Busy

Recently, had a lot of stuff to do. Beginning of the new school year, so there is a lot of stuff going on. Meeting the new students, getting the curriculum together, ironing out everything.

Too much stuff has gone on recently that I could post on, so I'll talk about what is coming up. Next week, got the Yamaguchi surf trip with Steve and Keoki, pending swell. The week after that, my predecessor at this job, who everyone I've ever met has said is the coolest guy in the world, is gonna come to visit. The week after THAT, going to Hawaii. And the week after THAAAT, Las Vegas, for my brother's wedding. Gonna be awesome.

A Quick Rundown

Been real busy recently.

Seems like I'm gonna be busy until the summer time, with Nick's wedding and the Hawaii trip right before that, and right before that, the exploratory Yamaguchi surf trip with Keoki and Steve. Work is pretty exciting too, we have a Hungarian exchange student that's gonna be with us for an entire year, going to classes and living the Japanese life. She doesn't speak a word of Japanese though. No surf recently. Did have a basketball tournament though, we were humbled in the championship game. Here's some pics and quick captions/stories behind 'em.

Had our area basketball tournament the other day. Because we had won our C-level league at the last tournament, we were moved up to the B-level. First game we were lucky to pull the other weak team, and beat them. Then proceeded to get murdered in the championship. I got a lot of points, but all after the game had already been decided. (We started the game down 19-0!)

The pictures above are from the tournament after party. It was held at the team captain's house, Ryuuji. He has that keychain, and is unsheathing the sword up top.

These are from the other day. I had gotten off work early and wanted to check out the surf, even though I knew it was only going to be knee high. The second picture is me reacting to the light changing and missing the picture of the landscape I was about to take.

Slid up to Kokura this past weekend to get nots with the boys, and Ash. After talking trash about everything from OIA/BIF/ILH rivalries, if smoothies are gay or not, and my impregnable trump strategy, I got really drunk and passed out.This is the only picture I feel comfortable showing.

Weekend Wrap-Up

I had a pretty excellent weekend. Basically surfed all weekend. On Saturday, went to Karatsu with 中村先生, who I am finding out, is one of the baddest dudes on the Kyushuu surf scene. He always longboards, (if you look at the picture above, you can see him practicing his steps), but he's well known for his short board prowess. We surfed for like 7 hours, then went home, had Keoki come out, and got some drinks.

This is what your hand looks like after you run into a bushcovered wall with your bike after drinking plenty beers.

Went surf again on Monday with 山口, (I had Daikyuu), was alright. Didn't spend so much money, which was good, considering the amount of fun I had.

Let's get this week started.

The Only Way To Turn 25

This weekend was pretty awesome. Here's how it broke down.

Friday Night - Stayed in, but also built my surf rack for my bike. Was so excited when I had finished it that I jumped outside in my pajamas and rode around. I'll get pics up of that later.

Saturday Morning (Birthday) - Surf Karatsu with 山口, 徳永, and 渡辺. It was really good, head high and slow to break with not a lot of people out, and it didn't seem cold at all. The worst part of snow surf though, is changing out of the wetsuit into the cold. You've got about 5 minutes of unbearable cold to deal with. I lost all feeling in my hand for a good 10 minutes it seemed like. Here's some pics and videos.

Dying from the cold.

It was my birthday, so they took me to the famous "からつバーが” (Karatsu Burger). It was aite, a little too expensive. Kinda like a bigger White Castle burger.

Here's us right after we got into the car and turned on the heater (translated):
Ah, that was fun! (It's cold.) I didn't think we would have as good as conditions as we did. ~ Oh yups, look, my eyes are all swollen again! (Why is that?) Why is that huh? ~ (Ahhh, it's cold.)

Here's us, outside of a Seven Eleven after we bought some hot drinks.
(Translated): Me: What's this? (gesturing to snow)
山口: What's this? (makin' me look dumb)...
Me: OK, final word.
山口: Final word? You the best!
渡辺: That was fun!

Saturday Night - Was out in the city running errands, went to my favorite bar to hang out, Bingo Love. Had dinner and couple drinks there, met a couple of cool people, then called Lena up to jam. (Stealin' pics from Facebook for this). Had a great time. Here's some pics.

Wasn't sticking, but it was nice.

Cute little girl that made a snowman.

Made sure to have a couple of these. (Shout out to Drew and Derek on this).

With the ladies at Morris Pub.

Me explaining how good I am at Foosball.

And not backing it up. (I did beat this guy though).

Jammin' with Lauren, who may or not have wanted to jam.

Sunday Morning/Afternoon/Night - Ordered pizza. Ate pizza. Slept.

Excellent.

Christmas (kinda) in Germany: Family, Bratwursts, and Bad Jokes

Arrival

Germany. I had always wanted to come back, to see what it was like as an adult. I had lived there twice before, when my parents were stationed there, when I was 2 and 10. I remembered the people being super nice, the landscape really beautiful, and the food insanely delicious. All three things were confirmed on this trip.

After all the crazy travel nonsense, I finally got settled in. My mom had really made an effort to mix in with the German community since being there, despite the language difference. Because the majority of Americans tend to stay to themselves and are generally indifferent to the population, and also because she's incredibly outgoing, the Germans fell in love with my mom and the family. So, when I finally got to my mom's house, there was a whole party there waiting for me.

Christmas Day was awesome, giving all my presents. Here's my stepdad, Josh, with his Japanese shoes I got him. The family across the way had just gotten Rock Band 2. We were addicted to it. Some pics.

Snowboarding and Cruising

From there, we headed down to Garmisch, a ridiculously beautiful town, for snowboarding and just cruising. Here is where Isabella really got into a groove. She's an only child, so sometimes she just says stuff, without really having a meaning to it. She is also only 5 years old, but she was crackin' me up. Here's one of the exchanges we had at our table in the hotel restaurant:

(Talking about Japanese and English words, what means what)

Isabella: You wanna know what pig is in English?

Me: What?

Isabella: Pig. (3 seconds pass) That's a joke.

(I laugh, she keeps it up, same joke, over and over again. 3 minutes later.)

Isabella: So, what is pig in English?

Me: Overkill.

Isabella: Mom, what's overkill?

Garmisch was a beautiful place though. We hooked up with another family that my parents knew, and walked around the city, checkin' a bunch of stuff out. Here's us walking around and doing stuff. (Isabella needed to be carried everywhere. Note my distaste in the last pic.)

And here's us tearing it up on the mountain. (And me thugging)



Stuttgart

My mom had some errands to run back at home after snowboarding, so she let the rest of us check out downtown Stuttgart, and we got some drinks afterward.

New Year's Eve

Once again, my mom had a billion people over for New Year's Eve. (I feel bad too, cuz they're are only a couple of pictures of her on here...She was taking all the pictures.) Here's some of the craziness that went down.

For some reason, there was a zip line outside of my parent's house. Every time they get drunk and ambitious, they run out and jump on it. We got drunk and ambitious. (From left: Mom, German friend Marian, German friend's daughter Melissa, Me before, and Me, after)

Here's some pics of us after taking schnapps shots. Isabella didn't take one, trust me. (Isabella, funny dude - forgot his name, Stephanie, 俺)

Food/Beer

What better way to end this. Brats,

Even after all the travel nonsense, things still turned out awesome.