Enough with the German jokes

Yes, yes, the hills are alive.

2006-08-07T05:48:00.000-07:00

Dude. that's like the only thing that anyone knows about switzerland . . . they all get the same picture in their heads of the von Trap family hiking around in the alps. Well, from my experience, I think they'd need to be wearing a little more than what they had on in the movie in order to not perish from hypothermia.

Anyway, Switzerland is gorgeous, and you must go if you are able. Most of the pictures are landscapes, because the country is just, well, so beautiful! It was awesome. Anyway, we took and overnight train and arrived in the town we were supposed to meet Karl in around 9:15. We saw lots of waterfalls and pretty mountains and things on the way. I found a funny sign
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/Switzerland/slides/Switzerland%20012.html
It says 'not smart' over the lady and 'not a cow' under the other guy. We were really hungry, and Ling and Vanessa wanted some hot food. One of them asked for chicken--we weren't sure why, but she did, so Sam and I went off to the supermarket to see if we could bag some breakfast. We found a chicken. a whole one. so we bought it. We brought it back with some bread and cheese, and had a really good breakfast (we ate the whoooole chicke, btw). We were supposed to go hiking, but it was raining and no one had any kind of rain gear or even any real hiking gear, because we just really came to Europe to be tourists. so we debated taking the ski lifts up the mountain in order to get to the hostel we were supposed to stay at that night. Here's us in front of the ski lifts.
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/Switzerland/slides/Switzerland%20013.html
yeah, you can probably guess that I made fun of Karl a lot when he was wearing that rain gear. You should have seen him turn to the side. He had a huge hiking backpack on, and so he looked kinda like a camel walking on 2 legs with that poncho on. hehe. love you, Karl! We decided that was too expensive, and the train was free, so we took the train up the mountain to another little town that had a bus up to the place we were staying. Funniest bus driver I've ever had. And I spose it helped his case that he spoke Swiss-German. Such a funny language. really cool. When we got there we decided to do a mini hike and walked around in the Alps for awhile, because it had stopped raining. We saw some cool lakes and little houses and lots of cows.
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/Switzerland/slides/Switzerland%20050.html
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/Switzerland/slides/Switzerland%20058.html
this is a fun picture, because Sam thinks he is spiderman in it and we all kinda look crooked even though we are not . . .
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/Switzerland/slides/Switzerland%20063.html
We went back to the hostel, had dinner, and played chinese poker and then a game called Kent for awhile. It was fun, and I was singing German songs all night long . . .

The next morning the clouds moved in. It was really foggy. Even the cows thought so
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/Switzerland/slides/Switzerland%20074.html
This is the little place we stayed in
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/Switzerland/slides/Switzerland%20072.html
We hopped back on the bus with the crazy cool bus driver, because it was indeed still raining pretty hard, so we couldn't hike down. We had a few hours to kill, so we decided to visit Bern. It was a nice city, we had some good food, I made fun on Sam's shirt
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/Switzerland/slides/Switzerland%20082.html
and we saw some bears and a cathedral and a few other places in Bern. Then we hopped on a train and headed home.

I had to finish this quick, because I'm going to Italy in a few hours, and if I don't write about this now, I'll never do it, I'm sure!!

Anyway, got to get back to work. I'm leaving Germany in 2 weeks from tomorrow! wow!

Kendall

Music: Wir Sing Helden, die Ärzte, 3EB, 2Raumwohnung, Wise guys, and some random Jack's mannequin in there.

Tipecanoo and Tigger too!

2006-08-01T06:21:00.000-07:00

Alright, so there's really no reason to use that William Henry Harrison reference, but it's so much fun! Can you blame me? If I ever run for President, I'm going to have to up my slogan from "Kendall like the square" or "Kendall like the lights in the Church" (for the Germans) to something else entirely. and Tippecanoe is already taken! ooh, maybe something about Tippi Hedren . . . it's close

Anyway, I would just like to say that I went to work today with a peanutbutter and jelly sandwich . . . and everybody looked at me funny. It was awesome. I even sung them the song! Obviously, they didn't know it, but I let it go. They thought I was pretty funny . . . and then a little while later I noticed my friend Ruth was wearing a tigger shirt, so I asked her if she knew that song . . . she did a little, so we sung it, but she saw that I knew all of the words, so when someone else asked about her shirt, she said it was from Winnie the Pooh, and that there was a song and that I knew all of the words. Which of course ended with them encouraging me to sing the whole song for them. Again I was entertainment for the Germans. I'll let you in on a little secret. I don't actually know all the words, but you sing that song so fast anyway, that who can tell?

Some line I don't know that ends in tiggers?
Tiggers are wonderful things!
Their tops are made out of rubber
Their bottoms are made out of springs!
Their bouncy, *ouncy, *ouncy, *ouncy,
fun fun fun fun fun!
* * the most wonderful thing about tiggers is
I'm the only one!

It's a pretty easy song, I dunno what I don't know all the words ;-)

hehe all done

Kendall

Music: Ruth gave me a list of German bands that I've been listening to. I've got one that's like the German version of Usher and one that's like the German version of Sting. Haha. there's also some actual bands like "Wir sind Helden" who I like a lot, and die toten Hosen. Which means the dead pants or the murdered pants or somthing . . . I dunno, man

The Muscles from Brussels

2006-07-31T06:21:00.000-07:00

We went to Brussels this weekend! Apparently Jean Claude Van Dam is from Brussels . . . hence "The Muscles from Brussels"--don't worry, I didn't come up with that on my own. I'm not getting more clever. Apparently it's a pretty old one . . .

Anyway, of course I always analyze the engineering skills of the people of the city and this was the first thing we came across in Brussels:
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/Brussels/slides/Brussels%20002.html
I was super disappointed. I think it's the stupidest escalator design I've seen so far--it didn't have steps. It was just a very disorienting slant. anyway, I forgave them for the escalator since we just got there and I was sure there were a lot more interesting things in Brussels than an escalator. I was right!

We walked to the main square of the city. It was called Grote Markt in Dutch. I don't know what it was called in Frech--everything there was in French and Dutch, and with a background in English and German, one can kind of almost decipher Dutch and a few of the latin routes in French. So all in all, we were doing pretty well in the city. Anyway, here's some pictures of Grote Markt
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/Brussels/slides/Brussels%20003.html
Next we went to a very large Cathedral
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/Brussels/slides/Brussels%20007.html
There were some cool things in the Cathedral including a pretty good view
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/Brussels/slides/Brussels%20009.html
a crazy pulpit
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/Brussels/slides/Brussels%20012.html
a pretty old statue in memorial of St. John Baptist De LaSalle
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/Brussels/slides/Brussels%20013.html
a crazy looking organ
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/Brussels/slides/Brussels%20018.html
and big ol' statues of the 12 apostles. Which turned out to be not quite right. I decided to test my knowledge of the 12 apostles using a little rhyme taught to me by my principal, Mrs. Smith, in like 6th grade, I think, and tried to pick them all out. I couldn't understand why I was counting 12 when Judas definitly wasn't there, and the guy who took his place wasn't either. Shortly after that I discovered that when I saw the name Paul, I converted it to Simon in my head, because I knew there was one that changed his name from Simon and Simon was in the rhyme . . . maybe I've been listening to too much Simon and Garfunkle. anyway, Paul's not and apostle! And Simon changed his name to Peter and there was also a Simon . . . so complicated. Then Sam decided he wanted to try to learn my rhyme. hehe. wow. I believe I've already talked about this far too long.

