sauberkeit vs zauberei

pizza reviews moving to a new home!

2010-01-30T23:24:00.001-08:00

I will now be posting my pizza reviews in their very own blog, http://pizzawithap.blogspot.com

Go there for pizza-related madness.

mystery pizza and ikea pizza. INDEED!

2010-01-29T10:25:00.000-08:00

There have been two pizza encounters since I last met with you, my dears.

I've been holding off on reviewing one, however, because there was a small failing on my part.

You see...last Friday, I certainly ate pizza. In fact, I ate a LOT of pizza. And it was truly delicious pizza, with many interesting toppings...but...but...

I don't remember where the pizza came from or what was on it. I was hanging out with a bunch of friends and we were stoned as hell watching Jennifer's Body and hating and loving Diablo Cody at the same time and drinking lots of dark rum with ginger beer and so...aside from knowing that when Megan Fox's character dies, her last words are "My tit!" I don't remember many details from the night. But, the pizza was delicious. I think...

Anyhow. Today (also a Friday. Maybe I should strive to eat pizza EVERY SINGLE FRIDAY from here on out) , work was pretty dull, so Matt and I headed to IKEA, with vague purposes in mind. We kind of wanted Choklad, kinda wanted a lamp, kinda just wanted to kill time. And lo and behold, Ikea sells pizza. We all know that no pizza shall be denied, so I lunched on a cheese slice with a pop for only 2.50. I love you, Ikea.

How was it you ask? Uh...awful. Duh. It had been sitting for awhile, it was very greasy, the sauce was dark and sweet, the cheese congealed (but it had a nice blend of spices strewn on top, surprisingly...) and the crust thick, yet cardboard-like. But, it was cheap, and I ate it, and I'm happy about it. Plus, now I have a sack of singoalla cookies, choklads, and tunnbroet. So there.

pizza isn't a difficult word to say.

2010-01-23T22:42:00.000-08:00

Perhaps this is a recent phenomenon, but since announcing my new years goal, several people have said "za" to me.

People, this really shouldn't be a thing. I'm fairly tolerant (and often guilty) of bro-speak. But this is just a bit too much.

On acceptance of feeling awful

2010-01-21T09:00:00.000-08:00

No pizza here today. Let's face it, I have to take a break, otherwise I'll lose my figure (or something.)

I'm thinking a lot about how I've felt physically since Jack and I had the "big talk." The truth is, mentally, it comes in waves. We'd been in a long distance relationship for 3.5 years, so my daily life hasn't changed all that much. I have my moments where I'll "remember" all of the sudden, and I'll get pretty down, but then rebound. Mentally, I think I've been doing remarkably okay.

Physically? It's a different story, maybe. Perhaps I'm more stressed by this than I realize. I've been absolutely exhausted these past two weeks. I can't wind down at night, I wake up nightly at 3 or 4am, and then, come morning, rain or shine, I can't drag myself out of bed before 8am. It's really frustrating. I've also had back pain and leg cramps multiple times in the past 2 weeks. I feel like my body is manifesting something that I'm not consciously processing. I'd just like to be less tired here soon.

I've been trying to remedy it by drinking lots of water, going to the gym, stretching and doing yoga, etc, etc. Hopefully, something will start to help soon. Anyone have any other tips on physically de-stressing and sleeping better?

the week ends, and I keep going.

2010-01-17T13:27:00.000-08:00

It's been quite the weekend. I've done far more than normal this weekend, in this sort of mad effort to keep busy, to keep happy, to keep distracted. It's working, somewhat. I've had some great times with great people. I'm very fortunate to have such wonderful friends.

Since my marathon update on Friday morning, I've eaten pizza twice. Both times on Friday. The first pizza was the aforementioned Lean Cuisine, and then the second pizza experience was super-bonus surprise pizza awesomeness.

Let's start with the Lean Cuisine, since I've left you all waiting on this one.

So, let's first address the elephant in the room. It's a Lean Cuisine pizza. It's a small, diet-friendly, frozen pizza in a box that origamis itself into a "crisping tray." It's there for you in 3 minutes flat, and at only 300 calories.

Guess what?

It was pretty good! In fact, I'd even say it was better than the pizza I ate at Franklin's last weekend. Why? Well, for starters, even the Lean Cuisine managed to present itself as having a crust touched by human hands at some point in it's little, frozen life by not being perfectly round. An illusion, no doubt, but worth noting. It looked more homemade.

The cheese managed to taste like cheese, rather than gummy plastic, and it had some relatively "fresh" looking tomatoes on top. The crisping tray really didn't do much for the pizza's crispiness, however, and the crust, despite looking like a real, hand-tossed crust, had the flavor of a soggy saltine cracker. But, hey. I like saltines!

It was, by all measures, a satisfying lunch pizza, and though it was far from perfect, I would probably eat it again.

Now, onto the more fun pizza review.

So, this being a long weekend, my original plans involved Jack coming to visit and us having a good time together and perhaps trying a pizza place out. Of course, this didn't happen. It hit me at some point on Friday that I had to take urgent measures to avoid spending the evening at home feeling sorry and heartbroken.
I texted.
I updated my gchat message.
I posted on Facebook, twice.
I was striking out, running out of time and options, and preparing myself for a night in sweatpants watching crappy movies on cable when....

Jeremy, of Orange Iguanas fame, answered my prayers. He just happened to see my plea on Facebook, and texted me right away. It was like double-luck, too, considering that Jeremy is a person that I do not get to hang out with much, despite always having a great time in his company. It just never seems to pull through, even though we regularly make efforts. Extra bonus? Kevin, also of kickball fame (and a fellow Michigander!), was going to be there as well.

His text promised happy hour fun, to celebrate his girlfriend's new job. Little did I know, there was also Matchbox pizza planned for the evening.

Now, some pizza related backstory. When I first proposed my pizza eating plans, many pointed out to me that DC is not a city known for its pizza. In fact, there is a dearth of good pizza in the greater DC area. However, many cited Matchbox pizza as a shining exception to DC's bad pizza-ness, landing it near the top of my places to try first.

People, it did not disappoint.

There were three pies ordered. One pepperoni (which disappeared really quickly, and amongst comments such as "the pepperoni is so spicy and crisp!") one "Fire and Smoke," and one Margherita (ordered because I didn't realize that the Fire and Smoke was, indeed, a vegetarian pie.)

So, the basics. The crust? Great. Thin, chewy, with some nice blistering from the oven. The sauce? Fresh, chunky, and tomato-y, with great flavor, but a little heavy handed (it made the pizza just a bit more soggy than I would have liked). The cheese? We'll review this per pizza, but the fresh mozzerella on the margherita was great, and they wisely allowed it to stand on it's own (I hate places that try to mix the fresh mozz with the regular cheese. Lame, guys!). The thin strips of fresh basil were also great.

Now, as mentioned, the margherita wasn't the best pizza margherita I've ever had...it was a bit too saucy for my tastes--I don't want my pizza to be more saucy than me, ever. But the Fire and Smoke...let me describe pizza heaven to you.

This pizza comes topped with hot red peppers, garlic puree, onions, an extra spicy red sauce, and smoked gouda cheese. It is extraordinarily pungent, perfectly firey hot, and suuuuper flavorful. The smoked gouda really added an amazing flavor to the pizza, one that I'd not experienced before. The smokiness added a slightly meaty quality without it actually being meaty, and it balanced with the spice so nicely. The onions (which were, if memory serves me correctly, red onions?) were perfectly tender-crisp, and having that much garlic on a pizza shouldn't be allowed, but I'm happy it is. I would eat this pizza again and again and again. That said, I know it's not for everyone--Jeremy and Cassi, with their strong aversion to onions, were not fans. And anyone sensitive to spicy foods would have died after a bite. But for me, it was heavenly.

Anyhow, the meal was great, and it was good to be with such fun and funny friends (Kevin, please do open Shenanigans). In addition to the good food, we discussed good beer (oh Hopslam! How magical you are!) and many other things that are good. Go Orange Iguanas!

Saturday, I went salsa dancing with Steven and Irene, which was a great time. My feet really hurt by the end of the night, and despite the dancing being suuuper fun, it's a bit embarrassing on some level to be doing something that makes you feel so thoroughly uncoordinated, rhythmless, and awkward as you're learning. Sexiest dance in the world? Not when I'm doing it. But, I want to learn and get better at it, because it was really, really fun. It also puts me out of my comfort zone and shell a bit in a healthy way, I think, since I get really shy and self-conscious in crowded settings, and also get pretty uncomfortable with what I'll call "social touching." You know, the stuff that's normal, like handshakes and friendly hugs? They freak me out a little bit. Definitely can't have that though in a salsa club. I felt a bit loosened-up, socially, by the end of the night, and that's a good thing.

