"You are monster."

At least according to a German guy with whom I was forced to have a conversation about abortion . . . in a mixture of German and English, and I don't think either one of us was qualified to talk about the issue in our non-native languages. He admitted that he could not think of any other word connoting someone who is a bad person, so that's why he called me a monster. I was at a party Saturday night at my Yemeni friend's apartment and my American friend just had to tell his German roommate that I was conservative, and his roommate would not stop talking to me about political philosophy, despite my total lack of interest in the topic. And then his other German friend wanted to talk about abortion and how I was personally responsible for all the children living in homes without parents. I just have keine Lust dazu--I don't want to talk about (American) politics with Germans because they just don't get it. I know I should be an ambassador and all, but sometimes I just want to have mindless conversation like everyone else.

Otherwise, I quite enjoyed myself at this party, and I am amazed and happy that my social calendar has really picked up. Friday night I went to a shisha bar with people from my church (yes, church people here regularly go out to bars together, which seems totally odd to my American Christian self). It was fun, except I somehow managed to be stuck talking to a guy from Brazil whose English was almost as terrible as his German (which was totally non-existent), so I spoke to him in Spanish, but at the same time this German guy whose English wasn't the best was also trying to talk to me, and they couldn't understand each other at all. I finally had to excuse myself politely, because I am definitely not meant to be a translator.

Anyway, this past week was time to be a tourist, since it was fall break and I didn't have any money to go anywhere (today was the start of my eighth week of teaching and I still have not been paid a single cent). Monday I took an awesome, free four-hour tour (wow, what proof of the messed-up vowels of the English language! do any of those rhyme for you? actually, four and tour rhyme for me, but for most people they don't) of Berlin. And then because it was so nice my friend and I lay outside amongst all these really ugly statues reading. The return of pictures when I can get my camera cord to work!

Oh, my tour guide was also at the ballet on Friday night, and he said he was sitting right behind
Katie Holmes and Suri Cruise! Man, if only I had known that. Would have loved to get a glimpse of such an adorable baby and an opportunity to knock some sense into a clearly brainwashed woman. And my friend found an article about what happened to the dancer. Poor guy.

Tuesday I went to class and waited around 20 minutes for it to start, since German university classes start c.t., or cum tempore, which means 15 minutes after the scheduled time. But my professor decided there was no real reason to actually show up, and no real reason to tell everyone that. His head TF was kind enough to inform us that he was out of the country and that lecture begins next week. I was pretty peeved.

Tuesday night I went to a Mexican-American bar and had the worst nachos ever. I was so happy to find Mexican food after a weeks-long quest, but it was lousy. But the laser and firework show at Alexanderplatz afterward more than made up for the culinary shortcomings of the evening. The lasers weren't that easy to see because the wind kept blowing all the smoke away, and the fireworks were nothing like what is used in any random American town to celebrate the Fourth of July, but it was still nice to stand in a crowd of a bunch of impatient Germans and pretend I was back in the U.S.

Let's see, I'm sorta forgetting what I did on Wednesday. At night I met up with the HU Christian group for a Bible study that never actually involved studying the Bible. Thursday I had two Linguistics seminars at HU, and they were just introductions, so I can't say what I think. Except that German students have it easy. They get a choice between a presentation or a term paper, and that's all their homework. Although I guess I always found my own seminars to be extremely easy.

I went to the Pergamonmuseum on Thursday night (free entrance!) and was so bored. The whole altar thing was cool, but Greek and Roman art does not really interest me. But the Islamic art was pretty awesome! And on Friday I went to Potsdam to see Sanssouci, except I couldn't go in any buildings because I don't have any money. So we resorted to walking around in the cold and admiring the miles of gardens. Saturday I went on a tour of a big bunker-like tower that the Nazis used during WWII, except unbeknownst to our entirely bilingual group, the tour was in German. Except I can't understand anything about the military, so I basically paid 7 Euro to stand around in a dilapidated old tower.

See, I told you I really was like a tourist this past week!

I was beginning to feel a bit of Heimweh, especially because the whole free time thing
was really getting on my nerves. I think I miss being at college, where I sorta choose what I want to do but at the same time have a nice big security blanket. But I am quickly accumulating a melee of international friends, and none of them is even a fellow Fulbright teacher (ok, except one). Now it's like every night I have something to do, and I'm missing a lot of activities this weekend because my parents are coming (like a Halloween party with the strict mandate of bringing alcohol with you--again, this is Christian people, my little naive self is shocked) . I'm really excited to be seeing my dad, as I only saw him for about four days this summer. They'll only be here for two days, but I'm glad to show him around. Except it's like 35-40 degrees out, and I'm not looking forward to being outside any more than I have to.

Gotta finally finish the law school apps. Oh yeah, I got my LSAT score, and contrary to what my nightmares predicted, I did not get a 160. I got a 180. Haha, totally lying. I'll just say I got somewhere in between.