Adam's World Tour: Eurotrip

Party at the Monastery

2008-11-21T17:35:00.003+01:00

A few days ago I was releasing some of my wanderlust by exploring the world on Google Earth. I was visiting some of the places I have previously traveled to and written about, places I’ve traveled to and haven’t gotten around to writing about, as well as the various placed I’ve lived. While I was exploring the Giessen area, I stumbled upon a nearby Monastery and was reminded of what may be my most unique “cultural” experience during my time in Germany.

University sponsored parties were already something unusual for me. In Germany, anyone can be served beer in public starting at the age of 16, and the legal age for hard alcohol is 18. So by the time everyone gets to university, everybody is of legal age. Nothing for the universities to worry about. So, at least at Uni-Giessen, university sponsored parties are common place, and there’s usually one at least once a month.

I went to the first Uni party of the semester. It was thrown in the two story academic building that houses four major lecture halls. It was like a gigantic house party, except first of all, it was legal, and two different beer tables (one on each floor) replaced the typical keg(s). In addition to a DJ upstairs, there was live music for half the night on the ground floor. Another table sold shots on the first floor and Vodka-Red Bulls upstairs. Once you got past the idea you were at a party in a school building, it was a pretty typical party.

While I was busy seeing Europe, I missed the next Uni party, which was the same as the first; I also missed the party at the university’s sports complex. Sounds like that party was a good one. It produced some legendary stories…

I finally stopped traveling and was in Giessen for a weekend in the middle of June. That weekend, the Uni-party was in the courtyard of a Monastery. …yes, a Monastery. For whatever reason, the exchange students started dropping out on by one (something about having exams to study for and papers to write… ), and by the time the evening of the party rolled around, Karl and I were the only ones going.

The party was at Kloster Schiffenberg, and the French girls told us there was a bus that ran from the city center to Schiffenberg. As Karl and I were running around the Altstadt, trying to find where the bus left from, we found out that the bus to Schiffenberg only runs on Sundays. Luckily, we also ran into our favorite waitress from the Pizza Haus, who informed us that Kloster Schiffenberg wasn’t actually IN Schiffenberg, and if we were up for it, it was probably walk-able from the edge of town where our dorms were. So Karl and I took the bus back to our edge of town and then walked nearly an hour through the woods as the sun started to set. Thanks to randomly stumbling on a sign with a map on it, we continued our trek onward through a forest I would best describe as some sort of poorly advertised state park with a single hiking trail. We were starting to question where the heck we were when we heard the music coming through the forest from the hill up ahead. By that time, the sun had almost completely set, and hundreds of fire flies were dancing around the trees like fairies or sprites as if I was in some sort of real-life Disney movie or fairy tale.

The party itself was like any other. It was good, it was fun, but it was nothing special. …oh yeah, except that it was put on by the university and located in the courtyard of a monastery, a feeling I never really got over.

America to the Rescue

2008-10-27T18:40:00.003+01:00

...so I apparently don't have an application installed to watch videos online on the daily show's website (I tried to download and install the app, but the video still doesn't play from the website). However, embedding them into my blog allows me to watch them.

I was looking for the particular video which I have seen and even shared in the past. After taking a History of the Modern Middle East course during my semester in Rome last fall, I like to share this video(from August, 2007), as I feel it does a reasonably accurate job depicting America's foreign policy pertaining to the Middle East over the last several decades (despite its comedic intent).

Attempting to embed a video

2008-10-27T18:09:00.000+01:00

Personal Domestic Policy

2008-10-02T20:15:00.003+02:00

About a month ago, republican presidential candidate John McCain's nomination of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin came out of left field. I was skeptical about her nomination, and even though I had already determined who would be receiving my vote in November, I tried to keep an open mind and give her a chance.

She seemed to energize and excite a lot of the republican base and many others who were not already energized and excited by Barack Obama's democratic nomination for president. Even though I disagree with many of her political stances, was baffled by the McCain campaign's strategy to abandon the only argument they seemed to have at the time (Obama is "inexperienced"), and saw her quickly learn the McCain campaign's tactics to twist Obama's statements and ideas and turn them into ridiculous and often incoherent arguments, I thought the excitement she was generating was good for American politics. (Maybe US voter turnout will crack 60% for the first time since the Vietnam War era).

But now I'm surprised the McCain campaign is still allowing Sarah Palin to not only appear in public but open her mouth in public (in front of rolling cameras, even). It's pathetic and embarassing when the script for a Saturday Night Live skit featuring Tina Fey can be taken almost verbatim from a Palin interview.

Readers of my blog from the very beginning might recall a YouTube video featuring 2007's Miss Teen South Carolina, which I linked in one of my first posts while en route to Italy.
Whether you consider yourself a Republican, Democrat, or Independant; whether you can see through the contradictory campaign policies, arguments, "logic", and catch phrases Palin spews, or you choose to blindly agree; whether you are a fan of Keith Olbermann or abandoned him when he left ESPN's SportsCenter in favor of expressing his political views; I don't think it is much of a stretch to make a connection or two between Sarah Palin and the former Miss Teen South Carolina. (Feel free to fast forward to about 0:48 in the Palin video.)

Former beauty queens and incoherent thoughts? Mrs. Palin, are you sure you're against gay marriage? That's a shame. You and Miss South Carolina seem like a perfect match.

Surprise!

2008-05-24T14:01:00.003+02:00

I brought my laptop with to Morocco primarily so that I could unload pictures from my camera during the 5 nights that I am here. I didn't want to be limited to the 500 8 megapixel pictures that can fit on my 1 GB memory card. In the first three nights, I've already accumulated 414 and counting.

I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the Riad we're staying in has wireless internet, so on two occasions, I've already checked email and facebook from my bed or the rooftop terrace.

After finally figuring out that بحث المدونة الإلكترونية means "sign in" in Arabic, I'm able to login to my blog.

I won't take the time right now to go into too many details; I'll save that for my return. But
There have been many highlights so far. So of which include the 30 cent fresh squeezed orange juice one can purchase at one of the 30+ stalls and the camel ride on the way to a waterfall outside of Marrakech, at the beginnings of the Atlas mountains.

Another side note: my title is Adam's World Tour: Eurotrip
I think I need a new title.
I'm not in Europe anymore

Rome [revisited]

2008-05-20T19:14:00.004+02:00

At the beginning of my settlement in Germany, I won €20 for a trip to Erfurt for two girls and myself. Well, actually Roman won it for me the day before my showing me all around Giessen, unknowingly giving me half of the answers to the scavenger hunt the Auslandsamt was sending us on in our first day of class.

I skipped out on those €20 to play tour guide for Krista in Rome. The two cities she had her heart set on seeing in her three weeks in Europe were Paris and Rome. And why not? They’re two of my most favorite cities in the world. At first, I was hesitant buying tickets and spending one of my valuable weekends in Europe to go some place I’ve already been. But immediately after buying tickets, I got more and more excited by the day.

Coincidentally, I found out Chase and Izzy had tickets to go to Rome that weekend as well. We were staying in separate places, but we were on the exact same flight each way. It made for good in-flight company. But upon arrival in Rome, we accidentally got separated in the metro station. Krista and I made it down the escalator to the platforms. Chase and Izzy went missing. …or maybe to them, we went missing. They waited near the top of the escalator for us while we, noticing they were missing once we hit the platforms, waited near the bottom. We skipped the first subway that ran passed, but when they still weren’t down the escalator when the second train arrived, I said screw it and hopped on. Without either Chase’s or Izzy’s number, Krista and I didn’t see either until the bus back to the airport three days later.

We stayed in a B&B in a courtyard off the main street that runs east of the Coliseum. This put us about 5 minutes (walking) from the Metro A line to the east, and the same distance from the Coliseum stop on the Metro B line to the west. It meant that regardless of where we were heading in the city, even if we turned right coming out of the courtyard towards the Metro A line, we always glanced left first to catch a glimpse of the amazing arena sitting at the end of the street.

On day one, I took Krista on a whirlwind tour through Rome. Obviously, the Coliseum was the first sight in our day. Even if we hadn’t wanted it to be, we couldn’t help it. It was right there. Unavoidable. We actually just gazed at it from the outside. My inside knowledge led us passed the Coliseum to the Palatino. The same ticket covers the Coliseum, Palatino, and Roman Forum. And many less people head into the Palatino. It means shorter lines. Less time spent waiting impatiently in lines.

After the Palatino, we walked through the Forum, and then our hunger mission led us away from the Coliseum. After a bite to eat at a Pizzeria near Area Sacra (one JD led me to just one week before I left Rome last semester), and after letting the animal lover play with the cats in the cat sanctuary, Krista and I continued on to Campo de Fiori, Piazza Navona, and a fantastic gelateria on our way to the Pantheon. The gelateria served up a bowl of fresh strawberries which we topped with lemon gelato. Heavenly. From there, we threw our coins into the Trevi to guarantee ourselves a return to Rome, and we stumbled across the Roma city police marching band on our way back to the B&B to catch our collective breath.

For a reasonably priced dinner, we headed to a familiar restaurant in Trestevere, Carlo Menta (where I first ate Ox tail), coincidentally passing a rose garden near Circo Massimo which I had just learned about the day before thanks to Roman exchange student Silvia. After dinner, I dragged Krista to Mr. Brown’s – My apartment's happy hour bar from last semester – for a drink and to be able to rub it in to all my Roman roommates back in the states. Talk about Karma. Mr. Browns wasn’t quite the same. I didn’t recognize any of the people working, and all I did was miss my roommates. We left after my one beer.

Our walk back to our place provided the opportunity for some night pictures.

Day Two was filled with the main sights. The Vatican Museums filled the entire morning. Lunch was at a café right across the street from the Coliseum, after which we went inside using the tickets we’d purchased the day before (which just so happen to be valid for two days). A spur of the moment “What’s Next?” decision led us south, out of the old city walls to St. Paul’s Basilica, a sight I didn’t see in my entire three and a half months last semester in Rome but I did see in my first visit there with my family. For comparison’s sake, we made our way all the way back to St. Peter’s. But the line was too long, so we waited until Monday to enter. Nighttime brought about the Spanish Steps, and Piazza della Repubblica.

Sunday was a day at the beach, after spending the morning at Piazza del Popolo and the Pincio. We made our way once again back to the Vatican for night photos. We hadn’t taken any night shots of the Vatican yet, and it was our last night in Roma.

Monday we checked out. We hit the inside of St. Peter’s Basilica, got rejected at by the Baths of Caracalla (they closed at 2pm on Mondays. We showed up at 2:40pm). I tried to lead us out to scenic Appian Way for our last hours in Rome, but I must have picked the wrong bus, because what looked familiar at the beginning became unfamiliar after 15 minutes. We wound up in the fascist built EUR area, grabbed a bite to eat, snapped a picture, and headed back to the center of the city.

We returned to the heart of Rome on the 175 bus. The street names started looking familiar. Then the shops on the street started looking familiar. We passed the store where Justin wowed the sales clerks 9 months previously, scrambling and then solving a Rubik’s cube in the two and a half minutes it took the clerk to process Justin’s information in order to buy and register a cell phone. It would have only taken the clerk two minutes had he not been looking up in amazement every 10 seconds.

As we passed that store, I knew exactly where the bus was taking us. We ran right by Stazion Trastevere, down Viale di Trastevere and passed Pizza Boom and my second floor apartment I lived in for three and a half marvelous months. I wanted to yell “Stop the bus!” but I knew none of the roommates were within 4,000 miles and we didn’t live there anymore. …not that the Roman bus driver would have understood “stop the bus” anyway…

After a successful hunt for souvenirs and unexpectedly passing the same anti-war graffiti I had snapped a picture of three years ago, Krista and I capped off my return to Rome with that delicious gelato near the Pantheon.

We ran into Chase and Izzy at the bus stop to go back to the airport for our 10pm flight, and made it back to Giessen watching the sunrise from the train.

Krista flew home just a few hours later.

Traveler's Review:

2008-05-14T17:00:00.000+02:00

I was definitely spoiled by Budapest.

Both cities, Budapest and Prague, have two hills on the west bank of a river with much of the city lying on the east bank. Castles sit atop both main hills in each city. Prague castle itself clobbers Buda castle as far as things to see (Buda castle only houses two museums inside, but is still enjoyable from the outside [see Budapest photos]). With that said, Prague’s castle made me feel like I was in Disneyland or on a Hollywood set. It still held my interest, but I have the feeling Prague castle rivals Cinderella’s as far as annual summer visitors. The tourists were already swarming, and it was only the beginning of May.

Buda castle plus Fishermen’s Bastion on Buda Hill are enough to edge by Prague castle on my book. The views of Budapest from the Citadel atop its second hill easily beat Prague’s second hill, which is mostly green with either wooded trails or an open park. I’m sure it would be an excellent place to relax if I was a Prague resident, but the views from the top, while pretty, can’t compare with Budapest. And while I would say the average building is prettier in Prague than in Budapest, Budapest is beautiful still.

Prague is Budapest with many, many, many more annoying tourists while lacking Budapest’s Turkish baths.

Work in Progress

2008-05-14T02:14:00.002+02:00

For anyone desperately waiting for an update, I finished my Norway story and hid it down by "April 19th" to keep things roughly in chronological order.

Much more will becoming very soon, but it's 2:15am my time, so I won't be getting around to it for another 10 hours.

Prague

2008-05-12T18:55:00.002+02:00

Here's for all of you who won't be able to wait for me to get back from Morocco. I leave tonight to catch my early morning flight tomorrow. Then I'll be in Marrakesh for 4 nights and Ouarzazate for a night in between. A total of 5 nights on a new continent.

Pictures from Prague are posted. I won't have time to get around to captions before I leave. I added a few of Krista's pictures as well. Hers are the ones stamped with the yellow date in the corners. You'll notice some appear to be taken from a bus. This isn't an illusion. After our two car Czech train stopped, we were informed we had to go the rest of the way by bus to the next station - a complete surprise because it didn't happen on the way to Prague, just the return. It was also an amazing example of communicating without a common language, as the Czechs on the train spoke neither English nor German. Following her pictures are the 9 train stations we went thru on our way back (Minus Giessen, forgot to take that picture).

My idea of fun is riding on a train for twelve hours. I would have taken a bus for eight hours, but when I heard the extra four hour alternative, I just couldn’t pass it up.

OK, actually, the bus schedule with Eurolines was such that a bus left Frankfurt late Thursday night and got into Prague at about 6am Friday. Return was either Sunday evening at 5pm getting back at midnight, or leaving Prague Sunday at 10pm and getting back at 5am Monday. As it turns out, the only seats that were left three days in advance were Friday night getting in Saturday morning, and then leaving Sunday at 5pm. Prague for one night didn’t seem worth the €80 round trip bus fare.

Instead, Karl, Krista and I split a Bayern-Böhmen group pass and tacked on a €12 ticket each from Plzen to Prague. Total was €52 for Karl and me to get to Prague and back. Slightly more for Krista because she’s just visiting. Just visiting means she doesn’t have the Hessen ticket on her student ID that was included in the €182,95 student fees that she didn’t pay.

All in all, €52 isn’t a bad price to pay to get to Prague. The downside is group tickets mean no fast trains, only regional ones. Regional trains only go so far before they turn around and go right back to where they came from. So we were required to jump on train after train, generally for about an hour each. No longer than an hour twenty on any train, with one exception. The exception was 1 hour 50 minutes.

The train schedules on the way there worked out well, relatively speaking. Well means we averaged no more than 20 minutes waiting at any particular train station. Usually it was between eight and thirteen minutes. The exception was 53 minutes in Nürnberg, which outside of Frankfurt was the biggest train station we stopped at, so there was plenty to keep us occupied.

The return trip wasn’t so lucky. Monday was a Feiertag in Germany, so there weren’t the usual number of trains running. On four occasions, we waited just over an hour sitting at various train stations. Total time for the return trip: 16 hours.

Prague itself was nice. The lack of extraordinary superlative reflects the lack of inspiration Prague gave me to seek one. But it was still nice.

Saturday the three of us blazed through the city, seeing most of the ‘must-sees’ on our way to/from Prague castle. Sunday, we struggled to come up with a list of more things to see. The list was complete after the Jewish quarter (Cemetery plus a couple of synagogues) and Wenceslas Square. When we realized we walked through Wenceslas Square the day before while exploring after fighting through the hordes of tourists on Charles Bridge, we scratched that off the list and were left with just the Jewish quarter. So we explored some more.

We stopped at two souvenir/beer/liquor stores: one before heading to the Jewish quarter, one after climbing down Prague’s second hill; each in a separate part of town. The separation is why we were stunned when the guy sitting behind the register at the second store was the exact same guy who was trying to sell us a 2000 Crown ($80) bottle of Absinth at the first store. The “free beer and wine samples” sign painted on the second store window drew three college students in like the blue glow of a bug zapper does to flies, mosquitoes, and the occasional squirrel. The persistent salesman poured us each a sample shot of absinth instead. For Karl and me, the creepy Italian poured an absinth called Beetle. For Krista, he poured the other brand of absinth he carried, because she seemed a bit freaked out by the 5 inch beetle floating near the bottom of each bottle of absinth which wears the name.

We carried on, hunting down a Tex-Mex restaurant, Buffalo Bill, which Karl found on a list next to the list of recommended pubs, bars, and brewing houses. Krista and I shared a Chicken Quesadilla and a plate of Nachos Grande. Karl enjoyed his own plate of regular nachos 'n cheese and a chimichanga. We were all impressed and delighted by the authenticity of a Tex-Mex restaurant in an 'eastern' European city.

Karl and I were also delighted by the Budweiser listed on the menu. And the price. 48 Crown ($3) for half a liter. That’s roughly the price for the price of a 20 oz bottle of Budweiser in a bar back home. But that’s not what we were especially pleased with; this stuff wasn’t the crap from St. Louis. This was the original Budvar from the Czech Republic, which we had had a taste of in Hungary. With nothing left on our Prague list except night pictures, we talked for about an hour after eating while Karl and I enjoyed three half liters of the good Budweiser.

(Side note: the first night was spent at an Irish pub, where Urquell Pilsner was the bar’s beer of choice. Urquell coming from Plzen, from which the term Pilsner is derived).

(Second side note: while Urquell is good, Budvar wins the contest hands down).

Three half liters, a decent half-hour walk back to our room, a call home for mother’s day, letting Krista use my phone to call home for mother’s day because she couldn’t get her phone card to work from the Czech Republic, a nighttime Prague photo shoot, and six hours of sleep later, we started our 16 hour journey home.

Late Assignments

2008-05-05T23:03:00.002+02:00

Oh Boy.

There was a time when I wrote a blog in the form of a letter.

The letter informed everyone that time was moving at lightning speed and that I would be unable to blog as often as I had hoped. Since then, time had slowed down a bit, allowing me to blog every once in a while to update everyone on my travels. On a few occasions, time slowed so much I was even able to blog "from my blackberry."

Times change.

Time is no longer at normal anymore.
It's not even at lightning speed.

Somehow, time jumped past lightning and went all the way to warp speed.

In the last several weeks, I've been to:

Norway (April 11-14)
Köln (April 19-20)
Budapest (April 25-28)
Berlin (May 1-4)
Heidelberg (May 5)

Regarding Norway and Köln, I've already posted the travel planning and/or the adventure of the hinfahrt. Much of Köln sits completed on my computer on MS Word, but it still awaits final touches. Budapest exists in pictures only at this point. Berlin, and Heidelberg are yet to exist.

When I have time to breathe, you'll hear more. Sadly, I might not be breathing in May.

I give a presentation Thursday on the Berlin Wall, which I still have to finish (and start on). Friday (or even Thursday night) thru Sunday night or Monday early morning looks like a trip to Prague. After Prague, I might come up for air, shortly, but then I hope to make a trip to Munich, and even possibly play tour guide in Rome, in the same weekend. ...I did spend a whole semester there, but I would love the opportunity to buy a cheap Ryanair ticket and go back. ..and impress everyone I know with my Roman insight. After whatever happens that weekend, I breathe shortly, probably preparing another presentation for a different class, because I then leave for Morocco for 5 days, with a presentation due the day after I get back.

...What idiot thought the end of May would be a perfect time to give a presentation? Who thought "I can get it out of the way fairly early, but still have plenty of time to get it done"? ...This idiot did.

Berlin Berlin

2008-05-04T19:08:00.001+02:00

I think my pictures in the attached album are fairly self-explanatory, but I’ll divulge the details anyway.

By the time we rode the S-Bahn back into the heart of the city, it was roughly 9pm and pretty much dark. We set off in a group of 11 (one of the Polish girls was meeting a friend in Berlin) passed the Reichstag to the Brandenburger Tor. After snapping pictures, we accomplished a feat once impossible for thirty years. We walked through it. Harry and I were the only ones that noticed the significance initially. We were among the very few who probably cared, too.

The group walked down Unter den Linden looking for a place to eat. Somewhere, we turned off to find a reasonably priced place to eat. We succeeded. The place we found was called Nolle. It had good food at good prices in a good atmosphere, situated under a train bridge leading out of one of the many stations in Berlin. Every 10 minutes or so, the ceiling would roar as another train rolled over. We thought it was cool, but I bet the staff at the restaurant has other opinions.

After dinner, we snagged one of the last S-Bahns back to our hostel and headed to our respective rooms. In the morning, we checked out.

Yup. That’s right. We checked out. Our fearless trip leader waited to book a hostel until the night before, even though the number of people going with was set a week and a half prior. At one point (three days prior), I took it upon myself to look for rooms, which I found, but was told to wait. And I waited, because I wasn’t about to book a place for that many people, only to find out some have issues with it and I get stuck with the price of 11 beds for three nights. So I waited. And they did too. And eventually we were left without a place to sleep for Friday night. We had Thursday and Saturday. No Friday.

The hostel was kind enough to let us leave our bags there since we were coming back for Saturday, but we could only get to them until 10pm. After then, the doors were locked and nobody was manning the desk. We ate our included breakfast, left our bags and set out to finally see Berlin during the day. Same thing as the night before. Passed the Reichstag (which had a massive line, so we opted not to wait to go up to the glass dome) to the Brandenburg Gate. It was there that I found out our fearless leader was set on following a walking tour listed in her guide book. I persuaded her to make a minor detour to see the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe sitting 300 meters (literally one block) south of the gate. Reluctantly, fearless leader followed.

