Sun, Nov 25th 2007, 04:14
I came home from Berlin a little worried about the party that was planned by Dani for the night. He built his bar and wanted to have a house-warming party with lots of people over. I invited a German girl from school and Mike had a few friends over, so luckily it was not all just Dani and Carl's friends.
I have to admit, I had more fun than I thought, because there weren't too many snobby people and most of the people I didn't know were upstairs while Mike and I stayed downstairs and talked to our friends. They even let me make a playlist of my music and play it all night, which was cool.
Around 1:30 I decided I was tired and tried to go to bed, but at 3:30 I woke up again to loud music and loud drunk people in my house and I was a little grumpy. Mike came to my rescue by turning off the loud music and telling people to stay downstairs, but it was still pretty loud until very early in the morning. When I got up this morning to go to the bathroom, the door was locked and I heard loud snoring inside. Someone had a rough night.
Atleast six people slept over and didn't leave until noon. I admit, the party was fun for a while, but I'm not crazy about all the strange people in my home and all of the alcohol. I hope we don't have big parties like that very often.
Penny is sick. She has a stuffy nose and she sneezes a lot, and her eyes are red and goopy. I am a little worried about her as she has been like this for a week and seemed to be getting worse, so we are taking her to the vet again on Monday.
No Comments yet
Sun, Nov 25th 2007, 04:07
First I want to say that I successfully made sugar cookies, even though we had to do some research to figure out how dense sugar, butter, and flour are. I never even thought about that because I guess cups and tablespoons account for all of that. Why does cooking need to be so difficult here? It's already pretty difficult for me anyways.
On Friday morning we took a train to Berlin. We saw the German Bundestag, which is the parliament building where they make all the laws. But Merkel was not there that day :)
We went on top where there is a huge glass dome and got to see a view of Berlin, but unfortunately the weather was typical of Germany: cloudy and gray.
We saw pieces of the wall and where the wall used to stand, and visited the Brandenburg Gate.
We saw the Holocaust Memorial which is just a lot of cement blocks ?? and went to the Jewish Museum because I read it was good, but it was a bit boring. I rode on my first subway.
We went to see the Blue Man Group that evening, which was pretty fun. Some of the stuff was in German so I didn't understand, but luckily most of it did not involve speaking. It was a pretty good show!
I had to use the restroom at a shopping center, which cost 30 cents. It was the weirdest experience I've ever had. These two women had us all line up and were barking orders at us, to tell us when we could go into the bathroom or to wait. I also got yelled at for trying to use more than one paper towel. I don't really understand the need to police us while we use the bathroom.
The next day after we were finished sight-seeing, we woke up to blue skies and sunshine, on the day when we wouldn't be taking pictures. Of course. We did a bit of shopping but were kind of tired from all of the walking the day before so we caught an early train home. We were in a compartment next to some very noisy people who sounded like they were having a party on the train. I will never get used to seeing people drinking beer in public.
No Comments yet
Mon, Nov 19th 2007, 02:06
On Saturday Mike's parents came to visit because Dani wanted help from his dad to build a bar in our living room. Yes, I was thrilled about this plan.
So I decided to make quesadillas and some dip for them as a nice gesture, even though they probably wouldn't like it. I went to Karstadt, which is the only place that has most of the Mexican food I can buy, and I bought tortillas, guacamole, salsa, and refried beans. This all cost me 20€, which is very expensive ($1.46=1€). Now I am nearly out of my monthly allowance.
I thought it would be interesting to tell you what foods are included in the American section at Karstadt:
marshmallows, peanut butter, poptarts, microwave popcorn, barbecue sauce, reeses peanut butter cups, and oreos
I thought this was funny since I never realized that some of these products were not eaten often here, or that marshmallows were considered American.
Dani's bar is finished and it doesn't look too bad, but I am not really looking forward to all of the wild parties he plans on throwing in my home. The first of these parties is planned for next Saturday, and I am unfortunately not allowed to leave or hide in my room because it is a House-Warming party and I was told to invite friends.
Today is Penny's first visit to the Tierarzt (Vet), so we will see how well she behaves since I don't have a crate to put her in. Hopefully she is healthy and wont cost us too much money.
This weekend I hope to go to Berlin since Mike has American holiday's off and this week is Thanksgiving.
I will miss pumpkin pie the most.
No Comments yet
Fri, Nov 16th 2007, 10:04
So I kept waiting for something exciting to happen to me so that I could blog about it, but then I realized that moment probably wont come. Besides, living on the other side of the world should be exciting enough. And I do not want to disappoint myself and others by not using this beautiful web page Mike helped me design.
So...onward.
Last weekend, against my and everyone else i know's better judgement, I got a kitten. She is a calico, mostly black, with a very sweet disposition. And she is fearless. Her one character flaw is that there seems to be no end to her mewing. But I hope that as she gets older and as we ignore it she will grow out of it.
Yes, I am allergic to cats. Yes, I don't know how long I'll be in Germany. Yes, I am selfish and lazy and can barely take care of myself. But I convinced myself that having a sweet cuddly little thing would make me happier. Of course I have had my second thoughts as I go through the millionth tissue, but I think it will work out. My allergies are already getting better as I get used to her.
Right now she is locked in the bathroom mewing incessantly because I don't enjoy her sharpening her claws on my back. I will post pictures soon.
Today I decided that I want to try to bake something American. And since I am no cook, this will have to be something simple like sugar cookies. I found a recipe online, only problem is, how does one find baking soda and baking powder and vanilla extract in Germany? Shopping has turned out to be one of the most difficult things about living here for me. I found the baking powder with Mike's help, which is called backpulver or something. But there is no baking soda and only "vanille aroma". So I googled it and found another girl living in Germany with the same problem. Unfortunately that means I have to go back to the store because, no Mike, baking soda and baking powder are not the same thing, and no I don't know the difference or why you need them, you just do!
Tonight we are going to a Greek restaurant with a guy we met from my school. His name is Rastislav and he is from Slovakia. He is a nice guy but he is only here for a few more weeks. I am eating a snack because I don't expect this food to be amazing, since I don't even like Greek food back home.
It is very cold outside and one of the things I miss is driving everywhere. We will, of course, be taking the bus to the restaurant.
13 Comment(s)
