melt recap, schedule, i'm all over da place

i leave this here city in 23 hours. the past 48 have been, essentially, hell. because i'm not here with a program, i've had to do all of the ending-note type things on my own. that means unenrolling, telling the dmv equivalent that i'm going, canceling student health insurance, canceling phone, blah blah blah, you get the picture. this also means that i've had to face the prospect of jumping through a million hoops; the germans have not really improved their bureaucratic problems, as far as i can tell.

there were a few (hidden) tears involved and several very loud, public, 'fuck you, germany' s, but i think i've finally gotten it under control.

this last weekend, i headed to melt festival (as mentioned previously), and it was probably up there in my best overall life weekends. i was there with friends, we camped, we dealt with extremely drugged-out people (definitely my least favorite aspect of the whole music festival scene). i saw so many great bands, stood on my feet for something like 20 hours over the course of the weekend, sweated, danced. amazing. highlights were definitely: kings of convenience and massive attack (chromeo was surprisingly really good too) and then fred falke for the erlend oye sighting. erlend oye is part of kings of con. (koc for short roflkopter), and he came onto the dance floor during fred falke and we made eye contact as he walked within two feet of me. AHH.

ok, done. dear hannah: i've thought about it and the answer is officially: erlend oye shag, james mac marry, and christian bale kill. cb has got some real problems, just check youtube.

as usual, i'm explaining this way too quickly and not very well. i took pictures on two disposable cameras, just picked them up and they're pretty great but they'll have to wait to get scanned and put on the interwebs, because time is quite literally running by me. at the moment, i'm sitting at home waiting for my two much-heavier-than-when-i-got-here-six-months-ago suitcases to be picked up (they're being shipped to so-germany) while i take myself, my hideous hiking boots, pants-that-zip-into-shorts, and a rain poncho off to soireland where i will probably lose my tan. but see beautiful nature, so it's worth it. life schedule as follows:

july 23 (TOMORROW): 12.32- train to frankfurt hahn airport, meet mother at airport hotel

july 24: flight with mama to dublin international, meet daddy (yay!)

july 24: dublin

july 26: begin hiking tour

august 3: fly to frankfurt hahn, take train to town* where relatives live

august 7: fly from munich to sacramento--HOME

august 19: BERKELEY

* calling it a town is probably the most optimistic thing you could ever do. it has one street, a church, a graveyard, a post office, and a small store. my family lives on a farm. i plan on playing with chickens and eating cake by day, and then to get my cousins drunk by night. should be interesting.

tonight i'm going to meet my friends for the last hurrah in berlin. we'll eat pizza and drink beer on the lawn at boxhagener platz in friedrichshain. i'll tell them how much i will miss them, and i will attempt not to give in to any weepy instincts that surface. for now, i'll say chüss or ciao or byebye or whatever, and i'll see your lovely face when i see it (better sooner than later).

thanks for reading this semester. i think i'll write again, we'll see.

til then,

Liebe Grüsse lieblings,

Jenny