That's a direct quote from a German soccer player, basically "little kid's crap, so to say," describing his and the opposing team's goalie's behavior during the game. They were arguing, and one of them jerked his head a little bit for unknown reasons, but then they both fell to the ground holding their faces, pretending they had been head-butted. It was awesome, especially since one got a yellow card and the other got a red card. The one with the red card had to leave the game of course, and this was just before a shoot-out, which meant a normal field player had to step in as goalie...and he still managed to help his team win. Fußball rules.
In other kleine Kinder news, little 3 and a half year old godchild Lenjo was telling his father and I the other day about me being at their house, and I shall paraphrase: one day I was suddenly gone (that was in August), and he didn't see me for a little while, and then one day I was just there again (about a week ago), and he just didn't notice me because he was looking down and must not have thought to look up high enough. End paraphrase. It's funnier to hear it from the small German child's mouth, considering how earnest he was about not noticing me because he didn't think to look up, but how often do you get that opportunity anyway? He also regaled us with the story of how he used to say my name as "Äbäm" but can now say it the German way of "Ädäm." Of course, if you don't speak or read any German, you won't know how to say either Äbäm or Ädäm, but imagine saying the American name "Evan" but with a "b" or "d" in place of the "v," and an "m" in place of the "n," and you'll basically have it. Lesson complete.
Merry belated Christmas and frohe Weihnachten and so forth, and here's looking forward to a happy Sylvester as well, which you'll of course recognize as the Looney Tunes cat whose comical lisp (what cruel person invented the word lisp?) allows us to enjoy the fact that he always gets the stuffing knocked out of him when he attempts to eat adorable Tweety Bird. You also might recognize it as the time in life when a giant ball slowly drops from the sky, people all over whatever time zone chant numbers together, and the hopeful and the misguided make resolutions that are supposed to last 356 days but instead last for 356 minutes: New Year's. Being in Germany, I'll of course receive my new year 8 hours before most of the people I know, and even 9 or 10 hours ahead of those unfortunates toward the middle or west of America. I'm not sure if the telephones will work--I've never been able to phone back in time before, so I doubt you'd be able to hear me from the year 2006. But if I can somehow send a message all the way back to 2005, I'll see what I can do--you'll no doubt want to hear if 2006 is worth it, because everyone hates surprises, which is why we all tell each other what we want for Christmas and have a phrase about "upsetting the balance of things." That'th all for now, folkth.
Wednesday, December 28, 2005
Monday, December 19, 2005
Winter in Deutschland
So you're saying it's been about a month since I last posted. Well here I am again, in case anybody else is still here too. Finally finished my semester in Freiburg on Thursday, and left on Friday...although "finished" is a tricky word, since I actually still have one short paper to write in the next few days, haaaa ha crap. All in all it was amazing, I can't really believe it's over, which is helped by the fact that I'm staying in Germany until Jan. 11 now. I'm at Thorlef and Brigitte's house, arrived on Friday, and I'll be here for a couple more days probably, before I go to Britta and Wolfgang's for Christmas and perhaps New Year's.
I'm really lucky I get to stay longer--I don't think I would have been able to go straight home, it would be such a shock to the system. Now I get to just absolutely relax (well, except for the babysitting hundreds of little kids part, but I enjoy that too), drink lots of wine and Schnappes, and speak more German. It's nice to actually be able to do that now, whereas at the beginning all of my relatives were pretty much forced to speak English with me. It's good to see relatives again, too, and I'm seeing more than before--Michael and LaNon and their 4 and a half kids were here from Saturday to Sunday, I hadn't seen them for 6 years. And then I have plenty more time, so I'll hopefully see others at some point.
And this is my first time seeing such familiar places in the Winter--Thorlef and Brigitte's is beautiful in this season too, with a dusting of snow, especially when viewed through the glass-wall from the comfort of the hot tub. We've gotten a lot of snow recently, but the ground's still too warm, so it hasn't stuck. They took me to a classical music concert last night in Frankfurt, which was really cool.
I'm gonna go for now, but enjoy the last few hectic, ridiculous days leading up to Christmas.
I'm really lucky I get to stay longer--I don't think I would have been able to go straight home, it would be such a shock to the system. Now I get to just absolutely relax (well, except for the babysitting hundreds of little kids part, but I enjoy that too), drink lots of wine and Schnappes, and speak more German. It's nice to actually be able to do that now, whereas at the beginning all of my relatives were pretty much forced to speak English with me. It's good to see relatives again, too, and I'm seeing more than before--Michael and LaNon and their 4 and a half kids were here from Saturday to Sunday, I hadn't seen them for 6 years. And then I have plenty more time, so I'll hopefully see others at some point.
And this is my first time seeing such familiar places in the Winter--Thorlef and Brigitte's is beautiful in this season too, with a dusting of snow, especially when viewed through the glass-wall from the comfort of the hot tub. We've gotten a lot of snow recently, but the ground's still too warm, so it hasn't stuck. They took me to a classical music concert last night in Frankfurt, which was really cool.
I'm gonna go for now, but enjoy the last few hectic, ridiculous days leading up to Christmas.
Monday, November 21, 2005
Lange Zeit, Nicht Sehen
Hey there. Been a while. What's been up? Oh ya know, same ol'. Tough week last week, then Basel, Switzerland Thursday night for a play, and then I missed my flight to London Friday >:\ Of course, on the plus side, I woke up to realize I had missed my trains, but then later (after having run/powerwalked like half an hour to the train station to find out I couldn't make it to the airport in time anyway), I realized that I was still in Germany, so I could deal with it. I was sad not to get to visit Meredith though. She's coming in a couple of weekends, so all is not lost. Anyway, I had a fairly relaxing weekend here in Freiburg. Alex and I took it easy Friday and then painted the town sort of a light red Saturday night.
The Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas Market) opened up today, which is awesome. Yeah, it's really early for that, but oh well. Got a couple glasses of Glühwein (mulled wine); also saved some on my sweatshirt. It was tasty, and also stains easily. Hopefully going to a place called Oma's Kuche (Grandma's Kitchen!) tonight for live jazz, which should be far out, man.
I dunno what else to say right now--I'm kind of passing out at the computer, but I've got class in less than 2 hours, so I can't really go home. I guess I'll fool myself into thinking I might do some work. Maybe new pics sometime this week. Au revoir.
The Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas Market) opened up today, which is awesome. Yeah, it's really early for that, but oh well. Got a couple glasses of Glühwein (mulled wine); also saved some on my sweatshirt. It was tasty, and also stains easily. Hopefully going to a place called Oma's Kuche (Grandma's Kitchen!) tonight for live jazz, which should be far out, man.
I dunno what else to say right now--I'm kind of passing out at the computer, but I've got class in less than 2 hours, so I can't really go home. I guess I'll fool myself into thinking I might do some work. Maybe new pics sometime this week. Au revoir.
Wednesday, November 09, 2005
Once Again, Pics
And by Once Again, Pics, I of course mean Once Again, I have forgotten to mention that I posted new Pics. You've already seen the coolest one, but go peep the rest as well. Goodbye, cool world.
Davy, Davy Crocket
...King of the wild frontiiiiiier. That song got stuck in my head randomly, so I hope now it transfers to your head instead. That way you can have a cool song playing in your head while you check out my cool pics from this weekend. You should also check out this hilarious Bill that Idaho wants to pass, commending the creators of Napoleon Dynamite for making it in Idaho and increasing tourism and so forth (Thanks to Maddox's Best Page in the Universe for bringing it to the attention of the world at large). I don't have much else to say at the moment, which is why I'm gonna stop now and simply allow you to contemplate the incredible picture above, the greatest Coffeshop in Amsterdam.
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
Amsterdamncool
As usual, I'm alive. Don't underestimate my ability to live. Brian and I had a pretty sweet road trip this weekend. I won't go into how many times we were lost, whether it was on the highway, in a foreign city, or just right outside of Freiburg. We made it to the Netherlands Thursday night, but it was very late and we crashed at a rest stop just after crossing the border. Yes, we slept in the car--the seats actually leaned back to basically horizontal, so it was alright. I mean, I wouldn't choose a car over a bed, but sometimes beds can't get you everywhere you need to go.
Friday we got to Amsterdam. How come nobody ever talks about the awesomeness of Amsterdam, outside of the puff-puff stuff? We spent 8 hours wandering around this very confusing and absolutely wonderful city, and it has other charms too. I think the coolest part has to be all the canals--every street is separated from the next by a canal, basically, and it makes for great atmostphere. The Red Light District was crazy--I guess I'm not a huge fan of girls behind glass. Anyway, even if you're planning to stay off the grass and not stop for red lights, I recommend going to Amsterdam sometime in your life.
We drove a bit out of the city and slept in the car again that night. Saturday we decided to go to Brussels--we wanted to get Belgian waffles in Belgium, and Belgium's not huge, so we figured we might as well go straight to the source. We saw some cool stuff, although we were in a lame part of town for a while, but once we found the city center, Brussels bloomed. It's a gorgeous city, and I must say, Belgian waffles in Belgium are some of the most delicious things I've ever eaten. If we had stayed any longer, I would have been broke and fat. They also have a lot of great beer.
After we left Brussels, we were just sort of driving in the direction of Luxembourg and Germany. We were passing a town called Namur, so we figured we'd stop and check out a city no one would ever plan to visit, since we had the car anyway. It turned out to be really cool too--there was a huuge citadel overlooking the city, and because it was nighttime we got to look out over all the city lights. Also, one part of town is basically like stepping into the 18th century.
We left Namur, and were driving through Luxembourg--we didn't stop, since it was night and we probably wouldn't have had much to do, but at least I've been to Luxembourg now, sort of. They actually speak Luxembourgish there, in case you were wondering. So we're driving, and we're trying to figure out what to do, and we're really wishing we could sleep in a bed at this point. Well, 2 beds preferably, but when you've slept in a car for 2 nights, you don't get picky about bed mates. So we were east of Darmstadt and Seeheim, and I called up Thorlef and Brigitte to see if we could intrude upon them. Naturally, they said yes, and we got there at about 1:30 AM--they were sleeping by then, but had made beds for us. Oh, glorious bed! We spent the next day eating and relaxing mostly, and we also checked out Castle Frankenstein, although we couldn't go all the way inside, unfortunately. All in all, it was a magnificent end to a crazy weekend.
Gotta go see a play tonight--Die Marquise von O... (The Marquise from O...). Erin and I had to do a presentation on it yesterday, we're seeing it in town tonight, and then Thursday we have to talk about it a bit more. It was pretty funny cuz my professor, who's the man anyway, was so pumped after our presentation. He told me it makes him so happy when I talk, and that I'm so important to the class. There are only 8 of us, and often I'm pretty tired by 6:00 PM, after 2 or 3 other classes, and he said he thinks when I'm slouching off, it brings the whole class down. It's nice to feel appreciated. Oh and it's been a while now, but I never mentioned what I was for Halloween I don't think--I was Tom Cruise from Risky Business. If you've seen the movie, you know the scene, and if you haven't, you might still know the scene, where he's home alone, so he puts on some music and comes out dancing in just some tall socks, underwear, a tie, an unbuttoned button-up shirt, and sunglasses. Not the most original costume, but it was nice and simple. What were you guys? Tell me, and show me pictures if you have them, I wanna see that stuff. Bye bye.
Friday we got to Amsterdam. How come nobody ever talks about the awesomeness of Amsterdam, outside of the puff-puff stuff? We spent 8 hours wandering around this very confusing and absolutely wonderful city, and it has other charms too. I think the coolest part has to be all the canals--every street is separated from the next by a canal, basically, and it makes for great atmostphere. The Red Light District was crazy--I guess I'm not a huge fan of girls behind glass. Anyway, even if you're planning to stay off the grass and not stop for red lights, I recommend going to Amsterdam sometime in your life.
