Story time

So I was supposed to write an entry about why I was unstoppable...1 month ago!

Fail, Smithie. Like Whoa.

Why am I unstoppable? That evening I went out to a series of gay bars with Erin and Devon. The first one we went to was called "Roses", I believe it was decorated by a drag queen who was a huge Lisa Frank fan. There were pink furry walls, unicorns, flowers, and provocative pictures of drag queens all over the walls. We met some kids from Wentworth up in Boston, they were wicked cool. Then the smoke started to get to me, so we peaced out.
We went to a second place called "Bier Himmel" [Beer Heaven] which was boring and decidedly not a beer heaven.
We headed to a third place, I don't remember what it was called though. I swing danced with some French kids, and got talking to one of them. He was not gay but was there with a gay friend. We talked, the lot of us [including Devon and Erin] met some other kids and wound up at a gay techno club at 3 AM. My new French friend and I went off in a corner, talked some, had ourselves some fun, and I went home at 8 AM. But while my dignity remained fully intact, his went totally out the window. Epic win.

I'm sorry if that is inappropriate for a travel blog. That is actually the PG version of the story. Ask me if you want the full version, it's an epic "only in Europe" story.

The next weekend my cousin Kate [visiting from Aachen], Erin and I went out the next Friday evening [the 27th]. We went to a place called Dr. Pong, a smoke filled bar with a huge ping pong game happening. I was the only one that participated in the ping pong, I sucked but it was fun. Then we hit a cafe and chilled there till about 2 AM. It was nice to see Kate, she's a trip. She brought me some chocolate gingerbread from Aachen. It was mighty tasty.
Elise came to visit from Florence the next day. After an epic miscommunication between the two of us, we finally met up at around 5:30 pm and headed back to my apartment. That evening we went out with Irene, Erin and Hannes, a German kid I met at a club one night. Then I was ravenous, so Erin headed back home but Irene, Elise, Hannes and I went back to the apartment and made pasta.
The next day Irene, Elise, Erin and I visited Sachsenhausen work camp just outside of Berlin for a Lexia visit. It was...intense. That evening we ran around Brandenburger Tor and the Reichstag, singing Disney songs and The Wizard of Oz, and making human pyramids. Classy youngins.

I got a haircut the first week in March and I look RUUL good. Friday we headed to Krakow for a Lexia excursion, 'twas a 10 hour train ride to get there. I slept for part of it, but got a nasty crick in my neck when I woke up. Krakow is a beautiful city, even though it was pouring on the first day there the old buildings were totally enchanting. And Polish people are incredibly charming, all of our Polish tour guides were just these incredibly polite, witty and articulate. And the exchange rate was fantastic, $3.80=1 zloty. I bought the new Morrissey CD, a Poland sweatshirt, and Franz Kafka's "The Trial" all for under $40 USD. Whatup.
On the train ride back most people were playing drunk Uno. While it was funny to watch/see, I wound up chatting with this German kid named Tom who I met on the train ride over. I had a pleasant time.

When we got back we began to discuss Spring Break, but after several misunderstandings & miscommunications, nothing was finalized until last Friday when Spring Break started. I wound up going to Brussels from Sunday [15th] until Wednesday [18th], and Erin & Irene puttered around Germany on the train.
During my bus ride to Brussels, a passenger almost got arrested for taking a swing at the racist bus driver at 4:30 in the morning.
While in Brussels I witnessed a political demonstration in support of an organization widely considered to be a terrorist group, saw some pretty buildings, walked a lot, and ate a shit ton of chocolate. Oh, and I got propositioned by a lot of Moroccans on the street. While I now know this is normal behavior, it bothered me at the time and I wondered if they thought I was a prostitute.
On my way back from Brussels, the man running the dining car on my train [named Ousama] gave me his name and phone number, told me to call him next time I was there so he could show me Brussels from "his personal perspective". Ew. He gave me a ton of free food though, so I was able to let it slide.
I visited two buildings in Koln- the Dom and the Museum Ludwig. Both were epic.
On my flight from Koln-Berlin, I was feeling nauseous and went to the bathroom. Apparently I was in there for a while, because the flight attendant unlocked and opened my door from the outside. I quickly got out of there. She had just been concerned about me, and when I told her I was nauseous she brought me free green tea and water. Sweetheart.

I have a bajillion creative writing stories to write, because Jacalyn was kind enough to let me redo some assignments. I best be finishing them, so I can send them in today and go wreak havoc in Berlin tonight.

On Monday we leave on a Lexia excursion to Budapest [Hungary] and Trannsylvania. This will be somethin...

I am unstoppable :-D

[actual entry coming later today]

Big Greek baby eaters

Yes...sorry that the email actually wasn't pasted into the blog entry. Not sure how the hell that happened. Fail on my end.

I'm not gonna rehash every day, that'd be outrageous. But here are some good things to know-

+I love Berlin. Big time.
+I think my German has improved. I'm certainly more confident with it.
+I ADORE my language class, except for a few words here and there it's all in German. I think it's neat that people in the class are of all ages and from all over- Spain, Denmark, Ukraine, Norway, Colombia, Korea, USA, etc
+I'm also learning a lot about Cold War and communist history stuff. I'm nerding out hardcore :-D
+I think that's something I'd like to pursue in Grad School
+I've made two good friends here- my roommate Irene and another girl Erin.
-Not so hot with the other kids, we don't hate each other but I've felt quite ostracized from them since...the first weekend here. They do stuff together all the time, generally without us.
+Irene, Erin and I started doing our own stuff and we have a lot of fun together.
+A beautiful Tunisian man runs a pizza place on my street. We speak French, he's always very happy to see me.
+He gives me free drinks without me even asking.
-He's married.
+I was a total pimpette at the club and the bar I went to Friday night.
+Got one guy's number, he lives near me.
+We went out to a cafe last night, he's a trip and we had a good time.
+My neighborhood is SICK. It's like Thayer Street in Providence in terms of shops and stuff, but there aren't scene kids.
+Instead they're all college kids or yuppies.
+-The yuppies have COPIOUS amounts of babies. Adorable, but shocking.
+In Berlin it is normal to bring your dog pretty much everywhere. On the train, to the mall, etc.
+I love my roommates. Irene is another Lexia Student, we have a great time together. Devon is subletting Natassa's room (Natassa=apartment owner, currently in Austrailia till at least May) and he's rad too. He is looking to set up a photo business.
+I like to buy semi-outrageous jewelry from flea markets. I make it look good.
+I can cook on a primitive gas stove, and quite well at that.
----- I haven't been dancing since I've been here. One beginning Argentine Tango class, but that's *so* not enough.

I'm really sorry that I haven't updated yet. Things have been wacky to say the least.

Here is an email that I wrote to my mum a little over a week ago, on Friday the 23rd. I will probably write a few entries, like 2 or 3 explaining what happened a few days at a time.

This might be mad long, so bare with me. I'm not sure how to do the text cut on blogspot yet. If anyone wants to tell me, please do!

Glorious

I'm here. And it's effing phenomenal.

Everyone in Berlin and in my program is wicked nice. The people in my program are way more artistic than me and talk about art a wicked lot, but I still feel included.

I am currently rehashing the last week in my writing journal. I'll try to post it whenever I have internet access later this week. I do not have internet in my apartment, but we have it in our studio space (where classes are held)  so I'll post my rehashing at some point. Hopefully I'll be able to post at least once a week.

Viele lieben (That's "much love" to the best of my knowledge)

Everything is green and submarine

I leave in four days. WOW.

Anxiety is starting to sink in, figured it would at some point.

Bring it on, baby.