Playa Loma Bonita - Surfing and Yogic Awesomeness!

Wow…all I can say is “wow.” 5 days at Play Loma Bonita was awesome. I threw up a buncha photos on Facebook that show how beautiful and awesome the location is. The property sits on a small bluff looking over a completely desolate and quietly beautiful stretch of the Mexican Pacific Coast, about 40km south of Zihuatanejo. The owners, this super cool guy named Ron and his wife Liz did this place up right. Ron is a former professional surfer, and his wife is just generally awesome. It’s their sorta family retreat that happens to also hold up to 15 people in little villas and the main house. Other than the small village nearby, there are no structures for like 20 miles along the coast. The coolest part, is that this place is a wave magnet. Ron’s been surfing here for 20 years. Seriously, there were double overhead sets (that’s 12 ft. for my non-surfing friends) of waves that built to nearly triple overhead on Friday. It. Was. Heavy. Lotsa juice too, behind all the waves. This wasn’t your grandma’s surf. This was “you can get into a very bad place very quickly” surf. Our total was three broken boards, two broken leashes and innumerable “oh, crap” moments when you were scraping to make it over a wave about to remind you just how insignificant we truly are when in Mother Ocean. I hopped in to body surf a few times as well, and had a ball. The water was like 80 degrees… pure ahhhhhh… You can see a video of the surfing madness that I took, below.

The yoga was awesome as well. Ron and Liz built two super cool yoga shalas on the property – one big curvy one on the bluff, and one down on the beach that is a big circle. The layout of the shalas makes you think that Ron and Liz had been doing yoga for decades, given the intelligence with which they were constructed, but actually they don’t actually do much yoga (well..that's about to change!).

Our instructors/ goddesses/ general-awesome ladies were a pair of friends – Elise Lorimer and Malachi Melville. They’ve been practicing and teaching yoga for like 15 years each. Way cool. They’re super bendy, ridiculously strong, and pound-for-pound a helluva lot stronger than I or many of my triathlete friends are. They’ve got an incredible intuitive teaching ability and just can feel what you’re going through in class/life etc, and can adapt instantaneously to it. Malachi teaches and leads the teacher training program at YogaWorks in Santa Monica, and Elise leads

the TT at YogaTreeSF. Their collective experience is fantastical. (love that word – thanks Bush!). It’s awesome to watch such grace paired with such humility and playfulness. It’s also wonderful to simply be a student, learning from much more experienced and evolved teachers. I can’t wait to share some of my newly acquired knowledge with my students.

Funny thing about having super huge surf, is that Mother Nature’s soundtrack is so present and overwhelming that you neither need nor want anything else. I didn’t hear anything electronic for almost 5 entire days..and it was most excellent. This did sort of prove to be problematic when simply chatting, or trying to lead a yoga class, given the depth and volume of sounds that massive waves produce, especially when you’re so close to them. (I did realize while diving impossibly deep and underneath one 12-14ft. monster on Saturday, that when one of them breaks directly over your head, it sounds like an avalanche bomb thrown by ski patrol – and oh..said wave snapped my leash and required a rather harrowing swim in). Falling asleep to the waves, a mere 50 meters away was a flash back to childhood.

Even weirder is what happens to your body when so far removed from everything – it begins a healing cycle. By late Thursday night, I felt this huge sense of melting lotsa crap and BS out of my life.. and by Friday morning I was essentially useless. Heavy, tired, like something was purging. All I wanted to do was sit, rest and sleep. Totally weird. My triathlon friends can identify with this as being similar to a taper before a race. If you taper too long, your body will go into rejuvenation and you’ll actually be sore and tired as your body rebuilds and strengthens itself. You just want to collapse and sit there. That’s what happened to me I think. By Saturday I was golden and felt …um… I dunno… different. I’m sure there’s a yogic or philosophical explanation to ponder, but I’ll just keep it simple: something left my body and I felt excellent. Perhaps it was the remaining sickness/ over-stimulation of attending the UltraMusicFestival in Miami the week before.. oh my… That’s the topic of an entirely different post though.

After all that, and probably the entire reason I was brought here to Playa Loma Bonita, was so I could figure something out. I realized that sometimes, something we really want to do, or think we really want to do, is just actually something we’re talking ourselves into doing (wait did that make sense?). I made a decision about something I thought was important to me or I needed to do, but in the end it turns out pursuit of that idea was creating a shit-ton of disharmony in my life, and generally a source of much hullaballoo and frustration/sadness/”are you kidding me?”. It also wasn’t worth sacrificing what I would have had to sacrifice in order just to say “hey, I did…..blah blah blah.” I bet “blah blah blah” was going to get in the way of something more important and more awesomely cool, that I haven’t discovered yet… As they say, “time will tell” I hope this finds you all well and good and full of life, love and particularly tasty wine. Shanti, T

Pura Vida, Om Nama Shivaya, Shaka Bro...

