It is already Sunday, though very early. I just finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows about an hour ago. I laughed at some parts, cried at some others, but it was a good read. And now the series is over. No more Harry Potter books to look forward to! :( I did not quite read the book in one sitting as I did take a nap in the afternoon and had to go to the grocery store, I guess it took me about 9-10 hours to read the entire book. I was at work this morning and picked up the book, and one of my co-workers told me they had said the last sentence on the radio that morning. I asked her not to tell me and she did anyway. Now that sentence did not give away all that much, but I don’t get why she did that! I asked her not to, because I wanted to stay unspoiled, as I had no idea where Rowling was going with this last one, and the last sentence did tell me whether the ending would be good or bad. >=( But I am glad I managed to stay unspoiled about everything else, though some theories I had read two years ago (right after book 6 came out) were spot-on!

Anyway, the running is going well, I am finishing week two tomorrow, so that is almost one quarter of the program done. WW is going well as well, I’ll be finishing the second week of pointing points tomorrow as well. And tomorrow, I am afraid, I will have to do some major work on my term paper, the ever-lasting project.

Next week and the week after I will be working full-time, so I will be busy. I still have classes next week, so I am only working 35 hours but with the classes, it adds up to over 40 hours so I will be so glad when the week is over. On Friday I will probably see the Simpsons movie, and on Saturday Bea, her new roommate and I are going to have our party, and then after another week of working it will be time for me to pack all my things.

The other day I finally booked my flight to Barcelona leaving on August 29th, coming back (for Christmas) on December 21st. I also booked a hostel for a week so I have some time to find an apartment. I paid €101 for the flight and about €118 for the hostel for six nights which seems like a good deal. I just hope the one week will be long enough to find an apartment. I have been looking at ads on Loquo.com (a Barcelona-based site like Craigslist), and some of the apartments (or rooms in shared apartments really, that is what I will be looking for) are just ridiculously expensive or the rooms are tiny. Right now most ads are for August though so I will have to look again at a later point.

I am not sure I mentioned it before but for the past two months I have had a new roommate, an acquaintance of my landlords. Originally he was supposed to stay for just two weeks, but he’s still there and looks like he won’t be going anywhere anytime soon. He is like over 40 years old, and let me put it this way, unfortunately age does not have anything to do with maturity. I will be glad to be out of here in three weeks, because right now things are not so good (they were fine until about a week ago, but not since). I talked to my landlady about it and the word she (and I) used to describe his behavior, well, it was not so nice (it starts with an “a” and ends with “hole”). Well, anyway, I am not so surprised anymore he neither has a job nor is married at over 40. I am glad I am not staying that long anymore, because it is not very pleasant to interact with him right now, and I would want a roommate who is my age. I hope when I come back the other person will be more my age and not so impossible. (If aforementioned guy is still around then, I would not move back here, but I really doubt it.)

Anyway, on to more cheery things. I ordered more books, three to be specific, all by Kurt Vonnegut: Cat’s Cradle, Hocus Pocus, and Timequake. I really do have a ridiculous amount of books to read now, most of which I bought this month. I don’t think I’ll have time to read all that much in the next couple of months, as I have so much to do (work full-time for two weeks, write this termpaper, and another, move to Munich, then I’ll be in London for a week, and then move to Barcelona, all within the next 6 weeks, I’ll be so glad once I have an apartment there, and am settled in). I like change, but I do not like these transitioning periods very much, especially when there is so much to do. And I still seem to spend so much time procrastinating. That is something I do not understand very well about myself. I stay really calm until the last minute, but not all tasks can really be completed in the last minute, and I seem to need that last-minute stress to perform well.

Anyway, it is now past 4am and I need some sleep, if I am going to get a good chunk of that term paper done tomorrow.

I thought it would be time for an update once again. I should probably be sleeping but I have some time so I’ll write in here first.

Life has been good. I still have not written that termpaper (surprise surprise) but other than that I have been active. Last weekend I started Weight Watchers again, it was about time too. I also decided to start running. I haven’t really done much sports in the past few years (none really, except for yoga but I only just started that in April), so it’s tough, but I’m still alive (but very very sore, haha). I bought running shoes and clothes and stuff, spent a lot of money on that, and started on the Couch-to-5k plan on Wednesday. I run three times a week (Wed - Fri - Sun), today was the second time. I can tell how out of shape I am, but I finished and did not give up on both days, and I am proud of that. Hopefully I will be able to keep up the motivation, but honestly, just thinking how much money I spent is keeping me pretty motivated, because if I didn’t run, that would be a lot of money down the drain.

I only have a little less than four weeks left in Heidelberg and they will be busy. Tomorrow night I will go out for drinks and (finally!) go see the castle illumination with Bea and a friend of hers, and Sunday I am going to see a play (at the Heidelberg castle) with AJY. Only two weeks of classes left, and I do need to finish my termpaper, the sooner the better, but I should really hand it in next week! I need to give the professor some time to grade it and then I need to apply for my Zwischenprüfung. Next weekend Harry Potter 7 is coming out and I am devoting the entire weekend to reading it. I do have to work Saturday morning but that is actually good since I can just pick up my copy at work then. Then the week after that I am working full time as well as finishing up my classes, and I will also work full time the first week of the semester break. Saturday in two weeks Bea and I are having a party, because her not-so-beloved roommate is moving out and she is getting a new one, because it is the end of the semester and it will also be my farewell party. I will also have to do research for another paper while I am still here and have access to the university library as I doubt the UB library will have that much secondary literature on Native American literature (but who knows).

