Boycott Shampoo - Demand Real Poo!!

Oh yeah, that's right.

2007-03-06T15:50:00.000-07:00

Picture of my Kitler

2007-02-27T23:04:00.000-07:00

2007-02-20T18:59:00.000-07:00

I hate the fact that, whenever I have lots of stuff to do, I can't bring myself to do anything at all.

2007-02-19T22:03:00.000-07:00

I love it when someone writes down their email address and then makes it a specific point of telling you that "it's all lower case".

To make matters worse, though, some guy gave me his email address, then wrote the usual caveat, but with one slight change: "all lower class letters".

2007-02-13T21:34:00.000-07:00

Let's set the record straight: there is no such word as 'alot.'

It's 'a lot.'

2007-02-05T20:59:00.001-07:00

I got a package from Japan today.

Did you get a package from Japan today?

No, I didn't think so.

2006-12-05T16:28:00.000-07:00

So, at this point I'm sure that no one is even checking this blog regularly, and I'm okay with that, but it was pointed out to me a while ago that, for the amount that I talk about Olivier, there are surprisingly few pictures of him on here. So, to dispell rumours that he doesn't exist, here is my favourite picture of the 2 of us (taken at the controller.controller show, picture downloaded from their website) :

I never wanted to try the wine

2006-11-15T19:15:00.000-07:00

Alright, so Olivier lived at the end of a pretty main thoroughfare in Munich and there were shops most of the way along the tram route. My favourite of them was this one: Yes, Wein means wine. And Ass is, technically speaking, ace; but I assure you that in the mind of an English-speaker, this will always be translated to Ass Wine, not Ace Wine.

I guess they've been serving up Ass Wine for 20 years. Congratulations!

And they even have a truck. Which boasts that the Ass Wine is from Italy. Oooohhhh... I'm impressed. I really loved this store. It was funny every single day.

An insensitive post?

2006-11-05T21:28:00.000-07:00

On my last day in Munich, I finally decided to take a picture of an ad that was in the U-Bahn station at Studentenstadt. It is an ad for a foundation that helps people with brain and spinal cord damage live a more normal life.

I found this ad extremely funny. Not so much because I think the content is funny, but because this was really as big as a billboard. Here is a picture of Katie standing in front of it:

This kid is HUGE!! I'm sorry if it's insensitive of me, but it's hilarious because this kid is frickin' gigantic!

Yeah, other than that... I got back all 5 of my midterms and I rocked them! I have another one coming up on Wednesday again. Fortunately, it's not that I have another round coming up, it's just an isolated exam. That is a great thing because, even though I rocked the first round of exams, I haven't done a whole lot of studying since then, so I'm effectively 2 weeks behind in all of my classes. I'll have to pull up my socks and get to work this week. Ugh.

Anyways, that's all I really have to say right now. I'm pretty sick of studying, which is hilarious because I've done so little of it recently, but... I guess I gotta get back to not studying for the next 15 minutes when Desperate Housewives starts, then I'll take a break.

While I'm still in the Dutch swing of things...

2006-10-24T22:26:00.000-06:00

We went out to dinner at a really amazing Japanese place while we were in Holland. They provided us all with Kimonos. They did this because part of the show was shooting eggs at us. Wait, that makes it sound bad. The chef scrambled some eggs, then flipped a bite-sized piece at each of us to see if we could catch it in our mouths. Keith was the first to go - and thank god for that! I say that because of course the chef did this without telling us what he was doing and I for one know that I wouldn't have figured it out! It only took Keith one shot and then he realized it and caught the second one... or maybe it was the third one, but he figured it out after the first one - of that I'm sure!

Anyways, it was really awesome entertainment and the food was great. Anyone know if there is anywhere like this in Edmonton? I've heard that maybe the Japanese Village, but I don't know for sure. Anyone?

A shout out

2006-10-23T22:48:00.000-06:00

I've been meaning to give a shout out to my relatives in Holland for a while now. Especially since two of them have commented on here! (Yes, I did notice, I just haven't been great at posting here.) So here's my shout out to the van Heuven family - especially to Rob and Marieke. And in honour of this occaision, I will post another funny photo that was taken in Holland; this is the weirdest (but possibly the tastiest) club sandwich I have ever eaten:

Funny Picture

2006-10-22T21:58:00.000-06:00

I took this picture at a bar in Darmstadt (a town outside of Frankfurt). I think these guys are supposed to be pointing... but it looks like something else to me!

Also, I wanted to say that my folks' 29th anniversary is today, and congratulations to them. Dad took us all out to a restaurant we have never been to called Unheardof. It was really, really good! A touch on the expensive side, but you really do get a great meal for your money.

On Bag Boys

2006-09-24T17:35:00.000-06:00

Hey all! Or should I say: Hello anyone who is actually still reading this thing after I virtually stopped posting on it. I apologize for my pathetic showing in recent weeks. I honestly think of things on almost a daily basis that I want to post about, but then I forget about it later or else I get too busy. Oh, well, whatever. Sorry, that's all.

I do have a story to tell, though, that happened to me earlier this week.

My house runneth over with plastic grocery bags. I don't really mind this; I think they are useful. We as a household actually probably use more than most because we have scoop the cat litter every single night (sometimes in the morning, too, depending how picky our cats are being that particular week) so it's always good to have lots, but I noticed exactly how many we had and I thought that I would try and be environmentally-friendlier and bring my own bags with me when I headed out to Safeway later in the evening. Moreover, these weren't just old plastic bags, these were cotton tote bags that I brought home from Germany. Cotton bags that are basically for the purpose of carrying groceries.

I get to the counter and tell the cashier that I would rather put my groceries in these here cotton bags instead of the normal plastic bags. She calls a bag boy. I tell her it isn't necessary, but she says it's no problem. So the bag boy shows up and she hands him my bags. There are about 3 or 4 bags inside of one bag, making a total of 5 cotton bags. She says quickly that I would like my groceries in cotton bags instead and starts scanning though my purchases. He looks confused, and thinks for a minute; trying to put his finger on what's going on. Finally he opens up a plastic bag and puts my cotton bags inside of it. I stopped him and explained to him what was going on. He still seemed confused, even as I was walking out of the store.

I wasn't sure whether to laugh or stand there with my mouth hanging open while shaking my head. I think I kind of ended up doing a mix of both.

Some things are just better with brother

2006-09-15T15:59:00.000-06:00

These pictures were taken in Holland:

Allow me to explain, just in case this isn't really clear: I noticed this jewellery store called "Has Gold," but when I looked in the display window, I found that it was completely empty. (I can't remember if they were out of business or were just closed for the day, but that's not really the point, now is it?) The irony of this left me completely at a loss for words, but when I grabbed my brother's sleeve and pointed it out he found the perfect words in my place: "You mean Had Gold!!"

Man, I love that guy sometimes.

Not to be confused with that other store...

2006-09-10T22:07:00.000-06:00

I've decided that, now that I seem to be able to post pictures just fine, I should go back and fill in the blanks. I will try and diligently post pictures that I took and never got around to posting; some will be funny (at least I think they are) and some will be serious. Now I just have to be diligent...

Post Number 100!!

2006-09-05T22:39:00.000-06:00

I figured I'd hit this mark a lot sooner, but I figured that back in January when I was posting every other day. Still, it's a milestone.

I just realized that I haven't posted anything even after I said that I would still post on here. So here's a little update:

School starts tomorrow. I'm pretty darn excited, actually. As much as I hate school, I am excited to get this, my last year, over and done with. I am also yearning to be productive. The bottom line is that this year in Germany was sort of like an awesome, year-long vacation. I attended classes, but they were not as work-intensive as the classes here in Canada - especially the third- and fourth-year classes I'm taking! Anyways, I'm excited.

Ashley and I got a pedicure tonight. I love getting pedicures! It was Ashley's gift to me for coming home because she's such a good friend who knows how much I love them. We got French pedicures, which means, for all you men out there, instead of getting the whole nail painted in a colour we just got white painted on the tips and then a clear polish all over. I love it because my toenails look so clean.

There are also two stories about my coming home that should be told, and I feel a little bad that I didn't mention them before as they were such well thought out ideas and the responsible folk deserve props. So get ready to give them up:

First story: Ashley told me at the airport that she had left me a welcome home card on my bed. When I got there I realized that was a deception, to say the least! Here's what there was:

Guess how many balloons there are? There are exactly 99 red balloons. That's just plain funny. Very, very well done if you ask me.

Second story: After reading my post back in March about why I always wanted to visit Bari, Italy, my mom decided to help me out. She designed and had made for me 10 notepads that say "From The Desk of Bari Pulles" on the top. She had them waiting for me in a gift bag at the airport when I arrived. It was very sweet. And hilarious. But more sweet than anything.

Okay, that's all for now. There is still more, I promise, but maybe not for a bit. We'll see.

Really Real Dreams

2006-08-29T21:40:00.000-06:00

I must have had one of those dreams in the last few days, that was so real. I say this because I got on the computer today and was completely surprised that there wasn't a new post on my blog. I was sure I had written one! Then I thought about it some more and realized that I, while I have this memory of typing up a post, I don't actually remember what it was about at all, so it's entirely possible that it was just a dream.

I just wanted to let everyone know that I am back in town now, and am in the process of trying to unpack everything. This wouldn't be so hard, except that I can't even believe how much crap I left behind! There is absolutely no space to put the stuff I took with me to Germany - let alone the stuff that I picked up while I was there! Honestly, from the amount of stuff that is here in Edmonton, you'd think that I left with just my passport and plane ticket. So, I am in the process now of trying to sort everything out; giving clothes to Goodwill and making a box of knickknacks for a garage sale (mom's idea, I don't know if she means that we are having a GS, or if the church is going to have one), plus I have to dust everything! It's really, tremendously dusty around here, but that's what you get when you have 4 litter boxes in the house (not my choice). I also wanted to let everyone know that I am going to try and keep up the blog for the next little while. There are plenty of stories that I have that never got told, and TONS of pictures that I wasn't able to post. I'm going to try my best, but I'm also starting school again in a week, so you might have to be patient.

Okay, I'm going to bed now. I can't believe how early I get tired these days!

Phew!

2006-08-22T10:20:00.000-06:00

Well, I don't know how many people thought of my safe return home when the whole mess in London happened a couple weeks ago, but I did, and here's why: I'm flying British Airways through London. Now, I didn't think that they would close down the airport or anything, but I got really concerned about how it would affect luggage, both carry-on and checked.

See, I have known for a long time that I have too much stuff to bring back in just 2 suitcases; not only have I bought some stuff here, but my folks sent me a package at Christmas and brought me almost a full suitcase when they came, so there was never a question - it just wasn't going to fit. Now, I know I procrastinate, but I'm actually really good about thinking ahead with most things, so when I was at the airport in March, after returning from Rome, I swung by the British Airways desk and asked them about the rules. The lady told me that they hadn't changed their baggage laws like some companies have; I am still allowed 2 pieces of luggage that each weigh 32kgs. And bringing an extra piece of luggage is also no problem, it will cost me, but no more that it would cost to mail the crap back to Canada! And I don't have to let them know ahead of time - just show up and tell them at check-in.

Well, with all the messiness going on in Heathrow, I figured it was best to check the web to see what they had to say. Apparently, I am allowed to have a computer case, which is really good because I was freaking out about that (I did NOT want to put my laptop in my checked luggage!), but that's IT!! No extra bag, no purse; just the computer bag. Even that's okay, it was the computer that I was worried about, and I'm allowed to put other things in the computer bag like my wallet. What freaked me out was that they changed all the baggage laws! Suddenly, I'm not allowed to have 2 bags of 32kgs, now I'm only allowed to have 2 that are 23kgs! I was so choked! But then I kept reading and found out that those news rules only come into effect on October 11, 2006. I am so relieved.

It was probably 20min between reading the new rules and finding the current ones, so I wasn't stressed out for long, but I was very stressed out for those 20 minutes! Everything is all set for my return on Friday/Saturday and I am sooooo excited!

The clock is ticking...

2006-08-18T18:40:00.000-06:00

It’s funny how a person can be used to going to bed at a certain time every night and waking up at a certain time every morning and then one night of staying up till 4:00am screws the whole thing up!

So, I have been to and returned from France. It was wonderful. I got to spend 2 weeks in the south of France, right at the base of the Pyrenees just outside the town of Lourdes. It is an… interesting town. A town of about 20,000 people who play host to, like, 4 million visitors every year. Needless to say, the entire town can be summed up like this: store, hotel, store, hotel, store, hotel. Still, it has its charm, which mostly lies in the fact that the backdrop is mountains and they have a castle.

I also got to meet my schatzy’s family and friends and see where he grew up. Plus, he had to work every morning, so I got to sleep late and get up at a leisurely pace. I got lots of reading and relaxing done in the mornings and then I got to spend the afternoons with Olivier and his brother and sister. They have a pool you know. That was great too. I was very relaxed and happy, but I’m sure he was very tired and stressed out since he didn’t get those coffee and novel mornings. Poor boy. That reminds me, I read the book “Life of Pi” by Yann Martel at the beginning of the trip and it was amazing! I highly recommend it to anyone.

Okay, so, just so everyone is in on my schedule, I leave Munich one week from today (Friday, August 25th) and arrive in Edmonton at 12:45am on Saturday. Just to clarify for everyone, that means 45min after midnight on Friday night or Saturday morning, depending how you look at it. Since I am dying to see everyone again, I am having a coming home party, which will be a mirror of the going away party that I had. The party will be held at Rosario’s (11715C - 108Ave) on Saturday, August 26, 2006. We told them “between 8:00 and 9:00,” so how about I show up shortly after 8:00, but you all don’t have to come until 9:00? Everyone who reads this blog is invited, and if you can think of anyone who doesn’t read it who would like to come, please pass on the message.

I hope to see you all there! I am starting to get really homesick and want to see everyone so bad!

I can't even believe how fast the time is passing!

2006-07-31T04:23:00.000-06:00

I know it's been a while since I wrote, but things have been really crazy around here.

I finished my classes on Wednesday, and have spent a fair amount of time running around and trying to get certificates for everything (have I mentioned how much I do not like the German system!). Then, on top of that, Olivier had to be out of his place at 10:00 a.m. this morning, so we've been trying to pack him up and get his place clean. We finally got everything done and now all of his crap is added to all of my crap in the smallest apartment of all time!

It's almost all over, though. I only have to get 2 of my certificates stamped, which I wanted to do today, but had some problems with my bike, so now I'll go tomorrow. Olivier is, as I'm typing this, writing is exam. He only has one, but it sums up all 12 hours a week of classes that he had, so it's a big deal!

I have to work tonight, but then all of us from the speech lab are going out for drinks as an end of the year party. Tomorrow I have to get those things signed, pack for France (!), and go to work, then Olivier and I are going back to his apartment to have dinner with his old roommates. Then we go to bed, wake up and get on a plane! Then it's two weeks in France, then back here for about a week - then it's back to CANADA!!!! Who could believe that?!

Well, to wrap things up I have two things to say:
1. That story about my earring was interesting, so screw you J! (whoever you are.)
2. I accidentally put cinnamon in my spagetti sauce today... I don't recommend ever doing it on purpose!

One Crazy Coincidence

2006-07-17T07:38:00.000-06:00

Saturday night Olivier made me dinner. It was kind of an excuse to use up some leftovers, so he fried up a couple of shallots, half a yellow pepper and an egg and then added some pasta with a garlic sauce that we hadn’t finished a few days before. We each took a first serving and started eating. I finished my last bite of noodle and looked into my bowl. There was something there. I took a closer look. I picked it up and wiped off the egg. It was a small silver ball. It was the ball from my earring that I had lost on Monday morning!!!

I freaked out, of course, as did Olivier, and we tried to figure out how this earring ball, which I had considered lost, got into my pasta – SIX DAYS LATER!

The way I lost the ball was that I was standing in Olivier’s room on Monday morning talking to Eddy and Olga, who had come from Frankfurt on Sunday and needed a place to stay since they had a flight out of Munich on Monday at noon. Olivier was in the shower and the three of us were eating breakfast. Eddy was talking and I was spinning the ball in the earring around, which I often do. Suddenly, the ball popped out of the earring, hit a plate (as evidenced by the “ping” that we all heard) and then it was gone. The three of us looked everywhere for it at the time, and Olivier looked around for it later on, but to no avail; I assumed it lost.

So how did it get into my dinner on Saturday night? I bet you’re thinking it was in the pasta, right? Wrong. Olivier suggested it was in the pepper, since I had used it a few days before for a salad. But I ruled that out right away because I personally sliced it into small pieces for the meal, and we bought it after I lost the ball, so I knew it wasn’t in there. It wouldn’t have been in the egg, because that would have been a miracle. Do you want me to spit it out yet, or what? Okay, here’s the answer: it was in the butter. We had the butter on the table on Monday morning for breakfast and it must have landed there after that first bounce. Then, when Olivier fried up the shallots and peppers, he just cut off a slice of butter and threw it into the pan.

Mystery solved. And I have a complete earring again. Solving problems is fun and rewarding!

This'll be quick

2006-07-05T06:57:00.000-06:00

Okay, I have to get going but I feel obliged to update.

Olivier and I threw a Canada Day party on Saturday. It was really funny because Erika and I were the only two Canadians! It was still fun and successful, though.

We are cheering for France in the World Cup, so we were really happy that Italy won yesterday. But once they did, I realized that I feel bad that Germany isn't in the final. Who knew I really felt that way?

Afterwards, we went to a concert. And it was a really good show. And we got one of the set lists. And then we started talking to the keyboardist and he got it signed by all the members. Then he got us each a beer. And I found 10€ on the ground. It was a good night.

Which was good because it took my mind off the fact that mom called on Monday night and told me that my Grampa died this weekend. I'm actually doing okay with it, though. I'm sad I can't be at the funeral, but I knew this was a very real possibility before I left Canada. I'm doing okay, really.

Okay, I'm out.

The funny thing about crazy people...

2006-06-22T06:39:00.000-06:00

There are actually 2 funny things about crazy people:
1. They're everywhere.
2. They are similarly crazy everywhere.

For example, today I was waiting for my U-Bahn, while blowing on my cup of coffe to cool it down. You know how when you do something like this, you look at the ground, usually at about a 45 degree angle, but not really focussing on anything? Well, that's exactly what I was doing and there happened to be a sweet little dog in my line of vision. I would occaisionally focus on the dog and think about how cute he was; he looked just like a lab, but was so small. I have no idea if there is such thing as a toy lab, but if there is, that's what he was because he would have barely come up to my knees. Anyways, the dogs owner stands up, looks right at me, yells something about how I should get a dog of my own to stare at and then storms off before I could even figure out what was going on. It was really bizarre. And all I could think, is how crazy people in Edmonton act exactly the same way. I was also very surprised because people in Munich seem very proud of their dogs, and who gets mad when someone looks at their dog?!

On a different note, welcome Kathrin, my newest reader! A quick translation for my non-german-speaking-peeps back home: Kathrin says that she stumbled upon my blog a while ago and loves reading it! She is a student of the LMU, too, and finds it really interesting to see the familiar things (like naked people in the English Garden) through the eyes of a foreigner. She also says that she has been keeping her eyes open for me on campus, but no luck yet. This explains Hannah's comment about how crazy it would be if she actually saw me and one day and approached me. I think it would be awesome. Good luck, Kathrin, and you're lucky that I've started writing again; it was pretty boring for a while there!

FKK = Frei Körper Kultur

2006-06-21T09:59:00.000-06:00

Frei = Free
Körper = Body
Kultur = Culture

Germany has this thing called FKK. What do they mean by “free body culture,” you ask? Well, they have things like pools and beaches and saunas that are called “FKK beaches/pools/saunas/etc.” Still not getting it? Fine, it means that you can be naked in public. There, I’ve said it.

There are even some public parks where you can be naked, from what I’ve heard. This includes the English Garden, which is a huge stretch of grass, some 5km long, which pretty much begins right behind the Studentenstadt. Now, I say that I’ve heard you can be naked there, but what I really mean is, I’ve heard that the English Garden is actually labeled an FKK zone. Regardless of whether it is allowed or not, people are naked there, and that’s just the way it is. No one enforces the law if it isn’t an FKK area.

Olivier and I went for a picnic on Saturday in the Garden. There was an extremely naked old man just walking around. It was hilarious. He wasn’t wearing anything but sunglasses. And he was very evenly tanned, so we assume he does this often. I also, from where we were, couldn’t see any hair on him… at all. ‘Nuff said. I was talking to a British guy in one of my classes and he was also shocked by this naked freedom. He said that he and some friends were trying to play soccer and this old naked guy kept walking around the field. He said the guy was playing naked badminton with a friend. Who plays naked badminton??!! I guess it’s not my place to judge. And it was so hot, that by the end of the picnic, Olivier and I were both down to our underwear, so maybe they have things figured out here in Munich.

Other than that, not much is new. I find it very, very hot here. I am constantly sweating. Take this morning, for example. It was 8am and Olivier and I were on our way to the first class of the day. It’s not that hot at 8am, right? Then why was I sweating? I looked around and no one else was sweating, just me. The worst part is this: it gets hotter. We are only in the middle of June! And this isn’t some weird heat wave!! Wait till July!!! And then I’m supposed to go to the south of France for two weeks at the beginning of August!!!! Ridiculous. I’m going to die of dehydration before then. I can’t seem to get enough water. I bet you’re all choked that I’m complaining, but I just have to say that I love Edmonton in the summer. It rarely gets too hot; it stays just cool enough… most of the time. I miss home, I think.

Holy Crap!!

2006-06-17T19:23:00.000-06:00

So, it's 3:24 and I am listening to NHL radio online. The Oilers have just scored the first goal. This is a weird sensation since I have been long convinced that my connection simply didn't work for things like this. I am also a little drunk. Olivier and I just came from a party that my friend Perrine (France) was throwing and I had several drinks. Not too drunk, but sort of drunk, you know?

Let's see, what happened this week? I love Munich and its beer gardens. If you want to go somewhere to watch a game, you just go anywhere and watch a game. Katie and I were helping that guy with the website we were working on (surely I mentioned this) on Wednesday and we went out for lunch. We were able to see the game from all around and then while we where sitting around, outside, after finishing, I heard something hit the ground next to Richard. I thought it was pigeon poop, but upon closer inspection, it was spit. After a minute of looking upwards, I realized that there was a cherry-picker above us and the worker had spit downwards, without even caring that 3 people were enjoying lunch below. I cursed upwards in English for a minute, but then Richard freaked out. He got up and ran towards the main part of the cherry picker truck and started yelling at the guy that his colleague had spit downwards, without care that we were below. It was weird. And funny. And horrible/disgusting. I took pictures of the spit and would like to post so you can se exactly how close a call it was, but I seem to have lost the ability to post pictures on this site. Go figure. Hey Noirin, got any time these days...?

Other than that, not much is going on. Work is normal. School is normal. The conversation course is going well. And I can't wait till Monday when I see a baby. Oh, I have been getting a bunch of requests for these two pieces of information recently, so here are the answers:

1. I get back to Edmonton on the night when August 25th turns into August 26th. It's, like, 12:38am, I'm not sure and am too lazy to check right now.

2. Olivier and I don't talk about what will happen when we have to leave. Will we break up? Will we make plans to wait for each other? I don't know. He doesn't know. We don't know. And we don't want to talk about it. Period. The end.

Oh, something (SECOND GOAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) else exciting that happened this week is that we booked a flight for me to go to Lourdes with Olivier at the beginning of August. Long story short: instead of leaving in the middle of August like he had planned, Olivier has to head home at the beginning of August. So, now I'm going with him! I will spend 2 weeks in the south of France and will come back here with enough time to clean up and head home. I'm totally excited. Olivier has a pool at home, you know. Mmmhmmm.

Okay, I'm going to sign off now and see if I can sleep with this game going on. Ciao!

Baby crazy!

2006-06-13T03:23:00.000-06:00

I am completely baby crazy. Baby crazy and dog crazy. Everytime I see a baby I have to coo and smile; I can't help it. Now, this does NOT mean that I want a baby! Not today, not tomorrow, and not nine months from now. Some day in the future, yes, but not any time soon.

I do like holding babies, and smelling babies, and playing peek-a-boo with babies, though, and the thing is that at home I know people of all ages and standings (ie. impoverished students to couples with homes and kids and assets), so if I want to play with a baby, I usually know someone who has one that I can hold and smell (face it, babies smell awesome). But here, I only know students, and almost all of them are international students. That means: no babies (and also no dogs). So since it's been so long since I've gotten to play with a baby, I have become baby crazy. Almost every single time I see a baby I go nuts. I think Eddy thought I was a little nuts last weekend, actually.

So, last night I was running the conversation class that Katie and I started (uhhh... yeah, sorry, I don't know if I've mentioned this at all.), but I was alone because Katie was in Turkey. Anyways, the point is that there were a couple of new people who showed up, one of whom is a lady who mentioned in her introduction that she had a baby about 6 weeks ago and that's why she hasn't come sooner; but her husband was home tonight, so she was finally able to come. I held my tongue from telling her to bring the kid next week because I thought it would be overstepping my bounds. Anyway, at the end of the class she said she had a question, and asked if it would be okay if she brought the baby next week since her husband would be back to his regular schedule. I assured her very loudly and enthusiastically, that it was totally okay to bring the baby, and that I couldn't be happier about it. Needless to say, she also couldn't be happier about the situation.

She says the little girl is really, really well behaved and hardly ever cries, so I hope it works out well, because I don't want to disturb the other people in the class (we had 7 yesterday, our second-highest turnout ever), but I really, really want to hold a baby before I drive Olivier crazy with all my cooing.

Oh, and I also mentioned to the class that if anyone has a dog they'd like to bring - that's welcome, too.

The World Cup is here!

2006-06-12T06:24:00.000-06:00

I'm not really that excited about it, but it is a little exciting. The games started on Friday with Germany earning a 4:2 win over Costa Rica. Most of you probably know this, but I figured I'd mention it in case you're too busy with the Stanley Cup. By the way, I'd rather have the Stanley Cup. There are so many people in Munich right now! I'm glad my schedule is so lax that I rarely have anywhere to be. (Ha ha ha.)

Last weekend's trip was good. We went to Bad Hersfeld on Friday and spent the evening hanging out with Ina. Hanna was still in Goettingen, but she came on Saturday and we hung out with her all afternoon and evening. There was the annual JazzFest happening, so we spent most of our time in town walking around and listening to the music. On Sunday, Olivier and I slept in because I totally forgot to set any sort of alarm at all (we wanted to get up at 9:00 and ended up waking up at noon), but it wasn't too tragic because I used to sleep like crazy when I was there before, so I made a joke about some things never changing and we all had a good laugh. Then we had an amazing lunch, the likes of which I haven't eaten in, easily, 9 months. It was so fantastic; it was Rouladen with Rotkohl and Kloese (and potatoes, thank god because I don't like Kloese). Then we waited for Ulrich to get home from work and all sat out on the terrace eating cake (Elvira makes amazing cakes, too). The funniest part was that Hanna and I had discussed when we had to head to the train station, but forgot to (or just plain didn't) share the plan with Olivier. We had decided to leave at 3:50 so that we could take our time getting to the train station; the train was leaving at 4:11 and the station isn't too far away. After chatting for a while Hanna asked what time it was. It was 3:56. The two of us we like, "Oh, crap!" and stood up to quickly pack the car and head out. We get all of the stuff into the car and I use the facilities one last time, and Olivier is no where to be found. I say to Felix, "Do you know where Olivier is?" "I think he's still on the terrace." "Really?! Could you please go tell him that we're waiting for him?" So Felix goes down to the terrace and when he comes back up, he tells us that Olivier is finishing his cake. What?! It turns out that after Hanna and I stood up and ran off, Elvira looked at Olivier and asked, "Where did they go?" "I don't know. That cake was amazing, by the way." "Thank you. There's one piece left, would you like it?" "Yes, please." *sigh* I guess I should be more clear in the future! Don't worry though, we made our train just fine, and had a good laugh out of it.