Duuuuuuude....

This place is awesome. Nosara and Playa Guiones, Costa Rica, are fantastical (thanks Hillz for that word). Jesus' Birthday was awesomely spent here, surfing and making friends with the people here who hail from literally all over the world. After 4 days of hurricane force winds (aka "dry hurricane"), it has finally returned to a calm, hot and awesome Central American surf town, complete with dusty roads, $1.50 beers, and local Police looking for bribes (really? $440 for not wearing a helmet on a Quad? How about you take photos with all my hot yoga female friends?.. Ya..I thought so). Gotta love the "Gringo Tax."

The yoga studio here at Blue Spirit, Costa Rica, is quite possibly the most amazing place I've ever had the blessings to practice yoga in. Unbelievable. As per usual, it's about 75 women, and 25 dudes, so it's an intersting mix. Some of the women even shave their armpits... We had this "dudes group" thing, where we learned some Kalari Staff forms (think Indian Martial Arts... "Indian as in 'dot-not-feather' Indian"). Way cool. 25 dudes beating the crap out of each other with bamboo sticks. Put on some deep groove tunes with a solid bass line, and it's actually quite cathartic. As most yoga classes and gatherings begin and end in an "Ommmmmmmmmm" chant, we did one with all 25 of us. Our guide told us to "Om from your balls..." It was friggin hilarious....but ...25 dudes in a monosyllabic chant was also pretty awesome. For a few moments I thought I was in Tibet.

We've got a famous Kirtan guy here, who is playing tonight (Dave Stringer), and it's pretty awesome to be doing handstand, while some dude is singing live during your 3 hour yoga class. I'm not sure whether to laugh, cry or smile. Curious crap. I think I'm a bit loopy from having to eat vegetarian food and vegan food for a week. I've already lost 4 pounds in 8 days. Seriously, the minute I get back to ATL, I'm not even driving home..I'm headed to an airport restaurant and having a steak and a friggin beer. Maybe even some nachos and chicken wings.

I actually wore my Atlanta Falcons Jersey to a bar here on Monday night, where I watched the Falcons lose a heartbreaker to the New Orleans Saints. Some dude had his Saints gear on. No kidding.. A NO Saints World Champions polo and a hat. It was funny as hell. We wagered beers and shared collective stress. That's ok, they can have the season game...we'll take the NFC Champoinship.

As usual, I could babble on incessantly, but I've got to eat some more beans and rice and "Clense Appropriate" vittles.... after that...we're all sneaking out to the Banana Club for proper Cerveza, shitty food and Reggae Night with the locals. Should be good fun... A lot of us are itching to go shake our Costa Rican groove thing and have some Imperial Cerveza... I might have to miss my plane...until April or May...

(and oh..the waves are PUMPING right now... I could barely drive the quad back to the resort, my arms are so sore....or maybe it was the 108 mandala chaturanga we did...

Pura Vida!

Large.

Places and People of our youth...

(Sunset over Huntington Beach. December 9)

Hola !

I'm off galavanting around the planet again, this time to a 10 day yoga and surfing retreat in Costa Rica. I know. Tough to be me. The benefit, is as a yoga teacher, I'll be taking ample notes for ideas to use during my classes; and therefore, this trip is a legal tax deduction. Even better. Better teaching = more students = more revenue for the yoga studio owner = larger taxes. So the US Government is actually investing in its taxable future by subsidizing my trip to Costa Rica to learn more about yoga and the fluid nature of life. I'll be "roughing it" at Blue Spirit Retreat. Everybody wins!

Speaking of yoga, I play a song during my yoga classes that has the line: "work hard to bridge the gaps in geography between those who knew you while you were young. They are the best link to your past." I've tried to make that a mantra lately.

I recently heard from my childhood best friend, Tim Baldwin, who is shacking up with a seriously beautiful wife and awesome kids in Illinois. Lucky dude. It's always cool to see your dear friends succeed in life. I flew out to the land of farms, football and friends, to reconnect with him after 30 ish years of separation, and catch up as only those who shared those formative years can. I can't wait to head back. He found me in the yearbook of life, aka "Facebook." Thanks Zuckerberg! Yes, that's a photo of us at our Kindergarted graduation. That's Tim rocking the plaid. Notice me when I had hair. Ahhh the good old days.

