My Year Abroad [entries|friends|calendar] Phil Berg Hi world. This journal will be my little diary/soapbox/rant station/info center about my coming year of study abroad in Germany. I wanted to start this journal because It will be a great way for all my friends to keep track of my adventures in Europe. Hopefully this page will keep us closer together as we live the next year of our life 6,000 miles apart. » recent » userinfo » Facebook » calendar [ userinfo | livejournal userinfo ] [ calendar | livejournal calendar ]

End? [26 Sep 2008|01:14am] [ mood | gloomy ] Ok listen, I know I didn't really give an ending to the Journal. I've been back for awhile now, and it's nice. The title of the page is My year abroad, so I think I'll end it that way. Thanks for reading, following me through my crazy, emotional, and undoubted best year of my life. To the people I left behind, fare thee well. You will not be forgotten. Onward to the future, wherever or whenever that will be. So signing off, Phillip Daniel Berg "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own" -Matthew 6:34 post comment

Prayer [15 Aug 2008|01:03am] I miss america. I'm ready to go home. I miss my friends. I miss my family, my sister and brother. I hope that It will be the same as the day I left, but I know it won't be. A year is a long time. People change, things change. I didn't change, although my situation sure did. I will return to school, return to the life I knew before all this; the stress, the bills, the money I don't have. I feel ever since I left, my relationship with God has waned. It has always been personal, but just being in his house really refreshes me spiritually, something I haven't had in quite some time. I miss that feeling. I am ready to go home. The life I knew before, the life before all this... Wait for me. post comment

To Hel and Back [14 Aug 2008|12:51am] [ mood | mellow ]     So I went to Poland. Completely random. The decision was made literally the day before. But I am back and I enjoyed the trip... Most of it. Anyway, to the details.     A 6 hour trip via car to the town that I can't pronounce the name of, but it is called Dziwnow. Great little beach town on the coast of the Baltic Sea. Myself, Loren Diana and Anju were just chillin' out on the beach for a couple days. We luckily scored a house after a couple of let downs. And this place was niiiiiiiceeee. Like they say, gotta love that exchange rate. We payed hardly anything at all for the place. So after a nice day of checking out the town, trying some Polish style Pirogis for lunch, we grabbed a couple beers, picked a spot in the sand and just watched the sunset. It was at this point that I truly appreciated the unforgettable year I've had; The friends I met and the friends I left behind. The mistakes I made, and the lessons I learned.  Nothing really special, but for me it was definitely one of those self reflection moments. A secluded spot on the Hel peninsula.     So we packed up, and headed out to our next destination; Gdańsk, which was also chosen about 30 minutes before heading out. After a retarded amount of traffic and several rest stops later we finally arrived in the city. Definitely an old style city. We scrambled for a place to stay and found an old apartment building that was converted into a hostel. The great part was we payed the equivalent of about 8 dollars a night to stay there. And it wasn't that bad! And it was literally in the same neighborhood that Anju grew up in as a child. So we took a little walk down memory lane early Saturday morning.     We checked out a cathedral and walked up its 400 or so steps and took some rad pictures. All the way through the tower, I felt as if it could collapse at any moment. It didn't give you that structurally sound feeling. But alas, we survived. And checked out a wedding going on at the same time as well. The seaport town of Sopot was next on our adgenda, and was it ever beautiful. A busy place, but full of life and old school building styles. I really wanted to buy some souvenirs and cool things at the many market stalls, but before going on this trip I was already out of money. =(  Whatever. Anyway after the sun went down we headed out to the beach party place and dazzled the locals with our amazing dance moves.     Monday we went to Hel. It's not as hot as you'd think. It was actually quite nice. The people in Hel are quite friendly. A two hour boat ride from the Gdansk port and we were there. We immediately took off down the road and ended off the beaten path into sort of a shoreline that appeared to be used as a WW2 polish naval reinforcement base. Large rusted out cannons and other interesting old artillery littered the shoreline. We reached the tip of the peninsula and wrote our names in the sand. It was our last day there and I was very glad we decided to stay the extra day. The end of Hel. 4 is the perfect travel group size.     Unfortunately Hel at night sucks. At about 9 pm, we noticed all the people had disappeared, as if vampires come out at night and everyone hides inside after the sun goes down. SO we missed the last boat back, no biggie we can take the train right? Wrong. We were screwed and stuck there until 4:30 am. Yeah not so fun. After some stupid ideas, a super uncomfortable train ride home, we crashed in the hostel for a mere 3 hours before packing it in and prepared for the nice 9 hour car ride home. Let's just say I slept a while when I got home to Braunschweig. But hey, no trip ever goes perfect. But all in all, it was amazing and will never be forgotten. 1 Week left... I'm not gonna go there. post comment