We drove a bit out of the city and slept in the car again that night. Saturday we decided to go to Brussels--we wanted to get Belgian waffles in Belgium, and Belgium's not huge, so we figured we might as well go straight to the source. We saw some cool stuff, although we were in a lame part of town for a while, but once we found the city center, Brussels bloomed. It's a gorgeous city, and I must say, Belgian waffles in Belgium are some of the most delicious things I've ever eaten. If we had stayed any longer, I would have been broke and fat. They also have a lot of great beer.
After we left Brussels, we were just sort of driving in the direction of Luxembourg and Germany. We were passing a town called Namur, so we figured we'd stop and check out a city no one would ever plan to visit, since we had the car anyway. It turned out to be really cool too--there was a huuge citadel overlooking the city, and because it was nighttime we got to look out over all the city lights. Also, one part of town is basically like stepping into the 18th century.
We left Namur, and were driving through Luxembourg--we didn't stop, since it was night and we probably wouldn't have had much to do, but at least I've been to Luxembourg now, sort of. They actually speak Luxembourgish there, in case you were wondering. So we're driving, and we're trying to figure out what to do, and we're really wishing we could sleep in a bed at this point. Well, 2 beds preferably, but when you've slept in a car for 2 nights, you don't get picky about bed mates. So we were east of Darmstadt and Seeheim, and I called up Thorlef and Brigitte to see if we could intrude upon them. Naturally, they said yes, and we got there at about 1:30 AM--they were sleeping by then, but had made beds for us. Oh, glorious bed! We spent the next day eating and relaxing mostly, and we also checked out Castle Frankenstein, although we couldn't go all the way inside, unfortunately. All in all, it was a magnificent end to a crazy weekend.
Gotta go see a play tonight--Die Marquise von O... (The Marquise from O...). Erin and I had to do a presentation on it yesterday, we're seeing it in town tonight, and then Thursday we have to talk about it a bit more. It was pretty funny cuz my professor, who's the man anyway, was so pumped after our presentation. He told me it makes him so happy when I talk, and that I'm so important to the class. There are only 8 of us, and often I'm pretty tired by 6:00 PM, after 2 or 3 other classes, and he said he thinks when I'm slouching off, it brings the whole class down. It's nice to feel appreciated. Oh and it's been a while now, but I never mentioned what I was for Halloween I don't think--I was Tom Cruise from Risky Business. If you've seen the movie, you know the scene, and if you haven't, you might still know the scene, where he's home alone, so he puts on some music and comes out dancing in just some tall socks, underwear, a tie, an unbuttoned button-up shirt, and sunglasses. Not the most original costume, but it was nice and simple. What were you guys? Tell me, and show me pictures if you have them, I wanna see that stuff. Bye bye.
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
Say Cheese And Die
Yeah, that's an R. L. Stein, Goosebumps reference. And here are the new cats my parents ordered through a Russian Mail-Order Feline Friend Service. This gray guy is Higgins, and the orangey one is Roebuck, or Bucky. I didn't get to help pick the names, so direct your complaints to them! Or compliments, if you can think of any. Now go and check out my new pics: http://community.webshots.com/user/bleibcool. But don't forget to check out the previous post if you haven't, that's important stuff too.
So it's official: Brian and I rented a car. We're picking it up tomorrow, going to Amsterdam tomorrow night, and coming back Sunday. Yeeeehawww!
Important Outrage
I'll be posting some pics later I think, but for now just some important news. The following was written by Dan Savage, a gay man who routinely encourages both gays and straights to fight for their rights, in his Savage Love column (well, he also routinely answers totally bizzaro questions). I thought I'd copy and paste it here too (in its entirety, with only a couple of words bleeped out for the younger crowd), especially considering I know how some of you (read: Mom and Alena) love Target. Turns out you shouldn't.
"There were two disturbing developments in the battle over straight rights last week. First, we know that Target fills its ads with dancing, multi-culti hipsters giving off a tolerant, urbanist vibe, and runs hipster-heavy ad campaigns positioning Target as a slightly more expensive, more progressive alternative to Wal-Mart. Well, as John Aravosis revealed on americablog.org last week, Target's politics are as red as their bulls-eye logo. The chain allows its pharmacists to refuse to dispense birth control and emergency contraception to female customers if the pharmacist objects on religious grounds. What's worse, the company claims that any of its employees have a right to discriminate against any of its customers provided the discrimination is motivated by an employee's religious beliefs. Read all about it at americablog.org and plannedparenthood.org.
Second, more troubling news from Tucson, Arizona, where a 20-year-old rape victim called dozens of pharmacies in town before she found one that stocked emergency contraception (EC). "When she finally did find a pharmacy with it, she said she was told the pharmacist on duty would not dispense it because of religious and moral objections," reported the Arizona Daily Star. Emergency contraception, the story continued, "prevents pregnancy by stopping ovulation, fertilization, or implantation of a fertilized egg. The sooner the emergency contraception is taken after intercourse, the more effective it is."
Don't just sit there, heteros. Defend your rights! Don't shop at Target, and write 'em and tell them why you're going elsewhere. (Go to target.com and click on "contact us," then "Target Corporation.") As for Fry's Pharmacy in Tucson, the shop that wouldn't dispense EC to a freakin' rape victim, the fundamentalist pharmacist claims it's her "right" to not do her f$$$$$$ job. Well, you have a right to free speech. Call Fry's at 520-323-2695 and ask them why the f$$$ a pharmacy that won't dispense EC keeps the drug in stock. Do they do it just to torment rape victims? ("Oh yeah, we've got EC—but you can't have any. Don't you know that Jesus wants you to bear your rapist's child?") Rise up, straight people, and demand your rights!"
"There were two disturbing developments in the battle over straight rights last week. First, we know that Target fills its ads with dancing, multi-culti hipsters giving off a tolerant, urbanist vibe, and runs hipster-heavy ad campaigns positioning Target as a slightly more expensive, more progressive alternative to Wal-Mart. Well, as John Aravosis revealed on americablog.org last week, Target's politics are as red as their bulls-eye logo. The chain allows its pharmacists to refuse to dispense birth control and emergency contraception to female customers if the pharmacist objects on religious grounds. What's worse, the company claims that any of its employees have a right to discriminate against any of its customers provided the discrimination is motivated by an employee's religious beliefs. Read all about it at americablog.org and plannedparenthood.org.
Second, more troubling news from Tucson, Arizona, where a 20-year-old rape victim called dozens of pharmacies in town before she found one that stocked emergency contraception (EC). "When she finally did find a pharmacy with it, she said she was told the pharmacist on duty would not dispense it because of religious and moral objections," reported the Arizona Daily Star. Emergency contraception, the story continued, "prevents pregnancy by stopping ovulation, fertilization, or implantation of a fertilized egg. The sooner the emergency contraception is taken after intercourse, the more effective it is."
Don't just sit there, heteros. Defend your rights! Don't shop at Target, and write 'em and tell them why you're going elsewhere. (Go to target.com and click on "contact us," then "Target Corporation.") As for Fry's Pharmacy in Tucson, the shop that wouldn't dispense EC to a freakin' rape victim, the fundamentalist pharmacist claims it's her "right" to not do her f$$$$$$ job. Well, you have a right to free speech. Call Fry's at 520-323-2695 and ask them why the f$$$ a pharmacy that won't dispense EC keeps the drug in stock. Do they do it just to torment rape victims? ("Oh yeah, we've got EC—but you can't have any. Don't you know that Jesus wants you to bear your rapist's child?") Rise up, straight people, and demand your rights!"
Friday, October 28, 2005
Am I Talking To Myself?
If there's anybody still reading this thing, you don't understand participatory exercises. If there's nobody reading this anymore, I'm officially a high school chemisty textbook, but with fewer questionable stains on my pages (I've got my share of stains, I just usually know what they're from). No offense to my parents, but if I wanted to talk to them and only them, I could just email. If you're out there, question authority, chase squirrels, and post comments for me. Especially Halloween related comments, Halloween rules.
Amsterdam didn't work out for this weekend, so we're gonna go next weekend instead, hopefully with a rented car. Adventure, excitement, Autobahns! Stay tuned.
Amsterdam didn't work out for this weekend, so we're gonna go next weekend instead, hopefully with a rented car. Adventure, excitement, Autobahns! Stay tuned.
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like krismis...
(Warning: if you don't care at all about hip hop music or me ranting about the state of the music industry, skip to the bottom for a more interesting discussion of Halloween, it'll be fun.) Well, it's not really, since the weather's awesome, and it's still Oktober. But then again, I might be Santa for Halloween (and to make sense of me being the skinniest Santa ever, some girl should be my wife and keep telling me to "Eat...Eeeeeeat!"), so that sorta made me think of it. My parents are always complaining that I don't give them ideas for gifts, or not in time, or something, so here's a couple small ones to start with. Anyone else who likes music (well, hip hop music) should consider these too:
Blackalicious - The Craft
Danger Doom - The Mouse and the Mask
Atmosphere - You Can't Imagine How Much Fun We're Having
These are three recently released hip hop albums. Blackalicious is probably my favorite group, already having two flawless albums out there, and being the best live act I've ever seen (3 times!) Danger Doom is a team-up of Danger Mouse, the guy who gave us the incredible Gray Album (the mash-up of The Beatles' White Album and Jay-Z's Black Album), and M.F. Doom, from whom I've only heard a few things, but who puts out consistently praised, intelligent, interesting stuff. Atmosphere is one of the few hip hop groups that performs at the Warped Tour alongside hundreds of punk and rock bands, and of course they're cool too. If you want to check out
Now, I don't normally buy music anymore, but it's not just because I like to steal, it's mainly because I don't like when major labels steal from artists and force crappy music on us (don't believe me or know what I'm talking about? Go directly to www.downhillbattle.org and find out). Well, have no fear, these have all been run through the RIAA Radar (at www.riaaradar.com, conveniently) and they check out as safe--that means the album is released by an independent label, not a major label or affiliate. And that means nobody's getting ripped off and it's not supporting a horribly corrupt system. Doesn't that feel good?
Of course, if you're in the mood to steal some awesome hip hop anyway, you should check out the hard-hitting conspiracy-theorist Immortal Technique, who actually encourages it in one of his songs: "I made this to bump in your ride, or burn it off the internet, and bump it outside". Can't argue with that. Of course, it's very explicit, so you'd better not decide for yourself, you'd better contact your local senator and insist that they ban it, if you're reading this and you're under 18 or 21 or whatever the catch-all age should be.
Well, if you're not interested in music, you're probably dead! Just kidding, what I meant was you probably didn't enjoy that, and you probably didn't even make it this far. But if you did, how about telling me what your plans for Halloween are? Trick or Treating? Partying? Enjoying the one day you can wear your girlfriend's clothing without getting those strange looks in the subway? Germany isn't huge on Halloween (blasphemy!), but there are some big parties, at least one of which I'm sure I'll be going to. Oh, and they actually do it better than we do in America: we don't have CLASS the day after Halloween, since it's "All Saints Day"--I knew there was a reason we created Sainthood. Okay, that's all for now--talk to me, people.
Blackalicious - The Craft
Danger Doom - The Mouse and the Mask
Atmosphere - You Can't Imagine How Much Fun We're Having
These are three recently released hip hop albums. Blackalicious is probably my favorite group, already having two flawless albums out there, and being the best live act I've ever seen (3 times!) Danger Doom is a team-up of Danger Mouse, the guy who gave us the incredible Gray Album (the mash-up of The Beatles' White Album and Jay-Z's Black Album), and M.F. Doom, from whom I've only heard a few things, but who puts out consistently praised, intelligent, interesting stuff. Atmosphere is one of the few hip hop groups that performs at the Warped Tour alongside hundreds of punk and rock bands, and of course they're cool too. If you want to check out
Now, I don't normally buy music anymore, but it's not just because I like to steal, it's mainly because I don't like when major labels steal from artists and force crappy music on us (don't believe me or know what I'm talking about? Go directly to www.downhillbattle.org and find out). Well, have no fear, these have all been run through the RIAA Radar (at www.riaaradar.com, conveniently) and they check out as safe--that means the album is released by an independent label, not a major label or affiliate. And that means nobody's getting ripped off and it's not supporting a horribly corrupt system. Doesn't that feel good?