After the Catherdral, we headed over to the Manekin Pis
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/Brussels/slides/Brussels%20023.html
I'm serious. That's really his name, that's really what he's doing, and he really is pretty famous. There were a lot of people around him taking picture--more than you'd think for a statue of a little boy peeing. Anyway, there are a few myths as to how exactly Brussels came upon a fountain of a little boy peeing, but the more popular one is that a kid got lost and his father was frantically searching for him for a few days and when he finally found him, he was so grateful that he ordered a statue be made of his son in the exact position he was discovered in. . . . I think it's kinda lame. haha. I personally like the one about a little boy who was peeing on a witches door when she found him and turned him to stone. hehe . . . but I would like that one better. Anyway, the statue is naked, and some people thought it would be cute to make him costumes and such, and then a lot of people thought that would be cute, so there's this whole museum of little costumes that were given to Brussles, I'm told . . . I didn't go inside.

In other news, Sam is a dog
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/Brussels/slides/Brussels%20027.html
yup. you heard it here first. We went into this little bar just across the street from the Manekin Pis to sample some Belgian beer--that stuff is awesome. Ah, and here's the sign trying to prevent misuse of their bathrooms. so funny.
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/Brussels/slides/Brussels%20029.html
It looks like it rhymes in Dutch, too . . . I dunno about French, though. Mmmmm . . . Belgian beer is yummy. All of it. There's like 4 differnt types of beer that are specific to Belgium, too. wow. Here's funny guys walking down the street wacing flags and palying music and stuff. no idea what that was about
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/Brussels/slides/Brussels%20032.html
We kind of decided that Belgium was the city of the good view
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/Brussels/slides/Brussels%20037.html
The cities kind of built on a few levels, so if you go up, you can see the rest of the city really well, and it's quite amazing. Look, it's me in front of the Palace. You think they'll let me in?
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/Brussels/slides/Brussels%20043.html
They did . . . although they weren't too keen on me sitting on their steps while I waited for Sam and Kunal to get done inside. I was a little annoyed at them, but I'm sure they were annoyed at all the tourists. Hehe. here's a little girl in the subway. I dunno what the art here is all about, but I felt like I'd seen something like it before in the US. Any ideas?
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/Brussels/slides/Brussels%20070.html

Anyway, the next day, we saw a cool palace, went in a museum, had more wafels (the wafels are really great, too!), and were still amazed at how much ink these guys used when they wanted to print something
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/Brussels/slides/Brussels%20093.html
Saw some cool paintings--which I don't really like to take pictures of (if you haven't noticed, I usually don't take pictures in museums . . . dunno why. not unless something really gets me . . . or maybe I wanna look up something later. Like the french on this note here
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/Brussels/slides/Brussels%20095.html
dude. I've no idea what is going on, but it seems pretty important. After then museum, we had a nice 5 beer sampler at one of the bars--all of them were awesome, like I said, because they're from Brussels. heh.

oh yeah, and here's the atomium
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/Brussels/slides/Brussels%20084.html
For all my course 3 friends, it's a really really big iron crystal structure, and you can walk around inside. We didn't, though, because we were told it cost a few euros that we did not have, and it was waaaaay across town--which isn't too bad, because Brussels is pretty small, but by 2pm on Sunday, we really didn't have a lot of time left.

So we and our tired feet hopped on a rather short Thalys train, considering how long the half that went another way was--we almost missed it it was so short! And took the ride home.

Cool beans. Brussles is fun

Kendall

Music: uhh . . . Something Corporate . . . Sujan Stevens. I dunno. I was really sleeping for most of the train ride, and while we were in Brussels, I was making fun of all the people speaking Dutch, so I wasn't listening to music. hehe.

A weekend at home

2006-07-25T13:34:00.000-07:00

This weekend stayed at home, and Karl came to visit! It was nice that I didn't have to ride any trains or worry about getting anywhere . . . We saw Cologne on Saturday and Aachen on Sunday

Cologne is a typical big german city. They have the biggest or the tallest (or something like that) cathedral in the world--or so I was told. And we climbed to the top of it. Something like 500 steps. They were spiral steps, too. I should have taken a picture. It was quite dizzying. Anyway, the cathedral in Köln is huge. It's ridiculous to stand under it and look up.
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/K%F6ln/slides/K%F6ln%20024.html
we climbed to the top and took some pictures of Cologne
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/K%F6ln/slides/K%F6ln%20003.html
here's the inside
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/K%F6ln/slides/K%F6ln%20006.html
and we saw the bells, too! Sadly, they don't change ring with the pull ropes anymore. In fact, the bells don't even swing anymore. The best Karl and I could figure was that there was either something hitting the bell on the outside, or a mechanism that just moved the clapper inside. They still ring, though! One went off while we were up there. It was just a small one, but it was still loud
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/K%F6ln/slides/K%F6ln%20008.html
We also went to the chocolate museum in. yummy.

On Sunday, we stayed in Aachen. I was a little embarassed that I actually hadn't been to most of the tourist sites in Aachen. So I saw them all with Karl. We went to the Rathaus and the Dom. That's German for town hall and cathedral, but it's doesn't really mean the same thing in English (well, I suppose catherdral dose, but . . . you know), so we usually call them by their German names. The Rathaus is pretty impressive for a Rathaus, because Charlemagne built it in Aachen along with the Dom as the center of the Holy Roman Empire, because he apparently had arthritis, and there's hot springs in Aachen that are good for that sort of thing. It is also where the Karl's Prize is awarded each year. The Karl's Prize is given to leaders who are seen as having helped unify (I think it's specifically unify Europe, but I'm not really sure). President Clinton won the award a few years ago. Here's Karl and Clinton!
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/Aachen/slides/Aachen%20011.html
After that we saw the treasury of Aachen (more like the treasury of the Cathedral. They have a lot of crazy stuff . . . the most of which was, I think, the thigh bone of Charlemagne. He was apparently a saint and had some sort of cult following, and back in those days, people collected relics (which were things the saint owned or I spose parts of his body) from saints and then put them in these elaborate encasements (I think there's a word for those, too, but I don't know what it is). Ew, so I saw Charlemagne's thigh bone. They also had his radius and ulna in a large golden hand. There was a little rock crystal window you could see them through. crazy medival europeans. gross.

