I'm still here!

Hi!
It's been a while (wait...three days?) since i've put in a substantial post, so here's what i've been up to for the past few days.
Friday evening: A few kids and I all went to a bar in Prinzlauerberg (i think, that or Kreuzberg). the stop was Kotbusser Tor which in the evening really is just jam packed with drug dealers. A bit scary, so i'm glad i wasn't there alone. The actual bar that we went to wasn't a drug haven, i think it's just the U-Bahn station that's sketchy. It was fun, we just hung out but i went home early because Leipzig was the next day.

Saturday: BIG BIG BIG long day.
Woke up at 7 am so i could get to Südkreuz Bahnhof Station by 9am. After a 1.5 hour train ride, the first part being almost relaxing and the second being full of wasted football (the european type) fans. I mean, it was 10 am and they were mixing cocktails, doing shots and very loudly singing team songs. It reeked of beer, sweat and doritos...not exactly the most appealing mix. Here's a photo i snapped of my favorite. He was offering everyone swigs of his very cheap looking whisky and wore a bright green tie saying 'sex bomb' and in bold 'crystal penis' on the back of his sweatshirt. What a keeper.
This prevented me from sleeping and from hearing my neighbors talking. But it was kinda funny overall.

So finally we arrive in Leipzig. A very beautiful city. We got a walking tour and this time i actually understood it (unlike the DDR tour)! We were given free time to explore the city before we left at 6pm. The people i was with and i decided to go see a concert at the Thomas Kirche. Apparently the group is famous. We saw a Motette which was almost like a mass. A preacher (priest? couldn't see him) spoke for a bit in between the music and we said the 'Our Father' at the end. The music was really quite beautiful and moving. Plus it was only 2 euro! It really put some fire under my boot to start taking advantage of all the great live music we have here right in berlin. But i have found quite a few bands that i like that are coming to berlin. I just have to buy tickets...



(the conductor practicing before the performance...i'm a bit surprised he didn't do this in private) But I was the onlystudent who stayed awake. hahaha, i thought it was an interesting concert!

after the concert we walked around for about an hour and next thing we knew it was time to head back. Half the time was spent trying to find an inexpensive cafe since we were all so exhausted.
If you look closely you can see the people role-playing sword fighting. Hahah, super funny because they were WAY into it. But even I'll admit, it looked like a lot of fun...


These were some funny hay 'sculptures', i couldn't resist taking a picture.


On our way back to the train station we got completely surrounded by these people walking around on stilts. I think they were handing out something. Quite a strange sight.

Overall Leipzig was good. The city has so much history but honestly the places we visited were a smidge too touristy for me. It was so crowded and a bit too kitchy/souveiner-ey for me. However, the coffee shop (actually it was a bagle shop but who's keeping track?) was in a way more relaxed part of town. I think it was the college area which is much more my style. If i go back i'll make sure to explore those parts more.

THen we all took a seemingly endless train ride home, i sat next to a really smelly father and son but still had good conversation with an other student.

This is where the night began...

I got home at around 9:30 which left me just enough time to shower and veg for a bit. We all had big plans to head to Panorama, otherwise known as the Berghain club, which is famous for being one of the 'to-go' places in Berlin, offering the best electronica in europe. Well, it's also very exclusive and in a group of nearly 20 the chances of us all getting in were slim to none considering this club rarely lets in groups larger than 2. Also, i had heard that it was a bit snobby and full of tourists so my motivation was a biiiit low. Furthermore, the 'peak' time to go is at 6-12am. At this time the club opens its shutters to let in the daylight and apparently everyone goes bonkers.
It sounds a bit much for me...haha, but still had a long long night.
This left me dealing with my drunken comrades for way longer than necessary to try and find a bar to hang out in before heading into the club at around 2 am. It took us about 1.5 hours to find a bar and finally sit down. I was a bit irritated by this point and had just really had a redbull to drink because i was feeling sluggish and knew i was going to be out the whole night, but this upset my stomach a bit.
I was gonig to leave early with my friend Linda but she decided to take a taxi home and there was no way i was walking all the way back to the Banhof Station alone. So i waited for the others to finish because they decided upon a different club because we weren't going to all get into Panorama. The Weekend Club was in Alexander Platz so they were going to take the S-Bahn anyways, i figured i would just stay on the train and go home...
Until i got a change of heart. I got all 'i'm in berlin, i got to live-it-up and felt strongly compelled to dance at every opportunity available. So i went. We first made a pit stop at the Bahnhof's McDonalds so people could eat burgers instead. NO thank-you! This took a good 45 minutes and then finally we made it out the doors and to the club. After some pee-pitstops we made it to the club. Checked my coat and went in.
SO-MUCH-FUN.
It had really good music and was nice without having a snobby vibe. The first DJ was really good and then the second DJ was als deejays for MTV. We ended up dancing until...SEVEN AM.
i couldn't believe i had the energy, but i do say my legs were just about as strong as red vines by the end of it.
But i also learned a lesson, don't go out in such large groups. I felt like i was in a tour group the whole time and it just took too long to get everything done. Smaller groups are easier and less stressful in all respects.

