Take a look at the birthday package offered by the Ottawa 67's (my favorite junior hockey team in Canada). I think the visit from fifteen ice girls is worth the $17 price of admission! :-)

Go and watch some of the FedEx commercials (which we do not get on television here in Deutschland)... the one called "Chinese Office" is absolutly hilarious!

The one called "MBA" is all too true :-)

The 9:45 MBA students union meeting tomorrow morning (today as of this posting), has been moved to H415. At least this announcement came before the actual meeting, which is more than I can say for some of our class cancellations!

It's articles like this that really put "massive" business leadership readings and assignments in perspective... or at least they provide an adequate distraction :-)

Cold night air + EuroRoss lazy idea = one ripped back jeep soft-top window :-(

There is another Gemini event this cuming Tuesday (28.10.03): "we are going to play at skittles (similar like bowling).
Meetingpoint is in front of the Iris Pub, at 9 pm."

I've been talking to people about good places (both on the web and in the so called "real" world :-) to go for cheap flights to Canada and back (for the Christmas holidays). Shoot me an e-mail if you have any ideas.

Here's a neat little article on eating out. There's a few restaurants that when I walk in, I feel right at home including the vegetarian restaurant in Darmstadt, the butcher in Kirchberg on Thursdays, East Side Mario's in Waterloo (University street location) especially on Sundays, the Deli across from civic arena in Ottawa, the american burger joint in Karlsruhe... etc etc etc!

I also have my share of bars that I feel right at home, but due to bandwidth limitations I cannot list them all here :-)

This site is pretty cool, check out to see how rich you really are in the world... makes you think!

The skating rink (arena) is located next to the Famila on Karl-Freidreick street (half way to the highway 8 east exit). They rent skates there for $3.50 and skating is $4.50 (for the entire day). Here are the times that skating is available:

3PM – 10PM Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday
11AM – 6PM, 7PM – 11PM Saturday
10AM – 7PM Sunday

Since a bunch of you wanted to go check it out, I've planned a tentative time on Friday November 7th at 7:30 PM. Hope to see you all there!

There are always questions about what to bring from your home country to Germany when beginning a long term study program given your relatively limited amount of space available to take such items on the plane. Clothes, laptops and personal effects all seem pretty standard, but I cannot stress enough how important it is to bring... LUBE!

Because they f#@% you often and hard here in Germany and rarely do they do you the pleasure of said hospitality!

It's raining, I'm sick, tired, and some f#cking a$$h@le stole one of my wiper blades today... f#$@^&*!

For all you Germans e-mailing me about my last uploaded picture (of the SWEET babe-moble known only as "THE" wagon)... yes, this picture was taken on the hottest day of the year last year in Canada which is why you can actually see some of the ground beneath the snow, long live the heat wave!

I'm actually starting to get click from google searchers... they are totally looking for something else, but I'm getting clicks! (side note: I am a geek).

EuroRoss is an idiot, part 4 - Just found out that indeed we do have these stupid locked steering wheels in Canada for some types of cars... why didn't my station wagon have this required safety feature?? Everybody wanted to steal my station wagon! One of my friends even bought a brand new station wagon cus he was so jealous!!.

The library doesn't let you take suitcases or shoulder bags in, but allows computer laptop cases (which have separate compartments for books and papers)?!?!?! And what if I bring my books and papers in a computer laptop bag?? Retarted, or as I have taught all my english learning German friends... "gimpy" :-)

My good buddy Pissy sent this to me on the 26 things that show he's getting older, it's pretty accurate I would have to say... except maybe number five :-)