Then we hiked up to the triple point (Where Germany, the Netherlands, and Blegium meet), and we walked around in a bush labyrinth for about an hour. We were two quite frustrated MIT students. We couldn't seem to figure the way out. We finally got it, though, but we had to sit down and take a good look at the almost map they gave us (it was a very small picture from a long way up in the air). We finally figured it out, and got out alive. hah. Also, most of the festivities around the triple point ar in the Netherlands, so everything was in Dutch. We had a good laugh listening to the people speaking Dutch ;-)

I'm back to work now, I've got a lot to do.

Kendall

Music: Goo Goo Dolls, Train, The Pixies, Third Eye Blind.

A Tale of Two Cities

2006-07-20T07:18:00.000-07:00

So I forgot a something, and I suppose that's good, because this doesn't really belong in the London post.

Anyway, I visited London right after I visited Berlin, and I would say that if you are able to do it that way, then you should, because it's kind of cool. Maybe it also works if you've been to both places, but I thought it was really weird to compare those cities. They had so much in common--they are both humongous with lots and lots of people and many many years of culture along with complicated but still very good subway systems and lots of shopping! But they were also very different. Some of the differences you could see, like the bullet holes in everything in Berlin. A lot of things they didn't even patch up--they just fixed it enough to keep it from falling over, and spent their limited money elsewhere. Some things are even left broken to remind us of the horrors of war. There's a church in Berlin that is missing most of it's roof, because they decided to leave it that way as a kind of memorial. The memorials in the two cities obviously have 2 very different tones. They are all memorials and thus about remembering, but all of the memorials in London are proud. They are for remembering to give inspiration to future generations. They are stories about brave young men and names in stone and lists of countries who sent volunteers to help Britain when they needed it. The memorials in Berlin are very different. They are about remembering so that future generations can see what war and prejudice is like and so they can see why they should do their best to rid the world of these things. There are also stories, but not about brave young men. There are also names on plaques and in stone, but not of soldiers--of poets and great thinkers who no one understood before. But mostly, the memorials are simply places to contemplate things and ideas greater than you, because in Berlin they know that you can't be simply be warned or told of some things. You must understand them completely and believe them in your own heart to be truly effected by them. Kendall

So at least London is cooler . . .

2006-07-18T02:26:00.000-07:00

I was in London this weekend! And I didn't tell anyone that I really had no idea how to spell the name of their country . . . They probably wouldn't have been surprised, but I like to keep up the facade that I at least know a little bit about countries besides the US. But we did have several discussions that started out: 'It's our language--we came up with it,' 'We invented your country,' 'Your country is like the son who ran away from home and now thinks he should run the world,' 'You call that a president?' etc. etc. Which were quickly rebutted with comments such as: 'Well, Tony Blair is our bitch,' 'Maybe we should run the world,' 'The English talk funny,' 'So wait, how many times did we save your asses in World Wars?' and 'Wow. You guys totally stole all that stuff that's in the British Museum, didn't you?' All in all it was a pretty exciting weekend.

But back to the title of this blog . . . London is definitely cooler than most places in the US I would say. Just look at all the old buildings and amazing architecture. And they have memorials and monuments everywhere. They even have living monuments. I mean they have a queen. She doesn't do anything except look cool and for some reason be loved by the English. The only problem is that London knows it's cool. And you can tell, too. Just look at all the people
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/London/slides/London%20004.html
who show up to watch the changing of the guard. Obviously the tradition is ridiculously unneccessary (I always spell that word like that just to demonstrate its meaning that and I can't ever remember whether it's the c or the s I need to lose.), because they only do it once a day (at 11:30am--I mean, when do the guards get to go for tea?) and because they have more real guards with bulletproof vests and huge guns behind the gates. And they've got even more guards in the front of the palace making sure all the people don't go crazy and start asking the guards who are doing the changing for their autograph or something. All of these things, and they still do it just cuz they know it's cool. Just look at these guys.
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/London/slides/London%20011.html
You can just tell they are thinking "oh man. I am so cool marching around in this fuzzy hat. Just look at all those people watching me." I got a few funny looks when I started cracking up when they started marching around. Dude. I want a hat like that. I would be so cool.

After Buckingham Palace, I went and saw Westminster Abbey and the Parliament . . . So around all of these places there signs that all say 'City of Westminster.' Ah that would be why it's called Westminster Abbey. But wait. That means that the Parliament and Buckingham Palace are not in London . . . So the capital of the UK is not London? It's Westminster? I brought this up with many British folk, and most of them were confused by this when I asked them, and I never really got a satisfactory answer, but by the end of the trip I got a conglomeration of answers that summed up to something like: Westminster is a city, but it's not really a city, it's sort of part of London, but not really, and the capital of the UK is London. Anyway, I gave up on that. I'm sure someone has a good response to that which I will never hear. I took lots of pictures of Westminster Abbey and Parliament. I took more pictures of Parliament than I probably should have, because I was standing in line waiting to go in and listen to them do their thing in the house of commons. Here's Big Ben
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/London/slides/London%20036.html
When I was around Parliament, all I could think of was the movie V for Vendetta when the whole thing blew up. That place is huge. And everything is so pretty and ornate. Another reason why London is so much cooler. This was a translation from Greek from one of the memorials in Parliament. I really liked it.
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/London/slides/London%20070.html
And this guy was standing outside of Parliament. He looked really scary when I walked in, and so I decided to take a picture of him, but when I told him he looked really scary and asked him if I could take a picture, he smiled and laughed and said 'I look scary?' in a wonderfully British accent, and then he didn't seem the least bit scary. oh well. Took the picture anyway ;-)
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/London/slides/London%20071.html

So the next day we went to the British Museum which was really cool. They've got a ridiculous amount of stuff. They've got the Rosetta Stone,
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/London/slides/London%20097.html
something like 200 mummies,
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/London/slides/London%20101.html
1/3 of the decorations from the Parthenon rebuilt in one of their halls,
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/London/slides/London%20103.html
and a whole greek (roman? actually not sure anymore) tomb in one room,
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/London/slides/London%20095.html
and all sorts of stuff from Asia and everywhere else, too. Haha. It makes you wonder how they got ahold of all this stuff . . . We only had time for a tour of the Egypt section and the Greek and Roman section. That Museum is huge.

