Phoey.

I have almost given up on trying to catch up with this. Life moves too fast. It's like in the movies, when someone's sort of running, sort of being dragged behind a car/train/plane/carriage/horse and they can't get off. =P

And I've got a cold. That definitely doesn't help.

So here are these last two photos of Berlin, and then I'm moving on. Last weekend I went to the Isle of Arran with my flatmate Melbourne and two of her friends from her home uni. Tomorrow I'm going to Glasgow--I'll meet my other flatmate Red, who's been kind of egging me to let her take me around there, and then I'll go to dinner and the theater with a bunch of people from my study abroad program. Pictures of both Arran and Glasgow will be going up this week.

(^This was to convey my excitement at having found a tourist attraction in Berlin. I think it does pretty well. =P)

Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of my Thanksgiving dinner, because that was pretty freaking sweet. South Dakota and Germany, who're flatmates, invited me over and spent what sounds like was the whole day cooking. They made duck! And I ate it! It was pretty tasty, as long as I didn't think about what it used to be.

Oh, yes: and London came over, too. He complained that I'd only mentioned him on here once, and then tried to deny that he'd made fart jokes when we went to see Holyrood Palace.

And now he's on here twice. Hah.

Except for these weekend jaunts, life has been pretty tame. Most of it is just schoolwork--catching up and trying to get just a bit ahead, because let's be honest here, I'm not going to go to Paris or Berlin or Arran and then try to write an essay. Nothing gets done when I run off like that. ;) So the day after I got back from Berlin I had a 2,500 word essay due the next day, and I got it in on time! (No sleep, but it was complete. More or less.) And next Friday I have another essay due, this time on the Persian Wars. It's going to be way, way easier to write because I actually think the Persian Wars are kind of exciting. They're interesting, anyway.

Oh! And that one essay I sprinted across campus in my pajamas to turn in--I got it back today. Awesome, awesome marks, and nothing taken off for tardiness. Ohhhh, yeeaaahhh. :)

Berlin Part IV

Took this as we wandered around between train stops. The dome is a museum. There are a million different rivers and lakes and general bodies of water in Berlin. Coming from SD, I still find water fascinating. I kind of wish we'd gone on some kind of river tour. Not that we would have been able to find one, but still. :)

Brandenburgh Gate (Berlin Part III)

Brandenburgh Gate at night, November 13, 2010

(Yes, we did find it. After I went to the top of the Reichstag and went, "Oh, there it is!" For those of you who don't know what the Brandenburg Gate is, does Checkpoint Charlie ring a bell?)

Berlin Part II

"Just so you know, we are never walking anywhere ever again."

The frustration behind the freakin’ S-Bahn in Berlin was a bit incredible. My friend (codename: Star Command, as per her request) generally knew where we were… we just couldn’t figure out how to get to anywhere we wanted to be.

The first night was, hands down, the worst. She flew in that morning, I didn’t get in until about dinnertime, and then we went to Alexanderplatz to wander around and find something to eat. We hung out, we ate, we told stories about our time abroad so far, and then we got on a train to go back.

The train passed our stop without stopping. We didn’t notice for a while. Finally, we looked out the window and realized there weren’t any buildings around, only some kind of a freeway. And it felt a bit like the middle of nowhere (later, after getting back to Edinburgh, I found out it wasn’t quite the middle of nowhere, but it was the faaaaaarrrrr end of Berlin.)

So we jumped off at Wannsee, spent twenty minutes trying to figure out how to get to Charlottenburg (our stop for the hostel) and double-checking so we didn’t end up messing up again. The closest we could get (without waiting for two hours, since it was well after midnight by this point) was two stops too far to the stop for the Zoo (which, coincidentally, is the same stop we’re at in the above video. =P). So we were like, “Yeah, we can just walk from there. It’ll be faster than waiting until two in the morning for the perfect train.”

So we hung out for an hour and basically spent the whole time leaping up from our seats on a bench whenever we heard a train approaching, juuuust in case it was the one we wanted to take. Then we got on the (correct) train, got off at the (correct) stop, and walked.

For an hour and twenty minutes.

I won’t say it wasn’t fun, and that there wasn’t plenty of hysterical laughter and jokes about blog entries (“And then we walked, and walked, and walked, and walked, and then we went the wrong direction and walked some more!”), but it was exhausting and by the end we were both definitely wishing we had waited for the proper train.

Edinburgh Castle

Yes, that's South Dakota (have I codenamed her yet?) laughing at me in the background. And yes, I already knew I'm pretty ridiculous.

