Taco – Page 46

A Return to Blogging

June 21, 2014 by Taco

So,

If you remember my previous post, you’ll recall that I mentioned I wouldn’t be updating my blog anytime soon. Well, turns out that was definitely true since its been nearly two years since I touched it. If you don’t remember my previous post, then go read it, it’s literally the post right before this one, never-mind the two year gap. [Its titled “The Beginning“]

Returning to the present, I’ve decided to return to my blog. I can’t say for sure how regularly I’ll be “blogging,” but I’ve taken the initiative to at least get the thing back up and running. You’ll also notice that I’ve changed the title and HTML address of my blog. This was done for a couple of reasons. First, while its nice to have my exact name as a blog address, that also poses some inherent privacy issues. Not that I posted anything of any real concern, but given my possible life path (Columbia Drug Lord by day, apprentice to Victor von Doom by night), I figured I should probably be a little more private. Not that I intend for this blog to be especially public, at least until I decide I want to take the time to nom’ ad revenue or something. In light of this, I’ll be using one of my nicknames in place of my real name. Second, and arguably more important is that my old title “13,366.4” miles was nice for that portion of the blog, but it doesn’t really do any justice to this point onward. The problem with looking at distance traveled is that you are always moving forward. Since I last posted I’ve seen a lot more stuff and taken a lot more steps. Does that dilute my past experience? No not at all. But at the same time it is now part of a larger journey. So the name has been changed. If you know anything about me, me at all, the new name (At the time of this post: Dinosaurs, Squirrels, and Bears) will not be surprising. I might change it in the future, but for now it is what it is.

Moving on to other things. I’ll remind you of a few points to keep in mind as you read this blog.

1. As of right now, its written for me, not you. Yes, you. The entire idea behind my blogging at this point is not to make money or even generate traffic. Its to keep a record of my life, because I have a cool life and so do you (if you have a blog-diary, please let me know so I can e-stalk you as well). So generally speaking, when I refer to “You” I’m actually talking to some future version of myself, but due to the magical blend between formal and informal “you” in the English language it works well for anyone else reading it as well.

2. I have horrible spelling and grammar. Believe it or not, I am apparently a pretty good writer. I’ve had articles in journals, written a thesis that scored in the top 5% for the program, as well as wrote essays well enough to get into law school. But that is on my “professional” time (i.e. those periods in which I don’t spend 7 hours journeying down the rabbit hole of Wikipedia after clicking on one link). For this blog, I probably won’t spend much time spell checking or doing grammar, because I don’t like doing it for casual writing, which is precisely what this blog is.

3. I have an odd sense of humor that may or may not be offensive to you at times. Sorry, my blog. Murka’

4. I cannot guarantee I will post frequently, or that my posts will feature amazing stuff on a daily basis. When you aren’t traveling the world or fighting fascism on a regular basis, you kind of have to just blog about whatever you have before you, kind of like a diary, see point 1. I also ~~might~~ will whine sometimes, that is sort of what blogs are for.

5. Feel free to comment on anything, past, present, or future. WordPress tells me when comments come in, so I’ll see it (at some point). HAL becomes angry if too many comments go unnoticed and I really prefer not to be stuck outside the airlock again.

6. Thanks to my Meem for helping me with both this blog and my old one. Plubs.

7. I don’t really have a seventh point, but odd numbers are the number master-race. I guess something important to share for you “others” would be to check the “Recent Posts” to make sure you haven’t missed any posts. I don’t like having billions of posts on one long scrolling page, so if its been a bit since you visited you may have posts that you haven’t seen that aren’t immediately visible. You could always just click “Older Posts” at the bottom as well. OR you could just subscribe over on the side (or bottom) of the page.

———-

I think I’ll wrap things up there for now. This serves as a nice return post. I liked my habit of closing with a picture, so I’ll try to continue that. At least when I have a cool picture to share. This post has no pictures that would really relate to it, so here is a random photo of a Douglas A-4F Skyhawk II, this particular plane was a Blue Angel. Photo was taken at the Boeing Museum of Flight in Seattle, WA.

