And One for Multi-lingual Europeans
Dear reader, there’s something I want to share with you. I have a good friend named Paul. I’ve known him since I was a young lad of 18. When I was a freshman, he was kind of my mentor in the ways of College. Sometimes, he would assume a German accent and say, “I advise you to vake up…ZE TIME IS NEIN!” When Will and I got to Europe, we asked Paul to send us a recording of him saying this. He did it within hours. Every day so far in Germany, we’ve woken up at 09:00 to Paul saying that very phrase. I set it as my alarm. Usually, our dorm starts laughing whenever they hear it.
Early in the day, we switched hostels. We moved into a place called the Amstel House hostel. It was nice. For breakfast, the lady at the front recommended we go to a place called the Back Factory. I think the name comes from Bäckerie, the German word for bakery (or something really close to that). Surprise! It’s a bakery. Will and I had delicious baked goods, including a pretzel-croissant.
We couldn’t check in until like, 14:30 or something, so I decided to be productive. My veterinary school said that I had to take and complete an online course in the ethical treatment of animals for biomedical research and teaching…before August 1st (the day we get back from Europe). I sat down and started reading. A few hours later, I passed. The course was really, really easy. I think with some logic and a bit of luck you could pass. A lot of questions were like:
Should you:
A) Slaughter baby eagles every day forever.
B) Use anesthesia or analgesics whenever possible to minimize suffering.
C) Do major surgeries over and over on the same animal – without anesthesia.
D) Punch a cat in the face.
However, you needed 17/20 to pass, so it’d take a little bit of luck on the procedural questions (e.g., what does organization X do?). After that, I caught up on the blog. I was like 12 entries behind (thanks, no internet hostels!).
Will and I had seen a Pizza Hut sign at the central train station, so we were very excited. We wanted Pizza Hut buffet. It’s infinite not-bad food for like 6 bucks. We took two subways to get there, only to find that it was Pizza Hut Express – no buffet. We were so sad.
After that, Will went back to the hostel and hung out at the bar. I went on a pub crawl. The first person I met there was an American guy named Mike. He started talking about guns (HE STARTED IT). This was not surprising; he was from Texas. He owns a whole closet.
While I was talking to Mike, a German girl named Anna bounced over and introduced herself. She was from a small town in western Germany that I don’t remember the name of. We talked about cool things, like history, and danced around. Eventually, we learned that Anna’s friend, Suzie, had gotten way too drunk and wandered off with some Australian guy at least ten years her senior.
Anna and I set off to find her. The S-Bahn wasn’t exactly working, so we walked about a third the length of Berlin to get to Alexanderplatz (their hostel, commercial center of Berlin). It was crazy. I only knew where we were going about half the time. It was an adventure!
Will’s Corner
Apparently, I am forbidden from saying what should and must be said in this corner. You’ll just have to guess for yourself.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Joe,
You know. Yeaaah, you know. You know all things.
Love,
Will and Andy
No comments:
Post a Comment