I think this will be part III of IV. This will be a short one, I don't really have much to say about Ukraine because, to be perfectly honest, I didn't really do much there.
So Shannon and I took the bus from Kosice, Slovakia to Uzhhorod, Ukraine. I'm not going to lie, I was a little tense about Ukraine beforehand. As difficult as it was sometimes trying to figure things out and ask for directions in Slovakia, it wasn't comparable to Ukraine. First of all, hardly anybody speaks English. The fact that I was traveling during the "off season" only exacerbated this fact. Secondly, Ukrainian, Russian, and a few other languages use the Cyrillic alphabet, with such recognizable characters as the backwards "R" and the character that looks like a man playing the bass drum. Anyway, after spending roughly 45 minutes at the border crossing between Slovakia and Ukraine, our bus was finally let through. As we passed through the last check point, to the right of the bus was expansive, empty field surrounded by barbed wire. In the middle of this field, was a giant statue of Ukrainian man, one leg up on what were presumably bricks, planting a big flag in front of them. That was what greeted a person as they passed through the border there. It certainly had an "Eastern Bloc" feel to it, and I couldn't help feeling like the statue was acting as a sentinel of some kind. "Welcome to Ukraine. Do not screw with us."
Anyway, we only stuck around in Uzhhorod long enough to fumble our way through purchasing train tickets to Lviv. Hand signals and diagrams were an essential part to communicating with people in Ukraine. I also ordered some strange kind of pizza with mayonnaise drizzled on top. It was disgusting, but I was hungry.
After a few hours of waiting in the train station, we hopped the train to Lviv. The boiler they had in our car was powered by coal. I didn't know why at first, but my friend Ian explained to me that Russia cut off 25% of Ukraine's fuel supply or something like that. I guess they're still rather bitter about the whole independence thing. Anyhow, the train moved very slowly and we had a Russian family of three sitting across from us, a man, a woman, and their infant daughter. The man looked to be about 40, while his wife couldn't have been older than myself (21). The man had a serious problem with body odour that I have never experienced before. I'm not the type to harp on someone about that (I certainly didn't say anything to him, not that he would have understood me if I did), but it was nauseating. I thought it might have been the train at first, but when he came back from having a cigarette (yes, there was a smoking car on our train, oddly enough), there was no mistaking. He was a nice enough fellow though; he told us which stop was Lviv. Thank God he did, I'm not sure if we would have recognized it otherwise.
Six hours on a train later, we finally arrived in Lviv. There were a few tense moments at this point, since we didn't have very good directions to our next couch surfing host's apartment and Shannon's cell phone wouldn't work. However, we did manage to get close and after asking a hotel clerk for directions, we finally managed to get to the apartment. Ksenia (our host) was a very nice girl and she treated us to some Ukrainian wine we arrived. It had a bit of a kick to it, to say the least. Her bathroom was in her kitchen, which was something I had heard about but never before seen. The only thing that separated the kitchen from the toilet and the tub was a thin panel wall and a sliding door. One had to light a gas heater to get hot water at this place too.
I'm sure there is quite a bit to see in Lviv, but by this point Shannon and I were fairly low on funds, so we spent most of our days touring the city and going inside places that were free. I'm not going to lie, at this point, it started to feel like "seen one Eastern European capital city, seen 'em all" (thankfully, I was proven wrong in Krakow). Trying to use my phone card to call home was ridiculous. One can only make international phone calls from certain phones in Ukraine, usually located in call centres next to the post office. Shannon and a Ukrainian woman had a bit of a shouting match, due to our inability to understand each other, when I tried to call Slovakia to inquire about the whereabouts of my camera. Lviv also had this EXCELLENT buffet style restaurant that we went to both nights we stayed. I can't remember what it was called now, but according to Ksenia, this restaurant was apparently what they consider fast food. It was delicious, nonetheless.
It rained for a good portion of one of the days we stayed in Lviv, so we didn't really get up to much there. Ksenia was pretty busy doing translations of essays for people, so one night we just bought a bunch of cheap, Ukrainian beer and stayed in. Our last night, we went to the bus station to catch the bus from Lviv to Krakow, Poland, our final stop. I walked in and used the woman's bathroom at the bus station by accident. Their symbol for the woman's washroom is, apparently, a very narrow isosceles triangle with a dot at the top, making it look sort of like the letter "i". I didn't notice the other bathroom at first, so I simply walked in. Two women were sitting in a booth (you usually have to pay to use public washrooms in Europe) when I walked in. They were trying to tell me something in Ukrainian, very emphatically I might add, but of course me being the silly foreigner, I just slipped them a bill and went right on in. Not once did I question the lack of urinals as I went in, did my thing, then went out. As I left, they looked up at me and laughed. It wasn't until I went in to use the bathroom before we got on the bus that I glanced down the hall and noticed the men's bathroom, which was represented by an INVERTED narrow isosceles triangle and a dot at the top.
Part IV, the final chapter, takes place in Krakow, Poland, my favourite city of the entire trip.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Thursday, March 6, 2008
"Traveling Through Eastern Europe (Or: How I Learned to Love Communism)" and Other Stories Vol. 5 Part II
The second part! Oh boy!