So then Olivier and I headed back towards Frankfurt to meet Eddy in the town where he lives, Darmstadt. We got in fairly late, and it was a Sunday in Germany, so not much was going on. We got a walking tour of Darmstadt and then had dinner. Actually, I'm lying a bit when I say that nothing was going on; see, Monday was a holiday, so there was a long-weekend-marathon party happening at an old castle thing that is part of the university. It was actually kind of a bust, though. See, I think the marathon thing ended in the afternoon and then they went back to their usual schedule at the bar in the basement. Their usual schedule involves something called a Boys and Girls party. (This should actually be read as "gays and lesbians party.") That doesn't bother me, but it was kind of lame anyways, and I think it made the boys uncomfortable. At any rate, we headed home and went to bed.

The next day we took the train into Frankfurt. Monday, as I mentioned, was a holiday, so there wasn't much going on in the city. Not that we needed much, at least not in the way of shopping, and it was mostly the stores that were closed. We headed up to the top of a tall building, I think it's called the Main Tower, or something, where there is a viewing deck and we got a great view of Frankfurt. We were really lucky, too, because I guess if it's too windy they close down the tower; Eddy said that he's tried to ascend the tower 4 times, and it's been closed twice. Anyways, we walked around for a while; there was an area set up on the bank of the Main with kiosks and food stands. We stopped for apple wine (which is hard to come by in Bavaria, and I love), and then met up with some of Eddy's friends and had another drink. We took the train back to Darmstadt and then checked the internet to see if we could find a karaoke bar open in Darmstadt. We didn't find one, but did find a band playing at a local Irish pub. They were pretty terrible. It was just a cover band, but maybe they only sounded bad because we sat way at the back of the bar instead of near the stage, and the sound might just not have travelled well. We had something to eat and headed home because it had gotten very late and we hadn't realized it. Then the next day we got up and headed home.

I feel I should also mention that the weather in Hessen was really pretty good, except for Saturday, when it rained, but it was still some of the nicest weather we've seen all year. Then, on the way home, as soon as the train crossed the border from Hessen into Bavaria, the sky clouded over and it started raining. We were getting really sick of the weather here (mostly because it's supposed to be nice by this time of year) but then, suddenly, the weather is quite pleasant. It's nice to wake up to blue skies in the morning. Of course, now that I say that, it will be crappy tomorrow, but then I won't feel bad about the fact that tomorrow is my busy class day.

Bayern is nuts

2006-06-01T13:59:00.000-06:00

I should first say that pretty much everyone knows that Germany is called Deutschland in German. On top of that, Bavaria is called Bayern and Munich is called Muenchen. I just find it funny that I thought I was coming to study in Munich, Germany, which lies in the province of Bavaria - and not one of those words is right!

Okay, apparently, Bayern is predominantly Catholic, so they celebrate all these religious holidays that we don't celebrate in Canada. For example, May 25 was Christihimmelfahrt (Ascension) so we had no classes. Sunday and Monday are Pentecost, so we have Monday and Tuesday off as well. Awesome. It's like there's no class this semester at all.

So, at the last minute Olivier and I have decided to take a trip. We leave tomorrow morning and take the train up to Bad Hersfeld where we will stay with the Kellers for two nights, then we'll head down to Darmstadt to visit with my buddy Eddy, who, as you might recall, was down here visiting me about a month ago. I'm excited, but I really, really hate taking trips at the last minute. I prefer to plan them out, but everything seems to be falling into place.

Anyhoo, my train leaves in less than 12 hours, so I should pack a bag. Ciao!

Does this make me a bigot?

2006-05-24T05:59:00.000-06:00

Okay, seeing has how writing something is better than writing nothing, I will write something. I think that the reason I haven't been writing is because I have so much to say that the though of sitting down and writing it all is overwhelming. So, I may or may not be able to catch up all that's happened over the last few months, but who cares, right?

Okay, last night Olivier, Katie and I went to the Belle & Sebastian concert. I had never heard of them (well, before buying the tickets) and have only listened to about 3 of their songs, which Olivier happened to have on his computer. I have to say that I was very impressed. It was a great show with incredible stage presence. So often, even if the band plays well live, they have a terrible stage presence, and that ruins the show. Belle & Sebastian had the whole package.

Their opening band was terrible, though. Like, really, really bad. One of those "the best part was when it ended" sort of bands.

Anyways, I have to rant about something: The three of us got to the show pretty early, but there were already people there waiting in front of the stage. This is one of those medium-to-large sized venues; right about the same size as the Shaw. Anyways, it's considered perfectly acceptable to find a spot on the floor and sit down while waiting for the show and we did. We were right near the front (like, within 4' of the stage, or so. And when the opening band hit the stage everyone stood up and assumed the proper concert position. Within the first song or two, there was a tap on our shoulders and, long story short, there was a chick in a wheelchair who wanted to get as close to the stage as possible - her and her posse of about 5 people.

Now, I should mention that this has happened 3 times in the last two months - I mean, three times in all the concerts we've visited, there has been a person in a wheelchair who wanted to be close to the front and, since we always stand close to the front, they end up next to us. I am totally okay with this. I admit that it's kind of annoying when you want to dance but the person on your right is kind of forcing you into the wheelchair on your left and you don't want to bump into the wheelchair too hard or too many times, but everyone has the right to enjoy the concert, so you live with it.

No, my problem with the chick last night was that after the show had started she came and wanted to be near the front. Then, to make it even worse, her and her friends had the audacity to complain about the 2 tall guys were were standing in front of them right at the fence. They even asked one of them to move to the left. Now, they asked politely, so it wasn't that so much, but the fact that before they asked him to move, they said something to the effect of "there should be a law against tall guys standing in the front!" I was thinking "there should be a law against people in wheelchairs coming in late and expecting special treatment!"

And therein lies my issue. I think Olivier said it best when he said that concert law is the law of the jungle. In a really rowdy crowd, it's the idea of survial of the strongest - he who pushes hardest gets to stay near the front. In a quieter crowd, it's the idea of first come, first served. We were there early, so we were near the front. There were plenty of people behind us who were shorter than Olivier, but is he expected to move for them, just because he's tall and they're short? No, he is not. So why should we move for this girl, just because she is in a wheelchair? If she wanted to be close to the front, she should have shown up earlier, right?

I just didn't think it was proper behaviour. Okay, that's all I have to say about that. Discuss if you'd like; I just needed to vent.

Have a great day! Oh, and GO OILERS!

P.S.
Enjoy this picture from the show last night:

This is funny for, like, 5 or 6 different reasons:

2006-05-12T01:46:00.000-06:00

Bari --

[adjective]:

Smells like teen spirit

'How will you be defined in the dictionary?' at
QuizGalaxy.com

The Plan:

2006-05-11T08:37:00.000-06:00

Okay, I know that I should write more - really I do - but you have to understand something very important: I am very lazy. Actually, that's a lie. I'm not very lazy, I'm VERY lazy. Also, the weather is really nice here and I'm kind of enjoying sitting around most days (I have an awesome schedule this semester) and just listening to music; enjoying the stresslessness of it all. Also, I think I just invented a word that is awesome! Nope, just checked it against Merriam-Webster and it turns out that it's legit. Too bad. I know that I should write more often because, apparently, when I wait too long between posts, people go back and pick at my grammar and spelling.

So here is my plan: I plan on writing more. I know, you were expecting more than that, but that's all I got. I really plan on writing more posts starting soon. I just say soon because I hate pressure (remember: stresslessness is the word of the day) and if I give an exact day, I'll have to stick to it. Also, I would start today, but Olivier and I are going for a record on concert-going-to-s. (Is there a word in English? I know it in German, but can't think of one in English right now...) We are on day 2 of a 4 day stretch - 4 concerts, 4 days. Yesterday was Metric (Becky, I wanted to send you an email when you sent me one because I already had tickets at that time, but... well, see sentence 4 of paragraph 1 for an explanation), today is Neko Case, who is actually a member of The New Pornographers, who we will see tomorrow. Then Saturday is an electroclash band called Lesbians on Ecstasy. I don't know them very well, but I know that they toured with le tigre, who I love, so I'm hopeful that this will be a good concert. After that, we don't have tickets to anything until the 23rd. The 23rd!! I don't know what we'll do without a show to go to. Actually, though, I think Olivier was going today to buy tickets to The Editors which is on the 18th. That should fill the void nicely.

Okay, that's all for now, I have things to do before the show tonight. I do plan on writing again soon. Ciao!

Addendum: I don't want anyone to pick at my usage of the word "who" as opposed to "whom" in an attempt to be cute. I know when I should use "whom" (which is more than - dare I say - most people), I simply choose not to. It's my opinion that it's on its way out of the language, which suits me just fine, because I think it sounds pretentious.

On stupid emails

2006-04-26T04:19:00.000-06:00

I recently got an email that reads like this:

"Can you raed tihs? Olny 21 plepoe can. I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny
iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghout slpeling was ipmorantt! if you can raed tihs forwrad it.

ONLY FORWARD IF YOU CAN READ THIS"

Okay, I've gotten an email with this text before and found it quite amusing. It is funny that you can still read it, even though the words are all horribly (if purposely) misspelled. But it's the first and last lines that are pissing me off so badly. If the whole point of the study (which may or may not actually have existed) is that "the human mind works in such wonderfully wonderful ways that you can read this text regardless of how misspelled it is" (paraphrased) then why does it also say that only 21 people can read it? I imagine they meant, like one in 20 or 21 or maybe even in some weird world 1 in 2, but it still seems like the numbers are ridiculously skewed, which makes me skeptical that such a study every existed, or if someone just made this up. And my issue with the last sentence is this: if you can't read it, would you actually forward it? If you would, then you should be shot, maybe not in a place that would kill you, but definitely in the leg or something, because that's just dumb. Would anyone in the world actually think, "I have no idea what this says, I'm going to forward it on to my entire list of contacts in the hopes that it will make sense to one of them."? I doubt it. It's just silly.

Sorry, I guess I'm in that kind of mood today.

Ahhhh... Staycation

2006-04-17T13:15:00.000-06:00

Okay, I have to make this fairly short, but I will try and get in the important parts.

I’m on staycation.  If you don’t know what that is:  start watching Corner Gas.  When Olivier came back to Munich we were talking about going to Poland for a week or 10 days, but then we picked up the magazine full of everything that’s going on over the next little while and found out that there is an absolute buttload of awesome concerts happening.  So we went out and bought a bunch of tickets instead.  So now our days are filled with watching every episode of Scrubs, as well as the first season of Lost.  Oh, and going to concerts.

We started by going to see The Paddingtons on Wednesday.  It was a good show in a small venue.  The only problem is that this place, the Atomic Café, is a little bit expensive, but whatever.  The other best part, aside from the actual show, is that I talked to this midget who often goes to shows.  I love midgets; they’re funny.

The next night we went to Nashville Pussy.  It was awesome.  The first opening band was alright, but nothing special except that the lead guitarist was awesome.  The second band was really good and then Nashville Pussy took the stage.  It was an awesome show.  The lead guitarist is a chick who has my hair… well, my old hair.  She was incredible, and she took quite a shine to me (as I was rocking out right in front of the stage) and ended up giving me a half a bottle of wine in the encore.  Oh, and a kiss.  Anyways, it was a great show, and afterwards, as Olivier and I were finishing our beers, I saw a guy who lives on my floor, but whom I’ve never spoken to and we struck up a conversation with him and his buddy.  Then the four of us went out to a bar and drank until the trains started running again.  It was a good night.

The next concert we visited was Controller Controller on Saturday.  That was also an amazing show.  The band kept having technical problems (like all power going out twice, but at least not in the middle of a song at any point, and the high-hat breaking for several songs), but the show was pretty good anyways.  Afterwards Olivier and I hung around and had a few drinks while we talked with the band.  We danced around a bit too, some of it with the band, but didn’t go out anywhere else because they had a flight back the next day early.  So we finished up, said our good-byes, and headed home.

Yeah, other than that, we’ve been eating lots and lots, and watching all sorts of TV.  The next concert planned is Stars (with The Most Serene Republic) on Tuesday (hey Becky – oh yeah!!) and then the Rapture on Friday.  Also, I think my buddy Eddy is coming to visit next weekend from near Frankfurt.  It’s going to be a good last week before classes.  I’m stoked.

Sorry about this

2006-04-03T18:17:00.000-06:00

Okay, I was trying to write a good post, but got side-tracked by Freecell (damn you, Freecell) so this is all you guys get before I go to bed.  I am back in Munich now, as I’ve said before, but I may now be headed off again this next weekend for probably a week or so.  I’m not sure, I’ll let you know what’s going on.  Nicole is gone now and I’ll write more about that if I ever get around to writing a real post.  Katie is headed off on Thursday for Kiev and Olivier gets back tomorrow morning.  Wow, this whole “being an exchange student during semester break” thing is nuts.  Everyone is everywhere.  Hey, for no reason at all, that reminds me:  Hey Noirin?  Was your brother in town this last weekend, or is he coming to town this weekend?

The only other thing I have to say is that today (well, yesterday now, but it’s still April 3 in Canada) is my sixth month anniversary of arriving in Munich.  That also means that I have less time left than has already passed.  It feels really weird.  I feel, simultaneously, like I’ve been here forever, and also like I just got here.  I feel pretty bad that I’ve hardly seen the city at all.  Katie and I have this plan to get on a bus that goes to places we’ve never seen, to see what sort of fun things there are (that aren’t touristy) to be found.  I am specifically hoping to find a good ice cream shop.  Being in Bad Hersfeld and Berlin reminded me how many ice cream shops there seems to be in every German city – with the exception of Munich!  And being in Italy reminded me how much I like gelato.

Okay, I really, really hope to write something worthwhile in the next few days, but we’ll have to see.  Have fun!

#@$*!

2006-03-30T02:22:00.000-07:00

Boy, am I in a foul mood. The foulest of foul moods. It's been a long time since I felt this rotten. And I'm not talking about my "lie in bed and listen to Hayden" funks, I'm talking, like, "put on the angriest, loudest, hardest music I own in the hopes that it might act as a catharsis" bad mood.

I screwed up. I put one dark thing in with my whites, thinking it wouldn't be a problem and now all of my white laundry is grey. Now, normally, I'd just brush this sort of thing off as nothing, exept this time it's different for 2 reasons:
1. I did this once before, and promised myself I'd never do it again. I am angry that I didn't learn from my mistake.
2. This particular load contained every light-coloured bra I own. This is, as I think any woman would agree, a really big deal. Because we're not talking, like, a light grey tinge: we're talking charcoal grey for some of them. And bras are expensive, especially here, from what I've seen. And I can't afford shit like this. Man, I am so angry at myself. Ich schaeme mich.

Origins

2006-03-26T02:49:00.000-07:00

Okay, I think I've figured out the origin of a saying. Hear me out on this one:

A guy goes on a vacation of Italy and ends up in Rome. He's making his way through the city just fine, but is having real problems crossing the street. Many of the intersections don't have walk lights and the cars won't stop for him like they do in North America. Furthermore, even at the ones with walk lights, the motorcycles often don't follow the signals. The guy was having a really hard time until he saw that some people would just cross when it was (more or less) safe to do so - regardless of what the lights indicated. After closer inspection he realized that these people were not tourists, and that they must live here and do this all the time.

The man goes home and is telling his friends about the different lessons he learned: the pizza will disappoint you, but the pasta makes up for it. You will be charged cover to get into restaurants. Gelato is possibly the best thing in the world, even if it is too expensive and, oh yeah! In Rome, find someone who looks like the live there and just do what they do. So his friends go on a trip to Italy several years later and are trying to remember what their friend said. They order the pizza and are, indeed, disappointed, but the pasta and gelato are so good that their faith in Italian food is restored. But they get to Rome and encounter the same problems while trying to cross the street because they had forgotten the last piece of advice. Then, as they are trying to figure out how they are going to cross a particularly main street, they see someone who looks very Italian start crossing the street, even though the sign says "DON'T WALK". They both shout "When in Rome, do as the Romans do!!"

And there you have it; the origin of a saying.

I am fully convinced that the saying is specifically in reference to the proper way to cross the street in Rome and no one will ever convince me otherwise. But seriously, Rome is nuts. There is so much nice stuff to see here, but the weather is being really difficult. The other day as I was writing that post and saying it couldn't make up it's mind, it decided to be very difficult and start hailing. It had been gorgeously sunny in the morning and so Katie and I hadn't brought our umbrellas with us. Oh, and I was wearing sandals. We stood in the foyer of the internet cafè for probably 15 minutes without the rain letting up at all, but finally decided that it was only 2 blocks to our hotel and we should just run and deal with our wet clothes when we get there. Meh, whatchoo gonna do, right?

Okay, Katie is running a marathon today while I'm sitting here, and I want to go wave at her at about the 32km mark. Also, it's her birthday. How many of you ran marathons on your last birthday? Yeah, that's what I thought. Slackers.

Easily 12 years in the making

2006-03-23T05:52:00.000-07:00

I have always had a weird name. Well, it depends who you ask, but let's face it: the name's kind of weird. I've grown over time to quite like it, but was always jealous of my sister for having such a normal name. Why was I jealous? Because, quite simply, she could buy stuff with her name on it. No, really, that's why. I always wanted a toothbrush that said "Bari" or a pad of paper that said "From the desk of Bari." I never had a little card that said what my name meant or what it's origin was because, again, quite simply, my name is made up.

So when I was in the latter part of elementary school and found out that there was a brand of cheese called "Bari", I was very impressed. This lead to a little bit of research and the discovery that there is actually a town in the south of Italy called Bari. It also lead to the decision that I would visit there someday, even if I were old and grey by the time I could.

I'm not old and grey, but I can now say that I have visited my town. I feel awesome about it. To have had a goal for so long and to say that I have accomplished what I set out so long ago to do... it's great. I took many, many pictures of random things that said "Bari" on them, I walked along the waterfront with a smug smile on my face that no one except Katie could understand. I visited the Bari Castle and found out that Santa Claus' remains are buried there; well, St. Nicolas' remains at least. And I bought Bari merchandise. That's right, they had merchandise. Not a whole ton like one would find in New York, Paris, or Berlin, but some. I have a few postcards with my name on them, a couple of sweaters and a few other things that I shall keep secret as some of them are gifts. Actually, I was saved by the fact that Bari has a soccer team, because everything I bought (with the exception of the postcards) are from the team.

So, now I guess I have to come up with a new long-term goal, eh?

Katie and I left Bari yesterday and took the train to Rome. And that is where I sit. We stay here for about another week, leaving on Wednesday the 29 to go back to Munich. I don't have much to say in the way of Rome. It's nice from what we've seen so far. Our hotel is well situated. The weather is really having a hard time making up it's mind; rain, sun, rain, clouds, bleh. Okay, I should see if I can access Beartracks now. I doubt I can because the UofA doesn't put a lot of thought into things, and I think I can't access it from a browser at an internet cafè. We'll see, I guess. Ciao!!

Finally!!

2006-03-04T14:44:00.000-07:00

Okay, this is going to seem like such an inadequate post, considering it’s been so long since I posted, but it has to be short since I’m sitting in a hotel room in the Netherlands about to try and find out as much about Amsterdam on a Sunday as I possibly can. Ironically, the TV is on in the background, on MTV, playing the episode of Viva la Bam! where they go to the Netherlands, and they are about to head to Amsterdam. Irony is fun!

My folks came last Friday and we spend the first few days touring around Munich. We did my pathetic walking tour of the stuff I know in Munich (read = not very much), as well as going to the Olympic Tower for dinner, having lunch at the Hofbräuhaus, and making a day trip to Neuschwanstein. For anyone who doesn’t know (and in case I didn’t write about it the last time), Neuschwanstein is the castle that was the inspiration for Disney’s Cinderella’s castle.

Then we traveled to Berlin. The actual drive to Berlin was quite the adventure because we ended up in a big snowstorm and missed a turnoff. The problem was that it was such an easy route from Munich to Berlin (get on Autobahn 9 and stay there till we see Berlin) that I wasn’t following along on the map and didn’t notice the error until we had been driving for an hour or an hour and a half at about 150 km/h! That was the detour from hell! Actually, though, we saw parts of Germany that Germans didn’t even know existed! We got to Berlin and spent 2 days touring around there. We saw all the main sights: the Brandenberg Gate, Potsdamer Platz, the Reichstag and the Siegesäule (Victory Column). We had dinner in the TV Tower and had a generally good time. My family is so impressed with the transit system here! I think they were skeptical when I said that we would be parking the rental car from the time we got to Berlin until the time we left, but that’s exactly what we did and it worked out great! If Edmonton had a transit system like some of the cities here have…

Then we drove to Bad Hersfeld where my family met the family I stayed with on my exchange. We were all really excited to see Hanna again, and I was happy to see everyone else, as well as to have my two families meet. It was especially good to see my little brother, Felix, again. He was 4 the last time I saw him and now he’s 10. TEN!! Wow.

Now we have driven to the Netherlands are had dinner with my dad’s cousin, Rob, and his wife, Suzanne, and their two daughters Mareike and Jesse. We had the most amazing Japanese restaurant. They cooked the food right in front of us, which I’ve seen on TV, but never actually experienced. The funniest part was when he shot fried eggs at us and we had to try and catch them in our mouths. Trust me, it was awesome!

Now we will be in the Netherlands for a few days and then down to France, then to Italy and then back up to Munich. Yikes!! Okay, gotta do some research now, have a great week or two!

Sorry, too lazy just yet

2006-02-20T07:56:00.000-07:00

Okay, I am enjoying my day of doing nothing. Well... not exactly nothing, but practically nothing!

I got up just after 10:00 (which is pretty good for me) and sorted my laundry. I took two loads downstairs and was shocked to find that all the machines were full!! I couldn't believe it. Ten o'clock on a Monday morning, and they were all full. Whatever. I came back up and headed to the store. I had started a list last night, but couldn't find it before I left. I figured that I would remember what was on the list (it was only two items long) as I went along so I left and walked instead of taking the bus because it's such a nice day today!

I took the bus on the way home because I didn't want to walk with such a full backpack, and as I stepped off the bus I remembered what things were written on the list - and I hadn't bought either of them!! Whatever, now I'll have to go again tomorrow. I've spent the rest of the afternoon eating lunch with Nicole and Katie (Nicole made chili and nachos!!) and slowly doing the laundry, as well as watching olympic coverage. The men's curling is about to start. I can finally see why my folks like curling so much - it's more interesting than I ever gave it credit for!

Tonight is yet another concert! It's Clap Your Hands Say Yeah tonight and I am really getting excited! I heard two of their songs and really liked them, then I bought the whole CD and absolutely love it; plus Erika, Yan, Uli and Greta are coming, so it should be a really good time.

I'll write about Dresden later, maybe tomorrow, we'll see, but I will say something more about the Death Cab show from Saturday: As cool as it was to be on the guest list, and as happy as I was to be there, I'm glad I didn't have to pay for it. Without a ticket, I wasn't sure what time the show started, and didn't think to look on the internet, so I ended up almost missing all of John Vanderslice's set, which would have been a total burn since he's the one who put me on the guest list!! Anyways, at least I saw the end of the set and went up to him right afterwards and thanked him very much. Erika and Yan were outside since they weren't able to get tickets, but were able to come in for Death Cab. I actually couldn't believe the venue that they put them in. It was ridiculously small and we were packed in there like sardines! I also think that Death Cab was really pissed about the venue, as they kept commenting on how funny it was that the merch table was practically on the stage with them and that it was like they were playing for all of us in their living room... which might be considered a good thing, but I got the distinct impression that it wasn't for them - if you know what I mean.

The show they put on in Dresden was WAY better than the one in Munich, but since I got to see both (sorry, now I'm just rubbing it in!) I will remember the Dresden one and try to forget the lack of enthusiasm on Saturday. Again, though, I am really glad that I got to go on Saturday.

Okay, I'm going to watch the end of the Canada vs. USA men's curling match. Have a great day!

Oh Wow!!

2006-02-18T09:21:00.000-07:00

Okay, ideally I would like to post about my trip to Dresden as one long post. Or, at the very least, as more than one post, but in chronological order from the start. Unfortunately, I am a little pressed for time and really want to tell this part of the story before tonight.

So let’s start on Thursday night: after dinner. Hannah, Nicole and I got on a bus and headed over to the Star Club to go to the Death Cab For Cutie show. We met Hannah’s friend Laura and 2 of Laura’s friends outside the show and went in. I will just sum up the show for you here: incredible! Well, for me it was. We were near the front, but we talked to some of Hannah’s friends (or maybe they were Hannah’s friend’s friends?), who were at the back and they said that the levels were off for a lot of the show and it wasn’t very good, but I liked it from where I was standing.

The other thing that I need to say now, in this short summary, is that the opener was a guy named John Vanderslice. I had never even heard of him before, let alone heard him, but I really liked what he played, so immediately after his set I ran out to the merch table and bought his CD. It was, unfortunately, his last CD and not the new one because they said that the new one would be out in 2 weeks (which I thought was a little dumb that they didn’t have any copies on tour, but whatever). Anyways, on the way out of the show at the end of the night, John and his drummer were at the merch table signing the CDs and there was no real line up to speak of. I said to Nicole and Hannah, “I should get my CD signed. No, nevermind, I feel silly.” “Why? Don’t feel silly, just go get it signed!” “No, I can’t! I’d feel like a geek!” “Do it! We’ll wait.” So I went up to them and the rest of the conversation went more or less like this:

Me: “Hi, I bought this a little earlier and wondered if you’d mind signing it?”
John: “Absolutely! What’s your name?”
“B-A-R-I, blah blah blah, I’ve never heard you before, but I really thought you were fantastic.”
“Well, thanks very much, it’s always nice to hear that, blah, blah, blah. Where are you from?”
“Oh, I’m from Canada, I’m studying in Germany for the year, blah, blah, blah.”
“Blah, blah, blah. What do you think of Europe, isn’t it wonderful?!”
“Yeah, it’s okay, I’m really enjoying my time here, but I do miss home, especially the conveniences of North America – like stores that are open 24 hours! Blah, blah, blah.”
“Blah, blah, blah…”
“More blah, blah, blah. Are you traveling with Death Cab to Munich, or are you done after here?” (He had said during his set that he was headed to Prague the next day, so I was curious.)
“Yup, we’re going to Munich with them, I think it’s on Saturday.”
“Yeah, you’re right: it is on Saturday!! I know because I’m actually living in Munich this year, and tried to get tickets for that show, but it sold out so fast! I just kind of fluked out that I had planned this trip to Dresden to visit a friend, anyways, and the dates just worked out that we could come to this show!”
“Do you want to go to the Munich show?”
“Of course I’d love to, but it’s sold out and I got to go to this one, so I’m happy.”
“Well, we have a guest list for the Munich show. (to his drummer) We have a guest list for the Munich show, right?”
Drummer: “Yup!”
John: “We could put you on the guest list, if you want!”
Me: “Are you serious????!!!!! That would be amazing!! I would love that, but… are you serious???!!!!!!”
“Hahahaha, really, here, we’ll take your name down.”

And then they did. And I still can’t believe, even now, that it happened, but it did. And I am shaking just writing this, but it happened. We talked for a little longer and I mentioned that I wished that they had the new CD for purchase and they said that they had it but were sold out, but that they should have more at the Munich show, and that I can just get one then, since, you know, I’ll be there because I’m on the guest list and all.

So, now I’m about to get ready to go to the concert. It’s one of those things that is too good to be true, so I am trying to brace myself for the situation where I go to the concert and I’m not actually on a guest list. It will be so cool if it is real, though!

BBBBWWWWWWAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! Okay, time to get ready!!

What a weekend!

2006-02-12T17:09:00.000-07:00

Okay, where to start… I will try and keep this short because I don’t want to spend a lot of time when people are just going to complain about too much reading.

I wrote the test on Thursday. All I can really say about it is: at least it’s over now. Then I spent Thursday afternoon putzing around and getting ready for the concert that Olivier and I were going to in the evening. The band was called The Test Icicles and I had heard two of their songs, thanks to Olivier, ahead of time. I really liked what I heard, but they were their two singles. All I can really say about them is that they obviously don’t like what the producers did to those songs. Or they don’t like how most people have only heard those two songs. Or they’re just douchebags. The band is comprised of 3 members, who rotate between singing or playing the guitars or manning the keyboard: 3 members, 2 guitars, 1 keyboard, no drums or bass at all.

I really liked what they were playing and when they got to their 2 most popular songs, I was ecstatic! Here’s the thing: the singer went to the back of the stage, sat on a case, put his chin on his fist, and sang the song like a little kid who was being punished. I thought it was so childish. Again, I don’t know for sure what his problem is, but I know that I paid 14 € to get into the show, as did everyone else in the bar (which was a fair number) and I was pretty pissed that he acted that way. After those 2 songs were done, they did one or 2 more, then they just started jamming. It’s kind of hard to explain what I mean by that, but they seemed to just each be playing their own instrument without really caring what the other 2 members were doing. At first I was kind of like, “what the hell is this?” but by the end, I really got to liking it. Then they finished suddenly and left the stage. No encore, no nothing.
Friday was a rush, trying to get everything done and cleaned and ready for Elizabeth. I went and picked her up from the train station and we went straight from there to the supermarket to pick up a couple food items for us, and some other stuff for a wine and cheese party that Nicole was throwing that night. Then we came home and I made Elizabeth Käsespätzle, which has become one of my favourite dishes here. Then we mucked around with the computer for a while and headed downstairs to Nicole’s party. The party was a big success with lots of food and wine and people. After the party ended Olivier and Martin (also from France, I think I mentioned him before) came up to play crib with Elizabeth and me. We got to bed somewhere around 4:00 or 4:30.

Surprisingly, though, we were up at 10:00, and were showered, dressed, breakfasted, and out of the house by 11:00. I took her on a walking tower of pretty much the only part of the city that I know: from the University through Odeonsplatz and into Marienplatz and the Vikutalienmarkt. After that we went shopping and discovered (well, I rediscovered) the joy that is H&M’s change rooms. Then we went to C&A and both found pants for 19€! Score! Then we picked up a donair on the way home and spent the rest of the afternoon puttering in my room, watching some stuff on the computer and making her a CD.

The plan for after dinner was to go to this bar that I saw last Sunday called “Canadian Lounge.” When I saw it, I almost crapped my pants. I had visions of a real Canadian-type lounge where we could go in, watch Team Canada on the TVs that they would surely have, order poutine and a Crown Royal (what?! I can dream, can’t I?), and play crib with my friends. Yeah… we got there and it was like a martini bar crossed with a restaurant. How disappointing. We ended up heading back towards the Studentenstadt and going to this place nearby that we kept saying we should go to, called Kati’s. It wasn’t bad, but it’s really small and the ventilation isn’t very good so Nicole, who has been battling a sinus thingy, had to leave because she found it too smoky, but Katie, Elizabeth, Olivier and I stayed. Then Oksana (co-worker from the speech lab) and her boyfriend, Carsten, showed up and we sat around, ate Käsespätzle, watched Olympic figure skating, and played crib for a few hours.

Elizabeth and Olivier and I headed back to my place with thoughts of poutine dancing in our heads, but, alas, the kitchen in the bar downstairs was already closed. So we sat and chatted for a bit before I took Olivier to the train at about 1:00. In spite of the fact that we were in bed, definitely by 2:00, we both slept until 10:00 again. Actually, I think it was 10:30… and I really don’t know if Elizabeth was asleep that whole time or not – I only know that I was! Then we did the same thing as the previous day, except for the breakfast part, and were out the door by about 11:30.

We started off at the Hofbräuhaus to drink beer at noon and eat traditional Bavarian food. We left at about 1:00 and went to the Alte Pinakothek (old art gallery) and stayed there until 4:00, which was exactly our plan, when I took her to the train station so that she could head home again. It was a short, but full weekend, and I hope she enjoyed herself as much as I enjoyed having her here! The rest of the day has been pretty mundane. I came home and tried, without a lot of success, to put things back in order here in my little room. Katie and Elaine came over and we ate bruschetta, ordered pizza and watched The Score on TV (and I use the term “watched” very loosely). We just kind of chatted and every so often I’d explain to the two of them what was going on in the movie. Now I’ve just been fiddling around with the computer and trying to get everything together for a care package that I am giving to Olivier since I am leaving for Dresden on Tuesday and he is heading home to France before I get back again. That’s pretty much it. I will hopefully find enough time tomorrow to post my plans for the next couple of months so you can all be in the loop of what’s going on with me. Laters!

I'd consider doing it again

2006-02-08T13:24:00.000-07:00

I got up early this morning. Can you believe that? I know, me neither, but it's true: I got up at 8:00 this morning to run some errands with Katie. And it was so successful, that I would almost consider doing it again sometime... I don't know if I will, but I would consider it.

I had to do a bunch of things, and was successful on all accounts. I went to my faculty to find out where I pick up certificates for the course I normally have on Wednesdays and found out that I have to buy one (you buy a blank certificate and fill it out, then the prof and the institute stamps it). So then Katie and I headed to the main bookstore to look around and we both bought some detailed course calendars for next semester (every department releases a different one). Then we headed to the department of my Monday class so that I could get the department stamp (I had the prof sign it on Monday, but the office was closed). Then we went to a bakery so that I could pick up some cake for my language course tonight (it was the last class and we were having a bit of a party after the test) and to the hotel where my parents are staying in Munich and I booked their rooms. Then came home, made lunch, puttered, watched TV with Katie and headed back to the university to get the certificate that I had bought in the morning filled out by the prof during his office hours. Then I headed to "work" and then to the language course, where we wrote the test and then ate treats and chatted. I'm glad the course is over, but I also really liked the people and I really feel like I learned some stuff (not tons, but some). I passed with a 2, which is like a B, so I'm happy. And the certificate that I got doesn't actually say the mark, it just says "mit sehr gutem Erfolg" which means "with very good success."

So that was my successful day. I'm trying to think if anything else exciting happened this week, and I'm thinking not. I'm trying to get ready for Elizabeth's visit this weekend. I don't know if I've mentioned that actually, so here goes: My friend Elizabeth is coming to visit me this weekend!! It's kind of a funny situation because I had several different linguistics classes with Elizabeth, but we really only started talking in the last one we were in together, which was LING 401 this last winter term. Then, over the summer, she said that she was going to go to Prague to teach English as a foreign language, and invited me (and the other linguistics girls) to her going away party. I've been keeping up with her blog ever since, and (as far as I know) she's been keeping up with mine. I feel closer to her than ever before and am really looking forward to seeing her! She's actually one of two people I feel like I know better since leaving Canada, the other being David, who is often online during the day when most others aren't, and I think it's hilarious that I have gotten closer to these people even though we are farther away than before! Ahhh, I'm excited!

Yeah, not much else to report, I hope all is well in Canada... and I really hope you get winter soon so that I can feel better about having left the Canadian winter behind me! Servus!

At least they're honest...

2006-02-05T17:56:00.000-07:00

It would appear that they sell suck... and they have lots of it.

I went out with Erika tonight. I met her at her friend Michael's place which is right above this hardware store. They were having a music practice. You would be surprised what you can do with an accordian - or at least I was surprised what you can do with an accordian! Michael also has a parrot named Spocky. Apparently they normally let Spocky fly around the room, but he attacked Erika one time, so they lock him in his (very large) cage when she's around. Which is fortunate for me because that would be like an episode of Fear Factor for me. He's an interesting bird who likes dancing around to the music, singing along and... well, staring at me. If I spend more time there, he might help me get over my fear of birds because he seemed pretty cool, but I was glad that he was locked up tonight.

Okay, bedtime! This will be a pretty weird week because it's the last week of classes, so I'm not sure what to expect. Ciao!

Concerts make life worth living

2006-02-03T17:57:00.000-07:00

You know all that talk about not flying by the seat of my pants? Out the window!! I like flying by the seat of my pants because spontaneity is the spice of life!

I met Oliver and Vanessa just after 8:00 on Monday so that we could go to the concert. The handbill that I had said “21.00” but didn’t indicate if that was doors or bands, but we didn’t want to take the chance, so Olivier and I blew off our respective German classes and arranged it so that we were definitely at the place by 9:00. Yeah… it was doors at 9:00 bands at 10:00. Whatever, no big deal; we were pretty much the first people there, but it’s not like we had to wait around outside or anything. And, judging by what I normally do at concerts these days, can you guess what the first thing we did was? That’s right, we got beers! I should also say that the bar was really small. Really, really small. We’re talking, like, smaller than the typical BP’s lounge; a little smaller than the typical venue on Whyte, but only because it wasn’t as deep as most of them are (I’m thinking, like, Suite 69, the Attic, Filthy McNasty’s, etc). I am trying to come up with a solid number and I would say about 60 square metres; but I suck at measuring things that way, so maybe don’t trust that number. Just trust me when I say it was small!

Now, the last time we hung out with Vanessa we spoke German all night, but I wasn’t in the mood (this is important later), and Vanessa spent a year in Georgia, so her English is great. The opening band was called The Havana Affairs and they are a local band. They were actually pretty good. Olivier and I were kind of grooving to them, but you could tell that they kept screwing up. It wouldn’t have been that obvious except that every time they’d screw up, they’d all kind of start laughing and look at each other. Anyways, halfway through the set I had to use the facilities and grab more beer, so I took off towards the back. After I was finished in the restrooms and had grabbed a couple of beers I swung by the merch table. This was very, very important for me because of the name of the headliner. Now, I’ll admit that I was initially drawn in by the name of the band, then I found out that the lead singer was the bassist from L7 (Jennifer Precious Finch), and then I listened to the songs that they have on the net (http://www.shockersite.com/) and really liked them. I went because I liked them… but also because I wanted to get some merchandise with the shocker symbol on it. So anyways, I bought their CD and a shirt and some pins and stickers, and was very happy with my purchases, and I headed back to finish listening to the Havana Affairs’ set.

Well, after the set, Olivier and Vanessa and I stood around in front of the stage, chatting, instead of heading back to the sides to sit down and, again, we were talking in English and quite loud because it was fairly loud in the bar. This heavily tattooed guy comes up to me and says something like, “You speak English really well.” “Yeah, that’s because I’m from Canada!” So we start talking and he introduces himself as Ronnie James and then says, “And this is Adam, he’s from Canada, too,” “Really?! Where from?” “Well, he’s not really from Canada, he’s from northern Wisconsin, so we just say he’s from Canada.” And then they kind of grab some equipment and haul it onto the stage. Turns out that that’s the band. The set started up right away and it was awesome. We were right in front; here are some pictures to give you an idea of how close we were:
As you can see, there was no one ahead of us, and I kind of had to take a step back to get these shots! I was able to sing along to some of the songs because of what I’d heard on the internet, and Jennifer even came up to me with the mic at points so that I could sing into it. It was awesome! I rocked out a little too hard, though, and my neck hurt for, like, 3 days afterwards; it kind of felt like I’d been in a car accident.

So, after the set the three of us were chillin’ and drinking a beer and got to talking to the band again. They ended up inviting us out to another bar with them, so we hopped into a couple of cabs and went. Jennifer and Lisa (the bassist) didn’t come, but the 3 boys did, and Adam’s girlfriend Carly, along with the members of the Havana Affairs. We got to one bar just as it was closing so we waited for all the cabs to get there, then walked down the block to this other bar called “Fraunhofer Schoppenstube.” It was this really small, kind of creepy pub with almost no one inside, but the tables that had people at them were arranged so that the group had to split up. Olivier and I sat at one with Adam, Carly and most of the members of the Havana Affairs and Vanessa sat at another one with Quist (the drummer), Basti from the Havana Affairs, and Ronnie James, who had taken quite a shine to her and wouldn’t have it any other way.

Right after we ordered our beers, Olivier and I both got up to use the facilities and I hung my coat on the rack that was right next to the table. When we came back, some people were sitting in our spots and drinking our beers. This didn’t actually bother me because we hadn’t paid for them, yet, so we just moved to the other table. I’d say an hour and a half passed and everyone was heading to a disco. I asked Olivier if he was up for it and he said yes, so we got up to grab my coat and his bag. Neither of them were at the table and, as half the people were waiting outside, no one was there to ask. Finally, Olivier found his bag at the next table, someone had obviously moved it, but I couldn’t find my coat. I remembered that I’d hung it up, but it wasn’t on the hook either. We looked under the table, under the next table, got the waitress (owner?) involved, got everyone in the bar to look under their tables. We checked the bathrooms and the entryway; I peeked my head outside and asked the people out there if they’d seen it. Nothing. Someone had stolen my coat. And to make matters worse, here I am wearing nothing but a black t-shirt and crawling under a table to see if it was under the bench, when I knocked the table, which had two half-full bottles of beer on it, which then tipped over and spilled their contents onto my back. I couldn’t even move; I just stayed there – stunned – as beer poured all over me. So, now I’m wearing nothing but a wet t-shirt. I took the two shirts that I’d bought (both were t-shirts as well - one’s for Ashley) and put them both on, but just then the waitress came up to me and gave me a coat. She said that someone had left it there months ago, so no one would miss it, and she couldn’t bear the thought of me going outside without a coat. It didn’t fit great, but it would do.

So, bummed as I was, I was just as angry and, with the trains not running anymore, I figured it’d be good to blow off some steam so we went to the disco. We walked the few blocks to the disco and I looked in every doorway, trash can and U-Bahn entrance to see if someone had ditched the coat. A wave of nausea washed over me as I thought about what was potentially in my pockets: but my keys were in my purse – Gott sei Dank! So I am now short my favourite winter jacket, the lining for it and my gloves. At least I had Katie bring another winter coat back with her after Christmas (I like variety) and I have a fleece I can use as a lining, plus a couple different pairs of gloves that I can use. As we were walking, I was talking to Quist about the band’s name and such, when I mentioned the term “smokin’ the pinky.” He said that he had never heard the term before, but thought it was so funny! He called Adam over and we explained it to him, and they agreed that that would be the title of their next album. I, for one, will be watching for it!

So, we hit this disco, which is called “The Registratur,” and started dancing. Olivier and I ended up losing everybody else, but I didn’t care and I don’t think he did either. (Oh, I should also mention that Vanessa and Ronnie James didn’t come with us, they took a cab back to her place. I have no idea what happened there… but I’m dying to know!!) This wasn’t the worst club I’d ever been in, but it was close. The DJ was awful, but still not as bad as the one that I mentioned that one time (the one who played American Pie), and the floor was filthy. I was actually having to kick broken glass out of the way to dance comfortably. Here, I took these pictures, but they don’t do it justice:
I ended up losing the ball for my conch piercing, again! I think I’ll have to get a whole new earring; after three years, the earring might just be getting old. Olivier also lost a pin off of his bag that he really liked, so we wandered around the bar looking for it (the lights were turned on, but the people weren’t ready to stop and the DJ was obliging them for whatever reason), but gave up after about 10 minutes or so. Anyways, it was about 4:20 at this point and we decided that the trains should be running, so he and I headed to the U-Bahn. We had to wait around for something like 28 minutes, but it was okay because we chatted until the train came. I got home about 5:30.

So, that’s the story. Not much happened for the rest of the week. I’ve spent the day bumming around and not writing emails. In fact, I was going to write this post earlier today, but put it off until after midnight. Yeah for me! Ugh. I kind of miss having a regular schedule, but not enough that I would force one on myself. You know how it is.

And now the rest of the story

2006-01-29T14:35:00.000-07:00

Okay, I talk a lot; you know it, I know it. Therefore, I write a lot. If you haven’t come to terms with this, the time has come! I was writing a post to fill you all in on the week, and it got so long that I ended it and started a new one just for yesterday, so if you haven’t read the whole week’s post, and if you want to before reading about yesterday, you should scroll down. Otherwise, here we go:

I got home on Saturday morning and slept until, like, 2:00. It was awesome! Then I got up, still feeling kind of depressed and decided that I should straighten my hair. Straightening my hair always makes me feel better when I’m sad because it’s like giving myself a mini makeover. It doesn’t cost anything, or change very much, but I love it and it makes me feel good about me. So after making some lunch and bumming around (I do a lot of that) I took a shower and straightened my hair. Olivier has been very busy with these two presentations that he’s had to do and he promised to make me the perfect quiche as a peace offering. We have also had plans for, like, a month now, that I would bring my computer over there and we would burn some DVDs. It’s fun to have stuff on your computer, but when you start to run out of space, you need to get your hands on a DVD burner and put it on a disc to make room for more stuff.

So I headed over there with my computer and helped Olivier with dinner; he made the quiche and I made the salad. Then we ate as we played crib. It was the perfect quiche! Just watch, though, the next one will be even better. He keeps getting better and better at making that quiche! So I finally realized that it had gotten to be 11:00 somewhere along the line, and we still hadn’t even started transferring the files to be burned, and that can take some time, plus it takes a good 40 minutes or so to burn a DVD. We headed into his room and came up with a pretty good transferring assembly line between the 2 computers and 2 jump drives that we had. The in between times were full of more crib, watching funny stuff on the computers, and eating cake. That jerk Olivier sure is getting good at crib. I used to be able to wipe the floor with him and now he gives me a run for my money almost every time. *sniff* They grow up so fast *sniff* We’re gonna have to start playing with muggins, if I ever want a shot at skunking him again!

Well, at about 4:05 (we really, really like playing crib) we decided that it was time I left. I checked the internet to see when the tram runs and found that comes at 4:17, which worked out perfectly, so I packed up my stuff and headed out. The tram came on time and as I was riding it, I thought to myself how safe the trams are. They ride on rails, like I streetcar, I guess, and I thought about how few accidents they probably get in. Then I had one of those moments where I imagined a car T-boning the tram at the exact point where I was sitting – I was sitting on seat that is sideways, so my back was to a window, which made it even worse – but it was one of those passing moments and I laughed it off.

The tram continued on for a little bit and we stopped at the station Hauptbahnhof Nord (that’s for anyone who actually knows Munich). This is a main stop that lots of people get off at, so the tram usually sits there for a minute or so so that everyone can get on and off. Now, I always listen to my mp3 player while I ride the buses and trains, but it’s not so loud so that I can’t hear what’s going on around me, because being oblivious is scary. As we were sitting there I heard some scraping, which is common for when the trams get going again, but I realized that, while I was hearing scraping, we weren’t actually going anywhere yet. The trams are about 2 times the length of the long buses that have a joint in them, so that there are actually three joints on each tram. I was sitting in the very back quarter of the tram and, as I looked out the back of the tram towards where the scraping was coming from, I saw a car backing up. I realized that the scraping was coming from this car. As it backed farther away, I saw that one of its headlights was out. And then I noticed that the whole front driver’s side quarter was crumpled. And (slowly, very slowly) I realized that it had rear-ended the tram! It backed up faster, then swung its back end around and took off – riding only on its rim! It was hilarious! I just sat there stunned, as the tram drove away, the driver being totally unawares.

The next stop was mine and as I got off I ran to the back of the tram to see what kind of damage the car had caused: none at all! I guess the trams really are safe… well, provided the car doesn’t T-bone it, which would cause some sort of damage, I’m sure. So I head to my bus stop and check the schedule for when the bus comes. According to the schedule, I had to wait about 8 minutes until 3:35 and then a bus would come, so I stood there. After about 3 minutes, a bus came, but it said, “Don’t board, Bus is defective,” so I kept waiting. A group of two girls and a guy came and looked at the schedule and were like “Damn, we’ve missed the last bus!” and I’m thinking, “Silly people, they must be looking at the weekday schedule, because I know that there is still a bus on the way.” So the guy comes up to me and asks if I know when the U-Bahns start running, and I say, “About half to five,” (that’s how they say it here) and he’s like, “Well, there aren’t any more buses coming.”
“What do you mean? The schedule says that a bus should come in 5 minutes, and, while you did just see one go by, it was defective, so they should be sending another.”
“Are you English?”
“Yes.”
“Hey, Andrea, come translate!”
“Is my German really that bad that you can’t understand me?!”
“No, I just came from disco and I can’t hear very well.”
(Yeah, right. *roll eyes* So Andrea comes over and we start talking.)
“I think that a bus will be coming along in 3 minutes. The last one was defective, and the schedule says that one will come in 3 minutes.”
“No it doesn’t. The buses are done for the evening.”
“What?!”

So, for anyone who wasn’t carefully following along, I said that I caught the tram in front of Olivier’s at 4:17 and then I said that the bus was coming at 3:35. Yes, I lost an hour, just like I did after Noirin’s party on Tuesday. This is getting ridiculous. So, the bad news is that the last night bus came at 4:05. The good news is that the U-Bahns start running just before 4:30, so they were already underway.

The four of us headed down to the trains and kind of talked along the way. We needed to take an S-Bahn to Marienplatz and then catch the U6 (they needed that train, too) and I, fortunately, had a U6 schedule in my purse. It said that the first U6 to run through Marienplatz came at 4:34 or something, so it was too late. The next one doesn’t come till (get this) 5:23!! I decided that there was no way I was going to wait around for 40 minutes with my laptop in a train station! So I walked to Odeonsplatz and took a cab. That’s twice in a week that I had to take a cab, so shame on me! I need to stop flying by the seat of my pants and start forcing myself to go home at decent hours. One good thing in my defense, though: at least I’m not running around drunk on top of it all! While I usually do have a few beers or drinks, I cut myself off before I end up loaded.

Okay, so there’s the last of the week in brief. Erika and I were supposed to get together today for a Canadian evening, but she’s crazy busy right now with a PhD proposal and had to cancel, which is totally cool because it took me so long to write these postings! She, Olivier, Vanessa (a friend of Olivier’s) and I are supposed to go to a concert tomorrow, but she might have to cancel, too (again, crazy busy) and Olivier is concerned that he might not be feeling too well because he doesn’t feel tip top today, so he might cancel too, but only time will tell.

I leave you with another self-portrait I took. After I straightened my hair yesterday I was struck again with the impulse to take pictures of myself. Look how long my hair is!!

Filling in the week

2006-01-29T12:30:00.000-07:00

Sorry about the weeklong hiatus, folks. In fairness, I tried to write a post yesterday but I was writing it online (instead of in Word) and my computer shut itself down for no good reason, losing everything. So, let’s see…

Monday, I went to my classes and then went to Marienplatz. I stopped in at Saturn (another A&B-type store) and bought a few CDs. They are: Death Cab for Cutie: Plans (which I should have bought in Canada, but didn’t, and I figured that if I was about to buy tickets to their concert, I’d better have the new CD); Clap Your Hands Say Yeah: self-titled (was also going to buy this concert ticket); and, on the advice of Nick, Spoon: Gimme Fiction. I am really pleased with all of these purchases, by the way.

Then I headed over to the ticket place to buy my two concert tickets. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah was no problem, but Death Cab was sold out. I couldn’t believe it. I just kind of stood there, then stammered for a few seconds and was like, “O-okay, danke.” I was heart-broken. So I headed home and looked online to see where else they were playing. Turns out that they are playing Dresden on February 16, before heading to Munich for February 18. My plan for the week prior to the Munich concert was to visit Hannah in Dresden with Katie and Nicole. I was actually planning on coming home early to see the concert. So, I spoke to Hannah and she said that she and some friends were planning on going to the Dresden show anyways, so now she will just get us all tickets, and I can see Death Cab, and I don’t have to cut the trip short, and I’m just about as happy as a pig in shit!

Tuesday was also a pretty good day. I spent most of the day doing laundry and bumming around my room, then I had my first tandem with the boy down the hall. It was pretty good; we almost exclusively spoke English, but I learned a couple of German things and, besides, I had such an English-full day ahead of me that it would have been a waste to speak too much German; I wouldn’t have retained any of it. I finished up there and headed to the speech lab. It was also a really full day there. With the semester coming to an end, people are finishing up the lessons, and there is recently lots of correcting to be done. It was almost like really working… except that it’s really just correcting people’s English and it’s only for two hours. Ha! I love my job.

After “work” I headed out to a local Irish pub called Günther Murphey’s to have some drinks with Noirin for her birthday. Her birthday was technically on Friday but she and her boyfriend were headed out to sleep in an igloo in the mountains, so we had to celebrate early. When I got there, Noirin was there with her Irish friend Brona, and Katie and Nicole were there as well. I can’t remember exactly who came next, but Oliver showed up as well as 2 other Irish girls: Nicola and Louise. It was a good night, and I really like hanging out with Irish girls; wanna know why? Here’s why: Have you ever seen so many redheads at one table?! Three of the four Irish girls are redheads, and then add me to the mix! Wow! Oh, and, going from left to right: Brona, Nicola, Louise, Noirin, Olivier and yours truly. Okay, the other funny part of the night came pretty close to the end. These two ugly, creepy, greasy guys (yes, in that order) came up and started talking to Nicola and Louise shortly after they got there. Since the two girls didn’t tell them to leave, I figured they wanted the boys there, although I couldn’t figure out why! Well, after these boys had been around for a very long time, I heard the girls telling them that they wanted to leave soon, so the boys should probably leave, etc. It was the whole leaving “soon” thing that tipped me off to the fact that they really didn’t want the boys around any more, so I look at Noirin and Brona and I’m like, “They want the guys to leave?” “Yes!” “Well, why didn’t they just say so? Gentlemen! The time has come for you two to leave! These girls are trying to tell you to go away – so go away… now!” It was hilarious, because as soon as I laid it out like that, Nicola and Louise were like, “It’s true; we want you to leave now so that we can talk to our friends.” The boys tried to argue for a while, but we were all like, “No, really, leave.” Well, except for Olivier, who just sat there with his mouth hanging open. I think he couldn’t believe that I was so direct. It was funny. The boys tried to come back later, but Noirin stepped up to the plate and straight up told them to eff right off.

We stayed at the bar until they told us to leave, which was, surprisingly, at about 1:30. Noirin and Brona were able to catch the last train back to where they live, but Olivier and I needed different trains and it turns out that we had both missed our last trains. The U-Bahn police had to kick us out of the train station. The problem is that I thought it was only about 12:45, when it was really 1:45. I have real problems with this, as you’ll see later. Anyways, we hit the street and tried to find the bus stop for the night bus, when the bus drove right by us, and they only run every hour during the week. So, Olivier said he was going to walk to his connection stop (which was south of where we were) and I decided to take a cab back to Studentenstadt (north) because I knew it wouldn’t be too much from where we were and I had no desire to sit around for that long to wait for the bus.

Wednesday was a very normal day: class, Übung, work, language class. Then I headed home and sent some emails to the U of A. Yes, folks! I have officially informed the linguistics department that I’m here! Thank you, I’m proud of me, too. I decided to download my unofficial transcripts and list of required courses to find out how much more school I have to do. I won’t give exact numbers, but let’s just say that it made me so depressed that I just want lay in bed for several days, listening to Simon & Garfunkel or Hayden, getting up only to eat fattening foods or to use the facilities. It’s that bad.

