Last Day of the Summer Semester

This afternoon I had my last class of the university semester, which happened to be online because the professor lives in Greece. Three of us students/guest auditors had shown up, so it was a snug discussion about Greek history since the military dictatorship fell apart in 1974. It touched on the triumph of the Socialist party PASOK in the 1980s, the neoliberalism of Kostas Simitis in the 90s, and the debt crisis of the 2010s.

Normally I'd also have a language seminar on Friday mornings, on campus. But it was cancelled this week as the (retired) professor's grandchildren are in town for a visit.

It feels nice to wrap up the semester. I'm curious to know how my applications for bona fide study in the winter semester will turn out, also looking forward to travelling to Canada in September.

I've scheduled a Spanish language test to write on Tuesday morning at one of Berlin's universities, to see if I reach the B1 level. It makes me quite nervous, because if anyone asked me to self-assess I'd claim the A2 level at best.

It's also become clear to me that the programme of self-guided study that I've been doing to help with the test is too intense to keep up for long.

But a levelling self-test online turned out well: so there's reason to believe I might pass the university's test, too.

After watching the films Adú, El Pepe, and La Vocera on Netflix, I'm now watching the series LaLiga about Spanish association football. It's in some ways as dystopian as any of the scenes in the other films.

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I've felt well enough to go on two shopping trips for dinner, despite the heat. But the menu was constructed around corn on the cob, and I couldn't find it at the three grocery stores that I visited even though it is grown in the Brandenburg region.

So we've eaten leftovers from yesterday instead, and ice cream.

Yesterday I'd boiled new potatoes that were both organic and grown in Germany, and served it with green onions and yoghurt, and bacon.

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As for politics, I'm a little less convinced that the 45th president will win back the presidency again.

But as an EU citizen I already felt well insulated from his idiosyncratic practice of leadership the last time.

In any case my vague theory is that the pendulum of stupidity is quite unstoppable; it will swing back to rationality eventually, and I'm looking forward to when it does. Perhaps we'll have another, perhaps more successful President Jimmy Carter in the next 10 years, preferably without the subsequent Ronald Reagan.

As for the vice-presidential candidate: If people genuinely want someone who was in the U.S. Senate for 1 or 2 years, seemingly has little if any other real political experience, and seems to be a homophobe as well as an anti-abortionist, to be 'one heartbeat away from the presidency' as Vice President, that's their problem.

(I'm also enjoying the ridiculous quotation on his Wikipedia, said not years ago but this month, that the UK is the "first truly Islamist country with nuclear weapons." There are more ridiculous quotations on a wide spectrum of issues, but I won't go on...)

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The swallows are chirping through the warm evening sky, voices are echoing from the restaurant below, and tires are rushing over the asphalt outside. I think I'll wrap up the business part of the day and take it easy soon.