Then it was back to the path, down Unter den Linden again, where we stopped to watch a group of break dancers perform, and on to Checkpoint Charlie. It was there that Monika and Tautvydas split from the group, sick of how slow we were blazing our trail. I would have joined them, but Checkpoint Charlie and one of the last stretches of the wall still standing nearby were on my list to see, so I figured I’d follow at least for a bit.

We checked out the Checkpoint Charlie museum which detailed the construction of the wall and the escape plans, attempts, successes and failures. Then there was a refusal to detour a block and a half to see the wall. “We’re going this way.” Which was passed the Germanischer Dom and Französicher Dom. Crossed the square where the Nazis burnt books by or about Jews, Democrats, Communists, and …well, basically anything that wasn’t Fascist. A clear, covered opening on the ground looks down into a room of empty bookshelves there. Then we eventually passed the Berliner Dom as well, on our way to Alexander Platz and the Fernsehturm.

We bailed on the line at the Fernsehturm after waiting half an hour. It was moving too slowly and we had to get back to no-longer-our hostel to grab our bags. The others planned on staying out all night at a club. After a day of walking the city, I was too tired for that; no way in hell was I about to subject someone dealing with jetlag to that torture. So Krista and I went our own way, walked thru the Tiergarten at about midnight and found two beds in a six bed room with four other sleeping strangers already there.

We were up and out by 10 the next morning and back to the original hostel to see if by chance our double room was ready. We were lucky. It was. We showered and set out well rested and refreshed. I texted the others to see what they were up to and how their night had gone. I received a reply that read:

"Wir sind Tot müde. Wir gehen zurück zu schlafen. Wir treffen uns vielleicht um 9 Uhr Abends."

So much for seeing as much of the city as possible (not that I’m still bitter about the train pass ordeal, or anything)…

Krista and I were happy not to have nine people slowing us down anyway. Day two started with a stop at the second of the three main stretches of remaining wall, further north where the former French zone was. It was primarily a stop for me so I could gather a picture of the reconstructed “death strip” display that stands there (for my presentation on the Wall i was giving on the Thursday of the upcoming week). Then we headed to Potsdamer Platz and ate lunch at a restaurant in the Sony Center. From there, we walked passed the first stretch of remaining wall that we had skipped the day before near Checkpoint Charlie. On our way there, we spotted an old watch tower that was left standing at the end of a dead end street. We walked passed graffiti artists at work on our way to the Jewish museum.

The Jewish museum was powerful to begin with. The basement floor (the first place you enter) was filled with individual stories of exile, survival, and tragic endings. At the end of the “axis of exile” was a door to the outside. It led to a sort of courtyard with a slanted floor and equally slanted vertical concrete columns. It didn’t seem like anything special at first, but the combination of tilts is enough to throw off your senses and make you walk like a two year old learning all over again. It was supposed to symbolize the surviving refugees’ task of adjusting to a completely new country, culture, and environment, wherever they ended up.

The rest of the exhibits were fairly boring but very throughout, starting with the beginning of Judaism and walking through 3 more floors of their history. But the museum is as much about the building itself as it was about the exhibits. The architecture creates eerie “voids” in the building that give a lot to think about.

When we had enough of the exhibits, Krista and I headed over the river to the Eastside Gallery, the third remaining stretch of the Berlin Wall. The eastside gallery is full of artistic displays, often political (mostly referencing freedom, peace, and unity), but not necessarily so. On our way back, I snapped a picture of Gleis 17, which I’d passed each day at the S-Bahn station nearest our original hostel. We called it an early night at 10:30.

Sunday morning we checked out. We threw our backpacks in a locker at the Friedrichstrasse station. Not the main station because the main one doesn’t have lockers. Just a left luggage desk with a massive line of people waiting to drop off/pick up luggage. Friedrichstrasse didn’t have any available big lockers, so I towed around Krista’s suitcase that she still had because she came straight off the plane to Berlin.

We made our way back to the Checkpoint Charlie area so Krista could purchase a souvenir she’d thought about buying and couldn’t get out of her mind after she initially decided not to buy it on the first day. Then we spent our last hour and a half walking through the Tiergarten by day, eventually following the river back to the Hauptbahnhof to meet the others for our 2:15pm departure.

The return trip cost just €7 each because it was a beautiful weekend. That’s actually the reason. In Germany, there’s a Schönes Wochenende Ticket for up to 5 people for just €35 and it covers the whole country for a Saturday or Sunday. So no need to buy the individual state tickets like they did on Thursday.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

At one time, one of my relatives posed for a picture like this:

Planning Drama II

2008-05-01T12:03:00.000+02:00

Krista is smart.

I told all of my friends they should come to Europe and visit while I have a free roof (and tour guide) to offer here in Germany. Krista was my only friend smart enough to take me up on my offer.

Krista came on a Thursday. Thursday is when I have most of my classes. But this particular Thursday was a Feiertag. So I told her to come on this day because I would be able to pick her up at the airport regardless of her arrival time. Her plane was scheduled to land just after 10am. I don't have to get up too early to get to Frankfurt International and we still have a full day. Perfect.

Not perfect. Thursday was a Feiertag. The group we planned on heading to Berlin with also wanted to use this day for travel. I had told one of the two girls planning the trip (nameless, because it doesn't matter) a week and a half prior that Krista arriving on that Thursday. I don't know what nameless was thinking, but for whatever reason didn't see the issue with leaving at 8am Thursday morning then. I didn't find out that was the plan until the Monday before the trip, at which point I immediately informed her that Krista's plane lands at 10am, so that's a problem. Apparently nameless failed to inform the other planner (who I rarely see) about the problem until Wednesday morning - the day before the trip. The day before was apparently too uncomfortable to delay a departure time by a whole 3 hours.

Fine. With the addition of Krista and me, the travel group was 10 people. Perfect. Two groups of 5 (the group tickets cover a max of 5 people each). I don't need to delay the whole group. Nor would I want to. I just need to find three kind, unselfish people willing to hang back an extra couple of hours. Heck, the unselfish ones would even get to sleep in. No luck.

The group tickets mean regional trains only. Regional trains from Gießen to Berlin is an 8 hour trip with three or four train changes. Everybody wanted to get as early of a start as possible so they'd be able to use part of Thursday still to see Berlin. I found only one person willing to hang back - but even that was only if I could find two more people to hang back to fill the ticket. Wanted to help, but didn't want to help at the price of paying extra to get to Berlin. ..I didn't want to pay extra either, which is why I wanted to find people to wait in the first place. But I understand.

People have a harder time saying no to your face. Over the internet, it's easy. The phone is almost the same. So I went next door and explained the situation to Monika, who reluctantly offered to wait back as well, again if I found a fifth person to fill the ticket. The price difference between 4 people and 5 people for the group ticket isn't a whole lot. Which is why the group didn't have an issue leaving Krista and me behind in the first place. But Monika didn't want to piss off the rest of the group, who would then only be 6 people. Six is too many for one group ticket, which means it would be three people splitting each. Annoy two people or annoy six. ...again, I understand.

What I don't understand is why I couldn't find one more selfless person to wait a whole three hours. I guess some people I thought were Freunden are eigentlich nur selbstsüchtig Bekannte. Three others who I know would have waited had been planning a trip to Prague (a trip that fell through last minute). So we were stuck. Just the two of us. Nameless explained that we could still "save money" by splitting a group ticket between the two of us. It would "only" be €45 (compared to the whopping €18 it would have been with 5 people per ticket, or the €22 they wound up paying as a result of a missing Krista and Adam).

Krista isn't studying in Giessen, or Germany at all. Just visiting. So she is also without the Hessen ticket which allows everyone else (me included) to ride regional trains in Hessen for free. So she would have to pay the roughly €20 ticket to get from Frankfurt to Kassel on top of the €45 for the tickets to Berlin, jacking her total up to €65 for an 8 hour ride on regional trains having come right off 10 hours on a plane from Chicago. She said she'd worked her tail off for the last several months saving specifically for her trip to Europe, so she didn't have a huge money concern. After knowing that, I made the executive decision for her to pay a whole €15 more for a ticket on the ICE train instead. The ICE's are the faster trains. From Frankfurt to Berlin, it is only 4 hours instead of 8. So after picking Krista up at the airport buying tickets and eating lunch (or whatever meal it really felt like for her), we arrived in Berlin just half an hour after the first group had. They were actually still in the train station, just sitting down for something to eat.

What happened in the next several hours is probably what bothered me the most. We watched the others eat. We were still full from lunch and Krista's left over snack food for the plane ride here. Then we took forever to make our way to the hostel we were staying at on the southwest edge of the city. Sure, the buses were on strike (I seem to have pretty good luck with European capital cities), but how hard is it to decide to hop on an S-Bahn to the station nearest our hostel and take a (couple) taxi(s) from there? Or take a taxi from right where we were (which is what we eventually wound up doing)?

After having spent just over two hours in the city doing nothing, the ambitious group decided to rest for a bit after settling in at the hostel. 20 minutes actually sounded good to me too. But that twenty minutes quickly turned into 40, and then another half hour was tacked on when the girls (including one high maintenance male) finally decided to get ready. Krista's not one of them. It took her less than 5 minutes.

We were finally heading out to see the city as the sun started to go down around 8pm. Which happens to be after when the second group of us would have arrived if there would have been enough generous people to wait behind. ...so much for making the most of Thursday... At least now it's crystal clear to me how nameless makes her decisions.

Bathing in Budapest

2008-04-29T11:19:00.004+02:00

Early morning RyanAir. Woke up 3:00am. No, that’s a lie. Started getting ready at 3:00am. Never went to sleep. Was out the door with Eva at 3:30am. Walked to Eichendorfring to meet the others for the 4am/4:15am taxi to the train station. Train station by 4:35. Train at 5:20am to Frankfurt. Slept. Frankfurt by 6:15am. Breakfast. Boarded the bus to Frankfurt Hahn airport at 6:45am. Left at 7am. Slept. Hahn at 8:45am. Checked in. Flight at 10:20am. Slept. Arrived in Budapest around 12:30…

The 11 people split up. 7 were staying in one hostel, 4 in another. It was actually 6+1 in the one hostel, but Steve, the hostel owner, knew we were together and put a 7^th bed in the 6 bed room (both for us and for ease of the room key situation). After getting settled and receiving maps and city tips from Steve, we headed right across the street for lunch (a place Steve highly recommended). Traditional Hungarian style. I ordered Goulash, along with two others. It came served in a hanging tin pale with a live flame below, keeping it warm. The flame eventually burned out shortly after refilling my bowl from the pale.

The rest of Friday was picturesque. We walked passed St. Stephen’s Basilica where we met up with the remaining four. The tower closed just before we got there, so we vowed to return again the next day. From there, we headed to the Chain bridge. There I was called the paparazzi; after which I decided to earn my given title. [See the Budapest album if you haven’t already.] After crossing Chain Bridge, many of us headed up Buda hill. Four decided there were too many stairs to climb, and didn’t join us. They missed out on some beautiful views. The parliament was a popular photo subject while I kept myself quite busy shooting Fishermen’s Bastion.

After the day of sightseeing, the seven of us found dinner at an Indian restaurant. Dinner for seven came to 32,000 HuF (15% service included). After counting and recounting, we finally came to our total (the waitress refused to give separate checks). Three different people counted and arrived at 32,000. Someone insisted on handing the money to the waitress, for whatever reason. Probably thinking someone would swipe 32,000 from the table. Two people handed the waitress the money down by the register while the rest of us waited outside. The waitress counted the money and came up with only 28,500 and a slight of hand. That left the group 3,500 short, or 500 HuF short each. Which amounts to €2 a person. Sucks. But €2 isn’t the end of the world. The waitress earned herself a quick €14 with her equally quick hand.

Saturday’s highlights included St. Stephens Basilica inside and above. Then again up Buda Hill, this time over to Buda Castle, with a lunch stop at the foot of the castle, at the top of the hill, overlooking the Buda bank of the Danube and the entire Pest side. We watched a rain cloud come in. Eventually we dodged the 10 minute shower by hanging inside the entrance to one of the two museums in the castle. It was 15^th and 16^th century renaissance art, so waiting for the rain to pass what the only thing we did there. Buda castle around the outside was also worthy of a photo shoot. From there we played phone tag with the other four, who were headed to the citadel, atop Buda Hill’s neighboring slope. We must have passed them on our way up the hillside as they were coming down from the citadel. The refreshing ten-minute rain shower after hiking the hill in the lovely warm weather was almost as enjoyable as the view.

We finally met up several hours later for a group dinner at a guidebook-picked restaurant. It was supposed to be the most traditional Hungarian meal available, but it was not as cheap as the guidebook claimed, nor was it as traditional as the restaurant right across the street from our hostel. Again we were refused separate checks, but at least this time we were allowed to pay and get change back individually, which is almost the same thing, just without the paper that guarantees how much one actually owes. Watchful eyes (often multiple pairs) looked over the waiter’s shoulder to make sure we weren’t going to get scammed again. Three of us met the other four in a bar for drinks later that ..early morning (1am). We stayed out long enough to see the sun come up, after the bar herded us out at 4 o’clock.

Day Three started with the Great Synagogue, which was unexpectedly closed to tourists April 27 even though it was Sunday (not Saturday, though it was obviously closed then too). We walked around the side, where remnants of a cemetery lie protected inside the synagogue’s gate. Tombstones side, doubtfully atop the remains of the name they each read. All - every single one - disturbingly marked with the same year:

1945.

We attempted to get into Parliament, for which tickets were sold out for the day earlier than our 1pm time of arrival. Instead, we relaxed in the sun and green grass just outside Parliament for about half an hour, enjoying the beautiful spring weather. Afterwards, we received a vivid history lesson of WWII and Communist Hungary in the “House of Terror” Museum. We were shooed out of the museum at its 7pm closing time; though it was clear they were pushing us along ever since 5:30 when we got there.

Later, we met the remaining four in Heroes’ Square and the surrounding park on our mission to find Turkish baths. Steve said to ignore the (many) guidebook recommendations and head to the baths in the park instead of the other one the books recommended. I can’t compare to the book-recommended baths, but the four of us that enjoyed the baths certainly weren’t let down. The Turkish baths were an amazing way to wrap up a fantastic trip in Budapest.

Köln/Cologne: Stimulating all Senses

2008-04-21T20:13:00.008+02:00

I haven’t had a bad trip yet. So close to home (two and a half hours), Köln /Cologne was the most awe-inspiring thus far. I will do my very best to put into words, every sight, sound, smell, taste and feeling. I don’t know how often I do something knowing in advance that I’m going to fail. Even aided by my pictures (which I’m well aware, without intending to come across as conceited, are absolutely incredible - can’t deny it; this time I can’t even be shy about it), this is one of those rare times I know in advance I’m going to fall short. Nevertheless, I’ll try:

Stepping out of the doors of the Hauptbahnhof, the Kölner Dom (n. dōm) sits approximately 100 meters away. That’s just under ten seconds if you happen to be an Olympic sprinter. I’m not one, and even if I were, I would probably be too busy gawking at the gargantuan structure to make in there in medal-winning fashion.

There it stands, with its two twin spires reaching for the sky as if it were being held up by John Wayne in the Wild West Germany. And yet in spite of its beauty (or perhaps due in part to it?), I couldn’t help but think the Dom would have been “the popular girl” in high school: beautiful, nose toward the sky, looking down on all who walk by.

I was looked down upon by the 100 meter finish line first thing Saturday afternoon. You know the cathedral is big when after your first two steps into the city, you realize your lens isn’t wide enough to capture the whole thing at once, from where you're standing. We left Nate and Lacy, who went to check into their hostel by their 1pm arrival time. After snapping our preliminary round of pictures, Karl, Greta, and I went to find lunch. The goal of getting away from the tourist prices surrounding the Dom failed fairly quickly once we happened to spot a Chicago steakhouse. I enjoyed a half rack of ribs sided by a delicious steak. I was disappointed in the non-existent barbeque sauce accompanying the ribs, but the salsa provided was tasty; an interesting combination, but tasty nonetheless.

After lunch, it was back to the Hauptbahnhof where we figured out the daily pass situation. Interestingly, two people splitting the price of the €9,40 (up to) 5-person day-pass is cheaper than buying the single-person €6,70 day-pass. So between the three of us, it wasn’t a bad deal, even though we were never carded in the two days we were there.

...That said, we only bought one day pass…

After making it to our hotel (note the lack of ‘s’ before the ‘t’), we collapsed and rested for a good half-hour. Even though we’d been sitting on public transportation or in a booth with the local Kölsch sitting in front of us for the better part of the day, nobody had the motivation to get up and go right away. And after all that sitting, my feet were surprisingly tired.

We were well aware that resting meant we weren’t going to see the German-Roman museum that closed at 5pm, and we were likely going to miss the Chocolate museum that closed at 6p as well. So after resting, we headed back out, back to the Dom again. We checked out as much of the inside as possible, and stayed until the priests kicked the tourists out. Outside in the plaza, we heard the bells sound signaling the call to 6:30 mass. This would be the first time I wished I had more than just a camera to capture the moment. Even just a sound/voice recorder would have been sufficient.

We randomly spotted Nate and Lucy outside the Dom. They’d just come from climbing the church tower, to which entrance closed minutes before we showed up. Dinner was together at an authentic Italian restaurant run by real Italian-speaking Italians. Somehow it reminded me of my many journeys in Italy (figure that one out).

Dinner was followed by gelato (as if my first taste of Italy wasn’t enough). On our way back through the streets of inner-Köln – well, first we passed by another Bachelor party and two Bachelorette parties, one of which happens to make for a not-very-appropriate-to-share story. In addition to the soon-to-be-wed street vendors, we encountered a couple that already had a crowd. It was just after 8 or 9 – I can’t remember, it was right after almost all of the stores closed, which even though it was a Saturday night, likely means 8pm in Germany. The vagabond couple was sitting in the entry way to an H&M, jamming away on their guitars. They were good (hence the crowd) and had likely scouted out their spot in advance or had been there before, as the acoustics were also better than street quality. For those keeping score at home, this is the second time I wished for more than just my camera. Once again, a sound recorder would have sufficed, but this time video would have been terrific too.

Back at the hotel after once again parting ways with Nate and Lucy we watched FC Bayern München pull out a 2-1 extra time win over a BVB Dortmund team they easily should have beat based on reputation but definitely should have lost to based on the quality of play we witnessed after the 90^th minute. 2 minutes into injury time (so 90 +2), Dortmund tied the game at 1-1. Even though Dortmund was attacking throughout much of the extra time, Bayern-München pulled ahead on a foolish re-direct that was enough to just squeak past a keeper who’d been leaning the other way. From there, it was downhill for Dortmund, who soon went a man down after the Dortmund’s 8^th yellow card of the match resulted in a yellow-red for the man who tried to do too much.

Breakfast in the morning wasn’t bad – and it was included. Our first stop of the day was the Dom, yet again. The goal was to climb the tower we hadn’t been allowed to ascend the day before. Instead, we read a sign that said the tower wouldn’t be open until quarter after twelve. “So why not check out the inside again?” We walked in on mass which already had a sufficient number of on-lookers. It also happened to be one of the most mystical, spiritually moving events I’ve ever witnessed. Not even video would have been able to capture this one. There was a distinct smell as soon as we walked in. But it was so subtle at first that I didn’t even realize I’d been smelling it until ten minutes later. It was incense. Incense was being burned and fanned as if they were sending smoke signals to God. A small but complete symphony and a signing mixed choir supplemented the smells. I felt like I had been transported six hundred years back in time. Or at the very least, to Hollywood. The whole experience seemed unreal.

When the mass was heavy enough, someone thought it would be fun to climb more than six hundred steps. Our workout was rewarded. After checking out the tower, mass was over. The lingering incense smoke combined with the perfect time of day to let the sun on through was the perfect storm for an assault of rainbows and a seemingly non-stop photoshoot.

Once we mustered up the strength to drag ourselves away from the awesome sight, we headed over to the Römisches-Germanisches Museum to check out what the Roman Empire left in Köln. The museum is incriminating evidence that the German government is guilty of mass grave robberies. All of the jewelry in the museum came from graves. All of the headstones did too, obviously. As well as many of the daily items like hair combs, toys, figurines, etc. Relatively speaking though, that’s far from the worst thing the German government has ever done…

On the bright side, one of the best inventions/improvements to come from Germany (or at the very least, the German speaking region), is the solid, creamy chocolate bar. What’s better than a chocolate bar? …a chocolate museum! €3 bought an entrance ticket and a free sample (the smartest thing the museum could possibly do. More on that later).

The first floor was the history of chocolate (way to go Imperialism!), followed by the production of chocolate on the second floor, much of which was explained by demonstration – by machine mostly, with the exception of the grandma caged like a zoo animal behind Plexiglas walls, sitting on a stool, bagging the wrapped mini chocolate bars as they come off the mini-conveyer belt. Around grandma’s glass walls stood a chocolate fountain where another elderly woman smiles at you (probably because she’s not caged) and hands you another free sample: an airy cookie dipped in the liquid chocolate. After the free samples we got to witness the making of chocolate truffles. At the end of the truffle conveyer belt was a service counter at which one could purchase one of these fresh, delicious, chocolate truffles for €0.50. …After that free sample at the gate, and the taste-test of liquid chocolate, it’s impossible to resist a fresh truffle for 50 cents. After which, it is impossible to resist the chocolate gift shop at the end of the museum. The only way one can even try to resist it is if you don’t even enter to begin with. …After 3 chocolate samples, who can really do that?? Three chocolate bars later, I proved I couldn't.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Random Facts: Lindt was Swiss. So I’m not sure why his chocolate museum is in Köln. Lindt was the genius who invented whatever process it is that makes chocolate so smooth and creamy. Prior, chocolate was too brittle and thus was enjoyed almost entirely in the liquid form, not the solid bar.

Planning Drama

2008-04-21T18:27:00.007+02:00

Thursday on our way to the Mensa between history classes, I asked one of the girls what the plans for the weekend were. Everyone wanted to get out of Hessen, because everyone, well, except me, had stayed in Hessen the weekend prior as well. The answer I received was “we’re probably going to go to Köln.”

Flashback

Two and a half weeks ago, I attended the (university) President’s greeting of the exchange students. This greeting was more of an orientation to the different groups/clubs on campus than a “meet the president” event, but the president did say a few words:

Welcome. I’m happy you’re all here and that you took advantage of the opportunity to study in Gießen. We, here at the Justus Liebig University, believe an integral component of any university is the international student body. And we, here, take great pride in the international reputation we have built and in the number of international students who decide to study here each semester.

