Sensei for a Day

Well, actually just Sensei for a little over an hour. This past Thursday my Sensei had to deal with a semi-emergency, and I took over the children's class for the last 10 minutes, and all of the youth class. It went well - they're all used to me as Sensei's co-trainer. Our Shihan and Sensei's previous standard co-trainer, a brown belt, showed up during the youth class and helped out a bit with some questions. The brown belt then took over for the adult class.

Today (Saturday) I was guitarist for another Musical Fireside, this time an hour away in Korbach. It went quite well - I had an interesting chat, played a bit of background music, and at the end, there was a rousing round of "Amazing Grace" with DW and some others there who had choir experience.

Short Work, Co-Training, Between the Years

I really need to get in a routine of posting. Since I last posted the biggest change is that I am (and all my colleagues are) in what Germans call "Kurzarbeit" (literally "short work") - that is, I am to work (much) less than usual and the employment office pays part of my salary. This has given me tons of free time, which I've been filling with different activities: Mondays and Thursdays I go to the Dojo two and a half hours earlier to act as a co-trainer for the kids and junior classes; I've been attending more Baha'i activities; I've been reading more; I've been surfing more (I discovered reddit).

The Dojo has a lot of kids: there are usually between 10 and 20 kids. I still can't remember all their names, though I've been trying to learn them. The juniors are much easier: there are only four who come regularly. It is very gratifying to see the kids (all of them) progressing - not so much in their Jiu Jitsu skills, although they are improving there, but in their interpersonal skills and their attention span - that is where it is really gratifying.

The next belt test is in 3 weeks, and I feel pretty confident, what with all the extra practice as co-trainer. Even so, I plan on stepping up my practice a notch: I want to go to a "sister" Dojo Wednesdays to train some more - I can't usually make the "free training" on Fridays because of our regular Friday evening event.

What Germans call "Between the years", that is between Christmas and New Years, we (myself, DW and DD=dear daughter) were in Berlin, visiting P. P is an elderly Iranian woman, whose husband was martyred some time ago. She herself spent some time in an Iranian prison and still has some health problems because of it. Kelly produced a radio show with her, telling of her experiences, and later Kelly helped her write a book about it (in German). She's pretty happy and sprightly anyway. We camped out with sleeping bags in her living room and had a good time, visiting museums, seeing shows and such. I fixed some problems with her laptop for her and installed Skype and a webcam so she could communicate with family and friends, while DW and DD went window shopping on the famous KuDamm. We had intended to be back home about 9:00 pm on New Years Eve, but due to weather, our planned train was canceled and our alternate trains were all late, such that we ended up getting home about a quarter to midnight. We were in good spirits anyway. We spent a good chunk of the time in a Chinese restaurant in Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe train station - the last open restaurant - waiting for our next connection. They were really nice about letting us stay in the warm restaurant and reading our books instead of waiting out in the cold, even though they wanted to close up shop.

Yesterday I hurt my thumb in Jiu Jitsu practice, but not badly, I think: I slammed my hand down on the mat with my thumb underneath. It's red, sore, stiff and slightly swollen today, but usable. Our Sensei has been having us do more free sparring of a sort - officially there is no free sparring, but we have exercises where we wrestle - no standing allowed - but locks are allowed.

Last Friday I finally visited H, who I've been attempting to visit since October. He's a Christian who really believes in living Christ's message - the love everyone Christ, not the "hate fags" Christ. He lives in a house out in the boonies, with a dog, a cat and four sheep. I played a lot of guitar and we discussed religion and society, and we were pretty much in complete agreement about everything. I also told him a good bit about Baha'i - he was interested and asked a lot of questions. I also got a bag of wool for my sister :-) . I still have to clean it before I can send it to her. I'm not sure if we're going to the U.S. this Summer, what with reduced income and uncertainty and all, but if we do, I'll probably bring it along instead of sending it.

