Stuttgart Vollksfest and Steve Vai

I checked out the Stuttgart version of Oktoberfest on Tuesday night. It was half price beers for students and we found a table in a tent. It was almost as good as the real Oktoberfest in Munich. Lots of drinking, lots of dancing on tables, awesome times. Im trying to post some pictures here, but blogger truly sucks ass with pictures, I just dont get how such a good idea and big company can suck so bad at something rather essential. Enough ranting, check out the yahoo photos page for lots of em

Last night I went to the Steve Vai concert here in Stuttgart. Now, I had only really known the name Steve Vai as being a killer rock guitarist. I started to get a little concerned when they were setting up the fan in front of him ('for the rock and roll effect of blowing peoples minds') and the smoke machine with it. I'll say it right here, Steve Vai is a douschebag. Anyone who knows me, I rarely dislike a good guitarist, I will at least respect them. But not Vai, he's stuck in the 'worship me' phase of being a talented musician, and has forgotten to back it up with good music.

As talented as he is with his speed, and licks, etc. His music has no melody, no structure and is nothing but him making asshole faces at the crowd ('look how easy this is for me', etc) and standing in front of the wind machine to blow his 1982 hair back, distracting the crowd even more that he's a dousche.

BUT, the night was well worth it, as the opening band was FANTASTIC!!! They seroiusly blew my mind. It was fronted by a dude named Eric Sardinas, who can rock and roll with Mississippi Blues. The entire show was fantastic. Not only was he a stellar, original/sticking to the roots, guitarist; but the show was unreal. They really put it out there.

I got to meet the band afterwards, and its not common for me to lay there dribbling at a rock star, but I had nothing but compliments to give these guys, all of em, there was a killer drum solo that blew everyone's mind, and the bassist was really good at backing up someone like this. Unfortunately, they did their tour backwards, and already hit up Toronto, but if you ever get a chance to see him, DO IT!!!! Oh yah, bring some earplugs or something, cause it's LOUD.

But rockin nonetheless.

k, gotta go, I have a class. shit

The real story of Oktoberfest

k, so Ive had a day or so to recover. Im still hurting from Munich, but here goes my vague recollection of my 24 hours + in Oktoberfest.

We got up super early to leave Stuttgart, Our train left the station at 7 am, which means we had to get up around 5:30ish, good start to the day. On the way there, the closer we got to the city, the more drunk the people getting on the train were. For the last two hours of the trip, there was this group of Germans in the train, clearly wasted, with a ukelale and a small drum singing AWFUL loud music. It was torture to sit through, but I knew if I was as drunk as them, Id definitely be singing with them.

We got there, and almost immediately, our group of 40 broke apart. There were so many people in the train station it was insane. All that was left was a smaller group of about 6 of us, which turned out to be good, cause navigating a group of 40 in that madness would have been unbearable. We found our way to the festival, and I couldn't believe what I was seeing. The place was bigger than I thought imaginable, the length of it was at least a kilometer or two, and wider than I could see. There were rides, roller coasters, and of course, HUGE drinking tents (they are called tents, but they were full fledged buildings, erected every year for the occasion). We tried to get into a tent, but by 9:30am it was jam packed, and they had to close the doors. These tents hold like 1000 people, no joke, and by the time I normally wake up in the morning, there were thousands of drunk people. Absolutely incredible. We tried to go to other tents, theres about 7 or 8 of them, but they were ALL full.

There were also biergartens located around each tent, which we had to wait around 45 minutes for a group to leave. We finally got a table, and started boozing immediately. The beers were delicious, huge, and expensive, but we knew that it was all worth it in the end. We got some good chicken there, to mix with the beer, as we had not eaten that day and knew it would spell trouble later on, if we didnt eat anything. As the beers kept flowing, we kept on finishing them off. The stereotype of the Frau's lugging 8 huge steins of beer is true, and they didnt stop for anyone, if one was coming up behind you, and you were in their way, they would literally push you out of the way in order to serve more brew to hungry patrons.

After that, the day kinda blurred into one memory of meeting so many people, drinking countless beers, and taking breaks wandering around the grounds. I got some great videos of me trying to talk coherently into the camera of mine. sometimes you could manage to grasp what I was saying but as the night went on, they only got more garbled and eventually a drunken mess. Most of our big group of 40 eventually went home around 8 pm, but our group was just getting started. We ended up drinking at the tents till around 10pm, then went out to some clubs. Pretty funny us trying to get into the clubs, as we were clearly wasted, and most clubs didnt want us as a liability there. We tried to talk reasonably with the bouncers, but I was told the more I tried to focus, the more my eyes tended to wander in different directions. We finally found one that was nice (or money hungry) enough to let us in, AND give us a free beer! I love this country. By then, I was trying to keep my body going, but it was getting tougher and tougher. I ended up sleeping for a half hour on a bench against a wall in this club with LOUD music blaring by my ear. After the club closed down, we grabbed a cab to the train station, but had an hour and a half to wait till our train came.

