Deutschland

Hallo Blogspot!

Well, I felt I should make a new post to hopefully make the last one make a little bit more sense, because rereading it, I know it was a little bit rushed.

Hi, I'm in Germany!

I will be in and around Europe for the next two months, and for the next two weeks I'll be staying with my friend Katrin and her family. Kat and I go way back (high school in fact when she was an exchange student to my school) but though she has visited me several times, I've never gone to visit her.

I love her family, by the way!

I write from Lübeck, where she goes to university, although she lives in Hamburg. I have been meeting all the friends that she has told me about for five years and getting to see her country and home. I still remember showing her around my little hometown so many years ago!
Now, she, her family, and her friends have been putting together a big schedule for me of all the places I need to go and things I need to see. I will keep you posted on what we are up to...

And will I'm here, I have been fiercely working to learn German. Thankfully, they are also all helping me, teaching me words for things, speaking it around me, asking me questions, everything. It won't be as easy to learn as Italian because I won't be here as long, but they have been good to me.

More to come as more happens. For now, tschüs!

Ich bin Jonathon, und das ist mein Leben

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From Spring Break to Summer Vacation

Dear Everyone!

Sorry for the prolonged absence from my dear blog. It was based entirely on a regrettable busyness since my last post. I'll give you all a quick run-through of what's been up.

I left you all during Spring Break, right before my art tour of New York and Brooklyn (in and out of galleries, street tours, poetry slams, and more) and my first experience of geocaching. However, I left the Big Apple and went to Connecticut to visit my Aunt Rachel and Uncle Dan. They live in Windsor, but I also had time to explore Hartford, and then later Uncle Dan and I made a day of it in Boston while I was there.

My Uncle and me outside of the Capitol Building in Boston

When I got back to school, the next major event was the next play that the engineering theater group put on. I'm now the president/director of College of Engineering does Amateur Radical Theater (COE does ART (CDA)) so it was my first directing job ever. I did auditions, ran all the practices, orchestrated props, and had a great cast who helped 100% with everything. Luckily, it was a fairly simple and fun production, so aside from the HUGE amount of lines to learn, Completely Hollywood! Abridged was a great play for a maiden voyage in directing. Grace, Sarah, and Anjana (the ONLY three actresses in the whole show) were simply brilliant.

I also got a really REALLY bad ear infection during that time. I was literally incapacitated for almost a whole week. I couldn't sleep because of the pain, I couldn't open my jaw because of the pain, I couldn't think because of the pain, the works. I must have been really pathetic because my friends were bringing me food and putting me to bed constantly. The best part was that this was right in the middle of performances AND a big essay (which I later turned in and got an A on, by the way)!

Lastly were finals, which seem to have gone alright. I don't have the desired all A's (sadness) but I did well I suppose. My GPA is sitting at 3.247. I can't exactly say I'm doing well in school, but I'm doing alright. Freshman year of college complete.

One of the last little adventures before I was quite able to move out was named Tucker.
For those of you who didn't know, I managed to pick up another family member during my last week at UA.   Long story short, some ROTC guys on campus got baby ducklings that they couldn't keep and gave one to me. It was all Grace's idea. We kept him hidden in the dorm for a week as he got bigger and ate more and more. Every chance we could get, we smuggled him outside to the quad where he would follow behind me and be the coo and cuddle of every passerby. All things considered, he was pretty darn adorable. I don't know if belated imprinting works, but if it does, I was his mommy. He slept with me, followed me, and was most satisfied in my arms tucked deep into my coat.
Unfortunately, I don't have Tucker anymore, but he was a good friend while we did. Everyone loved him.

Tucker asleep on my arm

Aside from that, I'm back in the airport again and will be traveling in Europe this summer, I have accepted a research opportunity in the astronomy department on campus, had a really great time with the company at the going away masquerade ball, said good bye to all my college friends for the summer, and I am learning to play the violin.

Anyway, sorry for the very rapid run-through, but it was the only way to get everything caught up. If you care to hear the full story of any of the little things mentioned (which no one probably does) comment about it below (which no one probably will). All of them are great stories. But I guess that's just the nature of a story.

I'm Jonathon and this is my life.

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