It’s true. There are a lot of internationals here. The university has approximately 25,000 students. Of that, 1,600 are international or exchange students.

It’s good to have you here. Have a great semester. And enjoy the
Apfelwein!

After the ceremony and time to chat and get to know people, most of whom we already knew because half the people there had attended the March language course, we were invited by one of the student groups, who (independent of the International Office) plan activities for exchange students, to join them at a nearby pub for Apfelwein tasting. Come. At least for a little bit. The first Apfelwein is free.

I was sitting at a table in the relatively tiny bar with Alexandros from Greece and one of the German students who organized the small outing, whose name I can’t remember, even though I ran into her two days later. It’s good that it was still pretty early in the evening, because the 30-35 people who actually made their way from the greeting ceremony to the pub, plus the 3 people who were already there, filled the entire bar.

We had the standard get to know you conversation with the German student. I am American. Word must have spread. Because that’s the only possible explanation for what happened next.

Alexandros and I were headed out. I forget why, but I think I had stuff I needed to get done. This was still at a time when I needed to register in 137 difference places. Granted it was towards the end of that phase, but still stuff to get done nonetheless. Alexandros was already at the door. I was 10 steps behind him, because I’d turned around to put my jacket on. In my path steps a cute, short, German girl:

(in German)

Girl in my way: “Are you American?”

I think I blend in fairly well to the European style. Especially in Germany, where my hair- and skin-color aren’t flashing neon signs screaming Foreigner like was often the case in Italy.

Confused: “Was it really that easy to see?”

Not really answering my question: “No, no. Do you have a partner?”
?! That took me by surprise. I know Germans have a tendency to be direct at times, but wow. That couldn’t possibly mean what I thought she meant.

Off guard, and holding a conversation like an improv game where the whole conversation must be entirely in questions: “What do you mean?”
Still playing the improv game: “Do you want to learn German?”

In retrospect, that still could have been a less direct and very cheesy pick-up line. But I was finally understanding where this was going.
Withholding an intense desire to say, “that’s the whole point of me being here”: “Ja, natürlich.”

There’s a tandem program I had heard about that pairs people up with others who want to learn your language. Say you’re French and want to learn or improve your Spanish. The program will find a native Spanish speaker who wants to learn French. After that point, the program does nothing. The pair is on its own. In the five minutes that I kept Alexandros waiting, I basically bypassed the tandem program, exchanged names, numbers, and walked through the standard get-to-know-you questions.

Fast-forward

Thursday evening, I got a call from Karl while I was sitting in an apartment filled with Germans. Katharina had invited me to her place, because she was having a small get-together. This entailed having ein Bierchen (yes, just one) and watching/laughing at Germany’s Next Top Model, hosted by Heidi Klum, identical to America’s Next Top Model with Tyra Banks, except that in the German version, someone is crying every 10 minutes, instead of once an episode. …Not that I’m an expert on these shows.

Karl was calling me regarding our plans for the weekend. We were either going to go to Köln or Düsseldorf for the weekend. And it was going to cost about €65-70 with train ticket and hostel. Not really wanting to spend €65-70 just go there and sleep for a night (and pay even more for whatever we wind up doing there), I told Karl to hold off booking anything for me until they knew exactly where they were going, and I’d think about it.

It is extremely unfair but very helpful that in a room full of foreigners, everyone can understand the private conversation I was having in my native language.

Immediately after I hung up, the Germans were clamoring for a turn to talk. The consensus among the Germans was that Köln is way better than Düsseldorf. It’s far prettier, and it rivals Berlin for the best city in German in which to go out at night. There’s just as many good clubs and bars as Berlin, but Berliners (so the stereotype among Germans is) can be snobbier (but it doesn’t mean they will be). Whereas in Köln, the people are very friendly, very open, and very helpful. Also, there’s no way it should cost €65 for just a train ticket and hostel. A hostel in Köln should be no more than €20 (which was on target) and each Bundesstaat (federal state) has a day pass between €30-35 that covers five people. Meaning €6-7 each. Given that we’re staying overnight, that means just €12-14 roundtrip. I called Karl back when I left, told him the good news, and “I’m in.”

Then he told me about the drama. I don’t know what happened exactly, because I only got his side of the story, but either there was a complete overreaction, a misunderstanding, or a combination of both. But in the end, it meant Ms. “We’re probably going to Köln,” who was at the center of the mess, had no interest in going to Köln anymore, and was set on Düsseldorf. Whatever.

Following the advice of my new Bekannte, and being a grown-up, …at least enough to be able to make my own decisions and not feel obliged to travel like a herd animal with other exchange students around Europe, I decided I was going to Köln regardless of what the others decide. Karl and his sister Greta, both from Wisconsin schools as well, listened to the advice I passed along from the Germans and settled on Köln too. Coincidentally, Nate had already planned a trip to Köln with his girlfriend, who is studying 20 minutes away in Marburg. So there we had it. 5 people for the train pass. Nate and his girlfriend can still do their own thing, and we can all get there and back for cheap. Everyone else can travel in their herd for all I care. …and many did.

Of the 15 people …too many to travel together in my opinion… who were initially going to go to Köln, three (or four, depending on whether not Nate was counted in that initial 15), actually went. Eight went to Düsseldorf, and three or four dropped out when they found out the Düsseldorf clan had no plans to stay overnight in a hostel, but rather see the city in the afternoon, stay in a club (or museum open til 2am as it wound up being) and then catch the first train back in the morning. I don’t care how much fun they claim they had in that museum (or how beautiful they say their 20 minute stay outside the Kölner Dom at 6am on the return trip was), I wouldn’t have given up the trip to Köln for anything. Almost ironic, considering I had zero preference when I very first asked about the plans for the weekend.

The only downside was due to the last minute booking drama, we missed out on the chance for a €20 per person hostel. Instead we had to settle for a €30 per person "budget" hotel (It was actually quite nice).

In the Middle of NO(r)W(ay)HERE

2008-04-18T01:48:00.003+02:00

As the plane approached Sandefjord (aka not Oslo), I stumbled upon the realization that I would be the first member of my immediate family to set foot in the country most of our heritage is derived from. I beat them all.

Just before landing, I spotted what must have been a Coca-Cola distribution site. I saw a parking lot where a dozen semis sat with the red and white Coca-Cola logo on their roofs. America beat me. Not that it was a surprise. I doubt there’s a single country out of the 200 in the world that America hasn’t already beaten me to.

Tim met me at the station in Ringebu after my day-long travels. His pad wasn’t the first stop. A pub was. I enjoyed an Aass or two; first one courtesy of Tim. On our way our, I also met a girl who would be a key contact during my stay.

Tim whipped up an American breakfast Saturday morning. French toast, Bacon, Orange Juice and Coffee. It was so beautiful it could have brought tears to my eyes. Maybe it did. But writing a month later, I really can’t remember. I do however recall exactly how tasty it was.

Tim is well connected on the mountain, and the connections are generous. Grateful for all he’s been given during his time at Kvitfjell, and in Norway in general, Tim felt it necessary to spread the generosity further. Working on the mountain, he gets 20-50% off just about everything. Sounds good, but still remains expensive. Even better is when he is lucky enough to earn his 100% off discount.

Tim hooked me up with most of the equipment I needed. Ski pants were borrowed from his extremely giving boss Lars. Goggles came from his roommates (plural. Different pair each day). The gloves I wore were Tim’s own. Using his discount, my two-day ski and boot rental was 50% off. After I picked up my skis and boots, Tim went over to the register to pay. Generosity was working behind the register, and Tim’s 50% discount became 100%. Tim continued the theme, buying my first day’s lift ticket for me. I got day two’s lift ticket at the same 20% discount Tim paid for day one.

Fresh snow greeted me my first morning on Kvitfjell. April 12. …and people in Wisconsin were complaining. I wasn’t. The fresh snow was a blessing. For all except Snow White anyway. In the week or two prior to my arrival, it was slowly starting to turn into spring. This meant melting snow which washed much of the spread gravel off the road up the mountain. Combining that with the fresh white stuff meant Snow White could only make it halfway up the mountain, studded winter tires and all. We were left with a detour-by-foot up the top half of the mountain. The hike was breathtaking, in more ways than one.

Tim and I stopped for lunch half-way down the hill after a few hours. Breakfast had only been a few hours earlier, so I wasn’t hungry yet, but he needed to eat before he went to work. Tim’s lunch came at half price, thanks to the contact I was introduced to at the pub. My hot chocolate and whatever Tim was drank came without a price tag at all. We fit in a couple more runs before Tim had to go to work. It gave me time to stop embarrassing myself on the mountain. I chilled in Koia for a bit. I devoured a house hotdog/sausage and hot chocolate free thanks to the man with the snow pants. I had a second, again for free, before I hit the slopes for a few more runs before they closed for the day. When I came back, Koia was crowded. I decided on yet another hotdog. Tim suggested one wrapped in “a sort of flat potato pancake” instead of a bun. Once I had it in my hands, I realized what it was. …"Flat potato pancake"?? C’mon Tim, I’m Norwegian too. I know what Lefse is. I took my hotdog and a post-skiing beer onto the patio after finally paying for something. Although I think I only paid the price of the beer. But I wasn’t going to argue.

Saturday night at dinner, I found out why Norway is obsessed with Grandiosa. I also discovered the entertainment value of most Norwegian commercials.

Skiing on day two included company. We found Vivi and Ditte, two of Tim’s housemates, on the mountain. We stopped for lunch again at the same place halfway down. Right before, I took the worst spill of my two days on the mountain. Somehow I managed to wind up turned around minus one ski. Tim was nearly to the restaurant so he didn’t get to witness it. Vivi and Ditte had to help me get my ski back on. I’d crashed on the steepest stretch of that run, which made stepping back into my ski quite a task, hence the need for help.

At lunch, I got Tim’s discount even though he wasn’t even at the counter when I ordered and paid. Half price food and another free drink thanks to the girl from the pub.

Post-lunch included time for a few photoshoots.

That evening I met even more of Tim’s friends, learned what an Irish Christmas is, and wondered what the Irish have to do with ski poles. We enjoyed ourselves, shot embarrassing footage of each other, and days later watched how selective Hollywood film editors can be ;-). At 5:40am, Ditte drove the scenic route to Ringebu. I was at the station just after 6:00 to catch my 6:30am train back to Sandefjord. I slept on the train.

I met Tina for the first time during my 4 hour stay (thanks to the train/flight schedules) at Sandefjord Torp. Tina’s a distant relative. Distant enough that I occasionally have to draw myself a map to figure how exactly how we’re related. But we’re related nonetheless. And she was kind enough to keep my company during my time in Torp.

I was back in Gießen around 9:40pm. And thanks to late-night bus schedules, I was finally back in my room at 10:30, after having walked half way across the city, before picking up the second bus I would have been on anyway. …After 16 hours of sitting on my backside, I didn’t feel like waiting for the bus.

Blackberry II

2008-04-17T16:34:00.002+02:00

Eine Kleine Fortschreibung.

Ich hab' eine Bekannte von mir heute getroffen. Sie ist auch der einzelnen anderen Amerikaner des ca. 100-personen Kurses.

Ich hab' ihr gefragt, ob sie gestern in den Unterricht gegangen war. Was für einen Zufall! Sie hat mir gesagt, ja, sie war dort gegangen, aber es gab keinen Unterricht. Er war abgesagt! So ich habe gestern nichts in den Literatur Kurs verpasst. Und ich habe immer noch zwei unentschuldigten Fehlen zu benutzen. :-)

Grüße von meinem Blackberry:

2008-04-16T20:16:00.001+02:00

Ein Geschenk für Tante P.

Ich bin heute Morgen früh aufgestanden. Ich sollte Unterricht um acht Uhr besuchen, aber ich war einfach zu Müde. Ich habe mich geduscht, ein paar Emails geschickt, und dann habe ich um acht Uhr entscheiden, nicht im Unterricht zu gehen. Zwar meine einzelne echte deutsche Vorlesung: Literatur in der DDR. Aber während des Semesters dürfen wir zweimal unentschuldigt fehlen. Heute morgen habe ich eine meiner zwei Fehlen benutzt.

Später habe ich versucht meinen anderen Mittwoch Kurs zu besuchen. Ich bin mit meinem Rad gefahren, nur herauszufinden, dass niemand ins Klassenzimmer war. Ich suchte ein Schild, irgendwo, das sagen würde, dass die Lehrerin Krank war. Aber es gab kein. Nach eine Minute habe ich mich erinnert, dass wir sollten heute am Marktplatz treffen. Die Hälfte der Leute des Kurses sind ganz neulich in Gießen angekommen, und die Lehrerin wollte uns die Stadt zeigen. Ich wusste schon, dass ich Spät wäre, und ich kenne die Stadt schon. So ich bin einfach gerade zurück nach Hause gefahren.

Ich hatte denn Zeit, mein „Blackberry“ zu benutzen, mehr in meinem Blog zu schreiben.

Which Way to Norway?

2008-04-16T18:44:00.003+02:00

Bus. Feet. Bus. Train. Bus. Plane. Bus. Train.

7 am wake up call from my alarm clock.

Finished drying my laundry from the night before. Shower. Start packing. Finish packing. Out the door just after 9am. Caught the 9:09 bus right outside my building and took it to Berliner Platz. Walked from there to Marktplatz, searching for an internet café along the way (or anywhere with a printer, really).

Found one.
Opens at 10:30am.
Scheiße.

Arrived at Marktplatz. Spotted an internet café with open doors.

Kann ich hier Sachen vom Internet ausdrücken?
:: Ja.
OK. Gut.
:: Nummer fünf bitte.

Printed off my online tickets for Ryanair. Decided to also print off the confirmation email for my train in Norway, even though the email said it wasn’t a valid ticket, and all you needed was the confirmation number and phone number, both of which I’d stored in my Handy, to print the necessary ticket from a machine at the station.
Good decision.

6 minutes, 2 printed pages: €1,10.

Walked outside. Saw none of the buses I could take to the Bahnhof had arrived at Marktplatz yet. Headed for a bakery with a walk-up service counter. I needed breakfast.

Waited behind a lady apparently buying bread to feed the five-thousand. Saw one of my potential buses pull up. Sometimes buses sit for as long as five minutes at Marktplatz to adjust their schedules. Is this one of those buses, or should I ditch this bakery and hurry for that bus? I decided to play it safe and jogged across Marktplatz to catch the bus. Good decision. The bus took off as soon as I was on board.

Got to the Bahnhof with about 20 minutes to spare. My train to Frankfurt doesn’t leave until 09:53. I used my time to spend less than €2 on a Croissant and Bretzel. Take that McDonalds. In retrospect, it vaguely reminds me of World War II. (The clip is 5 minutes, but WWII is only the first 1:30)

I caught my free 42-minute train to Frankfurt Hbf. Free with my student ID. …well, “free” courtesy of €70-80 of the €180,95 student fee I paid upon my arrival here in Gießen. And Hbf: that’s Hauptbahnhof. As in: main train station. As in: not the airport. I wasn’t trying to get to Frankfurt International. My €37 Ryanair flight departs from Frankfurt Hahn, which really isn’t in Frankfurt at all. …in fact it’s not even in Hessen.

After twenty minutes, two trips outside, and asking the service desk where the heck I’m supposed to find this bus, I finally found it. I had just under ten minutes to spare. And then it was an hour and a half bus ride to Frankfurt Hahn.

I checked in online before I even left Gießen. With my printed online ticket, I attempted to make my way thru security. The first guy manning the entrance to the queue let me right though. But the second security guard standing at the metal detector looked at my ticket and shook his head. He knew the rule is dumb, but played by it anyway. With “Check and Go” (online check in), you have to be from the EU or one of the other Schengen countries (which explains why I initially couldn’t select “USA” where it asked for the country of the passport to check in. But I found a way around that..).

So because I had a US passport, I had to go back to the check-in desk, pay the extra €4 check-in fee, and then back to security with my “real” boarding pass. …as if the first one was fake. Eventually, I boarded my 14:10 flight to Oslo Torp.

…Which isn’t Olso at all. Sandefjord, actually. Just over an hour south of Oslo by train. But I knew that beforehand. What I didn’t know was that the Sandefjord Torp Flughaven train station wasn’t actually connected to the Sandefjord Torp Flughaven. My plane arrived 15 minutes early, so it gave me time to figure out where I needed to go and how I was supposed to get there. It was only 10 minutes to 16:00. My train didn’t leave until 16:40.

There’s a free shuttle bus to take passengers from the airport to the train station. …I’m gonna stop calling it that though. It wasn’t a station. In fact, there wasn’t even a building there. There was just a covered bench. A single bench. Like a bus stop.

…So there’s a free bus to take passengers to the train stop. But there’re two different buses. One for the northbound side and one for the southbound side. At 16:18, I found the shuttle bus.

The southbound shuttle bus.

After a short conversation with the bus driver (in perfect English mind you – it seems most Norwegians are more fluent in English than I am), I found out the bus for the northbound side leaves at 16:33. …:33???? My train leaves at :40!! How is that ever going to give me enough time to get to the station, print out my ticket, and catch the train? I decided to grab one of these taxis instead. …at least I tried to. The driver I approached was actually about to refuse my money. He explained to me that he can’t drive the same way the buses can – he has to go all the way around the airport, which would take about 10 minutes. It only takes the buses three. On top of that, the 10 minute taxi fare would be about 200 NOK, or roughly $40. The shuttle bus is free. I explained to him I would feel much more comfortable if I got there with 5 extra minutes, figuring that would give me enough time to get my ticket. …That’s when I found out it’s not a real station.

Norwegian refusing money: there’s no place to print off a ticket. It’s a small station in the middle of no where. There’s nothing there. You’ll make the train in time. That’s why they have the buses – it works perfectly.

So it does. I hopped on the bus once it showed up at 16:31. Left the airport at 16:33. Arrived at Sandefjord Torp Flughaven “Station” at 16:36. Train showed up at 16:39. Showed the conductor my email confirmation (that I “didn’t need to print out”) and asked how I get my ticket. He explained to me that there’s no where here to print off or pick up a ticket (thanks, I already figured that one out), and that the email confirmation would suffice. So I hopped on the train at 16:40 and immediately departed for Ringebu.

Just under two hours after leaving the bench (I really wish I’d snapped a picture, but the perfect Norwegian scheduling doesn’t account for dumb American tourist photographers), the train passed the real Oslo airport (50 km north of Olso), and I thought to myself, “It would have only been 3.5 hours to Tim’s if I’d flown in here…”

One stop, or 50 minutes, after Lillehammer, I met Tim at Ringebu. Current time: 21:45.

Just over 5 hours since leaving the bench, and a mere 13 hours after leaving my front door.

Hung Up

2008-04-16T18:19:00.006+02:00

The brother of a friend of a friend I'm still getting to know
committed suicide last week.
But it's not too late for me to learn something from him.
Through this tragic event, my eyes have been opened to
his amazing work.
It was a tough (...nearly impossible) choice to choose a tribute photo.

I told you it was impossible
to choose just one.

But do yourself a favor and check out that link above.
Or maybe save it for when you have an hour to spend.

Fast Food Philosophy

2008-04-10T01:41:00.003+02:00

I’ve received a few comments/questions regarding the debut of my profile picture here on my blog. This is my response.

Yes. That is me diving into a delicious cheeseburger from McDonalds, here in Gießen. …ok, delicious might be debatable, but it satisfies my taste buds nonetheless.

Yes. Last semester, I made the effort to avoid McDonalds the entire time I was in Italy. And I succeeded.

But if there are two things Europeans know of America, they are McDonalds and Coca-Cola. …ok, and Bush. But for the most part, they know 70% of America is embarrassed to admit that third one. Regardless, he’s still led America to become fodder for foreigners’ jokes. ..Thanks Mr. President. Those jokes are about at funny as Hillary’s.

McDonalds is more imperialistic than Bush appears to be. It seems there’s a McDonalds in every single German town. And here in Gießen, it’s impossible to avoid. The McDonalds sits right at the intersection leading into the Innenstadt from the university’s side of town. That forces everyone to walk past it when they go out to the bars, or come back from the bars, or when they’re simply running downtown to do some shopping.

The picture comes from my second week here in Gießen. ....a week that caused my Facebook status, for which the general formula is: (name) is (fill in the blank), to read “Adam is a stereotype.”

In this week, I forced six cheeseburgers into my body, including four in one day. It was a Monday. Early in the afternoon, I was heading downtown to buy something – can’t remember what. It was somewhere around 2:30 or 3:00. At the unavoidable crossroads, I spotted the McDs and remembered I hadn’t eaten lunch yet. I was a little hungry, so I walked in, laid my €2 coin on the counter and walked away with two cheeseburgers.

That’s the problem. It’s just so easy. And it was the first place I came across. …and around bar-time, McDs is one of the only places open for food after 8pm. And most of the Döner places (the only other places open past 8pm) aren’t on the route to/from the bars.

So naturally when I was headed out later that evening to celebrate Happy Monday and I realized I hadn’t eaten anything since my 3pm burgers, I decided it was best to stop in and throw another €2 on the counter so I wasn’t drinking on an empty stomach.

Later that week, on Friday, McDs became a post-bar stop. And I once again gave in.

I’ve “only” had three burgers in the three (or four?) weeks since then. Still more than I normally eat at home. Though, that’s a little hard to judge, seeing as how I’ve only been home for 2 of the last 7 months.

But don’t worry about my German experience. I’ve eaten almost as much Schnitzel in the Mensa. Plus, in many ways, Germans are practically American anyway. …in some respects, maybe more than Americans themselves, if by definition that’s even possible.

And P.S. The film The Day After Tomorrow has the same English title in Germany, even though the title is translated in every other non-English speaking country. …I told you they’re practically Americans.

So for a true German experience, I'm heading to Norway for the weekend.

Mein Kampf against Fruit Flies

2008-04-06T13:43:00.001+02:00

I’ve been fighting an ongoing battle against fruit flies off-and-on ever since I moved here. The full garbage can when I first moved in, even though my roommates were all or mostly gone for at least a week and a half prior to my arrival, might be the origin of my problem.