As luck would have it, there was a strip club still open right next to the train station (I swear the cabby dropped us off there, on purpose), so we decided to go have a look at some German smut. Now the first part of the club was less than kocher to say the least. There were some DIRTY ass whack off booths with walls and walls of videos to choose from. We looked at some of them, and dear lord, I didnt realize this kind of smut actually existed. I wont go into too much detail, but let's end it at 'German Scheisse Porn really exists'. Good god, I feel impure just having looked at the cover. ugh

We checked out some strippers for a while, not very attractive, but we kept ourselves entertained with the passed out Germans in lederhosen in perverts row. We ended up catching our train and crashed like Ive never crashed before, this was at 5:30 am. We got to Ulm to switch trains, got out, got some food, and ate it. And well, cause we were probably as fast as a three toed sloth with a hangover, we missed our connection train, having to wait an hour till the next one. After another hour two hours, we made it home, and I didnt get to sleep till 1 pm the next day.

Whew! Well, that was the jist of my day in Munich. It was definitely something I must say everyone should experience at least once in their lives... who's kidding who, Im going back next year. There's another one in Stuttgart going on right now. Apparently its the second biggest in Germany, next to Munich, and tomorrow is half priced beers, which means shit is gonna get ugly. I have a test in my German class tomorrow, and I will be heading straight for the Oktoberfest here, to do it ALL OVER AGAIN!!!! woo hoo!!

I have pictures on my photos page, so check it out if you get a chance. I wish I could somehow get my video online, but theyre big ass files. If you really want one, I can probably gmail it to ya, but let me know first. Thats all I got for now, I got some laundry to do...oh yah and some studying for tomorrows test. sheisse.

t

Oktoberfest!!!!

wow. that's all I can say. wow.

It's been an insane alcohol filled, sleep deprived day/night in Munich. I will write more on it later. I still havent slept yet, and am ready to crash. I met so many damn people, Im not sure where I will begin. All in all, its something that everyone has to see, given the opportunity.

I will post pics after I get some rest, I took lots. But now I am back home in my apartment looking over some of them and getting in touch with some of the people I met.

The sheer magnitude of the event is astonishing. So many people, soooo much beer. And the stereotypes of the Frau's carrying 8 steins of beer is totally true. They were actually pretty rude some of the time, but Ive worked in a bar, and this is such a larger scale of mass drunkeness, I totally understand.

Quote of the night from a Frau "Tip is not a town in China" ie 'Tip me, cheapskate'.

k, off to bed, I'll write this up later.

Personality Test

I was just looking at my buddy Charlie's blog. He posted something about the BBC's personality test. Here's what I got:

Results

Your answers suggest you are a Big Thinker

The four aspects that make up this personality type are:

Summary of Big-Thinkers

• Outspoken, ingenious and bored by routine
• Think of themselves as talkative, curious and self-sufficient
• May neglect the routine work required to make their plans successful

More about Big-Thinkers

Big Thinkers are always looking for the next big idea or opportunity. They’re adept at spotting trends and thinking on their feet. Big Thinkers like to jump in and find innovative solutions to complex problems and are good at developing strategies for the future.

In the UK, Big Thinkers are most likely to book a holiday at short notice, according to a nationwide survey.

Big Thinkers are usually curious, logical and energetic. This chatty group enjoys a good debate and asserting their opinions. Sometimes others may find the way they express their ideas too abrupt or challenging.

In situations where they can't use their talents or are unappreciated, Big Thinkers may be rude, critical of others or rebellious. Under extreme stress, Big Thinkers can become preoccupied with unimportant details and lose sight of the 'big picture'.

Big Thinkers may ignore important details in their plans and overlook the impact their ideas have on the people around them.

Big-Thinker Careers

The entrepreneurial spirit of the Big Thinkers often leads them to seek new challenges; this is often more important to them than working in a particular field or a specific career.

It's important to remember that no survey can predict personality type with 100 percent accuracy. Experts say that we should use personality type to better understand ourselves and others, but shouldn't feel restricted by our results.

Overall results

The graph below shows the percentage of people with each personality type out of everyone who has taken this test.

