Yay!

I got into Duke Law School yesterday! I am of course quite happy, but finding out was so anti-climactic--I clicked on the email before reading the subject line, and then it didn't give me any juicy info. Apparently a package is being sent to my house, so I guess I have to wait 'til Christmas break to closely analyze every item they send me and fall in love with the school again (I absolutely LOVED the campus when I went there my sophomore year of HS).

I'm still waiting on 7 schools:

Yale (HA! The good Lord does work miracles though. No really, HA!)
Harvard (umm, ditto to the above?)
Stanford (does being from CA help? Like, a LOT?)
UChicago (I felt like applying to one totally random school I never thought much about, and they gave me a fee waiver)
Berkeley (hope the protests won't distract me too much from my studies!)
UVa (it was pretty when I visited about six years ago)
Georgetown (for the politics-minded person in me)

I've gotten several fee waivers to good schools I'm still debating about applying to--Michigan, Penn, NYU, etc. Really can't see myself in any of those cities/states though. Thoughts, anyone?

Will keep you all updated on my progress. I think this is going to be a loooong process, especially if I get waitlisted anywhere!

Thanksgiving? Ja, Erntedankfest. Ach soooo!

This was the week of Thanksgiving parties galore! It's almost like every American has to have a party! After finally finding a Mexican food restaurant on Monday night, it was time to attend my four Thanksgiving parties (although I ended up skipping one, which was just going to be a "I'm thankful for alcohol" kind of party anyway). My mom was here last weekend, and thank goodness, because she brought me pumpkin pie mix, green beans, and stuffing from the U.S., among other vermisste creature comforts (try explaining grits to people!). It seems like all day Friday we were searching for the things she couldn't bring, like pie crust and pie tins and a few requisite pans that we once had but were subsequently taken by the former roommate. Anyway, we baked and cooked all day Saturday. It was my turn to cook dinner for my Bible study this week, and I wanted to introduce all the Germans (and one Australian and one Namibian) to Thanksgiving since it is a foreign concept here. My mom did most of the work and I pretended to be useful:

My beautiful mother making the stuffing in my kitchen


















I was very nervous that my friends wouldn't like the food because it was all really American (especially the pumpkin pie--they don't have it here and admit it, it does sound bad if you think about it). Turkey here is really expensive since they eat goose for special occasions (like Christmas), so we had to make do with some seasoned frozen turkey pieces that were sorta blasphemous if you want to celebrate Thanksgiving right. Whatever, roll with the punches, right?

Digging in to the stuffing at my Bible study (I STILL have leftovers, in typical Thanksgiving fashion)











Doing the dishes--with 15 people, dinner, dessert, lots of juice and coffee drinking, usw., this was a strenuous activity!
















I had to include this picture--these are two girls in my church who are wonderful. Here they are blowing kisses as a thank-you to me (unbeknownst to me at the time)









Wednesday all the Fulbrighters present and past got together to celebrate Thanksgiving, with I estimate about 100 attendees in total. The event started with a couple of speeches that had nothing to do with Thanksgiving (or giving thanks, for that matter) and pretty much found ways to bash the U.S. Typical. Then we dug into the food. Fulbright provided turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, and sweet potatoes, but it was also a potluck:
The HUGE selection of items brought by Fulbrighters. I ate like five desserts, including some of my own very delicious pumpkin pie
















Finally, on Friday night Calvin, one of my American friends (from Humboldt) had a Thanksgiving party at his apartment. It was like a zoo--more and more people kept coming, and the party went well into the night, long after the food was gone. I had a blast. I also realized just how small the world is. A guy from Harvard Linguistics who's a year older than I am walked into the party and I couldn't believe it! He studies math with Calvin. What's even odder is that he's in choir with my Australian friend Jeremy, who goes to church with me and also knows Calvin. He also knows the guy I was talking to at the moment (who's half-American and in a punk band--I just may be going to my first punk concert!). He also dated a girl who is in my English-teaching program, and studied abroad with another girl in the program. Anyway, I knew Jim was in Berlin last year but had no idea he was still here--he's getting a Master's or doctorate in math. Nice to have a little slice of the ling department with me here in Berlin!

This photo epitomizes Calvin--his papers and junk are strewn about everywhere, and he just set the food down right next to all his mess. Turkey, stuffing, cornbread, gravy all tasted great!