The population started small, and slowly grew. It became a nuisance when we used my kitchen to host the first of our semi-regular dinner parties. But the nuisance was also a blessing in disguise, as it led to a significant decline in the fruit fly presence courtesy of several pairs of hands. It also added a tiny bit more protein to the dinner. …but I don’t think I should let the others know that.

….just kidding about that last part.

……..the others know.

The problem subsided for some time, until recently. I pitched an apple core in my trash five or six days ago. “Apple in a trash can” must be the new local hot spot for honeymooning fruit flies. I emptied my trash vorgestern (a single German word meaning “the day before yesterday.” Similarly, übermorgen means “the day after tomorrow,” which makes me wonder how the 2004 Dennis Quaid film title was translated, if at all).

I opened the lid to empty the trash and was greeted by a swarm of 20-30 fruit flies.

Immediately, I developed a better exit strategy than a leafy green shrub. I dropped the lid back on the garbage can, trapping about half the swarm inside. I opened my window (which is half a step from the garbage can) as much as possible, and quarantined my room, shutting my bedroom door to prevent a second front in the kitchen.

I swatted the flies towards my wide open window with a hand towel, killing the stubborn ones with my bare hands. Soon it was time to open the lid near the window, hope most of the remaining flies flew away, and start the extermination all over again.

My room and kitchen are now almost entirely fruit fly free. (Say that 10 times fast.) I say almost because I’ve seen one or two since. ..I think the regular removal of garbage from the kitchen helps, now that people live here again.

Oh yeah, by the way, people live here again.

"It's a Small World Afterall"

2008-04-03T21:39:00.005+02:00

Many (about 20) of the exchange students went out to a nearby billiard hall Tuesday night to celebrate Sweden's birthday. At the billiard hall, I unexpectedly ran into a girl I went to highschool with back home. Through the grapevine, I knew Megan was in Gießen, but given that Gießen is about the size of Appleton and I'm taking strictly Germanistik courses here, I didn't expect to run into her. Turns out Megan is in one of Josefin's classes, so she (and a couple others from that class) came out to celebrate too.

This chance meeting makes me feel less like I'm in Germany and more like I'm sitting on a boat in "It's a Small World" at EPCOT in Disney World. The attached clip is sped up, so it sounds like a bunch of chipmunks singing, but I think it's less torture that way.

I can even hear the annoying repetitive song in my head now.
(for the disturbingly curious, I came across a techno remix on YouTube)

..and I think how the stupid ride i used to love is likely the highest concentration of stereotypes in the world.

...and as I project the prejudices Disney has taught me, I picture all my German Mitbewohners in Lederhosen and Dirndels - even though none of them are from Bavaria - and all the Polish students in their traditional dresses as well. The Greeks all wear togas. ...everyday, not just at toga parties. And the french students all have handlebar mustaches. ..even though all the french students I've met have been female. ...and Josefin has to have blonde hair and blue eyes. ...wait, she does already. But now she lives in a little scandenavian cottage at the end of a Fjord, too.

..and I picture all my friends as 3 feet tall dolls standing on the edge of the lazy river on this Disney ride, repeatedly chanting the darn tune over and over again. The only problem is that the people I know are alive. ..Not that that's a problem. It just means my stereotype is more like a Chuckie horror movie than a lovely little ride at Disney World. ...and this thought has carried way too far....

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"I dislike feeling at home while I'm abroad."
-George Bernard Shaw

Łomża

2008-03-30T20:42:00.008+02:00

After 19 hours in a bus, I arrived at noon in Łomża hungry. That was good though, because a three course meal was waiting for us.

I can’t remember what meal was when anymore, but it surely started with a soup (like all the meals), then some sort of meat… pork on day one, I think, with slaw and potatoes. Then dessert. …there was always dessert. …even after breakfast. ….even after I said, “No thanks, I’m too full from the delicious dinner.” …actually, when I said I was full, I earned myself two pieces of cake (there were usually about four varieties).

After Saturday’s meal, Monika showed me the surrounding area of Łomża. First stop was the top of a hill just minutes (or maybe even seconds) from her house, where a castle once stood (though there’s no visible sign of that) and a queen once reigned. According to local lore, the queen fell in love with a man she couldn’t marry. Her resulting tears formed the river that now flows behind Monika’s house. …that’s obviously just a fairy tale, but at the very least it was a nice scenic overlook.

From there, it became obvious that the effects and memories of two world wars are still very fresh in the minds of the Polish people.

We drove to the other side of Łomża; to the countryside, actually. Somewhere there stands a Soviet Tank that remains as a monument to WWII. A couple hundred meters from the tank, a bunker sits on the river bank that guards a bridge that, today, isn’t as old as the bunker is. (That hints at the fate of the bridge as the Nazis retreated).

Before returning home for a late dinner, Monika took me to the trenches of WWI. The trenches and fortifications in the Łomża area are separated in three sections and were re-used in WWII.

Saturday evening featured a pit stop at a Kneipe to see a few of Monika’s not-so-close friends. A pit stop at her brother’s apartment followed, where I twice sampled some homemade Polish vodka. It went down pretty easy, flavored with a little bit of honey. After the first shot, her brother, Kamil, told me it’s about 68% alcohol. It didn't taste nearly that strong.

Easter Sunday was delicious. I met both of Monika’s grandmothers. And I ate. ..and ate. …and ate. The first bite was a slice of one of the holy (blessed) hard-boiled eggs Monika’s family brought home with them from the 6am church service.

- - I would have gone with as well, but I’m not catholic (which really wasn’t the problem but seemed to be the reason everybody best understood). The real reason was 6am was way too early to go to church (Easter or otherwise) and not understand a word (of polish). - -

After the blessed egg, we were allowed to eat everything else. When it was physically impossible to eat anything more, I got to see more of the countryside. Monika’s father thought I would enjoy the “red swamp” near Osowiec because I study biology and because all of the fortifications from the War haben mir Gestern gefallen. I did, in fact enjoy the “red swamp” but more so for the photography than the biology.

Also in the vicinity of the marsh was the second of the three parts of the German fortifications. There was a fairly sizable base, but we couldn’t get into the main part because the entrance was under about a foot and a half of water.

Sunday night was a party of sorts at Kamil’s. Highlights included shots of vodka and Karaoke (on computer, with a program that Kamil’s 21-yr-old brother-in-law wrote).

Monday was more food. Breakfast at one grandmother’s, lunch/dinner at the other’s. In between, Monika and I visited her friends who just a month ago had a baby. She wanted to see the baby while she was back in Poland. So while she talked with her friend, I took shots of vodka (the only way they drink it in Poland, so they said) with the husband and the father-in-law …”because it was Monday”. (In Poland, the Monday after Easter is also known as “Wet Monday,” so they drink).

Monday after dinner, Monika and I drove to Warsaw. I really want to see Krakow (and Auschwitz), but that was an estimated 6 hours from Łomża, but at the moment, the way from Warsaw to Krakow is under construction, so Monika’s family estimated it would be an 8 hour trip each way; unreasonable for a day in Krakow. …they also thought one needs more than just a day for Krakow + Auschwitz, and Krakow is too schön to go to Auschwitz and not see Krakow. ….so Warsaw it was.

Monika normally goes to school in Warsaw, so we stayed at her apartment. All of her Warsaw friends were either sick, too tired, or had to work the next morning, so I didn’t get to experience the nightlife Monika wanted to show me. Instead, we watched the 2008 Oscar winner for Best Foreign Film, The Counterfeiters (Austrian), in German with Polish subtitles. It’s quite good. I’d recommend it.

Warsaw

2008-03-30T20:16:00.004+02:00

Tuesday I saw Warsaw. Not all of it, but I saw all sides of it. There’s buildings that look like they survived the Second World War just yesterday. There are a lot of buildings, mostly apartment buildings, that were quite obviously built under the soviets in the 50’s and 60’s, after the city was completely destroyed in the war. Then there are several modern high-rises and a few more in the process, and one high-rise palace that was a “gift” from Stalin in ’56. There’s (still) a movement of people who want to see the building knocked down.

They’re still bitter towards Russia about the oppressive soviet rule and lack of progress during that time. Many Poles at the same time are also bitter towards the Germans (though it sounds like all the reasons come from East Germany). They’re bitter that the Germans complain about how destroyed their country was after WWII when Poland was in ruins just the same, and the Germans started it all in the first place. It sounds like they’re also bitter that there’s been more progress in eastern Germany than in Poland since the fall of the Soviet Union, because eastern Germany has the advantage of a reunited Germany, in which the East still gets aid from the West (which is a whole other topic among [west] Germans), who as West Germany rebounded miraculously due to received aid from the U.S. and other western nations. This brings the bitterness full circle back to Russia, who refused to accept U.S./Western aid for the East Bloc countries when offered in the Marshall Plan.

…anyway, in my experience, the Poles are very nice, polite, courteous people with a fairly high standard of manners. (Though supposedly in the service industry they’re not so polite, but I don’t speak polish, so I wouldn’t know).

The touristy Warsaw (Old Town) is pretty. It was also completely destroyed in WWII (in Poland, what wasn’t?) but it was reconstructed almost perfectly. It still has a decent chuck of its old city wall. I don’t really know much more about it. But I have pictures.

The last one is a monument to the Polish resistance against the Nazis in the Second World War. There was a system of tunnels (or maybe they just used the sewer, I don’t know, but I should probably look it up) which they used to get from one side of the city to the other, to continue the fight.

Like I said at the beginning, the wars are still fresh in the minds of many in Poland.

Sinking

2008-03-27T19:09:00.008+01:00

I often found myself sinking in Poland.
But I'm back. And I didn't drown.

In the last 6 days, I've spent 39 hours on a bus. 19 there. 20 back.
So right now, the drive really isn't in me to retell everything I experience. ..maybe I'll get around to that tomorrow, or on the weekend.

Monika invited me to her house for Easter because America is too far and too expensive for me to visit for a weekend. I spent 5 days diving into, supposedly, the 4th hardest language to learn in the world (behind Chinese, Finnish, and Estonian, so I heard from some of the other exchange students, but according to i-dont-know-who. This says otherwise).

I'd been warned beforehand that Monika's parents knew neither English nor German. Neither did her grandmothers, whom I also saw a lot of (Her older brother, however, does speak English). Though Monika translated most of the time, I could generally pick up on when I was the topic of conversation, and on occasion one or two other topics as well (which really isn't much in the span of 5 days).

I was pleasantly surprised with Monika's "non-german-speaking" mother whipping out her German vocabularly she learned in high school once upon a time.. However, I have a feeling she either tried her best to brush up on some vocabularly before I came, or has used her German occasionally since high school. ..probably both. I learned my standards: hello, goodbye, (informal) hi/bye, please, and thank you (very much).

When I stumbled thru uttering "Thank you" for my second time, Monika's father made the comment (translated): that is the most important phrase to learn in any language.

I can speak two languages, but maybe more importantly, I can now say "thank you" in six:
English (of course)
German: Danke ( schön )
Italian: Grazie ( mille )
Spanish: ( muchos ) Gracias
French: Merci ( beaucoup ) ...but i had to look up how to spell "beaucoup"
Polish: Dziękuję ( bardzo ) ...and it's just as hard to say as it looks. ..maybe a little easier for a frenchman.

There are occasionally very subtle differences in Polish pronunciation, that I am only able to hear if someone asks "can you hear the difference between..." but in the words themselves, I have no chance of distinguishing the difference... They both sound like "Shhh"

I think it was on our way to Warsaw, while talking about that topic, when Monika asked if I'd seen this video. Though I had in fact already seen that, I thought it couldn't be more perfect.

Brief

2008-03-19T19:01:00.001+01:00

Liebe Familie,
Friends,
Acquaintances,
and random Internet stalkers,

time is (unfortunately) flying by at lightning speed. Due to this adverse phenomenon, I will not be blogging as often as I’d hoped – though I’m sure you’ve already noticed that. Instead, I will only be updating after any interesting events, strange experiences, or travels I happen to embark on.

Bis dann,
Adam

Updates

2008-03-18T16:30:00.002+01:00

The following has occurred in the last week and a half:

I am now a legal Deutsche resident.
I still don't have a visa, but at least the police know I'm here.
Greek Eva made dinner for 6. Refused Money.
I bought the wine. And wasn't allowed to pay for that either.
Kostenloses Schwimmen im Badezentrum
mit einem Gutschein vom Stadtbüro
Happy Mondays. ...twice.
Thanks to Roman, I'm "renting" a bike for the semester for free.
Thanks to Roman's parents, it's partially pink.
I've watched Ratatouille auf Deutsch.
- - - - - - - - and Goodbye Lenin
- - - - - - - - and a Canadian Film titled "Nothing"
- - - - - - - - ......and 27 Dresses
I've been invited to Poland for Easter.
The school is changing/updating the Internet in the dorms.
For the second time in 2.5 weeks, I'm going to need help
figuring out how to access/log onto internet in my room.

Until then, I'm riding my partially pink bike to the library.

Observations

2008-03-07T16:46:00.001+01:00

A girl runs across the street. She’s after the 24 bus, violin in hand. She darts in front of traffic. Twice. The first time, traffic was coming at her on a green turn arrow. The Second time, a second later, she sprinted past lanes of all-out green. The violin didn’t make it. Neither did she.

A bus crawls in rush hour traffic. It rolls past a young guy standing on the median. He doesn't look familiar from the morning’s German class, but everything about him looks American. The bus comes to the next stop. Everybody not waiting for the #1 is left standing. Waiting. The first guy looks Greek. The next lady: hair covered – Turkish. The black guy – …well, that was easy. The short, old man on the end, darker skin with the black and grey mustache – Italian probably. Maybe Spanish. And I thought America was the “melting pot.” At the corner, a guy crosses the street. Looks like another ‘American’ German. …In fact, he looks exactly like the first guy did.

Gießen named its university library the “UB.” It’s short for Universitäts Bibliothek, which translates into “university library.” ..Germans are creative. On my way back I pass a Markt that’s still open after 8pm. A rarity. I seize the opportunity and grab some groceries. Lebensmittel in German. Literally “means of life.”
Two bags full hang down at my sides on my long walk back. I pass a sign that says: “Grünberg 22 km”. I feel like I’ve already walked that far. I have this relentless feeling that something is weighing me down. I look down at my ‘means of life’. Life is mean. Germans are creative.

My First: Night Out in Gießen

2008-03-05T16:45:00.000+01:00

Wednesday night, the Grünberger Straße crew (plus one) had a little get-together.
I think it could be a stereotypical college night:

As a group, we walked 1 km to the Aldi. Picked up Pizzas (how German) for 6, plus beer and wine. Headed back to one of the Lithauanian girl’s place for dinner, and met another crowd of people as diverse as the German course. There’s one true German, and then a guy from: Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt? and Afghanistan.

After dinner, we headed out to a bar that has happy “hour” all night long on Mondays. I have a feeling we’ll be returning.

My First: German "Class" in Germany

2008-03-04T15:37:00.000+01:00

The first hour of the first German class was a placement test. It was a whole two pages.

It didn’t take an hour.

The next two hours was a Stadtrallye. ..Like a get-to-know-the-city scavenger hunt.
We were divided into teams of three so that we weren’t with anyone from the same country or anyone we knew. ..I think that was the goal anyway. I was paired with two lucky girls: Silvia from Rome and Eva from Athens.

My Name: Adam - - “Ahh, Adam and Eva!!” ….hahahaha. (wouldn't be the last time hearing that comment)
Country: USA - - “Rome… Athens…. So are you from New York then?” ….Wisconsin’s close, right? Farm fields, skyscrapers, cow bells, constant car horns…. What’s the difference?

The scavenger hunt basically guided us around the city, periodically asking us questions about the building, store, or place of interest in front of us. Since Roman showed me around the city twice on the weekend, I was already comfortable with the place, and knew half the area we wound up walking around in, and even inside info on a name or two we normally would have had to ask a random person on the street.

We were judged on both time and points. There were prizes for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd.
3rd place: each person gets a bottle of Apfelwein and some nasty Handkäse
2nd place: subscription to a magazine or the local daily newspaper.
1st place: €20 each towards the Auslandsamt’s weekend trip to Erfurt sometime in May.

If you remember an earlier post, you probably can guess.
I found out I’m going to Erfurt. The total trip is €45. ..I get to go for €25.

My First: Truly International Experience

2008-03-03T16:46:00.001+01:00

Sure, I studied in Rome for 3.5 months and studied monkeys for two weeks in Belize. But both of those were with all (or nearly all) American students. This time is different.

The tally
USA: 10
Poland: 8 (but seems like more)
Greece: 3
Lithauania: 3
Sweden: 2?
France: 1
England: 1
Italy: 1
Czech: 1
Costa Rica: 1
Spain: 1

…..I think I’m missing 2. And I think they might be polish…

My First: Lazy Day in Gießen

2008-03-02T16:44:00.001+01:00

Sunday.
Did Nothing.
It felt goooooood.

My First: German Roommate Sighting

2008-03-01T16:40:00.000+01:00

After Friday’s errands, I came back to my place and finally met the first of my roommates. She is from somewhere in Niedersachsen. She seems very social. Easy to talk to. Cute. I met her Freund too. Also seems nice, and easy to talk to. Saturday my Mitbewohnerin left to go home for the month. (It’s semester break here right now. 2nd semester starts April 1). I’m back to being the only one in my place.

Saturday, Roman showed me around Gießen again. Mostly by foot this time. Got to see the city center, and Roman again pointed out the buildings/sights of interest in Gießen. Things are starting to look familiar. It would later prove to be worth €20.

After seeing the city center, we drove to the main academic buildings (which also houses the main library). Roman let me use his ID and password to check my email. …I still don’t have internet in my room.

On the way back, we stopped by the Penny Markt so I could get some groceries. It’s the only grocery store open after 8pm. It was 8:05. Tomorrow is Sunday. Nothing’s open on Sunday.

My First: Foreign Bank Account

2008-03-01T16:37:00.001+01:00

My German SIM card doesn’t work. I found out when Roman showed up at five after two and apologized for being a little late. …late? I thought we said we were meeting at 3p.. He tried leaving me a message. I looked at my phone – It says no service with my German SIM card. …but the international one works fine. ..Lovely.

We set off to knock a few things off the massive list. Step one: Bank account. It’s necessary, and makes things a lot easier, because JLU takes the rent from the bank account each month.

- - - Too bad I’m not studying in Switzerland for the semester. I’d feel more high profile with a Swiss bank account than with my German one. - - -

Next thing on the list was German health insurance. …Which turns out you have to buy a minimum of 6 months (even though I’m only here for 4.5) and what I have thru UW-Oshkosh as part of my study abroad fees supposedly doesn’t cover me here. …What’s the point of study abroad health insurance if it doesn’t cover you abroad??
6 months at €57/month = €342. (I later found out my study abroad insurance does cover me, so I went back and cancelled the €350 insurance.)

My First: Day in Gießen

2008-02-29T16:01:00.000+01:00

Roman managed to pick me out coming off the train without using “one of those embarrassing signs,” as he puts it. I threw my bags in the back seat of his little Korean-made car and we drove around Gießen while he pointed out bits of the city and campus that I would soon become familiar with.

We eventually drove to my Studentenwohnheim (for those not familiar with German: yes, that long thing is one word). I have a single bedroom in a Wohngemeinschaft. Not really sure how to describe it, but I might compare it to a suite-style dorm even though I’ve never actually seen one. There are 6 other single rooms in the place, each coming off of the large common space or a fairly short hallway coming off either side. In the common space is our living room and kitchen that sort of makes a very thick L shape around out entrance way. Roman says our bathroom looks very nice compared to some of the other buildings’. It houses 2 showers, 2 toilet stalls (one each designated for guys and girls), and a urinal in its own stall as well.

Roman reviewed some of the paperwork and errands we would have to accomplish in the days to come. Afterwards, we set out to get me some groceries. Since Roman didn’t even know my building existed before he picked up my keys, he had to ask someone in the stairwell on our way out where the nearest grocery store was. This prompted a response of “Seit ihr neu hier?” (are you new here?), which Roman later got a kick out of. (If I wasn’t new to this area, I would know the nearest grocery store).

We found the Aldi, where I picked up the college student’s bare essentials just to get me started: pasta, bread, butter, cereal, milk, and juice. Then it was back to my new home.

Roman left somewhere around 4:30pm. I called home, unpacked a little, and managed to keep myself busy, alone in my apartment, until 9pm. Then I got ready for bed and slept for the next 16 hours. I went 6 hours from 930p-330a. Woke up, looked at the clock, and then out again from 330-930. Up. Looked at the clock. Out from 930-1130. Up. Clock. Out: 1130a-130p.

My First: Sleeping on a Public Bench

2008-02-28T15:59:00.000+01:00

My flight went smoothly. I fell asleep fairly quickly. I had a window seat, and there was nobody in the aisle seat next to me, so I got a little extra leg room as well. Before take-off, I heard a comment from a German woman a few rows back: “This is the smallest plane I’ve ever been on. My knees touch the seat in front of me!” I was happy to have the extra space.

I dunno how long I slept for, but I woke up as they were serving dinner. I ate my mediocre meal and then couldn’t fall back to sleep.

- - - My US Airways experience was much better last time. The food was better, I slept better, …even the people at the check-in desk were friendlier. - - -

So I sprawled out across my two seats and watched the Academy’s choice last year for best foreign film: Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others) on my iPod. It’s one of several movies I rented a few days before I left. I’d been looking for it at the local video rental store for several months now and I guess they finally got it in. Two hours later, I was still wide awake, so I turned on some music and finally fell asleep.

- - - You’d think after a night of just 3.5 hours of sleep, that it’d be easier to doze off. - - -

After taking off about half an hour late, the plane managed to land more than half an hour early, which meant instead of arriving at 6am local time, I arrived at 5:25am, with a lot of time to kill.

There’d been small misverständnis. Roman, who had been contacting me from Germany prior to my departure, had to student-teach in a town near Gießen from 8:30 – 12:30 on the day of my arrival. So he gave me two choices: either he could meet me at the airport when I got thru customs and then go straight to his teaching gig, or I could hangout somewhere and met him at the Gießen train station at 2:00p. Sitting in a school with my luggage for several hours with nothing to do didn’t seem too exciting. So I opted for the second option, thinking I’m familiar with the trains and the S-Bahns and how to buy tickets, so I’ll stash my luggage in a locker in the Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof and explore Frankfurt or something. ..plus, in the event that it took me a while to get thru customs or if my plane was late, I wouldn’t want Roman to be late for his job.

