19th Oct ‘19

{3201, Au} {Room}

I am curious if I can recover this account with this old mac i got from this family i am right now. Spotify is playing some sad lo-fi sound and my heart is aching from 11am until now, 8:15pm.

But this is not about me. This is about the little man who’s under this house. I am bit sad for him right now, I think he is lost and nowhere to be found, yet. He’s in a lot of trouble right now, academically and with his relationship with his parents-- my aunt and uncle.

I don’t know how to place myself between both of them. I love my aunt, especially, but I must not talk or act caring to my cousin because they are teaching him a lesson. But I was wondering if, is this the best way to teach a young man a lesson or is this the path where a bit by bit he will grow afar?

was spent at the beach (since I had so much fun last time). It was the weekend, so it was busier, and the water was cooler, but it was still an excellent day (: I haven't gone swimming for years, but I'm glad I've rediscovered this hobby.

Nudity is less of a deal over here. Nudity beaches are easy to find, and unlike in the U.S., mixed nudity beaches exist. Places such as Teufelssee (which I visited) had nude people as well as clothed people and nobody made a fuss. Nobody gawked at other people. There was no pressure to strip or to be clothed. You could go for a nice swim. Or you could sit and read a book. Either clothed or unclothed. Or you could just go tan without worrying about tanlines. It was wonderful. 

Some stuff I learned from going to the beach and also from the internetz.

FKK Etiquette:

do not take pictures without permission

do not stare. (this would be rude even if someone were clothed)

if sitting on a public seat, have a towel if you're nude

do not harrass/touch people. this is not a place to hit on people and people will not appreciate it. if you automatically sexualize naked bodies instead of treating them like they are, you are not mature enough to go to a nude beach

Pros of swimming naked in a lake

no gross wet clothing feel

no nasty chlorinated water

people can't see your body under water anyway so it doesn't matter that you're naked

other people are nude so it's not like people are here to judge you

My professor told me this factoid about FKK. Apparently part of the reason the nudity movement started was in an attempt for people to get more vitamin D (which is produced automatically by the body when there's sunlight). It wasn't some weird sexual thing. It was literally a health reason. 

Reading the comments on the internet, which were written by mostly Americans, made it clear that Americans tend to sexualize unclothed bodies. The amount of comments I read that said stuff like "nude beaches are sexy" or "bring a partner to go with ;)" or "it's an excuse to ogle that hot chick you didn't stand a chance with" was just mindblowingly annoying. Here's to hoping that in the future, Americans can be more European in the way they treat human bodies. Trust me, it's much healthier.

At work, I shadowed the nutrition ward again and learned that without proper motivation, treating patients is extremely difficult, if not impossible. Motivation may in fact be the most important thing when treating obese patients. Today, we met one patient who was very lazy-dazy indifferent about everything, and surprise surprise! He hasn't lost any weight. He claims that he can if he wants to, but that he simply doesn't want to. And the problem is that there's nothing that we can do about that. We can't force him to want to unless we scare him by talking about all the negative consequences of being obese. Overall, I came out of that session not knowing how the nutritionists would proceed in treating him.

Nothing special happened after work as I was pretty worn out by all the travelling I'd done.

I took the day off (with my supervisor's permission of course) because the German soccer team was coming home and coming to celebrate at the Brandenburger Tor. Getting into the park was a bit rough, as they had closed off all but one entrance. But I got in eventually! And as I got in, the airplane (Siegerflieger - "victory plane") carrying the team flew over us in a victory round. 

On the screens on the Fanmeile, they showed the plane landing, the players getting out and getting onto the bus, and then changing busses to an open rooftop bus and then slowly making their way to the Tor. Like, it took 3 hours for them to get to the Tor from the Airport because there were mobs of people on the streets. They finally emerged onto the stage in front of the Brandenburger Tor, were interviewed a bit, and then they left. I bet they were really tired. Afterwards, there was a music party. And so ends the World Cup festivities.