However fun the night was, i was completely thrashed Sunday. I slept until 1:30pm and was sluggish the wholeday. This wasn't too bad because it was so beautiful outside all you wanted to do was walk around and enjoy it...and that's exactly what i did.

I'm hoping to go somewhere this weekend because i have friday off. Airfare is a bit pricy because i'm doing this last minute but hopefully i'll find something interesting! I was going to go to Prague but i've been there twice before and am looking for something new.

Today was a bit uneventful minus getting chased in Tiergarten.
I was going on my usual jog when some dude made strange eyecontact with me and kind of yelled something. I just ran faster...away. Come five minutes later someone is yelling something at me (i have my iPod on) and finally catches up to me. It's the same dude. He literally chased after me. He asked if i spoke English, i answered: 'yes, i have to go'. after asking me to wait for him to catch his breath (this lasted for wayy to long, someones definitely out of shape) he then proceeded to ask me where the good biergartens are in berlin. At this point i'm thinking, HUH? this dude chased after me just to find out where to drink?
i answered: 'i'm new, biergartens are everywhere here, i have to go, good luck'
he kept stopping me and said he had to ask me a question. he asked my name, where i'm from all while i pull away saying i have to go.
he then asked for my number because he 'wants to get to know me'. i said 'i have a boyfriend, it's not going to happen, i'm going to go'.
he wouldn't stop! he got irritated saying 'what do you mean? he won't care! i chased after you, you got to give me some credit! i knew you were different, i really have to get to know you. Please, if you don't have your number just tell me the time and the place, anywhere, and i'll be there. Please, please, can we just talk?"
WHAT THE HECK.
I said 'no, it's not happening, i don't know what to say, i'm not going to hang out with you, i'm going now'
i literally ran away. Without my iPod on of course so i could hear if anyone was behind me.
He yelled some 'Please!' 'Come on! your boyfriend won't care!' 'What's the problem!'

kind of a scary situation. I mean, i didn't feel in danger because it was so well populated and he was pretty scrawny. but this guy was really weird and unsettlingly persistant. He said he was from texas. I think i'm going to bring my tear gas with me again when i jog, and not just when it's rainy...

after that experience i ran around in all crazy directions to lose him and then went home.

Back to looking for flights!

E-Kea

happy from all my purchases

Ida: she got SO many things for just 20 euro!

clinton, bush (i thin), and i can't decipher the third guy, any ideas?

in the entrance of the Old National Gallery

notice anything wrong with the dates here? hahah, only Renoir could manage to die before even getting born.

at Warschauer Straße S-Bahn Station.

en route (is this spelling right? i am learning german not french) to Ikea

Hallo!

I just got back from Ikea (pronounced here 'ee-key-ahh) and some shopping.  Discovered a new area that has great great great clothing.  haha, i bet you're happy about that one mum and pops!

But really! I found two outlets and a store that sells cheap monday jeans for 50 euro a pop, which i'm pretty sure is a deal...i'm not sure though.  They only accept cash though and all i had was 20 euro.

Surprisingly to me, most places only accept cash.  Ikea even only accepts a certain type of ez-cash card and cash.  Nothing else.  This limited my purchases to 20 euros.  But with that I got a lamp, a mirror, an Ikea blue bag and some extra silverware.  Now that i know where it is i plan on making an extra trip, but now that i have my lamp and mirror i pretty have all that i need.  

The past few days have been good.  I went to the museum with some friends last night.  We visited the Altes Nationales Galerie.  It was clearly quite old, but held some really cool pieces of art.  It's so great that every Thursday the museums are open.  The other kids went to a Kneipe (bar) but i headed home.  Was too tired.  I've been a bit low on energy lately and really don't want to get sick so i'm taking it easy.

Tomorrow I'm visiting Leipzig so expect lots and lots of pictures.

ALSO, i'm pretty sure some friends and i are going to take an excursion to Prague.  It's actually not too far away from us and we have friday off from school thanks to der Tag der deutsche Einheit (the national unification day)

Berlin Marathon

The Berlin Marathon is this Sunday so the city is filled with tourbusses and several streets are closed off.

Well on my way to the grocerystore i saw a bus that has written in huge letters:

FUECKER

which when spelled normally is:

FüCKER

hahahah, well that curse word in german is spelled with an 'i' instead of a 'u' so it doesn't mean the same thing.

i still chuckled :)

haha, i'm going to grow up now and head off to the museum with some friends.

Real update coming soon!

Bangaluu

this was not last night, but you get the idea.

from free thursday museum night! i got to see the bust of Nefertiti. 

the Berlin Wall.  There were two and the part in between had sort of traps and was were the gaurds patrolled.

yesterday:

Our whole class took an excursion to the Berlin Wall museum.  We got a short tour and learned about how the whole thing came about.  Quite interesting.  Really scary though.  It made me happy that I haven't had to experience something like that.  It is surprising to me though how paranoid a goverment can get, and also against it's own people.  There was a story and pictures of an old woman from the east going out her window to get to to the west.  and the west government was helping her out by having firefighters hold a trampoline thing under her.  but when she almost made it down an east official grabbed her arm and started pulling her back in. the west police person pulled her back down and she made it to the west. but still! it's crazy that the government was that set on keeping the people from getting out.  they were totally caged.