Now, it's off to a sushi-filled girls night with Sarah, Emily, and Alison. Look at how social I've been this weekend? It's like I'm starting over or something (please don't wince at that.)

Ch-ch-ch-changes.

2010-01-15T07:47:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago, I made a resolution to eat more pizza, and to revive my pizza-blogging days. Because, you know what? While everyone else can be vowing to work out more and eat better, I just want to eat happier. And for me, that means eating more pizza. The idea behind a resolution like this one was that it would encourage a certain type of socialization and companionship--there could be pizzas with friends, late-night drunken slices, and even some romantic pizzas. It seemed, too, like a good choice because Jack and I can almost always agree on pizza, even when we agree on little else.

A year of eating pizzas with Jack seems to be out of the picture at this point, however. I'm struggling to accept it, but it appears as though eating pizzas is going to need to be my way meeting new people. On dating and pizzas. On pizzas and moving on.

There were grand plans and rules laid out at first, but I've not had the energy to solidify them, lately. However, I have had the energy to be eating pizza (and mashed potatoes, and pupusas, but not all together), in trying to fill some void in my heart. Unfortunately, it's only filled my stomach, meaning my heart and stomach aren't as closely linked as I may have previously thought.

So, first I'm going to review some pizzas. Then, I'm going to try to get down some of the "rules" I had in mind. Then finally, I'm going to talk about meat (just wait, k? It will make sense, eventually.)

I have eaten pizza 3 times in the past week (yikes!). It will be 4, after my lunch of a "lean cuisine" frozen "wood-fired style" pizza margherita (300 calories, the box turns into a "crisping" stand.)

Pizza number 1.

Last Thursday was, as we all should know, the BCS championship game for college football, with the Alabama Crimson Tide thoroughly "rolling" over the Texas Longhorns. To watch this game, I went over to my dear friend Steven's place, for a "party." I'm using the scare quotes here for a reason--while people did indeed come over, it wasn't much of a football-watching party, at all. There was a lot of talk about Jersey Shore, which was airing at the same time as the game. But, I digress. I'm here trying to talk about pizza, not slightly awkward social gatherings.

Anyhow, in anticipation of a party, Steven went to Trader Joe's to stock up on snacking staples. While we mainly focused on eating nachos that evening, there were also two frozen TJ's pesto vegetable pizzas to be had. Only one was had, in the end. I ate a slice...and, well. Some of my long-held pizza believes are going to be broadcast loud and clear in this review. Hold on tight.

I think a really good pizza needs a tomato-based sauce. You can argue with me all you'd like on this, and surely, there are some tasty "white" pizzas, pesto pizzas, or "BBQ" pizzas or WHATEVER out there, but generally, those aren't what I'm looking for when I turn to pizza. So, while I generally enjoy TJ's frozen pizzas (really, they're quite good!), this pizza was not, in my opinion, a winner. The pesto and other toppings were not moist enough to keep the pizza from tasting rather dry and cardboard-y, and the pesto didn't even have a strong basil flavor--it was more spinachy, or blandly "green," than anything else. The crust, too, was a bit too thick for my liking. So, Trader Joe's, kudos on trying to be creative with your frozen pizzas, but I'll pass on this one in the future. I think maybe most others at this party would agree, since the single, small frozen pizza remained unfinished, and who's ever heard of 12 partying people not finishing a 10 inch pizza before? But, perhaps we were too focused on the nachos in the end.

Pizza number 2.

The very next evening, I was invited to go to Franklin's Restaurant in Hyattsville, MD, with Sarah and Desh, who were in the area dog-sitting for Liz Arnold (my thesis adviser.) Before I get into the meal, I should mention that Liz has the worlds most adorable (though poorly behaved) poodle-mix, named Maggie. She's about 40 pounds, with black curly fur, floppy ears, and a beard. Likely a Schnoodle, which is probably the best mix ever, I feel. Anyhow, I kind of adore Maggie. But, on to Franklin's!
Franklin's is, in concept, a very cool place. They brew their own beers, they have a fairly creative menu, and they have a freakin' toy/general store! It's like Cracker Barrel, only not awful. But here's the thing about Franklin's. Despite them having a creative menu (which usually features seasonally inspired daily specials, and somewhat classy "gastropub" fare, like fancier burgers, salads, and pizzas) I've never actually had a meal that I loved there. It's sad, but true. They have a decent number of vegetarian options, including a vegetarian chili that they're quite proud of---but it's really not tasty stuff. It's unusually bland for chili, and it's made with chickpeas, which just doesn't do it for me. They also have a concoction that they call vegetarian shepard's pie that I've never had the guts to try, since it involves the aforementioned chili put into a pie shell and coated in mashed potatoes. Having had the chili, I can't imagine this being a desirable flavor profile. Anyhow, normally I go with a veggie burger there, but, since they're quite boastful of their pizzas, and I did resolve to eat pizza this year, on this last visit, I went for a pizza.

It was amazingly bad. I say this almost woefully. I'm in a place that's trying to be all classy-pub, that has a "chef," that boasts of all their homemade goodness, and then they serve me this pizza.

The first thing I noticed after the pizza was placed before me was it's disturbing round-ness. As in, the crust was perfectly flat and circular. As in, the crust was not made in house or from scratch. It was clearly made in some factory somewhere, frozen, and shipped out. People, even chains these days can muster a "hand-tossed" dough. If I'd wanted a frozen pizza, I could have gone to Shoppers and grabbed a diGiorno for far less than 10 bucks. It goes without saying that the sauce and the cheese were equally weak and previously frozen tasting. The only remotely fresh thing about this pizza were the few scraps of fresh basil strewn across the top. Would it have been an okay pizza if I'd bought it at the grocery store? Maybe. But I didn't. And therefore, it lands in the category of one of the worst pizzas I've ever had in a sit-down restaurant--especially considering they act PROUD of this pizza! The good news is that I washed it down with few pints of their Private Eye P.A. beer, which was satisfyingly tasty. (P.S. don't ask me to review their beers, either. While plenty are decent, they irk me in their inability to describe them well on their beer menu= case in point, they describe their "bombshell blonde" as being a "kolsch style" which, in some part of the process may be true, but what you get is not at all kolsch-like.) Anyhow, Franklin's. Such a bucket of potential.

Pizza number 3.

I live in the DC metro area. Therefore, it's necessary that I review the DC hallmark pizza. Yes, I'm talking about the Jumbo Slice. An entire pizza in the form of a single slice. It's wonderful, provided you're quite drunk. And quite drunk I was on Wednesday night!

I went to Adams Morgan after work with my co-workers Matt and Brian to participate in a trivia night at the Reef (run by my friend Josh, who is also in the M.F.A. program at Maryland.) The Reef has many delicious beers on tap, and I made the mistake of keeping pace with my two male co-workers. You see, they are hearty, healthy young men, who drink beer on a relatively normal "mid-twenties American male" basis. Three beers in the span of 2.5 hours won't really faze them. I, on the other hand, do love my beer, but it really only takes a single pint for me to be a little more effervescent than normal. Three beers, and I was QUITE toasty. Since I had to work the following morning, the situation necessitated ingestion of a suitable beer-sponge, and there is none more suitable than the jumbo slice.

There were two options for a Jumbo Slice in the immediate vicinity. One was just a Pizza Bolis (local chain), and I wasn't having any of that. No, no. We went directly next door, to the perhaps-unnamed pizza joint (well, at least, I didn't see a name) marked only by their neon sign proclaiming to have the "original" jumbo slice. For a mere 5 bucks, I was in possession of a cheese slice the size of Montana. Okay, I'm exaggerating. It was maybe only the size of Colorado. The point being, it was a big wide-open space of cheese, sauce, and grease. In my state, it was pleasantly challenging to eat--you know, when you have to fight to get the food into your mouth, it sobers you up a bit. After eating for what seemed like forever, I was left stuffed beyond believe with a ball of cheese and dough and crust equivalent to at least 2 more normal sized slices of pizza. But I could eat no more. And that was fine with me.

So, bottom line. Was it good pizza? No. Not at all. But was it the perfect pizza for the moment? Absolutely.

