Erkaeltet und muede

I am lying here sick and waiting for an important phone call. A certain Cantabrigian law school is supposed to be calling me at some point this week, and until the dean calls, I will be glued to my phones. Yes, phones. Don’t know if he’s calling my handy or my cell. Handy=German cell phone.

Haven’t updated what I’ve been up to, and because I’m tired, I won’t go into much detail. I have had a lot of fun these past couple weeks. Last week was insane—every night something was going on. I went to a jazz concert that was pretty good, but the singer was so odd. She looked like the Little Mermaid because she had long reddish hair and was wearing a green sequined jumpsuit that made her look like she had a tail/fins/what is the mermaid’s bottom half called? I also went to a birthday party on a school night—bad idea if you want the requisite eight hours! And I did go to that punk concert. I kinda tried to get out of it because I had 10 Euro in my bank account and thought I wouldn’t enjoy it at all, but it turns out that I had a lot of fun. The guy I (now) know was in the first act, but we stayed around until the end, and then everyone of course wanted to have Doener and then I had to wait alone for 30 minutes in the freezing cold on an eerily deserted street for the bus, which means that I didn’t go to bed until 4:30 and I had to be at school at 9:45. Woke up at 9:22 or something. Somehow made it! Oh yeah, the music was really odd. Especially the second band—Google Robotron Berlin to get their MySpace and check it out. Hilarious. I’ve realized punk concerts are appropriate for you if you do not like to actually move while dancing. Actually, no one really cares what the heck you do, maybe that’s why it’s so appealing? My roommate and I finally did something together—ate at an American diner! The hamburgers and fries were actually pretty authentic. (Side note: first place I am stopping on the way home from the airport is In-N-Out.) Went to a bar near Kottbusser Tor—drug dealer central, no joke, you see like 10 deals going on right in the open at any given time. I also went to a housewarming party at the punk guy’s apartment (the guy from the concert, “housewarming” is misleading when you have lived somewhere for six months). Berlin student parties are so different than in America (well, at Harvard, at least) since they don’t live on campus. Everyone is really interested in meeting new people and no one cares who walks through the door, as long as he brings his own beer. The host isn’t necessarily expected to provide refreshments, which I think is a good idea (especially since I plan to host my own party sometime in the near future). Oh, there were definitely some passed out people and people hopped up on something. One dude was walking around in his bathrobe and underwear and wondering why everyone wanted to take his picture. And the partying goes on well into the night—I don’t know when it ended, but I went to bed at 5. Despite the few drunk people and the lateness of the parties, the purpose is really not to drink a lot. It seems to me that the Germans just want to have good conversations. You can see why I like them a lot! I also went to a colleague’s (SUCH a German word) house for a traditional “raclette” dinner with him, his wife and son, and a guy studying Amerikanistik at Humboldt. It was SO tasty—it’s sort of like fondue, which admittedly I’ve never tried. You take potatoes, meat, fruit, whatever and put raclette cheese on top and then put it in a little electric stove thing on the table and then eat it when it’s done. You have to pay attention or else it gets a little burned! It was so nice of him to have me over and I loved being in an actual house in an actual suburban neighborhood with houses with Christmas lights and such. A bit of a different side of Berlin! Let’s see, what else—my mom was here Sunday and Monday but because I was so busy I didn’t get to spend that much time with her, unfortunately. But it is always good to stay with her—and to be able to take a real bath in a nice hotel!

Finally, and I guess I’ll use a new paragraph for this for no real reason, last night and today I participated in a conference hosted by the U.S. Embassy and the region of Thuringia (German: Thueringen) for American and German teenagers. We had a getting-to-know-you kind of thing at the Hard Rock Café last night. (Who knew Berlin had one? And did you know the Seminole tribe recently bought them? Two tribe members came all the way to Berlin just for the conference—they have SO much money to spend on trips everywhere!) Today was the actual conference, and my role was leading the breakout session on public perception wrt youth. The students’ English abilities were so amazing—way better than my own students’, to be honest—but they weren’t all that good at participating in the session and I actually had to be a good facilitator who paid lots of attention. And for one hour’s work I am getting paid $200! Pretty sweet deal, eh? I even got to meet the Ambassador (of course, thanks to him, I had to get every item in my purse scrutinized before coming and the Secret Service agent sat right behind me).

Alright, that’s it for now. I am so exhausted and sick of being sick. So I think I’ll go to bed and pray that the phone call doesn’t come tonight! Oh yeah, no pictures for now because I am too tired, and also I don’t think I’ll be showing the one I have with the guy in his underwear. :-p