Slovakia:
Early on Thursday morning, Shannon and I left Budapest for Bratislava, Slovakia. Trying to find the proper bus top in Budapest was a little tense, but after asking a few people, we managed to get there.
When we arrived in Bratislava, it was cold, raining, and dreary. Plus the bus station was just outside of the old part of town, in an area with slightly dilapidated gray buildings. Needless to say, Bratislava seemed very depressing at first. However, we met up with our Couch surfing host, Michal, who took us into the old city centre and Bratislava was really very nice in that area. There was an old medieval castle perched atop a big hill, overlooking the Danube river, which was pretty neat. Also, Bratislava has these strange bronze(?) statues of men doing random things around town. For example, one of these statues is sitting half inside a sewer grate, as if he is supposed to be climbing out.
After wandering about town for several hours, we went back to Michal's apartment, which is in a little town outside of Bratislava called Pezinok. It had been a few days since I had taken a shower last, and I wasn't feeling very spring fresh, so I asked to use his shower. The door to the bathroom wouldn't shut properly, but I gave it a good yank and I managed to get it all the way shut. Very bad idea. In yanking the door shut, the metal mechanism that the door knob controls had somehow jammed, so that when I turned the knob, the metal bit wouldn't slide back into the door. After alerting Shannon and Michal to my unfortunately hilarious situation, we tried to figure out how to get me out. We tried removing the knobs, and trying to move the bolt with my pocket knife, but it was stuck good and there was no way to take the door off the hinges. In the end, the door had to be pried open, gouging out the frame and destroying the metal bolt in the process. I felt pretty bad, but Michal and his mother took it in good humour. She said she needed a new door anyway and that I did her a favour.
Michal took us out both nights with a bunch of his friends in Pezinok, who are awesome people. They gave us gratuitous amounts of Slovakian wine, which was pretty good. So far, the trip felt like it was shaping up to be pretty good!
We left Pezinok/Bratislava on Saturday morning and headed East, to a town called Spisska Nova Ves. This part of our trip was supposed to be the camping portion, as the Slovak mountains are in this region. After a long train ride, we arrived. The camp site we were supposed to stay at is called Podlesok, just outside of town. Getting there, however, proved to be quite a task. We wandered all over town, trying to find someone or something that could tell us how to get to the camp site. However, the farther East you go, the less likely you're going to run into someone who speaks English. Eventually we learned there was a bus that would take us to a little village close by, and that we had to walk the rest of the way. At this point, it was almost 6, it was dark, I was tired, and we didn't know exactly where we were going, so I made the executive decision to check us into a hotel instead. Sunday, we tried again, with a little more success. We found Podlesok camping, which is right below the Slovensky Raj (the hills where we wanted to go hiking), but the campsite was closed. So we wandered a few kilometres to a village we passed earlier and managed to find a place that had a private room, dropped our stuff off and headed back out to Slovensky Raj.
The hike was incredible. Slovensky Raj was very beautiful, and the trail was an adventure. It was definitely designed for hikers, that's for sure. There were places that you could cross the river on these little wooden bridges, which was pretty neat. There was also parts were you had to ascend the cliffs on these built in metal ladders, next to still partially frozen waterfalls. It was amazing.
After a few hours of hiking, we went back to our little private room in the village. The next day, we hopped a bus from Spisska Nova Ves to the city of Kosice, the second biggest city in Slovakia. We didn't originally plan on staying here over night, but we wanted to make sure we were in the right place, with enough time to catch the bus to Ukraine. Kosice was a pleasant little city, I wish I had have had more time to explore. Instead, we arranged our transportation into Ukraine and took it easy for the day at the hostel, perhaps in subconscious preparation for Ukraine.
Alright that's probably enough for now. Part III: Ukraine (alternatively, "why I hate the Cyrillic alphabet")
Slovakia:
Early on Thursday morning, Shannon and I left Budapest for Bratislava, Slovakia. Trying to find the proper bus top in Budapest was a little tense, but after asking a few people, we managed to get there.
When we arrived in Bratislava, it was cold, raining, and dreary. Plus the bus station was just outside of the old part of town, in an area with slightly dilapidated gray buildings. Needless to say, Bratislava seemed very depressing at first. However, we met up with our Couch surfing host, Michal, who took us into the old city centre and Bratislava was really very nice in that area. There was an old medieval castle perched atop a big hill, overlooking the Danube river, which was pretty neat. Also, Bratislava has these strange bronze(?) statues of men doing random things around town. For example, one of these statues is sitting half inside a sewer grate, as if he is supposed to be climbing out.