People enjoying the food. Unassuming guy in punk band in back, talking to the guy who called me a monster (they're friends--small world again; for monster reference see my old posts; happy to report we avoided talking to each other to avoid name-calling)








The way home was interesting. It was quite late at night and I was with a bunch of rambunctious German teenage boys. Never thought I'd be in the same party as those people who put stickers all over the subway and spill beer everywhere. I think this guy below sums up well how nights usually end for young people here:

Today I had Kaffee und Kuchen--a very German tradition--with a bunch of women from my church group. I wish I had time to tell you about my school experiences this week, as I have some real gems. But alas, I need to run off to a jazz concert now. Will try to devote an entire post to school soon!

Häh-Hopp! Häh-Hopp!

This past weekend, I visited my Turkish roommate from my Dresden program in Darmstadt, where she is studying for the semester. Darmstadt is not too far from Frankfurt, where I was supposed to be going to a Fulbright conference. (Didn't end up going, and glad I didn't--got to go to Heidelberg instead!) Darmstadt is not quite the most vibrant city (I overheard quite a few Americans, and later found out there is a base nearby; it's an industrial town--the book I was reading on the train on the way mentioned it as the location of Merck), but nonetheless, I had a fabulous time. Our Japanese friend from Dresden also came, so it was a mini-reunion.

I got there Thursday night and went to a birthday party for an Erasmus student (Erasmus is a program for European exchange students), where of course no one spoke a word of German. It was all English, all the time. Anyway, on Friday Yumi (Japanese) came, and she, Nes (my Turkish friend), and I went to Frankfurt for the (half-)day. Frankfurt is pretty much just as boring as they say. I was expecting a lot more skyscrapers since it is the financial capital of Germany, but there were only a handful. But there were strong signs that it is a financial hotspot:

Yumi and I below a Euro sign (darn that Euro!) Notice my amazingly warm new coat, which makes me look like a marshmallow, but a toasty one at that, so I don't care! Realized after one day that white is not the best color for dealing with the elements . . .














There is also a cute little old part of Frankfurt called Roemerberg. After repeated asking of various Chinese tourists, we finally got a semi-decent picture in the old town square:

Why can't people realize that tops of buildings are better than feet? I hate it when people take pictures from the feet up!











And here's a picture of the Rathaus with a flag with the German Schwarz-Rot-Gold. (sorry about all the photos being aligned to the left--I tried to stagger them, but apparently my efforts were, as usual, very futile)









After Frankfurt we came back and relaxed a bit, then Nes and her Turkish friend prepared Turkish tortellini, joghurt, and tomato sauce for a special girls' dinner. About 10 or so people came, including two male intruders, and I really enjoyed the great conversation. It was quite the mix of people: three Turks, two French, a Spaniard, a Uruguayan, an Italian, and Yumi (and possibly people I have forgotten). We only talked in English, of course, since most of them speak really bad German, if any at all. I felt bad about that because Yumi doesn't speak English and couldn't participate. Also, two girls didn't know German or English, so they just sat there and waited for Spanish and Italian translations every now and then. I still had a good time, but I just think it's bad that they come to Germany and then don't even bother to speak German! But I suppose they're still practicing their English, and that makes them happy. But Nes and I were careful to speak German always around Yumi, even though Nes' university is English-speaking only (how much better the rest of the world is at languages than America!).

After dinner we eventually went a club (after a loooong walk in the rain) and I actually had quite a good time there with a Singaporean and two more Turks (there are quite a few Turks, as you can tell! by the way, Turks isn't derogatory, is it???), and of course Nes and Yumi. The club was really empty, and there were mostly men, but European men do not need to rely on freaking women like the men in America do, so no one seemed to have a problem. We finally got back and went to bed at about 4, but then we had to get up relatively early to go to . . . .

HEIDELBERG! I am so glad I decided not to go to my conference, because Heidelberg was definitely worth it! Rick Steves doesn't recommend it because there are so many tourists (Americans in particular), and I figured that there's a reason there are so many tourists--there must be something to see! And in fact I did hear a lot of Americans while we were there. The weather was at times terrible, even hailing pretty hard at one point. We all took cover under the Rathaus entrance, and here is a picture of the Universitaetsplatz as we were all waiting out the downpour:

You can see the rain in the picture and the castle in the background












After eating delicious Turkish Doener (seriously, this might as well be considered German food now), we set out for the Schloss (castle), which had beautiful grounds and gave us gorgeous views of Heidelberg:

Nes and I with trees in the background--they all had such beautiful fall colors!













A view of Heidelberg













A castle courtyard, taken with some funky setting on my camera













We walked around Heidelberg more and when we got back to Darmstadt I got to play poker! The boys are obsessed and play on a regular basis. Some are even quite frequent online players. I did not like the way they played--they don't seem to care about playing slowly and chatting, they just sorta want to get as much money as possible. Right off the bat everyone was raising left and right, but I managed to win a few, making certain boys really angry when I beat them. I stayed in until I went all-in on pocket aces and lost to a two pair. Yes, I am sure you all care to know that! Was just happy to play poker again!

