First of all, let me say thank you to every person, place, thing, circumstance, happening, and bit of money that allowed me to go skiing not once but twice in the Alps. This is the first year that I've made multiple trips to big mountains, as well as probably my first 10-ski-day year. If everyone were able to achieve their goals and dreams so easily, we would all be pretty lucky.
Pompousness aside, let me give you a short narrative on how those 3 days skiing actually went.
First, Carnival ended Tuesday night. I was sad to see it go. The closing ceremony was really kind of bittersweet. The prince gave a little speech, they sang some sad songs, the Mooswief came down, the oliebollen stands closed up, and that was that. I mean, people still partied all night, but that was sort of that.
Wednesday was train day! And I'm not kidding. Let me trace out my route for you:
Maastricht-Aachen (bus)
Aachen-Koln (train)
Koln-Freiburg (the Aachen-Koln ran late, so we missed the train from Koln-Mannheim. But this train from Koln-Basel was running late, so we got on it. Since it was running late, however, it didn't go all the way to Basel; it stopped in Freiburg.)
Freiburg-Basel SBB (not to be confused with "Basel Bad.")
Basel-Biel (of course we were off schedule, so we were going to go via Morges per the train station people's advice, but then the conductor said we should get off in Biel. Fair enough.)
Biel-Lausanne
Lausanne-Martigny
Martigny-Le Chable (on the "St. Bernard Express")
Le Chable-Verbier (bus)
Total: 9 vehicles, over 12 hours. Anyone who tells you train travel is easy is not correct. Well, that's not true; train travel is easy for certain things. If you're going from big city to big city, it's no problem. But if you're going from small Dutch city to small Swiss city, it's a bit of a trip.
Something about train travel, though: why is route planning hard? When I get off schedule because one train is running 10 minutes late so I miss my next connection, I go and talk to the Train Station People, and they give me a route with all the connections and times mapped out. But a couple times, I've gotten suboptimal routes- like they go an indirect way, or they start an hour in the future, or something. First of all, why don't they have their magic computer out at a terminal somewhere, so I can use it? Second of all, why don't they give me the best route? It can't be an algorithmic problem, because hell, I could make that program. There must be some hidden variables (maybe they're trying to load-balance on their trains, or maybe they're trying to find me the fewest connections instead of the shortest route, or something), but I'd like to know what they are, and how I can just ask for the fastest path.
Okay, so about Verbier. I wasn't so enchanted with it as I was St. Anton. Something about it just seemed more exclusive, less fun, and more resorty. In retrospect, I think it was mostly the prices: 68Sfr for a lift ticket, 45 or something for rentals, and every place except the Bunker was really expensive to sleep. We found a pizza place for about 20 francs each, and a crappy burger joint for 10-15, but other than that, everywhere cost 35-40 euros (edit: whoops, I mean 35-40 francs) for a main dish. Of course, a franc is about 80 cents US, but there's still some sticker-shock there, all the time. It's mostly psychological, I'm sure... those 35 franc meals wouldn't have seemed like so much if they had been 21 euros. All the same, it was enough to make us live subsistence-style, buying bread and peanut butter, stocking up at the free breakfast, etc. I don't think I got the sense that I was in Switzerland, magical Switzerland, land of snow-capped Alps and Toblerone and fondue and watches and neutrality and the good life that everyone else is missing out on. I felt like I was in a ski resort. Which was true.
Speaking of bare-bones living in a rich town, did I mention the Bunker? That's where we stayed. Check out my pictures (link on the right) to see more about it. It was pretty minimal. 30 bunks in a room, concrete floors, etc. But it did have a hot tub and a restaurant, a fun atmosphere, and it cost 25Sfr per night. Graffiti on the walls, etc. Most of the inhabitants were ski bums. I liked it a lot, and I'm glad we didn't stay there any longer.
Speaking of ski bums, let me tell you about my traveling companions:
4 guys who came to Verbier a few days before us and skied for a week; 2 Coloradoans, 1 Aussie, and 1 Pole. The Coloradoans skied like 30-some days a year. One of them raced. Of course they were pretty much Too Cool for School. But they didn't act like it.
2 Indianans, former football players and so on, the kind of guys who think it's funny to buy a Jack and Coke, because they sell it in a can, at 10AM on our first train.
1 economist who liked to start conversations like "To you, what is it that adds value when you buy a product?"
1 girl from Toronto who, first of all, had to have a lime in her beer, and second of all, was afraid that she'd get some disease when she cut said lime on the floor and then put it into her beer, and therefore never drank the rest of said beer.
Guess who I liked traveling with the most? Well, the 2 Indianans, really. Goes to show, I don't know what the hell I like in travel companions. The 4 guys were pretty cool too, but they were pretty much ski bums, and I can't deal with that whole lifestyle.
For those of you who haven't met any, a ski bum is an interesting breed. He/she (although almost always he, although there are a few girls) loves skiing, obviously, and skis as much as possible. Sometimes he gets a job at a ski resort for the winter, just to be there to ski. And here's the paradox: he's usually young and sort of poor. At least he plays up the "poor" angle a lot (by, say, buying bread and eating sandwiches 3 meals a day). But he wears nice ski equipment, has his own skis, and, well, skis so many days per year. You can't do that if you're poor! So, probably, the average ski bum is a guy like me, in or out of college, who decided to spend all his money on the slopes. He also likes to party a lot, and drink, especially beer. Somehow he's able to ski a lot without sleeping a lot. And when he skis, he's pretty amazing, going backcountry a lot and so on, and also spending a lot of time in the terrain park.
So why is that not me? Maybe it's a bit too bohemian, maybe it's a bit too party-oriented. I like my 8 hours of sleep, especially when I'm skiing. Drinking comes later. Clubbing comes last. Especially in ski resort towns, where the ratio of guys to girls is about 10 to 1.
Speaking of the ratio of guys to girls, we met this ridiculous dude. He was staying in the Bunker too, and he asked us if any of us had any fudge. "You know, it's a hair care product." Turns out, he's right. We couldn't help but think it was a code phrase for something. He did tell us about "Le Pub", though, or the "Pub Mont Fort" where we all spent an enjoyable evening. Cool place. A big beer and I had a nice moment together. What does that have to do with the ratio of guys to girls? He made a comment about it, and also referred to some of us as "good looking." He must have been hinting at something.
And, as a final note about skiing: It was not an easy trip. Well, first of all, the Bunker didn't allow for ideal sleep. But besides that: my left ankle was killing me, my whole legs hurt after a day, my boots didn't fit, and I couldn't turn well at all. Snow was icy or hard, visibility was poor on the last day, and to top it all off, I feel like I'm losing my yen for skiing. Or at least my jonesing for skiing. It used to be the one thing I always wanted to do, and now, if you said I could go this weekend, I'm not sure if I would. I think I just need to take a lesson, get my own skis on again, have a couple nice days, go with friends, etc... but all in all, it's another reason the ski bum lifestyle isn't so appealing as it used to be. It's disillusioning. But it's like anything else I guess: after your initial euphoria subsides, there'll be a down period, and eventually, if you really like it, you'll grow to appreciate it again, and then you'll truly enjoy it. My initial euphoria for skiing just so happened to be about 10 years.
But anyway. It's now a few days later, and life is flying by. I should schedule some trips. I should work on my project. Did I tell you about it? It's a robot programming thing: get a robot to go through a maze. Bleargh. But that's life, and people do that sometimes, and maybe the only reason I don't like robots is that I haven't done anything with them, and if that's the case, I am in the right class for sure.
As for trips, I'm adding some more ideas for destinations:
1. Utrecht, or Delft, or somewhere Dutch this weekend. Hopefully something a little bit authentic, at least. (I keep searching for this vague "authenticity", as if some places that I go are somehow not real. I guess what I mean is I want somewhere without souvenir stores and bus tours. But why do I, with my big ol' American coat and camera on my belt, deserve that any more than the next tourist?)
2. Berlin next weekend?
3. Krakow, or Budapest, or Prague, or all three
4. Somewhere in Italy where they have great food (i.e. everywhere, but you know, somewhere particularly great)
5. Somewhere in France where they have great food (i.e. everywhere, but you know, somewhere particularly great)
6. Iceland! I would love to go there.
So the list is getting huge. And I feel like I'm just collecting capital cities, and I'd be better off just getting to know the Netherlands, maybe, or taking a trip to the lesser-known destinations in a particular country.
Or maybe that's just my handful of worrying that I do all the time, and I should stop it right now. (surprise!)
And on the Dutch front, I have been meeting some non-American people, and it's fun! Monday I had my acting class again, which seems full of people who are pretty neat. Tuesday, the ESN (Erasmus Student Network), who puts together a lot of events for us, invited like 80 of us for a typical Dutch dinner, and so of course 3 of us showed up, and we had typical French quiche. The girl who cooked for us, and her housemates, very nice though! They just hung out with us all weekend and talked about whatever, (although The Economist who also happened to be in Verbier tended to steer the conversation towards nonsense about the EU and so on...) fed us great quiche and lots of wine, and acted like there's nothing they'd rather do than hang out with a bunch of naive Americans. And then, I even had a positive club experience, as this bar played pretty good music downstairs. (It didn't hurt that I was with two beautiful ladies, one French and one Greek)
If I write anything more I will get nothing done today. Check my photos if you want more detail. (Please do; some of them are very pretty!) Rock over London, rock on Maastricht, Rauch fruchtensaefte: "Ich brauch mein rauch!"
(Rauch = "smoke", and also the brand name of the fruit juice company. The slogan means something like "I need my Smoke!" which is funny when it's an Austrian Olympic skier telling you that.)
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Carnaval's almost over...
Hey. I'm not going to post much about things that happen or things that I do here, if there are photos to go along with them, because those will be on the photo site, and if I have to reiterate stuff, I'll get bored and one of the iterations will probably suck. So check out the photos, because there are a bunch of Carnaval now! Also, this little castle that I saw. And more to come, of Carnaval in Koeln (Cologne).
Speaking of Carnaval, it's about over, which means a couple of things:
1. I can get back to eating at least somewhat normal and healthy foods. Although, man, Dutch/European carnival food >> American carnival food. Here are some things that are good:
- waffles
- herrings
- big ol' fried fish sandwiches
- sausages
- oliebollen, which are The Best, and which are fried up fresh and filled with tasty delights. Wow. Donuts usually don't do it for me, considering how they're about the least healthy thing in the world, and if I'm going to indulge, I want to indulge on something awesome. Fresh donuts, on the other hand... man. I think if you go to heaven, you get a lot of these. Or maybe that's just in Fat Heaven.
2. I might have to get back to some sort of responsibility. Like cleaning my room, for example.
3. I'm going to Switzerland tomorrow! It's a long train ride. But it will get me there, and I will ski on Thursday, and that is neat.
And this is unrelated to Carnival, but here's a question: what's the appeal of the typical bar->drink->club cycle? This seems to be the way you are supposed to have an evening. Go to a bar, get drunk (or at least get happy), and go dance in a club. I can understand how drinking is a pleasure. (it's a little less of a pleasure if you're drinking the same beer the whole time) Being in a bar, though, is not usually so good, because you can't even talk, because it's so loud. Then the dance club, the big prize at the end of the tunnel, right, is not even fun! I could understand if you, say, went salsa or swing dancing, or something with a little structure. Maybe if you went to a bocce ball club and played bocce ball. Or listened to jazz and chatted. Or went to a house and played drunk Taboo all night. (or Boggle! Now that would be fun.) But club-dancing, which seems to me like bouncing back and forth to a LOUD hip-hop/techno beat, is not fun. It's boring! You do it for 5 minutes, you've done all there is to do!
Now you will say to me "it's about the ladies; you're not just dancing by yourself, you are surrounded by attractive members of the opposite sex." Right, but so what? I'm not going to go home with someone I met in a club. Look, I'm not a non-verbal communicator here. If I find a girl attractive, I'd much rather talk to her, or play bocce ball or listen to jazz or go salsa dancing or play Boggle with her than press my body against hers, bouncing back and forth to the 4/4 beat of "SNAP YOUR FINGERS!" in the hope that she thinks "wow, I am quite attracted to this slightly-good-looking stranger. We should exchange phone numbers and go through the cliched courtship ritual based on nothing other than his hottt dance moves."
Note that this is unrelated to Carnaval. For the last few nights, just wandering the streets has been entertainment enough for me.
Speaking of Carnaval, it's about over, which means a couple of things:
1. I can get back to eating at least somewhat normal and healthy foods. Although, man, Dutch/European carnival food >> American carnival food. Here are some things that are good:
- waffles
- herrings
- big ol' fried fish sandwiches
- sausages
- oliebollen, which are The Best, and which are fried up fresh and filled with tasty delights. Wow. Donuts usually don't do it for me, considering how they're about the least healthy thing in the world, and if I'm going to indulge, I want to indulge on something awesome. Fresh donuts, on the other hand... man. I think if you go to heaven, you get a lot of these. Or maybe that's just in Fat Heaven.
2. I might have to get back to some sort of responsibility. Like cleaning my room, for example.
3. I'm going to Switzerland tomorrow! It's a long train ride. But it will get me there, and I will ski on Thursday, and that is neat.
