My mom's visit and some insights on life and entertainment here.

(Straying from the original plan because laziness won the coin-toss...)

(Th) ceturtdiena 04.05.2006
Got up at 8am to take a 10am train so I could get to the airport before my mom’s plane. My second train was five minutes late. My third train arrived as scheduled. Fourth train arrived as scheduled, but took its sweet time getting to the airport; there was a 15-minute delay.

The German train system, as much as I love it, seems to do whatever it wants.

Once I got to the airport, I had to find the shuttle bus that would take me to terminal 2 – which is a good 3 km from terminal 1. It was also my only option—this I learned after asking the bus drivers (who then laughed [more or less at me] and said if I really wanted to walk, I could). Luckily the plane had landed a bit late, so I was about 10-15 minutes early. Mom finally came through the arrival gates, we hugged, I shed a few tears. Seriously, I hadn’t seen her in 7 months. Crying was allowed.

We got our train card validated, and went to buy something to drink and to eat. It was at this point that the first mistake was made. After three bites of an apple, half a Nußhörnchen (in my opinion one of the better pastries in Germany, but strangely seem to be produced no further south than Heidelberg [in my experience]), a small bottle of whole milk, and a sideways rocking train ride ADDED to the stress of a plane ride, my mom doesn’t feel too peachy. (HOWEVER, I was and am very proud of her!) She expressed her discomfort in the standard yet private manner of hugging a toilet in Mannheim – once, and then a second time 30 minutes later to seal the deal. We ended up missing three possible train connections and sitting in Mannheim for almost two hours. Luckily she felt better and we were able to get on a train with her sitting in a real seat and facing the direction of travel. After that the trip home was smooth; we got back to the apartment and she was able to sleep for a short bit while I rode to the library to write an angry e-mail to Amazon.de (who very promptly and correctly fixed the problem). When I got back home I pulled her out of bed and we went to walked around the city for a while on a campaign to keep her awake for long enough to try to avoid the kick of the difference in time-zones. Then we stopped at Mai-Markt, I think, where we got a small pizza and Fanta. That was dinner. Then we got back at the planned time (10-10:30 P.M.) whereby mom was allowed to go to sleep.


(F) piektdiena 05.05.2006 - (Sa) sestdiena 06.05.2006 - (Su) svētdiena 07.05.2006

Friday we kind of slept in, then left for Heidelberg. On the way we stopped to pick up my standard “I’m taking a trip” breakfast: something good from the cheap bakery and coffee-to-go from my favorite café. My mom was amusingly cautious of bacteria (I usually am, too, but her level in this case was plain funny) and kept a plastic glove from the bakery

with which to eat her Nußnougat-Croissant (=croissant filled with Nutella spread. GOOD.) Once in Heidelberg we found our hotel, put our stuff down in the *cute* room with a good view, then took a tram to the city center. Once there we popped into a few shops and had dinner, but mostly walked around and looked at the river and a bridge and at other people, including the drunk Italian woman who kept proclaiming to her group of fellow-bar hoppers that she was, in fact, very drunk. No delusions on her part. I myself had never walked along the river in Heidelberg. It’s very nice – not much more I can say about it. I did decide, however, that Heidelberg was definitely a city I could live in (meaning on the outskirts of the city rather than the city center itself). It has a body of water


, it has the right size for a city, interesting things to look at, a castle

, people, etc. Even looks cool at night

. Maybe someday… In the meanwhile pictures and drooling over my future possibilities will have to suffice.

Saturday we went to the Heidelberg Castle. The Heidelberg Castle is a source of (apparently) endless amount of entertainment. For me. When I went with my father I found out that it was possible to go to the other side of the castle to look at the proper ruins bit of it

, as well as the inner courtyard

(when I first went with Andi, Joanna, and Kathy). This time I found out that visiting the castle gardens is FREE OF CHARGE, and that not only are people allowed to chill out and bring picnic lunches, but that there is a pond filled with tadpoles. That’s right, tadpoles. And no one yells at you if you stick your hands in and try to catch them. Did I say try? I meant SUCCEED in catching tadpoles. We were the tadpole masters, Mom and I. There is also a large nude-man fountain

. There are also castle sheep on a castle hill. I like Heidelberg. It was interesting spending an entire weekend there. I thought I’d get tired of it, but NO! It was sensational! If I studied there I’d abuse my free-of-charge castle entry rights as much as possible.

