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Tschuss

Your Name isn't Rio but I Don't Care for Sand

And so the year ends. Well, it ended about a week ago. I'm not sure what to say about the events that made up this past year. I have learned an incredible amount about myself, my friends, and the environments that have been so familiar to me for most of my life. Let's recap:

1) I wrote my first entry to this blog back in D.C. in July 2009. That entry was the to mark the beginning of my year in Germany. There in Germany I met people, both American and German, that have forever changed my life.
2) Shortly after my departure from Germany, I slowly tried to fall back into my old life. Learning that my old life would not bring me satisfaction any longer, I tried to reconnect with old friends.
3) I found a job that was both taxing, but rewarding. Meeting new people has become a sort of hobby for me recently. I was then graced with the presence of an old friend who had the semester off and was to be in Columbia until the summer. With him I went to concerts, the beach, hiking, and proceeded to wreak havoc and mayhem (I'm exaggerating. I think) upon Columbia.
4) Once spring and summer arrived I found myself immersed in activities that would allow grant me leave from SC. I went to visit my sister and niece in the Virgin Islands, went to the beach with the greatest group of friends, and visited my father in D.C.

Now I am sitting in a hotel in Williamsburg V.A. where I have just spent an amazing five days with my beautiful girlfriend. We went to Busch Gardens, Water Country USA, and toured around downtown Williamsburg. All in all, I must say thank you for reading this blog and that I have had an amazing year, regardless of my early leave from Germany. I have spent this year reflecting and planning the rest of my life. By the rest of my life, I mean the mere 4 years of college that soon await me. August 23rd is still a bit away. Soon I will be heading to Boston University to start my schooling where my major is still in limbo. Economics or international relations. Minor in German. I'll see what comes my way. I will create a new blog for those of you interested in staying in touch with my college life. Censored, of course. Until then, tschuss.

The Music and Medicine You Needed for Comforting

The month of April. That sounds like a good place to start. But I guess the end of March deserves some recognition. The end of March saw me make the worst best decision of my life. What was that you may ask? Well, sometime near the end of March I drove myself and some friends to Caesar's Head. It's a beautiful camping sight atop a very pretty mountain. It's near the North Carolina border (we learned this because of a wrong turn.) The only reason why it wasn't my best decision was because of the lack of heat that often accompanies the middle of the night at the end of March. That week saw me with a rather nasty sinus infection.
April came and went in a blur. I'm not 100% sure of all that went down. I know that for a week in April I finally found myself back on a plane. I was going to visit my niece and sister. I needed the R&R and I needed it bad. Overall it was a good trip with no complaints. How could I complain? A free week in the Caribbean is never something to complain about.
I was thinking of writing a short story. Nothing fancy, just something to help pass the time. I haven't put pen to paper since Germany (that's an expression. I would obviously type the story; we are in the 21st century.)
I want windows that push open. I want the sun to never leave the horizon. I want a second chance. I want to let it all go.

Laugh Hard, It's a Long Way to the Bank

It's been awhile. Then again, it always is. I've been doing a lot better since nearly being murdered and all. In fact, life has been a breeze. That is not to say that there hasn't been any downs either.
I went to another concert. This time I went to see J. Cole and Girl Talk. Both were pretty satisfying. J. Cole can freestyle. Girl Talk had some pretty intense mash-ups and had everyone dancing like they were in one giant club. Once again, I was in the front row. I didn't get many decent pictures (J. Cole wouldn't stop moving and Girl Talk was hidden from view because a the amplifiers were larger than him) but I got a lot of videos.
I started to actually work on my novel. I have a lot of free time, I might as well at least write something. It has it's kinks, but I'm hoping they just work themselves out.
Columbia was lacking in my presence in the later part of February. I visited a friend in Auburn for a weekend. It was a much needed vacation from SC. I think I might try to get out more often, but money has been quite the problem. I got my hours cut at my primary job so I now am working two jobs just to get by. It's not a big deal, neither job is incredibly taxing; they both just eat up a lot of time. Hopefully my hours pick up at both jobs so I can start saving for big things this summer.
Spring has finally arrived. I didn't realize how much I could miss such nice weather. I'm not sure if I'm 100% ready for summer. I'm sure I'll have a great time, but I'm open for disappointment. After summer I get to finally ship off to Boston, so I'm sure I'll savor every degree of heat.
I still have dreams in German. The worst part? It's all out of context. Sure, the sentence structure is decent, but the situation is all wrong. I'm sure this means some practice is needed. Learning programs are so expensive! The full German course from Rosetta Stone is $800. That's a little much. I guess that is the price for fluency.
I want to branch out on my creative horizons; I'm just not sure where yet. I want to do more creative things. I stumbled upon a really incredible drum circle while downtown. They allow anyone with a drum to join in. It's all improve, and it's all impressive. Plus, the cafe they play at has red velvet cookies with canoli filling.
Blah, being medicated is no fun.