Qué pasa? Ven Aqui! [17 Jul 2008|04:32pm] [ mood | sore ] I would like to start off this post by saying damnnnnnnnn I got burned!     I'm Irish and German; two very white skinned people. I go to the beach, I turn red and get burned, i begin to peel, then I turn back to red. There's no nice tan phase in there. So the sun is hot! Go figure. I arrived in Barcelona with no problems at all. Beautiful day. I found my hostel just as easily. Checked in, dropped off me stuff, and set off with just my camera. I knew I was going to be alone for the most of the day, so I used this time to explore the city and find some nice architecture and explore the park. Beautiful park. It seemed everywhere I went there was a group of people just playing guitars and singing songs. Must be nice to not have a job haha. The girls said they would be arriving later that night. Passeig de Colom. Beautiful street.     Later in the day I found the beach. Man it was so nice, after all this time to sit on a beach in the sand and wade around in the water. Germany isn't known for its beaches, and the ones that are accessible are far too cold to be comfortable. After living in the Ocean State all my life, it was nice to return to the source. So I stayed in friday, with no contact as of yet. I didn't really mind at this point. I never traveled alone before, and it was kind of nice to just do whatever I wanted.     Saturday, I woke up and headed out and had a nice lunch with a gelato. Yes it was Stracciatelli. After this I knew I wanted to go swimming. But stupid me, I didn't bring my swimmin' shorts! Luckily I found a store nearby and picked up a crummy pair for 10 euro. chaching. So I'm off to da beach to do some swimmin'. After hanging out at the meeting point for about a half hour, I decided they weren't coming. Oh well, look slike I'll be alone for the remainder of my weekend. So I wanted to swim right? But the thing about Barcelona is... there are a lot of thieves.  So you can't exactly leave your stuff in the sand and go for a dip, unless you like not having stuff. Or perhaps swimming with your stuff. And getting the stuff wet. So I walked around until I found a group of English speaking girls. I demanded that they watch over my belongings while I swam, or face my unforgiving wrath. They were actually kickass! From Yorkshire I believe. Hmm lets see if I can remember their names.... Olivia, Sophie, uhhhh nope lol. Cmon you know how I am with names. It took me 10 years to remember my brother and sisters names.     But whatever we had a great time chillin on the beach. And here's the thing about beaches in Spain. They are more.. liberal than the states. So the womens tops are half the time not present, and if you go far enough down the beach as I had sadly learned, the mens bottoms as well. Yeah. So funny enough this girl introduced herself to me without her top on. I kinda just laughed at that point. It's just funny to think about something thats completely normal here, but so taboo in another place in the world. Anyway, great times on Saturday. First person view from my spot. What a wonderful beach on the Mediterraneo.     Sunday was just as fun! I went to the L'aquarium. Supposedly an amazing Aquarium in Spain. Honestly it was nice, but not 16 euro nice. I checked out the sharks, the octopusses (octopi?? lol whatev), the penguins, and some other strange sea monsters. After that, I went back to the beach to work on my burn some more. More funny and cool people. To those 2 guys pack packing around the eastern world, good luck. To the girls from New York, uuh stop doing coke? At the end of the night I was considering going to sleep, although I didn't want to. I met up with some other peeps in the hostel who were going out, so they invited me and I tagged along. Great ending to a great weekend.     So I learned this weekend that awesome people are everywhere, and you don't have to bring them with you do have a great vacation. Thanks to everyone for making my vacation to Spain a great one, I will surely never forget it. And to Tessa and Jenna, try to plan your travels a little better! Adios. post comment

