Catching Up - Part 2

So our next adventure was in Frankfurt. We went to celebrate Unification Day in Germany and to hang out with some friends that we had met that first weekend in the hostel. Frankfurt is a beautiful city, and bestows the nickname of "Mainhattan", for the fact that it lies on the Main River. Plus, it is also a very New York-like skyline, which includes the tallest building in Europe. The best part was the old-city quarter, including the old Rathaus, or city-hall. There we enjoyed Frankfurters and apple-wine, both Frankfurt specialties.

After a couple more days of school, we got ready for the first big trip of our program - Munich. And around this time of year, there is only one thing on peoples' minds when they Munich.....Oktoberfest! That's right, we were 5 of 6 million in the largest fair in the world. And it was all for a celebration of beer and food. We knew that hostels had been sold out for quite some time, so great ingenuity gave us the idea of renting a van. We kept our costs of the trip down by using the van as our mode of transportation from Cologne to Munich, and as our hotel.

We ended up arriving in Munich late Friday night, and we were all really tired so we decided to sleep right away and rest for the day ahead. On Saturday, we woke up at about 6:30 and started heading towards the festival. We were told to get there early, because all the tents fill up fast. We were also told that an 8am arrival would be good. That turned out to be some misinformation. By 7:30 when we got there, lines were already forming out the tents. We stayed about 2 hours in the first line, with no luck of getting in and switched to a different one. After about another hour there, we just decided to order beers outside. It was an absolute mad house with songs and drunken stupidity already on display by 11am.

Only three of us were able to get inside at first, and it was well worth the wait. The Haufbrauhaus Festhalle - (Celebration Hall), the most famous tent, was just a sea of people drinking, eating, and singing with anyone and everyone around them. The beer was overflowing, the food was great, and we had so much fun once the other two finally got inside.

Once we left the HB-Festhalle, we enjoyed the rest of the festival. It is pretty much an amusement park as well, as there are carnival rides everywhere and enough activities that even the little kids can enjoy this time. Of course, a lot of people were dressed in typical lederhosen, whether it be a cheap costume store knock-off, like Brooks, or the real thing passed down from generation to generation.

Unfortunately, I ended up feeling a little ill, and decided to head back the van a little early. I still had an amazing time; one that I will never forget. Plus, I was well rested for the long drive to Cologne the next day, while the other were hung over.

Catching Up - Part 1

Wow, I have been so busy this first month in Germany, I have forgotten to write about my experiences. But I guess I will get right to it: the following posts will be able for various weeks here in Germany and my trips around Europe.

So I guess I should start with the opening weekend. I stayed in hostel the first two nights and met up with a few of the others from the group. On the first official night, we met up and had dinner with our site director, Hartwig Pruessman and ate dinner together. Their are eight of us in all: Brooks, Eric, Dan, Sharif, Ian, Kellen, Trysta and myself. It's a small group, but we get along well.

We met up that next morning, where Hartwig took us on a short tour of the main parts of the city, including the Rhein River, Old City, and most famously the Cologne Dom. We then departed and were taken to our respective host families. I am staying with the Lansch-Knoerr's. They are a wonderful family, with two sons about my age. The parents are very nice, but don't speak any English, which is good for me (more practice of my German).

On Sunday, we met up again with our unofficial social director, Maxi, and went on a bike tour of the city with her as our guide. A bike tour is a great way to see any city and Maxi was a wonderful guide. Half way through we stopped at Media Park and went to the restaurant about 2/3 way up of Media Tower. There we enjoyed coffee and cake on a wonderful, sunny Sunday afternoon.

Monday was the start of school finally and it was intensive German all week. But we also were able to make it out to Frankfurt and Munich - about those in Part 2!

Quick Update

Hello everyone, as I currently write this, I am sitting in an airport internet terminal waiting for my connection. I am on my way to Cologne, Germany. I will be studying abroad for 3 months there which has been a long time coming. I will be posting more updates about my travels and experiences.....

