Oh yeah, and the American barbecue last night was a raging success. We sold tons of hamburgers and cookies.

Also, I'm going to Prague with Lejla when I get back from my long trip. Life is great, how it all works out like that.

John and Kay left for Berlin this morning. Both Anna and Michael are going up next weekend while I'm in London. I'm jealous! They've got an apartment to stay in, and they get to see Michael and his brother.

 
I'm supposed to be in Ingolstadt shopping, but I don't know where my compatriates are, so I'm not. Jerks. Maybe they left without me.

I always see the coolest cars around here (and some freaky weird ones, also). I just saw this old ass Jaguar roadster that was at once the neatest and most phallic car I have ever seen. It was shaped a little bit like the Batmobile, but it was cooler.

I'm going to type some notes and get outta here. Or just get outta here. I'm hungry.

 
Also, I forgot: I whupped ass on my Polish test. I got the best grade in the class, and totally got an A. Maybe my GPA isn't going to suck as much as it could have...

 
Fun weekend ahead! I'm going to get my scheins stamped, then go to class, then get stuff ready for the barbecue, then hold the barbecue, then go to the bar, then go shopping in Ingolstadt for clothes so I can be 'hot babe around London'. I'm leaving on Monday for my trip! Aieeee!

Someone is blowing their nose really loud in here, and I just foo-fooed. Ha!

Yesterday I bought knitting needles and yarn. I guess I'll have to put that in my checked luggage...

Today I made an appointment to check out of my room at the end of the month. I'm really leaving. Yipes!

I'm really going to miss Tony and the Irish Pub. He's so sweet. He was standing outside when we came in the other day, and we had a very pleasant conversation with him. I don't know if it's a good thing when you start to be friends with your bartender.... I mean, I've made friends with my barista, and he stayed at my place for spring break, but I think coffee is much more benign.

 
Well, surprise, surprise.





take the nerd test.


and go to mewing.net. a nerd utopia.

 
Either I've got some seriously blonde highlights growing in, or it's another grey hair, as discovered by Kay just minutes ago. Hard to tell, really.

I don't have to get a visa (yaaay!). I was just at the foreigner's office or whatever they call it, and the guy just gave me a piece of paper and told me not to forget to tell city hall when I left. Apparently I'm not going to be here long enough that they care. All the other suckers did stuff on time and had to pay various amounts of money for visas. Ha, procrastinating rules.

Now I need to make cookies and take my Polish test. Yes, in that order.

Anna remarked on something the other day. She said, "We've all gotten a lot more laid back since we've been here, I think. And we were all pretty laid back when we got here, so maybe now we're just ridiculous."

Ain't no maybe about it. Lesser folk would have run screaming long ago.

 
Welcome to the 21st century, Katholische Universität Eichstätt.

They just banned smoking inside university buildings. Ooooh, progressive. (Can you hear the sarcasm dripping from that comment?)

The other night, as we were drinking, Anna made a really great art philosophy joke, and we all laughed uproariously, which reminded us of what nerds we really are. Jon was telling Kay to do something with her toothbrush, like stick it in a shampoo bottle and show it to her art history professor, and be like, "I think the meaning is quite obvious." And then Anna said, "Reproduce that, Benjamin!"

(Walter Benjamin wrote a lot about the reproduction of art, or like art as a commodity of mass culture. It was hilarious, I promise.)

I'm feeling slightly better *again*, thanks to Frau Schaffer. I got a 1 in my social studies class, because I OWNED the final, and she gave me a little chart that compares the Germans grading system to others, including the European Credit Transfer System that my very sad C in grammar came from, and it turns out that it really should translate to a B in America... It was just a relatively low 2, which for ECTS is a C, but in America is really not. Thank you, grade inflation.

Tomorrow I have my Polish final, and at some point I'm going to have to talk to my Number Theory professor to get my math schein, if I even can... Oh, I got my Teilnehmberbestätigung from my history class today, which is basically just a note from my professor that says that I attended class. Heh. We'll see if they'll hand out any credit for that one. And then I'll finish my Seminar paper, and hopefully get at least a 2, lest I have to cry from general embarrassment.

Actually, I was impressed with how calm I was about the whole math thing, really. I didn't cry, or really even get ridiculously upset about it. Although today in the cafeteria I did have a little moment where I thought that maybe I'd sacrificed any further education (because this is going to fuck my GPA so royally) to spend a semester in Germany. But Jon, good man that he is, calmed my nerves. "Just write your essay about your experiences. Y'know, 'I went to school in Germany, my classes were in German, blah blah blah'." Which will help some, surely. Also, I have to remind myself all the time that I am applying for graduate school in economics as 1. A woman 2. a native English speaker and 3. a holder of a bachelor's degree in mathetmatics.(which still astonishes me, really) Even if I don't end up having teaching experience, I do still have research experience, and they will be falling all over themselves to admit me.