Fortunately, I’m stronger than these urges and I got up on Thursday to go to my class. Thursday afternoon, however, was spent giving into said urges. There was a lot of TV watching, showering, and falling asleep. In fairness, though, I had nothing else to do, so it was acceptable, if you ask me. I ended up taking a nap from about 5:00pm till 9:30pm, so sleeping regular hours that night was out of the question. Katie came over and we worked on a project we are doing that we were having a meeting for at 1:30 Friday afternoon. She stayed over until like, 1:30 or 2:00, something like that, and when she left I, of course, wasn’t tired yet. So I chatted with Olivier online until, like 5:00am. (He was staying up all night because he had to give a presentation at 10:00 and, while it was finished, he says he feels more nervous when he sleeps the night before. I know… I’m confused, too.)

Friday I was still feeling depressed, but managed to get out of bed in time to make lunch and go to the meeting with Katie. It was actually a great meeting. We are reworking the school’s information brochure for foreign students (hey Mom, remember that 32 page document that you read?); they are going to base all other versions off of the English one, and it’s a pretty big deal. In all honesty, Katie and I were supposed to work on it over Christmas, but we both put it off until, like, a week ago; we still had lots of ideas for things that need to be added and changed, though. It’s not really the sort of thing that you need to read over and over to realize what parts are crap and what parts aren’t, besides, I’d read it before I came and knew what parts were confusing then, and we just went through all the steps that the book details, so it was good.

Then on Friday night my floor had a Brazilian evening. We have two Brazilians living on the floor, Octavio and Alex, and Octavio (for sure) is leaving in a week or two to go back to Brazil, so the two of them cooked us dinner. There were about 10 or 12 of us there all together; that number includes Katie and Nicole, who I invited as my guests. After eating and chit-chatting for a while, the three of us headed off to Olivier’s. The plan was that there was no plan, but one of his roommates was having a birthday party and they were all supposed to be heading out to a disco soon, leaving us with a ton of goodies! So we got there and everyone was still there. And they stayed for a really long time. Finally, about 1:00am, Nicole and Katie had decided that they’d had enough of all the noise and people, and decided to catch a train home before they stopped running. I, however, love noise and people, and knew that they would leave soon, leaving me and Olivier to munch on the goodies and play crib, which is my favourite pastime!

Well, everybody headed for the Tram within a half hour or so, but Olivier and I had gotten into a conversation with one of his other roommates, Max (there are 6 altogether), as well, two of the other roomies kind of came and went throughout the conversation. We chatted for quite some time before Max headed for bed and Olivier and I decided to break out the crib board. By this time it was about 2:30 or 3:00 and we were really tired. We normally bring a table from the main room into Olivier’s bedroom, but all the tables were full of food and crap and we were too lazy to clean them off, so we sat on his bed and played a game; it was hilarious, though, because we both kept nodding off into our cards. After only one game, I decided that I was really tired and that I wouldn’t be able to safely take a bus home, so I curled up into a ball at the foot of the bed, Olivier curled up into a ball at the head of the bed, and we fell asleep… well, I fell asleep, I have no idea if Olivier actually did or not! I slept there until 7:00am when Olivier’s roommate came back from the disco and he got up to say hello. I realized that I had dreamed the entire time and I was exhausted, it felt like I hadn’t slept at all! Anyways, the reason that’s an important point is because I got up and headed out to the tram and as I walked I thought about what I had dreamed, and I realized that it was all in German!! That’s the first time since I’ve been here that I’ve dreamed in German, and it’s a really major point in language learning. I’m very pleased with it!

Oh, yeah!! I'm back, baby!

2006-01-21T13:46:00.000-07:00

I forgot to say that something wonderful happened yesterday that really made my day. On the way to meet Olivier (we wanted to play some pinball before I headed off to the party), I was walking through the Marienplatz train station when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around and there was this little woman behind me, probably about 45 or so, and she asked me if my curls were natural (I had my hair down and it looked awesome). I said they were natural and she said what beautiful hair I had.

That was the first time a stranger has stopped me about my hair since I lopped it all off. It felt so good. Look out world, here I come - I'm back!!!

Purification Rituals and Stupid Subways

2006-01-21T12:29:00.000-07:00

Well, I have a small presentation to do in class on Monday morning on a chapter out of a dissertation from the University of Vienna. Needless to say, I've been getting lots of cleaning done. I need to sit my ass down and read it, so I will try and keep this short.

I went to a house party last night with a bunch of Geology/Geophysics students. The reason for the party was that there was a guy named Alfonso who just recently got his PhD and is moving to California. The official going away party is tonight, but last night was the official pre-going away party and purification ritual. Without going into every detail of it, Alfonso is from a region in Spain called Galicia (sp?) and this is one of their traditional things. More or less, you get a pot and some candles, some honey, lemons, apples, coffee beans, very strong clear alcohol (was it vodka?) and white sugar. Then, you put the honey and alcohol in the pot, add a big spoonful of sugar, and light the whole thing on fire. You keep adding sugar and all of the other ingredients in a particular order all the while stirring this concoction - which is still on fire - and say some verses along with it. The idea is that you purify all seven regions of Galicia and we added an extra coffee bean for Germany, since that's where we were. There is a lot of symbolism, like the pot is clay (earth), the candles (fire) and the alcohol (water), then, in the end, when you put out the fire (the one in the pot, not the candles) everyone has a drink of the concoction. You are supposed to have 3 drinks of it, each one symbolizes the 3 uses of fire: purification, light and heat. That was my favourite part because they say that you shouldn't have more than 3 because outside of it's three main uses, fire is destructive and having more than the 3 drinks, it will bring destruction as well. It was fun.

Erika and I also helped this Italian guy make pasta for everyone because we were all getting a little hungry. I found out something very interesting: you're not supposed to put oregano in pasta sauce. Now, maybe I'm the only one who didn't know this, but I figured that you put oregano in pretty much everything Italian. That's wrong, apparently; you put oregano in pizza sauce, but not in pasta sauce. What Fabio actually added to the sauce to give it flavour, was a fair amount of salt. Erika made the comment that she had learned so much because she would have put in very little salt but a lot of oregano, whereas Fabio put in a lot of salt and no oregano and it tasted great. I don't know, though. The sauce did taste quite good - pretty darn good considering that it was just spur of the moment, actually, but I don't know if I'm convinced that oregano would have spoiled it like Fabio insinuated. Maybe it would have, maybe it wouldn't have. I just like oregano. I also use pasta sauce as pizza sauce sometimes. Don't tell the Italians that I know, I get the feeling they'd get upset about it.

Anyways, I may have complained about this before and I may not have: While I love the trains in this city in terms of frequency and range, I don't think they run late enough, especially on the weekends. If you don't want to leave before about 1:00 or so, then you are out of luck until the trains start up again at about 4:30ish. Anyways, I checked online for those of us who needed to catch the first train, and it started running at 4:26. I didn't think that was that bad. I would just take the U1 or U2 (they run on the same track) to Sendlinger Tor and catch the U6 straight up to Studentenstadt. I didn't technically check when the U6 was running because it really didn't matter to me, anyways. Besides, it has to start running about the same time, right?

Well, it did start running at the same time; the first U6 hit Sendlinger Tor at 4:32, but I wasn't there yet; I was still on the U1. The second U6 didn't head through Sendlinger Tor until 5:21. That's right folks!! FORTY-NINE MINUTES LATER!! And I had to sit there waiting for it. It was brutal!! I had my mp3 player and that was it! I got home at, like, 6:00am. I was not impressed. So, as I was saying, I have to go read this stupid dissertation on verbal valence and case in Ful. Have a nice day, all!

Yes, definitely the queen!!

2006-01-19T17:30:00.000-07:00

Today was a really good day. But I'll get to that later.

Monday was a boring, normal day, but Tuesday evening was a birthday party. It was our friend Antti's birthday. He's from Finland. Katie and I bought him a present that was awesome. We bought him a red sherriff's hat, an 8-shooter gun (the kind that uses those circles of bullets, you know?) and a holster to put the gun in. Then we made him open it and wear it as a special birthday costume. It was awesome. Sometimes you just find the perfect gift fot a birthday, you know? Anyways, I ended up staying at Antti's place until way too late and then walking back to my building (Antti lives in the same complex as I do, but not the same building) with this French guy named Hugo. He's the other boy in the full body picture. We had just met that night, and we only talked briefly at the party, but on the way home I found out that he really likes music, too. So I ended up at his place (same building as me) listening to music and drinking tea until about 6:00am. Fortunately, my class on Wednesday didn't start until 1:00!!

So, Wednesday was a pretty regular day, I went to my class, my Uebung, "worked" at the language lab and then went to my German class. Then I met up with Katie and we went to watch one of my favourite movies of all time: A Clockwork Orange. There is a makeshift movie theatre in the student residences at the Olympic Villiage called Olywood, and they were playing it. The thing is, I didn't know if it would be in German or English; on one hand, we're in Germany, so you'd think it would be German, but on the other hand, all the flyers I'd seen for it said "A Clockwork Orange" and not "Uhrwerk Orange." It turns out that it was in German, but it's okay because I know it well enough that they could have played it on mute and I still would have known what they were saying!! Here's the funny part that's worth mentioning: they had to change the reel after an hour and a bit and here is the sign that they put up during the intermission:

This translates to: 5 Minute pause (durr!) to smoke and grab a beer. You know you're in Germany when! Katie and I were laughing so hard!

Alright, so, the movie didn't end until just before midnight, so it was late when I got home. But I can never go to bed right when I get home, anyways, so I stayed up for a bit. I think I got to bed at about 2:00am, but that's no big deal. I had a class at 9:00am; I could have gotten up at 8:00 and been just fine. Six hours of sleep is not bad at all. I came to at 8:48. I usually leave the house at 8:45 to make it on time for *9:15. I, knowing that I am going to be late regardless of what I do, calmly get up and get dressed - hurredly, but calmly. I ended up getting off the U-Bahn at 9:15 exactly. So I'm not going to be really late. It's a couple minutes' walk to the actual classroom because I have to get to street level, then cross a street and get through the building and I decide that I am just going to walk quickly as opposed to running because, well, I'm going to be a little late anyways. I get to the classroom and everyone is sitting there, waiting. The prof isn't there yet. I think to myself, "What's going on here?" Then I look up at the blackboard and see a note that says the class is starting about 10 minutes late today. Right on!!

The rest of the day went really well, too. Katie and I had a meeting with our supervisor about doing a conversation course next semester, then I did a bit of shopping and came home. After a couple of hours there was a knock on my door. I put a note in the mailbox of this boy down the hall, asking him if he'd want to do a language tandem with me (he studies Anglistik, so I figured that I could help him as much as he could help me) and he was getting back to me, letting me know that he would be thrilled! I am really excited about it. I've been thinking for a while that I wanted to do a tandem and now I have a partner!

Then I went to a concert with Erika. I actually don't think I've really mentioned Erika at all. Erika is me; and I'm her. It's almost creepy, but I have found someone who is so much like me even we can't believe it. I haven't mentioned her, even though the connection is so creepy, because we were introduced one night and hit it off, then we hung out the next night, and the following day she headed back to Halifax for a month. She just got back last weekend (well, the weekend before, but she was really sick on the weekend) and tonight we went to this concert. It was a Spanish musician who plays celtic music, named Carlos Nunez. I realize tonight, after hearing all of his explanations about the songs, that celtic music is very similar from every country that sits on the Atlantic Ocean! There are, of course, differences, but whether it was Spanish, Breton, Irish, etc, it was very similar. It was an incredible concert; he played an assortment of different flute-ish instruments and the bagpipes, and there was a violinist/fiddler, drummer/piano player and a guitarist, but the guitar was one of those ones that are very round with a real, sort of, teardrop shape to the body. Does anybody know what I'm trying to say? Anyways, the concert was great!

I'm going to end this here, but I have one thing to say first: The icing on the cake that was today, is that I found out about a very special concert that is happening in February. Death Cab for Cutie is coming here and I am so excited! I am going to bed with a smile on my face tonight!!

*I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but Germans are crazy. I often say in Canada that I have a class from 9:00 till 10:00. That actually means that it starts at 9:00, but ends at 9:50. Same difference. When Germans say that a class goes from 9:00 till 11:00, they mean that it starts at 9:15 and ends at 10:45. I can't explain it. It just seems silly to me. Why have it this way? I get leaving a half hour between classes, but why say it this way? It makes no sense...

I'm the queen!

2006-01-15T06:42:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I went to a concert. It was a concert that I was very excited about. It was Lagwagon. It's been a long time since I was really into skate punk, but Lagwagon was one of the bands that really got me into skate punk in the first place, and when I found out they were coming to town I bought tickets right away!

Olivier and I met at our usual place so that we could play pinball before we headed off to the concert (we play a lot of pinball these days!) and ended up staying there for a little longer than expected, so when we got to the hall the first band was already playing. We grabbed some beers and made our way to the front of the crowd. I never did figure out what the name of the band was, but they weren't terrible. They weren't great, but they weren't terrible. They were German, but I'm not sure if they were from Munich or not. Either way, a pit started, which I thought was pretty weird for the first opener, but I guess if they're local... We got jostled a few times, but it was pretty innocent. That set ended and I headed off to the bathroom while Olivier grabbed a couple more beers. I kind of couldn't believe how many people there were in this little hall, but, again, Lagwagon is a fairly popular skate punk band, so maybe I shouldn't have been so surprised.

We were standing around, again near the front, waiting for the second band to start and drinking our beers when Olivier looks down at my beer and starts laughing. Know what was so funny? There was someone drinking it. He had a straw and he was stealing my beer! We talked to him for a couple of minutes before sending him on his way and then the second band started. They were called A Wilhelm Scream and I had only heard a couple of their songs before. I got the songs off of their website, and really liked what I'd heard. After hearing more than two songs, though, I really didn't like them. Neither did Olivier. They had a few songs that were pretty good, but they had the same problem that the band from the Riff Raff concert had: they changed tempos too many times! It's just really hard to enjoy a song when, as soon as you get into the rhythm, it changes and then again, and then again. They did have a few songs that I liked though, I'll give them that. It wasn't terrible, but the best part was when it ended. I should also mention that the crowd was really starting to get crazy. Right from the start, there was a fairly large pit that was pretty violent; as soon as the band hit the stage, I got hit from behind and all but poured my beer on the guy in front of me. I felt bad, but it's how it goes; he wasn't too mad.

A Wilhelm Scream finished and I toddled off to the toilet again; grabbed a couple more beers, too (I finally understand why people like to drink beers at concerts). As we were standing around the Beer-burgler came by again. I was trying to joke with him, but he seemed out of it. I figured he'd probably stolen enough beer by this point that he was pretty drunk. He was trying to explain to us that he normally drinks really cheap beer, so he didn't want to pay 3 EUR for a beer and that's why he brings a straw and steals beer... or something like that. Anyways we were trying to talk to him but I kept feeling like something was up, then he finally reached up and pulled the earplugs out of his ears. Olivier and I just started laughing and laughing - no wonder he couldn't understand us!! Fortunately, his friend came and took him away, so we didn't have to try and talk to him anymore.

Anyways, right about this time Lagwagon was doing their sound check, so Olivier and I knew that we had very little time to finish our beers before we would be wearing them. So we cheersed and slammed what was left. Lagwagon's pit was crazy. Everyone was everywhere. At first it was kind of fun, but it was seriously too intense for me; so I told Olivier that I needed out. He said, "Head for the back," so I did. When I hit the back of the pit I turned around and he wasn't there. I waited and watched for a bit, but still couldn't see him. I went back in to find him, but to no avail. I finally figured that he either must have left the pit and was looking for me or that he was still in there having a good time, so I headed all the way to the back of the hall. He wasn't there, so I grabbed a beer while I was back there. I headed around the perimeter. I hit the very far right and felt a tap on my shoulder. It was Olivier! He hopped back over to a table that was right there. Yes, I said hopped. He'd lost a shoe in the pit.

Apparently, he hit the ground at one point, people pulled him back up and he realized he didn't have one of his shoes and at pretty much that exact moment someone thrust a shoe in the air. Olivier, assuming it was his, grabbed it and headed off to the side to put it back on. It wasn't his. It wasn't even the proper foot. So he sat down. Here's where I'm not clear on what happened: I don't know if he lost said shoe as he was trying to escape the pit with me, or if he did it on a subsequent trip back in to find me, but I know he went back in to try and find me, and I'm concerned he might have made the trip with only one shoe. What a guy. Anyways, after we found each other again we sipped at my beer and he said, "I guess it's just not my night." "Don't worry, Olivier, I'll find your shoe." "You don't have to worry about it," he said, "we'll find it afterwards." Well, nuts to that! So I took a big drink, handed him my purse and headed back into the pit; crazy as it was, it was pretty fun for a short amount of time!

See, here's the thing: I'm no dummy. I know that there is no way that shoe is in the middle of the pit. Pits are always shaped like a capital D, with the straight line at the stage and the curvy part going out from there. The shoe would have to be somewhere on this D. So I headed into the pit and tried to look around, but the song was too crazy and there was no light making it to the floor at all, so it was pretty much hopeless. It was funny, though, because I kept my arms out in front of me and my head down so that I could try and make some room and see, I think I was also holding onto my hair, too, because it was down and falling in my face. Anyways, this guy stops me at one point and puts his hands on my shoulders and looks me right in the face and says, "Are you okay?! Are you okay?!" And I realize now that it probably looked like I had either taken a strong shot to the head, or that I was going to yak, but I was like, "I'm fine! I'm fine!" I'm actually really glad I went into the pit to look for the shoe at that point, because they played my favourite song from back in the day, so I stopped searching and just jumped around for a bit. I headed back to Olivier after that, empty handed.

After another song and another bit of beer, I told Olivier I was going in again. He tried to discourage me, but I knew I could find that shoe, so I went. I did the loop of the D first, because that was the easy part; it's not as crowded and some light can actually hit the floor. Nothing. I realized that I had to pee again (I think I'm 4 beers in at this point, well, three and a half if you don't count the stuff I spilled all over that guy) and I was pretty much at the bathrooms anyways, so I figured I'd make a pit stop and tackle the straight line at the front afterwards. When I came out of the facilities I took a deep breath and plunged in. I made it all the way to the front and started working my way along. A very short ways in, something caught my attention. I reached down and picked it up. It was a shoe! A left shoe! I flipped it over: Airwalk. Hallelujah, I've found it!! I took off through the pit and came out on the other side with a triumphant smile, waving the shoe in the air! I was so proud. I AM so proud, even today! Anyways, Olivier was thrilled and we started laughing and hugging and I started dancing around; there was a guy sitting next to Olivier, too, who I think put together pretty quickly what had happened and he started laughing, too. I did a victory dance along to the music and Olivier bought me a beer in gratitude. I danced around for a couple more songs, feeling very, very pleased with myself and then Olivier and I headed to the back of the pit to enjoy the last part of the concert.

The problem is that, if I'm at the back of the pit, I just want to get into it. So I did, and Olivier did, too. The pit wasn't any less crazy this time, but we held onto each other at all costs - just like at the Franz Ferdinand concert. We hit the floor once, maybe twice, but - as crazy as the crowd was - people would always stop and pull us up. That's one good thing about shows, people really are there to have a good time, and they will always help you up if you fall. Anyways, we hit the ground yet again, but this time there were about 4 or 5 people on top of me and my ankle was fully extended. This wouldn't have been so bad except that I rolled my ankle really bad the other day (again with the motor skills complaint) and was still having problems with it. I was actually afraid it was going to snap. We got pulled up and I told Olivier that we had to leave the pit; so we did, and very shortly thereafter the show was over.

We wandered around the hall for a bit, I bought another beer and we headed over to the merch table where I bought a shirt and Olivier bought a bunch of pins (some of which were for me!), then we left. I realized that I had lost one of the balls (yes, okay, laugh now, and then get over it because I'm about to use the word "balls" a bunch) for the earrings that I just bought at Tollwood. I don't really care because the earrings were only, like 2 EUR, or something, but the fact of the matter is that now I kind of like having balls in my earrings and will have to find a piercing studio so that I can get a replacement, and that's a hassle. I'm also afraid that if I walk into a piercing studio, I'll walk out with a new hole in my body because I have been thinking for a while that I want something new done. Anyways, Olivier and I made it back to Stachus and stopped in at McDonald's to chit chat while we waited for our buses to come. Then, when I made it home, I found out that I had lost the ball for my conch piercing, too! What a burn! I've had the thing pierced for 3 years and have never lost the ball!! Grrr... well, I was going to head to a studio to get a ball for my one earring, anyways, so now I'll just have to buy two while I'm there.

Yeah, that's the story of the Lagwagon concert; I'd say I'm sorry that it's so long, but... I'm not! Happy Sunday!!

*********************************************************

*SIGH* I posted what is written above and then reread it, and it occurred to me how long it's been since I posted any pictures. Admittedly, there haven't been many to post. I took some at Christmas, but forgot the camera at New Year's and then I don't bring it with me when I go play pinball or crib, and that's pretty much all I've done. However! Every now and again I am struck with how great my view is and I take a picture or two (there has been a ridiculous amount of hoarfrost on the trees these last few days, and from the ninth floor it looks pretty neat). Or, even less often, while I'm dancing around in my room, I think that I would like to take pictures to capture the moment. I have figured out how to use the timer function on the camera and I dance and dance. Last night, as I was getting ready for the concert, this compulsion hit me and I took out the camera. Several timer settings and self-portraits later, I grabbed my purse and headed out. Today I looked through them and now I feel that I should post one of myself, (taken yesterday!) so that you can all see how I'm doing, what my hair looks like, and the big bump on my forehead (I can see it in this one, at least)!

Being clumsy sucks

2006-01-13T19:08:00.000-07:00

I hit my head today. Now, I'm really clumsy; everyone knows this. I don't think there has been a day in my life that I haven't had a bruise somewhere on my body. They're usually on my legs, so I hide them by wearing pants 98% of the time. Sometimes they're on my arms, but I ignore them unless they're really bad, then I wear long sleeved shirts. But today I did something so stupid that now I will have to wear this bruise like a badge of honour.

I dropped something in my very small kitchen. Seems harmless enough, right? Well, when I went to bend down to get it I thought to myself, "Don't hit your head on the open cupboard door; you could take an eye out on that." So as I was concentrating on avoiding the door (which, in retrospect, really wasn't even a threat) I bent down and *BANG* hit my head on the countertop. My forehead to be exact. I hit my forehead very, very hard right on the top of the counter. Ten minutes or so later - you know, after I'd recovered - I checked the mirror and decided that I would probably be okay, at least no one would ever know that I could be such a retard.

Yeah, several hours later, I have a goose egg. It's probably going to bruise, too, because I always bruise. I should have known that I wouldn't get off so easily! I guess that only time will tell how bad this will be. I can, of course, see the lump, and Katie can, too, but I also told her the story. Noirin was over here tonight and she didn't say anything, but I don't know if that's because it's not noticeable or because we haven't seen each other in several weeks and she forgot what my forehead normally looks like. (You know that feeling you get when you're like, "Wow, was Jimmy's head always shaped like that? Yikes!")

I can't believe I'm 23 and haven't gotten the whole "basic motor skills" thing down yet. Well, stupid is as stupid does, I guess.

Squishy cheddar is cheddar nonetheless

2006-01-11T15:57:00.000-07:00

Good day. Definitely a good day. I think it's because the sun was shining again. It's funny what a difference that can make.

I got up at about 10:00 and puttered. I kept eyeing the forty of Crown Royal that Katie brought back for me and thinking that it might be a nice day to get completely wasted and dance around in my underwear, but decided that that is better saved for a day where I don't have to skip classes. Besides, it's Wednesday. Wednesday's are hot TA day. I shower and get ready, then make lunch. Then I head off to my class for 1:00. We have the class and I realize that the test is coming up in this class quite soon: second week of February to be exact, and get a bit nervous. Then again, what do I care. The Linguistics department still doesn't know I'm here, so writing a test in German really shouldn't be on the top of the list of things I have to worry about. Uhhh... mom, I realise that's probably the first you're hearing of this, but I promise that I am working on thinking about writing an email to let someone know, so don't stress!

After the class was the Uebung. The TA came into the room and I was like, "Yikes! Why did I think this guy was hot again?!" Then he started talking and I remembered. Everything he says is interesting. And brilliant. Interesting and brilliant. *sigh* Anyways, that class ended all too quick and then it was time to go to "work." I have decided that I will have to start putting it in quotes because it's too easy to be work without quotation marks. I marked a couple of people's work right at the beginning, then sat around and chatted with Oksana for a really long time. Katie came after her class at 7:00 and I decided to skip my German class because I wasn't prepared and I really wanted my loot from Katie (I got an SMS in the afternoon from her, so I knew it had arrived)! The funny thing is that we sat around in the lab for a little longer; chit-chatted with Christian and Oksana for a while, I think I marked one other person's work and by the time we headed home, we actually ran into some of the people from my class in the U-Bahn because they had finished. Oh well! Oh! And on the way out of the lab Oksana was like, "Hey! The lecture we have tomorrow is cancelled. I had a seminar with the same professor today and he said that he wasn't feeling well, but thought it was important to go to the seminar, but that the lecture tomorrow would be cancelled." "Are you sure, Oksana? Could it really be true?!" "Go downstairs to the classroom right now and look; there might be a sign on the door already." And, you know what? There was. And the lecture is cancelled and that means I have a four-day weekend. Oh, yeah!! Oh, and the conversation didn't go exactly like that, I don't talk like a retard - not even in German! I added relevant information so you could all keep up; just thought I'd clarify that.

We got back to Katie's and she gave me the rest of the awesome haul! There were new clothes and curling irons and Stoned Wheat Thins, oh my! It was great! I am so excited. Now that I have cheddar, we are having tacos tomorrow. I was waiting for the right cheese. And I can eat the Chunky Chicken Corn Chowder soup that I got on Monday night, because now I have crackers to put in it. I was really worried about those Stoned Wheat Thins because there were crumbs falling out of the box, and they sounded really broken. And I was afraid that I would have Stoned Wheat Thin Powder and nothing else, but I opened up the bags and put the crackers into Zip-loc bags to keep them fresh and I am very pleased with the ratio of broken to unbroken crackers. Very pleased! In the same way that the squeaky wheel gets the grease, the broken Stoned Wheat Thin makes the crumbs. That's my new saying, let's see if it catches on.

Okay, I'm ready now

2006-01-10T17:06:00.000-07:00

Today was a really great day. Nicole came back on Sunday and Katie on Monday (complete with a crapload of loot!), so I have all this great new stuff and the sun was shining to boot! So, considering what a good day it was, let me tell you about all that has happened: Katie left on Tuesday the 20th, if I remember correctly, but Nicole and I still had classes to attend. Thursday afternoon Nicole and I headed to Sendlinger Tor where there was the Christkindl Tram. It was really sweet. Basically, for the month before Christmas the MVG (equivalent to ETS) takes one of the trams out of their fleet and decorates the inside with garlands and stars and stuff, then they take you on a special ride through the city centre that costs a dollar. They also have, inside the tram, cookies and muffins and Gluehwein that you can buy. It was very nice. One funny thing, I think, is that it cost a dollar, but was free for "kids under 120cm" or something like that. Not "free for kids under 12, regardless of height," but instead they put on a height restriction. Now, if I'm 15, but really short, do I still count as a kid? And what about those freakishly tall kids? Silly Germans.

That night we went with Olivier and his friend Lucie (who had just arrived that day) to the Gogol Bordello concert. It was really great. There were 2 openers; they were called "The Scotch Greens" and "Throwrag." Gogol Bordello was the best band with a finale like I have never seen before and an encore that was, like, 8 songs! I honestly lost count. And it wasn't just like it was a second set, because we were in the front and could see the set list. The finale was that they took this huge drum which this chick had just been beating the tar out of, and then tossed it on top of the crowd; then the lead singer climbed on top of the drum and stood there as the crowed surfed it around for a bit. Well, it didn't really go very far at any point, but it was crazy because he was standing on this drum which was being held up by the crowd. Awesome. Afterwards I made it to the merch table on time (yeah, me!) and bought a shirt as well as a Throwrag belt buckle. I couldn't help it, it's huge!

