Thought I forgot to write a title? Well I didn't!

Inspired by Ginger's brother Wyatt's recent embrace of hate here's what just happened. I went to the grocery store here on the corner to buy some stuff for cooking tonight. Well, unfortunately the little butcher store was already closed so I had to buy our meat at Plus (that's said supermarket) as well. Which is something I don't really like. Anyway, I get to the register and there is a guy in front of me with a bunch of stuff. He puts it all in his bag and gets ready to pay with his debit card. First, he can't find it in his wallet, but that only took a short while for him to find it, no big deal. But then, of course his card doesn't work. The cashier tries it, over and over and OVER again. No luck. She's like 'Sorry it's not working. You have any other cards?' By that she meant other EC-Cards since that is the only kind they take there, or most places in Germany that is. He has two credit cards. So the cashier says that there is a Sparkasse (the bank he uses) right across the street and he could get cash there. Now she wasn't a fountain of friendliness or nothing, but she wasn't exceptionally rude either. It is a German supermarket after all with a long line beginning to form. And they guys's like: 'Well you just have to keep trying til it works. It must be your machine since it ain't my card cause I always pay with it.'
Say WHAT!!!? She already tried it a million gazillion times, the sucker is NOT WORKING! Plus, how do you know it's not your card. And if it's not I'm sure the stupid card reader will give in if you just try one more time. I can see it's cracking. I can just see it. Look! Oh, just give it one more swipe and it will plead for mercy like a 4-year old on a merry-go-round being pushed by freaking Mr. T and Hulk Hogan and He-Man at the same time. And they all sing 'wheels on the bus go round and round'. So he ended up getting the cash and I could proceed to buy my hamburger and feta cheese and milk. Yum.

Hotdangit!

I already wrote this, but somehow it got lost. Anyway, I witnessed a drug deal today. Originally this was called Big City Life, but the whole thing was crap anyway. Let me break it down. I was going to the university to sign up for a library pass (I have to go again, please don't ask) and had to wait for a Strassenbahn at the train station. Now I knew already that drugs are being sold there, from the suspicious characters hanging out and the fact that the city has a video surveillance system installed to monitor the area. In fact it kinda freaks me out to go to the train station here at night. In Trier it was cool. You were basically all by yourself, and nothing ever happened anyway. But in Bremen it's a little different. So I knew stuff was going on. And today, this was at the bus/Strassenbahn stop, two guys were waiting at a stop across from me. Or so it seemed. In fact they were waiting for people to come by and buy something from them. And they did. Now the alleged drug dealers looked normal and unsuspicious to me, until these other two guys walked up to them, and everybody shuffled around a little and they left quickly (the two new guys). Now I didn't watch all that closely since I didn't wanna seem like I was observing them, but I can positively say that the two buyers were not friends with the alleged sellers. The guys that bought were a little dirty-looking and looked somewhat messed up. Not too bad though. My guess is they bought something soft. And there was no friendly chit-chat or shaking hands, nothing. Everybody tried to keep it quiet.
Yeah, that's what happened today that I considered blog-worthy. I feel like such a loser for even mentioning it, but it must have been the first real-life drug sale I witnessed on a street. Like something out of a movie or something. Alright, I better get back to working on my school stuff.

A complete stranger died...

...it was my uncle. About two weeks or so ago, my parents were here to help us with the apartment. We needed to hang up our kitchen cabinets and they were too heavy for just Christina and me to hold. So while we were working on the second one, my dad says: "Uncle Bruno died." I didn't know what to say. I told him I can't hardly remember him at all, but he didn't wanna tell me a lot of details about what happened and why he was gone. Apparently Bruno was experiencing chest pain at work and felt really crappy, so he asked his boss if he could go home. He said okay and then my uncle collapsed and died on the spot from a heart attack. My parents went to the funeral but nobody else from my immediate family did. Heck, my grandma didn't even learn until a few days later, but she was in the hospital anyway.
So now you're wondering what this is all about, and I can't really tell you either. Like I said, the guy was a complete stranger. I remember his name and he had two kids as well that still live in Löhne, but I never see them either. And I guess everybody kinda closed that chapter anyway. Luckily my mom filled us in one some of the details and I could really tell how my dad didn't wanna talk about it. I can't even imagine what he must feel like. Apparently Bruno was experiencing some severe personal problems after his divorce and it came to a point where it was just impossible for him to live with my grandma anymore. So he left. And basically there was no contact for like 20 years. At the funeral my parents learned that he remarried and was doing fine again. His own kids didn't even really know too much either.
So even though he was a complete stranger, he was still my uncle, but since I didn't know him it didn't really affect me. But of course I began to think about the tragedy of it all. I just couldn't even begin to grasp the idea of not being in touch with my brother anymore. Not that we're the closest or anything, but he's still my brother. And I couldn't stop thinking about the fact that I have two cousins that I barely know at all. I probably wouldn't even recognize them on the street.
I meant to blog about this right away, but wasn't online at the time. So now you have to live with this distanced version of my emotions at the time.

Time for celebration.

I just noticed that not too long ago we had the 1000th visitor to our blog. Did anybody happen to notice that they were it? Next time I see you, you're getting an ice-cream.

I am disappointed.

So I guess the people over at Business Entrepreneurship didn't want my business. My comment congratulating them on being Neighbor of the Month was deleted. What a bummer. I thought they would be thrilled. I guess I will have to install more rigorous standards for becoming our neighbor.

Eating Choco Pops.

What the heck is UP? I'm finally back online and writing my first post from Bremen. So much has happened but I won't bore you with much. First of all, the song in the last post was by Bob Dylan and it was The Times They Are A-Changin'. I actually took those lyrics from bobdylan.com which is a really great site, especially since most 'official' sites suck. We also have a new Neighbor of the Month, so be sure to check that out as well. It was hard as hell to find one this time. The first blog was in Taiwanese and all I could see were question marks. Second one was in Italian, and i thought that will be no fun, and it went on like that. 13-year-old Japanese girl with a big grudge against everybody, but no commenting. Insurance advertising. And finally I came upon a worthy neighbor. Not as fun as the Weird Thing of the Day, which I still read regularly, but interesting none the less.
Alright, so we are moved in in Bremen, we have a phone and the 'internets' and I will send around e-mails with our new info soon. If you don't get one, just write me and I will send you another one. I actually just sent out the e-mail to everybody. Hope I didn't forget anyone.
My parents were so much help with the move and fixing up the place and all. Now we just gotta hang up some pictures and stuff and it's pretty much done. I had a hard time keeping Alice from doing so when she was here. I just kinda like to settle a little first and then hang up the stuff. It was nice having her here though. And I hope she didn't completely hate it. She got on my nerves a little sometimes, but I can handle that. I'm sure I annoyed her too. Alright, I said I would keep it short, so this is it for now. I have a sad post too, but it has to be on its own. You'll see. If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments, and I'll answer.