What do the people of America want more than anything else? To my mind, they want two things: work, with all the moral and spiritual values that go with it; and with work, a reasonable measure of security--security for themselves and for their wives and children. Work and security--these are more than words. They are more than facts. They are the spiritual values, the true goal toward which our efforts of reconstruction should lead. These are the values that this program is intended to gain; these are the values we have failed to achieve by the leadership we now have.
- FDR's Nomination Address 1932
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Thursday, January 3, 2008
italy trip day 2 (dec 27th)
last night got to brescia alright but the website i used to reserve a room did not reserve it for me. so i had to pay full price to get in luckily the hotel still had vacancy. the check in guy did not speak english or german. some how i still managed to get a room.
after checking in i walked out to a castle and sat on the upper walls for a while. i tried to take pictures but my camera hates the dark. had ritz crackers for dinner took a shower and went to sleep early.
woke up and talked to the check out guy (who spoke english) and had breakfast. ( a roll with jelly and chocolate milk and a pastry of some kind) i walked to the train station and bought a ticket. but the maschine said error ticket not valid go see a ticket office person. so i went to the ticket office and asked if he spoke english he looked at me funny. so i wrote "CREMONA 9:30" on the previous ticket and held it against the window. he nodded and gave me a ticket. (it looked the exact same as the one the machine claimed to have messed up. now i'm on the train to cremona. (9:25)
i'm glad im a genious. i took pictures of my computer screen when i looked up maps for how to get to many of the places i need to get to like the strad museum and the davinci museum. i couldn't print them out and now i have all the information on my camera.
the plan today is the strad museum then florence.
non pablo italiano the one italian phrase i know well. it has come in handy so many times already.
its foggy out today. i think it has somthing to do with mornings and me being on trains.
museum was more modern than i thought it would be. i was expecting a preserved workshop maybe with an exhibit explaining it. but it was just a museum with all the forms and tools he used in desplay cases.
it looked like there was a section that was hands on. but i was not gonna touch any thing your not aloud to touch things in museums thats the rule.
to get to the forms and tools i had to walk through a great deal of paintings and art. which i was not intrested in.
the museum it self was harder to find than i thought. even with a map i had a hard time finding it.
after the museum i walked back to the train station and wanted to buy a ticket to florence. i looked for a ticket machine. there wern't any. so i had to talk to a ticket person. the problem was i was not sure how to say florence in italian. i knew it was not florence and was something like ferenzi but not sure. i looked in the dictionary andrea gave me, not there. looked at a mapp in the dictionary, it was in english. eventually i just walked up to the youngest of the clerks and asked pablo engles? she said alittle. i was releaved. florence please she gave me a ticket. i thanked her and sat in the warm waiting room. the ticket had no platform number on it. so i was not sure were the train would come from. looked at the big board and it said the train to piacenza (my first stop ft at the time i wanted it to) was on platform "1 tronco ovest" i figured out ovest was west so i probably ment the west part of the platform which was labbeled. but tronco? does that mean some other platform 1 or is it just a extra word. when the time came the platform changed to just platform 1. which helped alot.
on the train to florence now. happy with my trip so far there have been no major problems.
italian fast food pizza is not great i think i prefer vienna fast food pizza (1:50 pm)
its foggy out still.
the italian phrase book andrea gave me has been invauluble. i just look up the phrase i need write it down and show it to italians.
ok on the 2nd train now. sitting in the hallway (it was a cabin car set up) because 2 italians decided to stand out in the hallway and not let me through. 3:08 pm its still foggy
bought pringles for a possible dinner. italian trains run smoother mechanically than austrian trains. but austrian trains run smoother in every other way.
its colder than the website said it was gonna be.
a brief over view of italy.
its alot like mexico
the houses are all mostly large properties with outer walls and a house inside.
the lanuage is very similar.
the people are jerks (but so am i so i doesn't bother me)
things aren't maintained there are houses with colapesed roofs, the trains are ugly, seems like a very "abuse it till it breaks then get a new one" kinda culture.
stucko houses every were
although there is grass and trees, its fall so every thing is dead looking kinda like a dessert.