Of course, if you're in the mood to steal some awesome hip hop anyway, you should check out the hard-hitting conspiracy-theorist Immortal Technique, who actually encourages it in one of his songs: "I made this to bump in your ride, or burn it off the internet, and bump it outside". Can't argue with that. Of course, it's very explicit, so you'd better not decide for yourself, you'd better contact your local senator and insist that they ban it, if you're reading this and you're under 18 or 21 or whatever the catch-all age should be.
Well, if you're not interested in music, you're probably dead! Just kidding, what I meant was you probably didn't enjoy that, and you probably didn't even make it this far. But if you did, how about telling me what your plans for Halloween are? Trick or Treating? Partying? Enjoying the one day you can wear your girlfriend's clothing without getting those strange looks in the subway? Germany isn't huge on Halloween (blasphemy!), but there are some big parties, at least one of which I'm sure I'll be going to. Oh, and they actually do it better than we do in America: we don't have CLASS the day after Halloween, since it's "All Saints Day"--I knew there was a reason we created Sainthood. Okay, that's all for now--talk to me, people.
Sunday, October 23, 2005
Disappearing Posts Aren't Cool
I just typed up a post and then when I tried to post it it messed up and then all the text was gone too, so I couldn't just retry. So now I'm gonna try to type a short post in its place, and it darn well better work.
Friday we had to give theater presentations at our professor's house, which I was not at all excited about. I was wrong though, it was awesome. The presentations turned out reeeally easy, and the professor is the man. He made us such a huge meal with stuff like bread, salmon, and flammkuchen (like pizza but with a white sauce, so delicious). And about 6 bottles of wine. Of course, I think I ate and drank about 1/3 of everything that was put out, my professor was so happy about how much I consumed, in typical German fashion. There's only one other guy in the class of 10, and he didn't eat or drink very much, which meant I totally solidified my place as the professor's favorite guy student, and perhaps overall student. Plus, the dinner was in the middle of the presentations, and I gave the last presentation, which meant that both my professor and I were not sober for it. That always helps, in my experience (granted, this is the only experience I have...). Anyway, I gotta hang out with the professor again, he's the man. He also loved finding out that I had a pipe, even though he doesn't smoke anymore.
Speaking of pipe, Thursday night at the Dubliner for karaoke I smoked mine. It was fun, but I probably won't do it again. It's not worth it--it totally burns the tongue. Pipes are definitely one of those "cool...in theory" things.
And last but not least, Happy Birthdays to Tante Vicky (tomorrow, the 24th) and dear cousin Carley (the 26th). I didn't forget about you either, Julie, but you're not until Halloween. The end.
Friday we had to give theater presentations at our professor's house, which I was not at all excited about. I was wrong though, it was awesome. The presentations turned out reeeally easy, and the professor is the man. He made us such a huge meal with stuff like bread, salmon, and flammkuchen (like pizza but with a white sauce, so delicious). And about 6 bottles of wine. Of course, I think I ate and drank about 1/3 of everything that was put out, my professor was so happy about how much I consumed, in typical German fashion. There's only one other guy in the class of 10, and he didn't eat or drink very much, which meant I totally solidified my place as the professor's favorite guy student, and perhaps overall student. Plus, the dinner was in the middle of the presentations, and I gave the last presentation, which meant that both my professor and I were not sober for it. That always helps, in my experience (granted, this is the only experience I have...). Anyway, I gotta hang out with the professor again, he's the man. He also loved finding out that I had a pipe, even though he doesn't smoke anymore.
Speaking of pipe, Thursday night at the Dubliner for karaoke I smoked mine. It was fun, but I probably won't do it again. It's not worth it--it totally burns the tongue. Pipes are definitely one of those "cool...in theory" things.
And last but not least, Happy Birthdays to Tante Vicky (tomorrow, the 24th) and dear cousin Carley (the 26th). I didn't forget about you either, Julie, but you're not until Halloween. The end.
Okay, So Theater's Okay After All
If I was able to take just 4 classes instead of 5, theater is probably the one I would have dropped. But it's turning out better than I expected. Friday we had to give presentations at our professor's house (this was especially rankling considering we have no classes on Fridays, and since it was going from 3 pm to who knew when, I couldn't travel this weekend). But those turned out reeally easy. And our professor is the man. He made us such a huge, multiple course meal, with stuff like salmon, bread, and flammkuchen, which is similar to pizza but with a white sauce, and absolutely delicious.
Also, we went through about 6 bottles of wine. I'm one of 2 guys in the class, I think there are 10 people overall, and my professor definitely loves me--don't get me wrong, he's so nice and likes everybody, but I think it's safe to say I'm his favorite, especially after he saw how I could eat and drink. At dinner, I was the garbage disposal, and also the wine disposal, but the other guy wasn't eating or drinking very much, so I could tell the professor was disappointed with him, in typical German fashion. Of course, we had this incredibly long meal in between some presentations, and I went last, so I was definitely not sober for it, and neither was my professor. That always helps, in my experience (which is limited to this one time, granted...). Anyway, it turned out to be such an awesome time, and I definitely want to hang out with the professor again sometime.
Workin in reverse chronological order, I smoked my pipe Thursday. I went to the Dubliner with people for karaoke, as usual, and we smoked the pipe a few times. I don't think I'll do that again. It was fun, but not really worth it. That stuff is crazy, and it really burns the tongue. Pipes are one of those "cool in theory" things.
Couple of birthday shoutouts: Tante Vicky, tomorrow, the 24th, and Carley, the 26th. I didn't forget you either, Julie, but you're not for another week. Happy birfdays. The end.
Also, we went through about 6 bottles of wine. I'm one of 2 guys in the class, I think there are 10 people overall, and my professor definitely loves me--don't get me wrong, he's so nice and likes everybody, but I think it's safe to say I'm his favorite, especially after he saw how I could eat and drink. At dinner, I was the garbage disposal, and also the wine disposal, but the other guy wasn't eating or drinking very much, so I could tell the professor was disappointed with him, in typical German fashion. Of course, we had this incredibly long meal in between some presentations, and I went last, so I was definitely not sober for it, and neither was my professor. That always helps, in my experience (which is limited to this one time, granted...). Anyway, it turned out to be such an awesome time, and I definitely want to hang out with the professor again sometime.
Workin in reverse chronological order, I smoked my pipe Thursday. I went to the Dubliner with people for karaoke, as usual, and we smoked the pipe a few times. I don't think I'll do that again. It was fun, but not really worth it. That stuff is crazy, and it really burns the tongue. Pipes are one of those "cool in theory" things.
Couple of birthday shoutouts: Tante Vicky, tomorrow, the 24th, and Carley, the 26th. I didn't forget you either, Julie, but you're not for another week. Happy birfdays. The end.
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
I'm Back, Been Around The World
But mostly just the Köln (Cologne) and Bonn part of the world. Stopped at a Monastery on the way to Köln, it was gorgeous. The tour guide lady spoke as sl ow ly as humanly possible to us, but still used tons of vocab we didn't know, so it took roughly 3.5 times longer than it should have.
We also stopped on the way and took a boat ride for a couple of hours down (okay, up) the Rhine. That was absolutely beautiful as well. I've never imagined so many castles in my life. Brian and I would have jumped out of the boat for the right amount of money; that is, between €75 and 100, depending on whether we did it alone or together. No one else would really consider it. Cowards!
Köln was sweet. Definitely much more city-like than some places here, and big, but still highly attractive in its way, with the river running through it, and the Dom, the Cathedral, was crazy, in a huge and cool sense. Brian, Dave, and I drank some Kölsch, the Köln beer, and we got a free round of drinks and got charged less than we should have by the really cool bartender. We also talked to a fat, drunk, old man for a while, he was pretty hilarious. We also checked out the AntikMarkt, which was a lot like a flea market. Got some neat stuff there, including pipes for €5 each--pipes are just fun to have, more for the classiness than the smokiness. Also, we ate in one weekend more than we probably have in a month. If you've never felt drunk from eating too much food, you've never lived.
Bonn was nice too, although the fantastic weather helped, naturally. The University campus is a lot like an American one, with the huge green and the long stretches lined with trees and such. And we saw Beethoven's house.
Busy week ahead, lots of work to do, including preparing an oral presentation for theater. We present them on Friday, which isn't cool, but nothing I can do about it, and at least the professor's making us Flammkuchen. Brian and I are probably still gonna try to make it to Leipzig and Dresden Saturday and Sunday; we'll see. I'll try to get my Köln pics up tomorrow maybe (I forgot my camera on the bus for the couple of hours we were in Bonn); since they're mostly scenery pics I doubt I'll be putting many captions on them, and that's what takes the most time normally. See ya next time.
We also stopped on the way and took a boat ride for a couple of hours down (okay, up) the Rhine. That was absolutely beautiful as well. I've never imagined so many castles in my life. Brian and I would have jumped out of the boat for the right amount of money; that is, between €75 and 100, depending on whether we did it alone or together. No one else would really consider it. Cowards!
Köln was sweet. Definitely much more city-like than some places here, and big, but still highly attractive in its way, with the river running through it, and the Dom, the Cathedral, was crazy, in a huge and cool sense. Brian, Dave, and I drank some Kölsch, the Köln beer, and we got a free round of drinks and got charged less than we should have by the really cool bartender. We also talked to a fat, drunk, old man for a while, he was pretty hilarious. We also checked out the AntikMarkt, which was a lot like a flea market. Got some neat stuff there, including pipes for €5 each--pipes are just fun to have, more for the classiness than the smokiness. Also, we ate in one weekend more than we probably have in a month. If you've never felt drunk from eating too much food, you've never lived.
Bonn was nice too, although the fantastic weather helped, naturally. The University campus is a lot like an American one, with the huge green and the long stretches lined with trees and such. And we saw Beethoven's house.
Busy week ahead, lots of work to do, including preparing an oral presentation for theater. We present them on Friday, which isn't cool, but nothing I can do about it, and at least the professor's making us Flammkuchen. Brian and I are probably still gonna try to make it to Leipzig and Dresden Saturday and Sunday; we'll see. I'll try to get my Köln pics up tomorrow maybe (I forgot my camera on the bus for the couple of hours we were in Bonn); since they're mostly scenery pics I doubt I'll be putting many captions on them, and that's what takes the most time normally. See ya next time.
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
Representations Of Reality
That is, pictures. I posted a ton of them. Go there now and feast your eyes and souls. http://community.webshots.com/user/bleibcool
I have 2 classes on Tuesdays. One's at 9:00 AM, one's at 6:00 PM. Today the 9:00 one got cancelled, but I was already almost here, so it was too late to shut back down and sleep longer. I don't know what to do with myself all day--so much potential, so little drive.
Maybe I'll hit up the outdoor track. Maybe some grocery shopping. I just don't know. All I know is I accidentally baked a frozen pizza with some plastic last night. Tasted even better than normal.
I have 2 classes on Tuesdays. One's at 9:00 AM, one's at 6:00 PM. Today the 9:00 one got cancelled, but I was already almost here, so it was too late to shut back down and sleep longer. I don't know what to do with myself all day--so much potential, so little drive.
Maybe I'll hit up the outdoor track. Maybe some grocery shopping. I just don't know. All I know is I accidentally baked a frozen pizza with some plastic last night. Tasted even better than normal.
Monday, October 10, 2005
Homework Sucks
Especially when it's in German. Oh well, I still goofed off for most of Sunday, and only had to read for like 4 hours. I do have 4 classes today though. Pity me.