Coheed and Finals [17 Jul 2008|04:01pm] [ mood | hopeful ]     So yo, we got back from the festival rockin' good time. And Me and Rob got this other one comin' up the next weekend! Actually this one was much nicer than Hurricane. Nicer in a sense that it wasn't as dirty haha. This one was in the city of Munster. So I made sure to get front row for Coheed. They put on great show. Also Flogging Molly played again, and they played the same set as Hurricane as well, but it was nice to hear again. Rockin' the Suburbs. Note the crazy hair.     So yeah great concert. Met some cool people there. We had to stay awake as much as possible, since the trains stopped running, and the first one didnt run untill 7 AM. Well we didnt make it till 7, and ended up crashing in the Hauptbahnhof for a couple hours. Needless to say it wasn't exactly a lazy boy.     After the concert we got back in time to watch the UEFA tournament championship game vs. Spain. The whole city turned out in front of the mall to support our team. About 50,000 people watch in tears as Germany fell apart late in the  second half, trailing 0 - 1 as the final seconds ticked off the clock. So with our heads down we retreated back to the local döner shop for some grub. And we get to hear the few Spanish people drive their cars around the city honking their horns and holding their flags out of the car in excitement. Yes I am happy for you. But you are in germany, obviously you know we are Germany fans, you don't need to be a jerk ass about it. Seriously.     So it would have been better with the win, but like they say, you cant always get what you want. post comment

Don't call me white [23 Jun 2008|09:27pm] [ mood | dirty ] Dangggg son the festival was silly awesome! So we took off around 11 am friday morning. We actually wanted to leave early, but we had some ticket locating trouble. Luckily as we were waiting out in the garden wondering what to do, the postman showed up looking for Alex to deliver him the ticket! So after hearing him ask us "Do you know where Alex C......Ciapara lives?" We jumped up and cheered in excitement! Funny beginning.     So boomz were on our way. Armed with our friends Jäger and Neptune, we jumped onto the train and headed to Scheeßel. The closer we got, the more people we met who were also on their way there. A few piss breaks and train transfers later, we arrived in this crappy town who's population probably increases 100 fold during the festival. Setting up the tent was a rather interesting event. Our tent's name was Hannibal for some reason... Dude he was a bitch to set up! Luckily our Icelandic friend Viking (that's his real name, badass huh) was there to help us get it done, since we were somewhat too excited to do it ourselves.     The first day was great. The first band we checked out was NoFX. Defenitely a great show. We got there pretty early, so we were at the front of the crowd. At a few points during the show I feared a little bit for my life. One particular point robert lifted me up and threw me onto the crowd, so I was involuntarily crowd surfing. It was kick ass though! So that was my first time, I liked it hehe. Well I kinda got too close to the front and the security guy kinda grabbed me and showed me the way out. This is where my years of experience of running from the cops came in handy. As soon as he turned around, I jumped this huge fence and I was back in lol. So I got to see the rest of the show and it was great.     Chemical Brothers show was great too, but after about 30 mins, it kinda ended up just being a bunch of pretty lights and repetitive drum and bass beats. Millencolin show. You can see here how dusty it was. We were very dirty.     Second day was awsome! We took a 'lil trip into the town to stock up on food and stuff. Came back, loaded up and went in to check out the bands. Met some cool people, some cool chicks that ended up being crazy chicks. Crazy. We ran for our lives. Millencolin, Rise Against, Billy Talent and Foo Fighters all in a row. Needless to say, we were ready to die after that! I went back to the tent to die. Frank was already passed out. Alex, Brad and Robert went out to explore the night.     Sunday morning, I could do nothing but laugh at how dirty we all were, and how hung over Robert looked! I made several videos and pictures. After using the bathroom place as more of a shower, we were ready to check out Flogging Molly and Panteon Rococo. Flogging Molly was bad ass. Personally I would have liked to stick around for Radiohead as well, but we couldnt bear the thought of sleeping another night in Hannibal. So we packed up all our stuff, and tried to burn the tent. But alas, Hannibal would not be destroyed by petty lighters and the sort. So we gave up, and left him where he stood. Oh we also left Frank behind. I haven't heard from him since then actually... I wonder if he is ok... The crew plus 2.     So all in all it was a great experience. No one got hurt too badly, nothing got stolen, Tons of great music, funny pictures and stories. Frank Robert, Brad, Alex and Viking; thanks for coming with me. Next up, Coheed and Cambria this friday! I'll have to monitor my funds more carefully from now on. My balance is now in the neg. =(   Now accepting donations?  More news at 11. post comment

