Found in a the local döner shop tonight.

On my way home from Istanbul, I began to feel like something was not quite right with my throat.  By mid-week, I (along with everyone else in Potsdam) was down for the count.  On Wednesday, it felt like nobody on the campus was at work.  I went home early on Wednesday – pretty much straight to bed.  Thursday was spent mostly in bed.  After consuming more vitamin C than I can recall doing before, I was beginning to feel quasi-human again (Friday).  After being cooped up all week, I was feeling the need to break out of my own personal Krank Haus.

So what did the break out compose of?  Friday night, the local men’s fußball team (Babelsberg) played – so I went.  It was a fairly strange scene.  At the beginning of the 2nd half, the flares came out, smoke filled the stadium, flares were tossed onto the field, riot cops poured in, and beer and taunts poured onto the riot cops – and the game continued on all the while.  I just kept thinking to myself, “but this is Babelsberg”.  I was smart enough to buy an expensive seat away from all the action.

The rest of the weekend was also full and busy – Turkish coffee with P&J, visiting the Babylon Exhibition at the Pergamon Museum, Drachenfest kite festival (I really liked watching the kites), watching an ultimate frisbee tournament hosted by the Goldfingers (I was not feeling well enough to play), taking Emil to the Turbine Potsdam fußball game, and finally going to a percussion concert (Vanille-Orange) in Berlin.  All-in-all, I think I managed to escape my Krank Haus pretty well.

This weekend is in Zürich with Hil, Ryan and Sophie.

The support act was also from Iceland. They had a very new age sound with lots of synthesized sounds and strings. I am guessing that this was also their first tour – they were obviously quite young and they had to pick up their own stuff after the show. Musicians and crew in the same package.

Konni gave me a Sigur Ros cd a few weeks ago. I was expecting a new age relaxing sort of night. This is especially true given the giant Ikea lamp shades and the continuous running of the fog machine long before the show started. The show was very good, but very different than what I was expecting. The lead guitar/singer played with a violin bow (on the guitar), all the musicians kept doing the Chinese fire drill playing each others instruments, a lot of disparate sounds that seems to blend well together (xylophones, horns acting as a marching band, strings, keyboards, some sort of pump organ, etc). It was the last show on the tour with the horns and strings and the band really had a good time playing. At one point toward the end of the show, the string section had no idea what was going on and the crew on the side of the stage was going crazy (cheering) on the band as they kept jammin away. There was definitely a new age sound, but it very loud and very fast — but very good.

Here is a picture of Sigur Ros in concert from The Local – a German internet newspaper written in English for people like me – complete with giant Ikea lamp shades.

Getting ready… A bit nervous maybe??

Konni coming down the stairs.

Check out that ‘gun’.. Does that look like Kermit de’ Frog’s arm (Dave) ????

Getting ready for the slide. The rest of the pictures can be found here.

Friday night I went with Konni and Thorsten to the east side of Berling to watch the 2nd Berlin Short Film Festival. It was pretty fun, although I think that the film that probably won (I had to leave a bit early) was probably the one I understood the least. It was just two people sitting in swings talking to each other. The films that had some sort of movement, I was able to follow fairly well. Konni was there to explain all the points I missed (sometimes a lot of explaining was needed). The thing I really liked about the festival was that it was shown outside! It was fun sitting outside in the fresh air, listening to the wind in the trees, etc. I liked that a lot.

Saturday night I was invited by Alex, my friend now living in Berlin who is from Munich who I met in Fairbanks when she was an intern workting with Matt Nolan, invited me over for a bbq at her place. I had not been to that part of Berlin either. It was pretty nice area, although getting there was funny, but that is a different story. Anyway, good food, toooooo many beers, and a person who likes to mix drinks made for a fairly fun night and a pretty drunken bob. Today needless to say has been a very slow day in the life of Bob. I am happy it is raining outside. Makes it easier to be this slow.  Alex is going to lead me into another drunken state this fall when we go to Munich for Oktoberfest!

Tonight, I was part of an estimated 200,000+ gathering to watch Barack Obama give a speech in Berlin. The speech was a little shorter than I had expected, but I really enjoyed what I did hear. He claimed he was speaking as a ‘citizen of the world’ and not a candidate for president, but there were plenty of politics to be had.

It is a little difficult to describe the scene. Initially, it felt more like a rock concert than a political speech. Many people filing in, hanging out, drinking beer, eating, and dancing. There were a number of workers there for people living overseas to register to vote. Lots of t-shirts, lots of stickers, lots of people. There were a couple warm-up bands (Maren claimed they were famous in Germany, I had never heard them before).

As I mentioned before, I really enjoyed the talk. I felt the talk revolved around bridging the gap between the Atlantic Ocean (newly formed over the past 7 years) and helping those that need it most. One thing he mentioned I found interesting was the unsustainability of economic growth if the gap between rich and poor continues to grow as it has. I feel this is already being felt in many parts of the world, but I also believe this is even more true even the global nature of the world we live in. He received loud applause for ending the Iraq war and eliminating nuclear weapons. However, the loudest applause was centered around climate change. The Germans definitely take the climate change issue very seriously.

A good night. I am beginning to see a bit of light and hope at the end of this very very dark tunnel. I really hope his actions come remotely close to his words. I feel that living up to words is something we (the US) have not done a very well recently.

Here are some other internet posts: BBC, CrooksandLiars, Raw Story, NY Times. I am sure it is everywhere by now.

A very funny video from the Daily Show. I felt this was sort of true tonight… Lots of press everywhere.