Days Thirty through Thirty Six - Finishing up

Hey, I've been catching back up to life in the US of A, 

but I'd like to finish this off solidly.

So let's jump back into it.

Whether or not you read this, I don't care.
Writing this for me now.

Okay, Saturday. Slept in super late, then chilled with R and my brother until about midday (which for us is like six-o-clock). My brother had been playing a game called Antichamber, which to him was entirely mind-boggling. This of course meant that he insisted I play it, which I did. I hope my mind grasped it pretty well. Then my sis came in and commanded us to come to Keinstress with her, which I was interested in since before the trip. So we headed out, in the car with my german mom and Ca, through some gorgeous country roads to an isolated campground, which was filled with the booms of 90bpm trap. My kind of crowd. We made our way through the scent of pot, smoke, maze of graffiti-ed metal to a campsite int he back of the festival (super small compared to the last, only 600 or so people). Here lounged the various youthful residents of Lebensgarten, roasting bread and cheese, and I was introduced to the few remaining member I had not yet met. Apparently, this festival actually originated in Lebensgarten, so it's no surprise they were among the attendees. I talked with El, then accepted some strangely cooked cheese from T, and then we headed out to hear the finals of the freestyle battles. It probably would've been a lot more impressive if I understood what they were saying... but in any case, I understood the game. Eight guys dueled off at random, picked from a hat by a crowd member. Sometimes small prizes were offered, and one guy in the back continued cooking pudding throughout the matches. Then, the finals, where the final four paired up in teams, and went two on two, for a two full extended rounds. Their flow was good, and, judging from the reactions of the crowd and the vague translations my sister provided, so were their attacks. Eventually two held the trophy, and a bowl of pudding, and we headed off to a small dance floor. We jived with the slow-tempoed rhythms for a little while, and then off again, back to the campsite. We opted to go for a walk with T, after checking for our stuff, and denying his offer to bring us to the forest hot tub, which was supposed to be pretty cool. We danced a little more, and saw some rap performances, and then it was the walk, out of the locale and onto the moonlit street. After a little while, we flagged down our ride, and headed home. Life was good.

The next day brought with it a new appreciation for my surroundings. First, we walked in a large group down onto the main road, skipping over to T's house to pop in and ask if he'd join us for cake at the local cafe. Then we walked down the dirt, tree-enclosed path that led to the main building. Or so I thought. These paths were usually ringed with seemingly impenetrable bushes, so I was mildly disconcerted when my german mother stepped into one. That was, until I followed them, and realized that hidden in the greenery was a spacious enclave, complete with tables and chairs and a flowering tree. We went into the side of the adjoining buildings wall, and there was an adorable little cafe, with the most stunning spread of cakes and tarts, all made fresh (some even made by T's brother, as I learned later). We sat in one of the benches outside, and I watched the leaves part as more villagers joined us. It was peaceful, and beautiful, and all those things you want in your backyard (minus the lawn, mostly dirt ground).
We returned to the house, just in time to grab our fancier clothing and drive off near Neinberg for a classical concert. I was intrigued, but I can't say particularly excited. That was, until I saw the interior of the stone chapel the performance was going to occur in. Arching pillars and ceiling that stretched up to the sky. Rainbows thrown by tinted glass mosaics as walls. I'm not religious, but I appreciate the beauty held in belief, and this was one I enjoyed immensely. We filed into nearly the back row, as the choir+orchestra prepared to create a modern rendition of several of Bach's works. I was hushed by my sister, and then they began, voices ringing about the church as I leaned back and let it sink in. Several soloists graced the front row, backed up by a string section and a squadron of voices, and they were brilliant. Churches echo like an empty train tunnel, and so classical music was made to accommodate this. To put it in short, it was made for playing in these spaces, and it was another experience entirely. At one point the lead (a low tenor (or something) as was explained by R) began changing pitches with in causal succession, and I realized he was harmonizing, but not with the orchestra. No, he was making chords with the reverberations from the walls. Dude was singing a duet with himself. I mean, dude. We left with my german mom crying at the stark music of it, and we went to get icecream at a temporary transparent inflatable dome cafe (actual icecream this time, cones and whatnot). We saw several of the singers afterward, several of which were nearly unrecognizable. Then home, and eventually sleep. And that was Sunday.

Monday was the day we were supposed to head into Bremen. Only, my brother woke up early, and as I rolled over to face the stabbing morning light, he returned, casually shaking his head and saying 'Just go back to sleep'. I complied with enthusiasm. Later, we woke up, and I decided that it was going to be a productive day. I worked on the business cards, did a little website design, made a massive number of blog posts, and danced about a bit. Also, I just got to do some solid hanging out with my favorite brother. It was a peaceful day.
Oh I also went to this local food co-op that day, where my german mother perused a variety of organic goods, including chocolate, jams, and peas, plus the whole rest of the large room. I inspected the various German labels, trying to soak in the some of the foods (I think it worked (I can read German ingredient labels now...)). The co-op was called Ledi, a combo of Le (shortened word for food) and Di (same for co-op). Exciting, I know. But they made some good puns on the walls ('My fair Ledi', 'Ledi's first', you know). It was cool. and there was the freestore again, where R found a cute wool sweater and kept it.

Tuesday was probably when it started to hit me that this evanescent state in Europe wasn't going to exist perpetually. I woke up with a bit of start, and much earlier than usual. But my brother and I had made plans for the day, which involved an 'early' start (10 or something). So we printed out a folder of papers, then headed out onto the main road, me with the foldr and my bro with his backpack of camera equipment. We turned off the road after we'd gone some ways, and stepped up into the forest. There is no poison oak, or sumac, or ivy, so you could walk barefoot through the forest with no worries except for the rare nettles. And the pokier pinecones, I suppose. But my brother showed me his sit spot, far in the trees, where nothing was around for half a mile except for the forest. We reached a tree, and fiddled around a bit as I tried to hang the folder on one of the branches. Then the camera was rolling, and I recited poetry into the forest. Recorded by my brother, I did a variety of pieces I'd been working on since the last time I'd been with him (in america). Then came the rap, where I strode along the path, yelling out my lines into the silent forest as loudly as possible, for the camera had terrible audio adjustment. Last was a piece I'd actually written while in Europe, where I tried to capture the feeling of being here. I think it turned out well, and my brother agreed, saying 'that feeling your putting in here, it only gets stronger the more you're here'. I tended to agree. I laid in the grass for a while, and let my cameraman take some artsy shots. He'll be editing them soon, and you guys'll probably get to see them (only if you want (duh)). Then we walked back to the house, and switched into swimsuits, so as to run about in the sprinklers. Which we did, playing tag and spluttering at the water. My brother grabbed the hose, and then my sister, and I wrestled it away from them, lauging and diving and rolling to avoid the spray. Which I utterly failed at. Then Te and El joined us up on the deck, and we washed off. We chilled that night, out on the deck with friends and a fire and fabulous smores. It was childlike, and enthralling, and enchanting.

Wednesday. The last day. I wasn't prepared for that feeling. We decided to head into Neinberg, to buy souvenirs and get pictures of my siblings for passport updates. We headed into electronics stores, and then did a secret thing, and got pictures, and got some special bread for dinner. I bought my female warden some special tea found semi-exclusively in Germany. Miss NYC would receive a small journal, which my german sis and I had plans for. For my male warden, I got a packet of gummy frogs. Then we went home, only to head out to an ALDI supermarket, which was pretty intensely low priced. You know, Walmart tried to make it in Europe once, but was beaten out by the undercutting of ALDI, and similar chains. It's ridiculous. I bought a stack of variety chocolate bars for everyone back home, and packet of Jaffa Cakes for my best friend. At home that night, I finally got to spend some quality time with my german father. I showed him the variety of projects I'd been working on over the past three years (he hasn't come back to america after leaving three years ago). He and I discussed the future, and I still feel empowered by what he said to me. We affirmed that we'd keep in contact, hugged, and then I returned to my brothers room, where R, my sis, Te and my bro were all hanging out, my brother and Te trading off controls in Surgeon Simulator. As the night wore, on, my sister went to bed, and then R went to pack, and Te left. I was finished packing, and we were going to be getting up at six the next morning to leave, but R returned with a heavily overweight bag, and I moved some of her stuff into mine. Her art stuff required packing that went until 3 am, after which I slept briefly until dawn.

Thursday was travel day. I ate Amaranth that morning, which was a first, for sure. Then I grabbed my bags, said goodbye to everyone not coming to airport. Leaving my brother and german father was certainly the hardest. We hugged each other tightly. I came into the airport with my sister, german mom, Ca, and R, the last two who were both leaving an hour after me. I checked in, then cuddled with my sister, in a slow goodbye. Whenever we're with each other, it's as if no time has passed at all, and with this in mind, I was able to keep our parting from being too hard. My german mom I would be seeing in a week, she was coming to Cali soon enough. Then I went through security, only to be turned around and told I had to empty a water bottle. I did, after asking two security guards where a trash can were, and then having to have a janitor loosen the top for me. So that happened. Curse my teenage arms. Nah, they're pretty sweet. Anyways. The first flight passed quickly, and I spent the time conversing with a young man from Kansas about women and relationships and such. I actually got his contact details, which was sweet, and I'm sure we'll keep in touch. Then I was dropped off at Zurich international, and I thought my flight had been changed, so I headed straight for the terminal instead of taking the two hour delay. I also wandered into the VIP line at one point, which made for a very confusing explanation as to where I was supposed to be. Turns out there was a two hour delay anyways. Hmm. Then I was on the next flight, next to a Swiss woman who taught Humanities near SF. We chatted for a bit, I watched the Hobbit, they served two very oily meals, and then I got to work writing in NYC girls journal, detailing my experiences in Europe as if I were a squire, striving to be a knight. She was the princess I returned to, granting the journal as a dragon scale, from the foe I'd slain. And at the very end, I put 'The rest of that story is hers...'. We arrived, went through customs (they had a fingerprint scanner, but I was like the only one who didn't get scanned). I knew the warden wouldn't be at the terminal immediately, but I didn't know where to go to meet them. eventually I decided on waiting for the car. And y cellmate/NYC girl came out to hug me, my female warden in tow. One of the strangest feelings on the drive back was the moment when I realized I could read the signs again. You just learn to ignore them, but suddenly: 'The Journey of the Blue Whale...hmm. Wait. Mom! I can read that!'. You get the idea.

