Homework in the Sauna, etc.

Today was an odd day. It was very warm, up to 28 degrees, in Berlin; it was also very humid. There was supposed to be a thunderstorm later on, but the day is now technically over and it still hasn't materialized. Everyone complained about the heat, and felt sluggish. Papa had, I think, a headache, and J. had a stomach ache. In the morning I constantly had the feeling that I was doing something wrong.

After I got up I read the Berliner Zeitung for the first time in weeks, but I didn't even finish the first section. The main national news is that the SPD party leader, Kurt Beck, has just appointed three deputies, down from the previous number of five. This change is apparently an expression of the more streamlined and strong party that the SPD is to become . . . Anyway, I also did the dishes and the grocery-shopping.

Later on our relative and his friend dropped by to pick up his belongings, and then Uncle Pu came. He had a cigar, and Mama a pipe, and we all talked. J. went shopping and brought back, inter alia, amaretto truffles, which were soft with the heat and strongly alcohol-flavoured; I liked them, but Pudel found them far too sweet. And, in the evening, uncle W. came. He and Mama and Papa talked, as usual, but we also had dinner (rotini with ground beef and tomatoes, rapunzel salad, a cheese that W. had brought along, and assorted candies) together.

Today was a very social day even aside from the guests. Gi., Ge. and I chatted when they came home from school and had their small after-school-meal, T. and I chatted before and after, and we all gathered in the living room when Pudel was there (we usually don't, for anyone). But Papa had to be away at a work meeting in the evening.

There was a lot of homework to help with today. Gi. wanted his corrections of an English test checked, and he also needed help figuring out a math assignment, which was about a statistics problem that required the use of Microsoft Excel. That worthy programme insisted that the sum of (0, 0, 3, 4, 4, 2, 2, 0) is 0, and the assignment itself was difficult to understand; fortunately Papa helped Gi. and (later) Ge. with it. Then J. had Spanish homework: first he had to complete two paragraphs with phrases in the perfect tense (e.g. hemos alquilado, we rented), and then he had to write two sentences about geographic locations (e.g. Buenos Aires es la capital de la República de Argentina.) Doing this work with him was like pulling teeth, but I can't complain because he was far more miserable than I was. Besides that he had Math, Biology and English homework; none of it much appealed to him and he was tired, so he moped about for a while and then went to bed.

As for my story, I intend to describe the trial year (from the heroine's point of view) after all. Otherwise I'd feel that all the momentum is lost, and that the story is too thin. The Leonardo da Vinci reference will stay out, since it does sound lame, but I will keep it in the back of my mind. Da Vinci's faces are, I think, the ones that best express my ideal of beauty. Ginevra de Benci doesn't look that friendly; I rather mean his Cecilia (not as beautiful, but certainly with a very charming and friendly face) and Madonnas. Last week Mama, our American relative and I went to the Gemäldegallerie; I mention this because there was a sketch or painting by Il Guercino there, and the face of one of the figures also much resembled my ideal (if I remember correctly, it also much resembles a face in one of da Vinci's cartoons in the National Gallery).

I also played the piano today, mostly Mozart and Beethoven and Schubert, and I can't tell if I did it well or not. Today when I played it was mostly about getting into the mood of the piece, and preserving a decent tempo and bringing out the melody better. The technique is as terrible as ever; I still slur the notes and play unclearly in general, and altogether my playing is yet another indication that my mind has vegetated. But the unwonted heat of the weather may be more to blame. Anyway, hopefully the trend will be reversed in the next year.