1. I attended a Hootie and the Blowfish (many years past their prime), 6 Pence None The Richer (a christian band), Sister Hazel (a band I think only Randy Leitch has heard of) and Uncle Kracker.
2. I saw Riverdance and enjoyed it.
3. I go to bed at 10pm.
4. I wake up at 6:15am.
5. I think 3 beers in one night is a lot.
6. I own a car and am getting an oil change when the sticker on the windshield tells me to.
7. I am excited about $10 tickets to a matinee performance of Rent.
8. I am going to the Maple Leaf vs. Hurricanes tickets but getting the cheapest seats (to help the budget).
9. I attended an exhibition game of the Wizards vs. the 76ers and only recognized a couple of players.
10. I attended a house party and KEPT MY CLOTHES ON.
11. I buy things like beds, end tables and dining room sets.
12. I drink more tea than beer.
13. I am excited about going on a scenic drive to see the leaves changing colours (I mean colors).
14. I believe that one party and eating out once in a weekend is a full weekend.
15. Sleeping in on the weekend means 9am.
16. I buy cheap American beer because it is cheapest.
17. I have a grocery store MVP card.
18. I am excited about a $20 gift certificate at a grocery store for shopping at it for every weekend for 8 weeks straight before American Thanksgiving.
19. I think I am behaving badly when reading Harry Potter instead of doing school work.
20. The store that I shop at the most is Wal-Mart.
21. I don't know the name of a hip bar in my city.
22. I am really looking forward to see the Greensboro Symphony with my school (hopefully the students don't boo like they did last year).
23. My favourite appliances in my house are a garbage disposal, a dishwasher and an ice maker (yepee!).
24. I am getting chest hair, nose hair, and ear hair, (but at least no back hair can be found as of yet).
25. I am still sporting sideburns and an eyebrow ring, and actually believe it will maintain my youth for ever (it is hip with what the kids like, I think?).
26. I moved to North Carolina.

Some important numbers:

AStA Birgit: 28-6263
AStA 2: 28-6296
UStA: 28-6335
Campus X: 28-6336
Werbeliebe: 28-6277
Gemini: 28-6337

I'm just now on my final drying cycle of the night, grand total of 5 loads of wash (with about 75% of the dirty clothes finished). Pretty impressive when you consider that the wash and drying cycles each take an hour.

Here are the deets on the Gemini new office hours:

-----
Monday 11.30-14.00
Tuesday 12.30-13.30
Wednesday 11.30-14.00
-----

E-mail Gemini for info/tickets to the Munich trip this weekend (bus, bed and breakfast, tour)

There was also a "Gemini and friends" get together last night that I wish I could have gone to (if I hadn't been so friggin sick!)... Jersey/Aussie, we'll hit that beer another time soon, first round on me :-)

Now that I own a car (wooo whooo!!), this is what gas costs here in Deutschland:

Ok, another installment of "EuroRoss is an idiot."

I'm sick as a dog today but I have to drag my sorry ass to the uni for a group meeting (which one of the other members didn't even show up for!). All's fine I tell myself, ten minutes there, ten minutes for the meeting, ten minutes back, half hour max no problem.

Problem... my car won't start after the meeting. Specifically the F-ing key won't turn in the hole (explicit comments to this reference encouraged). So after 3 phone calls to the insurance agent, mechanic and emergency help line, and two friends trying to turn it for themselves, I found out that cars here have some kind of "safety lock" system that locks the starter if you've turned the steering wheel after shutting off the car. Great, the system effectively kept the car "safe" from me driving it and "safe" from taking me home to bed.

I am adding this to my "things I hate about Germany/Europe list" which will be online soon (translation tomorrow, translation this week, translation next month, translation: whenever the F%#$ I get to it OK!).

There's a light rain going on here and on the way to the Media Markt to get a HP cable for my new printer (which was not included, see bullshit reasons why here) there was two really bad accidents. I have to ask why? Because of a little light rain?? Reminds me of the time I was in St. Louis and they had snow for the first time in years, the cars were flying all over the place... idiots.

My favourite restaurant in Darmstadt (which I was privy to visit Saturday) is moving in a couple weeks to a new location downtown. Talking to my waiter friend guy (it's owned by his brother) revealed that space and higher traffic are the main driving forces. They will still have a patio and the same menu selection (it's a smoke-free vegetarian restaurant, gotta take the good mith the bad I guess, a juicy steak served there would be money, or even capital!) but it's the atmosphere that I mostly hope is transported over.

I just found out that they even have a website!

Taking a weekend off from reading my usual Blogs, answering e-mails and generally not accessing the net is killer cum Monday when you have to catch up... oh yeah and I guess I should have mentioned schoolwork too :-)

Another great weekend, another bad cold :-( Check it out, Germany came first in the world "eSports" Olympic games. On a thinly related note, I'm well on my way for the world record in consecutive laundry loads in one day... yes the new dryer is working out quite nicely thank you!