I met my male warden sometime later, and they immediately declared my sentence over. My mom and dad, and my sister were overjoyed to see me, plus the candy I'd brought with me back.

I suppose I should give a brief summary of how I've changed now. And that's going to to be difficult. There have been a lot of firsts on this trip. First time traveling alone. First time traveling outside of America (not counting Mexico and Canada). First time living without my parents. First time using an ATM. First time being dragged along the beach by a random kite. First time being totally naked in front of my friends. There's plenty more, I'm sure. I've seen much more than I can ever express with words, and I'm okay with that. Sometimes the experiences you have are very personal.
I've learned a bit too. I've learned that the is indeed life outside of CA. I've learned that I love travel, even the tough parts. I've learned to trust myself to know what to do. I guess I've learned a bit of independence too. I've learned that those bikes actually do have brakes. I've learned that saunas can be hot. Big whup.

I've been home for just about two weeks now, and things have changed. There's something in the way I look, or the way I perceive myself looking. I'm not sure what it is. Nothing's different, and yet a lot has been altered. I know now that the world is smaller than it seems. And that makes me want to see it. It also makes me want to change it. for the better, I hope. And maybe I'm just young and naive enough to believe that I can.

From this trip, and my life up to right about now, I've learned that things can push you beyond anything you were ever comfortable with, and if you've got an open mind, a willing heart, and a wacky grin, you can do just about anything.

I'm 17, Caucasian, male, and whatever else you're supposed to fill in on those application forms.

The name's Noah.
And this is me, signing off.

Except for pics. I'll probably post those.

Days Twenty Five through Twenty Nine - R!

Alright, so Tuesday, right after Ording was finished. We were pretty wiped, and in my brothers room, I guess I decided that today was going to be a productive day. Something about the waking up at 1:30 must've invigorated my spirits, because we decided to design me a business card. This took a minimum of six hours, naturally, during which we went through three or four different models, each printed with difficulty, examined, and scrapped until we found something appropriately ridiculous. My brother loved the latest design, a thing of his own personal invention. This was, naturally, to become an issue in only twenty-four hours time. S came over, and finding us having spent the entire day inside, promptly dragged our sorry butts into the bright sunshine and told us to do something outdoorsy. Our response? "Let's dig a firepit". So we did, with shovels and the whole lot, right where this old sandpit was. This particular square meter of fine rock was far too small for it's supposed purpose of entertaining children, who, presumably, must've been the size of my right pinkie to have enjoyed it. Digging it up, however, revealed prelaid bricks underneath, which, once we emptied the middle section of dirt and a weird plastic cover, made a near-perfect fireplace. Right in our own backyard. What in the world. Anyways, this immediately called for sleeping outside, with a tent, and chairs, and a bonfire. So, when it grew dark (which was about eleven, that still screws with me), we headed out and did exactly that. Eventually my brother and S retired to the tent, while my sis and I headed for our own, less bug-ridden beds.

The next day was very exciting for just about everyone except me. This meant early wake-ups, people running out the door by seven (spooky!), and driving over to Neinberg to pick up R from the train station, and file some passport stuff, so that my female sibling could make her escape to India shortly after my leaving. Naturally, I slept in until about the same time as yesterday, which meant that my waking up had less to do with any light indicator, and more with the sounds of R and my brother making breakfast. I headed out, greeting R (my brothers best friend), and sitting down to hear of her exploits in France, where she stayed in a castle and visited museums as part of her art education (she wants to become a cartoonist, which is pretty sweet, and so I offered to do her website). The next part of this introduction was showing her the products of the previous day, the business cards. These she immediately vetoed, much to the dissatisfaction of my brother and the amusement of me. In her words: "Look, fades are so two-thousand. It looks amateurish". Before we could start on an alternate design, however, we headed off to go on a walk with S. We met up with her parents at there house, stayed for lunch dessert, and then headed into the woods, where R and i caught up on lives, and my brother and S chatted about who knows what. We reached a lookout point, saw the view, and came on home, just i time for me to start working on the cards again. Sleep came sometime after, after another fire, and my sister and I camped out in the tent this time.

Thursday. I worked on the cards, did some website stuff. We had people over. Chilled. Went to check out the local food coop, which was filled to the brim with supposedly delicious, very expensive, totally German titled food. It was actually pretty sweet. Went on a walk with R, where we found a lookout for a nest, with a solitary puzzle piece on it's floor. The plot thickened, then broke the stirring spoon. We presumed that we'd wandered into the lair of a Frog King, and would have to pay penance for some unutterable deed we'd unknowingly committed.
We had another fire.

Friday was quiet, which was nice. My brother went sailing with my German dad, and they came back windswept and exalted. My sister and I went for a walk until late at night, and stepped into the bushes to let a particularly slow car roll by. She made a comment to the effect of  "Either they're learning to drive, or a very specific act is taking place in that car". Then we sat on the line in the middle of the road, watched the stars, and chatted. It was a good time.

Final Day (not just yet!)

Hey, so, despite what my current day count says, this is the day I leave.
As you can see, I'm a little behind.
I'm hopping on the flight now, and I'll see you in 29 hours for me, and just about 17 for you.
Going into complete radio silence. All communications are now off.
I'll keep you posted.
Wish me luck.

I won't need it.

Day Twenty Three & Twenty Four - St. Peter Ording Pt. 2

Aright, so we got up pretty late. All of us except for my brother, who decided he needed to hit the waves at the insane hour of 8:30. Crazy, right? Us sane people got up late, and S didn't have to work until 7, so she got to come with us to the beach. And now we had two bikes. This naturally meant that D and I (not a nickname, actually me) had to pilot these granny bicycles, with my sis and S on the back.
The bikes in Europe have an interesting feature, which will become important in a moment. This feature is that they have no back wheel brake. Well, not for your hands, anyway. Instead, upon pedaling backwards a short bit, the brake kicks in, and I lurch forward. So, I was trying to avoid using this little feature. The back wheel was also flat. S was an old hat at this though, running a side and hopping on, and managing to maintain her balance amongst my swerving. I was actually doing quite well until we headed down this hill. D was ahead, and was slowing himself, but I basically had no safe break.
Upon realizing this, I suppose I must have let out some sort of garbled jungle call as I swerved around D, and off the path.
Signposts, dude.
They're like ninjas, jumping out of the bushes, and right in front of your bike, so you take a full frontal into them, and S flips off the back. There I am, standing, having had the barest sense to take the blow with my shoulder instead of my face, and then S just starts laughing. Lying on her back, our bags strewn about her, and she's guffawing.
I sort of chuckled myself. We sort of remounted and got back on track, and I finally learned that the back break depends on the pedaling force, which might have been nice to know before I made like Tarzan into an urban tree.
Anyways. We hit the beach soon after (too soon man), with S dismounting prior to the next, larger slope. My brother had retuned from his little excursion, having gotten another kite from a company called Slingshot, an appropriate name for what happened next. It was a windy day, and they gave my bro a 'larger' kite (14m) and a board. He went out to the water, and was maybe out there for, say, 15 minutes. Then a gust of wind took the kite, and him, out from the water. It then proceeded to drag him the next 200 meters along the beach, headfirst, his face literally digging in the sand as he tried to depower his kite.
Needless to say, it was mildly discouraging. He does take a lot of pride though, in saying that he did not once crash the kite. I just sort of chuckled to myself.
It truly was a day for mishap.
Instead of continuing with kite-watching, we headed for the seaside cafe, where we grabbed some gigantic cake and hot chocolate, and sat on the deck swapping stories. It was exquisite. We then got a trainer kite, and we all got to fly it about, doing figure eights in the sky and me very nearly missing a group of onlookers as I crashed the kite into the ground. It would drag you off your feet at times, with you stumbling to keep control. Great fun. Heading back into the city, it was now time for another first.
The European Sauna.
We first ate fish sandwiches at a street vendor, then went into the facility. I got a magnetic wristband, which allowed me to unlock and lock my locker by passing over it. Which is pretty sweet. Then we got changed, and headed into the first room: The wave pool. There was no chlorine in any of these, just salt for purification, completing the beach scene with a salty taste in my mouth as my brother and I jumped into the waves pushing across the pool surface. They carried us about, and we splashed around a bit before heading to the water slide.
Access to this monstrosity required an ascent up three stories of spiral, metal staircase. The tube itself twisted and spiraled downwards, and the water looked pretty fast. The collection of seven-year-olds lining up the stairs to enter also gave off an ominous look. D and my sis went first, together, and then it was me. The green light above the entrance flicked on, and I shoved off, sliding on my butt, and it was a little slower than I predicted. And I rounded the first bend. And then I stopped. In darkness. And I knew the green light would flick on in about 30 more seconds, so I scooted my butt along the tube as fast as I could, hurriedly shuffling my way down the tube, around the bend, into a waterfall, and towards the exit. Just as I saw the light at the end of the tunnel, I turned to see D riding down, going 'Noah? What the-?'. Then he slammed into me, and the two of us slid out onto the pool.
Apparently you're supposed to ride on your heels and elbows.
Who knew.
We went on to a couple other pools, and then it was on to the sauna. We went through two turn stiles, and then suddenly everyone was stripping to their skivvies. I followed birthday suit, and then we walked, towels wrapped to the main sauna, where the big event was about to start. You walk into a room full of old people, all naked and sweaty, and your friends are relieving themselves of their towels and sitting, and you start to question your entire basis of being here. You really do.
But I sat, and a dude came in, poured a peppermint mixture on the heated rocks in the middle of the room, waved his towel around to thoroughly douse us in burny mint, and started on the next, hotter concoction. We stayed for the full three rounds, after which I was pretty sure every pore on my body had drowned. Then the shower, and D and I strode into an ice pool. Another, calmer sauna, some chilling, another round on intense stuff (a citrus 'vitamin' mix this time), ice waterfall, chilling, intense (pure heat this time), and then we hung out on lounge chairs, watching the dunes far off and chatting. We left soon after, and went home to make pizza, S and I doing much better on the bike. We ate well, and watched Moonrise Kingdom (absolutely weird and adorable in equal measure). Then it was off to bed.

