What are you trying to do to me?

Today was great. I experienced a change in perspective on how I view the city I've called home the last seven months. The weather was extremely cooperative and provided for mild temperatures, abundant sunshine and blue skies. I met in the evening with my German colleague Ulrike. Originally, several of us were supposed to meet however we couldn't at the last minute because of illness and getting ready for the week etc so it was left to Ulrike and I.

We had a great time. Started off with tapas at Besitos followed by SALSA dancing at the Elisenbrunnen. Although I was wearing sandals, we danced for the better part of 15 minutes. Its seemingly awkward because Ulrike is married and somewhat older than me, but we laughed and had a great time anyway. Then, we went for a walk to different parts of Aachen that I had not discovered. For instance, I learned where Aachen's big park was (a Lake Ella of sorts for my Tallahassee crowd) which I had never discovered before. Not having a vehicle or a bike (although, plan in the works to buy one next month!) or time for that matter has prohibited the development of my knowledge of Aix-la-Chapelle. However, it was a great day.

Yesterday my German/Dutch colleague David and Canadian colleague Tara and I transversed three countries to go to the movies in Belgium. There, they place the movies in English with Dutch/French subtitles (the area we were in is the Dutch speaking part of Belgium). It was cool driving through three countries just to see the movies. Afterwards, we went to Heerlen, NL for drinks and conversation. Around 12:30 we drove back to Aachen. I had spent the entire day on the go and was quite tired. Class at 9am, shopping for the week, laundry, gym (once again with the back and abs course...ugh!) and then going to the movies so I was pretty tired by 12:30. Or maybe I'm just getting old.

If the weather keeps up like this and the flowers and trees continue to bloom and grow leaves, I might actually like this city. I'm excited about my bike, as soon as I procure one, photos are sure to follow. Spring cleaning is soon to follow. I have a four day weekend approaching. I'm interested in going to Scotland but since I have to purchase new clothes and a bike in May, I don't know if Scotland can work out. Still trying to get the FSU colony together but thats looking a bit difficult too.

As always, time will tell.

It'll beeee no problem

In the past week I've discovered three bees in my apartment. Now, at first I thought this was a very unfortunate consequence of living in non air-conditioned land where windows must be opened. I fear that they may have burrowed a hole into side of my apartment. There is a very, very small hole near the floor on the wall facing the street. I think I remember back in the Fall seeing a bee crawl in/out of the hole. As it is Sunday I've put a rather heavy blanket over the general area in hopes that this will undermine any attempts from any four legged flying creature from entering my abode. Bees piss me off and bees in my apartment are a no good. This means I'll have to clean my apartment in the next few days to have my landlord have someone come and spray for bugs. Ugh.

The sun is out today and it is warm! It's about 17 degrees outside and I'm loving it. It was actually almost a bit too warm with the sweater I had on today. I met with Faye at Starbucks to grade papers and have a Sunday chat. The exams have been graded and now I ust have to turn in the grades after their oral exam next Tuesday.

In the world of job applications I sent off the job application for the last job I posted about. Tomorrow I'll call them and harass them until they give in. However, I've also discovered another (albeit not as cool) job in Dresden doing something similar minus the international exchange program. So, I'll be applying for that job tomorrow as well.

Appointment with my fitness trainer tonight. Should be fun.

Its in the post

I woke up this morning ten minutes before my alarm. Even though today I don't have to be at work until 10am, I find myself waking up at my usual 7:30ish before my alarm, no matter how tired I am.

I hate that I've trained my body to wake up, apparently, without external alarm apparatuses. This morning I don't think I made my coffee strong enough, it tastes a little weak. Boooo weak coffee.

Work sucks, so I've decided to be proactive. I've discovered a job in Dresden, teaching full-time for this private high-school for students who want to learn business skills and brush up on their liberal arts. It's part-time teaching, part-time organizing an INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGE PROGRAM (whoooooooooooot!!!!). I want to do this so badly. They are looking for a native English speaker (check), someone young and motivated (check), experience living abroad (um, I got this one too), someone with experience teaching English (okay, still new to the game but check minus), must speak the deutsch (once again) and I don't know what else, but I wrote the most amazing cover letter, in German, yesterday and in a few minutes I'll be off to the post to send it.