This is actually from a little over a week ago. I've fallen behind, but that's mostly because things have been so incredibly hectic. I went to Berlin last weekend to meet a friend from my home uni and hang out, so there are a few videos and pictures and stories from that, and they'll be going up within the next few days.

Rainy Parisian Saturday

It rained all Saturday in Paris. Escondido and I were soaked by the time we headed back to his res hall. We wandered not all over the city, but pretty close to it. (It felt like it, anyway. We hit up most of the touristy bits.) He's super tall and takes these giant strides that I just couldn't keep up with. I felt a bit like a child, jogging after him every few steps to catch up.

And Parisian food. God, there was so much food, and it was so good. Palmiers, chocolate eclairs, pain au sucre, crepes, paninis. We ate enough food that by about three in the afternoon my stomach went, "Ohhhh, gawd, you've done it again..."

And I accidentally dripped the contents of my cinnamon-sugar crepe all over my pants as we hung out and ate on the banks of the Seine. Mmmm, sugar-pants.

Jetsetting tomorrow!

I really need to stop looking at the weather forecast for San Diego. Really, really need to stop that, because all it does is obliterate my curiosity and leave me depressed. (Ninety-seven/thirty-six degrees back home!! It's fifty-two/eleven out here in Edinburgh.)

I did buy a new coat today, though. It's cute. And I think it'll work quite well as the temp continues to drop.

Tomorrow I'm getting up at the crack of dawn (before?) and flying out to meet an old friend (whom I'll codename Escondido) in Paris. I'll be there for about half of Friday, all of Saturday, and will be heading back Sunday morning.

(SO EXCITED. I didn't even have a fantastic time last time I was in Paris, but it's going to be so much fun hanging out with Escondido this weekend. It's always an absolute blast hanging out with him.)

Ode to Insanity

(Inter)National Novel Writing Month started yesterday. (Nanowrimo for short.) During the month of November, from midnight on the first to 11:59:59 on the thirtieth, thousands and thousands of people all across the world live off coffee and craziness in order to jam out a 50,000 word novella. This'll be the first year in four that I won't be participating, and yes, it makes me sad. Last year I wrote a story about a girl who dropped out of university and moved up to Morrow Bay. She met a pair of siblings that turned out to be immortal twins who'd originally been born in the ancient Roman Republic. The brother was a surfer and the sister was just... cool.

I want to participate this year, but I just won't have time. Sunshinebucket is visiting until tomorrow evening, and then on Friday morning I'm flying out to spend the weekend in Paris with an old friend. The weekend after that I'm meeting a different friend in Berlin, and in the midst of all that I still have to figure out how to keep up with classes.

(Classes are exhausting. I'm signing up for reading and creative writing classes next semester, and bully for anyone who can enjoy classes that aren't a part of their major. I miss my school-sanctioned writing time.)

Playing the tourist

The storytelling festival was wondeful. There were three women and one man who told stories—they just got up on stage and told the audience a story, simple and fantastic as that—and the women told stories from Indian myth and folklore, and the man told a Celtic myth. (His story was absolutely tragic. And he had a wonderful harpist accompanying his performance. It just about broke my heart.)

Then later than night Sunshinebucket was due in to the Edinburgh airport from Bordeaux, where she’s spending the semester. I’d given her the info for the shuttle that got me to my dorm at the beginning of the year and promised to meet her in the courtyard where they’d drop her off. I grabbed a book and went down there about twenty minutes before I estimated she would show up, just to be sure I wouldn’t miss her.

And then I stayed out there until almost 1:30 in the morning. Reading and waiting for her. And she didn’t show.

So I went back up to my room and checked the Ryan Air website for her flight details. Nothing. Her flight didn’t even show up when I put the number in. And the shuttle that was supposed to pick her up at their airport didn’t pick up when I called.

I wanted to go out and look for her, but what could I have done? Wander around the city center in the hopes of randomly running into her?

So at 2:30, I got up and began to get ready for bed, trying to throttle my panic and worry. And then my phone began to buzz. I dove for it, and it was her. :) Her flight was late, she’d had to take the city bus and borrow a phone. She was two minutes away, and I literally ran out the door to meet her.

That’s really been the only trouble we’ve had since Friday, though. We’ve been playing the tourist since then, taking pictures and visiting as many tourist-y places we can. We’ve done so much walking that we’re both exhausted. =P

Pictures to come!