Having the good fortune to pre-holiday with my mom and family a few weeks before Jesus' Birthday, I got to paddle out into the surf of my childhood break in Huntington Beach, CA. There's nothing quite like your home sand between your toes, and the colourful brilliance that is a Southern California sunset. The smog makes for awesome colours in the twilight, and the lights of the oil rigs dance across the water.... ahhh...

I also recently hit up San Diego for a visit with my best friend from University, Todd Nelson (the same Todd Nelson of previous adventures in Switzerland). He lives directly in the flight path of the Blue Angels as they demonstrate some seriously insane acrobatics in $40 million jet aircraft. Great day with old college friends. It's amazing how the bonds of friendship never wane. They get put on Pause while you're apart, and come roaring back when you're together. You always find yourself wishing you had more time for more beers and catching up...

In these Holiday times that so orbit family connections, let us not forget our friends of old, and those future best friends we've only just met. I've had the blessing to meet new and cool friends in Atlanta, and yet another super cool dude named Todd... Todd Lappi... He and Todd Nelson and I must go out to a bar soon. That would be awesome.

And now..as I'm about to meet 90 new yoga and surfing friends for 10 days.. I wonder who will be added to the list...

Happy Holidays to all!

Thievery Corporation, and Thieves!

So, as I go out and about here in Atlanta, I've decied to go play and check out the various awesome theaters and concert venues. I went with some new Atlanta friends to go see Thievery Corporation and Massive Attack at the Fox theater. Talk about an awesome piece of history! It's done up in all Middle Eastern coolness and vibe, from the 1920s... way awesome. And hey...who knew that Thievery Corporation and Massive Attack could fire up such a diverse crowd? To the best of my knowledge previously, they're all downtempo and mellow... Whoa my...no way..they thumped it! Way fun.... We danced all night. Massive Attack was pretty dark and heavily thumping... I wasn't sure whether I should be scared or aroused...

So...onto the genesis and intent of this post... Thieves. I was appreciating Thievery Corp, last week...and well..the thieves came back for a visit. Only unfortunately, the Thieves were of the illegal kind. So check this out:

I come out to my truck and find the back door sorta open..sorta not. Curious. I look inside and realize that someone decided they wanted some of my stuff. Here's the weird part: what they took vs. what they left.

I mean..crooks are all pretty stupid, and meth addicts I think must be on the bottom of the stupidity scale... I mean c'mon..they took my quarters, but left the $20 bill sitting next to them. They took an empty sunglasses case, but left the brand new Oakleys. They took my Starbucks free drink coupon, but left the 50% off Mexican food coupon (mmmm Moes..) Really? WTF? The took my iPod, and the charger cable, but left the $25 charger block thing. I seriously hope they like Trance music and Above and Beyond, because that's all that was on my Shuffle. Ntz Ntz Ntz...

I would like, however, to thank the meth addicts for not breaking a window or scratching my door when they were rifling through my center console and glove compartment. And hey...who needed all that extra stuff in my center console? Now it's all nice and clean.. and I even found 11 pens.. (duuuude... 11 pens??).

And oh..nice... it snowed today in North Atlanta... SNOW!??!

Both sides of employment...

Howdy y'all, (insert proper Southern accent here),

Alas, it's indeed been a while, but after much hullabaloo, I have decided to share more adventures of the South, that cannot be captured upon Facebook (I'm not that into twitter, so I use Facebook..)...

We're always told to respect and amire our parents, and sometimes we even believe that (even when we don't need money!). My mom...the lovely lass who decided to put me here on the planet, decided to forgo gainful employment last week, and join the ranks of the unemployed. Yes...she "retired." This brings mixed emotions as her child. First off is "wait! hell I'm getting old if my mom is retiring!" Fortuitously, she had me at 40, so I'm ok still here at 29. Secondly, is "awww man I wanna retire!"

For said momentous occasion, I decided to fly back to California, for some proper beach time and surprise mom on her retirement day. Needless to say, Operation: "Surprise mom in California on her Retirement Day" was an unbridled success. :) Excellent. As I walked into her office at her work, she looked up and said to me "yes, can I help you..." Wait for it..... Waiting.... optical character recognition software processing... "ohhh!!! my baby is here!!!!" Folks we have a winner.

