I paid my debt to the BVG

Once I got back to Berlin, I was happy to be back. Somehow even after London it seemed nicer. I can’t really explain it, perhaps after a rest I was just ready to see it differently. With two weeks left, crunch time basically began. Not only for finals but doing all those things you wanted to do but haven’t done yet. Living in London did help me to realize how impossible it is to get everything done, so I had a much more relaxed attitude about it in Berlin. I’ve seen lots of stuff, but still have left some things to do if I ever come back. Commuting everyday, going to the TU, and doing the everyday activities like grocery shopping and going to the internet café and things like that have given be a good flavour of Berlin.

But after London my adventures here were far from over. I’ve already mentioned some of the stuff I’ve done, specifically the awesome football stuff, but there’s more.

I’d like to tell you a story of the girl who forgot her wallet. I have had a monthly card for the underground system here for June. Unlike most systems, you don’t tap in/out every time you use it, it’s like a trust system, and occasionally you get checked as you’re on the train my plain clothed people. You may recall my mishap in Munich when I tried to cheat the system. Well, anyway, I wasn’t trying to do that this time. I had a final Wednesday morning, my mind was elsewhere, wasn’t planning on buying anything and I just forgot my wallet. I didn’t realize this until I had gotten to the TU, and there is no getting back from the TU without money or using the S-Bahn. I mentioned this in class, and no one volunteered a few cents for a ticket, even when the teacher said she would give me money, she didn’t, so I had to risk it. To get home, I take the S-Bahn about 7 stops, then the U-Bahn 2. I got through the S-Bahn nerve-wrackingly, being extremely vigilant the whole time, then switched to the U-Bahn and took a breather. Well, I should not have let me paranoia slide. I was suspicious of these people who came on on the last stop, but didn’t get worked up enough to get off the train in time. Well, I got checked. Never happened before. Never. And of course, the one time. Soooooo annoying. But the guy was nice about it and just told me I had to take my monthly card down to this place within a week to avoid the fine. I did that today, and it wasn’t too bad at all. Although, obviously I would have preferred not to do it. Unbelievable and totally just my luck.

Steve was here last weekend (for the last time… ) and we weren’t as efficient as we were the first time he visited but we did see some important stuff.

Most importantly, we went on the school sponsored tour of Sachsenhausen, the nearest concentration camp. The tour was excellent and the place was impressive (in the aweful kind of way) and we learned a lot. Honestly, I think you only need to go to one concentration camp in your life to really get the picture. And after going and seeing so many Nazi/World War 2 things in Germany, you really get inundated with awful stories and start to grow immune. I think it was good to go though and see it. It was sobering to say the least.

We also went to the East Side Gallery which is the longest stretch of preserved wall in Berlin. It was painted after the wall was opened by a bunch of Eastern Artists, but 18 years later is just that normal hodgepodge of touristy graffiti. But it was still interesting to see and there were some cool things. I won’t be able to put pictures up until my internet works, so stay tuned.

I showed Steve the Hotel Adlon (Michael Jackson hotel), the Brandenburg Gate, and the Reichstag. On the walk up Unter Den Linden, we saw the Memorial to all the victims of war, which was sort of meh, and the memorial of the Nazi Book Burning in 1933 (perhaps a little too modern art for me) and then we peeked around the Berliner Dom. I made sure we got in all the important stuff.

We also went to this really nice Indian restaurant down the street that I had just gone to with Julie and Corina. It’s probably my favourite restaurant in Europe. Which is weird, because it’s Indian (Asian fusion) but it is sooo good. Although, when I went with two girls we got free Naan bread. I did not get free bread with Steve there, not surprisingly. But he paid so it evened out :-P

Being with Steve was of course really nice and we made sure to utilize our last days together and not be lame and sad, so that was good. Won’t say too much more on the subject.

I’m not entirely sure what it is, I think just being constantly on the go for 6 months, but I am so tired. My only break was the two weeks at home which was consumed by pain of wisdom teeth removal. I am just so tired and need a break so badly. School is over now thankfully, and finals went OK, not as well as midterms but OK. Thank goodness it’s over because my motivation is just completely shot. Completely. I am so tired and drained and all-around knackered. It was so hard for me to get motivated to write the cover letter for my Fall internship and I’m sure it’s crap. I still have a ton of packing and cleaning to do, and just need to give myself one final push to get it done.

On that note, I’m tired of writing… I’ve been doing it all afternoon. I will write more when internet works again here. As that’s not likely, I will obviously make sure to post when I get home with the sum up.

One last Tschüss!

-Kate

Ich besuche London und vergesse ich dort meinen Herz

Yes, I went to London for the mid-term break. And I know what you’re thinking “why on earth would you go somewhere you just lived for 4 months when you could go anywhere in Europe?” But let’s face it, the rest of Europe doesn’t have a really cute boy whom I happen to be very enamored with in it. And trust me, leave America for 5 months and you too will take a few days in the closest place you can call home. This was not a “let’s go exploring” vacation for me; this sort of was a “going home” vacation. Everything was familiar, they spoke my language, and Steve’s place is no hostel. It was good to see people, as well (even if John was being kind of a wanker). I arrived in London sunburned and with what may or may not have been sun poisoning (Dad! Don’t worry! I’m OK!) and Steve was amazing taking care of me. I really don’t know what I would have done in some foreign country. Things would not have been ok. He was excellent. A public thank you to Steve for being awesome.

But we didn’t do nothing. You have seen the pictures I think. Did a few things I had always wanted to do, like get some good fish and chips, go to Kew Gardens, and go the beach. But also some old favourites like the Gourmet Burger kitchen and obviously we went to Oddono’s (Twice…). Steve made his excellent curry for me, watched Family Guy (in English!!) and just hung out and it was great. It felt really good to be walking around South Ken again and knowing where everything was (still better than Steve). And I got the behind the scenes view of the Natural History Museum. Oooo. No, not that exciting. Sorry.

Brighton was good stuff. Sure, perhaps not the hot southern New Jersey weather, and perhaps the water was just over 50 degrees (I did not go in, my feet loudly protested). Steve, being a true Brit, did take a dive. He then promptly put on a sweater. But when the sun was out, it was quite nice. A very nice big big beach. Sure there were some chavs in training nearby, but that’s ok, it was still nice. The place has clearly cleaned itself up since Grandma was there many years ago. We went and got our fish and chips at a really good restaurant (definitely fresh… nice) and “American floss” aka Cotton Candy. No idea what got lost in translation there. It was sort of like Cape May. It was without the endless tourist shops and in general much smaller, sans Fudge Kitchen and Joe Bogel, thankfully. No familial encounters either. It was nice, and I was super careful in the son. I promise!

I went to LSE and got a graduate prospectus and talked to a woman who answered my questions. I looked through the booklet and I am hooked. I need to get my grades up, and then I am there. I really hope I get in, it’s an amazing school with amazing programs and it would be amazing to study in London again.

Being in London was nice. It just felt right. I actually didn’t want to leave. Partly because of Steve but in general I just love London, yes, much more than Berlin. This time leaving, I knew that soon after I would be leaving Europe and my next visit to London will be in who knows how long. Probably years and years from now.

Perhaps I felt so nostalgic because I wasn’t going home, but once again somewhere foreign. I’ve realized that I think no matter how long you’ve lived in a place or how well you speak the language, it can’t really be home unless you speak your native tongue. There’s just something about speaking what you grew up with and spent most of your life speaking. There’s a connection there I think you don’t get no matter how fluent you are. Perhaps one day I will live in a foreign country and become fluent in some language and feel differently. I’ll let you know then.

I want to make it clear that I don’t dislike Berlin. I just like London better. Berlin is, as mom pointed out before we parted ways, just shabbier. It’s getting there and probably improving all the time, but it still is covered in graffiti, sans skyscrapers and filled with non-traditionalists. It definitely has it’s own charm and I’m extremely glad I came here. But you know, then you see someone shooting up in the corner and you just think, is this really my kind of place? The program has been amazing, and I’ve learned a lot, and my German, which I have always wanted to learn, has improved beyond what I ever thought I would get in 6 weeks. I would not change my choice to come to Berlin by any means. It’s the capital of one of the world’s most important countries and is becoming increasingly important as the EU slowly takes over the world. I’m really glad I got to live here and learn more about it and its history. London, and some certain people there, just spoiled me.

Deutschland Gewinnt!!

Wow, so it’s been a long time, I’m sorry about that. Internet has gotten progressively worse since the start of the program. And ever since I had that odd encounter with hijacked AIM at the internet café, I’ve been wary of going down there too much. Also, Steve was here last weekend, finals this week, London last last weekend… it’s been busy.

So, I’ll start with some things that I’ve done since I last posted.

I went to the (in)famous Checkpoint Charlie with Julie awhile back. It was extremely kitschy and very pro-American. Which obviously meant I liked it. There’s the actual reconstruction (or it’s the same thing, I forget) of the checkpoint outside with a big American flag, a big sign warning us we were leaving the American Sector (why would you want to do that?) and even believe it or not, fake soldiers in like 1960s uniform from the US, the SU, and Great Britain (they might have had French ones there, but I didn’t see any when I happened to be there). The soldiers were lackluster to say the least, clearly annoyed with the lot they had been dealt as their part-time College job, but they were there, which was a nice touch. You had to pay to get your picture taken with them, but when I finally decided it was so painfully tacky and touristy to be worth 1 Euro, the American soldier when off-duty and I no longer felt it was worth it.

The House am Checkpoint Charlie was the big museum attached to it. It was mediocre (full of translation typos), but the point was there: people didn’t like Communism and did whatever they possibly could to escape. A few of my favourites: hollow out two surfboards, put someone in them on the top of your roof, and drive through; hot air balloon over the border (this worked in the 1970s with 8 people); and last but not least, armour plating basically all of your car and just driving it through the wall. This didn’t work too often, but I appreciate people’s efforts.