We also saw some gate thing and some new church thing. Obviously these weren’t a large part of the time spent in Heidelberg.

Sunday early evening we headed back to Landau and did something that I don’t remember. It most likely involves Mai-Markt (again) and dinner, and if not, then it involves dinner at home.

(M) pirmdiena 08.05.2006

Monday I went to class, and then met Mom in the city center (she found it on her own! and with my crudely drawn map!) afterwards. We then had lunch at Green, by far the best restaurant in the city if you want a good salad. The salads are huge, filling, tasty, and basically „make-your-own.“ You tell the waiter or waitress what you want on the salad (from a set list of add-ons), and they bring you a bowl of healthy tastiness. Then we went shopping for some food and drink, hung around the city center a bit more, and then went back home. The evening may or may not have (once again) included Mai-Markt. I would have to consult Mom and her travel diary for exact facts.

(T) otrdiena 09.05.2006

Tuesday we had breakfast at C.a.M, where I introduced Mom to Andreas, the owner. Then I left her and went to class. Two hours later we met up again and then I don’t remember.

(W) trešdiena 10.05.2006

Wednesday we took a day trip to the Schwarzwald area. After much discussion and deliberating we decided to forego Freiburg or Baden-Baden and go straight to the middle-north region to Baiersbonn. Baiersbonn wasn’t very schwarzy (for the most part), but it was very waldy. Our goal was to find a hiking trail and wander around, and find and wander we did. But first was the obligatory „stand in a field with hills in the background and green all around“ photograph

. I look photo-shopped. Also the obligatory „take a secret photo when the other person is being contemplative and looking off into the Schwarzwaldy-distance“ photo.

And then the random playground… to make the hike seem like less of a chore? Subtract 12 points for the crappy joke that doesn’t really work

.

(Th) ceturtduena 11.05.2006

Thursday was spent in a train on the way to Füssen, a city southwest of München and across the Forgensee from Neuschwanstein Castle. Also near the Alps. Just…breathtaking

.
And dandelions like it’s a crop source. Once we found our guest house we set our stuff down, rented two almost useless bikes from the owner and drove into Füssen to find something to do. We missed most of the shops being open, but had our fill of Dönner and Radler (beer mixed with Sprite-like carbonated lemon drink). We also took some time to ride around the general area with the afore mentioned useless bikes. So I guess we dragged around more than rode around. Füssen reminded me of England’s Lake District in the sense that there’s a town just surrounded by natural beauty. Still makes me wonder whether the locals appreciate it like outsiders do.



(F) piektdiena 12.05.2006

Friday we took a bus to hohenschwangau, and then walked to crazy King Ludwig II’s (KL2) neuschwanstein castle. The climb was ‚meh‘, but the castle itself was enough to make me clear out over 60 photos worth of space on my camera.

As the perky-haired tour guide informed us, we were not allowed to take photos of the exhibits (which really weren’t exhibits…), but were more than welcome to take photographs of the scenes from the windows. And photograph those scenes we did.





I hated being in a tour group, though. I can’t stand it; I said later that we should have taken the german tour and just rented an audio guide in english. This is one of the few hard-core touristy things I’ve ever done.

After the castle tour mom and I sat down to watch a very poorly complied video of pretty pictures and vague texts read by british people; it was supposed to shed some more light on KL2’s life and works. We later bought a guide book about the castle, and a short biography of KL2 (what a good ploy to sell books… make a bad video and leave us all wondering).

After the video we hiked to the back of the castle, where my goal was the Marienbrucke
,
the small-looking line of metal wedged between two walls of mountain. I went onto the bridge myself (while Mom waited well away from the entrance of the bridge) in order to get a full side shot of the castle
.
I think I have about 10 pictures that are basically the same shot, but from only slightly different angles. I also had a semi-loopy local man dressed in Lederhosen take a picture of me with the castle in the background before he went back to precariously perching on the opposite rail of the bridge. The man also explained to me (after I had asked him) that the popular angle from which the castle is most often photographed for postcards and posters is inaccessable to tourists. The picture is taken from an angle that would require lots of hiking gear and experience. Lederhosen man told me that I would basically not make it to the location and back with the „gear“ I had on (=a few layers of casual hiking clothing and standard hiking boots). That killed my desire to try and get to the location myself.