A few hours later, the family gathered by the Huntington Beach Pier for dinner... the pier whereat in my youth I played volleyball, fell in love with the ocean, and scraped my entire body upon its barnacle encrusted pilings one time too many after a surfing wipeout. A check in the mirror reminds me daily of those interactions with the pier, forever imprinted in my back... It's funny when you have dinner with the family now, as an adult. We all have our adult lives, adult problems, but you somehow always are reminded of when you were a kid....

If we could all, only remember those childhood days, and the innocence/fun/sense of adventure, and pay it forward into today.... Speaking of childhood fun...my best friend Todd from University (starring role in the previous blog posts from Switzerland in 2008), had his yearly Blue Angels watching party at his house in San Diego... Awesome..! They fly right over his house, which makes it an awesome place to view some of America's awesome airborne fighter power.. USA! USA! USA! This road-trip certainly made for an interesting weekend.. Atlanta --> San Diego flight, San Diego --> Huntington Beach for surprise and mom, HB --> SD for blue angels, SD --> Atlanta to make it home in time for the Falcons game (I bought season tickets.. and they were playing the 49ers...FUN!).

With that..... I shall promise to be more forthcoming with sharing my musings of the South, yoga and various travels around the planet...

I hope y'all are well!!

LaBerge

Alas, back to the Real World?!?!

NEWS FLASH: I uploaded some hilarious videos of Oktoberfest that can be found here. (seriously, they're greatly entertaining). Also, I found some additional photos on my hard drive from my Piemonte (click here) and Dolomite (click here) trips. They're other peoples' pix from our groups... way cool to see what everyone finds photo worthy. Check them all out!!

Home Home!!
Alas, I have returned. I’ve been home for a week now, and seriously believe I could get into this whole collect-paychecks-while-hanging-out lifestyle. It’s amazing how quickly you can fill a day with stuff to do, friends to visit and things to clean. I hereby offer myself up to be a man of leisure, to any company that has a few extra bucks to dole out.


Everyone wants to know if this was some sort of life-changing experience. To that, I can honestly say both “yes and no.” Yes, as always, you get to reflect back and appreciate that which you hold dear, and realize also that the stupid crap we occupy ourselves with on a daily basis…is just that… stupid crap. Seriously, think about the crap and drama you deal with right now. What creates it? If you cut out or don’t tolerate drama, eventually those causing it in your life will find another person to get similarly flustered at all their life trials. It’s quite freeing I shall admit.

The most liberating experience I had, was turning off my cell phone. Other than writing this blog, I stayed as disconnected as possible. I had thought about dropping off the grid entirely, but I’m thankful I kept a blog. Seriously, turning off your phone for a day. Or two.. I know…it’s like crack. I mean seriously, how will the world exist if we aren’t immediately available? We’re not that important. Really, we’re not (well, ok..I’m not.. I admit it. I doubt anyone at work even noticed I was gone). I used to find myself sending text messages or checking email/voicemail when I had a free 30 seconds. C’mon, you know you do too. I now laugh at the people who walk around with their Bluetooth headsets in their ears. I mean seriously people…do you REALLY need to have that thing in your ear, like some sort of electronic tumor, ever-ready to take an important call from global leaders, while you’re eating at a restaurant? You don’t look cool, you look like a dumbass (I bet they wear Crocs too!). I have now begun to snicker and point at these people, causing them much dismay and anxiety.

I haven’t driven a car in almost 2 months, yet I find myself immediately back into the auto-centric California Lifestyle. Realizing that trains aren’t that bad, I’ve managed to find a way to do public transportation (well..light rail..cuz only losers ride the bus). Rather than buy a car that gets better gas mileage, why not simply drive less? We’ll see how long it lasts…

As I read back through my blog entries, I find myself immediately immersed back into my sabbatical journeys. I must say that it’s an honor and pleasure to have people who actually subscribed to my blog. I know you all have real lives that are vastly more important and satisfying than mine, so I’m flattered that you wanted to read along as I spent an average of $711 a day, and traveled Europa. Yes, in case you were wondering, I managed to stay on budget (miraculous I know). With a $40k budget for 8 weeks (hey, I saved for 5 years..), I spent $39,864.11. Yes, even 11 cents. I’m an engineer. It’s interesting watching the currency fluctuations as well. For the same 200EU I took out at the atm’s, I was charged between $284 and $296. Thankfully the dollar grew in strength while I was away.

