A little rain never hurt anyone, but this?

So I thought that the rain was only bothering me. It rained all the time in my trip to Germany, then more in Italy, and then even more in Switzerland. As it turns out, however, I left just in time. My friend Susann, with whose family I stayed until last Sunday morning, tells me that had I stayed just a while longer I would not have been able to leave even now. The village down the road from her house is flooded, and many of the railways are closed.
Bern, the capitol city, is where I stayed Sunday night. I went for a walk by the river that night in the rain and noticed that it was pretty swift. There was a little break inthe rain in the morning when I walked to the train station. As I left the hostel I was able to see the river raging just down the street. I had no idea that the hostel would soon be flooded. My train was about 12 minutes late, which I found odd, considering I was in Switzerland. The rain seemed endless that trip until I was well into southern France. My mood improved along with the return to sunny skies, but little did I know that Bern was already flooding as I left.

Now I am visiting some friends in Spain and will be going to the beach tomorrow. That should be a lot of fun.

Madrid

Well, thanks for the feedback on the beating I gave out. I keep wishing I had hit him hard initially instead of trying to wrestle his neck, but I bet his neck still bothers him a little.
I decided after that that I would leave Barcelona for another location. Spain is pretty big, so I went to Madrid.
Noting that I said I did not think much of Spain's rail system, I was really surprised when I got to my train for Madrid and found that it was as nice as most any that I have been on with only a few exceptions, and it was not even the fast train (I saw one of those too, and they looked really nice). The best thing, considering that with a 1st class rail pass I still had to pay $25 extra for the train, was that they served a pretty good meal. It was like any airplane I have taken in that respect. There was even a movie (School of Rock- it kind of loses something in the translation, but it still was fun).
Did you know that there is a desert in the middle of Spain? I knew that the region near Almeria (south coast, east of Malaga, and the location of filming for "The Man with No Name" trilogy) had a desert appearance, but this was really dry and dusty. It was not a sand dune thing, but it was impressive.
Madrid is really nice. It is pretty quiet really, and not blazing hot. The people usually are easy-going and let me struggle through with my Spanish as it is. It still bugs me a little when waiters use English to ask if I want things like bread or something. Maybe I am not familiar with some things on a menu, but at least they could give me the benefit of the doubt if we have already spoken everything else in Spanish. I find it funny who does that and who does not. It is usually the more educated (who may speak better English even) who will let me struggle a bit, while the less educated (who often only know a little English) tend to jump a the chance to tell me things in English. I can never tell if they are doing it for the opportunity to use English, or if they are only doing it because they think that they are being helpful (to both of us). It does not really matter, because I am not going to use English with them unless they ask me to do so.
Tomorrow I am returning to Granada, where I spent 3 months last fall/winter. I am looking forward to seeing it in the summertime. I have a few friends there with whom I am going to stay, so that should be nice as well.