Big Thinkers
Counsellors
Go-getters
Idealists
Innovators
Leaders
Masterminds
Mentors
Nurturers
Peacemakers
Performers
Providers
Realists
Resolvers
Strategists
Supervisors

As far as online tests go, I'm rarely convinced, but I guess they're always fun to do regardless. Especially when they adequatly describe who you think you are.

quick whats up

sorry for the long delay in posts. Its been a packed week. Unfortunately, I havent got a whole lot to talk about. I have been trudging away at my class all week. Its really starting to be a pain in the ass. I cant wait till its over. My mornings are always shot, and cause I have to wake up so early, so are most of my nights. There's talk about a trip to Munich this weekend with all the exchange students. Oktoberfest should be awesome. Theres a Stuttgart Oktoberfest too, but as much as all the Germans tell me its the same thing, I dont think I would have the same creditbility if I didnt make it to Munich for it. We'll see how that goes. Ashley and Ryan left on Monday for Munich for the same reason, I havent heard from them, but we were tentitively planning on meeting in Amsterdam this weekend. I have a long weekend next weekend, so I will probably spend the weekend there with some dudes from here. Also, Im really considering hitting up the Canabis Cup in November. Its something pot smokers in North America only dream about, but now that Im here, I have to check it out.

Tonight Im going to one of the Sweedish exchange students houses to have an international pot luck. Each person cooks something from their native country and shares it with everyone else. It should be a good time. Everything from Sweet and Sour Pork to Sweedish Meatballs to good ol hamburgers are gonna be made and devoured. I'll bring my camera and get some pics from tonight. Since Canada is a brand new country and really doesnt have much of its own traditional culture, I decided to make some baked salmon, as we have some damn good salmon in the Great White North and I make a mean Baked Lemon Salmon. Its in the oven right now.

Funny Story: Not that I have to confirm the ignorant American stereotype to any of you, but it gets confirmed all the time over here. We were out drinking last week at a biergarten here, and the topic of American/Canadian knowledge came up. Another Canuck and I put some of the dudes to the test. Now, since all the Americans here are here to get some worldy culture, I wasnt sure of the stereotype would hold, as these are not typical Americans, BUT, they still knew as little about their neighbours to the north as any red neck you'll meet. We asked them a simple question: What's the capital of Canada?

We decided to not expect them to pick it out of the blue and gave them 10 options. 10 Canadian cities to choose from, and they just had to pick it out. (Best answer I heard was '...uh...Alberta?') So after a 15 minute ordeal of wrong answer after wrong answer, a team of 5 of them actually managed to defy the odds and get 9 answers wrong! Out of 10, they managed to choose Ottawa last, and we had to give it to them as they had forgotten the last city we said. Hilarious.

We also asked them to name the 'tallest free standing structure in the world'. This coming after one of them told me about the time he was in Toronto to see a Jay game (in the Skydome, no less). I gave him so many hints (it's in Toronto...when you drove into Toronto, did you notice anything unusual about the skyline? maybe something abnormally large?)...nothing... (You were right NEXT to it when you saw the Blue Jays play)... nothing ... argh! This once was actually guessed right after around 20 mintues of random guessing by some of the Ami's.

So, as much as we all know this very well and dear, our neighbours to the south are actually as ridiculously ignorant about everything outside of their country as we all thought. Fuckin Americans.

Thats my rant, gotta go check on my salmon. peace

Some pics from last night

haha, this last one is my favourite...

No matter what, things work out in the end

Ash and is friend Ryan are here now. It was a mighty long night on Thursday.

Our plan was for Ash to call me from Cologne with his train number, this way I could plan to meet him at the train station. Unfortunately, which I didn't find out till later, the number I gave him was to call me from outside Germany (the phone system here is really strange, theres 0's thrown in for various cases) Anyways, I went out that night to a friends place, had some dinner, all the while waiting patiently by my phone. By the time midnight came around, and I didnt hear from them, I started to get worried. I went home, assuming they did not catch the train and decided to stay in Cologne. I get home at around 12:30, to a MSN message sayign they were going to arrive at 11:08. SHIT. Theyve been in Stuttgart for over an hour, and I wasnt there. I felt terrible, yet couldnt understand why I still didnt get a call from them.

I rush downtown on the S-Bahn, or local subway, and ran to the main train station. I looked around all over the place for them, only to find nothing. I start circling the perimeter of the train station and some big streets nearby looking for anything remotely resembling two Canadian dudes. Nothing. By about 1:30 I had given up, I went back to the S-Bahn, to catch a train home, looked up on the display which read next train... 250 minutes... oh fuck. I missed the last train home. No worries, I thought, I have taken a night bus before, theres one that goes every hour till 3:30ish. I didnt know where it was though. I called up a friend of mine, Elisabeth, to ask her where I should be going. She sadly told me that the night bus didn't run on Thursdays, just the weekends...SHIT again... I really didnt know what to do, I was stuck in downtown till at least 5 am and still had no clue where Ash and Ryan were. I started to worry a bit. My best plan I could come up with, was to get drunk and sleep on the grass somewhere. Not my best plans, but it was all I had.