I'm learnding [02 Jun 2008|08:16pm] Heya, sorry super long overdue post. A whole month since last time, where to start? Hmm Well I guess with the fun stuff. Its getting very warm here now. So much so that we have retreated to the Beach/Lake area just south of the city. Great place to just relax and cool off after work. On the weekends it gets really popular. Naked kids runnin' around, oh and haha... the older men thinking they look cool in their speedos. Yeah not cool lol. So thats a great place to check out. I usually go down there with our roommates and our friends. Crazy group of kids. I actually got to know this one girl really well, but its over now already, so i guess theres no point in continuing there.     Big BBQ's, jollyjoker at night and just exploring the city on foot is really so much more amazing during the summer time. Seems like every weekend there is either a rock festival or something going on in the city center. So if you're planning on coming to see me, definitely make it a weekend! =) It's no East Matunick, but it's all I have. Speaking of which, I convinced Shewz and his girl to make Braunschweig a stop on their European tour. I like to think I did a good job of showing them the sights, taking in the experience of a smaller, yet equally traditional German city. Of course we had döner kebab for lunch, showed them the castles, the shops, the mall and whatnot. I hope you guys liked it. It's no Rome or London, but hey, it's got something special too. And ooooh yess only a few more weeks until Hurricane fest. My first rock festival ever actually. We got 4 guys coming. I think we will burn the tent on the last day there... Seems fitting. Definitely get a shirt for a good souvenir. NoFX Billy Talent, Foo, Rise Against; got a good line-up. Also hopefully I can get to this hip hop show tomorrow in Hannover. This underground group EMC is doing a show there and they are KICKASS. Check out the song "Leak It Out". Some sick lyricists there. Anyway Grats Alex on the win. NIce double RBI for the win. Go Celtics Finals baby! Oh I learned how to solve a rubix cube. +1 life point. post comment

Arrivederci [09 Apr 2008|05:43pm] [ mood | hopeful ] I will live in Venice. Maybe for 5 years, maybe for my last days, maybe for only 1 year. But I will live there. The city is the most beautiful place in the world i've ever seen. The language is amazing. I would trade German for Italian in a heartbeat. It flows like lyrics from a song. German is half spitting! So anyway I arrived in Venice about 3pm amazing day. It couldn't have been any better. We met on the river side of the Santa Lucia Canal. I wanted to surprise her first, but Oh well.     They have water buses there called "Vaporettos". Let me tell you as soon as I arrived there, I felt immediately out of place without a pair of aviator sunglasses haha. So we checked out the city, rode the vaporetto up to San Marco, and just explored the city on foot. As we walked down the tiny alleyways, which were brimming with quaint little deli's and shops, I began to understand how the people of Venice live out their lives. Everywhere, people were just hanging out with their friends enjoying the beautiful weather. The place is like one big park. Anywhere in the middle of the day, people are just sitting out talking to their friends. Any other city like Braunschweig or New York City, People just walk along in groups, heads down and ipod earbuds stuck in, trapped in their own world. Not for me, no way. Maybe it's an Italian thing... Main "Street"     So me and Lau found a nice little Ristorante tucked in a small alleyway in Rialto and shared a great pizza. It was the first time I had pizza with a fork and knife haha. If its how they do it, i am not inclined to challenge that. But it was wonderful, and we had just enough time to check out the other side of the Grande Canal and make it back to the station in time to go to Florence.     Rolled into Florence about 10pm, found the hostel easy mode, dropped off my crap and we went into the city to find a nice gelato place. I love gelato. Well, Italian gelato. My new favorite word is Stracciatelli (Strachi-a-telly). It means chocolate chip haha. Sounds like a mafia family no?     Man the next day... lets just say I'm glad I left my nice shoes at home. We walked and walked and walked. But It's the best way to explore a city. We say everything. Climed the Il Domo, saw the legendary Statue of David, walked the Boboli Gardens, the magnificent marketplaces and piazza's, we even saw a play! The city is truly delved deep in its history and heritage. Beautiful sculptures and artwork everywhere. Probably the highlight of the city for me was going up to the Tuscan countryside hilltop town of Fiesole. A fantastic view of the city of Florence, with a very old chapel on the vista of the hillside.     Amazing amazing place. Here are some more Pics. Sunset in the San Marco area. Fantastico. It's seeing things like this that make you laugh and give the city that special flavor. Overlooking the Tuscan countryside. Yep we get high.     I will never forget this vacation. The weather was perfect, the sights were amazing, and I found my new future home. Thanks Laura for being a great tour guide. I can't say Braunschweig is as breathtaking, but it has it's sights. ~Buena Sera post comment

