An entry is definitely long over-due, and I sincerely apologize for neglecting this site the way I have.
The good news is, I am still alive, and for all intents and purposes, well. Today might be the first day of a sickness, but that's a technicality.
So Germany. Shit. I live in another country now, a place where one's life is controlled by the train schedule and one's own bowels, themselves behaving at the whim of whichever Doener one ate that day. (Doener is a staple food in Germany, a Turkish invention that in its purest form, consists of lamb, onion, cabbage, vegetables, and some white sauce that nobody can pronounce). Both of these things, trains and bowels, run on arbitrary schedules that one must simply guess upon, and expect to get caught someplace with one's pants down. Fortunately, I haven't been caught yet.
That is unless you count the two times I missed the last train home and had to walk a few hours, over train tracks, through industrial towns, darkened streets, just to get to my train station and wait 3 hours for the morning train. I wasn't literally caught with my pants down, but I did ceremoniously piss on the train station because I was mad at the train system.
I live in an adorable little house in an adorable little area across the river from central Cologne. It's quiet, small, room for but one car on the road, and almost every evening I get a fantastic sunset because the sun sets directly over my street as I walk home. In my tiny little house at 23 Schneegloeckchenweg (=Little Snowbell Street) I have a nice little room with a kitchenette, a comfortable bed, a TV, a minifridge, some lamps, and some solder art. Yes, somebody was inspired to spill a bunch of solder on a black felt background a la Rorschach. The only problem is that if I want to use the stovetop, it melts the ice in the freezer which is directly underneath the heating elements. Then I get a flood in the fridge. So I don't cook so much.
And the TV. TVs in Germany are not for epileptics. They have some weird refresh rate that makes it almost impossible to watch them without getting a headache. Or maybe it's just the countless commercials for JAMBA SPARABO!! Cellphone ring tones. 10 minutes between each commercial break. Advertising 5EURO (~$7) cellphone ring tones. CRAZY FROG! Lil Chick! Or this horrendous rapper who whines through his nose for you to call him. It is shameless, rampant, and infuriating. 'Die Eine...von Die Firma! auf ihrem Handy!!!' god shoot me.
I did buy a cellphone though. And its pretty awesome. If you can find some way to call cheap internationally, feel free to call since it doesn't cost me anything. The number will follow this post.
God fuck. That song just came on the radio here. It is some shameful perversion of Pachelbel's Canon, put to droll, depresso rap.
Anyway, I live in another country now. It is often surreal, to take a moment and look at my new routine, which is unimaginably far from the life I knew in the States. Sitting on a train, walking through a Turkish part of town, sleeping on a stranger's floor, only to eat breakfast with a friend that morning. I feel like I'm on some bizarre ride, and in a lot of ways I am. It's all so unreal, and often times when I just want to stay home and watch Sifl & Olly, I have to remember that, at once, each day is both vital and expendable. That makes no sense, I realize. But then, it does too.
Although it sounds contrived and obligatory, I want everyone to know how much I miss them, and in my little paper&pen journal I write about you guys. Sometimes I come close to forgetting where I come from, but all it takes is a moment with my eyes closed before bed and I see all of your faces, 6 hours earlier and thousands of miles away. I hope all is good with all of you. Keep checking my links for pictures and such things. Until then, bis gleich.
Cellphone: 011 +49 17627017945