It took me a whopping 5 minutes (if that) to get thru the passport line, just 5-7 minutes more to get my luggage at baggage claim, and a whole two seconds to walk past the un-manned post and thru the doors under the “nothing to claim” sign. The longest part of the post-arrival sequence was probably the walk from the plane to the passport line.

Found the S-Bahn I needed. Bought a ticket. Skipped the first one that came; it looked fairly crowded and I wasn’t in a hurry. I knew I was way ahead of schedule by this point. Took the next one and was in the Hauptbahnhof by twenty after six.

I probably circled the train station two and a half times, pulling my two suitcases behind me, before I finally found the luggage lockers. In Munich’s station, you can’t get very far without seeing a sign for lockers. They’re all over. As far as I know, Frankfurt only had them in one spot, right near the main entrance. I managed to fit my two suitcases and my backpack inside one locker. Paid my €4 and went on my way. I grabbed a small breakfast in the station before heading outside. I walked several blocks before realizing it was just after 7am, that hardly anything was open, I didn’t buy a map, I didn’t even know what there is to see in Frankfurt, and I really didn’t feel like exploring the city anyway.

I was tired.

I was back at the Hauptbahnhof by 8am. The semi-open-air structure of the station meant it was pretty cold. It didn’t feel more than 40 degrees (Fahrenheit obviously), so I ducked in and out of the two (heated) book stores 20 minutes at a time for the next hour or two to stay warm. Too tired to stay on my feet, I finally bought a USA today and went inside one of the stations two McDonalds to sit down. I did the Sudoku, saw it was Thursday so the crossword was going to be too hard for me, but I took a glance anyway. Read the rest of the paper, but don’t remember much of it. It must have been a slow news day. The feature article was debating the second amendment and whether or not ordinary citizens really have the right to bear arms. Clinton doesn’t like Obama, and the guy I didn’t vote for on Super Tuesday doesn’t like Clinton either …or any of them, probably. ..Oh, and Yao Ming is out for the season.

Sometime between 1030 and 11, I left McDonalds ready for bed. So I found one. ..or, sort of made one. I found a bench, folded up my newpaper, and put it under the hood of my sweatshirt that I pulled to one side of my head. I slept off and on, 15-20 minutes at a time for the next hour or hour and a half. I woke up cold around noon. I decided if I was ever going to be homeless, I’m migrating south first. Then I went inside Burger King this time and had lunch, where I discovered BK chicken nuggets in Germany taste strangely similar to the way I remember McD’s nuggets being back home. ..although it’s been a long time since I got nuggets at McDs. I usually clog my arteries with sodium-packed protein patties there instead. After lunch, I noticed the train taking me to Gießen by 2p was already at its platform half an hour before it was supposed to leave. So I got my bags from the locker, hopped on the train and sat down.

At 1:22, I watched Frankfurt fade off into the horizon.

My First: Philly Cheese Steak

2008-02-27T16:06:00.000+01:00

I landed in Philly at 100p local time. Turned my phone on and already had a text from Gwen saying I wasn’t meeting her, JD and Rob (names you might remember from my Italy blog) at the airport Marriot for drinks but we were instead going to Chickie’s & Pete’s for lunch. ..Fantastic! I was starving. My banana breakfast 6(? ) hours earlier had disappeared. It was an adventure waiting to be picked up by Gwen and JD. They were waiting by arrivals, naturally, but somehow, even though I followed the signs to baggage claim and walked right out the doors from baggage claim, we shortly discovered I wound up coming out at departures. So they looped around the expressway and came to departures this time. There I was, probably the only person waiting to be picked up from departures.

We drove to Chickie’s & Pete’s, no more than 5 minutes from the airport, listening to tunes we heard on one of the 5 MTV channels back in Rome (and getting ever-so-slightly lost in the process). We met Rob at the restaurant. We enjoyed Philly cheese steaks, house specialty crab fries (which sound more unique than they really are - it’s just a seasoning), and beer. We reminisced old memories and hoped for the opportunity to make new ones soon. After a little more than an hour and a half, we had to say good byes once again.

My First: Blog in a While

2008-02-27T15:51:00.000+01:00

The highlight of my trip was definitely not waking up at 4:30 am. Finished packing the last things I could remember. Grabbed my CD of a German band out of my car. To my surprise, I found the PIN to my SIM card in the inside cover. So I didn’t have to buy a new German SIM card after all. ….at least not yet. Set out on the road, skies still very dark, at 5:30 am. Pit stop at an ATM and last minute essentials from Wal-Mart, and I was off for real this time at 5:50am.

Passed thru Oshkosh as the sun just began to rise sometime around 6:15. I remember thinking it would be the last time in four and a half months that I would be within a couple of miles of many of my friends …and they were likely all sleeping, without a clue I was passing thru.

Got to the Milwaukee airport sometime around 7:40, said good-bye to my mom, and lugged my bags to the check-in desk. I was told my flight would be delayed a few minutes but it wouldn’t affect my connection at all. …Of course my connection wouldn’t be affected. I had a 3 hour 45 minute layover in Philly. I just hoped to make it there in time for lunch. I made it to the gate where I watched, completely confused, as my flight initially read “on-time” after having been told of a delay. The monitor then went from “on time” to a 30 minute delay, to a 10 minute delay, and back to on-time again. The truth: expect the worst. It was the 30 minute delay. I made a few calls to Philly to let the city know I was arriving later than scheduled.

...Oops

2008-02-26T15:25:00.001+01:00

So I intended to finish my blog from Italy. Like... finish Paris, my return to Munich, and my last days in Rome. I got around to all of about 10% of that. I almost finished Paris, but the adventure of the return trip has been left unfinished. ..Oh well. I might get around to it before I forget what happened. Then again, I might not.

Now I'm off to Gießen for 4.5 months. Hopefully I can finish all my remaining requirements there for my German degree.

Where is Gießen?

I miss Rome

2007-12-21T21:39:00.000+01:00

I miss Rome.

I miss walking past 2500 years of history everytime I stepped out the door. I miss being able to hop on the 8 tram down Viale di Trastevere, passing covert historical sites to wind up at the very obvious historical site of the Area Sacra at the end of the line. Not to mention being able to board a bus and find myself at the base of the Coloseum or the foot of the columns of St. Peter's square. I miss the feeling of awe every time I crossed the bridge on the 23 bus on my way to SpeedColor to get film developed or to pay an outrageous price to have my slides converted to digital pictured and put onto a CD.

I dislike driving now, for some reason. It bothers me that in order to get anywhere I want to go, I have to drive. I can't just show up at a bus stop and be able to get anywhere in Appleton I want to go. In order to use the buses, I have to know which buses stop where and where the buses go before I get on. And I can't just board a train at the Appleton train station and wind up in Oshkosh half an hour later. ....actually, I can't board a train at the Appleton train station at all.

I'm annoyed that I need to remember this thing called an ID if I want something to drink; and I can't seem to find a $3 bottle of good wine anywhere, let alone at PizzaBoom, street level right below my apartment.

But it's nice to be home for the holidays.

Blog Revival

2007-12-21T20:32:00.000+01:00

...So it's been nearly a month since I last wrote anything at all.

I've been home for almost a week.

I think it's about time I finish my Parisian experience, Munich, my football outing, heartbreaking loss, and final moments in Rome.

Side Comment

2007-11-29T21:52:00.000+01:00

Today in my Modern Middle East history class we were discussing the first Gulf War. Prof. Walston made a comment on Bush Sr.'s decision not to proceed to Baghdad because Iraq was such a mess, it wouldn't be possible to get out once the US went in. Walston's comment prompted his own side comment which referenced a skit apparently nobody in the class had seen. So the British professor, one of the biggest sticklers for references and unattached pronouns, pulled up YouTube in the middle of class to show us this.

Slow as a Snail

2007-11-26T17:17:00.000+01:00

...but delicious too.

it's taken me a while to get this up, but here's Paris:

Friday Nov 16, left my Roman apartment at 8:30 am. Grabbed breakfast. Hopped a Bus to Termini. Grabbed an €11 train to Fiumicino airport. Arrived at the airport 10 minutes to 10 for my 11:15 flight to Paris.

Arrived in Paris sometime before 2p. Takeoff had been slightly delayed. The RER B train that goes from Charles de Gaulle into the city wasn't running at all due to the metro strike. The buses from the airport were still running, however, only at 20% of what they normally do. The buses that ran into the city were €14-17. However, however, the information desk told us to take a different one because it went to the Opera which was "closer" to where we wanted to end up. It was "only" €8 a ticket.

The ticket machine wouldn't accept our credit cards. There were no slots for bills, it only accepted change. (What machine selling nothing cheaper than €8 doesn't accept bills?) Rob didn't have any cash on him. I only had 20's. So i went back inside the airport to try and make change. Each place I went to was only allowed to give €5 in change. ...so after stopping at the currency exchange booth, a cafè, and a book store, plus a €1 coin from Rob, I finally had enough change to purchase two tickets ...tickets we never validated, and tickets nobody ever checked to make sure were validated. So we had our transportation back to the airport paid for as well.

The Opera building the bus brought us to is the opera in Paris. We wanted to be by the Bastille, where there's modern theater. This must be what the guy at information was thinking of. ...but after waiting another half our for the bus to show up and a 40 minute ride into the city, we arrived at the opera at quarter to 4 with a 2 mile walk ahead of us. (...so much for information)

By the time we were settled in our hotel room, it was already dark. We missed a chunk of the day we thought we were going to have. We headed out. Each grabbed something to eat along the way. And walked to the Louvre. Fridays after 6pm the Louvre is free for people 18-25. Saw the Mona Lisa, Statue of Venus, and several other paintings and statues whose names i don't know. Some I recognized. Many I didn't. We covered the museum pretty quickly. Hit two floors in half the museum in an hour and a half. We were about to head over to the other side of the museum that houses all the Egyptian and Mesopotamian stuff. But they were already kicking people out. The museum that supposedly is open until 10pm closes at 8:30, apparently. So i didn't get to see Hammurabi's Code, but at least saw the Louvre for free.

After the Louvre, we proceeded to walk to that big, metal, radio tower they have there - that one that's named after the guy who designed it. ...Gustave somebody... I think they built it for temporary use and forgot to take it down, so we decided to take a look at it.

Afterward, we decided to see if the metros were running at all. To our delight, not only were they running, but one could walk right through the turnstiles without having to pay for a ticket. Operating and free. Best strike I've ever. Just had to be prepared to wait anywhere from 10 to 20+ minutes for one to show up. And also had to be prepared to deal with availability of personal space comparable to public transportation on La Notte Bianca. But our first experience on the Paris metro was pleasant. We waiting no more than 10 minutes, and it was empty enough that we didn't have to stand.

Saturday we caught our free breakfast and headed out to see more of the city. Attempted to catch a subway to the vicinity of Notre Dame. After waiting 20 minutes, and watching many French-speaking folks come down the stairs, wait, and slowly trickle back up the stairs, I wasn't about to waste anymore time waiting for transportation. Even if I had to walk, at least I was seeing the city. Rob, stubborn and not wanting to walk, said lets wait until (specified time that amounted essentially to another 3 minutes). 4 minutes later, I got up to head out. Rob, stubborn, still didn't want to walk. I, stubborn, decided to walk anyway.

Apparently, 2 minutes later, the subway came.

Just kidding. Actually, 2 minutes later Rob decided to head up the stairs and walk as well. Thinking he was going to follow, I stalled as much as i could allow myself to. Constantly looking back, but didn't see him coming. So off to Notre Dame I went. We both knew we were going to Notre Dame, so I figured I'd either meet him there, or call him if I didn't.

I had an enjoyable walk down Rue de la Roquette, around the Bastille, down Boulevard Henri IV, across one fork of the river to Ile Saint-Louis and over to Ile de la Cité where Notre Dame sits. I spent maybe 20 minutes taking in the Notre Dame, snapping photos. Didn't see Rob, so I called him. He had wound up walking "20 minutes" the wrong direction. Found himself at Place de la Nation. Walked back the way he came, attempting to get his bearings and decided to take a cab. I found him at the Notre Dame 10 minutes later. We took in the outside, then inside, then back outside to wait in line to go to the top. The line didn't take very long. 10 minutes maybe. But it was chilly enough to make me run across the street to grab a hot chocolàt and a warm, sweet crêpe.

From Notre Dame, we headed to Sainte Chapelle which sits on the same island. Neither Rob nor I had even heard of it before we saw it in one of the pamphlets Rob grabbed at the hotel, but the inside was even more impressive than Notre Dame. I swear my picture doesn't even do it justice. I urge you to do a google image search, find the most amazing picture of it, and that might allow you to just begin to imagine how breathtaking it is.

After catching our breath back, we crossed the Seine once again and headed north so see some 4- or 5-story medieval tower Rob wanted to see. It turned out to be more of a history lesson than anything. Something I wasn't particularly interested in. There's too many Louies in French history for me to really care. The tower amounted to little more than a cool spiral staircase with a room hanging off the side of it at each floor. While I wasn't really interested in what happened at the tower, I did discover my apparent photographic obsession with stairs.

((snail crossing)) ..._@/”

2007-11-26T17:16:00.000+01:00

from the tower we hopped on the free subway, made a connection and walked a couple blocks, then up a massive set of stairs to the Sacré-Cœur. Briefly checked out the inside, which is quite impressive for the height and amount of open space. Then we went around the side to pay our €4 to get to the top. (I forgot to mention, all entrance-tickets were anywhere from 1/3 to 1/2 off because we are in the fabulous age range between 18 and 25. ...it's so good to be young.) We probably spent an hour up at the top. We took in an amazing view of the city for about half an hour, and then waited another half hour when we realized how close we were to sunset.

After sunset, we found dinner. My first sit-down dinner in Paris. and it was great. expensive, but delicious. Rob and I split a 1/2 liter of wine and a half-dozen escargot. I ate a very thick, juicy steak; green beans; and sliced potatoes (resembling potato chips while still retaining their potato factor). Rob got desert, so I got myself another hot chocolàt (my third of the day. first one was at breakfast. second one, of course, at Notre Dame). My dinner total: €26.

This was just across the street from the restaurant where we ate.
I found it fitting.

After dinner, we continued down the street to the red light district to get a glimpse of Moulin Rouge. We then hopped a (free) subway to Arc de Triomphe. Snapped our pictures and strolled down Champs-Élysées, doing some window shopping before catching another (free) subway back to our hotel.

Traffic Jam

2007-11-26T17:15:00.000+01:00

..._@;" ..._@/"

we started off Sunday with breakfast as usual. We took the free metro all the way across the city to catch a quick glimpse of the Arc de Triomph by day. We also intended to see the tomb of the unknown soldier that sits under the arch, but we forgot entire once we arrived. From the arc, we tried to catch a metro over to the Eiffel Tower for an up-close, daytime viewing of that as well. After waiting nearly 20 minutes for the metro, watching the underground fill up and empty out with people a couple times, we gave up and walked it.

Photo shoot featuring a bunch of metal, and off we went. Now I was on an assignment to track down a little shop called Olivier&Co. It was on Rue Cler near the Eiffel. We made our way a few blocks at a time: over, then up, then over some more, until we finally came upon the street.
Somewhere between "up" and "over some more":

"Why is there a line coming out the door of that bakery?
...And why is it wrapping around the corner?"
"I dunno. Let's go find out."

Rob got a baguette. I got a baguette and a croissant for a pre-lunch snack. it was probably 11am at the time. The baked goods were, well, good like the term suggests they should be. I don't know that they're around-the-corner good. Maybe they were still out-the-door good, but at any rate, I had fresh bread to hold onto and warm my hands for the next half hour. Olivier&Co was closed. I hadn't realized it was Sunday until that point. Sorry Tim&Karen.

Eventually we came upon Les Invalides. Rob and I checked out the giant tomb of some short guy. I think Napoleon could fit in his tomb several times with room to spare. After viewing the tomb, we checked out the war museums, which housed guns and memorabilia from the World Wars. ...well, also from the 18th and 19th centuries as well, but that section of the museum was closed for remodeling. The World Wars were enough to keep us busy for a couple hours as it was. At about 330 we finished the museum and headed over to the Pantheon. ...I was unaware there was a Pantheon in Paris as well. ...In my opinion, the one in Rome is sooo much cooler. But I wouldn't actually know. By the time we got there, entrance to the Pantheon had closed. It stopped at 330. And it closed completely by 415. which was when we showed up. We had walked past Jardin du Luxembourg somewhere just before 400. After turned away from the gates of the Pantheon, we were turned away from the gates of Jardin du Luxembourg. Entrance to that closed at 4.

I watched some French kids play soccer in the street for 5 minutes, and then Rob and I went to try and find the latin quarter. The area supposedly known as the latin quarter seemed more Greek than Latin. Greek restaurants lined one or two of the streets. But we settled on French food again. Dinner this time was even more expensive. The total bill was 77 Euro (darn American keyboards. ...I miss my Euro sign and the fabulous Alt Gr button. [it's practically a second shift key]). My portion was in the thirties. ...32 maybe? I devoured my own half-dozen escargot this time. Followed by a bowl of French onion soup. ...couldn't resist. Rob, again, was determined to enjoy desert, so I splurged this time. A cup of hot chocolat (I miss my easy access to accented vowels too) and an apple cinnamon crepe. The crepe was almost like an apple pie. Though it was more apple sauce than apple pie filling, there were slices of apple here and there, topped off with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. ...delicious. And leaving my mouth watering. So once again, I'll have to leave the return trip for later...

The Apprentice

2007-11-20T13:27:00.000+01:00

I'm back from Paris. What a story. But it'll have to wait. I'm a little short on time.

I walked into my apartment at 2:30p yesterday for the first time since leaving for Paris. Just in time to unload clothes from my backpack and reload it with books and notebooks.

Like I said, I'm short on time. I leave for Munich tonight after class. So the Paris story will have to wait. But there's a picture for a teaser.

All I really wanted blog about is my photography professor. What a busy/exciting time in his life. He became a father for the first time last Friday. In addition, he and another photographer from the agency he's with produced a book for ActionAid. It just hit the shelves. I'll be missing the book signing tonight though. Not enough time.

His agency also sold the same story to MarieClaire magazine (published in the italian Dec '07 issue).

Also, some of the photos were published online by the biggest italian newspaper La Repubblica. See who I'm learning from. His photos can be seen in their online gallery. Lorenzo's are the ones in color. His assignment was education and the environment in which ActionAid operates. His colleague's photos are black and white, on Cambodian prostitution and AIDS patients.

Travel Time

2007-11-16T07:47:00.000+01:00

Just a quick update: AS Roma offered refunds for the tickets to Sunday's called-off match. The game will be rescheduled, but not until mid to late december when we're already gone. So we got our money back.

I'm now off to Paris for the weekend. I return Monday morning in plenty of time to go to my Monday classes (the first of which isn't until 3:30p). I'm in Rome Monday night and here for my Tuesday classes. Late Tuesday night I'm off to Munich for 5 days, coming back Sunday. Skipping my one Wed class and my two Thursday classes.

In the spirit of Paris, I feel like I should tack on 5 extra vowels and perhaps an "S" or "X" to the ends of my words. As far as pronouncing letters, it's almost as if the french have the laziest tongues in the world. ...But then how do you explain a french kiss?

All Thai-ed Up

2007-11-15T18:48:00.000+01:00

Last night, a group of 10 of us went out to a Thai restaurant. It was fantastic. Some of the spiciest sauces I've ever had. I had rice and some sort of spicy jumbo shrimp - served with their eyes still looking at me. I hear it's normally difficult to eat them like this. messy to peel or whatever. But they must have been well prepared, because it was quite easy. Other than detaching the meat from the rest of the body, it was not any different than eating normal shrimp back home.

They brought out several appetizers "on the house," along with an apparent all-you-can-drink supply of wine. The 10 of us went through numerous bottles. And then they brought out two big bowls of fruit, then candy. Gwen ordered Malaysian crepes for desert. They tasted almost exactly like a Cinnabon. Definitely to die for. After desert, along with maintaining our supply of wine, they brought out the "serious stuff" as they called it. Shot glasses for everyone, along with our table's own bottles of limoncello, whiskey, and something that unfortunately tasted exactly like ouzo.

The total only came to €17 per person. I don't know how they came to that total or what they actually billed us for and what was actually on the house, but considering my dinner was €12, I figure a €5 "cover charge" is worth the bottles of wine, hard alcohol, desert and appetizers. Great place, great service. And we didn't even have a need to hit the bars after dinner.

Go and Get Your Riot Gear

2007-11-12T23:26:00.000+01:00

I tried but failed to get my hands on a newspaper today. I stared at one over breakfast at the bar this morning. When I went out to get my film developed, I stopped at several newspaper stands but they all only carried foreign papers like the Süd-Deutsche Zeitung, USA Today, along with French and Spanish papers as well. But none of the Rome newspapers.

After class, I asked the guy at breakfast bar, in italian, where I could buy a paper. He told me to try Stazione Trastevere. But they were all done selling papers. Either they didn't have any left, or they were closed, or both. I didn't really understand the Italian response I got, except that I wasn't going to find a paper.

Anyway, pictures from la Republica can be found there. A brutally (google) translated article from Il Messaggero on the victim and incident that sparked the riots can be can be found here. From the same paper, also brutally translated by google, is the article on the actual events of the riots.

Personal note: fortunately I didn't get anywhere near the events. Therefore, no pictures of my own to post.

Update

2007-11-11T23:59:00.000+01:00

In lieu of the soccer match, we headed out to Abbey Theater (sports bar) to watch the Packer game. The Packers destroyed the Vikings 34-0.

In the meantime, things started getting a little more out of control regarding the soccer match.

Change of Plans

2007-11-11T18:59:00.000+01:00

A group of 8 of us bought tickets to go to an AS Roma soccer match. I haven't been to one yet, and I'm determined to see a match before I leave Italy. We all bought €25 tickets earlier in the week. ...I'm not going anymore.

Rob ran downstairs to PizzaBoom to grab a beer before we were about to leave. Roberto at PizzaBoom told Rob the match was canceled. Thank You PizzaBoom. That guy is so in the loop that he knew the match was canceled before the breaking knews article surfaced on the internet. We finally confirmed his story 5 minutes after we first started searching.