another story was of a girl who wanted to go over to the west to be with her family on her birthday.  she put bed things below her window and jumped out. she died on her birthday.

after the intense excursion i went home and napped for a bit.

that night though was super fun.

my class had planned on going to a club we had heard good things about and sent in our group list so we could get a discounted entry price.  we got in for half!

the music was great and i was surrounded by friends so all was good, but there weren't that many people, and a lot of them were really old and stogy looking.

everyone was dressed a bit too nicely for me.  it was cool though to see all my classmates get dressed up though. however, i think i feel more comfortable where what you're wearing doesn't matter as much.

in anycase it was a blast.

you walked in and all the employees were wearing mascarade masks.  to get to the dancefloor you had to cross over a catwalk stage.  after dancing for a bit a guy in a full body leather suit, gas mask and leash. holding his leash was a dominatrixy woman also in all leather. he crawled around the club and gyrated on people.  he scared the begeeses out of me so i avoided him at all costs. kinda felt like knotts scarey farm where the people sneak up on you. 

as the night went on and more people came girls in lingere got up onto these swings hanging from the ceiling and swung around.

quite extravagant but very strange.

that's berlin club life for you!

but the music was good and i had a blast.

i really enjoyed seeing all my classmates let loose. and boy did some of them let loose.

and i enjoyed seeing the shyer classmates cut a rug. we all had a blast.

today i woke up and ran some errands. went to post office and picked up a package. now i have pictures for my walls! :)

then my friend Ida came over and we went on a long long walk. we were both too tired to run so we 'power walked'.  we walked through tiergarten all the way to brandenburger tor and then to the starbucks on the other side. we were gone for like 2 hours and it left me thoroughly exhausted. but not tired enough to skip out on some shopping!

we hit up Kufürstendamm, a great shopping area if you're ever in berlin.  it offers both expensive and very inexpensive shopping. naturally, the things i bought were from H&M.

I want to get some things from a german store, that are only available in germany.  but i find myself only shopping at H&M. it's just so cheap though!

different note i still have yet to do my laundry but hopefully i'll get my waschkarte tonight!

tonight i'm going to Ida's dorm in Grünewald for a small pasta party and then maybe out to Schlesisches Tor for a concert. 

And tomorrow is the Mauer Park Floo Markt! Maybe i'll get myself a bike :)

 Heres the link to the club

oh.my.gosh.

there is CONSTANT noise coming from either the ceiling or the wall. somewhere. and it's driving me nutso.  i was woken up this morning by incessant banging, what sounded like a jackhammer. i thought it was coming from outside until i opened my window and realised it wasn't. i think there is some short of machine or something around my room making all this noise. right now it is just one tone, almost like a ringing in your ears but it's not coming from my own head.  

what the heck! do i need to wear earplugs all the time?!?

anyhow, im going to run some errands but i'll update soon, i've just been super busy. which is awesome!

STASI

it's been a few days since i've updated and not too too much has gone down.

sunday i went out to lunch with merce, jakob and jakobs norwegisch friend, Kristoff (i'm definitely not sure about this one).  We went to an italian place. Kinda funny, a kid from norway, denmark, the US and spain, studying in germany, eating in an italian restaurant.  the italian waiter wouldn't stop hitting on merce in spanish, which is also funny because the rest of the time he only spoke italian.

good food though.

afterwards we walked around for heck of long and took an extended stroll through the Mauer Park.  There was a Flea Market there which i didn't check out too much because i was freezing and looking at things posed the possibility of removing my arms from their frozen position.

so i passed.

i still craned my neck to look though. and towards the end of the park there was some sort of mini rave.  but there were only small children and homeless people dancing, so definitely a mixed crowd.

afterwards i went home and made a few calls. 

yesterday i went on an excursion with the Vokurs (my language course) peeps to the Stasi Museen.  It was...interesting.  REALLY scary, i can't imagine having to be put in that position or living with a government that is looking for things to arrest you for.  so paranoid.

but the problem is, i really don't know any words pertaining to the subject matter. my prison, communist german vocabulary is really quite small.  i understood the words in beween all the important ones, those, i had no idea what our tour guide was talking about. so pretty much i was lost. and when it's a two hour long tour you really need to know what they;re talking about or things get boring very fast...which they did. 

so word from the wise, on tours, unless you're educated in the subject matter, get it in your mother language.

but this tour did show how horrifying it must have been being a prisoner.  they had water torture and some of the things they did were unbelieveable. also the rooms they put them in were enough to drive someone crazy.  additionally, they had rooms that were outright meant to drive people mad.  like one that's completely black and had these crazy ridged walls.  gives me the shivers just thinking about being put in that position. there was just no good option, you're doomed if you do, doomed if you don't.

exhausted from this excursion that lay far in the east i just went home and collapsed for the night.

today i woke up very early, 6:00 am and went for a jog.  i thought i would try out a path near my dorm.  turns out it's really dark, spooky and leads to no where. so i turned around and went to the tiergarten, as usual.  it was SO cold.  i heated up a bit towards the end, but really, i think i'm going to have to buy earmuffs and some cold weather exercise clothes because it's not even winter!

i did however go shopping today in alexanderplatz.  bought some gloves, a hat and a few sweaters.  these things should be good for layering and will hopefully keep me warm.

tonight i'm going to meet up with kids from class and go to a bar in Kreuzberg.  I'm only staying out for an hour or so though. Girl needs her sleep!

pictures to come...eventually :)

Ich bin eine Elefant!

hahahah, that's been ida's slogan for the past few days.

