Quote Time

"You may burn my flesh and bones
and throw my ashes to the four winds,"
smiled one of them.
"Yet my voice shall linger on
and in the years to come
the young shall ask what was the idea
for which you gave me death
and what was I saying
that I must die for what I said."
-Carl Sandburg, The People, Yes

"Her hair is pulled back in a ponytail and she wears tan shorts and sandals. No makeup. Nothing but the truth."
-from Peter Hedges' Novel What's Eating Gilbert Grape

"ENUF SED"
-a license plate on a lame white Hummer i saw today which looks like it should be called Toasty Ghosty or maybe Bummer.

"Whatever you are, be a good one."
-Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)

"The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing."
-Walt Disney (1901-1966)

"Crap! Where is that book?"
-Me trying to find another awesome quote i found

"??????"
-you adding your own awesome quote!

College is hard when you don't manage your time early on in the semester.

One ten-pager down
two essays to go
one is not short
and the other is so
The short one i'll finish
this night 'fore my screen
it will be the most rapid
busting out you've ever seen.
Lord give me peace
cause i need it right here
and whisper Your Love
right into my ear.
Let me sing Your sweet song,
pray to You, give You praise,
and serve You despite This for all of my days.

in other news: applesauce! (i know, it was SO hard to guess...)


also a favorite from Salzburger Land:

lesser representaion of HIS Love

Taken from:

"All I want is all-consuming, life-changing, heart-pounding, intellectually stimulating, totally forgiving, unrelentless, never ending, soul sharing, blood-pumping, utterly intense, utterly passionate, utterly unmistakable, forever encouraging, Can't Possibly Live Without You, perpetually connected, Your Breath Is My Breath, never ever looking back, unconditional two-become-one kinda love.

I mean, come on, that's not too much to ask for, is it?"

No, no. i don't think so. i won't be settling for any less anyway.

Politics and Ingredients

Not only does this woman have a funny name, she's also President of the League of Women Voters of California. Go JJ.


Guess what this is! (i know, it's really hard - i'll post the answer later)


An even MORE funny name! Who ever said reading the voter's general election packet was a waste of time?!?


ps: i actually did vote and i don't remember at the moment what i voted on these propositions, or even what they stood for, for that matter. Maybe i'll look them up when i post the answer to my clue game. Either way ALL of the propositions were defeated this election. Yay politics!

Some Facts

-i love thanksgiving.
-Family can be tricky business.
-Family can also be amazingly wonderful.
-Friends are fantastic.
-Over the break i visited the cave system at UC Santa Cruz with my brother, Travis and the Simms bros, Gregg and Dillon.
-My dad, brother, and i all helped around my grandma's house. My dad and i worked on some appliances and my brother took initiative and planted some bulbs. Yay flowers!
-My brother is applying to colleges, Arizona State, San Francisco and San Jose State, and Caly Poly San Luis Obispo are among the candidates. Yay college!
-Small group is tonight and that's great. i'm excited.
-i got the new Fighting Jacks demo in the mail from Mike today. i haven't listened to it yet, but i really want to. i just know that it will be very good.
-And lastly, guess who was on my flight from San Jose to Orange County? That's right. John Kerry. Seated in First Class.

a montage

urban autumn cactus


her distant cousin


4?


She Conquers Nonetheless


"Our house / in the middle of the street"


tribute to Aro


Excuse me, where is literacy night?


here.

two am, but i need this

-i do not understand what i do. For what i want to do i do not do, but what i hate i do. And if i do what i do not want to do, i agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer i myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. i know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For i have the desire to do what is good, but i cannot carry it out. For what i do is not the good i want to do; no, the evil i do not what to do--this i keep on doing. Now if i do what i do not want to do, it is no longer i who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
-So i find this law at work: when i want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being i delight in God's law; but i see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man i am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God--through Jesus Christ our Lord!
-So then, i myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.

people from a different time warp

Level One across the bridge and over the tumultuous water

Level Two up in the trecherous mountainous regions

Level Three in the shrine at the inane dead end

blog hate

So here i am trying to blog and also thinking that i still need to fix my page so that non-Firefox users can view it error-free and i end up with this. NO real meaningful, analytical entry, AND my profile and archives are at the WAY WAY bottom of the page. And i still need to write! But i can't right now! Help!

this is a week. let's go.

Blog?

Who even has time to keep these things up!? School is crazy, man, just crazy. Today i have a Weight Training midterm (ha?) and i get my Spanish midterm back which NO ONE in the class finished, so that should be fun...

Work is going fine, but of course it's hard to balance school work with work work and other less important things, like, you know, sleep and time with friends... And what if i need to play my guitar? i broke a string yesterday! At least i don't have to work on the weekends, though it feels like it sometimes. Kirsten and i were going to try to go to Seattle over Christmas break, but that's not going to fly anymore. Instead we are going up to San Jose, and Simms' Tahoe cabin for a week-ish. Plus New Year's will be in NorCal! Rock on!

Sometime i will figure out how to reformat my site so that people with Internet Explorer can view it normally--i hope.

i need Jesus today.

The Mail and more

In a final, much delayed installment of "From whence becometh Aaron Choate his books from amazon.com ... eth" here's where the last two came from!

1. La Vergne, Tennessee
2. College Park, Maryland

In other news, my father, Paul Choate, was born in DC and raised in Silver Spring, Maryland, so naturally i have a special fondness for the state.

ALSO! KINDRED FALL'S SPECIAL EDITION PRE-RELEASE OF "SLOW SEASON" IS OUT!!!
i came home to a stack of them piled on my desk. Sweet. So yes, they are available for 10 United States Dollars, and i'll even ship it to you free of charge! So, if you haven't got one and would like one, buy one from me!

i am both sweaty from intramural basketball and supposed to be doing homework now, so bye!

September Eleventh

Here i was, sitting in front of my computer NOT doing my homework like i should, and i accidentally paused the cursor over the date and time box in the bottom right hand corner of the screen. "Sunday, September 11, 2005" it says to me.

And i think, wow, second anniversary of terrorist attacks and it's crazy how time has flown by and this hurricane in the south and it's damage are crazy and there's all these other tragedies, both national and international, and so many people die each year and people do horrible things to each other and gas prices are over three dollars a gallon a lot of places and people are probably getting shot at or raped or abused right now--all at once.

Aro and i were talking the other day about how in general we haven't experienced THAT many hardships or "crazy stuff" i guess was how he worded it, and we tend to think that, "Oh people are nice, and yeah they have their baggage, or personal quirks and idiosyncrasies, but so what?"

i was talking with Kyle last night about how i'm so blessed and also such a rarity since both my parents are still alive and married and together and in love with each other.

My cell phone got stolen this morning off my front driveway, since i accidentally left it there for a little while after i was reading for school. Terrible! It rings when i call it, so wherever it is, it's on and not broken. i hope it turns up!

i just got back from the Phoenix Club in Anaheim with some of the people who went to Munich. It's is a German place with a restaurant and also where they host Oktoberfest and similar events each year. That was pretty fun and also a bit strange. The waitress decked out in her dirndle asked me what i wanted to eat. In English. SO weird. "Man hat Deutsch erwartet," sagte meine Profesorin. Ja, stimmt!

So, these are my thoughts for this eleventh of September. Now i really ought to read for this skewl i'm going to.

More!

Today's crop was comprised of a book sent from McKeesport, Pennsylvania and another from Fayetteville, Arkansas. The latter i can say that i've actually been to whilst on tour with ye olde Fighting Jacks during the Month of January in 2004 Anno Domini. Cool. Now i must read some of these blasted books i've received. i'm off!

The cool thing about having to order books

Although having to buy books each semester at Chapman can get annoying and extremely pricey, i have developed a system to keep it cheaper and also to enjoy it.

First thing is, i usually buy my books from amazon.com, which not only keeps them much cheaper and saves me money, but it also saves me waiting in line at the bookstore. Sometimes i look on half.com or various other places and will find a cheaper book, but for some reason amazon has always worked out best. What's more is i get all these sweet packages addressed to me, pretty much like my birthday or Christmas in September or whatever (which in reality is more packaged items for me than i EVER see nowadays).

...but that's not the best part. The best part is getting them and seeing where they came from and looking up the cities on mapquest. i know, i'm a freak about maps, but it's so fun! i get to learn a little of our nation's geography that i would have otherwise been uninspired to research (most likely) and i can dream about one day travelling there and i'll always secretly know that i have my own little connection with at least one citizen there, even when the books aren't always shipped by individual sellers, but rather larger companies. Today's round of books came from:

1. South Bend, Indiana
2. Iowa City, Iowa
3. Bloomington, Indiana
4. River Grove, Illinois
5. Eugene, Oregon
6. Fife, Washington

A nice spattering of middle America and the Pacific Northwest. Washington in particular has been calling my name a lot lately. Must travel.

