Olfactory euphoria baby

So as it may not be known to all, I shall divulge the information concerning my absolute favorite smell in the world. NEW SHOES. Dear lord they smell so good. Yesterday I got a new pair of indoor shoes so I can play ultimate this winter (they play indoors in the winter here. HOW WEIRD), and OMG do they smell amazing. I have put off wearing them until now just so I can go on smelling the pristine goodness until I have to stink them up with my feet. Alas, poor Yorick, I knew him well!

IT'S STILL OCTOBER!

WTF. It's freaking snowing. No joke. It is 9:20 on Sunday the 21st of October, and it is snowing. Not flurrying, SNOWING. goddammit. This is gonna be one LONG winter. Well it was good knowing you all, if I don't come back, I will probably be found in some stupid snow drift. I better buy some long johns. Oh well. Gotta go get my study on... and my jacket.

The semester started this week. Although, most of my classes don't actually begin until next week. And I finally have my schedule all worked out. I will probably end up dropping onoe of these classes, but here it is. (OH, and german classes are based on ECTS (european credit transfer system) credits, and i get about .5 US credit hours per ects.

-The works of Franz Kafka (8ects)
-Graphic Novels in American literature (english) (6ects)
-French 1 (3ects)
my other classes are in the ISP, which is the international language department. They offer german classes for foreigners.
-Grammar for the experienced (5ects)
-Reading and conversation (5ects)
-'translation puzzle' (Class for english speakers on translation)(4ects)

Last night I got to have dinner with all of my roomates. This was really cool, since I didn't really know any of them that well. There are 2 german girls, a german guy, a spanish guy, and a french girl. We all cooked something small and sat around and talked for a really long time. It was loads of fun.
Germans are still hard to understand sometimes due to accent and speed of their speech.

So things are good. I am very much hoping the semester starts off well, and assuming my dead corpse doesn't get shipped back to the US because of my dying from stress and overstudying for my kafka class, I believe all will be fine.

Numb

6 Million. That's a big freakin number. That is the just over the approximated population of Missouri. That is how many Jews died at the hand of the National Socialists during the third Reich. I don't know about you guys, but 6 mil. isn't exactly an easy idea to grasp. St. louis, gone. KC, gone. ALL of freakin missouri, gone. We have become so desensitized to the idea of the holocaust, that the ideas of what actually happened are just vague gray areas in our minds. We have practically become NUMB. But this week I got to go the jewish memorial in Berlin, and I got to read about the families murdered in WWII. It's some freaky shit. The bible doesn't say: " be a bitch to your neighbor. Oh, and try and exterminate every Jew in Europe while you are at it." But whether you believe in what the bible says or not, the catastrophic extermination of that many people is one of the scariest things I can think of. If you have never actually been to a concentration camp, lemme tell ya, its pretty sobering.
Hate will always brew up more hate, so go sit down and think about if you are making a positive influence. Forget about every shoot 'em up, romantic comedy, and every other fantasy 'never REALLY gonna happen film,' and look back at reality. Because this shit happened.

Dookie

I always thought that 'dookie' was a cool word

So I have all my classes figured out except one. My french class. The online signup thing didn't get put up when it was supposed to, so now I am on the waiting list. I have been talking to people, even went to the office, but no luck yet. I think I shall have to resort to being petty and playing the germans of game of being a bureaucratical jerk, maybe then I will get my way.

Anyways... BERLIN. So I went to Berlin last week, and IT WAS AWESOME. I had never been to Berlin, so yeah, everything was new and cool and WOW. I got to see so much stuff, I would end up boring myself trying to write it all here. But some of the highlights included:
-the tv tower built in east germany (possibly tallest structure in berlin, not sure though)
-Charlottenburger Castle (Mom might have a heart attack if she saw the landscaping at this place)
-Potsdam (suburb of Berlin). There is an area there with like 3 castle/ palaces, a cool windmill, this "chinese house" building, a gorgeous fountain, and OMG it is some of the most beautiful architecture I have ever seen in my life. It was breathtaking.
-Olympia Stadium. This is where Berlin's Soccer team (hertha) plays. It is also where the 2006 world cup championships were held, and it was built for the 1936 Olympics, this is where hitler gives his famous opening ceremony speach I believe
-Brandenburger gate. On the east/west border of berlin right at the wall. Big cool structure with lots of history.
- Berlin wall. There are two different parts of it still up, one is small and has a museum under it, the other is 1 km long and has murals and spray painted crap that is real cool all over it.
-Jewish memorial/ museum. There is a relatively new memorial in the center of berlin that is a vast expance of concrete blocks. hard to explain without going into detail/actually being there. It was cool, and there is a museum underneath it about the 6 million jews killed in europe in WWII. Fascinating, disturbing, educational.

We also found this cool little italian restraunt that had really affordable and HELLA good food. I also found a wine there that i really liked. Lambrusco. It's a sweet red wine that is freakin delicious. I also got to have a dinner of pork and spaghetti carbonara... COOKED BY ITALIANS. there were 8 of us on the trip, 3 of which were itialians. Not the most timely of people, but damn they can cook. So yeah, that was Berlin, it was sweet... and big.

I am not a jelly donut

The Dubl J is glad to tell everybody that he has been in Deutschland for exactly one month! And that he finds it exciting. Things are goin well and he is pumped\terrified for the semester to start. Also, he wishes to thank squirrels all over the world. They are cool... and spastic.

Happy Unity Day! October 3rd 1990 is the day that east and west germany were re-united, so this is kinda the german 4th of july... except that i dont think many people really "celebrate" it. But pretty much EVERYTHING is closed, plus the buses don't run as much, and I didn't have class.

OK, so the Bodensee (also called lake Constance in english i believe) was freaking awesome. We got to walk around constance for a while, go to the most beautiful church i have ever seen, ride a ferry on the lake, go to a basilika in Friedrichshafen, and get this... we got to hear a 20 min organ concert played on the organ that has 6,666 pipes in this church. it was one of the most amazing things ever. It absolutely blew my mind. Then we got to go to an authentic german restraunt and have a fabulous meal.

The next morning I awoke at 5 am to take a train to Munich for Oktoberfest. It was actually a bit of a let down. we arrived at like 10:30, but pretty much every tent was already full. It was crazy. I don't think i have seen a more concentrated group of people that big in my entire life. The people from my group that did get into a tent had to wait at least 2 hours. I ended up walking around Munich for a long time, and then went back to Tübingen early. So in the end I didn't even get a chance to sit and have a liter of beer with all the crazy drunk germans... though i did see A LOT of lederhose and whatever the female equivelant is.

This week is the last week of the start course, so friday I will have a test.

Things are going really well, I have made some good friends in the start course, and there is one australian guy who kinda reminds me of myself sometimes. He is pretty fun. I feel like I am really gonna be able to do this, and perhaps even do it well. I still can't even fathom what my german is gonna like after 10 months of this! i'm really excited.

At the same time, though, I miss home. I miss spending time withy my awesome mom. I miss having dinner with Bum and Sister. I miss playing with Goosey and Retard and snuggling. I miss talking with Smartkid, even if it is about the most random linguistic stuff I have never heard of. I miss reading Bryan's mind while playing spades. I miss going to the best steakhouse in town for dinner with dad and sandy. And I really miss spending time with Oats.
I don't mean to make everybody think I am depressed here, I really am having a great time, I just miss the people I love back home.