9 days in Paris

We're back, enjoying a Sunday night with no work tomorrow because of German "Carnival", we had a blast, spent a few pretty pennies and saw so many important things that only a small list will do it justice:

top of the eiffel tower
mona lisa
venus di milo
arc di triomphe
jim morrison's grave
cafe deux magots
sacre coeur
versailles

Ya getting the picture? I only took 6 rolls of film because the weather was crappy. I think I have another class to teach at the university, called Oral Formulation, no jokes please! :) And I got a call for private lessons, just a little bit of spending cash which would be good. I will be finding out in the next week or two if some of my other classes are going to happen, before I go to London on March 16th, my schedule is going to look a lot more stable methinks. I'm on a spending frieze for awhile, until then, and try and save a few bucks if possible. There is snow on the ground, I'm reading a book about the history of spice and life is good.

we'll be in touch.

group email to mom's friends

hey friends and family,just a quick Sunday shoutout from Germany! Assiyeah and I are going for a walk on a beautiful winter dayhere and then at 4pm a few of us are going to watch"Deutschland sucht den Superstar", aka American Idol but the German version. I'm doing a bit of packing for Paris on Thursday, just finished up the grades for my university classes, have a new job that starts onTuesday, my highest paying since becoming an English teacher and also the furthest away(an hour to an hourand twenty minutes) but they pay for the journey to so no worries, mate!

I "self-published" one of my four novels, meaning I went to the copy shop and got 4 copies made and bound,mostly to give to friends instead of emailing them 300pages of something. I plan to make about 20 copies ofeach of my four novels, another book of short stories and in a few months when I finish my book "Selling tothe Norwegians" about my two-week trip to Norway last year trying to peddle a Norwegian book I had written, I'm going to have like a "book party" where people can buy some of the books, but at least come together and celebrate something having been accomplished.

My second photo exhibition is in exactly 3 months. It's interesting, two of the places I was thinking of doing it said they didn't want the pictures of the American flags on their walls but one place is going to let me do it anyway. I enjoy that I've found something that causes people to react. It's going to be at a place called, appropriately enough, Art Cafe and with any luck, I will be having local businesses sponsor the entire event so I have no out of pocket costs. That will be nice.

Well, just wanted to give an update to people who are important to my mom, so you can all ask her how I'm doing and I have a feeling she has no problems talking about me once you get her started!

peace and smiles!

Jason
p.s. thinking good thoughts for ya mom, see ya in exactly 2 months!
p.s.s. congrats to the steelers, but look out for the rams baby, I feel next year is our year! hahaha...

quick updates

*I should have a new job at the Berufs Akademie about an hour away by train, very happy about that, it's far but the money is good and I'm poor as hell right now so...

*I had the sixth meeting for the photo exhibition. It will be on May 12th at the Art Cafe here in Freiburg and after a couple of weeks, will go to the Carl Schurz Haus and then to Lago and then maybe in September to Oma's Kueche. Those photos could be displayed until October sometime, about 4 months in and around Freiburg.

*I picked up 4 copies of "Postponing the Myth". I'm really excited to have one of my books that is tangible, I can hold it in my hands. My next book is "Using Toonies" and that one should be easier because I've already edited it twice so I should be able to get through it quickly.

*We are going to Paris next Thursday, my first time there in four and a half years and Assiyeah's first time. We'll be there nine days which should be enough to catch a vibe of the place.

*Today I'm dropping off some books/tapes with a woman who owns a language school I used to work for. It was one of the very first jobs I had here but I have not worked for them since September 2004 so I guess it was time to give the stuff back, right?

*In the last two weeks, I've read two books, one called "Salt" and the other "The Devil in the White City". The first was about the history of salt and the second about the Chicago's World Fair 1893. I think I'm going to read a book now called "How to Overthrow the Government". I'll tell ya how it is.

ciao!