We ended up leaving quite late and by the time we made it back to the train station and took the train to Marienplatz to catch our connection, the U-Bahn had stopped running. So we considered our options and decided to walk to Odeonsplatz to catch the night bus. The problem with the night bus is that it only runs once every hour and we missed it by about 10 minutes. So we decided to wait for a cab. Normally there is an absolute line up of cabs at Odeonsplatz just waiting to take you where you want to go. Not on Thursday, December 22. Long story short: we waited for over 20 minutes and I almost got into a fist fight (it's true that I don't ever know when to shut my mouth), then we finally got a cab and came home. It was late and we had to leave here at something like 5:30 at the latest to catch our train to the Bodensee. I did everything I needed and then took a nap and Nicole decided to stay up the whole night. Olivier calls that a "white night" and I like that because it makes me think of Whyte Knight, which makes me think of Whyte Ave, which makes me think of Mars and Venus and Gravity Pope and Divine and Sanctuary, which, in turn, makes me happy.

We made it to the town where Nicole's cousin was supposed to pick us up, but I can't remember what it's called right now, in about 4 hours or so; and then we started waiting. After close to an hour, I was starting to wish we had stayed in Munich, but Nicole got a hold of them on her cell and they said they were on their way. That was the last time the whole weekend I wished we had stayed in Munich! They were incredible! Their names are Horst and Bettina. Bettina is the relative; it’s a relation on Nicole’s mother’s father’s side. They both work for the Kripo (Kriminalpolizei = Criminal Police (durr)), which, just to clarify, means that they do the cool stuff on CSI, but not so Hollywoodized and with more paperwork - according to them. I believe Horst said he specializes in homicides. Their children’s names are Martina (17), Nico (14) and Michael (or Michi, 8). Bettina’s parents were also in town; they are named Klaus and Hildegard (might be Hildegaard). And, since they live in a town just outside of a really major tourist attraction, they have two little apartments in the basement that are for the purpose of renting out to people during the on-season. The major benefit of this is that when relatives come visit in the off-season, they have a very comfortable place to stay. This family was so great to both of us even though I was a complete stranger and Nicole had never met them before either (I think that she might have met Klaus and Hildegard once before, but I’m not sure); they made us food and treated us just like one of the family. They even gave each of us a gift on Christmas Eve (which is the main day in Germany, and not Christmas morning). I was so touched by their kindness.

Nicole and I had to leave on Monday for a couple of reasons:

We didn’t want to out-stay our welcome. They kept telling us that we were welcome to stay, and I believe that they genuinely meant it, but it is such a fine line and, who knows, maybe we’ll be able to go back again now that we didn’t overstay our welcome!

Nicole was leaving for Sweden on the Wednesday and had a bunch of stuff to do to get ready for the trip.

I had only brought enough underwear to last to Monday. I suppose I could have worn them inside out and we could have stayed another 3 days, but I figured that it was probably a pretty good indication that it was time to go home.

So we were discussing how we should take the train when Bettina told us about http://www.mitfahrgelegenheit.de/. That breaks down to “drive-with opportunity” and it is basically a site where drivers look for passengers and passengers look for drivers. I would normally be very skeptical of this sort of thing, except that Nicole and I were 2 riding together and Bettina, who works for the Kripo, recommended it. She said that usually it’s university students going back and forth from home to school and are looking for a way to split the cost of gas. Judging by the looks of this guy, she was right! We paid 10 EUR each to ride from Meersburg to Munich. That’s awesome! I will definitely attempt to use Mitfahrgelegenheit again!

We got back and Nicole stayed home to get some of her stuff done. I changed and headed out to meet Olivier and Lucie as we had planned via SMS to go find some karaoke in this fair city. We wandered around for close to forever without any luck. We had even phoned Nicole to get her to look in the internet for karaoke places, but, with it being the Monday after Christmas, everything was closed (again, Silly Germans). So after some discussion, I headed home to get my crib board and some booze while Olivier and Lucie headed back to Olivier’s. I met them there about an hour and a half later (the longer I live, the more I realize that I suck at judging how long it will take to do something) and we got down to playing crib. By the way, I am slowly introducing crib to Europe, so far the reception has been good, and I am excited for the future possibilities. Lucie’s train was leaving at 6:42 in the morning and so, considering that I didn’t even arrive at Olivier’s until close to 1:00, we decided pull a white night. (I wonder, do you say "pull" a white night or "make;" "have," maybe. Hmmm, what verb would you use?)

Just before 6:00 Lucie started gathering up her stuff. We headed out about 6:10 or 6:15. This was plenty early enough as the train station is only an 8 minute tram ride from Olivier’s, so we weren’t rushing at all. We waited for the tram and, as we were on the way to the first stop after Olivier’s, Lucie was like, “Where’s my bag?” This is one of those sentences that holds so much importance, that I truthfully can’t remember if it was spoken in English or French. “Did you leave it at bus stop? Wait, did you ever have it, or did you leave it in Olivier’s room?!” Yeah, she left it at Olivier’s place. Can you imagine?!! It was still okay, though, because we would just get off, take the tram back and catch the next one back, really it would be okay. Well, turns out that the trams are less than reliable in Munich. At the next stop, even though there is an LED sign that says when the next train is supposed to come – it didn’t. We made it back to Olivier’s and made him run up the 5 flights (hey, there’s no use in all of us running up the stairs, and he’s used to it) then back to the tram stop, where that tram was also running late. We ended up running through Munich Central Station at full tilt; it was like something out of a movie, with all of us bobbing and weaving between people and signs and kiosks. I should also mention that I was half cut and after we stopped I really thought that I was gonna yak. Fortunately, I had a half-full bottle of orange juice in my backpack (yeah for mix!), and it was frothy like a smoothie after the shaking it got while I was running! I should let you know that we made it to the train with a couple of minutes to spare. It was one of the funniest things that has happened since I got here, though! Possibly second only to forgetting to get off the train that time.

The next few days were full of not very interesting things. Olivier and I played a fair amount of crib and he made me quiche on the Thursday. It was wonderful. I think that if I can’t go camping or to the lake and play crib, my second favorite way to play crib is while eating quiche. Yum! I told him that he better watch out or I’ll make him my Hausfrau, and he said he doesn’t do windows or bathrooms. I love this guy! I wish you could all meet him. We went to Karaoke on Friday (I mentioned this on my Dec. 31 post) and we joined Geli and her friends on New Year’s Eve.

The New Year’s Eve Karaoke Party was pretty awesome. We didn’t really meet any new people at all, just mostly kept to ourselves. Sang along to every song and laughed our asses off when they would karaoke in German. Man it sounds funny! It was cool because there was free food and dollar beers. The coolest part of the night, though, was midnight. I had seen people in the grocery stores buying fireworks and seen people on the train carrying them, but I had no idea. At midnight we looked out the windows of the bar (which is on the second floor and is surrounded by really short buildings, and all we could see were fireworks. Everyone in the whole city was setting off fireworks. It was so cool and I apologize to everyone (myself the most) that I forgot my camera; Olivier also forgot his. It’s a crying shame because this was so cool! Literally, folks, 180 degrees of fireworks, there were even some going off in the short buildings in front of us. I just kept saying over and over how I don’t even want to know how many people will lose a hand because of this. I found out from someone later that fireworks are illegal in Germany every day of the year except this one. Wow. Wow.

The next week was really quite calm. My favourite donair place was closed every day of the week. I know this because I walked there, like, 5 of the 7 days to see if it was open. What a burn. I wouldn’t even mind if there were a sign that said “Reopening on such and such a day,” but there isn’t. I hung out with Olivier a lot; we played crib and he found an arcade, so now we play pinball and the naked ladies game, too. He made me quiche again the night that we went to the Riff-Raff concert. I’m so glad he was here these last couple of weeks. He kept me somewhere right in between sane and nicely crazy. I’m thinking about starting a “Move Olivier to Edmonton” fund. Anyone who wants to contribute, let me know, and if anyone has major university connections to see if we can get him a full scholarship, see what you can do. Then he’d have to say yes! Peter, if you read this, what’s the Japanese program like at the U of A? That’s what you’re studying, right? And Preshani’s poli-sci: how does Edmonton rank? C’mon folks, together we can do this!! Olivier: come live in the land of Ashley and Bari!! The grass is so green you won’t believe it!!

German elevators are horrible

2006-01-07T07:57:00.000-07:00

This building is driving me crazy. Not, like, I have cabin fever and need to get out, but rather, the actual building is driving me crazy.

First of all, dust collects in this room like crazy. I don't know how. It doesn't makes sense! There is one vent in the room; it's in the bathroom, but it doesn't blow air into the room - it sucks it out - so I don't think that's the source. I have a radiator, so there's nothing coming in from there because, well, it radiates. I rarely open the windows so it's not from there. The only thing I can think is that the dust is coming in from the hallway. It's the only possibility. Nicole made the comment that, after we were gone for 3 days to the Bodensee, that she couldn't believe how much dust had collected even while no one was there and while there was no one opening or closing the door. So does that really mean that all this dust is coming from the half inch opening between the bottom of the door and the floor? That's crazy if it's true.

Then there is the problem with the elevators. I have never seen anything like the elevators here - and by here I mean all over Munich and not just in Orange House. Honestly, it is really common for a building to have a really small elevator with a door that opens like a regular door and then, once the door has shut, there is a sliding door inside. It was weird at first, but I got used to it.

There are 2 entrances to my building, the south and the north, and I usually go in the north because I live right near the north stairwell on the ninth floor. This elevator is always acting up. I am constantly coming home and there is a sign that says the elevator is out of order. Sometimes I walk up the nine flights and sometimes I walk down the hall to the south stairwell, depending on how I'm feeling.

So today I was walking down the stairs (I think it's lazy to take the elevator when you're decending) and when I hit the ground floor I went to open the door like I always do - with a lot of force because it's a big heavy door! BAM! I bounced! I think I bruised my hip in the process, too! I check again to make sure I was on the ground floor and tried the door again. It was locked. I have no idea how or why, but it was locked. So I had to walk up to the first floor, head down the hallway to the other stairwell and then go back down to the ground floor. I walked towards the north stairwell to see if there was something that could be done from the other side of the door. There was nothing, but I confirmed that it was locked from this side as well. Oh well, when I headed back home I knew to use the other stairs.

So when I was done my errands, I entered through the south entrance instead of the north and hit that elevator. A couple of weeks ago (I think it was on Dec. 26 or 27) there were several notes left in the stairwells from the housing department that said they had to fix something in the south stairwell on the 8th or 9th floor and, therefore, the elevator would be set not to stop at the 8th floor for a period of, like, 24 hours. That's fine, no big deal, right? Well, two weeks later and they haven't reactivated the 8th floor. Everytime I use that elevator (and, again, recently I use it a lot because the one in the north stairwell hasn't been working well) I have to go to the 10th floor and walk down. I'm not so lazy as to get really upset about the fact that I have to walk down a hall and a flight of stairs, but I'm just really getting annoyed that nothing works!

It might just be bad timing because maybe the Hausmeister is on vacation, so nothing is getting fixed, I don't know; but it's still really, really annoying! Now, if you'll excuse me, I think I have to go ice my hip.

I love music. I love live music. I love local music.

2006-01-06T08:54:00.000-07:00

Last night a friend of Olivier’s, Vanessa, brought us to a show at a bar that was just local bands. I had never been there before, but the bar is called Orange House, which I love because I, technically, live in Orange House. See, the main buildings in Studentenstadt are each different colours and you usually just refer to them by what colour they are; Nicole and I live in Orange House and Katie lives in Green House. I thought it was pretty funny. At any rate, the crowd was an interesting one. It was kind of like a show at Eastwood Hall, actually. Plus beer. Well, there was always beer at Eastwood Hall shows, but last night there was less vomiting; which, I should say, is the benefit to having a culture so open when it comes to alcohol – it’s not a novelty and isn’t as abused as it is in North America. And, as much as I complain about indie rock crowds and their lack of dancing, I was reminded last night why I prefer them to punk rock crowds – punks are rude. Now, I know how bad it is to stereotype groups, but, honestly, in indie rock crowds, if you want to get through to, say, go to the bathroom, you can just put a hand on someone’s back and they will move forward or sideways or whatever; in punk crowds, you just have to push your way through, and people will just push their way through and it’s all very… pushy.

Anyways, the headliner was a band called Riff-Raff and the connection to Vanessa is that a good friend of hers is dating the lead singer. It was an interesting night right from the start. There was a midget at the door. Two actually. Well, one might have just been a really short guy, and I would actually call the girl a dwarf because she didn’t have the normal midget qualities. Either way, it was a good way to start things off. I also thought I noticed on the sign at the front door (and later I saw another sign that confirmed it) that said the production company (I don’t know what else to call it, basically the guys who set the show up) is called Soylent Gelb (Gelb = yellow). I thought this was absolutely hilarious! We girls dropped our stuff off backstage (the best part about knowing people who know people) and then Olivier and I went to listen to the first band while the other girls (I should mention that Vanessa’s friends are named Nina and Carina) went to hang out near the bar. I really gotta say, I didn’t like the first band at all. The best part was when it ended. They had some pretty decent sounds, the problem was they changed styles and tempos too many times in each song and then back again… and then back again. It was wretched.

After the horror was over, Olivier and I went to talk to Vanessa and her friends, and we all took a wander through the bar, though I can’t remember why. Anyways, we ran into a couple other friends of Vanessa who turned out to be the members of Riff-Raff. Not to brag (but also to brag, hee hee), I apparently have the German accent down pretty well. We were chit-chatting with Daniel, the lead singer and boyfriend, for a little bit, and then Flo the drummer and Toby the bassist came up. And it was a whole lot of, “This is Olivier from France and Bari from Canada, blah, blah, blah…” And Flo was very surprised that I am from Canada and speak German (I don’t know if the surprise was that I am from Canada and speak German, or if it was that I’m from North America and speak German, but either way…) and wanted to know how that came to pass. So I started telling him the story and a sentence or two in he, all of a sudden, started yelling something that made absolutely no sense at all. He wasn’t angry, but really… excited – or something and I finally look at Vanessa and I’m like, “what the hell is he yelling about?” And she says, “You said something with an accent and now he knows that you’re a foreigner.” So I started laughing and was like, “I just finished saying that I’m from Canada and only now are you realizing that I’m a foreigner?! Do people often lie and say that they’re from Canada…blah, blah, blah!” It was great because I did it all in German (of course) and actually had them laughing. It felt really good because I’m not normally funny in German. It felt like me again. My point is that it took him a few minutes to really believe that I wasn’t German, and that says something.

The second band wasn’t bad, but was a little harder core. They started to get the crowd riled up, which is good for the headliner, and I started to get into it as well, which was necessary after the wretchedness of the first band. There isn’t much to say about it. A small pit started up, which basically means that there was lots of pushing (again, it’s how it is) but I stayed on the outskirts and just danced to myself, and when they were done I grabbed another beer.

Riff-Raff actually made it onto the stage in record time, which is impressive because the show was running a little behind and they almost put it back on track – not that it mattered because they were the headliners, but still. It was about the third song in and I wasn’t in the pit yet because I still had two thirds of a beer, but I was, again, right on the edge dancing to myself when a stray “dancer” fell backwards and elbowed me right in the mouth. Don’t worry; I’m not injured. I thought I’d have a huge lip today, but it’s really not bad; it’s that sort of bloody that’s not bloody but also not swollen, so I’m cool with my battle scar. Anyways, I realized that I had to quickly finish my beer and get into the action, or I was just a sitting duck. So I did. It was great; a small but lively pit; and I really enjoyed Riff-Raff.

That was pretty much it. We left shortly after and headed back to the train station. It was pretty late at that point and they were running at stupid times, but we made it to the station where we have to catch the tram back to Olivier’s in fairly decent time. Then we had to wait for the tram for 15 or 20 min, so we went into an arcade and played the naked ladies game. Then we had to run for the tram. I actually think that we probably would have made it without running, but we ran anyways. Then we played crib at Olivier’s for a few hours and I came home. All in all, a fantastic night!

Sometimes things work out in the weirdest way...

2005-12-31T09:06:00.000-07:00

Okay, I still haven't been in any sort of headspace over the last few days to write about last weekend at all, but I have to tell you what's happened today.

First of all, I should say that the trip was cancelled because the guy who was driving got sick, and then there was another guy who got in a car accident the other week and so... now no one's going. It has been snowing in Munich lots and lots but that's not the reason.

Then I should say that Olivier is an absolute godsend! On Thursday he made me quiche (oh, yeah!) and we were going to go to Karaoke, but we started playing crib and... well, I'm sure you all know what happens when you start playing crib - it doesn't stop! So we spent the whole night playing crib and not going to Karaoke. That's okay because we went last night and had a great time. I, personally, had such a great time, that I have no voice today, which sucks because our plan was to find a New Year's Eve Karaoke Party and sing the night away. Whatever, having no voice has never stopped me in the past! Anyways, we found a NYEKP but weren't sure if we were supposed to buy tickets or what, so I took a nap and considered calling them to ask.

While I was napping, I got a text message from Geli (see Franz Ferdinand post) and she said (get this) that some of her friends were planning a Karaoke party and wanted to know if I wanted to join her. So I called her and I guess that her ski trip got cancelled, too and she just found out yesterday. So she is staying Munich and wasn't sure what I was up to and now, just like that, Olivier and I are going to this Karaoke party with Geli.

Don't get me wrong, I knew that things would work out, I just didn't think they'd work out this well...

Not much to say

2005-12-28T14:25:00.000-07:00

Well, the truth is that there are tons of things to say, but I can't say them. Not right now, at least. I'm too... sad, maybe?

I was in a good mood today because I talked to Ashley last night. I called her and we talked for, like, two hours. It was awesome. Then today was a really weird day full of not doing very much. And no one was online all day. And I was very lonely. And if any of my neighbours are home, they are probably going to shoot me if I play BNL's Brian Wilson one more time.

Then someone did come online. And I was happy. And it was Eddy. And the ski trip is cancelled. And I'm not going to Austria anymore. And I don't know what I'll do. And I'm... disappointed, maybe?

Poop.

I wish...

2005-12-26T20:24:00.000-07:00

If I had a rubber ball that was really, REALLY bouncy, I'd feel a lot better more of the time.

Merry Christmas!!

2005-12-22T18:40:00.000-07:00

Okay, this is going to be really short because I have to leave for the train station in 3 hours and I just got home, but I want to wish everyone a merry Christmas! I will be back on Sunday or Monday and will fill you all in then. Love you all.

Days like these... I hate'em

2005-12-21T16:25:00.000-07:00

Today was a rotten day. A rotten, rotten day. I woke up at 7:30 and had to pee so bad. I wandered off to the bathroom with my eyes closed so that I didn't wake up more than I had to; this is not very difficult because my room is only fourteen square metres. I finished up, put my head under the tap to get a drink of water because I had morning pasties and got back into bed. I realised that I was actually feeling quite refreshed and hoped that I wouldn't fall back into a deep sleep before my alarm rang at 8:15, but I love lying in bed so much that I wasn't about to get out of it any sooner than I had to. When the alarm rang I was tempted to just get up and start the day, but decided that I had actually set the alarm for 8:12 for the explicit purpose of hitting snooze twice. I should mention here that my class didn't start until 1:00, but I am trying to turn over a new leaf by getting up at 8(ish) everyday and exercising; the first phase is training myself to get up, then I will try the exercising part. So, I hit snooze. And had a little dream before the next alarm rang. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. When everything was said and done, I got out of bed at 11:00. Not happy.

Today is Wednesday. Wednesday is the day where I see that TA that I have a crush on so I always try to look nice on Wednesdays. Today is an especially big Wednesday because I don't think that everyone who normally comes to the Uebung will be there, seeing as how it is the last week before the break. I turn on my curling iron so that it can heat up while I shower. I get in the shower. I shower. I get out of the shower. I don't know what to wear. I decide to air dry and make lunch. You know, yesterday before lunch I washed all the dishes, so how is it possible that every single dish in the whole place is dirty? I start cutting up some veggies (still naked) and get some meat cooking, then I take the towel off my head and brush out my hair. I go over to the curling iron. It's not hot. That's odd. Then I realise that it's broken. I almost cry, but hold it together. I try a different outlet. Still nothing. I'm sure it's broken and I'm sad because it's the best curling iron ever, and it's from Canada and I only recently found out that it's dual voltage and was just enjoying it again. It was like a second honeymoon with this old girl and then she just died on me! That's okay, I'll find something else to do with my hair. Crap, better get back to cooking lunch or it will burn.

It's now 12:10. I am sitting at my desk, naked, eating spaghetti, watching Gilmore Girls and whining to Nicole and Olivier over MSN about what a shitty morning it's been. I finish eating and put on some pants. I decide that I have to do something with my hair so I put it in a muffin. Frizzy. I take it out of the muffin, grab my blow dryer, straighten only the front and put it back into a muffin. I find a shirt and put that on. That messes up the muffin and I have to redo it. I am finally ready to go and I head off. At least I get to see that TA today. I get to the lecture and sit next to the friend I have in that class. Her name is Dijana. She says that someone is checking to see if the prof is even here today. He isn't; class is cancelled. So now I have two hours before the Uebung. Dijana is going home, and isn't coming back; it's not worth it. I realize that, if I thought there were going to be only a few people there before, there certainly would be even less now that the lecture (which is directly before the Uebung) was cancelled.

Canadian Bari would take this opportunity to impress and talk to Hot TA. That's because Canadian Bari is smart and funny and quick. German Bari is awkward. That's it. That sums me up: awkward. So I went home and watched my new favorite soap opera. Then Nicole and I went to the store. I came home, ate dinner and then headed off to work. I had a very strenuous evening because Dario was busting my chops right from the get go about correcting the homework assignments that were handed in because they wanted to email them back out tomorrow before the holidays start. But when I got there Oksana was correcting someone's work and there were two other people waiting to be corrected, so I sat down with one of them despite what he had to say.

I finished up with the girl and got to work on the homework assignments. The last homework assignment was an easy one to correct; it was a letter of introduction. In this one, the student reads a short article on apartheid in South Africa and then writes a short paper on their opinion on the matter. This is really hard to mark. Sometimes the person writes something that is really unclear and you have to guess the proper word that they wanted to use, but you know that it could be one of four words and each word would give it a completely different meaning. It's really hard when they aren't there to ask what they mean. It's really strenuous, actually.

Afterwards Dario, Oksana, Christian and I all headed off to Tollwood again. I love Tollwood and was thrilled that that's where we were going! So, we got there and met one of their friends who was named Christina (I think) and spend the next hour standing out in the cold and drinking Gluehwein, Gluehbier and hot chocolate (by the way, Nicole, I tried those Langos things: they're okay) before heading into the main pavillion tent to look around. It ended up okay. But I bought some mittens and a little bag thing and was too downtrodden to bargain. Whatever, I don't feel ripped off, and I guess that's what matters.

I hope that tomorrow is a better day. It should be. Nicole and I are going to take the Christkindltram (Christmas tram) around the city and then, in the evening, we are going to a concert with Olivier and a friend of his from France who is coming for Christmas. He seems pretty certain that she and I will hit it off, so I am excited. The band is called Gogol Bordello and, from the two songs I've heard, they sound like a cross between Polish folk music and Ska. Kind of like Ska with a squeeze box instead of a saxophone. We'll have to see, though, because I really have only heard the two songs. Okay, I should head to bed now, I have a big day tomorrow! I leave you with a picture that I took of Tollwood the first time I went. I apologize that it's a little blurry, but what you are looking at is a large sculpture right near the entrance. Apparently, there is a new sculpture every year.

I need an intervention

2005-12-20T07:22:00.000-07:00

On one hand, I should be stopped. On the other – I don’t wanna be!! Look what I bought yesterday:

My language course went really well and then I met up with Katie and we went to Tollwood (the huge Fringe-esque market). And that’s where I bought the buckle; I also bought some new earrings, but they are really quite boring. They’re just rings with a silver ball in them, but they are to replace my orbitals since I lost the silver ball, like two years ago! Then we ate perogies and a huge Polish sausage. Then we cracked jokes for the rest of the evening every time one of us burped because Polish sausages come back to visit over and over and over! I love Tollwood. I could spend hours and hours and thousands of dollars there. I think that it has replaced Shopper’s Drug Mart as my favorite place to shop! There’s one problem: it closes on Friday. It’s just a seasonal thing. Oh, well. That’s probably for the best.

That’s pretty much it. Did laundry this morning. There was a dryer free, which is awesome. I love socks that fit!! I can’t believe that it is already Dec. 20!! Katie leaves today. I’m excited because she’s going to bring me back stuff, but I’m sad because she’s good to have around! When she was in Portugal for a week it was tough, but now she’s going to be gone for two and a half weeks!! Whatever, not worth stressing about. She’ll have fun and I’m excited for her. Okay, well, I have to go fetch those clothes from the dryer, laters!

Let's try posting daily

2005-12-19T10:16:00.000-07:00

Well, I don't have much time before I have to head off to my language class, but I thought I'd post something quick so we don't end up with what happened last week!

Yesterday Nicole and I went over to Katie's place to help her pack since she leaves tomorrow. We ate one of the pecan logs that mom sent me and I wrapped the stuff I'm sending back with Katie. Three bites of that pecan log and I was literally vibrating! I love pecan logs. Then I came home and called my parents. I should mention that I usually call them on Sunday nights, it's nice to have that every week. And Nicole recently set me up with this awesome phone card thing and now it's super cheap! Anyways, when I talked to mom she asked how many pecan logs I got in the package. I said, "Two." She said, "That's funny, I sent six." So, apparently, four of my pecan logs got confiscated by Deutsche Post. How odd.

Today I had my two morning classes and then went to the Christmas Market at Marienplatz. I'm going to be really sad when this season is over because it's so nice there. I should interject here for anyone *cough*Nicole*Katie*cough* who has heard me complain about the Christmas Market at Marienplatz: It was very nice at noon on a Monday. (I am occasionally very vocal and emphatic about not going to said market, but that's always on a Friday or Saturday.) Then I ate a donair. I love donairs, but I realized that I was getting a little too into eating them, so I stopped. You know the post from Dec. 6 where I talked about eating a really oniony donair and then getting stopped and asking for directions? That was the last time I ate one. That's almost two weeks!! Awesome.

I have had, emotionally, the weirdest couple of days. This might be homesickness, or the fact that Christmas is less than a week away, or (let's face it) it might just be hormones. Either way, I have been a varitable rollercoaster. I alternate between dancing around my room singing quietly along to my music (I have had to learn how to quietly sing along because the rooms aren't exactly sound proof - but I make up for it by enthusiastically dancing around) to just sitting down on the bed in silence and then taking a nap (yeah, I know, you're all really surprised that I would nap, right?!). I don't cry, though. How unlike me.

Anyways, I don't want to end it on that note. Truthfully, I am in a good place and I can't wait for classes to end! I am definitely going skiing in Austria for Sylvester with my buddy Eddy, who I haven't seen in, like, four years and I stole a bunch of music from Katie. Things, on the whole, are good. Okay, time to leave now. Where'd I put my pants...?

I can't believe I almost forgot about this!!

2005-12-18T14:44:00.000-07:00

Wrestling. Wrestling, wrestling, WRESTLING!!! Olivier found me wrestling!! He has a few TV stations that I don't have and one of his stations plays Smackdown on Thursday nights. And he said that I am allowed to go over and watch!! Oh yeah!!!

