The city sleeps beneath me.

My apologies for being terribly slack with this. There's a lot that's been happening, to be sure, but realistically, I have had time to update... it's just that sometimes prowling Facebook and Twitter ends up being more important. Ahem.

So, I last wrote about four weeks ago. Things have been pretty crazy since then. For a start, I'm back in Adelaide. It feels completely surreal, but I'll get to that later. So, I wrote on the 6th of March. On the 11th, I aced my German exam; 91.3% for the semester. (And 20 out of 20 for the listening comprehension, which is awesome.) That means I was the third best out of the sixty-odd students who sat the exam; only a handful of us got DSH-3, which is the best grade. Of course, I was pleased as punch. I didn't even realise how tense I'd been about the results until I knew I had 3... DSH-2 would have been perfectly fine and acceptable, but once I'd realised that I could potentially get 3, I would have been bitterly disappointed with anything lower. So, after something of a muted exclamation on seeing my marks, I let out an incredible sigh of relief.

My last week in Paderborn involved eating my way through the food left in my pantry, though Steffi will still be learning to cook things with sago and dried shiitakes. (Probably not together, though.) There wasn't too much left at the end of it. I had my last market visit on the day after the exam; the lady at my regular stall gave me my vegetables for free when I told her that it was the last time I'd be seeing her. I nearly cried. What a sweetheart. I'm not terribly good at taking things for free. Even worse than I am at taking compliments, but thankfully, neither of them come up overly often, so I can avoid the embarrassment. ;)

I visited Matt and Tash for the last time on Monday the 14th, and I won't be seeing them again until they come home to Adelaide. So they're left to enjoy the miserable weather on their own! hehe. Though, of course, it warms up in Padders the second that I leave. Typical. I can't wait to use the Muenster cookie cutter that they gave me; it's in the shape of the town hall and fairly screams for multi-coloured icing windows. They're going to be both delicious and gorgeous, I can see it already.

Tuesday night I caught up with a few people from the German class, Wednesday morning we got our results (and I closed my bank account), Wednesday night I saw Pina in 3D at the movies with Steffi and Andrea, and then Thursday night those two ladies + Matze + me sat around the kitchen table and ate pizza. Ok, and we drank Matze's homemade Currant wine, too. I had an early night, and was pleased that I'd managed to pack everything. (Also pleased that I'd been able to send home two suitcases packed with clothes and books. I hate to admit that the one packed with clothes was heavier, but in my defense, there were a few books and a ceramic bunny in there too!) That night, Steffi and I baked bread according to her secret recipe, which isn't terribly secret because I now have a copy of it. It's the grainiest bread in the universe. Usually it has buttermilk, but we made my loaf with water, so it was vegan. Deliiiiicious.

Friday morning, I got up early, ate breakfast, and hugged Steffi goodbye. She was feeling pretty sick (she'd been coming down with something for a few days) so Matze dropped me at the train station. I caught two trains (both ICE, score!) to Frankfurt airport, where I vagued out and ate the remnants of the bread that I'd packed for snacks. Four hours after arriving, I checked in for my flight, and wandered around the airport for a while. There was really nothing to see there (disappointing, Frankfurt!) so I had a coffee and read a newspaper for a while. Eventually boarded the flight, which ran on time. Thanks Qantas! No thanks for the cow milk on my vegan tray, though. Might need to write you a letter about that one.

...And I'm back, having filled in their online feedback form. Excellent.

So, after four movies (Black Swan - terrible, 127 Hours - worse than terrible, The King's Speech - not bad, The Social Network - bad) and maybe half an hour of sleep, I landed in Singapore. Mum & Jill's flight was delayed, so I struggled to stay awake by the baggage claim for about an hour. They arrived (well, technically I saw them going into the duty-free shop to buy a bottle of gin, so I surprised them rather than them surprising me) and we caught a taxi to the hotel. We ducked into a neighbourhood food stall for dinner (delicious) and had a relatively early night, which was just what I needed.

I didn't sleep overly well in Singapore, probably due to some issues with my body clock, but the hotel was decent and we had a ball. Mum and Jill enjoyed the shopping (admittedly, Jill most of all; Mum bought a few items and I bought one pair of discounted Adidas jogging shorts) and we had a lot of fun. Night Safari, Chinatown and the Botanic Gardens were my favourites. We had some fantastic meals, the best of which cost about $3 each and came from tiny stalls in Chinatown. I drank more coconut juice than I care to tell you about, which was delicious (and leaves me disappointed that I don't have one now). I'll point out that it was fresh from a young coconut, which meant that I could use my spoon to scrape out the delicate, jelly-like flesh. It's heavenly.

So, here comes the necessary paragraph about food, because we all know that I'm a massive food nerd. Here goes:

In Singapore, my favourite place to eat is Chinatown. I ate a lot of soy-based treats, such as silken tofu with sweet syrup, and deep fried tofu. Soymilk based drinks, such as Cendol and grass jelly in soymilk, or better yet, tapioca pearls and palm sugar and soymilk, were a definite highlight. I ate brightly coloured steam buns, ordered absoultely everything that came in Pandan flavour, had strange gelatinous rice stuffed with mung bean paste, and had fluorescent crushed ice desserts. Jill and I tried durian, which I actually really enjoyed, and I ate a lot of mangoes. I even ate a couple of carambola (star fruit) and a dragonfruit. I tried another small fruit, which was disappointing: I think it must have been related to a sapote. It was really small, oblong, and had light flesh the colour of brown sugar. The taste was a little bland, and the flesh was quite creamy, like a sapote. Meh. I did also stuff my face with a bag of mangosteens, because they're the best fruit ever.

