Friday, August 18, 2006

I drive. I'm a driver. drive. me. driver.


so......... i did it.

i bought the 1989 VW Golf from my brother. i gave him $1,100 for it and then paid another $100 in fees to buy it (transfer fee, plate fee, blah, blah, we want your money fee). everything worked out perfectly. i had to get a new Pennsylvania drivers license to buy the car. it cost me $10. i told them i had to give my old license up in germany and they didn't even ask if i had a german one. hee hee!!!

new license, insurance, car payed for and title transfered. all on the same day.

so i have a pretty little piece of german engineering. there are still a couple little interesting things that we're working on fixing, but it should be good to go before tommorrow, when i drive back down to virginia. i'll be giving constant updates on how well it's running or if it's let me stranded anywhere.

it's got 133,000 miles(~214.000 km) on it. i can't wait to see how many miles i'll put on it going out west.

oh, and since i'm taking this big roadtrip, i also got a AAA membership (ami ADAC). i get the Plus membership, just in case i need to be towed 100 miles any time soon. i got a bunch of maps and i'm starting to plan my get-away.....

Go West, Young Man!!!!

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

far for gnugen.

i've been back just over 2 weeks, borrowing my mom's car whenever i want to go anywhere or do anything. it's been nice, but it can't go on like this. i've been debating what type of car to buy, since i definately need a car. i've had 5 cars up till now and the average cost has been $300. the question is whether or not i should splurge and buy a much more expensive car for $4,000 or $5,000, which i don't have, but would have to pay back -OR- if i should spend less money on a car that i can actually afford, but might now be as comfortable or last as long.

i had been thinking it would be nice to get a volkswagen, which i would call dependable. my brother tom has a 1989 VW Golf that he'd be willing to sell me for somewhere between $1,000 and $1,5000. he bought it for alot less and rebuilt it. so i'm debating whether or not i should buy it or look for something else. i test drove it and it runs well. no big issues that i notice or that he can find. he babies his cars and wants them to run well, so it should be fine, but there are always big questions when dishing out this much cash.

the big question right now is "WILL THIS CAR MAKE IT ACROSS THE COUNTRY AND BACK?" i'm planning to head out west at the beginning of september for a month long roadtrip. i guess i'm pretty sure i'll get it, but just working through the decision once more.

so once again.......... the questions:

should i buy a car for $1,000 or go in debt to buy a car for $5,000?

can i trust german engineering to hold up on a trip across the US?

are there going to be mechanical problems that my brother, tom, overlooked?

do i wanna buy this car?

Ok folks. that's it. i'm heading up to lancaster tommorrow and could buy and pick up the car then. please let me know your thoughts on this if you have time. it would be greatly appreciated. once again, the info

1989 VW Golf. 2 door, 5 speed, CD player, air conditioning, new: clutch, tires, brakes. that's what i remember. oh, and ~$1,200



Monday, August 14, 2006

Road Rage 101

i had an interesting experience on saturday. i guess you could say it was my first "in your face" road rage experience..... and it was definately interesting.
I had my mom's car for the week, because they've been on vacation in wisconsin. so i headed up to lancaster to visit. on saturday it was time to leave and head back down to virginia. i had to take some local roads to get to the highway. most of you won't know the names, but i'll say them anyway.

i was on route 30, heading west toward lancaster, but didn't want to wait behind all the tourist traffic, so i decided to take 896 to 340 and go around it. i turned onto 896 thinking, "now it'll go faster." the problem was that the guy in front of me was going 10 mph under the speed limit, so we were going 35 in a 45. needless to say, i was annoyed. i road his tail to make him go faster, but that didn't help. so half a mile later when no traffic was coming towards us, i passed him illegally. yeah........... not the best decision, but oh well.

i had to stop at the light at 340. i stopped right at the line and the guy slithered passed me illegally on the right and pulled up, half crooked, in front of me. yelling as he did. he stuck his head out the window and started ranting about my driving. something like "what do you think you're doing, you a$$hole!!!!!" i half yelled back that he was going 10 under the speed limit, but figured it wouldn't help him grasp how important it was for me to pass him. so he yelled the same thing again, and i responded again.