Sunday we were going to go to Mainz to celebrate the beginning of Karneval (11/11 at 11:11 AM)--who knew it started so early??? But because of the weather and us being tired, we just went sightseeing in Darmstadt:

A cool apartment building designed by Hundertwasser, the famous (Austrian?) architect

















A church and the grounds of some sort of historical building











The local Darmstadt St. Martin festivals celebrating the beginning of Karneval. This is sorta the closest thing they have to Halloween--the kids dress up and march around, throwing candy at bystanders. We definitely followed them around to rack up more candy. :-p They yell Häh-Hopp! as they march and if you take a picture at the wrong time it looks like they are hailing Hitler!





After my lovely weekend mixed with sightseeing and relaxation, I had to head back to reality, and now I am again looking forward to another weekend!

Oh yeah, I went ice-skating last week (the same ill-fated night that I stepped in Hundekacke, which is omnipresent on the streets of Berlin), and here is a picture that is very reminiscent of my ice-skating adventure in Budapest in January (same gloves and scarf and coat, and my pants are the same except for the color):


And one last picture, which I will have to explain later. In short, it's my Tuesday-night German-language church group. One of three (and starting next week, four!) that meet during the week, and then there are four more meetings across Berlin on Sunday. Will have to detail that more soon! But awesome people:

Mein Lieblingslied aus Deutschland

I just have to post this before I forget. My favorite German song can be found here. I have an awesome video of middle-aged German people singing along to it at the Dresdner Stadtfest in August, but I don't know how to post videos on here.

And the non-proofread lyrics:

Ooh willkommen willkommen willkommen Sonnenschein
wir packen unsre sieben Sachen in den Flieger rein
Jaa wir kommen, wir kommen, wir kommen macht euch bereit
reif für die Insel Sommer, Sonne, Strand und Zärtlichkeit

Raus aus dem Regen ins Leben ab in den Süden,
der Sonne entgegen was erleben einen heben und dann bikinis erleben
Jetzt kommt es dick, mann, ich rette den tag
ich sag ab geht die party und die party geht ab und ich sag :
Eeh ab in den Süden, der Sonne hinterher, ejo was geht,
der Sonne hinterher, ejo was geht; ja ich sag, Eeh ab in den Süden,
der Sonne hinterher, ejo was geht, der Sonne hinterher, ejo was geht

Sommer, Sonne, Sonnenschein
Sommer, Sonne, Sonnenschein
Sommer, Sonne, Sonnenschein
Sommer, Sonne, Sonnenschein
Sommer, Sonne, Sommer, Sonne, Sommer, Sommer, Sommer...

Ooh willkommen willkommen willkommen sonnenschein
den ganzen tag am strand ziehn wir uns die melonen rein
ja Tequila, Tequila, Tequila, Wonderbra
und heute nacht machen wir noch die ganze insel klar

Raus aus dem regen ins leben ab in den süden,
der sonne entgegen, was erleben einen heben und dann bikinis erleben
Jetzt kommt es dick, mann, ich rette den tag
ich sag ab geht die party und die party geht ab und ich sag:
Eeh ab in den Süden, der Sonne hinterher, ejo was geht,
der Sonne hinterher, ejo was geht, der Sonne hinterher, ejo was geht

Nananananana...

Eeh ab in den Süden, der sonne hinterher, ejo was geht,
der Sonne hinterher, ejo was geht - ja ich sag, Eeh ab in den süden,
der Sonne hinterher, ejo was geht, der sonne hinterher, ejo was geht.
Eeh ab in den Süden, der sonne hinterher, ejo was geht,
der Sonne hinterher, ejo was geht - ja ich sag, Eeh ab in den süden,
der Sonne hinterher, ejo was geht, der Sonne hinterher, ejo was geht

Nanananananana...

Noch ein paar Fotos

So, wie versprochen, I'm uploading a few more photos. And within the next couple of days (probably tomorrow), I hope to write about the AUSGEZEICHNET time I had this past weekend visiting a friend in Darmstadt. Get excited! (If you actually do get excited, I feel sorry for you. Get a hobby.)

My dad and I at the Reichstag













A bit of a different theme: a live advertisement for Cabaret on Kudamm (?) during the Festival of Lights. Guess which ones are the drag queens?











The bed I assembled. I am so proud of my creation that I have to show you it. And it hasn't broken yet. Note the putrid colors of my walls. I hate them. Will post a picture of my room when it is clean (aka never).