We woke up late the next morning, and got the apartment cleaned up. It was D and S's last time being there, as they'd be selling the place soon enough, and they said their goodbyes. We got the bags down to the car, wheeled the bikes into a storage area in the basement (nicely creepy, by the way), and then headed out. We dropped D off at his apartment, and then headed home. Nothing much else to say. We chilled, ate dinner, and were off to bed pretty quickly.

Day Twenty One and Twenty Two - St. Peter Ording, Pt. 1

This was the routine. We were up, my clothes dropped into the laundry, me plonked in the shower, washing up, eating up, cleaning up, getting up to go and then sitting. A fair bit of sitting. After the first hour we were in Bremen, where D was waiting to be picked from his apartment. S, my siblings and I greeted him, saw his Rubix's cube collection and 3D printer, and then left the sweet little flat.

For reference, I should probably include a piece that I've sorely forgotten, 3D printers. Now, my brother has been teaching snowboarding in Austria for the past season; that's why we went down to see him. The reason why he came back up to Steyerberg is because he's now focused on settling down in his parents basement again, and in doing so constructing a mad scientists laboratory. No really. Instead of finding an industry job, he intends to use a large 3D printer and laser cutter to build projects of varying difficulty, ranging from a new speaker system to his own personal SWARM army. Don't ask. Anyways, he and D have definitely hit it off the charts on the nerdy scale, because D's thesis is on efficient structural modeling for such printing thingamajigs. D may or may not be helping, that's up in the air, but I've been aiding my bro in rewriting his proposal and designing a program structure. He is very excited, and after having travelled to the US, New Zealand, Austria, Germany, Spain, Italy, France, Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium, India, and Fiji, it seems like he's finally ready to settle down. Which is fifteen levels of fabulous for him, let me tell you.  He'll also be starting a webcast called 'Guys in Bathrobes' (or LabJunkies), where he'll talk about the cool things he's crafting. In any case, we've been looking up all sorts of crazy 3D models to print in his lab, including this.
So that's been fun.

While I'm on a role, and invisibly getting groceries with the gang (plus chocolate from right next to the factory), I'm going to get started on my sister. She arrived back in Germany about a week before I did, and she's returning a day after I leave. To where, you ask? India. This is actually why my bro was there, he decided to surprise her by flying halfway around the world to the steps of her high school, where she attends class with kids from local regions, Europe, and the good ol' U S of A. As I've been prancing about the green-as-a-leprachauns-cap-my-god fields of Europe, My sister had been investigating various places of learning for her eventual venturing into the 'real world' (I've heard some say it even exists. Spooky). So yeah, she's been a bundle of indecision about where to go, but she's figuring it out. She wants to do philosophy, or writing, or something. She'll be returning to India pretty soon, and she's already missing all of us, the ones right in front of her.

Now that we've passed the next two hour drive, we can get to St. Peter Ording, where the International Kitesurfing World Cup was to be held. We pulled into a parking lot, in front of a high-rising apartment complex, and unloaded our stuff. Then the elevator, up to the 11th floor. Then into the roomy home that D and S inherited from their late grandfather, complete with trinkets and pictures and little wooden things coming out of everywhere. Each with their own little story, few of which S did eventually tell us.
I got the little girls room again. Lucky me (this actually turned out to be useful). My brother and S left to find an internet cafe (no connection, otherwise I might actually be up to date (hahahaha no)), and D, my sis and I went for a walk. We found a winding path into the forest, and followed it to a dead end, which was probably the local teenage 'fun' spot. We came back to the apartment, and started on dinner, just as S and my bro returned. Pasta was on the menu, with a red pesto. We watched Life of Pi (brilliant movie, by the way), and then were off to bed.

Up the next morning, I rolled about in bed before realizing everyone else was already up. Luckily for me, I was the only one in the house with a door to my room; everyone else had woken each other up. S had to work, and had already left to get in a couple of hours at a hotel, where she could get the wifi password for a flirtatious smile. My brother and I went about locating a leak on his 12 meter Cabrinha Crossbow kite. Of course, upon filling the tube to max pressure, we lifted it up to hear a sound like a gunshot dipped in water. The inner tube had ripped. The 100 euro tube, and my brother is broke. So no kiting for us. We headed out to the town, and tried to rent two more bikes (D and S had two, and my bro had his skateboard), but they were all being used, at both stores we went to. We found S, and then headed to an Italian place for lunch. Then it was out to the beach, to watch guys being swept around around by current both in the air and the water. We played with some Rubix's cubes with cold hands, and my brother's smooth talking got him testing out a 14m kite on the sand. We headed back when we were chilled and tired, but with the one bike, my brothers skateboard, and four of us (S had returned for more work time), there was only one option for return. We wouldn't walk. Oh no. We had to get D on the bike. And then have my sis on the back. And then use a kite strap to pull along a skateboard. Which my brother sat on. With me behind him. Clutching on for dear sweet windy life. So, our little caravan lurched along for a little bit, swerved, crashed, tried again, crashed, rearranged, crashed, retried and crashed after we got some good distance. We opted to separate the two parts, with D and my sis riding on the bike, and me walking with a harness attached to me, pulling my brother. Curious onlookers were met with "oh, sorry, just walking my human," and "it's okay, he doesn't bite. usually." We switched a couple of times, but got back to the apartment without trouble. We made pizza, and, although this was the night to party, we opted out, instead chilling and chatting. Then bed.

Days Seventeen through Twenty - This Is Me Sprinting to Catch Up

The next couple of days all sort of blend into one another, so I'll just give you an over view, plus highlights.
Sound good?
Good. No, you don't get to speak.
Shush.
Anyways.

My brothers birthday was a Saturday, so the next day was monday. It was slow, creaky, warm and cozy, normal stuff for a morning. Li, El, Aa, and T came over, to chat and sit on the new deck and int he hammocks. My sister begged Li into teaching her some songs on the guitar, and he complied. El and Aa left at some point, and D joined us. I wrote a bit, and talked a bit, and we ended up laying sprawled out on the grass lawn. We played badminton, eventually with all of us shirtless (except for my sis, of course). Then came handstands, and iced tea, and we played hacky-sack, T's new favorite game. They were shooed away, and we had dinner quickly enough. That evening we went down to the community center, where S showed me the clothing room, where people leave old things and others can take them, like a free library for everything. We met up with Ti, Aa, Ka, and El, and played another round of vikings chess, this time on the brick instead of the grass. We slaughtered them, and cheered with fists in the air. Then Ti wheeled out a barrel, and people gathered scrap wood to make a fire with. They dumped it into the barrel, I lit it up, and they pulled over some benches. We chilled like that until late.

Tuesday was the lake. We left pretty early, grabbing swimsuits and piling into the car, the whole fam. There was a red mushroom-shaped shop for stuff, and a playground, which they called a youth hostel, but I didn't believe. We found a small beach near the water, and I read some of my book to my sister while she tanned. We went out on the docks, out over the water, and after reading some more, we decided to jump in. So I went back, got suited up, returned, and we tried to get my German mother to take a picture as we jumped, but she failed. The water was...watery. That was descriptive as monkeys. It was't too cold, and very shallow, but the ground was mossy and creepily squishy, so my sis and I clambered back for the dock. I got up, but she couldn't, so i jumped back in, and she swam the long distance to shore. We got icecream (lemon buttermilk is not as good as you might think), and eventually headed home.

Wednesday was slippery in a timey-sense. I mean, the hours kind of flew by. I guess D left that morning, or the previous night, for Bremen. I swung in my hammock, and read to my sis while she molded clay into incense holder heads and celtic knots. We watched some Lie to Me. It was chill. We had some variation of mexican food, as was the weird case ever since I'd arrived. Every night there was something mexican, even though they rarely had it in general, and Germany had terrible south american cuisine.

Thursday was when my brother had planned to take me to Nienburg, only I heard him slink back into my room late that morning with a whisper of 'screw it. just go back to sleep', to which I gladly obeyed. My german mother's friends were picked up early that day, having just arrived from Berlin. They were Tor and Nat, very spiritual people. I got a comment from Tor that I was the quietest person he'd ever met, replacing his son in that spot. I thought that was pretty chill.

At some point that night, I sent word to the wardens that I was living the free life over here, and even my cellmate had decided that her little jaunt to New York was finished. She got a tour of the premises, and was eventually displayed on the wall of my brothers room, where we now slept. She laughed while we put on virtual silly hats and danced about. All was well.

We would leave for St. Peter Ording the next day.

