DONE!!

SO I'm posting from Hawaii!!
But I just wanted to let everyone know that I'm still alive and posting!!
I just finished my final exam in computational physics, it's an ok class, but it's done!!
So why am I writing it in Hawaii?? I guess you didn't read any of my other posts but I'll recall it for you:
Dad and Chris - Conference
Mom and Dad - "Let's make it a X-Mas holiday"
Me - has to write my exam here in Hawaii after being here for a week studying hard core, right!!

Anyway, I'm done and thats that!! so now I can enjoy the rest of my trip.
Tomorrow we are flying to Hawaii (big island) and then after about 5 days we are going on to Kaui'i so it should be awesome. I'm excited to get a tan and maybe get some awesome pictures of some fishes!! take a look at the islands if you don't know about them. Map

You may be thinking, did you study all this time?? well no.. I did do some hikes and go swimming with my family and I got some great shots of Hanauma Bay, it was so nice there, except for all the people!!

well not much other news!!

Later

Andrew

Man I suck!

So I know it been like 3 weeks since I posted but I have been super busy, with school and other stuff so that means that you should try to a) stay awake and b) read the whole thing (or I guess if you don’t care about school and social stuff you can just skip those!!), but I plan to try and be more active.

But first school then social things!!
In school I had my last midterm test!! It went ok, in the last like 3 mins I figured out how to do a problem and I left really happy but I don't know about the rest of the thing, well.... it went ok.
I’m pretty happy that I’m done those test but I still have a project in one class and assignments in both of my classes, we hand one in and get another one right away!! Thanks for no break; I don’t really like to do anything else except physics!!!
One more thing about school, I don’t know if you know but we (my family and I) are going to Hawaii for X-mas, what a crappy present eh?? He he he!!
Well we booked tickets for this before I got here in Aug so that might that I might have to miss one or both of my exams because we are leaving on the 13th of December and the exam schedule is from the 7th to 22nd. So the exam schedule came out two weeks ago and one exam is for a small class so we picked a date, the 12th and the other was ….. get this the 22nd!!! I was like great should I drop the class or what?? Well I talked to my parents and then talked to the professor and we came to a conclusion. If I don’t talk to the class, I’m writing the exam on the 21st…… IN HAWAII!! At the University of Hawaii, it should be a good time!! My friend told me that I HAVE to wear a grass skirt and a lay.

So in terms of social things, my girlfriend, who is from Mexico, had he birthday on Wednesday, so I got her a piñata and filled it with candy, it was a awesome!! She really had fun.
Nothing much else much is new, we went out last weekend to Heart and Crown and also last night went there again, it’s a good place. One thing that I have found out about Ottawa is that it’s like a town in the middle of two really different places, like Ontario and the Maritimes. You can find really nice people (from the Maritimes) and then you find some huge snobs (from Ontario). And this places is really trying to be the Maritimes it’s sort of funny. Like there is a bar (well used to be) called the Lower deck, I don’t know if they knew about the lower deck in Halifax but I think that it’s closed because of that. Oh well!! I miss the Maritimes, but tonight should be good, I’m going to see Grand Theft Bus with a crew from the Maritimes so we should have a blast!!!

Later
Andrew

PS My roommate told me about this website www.tuckermax.com, this guy it so funny, I'm sure that we have stories like this from MTA I just wish I could remember them!!

OK I'm posting!!

So lots of stuff has happened in the past couple weeks. I even had to read my last post to know what I haven't written about.

A couple weeks back I visited my research lab it's really nice, with lots of great people, a group about 15 or so, only first name bases, I found this out the hard way asking from Dr. McEwen, the guy almost yelled at me!! But it will be a good time working there for the next twop years, if I make it past first year!

So Thanksgiving weekend was awesome, Chris my bro, drove through on his way home from Edmonton. He and Jason, were only here for a couple days but we went to the Parliment and saw question pierod. On Fri night we headed to a football game after eating dinner with his good friend Chris and his girlfriend Megan.

Quillian had about 15 people at his place for a potluck thanksgiving and it was awesome I was soo stuffed after it. I made bread for it and people liked it so I was happy, but everything else that people made was soo awesome!! The turkey was great the desserts and meal courses were sooo great, I was really happy to have all these new friends to spend thanksgiving dinner with them.

This weekend was great too, Hilary and Toby both there birthday's during the week, so we had a party at Toby's for both of them, it was great to see everyone, because when we are in the middle of the term it's hard to see everyone. On Sat night, I went over to Adirana's boyfriend's , Pat, place for a BBQ. It was a good time, got to meet some cool people and also had a great time with the BBQ, I don't have one here and I would love to have one during the summer so it was nice to be able to BBQ again.

well I think that I'm going to have go for now but I'll try to post every week, for now on!!

Andrew

Lots o' stuff

So this past couple weeks have been pretty full with stuff, I had a blast meeting people and I have a cliche that I hang out with, I'll post some photos when I get off my ass, I'll try to do it today. During the first week here, I did a tour of Ottawa and also we had a few pub nights to meet poeple, well I think that I have lots of people confused as to which program that I'm in beacuse most of the people that I hang out with are NPSIA (Norman Paterson School of International Affairs), but then I tell them that I'm in Physics and they are like really?? I guess I shouldn't be out drinking if I'm in physics, I should be in studying or doing some experiments in my room!! Well it's been great, we have a soical organizer, Josh, who eamils everyone about things coming up and was thinking about creating a message board for us so that he didn't have to keep emailing people.

So this past weekend was a great one, saw Dave H, he was up in Ottawa for the CAP meeting and we went to eat at the Irish Village a good time. and then after I hang out and watched a movie with Alexa and then Sat night was a housewarming/goodbye party at Hilary's place (which is only about 3 mins from here, which is great for gatherings!!) Then yesterday, I played my first intramural soccer game, we only had 5 guys playing against a team of 10, so playing 7 on 7 was a little tought but we mantions to keep the score somewhat close, it ended 5-4 for them, and it was funny we scored first too!!

well I'm going to end back to working and work on these pics!!

Later

Andrew

Ottawa

So I'm here!!!

Well tons of stuff has happened in the last coupld weeks, Mom and Dad and I drove up here it was good. Stopped in Bangor for a BBG at Kelly's, good times.

