Bittersweet.

With only 25 days left in Berlin, it seems kind of crazy that I've already been here for three months (it'll be three months in three days)! I'm looking forward to going home, but at the same time, I do not want to leave. I've honestly never felt so torn in my life (okay, that's not true, but it's a strange feeling). I've grown so much here (which I'll post about later), and I'm a little scared that when I go home it will just return to business as usual, and the changes will fall away and fade back to normalcy. I know a couple other people on the program are feeling this way too. In any case, 25 days means: 4 days until my last presentation, 9 days until my last term paper is due, 12 days until my German final, 16 days until my History and Film finals, 18 days until my totalitarian final, and 19 days until Kelsey comes to visit! I'm only really excited about one of those things, can you guess which one? It's a lot of stressful stuff to cram into a few short days, but there's also lots of time for more fun things too! And the 6 days that I'm here with Kelsey are going to be chock full of epic awesomeness :) Anyway, I thought it might be nice to take a positive look on this rather bittersweet time, and figure out all the things I'm going to miss about Berlin, but also all of the things I'm looking forward to back home!

Things I'm absolutely looking forward to:
- seeing friends and family (seriously, everyone would kill me if this wasn't the first thing I listed, haha. But I am really looking forward to seeing everyone!)
-In n Out, the Goose, Su Hong, Country corner, Saturn - I desperately need a delicious burger, amazing chow mein, a club sandwich and a fried egg sandwich... I've been craving these since I left!
- washing machines!! - I think handwashing all my clothes is starting to destroy some of them :-/
-warmer weather - it's definitely an experience living in cold weather, and I like the new fashions it inspires, but seriously? all negative temperatures for the next 3 weeks? Definitely looking forward to being in the 50's!
-Target - I just have not been able to find a store comparable in cost and awesomeness
-living in a house with people, and not being essentially isolated - we pretty much live in a dorm, and having a studio apartment has been good for some self development, but I like saying "hi" to people when I come home, and watching movies with people without having to call them
-driving? - maybe... I kind of like public transit, but that's probably just the public transit here, because it's, well, reliable
-making more of an effort to travel around back home, even if it is just to sf and la more often
- going to urban/bunnies with Lauren - we made such a habit of doing this, it'll be nice to get back into that routine :)
-my amazingly comfortable bed! - the bed here is also a couch, and it's hard as a rock, the pillow can fold into about a 2 square inch ball, and it kills my back. Looking forward to my marshmallow cloud bed :)
-wifi - specifically: fast, reliable wifi. I don't think I need to go off on another rant about how terrible the 02 stick is (though I easily could if you'd like!)

 I'll definitely be grabbing a few of these on the way 

back from the airport :)

Things I'm definitely going to miss:
-awesome public transportation, and being able to drink on said public transportation - you've always got a reliable way home! As long as you look up when the last train runs...
-watching tv/movies auf deutsch - it helps my comprehension so much, and makes it feel like I'm not wasting my time by watching TV
-all my friends - they're all so wonderful, and in a month we're all going to be hundreds or thousands of miles apart. Easily contactable by phone, but we all know that's not the same
-how cheap grocery shopping is - when was the last time you bought a weeks worth of groceries for $15? I just bought a can of soup for less than a euro... if memory serves, generally soup is like $3.50!
-the smallness of my deutsch class/how awesome tanja is as a teacher - I don't think I'll ever have a German class that only has 10 people, or has a teacher who teaches quite as well as Tanja does
-Balzac - my go to coffee shop in Berlin. They make a soy iced mocha that is almost as good as Mike's. And now that Mike no longer works at Borders, I won't have a go to coffee place to go back to :(
-seriously, food is so cheap here
-always something to do - you never have to go far to find something to do. And after 3 months, I've still got a sizable bucket list left
-so cheap and easy to travel - Germany has the most (or almost the most) boarding countries, so a completely foreign culture, cuisine and history is often only 4-6 hours by train away!
-tasty, tasty chocolate
-I get a lot more creative with my baking/cooking here - which is weird because my selection is actually much more limited... maybe that's why?
-all my classes being seminar's - I will always pick going to class once a week for 3 hours over two or three times a week!
-H&M is everywhere!! - though the quality isn't actually as nice as it is back home, oddly
-All of the little bakeries with such delicious food - Mainly all of the CroBag's at the s-bahn and u-bahn stations... yum! Best blaubeer muffins in berlin :)

Ignore the terrifying looking woman! Look at all the

tasty treats! The sandwiches, wurst croissants,

and blaubeer muffins are to die for :)

So, apparently the main things I'm looking forward to, and am going to miss are food. Guess I really do think with my stomach :)