10 days, no updates. i was busy. stupid excuse. another try: who cares anyway? kidding. the 'busy' excuse is the correct one. i have been working almost every day and when i wasn't working i had guests and/or partied too hard to stare at this monitor. in any case, except for today the weather here has been so grand that sitting inside would have been an incredible 'no-no'. instead, i did some more mountainbiking, uphill and downhill (eddy, you'd love the terrain! come on over), played basketball, chilled with paula and had ice cold apfelwein (a sort of cider, but only sort of) in the local beergarden. guess that's what summer is all about. oh, and my roommate oeli got me into some late-night rowing. this shot was taken during a '24 hour sport event for animal protection'. don't ask. it was fun in any case (obviously ;-).

am at work. bright sunshine outside. great. it's incredibly hot in here and i sweat just sitting here at my computer. what a perfect day for work inside ;-) oeli just sent me a mail to cool me down and remind me of what i'll be doing later when i get back to our apartment. check it out. also notice the hackysack in my left hand, which led to me sticking my head in the icebox. too bad the cold only chills your brains for about two minutes.

finally, a new update. and i even saw episode 2 and didn't puke at all. i wasn't that bad, but also not really good. yoda was cool as hell though ;-) coolest jedi ever! the us soccer team is in the quarter finals of the world championship this friday! they're playing against germany; some of my closest friends want to see the game with me so they can beat me to a bloody pulp on the spot should the us team win. great. go usa! ;-) please, candians, i'm just cheering for the underdogs. it ain't patriotism, that much is for sure.

i've been back in a job for almost three weeks now and the cash is (slowly) flowing back in. still, it'll take a while to fill the crater in my bank account. all for a good reason. blood money, as mr. eddy boxerman would put it. studying is more or less put on hold for now, but i'll get back to that soon. soon enough at least. some other career options have been mentioned to me as well, but it's all still in constant flux. more on that topic once it solidifies. my private life has also been in a nice state of constant change. i won't even start to rave over that right now. maybe someday when i fully comprehend. when will that be? who knows. live and learn. it's all good. everything in its right place.

now, to the last batch of canada pictures. took me long enough. it's extremely hot in my apartment right now (beyond 30 degrees celsius), so i generally prefer the beergardens in the evenings. first off, a last view of the rosegarden in the north of UBC campus. here i spent lots of time last summer, reading and contemplating. i remember listening to some old pixies songs and reading tom robbin's 'jitterbug perfume' last september. i also recall being at total peace with myself and my surroundings. the ideal state.

as some might recall, i left UBC campus on april 26th and moved to eric's place temporarily before moving to the kommune der dreiunzwanzigsten strasse near dunbar on the 29th. there i slept in a completely empty house for two nights in a row. my bike (yeah, the one i had stolen later) was still on campus at the time, so i walked up from 10th every evening. time to think and recap on the fantastic time i had during my stay in sleepy vancouver. but that wasn't the end, yet. some more fun parties were underway. like the housewarming ;-) people climbing in trees and moving the party to the weirdest places. fun! here some more impressions from in and around the house. what a good vibe that house has! i hope the spirit is still there. i bet it is, right guys?

contrary to the forecast, i still completly lucked out with the weather on my last days in town. so frank and i decided to hit downtown for my last time and get another look of stanley park and robson street. musicians, pedestrians, slackers, nuts, homeless, and all kinds of other people around. colourful, to say the least. springtime here rivals everything i am accustomed to. extreme seasons = extreme emotional outbreak. cool. the third shot below is taken where it all started. the seabus station. where i arrived on august 16th 2001. clueless as to what was coming to me. needless to say, it couldn't have been much better. i recall a sunset on red mountain somewhere mid february. eddy and me. i stop, he waits. looks at me and asks: "what's up man?". i reply:"it doesn't get much better than this."

