that time of the year?

It should have been a great week, and in ways it was. I've had good company, good adventures.

I went to prague. Our hostel was great, really nice. But the man who ran it was an absolute jerk to me...he asked me yesterday "oh, what do you plan to do today?" I responded "Well, I think we are all looking forward to checking out the old jewish section of town, josefov." And he YELLED at me. Said that was so stupid, they're just taking your money, it's disrespectful, you're a dumb tourist, everything you could imagine. And then he ended the barage of insults with "if you were really smart, you'd go to Therizen. Josefov not ghetto, Terizen ghetto. Tourists think it all happen here in Josefov, nothing happen there." (a concentration camp an hour outside of prague, which i would like to someday visit, but didn't have the time to do so since we had to leave prague by 5pm yesterday, and this was taking place at 10:30) Of course, he offered a tour. And it really REALLY pissed me off. Because, look, here's the deal. FOR CENTURIES, the Jews were forced by LAW to live in segregated areas of towns--in Prague, this was Josefov. They lived there for CENTURIES. Therefore, there are centuries worth of history in this area--aka, more than just third reich holocost history. And while i agree that the concentration camp in the area is indeed a very different place from Josefov, and important to see, MAYBE, JUST MAYBE i wanted to learn something about the history of the jews in prague (one of the biggest jewish communities in Europe pre ww2) OTHER than about just the holocaust. He really made us all pretty angry--everyone in the courtyard, including other groups of guests, were all really shocked. He seriously LOST IT with me, just because i said what our tourist plans were for the day, and it was aparently the wrong answer. It kinda tarnished my view of this hostel, in a major way. And it kinda put an edge on the day that I couldn't shake off. Oh, and for the record, I found the museums and synagoges in Josefov to be very worthwhile and interesting. And i do think it's sad and in ways disrespectful that it's become a tourist industry--that you have to pay to enter a cemetary or synagogue. But that's not unique to Josefov in Prague--there isn't a church in the town that you can get into for free. EVERYTHING there is a part of the tourist industry. At least there were tasteful and moving memorials coupled with a wealth of information in the buildings on the Josefov ticket--i felt i learned something, and it was worth my while. There is one thing about it though, that did especially bother me. It's well known that the reason why Josefov wasn't destroyed like other Jewish communities duriing the holocaust was because Hitler planned to preserve it as a museum of the extinguished race. And, thankfully, Hitler wasn't sucessful in extinguishing the Jewish race or culture. However, in a somewhat creepy way, Josefov has become a museum to the Jewish race nonetheless, with memorializing those lost, and those who lived who didn't come back. There were hundreds of thousands of Jews in Prague pre ww2, now there aren't many at all. It bothered me realizing that, to an extent, Hitler succeded in his plan for Josefov. On the positive side of this though, the visiters are respectful, looking to expand their knowledge, and/or Jewish themselves. It's kind of double edged.

Anyhow.
Yeah, I enjoyed this trip to prague. I got to do everything I didn't get to do the time before. I feel sated now, I've seen what I wanted to see, to go back would be only for the beer, food, and pashminas...meaning I won't be going back anytime soon. Though, I do love how well I eat everytime I am in Prague... Saturday night we went to a restaraunt way out of the way with very traditional czech food. I was kind of worried i wouldn't find anythign to eat. But they had a dish of traditional potato dumplings with spinach and garlic that was AMAZING. Plus we all had desserts and appitizers and extra side dishes and drinks, and it was a feast. So much food. I had my huge main course, plus an extra side of croquettes, plus a bottled water (it was my only choice) plus 3 beers. The grand total? About $8.50, plus tip. Amazing.
What we did:
arrived checkced in
went to a restaurant advertising home cooking of italian, chinese, and czech foods. it sounds like a bad idea, but it was actually quite decent and really cheap.
played the most awesome game of taboo!
Mucha museum
Museum of Communism (actually really good!)
ate fried cheese sandwhiches with mayo (also actually really good!)
saw the astronomical clock for kelly ( we warned her--after it was done she said "wait, that's it?")
took pictures on charles bridge, then got caught in a rainstorm
found the awesome restaurant, had great conversation with the germans at the table next to us
went to bed early
got yelled at by the hostel dude (cranky old german guy, for the record)
saw josefov
ate too much food
tried to figure out how to spend the rest of our crowns
drank beer
spent my last 10czk on a cappucino automat in the trainstation. The coffee came out first, just down the drain. Then the cup popped into place AFTER the coffee had been poured. Very dissappointing.
Came home.

Now, after nearly a week of never being alone and having great times with great people, i am really, really lonely. Nathan from Northern Ireland was supposed to visit today on his way home from a trip to munich, but he called at 8am to tell me his train ride had been awful and he was really tired and just wanted to go home. So...oh well. I need to do some catching up as well, I suppose.

