Classes in a week

So classes start again next Tuesday for me. Yippee! No really, I'm actually looking forward to it. Well at least some classes. Mostly I'm looking forward to being busy with something again, because this break seemed to last forever. I feel like my brain has been slowly deteriorating due to my own...shit. What is that word I'm looking for? Oh right, lethargy. It will be good to be engaged in something, and be around my classmates again. Many of them will have some good stories about the cool places they've been to, while I can only respond with the movies I've watched, and perhaps some new vocab I've learned. That'll carry on for about 2 or 3 weeks probably before conversations will drift back to academia. I already have an assignment that's due for my first day back, which is actually what I was expecting out of this particular professor. Cool.

In other news, Erika's childhood friend came to visit last week for a night. She was traveling through this area of Germany visiting some friends and relatives and it was nice to have her company. We spoke in German pretty much the whole time (cept for me, but I tried my best) and went out to eat and this pretty nice restaurant. Well, the food was a bit overpriced in my opinion, especially the BS chicken sandwich I ordered. It was disappointing to be presented with a nice plate and big burger bun only to find out that the chicken inside covered about 1/3 of the actual bun. But apparently on Tuesdays they have all you can eat ribs for about 10 euros. Next time we go on Tuesday. Definitely.

Also I found out that I'm a home decorator! 

Local friends

I haven't written on here in a few weeks, so that probably means I haven't been doing anything. That is fairly accurate, but there are still some news items to share.  Let's see...

I made some local German friends during the past few weeks. Some guy named Michael I met a bar was friendly enough to invite me to watch some soccer games with his buddies, which is nice because they don't speak English very much so I'm forced to practice my German when I'm around them. Which is a good thing because I didn't get into the 3 week intensive course I wanted to take (too many applicants, not enough teachers/space). There were of course a few confusing moments, like after some of the soccer games were over, he told me he and his friend were going to "wetten",  and asked if I would come with them, then later come back to watch the Bayern Munich game. I heard the wetten as "betten" because the v and b sounds are pretty similar sometimes, thinking that was some way of saying they were going to go home and take nap. Betten, go to the Bett. Made sense to me. But it was a bit strange that they would ask me to join them to take a nap... it seemed like a good idea cuz I was really tired so I was planning on making my leave to go home to my own bed. As we walked out I asked them again where they lived blah blah and walked with them a bit further, and soon we walked into a building and I realized that wetten is not betten, but pretty obviously, "betting". They were going to put some money down on the Bayern Munich game. "Ohhhhh...Alles klar". I don't bet on sports, so I didn't even think about it. I didn't even know that were were sports betting buildings, I thought everything was online. That was an interesting place to visit even though I had no idea how it worked. There were lots of TVs with numbers scrolling down them with scores and odds and turnouts kind of Matrixy. We were the only ones there except for some Turkish looking men standing around in silence and black jackets smoking cigarettes, and a tiny little woman with red lipstick and red hair behind a desk taking the betting cards. It was a good day and I learned some new words. 

Later Michael invited me to go "Kegeln spielen". I didn't really know what that was even after he explained it to me. After telling Mom and Dad about it, I found out it was called 9 Pin bowling in the US. But I've only heard the name 9 Pin before, never seen anyone play it. Apparently it was really popular in the GDR (German Democratic Republic/East/Commie Germany), second only to soccer for many years. It's a really fun game actually, more so than bowling because instead of bowling in 10 frames, you get 100. The pins are much smaller and more spread apart, and the bowling ball is also about half the size of a standard bowling ball, but still pretty heavy. There are also no finger holes in the bowling ball so you just kinda heave it down the lane.  The place that we play at is pretty cool too, it's a sport club in a neighboring town that exists entirely for Kegeln. It has 2 lanes, a little kitchen, and a sort of anteroom with tables and chairs that you can watch the players through a big glass window while you sit and drink your beer. Also in that room there are posters and news clippings from past players, and bunch of trophies on shelves. The other guys I met there were all very nice and gave me some tips for playing. I've gone twice now and improved immensely. Hopefully I can go again tomorrow. I'll also take some pictures of the club, cuz it's pretty cool.

UPDATE: I went Kegeln spielen again yesterday and took some pictures of the club!

Yeah 322 points on my 3rd game, apparently that's pretty good for a beginner!

Temporary food blog

Okay it's been a while since I last wrote, but I think I remember something about posting some pics of food after the fasting. The pics were taken, but never uploaded... until now. I don't mean to turn this blog into a food blog, but after fasting eating good food had a new, improved value. So I just wanted to share some of the yummy things we ate, many of them were firsts for us. Plus pics are fun, right?

