bout time...

Okay, okay, I will update my blog. It's been too long, I know. I've been busy though... which isn't a good excuse.

So I have a lot of catching up to do.


Well, first off, I finished applying to grad school, and now I get to just sit back and wait. December was a very busy month for me, but, for the most part, it was a good busy. Just as I was starting to get homesick, it was time for me to come home for the christmas holidays, so that worked out well.

Being home was wonderful. My trip home was quite uneventful--one of the teachers at my school drove me to the airport, which was a really wonderful thing for her to do, since i had to be there really early. All my flights and connections were fine as well. No luggage was lost. I nearly cried when I saw my parents at the airport in kalamazoo, i was so happy ( I don't know if they noticed this or not.) I was a little suprised at how emotional I felt, but it was a very good feeling too. When we got home, they had a jimmy johns veggie sub waiting for me! It was great! Also Daphne did a really adorable double take when she saw me. She was happy :) So I ate and then went to bed...and then woke up at 5am. It's amazing what jet lag will do to you. The next morning, christmas eve, we went to church, and I found out it would be my last time going to church in that building because they were tearing it down to rebuild after easter. That made me kind of sad--I've gone to church in that building my whole life! And I get kind of nostalgic. And, I mean, I'd just come home from Europe, where they don't tear down ANYTHING because it's historical. Haha, how different the U.S. is...not that St. Tom's is historical or special or anything--I just mean, in the U.S. the mentality is always "tear it down and build a new one!" where in Europe it's always "DON'T TEAR ANYTHING DOWN EVER!!!!" even if it isn't anything special. I think though that also has to d o with the fact that when ever they break ground to build they worry about accidentally digging up some old artifacts and then having to wait for the archeologists to come in and decide if they are important artifacts or not before they can build--it can take a while...years sometimes. So I guess they just refurbish to avoid that hassle sometimes. I think. Haha.

Anyhow, Christmas Eve was very nice. It was good being all together. We exchanged a few gifts--I got apples to apples from Nick, and we all played together while listening to the Bill Cosby album Nick gave Dad. I went to bed kinda early again. And woke up kinda early again. I did that for almost a week. Then finally adjusted just before I had to come back here. Meh.

I was very suprised Christmas morning--i wasn't expecting any presents, but Mom and Dad had some tricks up their sleeves. First off, they wrapped all sorts of rediculous but wonderful things--six boxes of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, 2 boxes of beans n rice mix, a tube of lipstick and some eyeshadow from clinique (who wraps something like that? It was great!), some nice mittens and a hat, and a nice caraffe and espresso cup set!! That was a great suprise! I felt very spoiled and special this Christmas--it was so wonderful being home.

Since I was up early the following morning, I went out early with my parents for the after christmas sales. It was kinda overwhelming being out, a bit jetlagged and groggy, and in crowds/american stores. I kept saying "entschuldigung" when I ran into people and getting very strange looks. That night I went out with Alison--we went to Tortilla Flats for their 80's night. We weren't out long, but we did dance and have a good time. It was great to be able to see her a few times when i was home. I miss her. I also was able to hang out with Kapil and Hillary a few times and see Lauren and Matt and Ken and Ryan, while they were on their way to Amber's wedding. That was really great. Speaking of Lauren, Matt, and weddings--they just got engaged and will be getting married this coming summer! Exciting!
On the 30th we drove to the otherside of the state to visit everyone. First we stopped in Ypsi to see Uncle Jimmy and Aunt Margaret and the kids. We ate chinese food and I got to learn all about Bratz dolls from Becca. Then we moved on to Flint to see Grammie. I taught her how to view my blog, so hopefully she is able to read this on her own! We also saw Elliot, who was a great dog--I just found out yesterday from my Mom that he died, which I think is very sad. He was such a wonderful, wonderful dog.
After Grammie's we went to see Pop and Karen, and it was great to see them. Karen gave me the book "A Woman in Berlin" which is next in line on my reading list and looks really good. We had great conversation, and I was kinda sad we had to leave so soon, but we had to take Nick to Clarkston to his friend Jeff's house, since they were flying to California the next morning to go to the Rose bowl. It was kinda sad having to say goodbye to Nick so soon, but i think he had a great time in Cali...even though Michigan got their butts kicked in the game (very disappointing.)
New Years was fun but low-key. I just went out with Hillary to a party at her co-worker's house, and it was nice. There was a cute puppy, everyone was really friendly...nothing too special, but good nonetheless.
New Years day we watched the Rose Bowl looking for Nick. Tuesday Mom and Dad left for Toronto and I was on my own. I went out to dinner with Hillary, which was nice. Then that night I slept in Mom and Dad's room with Daphne. Both tuesday and wednesday the two of us took really, really long walks-- tuesday we went for almost 5 miles, i think...by the end she reeeally wanted to go home. I miss my dog. I was happy she slept in the bed with me that last night.
The next morning I ran around taking care of all the little things, mailing my final grad school things, etc. Then at 2 Mr. Wilson took me to the airport. He helped me with all of my things and even gave me a hug goodbye, which was really nice.
My flights all went really well, and I was bumped up to Business Class for my transatlantic flight!! That was AWESOME! Before we even took off (while we were waiting for luggage to be loaded, taxi-ing, etc.) they served us Champagne! The food was really good, we got all sorts of snacks and drinks and treats, we had tooons of space, and our seats reclined fully into beds! We got little travel bags filled with lotions, socks, eyemasks and earplugs...man, it was my first time ever sleeping on a flight to germany! It was seriously the best. flight. EVER!
However, we did arrive in Munich behind schedule, and I only had 40 minutes to get through customs, security, and to the other terminal for my next flight--I practically ran the whole way and arrived at my gate less than 5 minutes before the scheduled takeoff...only to find that the plane hadn't even arrived at the airport yet and the flight was delayed (none of the boards had said so though! So i'd been running around panicking for nothing! It was my workout though, i guess...) Anyhow, I made it to berlin without any trouble, all of my bags made it, and I got home without any trouble. I was back in my apartment by 1pm german time... which was 24 hours after I woke up to walk Daphne the day before. Whew.
Very late that evening Jack got here in Potsdam. He'd spent the holiday in Paris, and flew from Paris to Berlin, then spent the weekend here in Potsdam with me. It was really nice to see him, but man, since I was already exhausted from my flight, I was kinda annoyed that he didn't get here til about 2am! As a result I slept in until about 3pm on Friday, while he just sat around my room bored all morning ( he caught up on his interneting, i guess.) Then Friday night we went out for a nice dinner at an Indian restaurant here in Potsdam. I had a headache after dinner though, I think from all of the weird sleep and jet lag, so we came back and went to bed early. Saturday we went to Berlin and had a great time. We went to Potsdamer Platz to see the movie The Prestige in the original (english) version. It was a pretty good movie. I thought it was going to be all about Tesla, but it wasn't at all--it was about magicians...though David Bowie as Nikola Tesla was in it. It was good though, I liked it. After the movie we went out to dinner and then came home. It was a really great afternoon and kinda like a real date--very cute. It's probably pretty easy to tell reading this blog, but I really like Jack. He's a good guy. And he likes me...so right now things are going pretty good for me :)
After we got back to Potsdam, we sat down and made some plans. You see, starting the first week of February, we both have a week long vacation, and we wanted to plan a big trip together. So after a lot of debating and looking at all of our options (there is a lot of Europe that we want to see!) we decided to go to Italy! So...from February 3rd til the 12th we will be travelling through Italia! I'm very, very excited. We were able to get a great deal on our flights--We are flying to Rome from Berlin for 20 euros! We will stay in Rome for 4 days, then go to Florence by train. We will see Florence for 3 days, then head to Venice and stay there for 2 nights. Then, monday morning we will take the train to Milan and poke around there for the afternoon before going to the airport there. I will fly back to Berlin (again, for only 20 euros! I LOVE easyjet!), and Jack will fly to Madrid, since his vacation is a week longer than mine. Then he will fly back from Madrid to Berlin on Thursday and stay in Potsdam til Sunday, before taking the train back to Stralsund.
We are very excited. It should be a great time, with great company. I promise to take lots of pictures and write very detailed blog entries all about it.