Until next time,
-Taco

The Beginning

August 5, 2012 by Taco

Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end

Well, its taken me awhile to write this post, and I figured it might. There was a lot of processing that needed to be in in regards to my Europe trip. I wanted to give myself enough to time to adjust to being back at home and also to really reflect on everything that happened. This isn’t a post to recount details of the missing portions of the trip, refering to that space between my initial time in Berlin and the trip home. Those may or may not be covered in SB’s blog (depending on her procrastination), and my time recounting specifics has come to an end.

So what do I have to say? Well, Semisonic sort of said it best, which is I chose to open with that verse. Europe was both the end of a certain phase of my life, as well as the beginning of another. The past year has been exponentially rough for me, for a myriad of reasons both known and private. Europe was an opportunity to remove myself from everything I knew and completely jump into an environment in which I was absolutely, totally, alone. And I survived, I came out stronger than when I went in. There were times when I was genuinely upset, times when I was nervous, heck even scared, and there were certainly times when I was angry, but it all formed some large and complex experience that I’ve never had the chance to appreciate anything like before.

I was able to do so, so, much, that I often can barely comprehend that I did it all in such a relatively short amount of time. Sure, there was the academic experience, which I came out of with two more A’s for the record books, but that’s only a fraction of the overall experience…

I’ve lived in a socialistic country, I’ve sailed the Scandinavian coasts in a 200 year old vessel, I’ve rode in a train controlled only by a computer, I’ve traversed palaces and parliaments, I’ve kayaked in the North Sea, walked in the footsteps of my ancestors, scaled the steps of fortresses, celebrated ancient traditions in the Danish countryside, gazed upon the fjords of Norway, stood in a Swedish church dating back a millennium, seen the resting place of an entire monarchy, seen multitudes of the largest collections of the finest alcohols in the world, stood in the very spot where Hitler outlined his plans for Europe, followed the Soviet path through the final advance in Berlin, touched the Berlin wall, stood inside the gas chambers of Dachau and witnessed the same scenery that the 1.5 million victims of Auschwitz would have seen in their final moments of life, I’ve rode a train at 175mph, I’ve seen the Bavarian Alps, relaxed on the same balcony as Hitler, ate inside the roar of a German beer hall, walked the grassy knolls of the Tier and Englischer gartens, seen a rainbow above the fields of Poland, stood at the monument for Grunwald, traversed countless cobbled roads, and stood above the very spot where the war that claimed over 50 million lives came to a sudden, jarring, stop.

And that’s only scratching the surface.

So where do I go from here? Well, that’s a question I can’t answer just yet. I still have a few decision to make about both the immediate, and long range future that I just haven’t came to any clear conclusion on. But hey, I’m doing things the European way, which means I have all the time in the world, this chaotic fast paced world of the States can take a chill pill for awhile 🙂

What would I do different? Well, by and large I was extremely satisfied with my time in Europe, but hindsight is always 20/20 and naturally there are a few things I would change. Firstly, more time, though I wonder if there is every such a thing as enough time to be honest. I’d have loved to have spent more time in all of the countries, even Denmark since I wasn’t able to see hardly any of Jutland. Beyond simply wanting more time, I would have definitely went about my enrollment in DIS differently. For one, I would probably have cut them out entirely and just directly enrolled into the University of Copenhagen myself. Also, I’d have arranged my own housing in a kollegium of my choice. DIS is a good program, but they weren’t a good program for me. That being said, I don’t regret anything, but if I were to ever do it again, I think I’d go the entirely individual route and leave programs such as DIS for the people who were far more interested in acting like they were 12 years old. I’d also pack less, truth be told, I packed less than any other American I encountered, but I could still do much, much less. I was able to make 1 pair of underwear last 7 days in Denmark because I didn’t really sweat, so 4 pairs could have lasted me a month. Sound gross? Well, it really isn’t. And when your entire life needs to be extremely mobile, fitting everything you need into one backpack provides immeasurable benefits, I now know this first hand.

