This is my (belated) entry on the university town. It in itself was pretty cool with a castle overlooking it that I did not get to visit. Blast foiled again.  I did see some of the university, and almost saw the university jail. The university is the oldest in Germany dating to 1387. I got a tee shirt with the date of its founding and the seal on it so I will know. Then the boys minus both Maxs, Larkin, jami and Danyelle made the hike up to the philosopher’s walk. The elevation change to get to the walk was like 500 meters, probably more. It was tough, but I muddled through, then walked a little bit on the walk which was boring. The playground we found was not. We stayed there awhile, then back to the city proper for the most exciting adventure yet. Missing The Train!!!!!!!. Cue dramatic music. So we missed not one but two trains, which translated into allot of hands of idiot and hearts. And I had to take money out of my shoes for diner. Fun.

This is my post on the town of Tubingin. First, the putting trip was pretty fun but I got on the boat with Ms Stubbs, and Max Gardener, who both hated water. So not as fun as it could have been. After that we went for a little quided tour, seeing a place where a prominte poet spent the night, and where he pucked. Then I was of on the epic quest to achive the most difficult of objectives, going to the castle. I first set off with Davis in the direction of the castle, but we were sidelinded by a trip to the bathroom first, then by meeting up with a large herd of german hosts and acompaning American stragalers. Davis joined them out of lazyness and it became aparent that they would not go to the castle, so I attactched myself to another group of americans at an Icecream store, consisting of Emily Miranda, and one other who name now escapes me. We headed toward the castle, not a long walk in itself, but my companions were flaging for want of food. Reaching the castle moat their compalants grew louder, and so I bade them to depart and find food while I enterd the castle alone. They were sposed to wait for me at a resturant near by.  I entered the castle and remained for a good 1/2 hour then I left to find them. Unable to locate them I preceded into the city proper. There I found Pascel, Kenny and Petra. I escorted Pascel to the castle and down again. By a church I met my with the group I missed, plus Max Joyner, and his friends Bella and Candace. We went to a suviner shop where I bought a stein, then ran to the buss. Weird and fun that day was.

Must buy sound recorder for rants, that is all

Well I went to find a place to do some forms, but it was not sunny. Oh well it was good for me.  I also did all of my hand combinations and kick combinations while I ruminated on the difference between Chris and I in relation to how we see our martial art. Chris sees it as some thing to show off, some thing to display to other people to show how cool he is. I see my martial art as something almost private. I share it only with my close relatives and those that I learn with. Mine is also much more practical. The whole world does not need to know what you do. Its okay if just you know.

Today I will take the hike up to the castle for the third time it being closed the other two. Last time I hit on the great idea of looking to see when it would be open. So now I’ve got a plan.

Im back in sunny Altensteig. And board. I think I will go out and find a sunny place to go do forms in a little bit. But yes Berlin. Berlin was complete and utter awesomeness. Yesterday was a slow day, even though we went to a ton of places. That first day was just wall to wall coolness. I have found a appreciation for statues and monuments, especially if they are of old generals or commemorating old victories. Blucher’s statue is very nice, and it is a crying shame that it is hidden back in some park on Unter den Lindin Strasse. The monument commemorating the Franco-Prussian War is so awesome, but it is so hard to get to. You have to run across a busy street to see it bullet marked art work. There are tunnels leading to it, but they are closed so what do you do?

Also it appears that in Germany you cant take pride in your country. Then its like you think Hitler is okay. This goes back through their entire history, except for Friedrich the Great. Germans have plenty to be proud of, and allot to regret. Just because of the terrible things that happened does not mean that they can not be proud of the war that created their nation, or the other wars, when they stood against the fearsome killing machine of the Romans and stopped it in its tracks, or when they stood with only allies of dubious value and fought the French, British, Belgium, Italian, Romanian, and Russian armies to a standstill. There must be pride.

Its the beginning of day 2 in Berlin. Day one was filled with sight seeing expeditions to the Brandenburg Tor, the Reich stag, the Holocaust Memorial, a memorial to Soviet soldiers, Checkpoint Charlie, and a bomb resistant air raid shelter. I say bomb resistant because apparently you need 2.5 meters of concrete and that place only had one.

The reason for the title is that I have slept better on Tina’s futon then on Chris’s bed. Today Im going out for a much more relaxed trip around o the sights. I should see the allied museum, and go on another tour through a half smashed flack tower. It sounds like I missed other people getting very drunk in Nagold, but Im okay with not throwing up.  From the pitures it was a smashed face party.

Today there was a lot of thunder. I was a little surprised that there was so much, but now it makes so much more sence. Yep all is ready for my little excursion to Berlin. Its alittle sad but I can not wait to go. I seem realy couped up in my host brothers house because of his broken knee. So today I went out for a walk, all on my own. It was a good idea but I cut it short because of the thunder, and the rain. After I write this Im going to go out for another one. My host mother pointed out a castle thats just over the hill. Its the nice thing about Germany, you cant throw a stone without hiting something historical. Tomorrow its to Konstanz. I think there is a large posibility of having a great time, but thats realy dependent on how much history Frau Stubbs shows us. Its a shame my class is filled with people who want to wallow in there ignorance. Time will tell, sooner or later time will tell.

The Damler museum is the shit. I mean it, the shit. All of the cars are so freeking awsome. I would have had a picture of every one, just because they were so cool. And the engines. There were engines out there that I took many pictures of them so that I can go back later and look at them. I could go on and on about how awsome it was but I have pictures for that.  So I will talk about the sucky MP3 interface. You had to point the little infared sensor at the inch wide circle so that it can talk to you. It was stupid and I used it only like 3/4 times. Oh well, I got a lanyard out of it.

Living in Germany with germans is very wierd. You notice different things about what you do. When I speak with nonenglish speaking germans, I put on a german accent. why I dont know. In addition we all are aparantly speaking with a small German accent. Crazy.

Oh and someone bought a huka.

Look a hammer!!!!!!!!!!!!!! wait, blog fail, I will consult with technical advisor to understand problem in morning.

I’m sorry to say that I no longer have the penny that Randy gave me from 1941. I gave it as a gift to my host father. I felt it was fair. After all he gave me some of his coins. He has a very nice colection of coins and stamps from all over Europe that he was kind enough to show me. Now he has a penny with Lincoln on it, and I have a 2 Mark coin from 1938, Swastika on one side, Hindenburg on the other, an a pfenniq coin. Thats super cool, and very nice of him. other then that a lazy day.