The Town That I Live In

As promised here are a few pics of where I'm living. The first one is my current apartment building:

It's been a while...

It's been almost a year now since I left for Germany. That's pretty unbelievable to me. I think growing older makes you realize how fast time goes by. However, a lot has happened in the span of 11 months. I turned 21. I traveled all over Europe. I was in a musical. I finished another semester. I traveled to New York. I secured an internship. I moved to LA.

I think the last accomplishment is the most significant for my life right now, and it almost didn't happen. It wasn't until the very end of the semester that I interviewed for my internship with Interscope Records so I sort of had to scramble to find a place to live and a paying job. The apartment was remarkably easy. The job on the other hand took a little more time but I'm glad to say that everything has finally fallen into place.

Honestly, I don't think I could have spent the summer at home anyway. I think my mom knew this too. She sort of...uh hem...advised me to leave as nicely as she could without kicking me out. There was a job waiting here for me to do and I needed to do it. I really feel like this is more my home now. One of the things I loved the most about growing up in Sacramento was that it was always growing too. Now, however, I feel a little more disconnected from it; there's always something new, something different that I'm not familiar with. Los Angeles in all of its vastness is now a lot more familiar to me. This makes me laugh because a year ago I was so ready to get out but I guess what I was looking for was here the entire time.

Summer thus far has been a lot of fun. I moved into my apartment at the beginning of June. I'll post pictures of it soon. I live in Playa Vista which is a 'luxury community' conveniently located right below campus. I describe it as "Pleasantville" to people. The apartment complexes and houses in the area are all newly and perfectly built lived in by their perfect residents with their perfect cars and perfect lives. My car, needless to say, sticks out like a sore thumb. I love the area though. It's so conveniently located and I feel completely safe if I wanted to say take a jog at 2am...oh yeah...and the grocery store and local restaurant both deliver. With my lack of job during most of June I found myself in my apartment building's gym a lot. This was duly needed. I don't think you realize how out of shape you are until you start getting back into shape. While I'm not quite in the shape I was during my cross country days in high school, I hope to be by the end of summer.

Summer is a good time to hang out with friends without the stress of classes and other social engagements. Luckily I've had a lot of time to be with the people that I love. It's interesting though; most of the people I see on a regular basis now are the people that I studied abroad with. I've noticed this several times throughout the summer. In June one of my study abroad friends who's a year older was moving back home because she was unable to find work out here. Her parting wish? A Thanksgiving dinner. So a few of us got together and made a Thanksgiving dinner, in June. I contributed with mashed potatoes which are pretty much the only thing I eat during Thanksgiving anyway. That's another thing- I've been cooking a great deal for myself lately; it really surprises me. The other day I made macaroni and cheese from scratch...just because. I'm glad summer leaves time open for these kind of things.

Gabby, my best friend is also down here which has been a lot of fun. Although she lives in Westwood by UCLA which is like 15 minutes (like 150 in traffic) away, we see each other often. I'm so thankful to have the people I love close by because the most difficult thing about living here has been living without my family. I felt this the most on the 4th of July. It was the first time I spent the holiday without my family and it was very different. Had I been at home, I certainly wouldn't have spent the day at the beach making fun of drunk people in their poorly chosen Independence Day get-ups. Needless to say it was a lot of fun. The beach was packed and lively. We sat on the beach and watched the fireworks over the water. If I'm here next year, I hope to do the same thing. As far as Interscope goes, I'm having a lot of fun. I wish I was doing more hands on stuff but it's been a good learning process nonetheless. In a nutshell, I wake up every day and reflect on how lucky I am to be alive and living in this great city! So far summer has been that of beaching, partying, working, learning, shopping, pool parties, laughing, dancing, but most of all another step on this journey of discovery that I believe we all are on. More to come!

- Tim

Stay Tuned....

...I'm going to start updating this thing again chronicling my life in LA.

