trenchkamen (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
trenchkamen) wrote2006-07-04 03:31 pm
trenchkamen) wrote2006-07-04 03:31 pm
I think I flipped off the German Police.
I’m home. It’s so good to be back. Happy Independence Day, by the way, America.
I was halfway through the security line in the Berlin airport when somebody told me that she had heard my presence requested at the "change desk" over the loudspeaker. I was sure that she had misheard until two of the trip chaperones told me that they had also heard my name, just as an attendant wove around the corner and asked me to follow him because the police wanted to see me.
There were two stern-looking cops in full drab-green regalia back at the check-in desk with one of my shuriken (throwing stars; think ninjas) on the counter. All right. So, we had been weapons shopping in Prague, because pretty much everything is legal there, and I didn't think there would be a problem with shuriken. They're a hell of a lot more useless than a Swiss Army knife, three of which I had in my bag right next to the shuriken.
Notably, there were also two shuriken in my bag since I was also carrying![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
zychi's stuff, flush against one another in file, and only one was on the counter.
The police told the attendant something in German, and he translated that they had found this in my bag, and asked if I wanted to deny that charge. I was sorely tempted to say that it could have been included in all bags manufactured since the beginning of the year, or something, but I didn't know how fucked I really was at this point, so I just affirmed that. Apparently, shuriken are illegal in Germany, but knives are fine. They're legal in the United States, so I don't see why they just let it pass through out of the country, but whatever. I've never followed politics or law closely unless it parallels a passion of mine, like freedom of pretty much anything or gay marriage.
Miller had rounded the corner by this point and was trying to figure out why the hell the German Police wanted to have a word with me, and she was quite irritated that they sent cops who speak two words of English: "No English". In all fairness, they provided an interpreter, and we are in their country, so I don't see a problem with that.
Around the shoulders of a conversation between the interpreter and Miller I tried to tell the German cops that there had been two shuriken, since I was afraid they'd re-check the bag and would be even more pissed if I didn't pony up about the second one, and I wondered if it had fallen into my carry-on. I kept trying to sign "two" with two fingers and point at the shuriken, and they just stared at me. All right. I naturally count on my fingers with the back of my hand away from me, and I use my index and middle fingers for "one" and "two", and I remembered in retrospect that is the equivalent of flipping the bird in England. I have no idea if that is offensive in Germany.
So, I may have been flipping off the German police.
While pointing at an illegal weapon they had taken from my bag.
Irritated as they were about the shuriken in my check-in bag, I knew I'd be absolutely screwed if another one was found in my carry-on, so I dropped my backpack and duffel and rooted through them for the second star. The cops seemed uninterested enough on the surface, but I felt that one of them was being painfully aware of what I was doing in his peripheral vision.
In typical passive-aggressive fashion I apologized and said that I had no idea this was contraband, given that "German jail" makes me think of the Gestapo, but I was only asked to provide my passport for photocopying and provide my "permanent address" in the United States. I was asked to sign a form in German; upon inquiry, it just said that I had peacefully surrendered the weapon, and if I didn't sign it, I wasn't going home anyway.
I wonder if this means I have a criminal record for possession of illegal arms in Germany. Sweet.
I was told that if I had been caught in a British airport with the shuriken, the authorities would have gone berserk.
After a thorough and fruitless search through my carry-ons, I went back through airport security, during which my duffel had to be hand-checked and go back through the machine (god damn my heart really did skip then), but just because a clock had confused them, or something. Maybe the cheeses looked like plastic explosives. In any case, the rest of the trip passed without event, besides getting to explain to various people what exactly had happened back across the security gates. Everybody already knew the basics of what had happened by the time I was back at the gate, as I'm sure Miller had gotten a slew of "what happened" inquiries.
The best part is that upon opening my bag back at Sky Harbor, there was one shuriken left in my bag. In the same compartment the other one had been in. It’s a small, mesh compartment. This is amazing. As glad as I am that one survived the search, how the hell do you miss that? Freaking German police. I gave it tozychi, though, as one was his anyway. At least I still have my boss Swiss Army knife that was an anniversary present, of sorts.
My body is convinced it is midnight, and it is hinting at shutting down right now. It’ll be difficult to get away with, as my parents want to pin me down and do college stuff right now. I went to sleep at 10:00 PM and woke wide awake up at 5:00 AM. Seven hours of restless sleep is not what I expected after having not really slept for 48 hours. The last night before the commute I think I maybe got a cumulative of one hour of sleep, given all of the spirited partying and the fact that my roommate locked me out so I had to sleep on a rather cold couch.
