26 August 2004 ---JOURNAL ENTRY THIRTY-SOMETHING---
Assiyeah and my new roommate Omar are talking in German about some salsa dancing maneuver. They are going to a new salsa club at the train station soon but I'm not into it, a bit pooped from having worked at 8:15 this morning. Hey, that's early for an English teacher. I know, I know, I haven't updated this thing in two months, I'm sorry, I can't say that I've only been busy, some of it has been laziness and also I've still got a bit of a hurdle with not finding a new site to host pictures and that unmotivates me but here we are now, so don't complain!
Where have I been since you last "saw" me? Well, I worked my ass off the rest of June and all of July. I almost made 2.000euros for July (about 2,400 dollars) and after taxes and bills, that leaves me with about 500euros of "extra money I made". You know where that goes. No, mom, not into an interest-bearing CD that will make me 513euros in 6 months but into my travel account. Where will I go with that money? I'll tell ya in a minute but...at the end of July, Assiyeah had what is called her "zwischenpruefung" which loosely translates to "between test". This is a large test she has to take in the middle of her university studies to prove that she is capable of eventually graduating from university. This is a good thing because I hope someday that she and I will both be working and then imagine how much travelling we'll be able to do! haha...
Anyway, she did great, in fact, she got the highest grade available, a 1.0 which is an "A", no minus and possibly a plus. I was quite proud of her and as a result, we went to France for a night. We went across to Colmar, then to Selestat for no reason and then further to Obernai. We had a great time, staying at a quaint little hotel, and just sort of enjoying ourselves. I love the fact that going to France for a night is absolutely no problem whatsoever, it feels good in my wander-addicted soul. A few days after this trip I went to America...ON AIR INDIA! Don't worry, it wasn't as bad as it sounded, and the food was good. I had a 6 hour layover in Chicago which sucked and then got home to LA at about 1am. Long day. I had a blast when I was home and here is a brief list of what I did, in no particular order...
Amy's wedding, Las Vegas, Chicago, Pacific Beach, Venice Beach, two different art festivals in Laguna Beach, about 4-5 sunsets on the beach. Of course there was a lot more, namely hanging with Zach, KC, Russ and Chris quite a lot. Those are my buddies back home. Three of them came to visit me last year and one (Zach) is coming in one month and two days. I'm super stoked to have him as a guest and I hope we have a kick ass time. We are planning on mostly hanging here in Freiburg and doing some daytrips to Colmar, Basel and doing a Vegas-style trip to Munich for Oktoberfest hopefully. I know I'm not telling you much of what happened on my trip to America but it was a blast. I ate a lot, drank some beers, got to see some really good friends I hadn't seen in awhile, namely Bronco and Wood and Mooney and Johnny K and of course got to hang with the folks a lot, even playing golf once but I don't want to talk about that because for the first time since I can remember, my pops beat me! haha, not a sore topic but I better kick his ass next time or I'm going to give up the sport!
The newest developments in my life are as follows: I've got some work to do the next three weeks (I'm also on the wagon, no beer, until September 14 hopefully, but with a one night break for football September 12, shhhh) and then Assiyeah and I are headed to PORTUGAL and SPAIN!!! I am very excited by this as Portugal is a place I have never been but have been interested in it for awhile. It will be my 5th new country this year, unbelievable right? We will be there 12 days, going to Lisbon and probably Porto and then scooting over to Salamanca, Spain for a few days to visit our roommate Caro who is going to live and study there for a year. It should be a great trip. Then Zach comes for a week, and then the semesters begin and I will work hard for 5 weeks and then the weekend of November 11, Assiyeah and I are headed to England! We want to visit Cambridge to see the school where she will be for 5 months and then we are going to Norwich about 90 minutes away to see a band called The Thrills. I have been a fan of theirs for over a year and have never had the chance to see them because I was always in the wrong place. Such is life, right? But I'm going to solve that problem in November. It should be a great weekend!
Finally, a relatively major decision in my life that has no real bearing yet is this: I plan to start selling my photographs, perhaps even from this site. I have done a lot of travelling the past couple of years and have taken some good photographs. When I was home last month, I gave some to some friends and they were really impressed and it got me thinking that writing is not my only avenue to becoming an artist. I also have plans for a 5th book, though it will not be a novel. It's to be called "A Humorous Guide to Leaving the Country", a sort of journal-like experience of what I did to leave America, how I landed here with a thud and almost started running right from the start. I plan to take journal entries from the past 2+ years and put it into a small, interesting format. It'll be maybe 100 pages or so and perhaps be marketable because of its niche. Many people have done what I did and many more are thinking about it. This book is meant for them and those who know them. All right, that's enough for now, you can see that, as always, there is a lot afoot with me so try and keep up and I hope ya'll are doing well! Ciao!
