workhorse revue

general appeal to the masses

2008-07-13T19:46:00.003+02:00

so, i'm in Strasbourg right now with my sister. it's day two of our 8 day "tour de france." short, i know. but it's almost the end of my time here in Europe and, well, i'm a little strapped for cash and really more excited about going home in a month than actually traveling right now. don't get me wrong, sis, i really like traveling with you.

being excited about coming back to Canada is, as a matter of fact, the reason for this post. does anyone need a roommate or know of some sweet apartment in need of renting in the Winnipeg area? as well, does anyone know of some sweet jobs coming up? i already have a wonderful friend named Jess Klassen helping me out (she's an employment counselor), but i'd thought i'd check with everyone who may read this. can't hurt, can it?

oh, and i'm still quit of smoking. take that.

materialism saves the day

2008-07-02T21:31:00.006+02:00

so, the other day i did some math. i calculated the amount of money i will save now that i'm not smoking anymore. i was startled by what i came up with. let me go over it.

back in Canada i was smoking about half a pack a day. that's 3.5 packs per week. and at that point they were roughly $12 per pack. by now they're probably $13, but we'll stick to $12.

$12 x 3.5 packs per week = $42 per week

in one month alone, i will save $168. "what will i save in a year?" you might ask. well, that would be the grand sum of $2,184! i was a little shocked. i mean $1000 wouldn't have surprised me. but, double that?

naturally, to keep my cravings down, i started thinking of all the things i will want to buy with the money i'll save. going for a sky's the limit approach, but keeping to thing under $2000, here's the list i came up with. materialism never felt so good.

15" Powerbook 1.67Mhz (why not a fancy new macbook? i don't need the latest model because i need the next item at the same time as the new-ish laptop)

Digidesign Digi002 ProTools interface and software

Fender Rhodes electric piano

Fender Jazz Bass

1960's Fender Bassman

Reason 4.0

M-Audio Keystation 88 midi controller

touring van (i hope 2 grand will cut it)

Yamaha NS-10s

glasses! (i found out i could use glasses shortly before i left the continent and had no insurance)

and that's really about it. it's a little one sided. but, i spend a large part of my day thinking about music gear. i could buy any two of these items with 2 G's. and i think 6-8 would buy them all. so, perhaps in 3-4 years time i'll have my list of wants completed. and i'll just have to keep thinking about it for a while to keep myself from starting back up.

reflections on quitting smoking while trying to quit smoking.

2008-07-01T14:10:00.002+02:00

so, i've quite smoking. actually I'm only 4 days in, but who's counting?

me.

every minute.

after nine years, it's become, well, a bit of a habit of mine. one that was, by far, easier to start. some of the things I will miss most about it will be: taking and spending some time outside thinking about things - either by myself or with someone, taking extra breaks at a workplace where break-times are unscheduled, and use it as an excuse to leave a conversation or group of people i don't wish to be around anymore. what i think smoking has really been for me is a way to get me out of uncomfortable situations; or at least, let me take a break from them. please don't get me wrong. not every time i went for a cigarette was i trying to get away from you. still though, don't fool yourself. it may have been the case once or twice…

i'm joking of course.

so what will i do now? i don't know. i think i have to find something. something less addictive. something that doesn't make me want to spend 10 minutes every hour in -40 degree Winnipeg winter. i may take up a pipe. but, that'll only work for part of the time. and will i just be altering my addiction to tobacco? possibly. perhaps, i will now learn how to deal with the situations that have made me run behind the bike shed for a smoke. hmm, maybe. or maybe, i'll just find another way out. who's to know how i'll react in a situation. i mean, now that i'm not continually drugged, i may discover that i can turn into the Hulk, or something like the Hulk. maybe, Hulk Hogan. wait, if i turn into Hulk Hogan because i quit smoking, i'll smoke double. health be damned! (which it will inevitably be.) i can grow the handle-bar moustachio on my own thank you very much. and without the aid of the steroids and that stupid yellow bandana. stupid bandana.