The first food after 4.5 days of fasting. It went down well.

 I call this one "Bigass tuna sandwich"

First dinner was Bulgar Salad Surprise, with side o' turkey

Steamy stuffed peppers

 My first whole chicken! Turned out pretty damn well I think.

Thanks to King of the Hill I was prepared to carve my first chicken.

Okay, that's it for the food blog now. We've made more new goodies in the past couple days, and Erika has been baking a lot more cookies and bread rolls, but those will come at a later date.

Fasting complete

So the internet in our apartment stopped a few days ago, so I haven't been able to write a new post. But the library will suffice until it gets reconnected. We ended our fast on Saturday afternoon, roughly 4.5 days without food. After day 2, things continued along the same trend: hungry, tired, cranky. Even more cranky because there were many fewer distractions without an internet connection. I went from about 166 lbs. to 158.4 lbs. in 4 days. My hunger never really subsided and I felt pretty exhausted just going up a few flights of stairs. Fortunately my exams were over and I didn't have to concentrate on anything, but it was hard. Harder than I imagined.I could persevere for many hours during the day, and feel ok, but then all of a sudden the hunger hit me and for the next 2 hours all I could think about was food and no amount of tea could help.  I even played soccer on Thursday but it was really difficult, I could run for about 15 seconds before being completely winded, so I spent a lot of time in the goal and playing sweeper. But I ended the soccer day better off than one of my teammates, who tried to head a lofted ball away from goal while backpedaling, and in the process jumped, hit his head on the crossbar, and went down bleeding. I didn't accompany him to the hospital, but I'm pretty sure he needed several stitches and a new white t-shirt.
The night before we quit fasting, Erika went through several cookbooks and found a least a dozen recipes of healthy and delicious things we could eat, and the next day we walked anxiously to the grocery store. The weekend was filled with a bit of binge-eating, but of the healthier variety. The first dinner we had was bulgar salad with nuts, sun-dried tomatoes, leeks, carrots, and a half portion of turkey breast. It really was awesome. The next day we had tuna sandwiches with whole grain bread, arugula, pickles, capers, and cheese. Also awesome. So awesome in fact we ate too much. I haven't had a chance to upload pictures from my camera of our overfilled refrigerator and our two dinners, but they will be coming soon.
But all in all, the fast was a good experience, I think I have a better appreciation for food, and better understanding of how my body acts. But I probably wouldn't do it again for awhile. And also enemas are pretty crazy, not bad though. You would be surprised how full of shit we all are.

Day 3

Aaaaah today was a much better day than the previous 2. I woke up and my headache was gone! I guess my body has finally used up all the carbs left, and most of the salt I accumulated from processed foods is finally releasing a lot of stored up water. But today I felt like a normal person again, still with some hunger pain, but nothing too bad. I even had the energy to play some soccer with my classmates, but of course I got really tired really fast so I spent a lot of time in goal or on defense. And in other good news, my insurance company is giving me 110euros for some reason that I don't fully understand, but will happily accept. And Erika got news that she passed the exam she was most worried about, which means she is a bonafied graduate! Just waiting for her diploma to come. Woohoo!  Things are looking good right now.

Strange couple days

Yes, it has been an interesting past few days. It started on a very good note from Saturday night, when Erika finally made it back to Erfurt, at 4am, and sick with a cold. So Sunday was spent resting and recovering, but at least she is finished with test taking! We had homemade chicken wings for dinner, which was awesome. We needed a really tasty meal on Sunday because we began fasting on Monday. The plan is to go 5 days without food, and one day on either end of the fast with light fruits and vegetables to get the body accustomed to the changes. We had been planning to do this for awhile now, but haven't really had a good time to do it, finally we both have enough free time to do it. And don't worry Mom and Dad, I've done some research and fasting shouldn't have any negative side effects for Crohn's. Many people actually say that it helped them, according to the interwebs. So this week I'm going to be talking more about that on my blog here, to record some of the things I'm feeling.