Today I went a little book crazy again, I swear, buying books is like an addiction - I bought five:
- John Irving, The World According to Garp
- Nicole Krauss, The History of Love
- Elizabeth Kostova, The Historian
- Laura Esquivel, Como Agua para Chocolate (in Spanish)
- Gabriel García Márquez, Love in the Times of Cholera (in German)
I ordered four:
- Douglas Coupland, All Families are Psychotic
- Douglas Coupland, Eleanor Rigby
- Francois Lelord, The Power of Emotions (Die Macht der Emotionen) (in German)
- Mitch Albom, Tuesdays with Morrie

Of course I will be getting HP7 next week, and I also want to order some more books by Kurt Vonnegut but I need to talk to my supervisor first (she does international orders) to see which ones are available. Apparently it is harder to get them here at the moment, because Vonnegut recently passed away. Then I need to get a Moleskine weekly planner for 2008 and the Lonely Planet for Spain and I am all set. I want to stock up on books to read while I can still get my discount at work. I now have a load of books to read, so I am good for a while.

Okay, well I think I’ll end this here now. Hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

I got this idea from a community on LiveJournal, and I thought it was kinda cool. Click on the picture to take a peek into my fridge and food cupboards… (Use the menu on the right of the picture to get to the next one, and hover your mouse over the pictures as there are notes.) I promise the inside is more interesting than the outside, hehe!

Hey baby, what’s your sign? - Sounds like a pickup line, right? But in this case it is the topic of this week’s Sunday Scribblings, and of course I will take this prompt to analyze how much I confirm the cliché. My starsign is cancer. Strictly speaking I was born on the cusp of gemini and cancer. Apparently this cusp is known as the Cusp of Magic, which sounds all mysterious and … magical. But anyway, back to the crab.

Here are some of the cliché traits of a cancer:

+ Emotional and loving: Check.
+ Shrewd and cautious: Check.
+ Protective and sympathetic: Check.

- Changeable and moody: Check, but isn’t everyone?
- Overemotional and touchy: Check, well sometimes.
- Clinging and unable to let go: Check

So hah, I am a typical cancer, of course alike with all other cancers and one of twelve types of persons in the world. But wait, no, it’s not that simple. I do believe parts of astrology to be true, especially the horoscopes that are made using your time and place of birth as well as your date of birth - because of course there are not only twelve types of people in the world - how boring would that be anyway?

Reading my personality horoscope, many things do apply to me, some do not. Is astrology true? I don’t know. What I do know is that a lot of these things apply to me, that I do seem to have a slight tendency towards fellow water signs when it comes to men that I am attracted to or fall in love with, that daily horoscopes are nonsense, and that I would never let a horoscope guide or influence me or my decisions in any way.

More here.

I am in Munich right now, and very much enjoying this little vacation. I’m not really on vacation, but it’s nice to get away from my everyday routine. I did bring some schoolwork so I will not be able to be lazy for the entire time, but I have been enjoying this weekend.

I got home on Friday evening, with an hour delay (thanks to Deutsche Bahn). Saturday I slept in, and in the afternoon I went to the Junimarkt which is a sort of flea market where people donate whatever stuff they don’t need anymore (clothes, books, toys etc) and these things are sold and the money goes to projects either in town or other social projects. I bought a book - Olivia and Jai by Rebecca Ryman, which is out of print in English, so I didn’t mind buying it in German. I had been wanting to get this book for a while now, it is one of Tina’s favorite books, so I wanted to see what it was all about. I only paid €.50 for it so if that is not a bargain I don’t know what is!

In the evening I went to see my dad’s play. My dad plays amateur theater with the Siemens Theater Group, and I thought I might as well see the play while I am here. The play was “Gretchen 89ff.” which is a play about theater essentially. The scene on page 89 from Goethe’s Faust is used to portrait the different kinds of directors and actresses there are (how they stage this scene), and it is very funny.

Today I did not do much at all. My mom cut my hair - it is really short now but I like it. Here is a picture of my new hair:

My brother came by this morning while I was still half asleep and gave me my birthday present. The Lonely Planet Barcelona, yeah! Not sure if I mentioned it, but Bea gave me the Moleskine City Notebook for Barcelona, so book-wise I am as good as set for my move to Spain.

Tonight I watched L’Auberge Espagnole with my parents. I had bought it right after I got accepted for Erasmus, because I hadn’t sen it yet and for someone who is about to move to Barcelona as an Erasmus student, this movie is a must-see (it is about a bunch of Erasmus students who share an apartment in Barcelona for a year). It is a really good movie, but the beginning did not calm me down at all about the apartment situation in Barcelona. My parents also seemed quite shocked. I know I will eventually find something, I have to, but it still worries me, as it will also be the first time that I have to find an apartment completely on my own.

Anyway, I have no plans for tomorrow yet, but I should probably work on my term paper, as I want to hand it in when I come back to Heidelberg on Thursday. Tuesday I want to meet up with Bettina, one of the childhood friends I recently reconnected with, and in the evening I am going out for drinks with a few friends for a late birthday celebration. Wednesday I want to meet up with Aleksandra (the other childhood friend I just got back in touch with), and in the evening Sylvia is having a barbecue to celebrate her birthday. I also want to go by my brother’s apartment sometime before I leave.

I’ll be going back to Heidelberg on Thursday if nothing (Deutsche Bahn, the German trains, have plans to strike this week) crosses my plan. Well, I think I am going to go back to reading the book I have to read for class by Thursday, When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka. I hope you all had a lovely weekend.