"Zweite Kasse, bitte!"

Damn son, I haven't written a blog in forever. Every time I wanted to I was like "Oh but I have so much to write and I don't have time now..." so then I didn't write it and then it just got more and more difficult because more and more stuff happened and...well basically I've decided enough is enough and I just need to suck it up and DO IT. So I'ma do it. But to much shtuff has occured in the last two weeks or so for a very cohesive narrative, so this one's gonna be rather stream of consciousness. Oh and I'm tired of using caps so I'm probably not gonna anymore. just so yo ass know.

right so i think last time i wrote was right before my friend emily came to visit me for the weekend. she actually knows my friend hilly here (who also knows two of my friends from college, a friend from high school, and my cousin...just weird), so we all went out a lot to a couple different clubs, went to a hookah bar, and ate döner. wait have i never talked about döner before? it's an amazingly delicious fast-food-type item that originated here in berlin. it's kind of like a gyros or a schawarma - they use meat cut from a spit in the same way - but it's got a slightly more savory yoghurt sauce and instead of pita they use grilled flat bread. then they put onion and lettuce up in there and it is warm and DELICIOUS. it's a seriously filling meal for €2-3. and for all my NU people: you know how after a night on the e-town it's 3 in the morning and all you want is some chicken fries or something at ye olde BK Lounge? well that's what döner is here. you know what i mean. i don't know why it hasn't caught on in the states, but i plan to bring it to college towns nationwide.

but i digress. emily and i also went on a really, really great FREE walking tour of berlin (just gotta tip at the end), which i wish i had done right when i got here, because it gave me an appreciation of the historical and cultural significance of the city that i hadn't had before. and our guide was awesome, even though he had been an econ major in college. hmm...maybe a future job? if an econ major can be a compelling tour guide, just IMAGINE what a theatre major could do! oh and then we went to the flea market again and i got some seriously rockin' boots for like twenty bucks and i was a happy, if slightly poorer, camper. sometimes you just gotta do what makes you happy.

the week thereafter was pretty standard, just class and such and such. trying to think if anything interesting occured...but nothing's coming to mind so probably not. right, that friday i went out with an italian guy from my german class and some of his german friends to a soul-music party at this really cool club. it was a great time, especially getting to speak german the whole night. the rest of the weekend i was a bit *ahem* out for the count, so i mainly just sat around, watched some german movies/tv, did homework, etc.

this past week was a bit more action-packed in the sense that i had a whole mess o' work to do. went to the irish trad session on monday, which is going great. boxing on tuesday made my arms and my face hurt. and then wednesday in german class i got screwed because the day i signed up for my presentation happened to be the same day as our first test. oops! but for my presentation i just did a short introduction of the bodhran (i.e. the drum i play for those of you who may not know). since i had already done the same presentation in freshman public speaking, powerpoint and all, all i had to do was translate! woohoo! but presenting anything in a foreign language while a professor is sitting right in front of you writing a note every time you make a grammatical error is neither easy nor fun. but it went well, played a little bit for the class, all that jazz.

and on THAT note: i just got invited to play bodhran for a semi-professional irish dance troupe here in the city! hilarious! turns out my "language tandem partner" is part of this troupe and when she found out that i play, she told her director, who then asked me to play for them! maybe on a regular basis, who knows. but i'm definitely going to play for their show next saturday, and i'm even getting paid for it (not a whole lot, but hey, if it pays for my hefeweizen i'm all up on it). and who knows, maybe meet some cute german mädels... in any case, i'll probably get to wear the beautiful new kilt my dad had made for me, so it's a win-win situation. SHA-BAM!

yesterday (thursday) i had a LOVELY time at the berlin customs office. my dad, as above stated, had sent me my new kilt and i received a notice in the mail that i had to go to customs to pick it up. wonderful. first of all, the office is in the most horrible part of town i have yet to experience, and it is also impossible to find. i wandered around for about twenty minutes in this cold, dark, awful place until coming upon the building. i then waited for an hour, after which i was called up to be told that such an expensive item (the worth was declared by my father at $250) to be shipped by post means it is automatically counted as a "gift" - even though i lied to them and told them it was just used, personal clothing - and as such will be taxed at a good-old 13.5%. after screwing up the euro-dollar calculations, thus extending my stay another fifteen minutes, i paid my 26€ and left.

let us hope that i never, ever have to go back there again.

on a happier note, tonight i'm going out with the host of one my friends in the program. she's young and very cool and she's going to show us some good spots around town. should be a lot of fun. and tomorrow i am going with one of the german people at the program to see mozart's the magic flute at the state opera house. so excited! magic flute is amazing, for those who don't know it. it's gonna be great. and for next weekend i got invited to a german birthday party (should be interesting!) and then saturday is the performance with the irish dancers. so, big plans.

i've also been spending a lot of time lately making travel plans for the weird two-month semester break. it looks like this right now: i'll be back in chicago from february 18th - march 3rd, at which point i will fly to ireland. gonna spend a couple days in the tiny village of doolin, which has become a great place for traditional music, and the erstwhile home of john williams' family, the amazing accordion player who leads the trad sessions at nevin's pub. so i plan on seeing the aran islands and a couple other things, and then playing music at night and all that. should be a good time. from there i'm hopping a flight to granada, spain, where i'll spend two weeks at a language intensive working on my spanish. after that, i'd like to try to see both sweden and austria, so we'll see if i have any money left over...europe is some craziness fa sho!

okay look y'all i gotta go hit the club. but before i do, i have a super-special extended version of THINGS GERMAN PEOPLE HATE:

#15: Getting a Room
Okay so a little PDA every once in a while is fine. But a LOT of PDA ALL the time is a little much. And oh, how the Berliners/Germans love their PDA. You can literally be sitting directly across from two people on the train and they will be straight up sucking face. They don't give a damn if you're looking straight at them. I mean, a week or so ago I saw a couple making out while waiting at the bank. Really? Now on the flip side I have seen a couple gay/lesbian couples being openly affectionate in the same way, so I gotta give mad props to Berlin for its openness. But gay or straight...come on guys, get a damn room.

#16: Finishing "mm hmm"
This is more just an observation, I guess. In the States, when we're expressing understanding of what someone is saying on the phone, we say "mm hmm...mm hmm...", but here, I dunno, I just found it odd, they only say "mm...mm...mm". I guess it might be hard to imagine without actually hearing it but trust me, it's weird.

#17: Waiting in Line at the Grocery Store
I've heard other people talk about this, so I know my experience wasn't an isolated incident. You know how sometimes you're standing in a huge line and there are registers not being worked and you're like "wtf why won't they get someone up here this is ridiculous"? Well the Germans don't just think about it, they do something about it. If someone is of the opinion that there are too many people in line for one cashier to sustain, they will yell out "Zweite Kasse, bitte!", which means, "A second register, please!" Ahh, German bluntness. Sometimes you have to admire it.


And that's all for now, liebe Leute! Sorry this one was super long, but I hope you enjoyed. I still like getting emails from my lovely friends back home! So do send me one if you have a moment! Okay but anyway you rock - yes I'm talking to you. Mach's gut und bis bald.