Mind = blown

Oh my. I just finished watching last nights Breaking Bad. I am stunned. The first two episodes were more like a little build-up for what just happened there. Check it out and keep looking forward to my review about the whole series(I know you want it e-e-e!)!
And also I felt like writing something here.
A lot of changes are happening at the moment, for example my medication training is finished like 9 hours ago. Day 4 went very well and was actually fun. Such a relief even when a lot of responsibility is now falling on shoulders with it! Don't panic I am not allowed to prescribe drugs or anything, I am just allowed to administer them as ordered by the physician.
Well, enough of that. I just want to sleep. This week will be so awesome, I only got 3 working days and all of them look like fun(even when I get tired watching the stuffed Google calendar every day, it's overwhelming). Not too much work, but still enough to not get bored though. And considering this, I have to say: I love my home and the community! Sometimes it can be a little bit too much, but not this week!
Also my days away are shifting again so my weekends are kinda inconsistent, which does not have to be directly a bad thing. In my head I'm planning my trips in the future time like watching a playoff NBA game, visting friends or welcoming some friends from Germany. Do what you gotta do!
I posted this on facebook a few hours ago.. but still I want to share it to you again. If someone made a movie about my life, this has to be the soundtrack:

Yo, today was a good day!

To say it with Ice Cube's words: Today it was a good day! Maybe I should extend it to "a good week" because yes, it definitely was. I actually didn't really do anything special, just hangin out at 6th Street, doing routines, attending meetings, having good time and taking some time for myself. 

Sometimes I just need half an hour alone, playing guitar or watching a series or whatever, because here are always people around. A lot. So I am grateful for having my own room(I heard that this was not always a standard in the community here), the first time I can really appreciate stuff like this because I never thought about it before. 

Sorry for not writing much in the past days, there actually wasn't really interesting stuff that I wanted to share. Just work, fun, meetings, sleeping, hanginaround(great song by the Counting Crows btw). 

I now want to share a little bit about my busy day, it all started last night when I checked my schedule and was like: "Fuck yeah, seems like a free-and-finally-long-sleeping day, because the first thing on my schedule was on 2:30pm. I stayed up till like 2am or even later, I don't know, watching Star Trek and enjoying some free time. I feel like a freak about it, believe me. But it is unexpectedly great and fun, yeah! 

"Hey Paul, I think you have a meeting right now" - this is what I heard through the door of my room today at around 10am. In the (lovely) british voice of another assistant, who fortunately decided to wake me up. Let's say it like this: We are all humans. And humans forget things. So no big deal, I got myself to Highland House(I still don't know how I managed to get out of bed immediately...but well) and had a meeting about my recruitment process and how I heard about L'Arche with a few other new assistants. After that I fell into my bed and had a around-noon-nap. I could share even more about my day, but that would maybe be a little bit too much for today. Let's sum it up: It was a busy but wonderful day!

Ah yeah, before I forget it: I hope you have seen the two new episodes of one of the greatest television series of all time, Breaking Bad. Walt is back, and Jesse too (more or less).

IT IS JUST SO F GOOD! 

I watched the last episode and when the ending tune turned in I was like "This was not 47 minutes!! This was definitely only 5!!". I could spend hours and hours talking about that show(because it is the best, after "The Wire, of course)! I will honor it in a whole blogpost, maybe when the last season will be finished in about 6 weeks. 

Whoever is reading this, you smell like fish. No just kidding, whoever is reading this: 

I miss you and I appreciate it!

Peace

Hoshi

"Are you sure about this?"

Thank god, I'm alive. My knees are still shaking and my heart is playing speed metal, but I survived the apocalypse. I actually don't know what came to my mind by asking: "Hey Eva-Elizabeth, do you want to cut my hair? Like you did with Daniel?" Probably the money. As you can predict, I love my hair. I really do, but I have no clue what persuaded me to take that step. Normally I only do stupid things when I am drunk or whatever. But hey, long story short: it is good. I sat in the kitchen, laughing and panicking at the same time. It was great actually.
It was as unprofessional as you can imagine, a cooking apron to cover my back and chest, sentences like "I am as nervous as I was with Daniel's hair", or "It is not my first time cutting hair" and of course, the scissors. Just take a look.

