Greetings. I haven't posted in a few weeks because not much has been going on. Topping the list of exciting news for me is that I did a "system restore" on my computer and it is now running better than it ever has before. I'm connecting to the internet at lightning speeds as well as downloading TV shows and live music without any freezes. Truly exciting for me. After losing much of my music collection after sophomore year, I never really had the energy to get most of it back. Furthermore, the shittiness of my computer prevented me from downloading effectively. But now, I am back in the game. Disco Biscuits shows are flowing like wine here in Zwonitz, and the untz-waves can be felt radiating throughout Eastern Europe.
Another piece of news I enjoyed was the Michael Phelps saga I like to refer to as
"Water-pipe-gate." What I love even more than his getting down on a phat bowl, though, is the outrage of the American public. Getting pissed at him for the drunk driving arrest is one thing, but taking bong rips? Come on. People say he is a role model; that is fucking retarded. The only thing he should be a model of is how to effectively swim through a pool at high speeds. Anyone who thinks their kids should look up to him as a person is full of shit. I read an excellent article on ESPN.com that pointed out how the public "creates" celebrities like Phelps, and then on a whim destroys them. A valid assessment. Sports are great, and I think young people can learn a lot from playing them. But to assume that athletes should be the primary role models for young people is just ridiculous. I generally think Phelps is a douche, but he actually earned some points with me here. He should ditch his shitty sponsors and start repping bong manufacturers and the marijuana lobby instead. I'm sick of celebrities acting like their responsible just because they want to keep their endorsements. Be yourselves, you douchebags.
In other news, I am now on Winter Break for two weeks. Katy and I will travel to Berlin on Thursday to spend the weekend with my colleague Colin Adams. On the following Monday we fly to Budapest and then Bratislava for a few days. Should be good times, and it will certainly be nice to get out of Zwonitz for a bit. I'm not sure exactly what we have planned for those cities, but hopefully we can balance sightseeing with raging as much as possible.
My tennis season has also begun. We are now 2-0, though I will not be playing in this weekends match because I will be out of town. I crushed my opponents in the first two matches, playing #1 singles for our team. My teammates have also been playing well, and if we continue at this rate we have a good shot at bringing home a championship. Some spectators commented on my racket throwing and screaming of obscenities, but unlike in High School, I will not be penalized for on-court behavior. This is excellent, for those of you familiar with my tennis-related anger problems. I am serving very well, in my last match I did not even hit a second serve until halfway through the match. We need to get a radar gun out there to see if I'm back to my 100+mph skills these days, though of course any gun here would tell us only kmph, which is completely useless.
What else can I talk about? LOST has been thrilling so far this season. I will refrain from discussing it because I hate it when people rack their brains trying to anticipate what's going to happen. Keep your theories to yourself and enjoy the show. I'd also like to express tentative excitement about the Sixers. Losing Brand is good news, as far as I'm concerned. From what I can gather, they are playing pretty damn well. Of course I can't watch the games...so I'm just going based on box scores and highlight reels. We'll see what happens.