now that i finally got a hang of the panorama function on hendriks camera, i made excessive use of it. the day i took a hike around stanley park i missed having the camera with me. all the others had taken a car to squamish to climb. i was hung over, great. so here two of the 'better' panoramas of stanley park. given that my only guests from germany never really got to see it in this state (thanks rain) they might appreciate seeing these views after all. i love them.

on the last day, eddy and i met with the rest of the gang for dinner at the 'nevermind', but first we took the bikes out along the coastline, took a break on granville island, chilled out at jericho beach and played some more hackysack. most of the day was spent exchanging philosphies on life and what truly makes one happy. after all that happened to me these past three years i can easily say, that following the heart, taking risks and having truckloads of faith has more than payed off. sure, not all has turned out the way i'd have liked it to, but i do not regret anything. i know more about myself and how i want to be and live than ever before and it feels good. now it's time to take a break, then kickstart the next chapter. patience i will practice for now, but the time for more exploration will surely come. soon. thanks for being such good friends. i miss our talks over sushi and beer.

and more cool panoramas. i insisted eddy should be on all skyline panoramas. i think it turned out utterly cool! ed, i still have (much) larger versions of all these pictures, so if you need them let me know. actually, hendrik should have them on his laptop, right? check it out.

the weirdest thing, and i had no clue: when i got back home over a month ago, the entire nine months felt like they'd fit on the tip of a needle. then, slowly, the entire time expanded in my memory and all the little details came to my mind. the first jam session with paula and leslie and how charmed i felt afterward. the many breakfasts at the beanery with hendrik, us trying to study but both much more interested in life's trivialities. frank and me not missing one mellow monday all term long, thanks to a silly beer-bet we had (it worked though!). after all we talked about he must think i'm a lunatic ;-) eric and me on the men-only shopping spree, me humiliating myself with way-too-small second hand leather jackets. the countless, fun and thrilling adventures with kamikaze-eddy. you infected me with the snow-virus man! it's blood money from here on ;-) lets see what i find in the alps this coming season. all the jam sessions we had, the koerners sessions, your birthday, the stress before christmas. vast memories. when magmified, they all seem dreamlike. good dreams. the kind that stay for a lifetime.

i know i'm missing out on much of the more recent happenings, but i'll get to them as well. sometime. oeli (my long time roommate and friend) has been taking lots of pictures from the festivities and i'll post them sooner or later. like the picture of me cooling my head in the icebox in our kitchen. it's $*#@! hot up here! one last thing for today: thanks my friends in canada for that cooooool movie! i think everyone should own a copy of slacker. and just to make sure everyone knows what it looks like, here's a box shot.

time to chill out. good night to you all. and sweet dreams.

i have successfully avoided star wars episode 2: attack of the clones! yes! well, at least up till now. guess i'll have to go see it today or tomorrow. what a pity ;-) lazy-ass (thats me) still hasn't prepared the final batch of pictures from canada, but at least i managed to unpack my suitcases and locate the cd. not that my room looks like much yet, but at least the luggage is out of the way. i start working next week, and the way it looks it'll (only) be three days per week, which should leave me with more than enough time to create home sweet home again. so i hereby promise to get those remaining shots up on this site by the end of the week. and furthermore, i'll get my roommate's (oeli's) digital camera off him soon and take some shots of my current endeavors. hackysack anyone? ;-)

where i gave kudos to the friends in canada in the last update (which still stands and always will), let me note that all my dearest friends here in the homelands have been simply great! yes, i still miss a lot of vancouver, the leisure way of life and all that comes with it (the mountains!), and i am sure that being at peace with my return will still take a while. but i already feel comfortable again and have the necessary foundation to deal with all thoughts and feelings, and that's more than i can ask for. i conclude: good friends back home go very well with traveling!

