the rest of Christmas break.

i just found this...forgot to post this 2 months ago when it happened...oops.

well. i finally made it to my frined matt's. well, to his family's that is. the first night i stayed with matt and liam in his aunt and uncle's house. they were a super nice family and we just loafed around and watched tv all day. for the most part, it was only me and liam. matt and his whole family went to his grandmother's consecration. it's like when a widow wants to be a nun but can't. so yeah. me and liam stayed at matt's aunt ruth's house. we watched  the movie labrynth which through my drunken haze of sleep was less than great. at this point, i had not showered in about....three? four days? nor had i changed in about four days. i also not shaved for about a month and my hair had the 2 month shaggy business going on. i had been forced to undergo a night of airport sleeplessness due to my lost baggage. i traveled to the house by cab and train. i tipped the cabbie 4 pounds, giving him a twenty pound note. little did i realize i had given him nearly forty dollars. Ruth and Gavin later told me this was borderline insanity and that no one ever tips cabbie's. unless it's odd change from a pound. anyway. i really don't remember much of that first day.

so matt got back in the afternoon and i don't remember what we did. i think we watched anchorman. but i was too tired to actually know. i know we got chinese takeout which tasted nice. the next day i was far more coherent. matt's cousins patrick, and...his older brother...and little sister...(they were never home, so i don't remember their names) anna...and joe. that's it. anyway, they were awesome. patrick talked always and told us our british accents were rubbish. they were a very typically british family which made me happy. i soon found out that british food consists of bread and bad meat. and cakes. the bacon and sausage tastes really..off? and the cakes are delicious but not when it is all one has to eat all day every day.

our stay at gavin and ruth's was short. we were moved to matt's grandma's. oh carol. she would wake up and from that moment on, she had a wine glass and a "fag" in her hand. (she called her cigarettes fags) she lauged a lot and shoved catholicism into any nook of life imaginable. it was great. she kept her kitchen stocked with cakes and tea. that is all. oh, and the cheapest bacon tesco had to offer. we survived mainly on crumpets, toast and english muffins with fake butter. not margarine, fake butter. we watched man vs food and planet earht all day. it was great. we walked to yarm, a little historic town to get some fish and chips and some sweets from the sweet shop. again. so great. real fish and chips with salt and vinegar are one of britain's best features. oh yeah. mind you, i quite literally had no money at all and ruth and gavin paid for all of this for me, matt and liam. such awesome people. they took us to two tourist towns. york was first and it was sweet. we toured the oldest street in the UK adn got some pasties for lunch. 2 main British staple foods i was able to experience at this point. we saw a cathedral but it costs too much money to go in so we just looked around. then we went to was durham and also saw a reasonably rad cathedral. we got to climb the tower and look out overt the city. great stuff.

new years eve was spectacular. ly dead. we got thousands of offers from all of matt's relatives to go either clubbing or to a family party. we told them we wanted to experience yarm and all its pubbery so we told them we would probably stick together and do a pub crawl. this was not what we did. we were so tired and lazy taht we went to one pub and left after about...five minutes? then we came back and caught more of the planet earth marathon. we are so...naughty. and cool. anyway. england went by in a blur of laziness and unhealthy eating. good times.

so that is basically england. 

time flies

i can't believe it is already february. that kind of scares me. i do not want to leave yet. but anyway, i'm going to enjoy life here while i can. this semester has been one of no funds for anyone. we all spent way too much over christmas so all we can afford to do is play games, exercise and sit. this is not a problem though. we have great fun. i have been playing a tremendous amount of crud lately. (a game played at a pool table with a cue ball and striped ball) these games get very intense and incredibly competitive. i was getting into the shower the other day and saw that both my arms and legs were covered n nasty bruises. this i can atribute to crud crud alone. i in fact have almost killed two innocent women in the pursuit of victory a crud match. the first time, i body slammed my friend matt out of the way, not seeing katelyn's petite figure behind him which he smashed into, causing her head to make unfriendly contact with a cement wall. the second time, was a bit more comical in appearance.you see, often, during the heat of a crud match, i become overly excited and behave in a manner most unsuitable for any person. in one such case, i was dangling myself from a chinup bar in a victory dance. i was unable to hold this position for very long and my legs (which had been clingingto the chinup bar) came crashing down, pinnig poor kacie to teh pool table. the vision still haunts me to this day. to make up for nearly killing them, i wrote them a not and gave them some chocolate. because that removes the pain of a body slam.  haha! no, they took it realy well and love to tell people about how clumsy i was. it's all good.

travel weekend is next week and we are headed to alicante spain! me and fifteen others are going to be invading the small town and having a generally great time. i am very excited to be doing this. that is all. 

christmas.