Those are really the only things I think I would have done differently. I challenged myself on an individual level every step of the way and I overcame every single obstacle I faced. I learned some things about myself, and I left some parts of me behind. I gained perspectives that no one who hasn’t been there could every really understand. I’m not trying to sound all snooty with that, but its really true, no matter how much you read about something, you really have to experience it, to come to understand it. And I’m not just referring to Denmark, though my time in other countries was brief there was still oh so much to gain, and I did, because I didn’t waste every second being drunk or high like 90% of my fellow students did. (Though to be fair a couple of nights in Germany were pretty “magical”)

As for whether or not I will go back, I will of course respond that its not a matter of if it is a matter of when. I am certainly a more knowledgeable traveler this time around, and I’ve also proven that I am quite capable of planning out very detailed itineraries if needed, including situations in which their is a massive language barrier (For the record the entirety of the vacation portion of the trip was planned by yours truly, and everything went off without any real issue). I’d like a more thorough trip of the British Isles, and I’d also like to see Italy and Greece (though Greece needs to calm down a bit first). There’s also huge swaths of the places I have been that need seeing, so there’s so much to do and thankfully still plenty of time for doing it.

Now I will say that I never had much desire to live anyplace I visited, that is until I went to Scotland, but that’s a non-issue until they possibly gain their independence in 2016. So while I have no immediate plans to hop on a plane and disappear off into the European countryside, I will definitely be going back, and who knows what the long term will bring, but I’m looking forward to it for the first time in a good while, and that’s really all that matters. I will say that I’m likely done with my current area though, no hard feelings, it will always be home, but I sincerely believe that this coming year will be my last in this area, and thankfully SB has the same idea. Of course that may change entirely, but I think I am ready for some new horizons, once you’ve seen whats out there, its very hard to be content with the roads you’ve always known.What’s nice about the U.S. is that its a big, big country (trust me you have no idea how “big” the U.S. is until you are outside looking in), so there’s lots of places to settle that aren’t so extreme as Europe.

But, as mentioned, a lot of that depends on what happens once I am done at Purdue.

And with all of that said, I think I’m going to go ahead and cut this post off. Sure, its a little shorter than many of my other posts, and there’s no tidbit of the day to end it on a humorous note, but then again, who said recollecting something had to be a terminus, I’d rather like to think of it as the beginning of something new entirely.

I won’t be updating the blog anytime soon, at least I have no plans to, but it will be here, prepped and ready for whatever lies ahead. 🙂 So to future me, remember everything contained in this blog thus far and pay special attention to whats written between the lines, as only you can see it! To everyone else, thanks for following along and dealing with what I’m sure has been a endless deluge of grammatical and spelling errors, but as I said in the beginning, deal with it, haha.

Tschüß!

Neither Forgotten Nor Lost

July 14, 2012 by Taco

Just as quick update to all of you who check my blog, I am alive and well. I haven’t been updating the blog recently for many of the reasons I mentioned earlier in addition to the fact that SB has been keeping somewhat up to date on our endeavors through her own blog. That, coupled with the fact that since entering German soil I have been in at least some state of inebriation has prevented me from blogging much. But have no fear, I will return as promised to recap some of the stuff that is missing in the intern as well as to list some of my final thoughts.

So until then, Tschüß!

(Tried to upload a picture of the Bavarian countryside, constant HTTP errors, interweb fail)

The First 72 Hours in Berlin

July 9, 2012 by Taco

Alright, so I am literally on the clock. My 4 year old laptop battery doesn’t last nearly as long as it used to and the hostel failed to mention the internet requires you to be in the lobby. Not a huge deal, but it makes it hard to be online for very long. Additionally, the wireless itself is sketchy, last night it was literally running slower than dial-up from 1995. So don’t expect much in the way of pictures, or length.

The flight from Copenhagen was pretty uneventful, there was a 20 minutes delay because the radio had to be replaced, and then some turbulence from the low cloud covers (getting to see the wings cutting the dense clouds was actually pretty sweet), but other than that, no large issues. When I landed in Berlin it was sprinkling, but nothing too heavy. Tegel airport ehm.. leaves much to be desired in the way of helping you navigate. See, I know a little German, but the thing is, the signs aren’t in Germany, they are just pictures. And not only are they just pictures, they are really, really confusing pictures. For instance, an ATM machine is a person holding a tiny, tiny square thing (it looks like a person holding a suitcase). And buses, well, it just lists the bus route, so if you don’t know what route you need, its kind of rough. But I managed, obviously. First interactions with Germans were not so pleasant, or maybe I’m just used to the reserved Danes by now, so that the in-your-face Germans are creating some culture shock. Additionally, these were airport and transport people, so they are normally mean anywhere you go. I found the bus I needed, TXL, which ended up being a horrific experience. Essentially, Tegel airport has no rail connections, so you HAVE to take a bus (or Taxis). The main bus that goes to the Hauptbahnhof (Central Station) is TXL. Well, it started pouring, and there were at least 2x as many people on the bus as it was designed to carry. Never in my entire life have I been so cramped on a bus, ever. People were literally on top of each other, and I do mean literally. The rain was also coming in the windows and vents, which no one could reach to close since it was so cramped. Once I got the station I was more than happy to get rained on.