Easter and me not being a lazyass anymore [25 Mar 2008|06:27pm] [ mood | nerdy ] Hi. It snowed today. I also changed my journal style. Likes? So I stuck with it and work isn't so hard anymore. I found out that I am a very adaptive person. I got handed a very large and imitating project and I had no idea what I was doing at first. Now 3 weeks later I know the inner workings of it all. Feels great. Now I'm debugging a Cubic polynomial solving program to give me the timing numbers I need to create the movement formulas of the gripping arm. Yeah I know it sounds crazy. Anyway So instead of being a loser and playing WoW all day on Sunday, I went to visit Chris in Hildesheim and we cooked up a bangin' easter dinner. Well, his mom cooked it and we sorta sat there talking. It was the first great home-cooked meal i've had since being home. So life is whizzing by back home. Stuff is changing, people are doing things that I am not involved in. Damn it I keep forgetting to email my grandparents... So something happened between me and someone that was pretty serious. I said something that Ive never needed to say to anyone else. No I'm not gay haha. I wasn't mad it happened. I thought it was good. But I did what I had to do. Thank you for understanding, even though you didn't at first.  Sorry that part was more for myself and less for the readers. I'm probably the only reader... See ya soon. Finally I will get my ass out of Germany after so long. And I will go Florence in April. We both live in the same town in America, and we will meet in the same town on the other side of the world. Sounds like a tv show. Whatever happens we should have a blast Lau. Hope you got a lot of fun stuff to do! After this trip I will have had: A bratwurst in Germany A croissant in Paris A Guinness in Ireland A slice of pizza in Italy Aufwiedersehen. 1 comment|post comment

Winds of Change [04 Mar 2008|10:06am] 2 Posts in days! Wowza SO I'm not going to work today. Don't worry it's got nothing to do with what happened yesterday. The trams and the bus systems are on strike, so unless you have a car, there is no way you're going anywhere.  I guess I will have to go in tomorrow earlier to make up for the lost time. Yeah so me and my buddy were at my friend Daniela's going away party ( she is going back to Brazil) last night. Man I love meeting new people. Great group of people at this place. Plus I think I might move into a free room there. Bigger, much nicer room. Plus in a better part of the city. And with a great guy too. SO the wine was flowing, stories were told, many a pizza was eaten, good times were had. They have a chalk board in their house. Most would think this is out of place. Well I must say we had alot of fun with it! What else do engineers with chalkboards do? Compute formulas of course! I'm sure they were all wrong given our current state of mind. We in fact had so much fun that I missed the last tram home, so I crashed at Daniela's place. Turned out that was a 6 mile walk home. Not so fun. I am exhausted and it's only 10:15 AM. What the hell do normal people do this early? Besides work.  I've already gotten my exercise. =D My place of work. Those big table looking things are autonomous robots. They are probably smarter than you. Prague on friday! Also Laura we need to meet in Florence like we promised we would! post comment

err=pg70->getMaxCur(max_cur); [03 Mar 2008|07:26pm] [ mood | confused ] So I started my new job today, and it sucks! I got into this job thinking, "robot arm's? sweeet." Yeah. WRONG. not sweet.  So my boss gives me the code he wrote that I could get started with to start coding this crap. First of all, its not even a robot arm, its a gripper. its like 2 fingers that close and open. thats it, except they are super complicated sensitive. I was hoping for like bone crushing steel bending power. This thing would probably malfunction gripping a twinkie. Also the code is super @#$%in' complicated! Waaaaay over my head! I took C++ class like 2 years ago, so I have some experience with it. Dude not a chance. I spent 5 hours in the lab today, just staring at the screen pretending to look busy. I was just clicking random things. This is not a good start lol. Luckily I have my minions to call upon for assistance in these matters. The way I felt today, just stting there feeling useless reminded me of my old job at EB Games. Hey I LOVE videogames! This will be a sweet job. Ha. Wrong-o pal. It's not fun. It sucks. You have to deal with ignorant jerks and clueless oafs, all while being berated by the manager for not  getting your "numbers" up. And then my boss just kinda left and I was in the lab alone with this other random girl, so I didn't know what to do, or when I was supposed to leave, so I just took off hehe. I don't even know when to come in tomorrow. Should I go in tomorrow? I guess this post needs a pic. This one seems to fit it pretty well. I understand this more. post comment