Day Sixteen - The Birthdays of Brothers

Alright, so, the birthday. My brother's 21st birthday, to be exact. I woke up late, having rolled over in bed and barely avoided the flies and midday heat that plagued our bedroom. I strolled out, wishing my bro an awesome 21st, and getting ready for the day. It was a slow morning, with me thanking the only-German speaking Om, who made me an extremely German breakfast, including meat, cheese, bread, more meat, and radishes. My brother got similar fare, and then it was time to open presents.
Now, this was strange for me, because on my birthdays, I get one present to open before school, and then the rest after dinner, but seeing everyone around with shining faces, I quite liked it. There were orange candies, incense, and playing cards adorned with chinese babes (from his sis). Then a fire maker, the heat from which could charge a usb device. It was ballin in so many ways, I assure you.
I sat down to write a blog post, and El came over, introducing herself to me. Once she left, my siblings erected a badminton net, and we played a few rounds with nearly broken rackets. At one point, D swung his especially hard, and the top section bent at a right angle. So that was fun.
Then we set up the hammock and chair in the newly set up trellis over the deck. Each time I'd returned from a little trip, another section of their quickly evolving porch would appear. It grew along the side of the house, spreading outwards, then suddenly formed walls and trellises. And then earlier that day, the big German worker constructing the thing single-handedly lifted the huge beams that would support the roof and hammock. We rolled about in them for a while, my German mother, complaining, as usual, that they weren't all aligned properly. I wrote for a little longer, and T came over, joining our badminton sessions. We played Bocci ball, and I swear D won more round than the rest of us combined, resulting in an all-vs-D sort of play. It was all great fun.
Then came 4 o'clock, which was pretty early for me, considering my wakeup times had been 10am-1m most days, and my German mom started fussing over every little detail of the b-day dinner. We played some more, with sultry jazz playing in the background, and then guests just started appearing. There was Mar and De, Mad, Dar, D and S, Ca, Om, G-mum and dad and sis and bro, and me. And we had a wonderful evening. There were drinks, first, of course, which, because my brother was not allowing alcohol at this event, was some ayurvedic virgin champagne. This may sound really weird, and it was, but it grew on me. We had more games, and taco bowl dinner, and my bro and D showed off the fire thingie, making espresso with the heat of the 'smokeless' fire and charging my sisters new tablet (she was enthralled with the device, as it was her first (something)). I played a game of badminton with various people and we laughed together, the language barrier overcome by gestures and smiles. There was singing and cake cake, strawberry and awesome, but we opted to chill with the fire, just D and my bro and sis and me.
Later that night, once most people left, and after we'd played vikings chess (it started here, I guess!) we went off to El's for a second party, with my bro and S promising to be shortly behind. Now El's party did have drinks, and joint sand the like, all around a campfire in the backyard. It was my first time actually walking around Lebensgarden (where they live), so it was a shame it was in the dark. The party was filled with people with forgettable names, who all knew him through her and stayed along for the ride. D and my sis didn't even know some of the attendees, but they gathered with others to chill and talk. My brother was eventually dragged over with S by my sis and D, as Ka had made him a naked lady cake. This was a tradition, apparently, for Lebensgarden baked goods. Clitoris cupcakes, penis cakes, doughy butt cheeks with a candy g-strap, and two marzipan figures screwing on a cake for a birthday were a few of the delicacies from the past. So this was actually fairly blaise. Oh, yeah, I met Ka, the mother, and Li, the guitar man, and Aa, the...dude, I guess. I chose to go with apple juice, feeling very manly amongst all this beer and wine. I met some very excited German guys, all of whom were happy to use me as their 'English practice dummy'. And that was all sorts of entertaining. let me tell you. Li looked oddly pale at one point in the night, and, seemingly in response to my question of 'hey, are you all right?', fainted and collapsed first onto a shelf, and then the floor. We steadied him, and I went out to sit on the couch outside, and chat with D about anime. My sis came over, and eventually we headed home. It was a day to remember, for sure.

Day Fifteen - Return to Base

Here's what went down: My sis and D went to the jazz club with S, then she left to sleep, and they stayed. Then, D wanted some more of the cakes from last night, they'd had a lot of fun with them. The ckaes didn't affect him as much, so they bought three. My sis only ate a half, but D consumed the other 2.5 pieces. Mind you, the recommended dosage for these is 1. They wandered to a park, and were having a jovial time, when D started acting weird, and laid on the ground. He wouldn't get up, and my sister started freaking out. She didn't know where they were. She tried calling my brother, and me, but my phone was silenced. She screamed, and eventually an electrician working on the lights (as she claims, it was 3 in the morning) came, and, despite her fear of him, he helped them into a rickshaw and sent them back towards the hostel. D was seriously out of it, and when my brother and S found them, he was green as a pickle. They got him into the hostel lobby, and my brother thought D was going to barf, despite S's insistance that he wouldn't. Then he hurled onto the carpet. My sis and D were sent to bed, and my brother was kind enough to clean the besieged carpet.
We woke up fairly early, for us, and moved as quickly as our tired bodies would allow to get packed up and ready to leave. D was still a bit out of it from the previous night, so he rolled over in bed and fell asleep again, but the rest of us went up the stairs to the bathroom, then gathered with our plastic trays, apple juice, breads and yogurt in the cafeteria. We ate, then went downstairs to put our dishes ont he racks. We came back to strip the beds of our bedding, and I washed up.
The locker was excavated (just the one, because we only had one padlock), and then me and my brother went out onto the street, him determined to find me a suitable place to eat these small german pancakes called 'Eierkuchen'. These were apparently quite a delight, and as I hadn't seen the side of town he was taking me to (his favorite side), I was intrigued. We stepped across the dividing lines between the two sides of the bustling morning city, and suddenly....it was silent. A couple people roamed the streets, and, after finding that the pancake place was closed, we simply sat on a street bench, near a small canal, and talked about things. It was that rare glimpse of egg-white peace, sitting there.
We returned shortly after, realizing that we were already late. We grabbed our stuff, left the hostel, grabbed a tram, then another, which D and S nearly missed. S made friends with a music geek riding with us, who talked abut the underground clubs that had the best music. We got back tot he car, piled in, and made for the drive home, S driving with my brother in the front.
The TomoTomo GPS we had led us through an odd countryside after about 3 hours of driving. There were hills and greenery, and it was a great view. I listened to some music, and we were home before we knew it. (It happens like this when you're traveling around the world, you know? any place with a bed becomes home).
D got big hugs from my german folks, they knew what had happened and were glad to see he was doing alright. He looked pretty fragile, and S and he returned to their house to rehabilitate. Now, while we were gone, my sisters grandmothers on both sides had arrived, one a large german woman who we'll call Om, and the other a smiling, American woman named Ca. They greeted us kindly, and we went in to recuperate. We hung out that night, and did nothing. I think it was really our first day of summer, actually. My sister agrees.

Day Fourteen - The 4th of July (Breda, once more)

It was early when we woke up, my brother reaching up to the top bunk to shake me. I slunk off to the bathrooms a few flights up, while my brother told me to meet him in the cafeteria. I was down soon enough, and we grabbed breakfast on hard plastic, before returning to our room, washing up, and walking off to the next tram station. I was feeling fairly confident in my button-up as I watched Amsterdam from the tram, and we reached the train station with some time to go, so we bought tickets and walked up  to get to the platform. All the public transport here is incredibly efficient, and always on time. It's really creepy, actually. I can imagine an old dude getting caught in the doors as they speed off, ten seconds behind schedule. We hopped on the train, and I plugged us both into my iPod, where we got revved up to some tunes, and he trained me in his networking crash course. He knows what he's doing. I mean, he even pointed out the exact people on the train going to the same Game Release Party at Breda as us. The hour and half passed, and we stepped onto the platform, heading to Coffee and Cream from our previous visit. Then, my bro and I, with a coffee and chai respectively, walked the blocks to the IGAD programs building, where the presentations were taking place. We knew we'd miss a little of the program, but that was fine, I needed the sleep. Heading through the front door once again, we were given name tags with a company section. 'Student' went onto my brothers, and on mine was scrawled 'SG inc.' We then entered the presentation room. We had to sit on the tables at the back, squeezing beside other attendees. We caught the tail end of one showing, and the rest went as follows:
Two second year full game presentations (one was a 3D tower building, RTS game named 'Moonscrapers', and the other a funny, smooth puzzler called 'Trial and Arrow'), each with incredible art and stylized gameplay, made from collaborative teams of 10-15 as their final project of the year. Then a break. After this, it was two world building presentations, where groups of art designers crafted entire cities from concept to completion in the course of 28 weeks, each world ready to be exported into any MMORPG. Then, two presentations by third-year students, one who redid an old game with new features and graphics, the other who combined LOL with Warcraft 3 with TD. They dubbed it 'Purgatory', and it was brilliant. Lastly, there was a project done mainly by only one student, as his graduation project, which was basically Tomb Runner where you balanced on a rope, using the iPads accelerometer and gyroscope. All very clean, and very impressive. During the short break, I took the opportunity to head upstairs and try out some of the games, and well as network a little. The first guy I met was a lead designer, who played against me in his project for the past semester, and naturally whupped my sorry butt. He was very nice though, and I headed off to the next game with confidence. My brother faced off against me in 'Moonscrapers', me coached by the lead coder, and him by the lead designer. He won, but I put up a good fight, and I got to know the programmer behind me. I also played this ridiculously difficult walking game (its...unique, certainly), which left me with a good lesson. After the second half, I got to talk to a friend of my brothers, who is, like me (to an extent), interested in making educational games for kids (we might set up a collaboration, in the future). Then I went and chatted with my programmer friend again, and, when I asked about the Masters Program, he brought me to the lead art teacher, who apparently did all the art for the new Spiderman and just teaches there as a hobby. The teacher regaled me, and a gathering group of students, about life at IGAD, what the program entailed, and various stories about his experience in industry. Then, as he's talking, some guy walks up with a beer in hand, and greets him like an old friend. The man turned out to be the owner of Gorilla Games, a huge game company in Amsterdam. Just, you know, casually. That's what it was like. There were industry leaders all over. We got a detailed specs presentation on the new Playstation, from a Sony engineer. There were independent producers, leader of companies, and experts on the newest and greatest. They even got into a debate over the effects of the Oculus Rift on Game Dev. It was brilliant. I met coders, designers, artists, got business cards, talked about the programs, ate at their BBQ, and guess what? Everyone, and I mean everyone, spoke MY language. I could say I was working on a graphing platformer to teach kids cartesian and radial methods, and they'd respond by asking how I planned to market it, what the main demographic was, suggesting that it might play well with their adaptive parent leveling system. I could say I just finished a tower defense, and they'd ask if it was upgrade-based or space-based. I could say I knew 13 languages, and they'd only look impressed for a moment before saying I knew 7 just from extending C. This likely sounds like nonsense to you, but to me it was immersive. Then my brother and I were hanging out with the production team of 'Moonscrapers', playing some other games. And eventually we had to go. We shook hands, took the 1.5 hour train back, with more chill music this time, and walked the 40 minute walk to the youth hostel. S was already sleeping, and my sis and D had gone out to a jazz club, after visiting the NEMO that day. My brother chose to sleep as well, and I nearly joined him, but first I sat behind the soda machine, plugged in to the wall, and wrote another blog post. It was 2 in the morning when I went to bed, first sending my sis a text to ask where they were. I was shook by my brother a little later, and he said that the two of them had called him, saying they needed help. His only response to my questioning of what happened was "They were being stupid". He and S went out to find them, telling me to go to sleep. I wasn't too concerned at the time, but I had reason to be, as I leaned later.