Turning the other cheek

Today was a long day on three different trains (four if you count the subway in Barcelona). It rained all night in Switzerland, and in fact overnight there was flooding and some landslides in the region where I stayed just a few days ago. If I had stayed another night there, I would have been stuck there (how bad could that be?). But alas, I did leave Bern this morning and went to Geneva, where I changed to a TGV train (Tren a Grande Vitesse) and found out how fast one can go by rail. In Montpelier I changed again to a Spainish version of the TGV. I prefer the French version in this respect. It was not really very fast, and the seats were like riding in the front seat of a plush 1973 Plymouth Fury III. I had one of those, so I know.
The cool thing was that the guy who sat behind me is from Santiago, Chile, and we had a nice conversation in Spanish, as he does not speak English. He had a tough time in Europe, but has enjoyed it nonetheless. He has been to most of the same places that I have on this trip, except he went to Rome and Paris instead of Venice. He has spent more time on trains at night, but I don't like the train that much and prefer to see where I am going simply to know more about the countryside.
In Barcelona I first tried to phone a couple of hostels, but since both were full, I just decided to venture out to the area wherein there are several. As I tried to get on the subway, a guy got on in front of me. He suddenly decided to get off and turned around into me with his arms in front of him as if to clear himself a path. Of course I had my large backpack on my back and my smaller one in my left hand, so he mostly pushed me into other people. That must have been what he wanted, because that of course distracted me. Meanwhile another guy saw that I had something in a sidepocket of my pants and opened it. However, I felt that and looked in time to see him take my wallet. Instictively I then used my body to block his exit. There was only one exit because he could not go down the train car- it was too crowed, and the other direction was a wall. That worked to my advantage, and so I pushed him with my large pack into the wall pretty hard. Then I turned towards him and grabbed him by the neck with my right arm. I still had the other bag in my left, so I could not do much else. He said something in protest as though he did not know why I would attack him, but I could still see that he had my wallet, though he was trying to hide it in a rag or something. I wrestled him towards the door, which was still open, and there the wallet fell on the ground. He abandoned hope of getting it then, and his partner did not seem to be trying to help him out, so I picked it up. Then I was really mad and forgot that blows below the belt are illegal in boxing. But then, I never took boxing lessons. He may have taken a swing at me, but I don't think he hit me. Then using my right (again remember that the otehr bag and now a wallet were in the left hand) I punched him in the face. It felt really good. I am not sure why. He got off the train, but came back and said something and spit at me. Punk. I bet his friend made fun of him for getting beat up by a guy with a heavy back pack and one arm (essentially) tied behind his back. Either way, I am happy that I noticed what as happening, responded well, and that I still have my wallet. I have to think that God had something to do with that.
I wonder what others think about that. Did I respond rightly? or should I have just asked nicely for him to give it back and then call my credit card companies and everyone else to replace my cards and such? I know that in some places (Washing ton D. C. for example) it is considered assault to do what I did, even when trying to recover stolen property. But then, I am okay with it; in this case anyway.

Perhaps tomorrow I will go somewhere else. This hostel is too loud and overbooked anyway.

Super Summer Soakers

Well, it seems that leaving Houston's heat and humidity for the wonderful weather of Europe has not gone exactly according to plan. As of today, my 19th day abroad, I have had 3 non-travel days with good weather, and 3 travel days with good weather. The rest have had either some bad weather or a lot of it. At least it is dry on the train...

More later, I am on my way back to Spain in the morning. Switzerland is just too wet...

Italian musings

Well, those of you who follow this post are certain to wonder why I have not been writing, but never fear, I will soon have more time to do so. Right now I am in Florence and things are going well. We have been to the Lake District and seen both Lake Lugano and Lago di Como, along with Bellagio, we went to Pisa and saw the wonderous leaning tower, and now we are in Florence. We went to the Galleria della Academia and saw the famous David, by Michaelangelo, along with some other art. At the same gallery there are a few musical instruments, including a Stradivarius violin (worth a few million dollars at least). We also so the Palace of the former rulers, which was basically an art gallery in itself.

Today we are going to Venice, where we will spend 3 nights before my friend leaves for home. I have really enjoyed having this time with her. It has been a really good to get to know her better.

Later on I will be going to Switzerland for a few days. I have been wanting to go there for as long as I can remember, so needless to say I am a little bit excited for that. Mountains, lakes, and cool weather. Now that is nice.

It's all Greek to me

So here I am in bitterly cold Germany (at least for August it seems cold) and everywhere I go people speak German. Imagine all of the sudden I am at a loss for words. Well not so much a loss for words, but rather I am at a loss for words that most people will understand here. It is really interesting to be a foreigner. I highly recommend it to everyone. The more uncomfortable one feels , the more understanding one has for others when they are the ones that are are having troubles with the language and culture.

Well I am now in München staying with a cousin who seems like my friend Mike Hon. He knows people all over the place, especially here in Germany. He is taking us to Garmisch today and maybe I'll buy a sweater or something there. We shall see...

