first day!

two awesome things happened this morning. one: i awoke to find my suitcase sitting outside my bedroom door. hooray for clean clothes and such. two: i walked into the kitchen to find a bag of gummibärchen on the table. ftw. needless to say, i'm in a relatively good mood.

yesterday morning, we took to exploring the city, walking about until we reached the city museum. we went in and spent an hour or two learning about the history of köln and seeing all sorts of interesting things. it was a great, quirky introduction to staying here. next was lunch...turkish pizza...which is kind of amazing. i had my first taste of cheese in weeks and it was delicious, although my stomach has been upset with me for eating dairy again, so i'm trying to avoid it when possible.

after lunch we came back to johannes' place, and he did a fine job procrastinating on doing real work :) while i did reading, caught up on my journal, and took an incredibly delightful nap. i spent most of the evening doing crossword puzzles, and spent some time chatting with his roommate, eva, over her dinner. then we had dinner and headed outside. it was sprinkling a bit, but i don't mind; i'll take that over the heatwave set to hit the north bay this weekend.

we walked down to the blue shell, a bar/venue that was celebrating its 30th anniversary with a cover band, silk rabbits, performing. it was equals parts fun and amusing, and the crowd was a particularly eclectic mix of people, which made for some good teamage...speaking of which, johannes is (so far) kicking my ass at the your team game.

i have also been learning useful german phrases... "prost" (a german version of "cheers"), "ranzig" (similar to how i would use the term "janky"), and arguably the most important phrase, "zwei kölsch" (for ordering beer).

after the show, we walked back and watched some videos on youtube and finally i got to see some pictures from johannes' trip to southeast asia. totally awesome, but the squemish person in me is uncertain if i'd want to visit a place rampant with snakes and leeches and strange/bizarre/giant bugs. still, intriguing pictures and stories nonetheless.

tonight's plan is to go out see darren hayman, the former singer of hefner...i have never heard his solo music before last night, so it should be rad. we have also been invited by eva to join her in eating quiche that she is preparing tonight. in the meantime, i might be doing some solo exploring while j. gets work done.

i was telling johannes earlier that i am so accostomed to what europe is like, based off movies and such, and it has turned out to be exactly what i expected here in germany... and it feels almost as if i am watching it or experiencing it in an out-of-body sort of way. hard to explain, but the energy here is very fresh and very real.

unrelated, thanks to everyone who has sent me text messages; now that i have my phone charger i can read them all. it is nice to wake up to so many nice messages from everyone, and rest assured, i am having an excellent time, although i miss you all (and especially team catfish).