Wasting Time [15 Feb 2008|05:51pm]  I know I haven't been updating the journal. Sorry. I haven't gone anywhere! But I will soon, We are going to Croatia next week. Croatia is that place where Troy used to be... I think. Anyway That will be fun. I'll make sure to take 3 or 4 pictures. I can also fly to Majorca (pronounced mayoka) for 30 bucks. DEALSIES! It's an island off the coast of Spain. I am alone again. yay.. I did meet another girl, but like the others she has a boyfriend. Normally that wouldn't mean anything to me, but I'd rather not make more international enemies haha. So I will leave that alone. Oh dude I start my job in March! And they pay me less then a Burger King employee! YAAY!! Seriously I get about 700 bucks a month. But hey at least I'm not changing tires and installing rims and crap. I am a Robotic Arm Software Engineer LOL. ME! Seriously do they know who I even AM HAHA. Nah I think I can pull it off. If I screw something up I got connections to help me out. My buddy marc is moving out. boooo. Oh yeah we got a new roommate, a girl. So hopefully she is cool with the weekly belching contests and Beer bottle collections. This is the day where everyone leaves Braunschweig and movies to their new towns to begin their jobs. Good luck, have fun, and be friendly please. See ya'll in the fall. Say hi to my neighbors. 1 comment|post comment

Back to Work [11 Jan 2008|03:11am] [ mood | thankful ] Well, it was a nice 2 weeks. Thank you all for spending time with me and giving me rides everywhere. I packed my suitcase full of snacks 'n stuff and in retrospect I should have packed them a little better. Upon opening it in my room, I found my computer covered in donuts and goldfish crackers... Guess he was hungry! I did miss the people here. Not so much the country. It was so great to be back in America and doing normal things. Those stupid little insignificant things like free ketchup at Burger King really made me appreciate my homeland. Little list of things: Rock Band Weekend trips to Boston Buffalo Wings Football in HDTV Parenti's Keg Beer URI Basketball Wendys It's going to be a long 8 months... Don't wait for me. Cheese. 4 comments|post comment

Back Home [26 Dec 2007|03:54am] [ mood | rejuvenated ] I ran. I ran until my muscles burned and my veins pumped battery acid. Then I ran some more. Big ups to France Air for giving me the biggest scare in a long time. I was to have a 1 hour and 15 minute layover in Paris. This means I would have 75 minutes before my next flight leaves. Well... it didn't actually work out that way. You see the plane was 10 minutes late, and they also had to clear the ice off it. 5 more minutes. So I now have an hour. Alright I am in Paris. I had to ride a bus to get to the terminal, which took even more time! And not only that but it wasn't even the right terminal! So I had to ride another bus to terminal 2E, intead of 2. I swear whoever named these things should be seriously injured. By the time I get thru customs and passport checking, I have 10 minutes. Well whatever at least I didn't miss it, and gate 53 was pretty close. Sorry this was the best picture I could take whilst running at a full sprint. Only gate 53 was the wrong gate. My ticket was misprinted. I was supposed to go to gate 63. 5 minutes left before the plane leaves. I didn't have time to put my belt back on from the metal detector station, so I'm running thru the airport while my pants are falling down, sweating from wearing a hoodie for the cold weather! We're talking like a half mile run here! I barely make the gate, and I reach the plane in time. BARELY... And of course to top it off, some jerkoff took my assigned window seat I requested... So I managed to get home with relatively no problems. And man did I ever miss it. It's only been 3-4 months and It was bad. Imagine after next summer! Papa Ginos, Patriots game on the big screen, then a reunion at Unos. Man what a great day! These next two weeks are gonna be real busy. Boston for new years, Sunday river ski trip, shoppin and shit. Serious business. And I intend to enjoy every minute of it. Party Friday at my sisters place! And yall better show up. Bis dann. Happy birthday Krisztina! =) post comment

wtf [15 Dec 2007|02:20pm] I am destined to be alone forever. My deoderant stick has outlasted any and all of my relationships thus far. Hey I'm nice, i'm fun and funny, I don't take girls on dates to burger king. Yeah, my feet smell but hey, no one's perfect. What is it like to know that your loved? Can it be explained in words, because I've never felt that. And no moms don't count. </emo post> 1 comment|post comment

