Here I go again. After months of just not caring about this site and after days of getting this site running again here I am.
Right now I’m in Boston spending 17 days with my girlfriend and I’m having a great time. We celebrated her birthday and also our anniversary. Next big event would be Thursday’s Boston Bruins game and my birthday next week.
The past few days things have been a bit slower. Spending my mornings on the couch, met up with my girlfriend for lunch on Monday, walking through Boston, reading, writing, deleting, watching TV, movies, coffee, breakfast, donuts, Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts and then at some point it is/was time for my girlfriend to go home so I met on the way home and today it looks like I will spend my wonderful off-time on the couch writing on my blog or something else while watching Dexter. By the way! Help my friend Dustin and his band “Xplorer” on facebook. Go to http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/feedmagazin and like the song “Dream of Flames” by Xplorer posted by my friend Dustin on the magazine’s wall.
Since about two weeks I’m enjoying the nice pain in my left hip thanks to a hip pointer. It’s not a constant pain. It feels uncomfortable until I lay down and put pressure on the left side. Then I can talk about pain giving me a short wake up time every time I roll over in bed. Should have seen me in the first two days. Almost couldn’t move at all. Definitely not gonna play football anytime soon and not that often anymore. Used to play 2-3 times a week will slow it down to one time a week when I’m back from vacation.
And now I’m focused on that show again. I’m really jealous. Why we don’t have Netflix in Germany? Can’t remember how much my girlfriend pays a year but she can watch some shows and easily rent movies and I don’t even know all the features of it. Bah, I’m jealous!
For now I call it good for today’s blog and will continue writing this weekend after some fabulous days! Maybe the UN/ the US & Europe get their butts moving and finally call for some heavy sanctions against Libya. I’m not sure the UN will do a lot which will probably cause nothing but if the Western countries want to polish their reputation they need to do something. Libya is fighting rebels which is probably something legit but then again it’s Gaddafi, a dictator, bad dictator who was supported by all countries (just like Egypt’s Mubarak). Yes, it probably was the right thing to support them to keep the region stabilized but now since the whole region is revolting the Western “democratic” countries have the chance to get the purest form of democracy, the one by the people. It’s definitely a big present laying on the doorsteps. In my opinion, if the European Union really wants to become a big united force (which I personally like and then again NOT) they should go open the door and unwrap the present. But that’s just me.
Another weekend in Hamburg… Again I’m in Starbucks because I get my two hours of free Wi-Fi here and I don’t have to sit in my room with extremely slow internet. But of course I get good coffee here as well.
Since I’m driving up here to Hamburg and back to my hometown I started listening to audiobooks. For a long time I was an enemy of audiobooks because I always thought that people are getting too lazy to read, which might be true. But some people don’t have the chance to read efficiently. In my opinion a good reading session should start with at least 15 minutes of reading, which equals the time of a “session” on the toilet and should go up to multiple hours. Most of the time I’m reading in the restroom or when there is a thunderstorm outside or I’m a passenger in the car or in the train. With the audiobooks I found a great series of thrillers by a great author named Cody McFadyen. I just love the stories because they are dark stories and they could be reality. The books seem to be authentic to me.
Every time a book presents an authentic story I’m fascinated. When the location and everything sounds real… For example Jacques Berndorf’s Eifel-Thrillers or even Dan Brown, a master in mixing fiction and reality. I really wish I could write stories like that but I’m definitely not patient enough and I lack the background knowledge.
Yesterday night, after I got back from Hamburg, I went to bed but I watched “Zodiac” and that story fascinates me as well. Although It’s a cruel thing that happened back then I’m fascinated by the evil genius. Same thing for Jack the Ripper or other criminal mysteries that never got solved and the investigation took for ever.
Some may know that I always wanted to write a book. No matter about what but a great thriller would be something really cool. The problem is I need a structure about what happens, I need some real location and I need to write. One of my big problems in school was that if the teacher asked for a long answer to a question I always gave the shortest most efficient answer. Just yesterday we had a quick training at work and I got asked a question, gave a short answer and although it was all correct it still was wrong.
