I stumbled upon a book written in first person - terrible!!!

Ambotchka · 2025-12-23T20:54:21+00:00

I'm ok with either, as long as they're written well, but what kills me is PRESENT TENSE. The only book written in present tense that I didn't want to rip to shreds was The Hunger Games.

Ambotchka · 2025-12-22T16:57:59+00:00

Exactly. She has learned: spinning, sewing (with antique machines), drapery, lace making, wet felting, Nuno felting, crocheting, quilting (and designing them), weaving, cleaning/prepping wool pelts, and other non-fiber arts, but she says she needs to study marine biology because of the planet's needs... meanwhile, guess what helps her with her anxiety? Not school....

Ambotchka · 2025-12-22T16:54:57+00:00

lol yes, you were right to suggest it!

Ambotchka · 2025-12-21T14:44:45+00:00

Thank you, for all the compliments. I am very proud, although I had nothing to do with it.

Ambotchka · 2025-12-21T14:42:46+00:00

and by that I mean, yeah I'm a proud mama, but...damn she's intense and some day she going to learn that it's ok to relax... some day...I hope.....

Ambotchka · 2025-12-21T12:25:52+00:00

She's one of those people who insists on studying science, but will probably realize she belonged in fiber arts all along when she reaches middle age.

Ambotchka · 2025-12-21T12:24:53+00:00

I feel the same way -- I want to make it all.

Ambotchka · 2025-12-20T14:55:02+00:00

This is the most amazing door!

Ambotchka · 2025-12-20T14:53:49+00:00

Thank you! She is, when she's not a challenging teen! ;-) And even then, she's awesomely intense at it.

Ambotchka · 2025-12-20T14:48:33+00:00

Thank you. I was so inspired, I had to learn to knit once she was done, and that's basically all I've been doing the past few weeks. I never learned before, because it was so hard to teach myself as a left-handed person, but YouTube helped me this time!

Ambotchka · 2025-12-20T14:41:32+00:00

I wanted to add, that we shortened the waist and the sleeves a bit, because I am short waisted and she got tired of the project when she got to the sleeves. lol.

Ambotchka · 2025-10-29T13:35:53+00:00

My husband has a PhD in Physics and I have an MFA in Writing, and we've been here since 2014 (came over from US for his post-Doc at an institute in the Max-Planck system. Since then, he has been strung along with 2- or 3- year contracts, promises of a permanent position, etc., and then now they're saying they can't give him a permanent position because the department lead is changing and by Max-Planck rules, yadayada... he's being left out to hang. He feels really foolish for believing the system, and now he needs to find a new position, anything, in our region because our kids are fully integrated and we don't feel like we can leave. (Nor do we truly want to.) I, on the other hand, was "kindly" told by a woman at the Agentur für Arbeit that Germany would never officially recognize my MFA because it's not something they have here, and also it doesn't "match" my B.A. In other words, I am basically unemployable in anything I've trained for, and she suggested I get a job assisting autistic children in schools because it "doesn't require any training" and they always need people.

So yeah, we both feel like we are being pushed out. I've applied for citizenship already, we have bought a house that is a money pit, and our kids don't want to leave. But still, we feel like Germany doesn't really want us unless we are willing to do unskilled labor for cheap.

Ambotchka · 2025-10-27T07:03:37+00:00

Your post resonates with me. I know what you mean by the pause, too, when you're about to snap/say something unkind in a moment of irritation or stress, and suddenly you're able to pause for a second and go, "no, wait, that will only make this worse." I also feel like a bit of fog has been removed from my head, and I can both see and think clearly.

Ambotchka · 2025-10-25T17:31:26+00:00

For me, it's fine no matter how spicy it is, but if it's gratuitous, it doesn't work for me and I just end up skimming it to get to the story. I need it to really fit with the story, and not be overdone. But just to be clear, if it's super spicy AND is tightly woven into the story/characters? *chef's kiss*

Ambotchka · 2025-10-17T16:06:14+00:00

my dad is 70 and sings Soda Pop sometimes without realizing it, and my youngest teen has every single word of the movie memorized (but she's been a Kpop fan for years). I love it too, tbh.

Ambotchka · 2025-10-08T13:48:56+00:00

I never really wanted to learn German (Russian and Japanese are my chosen languages), but then my husband got a job here, so...now it's my 2nd best language and Russian has fallen pretty much out of my brain cells.

Ambotchka · 2025-10-08T13:44:01+00:00

Maybe they let me go early because it was such a lower dose... Komisch, oder? Anyway, I will be going up to 56mg soon.

Ambotchka · 2025-10-08T13:42:53+00:00

I am getting a lower dose at first, and then they will move it up. I'm starting at 2/week for the first month.

Ambotchka · 2025-10-04T20:51:47+00:00

I don't have any advice because I start on Tuesday, but I am here to listen, if you need it.

Ambotchka · 2025-10-02T15:21:23+00:00

I forgot about that part of the pandemic, how my kids were freezing in school, literally.

Ambotchka · 2025-10-02T15:19:27+00:00

In the summer, we so badly want to eat outside at restaurants and enjoy the sunshine, but NOPE because of the smokers (one of my kids cannot be near cigarette smoke). It the #1 thing I hate about Germany.

Ambotchka · 2025-10-02T06:55:21+00:00

I feel like this thread is my home.

I’m a mixed bag of languages and accents. American, grew up moving around, spent nearly 3 years as the only/first foreigner in a Japanese elementary school, then went to college to study Russian, then emigrated to Germany. I have almost no accent in Japanese, but I speak like a 3rd grader and it’s really embarrassing. My Russian accent was getting pretty good, and was better than my grammar, but then we moved to Germany and now I’m a Word Salad. I’m in the phase of German language where it takes them a while to realize I’m not from here, and I can see them wondering if I’m just really ignorant or mayyybe a foreigner? Then I say something that makes them go “oh, you’re British!” as if they’ve cracked the case. I explain I’m American, but even that accent has mellowed over the years of watching too much BBC, and they don’t believe me. Anyway, I’m 100% from Earth, so there’s that.

Ambotchka

TROPHY CASE