Nevermind.
But I have to admit: It looks great. I mean I am always looking great(just kidding) but it is a very good haircut. Thanks Eva-Elizabeth btw!
*Are you searching for your new barbor or haircutter? Call 6th Street and you will have it done!*
Here it is(the picture is pretty weak, face to face is always better, remember that!)

Just wanted to share this with you, it was so much fun! Seeya!

Backstreet's back, alright! Singing boy band classics, doing the Safety Dance and just messing around all the time.. 

Fun times at 6th Street, even though it is sometimes really hard to stay focused(oversleeping and starting a day like shit can do its part), I love my job here! Working with the core members is fun and encouraging because I can see relationships forming and developing every day, either involving me or not. 

To be good at the work here needs time, dedication and a lot of sensitivity and love for the detail. You learn by watching, trying by yourself and failing. It's life. But I love it, I feel like one year of this will make me such a better person overall. 

Okay now that's enough about the serious part, bro. Shit. I love my life, this weekend was so freaking good! I met one of my best friends from Germany who stays in the US as well for a whole year. Thanks to god that the distance between us is not much of a concern, a 2 hour drive plus a few metro/bus stations and it's done, nice! We just hung out Saturday/Sunday and had a good time (Btw the White House is really boring... maybe because it was my second time but yeah, nothing special). 

After that I felt like buying something.. I just had to get rid of some money and I was lucky to find a CD of one of my new favourite bands as I told you before. Hard Candy for 4 bucks, booya! I am addicted to the Counting Crows at the moment and while I'm spending my whole day listening to their music, Jack Johnson and the John Butler Trio, I followed the recommendations from two of my housemates, I'm totally into Alternative now. I was told to check the Dave Matthews Band out and oh my gosh, it is so awesome! 

I also want to tell you that I am a professional cook now. Jamie Oliver would be proud. Just kidding. I did pasta today. 

Well.. it was spaghetti with red sauce and I was not doing it alone.. just do not laugh and we're fine. But food that you prepare yourself does actually taste so much better than done by anyone else. 

I miss hell of a lot people from Germany, but the specific persons change each day. I almost forgot to mention that I am still sad about a new friend departing to Germany last friday after spending the last 4 weeks with me every day. Nevermind. Enough whiny stuff for this post. I don't want to start with that today. 

Here is something to laugh about before going to bed. Good night, I love you and hakuna matata!

4 weeks

Time is running!

At 5:50am I woke up and realized that I've been here in Arlington for 4 weeks. 28 days. Wow! This fact was mind-blowing because I still have to think about whether it seems short or very long for me. Damn, I just don't know.
But as my first month is over now, I feel like this is my new home(even though it is only temporary). Despite serious struggles in community life with some members in general, the feeling of independency helps me a lot. I feel like growing and growing all the time with all the challenging parts of community live-in life.
The last days were super-stressful but very good and energizing as well. I had a stuffed schedule with barely no breathing/energy-restoring time which however did not decrease the fact that I feel good spending time with my new friends. Thanks for helping and tolerating me(as annoying as I can be sometimes..)!
Monday I started the medication training and after 4 weeks I will hopefully be a completely-trained assistant at 6th Street! Jumping into a more or less transition phase of the community was hard but I feel like I am kinda prepared for the upcoming months now.
Looking forward to several skype-meetings with my friends this weekend, also I need to see my family again! Excuse my inconsistent writing/skyping.. how I said, the schedule is doing its thing!

This weekend will be awesome because I meet one of my best friends from Germany in DC. Yeah yay yeah!
Whatever, tonight I will celebrate the B.+S. combo with a new good friend of mine who is leaving tomorrow afternoon and departing himself to Germany.
Next update will come up soon, for questions just feel free to ask or text me personally,
seeeeya!

I need some rest!