(the lack of snow makes it worse)
even its placement on the contenent is similar.
(this is gonna sound very presumious and maybe rude, but i have noticed that the nothern europeans tend to be hard working (like northern USA) and the southern europe seems to be less work oreintated (lazy)(like the southern USA and mexico) and the very high north europeans don't really mater (like canada) ) i have also noticed that the west sides of cities tend to be the more worse off sides. i think there is somthing about people that makes them go certain directions based on there type. (i know its far more complicated than that i'm just making an observation)
4:00 pm the sun is setting gonna get to florence at 5:30pm luckily the hotel is close to the train station.
got to the hotel after walking around the church plaza twice. the streeet i was looking for was under construction so i could not see the street sign. the manager was quite happy to see me. he explained every thing in english slowly for me and then gave me my old skeleton key. (1 tumbler, that just screams security) luckily the floor is tile and i have wood funtiture so if any of that funitutre were to slide across the floor i would wake up imediatly. so i put a chair infront of the door. (i was thinking of putting the table infront of the door and have the chair percariously balanced on it so it would fall down but it would take me forever to get out of the room then.
saw the dome (a big ugly church) and bough my ticket to the next city
had spagehitti the inside was full so i ate out side. felt wierd (10.90 euro)
its 9:00 i'm going to bed.
after checking in i walked out to a castle and sat on the upper walls for a while. i tried to take pictures but my camera hates the dark. had ritz crackers for dinner took a shower and went to sleep early.
woke up and talked to the check out guy (who spoke english) and had breakfast. ( a roll with jelly and chocolate milk and a pastry of some kind) i walked to the train station and bought a ticket. but the maschine said error ticket not valid go see a ticket office person. so i went to the ticket office and asked if he spoke english he looked at me funny. so i wrote "CREMONA 9:30" on the previous ticket and held it against the window. he nodded and gave me a ticket. (it looked the exact same as the one the machine claimed to have messed up. now i'm on the train to cremona. (9:25)
i'm glad im a genious. i took pictures of my computer screen when i looked up maps for how to get to many of the places i need to get to like the strad museum and the davinci museum. i couldn't print them out and now i have all the information on my camera.
the plan today is the strad museum then florence.
non pablo italiano the one italian phrase i know well. it has come in handy so many times already.
its foggy out today. i think it has somthing to do with mornings and me being on trains.
museum was more modern than i thought it would be. i was expecting a preserved workshop maybe with an exhibit explaining it. but it was just a museum with all the forms and tools he used in desplay cases.
it looked like there was a section that was hands on. but i was not gonna touch any thing your not aloud to touch things in museums thats the rule.
to get to the forms and tools i had to walk through a great deal of paintings and art. which i was not intrested in.
the museum it self was harder to find than i thought. even with a map i had a hard time finding it.
after the museum i walked back to the train station and wanted to buy a ticket to florence. i looked for a ticket machine. there wern't any. so i had to talk to a ticket person. the problem was i was not sure how to say florence in italian. i knew it was not florence and was something like ferenzi but not sure. i looked in the dictionary andrea gave me, not there. looked at a mapp in the dictionary, it was in english. eventually i just walked up to the youngest of the clerks and asked pablo engles? she said alittle. i was releaved. florence please she gave me a ticket. i thanked her and sat in the warm waiting room. the ticket had no platform number on it. so i was not sure were the train would come from. looked at the big board and it said the train to piacenza (my first stop ft at the time i wanted it to) was on platform "1 tronco ovest" i figured out ovest was west so i probably ment the west part of the platform which was labbeled. but tronco? does that mean some other platform 1 or is it just a extra word. when the time came the platform changed to just platform 1. which helped alot.
on the train to florence now. happy with my trip so far there have been no major problems.
italian fast food pizza is not great i think i prefer vienna fast food pizza (1:50 pm)
its foggy out still.