In hindsight, KL2 may have been nuts (he claimed to have not been), but the man had a wonderful imagination and eye for location. You can see such a range of scenery from all angles of the castle, both from within and from outside.

Afterwards we got back to Füssen and took a ride down to the Forgensee. The Füssen theater hall is built right next to the Forgensee, and has a nice little maze garden, which must be great to walk through during intermissions. The lake itself was less climactic than I had hoped, but it was also interesting because the theater is across the lake/mountains combination from Neuschwanstein Castle. The castle looks so insignificant from the other point of view, just nestled among the mountains.

Weird how perspective changes.

(Sa) sestdiena 13.05.2006

Saturday we travelled back to Landau.

(Su) svētdiena 14.05.2006

Sunday we met with the Tutoring family for a short Mother’s Day visit. Coffee and tasty pre-made, oven-baked cake stuff and ice cream were eaten.

(M) pirmdiena 15.05.2006

Monday we took a very very rushed day-trip to Bonn. We didn’t see much, but stopped by the big „fallen“ heads outside of the big church, and found a bench with a fake person on it. Because I’m a good child and still have a certain amount of fear of the „wrath of parents“, I will not post the picture of my mom sharing the bench with the fake person.

(T) otrdiena 16.05.2006

Tuesday we got up early and took the train to Frankfurt. We got there in good time, got my mom and her luggage checked in. I found a „Mexican“ restaurant in the airport, had a nice spicy chicken salad in an edible taco-shell-bowl, and waited around with my mom until half an hour or so before her boarding time. I waited around until I couldn’t see her anymore beyond the security check point and headed back to Landau. The end.

Eurovision LIVE (but two days after the fact)

Watching Eurovision live is one of the most entertaining things in the world. Especially if you include exchanging SMS's with a friend who is in Greece, and with your father who is in the US. It brings the world together! The following text has nothing to to with my mom's visit (I promise promise PROMISE that that will be the next post), but the comments were made during the show, are actual, unedited, etc. I had a good time.

__ . __ . __ . __ . __ . __ . __

I want a giant golden ball of moving wings, too! The tumblers in dolphin costumes were pretty convincing, too. Silly water mammals.

And how can that woman ethnic dance in those heels?!

Switzerland’six4one would be better off “giving a little” in their own solo projects. They all had fairly good voices, but not mixed together.

The German telecaster is too nice. England was funny last year, because the guy kept cutting down the contestants and the hosts.

Moldova. Oh. My. God. You could literally hear the cheering and applause abruptly stop as soon as the group came out into the light. The blonde woman probably took off her skirt because it’s really all they could do. But she went behind the large sail-prop to do it. NOBODY LIKES IT IF THEY CAN’T SEE THE CLOTHING REMOVAL PROCESS. Crappy crap crap. Go back to Moldova.

HAHAHHAH!!!! German telecaster’s comment was, “…Seid ihr fertig?” (=are you finished?) Thank you, thank you for saying that. I now respect you.

Israel. He doesn’t sound good live. That’s a huge downer. It may have something to do with the back-up singers. Oh wow, the piano singer can sing, too!

Let me make a note here: Ever since I found out that Estonia had not made it past the semi-finals (I am super ******** bitter about this, because she was, in my opinion, one of the best contestants), I have had little hope for the rest of Eurovision. There are contestants I like (like France), but I don’t think it will fly, because the past several years have been more about show, not talent. That’s right, I said it, I did!

Latvia – DANCING PAPER ROBOT THING!!!! I WANT ONE! They are talented, but boy bands and Eurovision don’t mix. They should have had a more upbeat song. Major props for the robot, though. “Und was machen die eigentlich mit die Dranpuppe?” (=and what, actually, was the deal with the robot doll?)

Norway; Pretty dresses. And yay for the violins. Her lips look botoxed. The song is actually good. The backup singers can sing, too. And they’re all trained to move in perfect unison. Good job. I’m actually getting chills. The wind effect makes it more haunting.