And this is unrelated to Carnival, but here's a question: what's the appeal of the typical bar->drink->club cycle? This seems to be the way you are supposed to have an evening. Go to a bar, get drunk (or at least get happy), and go dance in a club. I can understand how drinking is a pleasure. (it's a little less of a pleasure if you're drinking the same beer the whole time) Being in a bar, though, is not usually so good, because you can't even talk, because it's so loud. Then the dance club, the big prize at the end of the tunnel, right, is not even fun! I could understand if you, say, went salsa or swing dancing, or something with a little structure. Maybe if you went to a bocce ball club and played bocce ball. Or listened to jazz and chatted. Or went to a house and played drunk Taboo all night. (or Boggle! Now that would be fun.) But club-dancing, which seems to me like bouncing back and forth to a LOUD hip-hop/techno beat, is not fun. It's boring! You do it for 5 minutes, you've done all there is to do!
Now you will say to me "it's about the ladies; you're not just dancing by yourself, you are surrounded by attractive members of the opposite sex." Right, but so what? I'm not going to go home with someone I met in a club. Look, I'm not a non-verbal communicator here. If I find a girl attractive, I'd much rather talk to her, or play bocce ball or listen to jazz or go salsa dancing or play Boggle with her than press my body against hers, bouncing back and forth to the 4/4 beat of "SNAP YOUR FINGERS!" in the hope that she thinks "wow, I am quite attracted to this slightly-good-looking stranger. We should exchange phone numbers and go through the cliched courtship ritual based on nothing other than his hottt dance moves."
Note that this is unrelated to Carnaval. For the last few nights, just wandering the streets has been entertainment enough for me.
Saturday, February 17, 2007
A couple things about this past week that I didn't mention yet:
1. Korfball. This video explains it all, I guess. I looked at the sports that they offered, and Korfball is the only one I hadn't heard of, so I went to their practice. There were about 15 Korfballers there, and they were all suitably confused as to why I would be there. You know, cuz, um, well, you know. Then we started practicing and they'd keep saying things in Dutch and some of the other players would try to interpret for me and it was a little confusing but it mostly worked out. It's a kind of fun sport: like basketball without the dribbling or the backboard, or like team handball except you have a basket instead of a goal. And sometimes they make goofy underhand shots or some nonsense. They seemed like a fun bunch, though.
Note that Korfball is mainly Dutch, but saying that the Dutch like Korfball is like saying that kids like playing with yo-yos: some do, but most think it's dumb. Likewise, saying that the Belgians like Korfball is like saying that blind kids like playing with yo-yos: they're just not very good. And saying that any other country likes Korfball is like saying that kids like playing with manila envelopes: false. There was one guy who made a living off Korfball, but he had to quit because he had to play like 40 hours a week.
2. I rode my bike to a castle the other day. This castle. Okay, so it's not Neuschwanstein, but wow! It was in Belgium; I rode my bike to another country. I love this continent!
3. Carnaval started today/yesterday. I promptly ate so much fried food and drank such a hodgepodge of rather stern drinks that my stomach was killing me all night. God has blessed me with many things; a cast-iron stomach is not among them. I'm also not the smartest guy in the world. But it's very neat! Streets full of revelers = happy me.
Note that Korfball is mainly Dutch, but saying that the Dutch like Korfball is like saying that kids like playing with yo-yos: some do, but most think it's dumb. Likewise, saying that the Belgians like Korfball is like saying that blind kids like playing with yo-yos: they're just not very good. And saying that any other country likes Korfball is like saying that kids like playing with manila envelopes: false. There was one guy who made a living off Korfball, but he had to quit because he had to play like 40 hours a week.
2. I rode my bike to a castle the other day. This castle. Okay, so it's not Neuschwanstein, but wow! It was in Belgium; I rode my bike to another country. I love this continent!
3. Carnaval started today/yesterday. I promptly ate so much fried food and drank such a hodgepodge of rather stern drinks that my stomach was killing me all night. God has blessed me with many things; a cast-iron stomach is not among them. I'm also not the smartest guy in the world. But it's very neat! Streets full of revelers = happy me.
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Your absurd news moment for the day
Senator hopes to gain clout and support of right-wing American parents by imposing stricter video game ratings
Among the quotes: "It calls for requiring video game rating organizations to play all games "in their entirety" before issuing labels and prohibiting game developers from withholding any "hidden" game content from raters."
1. Video game rating systems are kind of retarded in the first place, although I can see why parents would want them.
As it is, they're obnoxious... mostly harmless games get rated "T" and "M", and come on, video games don't make kids violent.
But say you were a parent and there were no ratings; how would you deal with your kids buying video games? What if they want to buy a game called (to pick a name from Metacritic) "Burnout Revenge"? How about "Blue Dragon"? "Fuzion Frenzy" sounds violent, but it's like Tetris... "Ratchet and Clank" could be slang for something awful, or it could be an arcade game about a couple of goofy looking characters. "Phantasy Star Universe" is (I think) a harmless RPG, but it sounds like a porn site.
So what do you do? Do you investigate each game? Your kid would get tired of that rull quick. Do you just trust your kid to make good decisions? That might be a better answer. But what if your little 8 year old is unlocking sex scenes in Grand Theft Auto? Well, your 8 year old would probably just get bored. But you know what I mean. But here's the reason this bill doesn't make any goddamn sense:
2. Good luck playing a game like World of Warcraft "in its entirety."
Among the quotes: "It calls for requiring video game rating organizations to play all games "in their entirety" before issuing labels and prohibiting game developers from withholding any "hidden" game content from raters."
1. Video game rating systems are kind of retarded in the first place, although I can see why parents would want them.
As it is, they're obnoxious... mostly harmless games get rated "T" and "M", and come on, video games don't make kids violent.
But say you were a parent and there were no ratings; how would you deal with your kids buying video games? What if they want to buy a game called (to pick a name from Metacritic) "Burnout Revenge"? How about "Blue Dragon"? "Fuzion Frenzy" sounds violent, but it's like Tetris... "Ratchet and Clank" could be slang for something awful, or it could be an arcade game about a couple of goofy looking characters. "Phantasy Star Universe" is (I think) a harmless RPG, but it sounds like a porn site.
So what do you do? Do you investigate each game? Your kid would get tired of that rull quick. Do you just trust your kid to make good decisions? That might be a better answer. But what if your little 8 year old is unlocking sex scenes in Grand Theft Auto? Well, your 8 year old would probably just get bored. But you know what I mean. But here's the reason this bill doesn't make any goddamn sense:
2. Good luck playing a game like World of Warcraft "in its entirety."
Monday, February 12, 2007
Belgium in 36 hours
I had a weekend free (you know, as opposed to all my other weekends here, that are booked full of important meetings) so I took a trip to Belgium with a couple other kids I met here, Becky and Camerin. There was a Decemberists concert on Saturday, which Becky was stoked about. I just wanted to see a couple of cool cities. And plus, train travel in Belgium is rull cheap, because they have this "Go Pass", which gives you 10 one-way tickets between any two Belgian cities for 45 euro. (and you can share it) So we just hop a train to the closest spot across the border (it's called "Vise", and it's shady) for EU$3.80, and it's EU$4.50 from there. Good deal.
Brussels was grand. I guess it's the EU headquarters, which means it's always full of politicians. Which also means it's stuffy and boring. But if you're just there for a day, there's plenty to do. Saw the famous Grand Place, and by golly it is grand and it is a place. Saw the Belgian Comic Strip Museum. Ate at this awesome little Congolese (I think) place called "Waka Moon." So much character! Little corner bar, great food (I had Maafe Agneau, which is apparently lamb in peanut sauce, and wow, I'd like to know how to make that.), and great wine for EU$2. I'm starting to really like wine. I think it's just because I feel all grown up when I buy it, like "Thank you for letting me be an actual full-fledged member of society" sort of thing. Plus there are so many kinds, and here, it's all pretty cheap. Call me a Decemberist, but I'd drink wine over beer any day.*
Speaking of the Decemberists, the concert was kind of how I imagined, and maybe a little better, because Colin Meloy was pretty animated, and there was intense audience interaction going on, and I like it when bands talk between songs. Maybe the Crane Wife deserves a listen. And they were pretentious and full of big words, and they did wear hipster clothes, and there was extensive instrumentation, and Colin did drink red wine throughout the show.
*unless it's crummy wine (big Gerrit Betz Jug of Sangria, I'm looking at you) vs. Brugse Zot, the beer from De Halve Maan brewery in Brugge, because damn was that tasty! Might have been my best beer experience here yet. Also, way to find the asterisk. Also, I actually kind of like the big Gerrit Betz Jug of Sangria.
Speaking of Brugge, after a night at the lovely Brussels Royotel (which was perfect in that it was right down the street from the concert, a private room, and EU$25/person) we went there, and it was like the guidebooks said: a tourist attraction but worth it. Very quaint, lots of medieval things (and many modern things too... the retailers have swooped in) but still cool churches, monuments, restaurants, etc. Worth seeing for sure if you're in the neighborhood. Some parts on the way into town I thought could be almost indescribably beautiful in the spring. (but it was winter.)
Hey, I wrote a lot of this synopsis in my photo albums, and there's no use repeating myself. Check them out!
In other news, I went to my first acting class today (with the drama club here... I couldn't be in their show because it's being performed after I leave), and really felt on top of my game. Improv teaches you a lot, maybe about acting, maybe about self-confidence, but whatever it is, it helped.
Have I mentioned how my bike has lights that are POWERED BY MY PEDALING? I just click the little roller into place and the lights turn on when the wheel turns. So cool! I want to ship the bike home (probably costing more than the bike itself) just for that feature. So cool! And all the bikes here have that!
Classes are marching on. I love buying and cooking food. My erwtensoep (pea soup) turned out well; I'll make it when I get back. I also like kwark a lot. And today I bought a jar of pickled herring.
Oh, and one more thing... if people actually like drinking a whole lot, like until they start blacking out, maybe I'm the anomaly. But if not, can we all stop pretending please? I won't think less of you if you're a lightweight. Really. So let's stop the shenanigans and drink sensible amounts. (I guess this is directed only at Americans.)
But other than the fact that I'm not made for a party-heavy culture, I love this place, and things are going pretty well. Thank you for everything, etc.
Brussels was grand. I guess it's the EU headquarters, which means it's always full of politicians. Which also means it's stuffy and boring. But if you're just there for a day, there's plenty to do. Saw the famous Grand Place, and by golly it is grand and it is a place. Saw the Belgian Comic Strip Museum. Ate at this awesome little Congolese (I think) place called "Waka Moon." So much character! Little corner bar, great food (I had Maafe Agneau, which is apparently lamb in peanut sauce, and wow, I'd like to know how to make that.), and great wine for EU$2. I'm starting to really like wine. I think it's just because I feel all grown up when I buy it, like "Thank you for letting me be an actual full-fledged member of society" sort of thing. Plus there are so many kinds, and here, it's all pretty cheap. Call me a Decemberist, but I'd drink wine over beer any day.*
Speaking of the Decemberists, the concert was kind of how I imagined, and maybe a little better, because Colin Meloy was pretty animated, and there was intense audience interaction going on, and I like it when bands talk between songs. Maybe the Crane Wife deserves a listen. And they were pretentious and full of big words, and they did wear hipster clothes, and there was extensive instrumentation, and Colin did drink red wine throughout the show.
*unless it's crummy wine (big Gerrit Betz Jug of Sangria, I'm looking at you) vs. Brugse Zot, the beer from De Halve Maan brewery in Brugge, because damn was that tasty! Might have been my best beer experience here yet. Also, way to find the asterisk. Also, I actually kind of like the big Gerrit Betz Jug of Sangria.
Speaking of Brugge, after a night at the lovely Brussels Royotel (which was perfect in that it was right down the street from the concert, a private room, and EU$25/person) we went there, and it was like the guidebooks said: a tourist attraction but worth it. Very quaint, lots of medieval things (and many modern things too... the retailers have swooped in) but still cool churches, monuments, restaurants, etc. Worth seeing for sure if you're in the neighborhood. Some parts on the way into town I thought could be almost indescribably beautiful in the spring. (but it was winter.)
Hey, I wrote a lot of this synopsis in my photo albums, and there's no use repeating myself. Check them out!
In other news, I went to my first acting class today (with the drama club here... I couldn't be in their show because it's being performed after I leave), and really felt on top of my game. Improv teaches you a lot, maybe about acting, maybe about self-confidence, but whatever it is, it helped.
Have I mentioned how my bike has lights that are POWERED BY MY PEDALING? I just click the little roller into place and the lights turn on when the wheel turns. So cool! I want to ship the bike home (probably costing more than the bike itself) just for that feature. So cool! And all the bikes here have that!
Classes are marching on. I love buying and cooking food. My erwtensoep (pea soup) turned out well; I'll make it when I get back. I also like kwark a lot. And today I bought a jar of pickled herring.
Oh, and one more thing... if people actually like drinking a whole lot, like until they start blacking out, maybe I'm the anomaly. But if not, can we all stop pretending please? I won't think less of you if you're a lightweight. Really. So let's stop the shenanigans and drink sensible amounts. (I guess this is directed only at Americans.)
But other than the fact that I'm not made for a party-heavy culture, I love this place, and things are going pretty well. Thank you for everything, etc.
Friday, February 09, 2007
I'm gonna go ski in the alps again...
in Verbier, Switzerland. I'm staying here. I'm enthusiastic! I guess I actually mean "excited".
Also, I've been doing about no schoolwork. Not the best way to start off the block. One of my classes ("Intelligent Systems") is really "Programming a Robot" in disguise. Not something I would have picked on my own. But I'm willing to give it a try, eh?
Also, I've been doing about no schoolwork. Not the best way to start off the block. One of my classes ("Intelligent Systems") is really "Programming a Robot" in disguise. Not something I would have picked on my own. But I'm willing to give it a try, eh?
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Een fiets!