the italian phrase book andrea gave me has been invauluble. i just look up the phrase i need write it down and show it to italians.
ok on the 2nd train now. sitting in the hallway (it was a cabin car set up) because 2 italians decided to stand out in the hallway and not let me through. 3:08 pm its still foggy
bought pringles for a possible dinner. italian trains run smoother mechanically than austrian trains. but austrian trains run smoother in every other way.
its colder than the website said it was gonna be.
a brief over view of italy.
its alot like mexico
the houses are all mostly large properties with outer walls and a house inside.
the lanuage is very similar.
the people are jerks (but so am i so i doesn't bother me)
things aren't maintained there are houses with colapesed roofs, the trains are ugly, seems like a very "abuse it till it breaks then get a new one" kinda culture.
stucko houses every were
although there is grass and trees, its fall so every thing is dead looking kinda like a dessert.
(the lack of snow makes it worse)
even its placement on the contenent is similar.
(this is gonna sound very presumious and maybe rude, but i have noticed that the nothern europeans tend to be hard working (like northern USA) and the southern europe seems to be less work oreintated (lazy)(like the southern USA and mexico) and the very high north europeans don't really mater (like canada) ) i have also noticed that the west sides of cities tend to be the more worse off sides. i think there is somthing about people that makes them go certain directions based on there type. (i know its far more complicated than that i'm just making an observation)
4:00 pm the sun is setting gonna get to florence at 5:30pm luckily the hotel is close to the train station.
got to the hotel after walking around the church plaza twice. the streeet i was looking for was under construction so i could not see the street sign. the manager was quite happy to see me. he explained every thing in english slowly for me and then gave me my old skeleton key. (1 tumbler, that just screams security) luckily the floor is tile and i have wood funtiture so if any of that funitutre were to slide across the floor i would wake up imediatly. so i put a chair infront of the door. (i was thinking of putting the table infront of the door and have the chair percariously balanced on it so it would fall down but it would take me forever to get out of the room then.
saw the dome (a big ugly church) and bough my ticket to the next city
had spagehitti the inside was full so i ate out side. felt wierd (10.90 euro)
its 9:00 i'm going to bed.
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
italy trip day 1 (dec 26th)
sorry for the lateness of this post but i have been busy not doing any thing (break)
i wrote all these blogs on my palm pilot but i forgot to install the software that i need to make the palm pilot and my laptop talk to each other. so i have to retype each of them.
ok... woke up this morning at 5:00 AM and got ready to go. had spaghetti for breakfast and went to the train station.
here is the plan for the entire italy trip.
1 Venice
2 directly to brescia (a city close to cremona)
3 sleep
4 cremona (Stradivarius museum)
5 florence
6 sleep
7 vinci (da vinci museum)
8 florence
9 direct to venice
10 venice
11 sleep
12 venice
13 vienna (late evening)
the train is just starting to move. the annousments were in both german and english. the conductors english was so bad i understood the german better. still no snow in vienna, it did not feel like christmas yesterday.
i have been thinking about this trip since the second week in germany. but i only planned this trip yesterday and the day before.
packed extremely light for this trip, no cloths or computer. just what i need to survive.
not sure what to expect in Italy. i've gotten pretty good at being a dumb American. that will probably help me alot. andrea gave me a Italian phrase book / dictionary. i should try studying that.
tried to withdraw money this morning. but since its yesterday in america still, and my card has a daily limit of how much i can take out. and i withdrew money yesterday. it would not give me money.
i have a seven hour train ride with 2 italian teenagers sitting across from me. there is no leg room. the seats are set up so that every other row is facing the opposite direction. so we are all facing each other. which makes things awquard for me. there is little leg room because there is a person there. it is dark yet so i can't watch scenery go by.
several hours latter.......
its to bright out. and the snow on the ground out side is making it brighter (it has snowed every were around vienna just not the city.
saw mountains (both smooth and pointy (smooth = granite pointy = chalk (learned that in history class))) also saw a broken (looks like it might have caught on fire and exploded (or bust open at the seems)) any way there is foam (like garage door insulation foam) coming out of the openings. looks like some kind of automatic fire supresion system.