A real location… I’m in Hamburg right now and I have a perfect resource but since I don’t have enough knowledge about the modern way of investigation I need to work with the past. So I also need to work with the history of the location and that requires lots of work. Of course I could also create a fictional location but that wouldn’t be too much fun or the story would be less exciting (at least to me).
The structure is something else that requires lots of time. From the day on I had the first thoughts about writing a longer story I compare the “structure” of a story with human anatomy. The structure is the skeleton but the whole story is everything around it. Meat, muscles and skin. If you don’t have a complete structure you can’t have a complete body.
I will have to leave here soon to catch the next train back to my stay so I will come to the point. I will start working on a disgusting story. Thanks to the German show “Autopsie” my interest in stories of Jack the Ripper or the Zodiac-killer plus my genius (:P) the structure shouldn’t be that much of a deal. Since I was a huge “TKKG” fan when I was a child (TKKG is a series of adventure/crime-stories/thrillers for kids) and it takes place in some fictional town the location can but won’t be a problem once I set it up. As for the writing… well, I will work on it…
My last blog is months ago and because my life changed a lot since July, especially end of September there is not much I can blog about.
Currently I’m living in a town near Hamburg until February 2011. I have to stay there because of my job. There are certain rules I have to follow so I can’t tell you what my job is but living so close to such a cool city is just… yea… it’s cool. As for the weather and for the city. I’m here now since end of September. My girlfriend came to Germany, we went to the Oktoberfest in Munich a day later and Monday we were on the way to Hamburg. In Hamburg I rented an apartment for the week she was here and we had a great time. While I was at work she explored Hamburg and from Friday on we did stuff together. This is my second weekend alone here in Hamburg and I’m glad I made friends already.
It’s a really nice city. I just wish I knew more people here. I already know my places though. My Irish Pub is the “Finnegan’s Wake”, my Friday lunch place is the Mö-Grill at the Jungfernstieg, close to “Streit’s” a movie theater where they show movies in English and if I go to the Reeperbahn, the party and also red-light-district I have my bars and pubs as well, for example the “99 Cent Bar”, where you can get all drinks for 99 (Euro-)Cents and the “Molly Malone”, another Irish Pub, where they play some good music. As you see, Hamburg is fun!
And right now I’m in Starbucks, using the two hours of free wifi. The plan tonight is to go to the Irish Pub (Finnegan’s Wake) again and watch football. The HSV (Hamburger Sportverein) is playing FC Bayern Munich and I’m expecting a fantastic match. Thank god my new Celtic Glasgow jersey arrived yesterday. Of course with traditional “#33 O’Pitsch” printing (the old one I’m wearing on my facebook pictures is in the States). Picked it up today and haven’t unpacked it yet.
Now I’m going to restore my iPhone as that stupid piece of trash has a great calling quality… NOT! Tried to find a solution online but didn’t. One out of 20 calls actually works. Most of the time I don’t hear the person calling or the person who calls me doesn’t hear me. Advice: Don’t buy an iPhone 4!
After more than a month I decided to write something on my page…
My trip to the States was just great! I had awesome 13 days with my relatives and Lady Charlotte. The trip back wasn’t as easy as the trip to the States as the flight from Boston to Madrid had a delay, landed too late in Madrid and I missed my flight to Frankfurt. So I had to wait a few hours for the next flight.
Since I’m back I’m really busy with my new job, but I like it so far. I also got lucky because I’m pretty much doing the same job like in 2006/07.
Got rid of my BlackBerry as well. A bit too early though. I lost it last weekend or someone stole it, I dunno. Anyways, it’s gone. Luckily I ordered the new iPhone a week before but I have to wait a bit because there are so many orders. Should arrive next week or the week after though. Sooo, don’t expect me to answer the phone in the next few days, lol.