It feels so good to be on a bike again. I got a good used one, for EU$75, from a bike shop. It's steeper than the EU$30-50 that people say you should pay, but it's in pretty good shape. It's probably better than my bike from home. Also, pretty much the only alternative is to buy one from the "junkie", who is a homeless guy who steals bikes and sells them for like EU$10. Much as I'd like to participate in a local custom (bike theft is like the #3 national sport, after football and korfball), I've had a bike stolen, and it kind of sucks a lot, and anyone who steals a bike is pretty much a scummy scummy dude. Kind of like people who honk at cyclists, although nobody does that here, because bikes rule the roads. Rock on.
In other news, I'm going to Brussels and Bruges this weekend. I think I'm going to see a Decemberists concert. I don't even like the Decemberists that much. Plus, well, you know... and also, one of my friends just backed out, which is lame.
So I'm kind of psyched. But kind of annoyed. We'll see how it turns out.
In other news, I'm going to Brussels and Bruges this weekend. I think I'm going to see a Decemberists concert. I don't even like the Decemberists that much. Plus, well, you know... and also, one of my friends just backed out, which is lame.
So I'm kind of psyched. But kind of annoyed. We'll see how it turns out.
Monday, February 05, 2007
Destinations.
I want to write down this list of places I particularly want to visit so that I don't forget it and so that I can prioritize.
- Switzerland. I'm thinking Verbier or Zermatt. Maybe only one more trip, due to time and money constraints. Maybe go to Geneva for a day on the way or something, to see some non-resort Switzerland.
- Sevilla. Spain has been rising in my mind as a destination, and this seems like the "slightly off the beaten path" Spanish destination. (as opposed to Barcelona and Madrid. Plus, they actually speak Spanish, not Catalan.)
- That said, Barcelona, maybe for this music festival.
- The Black Forest, Germany. Where do you go for that? Maybe Freiburg? Heidelberg?
- Scandinavia. Stockholm? Copenhagen? Kiruna? Reykjavik?
Okay, so there are five trips. Switzerland should be sooner rather than later to have snow, Barcelona would be May 31-June 2 or thereabouts, the Black Forest and Scandinavia should be later rather than sooner to enjoy nice weather, and Sevilla could be anytime, I suppose. (of course, these are not set in stone; all are subject to change due to other plans, changes of mind, and/or bank accounts running right out of moneys.)
Wow, but if I could do all of those, I would be one lucky dude.
- Switzerland. I'm thinking Verbier or Zermatt. Maybe only one more trip, due to time and money constraints. Maybe go to Geneva for a day on the way or something, to see some non-resort Switzerland.
- Sevilla. Spain has been rising in my mind as a destination, and this seems like the "slightly off the beaten path" Spanish destination. (as opposed to Barcelona and Madrid. Plus, they actually speak Spanish, not Catalan.)
- That said, Barcelona, maybe for this music festival.
- The Black Forest, Germany. Where do you go for that? Maybe Freiburg? Heidelberg?
- Scandinavia. Stockholm? Copenhagen? Kiruna? Reykjavik?
Okay, so there are five trips. Switzerland should be sooner rather than later to have snow, Barcelona would be May 31-June 2 or thereabouts, the Black Forest and Scandinavia should be later rather than sooner to enjoy nice weather, and Sevilla could be anytime, I suppose. (of course, these are not set in stone; all are subject to change due to other plans, changes of mind, and/or bank accounts running right out of moneys.)
Wow, but if I could do all of those, I would be one lucky dude.
Sunday, February 04, 2007
Also: by God this comic is fantastic
And not just because it namechecks Pittsburgh. This is why Calvin and Hobbes is the best of all time.
Link for bigger
Amsterdamn, I'm confused
Sorry for the obvious pun.
I'm confused about a lot of things. I will enumerate them:
1. How to get around Amsterdam! I got turned around so many times. If I go back, I might actually take a compass. Nah, I'll probably just get lost a lot again. I don't know why, it's just hard to navigate.
2. If I'm even in the right place. I got a tour of the CS building here- it's just a few rooms in one building, really. Both my classes are being taught by the same professor. It's not a big department- I don't know why I got the impression that it was. Also, none of my classes are even taught in the "problem-based" format that U. Maastricht is known for. So will they be good classes? Will I learn anything useful? Will they give me any insight into what it is that I want to do with my life? And then, second half-semester, I'm basically taking a break. Yeah, five-day weekends are nice, but is it worth it? This is not my biggest concern, because the classes mostly all satisfy requirements, and it's about the same degree of difficulty that I've taken in the past, and you don't study abroad for the classes.
3. This isn't a confusion, but an update on the Amsterdam trip: I've complained about the Paris trip, and this Amsterdam trip was about half the same. The first day, they shuffled all 16 of us through a canal tour, the Anne Frank House, our hotel, and the "Boom Chicago" comedy show. The next day they shuffled all 16 of us through the Heineken Experience and the Rijksmuseum. This was frustrating. Then they let us go, and that was neat. I checked in to the hostel, went to dinner with some folks from our group, then split off and wandered all night. Got back late, got up early, rented a bike, and wandered some more, passing the Waterlooplein, Nieuwmarket, and seeing the Oude Kerk. Tried to meet some friends at the Van Gogh museum, failed, saw the Van Gogh museum, and wandered some more.
My thoughts on the attractions:
Canal tour- meh. "On the left, you see the golden lions on top of this house, which used to belong to Pieter Brooge de Hoog" and so on. I don't like guided tours. That said, the canals are very nice, and maybe my favorite part of the city.
Anne Frank House- more moving than I thought it would be. Still, the house itself is just a few empty rooms, but you do get to see the size of it, and also the feeling of being crammed in these rooms for two years. Eep. And then you see scenes from the concentration camps, and I thought about a week and a half ago when it was cold and I was stumbling home with what turned out to be a stomach bug/fever/etc, and I felt awful, but I knew I would be home in 15 minutes and then I could lay in a warm bed all I wanted, and I thought about how many concentration camp prisoners were sick and cold (without a coat) and hungry besides, and stumbling back maybe to a freezing barracks so they could sleep for a couple hours before they had to get up the next day and work, and by the way there's this whole threat of being killed all the time, and I can't imagine how anyone survived! So, in short, worth a visit if you're in the area.
Boom Chicago- pretty lame comedy show. Half improv, half scripted. Yeah, comedy is hard, as I know firsthand, but there were so many stale jokes (the show was called "Me, Myspace, and iPod" and it ended up being a bunch of jokes about Myspace and iPods, which might have been funny five years ago) and the improv was not even that good. Plus they were Americans, and most of the jokes were about Americans, so it was only culturally interesting for the "this is what Americans think Dutch will find funny, as a parody of America" sort of thing, not "what the Dutch actually find funny" (although, admittedly, any Dutch comedy show would be, well, in Dutch.)
Heineken Experience- stupid fun. It's not even a brewery anymore, but sort of a museum-exhibit of Heineken. Kind of cool to see how they make beer, but then I was at this kiosk and they played a prospective Heineken commercial and asked me what I thought, and I realized I was doing research for them, and I paid for it. But there were some free beers. But it was 11 AM. It's amazing how pumped my friends got for free beers. Look, they're not "free"- you paid for them as part of your admission! But people love paying for something, and then getting something else as a "free bonus" along the way. Someone should use that fact, for good or for evil.
Rijksmuseum- really cool! It's about half Dutch historical artifacts and half Dutch art. Overall, something like 15 rooms, so very manageable. And we got an audio guide headphones set, which is usually annoying, but was kind of neat. They had huge scale models of ships, big old dollhouses owned by rich merchants, silver pieces, and a couple paintings that I even recognized. And the Night Watch! Is it lame to really like that painting? It's kind of like Rembrandt's "Hey Ya" in that he did a lot of other cool stuff, and people even know it, but it's really his one big hit. But it's really cool! Here it is, check it out. If you go to Amsterdam, you should see this museum.
Waterlooplein- a big crap market. You may be familiar if you've been to New York.
Nieuwmarket- a square where they have a food market. I would have been more excited if my state of mind had been better after visiting Waterlooplein.
Oude Kerk ("Old Church")- is a neat church, and a welcome respite after the rest of Amsterdam, and more about that later. The church itself is big, and it looks like only the middle of it is used for the church service, which is interesting. There are also a couple of neat things in it; I don't know why. Find them in my photos!
Van Gogh Museum- also pretty neat, and I managed to get in for free, so that was a good deal. I like how they showed his paintings by the time periods in which he painted them. I think my mom would have appreciated it a lot more than me, or I would have appreciated it more if I went with my mom. Still, some of the paintings were very cool. I was really tired by this point.
Red Light District- right, how could I forget? We walked through there on Thursday night, when we were still all in a clump of 15 people. Never travel anywhere in a group of 15 people. The whole red light scene was pretty surreal- you're on a beautiful canal, and it's nighttime, and there are lighted shops and places, and it could be very nice, except that the shops are all advertising sex shows and other scandalous things, and everyone around you is either skeezy or a tourist, and there are a bunch of windows, with prostitutes boldly displaying themselves and maybe knocking on the window at you. All with red lights and black lights, which would really make for a cool canal scene! Except there are prostitutes boldly displaying themselves and maybe knocking on the window at you.
4. Okay, I'm confused about Amsterdam. How can you have a city that apparently builds its economy on fast food (which was plentiful and much better than American fast food because you can get things like falafels, kebabs, stir-fries, waffles, and herrings on every corner) and yet has a reputation for being one of the coolest cities in Europe? Well, okay, maybe because you can smoke pot on every street corner coffeeshop (and even in the streets, maybe? We did once, and nobody stopped us) or get mushrooms, herbal XTC, or a lot of other soft drugs cheaply and legally. Also you can gamble or get a hooker, if losing money and STD's are your thing. There are a lot of cool squares, like the Leidseplein (billed as Amsterdam's Times Square, and I'd take the Leidseplein any day, despite how over-the-top Times Square is). Neat shops and so on. But I left it feeling like I'd spent a total of maybe 12 hours wandering and not finding anything except more awesome fast food places. Maybe this is Amsterdam's fault, or maybe this is because of my next confusion:
5. What do I want to do when I travel? I don't even know. My old answer would have just been "wander." Walk around for a while, you'll probably see something cool. Or better: wander with a destination. Say I want to see the Rijksmuseum... just walk down a few streets until I make it there. If I don't, no worries. But after finishing this trip with aching feet and a hollow feeling in my stomach, I'm not so sure. Here are some things that are not my goals when I visit a city:
- Party. Honestly, I don't really care about the nightlife in a city that much. If I find myself in a cool bar, neat, but it's not a priority.
- Do drugs. This was not my priority in Amsterdam, and it's illegal in about every other country. If I want to smoke pot or do shrooms, I can do it in Maastricht, and I'll do it when I find good friends.
- Hit up the touristy stuff. The Eiffel Tower is the quintessential example of this. People feel like they have to see it, so they do. I don't.
- Buy souvenirs. Goddamn it, I don't want to buy a souvenir! No! I can remember things by myself, and with pictures. And souvenir shops are the most touristy places there are. Whoever invented the souvenir business is really a shrewd dude, because he made a lot of people buy a lot of crap. By the way, if I don't send you a souvenir, sorry; it's not that I don't care, it's just that I don't think the best way for me to show my appreciation for our relationship is to buy more crap that nobody needs.
- Shop. I buy clothes about never anyway. If I want clothes, I'm not so much of a sartorial gourmet that I need to go to shops in other cities.
- Take tours. No! I do not want a guided tour!
So what do I want to do? Arrg... that's the question. I'd like to get a feel for what life is really like in the city. I don't know if you can do that in a weekend without knowing someone who does live there. Here are some things that I like:
- Cool museums. I don't want to museum-hunt, and hit them all until I check them off my list. More than a couple per city is probably overkill. But there are some cool things in museums, and sometimes it's nice to see them.
- Good food! I want to experience the best of every city. However, this is often expensive. I mean, always expensive.
- Events. Festivals, concerts, whatever- if I go to a city for a reason, that's cool.
- Churches. I've been liking these more recently, and the Oude Kerk sure was a breath of fresh air after the streets and streets of souvenir shops and great fast food.
- Markets. I do like markets. Remember when I freaked out about the Pike's Place Market? Not too much, though: like the Waterlooplein was the end of my rope. I was not in the mood to look at junk anymore.
- Streets of shops and restaurants. And here's the trouble: why do I like cool stores? Because you can buy cool things in them? So I'm as much of a treasure hunter as anyone else, but I just mask it a little bit by not going to touristy shops.
I kind of just want to "be". So when someone says "Do you know Amsterdam?" I can say yes, yes I do know Amsterdam, in every sense; I can tell you where to go and what to see, and if we had a mind-melding link I could give you the feeling that I got when I was there. This is a vague goal. But I guess I just made a list of what I want to do. Hmm. Maybe I'm not so confused.
6. Whom do I want to travel with? Still an issue.
But I'm not confused about this: I am going to a Dutch Restaurant tonight, complete with Dutch Food, and I am excited. Time to go!
I'm confused about a lot of things. I will enumerate them:
1. How to get around Amsterdam! I got turned around so many times. If I go back, I might actually take a compass. Nah, I'll probably just get lost a lot again. I don't know why, it's just hard to navigate.
