It has been a long day. And most of this entry would belong in a Travel Log Set, (Which I haven't set up, but if I ever do, then the first part of this entry could be read Here.

I awoke at 5:50 this morning, and scarfed some Granola before going to catch my early early train. I had this Saturday free, so I thought I would get the early start on showing myself to other theaters this year. And I remembered Xin Peng Wang from when I auditioned in Meiningen, And he's now the director in Dortmund. I liked his choreography, so I thought I would see what his new company is like, (And if there might be a place for me in it next season, or some time.)

All my trains were on time, and I found a good city map in the train station, which showed that the theater was within a 10 minute walk. There was even a drugstore in the train station, so I could buy myself some deodorant there. (I didn't think about getting my things from the theater until 11:30 last night; I borrowed shoes from my British colleague, bought new Deodorant in the train station, and had old warm-ups full of holes. -At least that meant that I took them off early in the class.)

Well, the morning was also bad in that the light meter on my camera stopped working. It just plain didn't do Anything any more. But from about that point on, every thing got better. The people at the theater were friendly, especially the dancers, my training was not great, but passable, and I think there was benefit in it for me; that I have gotten something positive from it. Then I watched Xin's Nymph -um... something. "Dance" or "Piece" or so. (It was "Waldnymphe" -German for Wood Nymph. -not that I knew that back when I wrote this. -Ed.) Then I was off into the city, where I looked at prices for MP3 players, and for a new battery for my camera. When I found one, (a battery,) I got them to test my old one, which left Me feeling very clever; My old battery wasn't dead, the Camera just wasn't working. SO... life sucked, but at least I wasn't stuck with an extra battery that I would have just paid 4 Euros for. (Sometimes, as an Optimist, you have to stoop to the lowest little things, to see the Bright side of a situation.)

"Well," I thought, "That's life." So I went and ate my Curried Tuna Lunch, (Yum,) and read a little more of Gulliver's Travels. Then there was... Yelling, shouting, many many words I didn't understand, and a group of... Hoodlums, (For lack of a better word; young males feeling powerful, because they're in a pack. -like Hyaenas.) And 3 of them went running off this way, and 5 that way, and some more another way. And some 10 seconds later, there was One guy with a skate board, who came into the square, yelling after them. A very short while later, the sirens started, and a total of 5 (or 6) police vans came into the square, bearing about 5 officers each. These all piled out, and stood around being Present, or fanning out in the directions that the hoodlums fled, (Or, if they didn't flea, then in the directions to which they buggered off.)

All this while, I sat there and finished my chapter, and then started the next. I DID feel better with the police vans 25 feet from me, all though the riot gear stored in the backs made me a little uncomfortable, and had me thinking about where *I* would bugger off to, if the situation changed to "Interesting Times."

In the end though, I heard nothing more than some cry being rallied around somewhere else in the center of town.

THEN, I went taking pictures of churches, two of which I went in to. And I must say that I was thanking God, when my light meter spontaneously started working again in my Camera. The last church I came to, I only found because of the bells ringing away. Then, on my arrival at the source of all that noise, I found that a service was just beginning.

That's when I started feeling tired of it all, and just wanted to take it easy. so I decided to head back home, with one stop in Herford, to see if I could get some better shots of a church there, (which I'd done before, but the pictures didn't turn out.) The Train station was packed FULL of Soccer fans, (A match had just ended there or something.) But I still got a seat in the train. And that leads me to the next paragraph:

Sitting across from me, was a deaf man. Who had never learned to speak, (it seems.) Anyhow, he was interested to see what I was reading, so I had immediate respect for him. (If you don't know how I look upon books, then I'll have to Tell you now, that I wrote that Half-way tongue-in-cheek.) We talked on the nature of his disability, the learning of languages, (Starting with how he could write English, and I could never write German,) past-times, and the like. I was reminded of seeing people in Montreal, who would talk a-mile-a-minute with their hands, on the busses and subways, But I don't think I've seen anyone do that here. It's a bit odd. This guy also had a nice writing tablet-thingy, which reminded me of the Magna-Doodle I did so much of my Linear Algebra on, back in Toronto, in Jan. 2000. If I ever see one of them, (These very simple, swipe-erasing tablets,) I must get myself one.

So then, I got to Herford, but all the churches were locked, so I only took one or two pictures outside, in the failing light. Then I went looking for something to do for the 20 minutes before my train left. And boy was there something to find; There was some out-door music thing, (With attached Beer garden, Naturally; This IS Germany.) So, I listened to two of their songs, snapped a couple photos, and came home.

And now I'm bloody tired of typing, so I'll stop.