So, food over: we had a great time in Singapore. We flew home, and I didn't sleep, but did write two assignments. I had two hours nap and went to uni, which was an epic struggle, because I wasn't really equipped to stay awake. I survived it, anyway. Thursday night I went to bed terribly early. Friday I went to uni again, and on Friday afternoon Jesse came over; it was awesome to see him again. He had dinner with us (parents + Tim, Amy and Georgia) and then he and I headed down to Louise's parents' house to catch up with her & Richard, and play singstar of course! Louise had already planned family dinner, not realising that I'd be in Adelaide that night, but it was great to see her family, too. I was exhausted by the time Jesse and I left; probably about quarter past ten. We came back to my parents' house to drop my car home, and then had to walk to Henley Beach Rd to catch a bus to town. Turns out Adelaidemetro cut services to the 287 route while I was away, and consequently, the last bus to the city is at 10:30pm. Pathetic.

We finally got to Jesse's apartment, crashed, and woke up with the alarm at 4:15am. Breakfast, shower, and got a lift to the airport from Stan. Early flight with Tiger, arrived in Melbourne CBD at about 8am, and went to Hudson's for a second breakfast. I had a bagel for the first time since Poland, enjoyed being able to order coffee with soy (but am missing unsweetened soymilk! All my coffees are too sweet!) and slathered my bagel with a healthy serving of vegemite. We later went to see Pat, whose house we were staying at, and hung out with Pat and Nick on Brunswick St. Had a cheeky pint in the Little Creatures brewhouse, ordered a takeaway Tempeh Burger from Vege Bar (tempeh! first time in a year!) and still, somehow, managed to have room for Thai for dinner.

The show was at the Arthouse, and was great fun. I chatted to lovely people, such as Mara, Footy & Laura, April & Josh, Brettzen, and the Stolen Youth boys. Craig even surprised me by saying he'd tracked down a 7inch I wanted when I was 17, from some incredibly obscure Netherlanderish indie band, and would send me a copy. I was really surprised, not least because I hadn't spoken to him in many years. Weird. Not complaining, though. Anyway, I had vegan baked goods from the bakesale, which gave me the diabeetus, and made my teeth hurt. I'm not cut out for sugary treats in the way I used to be. They were nice, anyway. Just much too sweet.

The bands were good, but I was really there for Shotpointblank, and that was great. Pretty rough during their set, but I got a mic handout during my favourite song, and ended up kinda hoarse accordingly. Mara was pretty hyperactive and ended up with a potentially broken nose, and I have a massive bruise on the back of my calf (and no idea how I got it), so you know we were having a good time. Kids went nuts and we all felt like teenagers again... it was pretty awesome. It was the last time I'll ever be in the Arthouse, which makes me sad, because it was a venue that did so much for the bands and the Melbourne community as a whole. Shaun got a bit teary during Stolen Youth's set when he mentioned that it was the last time they'd ever play there... I think him getting teary may have had an effect on the rest of us, but I'll leave emotions to the girls. heh.

Speaking of which, at some point Shaun asked me something, and I was so tired that I couldn't string together a coherent answer; I just couldn't talk. He gave me a nice pat on the shoulder and made some sympathetic noises, which made me feel better. I think everyone understands the mechanics of jet lag, but it was nice to feel like slightly less of a tard.

I also caught up with Lee at one point, which was a little strange, because we're such polar opposites now. We met in the middle for a little while, back when I was 19 and interested in drinking and staying up late, but now he's still at that point in his life where he drinks instead of eating, and I'd rather get some sleep and have quiet dinners with friends. It made me sad to see that he hadn't progressed at all, but I guess that other people's lives are absolutely none of my business, and I should really shut up. He's winning over me in the musical stakes, so hm, perhaps that's where I've gone wrong...

So, it was a great night and I loved being able to hang out with awesome people. I also loved being able to get a cab back to Pat's apartment and go to sleep, because I was exhausted. I slept like a coma until 10am, which was probably a solid 9 hours sleep. Jesse and I met other people at the East Brunswick Club for 12pm breakfast; we were a little late, but it was all good. We met there partly because it was across the road from the show space (DIY show, in a warehouse-ish type space where people lived, aka Cat Food Press) and partly because they did some greasy vegan meals. The vegan big breakfast was a bit disappointing to me, being short on veg and not as big as advertised... plus I'm not into mock meat. Tofu scrams were ok though. Jesse had the non-vegan "Elvis" pancakes; maple syrup, grilled banana, bacon and peanut butter. I'm glad I didn't opt for the vegan version of those; I probably would have died of a sugar overdose. A strong coffee helped pick me up, and we wandered over to the show just after the supposed starting time.

The show was awesome; I got to tell Stolen Youth that the title track from their new record is now officially their best song (because I'm the one who decides these things, of course) and I finally saw Anchors after listening to Jesse talk about them for a year. Shotpoint made a "secret" (aka, announced about an hour before the show) guest appearance after Stolen Youth, and once again, we all sang along and I got to sing a large chunk of my favourite song by them. Honestly, it was a thousand times better than the Arthouse the night before; Brett was clearly having a ball, despite some mic issues, and ended up using three of them... at once. Only one was working, though! haha. I sang along with Dave and Mara, and ended up in some photos on Facebook, which is quite funny.

