So,
once again a fair bit later, though only about two months this time,
and (in my defence) I've been in exam period, so I have an excuse!!
Right. So I went to Lido with Katrin and some of her friends on the Friday, which was pretty cool, it's basically a rock club in an old cinema, and they've got a silent disco room as well, which was hilarious :) Plus we got in for free, because Katrin and her friend rounded up loads of old tickets, and if you have five (I think) you get in free, so that was impressive on their front! Samstag then doesn't have anything written in my diary, so following on from my last comment I guess I probably had another doss day after three late nights in a week – it gets to the point where you probably shouldn't be getting back in the early hours of daylight three times a week, I think.... But we're not there yet :P
On
Sunday I took Becca for her début Mauerpark visit. I hope she loves
it as much as Mette and I do... It was reeeeeally sunny, and Evamaria
and Sabine came and met up with us for a while as well and then we
found Katrin and some of her friends, who were barbecuing in the park
as well and had a bit of a chattle before I went to meet Amelie,
Mareike, Alina
and
Christopher for a rather scrummy white Asparagus dinner (sounds
strange, I know, but somewhat tasty). Amelie can cooooook :)
Tuesday
entailed the standard visitation of Lustgarten between Stilistische
Übungen
and Orchester for a few hours of random filled chitchat. Pretty much
all I can fill you in with on that one... Wednesday I had a horn
lesson <3 and on Thursday all I appear to have written in is
“Grammatik Test”, so that must have been the most epic day of
them all! Oh dear....
On
Friday, however, we get more interesting. Christoph, Johannes and I
headed up to Osnabrück
for the night as one of Christoph's friends had a birthday party, and
we were cool enough to be invited. Something between the bath full
with beer and the hosts bringing round shots at regular intervals, as
well as there being a BBQ and a table full of food gives this party a
massive thumbs up from me. Christoph and I showed the Osnabrückians
a thing or two with our amazing dancing skills, and some of us got
rather excited by the music opportunities provided due to the
birthday girl being a piano/singing teacher... And took advantage of
them probably more than a little bit... Snuggling up on the floor
after the sun was up, however, felt somewhat less than great... But I
have to give that couple a “great hosts” award, putting up with
us all overnight and serving quite the breakfast spread in the
morning! I must, however, apologise to Christoph and Johannes for my
appalling communication skills in moving vehicles – as it turns
out, if I haven't had much sleep and I go travelling then I will be
pretty much out of it for the whole trip. Guaranteed. That evening I
met up with Evamaria, Sabine, Maria and Lia to watch the Eurovision
German-style (with additional quiche cooking!), underlined with the
subtitle “Evamaria”-style :P Oh, and managed to get myself locked
in Lia's bathroom. Because I'm skilled like that.
After
a quick skype with Julia regarding visitation plans, I met up with
Inna on Sunday to go to the Karneval in Berlin – sooooo many
floats! We wandered around a bit in the heat, surveying all there was
and eating some tasty snacks! And in the evening of course I met up
with Amelie and the girls (+Christopher, but that's pretty much the
same, right?!) for dinner times again – lecker! – and games :)
With
Monday being the Pfingsten bank holiday the one and only Dmitry
Babanov was playing in a Horn and Organ concert – little bit
random, but really good! Very impressed with his natural horn
abilities, I think he'd go well in our Birmingham natural horn group
;) Went along to Peter's birthday picnic afterwards, which Natali and
Johannes also came to, and taught people some of my amazing games
(with quite impressive reviews at the end of it all, they were all
over me :P ) and skyped with Mette when I got home, because she is
missed – gone (to Denmark) but not forgotten...
With
Miriam (the incredible hairdresser) in town we introduced some new
people into our little Lustgarten trio on the Tuesday that week.