I thought I got lost on the way to the hostel, but turns out it was just further down the street than I thought it was (or they advertised). Check in went smoothly, they spoke fairly decent English, and I went and unpacked. Later I went back to the station for some food, as, and I cannot emphasize this enough, the station is freaking massive. Since then I’ve done a lot of walking around, scouting us places for SB and I to go to. The only thing I’ve really done as far as going in someplace is touring the Reichstag (Think of it as German Parliament). The famous glass dome at the top is closing for the entirety of this week for cleaning, so I literally slipped into one of the very last tours. SB won’t be able to go up into the dome, but that’s what she gets for going to a beach in Grenada. Tough Tooties. Outside of that, I’ve really just been checking things out and getting oriented as mentioned. After studying Germany for two years I’ve been able to navigate the city largely without a map. Which is good, because maps make you a target, and beggars and thieves are everywhere here. In fact, within 30 seconds of entering the central station the first time I was practically mobbed by Turkish women wanting money for their children. Its a huge scam, and I knew about it, and they even followed the exact pattern I figured they would. No big deal until they tried to grab my backpack, but brushing them away works wonders, I think most people are too passive and therefore give them money and probably get pick-pocketed by their children (thieves in training) in the process.

The weather has been mixed, its either GORGEOUS or pouring and humid (I’ve also been dying in the 80 degree temperatures, those of you at home may laugh, but spend 6 weeks in the 60s with no humidity and the 80s seem like an inferno, also there is no AC here and the hostel window doesn’t open very far). I had to buy a new umbrella, mine literally snapped in half the first time I used it here. Purchasing it was my first full exchange in the German language, and it went smoothly. However, not all conversations are as easy as that one and I tend to stick to English whenever possible just to prevent massive confusion. The hostel hasn’t been too bad, but being my first hostel there is some adjusting that must be done, such as it being really crowded in all the public areas and always being loud. The first night wasn’t too bad, but then a group of 60+, 10-13 year old English children came and they spend most of their times running along the hallways randomly banging on doors then scurrying away in a trail of laughter. But all in all, its not bad. Especially since breakfast is supposed to cost money, but the past two days no one has been at the door, so its just been completely free. Its standard Continental fare, and no where near the quality of the Scottish hotel’s food.

But for today, I will be attempting to get back to Tegel to pick up SB this evening. Based on the complexity of the signs, and the lack of English (bus drivers speak none) I’m worried she’ll end up in Prague or someplace. I think I’ve figured out a way we can bypass the TXL bus, which I’m sure will be even worse with her larger suitcase. I’m looking forward to really getting started with being a tourist tomorrow and for showing SB some of the good food (Doner, Currywurst) as well as the places I’ve found. If it sounds like I’m cutting short, its because I am, my laptop is about to die. That and the French kids next to me are becoming increasingly annoying (i.e. being French).

Not sure when I’ll update next, it depends on time and internet. But all is well in Berlin, and I’ve already had two beers I’ve never had before, so I’m off to a good start! 🙂 My only qualm is that maps are not free here, I spent two hours trying to find a free one, and nope, they do not exist. The Police also have a MUCH larger presence here than in Copenhagen, but that’s not inherently a bad thing. Loving the history though, oh man, so much stuff everywhere.

Enjoy this one picture of the Reichstag, it took me 13 minutes to upload it.