4 hours to go
in italy now
boarder patrol just glanced at my passport and gave the 2 italians across from me the 3rd degree. i guess no one likes having italians in there country. (austria will not let you buy a train ticket into austria with out a ticket out of austria when italy is concerned)
one of the italians accidentally kicked my foot and said "enschudi.... sorry... scussi" (excusse me... sorry... sorry" i laughed.
2 hours to go
not sure how to get train tickets in italy. i hope there are machines that speak english like in germany. although i guess if there is a ticket office every teller will likely speak english. i just don't wanna deal with people.
in venice (finally)
found a ticket machine got a ticket. sitting on the train now. problem is i'm not sure its the right train.
the platform # was not made clear. this is the only train leaving at the specified time so im sitting on it. if its not the right train i'll get kicked off at the next stop and i can get another train.
when got to Venice. i walked out of the train station and saw the main canal. and the buildings and breathed in and said "ahhh..... venice" (i ment to say that when i got there. i was just so impressed with how pretty the city was that i said it unintentionally) the city s beautiful Saturday (when i come back and stay all day) will be fun. i kinda wish i brought my laptop so i could plan out my trip in venice but my shoulders will be glad i did not.
the loud speaker just said i'm on the right train.
day one seems to be going smoothly. looks like i'll get to brescia before sunset. then i can find my hotel and explore the city some.
i wrote all these blogs on my palm pilot but i forgot to install the software that i need to make the palm pilot and my laptop talk to each other. so i have to retype each of them.
ok... woke up this morning at 5:00 AM and got ready to go. had spaghetti for breakfast and went to the train station.
here is the plan for the entire italy trip.
1 Venice
2 directly to brescia (a city close to cremona)
3 sleep
4 cremona (Stradivarius museum)
5 florence
6 sleep
7 vinci (da vinci museum)
8 florence
9 direct to venice
10 venice
11 sleep
12 venice
13 vienna (late evening)
the train is just starting to move. the annousments were in both german and english. the conductors english was so bad i understood the german better. still no snow in vienna, it did not feel like christmas yesterday.
i have been thinking about this trip since the second week in germany. but i only planned this trip yesterday and the day before.
packed extremely light for this trip, no cloths or computer. just what i need to survive.
not sure what to expect in Italy. i've gotten pretty good at being a dumb American. that will probably help me alot. andrea gave me a Italian phrase book / dictionary. i should try studying that.
tried to withdraw money this morning. but since its yesterday in america still, and my card has a daily limit of how much i can take out. and i withdrew money yesterday. it would not give me money.
i have a seven hour train ride with 2 italian teenagers sitting across from me. there is no leg room. the seats are set up so that every other row is facing the opposite direction. so we are all facing each other. which makes things awquard for me. there is little leg room because there is a person there. it is dark yet so i can't watch scenery go by.
several hours latter.......
its to bright out. and the snow on the ground out side is making it brighter (it has snowed every were around vienna just not the city.
saw mountains (both smooth and pointy (smooth = granite pointy = chalk (learned that in history class))) also saw a broken (looks like it might have caught on fire and exploded (or bust open at the seems)) any way there is foam (like garage door insulation foam) coming out of the openings. looks like some kind of automatic fire supresion system.
4 hours to go
in italy now
boarder patrol just glanced at my passport and gave the 2 italians across from me the 3rd degree. i guess no one likes having italians in there country. (austria will not let you buy a train ticket into austria with out a ticket out of austria when italy is concerned)
one of the italians accidentally kicked my foot and said "enschudi.... sorry... scussi" (excusse me... sorry... sorry" i laughed.