11/11/2007 6:29 PM
BREAKING NEWS: Roma - Cagliari Called Off
Tonight's Serie A game at the Stadio Olimpico between Roma and Cagliari has been called off following the tragic death of a Lazio supporter this morning.

Twenty-six-year-old Gabriele Sandri was killed by a stray policeman bullet after a fight between Lazio and Juventus Ultras at a motorway service station in Arezzo.

This afternoon's Inter - Lazio clash at San Siro was subsequently postponed as a result, while Atalanta versus Milan was abandoned after just eight minutes following crowd trouble in Bergamo.

There had been rumours that Roma against Lazio would also be called off to avoid the risk of retaliation attacks on the police
and this has now been officially confirmed.

As we speak there is currently a march taking place in Rome's Piazza Euclide. Around 200 Lazio fans are carrying candles to mark the death of Sandri

(Goal.com)

The Silver Lining

2007-11-09T19:43:00.000+01:00

This week has just flown by. I remember Monday, first day of classes back from break, thinking on my way to school how it felt like it was mid-week. Yesterday rolls around, and somewhere in the 5 hours I between classes, I realized I only have one class left before my weekend begins. It felt like only moments before that I was on my way to my first class of the week.

Got my midterms back this week. I was so confident when I walked out of my Middle East midterm. I thought I got no less than a 95. Prof. said he graded them quite brutally. I wound up with a 92.5 :-)

Italian will probably require a little more effort to remain in the A- range. I'm just clinging to it at the moment. Photography... well, I have no idea if anyone has any grade in there at all so far. But I have a pretty good idea how I'm going to do.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

If I were to describe the stage we're at in Rome right now, I'd compare it to midlife crisis, maybe. Now that we're at fallbreak+5, it's started to sink in for everyone that we only have 5 weeks left. We had been in a routine of going out to the same places in Rome, and we were past the initial excitement to explore Rome. Now we're once again filled with enthusiasm to find new bars we haven't been too, and see all the sites we still need to see.

Today, Gwen, JD, and I attempted to find Appia Antica. We made it to Porto San Paolo and walked from there. Turned out to be a bit of a walk, but it was nice. We stopped at the Catacombs of San Callisto. Neat place. We saw a mere fraction of it. I guess it covers 33 acres, and goes 4 levels deep. We only went down to the first two levels, and covered no more than 1/2 an acre.

When we were done, it was late afternoon already. Thanks to the hour fall back a couple weeks ago, it meant we had no more than an hour left of sunlight. But it was a beautiful day, and the best time for great light, as you can see by the picture.

Seeing Red

2007-11-08T19:22:00.000+01:00

I had no clue this happened until I got back from break.

EuroAdventures

2007-11-05T12:10:00.000+01:00

Taking it from the top.

Friday Oct 26: Woke up early to buy tickets at Termini at 8am. Needed to get to Florence because that's where the Greece trip was departing from. If we had enough people from Rome, we would have had a separate departure from here, and it would have saved me €33. (Turns out we actually did have enough people from Rome. EuroAdventures just didn't know that, because a certain 4 people didn't put that information in the comment box like they'd been instructed to.. at least we got a bus direct to Rome on the return). I got back to my apartment around 9am. It was empty, with the exception of Eric. Justin had left for Florence the night before. In the couple hours I was gone, Rob, Craig, and JD left for Barcelona. 10 minutes after i got back, Eric left for Florence with his family.

It was a day full of peacefulness with a rare moment or two of loneliness. The 4 MTVs, VH1, and 3 or 4 Italian music video channels kept me company most of the day. ..Along with USA Today's Thursday 4-star and weekend 5-star sudoku, laundry, and packing. Early bed time.

Saturday Oct 27: Up at 5:45am. At a bus stop by 6:15. Termini by 7 to catch the 7:30 train to Florence. Arrived in Florence around 9:15. Had 45 minutes to kill. Didn't need to be there until 10am. Found an ATM and snagged quick cornetto con la crema and peach juice at a little italian bar across from the train station while the girls pulled an America and enjoyed a magnificent morning meal at McDonalds. Left at 10:30.

3 and a half hours later, we arrived in Ancona; hopped on our overnight "ferry" (never been on a cruise, but that's really what it was). Enjoyed a delicious gyro, a beer, and a few card games. Slept in a reclining seat. Woke up every 2 hours and repositioned, but i didn't care. I was on my way to Greece!

Sunday Oct 28: Woke up at 7:15 to the annoying PA system on the ferry announcing (in at least 5 different languages) that we were pulling into port. I thought we weren't arriving until 8:30 and had my alarm set for 7:30, thanks to the end of daylight savings time, we were an hour early. That meant we got in to Igoumenitsa early enough to catch the 8:30 ferry out to Corfu that we otherwise would have missed (or hadn't been planning on taking to begin with).

A little over an hour later, we were docking at Kavos. Boarded a bus for a short 20 minute ride and we'd finally arrived in Agios Gordis at the infamous Pink Palace after 24+ hours of surprisingly fun and relaxed traveling.

Corfu:

2007-11-05T12:09:00.000+01:00

Sunday Oct 28: We were greeted at the Pink Palace with a shot of ouzo for everyone. Most people didn't like it. I didn't think it was bad. I was probably one of few that took it without making a face afterwards.

Got our rooming situation sorted out. Most people already knew what they were doing. I, however, was essentially traveling solo. I knew people on the trip, but for all practical purposes, I was traveling solo. Wound up rooming with a pair of guys I just met for the first time. They're also studying abroad in Rome, but I can't remember every seeing them. Worked out well though.

After getting settled, I spent the next several hours on the beach/hiking with the girls I knew (or, maybe, thought I knew). Two of them had found a trail at the end of the beach, so I ran back to my room, grabbed my camera, then we went exploring. Not that I had any difficulty on the trail, but I probably wouldn't recommend hiking in flip flops. Only one girl had brought shoes to the beach.

Came back to the Pink Palace mid-afternoon. I was starving. Hadn't had much of a breakfast (just a quick snack between ferries). Had a decent burger and fries. Actually, the burger was good. But the ketchup for the fries was a little different. Can't beat restaurant quality burger for only €3.50 though. Killed time before dinner. Ate with James and Sean and the 3 good-looking girls they knew from school. Decent dinner. Fun night.

Monday Oct 29: All breakfasts were included on the trip (as were dinners, by the way), so I made sure I was up in time to catch that. Eggs 'to order' (not really to order, but they were made fresh. Each day was a different style. Breakfast #1 was scrambled with tomatoes and onion), plenty of toast n jam, and tea, for me.

Also included on our trip was a cruise around the island ..that may or may not have had the adjective "booze" in front of it. Actually, there were a surprising number of Americans that weren't drinking on the cruise, but that was probably smart. Cliff jumping and swimming in a sea cave probably are not best when combined with alcohol. I refrained from any until after both stops. ...in addition to the jumping and swimming, we stopped at a beach only accessible by boat. (the couple hundred foot cliffs along the beach kinda sorta prevent any road access..)

Got back. Showered. Dinner. Pink Toga Party at the Pink Palace. Dips in the swimming-pool-sized jacuzzi broken up by dips in the sea. Saw people lose their dignity. Questioned whether or not others even brought theirs to Greece. Called it a night.

Tuesday Oct 30: Once again, made sure I didn't miss breakfast. Eggs over easy. Ironic considering what I'd witnessed the night before, now that I think about it.

After breakfast, it was time for a 'quad safari' - 6 hours of driving an ATV around the island with a guide. James, Sean, and crew did that the first day, so I was going with the 4 girls. I held off on day 1 because, in the event that weather wouldn't be good enough for a cruise, EuroAdventures was going to pay for a quad safari instead.

The ATVs were awesome. Stopped at a scenic beach. Stopped atop a mountain for lunch, overlooking the entire south half of the island. headed north, up to another mountain where there was a church at the top. Went off-roading a little. Atop a third mountain. A lot more off-roading. Eventually making our way back to the Pink Palace.

Once back, Christoph, our guide, offered to buy all 6 people a shot of ouzo and a drink at the bar. But it turned out I was the only one willing to take the shot of ouzo. The first one must have scared everyone away. After the shot and drink, Christoph offered a second shot of ouzo. Then another. I guess he was going to buy me the shots he would have bought for everyone. 2 drinks, several shots, and an hour later, i headed up the stairs from the bar to my room (my room happened to be right above the bar). I was fine in the bar. Fine on the stairs. Got in my room, decided to shower because I smelled like exhaust. Got in the shower, and all that alcohol hit me like a brick wall. By then, Sean was back in the room. I got dressed, got some fresh air on the balcony, then went to sit on the edge of my bed, waiting for the 8:30 dinner time. It was 7:50.

7:50 - James hurries into the room. "Pack your stuff. We have to leave in 10 minutes." We weren't supposed to leave until 11pm or so. EuroAdventures had the same trip the week before, and the last ferry from Corfu left around 1130, so thats what everyone was expecting. Turns out this week, the last ferry was at 8:30... Surprise! No dinner. They scrambled to get sandwiches for everyone. Sean was nice enough to make sure I didn't forget any of my things (but I had it all already). Grabbed my passport from the front desk. Hopped on the bus. The adventure that was the Pink Palace was over. ...I'm never drinking ouzo again.

Athens:

2007-11-05T12:08:00.000+01:00

I woke up, after our short ride from the Pink Palace to the ferry, to people getting off the bus. I was a bit surprised when I realized the bus was parked on the ferry. I had no idea it was coming with us. In recovery mode, I had one of the girls buy me some bagel chips. Hour later we were docking and boarding the bus again. It'd be an eight hour bus ride to Athens.

Wednesday Oct 31: Pit Stop. I woke up somewhere around 1:45am. We stopped for half an hour at a greek truck/bus stop for 'dinner' ala carte since, well, bagel chips and a sandwich really don't make a great dinner. Back on the bus, I woke myself up several times with head nodding. Even though we were only had half capacity so everyone had two seats each, I couldn't get into a comfortable enough position to keep me asleep through the bumps. Arrival in Greece: 5:30 am.

Naturally, not everyone's room was ready. The other group of 3 guys on the trip were lucky enough to get a room. So the other 3 of us crashed on the floor in their room. On my way passed the desk, i was handed a package. At 5:45am in a transitional recovery/pure exhaustion state, it took me a second to realize why I had a package. My parents managed to track down my hotel and drop off their international phone. Slept for another 4 hours. Then called Home for the first time in two months. Talked to my parents 5,000 miles away from the rooftop bar of my hotel while staring at the Parthenon.

Found out EuroAdventures was giving a walking tour of Athens at 11am. James, Sean and the girls were still sleeping/resting, so i was with the original 4 again. Saw the changing of the guard in front of the Greek parliament. Cut thru a corner of the national gardens without really seeing it. Stopped at the Olympic stadium for the first modern-day games (1896). Onto the Temple of Zeus and Hadrian's Arch. Then the Acropolis. From there were were on our own. I explored the Acropolis for a bit with the girls. Got in free with my ISIC (international student ID) card (normally €12). I'd post pictures, but the most impressive views came later.

After the Acropolis, we checked out the Plaka shopping area. Back to the Hotel. Free internet and nap time for me. Slept two hours, then got ready for our group dinner. Dinner was at the (supposedly) oldest, most famous restaurant in Athens. ..dont know the name. All 25 of us at a big table. No menu. Naturally, dinner began with a shot of ouzo for everyone. I managed to choke it down. Then they just brought us dish after dish after dish for everyone to share. Two of the bread dips were very tasty. Tzatziki was really good, but liked the eggplant-based dip even more. These were followed by meat-stuffed dolmades (stuffed grapevine leaves). Absolutely delicious. Probably my favorite. Ate 3 of them. Next up was moussaka (similar to lasagna, yet not at all). Also incredible. If not for the dolmades, moussaka would've been my favorite. Not to say that it was all downhill from there. The final 3 dishes were good as well, but moussaka and dolmades - amazing. The next two dishes were essentially the same, just different meat - pork and lamb - cut like it would be served in a gyro, with onion and triangles of pita. Actually, very much like a gyro, but without the tzatziki and tomato. The last main dish was eggplant cooked with garlic, onions, peppers and seasoning. It was ok. Not a big fan though. Desert was yogurt with honey. ...not much of a fan of that either. ..too plain for me. But overall, a phenomenal dinner.

Thursday Nov 1: Wow. First November already? First day of November and I'm enjoying sunny Athenian weather in the upper 70's. Couldn't ask for more.

Grabbed Breakfast. As always, made sure I didn't miss it. Explored Athens with James, Sean, Emily, Lesley, and Vanessa. They hadn't been on the walking tour the day before, so we hit the Olympic Stadium again. Got better pictures this time around anyway (day before was actually overcast. Today was bright blue sky. We strolled through the National Gardens for at least an hour or two before hitting the stadium. Nothing too special, but it's a huge, peaceful park. On our way back from the stadium, we saw 20 policemen in riot gear waiting on the sidewalk (happened to be right by ruins of a roman bath). As we passed them, 3 more police buses pulled up. A couple blocks later, we saw a big rally/protest. Apparently the Greek government wants to raise taxes another 3%, from 19 up to 22%, according to our bus driver.

The gang went back to take a nap. I wasn't tired, so I hopped on the internet, and then went to try and see some temples I hadn't gotten around to seeing yet. I headed out around 4:45. Made it to Hadrian's Library. Found out all the archaeological sites (also free with my ISIC card) close at 5p. I wouldn't be making it to the roman agora/temple of hephaestus. Instead, I decided to climb the highest hill in Athens. Took me probably half an hour to get over to that side of the city and climb it. Broke a sweat, but I was racing the setting sun. ..I won. Made it just in time for sunset over the acropolis. Then I waited another half an hour for the lights to come on.

Went to dinner with the gang at Hard Rock. Satisfied my craving for BBQ ribs. The actually weren't that great. Which probably helped quell my craving even more. Spent the night, after dinner, at a hookah bar, hanging out until 4am. Got back to the hotel at 4:30.

Friday Nov 2: Woke up at 8am after 3.5 hours of sleep. We were leaving Greece at 11am. I still wanted to hit the Roman Agora and temple I hand't been able to make it to. Showered. Grabbed my camera, and hit the streets. Glad I made it there before I left Greece. Temple of Hephaestus is probably the most intact ancient building in all of Athens. This thing dates back to 415 BC and it's still (almost) entirely whole.

Got back to the hotel, grabbed breakfast, packed, and boarded the bus for a 3 hours ride to port. Slept most of the way. Killed an hour and a half at Patras. Boarded our overnight ferry around 5:00.

Of all the situations where I've unexpectedly had to use German, I think breaking up a fight on a ferry from Greece to Italy tops the list. We'd been at the bar/club on one of the upper decks of the cruise. A guy and girl on the trip went down to the sleeping room early (to save money, we only had reclining seats in a giant room, not sleeping cabins). When they went down, they apparently woke up this greek-german asshole, who told them to shut up. All three of them then went to sleep. No problems. ..yet.

About 45 minutes later, the rest of the gang called it a night and went downstairs as well. I don't think we were being excessively loud, but we were talking a bit and it was loud enough to wake up the crazy german-greek again. He woke up and looked over to see the few vocal people, who'd just come down, standing around sean and vanessa (who'd actually still been sleeping). The guy became enraged quicker than the incredible hulk, stormed over, passed the people who were actually standing around talking, goes over to sean (who by this point was at least in some semi-conscious state) and cups his mouth so forcefully that it actually looked like he was taking a swing. In the process of his swing, he also grazed vanessa's head. That was ultimately the determining factor betwen sean just wanting to get some crazy guy off his back and wanting to kick his ass.

I have no clue how I realized the guy spoke german. I'm not sure if I heard him say something in german, or if it was just a random word-vomit on my part, assuming english wasnt the guy's native language, and he happened to respond to it. In the scuffle, a younger guy who worked with the crazy german-greek, woke up and bolted over to the scene to help pull his colleague away. James took on the task of calming sean down, which took half an hour and ultimately required vanessa denying the guy ever touched her. In the big mess, I held lesley back and calmed her down. Under the influence, she thought she could actually fight some 40 yr old guy. Then i made my rounds.

Spoke briefly (in german) with the colleague, who was a really nice guy - and said he's worked with the crazy guy for a while and he's always been an asshole. Made my way to find james/sean/vanessa to make sure everything was ok on that front, and finally i tracked down the crazy german-greek who'd disappeared to the bar. I let him know that 1) sean was actually still kinda sleeping when he was attacked, 2) it was likely the people that had just entered the room that had awakened him this time around, and 3) The biggest reason sean was so pissed off was that vanessa had been hit in the process.

This prompted a tiny apology, as he never meant to touch her and would 'never do that,' followed by a story of how he hadn't slept in two days, as if it somehow justified attacking a sleeping person. I persuaded him to sleep in the smaller of the two rooms, right behind the bigger one, because nobody was in there and he wouldn't be disturbed then. Then I continued talking with him (in german) for a full hour to make sure he'd calmed down and to give time for everyone else to calm down and fall asleep so there wouldn't be issues when he finally went back down. Found out where he's from, where he lives, what he does. Talked about studying in Rome. And Germany. And somehow (no idea how), we also got on the topic of Palestinian Arab-Israeli issues. ya know, the standard get-to -know-you topics.

Saturday Nov 3: Morning was a bit awkward, with an exchange of glares between he and Sean when we walked by. We finally docked in Ancona somewhere around 1pm. Then we got a 4 hour bus ride direct back to Rome. I finally got back to my apartment around 5:30. My EuroAdentures experience was done. What a crazy week.

Greek Philosophy

2007-11-01T10:19:00.000+01:00

I really feel like I'm wasting my time blogging while I'm in the center of the ancient philosophical world, but i feel the question I'm about to ask merrits my blogging.

It's a shame I feel so far removed from the ethics class I took my first semester in college. I need help deciding what details I should disclose upon return to Rome. I already know if I decide to share a certain story, that I will censor many of the details myself. However, the story begs the question which school of philosophical thought to follow. What I do remember from Phil 105 is that every single ethical theory had its flaws.

Is it better to do the greatest good for the greatest number of people (whereby I share absolutely nothing, as the story really wouldn't benefit anyone, only truthfully taint a persons reputation), or is it better to tell the truth in all situations (meaning I should really share my story, because keeping it quiet allows a person to continue with a false reputation and allowing that to continue could arguably be as dishonest as lying)?

Rephrased: If a tree falls in the forest, but only two people actually realize what happened, does one become responsible to tell others if the second person won't because s/he cut it down?

Fall Break

2007-10-26T21:09:00.001+02:00

Until further notice, I'm in Greece.
I should return Saturday Nov 3.

continued..

2007-10-24T09:54:00.000+02:00

I just realized i never got around to the "scrambled brains" part of the previous post. It's quite simply referring to my midterms. I have 13 credits on only 3 classes. 7 of those 13 are tied up in my intensive italian. There's still more i need to study for italian, even though i took the midterm yesterday. I think it went just fine though. I was expecting much worse.

Tuesday morning at 9am was my Modern Middle East midterm. That class feels like my only real class here. Not that italian isn't a real class, but I'm in Italy, so it feels like ..an assisted living program, of sorts, more than anything. Anyway, I would have been much more relaxed going into my Middle East midterm had i started studying on Sunday like i told myself i was going to. (Instead i lounged around all day Sunday after walking the entire day in Pompei on Saturday.) So i didn't get around to studying for the Middle East until 8pm Monday night. But between 8p and 1.30a, i got 4 hours of studying in, along with a dinner break and a 30 minute distraction break. ...Still wasn't done though, got up at 7, started studying again at 730 until i left at 830. I was relatively worried going in, because the Prof. was quite vague about the format and about the content as well. ..but I think i knocked that exam out of the park. I literally felt like a huge weight was off my shoulders when i walked out of the exam. I was, most definitely, physically carrying the tension, but i didn't notice until it was gone. Next time I'll start at least a day earlier. ..or more, depending on my final exam schedule.

Even though I didn't have class til 330p Monday, I didn't start studying until 8pm because i spent Monday finishing up a roll to finalize my photography midterm. We had to take our 15 best and somehow connect them in a sequence. i think i mentioned that before. ..So i didn't completely waste Sunday. I spent Sunday shooting homeless people, but I couldn't find the one in particular i was looking for. So i finished the roll Monday morning. The guy I wanted - I'd seen him every single Monday morning on my way to getting my film developed. And I found him again this week. He was perfect. The final addition to my sequence (along with 3 other pictures I shot on Sunday). I was really amazed how much one guy on Sunday opened up to me.

Though I didn't necessarily understand everything he said, between his broken English and my very broken Italian, I got to know him pretty well. He turned to the street after living with a girlfriend 13yrs? or he's been on the street for 13yrs after he got into a huge argument with his girlfriend and her mother. ..not entirely sure which, but by the condition of his teeth, I'd guess the latter. The guy now lives on the street with his dog. Sure he had an open beer next to his bag. And i know he felt guilty about it because he attempted to justify it, saying at least at least he wasn't drinking whiskey or vodka. Maybe he was just a good salesman, maybe he was honest, but he said he puts his dog before himself. It was obvious, without him even saying a word, that he loves his dog - just how he interacted with her and how he looked at her. I'm sure the guy had some food of his own in his bag. Probably more beer as well. But that aside, i was still very impressed when he pulled out 4 cans of dog food - 3 of them being massive. If they'd held liquid, I'd guess they'd have been at least a liter. Maybe even a liter and a half. Sure, he's probably never gonna make anything of himself. I can easily see him being one the street the rest of his life. But I did buy into his feeling about his dog.

I sat there for about half an hour. Took 12-13 shots of him, and him with his dog. And gave him a pretty good payday for his work in helping out my midterm. €3. It'll probably buy him 2 more cans of dog food.

...and a beer.

Burnt Bodies and Scrambled Brains

2007-10-23T18:59:00.000+02:00

Went to Pompeii this weekend. Wasn't really on my list of things do do, so i opted out to save money last time when half of my roommates went. JD's sister was visiting, and Pompeii was on her list of things to do. Since JD had already been, Rob and I went with to Pompeii.

Nice place (if i'm permitted to say that about a city annihilated by a volcano). The preserved bodies aren't in nearly as many buildings as i thought they'd be. ...First of all, Pompeii is rather large with multiple distinct neighborhoods. The bodies are pretty much confined to four or so areas. It's pretty fun to explore a deserted city though. Great place to bring a camera as well, whether or not one's intent is actually to see the city. Some of the areas reminded me very much of a photographer's set, except the objects and backgrounds were real. ..I felt like I should have been getting my senior pictures taken all over again.

