well you can just tuck your shirt into your fancy (under)pants

I rode the 11 to school today. It always has more fun people than the 6. There was one older man who tucked his shirt into his underwear. The reason that I was privy to this fact is that even though he had suspenders to raise his pants to an appropriate height, his underwear band was still quite visible. My first thought was, "how can that be comfortable?", and my second thought was "I wonder if this guy has always done this or if he only started that later in life. Maybe he thinks that’s what everyone does." Your thoughts are appreciated as well.

A second example: also on the bus was a girl with a shirt that said on the front "looking for a blind date" and on the back "good luck". I couldn't decide if this was some jab at the visually impaired or if she was trying to say "hey, you might think you can date me, but i'm so beyond that." Ideas?

I went hiking and climbing with the entire lab group at Schoenhoffen yesterday. Here's a picture of Liz and Eva while we were hiking.


oh Giovanni, you crazy Italian you.


Paint was used to circle where Gio and I are on the cliff, Jiri is on his way up to meet us there.

Should I fear the sea lion?

This weekend I had a DAAD conference. The people that organized my scholarship were that, and that was really cool. As well, 22 of 23 people with the scholarship were there. We don't know what happened to number 23. The people were from all over the US and Canada and one guy was even from Puerto Rico. The DAAD is great. If anyone is interested in international study in Germany, they should really check them out.

We went to the zoo on Sunday! It was our group of 15 college students and 1000 families with toddler-aged children. The sea lion was revolting, but I couldn't take my eyes of him.


In further news:
Today is Danis' birthday! First I have to comment how cool it is to have a girlfriend who's name can be made possessive by just adding an apostrophe. Secondly, I want to wish her a happy birthday. Everyone else should as well. There may be consequences if you don't.

Tina Turner und Lionel Richie

Ich denke ich soll etwas auf Deutsch schreiben. Ich glaube mien Schreiben auf Deutsch ist nicht wichtig zu lesen. Ich werde auf English schreiben ueber Musik ein bisschen. Ich hasse das Screensaver des Thomas Computer. Genug.

I met my first Germans in my Jungendwohnheim (dorm) now that I have two weeks left there. We were hanging out in Thom's room and the other (i dont know his name) demanded that we listen to a Tina Turner song. He then garbbled something in half German half English speak about how sexy he thought she was. I've never laughed more during 'You're simply the best'.

Have you heard Lionel Richie's new song? They play it on the radio here about three times a day, so I think I might be starting to like it. Its not my summer song though. Nothing has come to my ears that can matches Summer 2003's 'Crazy in Love'. Have you found a summer song? All I really know is 'Just for you' is definently bound to be a hit on the adult contemporary chart.

Did you know that goole has a feature where you can look at catalouges? I found this one. Remember the song "Knights in White Satin". Wasnt that song about drugs? Well, this company decided to sell their cuddily, warm pajamas by alluding to this. Check out Nights in White Flannel.

I think I might purchase this shirt. It says "My other shirt has its collar up." I am also attracted to this one as well but I think that brett may beat me to it. There are some other nice ones on bustedtees.com. Which should I purchase? It could be my first day of school shirt.

Genug. Servus.

Photographie

Roma: Raquel, me, Marco, Ember


Fireze: I really love the statues outside of the Uffizi


Lake Garda: This doesn't even do the view from the backyard justice

words today, pictures monday

Yes, I have returned safely from Italy.  Thomas told me I could not come to work today, and I think I'm going to take him up on that.  I slept late, and I'm just lounging around the city now.
 
Let me tell you about Italy:
The trip was a success.  I went from the fast-pace-ness of Rome (Roma in Italian, Rom auf Deutsch), to the more laid back tourist city of Florence (Fireze, Florenz), to the completely relaxing and wonderful city of Salo' on Lake Garde. 
 
Did lots of the sightseeing and exploring in Rome.  I stayed until about 4 or 5 every night.  Marco would get off work at about 12:30 and then we would go out.  Marco was an amazing host.  I plan to be really hospitable to anyone who wants to come and visit Fayetteville because of him.

I'm going to have to go ahead and warn you that mullets are coming back in style.  All the fancy-dressing Italians in Rome and Florence are sporting them.  I don't know if this trend will be transported to us, but I just wanted to give you the heads up.  I was trying to think of the first person we know that would try to pull one off.  I have a few ideas.  What do you think?  Ember has this friend named Raquel from Alabama (I call her Alabama).  She and I played a game where we would make a big scene and point out all mullets that passed our way.
 
Not only did I travel in Italy, I made money there!  I am an official street performer now.  Ember and I serenaded passers by on the Pont du Vecchio, near the market, and by the Uffizi with acapella opera.  Our first performance was at the Pont du Vecchio, and we thought that maybe we'd make a couple of Euro.  We ended up getting 100Euro with all three performances.  It payed for our hostel and train tickets.  So crazy.
 
