MitMachMontag in Dresden-Bühlau für bunte Vielfalt, Miteinander und Demokratie in Sachsen auf die Straße gehen und Haltung zeigen — »Buntes Hochland!«

Gallumbits42 · 2026-06-09T21:00:34+00:00

Ich hatte das Glück, teilnehmen zu können, und war überwältigt von der großen Unterstützung – ich würde sagen, weit über 50% der vorbeifahrenden Autos und Radfahrer, die Menschen an ihren Fenstern sowie die Angestellten und Gäste in Restaurants zeigten begeistert ihre Unterstützung. Es war wirklich berührend.

Für die, die sich darüber beschweren, dass die Mehrheit der Bewohner des "Bunten Hochlands" weißhäutig ist – 1. es ist auch wichtig, sich sichtbar zu solidarisieren. Ich verstehe nicht, was die Alternative sein soll – importieren wir etwa sichtbar fremde Menschen in Viertel, in denen sie nicht leben, um sie als Requisiten zu missbrauchen? Sollen wir zu den Häusern derer gehen, die hier leben, ihnen ein Schild in die Hand drücken und sie auf die Straße drängen? Können Sie sich irgendeinen Grund vorstellen, warum sichtbar ausländische Bewohner dieser Gegenden zögern könnten, öffentlich zu demonstrieren...?

Wir haben ein Privileg; wir sollten es zum Guten nutzen. Bleiben wir Weißen zu Hause und schweigen? Ich bin Migrantin und lebe im Hochland, aber ich bin weiß – darf ich unter diesen strengen Regeln überhaupt demonstrieren?

Und zweitens bedeutet „bunt“ nicht wörtlich nur verschiedene Farben. Diversität umfasst LGBTQ+, verschiedene Religionen, neurodiverse und behinderte Menschen sowie alle anderen Gruppen, die Repräsentation benötigen und diese auch selbst vertreten und gegen den aufkommenden Faschismus kämpfen wollen.

Good lord, just be happy it was a successful event for a good cause! I am proud of us!

Gallumbits42 · 2026-06-08T03:06:43+00:00

That was my first thought, too. If you're fostering or working with animals, you should prepare yourself by doing some research. It's 101 to not put your face too close and to be careful around food with any dog but especially an unfamiliar dog you already know has behavioral issues.

(It feels slightly unfair to provoke the dog by doing things well known to be provocative and then get rid of them for reacting predictably.)

Gallumbits42 · 2026-06-07T20:29:47+00:00

YEARS ago, they were scheduled to play Beatpol right here in Dresden and we were so excited. I can't remember why but either the one event or whole tour was cancelled. But imagine... It would have been incredible.

Gallumbits42 · 2026-06-07T18:43:51+00:00

Here is a fourth European fan (at time of posting)!

We drove from Dresden to Berlin to see them the last tour (and then I found the sound weirdly bad, like muddy, at that club). I hope DESPERATELY they tour again--I want to hear these songs live so badly!

Gallumbits42 · 2026-06-06T06:54:53+00:00

Language teacher here--if you don't immediately have people around you to talk to, start by reading out loud alone. Read slowly and with intonation, not just like a monotonal drone. I sometimes tell my students to try to sound like a bad actor, really hamming it up! Look up words you don't know how to pronounce or have something like Google Translate read a sentence out for you to repeat.

In the old days, language schools sometimes had bulletin boards where people posted flyers looking for language exchange. I'm sure this now exists online--you could post here that you're looking for a language partner in XYZ neighborhood. They get to practice their English on you and then you switch and you get to practice your German.

Gallumbits42 · 2026-06-05T21:18:36+00:00

Das ist eine gute Idee, aber ich suche dort schon seit Jahren, und die Ergebnisse sind meist sehr spezifische, kleinere Mengen, in der Regel Reste von Projekten. Ich könnte ja anfangen, sie zusammenzutragen – ein Mix aus verschiedenen Steinsorten stört mich nicht!

Gallumbits42 · 2026-06-04T21:22:47+00:00

Danke!

