Day 9 - Dresden/Dusseldorf/New York City/New Jersey

It's been a whirlwind of a day! Well, well, well...I'm back stateside again. Currently in New Jersey. The day of travelling went rather smoothly. I was sort of grumpy in the morning from lack of sleep and lack of food. I didn't eat until I was in Dusseldorf. In which, I had a reinersnitzel (spelling?!). It was pretty decent food for an airport. I'm really going to miss the high quality of food that Germany has as a standard.

I made it through like 10 levels of customs security and flew away toward the US. I had a window seat this time and caught a spectacular view of London during the trip. That place is huge!

The flight was 7 1/2 hours. Not too bad, but long enough to make your legs hurt. I don't do well with seats that aren't on the aisle.

I flew into JFK airport and took the subway all the way to Hoboken (Jersey City). Then I hopped on a cab to my hotel. I was very releaved to be done with the commuting but wouldn't allow myself to sleep. I wanted to get this jet lag taken care of quickly. It's a lot easier coming this way than going that way. If you can undertand that one.

So I called up my friend Buz who had just moved to Uptown New York from Bloomington. We met up at Madison Square Garden and hung out in the east and west village. Pretty much pub crawling. The NY scene is pretty exhausting from everything going on, but the places we went to were real cool. Lots of very cool and nice people. Lots of awesome pubs.

Well, we stayed out until like 4:30am and I didn't get back to my hotel until at least 5:30am. I had to catch a path train and taxi.

OH YEAH. forgot to talk about near-death-experience chapter two. Why is it that I almost die everytime i'm in Jersey? So when I was planning on going to go meet Buz, I didn't know how I would get over to New York (you have to cross a bay and such). I didn't have the extra money for a cab because they're really expensive. So what do i do? I bet you could guess....I DECIDE TO WALK AGAIN! I'm not sure why I put myself through these situations, but I guess that's just me. So I knew that I could probably find a bus that ran through the Lincoln Tunnel if I walked toward the water for about a mile from my hotel. The only problem is that the only way to get where i wanted to go was via freeway. So I start walking on the side of this freeway (on the shoulder) and find myself on this bridge that has no shoulder over a river delta type thing. cars were flying by me just feet from slamming me into oblivion. It was very scary, but you know what? I got to Madison square garden for $2.30. HA! That's unheard of.

So anyways, I only got a couple hours of sleep last night and I'm drained. I'm actually in the Newark airport writing this waiting for my flight to Seattle. I got to the airport about 6 hours early because I had to check out of my hotel at 11 and I had nowhere else to go. NYC would have been too expensive and I would have had to haul my luggage everywhere..

It's all good though. I'm going through the normal motions. Itunes, Cinnabons, Cooking Light mags, and coffee. The terminal is packed because the airtraffic is heavy. I can't wait to get back and relax.

This travel blog has been a really positive experience for me. It's nice to go back and remind myself of all the things i've done. I really could have written a lot more, but some things are better explained vocally. I apologize in advance if for the next few weeks all my rants involve "Germany this" or "Germany that". It was an amazing trip that I'll remember forever. I can't wait to come back.

br

Day 8 - Germany, Land of acute angles

Actually writing this entry from the plane en route to new york city. Which means I'm yet again a day behind in my blogging.

Well, the morning began with me sleeping in later than I meant to. Of all the days I choose to accidently sleep in, it's the day that I have to present. All went well though. I woke up exactly one hour before my presentation time, so I was a little groggy at the beginning of the session.

When it was my turn to present I suddenly woke up all the way and gave my short yet precise 3 minute speech. Seems short, eh? Well, the type of session I was scheduled for is called a "high density" session. It's where there are 7 presentations followed by about 30-40 minutes of poster mingling. Pretty much the speech is the sales pitch to get people to your poster. The scheduled day/time of my presentation was pretty inconvenient for two reasons. One being that it was the last day (and i think the last hour?) of the entire conference so most people already went home. And secondly, it was the morning after all of the open bar receptions. Lots of people looked like they had lots of fun the night before. Given these conditions, the turnout was actually pretty decent compared to other conferences.

After the session I did a little celebratory dance and went back to my hotel to change into something more comfortable to go sight-seeing in. One hour later I was back on the streets looking at old things. I actually was supposed to meet up at this museum with a couple colleagues but they never showed. It's all good though because I felt like having a little alone time in the city. I had a pretty decent lunch and bought a couple things. I got tired pretty quickly. Not used to so much consistent exercise (not to mention intense heat). I think i'm going to die when I get back to the midwest summer...

