Besucherin!

Liza is here.
I am excited.
It's nice to feel like I have a friend here.
Hope all is well at home.
I probably won't be able to Skype til I get to Vienna on Saturday.

Bist du Obdachlos?

I have €1.65. Thanks Wells Fargo!
Tomorrow I am going to collect plastic bottles to get the deposit.
And get a mohawk and hang out drinking with the homeles kids.
I love Germany!!!!!!!!1!!!!!!!!!!!!!one!!!!1!!

Fussball und Pictures

I'm at home right now where the internet doesn't exist. But I have some time so I figured
I could write and post this later.
It is Sunday morning and I am up unreasonably early for how late I was out.
Last night was mostly unexciting. I feel like I'm not taking full advantage of this city.
Especially when it comes to weekends. I should hang out less with people from our
group because when we are together we always speak English which is so unhelpful.
In the afternoon though, we went to a professional soccer game. It was the team from Berlin
versus someone whose name I never did catch. Berlin's team though is pretty awful so they
don't have that many fans and it wasn't as crazy as I'm sure it could have been were we in
say Bremen. But I had really never seen anything quite like it. There was a lot of shouting
and booing and everyone was dressed in blue and drinking disgusting beer out of plastic cups
and eating bratwursts and prezels. But the people who were really into it were fun to watch
and Berlin actually won so on the walk back to the subway there were a lot of drunk 20somethings
chanting victory songs.
Then we ate at an overpriced Chinese restaurant that wasn't very good. I really don't like being
in large groups in public. We are really loud and I'm always overly conscious of how much we
stick out and then everyone gets angry with me when I try and get them to quiet down. And it is annoying to eat with people because some people just don't tip at all here even though you are
generally supposed to leave at least something. So then I feel obligated to tip for people. Lame.

Friday though I went out for sushi with Christian and then we went to art exhibitions at two of
the art colleges here and that was super pleasant. Then we just sat in a cute little bar and
talked. In German. That always makes me feel better about life.

I figure it is time to post some pictures from Berlin.

1) My room. It is big and nice.














2) The Brandenburg Gate.















3) The Siegesäule. Victory Tower.



















4) Kairer-Wilhelm Gedänktnis Kirche. Church that was partially destroyed during WWII that I think is really nice looking.



















5) Holocaust Memorial.




















6) My subway stop.















7) Julia and I dressed up for Karneval.




















8) Karneval!















9) The Palace at the end of my block.















10) Valentine's Day group.














11) Heart Soup.















12) Heart Salad.















13) Fernsehturm.

Valentinstag.

Valentine's Day is great in countries where it is not at all understood. There were some hearts and stuff lying around. But it is already Eastertime in the Candy section of the grocery store. But I wore a red dress and treated myself to a pink donut for bfast. I also brought chocolates to my class and someone misunderstood and thought it was my birthday. Then after class Tara and I went to my house and took a nap. The guy who sold us coffee in the subway station gave us free eclairs. They were delicious. Then in another subway station some woman was handing out free chocolate hearts.
Anyway. We took the keys to our friends apartment and prepared a large Valentine's Day dinner as is becoming tradition. We made heart shaped potatoes and turned them into a cream of tomato and potato soup. It was real cute. Then we had a salad with heart shaped red bell peppers and heart shaped cucumbers. Also really cute.
But we ended up missing the last subway and I had to walk an unpleassantly long way home. But all in all it was wonderful. I will post pictures maybe tomorrow when I will hopefully have my laptop at school.
Love!

Ins Kino!

So. I am back in Berlin.
The week in school wasnt very eventful. We have a new teacher and I cant decide if I like her. She is a little bit cheesy nice. And really I feel like I learned a lot more German staying with Julia than I ever do in class. But oh well.
Anyway. On Thursday I went and saw Into the Wild. It was really well done I thought. The movie itself was in English with German subtitles and that was good. I think the film would have lost some of its value had it been dubbed. But it was nice to see South Dakota. The kid I was with, Christian specifically, thought it was really funny how excited I was to see "home". He also thought it was funny that that is actually how things are. I tried to explain that that isnt really my life at home but that the corn fields and grain elevators and farmers in truckers hats is a scenery that I can recognize and appreciate. But yeah. I liked it. I want to go live in a hippie colony in the middle of Utah or whatever. That seemed so pleasant.
Anyway, Carlye, the Mac girl I live with, has friends in town and yesterday we went out for Mexican food. Guacamole! It was like almost real Mexican food. And was great. Mine was even kind of spicy.
Germans are terrified of spicy.
Also- Germans think it is weird to put pepper on eggs. They looked at me like I was crazy when I did it.
And they mix beer with banana juice. And red wine with coke.
What a weird culture.

Anyway. I think I am going to go on a search for a good book store. I miss books.

Helau!