Which also led to a frozen yoghurt being scheduled into a bit of a
tight window, but obviously we managed it anyway! Even if I was a
little bit late to orchestra that week.... Caught up with my ginger
lover on Wednesday (who is now in Berlin, woop woop!) and on
Wednesday my other red haired lover arrived at Schönefeld,
greeted by my amazing sign, which seemed to have a few people
worried.... On Friday Mette and I then went for dinner at Amelie's (I
don't think I'll ever get tired of Käsespätzle...
With nice and strong Bergkäse...
Mmmm....) and chattage and just general lovage.
The
next day Mette and I spent a while cleaning the lovely looking BBQ
for our little get-together of amazing people in our back garden. We
bought a crate of beer (to last us the week...), made salad, bought
rolls for burning and just general amazing ideas. And we barbecued to
our hearts' content. Because we're good at cooking and never burn
anything. Plus we're very manly and good at getting barbecues
started. We had a few sessions of barbecuing before it got too cold
in the evening so we went for a bit of a games session in the then
empty third bedroom of the flat (why did you have to leave, Yulia?!).
Totally prepared for a bit of Karaoke (the crate of beer being
empty...), Mette, Katrin, Louis, Simon and I headed off to Hafenbar
(good work on the 100 free entries, Mette!) for a bit of a sing song,
though my number unfortunately didn't get called, I think I was a bit
annoyed about that, but still rather impressed with Mette and Louis'
talent! And so the dancing began. I don't want people reading this to
think that they should never go dancing with Mette and I, but at the
same time I would advise them to be wary... Especially if songs from
Dirty Dancing come on... So Mette and I were pretending to do the
jumps, not overly harmful, and then suddenly it got a bit harmful
when we went for the real deal... Suddenly we were on the floor
(probably a bit more than understandable...) and Mette had a MASSIVE
bump on her head. After fetching ice and it still not going down,
however, Mette began to get worried, and a few phone calls to doctors
in Denmark occurred before the decision was made to go to hospital –
because obviously we have to try everything before leaving Germany!
Luckily Louis had some sort of map navigator thing on his phone, and
so the three of us headed off to Charité
for closer inspection... It took us a little while to get in once we
were there (there were many different coloured arrows without labels
all over the place!), but after Mette picked a colour we followed
that arrow and eventually found our way to reception, giving all the
details we could (“beim Tanzen gestürzt”)
before waiting two hours to see a doctor for a check-over... Luckily
everything was alright, though, and after signing some forms we took
Mette home (under “48 hour observation”), so yet another late
night there! After the excitement from that night we spent most of
the next day at home (also clearing up from the night before...)
before heading off to Al Hamra for the Stammsession in the evening.
Mette
and I went for a bit of a wander on Monday, ending up with a frozen
yoghurt snack followed by a chinese lunch in Mauerpark, where we met
Karel... A park lover, who loves to run, and just thinks about parks
a lot. I think that sums him up! Anyway, we massively confused him as
he got to the point of believing I was German but had just spent a
lot of time in England, which is why my British accent is pretty
flawless... It took him a while to figure all this out... Anyway, I
headed off to Uni for my Musikalische Analyse seminar and Mette got
in a tram to go and see Sandra in the far entities of Eastern Berlin.
And who should she meet in the tram? Our park lover friend (got an
amazing text from her, mentioning how she'd met our park lover again
and he thinks she's stalking him...)! So that was rather amusing :)
After my seminar I met up with Louis for a hot chocolate (on my
part...) and then we waited for Mette in the café, who came bearing
the news that she and Karel had swapped numbers and he may be coming
to meet us to! Which did indeed happen, so quite a random day there!
On Tuesday I met Mette after my Stilistiche Übungen
class (/after our test...) and we headed off with Louis and Becca to
the Deponie, courtesy of the weather.... After a beer or two Mette
and I then headed off to meet Amelie for dinner in our favourite
Falafel place before I made a bit of a speedy departure for
orchestra. Ah, and after orchestra I introduced Mette to the
incredibility that is the cellar, and she loved it (obviously)! I'm
really going to miss the cellar next year, because it really is the
best thing. Period.
