April 2003 Archives

Let’s just take a minute to talk about Katie. We live in the same building here in Prague (she is an NYU in Prager too) and we’ve become what one might call “friends.” That referent is not without qualification, however, due to her more heinous and unattractive qualities namely …

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• her tendency to jump on and or grab one while greeting you or just generally trying to be amusing
• calling me often and at random throughout the day to see where I am and why I am not at home with her
• the oddly powerful attraction she has for Kinder Eggs, as well as the frightening faces that often accompany the mention of said candy
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• her hideous German accent

Please don’t think that I am being mean (although I am); Katie and I have a special relationship. We hate one another. She does have her good qualities, if you know her I’m sure you can think of some yourself. Insert them here. If you don’t know her… well be glad.

According to Newsday.com: “4-foot alligator found walking in Queens park”. Click here for story. A summary: The police suspect that someone kept the alligator as a pet in his or her bathtub, but the creature grew too large, and was subsequently deposited in a park.

I have only one question: Can you pet an alligator?

I mean really recycle. In Germany the public rubbish bins are divided: a bin for glass, one for packaging, one for paper, and one for everything else (cleverly called “rest” in German). This is a brilliant idea. The Germans also have laws that require packaging to contain anywhere from 30% to 60% minimum recycled (post-consumer) waste.

One doesn’t have to worry about anybody else; not about whether getting on that last train is going to end one up in Timbuktu or at the Reichstag, not worrying whether someone else is sick or tired or hungry or happy. It sounds horribly selfish, and you could see it that way, but honestly it’s just nice to have a trip to yourself once in a while.

Berlin is one of the greatest places I have visited so far. I feel like I say that about every place, but in this case it is true. There is so much to see and do—great museums, the obligatory tons of history, and a great juxtaposition of modernity and the “old world”. Plus, they speak the greatest language on the planet! Five or six people must have stopped me for directions, which made me feel good because it meant that I didn’t look like a tourist—or I looked so much like a tourist that it was obvious and therefore I must have a had a map on me. Let’s pretend it was the former.

Dutch is one of the funniest languages I have ever heard. If you have ever played “The Sims” then you have heard what Dutch sounds like. Jibberish. It must be a cross between German and French with an American-with-bronchitis accent. The Dutch become especially amusing when they get excited because their voices rise two octaves and they speak much faster, causing their sentences to come out, “Um, ahh yoo humdy whoop whoop tak yo.”

As for N�rnberg, it was a drag because it was Easter Monday (who ever heard of that) and everything was closed. There was however an anti-war protest, which struck me as odd. They much not have heard that the was is over and they were wrong. Oh well, better luck next time.

Today I inaugurate my first blog (weblog). Maintaining my other website has become impossible because my computer was killed by an errant cup of coffee, plus this is a lot easier in general. I never updated my other site anyway, maybe this way something will be said (that is worth reading). Check back later for updates.

NOTE: This will replace those annoying mass emails I used to send, which I?m sure you are all glad for because mass emails are BAD BAD BAD.