Finally…..

…the waiting’s over. After I don’t kow how many weeks I’ve decided to update my blog so that the rest of the world can catch up with what I’ve been up to. First of all: It’s spring and with spring came some changes. As you can see below, the rabbit moved in about two months ago.

There you go.

Then, flying season’s started and the easter weekend was awesome weatherwise, which we took advantage of and kicked off the cross country gliding season with one 370 and one 380 km flights. Not stellar, but not bad for April.

See here.

Also, even farther back in time, I spent one week flying in the Italian Alps, in Sondrio, to be exact. Basically, the weather was great the whole week that I was there, except for one day. In the gallery above, see some impressions of the Swiss and Italian mountains, as seen from up to 4600 m MSL.

Lots of activities, not a lot of coverage. That’s just because I’m too lazy to hack everything into my computer at the end of a busy day. All I know is that I’ll be sitting in planes most of this year, because I feel I have some catching up to do. Everything else just really isn’t that important Just kidding. Of course working my ass of on a 20 page thesis is important, and of course working in general is important, it’s just never as much fun as spending time flying;)

Another thing that matters is the band, and we’re getting ready to record our first songs right now, so I guess there’ll be news on that pretty soon. Actually I’m in two bands right now, one of which (Adjust The Sun, y’all) plays some Melodic Death Metal with Progressive influences and the other (Aeons Rest) plays – well….Rock. Imagine it like a blend of Stone Sour, Alter Bridge and Tool. Tool without the uneven time signatures.

So much for now, I’m out, stay tuned!

Get rabbit…

…for the ready! Ehm, whatever, anyway: Come this Friday, the waiting is over and my old, faithful Passat will be crushed to a handy piece of aluminum foil. After 5 years of high maintenance, it’s time to change to something less prone to breaking every once in a while.

More facts on Friday!

On French cars….

Well, a little add-on is required since I test-drove the new Mazda 2 Sport fit for fun edition today. At first I was sceptical if I would even fit into that little thingy, but I was more than pleasantly surprised by pretty much everything it had to offer. 86 hp, aluminum rims, sporty front and rear fenders and enough room for a driver, a co-pilot and – that is if you flip the rear seats – enough space to accomodate more than enough luggage. And/or beer. Plus, it handles pretty well. Overall, pretty neat.

The Mazda 2 Sport

Project Full Beard and the end of the semester…

Yeah, I never really was a friend of shaving. Neither did I ever really look good with a beard. Not that I ever tried growing it as long as to actually be able to call it that. But now that I’ve realized that – bearded or not – I don’t need to visually please anyone, because the semester’s over, it has become time to relaunch ‘project full beard’. And I don’t care if anyone finds this interesting, I just thought it was something worth sharing since nothing much apart from that is going on in my life right now. The semester’s over, as mentioned above, the first two exams have been taken, I have (at least) two theses to write and spring’s a long way down the road. In March, I’m headed for Sondrio, Italy to do some alpine soaring and I’ve officially NOT registered for my pedagogy and psychology state exam, which means I’m taking it next year. So much for my tremendous progress college-wise.

The German government has come up with a nice little plan to motivate people to buy new cars. They call it „Abwrackprämie“ (wrecking bonus) – candidate for ‘word of the year’. In short, it goes like this: If you own a car that is older than nine years, you’re paid 2.500 Euros if you put it to rest on a car graveyard (or send it to car heaven, to put it more euphemistically) and buy a new one. On top of that, if the new car you buy fulfills certain environmental requirements, you don’t have to pay taxes for two years. That means: it was never this cheap to buy a new car.

Here’s my personal favorite:

Peugeot 207

…..Peugeot gives you another 1000 bucks if you buy one of their cars.

‘nother one?

Peugeot 207 in red

There’s just two problems I’m facing now: 1) Who’ll pay? I’m a poor student, I don’t have money of my own. Donations welcome! 2) How am I going to transport everything that I used to be able to transport in my Passat in this little thing?

Time will tell….

Sorry to everyone who felt neglected during the last few months…

…most importantly to Meredith, who I hope isn’t too upset now that I’ve been such a jerk and never called. I actually talked to Mike on the phone not too long ago and told him to say hello to everyone…of course that’s no excuse for being mainly concerned with myself. A short summary of stuff that I’ve been up to lately:

1) Read and prepare tons of texts for college

2) Prepare and give two lessons in school – that sucked really badly, by the way…

3) Prepare my lesson for my club’s winter theory course

4) Attend several glider-related meetings

5) Find time to relax and not go insane

….and that was only the most important things I could think of right now.

Then there’s band rehearsals, trying to write music, discovering that my skills are too limited for the stuff I want to play…and so on.