As I was walking back to find a taxi I decided to go to this really old museum. It's actually in the building with the elaborate courtyard i blogged about a few days back. It held quite a bit of German Renaissance paintings. Usually not my cup of tea, but hey, when you're in the place they were painted it's always good to check them out! I actually had a really decent desert at the museum cafe. I had a strawberry cake that was surprisingly light and not too sweet for my tastes. This was accompanied by a cup of coffee (of course). Here's a pic of my snack:


Oh yeah, forgot to mention that Mozart himself was performing outside of the museum. Ha, I wish. But this guy was the next closest person.

He was shredding!

It's kind of funny. I bought some relatively inexpensive things and checked my bag at the coat check. When I left I totally forgot about them and took a cab back to my hotel. Once I realized I returned back to the museum only to find it closed. I asked when it would reopen the next day and they said 10am. That would be ok if I wasn't scheduled to fly away at 9:45am. No biggie. Only lost a couple small things. I still have this piece of metal with the number "71" on it that the coat checker gave me. Someday i'll have to return and pick up my goods!

So back to my hotel which is where I remained for the rest of the evening. I really needed some rest and to pack. There were clothes scattered all over my hotel room floor.

I finally fell asleep around midnight and that was that.

Hope all is well back home! only a couple more days until I see everyone. And only 3 days until I see a very special someone :) not that you all aren't special, but it's just been a long long time.

<3, br

Day 7 - Germany, Land of Germans


So, I know this is way late. it was a really busy day. Details as follows:

I woke up at 7:30am and couldn't force myself back asleep. I didn't feel like going over to the conference really early because I knew I would be there all day anyway. So I lounged around my hotel room for a good 3-4 hours. I then made my way over to the conference centre via taxi. The taxis here are awesome. They're all either mercedes benz or volkswagon. They drive pretty crazy usually, but that's uniform across all of Dresden, as it seems. You wouldn't believe how close they drive to each other here. Inches. Centimeters.

So I met up with James and Phil at the centre for lunch. Can't remember if i've talked about this in a previous post, but this conference is pretty cool because you get free lunches on site. And they're pretty good too!

After lunch was the big poster session. Each year there's an hour or so dedicated to a huge poster display in which about 150-200 people create posters for projects they've done and display them. It gives attendees the opportunity to be exposed to work they normally wouldn't and for the poster presenters to talk about their work with other scholars. We had four posters from IU in the session (two from the lab). Here's a couple pics:


Here's James displaying his poster. He looks really happy to be in a cramped space among 300 or so people. It was hot as hell.


Here's Seungjo standing in front of his poster. Seungjo won the top student paper award for the Information Systems division this year with a paper, co-authored by Byungho Park, about pop-up advertising. Congrats!


Here's an overhead shot of the posters. I was actually pretty irritated at this point because right beforehand I went to get some coffee and they had just ran out. If you know me, then you know that's not a good thing.

So at some point later in the day I got to go inside the huge church in the centre of town. This thing was amazing. Kodak and commentary:


This picture really doesn't do any justice. It's really huge and beautiful. The sculptures were amazing.


There was gold all over the place in the church. It would be weird to regularly attend that place.

After a surprisingly smooth business Information Systems business meeting everyone crossed the river toward the InfoSys reception. We had a great time at this and drank lots of beer. There was also consumption of sausages for free. FREE. Everyone then decided to walk back over to the conference hotel and attend the Michigan State party (there's an open bar at this place as well, of course). On the way these were taken:


You can tell some had more to drink than others ;) From left to right: James Watt (?), Makana Chock (Syracuse), Gayle Nandorf (IU), Michael Shapiro (Cornell), Annie Lang (my advisor, IU), Me (I look like a big dork in this photo. yes yes yes..i cut my hair), James Angelini (IU), Phil LeSourd (IU, sorry if i spelled your last name incorectly!), and Julie Fox (on my committee, IU).


Here's an ok pic of the beautiful sunset with the conference centre on the left-hand side.

So the MSU party was fun, but I didn't win a door prize. But I got free German beer, which is always a good thing. After this I walked over to the Graduate Student reception with my friend Vanessa Vega from Stanford. It was pretty fun, but I think I might have made an ass out of myself while talking to a few grad students about the philosophy of science. It's not my fault i'm opinionated! Sorry if i hurt anyone's feelings! Well, not really ;)

Around 2:30am i decided it was time to call it a night. I knew I had a presentation bright and early the next morning. What a great night to decide to party!

That's about it for my Day 7. I apologize for the lack of description in this post. I'm really tired.

br

Day 6 - Germany, Land of no water

So again I'm late on my updates. It's just that I get home and pretty much fall asleep instantly from a very tiring day. So my apologies again.