So, now that I've reviewed my pizza adventures for this week, on to my thoughts on the rules for this resolution. I've been thinking it will work like this: in general, no pizza shall be denied. Every slice I eat will get a write up (here's looking at you, lean cuisine!). Also, no pizza shall be ingested twice before the year's end. Once I've had that particular frozen pizza, or a pizza at a particular establishment, it's out (jumbo slices may need to be exempt from this rule, since they serve a higher purpose.) This will ultimately serve to limit my pizza eating. The ultimate goal is to develop some sort of score card for each pizza, which scores their crust, sauce, cheese, texture, other components, and overall flavor, but I haven't had the energy to do this yet. Also, in hopes of making this a more social endeavor, when actual pizzerias are visited, it will need to be with friends, and multiple pizzas will need to be ordered and sampled. Each time, at least once pizza must be a "plain" cheese or margherita pizza, so that I'm able to fairly judge the pizza in its purest form. Also, if I happen to see a vegetarian topping on a menu that I've never had on a pizza before, I'll have to try it. Just so I can know, you know?

Which leaves me at my final thought on meat. I don't have a good segue into this, since I have zero interest in putting meat on the pizzas that I eat. But, even though I do not at all have any interest in eating meat, I've been feeling a bit sad lately about the international cuisines I'm missing out on. Friends are going to dim sum. Dim sum sounds beyond awesome (I love dumplings, of course, perhaps more than pizza.) Yet real, traditional dim sum is not at all veg-friendly. How can I balance my desire to try new things like beef tendon and chicken feet and countless little pork filled dumplings with my strong aversion to meat? It's hard. It really is. So I'm starting to search out the best (and most authentic--authenticity factors into my definition of best) vegetarian foods from many different types of cuisines, and searching them out in this city and others. I'll probably write about them here, as I find them.

That's all for now.

wahnsinnig

2009-10-06T17:40:00.000-07:00

put these pieces together. this is how i've been.

point a: there are not enough long, hot baths in my life.

two: if you want to get to the "root" of probability trees, you'll discover that my co-worker is an asshat.

point b: logic is too similar to math for me to handle gracefully. i'll get the answers right on the test in the end, but only by way of magic and luck.

four: deer are terrifying. not pretty, people. terrifying. they charge at you while you're riding your bike at dusk, knock you down and then stand there laughing at you. seriously.

point c: i am wound tighter than pin curls right now.

point d-f: i miss crappy german television.

six: something keeps me procrastinating on sending a letter to the Diass family. I missed Anna's birthday. I feel horrible.

point j: the terrible secret in my life is that i don't like cupcakes. or any kind of cake, really, for that matter.

sometimes, things go wrong

2009-07-21T07:23:00.000-07:00

the mouse was trapped. first one hind foot in a livingroom trap,
trap dragged to the kitchen, neck snapped in another
there was no blood, a clean break. it's all any of us could hope for.
clean breaks, quick and painless endings that make you forget
the whole thing that set off the trap. the one slip of the hand.
the one moment of not being quick enough. loss of sly.
this whole mess is feeling like a slight of hand trick. magic mouse
is dead. the magic is dead.

good poem.

2009-07-17T13:46:00.000-07:00

This is a poem by the poet Mary Jo Bang that I am enjoying very, very much right now.

Speech is Designed to Persuade

I

Here we are, my dear, so near we could touch
if touch were what was wanted. A pleasant event
accruing. A view into leaves will move the mind
back slightly. Dunderheaded hindrances.
They kept us apart. Is this what you meant
to have happened? I have taken up bad habits
in your absence. I have taken the tablets
you left on the dresser. I have dressed myself
in feathers fit for flight. I am flight but did not not melt
as some do when they try too hard to fly. A fraction
of four is only saying a small thing oddly.

II

Fine then, they said, let the tree be Knowledge. Let the leaf
be Nature. Let the dog take a name we give it--Pupper.
Let the string be knotted on its linear axis.
And now the sun comes up. The machinery hum
of a pheasant flutter. They were galled by the gift
of a clock, its inconsistent clatter. They looked over a book
of prints taken from frescoes, decorative specimens.
Smitten, relaxed, they took a shower, usuing only a cup
of water. Uppermost was bliss's peculiarity.
Six was a cipher, although didn't they eagerly agree
to let the numbers mean nothing?

III

Eventually the text began to explain itself.
Written out, the gode was easier to dechipher.
They devised a strategy, frequent division,
occasional subtraction. One fragment kissed another.
A sexual innuendo of sorts. Distance was not kind.
They understood the adage that omissions can be cruel
so a system of substitution was concocted. A three was used
to connote a blank space. A blanket was thrown
over the bed but only because it was very, very cold.
It was all in an evening's amusement.
All a moment's distraction.

IV

Now then, she said, come closer. He allowed her
so little. And she made do. That can be said in her favor.
She was his favorite. He said so.
She dragged her nails along the surface soundless.
No abominable chalkboard emanation. In the quiet,
a clock. A dog scratching resignedly at a door.
That night she dreamed she lived in a laundry
where everything came clean. She was all
she was going to mean. Let touch be a time-tested image.
Let speech be designed to persuade. Let fragments hold a space.
Let the bell for waking keep breaking in.

thing i want MOST

2009-07-17T11:40:00.000-07:00

thing i want most right now:

I want to go to the beach. I want to walk along hot sand, collecting cool rocks, lucky glass, and shells. I want to lounge. I want to lounge in the sun. I want cold water, the smell of water. The smell doesn't need to be salty. The smell in my mind isn't salty air. The smell is just that of water. Of water weeds. Of wetness, and heat, and sun, and sand.
I want the beach right now SO hard.

do you make it clean or make it magic?

2009-07-17T08:09:00.000-07:00

it's one of those mornings where, when i speak, you can't tell the difference between cherries and churches.

I have a lot of wants this morning. I want several more hours of sleep. I want cream in my coffee (but I ran out). I want ice cream or frozen yogurt. I want this stupid, stupid work task to be over with.

I want to be a happier person, but lately I feel like no matter what I do, it's not going to be a happy path that I have to follow. It feels a lot like doom. And I want to keep this to myself more, but I can't keep it in. And it's going here now.

magic mouse

2009-07-16T06:35:00.000-07:00

there is a mouse in my house. his name is diego. he's a magic mouse. for two days straight, he's cleaned out the traps without setting a single one off. he must think i really like him, since i leave him dinner every night. the truth is, i'm hansel-ing him. he'll get nice and plump and then he won't be so quick on the traps anymore.

here is a thing i want:

to be a schnauzer foster parent. there is a schnauzer rescue based out of laurel, md, and they look for foster homes for dogs for 2 to 6 weeks. it'd be so nice to have a dog without HAVING a dog. it's like rent-a-schnauzer. i'm seriously considering it. i'll wait until erin is around to see how she feels about this, though.

here is another thing i want:

a comfy and very coordinated living room. a place that feels like MY home. i'm ready for it. i'm thinking that the way i want it is "nature themed" --lots of browns, greens, plant motifs. i have some kathleen lolley prints for the wall. i want some tree branch hooks for by the door. wicker trunk as a coffee table. lots of plants. lots of wood. yes?

when i was young, my parents had this really amazing piece of art, made out of a coppery material. it was in our living room when we lived on treehaven. it was a sculpture of leaves, birds, and bird houses. i always loved it. they sold it at a garage sale when i was in middle school, after we'd moved and they'd done a new "decorating" scheme. i wish we still had it somewhere, because it'd be perfect with what i want now for my house. funny how things "come around" again. the truth is, i think my parents have always been very stylish in a classic way--they have a knack for choosing things that will always look good, instead of trendy things. i hope that they've passed this on to me, too.

we're back, try two.

2009-07-14T21:12:00.000-07:00

getting back into this is hard.

the new theme for this might be "things I want" and "theories" instead of "pizza." Maybe
"dreams," too. You've been warned.

Thing I want:

At least once every other week, I want to pick up some chinese take out on my way home from work, come home, put on pajamas and sit on the couch and read all night. nothing else. and not feel guilty about this.

Theory:

These might not be theories so much as "governing opinons." I observe a lot. I connect the dots, pull the strings together, and my opinion formed is my "theory" of the moment. I've got a lot of theories.

Tonight's theory is on getting lost. I don't get lost often. I generally have a sense of "how to get home from here" or "generally, I know where I am." I also feel like I often notice small details that others overlook. The giant spiderweb glinting in the sun between two tree branches. The chapstick, three legos, unopened tampon, two yeungling and one pbr cap in the dirt next to the sidewalk. The snake's tail barely poking out onto the trail. The turtle blending into the log as it suns itself. The wild strawberry. I see it all, even when I'm not looking. I think it's common sense, but that these two phenomena are related. I don't get lost because I'm always paying attention--even if I don't want to be. So no matter where I'm going I'm keeping track of each left and right turn, which way my shadown falls, and my mind is drawing a map, always.

hi again

2008-02-19T19:17:00.000-08:00

I'd kinda forgotten about this...as in, I knew it was around, but I was pretending it didn't exist because I've just been...in a different place mentally (and physically, i guess) and just didn't want to update it.

