Home Sweet Home

We took a bus, then a plane, then another bus, and finally we were in our new home of Bonn, Germany! The second we got off the bus Bobcatt’s host-Mom was there. She guided us to where we needed to go and filled our noggins with some knowledge of the city.

Phil went on his way when his host-Dad came, and I was left to explore the city on my own till my host-Dad came later that day. Now if you’re not following everyone studying here is staying with a host family. There you go…now you’re caught up.

Around 6pm the rest of the film kids showed up in Germany. I finally met my family and every single one of them is amazing. The family consists of (those living here currently) the Dad and Mom, a daughter of 21, another daughter of 14, triplet girls of 11, and finally the oldest daughters boyfriend. (Recently I got to have a nice long talk with my host-Dad over a pint and another time over coffee...yes life is good)

(My awesome host family...boyfriend not pictured. That's actually the oldest son)

Later that day I managed to meet up with a friend from LMU, Steven Ayala, who was out in Germany for a couple of weeks. He showed me and some of the guys around town as we explored the nightlife.

(Sharing a beer with friends encountered over seas...this is life)

The next day orientation began which was concluded by a tour of Bonn and a beer on the Rhine.

(On the Rhine)

Since then classes started…yea…I’m not here just for vacation. It surprised me too. Yet, these past view days I’ve gotten close to my host family, and have gone out with the older ones and some of the LMU kids.

(Deutsch Class)

Today I hit up Colonge in search of chalk artists for my documentary. I’m a little worried that I may have to abandoned my idea, because as the weather begins to drop (it already dropped 30 degrees in two days) the artist may retreat for the winter. Although, I was unable to find artists, it was not in vain. My friend Sam managed to find some Parkour kids and made contacts.

(On the way to Cologne)

(The Dom...freakin' sweet)

As for tonight…well the New European Program Business kids just got in. Among them is Blake who had his birthday on the flight over. Let’s not forget it’s the King of Pop’s birthday and there is this little lounge celebrating just the occasion. Most importantly it’s my Mom’s birthday back in the states. There is much to celebrate here and the night is only just about to begin.

Happy Bday Mom! Prost!

Luzern

(Luzern!!!)

Our final destination in Switzerland was this little place called Luzern. Bobcatt had already been there and said it was amazing, but the rest of us hadn’t. We kept hearing it was a cool place to check out, and I actually had been told by Carrie-the-girl-with-Curls who was sitting next to me on my flight to Europe that it was a must to check out while in Switzerland. Let me just say that all these expectations were met. The second we got of our train I was stunned by Luzern. It was simply gorgeous.

The sitting is filled with tower walls and these old wooden bridges to cross the river, and the city itself is just filled with this energy.

We decided that we must first hit the most famous site in Luzern that Mark Twain himself called “The saddest sight he had ever seen”, this being the famous statue of the slain lion commemorating the Swiss Guards who lost their lives when they had defended Marie Antoinette from a mob of Parisians. It really was a moving peace, and all though a really cool statue it was a bit of a Debbie Downer.

We decided to scale the towers and look at the view of the city. We then explored the city more and lull and behold I ran into Carrie-the-girl-with-Curls in Luzern. It was really random and quite funny meeting up on the streets when we had just met about five days before on a plane headed for Luxembourg. Again wandering aimlessly has proven to lead to some interesting stories.

We parted then the three of us got some bread, cheese from Appenzeller (soooooo gooooood), and wine. We sat down by the river enjoying this meal with the swans. Once finished we checked out the cathedral behind us and moved on to a Picasso art museum.

All in all it was a pretty sweet day…but now it was time for us to go to our home for the next four months.

(Taking the train "Home")

Oh yea I found Bruce Wayne in one of the towers:

Oh Uetilberg

Bobcatt, Phil, and I originally were planning to go hiking in Italy, but those planes fell through. Yet, we were determined to go on an epic hike. Thanks to Phil’s handy what to do in Switzerland books…we found ourselves walking along the ridge of Uetilberg. This hike was amazing. I felt like I was in Little House on the Prairie or something.

I thought I might turn a corner and a collie would come up to me barking, which I could miraculously understand and find Timmy trapped in a well. It was a gorgeous view filled with ever extending fields. The air just had a quality to it that I can’t describe. It felt crisp and fresh in your lungs, in fact I think I increased my lifespan by ten years just breathing that air for a couple of hours. As we were walking we came across some Para gliders and plucked berries from a tree.