On playing crib and other activities

2005-12-18T08:50:00.000-07:00

Okay, let’s start with Tuesday: Tuesday was a pretty good day. I got up fairly early and Katie and I went to get our monthly money from the place where we get our monthly money. We decided to walk home and on the way we stopped in at Karstadt (big department store) and I found myself a couple of scarves that I really like. The scarf thing is so funny. Europeans love scarves. And if you go to Europe, you’ll start loving scarves, too. I don’t know why that is, it just is. We also stopped at the bank to deposit the cash. I need to explain the German deposit system at the ATM. It’s fantastic. Well, fantastically novel. You don’t put the cash into an envelope at all; a little door opens up and you drop the money into it. The door then shuts and the machine counts what you have. It reports it’s findings on the screen (like, 2x100=200 and 5x50=250 so, you’ve deposited 450) and you confirm that it counted correctly. I find it absolutely hilarious. Also, on this topic, I have spoken to several Americans and they have no idea what I’m talking about. Apparently, you can’t deposit cash into ATM’s in the States. That’s weird if you ask me, or surprising at the very least.

Okay, back on topic. So then I went home to wait for the package that I had arranged to have delivered. They said it would come some time between noon and 5 o’clock so I prepared to sit around and wait. Turns out that the package came just after one, and I was so excited that the Deutsche Post guy probably thought I was crazy! The first thing I did was run to the computer and MSN Nicole and Katie with the word “PACKAGES!!! PACKAGES!!! PACKAGES!!!” This is especially funny because I’m not sure why referred to the package in the plural, but I did. Then, a few days later, my mom sent me an email asking something and commenting about the package and the subject line in the email was “Packages!!!” Also in the plural and also with three exclamation points, proving once again that I am my mom’s mini-me.

The package looked pretty beat up; the brown paper that was on the outside was covered with Deutsche post tape and I thought, “Wow, this really took a beating!” But after I took off the outer wrap and realized that the box was taped up with this same tape underneath the brown wrap, I read the tape and it said something to the affect of “This box was opened by Deutsche Post for customs purposes,” and I realized that they had actually opened it up and looked through it, then taped back up again. There were really weird about it, though. Here’s what I got:

A card from my mom that is so cute. I haven’t read the inside yet, because I’m waiting till Christmas, but on the envelope it has the words “Extra Postage Required” and my mom wrote “Yeah! No Kidding” underneath it. I laughed and laughed. The customs people opened up this card to see what was inside.

My ski pants. This is important because I’m going skiing for New Year’s.

A couple DVD’s and a CD I’d asked for.

A couple pecan logs because I love them!

A few cans of stuff that I love at home and can’t get here. (This was weird because they didn’t confiscate them, but we kind of thought that we weren’t allowed to import them. Oh, well. If they didn’t confiscate it, then it’s not illegal!)

A box of Toffifee (also a Christmas tradition). This is really funny because, for one, even though the box was sealed by the manufacturer, the customs people sliced it open to see what was inside. That’s just weird if you ask me. The other funny thing about this is that I am in the country where they make Toffifee. It is so cheap here! I can get a box of 15 for less than one Euro, yet I’m sure mom probably spent several dollars on the box in Canada and then paid to have it shipped here! I was going to send some home for Christmas, but mom sent me some! It’s funny, but also really sweet because there are some Christmas traditions that you just have to have; Toffifee is one of those traditions.

Several wrapped packages that I am waiting for Christmas to open. Customs didn’t open any of these.

A CRIB BOARD!!!

I think that’s it. It was awesome to get. I love packages from home! If anyone wants to send me a package, I’d totally be down with that!!

I think that the rest of Tuesday was pretty uneventful. Katie and I went to the Christmas party for the language lab and anyone who has anything to do with the language lab, but we only stayed for a little bit.

Wednesday was a pretty regular day, but then in the evening Katie and I went with a friend from the language lab to one of the markets around town. I’m not sure if I should call it a Christmas market or not. It’s a really big version of the sort of little shops they’d have at the Fringe, except that it isn’t the same things over and over again. It’s just lots of little booths with awesomely interesting stuff. Anyways, I have 2 favorite parts from the evening: 1. This guy had these puppets that were awesome. I don’t know what to call it, but if you saw it you’d be like, “I’ve seen those before. I didn’t think they were that impressive.” But this guy was incredible! He could do things with this little marionette-esque toy that were so adorable! So I bought one. It was only 7€ and I hope to learn how to do what this guy does. I was completely enthralled by his mad-puppet-skills. 2. Katie and I found a food stand that sells Polish food. What’s so exciting about that? Perogies!!! I didn’t realize how much I loved perogies until I couldn’t have them. They are a little different than Ukrainian perogies, but it was close enough to fill the void. Anyways, as Katie and I were walking along eating these I was suddenly like, “Can I eat this styrofoamy container they came in?” (don’t ask why I thought this because I have no idea myself) and I snapped off a piece and ate it. Sure enough, the little bowl-thingy was made out of something similar to those foamy ice cream cones. So then I cracked a bunch of jokes about “And then I ate the bowl!!” and laughed myself silly. I crack me up.

Thursday I went to class in the morning and then Katie and I headed to Wal-Mart. She had to buy a very large pot for her floor’s Christmas party. She couldn’t tell me what it was for, all she knew was that they were making some kind of special drink in it. So, the afternoon went on and the two of us met up with this guy named Richard because we are going to work on a project for the university (again, this is good because I feel like I’m overpayed and underworked). Basically they are overhauling all of their materials for foreign students, so they are starting with English and then will translate it to all the other languages after that. I’m pretty excited to help out. So, Katie had to work in the language lab and then she swung by and grabbed me and we headed off to the party. Turns out that the pot was for a Feuerzangenbowle, which I should have known, but I was obviously not thinking clearly. A Feuerzangenbowle is a very popular German Christmas tradition. Basically, you heat up some wine and add cut up fruit (oranges and lemons) and some spices. Then you need a special holder for a special cone made of sugar (I think this holder is called the Feuerzange) and you saturate the sugar with a very strong rum and then light it on fire. The fire melts the sugar and it drips down into the wine concoction, and you keep pouring rum on the sugar to keep it aflame until all the sugar is gone. I have heard about it before, but this is really the first time I’ve seen one done. It was really neat.

Friday Nicole, Katie and I took the train to Nuremberg to go to the Christmas market there. We had heard so much about it that we just had to go. It was about a 3 hour train ride each way and the round trip was 27€, so that was a pretty good price. The thing is that it was raining in Nuremberg. Not snowing, raining. But it wasn’t bad, so we headed off in the direction of the market. Well, I gotta be honest, I wasn’t super impressed. There was nothing there that I couldn’t get here in Munich at a Christmas market. And the rain got worse. Lots worse. It ended up hailing and everything. It was brutal. Whatever, we came home and all agreed that we were unimpressed, but glad we went and it was fun taking a real train instead of just the trains around the city.

Then in the evening we went to… (are you ready for this?)… A KARAOKE BAR!!! I was going to arrange a Karaoke party, but decided that I better scope out the joint first. I don’t want to go sending a bunch of emails and SMS’s just to have everyone show up and find out that the selection stinks, the host sucks and the system blows. So Nicole, Katie and I headed out. It was awesome!! So now I have to plan a Karaoke party for sometime in January. We only stayed for a little while to read the list and hear the system. Nicole and I each sang one song and then we left. The other girls headed home, but I headed off to go to a party at some bar near the Ostbahnhof (east train station). It ended up being a real comedy of errors getting there and meeting people and on and on. Bottom line was that I got there and stayed for maybe an hour and a half before I was like, “This DJ is possibly the worst DJ I have ever heard, and I have made my required appearance. I’m outta here!” You want to know how bad this guy was? At one point, after playing several techno-ish songs in a row, he played Don McLean’s American Pie. Now, I love this song, really, nothing against the song, but he played at a dance club. And that is my point. I’ve never been to DJ school, but I just imagine that breaks some sort of rule. It worked out really well that I left when I did because I caught the very last train home! And, let me tell you, it’s no cheap taxi ride from the Ostbahnhof to home!

Then, yesterday, I spent most of the day messing around in my room. I absolutely had to clean the place up and I still hadn’t decorated my Christmas tree (*hee hee*) even though I said I’d do it on the tenth. So, in amongst my dancing around, cleaning up and drinking, I was having a conversation with Olivier. He ended up inviting us over and said he’d make us crepes! So, after much SMSing, Nicole and I decided to take him up on the offer, but Katie wanted to get ready for heading back to Canada (which she does on Tuesday). We made it to his place with relative ease and a fair amount of fun (see, I had been drinking rye all afternoon at this point) and then had to walk up the five flights of stairs. Ugh. That was tough. Olivier – every day, really? Anyways, I brought my newly received crib board and Nicole and I started playing while Olivier started on the crepes. We didn’t make it too far into the game before we started helping too, and then some of Olivier’s roommates came and joined and we all ate crepes together. Shortly after dinner Nicole left and I played crib with Olivier and his roommate, Dijana. I ended up staying there very, very late and caught the train home this morning after they had all started running again. Very, very late.

So, that was my week. Sorry this is one long post instead of several short ones, but I was really lazy and pretty busy all week. There are classes this week, and then it’s vacation until the ninth of January. Even the language lab is closed, so I don’t even have to work. I love Christmas time! Oh, I should also mention that the last post was number 50. I'm pretty proud of that.

Nothing fits like wet denim!!!

2005-12-13T12:18:00.000-07:00

I want to talk about the concert, but I warn you, this'll be long.

It was awesome! I met Geli and her friends at a Christmas market (one of many here in Munich) to have some Glühwein before we headed off to the concert. Their names were Ron and Heidi. We got to the concert and got in a line up for the coat check. Is that weird? That there was a coat check, I mean. Anyways, we made it to the front of the line in a relatively short time and then we grabbed a beer. I had gotten an SMS from Nicole and Olivier, while we were on the way to the show, telling me where they were standing in relation to the stage: right up front, to the right, and I wanted to go find them. So Geli and I finished up our beers, arranged to meet Ron and Heidi in that spot after the concert and headed into the crowd. We got pretty near the stage and then hit a dead end. There were these people sitting on the ground waiting for the show to start and we couldn't really get around them, so we just stood and waited for the openers (The Rakes). During the second song of The Rakes' set I saw Nicole and Olivier just a little bit ahead of us, so we pushed our way through the crowd to them, where I just danced and danced for the rest of the set.

I would like to take this opportunity to fully agree with Hannah: I hate how indie kids don't dance!! You're at a freaking show!! There's a freaking band on the freaking stage playing their freaking hearts out and you politely applaud at the end of each song??!! Are you kidding?! The music is in me!! I couldn't NOT dance if I wanted to!!! AAARRRGGGHHH!!!!

*Ahem* Sorry, I'll continue now. After The Rakes' set I decided that I had better use the facilities, so I headed off through the crowd. When I was done I figured I'd go look at the merch table to see what they had. I had made the comment to Geli earlier that I hadn't seen the merch table and she said that it was at the back. I went to the back. It wasn't there. But there was beer there, and I have been explaining in recent posts how much I like the beer here, so I bought myself one. I turned 90 degrees to the right and headed off in search of the merch table; I followed the wall all the way to the left hand side of the stage (like, I went all along the back wall and then down the side of the hall). Oh, I should mention here that this place is kind of like the Agricom, it's a completely wide open room with no chairs at all. The bands that play at the Shaw Conference Centre are the bands that would play at the Zenith, but it reminds me more of the Agricom than the Shaw.

Anyways, without having found the merchandise table, but content because I had a nice cold beer, and pretty certain that Franz Ferdinand would be coming on any time now, I decided to try and get back to my spot, which I knew would be difficult because we were so close. I was on the very left hand side of the crowd and about halfway through the really dense part of it. I considered going all the way around to the right and then cutting through (because they were closer to the right) but I figured that might be slow going because no one really wants to let you in front of them. I eventually decided that the best way was to, essentially, cut sideways through the crowd and just kind of get a little closer up every time. I found myself getting way too far to the right without getting any closer up. So I tried to head back towards the left with the same tactic. I got a little closer to the stage, but not nearly enough and had now hit an odd situation where I wanted to go straight forward, but no one was really into moving. And I still had three quarters of a beer. I eventually just stood there and drank my beer, deciding that I would wait until the band started and then push my way up. As I got down to one quarter of the beer I decided that was a rotton idea and that I really wanted to be with my friends when the show started! So I pushed my way straight right (like I wanted to get out - people are always willing to let you out) and then cut the diagonal line that I was hoping for. Olivier fortunately saw me as I was about 10' away; I say "fortunately" because people are more willing to let you through when someone is waving at you, they look like a dick if they don't.

Okay, so I got there just in time because the show started very shortly after. As they were coming out Olivier says to me, "Okay, guess the first song - it's tradition!" I thought about it for a quick second and then was like, "Well, uuuhhh, it'll be something from the new album, and something kind of fast.... This Boy!! Yeah, This Boy!!" (it's getting really loud now, and I have no idea if Olivier can even hear me) (but then I waffled), "No, maybe not! Maybe it would be something from the first album! Yeah, something from the first album!!" I'm retarded. No band would open up a tour for their second album with a song from their first! Whatever, the point is that they started up with This Boy and I was really happy that I called it, but I waffled, too. Oh well, I still say that, for the record, I totally called it. The rest is pretty much history; after a song or two Olivier asked if I wanted to head into the crazy part of the pit and I almost proposed marriage. We spent almost the rest of the concert there, which is really unusal for me - even as much as I love the pit! It's nice to have someone there to keep you safe and not being crushed and there were times where I was like, "I gotta get out of here!" But then I'd look over and see that Olivier was still into it, so I'd just clear myself some room, take a deep breath and then keep jumping and dancing. It was awesome!!

We ended up staying in the pit until about the second last song were we took a break, but then headed back into the ruckus for the encore. After the band left the stage we found Nicole and Geli again. Nicole was pretty much where we left her, and it turns out that she stayed there pretty much the whole time. Olivier and I were absolutely soaked with sweat (most of which, I have to admit, probably wasn't ours) and we headed off to the back of the hall. Wow, nothing fits better than wet denim, eh?! Believe me when I say that every single stitch of fabric that I was wearing was soaking. So Geli and I head off to find Ron and Heidi and ended up losing Nicole and Olivier in the process. I wanted to head to the coat check for several reasons:
1. I was very, very wet and they had opened all the doors in the place, so I was getting cold.
2. I kept the coat check ticket in my back pocket. My jeans got very wet and I got pushed around a lot. Also, every now and again I'd stick my finger in my back pocket to make sure I hadn't lost the thing. So this little piece of paper had turned itself into about 100 even littler pieces of paper. I pull a handful of this wet confetti out and find the number 11. Then the number 68. Then I find the top half of a 7. Then (*phew*)the bottom half. I finally decide that the original number was 11768 and, fortunately, Geli had number 11767, so I knew I was right. At any rate, I couldn't very well put this "paper" (trust me, the quotes are necessary) back in my pocket, so I made a fist and never opened my hand again.

The problem was that the line for the coat check was huge!! We waited in line for almost an hour!! As we were waiting, I finally saw the merch table! Turns out that, after I got distracted by the beer, if I had turned 90 degrees left instead of 90 degrees right, I would have been looking straight at it! I considered leaving the line long enough to get a shirt, but we were kind of in the middle of a crowd and it might be hard to get back, besides, I had my fist clenched tightly around what was left of my coat check number and thought it would be a difficult transaction with only one hand. Anyways, when we got to the front, the guy made fun of me for "murdering" the ticket, but found the coat anyway because it was only one number after Geli's. As we walked away I was like, "I want to stop by the merch table." Guess what. Yup, it was closed. I looked at the guy and I'm like, "What do you mean, 'It's closed'?" "It's closed, they're packing up, but you can still buy posters over there." So I did. It's better than nothing, but I'm pretty choked. Whatever. Anyways.

That was pretty much it. Nicole and Olivier had left long ago, so we headed off to the train and came home. It was a pretty long walk considering that even my undies were wet, but I made it! I have to write about today, now, but that took so long that I have to go to bed. So you'll get today tomorrow.

It's HERE!!!

2005-12-12T06:03:00.000-07:00

So, my mom sent me a package last Monday and it's here!! In Munich!! Unfortunately, they tried to deliver it today while I was in class. So, I get home and find the slip on my door (which was an awesome surprise because I had just checked my mailbox for one and was quite disappointed that it was empty). I read it over to find out how to get the package out of the packstation that is in front of the building. See, both Katie and Nicole have gotten packages, and both Katie and Nicole retrieved their packages from the packstation. Nicole had an account there, but I'm pretty sure that Katie didn't. I just assumed that, if you weren't home, the postman would put the package in the packstation and you could pick it up at your leisure. Yeah... that's not what the instructions said. They said that I had 3 options: Call them and they would gladly deliver it tomorrow, free of charge, during a time that is better for me; Call them and they would gladly deliver it today, for a fee of course; or Pick it up myself. I took a look at the map they gave and realised that the DHL Express Post Office is quite far away, and not directly on a train line, so I didn't want to spend the time trying to get there tomorrow. But I really didn't want to call the number. I thought about it. I finally decided that, if DHL here is anything like DHL at home, I would get an automated system and would only have to talk to a person if I kept hitting zero over and over and over again! So I called.

Started off okay. Automated system. Good. Press 3. Okay. Press 1. Sure thing. "We are now connecting you to one of our customer service representatives." Pardon me? I don't want to talk to anyone! I considered hanging up, but decided that I could fudge my way through this. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't die or suffer much physical pain if I couldn't get my point across to these people; and, besides, I could always hang up. Okay, enough beating around the bush, the point is that I spoke to someone and arranged to have the package dropped off tomorrow! It wasn't too hard, either! (It was a little hard, though, because I had no idea what the verb for "deliver" is, and so I kind of just trailed off everytime I was supposed to say it. Hell, it's DHL, they know that I want them to drop the package off!) Yeah!! So now I will get my package tomorrow!! Mom said that she wrapped up a couple little things in there, so I will have real Christmas presents!!

Let's see, what else is new...? Oh, okay, Chris and Diana came back to town before they head out back to Canada. We went to the Hofbrauehaus and had some beers with some people they met at their hostel. Then I came home and had dinner with Katie and when Katie left I watched Happy Gilmore on TV. I ended up drinking a litre and a half of Diet Coke before bed. No big deal, right? Wrong! Let's just say that I went to bed at 1:00 and I still remember 4:30. Well, lesson learned, I guess. I've never had that problem before, but I'm sure that's why I was up so late. It might not have even been so bad, except that I had a class at 8:00 this morning, so I really only got about 2 hours of sleep. The funny thing is that I really don't feel that bad, and (get this) I didn't even fall asleep in my 10:00 class. First time in 3 weeks that I haven't! Right on! Here's hoping that I don't power out at the FRANZ FERDINAND CONCERT TONIGHT!!!!!! So excited!! I actually should take a shower and get ready now. Ciao!

Sorry, sorry

2005-12-10T17:26:00.000-07:00

I’m sorry that I have been so lazy over the past few days, everyone. I don’t know if I mentioned it, but I’m sick… again. A few short weeks ago I made the comment that I never get really sick: I just get kind of sick for a really long time. So you can imagine how surprised I was when I made a complete recovery after only about 10-14 days! Well, then I was healthy for a week or so, and now I’m sick again. It started on Sunday or Monday where I woke up with a sore throat and it has gotten worse everyday. It probably also doesn’t help that, as soon as I started feeling better, I stopped taking the vitamins. And the fact that I can’t stop drinking alcohol. I can’t help it! I love the beer here and there is Glühwein everywhere I look because it’s Christmas. Booze!! Okay, so the point is that I’m sick again and the only thing I can really do to combat this is to sleep. Because if there’s one thing I’m good at, it’s sleeping*! So I went to bed on Thursday night at 1:00 in the morning and woke up at 1:45 in the afternoon on Friday; so I feel better now! Not 100%, but I do feel better.

Other things that are new:

Katie is back! I really missed her. We are all so crass together and I really missed that this week.

Katie and I did start marking some of the assignments in the language lab, so now I don’t feel so guilty for taking so much money from the University. We are also going to sit down and brainstorm for the conversation course (Hey, Elizabeth! Any help here would be appreciated.), and we got an email that some department is looking for native speakers to help them translate something; it would make me feel so much better.

Nicole and I went to a party at the Canadian Consulate on Thursday night. That was a lot of fun. I was surprised, because I wasn’t sure what to expect, but they served us chili (Oh, yeah! You know how much I love chili!) and lots and lots of wine. I also won a booby prize. I think it’s a booby prize. It’s a very nice-looking book, but I’m pretty sure it’s a book about the value of coins that are going to be in an auction in Frankfurt. And when I say “going to be” I mean “were in 1988.”

I have gotten a bunch of stuff in the Advent’s Calendar; some Schoko-Bons, a Happy Hippo and a Riegel. I get another egg tomorrow!

Only 2 more days to Franz Ferdinand!! I am so excited. I found out that another friend of ours, Olivier, is going too. Oh! And Nicole ended up procuring a ticket today, so we’re all going together! I am so happy to have met Olivier; we have really similar tastes in music, so he is exposing me to all sorts of European music that we don’t get exposed to, as well as some Quebec stuff that I’ve never heard of before. That reminds me: all of you music fans out there (Hannah, Mike [Nick, Kirk do you read this too?]: I’m talking to you!) please email me music! Even if it’s just one song at a time, I need new music! If you’re playing a song and you’re like, “I love this song,” SEND IT TO ME!! I want to hear it!!

I bought something new. I love it. I bought it at one of the markets around here yesterday:

Sorry Mom, I know that you hate it, but you have no say in the matter. Hey, everyone, the jaw is on a hinge so it moves. Awesome.

Well, I guess that’s all for now. I’ll think about writing something tomorrow, but we’ll have to see how it goes. Sundays are for procrastinating, after all, so I might not get around to it.

What's up wit dat?

2005-12-06T07:10:00.000-07:00

Okay, so… What happens in early March that makes it so that everyone conceives then?  What am I talking about?  Today is Nicole’s birthday!!  Happy Birthday Nicole!!  The good part about this one is that she’s here, so I don’t actually miss out on it!

Today is St. Nicolas Day.  I’m a little pissed because I screwed it up.  I had heard all about how, if you put you put your shoes in front of your door, St. Nicolas will come around and fill them with treats (unless you’ve been bad, then he fills them with coal), but I didn’t know if you do that on the night of the fifth to the sixth, or the sixth to the seventh?  I guess the question is, if the sixth is St. Nicolas Day, are you celebrating the fact that he came, or the fact that he will come?  Yeah, they celebrate the fact that he came.  So I didn’t put out my shoes and they didn’t get filled by the people in the house who were acting as Nicolas.  But Nicole is so sweet that she came to fill my shoes, and since I didn’t leave any, she left her own shoe and filled it.  That’s amazing. Especially on her birthday!

Something pretty funny just happened to me.  I went out to get a donair.  First of all, when I got there the lady was like, “The usual?”  That is so freakin’ hilarious!!  I don’t think I’ve ever been anywhere where they knew my “usual.”  Awesome.  So I ate and left and as I was on the way home a car pulled over onto the sidewalk in front of me.  Really they do this all the time, so that wasn’t the issue, and it wasn’t that I was freaked out by it, either.  He was pretty far up and I was just kind of laughing about how funny Germans are but as I passed by he got out of the car with a map and called me over.  And I’m thinking like, “Great, I don’t have a clue where anything in this city is, and he’s about to ask me for directions!”

The absolute truth of the matter is that I know about 10 streets in this whole city by name.  There are others, but I don’t really know them, or how to get there – especially not by car.  So, I am just dreading what this guy is going to say to me because I know I won’t be able to help.  Well, he comes up and asks me if I know how to get to Schellingstraβe.  That’s one of the streets I know!!  Can you believe that??!!  I even looked at the map to make sure that there isn’t two Schellingstraβes.  Nope!!  So I was able to give him directions.  My German wasn’t great, but it was at least understandable enough that I saw that he turned correctly at the first street I told him to turn at, so I’m satisfied.  I got him on the right track; if he had to pull over somewhere else and ask for more directions, that’s not my problem.  The other funny part of the situation was that the lady at the donair place has started putting so many onions on my donairs.  Holy crap!  I think she put on an entire half onion today.  Soon she’s just going to start serving me an entire onion on the side and I can eat it like an apple as I go along.  So I was almost shooting flames as I was talking this guy.  Oh, well, that’s what he gets for stopping someone who has just walked out of a donair shop.

I got another Kinder Surprise egg in my advent’s calendar today.  It’s a little elf stamp.  He’s cute, I’m satisfied; and I didn’t have to put it entirely together, but I had to put his head on his body, which is better than getting a toy that requires no assembly at all.  I’m kind of upset, though, I was hoping to get some Schoko-bons.  Ugh.  Time to get ready to go to class.

Birthday #2

2005-12-05T07:50:00.000-07:00

I don’t have a whole lot to say today. I did absolutely nothing yesterday; it was great!! I watched The Simpsons in German the other day and Lisa said “shit.” It always surprises me when they swear on TV, but it wasn’t even that she said “scheisse” (because the Germans will say that at the dinner table) it was actually the English words “oh shit!” This country is so sneaky!!

In my advent’s calendar, yesterday, I got a Kinder Happy Hippo. Here is a treat that we need in Canada! These things are as tasty as they are adorable. Here’s a picture, along with the toy I got in the Überrashungs Egg I got the day before. Today was just a Riegel (little chocolate bar), but, hey, chocolate is chocolate. I’m not complaining!!

Life is actually pretty boring these days. Weekends aren’t bad, but the weeks take forever. Katie is in Portugal right now; she ran the marathon in Lisbon there yesterday and I’m still waiting for an email to find out how she did. I hope that she finds an internet café soon! Hey! Here’s an example of how exciting life my life is: I went downstairs about 40min ago to get the laundry I had washed and, for the first time in 2 months, there was a dryer free. I am so excited!! My socks are actually going to fit properly!! See, the excitement never stops here in Munich!

Well, I need to wish my other best friend a very Happy Birthday. Happy Birthday Mike! Sorry, there’s no card on the way. I’m terrible for things like that, but I did remember all on my own!!

Smoking hot in public

2005-12-03T16:33:00.000-07:00

I thought of 2 more:

Public displays of affection run rampant here!!  Every single time I ride public transport of any kind, it seems, I have to watch people making out.  It’s constant and no age group is immune.  Literally.  And this isn’t just after the bar on the weekend – it’s all the time!  On my way to school.  On my way home from school!  It never ends!!  It’s nauseating.

The other thing is the smoking issue.  I remember from the last time I was here how many cigarette machines there are everywhere (they are even on residential streets sometimes), but I don’t remember it being this bad.  I have seen people standing under No Smoking signs and light up a cigarette!  It’s insane.

Today was a very special day for me.  I got a Kinder Surprise from my advent calendar.  Here they are called Kinder Überraschung.  It was a little monster in a little car that I got to put together, which are my favorite kind, so I was pretty happy.  I also went to Nicole’s and we ate pizza and poutine.  We made the poutine by going down to the pub downstairs and getting fries, then making some gravy (just from a Maggi powder) and used grated gouda.  It was still super awesome.  Sometimes you just don’t realize how much you’ll miss something until you don’t have it as an option.  All in all it was a very good, albeit lazy, day.

Bocci? Really?

2005-12-02T04:41:00.000-07:00

I just turned on the TV while I'm eating my lunch and they are showing Bocci ball. Bocci. I am speechless.

I love Franz Ferdinand

2005-12-02T03:16:00.000-07:00

Today is a sad day because it is the first thing I’ve “missed.” What do I mean, you ask? Today is my best friend’s birthday and I’m not there to celebrate with her. This is the first real thing that I’ve missed. I guess that I missed Thanksgiving, but since Thanksgiving at the Pulles house consists of the five of us (and any significant others) eating a really fantastic meal and… well, that’s all, I didn’t really mind that I missed it. Then again, now that I am typing that I really, really want some turkey with gravy and cheese sauce. Crap. Okay! Back to the point, today is Ashley’s birthday and I really just wish I were at home so we could celebrate together, but I’m not and that’s sad. Happy Birthday, sweetie!