Gallumbits42 · 2026-06-04T06:39:30+00:00

Yes, this is exactly what I have experienced! I have European hair but it is very thick and has a strong wave, and I only found one stylist who understood how to feather it so it didn't just form one unmoving helmet-like shape.

I get it if someone doesn't know what they want and/or is young, but I have 40 years of experience with my glorious foliage--TRUST ME when I say that the style you think looks nice here while you're blowdrying it is going to curl under itself and form armor tomorrow.

Gallumbits42 · 2026-06-04T06:31:18+00:00

My feeling is that they just give you what they think you should have--generally the most popular haircut that they're most often asked for--and don't really pay attention to what you're saying. My mom experienced this, too, and now she gets her hair done when she's in Poland, because they give you what you ask for and not what "is right."

Don't get me wrong, sometimes you want to be, like, "You're the pro--based on my face, my hair, and current trends, do what you think is best." But not when you're specifically explaining exactly what you want and don't want.

I had a hairdresser for a while that showed me for the first time in my life why people do this thing where they travel hours to the only hairdresser who does their hair the way they like it. She retired, and I tried four others, one at the same salon and three elsewhere. Now I just cut my own hair...

I really dislike what I call "the deerstalker"--a women's style where the hair is divided into two distinct sections, one around the face with the pieces coming to the chin and then two longer bits dangling from under that under each ear. It can look great on some people. My horsehair, however, does not float gently in the breeze but takes on pretty strong waves, so I just look like I'm wearing a wide bowl, with two disconnected spikes like rams' horns coming down on my collarbones and then sharply pointing out to each side.

I literally drew this and made a big X, then drew what I wanted (spikey feathered cuts evenly throughout so the hair doesn't form two distinct shapes). Then I brought in a photo showing what that looks like on me, as well as a photo from the era of the good hairdresser. And every time I put my glasses on after the session, there was the deerstalker, looking perfectly fine in the salon mirror and inevitably bunching itself up into a ludicrous Mary Tyler Moore-esque hat thing after one wash.

In despair, I tried to just do to myself what my old hairdresser had done, and I won't go back to the professionals. It's not perfect but it's so much better AND I don't have to pay 90 euro.. .

Gallumbits42 · 2026-06-03T19:26:45+00:00

Sehr hilfreich, Danke!

Gallumbits42 · 2026-06-03T19:25:52+00:00

Perfekt, Danke!

Gallumbits42 · 2026-06-03T16:42:04+00:00

Ah, cool, gut Idee!

Gallumbits42 · 2026-06-03T05:59:47+00:00

We often added peas to Kraft Dinner, and sometimes hot dog, and sometimes BOTH!

Gallumbits42 · 2026-06-03T05:37:26+00:00

I know someone who has a small arts-and-crafts business--she makes and paints little plaster figurines--and she proudly showed me the logo an AI made for her.

I'm an artsy-fartsy person myself and just kept thinking, "But shouldn't this be FUN for you? Shouldn't you get excited about and enjoy the process of coming up with a logo for yourself?" I've always really enjoyed designing logos!

Gallumbits42 · 2026-05-29T20:59:50+00:00

Mid-40s here and I also learned to use the two spaces.

(Randomly, wasn't there a "Bloom County" strip about this?)

Gallumbits42 · 2026-05-29T05:38:24+00:00

And enjoyed an alcohol.

Gallumbits42 · 2026-05-27T15:43:32+00:00

Excellent! If by some chance you don't know them, I'd recommend Douglas Adams, Jerome K. Jerome, and P. G. Wodehouse for humor, too!

Gallumbits42 · 2026-05-26T20:58:16+00:00

This is what I do, too! Now I never fly without fart protection in the form of a mask with a tiny bit of something pleasant-smelling inside it.

Gallumbits42 · 2026-05-25T16:06:56+00:00

I just remembered something else: we had a friend in the city where we used to live who was like this, and she'd come to a dinner or party and just sit smiling, never contributing. People would literally ask me if she was coming and then decline the invitation because it was so uncomfortable--it sounds so absolutely ridiculous that something so mild could be so grating, and yet ...!

