An update from Europe:

So we arrived Tuesday morning an hour late and my uncle Andre came and met us at Koeln airport. We drove back to his house, going through three countries (Germany, Netherlands, Belgium...he lives in Belgium, about 70 m from the Dutch border). We ate some tasty sandwiches and went for a walk along a canal for the Maas river (from which Maastricht gets its name). There was a very pretty area that was enclosed with barbed wire that we could have gone in but didn't, and as we walked along the path we saw...cows! Right in the middle of the town, that enclosed area was for about a dozen bovine to graze. Anyway, my aunt Jose (Yosay) dropped us off in Maastricht around 1 PM, and we walked around and saw a few old cathedrals (there are 3 cathedrals and a number of old churches in Maastricht). We tried French fries with mayonnaise, which are actually very good, but it's only because their mayonnaise is different from ours. Anyhow, Rick picked us up at the Maastricht trainstation at about 5:30 PM, and we went back to his place. Because we were all tired, we decided to stay in, play cards, watch soccer (go France!), and sleep.

So yesterday morning we all got up between 6 and 7:30 and after some debate, we walked to Heerlen's only attraction: the Thermen museum, or a Bath Museum. In the 1940s, construction workers discovered the remains of a full Roman bathouse, and a couple decades later they decided to build a museum on top of it. Heerlen was an important Roman city called Corriovallum and it was found at the intersection of two major roads. The museum housed a number of interesting Roman artifacts including the entire bathouse and a sarcophagus.

After that, we went to the Heerlen trainstation and caught a train to Maastricht. We walked along the Maas river and the weather was gorgeous and we went to an art museum called something like Bonnefant. It's a very famous museum, and the building itself is one of the most interesting parts. The museum was a lot of fun and we saw a lot of neat stuff, from ancient art to modern. We caught a train back to Heerlen at 3:08 and we proceeded to get lost looking for Rick's apartment. Eventually, we borrowed a cell phone and he came and picked us up.

That night we went to Aachen, Germany for some dinner, drink, and sight seeing. We (including Rick) ate a nice German restaurant called Goldener Schwan, and we ate some very German meals. After that, Rick left us and we walked around to see the sights of Aachen. And seriously, go look this building up: Aachen Cathedral. It was built originally by Charlamagne and expanded, and it s one of the most beautiful buildings I've ever seen. We walked the city a bit, got some white beer from a Spanish bar (we don't actually have Spanish restaurants in America, we have Hispanic restaurants. Spanish is quite different.) Anyway, that's about all for now, I'll try to update later.

I may have posted this already, but this is awesome. Read Catch-22. I wan mainly the dialogue, so I took things out like "he said" and some between dialouge stuff.

"The old man watched him with victorious merriment, sitting in his musty blue armchair like a satanic and hedonistic deity on a throne, a stolen US Army blanket wrapped around his spindly legs to ward of a chill. He laughed quietly, his shrunken, shrewd eyes sparkling with cynical and wanton enjoyment. He had been drinking. Nately reacted on sight with bristling enmity to this wicked, depraved, and unpatriotic old man who was old enough to be his father and made disparagin jokes about America.

'America,' he said, 'will lose this war. And Italy will win it.'

'America is the strongest and most prosperous nation on earth. And the American fighting man is second to none.'

'Exactly. Italy on the other hand is one of the least prosperous nations on earth and the Italian fighting man is probably second to all. And that's exactly why my country is doing so well in this war and your country is doing so poorly.'

'I'm sorry I laughed at you, but Italy was being occupied by Germany and is now being occupied by us. You don't call that doing very well, do you?'

'But of course I do. The Germans are being driven out, by we are still here. In a few years you will be gone too, but we will still be here. You see, Italy is a very poor and weak country, and that's what makes us so strong. Italian soldiers are not dying anymore. But American and German soldiers are. I call that doing extremely well. Yes, I am quite certain that Italy will survive this war and still be in existence long after your own country has been destroyed.'

Nately could scarcely believe his ears. He had never heard such shocking blasphemies before, and he wondered with instinctive logic why G-men did not appear to lock the traitorous old man up. 'America is nt going to be destroyed!' he shouted passionately.