So. Im still in Düsseldorf. I feel a little bad for skipping so much school. But I feel like Im learning a lot more here, although it is really awkward for me to feel like the retarded cousin that everyone has to speak really slowly and clearly to. But everyone has been really nice to me and really helpful and the Bethes are so so so nice. I wish I could stay here and go to Goethe here! It is so nice to have like actual German friends.
Anyway, yesterday was the big day for Karneval in the neighborhood where Julia lives, so we (julia, her mom, dad, brother, brothers girlfriend, and best friend) all dressed up and went to watch the parade. Karneval is so cool because there is something incredibly unselfconscious about it. The costumes are really elaborate and there doesnt seem to be an age group who is too embarrassed to participate. Of course all of the 17 year old girls are dressed in short little skirts and trying to look cute, but even then they are participating. But the little kids were adorable adorable like on Halloween, but no one is dressed gruesomely because it is a happy holiday. And all the old ladies wear funny hats. and men will wear skirts and wigs and dont seem to be embarrassed. Its great. But it was pretty cold yesterday so by the end of the parade everyone was freezing and kind of cranky. That doesnt mean you give up though. After the parade there was a band and everyone is dancing and singing these cheesy songs and drinking duesseldorfer beer. It was really really fun. We ended up being out from 11:11 when the parade started to almost midnight. It was great. We should really celebrate this holiday in America I have decided.
Today was the big parade in the main city but the weather was rainy and terrible. We went anyway and got all kinds of candy but it wasnt as much fun because of the rain so Julia and I went home after the parade, though her brother and his gfriend are still out and it is like 10 hours later. So I guess it ended up being fun anyway. One of the girls that went with us to the parade today was this exchange student from France and I talked with her a bit but it was really weird. She was really hard to understand, amd I could tell with her that everyone was speaking really slowly and simply and it made me realize that everyone must to that to me too. Which is scary, because then when am I ever going to actually understand this language? I wonder if that girls German was better or worse than mine, because for me it was hard to tell because she had such a thick French accent. I can only imagine mine is jsut as bad.
On a brighter note: I dreamt entirely in German last night for the first time ever. That seems like a good sign. I was really happy when I woke up and realized.
Anyway.
I suppose I will go to bed now.
Lovelove.
Laura.

Karneval!

So. Its Karneval season here in Germany but no one in Berlin except kindergarteners celebrates so I went to Duesseldorf to celebrate with my friend Julia instead. Here Karneval is a pretty big deal, a much bigger deal in fact than I would have imagined.
So. I got here late Wednesday night and Julia picked me up at the train station and then we came to her house, said hi to her parents, talked for a while and then went to bed because she had to work early yesterday. She has officially graduated from college and high school now and got the best possible grade on her abitur which is really cool so now she is going to go back to school to become a doctor. But for now she is a Kindergarten teacher. Which is super cute, but also really crazy. It is strange to have friends with real jobs.
She had to work on Thursday morning, which was the opening of the Karneval Festivities here, so she had her best friend Natascha come get me and take care of me all day til she got off of work. So we went over to a collegue of Nataschas house and had a cute little German Breakfast. Then everyone had champagne even though it was only 11:00 which seemed strange to me but such is the Karneval tradition I guess. Nataschas collegue, Daniel told me the story of the "old womens day" as they call the first day of Karneval. Apparently at 11:11 a group of women storm the city hall and cut off the mayors tie. He then has to leave his office and the Karneval commitee rules for a week. The day is actually supposed to be a day where only women celebrate, so if a man wants to go, he is supposed to wear a tie and then the women get to cut it off and then have to kiss him on both cheeks. Anyway, after breakfast we headed in to the city to join in the party. It was really strange to me that literally everyone you passed on the street would be dressed up ( I was from Hawaii- I had a hula skirt on over my coat and looked really ridiculous). Julia lives next to a high school and as we walked by to get to the tram every single student was wearing a costume. It is strange to see 17 year old boys who arent too cynical to go to school dressed up as a princess or a cowboy. these costumes are generally really elaborate too. Anyway, once we got to the "city" as everyone here seems to call downtown, we pushe our way up to the stage. I cant really describe the situation, but there was an ocean of costumed germans all singing along to these really kitschy songs that I think people only really listen to at Karneval. But everyone knew all of the words and was singing along and dancing. Everone was drinking german beer and just having a grand time. I thought it was ridiculous but couldnt stop smiling. there just isnt anything at all like Karneval in America. Even Mardi Gras is completely different, Karneval didnt seem to have anything at all to do with debauchery, everyone was just having a good time and singing german songs and drinking and wearing crazy costumes. and everyone was there and all in the same place, from little kids to old women dressed up as firemen. It was really great. The rest of the day we just wandered around the city and had a great time. The only problem was trying to find a bathroom. I almost peed my pants more than once waiting in line. But most of the time women would just go in the mens room because the line was faster. and then the men would all be like you are in the wrong line and these crazy german women in their beer keg costumes would shout about them being descriminatory and tell the men to go pee outside. The whole thing was really funny to me.
Anyway. Today I am jsut hanging out at home til Julia gets off work at 4:00 and then we are going to go do some touristy stuff and then tonight it is probably back to Karneval. 5 days of this. Germans are crazy. But at this point Im really glad I came because I relaly never have seen anything like it.
Sorry this is so long.
Love you all!