germany has treated me really wonderfully today.
to recount my day i:
woke up early for my 8am Mikrobiologie lecture in Wedding. I was actually running late but somehow ended up getting there early. I even had a pretty good time understanding the professor...minus all his jokes ;/

headed home and went on a really enjoyable run.
i also played hooky for my next lecture.
twice a week i have an hour-long chemistry lecture. seeing as how i've already taken chemistry i'm sure you can understand how incredibly boring this is for me. well, i have all his lecture slides that he follows strictly, and technically attendance isn't even mandatory, soooo i decided to take just one day off for myself.

i headed off to Alexanderplatz.I was going to change to the U-Bahn here to head to a shoe store I had heard about, then i realized i wasn't wearing socks so I dropped off to buy some and a tarrif card for my handy.

well well well, walking across the platz some cell phone promotion dude started to walk towards me and i did my usual speed-up, smile awkwardly and try to avoid eyecontact business to avoid being hassled into a newspaper subscription, cell phone plan or something else.
well he asked me my name, and i pulled the 'confused don't speak german, wide eyed' look that usually gets these people off my back pretty quick, buuutt, then he started to speak in german. introduced himself and said 'i just saw the most beautiful girl walking across the platz and i had to find out her name', i was like 'HUH?', then he said 'you have the best vibes, keep smiling and i hope you have a great day!'
didn't even try to sell me something!

a little weird, surprising and definitely unexpected. but hey, who doesn't like a compliment now and then.

from alexander platz i headed to Rosenthaler Straße to buy some shoes.
I had heard about Calypso Shoes before and it's famous for having the best vintage shoes. Last week i had tried to visit the store, but went the wrong way on Rosenthaler Straße and got pretty lost... But the owner from the picture is known as 'the Queen of All Shoes' and she either she likes you, or she really doesn't. But she totally loved me! She spent so much time with me helping me find the perfect pair of winter boots. After a few pairs I finally decided upon some half-calf black boots with the coziest, warmest fuzzy lining. they feel like un-ugly uggs. hahah, that's a mouthfull. but after this weekend when i came home and couldn't feel my toes they were so cold, i came to the realization that i'm going to be needing warmer boots.
after purchasing the boots i realized the sole was a bit undone and so she handed me 5 euros and gave me the address of the nearby cobbler.

On the way walking there i was racking my brain trying to find the vocab to describe my shoe situation. on the way i dropped into an organic bakery, bought some REALLY bad bread and used their bathroom. really all i needed to do was use the toilet but i felt uncomfortable doing so without buying something. but they lady working was so nice and cheerful that i probably could have without a problem. too late now, and i ate the bread anyways :)
but i got to the cobbler and the lady working was super friendly and explained what they will do to them and i can pick them up tomorrow after 3. And it's only costing 4.50 euro! So technically i just made 50 cents :)

i had planned on visiting the all-vegan store and a vegan fast food place that has desserts, but i didn't really have an appetite any more so instead i just headed to the grocery store. I'll probably head there tomorrow after picking up my shoes.

Tonight Ida and I are going to the Roisin Murphy concert!!! We bought the tickets a while back so it's cool that we're finally going. I'll post some picture tomorrow.

And tomorrow with the EAP people, we're going on a tour of the Bundeskanzleramt which is like the german White House. You have to make reservations way in advance so i think it will be cool.

things have been going really great, and as always i'll keep you posted!