What is going on with my Bucs?? Three and three to start the season is not very promising for defending champions! Next weeks game against the Cowboys looks interesting.

Good food is good for the body, my stir fry is good for the soul.

Work is cuming in waves now... at least I got my scanner/printer today AND MY CAR TOMORROW!!! FREEDOM AT LAST!!!

A busy, busy, busy day of class, projects, readings, travel, and meetings... but at least I'm one day closer to getting a car!

This is too funny (you need sound and quicktime). The "shaft" and "second gunman" commentary is priceless.

Here is a cool webpage that shows the evolution of the modern English (Latin) alphabet from the earliest scribbles. It also has some of the other evolutions of modern day alphabets, but ours is the coolest :-)

I was reading another blog recently where the writer was discussing his "things I wanted to do before I'm 30 list" as he had just turned the big 3 oh. Now we all know that turning 30 is the confirmation of your previous five years of worrying that you "might" be old (how does it feel to be on the other side Germ?). :-)

I never had a before thirty list, but I have always had an informal list of things I wanted to do before I die (which I guess will happen very shortly after turning "old" at 30) and although I don't think I'll be winning the Stanley Cup anytime soon, I think I'm probably a little ahead of schedule :-) As my American colleague would put it: "How are yall doin' on your lists?"

Receiving a surprise is great, but giving a surprise to another is almost as good and can be very fulfilling (as I recently found out) :-)

The Observer has cum out with it's "Hundred Greatest Novels of All Time list (not in any particular order). It's fantastic knowing that I have read a grand total of 7, how did you score?

Still no car, still no priner, but at least I finally have my upgraded site tools (space etc) so I'll be able to post those notes and class files that I promised last week... soon :-)

I have just been informed that while on a mission to purchase more beer for the party last night at like 2 AM, I seemed to have bought some beer for some underagers... who later turned out to not be underagers... huh??

So I'm sitting in my all day human resources seminar yesterday and the teacher is having us do introductions, you know like our name interests etc to loosen up the class. So it cums around to this Russian girl (a good friend of mine and fellow hockey lover) and she goes "Hi my name is Lolita, I am from Russia, I like hockey, but not Canadian hockey"... my jaw hit the ground... Hilarious!

So after the class had stopped their delirious laughter the teacher asked me what the difference is between Canadian hockey and Russian hockey, I dutifully replied that although there were many great Russian players (that all cum over and play in the NHL) the only difference that I could see was that we win and they loose... not one of my greatest cumbacks, but in a class full of international students where the English comprehension is somewhat limited, it's the simple responses that go over best. I'm glad to say that everything was all taken in stride and we've started to plan the DEL (German professional hockey league) game roadie, stay tuned for the deets!

One last comment for my dear Russian colleague... SCOREBOARD!

Wow, good times! Happy birthday and see you next week! My head feels worse than a smashed pumpkin on November first.

Partytime... Hotel Ruf, across from the train station, 9 PM, be there or be square!

Seminars EVERY saturday from 9-10:30?? You betcha...

Things seem to be settling down. Don't get me wrong, it's still totally crazy with work, parties and things to do, but with most of the administration stuff out of the way and a growing familiarity with the city and everyday German life, things seem a little more relaxed... we're in the groove baby!

I got my bahncard today in the mail, wow I looked totally hungover (the picture was taken at 9 AM the morning after an all night bender, I'll post it when the scanner gets delivered). If you're going to spend over 100 euros in the next 6 months it's worth it to pick up the card. I also just found out that it's possible to get a 28 euro "all you can travel" pass that's good for 5 people all weekend! I'm still trying to confirm this as it seems too good to be true...

The Stuttgart festival (second largest one in Germany) to which I was refering to in an earlier post is actually called the Cannstatter Wasen Volksfest. Have fun to all those attending the MBA roadie their tonight (meet at the bahnhof at 7:15), hopefully I will meet with you later in the evening after hockey.

Some swimming information I thought I would post (thanks to Thierry for the e-mail):

Hello all,

As student you can benefit from the swimming pool in Pforzheim for the whole semester for a one time nominal fee of only 5 euros payable at the U/Asta office (1st staircase, 1st floor).

This fee will allow to swim every Tuesday starting 7:30 up to late at night.