And now that all the hassle is finally coming to a pause, the holiday season starts and I’ll have to run around town and buy Christmas gifts, send emails and cards (naa, just emails…) and hope that it’s all over soon. I friggin’ hate Christmas…Everyone’s trying to show their generosity by donating to charity while the rest of the year they don’t give a rat’s ass if there are poor disabled children dying of some unknown and/or uncurable disease in some orphan’s home in Nigeria… The good thing about this time of year is that there’s mulled wine in abundance and by tactically placing the Christmas market close to college, the town has given valuable excuses to students to show up drunk to class. Not that I would ever attend class after the consumption of alcoholic beverages. Or consume alcolholic beverages before going to class.

Whatever happens in the next few days – which will most likely be Christmas shopping insanity – I’ll keep ya updated. And maybe I’ll even find the time to call.

Go Phillies !!!!!

Yeeeah, they did it! Geez, I’m proud of the Phils, even though I don’t know anything about Baseball in general or the Phillies in particular. Only thing I know- they won the world series, the last time that happened was in 1980 and all Philly is going nuts at the moment. Judging by the emails I’ve been getting, there won’t be anything useful to do with you guys over in RA for the next few days. Thank god it’s weekend.

That, and Halloween (I’m expecting dumb German trick-or-treaters any minute, who haven’t really understood the concept of tricking-or-treating, since it’s pretty darn useless to beg for treats, then move on with nothing in hands and NOT playing a trick….it’s obvious that Halloween has no tradition here).

That said, I hope that everything’s going well over in PA and that the celebrations will be AWESOME! Wish I was there – I’m at least wearing my Phillies shirt tonight – REPRESENT!!! Also: When’s one of you guys coming over to Germany again? I need more Tastykakes and some more stuff that I can’t really get here – like Dr.Pepper

And to round up this entry with something dull and boring: I need to write an exposé for one of my seminars, along with an outline of two horrendously pointless texts. But then, I’m off to Jon’s party. And boy, have we got one hell of a present for you.

Peace out, bitches!

The old world…

Finally, a week after getting back, I now find the time to write something. As you all may know, I arrived back home a week ago on Saturday and spent pretty much the whole of the week recovering from the after-effects of my jet lag, seeing all kinds of people and taking care of a few university-related stuff. So, I didn’t really have time to sit down and elaborate about my thoughts. I am dead tired today, so this won’t be a long entry either, but this week should offer some spare time for me to really post something that’s more worth your while. Also, I hope that you guys over in America aren’t upset that I didn’t call on Thursday, like I had promised on Tuesday. But weren’t you on that site visit anyway? Whatever, I’m sure I’ll get around to both calling and writing something this week. And now I’m off to bed.

Have a great rest of the Sunday!

An evening with….

Sometimes, you wonder what the odds are in things that happen to you. And yesterday I wondered a lot. I announced in my previous entry that there was an Opeth gig coming up at the Trocadero in Philadelphia. So we went there yesterday and after…well….enduring the two opening acts on the elevated tier area of the theater (the Troc obviously used to serve as a theater, judging from the interior), we ventured to the balcony bar on the first floor level and stood around for a while before we were going to move on to the downstairs pit area. Suddenly a bunch of people walk past us, headed for the VIP lounge area to the side of the stage. I thought: ‘Hey, that one guy looked familiar’ … next thing you know, 5 minutes after that happened, a guy walks up to me and says something like: ‘Cool T-Shirt, was a hell of a show’ – I was wearing my „Progressive Nation 2008″ tour t-shirt. Then he adds: ‘Did you see Mike Portnoy is here?’ – And then it struck me: the guy who looked so familiar WAS in fact Mike Portnoy, drummer of the world’s best band, DREAM THEATER.

Now, it’s not a secret that MP is an Opeth fan – Opeth played on the Progressive Nation tour, and Mikael Akerfeldt did a guest appearance on Dream Theater’s last album Systematic Chaos (the spoken section in ‘Repentance’). Also, Mike and Mikael did a video log for the Progressive Nation tour, where they discussed their affection for Prog Rock, the beginnings of their musical career and how they came to be fans of each other’s bands. Of course, both bands are signed with Roadrunner Records.

So far, so good. Witnessing Opeth live was again a great experience. The sound was mixed very well, the songs they played spanned a time from the ‘96 album ‘Morningrise’ to the 2008 record ‘Watershed’ and even some more mellow tunes from ‘Damnation’ made it into the set (only one, for that matter – ‘Hope Leaves’). Singer and guitarist Mikael Akerfeldt’s announcements in between songs were short and meaningful, as usual.

After the show, we were just about to exit the building when Mike Portnoy crossed our path once again – only that this time, I yelled „Hey, Mike!“ – so he turns around, sees my shirt, says hello, shakes my hand and agrees to have a picture taken with me

So here it is…the proof that I met one of the greatest drummers in rock history, one of the most creative songwriters of our time and simply one of the most influential figures in modern rock music.

Of course, everyone was in a hurry and I didn’t get to ask any questions or appropriately express what meaning DT’s music has for me – but I’m sure he got that I’m a fan. Thanks Mike!

