What I have been up to in the past two weeks in a list form to keep it short:

Gursky exhibition: I went to see the exhibition with Julia two weeks ago. It was great. I really love Gurksy’s work. You have to pay so much attention to detail. Sad thing is that it is considered bad ettiquette to stand close to artwork in a museum, because if you don’t, you miss out on half the fun. So Julia and I did it anyway, and some people would usually follow our example. I think that you could probably spend hours looking at one photograph and still not see everything.

I saw two movie, Music & Lyrics and El Laberinto del Fauno (Pan’s Labyrinth). Both great movies. I love Drew Barrymore and Hugh Grant together, and Music & Lyrics was such a funny romantic movie! El Laberinto was really good too, saw it in Spanish with German subtitles, and it is always so encouraging when I do understand the movie (though I wouldn’t be able to do without the subtitles), it was so good, although I could have done without the violence, some scenes were a bit gross. I think that might be another movie to put on my get-on-DVD list, though, I really enjoyed it.

Now it is all spring-like and warm outside but my first week here was so cold! I am so glad I brought my winter jacket. I think I have seen more snow here in the past two weeks, than the entire winter so far. Now it looks like spring will be sticking around though, and I am glad because sunshine affects my mood very positively, and I just am more productive and happy when it’s beautiful outside.

I finally got my own chucks. I was downtown last week and happened to walk into Deichmann, and they had the black high-top ones on sale for €39.90 (usually they cost €60 here). I had never gotten any because I thought it was a rip-off considering they sell for half that price in the States, but I guess this is as good as it’s going to get in Germany so I bought them.

I mentioned the Gursky exhibition already. Well, I had also told Eva about it, which prompted her to go there with her boyfriend a few days after I did, and she happened to run into Chris (my former jiu-jitsu teacher), which was great because we ended up all going out to dinner last week on Thursday. We all, that is Chris, Eva and Lili. It was really cool to see Lili and Chris again, as I hadn’t seen them in years. We want to get together again soon, but I don’t know if it will work out before I leave for Heidelberg in a week.

Saturday, I had drinks at the Wasserwerk with Sylvia and Julia, which was a good time. It got more expensive and it also seems a little more schickimicki (trendy) than it used to. I think it has just turned from an insider-tip into a more popular bar. I don’t know if it is a good thing, I mean cocktails are still great there, but more expensive. What was really nice though, that hardly anyone smoked there, it was so nice to get home without smelling bad for a change. ;)

We did not go to Osnabrück after all. My dad is still not completely fit, so my parents decided to cancel the trip. I would have liked to see my cousin again, but actually this probably works out better for me, as it gives me more time to hang out with my friends.

I passed my Spanish final! Our teacher finally sent out an e-mail to all of us who passed last week. Phew! Now all I need for my Zwischenprüfung is write that one termpaper, and then I have all my certificates, so I will hand in all the certificates sometime during the semester and finally have my ZP for Spanish. That is one last big step before I am really heading for graduation (which is still over 2 years away, but anyway, I will probably get started on my M.A. thesis in a little over a year, which is not that long to go at all!

I am in Munich now… Anyway, first, the best news of the week month:

My roommate is moving out!

(Yes this totally requires centered and bolded text!)
Yesterday when I went upstairs to my neighbor’s because she is taking care of my plants while I am gone she told me she just received a letter from my roommate’s parents (since she is not yet 18, they signed the rental agreement), that they are canceling the rental agreement and she will move out on March 31st! Seriously, couldn’t have gone any better, this was exactly what I was hoping for! When I get back to Heidelberg, she will be gone! No more annoying rude nasty roommate!
Now I just hope the next one will be nicer, but then can it really get any worse? Anyway, I had to share this happy news with y’all! You guys know how long I had been waiting for this!

Now back to what I’ve been up to in the past week…

I got to hang out with most of my friends before I left which was great. Wednesday Sheela came over and we had lunch together and watched Volver. In the evening I met up with Caty and we had her birthday present dinner at Mandy’s. Last time at Mandy’s for me for a month. I love that place so much, it has definitely become my favorite place to eat out at. Thursday I worked and in the evening went out for drinks with Bea. Her boyfriend and some others joined us a little later, and it was a great time! Had more alcohol & stayed longer than planned, which resulted in me only getting 4 hours of sleep and oversleeping by one hour. (This is where I would like to say more about that, but I’ll save that for a private entry which I will write later.)
After work, I met up with Sheela for lunch, and then we went to H&M. I ended up buying this sweater in this really pretty blue and a brown top. I realized I should have gotten a €5 voucher when I signed up for the H&M newsletter but I didn’t, and I also realized that after I paid. So I figured I’d print out the voucher and come back the next day, to return what I bought and buy it again.

Friday afternoon I had three loads of laundry to do and pack and when I got home someone had just put a load in the washing machine on some super-slow program that would take over two hours. So I decided I might as well go back to H&M now, so that’s what I did. I finally got started on the laundry at like 1800 or even a bit later, and needless to say (at least to those who know how slow German washers and driers are) I wasn’t done with washing, packing, and taking a shower until 0400. Another night of only 4.5 hours of sleep, here I come!

Saturday I worked in the morning, came home, and checked train times online. I was going to take the train at 1514, but turns out that apparently on the weekend there is no train at 1514. So I ended up taking the one at 1714 and was home at 2130. Meh. I had plans to meet up with Brandon and a friend of his (who are in Munich this weekend), needless to say, that didn’t work out. But I guess I can meet up with them in Heidelberg when I’m back there.

I had been cold all day yesterday, probably because my body was really exhausted (I am actually surprised about how well I was still doing). So last night I finally got to catch up on sleep. I slept 11 hours I think. In newly washed sheets. Mmmm. I love the smell of detergent in sheets.

Anyway, today I am meeting up with Julia to see the Andreas Gursky exhibition at the Haus der Kunst (House of Art). My co-worker told me about that, and I remember seeing one of his photographs at the MoMA (I think) in New York City and I really liked that so I wanted to see his exhibition. There is also an exhibition on a Japanese artist, Yayoi Kusama, which looks … interesting (apparently she mostly does art involving polka-dots, heh). But seeing as we’ll be paying for both exhibitions, we might as well check that one out as well. After that, I will stop by my brother’s on the way home, to drop off some things and get the Incubus ticket he bought for me.

Speaking of which, I decided to go see Incubus tomorrow even though I was going to have to go by myself. My brother got the ticket for me on Friday. Later that same day, Susi sent me a message saying she was now going after all, because Andrea won two tickets, and she was taking Susi. So now I don’t have to go by myself after all. This all ended up working out really great! Soooo… yay, I get to see Incubus tomorrow night!!!