2. If I'm even in the right place. I got a tour of the CS building here- it's just a few rooms in one building, really. Both my classes are being taught by the same professor. It's not a big department- I don't know why I got the impression that it was. Also, none of my classes are even taught in the "problem-based" format that U. Maastricht is known for. So will they be good classes? Will I learn anything useful? Will they give me any insight into what it is that I want to do with my life? And then, second half-semester, I'm basically taking a break. Yeah, five-day weekends are nice, but is it worth it? This is not my biggest concern, because the classes mostly all satisfy requirements, and it's about the same degree of difficulty that I've taken in the past, and you don't study abroad for the classes.
3. This isn't a confusion, but an update on the Amsterdam trip: I've complained about the Paris trip, and this Amsterdam trip was about half the same. The first day, they shuffled all 16 of us through a canal tour, the Anne Frank House, our hotel, and the "Boom Chicago" comedy show. The next day they shuffled all 16 of us through the Heineken Experience and the Rijksmuseum. This was frustrating. Then they let us go, and that was neat. I checked in to the hostel, went to dinner with some folks from our group, then split off and wandered all night. Got back late, got up early, rented a bike, and wandered some more, passing the Waterlooplein, Nieuwmarket, and seeing the Oude Kerk. Tried to meet some friends at the Van Gogh museum, failed, saw the Van Gogh museum, and wandered some more.
My thoughts on the attractions:
Canal tour- meh. "On the left, you see the golden lions on top of this house, which used to belong to Pieter Brooge de Hoog" and so on. I don't like guided tours. That said, the canals are very nice, and maybe my favorite part of the city.
Anne Frank House- more moving than I thought it would be. Still, the house itself is just a few empty rooms, but you do get to see the size of it, and also the feeling of being crammed in these rooms for two years. Eep. And then you see scenes from the concentration camps, and I thought about a week and a half ago when it was cold and I was stumbling home with what turned out to be a stomach bug/fever/etc, and I felt awful, but I knew I would be home in 15 minutes and then I could lay in a warm bed all I wanted, and I thought about how many concentration camp prisoners were sick and cold (without a coat) and hungry besides, and stumbling back maybe to a freezing barracks so they could sleep for a couple hours before they had to get up the next day and work, and by the way there's this whole threat of being killed all the time, and I can't imagine how anyone survived! So, in short, worth a visit if you're in the area.
Boom Chicago- pretty lame comedy show. Half improv, half scripted. Yeah, comedy is hard, as I know firsthand, but there were so many stale jokes (the show was called "Me, Myspace, and iPod" and it ended up being a bunch of jokes about Myspace and iPods, which might have been funny five years ago) and the improv was not even that good. Plus they were Americans, and most of the jokes were about Americans, so it was only culturally interesting for the "this is what Americans think Dutch will find funny, as a parody of America" sort of thing, not "what the Dutch actually find funny" (although, admittedly, any Dutch comedy show would be, well, in Dutch.)
Heineken Experience- stupid fun. It's not even a brewery anymore, but sort of a museum-exhibit of Heineken. Kind of cool to see how they make beer, but then I was at this kiosk and they played a prospective Heineken commercial and asked me what I thought, and I realized I was doing research for them, and I paid for it. But there were some free beers. But it was 11 AM. It's amazing how pumped my friends got for free beers. Look, they're not "free"- you paid for them as part of your admission! But people love paying for something, and then getting something else as a "free bonus" along the way. Someone should use that fact, for good or for evil.
Rijksmuseum- really cool! It's about half Dutch historical artifacts and half Dutch art. Overall, something like 15 rooms, so very manageable. And we got an audio guide headphones set, which is usually annoying, but was kind of neat. They had huge scale models of ships, big old dollhouses owned by rich merchants, silver pieces, and a couple paintings that I even recognized. And the Night Watch! Is it lame to really like that painting? It's kind of like Rembrandt's "Hey Ya" in that he did a lot of other cool stuff, and people even know it, but it's really his one big hit. But it's really cool! Here it is, check it out. If you go to Amsterdam, you should see this museum.
Waterlooplein- a big crap market. You may be familiar if you've been to New York.
Nieuwmarket- a square where they have a food market. I would have been more excited if my state of mind had been better after visiting Waterlooplein.
Oude Kerk ("Old Church")- is a neat church, and a welcome respite after the rest of Amsterdam, and more about that later. The church itself is big, and it looks like only the middle of it is used for the church service, which is interesting. There are also a couple of neat things in it; I don't know why. Find them in my photos!
Van Gogh Museum- also pretty neat, and I managed to get in for free, so that was a good deal. I like how they showed his paintings by the time periods in which he painted them. I think my mom would have appreciated it a lot more than me, or I would have appreciated it more if I went with my mom. Still, some of the paintings were very cool. I was really tired by this point.
Red Light District- right, how could I forget? We walked through there on Thursday night, when we were still all in a clump of 15 people. Never travel anywhere in a group of 15 people. The whole red light scene was pretty surreal- you're on a beautiful canal, and it's nighttime, and there are lighted shops and places, and it could be very nice, except that the shops are all advertising sex shows and other scandalous things, and everyone around you is either skeezy or a tourist, and there are a bunch of windows, with prostitutes boldly displaying themselves and maybe knocking on the window at you. All with red lights and black lights, which would really make for a cool canal scene! Except there are prostitutes boldly displaying themselves and maybe knocking on the window at you.
4. Okay, I'm confused about Amsterdam. How can you have a city that apparently builds its economy on fast food (which was plentiful and much better than American fast food because you can get things like falafels, kebabs, stir-fries, waffles, and herrings on every corner) and yet has a reputation for being one of the coolest cities in Europe? Well, okay, maybe because you can smoke pot on every street corner coffeeshop (and even in the streets, maybe? We did once, and nobody stopped us) or get mushrooms, herbal XTC, or a lot of other soft drugs cheaply and legally. Also you can gamble or get a hooker, if losing money and STD's are your thing. There are a lot of cool squares, like the Leidseplein (billed as Amsterdam's Times Square, and I'd take the Leidseplein any day, despite how over-the-top Times Square is). Neat shops and so on. But I left it feeling like I'd spent a total of maybe 12 hours wandering and not finding anything except more awesome fast food places. Maybe this is Amsterdam's fault, or maybe this is because of my next confusion:
5. What do I want to do when I travel? I don't even know. My old answer would have just been "wander." Walk around for a while, you'll probably see something cool. Or better: wander with a destination. Say I want to see the Rijksmuseum... just walk down a few streets until I make it there. If I don't, no worries. But after finishing this trip with aching feet and a hollow feeling in my stomach, I'm not so sure. Here are some things that are not my goals when I visit a city:
- Party. Honestly, I don't really care about the nightlife in a city that much. If I find myself in a cool bar, neat, but it's not a priority.
- Do drugs. This was not my priority in Amsterdam, and it's illegal in about every other country. If I want to smoke pot or do shrooms, I can do it in Maastricht, and I'll do it when I find good friends.
- Hit up the touristy stuff. The Eiffel Tower is the quintessential example of this. People feel like they have to see it, so they do. I don't.
- Buy souvenirs. Goddamn it, I don't want to buy a souvenir! No! I can remember things by myself, and with pictures. And souvenir shops are the most touristy places there are. Whoever invented the souvenir business is really a shrewd dude, because he made a lot of people buy a lot of crap. By the way, if I don't send you a souvenir, sorry; it's not that I don't care, it's just that I don't think the best way for me to show my appreciation for our relationship is to buy more crap that nobody needs.
- Shop. I buy clothes about never anyway. If I want clothes, I'm not so much of a sartorial gourmet that I need to go to shops in other cities.
- Take tours. No! I do not want a guided tour!
So what do I want to do? Arrg... that's the question. I'd like to get a feel for what life is really like in the city. I don't know if you can do that in a weekend without knowing someone who does live there. Here are some things that I like:
- Cool museums. I don't want to museum-hunt, and hit them all until I check them off my list. More than a couple per city is probably overkill. But there are some cool things in museums, and sometimes it's nice to see them.
- Good food! I want to experience the best of every city. However, this is often expensive. I mean, always expensive.
- Events. Festivals, concerts, whatever- if I go to a city for a reason, that's cool.
- Churches. I've been liking these more recently, and the Oude Kerk sure was a breath of fresh air after the streets and streets of souvenir shops and great fast food.
- Markets. I do like markets. Remember when I freaked out about the Pike's Place Market? Not too much, though: like the Waterlooplein was the end of my rope. I was not in the mood to look at junk anymore.
- Streets of shops and restaurants. And here's the trouble: why do I like cool stores? Because you can buy cool things in them? So I'm as much of a treasure hunter as anyone else, but I just mask it a little bit by not going to touristy shops.
I kind of just want to "be". So when someone says "Do you know Amsterdam?" I can say yes, yes I do know Amsterdam, in every sense; I can tell you where to go and what to see, and if we had a mind-melding link I could give you the feeling that I got when I was there. This is a vague goal. But I guess I just made a list of what I want to do. Hmm. Maybe I'm not so confused.
6. Whom do I want to travel with? Still an issue.
But I'm not confused about this: I am going to a Dutch Restaurant tonight, complete with Dutch Food, and I am excited. Time to go!
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Man, you leave for a couple weeks and all this music happens
I just found out that, since I've been gone (sort of), the new Of Montreal, Shins, and Earlies discs came out. Great! I guess I actually have the Shins. But the Earlies and Of Montreal; I am stoked to hear them both.
Meanwhile, I've been listening to Of Montreal's "The Sunlandic Twins" over and over. Man, is it good! It kicks off with the fun "Requiem for o.m.m. 2", rolls along into "I was never young" and "Wraith pinned to the mist and other games" (aka that Outback steakhouse song), two great songs layered over thumpy drum-machine basslines that actually make ME want to dance (!). And THEN you hit the pinnacle of the album, either "The Party's Crashing Us" (featuring the lyric: "We make love like a pair of black wizards/ you free me from the past/ you fuck the suburbs out of me") or the nearly sonically perfect (I don't know if it's acoustically perfect like Peter Gabriel) "So Begins Our Alabee". Then it gets a little dreamy and psychedelic. But when your "worse half" of the record includes hits like "Oslo in the Summertime" and "The Repudiated Immortals", that's a good disc. Everyone's abuzz about Kevin Barnes's songwriting, and rightfully so. This work is a gem, and I can't wait to hear his next.
Also, and less notable: DangerDoom's "The Mouse and the Mask" (an annoying circle jerk between Danger Mouse, MF Doom, and Cartoon Network... if you've heard it, you know what I mean) and Matthew Freidberger's "Holy Ghost Language School" (which, as usual, is interesting, but Hey Matt, layering some noodly piano nonsense over you telling some noodly story in hushed tones isn't ALWAYS actually a song.).
Equally notable, but I don't know how so: Scott Walker's "The Drift." Have any of you listened to it? This guy sounds like an opera singer or something. It's kind of haunting. I can't bring myself to listen to it again, because I need a mental boost right now, not a giant downer. Plus it's slow.
Meanwhile, I've been listening to Of Montreal's "The Sunlandic Twins" over and over. Man, is it good! It kicks off with the fun "Requiem for o.m.m. 2", rolls along into "I was never young" and "Wraith pinned to the mist and other games" (aka that Outback steakhouse song), two great songs layered over thumpy drum-machine basslines that actually make ME want to dance (!). And THEN you hit the pinnacle of the album, either "The Party's Crashing Us" (featuring the lyric: "We make love like a pair of black wizards/ you free me from the past/ you fuck the suburbs out of me") or the nearly sonically perfect (I don't know if it's acoustically perfect like Peter Gabriel) "So Begins Our Alabee". Then it gets a little dreamy and psychedelic. But when your "worse half" of the record includes hits like "Oslo in the Summertime" and "The Repudiated Immortals", that's a good disc. Everyone's abuzz about Kevin Barnes's songwriting, and rightfully so. This work is a gem, and I can't wait to hear his next.
Also, and less notable: DangerDoom's "The Mouse and the Mask" (an annoying circle jerk between Danger Mouse, MF Doom, and Cartoon Network... if you've heard it, you know what I mean) and Matthew Freidberger's "Holy Ghost Language School" (which, as usual, is interesting, but Hey Matt, layering some noodly piano nonsense over you telling some noodly story in hushed tones isn't ALWAYS actually a song.).
Equally notable, but I don't know how so: Scott Walker's "The Drift." Have any of you listened to it? This guy sounds like an opera singer or something. It's kind of haunting. I can't bring myself to listen to it again, because I need a mental boost right now, not a giant downer. Plus it's slow.
Monday, January 29, 2007
Paris: Better than you might think
I got better! And so I went with the other American students to Paris on Thursday night. It was a very cool city! Something about it seemed sleek, modern, full of neat nooks and crannies, and worth exploring. Why did I think it wouldn't be? I don't know. It's kinda passe. You know, Amsterdam is the new Paris, and Prague is the new Amsterdam (and Kiev is the new Prague). It's so 20 years ago.
That of course doesn't make sense, because really, none of those cities are the new anything else.
The Latin Quarter in particular stands out, maybe because it's the only area we had time to explore. And we saw the Louvre, which is overwhelming of course, but I saw a lot of cool things and promptly forgot most of them. Here's where I pretend to be actually knowledgeable about art or some nonsense, and list a couple favorites, though:
- the Wedding Feast at Cana, by Veronese, which was in the same room as the Mona Lisa, and more interesting in my opinion. (plus it was huge- maybe that had something to do with it- and I hadn't seen pictures of it 100 times before)
- the paintings of the four seasons by Nicolas Poussin, with the seasons depicted as Bible scenes.
- well, the Code of Hammurabi, because it's kind of cool to be looking at the oldest system of law in recorded history.
