let it snow

This is me in my element. Nothing do I miss more than the ol' bakery. I feel like God has given me just one more thing to love on this earth. I am already a man of random hobbies and passions but there always seems to be just one more thing that I can love to do. Never get bored of things to love and enjoy. Baking is almost as gratifying as woodworking if only the end product didn't dissappear in less than an hour!
Yes! The snow has arrived. Last week, on one random evening I was chilling in the basement with Aaron and Ryan watching the series 24, which I have found to be most impressive and rather gripping, if only I was willing to devote more time to it. I can't watch a show for more than a few days religiously unless it's "Lost". Anyway, we were startled when hearing the girls running out the door screaming and yelling at the tops of their lungs. Seriously, people were going crazy! We had to go check it out, and what do my little eyes behold when I stepped out of the front door, but giant snowflakes floating to earth. They were BIG!!!! Sadly they got progressively smaller, but still left enough of a layer on the ground for us to enjoy I snowball fight and to build a snowman.
Hilary almost got me but I jumped in the garbage bin just in time! Just kidding, but I was tempted. Hilary is intimidating with a snowball in her hand and look of revenge in her eyes!!!

Yes, this is me with MR. AYATOLLAH SNOWMANI!!!!! What a great and clever name dubbed to our snow friend by the ever clever Kevin. Very appropriate name after 6 of us just finished with a course in the Islamic Tradition. Boy was that snow rejuvinating and we all had a great time being giddy as children again or at least I did, running around without my coat...if only my mother were here!! TSk tsssk. Sadly, most of the snow melted by morning, along with a pretty dilapidated snowman next to our front door. He couldn't be saved. Until the next snowfall.....he will live again!!!!!!!

A Month Older...More than a Bit Wiser

Just arrived back at the flat a couple of hours ago. It looks like everyone is back safe and sound for the most part, maybe all a bit travel weary but content. I don't think any of us are prepared to flip back into study mode and work like crazy to try and remember all that we have forgotten in the last month. Lots of work will be in store and I NEED to write this Blog now or it will never happen. I am bad enough as it is in trying to keep up with these things. It's even more difficult when your life gets too eventful and sharing all that would just become long winded. I am not going to go through my entire itinerary laying out each delapidated and sad looking Polish Train I stepped on anymore, nor speak of each new city in itself in terms of an hour by hour replay. Instead just bear with me while I ramble, stumbling through my thoughts and feelings of the last few weeks, sharing the things most memorable, and I may even blurb out something remotely interesting to you folks. We will see.
Wow! We've been gone almost a month. I made my last step s away from our beloved home all the way back on December 13, and it's crazy to think how we've been gone for so long. It's so easy to forget how much has happened to all of us when we can just step back into the usual, organized (more or less) routine of life here in Nottingham. I can't believe I have just travelled living out of my backpack for a full 3.5 weeks! That is an accomplishment, and something I am so very comfortable with now. Trains are no longer frightening, nor are foreign languages. I must say that there is some comfort in chatting with your friends and not worrying about other people listening in on you when most can't even understand you. Other conversations become a dull buzz that begins to settle in your ear, and Polish or German don't sound as harsh or threatening (at first it always seemed like the Germans were either angry, or the sight of me screamed obnoxious tourist).................................................................................................................................
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(Attempt to write.....failed)
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(a week and a half later!)
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(and Now I make another attempt)
I am pathetic. I save starts to blogs thinking I will finish them and then it just ends up stretching out into well over another week. That first part up there was actually written the night I had gotten back with my full intentions of spitting out all sorts of good information, but there is just too much to put down. It really is time to move on. Let me just say that this travelling has gotten me extremely stoked for April when it rolls around, and planning for that will come sooner or later. Only problem is I need a nice healthy wad of cash to fall from the sky into my lap so that I can do all that I want to. In all truth, my account has gotten dangerously low and I need to start evaluating my options and reprioritizing what is important and to save more. Thus far I am still the only one in the flat with any form of "income" which I get through singing in choir 3-4 times a week, but that still isn't enough and I am tossing around the idea of snagging another small job on the side possibly this semester. I don't want to be working all the time, but money is in short supply and it is just so darn expensive to live here. Again, everyting is seriously twice as much as it would cost in the states. Finding a decent print t-shirt for 3 pounds is a steal and that's the equivalent of almost 6 dollars! Tough to find.
After saying that I guess this would be a bad time to mention that I went to a rock concert tonight. It was well priced, and I got to see 4 up and coming bands in the UK. In my defense to this small expense of 8 pounds, it got me out of the house after having probably the laziest week of my life. I feel so unaccomplished, but it was nice to live for a while with no worries or concerns. To not wake up to an alarm, Have breakfast at 12 and then read books, watch movies, and cook or bake when it's my turn, as well as finally getting out of the house wednesday and sunday for choir. Some days I never stepped outside the flat door. Very strange and really not the way to live, but hey I don't anticipate having another week like this. I have exams at the end of this week and this slothlike time has come to an end starting officially tomorrow morning when I wake up to the annoying ring of my alarm and have to hit the books the full day.
I hope to study for Kevin and myself's Geography of Great Britain course. It is the only class where I am actually worried about the exam. Geographical Landscapes and describing the rocks and plants beneath and upon it is a world of terminology beyond me, and quite frankly it does not interest me that fluvial (produced by a river) impressions on the landscape may have radial or dendritic drainage patterns, or that heather and bracken seen on the slopes of the peak district is able to grow there above other less resiliant plants due to it's ability to grow in the highly acidic soil in the dark peaks of England. Just useless to making me a better person really. This knowledge does little for me and I highly doubt it would come up in conversation in the future where I can then flex my geographical smarts.
Back to the concert I was at tonight, I basically wanted to say that it got me out of the house. I almost convinced others to join me but nobody knew the bands and I didn't care. The headlining band "Story One" offers their whole album for free on their website www.storyone.co.uk, and I don't see why they would do that. It is amazing! I've been listening to it all week and have gotten pumped over seeing them live tonight and they didn't let me down. they are a rock band that semi-originated here in Nottingham years ago, but now are on their way to fame and fortune I do believe or hope for them as soon as this spring. They have a unique sound in the husky and raw vocals of their lead singer and that he plays violin in an eerie and hauntingly beautiful style. New favorite band of the month. The three preceding bands were pretty good as well. the first two, a sort of punk/rock/emo style were young groups "Page 34" and the 16, 17 and 18 year old members of the band "Area 15". The third group was almost equally as good as my final band in a bit of a different style. "Voom Bloom" had some claims to sounding to me a bit like Modest Mouse at times and maybe a bit of the killers tossed in. All in all it was refreshing to kick back and watch some good old rock music played in classic low ceilinged smokey style that is like some of the shows I used to go to. I love to see new and up and coming bands and go to a show with little expectations and then to be surprised and blown away and to leave the venue with new and exciting music floating around in my head. Good stuff!
I will leave you all with just a few samplings of pictures throughout the trip. Random stuff from all over in no particular order. I have put the very best of my trip in Albums on snapfish which I hope to connect to the blog soon but for now here is a teaser.