Spain. Las Ketchup. Crappy crap crap. They should have done something as upbeat as “Asereje” to at least earn their “because we’re famous” points.

Malta’s Fabrizio looks… girly. MICHAEL FLATLY CLOTHES!!! Who wears a boutonniere just to wear one? And with a chain and leather boot tassels? You are a fool. Where’s his back-up singer? Because the back-up singer can actually sing. Ah, I see him. Cleverly hidden in all black clothing. It might be Eurovision caliber. Shooting sparks add something.

Germany’s contestant has a good voice, and really good English. The cacti are a bit much, but at least the song is catchy. And at least it’s something really different. Nice, the one guy’s bass has a sheriff’s badge on it. I’m jealous.

Denmark – this girl is only 17 years old. She looks like she’s in her 30’s. I think it’s the cheekbones. The dancers in the video were much better. Her voice is dynamic, even though the lyrics are boring. A break-dancer. now that is a trump card, if I’ve ever seen one. She put on a good show.

Russia – this guy is also an actor. I’m still not feeling the mullet. There are ballerinas! My dad said that in the semi-finals one came out of the piano – HERE SHE COMES!!! But she doesn’t seem to have gotten much sunlight. Dime, it’s not healthy to keep the piano ballerina in there at all times. I like how it has nothing to do with the song. The German telecaster just made a crack about David Copperfield. I’m glad the man has a sense of humor.

He also just made a crack at FYR Macedonia’s contestant, saying that the girl studies Italian and Literature on top of music. And that her song title is, “wenig literarisch” (=not really literary), and how it means “wirklich, gar nichts” (=really absolutely nothing). Ah, right, the Shakira reference. Nope, don’t like it. I want to see Shakira rush the stage and tackle this girl. I wonder what her parents think of her. Now the telecaster made a crack at the intonation of the song, but said it was alright anyway.

Romania – 26 year old contestant. Telecaster has good things to say about him. Ah yes, the guy who reminds me of Deen. Everyone likes to use ballerinas, too. Does he have eye make-up now? The higher he sings, the better it sounds. Keep it up, Sally.

Bosnia and Herzegovina – where are his eyes? People seem to like him, though. I think this was the song that I wished I could understand. The dresses of the back-up singers are pretty, too. This man has an amazing voice.

Lithuania – LT United. They actually got “boo’s” when they came on stage. It takes everything… guts, balls, bravery, gall, ego, and a general lack of fear for your own life to sing something like this. I really enjoyed the bald man with glasses who very seriously approached the violin player (I thought he was a security guard at first), and then rocked out geek-style to the electric violin. Props. I think that if the lyrics of the song had been anything else other than “We are the winners… of Eurovision”, it might have actually gotten somewhere, because it was upbeat, and entertaining.

England. Sloppy school girls. Interesting. Although I don’t mind the song and find it not bad, this happened to be the first performance I actually walked away from, because it’s not Eurovision style.

Greece – I can hear the audience singing with. I like her song; she has talent, too, which helps. We’ll see how a semi-ballad song does. I’ll admit that I sang along, too.

Finland – the telecaster made a crack about Lordi using shock-therapy. And suggested that the elderly, children, and people with heart problems leave the room for the next three minutes. The costumes looked cooler in the video. And how can that guy play the drums with that costume!? Amazing! And I now see that their keyboarder is a woman. In the video, one of the other guys was singing. Wings! And the telecaster said that his Finish colleagues flipped out when they learned Lordi made it past the semi-finals.

Ukraine – too much like Greece’s contestant last year. She can hold her own on the long notes, though. Hahah! telecaster: “Shakira! Oh, nein…” I love how he can be so sarcastic and yet sound nice.

France – She doesn’t sound too good live. But the woman’s a hairdresser by occupation. The song sounded better in the video.

Croatia – holy cow, she’s picked it up a notch since the video I saw. She could actually win. (Telecaster made a crack about her “flying skirt, and whether or not that really helps”). The song is actually a national folk song. Presentation was good (even though she’s got a cross eye, I think), energy was fantastic. My hopes on her.

Ireland – I’m officially leaving the room again.

Sweden – I think her dress just changed colors. And there are many fans about. As far as presentation goes, it’s good, it’s entertaining. Her voice is amazing, too. I wouldn’t mind if she won.