2 hours to go
not sure how to get train tickets in italy. i hope there are machines that speak english like in germany. although i guess if there is a ticket office every teller will likely speak english. i just don't wanna deal with people.
in venice (finally)
found a ticket machine got a ticket. sitting on the train now. problem is i'm not sure its the right train.
the platform # was not made clear. this is the only train leaving at the specified time so im sitting on it. if its not the right train i'll get kicked off at the next stop and i can get another train.
when got to Venice. i walked out of the train station and saw the main canal. and the buildings and breathed in and said "ahhh..... venice" (i ment to say that when i got there. i was just so impressed with how pretty the city was that i said it unintentionally) the city s beautiful Saturday (when i come back and stay all day) will be fun. i kinda wish i brought my laptop so i could plan out my trip in venice but my shoulders will be glad i did not.
the loud speaker just said i'm on the right train.
day one seems to be going smoothly. looks like i'll get to brescia before sunset. then i can find my hotel and explore the city some.
Saturday, December 29, 2007
day 155 (19 days to go)
wow ben over a week since i last posted. its been an exciting week so i'm gonna try to cover everything.
last friday evening. the dinner with andrea went fabulously. we had steak with mashed potatoes and carrots and cresants. the steaks were perfect. i covered them in a mixtures of taco seasoning italian herbs and garlic powder. then lemon juiced them and wraped them in aluminum foil with a lemon slice on top. then put them in the oven and baked/broiled them (not sure which( ovens here can heat from top or bottom i had it set for both top and bottom and had the shelf all the way up. so probably both baked and broiled)) mashed potatoes and cooked carrots. i bought the cresants pre made at the store and put them in the micro wave for a short time. every thing was perfect.
saterday. i relaxed and helped andrea get ready for her families visit. (mostly decorating)
sunday i don't think i did much but that was a week ago so i'm not sure what i did. andreas family came.
monday i got a call from andrea, who wanted to make the same thing we had on friday for her family on christmas. she had bought pork (not steak but should still work) but could not find taco seasoning at the store (its hard to find. i found it by chance. its in a tiny half shelf mexican section with taco seasoning, tortillas (expensive 2 euro for 8) and taco sauce) so i brought over some and the italian seasoning mix (which i had made from several different herbs) and garlic powder. then i got looped into taking a city tour with the family via strassen bahn. after going to the office i decided to stay back and practice piano.
christmas day i was gonna stay home and plan my trip the next day. but i got a call in the evening. from andrea, she said her father really wanted me to eat dinner with them and it wasn't right that i spend christmas alone. so i came over and had porrk and mashed potatoes and carrots with them. had some great conversations. then i excussed myself and came home and packed and did all the last minute stuff i had to to do for the italy trip the next day.
i wrote out blogs for each day on my palm pilot during the italy trip. then i came back and found out i can't connect it to my computer to transfer them so i have to type them all out.
last friday evening. the dinner with andrea went fabulously. we had steak with mashed potatoes and carrots and cresants. the steaks were perfect. i covered them in a mixtures of taco seasoning italian herbs and garlic powder. then lemon juiced them and wraped them in aluminum foil with a lemon slice on top. then put them in the oven and baked/broiled them (not sure which( ovens here can heat from top or bottom i had it set for both top and bottom and had the shelf all the way up. so probably both baked and broiled)) mashed potatoes and cooked carrots. i bought the cresants pre made at the store and put them in the micro wave for a short time. every thing was perfect.
saterday. i relaxed and helped andrea get ready for her families visit. (mostly decorating)
sunday i don't think i did much but that was a week ago so i'm not sure what i did. andreas family came.
monday i got a call from andrea, who wanted to make the same thing we had on friday for her family on christmas. she had bought pork (not steak but should still work) but could not find taco seasoning at the store (its hard to find. i found it by chance. its in a tiny half shelf mexican section with taco seasoning, tortillas (expensive 2 euro for 8) and taco sauce) so i brought over some and the italian seasoning mix (which i had made from several different herbs) and garlic powder. then i got looped into taking a city tour with the family via strassen bahn. after going to the office i decided to stay back and practice piano.
christmas day i was gonna stay home and plan my trip the next day. but i got a call in the evening. from andrea, she said her father really wanted me to eat dinner with them and it wasn't right that i spend christmas alone. so i came over and had porrk and mashed potatoes and carrots with them. had some great conversations. then i excussed myself and came home and packed and did all the last minute stuff i had to to do for the italy trip the next day.
i wrote out blogs for each day on my palm pilot during the italy trip. then i came back and found out i can't connect it to my computer to transfer them so i have to type them all out.