so christmas at the bode was a rush of confusion and awesomeness. we lost four students and will gain two when we return. for various reasons, they left to go back home. we had copious christmas festivities. we visited the Stuttgart Christmas market, caroled in Fischbach, caroled in the friedrichshafen christmas market, had a banquet, had a K group christmas party and an open mic night. the k group christmas dinner was possibly the best part. we had raclette which is a cheese smelling like unclean bottoms melted in your own tray while you grill meat and veggies on the table grill. the end result is delicious. well. christmas festivities blew by quickly and i was off with my crew to dublin. we arrived in dublin problem free and had low expectations for our accommodation but we were overwhelmingly pleased to find our apartment nothing short of amazing. dublin was my favorite! i loved it. we went to christ church cathedral for church the next day. it's a cathedral from 1030 ad. it was awesome. they had this very holy and reverent sermon and i suspected the church was kept in this manner. wrong. we went to the crypt for a tea and coffee reception afterwards where we found a giftshop, a picture with santa station, and a cafe. along with a tour for about eight euros of the treasury. exorbitant. the sermon was by a kind woman who said we needed to focus not on the commercialism of christmas but on god. then we found the basement picture of santa for six euros booth. hmm.

but dublin was awesome. temple bar had the best restaurants and bars and cheasy shopping areas. the sights were well worth the hike it took to get there. i would not mind living in Dublin some day. anyway. dublin went by with few scrapes and we were off to paris. we had a flight delay that didn't actually place us behind schedule. on our final part of the trip, a train ride, someone killed themselves by jumping in front of out train so we were delayed again for 2 hours. an uncomfortable time to be certain.  paris went by in a flash of sights and whatnot. we went to disneyland paris for a cold christmas day. a very cold christmas day. my feet were soaked and icy accompanied by the wost headache i have had since i arrived in europe. paris degenerated form here and i failed to be charmed by the famed city. it was sprawling ugly dirty and snobby. but the louvre was well worth the visit. too big to cover in one day but still well worth it. after three of the guys left, me and the girls left for a hostel nine miles outside of paris. it was not too sketchy. but we walked around the next couple days and i finally left for england. (realize these are incredibly condensed versions of the actual accounts) my flights were fine but i had to run top speed through heathrow to make it to my second flight. i made it, but my bags did not. so i had to camp out in edinburgh until they got there. then for about nine more hours  until i coulod catch a bus to the train station to get a taxi where i crashed here to type this.


and here are christmas formal pictures. holiday pictures later.

http://picasaweb.google.com/bittermanwill/WinterFormalAndStuff?authkey=Gv1sRgCMTwrJK48eTyCw#

so...i guess i have to say something dont i.

well it is christmas time in germany....wow. already. american christmas time carries with it a level of stress. german christmas is...fun. there are christmas markets everywhere which are magical places where many remarkable treasures can be found at great prices. and by great i mean exorbitant. but still...the magic of christmas is in the air. and the bode is full of life...full of crazy busy christmastime fervor. we had caroling throughout fischbach in the pouring rain with our k groups. it was slightly miserable. there is a lot of snow here which is highly untypical for this area of germany. none of us are complaining about this. we then had a christmas concert at the friedrichshafen christmass market. it was cold. we have another concert planned for saturday plus a k group christmas dinner/white elephant. next week i have 2 big papers due and i need to get cracking on them. christmas plans were as follows. dublin, paris and rome. due to lack of proper funding, rome fell through and i am now going to be saying with Matt and Liam at matt's grandmothers in england. this is exciting. matt and liam are people you do not know. so i wont go into great detail. hmm. not much else to report. we are losing 4 students next semester and getting 3 new ones. sad and exciting at the same time. well it is almost lockup time so i need to go. sorry these postings are so ridiculous and choppy. bye. and sorry for the typos. bye.

just bode life.

well the other day was the best day of my life. lets see...woke up late, went to brunch, it was teh first day i wasn't sick anymore, so i pigged out. then we went to the flea market where i found a nasty old sweater and a matching zip up vest. they are amazing and go right well with my newly discovered old man fashion. i also got a sweet dress vest for one euro and it fits perfectly. oh, and i forgot to mention, we did not hae to pay for bus or train fare to get to the flea market because my RA took a group of us in the school's bus/van. so anyway...after this we headed to the bodenseecenter (a big mall) for the best part of anything ever! we went to the grocery store and bought cheap snacks, cleverly hiding them in our overcoats as we entered the  theater for...HARRY POTTER SEVEN! oh...it was amazing. over half the school was in the theater. we were totally astounded at every point of the film. when the movie was over we stood in awe and none of us were quiet for forever as we discussed the movie and all its glory. then we were hungry so we all went to burger king for some much needed american fat food. the group i went with could not have been better. we hadso much fun. but if i told you what was so fun about it, you wouldnt understand because you dont know thema and you weren't there. just take my word for it. so as we clambored back to the bode, we ended the evening playing craphead and banimal. our collective favorite card games. (for those of you who know the game cats and dogs, we renamed it banimal here. there is a story that would not be funny to you as to why this happened)

okay...so taht was the best day of my life....what happened next?......hmm. darn. i had something to tell....ahh yes. as if my weekend was not already glorious enough, we had thanksgiving dinner early to accomidate german, canadian and american thanksgiving times. oh good gracious it was delicious. the stuffing was better than any i have ever had in my lfe. delicious delicious. this week mostly has been working on my bible study project. it iis a 4000 wor d mininmum  essay on a chapter of the bible. we had 50 to pick from and i chose Jonah 2. i finally got it done yesterday. now i have a proverbs essay and an essay on joshua-chronichles. should be...fun. i have to finish them soon though so i better get on those. christmas break starts the 18th...the night of hte 18th i will arrive in dublin for the first leg of our christmas travels. second leg will be paris on <christmas day. we booked a sweet hotel right outside notre dame cathedral. then the longest and final leg will be rome over new years. jealous? so am i! woohoo! post more later when i have time...