Here we go again!
Stressful but great times at 6th Street, I'm starting to feel the groove and flow of the house. Although it is not running smoothly the past days because of some little troubles, I'm having no doubts that I will survive this year(even without my dog). I feel accepted and loved at L'arche which is the most important thing about my year of service. I start feeling and experiencing the hard and emotionally exhausting parts of being an assistant who cares for people with developmental, intellectual disabilities but I have to say: I love the work.
I'm sorry for maybe getting too sensitive right now, but I feel I kinda need it tonight. It's 1 am and I'm sitting here very sleepy thinking about life...
Certain core members make my day just by being around, they show me what life is truly about. I learned so much about myself in the past 3 days, por ejemplo I feel comfortable to hold people accountable, even though I'm still pretty bad at it. In some moments I am great at doing things, sometimes I have to accept that I'm not perfect. Failure is the best way to grow though. Thanks to all the other assistants for helping me out, it's amazing to have you guys.
I can even overcome my laziness, if you believe it or not.
But as good as it sounds.. I need the upcoming weekend! I need relief, that's what I experienced in the last days, I need some time for myself, get refreshed to jump into another busy but hopefully awesome week.
Just wanted to give you the opportunity to witness my life here in depth, I really appreciate that you are reading this!
Oh, before I go to bed I have to tell you this: A few people told me that my English is "killer" and "awesome" and "good"! That just made me so happy and proud that I had to tell you, whouhouu !
Miss you guys, I will try to make some photos maybe for the next post, hopefully this will work!
Take care and enjoy!

Round here..

11:30. Wow, I'm tired. Seriously, this week was awe-to-the-some but really exhausting as well. I went shopping this weekend in Arlington and DC with another German volunteer, it was great. Yeeeah DC for the first time in my life(and most-definitely not the last time), I love the District of Columbia! On the picture under this post we can see...okay it is self-explanatory, best wishes from Barack!
I bought a basketball and clothes, these things were much needed, "Urban Outfitters" is an awesome store, hopefully I will see one in Germany when I'm back. I love my new TMNT-shirt, haha!
 Today I also went to the so called "Thomas Jefferson Community Center" and set up a contract for one year, now I'm able to use the gym, play soccer/football/baseball/whatever and play basketball pickup games as often as I want to. That's great, yeah! And for all my German friends: basketball over here is T O U G H! I went into the gym, locked my things and started playing with peeps around 16-22, 5v5, and even though I was one of the tallest/oldest, they were at the same level as I am right now(it was kinda disappointing...) but still it was so much fun! I am motivated to get better and improve my skills.. tomorrow night again, ouh yeah!
I love the USA!
Excuse my confusing writing tonight.. fatigue is killin' me. And I have to get up at 6am tomorrow.. dang.
The time that I've been here feels like an eternity, though I've only been here like 17 days now. Sometimes I feel like missing Germany very much, especially the fresh air, but then I discover new amazing stuff about America, exciting big things are yet to come!
Oh I forgot to send all my regards to L'Arche! You are awesome, I'm glad living in such a great community, lovely people everywhere. Now I will use the sparse time to listen to my new favourite band, the Counting Crows!
Family, dog, friends, weird internet-users: I miss and love you all!
Rooound here!
PS: Check out the acoustic version of "Round Here" on youtube, you won't regret it!

Ban all nuclear weapons!

Hot problems? No!

Badaboom badabang - what's up party-people I just wanted to make sure that you get a little update, the past days were pretty cool because I've seen a little more around the area, went to different places, bought my first american DVD(10 bucks for Mad Men season 3!!?), played guitar a lot, had celebrations within the community, tried Skittles and just felt comfortable and real-american in my new environment over here.
 I don't want to drop the information-bomb on you today, but I have to write about the food over here. Or let's say: Fast Food. I've been in the US for 13 days now and have been to junk food restaurants 13 times, sometimes it was just a coke or ice cream but still that's just absolutely crazy. McDouble for a dollar.. who can say "no, thanks, I'm not hungry" to that? Well, one can argue about the deliciousness of McDonalds but this is plain awesome.
I tried Wendeys, it was great but considering the price.. let's say okayish. Because I ate at McD about 20 minutes ago(at 11pm at night) I wanted to share these circumstances with you. I know that this is like the unhealthiest thing ever but I can't resist. Next on my list: Taco Bell!
I am aware of becoming a junk-addict or something but still better than a crackhead or Jesse Pinkman, 'aight?
 To sum up these things I want to quote Brian, a senior volunteer who comes to us at 6th Street every Wednesday, he is just a great and open minded guy. I love this man, I really do. He said:"So you really have Burger King in Germany? Okay this is funny... the Frenchmen give us great food, you give us German beer and what are we giving the world.. crap?"

