Achtung Baby: May 2006

The stuff Thursdays are made of

From the start of my time in Bamberg, Thursday evening has been synonymous with Internationaler Stammtisch at Tapas. Good company, good conversation, good cocktails. Tapas is usually followed by dancing the night away in CM Lounge or Calimeros. It usually takes more than a bit of convincing to persuade me that dancing is a better option than sleeping at that point, but this past Thursday I was ziemlich gut drauf and Calimeros was calling my name.

Stepan & Irina

My new Wohnheim Tutor, Christopher

Claudia & Samuel

Why is it that every time I go out with Sarah, the sun is up by the time I get to bed?!

Almudena celebrates her 23rd birthday

Ein paar verrückte Amerikanern

It all started innocently enough...

A poor girl stuck in the dead of a mucky-wet winter with no television, no radio and, worst of all, no internet. I had my computer, had my iTunes library, had Spider Solitaire. It was enough...for a little while.

Then Tetris Attack came into my life. At first I was skeptical; I liked the mindless, go at your own pace, take breaks when you want-ness of Spider Solitaire. A game that requires your full attention and gets progressively faster? I don't think so. Pus, I don't play video games.

Years ago, Moni, Chris and I saved up our allowance, pooled our money together and bought a NES. I'll admit I enjoyed Duck Hunt, but that's where it stopped. I gave Super Mario Bros a couple of tries and I was probably the worst player in the history of the game. I never passed level 1-2. (Stop laughing!) It was definitely not the best way to spend my hard earned allowance.

Fast forward 15 years to where Ang is in Germany. It's cold. It's wet. No television. No radio. No internet. She's bored. She's sick of Spider Solitaire. Suddenly Tetris Attack is on her computer. A lack of options leads her to start playing Tetris Attack.

Video game novice that I was, the first few games were not pretty. In fact, they were painful. I was lucky to make it past level 5. But I learn quickly. You're probably all wondering why I'm writing about a video game...I'll get to the point: I just broke my personal best record and made it all the way to level 58. Maybe that's not very impressive to a hardcore video game addict, but I don't think any of my friends fit that description, so all of you reading this can just be impressed. And to those of you who laughed about my Super Mario Bros story, I challenge you to a game of Tetris Attack.

I Need a Mouse

If this is a blog, I suppose I should do more than just post pictures. Blogs are supposed to be a soapbox or whatever, right? I don't know how good I'll be at that, but there is something I want to say: while creating this little blog I've gotten a heightened sense of what a grandiose mistake I made while packing. Probably made a few, but the biggest one might have been during the "my flight leaves in three hours and I still have too much stuff" suitcase purge, when I decided to nix not only my peanut butter, but also my mouse. Why would I need a mouse in Germany? My notebook has a TrackPoint, right? Right. I need a mouse.

Bamberg the Beautiful

Where I'm lucky enough to be living.

Klein Venedig

Sommer im Hain

Obere Brucke

Altes Rathaus

Heja Sverige!

I took a trip to the lovely land of Sweden a couple of weeks ago. Thought I'd post some pictures of the adventure to make this blog a little more interesting. Sweden is beautiful. If you ever get the chance to go, you should.