We did some shopping. It's hard because you have to multiply everything by 2. 10$ would be a pretty good deal for some cute flat sandals, but 10 pounds probably wouldn't . . . ah . . . I love this picture.
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/London/slides/London%20111.html
A lot of the signs in London were hilarious. I especially love the signs in the subway. This one seems very 'deep'
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/London/slides/London%20100.html
when in actuality it only means 'stay behind the yellow line so that you don't lose a limb to an oncoming train . . .' I will admit that their way is shorter. The underground in London does not have any exits! It only has ways out. haha
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/London/slides/London%20092.html
I think of Astro every time I read a phrase that ends in a preposition. I also love all the signs on the cigarette boxes. I thought it was bad in Germany with 'Rauchen kann tödlich sein' which means 'Smoking can be deadly.' In Britain they are not subtle even a little bit. Smoking will kill you! And in big bold letters, too. Can't miss it.
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/London/slides/London%20115.html

Anyway, I also met some cool people, went to a Brazilian club (awesome) and had some yummy Brazilian drinks with about 8 people only one of whom was actually Brazilian. We got home really late, but all in all and awesome evening. Did a little souvenir shopping the next morning and then flew home. whew. Now I've got to get back to work. Hope you enjoyed the post.

Cheers,
Kendall

Music: Trips to and from London used a list called cool stuff that contains most of the newly added music (listed somewhere before) and a few other things like 3EB and postal service. Right now I'm listening to my most played list . . . which I won't explain, because I really don't have time ;-)

World Cup 2006 Berlin!!

2006-07-12T03:01:00.000-07:00

Wow. Berin was amazing. There's so much there. Everything makes you think, "hey, I've heard about that." Do you know how to tell if the building is really old? If it has bullet holes in it.
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/berlin/slides/Berlin%20025.html
Is that not crazy? I know I've told many many of you this already, but it's really hard to bend your head around the idead that 60 years about people were shooting eachother in the very spot you are standing. It's not really a big deal to the Germans.

So the trip was rather tiring. In order to not miss work and pay as little for housing as possible, we took an overnight train to Berlin Friday night. You have to pay extra for beds, and we're pretty sure most of the beds were booked, so we had a little compartment for the 6 of us in the train. It sucked, and Sam slept on the floor most of the time, and I joined him after I couldn't tolerate sitting up anymore. We left Dusseldorf around 11 and got into Berlin at 4:53. Wow was that ever early. No one was around. It was dead. We walked around and Ling tried climbing on some shoe-monument sort of thing
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/berlin/slides/Berlin%20003.html
Then it started pouring down rain. It is not fun when you're wandering around a strange city soaking wet with a backpack with all of your stuff on your back. We looked for our hostels so that we could put our things down, but that took a little longer than expected. We finally got all checked in at 12, and had a really good lunch at this place called Miro (I think). We wandered around a bit more and then took a 4 hour walking tour at 3. It was nice. It was really a pain, but it was worth it. I couldn't believe I was seeing all the things I was seeing. We saw museums and churches and monuments and lots more amazing things. This is Neu Wache. It was a guard house but is now a war memorial of sorts. It is a statue of a woman holdind her dead son in her arms.
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/berlin/slides/Berlin%20029.html
The inscription says "For the victims of war and tyranny." There is a court across the street where the Nazis had a huge book burning. There is a plaque there.
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/berlin/slides/Berlin%20034.html
The quote at the top right is a from a Jewish writer from 1820. It basically says "it is a prelude where they burn books, in the end they will burn people." We next saw the Brandenburger Tor.
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/berlin/slides/Berlin%20038.html
Tor means gate, and it was a very big deal when the wall came down that people could once again travel through the gate. The funny thing is that since they have the fan mile set up for the world cup, you can't cross through gate. You have to go around and enter the fan mile down the street, so they can keep the it safe and glass and weapon free. The next thing we saw was the holocaust memorial. It was really amazing. It's only a few years old, and it's not actually called the holocaust memorial. It's called the memorial for the murdered Jews of Europe. I bet you can imagine why most people call it the holocaust memorial. This one and the next few are pictures of it.
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/berlin/slides/Berlin%20041.html
There's also a video in the berlin part of my album that better shows just how big the memorial is. It's supposed to be left open to interpretation, but the tour guide told us that lots of people say from the outside it looks like a jewish cemetery. The inside is even more interesting. We also saw a part of the wall that is still standing and checkpoint charlie as well as places where many people were killed during demonstrations during the DDR. Checkpoint Charlie was probably the scariest place on earth during the Cold war. Right now if you look into the american sector you'll see a picture of an American soldier, and if you look into the Russian sector you'll see a picture of a russian soldier. Nothing compared to the tension during the cold war, when there were soldiers lined up on either side of the fence with guns and tanks pointed at eachother!

We watched the game that night. Deustchland ist Weltmeister meines Herzes! (Germany is the world champion of my heart). I really feel that winning 3rd place in the world cup like Germany is much better than losing 1st like France. It was a fun party, but we had to get back to our hostels, since one of them was a 45 minute train ride out of the city (whoops). We had all left our stuff at one of the hostels that was closer inside the city, so we headed over to get it all out. We we got there, we couldn't get the key to work. (I seem to have some sort of awful luck with keys and locks and things) There was a lady there that night who tried to help us, and when she couldn't get in either, instead of trying other things decided to yell at us because there were 7 of us there instead of 2 like it was supposed to be. That was fun. It's hard to argue with someone in German when you really suck at it. Well, eventually after yelling "Wir haben nur unsere Gepäcke hier!" "Wir haben einen andere Jugendherberg!" (we only have our bags here! we have another hostel!) I think she finally got the message and called another guy who i suppose is actually in charge of the place. It turns out when he gets there we've got to have the same arguement and explaination with him . . . so about an hour after we got there, he just breaks the door, we get our stuff, and we leave. wow. Anyway, after a 20 minute wait, a 10 minute tram ride, and another 45 minute train ride, we finally get to our hostel. It was really nice. no hassels that time. sweet.

On sunday we wandered around some more and ended up going to the Engineering museum. It was also very nice. There's some pictures in the album. There was a big display of old printed money. They weren't in any real order, so Simon bet Kunal a euro that he couldn't pull the examples of Peruvian money out on the first try. Amazingly Simon lost that bet.
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/berlin/slides/Berlin%20073.html
Kunal decided that he had super powers. After the engineering museum, we had cake at a restuarant that had about 70 different types of cakes. It was gooood. Then we went to see the Berlin bears on display. There's one from every country in a group having to do with the UN (I'm not really sure it might be every country in the UN or every country recognized by the UN . . . something like that). Anyway, we had some fun with the bears. There's lots of pictures of them in the album, too. After that, the guys I came with went to the fan mile to watch the final, and I had already made plans to go watch the game with some friends from Aachen in a restaurant. I had to decide which team I was going for. It was really who I hated least, and I really couldn't think of a reason why I hated France, so I went for France! Which is too bad. but it was still fun. I met some cool people, too. After that we had to run back to the train station, because our overnight train (again with no beds) left at 12:30. It was a fun time. Next time I won't be so tired, and I might stay longer ;-).