Oh, and I'd shaved my head again on getting home, and it's probably a tiny bit uneven, but thankfully not enough to notice. I shaved it on 3 this time, but I think I'll do 2 down the bottom in future. It was nice to lighten up a little! Anyway, that's a bit irrelevant, but I thought of it after Matt's comment on Facebook, and because a girl commented on it at uni today and said it looked good. None of my friends have said anything, which I find weird, but ehhh, I guess it was old news on Fb.

Anyway, during the show I got to hang out with Dase, which completely ruled because Dase is a champion. I even finally met his girlfriend! She also rules. After the show, Jesse and I met Lulu at Yong Green Food... I contemplated getting a raw option, but the dragon bowl (aka, bibimbap) won me over. I did have raw cheesecake for dessert (yummm, strawberry!) so I was happy. Jesse had a raw Pecan Pie and was instantly won over to the virtues of raw foods. I said I'd make a raw cheesecake for him sometime, and I intend to do so. That way I don't eat it all myself, heh. Lu was her lovely, sunshiney self, and even drove us back to Pat's apartment. He wasn't home yet, so we had car hangs until he arrived. It was awesome.

Back at Pat's, we hung out with him and Bec for a while, until everyone (except Jesse) professed tiredness and went to bed. Jesse had no choice but to go to bed, but didn't sleep terribly well, poor boy. I slept like a coma again, and needless to say, it ruled. I got up a little before he did, and showered etc, and we headed into the city after saying goodbye to Pat & Bec. Then, straight to the airport; we were slim on time, and decided not to risk waiting around for coffee and food orders. We ate at Hudsons in the airport terminal, and then headed over to the Tiger Terminal (aka tin shed)... where, of course, our flight was an hour late. So we could have had a luxurious breakfast, but oh well, such is life. I played Angry Birds on his iphone, and am probably converted forever to the virtues of iphones. They're fun to use. I still don't have a simcard here, for the record.

Back in Adelaide, I've been keeping busy. Jesse and I went to Mara's house for dinner on Monday night; Jo and Dale were there, plus Mara's housemates, so we had a fantastic night. My stomach hurt from laughing so much! Mara made tempeh burgers and delectable sides, and I brought a Date & Walnut Loaf (it gets capitalised because it's so important to my family!) for dessert. The tempeh may have stolen my heart, but the roasted mushrooms were pretty amazing, too. I gave Jesse a lift home, and was exhausted by the time I dropped into bed. All I want to do these days is sleep! I guess I'm finally catching up after all those flights and early mornings.

Tuesday I met up with Dougy for lunch at Vego & Loven It, and then Tuesday night I did something... can't remember, argh! Yesterday I met up with Mark for a coffee before he had to go to uni (and I dropped in on Footy at Clarity Records, which was the first time I'd been there! It was awesome!) and then had dinner with Lou & Richard. Oh, and yesterday Mum & I went to Gaganis and the Asian Grocery, where I stocked up on certain essentials. I bought four types of greens at the Asian Grocery. Four! Pak Choy (eaten tonight), young spinach (eaten for lunch today), chinese broccoli / gai larn (eaten yesterday, when I made hotpot for Lou & Rich) and amaranth leaf, which is still in the crisper drawer. Greens rule. I also stocked up on tofu & tempeh. Yummmm!

Oh, and today I went to uni ($4 for day parking! ouch! At least the silly machines are for 24 hours of parking, so I can park for free tomorrow morning, muwahahah) and that was rather dull. I should do my readings for tomorrow... maybe. Writing this took a lot longer than anticipated, but I guess a lot has been happening.

Either way, it's strange to be home. People ask what's changed, and all I can say is "everything and nothing". Sure, there are new shops in the mall, there's a lot that's familiar, but I'm still not really settled in. I'll see my sister Amy tomorrow, because she's dropping in to Adelaide briefly, so that'll be nice. Until I get my new copy of my birth certificate (must have lost the old one in the move from Leader St) I'm broke, because the birth certificate is needed to prove to Centrelink that I was born, even though they've already paid me in the past. Sigh.

So, I'm going to get some sleep. xo.

subtle like a t-rex.

I'm tired again. How unusual, I know; I blame my poor sleeping habits of the past few weeks, but I'm not exactly sure why those have re-surfaced. Probably something to do with being under some mild stress at this point in time. I wish I had more time in which to get things done. Actually no, I don't; I just wish that the Flinders Uni semester didn't overlap with the German course. Other than that, life is fine. Oh, and I have an epic headache, but I'm going to write this anyway, and then read some more of the book that I probably should have finished by now. Listening to Murder City Devils is probably not helping the situation.

So, what's new?

Akira has offered to buy my books for the semester and give them to Mum at the gym. I arranged to buy a reader from another girl who was offering it, discounted, because she wasn't taking the topic. Of course, Mum had to pick it up and pay, and Dad has since scanned the first 4 weeks readings from that one. He'll do the same for my other readings once they have the books. I think maybe they'll finally realise how much reading is involved in all these stupid courses! Either way, I'm feeling pretty damn appreciative of how awesome my parents are. Dad even paid for my subjects yesterday. What a champion.

I have two suitcases packed and now I just need to pay online for their shipping and collection. I think I'll arrange to have them collected the day before I leave, so that they get home after I do. That way I can just pick them up myself, and not cause the parents any more inconvenience, in case no one is home when they get delivered. I have to wait until I have sufficient cash in my account to pay for this, though, because I'm still waiting on the 150 Euro from the kid who's moving into this room (and buying my furniture). There was a bit of stress on waiting for a response from him, but I think that was possibly Fabian's fault. Oh well. All good now, provided that cash reaches my account sometime soon.