Because Elisabeth is a goddess amongst Germans, she actually woke up a roomate of hers, grabbed his car, and came to get my sorry ass. So we meet, and she drives me home. I got back around 2:30, rather defeated if I say so myself. Im walking up the stairs to my apartment, in the dark, still worrying about Ash, and what do I see? 2 bodies laying outside my door on the ground sleeping. I turn on the lights to see it was Ash and his friend Ryan. I couldn't believe it. They had managed to grab the last train here, and find my building amongst the many many buildings here, and even got let inside by a nice exchange student who knows me.

After all my escapades throughout Stuttgart, the bad situation resolved itself almost miraciously. So after exchanging our stories as to how we managed to get to where we were, we all went to sleep.

Yesterday was a fun day, albeit shitty weather, it rained all day. But we managed to make a run for the store, get some booze for a party that night, and spend a few hours in a bar, enjoying a few fine German brews. The party was a good time, lots of good people, lots and lots of alcohol, and lots of laughs. I posted my pics on my Yahoo site, but I'll follow this up with some of the good ones. We ended up going downtown in our maniacal stupor with some random German peeps we met there. Danced till 3 am, then cabbed it home. It was alot cheaper to cab than I thought, I couldv'e done that the night before.

So thats about it, the guys are still sleeping, and Im getting restless in my room. I'll probably go for a walk or something for an hour or so.

I hope the motherland is being treated well, take care of her for me. As for postcards, I have them, written, just havent gotten a chance to find out where to buy stamps, how much it costs, and where theres a mailbox, but it will be done this week.

peace

Pic of the year

Not surprisingly, I didnt take this, but I thought it was one of the coolest things Ive seen all year. Its a real picture of a sun spot the size of a planet.

For those astronomy geeks out there, theres a great Nasa pic of the day site. I just found it, but theres some pretty awe inspiring things here.

Pics

Here are some pics from last night, these folks are all international students, from America, Finland, France, Mexico, Ireland, Venezuale, etc. Good times, but the hangover i had this morning wasnt...

I post all my pics on my photos page, so dont assume these are the only ones I take. I normally post them on my Yahoo page whenever I upload them from my cameras SD card.

Goldstein, come and gone

So Aaron Goldstein came down on Saturday with his buddy Akio. They're hitchhiking across Europe, or at least as far as their thumbs will take them...

They started in Amsterdam and made it about halfway through hitching. To save a bit of time, they caught a train into Stuttgart and I met up with them.

This is a pic of them drunk one night, with yet another hot blonde, Simone. I love this country...

They pitched a tent right outside my place, and were good from there. We did alot of drinking, and alot of chilling. I took them out on a tour of Stuttgart, we sampled some fine local cuisine at a wine festival going on right now. Good old fashoined Schnitzel with some warm sauerkraut. Mighty tasty to say the least. This one is of Aaron sampling the saurkraut.

We went out for a night on the town, met up with some German friends I made and started boozing and dancing.

The rest of the weekend pretty much consisted of this with a fair amount of down time.

On the weekend, they had no problems with the tent, as no official was around. But come Tuesday, my Hausmeister had had enough. He woke them up super early, around 7ish, to yell at them for trespassing. He threatened to call the police if they weren't out in an hour. I got a ring, came down and settled the whole thing. Unfortunately, he made them give him their passport numbers, as insurance, in case they didn't leave.

Ashley is coming down with his buddy Ryan on Friday, we are going to head to Freiburg to see Hanna, its her birthday. Im trying to find a place to rent a saxophone in Stuttgart, but so far no luck. Since the guys are going to be tenting again, I'll have them move into the forest for the weekday to avoid any further incidents with the angry Hausmeister.

As for me, this German class is still going EVERY day, its starting to be a drag, but I have a pretty cool class, and we make sure to have fun. Today was jam packed with nothing but grammer, which sucks balls. Luckily, I seem like a superstar, cause I've already learned this horrible stuff. It's good practice nonetheless.

I went to the doctor yesterday to get some prescriptions for my meds that I take in Canada. The system is a little strange here, and I found myself learning alot real quickly. In the end, it turned out just fine and I got some meds from a pharmacy here. The pharmacies are definitely different, very 19th century feel to all of them, it might be some sort of traditional thing. Had a nice chat with the pharmacist lady, who was so happy that a foreigner likes Germany. If you haven't met Germans before, they tend to not appreciate what they have and focus on the negative parts of the country. If only they knew how it could be....

Im off to do some more drinking tonight with some other international students. Luckily there's lots of Biergartens here on campus, so there's a ton of variety. I hope all is well in Canada. peace