Oh yeah... It's gettin' nice and warm over here in Berlin and I'm loving it. The best part for me is the smell of Lilac bushes... We have those in Michigan all over the place too, so it's homey and nostalgic along with being peaceful and revitalizing. It's amazing how the Weather has such extreme highs and lows here, but on a seasonal scale where in Michigan it's a twice-a-week scale... lolz.
The worst part about living in Lichterfelde right now, being right on the border of the country-side is the invasive smell of manure coming from the farms... it's amazing really, because they're miles away, but the massive quantity still reaches the city limits which I reside in.
It's so much nicer just walking around town getting stuff done. It's not a chore anymore, nor a burden trying to fight through the frigid cold. I took one of the most embellishing photos I could of the outside of my university... the crabapple trees are in bloom, unfortunately our building is still a rusted copper color... that was the American’s fault actually... they built the bloody thing in opposition to the commies, since they had occupation of the prettiest university campuses in Berlin at the time, the Humboldt. So they fought back with ugly practicality and better wages!
Man... you come to study in Berlin I suggest you buy a day planner beforehand, because it took me forever just to find a place that sold anything close to one... they're sold in seasons actually... 2009 was available last year... but as soon as the actual year comes... NO MORE! lol talk about stringent seasonal commercialism. One good thing about that though is that the German strawberries are back in season, which are the best in the world I might say. Spain would have them beat if it wasn't for the fact that they can grow them pretty much year round, but German ones are a thing of transient wonder... and very juicy... I got it all over my shirt once and I looked like I had gotten into a gruesome fight with someone.
We do grills once in a while and play soccer with whoever Danko can round up. That man's a wonder for getting people organized and doing stuff... always a necessity to have around.
Classses are fun. I'm taking time to look at them critically and switch around to find the best fits this time, which seems to be the German thing to do. I really like my Erinnerungsorte in Berlin course (places of remembrance) It's a history/philosophy course. We spent two hours just talking about Friedrich Wilhelm the second, who has a statue of himself up in front of the Reichstag, capital building here in Berlin. He, like most of Germany's history is quite complicated and dichotomous. He was one of their most beloved leaders, as well as hated. He loved music, freedom of speech and religion, but also loved War, leading three in his lifetime and expanding the borders of Prussia to insane reaches. The concept of Prussia; the old days of German fanatic military supremacy was a very engrossing history. It made me look around at the whole history of war on wiki for a few hours... never even knew a thing about the thirty year war till recently... omg... war war war... there was hardly ever a year without it between US, Britain and mainland Europe. I came also to realize that Napoleon’s "empire" was no more an empire than a elongated world war as well. I thought it was a really amazing empire, but the Germans and beat them off in ten years or so, and Britain was also fighting the war of 1812 with us at the exact same time! They even burned our capital building down during all of that! OMG... when will we ever learn... ok, that's enough from me for now. Hope everyone else out there is enjoying the spring sun.
Dave
P.S. – Watched this really weird Turkish propaganda film called Valley of the Wolves – Iraq. It was interesting to see a Rambo-esque movie where Americans were the bad guys… made me pretty mad at times, though that’s really the way the Turks look at us sometimes, and much of what’s in the movie is based on real events that happened in Northern Iraq… the problem is that it’s propaganda, because it’s truth mixed with malevolent lies. Here’s a Daily show clip about the movie:
Be warned, both clips may be found disturbing
http://www.milkandcookies.com/link/42321/detail/
ok I’m done! :)
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