sorry to disappoint

2008-06-15T15:40:00.003+02:00

the only reason i'm posting right now is because i'm bored. sorry to disappoint. i used to think that blogging had this romanticism to it. you know, telling everyone, and no one at all, what's going in your life. and at first, i found this fun. but now, it's hard for me to care. maybe this has something to do with my life here in germany. at first it was exciting with new things, people all around. overwhelming, frustrating, and adventurous. now it's normal and i feel that i've lost that excitement. things don't feel all that adventurous anymore. i feel like i could handle myself in any european country, even though i still haven't seen many. well, okay, maybe not albania or bulgaria; and the french still make me nervous. still, i know i can adapt to many situations. but maybe i've played it too safe? it's true, i like as little risk as possible. i like to keep things relaxed. however, if i'm planning anything, there is always something inevitable that i miss, which ends up causing at least a little stress. ask me about my trip to taize, france sometime. i'd write about it, but that would take too long to do well.

so things are normal. that's good right? i feel at home, sort of. i used to know that i was still excited about being here when i would look around me and say, "holy fuck, i'm in germany." or europe, or spain, or wherever i was. i don't think i've done that in at least 4-6 months. i don't know if that's good, bad, or to be expected, but that's how it is. maybe i need to be more active. but that's hard when you're tired from working all day. working hard all day. maybe i need more vitamins. vitamins are the german's "cure-all." like polysporin for my mother. whatever i do during the day, though, it almost always seems fun. sure the romanticism of being a farmer has died off and the tractors don't always run, but everyday i accomplish something. at 6 pm the cows are fed and the eggs are gathered. and that's important. even more important than seeing the eiffel tower or brandenburg gate. of course, when i finish here in germany, i feel i missed out on some opportunities. but when haven't i missed out on opportunities. i do that all the time. i asked my friend niguel one time, when he was planning to go to paris for his holidays. he told me he wasn't going. he decided he would not go to paris. to him, paris was magical, romantic. and to go there, now, would only ruin it. he would see that it's a dirty, smelly, expensive city. and these negative aspects would do away with the romanticism. ( i haven't been to paris, i'll back this statement up after i go in july. i have no doubt that it is a dirty, smelly, expensive city.)

now i'm tired, would like to stop thinking. to sum what i've learned today, it would be: blogging, farming, going to europe or just paris, all seem like a good idea at first, full of romantic magic and wonder. but when you actually do them, you realize what a fool you were. hmm, that didn't come out right. oh well.

first post at new placement, sorry it took so long

2008-02-24T13:55:00.003+01:00

hi there, sorry it took so long to post. i find that it's hard to reflect on things while taking in so many new experiences and learning new things at the same time. and i've been on a bit of information overload for the last two weeks. learning new routines, learning how to be farmer, getting to know a whole family, figuring out how to integrate myself. but now that i think of it, perhaps reflecting might help with this.

so when i came from Karlesruhe after the mid term conference to Kaiserslautern i was incredibly tired and a little hung over. i really couldn't wait to get into a bed and sleep away some of the cloudiness. no a good place to be in when your going to meet a family you'll be living with for the next six months. but after i put my bags in my new room and had a really stupendous lunch, i was able to set up my room and take a nap. after my nap, i was quickly thrust into the world of farming. being taken to the barn to help with the evening chores. after this i felt pretty comfortable.

the Albrecht's have had trainees, i think, since 1997. a good ten years of experience dealing with north americans, and this helps a lot. they know how to make you feel at home. i just wish my german was better, or that everybody in germany didn't speak a different type of german. the dialect here has been hard to get used to. and to be honest, i'm not used to it, yet. i hope i can begin to understand it without it affecting my own german. i don't know if this is even possible, but i can hope.

i only have my morning routine down yet, but so far my days go like this:
7:30 am breakfast
8:00 feed the chickens, the turkeys, and the pig
8:45 drive to a neighbouring village to feed the cows, feed cows, make sure that everything's okay
11:00 do whatever i have been told to do that day
12:45 lunch and nap time
2:00 back to doing whatever i have been doing before lunch
4:30 feed cows again
6:00 feed pig and get the eggs that the chickens have layed
6:15 finished

so that's a little what's going on, if your interested.

mitch

...oh i would like to add that i just listened to this album by this spanish artist called El Guincho. the albums call Alegranza. i read about it on pitchfork. it's really really good. it's kind of a collage sample happy record, but pretty fun.

