BERLIN

Hallo. Ich bin jetzt in Berlin. I like it. The more I experience it, the more I like it. Tomorrow we're going to Potsdam and then we're taking a night train home, and I'll arrive in Freiburg early Monday morning. But then I have only two hours to take a shower and pack for Egypt. Nidhal's and my train leaves a little before 10am. Bah.

My feet are in great pain, but my mouth is mostly back to normal. There's still some unwanted soreness and the occasional weird taste, but other than that, I'm good to go.

There was a nice little thunder and hail storm this evening. I certainly enjoyed that.

So yeah. I'm still alive and I'll be heading to Egypt on Monday. Bis später!

Sleeping Like A Baby

Hello again. I feel like I haven't been keeping up with all of my friends back home. You people need to be on the internet more often (or write in your blogs more often). But actually, I haven't been around much lately. I've been busy, but not with school. I've pretty much been blowing off school. My mouth still hurts, but it's not as bad as the past few days. ...Yeah... that's what's up with me.

I met a very nice Romanian in the elevator yesterday. And before that, I bought a new pair of pants. Today I bought a new pair of nice sandals and a skirt. Yes, I did just say skirt.

The title refers to Nidhal, who is sleeping on his bed right now. I'm using his computer. But I think my typing is bothering him. He just scratched his nose. Schade.

There was a small thunderstorm today while I was in the city. I liked it.

Selfish, Deceitful, and Gassy

And I'm back again. I always have so much to say until I actually get here.

So I should be going to Egypt (instead of Austria) in a couple weeks. I'm going with Alex, Beki, Grace (Alex's friend), and Nidhal. Nidhal will be a nice asset because he can speak Arabic.

I'm bored right now... waiting for Heroes to load. I got a wisdom-tooth out yesterday. It was awful. and now I'm in pain. The dentist cut and drilled and twisted and pulled and it finally, finally came out. She had to keep injecting me with the numbing drugs because I kept feeling pain. It was definitely not a pleasant experience.

Oh, and I have another new pair of shoes.

"You see them for what they truly are: selfish, deceitful, and gassy." -the invisible guy from Heroes.

Closer to the Clouds

Rain, rain go away, come again some other day. It's nice outside now. I should really go outside. The past week or so has been rainy and icky.

Sarah got me started on Heroes... I'm only on the third episode, but I'm definitely liking it.

In a couple weeks, I'll be in Berlin. There's a week break from classes and the first few days will be in Berlin. I don't know what else I'll do. Beki wants to go to Slovenia, but frankly I don't have any desire to go there. I want to go to Austria... or maybe Greece. We'll see what happens.

I went shopping with Nidhal on Wednesday. At first, I bought some DVDs. Then we looked at clothes and I made Nidhal try on a pink polo. He was very against it, but it goes nice with his skin color. Then he made me try on a skirt. I didn't like it much, but I do like this boy.

It's surprising how little there is to say. I've been spenging a lot of time with Nidhal lately. Classes are ok. I have a four day weekend every week. Not bad, not bad. But I think it makes me lazier with my classes.

Schiess ein Tor!

I have two awful cold sores. Grr.

On Friday, I accomplished another one of my three Europe goals by going to a soccer game. It was quite entertaining even though Freiburg lost. But Freiburg is 5th in their league, so it's not like they're bad this year. The goal was completely stupid. I was in a section which is comparable to the students' section at UM... except instead of being filled with students, there were a ton of older, beer-drinking, punky looking men (and also a random selection of every other type of person). There were cheers and some were familiar. One was the same as "clap, clap, clap-clap-clap, clap-clap-clap-clap, 'let's go'", except they said "Freiburg" instead of "let's go". And then there was one that at first sounded like "she's a door" but I soon figured out it was "schiess ein Tor" (shoot a goal). And there was another one about it being time to shoot a goal, but I don't remember how it goes (it might've been 'ein muss jetzt rein' - 'one must now go in').

Nidhal made me Tunisian food again a couple days ago. It was quite tasty. I smoked some hookah (the name sounds like 'shee-shah' in Arabic) with him again (and also with another Arab and two Germans). It tastes good, but is of course not healthy (but I think it's better than a cigarette). I've been speaking German so much with him that it's hard to switch back to English.

"This building is definitely not suicide proof."

...said Alex as he was describing a new building at UM that has a huge atrium with many overlooking balconies.

So I was sitting at my desk, printing pictures, and minding my own business when I happened to look out of the window and saw a huge cloud of black, billowing smoke (maybe a kilometer away). My first reaction was 'whoa'. My second reaction was 'something is going down'. And my third reaction was to open the window to take pictures. It was some intense smoke and I saw some flames above the roofs of the buildings. After about 10-15 minutes, the smoke went away.

Yesterday was a holiday in Germany, and I was invited to go for a little hike with an older German guy named Rainer. I had met him before at the Fastnacht parade and then on my birthday randomly at a restaurant. It was a beautiful day, but the hike wore me out. When I got home, the plan was to hang out with Nidhal and tutor him some English. Well, he had got impatient and then wasn't home when I got home. I waited around for four hours and then he finally called me back. He caught on that I was moderately annoyed with his lack of patience (I always end up having to wait around for him) and he took me out to an Arabic cafe. It was cool and he let me try his smoking thing (which has a specific name in German and Arabic but I can't remember it and you would know it as 'hookah').

I went to Emmendingen on Sunday and met an old Greek guy on my way there. He didn't seem too creepy.

I don't know if I've said this yet or not, but I'm attempting to learn Arabic. It's coming along.