I've enjoyed typing out these long-winded entries as much as receiving feedback from people. It's nice to know that there are people out there that are interested in what you're doing all the time, even though it's not that exciting. The fact is, I'm a pretty dull boring person, so there's not really that much that goes on in my life. But when there is something, even something small, I must write about it. That's why I like to write these updates.
I know it would be cool if you could reply to the messages inside the actual webpage, but I just don't know my way around those Bulletin Board programs enough to do it. Maybe if I'm really super bored, I will actually learn one of those programs and you might see a surprise one day, but as for now, this page will stay in a simple table format.
I know all this stuff is self-involved, and pretty lame as well, and it might seem I'm thinking highly of myself by assuming somebody actually cares about my entries by posting it on the Internet, but please understand: I am in a land of mineral water here folks. I'm dying slowly every day at my boring job, and I need some kind of an outlet!
I also like the idea that I will be able to read these updates/entries myself after the summer is done, and see my progression. The other thing is that maybe some of you could tell others that I forgot to include in my emails, or people who's email I didn't know. I hope y'all realize if I had my computer and the Internet at home I would never in a million years be doing this btw!
Well this past week was something else, that's for sure. Once again I was reunited with the marvelous inventions of TV and computer (in a games aspect). Video games were played, shows were watched, and good times were had. But that's not all I did... I even did some things I have never done before, ever. Like go on a bike tour in the Rems Valley. Or go to a Biergarten. Or go to a German movie theater. or ride on the backseat of a motorbike to Heidelberg. Or eat pizza with hot peppers on it.
Yes it was definetely good times at my Uncle's place last week. I am still staying for tonight, but then it's off back to the grandparents place, where the boredom never ends. My Aunt and Uncle made a big effort to get me out away from the computer though, and they certainly did a pretty good job of it. I'm glad that I got out, but of course sitting on a bike seat for a long time causes major bruising issues.
I already mentioned last weekend a little bit, but I will expand a little here. We also did some mini-golf on Monday, but that is nothing too interesting. It was really hot the last week, so it was hard to sleep sometimes. The Germans have these weird roll-shutters on all their windows, so in the morning you can hear them rolling up on all the houses. They even have them over glass doors that lead to balconies. Anyway, that day I also had my first water-based popcicle in Germany, except it was nowhere near Rainbow Rocket quality. It was pretty small too, and looked like a hand holding up a finger. I'm not sure which finger... I love chocolate, but I'm not a fan of chocolate popcicles. It's a weird thing really, but that's just it. So at least I can cross one of those missed snacks off the list!
Then on Tuesday I think it was, I sat on a motorcycle for the first time. It was not so bad, but I hung on for dear life 'cause I was a little scared of going down. We went to a nice park where there is a pond beside a mini-palace-thingy. It was pretty cool, and there were ducks there that were fighting each other. Or playing. I couldn't tell. My Aunt and Uncle both ride Suzuki Intruders, the only difference is one has 1400CC and the other has 800CC. It's not bad riding on the back, except I don't really feel comfortable sitting so close to someone stradling their, um, back... but I learned to ignore that little issue after a while. And it gets REALLY uncomfortable after about an hour or so.
Then nothing much happened that week, because we all went to work that week. I tried some Italian pizza, and ordered pepperoni on it. But pepperoni is something else here in Germany, so what I got was hot green peppers (like jalapenos practically) all over the pizza, and it was pretty nasty. They weren't even cut up, they were whole! But I'll remember that for next time. I also want to try a DÖNER some time as well, they are kind of like hamburgers. They look good as well. The only american fast food places they have here are McDonalds and Burger King, and I haven't gone to either yet. It should be interesting... apparently everthing there is 2 or 3 times more expensive than in Canada, but tastes WORSE! We'll see. Also there is apparently a Subway in Stuttgart, I gotta check that out sometime.