Yesterday was jam packed.

after sleeping in ida, linda, carmen, annelie and i went on the free Berlin walking tour. It was so cool. Our guide had so many awesome stories and we saw so much.  It was long too, over 4 hours. We got to see:

-Brandenburger Tor

-the Reichstag

-Stand over Hitler's Bunker

-the Holocaust Memorial (which is actually very close to where I live)

-and theres a really interesting story about how and who they commisioned to create the 

graffiti proof coating. google it, if you wanted to hear it all it would take quite a while

-Book Burning Memorial- a little window into the ground where you see thousands of empty shelves

-Potsdamer Platz

-SS Headquarters

-Museum Island, open doors and free on thursday evenings, i'm soooo there

-The Berlin Wall

-TV Tower, cool but kind of just looks like a massive disco ball to me

-Gendarmenmarkt (a beautiful square with the Französischer Dom, Deutscher Dom and the Konzerthaus

-Pariser Platz

-Luftwaffe HQ

-Bebelplatz

i told you we saw so many things!

I highly reccomend the New Berlin tours if you're ever travelling europe.

the tour left us all with full heads and tired bodies so we made our ways home for a bit.  After doing some serious resting and buying groceries i went out.

A kid from our class just moved into a new apartment so he had a party to break it in.

It was a nice place and a lot of fun but just too many americans. no one was talking in german, not even the two lone german people there.  it was primarily UC students which was a bit of a drag just because...well, frankly, i'm around UC students all the time when i'm home.

And i think people have a skewed perception of how santa cruz really is.

One girl had only been to santa cruz on 4/20. ok, NOT santa cruz all the time, and a bit embarassing.

Another guy said he wished he had gone to santa cruz '...because of alll the mushrooms'.

HUH?

ok. NO.

anyhow...

Linda and Ida brought them a housewarming gift of Finnish bread, beer, salt and candy.

Apparently it is Finnish tradition to always bring salt and bread to a new place as a housewarming gift.

Also, the german girl said if you don't look someone in the eye when you Prost, you have bad luck (she said sex but i think it would probably apply in all directions) for 7 years!

We headed out to a different club called White Trash Fast Food.

On the way out we ran into Jakob, a danish guy from class, and his friends, they were going to the same club so we all went together.

A neo-nazi made fun of my german speaking on the train.  I was so shocked that he was making fun of me so meanly until i saw his friends and what he was wearing.  They had shaved heads and were deffffinitely neo-nazis.  It was my first encounter and obviously not a good one.  I didn't defend myself further than saying 'that's not nice at all' and 'i'm learning german' because frankly, i just didn't want to get in an argument with a neo-nazi.  He's a neo-nazi for goodness sake, he probably hates my guts because i have dark eyes or some other irrational reason.  So i think it's for the best i didn't say anything else.

BUT, the club was fantastic.  First a punk band played for a bit then a dj took over which was more fun.  I got winked at by and danced with a drag queen. They loved me! But we hit the road when the drag queen striptease started.  It actually wasn't a drag or gay club at all, drag queens just ran the show i guess. but the show was just a weee bit much for me and we hit the road pretty much immediately.

i'll post pictures soon!

Hello!

It's 10:45 in these parts, I just woke up about an hour ago.  Last night was fun but we didn't end up going dancing.

After school i came home, ran and practiced my oboe.  After all that jazz I met up with Linda and Ida at Warschauerstraße Bahnhof (i had them meet me there because it is home to countless angry, drunk and quite smelly 'gutter punks' who enjoy peeing everywhere and whispering incoherent somethings in your ear.  While it is always packed with other people, especially on weekend, i like to put on my poker face with other people around.

We took the U1 to Schlesisches Tor in Kreuzberg.  We've been going out quite a bit in Kreuzberg, I'm getting the idea that it's a younger, up and coming area.  A few other kids from class were already at the bar Die Fette Ecke (the fat corner).  And on the way there we ran into two of our drunken classmates and led the way to the bar.

It was a cool place but i didn't want to sit around all that much, i wanted to dance.

So we hung around for a bit then headed our separate ways, an american girl was taking the boys to a dance club and we were going to another one.

so we headed out to make our way up to Oranien Straße to meet up with other friends at the supposed 'club'. Took the Sbahn then the U to oranien which spat us out in the Friedrichstein area (i think).  It was a hilarious ride, we had got in a laughing rut and couldn't contain ourselves. We ended up in a really beautiful and nicer than Kreuzberg and probably way more expensive.  Our only directions really were 'walk down the street and it's a really old building'

....ok, well turns out every building is old, so these were pretty shotty directions.

We walked a bit in the wrong direction but luckily asked people for directions who were heading to the club.

Zapata

realllly cool place, it would be wonderful in the summer.

It was an ancient apartment complex (i think?) that has been taken over by artists.

