Germany, part 2

Gutan tag! I'm back from Berlin, obviously. It was a beautiful city, and I want to live there. I could be so cool if I lived there. Living in Greensboro I'm not cool at all. Here I'm only a little cool. There the cool possibilities are endless. There is no glass ceiling for people like me. "Berlin, where all my dreams come true." Like I have dreams anymore. I spent a superfluous amount of money, but I got some new shoes. They are just what I was looking for in a winter shoe (leather, insulated, and a sneaker). I also bought some trinkets for a high price. I'll have to cut whatever corners I can in Amsterdam and around Poland. The city has these bears all over the place. They have some connection to the bear on the Berlin flag. Hence, Bearlin.

We stayed at my friend Nils's best friend's flat. You saw the pictures on Facebook. On Friday, we went to the Robbie Williams concert. These Europeans listen to Robbie Williams and Frank Sinatra, sometimes Robbie covering Frankie, like it's going out of style. The point is it was free, and I'm having fun bragging about how I got to see him to all the Erasmus students who didn't come. After, we went to see the fake wall, but then traveled back to our base camp. The owner made us dinner and we had some drinks before we went out. We got into a very fancy and expensive club. Both of the hosts are "high class" guys (if you catch my drift). It was fun, but I felt under dressed. Then on Saturday we went out to lunch and then walked about town for a while. We visited the check-point Charlie museum, and then we went to the destroyed church. I had misled our guide. Berlin is well known for it's shopping districts. Some are high class and some are eclectic. I told him I wanted to go shopping, and he took me to Gucci. It was still amazing. Saturday evening was basically spent in a cab. Then Sunday we went to the flea market and ate this dish called Currywurst. It was basically a hotdog with barbecue sauce. It was good, but apparently a very popular part of Berlin. A lot of Turkish people live there so the Currywurst and the Kabob are the big dishes. My favorite part was this moment that we had stumbled upon a gay bar for men. I asked this German guy if he would order me a beer there that was popular for the region. He brought me back a Beck's, and if you see nothing wrong about that you should know that Beck's is not from that region. It's more like a PBR or some other run of the mill beer.

It's nice to be back in the Wroc-love. I would say I am completely adjusted. The Polish people are nicer to me because I can at least tell them what I want without messing it all up, but I am still not fluent in the language. There will be problems in the future, but I can deal with them easily. I even went to the post office today and got stamps. However, I wouldn't expect postcards any time soon because the mail system is extremely slow, even with priority. Aside from that, I forgot to go to the Polish film because I was at IKEA again. Unfortunately that means you won't get your Polish lesson for the week from that. However, when I was in the city center today I saw an outdoor exhibit on Polish counter culture. I'll go visit that, and see if it's in English and then I'll take some pictures and relay the information. That way not all is lost. Only I'm the loser because I forgot to go to class.

I leave on Thursday evening for Amsterdam and then arrive back in Wroclaw on Monday morning. We rented a van and will drive there. On the way back we are going to stop at Nils's parents' house for dinner in Germany. This crew of people are around my age which is nice and I've been traveling with younger people on the other trips. There are still many problems with large groups, but we can all handle them more maturely. I've been working on organizing and settling into my flat. I'm ready for it to feel more homely. I like to think of it as nesting. It's going well. That is why I missed class and I was at IKEA. I needed lights for my desk and bookself. Then I became enchanted with candles and kitchenware. Time flies when your having fun. The point of me telling you this is I think this will be the last post for this week as well. There are only 2 days until the trip and they will be spent in preparation. Not to mention I will probably revisit this post to correct any mistakes I have made.

I just want to also mention that I miss my kids movies, new and old. When I return I would like to make a pillow fort with you all and watch all the movies I'm missing. We'll have popcorn, blankets, cokes, candy, snuggles and anything you all want. It would be my honor to make you happy. That's how much I miss you. Someone should dress up as me for Halloween. That way I can be there even though I'm not. Keep it real. Ciao.