So yes, we did go out, and there was definitely more than a whisper of Karaoke! Wow. Mette and I demonstrated our skills with some classic Spice Girls, and then Mette showed off her actual talent with some rather snazzy Jason Mraz. Amazing. So Rosis was a definite hit with us (we've been back once since, but I'll get back to that!), it's crazy but lovely at the same time :)
The next day I went to Nini's for dinner (scrummy, she knows how to make GOOD food!), and Kim joined us as we prepared for the first Erasmus party of the year. It got to the drinking, and the realisation that they don't have Ring of Fire in Denmark was too much to resist... The cheap vodka was slightly interesting tasting, but nothing we couldn't handle, and so we set off for the party with good intentions... Reaching the Kulturbrauerei, however, we joined what turned out to be the wrong queue... In all our laziness, though, we stayed with this club, finding not only free entry for girls, but also three free 2,50€ drinks vouchers on entry! Total result! We danced the night away, definitely scored finding a stage in the middle of the dance floor = Ren being nearly the same height as Nini :D
An excited phone call the next night prevented me from going to bed quite as early as planned! In fact, there were two phone calls that night! First Kim, letting me know she'd found somewhere to live (always a good thing!) and we arranged for her to come round for some Baileys celebrations (of course). Then Julia, my beloved Erasmus guider, who helped me start looking for trains (southbound for Christmas) as well as explaining many a thing on the Humboldt website. Lifesaver.
Sunday I met up with Mette and Nini for what seems to be fast becoming a traditional Sunday Karaoke im Mauerpark feast. The weather was AMAZING, we even got to the stage of applying sun cream (crazy or what?!), there was beer all round, more people than you can possibly even imagine singing Karaoke in front of (literally!), and we even managed to persuade Mette to sing.
Monday. Scary times! I rang Dmitry Babanov (loving the name sooooo much) to arrange a lesson so we could see whether or not I'd get lessons from him. Wow, that sounds a lot less scary than it felt! I think that's pretty much all that happened on Monday. Or all that you'll want to hear about. Maybe not even that... And I skyped with Rozzy. Which was lovely, because I hadn't heard her voice in forever. And damn I miss that ginger!
Tuesday Kim and I acknowledged the arrival of our third Brummie in Berlin - Evagoras! We met up for a beer (standard German style) near the Fernsehturm, which was nice, good to see at least a few people from our previous lives! And then a nice therapeutic skype session with Julia. In which we cooked together, just like old times!
Wednesday. The dreaded/eagerly anticipated horn lesson is here! I met Dmitry in the Konzerthaus (wow!), and he took me to the horn room, where the walls have many an old bell, with records, alarms, speakers... Pretty much everything you could get in a bell! We geduzt (eeeee), and the lesson was quite different, music in German. It's strange. I like it, but it's definitely strange. But we have it all set up, and he's going to teach me this year, which is a nice thing to have sorted finally! I kept up this good day by meeting up with some couchsurfers for a bit of volleyball, beer and BBQ (of course!), and then Mette and I went with Natali and Henrik to the Havannah Club to try our hand at a bit of salsa. It turns out there was a salsa festival going on at the moment (biggest one in Europe or something? I'm not sure...), so we got there and everyone was really good, and wearing all their fancy clothes... Well, we found many a dance partner (I'm not sure I've danced with so many people in one night ever before!), even if none of them stayed with us for very long... Natali, however, turned out to know a fair bit of salsa, so when she wasn't off dancing (she managed to hold her men far longer than we did!), she was nice enough to show us a bit of how it's really done... But we're maybe gradually getting there... If we go again, though, it may be an idea to go to the lesson beforehand!
Friday brought our second stint at Rosis. We dined at Nini's first (superb once again, homemade hummus = good times!), playing drinking UNO and Ring of Fire once again. With Ouzo. Lethal. Then we roamed the town for a while, before ending up, as mentioned before, at Rosis. Much dancing, much fun! Met some guys who turned out to be there on a stag do, and were from London. Obviously I did the standard "oooh, London!! I'm a Londoner" bonding thing. However, on discovering I was from North East London, they spent the rest of the night calling me Essex girl. Great. You can't even escape it in Berlin!
So I arrived home at 5.30, realising that I had to get up so I could meet Kim the next day. Get up at 8.30. Oh my. That was somewhat less fun! However, seeing Kim was lovely, and we talked, had lunch (mmmm, Camembert :) ) and watched Shark Tale. What a film! Then to get back home for a bit of casual drinking with Arne... I say casual. There's definitely an empty bottle from that night, and I'm not talking beer... But it was fun, we watched a few films and talked and all was good.
And next, of course, came the "traditional" Sunday in Mauerpark with Karaoke. The weather was again lovely (how? It's October! Probably not many more of those...), and Mette managed to be convinced to sing again, which was a double bonus for all around! Then, with the next day being Feiertag, we went to a free concert at the Brandenburger Tor. Snazzy, plenty of people, beer, food, music. Everything. A very nice day indeed :)
Then, on the actual Feiertag, I met up with Sara and two of her friends from Belgium. We wandered by the Brandenburger Tor for a bit, and then caught an S-Bahn to Jannowitzbruecke to try and find a beach on the Spree. Unfortunately this didn't quite work out, though we did find a club that seems to be open all day(!) and an actual Biergarten. With a bonfire and a double decker bus. So that was good!
Then yesterday I went and immatrikulated (finally!), though only partially, as I still don't actually have my Meldebescheinigung... But that's happening on Monday (all going well), and then I'll be well in there. Like swimwear... I do, however, now how my travel pass, which means getting round town is going to be a lot cheaper/easier! Double woop :)
And then today I met up with Kim (who immatrikulated today) and Evagoras (who finished his Immatrikulation today) and we went for a drink and a chat, which was very nice. Tonight I'm off to meet Anna, who's doing her Erasmus year in Heidelberg, but visiting Berlin with friends for a few days, so that's exciting. And then tomorrow we're off to hopefully actually attend the second Erasmus party of the year... But I don't want to assume quite yet!!
Also ja, bis naechstes Mal!