Other People's Live Seem More Interesting Because They Aren't Mine

Columbia is the murder capital of the world.

You may have laughed when you read that. I did, too. IN fact, I spent most of the night joking about it. Then I stepped outside the house.

This guy in a truck stops his car outside. He yells out the window, 'You wanna fight?' Clearly telling him no, we head out of his way. He somehow misreads that as a signal that we want to fight and gets out of his truck. This is your average South Carolinian redneck who was clearly drunk and weighed somewhere between 240-260. In other words, it's David and the Goliath.

He taunts us nonstop with his incredible use of the word 'fuck,' exploiting it's many uses. He then tries to tell us he is just joking, but we don't believe him. (Why would we? He sounded dead serious to us, plus he was still advancing.) He misread us not believing him to meaning that he should pull a knife out. And then offer it to us.

Why in God's name would we take your stupid knife? He decided to not only choke my bestfriend, but tried to stab him as well. My friend is not new to fighting, and defends himself. He doesn't ever throw a punch; just defends himself. I'm freaking out at this point, and try to talk some sense into the guy. I tell him that we are just leaving, and would love to not cause a problem. After maybe about ten minutes, and maybe a dozen 'yes sirs' we finally made it out. We aren't afraid to go to the law. I'd love to see you try to get out of that one.

I saw fear tonight

And I was scared.

She's Gone, She's Gone Across the Border, Man.

I promised some photos and here they are. The top two are obviously from the Kid Cudi concert (the top one is him fist bumping me.) The last three are from the Mars Volta concert with their kickass lighting. That's about sums up my Fall as well as most of my Winter.

I'm really glad that Winter is coming to an end. I've had a taste of Spring (because South Carolina has really odd weather) and I just want it to be here already. I love the cold weather, but it's been enough of that. I just want some warm sunshine. Or snow. I wouldn't mind winter if I could just see some snow.

So what have I been doing during the long month between posts? The same thing as I always do: Try to take over the world. Honestly, it's been pretty tame since my last post. Still trying to save up money so that I can get out of here over the Summer. I'm actively looking for a second job, as well as other opportunities such as donating plasma (they can't call it selling, but they can offer you a monetary compensation for your time.) I can overcome my fear of needles for some extra cash.

I'm always worried about my blog entries being too long sometimes. Recently I felt like I skimped out on some of the posts. I'm finishing the Eragon series (I started it, I'm damn well gonna finish it. You don't outgrow books. Except maybe The Hungry Caterpillar. The plot twist just got old.) I've been trying to branch out my musical horizons. I've come across some cool things. Mainly I hear most of my music from Charles, who's blog, Sonic Nutrition, has a link up at the top right of my blogpage. I love music. I always knew this, but for some reason I just appreciate music a lot more.

I'm working on some letters right now for a certain group of people. International stamps aren't cheap. Well, they aren't for a bookseller.

Tschuss,

Zeb

I'm Alright (You Gotta Go There to Come Back)

I'm sorry that the period in between blog posts is so long. I don't mean for it to be. I guess I've been 'busy.' The only reason that is in quotation marks is because the term 'busy' is quite relative. Anyway, let's recap.

Somewhere near the end of November I got a job. I now work at Books-a-Million. It's a good job. There isn't much stress and the hours are good too. I make enough to get by and save. (Save enough to get my ass back to Europe by the time summer rolls around.) Sometime between that and Christmas my car got broken into. See, it really sucks to not have a window during the winter. It happened while I was at the club. Yeah, I went to the club. (The clubs in Germany are better.) We were there for no longer than an hour, and when we got back, my car had a shattered window. I didn't lose my iPod, radio, or my debit card which were conveniently left in plain sight. No, just to be douchebags, they decide to search under the seat and steal my girlfriends purse. Well that little mishap cost me two weeks of a freezing car. Christmas was amazing; I don't have a single qualm about it. Frohes Weihnachten! (I'll admit I haven't been practicing my German much. The last time I got a chance to use it was at BAM. Some customers came in and I could hear them whispering to each other in line about why they weren't going to buy something. In German. Naturally, I just said 'Sprechen Sie Deutsch?' because who doesn't say that? Anyway, I got to have a German conversation. I miss you guys.)

After Christmas I saw Kid Cudi. I saw Kid Cudi at the Myrtle Beach House of Blues. I was in the front row. I got fist bumped by Cudi. I got Cudi's Goose. Before you get any sick ideas in your head, Goose is short for Grey Goose. I didn't want to drink it (I lie) but I did want it as a souvenir. The security guard didn't care what I wanted. We spent that night at Ross's beach house. They have a touch screen microwave. Classy.

Much hasn't happened since then to be honest. I don't want to make this too long of a post. I'm trying to update more often. I also promised photos and videos. I'll get those too. Well, I'm off.

Bis Bald