Day Thirteen - When in Amsterdam

We were up pretty late, and back on the road by one, after a casual pancake breakfast (woot, more pancakes). The drive to Amsterdam was around 2 hours, and my brother and sister stuck in on either side of me. I was still pretty tired, so I relaxed while the trip went by. We parked outside of the city, took a tram in, and walked the last numerous blocks to our youth hostel. I tried to watch everything, but I hadn't slept so well, so I was content to listen to my brother and sister chat about the NEMO (the Dutch version of the Exploratorium), the Sex Museum (we passed it by and it didn't look all too interesting, just everything related to the subject since the beginning of time or whatnot), and even the Torture Museum, which I was mildly intrigued by, I admit. Amsterdam is built on water, so every street is interspersed by bridges, with barges and various supply ships running in the canals underfoot. Every method of transportation was over-employed, from walking to boat to car to tram to train to rickshaw to those weird bikes that you pedal with your feet and I'm pretty sure everyone secretly wants. Oh man, the bikes. The bikes were everywhere. Just hordes of them, locked in these religious congregations of rubber and spokes, or warhorses in stables, pedaling at one another (if you can imagine that). I nearly got run over a fair number of times, and I had only my martial arts to thank for my reflexes there. Apparently the trams don't stop for pedestrians either. They just make this 'ding', and then you'd better get your sorry butt off the tracks, lest you become the next mystery meat served at the tourist cafes. It was actually a beautiful city though. Every street corner, bridge, building was hand crafted and unique, looking as if the ages were all slammed next to one another, and a minstrel could stumble into an old chinese woman selling cheap egg rolls down the street. We made it into the youth hostel, an inviting place with a plethora of rooms and young travelers, most in their early twenties. We got the first room in the first hall, and quickly decided on who got which of the double-decker metal bunks with plastic mattresses and personal bedding. All of our electronics and other valuables were stowed in a locker, of course, but we left most of our clothing at the foot of our beds. Then we went out, having determined that the city was ours, and that we'd find some cheap food, after seeing some sights and grabbing a few special brownies (none for me, but for the others, how does that saying go? When in Amsterdam? Must be it). So we had it all planned out. We'd get the goods, then grab a bite to eat, and following the address given on the internet, go to a traveling comedy club, which I hoped spoke some loose manner of English. It was right about then that the 'special' part was supposed to kick in, so the entertainment value would be raised very high (bad pun, sorry). Especially for me, watching them, as I interjected to their discussion. The coffee house (that's what they call them) was quite ambiguous from the outside, but the inside already felt like an acid trip of some sort. The walls bent in and rose up to form chair-lie outcroppings, and the colors wavered between gold and red and deep purple. It was also filled with smoke, and as we entered, I was pretty sure it'd already taken an effect. But no, my eyes were not deceiving me. There was indeed a black and white cat perched and purring upon the counter. We went up and he nuzzled upas we pet him, eyes slits and rumbling. I whispered to my sister that "that must've been some gooood catnip", and she chuckled. We sat under next to one of the "stoner lamps", as my brother called them, on one of the wall-bench-things. My brother went up to order some cakes and muffins (no brownies), and we looked around. As I learned later, some film with a famous guy (Brad Pitt maybe?) was shot here, and it certainly would have been a good shot. We then headed to find someplace to eat, which involved walking back and forth along the same street until we grabbed some chinese food, and nearly bumped into a minstrel. We ate on a bench at a main square, and then headed to our location, walking some distance through the city. We headed through massive cathedrals and past grandiose fountains. I swung on an awesome swing and we got a couple pics. At one point we crossed a bridge and began moving along the river, when I caught a glimpse of a store front with red bar lights and scantily clad manikins. As we passed by, they shifted, and one of them started texting. Just sitting at a window. When I pointed and asked, my brother was kind enough to inform me that those were prostitutes, waiting for customers. We arrived at the comedy club address, only it was an apartment building, which happened to have the comedy troupe name as its name. Meaning I'd gotten the wrong address. Luckily, my brother soon learned form a barkeep that the club wasn't too far away; at least we were in the right area. Before heading out, however, we went to sit on a fence, and the cake/muffins were partway consumed preemptively. We found the club, and heading downstairs to the door, paid entrance and went in. It was modern, cozy, great atmosphere. My sister immediately found a cute bartender and watched him for a little while. We had some time before the show started, but it passed quickly, and soon an American Asian-looking woman got up and was utterly ridiculous, talking about everything from Amazon sweat rituals to anal. Then, a New Yorker, who also laughed at the European shower-heads (see? not just me. it's weird, and cool). The cakes kicked in about halfway through the first act, though slowly, and it wasn't until they were laughing far too loud that I humorously realized what an effect it was. We left happily, and wandered back, my sister giggling about something, loosing her train of thought, spying something sparkly, gasping, then returning to her giggles. D and S, and my bro and I joined her amusement, partially because it was actually funny. but mostly because she was such a sight. We made to the hostel, then my sister didn't want to waste the night, so we continued on. Deeper and deeper into Amsterdam we went, until I passed an odd car-post that was ringed with red lights, and suddenly everything was red. S made quick note that we'd entered the red light district, which was easily apparent. Suddenly there were very few woman on the streets, in the crowds. Instead, each storefront, had those same red lights, and curtains pulled back in the nighttime so the women could show off their wares behind glass walls. I was shocked; my sister was revolted. They looked like manikins come to life, animals trapped in a cage. They danced and entertained the men gawking, or whistling at them. We passed through an alleyway, and suddenly there was red everywhere. Each piece of wall instead contained a woman, each with their own miniature stage, chair to rest in, and back room, closed off by a curtain, which men could enter for a range of prices and services. I didn't bother to ask what these services entailed, it was readily apparent on the faces of every bystander and dancer. However, a couple of things to note. Apparently they do this by choice, renting the fronts from their own pockets, and keeping the funds from each night. No pimps would beat them, and they could turn away customers. They might even have day jobs, disguised amongst the rest of us but it paid quite well, the nights. Some of them were quite willing to take up jobs there. My sister wavered where she stood, and would not move, just watching the rose-tinged windows and spewing all manners of disgust. It was indeed quite revolting. I tried to reason with the Amsterdam mindset. This was commonplace, and these woman held some control over their lives, although it was likely economic issues that caused their decision to do this. They were not prosecuted, and had regular checkups. If a woman was okay with being watched like a beast at the zoo, and performing acts for customers, this would likely be the safest place to prostitute herself. However, this reasoning did not do much to qualm my innate disgust at the profession, but writing this now, I suppose it is true freedom to have the option to sell oneself, if one desires.
We returned to the hostel shortly after, and the effects of the baked goods (no apologies for that one) had worn off, so we hit our pillows snoring.

Day Eleven/Twelve - Clouds, Dude

It was pretty late when we got up, and we were pretty wiped out from the event of the previous two nights, so the morning grumbled along, and eventually we (D, my sis and I) were out the door and on our way to pick up my german bro from a friends house, where he'd spent the previous night. Then it was off to Breda, and, more importantly, the local university.
Breda University of Applied Science had been a huge splotch on my academic radar for some time now, contrary to the opinions of my wardens. My largest interest was in their 'International Game Architecture and Design' program, which my german bro had investigated out of personal interest, but never applied too (he prefers his most recent plan: building a mad scientist laboratory in his parents basement), and instead referred to me. It had always been a distant, fantastical world: IGAD, with its harsh workload and four grand pillars of study. The Artist, specializing in 3D Graphic design, using Maya and Houdini to craft immersive worlds and lifelike models. The Programmer, processing lines of code and piecing together the building blocks of movement and mechanics. The Designer, who grabs ideas out of thin air, putting them in terms the others can understand, with an innate knowledge of game styles and strategy and fun. And finally, my interest: The Independent Game Developer, whose coursework encompasses all of the above, plus business and management. They alone gain the skills to craft entire projects out of their pockets, individually and collaboratively working to make magic. Woo-monkey-hoo.
The building itself appeared as a stage in a game, blocky with pixelated signs, and NPC's striding in an out, clutching briefcases and laptops. We beelined towards the structure, my brother detailing his previous experience here as we walked. The outside was grey, glass, concrete, metal. The colors were inside, once we walked in the door and saw the cafeteria.
My brother and I left behind D and my sis, heading into an office and locating an admissions entity. As it turned out, she had also some here from Cali; Sacramento, to be exact. She was more than happy to show us around, answering our non-stop barrage of questions about different components of the facility, majors, and student populace. Meanwhile, D and my sis lounged in beanbag chairs piled in the first room. In fact, the room took on the appearance of a very serious LAN party. Tables lined the walls, and the students there each had laptops, fiddling with models and sprawling out lines of C++. Others were looking up answers on forums, or getting a drink.
Apparently they were closing up for the year, so there weren't any classes to drop in on (which my brother was going to do no matter how agains the rules it was), but she told us that there was going to be a game release party on July 4th. We would be in Amsterdam at that time, but a quick train ride would fix that. We left the school, and then traipsed around Breda, so that I could get a feel for the city. It was a bit grey at first, but when we got down to the park is brightened to a luscious green. We got lunch at Coffe and Cream, a cutesy cafe with incredible food, and then went through the park to a shopping district, where billboards shouted out on the atrocities in the meat industry. My sister was horrified by the photos, wanting to barf, and therefore sort of flipped out on me when I commented "I like it...." Needless to say, I probably should have clarified that statement.
We saw the sights (the city is actually quite beautiful), jumped on gumdrops (pics later), then headed back, dropping my bro off a this friends house and returning to M's apartment. S and M didn't respond to the doorbell, so we let them be and went for a walk. A little ways away was a park, with a green hill-bank that we laid down atop of. We spoke of the shapes in the clouds, and life far back in the prison. I thought of the Little One, and her friends, and wondered if they might be doing the same silly things we did. When we returned, M and S had returned from the store, which explained the empty house. They'd gathered some trinkets, and we chatted for a while before deciding to make lasagna. We got ingredients, and the five of us were like that scene in the Hobbit where the dwarves are throwing dishes. It was quite swell, all in all. (can't believe I just used that word. Well, I guess I can) It was delectable, and we filled the gaps in conversation with music. Eventually we were just at the tv, passing around the remote to find fun music videos. It was truly an excellent day.

