man, i just really feel like writing. like...a lot. not sure why.

i don't even know if anyone else will be reading this ever or not. as of now i don't think my blog is being made public. i'm not sure how long i'll leave it that way.

ah well, this weekend i travelled around western hungary. it was pretty fun. this one "town" we went to, called Fertöd, was the dumpiest dump that ever dumped (as far as i'm concerned). i mean, a total dump. run down buildings, crappy landscape, and tons of mud. but right in the middle (if there was a middle) there was this mansion (we're talking Overlook Hotel type stuff) with a huge lawn full of enormous gumdrop-shaped shrubs. The whole place was so Shiningesque it wasn't even funny. so we stayed the night there. in the mansion thingie. it was okay. there were creepy pictures all over the place, but they had tv, but it was in hungarian, but that didn't matter, but...that's it. in the books and everything there are all these really pretty pictures of the place, but fortunately for us, it was under total construction when we got there. not only was this place being completely renovated, but i think all of hungary is. come in here in 10 years and you'll see a really nice fixed up country.

the weather was craptastic this weekend, but i got to take a really nice train ride on the nicer of the 2 days. and as i passed by all of these small agricultural towns and whatnot, i couldn't help but wonder about all of the people living in them. the lives they live. the things they do in their spare time. what kind of music they enjoy. their thoughts on the world. on God. ...on americans (huh). it's crazy to think about. and even crazier to know that God knows it all. man.

did i mention that the elementary school kids learn British english? when the listen to tapes, it's of British people. i just really think that would be a lot harder. all of this exposure to languages is so cool. like i was looking through this workbook on learning American english and it was so interesting. there are so many phrases we use that could be misinterpreted in so many ways that we never even think twice about. (i wish there was a shorter way to write the word "twice". oh well.) and in one of the lessons it was covering how we ask for stuff. and it's the little things like "don't be surprised if they pronounce the word "can" as cn. obviously, that's so simplistic, but could really throw off someone. maybe? i dont know. I thought it was interesting. stupid.

and another thing, where did we lose our accent along the way? the australians managed to keep there's. how did our's get lost? was it just because america was such a melting pot from it's beginning that it kind of just evolved out?

it bothers me a lot when people say they don't like a movie because it's not what they expected. SO WHAT? exactly when in your life did you determine that movie's were made to meet YOUR expectations and if they didn't they weren't acceptable as a good movie. like matrix 2. everyone was just up in arms about how much they didnt like it. "It just sucked compared to the first one." "I don't know. the first one was just way better." This just in: it's not a remake of the first one! it is, in fact, a different movie. how can you possibly expect to go into the second one and come out as shocked as you did in the first? the first one was obviously groundbreaking. so you go into the 2nd one knowing that it's a continuation of The Matrix and expect it to be just as crazy as the first and something totally original? i don't get it. anyway, matrix 2 isn't my favorite movie by any means, but i did like it. bottom line: people that judge movies based on other movies should shampoo my crotch.

john and i go to London this weekend. and if we can pull it off, we'll also be hitting up Salzburg, Austria and Munich, Gemany. we're basically going to just take off the week from "school". should be awesome. man, London is huge. 12 million people. 650 sq mi. dang. can we say "bus tour"?

apparently, there's some sort of music "concert" every night this week from tues-fri in the large club room beneath me. so that's cool. not.

i had a dream last night that i was home and i had forgottent to bring back Unicum. i was upset. ha. and then this morning, Franziska, my german neighbor, comes and knocks on my door at 6am. i'm like, "what the...?" and she's like, "josh, i can't open my door, please help." so i wander over to her door in a stupor and her door had slammed behind her and shut her towel in the door, creating a tight squeeze (hard to explain, but we have really stupid door handles that can only be opened by turning the key, which acts as a door knob. so stupid) anyway, so i opened it and wandered back to bed. it was pretty odd and humorous at the time.

time to work out. i've filled my need to write, i believe.

oh yeah, and i had a dark beer tonight. it tasted quite different from the light beer. not worse, just ...different.