The title is a German saying that derives from a poem from 1818 by Hermann Adam von Kamp and can be roughly translated to: „Everything new May will do“ though the proper English version would be „April showers bring May flowers„. Either way this proverb essentially means that May brings about change.
Literally speaking this of course refers to the now more steady weather (there is another saying that goes: „April, April der weiß nicht, was er will“ – „April, April, who does not know his own will“ that refers to April’s changeable nature) and Spring now slowly turns into Summer, causing vegetation to flourish, at least in the Northern Hemisphere.
Needless to say the first of May is also a national holiday here in Germany, a kind of Labour Day where all kinds of demonstrations are also a common thing. Let’s not forget the 30th of April that is celebrated quite differently as „Dance into the May“ („Tanz in den Mai„), Walpurgis Night or even Beltane.
Oh, how I’d like to take part or watch a proper celebration of one of the latter two…
We merely gather up to chat on the meadow at the base of an old castle and watch the hustle and bustle of people that enjoy the more village fête like character of the feast.
Anyway, on a more figurative level the new stuff May can bring about is change for a person, a life so to speak.
As I mentioned before did a new chapter start for me at the beginning of the month, as I officially became employed and received my degree at the End of March. But as April had thrown quite a bunch of stuff at me, both positive and negative, I have yet to find my footing and rhythm in this new chapter, though I will continue searching for it
Still, May also brings about some changes of its own.
For example am I starting as monthly writer for The Extremis Review and still don’t know what that’ll be like. (On that note: I have added the page and some other pages I am reading on occasion into the Blogroll, so you can check them out if you are interested)
Besides that is this May also the start of the festival season with the Out&Loud (former Beastival) in Geiselwind. DarkFairy and I will be attending it for the first time and quite a bunch of planning needs still to be done – I hopefully get my latest investment (an adapter for my headset as my new laptop only has a connector for speakers) in time so that we can at least discuss everything properly, instead of having to type everything.
Other than that did I spontaneously buy tickets for a concert of Bela B. (from Die Ärzte) whom I wanted to see live on his own for quite some time now.
On the weekend after the concert (10. May) will also be Germany’s version of the Free Comic Book Day, though I am not sure if I can actually participate in that as the nearest Comic book stores offering the comics are in Schwerin, Rostock and Berlin, all of which are not really around the corner from where I live.
I’m still curious to find out what other new things this May will bring, though I do hope the amount of good things is higher than the bad ones.
PoiSonPaiNter
Tag Archives: change
On the Road: Taking the Bus – Take Two
A couple of months ago I ranted about taking the bus and I really wish I could say that what I am about to tell you below is a really elaborate April Fools joke…but I’m afraid it isn’t…
The rough route to work…
For the last four and a half years I took a bus line to my workplace that directly connected the district I live in with the district I work in and a second one that drove into the opposite direction.
But as of today those two no longer exist.
What does exist are two new separate lines that cover half of the route each.
As I really like sketches I tried depicting the scenarios in what you can see on the left.
The green line is what it used to be, one cycle of bus lines that connected both districts. The red line is the connection of my living-district to the Central Station and the blue is a for me important part of the one from there to my work-district. The round thing symbolizes the ring we have surrounding the city centre, but I wont get into that right now as that would be to much off topic.
This morning the old lines where no longer in business and the new ones had started. A small part of me is proud that I did manage to make out the differences with the new lines and knew what I would have to do to get to my usual exit this morning, without having read about it somewhere. Sometimes I do like my ability to think things through based on little, but significant information, even at unearthly hours.
This whole change leaves now me with two choices when it comes to my stop, both of which are quite inconvenient in comparison to what it used to be like.
The choices are:
- Get out at the Central Station and switch into the other bus for the remaining stops.
- Get out at, before or close after the Central Station to walk from there to my workplace.
For someone who is far from being a morning person or let alone fully awake while taking the bus, a walk could wake me up a bit more, but I fear I am far too lazy for that.
On the other hand it probably will be difficult for me to remember switching the bus line in the first place for a couple of weeks and I’ll end up at a station where I do have to walk from before taking a full detour.
Another option I have, where my laziness might get in the way even more, is to use the upcoming better weather to get my bike to a check up and then actually use it to get to work; which is easier said than done if you live on a hill where going down is easy, but going up is awful…
Even though I complain about this change, I still do understand why it was necessary.
Further into the work-district a huge construction side started working today, so the traffic jam that area will cause will be quite long. If the complete cycle would still be taken by the buses this would cause enormous delays for the line to my living-district. Therefore the thoughts put into the alternative routes and the change itself is way more understandable than what I complaint about in the other post, but that does not mean I am supposed to like it.
I like my conveniences and especially a proper routine for certain things, so if you take that from me I will need some time adjusting and figuring out how I want to go about creating a new one.
The last few days have been pretty rough in regards to that and adjusting is kind of my top priority right now. It’s after all not every day that you change from being a student to be a full employee with a Bachelor’s degree. 😉
Still, why can’t this be an April Fools joke and my old lines have returned tomorrow? 🙁
I’d like that…
PoiSonPaiNter