The weekend wasn't bad. When I say weekend, I'm including Thursday, of course, since there are no classes on Friday. Envy me. Thursday was Brian's 21st birthday, which loses most of its meaning when it happens in a country whose drinking age is sweet 16. We still got crunked though. Dave baked a lil cake and brownies so we ate those while we "prepared" to go to the Dubliner for karaoke. Karaoke was fun, naturally. Brian, Dave, Chris, and I sang Roxanne, and apparently we were awful. I don't care--we don't have to hear ourselves. You get a free shot for singing, too--this time it was a real shot. The last time we did it, they gave us a shot of straight margarita mix, which is not only alcohol-free, but sickly sweet. Mix it with something.
A few of us slept over Brian and Dave's (they're in the same building, not suite though) that night 'cause the buses to our dorm stop running at 12:35, and it's a much shorter walk to their place than it is to ours. Actually I ended up sleeping over there again the next night, Friday, because I didn't feel like heading home alone, although I did remember later that the night bus runs Friday and Saturday, so I could have taken that. Anyway, it was convenient because we got up Saturday and just went straight into town, met up with Dave and Erin, and spent around 5 hours hiking near town. The weather has turned beautiful again so it was pretty awesome. Then we made a huge, delicious German dinner together. Then that night we tried to go to a Quentin Tarantino--Kill Bill and Pulp Fiction themed party at the JazzHaus, but it was 7 euros to get in. We're too cheap. Potential fun averted.
I'm off to check out this Film course now. Don't stop a-rockin'.
The weekend wasn't bad. When I say weekend, I'm including Thursday, of course, since there are no classes on Friday. Envy me. Thursday was Brian's 21st birthday, which loses most of its meaning when it happens in a country whose drinking age is sweet 16. We still got crunked though. Dave baked a lil cake and brownies so we ate those while we "prepared" to go to the Dubliner for karaoke. Karaoke was fun, naturally. Brian, Dave, Chris, and I sang Roxanne, and apparently we were awful. I don't care--we don't have to hear ourselves. You get a free shot for singing, too--this time it was a real shot. The last time we did it, they gave us a shot of straight margarita mix, which is not only alcohol-free, but sickly sweet. Mix it with something.
A few of us slept over Brian and Dave's (they're in the same building, not suite though) that night 'cause the buses to our dorm stop running at 12:35, and it's a much shorter walk to their place than it is to ours. Actually I ended up sleeping over there again the next night, Friday, because I didn't feel like heading home alone, although I did remember later that the night bus runs Friday and Saturday, so I could have taken that. Anyway, it was convenient because we got up Saturday and just went straight into town, met up with Dave and Erin, and spent around 5 hours hiking near town. The weather has turned beautiful again so it was pretty awesome. Then we made a huge, delicious German dinner together. Then that night we tried to go to a Quentin Tarantino--Kill Bill and Pulp Fiction themed party at the JazzHaus, but it was 7 euros to get in. We're too cheap. Potential fun averted.
I'm off to check out this Film course now. Don't stop a-rockin'.
Wednesday, October 05, 2005
I'll Have My People Call Your People
In response to Mark, but also info for whoever else might have a burning desire to call me: my home zone cell phone number is 07612048038. I'm normally in my "home zone," but if it goes to some sort of German woman speaking about voicemail, don't leave a message, because I don't have my mail set up. I don't know if that's exactly how you would have to call me from America though--when my parents read this, they can post a comment clarifying, I'm sure.
On the other hand, it costs me 15 cents a minute to call America from here, so it's not a horrible deal (my friend has a phone card that only lowers it to about 13 cents a minute, but he mostly uses it to call France, because I guess it's expensive to call to other European countries for some reason?). So I can definitely make an effort to call some people sometimes, the only problem being that I don't have many people's phone numbers anymore, since I don't have my normal cell phone or even normal access to talking to people on AIM to ask for numbers. I've even forgotten your cell phone number, Mark, embarrassingly enough--I wanna say 671 something, but I don't want to risk an international wrong number. Of course, if anybody wants me to have their number, but doesn't want the other 2 readers of my blog to know it, they can email me at MonkeyBitesKlown@yahoo.com.
Thanks to dad for a couple of good links over the past few days, including an interview with Neil Gaiman at The Onion's AV Club and a wonderfully nostalgic article at the Washington Post about the new complete collection of Calvin and Hobbes. I gotta check the library and see if they have some Calvin and Hobbes--although if it's in German, I have a feeling it wouldn't be quite the same.
And disaster averted: I got my IPod to start working again. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but there's a button combination you have to hold sometimes if it messes up, and I had to charge it again. Crazy IPod.
I had 2 classes yesterday, my normal Advanced German course at 9 AM and then Midieval Mindset at like 6 PM. German 305 will be alright I suppose, even though I wish I had been able to pull myself up to the middle level course instead. Midieval Mindset seems like it will be interesting--the professor seems really cool, and actually not that difficult to follow so far. He has a ridiculously deep voice too, it's nuts. I've never been that interested in history, but oh well, we'll see, and also we've got tons of field trips planned, so that'll be good.
I meant to check out a literature course, but I didn't notice that it was today at like 12:15, so I missed it, but I also had an advising session with one of the IES people at 1:00, so I wouldn't have been able to stay for all of it anyway. It's only a backup course, too, so I'm not that worried. I'm going to Media, Society, and Politics at 4ish, that seems like it'll be a cool course. Skyy (the woman with whom I had my advising session) warned me that the professor often tries to make the course seem really hard at first, because everybody wants to take it, but not to be worried because it's mostly just to try to scare some people off. Good to know, since I frighten easily, and am known to freeze up and even wet myself.
I'm still waiting to hear back from Meredith--she's in London now for the semester, and we're planning to meet up at some point. She emailed me just over a week ago, but of course I was in Berlin so I didn't get to respond until Monday. Good times.
Aaaaanyway, I have a lot of time until my next class, but I'm getting bored and will probably just start writing about things like my grocery list if I don't quit now, so I'll bid you adieu. I expect comments too, people, I slave over this blog and you give me nothing...nothing! I'll think about posting more pics if I get a better response with news and stuff, like the cool one Mark wrote. I just enjoy the imagery of doing a mix of karate and The Robot. Like the Robot Fight from Eurotrip. So, okay, um, see ya next time?
On the other hand, it costs me 15 cents a minute to call America from here, so it's not a horrible deal (my friend has a phone card that only lowers it to about 13 cents a minute, but he mostly uses it to call France, because I guess it's expensive to call to other European countries for some reason?). So I can definitely make an effort to call some people sometimes, the only problem being that I don't have many people's phone numbers anymore, since I don't have my normal cell phone or even normal access to talking to people on AIM to ask for numbers. I've even forgotten your cell phone number, Mark, embarrassingly enough--I wanna say 671 something, but I don't want to risk an international wrong number. Of course, if anybody wants me to have their number, but doesn't want the other 2 readers of my blog to know it, they can email me at MonkeyBitesKlown@yahoo.com.
Thanks to dad for a couple of good links over the past few days, including an interview with Neil Gaiman at The Onion's AV Club and a wonderfully nostalgic article at the Washington Post about the new complete collection of Calvin and Hobbes. I gotta check the library and see if they have some Calvin and Hobbes--although if it's in German, I have a feeling it wouldn't be quite the same.
And disaster averted: I got my IPod to start working again. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but there's a button combination you have to hold sometimes if it messes up, and I had to charge it again. Crazy IPod.
I had 2 classes yesterday, my normal Advanced German course at 9 AM and then Midieval Mindset at like 6 PM. German 305 will be alright I suppose, even though I wish I had been able to pull myself up to the middle level course instead. Midieval Mindset seems like it will be interesting--the professor seems really cool, and actually not that difficult to follow so far. He has a ridiculously deep voice too, it's nuts. I've never been that interested in history, but oh well, we'll see, and also we've got tons of field trips planned, so that'll be good.
I meant to check out a literature course, but I didn't notice that it was today at like 12:15, so I missed it, but I also had an advising session with one of the IES people at 1:00, so I wouldn't have been able to stay for all of it anyway. It's only a backup course, too, so I'm not that worried. I'm going to Media, Society, and Politics at 4ish, that seems like it'll be a cool course. Skyy (the woman with whom I had my advising session) warned me that the professor often tries to make the course seem really hard at first, because everybody wants to take it, but not to be worried because it's mostly just to try to scare some people off. Good to know, since I frighten easily, and am known to freeze up and even wet myself.
I'm still waiting to hear back from Meredith--she's in London now for the semester, and we're planning to meet up at some point. She emailed me just over a week ago, but of course I was in Berlin so I didn't get to respond until Monday. Good times.
Aaaaanyway, I have a lot of time until my next class, but I'm getting bored and will probably just start writing about things like my grocery list if I don't quit now, so I'll bid you adieu. I expect comments too, people, I slave over this blog and you give me nothing...nothing! I'll think about posting more pics if I get a better response with news and stuff, like the cool one Mark wrote. I just enjoy the imagery of doing a mix of karate and The Robot. Like the Robot Fight from Eurotrip. So, okay, um, see ya next time?
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
Ich bin ein Berliner
But now I'm back to being a Freiburger. The week in Berlin was fun, although the 11 or 12 hour bus ride each direction was somewhat less fun. Berlin is definitely an interesting city, very different from any I've ever experienced. It's so strange to think that 60 years ago so much of it was destroyed. Of course, there's still evidence of this, since some building were never really rebuilt. We went to at least one museum or historical attraction every day that we were there, and I'll very briefly try to describe a bunch of them.
We arrived Sunday night, but Monday we took a tour of the city in our bus. That wasn't much fun, because it was 2 hours long and it's impossible to pay attention to some woman pointing out about 3000 different buildings and sites in a brand new city. Especially when she's doing it in German. The part where we got out for a bit was much better, especially since we saw this crazy frog sculpture thing come to life--I got a couple pics, so when those ever go up hopefully you can see a little bit more what I mean. Speaking of pics, I have around 70 from the trip, and most are just of different sites and so forth, so I'm not sure how enjoyable they'll be, but whatever. After the bus tour we had the rest of the day free, so a bunch of us just wandered around for hours. We saw Checkpoint Charlie, which was cool, but the souvenirs were cooler.
Tuesday we went to the Bundeskanzleramt, which is where people like Chancellor Schröder work, so naturally it was a very cool building. After that we went to the Haus der Wannsee Konferenz. Let me explain. This house is gorgeous, it's on a beautiful lake, there's a beautiful garden, etc. Lots of Nazis used to vacation there, Nazi officers and such. But the Wahnsee Konferenz was when the Nazis got together at the house and organized, planned, discussed the "Final Solution"--the final solution to exterminate all Jews. Needless to say, it was a disturbing and depressing place, while very interesting at the same time.
Anyway, after that we had free time again, which is how every day went. Coincidentally, Hennie was in Berlin for a couple of days, and of course Kay lives there. So around 6 PM Hennie came and picked me up. Hennie studied in Berlin for 3 years, so he's basically an expert on the city, at least the important stuff like bars and clubs. We drove around for hours, stopping at different places to check some stuff out and have a beer, and he gave me tips on places to go when I had the chance. It was pretty awesome to get a chance to see the city like that, driving around and seeing different places I would never have known about. Then at like 9:30 or something we met up with Kay and Carston for dinner at a pizza place, which had the huuugest pizzas I've ever seen or eaten in my life. One of them even had truffles on it--truffles are really expensive, and I had never tried them, but they were really interesting, in a good way. So, we ate and hung out for a while, which was really nice. Hennie left the next day, and Kay and I didn't get another chance to meet up, so I was glad I got to see them both, and Carston too, who's really cool.