My top 10 favourite moments in chronological order: 1) Day Three of my Piemonte Cycling trip, where we had an amazing lunch, and I hung out in the hammock after 4 glasses of wine and 50 miles. 2) Having poolside wine with everyone at the Monastery Hotel thing, on our last two days in Piemonte. 3) Riding up the massive Passo Giau with Steve and our guide Enrico during the Dolomites. 4) The endless and too-big-to-seem-real views of the Eiger as Todd#2 and I hiked all over the Jungfrau region – Everywhere you looked, there it was! 5) Say it with me: “TIESTO!!” 6) Lake Como – Wow….you must go! 7) Anything to do with a Beer Tent in Oktoberfest…holie molie!! 8) The German Train System. 9) The Munich Olympic Stadium. 10) Reflecting back on it all…

My 10 Most curious, sub-optimal and/or WTF!?!? Moments…. 1) Missing my stop because the Italian Train system sucks. 2) American Soldiers in Foreign Lands. 3) English Tourists on Ibiza (my #1 worst!) 4) The Dollar to Euro exchange rate – OUCH! 4) My hangover after 11 litres at Oktoberfest (but well-earned I might add!) 5) Missing teaching yoga 6) Everyone in Europe smokes 7) Craving Mexican food…. 8) The S.H.E. I encountered on the plane to Ibiza. 9) $12 for a 25 cent bottle of water at Tiesto, and 10) I go back to work tomorrow…

And so, as I return to my “real” life, I cannot believe it’s been 8 weeks already. Wow. I also cannot believe I uploaded 26 blog entries, and put 794 photos on Flickr. Holie 8 gigabyte SD card Batman!!

Not wanting to fill up your email Inboxes with random drivel for the rest of our lives, I’m going to deactivate Feedburner’s automatic updates, unless you’d like me to keep you on it. If so, let me know. I’m sure I can find things to ramble/rant/poke fun at/ generally enliven your days with.

I want to sincerely thank everyone who sent notes, made comments and lived vicariously through me during the past two months. I have another sabbatical in 6 more years, but somehow I doubt it’ll be this fun, interesting and laden with surprises. Then again..who knows. I’m blessed to have had the opportunity and resources to make this grand journey, and am forever thankful for my friends who came along to keep me company. I’m touched, humbled and just a bit crazier than before. I love you all. You made my trip what it was.

Naturally, I’ll always gladly share more in-depth versions of all these stories…. Just let me know where, and make sure they have weissbier...

Cheers and peace to all, as I am truly blessed by having you in my life.
Todd

Final Dayz in Germany

thoughts on a plane, finishing up Germany and the Vaterland....

(and after some positively tasty Italian Chardonnay).

Allow me to expand on something that more than several dozen people have found peculiar about me (you only get one per blog entry, lest this be novel-esque): I studied all that is Germany and its culture for the better part of 14 years, starting before Junior High School, and ending a few years after I graduated University. Well, that's not appreciably weird, but the scratch-your-head mystery that I shall reveal herewith.... is that for a country and people I studied so fervently, I had never actually set foot on German soil. No, really. Not even a stopover on a further journey to somewhere else. Thousands of hours studying, reading German newspapers, magazines and watching German TV, and not once had I ever been to the land of the big D. (no... not Dallas and certainly not Divorce). I even have a Minor in German, from University.

The only in-country German I had even spoken up to this point, was in Switzerland. No, I hadn't fallen in love with a deliciously Teutonic lass of fair skin and hair, nor was I even fairly certain where Germany was when I started my linguistic quest (c'mon I was 11). Indeed an exercise in futility if there ever was one..... right up to about last Thursday when I got here. Whereas my initially conceived plan - exuding vast quantities of 11 year old logic - was to learn German so I could translate World War II movies, and discuss important global topics with my mom's business partners from Germany, it inevitably had to be altered (again, I was only 11 when said plan was hatched). My plan evolved, as they all do, and shifted its culmination into working in International Business, after I got my MBA, and then happily jaunt back and forth across the Atlantic and do splendidly miraculous things for BMW, SAP, Mercedes or another similarly cool company. (yet again, said plan has deviated substantially)...

Alas, this is perhaps what makes me such a fan of engineering, neatly ordered society, and extravagantly tall women. The Germans, you see, are a big people. They're not the enchantingly well-attired, yet effeminately built Italians, or the fire-plug stout of the Irish, but rather a sizable and hearty breed, where the women can pull your tractor out of a ditch, and the men can form wrought iron with their teeth.. Well, that may be a stretching a bit, but again, like in Zurich, I found myself tilting my head skyward toward a veritable plethora of statuesque women and astonishingly chiseled men. Too bad some psychopath about 70 years ago went and put all their might, brilliance and national pride to work for evil causes. When put to good use, their collective ingenuity produces such wondrous creations as the Munich Olympic Stadium, BMW's and Weiss Bier.

