Saturday, December 11, 2010
Apologies
This blog has fallen by the wayside. 3 days until I'm home.... I'll tell you stories then. With hand motions and exasperating inflection.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
The Countdown Begins
Numbers are the name of the game today. I've got:
1 final left
2 days until K getting here
3-4 days of excessive partying in celebration of finishing finals (I'll be posting about that, never fear)
5 days until I have to deal with the Hausmeister, resulting in...
30-40 Euros to pay for the spare key that I lost (it fell on my carpet, crept under and disappeared about 3 months ago)
3 Christmas presents left to buy
5 days until I really need to think about packing
6 days until my apartment needs to be cleaned
and 7 days until I board the plane back home.
In the words of every high school kid on That 70's Show: What a long, strange trip it's been. (or something to that effect)
1 final left
2 days until K getting here
3-4 days of excessive partying in celebration of finishing finals (I'll be posting about that, never fear)
5 days until I have to deal with the Hausmeister, resulting in...
30-40 Euros to pay for the spare key that I lost (it fell on my carpet, crept under and disappeared about 3 months ago)
3 Christmas presents left to buy
5 days until I really need to think about packing
6 days until my apartment needs to be cleaned
and 7 days until I board the plane back home.
In the words of every high school kid on That 70's Show: What a long, strange trip it's been. (or something to that effect)
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Dead Week and Schnee!
(I'm going to apologize ahead of time for how boring this post is. But don't worry, come Thursday, once finals are over I've got some really fun things lined up, so it will start being more worth while to read this!)
What a crazy week. From term papers, to finals, to crazy weather, to Christmas markets, it's been one hell of a busy week! Monday started out wonderfully because I didn't have Deutsch. About 6 of the 10 people in my class were on an expedition for their other classes, so Deutsch was canceled! However, the day did not maintain this level of awesomeness. History was surprisingly good. We didn't even discuss the reading, or do a wrap up the history lecture or anything, just dove straight into a movie. The name of it completely escapes me at the moment, but I'm sure I could ask someone in the class and find out if you're really interested! It focused on the issues migrants, specifically Turkish migrants, face as second-generation migrants. Unlike in the US, a 2nd generation migrant in Germany is still considered a migrant, not a citizen. The movie was incredibly dark... definitely not something I would suggest my mum watch! It also had a love story, but in a dark sort of way, in which you don't want anyone to tell you if they end up together or not, because it doesn't really matter either way. I don't know if that makes sense, but it works for me!
Film, aka the bane of my existence, was again long... Though we did get out 4 minutes "early." Meaning 19:41, not 19:45. We did a little lecture, heard a presentation, then watched the film and had a guest lecturer. He was incredible! I literally learned more, and was better engaged in the 30 minutes he spoke than I have been all semester in that class! It was painfully obvious to all those involved that my professor was trying to prove himself or impress the guest; it was like watching a puppy begging to come inside. Then we got to fill out evaluations. I am always happiest to fill out an evaluation when I actually have something critical or exemplary to say about the professor. In the nicest way possible, I definitely gave that evaluation a piece of my mind.
Tuesday morning was my Deutsch Sprechen final. It went pretty well. J (a completely different J from the previous one) was my partner, and he's a little better than me, so he was able to pick up if I started stumbling. We had three parts: W-frage (i.e. where are you from? What's your name, etc), Past tense (had to ask each other what we did last summer, last week, etc) and then Treffen (making plans, we had to choose a slip of paper and ask the person if they wanted to come with us to do whatever was on the paper, and then make plans to do it). It was all over within 20 minutes, and I feel pretty good about it! After that, I was exhausted from waking up early all weekend, so I went home and napped for a while.
Wednesday was the actual Deutsch final. It was also the coldest December 1st Berlin has seen in years. Absolutely, completely, utterly freaking freezing. It was barely even snowing too. Just cold. Anyway, armed with my 4 layers of clothes, I set out to take my final. It went pretty well. I felt far more prepared that I did for the midterm, though I'm sure there were still a bunch of little mistakes. In any case, I'm feeling pretty good about that class, and just my over all German speaking ability :) After that, I grabbed some lunch with C and P, and then headed back to school to nap before my next class. The next class wasn't really that interesting, so I'm going to skip that.