Lake Garda was just absolutely relaxing.  I could have stayed there another week easily.  I got lots of sun, and hung out in Gabrielle's awesome mansion.
 
I'll post some pictures of what I saw on Monday.
 
I've decided to maximize my German learning in my final three weeks of European learning.  I'm attempting to at least speak no English.  Posts here are going to be shorter or in German, so I can limit the amount of English I use.  I have so little time!

molto bella

Roma is so great.

My first meal in Italy was some good, old fashioned Chineese food; however, I redeemed my eating today beacuse Marco, the guy I'm staying with, made Ember and I this huge and amazing Italian meal.

Rome night life dies down about 2. Marco and I got back to his place a little after 3:30. Apparently this is not unusal.

I'm going to go to the Spainish steps now. I'll let you know if Gucci has anything you need. Later I'll be seeing Ember singing in die Zauberfloete (the Magic Flute).

Arkansas: Its Arkansaw not Ar-kansas

Today I will be finishing the synthesis of Boc-B-Ala-OH and Boc-Gly-Gly-OH. Wo!

A German asked me the size and population differences between Arkansas and Germany and I had to do some research. I really should go back to 5th grade AR history:
1. Arkansas is 137,733 sq km (53,179 sq mi)(28th state by size) and has 2,673,400 people
2. German has a total area of 356,970 sq km (137,827 sq mi) (the 7th largest country in Europe) and has 82,424,609 people.
3. This is how you explain why we say "Arkansaw" and not "Ar-kansas": The name Arkansas comes from Arkansa, the French name for Native Americans of the Quapaw tribe and the region they inhabited. The s was added as a plural, though it remains silent in the pronunciation formally adopted by the state'’s legislature.

*All information taken from Encarta.com

I finally got to do some outdoor climbing, and it was great. The cliffs we were climbing were about 30m high. It was nice to get to use my new harness(Kletterguertel) and shoes(Klettershue) on real rock and not just on the wall in the gym. I've learned lots of climbing jargon in German (and some in Italian: corte=rope). I guess I should brush up on my Italin since I'm going to Roma tomorrow.

Feet, fireworks, and fun

I am apparently too early for work. Thomas is not here yet.

Danis gave me some paper slippers as a joke. I thought it was completely acceptable to wear them. I think my feet look like they belong in a nursing home.


Dont worry! The Germans knew it was the Fourth of July, so they had some fireworks for me. (Or maybe they were celebrating their bridge.) This is one of them:


I was thinking about Zoolander this morning, and I was wondering if Ben Stiller is still married to that Hey Dude girl. Can anyone help me out here? I only really remember one episode of that show. In it, whoever the boss guy was decided it would be a good idea to spell "Dude Ranch" in big letter with rocks for planes that flew over to see. Someone thought it would be funny to change the first letter and make it "Nude Ranch". Of course guests began to arrive without clothing. That Nickelodeon, so clever.

Lots of things for you to click

Its my last day in Stefan and Gio's lab. Yesterday Giovanni put up some balloons in the lab. I think they're quite festive.

I've got my final product evaporating on the rotovap. Next week I start work with Thomas. He shares a lab with Michael. This is Dr. Koenig's research group website.

I got my first haircut in Europe on Tuesday. I should have kept a little piece of my hair or something. I was really impressed by the girl that cut my hair. She was very meticulous with it, and she did everything that I like my haircutter to do. This is what my hair looks like now. You can also reference the periodic table for any information that you might need.

I just bought my tickets to fly to Roma next week! Its really cheap to fly around Europe. I used airberlin.com to make my reservation. Ryanair.com is also really good, but they don't have a airport hub near me. I'm going to visit Ember who is singing in an opera there. We'll be in Rome for a while and then we're going to Lago di Como which is a lake to the north of the city. She has a friend who has a mansion on the lake, and I was offered a stay. How could I refuse?

I go climbing with Giovanni and some other guys from the lab. I now own my own harness and climbing shoes, so if anyone wants to go when I get back home, let me know. We can at least hit up the hper. We were supposed to go climbing outside yesterday, but it was really overcast and rainy. The day before though, we climbed for two hours. I did my first lead climb.

I made a movie out of lots of pictures I took of a keyboard and pen, and somehow I made it like they were migrating towards each other or were in love or something crazy. I luckily rethought this course of action and made This video. That one is a little depressing though due to the music, so this one is a little more funky.

If you didn't see it to the right. Check out Time magazine's list of cool websites. They really are entertaining.

This makes me want to become a mountainbiker.