This weekend was lots of fun. I didn’t go out and party with my friends but Saturday I had two games with the Trier Cardinals softball team. First game was against Saarbrücken Blues which we won 11-7 and the second game was against Lokomotive Bous which we won 20-3. After these two games I had my first appearance as field umpire. It was quite easy but it’s not that much fun. Than I got asked if I could help out the baseball team today, said yes and just stayed home yesterday night. For a while my parents and I were sitting outside and had a few beers. Today we played against St. Ingbert/ Bous and won 9-4. It was a good game and it was fun although my offense just sucked today. I got on second base once after an error but that was it. One fly out and two or three strike-outs, lol. It was still alright. After the game the whole team went for a beer and then to McDonalds.
Now I’m in my room and will go to bed in a little bit.
I’m here now for a couple days and I’m having a great time!
Tuesday noon we met up with my old friend Toni who has been studying at Boston University for a while and we had some beers and food. Then we saw the USS Consitution, the oldest commissioned warship. After seeing Quincy Market and the area around it was time for Fenway Park. Charlotte bought tickets and I ruined the surprise the night before I came to the States. I asked her if her roommate and her boyfriend like baseball and if I should buy tickets. The moment I read the “………sigh” response I knew I fucked up. Anyways, we had a great time. We were sitting in the bleachers but we could see everything. Almost like in Cologne. The Red Sox played against Arizona and thank god they won. David Ortiz hit a homerun and too bad it didn’t fly that far because it came in our direction.
Yesterday the fun continued with a tour through the Samuel Adams brewery in Boston. It was very interesting and also very funny. The tour guide did a good job to entertain us and we also got some free beer. And I had a beer YOU (unless you’re from Boston) probably never taste! The Sam Adams Red Brick! I’m saying this just to show off as it gets served only in Boston right now. After having some Mac and Cheese we went to a trivia night where we got the last place, lol. Our team name was “The German Pirate”…
Tomorrow we will head out to Connecticut to see my relatives and paaaaaaaarty! By the way, Germany plays tomorrow against Serbia! Show your colors! Support the Black-Red-Gold and wear your jerseys!
Yesterday I finally arrived in Boston and it was a relatively short trip for me since I slept most of the time during the flight. At home I packed an additional book but I didn’t finish Dan Brown’s latest book yet. My flight went over Madrid and I enjoyed my long lay-over there. Didn’t leave the airport and I only had a Frappuccino from Starbucks. Was about to have something from a restaurant but a tiny cheeseburger, small fries and coke for 9 Euros? No. So I just sat down and read my book.
At around 1pm we got on the plane and it took a while until we took off. After we were in the air for a little bit we got some lunch. They went out of chicken just before they came to my seat so I had to eat something they called “Pasta”. Their “Pasta” was something that looked like mashed potatoes with ketchup. With that there came some funny tasting salad and an AWESOME piece of cake. I’m serious it tasted like heaven and comes seriously close to my grandma’s baking skills. Before we landed we got a sandwich, fruit salad and a Kit-Kat.
Charlie picked me up at the airport and it was great. On the way to her place the handle of my suitcase broke and … yea. It didn’t open or anything it just broke and I had to use the handle on the side which a normal person uses for pulling the suitcase.
Then we had some beers, some food, watched some TV with the others. Right now it’s 9:40am and we’re going to get bagels and coffee in a little bit.
That’s probably the best title I could pick for this blog. It’s been a while since I posted the last time but that’s over now. Here a quick overview about the past few weeks.
I dunno what to start with. The fact that I finally got the approval from the military to start in July or shall I start with my trip to the States that I will start tomorrow?
Let me start with the States… When I bought the ticket I only planned on visiting my relatives – what I will still do – but in February/March I met Charlie who was in Germany for vacation. I can call her my girlfriend and luckily she lives in Boston, where I will land tomorrow. So my plans changed a little bit. But I’m really excited for the trip. Seeing her after 98 days of Skype videocalls and also seeing my relatives in six days when we both head out to CT. It’s gonna be awesome two weeks!
And after a bit more than four months I FINALLY got the message from the military that July is a GO! It’s been a pain in the ass waiting for that letter and it took unusually long but I’m happy I can start my 13 years enlistment. That’s definitely gonna be an important chapter of my life.