And that leads us to today! Well, probably a few days ago once I actually post this. I woke up early, yet again, to have Frühstück with my German teacher. She had our whole class over to her apartment, and we made an amazing Frühstück! Bagels, croissants, eggs, muffins, coffee, mimosas - a great way to start the day! It also helped that it snowed about 4-6 inches the night before, so everything was white and beautiful! The temperature had gone up from -10 Celsius to about -7, which was a surprising difference. Breakfast was so much fun, and Tanja was such an incredible German teacher, it was honestly a little sad when we had to leave. But, J (a different one again) was waiting for me, so I headed out to H&M to meet up with her!
J and I headed to Schloss Charlottenberg to check out the Weihnachtsmarkt there. Neither of us actually knew how to get there, and yet we managed to find our way quite easily. Once we got to the Charlottenberg S-Bahnhof, I went to check out the bus directions, while J ventured to ask the driver. Apparently after she asked him, he very seriously took a drag of his cigarette and told her "Kommst mit mir" (come with me). Haha... creeepy. But, he was right, and we were supposed to take that bus. It was absolutely gorgeous when we got to the Weihnachtsmarkt! The Schloss (castle) was so beautiful, especially with all of the snow, and the market was shockingly bigger than we had expected.
We wandered around for a while, checking out all of the random booths, me continuing my search for the perfect gift for about a million people (so far Alexanderplatz is my best bet for gifts) and J just wandering around with me. We got some drinks - I got Hot Bailey's (amazing!) and J got Eierpünsch (we're assuming since it translates to "eggs punch" it's a german version of eggnog...?) which was actually quite tasty, and tasted nothing like egg nog. I bought a pair of earrings that I have been searching for for years! They're normally about $30 for a pair back home, minimum, and these were only 8 euro for a pair! Such a great deal! We also made friends with an American girl who was working at one of the booths. She was fascinating. She was born in Bergen, moved to Texas, speaks 5 languages, summer's in Norway, spent a year in Madrid, moved to Germany to find a job, just got accepted into the peace crops, and has a semi-boyfriend who is only semi- because why would she want to date a Spaniard when she's in Germany? Shouldn't she be dating a German? Absolutely fascinating. And made J and I feel dreadful about the fact that we only speak English and a little German (and a tiny bit of French and Spanish). After standing there for 20 minutes, the cold finally got to our toes and we headed home! We went around the corner to grab some dinner at the new Italian place that just opened up on our street. It was delicious, and B and D joined us which was delightful!
Now I'm off to bed. Once again, I've got to get up early tomorrow for some kind of mandatory FU-BEST meeting. I am going to get so much sleep on Friday night... and if I don't... well I probably won't be functional enough to competently take, let alone pass, my finals. So, here's hoping that I get to sleep in soon!
What a crazy week. From term papers, to finals, to crazy weather, to Christmas markets, it's been one hell of a busy week! Monday started out wonderfully because I didn't have Deutsch. About 6 of the 10 people in my class were on an expedition for their other classes, so Deutsch was canceled! However, the day did not maintain this level of awesomeness. History was surprisingly good. We didn't even discuss the reading, or do a wrap up the history lecture or anything, just dove straight into a movie. The name of it completely escapes me at the moment, but I'm sure I could ask someone in the class and find out if you're really interested! It focused on the issues migrants, specifically Turkish migrants, face as second-generation migrants. Unlike in the US, a 2nd generation migrant in Germany is still considered a migrant, not a citizen. The movie was incredibly dark... definitely not something I would suggest my mum watch! It also had a love story, but in a dark sort of way, in which you don't want anyone to tell you if they end up together or not, because it doesn't really matter either way. I don't know if that makes sense, but it works for me!
Film, aka the bane of my existence, was again long... Though we did get out 4 minutes "early." Meaning 19:41, not 19:45. We did a little lecture, heard a presentation, then watched the film and had a guest lecturer. He was incredible! I literally learned more, and was better engaged in the 30 minutes he spoke than I have been all semester in that class! It was painfully obvious to all those involved that my professor was trying to prove himself or impress the guest; it was like watching a puppy begging to come inside. Then we got to fill out evaluations. I am always happiest to fill out an evaluation when I actually have something critical or exemplary to say about the professor. In the nicest way possible, I definitely gave that evaluation a piece of my mind.