Gift In Kind

2008-01-24T21:23:00.001+01:00

hello there,

for those who are interested, you can check out this set of recordings i did with some friends and fellow trainees here in ol' europe. we wrote (some) and recorded them between Christmas and New Year's here in Gießen. it was a lot of fun and i think they turned out pretty good considering we did it all except mixing in three days. hope you enjoy!

www.giftinkind.googlepages.com/home

almost the end of some time

2008-01-20T23:19:00.001+01:00

so, i'm down to my last two weeks here in Gießen. i'm excited to try something new, but i was just starting to get comfortable. these last weeks have been really good on the whole this week proves to be the same. i wonder if it was planned by intermenno to get you sort of settled one place and then uproot you just as you feel comfortable. it must be.
it's okay. i mean, in the last seven years i have moved at least once every year. i suppose i haven't really felt settled since i left home. so what i'm feeling now can only be that quasi-settledness i'm so used to, i guess.

one day, i hope, i will live in one place for three years. it doesn't seem like much, but you gotta work up to something. but, it's hard for me to think about anything, finite past february, let alone when i get back. i dream on occasion what i will do when i get back. but, nothing ever seems to become a plan. my latest idea is to stay with my family till New Year's all the while fixing up a car that's been sitting in my parent's back yard for 10 years. but, i keep changing my mind every two weeks. i don't think i'll have an idea until i finally get back to the motherland. which hopefully will allow me to concentrate on having adventures here. it's hard to be content when you're continuously thinking about what you're going to do next.

photo albums posted on facebook

2008-01-14T21:33:00.002+01:00

here are the links

here

here

here

and here

holiday recap pt. 2

2008-01-06T22:25:00.000+01:00

okay, so after recording for three days straight. we all left for Berlin to celebrate new year's. paul, josh, and i bought what's called a "shönes wochenende" ticket. directly translated, it means "beautiful weekend." it's a ticket that allows up to five people travel anywhere in Germany for one day of the weekend. the catch is that one must take regional trains. slow trains in other words. it took us seven and a half hours and the trains were full. we stood for at least half of the journey.

but we arrived. tired. that evening was nothing special. just get ourselves settled at the place we were staying-the mennonite church in Berlin, and a drink at a bar. the next day, after getting a late start, we went on a free walking tour for the whole afternoon. i've never been on a tour of any city that i've visited. but i don't think that there could be one that would top this one. i'll just say that it ended in a 20 minute dramatic retelling of how the Berlin Wall came down.

after a little comfort food (Subway) four of us, heather, heidi, josh, and myself went on a pubcrawl with the same company that puts on the walking tour. four bars ending at a club. late night. lots of fun. the next day, new year's eve, some sight seeing after another late start, dinner back at the mennonite church and then to the Brandenburg Gate for celebrating. but, we didn't make it to the Brandenburg Gate really. we got sidetracked when we out from the underground. there were people everywhere. and these people everywhere were shooting fireworks off in every direction. apparently Germany outlaws fireworks for the entire year except for new year's, so as you can imagine, on this day, this city goes mad for burning chemicals that flame in all the colours of the rainbow on new year's. paul had bought some earlier that day, but we had fired these off in a park not to far from where we were staying. had we known, i'm sure we would have held off.

but even though the city was in complete chaos, we soldiered on. which is to say, we kept walking down the street amazed what was going on around us. we ended up only going as a far as this statue called Siegesäule. it's a woman looking to Paris to ward off Napoleon or something like that. this statue was behind the actual celebration, but people were celebrating there nevertheless. we just watched the fireworks-and ambulances-and tried to find some fireworks for ourselves. by far the best way i have ever celebrated new years. as we walked back late that night, the streets were covered in trash, most of being broken glass from champagne bottles. if this ever happened to a city in Canada. the government officials would be on the television in short order shaking fingers and yelling, "FOR SHAME!" plus they'd find a scape goat to arrest and spin it as some social protest by people who ride bikes. but, it will likely never happen. unless maybe if city governments in Canada outlawed fireworks except for one day of the year. i wouldn't mind.