General Note to Self: Calm down. You will not have to live in a box.

 
I hate life less today, you'll be glad to know.

Kay did not leave for Spain! She's not going! Hooray!

Oops, and I'm late to meet her for coffee.

However, new annoyance. Okay, so, Germans give grades from one to six, one being good and 6 being bad. That's already a wider range of 'crappy' than we have. But... they also fight 'grade inflation' as it were an infectious disease, and don't like to give... well, anything good. So I get my schein today from my grammar class, and I got a 2, which is fine because NO ONE in the ENTIRE CLASS got a 1. BUT--on the piece of paper, she has the grade corresponding to a C, which if RIDICUMILOUS (sic) because I got one of the best grades in the class, and how can she give all of us Cs? Sigh. I knew this semester was going to fuck my GPA. At least I can cross 'law school' off of the list of 'things I might do in life'.

 
I hate Germany, and I want to come home RIGHT NOW.

Did I mention that Anna found a grey hair on my little head on Sunday? Sad.

Thing that would be a major annoyance if I were in America, or anywhere where school counted a little bit more...

So, I'm supposed to be in my math final right now. Heh. I went to the room where we usually have our practical, but no one was there. So I went to the room where we have lecture. Also no one. I freak out a little bit more, and wander around the main building(s), looking for my freaking class. No luck. I go back up to the first room I was at, and it's now like 5 after 12. This time, the door to the room is closed, so I see the piece of paper on the outside that says where the test is taking place, namely, in the basement of the neighboring building (WTF?). I go over there, but it's already 10 after, and the door is locked, and there is absolutely nothing I can do except be sad that I can't take my final.

Luckily, it's not too big a deal. I suppose I can just get a Teilnehmerschein, if I ask pretty and make the sad "I am a stupid foreign student!" face. That's like getting a pass/fail grade (i.e. PASS!), which I'm not really supposed to be getting in math because I can't have classes just for credit in my major, but this class doesn't count towards the major anyway, because the only thing I still need to take is something that completes a series. Heck, if I didn't get credit for it at all, I'd still have more than 12 hours of credit, which is all I really need. Now I'm just annoyed I did all that homework and sat through that lecture and actually LEARNED number theory, only to be slightly fucked. Argh, argh, argh.

Kay's leaving for Spain tomorrow (sad!), but she's coming back at the end of the month, so we'll all see each other again. Besides that, I'm going to go and crash on her futon in the fall so I can tour the University of Minnesota and see if I want to go to grad school there. Minnesota and Michigan are still my main contenders, if I want to go to grad school immediately, which is a fairly big if.

Oh well. I'm going to go pity myself for a little while, then maybe write some of my paper, which really hasn't started appearing in typed form yet, but rather a slew of notes taken in pretty colored pens. That's nice, but probably wouldn't get me a very good grade from my hardass literature professor.

Germans...

 
Mmm, eventful weekend.

Friday, we planned a barbecue which will take place on this Friday. All the Americans who will still be in town are setting the thing up, but it's really organized through the international student association here on campus. Should be tons of fun. I think Anna and I are going to play/sing a set of 'real American music!' and we're making hamburgers and chocolate chip cookies, etc, etc.

After planning, John and Kay and Anna and I went over to the Altstadtfest to have some dinner and a liter of beer... (Ha!) Oh, the food was amazing... grilled chickens and corn on the cob and huge wheels of cheese and pretzels as big as your head... then sugared nuts and chocolate covered strawberries... oh, dear lord, it was great.

Then we got together our Friday night party... it was both the 4th of July and at midnight, Pamela's birthday, so we had cocktails and snacks and hung out. It was reasonably fun. We all dressed up, because we had previously had absolutely no reason to do so. Okay, so the girls dressed up. Still fun.

Saturday I slept late, got a piece of pizza at the fest, and ran into John and Kay. Then I was reading my book and fell asleep, then someone woke me up and we went back to the fest and ate chinese food and drank beer, and danced around while a bavarian cover band did terrible versions of songs we know from childhood. (how wrong is it to hear 'Country Roads' in a German accent, huh?) Then we went home and went to sleep.

Sunday we went to the Schloßfest in Neuberg (read: Renaissance festival). It was great, but sooooo crowded. People were wandering around in costume, playing instruments, selling stuff, carrying large spears... I drank mead and bought an iron ring from a blacksmith.

We came back to Eichstätt, and I went to the Altstadtfest and ate ribs, then went to hear a fairly cheesy reggae band play. I went home, only to run into people and go out to the bar and drink margaritas.

Today, I woke up, read some, went to meet people for lunch, went shopping for necessary things, then ate some ice cream while a duck attacked my foot.

I have to write about 2 pages on my seminar paper every day this week. Maybe 3. Then I'll read it over and turn it in, and be done with everything.

Tomorrow is my math final! Aieeeeee!!! Sudden freakout upon realization--I must go study.