learning something new everyday is wonderful...

...though sometimes not for free. today i learned how much it costs to forget that you parked your car on the wednesday-street-cleaning side of the street on a wednesday. just $50 for a valuable lesson.
tomorrow I am going to take the written test in order to get the california driver's license. i have already read very interesting things in the dmv booklet. Who would have guessed that in california, you must not park your car in an intersection. now that i know, i'll stop doing that, really.
i also have a real american phone now, finally. my number: 001-213 909 4178
call me (unless you don't know me).

hell

are you one of those people who sometimes wonders what it would be like in hell? i think over the course of the week, i found out. hell is los angeles traffic at rush hour and everybody drives the way i do.
it's a miracle that i and my car (and other people) are still alive, given crazy traffic. and on top of that, i have to get a california driver's license. i hate driving tests. and if i drive the way i did on thursday on the 110 freeway, no sane person should ever give me a license...

week of special accomplishments

the last week was very exciting, which is why i feel somewhat exhausted now, even though there is still one day left. the first really exciting thing that happened was that i got invited to give a talk in frankfurt, at the linguistics department. i had given a talk on predicates of personal taste at a graduate conference in berlin last summer, and obviously one of the professors from frankfurt liked my talk enough to want to hear it again. my first real talk, with a hotel and a dinner and all that stuff. that's so exciting!!! so if you happen to be in frankfurt on january 10, 2008, come by!
the second really exciting this was that i finally got my car yesterday. i already drove it on the freeway and through the mountains today, and it's great, although i'm still a bit scared of l.a. traffic. the freeway has exits on the left and on the right, that's just crazy. but for today, i'm still alive and the car is, too.
third exciting thing: obviously i can do a handstand and also elephant pose, which i found out during yoga this week. very unexpected.
and, last but not least: i can't complain about lack of excitement concerning my love-and-emotional-live, though that's more luck than an accomplishment. hmmm...

CAR!!!

i know i've been a very lazy blogger in the last couple of weeks, but that's mainly because the things that happened were either boring or don't belong on this blog.
however, there's definitely one exciting thing i need to share: i finally found a car that i'm going to buy! and it's a cool car, a mazda miata convertible. hopefully, i'll have it by next week, i already test-drove it on friday and it feels awesome. plus, it's a manual transmission, which is not very common in the us, which makes me extra-happy!

suggestions for birthday presents

i've been 25 for about half an hour now (add 9 hours if you're in germany). if anybody wants to give me a birthday present and doesn't have any idea yet, i'd like some brain, please, any amount is fine. my apartment is largely dominated - apart from the ugly furniture - by large stacks of papers that i need to read and understand, but my brain capacity doesn't seem to be sufficient for that. i read too slowly, think too slowly, write too slowly. so extra brain would be nice. maybe some external brain that i can plug into my nose whenever i need to. well, back to michael dummett now.