and, update again

i am terrible at this 'consistent blogging thing'. it's kind of like when i try to keep a diary: aka always a major fail. (i'll write a long, ten-page entry when i have a terrible day or something, vowing to write again 'tomorrow'-- and then nothing for two months until something else stupid happens.) i'm not sure why i thought blogging would be different? i actually kind of think i'm hesitant to write on this thing simply because i don't know exactly who is reading it. that's it: i'm writing on a blog instead of in it. obviously, i know that a blog is public, but it's hard to censor myself sometimes. i am not always very careful with my words--i write hurriedly, not carefully--i'm even too lazy to capitalize here which definitely says something about my time priorities. let's just say that there are a lot of things happening in my life that i could just never write about in a public setting like this.

i do sometimes self-centeredly wonder how many lurkers i have out there though. i guess i'll never know...

back to may 1:

the first of may is the worker's holiday. in berlin there are always a tonnn of protests on may 1. there's a traditional neo-nazi protest and then there's 'worker' protests in other areas of berlin. fun fact about germany: all protests must be registered with the police before they take place. yeah, you actually have to ask permission to protest. weird, right? the protests are pretty much always allowed, but the police can decide where and when you can protest. obviously, this has to do with the history of the country etc.

anyway, the protests in berlin on may first are pretty notorious for being violent. there are often riots and last year, about 300 policemen were injured (!). i went to an area of kreuzberg where the streets had been closed and where musical venues and food stands were set up. it had more of an open air festival feeling than of a protest, but there was definitely an undertone-feeling of violence--there were huge masses of people and a lot were drinking heavily. honestly, i kind of realized today that i'm kind of over the huge-mass-of-people outdoor festival thing. maybe 'over it' is not completely accurate, but at least, i feel like i've experienced enough of them to not feel this one to be particularly special or unique. i also wasn't super stoked on the fact that there was a definite undertone of anger, and i booked it out of there pretty quickly. i guess heavy drinking + angry men is not really my thing? i dunno...

tani and another friend from gv visited this week! we had a really nice time and it was so fun to have a little slice of home in berlin. hope this post was totally boring/weird. i'm in a rambling mood today i guess.

happy may first!