And! Another round of 'em is probably going to come tomorrow! Yay!

Microshaft

So apparently, along with writer's block and thus a lack of new postings, my site is also experiencing some sort of html code errors which makes the whole site load improperly in Microshaft's "Internet Explorer" browser. It loads perfectly fine in Firefox. i usually never endorse products, and when i do it's not really that enthusiastically, but this is an exception mostly because i'm pissed off. Well, perhaps just annoyed, as pissed off is a little, shall we say, strong language. i spent a lot of time working on my site's new look, and most of the general population can't even view it error free! This is just one of the many reasons why Firefox is infinitely better than Microschaft, and i'm not saying you should go download it right now, but you should go download it right now.

Many thanks to Aro for pointing out the problem, and no thanks to the rest of you for not telling. Ha! Ok, i love you all. Really!

In actual news: Went to Ed's Nana's house tonight in Compton with the whole crew and it was loads of fun. Some selected highlights include:
-playing Blackjack with chips and Uncle Eliot as the dealer, who apparently really deals in Casinos? Not sure of that last bit.
-building with Lincoln logs
-eating an orange off the tree in the backyard (quite delicious)
-listening to Ed, Kyle, and Brandon jam with guitars and Kyle's mandolin and trying to learn dueling banjos.
-eating food. GOOD food, including catfish.
-Singing songs in battle.
-You know those cool viewfinder, or view-o-rama, or whatever they're called things where you put the disc in an look up to the light to see the images and flip the lever to rotate to the next one? Yeah, those. SO SWEET!
-Saying 'sayonara' to Ed's mum who is flying back to Japan tomorrow! :(
-lots of fun.

Ok, i'm tired.

Writer's Block

The past week or so has been relatively normal as far as summer life in Orange goes. i've logged in to my Blogger account several times with the intention of writing something, but for some reason just had writer's block. i thought to myself, "self, what is it that's troubling you? What's interesting? What's boring? What's going on in your life?" i just never came up with any answers to these questions and i still don't know why actually. Things are happening, but nothing was coming out onto the page. But anyway, now here's something.

My new roommate has moved in at the 714, so all the rooms are filled except one, and i'm not sure when it will be, though it should be soon. School starts on Monday which is both ridiculous and slightly surreal. Kirsten is going to move up to Orange this weekend i hope, and that will be quite a relief for her after such a long search, and a relief for me also. Kyle Warner is back from ambiguously noted but somehow generally understood "the island" and it has been quite a pleasure to hang with him. Just for old time's sake:


And the gum wall at SLO:

Aro always thinks my shirt says "Footloose"

In other news my Grandma sent me a care package today. SOSWEET!

Perhaps my next entry will be more focused and less random. Love you all.
-ac-

"Always have an escape plan."

After much anticipation, it's finally here!

My blog got a makeover today.

i:
learned some HTML

<--put some fun links over on the side there

decided to stop being a computer nerd for now and do something more tangible and productive, such as play my guitar

Gummi Bears and me

"Haribo macht Kinder froh und Erwachsene ebenso."

theinfintesimallyminuteme

Spreading the love:


create your own visited states map

...which is a lot more impressive than this:


create your own visited countries map
...reminding me of how little i actually have seen of God's Earth (< 7%!). They even highlighted Alaska, and i've never been there, which adds a disproportionate amount of red to my map.

Two Sagas

Two Sagas: Herrnchiemsee and My Journey Home

1. Herrnchiemsee.

This lake, the deepest in Bavaria, is one of the favorite vacation spots for Münchners due to its readily available sailing, swimming, and general water recreation activities. It is also the location of one of Ludwig II’s exquisite fairy-tale castles. Modeled after Louis XIV’s Versailles in France, Herrnchiemsee was never completed. Only 20 of the 70 planned rooms were actually finished, but the Hall of Mirrors out-stretches the one at Versailles. The most famous and most visited of Ludwig’s castles, however, is Neuschwanstein, near the town of Füssen and the Austrian border. Herrnchiemsee, on the other hand, is located on an island on the lake and is reachable only by boat. For most people. One brilliant afternoon, Chris, Gertrud, Dillon and i all piled into the McKissick family BMW and headed to Chiemsee. Chris drove. Gertrud had packed picnic items for us all which included egg sandwiches, cooked veggies, and some other miscellaneous items. The main reason for our excursion was not the water, however. Gertrud works at Lufthansa, a German airline, and thusly is able to get tickets to certain events through her contacts. This time she was able to round up expensive tickets to the Schloßkonzert or Castle Concert at Herrnchiemsee for the four of us! Excellent! i think they were valued at 34 Euro or something outrageous. Anyway, we got to the lake and to kill time before the show, we hung out by the waterfront in a campground which we probably we not supposed to be in. We ate some food, went swimming, and enjoyed the beauty. As we are sitting on this park bench enjoying our food, Gertrud nonchalantly mentions, well you could swim over to the island, and so on and so forth. That sounded like pretty good idea to me, as i tend to take advantage of every opportunity possible to get in the water, especially while abroad. So after mustering up some strength and convincing Dillon to come with me, we set off.

“You have no idea what you’re getting US into,” he said to me. “Remember the other day when we swam out to the buoy at the lake? That was far. THIS is far. Much further.” On we swam. About half way through the swim, Dillon started to shiver uncontrollably. His lips started turning purple. i began to give him small boosts by cupping my hands together and pushing him toward our destination and then swimming forward and doing it again. We both got really tired. Dillon said, “When swimming long distances, it’s always good to have a spotter in case you get tired.” Yep. Pretty much. But what were we going to do, already halfway through the lake? Keep swimming that’s what.

For those of you Nemo fans, “Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming, swimming, swimming. What do we do? We swiiiimmmm…”

Our goal was at first a tree, then a large yellow post that seemed to be getting closer and closer. Then the current started up. Then lightning and clouds started rolling over the mountains. Things were getting pretty scary. All we could do was keep on going though. Finally, we reached the yellow post. Turns out it was stable and we could stand on it because it was a marker for a submerged rock, so that boats wouldn’t hit it. Dillon was shaking way out of control. i held him out of the water and tried to keep him warm as much as possible. After a while, i just said, “You know what, screw it man, we just need to go for the shore. So we got back in the water. After a short distance i could touch the ground, so i towed my friend to dry land. Or so i thought. Turns out, instead of there being a solid shore, we really ran into a wall of marshes and reeds. Dillon was still in no shape to go by himself, so i carried him on my back a while through the marshes. i was freaked out that i was going to get bitten by a water snake or something. When my feet started to hurt from the weight, i let Dillon down and we kept going. We walked through really thick razor grass, but couldn’t feel a thing, and we were assuming that we were getting eaten alive by disease bearing insects at the very best. After we cleared the high grass, there was a short strip of mossy-covered land which was a little more solid. However, as we walked through it, we realized that our feet sank down through the moss into freezing cold water, far colder than the lake we had just swam across. Stagnant? Yeah. Disease Ridden? Probably. Sharp Rocks at the Bottom? Most likely.

Bring it on.

Finally we ended up on dry land. …But this was not the end, oh no. We now faced a wall of Brennesseln, know in the English language as Stinging Nettles. Not cool. i had brushed up against this foe before, and was not about to go gung-ho right through the thick of it. So we tried to find a way around. Our feet were muddy, our legs were cold and slightly scraped, and we were probably still being eaten by ravenous insects. Zig-zagging around, we finally found a way through the nettles. Of course, they never fully went away, but they relented. i hacked a few aside, as both Dillon and i gained sticks as our trusty weapons. We were Hobbits in Lord of the Rings. We were fearsome warriors in an even more fearsome world.

We found a path. We followed the path, going tenderly along the rocks with our bare feet. The wind began to howl and whip through the trees and then it started raining. Hard. It was all very surreal. Lightning cracked and flashed around and still we continued on. We came upon a sign saying Wanderweg meaning hiking path, which did not seem very good to us, so we opted to abandon that road at the next possible point. One road forked off to the right, but seeming treacherously unused, we continued on. We turned off at what seemed like an island compost area and ran through some very disgusting bio-water. We got out of that stuff as fast as was humanly possible and splashed our feet in some clean puddles as we went. Jumping over a felled tree (possibly from the storm, who knows?) we reached a fence and an open grass field. Both good signs. Running along the rocky path, still very tenderly, we reached another open field. A lake appeared on our left and suddenly, we looked to our right, and there it was. The Herrnchiemsee Palace and all its splendor. We had popped out on the main grass terrace leading up to the entrance (i thought it was the rear entrance, but i’m not 100% certain). It had large fountain with people turning into frogs and vise-versa, just like the one i’d seen in Versailles. So here we are, sprinting down the grass through the rain in nothing but our swim shorts. We came up to the fountain and Dillon said, “Let’s go through the fountain.” Of course we did so without skipping a beat. i mean, what else were we going to do? We were already wet anyhow, and normally the water is probably way too disgusting to go in, but what did we care? We survived everything else. The water was deeper than i had expected and very warm—much warmer than any water that we’d come into contact with thus far. Coming out the other side, we encountered a very large, menacing bush. We ran around. Sprinting up the palace stairs, we could see Chris and his mom through the glass doors. We waved. Drenched and dripping, we strolled up to the doors of the palace and the formal concert, still barefoot and dressed in swim trunks. Amazingly, the man at the door let us in, granted that we go immediately to the restroom and change. Luckily Chris and his mom had brought our clothes from the car. We got lots of grins from the more down-to-earth people and side-long scowls from the grumpy and pompous. It was cool. We’re probably among a very few amount of people to have swam across the nearly two-mile gap from Prien am Chiemsee to the island of Herrncheimsee (we looked it up on the internet afterward) and most definitely the only ones to have entered the Palace soaking wet in our swim trunks on the eve of a formal concert immediately after said feat. Crazy. Our wounds in the end included overly massive mosquito bites, countless very small slices from the razor grass on our feet and legs, and a few scratches, but all in all, we were very blessed.