Wednesday we went to some place where they have information about the Berlin Wall, and we had a tour which wasn't very good, and the whole thing actually wasn't very interesting--it was much more fun to see a different part of the Wall that's still standing elsewhere in the city, because it's still very long and completely graffittied and everything. After that we could go to Museum Island to check the Goya, but it was pouring out and the line was incredibly long (it's usually no less than 5 hours, I don't know exactly what it was then, but we weren't about to wait). So we went to the movies instead, which is a learning experience in German anyway! We saw Alles Auf Zucker, which was an awesome, hilarious movie. That night we went into Kreuzberg, which is the Turkish section of Berlin. Hennie explained to me that it's actually more like Turkey than Turkey is, these days. The people who immigrated in the past were less educated, poor, and so they clung to a lot of the old values and religion and so forth. Turkey, especially Istanbul, is more modernized now, so Hennie said that if people want to connect with their roots they actually travel to Kreuzberg a lot of the time. Pretty funny. It's a totally cool place, too.
Thursday we went to the place where they held the Potsdamer Konferenz, which is where Truman, Churchhill, and Stalin met to discuss war-related issues. It was an interesting, short tour, and it's a very beautiful place, especially the gardens. After that we went somewhere that I have no idea what it's called or anything, but it was some sort of castle slash art gallery deal, and it was pretty extravagant and sweet. The tour guide was really cool, and he also taught us a bit of Berliner dialect--they pronounce "gut" like "yout," if you say the word you with a t at the end. Also, to walk inside the place, we had to put these massive slippers over our shoes, and it was so slick that you could basically ice skate around the floors, which was wayyy too much fun.
Friday we went to the StaSi Gefängnis (prison). This was also a bit disturbing, but also really cool. We checked out the U-Boot (submarine), as they called the area below one building where they had built tons of cells ("they" being the DDR police force during the years of Berlin separation, and I use the term police force lightly, because they did horrible things and locked up everyone they could). The normal cells were bad enough, but they also had a few torture ones, such as the Chinese Water Torture room. They had tons and tons of interrogation rooms upstairs. There was even one open-air cell outside. Very unsettling stuff.
Saturday we had all day free, so we went to the Jüdische Museum (Jewish). It's not just a history of German Jews during the war, it's also like a comprehensive history of the Jewish people, so it was a massive museum. We were there for hours and couldn't process more than maybe half of it, probably less. There was some really cool and interesting stuff though.
And that's just the historical type stuff. We went out every afternoon and night. We had to buy lunch and dinner, but breakfast was provided for us (and was awesome). We were close to Oranienburger Strasse, which was a good place to be near, because it had tons and tons of places to eat, and also shops and whatnot, so we ate something different for every meal. We checked out news bars and and clubs every night too, but you can probably imagine what happened at those, so I'll refrain from detailing. A couple of bars were really cool though, especially one at the top of an art building. This building used to be where squatters lived, but now it's sort of a historical building that the government charges like €1 a year for. Artists get scholariships to go live in a room for a year and just create art, and they have to keep their doors open when they do so that people can always check out what they're doing. That's cool, and the building itself is 4 floors of absolute graffiti--there's not a non-graffitied surface to be found. At the very top there's a bar with one open wall that face behind the building. They project huge movies and stuff on a building back there--they were like weird homemade music videos. It was a sweet setup. There was also a secret bar that Hennie told me about--it had no markings to tell you what it was, and you had to ring a doorbell to be let in. He said there used to be passwords required, but that was a long time ago. It was a creepy place, but cool at the same time.
Okay, I'd better stop now. In (seriously this time) brief other news, classes started today. Yesterday was the holiday for the Berlin Wall coming down, so most things were closed, but we did go to the movies--we saw NVA, which is a comedy about the National Volks Army in East Berlin before the wall had come down, near the end of the 80's, so very fitting, and it was hilarious also. So far we're 2 for 3 with German films--Stadt Als Beute has been the only let down. My IPod has stopped working for some reason, but I do have warranty that covers all expenses still, so if I have to resort to that I will.
It's Opa's birthday today, so Happy Birthday Opa (although I doubt he reads this), but I'll be emailing him, and you should too, unless you're a friend of mine who has no connection to my grandfather, in which case maybe just don't. Well, it's been a long post. Maybe see ya tomorrow. And enjoy your amazing weather that everyone seems to be having, since it's dreary and dismal here.
We arrived Sunday night, but Monday we took a tour of the city in our bus. That wasn't much fun, because it was 2 hours long and it's impossible to pay attention to some woman pointing out about 3000 different buildings and sites in a brand new city. Especially when she's doing it in German. The part where we got out for a bit was much better, especially since we saw this crazy frog sculpture thing come to life--I got a couple pics, so when those ever go up hopefully you can see a little bit more what I mean. Speaking of pics, I have around 70 from the trip, and most are just of different sites and so forth, so I'm not sure how enjoyable they'll be, but whatever. After the bus tour we had the rest of the day free, so a bunch of us just wandered around for hours. We saw Checkpoint Charlie, which was cool, but the souvenirs were cooler.
Tuesday we went to the Bundeskanzleramt, which is where people like Chancellor Schröder work, so naturally it was a very cool building. After that we went to the Haus der Wannsee Konferenz. Let me explain. This house is gorgeous, it's on a beautiful lake, there's a beautiful garden, etc. Lots of Nazis used to vacation there, Nazi officers and such. But the Wahnsee Konferenz was when the Nazis got together at the house and organized, planned, discussed the "Final Solution"--the final solution to exterminate all Jews. Needless to say, it was a disturbing and depressing place, while very interesting at the same time.
Anyway, after that we had free time again, which is how every day went. Coincidentally, Hennie was in Berlin for a couple of days, and of course Kay lives there. So around 6 PM Hennie came and picked me up. Hennie studied in Berlin for 3 years, so he's basically an expert on the city, at least the important stuff like bars and clubs. We drove around for hours, stopping at different places to check some stuff out and have a beer, and he gave me tips on places to go when I had the chance. It was pretty awesome to get a chance to see the city like that, driving around and seeing different places I would never have known about. Then at like 9:30 or something we met up with Kay and Carston for dinner at a pizza place, which had the huuugest pizzas I've ever seen or eaten in my life. One of them even had truffles on it--truffles are really expensive, and I had never tried them, but they were really interesting, in a good way. So, we ate and hung out for a while, which was really nice. Hennie left the next day, and Kay and I didn't get another chance to meet up, so I was glad I got to see them both, and Carston too, who's really cool.
Wednesday we went to some place where they have information about the Berlin Wall, and we had a tour which wasn't very good, and the whole thing actually wasn't very interesting--it was much more fun to see a different part of the Wall that's still standing elsewhere in the city, because it's still very long and completely graffittied and everything. After that we could go to Museum Island to check the Goya, but it was pouring out and the line was incredibly long (it's usually no less than 5 hours, I don't know exactly what it was then, but we weren't about to wait). So we went to the movies instead, which is a learning experience in German anyway! We saw Alles Auf Zucker, which was an awesome, hilarious movie. That night we went into Kreuzberg, which is the Turkish section of Berlin. Hennie explained to me that it's actually more like Turkey than Turkey is, these days. The people who immigrated in the past were less educated, poor, and so they clung to a lot of the old values and religion and so forth. Turkey, especially Istanbul, is more modernized now, so Hennie said that if people want to connect with their roots they actually travel to Kreuzberg a lot of the time. Pretty funny. It's a totally cool place, too.
Thursday we went to the place where they held the Potsdamer Konferenz, which is where Truman, Churchhill, and Stalin met to discuss war-related issues. It was an interesting, short tour, and it's a very beautiful place, especially the gardens. After that we went somewhere that I have no idea what it's called or anything, but it was some sort of castle slash art gallery deal, and it was pretty extravagant and sweet. The tour guide was really cool, and he also taught us a bit of Berliner dialect--they pronounce "gut" like "yout," if you say the word you with a t at the end. Also, to walk inside the place, we had to put these massive slippers over our shoes, and it was so slick that you could basically ice skate around the floors, which was wayyy too much fun.
Friday we went to the StaSi Gefängnis (prison). This was also a bit disturbing, but also really cool. We checked out the U-Boot (submarine), as they called the area below one building where they had built tons of cells ("they" being the DDR police force during the years of Berlin separation, and I use the term police force lightly, because they did horrible things and locked up everyone they could). The normal cells were bad enough, but they also had a few torture ones, such as the Chinese Water Torture room. They had tons and tons of interrogation rooms upstairs. There was even one open-air cell outside. Very unsettling stuff.
Saturday we had all day free, so we went to the Jüdische Museum (Jewish). It's not just a history of German Jews during the war, it's also like a comprehensive history of the Jewish people, so it was a massive museum. We were there for hours and couldn't process more than maybe half of it, probably less. There was some really cool and interesting stuff though.
And that's just the historical type stuff. We went out every afternoon and night. We had to buy lunch and dinner, but breakfast was provided for us (and was awesome). We were close to Oranienburger Strasse, which was a good place to be near, because it had tons and tons of places to eat, and also shops and whatnot, so we ate something different for every meal. We checked out news bars and and clubs every night too, but you can probably imagine what happened at those, so I'll refrain from detailing. A couple of bars were really cool though, especially one at the top of an art building. This building used to be where squatters lived, but now it's sort of a historical building that the government charges like €1 a year for. Artists get scholariships to go live in a room for a year and just create art, and they have to keep their doors open when they do so that people can always check out what they're doing. That's cool, and the building itself is 4 floors of absolute graffiti--there's not a non-graffitied surface to be found. At the very top there's a bar with one open wall that face behind the building. They project huge movies and stuff on a building back there--they were like weird homemade music videos. It was a sweet setup. There was also a secret bar that Hennie told me about--it had no markings to tell you what it was, and you had to ring a doorbell to be let in. He said there used to be passwords required, but that was a long time ago. It was a creepy place, but cool at the same time.
Okay, I'd better stop now. In (seriously this time) brief other news, classes started today. Yesterday was the holiday for the Berlin Wall coming down, so most things were closed, but we did go to the movies--we saw NVA, which is a comedy about the National Volks Army in East Berlin before the wall had come down, near the end of the 80's, so very fitting, and it was hilarious also. So far we're 2 for 3 with German films--Stadt Als Beute has been the only let down. My IPod has stopped working for some reason, but I do have warranty that covers all expenses still, so if I have to resort to that I will.
It's Opa's birthday today, so Happy Birthday Opa (although I doubt he reads this), but I'll be emailing him, and you should too, unless you're a friend of mine who has no connection to my grandfather, in which case maybe just don't. Well, it's been a long post. Maybe see ya tomorrow. And enjoy your amazing weather that everyone seems to be having, since it's dreary and dismal here.
Friday, September 23, 2005
Ohboy
The title is an inside joke from an awful German movie we saw last week called Stadt als Beude (maybe it was Beute...), but it also sums up my feelings about German speaking exams--rough. Ha. Ha. Ah oh well, it was okay, and pretty short, and now it's over. In response to Carley: I tried to leave you a message on AIM the other morning (well, afternoon here, but morning for you) cuz I've seen you on without an away message a couple times. Basically, I didn't see many girls I could readily identify as French, since we were in touristy towns near the German border, so I can't tell you if they're all as skinny as people apparently say, but I'm sure they've got nothin on Texas girls, if that helps.
Now some friends are waiting for me--we're off to get ice cream to try to make up for that speaking exam, and it's a beautiful day, so whaaaatever. I'll be checking mail and perhaps posting again tomorrow since we're not leaving until Sunday (wow, I got to sleep in today and I will tomorrow too!), so leave me some comments or email me some personal news. You live vicariously through me, it's time to give a little something back. Tschüss out, playas.
Now some friends are waiting for me--we're off to get ice cream to try to make up for that speaking exam, and it's a beautiful day, so whaaaatever. I'll be checking mail and perhaps posting again tomorrow since we're not leaving until Sunday (wow, I got to sleep in today and I will tomorrow too!), so leave me some comments or email me some personal news. You live vicariously through me, it's time to give a little something back. Tschüss out, playas.