On a happier note, I met a bunch of new people this week through a guy in my German course. I met them all on Thursday and then I went out again with them last night. Anyways, a couple of the girls and I were talking on Wednesday about music and Munich and I mentioned that Franz Ferdinand is coming, but I was pissed because I don’t have tickets. And Geli (one of the girls) was like, “Do you really want to go? Because I actually have an extra ticket and I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with it.” Holy. Crap. So, she brought the ticket yesterday so that I know it’s for real and now I am going to the Franz Ferdinand concert on December 12!! (Mad props go out to my buddy Mike, who was the one who first introduced them to me!) Yeah!!

I might have also made some plans for the period of time where I was supposed to be alone, so I am super excited about that. Especially since these plans might be skiing in Austria! Well, I guess that the plans technically are skiing in Austria, the “might be” comes in because they aren’t solidified yet. See everyone, you don’t need to worry about Bari!

And, lastly, I got to open up the first couple of doors on my super-duper advent’s calendar. Yesterday I got 2 Schoko-bons (little chocolate eggs with the Kinder white chocolate and hazelnuts inside) and today I got a Kinder Riegel (little chocolate bar with white chocolate inside). I love Kinder chocolate, it’s so good.

More examples

2005-11-29T04:46:00.000-07:00

Okay, so when I wrote the post a few days ago about the subtle German culture shock, I could only come up with, like, two examples. Even I felt like it was anticlimactic! The thing is that it happens probably once a week where I realize that something just isn't quite right, but when I sat down to write the email I could only think of two. That's not cool. So over the last few days I have been trying to remember a few more Germanities that I think are really weird/crazy and write them down so I don't forget. Here are a couple:

There are dogs everywhere. Really, they are everywhere! I don't know how many times I've been sitting in a restaurant for a half hour before I realize that there is a dog sitting under the table next to me. People take their dogs on buses and U-Bahns; they are truly everywhere. I am told that sometimes you'll see a sign on a store that has a pictogram of a dog and says something to the effect of: We have to stay outside, but I have never actually seen one. I have seen stickers of the joke sign for this, that is a picture of a Nazi (or a swastika, I can't remember) and it says something like: We have to stay out completely, but never the dog one. There is a sign at the Media Markt (read= Best Buy) that says that dogs are allowed as long as they are on a leash, but that's as close as I've come. The thing is that 98% of the dogs I've seen are super- duper well behaved. And the other 2%, you ask? They barked, so they don't count as well behaved - not barked and ran off or barked and jumped up, they just barked. Seriously, it's incredible. I have no idea how all the dogs in this country are so well behaved.

The other thing that I think is completely different from Canada is how poor the Germans are at replying to emails. They have this reputation for being so efficient and hard-working, but it's incredible how long it takes them to get back to you sometimes. I actually don't think that this is culture shock in the way that the other examples are, but it is so different from what one expects, that it's shocking nonetheless.

I leave you with this picture I took of my view yesterday. I don't know what it is, but I love the way those buildings look. I love culture and archetecture and what not, but there is something very powerful about these buildings.

1. Advent

2005-11-28T14:01:00.000-07:00

Well, yesterday was the first Sunday of Advent. It's a really big deal here, so Katie and Nicole and I got together and lit the hope candle. Then we played crib, which was really very hard because we don't have a board. I rigged up some sort of board using Excel and it seemed to work okay. I can't believe that it is almost December, can you?!!

I am actually in the process of trying to get ready/psyched up for Christmas. It's a little bit hard when I don't really feel like I have anything to look forward to. Mom is hoping to send off a package, but I don't actually know if it will get here on time. Nicole is thinking about asking some relatives if we can visit around the country and see them, but I'm not sure what happening with that. And, worst of all, Katie is going home for Christmas and won't be back until mid-January, and Nicole leaves for Sweden on December 27 and won't be back until mid-January. So I'm all alone. I'll have to ask around and see who else is hanging around so that I'm not competely alone. Anyways, this was not supposed to be a pity party for me! The point is that in my quest to get myself psyched up I bought some stuff: I bought a little Christmas tree and an advent calendar. The tree is pretty cool. I actually bought him a couple of weeks ago and I have been keeping him alive. He even came with some decorations, but I took them off because it was too early for that. I think I'll put them back on about the tenth or so. The advent's calendar is the single coolest advent's calendar I've ever seen. It's made by Kinder. It has 6 Kinder Surprise Eggs as well as some Happy Hippos and Schokobons and stuff. Super excited for that!! I saw one at the store that had 24 Eggs. I should go back and buy that one. I can use it as a countdown calendar until my friends come back; then the toys can keep me company. *Sigh*

I love the internet

2005-11-27T09:13:00.000-07:00

Two posts in one day - lucky you!! This one is just quick to say that I love the internet. Anything one could ever want to know is on here (and plenty of things one wouldn't want to know). Just now I was reading the package for some rice I want to make. I competely understand every word for how to cook it in a pot except for one thing: the amount of water to add. It says, "3 EL Wasser." Now, the question is, what the heck is an EL? I was tempted to head down the hall and ask the one guy on my floor that I am comforable asking (although I've never done it before and wasn't looking forward to it), but I know that he went home for the weekend. So I checked the internet. Turns out that EL=tbsp. Simple as that. Thanks, Internet!

Getting mail is fun

2005-11-27T06:01:00.000-07:00

I live in Germany. I have an actual German address. It's kind of fun because shortly after I got here I got a fair amount of mail. I had to get a bank account and health insurance and so all these different places were sending me stuff to confirm this piece of information and that. The thing I liked about it most, though, is that all these pieces of mail came addressed to "Frau Bari Pulles." That's hysterical! I didn't even see it coming, but for those first 3 weeks I was laughing my ass off just about every time I opened the mailbox. It was so funny, in fact, that I wish that they still sent me stuff, just so I could giggle and giggle. Frau Bari Pulles: that's funny.

Culture shock

2005-11-26T07:36:00.000-07:00

I was talking to my friend Hannah the other day and she put to words exactly what I’ve been thinking for the last 2 months: This country is really sneaky.

The thing about Germany is that it seems like it is just like Canada. I don’t really find that I get much of a culture shock when I come here because it’s so much like home; with the exception of the hours of operation of most businesses, which are just plain dumb. But every now and then something happens where you just think, “Holy crap! What just happened here?” I think that the most obvious difference, from a Canadian’s perspective, is the way they deal with sex and nudity. It is not at all uncommon to show boobs on TV, regardless of the hour. Or, for another example, I was in Saturn (read: A&B Sound) the other day and there was a special table of adult films. Now, half of me is like, “Good for the Germans! Way to be open about something that is totally natural!” and the other half is like, “Oh my God!! I can’t believe I’m seeing this! Look away, Bari!” Sneaky.

They also are very weird about the way they address other people. They have a formal register and an informal register. They actually use a different pronoun and conjugate the verbs differently when talking to someone you should be formal with/show respect to and when talking to someone you don’t need to (like a good friend or someone much younger than you). I guess that this isn’t that weird except that when you go to the grocery store the nametags don’t say “Alice” or “Jim” they say “Fr. Miller” and “Hr. Schmidt.” I’ve even seen it at Burger King. Sneaky.

I don’t really know what else to say. Most of the time things here are extremely normal, and other times it’s like crossing into a different dimension. It’s sneaky and, quite frankly, it’s a little weird, but more than anything, it’s kind of fun.

Sometimes I'm really dim

2005-11-23T02:47:00.000-07:00

So, humour me for a minute because I’m about to get linguistic:

I think that we all know what a syllable is, in principle; but it is actually way more complicated than you probably ever realized. A syllable is made up of 2 parts: an onset and a rime. The onset is optional; the rime is mandatory. The rime can then be further broken up into a nucleus and a coda. The nucleus is mandatory; the coda is not. Here is a diagram from Wikipedia. So basically, all you really need is a nucleus to have a syllable because the other two are optional. Usually this is a vowel, but it can also be a syllabic consonant like the ‘l’ in “bottle” or the ‘n’ in “button,” but that’s beside the point. The point is that, for the most part, a syllable would rather have an onset than a coda. This means that if you put a syllable with a coda in front of a syllable that doesn’t have an onset, chances are good that the second syllable will, in essence, steal the coda of the first syllable and make it his onset. This is, apparently (and I say apparently because I don’t speak French), pretty obvious in French with words like “bonjour” and “bon ami.” As far as I understand it, you don’t pronounce the ‘n’ in “bonjour;” it does affect the preceding ‘o,’ however making it nasalised. But in “bon ami” the ‘n’ gets pronounced; the thing is that it is more pronounced as part of the second syllable than part of the first (ie, bon ami vs. bo nami). The last thing I need to say on this is that both the onset and the coda can be consonant blends; so, in the word “trash” the onset is ‘tr,’ the nucleus is ‘a,’ and the coda is ‘sh.’

Okay, this was all leading up to a realization I had the other day. I walked past a first aid kit here in Germany and written on it were the words “ERSTE HILFE.” This translates, literally, to “FIRST HELP.” And I was so shocked by this because I realized that my whole life I’ve been treating “first aid” like an unanalyzed chunk and didn’t even think that it meant, like, “first help.” I blame this on the linguistics of the situation. I think that because “aid” is missing an onset, and “first” has one to freely give away, I’ve kind of been pronouncing it “fir staid” and not really realizing the meaning behind the two separate words.

I feel like such a nerd for 2 reasons:

I didn’t really get the meaning of one of the most common phrases in my life for the past 5 years (Century sells an awful lot of first aid kits).

I can explain it linguistically.

What a way to make a buck!

2005-11-18T16:32:00.000-07:00

Okay, I feel that I need to write something, but I’m not sure what.  I know, let’s talk about my work.

I am getting a monthly living allowance scholarship while I’m here.  It doesn’t quite pay for all of my living expenses, but it pays for about two thirds; couple that with the fact that I don’t have to worry about any sort of tuition, and I am a pretty happy girl!  I don’t get the money entirely free, however, I have to work for it, but it’s a pretty cool job, so I’m okay with it.

Twice a week, for 2 hours at a time, I go to the Multimedia Speech Lab and… well… talk English.  It’s great.  The thing is that it’s, apparently, pretty hard to get into a face-to-face English class here.  Also, some people just have a hard time fitting them into their schedules, and others might just need to brush up their English skills and don’t really want to take a full class.  So a couple of semesters ago someone came up with the idea of, basically, an English correspondence course.  The way it works is that the university uses this program called Reward (I’m not sure which company makes it) and the interested students take a test at the beginning to place them into one of 5 levels of Reward (beginner, pre-intermediate, intermediate, etc.) and then they can come to the MSL in the evenings when they have time and do the lessons.  There is also homework for each week that isn’t to be handed in, but these people are here of their own accord, right, so they should be doing the assignments.  Anyways, for each level there is a schedule set up of 15 weeks, each week has different lessons associated with it (eg.  In intermediate, week 1 is lessons 1-3, week 2 is lessons 4,5 and Video A) and when a student has done all the lessons for a week we check their work over and give them a stamp.  The whole point is that if they finish all 15 weeks and hand in 2 of the 3 homework assignments that actually are marked as “written assignments,” they are guaranteed a spot in a face-to-face course the following semester.  This is their incentive.  Oh, and learning English, I guess.

So where do I come in?  Well, a lot of the stuff in Reward is marked by the computer, but there are usually one or two exercises in each lesson that involve writing something that can’t be marked by the computer, so they need English speakers to correct these.  There is always a Language Tutor in the lab for people to ask questions to and to correct the work.  These are usually German native speakers who have taken enough English courses to count them as experts in English.  These people are great to have around because they know all the rules of why things are the way they are, unlike us native speakers who just know what sounds right and what doesn’t.  The truth of the matter, though, is that nothing compares to speaking to a native speaker when you want to learn a language, and that’s where Katie and I come in.  For four hours a week I walk around and correct people’s grammar.  I wish I could do this for a living!  I correct their grammar and their spelling and tell them how I would say it and so on and so forth.  It is truthfully the perfect job for me, because I wander around doing what I love to do and no one thinks I’m a bitch or a know-it-all, because it’s what I’m expected to do.  And sometimes when I talk, people take notes of what I’m saying.  How cool is that?!

So, at the rate of four hours a week, and that I make 486 EUR a month, that pretty much works out to about 30 EUR an hour.  And that’s about $45 CAD an hour.  And I really like it.  Life is good.  I actually feel a little bad that we are getting so much for doing so little; I think that we might start marking some of the written assignments, but I’m not sure.  Katie and I are talking to our supervisor about putting on a speech course.  That would make me feel better about the situation.

Anyways, that’s pretty much it for me for today.  Ciao!

Eddie Guerrero died yesterday

2005-11-14T08:32:00.000-07:00

Okay, I know that you were all hoping for a different kind of post than this, and I really didn't think, yesterday, that this is what I'd be writing today, but Eddie Guerrero of the WWE died yesterday. They're not even sure how he died yet, actually, but it was overnight in his hotel room, not in the ring. I know that a lot of you think that my fondness for wrestling is kind of silly and, admittedly, so do I, but I just can't believe it. One of the main things that I like about wrestling is that they film a new show every week - every week! Even if they just make a clips show at Christmas, they don't just show reruns (yes, just like a soap opera) and they even film the Monday show live every week(Friday's show is actually taped on Tuesday, but it is still a new one each week), so this makes a huge difference to the show as it stands right now. This isn't some sit-com where they can just write it in to the script. I am also especially upset about it because Eddie was actually the reason that I started watching in the first place. Well... I guess that Darryl was the reason I started watching, but Eddie is the reason I started liking wrestling! He was a really entertaining wrestler with great mic abilities, and it is really sad that the fans have lost a wrestler like him (I am not ignoring how horrible it must be for his family, just looking at it from a different angle). I am actually pretty glad that I'm unable to watch wrestling right now, because I don't know how I'd be handling this if I were. I'm actually a lot sadder than I probably should be, but I really am sad about this.

A quick update

2005-11-13T10:16:00.000-07:00

Okay, I don't want to spend too long on here because I have other things that I should be doing, like dishes and vacuuming, but I just want to give a quick update on what's going on with me over the past few days:

I am not feeling very well. Every morning I wake up and my throat feels really swollen, but I don't really feel "sick" yet. My voice is getting pretty funny, though. I have been drinking lots of tea, eating oranges, and I bought some vitamin C at Wal-Mart the other day. I am having the usual problem I have, where my body tries to fight whatever is ailing me, but it just does a pretty shitty job. Instead of getting hit with a fire hose blast full of sick, I end up getting sprayed with a garden hose. The problem is that there is still the same amount sick stored up, it's just a matter of how fast it gets out. I hope that I just get really sick and then it's over.

Yesterday I went to Dachau. I had this vision in my head that Dachau was this huge concentration camp, surrounded by barbed wire fences complete with guard towers in the middle of nowhere. And that's pretty much what it was... except for the middle of nowhere part. Dachau is actually a town that is right near Munich. It can be reached using the Munich transportation system. And this seems like a really nice little town, except for this huge concentration camp right in the middle of it. It was crazy; really sobering. I have now actually been inside a gas chamber. On the signs, they made a point of saying that the gas chamber wasn't really used for mass killings because Dachau was more of a work camp than an extermination camp, but the mere fact that it was built is pretty frightening. The other thing is that they even said that a couple "smaller groups" were killed using gas in the chamber. Really horrible, but I actually think that I have to go back for the express purpose of looking through the museum there more carefully; we were only given a half hour to look through, but there was so much stuff to read that I could have spend several hours there.

Then, today, Chris and Diana and I went to a Salvador Dali exhibit. That was really awesome. I really, really preferred looking at his work to Picasso's. With Picasso, I felt like after I had seen half of the stuff, that everything pretty much looked the same, but Dali is very different. I also like how much Dali uses butterflies, and they are beautifully done, everytime.

Outside of that, life has been pretty boring. I went to a bar on Friday. On the advice of Clarissa and her ex-boyfriend, I went to a bar called "Keller" and it was awesome. Fantastic music! I also found a magazine called "IN Munich" which I knew about before, but didn't really pay attention to. Turns out that it has a complete listing of everything that is happening in Munich for the next 2 weeks. It even has Karaoke in there. Yes, I know, I was excited for me, too. So, I'm going to sign off for now, but I will try to post something tomorrow during my 7 hour break. Laters!

So... many... pictures...

2005-11-08T16:20:00.000-07:00

This is the Brandenburg Gate in Potsdam. (I think
that Patrik called it the Brandenburg Gate, and I
know that we were in Postdam.)

This isn't Friedrich the Great's summer castle, but
it is in the same park and I thought it was so nice.

Katie, Chris and Diana in behind Friedrich's castle.

This is the view from the front of the castle.
Nice, eh?

This was the bathroom at the hotel.

And these are the beds which are so much more
comfortable than mine!

A view of the Reichs/Bundestag from far away.

This is the controversial holocaust monument.
There was a big to-do about it because they were
like, "What should this monument look like,
anyways?" This is what they decided on.

This, according to Nicole's boyfriend Lars, is
where Hitler's bunker was. They pretty much
destroyed it and paved over it right away and
don't really draw any attention to it at all, but it
was, supposedly, where this parking lot is now.

Me in front of the "real" Brandenburg Gate.

This is a mural on the former Luftwaffeministerium.

This is another part of the Bundes/Reichstag.

This is the last standing part of the wall.

This is my, Nicole's, Chris', and Diana's feet
straddling where the wall used to be.

Checkpoint Charlie.

Okay, as I'm wont to do from time to time, I also
took pictures of things that I thought were funny.
I need to take this opportunity, though, to tell Kellie
That I did NOT take any pictures of the toilet.
See, I already have some at home from my last
visit to Germany, so I didnt' even think about it,
but the next time I see this sort of toilet I promise
that I will take pictures for you!

It's called Soup World. 'Nuff said.

Uhhh.....

This is what they named the food court across
the street from Checkpoint Charlie.
I wish it were a joke.

Gymnasium is the German word for High School.
I wish I went to Einstein High!

It really isn't what it sounds like...
but it sounds freakin' hilarious!!

Oh, I also need to mention one other
thing. Berlin has a university called
Frei Universtitaet. Making the initials
FU. FU!!! I wish I were studying at
FU this year, that'd be way funnier.

Watch out Mike, this one'll blow your socks off!

2005-11-07T17:12:00.000-07:00

Okay, that damn keener Nicole already wrote about Berlin, so I guess that I have to, too.  I highly recommend looking at her blog entry for November 6, so that you can see more pictures, but I will try and post some as well.  I will also take a different approach than she did; ladies and gentlemen, I present you with paragraphs!

So, as I mentioned I kind of forgot that we were going to Berlin last weekend.  These things really sneak up on you!!  I did remember with plenty of time to get ready, though.  See, the thing is that we were leaving at 12:30 am on Friday.  I want to clarify that this means half past midnight where Thursday turns into Friday.  I am fortunate, in that I have a class on Thursday from 9-11 and then my weekend starts.  So I spent the day packing and straightening my hair (remember, curly hair doesn’t travel well).  Yes, it took all day.  I bought a really cheap hair dryer and I can’t use it for more than about 6 minutes before it overheats and I have to wait until it cools off to use it again (yes, I am thinking of investing in a more expensive one), so I spent most of the day with a Pebbles Flintstone-esque ponytail on the top of my head because I had to dry my hair layer by layer over the course of several hours.  It was painstaking, but I got done and packed in plenty of time to go with Nicole to meet Chris and Diana for drinks at a little pub right near the University (Katie joined a little later).  They all made fun of me because I brought a backpack and a small suitcase, whereas they all only had backpacks, but I was the only one who was fully prepared, so there!

We met at the bus at 12:30.  Sorry, what I meant to say was that we met where the bus was supposed to be at 12:30, but the bus didn’t come until 12:50, which was kind of a burn, and then we waited around a little bit longer for anyone who was running late (as far as I was concerned, they’d already had 20 minutes) and ended up leaving some Japanese guy behind.  He might have also been confused by the instructions, because I know that I had to explain to several people that we really were leaving in the middle of the night on Thursday/Friday.  Anyways, we headed off about 1:00 am and I pretty much slept until we stopped at, like, 4:00.  Used the washroom, paid the 50 cents because I don’t really care (if this sentence doesn’t make sense, you didn’t read Nicole’s entry), had a tea, got back on the bus.  More driving, some sleeping, but not as much, another stop (even though we were, like, 45 min. away from Potsdam, what a waste), and then we finally arrived in Potsdam at about 8:30 (I think).  It was pretty nice; we wandered over to the summer castle of Friedrich the Great.  He was crazy.  Gay and crazy.  Then we wandered around on our own for a bit, mostly in the Dutch quarter until we had to meet back at the bus at 1:00.  I bought a necklace while we were wandering around.  Come to think of it, I have no idea where that necklace is.  Damn it!  Seriously, no joke, I haven’t seen it all week and I think I might have left it in the hotel.  Crap.  That sucks.

Okay, so then we drove the rest of the way to Berlin.  We drove into this terrible neighbourhood with all this graffiti everywhere and I thought to myself, “Yeah, 2 nights and the transportation and all this other stuff included all for the low price of 80€?  I should have known we’d be staying in the ghetto.  I hope that the rats are small, and that the shared bathrooms are clean.”  So Patrik hands out a sheet where you have to sign up for a roommate, since it’s 2 to a room.  Well, Chris and Diana go together, naturally, and then that leaves Nicole, Katie and me.  That’s three for those of you following along.  So I decide to be brave and get the mystery roommate.  I tell Nicole and Katie that they can go together and I will see what’s behind door number 2.  Well, when I get up to the front of the line to get my key and find out who my roommate is, I see that I have a room to myself.  Score!!  If you remember earlier, we left a Japanese guy behind, making us an odd number, so I didn’t end up with a partner at all.  I talk it over with Patrik (group leader) and the clerk and we agree that I will sleep in this room tonight and will switch to a single room tomorrow.  Great, no problem.  Well, I get upstairs and the room’s got 3 beds in it.  And it’s gorgeous.  It has 3 beds in it and it’s gorgeous!!  So we do some quick work and Katie and Nicole come move in with me.  We Canadians are very industrious.  The room was so gorgeous I can’t even describe it.  I took pictures, but I don’t think that they do it justice at all.  It had 10’ high ceilings, and a huge bathroom; the beds were super comfortable and had crisp sheets on them.  This was actually a 3-star hotel that is just in kind of a rough neighbourhood, but they take safety measures and stuff at night, so it’s all good.  Anyways, enough fawning about the room; on with the story.

After checking in, we hopped on the bus and got dropped off at an U-Bahn station (by the way, in case I haven’t mentioned it in regards to Munich, U stands for ‘unter” which means ‘under’, as in ‘underground,’ and Bahn means ‘train’ so the U-Bahn is the subway.   And when I say things like, “We took the U6,” it means that we took the U-Bahn #6 to wherever) where we had to buy tickets.  Everyone else (35 people) gathered around the one ticket machine that was at the end of the platform we arrived on, but not the Canadians; we were industrious enough to walk to the other side of the platform and use that machine.  We were also industrious enough to get a day card for the 5 of us (because they are good for groups up to 5) and saved ourselves some money.  Man we’re industrious!!  Anyways, Patrik lead us on a walking tour of the downtown of Berlin.  We see Potsdamer Platz and the newly built Holocaust Memorial; the place where Hitler’s bunker used to be (we only knew about this because Lars told Nicole, Patrik didn’t even mention it and there were no signs anywhere) and over to the Brandenburg Gate.  I was especially happy about this because the only other time I was in Berlin it was being restored, and was covered in scaffolding and tarps, this time I actually got to see it.  Then we wandered down the road to the Reichstag (government building, it might actually be called the Bundestag, I’m not positive).  Then we Canadians and a German named Norbert headed back in the direction of the hotel and went for dinner at a Mexican restaurant there.  And by there, I mean ‘the ghetto’.

The next day we got up and went for drive around the city on the bus and Patrik gave a bit of a tour as we were driving.  After the bus dropped us off we Canadians headed to the New National Gallery to see the Pablo Picasso exhibit.  I will say that it was pretty cool that I got to see so many Picassos.  I will also say that I now know that I prefer photography as an art to painted art.  I have a theory on why this is, but I won’t get into it here.  Anyways, we then headed over to the Checkpoint Charlie museum and stopped at the former Luftwaffe Ministry.  I wasn’t actually all that interested at the time that we stopped, but I am glad we did because when we went into the Checkpoint Charlie museum they mentioned it a bunch because it was the site of a huge protest in 1953.  The CC museum was pretty cool, but it was really crowded in the parts that were really cool, and there was also a lot of stuff to read and not only did we not have enough time to read it all, but there were too many people.  I think my favourite part was hearing about all the different ways people escaped to the west.  Then we had some lunch and headed back to meet the group because we were scheduled to see a show.  “What show?” you ask?  Why, it was the Blue Man Group, that’s what!

Yup, the Blue Man Group went from Vegas to Berlin and we got tickets to it.  This is all I will say at this time:  it was really good.  I will get into more detail in a different post, possibly tomorrow, but we’ll see.  After the show we did some shopping (it was a special shopping night where all the stores are open until midnight, and I’m not entirely sure why) and a group of us went to have some coffee at a coffee shop called *snicker* Balzac!  That never gets old!  Not when I drive down to Calgary, and not sitting in the shop drinking tea.  Balzac.  Balzac!  Man, that’s funny.  Then we headed back towards the hotel, tried to find a restaurant for 11, gave up and split up.  I ate Indian food with the larger half of the group and thoroughly enjoyed it!

The next day, we ate breakfast and got onto the bus, and waited.  And waited.  And waited.  These two retarded girls had come down to eat breakfast still in their pajamas about 10 minutes before we were scheduled to leave.  And they didn’t look like the were hurrying either!!  So now the bus is full and we are all waiting – half and hour late – on these 2 stupid broads!  So the Canadians split.  Yeah, we couldn’t take it anymore and opted to take the U-Bahn to where we wanted to go, which was back to the last remaining, standing part of the wall.  On the train we ran into 3 people from the University of Lethbridge, which was really funny if you ask me, and we took them with us to the wall (see Nicole’s blog for a link to the website for the little museum-thingy that’s there).  We had wanted to do so much on that day, and really ended up doing very little.  We wanted to go on a boat tour on the river, but weren’t sure where the port was and didn’t know when or how often they leave, so we decided to go to this other thing instead.  I refer to it as “this other thing” because we never actually got there.  We followed the instructions on the brochure that Nicole had and then realized that they were really poor instructions.  We were going to walk the several blocks to where we thought the entrance might be but then we realized that we would have to leave in about an hour and 15 minutes to make it to the bus on time, and they pretty much recommend 2 hours to make it through this museum, so we would have been really rushed, even if we did find it right away, which was pretty unlikely.  So, we were right near this thing that’s referred to as the Gedaechtnis Kirche.  That basically means “memorial church” and the point is that there was this church that was really badly damaged during the bombings in Berlin (I believe that over half of the city was destroyed during the war) and instead of fixing it, they left it as a reminder.  It is both horrible and beautiful at the same time.  It wasn’t open, but we walked around it and there was an open-air market right there, too, so we looked around that.  There was also a KFC and I had that for lunch.  They didn’t have poutine.  I’m not saying that I’m surprised, but I am saying that I was disappointed.  They did, however, have chili-cheese fries, so I ordered those!  Then we rushed back to the bus because we were running really late.