Tag der Deutschen Einheit, way back on October 3. Got to hear a bunch of different German singers and bands, including Juli and . . . uh, I forget all the other names.
















An interesting idea for a housewarming party: blank canvas, lots of paint, and requiring everyone in attendance to paint something. I'll give five dollars to anyone who can guess which one I did.









Alright, that's it for now. Gotta go do my German homework, leider!

Mein Leben in Bildern

As promised, here are some pictures from the last couple months. Unfortunately, they're not really in chronological order, but that shouldn't matter! And as always, apologies for my inability to figure out how to space these things appropriately.






"Arbeit Macht Frei": Work sets you free (same slogan at Auschwitz and perhaps at all of them?)















Memorial at Sachsenhausen to the victims of the Holocaust. Guess who constructed the memorial? Perhaps the Soviets? What gave it away?

Nonetheless, a sobering experience.











My parents' visit: told them to look frightened at the thought of having to enter the Russian Sector













Sans Souci Palace at Potsdam on a beautiful day (probably won't be seeing any more of those until April)










The adorable (???) trick-or-treaters who came to my door on Halloween. I'd say American kids do better, but the Germans are only just discovering the fabulousness of a holiday devoted almost entirely to candy. :-)









Slug bug! Beetle-looking cars on the street in Oranienburg. Not sure where they were off to, but fortunately caught them at a stoplight.














My awesome tour guide in front of the Berlin Dom. If you come to Berlin, you have to take the New Berlin Walking Tour. Free, four hours, fun, and tons of information!








Picking the nose of a Botero sculpture on the lawn in front of the Altes Museum/Berliner Dom (no idea how this got linked to a bad picture of my parents in front of the Brandenburger Tor, nor can I figure out how to fix it, so enjoy!)














Opening fireworks of the Festival of Lights













Berliner Fernsehturm during the Festival of Lights (I live a five-minute walk from here!)
















More pictures to come, but I have to run off to a movie date. I promise I don't go to all these places by myself, even though there aren't any other people in my photos--I do need someone to take pictures of me, after all! I will try to start taking more pictures in social settings, to give you all an idea of who I've replaced you with. :-p

Süßes oder Saures!

So this post is going to live up to my blog’s reputation and be depressing (thanks, Peter). Maybe it is depressing, but I suppose it’s not a good indication of my time here in Berlin. I guess I just need a place to vent and get things off my chest. But yeah, I haven’t posted about what’s going on in a couple weeks, and thus I am going to just write what comes to mind, and not in chronological order.

I FINALLY got paid, I think maybe 9 weeks into my job. That is horrendous, and despite having my money, I am still really mad. I know some people who still haven’t been paid, so I guess I should be feeling blessed. It was nice to actually pay my rent on time. And buy a bed (see below).

Since my computer crashed, I no longer had Word, and my mom had conveniently bought the newest version for her own computer, so she mailed me the copy. And two weeks later, I finally got a notice about it—saying I had to go to customs to pick it up. It turns out that because she wrote it was worth $200 (it can’t be worth that much???) I had to pay 20 Euro in customs. I tried to convince the guy that because it’s from my mother it’s not a gift, but apparently that is a ridiculous argument. And I literally cried as I left from customs, because when you have 25 Euro in your bank account (this was before I got paid), you cannot afford to dish out 20 Euro for something you should not have to pay customs on. What makes it the stupidest thing ever is that the same day I picked it up from customs, my parents arrived in Berlin. What luck! They could have just brought it with them, but because I was in the middle of law school apps and desperately needed Word, my mom mailed it. Didn’t realize it was going to take so long and that I was going to have to pay the equivalent of $30 for it. L

My parents were here last weekend, and it was so good to see my dad. Except he fell the day before coming and broke some ribs. Huge bruises to boot. Yet he still came. That’s a trooper. But then he couldn’t walk that fast and was in a lot of pain. And then he and I both decided it would be a good time to get sick. He had to lie in bed for most of Saturday, and he was only here 48 hours. What luck! But it was good just to see him and show him Berlin. He’ll be back in the spring for sure. And of course it was good to see my mom, but extra special to see my dad since it’s been a while. Oh yeah, that reminds me, my brother leaves tomorrow for truck driver training. That’s right, he’s becoming a truck driver. No comment. Except I hope he enjoys it. And I hope he toots his horn when people do that arm thing driving by on the freeway. I always loved doing that as a kid.

