Rainy April

April is almost over and I'm both happy and dismayed by this.

Happy because the rain has been non-stop.  Just when I thought the day would be sunny and warm, the clouds roll in and a downpour begins!  On the bright side, there haven't been nearly as many fat brown slugs as there usually are in the fall, and instead there has been an emergence of itty bitty snails.  My friend Kate was in town for the weekend, and this snail made me think of her and her old snail-ridden sub-garden-level apartment.  And it looked brilliant from afar, almost electric yellow.  Upon further investigation it is more of an opaque color I guess.

Dismayed because that just means it's been another month of me trying to find work.  There were some prospects that have fallen through, so I'm not completely disheartened, just dismayed.  I'm looking into internship possibilities now since I am pretty set on getting into the digital media field, and though there are opportunities, I feel that I don't have the "Ausbildung" or "Praktikum" they desire/require.

In other news, I will be posting my most recent video to my Vimeo page, the one I made in collaboration with some friends for this year's DocChallenge.  It turned out nicely, so be sure to look for that.  I am still continuing to work on my "Ausländer" video with Hannah Huddy, hoping to do some more filming this week and next.

Swiss Vending Machine

4 condoms = 5 CHF

1 "maybe baby" pregnancy test = 15 CHF

Your choice.

...or you can just live it up with some "Party sticks" for 3 CHF

Good Good Friday Dinner

Fresh trout - it was delicious!

Freiburg Marathon

This weekend Freiburg hosted it's annual marathon, half marathon, and s'cool run.

The route winded through the inner-city, but it began and ended at the Freiburg Messe, which is also where the Pope held mass when he came to visit last fall.

Fun with stop action

Did some stop action with my good friend Hannah Huddy.  It was my first attempt and it took AGES!  Hannah believes we probably have a good 16 seconds after our 3 hours of work.  Can't wait to see how it looks incorporated in the documentary we're working on together.

Who let the dogs out?

This Sunday marked the first ever (and perhaps soon to be annual) Gundelfingen Hundeschau!  There was quite the turn out.

Doc Challenge 2012

This past weekend I embarked once more down the path of the Documentary Challenge, this time with a team!  A handful of friends and friends of friends helped me put together and later pull off a short (6.30 minutes) "experimental" documentary with the given theme of "cycles".  It was a lot of fun and I think we were all pretty happy about the results.  Here is a peek behind the scenes:

I will post the video later, once the top 12 have been chosen.

Edit: Here's the link to the video: http://vimeo.com/reelculture/allweknow

SC Freiburg wins!

I went to see my first official European football match today in Freiburg, and they won!  Freiburg is no longer down at 16th place... I believe they've worked their way up to 13th.

This video clip is what I've been told to be typical Fußball behavior - the fan jump.

Take a bow, the night is over...

...this masquerade is getting older.


And now we say good-bye to the Fastnacht season.

Bring on the spring!

Fackelumzug in Elzach

This is the very traditional (and quite popular) "Fackelumzug", or "Torch Parade", which takes place in the town of Elzach every year, the Sunday before Ash Wednesday.  All of the men in town dress as these Narren and parade through the dark streets with torches and pig bladders.  After they reach the end of their parade route, they back track to the town center and proceed to throw their torches into one, large, central bon fire.  The clip that follows is representative of this.