Update…

So I got a user name today… so cool…. “ashbens”  nice eh?  Well, I can now use internet on campus, but I can’t use it in my dorm until Tuesday 

Whatever shall I do….  *sigh*  I can’t believe how long it takes to get a bloody internet connection around here!  Almost 3 weeks in Germany without a bloody connection.  How’d'ya like that?

On the plus side, I should get a cell phone tomorrow.  So excited.  It only cost me 10€ for the phone.  Can’t beat that with a stick!

We’re going to Weimar in November… so I thought maybe I should figure out where I want to go and start getting around the area.  Maybe this weekend I’ll go to Frankfurt or something.  Got all my classes figured out, I guess.  Apparently I’m really low on how many hours per week.  I have 6 for my official classes… Fang Shi has , and Will said he has more than that.  Gosh.  I’m going to audit a few courses though, so my time sitting in a lecture hall will be comparable with Fang Shi’s.  Here’s what I’m going to learn:  (all the links open in new windows, btw.)

Introduction to Pali
Introduction to Akkadian
Dutch for Beginners
Luxemburgish: Structure and History
Introduction to Descriptive Linguistics
Linguistics Focus 4: Semantics
Introduction to Historical Linguistics
Classical Texts in Linguistics  (and auf deutsch!!!!!!!!)
Descriptive Grammar  (for more information on this topic, see Linguistic Prescription)

The best part is that I don’t have classes before 10… each is only 1.5 hours long (per week!)… and I don’t have class on Monday or Tuesday!  So total hours for credit: 6/week.  Total hours, inc. audits: 13.5  Which is actually nothing to me, as I’m not working like I normally do, and I normally had 13 hours of class between two Midd classes.  Heck, sophomore year, in the fall…. I had 23 (not including language table) and I was still working almost 20 hours a week.  So this is nothing.  No sweat.  Also, I have friends taking these same courses.  (Well, some of them.)

Needless to say, for the first time in a few years, I am actually coming out of my skin because I’m so excited about classes.

Also, I have to choose my Midd courses for spring soon (Nov. something or other)

So until then… I’m going to continue my quest to rearange all of my harddrive and make everything in my life organized…. do you think I can do it???  We’re certainly gunna try.

Alright ich gehe.

xxbisousxx

Ring… ring… ring… hallo?

So… it’s been longer than I’ve hoped.  I have unfortunately been without internet for such a long time, and we’re hoping to get it on Friday.  No promises.  I can’t believe I’ve lived for almost a month without regular internet.  grrr… Well, really, what does one do for two weeks without internet, without their “studiticket” (aka free public transportation click hier http://www.mvg-mainz.de/studiticket.html#c719 to see the entire region we get free public transport; rail, bus, underground/metro.)  The tram also doesn’t work by my dorm (wohnheim) so it’s a long drawn-out process to get home and to uni.  What else sucks?

I have to cook every day… and I don’t have an oven, only a stove top… and no freezer, either.  I also have a rather *clean* roomie… and I must say, she even puts my brother to shame.  She has given us (Carolin and me) “Putzwoche” or cleaning weeks.  So then I have to like wash the sink and the toilet every day…. ????  I’m like… no.  The thing is, I’m all for being clean, but we are all clean people to begin with, so it’s like cleaning up after Charlotte in Sex in the City.  …It doesn’t need to happen.  And EVERY DAY!?  I mean, what goes in the sink…. water and SOAP!  Golly!  So I’m doing it when it looks bad.  Otherwise, not a chance.  I already mopped the floor for the week and scrubbed the shower.  I cook in Fang Shi’s suite mostly… because then we can share pans and stuff, and it’s some company… and also I don’t have to listen to Döna.  She’s got waaaay too many rules for my liking.  (Döna is a Turkish German, btw)  Caroline is Bavarian.

I have some posts that will come up (in the past) once I get internet.  I’ve written them with Microsoft Live Writer, offline.  It’s actually a pretty sweeeeeet program.  I have to say. Kudos MS, you’re coming into the new decade.  (or perhaps the old one now….)  I haven’t taken pictures of Mainz yet… you know how that is, right?  It’s like “I have all the time in the world….”