...If you couldn't tell, i loved shooting there. There's several other shots i want to share, but won't be able to fit in this blog. I wound up with something like 260 pictures from Pompeii by the time we hopped on the return train. After deleting bad shots and duplicates, I still had 190. Deleted another 12 or so upon returning home. Total count from Pompeii, 178. That helps explain why I'm having such a tough time deciding which 4 pictures to show. I've even decided to limit myself to the horizontal pictures for format's sake. I felt the group shot was necessary, but now I'm disappointed in leaving out some fantastic vertical shots. ...But by now, you've seen the final cut I'm about to make.

Sorry for the Delay

2007-10-22T12:42:00.000+02:00

Midterms.
more later.

..So I heard..

2007-10-18T19:36:00.000+02:00

All of the following are separate stories i wanted to share. Even though i could have saved them and posted one at a time, in the even that i had nothing else to write for a day - i figured i'd tell all so i dont forget. The only thing they really have in common is i either overheard the conversations, or i possibly should have rephrased them. ...you'll figure it out in a bit.

First should be a continuation of my Pisa post. I was just running short on time when I first posted Pisa. Anyway, as i was riding the train alone back to Rome, I woke up to a conversation between two couples in italian. I think one of the couples was actually some nationality other than italian. ...i think that's the only reason i understood the conversation. ...because the italian couple would repeat things sometimes as many as 3 times. The non-italian couple was trying to figure out how to get to St. Peters from Termini (Rome's main train station). In turn, the italian couple responded with "Adesso è San Pietro. Poi Trastevere, e poi Termini." ...lucky for the St. Peter's-seeking couple, the train was stopping at a small station right behind St. Peters. then it was stopping at Trastevere Station. ...Trastevere station?? that's two blocks from my apartment. Nice. I didn't have to deal with buses from Termini to get back home. I just hopped off at Trastevere, and was home less than 5 minutes later.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

i overslept my Italian class on wed. it was all i had to do the whole day, and i missed it. I almost felt worthless, missing my only obligation that day. Today, the moment i walked through the door, she asked where I had been. I'd had a long night. At about 2pm, i felt I needed a nap, or there was no way i woulda made it through my 3:30-5:00 Italian lecture. ...so I took a nap. Right thru Italian lecture. I'd set my alarm for 2:45, but either it never went off, or i was in such a deep sleep that i never heard it. I know i didnt unconsioucly turn it off and fall asleep again, because my alarm was still in the 'ON' position. I woke up at 5:20. I guess i really needed that nap.
"Preferisco non dire" would probably have been a better answer to my professor than "ho dormito lungo...."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"I really wanna shoot a homeless person"... with a camera, for my photography assignment. I was one the tram with Justin, talking about out photography class. We have to put together our 15 best pictures for next week, as our "mid-term" We take use stuff we've already shot, re-shoot pictures if we liked an idea but needed to improve the shot, or shoot new stuff. But whatever we use, somehow we need at least one element in each picture that connects it to the next one. When we were walking to get our film developed on Monday, we passed by a homeless guy, and there was an element of the background that would make the shot a perfect fit in my sequence. I've seem him in the same location a few times, so I hope I can find him there again. ...but to avoid strange looks from people, maybe next time i should make sure there aren't any American students around next time, unaware that we were discussing photography...

Photogenic Shoes

2007-10-17T21:41:00.000+02:00

After a comment i just read in an email from my mom, I've decided to post a picture i shot for this past week's photography assignment. ...I'm also procrastinating in preparation for a presentation i have to give tomorrow. ..But I like to think of it as just "taking a break" ..even though i'm only a quarter of the way done.

Anyway, enjoy:

I Crush Tourists

2007-10-14T22:02:00.000+02:00

...So i obviously went to Pisa over the weekend. I made a day trip on Saturday with most of my roommates. They continued onto Florence for the night and much of Sunday as well. In an effort to save money, i found a train back to Rome from Pisa (I've already seen Florence). The return trip was only €16. Pretty good.

Pisa was nice, but it's definitely just a day thing. Half a day there is perfect. Gives you enough time to shell out €15 to a "non-profit" org. to climb to the top of a tower that should have fallen over so long ago (must be expensive to preserve the tower. All of the other sights in Pisa aren't more than €15 combined). Anyway, i shelled out the €15 and took my touristy pictures. Making fun of some tourists that walked right in the background of my picture, Craig maneuvered to make it look as if I was crushing the tourist, rather than kicking over the tower. I ended up getting the classic pictures as well, but i think crushing the tourist is better than either of the two...

P.S. I'm once again in a phase of lacking posts. So i cheated on the date. More later. ...i hope

MTV influence

2007-10-12T18:06:00.000+02:00

No class today. Friday. So i was doing my daily sudoku in our USA Today. I'm 100% on Mon-Thurs. But i'm about to fall to 2 for 4 on Fridays. I'll take another look at it later. A couple-hour break helped last time.

Anyway, i was distracting myself with some MTV while attempting my sudoku. I looked up from the paper to see this music video. Got me thinking about a lot of things, one being the recurring question of what I'll wind up doing with my camera. I have no idea what I'll be doing or where I'll end up in 10 days or 10 months, let alone 10 years from now. What will I have chosen? For what reasons? ...will I have even chosen by then??

"There was ... Music Still on MTV"

2007-10-11T17:40:00.000+02:00

One of the many great features of Italy is MTV. That might sound more like a taste of home than a European product, but it's not. Music TeleVision in Italy actually shows ...music, believe it or not. And it's not like America where there's music for an hour during the day (most of which is actually talking, and features only 30 seconds of each music video). Here it's always music. ..and 4 MTV channels. MTV hits, MTV Gold, MTV Brand new, and MTV pulse.

Hits and Pulse are almost identical. Brand new is very similar, and Gold is mostly music videos from the 80s and 90s. The only bad thing about watching so much MTV is seeing the same songs too often. Most overplayed song: "Umbrella" (cover) - Vanilla Sky. (check it out on YouTube. It's quite hilarious if you've seen the original by Rihanna)

Other Italian favorites seem to be:
Mika - "Relax, Take it Easy" and "Love Today"
Old Man River - "La"
James Blunt - "1973"
Negramaro - "Parlami D'Amore"
Tokio Hotel - "Monsoon"
Along with many songs i'd heard on the radio in the states before coming to Italia: "Pictures of You"; "Shut Up and Drive"; "Wake Up Call"; "When You're Gone"; "4 in the Morning"; a pair of Nelly Furtado's songs; and of course the original version of "Umbrella," which is only played every 10 songs, rather than every 5 songs like the cover.
(and i'm not exaggerating, at least in reference to the frequency at which the cover is played. Rihanna's original might be a little less often).

for the curious few, this is the song my title came from

....and apparently 4 backstreet boys are back together under the same name....

Buona Notte

2007-10-10T23:59:00.000+02:00

...I should be reading a chapter on Turkey and Iran during the inter-war period, leading up to WWII. But here i sit, typing away.

We had our first "family dinner" tonight. It was the first time all of the roommates sat down and at a meal at our apartment at the same table at the same time. Usually, we're doing our own thing, or pairing up and a couple people will share dinner, but this was the first time with the whole appartamento insieme.

It was more than just the 6 of us though. Gwen joined us, along with her Roman cousin and her cousin's roommate. ...actually, the dinner was originally a return favor from JD and Gwen for the dinner her cousin hosted for them. It gradually turned into a big family dinner. We had a multiple-course dinner. If i didn't know better, i would think i live with a couple of chefs. It was also an opportunity to practice our Italian.

It was mostly a night of listening exercises for me. My Italian is coming along rather quickly. At least the comprehension of the language. It would have taken me a while to piece together a sentence if I'd tried. But I understood more than i expected i would.

Flugtag

2007-10-09T13:01:00.000+02:00

Sunday, Red Bull was hosting their "Red Bull Flugtag" in Rome. If anyone doesn't know what that is - it's exactly like some of the Red Bull commercials, where people are pushing their homemade gliders off a high platform to see how far they can fly. ...Generally, the people wind up plunging almost straight down into the water. ...the occasional few gracefully glide a few meters before meeting the water as well. JD, Gwen, Rob and I went out to watch.

It was fun, but got repetitive. Especially since we were sitting in the sun for about 4 hours. But it taught me a few things:

1) don't trust the weather channel for european forecasts. At about 10:30am i looked online. It was only supposed to get to 73°F and had a 70% chance of rain. The hour-by-hour forecast said light rain starting at 11am and continuing all day long. So i dressed in long-sleeves and pants.

It turned out to be a cycle between mostly sunny and partly cloudy. I felt a grand total of 5 raindrops the whole time. ...and that was while the sun was shining. 73° turned out to be more like 82°. Thanks weather channel. I've learned weathermen are usually wrong, but you couldn't even get a same-day forecast correct. That's impressive.

2) Flugtag gave me a taste for Italian crowds. I still haven't made it out to a soccer game, but i have a feeling for what it might be like. The definitely aren't afraid to express themselves. We arrives about an hour early, and sat on the grass, along with several other groups of people sitting behind us. Very close to launch time for the event, people started stopping and standing on the walkway, right in front of the plot of grass we were sitting on. This drew a series of whistles (like the crowd as a major tennis tournament when they don't agree with a call). The whistles quickly turned into shouting. Eventually some garbage started flying, including someone's mostly-but-not-completely-empty McDonald's milkshake. Eventually a guy from a group behind us got up to tell the few defiant people remaining to move. When they stayed put and gestured for everyone else to stand up instead, a second guy jumped down to the walkway. ...I know italians speak with their hands, but this guy's veins were popping out and he looked like he was about to punch one of the idiots who refused to move. ...eventually, the idiots moved.

3) Europeans still love Baywatch. I already knew this one, but i got to see evidence for it. After the teams sent their glider and a few of their team members into the water, the crowd was asked to shout either "Squalo" or "Baywatch" depending on the teams' performance. Squalo meant a diver in scuba gear, with a giant shark fin attached to his back, would swim out to assist the team out of the water (to the two-note tune from Jaws). "Baywatch" meant the team would be rescued by the boat that would pull glider aside. ..set to the Baywatch theme-song of course.

To break up the sometimes monotonous repetition of gliders falling into the water, there were a few parachuters to entertain the crowd. The first time was a single guy from a helicopter who, after making his descent, made a perfect landing on the reserved plot of grass right along the water. The second show was two pairs of skydivers who each went into formation. After formation, they individually landed on the take-off ramp. 3 of the 4 made perfect landings. The fourth landed on the 2-meter strip of safety net bordering the ramp.

Weekend in Roma

2007-10-07T23:59:00.000+02:00

Armin came to visit Rome this weekend. I had a good college night out, Friday. Went back to a bar i'd been to once before - On the Rocks. The bartenders there are cool. Randomly ran into a couple people from my Italian class, one of whom speaks German. Betsy also speaks danish. The coolest bartender there also happens to be from Denmark. So while the three of us are having a conversation in German, she's ordering drinks/talking to the bartender in danish as well. Quite the international experience.

Sometime after 02:00 we headed out. By 2:30, we wound up at a bar that televises US Sports. Just in time to catch the top of the 9th inning of a great Indians-Yankees game. The bugs were already swarming. But i guess i'd just missed seeing the Indians tie the game at 1-1 in the bottom half of the last inning. The game went 11 innings. Cleveland loaded the bases with two outs in the bottom of the 11th. Hafner worked the count to 3-2. And Lisa comes over to let me know we're leaving. Granted it was 4am by this point, but the game, all 11 innings worth, could be decided on the very next pitch. ..i'm staying to watch this pitch.

Hafner knocked the next pitch into right field. Indians win 2-1. The bar went nuts. The night ended well :-) . Sorry Yankee fans. .....well, not really. Maybe next time you should spend the tiniest fraction of your $200 million on some insect repellent.

I woke up at 9am the next morning to see Rome. My alarm was set for 9:30... so back to sleep i went. I was awake 8 minutes later. ...apparently i only needed 4 hours of sleep...?? I had a decent Kater from the €10.50 i spent the night before. I definitely got my money's worth.

Saturday was my first time inside the Coloseum. We checked out the Palatine Hill first. The ticket for the Palatine covers the Coloseum as well, but since the Palatine is a lot less popular in comparison, we had to wait a minute, as opposed to the 40 minutes the line at the Coloseum ticket window would have taken.

I didn't actually see the Pantheon on Saturday. Rob and i checked that out mid-week a couple weeks ago, since neither of us have class until late-afternoon Mon/Wed. But i thought since i was showing the Coloseum, i could throw up a picture of the Pantheon as well...

What a Crazy World

2007-10-06T19:54:00.000+02:00

At the 44th parallel, the world is approximately 21,400 km around. Which means i'm more than 1/3 of the way around the world from home.

Sometimes people wonder if, somewhere in the world, someone else is doing or thinking the exact same thing at the exact same time. Thanks to the internet, it's possible to find out.
Shout-out to Ron.
Yesterday, I hopped on AIM (AOL Instant Messanger, for the old folks who aren't familiar with the acronym) and was chatting with Ron, who was sitting 7 time zones to the west. Somewhere along the conversation, we made the exact same comment at the exact same time. right down to the second.

Also thanks to the internet, it took me a whole 10 seconds to show Ron a picture 7,625 km away. I remember when it used to take a few hours to download a song. ...shows what generation i'm from. I'm sure some of you reading this are thinking "i remember when songs came on big black discs, about 10 to each side." Nowadays one can fit 1000's in a pocket, thanks to the iPod.

Sometimes I'm not all here...

2007-10-05T02:00:00.000+02:00

No Photoshop involved.
just a dash of creativity and simple knowledge of how to use a camera.

Brilliant!

2007-10-04T11:41:00.000+02:00

I think i've finally figured out the pictures on my blog - why some can be enlarged and not others.. If I center-align the pictures, it seems they cannot be enlarged. but there is no problem with the ones that are left/right aligned. ....To test my hypothesis: a toast to brilliance!

Oktoberfest revisited

2007-10-02T19:55:00.000+02:00

no, unfortunately that doesn't mean i went again.
There are just a couple tidbits I wanted to share that I forgot to mention.

The first bit is just a meal i forgot to include in the giant Oktoberfest story. Saturday in the Augustiner Bierzelt, i enjoyed a delicious Bavarian dish for dinner - Kalbsbeuscherl mit Semmelknödel. ...Veal soup with a dumpling. Tasty.

The second bit could have - and actually would have - been its own entry had i not forgotten to mention the Kalbsbeuscherl. So i'll give it its own title, and you all can pretend it's a separate entry.

Homesick?

I know you'd love to think where this is going, mom, but it's not quite what you might expect. Don't get me wrong, It'd be nice to come home to visit for a weekend, but I'm also thoroughly enjoying my time in Europe.

I'm actually referring to a feeling that set in somewhere along the 11 hour bus trip back and lasted until sometime yesterday evening (until I had an "oh yeah, i'm in Rome" moment and regained my excitement for learning Italian). The best way to describe it would be homesickness. ...but is it possible to be homesick for a place that's not really home?

Germany was such a wonderful experience. I stayed in a home. Enjoyed cooked meals (hot breakfasts). I was in a place where i could understand 95% of what people were saying, rather than only 5%. It was easy to get around, and there was noticeably more of an American influence in Germany than there is in Italy (which is not necessarily a good thing nor a bad thing. ..just that much more of a reminder of home).

So call it what you will. I'm not sure if I can technically be homesick for a place where i've spent no more than 60 hours of my entire life. but that's kind of what it was. All I know for sure is that I can't wait to spend next semester in Germany.

Bilingual Transitions

2007-10-01T20:43:00.001+02:00

It takes at least one conversation for me to adjust to another language:
After a smooth 12.5-13 hour ride from Rome to Florence, thru the rainy/foggy Austrian alps, to Munich, it was time to switch my brain to German mode. My first conversation (to find the cheapest way to get S-Bahn tickets for 4 ppl for 3 days) with the woman in the info. booth at the Hauptbahnhof went reasonably smooth. Only one hiccup. Answering a yes/no question, i nodded my head, "Si."

To confirm this "One-Conversation Theory" of mine:
Upon return to Italy (at 0:30 last night), my first italian encounter was on the bus this morning. I was standing near the middle doors of the bus. My stop was the next one. A man tapped me on the shoulder, "Scendi?" asking me if i was getting off. I turned around and nodded, "ja."

Gemütlichkeit

2007-10-01T17:50:00.000+02:00

First, i need to thank the Tante Peggy Reisebüro for hooking me up with the biggest discount at the most amazing B&B i've ever stayed at.

I also need to thank Uwe and Thea, the owners of the B&B, for the 3 most delicious breakfasts of my entire first month in Europe. And for the shuttle service to and from the Eichenau Bahnhof Friday and Sunday mornings when we were carrying our bags.

please excuse any typos. I've switched the keyboard from italian to german, so i can get my umlauts instead of accents over vowels. The only problem is the german keyboard also switches around the z and y. Im trzing to catch all tzpos, but please excuse the ones i dont correct.

Oktoberfest:
it's all about knowing and meeting the right people.

Friday
Upon arrival in Eichenau, we were starving. Rob, being so cultured, wanted to find a place for a real German breakfast. The best place happened to be our B&B. Thea met us at the station, made some hot tea to warm us up and (not even knowing Rob's desire for an authentic German breakfast) asked if we would be interested in a real Bavarian breakfast. Our eyes lit up, so Thea said she'd be back in 15 minutes to get stuff for breakfest. Feeling guilty that she was going to run out, we asked if there was simply a place we could go buy breakfast, but she insisted. And thankfully so. The Weißewurst mit süße Senf was fantastic.

20 minutes on the S-Bahn. Made our way our way to the Oktoberfest grounds. It was still raining lightly, so the "just follow the masses" plan didnt really work. Twice stopping for directions, we got there with zero wrong turns. I felt like a tour guide. ..except i was only responsible for 3 other people. I guess i need a PR manager..

Arrived at 3:00ish. Walked past a carousel of drunk people. Grabbed a Bratwurst. Didn't notice many lines outside Beer tents. ...and by tents, i mean giant beer halls big enough to hold more than 9,000 people. Headed to the Löwebrau. Saw a crowd of people get let in, so we waited. We were near the front of the line, so we kept waiting... after an hour, someone from the inside came out to say they were completely full. At least by that time it'd stopped raining. So we picked another tent. Spaten. The line outside the Spaten didnt look nearly as long, but not wanting to risk standing at the front of a line for another hour, we grabbed a table outside.

We each had 2 liters. That was plenty to warm us up and put us in good spirits (if we weren't already). Walked around some more. Grabbed ein Bretzel. Had my first and only drunk driving experience. ...i hit a few cars. ...a few hit me. ...i think bumper cars are more fun when everyone is under the influence.

We left the Oktoberfest grounds at 10:00, and found a stand just north of the park selling 1/2 liters of beer. After a brief discussion, we decided to sit down. Good thing we did. We met three really cool Germans: Kai, Nina, and Armin. Armin would turn out to be the key of Saturday's experience.

Saturday
We slept in a little bit. Got up around 10. Had a traditional German breakfast (rolls, pretzels, etc. only with eggs instead of Weißewurst). After delicious breakfast and warm conversation, we finally left for Munich around 1:00. Got to Marienplatz around 1:30. Re-stocked our wallets at an ATM. The two girls were determined to find an H&M. ...not hard, since there were 4 right in the Marienplatz area. While they shopped, Rob and I kept walking, chilled at the foot of the Frauenkirche for a bit. At about 3:00, we decided to go to Oktoberfest to try and actually get in a tent this time. We'd planned on meeting Armin around 4 at the Augustiner.

He was already there when we arrived. But the Augustiner was already full. The girls called him and we met outside the main entrance. He walked us around to one of the side entrances, peering thru the window of door until he found one of the bouncers he knew. The bouncer kinda rolled his eyes when he saw Armin was dragging four people with him, but he let all of us in. Turns out Armin's grandma worked as a server in the Augustiner for 44 years. She's now 75, and this is the first year she's no longer working there. So Armin has connections.

I got to practice even more of my German with the old folks we were sitting next to. They've been coming to Oktoberfest every year for 30 years straight. They left around 7 after downing 13 liters between the three of them. Impressive. Even more impressive is that the only sign they'd had a lot to drink was the old man getting up to pee every hour.

When the two girls we were with went for a toilet break, i joked with Armin that we now had room for ein paar hübsche deutsche Mädchen. (no offense to the American girls, but with the departure of the old folks, i was looking for new company to speak german with). He laughed, but said one was actually her way.

he wasn't kidding. ...eine der hübscheste junge Damen in Deutschland.

Armin lives at least 30 minutes outside Munich, so he left to catch his last train around 11:30. So Kara tried to get us into a club, but both were full. Instead she showed us the city center by night. ...which unfortunately included a stop at McDonalds to satisfy the girls' cravings. It was a goal of mine to avoid McD's my entire time in Europe. ..and i still haven't had a bite. Drunk or not. We left Munich at about 1:30 to make sure we didnt miss the last S-Bahn at 2.

Sunday was a second day of beautiful weather. First time meeting Flora, another great breakfast, goodbyes, and a 12 hour bus ride thru the Alps back to Rome.

Weekend Update

2007-09-27T17:59:00.001+02:00

Titles are tricky. This one is a new post.

This friday is not one of the four Fridays when we have class. Last friday was. So 3 left. I'm taking advangtage of the long weekend and heading to Munich. Bus leaves in 3 hours. ETA in Munich: 15 hours. That's a long bus ride. We should be just getting out of the Alps by sunrise.

But I should also be sleeping. I'll update on Monday with a gorgeous picture if I'm not.

Weekly Update

2007-09-27T17:24:00.000+02:00

time flies. It's been a week since my last post. I dont know where the time went. It's mostly been spent going to class, shooting photography assignments, and eating. ...Romans love to eat.
...and so do I.

A few things about Rome I may not have mentioned yet.

1)

Our apartment houses 6 guys.

And we share a VERY pink bathroom.However, It's always beautifully lit from 10-12 each day.

I took advantage of this and shot last week's still life assignment there. We were supposed to confine ourselves to one area (corner, wall, table, whatever). I chose the vicinity of the sink.