1pm, time for some breakfast ;-) not to worry, this lifestyle will soon come to an end. in about a year ;-) or sooner? who knows. i sure don't, and that's just the way i like it. alive and kicking. cheers.

i'm back home! slowly getting over the jetlag (yeah, right. it's 'only' 3am) and i've been out and about every day lately, which naturally doesn't come as a surprise. i had lots of catching up to do, and so many things have already happened. no break in sight, yet. life here is catching up fast and i'm trying my best to keep up the spirit i developed in vancouver, to keep the essence within me for now and times to come.

i will try to post a larger update here soon. still have some more pictures from the last few days in sunny vancouver. they're on a cd, buried in my suitcase as i was too lazy/busy these past days to get anything organized. but worklife doesn't start till june, so i can still slack for a few more days. good.

i'll try to get some well deserved sleep now, but let me just address all the very special people i have met and befriended in vancouver: THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH! it was a blast and for nothing in the world would i trade the time i had with you all. life will never be the same after this experience and you all have been a part of it. hope to see some of you in the future. i really do. rock on.

and now i'll go to sleep with 'boards of canada' in my ears. cheers.

something tells me i should be packing my bags, but i don't at all feel like it. i left campus on friday after giving my good-bye's to some people at the faculty. the term and the exam period is over now, so it looks much like it did when i first arrived in august: very empty. we dropped by koerners pub for a few pitchers, but it just didn't feel right. most of the people i've been there with have graduated and are traveling or the likes. time for me to leave as well.

saturday. frank and i chilled out downtown and in stanley park, blazing sunshine and a clear blue sky. i took loads of pictures and panorama's, but they'll (probably) have to wait till i get back to germany. simply don't have any more spare time to waste on that now. but what a beautiful view. yacht club, the park, rosegarden, the ocean and the snowy peaks in the background. if the weather was like this all year round, i'd be back as soon as possible. that evening, amy and pratchi had one of their bi-annual houseparties (i crashed there mid december at the last one). this time even rivaled the last one. lets just say that most of the guests were way out there ;-) at one point i remember us all leaning against the wall, trying to maintain balance while laughing our guts out. what a night. eddy and i walked home at five in the morning. the house was still alive with the rest of the crowd, who had decided to leave the party earlier. we all stayed up till dawn, watching funny stuff on video. perfect. my stomache still hurts from all the laughing.

sunday. braindead. but: sunshine! we biked down to jericho beach and chilled out in the sun. again, what a view. 30 degrees, sand all around and snowy peaks way out back. perhaps i should go boarding once more. hmmm, no time left, bummer. one more delicious sushi dinner later, we passed out watching some tarantino flicks in the living room.

monday. rain. damn. frank and i were planning on biking around stanley park. will have to wait till the next time i'm here, i guess. we're dated with a prof. from darmstadt at 5pm for food and drinks, after that my final canadian party awaits, the housewarming of 'die kommune der dreiundzwanzigsten strasse'. the party was initially planned for tuesday, as i could be 'shoved off' from the party in a cab, but i'm happy it was moved to today. gives me one day to cure the battle wounds, and possibly pack my stuff. which i should start right now. yeah, right. i much more prefer to wait till the last minute, and that's just the way i'll do it this time again. i remember packing my stuff back in august and that i did the rest about three hours before my flight left. it worked just fine. does it seem like a long time ago? yes and no. and just for the books (and for anyone in or around darmstadt with time on thursday), my flight is american airlines, flight nr. 70, arriving from dallas (texas) at 7.20am on thursday, may 16th. as it stands, nadja and markus will be picking me up in the morning after which we'll probably go out for some breakfast. i'm guessing i'll get some sleep after that, but will try my best to revive my body in the evening to hit the town with whoever feels like welcoming me back home.

the overwhelming feeling i harvest right now is looking forward to all the folks back home! saying goodbye here will suck, but looking forward to a fun filled summer makes it much easier. and a fun filled summer it will be, that is if i can help it ;-) i will try for another short update tomorrow, but if not, to all you back home: see you soon! and to my canadian friends: i'll be back, and: thank you!

time for some change. it's all good.