I went to the Nordsee with Steffi last weekend; it was a really relaxing weekend, with laziness and long walks to see a beach with no water. I don't really understand the German idea of a beach, somehow, just because I don't feel as though it compares to the Australian standard, even when I take the season into account. But it was nice to be there, to say that I've visited the quintessential German seaside town, and to get away from everything for a weekend. So, it was lovely. And Steffi paid for all the transport, because it was her thankyou to me for proof-reading her final paper. What a champion.

Sunday night, still unbearably sleepy (as was the theme for the entire weekend) I was picked up by Manfred & Helena, who took me to the Kesslers' house for dinner. The dinner was lovely (I've since re-created the roasted fennel dish, with great success) and the company was really nice, too. That was, of course, my thanks for proof-reading the textbook that Joerg and Manfred are publishing. The evening was conducted in German, and mine was embarrassingly bad. Still, I was understood, which is important. It's just embarrassing to know that you might speak perfectly in one language, and yet be a complete oaf in another.

I've been dragging myself through the last few weeks of the German class. The exam is on Friday; I need to start studying, but I'm not quite yet sure where I'll find the time. Not tonight, that much is for certain. I wish I had some sort of painkillers, but in that I never take them, of course, I don't have any. I wish my head would just relax already. My body clearly hasn't learned that with me, pain doesn't accomplish anything.

I visited Matt & Tash this weekend. It was awesome just to hang out, and I'm pretty sure I'll sneak in one last visit before I go, but I can't be completely certain. I got a Muenster postcard and a cookie cutter as mementos! Score. I don't know what I would have done without Matt & Tash here; they've definitely kept me sane a few times, and always been fantastic hosts. (Especially that time I hadn't had lunch and ate all the risotto.) So having a night there, where we just chilled out and youtubed videos and drank wine was completely awesome. I'm definitely going to miss them in the few months between my return to Australia and theirs. And yes, "youtubed" is the praeteritum form of "to youtube", and yes, of course it's a valid verb. Just like "to google", mai oui!

I'm restraining myself from using my phone so that I can keep my last 3 euros credit in case I need it before I go... I don't want to top up 10 Euros and then only use 30c of it. It finally gives me an excuse for checking my phone only once a day, heh. It's been nice not to be so phone-reliant here. I'll be taking the phone home, and getting some sort of adapter for it, because it's only a year old and still in perfect condition. Will have to get a sim card for it at some point, but hey, that can wait until I'm over my jet lag and uni stress... so, maybe June. ;)

Speaking of a year old, yesterday was the birthday of my unofficial German residency. I believe my official residency permit started on March 23rd, but I could be wrong. It's something like that. Anyway, I arrived on 5 March 2010, and my mind is blown when I consider that a year has passed while I've been here. It's phenomenal to think like that, simply because I feel like my life here has been removed from reality, as though everything at home was frozen while I was gone. I know that that's impossible, and I've accepted that there will be things that will be different when I get back, but I'm sure it'll still feel like a swift kick in the pants to realise them. It's a sacrifice I'm willing to make for the price of going home!

So, at least I can speak German. Sort of.

I went to the markets on Saturday morning. I'm sure that I'll duck in for a quick visit next week, but I can't imagine needing too much. I roasted some vegetables for dinner tonight and they tasted oddly bitter, which was the same problem as I had with the brussels sprouts last week. I'm wondering if perhaps the oven is the bittering-influence, because the carrots and parsnips come from entirely different sources. What is it with Germany and bitter vegetables? (Dear vegetables, it's okay; I still appreciate you. It's just that we all suffer from lack of sunlight, you and I alike, except that I'm still sweet about it. heh.)

I'm still tired, and therefore craving sugar (ugh, why do I do this to myself?) so I'm going to head to the kitchen and defrost some berries to deal with it. And then hopefully I'll get my read on. Moll Flanders isn't going to read itself, which is unfortunate, because I have rather limited interest in ladies desperate to get married for their financial security. Pride and Prejudice was about as far as that interest went, simply because Austen enjoyed making light of these terribly pressing situations. Because we all know that I'm terribly pressed to find a husband.

Ok, being serious. My life is about to get thrown upside down again, and I'm ok with that. I'm just a little too highly strung in the meantime, but what that means is that I'm getting things done, and that, with a little luck, I'll be able to hit the ground running when I get back to Adelaide. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

the nation of ulysses.

So, another week, another update. I wish I had something more interesting to say for myself, but ehhh, whatever. My life is just waiting, right now: waiting for class to be over. Waiting for the exam. Waiting for Steffi to borrow scales from her friend so I can weigh the suitcase I want to ship home. Waiting for my Referat to be over (though I should probably write that at some point; I can't even begin to explain to you how boring it is.) Waiting for my foot to get better so that I can go running again. Waiting for someone to fix up my application for a credit waiver at Flinders, because I applied months ago and they've done fuck all. It's all a bit frustrating right now.

So, really, uni was just a week that dragged on forever. Natia and I spoke to Frau Didiere on Monday, and explained that we didn't think the afternoon study-prep course was helpful for us. Unfortunately, the only other option is to take the verbal exam on the 16th of March, which is 5 days after the exam and 2 days before I leave the country. In that I want this all over and done with as quickly as possible, I've decided that I'll just stay in the afternoon course and hold the Referat and grumble about it. Fucking stupid, all of it, because Natia and I are the last people who need an oral exam. We certainly contribute the most information in class. The most smartassery, too, hehehe.