After getting carded and paying your way (3 Euro) you enter into a small club which is very decieving.  A mediocre all female grunge band was playing to a crowd of akwardly swaying 30 year olds.  After the initial dissapoinment of thinking you just paid three dollars to listen to crappy music in a really small room, we shouldered our way outside.  It was such an interesting building with all these smaller roms that were like completely different clubs.  In the electronica room i got to see some authentic german dancing :)

when you made your way outside (it was butt cold, i'm talking freezing) the club turned into a summer lounge.  The ground was all sad, there were lounge areas, but there were also bleachers, a stage and a random bathtub filled with bubbles that we later found out was filled with some sort of flammable fluid because the 'Fire Man' lit it on fire to create one of the tallest fires i've ever seen.  I guess he's a 'fire artist' but really he doesn't do all that much but light matches and hold a flame thing.

I met up with some people from my floor, and we chatted a bit before heading upstairs to explore the place and look for dance music.  It honestly looked like a homeless crack house with really hip people walking around.  But when looking closer one could notice that the graffiti was way more artistic than in a crack house...or at least i think.

on the third floor gave us the artists floor.  this is where they live and create all their art.  SUCH cool pieces and i'm definitely going to buy one before i leave here.  You could also see the artists creating new pieces in a room filled with paint splattered pants (ahahah i know).

The fourth floor gave us more techno music but the dance floor was really small and already so packed, not enough room to even dance.

The top floor had a bar and was like a large balcony overlooking the whole place.  Here were our friends and it was at this time we found out there wasn't another secret place in this club where we could dance dance dance.  While it was a very interesting club i was in the mood to go dancing and this wasn't the best place to do that.  We also hit a wall and got very tired.  Hung around for a while longer then made our way back home.

That is before Ida and Linda tried currywurst.  We stood in the icy wind for 15 minutes waiting for their apparently disgusting meal.  Curry wurst is a pale sort of sausage that is boiled in oil (i think) and then covered in a sauce of ketchup, curry and some other things, then served with a roll of cheap white bread.

All i can say is i'm glad i'm vegetarian so they couldn't canoodle me into trying a bite.  Apparently this stuff is popular, but it looked way gross.

After that we took a walk through the Friedriechstein area to make our way to the Friedriechstraße S Bahnhof.  It is so beautiful, the picture you get in your head when you think of glamorous city living.  Maybe we should hand out more there... :)

Ich will Waschbrettbauchen!

Hello,

Things have been good in these parts.  Last night I  spent some time unsuccessfully trying to find a music store.  I ended up finding goth/metal music stores...not exactly what i'm looking for.

This was with Linda, poor thing, she still hasn't found an apartment.  Who knew it would be so difficult? Even though the dorms are a bit...unglamorous, at least i have a place to stay.

but at night i went out with ida (lindas finnish friend) and her language course friends.  Quite a few of them are in siegmunds hof which is nice because i didn't have to walk home alone. They also all go to the TU so it was cool meeting people who might be in my classes.

We went to a mexican bar. I got some sort of tasty cocktail.  We chatted with some of the local germans there and they taught us how to say 'six pack' auf deutsch, 'Waschbrettbauch'.

THey also hailed down the resident magician. He was SO cool! Really great tricks. And he treated us all to a round of schnopps which tasted like cough syrup.

Fun night though, and we even didn't get back all that late! 

ye old Harris Haus

http://www3.snapfish.com/au/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=230095561/a=142399207

Park Sanssouci, Potsdam

standing in front of my future home.

Linda

i think this is die Mensa (one of them) of the Technische Universität

not gonna eat here ^^ again

tour group...but definitely not ours :(

after our healthful chocolate lunch

around here smelled SOOO good

asked a very old dude who wasn't familiar with digital cameras to take a picture of us, and now ended up having to crop out half of the picture because of his fingers... :/, at least i have a picture!

The S-Bahn Tiergarten near my dorm

potsdam



here are some pictures from last weekend.

if you click on them they get a lot larger and look a lot better.

holy smokes.

this has nothing to do with germany, it was just so cute i couldn't contain myself.

oboema

well two things today (other than nudies), obama and the oboe.

i tried out the Musik Raum and it is wonnnderful! After needing some assistance finding it, and then getting in the door, i finally was able to use one of the rooms.  The sound is great and it felt so good to play while i'm here.  it's also really nice to play without any pressure to sound good.  i can just enjoy how i sound and enjoying playing.  i also played around on the piano and now wish i brought some music.  but i'm visiting a sheet music store tomorrow so maybe i'll purchase some.  berlin has provided me some free time that i haven't really experienced for a while.  ok, well before i came here i bummed around the house for 3 weeks. but i don't know.  during the school year i barely enough time to breath.

side note: my brazilian neighbor just invited me to go out! i hung out with the brazilians of my floor last night, they're all very nice! and we got to practice our german.  it stinks that i have to wake up at 7 for school. but we will go out this weekend.

but after going on my very long run, then practicing a very long time i watched obama vs mccain videos for longer than i should have.

soooo addicting. but it also makes me quite nervous.  after 8 years of bush i don't know how much more the US can take of bad leadership.

i know who i think supports my rights and my well being, lets just hope he gets it.

i'm glad things are falling into place here in berlin.

and i cannot wait for the school year to start.

blinded by the light

wearing clothing in germany is optional.

however, it is mandatory for one to be old, sagging and 100% butt naked.

i just got lost running in the tiergarten for almost an hour and a half...three times longer what i wanted to run.

i had the 'priviledge' of running into countless hoards of naked, sun-bathing old people. i'm sure the horrific sight contributed to my lack of good judgement. they can and will be blamed for me getting so lost.

furthermore, no one gave me any good directions whatesoever. two people led me in the complete wrong direction, and the others simply were lost themselves. again, i blame the naked people for blinding all of our senses.

hahah

today i totally accidentally said 'i need to take off my clothing' instead of 'i need to take off my jacket'

i was confused at the time why there was so much laughter, now i realize.

ahahaha, woops!

us californians, always taking off our clothing!

