Hey, a new post!

German keyboard be damned, I'm going to write anyway. If there's a weird symbol instead of an apostrophe, or I write kittz instead of kitty, well, blame the keyboard. Anyway, I'm just sitting here and it's a sweltering 73 degrees outside so there's nothing better to do than write. Anne has been really busy the past few days heading back and forth to Dresden, which involves a nice 2 hour train ride back and forth. The train ride really provides a good insight into the European impression of distances, afterall, Dresden is only about 36 km away, that's 22 miles for us Americans. I may be wrong about the distance, I mean it may be 40 km away, but the point is, it's less than 50 miles away and takes 2 hours by train, which incidentally is almost faster than driving. Oh, but the German autobahn is soooo fast you think, but there's not much of it, so any trip between cities with less than a billion people in them involves travelling down very narrow highways through very antiquated and charming villages. What the Germans call highways, we would call a paved farm road in America, albeit a very nice paved and smooth farm road, through the middle of some very nice barley fields. Thus, the Autobahn is not the only driving adventure in Germany, if avoiding semi-trucks on a 1 1\2 lane road is a good idea of adventure. Of course as an American, there's also the challenge of learning the German rules of the road; unfortunately the manual is 15,379 pages long and was written in middle-high German during the 30 years war (the Germans, if anything, had alot of foresight.) Ok, it's not that bad, I'm attempting humor at the expense of my beer loving hosts though it may be a bad attempt. If there's anything Germans take more seriously than beer it's driving, so from here on out I have to watch my p's and q's.
Anne previoulsy mentioned our participation in the Elbschlepper, which is the German word for- "8km hike while swilling 20 beers that you have to carry with you along the Elbe river while very well dressed locals look at you funny." For a while there, I felt like the most beloved person in Germany, as it is very rare that a single person would actually carry the entire case of beer on their shoulder for the entire route. In fact, I believe I made history by being the first person to ever do so. The Germans believed that this incredible power came from my prodigious american beer belly, which they gleefully posed with for photos after the race. We also made friends with the band that was playing at the event, which was called 'Stampede' which played some very good covers of some Rolling Stones tunes. We shared our love of rock 'n roll and a few beers and then Anne and I headed back with Pe to the garden, where I spent the next two days regretting my decision to carry a case of German beers on my shoulders during a 5 mile hike.
The past couple of days has been spent (by me at least) hanging out in the apartment and working on my German and playing guitar. I did go to Dresden with Anne on the first day and spent the entire time wandering around the old city looking at the sights. I also realized how helpful and friendly the Germans are when I tried to order food and beer in German. (that's not a joke, people here for the most part are very friendly once they realize you're American and are trying to speak the language) We also impressed a group of kids in our train car with our quacking abilities, something which has yet to become common in the German dialect. I also became the hero of many of the boys in the car with my video game playing abilities. I'm probably going back to Dresden tomorrow as the prospect of watching another 15 hours of CNN International is nauseating. CNN is the only english language channel here and is my only refuge from impending culture shock. Ok, the culture is not all that different, but I've run out of people whom to say Ich möchte Bier to, which really limits my conversations. Of course there's always the hilarity of saying the St. Louis Rams are my favorite football team as the Germans have an entirely different concept of football. As a result, I do now have an authentic German National Team soccer jersey which I proudly wear around the apartment. I'd hate for people to confuse me with a Brazil fan or something. Ronaldinho, who's that? I also have a nice hoodie from the Leibzig city team, FC Lokomotive, which I soon realized is extremely popular with Anne's family.
Ok, for the part everyone has been waiting for, the official Ted Beer Count. Ted has had about 50 beers so far, and out of that, there has been 17 different brands. I'm not going to write all of them down right now, but I'm trying to save as many labels as possible for posterity. The last western beer I had was on the airplane, and I had a big Heiniken in the Amsterdam airport, but since then, it's been German and Czech beers. I'm having a beer now. So that's 51.
I guess that's it for now. Enjoy the pictures, we'll be posting some more soon.
Tchuss,
Ted