There was a big wall display (no, not the wall) full of information about the whole Cold War, and reading it made me realize how repetitive all of Berlin’s Cold War history monuments, museums, etc are. Sure, a lot happened, but let’s face it, there’s only so many classes and places you can visit before you just know what it is they have to say about it.

Can’t remember if I’ve mentioned this before or not, so I’ll just do it again. Whenever you’re around really touristy areas where they tend to congregate, you will inevitably run across the “Kosovo Refugees.” These are usually women and children who will go up to you and say “speak English?” If you make the mistake of thinking the little boy in the Holocaust memorial actually just needs your help, and you say yes, you will be handed a piece of paper explaining how he was born in Kosovo and is now a refugee and English speaking people (namely, Americans and British) had their hand in his country’s demise (why don’t they ask Serbs?) and how you need to give them money. They are everywhere. I have been asked at least 14 times. It’s gotten to a point where they come up to me when I’m clearly speaking English with someone and ask and I said “no, I don’t” with my American accent. Then they say “speak Deutsch?” And I reply “nein.” If they really push after this about me clearly speaking one of those languages, I give some Spanish reply. This tactic works well.

Berlin seems to have a lot of people constantly asking for your charity and no one seems to mind this. On the subway, you will be regularly confronted with people giving you some spiel about why you need to buy their newspaper and who it helps, etc etc. There’s lots of different instances of things like these, and I have to wonder how profitable such ventures are. People are so inundated here with helping random people that I have to imagine they get tired of it and probably have some tight purse strings. But I don’t know, they keep doing it, so perhaps Berliners are just generous people (although I’ve never seen anyone give money).

Anyway, real issues. I went to Weimar, known to some as the home of Goethe and Schiller, others as the home of the Weimar Republic. And it was like any other small town in Europe. Surprise surprise. They’re all starting to blend together. We did see the Bauhaus campus (no, not the band, the architectural movement!), the building where they had Parliament, Goethe’s house, and all that good stuff. Weimar was quite pretty, as you can see from my pictures, and Corina and I even got some nice cheap and good pizza for lunch. Weimar wins for least expensive place in Germany so far. (I think Manchester wins overall) As I’m not a huge Goethe buff, and there’s not a whole lot of history involved in the Weimar Republic (you know, all 14 years of it), it was ok. It was a fun day out, and the weather was nice. On the bus back, Alfredo Franco (one of the professors) got a little microphone happy and decided to have a music concert (he’s really into Bauhaus…. Like really into Bauhaus, and I think seeing it all day long excited him in ways I’d rather not write about). Him and Professor Donahue bought a bunch of desserts (likes cookies and things) and told people if they sung hits from the ‘70s they would get some. I didn’t have the balls to go by myself (I am one of the worst singers I know), but Corina went with me and we did a “we don’t really know the lyrics” version of I got you Babe. That was good, and we got the cookies. Other people did funny stuff. This has nothing to do with Germany at all, but it was enjoyable.

OK, now, the good stuff. Deutschland Fussball. Yes, so no idea who’s been following, but the Euro Cup 2008 is on now. And of course, Germany is in it. Not only is Germany in it, they are about to go to the final. The first game they played was against Poland and it was big. I don’t know if you’re aware, but for reasons I can’t entirely understand (note: oozing sarcasm), Germany and Poland don’t particularly get along. When they play each other, shit goes down. Before they even played, there was a Polish newspaper that had on the front cover a picture of the Polish coach holding the Captain (Ballack) and Coach’s (Löw) heads on a platter. Nice. He later apologized. This was probably tinder for the fights that broke out between the two fan groups in Austria (Where the cup is being help) the night before the game. But Germany crushed them. We went to a fan set up with lots of benches and TVs and lots of fans in Alexanderplatz (see pictures) and it was definitely good fun.

As you may remember from the pictures, there is a picture of me drinking on the U-bahn. This is a very strange phenomenon to me. It was allowed in London while I lived there (thanks to new mayor Boris Johnson, that is no longer the case), but I never did it. Here is just seems more natural. If you’re en route to something like a Football game (note, I almost never call it soccer anymore, c’mon America, let’s get on that party train… we’re unique enough as it is), you just have to. So yeah, just an aside.

Anyway, Germany won that one and I happened to miss the game they played against Croatia (which they lost) because I was in London and got the times wrong, but oh well. Anyway, they then played again Portugal, which I don’t think many people really expected them to win. We went to a bar / concert hall type place (sort of like TT the Bears if you have any idea what I’m talking about…, only bigger) where many a German fan congregated. This was kind of annoying because they perhaps packed too many people in and everyone not sitting in chairs insisted on sitting on the floor and if you stood up because you couldn’t see beyond the chairs in front of you, you got roundly yelled at by angry German fans. They are dedicated, but apparently lazy. This just got annoying so we left at half time. But it was an amazing game. The score was 3-2, but the playing did not reflect that at all. The two Portugal goals were lucky, Germany was phenomenal. They totally deserved to win. Sorry Ronaldo, you may be beautiful, but Man Utd won the Champions league, you don’t also get to win the Euro Cup. Now go, go deflect to Real Madrid.

So, this meant Germany was in the semi-finals. And better yet, they were playing against Turkey. Turkey has had some amazing come from behind wins and basically shocked all of Europe by getting so far. Are Turks even European? That’s a discussion left for the EU, but believe me people have been wondering. More importantly, Germany has the highest population of Turkish people outside of Turkey. And more importantly, I live essentially in a neighbourhood called Kreuzburg, which has the highest population of Turks in Berlin which has the highest population of Turks in Germany. Basically, you can see Doner Kebap and Baklava everywhere you go. Everyone was expecting shit to go down last night when they played. Fortunately for me, it did not. It was a really good game, 3-2 (Which left everyone, even the losers, which a sense of Pride, they did not get hosed) and I got uber pro-Germany. Watched it here because I didn’t want to get caught up in anything out and about and we had an excellent time. Pictures to follow soon. You can be sure I will be watching the final (against either Russia or Spain, that is to be decided tonight) on Sunday from the good old USA.

I just wanted to share a random and gross observation. On the day I went to London, my milk expired. I have no idea what I was thinking, but I was just like, ohh, I’ll deal with it later. Then when I got back, knowing what awaited me, I just let it go a little longer. When I finally did deal with it, it was chunky. But, it didn’t smell. Yes, apparently, rotten German milk does not smell bad. They are very clearly onto something here!

Anyway…

Weird story. Yesterday Julie and I were on our way to class and went to the U-bahn stop as normal at like 8:15 and we were walking down the station, and halfway down between the two sets of stairs where there is like a bigger open space, we saw someone sitting in the corner doing drugs. And not just smoking a joint, like, getting his syringe ready. This was one of the least pleasant things I’ve encountered thus far in Berlin. I can’t be entirely sure, I’m fairly ignorant about that kind of stuff, but I think I’ve seen enough Requiem for a Dream (not to mention Trainspotting) to know what the hell was going on. Poor Julie didn’t, and I had to break the bad news to her. Perhaps this is something you would encounter in any city, I have just been lucky so far as to not; however, I feel like it’s probably less surprising in Berlin than places like London and Boston.

Onto something less serious. There is something different about bottles here. Furthermore, soda bottles are made of much harder plastic than in other places. I do not understand that. And pepsi is even harder to find. But there’s something about bottle caps I just can’t stand. You know when you open a bottle cap and there’s that little ring that’s left behind on the bottle? Well, in Germany, on every single bottle, the ring stays connected to the cap. Ok, that’s fine. But, the whole thing doesn’t stay connected, only by like 2 little sections. So you end up with these semi circles of plastic peeling off the bottle cap and being a weird nuisance in general. And you can’t peel them off, they are stuck fast. Anyway, you notice weird differences when you live away long enough. They no longer become novel and turn into “but, why?”

I usually talk about finances, so I’ll do a little bit of that now. I’ve definitely spent less here than I think I might have in 6 weeks of London. Food is more expensive here (I love you Sainsburys), but everything else is cheaper. Especially laundry. And I would like to note that I have become so economical I actually took only dirty clothes to London and washed them for free at Steve’s. Brilliant. I made sure to take no dirty clothes home and what was still dirty he did for me and brought to me later (awwww!) I still steal toilet paper and make sure to save all my bottles to take them back to the deposit place. I eat more noodles now and make my own iced tea in lieu of Pepsi or buying anything. Gummy bears are mad cheap, so don’t worry about that. I also go out wayyyy less here (I’ve only been out clubbing once since I’ve been here.. how lame is that?) which saves tons of money. Anyway, Berlin in general is cheaper and of course the exchange rate is getting better* so overall I’m doing alright. I also survive on a lot less here ( I don’t even have a microwave or toaster) probably because of the 6 weeks mentality so it’s nice to know I can do it.

*I would like to take this opportunity to express my frustrations with the fact that the dollar has just now started to get stronger again against the Euro. Every time I see the stock reports on the little news stuff they play on the U-Bahn TVs, I see that the Euro is sinking. Of course. I leave Saturday. How much does that suck. Unbelievable.

I never used to like carbonated water. I never saw the point and firmly believed it tasted differently and not as good. Even in London, where carbonated water is far more prevalent than the US, it still did not appeal to me. Something has happened to me here. I can’t get enough of the stuff anymore. I love carbonated water. I will miss it intensely when I go back. It’s even started to replace gummy bears as the thing I treat myself with. I cannot explain why this is happening. It’s just so delightfully refreshing. How can you go wrong with water with bubbles? You can’t.

I bought strawberries the other day from the stand in Alexanderplatz that I walk by every single day with the best smelling strawberries ever of all time and they were the best tasting strawberries ever of all time as well. They grow them nearby and they are just, oh, soo good. I wish I could share them with you all. Take my word for it. Wow.