I also found my Primark counterpart, only in Euros instead of Pounds It’s called “Only You”  Really cute clothes, and really cheap.  Which is super great!  I can’t wait to replace, finally… my 8th grade wardrobe (which I’m wearing today, actually…)

So I’m infatuated right now with Phil Collins.  I have to say.  I didn’t know this, but apparently he sings the Tarzan soundtrack (which is FABULOUS) in FRENCH, SPANISH, ITALIAN, AND GERMAN!!!!  HIS VOICE !!!!!  SOOOO SCHÖN!  Gahhhh!

It’s funny though to hear him sing French… hahahaha… not a natural but French is hard.  I think people don’t give French proper credit.  I think it’s by far the hardest language to converse in like a native… (out of IE languages… anyways…)  German isn’t so hard, unless you count Swiss and Austrian… but normal “Hochdeutsch” is nothing.  Try listening  to a French lecture and your mind goes to mush!  I have to admit too, that reading the Spanish lyrics make me want to learn Spanish again… I remember a surpising bit.  I think it’s because I learned it so young… you know?

I really wish I had been able to capitalize on my desire to learn language much sooner.  It’s too bad my critical period is long since over.  Maybe we can get past that though.

I’m going to be studying like crazy here.  I don’t know what else to do.  I feel so excited and filled with anticipation.  I heard my professors are *really* nice.  I hope that’s true.  I’m going to work really hard this semester.  I know I say that every semester… but I really have no friends now to distract me   But seriously, it’s so much easier to be excited when every day, you live what you learn.  You know?  How do you learn biology in 6th grade so that you can be a doctor in 20 years?  It’s really hard for most people.  But when you’re in a hospital in an internship position… you want to learn… you want to be smart.  Yeah?

I’m also looking at learning some programming languages.  I figure it’s a possible valuable asset to my life.  We’ll see though.  Programming languages are not like normal languages.  They’re actually slightly detestable and icky.  They’re just unnatural, I guess.

So we’ll see how far I go with that.  I guess I’m going to go now, because it’s already dark out, and it can be a bit scary in the big dark city.  For more info on Mainz, please see here.  (all my links open in new windows)

If you have skype, let me know… I’d love to talk to everyone…. !

Much love, and I miss everyone…. *sigh*

xxbisousxx

All in the Family

If you had known me as a child, you may remember that I never showed a single moment where I was afraid, or even the slightest bit nervous about leaving my family.  Camp?  Of course!  It’s a week long, without mom?  Even better!  Seriously, I was just 8 years old when I first went away to camp, and here I am, 13 years later… and I just can’t handle it very well.

Now I know that it makes a difference that my dorm is mostly empty, I have only 1-2 friends in the entire country, and I don’t do anything on a regular basis, except watch movies… but the idleness, which is far from idyllic, gives me the sense that the most important things in a person’s life are the ones that make the strongest impression on him.  And in the example of my childhood, it wasn’t that I thought my family was disposable, quite the contrary.  I guess in my naive little world, I didn’t think I would ever lose my family, so what’s the harm of a week here, a week there… and then later a few months here, a few months there.

It’s really quite easy to forget the role a family plays.  Especially the way friends are treated these days, what’s the need for family, when you have friends?  But really, I think that few friends can replace a family.  When I sit in my room at 1:30 am (like now)  I don’t really think of all of my friends (we’re pretending that I have several, ok?)  But I do think of my family…. I remember how much I adore having my own room and not sharing with my sister (yes, really… you have no idea!)  And every time Fang Shi calls me fat (which is actually quite often…) I can’t help but think of my brother…

And walking around England…. all I could think of was:  I wish mom and gramma were here…. oh how fun it’d be!  Indeed Germany is the Fatherland, and I’m living in the same state as our family lived 150 years ago (Rhineland-Pfalz).  Indeed, family lives on forever… because the love is built into the relationship.  The closeness is a given, and it (in the better cases, anyways…) nurses and feeds those involved, helping the happiness to blossom.

–Absence is to love, as wind is to fire, it extinguishes the small, and enkindles the great.–

xxbisousxx

Einsam in Mainz

For those familiar with the task of learning a foreign language, you will understand this small exercise, and please bear with me.  But for the rest, you may be surprised to learn that the best way of learning a language is often to not give definitions of foreign words, but rather to describe them.  Sounds crazy, but when you think about it, when was the last time you heard a definition of a table?  How then, did you ever learn what a table was?  So here, I am, not Sleepless in Seattle, but rather, Einsam in Mainz.