Thursday, September 22, 2005
I'm Dumb
Jeez, I forgot to actually post the link again and I messed up the permanent link. Thanks for pointing both of those out.... I've fixed the permanent link on the right side of the screen, and in case you still wanted it in post form, it's http://community.webshots.com/user/bleibcool
I just finished with the written part of the test a little while ago. It wasn't fun, but tests rarely are. I think I did alright, though. Just have 10-15 minutes of speaking test tomorrow at 1:15, so at least I can sleep in. I'm hoping my speaking skills won't embarrass me too badly.
Made myself salad, bratwurst, and grilled cheese last night, so I was pretty proud of that. I'm learnding. Then Dave, Rachelle, and I went out for a drink to a bar called the Augustiner, which was cool cuz they had fußball playing on a huge screen and people were gettin' all into it.
Anyway, not too much else to tell, plus my brain hurts from pointless German testing. Till next time, keep watching the stars.
I just finished with the written part of the test a little while ago. It wasn't fun, but tests rarely are. I think I did alright, though. Just have 10-15 minutes of speaking test tomorrow at 1:15, so at least I can sleep in. I'm hoping my speaking skills won't embarrass me too badly.
Made myself salad, bratwurst, and grilled cheese last night, so I was pretty proud of that. I'm learnding. Then Dave, Rachelle, and I went out for a drink to a bar called the Augustiner, which was cool cuz they had fußball playing on a huge screen and people were gettin' all into it.
Anyway, not too much else to tell, plus my brain hurts from pointless German testing. Till next time, keep watching the stars.
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
Plop Plop Fizz Fizz
Guten Tag, meine Daamen und Herren. What's goin on? I don't know why there have been so few responses to my Oktoberfest post--I guess you were all shocked and awed into submission. You might have noticed that I turned on the Word Verification system for the comments, which is to keep automated comment spam from getting in. But in case it kept you from getting in, all you need to do is write your comment and then look at the graphic they give you and make sure you type the letters you see into the space that's provided. I don't know if that was the problem you had, mom, but I'm glad you finally were able to work it out. For the rest of you, if my mom can do it, so can you.
Onto other news: Oktoberfest pics are up. Go check em out--the link to my pics is always on the right side of the screen (pretty obviously labeled), but if you can't seem to find that, it's here too:
There aren't a whole lot, which was pretty nice for me posting them, actually--it takes so long. But they're pretty cool, and once my friends get their acts together and perhaps post their pics online, I'll try to get those to you, also.
I hope those of you who needed to did remember my big sister's birthday Sunday--I forgot to post about it, but I did send her a postcard last week, so I'm hoping she's gotten it by now.
Gotta study some German tonite--the written part of the placement test is tomorrow, and the spoken part is Friday, and I really want to pull myself up by my bootstraps and leave the lowest German class, because the teacher is not very good, to put it nicely. I don't expect to advance, but oh well, gotta try anyway. Last night Dave and I made dinner together and planned to study German too, but the studying stuff didn't happen. Dinner took a long time, schmeckt gut, though--pasta with sauce and shredded gouda, a salad, and wine. Afterwards Rachelle, Jamie, and Kristina came over and we baked cookies and proceeded to eat them. That was tizight.
Anyway, check out those pics, post some comments so I know you can all handle it and that you're paying attention, and I'll check y'all lata, aight? Bleib cool. Bleib super cool.
Onto other news: Oktoberfest pics are up. Go check em out--the link to my pics is always on the right side of the screen (pretty obviously labeled), but if you can't seem to find that, it's here too:
There aren't a whole lot, which was pretty nice for me posting them, actually--it takes so long. But they're pretty cool, and once my friends get their acts together and perhaps post their pics online, I'll try to get those to you, also.
I hope those of you who needed to did remember my big sister's birthday Sunday--I forgot to post about it, but I did send her a postcard last week, so I'm hoping she's gotten it by now.
Gotta study some German tonite--the written part of the placement test is tomorrow, and the spoken part is Friday, and I really want to pull myself up by my bootstraps and leave the lowest German class, because the teacher is not very good, to put it nicely. I don't expect to advance, but oh well, gotta try anyway. Last night Dave and I made dinner together and planned to study German too, but the studying stuff didn't happen. Dinner took a long time, schmeckt gut, though--pasta with sauce and shredded gouda, a salad, and wine. Afterwards Rachelle, Jamie, and Kristina came over and we baked cookies and proceeded to eat them. That was tizight.
Anyway, check out those pics, post some comments so I know you can all handle it and that you're paying attention, and I'll check y'all lata, aight? Bleib cool. Bleib super cool.
Monday, September 19, 2005
We Came Here To Party
Wow, what a weekend. Turns out I'm an idiot, we weren't actually going straight from Switzerland, we went back to Freiburg on the bus, but then we left that night, our adventure started at about 10. Switzerland was alright--unfortunately the weather was pretty crappy so we all had to go to Luzern, instead of having the option to go hiking in...Grenzwald, I think it was. Luzern is just a huge tourist town, so it was very nice and everything, but a bit disappointing, especially with the gloomy, rainy weather. Plus we were there for like 6 hours, which was wayyy too long.
Speaking of wayyy too long, we started on ou way to Munich at 10 PM Saturday night, and we didn't arrive until 9 AM Sunday morning, haha. There were 9 of us who went together Saturday night; we bought two "Schönes Wochenende" passes, each of which costs 30 € and works for up to 5 people. But because we were traveling in the middle of the night it was really difficult to find good connections and stuff. We ended up going to Karlruhe a ways north of Freiburg, then to Mannheim, where we went to the most awful Irish pub in the world. It was nice enough, but it was the name that killed us: Murphy's Law. If you're not familiar with Murphy's law, let me state it roughly for you: Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong. Brian and I fought vehemently against going in for a drink, but we were overruled by the majority, so of course our trip was jinxed from then on.
The next place we went to was Stuttgart, although that wasn't necessarily the plan--we accidentally got on a train that wasn't allowed by our S. Wochenende passes. A ticket checker than informed us of this, charged each one of us 25.30 €, and made us get off at Stuttgart, which was only a few minutes away. He wouldn't let us just get off at the next stop, we had to pay and get off. It was really lame. So basically at this point, it's around 3 AM, we were just charged and then kicked off our train, and now had to wait 3 hours for the next train that we could take to Munich. Luckily the police didn't kick us out of the train station once we told them we were actually waiting for a train, so we ended up lying on a train station floor sort of sleeping but mostly just huddling together for warmth. We definitely looked homeless. And, while it sounds like an awful experience, it was actually sort of hilarious at the same time, so whatever.
Anyway, we finally made it to Munich, and followed a couple of friendly old American men (who actually have lived in Germany for years) to Oktoberfest. If you're my parents or anyone who won't enjoy hearing about how much beer we had, you should probably skip ahead a while. For those who are still with me, we drank our first Liter of beer at about 10:30 AM. We were in the Paullaner "tent" (these so-called tents are just like huuuge restaurants with tables everywhere). The liters in each place ranged in price from like 7.10 to 7.50 €; expensive, but not as bad as I would have thought, and there was no deposit on the drinks, which seemed unusual, but allowed many of us to swipe a liter glass. Oktoberfest was an interesting place: it was like a huge carnival, complete with rides and food stands and stuff, but mostly people just hang out in the tents drinking. From Paullaner, we headed back outside, and then decided a second liter was in order at the Löwenbräu tent. Löwe is lion, by the way, which hopefully helps you understand why Löwenbräu is a must drink, since lions rule.
We hung out there for a long time, then we wandered for a while, but I was kind of losing track of time, so I'm not exactly sure what the schedule was like after that. Nikki and I left the group because we were waiting somewhere to be served and it was taking too long, and we wanted a 3rd liter, so we went to some place whose name I forget. It was incredibly packed, which was actually nothing compared to the day before, according to the Australians and New Zealanders with whom we ended up standing. I ended up drinking at least 2 more liters while I was there. That makes 4+ liters, for those of you keeping score at home. Our train was leaving at 5:51, and once I finally left, I had to stumble through town trying to find the train station. I asked around a lot, and somehow I made it to the right place about 2 minutes before the train left. I was a bit of a mess, but I did it! We got home at around 2:30 AM this morning (Monday). Basically, we were awake for 43 hours, with slight naps, and far too many liters of beer, and far too little money afterwards.
But it was worth it.
Definitely an awesome adventure. Anyway, I don't think I can write any more now, and I doubt you can read anymore, so I'll be stopping now. Catch ya on tha flipside, which will probably be, like, tomorrow.
Speaking of wayyy too long, we started on ou way to Munich at 10 PM Saturday night, and we didn't arrive until 9 AM Sunday morning, haha. There were 9 of us who went together Saturday night; we bought two "Schönes Wochenende" passes, each of which costs 30 € and works for up to 5 people. But because we were traveling in the middle of the night it was really difficult to find good connections and stuff. We ended up going to Karlruhe a ways north of Freiburg, then to Mannheim, where we went to the most awful Irish pub in the world. It was nice enough, but it was the name that killed us: Murphy's Law. If you're not familiar with Murphy's law, let me state it roughly for you: Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong. Brian and I fought vehemently against going in for a drink, but we were overruled by the majority, so of course our trip was jinxed from then on.
The next place we went to was Stuttgart, although that wasn't necessarily the plan--we accidentally got on a train that wasn't allowed by our S. Wochenende passes. A ticket checker than informed us of this, charged each one of us 25.30 €, and made us get off at Stuttgart, which was only a few minutes away. He wouldn't let us just get off at the next stop, we had to pay and get off. It was really lame. So basically at this point, it's around 3 AM, we were just charged and then kicked off our train, and now had to wait 3 hours for the next train that we could take to Munich. Luckily the police didn't kick us out of the train station once we told them we were actually waiting for a train, so we ended up lying on a train station floor sort of sleeping but mostly just huddling together for warmth. We definitely looked homeless. And, while it sounds like an awful experience, it was actually sort of hilarious at the same time, so whatever.
Anyway, we finally made it to Munich, and followed a couple of friendly old American men (who actually have lived in Germany for years) to Oktoberfest. If you're my parents or anyone who won't enjoy hearing about how much beer we had, you should probably skip ahead a while. For those who are still with me, we drank our first Liter of beer at about 10:30 AM. We were in the Paullaner "tent" (these so-called tents are just like huuuge restaurants with tables everywhere). The liters in each place ranged in price from like 7.10 to 7.50 €; expensive, but not as bad as I would have thought, and there was no deposit on the drinks, which seemed unusual, but allowed many of us to swipe a liter glass. Oktoberfest was an interesting place: it was like a huge carnival, complete with rides and food stands and stuff, but mostly people just hang out in the tents drinking. From Paullaner, we headed back outside, and then decided a second liter was in order at the Löwenbräu tent. Löwe is lion, by the way, which hopefully helps you understand why Löwenbräu is a must drink, since lions rule.
We hung out there for a long time, then we wandered for a while, but I was kind of losing track of time, so I'm not exactly sure what the schedule was like after that. Nikki and I left the group because we were waiting somewhere to be served and it was taking too long, and we wanted a 3rd liter, so we went to some place whose name I forget. It was incredibly packed, which was actually nothing compared to the day before, according to the Australians and New Zealanders with whom we ended up standing. I ended up drinking at least 2 more liters while I was there. That makes 4+ liters, for those of you keeping score at home. Our train was leaving at 5:51, and once I finally left, I had to stumble through town trying to find the train station. I asked around a lot, and somehow I made it to the right place about 2 minutes before the train left. I was a bit of a mess, but I did it! We got home at around 2:30 AM this morning (Monday). Basically, we were awake for 43 hours, with slight naps, and far too many liters of beer, and far too little money afterwards.
But it was worth it.
