Associated Press
CHICAGO - The war on terrorism took a strange and sad turn Friday as airline officials at O'Hare International Airport refused to let a 73 year old grandmother board her plane as she had in her possession two six-inch knitting needles. Apparently authorities were worried that she may knit an Afghan.
Anyway, classes start tomorrow. Blah. Kinda really interested in how they compare to US classes. Yeah.
So I kinda had a rough weekend. Well, not really... I had lots of fun, but I supposed it was kinda rough all the same.
It started off with meeting Liosa for an international student coffee hour (with both Angie and I, coming from 2 separate locations, managing to be half an hour late... wonderful semi-first impressions), but had an OK time there, then went to an Irish pub and had a cider. Came home, made some dinner, then Liosa and I went back to school for a social event for int'l students majoring in German-related things. Had 3 glasses of wine, had a good time, went home because Anna and Angie wanted to go out. Split a bottle of champagne (well, prosecco) with Anna and left for a bar. With Leah already tipsy/somewhat drunk. Got to the bar, smart Leah orders a Bloody Mary and then some mixed drink after that... real smart. And I haven't been drinking mass quantities of alcohol recently.. no tolerence. So, I've blanked on about 5 or 10 minutes of the evening (NO idea that Angie was flirting with the bar tender, can't remember getting a friend's # from Anna....), but at least I remember requesting Salt N Pepa's "Push It". And he played it.... yeah! Anyway, had some water before leaving and grabbed something to eat on the way home. Passed out around 1:30 probably.
Next morning, wake up around 11:45. Lie in bed until a little after 1. Take 2 Tylonel, wait for them to kick in, shower and make something to eat around 2. Yeah... it was a slow day. And the day before, we'd discussed going dancing with Liosa and a friend of hers.. i didn't want to be a party pooper, so I told Ang that I'd still do it. I talked to Liosa, agreed to meet first at the Irish Pub around 9:30. Anna called, wanting to know if we wanted to go back to the same place from the night before (the Nachbar) for happy hour at 8... agreed to go. So, we were there for awhile, then went to meet Liosa and friend (who happened to be about an hour late... there, we're even) and they bailed on dancing, which was probably a good thing. Oh well. It was a fun evening, and I didn't have much to drink, which was good.
Oh yeah.. before irish pub, this guy from Iran who had to have been about 35 tried to pick up Angie and I... then after the pub, I got some fries somewhere, and some guys there (who were drunk) tried to pick us up. Then some other guys wanted fries and to talk to us. Crazy.
Jim's coming to visit!!! Nope, not excited at all. :) He's going to get here New Year's day and is going home a little over a week later. I've been spending so much friggin' money on calling him so far. I miss him lots. Oh well.. I guess that's life, eh? I just can't believe how cheap it is to call, so it doesn't seem like any big deal if I call him every other or every 3rd day. Oh well. I guess I'll see how bad it is when we finally get our phone bill, eh?
What else? I ate dinner with my first host dad (from back when I was an exchange student) at the top of the TV tower.. there's a revolving restaurant up there. It was neat. The end.
Classes start this Monday for me. Yay! I'm very curious as to how they'll be. I'm taking an East German film and lit of the 60s class... that should be pretty damn cool. Also looking forward to my german grammar class... hopefully I'll learn some new stuff. :)
Well, I think that's about it. I'm supposed to hang out with Liosa today, which I'm looking forward to... maybe will hang out with Anna some, too... not sure yet what my weekend plans are. well, until next time....
So, the phone is in my room, and it usually sits right next to my bed. Phone = Dangerous. Do you know how many people I've called so far? I've probably talked on the phone like 2 or 3 hours since Thursday after midnight (I had to test out the phone shortly after midnight, and well.. .Jim was only napping.. not doing anything important. It was reallllllly good to talk to him. I miss him lots. He's seriously thinking about coming to visit me! Yay!) Anyway, I called Brenna Friday night, talked to one of my host moms beforehand, talked to Anna some, have talked to Uwe (hi!) some, and Jim yet again. Oh yeah.. my parents called me, too. The usual... "How is it do you like it tell me about your apartment when does school start yes of course we'll chip in for an answering machine how are the bars? we love and miss you".
