Auf meinem Herzen ≈ On My Mind

1. During the day I enjoy walking in the cold air and taking new streets and looking at the mountains in the distance, and I think about how beautiful Freiburg will be when it's spring and summer and warm. I think about how I will hate to leave.

As soon as the sun starts going down, I figure another day has gone down the drain and I haven't done enough homework, and then I start to get lonely and then think I would rather be at home. This is only at night, though. I hate night.

2. Researching Germans in America for my presentation two weeks ago, I came across this old 'On Language' column by William Safire. Doughnuts came from Germany (irrefutable evidence that the German culture was a huge influence on America), and the Amish were the first to put holes in them! Also, I think William Safire was funnier back then. I thought of this article again because...

3. ...I was on nytimes.com again looking for evidence that a German-American identity still exists (Do societies and Oktoberfest and traditional dress make a culture? Now I get to do it.) and I found an article on the Idaho potato. I seem to have lost the link, which is a shame, because someday I'd like to read all five or six pages on the challenges that face the Idaho potato, and the people who grow it, today. I've found myself in this argument a couple times recently: Does Idaho have anything? Why this is a concern, I don't know, but I will always firmly answer, "Yes," at least as long as Idaho potatoes remain, because I was taught by my grandfather (possibly really through my mother) that they are the best potatoes in the world. And I love potatoes.

I also learned that Idaho's license plates say "Famous Potatoes," which is probably the funniest (or at least best) license plate ever, so I searched them on eBay. I found one for 1988, the year I was born, which was sort of cool. I think if I were ever to become the type of person who would buy used license plates and put them in prominent places, I would buy a Famous Potatoes license plate. Some of them say "World Famous Potatoes," but that isn't as funny, although this one, which has a picture of a baked potato on it, is hilarious. Also, there was a mountain goat Idaho plate. Pretty sweet.

While on the topic of license plates: I wish Michigan hadn't made such stupid new ones. The white text on blue was classic and simple and nice. The blue on white is no easier to read, because there wasn't a problem with the old ones, and it's boring. And ours used to say 'Great Lakes.' They were automatically cool, because the Great Lakes are so great! Now they just say www.michigan.gov. Why anyone would want to go there, I don't know. It's a hopelessly ugly website.

Thank goodness my parents have an old, proper-looking license plate in the garage, from the time they had to pretend their license plate was stolen so they could get a new one and stop having problems every time they crossed the border. The government was convinced that some criminal had that license plate number. For me this means that I can be kitschy and have a nice Michigan license plate someday if I want.

4. I'm doomed! Doomed doomed doomed homework oh my god oh my god oh my god. Goodbye!