feuer

ummm.... ok. sure.

right.

.....

so yeah. caro just left - she is stefan's friend who, i guess, did truly come to look for a dvd. and she was very nice to show me about the oven. which, did indeed, mean the big ceramic block in the living room. apparently, to keep myself from freezing, i will now be mining for coals in the cellar, hunting for wood in the park, creating a fire in the bigger black... area on the oven, then waiting until the coals are "burning, but with no flame." At this point, I will then close some other door and let it burn to heat the room. right.

the only other time i have "made" a fire was when i was about 11 and my brother and i were home alone during summer break. there was one of those little tins with a candle less than an inch thick (like the size of your hand or something) sitting on the end table in the living room. being kids, we thought it would be fun to add paper to the candle to see how high we could get it to burn. or maybe that wasn't our intention, but that's what happened. the flame got so high, we had to move the lamp. we couldn't touch the tin to move it. we tried putting water on it, but it just made sparks fly and a crackling noise. so, i ran to the kitchen to get a towel and then i swiftly carried the candle to the kitchen sink and kind of threw it in. the wax went EVERYWHERE and the sink exploded in a quick, but impressive flame. the flame did not go out, though. it continued to burn on the little wick that was left, stuck to the side of the sink. we turned the water on and it eventually went out. i don't think either of us has played with fire since.

until now.

apparently, if i don't do this right, i can either 1) cause the flame to go out and have to start again (this happens by shutting the door open too soon) or 2) if i leave the door open too long, it will not burn correctly and i may harm myself physically with the "bad burning" of the wood. i'm only here 5 more weeks, so it's unlikely that it will kill me. if i do it wrong, of course. this whole process may take 2-3 hours before heat comes out... and i will have to start the fire in the morning and relight it when i get back at night. fun.

caro told me she never turns the oven on before mid-october, which is crazytalk to me because i almost FROZE last night. tonight is ok because of the many sweatshirts and the scalding hot water in the sink (which, btw, does not last very long - it truly is heating the water on the spot - how novel!).

well, no fire for me this weekend. it's first class to bonn tomorrow and then castles on saturday and first class on my way back (with hotels in between).

and for now: bett.