You know what else, Chris and his mom didn’t know that we were doing this, otherwise they would have never allowed it. They figured we’d be coming back any moment, but we never did. It turns out Gertrud had just mentioned this possibility as a joke, but didn’t think anyone would be stupid enough to do it. Those crazy Americans.

2. My Journey Home

i’ll try to make this one shorter and to the point than Saga #1, so perhaps if i introduced bullet points and narrate in incomplete sentences it will go quicker. Nonetheless, it is a saga.

-Woke up Thursday morning German time due to a hammering on the floor above Chris’ apartment. Sweet.

-Couldn’t go back to sleep so i ate breakfast and prepared to go to the airport.

-Took a shower, got my stuff together, went to the S-Bahn.

-Barely made it on the S-Bahn and zoomed off to the airport to catch my 11:25 flight to London.

-Checked in, finding out that i didn’t depart until 1:40 or something like that. Dang! i just went through security anyway, and said good-bye to Chris.

-Sat in the airport for hours and watched the 11:25 flight to London leave without me.

-Waited for the 1:40 flight to London, only to discover that it was an hour and twenty minutes delayed due to “Winter weather and Fog” that morning. It’s July.

-Finally got on the plane with the likelihood that i would never be able to board my 3:45 flight to LAX out of Heathrow, even with the one hour time difference.

-i was right.

-took an hour to go through security in London, met some girls from Munich who were traveling to the Canada and then the States for two months total. Plus one German girl who was going to South Africa. Checked the departure screen in desperation, even though i knew the flight was long gone.

-stood in the Customer Service line for at least an hour.

-met and Australian named James and discussed such topics as his Spanish father and pen pal, his recent trip to Spain, Wallabies, Koala Bears, Finding Nemo, and The Rescuers Down Under. …among other topics.

-got hotel vouchers for the night and bus passes to said hotel. i’d be going to LA the next morning.

-Finally found and waited at the bus stop for H6 and rode the bus out of a very crowded Heathrow, on an hour ride which should have taken only 15 or 20 mins.

-Got to the hotel, waited to get checked in, spoke with a Serbian girl who was with her non-English speaking mother. (Her sister lived in Germany. They now live in Chicago.)

-Got my dinner and breakfast voucher, went to my hotel room, came back down and ate dinner, and set my plan into motion which i had formulated the moment i’d realized i’d be overnighting in London.

-Went to the counter, tried to figure out the bus system to get to the nearest tube and get into town, but got lost and ended up sprinting around for another hour or so. Mostly in the wrong direction.

-Finally made it onto a correct bus, but had out-of-use Pound-age, so the driver let me ride for free.

-Got to a Tube station, bought my ticket, (with my valid 20 Pound note) and was on my way. i asked a worker there what the best stop would be to get the London Eye and he said Westminster, but i had to change at Hammersmith and get on another line due to the bombings on July 7^th.

-A Londoner overheard this and started talking with me on the way downtown. He was really cool, had just got back from vacationing in Israel, and instructed me to get off at Embankment instead for a more enjoyable walk along the river. i still had to make said changes. This also happened to be where he was going in order to catch a train to his house, so i just rode with him and chatted without having to pay much attention to where i was going, except how i was going to get back.

-Said good-bye, gave him my e-mail address, and went over to the Eye. They were closed.

-Walked over to the clock tower of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, and walked around those. Learned some stuff about London and saw and Oliver Cromwell statue. Went over to the Sovereign’s entrance and over to Westminster Abbey for a look.

-Sat on the lawn and watched/listened to the clock strike eleven o’ clock—very cool—then mosey-d on back to a Tube station.

-Saw ridiculous, silly British signs such as, “Do not feed the pigeons. They are both a health hazard and a nuisance.”

-Got back to the hotel without too much trouble and went to sleep after getting in contact with Kirsten and letting her know about my delay.

-Woke up five hours later at seven o’clock to catch my 10:05 flight. Had breakfast.

-Stood in a very long line for check-in.

-Got sent to customer service when i got to the front.

-Got told i was on stand-by (again)

-The flight doors closed at 9:55, it was 9:34 and the lady at the check in was looking at the computer. i still hadn’t gone thorough security. i thought i was doomed.

-All of a sudden, the lady said, “Sir, there’s a seat available. Go.”

-Wanting to protest, but too confused to do so, i quickly gathered my things and sprinted over to the security check. i got through, and sprinted all the way to the gate and barely boarded the slightly delayed plane.

-Flew ten hours to LA, finding out upon arrival that my bags were lost. Shocking.

-Came out the gate to see Kirsten on Friday July 28^th at about 2:15 pm, several detours and time-zones after waking up in Germany.

-Drove to Orange with Kirsten, went to the house and left my stuff there which i could spare, gathered any clothes i could find, and headed to Megan and Bryan Rosenkrantz’s wedding reception in San Juan Capistrano. Very nice!

-Left the reception to drive back up to LAX and catch my flight to North Carolina for a week with my folks at the beach house in North Carolina. (thanks Kirsten for all the driving!)

-Am currently waiting to finally get back to California.

Schweizer Deutsch und mehr

Hello Blog Nation!

Since my last post i:
-Swam across a very large portion of Herrnchiemsee with Dillon (crazy story, more on that later)
-Went to a Concert at Schloss Herrnchiemsee (related to point 1)
-Hung around the house, did computer stuff, watched movies
-Went to Switzerland to visit The Greenes (excellent!)
-Went to the pool in Möriken (their little town)
-Played music!
-Went to the castle there after a hike through the woods
-Touched a Swiss cow's nose
-Learned Swiss numbers
-Picked up a Swiss Turtle
-Saw various other Swiss animals including bunnies, Donkeys, cats, dogs, horses, Stiere, chickens, sheep, goats, roosters, and foreign exotic birds in the aviary at the castle.
-Played more music
-Went to Thermal Baths (oh, so very relaxing and amazing)
-Watched 'Galaxy Quest' and 'So I Married and Axe Murderer' -- Two classics
-Regretfully left Switzerland
-Drove through Austria again on our way back to a campsite in Germany
-Camped in Fendt, a little town near PeiŸßenberg
-Grilled meat, slept in a tent, helped chop up a felled tree with a crazy Bavarian farmer and the rest of the crew, went on an expedition to a waterfall that we never found
-Ate some wilraspberrieses
-Had more fun
-Finished up camping
-Drove back to Ismaning

In four days i fly home! Whoa!

...after which i fly back to the East Coast for a week

...after which i'll be back in Orange on August 7th

...just you wait for the story about Herrnchiemsee

love, AC

no man's land

Bavaria is so great.
Last night i went to a party at Christian's House (a friend of Chris' and now mine) and hung out with a bunch of their friends, most of whom i either already knew, or had at least seen before. It was an AWESOME party. We brought marinated meat for the grill, there was bread and this tomato-bean salad stuff which i loved, and we all hung out on his porch for a while. Christian has it set up so that his computer monitor and mouse are on the window sill behind the table so he can control what music is playing from outside--excellent! i still feel a bit left out sometimes, because even though i speak and understand German fairly well, they often talk about things which have been happening for a long time in their town, or about trips they went on and the like. i guess that's pretty normal though, and if our roles were switched, i imagine a foreigner hanging out with my friends and i would be perhaps more alienated, because we are just CRAZY!

We are all going camping next weekend, and i'm very stoked about that!