I might beg or plead for the job. Just need out, thats all. I've decided that I am not happy in Aachen and that isn't going to change anytime soon.

Anyway, cross your finger, press your thumbs, sacrifice small rodents, whatever you have to do to send some good luck my way.

Other than that, I'm hoping to take a few days off in May and hang out at some German lakeside area with friends from FSU to paddle boat, drink beer, go hiking and other random German-like activities. Should be fun. Now if I can just get all of us organized enough to do it. Thats a task in and of itself.

I've decided to be more pro-active in my life. Because of the weather and my job, I've been feeling a) depressed b) sorry for myself. This must stop. So, list-o-crap to do:
a) Study for the Foreign Service Exam. Even if I don't take it for another year or so, I still want to be fresh. Besides, can't hurt to know the stuff anyway.
b) study my German book for two hours a week. Learn new vocabulary, memorize cases, improve my adjective endings, etc
c) Clean my apartment. The dust bunnies are formulating an attack plan.
d) Continue on my health track (I've lost seven kilos since February!). I've never felt/looked so good. :)
e) attempt to be more positive. I think that sounds good, I've already started to work on this and while nothing really changes, my heart doesn't feel like its going to explode.
f) Update my blog some more.

Ole!

Wanted to write a post about the decline of the US dollar and the indications that its free-fall is coming to a close (finally!) but I just don't have the energy really.

I realized that its been several weeks since my last blog and so much has happened. I had guests from the States come for their spring break and it was amazing. Matt, Kalin and I ventured to Paris for three nights and had a great time. I love those two! I'll be posting photos soon on my photo website.

At the end of their visit, I apparently contracted the flu, not fun. What is worse is that I was going to Spain four days later. Ugh. However, Malaga did not disapoint (okay, just a smidge, but who's counting, really). Abundant sunshine and a care-free environment was just what I needed. Although too cool to go swimming, I was able to tan! So i'm a much darker Christopher for the time being. Work resumed today and I was actually glad to be returning to the normal swing of things.

Trying to make it to Scotland in May. That'll be great. Other than that, lots of visiting of friends in Germany need to take place. I need to start looking at my plan for the next year. What am I going to do this time next year? Graduate school? Foreign Service? Stay in Germany?

From Politics to Pretzels

I was talking to my Mom tonight and we had an interesting conversation on politics. Of course my Mother's ADD means that she only listened to about 35% of what I said but thats okay. I love her anyway. :)

The predicament that the United States has found itself in is not all that different from the end of the 1960's. An expensive war (read: "Military Engagement"), a faltering economy coupled with out of control oil prices and a disenfranchised public have all contributed to pessimistic feelings about the United States.

I join the ranks of disenfranchised citizens. I think this upcoming election is quite important and I refuse to let my vote go to someone on the basis of one issue or the core of a few issues. Let's remind ourselves that no matter who is elected, they are still politicians. Politicians never follow through with that they say. Even if they want to, they still have to ask Congress for the means to do so. Sadly, the majority of American's are not informed about the American political system so all of our potential ends up going to waste.

Without flat out supporting any candidate, I'm going to outline what I see as the major pros and cons of each candidate. It really doesn't matter who wins anyway, we can only go up from what we currently have.

I'll begin with the Republicans. John McCain is going to win the nomination but for the sake of argument I'll throw Mike Huckabee up there too.

McCain is a great man, great cut-through-the-crap Senator and War Hero. What can you say bad about a man who spent six years eating gruel in Vietnam. McCain has a reputation for saying what he means and then doing it, and I like that. I think his experience in Foreign Relations would help revive the American image if he learns to court our allies instead of distancing them like GWB. However, he has been a part of the Washington establishment for too long and look where that has gotten us. I see McCain serving as Secretary of Defense or State. I would gladly be in the Foreign Service with Secretary McCain at the helm.


Huckabee is a newbie to politics and could perhaps foster the change necessary. However, no guitar playing Baptist minister has any business serving as President. I think he would focus too much on the "moral issues" (whatever that is) that are facing America and not the actual issues at hand (ie. education, defense, Iraq, budget crisis, etc). He caters to a certain group of people that I don't play well with and so for that reason, I'm biased. I do say, however, props to him for loosing 110lbs. I like the idea of a Huckaburger (lean ground beef/turkey with organic vegetables on a whole wheat bun). I say Mike should be the Secretary of Agriculture, fix those school lunch programs! Or even the director of the National Fitness Initiative. Besides, he's from Arkansas.

