I see that blogger lists "scooters" as a suggestion for a subject for this post--I really wish I could have a life that leads me to put scooters as the subject of my posts. Sadly enough, that is far from the case. I just got a bike, however, which is apparently going to rocket me into productivity instead of taking a whole forty minutes out of my day to and from school--to tell the truth though, I love it..I've been running around the lake and the forts and old limestone caves near the river..there is even a petting zoo in the middle of town with all sorts of unprecedented mammals. I just went out with the Erasmus student organization to a "Cantus," an old Dutch tradition that involves singing the Spice Girls and holding wooden shoes in your hands. Women's issues manage to socially paralyze me at certain moments, but really this place is great. The Belgians and Italians and Spaniards all had a big potluck the other night with paella and polenta and p-waffles. I ended up talking with someone who knew about the Indian origin of Sufism and to a Nigerian about what he actually thinks about Shell. There are impressive people to meet everywhere I look. I feel like a kid in a candy store. I actually used that phrase when I was talking to one of the Belgians and now he repeats it to everyone else who is learning English as one of the best English idiomes of all time.

Last weekend I went to visit Emily in Berlin, which was pretty great. It is reputably one of the hippest cities around, but it was so freezing cold that i think the cool cats were freezing their asses off. Somehow I managed to hurt my foot so that it was swollen up and a little purple on Saturday monring; and one of the pre-med students who was staying in my dorm at the hostel told me I needed an x-ray. Unfortunately I didn't really see museums, but instead opted to ride around on the impressively scenic and efficient lite-rail system to see the city. It's a really great display of humanity. I sat next to a couple of girls dressed all in black with black jackets and black sunglasses with a ridiculous sheep dog on the tram. A guy with a guitar waltzed into our car, and the dog started howling along with him when he hit the high notes. Also made it to the German state fair, which, (surprise surprise) included a lot of wurst, beer, cheese, and renewable energy.

I am also impressed when I see windmills on the countryside. However, all of the shops keep their doors wide open and the heat on full blast. No one seem to have any qualms about energy costs there. I do tend to answer for George Bush's energy policies all the time, as though I had been the one that told him to hock a big fat loogie on the Kyoto Protocol. I really like it when people are curious about my views and actually ask me about them and find that I actually am not the American that they imagine--and I really hate it when they ignore me anyway and confront me with statistics about September 11th or quotes about how Bush thought that Nigeria was in Africa. Occasionally I get to impress them by knowing where Oslo is, but when people are really mean I find myself muttering "no, actually, I don't think I can name a single president of Slovakia." I am ashamed of my ignorance, but I think I take it a little too hard because it is impossible for me to reciprocate every nation's knowledge about the US.