Saw Versailles too, and wished I had more time to see the gardens, and also wished it was a time when trees had leaves. Also the Hall of Mirrors was being renovated.
Umm... the trip itself was kind of terrible. There were about 15 of us students, and we were ferried around on a bus. We had to stay together for most things. I mean, we'd get to Versailles, and they'd say "go see Versailles, and meet back here before lunch in 2 1/2 hours" and then we'd all go to the same place for lunch, etc. Ever been on a guided bus tour like that? It's pretty much the worst. We ate at a couple mediocre restaurants (didn't even get to try any of the famous French food, beyond a crepe here and a quiche there), and they tried to do stuff like walk through the Latin quarter with 15 people, and someone would stop in a shop, we'd all wait. What?! Please, we're adults! It was killing me. I didn't even get to go to Chez Berthillon! At the same time, I felt so sorry for our two young guides from the CES, so I didn't want to make too much trouble, but I had to just leave a couple times. What's wrong with "meet at ____ at 4:00"? Or even "Have a good day, see you at breakfast tomorrow"?
And finding people to travel with may be difficult. A lot of students here (and I'm just saying; I'm not comparing or disparaging or anything) seem to like to party more than explore. I like partying fine, too, but when I'm visiting a city like Paris, I want to get up kinda early, go see Paris all day, walk a lot through interesting neighborhoods, eat some French food, and try to get some kind of a feel for the city. Probably collapse into bed relatively early, because I will be tired. Drinking, clubbing, partying... I could do those anytime (and they're not my favorite things in the first place!). Not so big a deal when I'm traveling.
I think a good idea is this: pick a spot and say "I'm going to _____. I'm planning on getting up relatively early, walking a lot, speaking as little English as possible, exploring as much of the city as possible, maybe going to museums or whatever sounds interesting, not necessarily staying out late and partying... who's with me?" Everyone will probably say "Yeah! I want to go to ____ too!" and 15 people will want to go. Then I'll have to clarify. Hopefully this will work out.
(note that I'm not saying I don't want to go to bars or drink or whatever; just not in place of what I'm there to do)
So... in general, any Maastrichters who are reading this, anyone want to go to ____ with the above strategy? I'm thinking of starting with Benelux, Germany, France, Switzerland, and Austria (can you tell I just bought a 5-country railpass?).
In the meantime, next week is Amsterdam. Awesome city (or so I hear); don't want to be herded around. We'll see how it goes.
That of course doesn't make sense, because really, none of those cities are the new anything else.
The Latin Quarter in particular stands out, maybe because it's the only area we had time to explore. And we saw the Louvre, which is overwhelming of course, but I saw a lot of cool things and promptly forgot most of them. Here's where I pretend to be actually knowledgeable about art or some nonsense, and list a couple favorites, though:
- the Wedding Feast at Cana, by Veronese, which was in the same room as the Mona Lisa, and more interesting in my opinion. (plus it was huge- maybe that had something to do with it- and I hadn't seen pictures of it 100 times before)
- the paintings of the four seasons by Nicolas Poussin, with the seasons depicted as Bible scenes.
- well, the Code of Hammurabi, because it's kind of cool to be looking at the oldest system of law in recorded history.
Saw Versailles too, and wished I had more time to see the gardens, and also wished it was a time when trees had leaves. Also the Hall of Mirrors was being renovated.
Umm... the trip itself was kind of terrible. There were about 15 of us students, and we were ferried around on a bus. We had to stay together for most things. I mean, we'd get to Versailles, and they'd say "go see Versailles, and meet back here before lunch in 2 1/2 hours" and then we'd all go to the same place for lunch, etc. Ever been on a guided bus tour like that? It's pretty much the worst. We ate at a couple mediocre restaurants (didn't even get to try any of the famous French food, beyond a crepe here and a quiche there), and they tried to do stuff like walk through the Latin quarter with 15 people, and someone would stop in a shop, we'd all wait. What?! Please, we're adults! It was killing me. I didn't even get to go to Chez Berthillon! At the same time, I felt so sorry for our two young guides from the CES, so I didn't want to make too much trouble, but I had to just leave a couple times. What's wrong with "meet at ____ at 4:00"? Or even "Have a good day, see you at breakfast tomorrow"?
And finding people to travel with may be difficult. A lot of students here (and I'm just saying; I'm not comparing or disparaging or anything) seem to like to party more than explore. I like partying fine, too, but when I'm visiting a city like Paris, I want to get up kinda early, go see Paris all day, walk a lot through interesting neighborhoods, eat some French food, and try to get some kind of a feel for the city. Probably collapse into bed relatively early, because I will be tired. Drinking, clubbing, partying... I could do those anytime (and they're not my favorite things in the first place!). Not so big a deal when I'm traveling.
I think a good idea is this: pick a spot and say "I'm going to _____. I'm planning on getting up relatively early, walking a lot, speaking as little English as possible, exploring as much of the city as possible, maybe going to museums or whatever sounds interesting, not necessarily staying out late and partying... who's with me?" Everyone will probably say "Yeah! I want to go to ____ too!" and 15 people will want to go. Then I'll have to clarify. Hopefully this will work out.
(note that I'm not saying I don't want to go to bars or drink or whatever; just not in place of what I'm there to do)
So... in general, any Maastrichters who are reading this, anyone want to go to ____ with the above strategy? I'm thinking of starting with Benelux, Germany, France, Switzerland, and Austria (can you tell I just bought a 5-country railpass?).
In the meantime, next week is Amsterdam. Awesome city (or so I hear); don't want to be herded around. We'll see how it goes.
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Ik spreek niet vloiend Nederlandse of Duits
See, and I don't even know if the grammar was right there. "I don't speak fluent Dutch or German" and I am really wishing I did! I figured I could just sort of wing it and pick it up along the way, but it is harder than I had thought.
In St. Anton, for some inexplicable reason, almost everyone spoke English as well as German. Well, partially explicable: I guess lots of British skiers go there. It made for awkward starts to conversations- I'd start with a little bit of the only German I knew ("Woher kommen Sie?") and then most English speakers would switch to English, realizing that I am a gringo, and most only-German speakers (all three of them) would rattle off a lot of German things, to which I would mostly smile and say "Ja." I hope they were being polite. ("I am from Germany. Is it okay if I push you off the chairlift?")
The net result is that I ended up speaking a lot of English with other English speakers. Still an interesting group: it included a lot of Germans, some Danes, a couple Israelis, Austrians, and a Texan. But I did manage to have a few meaningful conversations in German. Here are some of my St. Anton 2007 greatest hits:
Me: Ein currywurst, bitte. ("A currywurst, please")
Josef, the snack stand (Imbissstube) owner gets me a currywurst as I look in my wallet and realize that I have only a EU$50 bill.
Me: Kann ich mit funfzig Euro zahlen? ("Can I pay with a $50?")
Josef: Ehhh... ok.
Me: Danke.
Me: Guten morgen!
The lady who made breakfast at the place I stayed, whose name I never actually found out: Guten morgen!
Me: Bin ich der erst? ("Am I the first?")
Her: Ja! Aber, man muss erst sein! ("Yes! But someone must be first!")
Me: Ja, das ist treu. ("Yes, that is honest." In retrospect, I think "richtig" is the word that actually means "true.")
I think she also threw in something like "Haben sie gut geschlaft?" to which I correctly responded "ja" and I think I also asked "Wo kann man die Skibus finden?" (Where can one find the ski bus?) I was feeling really pumped that day.
Me: Ich muss nach Maastricht, die Niederlande, gehen.
Train station guy: (a whole lot of German, and then he hands me two routes, pointing to one and saying "das ist der billiger" ("this is the cheaper one"))
Me: Das ist billiger? Ok.
Him: (A whole lot of German. Probably "Yes, and there is a very scenic view of the Rhine, but it will be crowded, complete with screaming babies, and it takes you so close to Maastricht but yet so very far. Also there is no water unless you pay a lot." All of which was true!)
So it's been a rocky road so far. In the Netherlands, everyone speaks English, but of course they speak Dutch first, so you don't understand a bunch of Dutch people talking. All the signs are in Dutch, too. That makes it partially fascinating (like grocery shopping is cool, and it seems very cheap too, but of course it's in Euros) but partially alienating. I wish I had gone to somewhere that I knew the language. That's not true; if I wanted to do that I could go to South or Central America, Spain, or England, which would all be cool, but not yet I don't think. Rather, I wish I learned a language that is spoken in west-central Europe (like German) and gone to study there. I mean, that's not true either; right now I'm entirely enamored with the Dutch. I'll try to take a language course while I'm here, so hopefully by the time I leave, I'll be able to blend in a little bit.
Well, hey. Tonight or tomorrow I'll be in Paris, so I'll be a complete foreigner, and quite the tourist, and the French people, who are not nearly so friendly as the Dutch, will actively sneer at me. That's life!
In St. Anton, for some inexplicable reason, almost everyone spoke English as well as German. Well, partially explicable: I guess lots of British skiers go there. It made for awkward starts to conversations- I'd start with a little bit of the only German I knew ("Woher kommen Sie?") and then most English speakers would switch to English, realizing that I am a gringo, and most only-German speakers (all three of them) would rattle off a lot of German things, to which I would mostly smile and say "Ja." I hope they were being polite. ("I am from Germany. Is it okay if I push you off the chairlift?")
The net result is that I ended up speaking a lot of English with other English speakers. Still an interesting group: it included a lot of Germans, some Danes, a couple Israelis, Austrians, and a Texan. But I did manage to have a few meaningful conversations in German. Here are some of my St. Anton 2007 greatest hits:
Me: Ein currywurst, bitte. ("A currywurst, please")
Josef, the snack stand (Imbissstube) owner gets me a currywurst as I look in my wallet and realize that I have only a EU$50 bill.
Me: Kann ich mit funfzig Euro zahlen? ("Can I pay with a $50?")
Josef: Ehhh... ok.
Me: Danke.
Me: Guten morgen!
The lady who made breakfast at the place I stayed, whose name I never actually found out: Guten morgen!
Me: Bin ich der erst? ("Am I the first?")
Her: Ja! Aber, man muss erst sein! ("Yes! But someone must be first!")
Me: Ja, das ist treu. ("Yes, that is honest." In retrospect, I think "richtig" is the word that actually means "true.")
I think she also threw in something like "Haben sie gut geschlaft?" to which I correctly responded "ja" and I think I also asked "Wo kann man die Skibus finden?" (Where can one find the ski bus?) I was feeling really pumped that day.
Me: Ich muss nach Maastricht, die Niederlande, gehen.
Train station guy: (a whole lot of German, and then he hands me two routes, pointing to one and saying "das ist der billiger" ("this is the cheaper one"))
Me: Das ist billiger? Ok.
Him: (A whole lot of German. Probably "Yes, and there is a very scenic view of the Rhine, but it will be crowded, complete with screaming babies, and it takes you so close to Maastricht but yet so very far. Also there is no water unless you pay a lot." All of which was true!)
So it's been a rocky road so far. In the Netherlands, everyone speaks English, but of course they speak Dutch first, so you don't understand a bunch of Dutch people talking. All the signs are in Dutch, too. That makes it partially fascinating (like grocery shopping is cool, and it seems very cheap too, but of course it's in Euros) but partially alienating. I wish I had gone to somewhere that I knew the language. That's not true; if I wanted to do that I could go to South or Central America, Spain, or England, which would all be cool, but not yet I don't think. Rather, I wish I learned a language that is spoken in west-central Europe (like German) and gone to study there. I mean, that's not true either; right now I'm entirely enamored with the Dutch. I'll try to take a language course while I'm here, so hopefully by the time I leave, I'll be able to blend in a little bit.
Well, hey. Tonight or tomorrow I'll be in Paris, so I'll be a complete foreigner, and quite the tourist, and the French people, who are not nearly so friendly as the Dutch, will actively sneer at me. That's life!
I like this city!
I'm in Maastricht now. It's very nice! It is sort of the way I think a city should be: everything pretty close together, a few ancient cathedrals and town squares, lots of restaurants and bars and cafes, and few cars. This is the initial stage of coming to a new place, the sort of euphoria, I guess, which is a great thrill.
However, as much of an upper as that is, here's a downer: I'm pretty sick. Stomach problems yesterday, and now I just feel kinda weak and cold. Actually getting sick (beyond just a cold) is pretty much a bummer. Especially when you're in a new place, you don't actually know anyone, and you're sort of stuck with laying in your bed all day while everyone else is having fun and doing orientation things.
And tomorrow everyone's going to Brussels and Paris! I can't believe it! They have a (expenses-already-paid) trip to those two fantastic cities planned for us, Thursday to Saturday, and I'm going to be sitting at home, sick and bored. Unless I get real much better overnight, which would be quite nice. I'm trying to keep it all in perspective, and it's sort of easy because all I have to do is go lie down and then I feel great, but it's tough because everyone is going to Paris and Brussels tomorrow!
So it goes.
However, as much of an upper as that is, here's a downer: I'm pretty sick. Stomach problems yesterday, and now I just feel kinda weak and cold. Actually getting sick (beyond just a cold) is pretty much a bummer. Especially when you're in a new place, you don't actually know anyone, and you're sort of stuck with laying in your bed all day while everyone else is having fun and doing orientation things.
And tomorrow everyone's going to Brussels and Paris! I can't believe it! They have a (expenses-already-paid) trip to those two fantastic cities planned for us, Thursday to Saturday, and I'm going to be sitting at home, sick and bored. Unless I get real much better overnight, which would be quite nice. I'm trying to keep it all in perspective, and it's sort of easy because all I have to do is go lie down and then I feel great, but it's tough because everyone is going to Paris and Brussels tomorrow!
