I'm not even going to try to pick up where I last left off. In any case, at the end of the trip I'll do a final retrospective set of blog posts, covering specific themes.
More importantly, today I celebrated my 20th birthday. I am the odd sort who gets somewhat depressed and melancholy on my birthday, so I was pleased to be able to spend it with friends. Sundays there is a flea market in the park near where I live, and I went there in search of a piece of art I had seen weeks ago; sadly unsuccessful but I had a lot of fun and my roommate came with me. Then I had a very lovely dinner with the Schlueter family and their friends. And to top it off I saw "Limitless" with my roommate and just got back from that; the movie was good, i give it 6.5-ish/10 stars.
Tomorrow will mark the beginning of the second week of university classes. I plan on taking 5, one each day of the week, although I have room for more. The classes are "Social inequality from a global perspective", "Global and Regional Transformations: Theories, Trends, Interdependencies", "Regulation of Information Goods and Service", "Objects, laboratories, systems: the anthropology of technologies", and "The social structure of European societies". I am also considering a class on Planetary bodies in other solarsystems, one called "Modern methods of experimental physics", and "Statistical economics". In any case I'm not "officially" signed up for any yet, due to "schwierigkeiten" (difficulties) with Blackboard (sound familiar?). That doesn't seem to be a problem yet though as the professors are all happy to treat me as an official student and send me links to the readings (if I ask). Hopefully it will be fixed tomorrow though.
Being half way through my trip I recognize that my German, my reason for coming here in the first place, has truly and vastly improved. I speak more fluently, with a larger vocabulary, and more grammatically correct than ever before; and, my "off days" are becoming less and less frequent. I think seeing all of the German dubbed films lately has helped. It's truly exciting to improve in something when you don't really notice the work you've put into it; it seems like magic.
I love it here and look forward to 3 more beautiful months of spring and summer. Also, I'll post pictures... eventually?