Thursday, December 20, 2007
day 146 (28 days)
wow its been a while since i posted.
well since the last post several things have happened.
last saturday i went to the technical museum here in vienna. it was fun. the first floor especially it had lots or physics toys. the second floor was dedicated to industrial stuff. like giant machining machines and how iron casting works and so on. the next floor was deticated to cars. i think i saw the fastes car in the world there. i didn't see and liturature next to it so i can't be sure. the next floor was musical instruments and bicycles and other stuff (the example of a modern bike they had there was a joke.) the top floor was mostly aircrafte and space travel.
monday i had a test in german. i thought i did horrably but i ended up passing. the test was on stuff we had started to learn the day before. no one was ready for it.
the next day i had a presentation. i did it on space exploration and i did most of the work for it the morning before class. i was nervous. i had my hand out all done and asked marie to take a look at it. while she was grading it i think i started to pass out. every thing turned a hazy shade of white. i could still force myself to focus but i could not focus on small things like typed print 3 feet away. i realized somthing was wrong and i was likly about to pass out. luckily maries desk was low enough that if i took a knee i could still see the paper and maybe get some blood back to my head. i took a knee and finished with marie. then went to the computer room made the corrections and printed up 16 coppies. then i went to the lounge and lied down for 5 minnutes and thought... "what happened" it was at this point i realized i had not had lunch or breakfast and the dinner the night before was small. i had to get food in my stomach. but i was nervous and my natural responce to stress is to stop eating. so i had to force the bread i bought at the store down my throat.
i was temped to skip that day because of what happened. but i figured if i did pass out the teacher would be better equipt to get me to a hospital than any one, and i may get out of finishing the presentation.
the presentation went smoothly finishing at the exact time it was supose to. during the break the russian lady yelled at me to get my attention then complimented me on how logical my presentaion was. (i did the hand out in bullets (my favorite writing style) in cronilogical order). i thanked her then continued with class.
the next day it was the russian ladies turn to present. i was waiting for this it was gonna be fun. we all know the russian lady loves to argue and tak alot so we all knew the presentation would be atleast twice as long as any one elses and i was hoping the teacher would have to cut her short and she would argue that she was not finished and they would argue for a while.
my wish was an understatement. to begin she argued with the teacher to let her present after the break. about 3-5 minutes he eventually gave in. after the break she had us all sit in the center of the room so we could see her computer screen (when herr schnell first introduced the presentation assignment he said no computers) then she passed out her hand out (3 pages, mine was 1 and some peoples were 2) he said "meine refferate ist über iran" ( my presentaion is over iran) the teacher corrected her "über den iran" (over the iran ( most countries have a gender and you have to use the article before it most of the time)) and wrote "den iran" thez then argued over it for about minutes she read it in a book somplace and her husband told her not to use the article and the teacher said well thats wrong. eventually the teacher gave in (you can't teach some one who won't learn) the entire presentaion lasted about 50 minutes and the entire time she was talking to micheal. (a student with the central program) and micheal talked back. it was funny. finally she showed pictures on her computer and held us all 5 minutes after class. if it wasn't so long it would have been much more fun. after class i went to andreas and hung out for a while
the next day we had a feild trip (in the german class) to walk around the first district and then go to a resturant and eat crazy pancakes. i ordered 2 beef paleschinken (dictionary says pancakes) and was expecting hamburger in pancake mix with some kind of sauce ontop.