Let’s see, I also finally got my visa on Thursday. You get a 90-day tourist visa, and I got my residence visa about 80 days into my tourist visa. Phew. My residence visa ends June 30, which is the same day my job does. I asked for an extension, since I’d heard that sometimes they’ll give you a few days or even a month. The woman got really mad at me and said they never ever do that (yes, they do, my friend just got a one-month extension). I guess I will have to go to Poland on June 30 and get my passport stamped coming back in. This would be after my last day of work. Or maybe I will just be gone before then. Argh, who knows. But one thing for sure—German bureaucracy is as HORRIBLE as the stereotype.

The woman who lived in my apartment before I moved in (i.e., the one whose room I took) came back and took practically every single thing in the whole apartment since she’s moving to Munich. I’m not kidding. She took my bed, which is kinda something I wasn’t happy about. Actually, I should say mattress, because I have been sleeping on a mattress on the floor. Yep, just as un-fun as it sounds. She even took things like the toilet bowl cleaner, the salt and pepper shakers, just about everything. While my apartment was once full of all sorts of furniture, it is now almost completely empty. She had a right to take it all, as she owns it, but I feel like she could have at least left the toilet bowl cleaner. She must really be as broke as my roommate says she is. Also, my roommate hates her a lot, and it makes me feel weird, but at least I know I don’t have big shoes to fill.

So I needed to get a new bed. I’d been sleeping on some “emergency” mattresses from neighbors upstairs, but they looked like someone had had an emergency on them, if you get my drift. I was very happy to be buying a new mattress, rather than borrowing or buying one. Was not happy to shell out the money for one. Never realized just how expensive they are! I headed to Ikea on Friday to buy the mattress and an actual bed frame. Was interesting going there alone. I felt a little foolish lying on all the beds and mattresses, trying to figure out which were the best. Decided on a 21-Euro bed frame, and so I went to the warehouse section of the store to find the bed, and I put it on my cart and was wondering why the price was 39 Euro. Just figured it was a mistake. Waited in the Costco-like line, asked cashier why the price was wrong, he said go ask the customer service, so waited in another Costco-esque line, was told the price was really 39 Euro. At which point I realized I bought the wrong bed. Well, the right bed, but in the wrong size. Typical Meghan. So had to go back and get the right one (which was not where they said it was), wait in the Costo line, and then go back to customer service to return the other. Lots of waiting in lines, as you can see. Oh yeah, had to wait in the delivery line too, since there is no way I could take a bed frame, a mattress, and my assorted goodies back on the S-Bahn.

Amazingly, the bed was delivered within 24 hours, and I had the pleasure of setting it up all by my lonesome yesterday. It was an easy process overall, until I got to the end and had all these extra metal parts. The picture instructions (thank God not in German) told me what to do, but it made no sense, so I just left them out and set up my mattress (which smells like dead fish, they must have sprayed it with chemicals for its warehouse life) and bedding. Then I decided it was probably a good idea to figure out what to do with the metal parts, so I disassembled the bed partially and added them in. I’m pretty sure they serve no function whatsoever. We’ll see how long this bed lasts before it breaks while I am in a deep sleep. You all know it’s bound to happen. I mean, come on, it’s me we’re talking about. I am not known for my assembly skills.

It was also Halloween this past week, which means I got to teach my students about it and bring candy corn to school. The kids decided that German candy is definitely better. Fine by me, that means more candy corn for me. I won’t complain. I also got a room of 30 11-graders to sing the "Trick or treat, smell my feet" song, which was admittedly awesome. And we actually had trick-or-treaters come by our apartment on Wednesday night, and I was so happy I gave them full-size candy bars (I didn’t have any other candy, but trust me, that is really generous of me, as I have a huge sweet-tooth). And I took pictures of them too. Made my night.

Friday night I went to a Halloween party with all the American and British teaching assistants in Berlin. It started at 7 and was hosted by our sorta mentor and her husband. I couldn’t believe that some people were rude enough to come already drunk at 11 or 12. When a party starts at 7 and is hosted by a real adult, I think it’s bad to come so late. And to pre-game so much. More than one person had to go throw up. Glad to hear they are enjoying the other Berliner experiences that are really foreign to me.

I’ll skip the commentary on my huge law school angst—how I screwed up recommender forms, how my mom has had to tell me to give it a rest several times, how I hate applying from a foreign country, how I fear I will not get into any schools, etc. I’ve made so many mistakes, and I am sure my pre-law advisor is tired of getting my emails every day. At least I’m done with 7 apps, and have 3 more to go, although I’m delaying those until a little later in the game in case I get in anywhere earlier.

Well, this has been a long post, and I need to do my lesson plan for tomorrow. Still haven't talked about a lot, like my classes and how these creepy people keep talking to me on AIM (people I know, but still creepy (ok, nice but creepy)). Oh, I promise to post pictures soon! Tschues!