BERLIN!!!

Ok, so its been a while- many apologies. But on the bright side, now that I have to summarize such a long period of time in one post, you don't have to slog through tediously detailed accounts of everything I've done! Most of the first week was spent settling in, getting to know my host mom, trying not to get lost (and failing miserably) and finding every Ethiopian food restaurant within 30 minutes. My night life excursions were limited to a large but rather uninteresting club and the discovery of a few extraordinary bars (one of which just BEGS you to sit back with a nice glass of wine and a cigarette and talk philosophy). Speaking of philosophy, I went to an amazing jazz club and ended up talking with the Chicago-born performer for more than 4 hours- in addition to being a fantastic guitarist/singer, he is now the first person who has recognized Nietzsche's eternal recurrence by name when I brought up the concept! Kudos, Andy.

Most of my other exploits involve getting lost and starting conversations with strangers (auf Deutsch, natuerlich), or browsing the erotic stores in the Red Light District (which I live immediately next to) for appropriate attire for one of Sini's and mine planned excursions... I've also met most of my host non's family (her sister died young, so she raised three kids in addition to her own)- they're wonderful and loud and funny. We play German games and have delightful Danglish conversations that often last for hours! Furthermore, it turns out Britta (my host mom) and I share common guilty pleasures- so whenever we have free time together we sit down in from of a German soap opera with either gummy bears or chocolate and talk about how good looking Scandinavian men are. We really get along quite famously.

I also did some work yesterday.

Onto the Next Adventure!

You know a place was amazing when you get homesick for it after only a week of staying there. I'll definitely miss the Avalon House in Dublin- waking up every morning and meeting travelers from every corner of the world, musicians, actors, students, families... and of course I'll miss all my buddies who took me in for the week and showed me a FANTASTIC time.

For my last days in Dublin, Sini, Tina, Chris, Dez and I went to Howth, a fishing village (no one knows how to pronounce it. Every Irish person we found made fun of us for our current pronunciation and gave us a different way- so now it is spoken only as what-the-fuck Ireland). The sights were breathtaking, the seafood and wine delicious, and the Sea Lions seemed to have quite a thing for Sini!

My Avalon friends then proceeded to make sure that me and my Stanford friends had an amazing last night- Dez was already in celebration mode from GETTING A MULTIMILLION DOLLAR MOVIE DIRECTING DEAL! (go dez!), which only added to the celebration that swept up all the regulars and a new addition, a nice Swiss visitor who taught us German drinking games (incidentally, best of luck to his friend who tried out for Berkelee School of Music this morning!)

It was sad to leave such an amazing place, but it was time to move on! I'm currently living in a house and room that you can probably best imagine my watching Pride and Prejudice, with a wonderful woman and her dog (the first thing we did was go out for a celebratory Indian food dinner- what more could I ask for?) I tried my first stilted German conversation (Heute ist das Wetter sehr gut, ja?), and then had a lovely three hours (english) talk with my host, who works as a psychiatrist to children here (Perfect!). Her dog, Corie, has already taken a fancy to cuddling, which I, of course, am quite happy about- I've missed having a pet around!

More Days in Dublin

Now joined by Sini and Tina, the great exploits continue- after several hours of wandering around, Sini and I are masters of Dublin navigation, though our favorite technique remains picking a general direction and seeing what we stumble upon- which has been museums, cathedrals, castles, hat shops, cozy pubs with nice Irish stew, etc...

The morning was spent wandering, eating, and checking out an AMAZING cathedral (Christ Church Cathedral), and the Dubliner museum next to it (complete with Viking exhibition- SEA PIRATES!!!). Of course, afternoons are exclusively for napping (this is, after all, vacation).

Of course, us three smokin' ladies hit the town at night at Citi Bar, the local collegiate hangout spot, complete with light up dancefloor and popular American and European hits. We didn't actually intend to hit up the night club scene, we stumbled upon it somewhat unprepared. It turns out that wearing a SWE shirt that says "Engineers Wanted" on the back is not a turn off, but in fact a remarkably effective pickup line... I believe I drank with most of the engineers in the bar by the end of the night (I was definitely summoned across the room multiple times with a group of people pointing at one poor soul, shouting, "HE'S AN ENGINEER!!!!") :) The bulk of the fun, though, ended up being sponsored by a gorgeous Brazilian soccer team in Ireland for a tournament, learning to speak English. Not that we were that concerned with their english speaking abilities ;) We fully intend to return tomorrow in more appropriate clubbing gear (aka, not t-shirts) so the effectiveness of engineer friendly tshirts v. sparkly tights can be objectively tested.

First Day in Dublin!

It didn't take long for Ireland to live up to its reputation! I arrived around 9am, and made my way down to the Avalon House, an AMAZING hostel near the heart of the city. After storing my luggage, I walked until I found a church that was really more of a cathedral and attended Sunday mass, where an adorable old lady in a purple coat wished me the best of luck and said she would pray for me to not get caught up in street violence...comforting.

Since it had been four days since I slept in a proper bed, a nap was the next order of business. Then, in meandering the lounge, I met Brendan, another American, and Marcus the Finnish Musician. Marcus was performing at a bar in Temple that night, so our contingent quickly swelled to a fantastic groups of Americans, Italians, French, and Germans, and we proceeded to take over a large table, drink lots of FABULOUS Irish beer, and play Connect Four while listening to several live bands.
We came back around 2am, and Marcus, Brendan, Dez (an American film maker), Dario (Italian), Abdul (from Bangladesh), Jason (Baltimore) and David (French) chilled in the kitchen with a guitar, a bottle of Petron and another of Vodka, and sang for the rest of the night- both Dez and Marcus played songs they had written along with more popular songs, and the rest of us made up harmonies and other accompaniment- by far one of the most fantastic nights I've ever had...oooooh, and there are pictures coming :)