Friday morning I am flying (yes, flying) to Stuttgart to see the Daiss family. I can't wait.

restless

i can't sleep at night.


In other news.

Customs seized my package. They want me to travel an hour away by bus to Ludwigsfelde to pay duty on my used personal belongings and some homemade nobake cookies that are going stale as we speak.

I was paid. It is a nice feeling, not worrying about money as much. I bought a blanket at Galeria Kaufhof, it is soft and blue and warm. It makes the nights much better. Plus, tomorrow, I can buy an alarm clock that will actually wake me up in the morning, since the travel alarm I have now just isn't quite strong enough. I also convieniently checked my account balance just before leaving for berlin. I'd planned on window shopping, walking around Alexanderplatz and the Haeckescher Markt, just looking. But I could buy my blanket and some soap from lush and not feel too guilty, since I actually had money in the bank, sooner than I'd expected. I bought a small chunk of one of their new soaps, Sultana of Soap, it smells great. I only got a tiny peice though...I like having a lush so nearby. I can get tiny samples of each soap, a new bar each month, try them all. It's a nice treat for myself. Sometimes, I am easy to please.

I am also slowly meeting people. It's kind of weird. There are 2 other american girls, I've met one of them. But there are a lot of foreign students, and they're all VERY interested in me, but only very briefly, when they find out that I am an american. They all want to know what I think of europe, how it is being so far from home, why I chose to learn german, and oh you speak so well. I say thank you, I ask the questions back, oh what are you studying, why did you choose potsdam, etc. and then...they kinda drift back to their group of 20 other french students, or 13 other polish girls, speaking their native tongues. Even the three irish girls spoke irish with each other, not english. And i mean the celtic language compleately unrelated to any other language in the world. how secretive of them.

But meeting people is coming along, slowly but surely. There are a lot of nice people. They're all genuine when they talk with me, we exchange where we live, it should be fun, we'll see each other, first at the bus stop on a regular basis, then at the erasmus parties and bar nights, then eventually we'll be having parties in the kitchen, drinking coffees together, them filling up the ashtrays. It's just hard right now because I don't have my group like everyone else does. Right now, the french hang with the french, the russians with the russians, poles with poles, even the two belgians are joined at the hip. Unfortunately, the one of the two americans I've met doesn't speak german and therefore doesn't come out much. She lives with a canadian girl, who also speaks no German. I don't have any way to contact them, they live in another part of town, and they never come to the organized events because they're all in german and they just feel lost. But maybe next time I run into them, we can organize a trip to IKEA.

Wednesday through Sunday I'd like to take a trip. I have these days free, before I go back to teaching school. Where should I go?

i feel so much fall

The air has that spicy, familiar, woodsmoke chill today. I keep sniffing, hoping for the smell of burning leaves. waiting.
The leaves are falling, but they aren't changing colors first. They just fall, turn brown, and start to rot wetly.
The nights, mornings are cold. I have only one blanket, I've been sleeping in sweatshirts and knit hats, but taking them off in my sleep. I can't find a happy medium.
I love grocery shopping here. I've found vegan mushroom pate, horseradish flavored frischkaese, sweet plums tiny, small as my thumbs, twin stemmed like cherries. They come in only one size of packaging, 1 kg boxes, for 89 cents. I've put some in the egg cups that are built in to my refridgerator, thinking of them being so sweet. and so cold.
These days, this weather, I want to sit sipping jasmine white tea, with a drop of fresh cremhonig, eat dark chocolate, plums, nothing else. Burn inscense all day.

This past weekend I went up north. Stralsund's old city is an island, surrounded by the baltic sea, lakes, rivers running south to north. It's filled with ancient facades, christian churches with runes cut into the wall, fish markets. The signs are in both german and swedish. Breakfast comes with herringsalat, even when you say no. After three days I didn't want to come home, but after 4 I was ready. The trip costs 9 euros each way, and takes 3.5-4 hours, and I might go again next weekend, for the company.

I am on vacation right now from teaching. I love working in my school, but I love being lazy more. I have orientation for the university here right now, so I cannot travel during my two week break. But orientation is both making me excited to take a class, to meet people, and boring me, because it's all things I've done already: registering with the city, paying fee's, signing rental agreements. Most of the other foreign studetns arrived just this weekend. I've been here for a month now. Crazy. Classes start on the 16th. I paid the last of my fee's today.

I'm hoping to make more friends now that things are really starting. I am happy here, but isolated. It would be nice to have a social network, so that I'm not always running away to Stralsund or some other locale.

And finally, I love berlin. I am going exploring every free day I have this week.