Now you’re wondering, surely, what does einsam mean?  So here is our exercise for the day–  I’ll describe, and you can learn a new German word!  It’s pronounced, “Ein” as in Einstein… “sam” is like “zombie”… so there you go.  Einsam.  Picture this:

Saturday night: 2:36 am, you just got back from your friend’s room.  He is one of only five people you know exist in this city.  Only one of two that you know where they live…. and the only one worth hanging out with.  After cooking yourself garlic-soy sauce peppers and pork, plus a few boiled potatoes (yes really)… you enjoyed a wonderful marathon of the Fifth Season of Sex and the City.

After watching Carrie Bradshaw for about 4 hours, you realized a lot about yourself… and especially what’s going on right now.  The whole season is about Carrie being Einsam.  Well, she also relates this to not having sex, which isn’t a problem for me/you… but the idea of being einsam…. yes, I/you feel that.

So after the fine fifth season, you return to your room, after being heavily criticized by your friend (he does this a lot… kind of like my/your brother).  Interestingly, you reflect that also in the fifth season, Carrie was talking about how people often hold on dearly to that worst review that they get, and yet good reviews get thrown away as if they shouldn’t count.  That’s how I/you feel too, Carrie.

Feeling slightly devastated about the lack of people to talk to, lack of internet in your dorm, lack of connection to life in general, as you don’t even have a phone… you return to your room to get all of this craziness out of your system.  Remembering that Sunday is the day of God, and that all is closed here in Mainz on a Sunday… you feel no reason to not open the bottle of 3 euro wine in your fridge.  Until you notice the cork.  Your worst nightmare.  You hate corks… hate hate hate hate them…. but all is well, no harm done, and you now have Riesling (trocken) next to your bed.  It’s a local wine.  Rhine Wine   You’re playing Céline Dion because you’re hoping that it will help you let go of being so einsam.  Perhaps you should listen to Solitudine by Laura Pausini instead.  Last time you listened to that music was when you were in France… hmmm… fitting?

It’s really hard to imagine how einsam one can be.  Perhaps I just need more time to fit in.  The girl next door to me is so skiddish… she doesn’t socialize much?

I feel trapped.  It’s as if my room is now confining… defining? my life.  I just don’t know how to be happy here at the moment.  It’s not culture shock either–condom and cigarette machines instead of coke machines are none too surprising anymore.  It’s just that unlike Carrie Bradshaw, I have no one.  No girl friends… no one.  Totally einsam.  Fang Shi is very much like my brother… only… he doesn’t know exactly enough about my life to make appropriate criticisms.  I also find that I’m not too forgiving on some aspects of my raising.  Some things I learned from my family, are just very… obvious to me, and I can’t stand it when others are so oblivious to these things… like bagging groceries, for example… don’t put detergent, meat, and eggs in the same bag!  I just freak out, and I don’t know what to do.  Especially when in public.  I don’t want to be typified… I am not the stereotype, and I refuse to be.

I’m also sick of intellectual arrogance.  Who cares about the capital of Hungary???  Not me.  Unless I’m going there, does it matter?  Education is not always the best thing for the mind.  In my opinion, it is the domestication of humans.  It eradicates the enemy–spontaneity… creativity…  these things will one day be a dream.  Or perhaps it’s as Abraham Lincoln once said, “I never let schooling get in the way of my education.”  Indeed.

At any rate, Einsam in Mainz is going to sign off, despite not being on a radio broadcast.  She just wanted to let you know, that city life isn’t as exciting as country life–you depend too much on other people.  Yeah.  Goodnight Mainz.  Chit de, U YNO

xxbisousxx

Picture Perfect?

 

Just to let y’all know… I’ve posted 65% of my photos… Scotland is about all that’s left…  Use the webshots link on my site to see them all… there are *heaps*  (as the English say…!)  This one was taken in Greenwich… and as you can see, we had gorgeous weather.Well, I have a great day in Glasgow ahead of me, so I best be off and until the next time that I can post (which is hopefully tomorrow night on the train back to Nottingham!)  Btw, my calendar should be updated… so if you’re wondering what’s coming next… stay tuned!

Cheerio, and

xxbisousxx

Lost in Scotland?

