"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.