The Dems

Barack Obama is not a Muslim, in fact he's a member of the Church of Christ (shudder). His father is from Kenya, not Saudi Arabia. I've heard it one time too many (about six times) that he's a muslim and would turn America into an Allah loving country. Get over yourself. Obama is new to the establishment and that brings both pro's and con's. I see in him though similar traits to former presidents Lincoln and Kennedy (both later assassinated, lets hope the Secret Service doesn't bungle this one up too). He's not been in office so long as to have his butt imprinted into the Senate Chambers, once again a good thing. If the United States is going to bring itself out of this hole we've found our self in then we need change. However, Barack will have to surround himself with advisers from both sides of the aisle to bring together this divided country. We'll need Republican economic advisers dueling it out with Democratic education advisers. His lack of experience doesn't necessary signify a weakness on his part but it does make me cringe when he talks about invading Pakistan to get Al-Qaeda.

Oh, Clinton. I'm not going to lie, I don't like her. She's a cow...always has been always will be. She grazes on other people because she is a true politician right down to it. People voting for Hillary often think that things will be happy and nice again just like the good ol day's of Bill. I'm sorry to tell you but this isn't 1996 again and its not coming back anytime soon. Although I feel her policies on health care and education are good ones for America, I think she's also just interested in selling her product (herself). I can't vote for someone who once served on the board of Wal-Mart. However, all things aside, she's probably pretty good with a calculator and could be perhaps balance a budget (if she doesn't tax the hell out of us first) and I have no doubt that she's ballsy enough to go after terrorists but let's not forget, she's also from Arkansas.

The Dumbing of America

Todays editorial in The Washington Post, my internet homepage, featured an article by American author, thinker and philosopher Susan Jacoby. Her piece, entitled The Dumbing of America takes a painful look at the fall of intellectualism among average American's in the last fifty years.

Now, call me an elitist but I've always had the same sentiments as the author. The majority of Americans, suffice to say, are dumb. Whether its their own laziness that is the root cause of their lack of basic world knowledge or if its a question of cultural identity is unknown. Often I've wondered how some of my peers at Florida State were admitted to the university (or any tier of higher education for that manner) and going back farther to high school how many of the students were planning on attending top tier universities. Still to this day I'm surprised when I hear people's lack of basic geography, history or even what the most important issues are in the world. There are always on the internet those videos of people who can't name the President of the United States (now, how much of that I believe is up for debate but the song remains the same).

Thankfully though, we are not alone. I always had this preconception that Europeans with their border-free zones must be far superior in ways of a intellectual pursuits. That has also turned out to be not be true. I've met several Europeans who've surprised me with their lack of general knowledge of the World and Europe. ("Wait, you mean to tell me that they drive on the left side of the road in Australia?" From a British soldier I met in Berlin).

I must agree with Jacoby, western culture as a whole has seen a great decline in basic intellectual pursuits. Americans must go back to teaching our school children the basics of education and not focusing on raising standardized testing scores. In most cases, standardized testing only measures how well you can take a test. Teaching geography, history and sciences is a skill that will stay with our youth the rest of their lives. Foreign language training in American is a joke that we shouldn't be laughing at. If the United States wants to continue its role as a world leader, its time we step up to the plate intellectually. Students today should be fluent in at least one second language, have knowledge of the World and the basic history that it entails, should have one favorite classical author and not dismiss intellectualism as something that only geeks enjoy. Our ignorance as a country hasn't been working for us lately. Faced with a failing economy and potential recession, unsolvable problems in the Middle East and a declining dollar, the United States doesn't look as though it will maintain its role as a Global Leader much longer.

Its time for Americans to step out of their comfort bubble and get back to the basics of intellectualism and once again be top contenders on a global scale.

Wow

Well, thats it.

Germany has disappointed me. I'm watching on TV the opening of a German "Hooters" bar.

Thats pretty much the end of it all.