i travelled back on the second. i took slow trains again. the cheapest way i could find. only it took ten hours this time. one of my connections didn't show up. i had to take a bus to another train station to take a train to another train station that would take me to the train station i needed to be at to make my last connection. i wouldn't have minded if i knew that it was a publicly owned company, the Deutsche Bahn that is, but now that it has been privatized and fares keep going up and up, it pissed me right off. 10 hours to travel 400km is a load of bull shit.

now here i am, safe and sound. and a little bored. an exciting last two weeks it's been and to go back to the humdrum has taken it's toll on my mental health. the last four days i've sat mixing the recordings and i've noticed that if i have nothing to get up for in the morning that is absolutely needs to be done, i can sit there and not actually do a whole lot. too much time to think is not always helpful. so in a way, i'm actually looking forward to going back to work tomorrow.

and that's all for now. except, if any of who know anything about travelling within the Balkan states, any tips, advice, or anything like that would be appreciated.

holiday recap pt. 1

2008-01-04T00:19:00.000+01:00

so, it's a new year. the first five months are finished of my stay here in Germany and i'm glad everyday is not as crazy as New Year's celebrations in Berlin.

i have had from the 24th of December up until tomorrow off from work. two weeks of sweet glorious not working. for Christmas Eve and Day i went to a small village by Kaiserslautern, called Enkenbach. there is another trainee, Ana Sara, living there and my boss, Raphael's parents live there where i was invited for dinner. i stayed with Ana Sara in her giant apartment. or at least it seems giant when there's only one person and two bedrooms, kitchen, and living room (living rooms, how i miss thee). i went to the Christmas Eve service at the Mennonite Church and then to dinner with Raphael and his family. we had fondue. up until now, i have only had chocolate fondue, never the oil. and i can say i like it. but, i don't think it's the greatest thing i've ever had. so many people have said to me-this being in my pre oil fondue days, "what? you've never had fondue? i loöooooove fondue. it's so gooooood!" all i can say now is that it's fun and but not when your incredibly hungry. same goes for raclettes (sp?).

went back to Gießen on the 25th after a lunch of tacos with Raphael and his parents. now, that was comfort food. it seems impossible to find anything with the south american chili flavour. it's all tastes asian here. even the chili flavoured tortilla chips. so good lunch and on the train back to home. the evening was fairly uneventful, no new toys to play with, no turkey to eat. so i made up for it by drinking with Niguel and his friend Andrew.

next day, a bunch of trainees, Heather, Les, Jeff, Josh, and Paul, came to Gießen to hole up in the basement of the GAiN office for three days to record an EP. the outcome's pretty interesting and varied. i'm in the process of finishing it and will post the outcome on the internet for people to download.

as soon as we ran out of time, we packed our bags and trained to Berlin. but, i'll write about that tomorrow. maybe i'll even post some pictures!

hmm

2007-12-16T12:53:00.000+01:00

so i've just broke a glass table. not a big one. more like a small circular coffee table. but, i've broke it nonetheless. and right now, i'm debating on whether i should clean it up and hope no one notices or clean it up and tell someone. it seemed sturdy enough. i mean, i just wanted to sit on it while i played the piece of crap keyboard that we have here. a couple of shifts of my weight and SNAP! oh, more like CRASH! and i'm sitting in the wooden frame like a woman who didn't notice the toilet seat was up when she went to the bathroom in the middle of the night. "oh, fuck," i says to myself.

now normally i wouldn't worry so much. i can get away with one stupid thing about once a month. that not only applies to being here in Germany, but Canada as well. the only thing is that i've already used that "get out of jail free" card this week. or at least i hope i have.

