Ocean City, certainly not a beach :-)

Some more serious update comming soon.

A major enemy of certain Don Quijote de la Mancha

Obidos, a wonderful village surrounded by walls. Portugal

Washington D.C., Monument on fire

Alice

Me and beer

The castle of shadows, Obidos, Portugal

Fortress above Lisbon, a cannon shooting sunset.

Tengo margharita,
tengo sombrero,
mariachis son aqui tambien,
pero donde estan senoritas ?

Un restaurante mejicano en Salisbuty, Maryland, USA

A brief report on my life during the last 6 months:

1. I visted USA
2. I learned how it feels to work 80 hours a week.
3. I found out that a day when you work only 8 hours can feel like holidays.
4. For the first time I saw Atlantic Ocean.
5. For the first time I tried bodyboarding.
6. I learned that Americans are mostly nice people, I've met there some great men.
7. I learned that having a good boss is great advantage.
8. I made and sold hundreds of pizzas and subs.
9. I found out that Americans eat EVERYTHING in a burger or sub. Even a crab.
10. I ate my first crab, shrimp, lobster, oyster, buffalo, ...
11. For 3 months I had a eggs & cheese for breakfast, slice of pepperoni pizza for lunch and burger for dinner.
12. I found out that altough American beer is completely different from European beer(and I would hardly call it a beer at all), it doesn't taste that bad.
13. I found out that some Americans think taht Iraq is in Europe, and Yugoslavia in Asia, some of them didn't even now who is Fidel Castro or that Cuba is communist.
14. I found out that some Americans are great.
15. I visited Washington D.C.
16. I found out that the USA got really paranoid about terrorism (I've been x-rayed 5 times during 5 hours in D.C.)
17. I realised that Washington Monument is just wonderful, beautiful, enchanting.
18. I fled from hurricane Isabel.
19. I visited New York City.
20. I stayed in Harlem, one subway station from Bronx, walking with 4000 USD in wallet.
21. I saw N.Y.C. from Empire State Building.
22. I returned home after being away for more than 3 months. My record.
23. I found out that life sometimes rocks.
24. I found out that life sometimes SUCKS. Really SUCKS.

And finally, my ex-Irish American buddy in the restaurant, soccer player and student of philosophy told me the ultimate words of truth:

"It's better to be pissed off than to be pissed on."

Last time I wasn't successful, nobody from here replied, but I found accomodation anyway. Maybe I will be more successful this time.

Is there anybody living in N.Y.C. (on Manhatan) who would provide accomodation for 2 people (me and my girlfriend) for 2 nights - 20th and 21th September ?

Pleaaaaaaaaaaaaaase !
We are very nice guys :-) Small payment okay. We need kind of safe place to stay, that's why we prefer this to hotel.

I'm a guy from Slovakia, university student, right now working in USA, for the summer. Next week I would like to go to see Washington D.C. and I need a place to sleep for one day. Is there anybody who lives in D.C. and would provide me with such a place. I don't need bed I need only a SAFE place to sleep for ONE night. Floor is okay :-) I would really appreciate if someone could do me such a favour. People I need you.

Please contact me via e-mail because I don't have too much time to check my TIG stuff :-(

marcel_strbak@yahoo.com

Any help is appreciated !

Marcel

Direction: USA
Reason: Slavery :-)

Today I finally obtained US visa allowing university students to work in the States during the summer and so I'm prepared and ready to gooooooooooooo !

Well, I was pretty tensed, because this so called Work&Travel program costed me pretty much, I had arranged ticket for wednesday and 3 hours ago I still didn't have visa, so I was mad, but finally US embassy gave me back my passport and so everything is a-okay now.

Well, I have never been out of home for more than 2 weeks, so going away for 3 months is going to be something new, not even mentioning that I will have to make my lazy ass move and work !
Oh god ! Me and work - terrible relationship. Anyway, I will have to work for 12 hours a day if I want to earn at least he money I have invested so the next 3 months are really going to be a kind of slavery.
I think taht I will call my airpane to N.Y.C. Amistad :-)

Man, it's going to be BIG trip.
I hope I will see and experience a lots of good good things.
Maybe I will get to meet some TIG member over there !

I'm heading for Ocean City in Maryland, god only know what's awaiting me there.

Marcel, take a deep breath, say cheese and GOOOOOOOOO !
USA is waiting.

Burnt, but still living Iraqi soldier creeping out of a tank hit by napalm, dropped by U.S. forces in '91 Gulf War.

This is a very famous picture, shot by a French photoreporter (I think). Publishing of this photo within U.S.A was banned by U.S. government.

For those who see nothing but empty box,
click here


[Please note, that by posting this picture I don't express my sypmhaties neither for Saddam nor for Bush. Neither for nor against this attack. This most terrifying picture I have ever seen just expresses the horror of any war. At this point I don't want to discuss current war on Iraq]

Wanted to post it for a while...
No reason. It's just great poem.

ENIGMAS by Pablo Neruda

You've asked me what the lobster is weaving there with
his golden feet?
I reply, the ocean knows this.
You say, what is the ascidia waiting for in its transparent
bell? What is it waiting for?
I tell you it is waiting for time, like you.
You ask me whom the Macrocystis algae hugs in its arms?
Study, study it, at a certain hour, in a certain sea I know.
You question me about the wicked tusk of the narwhal,
and I reply by describing
how the sea unicorn with the harpoon in it dies.
You enquire about the kingfisher's feathers,
which tremble in the pure springs of the southern tides?
Or you've found in the cards a new question touching on
the crystal architecture
of the sea anemone, and you'll deal that to me now?
You want to understand the electric nature of the ocean
spines?
The armored stalactite that breaks as it walks?
The hook of the angler fish, the music stretched out
in the deep places like a thread in the water?

I want to tell you the ocean knows this, that life in its
jewel boxes
is endless as the sand, impossible to count, pure,
and among the blood-colored grapes time has made the
petal
hard and shiny, made the jellyfish full of light
and untied its knot, letting its musical threads fall
from a horn of plenty made of infinite mother-of-
pearl.

I am nothing but the empty net which has gone on
ahead
of human eyes, dead in those darknesses,
of fingers accustomed to the triangle, longitudes
on the timid globe of an orange.

I walked around as you do, investigating
the endless star,
and in my net, during the night, I woke up naked,
the only thing caught, a fish trapped inside the wind.


Pablo Neruda
Translated by Robert Bly