We woke up moderately early for the drive, and after a casual breakfast we were on the road, my brother hopping in the car at some point also (hitchhiking or something, I don't know). The 2 hour trip to Maastricht was sleepy and musical, with S's special road trip playlist extraordinary. Maastricht was bustling, with tourists and taxicabs, but it wasn't long before we pulled up to the apartment we were renting.
We met the host, a very gracious man, and then grabbed our luggage, stepping up three curving, rickety, narrow flights of stairs to reach my room. The girls decided to take one big room, my brother and D the other, leaving me with a small, extremely pink, little girls room. The wallpaper was actually embroidered with bright pink butterflies, I tell you.
It was getting to be the afternoon, so we headed out, walking up over the freeway on a support trellis to reach a section of touristy cafe's, which we avoided like the plague. Heading down a side street, we got a late lunch at an Italian place and then went for a walk all over Maastricht, hoping to find a little park to sit down in. After picking up some pappas, we did locate a park with a large petting zoo, multitudes of pigeon droppings, and an upside-down water fountain, which made for some interesting drinking. Looking over to the old cobble stone wall ringing us off from the rest of the town, we saw a man up on top of it, a realized we could go up there. Soon we were laying on the wall, our heads hanging back over the edge to the fifty-foot drop below. Just chatting.
We returned to our second, and third story apartment, which was actually really nice, I'll have pics later. Anyways, S said she felt tired, and went upstairs to bed. After a little bit, my brother said he was going to go up to her room also.
We decided to go for a walk, D and my sis and I, and we tried to get lost amongst the winding streets of the city. We found a park, and laid on the grass watching the clouds again, only this time we talked about my sisters time in India. We failed to get lost, most due to D's creepily good sense of direction and my decision that hedges were not the best way to go. Upon returning, we had ingredients for pancakes, and S and my brother had not come down, so we played some music, danced a little, and made pancakes. German pancakes are the bomb, btw. After that was a movie to watch, and the other two were a bit tipsy on the entire complementary bottle of some fancy french drink, so we all had a laugh viewing 'Easy A'. Then we were off to bed (I ended up sleeping with D, giving my sis my (very pink) room, as the girls room was otherwise occupied), and another day was well spent.

Day Nine/Ten - The Summer Music Festival

I've been working on this one the past few days, but there's been no time. I'll be seriously catching up after July 7th, when I'm back in Steyerberg (sitting behind a soda machine at a youth hostel in Amsterdam so I can get power to write this. Fun stuff.)

Morning brought crunchy muesli (European raw cereal/granola, basically), tea and plans for the day ahead. We woke up late, and were relaxed, moving and chatting and gathering stuff for the car. We drove the 45 minutes from Goes (pronounced "goose") where we were staying, to Antwerp, Belgium. Parking was delayed as we pulled into, and then out of lot after lot, with already buzzed Europeans whooping "Deutschland!" and saluting us with beers. We waked a ways, meeting up with our host, Ma's, good friends. They were all experienced festival goers, I presume. However, my sis and I took our time moving through the gates, getting our tickets checked, wristbands slapped on, and 50 of my euro's swapped for festival tickets, for use with food and drink. Already, the throbbing bass was audible over the clamor of people, low and constant. As we approached the main stage, the horde of people around it raised their arms in sync, and the dance beat hit, causing the whole floor to erupt in a flurry of rhythmic (or otherwise) motion. I was, admittedly, a bit apprehensive, seeing how much space a small fraction of the 50k attendees could fill up, and we went to sit in the grass for a bit. I watched a twitching man get carried off on a stretcher by a dozen paramedics. We were off to a great start. Our adjoining group, consisting of three women and two men, found their targets for the beginning of the show, around 1pm. He was some Dutch guy (Gers Pardoel, if you know him), who was clearly well known for singing songs that the entire population of the Netherlands knew. And they would join right in, a cacophony of varied vocals that probably sounded a lot better with the burn of a couple overpriced beers in your gullet. We danced lightly for a while, my arms fumbling as I tried to bounce on my feet and smack some nonexistent percussion device or something. The music sounded like you'd expect, all the same and all for the dancing. The brief periods of recognizable pop lyrics were the only relief from the dun-dun-dun, or if they were feeling particularly saucy, unn-tiss-unn-tiss. You know, my style of music. So I was starting to loosen up a bit, and eventually joined in on the off-key Dutch nursery rhymes or whatever. Maybe the dutch just use bad pop as lullabies, I don't know. My sister wasn't enjoying herself very much, with blisters from her shoes and nothing near her variety of musical banquet, so we (I?) suggested we try for another venue, when the DJ switched out for a guy with a crow-witchdoctor's mask. The ones with the long beaks and hollow eyes and all that.
Scanning a schedule I'd extracted from the muddy trash-laden ground, I realized that I recognized two names, coming up soon. At the same time, in fact. Thankfully, the stages were near each other. Oh, for reference, there were at least 9 stages each day, with separate DJ's, themes, and audiences. The first name I selected was Dubba Johnny, who'd originally introduced me to the dubstep genre. The stage for dubstep was, naturally, called 'Rampage', emblazoned with a mechanical skull on the front. Inside was red lights, led screens playing out dark nightmares, and startlingly flashing screens behind the DJ booth. Dubba Johnny (or DJ for short) was already playing some tracks, so I convinced D and my sister to dance with me, albeit reluctantly. Then we were onto the hardstyle stage, 'Art of Dance', conveniently to the left of the dubstep mosh pit. It was stunning, with purples and jewels and feathers and talking skulls. D-Block & S-Te-Fan led the crowd in the fast tempoed thumping bass, and we moved through the massive crowd for a bit before retreating to nourish ourselves on fries. After that I danced with the rest of the two groups who joined us, and then a guy stepped from between two ladies in our dance circle and pantomimed a robot, moving towards me and ironically jerking. Another guy jumped from behind him, and took the robots hand and mine. He paused a moment, looking at both of us, then shot my hand up into the air, and their group, all decked out with wife-beaters and sunglasses, laughed and clapped. I chuckled with them, briefly, and then realized they were referencing my dancing. I'm not a particularly incredible dancer, but as I realized later, the guy raising my hand had done it in a mock form of a dance battle, indicating that I was the winner. Then the robot did a little, and my sister pulled me into the middle of the circle. I did some moves, and then everyone around me was clapping and cheering. The other group was staring, open-mouthed and pointing, and I realized passerby were stopping to look. I smiled and went for a back bend. Someone flipped out a camera phone. Once we were tired, we joined some other tents, grabbed dinner (a Doner kebap, in Dutch) and then it was to the main stage, for the final even of the night. Just following Martin Solveig was Hardwell, and then the lasers came on, green and yellow and rainbow. D and my sis and I pushed through the crowd to the very center, on the cord protector. Some other girls started filming my dancing when they thought I wasn't looking, and I flipped them a peace sign. People started passing out rainbow light sticks. The drops, and the lasers, and fire spewing from the stage, and dancers all culminated to this incredible flow of music and motion. Then, just before midnight, Hardwell cuts the music. He steps up to the mic, with 20,000 people watching him, and he says: "For the last song of tonight, because you've ben such an incredible crowd, I'm going to show you, Belgium, the world premiere of my newest song. this has never been heard in public before. Enjoy."
The song came on, rising up to a roar, and fireworks began to shoot up into the sky, bursting in time and feel to the music. It was quite an experience. We stumbled home, my sister complaining about her feet, and fell sound asleep in Ma's living room, but not after I wrote another update. Oh, and I bought some rocking sunglasses (pics to come)

The next day was far more relaxed. We woke up late, ate breakfast outside on the sand, parked much further away, walked under the river (a first for me, to be sure), got lunch at a Greek place and then a pizza place next door, then arrived att he festival sometime around 4-6. We didn't know any bands, which was great because we could sit and chill. The moment I head past the first speakers, some guy recognizes me and cheers. I cheer back, and my sister realizes they were the same group from the previous day. One jumps up and imitates waving next to me, the next a robot. I laugh with them, and the rest sit up and point. Felt like a celebrity, and it was pretty sweet. We headed to some renamed places, mostly the same, and then I felt like exploring. I found the one spot on our map that no one had been to; this little hideaway with an image of tree-houses and the title 'Cafe Chic'. We navigated our way through the twists to get there, and were suddenly in sand, with tree houses, tiki huts, trees and a full bar. The DJ there was actually dropped some great house stuff, in this little locale displaced fromt he rest of the festival. There was even a climbing wall and slide. My sister loved it, and we started dancing in the small gathering of other wanderers who'd discovered our miniature paradise. There were more videos taken, one by Ma, and my sister rocked out on a stump for a long while. It felt like our dance parties at home, with some older folks, and bare feet, and just...better everything. The music was so funky and unique that at one point, a drop hit and a live saxophone player stepped into the crowd, soloing, amplified with the rumba-style sound. My sister said he had a dragonfly on his back. Anyways, we came back just in time to see Nicki Romeo finish up the night on the main stage, with more fireworks and even crazier laser shows. I picked up my sister on my shoulders, high above the crowd, and she whooped with her fists in the air. She said it was the first time she'd been carried like that since she was 5. I laughed, and we made our way home to a good nights sleep.

If you want any more info on the festival, check it out here.

Day Eight - Entire Miniature Church

There was the whole thing with the sleeping bags.

We'd lost them somewhere in the basement (very serial killer-y down there, it's pretty sweet), and therefore would have had no coverings for the next few nights, except that D and S were kind enough to donate a roll, and we happened to find my brothers old one right before leaving. Then there was a whole panic as my sister was trying to do stuff for her visa (she'd had the craziest time trying to figure out her trip here from India), and I'd lost the phone given to me by my german dad. After running through the house to search for a little while, my phone finally turned up in the front seat of the car. Nobody knows for sure how it got there. 

S was driving, and so we laid back, finishing the Great Gatsby and starting an odd tale by the name of "Mercury". Stopping at a couple restpoints on our 6 hour trip to the Netherlands, I was able to show off (more like bumblingly practice) my newfound skill at getting into those bathroom turnstiles. Pretty sure I nearly walked into the women's section on accident at one point. 

My sister had been so kind as to give me a lesson in basic german on the drive down to Austria, which consisted entirely of her chanting expressions at me, my throat performing verbal backflips to try and pronounce the choking "ch" sound, and her correcting me, along with the other germanic adults in the car. 

I'm getting off track. 