Eire [13 Dec 2007|06:48pm]     So, I'm back from Ireland. Awesome trip I have to say. It turned out very well despite the rag-tag group of people we assembled at the last minute. Have you ever heard of the Dollar Store? Well they have sort of the same thing there too, except its called the 3 euro store, which is about 5 dollars. If you don't like spending money then my dear friend, do not go to Ireland. 7 dollar pints, 20 dollar hamburger! Damn mang its a good thing they have such hilarious voices! Apparently it's not for sale. HOUSE PARTAAAY!     Checked out some castles, one was called Dublinia. Sounds like something out of Lord of the Rings haha. THE LAND OF DUBLINIAAAA. Raining all weekend, but it did clear up for a few moments. What can ya do? It's Ireland. Guiness factory tour; that was excellent. It's an acquired taste I must say. I personally love it, but it's not for everyone. So at night the place really comes alive. Street performers everywhere. I realized that a street performer is a homeless person that hasn't had his spirit crushed yet. That man with the aluminum can in his hand was playing his violin last week. If you do get a chance to visit Dublin, defenitely go to Temple Bar. It's an area in the city filled to the brim with pubs and bars. And they are all beautiful! Some have been around for 200 years! All decked out in old style wood, wood stools and bar tops, every bartender was wearing a shirt and tie. It was excellent. I'm pretty sure we went in here... I had the opportunity to have a Full Irish Breakfast the following morning. Wow that really hit the spot. Any headache I had before hand was gone! It seriously counted for 2 meals. I like how they live over there. I wish I could have stayed longer. So Its thursday night, going to guess what? That's right the only Irish bar in the city "Wild Geese Pub" lol. Nothing beats sharing a pint with friends and making fun of the karaoke singers on stage. Good stuff. I think I made an agreement to go to Hamburg this weekend. Hmm I guess we will see! More pics on that later. I RETURN IN 10 DAYS!!! Fire up that grill firehouse! Seacrest OUT. post comment

Tryptophan [28 Nov 2007|05:35pm] [ mood | cheerful ] Hey whats up, lil' shortie for this one. So i CAN cook! We had a great litle thanksgiving party here. Everyone cooked and brought a dish. Well I sucked it up and following my mum's guidlines I cooked my favorite dish of Penne Pasta with chicken and sun dried tomatoes in a light Parma-Rosa sauce. Haha.. a slight step up from the usual PB&J no? I emo'tized it a bit because it was looking too happy. Yooo how about this! We got a trip planned to Amsterdam on friday! THen next weekend to Dublin! SOUUUPPED. I don't know whats going to happen in Amsterdam, personally I don't care about the legalization or anything, I'm not a smoker. But it's probably going to be everywhere, maybe I might get a second hand high or something... Maybe the city is pretty. But oh screw that compared to Dublin! Ireland.. mang that is a going to be bomb. Guiness brewery, blarney castle, beautiful landscapes. Super friendly people. I can't wait. Alright heading out. Night class..ZZZZZZ PEECE post comment