Anyway, after the outside hang-out part, Robert, Dolly, Dillon and i went inside to play cards. We taught them Pedro, a California country game which came from my Grandma's side of the family and hardly anybody outside of California knows how to play. They picked it up quite well, and afterwards we found out why. There's this Bavaria card game called Schafkopf, which is like WAY more complicated. Dillon and i learned a little bit of it, but i am still pretty lost on a few things. Hopefully we'll have the chance to play some more though. The name means 'Sheephead' in English. At our secret hang-out spot in the basement, we just played cards into the night, and eventually into the morning without even realizing it! It was like three a.m. when we finally looked at a clock. Chris, Dillon, and i rode the bikes back to Chris' house (Dillon's bike chain broke on the way) and we got back to his apartment. i got online and spoke with Kirsten for a bit via Skype Out (hey, might as well if you're up that late/early!). The time difference thing is so annoying sometimes! i called her on her cell phone and she was hanging out with her friend Suzanne, so we didn't talk a real long time. Here comes the good part though: just as i'm about to brush my teeth and get into bed, i realized that it is starting to get bright outside the window... no way...

Yep, sure thing, the sunrise was starting and time had crept to like five a.m. when i was finally ready to go to sleep. i woke up at like three-thirty, and Dillon got up at like four-thirty. i think i'll go eat some breakfast now.

Today is Kirsten and i's sixteenth monthaversary! Yay!

Anybody have some good staying-up-until-dawn stories?

love

Zorro

"Zorro, Zorro, Zorro! He makes the sign of the 'Z'!"

i seem to remember this line from a kiddie version of Zorro somewhere in my youth or childhood. Also, 'Z' (or something resembling it) is the symbol of a car company called Opel over here in Europe. Furthermore, there are lots of words with Zs in the German language. Like way more than English.

My Family is gone. They were great.

Dillon is here.

Kirsten is not.

Friends are on my mind.

i

i love

i love you

i love you all

How's everyone doing? Or perhaps more appropriately, what's your favorite kind of apple? Mine is either Golden Delicious or Fuji. Gala is pretty up there too actually. So i guess that means list your favorites!

postsecret.blogspot.com

i third-handedly stumbled upon a cool website today. i was on my friend's/ex-roomate's webpage today, and a friend of his posted on his comments section about it. i spied. i found out. Some of the entries are obscene or even scary, some of the entries are very funny, and some of the entries are very uplifting and excellent. Though i don't often recognize it, i often feel like i am too scared to listen to and accept the bad stuff about people; their secrets, their bad memories, their fears. If i don't do this, i guess there is no way of knowing how people really feel nor of finding out how to help them or to fix things. i am sure we all have strange/neurotic/sick/crazy/psycho thoughts sometimes, but we also have the best/kind/gentle/loving/caring/uplifting/giving/helping/soft/
sensitive/worshipful/empathic/wonderful thoughts that human beings are capable of. i believe that the latter ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS has the power to outweigh the former if we let it. If we have the courage to reach down inside ourselves and LISTEN. Read the next bit if you want--if you don't, that's fine to. Thanks for listening. -AC-

Taken from http://postsecret.blogspot.com

The question I am asked most often is,"which secret is your favorite?" My favorite postcard is one I have never seen. In fact, it was never mailed to me. I learned about it recently from an email I received.

"...I was very excited because I too had a secret I wanted to post. I thought long and hard about how I wanted to word my secret and I searched for the perfect postcard to display it on. After I had created my postcard I stepped back to admire my handiwork. Instead of feeling relieved that I had finally got my secret out, I felt terrible instead. It was right then that I decided that I didn't want to be the person with that secret any longer. I ripped up my postcard and I decided to start making some changes in my life..."

If someday I find an envelope in my mailbox with the pieces of that ripped-up secret, I will be sure to share it here.
-Frank

Eager Seas

Hey there folks (or rather, basically no one because apparently nobody reads my blog if i don't send out a mass e-mail).

So as you can see by my rather wry greeting that i am feeling a little strange. Being tired is definitely a huge part of it--at least physically. i am also tired in other ways--tired of being in Europe, tired of not talking with my friends, (especially my old roommates, both of whom haven't got back to my e-mails or calls) and most of all, tired of being away from Kirsten.

There is something great though stirring inside me nonetheless. i have come to realize some things about myself whilst i have been abroad and have more or less narrowed down a major. i have also acquired competence in a third language, not that i am anywhere near being a master. Eager Seas. Eager Seas has a few meanings for me right now. First off, Eager Seas is a band which has formed from the remnants of Watashi Wa, one of my favorites, and always a very uplifting band. You can check them out here. Secondly, i am eager to cross over seas, namely the Atlantic Ocean, to get back to the one i love. Thirdly, i am eager to steer a course for new seas in my music, take new direction, see what happens.

Some of you may know, others may not, but i have semi-recently been replaced as a member of Kindred Fall during my absence. Ed and i had discussed this option before i even left, so i was sort of half expecting it, but it still came a little suddenly and strangely. i don't know where i am going as a musician, but i still am one and i still plan on being one, wherever God chooses to use me. My performances as a street musician have been all but placed at a standstill due to the strict rules which Munich imposes on street performers, namely you have to buy a permit for a specific day of the week (5 EURO) and you are only allowed to play within a certain time on that day and then now more for the whole week. Boo. Anyway, i think i am going to buy my second one tomorrow so i can get some cashola. i am slowly adding songs to my repertoire... So yeah. That's me as music. i miss my friends though. A lot.

Munich has been treating me right, even though this class i am taking is pretty demanding: 3 hours of German per day, plus any lessons that our professor decides to give us afterward, daily journals, cultural activities pretty much every day (including weekends), and then this special category of other which i just made up. Basically what "other" entails is speaking German with my host family, hanging out with friends, grocery shopping/making sure that i eat, trying to fit in phone conversations with Kirsten, my folks, and my friends back home. i play my guitar too. Munich is very beautiful at this time of year and it is supposed to stop the random overcastness/rain which has been happening for a bit here. This weekend i am going to Grillen an der Isar and also a Hochzeitsfeier von ein Paar bekannten meiner Gaestfamilie. (aka a barbecue and a wedding reception of some friends of my guest family) Should be excellent. i am really looking forward to Saturday which will be the first day that i have slept in past 7:30 am for three weeks.

This blog is getting long already, but i have one more side note to make and that is that Erin's blog has some quite wonderful posts, not the least of which is an exquisite story told through computer Paint sketches of her and Aro's road trip out to Wisconsin. Also! California has surpassed Wisconsin in cheese quality and production for several years now, (not that Wisconsin's cheese have gone bad or anything!)

Munich has a stereotype as being the beer capital of the world for some reason...

For some reason i like links at the moment.

ich muss nach Hause...

Servus!

-Sepp-

Bars und Blödsinn

i hate bars. They are smoky and loud. Clubs i like though, sometimes. Nonetheless i had fun. i am going to play music with some Germans next Tuesday! Sweet! They have a bass too, so i am looking forward to playing that for the first time in a while...

Tomorrow: Five-hour hike between two lakes; Schliersee zum Tegernsee.
Sunday: Schloss Neuschwanstein, the famous Bavarian castle, which, according to John James, was contructed by "ol' Crazy von Ludwig." At any rate, i hear it is large and crazy and sweet. The castle at Disneyland is a small scale model of it...

Thirdly, i met a German guy who, like me, doesn't drink alcohol. Let me say that again: i met a German guy who doesn't drink alcohol. Sweet! The next few weeks are going to be fun.

love, aaron von choate

Single Variable Calculus (Fifth edition)

This blog is entitled as such simply because it appeared in the drop-down menu when i went to put a title on it. It is the textbook that i had to buy and use for my Calculus class i took at Chapman freshman year--that was a long time ago...

ANYWAY-- i just wanted to tell a short story before i go off to do my homework. Today i got in touch with my natural self in the middle of a sprawling metropolis:

After a long, tired, semi-stressful day, i took the U-Bahn to the Englischer Garten, a large garden in downtown Munich. The Germans love nature, so fortunately they incorporate it into their large cities wherever possible. Gotta love it. We had been there with the group already on Saturday, when Kirsten was still here before she flew home. We had seen some surfers surfing on this wave thing near a bridge in the fast-moving river that runs through the park and also lots of naked people sun-bathing, as well as other fun or relaxation seekers. Nature aficionados perhaps. i had come dressed in my swim trunks, and i set my backpack and shoes in the bushes, walked upstream to where the surfers were (there were there again today) and after a little watching, i jumped in! The current was swift and the water was very cold, but refreshing, and gave me a little thrill. i found my way back to the place where i had stashed my stuff and then walked through the park with my shoes off. It hurt sometimes! i am not used to having my shoes off. i eventually found my way to the nude area we had seen on Saturday, but this time there were a bunch of people playing soccer, a few people relaxing on the grass, and a few walking around, all clothed. There was one man who was naked though, and he was dancing to the beat of the hand-drums which some people were playing in the distance. There are always people there playing hand-drums i guess. Anyway, feeling a little disappointed because i found out that there weren't enough naked people around for me to feel normal taking my clothes off, i found a private grove and sat down for a while and dried off. i stripped down anyway and sat for a while by myself on my beach towel. Afterward, i got dressed again and went for a nice walk in the park feeling pretty good about life. Munich is great and i am glad that i am taking this class.