After wandering about town for several hours, we went back to Michal's apartment, which is in a little town outside of Bratislava called Pezinok. It had been a few days since I had taken a shower last, and I wasn't feeling very spring fresh, so I asked to use his shower. The door to the bathroom wouldn't shut properly, but I gave it a good yank and I managed to get it all the way shut. Very bad idea. In yanking the door shut, the metal mechanism that the door knob controls had somehow jammed, so that when I turned the knob, the metal bit wouldn't slide back into the door. After alerting Shannon and Michal to my unfortunately hilarious situation, we tried to figure out how to get me out. We tried removing the knobs, and trying to move the bolt with my pocket knife, but it was stuck good and there was no way to take the door off the hinges. In the end, the door had to be pried open, gouging out the frame and destroying the metal bolt in the process. I felt pretty bad, but Michal and his mother took it in good humour. She said she needed a new door anyway and that I did her a favour.
Michal took us out both nights with a bunch of his friends in Pezinok, who are awesome people. They gave us gratuitous amounts of Slovakian wine, which was pretty good. So far, the trip felt like it was shaping up to be pretty good!
We left Pezinok/Bratislava on Saturday morning and headed East, to a town called Spisska Nova Ves. This part of our trip was supposed to be the camping portion, as the Slovak mountains are in this region. After a long train ride, we arrived. The camp site we were supposed to stay at is called Podlesok, just outside of town. Getting there, however, proved to be quite a task. We wandered all over town, trying to find someone or something that could tell us how to get to the camp site. However, the farther East you go, the less likely you're going to run into someone who speaks English. Eventually we learned there was a bus that would take us to a little village close by, and that we had to walk the rest of the way. At this point, it was almost 6, it was dark, I was tired, and we didn't know exactly where we were going, so I made the executive decision to check us into a hotel instead. Sunday, we tried again, with a little more success. We found Podlesok camping, which is right below the Slovensky Raj (the hills where we wanted to go hiking), but the campsite was closed. So we wandered a few kilometres to a village we passed earlier and managed to find a place that had a private room, dropped our stuff off and headed back out to Slovensky Raj.
The hike was incredible. Slovensky Raj was very beautiful, and the trail was an adventure. It was definitely designed for hikers, that's for sure. There were places that you could cross the river on these little wooden bridges, which was pretty neat. There was also parts were you had to ascend the cliffs on these built in metal ladders, next to still partially frozen waterfalls. It was amazing.
After a few hours of hiking, we went back to our little private room in the village. The next day, we hopped a bus from Spisska Nova Ves to the city of Kosice, the second biggest city in Slovakia. We didn't originally plan on staying here over night, but we wanted to make sure we were in the right place, with enough time to catch the bus to Ukraine. Kosice was a pleasant little city, I wish I had have had more time to explore. Instead, we arranged our transportation into Ukraine and took it easy for the day at the hostel, perhaps in subconscious preparation for Ukraine.
Alright that's probably enough for now. Part III: Ukraine (alternatively, "why I hate the Cyrillic alphabet")
Friday, February 29, 2008
"Traveling Through Eastern Europe (Or: How I Learned to Love Communism)" and Other Stories Vol. 5 Part I
Hello!
Oh blog, it has been far too long.
For the last two weeks or so I've been wandering around Eastern Europe with my friend Shannon. I forgot to bring my travel journal (very frustrating) so hopefully I don't forget too many things. Right now, I'm still in Krakow, Poland. I'm going to split this up into sections, so it isn't such a daunting read.
First stop: Budapest, Hungary
It was a very long first two days, considering there was the five hour trip to Frankfurt, two hours waiting for the bus to the airport, two hours getting to the airport, and then check in, followed by more waiting for the flight at 7:00 am. After about an hour and a half or so, we landed in Budapest. Let me tell you how daunting it is trying to get from point A to point B in a city where you don't understand or speak the language. It was the same disorienting feeling I had when I first came to Germany. Anyway, we managed to get into the city and found the place we were staying. For most of the trip, we've been using a system called Couch Surfing. It's a website, a community really, where people open up their couches or spare bed or floor or whatever to travelers who are trying to save money. It's a brilliant system and I fully endorse it. Anyhow, we stayed with a very nice Hungarian girl named Asia, who shared her flat with her brother and two room mates.
I must now tell you a little about her 19 year old brother Alphons. When I first met this lad, I thought he was drunk. He burst through the door in flamboyantly coloured rainbow pants, big bug sunglasses, and swayed a little from side to side. As soon as he noticed us sitting in the corner, gawking at his wardrobe he broke into a maniacal grin and loudly asked in broken English, "Ehhh.....who are you?"
"I'm Matt, and this is Shannon," says I.
He clapped his hands together and cried, "Ahhhhhhhhh! Very good! You are...American perhaps?"
"No," we glance at each other, "no, we're Canadians."
At this point, Alphons slides across the floor and sits cross legged in front of me, never once breaking eye contact. I'm wondering what sort of furniture he is going to turn my skin into. A lamp shade? Maybe a slip cover?
He's just sitting there, staring at me.
"Uh..how are ya?" I ask neverously.
The maniacal grin returns. Do I even have enough skin to make a slip cover out of?
It's during this thought that he slowly pinches his fingers and holds them next to my nose, squinting with one eye.
"Are you...Jew?"
Shannon immediately bursts out laughing. Suddenly all the staring makes sense. Because of the size of my nose, a source of pride in the family, he thinks I'm Jewish.
"Nope, I'm just a regular Protestant Canadian with a big nose."