Rome is the global home to scooters.

They're everywhere. They zip around you as if they were flies

and you were a fresh pile of manure.

...careful, don't step in it.

3) No, seriously, watch your step. Romans apparently love dogs. Everyone has one. Being a big city, the almost non-existence of grass means dogs go on the sidewalk or street. and about 95% of Rome doesn't clean up afterwards. ....I hope I don't disappoint anybody by a lack of picture on this one.

4) I go to the bar every morning. for breakfast. Though they also have alcohol, it generally serves the caffè purpose 90% of the time. Wanna go out for drinks, that's a pub.

A Good Piece of Tail

2007-09-20T23:30:00.000+02:00

Eric and I went to dinner with two of the six girls we went out with one of the first nights in Rome. We made our way to the historic section of Trastevere. First restaurant we spotted looked really expensive. We stopped to look at the menu and saw it was relatively cheap. €5-7 per course. Pizzas from €2-4. (note to self: ever want inexpensive pizza, go to Carlo Menta's)

Per Antipasti, I started with the classic Bruschetta. Eric got anchovie fillets. His plate had 8-10 of them, so he was trying to get rid of some. Didnt wanna smell like fish all night. So I tried one. Pleasantly surprised. Much better than i expected. Actually quite enjoyable. So I had a second.

Per Primi Piatti - the house Pasta for me. Penne al Carlo Menta. Was really basic. Penne. Cream sauce. Peas. Good, but not great. Nothing special.

Per Secondi Piatti - a roman tradition: Oxtail for me. Coda alla vaccinara. I didnt know what to expect, but I was excited. I wound up with two large vertebrae on a plate covered in a red sauce. I wasn't really sure how to go about attacking this thing. It's similar to eating ribs, except with a fork, and much more difficult because the bone is shaped like a morbidly obese butterfly. The second one went much easier. Partly because I'd discovered easy spots to cut the meat off around the base; also because it was bigger and meatier so it came off the bone almost effortlessly. Tastes similar to shredded beef. Delicious.

Songs to download when i get home..

2007-09-19T13:12:00.000+02:00

I'm writing this one for my own personal post-it note. If you happened to discover it, congratulations.

"last request" - paolo nutini
"people help the people" - cherry ghost
"when did your heart go missing" - rooney
"delivery" - babyshambles
"shadow of the day" - linkin park
"1973" - james blunt
"la" - old man river
"relax, take it easy" - mika
"love today"
"living darfur" - mattafix
"non siamo soli" - eros ramazzotti
"pictures of you" - the last goodnight
"break the night with colour" - richard ashcroft
"we just don't care" - john legend
"domani" - finley
"everything" - michael buble
"L'immenso" - Negramaro
"da quando sei arrivata tu" - fonosix
"ferro e cartone" - francesco renga
"sognami" - biagio antonacci
"misread" - kings of convenience
"angie" - verdena
"a prescindere" - ?
"apologize" - timbaland
"walking disaster" - sum 41
"rule the world" - take that
"my eyes" - travis
"wall fall down" - bedouin soundclash
"summer teenage girl" - canadians
"on my mind" - da ville
- El Kado

Oh Yeah! ...I'm in Rome

2007-09-18T11:06:00.000+02:00

...Not that I ever really forgot. Or even that it's possible I could forget.

But I was sitting in my Modern Middle East class listening to the British guy explain how Sunni/Shi'a differences are essentially more political than religious. To compare and contrast, he brought up Protestant/Catholic differences. One example was how "the Germans didn't want to pay taxes for that church over there" (pointing out the window).

..That church over there..

This is probably the only time in my life that I'll be able to hear someone nonchalantly refer to St. Peter's as "that church over there."

My Mission: no choice. Must Accept.

2007-09-17T23:37:00.000+02:00

Assignment: 15 pictures.

My first class didnt start until 1530 today. ..but I was up bright and early at 0745. I had to head across 'town' to get my film (and Justin's) turned into slides for Photography. Laid-back Lorenzo - Photo Professor - said Speed Color will get your slides done in a couple hours. After looking up public transport directions, I hopped on the 8 tram, caught the 23 bus, 6 stops and two blocks later I was at Speed Color, slightly NE of St. Pete's, at 845. They open at nine. I wait.

0900: They open the gate. I explain I need slides. They say, Ok. 5pm, they'll be done. ...What?! I attempt to explain I have class at 5, and even worse, Justin has the earlier photography class at 1230. I ask if they can be done by 1130. After some discussion in Italian between the 3 people behind the counter attempting to aid the interlingual coversation, "OK, 1130."

I realized I forgot to look up return directions to get back home. I wandered to try and find the same bus line I came on, but it didnt return the same direction, and I didnt feel like having to complete the whole bus route to get back to where I needed to be. So I walk. Found myself at the Vatican. Remembering we'd struggled to find our way home from here before, I hopped the 870 up to campus, took the 75 down the hill to the 8 tram. Just before getting on the tram I randomly bumped into Justin on street. We agreed to meet at Speed Color at about 1100. I hopped the 8 tram to breakfast. 15 minutes after breakfast I began my 1/2 hour journey back to SC. I got there about 1/4 to 11. Delightful surprise. Slides were already done. Turned out great.

After the 3 hour photography class (5p-8p) I took the bus to the tram to home. I wound up on the tram behind two girls from class. I overheard them discussing their favorite pictures from class. Ego boost. Flat tires, Bicycle, Ivy, Spilled Grapes... 4 of the 8 or so favorites between the two of them turned out to be mine.

Adult Disneyland

2007-09-16T15:11:00.000+02:00

Went with all the roommates plus change to Venice this weekend. It was fun, but I could never live there. Actually, staying in the area for a weekend was enough. Don't get me wrong - great time. But there's a reason the population's been on a continuous decline.

The city smells. Either literally like crap or like bad fish, depending where you are. It's hard to avoid.

The city is expensive. The only thing keeping it afloat is tourism. It's like a disneyland for grown-ups. Everything is overpriced, in an open attempt to rip people off, and we experienced a wide range in service quality. Most places were forgettably decent. Worth noting, though, are the best and worst.

Worst: the no-more-than-half-full place that kicked out the 8 of us after someone had asked (in Italian) if it would be ok if we just sat down for some drinks. One person was also ordering lunch, but when the order of one lunch and a liter of house wine went in, an angry guy, who wasn't our waiter nor the person who'd seated us, came out slamming our menus as he collected them, rudely telling us to leave because we hadn't ordered enough.

Best: we were on a mission to find a place to eat before seeing an amazing €20 performance of Vivaldi's Four Seasons. Earlier we'd walked past this restaurant named after our roommate Rob. "da Roberto's." We happened to come across it again after passing up several other places that were either out of our budget or that didn't have outdoor seating. "da Roberto's" had waiters in white tuxedos providing excellent service and excellent food for about €15-18 after you throw in the cover charge, the service charge (see how Venice gets expensive quick?), and two bottles of wine between 6 people. Not only was it just a fantastic place in general, but after Rob asked if it would be possible to purchase a plate (printed with "da Roberto's" named and logo) , the waiter simply gave him one. free. ...and earned himself an extra €5 tip.

Finding our "hostel" was an adventure. It was back on the mainland, so it required a bus. But we didnt know which stop and wound up going 2 stops farther than we should've. We crossed the street and waited for the bus going the other way. Walked 0.75 km from the correct bus stop down a street that didnt look like it had any hotels/hostels anywhere. Eventually we found the place and our room wound up being more like an 8 bed apartment than a hostel.

Obviously the city is visually beautiful. Most of the highlights are things I didn't experience when I first went with my family 2 years ago. View from atop the bell tower in St. Marks Square, Gondola ride, Vivaldi concerto, "da Roberto's," and the general nighttime atmosphere aided by live performances in St. Marks Square.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_- -_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

On a side note: RyanAir didn't live up to the horror stories I'd read online. It's obvious why the flights are so cheap, but it gets you where you want to go.

Roma Traffic

2007-09-13T13:45:00.000+02:00

At orientation the second day in Rome, one of the school officials was talking about safety.
#2 greatest risk: alcohol
#1 greatest risk: roman traffic

Yesterday morning I woke up at 745 to hit breakfast and make it to a 9am War and Peace in Rome class i was hoping to get into. Well, the class was full, so I got added History of the Modern Middle East instead. Anyway, Mod. Mid. East was this morning at 9, so I left my alarm set for the same time.

This morning I woke up to either a bus or ....the tram (it just ran by - it's a little louder than the buses. it was the tram). looked at my clock: 723. ..too early. back to sleep.

Later I wake up to the standard "Beep Beep" of a scooter honking - likely swerving its way thru traffic or honking because someone didnt notice the light was green. (This seems to happen at every other intersection.) I look at my clock. 842. $#!% ...turns out, since i hadn't touched my alarm since i woke up the day before and didn't have to reset it, I forgot to turn it on. I was showered, dressed, had contacts in and clean teeth by 848. Caught the #8 tram to the 44 bus. 44 bus up the hill to campus. Climbed up to the (european) 3rd floor (which means the 4th) and was in class by 905. The Professor (with such an ideal English accent that he really should be narrating a show on PBS or doing an interview for the history channel) had literally just started class. So I missed absolutely nothing, and it's all thanks to the #1 greatest risk in Rome.

(and don't worry mom, I caught breakfast after class)

Mario's

2007-09-11T23:04:00.000+02:00

Remember Mario's? Return to "Welcome to Rome." ...now you remember. Eric and I went with six girls to Mario's. Mario's is a fairly "cheap" restaurant recommended by a res. grad. (one of a few 4-year AUR students who help out study abroad students). Amazing house wine. Smoothest wine i've ever tasted. 2 courses, plus bread and 2 liters of wine. ..well strike that, not everyone had two courses. I had two courses, bread, and 4 glasses of wine. ..or was it 5. Anyway. €10 for 2 liters of delicious wine. ...I must return to Mario's.

The only hiccup in the evening was when we got the bill and it read €159.50... It seemed a bit high, even for 8 people. Especially since Eric and I were the only ones who got 2 courses (not counted the 3 girls who got Bruschetta). We noticed the bill was way too high when people were rounding up what their meal should've cost, and we were still only at €105. We asked the waitress. she re-added it up... €89.50. MUCH better. ..and great wine.

I should've ordered the fish...

2007-09-11T08:30:00.000+02:00

Yesterday was a day of rest. ...not because it was Sunday, but because I was on my feet/out and about for 15 of 17.5 hours between 11:30am and 5:00am the day before. ...in between - an hour and a half nap.

Slept in til half past noon. The rest of the day was spent discussing travel options and starting this blog. On the menu so far: Venice this weekend, Oktoberfest the last weekend it's running, and an AS Roma game sometime between now and the end of October.

Justin, Rob, and I hit up breakfast this morning. It's included with our housing. Just around the corner. The woman behind the counter was explaining the options. We all got a version of a croissant. I asked for fruit for the 2nd option. She listed them: "apple, (something that sounded like) pish (like 'fish' with a 'p.' I thought she said something in italian), and banana." I got the apple. When we went to sit down, Justin goes "the second one was peach, in case you didn't catch it." Good to know, cuz I had no clue. We joked thru the meal about how i should've ordered the fish for breakfast. We were laughing until we were about cry.

Today was the first day of classes. ...and my monday schedule it rough. ...all of the classes I'm in have a lecture on Monday. I go straight thru from 14:00-20:00. Latin, Italian, and 3 hours of photography. I thought the latin would help with italian. ...instead, i think it'll just confuse me, so i might drop it and pick up another class.

La Notte Bianca 8.9.07

2007-09-09T21:59:00.000+02:00

We woke up later than we intended - about 10:30. So Rob, JD, Eric and I caught our first meal at the free barbeque on campus at 11:15. After, Rob and I went to see more of Rome, heading north of campus thru the park on top of Monte Gianicolo where we caught this view of Rome:

We headed thru the shaded streets of the park, eventually heading down the north side of the hill to the Vatican. We checked out the Vatican. There's constantly running fountains all over Rome for drinking water. I was constantly filling my water bottle. I bought it from a vending machine on campus for €0.30 ...really makes the $1.00+ bottles in American vending machines look even more like a rip-off.

We waited at the Vatican to meet JD, Gwen, her roommate Lisa, and the rest of our roommates. It was taking forever. Apparently they got lost. The good news is Rob and Eric have cell phones over here, so we knew they weren't coming for a while. We took that time to check out the Castel Sant'Angelo area. The castle itself was €7 to get in. Since it was free later that night, we just walked along the river and back to the Vatican.

Starting at 20:00 was La Notte Bianca, where many museums are free and open all night, concerts go on all around the city, bars and streets are flooded with people. Rob's cousin who lives in Rome said an estimated 2 million people were expected for La Notte Bianca.

"Meet us at the left side of the Vatican"
"Where's that?"
"You know where you're walking towards the Vatican? ...it's on your left."

Finally we met the crew, we went back home to take a nap and gear up for a long night on the town. Public transportation was packed all night. We (everyone who'd met at the Vatican) piled into a bus like sardines and explored Castel Sant'Angelo for our first stop. From there, we worked our way thru overly-crowded streets across the city thru Piazza Navonna to the Trevi fountain, making an occasional pit-stop for beer to-go. After meeting the rest of Gwen's roommates and 2 of our own leaving, it was down Via del Corso to Piazza Venezia where tons of people were watching a live feed on a big screen of a concert that was going on in the forum. Nobody was moving, but eventually we made around the side of the forum. 3 of Gwen's roommates were dead-set on finding a bar (likely because they're 20, and they can finally drink legally here). The rest of us preferred taking in the experience on the streets.

JD made the best point of the night. We can grab a beer and legally walk the streets with it. "There's two million people here. This is the biggest bar we've ever been to." No need to find one to sit in.

We wandered the streets the rest of the night, eventually stuggling to find our way back home.

We finally made it to the 8 tram (which runs right down the street we live on). I thought we were packed like sardines on the way out. The ride back was so crowded, you could barely move your limbs. ...if there were pick-pockets on the tram, they might have gone home empty handed for the simple rest of not being able to move their arm enough to grab anything.

It was 5am when we finally made it back to our place.

Come si dice "Man-up"?

2007-09-08T08:59:00.000+02:00

It's well-known that the hot water in Italy doesn't last long. The two guys who showered yesterday said the water got room temp at best, and only lasted a minute.

This morning I turned the water on. . . . Ice cold. I waited a minute. . . . still ice cold. absolutely no improvement. So I thought to myself, "man-up. just do it."

Water on.

Got wet. might have been 10 seconds. felt like 15 seconds. ...could have been as quick as 5.

Water off.
Soap up. Shampoo.
Water on.

Rinse. Probably another 15 seconds. Felt like 45.

Water off.
Shiver.
Dry-off.
Shiver more.

The water temp never changed. Boiler turned on? Yup. So we called the repair man. Turns out our boiler was broken (each individual apt. has their own). Showers have been great since.

We found a supermarket a couple blocks away. Grabbed the essentials. Detergent. TP. Paper towels. I grabbed 2 boxes of pasta. €0.39 each. Jar of sauce. €0.70. Paper towels are on me. €1.65. Total spent on the first trip to the supermarket: just over €3. Nice.

Later, using the few italian phrases I've learned so far, I went to the tiny shop below our apartment that sells pastas, meats, and cheeses. I wanted a good cheese for my pasta, but staring at the displays, i couldn't see any parmesean, so it was time to start asking the man behind the counter.

1st Question: Parla inglese?
- - - a little.

a few seconds of hesitation: i think i can do this in Italian.
: vorrei...
- - Vorrei? (he seemed surprised. ..like, you just asked me if i speak english. Now you're speaking italian, not english).
: Vorrei un buona formaggio ....uh.... per pasta.

He turned around to the shelf behind him - probably why i didnt see the parmesean - grabbed a block of it. Broke off a piece and had me taste it.
- - Bene?
: Si, Bene!

He took out his knife and sized it up in several different spots to ask how much I wanted. He took a guess with his knife and asked
- - Bene?
The shape made a good sized wedge - bigger than the small triangles you buy in the dairy section back in the states.
: Si
He sliced off my chuck, weighed it, printed off the price, wrapped it in paper, and gave it to me to take to the register (which basically means I had to turn around. Small store).

Label read Parmesean Reggiano. That's the "high-class" stuff. Even more expensive back home. €4.50 I paid about 1/2 price and got more cheese than what you'd typically buy in the states. Good stuff. gotta love Italy.

Eric and I made pasta for dinner while the other guys went out to eat again. Topped off our pasta with the newly purchased cheese. Tasty.

JD, Gwen, Rob, and I went out exploring the city, making our way over to Circo Massimo, because it was all lit up for La Notte Bianca.

Circo Massimo from one end

Circo Massimo from the side

We came back hungry just after midnight, so I started to boil some water to make the rest of the pasta I'd bought. After the water was boiling, Gwen took care of it the rest of the way.
- - - €0.39 and I don't have to cook it? Thanks for my food? No, Thank you Gwen! You can cook our dinner any time. - - -

Welcome to Rome

2007-09-07T08:59:00.000+02:00

I have no idea how long the flight was, but I got into Rome somewhere around 9:45 local time. I grabbed my bags and found the table to meet reps. from AUR. Inside 10 minutes, I was in a van with 4 other guys. One by one (well, actually 2 at one stop) they were dropped off at their apartments. When I was to only one left in the van, we went to caompus to pick up my other 2 roommates who'd been in Rome for 1 & 3 days each, along with JD's girlfriend and Rob's cousin.

Roommates (part one):

I room with JD. He's from the Philly area, goes to Penn State. His girlfriend, Gwen, is also studying here for the semester. Easy to get along with. He'd be a great guy if he wasn't from Penn State. ...did I mention there's a bit of a friendly Big Ten rivalry in our room? (I think he's just jealous of Wisconsin's #5 ranking - though after just squeezing by UNLV, i think i'll pull back a little on the trash-talk we've been dishing back and forth.)

Rob is from Atlantic City. He has Italian born parents and a bunch of family in southern italy and a cousin in Rome.

After we got settled in our apartment, Rob's cousin took us around Trastevere. We ate a typicaly slow italian lunch at a place we found while exploring the neighborhood. A small beer, bruschetta, pizza or pasta, and espresso all for €10. Pizza was more food, so i went with that over the pasta. Took the leftover 1/2 back to our fridge. I didnt realize it at the time, but that was my 3rd time having pizza out of 4 meals.

Roommates (part two):

Eric - from Minneapolis, goes to Boston College
Justin - from St. Louis
Craig - from Upstate NY

In the evening, we met up with a bunch of other study abroad students @ campus for a walking tour - we thought just of Trastevere - to find the best places to dine, drink, and enjoy gelato. Jay - one of the 4-year students leading the tour - pointed us to his favorite restaurant - Mario's. After crossing the river, going thru Campo di Fiori, Piazza Navonna, and passing the Pantheon, we realized we were only going farther and farther away. Eric and I decided to turn back and try to find Mario's where we were supposed to meet the rest of the crew who'd turned back earlier to go to our apartment to try and meet Rob (who was out with his cousin). Initially, we had an hour and a half to meet them at Mario's. By the time we got to that area, only 20 of that initial 90 minutes remained. so we skipped Mario's and after unsuccesfully hunting for a place with Paninis, I settled on pizza ......for a 4th time in 5 meals.

We eventually met the rest of the roommates and enjoyed the first night in with a few cold beers on the steps of a fountain in Piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere.

Departure

2007-09-05T20:45:00.001+02:00

Chicago - 11:45 am Central

After a 3 hour drive and saying goodbye to my parents, I walked thru the door of Terminal 2 at O'Hare. After finding my gate, it was time to find lunch. I passed up several $10 lunch options, finally settling on a decent airport meal at Pizzeria Uno for $5.

...didn't know it then, but pizza wasn't exactly the best choice.

Philly - 5:00 pm Eastern

After a smooth, fairly spacious flight to Philly, I had no more than one hour to get to the other side of the airport. ...and I was hungry against - it was sorta dinner time. I think i was already losing my sense of time. I found my gate. McDonalds was staring me in the face right across from my gate. That was the last thing I wanted, so I headed all the way back toward the beginning of concourse F where I'd passed a food court. Most of it was more fast food and ice cream. I guessed I had no more than 20 minutes to get back to the gate.. I picked the shortest line ...more pizza. After eating quick, I made my way all the way to the end of the concourse where my gate was. By the time I got back, they were 1/2 was done boarding. But my section didnt board until the very end, so no worries.

US Airways - Somewhere over the Atlantic.
Time: ...i've lost all sense of time by this point

I had an aisle seat in the middle section of the plane - 4 seats across the middle. At the other end sat a seasoned visitor to Italy. She'd been to Italy several times already. Once upon a time, she supposedly turned her 6 week trip into almost a year-long visit. It looked like she was on an AARP tour. There were a ton of gray heads in the few rows behind and in front of me.

Next to the seasoned traveler sat beautiful Miss Hawaii. ...well, not really, but she could have been. She was headed to Siena for a semester and had her Italy travel book out, picking out cities she wanted to visit. The seasoned traveler suggested the "small Tuscan towns." I nearly choked on my in-flight dinner when Miss Hawaii responded with, "Now... where would they be."

- - Maybe it was her traveling for 10 hours longer than I had been (having flown from Hawaii to Phoenx to Philly and now onto Rome) that was getting to her head. ...or maybe Miss Teen South Carolina should get Miss Hawaii a map.. - -

But the seasoned traveler didn't seem rattled or surprised. She simply responded with a kind "Look in your book under Tuscany."
- - - Who woulda thought. Tuscan towns are in Tuscany. ...since when?? - - -

After going in and out of sleep for the rest of the flight, I finally heard the captain say we've begun our descent and we'd be landing in just under an hour. At this point, I was awake for good. One of the AARP travelers across the aisle tapped me on the shoulder and commended me on the amazing job I did sleeping thru the flight. He sounded like he wanted to begin a quest for the fountain of youth; he "didn't sleep a wink" What can I say? I like to sleep. and I'm good at it.

Let's Start at the Beginning

2007-09-05T20:00:00.000+02:00

I already feel like I'm retelling the same story, and I've only talked to like 5 people. So to save my breath, ...or fingers, and to aid my memory, my stories will be found here.

...It's actually Sept. 9, but i've cheated and edited the date so the rest of my stories up til now have the right date on them.