Of course with that letter I immediately quit my job. I’m happy there were no problems because I’m supposed to quit 30 days in advance but I couldn’t quit before I received the message which was on June 9th. So after 999 days as a Security Police Officer I signed the paper to quit and I’m gonna miss it a little bit. Not so much the job but the people. I made lots of friends up there, met so many people and I will definitely come back to visit whoever is still here then.
Next thing would be Softball. We had the German Championship aka Mixed Softball Champions League in Mannheim and it was a disaster! The German Champion 2009 ended up on the 9th place. It was terrible and I dunno how it happened. First we lost to the Düsseldorf Dead Sox and then we lost against the Berlin Nikuh Jagas, the team we beat in 2007 for the third place and in 2009 in the semi-finals. A forfeit win against Karlsruhe (Cougars), although we played against them anyways just for fun (loss, lol) and a win against Bad Salzuflen Bexx. Congratulations to the Berlin Black Sheep who won in the final match against the hosts, the Mannheim Tornados. And on base things didn’t go well too. We lost many games but at least it was fun and I started every game on first base, except for one terrible game on short stop.
Aaaaaaaaaaand – YES – it’s World Cup time!! Since Friday 32 teams are playing for the FIFA World Cup Trophy and right now it’s half-time at the game Germany – Australia. Germany is winning 2-0. Lukas Podolski and Miroslav Klose scored for my country and it looks really good right now. I hope we’ll do a good job and maybe even win it and put on the fourth star!
“International Man”, that’s what I got called today. Yesterday night I was getting drunk in Leuven, Belgium. Today I’m back in Spangdahlem, Germany and tomorrow I’ll land in Boston, USA. Leuven was lots of fun! Had a huge amount of Stella Artois, which gets brewed in Leuven and I’m mad I didn’t have the camera with me because there were many crazy moments…
The laptop will be with me when I’m to the States so I will keep this blog up-to-date. Alright, Germany, here we go!
Here we are. Saturday, the 22nd of May, 2010. In a few hours the German hockey team will play against Russia in the IIHF World Championship semifinal. It’s a wonder Germany made it that far but it was deserved so far. Now the big bear is waiting for them. Good luck, Germany. If you guys lose we’ll still be proud of you!
Then the ultimate match is gonna be tonight. FC Bayern Munich vs Internazionale Milano for the UEFA Champions League final match. It’s been nine years since Bayern played in the CL final and then they won it. It’s gonna be a great match for sure. Excellent coaches, great teams, great players and there will be lots of tactics used in that match. I’m not a fan of Bayern Munich, I think I mentioned that a couple times, but they played a great season, did some good transactions and their image changed a lot. Probably because of Louis Van Gaal, Bayern’s coach who is kinda strict but he turned out to be a really funny and cool guy as soon as the success came. Then the way they played. Bayern never played like that or at least I can’t remember them playing strong and attractive football. I really hope Munich brings the trophy back to Germany. They were probably the reason why Germany passes Italy in the UEFA 5-year ranking.
Ahhh… How awesome would that be… A German team winning the Champions League…
I personally had my lucky day yesterday when my iPod, aka the “PitschPod”, came back to life. It fell in the water last week and although I gave my best in drying it, it wouldn’t work. One of friends told me to connect it to the computer and wait a couple days or even a week and it would work again, since he did the same thing when his iPod had water damage as well and it worked later on. So yea, it’s back and kicking!
Alright, gotta come to an end now. About to leave and party tonight with my friends. Already went out last night although my body was sore from softball practice. My ankle is in pain and I hope it gets better the next days. Ah well, beer is the best medicine and I will have lots of it in the next 15 hours.
Oh… and three weeks, two days until I land in Boston!!!!!!!
Another weekend down and I’m getting ready for 65-70 hours of work coming up in the next seven days. But I enjoyed the weekend although today was a failure.