But, now I think I am ready.

So, first off...sadly, I no longer live in Potsdam. Instead, I live in Hyattsville, MD. I have to drive my car everyday if I want to get to the University of Maryland's campus. I need a bicycle.

I don't want to do the whole get you caught up thing. Give me a call, if you really don't know.

So, as it turns out, being a poet in an MFA program isn't all that I'd expected. My life may still have some twists and turns ahead. Right now, my two primary goals are figuring out how to 1) move to NYC, and 2) move back to Berlin. I guess I'd take either or, but I want to spend significant amounts of time in both places in the not too distant future.

I pretty much miss Berlin every single day. I have powerful flashback-esque moments, where I'll be in the middle of some mundane task (sitting at my desk, riding in an elevator, buying coffee) where I suddenly have this ache for Berlin, and a strong memory of---some normal Berlin or Potsdam thing: Riding the bus, walking around Potsdamer Platz, buying fresh bread at the bakery, walking across the street to Netto Markt. These little flashbacks will kinda haunt me for a minute or two. They make me think "wait, did all of that really happen? How did I end up here instead?" It's crazy how much I miss Potsdam and Berlin.

As for life as a Terp...well...I don't know if I want to go there right now.

Maybe next time.

things that improve my mood...

2007-03-07T13:32:00.000-08:00

Two nights ago, I dreamt that I'd won the lottery. The next morning I read about the GIGANTIC mega-millions jackpot. If only my dream could have been prophetic, and my family had won. That'd been pretty cool. I think I had this dream though because I GOT INTO THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND!!!! And it feels like winning the lotto, for sure.

Last night I slept horribly. I don't know why, but it was terrible. I was tired and stressed all day as a result. So...to make things better, here is a list of things that improve my mood.

1) Sunny, balmy weather and long walks.
2) My potted tulips. They are white (i might have to go back and get another color to go with) and they have new buds! It's a really nice plant, and makes my room cheery. I love it when I don't kill plants (I've killed 3 basil plants so far this year. I don't know what I'm doing wrong! Back in the states I can keep basil alive without too many problems!)
3) Spending my evenings in my room with candles as my only light. Back for christmas I received a set of votive candleholders from a teacher as a gift. Now I am using them, and it creates a really nice comfy atmosphere.
4) FREE pizza...TWICE! From two different places...so you know what that means. Yes, it's time for the pizza in potsdam update!

PIZZA IN POTSDAM (or...Stralsund and Zehlendorf, but whatever.)

Sunday, 4th of March
Pizza Isabella, Stralsund (where Jack lives)

I found out that I'd been accepted to Maryland while I was visiting Jack. To celebrate, we decided to go out for pizza. We were walking to a pizza place on the New Market, when we saw a brand new pizzaria we'd never seen before. They had a sandwich board advertising a lunch special of a pizza and a drink for 4 euros--how could we say no?
The restaurant was bright, clean and small. Decoration was sparse, and the walls were a cheerful peach. The service was a little gruff, but friendly. I think it's just a northern germany thing to mumble and whatnot.
The special included your choice of either Pizza Margherita (Cheese), Pizza Salami (Pepperoni), Pizza Schinken (ham), or Pizza Funghi (Mushroom), plus a small non-alcoholic drink. I ordered the Pizza Funghi and a Fanta...since Cola Light is nowhere to be found in Stralsund. Jack ordered the Pizza Salami.
Our pizzas arrived quite promptly (maybe a ten minute wait?) and looked fantastic! The pizzas were 24 cm in diameter (a good size, especially for just one person!) and piping hot. Mine was PILED high with cheese and mushrooms. Literally, heaps of mushrooms! The mushrooms were canned (and we all know fresh is always better) but the generosity more than made up for that. The pizza was very cheesy too. The cheese seemed to be a gouda mix--it was a bit stronger and heavier than your standard mozzerella. Additionally, the pizza had a dusting of dried oregano on top of it--which looked nice, but it didn't add a whole lot of flavor. The sauce was thin, bright red, and tangy, like a cheap tomato paste (but not the dark red sweet kind, the cheaper kind that's almost sour). The crust was on the thicker side, by german standards (about normal by U.S. standards) and crispy. Amazingly, the pizza was cut into slices, but I ate it with a knife and fork nonetheless, to avoid being stared at. The pizza started out great, but by the end I was a bit overwhelmed by all of the cheese. Nonetheless, it was a great bargain, and a VERY filling lunch. Jack's pepperoni pizza was quite average in appearance--the salami used was much larger in diameter than the normal american pepperoni, and thinnly sliced (this is standard in germany). It was under a thick layer of cheese, so...a crispy pepperoni fan might have been dissapointed. He enjoyed it though. Unlike my monster of a mushroom pizza, the pepperoni on his pizza was distributed in normal amounts...though his pizza was very cheesy as well.

The full menu looked quite good, and there were some very unique pizza toppings available (one pizza came with BANANA on it...and it WASN'T a dessert!) In addition to many different pizzas, there was a full pasta menu. The prices were all quite affordable for the food, but the drinks were very expensive. However, most other pizza places we've seen in Stralsund are a bit pricier than this place, so we will probably try it again sometime. The lunch menu was a steal...but next time I want to try the banana pizza! (It also involved onions, pineapple, artichokes...and maybe tuna fish? I don't remember. It was a bizzare looking beast of a pizza).

Moving on to pizza number two.

Monday, 5th of March, 2007
Gabana-Zehlendorf, Berlin

I spent the afternoon driving around Zehlendorf with one of my English teachers. Zehlendorf is the section of Berlin where the U.S. Military was based for their sector of Berlin. It's now got some nice little shops and cute neighborhoods, but is still full of americans, and american things and ways. I'd been helping this teacher prepare an english presentation, and to say thank you she took me out to lunch. She'd been wanting to try a new cafe she'd read about called Gabana.
The restaurant had a very trendy air, and a "fusion" menu that was heavily influenced by the many americans in the area, no doubt. It served nachos and burgers and pizzas and whatnot. I decided to try their "Vegetarian Pizza" (yes, it was in english on the menu) which came with Zucchini, Eggplant, onion, rucola, pine nuts, mushrooms, and "paprika." Now, the description was in german, and normally when you see "paprika" on a german menu, they mean bell pepper, and not the spice. I hate bell peppers, but forgot to ask the waitress to have the peppers held. To my suprise and delight, instead of coming with peppers on it, my pizza arrived dusted with the SPICE paprika...which I can tolerate a lot more than bell peppers.
The pizza was seriously amazing. It had almost TOO much going on. The zucchini and eggplant were perfectly cooked (too long and they get mushy) and the mushrooms were fresh :) I love fresh rucola on pizzas, so that was great, and the pine nuts were an interesting twist. The crust was paper thin and crisp, and the sauce was fresh and tasted like perfectly ripe tomatos. The pizza was a bit spicy, maybe from the paprika, but also because it had a lot of minced garlic on it--very, very garlicky, but that's okay. I love garlic. It was a pleasant pizza, but hard to eat because of all the toppings... I had trouble getting it all onto my fork! The restaurant was pretty pricey over all, but my pizza was a pretty good deal at only 6.50. I've had far worse for that price, and the ingredients used were of top freshness and quality. One down side of the experience was that we waited forever...over a half an hour. That's a long wait for pizza and apple pie alamode (which is what my teacher ordered...it cost as much as my pizza! And again, those american influences...you normally won't find pie in Germany!)

Anyhow, it was a tasty pizza, but I don't know that I'd go back--it's a bit out of the way for me, and the menu was pretty expensive. Plus...I usually hate the german interpretations of "american food" (especially their attempts at nachos and salsa and whatnot...man, so wrong!) and seeing a menu full of that stuff makes me wary. What we had was good though.

Pizza in Potsdam, and TAN!

2007-02-27T06:11:00.000-08:00

So I realized that I forgot some important things yesterday. Namely, my weekend.

The band Thunderbirds are Now! played a show in Berlin on Saturday night. As some of you may know already, back when I lived in the coffeehouse at Albion College, I was the booking manager, in charge of booking bands and entertainment events for the house. One of the bands I booked a few times was Thunderbirds are Now!--this was back when they were first starting out. Since then, they've put out a couple of albums and experienced a modicum of success (ex: Rolling Stone listed their newest album among the top 50 albums of the year.) Hence, they were able to do their first European tour. I've managed to stay in contact with them over the years, and we were able to hang out Saturday night, which was really fun. It was good to see them, and I'm happy for them, that they've been able to have these experiences. It wasn't anything I'd ever anticipated--seeing TAN! in Berlin...it was kinda crazy. They used to play in my living room to a crowd of 15 people (not that the crowd was much larger than that on Saturday, but they had played to 200 people the night before outside of Frankfurt!). Anyhow, that was kinda cool and I thought I should mention it here.