The point is, I'd grasped enough of the grammar and pronouns that I actually managed to translate an advertisement on the bathroom stall. I was elated, trust me. The plastic backings of those doors had never looked so cool before. 

Oh, also, when I turned and flushed, the whole toilet seat rotated in a giant loop, and a jet of something washed off the surface. 

German engineers, man, like whoa. 

We were back on the road in no time, munching on Haribo gummy bears and being fairly impressed that they had a restaurant, cafe, hotel and an entire miniature church at the reststop. You know, in case you'd sinned really badly on your way over. 

As a side note, because I haven't mentioned this, I'm quite impressed at how smoothly roundabouts work in Europe. And they're pretty, with fountains and stuff, so that's chill.

We arrived at this grid of houses, which fit together like lego pieces, each one slightly different and yet all the same. They looked squashed from the sides, and each had a little yard, fenced off with a gate. We them met Ma (not M), a very well meaning sailor friend of S's. He owned the house we were to be staying in, which, as it turned out, was incredibly modern, sleek, and altogether just impressive. Everything was black and white and silver, with all sorts of compartments and drawers and modules, fit into this tiny floor plan. All in all, it looked like a model of future living, compact and efficient in all manner of things. 

We got around to making a salad, and some sort of meat (I don't really question it at this point), and finished the meal with an odd gel-covered gelatin, which sounds redundant and is very good. I worked on his puzzle (a 2000 monochrome challenge that guests have been working on throughout the years, nowhere near done), and was happy to fill in a bunch of these single piece gaps while the rest of the gang watched Madagascar. The next day was to be the Summer Music Festival, so we went to bed restless.

I'm going to keep this a one day, so I can put the event of the incredible festival all together :P Later!

Day Six/Seven - Of Ducklings and Ice Tea

I slept in the hammock that night, and let me tell you, that thing was comfortable as all get out, or rather get in. I do not apologize for that pun. We ate breakfast quickly, and hopped onto the next train leaving for Seefeld, where the parents were staying.
Running for the station that morning was exhilarating, learning to use the ticket machines and stepping onto the car. And the ride quickly turned into a game of Pokemon Snap, only foreign, and slightly more realistic. I've never even played that game, what am I talking about. You'll get pictures. Anyways, each time we exited a tunnel, I'd have the camera at the ready, catching that brief period before we entered the mountain once more. Waterfalls clambered of the cliff and swept under us, gushing into valleys below, and the far-off snowy peaks glinted in the rising sun. Just got a bit poetic there.
We met up with the parents, grabbed some truly German sausage and cheese, and headed up into the hills with 6 of us packed into the Prius; my sister laying across our laps in the back seat, with our arms disguising her. We stopped at a rest point, got lost, and then hiked briefly up to a stunning lake.
We still had some cheese, and my sister hadn't brought shoes, so she started throwing pieces in for the fish, and then stepped down into the water. I was not far behind, and eventually this young duck paddled over to us. She looked inquisitive, but upon seeing the food she dove into the now-swarming droves of fish, vying for the chunks. Then she called more over, and it seemed that the expanse of water had been awakened, with fowl and fish swimming to eat. I bent down near the water, pant legs rolled up, and with two fingers offered a piece of cheese to a teenage duckling. Curious, but wary, he serpentined near to my hand, and snatched the treat from it. My sister did the same, and we were very excited, let me tell you. Then we went up on the dock, and chilled, before going in to this log-cabin style eatery, where we had all you can eat soup and I got very mixed-up about the bathrooms.
After the lake, we returned, and laid on the bed of the parents home until the return trip, with the camera out again and my brother pointing at the best shots and laughing.
We went shopping for a few items. Shopping in Europe is only slightly weird, as you enter through a gate, and may not leave until you've picked out your items and bought them. They also have very long conveyor belts, as if people regularly order anacondas with their mozzarella and breadsticks.
With all the ingredients for pizza, we fashioned up a few, my sister and I chopping, my brother directing, crafting, and drinking ice tea with the rest of us. we invited over M again, who, upon being asked if he'd drank, replied that he was not "Austrian drunk yet". We hooked up the TV, and then went for some old-school video gaming with SSBM. M immediately challenged us to a team match, throwing 10 euros on the table. We whupped his sorry butt, I'm pleased to say, and were disappointed that we'd denied his bet. We slept when it got late enough.
Four in the morning, a phone goes off. We'd set alarms for 7, hoping to get 6 hours of sleep and then head to the parents at 9, a ridiculous time. The phone goes off again, and my sister clambers over me (I was on the top bunk now), and she nearly falls of the bed, turning off the phone. The phone goes off again, and they manually deactivate it. Again. My brother rips the case off and removes the battery. So truly, we slept so well.

The next day we popped out of bed, and went for the train again, and got their, at 9, as per the request of the parents. Then we discovered that they were not in fact ready, a truly fascinating occurrence. My brother returned to his flat, and would be joining us later in Breda (which I'm still too excited about) but we hopped into the car, and then drove the next 10 hours (the GPS said 7 left the first hour, and the second, and the third) straight back up to Steyerberg. We passed the time with the normal shenanigans, plus the Great Gatsby in audiobook form, as my sister hadn't read it. Not much else to say for that day, really. We stopped a few times, I learned that they charge you to use bathrooms along the roads, with turnstiles and everything. I got a scone. We arrived at base at evening:00, and I caught up a little bit with the blog. There'd been no internet at the Pension, and my brothers flat didn't have an open charger, so I'm still catching up (had an awesome last two days, you'll hear all about it soon enough). We got ready for the next day, where we'd join up with D and S and ride up to Holland for the Summer Music Festival.

Day Five - Austria, Aww Yeah.

Waking up at the Pension spurred a flurry of activity, with clothes sailing into bags, cups juggled and scrubbed, and the rolls bought down at the local store slathered and sandwiched.

We went into town, and I lounged about while my sis got more information about applying to a special program at the university.
Then came the drive. Another 6 or so hours - I'm not really sure - but I was pretty excited to be seeing the world for the first time, so time seemed to fly by like the white-capped gold mountain peaks, thronged with trees and shrubbery of all sorts.
Suddenly, we were in Innsbrook, Austria. And it was pretty sweet. The golden Prius pulled up in front of a large mustard apartment building, and we stepped out of the car to straighten ourselves and shake off that post-travel haze, before my German brother stepped out the door and my sister ran to him for a huge hug. I joined them, and then he led us up, and we saw his modest, but modern apartment, complete with one bathroom, living room, kitchen, and two roommates, who we met briefly before exiting the building again.
After a comparison test of my brothers new and old skateboards, we walked through the town, to meet with a local friend of my brothers, named M, who led us to a very fine Italian place for dinner. There was a lasagna that singed my tongue, and I smacked the top of my mouth on the walk back, but I'm not sure why I told you that.
Leaving the restaurant, we returned to the apartment and saw off my german mother, father, and my sisters grandfather, while meeting M's sister, and an ex of my brother, L.
We then decided to go out on the town, and my brother has this uncanny way of collecting people on his excursions. First was the cafe, where we ordered pumpkin oil icecream, and then continued a debate my brother had started before we arrived as to the nature of the green topping sprinkled on the frozen dessert. He believed it was nori seaweed, and my smell and taste agreed. However, he had a biologist friend, and her friend, E, who were utterly sure it was mountain weed. Eventually the waitress confirmed that it was an herb mix, and unfortunately for us, land-based.
We headed out to check out a swig club, but they'd finished a little bit ago.
We then walked to a nearby pub, the walls slathered in vinyl covers from the past century, and most of the group ordered drinks. There was also supposed to be live music, but the band had just finished. My brother, of course, had decided that night so far was a failure. I tended to disagree, because hanging out with my sis and him was anything but mundane. Two more men joined us, and one started hitting on my sister, but she passed if off rather well, if I do says so myself.
We left, and I chatted with L and E for a bit. We hit up an ATM, and were going to try and get in to these two establishments, Mustache, a lounge and bar, and Aftershave, a dance club. however, they were carding people upon entrance, and although I may look over 18, or even 22 by the last estimate, my card number has risen no higher, with a big 17 to turn me away. So we hung out, just M and E and my bro and sis and me, at Mustache. Oh, and because you needed to know, there was a distinct lack of mustaches at the venue.
I don't understand Austria.
We returned to the apartment, leaving E, drunk and tired, at her place. Then it was music and talk with good people until late, and I headed off to bed.

Day Three/Four - Freeberg!

Waking up at 6 is fun. 

Especially after going to bed at 1, as your sister has decided that she must painstakingly extract a tiny splinter from her foot before she can lay her head down. 

Needless to say, my bed was particularly cozy that morning. But I launched out of it anyway upon the waking of my German mom, and got ready for the 6 hour car ride that was soon to follow.
And then the 6 hour car ride followed. 5 of us crammed into a dinky Prius towards our first stop: Heidelberg.
Just got out of my sentence, and now I'm in transport. Good stuff. Thankfully my sister and I passed the time with an odd collection of tunes, mixed by yours truly, and a pillow, which we traded off using placed on the other for sleeping purposes. This worked like a charm, leaving me stumbling out of the car at one particular rest stop while the rest of my car mates took bathroom breaks, aside from my sister, who had taken the opportunity to stretch out lackadaisically across our empty seats and demand chocolate from my German father. Then my German mother passed me two two Euro coins (four Euros in total), and told me to get a German pretzel for both my sister and myself. This prompted my first (and so far only) purely German exchange, which consisted of four words and some mild confusion.
"Zwei Laugenbretzel, Bitte"(woo, learning stuff!)
"Hmm?"
*holding up two fingers* "Laugenbretzel...?"
...
"Ah, ja"
I got two cents as change. I'm basically full German by this point.

We arrived in Heidelberg after a brief continuation of the sleeping/driving/musicing (I am so copyrighting that), and the city was pretty incredible. It was a tad touristy, but there were many Germans, and shops, and we found a Falafel place at the request of my sister, with delicious platters and (according to my sister) an adorable Greek chef at the counter.

