Australian-Mexican-German fun this weekend

I've been an absentee blogger this week. I am not sure whether I should apologize for my lack of postings or not. What's my obligation to you as my readers, anyway? Do I need to check in three times a week so you know I'm ok? Or does irregular blogging make me seem more spontaneous and intriguing? I'd love to say that I left you hanging in order to build up my creative aura, but actually I was writing a paper for my ethics class about illegal immigration as a social justice issue. The paper is now submitted and grad school class is done until September. It's a little anti-climactic to just hit 'send' in order to finish your course, so I had to do a little singing and dancing to compensate.

It was good that I finished the paper yesterday morning, because it was way too warm and sunny to be stuck indoors doing homework. It was break-out-your-shorts-and-tank-tops warm. Except in Germany, it's shorts, tank tops, and a scarf. And if you're a girl you might wear tights under your shorts too. You wouldn't want to catch cold.

The warmth made me think of summer, and summer makes me miss the backyard and the hammock and home. Brian and I agreed, as we were sweating out on the balcony, that we aren't homesick but we are also really excited about going back to the U.S. this summer.

Last night we went to a German bar with some teacher friends from England, Australia, Germany, Canada, and the U.S., to hear an Australian band play quasi-Mexican music. Life here is like that.

The band is called Puta Madre Brothers. If you don't know what that means in Spanish, I won't tell you. Just know that it's a bad word (or bad phrase to be exact) - not the brothers part, but the rest of it. The band is a group of three Australian guys, who play music that is part electric-guitar mariachi, part 60's surfer music, part soundtrack from a cheesy western movie. They have crazy swirly hair, wear old-style Mexican military uniforms, and their faces are smudged with dark face paint that makes it look like they rolled in mud on the way to the bar. Each one has a guitar and a bass drum that he plays simultaneously. One was also playing the cymbal with his other foot.

They even had some lyrics in Spanish, though it sounded more like they came from a Spanish 2 textbook. Some of the memorable choruses were "I am a fruit," "my dog is ugly," and "everything's bad nothing is good." I wish that my creative aura was clever enough to make all this up, but it's not. If you want to see for yourself, check out their website.

Since I have no more homework to do today, I'm baking cookies and going on a bike ride. I will try to think of new ways to surprise and engage my readers. But if the weather is warm and sunny this week, you may not hear from me too much. I'll be out enjoying it, and I'm definitely not putting on a scarf.