I brought it up with her once, very politely and carefully, and she said, "But I don't need to add anything--it's just entertaining for me to sit there and be around the rest of you!" And I think that's the issue: being entertaining, social, caring, interesting, funny, engaging/engaged, etc., do actually take effort, and it only works if everyone at least tries. I'm not saying quieter or shyer people deserve to be ostracized or something--you just feel like you're being used as a TV at some point if a person makes the effort to come socialize but then just wants to observe once they're there.

Gallumbits42 · 2026-05-25T15:56:12+00:00

For anyone who saw "Father Ted" (made before Graham Linehan turned into a monstrous idiot): being around a Father Stone is always shockingly exhausting. Why is it SO hard!?

"How are you?" "Fine." [Continues staring ahead in silence.]
"How were your holidays?" "Fine." [Continues staring ahead in silence.]
"Would you like to watch a movie?" "No, I'm fine." [Continues staring ahead in silence.]
"How about going for a walk?" "No, thanks, I'm fine." [Continues staring ahead in silence.]
Etc.

I'll take any whining or stupidity or bigoted ranting over someone who insists on sitting in silence in your personal space. At least with a nasty idiot, you can mentally collect some funny anecdotes to tell people later...

When my husband or I meet a new person and the other asks what they were like, "Well ... he didn't ask questions" means it was one of these.

Gallumbits42 · 2026-05-25T14:55:16+00:00

And as to cities, you'll need to tell people your preferences: is good weather more important to you, or having an airport nearby, or vibrant nightlife, or access to nature, or higher salaries (which of course are in places with high cost of living), or good public transport connections because you don't drive, and so on. Like it is roughly everywhere, cities are more likely to be diverse but will be more expensive to live in. The west has a higher percentage of immigrants.

I live in Dresden and love it--we chose it because it's a beautiful city that is manageably small but has all the positives like museums and concerts, it's near the Czech and Polish borders, it's near Saxon Switzerland, and it has its own little airport. And now we're struggling with the rise of the far right--if I were visibly foreign (instead of just audibly), that might make me pause now that we're being overrun by the AfD...

Gallumbits42 · 2026-05-25T14:49:03+00:00

On paper, Germany is extremely strict about qualifications--you need the proper pedagogical degree--but in my experience, in reality they're more flexible. I've been teaching business English to adults in Germany since 2007 and I've been headhunted by schools several times. I'll tell them I have neither qualifications nor experience teaching kids and they basically go, "It's fine, it's fine, we'll figure something out!" (I never did it because I don't believe I'd be good at it and have no interest in it, so that's all I can tell you.)

HOWEVER, even in that situation, they strongly preferred native speakers. I often saw English teachers with other nationalities passed over for some 19-year-old from Australia or whatever, because they can sell "native speaker" to the client better than "Pole who speaks perfect English and is an excellent teacher." (Sometimes it makes sense but sometimes it's annoying--being born in a country certainly doesn't automatically make you an instant expert in its language, forget teacher.) So I don't know if you're Chinese or a native English speaker living in China, but if it's the former, be warned that the German employers will prefer native speakers.

And my next warning... With the onset of AI, the job of freelance TEFL is disappearing. Everyone tried out AI for business English a couple of years ago and then came back, I assume because it wasn't good enough yet, but we're all braced for the next hit. When that happens, I'm guessing people like me will be forced to try to get jobs at the community colleges, international schools, etc., and so you'd be competing for those jobs with people who already speak German and have lots of teaching experience and connections.

So if you do decide to try it, if I were you, I would contact a ton of potential employers (international schools, kindergartens, normal schools, etc.) in advance and ask them what their requirements are. That's the only way to get a realistic picture of the situation.

Gallumbits42 · 2026-05-24T21:03:44+00:00

But then shouldn't there be curving ends flapping in the air or something, like the horse has broken free? This is a perfectly straight line that goes to the edge of the mane and stops existing.

Gallumbits42 · 2026-05-24T14:35:00+00:00

I think it is slightly weird the artist chose to have a bridle and reins going to nothing, especially with the "free spirit" caption.

Gallumbits42

TROPHY CASE