Quick thing about the title of this post. Can't remember if I've mentioned this before, but it is nearly impossible to find water in Dresden (or most of Eastern Germany from what I'm told). I guess they're at a real shortage and conserve like crazy. There are no drinking fountains. When you go to a restaurant you aren't given water; rather, you must buy it. etc etc. Kind of sucks because it is SO HOT here.

So this post might not be as interesting as the others (assuming the others have been of marginal interest). I didn't do much in the form of sightseeing or new adventures yesterday. Actually spent the bulk of my day at the conference centre seeing presentations and mingling. It just seemed like yesterday was the one day that every conference has where there are interesting things back to back all day.

On an interesting/related note. Remember how i said it was really, really hot? well, some of the conference rooms are even hotter. I was attending this one panel in which my undergrad advisor was presenting. It had to be at least 95-100 degrees in the small room, literally. There were also about 30 people crammed in. Some were even sitting on the floor. The session was an hour and 15 minutes. I lasted abot 1 hour and 5 minutes. That's when i started to feel lightheaded and almost passed out. I quickly excused myself from the room and had to spend an hour rehydrating myself. I felt miserable. Funny thing is that I was actually consuming tons of water/orange juice all day too. It's just an uphill battle and I lost. Sun 1 - Brian - 0.

So at the end of the conference day, my advisor, Annie Lang, was officially named Fellow of ICA. It's a real prestigious appointment, which meant it was time to celebrate. Annie took a big group of us, students and faculty from around the country alike, out to dinner. The only place we could find that had enough seating for our group was this German-style steak house. It was on this really cool street that had lights criss-crossing overhead. I believe the name of the place was Applaus. Here's a pic of us at dinner:



After dinner we headed back to the hotel bar in which we had a nightcap. This was the first time I was able to be awake at night in Dresden which allotted me the opportunity to see the buildings all lit up. Quite spectacular. Pics and commentary, of course:


This didn't come out quite as I had wished in the photo, but this is the sillouhette (spelling?) of one of the main buildings downtown. I thought all of the headpiece sculptures across the balcony looked really cool in the shadows.


I love this picture. It's of the palace downtown that was built for the first person to rule Dresden. Can't remember if it was a prince, mayor, or famous ruler. The lights make it look really beautiful.


I love the colours in this one. the lights shining up on the top level of this building created a divine blue and the lighting outside was perfect for photos. No flash, baby.


This is the same building, but further back. A magnificent prospect, indeed. I wish it was this kind of lighting all day. I could have stood there for hours, but my group was anxious to get back.

So we got back to their hotel and sat down for a couple rounds and joked about vulgar things. You know, the usual conversation you have with your advising committee (blank stare....).

It was time for me to return home so I made the long walk back to my hotel and pretty much fell asleep instantly.

Oh! remember how I said I accidently deleted some pics yesterday? Guess who found them! Here's a couple that I wanted to share:


I liked this building because of the use of different types of bricks. Kind of reminds me of my cat, lizzy. The light coloured bricks are actually new bricks used to replace bad ones from the firebombings. This building is one of the many reconstructed. The dark bricks are the old ones. They're dark from all of the fires during the bombings.


I just thought this sign was funny. You don't see many US businesses here.


I'm so glad I didn't lose the pics I took of this grafitti art. This was an excellent collection of well done stuff. Wanted to share it with you all.

Anyways, I've got to think about starting the day here. Hope all is well stateside. I only have about 2 1/2 days left here so I plan on making them eventful.

Till tomorrow,

br

Day 5 - Germany, land of dyed red hair


I feel really bad about not updating my blog last night. I got home and pretty much fell right asleep. So here's how my Day 5 went.

My jet lag is slowly working itself out. I woke up at 4 am in the morning, which isn't too bad, really. So I killed time by watching the special features on Dave Chapelle's block party and a few episodes of arrested development season 3. All funny stuff.

So I go through my normal morning routine. shower, shave, and go to mcdonalds for some breakfast across the street. Let me just say this right now...

Everyone says, "oh all germans now how to speak english. it's really no problem." This is SO not true on some days. This day was one of those.

I get to mcdonalds and the person doesn't speak english so i end up getting double of what i don't order. I mean, i'm not TO'd or anything about it. After all, I'm the one not speaking the native language. So I eat my huge portion of food, orange juice, and coffee. I then head on over to the old part of town for some sight seeing.

I mainly spent my time at that courtyard in the middle of that museum i was writing about a couple days back. This place was magnificent! It was huge and full of sculpture. Here are some pics and commentary:


This courtyard was huge. This is looking from one end to another.


Another view from another angle.


This was an amazing mini-courtyard in the building. They have concerts in this little nook that's accompanied by this superb fountain. The sound of it was amazing.


