Vagabonding

Hi Everyone, happy 2008!

It's been a while since I last updated, and I apologize for not responding to emails that have been sent to me in the time between. A lot has been going on, and frankly- it's hectic being a bum…

Ok, so to quickly sum up the holiday season- I spent Christmas playing charades with 2 Russian girls, a Japanese guy, an Indonesian girl, and a guy from Bangladesh…all of whom I had never met before. Due to the language barrier, it was probably the most difficult cultural situation I have encountered since my arrival in Germany. If anyone knows how to act out Goethe, a kiwi, or the color green, let me know. My official BUM status began shortly after Christmas, when I moved out of my apartment and decided to rove throughout Germany/countries bordering Germany. Fellow Sewanee pal, K-Kaiser, joined me on the first leg of my adventure, where we narrowly escaped being one of the 273 injured people in Prague due to the New Years Eve fireworks. It was a madhouse! We then sped through Vienna, hiked through Salzburg, toured in Munich, and parted ways- in better shape than when we started due to the fact that we probably walked 80 miles.

I get from place to place using a glorified hitchhiking site called Mitfahrgelegenheit (5 euros/100km), I either stay with complete strangers using www.couchsurfing.com or other Americans in the program, and I live off of müsli, apples, bread, beans, and gummi bears. Yeah, I probably just scared my Mother. Anyways, I've learned a lot on these travels…Like the only thing separating me from a bunch of prostitutes in Hamburg is a fanny pack. Oh, and moral values (of course). It was crazy how plainly dressed they were, like if I was waiting on the sidewalk for someone and just so happened to be wearing a fanny pack- I might get approached for business. By the way, Chuck Norris doesn't wear a fanny pack, he wears a hip mounted tactical assault bag.

I officially start work on Feb. 11th with Unique Forestry and move into my totally awesome loft apartment on the 15th. My job title is Carbon Finance Intern, which makes me pretty excited and scared at the same time, considering that I have absolutely no experience with carbon finance. I'll mainly be working on an emissions reductions project for a coffee plantation in Uganda. It sounds pretty great, we'll just have to see if it is!

That's about all I have to say for the past month or so. I'm staying with a friend in Dresden for the week and just had to rescue 10 pairs of my underwear that blew all over the street due to a strong gust of wind in my window sill. Let me tell you, I cannot wait to come back to the states and use a dryer. The thought of having all your clothes dry in 60 minutes is mind blowing!

I hope everyone out there is great, and I'll try and return some of those emails!