When I got here didn't really know anybody so I sat at my place watching movies and going to the library (free internet, whoop!!). Last night was the last thing for the grad frosh week, it was an awesome week!! I met lots of people it great beacuse most everyone is not in my program (it's pretty hard when your program is 4 people) but I have a nice base of friends now so I'm happy.

During the week we did a boat tour, bus tour, went to a few bars, I'm pretty excited to be here with these people for the next two years.

Also had two classes, both look like they will be a challenge, one (Computational) beause I have to remember my C++ from first year and the other (Medical Physics) because the amount of work that I will have, I'm excited about this one because it will give me a nice introduction (well to built on the couple courses I had at MTA) to the field of Medical Physics.

Well I'll talk to you later

Andrew

Ottawa Bound!!

Well I'm not leaving for Ottawa yet, but I'm heading there in about a week. I have a place, it's 174 James st. I guess that it's an apt building but I'm not sure yet, I'm waiting on my landlord to get back to me.
I guess the place is pretty decent, the huge plus is that's is $400 a month, which is like unheard off!! so I was like do you have any pictures, so I can have a look at the place, he says no, but the current guy is coming back for a second year which means it must be a decent place.
I'm going to be living with two other people, I don't know much about them except one is a Carleton student and one a Waterloo Co-op student, this might mean that they are only there for half of the year. I don't know anything else about them, but I'm sure that it will be cool to live with them, I'll have my friends from grad school and they will have there friends, maybe we can mix, but only if they are cool!! I would hate to live with a couple weiners, I did that already and I'm glad thats over!!

I'm going to be stopping by Sackville for those who are going to be in town on Aug 26 or 27 (we haven't picked a day to leave yet), let me know.

Well, I have to do some errands before heading out
Later
Andrew

week away from Germany - Day 8-10

That night we went to another bar, but we were getting tired of the little bars that we usually went to so, we had heard about this huge club, 7 dances floors different music on each, so we were set to go to it!! But on the way there, we met up with other people from the hostel who just were outside and the bouncer told them that it wasn't a very good night, so we went back to some other bar called Commo, it was pretty awesome, played some salsa, so i was able to salsa with Flor, that was pretty cool, we could have bar hopped for the rest of the night but Flor and I headed back to the hostel.
The next morning, Flor was heading back to Argentina so I woke early, I was soo tried but I wanted to see her off. THat day we walked around some more and then left Grant and Janelle, only later did I find out that Grant had booked a flight to Paris the day before so he was meeting us there!
We took the over night train to Paris, man it was bumpy, the other guys couldn't sleep, but I was able to sleep since, I had been up for most of the night. When we go to Paris, we headed right to the hostel checked in and then headed out beause we had to see as much as Paris in 28 hours!! So we started a the Eiffel tower then past the Chaillot palace and then to the Arc de Trio, then we walked down Champs Elysees a famous steet in Paris (we got Royals with Cheese), from there we walked to the PLace de la Concorde and then over to the Opera ohouse and then past the Louvre, we knew that it was free on the first Sun of each month so we polanned on heading back the next day, and then over to the Notre Dame. After that we were pooped and also had to meet up with Grant back at the hostel so off we went and relexed there with people fromthe hostel, mostly from the States but there were a couple Irish guy and one guy from Australia.
After drinking for a while we wanted to head to Moulin Rouge and that area, there are lots of clubs on the street, Boulevard de Clichy. On the way there, Sinco ( don't remember how to speel his name) started talking to these French girls, it was funny because they didn't really know English and him no french, so I was talking to the girls in French for him and in English to him for the girls. But they ended up coming with us to the bar area and we sat down and had a few drinks at a pub, then I went down to get some pictures before we headed to a club. Wel that was a dumb iodea because they are really expensive like 20 euros!! no thanks!! so we ended up going to a sit down club and getting this thing called an aquarium. It's a drink for people every one gets a straw and it's in a fish bowl, it was really yummy.
From there we headed back to the Eiffel tower to see it all lite up, but it was like 4 am so it wasn't lite up any more, BOOO!! oh well it was nice to see it at night and also we walked around, and then headed back to the hostel. Funny thing, it had a 2 am lock out and I think that we got back at about 5am but fortunatly someone was up and was able to let us in.
The next morning, it was up bright and early because the Louvre was free. Well, the line was huge, I mean like an thousand people, but fortuantly for us, they took our line into a door that just opened and we were in front of the Mona Lisa within 20 mins of getting there!! We thought if we didn't move in 20 mins we would leave! So we did a very quick tour of the good things and then headed back to the hostel, to say bye to Grant and then head to the train for the trip back to Mainz.
We got back to Mainz and packed up our stuff and started to watch a movie but I was way too tried to try and stay awake for it, so I went to bed.

But thats our trip to France and Spain, also concludes my trip to Europe!!!
I guess my next trip is to Argentina!!

Photos to be posted in the next couple days!!
Andrew

Week away from Germany - Day 7-8

Janelle and I got up earlier then the other boys, and we didn't want to wait for them so we headed to the Museo del Prado: and told them that we would be back at about 5-6 pm for supper with them, well Janelle and I saw the Argentina girl (Florenica) and her sister Laura. Janelle leaned over and said "guess it's going to be a great day, eh?" I said, " yeah, but I need to get some water!!" But we had an awesome day, all four of us went to the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía. It was a great day!! we went back to the hostel to get the other guys and then went to a shopping centre to have a look around. I didn't buy anything, because my bag was heavy enough. After that we went to a place the girls had gone before for supper the night before and they liked it, so we went back, it was a great place!
After that the others went back to the hostel to have showers, but Flor and I went to the Bear and got our picture with it, but the craziest thing happened. There are guys selling stuff on the street, illegally, but while we were there a couple undercover police were there and the guys sprinted every which way, it was pretty crazy!!

