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

..ongoing obsession

..for Dave Matthews.. I never thought I would reach that point but he and his band may be my all time favorite, and this is a realization after only ~6 weeks of intentional listening. They brought me back to playing guitar like the whole day. Most people know me as someone who can definitely be highly annoying with recommending and spreading my opinion on music, series and sports etc.. but this one is fo' real!
I now own like 6 CD's and 3 Live-DVD's of the Dave Matthews Band and it is absolutely amazing! 'Before These Crowded Streets' has to be in consideration of the best album of all time with a collection of stunning songs that take you to another place. Keeps me floating, it's like a drug.
Time to switch the topic.. it's 1:13pm and I am still snoozing in my bed after watching the HSV soccer club win 0:3 in one of the most ridiculous games I've ever seen, haha!
And it is my 8th day as a vegetarian, and I feel really good. My body is not affected at all which makes it easy for me to keep going. I just eat more eggs and beans and I'm fine. I guess the biggest part of my friends back in Germany would not have hesitated to say: 'Paul, you a veggie? Wtf!' - But nope, I can do it, ha!
I think I will get myself some Subway-lunch now, the veggie patties are actually reaaally delicious! Nothing special in the next weeks but some visits from friends, we'll see!

I had one of the biggest laughs of my life last week.. just check it out, it is kinda popular over here!

..and how could I forget it, only 2 days left until the NBA season 2013/14 will start with one of the greatest openers you could imagine on Tuesday: Bulls vs Heat. Schedule is checked - free on Tuesday night! League pass - bought! Ready to start the season, OKC(my favorite team) will play on Wednesday night, I am so excited! And I just had the realization that Dirk Nowitzki has the same jersey number as one of my favorite DMB songs, #41. It's magical! See you!

In the warehouse!

Man, yesterday and today were crazy days.. because one of my fellow housemates is on vacation participating in a half-marathon tomorrow(good luck with that!) I had plenty of work but it was actually chilled out.. so this weird thing happened to me yesterday morning.. I was working in the morning so I usually get up at 6-6:15am to be downstairs at 6:30.. I woke up, extremely tired, and went to the bathroom where I took a shower.. I was thinking "Why am I so freaking tired, I slept at least 6-7 hours!!", so I walked back into my room and randomly looked at my iPod and it was 1:23am... I ended up oversleeping until 7, but nevermind.. 

I'm getting ready for the NBA, tip off in now less than 10 days! Whoop whoop!

My day still consists at least(!) of 3 hours Dave Matthews Band music, either in the car, in bed or in the common space.. it's everywhere, yuhu!

Life is short but sweet for certain..

Love y'all!

PJB

Neeews

Today I felt the first time some crazy little thing called consistency coming into my life at L'Arche. The months before were kind of crazy but also exciting and people who have lived here before I came would call it "unusual". But it feels really good to now have finally settled in, because it can get really stressful here from time to time. And it is incredible how much I've grown in the last 3 months. Yeah, I arrived on the 11th of July and now it's October 11th(well, almost) which makes (I think) 3 months. Wow. And "the best is yet to come" - to quote Dave Matthews, you won't find a post without him anymore, hehe - that's what I hope for myself and the community that is supporting me! You are amazing!

That being said, I still have a lot areas of growth. I had an interesting conversation with one of my housemates about spirituality and whether it is independent or directly connected to religion and we came to the conclusion that it's definitely independent from each other. I hope I will grow even more in the 9 months that are ahead of me, personally and spiritually. Yes, spiritually. Because my energy has to come from somewhere, right? I don't know. Something to think about when I put on some music and go to sleep. 

What also helps me to clear my mind is playing (basket)ball. Shooting 3's and even hitting one from time to time, swoosh, man, that helps a lot! 

What I also think is worth sharing - if you don't believe it, just don't do it - I will start be a vegetarian next week for a month to prove myself that I could do it if I wanted to. Why right now? Because at the end of November we celebrate Thanksgiving.. and almost all my housemates approved my thought and some want to do the same thing, but the turkey (or whatever) at Thanksgiving is a must! 

Oh yeah and I also got a haircut. My hair has never been that short since I think I've been like 10 years old, for real. Thanks to my housemate Eva-Elizabeth for doing it again! This time we both have not been that nervous about the whole process which led to a great haircut I think. 

Next update coming soon, I hope that I have the opportunity to give you guys some more interesting stuff than my haircut.. but traveling is not on my schedule on the next weeks..

So far, so good: Have a great weekend, mine is starting on Sunday!

PJB

Crush me

Damn, I just spilt some beer.

Okay, let's do serious business now, I am doing very well this week. It's a busy week since our community in DC/Virginia will celebrate its 30th anniversary this weekend! Woohoo, cool times!

But I don't feel like sharing too much about that, it's just going to be a lot of fun and stress.

Nevermind, I want to tell you something else. Most of you guys should know that I am a huge music fan. I mean, huge. I really care about what I am listening. ALL the time. Sounds usual, right? But I think I would consider myself as someone who is really intentionally listening to music. I like more or less all kinds of music, I went through all the phases and stages you could imagine.. let's not talk about that too much.. 