Servus!
-Sepp-
(Aaron)

Munich is Gonna Be Alright...

KIRSTEN AND i AT THE MOMENT :

So, we are currently both in Ismaning, Germany at Christoph's place, and Kirsten leaves for California on Sunday and i move in with a new host family in Munich after i see her off. It has been absolutely gorgeous here, and a great relief to get a little change. i loved my Gaestgrossmutter, Frau Schoettke, but i was just getting a little stir crazy i think. i learned a lot staying with her, and my roommate Ben Englehart from Detroit worked out great. He's a most excellent gent, and also a Christian so that was cool, and worked out well for us both.

i am taking a class for the month of June in Munich, but my semester in Salzburg is officially done. It has been really great here the past few days; got plugged into the internet after a long time sporadic access, got to hang out with Chris' friends last night and listen to music at his friend Christian's house, and then we went to Simon's house tonight, had barbeque and watched Napoleon Dynamite. Sweet! Chris and his mom Gertrud have a fabulous view from their apartment over Ismaning and the surrounding area--beautiful.

It's almost time for Kindred Fall's radio appearance on the UC Irvine radio station, so i am going to catch that before going to bed. Where am i musically? Who knows? Perhaps i will still be part of Kindred Fall when i return, perhaps not. Either way i pray that i will continue to get better and i hope for the best for Ed and his new crew of hooligans. i hope we can speak again soon...

Why Oregon Rules and California Sucks:

* Taken from USA TODAY'S Across the USA - News From Every State News section.

"California: Los Angeles--Airport commissioners approved $7.7 million in renovations to two Los Angeles International Airport gates to accommodate the 555 passenger Airbus A380. LAX expects to spend a total of $53 million to accommodate the double-decker airliner, which begins service next year.

Oregon: Oregon City--Experts in several Oregon counties are using sentinal chickens as a warning system for the mosquito-bourne West Nile virus. The chickens act as bait for mosquitos that may be carrying the virus. They're a good barometer of the disease because they don't get sick from the virus or infect anything. The birds develop antibodies if bitten by an infected mosquito."

Great. We get millions and millions of dollars spent on airplane traffic and Oregon gets sentinal chickens. Why oh why can't we be as sweet as them?! i mean, at least we oughtta be spending our millions on the production of electric cars to eliminate the gas market, or maybe the production of more efficient electric planes, or maybe that phantom high speed train system from San Francisco to LA and San Diego that never seems to get planned or built. Plus we'll probably get West Nile virus because we don't have any sentinal chickens.

Everyone please do me a favor. Contemplate the term: Sentinal Chickens! You had better be laughing by now, cause you KNOW it's hilarious!

Aaron der Straßemusiker

Anyway, playing on the street is a lot of fun because not only do you earn money for doing something you love, but you get all kinds of cool people and interesting reactions. i've had my photo taken together with Asian girls, and also an Indian man, and more than a few people have filmed me or photographed me by myself. Little kids smile and stare while their parents shun away and search their pockets. People cast funny glances and their lips curve slightly upward at the edges. A crowd of Bavarians came up and played Pearl Jam and sang so i improvised and some dude came last time and wanted me to play a blues riff whilst he played harmonica. Sweet.

Here's my playlist: Green Day's 'Time of Your Life,' Tiffany Joy's 'El Ritmo Del Mundo' (which has attracted a group of Mexicans asking where i was from and how i knew Spanish!) Pink Floyd's 'Wish You Were Here,' Dishwalla's 'Counting Blue Cars,' Dashboard Confessional's 'So Long Sweet Summer,' Fuel's 'Innocent,' Jimmy Eat World's 'Hear You Me,' Smashing Pumpkins' '1979,' Switchfoot's 'Let That Be Enough' and of course Kindred Fall's own '3Drom' and my own, 'Kirsten's Song' and 'Apokalipsis' (named just now in honor of Aro and his blog...and of course, Jesus).

There may be some more songs that i've played which do not come to mind at the moment, but i will add them later if i think of them. I am going to be learning some new material soon by downloading music off the internet including, (hopefully) the rest of Dave Mattews Band's 'Gravedigger,' Nena's version of 'Neunundneunzig Luft Balloons,' Green Day's 'Boulevard of Broken Dreams,' among others. IN FACT, if any of YOU WHO ARE READING THIS BLOG, would like to post some SUGGESTIONS, on which new songs i should learn and play, POST AWAY!

LOVE, -aaron-

i have an art test soon...

Hey everyone, just wanted to type up a quick-ish update since last time! Hope you all are enjoying the links and downloading Kindred Fall songs! We are on the brink of revolution...

Mostly i have been helping out my Hausfrau with her new Kasten (closet units), as she had the old ones demolished by a demo crew and new ones installed by Helmut (her handyman-type friend) and myself. Needless to say, things have been in quite a crazy disarray roundabout the house--especially since Ben's two friends who are on break from studying in Spain came and stayed two nights on an air mattress in our room and then the living room amidst the mountains of clothes and other miscellaneous items...

Mostly i have been going to classes, doing chores, and playing my guitar for money and listeners on the main footbridge. However, i got talked to by the Polizei who say i have to relocate the next time since the bridge is not one of the designated street musician areas of Salzburg (who knew?). Anyway, they were nice and helpful and also did not fine me for not having my passport and attached visa on my person (i had forgotten it at home). They radio-ed in and confirmed my residence and studenthood in Salzburg, so i didn't get in trouble. Good thing i had registered with the Police though! They also knew English which was nice, though i tried to use as much German as possible as a courtesy and also for practice.

In other news of more serious nature, we went to the Death Camp of Mauthausen near Linz, Austria last Friday with our World War II class. Probably just as sobering as any trip to a concentration camp, Mauthausen was unique for a couple of other reasons:

1. It was the only camp of mass exterminations within the borders of the former German Reich.
2. It was a major source of the stones used by the Nazi for Hitler's extravagant building plans. There was a stone quarry where prisoners were forced to work long, hard, and mercilessly until death.
3. It is very beautiful and close to the natural landscape of the region. Unlike Dachau near Munich which we visited before, Mauthausen is located on a hill, dotted with trees and flowers, and covered with green grass. One can hear birds singing and see blue skies and even see the mountains in the distance on a clear day. The quarry nowadays has three lakes and lots of growth along the rock face. It is very hard to imagine such suffering took place in such a beautiful, seemingly peaceful location.

Like i said before, i have an art test very soon, so i'd better get going. However, if you could please post a response to anything mentioned here if you feel so inclined. 'til next time...

-ac-

Salzbergwerk - Salt Mines

So, last weekend Jenny and Jon arrived in Salzburg Thursday night, checked into their hotel and gave me a call on my cell phone (Kirsten was on the phone with her mum at the time). We said we'd meet at 7:15-7:30ish at the Stadtsbrücke, aka the main bridge for vehicle traffic in the Altstadt von Salzburg. We got there at finally met up with them (they came a bit late) and together with my roommate Ben and this girl Tamra from AIFS, we all headed over to Frau Schöttke's place zu Fuß (on foot). We enjoyed an excellent Austrian meal, exchanged some laughs and stories and listened to some traditional Austrian Music: Barry White, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong duets, etc...

Next Morning we got up and after a little bit of a mixup met up with Jenny and Jon again and went for a Spaziergang up to the Fortress of Hohen-Salzburg and the Great views from all sides of the mountains. Spring is here, and the bugs and flowers and green and sun and colors and smells and sights are OUT! We then checked Fred and Ethel out of their hotel and went to stash their bags at Kirsten's dorm and we found our friends Emily Boyd and Joy Meckes waiting for us. Joy is studying in London, England and Emily is in Sussex; they were both on a Spring Break of sorts. So the whole crew--Jenny, Jon, Joy, Emily, Kirsten and i--made our way to the train station with a short walk through the Mirabellgarten and the adjoining dwarf-statue garden. We took the train out to Hallein bound for the Salt Mines. We got there and discovered that we'd need to take a bus to get there and it would take about an hour before we could leave. We figured it out, got there and bought our tickets (with no discount for me because they wouldn't believe that i am a student and that my ID was stolen in Italy). We visited the Celtic Village there to pass the time before going into the Salt Mines. The Celts were the first ones to mine salt there and then it passed into the hands of the Archbishops, rich in power, corruption, and false religion. There is a tram ride to start off the journey into the mountain which knocks off much of the walking. Then you begin a guided tour with various exhibits and short film clips shown along the way--luckily everyone in the group was OK with English, so that was the language used. i was the only one that broke some salt off the ceiling and ate it, and it was quite good. Salty. I guess everyone else was afraid of dirt or something, who knows. Anyway, the most exciting part of the Salt Mines is that you dress up in these Spacey looking suits to slide down mine-shafts and keep you clean from the walls. You ride in a boat over a salt-saturated separation pond (more salty than the Dead Sea) and see a series of other film clips and hear some other cool info about the mine. 70% of the mine is in Bavaria, a German Province where Munich lies and the Archbishop Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau actually died as a result of the battles he wages for rights to the mines. You cross the German-Austrian border underground. This same Archbishop was also responsible for most of the grand buildings that Salzburg is famous for today as he rebuilt them after a large fire (which he did nothing to stop) as an excuse to build the Schloss Mirabell, die Residenz/Residenzplatz, und Der Dom. He hired an Italian architect to build them and with revenue generated from the lucrative Salt trading business. This is, in fact, how Salzburg got its name. Salz, meaning Salt, and Burg, meaning castle; the castle was built out of salt, (though not literally, but €conomically!) The Austrian Schilling has never done too bad, even with the results of war because of it's strong connection with the old Deutsche Mark. Of course, both countries are now part of the EU and Austria is celebrating its 10th anniversary as a member.

