Heidelburg highlights

Went on a day trip to Heidelburg with Erin today. It's a beautiful little city with its own castle and restored stone bridge. We received the "regurgitated tour" from Erin, who went on a tour last week with her company.

History tidbits:

• Biggest wine barrel in Germany (195,000 liters!)
• Perkeo - a drunken wino jester that died when he was given a drink of water. We proceeded to eat at a restaurant named after him in his honor
• Posed with a bronze monkey that points his butt at a tighta$$'s statue (Carl Theodore)
• Walked along Germany's largest pedestrian street... that cars can drive on
• The castle also has an archway supposedly built overnight for the queen's 19th birthday
• One of the churches used to have a wall dividing it in the middle so Catholics and Protestants could share the building but not their company, or their beliefs in Jesus

Insights:

*German girls are way taller and look more intimidating. Asian girls are extremely dainty in comparison. Also, though the average German is fatter, I applaud the amount of bikers peddling all over the city. Finally, all German public transportation is quieter than Hong Kong. It's on the verge of eerie or creepy, like I just walked onto the set of Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

New TV show:

*Erin introduced us to Burn Notice. We're going to back to her place to rest and watch some more.

the scandalous bronze monkey

romantic archway for the queen's 19th birthday

this was the smaller barrel, not the 195,000 liter one!

To Germany!

Just spent a couple of hours in the Beijing Airport and watched Netherlands beat Slovakia in the World Cup, drank a beer, and played cribbage. Our next leg of the journey was darkly foreboding. With most gates available, the predominantly white person flight was corralled into a dark underground gate, and we had to take a bus to our plane. Racism? ;-)
However, the plane is fantastic compared to our first flight. I always enjoy the individual TVs on the backs of seats. Frankfurt, here we come.
...
I actually slept! It was a bit fitful, but better than usual.
Weird moment: Kristin used my toothbrush. She NEVER does that
*Kristin: Darn me for forgetting!! I've had to use it twice now.
...
Just got on the train and there's no room for luggage! However, the biggest surprise is how quiet the train ride is. To be fair, it's 6:30 AM, but it's still nothing compared to the noise of the AM rush in Hong Kong.
Note: Let Kristin stare at the trees while it's early
Theme Music: Wilco!!! :)
...
Met up with Erin Arndt, and she's kind enough to let us crash with her. She went to work while we promptly took to eating Haribo gummy bears. Between flying and our sugar crash, Kristin fell asleep on the couch while watching the Office. After waking, we went for a run around the town to exercise and explore. Currently, I'm sitting at the Bistro Saxophon in Weinheim.
First German food: Hausgemachter Wurstsalat mit Pommes and a Hefeweizen beer :)
(Translation: weird meat salad and fries)
Kristin had spaghetti and a Weinheimer Riesling. 1/2 German at least!

wurstsalat - yeah, worst salad indeed ;)

leaving on a jet plane

Kristin and I finished packing today. Before heading off to Europe for a month, we made The Office a priority in our lives and watched 4 episodes. Silly us!
*Kristin: This is a high priority, I needed my fix for a month!
Very stoked about the trip, but not about the plane ride. Decided to take Kristin up on the idea of limiting technology, ie my iphone, on the trip by deleting almost all my apps, especially the games. I'm sure it'll be surprisingly good in the end.
*Kristin: I think so too... I'm trying to avoid internet
Books: Today I began Robert Ludlum's The Janson Directive. Should be fun and thrilling.
Weird moment: Kristin witnessed a girl go into the men's room in the HK airport :)
Tidbits:
-Air China = ghetto flight on a leased Air Macau plane
-Food on flight was surprisingly simple and good
-Chinese lady next to me bought a 1400 RMB belt
-Kristin and I had a lengthy conversation about our various faith statuses and faith crises.

school's out for the summer

grant finished school about a week and a half ago. i finish my school year at church on sunday.

and i am SO ready for this summer!

we leave on monday night for europe for a month!

our itinerary:

-fly to frankfurt

-see erin

-train to munich

-see dotti and steve princiotta

-go to prague for the world ultimate championships!

-vienna and venice with jon-e and lily

-rome with lily

-paris with donna

it's going to fly by. i'm so excited for the break and also for all we're going to do and see.

then, right after we get back, grant goes under the knife for his 2nd knee. it'll be a busy 2 months!

a "world" expo

we went to the shanghai "world expo" this weekend. we were already in shanghai for a frisbee tournament, and grant took an extra day off, so we thought, "what the heck."

here's what i learned about the world:

*moldovan wine isn't that great

*bulgaria has a ton of history that i know nothing about

*the ARV drug for HIV was developed in the czech republic

*the caribbean countries had nothing to display on their shelves, but lots of pictures of beaches

*zimbabwe has nice waterfalls (but there was no information about the country at all!)

*sudan's first exhibit was their peace agreement from 2003 (ironic?)

*somalia has sharks and camels (displayed together)

*chinese people push and shove and push and shove some more when they're in a line

*and they're not afraid to queue for hours and hours and hours to get into a pavilion, get a stamp for their fake passport, and move on to the next one.

*in 5 hours, i'd guess we saw less than 20 foreign visitors to this "world" expo.

i realized it felt a bit like a massive version of epcot center in disneyworld. all of the countries show their glossy, pretty side and sometimes even perpetuate the stereotypes about their country! the exhibits that we saw were all really slick with no real content. and did i mention the lines?