(On top of the world overlooking Zurich)

We finally decided to make our descent towards Lake Zurich and the trek back up to Technopark. Again though on our way back…we didn’t really take the most direct path. We stuck to our old ways of walking aimlessly somewhat heading to the lake. Next thing we know we are in some residential area passing up domesticated cows and bulls. About twenty minutes we pass up clay tennis courts.

We end up making it to the lake and began walking along the shore. About an hour later we stumble upon a local only lake spot. There are large groups of people out sunbathing and enjoying the lake. Moreover, there is a bunch of live musicians playing and some sweet performers defying gravity and entertaining all these locals…and of course these three kids from LA who just happened to stumble upon this scene.

(The machete-juggling-unicyclying-apple-eating-joke-cracking-performer)

Not to much happened after that, but did end up finding this pretty awesome clock:

Just putting one foot in front of the other

So wandering aimlessly with no direction in life actually pays off. At least in Switzerland it does. Our first day in Switzerland all we need was wander aimlessly through Zurich. We went down Bahnhofstrasse and saw meaning things we could never afford. Then we found suddenly turned a few corners and found ourselves at a swap meet. Phil managed to score a sweet Swiss watch which his one goal in Switzerland.

(Phil getting his Swiss watch at a street market)

We keep walking and stumble upon a huge protest. There were hundred of surfers in Lake Zurich chanting “Vee vant vaves!” Needless to say three California boys all whom enjoy a nice swell themselves found this highly entertaining. We keep walking and next thing we know we end up at this huge world champion chess tournament where these world-class players are playing about 15 players each simultaneously.

So that night we decide to go out. After exploring a little bit of the night scene we decide to walk a little bit. We see a bridge Phil gets excited and demands to go there. We get there and I see fire, which the pyromaniac in me is instantly drawn to like a fly. Then Bobcatt hears music and the next thing we know we are sitting by a fire at a private costume party in Zurich Switzerland listening to a Swiss man play American songs. He ended his set with Jason Marz and with that we headed back in to get ready for the next day…

(Enjoying the music)

But where were they going without ever knowing the way...

So our journey to Zurich involved us getting up at about 5am to get to the train station to Bonn, Germany. Mind you there is still this little thing called jet lag still in effect on our poor feeble bodies. Yet, we manage to get up and to our train on time. As we began our train ride to Bonn we looked back on the fond memories of Luxembourg…even Johnny the Jerko.

We get to Bonn and the three of us our pumped to be in the city that we will soon call home. Our first goal is to get to the AIB (our school here in Bonn) so we can drop of our luggage, get some food, then head off to the airport for Switzerland. However, we have no idea where this place is yet. So it is up to Bobcatt to lead the way with his Deutschtongue.. (Previously Phil had been leading the way with his French skills in Luxembourg) So Bobcatt bravely approaches a young chap and says “Sprechen sie englisch?” To which this young lad responds “Yea, what’s up dude?” Yea…he was an American. Anyways he gives us directions which I think our completely wrong, but we follow them anyways.

Needless to say about a quarter a mile hauling our bags we began to realize we are not where we are suppose to be. So Bobcatt steps up to his task once more. This time it is an actual German. Now if anyone ever tells you Germans are not friendly I can attest to the fact that this is an utter lie. The events that followed when Bobcatt asked where AIB was, was magical. This particular German did not know, yet he stopped another German couple. They didn’t know…then suddenly Germans were popping out of trees and falling out of the sky just to help us in our quest. In about 30 seconds Germans flanked us on all sides as they tried to help us find our way. Finally, the Polizei pointed us in the right direction.

We finally made it to AIB. Dropped off our baggage sent some emails, and Phil thought it would be funny to create a power surge and blackout AIB as he used his power converter and adapter that they told him would work perfectly in the states.

At last we were off to Zurich. About an hour later we found out hotel in Technopark with cool space toilets. We explored the area a bit then made plans for the next day….no creepy stories of hostel-mates that night.

Luxembourg!

Sweet Italian street performers

Château de Vianden

Phil and Bobcatt outside Vianden

On top of the world at Vianden!

Me thinking I'm actually good at taking pictures

Me still thinking I'm good at taking pictures

Phil and Bobcatt enjoying the celestial view...

The happy couple!

Hiking in Luxembourg...

The view from the former castle wall

On to Bonn then Switzerland!

