I know, I'm terrible...

I'm sorry for not updating for so long-I've been both busy and lazy. It's not that I haven't done a ton of stuff...I just haven't felt like writing. So, sorry, and I'll bullet-point it for ya-

• ended up going out with Holly's friends not that night, but the one after...I only hit one place with them, then decided I was too tired for much more. Good decision.
• I saw a production of Shakespeares Sonette with the Berliner Ensemble. It was directed by Robert Wilson and music was written for it by Rufus Wainwright. You should check it out; it was amazing, although I definitely didn't get all the directorial choices.
• I managed to not have to pay the stupid fine! Yay! H and I went to the BVG office and talked to an employee there (auf Deutsch, obvi) for a long time and she was very nice :)
• H and I went to the Turkish market last week and I didn't buy anything...yay self control. But we also had lunch at Yellow Sunshine, where I had a vegetarian bacon cheeseburger. Twas delish.
• Last Friday we (as a program) went to Weimar and Buchenwald. It was a nasty, rainy day...not so nice for walking around. In the morning we went to the Goethe House, which was kinda cool-it's all organized to his color theory. Weird stuff. After lunch we went to Buchenwald, which was a labor camp just outside the city. It was a very...vivid...experience. I may write more on this later, as it really merits more than just a bullet point. It was my first visit to any kind of concentration camp and suffice to say, it felt right to be there in bad weather.
• Saturday night was JOSHUA RADIN!!! It was sooooo good. I may or may not have seen him 4 1/2 times already...but it was amazing. He is just so personable and is just wonderful onstage. Many musicians are either great recorded artists or great performers, but I think he truly is both. He actually played some new stuff-he's recording another album in February, when he heads back to NYC after finishing his tour. I'll be back there then too...maybe I'll run into him... ;) H and Kathleen went with me and I think they had almost as much fun as I did haha. We went to dinner at a Tibetan restaurant in Kreuzberg first...yum. I love me some momos.
• Sunday Daddy visited! I had to get on a bus ridiculously early (7am) to go pick him up at the airport, but it was worth it. He came and dropped of his stuff (and all my stuff). He brought my winter clothes, thank goodness, and some goodies-my comfort food, mac&cheese, and Halloween candy that Shiva was nice enough to get for me! I do love me some Halloween candy...there's no calories in it, right? :)Then we went and got breakfast near church. My "choir" was singing so it was nice to have him there for that, although the sermon was not as thought provoking as I would have liked. All Souls really has spoiled me. After church, we went to lunch at an Italian place near Potsdamer Platz...delish. I had a goat cheese-stuffed gnocchi and some tasty Riesling. Ahhh I do love good food. Then we went to the Friedrichstrasse area. Because it was Sunday, basically nothing was open. Yeah, Berlin pretty much shuts down on Sundays. However, Dussmann (the equivalent of Borders) was open for a special Staatsoper event, so we went in there. We got to hear a string quartet perform a bit. Dad also got me a guide to Munich (since I'll be there in just a few days) and The Man Without Qualities, a novel about the disparity between Viennese high society and the lower classes in 1913. Looks good...and it's crazy long so it should take a while to read...it's 1130 pages :) I haven't started reading it yet, but it seems like it might be similar to Vanity Fair. He also got me a set of 4 CDS, a vocal jazz collection. I've been listening to them on repeat. Sadly, Dad had to leave to get to some conferences, etc elsewhere that evening so the visit wasn't as long as I would have liked, but it was good to see him!
• Yesterday...I went to class. Nothing too exciting. Oh! Except the best buddy ever, Joe, sent me some Disney movies. And by some, I mean about 12. And I got them yesterday and have been enjoying them ever since. I watched Hercules last night. And Pocahontas this evening.
• Tonight Chelsea and I had our regular Gossip Girl viewing. What is with this show? It really needs to improve...and fast. It's getting frustrating. (Yes, we take it far too seriously)
• This morning my Museums class went to the Neues Museum on Museumsinsel. It was pretty cool, although we had to speed through because it only opened a few days ago, so we were assigned a block of time that we were allowed to be in there. They've got a ton of Egyptian stuff, so that was cool...I've always been a fan. C and I also went to a sweet bookstore in Prenzlauerberg, St. George's Bookshop, to get our books for our Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud class. I could have spent hours there...it's all English language and has mostly used books...I loved their music section. And their massive lit section. I think I may make it back there...