We went out to lunch the other day for German class on the last day (with the intention of having it be speaking and ordering in German, but that degraded quickly) and as we sat in the restaurant I heard a Wolfsheim song come on. I was of course the only one who knew it and since you probably haven’t heard of them, the first time I heard them was a Goth club (although, they are more EBM) and it was neat to hear them in their home country. It’s sort of nice to be in a country where alternative music is more accepted and people have heard of it. I’ve discovered a lot of cool music here (thanks mostly to MTV being one of the only semi-English channels) and I will take it to America to share. Anyway, it was just a neat “oh right, I’m in the country where some of my favourite groups are from!” moment.

I’ll split the entries now to make this not entirely monotonous.

London adventures next!

-Kate

Mini Update

Internet isnt working at the apartments, so Im here at the good old internet cafe, probably having my identity stolen via AIM. Long story, but I am forever wary of that YMCA guy. Luckily he is not here.

Anyway, so my time in Berlin is surprisingly winding down. This past month has flown by, and now Im down to less than 2 weeks in Europe. To be honest, Im more than ready to go home. Im just very tired. Like, not sleepy tired, but knackered. I took my 14th flight in 4 months the other day. Yes, for real, 14th. I love going to all these places, but the constant go go go has really started to get to me. And I guess the fact that its summer, but Im still spending my days sitting in classrooms and doing homework. I like both my classes and I like what Im learning, but summer school is not for me. 2 semesters in a year is plenty.

But despite this, Im still doing a lot. As you can see from the pics I posted, before break, I went to the Germany football game. Euro 2008 is in full force here, and its a lot of fun. Living in the Turkish neighbourhood, you get to hear that excitement and hear the fireworks go off whenever they win, and then being in Deutschland, you get to experience the same thing whenever Germany wins. If Germany beats Portugal this week, which isnt likely, but if they do, then Turkey and Germany will play each other. Craziness will inevitably ensue.

We ended up having a Monday off due to some weird scheduling problems, so we decided, as you can also see from the pics to go t Wannsee. It was super nice and a lot of fun, minus the sun burn. Which was stupid, but it didnt feel that hot at all, and I was like, pshhh, Northern Europe, whatevs. That whole aspect was kind of a mess. Oh well. I do look nice and bronzed now, though. Woot. It was really pretty, and nice swimming in something not wildly salty.

In other news, this keyboard is really hard to type on. Not only because some of the keys are in different places (notice I didnt say wrong, I said different... so enlightened), but because its really stiff and actually legit is tiring my fingers. So I will write more when internet at meine Wohnung arbeitet. When the internet works at home.

Tschuß for now,
Kate

Article

Berlin's Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week kicked off with one of the few big names on the program -- Hugo Boss. Before I start in on why Hugo Boss overdid it, it's important to note that Germans overdo everything, so it's probably unfair to give Hugo a hard time. Let me explain: Do Berlin clubs really need to stay open until 5 p.m. the next day? No. Do Germans really need to drive 180 miles per hour on the autobahn? No. Must they drink beer at breakfast? Hopefully not. But they do -- because they're German, and somehow, therein lays their charm. If the Germans are going to do anything, they're going to do it to the extreme. They take a good idea -- or even a bad idea -- as far as it can go, and then some. Nihilism, hedonism, and sadomasochism all have their own niche in the collective German consciousness. And let's not forget fascism. Berliners definitely haven't, since it's all over Fashion Week here.


From an article during fashion week in Feb 2008. I think it makes a good point.

More soon, after my presentation and other school related things tomorrow. Got a lot to say!

For now, pics:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2278342&l=2c42e&id=919676

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2278333&l=8c36a&id=919676

You Can See the Stars in Berlin

Sorry I haven't updated in forever, I was going to wait until after Steve's visit, but then I remembered I immediately had midterms following that.

Midterms were super easy. Like, worrisomely easy. I don't want to say too much because I haven't gotten my grades back yet, but yeah, they were both probably the easiest exams I've ever taken. And I just did a semester in London, so that's saying something.
I'm finally starting to get German. Mareen is an amazing teacher, and things are really starting to click for me. It's tough to get things like the nominative and accusative when frankly, I don't really understand what they are in English. Although, I could now tell you. I love finally being able to go around and understand (well, some) signs and things. When Steve was here, I was actually able to do a little ordering food, and understanding what people were saying, asking for tickets in German and things like that. There were definitely times when I was still completely out of it, but for 2 weeks, I'd say that's pretty good. Going to the country to learn the language is definitely the way to go, you really do get much more out of it. Hopefully by the end of 6 weeks, I will be able to hold my own.

Last week I went to a "Freiluftkino" (Free air movie), that was out doors on a big screen, like drive in movies, although replace the cars with reclining deck chairs and big blankets. We saw a movie called the Counterfitters about the counterfitting operations that happened in Sachsenhaus Concentration camp during the war. It was really good, even subtitled. There was also a protest going on in Kreuzburg at the time (squatters, which are really big in this neighbourhood, were protesting the fact that the owner of the building was reclaiming his space), and there were tons of police sirens. You know, the quintessential wail of the German / European siren that continues to send shivers down my spine. It was a movie viewing situation, the movie and the atmosphere, that really could have only happened in Germany. It was enjoyable.

Other than that, last week was vaguely uneventful. Julie and I went down the Reichstag to take a look around on Thursday, which was neat. You don't get to see much, they really limit your access (understandably), but you do get to go to the top and in the big dome and see the surrounding area. It's a very impressive building. No Angie spottings, though. There was a ridiculously long line to get in, so I just hung out on the big steps and did a little sunbathing. That's right, i was lounging on the steps of the Reichstag. I'm kind of a big deal. We were going to stop by the American Embassy, because it's fairly new and supposed to be cool, and just because I wanted to check it out, but when we were done at the Reichstag, it was closed. It's right next to the Brandenburg gate. Seriously prime real estate. Right next to the Adlon Hotel. The really famous / fanciest hotel in Berlin. You may better know it as the hotel whereMichael Jackson dangled his baby from the balcony. Berlin, full of history.

Did laundry for the first time, which was indeed a cultural experience. There were about a billion load options on both machines, and they were all in German. Apparently we discovered once all our stuff was in the dryer that hidden in the corner was an English translation. Live and learn. My clothes came out totally fine, albeit my living room was absolutely covered in not-yet-dried clothing for most of the day.

I've discovered that in Germany, when you buy something that says "seedless," what they actually mean is at least 4 seeds in every grape. And I bought the German equivalent of Cup of Noodels / instant noodles here, and I have got to say: after eating them in no less than 3 countries now, America wins. Ramen noodles are superior. Super Noodles nake a close second. But Germany: work on this. I discovered that its almost impossible to find bacon here. At restaurants, it's all over theplace, but you will not find it in stores. I don't get it. Lunch meat here is also in a league of its own. I saw something in the shape of a teddy bear the other day, that was like processed meat smashed together to make different patterns / colours on the bear, and it was probably the last thing I would ever want to put in my body. They are also way into Gouda here. It's pretty much the only sliced / block cheese you can find. I miss English cheddar. Vermont, too. I need to go grocery shopping, but being on the top floor of an elevatorless apartment building makes me really not want to. I am dangerously low on vittles, though, so I will probably have to.

So everytime I'm in a foreign country, I'm all about blending in as much as possible, which I think I've talked about before. Well, that's not so much possible here. I was walking down the street with Julie the other day, and some guy stopped us and was like "you're American aren't you" And it was just like, um, yeah, what? Thanks for pointing that out. Why do Europeans care so much? Why is it always something they have to root out? It's the most annoying thing ever. And then when they find out you're American, that's all they want to talk about, good or bad. This goes even more for the English, actually. And usually with them it's negative. The Germans are at least pleasantly inquisitive.

Speaking of the English...

Yes, so Steve came to visit last weekend and we had such a blast. It was really nice having him around for the weekend and going out and doing things. It's obvious that I've inherited mom's immense planning skills. I had a bunch of stuff planned out specifically catering to an ecologist's interests and he very clearly enjoyed it. We went to the Zoo, which actually has the most species in the entire world. It was very well done and definitely a good time. We even saw Knut. Knut, if you don't know, is quite famous in Germany. His mother left him to die, and there was some controversy saying that if nature intended, then Knut should be left to die, which is ridiculous. Obviously, they didn't kill him, but he's been raised by humans since birth and is very very captive, if you will. He was huge as a pup because he was so cute, and still attracts quite a bit of attention. He's sort of like a child star, though, and now as a teenager, and is sort of messed up. They put him in his own enclosure because apparently he doesn't so much play well with others. Anyway, the Zoo was great, and then we went to this nice Biergarten I had heard of and had some Weisswurst (veal sausage), Brezel and Bier of course.

The next day we went to the Museum fur Naturkunde. Yes, of course, the Natural History Museum. It has the largest dinosaur skeleton in the world and the first and most intact bird fossil ever found. And you know, who doesn't want to spend their Sunday afternoon seeing that sort of stuff? Actually, to be honest, I love going to stuff like that with people who actually know what they're talking about, so, essentially, Steve. I learn a lot more and am able to really get more out of it.

We did the Fernsehturm, the big TV tower thing in a bunch of my pictures. That was cool, but perhaps not as cool as it should have been? Although, it's going up high and looking down. Basically what you would expect. I was able to point out a lot of stuff to Steve which made me feel cool. I know much more about this city than I thought I did. He was also really impressed with my German after two weeks. He relied on me quite a bit, and was vaguely terrified when confronted with having to use German. He's actually lived in Germany for like 3 years or something when he was little (dad in the army), but didn't learn anything, and then, sadly, took French.

Anyway, so we saw some basic sights and did the sciencey things, also had some good German food / beer. It was super nice to have him here, even if Berlin is full of allergens that made him cough non-stop the entire time he was here (icky). I really like this kid, really glad he came over to visit me, it meant a lot. We discovered when looking out my window that you can sees the stars in Berlin at night. This was a complete shock to both of us, but very nice. For some reason it meant a lot to me.