on tuesday, while trying to do something quickly, i accidentally hit a small wall with an electric pallet jack, nudging one brick and cracking a couple of others. with this mishap, though, i'm more inclined to not feel guilty about it. i'm always told that i should be working faster. "wir mussen gas geben" and "zack, zack, zack" are the common phrases to tell me i'm too slow. one time one of my many bosses told me he thought i was Canadian, as if it is a Canadian stereotype to do things quickly. and that since i had not filled this stereotype i wasn't Canadian. i was supposed to cut a piece of wood to size for a trailer wall, which i had finished, i just didn't know what the fuck to do with it after i had cut it. i don't know if it's a German thing, but they certainly don't like giving me all the information at once. or more than 5 minutes before it's supposed to be done. it has made me want to pull my hair out on more than one occasion. and i could deal with this, if i knew that i wasn't going to be talked about as lazy. it's just: how can i do something quickly and do it correctly at the same time, when i'm missing "why, when, how, how much, where, or what."

sorry, i'll stop venting. most of the time everyone is really nice here. the IT guy in the office is giving me a black macbook to record music between christmas and new years. and he went with me to the music store to help me rent a guitar because he knows the owner.

hmm, this post was meant to lead to into some thoughts on Christmas away from home. and it was supposed to funnier. it started off pretty good and well, i think there's an sexual innuendo that would serve as a metaphor here, but my mom read this periodically so i'll have to leave you hanging. i'll write something happier this week. or maybe sadder since it's Christmas and i might be feeling a little blue.

a little note: the weihnachtsmarkts (christmas markets) here are really neat. gluhwein and bratwurst have become fast favourites.

a little post while in valencia

2007-11-30T20:10:00.000+01:00

valencia is beautiful. even at the beginning of december. pictures of my little holiday to come hopefully next week. but, next weekend i will go to hamburg. so not a lot of time to do so. and i usually need a lot of time to do anything.

never ever again

2007-11-24T14:01:00.001+01:00

so, i thought i should explain the situation that apparently made me so angry last saturday.

on the friday before, my german teacher, an elderly woman of 60 or so, invited me to a classical music concert in a nearby village for saturday afternoon. i said i was interested. she said she would call me later in the evening to discuss details. i thought that it would be a fairly low commitment. 1 or 2 hours in the afternoon and on to something more exciting, right? wrong.

my german teacher, i know her as Frau Schmidt-Siaw, is a retired teacher and what i would describe as a very sweet, typical old lady (early to bed, early to rise; that sort of thing). but she also loves to preach the wonders of healthy eating. telling me i'm not eating right and should be eating more raw fruits and vegetables seems to be one of the things that brings her great joy. in fact, i'd say that telling me that i'm not getting enough vitamins appears to be a german pastime. i've had too many people tell me that the reason i'm tired and have no energy is because i'm not getting enough vitamins for it to be just a coincidence. and all along i have thought it was the living in a different culture, working 40 hours a week in a manual labour type setting, and learning a language all at once. silly me.

anyways, Frau Schmidt-Siaw calls me in the evening around 7pm to go over the details for the concert tomorrow. these details were as follows: first of all we are to go to a worship service in the morning (i forgot to mention that she and her husband are Seventh Day Adventists, which i found that out rather interestingly), we will then have lunch at the church, the concert starts at 5pm, someone will be at my apartment at 8:30am to pick me up. then she asks me if this works for me.

...what? are you serious? i want to remind her i'm 24 and not retired. and i want to tell her i don't wake up before 10am on saturdays on principle. also, it has turned into a whole day affair. not the 2 hours, i had originally thought. but, did i really have the option of saying no to such a sweet old lady?