Then Saturday came the big bike ride to Heidelberg. I can't remember if it's BERG or BURG, oh well. The difference is 'hill' or 'castle', but it could be both, since the city is in a valley with hills around it, and there are also lots of castles! The ride there was pretty scenic, we went through some nice areas. Another guy came with us, some Czech guy that my Uncle knows. When we got close to Heidelberg, it began to rain, so we stood underneath a bridge until it stopped. But because of the stop, we could only stay in Heidelberg for a little while. There were lots of American and Japanese tourists there, and one little American kid told its mom "I want to go on the canoes!", but they were actually professional rowboats. I thought that was funny..
Heidelberg is a city that's divided by the Neckar River, and both sides have hills on them, so the houses are all on the hills. One side has rich people's villas on it, the other side has the regular houses and tourist places, as well as a cool castle on the hill. I should have picked up some brochures or postcards, but I forgot. Then on the way back we took the Autobahn, and that's where I nearly went insane. My ass started to hurt so much I just started talking crazy things to myself. Nobody could hear me, not even myself, but it was fun. I was so thankful to get off that bike, and it seemed forever that we were on the Autobahn. And we drove so slow too... at least it seemed that way, since everybody passed us. But my uncle told me afterwards that we went 120kph nearly the whole time, in the slow lane! Crazy.
So during the times I was at home I mostly played computer and watched TV. As I reported earlier, Pascal doesn't know anything about computers, he just wants to play games. He's really into Magic: The Gathering cards, he says it's really popular. I don't know if it's so big anymore in Canada, but I'm out of the loop as far as those things go. He's also into DragonballZ, so he has a whole row of German translated comics in a shelf, about 30 of them, like fat graphic novel types. It was nice playing the emulators and roms with no slowdowns, as his compy is slightly faster than mine. I played Super Metroid for him and showed him what it was like in the good old days. He seemed kinda interested in it, or maybe he was just humouring me, but I didn't care. He also has a wireless controller, and I enjoyed using it. I think I will get my own once I get back, it's nice not having the wire limiting you all the time.
As for TV, my uncle has satellite with a lot of locked out channels. In all I'd say about 150/500 channels work, and some of them are just doubles. There are some english stations too, like NBC-Europe, and CNN. I usually watched those because I need the English connection really badly. I hate watching movies in german though, the voice actors do a decent job but their voices all sound the same somehow. Actors have disctinct voices that set them appart, and once they're dubbed over it ruins the movie or show. Yep, no subtitles here except for some rare examples, such as the Ali G show, which was funny. Also the channel surfing was weird, you have to press down to go up a channel, and up to go down a channel. That was odd at first, but it made sense somehow because the list starts with channel 1 on the top and goes down to higher channels, like an ascending sorted list.
Another cool thing was the racing channel. You could actually select different cameras and stuff during a Formula 1 race, which was pretty sweet. We watched Michael Schumacher win a race in Montreal. Here in Germany he is really popular, he's like a big celebrity, and they call him 'Schumi'. Oh yeah, and sensorship is really loose here too. They are allowed to show breasts and even full frontal nudity (quick flashes). Some of the late night callgirl commercials were a little more, er, risque than the ones in Canada, that's for sure. Not that I watch those... all the time. Also it's possible to catch naked breasts even on big ad posters at train stations. Rated R movies can be seen at 16 years already, instead of 18. And I saw an Eminem music video, and no swearing was bleeped out. The Germans use foul language really losely, it's not that offensive to them. They never say 'poo poo' or 'fesces' or 'crap', they say 'shit'. It's simply like that... I was a little taken aback at first, especially by words like that being used in a professional working environment, but I'm getting used to it. Not that I will use those words myself, but I understand now the cultural difference gives them some leeway.
And that was pretty much the whole week. Lots of things happened, and once again I am sorry I don't have a digital camera or something, that's really hurting right now that the only memories I have will be written down. I will remember for next time I guess... or maybe I should just buy a camera. I have the money for it... well we'll see. These wordy updates would certainly be a whole lot more interesting if there was visuals included!
I will try to update every week or so. If by some kind of miracle I actually get real work to do, the updates will be fewer and far between, but I have no fear of that at the present time.
Ciao,
JoWak
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