Tuesday morning was my Deutsch Sprechen final. It went pretty well. J (a completely different J from the previous one) was my partner, and he's a little better than me, so he was able to pick up if I started stumbling. We had three parts: W-frage (i.e. where are you from? What's your name, etc), Past tense (had to ask each other what we did last summer, last week, etc) and then Treffen (making plans, we had to choose a slip of paper and ask the person if they wanted to come with us to do whatever was on the paper, and then make plans to do it). It was all over within 20 minutes, and I feel pretty good about it! After that, I was exhausted from waking up early all weekend, so I went home and napped for a while.
Wednesday was the actual Deutsch final. It was also the coldest December 1st Berlin has seen in years. Absolutely, completely, utterly freaking freezing. It was barely even snowing too. Just cold. Anyway, armed with my 4 layers of clothes, I set out to take my final. It went pretty well. I felt far more prepared that I did for the midterm, though I'm sure there were still a bunch of little mistakes. In any case, I'm feeling pretty good about that class, and just my over all German speaking ability :) After that, I grabbed some lunch with C and P, and then headed back to school to nap before my next class. The next class wasn't really that interesting, so I'm going to skip that.
And that leads us to today! Well, probably a few days ago once I actually post this. I woke up early, yet again, to have Frühstück with my German teacher. She had our whole class over to her apartment, and we made an amazing Frühstück! Bagels, croissants, eggs, muffins, coffee, mimosas - a great way to start the day! It also helped that it snowed about 4-6 inches the night before, so everything was white and beautiful! The temperature had gone up from -10 Celsius to about -7, which was a surprising difference. Breakfast was so much fun, and Tanja was such an incredible German teacher, it was honestly a little sad when we had to leave. But, J (a different one again) was waiting for me, so I headed out to H&M to meet up with her!
J and I headed to Schloss Charlottenberg to check out the Weihnachtsmarkt there. Neither of us actually knew how to get there, and yet we managed to find our way quite easily. Once we got to the Charlottenberg S-Bahnhof, I went to check out the bus directions, while J ventured to ask the driver. Apparently after she asked him, he very seriously took a drag of his cigarette and told her "Kommst mit mir" (come with me). Haha... creeepy. But, he was right, and we were supposed to take that bus. It was absolutely gorgeous when we got to the Weihnachtsmarkt! The Schloss (castle) was so beautiful, especially with all of the snow, and the market was shockingly bigger than we had expected.
We wandered around for a while, checking out all of the random booths, me continuing my search for the perfect gift for about a million people (so far Alexanderplatz is my best bet for gifts) and J just wandering around with me. We got some drinks - I got Hot Bailey's (amazing!) and J got Eierpünsch (we're assuming since it translates to "eggs punch" it's a german version of eggnog...?) which was actually quite tasty, and tasted nothing like egg nog. I bought a pair of earrings that I have been searching for for years! They're normally about $30 for a pair back home, minimum, and these were only 8 euro for a pair! Such a great deal! We also made friends with an American girl who was working at one of the booths. She was fascinating. She was born in Bergen, moved to Texas, speaks 5 languages, summer's in Norway, spent a year in Madrid, moved to Germany to find a job, just got accepted into the peace crops, and has a semi-boyfriend who is only semi- because why would she want to date a Spaniard when she's in Germany? Shouldn't she be dating a German? Absolutely fascinating. And made J and I feel dreadful about the fact that we only speak English and a little German (and a tiny bit of French and Spanish). After standing there for 20 minutes, the cold finally got to our toes and we headed home! We went around the corner to grab some dinner at the new Italian place that just opened up on our street. It was delicious, and B and D joined us which was delightful!
Now I'm off to bed. Once again, I've got to get up early tomorrow for some kind of mandatory FU-BEST meeting. I am going to get so much sleep on Friday night... and if I don't... well I probably won't be functional enough to competently take, let alone pass, my finals. So, here's hoping that I get to sleep in soon!
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