We continued by walking out on the bridge over the something-or-other river (Neckar), where we looked over the water and spoke whimsically about odd Indian men while the parents snapped our photos. Then we returned for some (actually logical) ice cream, and walked about a little before returning to our car, herding in like cattle, and taking off for the next three hours heading into Freiberg ('cause it's free and all).
Passing through the city on our way to the "Pension" (pronounced Pan-see-ohn), there wasn't much to see until we skirted Au (pronounced Oh, I guess?), and saw the stark green of the rolling hills near the Black Forest.
So it turns out the grass is actually greener. Weird.
Anyways, it was an adorable house, with farmer landlords and running spring water, but after that car ride I would have been content with a Hoovertown shack. We then drove down to the city to get dinner at this co-op restaurant, meeting up with a friend of my German mother's and then I had the most gourmet mac and cheese ever. Like for serious. Went back after, read a bit, went to bed.

Next day I got up late, tried Nutella on German rolls, and headed out for Freiberg with a spring in my misstep and a smirk on my face. We ended up in this super old-style city, where the buildings each had their own century and story to go with them. In the midst of this history, there was this little homegrown farmers market, with wooden stalls and buckets full of olives and carrots and white asparagus (apparently it's really good, but I have not selected this delectable treat as of yet). We got olives and herb cheese in oil.

So we browsed for a bit, and the German grandfather attending our trip regaled me with some interesting WWII/Nazi/Hitler fun facts. The germans, as it seems, view him pretty similarly to what we see, only with the addition of they consider him an actual person. How strange.

My sister also wanted to check out this university, but didn't have an appointment. However, when we entered, they were setting up for a presentation so there were plenty of staff willing to answer her questions. Then, in the midst of discussing this tiny german/international Liberal-Arts program, they ask us to come out into the hall, because there's a television camera crew filming the place, and they want some people there. So, if any of you watch German TV, be on the lookout for my cameo appearance.

We ate at the same restaurant as the night before, after stopping off at the Pension and knitting/ reading aloud under blankets. Tehn we were off to bed, and another day awaited us.

Day Two - Spaghetti Ice Cream, Man

I've been out of internet the past couple of days

So I apologize for the delay, but here goes.

The next day consisted mainly of lazing around, with us eating a large breakfast and lunch, watching a tv show, and listening to some excellent music. Then we went on a walk, barefoot on a path leading us through the grasses and into the forst beyond. We returned to find an incredible number of deer ticks on us, which we promptly removed. Well, promptly meaning my sister had a minor freak out before extracting each one and looking all over. She later discovered two more on her stomach during a nap.
 

Upon returning from the walk, we resumed with doing the most excellent nothing. Following this, who should arrive but my sisters good friends, D, a medium-length blonde haired wiry tall man, and S, a long dirty blonde haired sturdy average height woman. We made fajitas, an excellent imitation considering the limited German/ Mexican food resources. Following this, and upon all of our insistence,  the car was filled, and we drove to the local Eis shop, or ice cream store. Only really, it was more like a cafe, stuffed with tables and menu layered with various foreign titles, which my limited (none) German could not distinguish. However, there were no cones here, nor meager bowls. No, apparently the Germans know how to eat their "eis" the right way: each filling a dinner plate a half foot high with a mix of chilled flavors. What I ordered, after much deliberation and translation by my German mom, was a plate filled with what looked like a spaghetti dish drizzled with a translucent green sauce. This was supposedly ice cream. I didn't think so. However, as was explained to my utterly disbelieving face, these guys apparently press their frozen delights through a pasta press so as to both crush the soul out of them and alter their appearance to be completely indistinguishable from a carb-loaded noodle dish. 

Despite all of this, this creation defied all imagination and managed to be delectable as all get out.

Anyways, we returned to the grotto, and were shortly joined by two other friends of my sister, T and Sa (so as to differ from S). I'd heard a lot about T from Miss College Chick, so I'd arranged a special greeting for him. I joined them in the living room, shook Sa's hand and T's, then told him I had a greeting from my aforementioned College-attending sibling, and promptly bent to hug his knees. His confused expression was met with my laugh, and his following query was answered with "because she's short". We then all shared a laugh at her expense. Sorry, CC :P

We had much to do in the morning, but I was still on CA time, so we played a ferocious game of "Viking War" (as Gsis says T caled it when he taught us), wherein T and mah Gsis duked it out in a pretty epic battle before she finally slaughtered him and me around midnight. They left, and I was alone to go to bed for the first time. Sleep was nice.

Day One - Toilets and Windmills

Somehow I managed to consistently stay one day behind on this.

Let's start with a brief description of the drive. Everything in Germany is green right now. Like, my god, they have trees not just on the sidelines, but even in the divider between north and south-facing roads. It' all fields and crops and bushes and I don't even know. My male overseer would be having a field day with this landscape. I chatted with my German sis for a while, and then we entered the rustic red houses of the city. It was like I hadn't just lost a day in my traveling, but instead a couple of centuries. Dark bricks layered the walls and roads of every house, the roofs were shingled and heavily slanted, the river was directed this way and that under a sharp bridge, and everywhere there were signs in the gobbledygook of their language.

We passed by the Weser River (pronounced "veysah"), at which point my German mother informed us that this had been the waterway used in the Pied Piped fairytale, where the rats of the small village were lured to their deaths by the music of a mysterious man's flute. The village is also a real place, apparently, but I most likely won't get to visit it.

We arrived at their house after a short while, and it didn't look like much from the outside. However, stepping in the door was an entirely different experience. It was modern, elegant, and very compact. It would like to focus on a few points in particular. 

First and foremost, the toilet. Now, I'm sure you're familiar with the way American toilets work. There is a pool of water at the base of a porcelain bowl, and a handle to flush on the side, which produced a satisfying gush of water upon pressure. But then Germany was all like "naw man, we gonna make two pools, one for flushing and one to just sit there and look at our impressive German deuces. And we're not going to bother with a handle. Oh no. We'll put a plastic tablet into the wall, and you push inward like a secret-magic-portal or something, and a entire waterfall is going to jet out of your toilet and blast your unfortunate droppings into another dimension. Then you have to press the other side to get this torrent to halt, lest you're swept away with it. That's gonna be what we'll do". 

Germans, man. I may never know.

Then locks are on every door, expect they're more like keyholes from both sides, and you can insert a key into either side to lock them. That's actually pretty brilliant right there, as it allows them to switch all the keys in the guest room to the outside, and trap me in like a snoozing baboon in the morning.

Also, all the glass doors can tilt inwards when closed, allowing airflow as if they're windows. They look broken, and it weirds me out, but that's actually pretty sweet.

And through these glass doors you can see the sweeping chartreuse fields of grass and whatnot, with a bucketload of windmills on the edges of everywhere you look. Apparently the power from this makes up over 10% of their energy produced, which is awesome. They also look pretty futuristic, which is an added bonus, and very weird in contrast to the old-town vibes of the village.

I hugged my German father, and we went in to make eggplant-sandwiches, a speciality of my G-sis, which were utterly delicious, in case you were wondering. We hung out, and talked until my sis fell asleep, and then I fell asleep on their couch.

Day Two - Doin tha Cookin'

Me and my German Sis cooking...

Eggplant sandwiches with tomato, basil and spread. My taste buds can't even process this delicious.

Day One - Learning to Fly

I didn’t manage to access the Internet during my flight or transfer (they can’t send you a code for 60 minutes of free wifi if you don’t have a phone), but a brief summary of my trip so far.

I boarded the plane quickly after the previous post, placed in 26A, a window seat, as I’d planned/hoped, really. I watched Pulp Fiction for the first time (and I recommend it highly to anyone who wants brilliantly acted lines and, of course, random violence), and then slept (if you can call that monstrosity sleep) for the next 3-5 hours. I was served both a four course dinner and breakfast, which made me slightly embarrassed for having brought a burrito with me. I’m eating it as I write at the Zurich airport. (stomach pains, here we come!)

My accompanying seatmate’s (as there were only two seat in the row, but of average commercial/economy size) name began with an F (as far as I can recall), and as it turned out, he lived in Zurich, and was returning to Switzerland after visiting California for only 2 months (an odd mirror of my current situation), picking up English along the way. As I later discovered, he played professional soccer (he said “football”, then looked at me with a moments pause and continued “you call it soccer, I believe”) for seven years before four knee surgeries put him out of duty. He played one instrument in school, his explanation of which spurred the following exchange.

“It’s like, a long pipe with holes”, he says with rich Swiss accent, putting his hands up before his mouth and wiggling his fingers. “You blow into it”. He pantomimes an excellent Native American pipe, but I pause, thinking it strange that it would exist in Swiss schools.

“Wait, wait. Is there a hole,” I say, hands raising to my lips and my pinkie wiggling, “down here, that has two holes in it?”

“Ah, yes” he says, smiling. I laugh a little.

“We call it a ‘recorder’. I learned it in elementary school too!”

It’s weird, the traditions that stick.

I arrived in Zurich without much fuss, and wrote the first part of this during my hour-long waiting period, before going through the automated check-in for boarding (why, why don't we have this), where you just wave your boarding pass over a reader and walk on the plane.

I was placed in 33A, another window seat, and my seat-mate's name also began with an F, conveniently enough. As it turned out, this was another traveler returning home, from visiting her sister in Zurich. She was very, very German, and quite pleased to explain to me what jazz dance (her chosen activity of the past nine years) entailed, despite my explanation that I'd tried it a bit myself in my own dancing career. I was a bit confused when I asked her about other hobbies, and she said (and I quote): 

"I have a Haus!"

This is what it sounded like to me, anyways, and the next couple of minutes were spent asking what one did at a Haus, and what was fun about them, as she told me how was a lot of work tending to them.  My quisquos, and mildly bewildered response left her with a similar expression. As it would seem, the Germans do not really pronounce their R's, and I had basically just queried as to what one does inside a beast of the equine variety, or "Horse".

Life is fun sometimes.

Anyways, we landed and went to check out baggage, me walking down the stairs, chatting with my seat-mate, when I saw my German Sis and German Mother on the other side of a pane of glass, waving and laughing. As my sister later jokingly explained, they had bet that I would arrive with a girl, so my entrance with a blonde, pale, altogether extremely German female had my sister smirking and waggling her eyebrows. I immediately ran up to the glass and reenacted one of those scenes where the protagonist and his family would be hugging, except for the transparent wall. Then I grabbed my bags, received my first German "Bretzel" from my German mom, and drove to their house without delay.

This next piece will require a whole other post.