Jenkityass Internet

So, as my one fan has noted, I have not updated my blog in a week. This is mainly due to the fact that the internet here is just one step below dial up. A lot of people here used the word "jenkity" to mean something along the lines of "ghetto." I could pay more to have a better provider, but this is already 24 Euro a month!

Anyway, last weekend was, yet again, a blast. We went to Stammtisch (where everyone on the program meets up at a local bar) which was at an Irish pub. It was right by our favorite street, Oranienburgerstraße so we were excited at the prospect of döner at the end of our night. The bar was pretty okay, we all had a good time, but the drinks weren't very strong, and the vibe was a little weird.

I'll skip over Friday night because it ended up being a bust. Oh well! But Saturday night we went to a dance club called Havanah. It has three levels. The first level was salsa dancing and the second one was the same, but the basement level had "black music." That's what they call American R&B and Pop music. We danced the whole night and had a great time! My friends Hannah, Becca, Jacqueline, David, Jason, Matt, Starr and I tend to make a scene at every club we go to, and Havanah was no exception: Hannah was whipping her neck so hard that she still can't move it, two Germans pointed and laughed at us the whole night, and I was eventually barred from entering the VIP section, but I got my revenge.

This week at school has been good, but a little stressful. I made a presentation in my architecture course last night, and proceeded to get ripped apart in front of my class by my professor. I felt bad for myself so I took myself out to a Mexican restaurant. They had real sour cream! It's really difficult to get American sour cream here, because the ones they have in the supermarket all have yogurt in them. It's gross. The restaurant even had live music, which was nice.

Today my German class took an excursion to a markethall where they have tons of different kinds of food. I had begged my professor to take us to a supermarket because I can't find anything I like to eat, and things that I buy keep being slightly off from what I really want. For instance, when I bought oranges the other day, I brought them home and they were dark red on the inside. What? And frozen vegetables all have weird things in them! I thought I was buying frozen broccoli with potatoes, but apparently the "potatoes" were butter! So effectively I boiled butter...It didn't really come out very well.

The markethall has all different kinds of food! They even had spinach, which is a rare find here. I've been to 5 different supermarkets, too. They had a Greek food stand, where I bought hummus and goat cheese, as well as tuna and Greek yogurt. Those are 4 of my favorite items I have not been able to find here! The market also had lots of bakeries, so I got a cinnamon bun. A few of my classmates decided to walk around Kreutzberg (kroyts-burg) after our excursion. Kreutzberg is one of the most beautiful parts of the city, with lots of different shops and beautiful architecture. I even saw caryated figures!

I'm looking forward to this weekend. I'm a diva, and schedule a massage for later today, and then we're going out to a brewery with my program. Tomorrow we're going to a jail as part of a program excursion, and then the rest of the weekend is free! Who knows what I'll do!

I feel like my German is really starting to improve. People can understand me when I walk into a store, and have a conversation. It's really satisfying progress. Part of me now wishes a little bit that I had done the homestay, just for language purposes. But I'm so glad I have my apartment!