Bürgerama

helloo!

i'm uploading pictures to my facebook, once they load (they're taking forever) i'll post them publicly here.

but today has been quite nice.

i went to the Bürgeramt to get my police registration.  It was a lot less of a hassle than i expected.  I had to get a number and wait for a while but it wasn't all that bad.

boy do the germans know how to do bureaucracy.  They invented it!

 because i had to do this on time, i was late for class but it was no big deal.

in class we had a biiiig discussion on whether Judiasm is a religion or a nationality or both.  Things got heated.  The spanish dude with long hair, i can't pronounce or spell his name, argued that it was only a religion and implied that asserting that it was a nationality further separated people.  The estonian girl, Franchesca (i think), argued oppositely.  I think it's both, especially in europe.  But here its an ethnic group.  Your not just German, you're Judische Deutscher.

Any thoughts?

so that was class, very interesting.

afterwards i found the old harris house.  Such a nice area and a really nice walk.  It was interesting seeing the house that all my aunts and uncles lived in a really long time ago. i took tons of pictures.

then i went to alexanderplatz to go shopping.

I only ended up going to h&m but boy did i make it count :)

at least now i have weather appropriate clothing, aka, a jacket that covers my elbows and something water-resistant that won't get me strange looks when i go to the diskos.

on the way home there were these two young boys, around 15 years old who started out of no where playing their guitars (i didn't see these at first) and singing some cute song about how they're not the 'boy of your dreams' and how the girl has to 'love me for me'.  hahah, i thought it was catchy....but i still didn't give them a euro... :/

came home, bummed around then took a liesurely walk around.

BUT! i finally got the key to the musikraum!!!!

I had to wait awkwardly for a bit because the guy was late but no problem, i have it that's all that matters :)

he was quite nice and had spent a year in Portland, Oregon  while he was in highschool.  He thought it was very cool that i came from los angeles.  i found this a bit laughable because los angeles is cool. but seriously, berlin is WAYYYY cooler. way cleaner and way more efficient.

and then i spent time hanging with the brazilians.  we may see conor oberst play. and they like tofu also!!!

but the other people on my floor were so confused that my tofu wasn't cheese. hahaha, things are wayyy different over here. well, turns out the tofu i bought was helllla nasty :(

but i'm glad i got some good bonding in with the brazilians here so now they talk in german, not just portugues !

ok,

so facebook just said my upload failed.

pictures later...

goodnight!

no more falafel.ever.again

I just had a big big big weekend.  Despite Friday evening being very quiet, things picked up a lot, and the somewhat ironic thing is i haven't even really used my cell phone. ahahah. 

but on saturday i had planned on going on an excursion with my Vokurs group.  It started off rough because I was very late and almost missed them, but Merce' was there and i met some new people which was cool. So we get on the train and everyone kind of splits up, and the leader never really told any of us where we're supposed to get off.  can you smell the disaster? well, we knew we were going to Potsdam but we weren't exactly sure what we were seeing.

so we see the Potsdam stop, get off despite my reluctance.  I don't see any of the other kids from our group and then i see our leaders head in the window, try to jump back on the train but it ran off without us.  both of our faces just dropped, then we started busting up.

these 4 germans a little bit older than us tried to help and suggested that our group was probably heading to Park Sanssouci.  So we ask a grumpy info lady and take the reccomended bus to the park.  After a few false stop requests we finally get off and try to find our group.

It was a beautiful town so i figured even if we didn't find our group it would be a good time.

we went into the tour office and asked for help, if she had any suggestions, she said (in spanish) that we should go into the park. So there we headed.

sooo many strangers offered us help and direction, i was surprised at how enthusiastic and genuinely friendly everyone was.

so we entered the park, and the asked the gate people (dressed in period clothes, so they looked quite funny...i didn't want to insult them with a picture). they told us the entrance our group probably entered from because it's nearer to the trainstop that they probably got off at.  so we make the 30 minute treck over there and don't see them.  as to not waste this opportunity we decided to take a guided audio tour of the palace and then walk around and explore the grounds.

well, it was a 2 hour tour exhausting tour of the palace. we took a break alowing us to eat a healthy lunch of a candy bar and soda and a cigarette for marce. scratch everything i have previously said about being healthier. hahaha.

we toured the massive grounds. i personally found it more beautiful than Verssailles, it didn't have those weird frog fountains. even after walking around for another 3 hours we still couldn't see it all but had to go home. i was exhausted and had to get my cell phone figured out. at that time it was still 'kaputt'.

it started raining but thank goodness the bus waited for us as we sprinted dangerously down the street trying to catch it.  but we made it home in one piece, exhausted but had seen a lot of beautiful, interesting and historical sites in the day.

however, instead of going home, i had to head to the cell phone store.  and of course, after waiting for thirty minutes i was finally helped by the same guy who sold me the phone.  I explained to him (in all german thank you very much) what was wrong with my problem. i said (in german) 'here, i'll show you', and of course when i take it out and turn it on, the gosh darn thing works perfectly fine.