In other news, I've decided I need to cut back on my gummy bear intake. I'm on a bit of hiatus. I actually have felt like crap the past two days (my own allergies? general cold? i don't know), and I think I'm going through withdrawl. I only wish I was kidding.

Steve and I also came tothe conclusion that this place, like most of continental Europe is like chilled out to the max. We were out to dinner on a Monday night and everyone was just sitting around, hanging out. Part of this is summer, but you still probably wouldn't see this in the US or even London. I like this for vacationing, but I could not deal with this in my life. It's all well and good to be relaxed and not care about anything, but I am not that kind of person. As soon as someone doesn't stand on the right side of the escalator, I get annoyed. I could not be that person. Also, there are the people who hog the Marx and Engel monument all to themselves for like 15 minutes taking pictures, totally unaware of anyone around them or people waiting to do the same. Ughhh, soooo annoying. It's not that they're being rude, it's just that they don't care / notice. This annoys me. A lot. I suppose it's better for society as a whole though to not have a proverbial stick up the ass all the time, but I'm American, so that's just how it is.

Why do Germans have such a penchant for flavouring their beer? Like, this is the land of good beer, and there is a constant attempt to alter this. Becks makes Becks, but they also make Becks Orange, Becks Lime, Becks Lemon, Becks mit lime und mint. There's X: Bier mit Cola, Bier mit Cherry, Bier mit other things you don't want in beer. Then there's Desperados: Tequila flavoured beer. Like, seriously, if you want that sort of thing, get a mixed drink, or just drink juice. Germany, you have a good thing going here, don't ruin it.

I returned my bottles today at the grocery store, and it was an interesting thing. It's not like the ones you may have seen before in CT or something. You put them in the little hole, and they go down this conveyor belt, where they are scanned and analyzed for acceptability, if they are accepted, they continue on, but if they are rejected, they conveyor back to you. I got 1.71 Euro back, so that was cool. You pay the deposit everytime you buy something (it varies with everything), and it's called Pfand (no idea what the translation is), not included in the actual price of whatever you're buying, but a pleasant surprise afterwards when you forget and didn't get enough change out.

Weather has been super summery lately. And Germany has kein Air Conditioning. Anywhere. The last time I was in air conditioning was Tuesday night when I went to the movies (to see Sex and the City, which I recommend like woah). That doesn't seem too bad, but the temp has been 80 something the past few days, so it sucks. It has cooled down since the weekend a bit when it was hot as hell, almost up the 90s. Germany really need to get on the AC thing. Like, fine, pre-Global Warming, maybe there was no reason for it, but sorry, it does get hot here now. Like, hot hot. Almost 80 in early June means July / August will be deathly. And our teacher today was like "oh man, you take a bunch of Americans and put them in somewhere over 75 degrees and they just freak out" And we were like, actually, German people get hot too. You see them sitting there sweating on the S-bahn, too, so yeah.

Anyway, enough complaining. Open all the windows / doors, and we get a wind tunnel of nice cool air that lets in all sorts of plant and animal life, but makes living here bearable. But trust me, go home and kiss your AC and blast it for a few minutes for me. Be cold. Enjoy it. Avoid sweating for like 15 minutes. Tell me what it's like.

I will leave you with this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agHQhv4uk7w

And then you know will know Germany's most popular commercial, most popular ice cream company, and what gets more air time than Angie. All the time they play this thing.

If I seem uber annoyed today, it's because I feel like crap. I feel like there's a giant cold building up inside of me, but instead of coming out, it's just building up in my head. Booo.

Pictures

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2274316&l=0ae2d&id=919676

More to come when I don't have midterms.

Midterms in June? What?

Quiz show?

Watch this, seriously.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=fiVbwn9VhzQ

Then you will know what I'm talking about...

Das Fotos aus Berlin und Dresden

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2270470&l=a5572&id=919676

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2270478&l=0e7d6&id=919676

Wie, bitte? Ich verstehe das nicht...

Here I am in Northern Europe and I have gotten me a nice tan. I spent a lot of time on Sunday sitting outside on my balcony (yeah, you heard right, by balcony) in the sun learning German vocab and other stuff. That and Dresden the day before gave me a nice little glow. I hope to keep this up throughout the Berlin experience and come home lookin’ good. I already did look good though, so even better.

The weather has been quite nice. Not too warm and definitely not too cold, plenty of sun. Not having air conditioning has not been a problem yet, which I’m really happy about. The sun being in the sky for about 17 hours a day still throws me off a little. Nothing like waking up to sun in your face at like 5 am. Ick. It also always seems so much earlier than it actually is, until it actually does get dark, and then it feels way later than it actually is. It’s weird though, London is further North and I definitely didn’t notice this. It could be said that London certainly has more clouds so these things go unnoticed, but I don’t know, I’d prefer to think that Berlin has some weird weather phenomenon. Which is incorrect, but much more interesting.

Now, for what you’ve all been waiting for. How is my German. Well, still pretty damn bad. Sehr schelcht. I’m definitely doing well for only having one week. It’s fairly intensive, lots of class hours a week, and the teacher is really good, but I’m still fairly lost when out and about. As soon as someone speaks to me, I try so hard, but I just glaze over. I’m getting OK at getting what people mean from actions and things like that, and picking up a few words, but it’s still really hard. It’s really frustrating, like, I just am immediately called out as soon as anyone says anything to me. I guess I was immediately identified in London as soon as I opened my mouth (unless I was faking an accent), but here it’s just so much worse. You just feel stupid and completely out of your element. I just want to be like, no I promise you, I’m not ignorant, this is my 3^rd language, I’m trying! Also, I could blend in much more easily in London. Here, I really don’t have that German style (even if I do have blonde hair and blue eyes), not that I would ever want it, but it’s very clear that I am immediately ID-ed as an American. I’ve got no problem with them, but it’s weird how you sort of start to miss anonymity. Everything is just a little harder. I can’t just pay for something at the till, I’ve gotta search for the screen that says the price or say “Wie, Bitte?” like 18 times. It seems like little things, and I guess it is, but it’s rough. And Germans, bless them, have this nice habit of immediately responding in long and complicated German as soon as you say one successful thing in German.

There’s also the problem that you can learn German in a classroom and learn some grammar and vocab, but real world usage is soo different. It’s one thing to fill in blanks in a quiz or ask a partner, but totally another to ask for something at a restaurant or for something at the grocery store.

Speaking of, grocery shopping has gone better. Kaiser’s was a success, quite nice actually. But Aldi is still my first choice for the basics because it is really cheap. I made a mistake today when I found really cheap pretzels at Adlis. All different types were mixed together and instead of “Salz” I accidentally grabbed “Sesame” This is great if you’re dad and love Sesame seeds, but what is a pretzel without salt? That’s like having a grocery store without peanut butter, and what kind of messed up country would have that? Oh right, this one. (Look, Nutella, you’re great and all, but you just can’t compete, sorry).

We have a TV here that gets sort of extended cable, and of course except for World Wide CNN, it’s all in German. Also I guess except for the few MTV shows that they don’t dub, they just subtitle (notables: A shot of love mit Tila Tequila, Next, Rock of Love, My Super Sweet 16: UK, and other shit no one would really want to watch in any language). But what MTV has led us to discover is German music. I can really only describe it in one word: Epic. There’s a lot of German rap, which whatever first pops in to your mind is pretty much what it is. There’s German pop, which is a shade weirder than normal pop. And the legend that is Sido. I don’t really know what his deal is, but they freakin’ love him over here. Julie and I have discovered some good stuff though, and we’ve both rocked some iTunes downloading since our arrival. MTV also does this really unusual thing: it PLAYS MUSIC VIDEOS! Who knew?! At least 1/3+ of the day is devoted to video playing, it’s amazing. And it’s a nice mix of German, American and other Western.

Along with that, we also have French channel (I’d like to note that we are very far from France, and right next to Poland, but you wouldn’t find a Polish channel), and the weirdest thing that I thought was just in England but I was mistaken. I really can’t describe it, and will do my best to find a youtube clip or something, but may not be successful. It’s an entire channel devoted 24/7 to asking random questions and then the host standing there awkwardly and usually silently waiting for someone to call in. There’s lots of bells and whistles graphics, but inevitably no one calls in, and when they do they get it wrong and no one wins anything. There’s something oddly mesmerizing about it, in English or German. This is just something you cannot understand unless you see it; I will do my best to share this with the world.

Funny aside, as the pictures I’ll post show, I live next to the Berlin Mitte Tennis Courts, and there are people out there playing tennis basically all hours of the day. And sitting in the flat, you just hear a constant “clip…. Clop…. Clip…. Clop…” and so on and so forth. But every once in awhile, you get “clip… clop….clip… Sheisse!” Angry Germans are always vaguely amusing. I also like when the drunks go by my window at night singing in German. It adds a little something to the usual humdrum of city life, I think.

I’ve been doing some general exploring of the city lately. Saving the specific things for when Steve is here (FOUR DAYS!) or a lot of the things I’m interested in doing we’re doing with class or they are doing organized tours or things of that nature with. Which is pretty cool. It leaves me a lot of time to just poke around and become more familiar with my surroundings in general. So I hit up Potsdammerplatz, the Kaufhaus des Westens (the department store of the West… capitalism at its best in West Berlin back in the day; think Harrods with a German twist), the Sony Center, would have done LegoLand but it was too expensive (wtf, it’s just legos), and we sort of stumbled across the Holocaust memorial and the memorial museum underneath it. A little too abstract for me, but still quite cool. Check out the pictures.

Saturday was a day trip they took us on to Dresden. It was really beautiful, but I gotta say, either we didn’t see much, or there really just isn’t that much to see. They did an excellent job rebuilding everything after the firebombing, but they didn’t seem to add that much. There’s very little regarding that bit of history, and it mostly just feels like you’re in a Baroque town. And frankly, while really beautiful, it sort of getting a little boring. I’m becoming extremely snobbish. It takes more than a fancy church or a Raphael painting to impress me at this point. We did get a guided tour which was cool and I did learn a bit about the pre-war history of Dresden. There weren’t nearly enough Vonnegut references, unfortunately, so I had to make my own. I don’t know, I guess it just wasn’t really what I was thinking, but I’m still glad I went, well worth the trip.