Johnny the Jerko and the Hostel

So it’s day two of my 126 day European Epic-ness. Our flights and connections were all an hour ahead so we ended up in Luxembourg earlier then we expected. In a mere ten hours here in Luxembourg we scaled the town castle, walked the Centre, we enjoyed a panini and the local beer Diekirch accompanied to live music at the heart of the city. We ended the day at the Britannia Pub, and going to bed a little early after being up for over 24 hours. On the second day here we got all day access to bus slash train accommodations throughout Luxembourg. Capitalizing on this opportunity we visited the neighboring cities of Diekirch (where the local beer is brewed) and Vianden where we saw the Chateau de Vianden heralded as one of the most beautiful castles in Europe. Fun fact, this I a place Victor Hugo (Les Mesriables) liked to visit in his travels to the Rhine. We ended the day relaxing and trying to adjust to the time difference by sitting down by a riverbank and enjoying a bottle of wine.

Overall, Luxembourg has really surprised me. It is one of the wealthiest countries in Europe per capita and although very small and quaint it has proven to be very surprising as Bobcatt, Phil, and I roam the streets aimlessly just looking to see what’s around the next corner.

Now it’s time for story time with Vincent Patin:

So as many of you know I came here to Europe hoping to revel in my experiences and meet interesting people to have great stories to tell. Needless to say in the first 10 hours of my time here I was not disappointed. As I previously stated us travelers (Bobcatt and Phil) had been up for over 24 hours and decided to turn in early. All of us passed out the second we lied down. Now, here in Luxembourg we are staying in a youth hostel. None of us have ever stayed in a hostel and the only real knowledge any of us have about hostels is the movie Hostel. So we were all were interested and had some preconceived notions of what hostel life would be like; particularly that it would be dirty and we wouldn’t want to use their bedding. We were happy to find that this hostel was surprisingly clean and to my own amusement one of our hostel-mates was Australian, thus reinforcing the stereotype that every hostel had an Australian, but I digress. So we all went to bed and passed out. I myself literally did not move at all. However, the final hostel-mate, we’ll call him Johnny…Johnny the Jerko, came in fairly late while we were all asleep. Although, Johnny tried to be silent as he entered I woke up. I gave him a nod and Johnny gave a friendly nod back, climbed up to the bed above me and I tried to fall back to sleep. However, I was unsuccessful in this attempt as to the fact I kept on hearing an unsettling noise. At first I thought it was some one scratching themselves, but I began to become aware of the oddly rhythmic pattern of the noise. It was clear it was the sound of skin on skin, bare flesh upon bare flesh, but I couldn’t quite grasp (or rather didn’t want to grasp what the noise actually was). Now let me back step a little bit. Our hostel has three bunked beds and a desk with two chairs. There are restrooms just down the hall, but we are fortunate to have our own sink and mirror in our room. My bed is directly across from said mirror on the bottom tier. Now as I was lying there and the noise grew to faster pace my eyes slowly caught glimpse of peculiar actions in my peripheral vision via this reflective glass know as a mirror. My eye was greeted by the horror and the shock of my bunkmate in an upright position with his partially seen forearm moving in a rapid thrust towards the heavens and back down to the realm of the living. It was clear that Johnny was doing only one thing. I knew not what to do. He knew I was awake and another hostel-mate had awoken from the noise and was looking around confused. Yet, he continued at his task literally at hand until he had slain the dragon, or as one can only assume.

At last the room grew quite. Yet, I kept thinking of the millions of lives lost moments ago. To make matters worse Johnny the Jerko was an avid snorer. He snored as if it was his job. He snored so ferociously and with so much vigor that he even awoke himself (along with every other hostel-mate). Needless to say I couldn’t sleep much after that…and was glad to find that Mr. Jerko had fled the premises the next morning.

Anyways…I asked for memorable stories and experiences, so I guess I got what I asked for…Akwardface. Well hopefully I’ll have some more, but you know….a little less creppy….

Tomorrow it’s off to Zurich, Switzerland for four days then finally to Bonn where my Film Program will start.

A Lámite!

...and so the Countdown Begins...

So the flight has been booked, and plans have been made. My friends Phil and Robert (Bobcatt) are all arriving a week early before our actual program begins. We will be landing in Luxembourg spending two days here, then head up to Bonn to drop off our baggage then hop onto a plane to Zurich!

It seems like this all is actually happening now...