Oh, I was definitely in Berlin the night Depeche Mode was playing, but I didn’t get to go see them. Boo. I’d trade them for Death Cab anyday. I thought missing them in London by a week was bad enough. I did see the Blue Man Group for the first time, though, which was an awesome show. As much as I would have loved to be swinging my arms and yelling an encore rendition of “Everything Counts” with thousands of drunk Germans, I enjoyed the show immensely. Didn’t understand any of the spoken or written jokes, but most of the show is sans dialogue anyway. It’s badass. The music was excellent; I’m definitely going to get my hands on a copy somehow. Most shows I admittedly get antsy and hope it ends, regardless of how good it is, but I did not notice two hours go by. I did have that song stuck in my head the rest of the trip, though. I really hope the Playing the Angel tour has a DVD release, as the Phoenix show, at least, was amazing.
I have some-odd 1500 pictures to mine through. Maybe I’ll post some once I’ve given them a go-through.
Oh, if anybody remembers my graduation necklace from my parents, it definately fell off in Berlin. Fuck.
Oh, I finished Perdido Street Station this morning (the bookzoe_sama sent me for Christmas), and it is staggering. Creative in the manner of things that are half-intuition, half-brilliance. Cool. Plain, freaking the-stuff-of-intellectual-dreams, but also goddamn well-written. Not at all pretentious or smacking of pseudo-intellectualism. Think Cowboy Bebop-styled writing and dialogue, but grittier and harder and darker and more cyberpunk, with a heavier science fiction angle.
Stolen fromtanuki_dono.
The first 20 people to comment on this post get to request a drabble – ~100 words – on a subject/character of their choosing from me. In return, they have to post this in their journal. Post all fandoms you’re willing to write for.
Except I really don't care if you re-post the meme on your own journal, but the more, the merrier. And I'm not sticking to the 100 word count.
I know the rudiments of a great number of fandoms, but these are some of the ones I know most about / like most:
Anime / Manga: Tokyo Babylon / X, Escaflowne, Shoujo Kakumei Utena, Hellsing, Kino no Tabi, Evangelion, Cardcaptor Sakura, Sailor Moon, Pokemon, Trigun, Petshop of Horrors, Magic Knight Rayearth, Fushigi Yuugi
Other: House MD, Hannibal Lecter Trilogy, anything Jhonen Vasquez, Phantom of the Opera, Pirates of the Caribbean, anything Tim Burton, Batman Begins
If you can think of anything else you know I know, go nuts.
I was halfway through the security line in the Berlin airport when somebody told me that she had heard my presence requested at the "change desk" over the loudspeaker. I was sure that she had misheard until two of the trip chaperones told me that they had also heard my name, just as an attendant wove around the corner and asked me to follow him because the police wanted to see me.
There were two stern-looking cops in full drab-green regalia back at the check-in desk with one of my shuriken (throwing stars; think ninjas) on the counter. All right. So, we had been weapons shopping in Prague, because pretty much everything is legal there, and I didn't think there would be a problem with shuriken. They're a hell of a lot more useless than a Swiss Army knife, three of which I had in my bag right next to the shuriken.
Notably, there were also two shuriken in my bag since I was also carrying
zychi's stuff, flush against one another in file, and only one was on the counter. The police told the attendant something in German, and he translated that they had found this in my bag, and asked if I wanted to deny that charge. I was sorely tempted to say that it could have been included in all bags manufactured since the beginning of the year, or something, but I didn't know how fucked I really was at this point, so I just affirmed that. Apparently, shuriken are illegal in Germany, but knives are fine. They're legal in the United States, so I don't see why they just let it pass through out of the country, but whatever. I've never followed politics or law closely unless it parallels a passion of mine, like freedom of pretty much anything or gay marriage.
Miller had rounded the corner by this point and was trying to figure out why the hell the German Police wanted to have a word with me, and she was quite irritated that they sent cops who speak two words of English: "No English". In all fairness, they provided an interpreter, and we are in their country, so I don't see a problem with that.
Around the shoulders of a conversation between the interpreter and Miller I tried to tell the German cops that there had been two shuriken, since I was afraid they'd re-check the bag and would be even more pissed if I didn't pony up about the second one, and I wondered if it had fallen into my carry-on. I kept trying to sign "two" with two fingers and point at the shuriken, and they just stared at me. All right. I naturally count on my fingers with the back of my hand away from me, and I use my index and middle fingers for "one" and "two", and I remembered in retrospect that is the equivalent of flipping the bird in England. I have no idea if that is offensive in Germany.
So, I may have been flipping off the German police.
While pointing at an illegal weapon they had taken from my bag.