This is a woman's face on the side of one of the sculptures on the roof of the museum. There's a stairway that allows you to walk next to all of the sculptures. It was really amazing.

After this i decided to run over to the conference centre. I finally ran into everyone from my school (profs and students) that is attending. There was a big panel going on in the morning for Information Systems (my division) which contained 4 papers. 3 of them were from my department. One of them, authored by my friends Seung-Jo and Byungho, was announced to be the division's top paper. It was about emotional states and pop-up advertising.

After the session I enjoyed a very decent free lunch at the conference featuring ham, potatoes, green beans wrapped in bacon, and water (sparkling, GAH). I ate with James and Phil which was fun.

I ran into my undergraduate advisor from Washington State University, Rick Busselle. I think this is the first time i've seen him when i had shorter hair than him. It was really good seeing him and i'm planning to see him talk today and catch up.

Afterwards I decided to walk the town and take some pics of the architecture. I also found some places to shop. I can't tell you how many times people said, "Vas ist English?" to me. Here's some pics and commentary:


Here's another thing that used to be a building before it was bombed out. Saw a lot of these today. Even saw some holes in the ground from where bombs hit. I can't imagine what this place looked like before it was bombed.


This flower looked really beautiful to me. It was right outside of this museum that was featuring a Rodin (YUCK) exhibit. He's the guy that sculpted the "Thinker" and thousands of other sculptures that look like crap, in my opinion.

I'm starting to see why everyone has bicycles here. I walked at least 10 miles, literally. I'm feeling it today. It wouldn't have been such a long walk, but I stupidly got lost (again) and took a 3 mile detour. It's very easy to get lost over here because practically no streets run parallel to each other. Also, all of the street names are at least 10 letters long and hard to pronounce. I think i'm going to cave and actually try to use public transportation today. Now i just have to figure out how to do that whole thing.

I really wanted to make it back to my hotel in time to get ready for the Germany-Ecuador world cup match. I finally found my way back to my hotel after walking around for 5 hours with just 20 minutes to spare before the game. I caught my breath and changed out of my sweaty clothes.

There's a pub down the road called the "newtown bar" that I decided to attend during the match. This place has world cup fever! They set up this huge screen and actual bleachers inside the place for people to sit. It was packed with people wearing white "Germany" jerseys. Everyone had the german flag painted on them everywhere. They don't take this game lightly. They were drinking, singing, yelling. You don't see this kind of fandom in the states. I had a chance to try this local brew called "Rineberger." Very, very good stuff.

Germany won the match 3:0. Everyone went crazy. Sang the national anthem. Everyone has big German flags hanging from their windows. After the game people drove around with flags hanging from their cars and bicycles yelling in the streets. It was pandemoneum.

I decided to head to a small grocery store/bakery on the way back to my hotel. I picked up a baguette and some strawberry/raspberry jam to munch on. It was divine.

I was so exhausted from walking around all day that I didn't have enough energy to even blog about the day. I fell asleep almost immediately around 10 pm.

I just woke up from a 10 hour slumber and i'm still tired. I better get some coffee.

Oh yeah, I accidently deleted about 10 or so good pics i took yesterday. I'm really upset about that.

Anyways, I have to get around and head to the conference centre for a panel! I will blog tonight about the happenings of the day. Sorry about the delay!!

br

Day 4 - Germany, the land of the small automobile.


3:42 PM

I'm so completely and utterly full right now. I just got back from my first real German meal. I couldn't believe a single plate could hold so much flavor. I'll get to the details in a minute. I'll first talk about what i did today chronologically so I can keep some sort of order to this post.

So I was awake all night and intend to remain so until 1 or 2 AM. I might need a little caffeinetic assitance. Speaking of, my day officially began when i left my hotel room and crossed the street to McDonalds for a cheap, quick breakfast. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that fast food over here is hardly like it is over there. The menu's are very different and the quality is beyond what you get at most chain restaurants in the states. I ordered a bacon and cheese mcmuffin and a coffee. The coffee was absolutely magnificent. You know how in the old italian movies they always serve up the perfect cup of joe with the milky way foam at the top? This cup of mcdonalds coffee was nothing short of that. One of the best cups i've had all year. Plus, the food was EXCELLENT. It sounds silly, but i swear it was better than what you get at most restaurants back home. They even deliver the food to your table for you. I just might make mcdonalds my routine morning spot here.

After breakfast i returned to the hotel and got around for the day. I had to dress up a little because today is registration day at the conference. I got ready and began walking toward the conference centre. Of course i got lost on the way to it thinking i knew a shortcut. about 1.5 miles later I find my way back on course. While i was lost i snapped this photo:

Looks cheap, eh? Well, don't jump to conclusions. That's in liters. There are 3.79 liters to a gallon. Which makes it about 4.96 Euros per gallon. And when you convert that to US dollars, it comes to a whopping $7.09/gal!! Makes the current gas prices in the US seem pretty cozy, eh?