"Really? You not Jew?" He seems awfully surprised.
After a few minutes of reassuring him that I am, in fact, NOT Jewish, he seems to accept this and move to philosophy. Why are we traveling? Well, we have a break between semesters. No, but WHY are you traveling?
Good question.
Anyway, spending a few days with this guy and his sister was very cool. They were very nice, inviting people, who would do pretty much anything for you. The city itself was pretty incredible. Fisherman's Bastion, an old castle type battlement facing the Danube River offers an amazing view of the Pest side of Budapest. Pest itself is home to many famous thermal baths - we spent an entire afternoon in one. It makes you pretty lethargic. There is a famously horrifying torture museum in Pest as well. It was first used by the Nazi's in WWII to interrogate people, followed by the Communists afterwards.
You can save a lot of money in Budapest if you choose not to use public transit at all. Actually, that's how we've been saving money everywhere. I'm not sure how great an idea that's been, since I'm pretty sure I've lost a bit of weight (if you know me, you know that's not something I can really afford to do haha). Mainly eating bread, meat, and cheese probably isn't helping.
After a few days of taking in the sites and traversing around all of central Budapest, it was time to head to Bratislava, Slovakia, which will be in the next installment! In this version, we learn about how I managed to get stuck in a bathroom.
- Matt
Oh blog, it has been far too long.
For the last two weeks or so I've been wandering around Eastern Europe with my friend Shannon. I forgot to bring my travel journal (very frustrating) so hopefully I don't forget too many things. Right now, I'm still in Krakow, Poland. I'm going to split this up into sections, so it isn't such a daunting read.
First stop: Budapest, Hungary
It was a very long first two days, considering there was the five hour trip to Frankfurt, two hours waiting for the bus to the airport, two hours getting to the airport, and then check in, followed by more waiting for the flight at 7:00 am. After about an hour and a half or so, we landed in Budapest. Let me tell you how daunting it is trying to get from point A to point B in a city where you don't understand or speak the language. It was the same disorienting feeling I had when I first came to Germany. Anyway, we managed to get into the city and found the place we were staying. For most of the trip, we've been using a system called Couch Surfing. It's a website, a community really, where people open up their couches or spare bed or floor or whatever to travelers who are trying to save money. It's a brilliant system and I fully endorse it. Anyhow, we stayed with a very nice Hungarian girl named Asia, who shared her flat with her brother and two room mates.
I must now tell you a little about her 19 year old brother Alphons. When I first met this lad, I thought he was drunk. He burst through the door in flamboyantly coloured rainbow pants, big bug sunglasses, and swayed a little from side to side. As soon as he noticed us sitting in the corner, gawking at his wardrobe he broke into a maniacal grin and loudly asked in broken English, "Ehhh.....who are you?"
"I'm Matt, and this is Shannon," says I.
He clapped his hands together and cried, "Ahhhhhhhhh! Very good! You are...American perhaps?"
"No," we glance at each other, "no, we're Canadians."
At this point, Alphons slides across the floor and sits cross legged in front of me, never once breaking eye contact. I'm wondering what sort of furniture he is going to turn my skin into. A lamp shade? Maybe a slip cover?
He's just sitting there, staring at me.
"Uh..how are ya?" I ask neverously.
The maniacal grin returns. Do I even have enough skin to make a slip cover out of?
It's during this thought that he slowly pinches his fingers and holds them next to my nose, squinting with one eye.
"Are you...Jew?"
Shannon immediately bursts out laughing. Suddenly all the staring makes sense. Because of the size of my nose, a source of pride in the family, he thinks I'm Jewish.
"Nope, I'm just a regular Protestant Canadian with a big nose."
"Really? You not Jew?" He seems awfully surprised.
After a few minutes of reassuring him that I am, in fact, NOT Jewish, he seems to accept this and move to philosophy. Why are we traveling? Well, we have a break between semesters. No, but WHY are you traveling?
Good question.
Anyway, spending a few days with this guy and his sister was very cool. They were very nice, inviting people, who would do pretty much anything for you. The city itself was pretty incredible. Fisherman's Bastion, an old castle type battlement facing the Danube River offers an amazing view of the Pest side of Budapest. Pest itself is home to many famous thermal baths - we spent an entire afternoon in one. It makes you pretty lethargic. There is a famously horrifying torture museum in Pest as well. It was first used by the Nazi's in WWII to interrogate people, followed by the Communists afterwards.
You can save a lot of money in Budapest if you choose not to use public transit at all. Actually, that's how we've been saving money everywhere. I'm not sure how great an idea that's been, since I'm pretty sure I've lost a bit of weight (if you know me, you know that's not something I can really afford to do haha). Mainly eating bread, meat, and cheese probably isn't helping.
After a few days of taking in the sites and traversing around all of central Budapest, it was time to head to Bratislava, Slovakia, which will be in the next installment! In this version, we learn about how I managed to get stuck in a bathroom.
- Matt
Monday, January 28, 2008
"Penniless: Surviving Without Money" and Other Stories Vol.4
Hello!