Here Comes Trouble

I'm pretty amazed at how many times my best friend Gabby and I have been able to see each other over our semester abroad in the Netherlands for her and Germany for me. I believe we managed to see each other 4 times which is more than we see each other in the States during a typical semester. She arrived in Germany the day after our Thanksgiving meal. It was weird showing someone "my" city. I've toured many cities on this trip following someone else but this time it was my turn. Good thing Bonn's not terribly big. It made me think about how much of a "local" I've become. She came at the perfect time because Bonn had set up it's own Christmas market as well as multitudes of Christmas markets throughout the area. I really enjoyed her visit because it was fun to introduce her to the new friends I have made while on this adventure. We basically did the same thing both days she visited. I took her to my favorite restaurant: Vapiano, my favorite nightspot: Schwarzlicht, and we slept in way too long; a typical weekend in the life of Tim DeRodeff. It was a really good stress reliever before the weeks to come: finals.

Thanksgiving: California Dreamin'

Thanksgiving is the quintessential American holiday. Throughout the country families come together and proclaim to each other what they are thankful for. Turkey with stuffing and mashed potatoes with gravy are devoured and traditionally many families spend the evening watching the big game on TV. This holiday does not exist in Germany.

I've never been away from home during Thanksgiving so I didn't know how I'd feel being in Germany. I had class the morning of Thanksgiving, and then at 4:30 I had a meeting with the UN for my internship. During the afternoon I took the time to run a few errands. It was really different being able to go into any store I wanted and shop on Thanksgiving day. At home only a few stores are open and not for that many hours.

I never really felt homesick here until Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is a time to spend with family, and I really truly missed mine. Our meeting with the UN didn't go quite as planned which only added to the frustration but at 6:00pm our Academy prepared a Thanksgiving potluck for us that we all attended. Any homesick feelings I had were erased eating dinner with all of the people I have become close with during this experience. There was everything from turkey to deviled eggs to guacamole which wasn't that weird to me because Nonna always makes it even if it is Thanksgiving.

After dinner a few of us went to a bar in Bonn called Flowers. It's the hippie bar in the area. It was a lot of fun because they were playing a lot of old hits that we were all singing along too. I made the bartender/DJ play ABBA and the crowd really approved. I could relate to every lyric of California Dreamin' so I had to sing my little heart out. It's funny but being in this bar brought me closer to America than I thought I would be on Thanksgiving.

When London Calls, You Must Answer

I knew I had to take the opportunity to visit London while I was here. LMU has a study abroad program in London so I knew that I wouldn't have to find anywhere to stay for the weekend; all I needed to do was book a ticket over there. I'm going to use this entry to talk about traveling/public transportation in Europe. Don't get me wrong, all of Europe is light years ahead of us in terms of public transportation systems. The problem is, is that you have to allot so much more time in your travels. At home, you just take someone in the airport and drop them off. It's easy. It's direct. To get to the Cologne-Bonn airport, I first had to take the metro to the bus that would take me to the airport. However for some reason or other the bus that I was going to take came and left 5 minutes early so I had to wait another half of an hour for the next one. I left about 4 hours before my flight but barely made the original time it was going to fly out. Luckily the flight was delayed because of the weather. Once I got into London-Stansted I had to take a bus into the city center. This took another hour and a half until I could meet up with my friend and then take another metro, sorry "the tube," to the station where her flat is. Estimated Travel Time: 6 hours. The good thing was the time difference in London which gave me back a temporary hour of my life.

It's always worth it though. Driving into London at night was gorgeous. I couldn't wait to explore during the day. I met up with Holly at Victoria Station and we took the metro to her flat at South Kensington. It was only about 10:30pm which gave us enough time to get ready to go out. So I dropped my stuff off and got ready to go out on the town. The bar Holly wanted to go to didn't look that fun to her so we went to another bar up the street. I figured out that this would be an expensive weekend after I paid the entry: 10 pounds. It was a lot of fun though. I thought it funny how different the Londoners were from the Germans. In speech obviously, but in personality and attitude as well. Being in London reminded me of being in New York. The people there are classy, and they know it.