'Never?' prodded the old man softly.

'Well...' Nately faltered.

The old man laughed indulgently, holding in check a deeper, more explosive deliht. his goading remained gentle. 'Rome was destroyed, Greece was destroyed, Persia was destroyed, Spain was destroyed. All great countries are destroyed. Why not yours? How much longer do you really thjink your own country will last? Forever? Keep in mind the earth itself is destined to be destroyed by the sun in twenty-five million years or so.'

Nately squirmed uncomfortably. 'Well, forever is a long time, I guess.'

'A million years? A half million? The frog is almost five hundred million years old. Could you really say with much certainty that America, with all its strength and prosperity, with its fighting man second to none, and with its standard of living that is the highest in the world will last as long as...the frog?'

Nately wanted to smash his leering face. He looked about imploring for help in defending his country's future against the obnoxious calumnies of this sly and sinful assailant. He was disappinted. Yossarian and Dunbar were busy in the far corner pawing orgiastically at four or five frolicsome girls and six bottles of red wine, and Hungry Joe had long since trampeed away down one of the mystic hallways, propelling before him like a ravening despot as many of the broadest-hipped young prostitutes he could contain in his frail windmilling arms and cram into one double bed.

Nately felt himself at an embarassing loss. His own girl sat sprawled out gracelessly on an overstuffed sofa with an expression of otiose boredom. Nately was unnerved by her torpid indifference to him, by the same sleepy and inert pose that he remembered so vividly, so sweetly, and so miserably from the first time she had seen him and ignored him at the packed penny-ante blackjack game in the living room of the enlisted men's aparment. Her lax mouth hung open in a perfect O, and God alone knew at what her glazed and smokey eyes were staring in such brute apathy. The old man waited tranquilly, watching him with a dsicerning smile that was both scornful and sympathetic. A lissorne, blond, sinuous girl with lovely legs and honey-colored skin laid herself out contentedly on the arm of the old man's chair and began molesting his angular, pale, dissolute face languidly and coquettishly. Nately stiffened with resentment and hostility at the sight of the such lechery in a man so old. He turned away with a sinking heart and wondered why he simply did not take his own girl and go to bed.

This sordid, vulturous, diabolical old man reminded Nately of his father because the two were nothing at all alike. Nately's father was a courtly white-haired gentleman who dressed impeccably, this old was an uncouth bum. Nately's father was a sober, philosophical and responsible man; this old man was fickle and licentious. Nately's father was discreet and cultured, thise old man was a boor. Nately's father believed in honor and knew the answer to everything; this old man believed in nothjing and had only questions. Nately's father had a distiguished white mustache; this old man had no mustache at all. Nately's father - and everyone else's father Nately had ever met - was dignified, wise, and venerable; this old man was utterly repellent and Nately plunged back into debate with him, determined to repudiate his vile logic and insinuations with an ambitious vengeance that would capture the attention of the bored, phlegmatiic girl he had falled so intesley in love with and win her admiration forever.

'Well, frankly, I don't know how long America is going to last,' he proceeded dauntlessly. 'I suppose we can't last forever if the world itself is going to be destroyed someday. But I do know that we're going to survive and triump a long, long time.'

'For how long?' mocked the profane old man with a gleam of malicious elation. 'Not even as long as the frog?'

'Much longer than you or me,' Nately blurted out lamely.

'Oh, is that all! That won't be very much longer than, considering that you're so gullible and brave and that I am already such an old, old man.'

'How old are you?' Nately asked, growing intrigued and charmed with the old man in spite of himself.

'A hundred and seven.' The old man chuckled heartilyat Nately's look of chagrin. 'I see you don't believe that either.'

'I don't believe anything you tell me,' Nately replied, with a bashful, mitigating smile. 'The only thing I do believe is that America is going to win the war.'