The Big "Aristotle"

Wow, it has been so long since my last edition - well, with Alpha Kappa Psi events, 3 consecutive weekends of being out of town for at least 4 days (including Las Vegas, Philadelphia, and Portland for my brother's wedding), finals, and more work - I just couldn't find anytime to write. But now I am back. I still have summer school, and work, and trying to prepare for my upcoming trip to Germany, but I will try to keep up with a few more editions before I leave... Now on to business.

I have never been a fan of Shaquille O'Neal. My utter distaste for him started when he was on the Los Angeles Lakers and beat my beloved Portland Trail Blazers. Now anyone who knows me will tell you that I am one of the most passionate sports fans around. I grew up rooting for the Blazers and they are near and dear to my heart, my favorite sports team of all time. I also never root for any other team in the Pac-10 other than my Ducks. I couldn't care less that the Oregon State Beavers have won two NCAA baseball championship back-to-back. So it understandable that I would never be a fan of Shaquille O'Neal even though what he did to the Blazers was so, so long ago. I cannot stand Shaq's arrogance, his smugness, and his attitude. He thinks he is funny, and he calls himself "the big Aristotle."

But tonight I watched his new show on ABC called "Shaq's Big Challenge." In this self-help reality series, he takes 6 overweight children in Miami and tries to help them lose the weight, gain never-before-seen self-confidence, and hopefully inspire others watching the program to follow in their footsteps. Naturally, Shaq thought that this would be an easy task. But man was he humbled tonight. I was just as shocked as he was when I saw these kids.

One was a video-game addict that never gets outside and still has a baby-complex way of life. One comes from a Cuban family with traditional large meals, and he just can't stop. One gained all her weight from depression when family problems came. The last three kids are just as overweight if not more, and because of their own unique reasons. After they all failed the Presidential Fitness Test, he took them to a child obesity specialist and there Shaq received the biggest shock of all. Every child was diagnosed morbidly obese. Shaq said that he knew what the two words meant, but not that the two words together could mean something so bad.

Well, if you saw the show like me, I am sure you are horrified as well. But for the first time ever, I saw a different side of Shaquille O'Neal. I saw genuine compassion, concern, and caring for these children. When he received the news from the doctor at the children's clinic, I could see the dismay and sadness on his face that these kids could die if nothing was done to help them. Although he still displayed is normal arrogance and cocky attitude, he showed me that he is not only about running over every single other player in the NBA and winning 4 championships.

So when the new NBA season starts, I can go back to rooting for any team that Shaq plays against. I can't wait until that first game when Greg Oden (a guaranteed Blazer come Thursday's NBA draft) goes up against Shaq. But for now, I will continue to watch "Shaq's Big Challenge" and be rooting for him to help these kids turn their lives around, as long as he doesn't rub that "Big 'Aristotle'" attitude onto them.

Tragedy at Virginia Tech

It has been a sad week. I came home Monday morning after class, turned on the TV, and saw the absolute horror of what occurred at Virginia Tech. I ended up doing exactly what I did on 9/11 - I just watched. I couldn't say anything, I really couldn't feel anything at that time. I just sat there and watched the day as it unfolded. I eventually went to class, and mentioned it to a few friends. But then I came home and just started watching again. At the end of the day, as I went to bed, I thought about what I had seen. The next morning, two main emotions came to me that I have been feeling the rest of the week.

I first felt heavyhearted when I woke up that morning. I remember feeling sad on 9/11. When I woke that morning, I tuned in to my favorite morning radio show. As I got ready for school, I heard them talking about it. At first I thought it was a joke, maybe a new movie coming out. Intrigued I turned on the TV and saw the reality. It was all we talked about that day in classes. But now there is a big difference between my feelings that day and those of this week. What I felt on 9/11 was just a general feeling of shock and sadness like the rest of the nation. But this time, it is a much deeper sadness within me, mostly because I am connected a great deal more to the events in Blacksburg than to the ones in NYC. I am a college student now. I walk through campus every day just like those students did. As I walked to class Tuesday morning, I couldn't help but to look around my campus and image what that would have been like here. The sadness just stuck me so much harder. And then I started to think about all those young men and women that died, and the last things they might have said to their friends or parents. I called my mom tonight and told her I loved her, and thanked her for all the help she has given me these past few years.

