Notes from Germany
I am an American expat living in Germany. It's a far away land on the other side of the ocean. It's interesting and often weird here. If you read this and want to comment then email me at nate(the at symbol)chillmost.com. If you find any spelling or grammar mistakes, you can keep them.
Friday, May 02, 2003
There were all kinds of crazy riots yesterday Hamburg and Berlin. I don't live in either of the two cities so I didn't see it. A classmate of mine René lives nearby the epicenter in Hamburg and was scared to leave his apartment. Cars were overturned and set aflame, rocks thrown, windows smashed, teargas shot, water cannons fired, protesters beaten, yada yada yada. There were some viable and serious protests and demonstrations but the headlines were mostly dominated by the assholes causing trouble. Apparently this has been going on in Germany since 1987 and there hasn't been a peaceful Mayday in those two cities since. WTF? The fuzz in America wouldn't put up with that shite at all. I suspect that this type of rage will manifest itself soon enough though in America cause people are pissed-off. I am suprised it hasn't happened already.
Thursday, May 01, 2003
Yo! Was geht'n Alter? Tag der Arbeit ohne Arbeit. Krass oder? Yesterday we went to this place called Schröders Garten to party. This is the same place we went to 2 years ago to the day went I first moved to Germany. There was a big tent with a sound sysem in it. Attached to said sound system was a bad DJ playing appropriately bad 80's music. Earlier in the evening I was feeling ill and thought maybe I'd just go home and puke all night. I think I ate a sandwich with some bad tzaziki on it or something. Diluting my stomach with beer did the trick and I was soon after feeling like a champ.
So we danced and drank until 3am. Then we walked into the city center of Lüneburg and looked around in a few of the bars for Lothar, a former roommate who can often be found in this manner. Unsuccessful in finding him we searched for a drink only to be turned away at the Irish pub of all places. So then we walked or rather staggered over to a bar/dive called "im Pesel". I hate that place. It's in the small cellar of an old building. There's no band, no strippers, the DJ sucks ass, there is no ventilation, and the restrooms seem to ooze something but they have the nerve to charge a cover to get in. On the other hand there seems to be no shortage of mullets (on men and women) and attitude. It's just tough. The owners know it is the last place selling alcohol in town so they take advantage of that. Often though somebody opens up the backdoor and that's usually how I get in if I absolutely need to. This time however, Dani, talked the door guy into letting us in with a discount. Anyway as soon as I get in some smacked-out junkie looking chick offered me some red pills, which I politely declined. If you are ever looking for a one night stand in Lüneburg and aren't too picky about who you wake up next to I guess this is where to find it. So a beer and a Jäger and Cola later we split. All in all it was a fun evening.
Tuesday, April 29, 2003
Yeah. I worked today like every day except for the days I don't. Tomorrow will be the two year anniversary of me coming to Germany. Hmmm. It has been an interesting trip so far. Tomorrow is also "Tanz in den Mai". Basically an excuse to party because May 1st is a holiday in Germany (Tag der Arbeit, kind of like Labor Day, but in the spring) so they bring may in with drinking and debauchery. Well, mainly drinking. I will contribute my part to the celebration. May 1st also usually means there will be lots of riots and protests and shit going on in the bigger cities like Hamburg and Berlin. Due to the war in Iraq there is sure to be lots of angry pissed off people. Rightly so. Most of the violence that occurs will be caused by assholes just looking for trouble. We'll see how that goes.
There was a Carnival nearby on the Sülzwiesen. German carnies (the travelling folk that work at carnivals) are not as scary as American carnies. I wonder why. Anyway they blasted off a bunch of fireworks. Cool.
Bis Später
Monday, April 28, 2003
Set up blog links on the front page. Will redo all links on all pages soon. Thinking about doing whole site bilingual. It would be cool but who cares? Had a gig last night with AMJ. It was all right. Lots of people. Seem to have some sort of inter-cultural miscommunication/spat with Marko going on. I'll straighten that out though.