That's all for now. I feel that this post may have been somewhat of a ramble, but I'm bored and I have fuckloads of music to jam out to, so I needed an activity.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Monday, January 19, 2009
An Odd Encounter
On Saturday I had to come in to school for an open house day for prospective students. Basically, the English department hoped to woo potential students by showing off their fancy native English speaker...who of course will not be here come next year, but never mind about that. Basically I sat around eating candy and playing board games with small children for 3 hours, hung over (yuh), and was eventually permitted to go home. However, one of my teachers approached me with some most unusual news. Evidently there is an elderly unmarried couple who lives together in a nearby town. The man is an avid model airplane builder who specializes in American fighter planes. At a craft show elsewhere in Germany, he met an American military officer stationed somewhere in Germany who shares his enthusiasm for model-building. They struck up a friendship, and the American (and his wife) have been to our region to visit on a few occasions. What does this have to do with me? I have no idea. So after seeing a feature article about me in the town's weekly paper (yeah, I'm like the Paris Hilton of Zwönitz), this old couple was greatly excited to learn that an American was living in the area. They came to the school with copies of old letters exchanged between them and the Americans (dated 2006), and wondered if I would be interested in calling the Americans on the phone. Why? Again, I have no idea. In the article about me, the author made a point of mentioning how much better Christmas in this region is than Christmas in America. Here we have the traditional Christmas markets and craft displays, while in America everything is commercialized and evil. (I obviously said nothing even remotely indicating that opinion, but whatever). Due to my alleged enthusiasm for the Christmas market here, the elderly German couple hoped that my calling these Americans and telling them about the wonders of Christmas in the Erzgebirge would somehow persuade them to come next year. Apparently the Germans have invited them before, but the Americans did not take them up on it. What I don't understand is, these letters are 2-3 years old, why haven't the couples corresponded more recently? Why am I expected to convince complete strangers that they ought to come to the Christmas market in Zwönitz next year, rather than returning home to celebrate the holidays with their families? I am still bewildered, but will be giving the letters and photos back tomorrow, and will most likely not be phoning the American couple. Needless to say, this is all very unsettling.
Speaking of unsettling, what the fuck happened to the Eagles last night? In a truly Boston College-esque performance, they got torn apart on defense for the first half, made an outstanding comeback in the second half, and then decided to fuck it up again with 3 minutes remaining. Good thing that was the only football game I had a chance to watch all season. Very frustrating. Go Sixers?
Speaking of unsettling, what the fuck happened to the Eagles last night? In a truly Boston College-esque performance, they got torn apart on defense for the first half, made an outstanding comeback in the second half, and then decided to fuck it up again with 3 minutes remaining. Good thing that was the only football game I had a chance to watch all season. Very frustrating. Go Sixers?
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Christmas, Nazis
Sorry it has been so long since my last post...Mettenschicht seems like a distant, blurry, vomit-smelling memory. So, Christmas, pretty sweet. The holiday season made for some very easy lessons to teach at school. I focused on the commercialization of Christmas as well as America's multiculturalism. I also distributed an article about a Wal Mart employee who was trampled and badly wounded in a mad dash for a Tickle Me Elmo doll. Good thing he has health care. Yikes. I also told my students that in addition to Christmas and Hanukkah, we all celebrate Festivus in America, because Seinfeld was not only a popular TV show, but in fact, a critical American cultural artifact.
For Christmas, Katy and I traveled to the land of her forefathers, and the enemies of my forefathers; England. Her Great Aunt Eva lives on a cliff overlooking the English Channel in the town of Hastings. It was beautiful there, and I greatly enjoyed blasting cigs on the roof overlooking the sea. We spent the week eating various large meals and drinking with assorted segments of the family. I felt largely out of place, being that they were not, in fact, my family at all. But surprisingly, being around old people feels pretty much the same whether you're related to them or not. I was given a swiss army knife, a pair of hardcore winter gloves, and assorted travel sized axe-style body washes. All things considered, pretty useful, good smelling gifts.
On the 30th of December, we returned to Germany to ring in the New Year in Berlin. After spending the night at a nice hotel, we met my fellow German scholar Colin upon his arrival to the capital. We proceeded to kill many beers, perhaps too many, and the night was not the untz-fest I would have hoped for. Without the Disco Biscuits, New Years Eve just doesn't rage hard enough. We did stay for a few more days in Berlin and had a very fun night of untzing at an underground club with a couple of Colin's friends. Now that we have a friend living there, we will probably make frequent trips, as it is a fairly dominant city.