Kendall

Music: Coldplay, because all you have to do to get a girl to fall in love with you is sing her some coldplay ;-) haha. I think the screen on my ipod is dying . . .

Ich fahre nach Berlin . . . :-( allein

2006-07-07T04:52:00.000-07:00

(I'm going to Berlin . . . :-( alone)

Which isn't true, but I am definitly not going with as many people as I thought I might go with. Now it's just me and my group that was originally going. I thought maybe half the country of Germany would go, just because, let's face it, they could. But alas. That was a fairly traumatic night. So very sad. I've told many people this, but I'm going to put it in here anyway just for the benefit of the people I haven't been pestering in the past few days. It was overtime with about a minute to go in the regular time period. The first Italian goal was beautiful. I'll give them that. It really was gorgeous, and the thing is, right after they scored, I knew Germany could still do it because they then knew exactly what was on the line. You could even tell they were determined to make that last goal before the time ran out, but there wasn't a whole lot of time, so it was kind of a panicy effort, and then Italy scored another goal. time ran out. It was over. It was sooooo sad. There was a girl sitting behind me was just all out bawling, and the guys at the table next to me couldn't stop staring at the screen. They were just staring like maybe it would not be true. It really was hard to believe. There was a very large sense of "this wasn't supposed to happen" . . . . but it did. and Now I'm going to Berlin and I'll be sadly going for Italy, because I just can't bring myself to root for France no matter the circumstance . . . haha.

Some other things happpened this week, too. I went on a date. That went badly . . . mostly because I just don't think I can date anyone in the not even 2 months I have left. I've had my share of almosts and could-have-beens with 2 month relationships, and I don't like them. But anyway, let's not get too involved in Kendall's love life on this thing . . . you never know who could be reading . . . especially since I attach this URL to every email I send out to anyone. Ooh . . . that actually makes me nervous. Stalkers, please stop reading my blog! Thank you. Hopefully that'll do it.

Also, Sam and Ling had a 4th of July party on the 3rd of July so as not to conflict with World cup quarter finals. Here are the pictures.
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/July%204th/index.html

Anyway. That's mostly what happened this week. Except that my family is in Wisconsin right now, and I really wish I could be, too. But, you know, take the bad with the good . . . or something like that. And I used this conditioner that has been sitting in my bathroom since I ran out today, and I'm wondering if I should go home and wash my hair again . . . it feels really funny . . .

That is all. I'll write when I get back from Berlin. Oh and I didn't realize I had to moderate comments, so I did that last night. and I'll keep up to date on that. And I'm going to stop telling you I'll put up pictures. Maybe I'll do them all in one sitting at the end of the summer when I have time--MIT's athena lockers aren't really cooperating at this moment. Maybe it also has to do with the fact that I'm so far away from them? who knows?

Kendall

Music: Recently added + Postal Service & 3EB. That includes Arcade Fire, Dresden Dolls, belle and sebastian, the Toadies, Spilling Poetry, Modest Mouse, and Sufjan along with some others . . . (recently is like with in the last 2 months . . . yes, I just added Modest Mouse--weren't they cool like a year ago?)

Oh my god! That is so awesome!

2006-07-01T06:51:00.000-07:00

I think I've found my new catch phrase. It's so much more exciting to emphasize the funny parts of stereotypes while ignoring or just kind of forgeting the rest of them. I love to use this to my advantage, as I'm sure, many of you have already figured out. So I was exstatic (or however you spell that) to find that the word "awesome" and the phrase "oh my god" was considered genuinly american. (Can you even imagine where I could run with that??) The fact that I already use those words just made me ten times more excited. now whenever I say that phrase, I'll just say it really loud. The Germans think it's hilarious. It's a great conversation starter. I was at a party last night, and this guy said something pretty cool (I've no idea what it was, so don't ask), and I said, "that's awesome." He laughed at me . . . I was confused, then I remembered that at lunch a few days before, the girls had heard me say the word awesome and laughed and explained to me how american it was, along with the phrase "oh my god!" So of course I have to milk it. After the guy at the party laughed at me, I mentioned how it was so easy to make Germans laugh. "All I have to do is yell (I yelled this part) 'Oh my god, that is so awesome!' " I made a few more friends after that. Haha. We discussed Johnny Depp and how many movies he's been in recently and what the heck the subtitle to the newest Pirates of the Caribbean movie is. Apparently edward scissorhands was called Edward mit dem Scherenhänden in Germany.

Anyway, right now I'm torn between learning German and learning Germans. OK, that sounds better in another language, I'm sure. Right now it seems like the Germans are winning. But I'm working on it. I'm sure there's a happy medium, but I should find it fast since I just realized I'm a third of the way through this summer. wow.

More exciting news. I watched the Germany-Argentina game in a lecture room (not a big one--smaller than 36-123 but with the same number of student--there's a lot of room in 36-123) with at least 50-100 other students. It was awesome. They're crazy. They've got chants and cheers and things, and that's cool and everything, but they're crazy. Yelling at the TV screen is one thing. It's crazy enough as it is, but chanting with everyone in a lecture hall
. . . we used chanting to get pumped up in volleyball matches . . . because we were playing. Football games also . . . because we were there, and they could hear us. Haha, it is really cool (I mean awesome) that one guy can start singing a chant (one of about 400 they have, I'm sure) and the rest of the room knows the chant and starts singing, too. Very cool. like they're all part of one big country or something . . . haha. They won! I hope you saw it! it was sooo exciting. and the goalie, Lehman, wow. Anyway, soccer is awesome. love it. Wir fahren nach Berlin!

alright. time to go. and by the way. if you absolutly have no other options, Gouda isn't horrible in mac and cheese. but I have discovered that they make special "melting cheese" or smeltzkäse for just this purpose. oh goody.

Kendall

Music: right now . . . Dixie Chicks. sorry. that's the truth ;-)

PS. my MIT locker is full! argh! that is why I can't put my pictures up! but don't worry I'm working on moving a few things around!

PPS. I met a guy who's learning American English! ah, I don't feel so bad anymore.

PPPS. I found Dr Pepper in the grocery store! no mt dew yet, though . . .

Munich!

2006-06-26T12:26:00.000-07:00

I went to Munich this weekend! It was a nice little 6 hour train ride down there, and a nice little 6 hour train ride back. There were so many people trying to get around, they had 2 super-long trains attached to eachother. Which is why I got lost. I was supposed to meet Sam and Ling on the track to depart from Köln, but my train was a little late getting in, and by the time I got to the right track, most people had boarded, and I needed to hurry and hop on. I thought it wouldn't matter where I got on, because one can pass through all the cars while the train is running. I didn't realize that they had more than one train, so I searched and searched for Sam and Ling, and was a little worried when I didn't find them. But it just so happened that the train car I boarded at the changeover was the same one Sam and Ling had boarded! very lucky indeed. We made it to Munich, and we stayed on the floor of a dormroom of one of Ling's friends.