"sure that will be fine," i say, while thinking, "shit, Scheiße, merde." the phone call ends, and i'm begin to stomp around, cursing and saying: i don't wanna wake up at 8:30! just like a little child would.

the morning comes as expected. i am picked up, brought to the church service. greeted by many very friendly people. it's okay. lunch is okay. the food is provided by my teacher and her husband. melon, pineapple, rice and potatoes, cooked parsnips, fresh vegetables. nice but neither filling nor exciting in any way. only now, people can shut up because i have vitamins.

the only two young guys in the congregation offer to show me some sites in the area. which is good. we drove around in a fancy car. Volkswagon Phaeton (10 cylinder diesel, unlimited horse power).

finally, it's 5pm and the concert starts, and ends the same. by this time i'm ready to go home.

after standing around for an hour after the concert we finally leave. now here's where i learned some good lessons. one woman who is riding with us tells me how she found that the Adventists made sense for her. she asks me if Mennonites worship on saturday or sunday. i say sunday. oh, she says in a way similar to what i would expect if i told her i spent time in prison for murder. she tells me what she thinks about the whole "saturday sunday" issue and asks what i think. okay, here is where i learn to keep my mouth shut. trying to word it as diplomatically as possible, i say: God doesn't care. i don't think there is a worse thing to say in a car full of Adventist. but the Bible says...,she says. and then i make the second mistake. the Bible is a metaphor, i say. now i've done it. i am told i am a misguided youth and that i should ask the Holy Spirit to open me up to the Bible or something like that. we get to my teacher's house, where i am supposed to catch a ride with the woman who got me into this mess, only we must wait for one more person coming in another vehicle to go back to gießen. so I must sit and wait, being told to eat figs and nuts because there healthy and handed a bit of literature from my teachers husband.

"read it and ask the Holy Spirit!" i begin to think then that this whole day has all been an elaborate plan to convert me to Adventisms. i've been gone for 12 hours now. i wanna go home!

finally we leave. finally i get home. i light up a cigarette almost immediately, as if to spite them. but i don't think it's spite if they don't know about it.

then i write the angry post on my blog.

that was my saturday last weekend. and never ever again.

irritation is not a phase

2007-11-17T21:11:00.000+01:00

okay. i'm not going through irritation phase. i'm going through irritation with certain individuals and inabilities to leave me to think something different (that God doesn't care if you worship on Saturday or Sunday). i don't want to go into it now. i'm too angry. i'll write something slanderous...maybe. i've always been too nice to go that far, or maybe i can just see the consequences of irrationality. or maybe i'm full of shit. either way, i homesick. i want to go to cousin's and drink a pitcher of Fort Garry Dark with friends. it's saturday night and i'm blogging. bollocks. i don't care if you think saying "bollocks" is stupid when you don't come from Britain.

so tired, but one small thing

2007-11-14T22:00:00.000+01:00

sorry. i didn't blog about my work on sunday. i've been really tired. there is one thing that i would like to put down, though.

today i was driving on the A3, a main highway (autobahn), back to Gießen from picking up some donations. i saw the most beautiful thing i have seen since coming here. the north sea was nice and all, but this was unbelievable. i came to the crest of a hill, the sun was shining on the forest. what else was on the forest, but a layer of snow. i knew it had snowed, i had driven through it on the way to my destination. but, i had not seen anything quite like this. the greens and browns from the trees, and the thin layer of snow that had clung to the trees. the forest in the valley, the forest on the hills. i cursed myself for not having my camera, so i could pull over and take a picture. and also for driving, for it is not advantageous to take your eyes of the road for very long while driving on the autobahn. actually, pulling over just anywhere on the side of the highway is a stupid idea as well.

tschüss!

sitting in a coffeeshop and it's raining...again.

2007-11-10T13:07:00.000+01:00

so it rains a lot in the good ol' deutschland come november. in the last two weeks, i believe, i've seen blue sky for a total of 8 hours and the actual sun even less. which causes me to wonder when i will begin to see signs of a declining mental state. growing up in the sunny prairies, i think my mental health is directly related to the amount of sun i get. which is why-even though the my funds are running a little low-i'm planning a trip to Valencia, Spain with some people that work for Campus Crusade for Christ. or rather, i'm tagging along. either way, it will hopefully be twenty degrees with lots and lots of sun. i want to come back with a sunburn. i want to be dried up like a raisin. well, that's actually kind of gross, but you get the idea.

