Give Me that Old Time Rock and Roll

Well it was what we will say was a Musical week for me. Last week when I accompanied Nelson down to Flic Flac I was told about some other good places for live music in münster. After determining I was going to check out the Blunte vögel on Tuesday, I received a message from Johanna inviting me to... the Blunte Vögel. well how convenient right!!! So I headed down Tuesday night and met with her, her sister, and one of their friends. (I feel bad because I always forget their names, but as always I could pick them out of a crowd). Anyway we shared a few drinks and enjoyed the music, so many harmonica players in Münster.

SIDE NOTE: One thing I haven't really written about here in my blog is the idea "Ist das Platz Frie" (Is this place free) now it is not talking about cover charges. It is something that for most Americans is completely strange, asking to join complete strangers at their table. Today it still bugs me a little to walk up to random people in a restaurant and ask to join them.

Anyway as the night progressed we where joined by a guy named Jan. Around 18 years old, as we talked he informed us that he was on an adventure. (ears perked) He was actually hitchhiking to nowhere. His adventure had already taken him over 100km away and had lasted two days. He was a really interesting guy and showed us a few card tricks. Great showmanship, had I have not understood the techniques I would have been dumbfounded, but he still impressed. Anyway as the night continued he informed us he was looking for somewhere to stay the night. When we left the bar I decided to call Andreas and make sure this would be ok to invite the guy there. So I ended up bringing him along. We had a great conversation on the walk across Münster.

Wednesday I headed off to work to build some floating habitats for the birds. definatly not the most interesting day, and neither was the rest of the week. I got to drive the entire week because my colleague had lost his wallet and had no License. It was nice to be behind the wheel again.

 I know you all are wondering what I look like working....

as an animated beaver

Well here is the answer

Wednesday evening I was back down at Flic Flac to hear the music. Two Times down there and the bar tender knows who I am at least, Good start. By the end I'm hoping for first name and the Usual. Music was Once again nice. I wasn't so much a fan of the entirety, especially the guy who did an acoustic set. Don't get me wrong I love acoustic, his style and lyrics just didn't set. I did enjoy the German wrapper tho and so did everyone else, half surprisingly.

Geese

The bench we were building is finished

Thursday and Friday Night I spent determining that I am taking summer courses, just a history and a film appreciation class. So hopefully not to much work my last few months. I decided I needed to have something meaningful to do here. In honest I've been on vacation for way to long (never thought I could say that). But with the meaningful internship ended and me just working as a general laborer I'm not advancing my career or life. However this caused some problems for the fall, I only had one class, Biology. Well that's too few so I added physics, and might add another class as well if need be. I also determined it is worth staying at BRCC for the entire next year. to take the second Physics and Biology. Classes are scheduled and Mom is sending the textbooks.

Saturday the weather was nasty so I stayed in and had a very relaxed day, and a good nap.

Sunday I actually had to work in our information center. By far the worst day of work ever. Simply citing in a room for 6 hours straight...... I cleaned I fixed things, and I organized all in 20 minutes..... so bored.

This week has started off pretty good, we shall see where it goes, prospects of trying Paris again this weekend. Of course the music scene is on the agenda wednesday. Haven't decided for tomorrow yet depends how tired I am.

Bye, Bye, Miss American Pie,

Cody A Glick

Failure to Plan

Time is really flying by here with only 86 days to go. It is starting to hit me that I will soon be on a plane home and that this great adventure will come to an end. I have to say that even this far out I have filled the craving that my gypsy feet had. There is so much that I have seen already and there are still plans to be made. I guess it is only fair that my brain is working like it is tho. Once I was accepted into this program or maybe a little before I started planning and thinking about Germany. I remember Kayla telling me once "You already left us for Germany, we can't enjoy the time left with you already mentally gone." Sadly she was right, and I missed a lot of important things because I was living in my head. Well that process has reversed now and I'm a little under three months from home and that's all I can think about.

About making plans with people when I get back, about starting work and school again, about how long I will stay at BRCC before transferring to VCU. About matters of the heart, about choices to be made..... It is bittersweet at times as it inhibits me from seeing and enjoying the things around me. Sadly it will continue I like to have a gravel road laid out in front of me, to know where I plan to have life go, but loose enough it can change.

