October 2002 Archives
2002-10-31
Found a tenant for my appartment in Copenhagen, exchanged signed contracts via telefax.
The chemical agent used in the raid of the Moscow theatre was apparently a gaseous form of fentanyl: a commonly used, powerful anesthetic and analgesic. Fentanyl is not prohibited by the Chemical Weapons Convention. Read this article from Jane's for more information.
2002-10-27
Was invited to Zwiebelkuchen and Federweisser once more at 2nd to-the-right. Played "Tabu" - you draw a card with a word which you have to describe without mentioning the word itself (of course) and 4 other words, which otherwise would have been obvious. For example the word to be described is "Fressen" and the words not allowed are "Tier", "essen", "hunger" and ... well, you get the idea. 2 minutes to do as many cards as possible - the other members of the team guess as fast as they can. While I obviously had a harder job than the others (native German speakers) I managed quite well.
2002-10-25
Went to "games evening" arranged by the language teachers together with some 50 other collegues who also attend one of the many language courses in German, French, Italian, or Spanish. The rule was that no one was allowed to speak his native language or English. Played "Mensch ärger dich nicht" (ala Ludo) and something like "Tabu" but also with drawing and mimic. Free beer and food.
2002-10-19
Saturday. Bought Thomas Mann's Der Tot in Venedi and John Irving's The Fourth Hand. Read the latter.
2002-10-13
My parents came down to visit me, so I had last week off. Very nice. Bought a lot of stuff for my appartment, put up lamps and pictures, showed them ESOC, went to Heidelberg etc etc.
Reread Jan Kjærstad's Jonas Wergeland trilogi.
2002-10-03
German Reunification Day - national holiday. Paid to stay home. Slept till late, read the newspaper (last week's edition of Weekendavisen). Went to the BMW dealer near Bensheim to get an idea of prices. A, say 2-year old 318 cabrio goes for a little more than 20 KEUR. Or a 1 year-old 750 for 65 KEUR... Or what about a Range Rover from 1996 for 19 KEUR. That could be nice. There's also a Mercedes shop here in Darmstadt I want to visit soon.