This conference is a little different than the others as far as who is attending and the overall atmosphere makes it seem smaller. I have to admit, i don't mind at all! The conference building is really nice. Here's a pic of it:


And here's a pic of the room i'll be giving my presentation in on Friday:


There's actually a pretty strong IU presence here. One of my colleagues said that our school has the most grad students in attendance. That's in the entire world! Not too shaby.

When i registered i noticed my advisor, Annie Lang, had a presentation at noon. I attended this and met up with a few people i know from various colleges. The session was pretty decent. Actually I was proud of our school because our presentation was really good and drew a lot of attention. Most of the people in attendance knew me from previous conferences, so the atmosphere was friendly.

Afterwards I decided to take a stroll around "old town" with two other students at my school, Narine and Sueng-Jo. Here's a picture of one of the buildings in old town:


It's actually the backside of this really big art museum. There a really big courtyard in the middle of the building with a magnificent prospect. I'll take some pics of it when i go to the museum in the next couple days.

Part way through our walk we were serenaded by a huge clap of thunder accompanied by a downpour. Luckily we were near the restaurant Narine was guiding us to where we had the aforementioned lunch. This place was amazing. It had a small cafe/wine bar feel to it. I ordered a half pork knuckle that came with a potato ball, pickled cabbage and bread. Everything was rich and full of flavor. Every bite was savored. I can't even describe how great it tasted. I don't think i'll have to eat for the rest of the day.

After lunch i needed to walk! So I decided to head back to my hotel for a little rest and world cup action. I'm usually not a soccer fan, but it's really exciting to watch all of these countries go crazy. On the way home I snapped a photo of a bombed out building:


I read a little about Dresden in WWII. I guess on February 13-15, 1945 the allied forces carpet bombed the city and demolished 10,000 buildings. Here's a pic of the devastation the firebombing left on the city:

The black areas are total devastation and the striped are partial. My hotel is in one of the total devastation areas.

after the bombings, the germans moved in and occupied the north end of the city and some really heavy fighting happened over the Elbe River which divides Dresden. The city has been making a real effort to restore the buildings to their original form. Some of them are over 800 years old! There are a lot of buildings throughout the town that were just abandoned after the bombings and have remained untouched ever since. In fact i looked through the broken windows of some of them and could see old porcelain tea sets and other stuff just lying on the floor. Some of it wasn't even broken! I think they wanted to leave things as they were as kind of a memorial. I guess there were very heavy civilian casualties. It really feels like you're walking through the set of "The Pianist" in some of the parts here. It never seems real when you're a kid in the US learning about it in grade school. This was definitely a big reality check.

Anyways, I'm back in my hotel room right now for a while. I might write later tonight.

br

Day 3 Part Two – Germany, the land of the brown roof.

Ok, so it’s official. My sleep schedule is royally messed up. It’s currently 12:15 AM and I just woke up. When I rose from my slumber I was completely disoriented. Didn’t know where I was, what time it was, or what to do. There isn’t even a clock in my hotel room. I think it has just kicked in as being reality to me. I’m here, and I will be for a while.

So I don’t even know where to start explaining about how it is over here. Everything is completely different…

So I get back to my hotel and I run into my first dilemma. I have no clue how to open my hotel room door! The key is this tiny little card and there is no door handle. So I stood there for like 5 minutes looking like an idiot trying to get in. Mission accomplished.

I quickly got settled in and hit the town. Only problem is…I don’t know where anything is! So I jump on mapquest and take a look at a map of Dresden and locate where my hotel is. I sort of set my bearings and decided to just hoof it around town. This worked out quite nicely. I walked around in total awe looking at all the amazing architecture and history. There are buildings still bombed out from WWII, huge churches, and other things I have no clue about.

I walked to the city centre which appears to be the older part of the town. I guess the best way to explain is through imagery. Actual imagery. So here are a few pics with commentary to the best of my ability.

This is a view from my hotel window. This church is amazing and hard to capture on camera. Actually, this looks like one of the newer buildings in town.

This is in the city centre. I know nothing about this building except for it looks really cool.

This is some art that is on the side of one of the buildings downtown. It stretches for a good city block. Very amazing. It shows a lot of the ancient rulers in German history with their names and the time they ruled.

This is one of the sculptures on one of the buildings. There are about 20 of these, all different, on this building. Really cool stuff.

Here’s a view of the building with all the sculptures on it with some other stuff in the background. I promise I’ll learn what these are!