Days Slipping Away...

I am caught in the downward slope from what is such a great high one gets in travelling. I have had so many inspiring, moving and life changing experiences in the last few weeks that it is quite easy to keep track of all that i have seen and what it all means to me as who i am now, and how it will change my future, or at least my outlook upon it. I don't want to start in on this long and boring reflective period in writing, especially since i haven't even finished my travels yet but it is a concern and something that ways upon my mind often. I started out as the lone and solitary traveller, exploring the strange and foreign lands of Poland, becoming increasingly surprised and impressed with the country and it's people. I am glad to have done it, and especially to have done it alone. Now after joining the group on Christmas Eve in Geneve Switzerland, I have gained the value of experiencing travel from both the perspective of the individual and also one in a group of friends. I won't say that one is better than the other, and they both have their merits, but I must say that my experiences in Poland, have gone unparrelled in places full of learned lessons and future memories. My thoughts of Poland, though further in the past than the most recent events hang on my mind more vividly than i had thought at the time.
Well, as much as i could write on that topic alone, i better get to a few of the events and details of my trip up to this point, so that you all may be brought up to speed on where Ive been. Since my last blog, i have travelled to 7 more cities and 5 countries! Yes, I Ive been moving around a lot, and thus it would be near impossible to try and relate that all here in this small space. Even so... here is a rapid fire account of it all:
After Zakopane, I took I nice lengthz train trip to Wroclaw. Liked the city well enough. The most worthy thing to mention here was the two Greek Guys i met at the hostel and went to a club with the first night i was there. Dimitris and jargos and they were really cool guys with lots to say about their lives and the world. One was a short quick talking little guy decked out in dreads, and the other was a bit beafier a guy, yet despite their initial appearance they were really nice guys.
Munich was next following an extremely long 12 hour train ride, switching trains about 4 times to make my way there. Walked for a few hours to get acquainted witht the city and woke up early the next morning to treat myself for christmas eve day with an early three hour walk through their 1000 acre park, freezing my ass off and not really seeing anything that was impressive or that felt all that nice as parks might do. Caught another train, 7 hours, and behold! All my friends were there in Geneve.
Christmas in Geneve, was extremely dissappointing at least as far as what the city had to offer. It had very little for christamas lights and decorations and was not the most idyllic or attractive town to begin with. What made christmas indescribably wonderful is that i managed to find myself a lovely lady. I won't say much, and you can email me or call my mom if your curious but I will say that she is an amazing girl from Luther who is one of my flatmates. Alas no British Princess, but an American Maiden nonetheless. Name: Mary Ites... and there goes the gossip!
So things have been interesting and very exciting for me the last week. After Christmas, a few uneventful days in Koln Germany before Paris. Celebrated new years to the most dissappointing display and countdown to the new year I have ever seen. Hardly anything happened. And Paris is acclaimed to be like the third best place to celebrate new years in the world. Not like i really cared, since i had me a girl by my side through it all. I nice date the evening before, and exploring much of the city including going to the top of the eiffel tower, and exploring the overwhelming Louvre art museum were some of the events of the turning of the new year. On the first we made our waz to Amsterdam for a night with Kevin, his friend from home Alex, Mary and myself and then on to Berlin for a few days. I enjoyed Berlin a lot, and visited a few spots like Checkpoint charlie, and the east side gallery which are constant reminders of a world torn in to during the cold war.
I am currently writing from Dresden Germany. It is just Mary and i hanging out here and then Leipzig for the last few days of our holiday before we have to return to Nottingham and a world full of course work and some major catching up for our final exams. Yes, as if they arenät strange enough the British send us on holiday, and have us come back in January to study for a week and spit out all of the info we had just studied knowing we wont remember anything from before Christmas. Lets see how good at cramming I can be. I am quite sufficently freaked out for what is to come in this next month.
In other news, just cause i feel like sharing, I was checking out the website to my old and all time favorite band Journey and learned a few things. The site www.journeymusic.com is as great as ever, and i caught up on the new lead singer they now have, Jeff Scott Soto, who has now replaced Steve Augeri as the official lead singer of Journey on December 19. little fact that I had never known, which is sad since i claim to be a huge fan, but i've moved on in the last few years is that January 21, 2005 has now become Journey Day and the band went down in history earning the 2,275th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. they have now sold enough records to place them as the 29th best selling music group of all time!!! I am overjoyed, and I also now know that they realeased another new album. Gotta get it, Generations.