A game a day: Tick

This game is from my friend Jennifer who currently lives in Erlangen (you should check out her blog, it's like totally famous... and she's kind of my blogging role model). She introduced Tick to us back in the fall and, although we don't get the opportunity to play as often as Uncle Stuart's Game or the Dice Game, it's still one of our favorites! Jennifer explained that this is a game her Grandmother claims to have invented. Of course, with any card game, it usually exists under many different names or with slightly different versions, but after many years of intense internet searches, Jennifer said they had found nothing to disprove her grandmother's claim.

Of the games posted so far this week, this is the most complicated to explain, but I also think it's one of the easiest to catch on to once you've played a hand or two. It involves a good bit of strategy, but also a little luck.

TICK (2 - 6 players)

What you need: two regular decks of playing cards, with jokers
Objective: to have the least points
Scoring: 2 - 10 are face value (that is to say,  2 is worth 2 points, 3 is worth 3 points, etc.), Jacks = 15 points, Queens = 20 points, Kings = 25 points, Aces = 30 points, Jokers = 0 points
How to deal: this is the tricky part of about Tick, the game changes with every deal. In total you play 11 rounds, and each round your are dealt a different number of cards. For the first round each player is dealt 3 cards; for the second round, 4 cards; 5 cards for the third round; 6 cards for the fourth, and so on until the eleventh round when you are dealt 13 cards. After everyone has been dealt a card, place the top card up for the discard pile
Wild Cards: this bit is similar to the dealing, in that it changes with every deal. There are two kinds of wild cards in every deal. Jokers are always wild through all 11 rounds. The second wild card, however, depends on the round. But, also like the dealing, it's pretty simple: first round 3s are wild, second round 4s are wild, third round 5s and so on. 
*Hint: If you arrange the score sheet like in the picture (with each deal labeled 3, 4, 5, etc.) it helps to keep track of how many cards to deal and which card is wild!
Taking a turn: To begin every turn you either draw from the deck or take the top card off the discard pile. To end your turn, discard a card. You should always have the same number of cards in your hand throughout the game. 
Getting a Tick: To get a tick means all the cards in your hand and no more (that means in the 3rd round you can only tick with 5 cards, in the 10th round you can only tick with 12 cards, etc.) are used in a set/run. Sets and runs are the same as Uncle Stuarts game in that you need at least 3 of a kind for a set or a straight of at least 3 (in the same suite) for a run. This means for the first 3 rounds (up to 5 cards in your hand) a tick can only be made with all cards of the same number or all cards in one straight. When you begin to have more cards in your hand, you can tick by having any combination of sets/runs. The only requirement is that all cards are used.

*Note: You keep all cards in your hand at all time, whether or 

not they are used in a run/set. You only show your hand 

when you have a tick/the deal is over.

Ending a deal: After the first player gets a tick for each deal, he/she says "Tick" and each other player gets one more turn. 

*Note: it is possible for more than one player to tick in a deal, if 

he/she is able to use all his/her cards in a set/run during the 

last turn. 

Counting points: If you'll remember, the goal is to have the LEAST amount of points, so when counting the points in your hand, all sets/runs of at least 3 count for zero points (whether or not you ticked, if you have a set/run of at least three you remove those cards from being counted). This also means if you have ticked, you have 0 points for the round (so please don't try to count your cards). After you've taken out all the sets/runs, add up the leftover points in your hand. That's your score. 

Like I said, this is one of my favorites, so enjoy!

Tomorrow's Game: Golf 

A game a day: Uncle Stuart's Game

This game is a Hotel Baptistella staple. It's one of the many versions of rummy (perhaps you'll recognize it by a different name), and is a family game brought down to the mainland by my island friend Gemma from England. As for the etymology of the name, it is called so because the game was introduced to Gemma's family by none other than Uncle Stuart (who, I am excited to say, I will get to meet in a couple short weeks - shake the hand of the genius who has provided hours, days and weeks of entertainment for Gemma and I).