Let’s start of with Scampi Friday! In the evening bunch of friends of mine, their coworkers and I went to the “Zum Weissenstein”, a restaurant in Geverath and had an all-you-can-eat Scampi dinner. It was delicious! Definitely a place I can recommend and I will go there again sooner or later. After that we had the traditional drinking in Wittlich. Of course we went to the “Treibhaus” and to the “Klosterschänke”. Luckily we saw the end of the 2010 International Ice Hockey Federation World Men’s Championship opener. Germany played USA at the Veltins-Arena in Gelsenkirchen in front of 77,803 people. And Germany actually won the match! 2-1 in overtime. Of course my American friends played it down but the fact that the German team only had three NHL players while Team USA had 20 of them I can talk about a little sensation here. USAHockey.com has an article about it here.
The next day I was back at home at around noon, had lunch, watched football and really enjoyed watching the celebration of the FC Bayern Munich after their game. They became German champions and actually I felt happy for them. They had a rough start but they deserved it this year. And they deserve two more titles for the end of the season. The Champions League and the German Cup. They invested really well, got a great coach and they played attractive and effective football. During the celebrations it was easy to see that these guys had and have fun. Later on I went to Wittlich to play some pool with some of my friends. It wasn’t only pool though, they also had karaoke there. Here a video of one of the songs we sung.
And then there was today… Got up in the morning… Got ready for the game… Drove to Trier and met up with the others… A call… RAINOUT! NO! Back to Spang, did nothing for a while. Then I watched “The Men Who Stare At Goats” and I absolutely love that movie. It’s just amazing. Right now I’m watching “Crazy Heart”. And I just noticed I’m a huge fan of Jeff Bridges. The Big Lebowski, Crazy Heart, The Men Who Stare At Goats, Wild Bill, Blown Away – all awesome movies (and I’m sure I forgot some)!
So yea… Another week coming up… 36 more days until I land in Boston!!
Aaah, what a relaxing Tuesday. After a long night out yesterday I definitely deserved this Cappuccino. How good it tastes after the past weeks and the fact that it’s less than six weeks until I land in Boston, MA and spend two weeks with my girlfriend and my relatives living in the States. Yesterday I went out with my friends John, Brant and Darren, had some beers and shots and we rick-rolled the whole pub!
It’s been a while since I posted but let me start…
So, highlight #1 was my first baseball game since my only season in 2005. The game was horrible. We played in Beckerich, a town in Luxembourg, and our team was incomplete. We only had 8 players… Then the field was tiny. Around 230 feet. We got destroyed with 17-2 after just four innings. Although we lost that bad I’m happy I didn’t do bad. My defense was good as usual and my batting wasn’t bad either. I got struck out once but my second at-bat was a RBI-double. Wanted to steal third but tripped and got stuck in a run-down. Escaped successfully and stole third, haha. This Sunday is gonna be another game. We will play in Saarbrücken. I hope we will have a complete team and I also hope I’m gonna play, do well and win this game. Might be my second last game. Then it’s gonna be softball for a while. For Trier and the squadron. Last Friday I had practice with the team on base and it was fun. The flying Deutschman is back in action!
Later on after my lost game I went to a nice BBQ and that was my weekend. A week of work came up that wasn’t bad at all. Those five days were fun since I was posted with some good people. Even the weekend was fun.
Besides of the really fun days of work one of my favorite football teams made it back to division 1! The FC st. Pauli will be playing in the first division next year. So, I’m gonna get a season ticket for that as soon as I’m up there in Hamburg. Then the good news in football continue. The FC Bayern Munich is in the UEFA Champions League final match against Inter Milan. Hamburg won’t be playing in the final match for the UEFA Europa League in their own stadium but at least the German Bundesliga passed the Italian Serie A in the UEFA 5-year ranking. In 2011/12 Germany is gonna have three spots for the Champions League, one for the CL Qualification and three more spots for the Europa League. Well, Munich will win the German Championship as they are three points ahead and even if they would lose and Schalke wins, Schalke still needs to score 17 goals in one match. Munich is also in the final match for the German Cup against Bremen and – although I’m not a fan of that team – I think they deserve the triple this year. Hopefully Cologne does better next season… This season was crap. Only three wins out of 17 home-games…
Alright, let me end this for now… Expect a new post Sunday or even earlier!
