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I know W has said that he doesn’t trouble sleeping at night. With everything that she has said, done, and become (actually, I am not sure she became anything she wasn’t already before) over the past 1.5 months, I wonder if SP has problems sleeping at night. Somehow, I doubt that she does.

There are many many more videos I would like to post, but it is becoming a bit embarrassing to watch.

I spent a couple hours yesterday wandering through Glienick Park – my favorite park in Potsdam.  I really enjoy the fall season with all the different colors of the trees, the cool crisp mornings, and the smell of change.

I took a few pictures with my new camera.  I have so much to learn about how to use it properly.  I guess it would help to read the instructions.

All pictures can be found here.

Today I mailed off my election ballot.  I cautiously optimistic about the outcome of this election.  I hope that everyone that is elegible to vote does.  I think it is going to be interesting to see the results of the election – especially with the reports of early voting problems (of course with electronic voting machines).  I have great hope for a fair election, but I would not be surprised a bit if the election managed to get stolen once again. Maybe a bit too cynical, but it is hard not to be.

Please vote. The world is watching.

One thing I find pretty interesting about this whole blogging thing is seeing who visits the site. It is always nice and fun to see when friends and family visit. I am also able to tell when people end up at my site from google or some other search engine. I long time ago, I saw a play called ‘The Prison Sex Show‘ and blogged about it using the same title. Since that time, I get 2-4 hits every month from people searching ‘hardcore + prison + sex’ or some combination thereof. That is pretty funny by itself, but I really find it amusing that the hits almost always come from around the Bible Belt of America – Kansas, Kentucky, Georgia, the Carolinas, etc. I guess those visitors end up very disappointed – they never visit other posts. I also get a few hits from other blogs – it is interesting to see where the people come from and go to. Finally, I seem to get a lot of hits from not-so-random people that I don’t know at all. For example, I seem to get a lot of hits (seems to average 1-3 per day) from Afton, Wyoming. I have no idea who this could be, but s/he seems to spend a lot of time looking around at all the pages. I think this person is more interested in my life than I am, which is both a bit creepy and strange. Sometimes it makes me feel like I am part of some peep show. I also just want to use the words peep show as much as possible to see how many more random hits I manage to get. I imagine I will get a few, but there no way will I get as many hits as Ed gets for his Bus 142 trips (I would guess >100 every day).

Note: This post is not meant to discourage my friends and family from visiting and seeing what is going on with me. It is just my thoughts on something I find interesting about the blog.

I have to admit I am not very disappointed that I missed this show.  I wonder if I am missing something in the translation???

Found in a the local döner shop tonight.

When in Germany….

Last weekend, I took a long weekend to do a couple things I have wanted to do since I have been in Germany – Oktoberfest in Münich and see Billy Bragg in concert. My friend Alex, who is from Münich area and living in Berlin, has invited me the past couple years. Now that I nearly completed my stay in Germany, I knew it was time. I also convinced my friend Mareike that it would be a good idea for her to come along just to experience it. I am not sure how I did that, but I am glad I did.

Oktoberfest was different than I was expecting. I envisioned a big area with open tents and tables to belly-up to. I was expecting lots and lots of drunk people – that expectation was met. It was a wet day and we spent a long time standing outside hoping to get into a big tent – something we never managed to do. We did have some good food and drink and all and all it was a pretty good day. The incredible number of people began to wear on me after a while. I think in order to really truly enjoy Oktoberfest, you just have really really let go of all inhibitions and just go for it. Something I am not so good at. It was good and fun day – no complaints.