So it goes.
Monday, January 22, 2007
Alp alp alp alp
Here I am, in the Tyrolean Alps. On a train right now actually, but that's only because I haven't had time to write during the last week. Well, that's false; I had plenty of time. If I could trade an hour of time for an hour's worth of energy, I may have done it a couple of times. (Not too many though.)
I was skiing in St. Anton am Arlberg. It is something else. I'd say the best place I've ever skied, but it wasn't, entirely; it was better in a lot of ways than my #2 (Vail, I guess) but when you're comparing your mountain to Vail, it's understandable if you come up short in some respects. I'll just say they're different. This is clearly true, and it doesn't tell you anything. One of the best pieces of advice I got in the last year (from Ram, I think?) was that two things can be different without one being better than another.
Longwinded introductions aside, here's a (longwinded) summary of my adventures:
1. The mountain itself must come first. Because, while I am a traveler second, I think I'm still a skier first. (this is subject to change.) Here's a trail map. That may not tell you anything. I think it's bigger than anywhere else I've ever skied, mainly because St. Anton itself includes the main mountains (Valluga, Galzig, Gampen, and Kapall), another big mountain across the street called the Rendl, and a little area called Stuben. Using the same ticket, you can also ski Lech and Zurs. There's a place on the map called Sonnenkopf, too, and also a little area in Pettneu. A lot of these are accessible by bus, but if you are awesome and/or you have good snow, you can ski from one to the other. For example, if you're about 3 badass levels above me (myself being a sort-of-mediocre ass), you can ski off the top of the Valluga (which requires 3 gondolas to get to) down to Zurs, then ski the "white ring" around Zurs and Lech.
See, in the Alps, there aren't so many trees. It's all above the treeline, so it's a lot more open. If you look at a map of a ski area in the states, you see certain trails, which are naturally created by trees. (and/or logging.) In Europe, they don't have this natural restriction, so they could just let you take a lift up and ski wherever you want. But then a lot of people would fall on rocks (it's so craggy!) or get avalanched, so they create "pistes" by putting up signposts on both sides of a "trail" where they want you to ski. These are groomed, covered by ski patrol, and protected against avalanches. They also make "ski routes" which have just one line of posts. They say "ski near the posts." Ski routes are avalanche-protected, but not groomed or patrolled. And then you can go backcountry if you want, like in the US, but you're on your own, and if you get avalanched, they won't really help you out. Anyway, this makes for a less interesting skiing experience than the US, because there are fewer ski routes, and fewer still good ski routes. Maybe this was because of:
2. The weather. You know, worst in 50 years, etc. That's life! There hasn't been any snow here since early January, so Wednesday was pretty okay. Nicely groomed, kinda thin and icy in some spots. Thursday was okay too. It started raining in the afternoon. On Friday the newspapers read "ORKAN UBER OSTERREICH" ("Hurricane over Austria"). 90kph winds closed almost the entire mountain. I didn't even ski!
Let me tell you something about rain. You'd think rain would help snow. You know, they're on the same team! Come on guys, work together! But it turns out, rain melts snow. Sneaky backstabber. So a driving rain is actually terrible. Plus, all your ski gear is just "water resistant" ("waterproof" stuff doesn't breathe well enough for skiers) so you get soaked. Skiing in the rain is like golf in a desert. It's like poker where the only cards are deuces, fours, and jacks. It's like Trivial Pursuit with some jackass who memorizes all the cards.
On Saturday, however, I found that rain at lower altitudes can make snow at higher altitudes, so there was some fresh stuff. Nice day. "Schindler Kar" on Valluga and "Riffel" at the Rendl were gorgeous.
(and that's another thing: I realized I can't explain to non-skiers why it's so fun to ski on powder, or on bumps, or anything else. I could say skiing powder is like floating, but so is sleeping on a waterbed, and that just sucks and gives you back problems. And skiing bumps is pretty much all about looking good, which sounds so superficial, but it really is, and that doesn't make any goddamn sense until you've done it.)
Okay, so my experience at St. Anton was a little below Vail and probably on par with Copper or Loveland in terms of actual skiing. Given good snow, St. Anton would probably win hands down. But here's why I liked it otherwise:
3. Austrian skiing culture. It is different! The guidebooks will tell you this too. I'll split it up by resort, because it's not fair to say "American skiing is like this or Austrian skiing is like that" because of course it all varies. Skiing is about:
Arapahoe Basin/Vail (back bowls)/Breckenridge (top of mountain)- skiing well on awesome terrain
Loveland/Zurs- being a local and finding the new snow while everyone else goes to the big resorts
Breckenridge/Keystone/Killington- taking the family, standing in line a lot, wondering why the snow isn't better
Vail (front side)/Aspen/Lech- looking good in your fur coat and/or Dior ski suit.
St. Anton- great skiing and having a good time. It's a little different than anything I've skied in the US. There's a lot of emphasis on apres-ski, the lunches are better, and the nightlife is more active. Oh yeah, and I can go to the bars, because they have reasonable drinking ages.
Apres ski was a pretty new concept to me. The lifts close at 4 or so (while the sun's going down anyway) and you're there, so why not hang out and drink? It's a little crazy; I apres-skied at Mooserwirt (a big and popular bar) a couple of days, and it's a big party! Around 3:30, they dim the lights inside, pump up the volume inside and out, start serving a whole lot of beers, and play this shitty, shitty Eurotrash music. (i.e. AC/DC, Bon Jovi, remixes of stuff like "Everybody Dance Now", German and Austrian carnival songs, and some German song that sounded like "Hey! Beware the ice-bear, say! Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh!" over and over again) And everyone drinks a few of these beers, sings along, dances in their ski boots, and semi-drunkenly revels until they get tired or until the bar closes at 9. Then they ski down a couple hundred feet, maybe take a shower or get changed, and keep going in the bars until late! I don't get it! How do they do this? I couldn't stay up past 11. Of course, I'm kinda in the A.Basin/Vail back bowls crowd above: for me, skiing is all about the skiing. This was fun, though, and it'd be more fun to come back with some friends.
Speaking of which, 4. The people you meet. I was a little nervous about traveling alone. What do you do, if you have no friends to hang out with? The answer was provided for me by Drew, a guy I met on Wednesday: Just get used to traveling alone. If you travel with friends, they are your friends; if you travel alone, everyone's your friend.
This guy was like one possible version of me in a few years. Mid-20's, mechanical engineer at Dell in Austin. Making a bunch of money, so he's traveling all over to snowboard. A couple weeks after this trip, he was going to Jackson Hole. Living the dream (or at least my dream). But still free-spirited to realize that he could drop it all if he wanted. He said he loves his job, and if he didn't, he'd quit; sell his Corvette and big-screen TV. Move in with a friend, if need be. He was very friendly and outgoing, something I have to work on, but his existence kinda gives me hope: I can have great friends and a fulfilling job and still ski, travel, and eat nice food. Maybe he's less picky about his food, and that's why he bought an expensive car. Whatever. We skied together at St. Anton and Zurs on Thursday, until it got rainy and I lost him somewhere. Never saw him again. Hope he's all right. That's the life of a "single-serving friend" (to use an overly negative phrase from the disgruntled narrator in Fight Club).
Friday I hung out at Mooserwirt with a few Berliners (people, not donuts). Good-spirited bunch. They introduced me to the difference between asking for a "bier" (for which you get a pilsener) and "weissbier" (for which you get a wheat beer). Also told me that Maastricht is where the Germans go to buy drugs, so "don't do too much drugs. Do some, but not too much." Meant to meet them at Mooserwirt again on Saturday, but instead, I ended up meeting a couple of Danes from the place I was staying. They were very nice too. We discussed football (go Copenhagen!) and Formula One racing, and why the Japanese can't build a good racecar: they have no creativity. If you tell them "this is what we want" they will build it, but if you say "what can you do?" they can't decide. Also why the Microsoft-owned but Toshiba-made Zune is such a flop.
And then there are all the other people I sat next to in a bar or cafe, like Simon, the Israeli from Haifa who claims it's less dangerous than NYC. Or Josef, the guy who owns a snack stand; I bought a Currywurst from him the first day, then ran into him at a bar, and he convinced me to go back and buy one the next day too. A funny guy; doesn't speak English or German very well, but he's friendly. He says "currywurst" with a fantastic accent. It's up there with Viktor Adamchik saying "greedy algorithm." Then there's Teja Thakur, the Indian from near the Himalayas (damn, I forget his village's name). He's in St. Anton for 3 months, training to snowboard in the 2010 Olympics- watch for him! (or he could have been putting me on. if so, I sure got served.)
It's kinda amazing, and also what makes a trip like this (or any trip) so great: the people. When you go on a trip like this, you resign yourself to a lot of really awkward times, when you're the only guy sitting at the bar, quietly sipping your beer, or when the only guy sitting next to you is a strange old guy who's offering you a shot of something that he can't name, from a bottle with a skull and crossbones hand-drawn on it. (Jesus H.M.S. Christ, I drank some! After he did, of course. But still- what the shit?! It's a wonder I'm still alive!)
5. The Food. Always important for a food enthusiast like myself. Really, I didn't have a lot of it, because I was focusing on meeting people, not on the food. But you run into new treats, like it or not. Like the aforementioned Currywurst. This is just a sausage, covered in curry powder and drenched in ketchup. And it's really good! I'm a fan. Breakfasts were tasty (and included in the room price): bread, an assortment of meats and cheese slices, some muesli cereal, and strange things to spread on bread: jams of course, but also cheeses and pates. Like kalbsleber (calf's liver, right?), which was tasty. And once a long time ago, I entered all the things that I usually eat into some website, and it analyzed my eating habits and told me that I was missing only a few key nutrients, and that my diet is sorely lacking in calf's liver. Ta da, solution!
Speaking of calf's liver, I almost met my food-adventurousness match with a Bauernteller ("worker's platter") at a local stube. (not sure how "stube" translates, but a lot of restaurants were "stube"s.) It included leberwurst and blutwurst, both of which were sort of soft sausages. As in, when you cut it, the sausage gooshes out a little bit. I was not ready for that. Also, blutwurst is "blood sausage," and the name alone weirds me out. But hey, mind over matter, charge on with furious gusto, and I'll be eating a lot weirder stuff than that! They were both really not bad, although I'd have to have them a couple more times before I'd call them favorites.
A discussion of food would be incomplete without a discussion of:
6. Drinks! Again, it's a different world. In America, if you drank with lunch and dinner, people would think you're unusual. Here, it's perfectly natural to have a beer with your meal. (and also apres ski!) It makes sense. You can drink beer at age 16. You grow up with it; it's not this wild "forbidden fruit". There's no binge drinking; people know their limits. And the beer is much better! I am not so good at telling the difference between them yet, but I know that I like pilseners, and more than one weissbier fills me up and makes me feel not so good afterwards. I've had Kaiser (slogan: hast ein Kaiser, bist ein Kaiser- have a Kaiser, be a Kaiser!), Fohrenburger, Beck's (from the bottle; apparently it's Germany's best-selling beer), Dinkel Acker, and something like Ergender. And I had a shot called a Flugel- it's red vodka (sweeter; they add sloe berries or something? the brand was Eristoff and apparently it's Dutch) and Red Bull, and it's tasty.
7. Money and Housing are somewhat important. First, housing: I stayed at a place called the Pension Adlerhorst- a little bed-and-breakfast that I found online. It was about 4km from the city center, but there was a bus during the day, and at night it made for a nice walk. And it was deluxe! Nice room, nice breakfast (as I said before), friendly owners, and how much would you pay for all this? 36 Euro/night. You can't get anything in the states for $36 (or even $45-50, or whatever EU$36 is) This place is hardly unique; the village is filled with them! And no chain hotels in sight. (well, one Best Western.) I love it. So that was cheap, lift tickets were cheap (EU$132 for 4 days!) but rentals were expensive (EU$37/day for skis and boots). Seriously, if you find a cheap flight and bring your skis, skiing in Europe can be cheaper than skiing in the Rockies.
The money, though, is tricky to get used to. Like the coins. EU$1 and EU$2 coins are bad for me. They feel like change, you know, so you don't notice them. Until you realize you have $10 in change in your pocket. And the bills feel like funny money, which means I don't feel bad about tossing them at everything. EU$4.40 for a beer? No problem, here's a worthless-looking fiver, and keep the change!
8. Language issues could use another post. This is long enough as it is.
I was skiing in St. Anton am Arlberg. It is something else. I'd say the best place I've ever skied, but it wasn't, entirely; it was better in a lot of ways than my #2 (Vail, I guess) but when you're comparing your mountain to Vail, it's understandable if you come up short in some respects. I'll just say they're different. This is clearly true, and it doesn't tell you anything. One of the best pieces of advice I got in the last year (from Ram, I think?) was that two things can be different without one being better than another.
Longwinded introductions aside, here's a (longwinded) summary of my adventures:
1. The mountain itself must come first. Because, while I am a traveler second, I think I'm still a skier first. (this is subject to change.) Here's a trail map. That may not tell you anything. I think it's bigger than anywhere else I've ever skied, mainly because St. Anton itself includes the main mountains (Valluga, Galzig, Gampen, and Kapall), another big mountain across the street called the Rendl, and a little area called Stuben. Using the same ticket, you can also ski Lech and Zurs. There's a place on the map called Sonnenkopf, too, and also a little area in Pettneu. A lot of these are accessible by bus, but if you are awesome and/or you have good snow, you can ski from one to the other. For example, if you're about 3 badass levels above me (myself being a sort-of-mediocre ass), you can ski off the top of the Valluga (which requires 3 gondolas to get to) down to Zurs, then ski the "white ring" around Zurs and Lech.
