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Sam's Blog
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Written by Sam
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Monday, 07 July 2008 00:00 |
So, I slept once under an Austrian army poncho in a thicket behind a bar on a Saterday night, as the rain and the music drummed. And decided that was not the best way I could have spent my night. I could have been partying!
Anyhow. Yesterday, warned by the excessive cloudiness, and darkness of the weather I sought a drier place to sleep. A couple of days ago, I had seen from a traincar what appeared to be an old board covered culvert. Which ran up the embankment, and I assumed went under the streets. But when I went back yesterday, I realized it would be very difficult to get to directly without being seen. I decided when dark came, that I would see if I could creep down the tracks to where it began, so as not to be seen by the platform master or passengers. And waiting for dark, I walked in a park and read Dostoyevsky and looked up German words. However, I got turned around in the park, and got back to the tracks a ways further north than I intended. But I didn´t know this. I crossed a couple of fences (they didn´t look very official, and one was only (I found out afterwards) to a graveyard) was worried by candles in the graveyard (I thought there were people) (it began to rain here) Crossed a concrete wall, and walked along the embankment, until the tracks went underground. That is when I knew something was wrong. I knew something was wrong before, but I didn´t realize how far off I was. But I continued in the same direction, saw some buildings, came to a very official looking fence with nice cars behind it, and decided not to cross that. ( see, I have my limits, I don´t do anything that will get me caught by someone in the System, ´cause the System has no mercy) . So I back tracked to the building I had seen before, climbed into the pit behind, and through a gapping hole that looked like it had been blown in by a catapult. Put down my pack, got out my light, and listened very hard. (very hard) And thought about I am Legend, and The Cask of Amontiago (sp) and about abnormally quiet men with guns and kneedles. I didn´t explore the basement very thoroughly, because I found the stairs, and thought someone was up above. So I switched off my light, and waited, then very quietly (I thought he was at the top of the stairs crept up on all fours (so as to be lower than where he would think I would appear). But at the top there was no one, and I saw an open window in a bathroom through which I saw a parked car (it was a parking lot, and I realized someone had just gotten out) So, relieved but still cautious, I explored the remaining five above ground floors until I got to the roof. Would have taken pictures there (beautifully dark with a smattering of rain, the clouds, and steeple with clock face in the wind) but I had not brought my camera, and didn´t want to risk tramping back and forth from the cellar just for a few pictures in the dark. So I again decended. Now the basement was very dark ( for obvious reasons) and had a ceiling composed of three foot slightly crumbling brick arches, supported by rustingI-beams acting as joists. And this gave it a very old, cellarish feel, and was not at all conducive to my confidence *thinks of Underworld* (homeschool moms, forgive my references to movies which are... of quedstionable value Ü). As I finished exploring all of the cellar, (which was very large, and full of dark nitches, and was returning towards the hole where I had left my pack, I thought sure I had heard someone upstairs, inside the building. I could have sworn. Switched of my light, and stood in blackness. And waited, and listened and imagined strangly silent gunweilding owners, and alternately, drugridden gang members desperate for secrecy, carring more brutal, ferocious(I have no idea how to spell that) weapons. And completely dismissing vampires and werewolves (which I am sure don´t really exist... and which would have come from behind me, from the darkness, and not from the stairs which, was also darkness). But I knew that whoever was comming down the stairs would more than likely see my pack in the fading dusk from the hole (except that the back was to the stairs, and the back was black, so maybe they would, maybe they wouldn´t). AndI wasn´t sure which would be better. Cause I knew that if they saw it, they would look at it, and I knew I would hear that, unless they were like,   mYstically silent! I heard something more, like a boot scraping a piece of gravel against a stone floor. But nothing more. And I waited. Until I heard my heart beating, and my joints creaking, and my stomach making the most careless, heedless noises! And two trains passed (meaning about ten to twenty minutes). And I heard nothing more. Switched on my light, ready to dive to the side. But no one shot. Tried to walk silently (which was impossible) Stepped on a metal grate, which clanged and in the end gave me confidence. Got my pack and went back into one of the main rooms, which there was only one entrance (through another smaller room) and laid out my poncho and bag, behind a half wall. Then I went back, and laid an empty plastic water bottle in the entrance hoping someone would kick it (and awaken me) before they found me. Slept, didn´t think about all the other entrances I didn´t find, etc. And woke up alive!
