So close...

to break! I can't wait!
Today I...did laundry in the bathtub again. It's quickly becoming my least favorite activity, yet it's still better than paying inordinate sums of money to use the apartment complex's washer and dryer. There are now clothes hanging all over my room.
I went to class, as per usual. I don't even know why I bother mentioning it...it was German, we finished our second book, Am kuerzeren Ende der Sonnenalle, and we have our midterm tomorrow. Which I should be studying for instead of writing here.
Then we got our vaccines. Except they weren't, as advertised, the H1N1 vaccines. It was the normal flu vaccine, which I am glad I got, but I'm a little annoyed about their apparent inability to inform us of this ahead of time.
A couple other girls and I went to the Deutsche Oper to get tickets to tomorrow's performance of Carmina Burana. I absolutely love that work, and was hoping the tickets wouldn't be too expensive. Well, apparently if you go the day of, one hour before, they have tickets (in good seats!) for 13.50. Hellz yeah. So we're going back...even I can afford that! I am so excited...I can't wait to see it performed by a major group...it will far outshine Pioneer's A Cappella and NYU's Choral Arts Society. Yay!
Just two more classes and then it's break. On Friday I take the bus to Munich, and wander around the city for a couple days. Maria will (hopefully) be coming back Sunday night, so we can catch up then. I can't wait to see her! I come back on Monday, and then on Tuesday I leave again, this time for London! I'll be seeing Ems and Karina for sure, and hopefully Danni and Stac as well. 'Twill be a camp friend-filled break :) I am sooo excited!
xoxoxo

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

I WILL get tickets to JR's concert...in the meantime, let's go shopping!

Yeah, so yesterday wasn't too exciting. And I didn't do anything exciting last night either...I did look up tickets for my trip to England. Yeah I'm not too excited about those prices. But it will be worth it, RIGHT GIRLS? Yes, it will-4 of my fave Michigania people all in the same place...can't wait.
Today my Museumsinsel class was also cancelled because we had an extra class on Friday, so that was nice. I went to the bank since I'm going to have to get a new U-Bahn, bus, etc. ticket for October and that costs money. Serious money. Then Holly and I went on a mission to get tickets to the Joshua Radin (ie my future husband) concert on October 17th. Ummm so the venue, Fritz-Club at the Postbahnhof...super sketch. At night I'm sure it's hoppin...but in the morning, there is nobody there. And no directions for anything. We eventually had to give up and will call-all I can say is, they'd better not have sold out of tickets. I will actually cry. Legitimately.
It was a good thing Holly, Chelsea, and I had planned on shopping anyway-I definitely needed some retail therapy after that disappointment. I needed some new basics-long sleeved t's, a cardigan, that kind of stuff. So of course we went to H&M-good for basics, good for the shopping H and C wanted to do, good for the nightgowns C and I wanted to get for our now weekly Gossip Girl parties :) We both love that show a little bit too much and have decided that we need to watch each weeks episode in style. We've both noticed that the girls are always in gorgeous nighties/lingerie and decided that we should probably wear nighties and headbands. So I got a super cute slip-style nightie in a dusty rose color, two scoop neck 3/4 sleeve tees in black and dusty rose, a white puff-sleeve 3/4 sleeve tee, and a black cardigan. Pretty great deals, although I must say, I despise the conversion rate. Oh, and C didn't actually find a nightie she liked in her size, so I will be the only one with that tonight...although we both still will rock headbands and be adorable. So there.
When we got back we were cold and starving (it was nasty and rainy all day), so C and I made tomato soup with rice and spinach pizza. 'Twas delicious and meant I didn't need much in the way of dinner. A bit later, we went on an expedition to the Turkish market to get some strawberries to be a part of our Gossip Girl greatness, but it basically turned into an extremely long walk. We never found the market, although we did find a beautiful park and a [very] discount store where we got frozen apple pastries and vanilla ice cream.
The plan for tonight: Bierhimmel with C and H for milk with Baileys (soooo good, especially in yucky weather like this), then Gossip Girl party with C-outfits and dessert as described above, plus Prosecco. Sounds like a pretty great night to me!
xoxoxo