The other thing I wanted to mention was my idea that I had...a blogging idea. I call it "Pizza in Potsdam." Let me explain. Here in Germany, Pizza is both delicious and very inexpensive, and one can choose from a wide assortment of toppings, many of which would seem quite exotic to t he american pizza topping palate (artichokes? tunafish? gorganzola or goat cheese? asparagus? mmm) . Here, pizza typically consists of a thinner, chewy crust, light tomato sauce or fresh tomatoes or a cream sauce, and toppings and a light sprinkling of cheese (a wider array of cheeses than the typical "mozzerella" shredded cheese mix we are used to at home). One typically orders a small pizza (8-10 inches in diameter) to eat by oneself, and it typically comes unsliced and one eats it with a fork and knife. Pizza here is, in my opinion, supirior to pizza in the united states. It's lighter, yet more satisfying. It's really quite wonderful. So anyway, here is my plan.

I am going to sample pizza around Berlin and Potsdam, and then blog about my findings. I will try different pizzerias, fresh and frozen, every vegetarian topping combo possible, every price range. And I will blog about it here...or I will possibly start a new blog solely for my dining out adventures. The main theme of my pizza posts will be reviewing the pizza itself, but also the service and atmosphere and price tag that come with the pizza. I may, also, review other types of restaurants too, who knows. Maybe I'll have to branch out and include falafel and kebaps too.
Why do I want to do this? Mostly just for fun. But also to kind of have a record of what I do, where I go. Maybe I will use my pizza reviews as a jumping off point into more location based writing. We'll see where it takes me. And maybe, who knows, some one will do a google search on Pizza in Potsdam and get my blog and know where the best (in my opinion) pizzerias are...haha, maybe I could turn into a guide book writer or somethign rediculous. It could be a start, who knows?

So yes. For my first review, I would like to talk about the pizza I just ate for lunch. I didn't go to a restaurant today, no no. Rather, I went to Kaufland...the supermarket. I wasn't originally planning to have pizza today, but I saw a price tag I couldn't refuse: 63 cents for a frozen Kaufland brand "Pizza Margherita" It came topped with Edamer and Mozzerella cheeses, Red, Green and Yellow bell pepper, and zucchini. It looked like a perfect lunch.
Now, I hate bell pepper, so I had to pick those off before cooking, but the pizza was suprizingly tasty, despite being a frozen discount brand. The crust had a nice chewy consistency, but crisped up nice on the bottom. The toppings didn't make the pizza soggy (as is sometimes the case here with frozen pizzas) and the cheese wasn't too greasy or oily. It was, however, a little saucy, but if you like a saucy pizza, this would be for you. The sauce had a great flavor...not too sweet, too bitter, to salty or too sour--just right. I would have never expected to enjoy a 63 cents frozen pizza so much, but I did. It was better than some of the crappier fresh pizzas I've had (um, such as the "joey's pizza" chain. Don't get your pizza there. Trust me.) So yes, folks. I reccommend the Kaufland brand Pizza Margherita. Plus, it's easy to jazz up with your own toppings. A perfect lunch....and not a "Kalorien Bombe" either! It was small-ish, so it weighed in at about 450 calories. Not bad for a whole pizza!

So yes, next time you're in Kaufland and craving some pizza, look past the pricier name brands and try the K-brand. It's tasty stuff.

so, i went to italy...

2007-02-26T14:43:00.000-08:00

My mom pointed out the other day that I really needed to update this...so I am. I've been writing a lot more on paper these days, but I know that there might be other people out there curious as to what I am doing too, so...here we go.

I went to Italy. I went with Jack. First we went to Rome. Our hostel was decent, we had a dorm style room which we shared with a crazy but fun couple from Argentina. The hostel provided a meager breakfast (breakfast is kind of ignored in Italy...just coffee and cake usually.) and a free dinner, which was nice. The dinner was small--pasta and wine, but it helped keep our food costs down.
Rome itself was overwhelming. I think that's the best way to put it. The history, the art, the culture--that was incredible. There was soooo much to see, and Jack and I tried to see all of it. The Vatican City was very impressive, and it was surreal seeing these famous works of art in person. The Ancient City and Collosseum were also incredibly impressive--though I took a lot of pictures of ruins, and I know that somewhere in those ruins are many famous things, but I cannot tell you which column belonged to which temple and what not. So...I mean, in theory I saw the Roman Forum, but I don't know which pile of marble it was. One thing that impressed me a lot about Rome too was that, even though it's this huge bustling (and polluted and dirty) city, there were PRISTINE and BEAUTIFUL orange trees lining the streets, filled with perfect looking oranges. Oranges just everywhere! You don't expect to see such fruit on trees while walking in the middle of a big dirty city, I guess.
There were things I didn't like about Rome though--and I probably won't ever choose to go back there. It's hard to explain, but the city felt kinda scammy. Like, everyone was either a tourist, or someone trying to rip a tourist off. You couldn't escape the tourism, the street vendors hawking crap you didn't need. As soon as it started raining, you were chased by men trying to sell you umbrellas. I didn't like that. There was also...an unfriendly vibe that we encountered many times....like, I felt a lot that because people knew we were tourists and americans, they expected us to spend TONS of money. And when we didn't do that, they were rude to us. This happened to an extent in Florence too, but it wasn't as bad. Rome was the worst when it came to that. The sights were impressive though, and I am very happy I had the chance to go.

Florence was where we ate well. Our hostel, sadly, wasn't so great. Our room was very, very tiny...it appeared to be a converted laundry room or bathroom, complete with water hookups in the walls, a water heater for the hostel, and tiled walls. It was bad. My bed was broken. It was between the two bathrooms, and whenever someone flushed a toilet, it was VERY loud in our room. We complained, but that's the room you get there, I guess, when you want the cheapest price. I can see why it was so "cheap." Sigh.

But yes, as I said, we ate well in Florence. Great, great Italian food--fresh pastas, riboletta soup (a thick bread soup, sooooo good), bruschettas, and great wine. We found some decently priced places too (everything in Rome had been much more expensive). But the best food in Florence was the GELATO. We went to the famous Vivoli Gelateria, and it was the most amazing ice cream I've eaten in my life--we went twice. First I tried a nougat flavored concoction with candied nuts and chocolate and all sorts of stuff mixed in, and then the next time i had half rice (yes, rice--like a frozen rice pudding but better!) and half chocolate orange--which was maybe the best thing I've ever tasted in my life. The sites were great in Florence too--seeing David, the Uffizi with all of their famous works--like Botticelli's "Birth of Venus" etc. By the end though, we were a little burned out on the church and artwork overload. Thankfully, Cinque Terre was next.

Cinque Terre is probably the only thing that could get me to go back to Italy. It was that beautiful. The Cinque Terre are five small villiages on the rocky riviera coast, near Genoa. The sites were amazing, the people were friendly, and the wine was unbelievable--I'm not even a wine fan most of the time, but this stuff was good. Our hostel was in a villiage further inland, called Biassa. It was a bit out of the way, but a nice hostel. However, we were visiting this area in the off-season--like the beyond Off-Season. There weren't any other guests in the hostel. So, we had our dorm room to ourselves...we had the whole place to ourselves. It was kind of crazy.
In the morning we took the terrifying winding mountain bus ride to the first of the Cinque Terre--Riogammore. It was very pretty, and from there we hiked on a trail to the second of the 5 Terre, Manarola. In both of these two towns, we mostly just poked around a bit. They were sleepy and peaceful, and while there were a few other visitors, it wasn't too lively. It was a beautiful sunny day, and the atmosphere was just right. From Manarola, we took a very short train ride to Corniglia. We'd wanted to hike, but the trail was closed due to a rock slide. So...train it was. From the trainstation in Corniglia, we had to climb up 382 stairs to get to the villiage. The views from the villiage were amazing--on one side you had cliffs and turquoise sea, the otherside, wine hills and lemon groves. From Corniglia, we went to Vernazza, which ended up being our favorite of the villiages, and where we spent the most time. In Vernazza, we ate an aaaaaamazing lunch--Jack had a pesto pasta dish (the region is famous for being the birthplace of pesto and having the best basil in italy) and the fresh fried catch of the day--he'd never had to debone a fish or peel the legs off of a shrimp, so I had to do these things for him at first. Haha. I had another regional specialty--cheese and basil stuffed ravioli, with a walnut cream sauce. SOOOO good. And of course, we washed it down with the local wine--which was white (yay!). After eating, we hiked into the hills for a while, then went back to the marina to have a glass of wine and watch the waves crash against the rocks. We went to the local Enoteche to buy some wine and pesto to take home--which ended up being more trouble than it was worth, since we'd forgotten that you can't carry liquids onto planes anymore. It all got home okay, but caused a slight panic for us at the airport.
Anyhow, the last of the Terre was Monterosso--we couldn't spend much time there, because we had to catch a bus back to our hostel, but Monterosso was, for me, the least impressive of the Terre--all the others, for instance, didn't allow cars inside the villages, whereas there were little cars buzzing all over Monterosso. It had more of a beach resort feel to it than the others did, and was a lot bigger. Some of the charm was lost, I guess.