Week away from Germany - Day 4-6

So I left you where we had met Grant and Janelle, well that last full day in Barcelona, we started by heading to the train station to get reservations on the train to Madrid and we alo invited Grant and Janelle to come with us. They did and I'm glad we had a blast, but I digress, we went to Sagrada Famíla it was a cool looking building but on the inside was just a whole lot of construction. but we did walk up to the top ( or close to it, was an awesome sight). After that we headed back to the hostel and relexed for a little bit and then went to the Travelbar, they had cheap eats, which is a place of food for 1 euro, not bad. Afer that, we went back to the hostal and got ready to hed to the club that we had been to two nights before, and it was a good time.
The next morning we walked around and saw some sights, and caught our train at 4:30pm we cut it close, we had about 5 mins to spare!!!
But the train ride was awesome, we met this woman from LA, Dima, and also a guy from Brazil, Predo and Yunas from Morocco by has been living in Japan for the last 20 years. It was good time on the train heard about peoples travels.
We met up with Pardo and Yunas and Grant and Janelle later that night, beacuse our hostel was full so they couldn't get in. It was crazy as soon as I walk into the hostel, we met two girls that went to school in NS, so there was someone else to add to our group. We stayed at Cat's Hostel , the best in the world, and it was AWESOME!! I had blast every night and day that we were there. The first night we went on a small pub crawl that the hostel people do, we started at the hostel bar and then head to a few over places, it was a good time. The next day it was sort of relaxing day, I walked around by myself for a little while while Vance and Craig slept.
That afternoon we did a little walking around, Janelle, Grrant, Yunas, Vance, Craig and myself. Saw the Plaza de Real and Plaza Mayor, and other great places. That night was a pretty crazy one drinking but t was awesome, I really got to practice my spanish, I had seen a girl at the hostel the night before and I ended up talking to her that night. I found out that she was from Argentina and she had noticed me because I had the look of an Argentinin boy, i thought that was pretty cool.

well I'm going to leave you there so stay tuned to see what happens with this beautiful Argentinin girl!!

Andrew

Week away from Germany - Day 1-3

Ok Guys this is going to be a long few posts, or maybe one big one, I haven't figured it out yet.

So we left Last friday which gave us 10 days of pure partying/sightseeing and both we did!!
Go up early Friday morning and went to the Birckstock outlet store and got some sandles very comfortable, which is good for me and my stupid feet. They onlt problem was that the trains were a little late so I missed out on most of Strassburg, just inside the France border (to start our rail passes), but thats ok because it was raining there.
Vance and I took the overnight train with no really problems, Craig on the other hand forgot his passport in Germany, so he went back, poor guy.

Vance and I got to Barcelona and walked around checking out the port and seeing some sights, I'll post them when I get home. That night there was a pub crawl at Travel bar, it was great fun, on this crawl we meet Grant and Janelle, two great people and infact we invited them to come to Madrid with us and they did!!! Grant is an awesome guy, he works in NYC at a theatre and Janelle is a Canadian working in Perth, AUS, so she had a really weird accent. The next day I ended up going to the beach with them and Simone, another Australian, this was the start us my sunburn from hell!!!! it lasted the whole trip and I'm not going to be able to tan for a really long time. After being on the beach for a little bit I went back to the Hostel to meet up with Craig who got into twon and also Vance was there, we then went back to the beach, There we met some girls for the States working France so that was pretty cool. That night, the five, Janelle and Grant had join us in our travels, we just went back to the Travel bar to have a few beer. I left after one drink because I was soo tired. I was soo tried that when the other guys got in, they couldn't wake me up to get into the room so they had to get another key for it.

Well I'm going to save the last night of Barcelona and Madrid and Paris for another one or two posts, but this should get you going again.

Later

Andrew

Thrusday!

So last Thrusday was a good time, it was the Institut für Kernphysik BBQ, there were lots of Physics people around so it was sort of weird, but it was a great time. Lots of Free Beer and Free food!!! We got there at like 3pm and sat around had a few beers and a steak and then Vance wanted to head downtown so he left Craig and I at about 5:30pm, we said that we would finish that beer and head over to his place and then we could make some food for supper, well at 7pm Vance came back and was like 'have you guys been sitting here drinking?' Yes!! we drank some more and talked with Andy, one of the few German physics guy that we talk to, he and Dave are good friends, We ended leaving there at about 11pm. Drinking from 3pm - 11pm!! I have to get all this drinking out before I head to Carleton, because I'll be studying hardcore and TA'ing.
From there we headed back to the Barracks, I left 5 mins before thoses guy but when they walked in Craig had beer all oer the front of him it was sooo funny, he sliped on the hill that we had to walk up from the BBQ. Then, we headed to meet up with some friends who called us while we were at the BBQ. We went down to a place called the Muschel and there was a big party so we hung out there until it was time to head home.

Well I should start to look into place to live in Ottawa, any suggestions?

Later
Andrew

Kirchheim

This weekend I went to Kirchheim unter Teck to visit my cousin Celia. Kirchheim is just below Stuttgart and near a mountain in the Schwäbische Albs called Teck. It was a great time, first night I was there we went to a biergarten with two of her friends and had a beer then we went to Fischdorf (a festival) and had one more drink. The next day, Celia had to work so I went to Stuttgart (about 30 mins by train from Kirchheim) to do some shopping and sight-seeing. it was great, I went to the castle and the Mercedes-Benz muesum and just walked around. Celia, Christoph (Cerlia's boyfriend) and I met up after they were down work and walked around. Celia had lived in Stuttgart for a year, so she showed us the market, place to get great döners (but the guy had retired, but we still had one, it was good) and also went to a biergarten. We were geting tried so headed back to Kirchheim.
Saturday morning, Celia and I had a weißwurst breakfast (weiß - white, wurst - sausage), it was yummy and served with a bretzel and beer. After theat we walked around the downtown area and then went back to the apt, got Christoph and we headed off to Ulm, the birth place of Albert Einstein!! We also climbed the münster, which is one of the tallest chruches in the world, we got all the way to the fifth little bump from the top, which is 143 m up!!!! The craziest thing happened while we were in Ulm, it started to rain and then truned to hail!! It hailed in the middle of July!! they were the size of marbles, it was really weird! We walked around town for a little longer and then left to meet up with a few of Celia's friends are a different biergarten and had some supper.
On Sunday morning, Celia took me to her work to show me, the thing was that I couldn't go inside due to security issues, but it was nice to see where she works, also while in the parking lot she said that I could drive her smart car!!, I got to drive a smart car it was awesome!! It's like a normal car just that the back is 2 feet behind you instead of the usual. Then we headed to the Teck and walked up to the top, there is a castle up there and we were able to see for a long way and it was beautiful view of the area.
That afternoon, we went back into Stuttgart to visit the Porsche, except it was family day at the factory, so we couldn't go into the museum!!!! It was annoying, but I guess another reason to come back to visit Celia and Germany again!