After spending some time around Germany, I've certainly become a fan of the aforementioned engineering feats, and especially all that is Weissbier and Wurst - and not necessarily in that order. I encountered something both perplexing and oddly comforting while on a train headed into the Vaterland that I feel compelled to query the world with. The Germans, you see, are all about convenience, ensuring efficiency and comfort, and understanding that a little extra effort goes a long way to improve everyone's lives. I was on an Italian-based train from Lake Como to Munich (If you need me to explain where those locales are, please stop reading my blog immediately, and go vote for Sarah Palin for VP...she needs more people like you), and did not once change trains along the way. When we hit the Austrian Border, the train stopped, a new German locomotive coupled itself to our merry wagon, and off we went to locations further northwest-ish. Imagine my surprise when, from this point on, it was revealed (first time ever mind you), that the Italian train cars actually have speaker systems, through which you can announce train stops. Marvelous technology I must say. This comes mightily in handy when say....you miss your stop at Arquata Scrivia when you first set foot onto the land of the Boot, some 6 weeks ago (see previous blog post).

**side note...every time I type "blog," spellchecker wants to make it "glob'" how funny.. **

A pleasantly voiced and wonderfully gracious German conductor first introduced himself, and then proceeded to announce all of our subsequent stops, even 5-10 minutes early so you could prepare yourself. Now, all we did was change conductors and the big red thing that converts electricity into motion at the front end of the train. It's not like a train guy has so much going on that he can't announce a train stop a few kilometers away (well, except when texting moronically in Los Angeles). So what gives with the Italians not really bothering with pressing a button on a microphone, and informing us of our immediate future?? Oh ya...the Italians think air conditioning gives you cancer, so now I understand.. How though, someone please explain to me, can a culture spend so much time developing unparalleled cuisine and magnificently fermented grape juice - not to mention amazing haut couture - and not have it in them to announce train stops? Oh ya, perhaps that's why their GNP falls somewhere between Uzbekistan and Nebraska.
There's order and understood social responsibility too in Germany. People actually pay to use the Underground train system, though there's no one to check your tickets, or even ensure that you bought one or validated it. (except for the long distance over-land trains). I actually felt a sense of guilt when I (shhhhhh don't tell anyone) didn't buy a ticket one day when I was supposed to cuz I was outta caysh-money and the credit card swipey thing wasn't working... Signs inside the trains graphically warn of what happens to the "SchwarzenFahrer" (black travelers) when identified, but politely says after intimate details of prosecution and fines, to "please save us and yourself the bother, and pay for your ticket."

This said, nothing broods and festers mal-adjusted youth quite so copiously, as a somewhat repressed and ordered society. This makes for excellent people watching indeed. Sorta like how the English spawned punk-rockers, and the Japanese go crazy whenever they're not on the Island of the Rising sun... I saw some immense and gravity-defying mohawks and hair designs, while additionally marveling at how someone chews with 12 lip rings (yes, I counted). But the ironic thing, is that these freak-shows-seeking-attention, are quite polite actually. I was on an underground S-Train (cuz again, the trains rock), and this old lady of about 184 years, came in and needed a seat. One of Germany's more colourfuly decorated hair models got up, asked the centenarian if she would like his seat, and proceeded to politely excuse his way through the crowd to where he could grab onto a handhold. Go figure.

People on the street are more than happy to practice their English with you, and allow you to practice your German on them (or, in the rare exception that your waitress doesn't speak English, then alas, your gastronomic stability is dependent thereupon). It seems, when not trying to take over the world, the Germans are the most fantastically polite and welcoming people you could hope to encounter.

Watching the countryside fly by at 250kph this morning, I realized that its natural beauty and adorable villages are beyond compare, its people gloriously fun to talk to, and it possesses a culture that has bonded together to arise like the Phoenix from the ashes of two World Wars. Having your country leveled not once, but twice, certainly changes a people. They're jovial survivors, partiers, occasionally poor dressers (dude...Birkenstocks and black socks!?!?!), and have a love of life that is hidden juuuuust under the surface. All you need to do is scratch it just a bit..

I'm now both validated in my decision at 11 years of age, and intrigued even further.
I must return to this country again, very soon.