...

great. well, thats that. at least i have my cell phone.

since i had expected to not have a cell phone marce' and i had planned to meet at a certain ubahn station at a certain time with our group of friends.  

it was such a fun night.

i met lots of new other students and we all went to the club Lido and it was "soul and funk' night. it was a really nice, cool club with interesting people and good music.  i found another beer i like! Becks with green limon.  Not really all that german, but hey, at least it didn't make me cringe.  So we danced and chatted the night away.  But of course, sticking to my grandma roots, i got tuckered out come 12.  So me and some other girls opted out of visiting another club, panorama (which is apparently crazy and is most popular between the hours of 6am-12, and apparently is very druggy, not my cup of tea), and we headed home.

i fell asleep on the S-Bahn, it was so late!, but made it home in one piece through the torrential downpour.

today, after waking up at 11 i decided to explore alexander platz. after of course visiting the deutsche bank atm to withdrawl money.  i only had 1.50euro so it was essential that i go.

i got some cash then visited starbucks to get a soja-latte that tasted like home. there is a flea market every sunday right by my home so i perused through that.  it all looked like something my grandfather and late grandmother would love to have in their house or would have brought back from germany from when they lived here.  made me quite nostalgic.

after a bathroom break at home i headed on the Zug to alexander platz.  Coincidentally, i saw my friend Ida (pronounced eeda)  and Annalie whom i had met the previous night.  They were with their floormate who comes from Portugal and came to germany to learn english. I know, strange huh. I am astounded at her situation. she speaks o.k. english but absolutely no german.

good luck sister!

but they invited me to meet linda for lunch in Prinzlauerberg.  Very fun! Despite walking around for too long trying to find food. i got a bit grumpy, but that is expected from a gal who is completely ruled by her tum, hopefully they didn't notice.  we finally decided upon a turkish place. i got falafel and a mixed salat.  the dude was an aaaaa-hole.  not to me but to the portugues girl.  she hates cheese and couldn't communicate herself in any language.  she kept yelling indecipherable things at him and waving her arms.  and then she would turn to me for help and i would have to speak slow and she would have to gesticulate what she wanted.  i explained that shes from portugal and learning.

he looks her in the eye and yells 'You're in GERMANY, you don't speak german or english, you only speak portuguese. What are you doing here!?"

i snapped back (in german) "she is here to learn, she is learning'

but i actually don't think she knew what he said or even realized how annoyed he was because she was completely unphased.

my food tasted good but made me feel sick for the rest of the day :(

we walked around because we all had eaten ourselves into oblivion. The area was so cute.  it was very indie, young and hip.  definitely the 'up and coming' area.  but a bit expensive :/ ....

we all needed groceries and had heard vaguely of some grocery store at Zooligischer Garten behind the Burger King.  On our way we found a shoe store. Got heeeeck of cute books for less than 25 euro and they're totally vegan :) :)

i don't think they charge tax in berlin, which is aweesome.

but this weekend has been really nice. i've lost that anxiety about not doing enough stuff.  tomorrow i'm going to visit the bürgeramt to register with the city, then alexanderplatz.  all of course after trying to find my dads old place.

so i'm now definitely doing a lot :)

i've taken a lot of pictures in the past few days but need to sleep.

bis Montag!

all is not lost!

ok, disregard that this is my third post today, but my night ended up turned around.

my cell phone is still kaputt but i just spent the past...who knows how long talking with my new mitbewohneren (the people on my floor).  I met a dude, Fahris (i think), a medical student from Iraq.  But I spent most of the time talking with a guy from China, i can't even begin to try and pronounce nonetheless write his name.  But for about an hour we chatted about Germany and China, the Olympics and whatnot.  and then i chatted for a while with a spanish (?) floormate.

You just don't get an experience like this anywhere else :)

have a great night!

ok, i wrote the 'i suck' part, but if you look closely you can see 'registration failure' on the screen (i think you may have to click on the picture to enlarge it).

:(

well despite not being able to go out today, everything was good.

i'm getting more and more used to living in a new place. and while coming back from buying my schlechtiges Handy i got a sudden feeling of empowerment.  i had to remind myself that i'm not just living anywhere. i'm living in one of the hubs of europe, i'm young so i can explore it all, and it's only going to last so long.  which is very bittersweet. because its inevitable that i'm going to miss home and all of its comforts and familiarity.  but part of the excitement that comes from living abroad is all about being separated from these things.  it kind of forces someone to find what their real character is, separated from everything they've been surrounded by their whole life. 

well, don't get me wrong, i don't feel like i'm quite there. i just feel much more independent and confident in both my personality and ability to get do things for myself. momma and poppa for once aren't really holding my hand through life.

haha, way more difficult, but definitely worth it. don't think i still don't need you guys though!