Weekend

I'm going to visit my cousin this weekend, it should be fun, she works for Ballard in a place called Kirchheim unter Teck, it's just below Stuttgart. I haven't seen her in five years, she graduated in my first year. Should be a gret time!!

Oh crap on thing I forgot to tell you, is if you want a postcard you should let me know, because I'm leaving here in less then a month.

well off to shower.

Peace out,
Andrew

Konstanz

This weekend was pretty fun, I went to Konstanz, which is at the bottom of Germany, near a lake. I was there to visit my friend Alex, she is doing a physio course there, also her boyfriend, Timo was there. The lake is called, Bodensee, which means floor sea. It was great, we were only about 1 km at most from the Swiss border most of the weekend. On Sat we drove accross the border to park and then came back over to meet up with some of Alex's friends and then we walked along the harbour and through town for a while. Then we headed to Switzerland to buy some chocolate. From there we went to Insel Mainau, it's an island in the Bodensee, it is really a huge garden, there were rose gardens, a butterfly house, and lots of other really beautiful gardens and views of the alps. After this we went to a park on the Bodensee and swam, it was pretty cold but after a few minutes it was ok. only Timo and I swam.
We were only there for about 20 mins, because it was cold and also we were getting hungry, so we went home and Timo made a typical German meal, it was yummy. That night we just went to a beer garden and sat and talked, they tried to teach me some German words.
On Sun, we went to the Rhine falls, these are the largest falls in Europe, also we had to go back into Switzerland, WEE twice in one weekend!!! If you check out the link, in the middle there is a big rock, we got a boat to there and we able to climb to the top and take pictures, I'll post some later.
Also at the gift shop, I saw Swiss army knives, so I got one. I didn't have one, but now I have a Swiss army knife from Switzerland!!
Well we had to rush back to the train station because my train was at 3:40 pm, a little early then I wanted but it turned out to be an awesome ride home, I went close to the German/France border in the Black Forest, and it was a sight!!!, riding along a cliff almost looking down and seeing homes in the valley and a few going up the other side, pictures to follow.
well thats it for now!!
Andrew
PS we are offically heading to France and Spain at the end of our trip, if you know any great places to go, please pass them along.

September News

SO it has been decieded, I'm going to Carleton University. I'm going to pursue a Master's in Medical Physics, I'm pretty excited. Also I'm be able to see some people that I haven't seen in a little while, my old roommate, Steve and a friend in physics, Ashi.
It was a really hard choice between U of A and Carleton because both have great programs, but in different and interesting areas of medical physics. U of A has a clinical based program, and Carleton in a research based program. I thought that I would like to start in the research based program, also I was contacted (he sought me out!!) a guy from NRC, more specificly the group from the Institute for National Measurement Standards. I was freaking excited, to see someone at NRC was interested with me!!!!

well I should get back to work, I'm off to Konstanz for the weekend in an hour.

Later
Have a good weekend everyone!
Andrew

Awesome time!!

So last night was a pretty awesome time.
We met up with some Americans, whom we met on the way back from Heidelberg. We walked down to the Rhine from the Hauptbahnhof, a nice litte walk, but we did a little sight seeing. Then we went to Red Cat, a lounge all in Red, it was a nice place to start, and then since Julie wanted to dance we went to Safai Lounge. When we got there is was a little dead, but we got a drink and then the dance floor picked up, so it was awesome, a great night, I would have to say!!

Later
Andrew

PS A few cool things
Pictures!!! check them out http://www.flickr.com/photos/afmcdnl/
and I found this awesome thing if you like Trailer Park Boys

Canada Day weekend

So this weekend was a pretty good one, on Thrusday night was the Sommerfest (this is the German way to spell it). It was a good time, we hung out with Simo (one of the Moroccan guys we met before). THere was some awesome African drumming, so that was really cool. After this we went over to campus to have a look around and found the Biofest party. Almost every week a different department has a party and I think that we have gone to lots of them, well this past Thrusday was the one for Biology. Back to the story, so we hung out there for a while and met some more people, it's great, I think that I have met about 50 people, I've given out my email to try and hang out with them again but nothing ever happens, it's ok.

Friday was Canada day, I hope all of you celebrated!!! We celebrated by going to the huge Sommerfest on campus, this was a campus wide party, tons and tons of people there.
I lost Craig and Vance, when I went to get the handy (cellphone, this is the German word for it, I think that it's awesome), but I saw the girl from Halifax again, and she had a friend, Mike, visiting her, he is also from Halifax. I hung out with them for the rest of the night.

On Saturday, it was a slow day, went downtown, did some shopping bought a pair of shoes, and then that night we just sat around in Vance's room and watched some tv shows (on DVD) and had a few beer. We went onto campus to have a look around but nothing was going on, so we came back to Vance's place. In the basement, there is a small bar, and there was another birthday party going on. We sat outside, it was nice a cool by that point and then a guy came out and started to be sick, and there we started to talk to him. We ended up talking to this guys until about 2 or 3 am.

So I think that on Wednesday we are going to hang out with some Americans over here working.

bye for now
Andrew

Roma - Day 4/5

Our last full day in Roma. Matt was heding to Florence and Jo was going to stay in Roma to work, she got a job with the pub crawl and I think that she might be thinking about some other stuff.
So we started the day going to the a few stores, nice with the AC, and then walked around town and tried to make it to PizzaRe, supposedly one of the best places to get pizza, we got there at around 3:30 pm which is when they close after lunch and then they open again at 5:30pm for supper. So we walked around and found a little place to grab a bite to eat, I had a bread filled with ham and cheese it was yummy and a piece of pizza with baby tomatoes and mozzarella, but this was real mozzarella not the block stuff, that was I think one of the best pizzas that I've had.

