Bob's story....

This is my uncle, Bob Huffman (pictured with his lovely wife and daughters). This is his story in reference to "I Love Fanta!":

I made the same mistake too, should have left Bass Barbershop in Clarksville, Virginia when I realized the barber must have lived through the Civil War and all the hang-arounders in the shop were "slow" and "closely related" if you get my drift. The haircut started off badly when he put the neck tissue & cover cloth on sooooo tight I thought he was trying to kill me, my face turned as red as the leather on the barber chair. His dull scissors & shaky hands soon began pulling and yanking out my hair but the worst was yet to be. I was terrified to hear the sound of metal slapping a leather strap, yep, he was yielding a straight razor! Before I could move he had it to the back of my neck, thankfully the scissors were much sharper than the straight razor, he just pulled & scraped all the hair out of the back of my neck. My relief was short lived when he slapped tonic across the area he just "shaved" causing a burn I'll never forget. My ordeal over, I got up, paid & tipped him which got the unwanted attention of everyone in the shop, guess they had never seen tip before, I was setting a really bad precedent and their eyes told me so. Walking down the streets of Clarksville, I saw my reflection in the old wavy glass of the shop windows and thought this isn't that bad. Entering the ladies clothing store I was quickly corrected by the immediate laughter I received from my family and the shopkeeper they were talking to. The shop keeper KNEW where I had been and she informed me, "none of the men in town go to Bass, they all use the beauty parlor for their haircuts". Monday morning I was back in my usual barber's chair getting a real haircut.

WTF

My blog is somber and no where near action packed. I'll try to make the next one a little more up beat. Today, I just thought I would bitch about my morning because I have no one to talk to in my flat. So, it starts with me over-sleeping (or so I thought). I ran out the door with no breakfast or coffee. I missed the bus by, no kidding, one minute. I could see it rolling away as I waited for the traffic to slow so I could cross the street. Then I waited 30 minutes for the next bus. I bought coffee from a coffee machine then spilled it all over myself. I got to class and no one was there. At this point I was just totally pissed off at how the morning is shaping up. I walked outside and started heading back to the bus stop. Then I remembered my friend Craig's confusion when I told him I was late for class. I looked at my watch and I was an hour early. I forgot to set my cell phone an hour back. Then I waited productively by reading articles and studying my Polish nouns and adjectives. When class finally started I could not stay awake. Plus, this teacher relies on me for adding commentary and helping her explain things in English. I was so embarrassed. I literally fell asleep sitting up. I suddenly felt my head falling and woke up. I'm actually laughing out loud at the computer all alone in my flat right now. I am a special person. You are all very lucky to know me.

Next,when I got home I find that there are no coffee cups. I know they are all locked in the other room in the flat. They do this to me constantly. We have like 6 coffee cups and I bought a new one yesterday in hopes that could solve the problem. Nope, all gone. Unbelievable. I'm going to get out of here and go for a walk since it's a beautiful day here. Those always make me feel better. They have really pretty parks around here. Here are some Halloween links that I found very special:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/photos/2009/10/21/2719847.htm

http://www.swanbones.com/paintinggallery.html

Eat your candy and drink your beer!

Germany, part 2

Gutan tag! I'm back from Berlin, obviously. It was a beautiful city, and I want to live there. I could be so cool if I lived there. Living in Greensboro I'm not cool at all. Here I'm only a little cool. There the cool possibilities are endless. There is no glass ceiling for people like me. "Berlin, where all my dreams come true." Like I have dreams anymore. I spent a superfluous amount of money, but I got some new shoes. They are just what I was looking for in a winter shoe (leather, insulated, and a sneaker). I also bought some trinkets for a high price. I'll have to cut whatever corners I can in Amsterdam and around Poland. The city has these bears all over the place. They have some connection to the bear on the Berlin flag. Hence, Bearlin.