this is where it got more interesting. so now this guy is getting riled up. at this point, he gets out of his car and starts walking back towards me like he's gonna give me a good talking-to. i'm sitting in my car with my window down. remember that i'm in my mom's car, with virginia plates. he starts yelling as he's coming towards me and then stops next to my window, continuing with his monologue. i'll see if i can recite it. something like "why don't you learn to drive, you redneck a$$hole!!! don't they teach you how to drive down there in virginia?!!! what the hell were you tihnking?!!!"

that's the general gist of it, just repeated several times for effect. he didn't have alot of deep, meanlingful things to say. i pretty much just sat there calmly, half listening, just hoping he wouldn't flip and reach in the window. that would have been an interesting story though. i just repeated that he was going 10 under, that i wasn't a redneck or from virginia. i really wanted to add that he only had half his teeth and looked more like the redneck, but that wouldn't have helped the situation, would it?

he finally gave up after a couple minutes and went back to his car. he drove left, so i had to drive behind him again. not fun. so i decided to take the next right and take a back way to the next exit.

so what have we learned? only pass illegally when it's clear that there's no stop light coming up where the person that you passed can confront you. sound about right? or am i missing some deeper message here?

Monday, August 07, 2006

I say Kawap..... you say Kawap....... everybody eats Kawap.

I was so blessed to get to know my Uyghur friends while staying in Karlsruhe. Rod King was able to help them alot, and i felt blessed to be able to reap the benefits of that relationship and to help in any way that i could. there were so many good times had, visiting, helping with moving, picnics and of course, grilling.

grilling must be a national specialty. the guys built there own special grill and would look for any occasion to get it out and make Kawap. Yummy, Yummy lamb meat..... mmmmm....... and lots of it.

it was such an awesome addition to my last week in Germany to be able to see anwar's new garden, plus to relax, and eat Kawap again before i left germany. Kawap is a Uyghur specialty food. Lamb meat marinated in different spices and grilled on a specially made grill. it's just super yummy.



Gulnar explained to me that there isn't a proper representation of true Kawap on the internet and that there should be pictures and videos of Kawap being made and eaten. so i took up the challenge of putting a couple videos online, plus some pictures of Gulnar eating Kawap while wearing a traditional Uyghur dress.





So this post is for Gulnar and all the Uyghurs out there. and cause it's just really yummy.



Wednesday, August 02, 2006

alot of laying around....

so it's wednesday and i've been back here in the states for almost 3 days nows. time is flying by, but i must say that i've been spending a good deal of it sleeping. i started feeling sick a week ago, or knew that it was coming. i would have normally taken it easy to try to keep from being sick. that wasn't going to happen though with only a couple days left in germany to see friends, say goodbyes, party, pack and paint. so i decided to push through and deal with the sickness later.

it's caught up to me and i've been sleeping and resting alot. feel pretty wiped out. my throat still hurts a bit, but i think i'm slowly getting over this. just taking it easy and drinking lots of fluids. i don't know if it was all the running around that got me sick or if it was more of the emotional stress of saying goodbye.

my last week in germany was busy, emotional, stressful and beautiful all at once. saying goodbye to so many people that mean so much to me was really hard, yet it's always a blessing to be told how much you are loved and how much you will be missed.
it's definately the hardest time that i've ever had leaving. there were so many moments that were wonderful summaries of my time in germany. i just feel like i couldn't have had a better last week than i did. there were so many things to do, but so many glimpses into my past years in germany. I felt like i was re-living it all over again and getting to say goodbye to all those little parts of "my germany."

and all that ending with Das Fest.... how wildly ironic... i final goodbye.

now i'm sitting in the aircondition across the ocean, wondering where it goes from here. first..... back to being healthy..... then who knows what. that's how i'm feeling right now..... lots of these dots to show that things continue somehow..... though i'm not sure where to or how.

i'll keep you posted..... or say hi in person if it's been that long.