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.