-Taco

Scotland – Day 5

July 8, 2012 by Taco

The internet at this hostel is atrocious thus far, if I am able to connect for long enough I will try to do a post highlighting my trip to Berlin and initial adventures. No promises though, so far I can only connect to the Wi-Fi by using Linux and being persistent, and since Roboform doesn’t work on Linux, well, no Roboform = No Internet for me basically. The post will be tomorrow if it happens.
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And so my final day in Scotland began earlier than any of the others and I woke up to sunshine. The plan for the day was pretty straightforward, get up around 6:15am, use the real shower one last time, then head to breakfast, then gather as a group to hike up to the summit of Arthur’s Seat. Things started off according to plan, I woke up around 6:15am, after yet another night of my roommate talking to himself endlessly, but in all honestly I still felt fairly rested. As mentioned the sun was out, which was a welcome change since we were going to be hiking. I turned on the TV to give me something to listen to while getting ready, and found some local channel advertising things and playing music. The song that came on was “Scotland the Brave” sang by John McDermott. (You can listen to it here if you are interested). That, needless to say, got me in the mood to enjoy my last day in the Scottish countryside. After getting ready we all headed to lobby, where we checked out as a group, which went smoother than expected. After that we headed to breakfast where I enjoyed my last bit of haggis as well as way too much of everything else, since I knew after this it was back to pasta, cereal, and sandwiches. With breakfast eaten and the luggage stored in the temporary area, we headed out. On the tiniest little whim I stuck my small umbrella into my pack pocket on the off chance that I ended up needing it, this turned out to be the best decision of the day for me, but not for my umbrella. The walk to the base of the hills in Holyrood Park is actually pretty short from our hotel, only about 10-15 minutes. The photo below is from the very base of the hills, notice how the sunshine is already disappearing fast.

From there we started walking up, and would continue walking up for about the next 45 minutes. However, about 5 minutes into that trek, it started pouring. No, this was not the drizzle of the past few days, this was the pouring of Tuesday. What happened at that point, is that about 25% of the group immediately turned around and went back to the hotel, they were the first to go back, but not the last. Looking at the pictures, its kind of interesting because you really can’t seem to tell that it is raining as hard as it was, so just take my word for it, it was really coming down. Rain aside, the views were quickly becoming awesome even after only about 10 minutes of walking.

Shortly after the above picture we got into the thicket alongside the side of hill, which meant the path was little more than a mud trail. It was in this thicket that my umbrella took on its first scars of the day, with the trees tearing two little holes into it. Truth be told I didn’t realize this until about 10 hours later when I was back in Copenhagen, there was enough rain that two little holes made little different. It was also about this time that people started to slip on the wet slopes, which probably sent another 10% or so of the group packing. Once we got out the of thicket, it started to become apparent how high we actually were based on where we started. It wasn’t obvious just because of the views, it was obvious because of the wind. Whereas before it had been pretty content, suddenly my umbrella began a cycle of inverting itself about every 5 minutes. But again, the views were pretty incredible and I was still better off than the majority who had been fooled by the sun into bringing no umbrella or rain coat.

After seeing the decent views from this point, a fair amount of people decided to head back, as the rest of the climb was essentially rocks. I thought about it, but me being me, turning around was never really an option. Despite the rain and wind we made it, though some people actually turned around right before the final rock climb to the summit, I have no idea why. Our professor didn’t make it to the top, I’m not really sure where she turned around during the hike, but by the end it was just students randomly wondering a long what we hoped were the right trails. The view at the top was absolutely amazing though, and it made me really want to come back and see the highlands (remember all of this is in the lowlands). That tiny little mound you can see in the distance is actually the gargantuan fortress of Edinburgh Castle.

After hanging around the top for awhile, my umbrella finally ate it. A big gust of wind came which consumed all the umbrellas in one fell swoop, which resulted in the distant laughter of some Scottish people on the slope below us. I didn’t technically lose many, as some people where actually carried away to magical land of Oz. I might as well have lost it, as it bend so hard the metal arms snapped out of place. End Game. Well, maybe not, I bent them back and was able to use it on the way down.. somewhat. However it doesn’t really open anymore, you just try to open it and it does nothing. It can be opened manually with some elbow grease, but this doesn’t do a whole lot of good if its raining on you. I tried to save myself stress by getting a tiny cheap umbrella for this trip, its not something I will ever do again.You can see a picture of it below, taken just now for Coroner’s Report purposes. Nothing how every single arm is broken, and how the handle is broken in the middle. Not pictured is the broken top.

