Freakishly Happy

Hello All! Things have been really hectic, and there's been hardly any time to write!

Last week on Monday was Halloween. John and I dressed up and went to our friend's party as A Mad Scientist and his Phsychadelic, Radioactive Lab Rat. It was great, because the Germans don't really "get" Halloween, so they looked at us like we were freaks on the bus ride to UZH (the dorm where our friends live). One older gentleman in particular keep looking at us and shaking with giggles. It was very cute. Oh, I remember! He got a hair cut during the afternoon on Monday. It was AMAZING how much hair was on the ground as she cut it. She swept it all together and it looked like a medium sized shih-tzu! He looks most hansome. I will post pictures once he is back from Washinton.

Tuesday I had the day off school, because the Germans take every opportunity for a holiday. I don't really remember what I did, but I'm fairly sure it involved lounging around and getting John ready to take his flight early the next morning.

Wednesday was a hard but fun day. John left around 4:30 in the morning to catch a train to Frankfurt to catch a flight to Washington. I went out for lunch with my friends Caitlin and new friend Erin. After lunch Erin and I walked around and did some shopping. I wasn't really feeling in a birthday mood, because as is usual, the sky was dark and it was freezing cold and raining. My mood brightened a little when I went met up with Lorrie. We did some shopping and went my new favorite Kabap (Kabab) place for dinner. After class I decided to spend the night at her place.

Since then I've been living in UZH with either Jessica or Lorrie. It has been amazing!

On Friday I went out dancing for my birthday with Jessica and Jenny and two Canadians, Amy and Sara. We went to a club called Glamour. It was really fun, but I'm quite a bit older than the rest of the crowd. Jenny had to leave early to catch her train, and Sara and Amy left because it wasn't really their schtick. Jess and I had a great time. We worked the floor and danced with pretty much everyone in the club. We had a brilliant plan to tell people that we were Russian sisters. This plan back-fired horribly. I We were dancing with a group of people, and one of the guys said something to me in German. As it was really loud, and I had no idea what he said I decided to tell him my name, which for the evening was Natasha. He thought I said that I was from Russia and he got really excited and said, "Oh! My friend over there is from Russia!" I still couldn't really hear what he was saying so I just kind of nodded and smiled.

Jess and I decided to play it safe and go to the bathroom as not to blow our cover. Some how after we got out of the bathroom the guy and his friend came over and started speaking to us in Russian. As we don't know Russian the only thing we could do was be lame and smile and nod. We learned from this experience that if you are going to make up stories and tell people the you are from a foreign country you either need to A. Stick to a country with a language that you know (ie English) B. Pick a country where no one else is from (ie Sweden) or C. Make up a country and a langauge.

The night was A LOT colder when we left the club than when we arrived, so we decided to stop somewhere for tea. Coincidentally, our friend from our favorite Kabap place was at the Turkish restaurant that we stopped on on the way home. He was very nice and had the guy give us cups of tea on the house.

We slept in on Saturday and I woke up around 1 to go meet Caitlin for lunch. I ordered Tomatensuppe (tomato soup, see German isn't really that hard!), and she ordered pasta and we decided to split a large plat of Pommes (french fries). The waitress brought out this HUGE tureen of soup, and MONGO plate of pasta and a plate of fries that could pretty much feed an entire army. Then she said, "Guten Appetit, Bitte." Now it is normal for Germans to say, "Guten Appetit," but I think that what she really meant to say was, "Good luck with that!"

Later that evening I came back to UZH for another AYFer Andrea's 21 birthday party. It was a really nice bash with good wine, good food and good friends.

After her party Jess and I decided to go hang out on Lorrie's floor with a couple of her house mates. It was really fun and I got to try a few sips of Transylvanian Moonshine Schnapps, which pretty much knocks the wind out of you upon contact with your lips and burns like heck once it even touches your tongue. A couple of AYF guys and guys from Lorrie's floor started playing darts. Jess and I decided that this wasn't such a good idea, as we were sitting in close proximity to the dart board, and the guys were drinking Transylvanian Schnapps. We left and went to play cards with some other people from the floor.

We got to bed ridiculously late or early depending on how you look at it. The sun was up when we went to bed, but for some reason I just couldn't sleep. Jess and I stayed up and talked for a while, and then I took a catnap. I woke up around 11:30am completely wide awake even though I had only had 2-3 hours of sleep. I decided to go back upstairs to hang out, as Jess was still asleep. I had coffee on the balcony with one of my new friends from the night before. It was the perfect morning to do this, as the sun was shining, the sky was blue and the morning had a crisp chill to it.

Later in the afternoon I went out with Lorrie and Caitlin to see the new Wallace and Gromit movie. It was really cute, but still doesn't hold a candle to the other short films. Then I came home and Jess and I did homework and talked and finally went to bed after a LONG weekend.
I hope that you are all having a great week. I look forward to hearing from you!!
love,
j