And another shot with a café on the left hand side serving overpriced food to tourists. But hey, it looked really good! There was also this band playing jazz music to a bunch of people. I heard a killer keyboard solo.

So I walked around the centre of town for a while and scoped out the conference hall. Pretty freaking nice!

So you’re probably reading this wondering when the sketchy situation of the day happened. Well, here goes…

Being the type of person I am, I like to find places that locals frequent when I travel. I was starving and decided to walk into a part of town that looked a little less appealing to tourists. 1-2 miles later in the heat I start to feel a little dazed from dehydration. It took forever to find a place that sold water. I found a local market and bought some (sparkling, GAH!). Then I hear a bunch of people around the corner. So I go to check it out and find myself in the middle of this huge street festival. This place was CRAZY!

There were thousands of people in the middle of these one way streets just hanging out, eating food from various booths cooking up brats and other assorted goods. There was a DJ every 30 or so feet competing with each other in volume all spinning European electronica. It was pretty awesome.

I was starving at this point and tried to find a place to eat. The problem is I couldn’t read any of the menus because they’re all in German. This sounds kind of like a trivial problem, but it’s hard to tell if a place actually serves up food or just beverages. Anyways, I find this little tent selling Indian food and decide to pick up some grub. I know what you’re thinking: “You’re in Germany and you’re eating Indian food? You idiot! Go for the MEAT!” Well, I’ll have all week for that so I will indulge in the goods starting tomorrow.

I go up to order and spout the usual, “Do you speak English?” Of course they did and asked me if I was from England. I told them where I was from and they said something to the effect of, “ohhh, the US…very powerful.” Then they said something that caught me off-guard: “So you must be living in fear right now.” I didn’t really know what to say. I mean, what do you say? “Actually I hate Bush. Like 70% of our country. He’s an idiot that didn’t even win his way into office with a majority vote.” When there’s a considerable language barrier, it’s hard to come across with an I’m-on-your-team attitude. So it was kind of an awkward silence then we parted ways. I consumed my rice with yogurt sauce and continued walking.

This place was unreal. It’s weird to walk down the road and see 16 year olds drinking a higher quality of beer I’ve ever had in my life. I wasn’t in the mood to have a round, so I decided to make my way back to my hotel.

Now we’re caught up. There’s really a lot more that happened but it’s hard to convey what it’s like without this turning into a book. Mainly because I’m not really sure what’s going on around here at any given time. But there is one thing I know: I need to find a place that sells the awesome Germany wristbands that everyone has here!

Anyways, that was my day. I’m planning on posting some stuff about bombed out buildings in the future and other stuff about the people here. The scene here is awesome. More on that to come!

I think I’m going to stay up until tomorrow evening to get my sleep schedule on track. It’s 4 AM right now. No, it didn’t take me 4 hours to write this. I actually took a little break to watch some world cup and walk around the area…

Until tomorrow, stay safe!

<3, br

Day “3” – Part One

9:45 AM

So I’m sitting in the Düsseldorf airport right now waiting for my last short flight to Dresden. I’m not sure how much more battery power my laptop has. I didn’t sleep a wink on the “overnight” flight. These Germans really know how to keep the coffee flowing. I even get it for free in the airport courtesy of Lufthansa Airlines.

The flight really didn’t seem to take that long considering how far we flew (approx. 3600 miles). I can’t believe how big the Atlantic Ocean is. It really put it in perspective for me. Land is definitely a minority on this planet.

The airline fed us breakfast. That records as my first two meal flight. They gave me a pretty decent croissant. Getting off the plane was interesting. Culture shock already and I haven’t even left the airport. It’s really weird being somewhere that English isn’t the dominant language. Most of the signs have the English translation, but you still have to rely on other things than signs to get around. It’s pretty fun.

Ok, I can already tell that I’m going to get fat on this trip. There is so much meat being served up here. It’s ridiculous and it all looks delicious. I’m going to wait until Dresden to eat. I’m just pounding through the caffeine in an attempt to stay up until about midnight tonight so my sleep schedule can get on track.

Being over here is pretty liberating, but I can’t help but be a little homesick. This is obviously the furthest I’ve been from home and being alone doesn’t help matters. I’m sure I’m going to grow a lot from this criminally short trip. I can’t wait to get my camera from my luggage. When we were landing I spied some pretty amazing architecture. I have a feeling everything is going to be beautiful over here.