After that Jo, had to go find a place to stay and Matt had to get his stuff and head to the train station, because he was on his way to Florence the next day.
So Vance Craig and I walked around and went back to a few of the places that we had seen during the day to see them again at night, it was an awesome sight. As we were walking we found the store with "the best ice cream in Roma" so we had to give it a try and WOW it was good, not a big portion but yummy!!
We went back to the hostel to get our bags for the long night head of us, we didn't get a hostel for the last night because we had an early flight so we deicided to sleep outside the train station, this was a skechy place to stay. We wer with other backpackers but also bums and drunk people, but we meet a few guys from South America and hung out with them.
well we took the first metro to the airport and made it to our flight with plenty of time.
We ended up sleeping on the flight back to Germany and also the bus ride from the aiport to Mainz.

And that my friends was my trip to Roma!!

Lates

Andrew

PS not much happened since I've been home

Roma - Day 3

So Rachael meet us at our hostel and we were off on our tour, there were 9 of us, the five Canadians and 4 Americans (Anna, Britney, Peter and Zach), and we left for the Vatican. The day started off with what some people might call the best part, Saint Peter's Square, which is really an ellipse. Since it was Wednesday, the Pope was giving mass!! We got to see the Pope!! (from a distance anyway), after mass we headed over to the Vatican Museumm where Rachael gave us an very good tour of the different rooms, it was an awesome sight, the paintings and the sculptures had awesome details. We finished off the tour in the Sistine Chapel and WOW was it amazing, the whole room was covered in paintings.

After that we went to Saint Peter's Basilica, and once again it was an awesome sight, and sorts of great paints and sculptures. Heard lots of cool stories about Popes and people of the Vatican.
The tour ended at St Angelo's Castle and the bridge.

We walked around this area and went to the nearest metro stop and made our way back to the hostel. When we got back to the hostel and we ended up just hanging out at the hostel with poeple from all over, USA, Canada, Australia, and England, after we went to a small piazza (square) there were lots of people just relaxing there.
I was pretty tried after that day full of sight seeing so I went to bed.

Lates
Andrew

Roma - Day 1 & 2

So we arrived in Roma about 10pm at night on Monday, June 20th, it was hot but not uncomfortable. We took the bus to Termini (main station) from there we walked to our hostel, Hostel Alessandro Downtown. It was a nice place, and as we were checking in, they needed our passports so we haded them over and she said, "Wow, more Canadians" the people that had just checked in were also Canadians, from Fredericton. Instantly, we were friends and in fact we spend the rest of the trip with them, Matt and Jolene were their names. All of us were hungury so we went for a bit to eat, pizza, of course!
When we got up, we had to find another hostel, so all five of us went back to Termini and were able to find a place for all of us, Youth Station. After we went to the hostel to check in and drop our stuff off, we went to the Colosseum, it was awesome!! It was really awesome, I will try to post some pictures later this week. Matt and Jo didn't go in so we were going to meet them at Piazza Navona, a really nice fountain, from there we started a walking tour using Craig's Europe book, we went to the Pantheon next, it was amazing, a circuluar buliding that was bulit around 120 A.D. Next, we went to the Santa Maria sopra Minerva church, on the outside it didn't look like a church but inside it was amazing, the detail on the paintings and the scluptures was really impressive.

After that we went to Trevi Fountain, it was once again really nice, one thing to note is that all over the city they had fountains (both huge as a momument and as small drinking fountain). then we headed to Piazza Barberini, it was funny this is a nice square with a foutain but after seeing Trevi Fountain nothing came even close to the beauty of it, then on to final stop, the Spanish Steps. it was a pretty awesome sight.

After the tour we were all hungury so we went to eat and then back to the hostel. During the day meet had meet some people who were flyering (Rachael), giving out flyers for a pub crawl, so we thought about it and we thought why not it would be a good time to meet new people and I think that it was the best choice. We ended up going and meeting lots of people but the best part was we saw Rachael again, and found out that she also does tours of the Vatican and area so we asked her if she would give us a private tour of the area, she agreed. The pub crawl was very funny because it felt like a pub crawl from home, people drinking all talking English, it was an all around good time.

well I should leave it there for now,

Ciao,

Andrew

Crazy day!

Saturday was a really crazy day.
We went to Heidelberg, this was an awesome city, it's got the oldest University in Germany, a huge castle, and the whole town was really really old, there were no bombs that hit the city.
I'll get some picture action going later when I have a chance too.

On the way home, we met some Americans on the train, they are working with childern at the air base accross the Rhine, in Wiesbaden. Talked to them they were realy cool, from all over the place, Ohio, Idaho, Cal etc... got some emails to hang out with them later during the trip.
After we got back to Hauptbahnhof (main train station), we parted ways with our group and planned on meeting up with them later that night, but didn't :-(

But what happened made the day the craziest in Mainz so far. We were walking along Rhine (where we suppose to meet Caroline S. and friends) and heard some people talking English so we went to talk to them. Here is a bit of the conversation:
vance - Hi, you guys speak english? Where are you guys from?
Dave - Hey, we are from Canada
Vance - Where?
Dave - Halifax
Andrew - Where in halifax?
Natalie - Clayton park
Andrew - What street?
Natalie - Clayton park drive
Andrew- FUCK OFF!!! I used to live on Glenforest!!!

It was crazy to be that far from home and to see someone that lived two mins from you!!
To make the night end even better (or crazier), I gave the girl our cell phone (we are borrowing one from our friend, Caroline O.) and then I started talking to someone else and lost track of what was happening, it was awesome to see people from Hali. Anyway, I was biking home and thought "shit, where is the phone?!?!?!" so I stopped in the middle of the street and looked in my knapsack and shorts and knapsack again but nothing, so I went to home and to sleep and decieded that I would call the phone in the morning and find the girl and pick up to the phone from her. Well, this morning I called the phone and talked to the person on the other end for like five mins, trying to convince them that it was my phone blah blah blah. As it turend out Craig was the other person so he had the phone!!!!! He took the phone when he left, he went to Vance's place as his bike wasn't working.

well things have been awesome here and should get better, I'm going to Roma tomorrow and to Konstanz to visit Alex in July
Lates

Weekend!