We left on Sunday morning to go to the Billy Bragg concert some 6+ hours away by train. Not thinking about the fact that it was the last weekend of Oktoberfest, we did not reserve seats. A big big mistake. We ended up having to sit on the floor of the train (in the area by the doors) the entire way – with people coming and going, luggage falling over, etc. A bit annoying. We arrived in Bochem late and a bit tired. We had to rush to the concert and upon arrival at the ‘concert hall’, we found a very very dark building. I was very frustrated by this point as I have been looking forward to seeing Billy play for quite sometime now. Just when I was about to give up, Mareike figured out that the concert hall was a hundred meters away in another building. We raced over and made it just in time. Once the band started to play, I was able to sit back and relax and enjoy the show. I thought that Rosanne Cash (also playing) was fairly mediocre — although to be fair, I was not sure what to expect from her as I was not familiar with her music beforehand. But Billy Bragg was really really good and worth the effort of getting there. I highly recommend anybody that has the chance, to go and watch him play. Now that I have seen Billy Bragg play, I feel I can leave Europe feeling good about what I have done and seen.

The rest of the pictures can be found here.

I saw this today at work and it struck me as fairly odd. A package of toilet paper that tells you in 20 different languages that it is just that, toilet paper. My guess is that if you are able to read any one (or more) of the 20 translations of “toilet paper”, you already had a fairly good idea of what you are looking at in the first place. Maybe I am just losing it …. I have not slept well the past couple nights.

Even after two years living abroad, somethings still strike me as odd. At lunch on Saturday, Ryan said ‘… last weekend when we were in Lisbon …’ and I followed with ‘… when I was in Istanbul a couple of weeks ago …’. Somehow those thoughts and realities sometimes just don’t seem right or something in the world is just out of place or just something. Although it has been a long time now, I feel like I should have been on Ryan’s deck in Fairbanks, eating salmon, drinking a beer, and enjoying the fall weather – that would not strike me as odd. I guess it will be a while before that reality happens again though.

Over the past two years (actually a bit longer now), I have been fortunate to have seen and traveled to some pretty amazing and interesting and fun places. The latest stop on this journey was a long weekend in Zürich visiting with Hil, Ryan, and Sophie – otherwise known as Family Woodard. It was a wonderful weekend. I was able to sit back and really relax and feel completely comfortable and at ease for a while – something I have not been able to do in quite a while.

Friday was spent with coffee, coffee and pastries, lunch with Ryan, a bit of a walk with Sophie and Hil in the hills above Zürich, a nap, dinner, talking, talking politics, talking life and just enjoying.

On Saturday, we celebrated Hil’s birthday (did what Ryan gave Hil as a BDay present, although her birthday was sometime ago (although I honestly don’t have a clue when it was)). We took the train out of Zürich to Weesen and started on a long relaxed walk along the lake Walensee to Quinten. Quinten is a very cool little town that grows grapes and sits at the base of some very nice mountains (in Switzerland, I think they are referred to as hills, in Berlin and surroundings, I think they would be referred to as Everest, Denali, and Kilimanjaro) on the edge of the lake. Lunch was spent at the local vineyard and a ferry took us across the lake to Murg where we caught our train back to Zürich. Although not so strenuous (I did not have to carry Sophie though), we all seemed pretty pooped at days’ end. I think we were all just pretty relaxed — I was anyway. One big highlight of the day was Sophie learned how to say her name. It is now pronouced ‘Soooooo pause pause pause FEEEEEE’.

On Sunday, after drinking coffe in the morning, we set off for lunch and a quick walk along the river, stopping at fountains, playgrounds, gravel paths (for Sophie to pick up rocks), and an early afternoon departure back to Berlin.

My plane was a bit late (20 minutes)— not surprising given my luck with planes recently. However, a minor miracle occured on my way home. The time between my arrival at the gate to the time I stepped foot in my apartment, was just slightly over an hour. Customs line was short for the non-EUers, luggage came out on time, bus left 2 minutes after stepping out of the airport, and the train to Potsdam left 1 minute after I arrived at the platform — just enough time to walk to the other end of the platform. I have never been that lucky before!!! It was a very very good weekend with my good friends. I think I will manage to get there one last time in November before my final departure. That will be good.

Hil’s post of the weekend can be found here.

The rest of the pictures can be found here.