Journals

So every day we are required to write journals. I just pounded these three out, because in my worry to try to finish my environmental paper I forgot to do these. These are pretty basic and probably incredibly poorly written, but in case you care....

I will post an update regarding the amazing couchsurfing party I went to last night, where I met a lot of cool Berliners. It was awesome.

Here is to procrastination!... and here are the journals.

5 Juni 2009
Heute werde ich mit einer Freundin von mir mich treffen. Sie ist ausgezeichnet. Sie hat mich zu dem Ball ihres Gymnasiums mitgebracht, so meine ich, dass man sagen kann, dass wir eine kleine Geschichte habe—aber es gab keine... wie sagt man das, Erfolge. Aber bisher ist sie eine gute Freundin von mir, die gerade in Paris studiert hat. Während des Jahrs, studiert sie bei USC (leider), aber sie ist sehr, sehr intelligent und freundlich. Dazu ist sie in Berghain, der größte Klub mindestens in Berlin ist, gegangen! Berghain ist sehr wählerisch, und ich glaube, dass weil ich noch nicht heiß genug bin, ich nicht betreten kann.

6 Juni 2009
Ich habe nicht so viel heute gemacht. Zum Beispiel habe ich um ein Uhr am Mittag aufgewacht, und dann habe ich geforscht um meine Umwelthausarbeiten morgen zu schreiben. Aber weil ich natürlich fast keine Motivation habe, habe ich so viel Zeit im Internet gedauert. Weil die Graduation meines Gymnasiums heute ist, habe ich ein guter Freund von mir graduieren gesehen. Es gab eine neue Livesendung im Internet, indem man diese Graduation sehen kann. Ich bin stolz auf ihn.

7 Juni 2009
Heute könnte besser gewesen sein. Obwohl ich früh aufgestanden habe um Frühstuckbuffet zu essen, bin ich nach dem unglaublich müde. Vielleicht ist der Grund, dass wenn ich normalerweise gerade fertig mit Essen bin, ich immer müde werde. Der internationale Designfestival ist in Berlin dieses Wochenende gewesen, und ich bin mit Becca und Brian Howald dahin gegangen. Wir haben schönsten Ausstellungen und spannenden Produkte, aber nach diesem Trip muss ich so viele Hausaufgaben machen. Diese Umwelthausarbeiten ist am schlechtesten....

Mein Geburtstag, und der nächste Tag

The big 20. My host-mother called me old. Jokingly, but damn I do feel old. Though I guess it is one pretty important thing I've learned here in Germany--that worry is waste.

It was a great day. Just a regular day, where I had two classes, hung out with some friends, made some phone calls, got a tasty Indian food dinner, and then finished the day at my home with my host family, with whom I indulged some cake. They also bought me a pretty amazing Berlin cap and pretty comfy sandals--you know, the kind that says BERLIN BERLIN BERLIN BERLIN BERLIN BERLIN all over it, with an off-colored berlin once in a while. Whoever came up with that design must be making bank right now.

Everything is winding down. In a week at 10:05 from Berlin Tegel, I am beginning an epic journey back to Chicago. And that will mark the end of this study abroad quarter. How it flew by. What the fcuk.

In about an hour and a half, the Bings are sponsoring a grill party, where all our host families are invited and we can have time and food to enjoy with each other! I plan on staying in tonight, working hard and finishing up a lot of my environmental paper... and then ready to plan my awesome weekend. There is an Umweltfestival, or Environmental Festival in the city this Sunday, and I really want to rent a bike and ride around with people. That should be sick. Also, there's a design festival going on... and a bunch of partying is to be had before I go (albeit temporarily).

Und für jetzt ist das alles!

AND... I didn't do anything wreckless

Today was fantastic. Class was... what it was, not too tough. We got out of German class 30 minutes early, and so I cooked my lunch of ramen (mushroom flavored) with a fried egg on top (delicious), folded my laundry, and headed out for an entire day in Berlin.

I started at a stop away from where my uncle lives (though he is currently in Indonesia) and walked... pretty damn far. I discovered this humongous park by his house which has a Freiluftkino, or Open air theatre which plays movies at 9:45 every night for the entire summer. Auf Deutsch. I'm actually really excited to go to these.... and yeah. Awesome.

There are an unbelievable number of tasty food joints, cheap ice cream cafes, and other unreasonably cool things around my Uncle's apartment. Kreuzberg really is pretty damn cool. I walked around for maybe three miles in my flippy-floppies today, causing some minor blisters... but the 50 cent investment in an apple and Brötchen totally made things way better.

I walked by several tasty Vietnamese restaurants, and have finally decided that there are really enough good Asian food places to keep me afloat. I love the Wurst, but I also love the rice--an affinity and habit I expect to stay with me the rest of my life.

I killed a lot of time walking in directions that I think I will eventually need to recognize given that I'm working around that area during the summer, and then killed some more time looking through souvenirs to get people for my kleine Pause (small break) in den USA (in the USA). I was mostly unsuccessful. So it went.

To my pleasant surprise I stumbled upon a brand new vietnamesische und japanische Restaurant, so everything had a 20% discount! And it was "SOOO GOOOD." Srsly.

I decided it was late enough to attempt to wait in line to get into the Reichstag, the Parliament of the Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Federal Republic of Germany), on which a glass dome rests. People can walk up the glass dome and stare down into the Parliament chamber, where the government makes the rules, to symbolize the transparency of the German government. It's pretty fantastic. There is so much about the German system that I really find fascinating.

We learned in German class the other day about how the German vote for Parliament works. Every can vote for certain people running in their district, their so-called erste Stimme (first vote), and their zweite Stimme (second vote) goes NOT to a single person, but to a party. From every district, the candidate with the highest percentage gets a direct route to Parliament, but at the end of the day there is also a certain % distribution of the votes of the entire country.

From this percentage, the REST of the Parliament is filled. For example, if the CDU (Christian Democratic Union) gets 50% of the vote, but only has 20% of the Parliament filled with its candidates who got directly elected, that means that it can fill up the other 30% with its candidates from it's LIST. The list is a ranking of candidates' right to enter the party in order to fill up this extra percentage, and this list is available to the public while voting. In other words, the party can choose to put really smart people, not necessarily just smart talkers or smoozing politicians, in high places on this list, and then hope that these smart people can get in.

I was talking to my host-brother about this, and he said that a lot of TEACHERS and PROFESSORS actually enter politics--and that the current Chancellor, Angela Merkel used to be a Professor--as well as the Minister for the Environment, incidentally.

In all, it was a fantastic day which followed a fantastic weekend in Madrid. I learned so much about the Spanish lifestyle. Mealtimes are almost nonexistent breakfast, a 2PM brunch, and a 10PM dinner. Isn't that ridiculous? The Stanford students there are on a language pledge, and are more "immersed" in the "native culture" than we are--but I've decided that they are merely different programs to serve different purposes. The lessons I've learned--managing time, living alone, how to keep myself preoccupied, how to travel smart, how to cook for small groups of people, how to shop smart, how to live in a big city, and how to be myself OUTSIDE of the Stanford (in palo alto) bubble--these are priceless.

Oh, and what I did in Berlin? I ate a LOT. Patatas Bravas are my new favorite spanish snack--well, tortillas are pretty damn tasty too. What a great trip. An amazing way to top off my traveling ventures this quarter.

I look forward to couch surfing during the summer, and I really hope I get around to it!

Anywho, that is all for now. Thanks for reading all of this (that even includes you, person who calls me "baby boy" even though I deeply detest it.)