Uncle Stuart's Game (for 2 or 3 players)
What you need: a single deck of cards, no jokers (a for real 52 card deck, 2-10 Jack Queen King Ace, in case you come from a country *ahemgermanyahem* where strange and unusual decks of cards are used).
Objective: Be the first player to reach 500 (for a shorter version play to 300, or for a never-ending version - like the one Gemma and I play - play to 1,000,000) 
Scoring: Cards 2 - 9 are five points each; 10s, Jacks, Queens, and Kings are 10 points each; Aces are 15 points each.  
How to deal: 7 cards are dealt to each player. Note that the dealer should start the deal with him/herself and is also the first player to take a turn. The dealer also deals him/herself an extra card in place of drawing a card for the first turn
Taking a turn: Each turn is started by drawing a card from the deck or discard pile, or scooping and ended by discarding into the pile*. During your turn you may lay down new sets/runs or play on other's sets/runs. 

 *the discard pile should be organized as shown in 

the picture below, with each card showing and the

 earliest card discarded on the bottom and the last 

card discarded on top. 

Getting points: All cards in your hand are negative points, while the cards laid out in sets/runs in front of you are positive points. To be able to lay your cards out, they must be either in sets of at least 3 of a kind or runs (in the same suite) of at least three. No player is allowed to lay down any cards during the first round. On a players first time laying cards out he or she may only lay out one run/set (the number of cards used, as long as at least 3, does not matter) but can not lay down a 2nd run/set or play on another players set/run until the next turn. After this players may lay down as many cards, sets or runs as they have during any turn. 
Drawing from the discard pile: there are two ways to draw cards from the discard pile: either by picking the last card or scooping. Both options take the place of drawing a card from the deck to begin a turn.  A player may pick up the last card in the discard at any point during the game, the player does not have to use this card immediately. A player may only choose to scoop from any point in the discard pile if he or she already has at least one set or run laid out. If the player scoops, he/she must immediately use farthest card to which he/she scooped. For example, if scooping from the discard pile in the picture, if the player scoops to the 3 of hearts, he/she must immediately play the 3 either in a run, a set, or on another players run/set. The player may then choose to use any/as many other cards from the scoop in the same turn. 

*the player can use any number of cards from 

the scoop to make a run/set. For example, in 

the picture, if a player has one 5 in his/her 

hand, he/she may scoop all the way to the 

first 5, gaining two 5s to make a set of 3. 

Playing on another player's set/run: You may only play cards on another player's sets/runs when you have at least one set/run laid out. There is no minimum number of cards required to play on another player's hand. When you do play on another player's hand lay the card(s) out in your own pile (you get the points for any cards you play) and specify which set/run your card now belongs to. Once assigned to a set/run, a card cannot be changed. 
Ending a deal: each deal ends immediately when a player has no more cards in his/her hand. At this point, the players count all the points left in their hands and subtract that from all the points they have played on the table. Any sets/runs left in the hand when the first player goes out, must be counted as negative. (Negative scores are possible)


It is slightly more complicated than yesterday's game, but relies a lot more on strategy. Gemma and I have been playing our "never-ending game" since November (she's kicking my ass), and can still sit and play it for hours on end! 

Tomorrow's Game: Tick 

Ein gutes neues

Happy new year, internet people!

I'd like to start this by thanking everyone who didn't say anything about me coming home for Christmas! I've never gotten to pull off such a big surprise before, and despite the 24 hours of traveling, the 3 different planes, and the sleep deprivation, it was very exciting and totally worth it! Don't worry, there is a video of the actual surprise on youtube.

I was nervous about going home for Christmas. During the first four months I felt like I had really settled in well, and I was afraid going home, even for a week, would reset that and cause me to have to resettle all over again. But really, it hasn't. I had a great week at home, being able to see my family and visit my friends. In some ways I wished I had had more time, in other ways I was glad to be headed back to Germany.

Luckily, Gemma got back the same day I did. Which meant I didn't have to sit around and be bored and lonely for a week. We had one more week after our return to Germany before school started back, so we really made the most of it. Oh, that's right - we played cards. Let me explain, Gemma and I have a running card game that we started back in the week of our fall break when we still hadn't been payed. We've been keeping a running score since that fateful week in November. Before Christmas we had just reached 10,000. That's two months worth of playing. Last night after one week of card playing, we just broke 20,000. We enjoyed our week. We did get out a few times: shopping in Erlangen, movie and drinks in Bamberg, trips to the grocery store so we didn't starve, things like that...