In every country I go, I try my best to attempt the respective language of the country I'm in. In Germany it's obviously German, in Paris it was the little bit of French I know to get me by, in Switzerland it was pretty much any language I wanted, i didn't even try in Prague, but in London it was English!!! It was funny though because I was still apprehensive when I'd order for fear that the clerk might not be able to understand me if I spoke English. My mind was still in Germany. It was refreshing though to understand people without having to actively listen to them. Actually, that's not true- sometimes people had too thick of an English accent for me to understand. Anyway, clubs in London close a lot sooner than they do in Germany so we made it home around 3am.

The next day was for sightseeing. We walked all over town and saw all of the major sights: Big Ben, Parliament, the London Bridge, the Eye etc. Then Holly took me to all of the big stores on Oxford Street. It was Saturday so everyone and their mum was out spending their hard earned pounds. The first store Holly wanted to show me was Harrod's, a department store akin to Neiman Marcus, but way more intense. We stayed on the bottom floor but even that was enough to get an idea of this place. Each room had a theme. A Perfume Room, a Luxury Goods Room, an Egyptian Room? Then we went into the food rooms. There was a room simply devoted to poultry, one fruits and vegetables, another coffees and teas. My favorite was the candy room obviously. I told Holly to escort me out as quickly as possible because it probably wasn't a good idea for me to stay in there. We walked into a different room and they were having some sort of James Bond-themed fashion show. There was no defined runway, so the models would just sort of designate a path to enter their "stage" on and people just made a path for them. It was really ridiculous and equally as funny. After Harrod's we went to "Top Shop" a clothing store I had wanted to go to for a while. It was humongous and I would have bought some stuff had there not been so many people in it; I got a little overwhelmed.

That night we went out again. It was a lot of fun but again, clubs in London close way too early for me. The next day we sort of lazed about around the house. Coincidentally a friend of mine from high school was living in the flat above Holly's so I got the chance to see her for the first time since high school and talked to her for about a half of an hour. It never ceases to surprise me how small the world is sometimes. We walked around a little bit closer to the flat and I was surprised to find that stores were actually open on Sundays. Germany is 50% Protestant, the other 50% being Catholic, so virtually nothing is open on Sundays save for restaurants; Germans love eating. I also was suprised to find very American stores in London. Urban Outfitters, Abercrombie & Fitch, TJ Maxx (although in London it's TK Maxx). I even saw a Costco as I was making my way to the London-Stansted Airport. I could live in London but I think I'm getting such a different and possibly more challenging cultural experience living in Deutschland.

The next morning we went to see Buckhingham Palace and a few other touristy things before Holly had class, it was a Monday after all. So I spent the afternoon on the computer and packing before I had to make my way to the airport for my 7:30pm flight. Again I almost missed it because it took me almost 2 hours to get to the airport on the bus but I made it and fortunately got to sit by one of my friends who was also flying back from London.

I know I want to live and work in Europe somewhere for awhile. London would clearly be the easiest option because everyone speaks English. There is also so much to do in the city, and with such ease. The museums are free, there are countless numbers of plays in the West End, and most importantly there are a lot of places to shop. I had a really good time in London and although I only spent 3 days there, it was enough to make me want to return.

All of my pictures are available to view at Picasa.

11-12-08

It's such a nice day out today which makes me hate the people walking around and enjoying the sun outside while I'm stuck in here in Elementary German II learning about the different verb cases. It's not as though I can feign listening to the lesson. There are only 2 other people in the class so it's difficult to find someone to hide behind. I'd rather be walking around Bonn. Even though it's still November, it's starting to feel like Christmas (a Californian one at least). The air is quite nippy (colder than California actually) and many streets have already started to set up Christmas lights. The leaves have already changed colors, many of which have already fallen to the ground. My hair's getting long but I'm afraid that if I cut it, I might freeze to death. I have grown to love the familiarity of Bonn. I love traveling but I love staying here more. As I sit here taking notes about how to go from Nominativ to Akusativ cases I think about how dramatically different my life is from just a year ago. Different friends, different experiences, completely different location. It makes me think about how quickly life changes. Sometimes quickly out of nowhere, other times with a little more foresight. I once pushed a friend in the ocean to illustrate this concept. This experience however, has definitely pushed me into the figurative ocean of life. I'm thankful for this. It'll be difficult to go back. But that's life.