ash clouds and socialism

the ash cloud may actually concretely affect my life. it's so weird to read the news about crazy things happening in far away lands, only to realize that you are in fact in that far away land and, unfortunately, the eruption of a volcano in iceland may prevent you from flying to the french riviera on thursday. not that i have much of a right to complain because it could be much, much worse, but still. sucky sucky.

anyways, life has been busy like whoah. on saturday night, a group of us went to the berliner ensemble, a theater in berlin that always plays bertold brecht. we saw the play 'mutter courage und ihre kinder'--aka 'mother courage and her children'. i kind of wish i'd read the description of the play before i saw it, because a bit was certainly lost in translation. but i was proud that i did get the jist of the story as it went along.

to be perfectly honest, though, i didn't really love the play. it's quite strange to go to a play in a foreign language. i wonder if it's even possible to like a play if you constantly feel that you're missing out on little nuances? though i suppose, shakespeare plays are really difficult to follow sometimes, and i still like them (except for the history plays, sorry dad, but they are really boring). so maybe i'm just not a bertold brecht kind of girl? i'm taking a language class that is 'theater' themed, which is great because it will definitely get me to the theater more often.

and get ready for the best factoid about germany-the-socialist-nation: berlin theater is subsidized by the government. yep, that's right. student tickets to a world-class theater cost only 5 to 10 euro. i am officially in love with socialism even more than i already was. sigh...

i spent all day yesterday eating brunch with friends and sitting in the park. i mean, literally all day. we arrived at brunch at 12 and sat on the terrace for three hours. yeah, and ate a lot, of course. it was truly very lovely. pictures to come later.