russendisko

highlight of my weekend was definitely the russendisko (aka the russian disco). bimonthly, a cafe/bar/mini club in mitte has 'russian disco night' and basically blasts the weirdest russian/techno/american-euro pop tracks for hours. it was an insanely intense dance floor--jam packed and hilarious dancing styles ensued. mostly, it was a giant mosh pit and such a guy thing! but i loved it, it was so weirdly fun to be twirled around the entire dance floor whilst bumping into equally sweatydrenched people. i'll be going again, i know this for a fact.

must dashdashdash!

xo

laundry day

guys, i am so busy. this weekend i barely stopped moving: it was grand and epic, but i feel at times that my mind is exploding from over-stimulation. my mom is coming to see me next weekend and i could not be happier. we're going to warsaw. it'll be easter weekend which means catholicism will be in full spring and blooooom. at least the churches will be open, so perhaps we can get our yearly dose of religion in. whaddaya say, mama?

Sidenote: easter is on steroids in germany. seriously, there are bunnies everywhere. i took a picture the other day, i'll try to remember to plug in my camera and upload.

i've been doing a lot of thinking these days; in the moments when i have the chance to be alone, i allow myself to really be alone. i was talking to my wonderful father about this the other day: the extremely important act of allowing oneself time to really reflect. it's not about being lonely, it's about seeing yourself through your own eyes and not through the vague (and frequently completely irrelevant) bird's eye view of other people.

and to end for now: i experienced two hours of extreme homesickness last thursday. it was intense, but just like heart-break, that feeling makes everything that is dear to me simply that much more beautiful.

xoxo

um, heyyyyy, crossing over into the mid-60s this week.

praise jebus

routine

i realized today that i am a complete hypocrite (do me a favor and look surprised please). when tay first left for barcelona, i whined on and on at her on skype, pleading for details of her everyday existence. then i got to berlin and have since not bothered to actually talk about my daily routine on the blog. mostly because daily routines are relatively boring no matter where on the planet you happen to live.

nevertheless, here goes:

I have language class at my university from 9:30-13:00 (or if my dozentin is feeling particularly cruel, 9:00-13:15) mtwthf. guf. the freie universität, or "free" university, is an hour-long metro ride from my apartment so, yeah, i travel the equivalent time i would if i were commuting from nevada city to sacramento every day. basically, i spend a lot of quality time hanging out with my ipod, zombily (i am aware that is not a word) staring people down creepily on the metro--it's normal, ok? i would especially like to note that german women read really, really crappy american novels translated into german, which is even worse in my opinion. being the cultured person i am (haaaaaa), I started to read erich maria remarque's die nacht von lissabon today. in german. so cultured, right? mhmmmmm.

we have a break half-way through class, thank god. we usually go upstairs to pi cafe, which is a really nice 'alternative' coffee shop at the fu. on sunny days (there have been two so far and i am not exaggerating), we sit on the terrasse. (titillating post so far, right?)

after school, my friends and i frequently eat in the mensa (cafeteria) of the fu, because we're cool like that. actually, the mensa is a pretty fantastic option for students--not like crossroads, which was sooo expensive/disgusting. i usually average meals around 2euro, including something to drink.

afternoons are spent either doing homework, or running, or other things, and then in the evenings we frequently meet up for dinner or at a kneipe (bar) and talktalktalk.

so there you go: that's been my life for the past three weeks, and will continue to be my life for the following three. actually, it's been really fun to have such a busy schedule, but i seriously feel like i never stop moving. the people are great, though, and that is something i am so thankful for.

i have to go to sleep nowwwwwwwwwwwww but first---

GO OBAMA I LOVE YOU (that is residual happiness left over from this morning. despite my irritated eye, i spent the majority of my metro ride to and from the uni smiling idiotically, which got me a couple of reproving looks from staid, older german gentlemen. smiling on the metro is VERBOTEN here. or if not, at least vehemently disapproved of).

this monday began as an 'off' day, for a stupid reason--my left contact lens irritated me the entire morning and i just couldn't get my mind off my eye. it's a idiotic reason to ruin a day, but it sure got me thinking about 'vision.' it's such an important part of our lives, the eye (allow me to get metaphoric here). when we allow ourselves to focus too acutely on negative things--like the pain in our irritated eyes, for example--sometimes that focus can completely take over our mental state and ruin something (like a beautiful, sunny day) that's perfectly fine.

i'm pretty proud of myself, though, because i definitely turned this day around. upon arriving home, i promptly took out my contacts and went on a long run in what i have discovered to be the most romantic spot in berlin. maybe someday, you'll be lucky enough to accompany me there....(HAA). i also embraced my glasses because, hey--sometimes you just gotta bring on the nerdy. i feel tons better after a good sweat. i've got a BIG week ahead: lots of work, and lots of visitors! stay tuned!

edit: i just read over this and realized my sentence structure has gone completely whack. stupid german is ruining the smallest ability i once had to express myself on paper(internet). stupid stupid DEUTSCH

if i was in berkeley, i'd be dancing in the streets

Let's celebrate Mr. Obama tonight; he made something happen that I didn't think was possible and I am, for the second shocking moment in the last 1.5 years, so very proud of my country.