I'm Leaving on a Jet Plane

I have wrestled with this for a long time but I thinkI am ready to admit it. I like John Denver. I can't say that I am a "fanatic" or anything, but I like his music. I first denied this when my mom told me that she thought I would be sad to hear that he had died a few years back, thinking that I must be a fan, since I had bought her one of his LP's back when I was little. I told her that I bought it for her because I thought that she wanted it, not because I knew anything about him or liked his music at the time. She was sure that I was the fan, and not her.
It seems that a lot of people are that way about him. Yet he wrote really good songs about life. Leaving on a Jet Plane was his first hit, and it was the only number 1 hit that Peter, Paul, and Mary ever recorded. The lyrics are really nice:

Leaving, On A Jet Plane

All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go, I'm standing here outside your door,
I hate to wake you up to say good-bye.
But the dawn is breaking, it's early morn, the taxi's waiting He's blowing his horn.
Already I'm so lonesome I could die.
So kiss me and smile for me, tell me that you'll wait for me, hold me like you'll never let me go.
'Cause I'm leaving on a jet plane, don't know when I'll be back again. Oh, babe, I hate to go.

There's so many times I've let you down, so many times I've played around,
I tell you now they don't mean a thing.
Every place I go I'll think of you, every song I sing I'll sing for you,
when I come back, I'll bring your wedding ring.
So kiss me and smile for me, tell me that you'll wait for me, hold me like you'll never let me go.
'Cause I'm leaving on a jet plane, don't know when I'll be back again. Oh, babe, I hate to go.

Now the time has come to leave you, one more time let me kiss you,
then close your eyes, I'll be on my way.
Dream about the days to come when I won't have to leave alone,
about the times I won't have to say:
kiss me and smile for me, tell me that you'll wait for me, hold me like you'll never let me go.
'Cause I'm leaving on a jet plane, don't know when I'll be back again. Oh, babe, I hate to go.
I'm leaving on a jet plane, don't know when I'll be back again. Oh, babe, I hate to go.



So tomorrow (or later today, really) I am leaving for a month-long trip to Europe. For the first two weeks I will be accompanied by my friend who is known to many as "Nurse Brenda." I expect that she will see to it that we have a good time and that I am occupied with making sure that she enjoys herself, since it was my idea that she come along. I believe that it will be a great time, more than if I went alone (which is what I was planning to do originally), simply because I will have someone with me with whom to share the experiences.

There is something liberating about being unbound to this world. Yes, I have some debts, but I am as free as I have ever been in my life. I have a plan, I have work arranged in September, and I have some ideas for the future without any ties or obligations to anyone other than the Lord in Heaven who gave me this to begin with. In this world we will have trouble. However, Jesus has overcome the world, and He says that we will through Him overcome also. Never before have I felt so free to do whatever He leads me to do. Some call it being "irresponsible and reckless," but I see it differently (isn't that obvious?).

I don't know when I'll be back again. But that is why it is so challenging and exciting.

Empowerment? or simply transference?

So I'm reading a friend's blog and note that in a recent post he writes about all the bumper stickers he has seen and how they may be witty or clever, or whatever. One in particular has to do with Mary Kay Cosmetics. One can follow the link in the title to read it for oneself, but in short he recalls the sticker as saying, "Mary Kay Cosmetics: Empowering Women's Lives." He then goes on about that a bit, and makes some interesting points. However, the reality is that the sticker doesn't say "Empowering." On the contrary it says, "Enriching," which is something altogether different. Here we have a sticker that says two things as sort of a double meaning: on the one hand it refers to the fact that Mary Kay is a line of products that are known to be good in quality and value and allows the individual to have her (or his in some cases) own home-based business, while at the same time, if one is highly motivated and successful, one might be able to make a large amount of money.

Now, I don't want to criticize my friend in my blog, and what I am saying is only meant to inform and comment on what he has written, but his blog doesn't allow for comments, so I thought I'd leave mine here and he can find it when he has a chance. So if you see him, tell him I wrote about him. And we'll see you later.