Today, I officially signed up to become a ‘Genosse’ (‘comrade’ for those non-German speakers and ignoramus about the history of class struggle). For some reason, they didn’t want Pat. Maybe they know something about her I don’t? Anyway, the funny thing was that as a pre-requisite to join the movement, I had to sign up for 52 membership shares, 52 being the number of square metros (here, auto-correct assumed me to be Cuban?) of our new home away from home, just a 10-minute walk or so away from the clÃnica. Everything has its price.
Genossen: our new house!
Thinking about my other fellow-Genossen, I looked up the German version of a famous song starting with “Wacht auf…”, literally: ‘wake up’. I played it for Pádraig to see whether he would catch on to the lyrics. But he was very relaxed today, not in fighting spirit and not very awake. All in all, there hasn’t been much of a change since yesterday, with the exception of a lot of the ‘markers’ we are watching all the time: his oxygen saturation was close to 100% (after being close to 90 yesterday), his heart rate was down, and so was his temperature. All good. – We asked the nurse whether anything noteworthy had happened while we had been away. No, she said, same as yesterday. On our way out we asked a doctor, whether all was ok. She called us into her office and told us that when they had stopped the ‘vacuum’ to see whether Pádraig’s left lung was going to stay as it should, the lung had collapsed again – a third time in little more than a week. They will try again in a few days time…
My rucksack doubled in size, with the rental agreement and a special arch lever folder for the hundreds of pages about how to properly air your apartment (I had to sign that one), the ‘Hausordnung’ (had to sign that one too), the constitution of the Wohnungsbaugenossenschaft, and all sorts of other really important stuff. The nice lady in the office told me to take it home and to read it ‘in aller Ruhe’. Good job she gave me this folder to file it all away, ‘in aller Ruhe’. I realized that I had forgotten all about what Germany was like.
There are several different version of this traditional song I mentioned earlier on youtube. It’s sometimes also referred to as “Die Internationale”. Most of them hover around the 300 hit mark, just two got above 18,000 hits. Compare that to yesterday’s recommendation, “Lieder”, that already has 6.8 million hits, after just a couple of months. Not sure what it is. What makes a ‘hit’, what makes a ‘miss’.
I am sure, “Wacht auf” will become a hit in 2014. It has got a great opening line and a powerful rhythm. I’ll just keep playing it to Pádraig.
Today’s German Music Tip
Unknown (original lyrics by Eugène Pottier), Die Internationale (“Wacht auf…”) (1871).
What’s hot
Visitors coming tomorrow. Irish. Andrew being interviewed on TnaG.
What’s cold
Long, dark evenings, starting at 3pm.
The German word/phrase/verse of the day
Wacht auf!
Twitter: @forPadraig
#caringforPadraig
web:Â http://www.caringforPadraig.org
Hospi-Tales 
Hi Reinhard! Haven’t spoken to you in a while, but I’ve been following everything that’s going on. Really glad you got your apartment sorted over there, can’t believe how much paperwork is involved! I wanted to get to Hamburg before Christmas but I have a new job and am not allowed take days off in December (we can have our Christmas in January, according to the manager!) so hopefully I’ll get to go soon, I know Pádraig has lots of visitors this month anyway. I was wondering if you could give me an address to send a Christmas card to?
Hello Emily, many thanks for your message! Here is the address:
Twiete 8
25881 Tating
Germany
Yes – the forms here are something else. One of the forms I had to sign (!) contained instructions about airing the rooms at least twice a day by opening the windows really wide for about 5 minutes. They managed to fill a full A4 page for this!
Hope to see you soon, and don’t work too hard:) Christmas will come soon – even if some will have to wait until January:)
I am happy to be able to contact you this way. We read all your posts and are happy being able to know how things are going on… We all send you all many besos – abrazos y más besos y abrazos to all of you. Please sent us via mail your new address so we will be able to sent you our usual Christmas Greetings!!!
I like the music you are posting its is new but very interesting.
Here is the address, Ana:
Twiete 8
25881 Tating
Germany
Hello, Reinhard,
Your correspondent Emily has reminded me that I too would like to send a card!
I’m glad you are getting the apartment sorted out, though the bureaucracy is daunting … and I very sincerely hope that the issue with Pádraig’s lung gets resolved soon.
I look forward to hearing Andrew’s interview on Raidió na Gaeltachta. I haven’t had even a minute to think about it since I read about it, but I’ll most certainly listen over the weekend.
With best wishes,
Louise
Hi Louise, hope you had to time to listen to Andres on RnaG!
Yes, Reinhard, I did indeed. (I hope Rónán of RnaG doesn’t mind if I say that I’m a bit unfamiliar with Ulster Irish … but I managed!) I knew I would be familiar with everything, or most things, that Aindriú had to say, and therefore I tried to put myself in the shoes of someone who just happened to be listening to the radio and had never heard of Pádraig. I thought Aindriú’s summary came across very well from this perspective – he had only a few minutes but he managed to convey a lot of important information in that time.
I wish you all the very best for the move into the apartment and, most of all, I hope that you and Pat will benefit greatly from not having the huge commute on a daily basis.
With best wishes,
Louise
Hello Louise – tomorrow at 13h00: Schlüsselübergabe, can’t wait. And yes, well done, Andrew!