confusing atmosphere, and the whole sculpture aims to represent a supposedly ordered system that has lost touch with human reason."  Oh, OK, or I guess it could mean that.