Gotta go old school...
We have a Christmas tree, I wish you could see it. I have every possible crappy computer experience that one can have here…and now my digital camera is in on it too. I hate my computer and my blasted digital camera. I have damned them both…together…they have been working in cahoots. I managed to lose every single picture I have taken between now and October. I lost all of them. I have nothing. Thanksgiving- gone. Christmas-gone. Day trips and site seeing? -Gone as well. The only pictures I have were the ones I put online. That’s it. I have been fighting with my computer since I got to Mainz. My computer and digital camera worked fine in Radolfzell. Perhaps they pitied me since there was really nothing else to do…(we didn’t even have an internet café in that city, remember.) But, now that I’m here in Mainz, both of these electronic devices have turned against me. It’s always something: low or dead batteries, full memory card, incorrectly installed software, illegal operation windows…always something. Now, I have had it. I want to throw them both out the window but I can’t bring myself to do it. All I can do now is to plead with my parents to send me my trusty 35mm camera and some film. I’ve always trusted it and for good reason. I love that camera and it loves me. My digital camera can suck it for all I care. I have given up on it. If I were my digital camera, I would sleep with one eye open. Same goes for my computer.

I guess all I can do is explain to you how everything has been here. Christmas, good. I wish you could have seen it. I’m bitter. So, that’s that. I don’t even want to talk about it since this digital camera thing happened. Perhaps I’ll be more willing to talk about my New Year’s. That will give me some more time to cool off.

Tomorrow I am leaving for Trier and hanging out with Jenny for a day before we take off for Paris for New Year's. I am excited to go to France, as I have never been there before. (Actually, I have spent a rather long amount of time waiting around in the CDG airport in France, but that isn't france. So, it doesn't count. Who stops in an airport in France and says 'Yes, I have been to France!' Don't be that guy!)

Rockin around no Christmas Trees
I was riding the tram a few days ago and I was lucky enough to ride in the vicinity of a guy who steals the remains of bikes where the tires and seats and stuff have already been stolen. This guy was also carrying a box with a mouse in it. My sister can stand two feet away from Bono any day and I don’t care. I was able to see this guy carrying a mouse in a box and the metal body of a bike (no handle bars, no seat, no tires, no pedals, nothing…just the metal part that holds it all together). The entire time he was on the train, he stood next to the driver, trying to make conversation. The driver seemed to be interested or at least too weak to tell the scary mouse man to go away. But, I guess I would put up with it too if I had a glass window between me and him. I think Tram driver is the one profession that people forget when thinking about careers behind glass. People usually think of gas station attendants and bank tellers (on occasion), but tram driver should be up there.

I found out that there will be a Christmas tree in our house on Christmas. There isn’t one right now, and it is Dec. 22nd. But, there will be soon. And, it will be a real one too. I am usually not the hugest fan of Christmas Trees. I’m not quite sure why. Perhaps it is because we always had a fake tree when I was younger and I preferred the real trees. But here are the four clues it is Christmas at our house: a. there is mistletoe hanging over the door in the entry way, b. there is one strand of Christmas lights in the tree next to the house, c. there is a little manger scene in the window sill in the living room and d. there is a little Adventskranz which is like a little Christmas wreath in the living room. Those are the four things. But, quite frankly no one notices the lights in the tree (there’s only one very short strand up in that tree…) and no one sees the mistletoe (I haven’t caught anyone making out in the doorway, but maybe they don’t do that here…not quite sure. But, if there’s a hot guy standing in the doorway- believe you me, I am going to stand there, too). Plus, my family has already killed the poinsettia that was sitting in the kitchen. My advisor gave me a little potted poinsettia as a gift and I have kept that thing alive for the past month…and I am going to try and keep it alive as long as possible. Well, the poinsettia looks a little kitschy, so I love it…I’ll have to take a picture of it so you know what I mean.

I just thought I would let you know that it is snowing here right now... :::scarastic tone::: Looks like a regular freakin snow globe here. :-)

For the Longest Time...
I know you are all picturing my sweet and angelic voice singing the Billy Joel song...:-) What I am actually elluding to is that this is the longest consecutive amount of time I have ever been outside of the US. :::sarcastic tone::: Wow!

I had German class this morning and I don't think the other students were nearly as interested in learning grammer and what have you as I was. You see, I was the only one who actually showed up for class. So, I was in class alone with the professor for a 90 minutes. But, I made the best of the situation and learned a lot of grammer and got a lot of questions I had out of the way. Urg...I have German again tomorrow with my tutor... Perhaps by then, it will have been a long enough break from german grammer that I will be ready to practice some more. But, lets face it. Grammer is grammer. It isn't fun.

Oh...I had a sad moment today. I remembered Chai Tea Lattes. Coffee shops really don't exist here and that means neither to Chai Tea Lattes. I guess it will be a mission to try and find one. I'll let you know if I do.

I am a subscriber!
So, last night we had a family dinner. These are always interesting for me because I get to listen to some of the most interesting or most boring conversations ever at these things. Last time, they talked for about 2 hours on the topic of insurance. But, this time they talked about pot. I had to stop and listen harder because I was sure I was mistaken by the topic. Many times my ears will deceive me or the word I hear actually means something totally different than I first thought. But, no. I was correct. One of the brothers asked the other brother where he was getting his information from and he said that he subscribed to a marijuana newsletter. Keep in mind, this was a family dinner...parents, the adult children...

Tonight we (Jo, Hannes, Elaine, Alex and some other random people) are going to Karaoke night at the Irish Pub. It should be a good time, or at least I am hoping it is a good time. I think I want to sing something tonight...but, I'm not quite sure what. I was trying to figure out what songs I know relatively well...or at least songs I wouldn't suck too badly at singing... It probably has to be something sung by a girl band like the Donnas. I think I could handle that.

Christmas is coming. Yes it is. I am in no way prepared for it. But, I found out last night the Christmas schedule. Aparently my family does not do christmas on Christmas. They only do it before and after. This is because one of their sons, Hannes and his girlfriend Jo would have to split the time between their two families. So, instead, no one has christmas on Christmas. The 'kids' all have a party themselves and then in the following days, celebrate Christmas. So, I will also be included in this tradition. As far as I know, I will be attending a party on Christmas.

Will the delegate from Finland yield to some flirting?
I was in another world for the past week. I was a part of the Model United Nations simulation in Bonn this past week. This simulation contained more than 100 students who are normally some of the most politically informed people. But, frankly that all went to crap when we all became concerned with the conversations within our own committees. Our committees discussed topics such as EU institutional reform...but, if the EU suddenly disbanded during one of our committee sessions this past week, we wouldn't have known about it. We were basically too busy with our own negotiations to be bothered by any real news.

The week was rather halarious because no one new anyone else's name. During committee sessions, we all had to follow some strict guildlines on how to participate, so we all refered to each other as 'The honorable delegate from...' So, I met a lot of people, but I can only tell you the country they were representing. The other funny part is that we were all college age students from around the world, so it was only a matter of time for some of the delegate to pursue 'friendly relation' policies with other delegates. (In layman's terms, it means everyone was checking each other out...it all felt like Freshman Orientation.) The gossip also sounded like this...'I heard that Malta and Slovenia were making out last night...' 'No way! I didn't know Malta liked Slovenia!'

I had a lot of fun, got to see some people I hadn't seen in a while, and learned a lot. I've had too much of this computer for now. I just got done checking a weeks worth of emails, so I've had it.