These Days!

Wow, it was a long time I posted something on here, sorry for the long delay. I know you guys would sit tirelessly in front of your computers waiting for some new post so I don't want to hesitate anymore.
A lot of things happened this week, 2 amazing of these standing out! But first a short overview: I'm doing good. The last 9-10 days(since last post) were really packed and tiring but that's okay. I dealt with it really well, so I finally got to go on my -early- weekend.
I have off-days yesterday/today(Friday) and tomorrow/today(Saturday) which was desperately needed. Sunday I'm going to share more time with my housemates, but this yesterday a friend from Germany came to DC/VA, going on like a 3-month US-trip and visited me.
He is staying in my room for a few days and we explored DC together, this time a little further than I did before. We're gonna do that tomorrow, too, probably later at night when it gets darker, visiting the Lincoln Memorial and probably the Jefferson Memorial. I think I never did so much sightseeing like I did today.
This is me doing the 'what the hell'-move in front of the Washington Capital. It was a lot of fun.

We walked for like 6 hours straight making a short break at Fuel for some hot wings/tenders - I feel so American sometimes...
Sharing that with you, you are probably thinking like 'huh, he eatin' meat again, man?`'
YES! Since Wednesday I am finally eating it again. I proved myself to be able to become a vegetarian and also did something for my health. I feel really good having done that kind of experiment, but I'm also glad to be 'able' to eat disgusting fast food etc. again. Oh, and also bacon. Baaaaacon. I love bacon.
I am enjoying it but I am trying to not eat as much meat as I ate before the month-long hiatus.

So, where were I. Ah, right, the sightseeing-tour! We saw plenty of stuff, I also had my first museum experience today at the National Air and Space museum.
We had a lot of fun, and we also (of course..) went to see the White House. I feel like it's my new home..
This is us. Bam! Note to my German friends: come visit me to be part of such an awesome super-duper-mega picture like this one!

I think this is it. I don't want to bother you with the usual I-listen-to-Dave-Matthews-Band-all-day-long king of stuff. It's like a disease..yet it's only positive.
Have a great weekend everybody, I hope I won't let you wait too long for the next update..

To end it smoothly: Bartender please..

'Papa misses you!'

Well, that's what the advertisement for Papa John's Pizza says. Why do I share random things like that? I don't know! But what I know is that my past week was most def' one of the best weeks I ever had in my entire life! Despite a lot of transition, uncertainty and stress concerning work, I still managed to not get affected by that too much.
Me and another German L'Arche assistant went to Baltimore on Thursday to go to a concert of Less Than Jake and we used the time before the concert to explore the harbour and the surrounding area a little bit(my first time at the Cheesecake Factory, I still feel sick..). It was awesome!
While the atmosphere and even the look of especially DC feels a little sterile, Baltimore feels like home! It reminded me a lot of Hamburg in Germany. Just take a look at that picture!

I missed the fresh, cold air and the water to be honest!
So we went through the city(which is considered to be one of the most dangerous, at least in some parts) and it was awesome. The concert also was a great experience, we saw Less Than Jake(seen 'em before in Germany, though), Anti-Flag -yes they are still alive- , 'The Masked Intruders'(?!) and Get Dead. The last 2 are not really popular at all but they were still pretty good. It was so much fun!
This is a picture of us with The Masked Intruders, I will never forget that!

..I also got this nice autograph from the frontman and singer of 'Get Dead'(hell, I never heard of this band before). I suppose that this is his name:

Fun times, yay!
Oh, I also went to my first NBA game on Friday night, we got tickets for free! I went to the Verizon Center in DC with 4 friends from L'Arche, it was amazing! We saw the Washington Wizards taking on the Brooklyn Nets including Paul Pierce 'The Truth' and Kevin Garnett. It was magical, my first NBA game - and an overtime win for the home team. We all loved it! The picture down here shows the Verizon Center like an hour before the game. Yep, the DC fans are probably the least interested fans in the NBA. But that's ok, at the end of the game everybody was standing and it was very loud!

Yeah, that's it for now, I think. I used the rest of the weekend(today is 'Veterans Day', I don't understand why people celebrate stuff like that) to just rest and enjoy my free time. More DMB CD's are ordered and new songs are learned. Gotta do what you gotta do. Life is hard but Dave makes it quite more enjoyable.
I am sorry for the long post but it was a long week and I hope you still like my blog. If not, I don't care, haha!
Hope you are having nice days, I enjoy my last 8,5 days as an official-vegetarian! I'm craving chicken tenders/wings and crap like that.
See you soon,
Love

PJB

What a return!

The return of the NBA made my week so sweet! Even though I was busy I found the time to watch a lot of games, yeah in good quality, thanks to the NBA league pass! There are some complications because of blackout restrictions and local/national TV ..  but that's life!
A lot of good things happened so far in the season, the Heat lost 2 games so far, 1 against the Sixers(!). So sweet! And the Splashbrothers shooting lights off in 2 of their first 3 games and the Warriors are just a lot of fun to watch in general, Iggy is a great addition giving them scary depth. Dirk and Dennis Schröder(the new upcoming German star á la Rondo) are doing great so far! My favorite team OKC Thunder playing tonight against the Suns had a disappointing loss on Friday night but today Russell Westbrook is making his season debut in the home opener in OKC! It's so crazy and awesome at the same time, I am really excited to see him on the court again.
But I'm gonna switch the topic since most of you guys are not basketball fans at all. I forgot to count the days and I am super-lazy so I won't do it .. but I know that I am a vegetarian for at least 13 days or so now! On November 20th I will eat meat again and hopefully I won't get sick.. I'm craving wings and fried chicken to be honest.. but after more or less 2 weeks so far I have to say: It is easy and totally fine to live a vegetarian life! I still have a lot of respect for people doing it lifelong or for a longer period of time than I do it, but I think I proved myself I could do it longer, too. I eat way more vegetables and have widened my horizon on food.
I also think I am on a good way to become a 'good' cook! I am not saying that I am good yet, but it's getting better. I have not used a recipe once to be honest, I just throw everything randomly but also precisely and reasonably(paradox or not?!) together and it kinda works. At least for my standards. And cooking vegetarian is also a lot of fun!

Anything worth mentioning? Well.. maybe this here, how great is this? A friend sent it to me and I was stunned!
Childhood memories!

Yeah, that's about it. Ah, yeah, 10 minutes ago I ordered two more DMB records! Busted Stuff and an acoustic concert from Dave and Tim Reynolds live at Luther College. And a bottleneck. I'm excited!

My evening is gonna be great! OKC, PBR, DMB and ALOO(a lot of Oreos).
Oh and I've been told that my English that I write here is maybe a little bit too colloquial/inappropriate/informal etc.. I just try to keep it interesting, bitches!
'I shouldn't care if you do or don't like it'(Jimi Thing - Dave Matthews Band)
Seize the day!

PJB