Irritated as they were about the shuriken in my check-in bag, I knew I'd be absolutely screwed if another one was found in my carry-on, so I dropped my backpack and duffel and rooted through them for the second star. The cops seemed uninterested enough on the surface, but I felt that one of them was being painfully aware of what I was doing in his peripheral vision.
In typical passive-aggressive fashion I apologized and said that I had no idea this was contraband, given that "German jail" makes me think of the Gestapo, but I was only asked to provide my passport for photocopying and provide my "permanent address" in the United States. I was asked to sign a form in German; upon inquiry, it just said that I had peacefully surrendered the weapon, and if I didn't sign it, I wasn't going home anyway.
I wonder if this means I have a criminal record for possession of illegal arms in Germany. Sweet.
I was told that if I had been caught in a British airport with the shuriken, the authorities would have gone berserk.
After a thorough and fruitless search through my carry-ons, I went back through airport security, during which my duffel had to be hand-checked and go back through the machine (god damn my heart really did skip then), but just because a clock had confused them, or something. Maybe the cheeses looked like plastic explosives. In any case, the rest of the trip passed without event, besides getting to explain to various people what exactly had happened back across the security gates. Everybody already knew the basics of what had happened by the time I was back at the gate, as I'm sure Miller had gotten a slew of "what happened" inquiries.
The best part is that upon opening my bag back at Sky Harbor, there was one shuriken left in my bag. In the same compartment the other one had been in. It’s a small, mesh compartment. This is amazing. As glad as I am that one survived the search, how the hell do you miss that? Freaking German police. I gave it to
zychi, though, as one was his anyway. At least I still have my boss Swiss Army knife that was an anniversary present, of sorts.My body is convinced it is midnight, and it is hinting at shutting down right now. It’ll be difficult to get away with, as my parents want to pin me down and do college stuff right now. I went to sleep at 10:00 PM and woke wide awake up at 5:00 AM. Seven hours of restless sleep is not what I expected after having not really slept for 48 hours. The last night before the commute I think I maybe got a cumulative of one hour of sleep, given all of the spirited partying and the fact that my roommate locked me out so I had to sleep on a rather cold couch.
Oh, I was definitely in Berlin the night Depeche Mode was playing, but I didn’t get to go see them. Boo. I’d trade them for Death Cab anyday. I thought missing them in London by a week was bad enough. I did see the Blue Man Group for the first time, though, which was an awesome show. As much as I would have loved to be swinging my arms and yelling an encore rendition of “Everything Counts” with thousands of drunk Germans, I enjoyed the show immensely. Didn’t understand any of the spoken or written jokes, but most of the show is sans dialogue anyway. It’s badass. The music was excellent; I’m definitely going to get my hands on a copy somehow. Most shows I admittedly get antsy and hope it ends, regardless of how good it is, but I did not notice two hours go by. I did have that song stuck in my head the rest of the trip, though. I really hope the Playing the Angel tour has a DVD release, as the Phoenix show, at least, was amazing.
I have some-odd 1500 pictures to mine through. Maybe I’ll post some once I’ve given them a go-through.
Oh, if anybody remembers my graduation necklace from my parents, it definately fell off in Berlin. Fuck.
Oh, I finished Perdido Street Station this morning (the book
zoe_sama sent me for Christmas), and it is staggering. Creative in the manner of things that are half-intuition, half-brilliance. Cool. Plain, freaking the-stuff-of-intellectual-dreams, but also goddamn well-written. Not at all pretentious or smacking of pseudo-intellectualism. Think Cowboy Bebop-styled writing and dialogue, but grittier and harder and darker and more cyberpunk, with a heavier science fiction angle. Stolen from
tanuki_dono.The first 20 people to comment on this post get to request a drabble – ~100 words – on a subject/character of their choosing from me. In return, they have to post this in their journal. Post all fandoms you’re willing to write for.
Except I really don't care if you re-post the meme on your own journal, but the more, the merrier. And I'm not sticking to the 100 word count.
I know the rudiments of a great number of fandoms, but these are some of the ones I know most about / like most:
Anime / Manga: Tokyo Babylon / X, Escaflowne, Shoujo Kakumei Utena, Hellsing, Kino no Tabi, Evangelion, Cardcaptor Sakura, Sailor Moon, Pokemon, Trigun, Petshop of Horrors, Magic Knight Rayearth, Fushigi Yuugi
Other: House MD, Hannibal Lecter Trilogy, anything Jhonen Vasquez, Phantom of the Opera, Pirates of the Caribbean, anything Tim Burton, Batman Begins
If you can think of anything else you know I know, go nuts.