Vlog: Hamburg – Day 11 & Snack Food Trials: French Bistro Chips & Haribo Berries
Summary of Week 2: April 3rd – April 9th
The second week didn’t go much better than the first. We had great difficulty getting our phones to work and found out we wouldn’t have internet for over a week. With no internet, not tv, no books, no music, and little else to entertain us, we tried to explore the city as much as possible, but I ended up with blisters so bad I actually wondered if I was going to have to seek medical intervention (people with MS have to be careful of such things, just like diabetics.) The week ended with me having a bit of a nervous breakdown and running away to Hamburg without telling my roommate where I was going. Not the most considerate thing, but the situation was complicated and at that moment he was part of the problem.
Reverence
Habt Ehrfurcht vor dem Baum, er ist ein einziges großes Wunder, und euren Vorfahren war er heilig. Die Feindschaft gegen den Baum ist ein Zeichen von Minderwertigkeit eines Volkes und von niederer Gesinnung des einzelnen.
Have reverence for the tree, it is one big miracle, and to your ancestors it was holy. The hostility to the tree is a sign of the inferiority of a people and of the low mentality of the individual.
Alexander Freiherr von Humboldt
(1769 – 1859), German naturalist, founder of biogeography
Tale: Hänsel und Gretel
Hard by a great forest dwelt a poor wood-cutter with his wife
and his two children. The boy was called Hansel and the
girl Gretel. He had little to bite and to break, and once when
great dearth fell on the land, he could no longer procure even daily
bread. Now when he thought over this by night in his bed, and
tossed about in his anxiety, he groaned and said to his wife, what
is to become of us. How are we to feed our poor children, when
we no longer have anything even for ourselves. I’ll tell you what,
husband, answered the woman, early to-morrow morning we
will take the children out into the forest to where it is the
thickest. There we will light a fire for them, and give each of
them one more piece of bread, and then we will go to our work and
leave them alone. They will not find the way home again, and we
shall be rid of them. No, wife, said the man, I will not do that.
How can I bear to leave my children alone in the forest. The wild
animals would soon come and tear them to pieces. O’ you fool, said
she, then we must all four die of hunger, you may as well plane the
planks for our coffins, and she left him no peace until he
consented. But I feel very sorry for the poor children, all the
same, said the man.
Continue reading Tale: Hänsel und Gretel