Surf Roots, Software Thoughts

Munich was awesome.  My favorite city thus far for sure.  Everyone is insanely friendly, the food is fantastic, the beer is flowing, and everything is affordable.  We went to beer halls every night and sometimes at lunch.  A beer hall is basically a big place, sometimes outdoors and sometimes indoors, where parties share tables and most people, old and young, order large quantities of beer.  Typically you can only get the beer that the particular house brews, but one thing is always for sure, it’s all good.  Apart from the beer halls, we visited a concentration camp, Dachau, and a gangster castle, Neuschwanstein.

Despite all that has already been mentioned, the best part of Munich is the people.  The locals are insanely friendly, and lots of cool people flock to the capital of Bavaria.  We met a 40-year-old local named Biernhard, two patent lawyers, a ton of Australians, more Germans, some Canadians, some Spanish, a few Americans, etc.  I love it.

After five nights in Munich we left today for Prague.  The first impression is good — half liter beers for around $1, cool sights, and an insane hostel.  I’m super excited for the days to come.

Bonus story: China is being ridiculous with their visa policies now that the Olympics are coming up.  More information to come soon.

When will they end?  Not yet.  I still need a better pair of shoes.

• Canon Rebel XTi Digital SLR (body only) - $509 from Dell
• SanDisk 4GB Compact Flash Card - $28 from Dell

I’ll be using my dad’s lenses from his 35mm SLR that he never uses anymore.  I believe he has a 75-300mm lense and a 28-105mm lense.

The travel purchases never end.

• Traveler’s health insurance - $66 for all seven weeks of Europe
• International Student Identity Card - $25
• International Phone and SIM Card - $39 (includes $10 of talk credit)

I’m not even finished yet.  In other news, my mom and I sewed an old sheet into a sheet bag for the hostels that don’t have bedding.

Bonus purchase: my team and I won our Google APM scavenger hunt, so I got a $50 gift certificate to the Google Store.  I bought a Google bike jersey.  Now all I need to buy to make my outfit complete is a nice pair of tight, short bike pants.  Mmmmm.

I arrived in Los Angeles earlier this evening to spend the weekend with my family.  I won’t get a chance to see them that much this summer seeing as how I’m going to Europe four days after school ends, and I’m going to China two weeks after I arrive from Europe.  It’s always great seeing my family, and it’ll for sure be time well spent.  This’ll also give me an awesome opportunity to put my family’s insane DVD collection onto my newly purchases iPod classic.  I don’t think I’ll be able to fit all 300+ DVDs, but I’ve chosen 19 of my favorites including all three Lord of the Rings extended editions, all three Austin Powers, Gladiator, etc.  Mmmmmm.

I’ve been buying things like mad in preparation for Europe and China.  Take a look:

1. 80GB Black iPod Classic - $250
2. Plastic Classic iPod Case - $24.95
3. 3x 2GB SD Cards - $7.99 each
4. 8GB USB Flash Drive - $31.99
5. Compact Card Reader - $11.99
6. Universal Plug Converters - $17.99
7. Lonely Planet Shoestring Guide to Europe - $18.47
8. Pocket Journal - $10.95
9. Black Passport Money Waste Strap - $11.95
10. Some sort of power adapter + extra battery - $?? (my Dad bought it for me at the Sharper Image sale)

All these new gismos are giving me something to play with.  I’ve already encoded 20GBs worth of DVDs onto my iPod, and I’m absolutely astonished at the quality of the sound and video.

In other news, I’ve began researching the current culture in hopes of fitting in better.  I’ve found some notable YouTube videos related to dancing and hair styles.  It’s pretty unfortunate that I erased the mullet, because apparently they’re the cool thing in Europe along with strange dance moves.  Take a look.  I got some practicing to do.

I must admit, I’m a pretty big fan of the pump-up shoes.  I’m gonna look to buy a pair while I’m over there.

Two big announcements:

1. I booked my flight to China for the summer/fall! Flying to Shanghai on August 22nd at 7:00am from Los Angeles; returning to Los Angeles on December 21st at 8:03pm from Shanghai.
2. Jim is coming with me to work for Google as well!

After having a few shots and an itinerary, it’s beginning to hit me that I’m going to China for four months. Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuude!

As I begin to count down to my time in China, I’m starting to learn a lot more about the language and the culture. I’m creating a new “China” category that will contain posts about my time leading up to China and also about my time in China. I’ve labeled the category “China” instead of “Shanghai,” because I plan to travel a lot while I’m gone.

Here’s the feed for the category

Bonus story: learning Mandarin Chinese is hard.