The second emotion I have felt all week is one of amazement. I am amazed at how the students at Virginia Tech, at schools around the nation, and the world have come together in a time like this. Facebook as become a source of grieving, counseling, and connection for everyone. Monday night I immediately found three Facebook groups to join. One is now the largest tribute group to VT, with over 282,000 members. There is a VT logo that holds within it the logos of schools across the nation. Another group is the largest group here at my school. I followed the likes of others that had taken the VT logo atop a black ribbon, and placed their own school's logo underneath it. I made one for my school, and it became the picture for the group. The final group is one that calls for Facebook to change its website colors to orange and maroon. I believe that if little steps like that can truly help heel even one person, that Facebook should do it. I have just been absolutely amazed at the use of the Internet to deal with these events.

I am thankful for every opportunity that I have gotten in life. I am also thankful that something like this hasn't happened directly in my life yet. I will be praying for a long time for all those affected by that tragic Monday morning. I am certainly going to take something away from this. I don't know what yet, but it might even be that I try a little harder in school. Those 32 students that died don't get to go to college anymore.

There is one last thing I want to leave her. J. Russell Denney, one of the admins of the VT tribute group on Facebook, said

"Forget any and all college affiliations today. For today, we are all Hokies."

God Bless.

New Endeavors

In the past several months, I have found myself in new territory. I guess it started when I applied to become one of the managers of a basketball tournament that my sports business club puts on. I have been involved in this project for two years now, but only as a volunteer. When the time came to find new members to help run the event, it did come to mind to just volunteer again and not step up. But something inside me said "no."

So this time, I stepped up. I was appointed one of the manager spots, for operations. For most of my life I have been used to the one being behind the scenes, making things happen. So I did take advantage of that strength and got this position. I will be the one to coordinate volunteers, to make sure our event runs smooth. This was my first step into new territory.

My second step came from a business class I just finished taking last term, a class that every business student must take. The class focuses around business communication and leadership, using a group project as the primary application of its lessons. The sections of this class in the term were special in fact. Our projects had to address how to use $800,000 of over-realized funds that student government had. Although our grades did not depend on whether the appointed representative from the student government approved our project or not, it still could have gotten support and given to the appropriate committees and senate for approval.

My group's project dealt with sustainability, specifically water conservation. Now, I won't go in detail about our project and give you the full spiel. But let's just say the teacher loved it and the student government representative loved it. To get that point, however, I had to stand in front of the class and give part of the presentation. I hate that. That is why I prefer to work behind the scenes as I said earlier. So I pulled myself together, focused, and with the others in my group doing the same, gave a great speech. To get such high remarks was a surprise to me.

Then we learned that our project was one of the 35 "semi-finalists", if you will, that got sponsored by a member of the appropriations committee. Again I was surprised because I was the only one in our group that got in front of the committee, after the class, and gave another quick pitch about our idea. Now, the term was over, and our group did not have to work together anymore. But I felt we should still advocate for our proposal, and they seemed to agree. There was going to be a town hall meeting to talk about these 35 proposals, and choose which ones to bring before the senate. But then I read in the student newspaper that our proposal did not make it into either of the two suggested packages, one of which could have been chosen to take to the senate.

At first I was disappointed, but I still wanted to go to this meeting and try to find out why. Turns out I was alone in this one. None of my group members showed up, and neither did our official partners in the project. So I crossed that boundary again and took that step into new territory. Never before had I made such a impromptu speech that carried such importance. I was a little nervous, and tried the best I could. There is still a chance for a proposal to make it to the senate vote. I am glad I took that step.

And now I find myself here, taking another step. I decided to start this blog after reading an article in the Wall Street Journal recently that said blogs are starting to help professional get new career opportunities. I have also received multiple times, the advice to differentiate myself from all the others out there looking for a job, or trying to get ahead. Now I am still in school, and will be for a few more years. I am not using this blog to sell myself, or to get a job. I simply felt this was the best way to differentiate myself. In future posts I hope to write about not only my life in school, but also business, sports, technology, and any combination of the four that interests me - essentially my life. I am in new territory here. I could turn around and go back, but I think I am going to press on.