when i got was 1 beef thing (i think they are called crebs in english. it was a extrmly thin bread thing ontop of mushrooms and some beef and a huge salad on the side. (with to much dressing) it was kinda disapointing. found out after eating that the turkish kid (who doesn't belong in our level (he ccanot read and doesn't understand the teache 90% of the time. ) got mine luckily when it came time to pay he realized he had mine and payed for it. so i got off easy.
then i came home and went to sleep. i was tired.
i woke up and did laundry and did some shoping. now i'm waiting for th laundry to get done and then i plan to go to class. and then have dinner with andrea.
well since the last post several things have happened.
last saturday i went to the technical museum here in vienna. it was fun. the first floor especially it had lots or physics toys. the second floor was dedicated to industrial stuff. like giant machining machines and how iron casting works and so on. the next floor was deticated to cars. i think i saw the fastes car in the world there. i didn't see and liturature next to it so i can't be sure. the next floor was musical instruments and bicycles and other stuff (the example of a modern bike they had there was a joke.) the top floor was mostly aircrafte and space travel.
monday i had a test in german. i thought i did horrably but i ended up passing. the test was on stuff we had started to learn the day before. no one was ready for it.
the next day i had a presentation. i did it on space exploration and i did most of the work for it the morning before class. i was nervous. i had my hand out all done and asked marie to take a look at it. while she was grading it i think i started to pass out. every thing turned a hazy shade of white. i could still force myself to focus but i could not focus on small things like typed print 3 feet away. i realized somthing was wrong and i was likly about to pass out. luckily maries desk was low enough that if i took a knee i could still see the paper and maybe get some blood back to my head. i took a knee and finished with marie. then went to the computer room made the corrections and printed up 16 coppies. then i went to the lounge and lied down for 5 minnutes and thought... "what happened" it was at this point i realized i had not had lunch or breakfast and the dinner the night before was small. i had to get food in my stomach. but i was nervous and my natural responce to stress is to stop eating. so i had to force the bread i bought at the store down my throat.
i was temped to skip that day because of what happened. but i figured if i did pass out the teacher would be better equipt to get me to a hospital than any one, and i may get out of finishing the presentation.
the presentation went smoothly finishing at the exact time it was supose to. during the break the russian lady yelled at me to get my attention then complimented me on how logical my presentaion was. (i did the hand out in bullets (my favorite writing style) in cronilogical order). i thanked her then continued with class.
the next day it was the russian ladies turn to present. i was waiting for this it was gonna be fun. we all know the russian lady loves to argue and tak alot so we all knew the presentation would be atleast twice as long as any one elses and i was hoping the teacher would have to cut her short and she would argue that she was not finished and they would argue for a while.
my wish was an understatement. to begin she argued with the teacher to let her present after the break. about 3-5 minutes he eventually gave in. after the break she had us all sit in the center of the room so we could see her computer screen (when herr schnell first introduced the presentation assignment he said no computers) then she passed out her hand out (3 pages, mine was 1 and some peoples were 2) he said "meine refferate ist über iran" ( my presentaion is over iran) the teacher corrected her "über den iran" (over the iran ( most countries have a gender and you have to use the article before it most of the time)) and wrote "den iran" thez then argued over it for about minutes she read it in a book somplace and her husband told her not to use the article and the teacher said well thats wrong. eventually the teacher gave in (you can't teach some one who won't learn) the entire presentaion lasted about 50 minutes and the entire time she was talking to micheal. (a student with the central program) and micheal talked back. it was funny. finally she showed pictures on her computer and held us all 5 minutes after class. if it wasn't so long it would have been much more fun. after class i went to andreas and hung out for a while
the next day we had a feild trip (in the german class) to walk around the first district and then go to a resturant and eat crazy pancakes. i ordered 2 beef paleschinken (dictionary says pancakes) and was expecting hamburger in pancake mix with some kind of sauce ontop.
when i got was 1 beef thing (i think they are called crebs in english. it was a extrmly thin bread thing ontop of mushrooms and some beef and a huge salad on the side. (with to much dressing) it was kinda disapointing. found out after eating that the turkish kid (who doesn't belong in our level (he ccanot read and doesn't understand the teache 90% of the time. ) got mine luckily when it came time to pay he realized he had mine and payed for it. so i got off easy.
then i came home and went to sleep. i was tired.
i woke up and did laundry and did some shoping. now i'm waiting for th laundry to get done and then i plan to go to class. and then have dinner with andrea.