We
met up with Amelie for a cinema visit (Tomboy), which is always a
pleasure. With it also being Becca's birthday on Wednesday we went to
a comedy event in the evening followed by a standard trip to
Matrix... Not much more to put in there, really, had some chattles
with Johannes and Inna who also popped along to the comedy club to
see Mette before she had to leave the next day – all pretty normal
really. Mette then came to my grammar class at 10 in the morning
(after so much dancing, grammar, really?!) with her old (and now also
my old!) grammar teacher, who seemed happy to see her – why
wouldn't she be?! And then Mette and I had to say our farewells to
one another, which is sad, because I love her visiting, but every
time I have to say bye again and I don't like that bit :(
Having
lost one beauty in my life I went to see another on Friday – it
seems like I get quite a lot of hospitality from Amelie! Filled with
Pfannkuchen we watched Inglorious Bastards (epic film!) and just
relaxed. So yeah, just a pretty chilled evening, t'was nice :)
Meeting Vanessa and Franziska for our preparation sessions before our
Rosenkavalier Blockseminar brought to light the fact that Vanessa and
I had clearly analysed the wrong scene for the session, something
which was definitely my fault! But no big harm done, we zipped
through all the Inszenierungen again and got stuff figured out, but
it's definitely a good we had Franziska on our team, I'll tell you
that much! Whoops! And as a bit of R&R from the Blockseminar
(always essential!) I went over to Amelie (seems to be getting rather
standard right now!) for dinner with her and Ulrike (Maultaschen),
which was blatantly yummy. And then we watched Madagascar 2, because
it is a film. And a good one at that.
Having
had a phone call on Monday from the school I helped at last semester,
I played in a rehearsal and concert at the Konzerthaus for them on
Sunday (loving paid jobs here...), and there was such a cute little
girl on my trip home from it. I was waiting at the tram stop with my
horn, and her dad came up to me with her on his shoulders and asked
me what instrument I played. Which obviously struck up a
conversation, and it turns out she has a book of all the musical
instruments, so they thought it was a horn, but wanted to check. I
showed her my horn and she was so cute, and the parents said they'll
know what started her off if she ends up playing French horn – I
hope she does!! Because then I'd be happy, even though I probably
wouldn't know...
With
it being football season, Becca, Vanessa and I headed off to a pub in
Neukölln
to watch the England-France match. Polishing up our football quotes
we figured out all the right points to yell at the ref and any French
people in the pub and just basically to yell at football words in
general. I think we did good – Ashley would definitely be proud of
us.
On
Tuesday Becca was a bit of a fail on the Lustgarten front, so Louis
and I did our own little “Lustgarten special” before I headed off
to orchestra. And when I got back from the cellar I had a bit of a
stress session to Emily B – something we seem to do more than
non-stress sessions, because we both seemed to be on the stress
point! Oh well... Then on Wednesday we did a pizza and Legally Blonde
special. That was something else altogether! Becca may be the only
one able to roll the dough out for the base well, but that won't help
you if you manage to set it on fire, will it? In an electric oven and
all. Actually, now I think about it, that takes skill, so kudos on
that one, Becca! Then we obviously (as the “title” suggests)
watched Legally Blonde (I think the purpose of that were the “Snaps”)
followed by P.S. I Love You. It makes me wonder how Louis defends his
masculinity :P Oh, and in the middle we did some Sporcle quizzes.