Anyhow, that is, in a nutshell, what we did on our Italian vacation. Since then it's just been back to the grind with teaching. Things have been somewhat frustrating for me at my school--things feel a bit stagnant, and it seems like more and more often, no matter how hard I try and how eager and willing I am to be involved in classes, the teachers are losing interest in working with me. I oftentimes get the feeling that they can't be bothered with me. And when they do want me to come to their classes, they only want me to do very small and basic things--like sit there and be a human dictionary. It's discouraging and frustrating for me. For instance, I almost don't want to go to school at all tomorrow, because one of the teachers has already told me she needs to give an exam on wednesday and so tomorrow they will be doing test prep and she doesn't want me there for that, and the other teacher I work with hasn't talked to me about anything and probably won't want me to come either--meaning...I will be going in to work tomorrow with absolutely nothing to do. What is the point in that? And when I have these teachers cancel like this, I always offer to the other teachers that I can come to their classes, maybe work with students I don't get to see so often, but they never want that. It makes me feel kind of worthless sometimes. Like, why am I even here then? To take up space in the teachers lounge? To pump money into the coffee vending machine? I'm just a bit fed up I guess. Fortunately my Fulbright conference is in 2 weeks, and hopefully I will get some fresh ideas on how to deal with this, how to spice things up, how to breathe some fresh air into my situation. I hope.

So...yes. That's about all. Exciting, eh?

eww.

2007-01-22T02:51:00.000-08:00

Original To Do list for today:

Wake up at 8:15
Print up Posters, go to school
go to bank
upload phone guthaben
class
prep for tomorrow

Updated To Do list for today, as of 8:15 this morning...

Wake up with an intense soar throat/feeling like you want to curl up and die
Stay in bed for two more hours
Drink Tea, Soup, Heisse Zitrone, Water, Airbourne
not be able to deal with going into school on a day off, will go in early tomorrow
eventually go get guthaben and go to class
go to bank tomorrow
sleep. sleep. sleep.
ugh.

I was having second thoughts on going in to school today anyhow, since when I show up unexpectedly, it's hard for people to suddenly magically find the time to help me/answer the questions i have. So it's probably better that I just go in on Tuesday, as normal, anyhow. It's the difference of only one day (though, i did want to get these posters up on Thursday, and that plan was disrupted by the "storm!" and school closing early.)

I just really need to get money on my phone though. And I could try to go to the bank, but I don't know how to ask for what I need, and that's made harder by the fact that my head is threatening to explode any moment now and I have no voice. So....

In happier news...aside from this cold hitting me full force despite all of my prevention methods, I had a great weekend. Jack came down despite the trains being all crazy this weekend, and on saturday we went to Berlin for the afternoon. Aside from that though, we were just incredibly lazy, in a wonderful way. We finalized our plans for Italy--Venice has been cut from the list. We are instead going to Cinque Terre, because it is closer by train to both milan and florence, and cheaper, and looks like a really cool place to visit (It's on the coast, five rustic villiages, hiking, scenery, nice alternative to the tons of museums we will be seeing...) I can't wait. Just two more weeks!

It's a hurricane!!!

2007-01-19T03:04:00.000-08:00

So, yesterday school was dismissed early due to a large rainstorm that was approaching. Apparently, this storm, dubbed Cyril, was the biggest that Europe has seen in years. They were calling it a "hurricane" on the german news.

Now, I understand that it was REALLY bad by European standards. I understand that they don't get storms like that here. And I admit, it was pretty windy....but...there was soooo much fear and sooo much hype and EVERYTHING shut down and so I was expecting something huge.

I guess my "huge" standards are far too American. I mean, we get some bad storms back home. Like, really bad storms. Like, way worse storms than what happened here. That said, we are used to such storms too--we know what to anticipate, we have sirens and t-storm warnings and tornado warnings and all of that stuff. Here there are no tornados, no violent storms rolling in off of lake michigan, none of that. They don't know what to anticipate, how to react, etc. So, I get that, to them, it was bad. But to me...I just couldn't get what all the hype was about. Plus, it did a lot of damage, so I am sure it was far worse in different parts of the country, across europe, etc. But when we were let out of school early, I was kind of nervous, thinking "what kind of storm is this?!" and then...it just didn't seem so bad. But I did nap for a while, so maybe I just slept through the worst parts. Maybe? I do tend to sleep through bad storms at home...so...

Anyhow, what else is new? Jack is supposed to come visit this weekend but the Berlin Hauptbahnhof has been shut down since yesterday, so I just hope he is able to make it here. (Yes, they shut down the main trainstation and no trains were running yesterday). He's supposed to arrive tonight. I hope it works.

In other news, the reading game that I am organizing is coming together quite nicely...there seems to be a lot of interest and some excitement about it. I think it just might work! I hope!

And finally, I woke up this morning with what felt like the start of a cold. I hope not. I am taking preventative measures as we speak. MMM...nothing like a meal of soup washed down with a glass of Airborne!

bout time...

2007-01-13T14:12:00.000-08:00

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!

Happy Thanksgiving, and the wonders of Ikea...

2006-11-27T12:36:00.000-08:00

So. At some point, about two weeks ago, I lost my mind. I had this brilliant idea to host a thanksgiving dinner. I mentioned it first to Jack, and we thought it would be fun, maybe a small group, he'd cook the turkey, I could do the sides. We thought we'd invite Nathan and Kelly and I would invite a few of my other friends around here. Well--what started as a group of about 6 blossomed into a group of about 14. AND WE PULLED IT OFF!!!
I have no clue how we did it. But I can say that I have now officially cooked my first real thanksgiving dinner.

Jack had both thursday and friday off this week, so he came down wednesday night. Thursday evening, we celebrated thanksgiving together by going grocery shopping for saturday, and then eating pizza at the main trainstation. woohoo. Then Friday morning, we woke up early and trekked out to Ikea, where I purchased a futon--so now, my guests will have a comfy place to crash, and I will have a sofa in the meantime. It should be nice--but I have yet to put it all together, because I don't have a hammer, and I need to hammer little plastic pegs into it to hold it all together. However, the matress for it is nice, and honestly, I could have probably just gotten the mattress, but having a couch will eventually be nice.
Anyhow, Jack is a wonderful, wonderful friend for not only suffering through going to ikea with me (it's an overwhelming place) but also for helping me carry all of the stuff i bought, and attempting to put the futon together...we didn't get too far, but we tried. Note to self: find a hammer! (or a rock...)
Jack is also a wonderful, wonderful friend for cooking the turkey! We roasted a whole 4 kilo turkey! He'd never done it before, and watching him clean it out was hilarious...he said as he was doing it "Now I think I want to be a vegetarian..." Haha. However, for his first stab at turkey cooking, he seemed to do a fairly nice job--the bird looked beautiful, and it was fully cooked, and according to everyone else it was moist and tasty. He didn't do any fancy seasoning though--he just slathered it with butter. But everyone who ate meat seemed to like it.
In addition to Jack's turkey, I made a ton of mashed potatoes, roasted carrots (I also have to give Kudos to Nathan for peeling tons of potatoes and carrots...), green beans with toasted almonds, peas with butter sauce, a mixed greens salad, a huge pan of apple crisp, and, my pride and joy, HOMEMADE STUFFING FROM SCRATCH!!! And it came out well!! I had no clue what I was doing, but I found a recipie online and modified it to be vegetarian, and it came out fantastic! Everyone loved it!! Bret, an American from Atlanta, even said "This is FANTASTIC!!! And i'm from the SOUTH!" He couldn't believe somethign vegetarian could taste so good. So I was quite proud of that. In addition, Vivian, who is from Boston, brought homemade cran-raspberry sauce, Yani, from australia, brought Anzac biscuits, and Bret and Jared brought a whole case of beer. It was a wonderful, wonderful feast, and I think everyone had a great time. The guests were: Jack, Vivian, Bret, and myself from the U.S.A, Yani from Australia, Alisha from Canada, Jared from the U.K., Nathan from Northern Ireland, Mathias, Roy, Annette, and Florian from Germany. Sadly, Zouhair from Morrocco and Kelly from the U.S.A were unable to make it.