Read about it here

“Tonight, we answered the call of history as so many generations of Americans have before us. When faced with crisis, we did not shrink from our challenges. We overcame them. We did not avoid our responsibilities, we embraced it. We did not fear our future, we shaped it.”

--President Barack Obama

really good weekend.

this, this was a great weekend. full of friends, laughter, no stress, adventure. basically exactly perfect in every way. i had a few girlies over on friday night for dinner/dj sesh where we listened to lots of pretty fabtastic european music from the 90s (eye-opening experience, for sure). after, we went dancing with a group of 'peeps' (HEY KATRIEN, IF YOU'RE READING THIS, THAT'S FOR YOU). downstairs, the club played techno and upstairs it was all about the remixed 90s stuff. it was crazy hot in there though, so sweaty but perfectly fun and exhausting. saturday was restful, and today was also great--brunch, fleamarket, and then fassbender&rausch for super rich hot chocolate.

Turkish Market, Kottbusser Dam: 19.03.2010

lady on a tight rope playing a trumpet. no big deal.

this is really embarrassing....

"krass"

"krass" is a word which many Berliners use. I mean, they say it all.the.time. It kind of means the same thing as the word crass in English, but sometimes, Berliners use "krass" when they like something. It's really hard to tell, though, and one must rely on one's wits when trying to figure out if you should agree heartily or not with the "krass"-ness of a given thing. It's quite a riddle.

nieselwetter

that sun i talked about in my last post? gone as surely as my name is a throwback to the 80s. i know i talk about the weather a lot, but i've realized since moving here how deeply i'm affected by lack of sun. in the last six weeks, i've become more pale (is it "more pale," or "paler"? in german the "more" doesn't exist, but my english is leaving me and i've now forgotten which is correct in my native tongue) than i've ever been in my life, and it's starting to bug me a little bit. i keep having extreme desires to fly to berkeley during finals week so i can just go lie at the pool at strawberry canyon and soak up sun until i positively go up in flames.
alright, enough.

i'm not going to poland this weekend, which i'm actually very thankful for. it's been kind of insanely busy over here this last week, and i'm super tired. actually, in a random turn of events, i'm going to leipzig again for a day trip tomorrow with my pals over at school. my class is actually great; i've met some very nice people and have started to feel like i actually will have a normal life here for the next 4.5 months, with friends etc. it's strange to think, though, that i still have another month before my school starts. by the time i'm in my third week of classes, most of you berkeley kiddies will be well on your way to finishing up this school year. it's hard to imagine, really, coming back to berkeley and seeing all my fellow juniors all growed up into seniors.

i'm still working on the poisonwood bible by barbara kingsolver; it is one of the toughest books i've ever read (i got a little teary-eyed on the metro today at a particularly gut-wrenching moment) but kingsolver's prose is utterly beautiful. i'm willing to admit that i'm deeply jealous of her talents.

i'm off for now, but i'll leave you with a little barbara kingsolver. read the book; it's wonderful.

My little beast, my eyes, my favorite stolen egg. Listen. To live is to be marked. To live is to change, to acquire the words of a story, and that is the only celebration we mortals really know. In perfect stillness, frankly, I've only found sorrow.

haven't written

i promise, i PROMISE to write something longer soon. two great things happened to me today:

• first: i received a care package from my parents which included two bottles of trader joe's hot sauce. i squealed a little bit. the food here is good but really, i'm constantly missing that almost overwhelming spiciness on the tip of the tongue. since i have two bottles, i plan on carrying one with me to school so i can douse the oh-so-cheap but super bland tasting mensa (cafeteria) food in it. life is looking up already.
• second: the sun is shining. amelia and i were discussing the other day how when the sun shines here, you feel it more than you do at home. it's almost like your skin comes alive and crawls; i can only describe it as an extremely delightful feeling.

i may be going to krakow, poland, this weekend with a few people. we'll see. gotta run!

the thing about books

today was my first day of language school at university (real classes don't start til april). in a way, it was like the first day of high school all over again: i was up at 6 am, in the tram by 6:45; i made awkward conversation with a bunch of other friendless kiddos. but in most ways, it was not like high school. we'll see how the rest of the course is; tomorrow is the real start of classes since today we did little else but drink delicious milchcafe in the mensa (cafeteria) and take a wicked placement test.

but that was not the point of this post. my metro ride is an hour each way, so it is very necessary to have a little bit of entertainment prepared for the ride. and so, the best most wonderful smile-inducing part of the day was my discovery of saint george's english bookstore. it is only a 10 minute walk from my apartment and its shelves, which stretch to the tippy top of the store's high ceilings, are chock full of english titles. UGH, I KNOW I SHOULD BE READING IN GERMAN. but here's the thing: reading in german is so tiring. i like to tear into books ferociously and that means i want to read them in english. i bought the poisonwood bible which i have been dying to read for years, practically. now must go; have to wake up at 7:15 people. this is almost unacceptable; except, i think it might be fun. let's see, shall we.

night