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

Such an exciting life I lead

I literally went to my one class today and spent the rest of my time in my apartment.
It wasn't till 2:30 so I futzed around for hours after waking up at 9:30. It was German, so the norm-I babbled until my teacher started talking and then just agreed with her. It's been a very effective form of participation.
I got home a bit before 5-thanks public transportation. I did homework, made dinner, did random stuff on the internet tubes, homework, and then lots and lots of emails and FB messages. I feel like I've just been staring at my screen for hours.
Oh I did do something productive this morning! I booked my bus ticket for Munich/Oktoberfest! I'm going down on October 23rd and coming back up on the 26th. I wouldn't spend so much time at the Fest itself except that a good friend, Maria, goes to school there. I worked with her at my camp (she also played with the ponies) in 2008 and haven't seen her since last September. I can't wait!
I also spent some time figuring out my hopeful visit to London. I plan on going the day after I get back from Munich since it's my fall break and leaving on November 1st so hopefully I can find cheap tickets for then...I do need to talk to my English girlies and confirm with them so I don't get there and have nowhere to stay/have to wander around on my own.
Oh and I did do a spot of shopping yesterday as a little retail therapy for the fire scare-I got an adorable headband from H&M. I can't find it online, but it's a seafoam green stretchy headband with a bow made of the same material. Not a big tacky one-just one made out of folds of the fabric. I'm a little obsessed with it since it meets the love requirements-some shade of aqua/teal and a cute accessory that can jazz anything up. So cute!

It's the weekend!

Yay!
I had my last first class this morning, Berlin in and as Literature. I'm still not quite sure how I feel about it, but I think I'm going to like it. We visited Brecht's apartment (which is just a couple blocks down), which has been turned into a museum/archive. That was pretty cool, as we were given a tour through it that was just long enough to be worth it but still short enough to keep my attention.
I had yet another long break between that and German, so I went and bought some more notebooks and had lunch, killing time because I didn't yet have very much homework (for which I had the necessary material). However, that will all change tomorrow. I already have 20 pages of German to read (Der weisse Rose), a play by Brecht (Mother Courage and her Children), in English thankfully, and once I get the readers much more. Eek. Good thing I've got at least all weekend for them, if not even longer! Gotta love these (mostly) once a week classes.
I then did some real grocery shopping, getting staples like milk, eggs, OJ, olive oil, etc. Let me tell you, living on the 4th (5th for you non-Germans) floor with no elevator is not fun when you just did the newly-moved grocery shopping. Boy did my shoulders hurt by the time I got to the top of the stairs. Oh well. I'll be in great shape, right?
This evening I went out for "happy hour" (ie a beer early in the evening) with about 8 other people from my program. We went to some random bar and just hung out for an hour or so. After one (quite large) beer I was ready to head back and make some dinner and fall asleep, so I came back a bit earlier than most of the others. I had a great time though, and I've become a big fan of leaving while I'm still having fun, so I don't end up annoyed or frustrated or just too tired (which believe me, has happened too many times).
So goodnight all, and join in my happiness at not having to set an alarm for tomorrow :)

Getting adjusted

...it's finally happening.
This morning I went down to the Baeckerei (bakery), etc on the corner and got some fresh Broetchen and Kaffee, then brought it back upstairs to have with some of my brie left over. Delish. The Broetchen were still warm from the oven. Does it get any better than that?
I only had one class today, so that was nice. It was one about the Museumsinsel, or Museum Island. We're going to be visiting all the museums that are a part of that, as well as the Gemaeldegalerie in the Kulturforum and the Neue Nationalgalerie. A little more than half will be those trips, the other being lectures/discussions. Yay. It's going to be so much fun.
After that my roomie, Chelsea, and I went to Friedrichstrasse to pick up some books and for her to buy herself a birthday present (it was yesterday). We went to basically the Berlin equivalent of Borders or Barnes and Noble, Dussmans. We got our German-English dictionaries (why did I have to forget mine?!) and I also got a journal for my time here. While I right about all the stuff I've done in a strictly narrative manner here, I want to have a place as well to record my private reactions, thoughts, and feelings during my time here. As pretentious as it may sound, I really feel like this could be a time of great personal growth. It is certainly the most independent I have been.
Anyway, when we got back I did a little mini-grocery shopping. I went to a place called Aldi, which is strange. Lots of stuff, but a very random selection...and you have to pay to use a grocery cart! And they don't give you shopping bags. I literally carried the about 8 items I bought in my hands because all I brought with me was my wallet. It was a little silly looking, I fear. I'm going to do some more extensive shopping tomorrow.
Tonight I went out for a (yes, one) drink with a couple people from the program, Chelsea and Paul. We went to a little bar a few blocks away and I had my first beer in Germany! It was quite fun-and yummy. We just chilled out there and then came back...I love going out and still managing to have an early night. Of course I don't have class till 2:30 tomorrow...but I do love being good to my body :)
All in all, a good-and productive-day.
See you tomorrow!