So, as I said, the phone's going to be pretty dangerous for me, so I did some math tonight... if I only want to spend 40 DM ($20) a month, I can call the States 14 times and talk for 30 minutes each time. Not too bad, in my opinion. So how often can I call Jim? Now the question is, do I buy a cell phone, too? It'd be pretty handy. (that's a HORRIBLE pun... cell phones are called "Handy"s here.)
I resisted the urge to go out with Angie tonight. She wanted to go to the same place we usually go to that's about a 15 minute walk away. I decided that I've spent so much money recently that I really should say no for once. besides, I just bought a book that I can read, and that's what I should be doing instead. I was going to buy a book in English until I saw that all english books cost like $12, so I opted for the cheaper (and better for my german) german novel. I went with a suspense type thing.. hopefully it'll keep my attention. Anyway, I think that's good enough for today... I'm really starting to like the keyboard on my laptop, so now it's all the easier to type and type and type, ya know?
Anyway, so I promise that I'll actually have a few real entries in here before too long.. whenever I end up being able to hook up my computer to the internet. Later.......
Purrrrr. I'm sitting here in my room sipping a cappucino and looking out my window. I really like my room and where Angie and I live. When I actually have internet access from home, maybe I'll include a link to where I live. Basically, it's right smack in the middle of the city. Which is very cool. I could probably walk to class if I were feeling ambitious. Which is also very cool. I'm really kinda looking forward to my classes... I hope to meet other students there. (sidenote: typing is much easier for me now.. I cut my fingernails, which makes a world of difference, and I'm starting to get used to the whole laptop keyboard thing, too. Plus, today, I'm not as used to the German keyboard so I don't keep on typing "zou" for "you". There's all sorts of screwy stuff on german keyboards like umlauts and stuff.) Ya know, this is my 5th city in 5 years.. you'd think I'd be used to the whole getting to know people thing. It took me about 8 or 9 months in Madison before I really felt like I had a good group of friends... real friends, not just acquaintances (sp?). And then I left. Oh well, good thing I'm planning on going back. But then I may be back in this awesome city. I'm just completely rambling today, but I was looking at Dave's pictures (hi Dave!) the other day and saw that I missed Christy's birthday party, and it looked like a rockin good time. Schade. (too bad). Oh well, I'm sure I'm going to do some things this year that everyone else will be jealous of. :) I was just talking about New Year's with Anna and Angie last night... I forgot that people plan WAY ahead of time for that. But it should be a rockin' time. Anyone who wants to celebrate Berlin-style is welcome to crash at my place.
So, it's kinda funny. I think Angie and I almost got along a bit better when we were sharing a room. I think we just knew that we had to live with one another and so we did. Now we're spending less time with one another, and we seem to have less patience for one another. But we both agreed that we can't really think of other people we'd rather be here with. We both respect each other, and we try not to get in each other's way too much. We have some similar interests, but not so many that it's boring. I hope we're still friends at the end of the year.
Well, now that I have some new ideas about classes and stuff to do, I think I should work on my class schedule. Bye!
And, this morning, I went to Humboldt to ask my barrage of questions, and I got most of them answered and the answers sounded awesome! Basically, since I don't want to graduate here and just want to spend a year here, the rules don't apply to me. Period. I heard yesterday that it's normal for a student to take 20 hours a week. That's average. That also means that that's more than likely 10 classes. Their classes only meet once a week for 2 hours. I can't imagine taking 10 classes in a semester! They don't really have all that much homework; they usually just have to give a write a paper and give a speech over that paper at the end of the semester, and it should be related to the class. So, since the rules don't apply to me, I'm going to take like 4 or 5 classes and give myself at least Friday off if not Monday or Thursday as well. Yay!
Oh yeah, i paid tuition yesterday.. more than I thought it would be. It's about $100 a semester.. I thought it was more like $80. Oh well. I think my parents can deal with it.
Last night, Angie and I decided to go out for a drink at this bar we've been to a few times here in town... we were there for about an hour or so and we were about ready to get going when we saw some friends of Anna's, so we ended up staying another hour or two and had a good time chatting with other people. That was neat. I wanna get to know more people around here. After reading everything going on at the uni, I think I'm going to maybe get to know some other people there, too. :)
Well, I think that's it for now. Angie and I are going to do somemthing with Anna tonight... maybe just hang out, maybe go to a movie. We're not sure yet.
