things about texas

• sky like an overturned soup bowl
• cotton and other such primeval vegetation
• chicken eggs as big as the palm of your hand
• hulk, silent house: the portrait of Muddy at the top of the stairs
• attic with every life magazine from 1935-1950
• the best cat fish/shrimp in the world

T minus seven days aka limbo

my trip abroad is weirdly structured, mostly because i'm going to texas for a week before hand to see my 93-year-old grandmother and other assorted relatives. technically, i'm leaving tonight (to stay in sacramento airport hotel) and then departing california tomorrow morning at the crack of dawn. i am all packed, my room is neater than it has been since i descended on it post-finals--my mother just remarked on how it is finally livable again (thanks mom)--and, well, i am currently waiting for my father to get back from work so we can drive to the airport.

in other news, it snowed last night so i had my wish--to wake up and see my home covered in snow--before i...well, before i go live in one of the snowiest places on earth.

ok, going to stop the nervous rambling. i hate waiting.

packed bags (very proud of how little i am taking, considering that winter clothing takes up so much space, etc)

(pink) home in snow

snowed in

Well, not really.

But it did snow today, briefly, at home. These are snowy pictures from two weeks ago when my parents and I went up to one of my favorite places, i.e. the hot springs in Sierraville, CA. Basically, you sit in this glorious warm/hot water for a few hours and look at nature. It's fun, I promise.

Lodge (very warm, very nice fire, very nice old people who play guitar and sing Willie Nelson songs, very nice chocolate for sale).
view from hot springs deck. behind me, imagine large warm pool full of people.
Very hot bath is in the dome building thing
Ahem, snow excitement. Wearing homemade-by-mother alpaca wool scarf. Will probably have this on every single day in Berlin (it is very warm).

Parents indulging my need to document them+snow.

packing disaster

My room circa 3 hours ago.

It's looking better now; everything is folded in neat piles. Tomorrow, I will begin the editing process.

i can't decide if it's real or still too far away to be

I always told myself that when I started looking, really looking, for a place to live in Berlin, that "it"--my study abroad--would become real. Today, I talked to a friend of our family's, Susi, who lives with her boyfriend in Berlin (I'll be staying with them when I first arrive). She basically confirmed what I already knew: that there were only three neighborhoods or boroughs of Berlin that I really should consider as ideal living situations for student life: Friedrichshain, Kreuzberg, or Prenzlauer Berg

I've been looking, and found some great places to share with other german or international students. It makes me so nervous not to know where I'll be living yet, but it's also incredibly exciting. The choice, though, seems at this moment to be a little beyond my grasp. I keep imagining my life differently based on the descriptions of potential roommates and pictures of the flats (Wohngemeinschaft, in German) themselves. I guess, really, that the decision is one I'll leave up to my future self--the one that will have to send emails of inquiry. (That is, my future self of three days from now. ACK.)

(Kreuzberg)

(Prenzlauer Berg)

(Friedrichshain)

Tomorrow,

the serious planning begins.

Happy New Year! I can't wait to meet you, 2010

will miss

my parents, in my blustery mountain town

I was all geared up and ready to go
bounding for to leave my mountain home with a sky of blue
between the leaves

and the color of the water was green
high over the sea.

“Do you have to leave so soon my boy?
The winter time aint even begun….”
“Well I’d stay awhile,” I turned to say.
“But the color of the water is grey and I’m going away..."

-m. ward, Color of the Water

cold

I recently learned (and have been telling anyone who will listen--repeatedly) that the average temperature in Berlin in February is 28 degrees Fahrenheit. As in less than 0 degrees Celsius. As in below freezing. As in: I do not own clothing that will keep me warm in below freezing weather.

But then today, I got to thinking. Below freezing means below zero. Which means snow. Which means that when I arrive in Berlin on January 31, yes it will be cold, yes it will be grey and overcast. But, yes, there will probably be snow. And snow--winter wonderland--that is something I can definitely handle.

image source

can't wait (mouthwatering)

I am a great lover of food. I am also a devoted fan of bakeries. And I cannot wait to wake up on a weekend morning in Berlin, trot down to my neighborhood bakery and stock up on freshly baked pretzels and brötchen (and maybe a slice of cake or two). Then, I'll go home, brew some strong espresso, curl up on the couch with a book or a friend and demolish it all.

where to go?

i'm having trouble with narrowing. my paper theses aren't narrow, my thoughts aren't either. this is troubling when confronted with the task of choosing. where should i go when i'm in europe? should i spend more time in berlin or concentrate on traveling?

in no particular order, (but in some particular order) here is where i'd like to go next semester:

istanbul, paris, rome, barcelona, prague, athens (plus every island in greece), st. petersburg and moscow, london (and to visit alex and laurence in their home towns, too), edinburgh, dublin, florence, venice, madrid, budapest, amsterdam, sarajevo, vienna.

there's more, but i already know the above is too much.

where do you go, when you want to go everywhere?

purchased my ticket today!

Isn't it beautiful? Seriously, so excited.

tenterhooks (can't wait can't wait)

Walls.

this, i will miss this

i will miss

Following in Taylor's illustrious and creative footsteps, I'm going to post a few bits and pieces of life I will be homesick for when abroad. The purpose of this is twofold: firstly, it will let those who are always on my mind know that that they will be missed. And secondly, it will facilitate easier access for me when I am particularly in need of familiar faces even when away from my, admittedly overflowing, iPhoto.

It is, of course, unnecessary to add that I will also be posting things I am unbelievably excited for, and maybe even a few steps in the really frustrating process of organizing everything for my trip.

Ciao

Yesterday, I sent in my official acceptance of admission to the Freie Universität Berlin (the Free University, Berlin). I may or may not have kissed the envelope before sticking it into the post office box. I also think that I put too many first class stamps on it, but I am deeply afraid that it will be lost in the mail. In the next few months, a little ID card with my name and (unfortunate Wallgreens) picture on it will be laminated and sent to my little home in Northern California.

And at the beginning of February, that little ID card will find its way into my wallet and back to the streets of a new city where, I hope, anything is possible.

For now I had better get back to the important things in life. Or rather, my schoolwork.