The next day, we slept in until noon, because the "blinds" on the outside of the windows are really just like those metal doors they pull down over shops when they close at night in the city. We couldn't see any sun, so we had no idea what time it was. It was actually kind of cool. When I'm trying to catch up on sleep at MIT, I think the sun coming in the windows is one of the more annoying things in the world. But we went to a nice bavarian style restaurant for lunch. Here's the hall * We didn't actually eat there, because we didn't see anywhere we could all sit, so we went upstairs where it was much quieter and got a good german meal.

After that, Germany was playing (in Munich, too!) so we all went to a biergarten
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/munich/slides/munich%20011.html
to watch the game on their huge big screen projectors. I'm not good at estimating, but I feel as though there had to have been at least thousands of people in that one biergarten--it was really big. I'll have to say, that was probably the best experience watching Germany so far. Cheering along with thousands of people is kinda fun. The people went crazy after they won, too.
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/munich/slides/munich%20025.html
We walked around the streets of Munich afterward, and there were people everywhere
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/munich/slides/munich%20043.html
waving flags and singing songs and chanting. "So was hat mein Augen noch gesehen! So schön, so schön!" which means "Oh what have my eyes seen! so beautiful!" Ah, I just found out that this is wrong. They actually say "Oh was hat mein Lange nicht gesehen" which means something to the effect of "Oh look what happened that hasn't in a long of time." haha. And "Berlin! Berlin! Wir fahren nach Berlin!" which means "we're going to Berlin!" because, they are! next game is in Berlin, and also the finals are in Berlin (at which I will be!).

We saw the big park there, where there were several unfortunately naked old men and some people riding horses around and still celebrating.
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/munich/slides/munich%20052.html
After that we went to Olympishestadium which is where the Olympics were held in 1972. They spruced it up for the World cup and also added a huge projector in an enormous amphitheater. The guards there really didn't like us, but we went in and sat down to watch the last half of the Argentina Mexico game with about 3000 other people (again, that's just a really bad guess--to make it better for you, I'd say this was at least 3 times as big as Kresge--maybe more--how many people does Kresge seat?). It was kinda late after that, so most of us went home, and the other half went out partying and got back at 6 am. I was really tired, so I went home and slept.

The next day we woke up at 9ish and went to the old art museum for a few hours. It was very nice and had a lot of stuff, and there were about 3 more museums in the city. I think you could spend weeks just at the museums. After that, Sam, Ling, and Bao insisited on jumping into the channel in the park. They didn't have any bathing suite with them, but that didn't stop them.
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/munich/slides/munich%20056.html
I stayed dry and took pictures. They're all on Sam's camera right now, which is probably good, because there's a few of him and everyone else in their underwear. We walked around the park a bit more after that, then we went back to get our stuff, stopped by some souvenir shops to buy postcards and stuff, then ran to the train hopped on and left. 6 hours back and here I am.

Well, actually it's monday now, but nothing too terribly exciting happened today. I just bought some meat. I wasn't sure what exactly it was, but I cooked it up and ate it just the same. It was pork. and good, too! I'm off to bed now so that I can get up early for work tomorrow.

Kendall

Music: Third eye blind. For just about the whole Munich trip. Right now, though, my whole library is just on shuffle. all 18.6 gigs of it. No wonder the harddrive on this thing is so full . . .

Why is Britain so much cooler?

2006-06-21T00:24:00.000-07:00

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

2006-06-19T09:21:00.000-07:00

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

Also denn!

2006-06-13T05:59:00.000-07:00

Wow do the Americans ever suck at soccer. Culture separations always confuse me. I don't understand how we can be completely separated from the rest of the world from things like soccer. They love it! It's not even just a sport to them. When they are cheering for their country's team, they are cheering for their country. They are being patriotic. I swear governments over here might decided wars with a football game. It's not even close to the Olympics--ten times greater. So I was watching the US football game yesterday, and the Germans I was watching it with were laughing at us. 0:3. ouch. I do believe they said the team played like a bunch of little girls. I'm wondering if maybe we're so bad because we changed the word. How did that happen, anyway? The whole rest of the world calls it football. Especially the English speaking countries. So how in the world did we end up calling it something different?

Ah, so now I've already gone on my rant and then decided to look it up. Too bad for you that you have already read the rant. So here it is: http://www.wordorigins.org/wordors.htm scroll down to soccer . . . There you have it. Who'da thunk?

So that was yesterday's excitement. Today was a little less exciting so far. I was a little worried when one of the Germans here asked me to do him a favor. He needed me to read over his paper which was written in English. I did, but I am honestly not entirely sure what it was about. Add to that the fact that I can't write myself, and also can't spell (I told him to replace one word with another word, and I had spelled it incorrectly--he noticed; I didn't.), and I'm wondering whether he would have been better off if I had just told him no. Tonight's the night the international student of RWTH all get together for a BBQ. It should be fun, and there should be plenty of choppy German to go around, so I won't feel too out of place. Wish me luck

Kendall

Music: Random! the whooole playlist on random! Meat loaf came up "And we were glowing like the metal on the edge of a knife!" and 3EB and Maria Taylor and I think some Journey oh and Chicago-the musical and the Police! awesome stuff

A boring weekend

2006-06-12T02:17:00.000-07:00

So I've got a good internet connection at work now, and I think I might've solved my wireless troubles at home with some new software for Europe from Dell (knock on wood), but we'll see. Maybe the gods of the internet will take pity on me a poor student who needs to spend more time scyping which is free and less time calling people which is not. Also, the pictures still don't seem to be working like they should--even with this new fast internet connection I have a work, so maybe I'll give up soon and just put them in my album and link to them. Also, I've kind of messed up the days down below. Not sure what I did to make that trouble, but it still works, so I'm happy.

So this weekend was interesting. Saturday I slept in for awhile because I had stayed up until almost 3 due to the Locksmith ordeal. After the sleep, I went shopping and bought a raincoat (which is the only sure way to make sure it never rains--sweet) and some funky sunglasses. They like those really big ones over here, I tried to get some that weren't too big, but I'm not sure I succeeded. I stopped in a music store and was quite surprised at the setup. Under "Indie" they had Blink 182 and Green Day alongside Bright Eyes and a German band called Die Happy. I laughed at them, but there was more. All the rap was labeled "Black" and all the R&B (or maybe it was just black musician's pop music) was labeled "Reggae." Then I saw this boy band I had never even heard of with the gelled-up, two-toned, spiked hair of the late 90s. It was really funny.