So I'm getting really excited for fall break. It's next week, although really mine's starting on Friday. I'm going to Munich early Friday morning and getting back to Berlin Monday evening. I'm going to be staying at Maria's apartment, although she'll only be there Sunday night, as she's going to be going home to the fam for her birthday. Sad, but understandable. I'm still excited to see Munich though!
A week from today I'll be in London! I'm flying in Tuesday morning and flying out very, very early the following Monday. I'll hopefully be staying with Karina, and seeing Ems and Danni and Stac. I am soooo excited! I'm looking forward to seeing London, of course, but mainly I'm super excited to see my girls. It's hard to be far away from people you've grown really close to (obvi) so getting to see them while I'm on this side of the ocean is very important to me.
Ok, this was an epic post...I could probably write more, but I've really got to go do my German reading. Although maybe I'll watch Mulan instead...
xoxoxo

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. :)

Museums and bars and churches oh my!

It's been a while since I updated, I know. I've been having difficulties with my internet connection-and then when I finally sat down to write here, I received some upsetting news. One of the ministers from All Souls, who had been the senior minister for years and then was the minister for public theology, Rev. Dr. Forrest Church, had passed away (Thursday evening). It's a bit difficult to be here and not in NYC. He had fought cancer for several years, so it wasn't exactly a surprise, but still is hard to handle. I am there in spirit with all those who cared for him, and at the memorial service.
Anyway, more cheerful stuff...
So on Tuesday we went to the Gemaeldegalerie in my "Museumsinsel" class. It was begun basically as West Berlin's answer to the Museuminsel, which was in East Berlin and housed most of the great works. We looked at several paintings in detail, so I didn't get to see much, but I learned more about how to look at works of art.
Wednesday was unexciting-just class, etc. although Chelsea and I did go back to the delish Thai place in Kreuzberg. I had the exact same thing as last time-couldn't resist.
Thursday-basically just class and homework, although C and I hung out and enjoyed some wine :) possibly my last Riesling for the year-it just feels silly to drink it once it's long-sleeve weather. Paul came up and hung out for a bit as well...he had locked himself out, silly boy. I love having chill evenings at home like that.
Friday my Museumsinsel class went to the Museum der Dinge, or Museum of Things. It literally was a bunch of...stuff...displayed in a somewhat jumbled manner. It was interesting, although I would have liked a bit more explanation as to why some things were in there and why they were displayed in the manner that they were. It certainly inspired some discussion as to the agenda of the curator and what makes a museum. Weird stuff. Afterwards, C and I went to a super-cheap Vietnamese place around the corner, Green Rice. Not my favorite. The food was pretty good (I had a red curry), and you know how much I love cheap, but the proprieter was so rude. I actually couldn't believe it. I was trying to tell him that I wanted tofu and no chicken but he just refused to make eye contact and kept mumbling! Honestly, no matter what language you speak, I'm not going to understand you if you mumble. I've never understood why people in service industries think it's a good idea to mumble.
I spent the rest of the day just chillin'. I spent a lot of time reflecting on Forrest's influence on my life and related topics. I really will miss his voice (written and spoken). May he always be remembered and finally be at peace.
Saturday was another relaxed day, doing homework and watching movies/Gossip Girl (too much). C and I did discover our new favorite place-Bierhimmel. It means "Beer Heaven" and it truly is divine. We split a piece of chocolate torte with slivered almonds and she had a hot chocolate (Kakao) and I had a steamed milk with Bailey's. OMG soooo good. And soooo reasonably priced. If any of you reading are coming to visit (and I hope someone is!), we will be going there. I've decided it's "my place". :)
Today, Holly and I went to the American Church in Berlin. Much better. Still not quite my cup of tea-I'm really not as Christian as any of the churches here are-but definitely the best fit. The sermon actually required a little thought, which was nice. It's a much bigger congregation, and they are very welcoming. I talked to the greeter while I was waiting for H, and he asked us about our studies, etc. Apparently he told the choir directors there that I'm studying music, because before the service, two of them came up to us (at different times) to try to get me involved. I think I'm going to do it-I do really miss singing, even if it's a different style than I am used to. It'll also be a great way to get to know some people outside the NYU in Berlin group. I think that I'll go to the rehearsal for the Chamber Choir on Tuesday as well as the one next Sunday for the Contemporary Choir and see if either/both is a good fit. I hope so!
xoxoxo