and here you have to get to know people on a different level. it's strange because you have trouble communicating with your friends.  so it's taking a lot longer to get to know people but i feel like a lot of the bs of first meetings has been cut out. because a lot of friendships begin with tons of nothingness.  chitter chatter i guess. because we can say only so much we're having to make it count.  

however, i do say i'm a bit dissapointed by some of the other american students. for the most part they are very very friendly and have been kind to me. although, they seem to be only wanting to hang out with other americans and talk tirelessly about how happy they are to be hanging out with americans.  

i thought we came to germany for an international experience. 

i mean, i miss speaking in english as much. but not really.

i came to germany to learn german, not english. and i don't miss english as much as i miss being able to express myself correctly, which hopefully time and study will help me do just that.

in all actuality, i shouldn't be criticizing my other students.  their experience is different than mine, and while i have different feelings about what i want from this, it doesn't make their concerns any less valid. i understand and definitely empathise with how they're feeling homesick, and would want to get back some of that familiarity.  

different note, and another interesting park experience.  on the way to the S-bahn i cross through a 5 meter long park. its VERY out in the open and people have to cross through it to get to the crosswalk and S-bahn station.  well, today a dude, about 50 years old, was just peeing there right in the open. i saw pee, and privates.  Whatever happened to germans being reserved??? i took the long way to the crosswalk bc i did not want in on that. and i ran into him and he just gave the the same half smile everyone gives eachother on the street. EW.

anyhow, i have to fill out all this bureaucratic b.s. for the police station and what not.  SO annoying because i have to have my landlord sign some form, and they close always before i'm back from school.  furthermore, the Rathaus that i have to go to closes nearly always before i'm back from school. and i have to get this thing done after 7 days of arrival in my residence. so i moved into my apartment on monday, and still havent done it. i've filled everything out but haven't gotten my landlord to sign it or brought it to the Rathaus.  I can get it to the Rathaus on time because Mondays it stays open until 1500 (3pm) and i think if i rush i can make it. however, my landlords office closes at 11 on mondays. what kind of office closes that early...ever???? Seems like everywhere here has the most bogus hours.  So i have some form from my landlord stating my residency, hopefully that works on monday

but if there aren't any posts for a few days after monday, i'm probably in jail... 

and i'm not sure if i expressed my anxiety about not taking advantage of my time here and savoring every single moment. but i have that, BUT, i'm going on a tour tomorrow, of Potsdam i think. and on monday i'm going on another tour to somewhere else.  Both tours talk about stasi stuff, so that should be very interesting.  i just hope that i get my phone figured out soon so i can call my pals.  while the people in my dorm are nice the only people whose schedules are something like mine are these two brazilian girls who only talk to eachother in portuguese.

while they're also very friendly and loved how i liked os mutantes they're always deep in conversation in a language i can't even begin to understand.

i still feel like i need to be thinking every moment, ~wow, germany is wonderful, this experience is wonderful, this is the most amazing city in the world~. and while i am being constantly impressed, i still feel like i need to see more, do more and experience more.  i mean i haven't found interesting small clubs (or any clubs), or anything like such. and i haven't yet learned the history of things.

i actually feel like i spend most of my time at school, grocery shopping or in my room. i don't want to get stuck in a routine. my whole life at home is a routine, and while i love it. i get so much done, it's familiar and easy, i don't want that here. because it's limiting.  at home i feel like i only have certain time for certain things, and i don't want to feel that way here. 

 additionally, do i really need 8 hours of sleep a night. i just want to make sure i'm living as much as possible, and i'm not sure if i'm doing that just yet.

...and as saying this i'm sitting in my dorm room. but it actually just started thundering and raining outside....perhaps there will be kids in the hall?

so mums and pops, what did you guys do before cell phones were invented? 

i hope this mild anxiety fades after i see the city more. and start more excursions with friends.

i think it will, and i will definitely let you know all about it.

i will also take pictures of these people i talk about, mainly laura (prounounced with a very strong italien accent), marce', and linda.  

laura is a gorgeous florenzian(spelling?) girl, 22 i think? she likes led zeppelin and is a political science major. 

marce' plays the oboe. her parents are bringing to her next thursday and we plan on playing a few duets. she is from barcelona and a math major.  shes soo kind and radiates loyalty.

linda is a finnish economics major. she eats reindeer and is a crackup. she also has really neat hair.

there are also many more students in my class, all of who we hang out with and chat with but these are the girls i was planning on going out with.

i'll be going on the tour tomorrow with other Vokurs students and Marce' from my class. i'll make sure to write alll about it, and probably post pictures too :)

UGH

gahhhhh

i had all these plans with my friends from school to go diskoing tonight but i just bought my prepaid phone today.

only thing is, it doesn't work!!!

i was so proud of myself for speaking in all german when buying the darn thing, but now it's just not working.

it says i have to call a number to register my simcard however, the number to call is only 4 digits long, and my phone will only allow me to make emergency calls.

also,

i can only purchase online more minutes through this one company that requires registration. and to register   they sms (text) you your password. onlything is, my phone isn't recieving texts because it doesn't work!

:(

i guess i stay in tonight :(

but i'll keep at at and we'll see what happens

Mein Zimmer