Anyway, I also needed to have health insurance that was recognized in this country. I just ended up buying some. I also needed a residency permit, for which I needed a number of things... passport, health insurance, police registration, proof of financial means to support myself, letter of initial acceptance to the university plus about $50.
So, i'd gotten all of that after a week or so of running around the city. And I needed ALL of that, plus something that said that I passed this big 4-hour German exam that was give last Thursday, plus as receipt from my bank saying that I'd wired over the tuition (a whole whopping 209DM, or about $100) in order to get "immatriculiert". The results from the exam weren't posted until today, and I had until this Friday to get immatrikuliert. Good thing I was pretty busy last week getting everything done. I don't think I'd have my sanity anymore.
OK, so the other cool thing that happened today is that I was in the U-Bahn (subway) coming back from checking my e-mail and I looked across from me (that's what you always do... examine everyone else) and saw a woman that looked somewhat familiar to me... I caught her eye, and said, "Silke?" and she was like, "yeah...." and then she realized who I was. She was one of my chaparones from my Eurotour back when I was an exchange student! That's really crazy that we happened to be on the same train and in the same car at the same time. I'd actually dug out her phone number a few days ago thinking that I'd give her a call when I had a phone. And it's still hard for me to believe that I ran into her at random like that. Craziness. So I'm supposed to give her a call sometime. Maybe I'll see if she wants to get coffee or something.
anyway, this is really long. The plan is to post this (and whatever else I've written) whenever I finally get internet access. Hopefully tomorrow. or Thursday. Well, until later....
Saturday night, Anna took us out to a cafe that's fairly close to Ang and me. It was nice but expensive. I had a Mai Tai and man was that full of alcohol. Got the job done, though. :) I wasn't drunk but was in a good mood. Anna's fun to hang out with and she and Angie were getting along well, too. Added bonus.
Yesterday, we got up around 11 or so and then watched some of the Berlin Marathon. That was pretty neat. They ran about 2 blocks from our apartment and we were at about the halfway mark. Some pretty tired people... you saw all different kinds of people there, too... young old fat skinny Darth Vader (yeah, we didn't know what to think about that one, either). The rest of the day we read, napped, wrote. Sundays there's nothing in this country that's open besides cafes and stuff, so I got kinda bored.
Today we've been getting stuff done like madwomen. Already registered with the police (to say we live in our apartment... all Germans have to do it), checked about bank accounts (can't get them yet...), bought a monthlong public transportation pass, bought a Bahncard (gives you 50% off train tickets), shopped some, eaten, and it's only just before 1pm. We kick ass. Still need to check about health insurance, but that's no biggie. We'll definitely get that done.
So, I'm really ready to get all this shit done that needs to be done, but it's still going to take about another week or so. Last time I came to Germany, my host parents dragged me all over the place and I didn't have any clue where they were taking me, but we got everything done relatively painlessly. Oh well. I guess that's what I get for trying to do everything by myself here. It's costing me (rather, my parents) about $16,000 less because of that, too. Anyway, I really ought to e-mail my parents soon.. until next time!
Well, Angie and I made it to Berlin OK... we got in yesterday (Wednesday) after nearly 24 hours of travelling. And were REALLY tired. No problems in airports... security check in Minneapolis took about 2 minutes longer than usual (they actually *looked* at the x-rays of everyones� bags) and i didn�t have to pass through any checkpoints elsewhere. i don�t think they even looked at my bags anywhere in germany. i didn�t have to pick them up and take them through customs.
Anna picked us up from the airport (while gaping at the number and weight of our bags) and instead of lugging our nearly 300 lbs of luggage, we decided to take a taxi. We went to her place and cleaned ourselves up... then we grabbed a bite to eat and headed over to my university. Got some info about where to look for apartments and get insurance and headed over to a type of real estate agency. It sounded like it was going to be REALLY hard to get an apartment and stuff for 2 people. I mean, we were kinda picky... we wanted to live with other people and somewhere *kinda* close to the university. And they basically told us that it�d be nearly impossible to do that. They were trying to get us to share a room or stay at once place for a month (sharing a room) while they looked for something else. And we wanted someplace that�d be furnished. Finally, we gave up on the furnished thing and said we�d take anywhere with 2 rooms kinda near the university... and she found something that *might* work. we were happy, of course. it was listed as unfurnished, but it turned out to have furniture afterall!
