On Monday my girlfriend and I went to the reading of the River City Writers Series. Wendy told us about. It was such a good idea to go there. I really liked it and it was even kind of entertainment for my girlfriend, while she is here going to university and practice with me all day.
The reading of Mr. Floyd Skloot was really touching I thought. The author exposed a whole lot of personal information about him. We know he lost his father when he was far too young. His brother died and his Mom got dementia. To deal with a fate like this must be so hard. To talk about things like that cannot be easily done. Floyd also did a good job on presenting his situation. He did not seem to want compassion. What he wanted was to inform people about his life so that they can understand his writing. The non-fictional part he read was the best, I thought. The fictional part was interesting, as well. He wrote it because he could create an existence at least in his books. I never thought about this issue in that way, but in his situation it comes to your mind easily. I would not want to have missed the reading.
My girlfriend and me decided to go to the next reading on Monday, as well.

After my girlfriend and I spent a music day on Saturday, Sunday was becoming an Elvis day. We went to Graceland. And it was so much fun to go there. We got there and bought the tickets. We had to wait for about and hour for our tour to get started. But that was not a problem at all. There were so many other things to see except Elvis’ house we would see on the tour later on. First of all we went to Elvis’ own airplane. It was not a regular airplane as you can imagine. It had two really pretty bathrooms in it, a sleeping room, one room where you could eat and anther which was used as a living room. We got to know that Elvis once flew to some other state with his daughter Lisa-Marie, because she had never seen snow before. So they flew there, she played in the snow for half an hour and they flew back. After we saw the plane we went to see his cars. His cars were just awesome. The Cadillacs were the best. He had a purple and a pink one. The pink one was just like the ones you see in the movies all the time. I will tell you about Elvis’ house next time.

On Saturday my girlfriend and I decided to make a music day. We went to the Sun Studio. That is the recording studio where Elvis recorded his first record. He went there and only the secretary was there. So he told her he wanted to record a song for his mother’s birthday. She led him record it and that is how Elvis was discovered. He entered into a contract for three years. The contract actually did not last for that time. It ended after a few records. After that Elvis got sold to another recording studio for 30,000 $. It sounds like much money but if you think about how much money Elvis made with all his records it is not that much any more. After Elvis had recorded in the Sun Studio many other famous singers and bands started to record there. One of them was Johnny Cash. Did you know that the Sun Studio is still used? Bands like Maroon 5 and Matchbox 20 recorded there. I was wondering about that because the studio is really small. It basically has one room for the band to play and one for the man who records it. In front of that room one finds some kind of an office for the secretary. That was basically it. Isn’t that amazing?

Attitudes

I like my English class but the peer reviewing made me aware of some things that cannot be right. There are some people who do not turn in their work on time and hinder other people to do their own work. But these people are still much better than the people who do not turn in their work at all. And even if one reseaves finnally the paper, it looks like an unfinished draft or a combination of the last papers that we wrote. Than one has to write peer reviews about papers which are not even clost to be researched in a proper way. Imagine a paper which is not double spaced, which does not include a work cited page, which has not one single convincing and thoroughly researched argument. One has to spend so much time with these type of texts. Come on guys, I have some more classes to study for, I have to practice every day and my girlfriend is visiting me – please do not waste my time in this way. I know that this English class includes a lot of work and that we are all very busy but if you send a paper to some group members just show some respect by putting at least some effort in your work. Alright, this has nothing to do with your personalities but just with some people’s attitudes.
I love you all!

Interview with Floyd Skloot

This morning we went to the interview of Floyd Skloot, the author some of us saw on Monday night. First of all, it was interesting to meet a person, who has been completely alien to you last week, for the second time this week and you already know a whole lot about him by the time you meet him again.
I liked how he talked about the difference between his writing in former times when he was not sick and after he got sick. It is really interesting to see how someone can develop because of an illness. I could imagine this is the case in a whole lot of situation, when people get sick. Suddenly, one sees the world with different eyes. The sickness probably opens your eyes for new things and for things that have been usual before, but which are much more important to you now.
Another fact that might have changed his type of writing might be the experience of living in the woods. I never heard about anybody who had lived in the woods for any time and he spent years living there just with his wife, cut off from the external world. Spending time like this has to change your personality in some kind of way. I cannot imagine he was the same he used to be after he got back from the woods.
Skloot was a really interesting person to meet.

