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

Back to my old faves-with some changes in taste

So last night we had to go see Mein Kampf for my "Berlin in and as Lit" class. It's written by George Tabori, and yes, co-stars Hitler. It's a very, very strange play. I read it in English last week and prepared a presentation on it (that I never gave, don't ask me why my teacher wanted me to do that if we weren't even going to discuss the play), which was very helpful. Obviously, the performance was in German. It was produced by the Berliner Ensemble, a very prominent theatre company. I'll be seeing another show with them in a couple weeks (Shakespeare's Sonnette) and am looking forward to it. Mein Kampf was very into realism. Scenes that could involve nudity-full nudity. The pet chicken, Mitzi, was a real chicken. She literally wandered around the stage from her entrance in (I think) the 2nd act until she was turned into dinner. Thankfully it wasn't the same chicken then, but it was another real chicken! That realism I couldn't handle-as they started-literally-hacking up the dead chicken I stopped watching. Despite my vegetarian squeamishness, I really enjoyed the show. I thought it was brilliantly performed and well worth the student price of 7 Euros (and more).
Today I had German-we finalllllly finished reading Die Weisse Rose. Whew. Not my fave book. Even better, my Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud class was cancelled. I like that class, but any extra free time I love. Even if it is finally cold out and so I did not enjoy wandering around as I would have if it had been a nice day :(
I'm on a jazz kick right now. I really need some more-all I have is Jamie Cullum and Frank Sinatra. Not even very much of either. If anyone wants to email me some tracks, I would be eternally grateful...I'm sure my roommate will get tired of hearing the same 3 CDs over and over.
For some reason I'm also craving great choral music. I listened to the Carmina Burana for the first time in quite a while and just enjoyed it so much. I think that not being in a choir right now is intensifying my need to at least hear the kind of music I'd like to be singing.
"So tell me why should it be true/That I get a kick out of you" -Jamie and Frank!
xoxoxo