A somewhat older story (November?), but very happy thing: I've had a solar panel for most of a year now, and had been intending to set it up and make it usable. Sensei's girlfriend, E, is a teacher, and she was participating in a project week on energy conservation and alternate energy sources, so I suggested that she could use my solar panel to demonstrate. This was the motivation I needed toget off my ***, and I fixed everything up so that it worked, with the various components detachable, and then gave it to her together with a voltmeter, so that the students could see how the solar panel could charge a 12V battery, and how that was converted to 220V (the European norm) which could light a bulb or run other appliances. I wasn't there myself, but apparently it was a great hit. :-)

It's been rather a while: I passed my yellow belt test. I've been to the U.S. with my daughter. My intern is progressing well. I'm currently planning on moving out of my office into a home office by the end of October, so I can rent the apartment to my recently married friend.

At the yellow belt test: I flubbed things a bit - I had a terrible time remembering the correct start for various things I was supposed to demonstrate. I'm not used to that - I never have test-angst for academic tests, but somehow it was a problem here. I passed anyway, but I'm going to need to work on this.

In the U.S.: We had a blast at the big family reunion, where I had very restricted communication access (no cell phone coverage, no phones or WiFi in the cabins) - I played a lot of guitar, practiced martial arts with my sister and my black belt cousin, went swimming, had some really good food, and generally hung out with people and had a good time. After that I visited my brother and his family. Finally I visited my Sister-in-Law and drove a few hours with her and her son to see Thomas the Tank Engine, life size. I got to go swimming again while I was at it. We also visited the "Goats on the Roof" Cafe.

DW is in Macedonia

Well, my DW is off to Macedonia for a week. I drove her and a friend to a third friend's place about an hour away this afternoon, and they're all in Macedonia now (at least I presume they are - I haven't heard from her yet). They're "travel teaching", mostly meaning that they're giving talks about Baha'i at gatherings and inviting people to such gatherings.

DW bought a small book on the Macedonian language - sort of a "phrase-book plus" - they used to be called "globetrotters", but now they're called something else - I forget what. Unfortunately they're only available in German - they're really good for getting a quick handle on a language.

Update

A friend of mine just got married in Armenia. :-) It was only a church wedding: there were problems with the paperwork, and he's going to have to get an extra registrar's wedding here in Germany.

I've been practicing guitar a lot: I've buffed up a lot of old things, and learned a few new, like "When I'm 64" and "El Condor Pasa". E. wants to do "Hey there, Delilah" and "1 2 3 4" by the "plain white t's", both of which I'm progressing on.

E. is a teacher, and she's also interested the People's Theater and Stop and Act, so I've arranged for N., who did People's Theater for her year of service, to meet her at our Friday evening event (prayers/singing/story telling).

Oh, and my company has started doing "Kurzarbeit" (short work), meaning I should be working less. It's complicated, and has just started, so I'm not going to try and explain it here.

Random Late Update

There's no special reason to update now, just I haven't in a long time. I've been practicing guitar a lot, slacking off on Farsi and Chinese, making steady progress in Jiu Jitsu. I've got a new laptop for work - not at my request, but still cool - I still haven't "broken it in" - I'm still using my old laptop for most things.

I've not been getting enough sleep (so what else is new).

A friend of mine is off in Armenia getting married (hopefully). It kind of depends on some paperwork I sent to him by mail, which is taking its sweet time getting there, despite being sent express. Twice.

My praktikant has been making good progress, though he would like things to be more hardware oriented, and I don't have that much hardware stuff for him to do.

I've reserved tickets for K. and myself to go to the States in July - DW is not going this year. Instead she's off to Macedonia later this month on a Baha'i Teaching Trip with a couple friends of ours.

Fun with Sensei and May Day

This past Thursday at Jiu Jitsu we got to play with rope (hojo?), tying each other up and hitting each other with them. :-)

Afterwards, I broke out the guitar, and Sensei, his GF, DW and I sang songs until past 11:00 pm. Much fun! :-)

Generally I've been steadily improving at guitar playing. I'm thinking of trying to create a video and post it on youtube - as much for learning how to post on youtube as anything else.

My Farsi has been noticeably improving, although my Farsi teacher is going on vacation in a little over a week, so it may slide again.

Our Friday evenings now have a set of regulars. I'm really happy with them, despite some difficulties. This Friday evening was also May Day.