until then, i will just have to pretend that coffee has lots of vitamin A and sit here in this coffeeshop and blog my heart out-which i have resolved to do more often, in case you missed the last post that i just posted seconds before starting this one. and this coffeeshop is pretty nice. pretty servers and good overpriced coffee to pay for the wireless internet. but the fact that it has free wi-fi makes it my favourite coffeeshop...hmm, i would have thought that the quality of the coffee would been the deciding factor. especially since i have been a coffee snob since, well, at least, since i worked in a coffee shop. but no, wi-fi.

anyways, perhaps a little update of my life since my last post, which was too long ago, i admit. i went to the Netherlands, saw Amsterdam, and the North Sea. and come to think of it, that was the last weekend i remember of having sun all weekend long. Amsterdam is beautiful, lots of canals and stuff. and the North Sea. absolutely wonderful. sandy beaches for miles. for i guy seeing the ocean for the first time, it was pretty spectacular.

that was the last trip i took. it was the forth weekend trip i had made in a row and i was a little tired after this last one. so i've been whiling my time here in wonderful Giessen. i haven't done much of excitement.

except i went to a dance club one night with Niguel, the other trainee, and three Hungarian ladies. drinking in the line, tequila shots in the club, dancing to suprisingly decent music till 3:30 in the morning. pretty fun. and then the following night, same ladies and a latino night in the basement of a Catholic community centre. Europeans really like latino music, and i can't dance latino, even if it was required in order to save a small animals life.

work has been intense and frutrating at times. i don't understand why my bosses do things the way they do. it seems that they always take the long way around and then complain about all the work that has to be done. i'm sure it can't be this simple, but they sure don't take the time to explain why they do things the way they do. which would make working so hard all the time so much easier. they also don't like to tell me what they want me to do more than 10 minutes in advance. which i have realized is the number one thing in a workplace that pisses me off. they have a plan for the week, but they don't like to tell it to me all at once. only a day at a time, five minutes at a time. i'm the type of guy, i've found, that likes to have my to do list for the day or week and then do the jobs at my pace as long as i get all of them done. GAiN does not operate like that, which drives me absolutely bonkers.

GAiN recently had their global conference here in Giessen, where i had the opportunity to get a good look at the work that they do, which is a lot. humanitarian aid, orphanages, well drilling, providing health personnel and supplies. they run the gambit and do so usually without trying to evangelize the people that they help. i say usually, because there are exceptions.

but i want to cover this subject tomorrow a long with my living in the office of an organization whose soul purpose is evangelisation. this has been overwhelming to say the least. and to say the most, it can be really fucking annoying. i am usually somewhere in the middle. but i am trying to understand and at the same time be understood. and like i said, i'll think about this and have something to write tomorrow. so...

bis morgen

sorry i haven't posted in a while

2007-11-10T13:02:00.000+01:00

okay, my bad. i realize now, after seeing people posting comments, that people are reading this little piece of the great web universe. i'll make it a mid-november resolution to blog more, send less emails.

a little lonely this evening

2007-10-03T22:55:00.000+02:00

it's 11pm and i'm feeling a little lonely. but, i started the day off pretty good i'd say. i had the day off because today is the day of German Unity, the holiday which marks German reunification, the one that Germans typically sleep through. i slept in, went to a friend's house for brunch (i brought the bacon, i always bring the bacon) and stayed there for most of the day, actually. played board games and practiced mein Deutsch, which, i think, is coming along quite nicely given that everyone speaks English here. it was a fun day.

but, i stayed in this evening to take care of some travel arrangements for this weekend and the next. this weekend i will visit a friend in Hennef, a village near Köln. you may know him. his name is Albert. and next weekend a friend a i will travel to the Netherlands to visit some friends that are also on the Intermenno program. i'm especially looking forward to this because it will be nice to talk about Winnipeg with people who have lived in Winnipeg. even though the cities are really cool here, i still think that Winnipeg is the place for me. sorry Mom.

anyways, i stayed in this evening except to go to Burger King, which has been good up until tonight. the burgers i was given must have been sitting underneath the heatlamp for how long, i can only guess. and my guess is two to three hours. i used to think that it was better here than in Canada. but now? i think it's disgusting no matter where you go. next time i want comfort food i'll have a peanut butter sandwich. perhaps with some chocolate hazelnut spread. which isn't really Canadian, but it's pretty frickin' tasty! it's the best of both worlds.