I am broke. Well, not quite broke. More like quarter to Poor. I don't really know what happened, I'm just short on cash. I have 20 euros and some leftover shepherd's pie left in the fridge for me to survive on until next week. I think I can handle it. I know I get 600 euros a month, but after 200 of it goes to rent, plus the added issue that just about everything is more expensive, 400 euros doesn't seem to go far, especially if you just want to travel. And I'm not even talking extensive traveling, I'm talkin' about a quick jaunt to Frankfurt, which is only a few hours away, yet still cost me a ridiculous amount of money to get there and stay there for two days.
I worked last Thursday too. Thank God for that, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to register for summer semester courses today (costs 65 euros). That was something that should have been told to us Canucks by our resident Professor but oops, she forgot. Anyway, I helped pave a big gravel driveway at a horse ranch outside of town with my buddy Brian. It's a father and son operation done by these British guys, who work "freelance". I don't exactly inquire into the nature of their operation because it pays 80 euros a day for about between 25 minutes and 3 hours worth of work.
Only problem is that it has destroyed my back. I've never really had a strong lower back anyway (despite all of my mother's efforts to get me to sit up straight), so it's taking me a little while to get better. I think I'll only be able to do it once in awhile, because this is killer. I'm hitting the gym again, so maybe I'll try some exercises to strengthen my back muscles.
All is well here in ol' Happy Bratwurst Land, otherwise. School is quickly drawing to a close and we've almost hit the halfway mark until our glorious return to Canadiana. The two month break begins in about three weeks. Just about everything has been planned out. My good friend Shannon and I are going to Hungary, Slovakia, Ukraine, Poland, and the Czech Republic for two weekends. Then she is going to the UK to visit her boyfriend, while I return to Freiburg to do laundry, pick up Gaelan and maybe his girlfriend Lolly, then we are spending a solid week in Ireland, from the 12th of March until the 19th.
I can't tell you how excited I am to visit Ireland. I've seen pictures and I've read books, but I know it doesn't quite compare to actually seeing the place. We're going to spend a few days in Cork and bus to a few different places from there, before meeting up with some more Canadians in Dublin for Saint Patrick's Day. That should be a riot! I'm also hoping to maybe track part of my heritage down in the south, I've heard that my ancestors on Dad's side are from the Waterford/Wexford area, which isn't far from Cork. I guess it will depend on how much time we have and what others want to do as well. I'm glad I'm going with friends, but I get the feeling that I'm going to want to come back by myself some day before I leave for Canada again.
- Matt
I am broke. Well, not quite broke. More like quarter to Poor. I don't really know what happened, I'm just short on cash. I have 20 euros and some leftover shepherd's pie left in the fridge for me to survive on until next week. I think I can handle it. I know I get 600 euros a month, but after 200 of it goes to rent, plus the added issue that just about everything is more expensive, 400 euros doesn't seem to go far, especially if you just want to travel. And I'm not even talking extensive traveling, I'm talkin' about a quick jaunt to Frankfurt, which is only a few hours away, yet still cost me a ridiculous amount of money to get there and stay there for two days.
I worked last Thursday too. Thank God for that, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to register for summer semester courses today (costs 65 euros). That was something that should have been told to us Canucks by our resident Professor but oops, she forgot. Anyway, I helped pave a big gravel driveway at a horse ranch outside of town with my buddy Brian. It's a father and son operation done by these British guys, who work "freelance". I don't exactly inquire into the nature of their operation because it pays 80 euros a day for about between 25 minutes and 3 hours worth of work.
Only problem is that it has destroyed my back. I've never really had a strong lower back anyway (despite all of my mother's efforts to get me to sit up straight), so it's taking me a little while to get better. I think I'll only be able to do it once in awhile, because this is killer. I'm hitting the gym again, so maybe I'll try some exercises to strengthen my back muscles.
All is well here in ol' Happy Bratwurst Land, otherwise. School is quickly drawing to a close and we've almost hit the halfway mark until our glorious return to Canadiana. The two month break begins in about three weeks. Just about everything has been planned out. My good friend Shannon and I are going to Hungary, Slovakia, Ukraine, Poland, and the Czech Republic for two weekends. Then she is going to the UK to visit her boyfriend, while I return to Freiburg to do laundry, pick up Gaelan and maybe his girlfriend Lolly, then we are spending a solid week in Ireland, from the 12th of March until the 19th.
I can't tell you how excited I am to visit Ireland. I've seen pictures and I've read books, but I know it doesn't quite compare to actually seeing the place. We're going to spend a few days in Cork and bus to a few different places from there, before meeting up with some more Canadians in Dublin for Saint Patrick's Day. That should be a riot! I'm also hoping to maybe track part of my heritage down in the south, I've heard that my ancestors on Dad's side are from the Waterford/Wexford area, which isn't far from Cork. I guess it will depend on how much time we have and what others want to do as well. I'm glad I'm going with friends, but I get the feeling that I'm going to want to come back by myself some day before I leave for Canada again.
