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Tonight my internet gets shut down and with it, my communication to BILLIONS of people. Seriously, how will I survive?
I hit the road on Monday. Might be sporadically updating email if motel rooms have access, but nothing for sure until probably mid-October. If you want to check on me, give me a call at 206-355-5293. Also, my email will be changing to: JMilwaukee@yahoo.com
Take care, all!
Jacob
Fulda was such an interesting town - only 80,000 in number, it still had very much a close-nit community feel. Take something of equal size in the US and you won't have nearly the same sense of community. People are born, live, and die in Fulda with just a desire to enjoy life...there is no such thing as a daily grind or rat race there. Spending two weeks in Fulda with no phone (or watch, even) was just what I needed to get prepared for the move to New York. Really. My days were spent simply; get up, eat breakfast, walk around the town, have some pie and coffee for lunch, take a nap, spend a couple hours reading in a cafe, then get together with friends for dinner. Repeat for two weeks straight.
I haven't been that relaxed since I was a kid with only a bit of homework and nintendo to worry about. Photos
Most people, if they know about Fulda at all, know of Fulda's strategic value during the cold war. It bordered the western most point of East Germany and was thought to be the most likely entry point of a Soviet advance. Nowadays, its a moot point. What most folks don't realize however is that Fulda was home to Saint Boniface, who was the first to bring Christianity to the tribes that then roamed Germany.
The reason I'm guessing, is because there is no holiday associated with heavy drinking of beer.
The fact that St. Boniface made his home here made Fulda one of the most important regions in the middle ages. Nowadays, tourists from Europe over visit Fulda to see the Dom (Cathedral) Fulda and St. Michael's church, the original church built by St. Boniface.
Being murdered is an occupational hazard of sainthood, I'm afraid. St. Boniface was killed while visiting a tribe. No stonings or burnings or drowings; just a sword through the heart. Germans tend to be straightforward that way, I guess. Here are more photos anyway.
Here's what I think. I think if you are an international crime syndicate who kidnaps a simple farmboy's elephants, shoots his father, and then kidnaps the elephants to Australia, you better be prepared to deal with the consequences. Not EVERY elephant in Thailand can owned by someone skilled in the deadly art of Muay Thai. Do the background.
Eh, but criminals never listen to me. I'm glad they don't. Its because of criminals that I get to enjoy a movie with an asinine plot (though it gets better once the bones start breaking). So, The Protector, is Tony Jaa's new movie. His first movie, Ong Bak, was a jaw droppingly amazing movie. This one, while not as good as the second one, does deliver the goods. Ok, here we go:
Muay Thai vs. Capoeira? Check
Muay Thai vs. Wu Shu? Check
Muay Thai vs. Giant Steroid dude? Check
So, similar to the last one. There are two sequences however that seriously pays the bills in this movie. The first is a four-minute unedited fight scene that follows Kham as he makes his way up 5 stories of house and a "House of Blue Leaves" style sequence where more bones are broken than at a Day-After-Thanksgiving Sale at Walmart. Don't piss the little guy off!
I got an apartment! Phew...not one of the most fun endeavors I've embarked on. Apartment hunting in NYC takes on a whole new meaning to the word "screwed". There are two ways to get an apartment in NYC: on your own or through a broker. Doing it on your own is possible, but can take months and you are literally one of 30 applicants the person will recieve in a two day span. The broker route is faster, but brokers in NYC charge 15% of the first year's rent. That's as much as real estate agents get. When the market is switched and there is a higher vacancy rate, that amount gets charged to the apartments. But in this market with less than 1% vacancy rates, WE the people get screwed.
Then there are the landlords. I had to put up first month's rent as well as two month's security. Lets say that you get a place and are paying $1200 in rent. That's $6,300 just to MOVE into a place, not even counting the cost of movers. Its not cheap.
And good luck trying to find a place for $1200 a month. ;)
But, I feel happy with the place I got. A one bedroom apartment across from Riverside Park in the Upper West side. Two blocks from the subway line and a walk from central park. Grocery store, starbucks, and a petco are right around the corner. Pics are coming, but in the meantime here's my new address (as of Oct 11th when I arrive). Feel free to send care packages and gummy worms.
202 Riverside Dr, 4D, New York, New York, 10025
Well, my three week travel extravaganza is over. Two weeks of Germany, followed by a weeklong trip to NYC to find an apartment (fingers crossed). And I'm exhausted. Tired. Dead. Sick. And going through a LOT of photos. The trip to Germany was fantastic. Two weeks, most of it spent in Fulda, Germany, a small city of 80,000 located about 150 kilometers outside of Frankfurt. Its actually photos of Frankfurt that I've published first.
Great trip, more details to come.