Hey all– just wanted to update everyone… I will post my regular postings perhaps tonight, but for the meantime, just wanted to let you know that I’m in Edinburgh for the day and then on to Glasgow!

Pictures and all coming soon (promise!)  I just already have about 800… so it’s hard to get them all up in a coffee shop with Fang Shi rushing me….  until then!

lots of love…

xxbisousxx

Palaces, Gardens, and Bridges, oh my!

<— Buckingham Palace gates, from a different view.  There was no changing of the guard today, it was canceled because of the rain. :’(  Oh well.  We saw some other good stuff.  Check my Buckingham Palace Photos and the Gardens for more on what we did today. I’m working on a map of our route throughout the city, but there were many highlights… mostly historic/currently important buildings. We saw the palace (outside only), gardens, and then went over to Westminster Abbey/Houses of Parliament… went on the Strand (which means “Beach” in German!)  We found the original establishment of the Twinings company!!!  Woo hoooo!  Ashley bought lots of tea!  Soooo good, English tea is.  You think tea is ok or even good in the US?  You know nothing of tea.  Really.  And I have a picture of it here: Pretty nice, right?  So good.  My favorite:  Lapsang Souchong.  YUM.  Lady Grey is also remarkable, and I bought a ton of that (100 bags!)  I fell in love with the architecture, that’s for sure, but the prices to see the inside of a building are outrageous!  I mean seriously, to pay $44 for me to go into the Tower of London is just disgusting.  I mean it is only 22£, but I can’t pay that, with my money coming out of USD.  So we didn’t really go into anything.  We just had a look at the outside.  Not a bad bill.  And we did go into the front area of St. Paul’s Cathedral… just not too far inside.  Typical Cathedral.  Beautiful.  But nothing worth 10£.  So then we got down to the Tower and we took a nice little cruise back up to Waterloo.  The cruise was nice, cuz we got a break, and it was quick transit with a great view.  So we got to Waterloo, and there was the London Eye.  And so, even though it was 15£, we thought, hey, we haven’t done anything else, let’s just do this one thing.  So we go up the London Eye at night, got some WONDERFUL pictures… check that album out too!  They are actually from Fang Shi, but that’s ok… the point is that the view was BEAUTIFUL! We got back a bit late, but we were awaiting good Chinese cooking.  Guo Rui’s friends from Wuhan (yes there were like 5 Wuhan boys all in the same room… gahh!)  were cooking some food for a late dinner.  It was great   We had a good night, and a bit of Strongbow So what’s tomorrow…. ??  GREENWICH!  And then onto Nottingham

 

Here’s a bit of our route for you to see:

We went from the Palace on the left (see “The Mall”?)  And down to Birdcage Walk to see where we were at (because the traffic signs are on the sides of buildings, making it difficult to know where you are in the middle of a road!).  So then we went into the gardens, and took the path near the pond.  Then at the end of the rode, we go down King Charles St., and then… (next shot!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So see birdcage walk is right over here—>

We took that all the way to the right (now cut off, and came down past the houses of Parliament, which you can see by the river Thames.  Across the road, there’s Westminster Abbey, just “south” of the A Marker.  The name of the road is Abingdon St.  The name is for some reason cut off.  We then went down to the Victoria Tower Gardens and looked out a bit onto the Thames.  Check my London album for the Lambeth Rd Bridge… and some “Little Gulls” !

Pretty good, I think.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  So here, we have us coming up “Whitehall Parliament St.” down at the bottom by Westminster Underground… then at the “roundabout” or traffic circle… go up the Strand, and past Charing Cross, quite a ways.  Once you hit Fleet St, that’s the area that the Twinings is in.  Such a nice surprise!

We walked quite a bit, eh?  We’re not done yet.  Check out the “Jubilee Gardens” at the bottom of the river though.  To the left is the London Eye.  Pictures should be in the London Album.  So we still haven’t gotten to the Tower Bridge… see the next map!

 

 

 

Ok so right here——->

There’s Fleet St., and then we take that down Ludgate Hill, and Cannon St.  There’s St. Paul’s, and then straight over to Cannon St.  The area marked as “Tower Hill” was our observation point for the Tower of London, which is over the Thames, on the bottom right corner.  We didn’t get any closer.  The boats over there was a great place to get back over to Waterloo.  That was a 7 mile walk!!!  We didn’t want to do that back… so that was good enough for us.

Ok enough photos, yeah?

