Procrastination station

...we have arrived!
Thursday was fairly unexciting-I had German and Lit classes. It was pouring down rain in the morning, so naturally that was when my Lit professor decided we should walk all over to try to see the Giants (Riesen) and get our press passes. Yup. Press passes-apparently now this blog qualifies me? Oh, Esther. I think it was that evening that I finally got to talk to my dad, which was great :) I love that it doesn't use up my minutes to receive phone calls or texts-those international calls are expensive and I can go through a 25 Euro phone card in just over 10 minutes.
Friday I got to meet up with Max! He worked at the tennis program area at my camp in 2008 so we got to be pretty close that summer. However, he's from Germany, so I hadn't seen him for over a year! He just got back to Berlin from a trip to NYC, actually, so we met up for coffee and a mini-walking tour. I had a chai (love that stuff) and we caught up for a while, discussing camp, etc. Then his girlfriend, Natalya (I have no idea if I spelled her name right, she's Russian) met up with us as well and we walked around west Berlin for a while. Of course we had to visit the Ka-De-We (one of the largest departments store in Europe) and go up to the food floor. OMG I could happily spend days and millions of dollars there. Sooo much deliciousness. We got some marinated olives and mozzarella and marinated feta and broetchen. Delish. The funniest part of it was the American imported food section-the prices were ridiculous! A 4-pack of Oreos: 8 Euros. A box of Pop-Tarts: 9 Euros. Eeek! Good thing I don't particularly like those things...We then just wandered around some more, eventually ending up near a ticket kiosk where I was able to buy tickets for the Joshua Radin concert! Yay! They ended up being 18 Euros each...not too bad. I would have paid a lot more, so I'm glad I didn't have to...and hey, that's just 2 boxes of Pop-Tarts :) Can't wait for the 17th!
That evening I went out with a whole bunch of people. We hung out in the apartments for a bit, then went to some club that was playing hip-hop spanning about the last 10 years. I couldn't bring myself to stay for too long, because I had some serious reporting to do in the morning! But it was fun, and let me tell you, I felt like a great dancer next to a lot of the people there! A very rare feeling for me, as most of you probably know...
Saturday-die Riesen kommen! To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Wall coming down, these giant puppets were in the city. It was the story of an uncle and niece being reunited. The uncle, or Big Giant, actually emerged from the Humboldtbecken. We got to see him just after he left the water and he walked right by us on his way to the Brandenburger Tor (gate). We saw the niece, or Little Giantess, on her way as well. We decided not to brave the insane crowds to see the actual reunification, but there are photos and videos all over the place. Definitely check them out-they are sooo cool.

Holly and I also had a delicious lunch-a treat, to be sure, but worth scrimping a bit this week. We went to this cool Italian place-kind of a 20s, Art Deco feel, where we both had the minestrone soup and different kinds of gnocchi. Mine was pretty basic, with an herbed butter and parmesan, while hers had pumpkin, almonds, and mascarpone. All of it was soooo good. Ahh I love food!
Yesterday I also got to talk to my mom via Skype. Not the best sound quality, but it was so good to hear-and see-her! Also good that it's free. Yay free. We got to talk for about half an hour and I even got to see Lucas (brother), Caspian (dog), and Mariel (cat). Apparantly Rhubarb (cat) was not up for the webcam. Haha-thanks Lucas.
Today H and I went to church again at the American Church of Berlin. Again, the service wasn't the most thought-provoking, although it was pretty good. The best part was that I was able to join in the choir rehearsal afterwards! The music so far is pretty easy (especially since I'm a soprano, ha!) and I was complimented on my sight-reading skills. One of the things from high school that has stuck with me (thanks, Mr. Westerman). It's not my favorite music, but I'm just so happy to be singing again. :)