But now, I think it was like 2 weeks ago, I went into a local CD/DVD store to look for some John Butler Trio records and kinda randomly ended up walking out of the store with 3 albums from the Dave Matthews Band that I was listening to a little bit before. 

I know that I might exaggerate..but: It changed my life. My last 2 weeks could be described by 3 things: Work, Breaking Bad Finale, Dave Matthews Band. I loaded the 3 records on my iPod and since that particular moment I listened to like 5 songs from different bands. And 1 of these 5 songs was the "Imperial March" from Star Wars which I turned on when I walked downstairs to work. 

So I found myself only listening to this one awesome band. I never heard anything that is filled with such power, diversity, complexity and fun combined. It's a mix of.. well, just listen to it yourself, it's amazing.

The good thing about it: they got 8 albums out. So I will probably go get the bus on Monday and get me at least 2 more. I learned a lot of their songs on guitar and it is so much fun..

Well, I guess most of the people who read this are not really interested in it.. but shit, I'll share it anyway.

My favorite song(if I had to choose one): Crush.

It is arguably, hands down, the best love song ever written. And not only the studio version is awesome, it grows even more on stage.

I want to share these to performances with you. 

The first one is a version with the whole band, and the second one, it gets me every time, is a version just Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds, 2 acoustic guitars and a bottleneck. Magic. 

Passion.

And even though like most of you people won't care at all.. maybe I get one or two of you to become a DMB fan as I am now. They are in my top ten. And not in the lower part!

I will now finish my laundry and go to sleep. And "shut down" my laptop. I hope you see what I did there.

Peace & Love from Arlington

PJB

Peace & Love

Muahaha, what's up you gangsters. PJB is back in town. Okay just kidding, today was just a beautiful day. I had half a day off and could relax more or less alone in the big house that I live in since most part of the other people went to a wedding mass of former L'Arche assistants. I've never known that this could be such a peaceful place, well, I'm not saying that it's disturbing or something in general, but sometimes it can be loud. Really loud. So this gave me a lot of energy which made it so easy for me to share time the whole evening. It was lovely! I also had to cook dinner for the house(normally 10 people) but since it is a Saturday it turned out that we were only 4 people eating here. I will never be an awesome cook but practice makes perfect.

I cannot stop talking about how great my day has been! Wow, it's amazing! Greetings from my sister Nele, we are skyping at this particular moment. <3

I'm ready for my days away now. It's such a great feeling to have in mind that you can sleep in in the 'morrow. I love it. My days away will probably be boring. Ha, gotcha! Never gonna happen!

Breaking Bad. Finale. AHH. This. Is. Going. To. Be. Fucking. Awesome. Yes, it will be like the best thing ever that happened to TV screens and desktops and laptops and all the other electronic devices that can play television. My gosh, I am so excited.. I have to get my laundry going so I have enough underwear for each time I shit my pants! Ok, seriously, it'll be amazing. If you yet have not had the chance to give Breaking Bad a try, now is the time. Do it! And try to endure the first season, it's kinda boring in comparison to what happens after the first one. You will get rewarded by one of the most intense and wild series the world has ever seen. 

Sharing all that, I will go on skyping and enjoy the night. 

Peace & Love everybody(sorry for the cuss words btw)

PJB

Too close..

The past few days were crazy. Overall it was an awesome time, but because of the tragedy in DC(don't know how well the media covers it back in Germany), which is like 30 minutes away from my home in Arlington I thought a lot about what if this happened here? What if someone I know gets involved there or whatever else could happen. Damn. So damn close. I live so close to the pentagon it freaks me out sometimes. Let's just hope that we're not getting bombed on.
The other thing I thought about is the whole "community way of life". Basically a great thing, I have to admit it's not for everyone, so when you feel like coming to L'Arche or wherever, think twice if that's the way you want to live. You are constantly surrounded by a bunch of people, it can be really stressful. I kinda like it though, I'm fresh and new to this here. To sum this place up: It's nothing for life for me but the perfect place to stay for a year. I learned so much in the past 2 months(yesterday it was 9 weeks). And I am still not where I want to be with myself.
Now one of my favorite topics: Breaking Bad! Only 2 episodes left and things are going crazy, I would call it awesomeness-overload. Way over the top tension between every character, it just has to "break bad" for everyone.. I really can't see no winners.. Well, more on that topic in 2 weeks when the whole series finished.
I like mondays because of this. I just lock my room from like 10-11pm and watch the new episode every week with ben & jerries, chips, a few beers and soda and a scarily uprising heartbeat.
Well, 'nuff said, I will go on with my business here, good life.
I mean, if you don't like what I am writing here, maybe your best course would be to..
..Tread lightly.

PJB

Sheeeeeit.

Yo what's up party peepz, sorry for not writing anything last week. It was a very busy and exhausting week for a person who is not used to this stuff. I kinda miss school by the way, just a little bit. 

