Holy Update!

First off, I think its hilarious when Brother Jon uses the word studmuffin and ladyfriend haha. secondly, i really need to update this more, so much has happened since malta! I came back and had a week home and visited Bremen and Hamburg frequently. I met up with Jen and her friend from France and we had a great time chilling out in Bremen at the Freimaarkt and the medieval market, it was so cool and rustic and you could buy so many good things. its such a comforting thing walking through the old city and having a glass of gluwein (spiced heated wine) and a bag of roasted almonds...i disovered these for the first time...they are heaven. We rode this really amazing indoor rollercoaster and it was a happy day. Ive been hanging out with Sara, Caro, Ole and the crew a lot, been to the Riepe Disco a few times, thats a hoot. Celebrated one night with Ferdi his 22 bday, went out dancing and then came back to his place at 4am with more guest and people were still up and partying...in a coma of course, but whatever.Visited Patrice, Martin, Jonas, Timo and Robert at the Gemeindehaus for their band practice, Get The Last Clap, and they had their first performance together at Bandabend, it was great. they kickedass. i was up front and totally supporting, 100pro. Me and Sebi and Simon and Eich jammed out that night, thanks to the help of Astra Rotlicht.

I went back to bremen with sara and went on tons of rides, a swing that went rediculously high over the city, TWO rollercoasters and a watercoaster. it was sweet, cept i almost broke my arm cuy i fell. Ive had my first two performances with Sambucada, a Brazilian Drum group i play with, it was awesome. we played for the christmas party for Steinway and will be performing at the Bremer Carnival. stoked. Ole and Caro and their new roomie Bjorn threw a sick halloween party in Hamburg, i helped decorate and brought some ghosts made from lollipops and carved the pumpkin, it looked great. they even made pumpkin soup which was amazing and roasted the seeds for me. it was an interesting night to say the least. my germans found it interesting and quite amusing to dress their ami up as hitler...thanks guys. they wanted me to have a costume so they gave me one. and then after they did that they beat me up and i got a bloody nose blood came from my ear. haha jk (thats how they changed the make up after the Hitler scandal...its an ironic transition). there was a creepy drunk guy there...ended up naked at the end of the night for some strange reason (after he started ripping his costume apart and telling everyone he wanted to f&%$ them...sheesh). We had a Fulbright Niedersachsen meeting in Lüneberg and met the mayor and had a tour of the city, that was nice. Met a french kid named Erwann who speaks german with the starkest French accent. We went to Hamburg and saw the Legends of Beowulf with Gira, that movie was awkward...i dont quite know how i feel about it.

My English AG is going really well, its my afterschool study group. we have a bunch of great things planned, the students are awesome, and we spent four hours last tuesday cooking a traditional american thanksgiving dinner! i couldnt have asked for a better turn out or result from the evening. I just returned from Dublin yesterday, visited KK for the weekend with her family, it was the best time ever! The Top Moments of Life list has been updated to include an amusing tour through the guiness factory and a guiness pub crawl, and by guiness pub crawl i mean pub crawl weekend.

The newest addition to the top five moments of my life is the moment after leaving this really quaint irish pub after laughing a great deal whilst drinking a nice amount of guiness pints and walking down the main Grafton street there, and stumbling into a group of 7 irish guys dancing in suits and ties with a street entertainer playing the guitar (lots of bon jovi and billy joel and a wierd mix of "its closing time" and who knows what else) i cant remember all the songs he played because we were singing at the top of our lungs and jigging...yes JIGGING with our new irish friends. it was...amazing, people kept stopping along the streets and gathered around us all, this weird irish american herd of hooting and jigging young adults haha. i cant tell you how many photo albums we are in now, immortalized. it was such a happy moment. i just cant describe it, no words do justice to the experience. the guys did magic for us, stuff ive seen before but i pretended to be really surprised when the ash ended up on my palm. haha. then, suddenly, they were gone. my first night there me and kk went to temple bar and had our first guiness pint together and listend to live irish music, it was so wonderful. i cant wait to get the video up on this thing, its great. oh life. now im back at school, and already getting ready for my next adventure...with my friends every weekend is an adventure.