mea culpa: stef, sorry for providing you with the wrong phone number (the number on the 'contact' page is the right one). duh. i have corrected it below and the phone at our place is (001) 604-267-0730. but we'll have lots of time to speak in person very soon! later.

and another set of sweet panoramas. cool cloud formations and shadows on the hills. sadly, these shots are all taken on whistler mountain, as blackcomb had already closed for the season. bummer. i much more prefer blackcomb, not as many cat-tracks (= ziehwege), a snowboarders nightmare. the weather and some very cool groomed runs made up for that though (god, i'm so spoiled! how dare i complain about a free day on whistler mountain ;-).

one more worthy goodbye to a big part of my vancouver lifestyle. quite interesting last run too: slush, slush, slush, and the necessity to unstrap the board to walk to the gondola, no more snow left down there. the winter is over man, but i'll be back! time to let sun rule, and so we did:

last ride home along the scenic (so-called) sunshine coast (yes, sometimes the sun does actually shine here ;-) we were all so tired, especially eddy and me (from the previous biking). but he was driving and i stayed awake as well. to ensure we wouldn't collapse we played an old sepultura cd. i can't believe i ever listened to that kind of music on a regular basis. mean shit. we took some nasty shots, which are not for kids under 18 and definitely not for the eyes of future employers, and therefore censored. here the non-censored shots, taken on our ride home from the whistler bye-bye.

when we got home i was told that my bike had been stolen from the back yard. oh well, wasn't worth much anymore anyway, and i do not have the time to worry about it. just sucks a bit that people just come into your back yard and take what is not chained down. for me it's simply one less task to do while i'm here, no more bike sale to worry about. anyway, we cooked that evening and once again chilled out with beers, martinis and good food. i woke up on the couch sometime at 2am, draped in covers which i then layed over eric, who had also decided for the living room (dave and verena were sleeping in his bed. everything is still a bit improvised). currently everybody is out of the house and either working or skiing (dave and verena went up to whistler for two days as they missed out on yesterday). i'm giving myself one more night of rest before the last weekend of music and parties starts up. 300 dollars left to blow. guess what most of it will be spent on ;-) yes, food and literature, what were you thinking, hm?

T minus seven. one more week. it's all good and i guess it's time to leave soon, my mind is set to it and i feel calm and at the same time anxious. no worries though. everything in it's right place. bye.

new stuff. am working on hendrik's laptop, which gives me the chance to scour through his old and new images and post some on this site. let's start off with the gorgeous springtime in vancouver! also, a shot of me in december during project phase, sleep withdrawal and bad nutrition. i hope i'll never work such insane hours again in this life.

i like springtime. the air has the distinct scent of summertime arriving soon. anyway, on to some pictures of the renovation job at the new house. eric gave me some nice poses during his work in the kitchen, while at the same time, eddy, mona and henrik were working up a nice buzz in the dining room right next door. renovation was fun, but i still prefer the 'activity' in the fourth picture below ;-)

as mentioned earlier, the combination of hanging out in the daytime and going out at night is exactly what i need. feels like vacation. well, i guess that's because it is vacation. duh. the weekend i spent in stanley park, eddy and hendrik went to squamish for some climbing. i wasn't part of this day, nevertheless, the pictures are too good to not be posted here. by the looks of it, i'll be there latest next weekend.

after that stunt we all chilled out all saturday to regain energy for some more clubbing, starting for dinner a subeez (the place i tried to find with nadja, anja and josti but failed. too bad, it's great!). well fed and gunned up with various martini's we headed out to the luvaffair, an indie-trance dance-bar. one more drink and we danced all the way through till closing time, only taking breaks for tequila shooters. i slept till 2pm today and still can't hear very well, but it was once again well worth it ;-) today is time-out. we're going to see the new spiderman movie later and then i'll get a good night of non-intoxicated sleep.

more to come when there's time and i have more to write. T minus 10. gotta run. cheers.