So this weekend was sort of slow, we were going to head somewhere far away like Strasbourg or to the Neuschwanstein Castle but it would have been too hard to organize in so little time. So we ended up going accross the river to Wiesbaden, where there was a huge street party, it was really fun, but we missed our last bus so we had to cab it home, 18 euro and Craig and I were too tried to bike at 3 am so we crashed at Vance's. The night before we had decieded that we would go to Frankfurt for the day on Sat, so I was thinking that we would leave Mainz at like 10 am and return at like 10-11 pm , but nope I think that we left at about 2 pm, and got back at like 8pm. But it was a good trip. Frankfurt is the business capitol of Europe so there were skyscrapers and lots of shopping areas. We brought our bikes which was a great idea because we were able to drive around and see lots of things, also got some pictures of very German bulidings too.
Sunday was a day to relax and sleep, we just watched a movie (Star wars IV) at Vance's place.

well back to work.

Andrew

PS next weekend is Heidelberg and the Neuschwanstein Castle so be ready for the post!

Weekend!

So this weekend was sort of slow, we were going to head somewhere far away like Strasbourg or to the Neuschwanstein Castle but it would have been too hard to organize in so little time. So we ended up going accross the river to Wiesbaden, where there was a huge street party, it was really fun, but we missed our last bus so we had to cab it home, 18 euro and Craig and I were too tried to bike at 3 am so we crashed at Vance's. The night before we had decieded that we would go to Frankfurt for the day on Sat, so I was thinking that we would leave Mainz at like 10 am and return at like 10-11 pm , but nope I think that we left at about 2 pm, and got back at like 8pm. But it was a good trip. Frankfurt is the business capitol of Europe so there were skyscrapers and lots of shopping areas. We brought our bikes which was a great idea because we were able to drive around and see lots of things, also got some pictures of very German bulidings too.
Sunday was a day to relax and sleep, we just watched a movie (Star wars IV) at Vance's place.

well back to work.

Andrew

PS next weekend is Heidelberg and the Neuschwanstein Castle so be ready for the post!

Who are my real friends!?

So I have about 17 of these 'friend network' things. and for those who don't have them you should get them because you will find all your friends. Here is the list of them:
www.hi5.com
www.bebo.com
www.wayn.com
www.friendster.com

I'm on using my hotmail account if you want to look me up : drew_dawg18 (at) hotmail.com
ok maybe not 17 but thats still lots and I'm sure that before the summer's end I'll find more, or be invited to join a few more.

Later

Andrew

PS on the way home we drive our bikes through a park and yesterday we saw a shepard, with his sheep is was really neat, a real live German Shepard!!

Missing a few things

Work has been very busy, but I have a chnace right now to update you on a bunch of stuff. Last Fri we were invited to a BBQ at Dave's so that was nice to see his wife (Ramona, she is writeing her thesis right now but she was able to find the time to hang out with us) and on Sat unfortunatly our bikes broken down on the way home Friday night so we had to fix them, so that was a big hassle. I ended up getting a new bike, it's ok. On Sat night we went to another BBQ for some girls (Lizzy anbd Chrissy) that we met at the beach party, it was fun, a little weird because everyone was speaking german and Craig and I still don't know very much. But the upside is trhat we now have some friends to hang out with here in Germany!

On Tuesday night we went to an AEGEE meeting (it's like a student for all of Europe), it was sort of weird again because there was a presentation in german, but there was a really nice girl Caroline who told us about everything that we should have pickup. Her brother is/was in Alberta so she has been to Canada, (she is also one of a few people that we have met that knows where NS is). She is taking us out on Wednesday next week it's a big part night is Mainz the bars are free.

Last night Craig and I went over to Lizzy and Chrizy's house and hung out it was cool, their friend
Caroline (different one then before), told us that we could borrow her old cell phone to have, this is awesome that way we have some way to communicate with people.

well I'm off

Andrew

PS Lunch at the mensa (caf) was homefires stir fry, it was good but funny to eat.

Last week!

So this past week was really fun, my friends Alex and Ben (from Mount A) we passing through Mainz on their Euro-trip, they were here Mon-Wed. They crashed at Vance's place which was ok for them. They went to the meal hall with us everyday and drank a bottle of wine every night.

Tuesday and Wednesday were the best nights, on Tuesday we drank at the rez and then went over to the campus bar, well it was playing heavy metal music (boo!!) so we left there and then we walking home when we meet up with these people going a bar, we asked where we should go on a Tuesday night and they said to follow them. So off we went with them, it was like a little bar on the first floor of a rez, but it was fun none the less. Ben hooked up with one of the girls at the bar, it was pretty funny, because we were all very drunk and all ended up sleeping in Vance's little room.

On Wednesday night was the final of the UEFA cup so we wanted to go to a bar and watch the game, so we got another bottle of wine each and went over to the campus sports bar, (there are a couple bars on campus). We watched the game, which was an awesome one, LIVERPOOL!!!!! I couldn't believe that they won being down 3-0 at halftime. It was sort of funny because Alex and Ben had been in Liverpool about 4 days prior to that and got a hat and scarf, so they were wearing them but felt pretty stupid when we finally got to the bar with Liverpool losing, but it worked out in the end. BTW, they went to Milan a few days after so I don't think that they will be wearing their hat or scarf.

After that we saw a beach party close by, being put on by the sport students, so we checked it out and it was a great time, lots of beer and girls. Craig and Ben were talking to these girls and we ended up getting invited to them place for a BBQ last night, and Ben hooked up with one of them, Ben 2 for 2!!

well thats enough

Andrew

Awesome pic!!!

I just found this awesome pic.





Thats me and Steve we are at AUPAC, the Atlantic Canada Physics Conference

Amsterdam!!

Amsterdam was a great time! We got an early train on Friday, and had a stopover in Koln, I went outside and saw the huge church it was massive. When we got to Amsterdam it was about 1 pm. This was ok because it gave us the rest of the day to do stuff, after we found somewhere to stay. So we went over to the information centre to see what they had in mind. After waiting in line for 20 mins they were no help to us. So off we went on our own looking for somewhere for the five of us. Well outside the information centre, Neil a sketchy looking guy comes up to us and asked if we are looking for a place to stay. 'Well yeah' (but I don't know about having you help us) well Craig had heard about this before so we talked to him and he was able to find us a place for 5 for $30 euros a night, which is pretty good, considering the time of year, there was lots and lots of toursits from all over. Well that night we went to a koffeeshop and then checked out the Red Light District, quite an experience I must say, lots of people. Saturday, we walked to a market, it was really nice and then we walked across town to the Heineken Experience. It was really cool seeing the timeline of the production of the beer and we also got to have a few, and have a souvier glass too. The night we went back to a koffeeshop and had a few beers. On Sunday, the girls were leaving at 10:30 am and Vance was going to Sweden, and it turned out that he was on the same train as Craig and I until Duisburg (I think). The trip home was uneventful, well other that the train was about 30 mins late into Mainz so we were unable to make our bus to get home so we had to sleep at Vances', good thing we got his key.