 

Bis dann

xxbisousxx

Lifts, Loos, and IRN BRU!

Ahhh culture shock!  It’s been kinda hard for me to adjust to some of it… I’ll detail it in my podcast… I have a lot to say!  I have some pictures too!  Yay!  And a couple videos of the ungodly traffic.

I don’t really know how I feel about London, really.  We’ve not done a whole lot, but I’ve gone through quite a bit of cash… oh $24 on “Tube” already… it’s just terrible.  Grr… I’ve also beat Jetlag   I’m so awesome.  We got here at about 10 am, and I didn’t go to bed until 1 am!  Gahhhhh!  I’m so awesome.. 2 hrs sleep in like 24 hrs  (rough estimate, that’s way too much time to calculate!)  I was feeling really, really sleepy… and so sick of KFC (which they seemingly adore here… despite the lack of mashed potatoes and mac ‘n cheese!)  So I went out with Fang Shi’s friend (his name is Guo Rui)  He’s also from Wuhan… though he speaks REMARKABLY clear Mandarin.  We went downtown to a couple pubs…. Fang Shi, uhm… slept.

So Guo Rui, me, and his Estonian friend (Mark) went to the University Pub… and we met a bunch of people, including this Italian bird (yes that’s very Austin Powers…) that I hit it off with quite well.  She wants to see me again before I leave.  She’s cute… flirty as can be!  There was quite an international hub, as Guo Rui has tons of European friends.  I met a Chinese-Italian guy, a British guy, the Estonian and Italian… plus a few other people I can’t quite remember.  (not because I was drunk, btw.)

The British guy actually was just in America, and did like practically the same thing as my good Aussie ‘mate’, Mike.  Weird.  So we had lots of fun.

Guo Rui bought me a bottle of Cider… such a nice guy… gives me a floor, blankets, and 500 ml of Cider.    Yay!  (Good thing I know people who know people!)

Today we went around a bit, got some bearing on the place.  Saw the British Museum… golly Fang Shi does not like museums.  It was a lot to be sure.  We saw the Rosetta Stone!  Yay!  It was really hard to take pictures because of the glass/lighting.

We walked a little bit around… found a place to eat fish and chips… it was breaded though, so just ok.  Not the ‘traditional’ sense that I was looking for.  Uhm… overall for my first day in London it was nice, but I was more shocked by the general flow of traffic than anything else.  Hopefully I’ll get a bit more into it though.  Had IRN BRU today by the way… peculiar stuff.  It’s o’right.  Reminds me of something we’ve got in the states, but I can’t put my finger on it… hmmm…

Well, tomorrow is more of historic London… so I’ll keep you posted!  (by the way, not jet lag for me!)

xxbisousxx

Leavin’ On a Jet Plane

So we’re on our way down to JFK…  We’re flying Jet Blue, which features Blue Chips and I Love Lucy.  Everything seems to be going according to plan.  Our flight was actually early, and so we’re very much “on time.”  We have like eight hours or so in JFK, so Fang Shi and I are going to be going down to China Town, I guess.  We’re kinda hungry already.  Our flight doesn’t leave until 9:30, so it’s a good amount of time to kill.  What’s really sweeet about Jet Blue is that they even provide FREE Mascara.  Uhhh yeah.  Hahahaha… “Great Lash” Mascara from Maybelline.  Sweet.  Fang Shi took some too… lucky me.  Hmm… so!

Our general plans at this point are as follows:

Monday, 22 – Thursday, 25: London
Friday, 26 – Nottingham  (Linh and Cong2!!)
Saturday, 27 – Highlands tour of Scotland (Loch Lomond + Stirling Castle!!)
Sunday, 28 – Edinburgh
Monday, 29 – Glasgow
Tuesday, 30 – Nottingham/Cambridge  (Yay, Linh and Cong2 again!)
Wednesday, 1 – Cambridge
Thursday, 2 – Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt, Germany!!

 

Jet Blue is also offering wifi on the plane…. o_O pretty sweet… eh?  They make you watch some ad, and then you’re good to go.  Why fly any other way than Jet Blue?  Well, it’s a bit limited right now… but that’s ok.  I got XM radio and Tv tooo…

I might update with more info tonight, but I think we’re going to descend shortly… so we’ll try to get this out into cyberspace.

 

xxbisousxx