So, on Thursday after the break, we sat a trial-hearing-comprehension in a lecture theatre. It was rather too small for exam conditions; no one could sit apart, and due to poor design, we kept elbowing our neighbours while we tried to write. I thought they text was too easy, but that's not to say that I did well. I just wanted to get out of there, so I wrote quickly, and spent some quality time (20 mins) daydreaming before I was allowed to leave. However, I find Frau Didiere very easy to understand; she has a soft but really pleasant voice, and she was using a microphone, so no problems whatsoever. So, that was something a bit different for the German course. Much better than learning grammar; not that I've been doing any of that. The learning, that is. No idea with grammar anymore; fell off the boat and haven't bothered to swim back to shore. Should look into that.

Friday afternoon I put the finishing touches on Steffi's Present. It was her birthday, and I was a little disorganised... she'd asked me to write out a few recipes for her, for when she's doing her teaching prac years and will be run off her feet. I think she got a bit freaked out seeing a friend of hers who suffered really badly under the stress and lost heaps of weight. So I wrote out some of my quick and easy recipes in the cutest little recipe binder, and bought her the latest Ottolenghi cookbook... would have liked it for myself, hehe! Except it was in German, which doesn't really pose any problems anymore, but I don't find the language as pleasant to read as English.

Anyway, I wrapped it (using the same paper as her Christmas present, because it was all I had!) and gave it to her. She was really pleased, which was nice. I wrote inside the cover, "Eats & Treats: Recipes for Teachers". I'd also made some desserts on Thursday night in light of her having invited a couple of friends over for Friday evening. I made two things; one was a marble cake, with chocolate, vanilla and berry cake, though the berry cake swirls seemed to disappear into the chocolate. Still tasted good, and was nice and dense and moist. The other was a custard slice, with a thin vanilla cake base, a layer of vanilla custard, and homemade red berry jelly (agartine, my hero!) on top. It was totally delicious. Steffi's boyfriend also made her a cake, which was the layers-of-biscuits-sandwiched-with-chocolate thing that's so popular here. It was in the shape of a heart, which makes it even cuter. And then her friend brought chocolate cupcakes when she showed up! So much cake in our kitchen. I'm all sugared out, and so are Steffi and Matze. They had chocolate cream in the fridge from the night before, too, and they also ate cake at M's parents' house that afternoon. Too much cake!

Anyway, it was fun to hang out and have some wine and relax. My German was terrible, but ehh, no one really cared. I tried Matze's homemade currant wine, which was really delicious and not too sweet, which is always appreciated. Sweet alcohol can go to hell. I had slept really badly for the past two nights and was exhausted, and fell into bed at about midnight. Then, of course, woke at 7am. Ugh. Why can't I get 8 hours?! Last night I was so wrecked that I went to bed at 8pm, and of course, still only managed 6 hours sleep. In retrospect it's good that I didn't end up going to Muenster, because I'm too wiped out to be good company right now. I felt a bit wretched yesterday morning; I hadn't drunk enough to be hungover (in fact, I wasn't drunk in the slightest) but was reeling from an overdose of sugar, which is what happens when you have three slices of cake for dessert.

So I've decided to be healthy for a while, to deal with my unhappy stomach. More raw foods and less processed, because I've been eating a lot of bread lately (which is bad for me, as delicious as it is) and I think I need a break. I was eating heaps of fruit & veg a few weeks ago (as in, even more than usual!) and was feeling amazing, so I want to get back there. Next weekend Steffi is taking me to the Nordsee, so I want to be feeling nice and chirpy. We have to come back a little sooner than planned because I received a dinner invite for Sunday night. Manfred and Joerg, who is the other editor of the textbook I proof-read, have offered dinner as a thankyou. So it was quite necessary that I accept (and Helena wrote me a really lovely email, though I find replying in German so stressful, especially without umlauted keys!) and thankfully Steffi understood. We'll still have Friday and Saturday to spend there, so all is well.

So, I think I need a snack.

Today's Empires, Tomorrow's Ashes

These are the flowers that I bought for Steffi while she was in the midst of writing her final paper. She gave me a hardcover copy as a thankyou, and is taking me on holiday to the North Sea at the end of the month. I'm spoiled! And all this for minimum effort... and minimum cost. Flowers are cheap here, and one of the flower stalls at the markets had an offer than was too delicious to resist: 20 tulips for 5 Euro. WIN!

So, my week has been pretty standard. German class in the morning, afternoon study-prep class on Mon & Wed (I won't even tell you how little attention I pay, but the tutor understands that it's all completely irrelevant to me, so she doesn't begrudge me the extra facebook time) and little pieces of life in between. Today was one of two free days that we have free in the entire 3-month duration of the course (last term we only had one free day!)... I wasted it by going to the doctor to get my foot checked out. It's been giving me grief for a while; mostly just hurting a little while I'm jogging, or being really sore while I'm trying to walk somewhere in a hurry. But lately it's escalated to the point where it's a dull ache even when I'm not moving it. Ugh.