Well I'm out
Andrew

News about Sept.

Today's post is going to be a little different then the others, I'm not going to be talking about Europe, (even if I did just get back from Amsterdam last night).

I have been waiting to hear back from the five grad schools (UVic, UofA, Western, Mac, and Carlton) about my acceptance. Well this morning I heard from the thrid of them, UofA emailed me saying that I was acceptted! So that makes an acceptance to UVic and UofA and a rejection from Mac, UofA was up on the top of my list of schools to head to but it will be be a hard degree because of all the class work (12 classes) and the TA'ing and research.
I have to sit down and consider my choices, I hope that the other two will get back to me in the next week or so, then I can consider all of my possbilites.

well I'm back to work, I just wanted to update you on my plans for Sept.

Lates

Andrew

PS Amsterdam was awesome!!

Another great weekend!!

We finally got home last night after a little detour (went towards the coast of Holland instead of inland, towards Germany) and sleeping in a little later then we expected. But this weekend was great!! Played some soccer and drank some beers! We went to GGroningen, which is in the northern part of Holland. We had a nice drive there, got to drive on the Autobahn (max 180 km/hr), got to see some really nice country side. When we got there we waiting for the other guys to arrive from other cities accross Germany, we had a really international team, mostly working now in Germany. The team had people from Spain, Germany, Canada, US, Bulgaria, Italy, Morocco and a few others that I can't remember, it was hard to communicate on the field! But back to what I was saying. When we got there we didn't really know what to do, but luckly from us there was a drunk guiys wandering around and showed us where the party was, in my last post I talked about a Gong show, it was drinking 24 hrs for some people, we only started at like 7-8 pm, and with 70 euro cents draft, I don't think that you can complain. On Saturday we played 4 games and then on Sunday we played another 3. The morning game on Saturday morning was very hard for me beacuse I was still drunk from drinking so I didn't drink a lot that night but then I found out on Sunday morning that we didn't play our first game until 1:40pm. Also Saturday night, we went downtown to go to a koffeeshop, it was really weird, people could just walk in and buy bags of about 1 gram (5 euros) or about 3 grams (15 euros) of weed and hash, depending on the type. All in all it was a great weekend, but I should get back to work.

Lates,
Andrew

Holland for the Weekend!

SO I'm in Holland for the weekend, we are here playing soccer in an international tournament, it a 'gong show' as Dave likes to say, we drank last until about 4 am and then got up play a game at 9 am and then we had four games total today and I think that we have 3 again tomorrow. We are playing with guys from Italy, Spain and Germany, it's a blast. Well I should get back out there we play in 15 mins.
I'll have a bigger post about this week and weekend later.

Later

Andrew

What a weekend!!

So this past weekend was a great time, We went to Kulture Cafe on Friday aftering eating at Vance's place and watching some Viva la Bam and drank some wine (a bottle of 1.29 euro wine). We met some guys from Holland and I saw saw some people that we meet at the rez party on Wednesday night. After that we walked down to the train station (haupbanhouf - which in Germany means "main station") and hung out there and got a kebab, man was it awesome!!! We had to walk home at 4.30 am, the bus home only oges until 12pm so we really need some bikes to bike home. The next day we were going to head to a flea market to check out bikes but it was raining so we went back to bed and didn't wait up until 3pm. We went over to Vance's place and remembered that there was a Mainz soccer game, they were playing Bayern-Munich (the best team in Germany), so there were lots of people and police around the stadium. We were able to get into the stadium for the last min of the game but that was cool enough for me, it was an awesome sight, lots of people, a sea of red and the chanting and singing was awesome. That night we were going to Kulture cafe but the bar near Vance's place was open so we went in, it turned out that it was a private party for some girl she was having her 18th birthday party there. HAHAHA and the best part was that we stayed, i think that we were pretty tanked, another bottle of wine each and a few more beer after.
Once again, Craig and I had to walk home again man another late night/early morning, but on the way home we found a couple bikes that were in bad shape but it was taking forever to get home so we took the first bus home in the morning, it came at 5.15 am. Sunday we just slept and watched a movie at night.
Well I should get back to work, I'll tell you about other things in my update tomorrow or Friday, but we might be going to Holland for the weekend to play in a soccer tournament.

Tschuess,
Andrew

Fun Times in Germany

On wed night there was a BBQ for the collaboration. I'm glad we have been so useful over here, we put the beers in the fridge!! It was a pretty fun time, we all had lots to drink. From there we were looking for a bar to go to so we walked back to Vance's place to drop off our bags and then we walked towards some bars, at the edge of campus. On the way there Craig and I heard some music coming from a rez so we went up to it, it was awesome we met lots of people from all around the world, I was using my french with someone from France and spanish with someone from Spain and English with someone from Scotland, Finland (Canada is better at hockey!!) and Germany. A bunch of them told us to go to Kulture Cafe tonight (friday) so we hope to meet up with them.

Yesterday, we went for walk around the downtown area, it was cool to see the typical european streets, very narrow and we also got to see the Rhine. I think that next week sometime we are going to take a boat ride on it.

Well I should get back to work so I'll talk to you later

Andrew

We're Here!!