Germany definitely has world cup fever. It’s the only thing people seem to be talking about. I have a feeling it’s going to be a little crazy over here. It’s weird because there are people reading newspapers reporting on the U.S. game that wasn’t even finished when I left New York…

Well, I’m supposedly boarding in 9 minutes, but our plane is nowhere to be found. It’s going to be a little crop duster plane because we have to board from the ground level. I just can’t wait to be finished with all this commuting. I’ve pretty much been on the run since I woke up. I have no clue what time it is back home. I don’t think it’s even dark yet. Don’t worry, I won’t tell you about your tomorrow and ruin the surprise.

More to come later today (with pictures, hopefully!).

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Day 2 – Planes, trains, and automobiles.

Hello there, faithful reader. It’s day two and I’m 38,000 feet above the Atlantic Ocean right now. What a weird feeling. So here’s what happened today:

I intended to get up really early, but you know me. I checked out of my hotel at precisely noon (the latest you could check out). And so began my day of transportation. Remember how I said my hotel was a long ways away from Manhattan? Well, check this out. It took me 4 and a half hours to get to JFK airport!!!!! And it only cost me about 9 bucks because I’m the king of New York public transportation (at times). My transit consisted of this: Hotel shuttle to Newark airport, city bus to Penn station (took forever to get a seat on one because they kept filling up), PATH train to world trade center, E train to Canal St., A train to Spring Street (whoops!), A train back to Chambers Street (whoops again!), E train up to W 4^th ave, A train to Howard Beach (?), Airtrain to JFK….phew! I totally added an extra two hours to my transit because I was stupid and didn’t ask for directions. Oh well, I still got to where I needed to get and it was an adventure.

It was really cool taking the train through Brooklyn. I’ve never been outside of Manhattan on the NY side before. It’s a very different place but I got a chance to see some really good graffiti art (something I am fond of). Even in the train tunnels there were lights spaced out every 20 or so feet with graffiti under each one. Really good stuff.

So I get to the airport at like 4:30 and get off the airtrain at my terminal. JFK is really really huge. Especially the international terminal. I checked in very easily and began my search for food (I hadn’t eaten a thing all day). I had to settle for a KFC. I had something called the triple crisp sandwich. It tasted more like rubber. No crunch at all. Big disappointment!

My flight was delayed quite a bit with all the air traffic, but we got off the ground about an hour after scheduled time. This flight should take 6 and a half hours. Not too bad if you consider how far I’m going. After that I have a half hour flight to Dresden (from Düsseldorf), then I get to find a way to my hotel (!!!). I’m already getting a sense of what it’s going to be like in Germany. Most of the people on my plane speak German and I can’t understand a word. This will be very interesting, but adventuresome! They’re going to show “Walk the Line” on the plane followed by “Ice Age.” Not too bad for plane entertainment.

I’m watching the sun set over the ocean right now and it’s absolutely magnificent. I wish I could take a picture but my camera is checked with my bag. I sure hope my bag is on this plane. That would make for a long trip!

Anyways, I’m all caffeinated up from the coffee they gave me on the flight. Pretty decent stuff. They also fed us which was unexpected. Pasta with alfredo sauce and broccoli, cole slaw, this really bland bread with brie, and carrot cake. Not a bad meal by any standard. I even drank sparkling water with it. I tried to order “still water” but I don’t think the flight attendant understood me.

I’m rambling now from the caffeine. Time to sign out for now. You all probably won’t read this until tomorrow afternoon (Germany time) sometime. Sorry about the lack of pictures today. I didn’t feel like lugging a camera around.

<3

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Day 1 - Airports, The Village, and Near Death Experiences

Hello from New York City! Well, actually Newark, New Jersey...

My first day of the trip has flown by (literally). I did a lot today that it seems weird to think that I actually lost three hours today with the time change. Maybe I'm not used to being awake for so long. Here's how it all went down:

The day started at like 5:30 AM. I don't remember much from the morning except that it was painful to be awake. Actually, I don't think i really woke up mentally until I was at Seatac Airport. My dad dropped me off and i went to check in my bags. I knew it was going to be an interesting day at this point when i came to realize the people at the check-in stand next to me also had the last name of Wilson. They were flying to Bismark. Our baggage tickets printed out at the same time and the Alaska Airlines employee almost mixed up our tags! That would have made for a long day. Anyways, that mess was resolved before it was a problem and i went through security (very smoothly, for a change).

I had a good hour and 20 minutes before my flight left so I sat in the beautiful new addition to the airport. There's this huge window that looks out into the mountain range and there are rocking chairs and cool artwork consisting of thousands of pieces of metal hanging from the ceiling forming the shape of a bird. Hard to explain, really. So I sat there drinking my Airborn medicine. Man, if you haven't tried this stuff, I recommend you do. It makes you feel like a million bucks. And i've yet to get any sign of sickness from the flight!