The pools of Pforzheim are quite big an very nice (toboggan, jacuzzi, salt water, pulse water, etc. are available)

Last semester the Tuesday swimming became the weekly meeting
of a large number of intenational students.

So join us if you would like to meet friends.

See you tomorroy at the pool,

Thierry

I'll have some info on soccer (Fussball), squash and basketball soon as I'd like to get some MBA teams going.

For those of you that don't know, Tim Horton's is something of a legend/phenomenon of coffee and donuts in Canada, not only is there one in every small town, corner, mall etc, but I think that despite the large size of Canada and it's vast areas of nothing but nature, I think it's quite possible that you couldn't drive for more than 20 minutes in a straight line without finding one. Here's a hilarious entry that gets some of this nostalgia across, I especially love the line "Krispy Kreme is for fags" (an American chain of donut shops)... priceless!

Funny, I was just talking about how much I love the show Jackass yesterday and today I found this hilarious entry on how much another hates it, check it out! :-)

If you want to rent the university van for a weekend or trip etc, here are the deets:

-seats 9
-26 euros for the first 100 km, 0.13 for each km from 101-299 and .08 for each km above that
-call Frau Iacona at 07231/28-6025 for reservations (the weekends are going fast!)

After shelling out a whopping 300 euros for new (shitty) hockey equipement and almost 200 euros on two new sticks, I am finally going to get to play my first ever pick up game of ice hockey in Germany tonight... so sweet. I'm not sure about my math (even though I have a math degree :-) but 300 equip (and I already had my skates!) + 200 sticks + 150 playing fee + 5 sharpening + 15 tape = a shitload of euros just to play hockey!

Speaking of hockey, the NHL started last night and I waited up until 2AM to watch the opening game live (thank you Premiere, you are my saviour!!). To all you in the pool... good luck, you'll need it :-)

My undergraduate university is located in Waterloo Canada. It also happens to be the location of the second largest Oktoberfest in the world to Munich... interesting, roadie to waterloo anyone?

Before I forget, great job and initiative on the Tax Planning presentation to Jersey Jim and Polskila... Impressive. After seeing the massive rush for sign-ups tonight after class it looks like I better hit the library HARD tomorrow and get a topic, any ideas anyone?

Jackass on MTV is on the list of the greatest shows of all time...

Another "I love Premiere" post: next week Premiere has bothe the Ottawa-LA game AND the Montreal-Toronto game live!! Life can be sweet sometimes, I think the great mood I'm in will only last until tomorrow's "mystery" serving at the Mensa...

I think I'm cuming down with something... blah. Speaking of "blah", did anyone ever see that 6 episode pilot on Fox called "Greg the Bunny"? On the show (which has "real life" puppets living and working with humans) there was a chauvinistic vampire puppet that always says "blah", the best was the fat monkey puppet, ten seconds of googling and I can't find any good video, good times though...

Now I'm not going to complain about the INCREDIBLY inedible food and HUGE waiting lines at the Mensa (cafeteria) on campus, but is it too much to ask that after the workers screw me with shitty food (priced accordingly) and the rapeage of over 45 minutes of my life pressed like cheese in between a German herren sandwich waiting to be served, that they NOT rub it in and laugh about it?!?!

Today I waited for 45 minutes (see bitching above) for some kind of "meat" ruefully hidden underneath some sauce that almost caused my stomach to go on strike... not 1 minute after taking my first bite did I realize that they ran out of "the daily special" and so started serving the hottest best looking meal I've ever seen within 5km of the FH!! Of course by then it was too close to the start of class (with the infinitely increasing line) to trash my current "trash" (meal as they call it) and upgrade to the new serving.

I swear I saw one of the caf ladies smiling as I stared in total disbelief...

Cheers to everyone at the "dancing into the semester" party tonight... I'm stuck here trying to finish my presentation for tomorrow while distracting myself with website updates :-(

I just watched my favorite NFL football team, the defending Super Bowl champions, with the most consistently superior and dominating d-fences of the last decade completely blow up on Monday night football! No team, not even the lowly Cincinnati Bengales would blow a 21 point lead with only 4 minutes to go in the game, in fact the Bucs are the only team to do so... and to think of how I was dancing when they were up 21-0 in the first... ouch!!