Saturday night though is where the craziness starts. One word: Russendisko. What can I say about Russendisko. Well, for starters, Amazing. This was probably the weirdest neatest most different club night I have ever been to regardless of city. If you had ever told me I would be out in Berlin one night dancing to Russian club music, I would have gotten offended and made some tasteless joke about communists not having clubs. Which, actually, I still stand by, but, this was a lot of fun. It was just unusual, the music was specifically made by this one guy (Russian Jew who came to Berlin to write) to play at nights like this, and people were just really into it. And you could dance any way you wanted and it was just a good atmosphere. Going with Corina was also funny, because she kept being like “I feel like I’m back in Romania… it’s like the Motherland again!” Yeah, never really would have guessed it, me at the Russian Disco having fun. Look at me, broadening my horizons and doing wild new things. Although, Putin, I still don’t like you.

I guess that’s it. I feel like I’m forgetting things, but I’ll add them in later. Busy week, Steve this weekend :-D

Mach’s gut,

Kate

Vas? Umm....

It would be awesome if the guy at the internet cafe didn't sing YMCA everytime I came in.

Das internet?

Remember that time I said I had internet and was really excited and it was really cool? Yeah, apparently not so much anymore. It just randomly went away and now no one can get on it. Bummer.

I'm at a cafe down the street now, just hanging out with some people and taking advantage of the free wirless. Well, free I guess if you buy something. It's a beautiful afternoon here, like absolutely perfect weather and it's quite nice to just sit and chill outside. Very European of me, I suppose. Classes are over for the week, which is pretty sweet as it's Thursday afternoon. Saturday I'm going to Dresden with the program (for only 5 euro!) which should be really cool. I love living in places where I can go on day trips to other really cool foreign places. Europe, you rock.

So I've definitely settled in here, gotten used to the commute to the TU and settled into classes. For our Berlin Since the War class, we actually go to a lot of museums, and just today went to the Deutsches Historiches museum for free! And we get a tour included in that and everything. This program is pretty awesome at subsidizing everything. Just yesterday we went on a guided tour of our neighbourhood (Kreuzburg) and had a subsidized dinner at a Turkish restaurant (it's like the Turish capital of Germany), which was cool. We visited a Mosque, and it was the first time I had ever been in one, and not actually what I expected. It was interesting, albeit a little long, and I would have preferred to hear more specifics about the area and where's cool to go and stuff as opposed to the history, but it was still neat. The point was that it was free except for the really cheap dinner. This program really has their stuff together. I'm all about it.

The weather here has been fairly spring-like. Not exactly hot, but pleasantly warm and cool at night. The sun rises at about 4 something, and I generally get woken up sometime in the 5 am hour because it's so sunny. It also means it gets warm in my room in the morning (Germany does not believe in air conditioning or ice), which is too bad, but leaving the window open at night generally solves that.

I have a bunch of pictures of my place and my neighbourhood, and hopefully I will get them posted at some point. The neighbourhood is probably not at all what you would expect when you think Berlin. It's very open, with lots of trees, and tons of grafitti. I'm compiling pictures of all my favourite graffiti throughout Berlin (of which there is like a neverending supply) and will put them together and post them at the end. It doesn't mean the same thing here, it's more like an artful expression as opposed to a sign of a degraded neighbourhood. In some places it can be really interesting. It really adds to a place, I think in some ways. It makes just walking down the street very interesting. There's so many just neat and different things to look at, as in the graffiti and just people and stores and cafes.

Berlin sort of reminds me of Philadelphia. In that not really kind of way, but there's just a few streets you walk down and look at and just have that same feel. I can't really describe it, but out of all the cities I've been to, that's the closest comparison. Although, let me say right now that there are like 3 black people in Berlin. Everyone calls Berlin very multicultural, but I'm not sure I'm seeing it. Compared to London, it's just seriously lacking. There is a Turkish sector, and more Jewish areas, but not much else. Germany has yet to really be or see itself as a land of migration. This is pretty evident.

Classes have been going well. I have been really picking up on the German, but the classes are intensive and the teacher is really good. After 8 hours in class, I feel much better about my German, although, I've got a lot of words and things down, but sentences and things like that have yet to really happen. Hopefully this will come soon enough. It's making things really difficult, just simple things. Everytime I go to the internet place, I always do something stupid, and the guy probably thinks I'm an ass, but part of it is that I don't speak German, and I also do not know internet cafes. They are almost as foreign a concept to me as the language. That's sort of the gist of how things have been here.

The other class, Berlin since the war has been interesting. Like I said, there will be a lot of cool museum visits and projects and things like that. I think both classes won't be too difficult, but they also will be serious. More so than London, I think. It's weird because every once in awhile I'm reminded that I don't need the credits and it's all just extra for me, but don't worry parental units, I'm physically unable to not do the necessary work. I also think that after London, I'm sort of ready to be more serious about stuff. It would be cool, even if I don't really need it, to get good grades and have success with Duke.

At school we also have a plce to go to use the internet, but the printing there isn't free. And we're expected to print a lot of stuff, which is annoying. It's an expensive hassle, and not necessary on top of the annoying lack of internet. TU also has a cafeteria that we got a card to use and we heard a lot about how great it was from the faculty, but nay. We went there the first day and it was a completely overwhelming experience. Any college cafeteria is when you don't know the layout or the whole process, but obviously, when you don't know the language and can't readily identify the food, even more so. Also, it was not nearly as cheap as they said, and not that good at all. When I saw a bunch of German kids with a plate of mashed potatoes topped with green gravy and two hard boiled eggs, I was just sort of like, umm, I'll go for the pasta. It could definitely be better. I don't think I'll be hitting that too much, if ever again. It's just easier, except on Tuesdays when I have afternoon class, to come back to my place and cook something.

I'd also like to say that people in Germany are really nice (usually), and quite helpful. Their English is excellent and people just seem to be more welcoming. I knew things would be different from London on my flight from Dusseldorf to Berlin when as soon as I sat down the guy next to me gave me a smile and said "guten morgen!" It was just nice.

I've also gotten really cheap since I"ve been here. I already was in London, but now it's like, my first thought when I saw my bathroom was "oh good, a bathtub, it will be easier to wash my clothes in it than the sink" I guess after London, I'm just like, yeah ok, enough. I eat less and cook less, and I've really put a stopper on going out to eat and going out much at all. I got my fill of European night life in London, and I'm kind of over it now. I'm sure I will, but when I think about the hassle that goes along with a night downtown, I'm just like, ehhh... been there done that. A lot of kids are doing quite a bit of it, which of course I udnerstand, but idk, i'm just sort of over it. That should be a good money saver!

The one thing I am spending too much money on is gummy bears. Haribo, which we all know and love, is a German company. And the gummy products are almost as plentiful as beer here. And cheap! Well, sort of. So not good for me, but damn, I love gummy bears.

Well, I guess I should get back home, Julie and I are going to do a bit of grocery shopping and then go explore Berlin a bit. No idea when I'll be able to post again... damn internet!

Tschuss!

Erste Drei Tage

My last American experience was a very loud Newark airport employee cow herding passengers through the airport security in a very Northern Jersey ghetto-fabulous way.
Getting to Germany was actually fairly seamless. I ran into some Rutgers kids who were on the same flight at the airport. At Tegel (Berlin airport), I realized that I packed like 2x as much as anyone else. I know it’s only 6 weeks, but I don’t understand why you wouldn’t bring as much as you can. There’s no reason not to, and I’m presumably going to save a lot of money not buying toiletries and laundry, and things like that. Anyway, luckily got to split a cab with someone and it ended up being a decent price and totally worth it. The cab was the first “this place is cheaper than London” experience and it was good. Also got my first Haribo gummy bears at the duty free shop in the airport. Sooo good. Those will ruin undoubtedly whatever diet I end up going on.

Speaking of food, um, wow. So Julie (my roommate) and I went grocery shopping the first day we were here and we made the mistake of going to Aldi. Aldis also exist in the US. You will find them in basically all the bad neighbourhoods. They are also here the very discount market. They are almost scary. The selection was terrible and the setup awful, and just weird in general. And not even weird in a “oh, everything is German” because, well, obviously, just weird in general. Hard to describe other than just ghetto.
Luckily, this is not the only type of store. There is a Kaiser’s right across the street that is a normal store (so I’ve been told, I haven’t gone in yet), and I’ve been told the prices are “normal.” Not discount, but not expensive. I guess the idea is to go to Aldi’s for everything you would buy at Kaiser’s if they have it and then get your actual selection and real food from Kaiser’s. I do feel though that the general selection will be very different from
The whole grocery experience here is very different, though, even from England. I went to another store downtown after one of tours yesterday just to buy some milk because it was one of the few left open on Saturday evening, so I’ve sort of got the gist. They don’t give you bags, at all. Not like in London where they encourage you to buy reusable or bring your own. You have to pay around 10 cents for a plastic bag. I sort of like this, but I’d rather get rewarded for bringing my bags rather than not having the option. I get the idea, though. Also, in order to be more efficient, they don’t wait for you to bag your items at the end of the till, you put them back in the cart or basket or whatever, and then take them over to a counter and put them in a bag. I like this system. It definitely makes the line move faster. You also have to pay a Euro for a cart around the store. You get the Euro back if you return it, but still, kind of annoying. There’s really no need for that. People aren’t likely to walk out with the cart. I assume.

