Nijmengen

Willem, Riekus, Erik, Pitter, Myers, Klyman and Muth all went out to a bar in Nijmengen to celebrate its 25 year anniversary, as well as it being the next to last day of tour, as well as Erik's (our driver and game face extraordinaire) last night on tour, as he wont be accompanying us to Belgium tomorrow. Jon and I stayed in...Jon is sleeping on Willems couch and I writing in a blog on Riekus' computer. Jon has legit reasons for staying in, but I just think i am bad at touring.

Ill try and write something real about this tour, but as for now a couple paragraphs will have to suffice. We have been over here since September 4th, and along that time I have become pretty comfortable with never knowing what people are saying around me. The Antillectual dudes all speak flawless English, but they do spend a lot of time conversing in Dutch, which is awesome, because it has given us time to play the "try and guess what the Dutch are saying" game, which I dont think they find the humor in. Being in Slovenia where even the Europeans had no idea what the people around us were speaking was nice, simply because we all looked like a bunch of assholes; I have mastered the art of picking out a "Coca Cola Light" and a pack of Gummy Bears, taking them to the cashier, avoid all eye contact, give them my euros and hope they arent fucking me over. I was talking to Dave about how when I was in South Philly walking around, I just felt like everyone around me KNEW I wasnt from South Philly. That feeling is amplified over here, but over 17 days, you learn to feel comfortable looking like an American Asshole. The majority of people have been so nice and helpful over here that this has easily been one of the most enjoyable, incredible experiences of my whole life. This tour never became "just another tour"; I feared that somewhere along the way the glitz of being on a whole other continent playing shows would wear off and I would eventually settle into the idea that this is just another tour and I would forget that this isnt happening on the East Coast. That never once happened, and I am incredibly happy about that. Tomorrow we play in Belgium. After the show, we'll get driven straight to the airport, where we will get on a hour and a half fight form Amsterdam to Frankfurt, and then from Frankfurt from Philly, and life will be normal again.

Mad bummer.