Ich bin ein Berliner

Last week, Therese and I went to Berlin! I really love Berlin and I'm glad it's just as great as I remember it. I saw my old host family. They are SO nice. I really missed them and I think they missed me too. At least, my host dad did. I'm still not sure why but he's super fond of me and calls me his "crazy chicken." Hahaha! Funny story, I thought he used to call me "crazy dog." I know. It sounds super awful. The thing is though, he was always using the neutral case and dog is masculine, but I was always assuming it was some colloquial weird thing, until Therese cleared it up for me. XD

We also met a bird while we were in Berlin.

Therese named him Gustav. And then she was like "Gustav, here's a fry" (because we were eating french fries). She meant it as a joke but when she threw the fry at him he snatched it up and ate it in a matter or seconds. It was HILARIOUS. We're really strange and awesome people. It's all right. We know it already.

While in Berlin, we also visited the Gemäldegalerie. I had visited it the last time I was in Berlin, but I had forgotten to take my camera inside! So I had to go back because there's a beautiful Boucher painting (y'all know about me and Boucher) of Venus and Cupid.

And also Cranach.

Ain't their faces the utmost though?

We also found lots of proof that European people knew black people existed!

From the 1500s and 1400s respectively. Whoo! But they can't put them in kids movies based in old Europe because that's the MOST unrealistic right? Even more so than magic hair and turning into bears.

Then there was also a fresco with two of my favourite gods

Minerva and Mercury. Fanning myself. I'm completely besotted with them. If you didn't know.

We stayed with Therese's cousin in Berlin and she had the CUTEST little Dachshund.

She slept by us too. She was so warm and adorable. On the first day, I kept thinking she was sad because of the shape of her mouth. Oops. 

Also, there was a 20% discount on Isana.

Which is the Rossman house brand. Hahahaha.

Isana Men. ;) Is this the right way to end a post? Or is it the right way?

Ich bin jetzt in Deutschland

So, I was in the air for 9 hours and then I took a bus to the train station in Berlin and then a train to Leipzig to meet Therese's mother. So, in total, I was travelling for about 15 hours (including time waiting at the airport). It wasn't bad though. And I had a lot of fun because I was really excited to be in Germany again! WHOO!

Therese's family is so great. They're super cute and say the most hilarious stuff. Like today, her dad said, that her uncle pimped his car like hell. Do you know how awesome that sounds coming from an older German man's mouth? REALLY REALLY AWESOME. I'm so happy! I haven't been this happy in a long time. Blubblubblub I'm so excited. I also got an email from the guy at the library where I'm working and he game me a time to come in and stuff. AH! Ich bin so aufgeregt!

Today Therese's got me a birthday gift. :3 We went and made a necklace that is totally and completely me. Like, everything I love is on this necklace. It's so amazing!

Well, we were looking FLY as hell. Obviously, because it's us.

After the bestest birthday present evar, we walked around town a bit and I took pictures like a real tourist! Whoo! Everything is so pretty! I can't even. This is why I love Europe. Old and pretty things are so totally me. *w*

THEN! We came home and her dad made LEBERKÄSE MIT SPIEGELEI! OMFG! If you didn't know, when I was home, I spent one night just looking up pictures of Leberkäse mit Spiegelei. Seriously. My favourite German food ever.

So basically, it was a super amazing day and I had so much fun. I mean, Real Madrid also won 1-6 away to Galatasaray. AND Cris scored a hat-trick (and I was squealing so much Therese's mother thought something bad happened. Oops).It was all so super fucking bawse. I'm still processing.

10 Days

I leave in ten days! This is really exciting and I'm already feeling a bit nervous. I've already started buying up stuff. I bought an external battery pack for the ten hour flight and I've got new shoes. I also got some Euros to start off and I've done some of the pre-stuff like getting my phone unlocked so I can buy a sim card (since the S4 doesn't take regular sized sim cards) and telling the bank that I'll be leaving.

This is actually happening. I'm gonna be working at an amazing library doing conservation in Germany. I can hardly believe it, but it's true! AND I get to see Therese and stay with her and traipse around with her. That's like, SO amazing and beautiful and wonderful. Do you understand? Then I get to see awesome people like Anne and FINALLY Noam! I've been looking forward to this meeting so much and it's really gonna finally happen. My mind is blown with all the great things that Germany will bring. I'm sure there'll be hardships too, but, hopefully, the good things override them.

I've also found housing. My major advisor put me in touch with someone that she knew when she did study abroad in Weimar a long time ago and that person put me in touch with one of her colleagues who has agreed to house me, at least for October. I'm sure I can find a place for November so this is good news. Everything is falling into place. And in alternate happy news, I found out I'm going to have a page in the Schalke Kreisel for the Bayern game! This is so exciting. They liked my picture. I hope everyone else likes it too. A Schalke!Lolita in the Kreisel. I'm so happy to be that person. Hahaha!

I'm kind of worried about my German, because I forget words a lot and I'm still really shy when talking to people because I don't want to mess up too badly. I have to sit myself down a lot and remind myself that I've only been learning German for three years and I started from scratch. Of course, I still feel that I should be 1000 times better than I am, but even a few minutes of a reality check are still good.

My birthday is soon too and I'm going to eat German food, so I have that to look forward to before I leave. I can't wait!