The idea to do this actually came from a This American Life episode I listened to during one of my late nights at the hotel last summer. David Rakoff was the test subject and he did a 14 fast with 3 days on each side to adjust. His goal was to reach some kind of spiritual enlightenment, like Gandhi or Buddha or Jesus and in the end he didn't quite find what he was looking for. Here is the link to the TAL episode, it was a pretty good episode I think. But basically he achieved a better appreciation for his body and for food. Erika and I are trying to achieve a similar end, it's more about testing yourself, and learning about yourself, and also a bit of spring cleaning, to see how well detoxification actually works, as I'm very skeptical about detox "treatments" myself. It's not about losing weight, because fasting is not the best way to lose weight. Proper diet and exercise are the best ways. But we do also hope that at the end of this we will reset our eating habits as a way to improve our diet overall. After a fast, we hope to have a better appreciation for basic foods, fruits, and vegetables. But don't worry, I don't plan on giving up some of the best things in the food world, like steak. Or ribs. Damn I miss good barbecue.

So yesterday we started the fast, and I think it will prove to be the hardest day. Firstly because we drank some diarrhea inducing salt, I don't know what it's called, but that stuff is awful. I gagged and spit up more than I thought I would, and it definitely brought back too many bad memories from the hospital, where I had to drink a gallon of the shit. Yesterday I only had 500ml, roughly 1/8th a gallon. Thankfully that got over with in about 30 minutes, then I spent the better part of the day watching Netflix, waiting for my guts to release their poison. Definitely hungry, but not so bad. Also I could feel a headache growing.

Today started out much better, I was able to sleep very well through the night, and woke up a little woozy. It took me awhile to feel really comfortable in my skin again, felt a little nervous or shaky walking around, but overall my stomach today has cooperated much better than yesterday, the only problem is my headache. I didn't realize that running out of carbohydrates can really cause a big headache.  But today I had the pleasure of giving myself and enema. For how gross it sounds, it's really not so bad, and it is pretty amazing what comes out of you at the end. Going to do it again tomorrow. Don't knock it til you try it, guys. It's kind of like diarrhea, but waaaay less smelly. And you really do feel much better afterwards.

So I've spent all day trying to write this, but distractions and dis-ease made it a slow process. I will update again tomorrow to describe how I'm feeling. Also, Erika and I have already picked out a bunch of new recipes we are going to try...

Woo!

Hey hey hey, I've very happy today and I'd like to share with you all the reason why! I received an email this morning from the school offering me a scholarship to pay all my tuition fees for the next 3 semesters. Woo! The Haniel Foundation will give me 4500 euros (6160 USD) over the course of the next year and half to finance my studies. Rock on! That's the biggest scholarship I've ever gotten and I'm pretty excited about it because it reduces my education costs a whole helluva lot. By the way, the Haniel Foundation coordinates lots of research and study-travel events and they provide a lot of money for exchange between Europe, Asia and USA. Here's a little note about their goals taken from their website:

The Haniel Foundation concentrates on four main areas in its work. Firstly, it supports young talent with scholarships for study trips and internships abroad and with pupils' academies. Its main focus here is on Europe, Asia and the USA. Secondly, the foundation works with selected universities to establish courses encouraging international knowledge transfer. Thirdly, it sets up platforms for exchanging opinions and experiences. For example, experts from business, politics and society discuss global developments at its events. And fourthly, the Haniel Foundation supports projects which help young people achieve a better level of education.

They have several partnerships with specific programs and one of the biggest beneficiaries of the money is the Willy Brandt School and I know several other classmates that also are receiving money from them. Glad I could join the ranks!

However, I can't take full responsibility for this good news, because the reason I got the money now was because one of my classmates is moving to the Berlin to attend the Hertie School, which is the big name policy school in Germany, meaning I inherited his scholarship money. I'm sad to see him leave because he was a very nice and fun person to talk to. But I am overjoyed that I was given his remaining funds and I hope I can carry on somewhat in his legacy. Here's to you, Lukas!  Of course I also have to be very gracious to my family who have helped me get here, and especially to Erika for living with me during this time. But it's really great being able to breathe easier and I imagine I will have a sound sleep tonight.

I'm still waiting to hear back from the DAAD scholarship which I applied for in November as well. If they select me then I will have to choose between one scholarship or the other, but since I still don't know those results, I'm very happy to have this one in the bag already.

Whew! This news combined with the beautiful weather this month has been an excellent boost of positivity. Today was about 50F, clear and sunny, and a slight breeze. Ich liebe frische Luft! Sorry to hear all the wicked weather news stateside, but all I see is an incentive for people to visit me next year. Although, it worries me that all the good things will come at once and there will be a shitty day soon, but I'll let future possibilities bother me when they are present realities.

EDIT: I discovered the name of my actual benefactor, it wasn't Amit as I had originally thought, but a German by the name of Lukas. So I changed the details around up above.