day negative 62

Today (memorial day) I went up to, were ever it is my brother and sister live, with my parents to go on a picnic. My sister had no idea were we were going but still wanted to be in charge. We eventually ended up in the sculpture garden and then the park on the other side on the highway. We ate lunch there. A squirrel would not leave us alone I pegged it on the nose and on the butt with small sticks but it just jumped around and sniffed them as if they were food. Then I threw a pop can at it and it ran off.
While riding back Jon had the great idea of pushing my mothers bike while riding his. needless to say he fell off. I'm not sure why he thinks he doesn't need to wear a helmet but he should have been wearing one this time. He hit the back of his head on the asphalt and scraped his knee pretty bad. However, I don't think he learned his lesson about helmets.

I went for a ride by myself tonight with my bike set up for time trialling. I left at 20:30 hoping to get back before sunset. but, I got a flat tire that set me back for nearly 20 minutes I probably could have rushed it a little faster. But, it was the first time that I used CO2 cartridges successfully and I didn't want to mess it up. I go back at 21:23.

tomorrow I hope to;
1. fix garbage disposal
2. call bank about my check card
3. complete more visa stuff
4. research bike shipment
5. research rail pass
6. figure out if I have to; take 12 credits while in Austria, or take 12 credits at Vienna institute
7. buy CO2 cartridges
8. clean whole house
9. find a job

day negative 65

Today I looked into the "vacation" I would like to take while in Europe. During my first break in August (from August 25th to September 3rd) I will use a German Railpasss for 4 days in 2 months ($200) to go to Munich for one day and return back to the Goethe institute. Then I would like to spend 3 days in Berlin. I will leave early in the morning, it should take about two hours to get to Berlin, spend the day there, stay in a hostel over night ( $15 a night). Then spend the next day in Berlin. Stay in a hostel again that night then spend half of a day in Berlin and go back to Goethe institute.

On my Austrian break want to go to Italy. I will make my base at Florence. My first day will be spent in Florence. then I will go to Venice, Verona, Pisa, and finally Rome.

I have decided not to go to Greece or France because of the tightness of funds.

I have yet to receive the information I need from central to get my visa. their tardiness in all things that they do is starting to piss me off. tomorrow I'm not going to write a nice letter it will have some force behind it. I should have received the information several months ago and now I have four weeks before I absolutely have to get the application in.

day negative 71

today I had planed on organizing what I need to get a visa. But, this morning I went with my father to get license tags, mail stuff, and bring the dog to the vet. While at the vet my brother Jon called and asked if I wanted to go on a bike ride with him. I said sure and that I would give him a call when I was ready. After we got back from the vet we had an hour to waste so my father did laundry and I figured out my classes for spring 08



I will take
-modern thought
-meaning of life
-readings in Aquinas
-mid east civilization
-independent study in philosophy 200 lvl

I stayed for a while after my nephews came over. Miller is convinced that he has a right to separation from his brother Anderson. after it seemed dad had every thing under control I called my brother and went up to his house. apparently there is a trail running through Minneapolis called the green way that is a lot like an interstate for bikes. We rode on that most of the time passing almost every one we saw except one person who passed us when Jon was catching his breath. he was wearing nothing but boxers shorts hence the name "boxers mcgee". I really enjoyed the ride and I think we pushed each other to our limits

tomorrow I hope to
organize the stuff I need to get a visa
get a rail pass
figure out what classes I will take in Austria
figure out how to ship my bike to Germany and how to get it to Austria

negative 77

I'm back in Minnesota. already my parents have made it apparent that they will not let up on me until every thing that I need to get done before going abroad is done, I want to oblige but I have so much to do, I'm not sure were to start.

as of today I need to:
get a visa
finish my TK application
get a phone
create a packing list
ship my bike
fix my checking card
sell old school books
figure out my classes for spring semester
figure out my classes while i'm abroad
figure out if i can graduate on time

and thats pretty much it, I think.

it feels good to be home although the expectations are higher the work load is much smaller. I think I can keep up here.

negative 78

Today I moved entirely our of my college dorm. im now sitting in green lot waiting for graduation to start. Once I've played at graduation I will sprint to my car and take off to Minnesota before and one else can get in my way. once in Minnesota I will need to unpack, finish my thermo king application and turn it in. I should also start looking for other jobs. I might not get into thermoking this year. that really scares me.

I will work in the shop making tulips out of 1/2 inch pine and continue painting them. Joe has really encouraged me to sell them at tulip time but I'm not sure how many I will need. another concern is Mary Lou's craft fair I hope to have several things in it so I will have some money upon my return to America.

