If it's not Raven, it's crap...

Harburg Rathaus Train Station Mama Brooks wasn't the type of mom that got up early in the morning to pack our lunches for school or make us an elaborate breakfast or have cookies baking for us when we got home. She was quite the early riser, but she just had too much on her plate to do those things. On cold winter days she would make a big pot of hot oatmeal, but that was about it. She didn't send us off to school empty handed or stomached, it's just that as soon as we were capable of doing so, we were responsible for making our own lunches and breakfast and (often on weeknights) dinner. At the time, it didn't seem fair, since most of my friends' moms would pack them all sorts of cool lunch stuff like those little single-serving bags of chips or a pudding cup or that most-awesome of late-80s school lunch accessories... Lunchables . We couldn't afford these things and my mom didn't understand why a handful of potato chips in a plastic sandwich bag is not the

It's like "Free Candy" for German shoe enthusiasts. Picture taken from Königstrasse in Hamburg, across from my apartment.

I've been back from my trip to Dresden for over a week and I'm just now getting around to updating. I've been battling a serious case of writer's block -- or what Jay Smooth refers to as the " little hater " that lives in your head -- for at least the last six months (at least). It basically stems from some personal (read: bureaucratic/immigration-annoying-as-hell) issues that I don't want to delve into on my blog (but are nevertheless overshadowing my life at the moment) and the overall feeling that I've lost focus of what my blog is about in the first place (namely to distract myself from such annoyances, by making fun of them...all while keeping friends/family updated with my life, because I suck at keeping in touch with people). However, every post that I attempt to write seems to veer off into this kind of "Here's another weird thing that Germans do"- post. Sure, I live in Germany...so that's like, you know, a major influence on

We talked about this South Park clip only about a bajillion times last week.

As I write this entry, Frosty is sound asleep and I have commandeered his new laptop. I'll try to be brief and give you the low down about the past few days. You see, I am on vacation. A much-needed, well-deserved vacation. Frosty has a week off from university. It's kind of like German Spring Break, but centered around that time those dudes got filled with the Holy Ghost in the Bible. We decided to meet up in Dresden, because Conni (New Year's Eve in Cologne, Conni ) was celebrating his birthday this week in a nearby city. I'd post some pictures of that, but I'm a big idiot that brings a digital camera without a memory card on vacation. To sum it the party: There were a lot of people in their early-20s drinking lots of alcohol I officially suck at every card game on the planet, including Uno. Conni got a set of tight-ass grillz for his teefs At some point in the night (long after I was in bed), a let's-smash-beer-bottles-in-the-kitchen-contest took place