I think that the only other thing worth mentioning about the trip home was that we stopped at the coolest truck stop ever!  Now, as I briefly mentioned earlier, you sometimes (usually) have to pay to use a public restroom in Germany.  Now, I’ve been to Italy and sometimes there you actually have to pay money and get a receipt to use the facilities, or sometimes they make you pay for the toilet paper; my point is that you have to pay.  In Germany, it’s usually not mandatory (as in, you need a receipt) but there is a woman sitting outside the bathroom next to a plate and if you don’t pay she yells at you.  I’m still undecided as to whether it is required if there is a sign that says how much you should pay, or if it is just a recommended amount.  Anyways, this place actually had turnstiles that you had to put your 50 cents into.  The funny thing is that it gave you a voucher for 50 cents that you could use at any of the vendors in the little complex.  So, basically, if you were buying anything at all (over 50 cents) you were using the crapper for free, if not, then you had to pay 50 cents.  Let me tell you, though, it would have been worth the 50 cents!  These were my favourite toilets!!  They are the kind (some of you have definitely heard me talk about them before) where, after you’re done, the seat rotates and gets disinfected all the way around, so that it’s clean for the next person.  They are brilliant!!  Yes, I do realize how funny it is that the highlight of the trip home was the toilets at the truck stop.

Okay, I have to end this here because it is now 1:09 am.  I have not posted in the pictures that I had planned on, and I won’t tonight.  Depending on how I feel tomorrow, I might add them into this post or just create a new post with the pictures, but there are pictures that I wanted to put, to keep Kellie happy.  Good night everyone!

Playing catch-up

2005-11-06T05:57:00.000-07:00

Okay, I've been here for a little over a month now, and I have written about some funny things that have happened to me since I got here, but I think we can all agree that I haven't written enough. The truth of the matter is that the guilt of putting off that Oktoberfest post left me not wanting to write much of anything else because I felt that I should be posting that one. Fortunately that subject has now been broached and I can play catch up with all the stuff you guys didn't hear. I won't post them all at once, but will try to go back as much as possible over the next little bit in between filling you in on what's currently happening with me.
This is a picture of the first donair that I ate after I got here. If I remember correctly, Nicole and I got here on the Tuesday and spent some time in the morning settling in, then we had the first orientation class starting at 1:00 pm. It was between settling in and the class that we decided to go for a quick walk to get a feel for the area and find a store where we could buy something to drink. I ended up finding this donair shop that is absolutely wonderful. It's called Kulle Kebap and I have been back many times since then. The owner is super nice and has gotten me hooked on something called Ayran (EYE-ran) which is a Turkish drink, traditionally consumed with donairs. It's basically a glass of thinned out tzatziki sauce. At first I thought it was pretty gross, but then I remembered that I love tzatziki and this is like having all the extra sauce I want. So now I think it's good. It turns out that most places here make their donairs out of veal (the translation is "calf" so I assume that means veal) but this guy uses chicken and I think that they taste better because of it. I have tried other donair stands and this one is definately the best. As far as I can tell, though, they are a new business and I really hope that they stay open. I should also mention that the day after I had this donair I had a second one. And then the next day I had a third. Yup, 3 donairs in 3 days; I was in heaven! I'm salivating as I write this and I wish it weren't Sunday because I am pretty sure that Kulle Kebap is closed on Sundays. This system makes no sense. Aren't PRIESTS working today? That blows the whole "no working on the Sabbath" thing right out of the water! Bastards! My kingdom for a donair!!

Trouble talking

2005-11-04T09:27:00.000-07:00

I've been having a lot of trouble talking these days - and those who know me know that that is a BIG problem! The thing is that I find myself pointing and nodding and things like that, instead of opening my mouth and saying what I want. I'm really ashamed of myself because I'm taking the easy way out, but I've kind of fallen into a trap that I can't get out of. Every single time I do this (it usually happens in a store) as I walk away I think, "Dammit, Bari! You knew what you wanted to say, why didn't you just say it!!" Yet the next time I'm in that situation I do the same thing: I smile like an idiot and point at what I want. I think that next time I will step back and practice what I want to say, then step forward, hold my head high, and use actual words to get what I want. Yes, that's my plan.

One ride guaranteed to make you scream!

2005-11-03T12:24:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of one of the rides at Oktoberfest. I nearly peed myself when I saw it.

Addicted to geeks

2005-11-02T15:29:00.000-07:00

I can't help it. I love geeks. I am realizing this more everyday. I see Mr. GQ on the street and think to myself, "Well, hello there, Mr. GQ. You sure are nice to look at." When I see a geek I think, "I bet you have all sorts of interesting things to say." The crazy thing is that it's the latter of these that is really turning my crank these days. I am really into smart, funny guys with a ton of stuff to say. I'm not saying that looks aren't important (being repulsed by someone makes it mighty hard to have a relationship with them), but rather that a very ordinary-looking guy becomes VERY attractive when he has interesting things to say, and geeks usually have the most interesting things to say. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a TA to fantasize about.

The one you've all been waiting for!

2005-11-01T04:55:00.000-07:00

Okay, the promised post is finally here! This is the other half of the story:

So I got on the plane in Toronto. It was a British Airways flight to London, England and then I was supposed to catch a connector flight to Munich. Here is what I have to say about that flight: If you are the sort of person who has unusually strong foot odor, you shouldn’t take off your shoes at any point in public; and, yes, an airplane is “public.” I don’t really care if they are uncomfortable; you are not at home in your armchair and you shouldn’t act like you are. Gross… gross. The good part about the flight was that BA international flights have private TV screens for each passenger. That was cool because I could watch what I wanted, which ended up being “Bewitched.” Another good thing was that I made friends with the stewardess (I refuse to use the term flight attendant). It kind of restored my faith that if you are nice to people, they will be nice to you, which was shaken in the Edmonton/Toronto airports. At the end of the flight I shook her hand and thanked her for her hard work and she said that I made the flight bearable (there were some real boors sitting around me), and it made me feel good that I could make someone else feel good. The other bad thing about the flight, though (aside from the smelliness), was that I fell asleep within the first half hour, but then they served dinner and before I knew it I was wide awake. Then I had a really hard time sleeping at all.

The flight ran a little late and I had about 50 minutes to make it out of the plane, onto a bus, into a different terminal, through customs and to my gate (those were all different prepositions, did you notice?). I rushed and raced and when I got where I was supposed to go, and was all sweaty and gross, the flight had been postponed for an hour. The other nice thing about BA is that they give you a little travel pack that has a little toothbrush and paste, a sleeping mask and a pair of socks. Now that is thinking! So I changed my socks and tried to find an unsecured server so that I could check my email and get Nicole’s cell phone number so that I could let her know that I was running late. I wasn't able to find one, by the way.

The connector flight to Munich was really uneventful, it’s like the flight from Edmonton to Calgary, but I didn’t have any people sitting next to me at all. All 3 seats belonged to me. It was nice. So I get off the plane and collect my baggage. I pass through customs and, in addition to giving them my passport, I handed the man my letter of acceptance to the LMU because we were told over and over again by the study abroad centre that we would need to show it. The guy looked so confused by this letter that it was funny; I almost laughed out loud. Then I passed through the doors and Nicole and her cousin (I actually think he’s her second cousin. He’s her mom’s cousin, so that’s second cousin, right?) were waiting there for me and I felt happy in the pit of my stomach. Then I realized that it was just that I really, REALLY wanted a donair.

Manfred drove us back to his house, which is just outside of Munich, and we met his wife Helga and his oldest son Marcus. We unloaded the bags and then I think that we pretty much had dinner then. I should also mention that the weather was crap that day. It was raining, but not very hard, just kind of constantly spitting, and it was so humid that, even though it was cool, I was sweating, and I had straightened my hair for the flight because curly hair doesn’t travel well (it turns into a dreadlock) and so the hair was slowly turning into a fuzzball. It looked kind of like I was touching one of those electrostatic balls and my hair was standing on end. We sat around and chatted for a while and talked about what to do. It was now about 4:00 in Germany, which is 8:00 in the morning in Canada and that meant that I had been awake for 28hours already. So I said that we had to leave because if I sat around I would be tired and would want to sleep and if I slept that I would keep sleeping, and that I really wanted to go to Oktoberfest. So we left to go to Oktoberfest, and I fell asleep in the car. It was okay, though, because it was just a little nap. Manfred and Helga dropped us off and we agreed to meet at 8:00 back at the drop off. They didn’t want to come because they say they are too old and it’s not really their thing.

So Nicole and I followed the people and made it to Oktoberfest. I should also mention, for anyone who hadn’t heard yet, that it was imperative that we go to Oktoberfest, even though I was ridiculously tired, because this was the last night. So here is my Oktoberfest experience: Oktoberfest is a fancy way of saying “Klondike Days.” I am sorry to shatter any illusions you may have had, but if my illusions were shattered then yours should be too. Sorry, I don’t make the rules. Basically there is a main thoroughfare at the end of which there is a small midway (compared to K-days’ standards) and then a secondary thoroughfare that runs parallel to the main one. These are lined with little shops, much like K-days, but I discovered that there are really only five or six shops and they are repeated over and over again. It was basically: a shop to buy beer steins, one for shirts and hats, one for sausages of all kinds (cooked and ready to eat), one for baked almonds, one for fish,and one for these big, crazy gingerbread hearts with stuff written on them. The main difference lies in the fact that behind these shops on the main thoroughfare are the beer halls, and that it a little bit more of what I was expecting when I think of Oktoberfest. Inside these halls there are hundreds of people (thousands?) and they are all drinking and singing. There was a brass oompah band in the middle playing typical german folk songs and there were beer maids bringing about a dozen steins at a time. Nicole and I tried to go to the Augustiner beer hall on the recommendation of Marcus, but it was so full that there was actually a sign that said “sorry you can’t come in” on the door. There were actually two Augustiner halls and they were both too busy to enter. We ended up going to the Paulaner hall, but it was really busy, too. I would have liked to have seen the inside of the Augustiner halls if they were too busy, because Paulaner was ridiculous. Nicole and I ended up actually sitting outside under an awning because we couldn’t find a place to sit inside. We drank a steinful each and then headed off to meet Manfred and Helga. (I am actually finishing off the last little bit of beer here, but you can't really see it. I just kind of looks like an empty beer stein. Too bad.) We picked up a sausage along the way. Then we drove back to Ebersburg (where they live), had a cup of tea and then I headed off to bed at about 9:30-10:00. I was up for about 34hours straight. By the end of it, I thought I was a humming bird.

Oops, it slipped my mind

2005-10-29T15:50:00.000-06:00

Hey everyone! Have you ever forgotten something really important? I forgot that I was going to Berlin this weekend. Hee hee. Fortunately, I remembered 24 hours before the bus left and made it on time. I have, therefore, not had any time to write anything for the last few days because of it. I just wanted to let you all know what was up and, I assure you, that I will write something about this when I get back home. Ciao!

Six O'Clock! For nothing!!

2005-10-24T06:02:00.000-06:00

As I previously mentioned, I have a class at 8:00 on Monday mornings. This really, really sucks. However, I am not here to sleep in everyday. No, I am here to learn, and if that means taking an incredibly interesting (-sounding) course that just so happens to take place at 8:00am, then I guess that means that I am just going to have to get up at 6:00 so that I can get there on time! And get up I did. At 6:00am. Afterall, if I can start work at Century at 7:30 everyday, then surely this is no big deal.

One other major problem with this course, aside from the fact that it starts so damned early, is that it doesn’t lie directly on a train line, and I have to take a bus to get there. After getting very detailed directions from Nicole on how to get to Oettingenstrasse (if you are interested in reading about Oettingenstrasse 67, I suggest reading Nicole’s entry for Oct. 22) I actually didn’t feel too bad about getting there, but still left myself plenty of time, just in case. Well, it was exactly as Nicole had described it: very institutional-looking, with a large, white, cement wall around it and absolutely no number on this wall anywhere. I made it inside the building and saw the guard behind the (bullet-proof?) glass, but this one actually smiled a bit as I came in, so maybe he was just starting his shift, and was in a good mood. With much help from the map on the wall I was able to find my classroom (room 011) where I found a posted note on the door saying that class was cancelled - not permanently, but just for today. I was so pissed! I couldn’t believe that class was cancelled on the first day! And after I had gotten up and there on time!! I wasn’t sure what to do, but as I walked back towards the bus stop (at 7:45 in the morning!) I decided that I would take a walk back towards the university through the English Gardens (Munich’s equivalent to Edmonton’s river valley, but without the valley part). This was probably the best thing I’ve done since I got here. After a few minutes I completely forgot that it was so early and I was just totally enamored of the beauty before me. Canada is beautiful in a way that no European can understand and Europe is beautiful in a way that no Canadian can. I wandered around for about 35min before I found myself on the other side and actually quite near where my next class was going to be, albeit not until 10:00, but still. So I went to that building, went to the cafeteria there, bought a cappuccino, pulled out my notebook and wrote this:

“Do you ever sit back and try to figure out how you got to where you are today? I’ve been doing that a lot recently; not because I’m disappointed with where I am: quite to the contrary! I can’t believe my life turned out this way, in the best way possible. I’m thrilled! If you had told me 10 years ago that I would be living and going to school – no, University – in one of the most famous cities in Europe, I would have thought you were crazy. And, I’ll tell ya, insofar as my life turned so incredibly cool, it’s impossible to have any regrets at all! Except that I kind of regret putting 2 sugars into this cappuccino, it’s like drinking diesel fuel now.

I just like to sit back and think about how German really snowballed! Let me explain that: I took German in grade 10, simply because I thought it would be neat to speak another language and my choices were French, Spanish, Mandarin and German. Seeing as how I hate French; and Spanish is too close to French for comfort; and I don’t think I could ever learn a language that doesn’t use the Roman alphabet; that left German. I figured that it was close enough to Dutch that I could get away with taking it and not feel silly, and maybe I’d be able to understand Grandma and Grandpa when they chatter away in Dutch. And the rest, as they say, is history.”

I can’t believe that all of this started out when I chose German as a default. That’s bizarre. These pictures don’t do any sort of justice to the English Gardens, but I took them this morning and it might give you some sort of an idea of what I’m talking about.

Scary Train Situations

2005-10-23T05:05:00.000-06:00

Nicole and I were headed to meet a friend on Friday (because we don't have any classes, haha) at the main train station (Hauptbahnhof). We took the U6 to Marienplatz and then had to transfer from the U-Bahn to the S-Bahn, so we headed off to the right platform for the S-Bahn. We had been standing there waiting for about a minute or so when there was a big commotion behind us. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but it appeared that an older woman (65-70) had fallen at the bottom of the escalator. Whether she passed out or just didn't step off properly is a mystery to me, but I know that she hit her head on the ground and broke her eyeglasses, which, in turn cut her on her eyebrow. There was blood everywhere; all over the ground and all over her face. People immediately came to her rescue and there was just a flurry of cell phones and tissues. About this time the train came.

Those of you who know me well, know that blood and I don't really get along to well. We have an agreement: it courses through my veins and keeps me alive, and I am grateful as long as I don't have to see it at all. As I got onto the train, I was actually thinking how well I was doing, and was pretty impressed with myself, especially considering that I had seen so much blood. It was about this time that I started to feel pretty nauseous. My heart started pounding really hard and I started sweating; I was absolutley convinced that I was going to be sick. I looked at Nicole and said, "I don't feel very well," or something like that, and just tried to concentrate on not losing that donair I had eaten. I started to blame the donair and started fidgeting really badly. All I wanted to do was sit down, but there were no free spots that I could see. "We only have one more stop to go and then we can get off and into the fresh air," Nicole reminded me, but I was really, really feeling bad at this point. The train stopped and I rushed off of it, hoping that the air on the train was just tight, but then I started to feel worse and I realized that I wasn't going to woof after all, no, I was actually going to pass out. The ringing in my ears started off quietly at first, but quickly got really severe; so bad that I couldn't hear anything except said ringing. I grabbed onto Nicole's arm at this point, who, by the way, had no idea how severe things were because I hadn't said anything since, "I don't feel very well" and it was a good thing I did because the outsides of my vision started to turn black and I was really, really doing bad as we rode up the escalator. I was so busy concentrating on staying concious that I couldn't even tell Nicole what was going on. Then, fortunately, the moment passed; my vision grew back to its normal size and the ringing died down. We stopped so that I could buy myself some water and tell Nicole what I had just gone through. On the plus side, we went and bought ice cream after we met Anna because we figured that the sugar might do me good. And can you guess what kind of ice cream I got? Spagetti ice!!! OH YEAH!!

So lucky

2005-10-22T08:49:00.000-06:00

I know that I am lucky for a lot of reasons; so many reasons, in fact, that I couldn't even begin to list them all. But today, one example of why I'm lucky kept coming into my head:

I get to have 2 autumns this year. And that is beautiful.

Eureka!

2005-10-21T02:28:00.000-06:00

So a couple of us Canadians went out to this irish pub last night. It was a good night. I should mention at this point that I don't have any classes on Friday at all this semester, so every weekend is a long weekend for me (ha ha ha!!!) and I can go out on Thursdays without feeling any guilt whatsoever. But that isn't why I'm writing. I am writing because as we were exiting the pub I saw a big sign that said, "KARAOKE - Sundays at 10:00." I am so excited! The only problem is that I have a class at 8:00am on Mondays and that could be a big problem. On the other hand, if I've found one Karaoke bar, I can find another. This has given me hope.

Sometimes I just adore this place

2005-10-19T15:17:00.000-06:00

So, this has happened a couple of times now, and I think it's noteworthy. Imagine this scenario: you've just cracked a beer (a 0.5L beer I might add) and then you realize that you have to leave to go meet some people; and you think, "Crap! I just cracked this beer and now I have to leave to meet some people." Then you laugh, pick up your keys and your beer and leave the house. You see a policeman on the way, smile, nod, and take a swig; laughing the whole time at those poor suckers in Canada who are either going to be late or really gassy from chugging that beer. Those poor, poor suckers.

Now that's thinking!

2005-10-18T00:55:00.000-06:00

So, for the most part, living in Germany is no different from living in Canada. There isn't a lot of technology that they have here that we don't have back home; the only real difference is the age of the buildings (and, in Edmonton's case, the lack of a decent public transportation system). There is one little invention, that is as commonplace here as traffic jams are on the Whitemud, that I think Edmonton ought to consider: stoppable, reversible escalators. The escalators in most (I hesitate to say "all," but I wouldn't be surprised) train stations have little sensor platforms at the top and bottom of them. When they aren't in use: they stop. When they are stopped and someone steps on one of the sensor platforms: they go in the desired direction. It is brilliant! Not only does it save energy by not constantly running, but it is my opinion that the gears get worn from constant use which is why there is no less than one escalator under maintenance at any given time at the University LRT station. It's such an amazing invention! They also have developed milk that won't expire until sometime in January 2006, but I don't recommend that one, it tastes funny.

No such thing as Belgian!

2005-10-15T15:46:00.000-06:00

Okay, I found out something yesterday. Here goes: there is no such language as Belgian. I don't know about you, but this comes as a real shock to me! I always new about Dutch and Flemmish, and I knew that Belgium is right near Holland, but apparently Flemmish and Dutch are the same thing with different accents. Really. This is not a joke. My new Belgian friend, Anna, says that they use the same dictionary (for Flemmish and Dutch). I would appreciate comments on this one. I refuse to believe that I'm the only one who didn't know this! Even if it's just a comment to call me an idiot, or just to say that you didn't know either, I would appreciate it. Laters!

Travel Tip

2005-10-15T01:45:00.000-06:00

Okay, so here is my travel tip for the day: If you're at a bar, and you've had a few, and you missed dinner, do NOT call home from your cell phone to your best friend! It may seem like a good idea, especially when, with the time difference, it is a reasonable hour there, it is still a bad idea! Just don't do it! That's all for now.

Paying attention is a MUST!

2005-10-10T15:51:00.000-06:00

This isn't the promised email, but I really don't want to lose my readership, so I will share this story that is really quite embarrassing (I have your attention now, don't I?).

The other day Nicole, Katie, Elaine and I were all riding the train trying to get back to the Student City (if I slip one of these days and call it the Studentenstadt, just know that that is where we live). Normally when we take the train from the University to home, we take one called U6 Garching Hochbrueck, which is the name of the last stop on the line. We had gotten on at the University, or somewhere near there, and this particular train said U6 Muenchener Freiheit. As we got on Nicole made the comment that she thinks that means that the train only goes as far as Muenchener Freiheit (which is the name of one of the stops we normally pass through) because once before we were on a train where everybody got off and she thought that it had said the same thing that time. This seemed like a reasonable hypothesis. However, we all started talking and before I knew it I looked up to see some old man pointing at us as the doors to the train were closing. We looked up and realized that we were at Muenchener Freiheit; everyone had gotten off but us and we were too late: the doors were closing.

I would like to take this time to point out that the old man wasn't pointing with concern: he was, in fact, pointing and laughing. I would also like to make it clear that we weren't just supposed to intuitively know that we were to get off, the conductor had been announcing it for quite some time (the older trains don't have a recording, the guy actually has to announce each station and tell everyone to stand back each time) and we were just too engrossed in our conversation to pay attention. And I would, lastly, like to say that it wasn't that we didn't understand what was going on or what the word "aussteigen" means, we totally understood - we just weren't paying attention.

So the train is driving off, with us on it, and we have no idea where it's going. It pulls into a dark area and parks. We think that we are parked for the night (although, in retrospect, the "garage" that we thought we were in was awfully close to the Munchener Freiheit station). So we decide that the best course of action is to press the Emergency button. The man comes on and asks what our emergency is. We say that we are stuck on the train. He asks if there is a medical emergency and Elaine, who speaks the best German of all of us, steps up and explains that we were supposed to "aussteig" but didn't, and now we are stuck on the train. He says something to the effect of, "You know that the train goes back the other way in a minute or so?" So Elaine says something like, "Actually, we didn't know that. No problem, then, nevermind!" And so he says again, "So there is no medical emergency?" and we say, "No," and that was that. Sure enough, a few minutes later the conductor walks by to go to the other end of the train and we just about laugh ourselves silly. Now, everytime we go past Munchener Freiheit one of us will start laughing and say, "Remember the time we forgot to get off the train?" and the rest of us will start laughing too. At least we won't make that mistake again; but, if we do, we know not to push the emergency button because the train will just go back the other way in a minute or two!

Sorry Mike, this is a long one

2005-10-09T14:59:00.000-06:00

Alright, everyone! Here is the first half of the post I’ve been promising! This is the beginning of the description of the 35-hour span I spent awake. It begins when I woke up on the morning that I left for Germany:

I got up at 4:00am and finished up my packing. We left pretty much on time at 6:20ish, and drove to the airport. When we got there, I had no idea how to use the express check-in thingy that Air Canada has, but thought, “That’s fine, I’ll just wait in this long line up and go to a real person to check me in.” It turns out that Air Canada has this wonderful system where they you have to “Express Check-in” and then also go talk to a person. So, I get to the front of the line and the guy is all like, “Please scan your boarding pass,” and I’m like, “What the hell are you talking about?” I felt like that moron who holds up long lines, because that’s what I was. The flight was okay, I had an aisle seat next to some younger people who slept the whole way, which suited me just fine, and we watched The March of the Penguins, which was also pretty good. The only kind of exciting thing that happened was as I was heading into the boarding area (my parents could still see me) they were really fussing as my bags were going through the x-ray machine and I’m thinking, “Bari, what did you pack?!” It turns out that they just thought that I had 3 pieces of carry on and were calling over all these supervisors, when I really only had 2 and the woman behind me had 2 and they got too close. No biggie.

I got to Pearson in Toronto and had a 7-hour layover (I think it was that long, I was really messed up with the time change). The man in Edmonton was super nice (even though I’m such a tard) and he made it so that my bags would go directly to Munich, even though when the flight was booked I was told that I would have to collect my bags in T.O. But I was really paranoid about my luggage on this trip so, since I really had nothing better to do, I went and waited with everybody else for my luggage, which, of course, never came. Good, moving on then. I headed outside and caught a bus to take me to a different terminal. I wandered over to the British Airways counter and saw that they weren’t checking in for my flight, yet so I decided to wander around. I realized that I was hungry because it was about 1:00pm Edmonton time and so I decided to go into the lounge area of the Swiss Chalet for some appetizers (because you can’t order off the regular menu, but that was fine with me) and I decided to start taking notes of what I was thinking. The notes lasted until I got onto the plane, and here they are in order:

March of the Penguins would have been better if Ashley were around to play Mystery Science Theatre 3000 with.

Having a beer. Hope I don’t regret it. (Even after I wrote this I had another.) *I really wrote that* (and another) *that too*.

I’m unemployed.

Talking to strangers is easy… when it’s in English!

No matter how nice you are to other people, some of them will still be mean to you. Even if you’ve perfected your I’m-a-cute-little-girl-from-Edmonton voice… which I have.

I hate standing at that exact spot in a line-up where people want to “cut through” ahead of you. I even tried to stand closer to the guy in front of me. We were so close we were practically having intercourse and people still cut through!

Oh, crap. I think I’m drunk. I’m at the Toronto airport, standing in a line and I’m drunk. Damn 3 pints.

I made a new friend today. His name is Morgan and he’s a bartender at the Swiss Chalet at the T.O. airport. We invented a drink (Red Mai-Tai: rum, pineapple juice, lime and grenadine) and he said that he thinks I’m awesome.

The British accent certainly is a funny accent.

I think working in the flight industry would be a good idea because it’s not going away anytime soon. Trust me! You should see how busy Pearson is!

Sorry boys, girls who wear no bra or a poorly supporting one should be locked up.

This man has the last supper on his shirt.

Ha ha! I’m not the only on in this line up writing in a coilbound notebook. I wonder what she’s writing?

The British Airways Monitor keeps flashing “Please have passorts and tickets ready in” but then doesn’t say anything (like a time). I expected more from the British. That sentence just trails off.

Yup, still a little drunk.

That was a nice nap I just took. I bet I have a big red mark on my forehead from the heel of my hand. Damn. How come guys look so good, even without make-up?

There’s a guy here who looks just like a bearded Kirk, but more Amish. It’s probably the eyelashes.

I wonder if it’s wrong to ride the Jetson’s walkway shouting, “Weeeeee!”?

I think I just stepped in pee.

Wow! Look how fast those people go when they walk on the moviator! I wonder what it would look like if someone ran?

They just announced that they are about to start boarding and that families with small children should line up. I hope that there’s no crying baby on this flight! *Oh yeah, there was a crying baby on the first flight*

I kind of get couples who have matching backpacks, but matching shoes…?

I bought a bottle of water earlier and lost it. So I just bought another one. I was looking for a place to put the new bottle just before I boarded the plane here. How about in this pocket? Nope, doesn’t fit. Here? Mmmm… nope, no good. I have the perfect spot for it!! And when I opened that pocket I found the first bottle of water.

That’s it, that’s my journal of what I was thinking from the time I sat down at Swiss Chalet till I boarded the plane headed to London. I gotta head to bed, but the other half of the trip is on the way, hopefully tomorrow. Laters!

Cheap Beer!!

2005-10-07T11:36:00.000-06:00

Nicole and I were finally at home at 7:00 at night and decided to check out the "Drinks in the Orange-House" that we kept seeing advertised that is only open from 7:00-8:00 Mon-Sat (we live in the Orange-House, Katie and Elaine live in the Green-House). This is an opportunity to buy stuff in bottles that would really suck to try and bring back from the grocery store (or at least that's why I figured it got started in the first place), they also sell a small amount of other groceries that it would be convenient to get here such as pasta and some canned goods. Well, I should have seen it coming, but this place is mostly full of juice and beer. Lots of beer, and super cheap! I just paid EUR 0,75 for 0,5L of beer (sorry, they use commas where we use periods and vice versa). That is like $1.25 for a bottle of Erdinger! I am so fucking impressed! Yeah! Have a good weekend everyone!