So! This was a great way to wrap up the Spring Break travels and say farewell to Jenny and Jon (though after a week of school of course). They took a train back to Munich that afternoon to catch a plane the next morning. Emily and Joy stayed at Kirsten's dorm and resumed their travels while Kirsten and i took a trip with our class to the Schleedorf Cheese Factory Käsewelt! More on that to come!

LINKS!
photos
band (Studio Photos, Performance Photos, Video, and more!)
band2 (Secret Demo Leak + More!)
'Stache Revolution...
Kirsten
Aro
Ed
your link here!

Big Net

Hey all, and i'll try to keep this one a bit shorter! Sorry for wearing you out with the longest blog known to man! As you can see by the fact that a new blog has appeared, Kirsten and i actually made it back alive from Spring Break! Here's a brief synopsis of the rest of our journey:

1. We bliebed in Barcelona for a total of 4 nights because AlBerGuest was so excellent and explored the city and enjoyed excellent weather! It was hard to leave Al and his excellent hangout.

2. We took a few trains to the same stops we made on our way through France, but then took and overnight train from Toulouse to Nice...crazy. In Nice we rolled our bags down to the rocky beach which this section of the French Riviera is Famous for and enjoyed a hearty meal of McDonalds (some sort of French Delicacy i presume...) Anyway, it filled our stomachs. Actually, before i was about to enjoy my McMeal, i had to use the WC and i found one on the beach. It was one of those lame ones you 'have to pay for' and as there was no one at the counter i just went in and did my business. i came out and there was an old man expecting 35 Euro cents. crap. Having zero (count 'em zero) coins in my pocket and my wallet back on the beach blankets with Kirsten (the beach blankets were really our sleeping bags), i decided to side step the guy and just walk away. The man came busting after me so i picked up my trot a bit and (cursing in French which i of course cannot understand) proceeded to pick up the giant French Rock of Nice and chuck them at me!!! HARD!

i ran right off that beach as quick as i could.

...and this was the only WC i paid for on our whole trip; which i opted to pay 1 Euro for in exchange for no more hurling rocks and a peaceful spot on the rocky beach. i went swimming after that and it was really cold. Eventually, we got back to the train station on our way to Italy to meet Kirsten's sister Jenny and her brother-in-law Jon in Cinque Terra, but not before i went to an ATM and made a large withdrawal from my bank account to pay for the rest of our hostels and for food money upon arriving back in Austria. turned out to be a bad move.

3. Cinque Terra. ('Five Lands' or 'Five Cities'). What a beautiful place! Go there if you ever have the chance. You can hike between all five of the cities and they are all right on the ocean with the bluest, clearest water you have ever seen. That is the real Italy, not Florence or Rome, and well worth it. I cannot speak for Venice, as i still have not made it there, though Aro told a great story about it during his adventures in the Old World. At any rate, i had a bad experience there as my wallet was lost/stolen near the grocery store DeSpar in Monterosso! BOOOOOOOO!!! (i'm not entirely sure how it happened, but i lost about 280 Euro, all my IDs (except my passport thankfully) and some other stuff which undoubtedly is important, because i keep it in there. i was able to somehow communicate this to the very Italian store owners in the area and the Carabinieri (local police), but to no avail. i did file a report of loss, but who knows if i will ever see it again. We did our hike to Vernazza anyway and it was quite beautiful.

4. After a short stop in Pisa and seeing the main square and the tower and all-at, we booked it on down to Rome where Jenny and Jon already had a hotel reserved. Kirsten and i found one too after a bit of searching and a little bargaining and got a decent deal, but it was still the most expensive we paid the whole trip. Then we went to dinner. While we were eating, an Italian waiter came and turned on infoTV with the newsline: Juan Paulo II è mort. Of course meaning, The Pope had just died. Craziness at the Vatican! We went. i am really glad we hadn't been there later, after the massive wave of people that came! We probably would have been stuck for sure. It was pretty dang full of people and kind of strange. i really do not understand what all the commotion is--i mean, i know he's the leader of the Catholic Religion and all, but he's still just a man. Not God. He has no special access to God that the rest of us don't. i know that is pretty to the point, but why are so many people so riled up about the death of this old man as if he were Christ? Infallibility? I should think not. The only one infallible is God himself, and the only reason Christ is infallible is because he was fully God.

Anyway, i'm steaming out my ears with plenty of other things i should probably not write on this topic, so i will close on a positive note: it was worth it to go from a pop culture standpoint and to see all the people out and about.


So, here i am at 'Big Net' an Internet Cafe, which Kirsten and i have taken to calling 'Big Butt' which of course is both hilarious and true. Classes have started up again and lots of stuff is due soon. i also must register for Chapman classes and i found out i have a business hold which i have to clear up (party!). Also i have a German test on Tuesday! AHHHH!!! i am a bissel verrückt i think. (a little bit crazy!) I will post an update sometime this week regarding Salt Mines and Home Cooked Austrian Meals. I Don't Know Why I'm Capitalizing Everything! Tschüss!!

love, ac

Me Encanta Barcelona...¡y más!

Spain is a wonderful place. After a long week-ish of travelling the sounds and sights of Barcelona, Spain are music to my ears and rest to my weary soul. But that might possibly be best discussed a bit later, as many of you are unawares of my current travels and adventures in Wilderland.

First things first, i am on what is called in German, "Frühlingspause" which is nothing short of "Spring Break!" Kirsten and i have had plenty of troubles and also plenty of great experiences along the way.

Secondly, a list and broad detail of our travel schedule thus far, and in the days to come: First destination - Berlin, Germany. 2nd - Amsterdam, The Netherlands (formerly Holland). 3rd - Paris, France. 4th - Toulouse, France. 5th - Barcelona, Spain (current). 6th - (possibly Toulouse again en route to Marseille or Nice France with and ultimate goal of making it to an Italian town called Cinque Terra to meet up with Kirsten´s sister Jenny and her husband Jon! From there we may travel to Pisa and Rome and then back on up to Salzburg to start up classes again.)

Thirdly, some highlights:
1. Our journey to Berlin was long and arduous, namely delayed in Leipzig, German in a mishap where our train was delayed because of us not having understood the announcements made in unclear German. Long story short, i got off the train to ask for directions, and afraid of being left behind, came back before i found anything out. More waiting. Then i decide to get off the train again and find out what the heck is going on. BAD MOVE! There goes the train off into the darkness with Kirsten on it as well as all of our baggage and no ticket to boot. (i had it in my pocket). Gott sei dank we both had cell phones with barely enough credit to get in contact with each other and make a plan. We spent a very inconvenient and mostly sleepless night in the train station and then took a 4 am train to Berlin. Sights include our sweet Berlin-oriented hostal with a Volkswagen Beetle in our bedroom (which was still under constuction as a future bed site!) the TV tower at 300+ meters high and a great view of the city, a free walking tour including the former site of the Berlin wall and fragments, the Brandenburg Tor, and explanations of other buildings and sights of the war-torn city. Berlin was cool, we did some stuff, on to Amsterdam!