Turkey – What happened to her voice? The dress and the tattoos and the hair… Britney meets Pink meets Gwen Steffani.

Armenia – Andre. It sounds good, but it’s too much like Ruslana. Too much too much.

Just learned as well that the woman host lives in the United States. She’s apparently been to Greece only 10 times before. I thought she was Greek-Greek at first, but that she had just learned English very well. Sakis is, of course, Greece’s superstar baby.

4000 years of Greek Song – it’s like watching several episodes of Xena mixed into one and on a big sparkly stage. Yah, even adding in the men in semi-parrot/super-hero costumes makes it like a Xena episode soup. AND THAT MAN IS PLAYING A TINY, BACKWARDS, VIOLIN LIKE INSTRUMENT.

Points 1-7 will be automatically be shown. Then points 8-12 will be announced.

Contest results:

Slovenia: (telecaster from Slovenia has a Maria t-shirt) 8-Finland. 10-Croatia. 12-Bosnia and Herzegovina. (They also gave Lithuania 3 points).

Andorra: (THEY GAVE LITHUANIA 7!!! But only 1 to Greece. Ouch.) 8-Sweden. 10-Finland. 12-Spain.

Romania: 8-Russia. 10-Greece (the crowd cheers). 12-Moldova.

Denmark: (again 7 points to Lithuania) 8-Bosnia and Herzegovina. 10-Sweden. 12-Finland. (WHAT!?)

Latvia: 8-Finland (craziness). 10-Lithuania (inevitable). 12-Russia (RIDICULOUS! That’s only because Estonia was bumped out!)

Portugal: (4 points to Lithuania) 8-Sweden. 10-Romania. 12-Ukraine.

(At this point Finland and Lordi are winning. Latvia has 0.)

Sweden: (3 points to Lithuania) 8-Denmark. 10-Bosnia and Herzegovina. 12-Finland.

Finland: 8-Lithuania. 10-(missed it) 12-Russia

Belgium: (4 to Lithuania) 8-Finland. 10-Greece. 12-Armenia.

Croatia: (6 to Lithuania) 8-Macedonia. 10-Finland. 12-Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Serbia & Montenegro: (3 to Lithuania) 8-FYR Macedonia. 10-Croatia. 12-Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Norway: (5 to Lithuania) 8-Bosnia and Herzegovina. 10-Sweden. 12-Finland.

Estonia: (3 Points to Latvia – their first points) 8-Lithunia. 10-Russia. 12-Finland.

Ireland: (4 more points to Latvia!) 8-UK. 10-Finland. 12-Lithuania.

Malta: (1 point to Lithuania) 8-Greece. 10-Romania. 12-Switzerland.

Lithuania: 8-Latvia. 10-Finland. 12-Russia.

Cyprus: (4 to Lithuania) 8-Russia. 10-Romania. 12-Greece.

Netherlands: (6 to Lithuania) 8-Bosnia and Herzegovina. 10-Armenia. 12-Turkey.

Switzerland: 8-Finland. 10-Turkey. 12-Bosnia Herzegovina.

Ukraine: (4 to Latvia) 8-Armenia. 10-Bosnia Herzegovina. 12-Russia.

Russia: (1 to Latvia) 8-Finland. 10-Ukraine. 12-Armenia.

Poland: 8-Lithuania. 10-Russia. 12-Finland.

United Kingdom: (2 to Latvia) 8-Ireland. 10-Lithuania. 12-Finland.

Armenia: 8-Greece. 10-Ukraine. 12-Russia.

France: 8-Finland. 10-Armenia. 12-Turkey.

Belarus: (6 to Lithuania) 8-Armenia. 10-Ukraine. 12-Russia.

Germany: (1 to Lithuania) 8-Greece. 10-Finland. 12-Turkey.

Spain: (4 to Lithuania) 8-Armenia. 10-Finland. 12-Romania.

Moldova: (4 to Lithuania) 8-Ukraine. 10-Russia. 12-Romania.

Bosnia and Herzegovina: 8-FYR Macedonia. 10-Turkey. 12-Croatia.

Iceland: 8-Denmark. 10-Lithuania. 12-Finland.