So we arrived in Germany yesterday, after the flight from Halifax to Toronto and then from Toronto to Frankfurt. The flight from Frankfurt was pretty awesome, we started drinking right after supper, I started with some white wine and I moved on to vodka. I passed out half way through the second movie. We were met by our prof (Dave) and he starting laughing knowing that we were pretty drunk. I gave him a big hug!
After that we went to the apt, where Craig and I are staying, and slept while Vance (he is staying at the intervational rez) and Dave went to drop Vance off. We met up for supper at 6pm so Craig and I walked to the train station (where we were meeting), it was a really nice walk, we saw a really nice church and some typical narrow streets.
When we meet up we went to eat at a Greek resturant, it was really yummy. Then we just went home to fall asleep, man were we tried.
This morning Craig and I slept in beacuse my alarm clock didn't work, I set it last night when we got in and then time was right and I set it for 8:15 am. At 10:20 am Criag woke me up and asked me about my alarm clock. I was like what the hell. We think that something is different over here like the frequency of the AC current that would mess up the clock. I guess tonight I'll have to set it for 6 am for us to get up at the right time for work. Well this morning was much of a work day, we are just getting started. For lunch, we went over to the student centre, the meal was pretty good not like home cooked but better then meal hall at school, and the meal was only 3 euros!!!!
Well I should get back to work so I'll talk to you later

Ciao,

Andrew

SO 36 hrs and counting

I'm almost packed for my trip to Germany, Vance is getting into town tomorrow and staying with Craig and we are all going to meet at the airport. This should be an awesome trip, I just hope that I get to see some awesome stuff, and drink some beer. This first couple weeks better be awesome, because I'm missing my graduation from my undergraduate university MTA. Sorry I'm not going to be there guys but i hope that you have a great time and have a drink for me, I'll have one for you. Kelly, Kyle, Wheels, Dave, Nadine, Al, Kevs, Korwin (never apart from one other) , Chris, Lauren, Adam, Mark, Jason, Marty, man I hope that I didn't forget anyone, I'll miss all of you guys and I had a great time spending the last 4 years with you!! (well 5 with you Jason!!)

So I moved out three days ago and Mac Dog (pictured below) MSN'ed me today and told me that he missed me, what a guy, eh?



I think that I might miss him.

See you in Europe,
Lates,

Andrew

I'm glad were not going to die...

So D Horns send this to me about a week ago and I just found it again when i was looking in my email.
You should check it out, it's about destroying the earth.
It makes me feel better about living here.

Andrew

Europe bound!!

So today I started packing for Europe, well Germany, I'm pretty excited.
Today I went a bank to get some Euros and they were out, well they didn't have the amount I wanted, I'm thinking of opening a Germany Bank account, so I was going to take like 500 euros, so I went to the other banks around and they only have between 40 -100 euros, I was like this sucks!! So tomorrow I'm going to try a few banks close to home.

Well I guess I'll talk about another good night that happened. uummm
which one?
How about the last day of classes, that was an awesome one.
So I had 6 lab reports to finish so I spend from about 10 am - 5:30 pm to write them and I got three done and I gave up, because I was going over to the pub to start drinking with my pals. We had entered in the Dodge ball Tourny, Man what a great Idea, drinking a coupe $5 pitchers and then going to play a sport!! So my friend Lauren and I, split two pitchers and then a few of us shared a pizza, man it was good after drinking a few beers.
Then at about 7 pm we headed over to the gym for the tourny. We played the girls soccer team first, man I can't believe it but I think that we each had a pitcher in us and we won handlely. But the next game was a little tougher, but we were lucky because we went back over to the pub and got another picther, so by this point I've had two pitchers and I'm walking around the pub to try to work off some drunk and who do I see, this same girl!! I think that there is something going on here. Any way I start talking to her and her friends and she had bought two pitchers and needed me to help with one of them, I was like are you serious!?!?!? I don't know that if thats wise, I toast right now and it's 9:30 pm, but I didn't want her to get mad so I had a few drinks and then I told her that I was going to a party at 40 Charlette so I had to go home and get a shower ( not a good idea while drunk) and dressed, it was a skirt and tie even, I wore a tie, I couldn't fnd my skirt in my state, plus I don't wear skirts.
So I went over to the party and hung out for a while it was nice to see all those people before heading our seperate ways.
Then I went to the pub but when I got there the line was too long so I left and passed out at home.

But that was a good night in the end, some good drinks with good friends, good times!!

Lates
Andrew

Finally!!

So Mom and I just got back from bringing almost everything home from MTA!!
A couple things I'm leaving there for a litte while to let friends use but I've got everything else home.

So now that I'm home I have to unpack all of this stuff and pack things for Germany, some of you might know this and others might not, but I'm going to Germany for 3 months to work at the Universität Mainz. It should be a great time, I'm going with two other guys, Vance and Craig, other physics honours students and with my prof Dave Hornidge (D Horns), I'm really excited to go. Now the only thing to think about is what should we do in our free time, terms of traveling, go to Greece, Spain or just do Germany...? the possibilities are endless.

well i have to make a list of things to do tomorrow so I'm going to start that

Lates

Andrew

I'm back

So I fogot my PW in the first day, I'm an idiot!!
It's ok , I'm back and I'm blogging.

So today I tried to move home from Sackville, but found out that I have too much crap, we filled the car and just barly had room for me and Mom and I need to go back tomorrow to get some more stuff.
It's ok, because I have a couple errands to run too.

These past few weeks have been pretty awesome, and it mainly started on Grad Banquet night.
I was at the Banquet and the dept awards were being giving out and I was excited because being in Physics, there arn't very many people so I had like a 1 in 7 chanve of gettting it, and I got it, so i was pretty happy about that, so I got drunk!!
While at the pub I ran into my friend. We had hung out the year earlier but never really talked, so we chatted it up and things went pretty awesome for the rest of the night, dancing it up and playing some pool. It's funny beacuse she also won the dept award for her dept, so it's good that we started hanging out smart people are awesome.

Then the next night was St. Paddy's day, so I went to the pub and starting drinking and playing some pool and walked a around for a bit and lo and behold who do I see? HER, there she is dancing up on the dance floor, so I use my excellent dance moves to start dancing with her again, and after we talked some more about life after MTA and that sort of stuff.

Well I'm going to stop because I want you guys to come back so I'll leave it there

OH, ps I read my mail today, well this was a letter from I long time ago.
I didn't get into Mac, it's ok because it was the lowest on my list in terms of grads schools.

off to bed

Here is My home online...

Well this is my first post of my new blog!!
I can't think of what to say because so much has happened in the past 2 months and you haven't heard about it!
- Grad Banquet
- St Paddy's day
- Random weekends
- Helping firends move out
- Hanging with good friends before leaving

Man this is going to be long but maybe I'll split it up over a few days/weeks

Well I'm going to have breakfast