See, in the Alps, there aren't so many trees. It's all above the treeline, so it's a lot more open. If you look at a map of a ski area in the states, you see certain trails, which are naturally created by trees. (and/or logging.) In Europe, they don't have this natural restriction, so they could just let you take a lift up and ski wherever you want. But then a lot of people would fall on rocks (it's so craggy!) or get avalanched, so they create "pistes" by putting up signposts on both sides of a "trail" where they want you to ski. These are groomed, covered by ski patrol, and protected against avalanches. They also make "ski routes" which have just one line of posts. They say "ski near the posts." Ski routes are avalanche-protected, but not groomed or patrolled. And then you can go backcountry if you want, like in the US, but you're on your own, and if you get avalanched, they won't really help you out. Anyway, this makes for a less interesting skiing experience than the US, because there are fewer ski routes, and fewer still good ski routes. Maybe this was because of:
2. The weather. You know, worst in 50 years, etc. That's life! There hasn't been any snow here since early January, so Wednesday was pretty okay. Nicely groomed, kinda thin and icy in some spots. Thursday was okay too. It started raining in the afternoon. On Friday the newspapers read "ORKAN UBER OSTERREICH" ("Hurricane over Austria"). 90kph winds closed almost the entire mountain. I didn't even ski!
Let me tell you something about rain. You'd think rain would help snow. You know, they're on the same team! Come on guys, work together! But it turns out, rain melts snow. Sneaky backstabber. So a driving rain is actually terrible. Plus, all your ski gear is just "water resistant" ("waterproof" stuff doesn't breathe well enough for skiers) so you get soaked. Skiing in the rain is like golf in a desert. It's like poker where the only cards are deuces, fours, and jacks. It's like Trivial Pursuit with some jackass who memorizes all the cards.
On Saturday, however, I found that rain at lower altitudes can make snow at higher altitudes, so there was some fresh stuff. Nice day. "Schindler Kar" on Valluga and "Riffel" at the Rendl were gorgeous.
(and that's another thing: I realized I can't explain to non-skiers why it's so fun to ski on powder, or on bumps, or anything else. I could say skiing powder is like floating, but so is sleeping on a waterbed, and that just sucks and gives you back problems. And skiing bumps is pretty much all about looking good, which sounds so superficial, but it really is, and that doesn't make any goddamn sense until you've done it.)
Okay, so my experience at St. Anton was a little below Vail and probably on par with Copper or Loveland in terms of actual skiing. Given good snow, St. Anton would probably win hands down. But here's why I liked it otherwise:
3. Austrian skiing culture. It is different! The guidebooks will tell you this too. I'll split it up by resort, because it's not fair to say "American skiing is like this or Austrian skiing is like that" because of course it all varies. Skiing is about:
Arapahoe Basin/Vail (back bowls)/Breckenridge (top of mountain)- skiing well on awesome terrain
Loveland/Zurs- being a local and finding the new snow while everyone else goes to the big resorts
Breckenridge/Keystone/Killington- taking the family, standing in line a lot, wondering why the snow isn't better
Vail (front side)/Aspen/Lech- looking good in your fur coat and/or Dior ski suit.
St. Anton- great skiing and having a good time. It's a little different than anything I've skied in the US. There's a lot of emphasis on apres-ski, the lunches are better, and the nightlife is more active. Oh yeah, and I can go to the bars, because they have reasonable drinking ages.
Apres ski was a pretty new concept to me. The lifts close at 4 or so (while the sun's going down anyway) and you're there, so why not hang out and drink? It's a little crazy; I apres-skied at Mooserwirt (a big and popular bar) a couple of days, and it's a big party! Around 3:30, they dim the lights inside, pump up the volume inside and out, start serving a whole lot of beers, and play this shitty, shitty Eurotrash music. (i.e. AC/DC, Bon Jovi, remixes of stuff like "Everybody Dance Now", German and Austrian carnival songs, and some German song that sounded like "Hey! Beware the ice-bear, say! Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh!" over and over again) And everyone drinks a few of these beers, sings along, dances in their ski boots, and semi-drunkenly revels until they get tired or until the bar closes at 9. Then they ski down a couple hundred feet, maybe take a shower or get changed, and keep going in the bars until late! I don't get it! How do they do this? I couldn't stay up past 11. Of course, I'm kinda in the A.Basin/Vail back bowls crowd above: for me, skiing is all about the skiing. This was fun, though, and it'd be more fun to come back with some friends.
Speaking of which, 4. The people you meet. I was a little nervous about traveling alone. What do you do, if you have no friends to hang out with? The answer was provided for me by Drew, a guy I met on Wednesday: Just get used to traveling alone. If you travel with friends, they are your friends; if you travel alone, everyone's your friend.
This guy was like one possible version of me in a few years. Mid-20's, mechanical engineer at Dell in Austin. Making a bunch of money, so he's traveling all over to snowboard. A couple weeks after this trip, he was going to Jackson Hole. Living the dream (or at least my dream). But still free-spirited to realize that he could drop it all if he wanted. He said he loves his job, and if he didn't, he'd quit; sell his Corvette and big-screen TV. Move in with a friend, if need be. He was very friendly and outgoing, something I have to work on, but his existence kinda gives me hope: I can have great friends and a fulfilling job and still ski, travel, and eat nice food. Maybe he's less picky about his food, and that's why he bought an expensive car. Whatever. We skied together at St. Anton and Zurs on Thursday, until it got rainy and I lost him somewhere. Never saw him again. Hope he's all right. That's the life of a "single-serving friend" (to use an overly negative phrase from the disgruntled narrator in Fight Club).
Friday I hung out at Mooserwirt with a few Berliners (people, not donuts). Good-spirited bunch. They introduced me to the difference between asking for a "bier" (for which you get a pilsener) and "weissbier" (for which you get a wheat beer). Also told me that Maastricht is where the Germans go to buy drugs, so "don't do too much drugs. Do some, but not too much." Meant to meet them at Mooserwirt again on Saturday, but instead, I ended up meeting a couple of Danes from the place I was staying. They were very nice too. We discussed football (go Copenhagen!) and Formula One racing, and why the Japanese can't build a good racecar: they have no creativity. If you tell them "this is what we want" they will build it, but if you say "what can you do?" they can't decide. Also why the Microsoft-owned but Toshiba-made Zune is such a flop.
And then there are all the other people I sat next to in a bar or cafe, like Simon, the Israeli from Haifa who claims it's less dangerous than NYC. Or Josef, the guy who owns a snack stand; I bought a Currywurst from him the first day, then ran into him at a bar, and he convinced me to go back and buy one the next day too. A funny guy; doesn't speak English or German very well, but he's friendly. He says "currywurst" with a fantastic accent. It's up there with Viktor Adamchik saying "greedy algorithm." Then there's Teja Thakur, the Indian from near the Himalayas (damn, I forget his village's name). He's in St. Anton for 3 months, training to snowboard in the 2010 Olympics- watch for him! (or he could have been putting me on. if so, I sure got served.)
It's kinda amazing, and also what makes a trip like this (or any trip) so great: the people. When you go on a trip like this, you resign yourself to a lot of really awkward times, when you're the only guy sitting at the bar, quietly sipping your beer, or when the only guy sitting next to you is a strange old guy who's offering you a shot of something that he can't name, from a bottle with a skull and crossbones hand-drawn on it. (Jesus H.M.S. Christ, I drank some! After he did, of course. But still- what the shit?! It's a wonder I'm still alive!)
5. The Food. Always important for a food enthusiast like myself. Really, I didn't have a lot of it, because I was focusing on meeting people, not on the food. But you run into new treats, like it or not. Like the aforementioned Currywurst. This is just a sausage, covered in curry powder and drenched in ketchup. And it's really good! I'm a fan. Breakfasts were tasty (and included in the room price): bread, an assortment of meats and cheese slices, some muesli cereal, and strange things to spread on bread: jams of course, but also cheeses and pates. Like kalbsleber (calf's liver, right?), which was tasty. And once a long time ago, I entered all the things that I usually eat into some website, and it analyzed my eating habits and told me that I was missing only a few key nutrients, and that my diet is sorely lacking in calf's liver. Ta da, solution!
Speaking of calf's liver, I almost met my food-adventurousness match with a Bauernteller ("worker's platter") at a local stube. (not sure how "stube" translates, but a lot of restaurants were "stube"s.) It included leberwurst and blutwurst, both of which were sort of soft sausages. As in, when you cut it, the sausage gooshes out a little bit. I was not ready for that. Also, blutwurst is "blood sausage," and the name alone weirds me out. But hey, mind over matter, charge on with furious gusto, and I'll be eating a lot weirder stuff than that! They were both really not bad, although I'd have to have them a couple more times before I'd call them favorites.
A discussion of food would be incomplete without a discussion of:
6. Drinks! Again, it's a different world. In America, if you drank with lunch and dinner, people would think you're unusual. Here, it's perfectly natural to have a beer with your meal. (and also apres ski!) It makes sense. You can drink beer at age 16. You grow up with it; it's not this wild "forbidden fruit". There's no binge drinking; people know their limits. And the beer is much better! I am not so good at telling the difference between them yet, but I know that I like pilseners, and more than one weissbier fills me up and makes me feel not so good afterwards. I've had Kaiser (slogan: hast ein Kaiser, bist ein Kaiser- have a Kaiser, be a Kaiser!), Fohrenburger, Beck's (from the bottle; apparently it's Germany's best-selling beer), Dinkel Acker, and something like Ergender. And I had a shot called a Flugel- it's red vodka (sweeter; they add sloe berries or something? the brand was Eristoff and apparently it's Dutch) and Red Bull, and it's tasty.
7. Money and Housing are somewhat important. First, housing: I stayed at a place called the Pension Adlerhorst- a little bed-and-breakfast that I found online. It was about 4km from the city center, but there was a bus during the day, and at night it made for a nice walk. And it was deluxe! Nice room, nice breakfast (as I said before), friendly owners, and how much would you pay for all this? 36 Euro/night. You can't get anything in the states for $36 (or even $45-50, or whatever EU$36 is) This place is hardly unique; the village is filled with them! And no chain hotels in sight. (well, one Best Western.) I love it. So that was cheap, lift tickets were cheap (EU$132 for 4 days!) but rentals were expensive (EU$37/day for skis and boots). Seriously, if you find a cheap flight and bring your skis, skiing in Europe can be cheaper than skiing in the Rockies.
The money, though, is tricky to get used to. Like the coins. EU$1 and EU$2 coins are bad for me. They feel like change, you know, so you don't notice them. Until you realize you have $10 in change in your pocket. And the bills feel like funny money, which means I don't feel bad about tossing them at everything. EU$4.40 for a beer? No problem, here's a worthless-looking fiver, and keep the change!
8. Language issues could use another post. This is long enough as it is.
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Soll ich in Englisch oder Deutsch sprechen?
That has been the biggest problem so far. I'm not sure which is better, in this crazy resort town: terrible German or fluent English, especially when, for example, someone addresses me in German and I respond in English. Gaaah! I guess in St Anton, English is just as good, because half the people here are Brits anyway, and everyone speaks both languages fluently. I still feel bad about it. I did have at least one meaningful German conversation though:
Me: kann ich mit fünfzig Euros zahlen? (can I pay with €50?)
Bratwurst guy: ehh... ok.
Me: es tut mir leid! (I'm sorry)
Bratwurst guy: it's no problem!
Me: ein currywurst, bitte.
Bratwurst guy: €3.20.
This conversation resulted in me getting a Currywurst, which apparently is a sausage with a bunch of curry powder drenched in ketchup. It's good! This place amazes me.
In other news, all is well, I've been awake for going on about 30 hours, and tomorrow I'm going skiing!
Me: kann ich mit fünfzig Euros zahlen? (can I pay with €50?)
Bratwurst guy: ehh... ok.
Me: es tut mir leid! (I'm sorry)
Bratwurst guy: it's no problem!
Me: ein currywurst, bitte.
Bratwurst guy: €3.20.
This conversation resulted in me getting a Currywurst, which apparently is a sausage with a bunch of curry powder drenched in ketchup. It's good! This place amazes me.
In other news, all is well, I've been awake for going on about 30 hours, and tomorrow I'm going skiing!
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Things I should be ready for in the next few months:
1. Culture shock; supposedly, it happens. Hopefully I'll be able to minimize it, but they say everyone feels a little put off by all the quirks of the place he's visiting, sooner or later.
2. Loneliness; supposedly that happens too. A lot. I can imagine feelings of isolation, of stranger-in-a-strange-land-ing.
3. Feeling awful every time I ask someone "sprechen sie Englisch?" I just had to do it on the phone, and I feel so ugly-American.
4. A giant red-tape mishap will seriously sidetrack at least one excursion, for sure.
5. I'll probably get wildly sick at some point too. Hopefully it won't ruin more than one weekend.
6. I'll probably have to spend more money than I'd like, on at least one occasion.
7. The food! I can't wait to try it. But it seems so heavy and not that healthy, especially in places like Germany. I may get in worse shape. However, pretty much as a rule, Europeans are in better shape than we are, so I may get in better shape. I'm no Lance Armstrong as it is.