The flight took forever and ended up being delayed from this and that for about 45 minutes to an hour. I didn't want to watch a movie on my nifty portable dvd player because i need to save the entertainment for the long flight tomorrow! So i pretty much sat there and read the latest edition of Food & Wine magazine from cover to cover. Good stuff.

So we land and i find my way to my hotel. The Hilton at the Newark Airport. It's right next door to a bud light (blackstone, for those in the know) brewery. I think i was a little ambitious in my priceline booking. Don't get me wrong, the hotel is great, but the location is pretty far from manhatten. Despite the distance, i was ready to hit the big apple!

So i go down to the bellhop and ask what the best way to new york was. He gave me three options i already knew. I chose the best choice but thought i had the best idea in mind. I thought i could cut down a lot of travel time by just walking down the road to the closest New Jersey transit station. This was a big, stupid mistake. So I start walking blindly through Jersey City toward the direction of a station i knew of. I thought it was only like a mile but it ended up being about 3. Anyways, the path i took to the station led me through these really old Jewish cemeteries. They were really cool and surprisingly welcoming. After I passed the cemeteries, i ended up in this weird industrial part of the town and was literally walking on the train tracks. This was pretty sketchy.

So i follow the tracks for a couple miles. I forgot to mention that it's like 85 degrees out, so i'm working up a good sweat. I finally get to the station but realize I can't get to it from down on the tracks (again, hard to explain). The only option is to actually cross the tracks. This doesn't seem like a big deal, but let me remind you that there's quite a big amount of electricity flowing through a few of them! So smart-me starts jumping them. I get across 10 or so then go to jump over another and realize right as i'm about to jump that there's a dead, decaying dog right where i was going to land. Somehow my mind thought at a mile a minute. Sample of my train of thought: "Dead dog! Gross! Oh wait, I can't NOT jump, because i'll land on this track that will probably kill me. That's probably what killed this dog. Wait a minute, why am I wasting time thinking about what killed this dog. STOP STOP STOP!!!" Somehow i maintained my balance and quickly got across the rest of the tracks, as there was a train zooming toward me. So I start walking trying to find the entrance to the train station but realize there is none. I would have had to cross a freeway to get to it. So I decide to just hoof it another 2 miles...

Ever heard of the expression, "The wrong side of the tracks"? Well, that's exactly where I was, literally. I don't recommend anyone going into that area unattended or unarmed. ;) So I make my way through the ghetto for two miles, partly by bus (?!). I find my way to Penn Station and jump on the first PATH train to NYC. PHEW!!!

Ok, so I was thinking all day about how I really wanted to visit the Village. This is where NYU is. I've been to new york twice before and have never made my way to this part of town. Let me just say this...what a shame! This place is sooooo cool. The culture, the environment, the people, the businesses, the music. It has it all. A very hip part of nyc...

So at this point i'm hungry. I stop by the nearest cornermart and buy a banana to enjoy while walking through Washington Square Park. This place is awesome. It's not huge, but it's very happening. In the middle of the park is this big circle thing where people can sit. There was actually a pretty funny magic show going on that I sat down and watched while consuming my banana. The big memorial arch is in this park as well. For some reason i've always thought this thing looked really cool and have always wanted to see it. I enjoyed myself so much that i think i'll return tomorrow!

After enjoying the park for a while i decide to walk around the village. Some hilights included getting in trouble for trying to take a picture in the NYU library (the stairs looked really cool!), watching a really good pickup basketball game on a street corner, seeing a shoplifter in a tug of war match with a store owner over a pair of baby blue sweat pants, and scouting out dives to visit tomorrow for lunch. I found a killer cajun place. More on that tomorrow. OH, and I found "Other Music." Some of you are aware of my fondness of this store. It's a really hip music store in the village that is frequented by a lot of musicians that you're probably spinning in your discman or have queue'd in your ipods. There is just so much happening in this city, it amazes me. Makes me think of what it'd be like to be a student at NYU.

After walking around for about an hour I decided to take the long trip back to my hotel. This went pretty smoothly and allowed me to take another look at the world trade center. Here's a picture of one of the foundation support posts they left standing that's in the shape of a cross. For those of you that haven't been there since 2001, believe me when i say it's a very surreal experience.

I'm back in my hotel now writing this thing up. I just realized how long this is. Not every entry will be this long (i don't think, at least). But I'll try to be as thorough as possible and try to keep the typo's at a minimum. I'm actually typing this all in notepad and am not going to bother spell checking.

Anyways, I might not update tomorrow night because I'll be on an airplane to Germany! But I'll make sure to tell everyone about what happens tomorrow in some sort of "daily double" post.

Till then,

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This is where I'll be lending comment and kodak on my international travels. Stay tuned...

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