travel weekend woes and wonders

so i just returned from travel weekend. it was pretty cool. i was the co-head-chef alongside Robin Griffith. cooking for fifty people meant we had little free time so i got to see very little of the Austrian Alps. this was a shame but fortunately we were able to sleep in most of the time and watch plenty of movies and tv shows. we played games endlessly as well which was nice. i learned the best card game ever called craphead which was invented by a guy from the bode. cooking was however the majority of our time. we hit the kitchens ever night at three oclock and had supper on the table at six thirty. after a very quick supper, robin and i dashed back into the kitchen to make sure the cleanup wass not too disastrous and also to prepare 2 vats of hot chocolate and cookie plates for dessert at eight thirty. movies, jam sessions and card games typically lasted until about 230 when we hit the bed and woke up at about nine thirty. then we ate and played games all day until i had to cook again. it was good. i knew i couldnt go on any of the hikes due to my cooking schedule so i set off alone for a brief trip up the mountain. as i stepped up on a log in the path, my foothold slipped and i crashed my full weight on my shin which throbs now any time i move it or sit still. Zara, my frined from india helped in the kitchen most nights and has successfully taught me swearing in eight languages. it made cooking more fun when grease splashed me and i could scream JE-DAH! which is Bhutanese for crazy donkey. well, the hut drew to a close and robin and i had recieved our ride to the hut from Sten, a Norwegian guy at school. most other people had to take a train but sten was kind enough to give us a ride in his car. this was nice on the way ther becaus e we left last and got there first. however, he wished to go on a hike so robin and i had to wait in the nearby town while he hiked. being sunday, everything was closed. so we watched the office on my laptop unitl it died. then we waited for  2 1/2 hours. we became so bored that we literally calculated teh percentages of which cars were most common on austrian roads. the most common was by far volkswagen. if you were wondering.
upon our return, we heard stories of other people's travel weekends. a large group of girls randomly chose a paris hostel not really knowing it was in the absolute worst part of paris. one group heard someone knocking on the door and when the girl answered the door a very large black man started to force his way in. the girl threw her full ( and not very large) body weight into the door and locked him out. it was  a literal miracle. he then proceeded to do what he could to break in the door which he failed to do. two other girls were walking to their room and a man was following them. they walked faster and so did he. they ran and so did he. again, by a miracle, they managed to get in before he did. the same girl also lost her passport in a cab and miraculously had it returned to her. all i could say was wow. another group went to paris, stayed in a hotel and had an amazing and safe time. so....that is it.

well, now i need to leave. that was travel weekend though.

so long ago.

i have no idea how long it has been but it feels like two seconds ago since i last blogged. i just got back from english camp. it was amazing! we had so much fun...the kids were great. coming back to the bode though....i have literally never in my life been so excited. i was extatic and proceeded to very loudly hug anyone and anything in sight. it felt like i was coming home to old family and friends.

well if there is one thing german kids do know, it is english swear words. they learn english from the great american films such as american pie and proceed to use these words frequently. the sweetest little kid would mess sonething up and say oh $#!7. it was terribly comical. being one of five guys left to look after nearly fifty boys, i had my work cut out for me. every night we were told t crack bones to get the kids in bed. this proved to be an enormously satisfiyng power rush. bellowing at a cowering rule breaker as they quell before your might leaves one feeling quite authoritative. however, the smell of prepubescent boy was so powerful on the hall we had to breathe through our mouths as we waked down the hall. and unfortunately the germans do not stress deoderant but rather stress axe body spray which does nothing but choke all living things in a one meter radius.

the girls stayed in the conference center part and had down comforters and soft beds and walk in closets. since there were so few guys, we stayed on the top floor in a room where the roof slanted to about four feet. we slept on bunk beds made for kittens andi crakced my head on the nightstand every time i rolled over.  but the overall experience was great. we taught all the boys to say git´r done and shake n bake. they taught us swears.

never in my life have i made such a fool of my self deliberately so many times in a row. i invented a dance called the spaztik ragdoll which they got a video of.  i kind of miss the kids but being here is too amazing.

travel weekend is thursday and me and Robin are in charge of cooking for the hut so i have a busy week preparing that. so much more to report but frankly i am exhausted and want to go hug more people so goodbye.