Monaco: (7 to Lithuania) 8-Latvia. 10-Ireland. 12-Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Israel: (3 to Lithuania) 8-Armenia. 10-Romania. 12-Russia.

Albania: 8-Greece. 10-Sweden. 12-Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Greece: (4 Lithuania) 8-Russia. 10-Armenia. 12-Finland.

Bulgaria: (1 to Lithuania) 8-Armenia. 10-Russia. 12-Greece.

FYR Macedonia: (3 to Lithuania) 8-Russia. 10-Croatia. 12-Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Turkey: 8-Ukraine. 10-Armenia. 12-Bosnia Herzegovina.

And Finland wins with 292 points!


And a merry Hard Rock Hellelujah to us all!

Travel with Mom

Because I've done a good amount of traveling in the past two weeks, I'm not going to describe all of it here and now, but rather put together a separate link where each location can read about, with matching pictures to boot.

During study abroad, I would even agree that it's important to get around the area and see what you can see. Yes, I missed one day each of my classes, but we're allowed to miss two days before we're officially crossed off of the attendance list and are no longer able to get the Schein for the class. So I'm still good for time.

I also realized that while I explained the little local blue boxes for train tickets, I didn't do so for the computer touch-screen machines with the red tops that are, in my opinion, even more important than the blue machines. The red machine is basically a computer Counter Personnel, and you can get the same information from it as you can from a Counter Personnel. You can print out travel schedules, buy tickets, or just see how long it would take to get from Münich to Berlin. If you have extra time, these machines also make a great toy, and offer service in apprx. 8 languages. They're also handy if the line at the airport travel center is 30 people long and there is just one confused American (who quickly gives up trying to use the machine) at the red-topped ticket machine. I pick my battles wisely.

To sum up the two weeks, we saw: the Heidelberg Castle (not a first for me, but I hadn't visited the castle garden earlier, which is, by the way, FREE) and stayed in Heidelberg for two nights, took a hike in Baiersbronn, which is a city in the middle of the northern part of the Schwarzwald, stayed two nights in Füssen, a city that lies across the Forgensee from Castle Neuschwanstein. We were in Bonn for a few hours as well, and spent an okay amount of time in Landau, seeing the places I usually go to.

Spring has gotten to Landau, and it was unbelievably good weather the past few weeks. Today it's rainy in spring timeme-crappy way, so I opted out of riding the bike to the library. Speaking of bikes, my crappy bike, the one I never took a picture of (sorry to Dan, who I think requested a photo of the dilapidated wonder), was stolen who KNOWS how long ago from our apartment building basement. I'm not crying over it, but it's €35,- I'm never getting back. At least I had pre-rented a bike that works, and at least that wasn't the one stolen. It would have probably cost me more than the €20,- I paid to rent it.

I'll get into more details of the past two weeks for next time. Until then, Eurovision is another perk to being in Germany. I know we can watch it back in the US, too, but here it's more "real". And, as bejudgmentalntal is part of the fun of Eurovision, some comments on what I think of the contestants...:

-Albania's Luiz Ejlli should. do something more than smile at a girl and move his leg and arms in the video. Plus, the voice doesn't seem to be corresponding to him as an image of a person. I'm worried.
-Jennifer from Andorra is too 1980's. I just watched "Working Girl" for my American Dreams and American Nightmares course (we get such exciting course opportunities here -- the professor who taught my Vampire course last semester is teaching a Cyberpunk course this semester), so I find myself very sensitive to the 1980's.
-Andre from Armenia looks like an Armenian Carrot Top.
-Belarus' Polina Smolova is reminiscent of Russlana, because of the voice and because of indistinguishableable English. I can barely understand what the woman is singing.
-Kate Ryan from Belgium wants to be Britney Spears circa "I'm not a girl, but not yet a Woman".
-Bosnia and Herzogovnia's Hari Mata Hari looks like a more depressed Kevin Spacey, but has a nice voice and makes me wish I knew what he was singing about.
-Mariana Popova from Bulgaria. Good voice, interesting ethnic feel to it, and the lyrics are cheeky. Love love stuff, and then "the truth....LET'S SAY GOODBYE!" Oh, and there are acrobats and spinny ribbons in the video. I hope she brings them with her to Greece.
-Croatia's Severina... Too much lRuslanalana. And is Severina cross-eyed? Pretty dress, though.
-Annette Artani form Cyprus. 1)Good to see something GOOD come out of Cyprus. 2) Her voice is really good. Unfortunately, while I don't believe she'd win Eurovision, she would do a killer number on the sorry saps of American Idol if she ever decided to change citizenship and compete. But she doesn't need to, because she's already kind of famous. Right?
-Denmark. Crappy lyrics, but it has the standard Eurovision pep to it. Could get somewhere, unless the judges did what they did several years back to Mortenson, who had a GREAT song, and got shafted big time. What do you have against Denamark, world?
-Sandra Oxenryd from Estonia has my vote (so far) for AT LEAST top 5. Lyrics aren't too terrible, but the energy is there, and her voice is good. The video is crap, but I think she could get far. GO ESTONIA!
-Lordi from Finland. Oh. My. God. I hope they show up like that for the contest. Please please do. I want people to pee their pants from surprise. HARD ROCK HALLELUJAH! Zombie cheerleaders, anyone? And that's all I've got to say about that.
-Virginie Pouchin from France. Video like Goldenhorse's "Wake up, Brother" video. Copycat! Good voice, but won't do.
-F.Y.R. Macedonia: Elena Risteska. I was going to let the similaritiesRuslanalana slide, but then the girl had to go ahead and make reference to Shakira in her song text. That's going too far. OUT!
-What's with the sudden interest in country music!? Texas Lightning from Germany. At least she has good Englpronunciationtion.
-Anna Vissi from Greece. Good voice, sappy lyrics.
-Silvia Night from Iceland. Madona meets Aqua. Don't like it.
-Ireland's Brian Kennedy. No words. Is this a joke?
-Eddie Butler for Israel. The way he sings makes me *think* I can understand what he's singing when he's not singing in English. Very Gospely.
-Latvia's Cosmos. Oh boys. No matter how good you are (and they're good), Eurovision has never been place boy bandsands. Lithuaniaania. LT United...I can't tell if it's an act of desperation, or a call for war. There are six of them. There are six in Cosmos. And the song is in a very taunting tone. I like it. But I don't know... if they win, then it will be a "HAHA, TOLD YOU SO!" to the rest. Hahaha, these guys have guts. In the top 10.
-Fabrizio from Malta-- looks like the Karate Kid. Wax on, wax off, kiddo! Wow, he and his "ex" are practically twins. And I like that she used a rolly-suitcase to leave.
-Netherlands and Treble. Shakira much? People seem to be stickingRuslana'sna's nonsense-word usage to fill in space. At least they play instruments. They get points for that. And the energy.
-Ich Troje of Poland. Mixture between Ace of Base and Real McCoI don'ton't like that the one guy has red hair. Is it a wig?
-Portugal's entry, Nonstop. How come four singers need two backup singers? Shady.
-Romania's Mihai Traistariu reminds me of Deen and "In the Disco." Me no likey.
-Dima Bilan as Russia's contestant. He has a mullet. Lyrics are bad. Very bad. Maybe he should have chosen Russian. Enrique.
-Anzej Dezan of Slovenia. He likes scarves. He moves like a woman. He likes to dress up. He is a man of many hairdos. he could get somewhere. Also in the top 5, mostly because he's amusing.
-Sadly, Spain has chosen Las Ketchup as their entry.foreseersee something much like T.a.T.U. from several years back. Las Ketchup, although they don't necessarily have anything great to offer, will place high just because they are already huge famous.
-Sweden's Carola. Too much like Lena's "It hurts" from a few years back. Sorry.
-Switzerland's six4one = S-Club7minus one.
-Turkey. Gwen Steffani wannabe. No good. Can you tell I'm getting tired of judging?
-Tina Karol from the Ukraine scares me. Maybe it's the hair, maybe it's the hat, or maybe it's the shoullengthnght leather gloves. I don't know. Why is everyone in love with the 80's!?!?
-If you can't dance if you can't dance, if you can't dance if you can't dance, hire 20 other people who can. Booyah! I'm digging the all yellow bathroom. It's like... Vitamin C + len+...British rap.

I'm done.

I forgot Norway. Her hair maked her face look crooked. She has an interesting voice, though. Good for her!