Finally yesterday it was back to the grind. Of course, averaging about one class a day so far, it hasn't been too taxing yet. Yesterday I got to pull out a sort of old faithful lesson plan: the civil rights movement and Martin Luther King and today I just did the whole "interview the foreign girl" thing

Side note: I have mixed feelings about the whole "pretend you don't speak German" thing that teachers ask you to do. Not because I'm against it pedagogically, I do see the point in it. But it just goes against every nature of my being. For the past 4 months, my biggest pet peeve is going out and people assuming you don't speak German or would rather speak English. Now, I recognize that 7th graders who are trying to learn English aren't making assumptions about my language abilities. Obviously. But then I also hate when they ask "do you know any other languages?" When I have to lie and say "no" I feel like I'm just feeding that stereotype that English speakers don't ever learn foreign languages, they feel like their language is superior and therefore the only one worth knowing, or what have you. I actually take a little pride in thinking I'm helping to change that stereotype. Then, of course, when they ask how you ended up in Germany, things just get awkward "uh... I was just really interested in Germany. It seemed cool, ja?" Like I said, from a teaching standpoint it makes total sense that I would pretend not to know German. When students know you understand their native language, they tend to just give up on the new language whenever they feel like it. I guarantee if they knew I spoke German at all, half of those interviews would have just ended up with questions like "have you got any... uh... hmm... uh... Geschwister?" But instead, they would work just a little harder to come up with "brothers and sisters". But from a language student standpoint, it is difficult to just sit there and say "no, I do not know German. The only language I know is Engish." It's just strange!

Things look like they're going to be pretty low key for the next few weeks. I have my first band concert coming up this Saturday, but other than that, no big plans. We have our first break of the new year in March (the same week that UGA has spring break, actually) and I just booked my flights to Edinburgh to visit Shahida again! I'm really excited to get back up there to see her, and we're trying to gather more of the old Zurich crew as well too.

I'll try to be good about keeping you posted on all the exciting happenings here in Forchheim (I'll let you know when we hit 30,000 in our cards). And, imaginary internet people, I hope you have a wonderful 2011!

Oh, and while I've got you here, new pics have been posted!

Fulbright - 2011 and I'll be Home for Chrismas

Catch up

Oh hey blog, I almost forgot you were there! I'm sorry I've been so horrible about posting this month (3 posts for November so far, compared to the 14 of October. And not a single vlog!).

But lets not focus on my short-comings as a blogger...

Life has definitely been picking up since we last talked. Gemma and I finally got paid so we've been able to leave the apartment without fear! But there was some irreparable damage done... for example, the fact that we discovered a mutual love of wine and card games, making it much less exciting to leave the apartment when the promise of both waits for us at home.

On Wednesday we had a day off (some obsolete religious holiday that only the schools still observe), so Gemma, Andy (an ETA in Erlangen -click his name for a link to his vlog-), and I went down to Munich for the day to meet some other friends, 2 from Munich and another from Passau. The actual reason for the trip was to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 in English, but visiting friends and seeing Munich was an added bonus. We all felt honored (dare I say, unworthy?) that such a big movie was being released in Germany 2 days before its US release? For once we had the upper hand in pop culture by being in Germany (trust me, this doesn't happen very often).

I'll spare you a full movie review, but I do want to say that I thought the movie was fantastic! There were parts that weren't great, and plenty of details from the book were missing. But people need to stop expecting movies to live up to books, in general. There is no way you can fit every detail from a book into a movie. Not only just because of time constraints, but also because the two mediums, book vs. film, don't always allow for the same channels to inform the audience. Where, in a book, an important detail can be brought to light simply by the narrator mentioning it, in a movie, it would have to be added in a character's line or somehow visualized. So while the movie is based off the book, you can't watch it with the expectations of it being exactly the same.

right, sorry about that little tangent... back to life in Germany?

Not too much new or exciting at school. I'm starting to worry about changing schools with Gemma in March (that's when their semesters change), because I'm just now settling and feeling comfortable with my teachers and the way my school works. I still don't even know half the teachers' names (even some that I've worked with several times....)

I did get to make an awesome Quiz about drinking/going out in the US (click the link to the quiz for an idea of what kind of stuff we're allowed to talk about in school as opposed to in the US).