We stayed at my friend Nils's best friend's flat. You saw the pictures on Facebook. On Friday, we went to the Robbie Williams concert. These Europeans listen to Robbie Williams and Frank Sinatra, sometimes Robbie covering Frankie, like it's going out of style. The point is it was free, and I'm having fun bragging about how I got to see him to all the Erasmus students who didn't come. After, we went to see the fake wall, but then traveled back to our base camp. The owner made us dinner and we had some drinks before we went out. We got into a very fancy and expensive club. Both of the hosts are "high class" guys (if you catch my drift). It was fun, but I felt under dressed. Then on Saturday we went out to lunch and then walked about town for a while. We visited the check-point Charlie museum, and then we went to the destroyed church. I had misled our guide. Berlin is well known for it's shopping districts. Some are high class and some are eclectic. I told him I wanted to go shopping, and he took me to Gucci. It was still amazing. Saturday evening was basically spent in a cab. Then Sunday we went to the flea market and ate this dish called Currywurst. It was basically a hotdog with barbecue sauce. It was good, but apparently a very popular part of Berlin. A lot of Turkish people live there so the Currywurst and the Kabob are the big dishes. My favorite part was this moment that we had stumbled upon a gay bar for men. I asked this German guy if he would order me a beer there that was popular for the region. He brought me back a Beck's, and if you see nothing wrong about that you should know that Beck's is not from that region. It's more like a PBR or some other run of the mill beer.

It's nice to be back in the Wroc-love. I would say I am completely adjusted. The Polish people are nicer to me because I can at least tell them what I want without messing it all up, but I am still not fluent in the language. There will be problems in the future, but I can deal with them easily. I even went to the post office today and got stamps. However, I wouldn't expect postcards any time soon because the mail system is extremely slow, even with priority. Aside from that, I forgot to go to the Polish film because I was at IKEA again. Unfortunately that means you won't get your Polish lesson for the week from that. However, when I was in the city center today I saw an outdoor exhibit on Polish counter culture. I'll go visit that, and see if it's in English and then I'll take some pictures and relay the information. That way not all is lost. Only I'm the loser because I forgot to go to class.

I leave on Thursday evening for Amsterdam and then arrive back in Wroclaw on Monday morning. We rented a van and will drive there. On the way back we are going to stop at Nils's parents' house for dinner in Germany. This crew of people are around my age which is nice and I've been traveling with younger people on the other trips. There are still many problems with large groups, but we can all handle them more maturely. I've been working on organizing and settling into my flat. I'm ready for it to feel more homely. I like to think of it as nesting. It's going well. That is why I missed class and I was at IKEA. I needed lights for my desk and bookself. Then I became enchanted with candles and kitchenware. Time flies when your having fun. The point of me telling you this is I think this will be the last post for this week as well. There are only 2 days until the trip and they will be spent in preparation. Not to mention I will probably revisit this post to correct any mistakes I have made.

I just want to also mention that I miss my kids movies, new and old. When I return I would like to make a pillow fort with you all and watch all the movies I'm missing. We'll have popcorn, blankets, cokes, candy, snuggles and anything you all want. It would be my honor to make you happy. That's how much I miss you. Someone should dress up as me for Halloween. That way I can be there even though I'm not. Keep it real. Ciao.

And this too, I don't recommend the album.

WELL I'LL B, DEM R DUCKS!

I want this blog to be good so that each day you all will check it because you're hanging on the edge of your seat to see what I post next. I realize that this is merely a dream, and in reality you all have better things to do with your days. Well I don't. I spend my day carefully considering what golden nugget of information to drop on you next. I even keep a little book to jot these ideas down in to make it a little more interesting for my audience. I'm trying, and that is what is important. I find it conceivable that one day I might call myself a decent writer, and I'm sure that you will all enjoy watching me morph into what some might even call an eloquent or an articulate writer. It's not there yet, but I intend to hang in there and I encourage you all to do the same.