Like I said before, I’ll probably be comparing almost everything to London. I notice that I’ve been doing that already with people here. I hope I don’t come off as that obnoxious girl who acts like she knows everything about Europe. I should probably cool it but it’s just one of those things where I liked London so much and miss it so I like to talk about it. It is legit interesting to me how much that was in London wasn’t really a London thing so much as a European wide thing. I’ll mention these as they come along. I have even somehow equated European living with driving on the other side of the road and often catch myself looking the wrong way. Hopefully this will stop soon because frankly, it seems kind of dangerous. And kind of stupid of me.
Speaking of crossing roads, they have these super neat cross walk people (like, the walk / don’t walk people in the US, the little lighted signs) all over what was East Berlin. They were so popular that when they started replacing them, there was this huge uproar so they had to bring them back and now they’re actually spreading across Berlin. They even have a few gift shops throughout the city specifically dedicated to these crosswalk figures.

I’ve noticed since I’ve been here that my ankle seems to have gotten better. I think the few days I had at home of not really doing anything seems to have been just what I needed. It was really the longest period of rest I had had (meaning just not walking or doing much) I had had all semester. I hope it lasts. If not, I guess it’s good to know that it probably will be better once I just chill out this summer post-Berlin. My teeth are also much better, they’re still doing some post-wisdom teeth shifting, but I can deal with that. The actual extraction sites seem fine, and I’m eating more normally with every meal. That whole issue I had with the antibiotics has also seemed to pass, which is good. Not something I really wanted to deal with for much longer.

Our apartment here is super nice. Perhaps not as nice as say our kitchen in London, but sooo much roomier and I only share everything with Julie. The furniture is nice and we get a TV with more than 5 channels (although they are pretty much all in German, expect for CNN and a new non-dubbed MTV shows). The kitchen is somewhat lacking, but has what you really need. There is no microwave though. Apparently microwaves in Germany are like a serious luxury thing. No one here really has them. They kind of don’t believe they’re good for you, and don’t think the kinds of things you make in a microwave are healthy / safe. Can’t say I really disagree with them, but it would still be nice to have them. I guess all that popcorn I preemptively brought with me will have to go to Steven or something. Shame. But other than the lack of microwave, it’s good. We are on the 4^th floor (aka 5^th floor in the US) and there is no elevator. You can only imagine how awesome that was on moving in day with my suitcases. Being on the top floor, along with all the stairs in the metro system, and having classes on the 3^rd floor will inevitably all contribute to me getting fit. Hopefully.

It’s hard for me to comment on Berlin weather thus far. There have been some really sunny / quite warm times, some rainy times, and some cool times. I imagine the days will get warmer and warmer and rain will threaten less and less. It’s hard for me to say if it’s nicer than London. All I’ve heard about London lately is how nice the weather has been. This of course is just my luck. I think the weather in Berlin and London is sort of comparable, only it gets colder here in winter and in general rains less at all times.

To get ourselves oriented to the city and as part of orientation, we had a boat tour yesterday (there was also a bike tour option, but wasn’t particularly feeling up to it after wisdom teeth and complications) and did a scavenger hunt (schnitzeljagd) today. The boat tour was OK. It was definitely longer than it needed to be, and obviously also you can only see things near the water. Fortunately, there’s a lot of stuff near the water. It’s more difficult to get yourself oriented to where you are in the city from the water though. You keep twisting and turning and when you think East is to the right suddenly it’s behind you or something. Also, most importantly, the tour was in German. Our professor that went with us (who is awesome… more on him when the class starts) did some translations for us and also gave us some behind the scene / just for us info that was good, but it made the whole thing a little more tedious. All in all though, it was nice to be outside for awhile and I did learn a lot.
The scavenger hunt was interesting. I don’t really feel like it was the best way to get oriented to Berlin because you’re in a hurry and spent most of the time going in between places on the s-bahn and only a few minutes at each station. I do now know where some of the important stuff is and definitely have a better understanding of how to use the S-bahn. The U-bahn and both of them together is another thing, though. We were the 4^th ones to arrive, but the only group to get all the questions right, which somehow only got us to 3^rd place. The group that came in first had a bunch wrong, but got there really quickly. Seems kind of unfair to me, but whatcha gonna do. We got really nice maps, which is good, because I actually didn’t have a big full one of Berlin. That will help with at least planning things. I’m not really the type to whip out maps in the middle of the street while looking for something. I’m also not one to go about screaming “tourist,” so it’s sort of the same thing. It was still cool to get them all right and win something. There was also a quick little first person to raise their hand quiz the other night as part of orientation and I got 2 questions right (36 people, 15 questions… not bad). They were what year were the Berlin Olympics and what was the last time Germany had the world cup (asked in German). I won two chocolate bars. Not great, but like I said, winning stuff is always good. Clearly, I’m doing brilliantly so far.

Orientation has been going pretty well. They really have their stuff together. The phone we got came preloaded with some money and is really nice (it was new). The rates are terrible, but I imagine I will be using it a lot less than I did in London. Haven’t used it yet though, although Steven did give me a call the other night J Even when we moved in, there was a thing of dish soap, hand soap, and a sponge along with a bunch of maps and info handouts waiting for us. They took us out to dinner on Friday, bought us lunch today, bought us our metro cards, and have a ton of activities and outings that are heavily subsidized planned. I definitely feel like the tuition is really getting put to good use here. Not so much in London, maybe, although in fairness, a lot of it probably goes to housing there. In general though, they really seem to have their stuff together. It will definitely be a good 6 weeks.
The only thing that’s a little iffy for me is the awful commute to class. Classes are held at the Technische Universität (haha, the Imperial College of Germany, sort of… here we go again!) which is waaaayyyy in the West. It’s about a ½ hour + commute, and classes start at 9am… ick!! I feel like that could have been worked out a bit better. But I feel like that’s just how it goes. Classes in the morning will be a good thing though because it will get me up and out and I’ll be able to go and see more in the afternoon. Classes 1-5 in London really kind of shot the day when things opened at 10 or later. Hopefully I’ll have lots more time to see and do things in Berlin, which is good because I’m here for such a “short” time.

The German thing. Yeah… Like I said before, it’s been tough. I’ve been listening hard, reading what I can, asking a lot of questions, but things just really don’t seem to stick as easily. I’m hoping that that will change once I start taking it formally in class. Here’s hoping I guess. We’ll find that out tomorrow.

More once classes start… Tschuss!

Herzlich Wilkommen!

Hello from Germany, everyone!

I won't do a full post now, I have a bit of coursework to do and need to get some dinner and decompress after a long day, but I will probably do a full update later tonight. I've got a lot to say about the past 3 days in Berlin, but for now just wanted to say that I got here safely and fairly easily and am settling in well enough.

The German thing is definitely difficult. I'm really being confronted with how absolutely little German I know. This would be completely different in France or Spain or possibly even Italy. Luckily, reading it and hearing it (to some extent) is not nearly as difficult as speaking it. We'll see how it goes over the next six weeks.

Stay tuned!

Repatriation

I'm home now, and recovering from my wisdom teeth removal. Fantastic.

I know, I haven't updated in forever. A lot of the things that happened in the last week are sort of special things I'd like to keep in my own memory.

I did a lot in the last week. School sort of took a back seat, but I'm pretty sure I did alright.

The last 7 days were a whirlwind of activity, to say the least. I went to Manchester for the weekend with Steven to visit one of his friends from high school. That was a riot. So much fun. The most English weekend I ever could have asked for for my last one there. Complete with English fry-ups (the english breakfast), a Sunday roast, rugby, and a day of drinking (for Scotty's birthday... and because it's Northern England). Manchester lost to Chelsea (hell yeah!) while we were there, which is kind of unfortunate, because it would have been awesome if they had won while I was up there. But, still got a lot of love for Chelsea, so roll on.

Steven and I also went to the Greenwich Maritime Museum, which was very nicely done and the University of Greenwich and museum grounds were beautiful. There was also a great view of the city from the Greenwich Observatory. A nice little outing, complete with a free cone from Ben & Jerry's (they do a free cone day in the UK too... good stuff). Steven also made me dinner (his chicken curry) which was very sweet of him and absolutely delicious. We also went to Regent's park (ok, don't ask me how Primrose hill is, long story), which was absolutely gorgeous, very well done. I might even say nicer than Hyde Park, but Hyde Park has it's own charm. Less flowers, but more trees and woodsy, which I like. Anyway, ummm, we also went to the Fuller's Brewery where I found one of my absolute most favourite beers (hard to do after going to Munich), which was Fuller's Discovery (Blonde Beer... big surprise) which was just fantastic. Mmm, so good. Miss it so much.

So yeah, got a lot in, as well as a last night out with all my girls, Ms. Bedford included. That was a good night, a bit crazy, as always when Emma is involved, but a good night, indeed.

Saying goodbye to London was wildly bittersweet. I was happy to be coming home; the materialistic aspect of it was really straining in the last few days when I had to wash my underwear and socks in the sink, subsist on noodle packets, and pack everything I own into 2 suitcases. But saying goodbye to London was so much tougher than I thought. A lot of that, of course, was Steven, and Allison, and everyone else, but a lot of it was just London. I think I've said it before, but 4 months was just not enough. I was just beginning to enjoy the weather, really get to know some people, the places, the neighbourhoods, the city in general and then we had to leave. It was crappy. I wish I had done what Emma had done and just gone for a year. Everything happens for a reason though, I guess. I'll be back, though. In some capacity. The more and more I think about it, the more I hear LSE calling me to it's Masters program. I will answer that call. When, I don't know, but I am there.

Overall, London was the best 4 months of my life. And i don't mean to knock America, goodness knows I love this place to the core of my being, but everything just worked in London. Like, it was my easiest semester ever, the most fun I've ever had, every day was in some way just an adventure. And I did it all on a sprained ankle that never quite healed. The night life was great, the really British people (not Londoners) I met were some of the coolest people ever, the friends I made from BU and the friendships I already had that got stronger were also just awesome. It was my first experience of true independence and I think I passed with flying colours. Ok, not financial independence, but I got shit done on my own, and that was a big deal. To me at least.