Anyhow, after such a wonderful but exhausting evening, everyone went home except for Nathan and Jack, who left Sunday morning. Sunday I was absolutely exhausted and mostly rested, after taking the boys to the trainstation. Today I had an exam in one of my classes, and also the Christmas Market in Potsdam opened! I went, and it was really cool! I am excited to be able to go to this all the time for the next month--it's really fun and cheerful--better than I expected. Plus, there are so many varieties of gluehwein and lebkuchen to try!

In two weeks I am going to Heidelberg with Jack--according to Jack, they have an AMAZING Christmas Market, I can't wait!

Berlin, Berlin

2006-11-19T16:33:00.000-08:00

My internal clock is weeping right now.

Yesterday was lovely. Absolutely lovely. I walked through Park Sanssouci to downtown Potsdam, taking pictures and enjoying the beautiful, sunny, warm fall day. At Luisenplatz, they were setting up the Weihnachtsmarkt--the christmas market--and I'm kind of excited about that. I've never been in Germany for Christmastime before, but I've heard all the hype. I know they go all out. I've already been given a chocolate-filled advents calendar. The supermarkets have been stocked with stollen and gingerbreads and marzipans and baking goods and you name it for weeks. And Jack's been telling me how a real German Weinachtsmarkt might be his favorite thing ever. Seriously, seeing this normally stone serious "tough guy" frat boy go giddy over a christmas market is really getting me excited too. I called him Saturday afternoon to let him know they were setting things up, and he literally squealed with excitement. I nearly dropped the phone.

Anyhow, after my nice walk, I was preparing for a nice quiet evening staying in with my laptop in front of me, ready to have espn.com open, and hitting refresh every 30 seconds in an effort to "watch" the U of M OSU game. Sounds like a fun night, no? Instead I got a call from Jared (Not my ex, rather a British bloke that I have a few classes with here) and he asked if I wanted to come to Berlin with him and a few of his buddies, bar hopping. I said yes, on the grounds that we visited every sports bar with satallite tv, in hopes that some kind bartender would put the game on.

So, yeah, I met up with Jared and his british friends David, James, and Michael, and we hit the town. We were unsuccessful at convincing anyone to put the game on--oh, but we DID get to watch Handball, Boxing, and freakin PING PONG coverage. Also, a bartender at one of the bars treated me for all of my drinks--I tried to pay and he responded with "Schon gut!"--this became the joke of the night for the guys...they all wanted to know where their free drinks were. It was actually a really fun night, despite missing the whole game (dissapointing results, but I hear it was awesome). There was one point, when we stopped at one of Jared's friend's apartments, where we were all sitting around and the door bell rang. The guy who lived there, Christian, got up and buzzed the person in, leaving the apartment door open so that whoever it was could just come in. We're all just sitting around then for a few minutes, when suddenly this dog wanders into the room. It looks around at everyone for a few minutes, then wanders back out of the apartment. Michael then says "Wait, did that dog just ring the doorbell?" He must have had the wrong address. Because according to Jared, no one living there owns a dog, for sure. It was hilarious...just because of Michael's reaction to it. He was convinced that the dog rang the bell. And Christian never offered any other explanation, and no one else showed up. So...who knows?

I also introduced the Brit boys to Falafel last night. They made fun of falafel all night--they were talking about Doener Kebab's, and I said I didn't eat doener, but did eat falafel. They didn't know what falafel was, and when I told them "chickpeas with garlic" they all looked disgusted. So at the end of the evening, when we realized we were stranded in berlin for at least an hour (more on that to come) we went to a kebab place and I ordered a falafel. They all tried it and agreed, it truely is a delicious thing. duh.

Anyhow, so here comes the fun part of the story...

I've realized that, at night, you can go into Berlin easily, but you can never get back out. There is always something in your way. It's either night construction on the train tracks, a bus/tram/u-bahn that you just missed that only comes once every hour ( or even better, you just waited for an hour for the tram to the u-bahn, only to realize that the tram get's you to the u-bahn station 1 minute after the u-bahn train left...and the next one is in, you guessed it, an hour), or a Regional Bahn verspaetung (regional train delay)...whatever you can think of that makes public transportation a nightmare--it's going to happen to you while you are trying to get out of Berlin at night. So yes, as with every other time I've tried to get home from Berlin at night, it took about 3 hours...when during the day it would have taken 30 minutes, tops. This of course means that, after walking the 1.5 km from the Park Sanssouci trainstation back to my apartment, I finally crawled into bed at 6:30 am. UGH!!!
I need to make friends in Berlin, so that I can crash at their floors instead of trying to get back to Potsdam after nights out.

So yeah...falling asleep as the sun was getting ready to come up caused me to sleep until about 3pm...which means I was only awake for an hour before it started to get dark, because, yes, it starts getting dark here at 4pm now...which is driving me crazy. I miss sunny afternoons!!!

Anyhow, I have a lot to do and a lot to look forward to this week. I am planning several "thanksgiving" themed lessons, as well as one "Anti-Love song" lesson and one "Feminism vs. Quiverful/Neo-Cons" lesson (those two being for my 13th classes, who are doing a section right now on relationships, gender roles, etc.) . In addition to lesson plans, I also have to prepare for this weekend, since I am hosting a thanksgiving feast for my friends here. Jack, Nathan, Mathias, Yani, Nicky, Alisha, Vivian, Jared, and Bret (not been mentioned in here yet, but he's an American guy in one of my classes, nice guy) are all invited. I'm preparing green beans, roasted carrots, mashed potatoes, stuffing, salad, some sort of fruit sauce, pumpkin soup, and a pie! (apple or pumpkin, depending on whether or not i can find pumpkin pie filling). Jack is making a turkey breast. It should be a good time...and a very multi-culti thanksgiving too--american, canadian, australian, german, british, northern irish...

Anyhow, Jack is planning on coming down Wednesday to help me prepare, and also to help me pick out some sort of couch/futon/guest bedding at ikea. Should be fun times. I'm sure I will have plenty of stories to share about all of this.

Now I need to try to sleep--hopefully my schedule won't be too thrown off. I need to get up early tomorrow to go get a flu shot, and make my mother proud.

this hearts on fire

2006-11-12T17:02:00.000-08:00

It is nearing 2am, and I know my body is tired, but I feel to restless to sleep. So...I am writing instead. Why not be productive?

First, a bit of catch-up.

Last weekend, I flew from Berlin to Stuttgart, because it was the same price to fly as to take the train...but flying got me there in 1 hour as opposed to 6.
I met up with Anna at the Hauptbahnhof in Stuttgart, where we caught a train to Fornsbach. In Fornsbach, Eva picked us up and drove us home to Frickenhofen--we could have caught an earlier train to Fornsbach, but Eva had been grocery shopping. While waiting for the second train, we contemplated having lunch, but realized that if Eva was grocery shopping, that meant a huge lunch was in the works. Eva is the Meisterin of Hospitality. Everything is home cooked...if she doesn't cook it or bake it herself, then she bought it from the neighbor down the street who baked or cooked it. Every meal includes at least 3 courses-the soup, the salad, the main dish. Meals are always accompanied by wine and are then followed by coffee. If you are not an experienced wine drinker (say, like me) and therefore don't have the neccessary aquired taste for dry wines, no worries! Eva will go down to the wine cellar and find a dusty bottle of lambrusco, sweet and sparkly, that she will uncork and insist you finish by the weekends end on your own, before you can protest.
Your bed will be made, there will be extra blankets, and on the night table there will be a vase with the last rose from the garden. Eva will apologize that it is already a bit frostbitten--but it is the last one she has. Next to the flower will be a bottle of Stilles Wasser, because she knows you don't particularly care for mineral water. Also, she forgot! In the car there is a litre of Cola Light, because you like that, right? Or was it your parents...
Oh, also, help yourself to the fresh grapes, clementines, pears, cheeses, breads, yogurts...if you are hungry between meals.

Seriously. Eva will spoil you rotten. She went overboard with the cooking and the wonderfulness and the amazingness, since both Anna and Pia were home for the whole weekend, and I was there too, and she really made me feel like an honorary daughter. I feel like family when I am with the Diass's. It's a wonderful, wonderful feeling.