After that speech, I would like to present this blog in two subheadings: 1. This Ship is Obviously Sinking, and 2. Radio Free Europe. To start, a quick update and then we’ll move onto some discussion points. The trips are on! I leave for Berlin on Friday morning, and therefore this will be the last blog of the week. Rest assured that you might all look forward to an excitement packed blog on Monday as well as pictures on Facebook. The next weekend is Halloween. I hope you all have very spooky plans and clever costumes. I demand pictures! I'll be going to Amsterdam costumed as a citizen of the ever-prestigious United States of America. Then the 6th of November we go to Krakow! I'm excited to get on the list because they plan the trip for you and they usually get a tour guide to take you around. Jessica Huffman, you had better pay close attention after that weekend because that is when you'll get your Auschwitz information. Everyone else please send me a picture of people doing nice things for each other so I don't go to a dark place. Without further adieu...

This Ship is Obviously Sinking:

Since most of the people I speak to usually tell me about how great college is and how much they miss it; I thought that I would just involve you in some of my class discussions and personal thoughts. This is the first time that I have been able to sign up for classes just because I thought they would be interesting. Previously, of course, I had requirements to fill, but those days are over.

You know what else is over? Working for a grade. I actually requested extra reading assignments today because they keep reducing their work load which was laughable in the first place. I didn't tell you this (because I didn't think you'd care and you probably still don't), but I signed up for an extra class. That's right, a class I don't even need. Which just goes to show that a person who aims at nothing is sure to hit it. I digress, and so this subheading poses the question: What do you think is necessary for global and regional governance (with concern for contemporary war)?

This comes from my class...wait for it...Global and Regional Governance. It was posed to my fellow classmates and myself on Monday. Now, I have no background in these things, but I did just fine presenting a list of my ideas to the class of people who specifically study international relations. I’m sure most of you could come up with at least one thing if not more. These lists might include, but are not limited to, clean water, energy management, environmental regulations, industrial regulations, education, etc. After each person in class had presented their ideas it was a very large list. So large in fact it looks like an impossible problem. Each of these problems is so tightly interwoven that it would be impossible to knock them out one at a time like an itemized list. Furthermore, there is no way to balance out these problems because there are far too many of them, and, again, they are all heavily interconnected. Thus, balance is inevitably impossible and if survival of the inevitable is the only conceivable solution then what are we trying to do? Why do we ship aid to Indonesia for Tsunami relief when we know that another tsunami is going to hit them? Why do we disperse economic aid when it puts the countries further in debt? Is it this idea of survival of the inevitable? Is this why we globalize our markets and create other country's dependency on us so that we can further exploit them through their dependence? Is that the freedom that the U.S. so fanatically shoves down the rest of the world's throats?

I know that I'm in college and that means I'm going to find passion in every little thing I figure out (stereotypically). However, I'm not trying to do that. I'm just questioning the opinions of my friends and family to see what they think. I don't really know a lot about this, like I said earlier, but I thought maybe someone would have an opinion (sarcastic or serious). Please email me and let me know your thoughts in general on this topic. Just because I'm in Poland doesn't meant that we can't have interesting conversations.


Radio Free Europe:

A.k.a. Watch out the K.G.B. is right behind you!

The Polish videos that I am watching as a class are actually documentaries about Poland. I thought it would be good for me to share with you what I learn from them for two reasons. The first being that it’s interesting, and the second is I’ve got to take a test on what I learn at the end of the semester. This week’s video was about Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty (RFE).

From the beginning of the 1950s up until 1990, RFE was the radio and communication organization of Poland. Deprived of freedoms of speech from the oppressive Soviets. The U.S. funded the station in an attempt to spread anti-communist sentiment. The Polish people used it as an outlet for their creativity. The station gave them a way to establish an underground movement of nonviolent protest to win back their freedom and confidence from Mother Russia.