but, yeah, i'm a little lonely, my roommate/co-worker/co-Intermenno trainee has gone to sleep. but that wouldn't really make much difference. we don't really spend time together on weeknights. when you work together and live in the same house, you tend to not want to be around a person. and when you have completely different interests, backgrounds and personalities, it only amplifies this. and so, i am alone and lonely this evening.

i should apologize for my lack of posts. i thought i would be better at this. maybe i can do a recap of what has all happened.

i went to Frankfurt one sunday, probably around the time i stopped posting, for a street festival. what i remember is lots of people, 1/2 metre bratwurst, fireworks and a reconstructed Alte Stadt.

two weekends ago i went to München to see a band called Architecture in Helsinki, which, coincidentally, was also the same weekend that Oktoberfest started. Oktoberfest, i must say is pretty overrated. too many people. you can't drink beer in the festival ground unless you have a table in a tent. and you can't get a table unless you reserve one a year in advance. luckily, there is more than just the festival grounds to get the special Oktoberfest beer. but, really, the most fun was the band. by far one of the best shows i have been to in a long time, mainly due to some of my old man tendencies towards going to see bands. it started on time at 8:30pm, the opening act played for half an hour, Architecture in Helsinki started playing not later than 15 minutes afterwards, my head did not want to fall off from the volume, and no encore. but not to take away from there performance. AinH are a tight, tight band and there new album is wicked.

i would like to post some pictures but the computer i'm using is being a tad rediculous right now. so tomorrow i will try to do it. anyways, it's midnight and tomorrow i have to load a container being sent to Iraq and so to bed i must go.

next week i'll try to comment on my work a bit more. tschüss!

Some Pictures

2007-08-26T11:41:00.001+02:00

Some sort of celestial being watching over Gießen from the top of the shopping district.

Gießen tower and a red balloon.

Street scene with steeple of Johanneskirche.

First Week, Erste Woche

2007-08-18T12:07:00.000+02:00

I think that's right. Whenever I learn a new German word or phrase I seem to remember it for approximately 15 minutes and then it leaves; up and moves out of my brain, probably to somewhere more temperate, somewhere that might not butcher it with an Canadian accent.

In case you don't know, I am living in Germany for a year and as the title states, my first week has just passed. I live in a town called Gießen, it's about 50km north of Frankfurt, where I work in the warehouse for a humanitarian aid organization called Global Aid Network (or GAiN). I also live above the GAiN office in a flat with an American, Niguel (whom I work with), a Russian, Tanya (at least I think she's Russian, we don't talk much as she speaks no English and I have yet to master German and probably will never speak Russian), and some other guy whom I've not met yet as he has been awayon summer break, so I'm told. I have drank a couple of the beers he has left in the refrigerator, though. They were quite tasty.

The work is good. Lots of lifting things and moving things around and complaining about having to move so many things (my boss Udo, not I). I will be also be taking on the task of driving around Germany picking things up with GAiN's van. Which I have no doubt will alone give more than enough stories to tell. As far as I can tell, the Germans drive like crazy people with something crazy to prove. It'll be fun, nonetheless, I'm sure.

Gießen is an interesting town. Mostly bombed out during WWII, it has a lot of ugly modern architecture along side some really nice old buildings. But, the area that I live in feels like Saskatoon. There's a store like Home Depot, a Burger King, a McDonalds, and some other large store that I haven't been in yet, all in walking distance. So in terms of actually feeling like I'm in Europe, outside of the language issues and when I go to buy groceries, I have to remind myself once and a while that I'm in Germany. Although, I'm sure I will really feel like I'm in Germany right about the time I start getting pissed off at all the little differences between German and Canadian culture.

Well, I think that's all I can say for now. I was hoping to post some pictures but the computer needs drivers for my camera and I don't have administrative clearance to install software. And this is something that will always make me mad as hell wherever I go.

workhorses

2007-08-13T19:50:00.000+02:00

Well, hello. Welcome to the inn at the side of the road.