NyQuil, Night Adventures and Nature

We're in the homestretch! Oh, boy!

Monday was yet another day for class, German and German history. Neither was particularly interesting, other than the fact that they marked the realization that I had two weeks and counting left in Berlin and even less time for finals and papers. However, after class, I sat outside the church near my study center two friends for about a half an hour, enjoying the sunshine and greenery before I returned home to do homework (or watch Gilmore Girls, not quite sure which). I had a nice dinner with my host family and played with my younger host brother, host mom and other host brother.

The next day was more miserable in the fact that I had acquired a cold, and spent the day at home, sniffling and coughing and drinking copious amounts of tea to offset a sore throat. Fortunately, I had the day off from classes, as my two courses at the partner college had been cancelled. However, the cold combined with intense homesickness made me feel pretty down mentally, but, thanks to many friends, I was slowly cheered up and went to bed early to rest up.

I awoke praising the glories of NyQuil, still feeling like crap, but improved mentally. I spent a productive afternoon writing an essay for one of my classes, and then met up with my friend to go to the Gemäldegalerie, or the Old Masters Art Gallery. The collection was massive, and mainly, old white dudes, but they had two pieces by Vermeer, which made me quite happy to see. We followed up the visit with a series of cafe/bar hops across the city, first at one outside the gallery, then at one of our usual haunts, and finally at a beer garden with the rest of our program. Between the hops, my friend dealt with regularly nearly being elbowed in the face by an inconsiderate German youth who was careless about how he hung his arms from the support railing on the U-Bahn. It was incredibly funny, as the entire time my friend kept making faces at me as the boy's arm was inches from his face. Ah, public transport.

Despite being sick, I had a rum and coke at our second stop, and was very happy, due to my earlier productiveness, seeing several Vermeer's, the day's weather, and my excellent company. I was also told by my favorite professor here that I would make a superior librarian, after he learned what my career aspirations were, which made me incredibly happy and I bid farewell soon after, ending my evening on a good note.

Thursday was another day of classes, and fairly uneventful. The highlights of the day were 1) the intense Sporcle game my friend and played in which we were only able to name about 100 of the 196 U-Bahn stations in Berlin, 2) a delicious bagel with cream cheese (one of the few that I've had since I've been here - a real tragedy for my bagel addiction) and 3) finally figuring out my thesis for my large architecture paper that is due in the oncoming week.

The next day, I claimed as a lazy day and didn't do much until I went out and met my friend in the early evening. The two of us wandered from Alexanderplatz to the Brandenburg Gate and through the Tiergarten. We saw several memorials decorated with flowers due to the seventieth anniversary of World War II ending in Europe. The Soviet War Memorial in Tiergarten was especially covered in flowers, and wreaths from various nations. It was one of the few moments that I've acutely felt the difference between the remembrance of history in Europe and the States, primarily due to the fact that in the former, the war was at home.

Afterwards, we grabbed dinner around the Zoo Garden area and impulsively decided to race two modes of public transport back to Alexanderplatz for the hell of it. I took the bus and my friend took the U-Bahn. I won the competition, although had there not be construction on the tracks and it had been earlier in the day at top tourist hour, I probably would've lost. However, it was pretty fun, in a ridiculous way. We rewarded ourselves with drinks at a bar, and played (or in my case watched) ping-pong until we ended the evening.

Which brings us to today, as I'm finally caught up to the present and it only took a month.

Today, I went to the zoo with some friends. Despite some weather mishaps in the beginning with pouring rain and strong wind, it turned into a wonderful day, warm but cool, with the animals quite active as a result of the rain and recent feedings. The zoo is laid out very nicely and is a good size to keep visitors occupied for a couple of hours without being overly exhausting. Some highlights included seeing seals arguing, a leopard growling, and hippos swimming.

Now, I'm home for the evening, and simply just relaxing. The past month has been crazy and amazing, but also bittersweet seeing as I have less than two weeks before I return home. Things such as packing and finals are creeping into my thoughts and it's quite odd, as I swear I just got here. In oncoming days, I'm going to attempt to post more reflection pieces on my time here, but we'll see how things fall with finals and papers.

Hope all is well wherever you are and thanks for sticking with me. Tschüss.