Weekend update

It has been quite a busy one!
On Friday, we had a day trip (as a program) to Hamburg. We had to meet at 7:15am in front of our building-far too early for my taste. We then took a local train the the Hauptbahnhof (main station) and an ICE train to Hamburg. We walked from the station to the Hamburg Institue for Social Research where we had a lecture/discussion with one of the researchers there, Dr. Claudia Weber. She works in the Theory and History of Violence department of the institute, and is researching the Katyn Forest Massacre. It was fascinating, although I was a bit distracted by hunger-as I'm sure we all were. Eating breakfast at 6:45 and not going to lunch till 2...not my favorite. I had also kind of assumed we'd be doing tours of the city, actually seeing it, and not sitting in a conference room.
However, after lunch (which NYU paid for! yay!) we had a few hours to explore. I, along with Holly, Andrew, and Greg, decided we would walk around enough to make sure we knew how to get to the train station, then we walked along the river and sat on the bank. Hamburg was a port city, and so the feel of it is very different from Berlin. I loved it-much more relaxed and being on the water again was great. We did only see a bit of it, but I did like that much anyway. As we were walking along the river, we went past so many sailboats. All I wanted to do was hop on one and just sail around for a few hours. That was definitely an I-miss-Michigania moment.
We (having added Shevani to our group) decided to go get a glass of wine at one of the many cafes right alongside the river. I had a delicious Riesling (god I love German Riesling!) and we just chilled out for a bit. It was so nice to relax and chat for a while.
When we got back, I just came up, made dinner, relaxed...and then was convinced I should go hang out for a bit. Ok. So I went down to Holly and Shevani's room and we just chilled with a few people. Then it was decided we should go out. I somehow was convinced to go (I'm such a doormat! I was sooo tired) and we made our way to a hookah bar near our apartments. At the entrance, they asked if we were 21. We were a bit confused by this, but pretty much just ignored it. As I don't smoke (anything), I just had a beer there and hung out with the massive group we ended up having. I have to say, I do not like traveling in groups of more than 5. It just gets ridiculous (as it did that night). Most of the group then decided to continue on at another bar, but my bed was calling to me. I think I made a good choice :)
Saturday was much calmer. I ran some errands (getting more minutes for my phone, grocery shopping, etc) and then met that same group at the Biergarten in the Tiergarten. I've been wanting to go to a Biergarten since I got here, before it gets too cold. That was pretty cool, as it was a gorgeous day and I got a large, delicious beer for 3,50. Gotta love German beer culture :) After that, I came home, made dinner, accidentally fell asleep for a bit, then tried to go out. I went and met the group at (yet another) hookah bar, waited for them to finish up there, then went on a quest for a karaoke bar. Long, boring, story short, we didn't find one. They then went to another club or something, but it was already after midnight, so I came back and went to bed.
Yesterday all I did was homework (sooo much reading and annoying German worksheets) before going to an evening church service. Holly and I went to the English Episcopal service at St. Georges. Again, it just didn't speak to me. It was another tiny group (I think I've been spoiled with the huge congregation at All Souls) and just not thought-provoking. I love having a sermon that really makes me think, that I can mull over and debate for days following, but last night's (and last week's) was just so...basic. I may have to just start listening to/reading All Souls stuff online. However, H and I will continue our spiritual journey next week, possibly at the American Church in Berlin.
Hope you enjoyed this extra-long post :)
xoxoxo

Boring day

Really, it was.
I went to church this morning. I got there surprisingly easily considering my lack of familiarity with the public transportation here. Just one transfer, whew!
Church itself though-not a success. As I mentioned before, I went to a Catholic mass. I basically just felt uncomfortable the whole time. Part of that was due to my beliefs, which don't exactly line up with Catholic dogma. However, that wasn't all-or I think even most-of it. It was a very, very small congregation. Like 40 people, maybe. I felt awkward because I didn't always know what to do, since I haven't been to a Catholic service other than Christmas in a long, long time, and I didn't feel like anybody was ready to help me out or welcome me. True, I didn't stay for their version of coffee hour, but I just didn't fit there at all. It didn't help that everybody there was about 35+ or their children-mostly the younger adults had kids, so I didn't feel that there would even be anybody to really connect with. I know that age shouldn't matter...but when I already feel divided by faith, age doesn't help. I think I'll try a different church next Sunday...
The rest of the day I spent doing homework/watching the rest of Moulin Rouge for the millionth time/reading Sing Them Home. I finished Gourmet Rhapsody on the train this morning-brilliant book, read it ASAP-and started Sing this afternoon. It's a little odd but very good. I also love that it's quite a thick book so hopefully it'll take me a bit longer to read...it's the last of the 6 books I brought with me. I don't want to have to buy too many while I'm here, both for financial and space reasons. Trying to take 20 books back with me...not an easy task, even from NYC. I think I'll be doing a lot of rereading...