Writer’s block or another boring entry

Just as novelists don’t know in advance whether their new publication is going to turn into a bestseller, I’m not sure whether this entry is going to be a bore. It might turn out to be really interesting and entertaining. But if it doesn’t: don’t complain, because I warned you in the headline….

Well….where to start….first of all it’s been party non-stop during the past few weeks. There was a Red Bull soapbox race that took place in Manayunk two weeks ago. We went there (on a Saturday) still a little off from the night before. After an Advil-and-Beef Jerky breakfast in the car and a long drive, it started to pour. I mean it had been raining on and off all day, but the moment we got out of the car heaven’s floodgates opened. We were drenched instantly and I could have left my umbrella in the car, because it was totally futile to carry that thing around. We got wet from below, from the side and the water came through the fabric of the umbrella. Plus people almost took each others eyes out with the little pins sticking out from the corners of their umbrellas (umbrellae?). So we headed to the racetrack and didn’t really see anything until we climbed into the front yard of a house, where a colleague of another intern was standing and offered us beer. The place was totally packed and the house owners kindly asked us not to pee in their yard. By then, I was already soaked down to my undies. We ended up going to the colleague’s house and throwing our wet clothes in the dryer. Dressed in randomly picked shirts and shorts that we borrowed from the host, we started drinking beer and talking to a lot of interesting people. Too bad I had field duty on the gliderport the next day.

This weekend we had another great night out in West Chester city. This is starting to become an institution. Saturday night saw yet another farewell party and as usual, I was chosen to give a short farewell speech and hand over some memorabilia to one of our leavers. This is also becoming an institution. And anyone who has ever heard me talk in front of people knows how pathetic I am at giving speeches. Especially when I haven’t prepared anything and already had a few beers.

Also, we visited Princeton University on Saturday and took a guided tour around the campus. I wasn’t quite as impressed with the tour guide as with the one in Harvard, but the university as such seems to offer more arts and humanities than the other Ivy League colleges. I even had a look inside the premises of the German department and instantly felt at home. Luckily, Princeton’s admission requirements are way too high. So my dear parents need not worry. The tuition is 40.000 $ a year. But the individual support seems to be very unique and exceptional. Maybe I should apply just for fun.

What more is there to say? Time is running out once more, it’s only three more weeks. I’m having my very own farewell party this week on Friday, of course everyone’s invited. There are various things that still need taking care of. Among these are: 1) Send a postcard. 2) Buy various items. 3) Buy a suitcase. 3) Hope that I get my deposit back from my landlord. 4) Figure out what to do with that deposit. 4.1) Decide whether to spend all of it incrementally on many little things, or 4.2) Buy something big. (Dodge RAM trucks are cheap at the moment). 5) Find my house keys. There couldn’t possibly be anything more embarrassing than coming home and not getting in. It’s got to be here somewhere. Probably I put it in a drawer and just don’t remember which one. Well. Whatever.

On Wednesday I’m going to see Opeth at the Troc in Philly. There’s been quite a number of interesting releases in the last weeks. The Human Abstract put out a new record and I totally dig it. Really complex, demanding, artistic, exceptional music. Tomorrow, All That Remains’ new record hits the shelves and it’s going to be killer as well, judging from the snippets on myspace.

I will keep you updated on my last weeks.

Peace, I’m out….

New York – again

First and foremost: A great big honest SORRY to Sas. The Library was closed. Proof: This picture. Notice the closed doors in the background.

Other than that, we were at the Museum of Modern Art, which contains, well, a lot of modern works of art. Now, I’m not exactly a fan of modern art, especially the kind that I don’t understand. And that seems to be more than I’d thought, because I went through some of the expositions constantly shaking my head. There was however one exposition that really was worth it, which was the Dalí-exposition. The topic was Dalí and film and it showed some of Dalí’s film script autographs, some sketches for film scenes that he wrote and a few paintings that showed his affinity to the medium of film. Also, there were screenings of some film scenes from movies such as „Un chien andalou“. I know, I’ve never seen it myself, and it is quite wacked, but since that applies to almost all of Dalí’s work, that came as no surprise.

This time around, we also stayed overnight. All I knew up front was that we were staying in a hostel that just opened a few weeks ago. What I did NOT know, however, was that this hostel was in the middle of Harlem. What I also didn’t know is that Harlem is not a bad part of New York at all. As a European, the first thing that came to my mind were crime, gang violence and drug dealing. But it’s really not like that at all. Actually, apart from the occasional run-down parts that you have in almost every city, it was pretty nice. During the last few years, the city of NY invested a lot of money to bring Harlem back on track, and it seems like these incentives showed some results.

What else…concerning my arrival back home, it will be on the 4th of October at 12 noon. I am still looking for a victim to pick me and my seven bags of luggage up from the airport in Nuremberg….so, if anyone’s still interested…(Jon?)

That’s it for now, I guess I’ll be getting back to you later this week if there’s any more interesting stuff.