Anyway, it's been getting swollen after I walk on it, and it's affecting my knee now too. So I thought it was time to go to the doctor. (Ok, Kari bullied me into it, but whatever.) I could feel a massive lump on the bone (the one that connects to my big toe, in case you care) and was worried that I'd just cause more injury if I continued to limp around. So I went to the doctor at 9:40am... waited an hour. How do you run that late so early in the morning?! If it were late afternoon, I might understand. Ahem. Anyway, I went in to the doctor, and he prodded it, which hurt like fuck. And then I got sent to an X-ray place with the appropriate referral. I stopped by home for a coffee and some breakfast (had only eaten a banana, because I wasn't hungry when I woke) and then went to the X-ray place. That was actually pretty quick, and the staff spoke to me in English when it was clear that I wasn't catching some of what they were saying. They were all really friendly, and my longest wait was waiting for the print-out (on photo paper, not transparency) of the X-ray. Anyway, my foot isn't broken, which is the best outcome.

So I went back to the doctor, X-ray in hand, to wait for ages again. He prescribed me some Voltaren gel (all that for a 12-euro tube of fucking Voltaren?!) and charged me twenty euro for my time. Yep, it was my time, not his. Anyway, the surgery don't accept payments on bank cards (ahem, wtf?) so I have to do the bank transfer thing, which I think is what they prefer anyway. So, 4 hours later, all I had to show for my morning was a lot of stress, a rude pharmacy lady (if I ask you to slow down when you talk, I'm being serious, so slow the hell down, lady!) and a tube of overpriced sports gel. Ughhh. I came home and was glad to eat some lunch and relax. Not a good way to spend my free day, but it had to be done.

Guess I won't be running for a while. That sucks.

No real news to share. I found out that DHS ship baggage and parcels internationally for 114 Euro under 31kg, so I'm part way through packing a suitcase. It's full of my books, so I'm concerned that it'll be over 30kg. I need to borrow some bathroom scales from someone so that I can check, when I'm finished packing. Plus for a few more Euro, they offer pick-up between certain times, so I'm most definitely going to do that. Slightly cheaper when you arrange it online. Finally, my aversion to customer service is working in my favour! haha. So in go my books, a few winter coats, clothes I won't need now or in Singapore, and maybe my roller skates... ;) Don't tell mother dearest about that one. Heh.

In the meantime, I think I might catch the bus to the Sudring Centre, so that I can cash in the small bag of miscellaneous bottles hanging about in my room. I don't buy plastic bottled products often, so I think my ten or so bottles have been accumulated over about 6 months. What can I say? I'm a reuseable-drink-bottle kind of woman. Buying water is an epic waste of money and resources, and I only do it when I've forgotten to bring my own. I hate seeing people do it on a regular occasion. Ugh.

Time to get rugged up against the cold...

The city sleeps beneath me...

I'm the first person to admit being slack with this blog, but phwoarrrr, I've amazed even myself over these past few months. So, I'll try to recount some highlights, rather than boring any potential readers (ahem, Tash, pretty sure you're the only one still following this thing) with blow-by-blow accounts of my mediocre life. :)

Hm. Well, last Wednesday was the final seminar for the linguistics course. I talked about sport, showed some videos of footy and netball, and just generally got to be silly. Everyone seemed to be in a pretty good mood, which means I got a lot of laughs, even when I showed a picture of Tony Abbott in budgie smugglers. And talking about Surf Lifesaving and the Burquini... though at that point, I'm pretty sure everyone was giggling at my glee over the photo, because I was pointing to the burquini saying, "C'mon, HOW GOOD IS THAT?!" Burquinis are the best idea ever. Ahem, I digress.

After that I chatted with Manfred about the text he wanted me to proof-read, and then went to a small farewell gathering for another guy who worked in the department. Found out that he, too, was into Minor Threat in his youth. Funny stuff. I think it was the first time I've ever had champagne and orange juice mixed together. I thought only my nanna drank that. But it's a good way to deal with the fact that I don't especially like champagne. Ahem, sekt, I mean.

Over the weekend, and also early on Monday morning (6:30am kitchen hangouts with Steffi) I proof-read Steffi's final paper. She was writing about vampires in American literature, and how they've changed over time; essentially, from monster to human to superhuman. It was interesting stuff, but written in an entirely different style to one I'd have used. But I took Matt's advice (he'd explained how things here tend to be more narrative) and just made sure that Steffi took efforts to tie her information back to her argument, and corrected any strange-sounding grammar or tenses. She gave me a beautifully bound copy, which I'm going to send back to Mum, who requested to read it when Steffi was done writing. Oh, and I bought tulips for Steffi at the markets that Saturday; they were only 5 euro for a bunch of 20, and they're still hanging out in the kitchen, looking absolutely stunning. We needed some colour!

Last weekend I went to Muenster to hang out with Brangelina. Stress of concussions aside, the entire family (Hungarian neighbours included!) managed to get sick with a stomach bug. Poor guys. Matt gave me a call on Sunday night, which was a welcome heads-up about what could potentially follow. Monday night found me waking up at 3am to rush to the bathroom, dry retch for a while (I never throw up. Never! Not since early Jan '98. So I was luckier than they were) and then warm myself up with a shower. It was about -8 overnight, and our bathroom window is always open, so I needed to thaw out before going back to bed. So, I crawled back to bed at about 5am, and managed to get some sleep whilst only lying on one side, because the second I turned over, I felt nauseous. I'd used Mum's old trick of towels on the bed and over the pillow in case I was sick, but thankfully I wasn't. The stomach pain was pretty awful, though. I even had a bucket next to my bed, just in case. That's not something that happens too often, with me.