Gemma's parents are in town this weekend, so they have been out seeing the area. I met them for dinner in Nürnberg last night. But it ended up being the biggest night of coincidences. Gemma&co. were headed to Bamberg for the afternoon then to Nürnberg for the evening and dinner. My plan was to take a later train and just meet them for dinner. As it turned out, they ended up leaving Bamberg later than expected and we ended up on the same train down to Nürnberg. Then when we were walking around Nürnberg we decided to stop for our first glühwein of the season. Suddenly I heard someone say "Emily..." and since Emily isn't the most popular name in Germany, I was immediately suspicious. It turned about to be 2 other ETAs from Nürnberg who were supposed to meeting our other friend from the Erlangen area and her boyfriend. So there we were, all 8 of us, just having happened upon each other in the middle of Nürnberg!

It ended up being a fun night! Unfortunately there is a lot of construction going on on the railway between Nürnberg and Forchheim, so we had to take a bus to Erlangen. Well the bus dropped us off in Erlangen at 11:40pm and the next train wasn't due till 12:39. So we waited, in the cold, for an hour. But there were brownies from our newly working oven waiting for us at home, so it was all worth it in the end!

I'll leave you with this for now. I hope all of you in the US enjoy your Thanksgiving break and have a great holiday!

Life below the poverty line

"We strongly recommend bringing enough money to last 4 - 6 weeks (1,000-1,500€) when you first arrive." A wise suggestion from the PAD (long story, I know I'm here with Fulbright, but the PAD is really the organization in charge of everything, including pay).

Well, here we are 10 weeks since I started here in Germany and the only money my account has seen was travel reimbursement from Fulbright. Most of my Fulbright friends were paid within the first 2 weeks of October, but I wasn't worried, because I still knew people getting paid in the 3rd week. Well, as the last week of the month arrived, with our week long fall break on it's heels (this past week), I started to worry. I approached my teachers with my concerns and they reciprocated, so on Friday they called the powers that be inquiring about our payment. We were then told to give it to the end of the this week and if, by Friday, we hadn't received anything, to call back.

Monday: Nothing, turns out it's a bank holiday down here for all saints day

Tuesday: Nothing, no excuse.

Wednesday: Still nothing

Thursday: Nada - starting to question the need for an "if" clause when told to wait till Friday

Friday: ....Of course not.

But this post is not to tell you about the angry (and by angry I mean they included a lot of "please" and "thank yous"...) emails I've sent to Fulbright and the PAD. I wanted to give you a little glimpse into surviving a week vacation with no money.

On Friday last week I pulled out 100€ from my ever-dwindling American account to last me till we got paid (which I now consider the same as saying "to last me for the foreseeable future"). This 100€ would be my only funding for the week, for necessities, fun, travel, whatever I wanted/needed all had to fit with in my 100€.

So what do you do on 100€ for a week with all the free time in the world? Well at the beginning of the week, Gemma (who still hasn't been paid either) and I were pretty active. On Friday night we went out in Forchheim for the first time. Luckily, as beer is cheaper than water, a night out doesn't run the bill up too much. On Sunday we went out to the Franconian Switzerland region (Fränkische Schweiz in German) and spent the day hiking, splurged a little for lunch. On Monday and Tuesday we spent time with some teachers with Gemma's teachers hiking and visiting a "wild animal park" (basically a zoo with mostly animals you can actually find in the area) However, as the week progressed and we grew more skeptical of ever receiving our payment, we toned down the excitement a little and have spent the last couple days in the apartment.

I decided to compile a little list of some activities that can be done for free or relatively cheap over here in Forchheim.

1. hiking
2. visiting castle ruins
3. hiking
4. visiting castles still in use
5. hiking
6. playing cards
7. reading
8. sleeping
9. watching an entire season of Grey's anatomy
10. drinking
11. hiking
12. websudoku
13. pacing
14. doodling
15. facebook
16. writing blog posts filled with unnecessary links

from my original 100€, I still have almost 40€, but I'm very wary about spending any since I still don't know when I'll be getting paid for sure. But Gemma and I decided this recent poverty we've encountered, if nothing else, has been very character building. (and my Sudoku skills are much improved too)

Monetary donations can be sent to the address listed in the About Me section.**

**just kidding. Please don't actually send money. I mean, unless you really want to. But not really.