I know I'm leaving a lot out, but c'est la vie. On being home, it's not as big of a culture shock as I thought it would be. The transition was all rather easy. It's nice to be back, and driving a car, and having my own big room, and being with mom and dad. Lauren and I have been getting on really well, which is great, and has been a lot of fun this past week. Went down to Philly with her. Not as exciting as London, but Philly still has it's own charm and familiarity to it that I appreciate. It's a grid, with streets that are labelled well. What a concept.

Having a washing machine, a well stocked pantry and everything have been heavenly. Of course, I'm on a semi liquid diet at the moment as I've been in immense jaw pain, but once that passes, I will once again appreciate the sheer abundance of America. That's part of why we consume so many resources and are ruining the environment and creating waste and blah blah blah. But hell, who are we kidding, it's amazing.

I also miss being in touch with all things British and reading all the newspapers and just being really in a city. I feel sort of out of touch in Suburbia, which is nice for a bit, but I like being in the thick of things.

Here are some pics from the last week of London, not many, but you can get the general idea of how things went:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2263198&l=18dd7&id=919676

I think that's about all I have to say. I will probably have more to say on London when I'm back in Europe (leave Thursday) and will compare continental Europe to the UK and to the US. It'll be like one big international comparison of Kate Seif observations. Get excited!

But for now, here's to being back home. In the best damn country in the world!

The Phoenix burns brightest before it bursts into flames

I can't be bothered to do a proper update. Too much happening, too little time.

Blahhh

Forgot one important thing I love about being home:

you're not confronted with Anti-Americanism 18 times a day.

Seriously Britain, it's getting tiresome. Please shut up now.

The Final Continental Excursion

This past weekend was my last trip out of London where I knew when and for sure that I would be returning. It made me quite sad to realize that the next time i depart with luggage will be final.

I was sort of up in the air about leaving London one of my last weekends here, but once I did, I was glad I did it. Belgium was not nearly as boring and blase as everyone makes it out to be. It was partly the company, and every place is really what you make of it, but I had a really good time. Brugge was a cute little city, and granted, there wasn't a whole lot to do there, but we did have a good time. It was very much in stark contrast to London, that's for sure.

We went as part of a tour, which was definitely the way to do it. Not having to deal with travel and having everything planned was soo nice. It was probably also a lot cheaper than had we done it all ourselves. It was also nice to go somewhere and not fly. To get to Belgium, we bused and ferried it. Taking the ferry from Dover to Calais was quite the experience. The white cliffs of Dover were kind of a disappointment, though. Apparently they have tunnels in them with whole villages made during WW2. That would be cool to see one day.
Anyway, the ferry itself was like no ferry I had ever seen before. I imagine it was bigger than some cruise ships. Absolutely packed with people, lounges, bars, cafes, "casino", children's area, food hall, etc etc. The way over was quite choppy and not nice at all, but the way back was a fun experience.

The tour guide definitely could have been better, but the bus driver knew a lot, and we probably learned more about the places we went than if we had done it alone. I'm glad we did it anyway because we got to see Brugge, Tynne Cot (war cemetery), Hill 62 (WW1 preserved trenches), and Ypres. If we had done it ourselves, we probably would have just gone to Belgium.

Brugge was cute. No, there wasn't a whole lot to do, but we walked around a lot, which is always good exercise. Got plenty of chocolate and waffles. And of course, Belgium beer. On recommendation of the tour guide, we went to this place with 400 beers. The menu was like a phone book. Good times. And Brugge does have night life! Who knew?! We found a few places, Dana picked one, based on its awesome name (die Kuppe). There was a big stag party there, but Dana and Allison think I found the only straight guy (important: he bought drinks... English, take note). He also spoke like 6 languages.

What language the signs and everything were in, I still haven't quite figured out. I heard French spoken a lot, but most signs were in German or Flemish. By the way, umm... Flemish? Yeah, still haven't really figured that one out. The only way I can really describe it is German + Dutch - umlauts = Flemish. But don't quote me on that.

The waffles and chocolate were amazing. The weather was great (one day), and the WW1 stuff was really awesome. Definitely glad I got to see all of that. The trenches were the coolest part. Really made you realize how completely crappy WW1 was. I guess, if you needed a reminder or something.

I had written before I think about how I didn't really miss much from home. I completely take that back now. For whatever reason, Brugge was kind of the straw that broke the camel's back, and now I'm very eager and excited to get back home (but still sad to leave).

There is just an ease of things in America that doesn't exist (for me at least) in Europe. Most of it focuses on capitalistic abundance. We went out to dinner in Brugge and asked for tap water. The guy gave us a hard time about it, like he was doing us a favour. When we asked for more, he straight up refused. Everywhere you go you can only get bottled water. What a complete rip off. Like, your tap water is fine, don't give me that crap. Stop trying to nickel and dime everyone. In america, you get free tap water, with ice, and sometime with lemon / lime. And it's endless. Just one of many things. Another thing Europe is fond of doing is giving you bread or nuts or something with your meal (w/o asking you) then charging you for it. It's awesome!

It will be so nice to just have things again. I know that's so completely materialistic of me and somewhat snobbish. But now that i'm living on not doing laundry anymore in London, and trying to not go grocery shopping, I just wish I had more variety. Sure, Belgium had 400 beers, but that's not really what I mean. It's nice to go to a grocery store and just see 98 different kinds of cheese, and chicken cutlets, and peppers and cereal or whatever. Unnecessary? Absolutely. Awesome? Absolutely.

I like having a big wardrobe, sheets I can change and always have back ups, different perfumes to use, napkins I don't have to steal from places with napkins.

This probably isn't an American thing, this is just a home thing. Where I don't feel broke all the time, where I'm not paranoid about spending money, a movie is just a casual thing and laundry is cheap, if not free. Not having to plan every meal and calculate the cost of what you consume, not feeling pressured to do something worth while every minute of every day.

It's the best experience of my life, but damn is it tiring. I just want to go home and walk into a stocked pantry and then sit in front of the TV and choose between 80 different channels while my laundry is laundering knowing there is a nice big comfy bed waiting for me close by.

Also, Brugge had one day of perfect weather. Absolutely gorgeous. And then, as soon as we got back into England, it was raining. It was chilly and humid all at the same time today. The sun was very weakly shining. I miss spring weather. I have been very lucky with weather in London so far, so I can't complain too much. But I miss seasons. It's so nice at home right now, and it's only broken 60 once so far here. Rain still threatens every day.

I really don't mean to bitch and moan, life has been anything but hard here really. I'm just an American gal and I miss it. With the PA primary tomorrow and a huge election going on in general I feel like I'm missing out. Sure, I can tell you almost literally everything Gordy is up to, but who really cares? Even the Brits are starting to ignore him. While it's really awesome to know the going ons of a country so in depthly (is that a word?), I feel sort of wrong about it.

I'm going to be home for two weeks and pack in as much quintessentially American things as humanly possible. Watch out, Blue Bell.

All that being said, I have begun getting very anxious about leaving London. Ah, the ex-pat's (ok, hardly, but you get the idea) life. Always torn between where you are and where you came from. Once I'm in Berlin, I'll miss London and the US (boston and home), then I'll be back and miss Berlin and London. I love experiencing different things and going to different places and seeing and doing, but damn, it would also be nice to stay put for more than 3-4 months.

That's for another time, though, I guess.

Bruge, Brugge, Bruges, Brugse, Whatever Pictures

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2258593&l=21247&id=919676

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2258585&l=1c4f1&id=919676

Update to come once I actually get the motivation...

Repeat the Mantra: We're Embracing London

Wow, so it's been quite a while. I've been fairly busy lately, especially getting my portfolio together for my internship, and just taking in as much of London as possible before heading home.
Unfortunately, since I haven't updated in awhile, I kind of forget a lot of stuff, especially the finer details and the observations, but I'm sure they'll come back to me eventually and I will make sure to write them down or something.

London has been back to its old weather tricks, and now that it's April, it's even crazier than usual. We had some excellent days with perfect weather, following by snow, followed by nicer days with lots of intermittent rain, always coupled with a hail storm here or there. As I write this, it's beautifully sunny outside and slightly brisk with clear blue skies. I'll get back to you in a few minutes and there will be a dramatic change in this. Guaranteed.

Even though my portfolio is finished, I still have two weeks (4 days each) at the internship. As Steve pointed out in class yesterday, I kind of don't want to be anywhere where I'm not really experiencing London at this point in the semester, especially if it's not entirely necessary. However, I guess this is a pretty good place to be and I'm still doing and learning, so it could be worse. I have been packing in quite a lot of London related activities on the weekends and doing a lot more "normal" things that aren't necessarily just in London.

This past weekend, after staying in on Saturday to work on my portfolio, which I really didn't want to do because there's still so much I wanted to see, I packed Sunday with as much stuff as possible. I went out with my friend Steve (not American BG Steve, but British Steve from Imperial College) and we did quite a bit. Got 2-for-1 entry at the aquarium, which was awesome, and was a pretty good aquarium. The London marathon was right nearby so of course we checked out that for abit. It is just people running, but unlike the more serious Boston one where you have to qualify... anyone can be in this marathon. There were a lot of people in goofy costumes and even Masai warriors running to get a well built in their village. It was raining and blowing though and sitting there watching people run wasn't entirely appealing, so we quickly moved on. I went to the Natural History Museum, again, but saw different stuff (the dinosaurs and mammals this time). Usually I'm not into science stuff because I just don't know a lot, but, going with someone who works at the museum and is getting their masters in science definitely improved the experience and I definitely got more out of it (the aquarium, too) than I would have just walking around by myself.

In the past week, I've also seen 21 (the poker movie) and Vantage Point (about the assasination attempt on the President). I liked Vantage Point quite a bit more, but 21 was still good because it was really neat to see all the BU buildings and classrooms and dorms (it was filmed there... not MIT as they would have you believe). Vantage Point was an "edge of your seat thrill ride" as they say.

Went bowling the other day and British Steve (let's just call him Steven for clarity's sake) kicked my ass. The best part being of course that he's only ever played like 3 times in his life before. Whatever, I was rusty.