My alarm went off at 6:30am, and I turned it off, because its noise made me want to retch. Slept in until 10:30am, when I tried to ignore my pounding headache and function like a normal human being. I couldn't, so I just lay in bed for ages. Went back to sleep at about midday, and woke again at about two. Spent the rest of the time proof-reading the manuscript for the textbook, and generally wrote off the day as useless. The only thing I ate that day was some chia (my cereal) with berries, and a cup of tea, at about 8pm.

Oh, and I forgot to say, that whilst in Muenster, I went for a run with Matt. I mean, I'm certainly never going to be running around the Aasee again. Google maps informed me that it was 6km, which isn't bad. It was at least -4 when we went out (-6 by their backyard thermometer) so I was frozen, but in the end, I was probably overdressed. My foot didn't play up too much, and I managed to keep pace with Matt (who was probably bored with how slow I jog, haha) and I was pleased to have done it. It's been a running joke for a while that I'd run a lap of the Aasee, but of course, I never bring my running gear to Muenster, and always tell Matt that he's crazy when he goes for a run... so, it was nice to be just as crazy, just that one time.

Anyway, I discussed the textbook with Manfred on Wednesday. I was hesitant to be too bold, and knew that I couldn't change other people's voices, but did point out a few inconsistencies and spelling errors, etc. I also pointed out that two sections were quite incomprehensible, in that they'd clearly been written in a German style with too little regard for English structure. Every sentence had about 30 clauses (ok, slight exaggeration) with passive meaning. Too much written, but too little actually said. I'm sure it would have been beautiful in German, though. So, Manfred has his work cut out for him there. The book was supposed to be a collaboration, of his ex-PhD students etc, and everyone was writing a chapter. Manfred had already re-written a couple of chapters, by the time I read it. He wondered aloud at one point why he hadn't just written it himself, and I wanted to agree, but was being polite. Either way, it's not my problem. He did one of those, "Oh no, I couldn't expect you to re-write the chapter" type things and I was only too happy to agree. I wasn't going to volunteer for that one, not a chance! Also, I don't know shit about linguistics. heh. Let's keep it that way!

So, the other endurance of the week (proof-reading aside) was a class on Wednesday that I've managed to avoid until now because of the seminars... a "preparing to study" course that is compulsory for DSH-Kurs students to attend. NOT IMPRESSED. I watched one terrible Referat, and then sat around bored for another few hours while the group 'discussed' how to make contact with German students. On the bus? Not fucking likely. When someone tries to talk to me on the bus, I scowl and give them dirty looks, and monosyllabic answers. Get a life, UniPb, you're insulting my intelligence by giving me conversation outlines and wasting my fucking time. I'm going to draft a letter to Frau Ollech and have Steffi read over it (to make sure it's polite and with appropriate grammar), and see if anyone else wants to sign it. Especially as from this week, we have to go TWICE a week, with sessions from 1:30pm to 5pm. As if being at uni from 8:30am wasn't enough. The course is disgraceful.

So, whinges aside: life is pretty good. "Every day I'm alive is the best day of my life." Still want to get that tattooed somewhere, to always remind me. I'm getting steadily good marks in the German course, though I really need to work on my grammar, which sucks. I have a referat to write, and that will be given on 23 Feb. On 25th Feb, Steffi and I are hoping to go hang out at the North Sea Coast for a couple of days. Should be awesome. I've been collecting entire discographies of bands courtesy of Miro, and have been finding some great new music, too.

Oh, and despite my laziness with taking photos and blogging about it, I've been making some awesome meals. I guess they're not that interesting to write about because for several weeks, I've been craving green vegetables for every meal. I ignored that for breakfast, because I always eat chia/berries/banana, but lunch and dinner were generally involving kale, spinach, and the like. The urge to eat only green foods has receded, so I suppose whatever deficiency (sunlight!) caused that has also been fixed. Either way, I'm generally eating really healthily. Lots of fruit and veg, not too much of anything else. I've been feeling pretty good, accordingly. And while I haven't been running as much as I should (foot, snow on ground) I did jog on Friday and it was nice. I should go again today, while the weather is in positive-temperatures and not raining.

So, I figure that's about all I have to say at the moment. Might go see if Twitter needs me... ;)

I'm calling fraud; you're telling lies.

Lest that last post seem like an epic whinge, I'll reassure you all that everything is fine. I need to just stop thinking ahead by more than about a week, because my brain simply isn't wired to deal with it, and admittedly, it never has been. But that's ok; I know my faults. :)

I've been feeling pretty good lately. I went for another epic run the other day, but my knee and foot forced me to stop. I think the foot is what causes the knee problems; one of these days I'll do something about it. I'm hoping to go for a run tomorrow, provided that it isn't raining; I'll suss it out afterwards and see how it all stands. But I've been eating pretty well, and am particularly addicted to a salad made of raw, shredded zucchini, sliced marinated olives (must be garlicky!), salt and pepper, and lemon juice. Sometimes some parsley, if I have it. It's amazing. I love raw zucchini. And to think it was once a vegetable that I held for a waste of space. Zucchini, I apologise.