Thanks for reading btw, let me know your thoughts and contact me if you want!

 This is for all of you, the greatest voices in music history:

..just getting started!

Pretty or ugly, old or young people: Hello!

Sorry for not pleasuring you with a post yesterday but I was too busy about my orientation training stuff and then afterwards I was just too tired. The last days after my (sorry for that) experience with the Mandt-training on Thursday/Friday consisted of chilling out and relaxing after my first week of service here at L'arche.
Being here is still pretty awesome but now the stress part is about to start. My schedule for the week is stuffed and full of work and appointments but the feeling of being needed and wanted makes it a lot easier for me.
The training to be an assistant someday is moving forward and I am making progress as I finished the van training today. I love the work with the core members but it's really quiet these days because a core member is on "vacation" right now with a different program.
I used the last two days(luckily my days-away) to explore the area around 6th Street a bit and saw a lot of schools, houses, fast food restaurants and more houses. Nothing special about Arlington so far but I haven't been to the Pentagon and government zone yet. This is one of my plans for the upcoming weekend.
My off-days are still scheduled on each Saturday-Sunday but this will change after my training is completed.
Okay this seems to be kinda boring right now but actually it's not. By the way.. the weather is killing me! It is too damn hot outside to just relax and sit on the porch at daytime etc. At night(!) sometimes we have about like 86 degrees(30°C) and it's not cooling down!
Yesterday I went to the local guitar store with Matt and bought a new guitar which is super-awesome! I am still excited about it and spent most of my free time playing guitar yesterday/today.
Also I finally got a phone for the time in the US which I really needed. Here we go!
I'll try to provide you more information in the next days, I am thinking of presenting the core members a bit more. But I don't know if L'arche allows to share information via the internet about them. Let's see!

Have a nice week everybody, miss you so much!

Nailed it!

*This blog-post may contain cuss words or abusive language, reading on is not appropriate when feelings can get hurt by dirty words etc.*

Hey peeps.. I'm done for today.
Oh yeah, I'm done. I got to take a deep and restoring nap this afternoon. It's 3pm right now and I feel like it's 3am in the morning. In case you expect me to write about the whole week and all of its exciting happenings and appointments, I'm afraid I can't do that today. Sorry for the disappointment.
As I told you, my official training has started this week and referring to the stories told by the other assistants, I am done with the worst thing about it. Yesterday and today I went to the so-called "Mandt"-Training with Michelle, another assistant living in 6th street. Scheduled from 9am to 5pm I didn't really know what was expecting me so I asked the others about it, and they were just laughing about me... I actually don't want to tell you the whole story, it's f*cking exhausting..
The "Mandt"-Training is all about behaviour management, building relationships and how to restrain or support a person with physical contact and so on... so we went to this place and we were like oooookay I know that I should be polite to people and I should treat them with respect, you don't have to f*cking teach me about this stuff. I am not a 3 year old child anymore(I guess). I mean the two instructors were kinda cool, maybe strange at the same time, but it was like unbelievable unnecessary.. just a waste of time that I could have used for like eating paper or staring at my nails or hugging the toilet or whatever, it would still have been more useful and fun than this shitty training.
Pheeew, but now we got it. Nailed it! And yeah of course, you should have seen the tests that we had to do after every one of the 10(!!) chapters.. they just stood right behind us and told us the right answer.. why the f*ck should we even be there?
Okay I now realize that I'm overwhelmed by emotions so I should probably stop writing this mess, before I list a few names who were also sitting in the same class. I've never seen persons as stupid and idiotic as them.. to quote Michelle: "Does the word incompetent mean anything to you?".
Okay to be fair, not everything was bad. We got decent lunch for free, yesterday it was Pizza and today we ordered from a local fast food restaurant and the hot wings were f*cking delicious, but that cannot be an excuse for the shit that we went through. But every assistant has to experience it, I guess. So I'm fine with it and tonight I will probably laugh about it. Yeah, I almost forgot the great trips back home, we were like swearing, cursing and laughing together because the whole training was so silly.
Nevertheless I need some sleep and sorry, I want to apologize for the cuss words, but I f*cking needed it.
Have a nice weekend everybody, I can promise the next(and hopefully more calm) update for sunday!