I guess part of the good news is I found ways to relax this week and just enjoy my time here;

Monday was an almost normal work day for me. Felix wasn't there and apparently I am the only other intern who can drive. YAY! so we where off to the races to get stuff done. Herrick and I where tasked with deconstructing the back steps on one of the blinds. Not only where they old and starting to break apart but there is plans to enlarge the hut over where the steps stood.











The work was fairly easy, only a few dozen 13mm, 10mm, and screws held this whole thing together. The problems we ran into came from April. April April machst was du Will. This is a saying about how April weather can be unpredictable, and Monday was one of those days. The morning started out promising and sonny, but when we started working the Wind picked up and within five minutes there where storm clouds over head. About the time we looked up it started to HAIL... hard, and continued on and off for the rest of the evening. When the day was done I went to pull the truck off and had a little difficulty.

The Rack that protects the back window of the truck got caught on the tree and completely bent over (as pictured above.)

Tuesday I spent repairing my shada, a little welding grinding and paint and all was good.

Wednesday was a very slow day for us. Felix and I where left at the station without work so we found some for ourselves and decided we where going to build a bench for the courtyard in the station. That was a good Idea to us, at least. Denis however was not so impressed, but he had left us nothing to do, the shop was cleaned and the garage organized. Anyway we used the old wood from the deconstructed steps to start. A good way to recycle the material instead of just letting it rot away.  We actually lost track of time and it wasn't until a good while after lunch we realized what time it was.

The work took some thought, because we where using limited resources and neither of us is really a carpenter so..... We also where trying to build a corner bench which can only make things a little harder. We ended up ending our work here and got back to real work. We plan to continue this next week when we run out of work.






Wednesday ended the work week for me. I had taken Thursday and the following Tuesday off to go to Italy.

When I came home I thought my roommate was reorganizing at first and then realized he had bought an amp for his guitar. When he came out of his room a while later he apologized for the noise and such, not that it was ever a problem for me. Then informed me he was performing at a local bar that has open mic nights on wednesday. I asked him where it was and told him I would try to make my way down there. So off I went to hear live music at a bar called Flic Flak.

I figured I would end up being one of the youngest ones there and I was, by at least 20 years. There was a group around my age there but they up and left before the hype band was even through the first song. Later another group my age came, apparently they where a hevy metal band that was also preforming. Made their set and left.... So I was the youngen who was enjoying the old rock and blues.

Tom the Blues guru
Tom is a frequent face at the Reselfelder

hype Band

Roomate Nelson

Friend Michael 

I also met a woman Semona there through nelson, but they had to close it down before she could get up and do her set.  But theres always this week, I believe its worth the hour of sleep to see live bands every week. 

Thursday I headed over to the Police Department for a visit. I had asked around trying to get patches from the local law enforcement back home to present as memento's to the guys I worked with. Thanks To Mrs. Tiller and her help the BRCC Public Safety sent me a group of patches to present. It was good to see the guys again and I spent a good hour or two there catching up and learning the things going on in Münster.

the patch from BRCC

A gift from the Police department

Now last week I gave yall a hint of travel plans, and sadly no one guessed where I had planned to go...

On Friday I headed down to stay with Josh at his new location in Saarbrunken. Luckily the guy was cool that runs the building. Usually there are no overnight guests and if the are found they have to pay 400 euro a night. which is ridiculously expensive. But the guy liked me and Josh and let us off.

So now the reason for the tittle. We had planned to make a day trip to Paris. BTW the hint is the phrase on the Paris seal. Anyway when I got in Friday Night we tried to buy tickets on the automatic machine. Well it wouldn't function. so the nest morning we where back at the station and went to the travel center, only to find out that the 2 morning trains where full and the only other train would give us only 2 hours there. For some reason we didn't think to go ahead and get tickets for Sunday. Instead we went back to the house did some looking around online came up with a plan and headed back to the HBF. Only to find the station offices had closed early. So we repeated this on Sunday.... Once again the morning trains where booked out, except for first class and we couldn't bring ourselves to pay 140 euro each one way.

We ended up using the weekend to bounce pathfinder character ideas off each other as we explored part of the town.

So last night I headed back to Münster, got to my bed about midnight. Wasn't my most restful of nights, my dark angels where tormenting me.