On Sunday I decided to do it like the Germans and go out to a park. There were about 2 hundred people in this park, and they were all in their bathing suits tanning in the sun. Maybe the sun isn't normally out as much as it has been the past week, but I still thought it was also funny. Here's a picture of the hill in the park where everyone was laying:
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/Sunday/slides/Sunday%20001.html
I just sat and read my book for awhile tried to tan a little in my short sleeved shirt, and watched all the people. Quite interesting. Hopefully this weekend I can do something exciting since it is a 4 dayer. Can't wait.

Kendall

Music: Bloc party, Damien Rice, Modest Mouse
PS. Maybe this music thing is kinda hokey, but I guess if you know the band, it shows you what kind of mood I'm in . . .

Oh man . . .

2006-06-10T05:37:00.000-07:00

Thursday seems like such a long time ago . . . I'm trying to remember
what happened. I feel like I had a fun story for that day. I think I
just went out with one of the other MIT students--Neel--and had dinner
at a little restaurant in the old city. And then ice cream :-D. I also
tried to plan my weekend with Sam and Ling (also from MIT working for
Bayer and living in ?Leverkusen? about an hour from here by train). We
couldn't really decide where we wanted to go and if all the German on
the website meant that our ticket was really cheap or really expensive.
At the very same time, Herr Weber had a man named Can (pronounced Jon)
over who had lived in my room before. He said he had the same problem
with the internet, and he said he would try to fix it. He needed a CD
from his friend, so he would call us tomorrow.

Anyway, yesterday was a much more exciting day. By exciting I mean it
was awful. Well, most of it wasn't. In the morning, I paid my "student
fee" in order to get an ID and a bus pass (I think I spent 20€ on the
bus last week), then I opened a checking account at Sparkasse and a
crazy thing happened. I was walking down the street, and noticed that
the person walking in front of me looked kinda like Can. "Can?" "Oh hi!"
It turns out he was just on his way to the bus stop where his friend
would give him the CD. We walked about a block, and 2 seconds later
along came a bus. He friend handed him the CD, stayed on the bus, he
gave it to me, and that was that. I spose Aachen is really kinda small.
After that I went to work for awhile, but my grad student wasn't there,
so I decided to go home and work from there for awhile before I met some
people at a bar for World Cup! That was pretty cool. And it was amazing
how excited everyone was. After the game, there were people in the
streets for hours. Yelling and singing about "Deutschland." We sat down
at a table in the street while everyone cheered by in their
yellow-red-black face paint with the German flags around their
shoulders. (I think maybe they like soccer)

* (stars mean there's a picture that should go there, but I haven't put
it up yet)

Anyway, after all that fuss, I got home . . . and I realized I had
forgotten my key. Seriously? How many times have I done that? I'm sure
all of you have witnessed some form of my locking my keys in or leaving
my keys somewhere. (or even just thinking I had left my keys somewhere,
but actually having them in my pocket--which sadly was not the case this
time) This time it was pretty bad. So I freaked out because it was
9:45pm and I had to get up at 4 to go visit Sam and Ling in Köln. I
asked the neighbor who I knew had the key last week, but she said she
didn't have it anymore. She also didn't know a lot of english, and I was
freaking out so my German was awful, i'm sure, so we didn't really
understand eachother. Herr Weber wasn't going to get back until the next
morning, so I went down to the grill about a block away where I knew
there had been a girl who spoke English. She wasn't there, but I was a
little calmer, and could tell them what the problem was. They and a man
who lives down the street decided that they would see if there were any
open windows or anything. Everything was solid. They even got a really
long stick to try and pull some keys out. They were hanging opposite the
mailbox on a wall, so we reached about half of them, but none of the
ones we reached worked in any lock. After an hour of that, they decided
that there were no more options. So everyone's number that I have is in
my room, as is my cell phone--it was charging. But even if I had had my
cell phone, the texting wasn't working and I still hadn't figured out
how to make international calls with it (arrrrrrgh). So what was I to
do? by that time it was around 10:30, the grill was closing at 11, I had
no place to stay, and no way to tell the people I was supposed to
leaving with at 6am from Köln that I couldn't make it. So I called a
locksmith . . . now for those of you who don't know, a lock smith
doesn't pick locks like in the movies. That's what I thought he would
do. Instead a lock smith destroys the lock and puts in a new one. man.
This one actually tried sticking some wire in through the door to jigger
the mechanism, but it turns out the door was bolted, so that would never
work. I had no idea what to do. I didn't want to ruin the lock, because
it wasn't my house, but I didn't know what I could do. I (tried to) ask
the locksmith if he would want that if someone was staying in his house,
and he said basically that something like it happens all the time, and
that it would be OK. I thought about it for awhile, and I had no idea
where any hotel or anything even was, so I was at a loss. I said OK. He
drilled out the lock, put a new one in and it turned out costing 400€. I
had 2 on me in order to pay him (the guys at the grill had told me it
woul cost around 100-150€. He drove me to the ATM to get more money, but
unfortunatly, my bank wouldn't let me get any more money out in one day,
since I had just pulled out 300€ to open the bank account that morning.
So we tried other things like transfering over the phone (my bank was
closed. it was 12:30 am here and 5:30 there) and over the internet. When
I heard the front door open. It was Herr Weber, the man who lives here.
He was quite confused as to why his lock was changed. I told him the
whole story (freaking out the whole time). He told the guy he didn't
want the cylinder in the door, so the guy took it out, knocked his hours
down a little bit, and got it to around 200€. After he left Herr Weber
told me that I might have gotten myself involved with the Turkish mafia
in Germany . . . umm wow. Well, I'm not too worried, because the guy was
really nice, and I was crying the whole time, so I don't think he could
have really been trying to take advantage of me, but who knows?

Well, that was an exciting day all around. I think I'll go shopping.

Kendall

Day 6

2006-06-09T06:55:00.000-07:00

Day6:

Went to work for 8 hours today! The research is very exciting. Although, they had me sign a confidentiality contract yesterday . . . hmmm. Well, I'll just say that if you ever get your head split open, and you're missing part of your skull, you should just give me a call. Cool, huh? Maybe blogging will not be as exciting after I start work, since I'll be doing the same thing all day every day. That will be exciting for me, but I think not for you. Maybe I can tell you what happens when I bring cake for the grad students later. (They told me I should bring cake since I'm new ;-))

When I got back from work, the man I live with (Herr Weber) had his band over for practice. It was probably one of the funniest things I've seen. They're a kinda of a bluegrass/old spiritual band. I was very confused, but it turns out that it's not too uncommon in Europe including Germany. During World War II, the Germans were completely cut of from American and other cultures, so afterward, they discovered it, and they loved it. In fact, many bluegrass, blues, and jazz bands get a much better reception in Europe than they do in America, where they were founded.

