Montag, 16. Juli 2012

Schlafen kannst du wenn du tot bist


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!!

Freitag, 18. Mai 2012

The land of Awky T...


Ok. Only approximately 2 months later... That's not too bad, right?! What's new... After a day of shopping to buy Mette something to wear in her concert that evening we piled in to the Friedrichstadt Palast for an evening of entertainment (Mette = amazing). Finishing up with a few beers and some extra rum Natali, Mette and I headed off to the Oscar Wilde for a couple of followers. Being the socialites that we are we (and obviously not doing anything embarrassing in the process...) we met a few travellers in Berlin and stayed a while for drinks and chats. You know how it is. Which obviously ended in the bar keeper presenting Mette and I with complimentary St Patrick's Day hats. Somehow we seem to get our fair share of free stuff in Berlin...!





Tuesday brought the return of Anna (a well-missed being in our lives) and the retelling of stories... Not that much to tell there! But we followed that on Wednesday by a trip to Matrix (ladies' night = free entry and 2 for 1 drinks...), bringing Anna, Teruko (a friend of Anna's who was also visiting) and inviting Becca (a girl from Birmingham who I've somehow first met in Berlin) for a bit of dancing fun. Much more to say for that night? I think that's probably all you need to know!




Having Dada Falafel withdrawal symptoms, we took a trip out on Thursday for dinner, where there was also a pianist giving a small informal concert, cosy! And the hot chocolates there are lush...

Friday... Friday Friday Friday... I had a horn lesson in the day (teacher = still a legend), and in the evening I stopped by Katrin's flat (one of the people we met in the bar – see, everything fits in eventually!) for her birthday party, only intending to stay an hour or so (planning on heading off to Salsa with Mette and Sandra later on), but being “unfortunately” drawn in by the company, the Bowle, the cheese and the children's games. I maintain that I am still rather good at limbo... That's all I'm saying! And I <3 German children's games. There was Topfschlagen (almost spelt there as Kopfschlagen :/), der Weg nach Jerusalem and probably a lot more... Yes.... And Bowle and cocktails and cheese. And people... You know how it is!

Continuing with the theme of people we met in the bar, Mette and I had a music session with Johannes on Saturday, just a bit of chilling, followed by the Imbiss + wine + Hafenbar = Karaoke. Need I say much more? I hit the stage twice that night – Wonderwall with Johannes (my début in Hafenbar!) followed by You're So Vain with Mette, at which we were amazing. Literally. I don't think Hafenbar has seen anything like it before, we were all over it like a rash! Plus afterwards the DJ said it was a 100% performance. What more can they want?! Then we stayed late for a bit of dancing fun, getting confused by the trams and changing of clocks on the way home, but who can blame us?!




I met Becca for a café visit the next day to help her with some arrival stuff in Berlin (because believe me, I know how ridiculous and confusing it can be!), and we just had chats and jokes and started on our list of things to do whilst in Berlin (even though Mette and I still haven't exactly finished ours yet...). And we finished off the day with a trip to our Stammkneipe (Mette having supposed to have been home working through the day, but, due to the amazing weather, having spent it in Mauerpark...), Al Hamra, for a bit of relaxed chilling (is there another type of chilling?), joined by Sandra, Simon, Henrik and Julian (another of our bar discoveries...), which I can promise you, led to some quite interesting topics of conversation... Which Mette and I probably never want to be discussed again...

After a motivational skype with the wife, I headed of to Ballhouse for a bit of Salsa learning and fun. Knowing Natali was first coming later (because she's already amazing, and thus doesn't need the lessons), but that one of her friends was going to be there from the start I was somewhat nervous, truth be told, but determined. Anyway, somehow I found Christoph, and we joined the learners' dancing class. I'm pretty sure by this point that I have two left feet (a term which I think in German you can only translate as having two left hands, which I don't think helps in this situation...), but I'm still giving it my best! Adding to my embarrassment by this point, the instructor also chose me for a while to be his demonstration assistant. Made even more embarrassing for me when Natali walked in part way through. I think she felt a bit bad for me that she wasn't there at the start! However, I did it, and I'm proud! We stayed for the evening, salsa salsa salsa. I think it also helps more when you practise with guys who can actually dance already than when you try and learn with guys who are also trying to learn. No offence, Christoph and the others! Anyway, getting chucked out at closing time (not that late, no worries, mum!) Natali and I headed off with a couple of others to Kaffee Burger for a bit more dancing, which was particularly nice as we haven't managed to spend much time with one another recently.