Turns out Louis had a flag book when he was younger. Explains a lot
;)
Ah,
I knew she'd be back in this eventually! After our lecture (which we
always go to on a Thursday... Though sometimes it just seems to be in
the frozen yoghurt café... Weird, that...) Amelie and I headed back
to hers for Schupfnudeln and then we sat down for an episode of
Germany's finest – Tatort. I rather enjoy, truth be told! Though we
still haven't finished the second episode – better get on that
one!! And just to top everything off my favourite Wasenweilerin
turned up for the weekend the next day :) I picked Julia up from the
station and we had a pretty massive catch-up session that evening
(aided by Amaretto and apple juice...). The next day Amelie came
round mine, and I made a change by cooking for her! Though I reckon
her cooking is pretty definitely better than mine... Oh well, I'm
still rather happy with my mushroom risotto – one of my signature
dishes (made with lots of wine...). We had a bit of an English-style
pre-drinking session with a few others before heading off to Hafenbar
for a bit of a karaoke session (with Mette and my favourite DJ being
there!), making a little bit of a fool of myself from time to time...
Sorry Johannes!
On
Sunday Amelie came round to help us finish off the risotto from the
night before and we went for a walk round Weißensee (rather pretty)
and then Julia and I met up with Ryan to go and see Mahler 5 (Horn
players unite!) in the Philharmonie, Jugendorchester Berlin (with our
very own Caro, Florian and Johannes playing in it :) ). Anyone who
doesn't know, I <3 Mahler 5. It is epic. I promise. Mahler Mahler
Mahler. With a few hours left to go between the concert and Julia's
ride back home we headed off to the Oscar Wilde to watch the
football, totally unaware of the Bachelor Party from England that
would also be there that night... In our defence, I'd say we
definitely left better off than they did! Although I did obviously go
back to them after dropping Julia off for her lift, because I
wouldn't dream about leaving my husband just like that! Yeah...
Standard
week the next week – Lustgarten and Orchester on Tuesday, skype
with that curly ginger-haired English girl, followed by a horn lesson
and dinner with Louis on Wednesday, Grammar Test on Thursday (bane of
my life!) followed by a meet up with Natali, Christoph, Johannes and
Helge
in
the evening (nice little music festival on the edge of the Spree,
with the “Italian” musicians and beer and dancing and chatting
about the Frutten going by... I love meeting randomers on the street,
in an odd way!
Being
totally on track for the Probenwochenende that weekend I first met up
with Becca on Friday morning for a bit of “retail-therapy” around
town, ending up buying random cool shiz from Nanu-Nana (I rather like
that shop!) and just a load of chattles. And sorting out of homework.
And eating ice cream sundae things. Yes, I finished mine :) Managing
to forget my music stand, I met up with the orchestra gang and we all
headed off to Neuendorff for yet another incredible weekend. After a
cut-short rehearsal we all crowded into the dining room to watch the
Germany-Greece football match (very different from watching an
England match, somehow!), and being rather excited at Germany's epic
victory – “sie haben es gegriecht!”. Going back to the
rehearsal room we got stuck into the fridges full of beer (apparently
finishing a record amount of beer for one night at Neuendorff,
something which I can quite believe!) and after a few we headed down
to the lake for a bit of a late-night swim, beer in the hand and
stars in an amazingly clear sky. Wow. Philipp, Martin and I swam a
bit longer than the others, only to find on the way home that Martin
had then managed to lose the key to the boys' room... So they all
headed back down to the lake for a bit of a search, managing to find
it, which means I'm allowed to laugh! I think I already laughed then,
though, to be fair! The next day we had more of the same, recovery
beers through the day, BBQ in the evening, relay ping pong, you know
how it is on an orchestra weekend, right? Maybe not... Then we went
for another late-night swim (quite a bit colder than the night
before!) with Martin being banned from the possession of keys, a lot
safer! And there was dancing (I especially loved Sarah and I dancing
to Umbrella and some sort of Britney Spears, I think we definitely
had something going there!) and just epicness all round, basically! A
decent run through on Sunday morning before heading back to Berlin,
feeling a little bit dead after lunch... Oh. And my dad came to
visit! I met up with him on the Sunday evening and we had dinner
together and watched the football (very disappointed at England's
loss, especially as our goal-keeper was amazing, but now the blame is
sort of on him because it ended with penalties. But yes, Ashley
should have scored then), so that was chilled.