Ill probably be heading for Edinburough next weekend and then Chels is coming to visit and after i spend christmas with my hostfamily in Berlin we will be off to Prague, Budapest and Italy. so excited. although very tired. Christmas party this weekend with Jen in Bremen and then off to the Hamburger Dom! (ps. i saw Maria Bergner again! it was great, she is the reason i came to germany the first time six years ago!)

oh, i discovered myself (meaning Shim) in a German book, i didnt realize that TA Barron wrote the third book in the Great Tree of Avalon series already, you can imagine my reaction when wandering through one of my fave places in teh world, a bookstore, having suddenly stumbled upon the third book in German. good shiznit. mom, you need to read this next installation of the series i introduced you to.

I sent out 11 packages from Germany and Malta, im proud of myself, im usually horrible at thatkind of stuff.

i was on the train the other day, on my way to the airport and was reading my book quietly and wondered why this group of four in front of me hadnt said a word to one another. then all of a sudden there was this burst of muffled laughter emanating from them, and i realized they were signing to oneanother. and i couldnt help but think about this, this silent conversation, and through the silence the one thing that cuts it is laughter. i think thats a nice thought, dont you? i couldnt help but smile with them everytime they laughed, although i had no idea what they were laughing about. good trainride.

kk and i were walking through the streets of dublin sunday, and i saw t his poster advertising a photo exhibit, and on the poster was this beautiful yet provoking image of what the artists calls the "invisible woman". It was this woman, a bit older and a little overweight, or maybe that looks so because of her body being covered by rags and rags of shirts and goats and quilts torn by wear and bad weather and by the sidewalk as a bed. she has one leg which is injured or permanently crippled, and it is turned inward at a very uncomfortable angle, which led me to picture her shuffling along slowly and full of effort. she had a scarf around her head, either a comforting sole piece of accessory for her white head of hair or another layer to protect her from the dublin weather, im not certain. she has a few missing teeth and her face is pulled into this gutwrenching form expressing both anguish and need. a look that says, a life can only take so much rejection, please dont add yourself to the ranks of those whove rejected me. is it a show? i dont think so, but the common pull of society these days swings us to believe that those begging will only use th emoney for drugs and alcohol...but what about all those who really do use the money to survive? it sucks to always question the intentions of the homeless, what a horrible feeling. it was justsuch a powerful image. and i think the world needs more sympathy, trust, and people need to emphasize with other people, even if they are strangers. and wouldnt you know it, we were walking into a store and i looked out the window as my friend was shopping and there she was, in the flesh, shuffling along the street with the same clothes, same bent leg, same yearning face, the same outstreched hand. i got all revved up and frantic searching for money, but by the time i fished it out of my pocket she had disappeared. i dont know how she did it but she was gone when i ran out of the store. i wonder if she knows she is semi famous? i wonder what thoughts go through her head as she walks down the street asking for money and suddenly discoveres her image on a billboard. hmm.

certainly, definitely, absolutely,
peace, namaste,
Shim

wow...i just saw that the second to last remaining survivor of the titanic died last month...there is only one left. hmmm, wow. i dont know why, but its just profound for me, anyone else?

Elizabeth Gladys "Millvina" Dean of Southampton, England, who was 2 months old at the time of the Titanic sinking, is now the disaster's only remaining survivor, according to the Titanic Historical Society.

crazy...and she cant even remember being on the darn big boot.

ps. the pres in Georgia needs to knock it the eff off, and i hope the people continue to strive for their rights!

pps. turkey...leave the kurds alone. oh...wait...better yet, treat them like equal human beings! i know its hard, but lets give it a shot.