180° [16 Nov 2007|02:14pm] [ mood | grateful ] And this ladies and gentlemen, is why my family is better than yours. Sometimes you get that one little thing that keeps you going. And then sometimes you get them all at once. This is the story of Phil Berg. I don't know why I wanted to say that ha ha. I LOVE MY SISTER JOANNA. I truly appreciate what you did for me. But you really didn't have to pay for it. I have a ton of money to pay for that, besides it was my fault anyway I lost the old one. You're just going to have to get a rediculously good christmas present, and you better not buy me anything either! I'm serious! Ow BTW, this post is coming from my computer in my room! Lets recap all the stuff that's happened; I bought a computer and it broke the day we got internet, I lost my ipod and I had no music, lost my passport, i'm single (again), My room smells like crap. That last one is just a filler. So I'm walking to the computer center in the rain, because it is always raining here. The computers there suck they are like mega security protected. I can't even look at videos or save anything. So I'm reading these emails from the fam about how I never call them! Shutup its not that simple! (refer to previous post). I get a text from Alvira that I have a package waiting for me. Yey! So I go to her office and open it there because, hey, I'm a kid and I like presents. Boom, care package from america! All those awsome things you just cant find here. And wrapped up in gift paper is a BRAND new 80 GB video ipod. WOW.. Ok I know they said they would use my money to pay for it and send it to me. But no, paid in full by the best sister in the world! But what am I going to do with an empty ipod? I have 5 thousand something songs at home. Nope it was already preloaded with all my music! It was like heaven to my ears! I couldn't stop smiling all the way home! So I get in to my place,  hmm.  Still angry about how I couldnt get the new harddrive I bought to work in my computer. I had every engineering student over my place trying to figure it out. So I crack open the case one more time, switch the power wire up for no reason at all, thinking nah this wont do anything... but what the hell. Boom Boots up, windows installs, And Im back! I think everyone in the apartment complex heard me! Yes. I was cheering at my computer lol, shutup ok. I'm an electrical engineer, i'm allowed to be a nerd like that. We get internet working in like 5 minutes, as opposed to the 3 hours last week right before the old HD crapped out.  Awsome! So It was a tuesday, so naturally we are heading out to the Jolly Joker that night. Well I meet an amazing girl there who also lives in my apartment complex, we just never really spoken too much with each other. We hit it off and we get along great. Coincidentally, her name is Krisztina also lol. I want to have something serious, I still don't know what that feels like. The Jolly Joker, view from the second floor. Thank you God for comforting me during the low times. Thank you for blessing me with a loving family, I love you and miss you guys very much. This post is dedicated to Joanna. I'll see you guys soon. ''The LORD is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him.'' -Nahum 1:7 post comment

i hate technology [13 Nov 2007|03:32pm] [ mood | angry ] I thought I would have my computer working by now... It's been almost a solid month. It would decide to break the day we got internet. Why... UGHGHGGHHH. Now I get to walk home in the rain. I'm sorry I haven't called. I assumed I would have it working by now. I'll call today I promise. I just have to find an internet call shop that is open at midnight. As much as I love you guys, I'm not going to stand out in the snow at a payphone. post comment

I solo'ed Berlin [02 Nov 2007|06:54pm] [ mood | pleased ] Alright this one is gonna be a quickie cuz im hungry as balls. Do you have a passport? Yes you, the person reading this. You should get one. Pretty soon you will need one to leave the state. Well the process takes about 4-5 months to actually get it in the mail. I don't know why anything could possibly take that long to complete. But you know how our government works... So anyway, because I was a drunken idiot at Oktoberfest last month I lost mine. I finally gave up and realized that theives don't have a change of heart. Thus, I began my excursion to the capital city of germany; BERLIN!! Thats right, home of the 2000.... whatever Olympics! Berlin wall! all that other crap. To be honest, the city isn't even that cool. Maybe I missed all the cool stuff somehow. It was a crappy day as usual, raining. I got to the train station this morning at the lovely time of 5:00 AM. 4 hour train ride, whatever no biggie. It was actually quite nice, no one on the entire train but me. That's also the thing that annoyed me.. Why did I buy a train ticket??? It costed me 46 euros to go there and back, and I never even saw a train conductor, let alone somone asking about my ticket. Poop. Yeah I am pretty braindead when it comes to traveling, but somehow I managed to find my way to the consulate, which was 3 separate busses and 21 stops away from the train station! Go me! I turned the corner and saw it; The American flag. Wow that was nice to see. You take simple things like that for granted back home. The complex had walls that looked like they could hold King Kong in. I had to go thru 8 security check points, all guarded by armed soldiers. I was scared to even move fast, fearing a bullet to my face. You don't travel 4 hours from home and not come prepared. I had all forms filled out, like 6 forms of ID, a birth certificate, photocopies, hell I even had a stamp for the mailing fee. The clerk was astonished! So I sit in the waiting room while they make sure im not a terrorist. 5 minutes later.. ''Ok Phil that will be 72 euros, and you will get it in the mail in 10 days.'' 10 days... 10.. ten....TEN DAYS???? .... ... .. forgive my use of expletives but WHY THE FLYING F$%& DOES IT TAKE 5 MONTHS IN AMERICA!!!! Her only response was raising her finger to her lips and making the shhhh sound.. Like it's all a big joke! Anyway whatever like I said it was a shitty day out, so here's a picture of me waiting in the train station. Tonight: PARTAY WIT THA MEXICANOS YEH MANG!! 1 comment|post comment

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