Friday night, after eating more in just one meal than I am accustomed to eating in an entire day, I was pretty tired. The feeling was mutual for Anna and Pia, and we all went to bed early. The next morning we slept in and made our own breakfast...with the ingredients left behind by Eva. This meant fresh bread, both brown and sweet, 5 varieties of cheese, both soft and hard, coffee, tea, nutella, homemade plum jam, soft boiled eggs, and fresh fruit of every variety, and muesli with your choice of FRESH milk, or yogurt. Mmmmm...
After breakfast, we headed to Schwaebisch Hall, picking up Tina (Anna's best friend, and an all around awesome person, also home just for the weekend from the Uni at Nuremburg) en route. In Hall we did a bit of shopping/window shopping, and had coffee at a cute little cafe. Here is the amazing thing about going out with Anna and Tina--even though I rarely see them, whenever I am with them just hanging out, it's like putting on a favorite broken in hat. It fits perfectly. We can talk about anything and it never gets awkward or dull. It's just fun and comfy. It really is amazing that I had the luck to get to know such wonderful people, and that the connection has stayed strong.
After Hall, we went home for yet another amazing meal, then that evening we went back out to a few bars.
Sunday we woke up early and went as a family (Eva, Gerd, Anna, Pia, Me, and Ebi, Pia's boyfriend) to Stuttgart, and visited the Diamler Museum. I took plenty of pictures for my dad, which I will eventually post. We also ate dinner and visited a bar started by some of Anna's friends. Then, it was time to catch my flight home.

Here is a list of the food Eva prepared while I was there. It's amazing. The woman shows her love with food.
Friday Lunch:
Homemade broccoli cream soup.
Feldsalat salad, with fresh mushrooms and homemade vinegarette
Austrian-Style Crepes (Eva is Austrian, FYI): Thin pancakes filled with a quark-rum raisin-cinnamon-lemon-sugary sweet delicious filling, with a quark/butter/sugar glaze on top, set into a pan and baked till nice and brown on top, kinda enchillada style. Amazing.
To drink? Sekt (Sparkling wine, we'd probably incorrectly say Champagne in the states), of course! It was a celebration! Zum Wohl!
Friday Dinner:
A "casual" dinner, of sandwiches. For these sandwiches there was a cheese plate with 6 different varieties of cheese, fresh bread (2 brown varieties, 1 white variety) butter, quark, a salad, cucumber, tomatoes, fancy fresh pickles and olives from the market, hard-boiled eggs, and for those who ate meat, 4 varieties of sausage, including a wild boar sausage. Of course, there was also fresh fruit and wine to drink.

Saturday breakfast was explained already, and lunch was out on the town.
Dinner:
Eva's famous pfannkuchen nudelsuppe. The left over crepes were cut into strips then put into a vegetarian broth, garnished with fresh chives and nutmeg. It's my favorite soup that she makes. It's really delicious.
Mixed salad (mixed greens, mushrooms) and a cucumber salad-both with homemade dressing
Garlic Green Beans
Mixed vegetable sautee with rice (for me, and everyone)
Turkey in a golden curry creme base (for Eva, Pia, and Anna)
Beef Cutlet with Curry sauce (for Gerd, because he doesn't like turkey)
Wine all around, banana splits for dessert!

Seriously, I have to make note of these sorts of things just because it amazes me. She knows we (Pia, Anna, myself) don't eat that well on our own--often times just pasta or eggs made hastily because we are busy and tired. The things she finds the time to make are amazing--this was all done between her working both at the office (Gerd and Eva run a painting/renovation business) and at the Culture program (She is one of the organizers of all cultural/art events in the region, writes for the program's magazine, etc.)
How does she do it?

So yeah, basically I love my host family and had a great time seeing them. They sent me home with a bag of birthday gifts (which I had to promise to not open before my birthday) and fresh fruit (clementines and bananas).

Monday and tuesday were both a blur, then wednesday was my birthday, and a very pleasant one too. I was suprised by the teachers at my school-I recieved flowers, a bottle of Sekt, a book (Nirgendwo in Afrika) and an advents calendar, and many, many well wishes. It was a great suprise. I was also sung to by students, and 3 of my abitur students baked me a cake! Holy cow!
After school, I got another suprise when Nikki, Yani, Vivian and Alicia came over with a homemade flourless chocolate torte that Vivian made--it was sooo good. Nikki and Yani are australian, Vivian is from Boston, and Alicia is from Canada. They hung out for awhile and we had a great time--it was really nice of them to come over, and the torte was absolutely delicious!
I also recieved many cards from home, phone calls from friends in germany, and skypes from my parents--Dad sang to me, mom and I talked for nearly a half hour, I think. It was, all in all, a great birthday.

Oh, and the bag of gifts that I obediently waited to open? 3 chocolate bars, the novel Der Vorleser by Schlink, and a bottle of the most amazing smelling lotion from Weleda (not cheap stuff, let me tell you!)

I was spoiled rotten, to say the least.

Anyhow, the next evening, Nathan (who I went to oktoberfest with, Northern Irish kid, teaching assistant near Brandenburg, only 30 minutes away or so) came to visit and we had a good time friday--he is teaching in a very small village, and so while he was in the big city of potsdam, he wanted to do a lot of shopping. He loves h&m more than I do! He also wanted to go grocery shopping because, as he put it, the grocery store in his village has chicken--but only on wednesdays. I took him to Kaufland and he went nuts.
He left friday evening at about 6, then at about 8 Jack showed up--he promised to visit, since I visited him for his birthday. Friday night we laid low, then Saturday we woke up early to go to Berlin. We went out to lunch in a nice place on Haeckescher Markt (he treated as my birthday present), then walked around showing each other our favorite parts of the city (we'd both been to Berlin on numerous occaisions over the years) I showed him the Haeckescher Hoefe, he took me to see the astronomical clock on Alexander Platz. At 5:30 we went to Potsdamer Platz to the Sony Center, to see Borat in the original version (i'd seen it on Tuesday dubbed in to german--it wasn't bad, but the english version was sooo much better...some of the jokes just didn't translate right). It's a pretty funny movie, I've got to admit. As in pretty really freakin funny. After the movie we poked around the mini weihnachts markt on the Platz (so early!) and then went to a bar on Oranienburger Strasse, where you can get lambic for really cheap. They only have bottled beer there, but they offer like, 100 different varieties, and it's all really affordable. After the bar, I showed Jack the Tacheles (so awesome...art commune/squat) and then we went home.
Today we just bummed around till he had to catch his train back to stralsund.

It was an awesome weekend. Now I am freaking out about grad school apps and whatnot. It will get done, hopefully I will get lucky and be accepted someplace. I just hope my professors back in albion email me back soon.

that's all. I just wrote a whole lot. I guess that means i should update more often, huh?

that time of the year?

2006-10-30T01:29:00.000-08:00

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

2006-10-08T16:12:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-05T02:36:00.000-07:00

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.

Can't I just copy and paste?

2006-09-28T16:04:00.000-07:00

I've been feeling kind of lazy lately and taking way too many naps. I feel guilty, but at the same time I realize that I don't have a whole lot to do. I have managed to poke around graduate school webpages, read the princeton review's "how to prepare for the GRE Literature Subject test," and send out a mass email to my family members. Now I need to write a mass email for my friends. It wouldn't be that much different, but maybe funnier. The unrated version, or something.
I paid rent today. Next week I have to pay my uni fees. That's nearly 400 euros to pay all together in under a week. And Fulbright isn't paying me yet. Sigh.
I was window shopping at H&M today, and while standing near the Up escalator, I witnessed one of their employees fall. It's true what they say, when you fall on the Up escalator you just keep falling and falling...it was really scary actually, and the woman had to be taken to the hospital, but it was really remarkable how long she fell before they turned the escalator off...she only made it halfway down, but she tumbled for like, a whole minute. It was crazy. Kinda like watching someone fall in slow motion.
Tomorrow I am taking a trip up north for the weekend, to visit Jack in Stralsund. It should either be really fun or really boring. He suggested that I bring some vegetarian food, so I made a really tasty homemade spaghetti sauce tonight.
Also, just so you all know, tomorrow is international hug a vegetarian day. So, hug a vegetarian. We will appreciate it.

that's all. i guess. there is so much more to say, and i have so little desire to say it. It's past 1 am and i honestly can't recall the last time i was awake this late.

hallo.

2006-09-24T16:31:00.000-07:00

i have created this lovely blog to capture my adventures in potsdam as they unfold. sounds nice, right?

i will try to keep it up to date. the key word is try...it's hard to write when you're having adventures in europe all the time though, right?