2. Not having made a previous reservation, we spent much of our first day walking around the city hauling our bags and gear trying to find a cheap, available hostel. We smelt many a whiff and waft of "weed" or "pot" whose proper name is Marijuana, as the drug and many others are legal in the Netherlands. Also, prostitution is legal and we stumbled unawares upon the Red Light District where prositutes dress up (or dress down) and try to lure "customers" into their bedchambers by standing in front of the street side windows. Crazy. i hate using the term "customers" here, i destest that this is even a business, and am appalled that they stoop to making this a profession. I don´t know what to think or feel or pray about the whole thing actually. One of my first inclinations is to feel sorry for them, and i do, but not in a way that i feel makes any difference. Sort of the same sorry that i feel about the countless homeless/needy people that we´ve been approached by throughout the trip. How do you really help? i am only one person and i can´t help them all. i certainly cannot "help" prostitues, i have no idea where to begin. We walked out of that area as fast as we could, but not without several more sightings of women peddling themselves and the occasional unfortunate sideways glances into sex shops and porn/peep show type places. On a lighter note, the city was very, very beautiful, situated near the Atlantic Coast but on a fresh water bay, created by the ancient system of locks and canals in Amsterdam. We went on a canal cruise, looked at a bunch of shops, and enjoyed our two cheap as cheap budget hotels that we were able to find a bargain for a bit. The first one had and excellent view of the "Raathoos" which is roughly the Dutch version of "Rathaus" which is German for City Hall. On the street below we could watch traffic of cars, pedestrians, bike riders, and anything else that wandered by. Very cool. The clouds and weather were beautiful. Second night we moved to a hotel just next door, only cheaper with a reverse view into secret gardens, skylights, and other dutch-type buildings and things. For the most part, Amsterdam was great!

3. Paris, France. As we found out in the Amsterdam international travel section of the train station, we´d have to make expensive reservations up the wazoo to be able to continue with our plans to Barcelona and Granada Spain, and then back through France into Italy--at least at the rate we were hoping. Anyway, we bit the bullet at least to get to Paris and our reserved two hotels and vowed to take non-reservation slow trains and alter our plans a bit. Sights: Notre Dame, The Seine River, Mont Marte district, Sacre Coeur (Sacred Heart) Cathedral, Moulin Rouge, Eiffel Tower, and other French-type stuff. Baguettes and cheeses were had. Kirsten and i sang songs on the steps of Sacre Coeur with some French dudes with a guitar. Mostly nineties from the states. Pretty much lots of stuff we knew. i was able to play a bit too, but they didn´t really know the songs i know how to play. pity. The second night we made our way to a little town called Jossigny, which, little did we know, was not exactly a walkable journey, even with the help of the out-of-city train service RER. We had intended to get to Euro Disney, but that never happened. It was a great detour though. i would need library of novels to write every reason why i loved this particular stop and still it would not express them all. i´ll leave it at that.

4. Toulouse, France. The only non-reserve train that went to Toulouse was at 4 or so in the afternoon putting us in Toulous at about 10 or 11-ish. We spent the night at an excellently cheap and very nice place there and spent the morning walking around the city a bit and trying to get ahold of Kyle Warner (!) who is studying in Granda, Spain to try to visit him. All we had is e-mail and we still haven´t got ahold of him and thus we are staying Barcelona for a while... Anyway, then we took a train to La Tour de Carol right near the border, and then a slow train to Barcelona. We have spent LOTS AND LOTS of time on the trains and metros and the like thus far. (but all well worth it) We have learned a lot about the countries, cities, sights, and perhaps more practically, ourselves and each other. Speaking of long train rides, i have spent most of them reading JRR Tolkien´s novel "The Hobbit," a precursor to his "Lord of the Rings" books. It is most excellent. It is probably also the reason why i have written about a novel on this post. Kirsten is reading it too, and started before me, and even though she reads faster than me, my tenacity has paid off and i have caught and surpassed her and am about to finish the book. It has become somewhat of a huge joke where i pretend to steal the book and read it while she´s not looking or to pretend like the book has special powers over us like the famed Ring which plays such an essential role in the both "The Hobbit" and the books to follow. Read them if you can.

5. Barcelona, Spain. Once again having no reservation or any clue as to where we were going to stay, we arrived in Barcelona at 10 pm last night. Since we were largely discouraged on our initial search, we decided to have some Chinese food. (actually it was more like, i saw Chinese food and made a bee-line for it, and luckily kirsten agreed). We were both famished from the largely food-less day and tired of looking. Everything was full to the brim due to the "Semana Santa" and "La Pascua" celebrations (Holy Week and Easter) which are a huge hit in Spain and cause for a great party with much merry-making. i only hope that at least some people don´t forget the reason why Easter is celebrated. After Chinese Food (en español of couse) we headed back out on the streets, still to no avail. We chanced upon some other travels in our same plight, a girl from Michigan, or one of them "M" states (not Mississippi or Maine or Missouri, so either that or Montana i think) and a Canadian dude. They had met on the train only a short while before. Both were doing different things abroad, but both also on Spring Break; she was doing a three-city grad. school architecture program across Europe, and he was going to Bible school, and soon to be changing locations to a small city in the south of Austria. Crazy. i actually was chatting with our cab driver and practicing my Spanish and learing about other stuff (we hailed a cab in our desperation) and i learned most of this information from Kirsten the next day. We had no luck at the first hotel and the second had one opening, and ridiculously expensive at that. i knew we couldn´t afford it, but offered it to the girl and dude and reluctantly and in an act of desperation, they took it. it was a three star hotel i think and it was getting quite late and seemingly impossible to find a place. Kirsten and i stayed with the cabby and got dropped off at Plaza Cataluña (the Castillian name for a very famous square in Barcelona) and had the idea in our heads that we´d just stay up until morning and take a train to Granada and Kyle and relief the next day. Gracias a Dios, that didn´t happen. The clocks changed at two am, so that as our cab driver pointed out, "a las dos..." "son las tres." said i completing his sentence. He was a rather interesting and friendly fellow, though i realized today that he scammed us. He was talking about how cab drivers don´t know where hotels are or at least they pretend not to and that the deceive their fares into exuberant prices for nothing and no lodging. This turns out to be basically what happened to Kirsten and i. We did end up staying up until 430 am and contemplated sleeping near some homeless folk in an alley and ended up on a park bench. that ended right quick when we were approached by some definitely drunk and probably high unfriendly Spaniard punks who tried to touch Kisten. NO YOU DON´T! We were out of there in a flash, not caring where to, but just out of there un-harmed. Wandering about some more and doing a little more searching, a miracle happened to us. His name is Alan. He runs a hostal called "AlBerGuest" which is a combination of his and his business partner´s name and also it is similar to the Spanish word for youth hostel. His doesn´t do much advertising, and he doesn´t have any signs or markings on the door to attract guests, save for a little sticker on the doorbell button which even then, would tell you absolutely nothing if you didn´t already know about it. "How does he get customers then?" you might ask, and rightly so! He simply hangs out around Barcelona and chooses the people who he thinks would be cool to have in his hostal. He does this to keep a safe, fun, relaxed atmosphere. It is sweet! Not too expensive, friendly folk, great facilities and great location: only a few block from the aforementioned Plaza Cataluña! Gracias a Dios he got hungry at 430 in the morning and went down to the Plaza to get something to eat from a street vendor. He chose us, and here we are! There´s even free internet bringing this post to you!

So i suppose i will finally end this record-long post...not that i have explained it all, but i guess i can´t really do that. i hope i´ve been able to at least give a feel for the whole adventure, if only to myself and in so few words with so few readers! ; ) (Smiles and Cheers if you are reading this)

As the Hobbit has found out, adventures are often very hard and not altogether pleasant, but certainly they show you what you are made of. They challenge you in new ways and make you be a better person. That´s what i hope this one has done for me.

Oh, HAPPY EASTER!! Christ has Risen! To God be all the glory.

Love, Aaron

Photos = Excellent!

Hey all! PHOTOS! i don't have time for a real update today as i have two tests (count 'em two) coming up in about 45 mins. (Yes, people, i really am taking classes here whilst i'm abroad, believe it or not). enjoy.

Love, -aaron-

Bavarian Rock and Roll Report

I'm happy to report that Jimmy Eat World was most excellent (still) and i was also able to speak with the lead singer and bass player of the opening act called 'Apartment' hailing from London, England. 'Fabulous blokes' they were (though David (the lead singer) said this in reference to Jimmy Eat World). You can view photos of the concert as well as photos from Austria on my Yahoo photos page! Sweetness! This weekend we are going to Vienna and it should be a blast. Kirsten and i went to the Salzburg Helbrunn Zoo and went on the Sound of Music Tour this weekend and are planning on going to see the Sound of Music play performed and see the Schönbrunn Zoo in Vienna! Are we crazy? Yes! But we have fun. Oh! here is a guest entry by Kirsten about TWO weekends ago!