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
day 138 (36 days)
two days ago i walked to the u-bahn station with a grocery store to get food (the stores here were closed at this time) while walking into the main entrance i walked past a group of punk teens. i'm not sure what happened (if they were talking to me or not) but when i walked past they got all up in an uproar and one of the girls was shouting walking toward me. i decided ignoring her was the best option and continued on my way. the second i put foot into the station (on a steel grate) i heard a rather loud "pop!" and i thought immediately "am i hurt?" it took me afew seconds to realize the shot was not loud enough to be a gun shot. but for a quarter of a second i thought i may be seriously injured and there is nothing i can do about it. it took me far longer to interpret the situation than it ussualy would have. after the pop the group of idiots broke off. i still don't know what happend but i realized just how feeble i really am. i could die at any minute. i didn't panic or even break stride i just had a disturbing revelation. its nothing to be afraid of. but i just realized i am mortal.
andrea an i went out last night all around town it was great fun. despite the rain.
today we had a vienna seminar excursion to a art museum with a monet to picasso exhibition.
the building use to be the residence of some one who fought against napolean. and he was great for some reason. i saw lilies by monet. and thats the only famous work i saw. it was a guided tour so we had to follow a tour guides schedual and we didn't have time to look around on our own. its a shame because i saw some nice stuff but i couldn't look at it.
in german we are reviewing for the test. i'm not to concerned i'm more comfortable with stuff than half the class is.
tomarrow i have a test for history. it will consist of 4 questions and maybe an essay. i don't think it will be to hard. its in english so i can fake my way through most of it if necessary.
friday andrea is going to belgium.
over the week and i am planing on going to the tech museum (again) and maybe do laundry.
monday is the german test
then tuesday i have a presentation.
i have to talk for 10 minutes (about) then pose 3 questions and have the every one else discuss them then ask each group what they thought. totaling 20 minutes. so far most have taken between 30 and 50 minutes. mostly due to poor planing. i plan to do 2 things. 1. write every thing out on the board before class. 2. arrange the tables into islands so i can easily say ok, this table is a group that table is a group and so on. (thats were most people gained a lot of time.
still have no idea what to present on.. any suggestions would be appreciated
andrea an i went out last night all around town it was great fun. despite the rain.
today we had a vienna seminar excursion to a art museum with a monet to picasso exhibition.
the building use to be the residence of some one who fought against napolean. and he was great for some reason. i saw lilies by monet. and thats the only famous work i saw. it was a guided tour so we had to follow a tour guides schedual and we didn't have time to look around on our own. its a shame because i saw some nice stuff but i couldn't look at it.
in german we are reviewing for the test. i'm not to concerned i'm more comfortable with stuff than half the class is.
tomarrow i have a test for history. it will consist of 4 questions and maybe an essay. i don't think it will be to hard. its in english so i can fake my way through most of it if necessary.
friday andrea is going to belgium.
over the week and i am planing on going to the tech museum (again) and maybe do laundry.
monday is the german test
then tuesday i have a presentation.
i have to talk for 10 minutes (about) then pose 3 questions and have the every one else discuss them then ask each group what they thought. totaling 20 minutes. so far most have taken between 30 and 50 minutes. mostly due to poor planing. i plan to do 2 things. 1. write every thing out on the board before class. 2. arrange the tables into islands so i can easily say ok, this table is a group that table is a group and so on. (thats were most people gained a lot of time.
still have no idea what to present on.. any suggestions would be appreciated
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