Do not go gentle into that good night

      Another week gone by. Another gauntlet run, another set of trials by fire, another span of time to try a man's soul. What can change in a week? Some might answer almost nothing, others a fair amount. But the truth is, a week is vast. Its a sea of time, of decisions, and of words. It is within the space of seconds, mere drops in the ocean that everything can change. The wrong tack taken, a rogue wave on the broadside. In the space of a single moment floating in time, all can be capsized. Certainties. Assumptions. Long-held truths. One word. One fluid second. And all is changed.

      Everything changed. The culture that I had begun to learn and integrate into is gone now. It is much different here in the South. It is one of the strangest feelings to have culture shock in reference to a culture that is not your own. Then it stacks on to your cultural differences to your home country and makes everything rather confusing. To have your life radically change twice in two months is definitely a new experience. I was worried about the scale of the change and the fact that I had to start everything over again. Despite the difficulties, I feel good that I had the opportunity to make the move. Now, I get to experience a whole new part of Germany, with a culture and landscape most definitively different from my first location.

      The land here raptures me. The soaring peaks draped in white snow with the green of the foothills below are truly works of profound beauty. The Alps seem to be sentinels of history, the fields below their scions. Looking at the majesty of the mountains each day is an experience that is unrivaled by anything else. I love living in Oberbayern.

      In the end though, knowing nothing seems to be fine. The great looming fear of the unknown is something that should never rule your life. It shouldn't stop you from following your dreams. You can survive in the safety of your known world. But that is not living. Life is found in that great Unknown. Life is the Unknown. 

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.