"last weekend i went to munich and it was very fun. i went on a city tour with my group, then aaron and i stayed the weekend with his friend chris and chris's mom [Gertrud]. we went to some german parties and to dachau (the concentration camp) and to the Deutsch museum. we also ate at some very typical bavarian restaurants: the haufbräuhaus and some other one [Augustiner something...]. i ate lots of delicious pork, potatoes, and spetzel(?)[she means spätzel which = noodle type things]. on saturday night chris's mom had people over and we all ate Rocklette, which is a situation where theres a grill with a heater under it and we lop different foods together with cheese into mallettes(sp?) and then cook it together and eat it! yum! it was a very good weekend. next weekend is vienna, and this weekend, well i dont know yet. we were thinking about berlin, but dont know if it will work out yet. anyways, ive been cooking really good cheap spaghetti every night. i started a fencing class last night, and it was difficult because i couldnt understand the instructor. but at least we got to prance around doing exercises and i learned the correct form for standing when approaching someone with a sword. we get to wear special outfits too. i am tired and have more class in an hour. ive been busy which has been good and time is going by fast and it makes me not miss home so much. its been sunny the past few days, but still very cold and theres snow on the ground, and ice. well, thats all i got for now. aaron is doing very well also, he's right here (he says I LIKE MEAT)."

i like meat.

Corks

Hey everyone. So last weekend's Munich trip was a grand time, going off without too many hitches...at least no one got married. (ha!) ok now all of you are like, what??

ANYway it was excellent to see Chris and meet Gertrud his mum and Marina his gf. Kirsten and i wanted to go to Berlin this weekend, but that plan got foiled on account of massively expensive train tickets from here to Berlin...who knew? Lately i have been getting rather annoyed with the operating hours of basically everything which has made getting things done rather hard. i definitely have no space to complain though. especially after i heard what happened to joy meckes in england... here's and excerpt from the e-mail i got from emily boyd:

''Joy was supposed to come spend the week with me, but there wasan unexpected change in plans. Joy missed her bus to come here, and whilewaiting for the next one, she got her purse stolen. In her purse she hadher digital camera, wallet, credit cards, cash, and passport. It was aterrible twist of luck.''

Wow. Is it me, or does Joy have terribly bad luck? She got run over by a friggin pickup truck at the Switchfoot video shoot, got her laptop stolen out of her locked hotel room the first week she got to England, and now this. i'm thinking everyone who knows her oughtta send her five pounds or perhaps at least a nice card.

So now kirsten and i are about to go back to her dorm and perhaps watch a movie or do homework. One thing's for sure, i am definitely looking forward to seeing Jimmy Eat World on monday night in Munich! Ahhh, yeah! i love everyone reading this.

The icy-cold beautiful blanket.

Hello everyone, so i have a bit of time so i'm going to write a short post about what's up with me. So this weekend i went snowboarding in the Austrian Alps (two words: a mazing) and hung out with kirsten and watched some girly movies. We went for a hike on Sunday up the mountain near her dorm through a snowy park for a beautiful overhead view of the City of Salzburg. Let me tell you, God is an amazing creator and this place is so full of beauty, wrapped up in it's crystal ice blanket. This week classes are starting up (i've got german in two hours) and we are going to Munich this weekend to tour the city and stay with Christopher McKissick! Hopefully there i'll be able to hook up to the internet and post some photos online for everyone's viewing pleasure. i've been riding my bike around mostly to get to/from home-class-kirsten's dorm-the library-the grocery store-etc. This has been a great blessing and it's much more enjoyable than the city's public transit and mostly more convenient. It is a little freaky sometimes with the ice and crazy drivers, but as long as i'm cautious i should make it out of here alive. Right now i'm trying to find a part-time job so's i can make a bit of money and meet some new Austrians hopefully, so i won't stay any longer, but i love you all and i'll post again this weekend. Tschüss! -aaron-

Es gibt Schnee! (There' Snow!)

15.01 Local Time - Salzburg Austria - Universität Hauptbibliothek

Hey everybody! So unfortunately internet access has been mega-scarce up until now so i haven't been able to e-mail nor update practically anyone. (booooooo...) Anyway, Kirsten and I have our Salzburg Uni. Matrikelnummern so once the fees are paid in Vienna we'll have full access to university resources.
Since my last post, I've:
-been to San Diego with ed, aro, emily, kirsten and myself.
-got all packed up said goodbye to folks and left orange outta LAX on British Airways.
-flew to London, England and enjoyed a long day and a half-ish in the land of the Brits.
-saw the typical sights of London: Tower of London, Tower Bridge, St. Pauls Cathedral, Leicester Square, Picadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, The Glass Testicle, The London Eye (the under maintenence London-Eye) Parliament, The Clock Tower of Big Ben, the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, and a grand array of other British-type tourist activites. (Kirsten and I also went to Abbey Road!)
-ate sandwiches, drank British water, and experienced other British type foods, etc.
-experienced grand frustration with the London bus system and the horribly early closing time of the London Tube.
-Visited Joy Meckes (yay!) who is currently studying at a university on the East End.
-Flew to Munich, Germany and immediately boarded a bus to Salzburg, Austria.
-Moved into my housing accomodation with Frau Schöttke, Ivan (a spaniard from Barcelona who speaks rather good Deutsch), and my roommate Ben Englehart from Detroit.
-Ate many traditionally cooked, greasy Austrian meals made by Frau Schöttke who is in many ways like my Grandma Jones...
-Journied to Oberndorf on the German-Austrian Border and saw the Cabelle where "Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht" (Silent Night, Holy Night) was composed and first performed and crossed the bridge into Germany for a tour of an old church and Pita Bread and Salmon paste at an extremely Greek Restaurant with ten people in all from our group including Ben, Frau Schöttke, Kirsten, and myself.
-Had two weeks of German class.
-Went on a very beautiful sleigh ride up in the Alps to a 'hut' = a hunting lodge for food and drink and merryment.
-Kirsten and I had our first Valentine's Day!
-Today is our Eleven Month-a-versary so that means i have to leave so we can go on a date!

i love you all and i miss you.

my address is:

Aaron Choate
bei Frau Schöttke
Karl-Adrian Straße 12
A-5020 Salzburg, Austria EU
(Please write the word 'Geschenk' if you are sending a package for customs declaration)

my cell phone number if calling from US is: 01143 676 4709744 (free to me but probably expensive to you!)

bis später -Sepp- (Aaron)

my life in the knife trade

So just in case you were wondering about the conspicuous title of my album, i mean blog, it's the title of a Boy Sets Fire song. They're a pretty decent hardcore band and i like most of their songs on the record of theirs i actually own which is entitled 'After the Eulogy.' Anyway, that being said, here are my thoughts/activities of late. i have been working a few days already with Mark Wright, a handyman and a member of Circle Church, (which my roommate ed attends and plays in the worship band for). So that's been pretty cool. It'll be nicer to get some money for Austria, though i keep having to spend it on stupid things. We have been working at this dude's house in Coto de Caza on the opposite end of where kirsten lives, and his place is HUGE. The guy's name is Tom Gephardt and he owns a brewery or two in Pittsburgh. Whatever it is, they make a beer called Iron City and it's light beer companion, IC light some of which are contained by aluminum bottles (sweet!). They also make Augustiner beer, and probably some others I'm not aware of. So the guy has a 'carriage house' (not a garage) which houses eleven of his prime condition show cars, all of which get driven someplace in the range of never to almost never. Oh yeah then the cars that he and his wife actually drives on top of that. There are three Rolls Royces i think, a Bel Air, a yellow Woody, a mustang GT, an all black show car which i'm not sure what it is, an old school Cadillac, and obviously a few i can't remember. The main house is pretty crazy also. Blah blah blah. So in other news, my old roommate Aro returned to california with his girlfriend Erin after their extreme road trip 2005 from Wisconsin to Oregon to here. Crazy. Sounds like they had fun, minus the TWO speeding tickets that Aro got. ha. ha. ha! It's weird that he's here after being in Spain and just gone for so long. What's even more crazy is that i actually hung out with Grant for a record amount of time 'cause ed, aro, and grant all used to be roommates in Pralle-Sodaro Hall on campus. So they go way back. We all played a sweet board game called Loaded Questions last night that Naomi's sister's husband's brother invented (something like that, i don't remember exactly who it was.) It was a lot of fun and much craziness and good times ensued. i miss Kirsten a lot lately. i know it sounds crazy since we are still able to see each other every few days or so, but she still ends up having to drive back to Coto every time we hang out which is usually late and she's tired and i just wish i could drive her home so she could rest in the car and then tuck her in for sweet dreams and go home. i don't have a car either so i don't have any logical or convenient way of getting to Coto. i am wearing an excellent anklet which reads the name of the girl i admire and has some rainbow beads on it. i won't mention any names*ahem*...KIRSTEN...*ahem* but the anklet is really great and give me warm fuzzies and little bundles of joy whenever i look at it or remember that i'm wearing it. Here are a couple of Proverbs that i really liked yesterday and decided to rememberize and think on while i was at work:

As iron sharpens iron,
so one man sharpens another.

He who tends a fig tree will eat it's
fruit
and he who looks after his master
will be honored.

As water reflects a face,
so a man's heart reflects the man.

Death and Destruction and never satisfied
neither are the eyes of man.

These are located in Proverbs 27--i'm not telling you where, go read the whole thing!

Love.