Berlin, Berlin and the ERASMUS-Bunch

i am a master of military time. oh, you say you want to meet at 19:30 o' clock? that's perfect, because i know EXACTLY when that is, i don't even have to calculate it in my head. BOOYAH!

in addition to time-telling, i think i'm really getting the language. more and more, it's starting to feel less like a foreign language and more like a second language. the thought came to me when i was watching my new obsession, a show called berlin berlin (which is basically a mix of friends and lizzy mcguire, cartoons and all, with more adult themes). there was an american character that the people on the show encountered and he didn't speak german, so they spoke to him in english. no subtitles, since they assume a certain level of english from young germans. at any rate, at one point they were all sitting around and talking, and then the two german characters started talking smack about the american guy with him sitting right there, and my first thought was like "wait, he's sitting RIGHT there, he can hear you!" but then i realized that they were speaking german, and he can't understand german...it's like, i only understood the meaning of what they were saying, and not immediately realizing they were saying it in german. the same when my fam was here and i forgot i had to translate things. it's interesting stuff. i mean i still have a LONG way to go, but that seems like a step.

otherwise i've just been working like crazy to write a paper and get ready for three finals (which is pretty much the only thing you're graded on in most courses here). today i was holed up at my favorite café around the corner from my apartment - it's called ilse hünchen - got a great atmosphere, and all they play is jazz, world music and tom waits (what could be better?). there was also a baby who kept running up to me and saying "nein!" and then running away laughing. i tried asking her what she was saying "nein" to but i never got an answer. pretty adorable.

i really like the fact that where we would say "ahh, okay" germans say "ach so", and when it's a big realization they say "ach sooooo." ich hab auch DIE NASE VOLL mit uni. that means i'm damn sick of school. nothing about academics excites me and it's all drudgery. therefore i promise myself i am going to have a lot more extracurricular next semester: rock climbing, volunteering with the berlin food bank, maybe english teaching asst for little kids, hopefully an internship. i shall also have a goldfish. he shall be called otto friedrich wilhelm leopold von bismarck. he shall live in an (unheated) coffee pot.

as for an update, i'm tired and really lazy, so i'm gonna copy and paste an email i sent to a friend of mine. i hope that shall suffice...if anyone is even reading this in the first place:

new years was great. not super cray, just hung out with some friends, but then we went out to a bridge to drink champagne out of the bottle and watch the fireworks and its a f*ckin war zone over here. fireworks are legal for literally one day, i.e. new years, so people go absolutely nuts. for hours people just shot off fireworks randomly, no regard for safety. shooting them at people, trucks, buildings...whatever. everything goes. it was a pretty hilarious experience.

haha with whom am i hanging out? shit son i dont know. its a rotating cast i suppose. actually i dont think thats true, but the phrase popped into my head so i used it. got a couple german people - sabine, the rock n roll chick with the purple hair and the lip ring; katrin, the psychiatry student who loves monty python; rainer, the chinese-german guy with the long ponytail...then theres my italian friend matteo whos out of his mind; my spanish friend alonzo who plays the bagpipes; my other spanish friend sandra; my colombian friend juan camilo who for some reason came to berlin to study spanish-language literature and music studies; my swedish friend jonas, who's quiet and intense; my greek friend stefanie, who's sassy and certainly has an opinion...

that was amusing. hope it gives you a picture of my life here. a lot of that list had a dinner party last friday - that was an interesting multilingual affair! otherwise lately ive just been (a) cooking a ton, new recipes and all that, (b) not doing the assloads of work i should be doing, and (b) going to see live music - mostly dixieland jazz and blues, both of which i have really come to love.

right well that's gonna do it for now. and since it's been so lame lately, i've got an extra special edition of THINGS GERMAN PEOPLE HATE:

#20: Monochromatic Hair
Given this applies mostly to trashy people, but it seems like almost EVERYBODY has some kind of awful 90s hair coloring. It seems like women just can't fathom having brunette hair without blonde highlights. This phenomenon is especially pronounced in old ladies with gray hair who have shocks of maroon or purple. Bizarre...

#21: Slow Grocery Cashiers
If those groceries aren't scanned by the time I count to five...no seriously, the cashiers here are LIGHTNING fast. It's unbelievable. I can't even get out my wallet before all of my groceries are scanned. And then she's scanned the next person before I can get them into my bag. Embarrassing.

#22: Ends of Bread
The style of sliced bread we have at home is called "American Sandwich" or simply "Toast" bread here, so clearly not originally a German product. But for some reason they don't come with "ends" like our sandwich breads do. I just have to wonder what they do with all of those ends...

#23: Tardiness in their Train Passengers
You know in Chicago how, if the doors on the El are closing, you can run in and they'll motion-sensor open again? Not in Berlin! You get there on time or you literally get squashed in the door. Do not f*ck with the BVG (Berlin Transport Association).

#24: The French
Haaaahahahaha, it's so true. I mean really, I used to think being American was bad, in terms of a world perception, but being French is so much worse! People don't hate you based on actions and such, like it is/was for America - they just hate you because you're French. As a side note, after Napoleon stole the statue from the Brandenburg Gate, and the Germans subsequently got it back, they literally turned the head of the statue so that it now stares in eternal mockery at the French Embassy. Love it.

that's all for now, liebe leute. would love to hear from you, so drop me a line. hope all are well, and happy obam-guration on tuesday! don't worry, we're gonna party it up here in berlin.

tschau.