I went to Blenheim and Oxford the other week, as the pictures indicate. Blenheim was covered in snow, and by the afternoon and Oxford, it had melted away. I thought Blenheim was really pretty, but because of the weather and snow, I didn't get to see as much of the grounds as I would have liked. Also, they had a big thing on Winston Churchill (he was born there), but it was just sort of the same old same old. They even have some of the same stuff as they did at Chartwell, I'm not sure which one is the replica or not.

I think that covers all the major things I've been doing lately. I've also been trying to walk different ways than I normally go and just see different things. This city is so amazing; instead of walking to the usual tube stop on my way home from work and I was just struck that I passed the Royal Court House, nice little parks and cute streets, the Lord Admiralty's house and the dragon statue marking the entrance to The City... and it was just so cool. Even right off the streets I walk down all the time in South Ken are just nice little neighbourhoods with such, well, quaintness. It's really making me feel like there's just still so much to see here. It doesn't matter if its a well-known tourist place or restaurant or whatever, but just streets and the architecture and layout and gardens and just things. I feel annoyed with myself for kind of only just now figuring this out. And this city is so freaking huge, I can't decide entirely where I still want to go and where I don't care as much. I know at some point I'll be back, but I just don't want to look back on this semester and be like "i didn't see or do enough." In a way, I recognize that that's just life and you can never do it all, but still, as I sit here at work in front of a computer, I can't help but think "what's out there I'm missing?" It's weird because when I leave Boston for good, I don't think I'll feel the same way, and not because I saw everything, but more because London seems so much more worth seeing. If that makes any sense.

Anyway, so I'm sure you all know, but Chelsea FC lost on Monday, which means Manchester United is likely to win the league. Shame. If Chelsea couldn't do it, then I'd be for Arsenal, but they did even worse than Chelsea. But, Manchester has Ronaldo and Rooney, so i'm still quite OK with rooting for them. England is now trying to host the 2018 word cup, I don't know how that will work for them. They need to try and beat France next time to make that happen, I assume.
Yes, I am getting into football. Living here, it's kind of like how could you not. I even know the difference between the leagues and which team is which. Chelsea is South London, which is why it's my favourite. They were quite good this season, but had a little slip up playing Wiggin. In 2010, I think it is, I will be so all about rooting for England. Which, actually, I did in 2006 anyway. America always does well in those things, but let's face it, no one there cares about football. I still think it makes more sense to call it football. How often does the foot come into contact with the ball in American football? What's that? Only ocassionally with the kicker? Oh.. I see...

I'm still doing the commuting thing. It's actually gotten better, mostly because I think a lot of people are on vacation around Easter and early April but also I'm probably just getting used to it. I have discoverd that people stare on the tube. And not so much during commuting times, but other times I take it. Like, you know when you're in a situation and someone and you're just looking around and you make eye contact with someone who is clearly looking at you? And that's fine because everyone looks at everyone else if they aren't reading and when you're "caught" you just look away or w/e. Wellll, In London, they don't look away. You catch them, and they keep staring. They continue to stare until you give them that " can i help you? i.e. stop looking at me" look. It's bizarre. And I wouldn't make this an "observation" had it not happened approximately 27 times to me. Maybe that happens everywhere, but I commuted plenty in Boston and never noticed it, so who knows.

Another thing about commuting here is the insane amount of options you have for your commuting reading. In America, as you make your way to the subway (whatever they happen to call it in that particular city), you always have the Metro guy. The guy yelling "metro metro" and handing out those little papers with the green logo. At least in Boston, I think every city has them though. And then in the evening, you can sometimes find them, but more often, you're on your own for reading material.
Well, in London, you've got choice. In the morning, there's the 5, yes 5, dailies of actual substance that you can buy, or you can get the free blue logo Metro. In the evening, as I walk to the tube, I pass the London Paper lady dressed in purple who hands one to me everyday even though I never ever take it, I don't take it from the guy dressed in purple further down the street either. Then, I pass at least 2 London Lite people dressed in yellow, I never take those either. Then, there's always a Metro stand or two in the tube stop. There's also the Evening Standard (which is a semi-legit paper that you have to pay for, and in response to the freebies, it raised it's price) stand at the tube stop, and somewhere along the way, you can buy The Sun, London's most popular tabloid. There's just such a plethora.. a good allegory for the diverseness and immense size of London (see, I actually brought it all together there and made all that rambling semi-legit).

Speaking of the 5 newspapers, I think I've mentioned this before, but part of my internship is reading 3-5 of those papers everyday and making a daily digest. For internship related purposes, it's supposed to be Arab only, but of course, I see and peruse and read a bunch of other articles and it's just great. I know so much about what's going on in this country and it really makes me feel like involved and more like someone that actually lives here. It also makes me great in conversation and able to impress / annoy anyone at any time. It's great !

I was talking with mom earlier today online about things I will miss about the UK. I don't particularly know what that will be until it's gone, but I can think of one thing: the accent. Not so much the accent, but the phrases they use. I am determined to pick up as much as possible in my next few weeks (I already have quite a bit) and I will bring it to the US and be that obnoxious i'm not really British but clearly would like to be person. I also use utensils in the same way. So stupid and inefficient but it makes me feel so classy. I'll also miss work people, and most of the people I live with now. When I'm in Berlin, I know I'll desperately miss living in a place where they speak English. I'm in the kitchen right now and talking with people and I just quoted Churchill, so I'm clearly on a role.
I will also miss going out, albeit for the brief time inbetween Berlin and my birthday. I don't particularly care, but it is fun and it's nice to go out and dance with friends. Also, in America, there's no efficient way to get home. Here, night buses have their downs but they will get you home.

Speaking of night buses. I was coming back from South Ealing the other night (where the Imperial grad student halls are), and missed the last tube, because Sunday the tube closes like 40 minutes earlier (who knew? that doesn't even happen in Boston, so what the hell). I get on the 1st bus, it's late, I'm tired, and pissed. Then these obnoxious hoodies who were wasted got on the bus without any money, then started threatening the bus driver and then started freaking out at other passengers. So then cooler heads amongst the hoodies prevailed and they got into their own fisticuffs, the driver had to put the alarm on, and then when they finally left and we got moving, they chucked a bunch of stuff at the bus. Needless to say, I was really not pleased. Scared is more like it. Although, there were plenty of together people on the bus, it was more of just a nuisance. Chav scum keeping me from getting home... bastards.

As the semester winds down and I need to get rid of my food and avoid doing more laundry, I realize that there is a very close correlation between being lazy and saving money. There's a few ways you could look at it. You are being cost effective because instead of having a nice meal, you're just eating super noodles. Or, you're being lazy because you just don't feel like cooking. You're being thrifty by wearing that pair of jeans 8 times, or you're just being gross and lazy because you don't want to do laundry. Saving money is a great excuse not to actually do much. I strike a decent balance between the two.

Gillian, my supervisor at work, sent me this funny "You know you live in London when..." thing. I thought I would put a few in that were particularly poignant.:
1. You say "the City" and expect everyone to know which one.
4. Hookers and the homeless are invisible.
5. You step over people who collapse on the Tube.
6. You believe that being able to swear at people in their own language
makes you multilingual.
9. You consider eye contact an act of overt aggression.
10. You call an 8' x 10' plot of patchy grass a garden.
12. You think Hyde Park is "nature".
13. You're paying £1,200 a month for a studio the size of a walk-in
wardrobe and you think it's a "bargain".
16. You pay £3 without blinking for a beer that cost the bar 28p.
17. You actually take fashion seriously.
19. The UK west of Heathrow is still theoretical to you.
20. You're suspicious of strangers who are actually nice to you.
22. £50 worth of groceries fit in one plastic bag.
24. You don't hear sirens anymore.
25. You've mentally blocked out all thoughts of the city's air/water
quality and what it's doing to your insides.
27. Your cleaner is Portuguese, your grocer is Somali, your butcher is
halal,your deli man is Israeli, your landlord is Italian, your laundry guy
is Filipino, your bartender is Australian, your favourite diner owner is
Greek, the watch seller on your corner is Senegalese, your last cabbie was
African, your newsagent is Indian and your local English chippie owner is
Turkish.
28. You wouldn't want to live anywhere else until you get married.
29. You roll your eyes and kiss your teeth at the news that someone has
thrown himself under a tube train.

Interesting enough, I was thinking about the general demeanor of the British people and how I feel like in general they are a dour and bitter people (in the most endearing way, of course), and I ran across this book review in the Guardian:
http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,,2263710,00.html
If you're too lazy to read it, it's basically called "You Brits just love being miserable" The author is an American that traveled all over the world looking for the world's unhappiest people. And lo and behold he found them in Britain. The reviewer obviously disagrees with him. And I definitely do, too. However, in brief observation, I can see how he got that. They do enjoy complaining... a lot. It doesn't matter that they have one of the world's best tube systems, they complain endlessly about it. Potholes are worthy of being in every newspaper and featuring on every nightly news once a report comes out (hello? have you ever been to PA?) and a plethora of other things. They hate the Government for not being more green, but don't want any green towns, don't want windmills anywhere, and don't agree with tidal power. There's really no way to please these people. The guy is ridiculously tough on the British, and like I said, I don't agree with him, but I do think he makes some decent observations. It's worth reading, I think (the article, not the book). Maybe Americans are just a more optimistic and happy people.

Once we lose the seat of world's biggest power, we'll probably be bitter too.
Oops, did I just say that?

Speaking of world powers, in case anyone is wondering, despite living here and despite working at CAABU, I am still following Russian politics and am not pleased. Not at all.

Brugge, Belgium this weekend with two of my neighbours (who are obviously friends). Beer + chocolate, sooo excited.

I heard something funny in class the other day:
To an American, 100 years is a long time. To Briton, 100 miles is a long way.
How true.

I probably forgot about a billion things, so I'll be updating more frequently from now on with all my hilarious and witty observations.