Heavy Weather

As I settle into more and more of a routine here, I'm afraid the lack of doing anything interesting will put more and more space between blog posts. I've never been much on prose composition really; I prefer a musical outlet for my creative impulses. But just to keep roughly on a weekly schedule, I'd like to brag that the weather here has been absolutely gorgeous. I'm talkin' up in the 80's for the past 3-4 days, though things are going to "cool off" down into the high 60's the next couple days. But rest assured I have been gamboling barefoot and vicariously in the fields for you all and will continue to do so until your ark lands on a mountain and you remember what dry land looks like. Also, much as it's going to rock to have a Euro that's worth $1.40, I'd appreciate it if you guys could hold off on letting the U.S. economy go completely to shit until I get all my money out of my U.S. bank account. Anyway, until I have something legitimately interesting to say...

She said, "don't I know you from the cinematographer's party?"

The Psychogenic Re-fugue-ee, tentatively scheduled to be retired upon my return to the United States in August, will now be continued at least through June of 2008, as I have just been informed that I got the Fulbright English Teaching Assisstantship for Germany! I get €700 ($900) a month to teach English to highschoolers for 20 hours a week, and I get to stay in Germany! Hooray for me and suchlike!

EDIT: The duration of my grant, according to the official documents I have received is Sept. 3, 2007 to June 30, 2008.

Diminishing Returns

Well, in typical fashion, a planned grand excursion, the envy of my peers, suffered a series of setbacks and revisions to the point that it became unrecognizable in its mediocrity. Two weeks ago, I had a majestic vision in my head to take advantage of the opportunities afforded by my first extended holiday overseas. My friend Zack would come on Sunday and take in the sights of Bonn until Thursday afternoon when we would leave to spend the long weekend in Amsterdam. Signs of trouble emerged almost immediately when a lunchtable conversation indicated (and a quick internet search confimed) that just about everyone other college student in Europe was headed to the city of legalized pot and hookers as well, leaving us with, literally, no room at the inn. Almost immediately following this revelation, I was informed by Zachariah that he would be headed to Salzburg to visit someone else, instead of Bonn for the first part of the week, but would head over my on Wednesday. And since he was going to be incommunicado in Austria, he left me to plan the whole thing. Further indications that I was not meant to leave the Rhineland this Easter came when I tried to book a flight to Dublin from Frankfurt and ended up booking a flight to Frankfurt from Dublin. RyanAir being the most unforgiving airline ever, it cost me an additional €100 to set things right. Complicating things further was the fact that even in Dublin there were no hostels available on Saturday night, though wandering the streets all night "would be fine with me" according to one of the few e-mails I got from Zack during the planning stages. So with poorly thought out plans tentatively in place, Zachariah arrived and as I was explaining to him what the itinerary for the weekend would be, it became abundantly clear to both of us that not only would it be nearly impossible to both sleep on Sunday night and make the 7am flight to Frankfurt on Monday morning, but we'd really only have 48 hours of time in Dublin max. Thus it was decided to investigate travel options in the future and just stay in Bonn for the weekend.
This is not to say, however that we didn't have a good time. We ventured to the Cologne Ikea after classes on Thursday, situated near an attractive Shell Oil refinery and various other heavy industry type structures. On Good Friday, we saw Mr. Bean and took pictures of ourselves on giant heads in front of the Bonn cathedral before heading to the ol' Irish pub for drinks with some Erasmus pals. On Saturday we went with some of those same Erasmus pals on a boat ride down the Rhein to Königswinter where we climbed a big mountain to see a dumb rock dragon. Saturday night we went to the famously breath-taking Kölner Dom (Cologne Cathedral) (second tallest Gothic structure in the world) for Easter Vigil Mass presided over by the Cardinal, who gave a wonky homily involving an over-extended candle metaphor and how much better we'd all feel if we went to Confession regularly. Across the street from the Dom on what must be the business offices of the Archdiocese, there was a banner at least ten stories tall featuring Pope Benedict XVI (who is German, and thus a really really big deal). Easter Sunday was spent walking around the posh, residential section of Bonn, South of the city center, and topped off with an all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet. Over the course of the weekend we also watched an episode of "Graf Duckula" and countless hours of "Spongebob Schwammkopf" as well as 300 and Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie, and ate real food prepared by Zack, who also introduced me to the Dutch delicacy of "syrup waffle" cookies. It is nice, I must say, however, to have some time alone, as the one-person dorm room, definitely doesn't lend itself to comfortably accommodating more than said one person.
Easter Monday is an official holiday here, so it's sort of thrown my schedule off, but I'll be back in the swing of things tomorrow, so enjoy the funny pictures of heads and I will write again soon.

Optimismus an deutschen Universitäten?

Well-rested and fresh-faced I stepped out the door on the way to my very first class in a German University! The sky was blue and the birds were singing as I stepped into the S-Bahn car. A pretty girl sat next to me and asked me what time it was. I got off the train and walked to the University building, found the classroom with no trouble -- Theorien der Kausalität (Theories of Causality), Hörsaal V (lecture hall V), Prof. Bartels -- and sat down right at 10:00. Since classes listed at 10 don't actually start til 10:15, we had a few minutes and I ended up having a small conversation with one of the professors (who frequently sit in on their colleagues' lectures). Another prof. walked in around 10:10 and announced to a colleague he recognized, "Ah, the optimists!" and sat down in front of me. This in reference to the time-honored tradition of German professors not bothering to show up for the first lecture of the semester. As 10:15 came and went... and 10:20 came and went, I had the feeling he might have a point. My intuition was confirmed when, at 10:30, he packed up his copy of Die Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, which I had been reading over his shoulder, stood and turned to his fellow professors, declaiming dryly, "optimism at German universities?" We, the rest of us, interpreted this: "exeunt" and followed the disaffected old codger out the door. So as not to make the trip a total bust, I ran up a €12,00 bill at Aldi on a cart full of groceries (jars of pickles for €0,55?!). I may venture out to Ikea this afternoon, or go get a haircut, but I'm not entirely sure I can be bothered. Opening Day today. Thus beings The Summer of My Discontent. I'll be tuning in at 8:10pm local time. Ten hours, ironically enough, after my own, personal one-man Greek Chorus of the Day issued his cosmic oracle about the merits of optimism. Maybe though, for once, love and goodness will prevail. Germany, by the way, I just found out, is issuing commemorative €2 coins for each of its 16 Bundesländer, in addition to the EU-wide commemorative coins for the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome that created the Precursor European Union. They look a lot classier than the state quarters. The Bundesländer coins started last year with Schleswig-Holstein, and a coin will be issued each year until 2021. This year is Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Nordrhein-Westfalen (where I am) won't see the light until 2011. That's all for now. I'm going to eat a Frikadelle. I probably won't post again until I get back from Dublin, so Happy Easter &c.!

It'll last longer

Visited Rhineland History Museum yesterday [STOP] Very impressive [STOP] Please enjoy pictures at link to right [STOP]