Life is like a rainbow. You need both the sun and the rain to make its colours appear
I love the title of this post, it's beautiful.
I'm not gonna go out and shout at the top of my lungs, that I've had a terrible life. I've never been abused, maltreated, misused or neglected. But that isn't what the quote aims at either, it's a balance in between the good and the bad.
I don't have the right balance, far from it, but I'm aiming to get there.
My childhood wasn't easy, I was bullied for many years (picked on and beaten), and when someone finally noticed and I got sent to a different school, people had heard of me, and instead I was just ignored.
My year at boarding school was really good, people didn't know me, and didn't judge me before they knew me.
My parents ended up in a fiery divorce, from which I suffered a great deal, acting a lot as the messenger and taking the blame; and those years, I would rather forget. But this isn't a pity post, I've had amazing experiences in my life.
I spent 5 months backpacking in South America, I've travelled in 37 countries, lived abroad, met the most amazing people, spent a big part of my life scouting and most of all... I've more of that to look forward to, all the travelling I will be doing, all the people I have yet to meet and the experiences ahead of me.
I've recently moved to Ã…rhus, I'm now studying at the Business School og Aarhus, I live in a fantastic dormitory with fantastic people, and I wouldn't have it any other way.
Bush, The Memory
This article:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7783286.stm
Argues that George W. Bush might be remembered well as a president, as he made tough calls that had to be made; similar to the situtation Truman was in; and justifies this statement by saying that at Trumans lowest point, he had a 22% approval rating, far below anything George W. Bush has been made to suffer.
I understand that this article underlines might, but the notion is just ridicoulus, Truman might have had a low approval rating in the states, but those in the know supported him, and unlike Bush he wasn't universally hated.
Truman initiated the Marshall Plan, allowing a rapid regrowth of Western Europe, if that doesn't make a good president, I wouldn't know what does. He greatly helped rebuild Western Germany along with Britain, France and all the other devastated countries.
George W. Bush has done nought in that aspect, he has taken some of the most inhospitable countries in the world (Iraq and Afghanistan), and at least with Iraq turned it into a far worse place. There are more deaths, more suicidebombs, more persecution, more of all the bad stuff, it's like he went to a country that was at rockbottom and drilled even deeper... Well done, indeed. I do support the war in Afghanistan, I believe it's a necessary job, and that long term stability there is necessary, there is a cost, but it's worth a lot.
If we pride ourselves on being the free world, then we cannot turn a blind eye to the oppressed.
I am indeed critical of George W Bush, and this isn't just some hindsight fix, I supported both Al Gore and John Kerry; I believe that George W Bush will be looked back upon with disgrace (except maybe by some Americans), and that we need to move on from here, and hope that Sarah Palin never gets elected.
Time in Ushuaia
New pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/twaize/
This has been one of the days with nothing really to do, tomorrow I'm gonna go up to the local glacier; instead I had time to convert a lot of pictures for flickr, and I thought I might try and reflect on the time I have had so far.
Lonely Planet writes that if you stop the music, the continent will grind to a halt, and oh how true that is. Wherever you go there is music, waiting outside for a bus at too early in the morning, in restaurants, on the street and everywhere else.
Everything follows its own pace, be it buses, tour-boats or the people, nothing goes to plan (time-wise) which is okay, I was expecting it, but I didn't know it would be this bad (especially the buses).
So who goes backpacking? Well I have met no Scandinavians (the Danes at Cabo Polonio, were not backpackers, but on a trip from Buenos Aires to the beach), I have met 2 Germans, 1 Brit, 1 French, 2 Australian , a couple of Americans and a few South Americans and endless heaps of Israeli's. Down here they are everywhere; not being an Israeli is almost a small achievement, some have even spoken Hebrew to me, thinking I was from Israel, since everybody else is. But I do expect that eventually I will bump into more West European people; hopefully some Nordic people even.
The continent (so far) is incredibly beautiful, the nature, seaside, wildlife; everything just seems natural. According to other travelers, I haven't even begun to see the really beautiful sites, something I am really looking forward to, and which should pop unto flickr eventually.
My cooking is becoming more natural now, on a day as today, I am making all 3 meals myself, and so far the variation is good, and the food is passable, occasionally good (I'm not a good chef). One thing that bothers me is that eventually, the variation will stop, as I get used to everything that can be made cheap and easy. As I (so far) am always making food alone, I am not really bothered to make more elaborate dinner, but maybe (and quite possibly) that will change, but time will tell.
When I first arrived, I was rather sceptical as to whether I actually thought this trip was a good idea, but at this stage, I am very happy that I indeed went. I have enjoyed myself very much the entire way (except for Cabo Polonio), and I am very much looking forward to what I have yet to see.
I promise to keep you people at home updated, although I might stop writing as frequently as I have been, although that depends on how occupied I will be in the future.
Forgot
Last time I completely forgot to mention that my 200GB external HDD failed; I can live with loosing the movies on it, but my entire music collection was lost... But with winamp I managed to copy all my music back to my computer, and I have now changed from foobar2000 to winamp, to allow for more syncing and better integration with my iPod, so I won't have to go through this fight with getting all the music back again.
Although foobar2000 is a better music player, it has rubbish iPod support, and IÂ
really really, don't want to go through this again, I didn't get all my music back; I lost my ratings and my playcounts. So goodbye foobar2000, I loved it while it lasted.
Crazy Christmas Cabaret
So on the 13th of November, I went to see Fogg's Off by the London Toast group; every year around christmas they arrange perform a show in Glashuset (The Glass House) in Tivoli Gardens, and since it's every christmas, and since it is very crazy; it is known as the Crazy Christmas Cabaret. Every year from 1998 up to 2001 I saw it with my good friend Christian, and the year after that (2002) with my family, as Christian had moved far away.
The show is in English, except for Dr Van Helsingør from Elsinore; who speaks a mixture of danish and english, which causes a lot of confusions as he directly translates the danish into english, giving sentences that make no sense, or mean something completely different, which is always extremely hilarious.
Despite the show being very good, it was also very nice to see Christian again,
it had been way too long since we had last seen each other.
But other then that there isn't much to report, just school and work :S
This time around, the song is my all-time favourite song.
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