Gazing down at the Mediterranean

i know i know, its been a while. we just had two weeks of school break, and i flew to malta for a week! it was beautiful, ive never seen a place like malta before. the whole island was like one city made of white limestone, surrounded by the Mediterranean. even at the end of october the weather was beautiful and i got to swim in the sea for the first time in my life. ive learned these first time experiences are something to take special note of, and are easy to appreciate much more than everday experiences, although those too are given too little appreciation. either way, the language was so unique, it sounded like arabic, but was a mix of arabic, english, italian and some others. the place is rediculously expensive! when we first arrived, i was a little apprehensive, because it just looked dirty and dead. but then after the first day this wave of a particular sense of charm came over me, and i really felt comfortable being there. they have tons of fortresses there, were invaded like a billion times. there was a bomb that was dropped on a church while three hundred people were praying...and it didnt explode and no one was injured....amazing. the best thing about the trip is that it was so laid back, the bus systems are so good and cheap, its really easy to pay a few cents and see the whole island. we paid about 5 euro for a four hour tour, which we thought was a boat tour but ended up being a car tour. oh well, we saw the whole place! it takes about 40 min to get from one side to the other. there are really no beaches, but there are tons of harbours which are really beautiful at night. that was one of my favorite things, walking from sliema where our youthhostel was to paceville to go to the movies or to go eat along the coastline, going down to the sea at night, there was this constant orangeish glow from th elights at night, reflecting off the sea and the tan buildings of stone, it jsut gave the place this really warm and peaceful feeling. as many of you know, i love the ocean, i just feel for me its one of natures best remedies, best aroma therapy candle, best soothing music, best spiritual peacebringer. i mean, i love sitting next to turquoise blue water, smelling the sea, feeling the warm breeze, listening to the waves, looking at the moon, and meditating, all by myself. i mean, it was great, even though the island is almost entirely made up of tourists, you could still discover these serene and nature pure places to explore and enjoy. one day we hopped on bus 38 from valetta the capital to the blue grotto and the only three sand beaches on the west coast of the island. we paid our 20 lira cent and got onto a packed bus with a driver who loves to chat on his cell, or stop the bus to talk with a fellow driver along the way, or laugh at another whose bus broke down, it was so lax and i couldnt help but smile! the bus was filled with jesus and mary, its a very religious island, every bus had a picture of the big J C in it. we finally arrived at the last stop, got out, and discovered this little dirt path away from the beach full of tourists and hte new radisson hotel where tony blair stayed and walked down it. we passed another beach that was completely empty and beautiful and walked up to this plateau of sorts, you know, the little cliff thing next to a rocky sea. the sun was shining and i decided first to read a bit in an alcove near the top and then i walked around to the other side where the was no person to be seen, no building to disrupt the view, the wind was blowing at like 20 mph but i didnt care. i bouldered for a bit, climbed around everywhere, and went out to the furthest sharp rock i could find to sit on and medidtate for a bit. next to the crashing waves. it was really wonderful, and then i found my way to the blue grotto and jumped in, this little grotto between cliffs where i was the only one swimming for a while, and then a few random people joined me in the water, it was great. really. between that, the cheap pizza place we discovered, and the hilly beautiful city of valetta, i couldnt have asked for a better vacation. plus i saw about 4 or 5 great movies, got a new lip piercing on the spot, and got my hair done professionally...it was really sweet deal, and the hairdressers were mad cool, the girl who colored my hair was beautiful and from nigeria, and the guy was cooky and fun and loved his job. it was a good experience haha. the best haircutting, grooming exp yet. there was only one movie to watch at night in the hostel...ill give you one guess....yep thats right...big momma 2! hahahahaha ps that movie is really funny, add a few skol beers and smarties to that, and youve got a good night, or three (cuz thats how many times we wathched it! lol). anywho, malta was great! next entry...to come...about the rest of the break and halloween!
much love, peace, namaste,
Shim

ps. pictures and videos galore are to come, i still dont know how to get them from my laptop to the laptop in school where there is internet to post them...someone stole my usb stick...:(