Joe's Blög

AMAZING!!!! Down below my flat in the square there were some Russian (?) singers. It was a men’s group with one accordion player and 7 or 8 vocalists….Sounded beautiful. They were singing what were probably very traditional russian songs.

I actually met someone last night who spent some time in Portland.

I’ve also met two people here who graduated from Sprague high in Salem the same year as someone I used to know. Kind of cool that this is such a small planet nowadays…

Beautiful weather this weekend. Spent lots of time outdoors watching people with a bunch of other people who were doing the same.

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So after hearing two old Modest Mouse albums I have to say they might be the greatest band ever. Also it’s fair to say that the latest album is the worst album. Is this the end. Has the band peaked?

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o Saturday was Matt’s birthday. Dinner at some traditional german place. matt, kat, phong, dad, cordelia, red, Phil and paki. Paki was nice, but I think her real name is Ginsi or something….she’s Pakistani so once again we have an insulting nickname…Not meaning to be insulting cuz she sat by me and seemed very cool and smart. It’s merely out of convenience that we use these insulting nicknames….

I’m just going to paraphrase the conversation….so this isn’t quite how it went, but go with it…
Me: what are you studying?
paki: Religion, politics, and orientalism….
me: That’s rather ambitious
paki: I’m going to change the world…refugee camps….chlidren….
me: Why not be a doctor or teacher or something?
paki: I want to go to the middle east to change the system….hearts and minds…womens’ right…children rights…etc
me: Not to be cynical but these are religious problems have been around for thousands of years…You can’t fix them when two groups say their god promised them something there is no compromise. You’d have to end religion first… why not solve Kashmir
paki: that’s totally different
me: No it’s not…they’re two unsolvable problems.

I’m sure she had an answer for this, but she was too smart for me and I was just trying to piss her off, but I wasn’t able to….
Not really…She was nice. Who says Idealism is dead…..huh…. crazy kids….

Here’s what happened next Courtesy of Kat

a dodgy looking, obviously veeery inebriated man walks in and sits behind us. he disappears and so does cordelia’s wallet. matt, dad, singer phil, and phong run outside immediately. squires, the girl, first doesn’t know what’s going on, then hesitates, then decides to run after them… yeah…took awhile. guys split up upstairs, some run through the park, others run on the zeil. guy’s long gone and they all come back. the AFRH (edited by Joe) and cordelia decide to go to the police station on zeil, and we encourage matt to go with them, finish our wine, pay, and go to police station. phong tries to look into window and we’re told, through a microphone, to piss off.

Always exciting to have a wallet stolen…anyways….we went to Macgowans to wait for the rest of them to show up, and then went to shooters after that…always a bad idea, but that was the weekend…Sunday. Lunch with Matt and pops at macGowans. Chicken burger and cider…mmmm. I love MacGowans

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So why is the stupid school shooting all over the news? So 30 civilians die in Iraq every day. Is an American life worth more than an Iraqi life? apparently so…If it takes 99 american lives to save 100 Iraqi lives is it worth it (I’m not saying that the Americans are saving more lives than they’re taking in Iraq, it’s merely a theoretical question.) ? I would say absolutely, but maybe I’m not american enough…what if one of the 99 was a friend, family member or me? Nationalism apparently lives on…
99 Americans to save 100 Canadians, Brits, Corkys, Sherpas??? Anyone who’s “pro life” should be with me on this.

AND…what is the rest of the worlds obsession with American gun policy….do we really just want the Police and Army (an extension of politicians) to have guns. Are those the people who you trust most in America?

Also I have no time for Europeans that go to New York and somehow think that New York is America….I also have no time for New Yorkers who think that New York is America…..I also have no time for New Yorkers or anyone that’s ever lived in New York….please stop talking now… apparently the stupid terrorists think that the rest of America cares about New York….I don’t care what happens there….
So when is California going to slide into the Ocean?

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I’m lately finding out that Germans who have conversations with me just don’t get me….I keep hearing stuff that people have said about me like “that joe guy is weird. He talked about the strangest things”.
I must admit I’m a little too gleeful about this. It’s nice to know that Germans think I’m eccentric. I’m OK with that.

How often do I get to use gleeful in a sentence? Tremendous…

The germans also apparently think I’m very unhealthy…..red bull, coffee, red bull, coffee…Pub food….beer….
everything in moderation….I think two red bulls in half an hour (on occasion) is not excessive…4 in a day is fine….

Two normal conversations from last week (a normal conversation is anything where clowns, midgets or deep hidden family secrets/issues don’t come up – and I must admit I do like to pry. I guess Germans think that’s weird of me).

Colleague who I haven’t seen in a few months (pointing to my head cuz I haven’t shaved in a month):
That is new
me: yeah I guess
colleague: it’s OK
me: it’s OK?
colleague: it’s OK.
me: ok
colleague: Tchuss…(bye)
me: tchuss

Me: I’m not a handsome man
AFRH: You’re not ugly
me: but I’m not handsome
AFRH: but you’re not ugly…

AFRH doesn’t read this right? if you figure out who you are please talk to Kat or Phong about the name…I still disagree, but I don’t know what you’re saying in deutsch…

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Thursday night….Thanks to Jesus we got 4 days off in April….sweet!!! So we went to the pub for Karaoke…

uHHHHH Düsseldorf on Friday, Saturday with the fams. Rented a car and set out Friday just past lunchtime. Met at Extrablatt for a bite.
Pops finally shows up with the rental car and we roll. Traffic jam on autobahn followed by detour through Köln (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koln). I did get to see the big cathedral (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Cologne_cathedral_at_dusk.jpg). That was cool. Pretty impressive. Düsseldorf is only about 40 kilometers past Köln.

The plan was that we cook a big dinner on Friday night. However we did not contemplate that the stores would be closed so our big dinner consisted of whatever we could buy from the gas station. Pizzas in this case, but it turned out to be fine.

We sat and listened to music for several hours. Followed by jumping on couches. Weird Al is a comedic genius…musicians and comedians are the new philosophers…

Saturday was breakfast then going into town…we did ride on a hanging tram car thingy through some small town…That was cool. Apparently the safest form of travel in the universe…
Düsseldorf is famous for its alt beer (dark beer). They serve it in .25 glasses and just continue to drink you glasses until you tell them to stop. And they’re very rude about it. No such thing as customer service in Germany.
I think we also watched Little Timmy crouch in the worst Irish bar ever!!!! O’Reilley’s. I’ve made a vow never go to go back to that dump again. However I thought maybe in Düsseldorf it would be different than the one in Frankfurt. boy was I wrong….Don’t worry there pictures aren’t from that dump O’reilleys.

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Last Sunday I had a 4 shot coffee and took a nap an hour later. I actually fell asleep…Is that bad? Is my heart going to explode from all the coffee, red bulls and caffeine pills I take?

If I ever send anyone an email after 2 am please delete it before reading…

Apparently people remember me from my bizarre conversations… Better to be known for something than nothing…

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Today I saw some dogs and I missed Brownie and Ringo (and Miles too).

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apparently I’m the only man in Europe who doesn’t know how to iron.

Brown pants absolutely positively do not go with a black shirt…..

Is this my mom’s fault??? hi mom

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