- Matt
Monday, January 7, 2008
"Tales From the Sleep Deprived Mind" and Other Stories Volume 3
So I wrote this when I was stuck in Basel, Switzerland and had gone 40+ hours without sleep. I saved it to notepad and added some things to it.
The better part of two days without sleep has an interesting effect on a human being. Physically, lack of sleep makes the body feel sluggish and heavy, the upper body seemingly dragging the lower extremities around in a comical fashion. The body starts to shake and fidget as the muscles demand a respite from being forced to do, well, anything for two straight days. Dark circles grow underneath the eyes, while the eyes themselves burn intensely, as a result of ones eye lids being forced open, threatening to crash down at any moment. Mentally, the brain loses all sense of purpose, quite ridiculously forgetting that purpose is to THINK. Mundane things become fascinating, and the mind recoils in horror after spending two hours trying to figure out who in their right mind would ever fly in an airplane (one is essentially hurtling through the air in a giant, sheet metal hot dog, but I digress). A person winds up making silly errors that results in their being stuck in a train station in Switzerland, babbling on about how interesting lack of sleep is.
AND people are making out next to me. In the train station. It's me, an Asian girl reading a book, and two people making out on a bench. High five! *+
*Editors note: Customs agents arrested a loud Asian man and hauled him back and forth through out the train station. Also, what is the deal with people making out around me? Everywhere I go, people are engaging in tongue kung fu with each other, usually within 10 feet of me. Am I some kind of walking aphrodisiac for other people? "Quick Matt's here, let's make out!"
+Editors other note: I made it out of Switzerland, by the way. There are two train stations in Basel, and the bus at the airport takes you the one called the SBB. This train station only has trains that run throughout Switzerland and France. The other one, Badischer Bahnhof, is the German train station, which is where I needed to be. However, I didn't realize this at first. I was vainly trying to find "Freiburg" on the little ticket screen and ran across "Fribourg". Fully sleep deprived, I somehow convinced myself that "Fribourg" must be what I'm looking for, and that's simply how the Swiss spell it. Turns out this Fribourg is in France. And I had already boarded the train. And it was already moving. So after a brief conversation with a train officer guy who spoke bad English, I had to get off at some town called Olten and head back to Basel. By the time I got to Basel, and by the time I realized I was at the wrong damn station, it was 12:30 am and the next train to Freiburg didn't leave until 5:19 am.
I was happy to be home for Christmas. Germany was getting to be frustrating and two weeks at home allowed me to centre myself a little bit and prioritize. I'm going to worry less about how I'm doing in school and focus more on the opportunities I have living abroad for a year. I'm not necessarily giving up on school this year, or anything like that, I've just come to the realization that there are probably more important things I could be doing right now. I am practically in the middle of Europe. I might as well live it up while I'm here, because who knows if I'll be back?
The only down side to coming home at Christmas for two weeks is that I have effectively forgotten a good chunk of German. I'm not really at square one again...more like square three and a half. Which basically means, I've got all the German grammar rules down, but I can't understand what the hell people are saying to me. I was just starting to get the hang of it, even if I couldn't reply very well. Oh well. It was worth it to come home.
The better part of two days without sleep has an interesting effect on a human being. Physically, lack of sleep makes the body feel sluggish and heavy, the upper body seemingly dragging the lower extremities around in a comical fashion. The body starts to shake and fidget as the muscles demand a respite from being forced to do, well, anything for two straight days. Dark circles grow underneath the eyes, while the eyes themselves burn intensely, as a result of ones eye lids being forced open, threatening to crash down at any moment. Mentally, the brain loses all sense of purpose, quite ridiculously forgetting that purpose is to THINK. Mundane things become fascinating, and the mind recoils in horror after spending two hours trying to figure out who in their right mind would ever fly in an airplane (one is essentially hurtling through the air in a giant, sheet metal hot dog, but I digress). A person winds up making silly errors that results in their being stuck in a train station in Switzerland, babbling on about how interesting lack of sleep is.
AND people are making out next to me. In the train station. It's me, an Asian girl reading a book, and two people making out on a bench. High five! *+
*Editors note: Customs agents arrested a loud Asian man and hauled him back and forth through out the train station. Also, what is the deal with people making out around me? Everywhere I go, people are engaging in tongue kung fu with each other, usually within 10 feet of me. Am I some kind of walking aphrodisiac for other people? "Quick Matt's here, let's make out!"
+Editors other note: I made it out of Switzerland, by the way. There are two train stations in Basel, and the bus at the airport takes you the one called the SBB. This train station only has trains that run throughout Switzerland and France. The other one, Badischer Bahnhof, is the German train station, which is where I needed to be. However, I didn't realize this at first. I was vainly trying to find "Freiburg" on the little ticket screen and ran across "Fribourg". Fully sleep deprived, I somehow convinced myself that "Fribourg" must be what I'm looking for, and that's simply how the Swiss spell it. Turns out this Fribourg is in France. And I had already boarded the train. And it was already moving. So after a brief conversation with a train officer guy who spoke bad English, I had to get off at some town called Olten and head back to Basel. By the time I got to Basel, and by the time I realized I was at the wrong damn station, it was 12:30 am and the next train to Freiburg didn't leave until 5:19 am.