Definitely an awesome adventure. Anyway, I don't think I can write any more now, and I doubt you can read anymore, so I'll be stopping now. Catch ya on tha flipside, which will probably be, like, tomorrow.
Thursday, September 15, 2005
Bleib super cool
That's merely one of the many delightful phrases my friends and I learned when we saw the movie Mr. and Mrs. Smith auf Deutsch. That, of course, means "Stay super cool," roughly. Others included Ich geb auf (I give up) and Ohne Scheiß? (Which in polite company might translate to "Oh yeah?"). The movie was decent, mostly just full of action and some comedic relief, but it was definitely better to see it in German. It was more interesting that way, held the attention better because we all had to work at translating everything. Plus it wasn't any sort of mind-boggling plot line, so it wasn't difficult to follow. Oh, and I've been to two different German movie theaters now (the first was with Lisa and Jonder when we saw Charlie und die Schokolade Fabrik), and they rule American theaters. The seats are large, cushy, and fantastic, with stadium seating. Plus commercials are better when they're in a foreign language.
After Herr und Frau Smith we went out to dinner. The place was called Schnitzel Paradies (I think you can all get that one). It doesn't get much better than a house of schnitzel, and it was indeed good eats and cool atmosphere.
At 7:00 this evening we're going to a German movie for class, I don't remember what we're seeing but hopefully it will be fine. Afterwards we'll go to a bar for some drinks with our teachers, which should be interesting too. One of our teachers (yeah, we have 2 for some crap reason) is awesome: his name is Kai, and he's originally from Texas, but he's been in Germany longer than I've been alive, I think, so he's very German. He's a great professor, very interesting and engaging. The other one is Evangelia, and she's basically a kindergarten teacher, because we mostly color things and throw around big fuzzy dice. That's all I'll say about her. So anyway, after drinks it's time for Karaoke night at the Dubliner, an (obviously) Irish pub. Can't wait for that.
Aaaand finally, we're going to Switzerland Saturday, but then a bunch of us are going straight from there Saturday night to Munich for Oktoberfest, woooo! Yeah, it starts Saturday, and actually ends sometime in October. The trip there will be like 8 hours, but we'll just hafta sleep on the train and whatnot. We'll head back to Freiburg Sunday night. It's definitely gonna be an adventure.
As usual, hope all is well, and see ya later.
After Herr und Frau Smith we went out to dinner. The place was called Schnitzel Paradies (I think you can all get that one). It doesn't get much better than a house of schnitzel, and it was indeed good eats and cool atmosphere.
At 7:00 this evening we're going to a German movie for class, I don't remember what we're seeing but hopefully it will be fine. Afterwards we'll go to a bar for some drinks with our teachers, which should be interesting too. One of our teachers (yeah, we have 2 for some crap reason) is awesome: his name is Kai, and he's originally from Texas, but he's been in Germany longer than I've been alive, I think, so he's very German. He's a great professor, very interesting and engaging. The other one is Evangelia, and she's basically a kindergarten teacher, because we mostly color things and throw around big fuzzy dice. That's all I'll say about her. So anyway, after drinks it's time for Karaoke night at the Dubliner, an (obviously) Irish pub. Can't wait for that.
Aaaand finally, we're going to Switzerland Saturday, but then a bunch of us are going straight from there Saturday night to Munich for Oktoberfest, woooo! Yeah, it starts Saturday, and actually ends sometime in October. The trip there will be like 8 hours, but we'll just hafta sleep on the train and whatnot. We'll head back to Freiburg Sunday night. It's definitely gonna be an adventure.
As usual, hope all is well, and see ya later.
Monday, September 12, 2005
OMG PICS PPL
Go here: Hooray for pictures. With captions and everything. They might not be hilarious, but I don't want to hear about it, ingrates. I still have plenty more and will continue to take more, and also get links to the pic sites of my friends so you can check those too, but that will, as usual, have to wait. Umm, Freiburg, and Germany in general, rules. The alcohol is really cheap and delicious and doesn't give you hangovers, so of course I never touch the stuff. I have my language class from 9 AM to 1 PM every day, so then we have time to walk around the city or do whatever. The public transportation rules for the most part, I take a bus from my dorm into town, and it takes like 7 minutes, then hop on a tram (Strassenbahn) for a few minutes to where my class is. We went to France this past Saturday, that was pretty sweet, although the French seemed really annoying. Those pics will be coming later. I gotta go get pretzels now, so I'll hopefully talk to people again soon. Guten Appetit!
Friday, September 09, 2005
I'm Alive
But it hardly feels that way without internet access in my room. Just kidding, it's alright, except for the fact that it makes it very tough to update this or get on AIM or anything. But hopefully I'll be able to do both things a little more, since I now have access to wireless on my laptop as long as I come to this IES building or any University building. Anyway, it's better to spend time in the world, rather than racing back home to use the comp.
Well, I have promised pics and stuff so I still intend to get on those, and tell a bit more about my experiences at some point. Suffice to say, Freiburg is awesome, and I'm loving it here, and of course I miss everyone, but instead of me coming home, you should all come here. The American kids in my program are awesome, and we have tons of fun. My German is improving, but slowly, so I still get really frustrated with it. Anyway, even though I don't have enough time at the moment to tell you all about my life, I still get to at least check email daily, so I'd love to hear about what's going on with everyone, if you get time to post or if you want to email me at MonkeyBitesKlown@yahoo.com.
Once again, sorry I've been so lame with this whole "communication" thing, and not posting here or any pics, but I'll see what I can do.
MfG
Well, I have promised pics and stuff so I still intend to get on those, and tell a bit more about my experiences at some point. Suffice to say, Freiburg is awesome, and I'm loving it here, and of course I miss everyone, but instead of me coming home, you should all come here. The American kids in my program are awesome, and we have tons of fun. My German is improving, but slowly, so I still get really frustrated with it. Anyway, even though I don't have enough time at the moment to tell you all about my life, I still get to at least check email daily, so I'd love to hear about what's going on with everyone, if you get time to post or if you want to email me at MonkeyBitesKlown@yahoo.com.
Once again, sorry I've been so lame with this whole "communication" thing, and not posting here or any pics, but I'll see what I can do.
MfG
Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Generation I(-pod)
Yes, I've now joined it, thanks to mom and dad--a shiny new 20GB I-pod in the mail, already loaded with tons of cool music from home. And a cool German phrasebook/dictionary to replace the one I, uh, forgot on the airplane.... Vielen Dank, folks.
I'm glad Alena and Dad were able to place the title of the last post, and it just popped into my head, no special reason for it. I'm disappointed, though, that nobody even tried to guess what Desperado could be! So I'm not telling yet. Start guessing. And I don't really know how to spell Hennie's girlfriend's name either, but yes, he's still with her. And I've mostly recovered from whatever ill feelings I had--I had to cut wayyy back on the tea and such, and drink a lot more water to rehydrate, plus Brigitte got me a bunch of different things to take.
Well, tomorrow's the big day--hopping on a train to Freiburg and moving into my dorm, where I'll be living for the next 3 and a half months. I'll finally have a Handy (cell phone) again, which will be nice, even if it's just so I can tell the time without a watch as usual, haha. I'll also finally be able to use the internet on my own laptop again (I assume!), which means I'll finally have to put my pictures where my mouth is, or something. And maybe even some Instant Messenger so I can talk a little more directly to some of you. I've never been without it for 2 solid weeks, brr. Sooo anyway, Brigitte's doing laundry for me today, and later I'll do some packing so I'll be ready to head out tomorrow. And perhaps some more movie watching, I've already watched 5 in the last 3 days I think. As usual, hope all is well with you guys, and talk to ya again soon.
Ciao.
I'm glad Alena and Dad were able to place the title of the last post, and it just popped into my head, no special reason for it. I'm disappointed, though, that nobody even tried to guess what Desperado could be! So I'm not telling yet. Start guessing. And I don't really know how to spell Hennie's girlfriend's name either, but yes, he's still with her. And I've mostly recovered from whatever ill feelings I had--I had to cut wayyy back on the tea and such, and drink a lot more water to rehydrate, plus Brigitte got me a bunch of different things to take.
Well, tomorrow's the big day--hopping on a train to Freiburg and moving into my dorm, where I'll be living for the next 3 and a half months. I'll finally have a Handy (cell phone) again, which will be nice, even if it's just so I can tell the time without a watch as usual, haha. I'll also finally be able to use the internet on my own laptop again (I assume!), which means I'll finally have to put my pictures where my mouth is, or something. And maybe even some Instant Messenger so I can talk a little more directly to some of you. I've never been without it for 2 solid weeks, brr. Sooo anyway, Brigitte's doing laundry for me today, and later I'll do some packing so I'll be ready to head out tomorrow. And perhaps some more movie watching, I've already watched 5 in the last 3 days I think. As usual, hope all is well with you guys, and talk to ya again soon.
Ciao.
Monday, August 29, 2005
This One Goes To Eleven
Hey, World. It's Monday morning-ish and I'm at Thorlef and Brigitte's. In response to Mark, my German is still not great--I can understand a decent amount of stuff, but still have trouble speaking and such. I imagine this will change once I get to school and have a month of intensive language study. And the food is awesome, of course, but it seems to be catching up to me, as I'm finding myself running to the bathroom too often the last couple days. Which is why Brigitte and I didn't end up going to Mainz today--I didn't think I'd survive. It could be the beer, too--at least one gets consumed per day, but it's not quite the same as Natural Light. That means the brewers don't get their water downstream of a small community who has no toilets and just uses the stream. But that's probably enough on that subject.
So I'm just hangin' out I guess, which is relaxing. I've played tennis a couple of times, although I don't provide much more than cannon fodder for my relatives. Maybe a swim later, and hot tub action, but I don't think I'll try the steam room again just yet, that thing was too much for me. Watch some movies, or more German MTV, which is a lot like American MTV if American MTV still played music videos--that is, the majority of music is in English. I've been makin' some musik on the piano, too.
Saw cousin Hennie yesterday, although not for too long--he's a workin' man, which is hard to believe but true. He studied in Freiburg for 2 years so he was telling me about it. Saw cousin Philly a few days ago at Britta's, and it turns out she'll be working at a hospital in Freiburg for a few weeks starting today I think, so it's great that she'll be there for some of the time I will. I still have a ton of great pics to put on a website, but I'm waiting for the chance to do it all from my computer rather than dealing with this German computer/internet stuff for some pics, so unfortunately you still have to wait half a week or more.
Just a few funny things before I go. One, I get e-mail newsletters from this site Tremor, which isn't the point. The point is that in these newsletters, which I don't usually pay attention to, I've noticed that they like to put "Fun Facts" at the bottom. I'd like to share with you two of Tremor's ideas of Fun Facts:
Fun Fact With three or more teen passengers in the car, teen drivers are 20% more likely to be involved in an accident. Study by the Southern California Injury Prevention Research Ctr, Dailynews.com 6.18.05
Fun Fact The most painful areas to get a tattoo: 1. Ribs 2. Top of feet or hands 3. Knee 4. Elbow 5. Triceps ESPN THE MAGAZINE 8.1.05
Weren't those fun, kids?
And I'll be leaving you with this: I haven't seen the actual product, but there are commercials on TV advertising an alcoholic drink called "Desperado." Can you guess what Desperado is? Don't search for it, just take a moment and try to guess what it is, and I'll let you know next time. Adios, amigos.
So I'm just hangin' out I guess, which is relaxing. I've played tennis a couple of times, although I don't provide much more than cannon fodder for my relatives. Maybe a swim later, and hot tub action, but I don't think I'll try the steam room again just yet, that thing was too much for me. Watch some movies, or more German MTV, which is a lot like American MTV if American MTV still played music videos--that is, the majority of music is in English. I've been makin' some musik on the piano, too.