8. Biking a long distance. I want to do it at least once. Koln is something like 40km; that'd be a nice warmup.
9. The classes. All this preparation for all the travel; I need to remember that I'm taking classes too! Hopefully, they won't be all too difficult, and hopefully, I'll learn something interesting (especially in the first half-semester)
10. Falling out of touch with people back home. I'll do my best not to!
11. Learning the language not as well as I'd like.
12. Learning the language better than I'd thought.
13. Having some of the best months of my life.
14. Not having some of the best months of my life.
15. Learning to appreciate beer. At least, I hope so. I'll have wasted my time if I come back and I still can't tell a Yuengling from a Pabst. (That's hyperbole, don't worry.)
And finally, 16. Things that I can't possibly be ready for; because I can't imagine what the hell is going to happen these next few months. This has been your inspirational-speech minute; feel free to go about your business now.
2. Loneliness; supposedly that happens too. A lot. I can imagine feelings of isolation, of stranger-in-a-strange-land-ing.
3. Feeling awful every time I ask someone "sprechen sie Englisch?" I just had to do it on the phone, and I feel so ugly-American.
4. A giant red-tape mishap will seriously sidetrack at least one excursion, for sure.
5. I'll probably get wildly sick at some point too. Hopefully it won't ruin more than one weekend.
6. I'll probably have to spend more money than I'd like, on at least one occasion.
7. The food! I can't wait to try it. But it seems so heavy and not that healthy, especially in places like Germany. I may get in worse shape. However, pretty much as a rule, Europeans are in better shape than we are, so I may get in better shape. I'm no Lance Armstrong as it is.
8. Biking a long distance. I want to do it at least once. Koln is something like 40km; that'd be a nice warmup.
9. The classes. All this preparation for all the travel; I need to remember that I'm taking classes too! Hopefully, they won't be all too difficult, and hopefully, I'll learn something interesting (especially in the first half-semester)
10. Falling out of touch with people back home. I'll do my best not to!
11. Learning the language not as well as I'd like.
12. Learning the language better than I'd thought.
13. Having some of the best months of my life.
14. Not having some of the best months of my life.
15. Learning to appreciate beer. At least, I hope so. I'll have wasted my time if I come back and I still can't tell a Yuengling from a Pabst. (That's hyperbole, don't worry.)
And finally, 16. Things that I can't possibly be ready for; because I can't imagine what the hell is going to happen these next few months. This has been your inspirational-speech minute; feel free to go about your business now.
T minus 14 hours
You know what? Ram's right. Having two blogs is a waste of time for you and me. My family doesn't want to read a blog anyway- I don't think my parents are quite sure what a blog even is. And forget the extended family. It's postcards for them.
I'll pearoast (that is, repost) bits of the only other post I made, so to get you up to speed:
What's the story here? I'm studying at the Universiteit Maastricht, in Maastricht, the Netherlands this semester. It's here:
Here's my schedule:
Jan 16-Jan 22- arrive in Zurich, Switzerland. Take a train to St. Anton and ski in the Austrian Alps!
Jan 22-Feb 4- arrive in Maastricht, orientation
Feb 5-Apr 6- classes ("Logic for AI" and "Intelligent Systems")
Apr 6-Apr 16- break!
Apr 16-Jun 8- classes ("Comparative Philosophy of the Environment" and "Dutch Art History")
Jun 8-Jun 15- travel a bit, then come home.
Why this school? It has classes that I'm interested in (namely, those first two) taught in English. I don't know any other European languages well enough to take classes in them, besides maybe Spanish, and I didn't particularly want to go to Spain. I know a little German and a little Dutch.
Why study abroad at all? Why not? I feel like, if I didn't do it, I'd be missing out on one of the only opportunities I'd get to see another culture firsthand. I mean, not just spending a week touring through it, but actually living somewhere and getting to understand another world. Plus, the whole CMU thing was wearing thin. I need a break from the cement blocks of Wean Hall.
Okay. Now you know all the things you want to know, or at least the first few things you would have asked me. Now: where am I?
I'm mostly packed. I'm getting together the last final things, printing out forms, and where the flock are my sunglasses?! I swear, every time I get a pair that I like, I lose them immediately. Meanwhile, I've got a drawer full of old ones that I don't like. Want any old sunglasses? I will send you a pair. In June when I get back.
See, sunglasses are a very picky thing for me. I'd like some good sunglasses (not $10 drugstore sunglasses) that are polarized, durable, won't fall off my face, and look kind of neat (because, let's face it, if you are wearing cool sunglasses, you are a badass. I mean, even Keanu Reeves looks like he might possibly belong in that super-hip Matrix world when he wears sunglasses.) but I am not willing to pay anything in the $100 range because come on, they're just sunglasses. Look, some people can make these for $10, and you have the nerve to charge $100? What a scam. Anyway, I finally got a neat pair of Oakleys (remember when those were the biggest thing?) off misc.market for cheap (from Lux, no less) and now I go and lose them! This is the worst day of my life!
Anyway, sunglasses aside, I am almost ready to go. That is, of course, assuming I can get on the plane. Long story of red tape ahead, read at your own risk: I have a ticket to Zurich tomorrow, and leaving from Brussels in June. That's 5 months. If you go to Switzerland and stay longer than 3 months without a visa (which is illegal) the Swiss government will, among other things, fine the airline you flew in on. United Airlines (with whom I'm not thrilled, but I'm relatively content, and I'm actually earning a non-trivial amount of frequent flier miles) doesn't like fees, so they require you to have a visa if you're flying into Switzerland for more than 3 months. I am getting a Dutch visa, for which you have to apply in person (in the Netherlands).
This is an actual real life example of a Catch-22! I'm so proud! I thought those were only, you know, in books. However, it's also retarded, because I am leaving Switzerland within three hours. As soon as I arrive in Zurich, I am hopping on a train and going to St. Anton am Arlberg, Austria. I don't have a train ticket to prove that I'm leaving so quickly because you can't buy train tickets online unless it's at least 5 days in advance. I mean, I could have a customs agent escort me to the train station and watch me get on the train, if they really wanted. But the problem's not with Switzerland; it's with United, so the study abroad coordinator from the University of Maastricht and I have compiled a bunch of information to try to convince some clerk tomorrow that I actually am leaving Switzerland and they don't have to fear big Swiss fines.
Another dilemma: overseas flights always have the most perks. Movies, two aisles (I'm in a 767, the airplane with greatest chance of an aisle seat, and lo and behold, I have one), multiple meals, etc. However, this is the flight on which it is critical to sleep, because I'm leaving DC at something like 6PM, and then I will fly for 8 hours and it will be 8AM, and if I want to defeat Jet-lag Joe in a three-round staying-awake cage match, I darn well better sleep. Well. Life is full of dilemmas.
If you'd like another dilemma (or rather, interesting question, I guess), here's one: if a magical spirit came to you and said "You must choose:
A. You get your dream job (you don't even have to know what it is; I, the magical spirit, will find it for you) and you will love it. Every day, you will be thrilled to go to work, and when 5:00 (or 6:00 or whatever) hits, you will be sad to leave. Great co-workers, fulfilling challenges, a good chance to make a difference, the works. However, your salary will be $x, and you will only ever get raises to keep up with inflation.
B. You continue job searching as normal, but you will never find this particular dream job."
How low could you stand $x to be?
I personally don't know. First of all, I have no idea how much things cost. I'm hovering around $40,000. I think, if my future wife had a nice job, we could get a house in an area that isn't crime-ridden (or a condo in the city...), and maybe if we scrimped and saved, I could still ski sometimes. Of course, if I marry someone with a really nice job, then heck, it could be $0. Let's take future family out of the equation- assume that your spouse will make exactly enough that when you marry, your standard of living will not change. It's tricky. For me, I guess it comes down to: would I give up three of my favorite things (skiing, travel, and nice food) for a perfect job? Or do I just say, screw it, I'll find my second-best job eventually, and probably make a nice amount of money doing it?
Enough deep thinking for now; I should do some deep sleeping. Guten nacht, and I'll see you in Europe!
I'll pearoast (that is, repost) bits of the only other post I made, so to get you up to speed:
What's the story here? I'm studying at the Universiteit Maastricht, in Maastricht, the Netherlands this semester. It's here:
Here's my schedule:Jan 16-Jan 22- arrive in Zurich, Switzerland. Take a train to St. Anton and ski in the Austrian Alps!
Jan 22-Feb 4- arrive in Maastricht, orientation
Feb 5-Apr 6- classes ("Logic for AI" and "Intelligent Systems")
Apr 6-Apr 16- break!
Apr 16-Jun 8- classes ("Comparative Philosophy of the Environment" and "Dutch Art History")
Jun 8-Jun 15- travel a bit, then come home.
Why this school? It has classes that I'm interested in (namely, those first two) taught in English. I don't know any other European languages well enough to take classes in them, besides maybe Spanish, and I didn't particularly want to go to Spain. I know a little German and a little Dutch.
Why study abroad at all? Why not? I feel like, if I didn't do it, I'd be missing out on one of the only opportunities I'd get to see another culture firsthand. I mean, not just spending a week touring through it, but actually living somewhere and getting to understand another world. Plus, the whole CMU thing was wearing thin. I need a break from the cement blocks of Wean Hall.
Okay. Now you know all the things you want to know, or at least the first few things you would have asked me. Now: where am I?
I'm mostly packed. I'm getting together the last final things, printing out forms, and where the flock are my sunglasses?! I swear, every time I get a pair that I like, I lose them immediately. Meanwhile, I've got a drawer full of old ones that I don't like. Want any old sunglasses? I will send you a pair. In June when I get back.
See, sunglasses are a very picky thing for me. I'd like some good sunglasses (not $10 drugstore sunglasses) that are polarized, durable, won't fall off my face, and look kind of neat (because, let's face it, if you are wearing cool sunglasses, you are a badass. I mean, even Keanu Reeves looks like he might possibly belong in that super-hip Matrix world when he wears sunglasses.) but I am not willing to pay anything in the $100 range because come on, they're just sunglasses. Look, some people can make these for $10, and you have the nerve to charge $100? What a scam. Anyway, I finally got a neat pair of Oakleys (remember when those were the biggest thing?) off misc.market for cheap (from Lux, no less) and now I go and lose them! This is the worst day of my life!
Anyway, sunglasses aside, I am almost ready to go. That is, of course, assuming I can get on the plane. Long story of red tape ahead, read at your own risk: I have a ticket to Zurich tomorrow, and leaving from Brussels in June. That's 5 months. If you go to Switzerland and stay longer than 3 months without a visa (which is illegal) the Swiss government will, among other things, fine the airline you flew in on. United Airlines (with whom I'm not thrilled, but I'm relatively content, and I'm actually earning a non-trivial amount of frequent flier miles) doesn't like fees, so they require you to have a visa if you're flying into Switzerland for more than 3 months. I am getting a Dutch visa, for which you have to apply in person (in the Netherlands).
This is an actual real life example of a Catch-22! I'm so proud! I thought those were only, you know, in books. However, it's also retarded, because I am leaving Switzerland within three hours. As soon as I arrive in Zurich, I am hopping on a train and going to St. Anton am Arlberg, Austria. I don't have a train ticket to prove that I'm leaving so quickly because you can't buy train tickets online unless it's at least 5 days in advance. I mean, I could have a customs agent escort me to the train station and watch me get on the train, if they really wanted. But the problem's not with Switzerland; it's with United, so the study abroad coordinator from the University of Maastricht and I have compiled a bunch of information to try to convince some clerk tomorrow that I actually am leaving Switzerland and they don't have to fear big Swiss fines.
Another dilemma: overseas flights always have the most perks. Movies, two aisles (I'm in a 767, the airplane with greatest chance of an aisle seat, and lo and behold, I have one), multiple meals, etc. However, this is the flight on which it is critical to sleep, because I'm leaving DC at something like 6PM, and then I will fly for 8 hours and it will be 8AM, and if I want to defeat Jet-lag Joe in a three-round staying-awake cage match, I darn well better sleep. Well. Life is full of dilemmas.
If you'd like another dilemma (or rather, interesting question, I guess), here's one: if a magical spirit came to you and said "You must choose:
A. You get your dream job (you don't even have to know what it is; I, the magical spirit, will find it for you) and you will love it. Every day, you will be thrilled to go to work, and when 5:00 (or 6:00 or whatever) hits, you will be sad to leave. Great co-workers, fulfilling challenges, a good chance to make a difference, the works. However, your salary will be $x, and you will only ever get raises to keep up with inflation.
B. You continue job searching as normal, but you will never find this particular dream job."
How low could you stand $x to be?
I personally don't know. First of all, I have no idea how much things cost. I'm hovering around $40,000. I think, if my future wife had a nice job, we could get a house in an area that isn't crime-ridden (or a condo in the city...), and maybe if we scrimped and saved, I could still ski sometimes. Of course, if I marry someone with a really nice job, then heck, it could be $0. Let's take future family out of the equation- assume that your spouse will make exactly enough that when you marry, your standard of living will not change. It's tricky. For me, I guess it comes down to: would I give up three of my favorite things (skiing, travel, and nice food) for a perfect job? Or do I just say, screw it, I'll find my second-best job eventually, and probably make a nice amount of money doing it?
Enough deep thinking for now; I should do some deep sleeping. Guten nacht, and I'll see you in Europe!
Hey, you know the Columbia clothes and outdoor stuff company...
and you know outsourcing, right, where everyone sends their clothes to be made in poor third-world nations. Well, guess where Columbia outsources their clothing?
Colombia.
Duh.
Well, I thought it was a funny coincidence, anyway. Hey, I'm leaving tomorrow!
Colombia.
Duh.
Well, I thought it was a funny coincidence, anyway. Hey, I'm leaving tomorrow!
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