I was happy to be home for Christmas. Germany was getting to be frustrating and two weeks at home allowed me to centre myself a little bit and prioritize. I'm going to worry less about how I'm doing in school and focus more on the opportunities I have living abroad for a year. I'm not necessarily giving up on school this year, or anything like that, I've just come to the realization that there are probably more important things I could be doing right now. I am practically in the middle of Europe. I might as well live it up while I'm here, because who knows if I'll be back?
The only down side to coming home at Christmas for two weeks is that I have effectively forgotten a good chunk of German. I'm not really at square one again...more like square three and a half. Which basically means, I've got all the German grammar rules down, but I can't understand what the hell people are saying to me. I was just starting to get the hang of it, even if I couldn't reply very well. Oh well. It was worth it to come home.
Monday, November 26, 2007
"New Adventures in Laundry" and Other Stories Volume 2
I have no idea why there are only four washing machines for a building of nearly 200 people, but such is the case. Not only that, but washing machines in this country are maybe half the size of the ones back home, so doing a full load is usually a two to three hour event.
It is now a ritual among the Canadians here to have pancakes on Sundays, then spend most of the afternoon/evening in the Irish pub. They make excellent shepherds pie, something I've been dying for since I left Canada. Not quite as good as Nan's, but pretty good nonetheless!
I'm heading home for Christmas on December 18th. I'm pretty excited about that. Food I am looking forward to:
- Canadian cheddar cheese
- Wendy's...Arby's...terrible fast food in general
- S'mores Poptarts
- Nan's shepherds pie
- Ketchup that doesn't taste like tomatoey barf
I really shouldn't complain so much; Germany is a pretty cool place overall. We even had a little bit of snow last week! It didn't stick around in town, but up in the Schauinsland and around the peaks of the Black Forest you can still see snow on the trees and stuff, which is pretty nice.
I saw Die Hard 4 for sale at Müllers (German equivalent of HBC), except in German it is called "Stirb Langsam" which translated literally means "Die Slowly".
I finally watched Zeitgeist the other day. Pretty interesting movie, it makes you think at least. I'm pretty skeptical of everything, conspiracy-theory type movies notwithstanding, but there were definitely several parts of it that I seriously could not debate. I recommend those who haven't seen it, watch it at least some time in your life.
Oh, a few weeks ago I went to Nottingham, England, to visit a friend. It was a pretty good time, nice to be around English speakers for a change. Robin Hood and Kevin Costner look nothing alike. I hope to go back to England at some point. I'm flying out of there at Christmas time, but I think the next time I go back, I'll start in Scotland and make my way south. I have two months or so when I'm not in school, so there will be lots of time to travel. And, of course, I have to spend Saint Patrick's Day in Ireland. A group of us are thinking about all going to Dublin together, so that should be interesting!
I guess das ist alles for now, just thought I'd let interested people know that I'm still alive!
Viel Spaß
- Matt
It is now a ritual among the Canadians here to have pancakes on Sundays, then spend most of the afternoon/evening in the Irish pub. They make excellent shepherds pie, something I've been dying for since I left Canada. Not quite as good as Nan's, but pretty good nonetheless!
I'm heading home for Christmas on December 18th. I'm pretty excited about that. Food I am looking forward to:
- Canadian cheddar cheese
- Wendy's...Arby's...terrible fast food in general
- S'mores Poptarts
- Nan's shepherds pie
- Ketchup that doesn't taste like tomatoey barf
I really shouldn't complain so much; Germany is a pretty cool place overall. We even had a little bit of snow last week! It didn't stick around in town, but up in the Schauinsland and around the peaks of the Black Forest you can still see snow on the trees and stuff, which is pretty nice.
I saw Die Hard 4 for sale at Müllers (German equivalent of HBC), except in German it is called "Stirb Langsam" which translated literally means "Die Slowly".
I finally watched Zeitgeist the other day. Pretty interesting movie, it makes you think at least. I'm pretty skeptical of everything, conspiracy-theory type movies notwithstanding, but there were definitely several parts of it that I seriously could not debate. I recommend those who haven't seen it, watch it at least some time in your life.
Oh, a few weeks ago I went to Nottingham, England, to visit a friend. It was a pretty good time, nice to be around English speakers for a change. Robin Hood and Kevin Costner look nothing alike. I hope to go back to England at some point. I'm flying out of there at Christmas time, but I think the next time I go back, I'll start in Scotland and make my way south. I have two months or so when I'm not in school, so there will be lots of time to travel. And, of course, I have to spend Saint Patrick's Day in Ireland. A group of us are thinking about all going to Dublin together, so that should be interesting!
I guess das ist alles for now, just thought I'd let interested people know that I'm still alive!
Viel Spaß
- Matt
Monday, November 5, 2007
"Matthew Goes to School" and Other Stories, Volume 1
Hello! I know I said I would lower the gap of time between entries but, hey, I'm a liar!
I don't really have much to add anyway, I felt compelled to write though.