After staying there forever, we left with a time to see that apartment this morning. Afterwards, we grabbed something to eat and it was about 7 or 8 pm. (Note that we didn't take naps or anything.) When we FINALLY got back to Anna's, we were dead tired, and my cold was really bothering me... needless to say, we were in bed by 9.
Today, we went to see the apartment (which is in Kreuzberg, if anyone knows Berlin at all) and really liked it! The landlord�s super nice and lives there and frequently has people staying there for short periods of time. No one our age, really, but i think we�ll live. The 2nd room inthe apartment won�t be open until october 7, but that shouldn�t be any problem... we can share my room until then.
Anyway, we moved into the apartment like 3 hours later and have so much to do. we�re super strapped for cash because we gave all of the stuff we brought over with us to the landlord as a deposit, but after about a week or 2 (that�s probably how long the bank will take to process our checks), everything should be ok. it�s kinda weird, though... we have to wait another day or two to open our accounts because we need to register with the folks here to get a residence permit, which we couldn�t get until we had a place to stay. So yeah. we�ve been running around the city trying to get everything done and already spent a few hours in the subway. But what a great birthday present.. finding an apartment! Kreuzberg is a pretty cool part of the city (or so i hear) and there are subway stations about a block and a half in either direction. Anway, i don�t think we�re going to do anything for my birthday really... we wanna take it easy. Angie and i may go grab a beer at an Irish pub, but we�ll still get to bed relatively early.
anyway, that�s about it... i miss everyone in the US and can�t wait to see those of you in Germany... Mom, could you forward this to Zach? Sara, could you send this on to the girls? thanks. :)
Berlin�s pretty cool and i can�t wait to get to know this city even better! Here�s my address, in case you wanted to send me anything (hint hint):
Leah Griffin
c/o Hormann
Grossbeerenstr. 87a
10963 Berlin
I don�t have a phone yet, but i�ll let you all know what it is when i know, ok?
Tch��!
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Monday, September 24
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I leave for the Minneapolis airport to leave for Germany in about 10 hours. Amazing. Absolutely amazing. I'm actually almost all packed. Also amazing. I don't think I'm going to have any weight limit issues, either. Yay!
So, I think I promised in my last entry that I'd write more often. Oops. I've been somewhat busy. Last week, I basically sat on my ass all day long and hung out with Nick, Angie or Audrie every night. I think on Thursday I started to make a half-assed attempt to pack some. It most definitely helped. :)
This weekend, I went to Madison and had a really great last weekend in Madison. It involved lots of Jim time (I heard tonight that Jim got my cold... oops. I wonder how that happened.) and drinking on both Friday (a little too much drinking... was somewhat hungover on Saturday) and Saturday. I'd never been to the Essen Haus, so I dragged everyone out and there was a great turnout! I knew all but like 5 or 6 people, and there were 25 or so people there! Wow. And I got to see Rachel pretty drunk, which was also entertaining.
I'm really going to miss Madison. I spent most of last year kinda feeling down about the friend situation (mostly because I only had like 3 close friends, including Jim), but this summer was really great and I think that I finally made the transition with some people from "Jim's girlfriend Leah" to "my friend Leah" and actually started hanging out with some people that he didn't always hang out with. And I started to come close to the amount of friends I had at Iowa State. So, my point is that there are some pretty cool people around Madison that I'm going to miss. Jim's at the top of my list, most definitely.
Leaving town on Sunday really sucked. Saying goodbye to a bunch of drunk people at the Essen Haus on Saturday was pretty easy.... but Sunday was spent crying and hugging a lot. It was an all-around a pretty shitty day. I went to bed last night just exhausted from an emotional day, and I was still tired when I woke up like 9 hours after I went to bed.
But I had so much to do today. Bank, BestBuy, Target, Sam's Club, packing, lunch with friends, last phone calls to grandparents, parents and friends, OfficeMax. BUSY.
Now I need to go finish up packing so my mom'll let me out of the house to do coffee with Angie and Nick. I also need to call my brother. Still so much to do. I guess I'll be writing next time from Germany. Wow. Bye.