So, yesterday Matt gave a lecture at Pb uni. It was really interesting, and there were other people asking questions, so I didn't get the opportunity to grill him about anything... next time, next time. Hehe. We'd had lunch with some linguistics-people in the Mensula beforehand; it was my first time in there, and probably my last, because it wasn't anything remarkable. But Manfred was kind enough to pay for lunch, and I was definitely appreciative of that. Matt and Tash (who shall from here on in be known as 'Brangelina') bought me a pizza the other night, too. I'm doing pretty well in the freebies-stakes lately! Talk about getting by with a little help from one's friends! :)

Anyway, we met up with Tommy and Olaf (ok, spelling? anyone?) afterwards and had a drink in Capulet. Then to an imbiss for dinner, where I had some chips (sorry Tash, I think you paid for those!) and felafel. I was able to see the children-obtaining-sweets-thing for the second time in the space of two days. I tell you what, if it's anyone ruling in the freebies-stakes, it's the Brangelina children. Biscuits ahoy! But that's ok, I don't need any more sugar. Tonight I baked cupcakes (I'll explain later) so I'm sufficiently sugared for the next week. I went home, had an early night for the first time in about a week, woke up at 5am this morning after 8 hours sleep, and had the luxury of sleeping in until 6:30am. Good stuff!

Today was German course as per normal; I moved away from Nevin and Mona, and sat on my own; I hope they weren't offended, but I worked a lot better. I had more space and I didn't have to worry about group work that would just slow me down and make me frustrated. They're both such nice girls, but I can't work with them in a group; I'm not patient enough. I'm not there to be a teacher, I'm there to learn, so I think it's about time that I was more proactive about it. Frau Lammers was the one to suggest it, and I think she was onto something there. I definitely couldn't have stood it any longer. I just hope no one is offended.

After German, I went home (via Rewe, for soymilk and a few other little bits) and found Steffi and Andrea in the kitchen, writing papers on their laptops. It was rather cute. So I joined the computer party; I think Fabian was a bit surprised when he came in. He came and chatted for a while, and Steffi's bf Matze did too. Party in the kitchen! I'd just finished lunch when S, A and M decide to cook some food. I made a cake at the same time, and cupcakes with the leftover mix, and we laughed and chatted and generally had fun. It was really good. We spoke a mix of German and English, I fucked up my verb-order and general vocab and relied too heavily on "obwohl" and "zusammen", but it was still cool.

To explain the cake; I've had a running joke with Krystian that I'd bring him a cake for, oh, about six months now. Since I baked a cake for Ege's birthday, which was back in May. So I said I'd bring one in tomorrow. So I've baked a chocolate cake, exactly the same as last time, and hopefully it doesn't disappoint. I can't imagine that free cake is ever very disappointing...? I know that I've developed an addiction to the lemon cupcakes that Tash makes, that's for sure! So I think it'll be funny when I show up with a cake.

Anyway, I'm going to have another early night; I felt awesome after the last one, so I'll see if I can push my luck a little further... ;)

we're screaming our lungs out trying. let's go, let's go!

I'm currently at the Galerie Hotel, which is where my parents stayed when they were in Padders. Funnily enough, it's also where Matt, Tash and kids are staying, so I'm kidsitting so that they can have a nice grown-up(!) night out with the Pienemanns. Which means that I'm fucking around on the internet while the kids are sleeping. Not that I paid for wi-fi, of course; simply that someone with a network named Little-foot doesn't have their network appropriately secured and I've been stealing their internet. So, Little-feet people, you guys rule. Best network name AND you've enabled me to feed my facebook addiction for another day. Love your work.

Speaking of work, I have no plans to talk about anything tomorrow; Matt's lecturing, so I've told him to take his time, and hopefully he'll be fielding lots of questions. The last presentation I need to give is next week, when I'll be talking about sport in Australia. Not exactly my strong point, but it's something fun to end on and I get to make heaps of jokes about men in tight shorts or rivalry with other Commonwealth countries. So hopefully it's fun to present.

I've been talking to a lot of people about going home to Adelaide; what I'll do there when I get back, to put it into a nutshell. And really, my immediate goals are pretty simple: to finally finish my degree, to catch up with friends, and to start new bands. Seems pretty basic, and I hope it's as easy as it sounds. I think finishing the degree will be a nice test of my endurance; I'm not really interested in any of the subjects, and I'm well and truly burned out on studying right now. All I want is to throw it all in and laze about in the sunshine for a while. I need a Summer holiday; haven't had once since I left Australia, and I was working too much to fully enjoy it. (Or to have any semblance of a social life over the Christmas and New Year period.) And I think my priorities have changed a lot since I came here. At home, it was much easier to deal with, but here... noo, not a chance.

I guess hanging out with Jayne in Europe really cemented that for me. (And listening to too much Cancer Bats has really driven the point home.) I'm not concerned with what I have, but who I am. I don't care about having a career or lots of money or a house or a car or a husband. That can all go to hell. (Sorry to trash your dreams, sister, but this is how it stands.) What's important to me is that I'm always enjoying myself. This year has been pretty hard like that; I'm not unhappy now, rather, just bored. I felt from the start that this whole time has just been me putting my life on pause with the intention of picking it up later. Well, now is nearly "later", and I have no intention of picking everything up as I left off. I want more, and I want it better; in completely different ways to what I wanted before.

Being here, and especially the past few weeks (particularly during my travels), has made me accumulate a long list of things I miss. Alongside the obvious (parents, friends, cat) and slightly more stylised entries (tempeh, pilates at the WEA and pandan-flavoured soymilk) there are the lifestyle choices: Seeing bands every weekend. Playing guitar. Singing. Lord, I miss singing. Going to shows and knowing all the faces there. Raging.

And there's so much I've missed; awesome tours, bands playing their last shows, party festivals (Poison City Weekender, I would've owned you!) and opportunities. Maybe I wouldn't have appreciated them so much if I were there; I hope I've learned my lesson about that one. We'll see. So when I get back, I want to start anew. I want to really live; I'm still not ready to be tied down. I'll deal. :)