This was the routine. We were up, my clothes dropped into the laundry, me plonked in the shower, washing up, eating up, cleaning up, getting up to go and then sitting. A fair bit of sitting. After the first hour we were in Bremen, where D was waiting to be picked from his apartment. S, my siblings and I greeted him, saw his Rubix's cube collection and 3D printer, and then left the sweet little flat.
For reference, I should probably include a piece that I've sorely forgotten, 3D printers. Now, my brother has been teaching snowboarding in Austria for the past season; that's why we went down to see him. The reason why he came back up to Steyerberg is because he's now focused on settling down in his parents basement again, and in doing so constructing a mad scientists laboratory. No really. Instead of finding an industry job, he intends to use a large 3D printer and laser cutter to build projects of varying difficulty, ranging from a new speaker system to his own personal SWARM army. Don't ask. Anyways, he and D have definitely hit it off the charts on the nerdy scale, because D's thesis is on efficient structural modeling for such printing thingamajigs. D may or may not be helping, that's up in the air, but I've been aiding my bro in rewriting his proposal and designing a program structure. He is very excited, and after having travelled to the US, New Zealand, Austria, Germany, Spain, Italy, France, Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium, India, and Fiji, it seems like he's finally ready to settle down. Which is fifteen levels of fabulous for him, let me tell you. He'll also be starting a webcast called 'Guys in Bathrobes' (or LabJunkies), where he'll talk about the cool things he's crafting. In any case, we've been looking up all sorts of crazy 3D models to print in his lab, including this.
So that's been fun.
While I'm on a role, and invisibly getting groceries with the gang (plus chocolate from right next to the factory), I'm going to get started on my sister. She arrived back in Germany about a week before I did, and she's returning a day after I leave. To where, you ask? India. This is actually why my bro was there, he decided to surprise her by flying halfway around the world to the steps of her high school, where she attends class with kids from local regions, Europe, and the good ol' U S of A. As I've been prancing about the green-as-a-leprachauns-cap-my-god fields of Europe, My sister had been investigating various places of learning for her eventual venturing into the 'real world' (I've heard some say it even exists. Spooky). So yeah, she's been a bundle of indecision about where to go, but she's figuring it out. She wants to do philosophy, or writing, or something. She'll be returning to India pretty soon, and she's already missing all of us, the ones right in front of her.
Now that we've passed the next two hour drive, we can get to St. Peter Ording, where the International Kitesurfing World Cup was to be held. We pulled into a parking lot, in front of a high-rising apartment complex, and unloaded our stuff. Then the elevator, up to the 11th floor. Then into the roomy home that D and S inherited from their late grandfather, complete with trinkets and pictures and little wooden things coming out of everywhere. Each with their own little story, few of which S did eventually tell us.
I got the little girls room again. Lucky me (this actually turned out to be useful). My brother and S left to find an internet cafe (no connection, otherwise I might actually be up to date (hahahaha no)), and D, my sis and I went for a walk. We found a winding path into the forest, and followed it to a dead end, which was probably the local teenage 'fun' spot. We came back to the apartment, and started on dinner, just as S and my bro returned. Pasta was on the menu, with a red pesto. We watched Life of Pi (brilliant movie, by the way), and then were off to bed.
Up the next morning, I rolled about in bed before realizing everyone else was already up. Luckily for me, I was the only one in the house with a door to my room; everyone else had woken each other up. S had to work, and had already left to get in a couple of hours at a hotel, where she could get the wifi password for a flirtatious smile. My brother and I went about locating a leak on his 12 meter Cabrinha Crossbow kite. Of course, upon filling the tube to max pressure, we lifted it up to hear a sound like a gunshot dipped in water. The inner tube had ripped. The 100 euro tube, and my brother is broke. So no kiting for us. We headed out to the town, and tried to rent two more bikes (D and S had two, and my bro had his skateboard), but they were all being used, at both stores we went to. We found S, and then headed to an Italian place for lunch. Then it was out to the beach, to watch guys being swept around around by current both in the air and the water. We played with some Rubix's cubes with cold hands, and my brother's smooth talking got him testing out a 14m kite on the sand. We headed back when we were chilled and tired, but with the one bike, my brothers skateboard, and four of us (S had returned for more work time), there was only one option for return. We wouldn't walk. Oh no. We had to get D on the bike. And then have my sis on the back. And then use a kite strap to pull along a skateboard. Which my brother sat on. With me behind him. Clutching on for dear sweet windy life. So, our little caravan lurched along for a little bit, swerved, crashed, tried again, crashed, rearranged, crashed, retried and crashed after we got some good distance. We opted to separate the two parts, with D and my sis riding on the bike, and me walking with a harness attached to me, pulling my brother. Curious onlookers were met with "oh, sorry, just walking my human," and "it's okay, he doesn't bite. usually." We switched a couple of times, but got back to the apartment without trouble. We made pizza, and, although this was the night to party, we opted out, instead chilling and chatting. Then bed.
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