We've now been back in Zwönitz for a couple weeks, and things are back to normal. It snowed a great deal here, but the cold spell has broken and it is now melting and falling off of rooftops, causing me great trepidation. Last weekend at the town pub 'After Work' we met a Nazi. A real one, from Germany. He spoke remarkably good English, though with his 'Fuck America' t-shirt and rabid anti-everythingism, what he had to say wasn't all that pleasant to hear. At one point he threatened to hit me, but I was confident that he would not do so in such a public place...but he was extremely large and intimidating. He hailed Hitler repeatedly, much to the chagrin of the other bargoers. He was impressed with my knowledge of Punk Rock, though I wisely left out that I stopped listening to such music at about the age of 13. After posing drunk questions to me he would cut off my answer by shouting 'Its not your fucking problem!' He then proceeded to light a cigarette in the bar (no longer legal here) and announce, 'This is my town, I do whatever the fuck I want.' I have to hand it to him, no one tried to stop him. It also opened the door for us to begin smoking indoors. Eventually he left to return home to his young daughter (good one), and I was left fairly shocked. Germans dislike Turks and other immigrants, but to be an out and out Nazi in this country just seems absurd to me. Oh well, at least it made for an interesting evening.
Well, that's all for now. I'm back to teaching and beginning to make plans for a trip during my February break. Also, my tennis season begins in earnest in a couple weeks with matches every other weekend. I look forward to getting out there and fucking some shit up.
Oh, and...
E
A
G
L
E
S
EAGLES
For Christmas, Katy and I traveled to the land of her forefathers, and the enemies of my forefathers; England. Her Great Aunt Eva lives on a cliff overlooking the English Channel in the town of Hastings. It was beautiful there, and I greatly enjoyed blasting cigs on the roof overlooking the sea. We spent the week eating various large meals and drinking with assorted segments of the family. I felt largely out of place, being that they were not, in fact, my family at all. But surprisingly, being around old people feels pretty much the same whether you're related to them or not. I was given a swiss army knife, a pair of hardcore winter gloves, and assorted travel sized axe-style body washes. All things considered, pretty useful, good smelling gifts.
On the 30th of December, we returned to Germany to ring in the New Year in Berlin. After spending the night at a nice hotel, we met my fellow German scholar Colin upon his arrival to the capital. We proceeded to kill many beers, perhaps too many, and the night was not the untz-fest I would have hoped for. Without the Disco Biscuits, New Years Eve just doesn't rage hard enough. We did stay for a few more days in Berlin and had a very fun night of untzing at an underground club with a couple of Colin's friends. Now that we have a friend living there, we will probably make frequent trips, as it is a fairly dominant city.
We've now been back in Zwönitz for a couple weeks, and things are back to normal. It snowed a great deal here, but the cold spell has broken and it is now melting and falling off of rooftops, causing me great trepidation. Last weekend at the town pub 'After Work' we met a Nazi. A real one, from Germany. He spoke remarkably good English, though with his 'Fuck America' t-shirt and rabid anti-everythingism, what he had to say wasn't all that pleasant to hear. At one point he threatened to hit me, but I was confident that he would not do so in such a public place...but he was extremely large and intimidating. He hailed Hitler repeatedly, much to the chagrin of the other bargoers. He was impressed with my knowledge of Punk Rock, though I wisely left out that I stopped listening to such music at about the age of 13. After posing drunk questions to me he would cut off my answer by shouting 'Its not your fucking problem!' He then proceeded to light a cigarette in the bar (no longer legal here) and announce, 'This is my town, I do whatever the fuck I want.' I have to hand it to him, no one tried to stop him. It also opened the door for us to begin smoking indoors. Eventually he left to return home to his young daughter (good one), and I was left fairly shocked. Germans dislike Turks and other immigrants, but to be an out and out Nazi in this country just seems absurd to me. Oh well, at least it made for an interesting evening.
Well, that's all for now. I'm back to teaching and beginning to make plans for a trip during my February break. Also, my tennis season begins in earnest in a couple weeks with matches every other weekend. I look forward to getting out there and fucking some shit up.
Oh, and...
E
A
G
L
E
S
EAGLES
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