For 40 years (Stalin was only alive for a few of those) RFE jammed Russian radio waves to deliver information into the homes of the Polish people. Aware of the frequency and time of broadcasts, the Polish people would stop their duties and listen to the valuable information being delivered over the radio waves. Keep in mind that the people that ran these stations were simply journalists delivering the real news instead of Soviet propaganda. Obviously, these things didn’t run smoothly. As a matter of fact, many of these journalists were taken to court to be tried as U.S. spies [Just like me, shh! (or as the Germans say it, psst!)].

Over the years, as power changed hands and inspiration grew throughout Eastern Europe. RFE continued to deliver news to the Eastern Block. Eventually, history wrote itself, and obviously Poland is working on improving its economy, but this all ended just around 17-20 years ago, and here I am sitting in the middle of it (which is bananas). Wrocław was the first broadcast in Poland, and RFE continues to deliver news in areas where uncensored news is hard to find.

That concludes my intelligence of the day. As a special treat, I have left links to explore since I will be away for so long. I love and miss you all! If inspired, go forth and inspire!

http://www.sonnyradio.com/hongkong.htm

http://www.misternicehands.com/

http://www.johnsadowski.com/big_spanish_castle.php

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Toft

Partners in Crime

This man is Ben, and he was Teresa's surprise birthday present. We did such a good job keeping secrets that she was writing angry songs about him in her room while I was sending him emails to confirm his arrival and deliberating our party plans. We have a slight language barrier, but that never stood in the way of true friends. You all might remember him as our connection at Oktoberfest. Anyway, we spent the weekend hanging out with him. He went to stand in the hour-long line at the store for us, and then made us breakfast 2 mornings in a row. I was very impressed.

This is how the weekend played out because my weekend starts on Thursday. Thursday was a dinner to plan our trip to Amsterdam on Halloween weekend. After that it was bedtime. Then on Friday, Teresa and I took Ben on a tour of the city. It was cold and raining so we stopped to get some mulled wine at a pub in the city center. There is a picture of the wine on Facebook in the Wroclaw photo album. It's hot wine with an orange slice, nutmeg, and cloves. It was perfect after being out in the cold for so long. Then we met with my friend Maria and we went to eat traditional Polish cuisine.

After dinner we went to our first live music event in Poland. These events take careful planning because we can't read the signs that tell us what they are and where to go. There was the band and they played a montage of footage from different films on a big screen. It was cool, and we had a good time. We had a slight altercation with one of the Polish men. Apparently, the Polish men are very possessive. The guy got jealous that Ben was talking to Teresa, Maria, and myself so he tried to pick a fight. I told him to leave and he did. Later that evening a very nice Asian woman told me to be careful. She said she remembered me from the last time I was there (2 weeks ago) because all Polish men were watching me. That scared me a little, but I'm going to find some mace and go out in a larger group. We took a taxi home. My roommate informed me the next morning that I was speaking French to Ben on the balcony once we got home because of our language barrier. She said I was speaking it perfectly because I was drunk. The funny thing is that Ben doesn't speak French.

Last night, Saturday, we went to the pub, with the swings, across the street. Two of the Erasmus students were the DJs. It was crowded and hot. I would describe it as muggy, almost like standing in a sauna where the steam is other people’s sweat. I was told I have a classic Slovak beauty, which boosted my self-esteem. We got to the party late and then left early. I was tired and I wasn't in the mood to socialize. Plus, everyone was so drunk when we got there it was hard to hold a conversation. The photo is of Teresa, Jenny-Vaugn, and myself on Saturday night. Right after this Jenny-Vauhn asked me if someone ripped my tits. She meant to say tights.

This is going to be a normal week. Friday we go to Berlin and I'm really excited about that. As I said before, the next weekend is Amsterdam. Then the weekend after that is Krakow if my request is accepted. If anyone has any interesting questions about what I’m doing here, the culture, etc. Please let me know I would be happy to post a blog about it, and I’m sure that others would be happy to learn more about the country. Stay tuned!