Rock n' Roll

I would like to start off by extending my warmest congratulations to MOTHAF*CKIN' PRESIDENT-ELECT BARACK OBAMA HELL YEAH!! America didn't screw up this time! We did it!

As much as I would have killed to be back in the Windy City last night, it's really quite amazing to see the reactions over here. People are more excited about a foreign election than I could have possibly imagined. All of the election-night parties I went to last night had more Germans and other Europeans than Americans, without a doubt. One of them had like a thousand tickets and they were sold out the day before! Just ridiculous. Two of the German girls in my Spanish class who had previously spent a year in the States stayed up all night to watch - one of them even had a "Proud To Be An American" shirt on today! And the girls I was talking to in a bar tonight were just screaming about how excited they were that Obama won.

I, like them, was up till 6:30 AM to make sure I got the acceptance speech, missed class this morning, and it was 100% worth it. I also have a fantasy that the "puppy" he promised his daughters will be a pug, because the "first pug" would just be the best thing ever. Also, fun fact: In 2007 I attended the press opening of Broadway in Chicago's stage production of High School Musical with Natasha, Malia, and Michelle Obama. We also kicked it at the after party. GET IT!

So anyway...man, it's been a while, got quite a bit to report. I'll do my best to remember it all. First of all, as promised, here's the link to my pictures from Dresden, Oktoberfest, and beyond:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2156662&l=cc5dc&id=2418535
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2156716&id=2418535

Classes are fully under way now, and I'm not gonna lie, it's pretty effing tough. Sometimes I'll leave a lecture being like "I...have no idea what just happened." My head often feels like it wants to explode. But I guess that's just the feeling of learning! Hopefully after a couple more weeks I'll get used to the style and the speed an all that, and if I'm lucky, I may not fail.

That's mostly for my two lectures at the university, though. My language courses are GREAT. I've met a couple very cool lads from different countries in my German class, and a couple of very cute girls in my Spanish class. German is great because it's all people from different countries, so it's easy to get to know new people and your common language is German, which forces you to use it. Spanish is also a lot of fun because (a) for some reason it feels super unstructured and very easy, and we just kind of go around and do speaking exercises and such all day and (b) it's the one subject where I'm on the same page with everyone else and/or Germans are actually asking ME for help, which is also a great way to meet people and talk to them, etc. And as a plus, I've seriously never had that many beautiful women in one class in my life. (German women are, on a whole, quite gorgeous - now I just need to man up and ask one out or something). So though there are good days and bad days in terms of class, overall it's quite good.

Oh and someone brought a BABY to one of my lectures this week. As if it wouldn't continuously shout "MAMA" during the entire hour and a half. It's like bringing a baby to the movies, except this time you're ruining people's educations. But the class was ever so amused - it was like Mary and her Little Lamb who made the children laugh and play.

Oh SNAP and I forgot I got these ridiculously awesome motorcycle boots at the flea market for 20€. They're waterproof and lined with fur, which makes them amazing for winter, and completely rock n' roll, which makes them amazing for always. A crazy gypsy lady sold them to me. Thanks Babuschka!

Went to another rockabilly concert at this awesome rockabilly club in Kreuzberg called Wild at Heart, this time a local Berlin band. Very cool once again, and the German language also rather lends itself to the style. Oh and then there was another the following week, a little more traditional/country-style but still quite good, got some gospely tunes going on. At any rate, I'm getting into the scene here and I hope to catch more shows in the near future.

I (with a few others) also planned a Halloween party for my program, which was pretty wicked stressful considering that Halloween just started here about seven years ago and finding black and orange streamers is literally impossible. The most you're going to get is one relatively small section of Halloween stuff on one floor of the largest malls in the city. No party stores, no decorations at the dollar (euro) store, nothin'. But we fudged it and we ended up pulling off a pretty good party. At least, if you can judge how good it was by the fact that a girl in a Slutty Santa costume vomited on the floor, it was a damn good party. I mean, I snapped into StuCo producer mode for the whole thing (for those of you to whom that means something), but people had fun, which means I had fun. I'm going to end up in events management, I just know it...

In terms of extracurriculars (not those kinds of extracurriculars...): I box twice a week, which is nice and gives me a good outlet for some of the stress I build up. And it's cool because we got right down to sparring on the first day (don't worry Mama, I wear a mouth guard!), and the coach for some reason thinks I'm going to be a Chicago boxing champion. I guess he has faith in me. Which is actually kind of cool, as silly as it is, because he himself was a two-time East German National Champion. And two of the guys in my class, as I found out, are members of a pretty famous German rap group called KIZ. Craziness. I have met some cool people, but let's be honest, boxing fellas aren't really the touchy-feely "oh fabulous let's hang out after class!" type, not to mention we spend most of the time punching in and around each others faces, so...we'll see, maybe I'll meet my new best German friend after all.

I finally found an Irish traditional music session here, went for the first time on Monday to play. Actually quite a high level of playing, nice people, and they made certain to invite me back for next time, which was cool. Oh and free drinks for the musicians - so sláinte!

Other than that, tonight was the first night of the drum circle that I've started. I looked all over for one, realized that none existed in the city, so I sought out people, found a location, put up flyers, and bada-bing, there you go. There were only three of us tonight, but I know for a fact we're going to have at least six next week, so it should be quite good. The third guy (the second being my friend Anna) was a guy named Mark from Northern Ireland. Very nice fellow, just moved to Berlin with his band. We went out and grabbed a pint afterward, got accosted by a ROARING drunk group of southern-German girls on a week-long school trip to Berlin who were ever so excited by the fact that we spoke English, and we had a very amusing time. Though that lot were a bit young for us, it seems that the key to success with women here is speaking English. Ah well.

But enough of that nonsense - here now is the latest installment of THINGS GERMAN PEOPLE HATE:

#13: John McCain
Haha with his stupid fat lying face and his fearmongering and his brainless running mate whats-her-name... Okay I just wanted to throw this one in. But seriously, they really don't like him and they LOVE our boy Obama and YEAH PRESIDENT OBAMA!! Deutschland liebt dich.

#14: Sticking to One Item of Denim
So on a whole, German people (at least the young ones) are very snappy dressers. However, along with the mullet, there's one thing they haven't quite figured out: namely, the fact that one simply should not pair a denim jacket with a pair of jeans, especially not when they're the exact shade of denim. And especially especially not when that pair of jeans is, say, a floor-length denim skirt. Sigh.


All right liebe Leute, that's it for now. Hope everyone is well and feeling happy. And as much as I do love it here, I miss home and everyone there and EMAILS ARE ALWAYS APPRECIATED!! Seriously I'd love to hear from you, so send one along. It will make my day, I promise.

Alles Gute.