Always making the best of a bad situation,

Cody A. Glick

Planning for Home and a Trip

Another week down has brought me so much closer to being home, as of now only 90 days until I touch down in NYC. It is so hard to stay focused on either side of the pond anymore the lives are starting to meld back together. That is to say that it is starting to feel like I'm living one life and not a German and an Amarican Life. With schedules made for classes FASFA finnished and starting to look at how things will transfer again I feel like I'm back in the valley. Along with starting to plan some trips and meetings when I get back stateside.

This week at work was some work for us. Monday we cleared one of the paths of grass that was growing ontop of the pavement. It was by far not the lightest of work. David, Marika, Oli and I where total kuput when we finally finished to the half way mark.

Wednesday we had a new arrival on the farm. A new calb that wouldn't drink from the mother. We picked her  up and took her to a friends farm that could put her in a pen. After some trying and the cooing of the 3 Damen we managed to convince/force her to eat.

Why the girls where intertained by the cow I enjoyed the company of Max the farm dog. It was nice to finally have a dog around and playing for that little bit, I miss having a dog around.

Thursday and Friday where rather uneventful as far as work went.


Outside of work I had  great week with friends. On Tuesday I met up with Johannas and had a drink. and some good conversations. And on Wednesday Andreas and I met at the theater to watch another old movie; this one was about the french army in WWI. more of a Hollywood film than a French. and the Lip sinc was so bad and fast that I was truely lost. However I enjoyed the lecture before and after just the same.

Over the past week I was also atempting to plan a trip to Italy for Easter. To make a long long story short. Basically failure to communicate, assumptions on my part and just bad planning all around have killed that plan. For this to work I'd need a car rented for tomorrow and that's just not likely. So I plan to copy paste this plan to a different weekend or so down the road. The problem is now planning Easter weekend....I think I know where I'll end up but that is for next week.

A spoilers hint "Flùctùat nec mergitùr"

Off to Adventure,

Cody A Glick

Heartaches and a Birthday

Another week is down.... and I'm not sure how I feel. I love it here and want to enjoy the time I have left, but at the same time I'm ready to come home. My homesickness is based on the loss of someone special to me. I believe I'm searching for closure... or more so a resolution. I've never been good at showing things in my heart and now it may be too late..... Sorry I didn't mean to start this blog off on such a sad note but its all I've really though about the past few months and I felt like it was time to make it into my blog. I don't want to go into total detail over it... or so much here. I will say those close to me have been a great help and that I'm glad I have yalls support. Anyone who may be interested can contact me privately, even outside help and advise may be good.

Anyway this week was another long  week at work that isn't really eventful for a blog. Mulching, trash collecting, and repairing walkways. Oh and we herded cattle onto a trailer and that was a bit comical. I think they worked a lot harder than they needed to.... but I've never herded cattle with 2 foot horns. 

Maria

So well skip straight to the fun. The evenings turned out to be less eventful as well. Unfortunately my weekly meeting got canceled and the other few nights I was trying to Finish Fafsa and work on some small side projects. 

But the excitement of this week began Friday evening. After work; I rushed home, well as fast as the bus could bring me, to pack and eat and shower. Then headed down to Saarbrunken to help kyle celebrate another year of being alive. 

Josh joined me at the HBF to head down and the train ride went by relatively fast for a 6 hour ride. Almost missed one transfer, but apparently glies 9 and 12 are the same glies. 

Once we got there the complications started; we couldn't get a hold of kyle to meet us. We waited a bit after figuring out his phone was out. Then started calling other people who may be there. It turned out he got a new number, luckily he came to pick us up relatively quick.

The first night was just catching up and talking until I started dosing on the couch. 

The second night we headed into the town and saw a little bit of what there was to offer. then came bake and swanked. theres a sentance you need to hear before I go on; the Swanker, swanged, der Swank on the Swanger. sounds just a little dirty... right but swanker is a type of german BBQ. We ended the night sipping wishkey and deep conversations. Thanks again to the new friend Robert for listening to my heart problems, I needed it. 

So thats the week in a nut shell,

Cody A Glick

P.S. I almost forgot to tell yall; I've decided to lay down my razor and not visit a barber until I get back to the US. I had long hair early in HS and decided that I wanted to see it again and see what I look like with a full beard... pictures to come. It also serves as a way of more or minor fasting until I have an answer to some deeper questions.