Why is Britain so much cooler?

You know what I hate? typing "favorite" into Word and having it automatically corrected as "favourite." You think maybe there is a reason that word is misspelled so often that you need an automatic checker function for it? You think maybe it's the same reason that we dropped that ridiculous little u in there? Haha . . . now I am ranting. I just don't understand why everyone learns and uses British English, and why no one even thinks of teaching American English. It's kind of insulting. I'd be fine if it was random, but they actually pick British English--like it's the 'right' one or something. Granted, they've got a country over there that the language was named after, but seriously--There's like 50 Mill of them and 300 Mill of us. I'll add a little addendum here . . . I realize that there are many more people who speak English like the Brits--actually, I'm not really sure of that--I guess I just assumed. I was just really mad at the word processor. Plus--that word processor was friggin developed in the US! And the spell checker probably was too! So no, I will not spell favorite with a 'u' just because silly 'English' spell checker thinks that I should. I'm from America! And oh man . . . some people think it's an insult when other people use the word 'America' and are just talking about the US. Thank you. Thank you very much. That feels really great. I thought I was an open minded person. I thought I was tolerant. It turns out that there is a bit of American pride (and a bit of southerner) still left in me. oh yes, and this is still very much a rant, but seriously? America is just not cool to anyone outside of it. It's even uncool to think that America is cool. Man. Except for the jeans--the jeans are cool. Well, I think we are good people. So spell checker is a funny thing to use as a metaphor, but it's everywhere--plus I got really mad at my spellchecker today.

Anyway, it is good that at least nobody judges me when I tell them I'm from America. They all seem pretty open to the individuals. It's just the idea that they don't like. I was kind of afraid to get an American flag and wave it around, but now I kinda want one. It won't do me any good, though, because no one will be playing the US-Ghana game Thursday, because it's at the same time as the Italy-Czech game, because guess what! Italy is cooler than America . . . well . . . actually, I guess Italy is a little cooler than us. Oh well, I'll have to watch it in the comfort of my own office building. And now that I've ranted . . . I suppose this is officially a blog. haha. Can't have a blog without ranting, eh?

I randomly met some people I knew on the bus today, and we went out to watch the Germany game. Germany won (yay). It was fun, and I have discovered that I really kinda like soccer. It's kinda cool. I don't even know why. Maybe it's the roomful of cheering fans. Who knows? But then we went out to dinner and had these conversations about how some Canadians and other american countries are a offended when people say 'America' and mean the US. haha. the undfortunate spell checker incident was before that--while I was still at work. Today should be a fun day. ;-)

Kendall

Music: Sufjan Stevens

Europe is so friggin expensive

because everything here is 1.25 times the price you think it is . . .

So this weekend I went to Robocup in Bremen and visited a few people from MIT including Andrew, Cindy, and Bob. The Robocup was friggin awesome. The MIT team had built 4 little . . . 3/4 ft tall, 6in diam ish . . . robots. They ran around a little soccer field and played with the other teams!! well, sometimes they did. They did really awesomely (is that a word?), though, considering they were mostly undergrads in an 8 month old extracurricular robotics club against grad students on 5 year old teams formed through classes . . . and most teams don't even compete in their first year! MIT student continue to amaze me. I think that when we set our minds to something, it gets done! (it's because we're trained to run without sleep, I think.) Anyway, it was lots of fun, and I got my dinner paid for a few times, because we mostly went out with the team, and they paid (geez loueez, they were sponsered by HP, Dell, Google, Microsoft, and I think 2 different departments and both MIT and Harvard.). Bremen was cool. Mostly we had authentic german food on the river and soberly enjoyed ourselves because the team was on probation for something nearly all of them didn't do in Georgia . . . but you know I had to buy a beer just to pick on them . . .

I got back on Saturday afternoon, and went out to watch the US not suck it up in soccer! It was great! a friend of mine from MIT brought out an American flag and started waving it around, and I feared for his life. But he turned out fine. At least I think he did . . . I can't say I've seen him in the past 36 hours . . .

Sunday I got up a little early (it was too early, and I still missed the first train) and hopped a train with Neel to Koblenz and then down to Sankt Goar. Koblenz was cool. we walked around there for a bit and looked down the Rhein and at all the cool architecture. We wished it wasn't so hot, thought. We then went on down to Sankt Goar and walked up a mountain to see a castle! It was really cool. It was however, very sad that by the time we got all the way up there they had just closed. Apparently you could run around inside of it. It was really just what remained of the castle. Part of it was destroyed way back when (I don't remember--it was a long time ago). We then went to a german restaurant and had some nice white wine from the area. It was great and the food was, too! Then we hopped back on a train, rode all the way back to Aachen, I got home, and fell down on my bed. whew. That was tiring.

Today I went to the post office, and if you get a post card from me, you should be very happy, because it costs a whole euro to send a postcard! I don't even know how long it will take, either. My dad was a little worried that I would fall in love over here and end up staying, but I don't really think that's going to be a problem. It just seems so cut off here. Maybe it's my american point of view, but it's terribly frustrating when it costs $1.25 to send a postcard, around 5$ for an hour long phone call, .29 euro/min for any sort of cell phone convo or a dollar if you've got an american plan. I don't understand why everything is so expensive. It seems like it would be much easier to live in America and be calling europe every now and then but America most of the time instead of the other way around.

I think that's all for today. I'll put pictures up sometime, I swear

Kendall


Music: I've got this playlist "boyz boyz" that I listened to for most of the Bremen trip. It's got all male (I think) rock bands in it like Jack's Manequin, 3EB, Mollys Yes, Stroke 9, JEW, The Killers, Eve 6. For the Sankt Goar trip, mostly the Pixies and Modest Mouse--float on! Right now it's Modest Mouse, Panic! At the Disco, Mollys Yes, and O-zone. heh