But, umbrella carnage and being soaked (once again) aside, I made it to the top and back down with no real issues. I even met Molly and Molly, seen below:

Molly the people was out jogging, and saw umbrellas tumbling down the cliff and correctly assumed there were tourists afoot. Molly the dog was content peeing on everything. And yes, their names really were Molly and Molly, I talked to them for a bit since I was the first one down. After we all gathered back at the Hotel, the traditional period of complaining set in, which finally culminated in the Hotel having to give the girls five temporary rooms to change in. But everyone made it, and there were only a couple of very minor injuries in the process. About 30 minutes later the bus came and picked us up, my feelings were definitely mixed. On one hand I was ready to be done with DIS led activities and I was ready to not have a roommate anymore. On the other hand, I was quite sad to be leaving Scotland, as it was my favorite country in Europe so far. But, I still had a week of class left, so it was back to Copenhagen.

The plane ride back wasn’t quite as good as the plane ride over, which actually started in the airport as Norwegian had no self-check-in machines at the Edinburgh airport. This meant I had to wait in line for 30 minutes just to get my boarding pass since I had no bags to check. After that security was once again, fairly easy, and I was able to grab lunch with plenty of time to spare. Once on the plane I realized I was in a center seat, which seems to be where I always end up if I can’t pre-check-in. The person next to me did the classic leaning over into my personal space while sleeping, but they were a DIS student at least, so I had no qualms about continuously shoving them back over to the other side, oddly they never woke up during this, and I was concerned they were dead for a bit (they weren’t). Once back in Copenhagen, the Customs line was way long for some reason, but after getting through that I cleared out of the airport in what couldn’t have been anymore than 5 minutes. I even scooted onto the Metro with about 15 seconds to spare before it took of. This was good because it meant I was able to make the trek back to Tåsingegade alone. Turns out I made it back before anyone else on the entire floor from any of the classes, which gave me free access to the laundry which was exactly what I wanted. Later that night about 60 people were trying to use 4 machines, but I was chilling in my room.

And thus ended my amazing trip to Scotland. Not everything was perfect, mainly in regards to DIS and my travel companions, but the place was awesome. I have a desire to go back to Scotland that is already growing, and I enjoyed the country (and even the city, which is mega rare for me) there more than I have anyplace else thus far, though Norway comes in a fighting second in regards to scenery alone. And since you’re always supposed to go out with a bang, the final Scottish tidbit of the day will do just that.. well.. through descriptive elements at least.

The Scottish Tidbit of the Day: The One O’Clock Cannon

When I previously spoke of my trip to Edinburgh Castle, I purposefully left out one thing, because I felt like it deserved its own little blurb, and that missing detail was the One O’Clock Cannon. Each day (Except Sundays and Good Friday) at One O’clock precisely, a cannon on the lower battery of the castle fires a single shot. When this happens the locals will casually glance at their watches, then continue on with what they where doing. The tourists on the other hand (especially the Asians) will jump out of their skin. This gun is really, really loud. Not to mention, a cannon isn’t something you are used to hearing as part of the city sound-scape. So whats the deal? Why fire a gun at One O’Clock every day? Why not fire as Noon, which is a much more common time for acknowledgement? Well, the tradition started in 1861 as a time signal for ships docked in the harbor and in the nearby River of Forth. It also allowed the harbor master to make sure that everything was going according to schedule for the day, as the large time mechanisms in the castle were much more accurate than those available to the every citizen. The original gun was a huge cannon which took four men to load, and its be replaced multiple times, and the One O’Clock gun is now a specially modified (to be more loud) L118 Light Gun, which as been in use since 2001. So, ok, it was used to help ships with time schedules, and its now a ceremonial thing.. makes sense, but why one o’clock? Well, that’s actually pretty simple, the Scots are all about saving money whenever possible. So rather than fire the gun at noon, which would require 12 shots (as firing one shot for noon would just be improper), they decided to fire the gun at 1, which was the cheapest next best thing to noon. So there you have it, the story of the One O’Clock gun. I was never spooked by it, as I learned about it the first day, and we didn’t get there until after 1pm. I did however, get to enjoy seeing a lot of people jump, while the locals right next to them checked their watch as if nothing was strange at all. So if you go to Edinburgh, remember to brace for some noise around 1pm 😉