Saw cousin Hennie yesterday, although not for too long--he's a workin' man, which is hard to believe but true. He studied in Freiburg for 2 years so he was telling me about it. Saw cousin Philly a few days ago at Britta's, and it turns out she'll be working at a hospital in Freiburg for a few weeks starting today I think, so it's great that she'll be there for some of the time I will. I still have a ton of great pics to put on a website, but I'm waiting for the chance to do it all from my computer rather than dealing with this German computer/internet stuff for some pics, so unfortunately you still have to wait half a week or more.
Just a few funny things before I go. One, I get e-mail newsletters from this site Tremor, which isn't the point. The point is that in these newsletters, which I don't usually pay attention to, I've noticed that they like to put "Fun Facts" at the bottom. I'd like to share with you two of Tremor's ideas of Fun Facts:
Fun Fact With three or more teen passengers in the car, teen drivers are 20% more likely to be involved in an accident. Study by the Southern California Injury Prevention Research Ctr, Dailynews.com 6.18.05
Fun Fact The most painful areas to get a tattoo: 1. Ribs 2. Top of feet or hands 3. Knee 4. Elbow 5. Triceps ESPN THE MAGAZINE 8.1.05
Weren't those fun, kids?
And I'll be leaving you with this: I haven't seen the actual product, but there are commercials on TV advertising an alcoholic drink called "Desperado." Can you guess what Desperado is? Don't search for it, just take a moment and try to guess what it is, and I'll let you know next time. Adios, amigos.
Friday, August 26, 2005
It's A Girl!
But we already knew it'd be a girl. Anyway, baby Josefin entered the world at around 3 AM yesterday (Thursday) morning. There are plenty of pictures, but as with the other pics, they'll have to wait for now. BUT (yes, there's a but), if you go to www.born-in-peine.de you'll be taken to the Born In Peine (that's pronounced "pine," she wasn't born in pain...) website where you can see the first ever pic of baby Josie, or Fin, or Finny, or whatever nickname the family decides upon. Just click something on the main page, it should bring you to the pictures section.
Ingölf (I hope I didn't just butcher the spelling) and Doris came for a while yesterday, and later on Philly did too. It turns out she'll be in Freiburg for 3 weeks starting Monday, working at a hospital, so I'll be there for 2 weeks of her 3, which should be fun. I was supposed to leave Wednesday, of course, but I didn't want to miss Josie's big day, and Eric Spickschen told me he had a meeting in Hanover today, so he's coming to get me afterwards.
Okay, that's all for now, folks--bis bald!
Ingölf (I hope I didn't just butcher the spelling) and Doris came for a while yesterday, and later on Philly did too. It turns out she'll be in Freiburg for 3 weeks starting Monday, working at a hospital, so I'll be there for 2 weeks of her 3, which should be fun. I was supposed to leave Wednesday, of course, but I didn't want to miss Josie's big day, and Eric Spickschen told me he had a meeting in Hanover today, so he's coming to get me afterwards.
Okay, that's all for now, folks--bis bald!
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
Bin ich dran? (Is it my turn?)
Guten Abend, oder Tag, depends where you are--here, it's 18:24. "Here" is Britta and Wolfgang's house, and I've been here since Saturday. I'm not gonna write too much, because I'm just now rediscovering how different the German keyboard is from the American keyboard (I'm on Jonder's computer). It would take me all day to recount my adventures thus far on a normal keyboard, which means it would take me a week on this keyboard, unfortunately. Suffice to say everyone treats me like royalty (they're too good to me!) and I'm having a great time.
I just wanted to check in and let people know I am alive. I've been taking some pictures, and Wolfgang has taken a lot since I've been here, so at some point I'll get those online, but it prrrrobably won't be till September, when I'm in Freiburg. No baby Josefin from Britta yet, either, so I'm trying to wait that out. Anyway, hope to get a chance to write more soon and to talk to people, but until then, leave me some comments or e-mail me with your news from Amerika so I'll see it next time I'm on here. Auf Wiedersehen.
I just wanted to check in and let people know I am alive. I've been taking some pictures, and Wolfgang has taken a lot since I've been here, so at some point I'll get those online, but it prrrrobably won't be till September, when I'm in Freiburg. No baby Josefin from Britta yet, either, so I'm trying to wait that out. Anyway, hope to get a chance to write more soon and to talk to people, but until then, leave me some comments or e-mail me with your news from Amerika so I'll see it next time I'm on here. Auf Wiedersehen.
Monday, August 15, 2005
Smoke Rings Rock
...And Bobby and I taught ourselves to blow smoke rings at the hookah bar last night. Also, there are containers of bubbles everywhere, which means you can blow smoke into bubbles. I don't know if it sounds cool, but it's freakin' sweet.
Yeah, Portland has a hookah bar now, who'd a thunk it? It's called The Purple Caterpillar, and it's quite purple and freaky. It's open really late, too, even on Sunday--we didn't get there until 12:30 AM, and we left around 1:45. For a while they were playing Pink Floyd, which worked well, but then the Rocky Horror Picture Show soundtrack came on and that reeeeally sucked. It's a sweet deal though, $10 for a pack, which could easily take care of about 6 people, as determined by Bob, Rus, and me after finishing one ourselves. When I went to one in NYC it was much more expensive, so that's cool, and those mugs treated me anyway, so can't complain. In summary: smoke rings and bubbles, good; The Purple Caterpillar, good; apricot tobacco, good; Rocky Horror, crap.
In fashion news, I bought a new wallet yesterday. $10 at TJ Maxx, can't beat it. And I was checked out (well, she was the check-out person...) by a chick who looked like Paris Hilton and had some foreign accent. I was totally smooth too. European Paris Hilton: "Will you give me your phone number?" Me: "Uhhhh, unlisted. (thinking only of my poor parents being hassled by telemarketers)" Yup, totally smooove, man.
Let's see, I got an email today from the IES program with a schedule that mostly tells about the first few weeks, but it's all in Deutsch, so I'll probably never read it. Just kidding, but I'll probably put it off for a while anyway. And finally, T-minus about 50 hours until I leave for the Land of Beer and Chocolate--wunderbar!
Yeah, Portland has a hookah bar now, who'd a thunk it? It's called The Purple Caterpillar, and it's quite purple and freaky. It's open really late, too, even on Sunday--we didn't get there until 12:30 AM, and we left around 1:45. For a while they were playing Pink Floyd, which worked well, but then the Rocky Horror Picture Show soundtrack came on and that reeeeally sucked. It's a sweet deal though, $10 for a pack, which could easily take care of about 6 people, as determined by Bob, Rus, and me after finishing one ourselves. When I went to one in NYC it was much more expensive, so that's cool, and those mugs treated me anyway, so can't complain. In summary: smoke rings and bubbles, good; The Purple Caterpillar, good; apricot tobacco, good; Rocky Horror, crap.
In fashion news, I bought a new wallet yesterday. $10 at TJ Maxx, can't beat it. And I was checked out (well, she was the check-out person...) by a chick who looked like Paris Hilton and had some foreign accent. I was totally smooth too. European Paris Hilton: "Will you give me your phone number?" Me: "Uhhhh, unlisted. (thinking only of my poor parents being hassled by telemarketers)" Yup, totally smooove, man.
Let's see, I got an email today from the IES program with a schedule that mostly tells about the first few weeks, but it's all in Deutsch, so I'll probably never read it. Just kidding, but I'll probably put it off for a while anyway. And finally, T-minus about 50 hours until I leave for the Land of Beer and Chocolate--wunderbar!
Sunday, August 14, 2005
No Real News, Just Filler.
It feels like ages since I last posted on this thing--maybe because I got hassled by my darling cousin who-will-remain-nameless for not updating every day. I doubt I'll be posting every day though, especially for the first stretch that I'm in Germany. Not only is that way too much writing (you all know, of course, how I hate writing and cherish number-crunching), but I'll be visiting relatives for the first two weeks, and not necessarily sitting down to a computer all the time. I don't even know if Tante Hasse and Uncle Gerd have a computer at the farm, but I do know they have a tractor I plan to drive, aww yeeah.
In fact, I might be feeling fairly cut off from the outside world for another reason. Namely, I won't have a cell phone for the first two weeks that I'm in Germany, either. Gasp, the horrors! Well, all this will mean is that none of you have to feel bad about not calling me anymore, since you couldn't even if you wanted to. (Put away the rum, that's no cause for celebration.) Yeah, I'm not taking my cell phone to Germany because the IES people make each student pay for a cell phone they assign when we arrive September 1. But until then, I'll basically be living in the dark ages again, which I heard were sort of dangerous the first time around. I'll be okay, though, I promise. (Seriously, put down the rum, I'll let you know when it's time to celebrate.)
A couple of minor updates to the page: I tried to get a working pic for my profile, but it doesn't seem to be working well. Which is unfortunate because I make a dashing pirate. I added an audio clip which has been exploding across the internet and some tv commercials, so enjoy that, please. I slapped a link to the LEO English-German Online Dictionary somewhere off to the right, so when I start losing my grip on the English language a couple of months from now, you can try to figure out what I'm saying still. I'd say that's it for now, and since this crazy guy is making me really hungry, I'd also say it's time for a snack. Tell all your friends, and Stay classy, tiny contingent of Surprise Witness readers.
In fact, I might be feeling fairly cut off from the outside world for another reason. Namely, I won't have a cell phone for the first two weeks that I'm in Germany, either. Gasp, the horrors! Well, all this will mean is that none of you have to feel bad about not calling me anymore, since you couldn't even if you wanted to. (Put away the rum, that's no cause for celebration.) Yeah, I'm not taking my cell phone to Germany because the IES people make each student pay for a cell phone they assign when we arrive September 1. But until then, I'll basically be living in the dark ages again, which I heard were sort of dangerous the first time around. I'll be okay, though, I promise. (Seriously, put down the rum, I'll let you know when it's time to celebrate.)
A couple of minor updates to the page: I tried to get a working pic for my profile, but it doesn't seem to be working well. Which is unfortunate because I make a dashing pirate. I added an audio clip which has been exploding across the internet and some tv commercials, so enjoy that, please. I slapped a link to the LEO English-German Online Dictionary somewhere off to the right, so when I start losing my grip on the English language a couple of months from now, you can try to figure out what I'm saying still. I'd say that's it for now, and since this crazy guy is making me really hungry, I'd also say it's time for a snack. Tell all your friends, and Stay classy, tiny contingent of Surprise Witness readers.
Friday, August 12, 2005
First Day of the Rest of My Life
Or at least the first day of whatever portion of my life happens to involve this blog. And while I'm being completely honest, it's really the first night, since it happens to be after 10:00 and dark out. Before I find myself describing every insignificant detail of my life, which happens to be pretty uneventful at the moment, I'll say that the main goal of this blog is to alleviate my reporting duties while I'm in Freiburg, Germany for the next 4 months (as of Thursday, Aug. 18). Hopefully, instead of constantly emailing, IMing, and calling various interested parties, I can direct said parties here, where I will take the stand and tell some version of the truth.
A big assumption here is that there are, in fact, interested parties. If you decide that you're among them, go ahead and leave me occasional feedback, or else it's possible I will lose control of my tearducts, and if the Germans see me cry, I'm afraid to think what my fate will be. Sure, history has shown them to be a gentle, peace-loving people, but some things are simply verboten.
Anyway, by periodically touching base here at The Surprise Witness, you should be able to learn when there exciting new developments such as updated pictures, fresh Wienerschnitzel, and D+ test scores. Court is now in session.
A big assumption here is that there are, in fact, interested parties. If you decide that you're among them, go ahead and leave me occasional feedback, or else it's possible I will lose control of my tearducts, and if the Germans see me cry, I'm afraid to think what my fate will be. Sure, history has shown them to be a gentle, peace-loving people, but some things are simply verboten.
Anyway, by periodically touching base here at The Surprise Witness, you should be able to learn when there exciting new developments such as updated pictures, fresh Wienerschnitzel, and D+ test scores. Court is now in session.
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