I
met up with dad again on Monday and we went for a trip up the
Reichstag (they're going to think I'm planning something at this rate
– I've been to the Reichstag a surprising number of times this
year!), saw the sights there were to see, you know how it is! And we
met up for dinner again in the evening (standard risotto dish with
lots of wine... Oh well, dad seemed to like it!) and just general
chattles. On Tuesday I had a brief meet-up with Becca and Louis in
the Deponie before meeting up with dad and going back to the Deponie
for dinner – they probably think there's something wrong with me!
Followed by our Hauptprobe and the daunting fact that my regular
cellar days are numbered. Severely. So I made the most of it, did my
best to win at Kicker (Sarah and I are definitely turning into the
dream-team!) and just the general cellar show-biz. On Wednesday we
sorted out all dad's stuff for his trip him (a.k.a. I filled a
suitcase with all my shizzle for him to take back!) and trekked all
the way back to the coach station – where it all began.
I
had my last horn lesson on Thursday :( We discussed life in the
future and a whole load of possibilities, and now I have absolutely
no idea what I want/am going to do! Hmmm.... With another football
match that evening the Generalprobe was also shifted forwards so that
we could crowd into the cellar with the choir to watch the
unfortunate defeat of Germany by Italy. Though, truth be told, at the
end Basti and I went to practice Kicker instead, because I'm trying
to learn how to shoot from the back lines by kicking “doll”.
Yeah... I'm not very good, but I like to think I'm learning!
The
next day we had our concert, and I just can't (and don't want to)
believe that it's all over! :( It was a pretty good venue for horns –
we were right in front of a pillar/wall thing, which just reflected
us massively into the audience – good work! So yeah, it was a good
concert (I really like Christiana as a conductor, I've never really
had a female conductor before, but she was good!), Johannes and
Christoph supporting me in the front row :) Afterwards the orchestra
headed off to the cellar for one last cellar evening of celebrations,
and Sarah and I are definitely getting better as a team at Kicker!
Some of the guys seemed quite scared about playing us at one point –
I was impressed :) And then there was dancing, attempts to find
toilets (…) and chatting and just general incredibility. I want a
cellar in England. So yeah, we were there until 5.30 in the morning –
something I find quite fitting for the last cellar evening of the
year.
Having
to move out of his office, Christoph held an office party the next
evening, and I have to say his location was AMAZING. Right on the
edge of the Spree with quite a large garden there was a BBQ and a
fire, music, beer – everything. We played music, games, and ran for
shelter when the storm started (which led to quite an impressive
drumming session with everything we could possibly find until a
neighbour complained, because the storm was over and we weren't). But
we went and played in the ship and with the hens instead anyway,
because police threats apparently can't scare us! Ha... On Sunday
Mareike, Amelie and I met up for Sushi (I've gotten quite into sushi
this year, especially when there's avocado in it...) and then went
back to Mareike's to play some video games – Silent Hill is
definitely a good 'un! Even if we get very confused at points...
The
follow up from the concert I helped out at in the Konzerthaus was the
next day – Beethoven's 1st
Symphony and Prokofiev's Violin Concerto – not a bad programme,
actually! And still a very impressive orchestra for a school, even if
it is a music school. Obviously entwined with Stilistische Übungen
revision as we had our exam the next day.... :/ Oh, and our
Rosenkavalier Analyse deadline... It was quite the week for exams and
deadlines, I wasn't too happy with that! Followed up by going to the
pub with Becca and Louis (quite the standard) and then dinner with
Rozzy, who is amazing and has got a job in Berlin for the time-being!