This first week of being home has gone quite well. I was a bit lonely after Jack left on Sunday, but now I am back into the swing of things. School went great this week, and I am working on a big project for my students--I want to set up a sort of English library, and the students can check out books or articles, and for each article/book they read and write a short report about, they win a prize, such as extra credit or a chocolate bar, etc. They can earn raffle tickets to for a grand prize drawing. I hope it works out.
Wednesday night I hung out with yani and nicky and we made dinner together. Then Yani and I went out to the bar for British Jared's birthday party. In Germany, the tradition is that on your birthday you have to pay for everyone's drinks (kinda a lame tradition if you ask me) so we got to have a few beers on Jared, and I got to meet a few new people (conveniently, I met several Italians that night!) . We left pretty early though, since Thursdays I have to get up very, very early for work. Friday, I went over to hang out with Alisha and Yani and we had a game night, which was fun. We decided we are going to try to have german board game nights to work on our german skills. Today the three of us went to Berlin for the day, and caught a movie. We saw a film called "Mein Fuehrer: the truest true story about Hitler" and it was supposed to be a comedy, or at least, that's how it was advertised, but...I really didn't like this movie. The whole point was, it seemed, to make Hitler look like a pathetic man and be comical. He needed the help of a Jewish man, who was taken out of the Sachsenhausen camp, to prepare for a New Years speech. In the end though, this Jewish man (who is killed at the end) ends up kind of caring for/sympathising for Hitler and Hitler is portrayed in a pathetic way that you're supposed to sypmathize with (he was beat by his father, etc...) and... it just...wasn't what any of us expected. The whole theater was very quiet at the end and I think everyone didn't know what to make of it. It made me quite uncomfortable. In ways, the film pointed out how many other men, such as Goebbels, had just as much, if not more, power than Hitler towards the end of the reich, but...it just seemed very forgiving towards Hitler and no one in the audience seemed to really find that funny at all. Or entertaining. In fact...I was downright disturbed by this film. I don't know if there was something I just flat out missed...but...I know I wasn't the only one NOT laughing.


Anyhow, that's what I've been up to. Now I just have to bide my time before Italy (yaaaaaay!) and I also have several other things to look forward to in the coming months-- next weekend I am going to (hopefully, if it isn't sold out) go see Zap Mama in concert right here in Potsdam, then Jack is coming and we are going ice skating on Saturday. Then Italy, then also in February, Jonathan Safran Foer (an author I really, REALLY like) is speaking at the American Academy in Berlin-Wannsee (which is just outside of Potsdam) so I am going to go see that...and on the 24th of Feb, Thunderbirds are Now! are playing in Berlin, and I've already been in contact with them and we are going to hang out---They used to play at the coffeehouse in albion when I lived there, and originally they were going to stay at my place here, but they just found out that their record label is arranging hotels for them (which is nice)...so I just get to show them around Berlin and party with them, and don't have to worry about them sleeping on my floor.

So yes, exciting things here in Potsdam! I think now I've caught up on everything! I will try to keep updated more though--I find I can write much prettier entries when I'm not so overwhelmed by all that I need to update about!