Man wird gleich kleine Lissa Stückchen an den Wände finden...

You're about to find little Lissa pieces on the walls....

The Important Events, Pertaining to the Afternoon of
Wednesday, April 14, 2010:

13.50 I am sitting in Art class when my teacher pulls out paintings from back in December to give back to us. I see my painting at the very bottom of the pile. The huge sunset that I had tried and failed to make look magical, the pictures of Tori that I had incorporated even though they were too small, and the fact that you could obviously tell I painted it if you looked at anything I have painted since 4th grade: All of these fact were painfully obvious to me. I took my painting quickly and put it under my desk, then there was the painting of my friend Lena who had moved in January, but someone had to take her painting to her Grandma's house as a gift. I volunteered and covered my painting with hers.

14.10 My art teacher walks quickly across the quad with the two paintings in hand, "Lissa! If you didn't want the paintings you could have just thrown them away instead of leaving them around!" She was shoving them back at me, and I barely found my words to explain how I left them in the auditorium because I have choir practice there in 5 minutes and didn't want to carry them outside with me right then. She faltered then apologized for assuming before, but I was still thrown off guard about the attack. People spent the rest of the time, trying to sneak peeks at the paintings. (These are 40x50cm canvases, hard to hide) Then some boy jumps into the conversation: "Do you understand? No, that's the funny part. You exchange students think you understand and say you understand, but you actually have no idea. I know how you are." What in the world?

15.08 After a boring choir practice where I tried to remember the complicated soprano part of "Requiem," because I had missed so many practices due to Easter Break and Auschwitz. I walked into the city, thinking, "I have mine and Lena's huge paintings. I am supposed to go to Purweider Weg and drop of Lena's painting... I have all of this stuff in my purse to send Felicia in Sweden, and I wanted to buy a couple other things to add... I have to be back here to meet my Community Representative at 17.00, which I forgot to tell my host family about... I can get this all done."

15.16 Walking to the general downtown direction, I decide to send Felicia's present because that was important and had to be done soon. I made my way to a souvenir shop and picked up some Aachen-themed stuff, but as soon as I walk outside, it starts raining. The sky had been perfect 15 minutes before... What happened? Without an umbrella, with two huge paintings, and on a street with little shelter or overhangs, I start just trying to move quickly to the next store. While crossing the street as the rain dies down, I have to run back real fast because I just dropped one of the paintings on the street... Not good.

15:45 With yummy candy put in my purse and a cardboard box under my hand that I had just gotten from a pharmacy, (the Lissa method of shipping something is to just ask a lot of stores if they have an empty cardboard box, many of them do) I walked to the post office, glad to have one thing almost off of my list. Oh wait, why are the lights dark at the Post office? A guy is walking out of the doors as I am walking and says, "Well, this is really stupid!" I look closer at the note taped on the glass room dividers: "We apologize for the inconvenience, but the post office will be closed on Wednesday, April 14th. We will be open again on Thursday, April 15th. We apologize, once again, for the inconvenience." I looked at the two paintings under one arm, the overflowing purse under the other, and the cardboard box in my hands. The post office knows absolutely nothing about inconvenience.


15:48 Plan B. Buy large envelope and send as much as possible to Sweden, so it gets there sooner, the entire day won't be a waste, and I won't have to wait around for my CR with so much stuff. I put my cardboard box next to the trash can and went off to get an envelope and was deeply absorbed when an older man comes up to me:
"Excuse me, did you just put the cardboard box next to the trash can?"
"Uhmmm... No?"
"I'm sorry, but did you just put the cardboard box next to the trash can? It can't stay there. You need to take it with you."
"What?"
He starts walking to the trash and pointing at the box, "Nein! Du musst es mit dir nehmen!" I put it in the trash again and walked away rolling my eyes, then he is yelling at me loudly saying, "NEIN! Du darfst das nicht machen! Take home! Take home!"
He finally walks away and the incredible urge to throw the stupid cardboard box at the back of his head crept over my entire body. You have no idea how much strength it took to not do it.
I walked into another store, and they recycled my box for me happily. I went to go buy stamps for my new ready package, the machine only takes coins and credit cards. I went to the bakery and begged for change for my 10 Euro bill. I finally get the package ready to go, and there is absolutely no space in the mail drop; letters are literally falling out and on the ground anytime someone opens it.

16:14 I walked in the city and searched after another mail drop until I finally found one and had to shove and squish my package so much to make it fit through the slot. I hope nothing broke... There was still a little under an hour before I had to meet my CR, which wasn't enough time to go home or drop off the painting at the grandma's house and who wants to walk through stores carrying two huge paintings? I decided to enjoy the good weather and walked up to the very top floor of a good bookstore nearby and went on their outside balcony where they have a small playground and fountains. Sitting down with a huge huff, I looked over at the two stupid paintings I was carrying, neither of them were truthfully that great. This is where Lissa reaches the point of insanity. I turn my own painting over and start ripping the canvas out from under the staples. Just ripping it out. No clue what I was going to do with it. It took me a good fifteen or twenty minutes to get through all the staples, but I just kept ripping and didn't think twice.  I couldn't exactly rip apart another girl's painting, but it felt so liberating throwing the pieces of wood frame away and shoving the canvas in my purse, even though it barely fit. Deep breathes. I felt officially like I could do the maniac laugh for a reason.



Yesterday was simply just a really interesting day, I'm going to lay that out there. Today is my last day being 16. I don't know if I have ever been so excited for a birthday or more nervous. What am I going to do for my one German birthday? Who am I going to get to talk to? Will it be one to remember? I am going to answer those three questions really quickly for myself and everyone else: have fun, who I want, and of course!
Time to go enjoy my last day of being 16! As it was put to me, "dance outside, sing and skip and kiss your neighbor lol" And I am going to go do just that. ; )