The Kestrel's Dreams

July 25, 2014

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Train Delays

I was on a train in Germany with Zukin; we were going back and forth between two stations, though I can't remember why we were doing so. Between these two stations, there was a city where trains weren't allowed, so the line had to go around it, adding a half hour to the trip, because they also had to go slower while going around this city. Zukin was complaining about how long it was taking. There might have also been a delay of some sort...

We decided to go to the car that had a little cafe in it, and we ordered some Maultaschen and Potato Salad.





Hospital School

I was with my family just before I got my fall placement in a school... I was with them in a huge building with stone walls and stairs, except for the stairs to the basement, which were made of some high-end wood. We were wandering this building and I was actually supposed to be volunteering with one of my cohort-mates, K.O. She had found out about it and wanted a challenge. I can't remember exactly what we were ding, but it was a hospital's school. Now that I think about it, the stairs remind me a bit of the stairs at my old high school, but these were much fancier.

I was looking for my family, and when I found them, we all went to the very basement, which was this huuuuuuuge room. I could barely see to the other end of it. We were waiting for some sort of event for families to start; there were a bunch of other families waiting with us.





Beautiful Birds

I was at a bird sanctuary, learning about different kinds of birds. One of them was a sandy-yellow colored bird with green wings and a red chest. There were two; a male and female pair. The female really seemed to like me. She was flying around me and would come to land on my finger when I held it out. They had such beautiful, melodic calls.

The ranger there was telling us about how their camouflage was very selective. In a normal tree, the red showed. The ranger even said "And they couldn't camouflage on me, either, because I'm wearing khaki!" he mentioned something about how you wouldn't be able to hide them by throwing them at him? I dunno. He was a bit bonkers I think. But then the birds flew into this meadow-thing, and completely disappeared. I couldn't see where the heck they were, until they flew back out and the female landed on my finger again.

I was sad to hear that this pair was one of the last of its species; they were also very old and were almost at the end of their reproductive ages. The ranger had earlier showed me that every time the female came to land on my finger, I was supposed to put a stamp on a page, and now he told me the meanings of the stamps. They automatically changed to the "settings" of the bird every time she landed, and so the different stamps meant different things about her health. He showed me that the stamps I had made on the paper showed that she was getting old, and only had a few more years of reproductive abilities. I was supposed to look for signs of near-death :(