ahoj from the outside!

Hello trusty blog followers! I am so sorry I've left you hanging for far too long! I know I shouldn't, but I totally blame my mom and Mickey for coming to visit and distracting me beyond belief! ; ) (I have 3 seperate unpublished blog posts and they are so scattery anyways I can"t even begin to fix them up for reading right now)

I will give you a little update on my living situation at the moment, some random photos to hold you over, and maybe a few other random odds n ends:

At the moment I am living with Lindsey2, an amazing girl we met in Arequipa, Peru, forever ago. (You should all note that this makes ME Lindsey1 which I still gloat about, a little : ) She was one of the travellers we got stuck with in the HomeSweetHome hostel while the Puno, Bolivia border was closed; leaving too many travellers without plans in a cheap hostel with the most amazing rooftop patio and pancakes for breakfast EVERYDAY. (I may have mentioned her in the Macchu Piccu post) So, she came back to Prague, where she has set up shop as an odd jobber in the field of language studies / horticulture / gardening / eco-friendly living, just in time for us to come stay with her in her 'garden'. Her and a few friends rent this cottage for $600 per YEAR...just wait...

It is a 15' x 15' (roughly) cottage with a woodfire stove and a sink 'nook'. There is an upstairs loft with enough room for two beds and floorspace for two overloaded travellers packs : ) The main living area is in the yard, which has apple, pear, and peach trees, a huge pine tree which holds up the curtain behind which we 'shower' with the hose, and a firepit. The ridiculously low rent also includes two plots of land which they have strawberries, peppers, tomatoes, zucchini, pumpkins, and peas, among others, growing. So, Natalia and I have been dubbed the first WWOOFers and have been taking care of shit! I've taken the strawberry patch as my personal project and tomorrow is hanging the hammock, wood chopping, and super garden cleaning day. By the way, did I mention Lindsey2 sleeps outside? She's a gem : )

If you are part of the Putnam/Cerny family you know what I mean when I say it is a perfect Czech blend of Woodsmoke and Sylvia's house : ) I will be trying to obtain something like this in the states when I return!

Some photos of the garden to come, but for now I have some of my favorite random stop...BAMberg!

I went here upon the request of my beer-brewing cousin Andy from Colorado. I believe it was a simple facebook message, "Go to bamberg, try the smoked beer and let me know." that made the decision for me. The smoked beer was fabulous, Rauschbier. Although wikipedia says that Bamberg is in Bavaria, I learned while I was there, that it is in fact part of Franconia and that is a BIG difference to the locals. Either way, Bavaria, Franconia, I loved it : ) 

The view from the best beergarden that a new friend Christian took me to. Behind me are a ton of picnic tables where you can bring your own dinner. Think Millenium Park spreads, but dinner style, at a beergarden. It was fab.

This is how much I love Bamberg : )

Ok, hm, tidbits. I've been reading 'Bech: A Book', by John Updike. I got it at a used bookshop forever ago. I knew Updike was a well known writer but hadn't read anything yet and this book was only $2. I have a history of reading all the crap that writers aren't known for so I'm not really sure where this one falls. I like it though, lots of great description...although it's pretty scattery. : ) Anyways here's something I found in there today:

Bech is giving a lecture and a girl asks if there is any place left in modern poetry for rhyme.

"It seems to me rhyme is one of the ways we make things hard for ourselves, make a game out of nothing, so we can win or lose and lighten the what?, the indeterminancy of life. Paul Valery, somewhere, discusses this, the first line that comes as a gift from the gods and costs nothing, and then the second line that we make ourselves, word by word, straining all our resources, so that it harmonizes with the supernatural first, so that it rhymes."

That's the idea that got me going, but here's the rest of the paragraph if you want it : )

 "He thought, as I remember, that our lives and thoughts and language are all a 'familiar chaos' and that the arbitrary tyranny of a strict prosody goads us to feats of, as it were, rebellion that we couldn't otherwise perform. To this I would only add, and somewhat in contradiction, that rhyme is very ancient, that it marks rhythym, and that much in our natural lives is characterized by rhythym."

And, that's that for now! **I also have a minor note to make here for any of those that might care; I cancelled my website http://www.lindseynewman.com/ until I can actually start updating it again so get it while you can until October 7!!! (There are no new changes or anything and in fact, it's pretty out of date so don't feel like you have to :)

Ok, happy September to you all (my very favorite month!) I hope you enjoy the lovely transition into fall and eat some blackberries! (More reading: Eating blackberries in late September, Galway Kinnell : ) Dobry vecher!