Music: Bloc Party

Kendall

Day 5

2006-06-09T06:41:00.000-07:00

Day5:

Bought some cold medicine today! I've no idea what it is. I just told the lady (in german) that I didn't speak a lot of German, that I had a cold, and that it was in my nose . . . haha. She brought me a box, and I can't really tell if it's working, but it must be. I had some fun trying to buy something and then return it today at the "Best Buy" of Germany: Saturn. The man tried to tell me where to go, but I was utterly confused. I could understand his German alright, but I couldn't understand his English at all. He said "go back to the place you bought it." I said "I bought it here." Then he sighed and kind of waved at me to wait, called something over the speaker, and helped out the guy behind me. I finally understood what he meant the second time around, but it was still embarassing. Oh well, I got a charger for me phone, and as far as I can tell, it works.

I went into work and basically filled out paper work and got introduced to 20 different people.

When I got home the man who lives here was back, and I told him I bought some medicine, and he scolded me. He told me I should drink some fresh lemon juice or something (he listed about 6 different things). Then I asked if he had any bikes I could borrow. He said he did have a few. I mentioned maybe riding to work. He said "no no! You can't ride to work! It's so close! You need to walk. You need natural motion!" Granted work is only a 20 minute walk away . . . but it's a 20 minute walk! oh man. Germans are funny.

Music: Bright Eyes

Kendall

Day 3

2006-06-09T06:40:00.002-07:00

Today I'm supposed to meet someone from MIT! He was a grad student a year ago, and graduated with his masters. We walked around Aachen a bit, and again everything was closed. (I'm getting real good at hitting the city when everything's closed.) He gave me a lot of tips and good advice. He also told me not to take any naps, because it just makes jetlag worse . . . We got some Italien ice cream (Italienisches Eis from 7th grade German class) Ein Wafel mit zwei Kügeln Karamel (wafel cone with 2 scoops of Karamel). He showed me the cheap stores and the place where the international students club meets every Tuesday. We were also walking down the street when some of his friends yell at him. (it's a small town) They were having an early morning brunch at 4pm because they had stayed up all night partying at a wedding. Alright.

Home at last and it's time for dinner. I bought some spaghetti yesterday, so I cooked that up. yum yum. my first full meal that I'll actually keep down. If only I had some cheese to go one top . . . oh wait.

http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/slides/Germany%20018.html

Also . . . I'm starting to feel a different kind of sick . . . my throat is sore (oh man can I not catch a break?!?). Great. Well, let's see if I can sleep. Success! Asleep at 2 with only a few tosses and turns in the night and some help from my friend the blindfold after the sun came up and

Music: Highest Rated

Day 2

2006-06-09T06:40:00.001-07:00

I found the grocery store! If you follow the people with empty canvas bags, they'll lead you right to it! I bought some stuff included cheese, meat, and bread for sandwiched. I made a sandwich! Then I felt funny. Then I felt more funny. I hadn't thrown up in over 10 years . . . Here's a picture of die böse Käse (that means evil cheese)

http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/slides/Germany%20009.html

I think I'll stay away from cheese for awhile. So far none of my eating experiences have been any fun at all.

I've been emailing the Lady from the MIT Germany office telling her that I am here and asking her what I should do. I think she thinks I sound lonely, so she asks for my number and calls her brother and asks him to show me around. He's a nice man. We go out to the triplepoint where Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium all touch. It's way up in a mountain. Here I am:
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/slides/Germany%20008.html
Then we visit this ridiculous looking Hospital. I am unsure when it was built, but it looks a lot like an oil refinery, and apparently none of the old people really want to go there. You should see the inside. That looks like a subway station.

After that we walked around Aachen and he showed me where the best stores and restaurants and hang out places were. Aachen is a surprisingly walkable city. I think it's only surprising because when I look at a map I can't tell how far everything is from everything else because I can't convert meters to feet in my head . . .

Went home and again couldn't sleep until 5.

Music: Highest Rated

Day 4

2006-06-09T06:40:00.000-07:00

Day 4:

wake up at 10! I'm meeting yet another kid from MIT today for brunch. Yummy brunch another meal is down! However, I can't smell an damned thing . . . cold. oh well. We walk around Aachen again, but today is Pfingten (I think) which is a national German holiday so again, everything is closed. Pfingsten means Pentacost, and for those of you who are still lost, Pentacost is the day when Jesus's followers got the flames over their heads and started speaking in tongues. The tongues would have been helpful for me, but alas, nay.

I came back and prepared to start work the next day. Got to sleep around 3 . . . not as good as the day before.

Music: Music: Highest Rated minus Anna Nalick (too depressing)

Day 1

2006-06-08T04:14:00.000-07:00

I haven't really been able to set this up right until now, so here it goes.

So when I got off the plane, I had to get on a bus that took me to a train that was supposed to take me to another train that was supposed to me to another bus after which I would walk a block or two with 2 heavy suitecases. after the first train, I decided that was a bad idea, so I took a cab. I was already in the city, just at the wrong bus station, so it was not a very long ride. It cost 9 euros, and I tipped her 3--which I spose is a little much even for American, but I just found out that you're only sposed to tip about 10 percent. Oh well. Here is what the house looked like when we drove up to it. http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/slides/Germanyhouse1.html
Kinda scary, eh? Don't worry. It gets better! See?
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/slides/Germany%20002.html
And my room.
http://web.mit.edu/kmwerts/www/album/Germany/slides/Germany%20006.html

I was introduced to the family whose house I'm living in. They seemed very nice, but they were leaving in 4 hours. After 2 hours we had tried to set up my wireless, but it just wasn't working. So for awhile I'll have to use the crappy wired connection (this is why I haven't been able to start this blog for awhile.). After that happened it was around noon (6am EST). I had been traveling for over 12 hours and I was super tired. I decided to take a little nap since I hadn't slept on the plane at all. I woke up at 4. They had already left. I was all by myself in this weird city in a weird country whose language I didn't think I spoke and where I knew no one. I couldn't find the grocery store that night, so I stopped at a restaurant and bought some really greasy food yuck . . . I took a bus into the city and walked around. All the stores were closed, but the restaurants and pubs were open. I bought a guiness! I think the lady tricked me into buying 2, because when I asked to pay, she brought me another . . . anyway I tried to go to bed, but couldn't get to sleep until 4 am (10pm EST). Fun stuff.

Music: Highest Rated

I'm here! (barely)

2006-06-01T18:21:00.000-07:00

Well, I arrived in Germany a couple of days ago. A few exciting things have happened since then. The first exciting thing happened as I boarded the plane. I needed to get through the aisle in the plane to get to my seat, and there was a man standing there chatting with the stewardess in German. I said "entschuldigung" which means "excuse me" and he moved out of the way without a sideways glance. I was really happy about that. Well, this is my first blog. Let's see if it works.

Kendall