On my way back from German class this morning I stopped at the Kleinmarkthalle ("little market" which is not little at all) and bought five paperwhites, two hyacinth bulbs, and two French forcing jars, similar to the ones at Mrs. MacGregor's. As I walked among the bulbs, a few of which I’d never seen before, I handled some and then touched my face and arms. Apparently the rooting compound on the bulbs and my skin do not agree. I started to itch and scratch! I finally went to a meat counter and convinced them in my broken German that I had to wash my hands and face. It felt so good when I finished! So now I use paper or I don’t handle the bulbs, I just look. The ornamental cabbages are out everywhere now too.
But the major reason that I went to the Kleinmarkthalle was to buy pumpkins and gourds. Right now they have few in stock. I saw perhaps five gourds but only two pumpkins. Maybe I have to wait a week or two. I wanted to decorate the outside of our apartment door à la Halloween (everyone is supposed to decorate the entrance to one’s apartment—it’s the custom—but we haven’t yet), but I wasn’t able to find the pumpkins and gourds nor could I find anything that looked like Indian corn, even though I’m told that it does exist. Maybe I’ll wait for Christmas—I do have things for that.
I finally have a job with Big Bend Community College from Washington State. I’ll be teaching communications—writing really, four hours a day. And twenty hours a week is considered full-time! Wouldn’t it be wonderful if real-life teaching could be like this?