Let's play catch up

Words that always mean a good start to the night.
But in this instance I mean I haven't posted since Thursday and it's now Saturday. Two whole days without my wonderful storytelling, how did you survive? :)
Friday I don't have class. Basically, it's wonderful. Woke up when I felt like it (around 10), made breakfast, and made another mildly stressful trip to the bank. It's not the trip that's stressful-it's seeing that I still don't have all the money in my account I should and hoping that none of my checks got lost in the mail.
Then Chelsea (my fab roomie) and I went to Sprintout, a copy shop, to get our course readers. Of course, our professors neglected to inform us that it was a 1-day waiting period and you could only get it early the next day if you went before noon. Also they apparently aren't open on weekends because we can't pick up our readers till Monday evening. We were not too pleased. We then met up with some other students for a tour of Humboldt Universitaet, our host uni. It was pretty quick (whew!) but informative-we saw the international students office, cafeteria(s), libraries, and found out helpful info about computer labs, internet access, etc. Then C and I went to get a late lunch at this random Aussie restaurant-we had bruschetta and baguette with sun-dried tomatoes, and she had a beer and I the worst wine ever. I actually didn't drink it-that's how bad it was. I just love paying for overpriced box wine (which I'm pretty sure is what it was).
I came back, did some hw, a few exercises-I was feeling a bit lazy after my summer of riding. Then I was informed that people were going to a club called Love Lite for their soul-dancing night. Despite my skepticism regarding the name (is it just me, or does it sound super sketch?), I thought it sounded like quite the good time. We all hung out for a bit in one of our rooms-Holly and I ran out to get a couple beers. When we got back we had enough time to have one and then realized-wait! We're in Germany! We can drink in public here! We then, of course, ended up taking our second beers on the walk/train ride with us. God I love Berlin. I may never come back haha.
Love Lite was awesome. It was quite a trek to get there and a bit difficult to find, but totally worth it. I danced for literally hours. And because it was actual music, not just bump-and-grind "music", I was actually dancing. I loved it, although I was ready to leave fairly early. I'm such an old woman sometimes. However, we ended up not getting home till about 4. I wasn't exactly concerned about safety, though, because there were literally about 15 of us there. Over half our program went. Pretty cool, eh?
Today I took it really easy. I didn't wake up till a bit after noon, then made some lunch and basically did homework all day. I have so much reading to do. Some of it's in German, which makes it that much harder. 20 pages in normal English, no prob. German-something of a prob. The other reading that I haven't yet finished is Marx, and he is no easy read. It doesn't help that I'm reading it online since the stupid copy shop won't give me my reader till after my class. Grrr.
In the morning I've decided to make the trek to an English-speaking Catholic church. I wish there was a Unitarian-Universalist one here, but alas. I'm opting for the Catholic one for a variety of reasons. It's (partially) my heritage, so I feel a little more welcome, it's easily accessible by train, and they have the least scary website. By which I mean my non-declarative UU self is scared off by things proclaiming We consider it a joy to be able to be “an ecumenical home for people from diverse nations sharing God’s love in Jesus Christ.”
Not that I have a problem with that-and not that Catholicism doesn't celebrate the divinity of JC, obviously-but for some reason I find statements like that somewhat off-putting for my personal faith and search for truth, or at least search for something for now.
Due to this morning quest, I should probably go and get some sleep about now...don't want to go back to my 7-grade self, falling asleep in church!

Potsdam

Today was so much better. I managed to get a full night of sleep last night, which was great. It's been so long...haha
This morning, before our tour of Potsdam, I decided to go out in search of coffee. That, of course, turned into me walking around for about half an hour-I decided since I had so much extra time I might as well explore. I didn't see anything too exciting, but it was good to get a small sample of the area. I came back with coffee for my roommate (who also happens to be a veggie!) and myself, then left for the walking tour of Potsdam.
We took the train out of Berlin into the history-rich city that is Potsdam. As soon as we got off the bus at the bridge into it, we learned that during WWII that was a site for secret exchanges between the Soviets and the Western Allies.
Once we walked over the bridge, we walked around and learned various historical facts, including about the many restructurings of buildings. In this, we visited and learned about the Nikolaikirche, or Church of St. Nicholas. Although it is now a Lutheran church, it originated as a Roman Catholic one. We then went to the Dutch quarter to get some lunch, although I had gotten a Buerek mit Kaese just outside Potsdam, so I just had a glass of Riesling (yum yum).
After lunch we walked around some more, visiting the Garnisonkirche, or Garrison Church. The church itself has been destroyed, although the bells remain-and played as we stood there. WE then headed to Sanssouci, a palace of Frederick the Great. It had some beautiful gardens and is surprisingly modest. At that point, however, I was exhausted and ready for dinner and bed. Some people stayed a bit longer to look around the gardens more, but I went back with a few others.
I grabbed some food from a sort of convenience store (must go grocery shopping!), brought it upstairs and sat down with it and my computer, getting everything ready for class tomorrow! Eeeeek!
Now, I think it may be time for a movie and bed...