I've eaten more pretzels in the last three weeks than in my entire life beforehand...

I am proud to say that I was a large participant of the 3% they mention in the article on German beer exports to Canada and other parts of the world :-)

If you're a geek with a geek's sence of humour you'll appreciate the User Friendly comic strip.

In germany you have to pay for every minute you use your phone, whether it be a "handy" phone (cell) or a landline. For landline calls you can predial any of numerous numbers to get cheaper rates (aka if I want to call Canada), kinda like 10-10-220 or 1-800-COLLECT in north america. I just realized that "idiot EuroRoss" has struck again... I have been using the wrong pre-number and have used it for 10+ hours of overseas calls.

Shitty Buzz, I'll scan the bill when it cums and post it online (in the queue of things to do). I'm sure you'll all (note: not Yall) will find it freaking hilarious... and to all of you who I have not had a chance to call yet, don't hold your breath as I've now used up the "phonecall" portion of my budget until the year 2093.

The site upgrades needed for the site do not seem to mix well with Oktoberfest, Volkfest, Bundesliga, beer and other related activities. :-)

Sorry to all looking for the Cross Cultural notes from the first day, the scanner is currently down with little hope of getting online before late this week. Hopefully by then the new links for each course will be online at EuroRoss :-)

Last chance for all of you joining the FREE hockey pool, the draft goes online tomorrow afternoon Deutsch time. Go to the "Offensively Challenged" league #51694 at Yahoo Fantasy Sports and sign up your team, the password is "TooGood" and is case sensitive (the T and G are capitalized). Good luck for all you competing for second place! :-)

What a great weekend! Munich is awsome, I highly recommend the schweinsbraten at Schiederweissehaus, it accompanies the atmosphere of the beerhaus nicely (as does a full glass of hefe!). Next week: Stuttgart Volksfest (I have no idea how to spell this, if you have the correct spelling or a link e-mail EuroRoss).

The 2004 world junior hockey championships are December 25 to January 5 this year in Helsinki/Hameenlinna Findland... see you all there :-)

Darmstadt is a cool city, one of my favorite restaurants is there, a pretzel place, irish pub, and a cool "platz" for hanging out on days like today. Take a look for yourself!

Shout out to all my peeps hitting the annual Buffalo game this weekend, wish I could be there, I'll be watching them bitch up the Bengals Sunday night live on my premiere box and having a beer for ya (I know you'll be having many more than one!).

The first MBA-IMM Students Committee meeting will be 11:15 AM on Monday, October 6 in room W4.1.06 (K09) for those of you that did not get the e-mail. Thanks to PhillyJim and SingaporeFranca for organizing it.

What a day, what a night! Day started with me getting up at 6 AM to get to my 8 AM class (I can't wait until I get my car and I can sleep in until 7:45!) in which the prof did not even show. Even better is that I still had to wait around the university for the second session later that morning, which of course was cancelled about ten minutes before it started... grumpy morning EuroRoss was starting to get even grumpier, at 1:45 I had been up for almost 8 hours and had yet to start a class. Classes ended early and my night was about to get alot better...

2-1 VFB over Manchester United!! KURANYI!! So sweet, what a game, what a game... what a game!!

After the game we hit Irish (of course, it's Wednesday!), it was full, but low key, which is cool most of the time but after the high of the game we were ready for a little more spunk. Anyways the plan had always been just to check into Irish for a beer or two en-route to Plus for the "big" party.

I've seen Plus busier (Monday night for example), but never with this much vibe. The tunes were on target, the "bub" was flowing, good good times. Let's hope we can keep the good times rolling at kirchberg tonight and O-fest this weekend...

There is another "gemini&friends" event at schloßkeller (pub opposite HopBahnHof) Thursday night starting at 8:30 PM. EuroRoss is off for my first Thursday Kirchberg meal of many... I can't wait!!

Needless to say that the cancellation system here sucks... does somebody have the online link for class cancellations so I can post it? I just got screwed "royal with cheese" style because I had to get up at 6 AM for an 8 AM class (curse the bus system... cum to me my automobile!!) for which the prof never showed. Apparently this happens not so infrequently and since the friggin postings are in German (for an English language program I might add) I'll be putting up a "class cancellation" link on the side, when someone hears of a change or cancellation, just post it there for everyone.