I'm starting to get concerned about going abroad. as much as I hate to say it i am a little social I need at least one close friend. and I'm not sure I can get a close friend while I am there, of the people I know who are going their is Maggie, James, James' girlfriend, Andrea, snowboard idiot, and Amanda. Maggie I can get along with. James is an idiot, and besides he will be with his girlfriend. Andrea is a good person I just don't want to get involved with her she is to happy and giggly. snowboard punk is an idiot who will probably die on the flight over by strangling himself on the pay phone on the plane.

I went to Joes house last night and we burned the log successfully the trick to it was gasoline. it was pretty cool to watch get lite. it spread though the log pile then continued along the vapor trail up to there garage all with in the blink of an eye. we roasted hot dogs and marshmallows then went inside to watch doctor who till about 12:30 in the morning I was having a hard time staying awake. so when I got back I passed out on my bed. woke up at 6:30 and watched eurotrip then packed cleaned turned in keys and now I'm here parked in green lot with an hour to go before graduation. I think I'll go to walmart and walk around there for a while.

negative 80

As this blog is supposed to be a way of informing friends and family of my life while abroad I should really start typing about my day to day life to get use to doing it two to three times a week. So here it goes.

Yesterday was the last day of finals. Today I woke up at 4:00 AM to finish my metaphysics paper on Aristotle I didn't do so well. If I fail any class it will be metaphysics. But, I have decided to take it in stride if that does occur. After finishing the paper I slid it under his door and went for a bike ride around the square at about six thirty I decided to eat breakfast. cuifs was not open yet so I bought 2 cereal bars at a gas station and had dinner watching the squirrels in the square. I then came back got my tools ready and went to work.

Over the course of the past two years I have been doing work study with physical plant (college facilities maintenance) I had extra hours left over at the end of the year, and I am considering going into facilities maintenance as a career. so I convinced my supervisor to let me work 2 eight hour shifts today and tomorrow. it was not hard to convince him. I'm a good worker and every one a physical plant loves me. in fact he asked me to work over the summer but I can't it doesn't pay nearly enough.

I worked with Dave (he is my least favorite person to work with sometimes I have to tell him what to do and he is the professional) I changed filters on the furnaces and air handlers in the language houses, Nance, Mentink and most of the hallway filters in Graham. then we went to KAC and I watched him climb a ladder and work on an air handler for nearly 2 hours. the thing I don't like about Dave is that he seems lost most of the time, he is extremely talkative (especially with the custodial staff) and when I work with him I don't really get anything done we just go around a check things for potential problems maybe. and he does all the work and apologizes for it.

now I'm back in my room Joe is over he is playing video games and we are planning to go out latter after it gets dark and burn a log that I stole after an ice storm we had this winter (I was going to use it for wood working but it cracked while it was drying so now it is worthless)

thats all for now

tommarrow i have to work with dave again.

day negative 84

Today I looked into going on "vacation" while in Germany and Austria I will have 11 days off in Germany (Aug 24th - Sept 3rd.) Then I have 21 days off in Austria (Dec 17th Jan 7th). I would like to go to Italy mostly Venice and Florence (if I have time I'm thinking of going to Rome) i would like to tour southern Europe in December. and I am considering touring Germany during the August break.

I looked a rail passes (http://www.raileurope.com) and found out that by buying a rail pass I buy unlimited tickets in the designated countries for a designated period of time (from 5- 15 days)

youth hostels general cost about $20-$30 a night. (hostelworld.com)

so the total of exploring Italy and western Austria would cost around $400-$500. I know that sounds high. but, a rail pass for 5 days costs about $300 and hostels for every night comes to about $100-$120 total and I'll probably want to eat in that time so $500 is a good estimate that goes slightly over.

day negative 86 again

this is a test of how well posting pictures works so far it seems it will take a while to load the pictures so I'll only post the best pictures
this will force me to think like a professional photographer.

this is a picture of the cliffs at lake red rock

day negative 86

I have started this blog so that I can keep in contact with friends and family while I am abroad. mostly I want a place I can post pictures and it is also recommended that I have a record of how I change while I am abroad.

I have every thing lined up except:
1. need to order a cell phone with two sim cards that will work in Austria
2. need fill out housing arrangement for spring of 2008
3. need to get a VISA
4. i need to finish getting a credit card
5. need to develop a packing list and figure out how to get bike to Germany

On July 29th I am going to fly to Amsterdam then fly to Stuttgart Germany from there I will take a bus to schwabisch hall Germany. ounce there I will spend two months studying german at the goethe institute my proficiency should improve by two levels. after that I plan on going to the austria institute I will study there for several months then return home on the 24th of january 2008

I hope to travel to Florence Italy I will stay in hostel
I also want to ride my bike around as much as possible and since the temperatures are almost always above freezing I should have plenty of opportunity to do so.