“you have a seriously overactive imagination.” — E, about me
some items to keep in mind, as a preface:
we go to work. we are working on a competition whose deadline is rapidly approaching and we stayed past dark. so here we are, wrapping up at work, wondering 1, where exactly we live and 2, how we are going to get there. D showed us on the map which street it was and then helped us locate the right tram to take from a station near our work. we printed out the map. E brought her bike on the tram.
once we got off we consulted our map and headed down a street towards where the street we were looking for was (Landgrafenstrasse). after walking to the next tram stop we finally ask the first pedestrians we’ve seen and they tell us to turn around and take two lefts. halleluih we find the street. so we begin walking down that, chatting and looking for any building that looks familiar. unfortunately D didn’t know the number and we had only our recollection of the façade we saw twelve hours previously and, you know, in the light to guide us. as we approach what appears to be the end of the street we start seriously considering the possibility of having to walk back to the tram station and sleep in the office; something we’d only joked about previously. at the end we turn around and walk back, studying each building much more carefully for the fragments of detail we remembered. and then, against all odds, we hit Durenerstrasse again and still have not seen it.
it is at this point that we realize there is a whole side of Landgrafenstrasse on the other side of Durenerstrasse. it was the first house on the right. two trips down the wrong way on streets but we finally found it.
and all in heels.
“we had quite a tour today!” — D
tomorrow E and I are moving out of our flat and into J’s sister’s flat until Saturday morning.
as a result, even though it is only Tuesday, it feels like we are leaving tomorrow. I cleaned all my clothes, and am fervently praying that they dry by morning, scrubbed down the bathroom, emptied out the fridge and mopped the floor in my bedroom. I made piles for what I would definitely carry on and definitely check and then a separate pile for the could-go-either-wayers. I packed my suitcase and started planning out my outfits for the next fews days and what I would wear on the plane.
read: I began my ritual stressing about the flight and whether or not my luggage will be light enough.
could I wear more layers? how many more would I have to wear to save me any weight? if I wear more layers I will sacrifice looking cute. maybe I could put more in my carry on. should I send some stuff back in the mail? or maybe buy a cheap bag to carry on? how much is too much to fit in my rucksack? oh the questions won’t stop until Saturday morning once we are through the security and my suitcase is carried away from me.
in the process of packing and going through what things I really needed to bring home with me I did find my mobile phone. it wasn’t lost or anything, I just haven’t used it since I arrived. it was like a present I found in the bottom of my suitcase! I can’t wait to use it on Saturday. although all my RAM for where the buttons are is effectively gone. E thinks it’ll come right back though.
it’s that time of the year where I am thinking about haircuts. can I pull off this cut or do my eyes need to be gigantic like Twiggy’s?
I have been noticing an increase in the number of times per day that I get this question:
“you have been living in Germany for three months and you don’t speak any German?”
ahem. excuse me. I know some German. I can say hello and goodbye and excuse me and thank you and “can I please have a baguette?” quite well. E and I just learned how to say “I don’t speak German” last week too. apparently “sprechen sie Deustch” means “do you speak German?” and that doesn’t really make sense.
we tried at the beginning to learn a lot of words and use them at stores and restaurants. but more often than not people immediately knew that we didn’t really speak German and they would switch into English. something about the way we say the words must not sound authentic or maybe it’s a facial expression thing. I’m banking on the facial expression. I mean why else would people laugh when I say nein? how could I be saying that wrong?
eventually I just stopped trying. so no, I don’t speak any German. I regret not learning more of the vocabulary but I am convinced that you really need to enroll in classes or get a tutor to entensively learn and master a foreign language. the concept of just “picking up” a language is outside the realm of my understanding at this point.
Design Modelling Symposium Berlin 2009 | Case Studies -
y’all! my professors are presenting the result from an independent study that myself and four other students at Georgia Tech worked on this October at a design symposium. check it out! especially if you are in Berlin.
“you know, sticking ‘Who’ in front of everything doesn’t make it hurt less. just wastes time!” — Mayor of Whoville
just a little bit tired of being alone.