Very impressive, and hadn't seen her for ages, so there was a lot of
gossip to be caught up on there (yeah, Birmingham musos, don't think
I've missed out on anything!!)... Fajitas, of course. Wednesday was a
day of skypage – George, Emily P and Mette all in one day, pretty
impressive, no? And in the evening we had our Hausmusikabend, which
was just good. Just hearing all the randomers who you've never heard
play before has something nice about it. And the professors played
“Radio Music”, which was rather cool (“Warum sagen wir
eigentlich “Prost” beim anstoßen?”), though I think Mareike
and I felt rather on display sitting right at the front of the room
with beers in our hands... Oh well!
On
Thursday I did my crazy thing. Where I got a bus to Birmingham. Just
for the weekend. Though to be fair it was a good idea in the long
run, because I managed to take so much stuff back with me AND I
managed to see how stunning Becky looked walking down the aisle in
her wedding dress – she did team horn proud! But before we get to
that bit we still have Friday to go – I met up for dinner with
Emily B and Simeon (Chamon, own wine, standard) before we went back
to Simeon's, fully intending to have a night out to Flares, which got
changed to Gatecrasher, which got changed to a night in, which got
changed to an evening playing twister on the road, which then got
changed back to a night in... Until late. And was still perfect all
the same. And Team Horn won Cranium. I was proud. Though I should
probably still mention that there are actually debates regarding
which team was the victorious one... And then on Saturday came the
wedding. It was sooooooooo amazing, Becky and Andy looked so happy at
the altar together, very nice! Followed by (incredible) cakes and
champagne. The Musos then headed off for lunch/snacks in the pub,
which turned into a bit more of a pub-crawl around Moseley, before
joining Becky and her guests at the reception, seeing the cutting of
the cake and watching the first dance before they left a few hours
later. Gorgeous. Sian and I danced until the night was over,
impossibly wild and crazy, but definitely gaining positive attention
for it! And then on Sunday it was back to the bus for me (thanks for
the lift, Emily B, you're a babe!) and hello to Berlin once more.
With
my return to Berlin Elke, Freddy and Ute were there to visit (from
Köln)
and we met up for a bit of wandering round town, I showed them the
sights of my uni, they looked impressed, it was all good! On Tuesday
we met up again and went on a boat tour of Berlin, which was pretty
cool, though I'm not sure I managed to actually listen to any of the
commentary, that doesn't matter, though, right? And on Wednesday we
met up again and went into the Berliner Dom, up to the top gallery
and everything, which was fairly impressive, got some pretty nice
views from the top there! Followed by a beer and a snack and then a
quick visit to the Neptunbrunnen before I headed off to meet Mareike,
Amelie and Laura for dinner in a cute little restaurant near
Eberswalder Straße, ate a lot more than I ever thought I could,
including green tea ice cream!
Thursday
and Friday brought my last exams of the Semester – Harmonielehre
and Kontrapunkt on Thursday were always going to be an interesting
one, followed by cake for Christopher's birthday and then a little
bit more cramming for Modalität
im 16. Jahrhundert... I still went to the other HU concert that
night, though, Dvorak 8 and some Brahms songs, was gooood :) And then
obviously our Abschlussparty in the main building, which I still
somehow find amusing that they do things like that in Germany! Not
complaining... So yeah, food, a few beers, amazing people, what could
go wrong? And then my last exam on Friday, was definitely better than
I though it would be, which is a reeeeally good thing! And now I have
freedom for two weeks until I board that bus again – scary stuff!
So yeah, I met up with Rozzy in the evening and we just had a bit of
a rave with her boss, and they ended up coming along to a leaving
party I was going to, which was a laugh :)
On
Saturday Becca and I met up for our last night out in Berlin
together, that was a bit of a weird one... Sunday: Mauerpark.
Introducing Rozzy and Sandra to the amazingness that is Bearpit
Karaoke, something which makes me rather proud of this town. We <3
Bearpit Karaoke. And Joe, of course. Then off to Becca's for a film
afternoon, a bit of a wind-down after a hectic few weeks of exams!!
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