I'm doing okay, well, I could do better but finally I have my days off, it's much needed. A lot of cool stuff happened this week, I now began to have more responsibilites on my shoulders which feels really good, oh and I went to my first baseball game! We went to the Nationals against Phillies game on Saturday evening with a bunch of members from the community. Nationals lost 5-4 but the game was good. It was a hell lot of fun, the view was great, the food was crappy, exactly how you would imagine it! As I took a look at the prices for food and beverages, I was like "what the fuck, are you kiddin' me"? 4,50$ for less than half a liter of water, wow! Nonetheless, it was just awesome to be there! Well, the sport itself is a different topic. 

And right now I feel the strange desire of writing my first impression(s) on baseball. I knew the rules before I went there, I watched a few games on ESPN before and played softball in school sometimes. 

Playing the game is fun, but saying that "watching", I mean "watching-watching" the game is fun.. damn, that'd be a lie. It's not that bad like I had imagined but still, the 3 and a half hours that a game like that lasts can be really tiring. No breaks between the innings but only standing around, scratching heads, pitch from time to time and if you are good at batting then you can run a little bit. It still was an "interesting" experience because I thought about sports in general the whole time and why I don't like baseball that much. I can understand when people go fucking crazy about their baseball team and about the sport itself, it is really great! But it's just nothing for me(not saying that it was my last game, the social aspect of going to a baseball game is terrific). 

It's hard to explain this, but I think I finally figured out why I will never fall in love with this sport. It'll maybe be a fun, short and uncomplicated affair but nothing else. It just lacks intensity, emotions, fights and these moments. Yeah, these moments were you forget to breathe or just cannot believe what just happened. It is unfair to compare sports, yes, I am totally aware of that, but still: basketball will always be my love. The emotions that come up with the sport, whether it's pumping yourself and your team up, or motivating others, celebrating great plays with all your heart. I never saw that on the baseball field. They were all chilled out, had a little chat once in a while, well that was it. Not denying the greatness of the sport, it is still just my opinion, the opinion of a white kiddo from Germany. 

Looking forward to watching a football game over here(which is a whole different topic, maybe next time)!

Here are some of the impressions, it was really cool to be there! Don't judge my cell phone, I know it takes shitty pictures. Just listen to Clay Davis(The Wire), he knows how to say that.

Have a good week everybody.

Just think about...

..what if Idris Elba would be the next James Bond? Would everybody die? No. Would the US start a new meaningless debate about racism again? Probably. Would it be absolutely amazing? Definitely! For all those of you who do not know Idris Elba, you should google him rightaway and start watching The Wire. And now you will ask yourself, what the hell is so special about him? Nothing, he is just a black dude who would fit perfectly in the traditional role of James Bond. Smooth, right age, british, classy. He is my favorite actor even though I only saw him in The Wire and a few movies. A black James Bond? Damn, that's even "stranger" than a black president! Oh wait, what? It would be so awesome and definitely the next step for the US to prove that racism is not a big deal in the country anymore. Even though that this is not completely the truth.
I can't tell why I shared this thought with you but I think it is interesting. And I want you all to give The Wire a try, it is the best gift that television gave to us. Better than Breaking Bad.. did I just say that? Well, fuck it (you see that I am strongly influenced by the series..). Sit through the first 3 episodes and you cannot let go, trust me.
Oh I forgot to tell you how it's going the last days. Under consideration of all things that happened: amazing! I finished a big part of my orientation so I am allowed to be alone on work with the people with disabilites. It's been a long way and still I am not finished yet! Mucho funno at home here, I had some very good talks yesterday and today. Like talks that you will never forget in your life. I love this.
Ah yeah and I miss the NBA so much that just sitting and thinking about the new season takes a lot of time these days.. so weird.
Bam, I will now go and watch some more Star Trek I think, don't judge me.
Good night, morning, noon, afternoon, evening, whatever.

(hopefully)Peace
PJB

Unbound(The Wild Ride)

Hey whazzup, yo! 

I love my life. Really, the past 2 weeks have been incredibly good. It feels great to be a member of a community but I still need to learn how to take time for myself and time for others. I don't want to chill in my room alone but also it's not healthy to be around people the whole day. Nevermind. My week was great, I realized a lot of things in the last days, like how I feel comfortable holding people accountable for their actions, it turned out to be way more difficult than I had expected before I came here. And I have to do that a lot as I am living in a community with people with disabilities. Inner strength and growth is definitely necessary.

We went to the so called Bull Run on Wednesday and had a lot of fun in the pool with the whole community. I start to like those things about community. You can't really escape big events etc. but when you are there.. it is always fun! 

I also realized how amazingly particular relationships are developing and growing as time moves on. I have many people here who I just like to have around me. It's a shame that one of the assistants has his last day tomorrow at L'Arche. But that's life, I will miss him though. 

When I read this, it looks like I am writing under the influence of a whole wine bottle.

No, just kidding. I miss wine, though.

I started listening to Avenged Sevenfold again after at least a whole year hiatus, probably the greatest (living/active) band on the planet. They just got a new album out called "Hail to the King" which definitely deserves a full review. I am planning on doing this, in the meantime if you don't mind: check them out(start out with their "City of Evil" album or "Nightmare", do it already)!

Peace 

Hoshmaster

*btw, so excited about tonights episode of amc's baking bread!