A clown
No mask
Otto Brües is a not very well-known German author. The event tonight in Krefeld took place in the house where he lived after World War II and where he died in 1967.
His daughter, Eva, turned her father's house into a small museum, which is also being used for literary events. Actually she donated the house to the city of Krefeld, but as she said to me tonight: “As long as I’m alive, the city of Krefeld allows me to live here.”
The reading and the discussion were being held in the living room of Eva Brües.
The boyfriend of the assistant to the organizer explained to me after the reading that he was a clown. He had studied mathematics and sport – I didn’t know you could study sport – after a few detours he decided that he wanted to be a clown, but a clown without a mask.
He doesn’t belong to a circus and I’m not sure if he really aspires to be part of a circus. My feeling is that he wants to be a private clown. Because of him and the peculiar but heartwarming Eva Brües the event is rewarded with an 8.
I forgot my camera tonight, so instead of a picture of the audience a picture of my bed in the Dorint Hotel in Mönchengladbach.
Klaus
"Scheitern" happens to be one of my favorit German words.A clown without a mask, you mean a melancholic type clown Pierrot or the fool August?
Arnon
I hope it's ok I ask something about the grading, it's a cultural difference that troubles me somewhat. When I have studied in Utrecht I got my first 8 and I thought it was a disgrace because I know when I'm good (and I know when I'm not). I came to the professor because I am an annoying Israeli who can't accept the arbitrariness of fate, demanding to know where was I imperfect. She said I wasn't imperfect and couldn't tell me what was wrong in the essay, so I've asked her where's my 10? She said that in the Netherlands 8 is the best you can get, 9 is for the teacher and 10 is for God. I was shocked cause neither the teacher nor God are paying tuition fee and none of the wrote the essay, but when in Rome do as the Romans do.In Israel I have no idea how students are graded because none of my Israeli professors graded me, their economically-frustrated assistants did, but then everyone within the system knows not to expect to find any correlation between performance and grades. The foreign teachers were yet another story, one of them, an Italian told us in the begining of the semester that she is foced by the institution to grade us, but since she despises the idea, all of us will start from 9. Then, if you get 9.1 it means you are an idiot and if you get a 10 you are intelligent and a good student too.
On a scale from 1 to 10 how much a Dutch are you when it comes to grading?
@ Sander
The same for Belgium. Sportkot, the nickname for the campus where students take sport as their mayor, is one of the most popular places in Leuven.Grades
Studying sport at the CIOS is wellknown in The Netherlands, that you could study sport at an academic level is new for me, but why not.I ones stayed at the Dorint, never had my pillows done in that way ;-), suppose you did it yourself?
About the grading, I am also curious, what does a grade mean to you. What says an 8 or any other number about the qualifiction you give to it?
Cheers
Natasza
A clown, that's sad. A circus planted its tent nearby. I plan to see an escaped lion in the future.
dream Arnon
Yes me too I once dreamed about Arnon. He came to my house and talked to my mother, he only stared at me until I said ‘I am Jan Thys”. “Yes, I know” he replied. It was like a scene from Little Britain.I remember a very funny one in wich he made an object floating. When I asked him if he ever experienced telekinese in real life, he answered no, only in the dream.
Cheers
Tz