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Written by Sam
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Friday, 04 July 2008 00:00 |
Went to sleep with the sound of rain (really just leaves falling) awoke to the sound of rain, and the feel of it too. Luckly, my thicket is pretty thick, so I had time to pack up before getting drenched. Got the TV tower, without too much wetness, decided to try and make it to the Dom Cathedral, which was a bad idea, got much wetter. Changed clothes, (a little before nine) and set my things to drying, laughed at the people who frowned, got out The Idiot, and got less frowns (one doesn´t look so much like a bum when one has either a book or a girl). Rain lessened, Went to the Halptbahnhof, spred my map to dry, Figured out the public transport. I am out of time, and will now stop.
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Written by Sam
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Thursday, 03 July 2008 00:00 |
So, I obviously survived my flight. I was picked up by Mr. Rautenberg and spent five days in Marburg. Which has a castle and a watchtower overlooking a valley. My german is gradually improving, although not much yet. I have taken many pictures and intend to load them onto a flickr site if only I find the time and capability. Unfortunately I left my USB direct download cord for my camera in the States, so must find a computer with SD card compatability.
Aparently only punks and Americans j~walk, especially in the presence of children. Water is too expensive to give away, so there are no public drinking fountains. However, since germans are so green minded, that they do not use chlorine in practically anything. So, a display fountain has twice slaked my thirst *celebrates piracy and a healthy imune system* Unfortunatly that particular fountain seems to only play at the top of every hour. So I must find more or die... Or buy water.
I have not seen much yet at Berlin, but I have seen the Victory Angel shown in Wings of Desire, and walked through the Tiergarten. I am contemplating getting a buspass, or a train pass, but if I can walk everywhere... I am have nothing in particular to do until the elventh, so if there is anything that I must see, tell me! the internet is fairly cheap so I spect I will be on every couple of days to check things out.
But we will see about that. And my time is about up. So, until I once again become one with the universal web!!!
Samstag
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Written by Sam
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Thursday, 26 June 2008 00:00 |
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Leave Gutenberg at 5:00 AM
Drive to Portland with Joe and Karl
Fly from Portland at 8:30 AM on the #461 to Detroit and #52 to Frankfurt
Arrive at 7:50 AM CEST
Get picked up by friends from Marburg
On the 28th, get a happy weekend ticket and take slow trains to Berlin
Meet up with Yoshi's friendship
Pick up Jen from Tegel Airport on the 11th at 2:10 PM CEST on the Swiss #966
Go to Hostel SleepCheapHostel, Spandauer Damm 101, Berlin, Germany, 14059, Germany
On the 14th Go to training Apt. Kopenhagenerstr. 72, 10437 from July 14-19 Call Jess for Keys
On 19th head down to Cochem (KlottenerStrasse 9 56812 Cochem Tel. 02671-8633) for three weeks of camp. Ends on Aug 9th
Kick around somewheres until 15th
16th, arrive in Coburg, meet classmates! (have classes, go to concentration camp, etc)
Sept. 4th leave Coburg for Grimmelwald, Josiah takes lead.
17th Leave from Frankfurt at 7:10 AM CEST arrive in Portland 11:55 AM
Sept. 29th School begins!
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Steinbeck, East of Eden, Page 12 |
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Written by Sam
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Saturday, 05 May 2007 00:00 |
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It wasn't very long until all the land in the barren hills near King City and San Ardo was taken up, and ragged families were scattered through the hills, trying their best to scratch a living from the thin flinty soil. They and the coyotes lived clever, despairing, submarginal lives. They landed with no money , no equipment, no tools, no credit, and particularly with no knowledge of the new country and no technique for using it. I don't know whether it was a divine stupidity or a great faith that let them do it. Surely such venture is nearly gone from the world. And the families did survive and grow. They had a tool or a weapon what is also nearly gone, or perhaps it is only dormant for a while. It is argued that because they believed thoroughly in a just, moral God they could put their faith there and let the smaller securities take care of themselves. But I think that because they trusted themselves and respected themselves as individuals, because they knew beyond doubt that they were valuable and potentially moral units- because of this they could give God their own courage and dignity and then receive it back. Such things have disappeared perhaps because men do not trust themselves any more, and when that happens there is nothing left except perhaps to find some strong sure man, even though he may be wrong, and to dangle from his coattails.
P.S. I could not recommend this book highly enough. It is well worth reading, even if you disagree with his point here. He is a very insightful author, and describes things which are of great worth. I really enjoyed it, and though I hesitate to state it to the world, I think (having only had my own self to bounce this opinion off of) that it is a very good book. It stopped me, and made me think. And that is always a good thing. A caution; iIt speaks of good and evil, but is not foul. Yet I would hesitate to read it to just anyone of too tender an age.
The Illiterate
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