I am sick. I have the worst chest cold I have ever had, the kind where it hurts to breathe and your whole body is sore from coughing so hard. Also: I lost my voice. I have never lost my voice, ever. So whenever someone speaks to me, I can only gesture and/or nod my head emphatically. It feels more ridiculous when I am being spoken to by a German, because I think I add EXTRA emphasis to my head nods, as if to say "I swear to God I'm not a moron, I just can't talk".
School started for me a few weeks back. I had to drop two courses that I was taking through the University because they were ridiculously hard. Miles above my level understanding that's for sure. So I've decided to take German as a second language courses at the Sprachler Institute. This is where the fun begins. The way credits work at Trent University is that you need 20 if you are completing an honours degree, so most people take five per year, which is what I have been doing.
A few weeks ago, we (as in, the Canucks in the exchange program) had been told that each German course we took here, including the German as a second language ones, would be worth .5 of a credit. We considered that fair, considering how much less work you have to do for each class here, so it's no big deal taking 5 classes this semester and 5 next.
However, a few days ago, we were told by the wonderful machine that is Trent administration that our German as a second language courses are now only worth .25 of a credit. What the hell is that? .25 of a credit? Yeah, the work load is less here, but we still do WORK. The credit isn't even worth the amount of work involved.
I'm not entirely screwed though. I'm taking all of my resident professors courses, which are worth 3 credits. So if I'm taking hers, plus the two GaSL courses this semester, hopefully my German will be good enough that I can attempt to tackle three Proseminare courses next semester.
Anyway, on to something less boring.
In five days, I'm going to England! I'm pretty excited, I really liked England the last time I was there. I'm going to visit a friend of mine who lives in Nottingham, so that should be fun. I think I'm mostly excited to spend a few days in a country where everyone speaks English.
Halloween last Wednesday was also a blast, I shall put up a picture.
Josh, the guy on the far right didn't get dressed up. Catwoman is not actually a woman, but a guy friend named Terry. He is a colourful character, that is for sure.
I wish I was capable of really growing facial hair like the kind that is drawn on my face in that picture.
Also, a tidbit of German culture I now feel compelled to share. Germany has normal toilets. But they also have slightly odd toilets. Now, what's odd about these toilets, is that they have what foreigners like to call "a poop shelf". It isn't just a normal bowl on the inside, these toilets seriously have a ledge in the middle, with the drain closer to the front of the bowl. I'm not really sure what to make of it, other than that Germans seem to have a strange obsession with their own poop.
Anyway, on that note, I'm off to wage war against my cold. So long for now.
- Matt
I don't really have much to add anyway, I felt compelled to write though.
I am sick. I have the worst chest cold I have ever had, the kind where it hurts to breathe and your whole body is sore from coughing so hard. Also: I lost my voice. I have never lost my voice, ever. So whenever someone speaks to me, I can only gesture and/or nod my head emphatically. It feels more ridiculous when I am being spoken to by a German, because I think I add EXTRA emphasis to my head nods, as if to say "I swear to God I'm not a moron, I just can't talk".
School started for me a few weeks back. I had to drop two courses that I was taking through the University because they were ridiculously hard. Miles above my level understanding that's for sure. So I've decided to take German as a second language courses at the Sprachler Institute. This is where the fun begins. The way credits work at Trent University is that you need 20 if you are completing an honours degree, so most people take five per year, which is what I have been doing.
A few weeks ago, we (as in, the Canucks in the exchange program) had been told that each German course we took here, including the German as a second language ones, would be worth .5 of a credit. We considered that fair, considering how much less work you have to do for each class here, so it's no big deal taking 5 classes this semester and 5 next.
However, a few days ago, we were told by the wonderful machine that is Trent administration that our German as a second language courses are now only worth .25 of a credit. What the hell is that? .25 of a credit? Yeah, the work load is less here, but we still do WORK. The credit isn't even worth the amount of work involved.
I'm not entirely screwed though. I'm taking all of my resident professors courses, which are worth 3 credits. So if I'm taking hers, plus the two GaSL courses this semester, hopefully my German will be good enough that I can attempt to tackle three Proseminare courses next semester.
Anyway, on to something less boring.
In five days, I'm going to England! I'm pretty excited, I really liked England the last time I was there. I'm going to visit a friend of mine who lives in Nottingham, so that should be fun. I think I'm mostly excited to spend a few days in a country where everyone speaks English.
Halloween last Wednesday was also a blast, I shall put up a picture.
Josh, the guy on the far right didn't get dressed up. Catwoman is not actually a woman, but a guy friend named Terry. He is a colourful character, that is for sure.
I wish I was capable of really growing facial hair like the kind that is drawn on my face in that picture.
Also, a tidbit of German culture I now feel compelled to share. Germany has normal toilets. But they also have slightly odd toilets. Now, what's odd about these toilets, is that they have what foreigners like to call "a poop shelf". It isn't just a normal bowl on the inside, these toilets seriously have a ledge in the middle, with the drain closer to the front of the bowl. I'm not really sure what to make of it, other than that Germans seem to have a strange obsession with their own poop.
Anyway, on that note, I'm off to wage war against my cold. So long for now.
- Matt
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