'You put too much stock in winning wars,' the grubby inequitous old man scoffed. 'The real trick lies in losing wars, in knowing which wars can be lost. Italy has been losing for centuries, and just see how splendidly we've done nonetheless. France wins wars and is in a continual state of crisis. Germany loses and prospers. Look at our own recent history. ITaly won a war in Ethiopia and promptly stumbled into serious trouble. Victory gave us such insane delusions of grandeur that we helped start a world war we hadn't a chance of winning. But now that we are losing again, everything has taken a turn for the better, and we will certainly come out on top again if we succeed in being defeated.'

Nately gaped at him in undisguised befuddlement. 'Now I really don't understand what you're saying. You talk like a madman.'

'But I live like a sane one. I was a fascist when Mussolini was on top, and I am an anti-fascist now that he has been deposed. I was fanatically pro-German when the Germans were here to protect us against the Americans, and now that the Americans are here to protected us against the Germans, I'm fanatically pro-American. I can assure you, my outraged young friend" - the old man's knowing, disdainful eyes shone even more effervescently as Nately's stuttering dismay increased- 'that you and your country will have no more loyal partisan in Italy than me - but only as long as you remain in Italy.'

'But,' Nately cried out in disbelief, 'You're a turncoat! A time-server! A shameful, unscrupulous opportunist!"

'I am a hundred and seven years old,' the old man reminded him suavely.

I'm going to skip a bit of discussion about the wounding of Major - de Coverly.

Old Man: "You see? Imagine a man his age risking what little life he has left for something so absurd as a country.'

Nately was instantly up in arms again. 'There is nothing so absurd about risking your life for your country!' he declared.

'Isn't there?' asked the old man. 'What is a country? A country is a piece of land surrounded on all sides by boundaries, usually unnatural. Englishman are dying for England, Americans are dying for America, Germans are dying for Germany, Russians are dying for Russia. There are now fifty or sixty nations fighting in this war. Surely so many countries can't all be worth dying for."

'Anything worth living for,' said Nately, 'is worth dying for.

'And anything worth dying for,' answered the sacrilegious old man, 'is certainly worth living for. You know, you're such a pure and naive young man that I almost feel sorry for you? Twenty-five? Twenty-six?"

'Nineteen, I'll be twenty in January.'

'Of you live.' The old man shook hsi head, wearing, for a moment, the same touchy, meditating frown of the fretful and disapproving old woman. 'They are going to kill you if you don't watch out, and I can see now that you are not going to watch out. Why don't you use some sense and try to be more like me? You might live to be a hundred and seven, too.'

'Because it's better to die one's feet than live one's knee,' Nately retorted with triumphant and lofty conviction. 'I guess you've heard that saying before.'

'Yes, I certainly have,' mused the treacherous old man, smiling again. 'Buy I'm afraid you have it backward. It is better to live on one's feet than die on one's knees.That is how the saying goes.'

'Are you sure? It seems to make more sense my way.'

'No, it makes more sense my way. Ask your friends.'

-Joseph Heller's Catch-22.

I hope you enjoyed that. It was a pain to type.

Hey, only 3 months since I last updated this guy, so here's something although no one will see it because no one checks anymore, I'm sure.

Unfortunately, it's nothing too interesting.

I've just been so tired and miserable lately (not really). I find that instead of feeling depressed or miserable, I simply feel I ought to be, and go on contently. The only thing that's really gotten me down lately is Mr. Nickol giving me way too high of a grade on my English essay, and making me concerned about the AP English exam, but whatever, it'll work itself out I'm sure. Should I be worried that I think "One Art" applies to my life?

The music from Barnum is horrible (horrible horrible). On Sunday I cleaned out my car and blissfully listened to Beethoven's 3rd and then the Leonore Overture. In school on Monday, I was fortunate enough to have Leonore stuck in my head, and after it went through a great build that was supposed to lead to the ending, the Jenny Lind Obligato started in my head and I wanted to cry. By the way, the term "stuck in your head" seems very positive and benign. The German word is Ohrwurm, allowing you to picture a much more malignant beast in your mind that won't let you go, which, right now, is Come Follow the Band. Oh yes, that translates to "Ear Worm" by the way.

I wish I was going to Puerto Rico, it sounds like so much fun and then Ms. Neamand made me sit and listen to the full itenerary as I sat amongst many excited students.

