Dorian Gray and things not as they seem.

---

Today was my last day of break and I spent it doing the exact same things I've been doing every day for the past two weeks: read and sleep. I finished The Picture of Dorian Gray and I'm going to be so bold as to pick it out as deserving of the title of being my favorite book. Oscar Wilde is a fascinating, however, controversial, man. I suppose I should say 'was' though, because similar to the majority of my other favorite authors he has been dead for a considerable amount of time. I love his book though. I purchased it at the book store here called Mayersche. It's huge and has a lot of books in English..which is actually a gigantic temptation. Patrick and I had gone up to Starbucks to meet Kairi a few mornings ago and afterward he and I walked around the city a bit. I tried to tell him that he should talk me out of spending more money and buying that book be he refused to cooperate and I ended up getting what I wanted against my will. You must trust me, this truly does make perfect sense. So that's what I did today, I read that book and fell in love with Dorian Gray.

I didn't keep my nose in my book the entire day, however. Ralph, Monika and I went for a short walk through the park and over to Burkschied. It's autumn right now. The leaves are starting to turn. Autumn, in any country, is beautiful, but today on our walk it seemed as though no other place int he world could even come close in comparison. I wanted nothing more than to share that exact image and feeling with everyone I kenw, but of course just as with the North Sea, things like that just can't be portrayed through photos and words. In all truth, they were only trees. Trees reacting to a change in climate causing them to slow down their systems thus making the leaves change color and eventually shed. These trees weren't a special German breed only found in Germany. There weren't any more or less healthy than American trees. They didn't sing or dance or wear lederhosen. They were just trees, in a park, in a beautiful German city. Where we walked ther were a lot of hills. Ralph told me that in the winter these were the most popular among the children for sledding. Monika showed me a stretch of hillside and said that it was where she and Ralph would play together when they were children. Ralph and Monika were children together. They've known one another since they were both only 6 years old. As we walked away Ralph stopped turned around an motioned towards the large hills and such we had so recently meandered through. During the woald war countless homes and buldings were destroyed. Materials that could not be re-used were put here. Ralph remembers climbing and playing on the wrecked bulding materials when he was young. Nothing of this is exposed now, however. It was has since been coverd with earth and trees transforming it into the beautiful park that I so casually strolled through this afternoon.

---