watchdog knows everything

I read an article that was published by watchdog on March 3, 2008. The text was about all properties who do not pay property taxes in Memphis and Shelby county. The institutions which mostly do not pay are property taxes are governmental organizations and churches. There were a lot of institutions listed. From my point of view, it cannot be justified that some institutions have privileges over other private companies. Even though government properties serve the government which is suppost to invest in the citizens but in fact they just try to avoid taxes. The government gives itself the right to avoid taxes in order to minimize the budget which can be used for the citizens. This is not right. It is the same with the churches. They are religious institutions which have good values and use their money for useful goals. But this does not give them the right to avoid property taxes. If all these institutions would accurately pay their taxes probably some other important issues and problems could be solved or improved in Shelby county. Nobody should have privileges over others and everybody should be treated equal for the common better good. The politicians always think that they have special rights and can do what they want.

weekend off

This week coach made us a great present: He told us we will not have practice all weekend. Our last day off was Thursday. Today me and my girlfriend will start in a great weekend. I cannot image when I had so much time off for the last time. So here is what we are going to do: In 20 minutes we will leave to the mall. Of course the first thing you do, when a girl visits you is that you go to a mall: shopping. Can you imagine that I just went to a mall once since I am here? That is why I am looking forward to that as well. Later on I want to invite her to Texas de Brasil. She does not yet know what lies ahead of her. I just told her not to eat too much today. We’ll see what she says when she sees all the meat. We will probably just roll back on our bellies to Carpenter Center. As soon as we are back home we will meet my team mates and socialize with them. Maybe I will show her Beal Street later on. You have to have been there when you have been to Memphis. It is even famous for its blues bars in Germany. It will be a fun day.

spring break

I spend my entire Spring break in Oklahoma. This is just my second semester that I spend in the United States and my first Spring break but I have already been to a lot of different states. Due to the fact that I am in the Memphis Tennis team I have been in Florida two times, in Georgia once, one time in Middle Tennessee, in San Diego, in Arkansas, once in Mississippi and in a few other States. But from all the States I have been to Oklahoma was the worst. There is no beautiful nature like in Florida or San Diego nor are there big cities at least not where I have been. It was really boring in Oklahoma because there is not a lot to do. I spend most my time with my room mates, practicing, eating, sleeping and preparing for our matches.
One day we went to a movie theatre which looked like an old big garage. We watched “No Country for Old Man” and there were two other people besides us. In the whole movie theatre which says a lot about this place. By the way, the movie was very interesting and different from what I have seen before. And me and my team mates had discussions about that movie even a couple of days after we watched it.
Oklahoma seems to be a “dead” State. I did not recognize any people out there, we were driving hours and the only things that I saw were some trees, cows, horses and prairie. Once in a while we saw another car on the high ways but besides that I felt really lonely in Oklahoma.

She is here!!!

Today was the day: my girlfriend from Germany arrived! I was so excided the whole day about her coming that I could not really concentrate on anything else but counting the hours until she would come. One can probably imagine that those hours seemed to be days… After my classes I quickly send her one last message that said I was really happy to have her with me soon, went to practice and then headed strait to the airport with a team-colleague of mine, who drove me over there. I told her I would not make it to the airport on time, because I had to practice and my coach would not let me go earlier so she did not expect me to be there. She thought someone else from the team would pick her up. The problem was that she got to the airport too early. So she called me and I told her WE were on our way – that was my mistake because now she new that I was coming to the airport as well. Too bad ... Of course this did not actually decrease our reunion. It was the happiest moment for the last months, I think. I’m really looking forward to spend the next weeks together with her over here in Memphis.

The Church Health Center

During my research about my second part of the big paper I read an article about the Church Health Center in Memphis. The article was posted on our class site and it seemed to be really interesting and relevant for my topic. The Church Health Center was founded by Dr. Scott Morris and is supported by several churches. At the moment, they have 30,000 patients a year which just have to pay $ 10 and they will get treatment. This institution is a walk in clinic which people that is less fortunate, who cannot afford private health care or cannot afford full health care use. The organization which was founded 10 years ago is created for people who are less fortunate because it is open 70 hours a week so even people who work very long are able to get treatment. From my point of view, this organization is an amazing idea which should be applied on the entire American health care system. I am a realist so I know that it is not possible to run a health care system on a fund but the general idea that people who are better off pay more than the people who are less fortunate so everybody is able to get the same treatment is really good. This system works in other countries. The health care system is paid with the taxes and the people who are wealthier pay more than people who have less money. So everybody is able to get health care which should be the goal.