And for the good things in life. We went to PJs pancake house this morninng, a great idea suggested by Alex Nelson a few weeks ago. Regrettably, Paul and I both ordered banana pancakes, and if I had thought about, I could have instead gotten Chocolate Chip or Blueberry and traded with him. We then went to Princeton battle field, and we frolicked, played frisbee, got into fights, played duck duck goose, and finally an intense game of Red Rover. It feels like ages ago since that happened, when really, we were leaving PJs only 10 oclock this morning. Since then I've endured 3 hours of pit without a break, an hour for dinner, which was spent on a depressing walk with Kaya and Andy through Veterans' Park, and then 90 minutes of Red Scare. To put it lightly, I'm pooped.

Red Scare made me appreciate how good my life is...

I have been hearing from Anna, whcih is really cool. She's applying for a scholarship to come over to the US, so we've been corresponding about topics for her essays and American essay styles and things. I really hope she ends up over here, I'd love for her to meet all of you guys.

Yeah, sorry, I'm too tired to go on. Although I will tell you that there were very few poison gas attacks used during the Second World War, but they did happen. One instance was in the Italian attack on Ethiopia in 1934. During the war, the Germans possessed large quantities of gas, but feared to use it for fear of Allied retribution, as had been the case in the First World War. However, when the Wehrmacht proved unsuccessful in its assault on the fortress of Sevestopol on the Crimea, they did employ poison gas to make the Russians give in, which they did.

Wow, was King Kong awesome. You guys should all really see it. It's so engaging and exhilerating. Sure it's filled with action movie cliches, but it's beautiful. I can truly say of this movie (and few others) that I was on the edge of seat, and I was really absorbed with the film.

King Kong story, right? Unlike previous "Kongs," this one is only around 30 feet tall, as opposed to some of the giants in previous movies.

So Jack Black, Adrian Brody, and Naomi Watts play the leads. I thought at first Jack Black was woefully miscast as the director, but as the movie progressed and the long island section began, I realized how amazingly well he fit the role. All of the characters are stock, too, but at least they have more background than Sky Captain.

Kong and Sky Captain have a lot in common, except for the fact that Sky Captain sucked and this one didn't at all. Sky Captain was lame and I hated the characters and it didn't make any sense. But in Kong, the characters had more development, there was more back story, and the action was simply better.

And the special effects are beautiful. The movements of Andy Serkis (Gollum) were captured and used as a model for Kong's movements, and the Kong beast himself moves with grace and beauty. The dinosaurs look real, Kong looks real, the CG rocks Naomi Watts juggles look real (Except I could tell based on her hands that she wasn't really juggling.)

After the first half hour, I was sort of disappointed, but I kept reminding myself "They haven't even gotten to the ship yet." And Andy was really disappointed with how cliche it was. But it improved dramatically after they set sail, and you learn that most of those silly inspirational speeches Jack Black gives are cons anyway.

For three hours, the movie endures mainly, after arriving on the island, highly intense sequences. Although the characters are able to relax once in a while, the movie is action packed. One spectacular sequence begins with Naomi Watts coming across a giant lizard devouring its kill. She slowly walks off but wait! another lizard is right there, so she runs into an old log and just as the lizard is about to eat her, something picks it up (I thought it was Kong) and then two giant millipedes attack her, so she runs from the log except wait! there's a T-Rex out there! She runs and maneuvres and eventually, she hides from the T-Rex but wait! There's another one right next to her! And so now there are two after her and then Kong comes and a third joins the fray and in an amazing, incredibly long yet still exuberantly entertaining fight scene, Kong triumps over all three attackers. In addition to this, there's a dinosaur stampede, the creepy natives, the capture of Kong, and the death of Kong as major action scenes.

Of course there were stupid parts to it. Note to the Army: Please never use artillery in our own cities! Thank You! Also some of the cliches towards the beginning, plus the death of the nameless, prophetic black guy Andy foresaw early in the movie.

But still, you can consider these carefully against Kong, but most of the movie is enthralling and encapturing. I really was absorbed in it, and I found it wonderful movie experience on the whole. An easy ****