Horn quartet time was happening the next day. Massively. For those of you who don't already realise, I LOVE chamber music. Horn chamber music is lush. So yeah, we had a couple of hours of playing fun followed by a beer on the river bank in the sun. There have been so many perfect days in Berlin, and I just really hope they continue to appear out of the blue. Please. That evening Mette and I went to Joe's bar, which was not quite what we expected, but we stuck it out for a beer before heading hope to have a more chillaxed evening.

Wednesday looks boring and empty in my diary. I was probably doing essay work. Maybe.

On Thursday my long awaited guest arrived in Berlin – welcome to Miss Amy Barker!! We did a bit of sight-seeing, just general stuff, as you probably know, Amy got excited by the double decker trains, we visited the chocolate shops and a few other sights of Berlin :P and in the evening we went to the delight that is Matrix... Getting rather confused when the wrong part of the club was open (it took us a while to figure out what was going on...) but loving the England tunes that were coming on and having some rather amusing chats with the people in the outdoors area. The casual stealing of hats was also on the agenda, with the owner turning out to be here from England with a few of his friends, so we had some chats and jokes with them for a bit, all gravy.

A long-awaited trip to the zoo was called for on Friday, with Berlin Zoo being the zoo with the most species in the world. Boom. And it was pretty epic as well. I'm not sure whether or not I've mentioned it before, but I love monkeys and gorillas and most of that sort of tree-hanging species area, so I was in for quite a treat there. SO cute. Yes. Becca, Amy and I had a whale of a time wandering around there, trying to compose theories as to WHAT that polar bear was doing/thinking, you know how it is... Sadly Mette's departure from Berlin was nearing with every single day, and that evening we had her Abschiedsparty in our flat. Oh yes, we did... There were one hell of a lot of Brauses going on, it has to be said! You always know a party's good when you go to the bathroom, take at look at the clock and it's 8.30 in the morning. Wow. So yes, I think that pretty much says everything you need to know – there were games, music, live music, dancing, more games. Oh, and Brauses... Everything!

This did, however, did have a bit of an effect on the activities the next day. We obviously stayed in bed until rather late, then Mette came in and the three of us just lay on my bed with Green Wing playing on my laptop and fell asleep again... A very productive day! Unfortunately the first of my two weekend departures was to happen that day, and I took Amy back to the airport for her flight back to England after a fun filled visit – thank you Amy!! That evening Mette and I hit Hafenbar again, overcoming our tiredness due to the Karaoke competition happening there that night. Mette was AMAZING in the first round (she'd have gotten through easily had she been later on so that the judges were as drunk for her as for the others...), getting through to the next five because someone dropped out. However, getting the lowest score of the five to go through she had last pick of the songs to be sung in the second round. With many of them being German Schlager (which we *cough cough* obviously know really well), she was effectively forced to sing I'm Not That Innocent (whacking out the Britney...), still managing to win the judges' votes! Unfortunately with this song, however, she also had to start the next round. The next round being a German Schlager split into three parts... So basically I lied before when I said we know our German Schlager really well... But she improvised shockingly good, and still wound up in second place! For anyone who can't tell, I'm SO proud :D




The first of April. Mette's departure from Berlin :( (and mine, actually, for a week...) We struggled with three suitcases, a guitar, a horn and our “hand-luggage” bags (with most of the luggage obviously being mine ;) ) to the coach station, arriving a bit early and just sitting in front of the bus playing guitar and singing. We're definitely the coolest people in Berlin. Just putting that out there... In fact, we must be, because then we met a guy who came and added his mouth accordion to our musical miscellaneous. So yeah, cool. Anyway, we eventually got to Denmark, where Mette's mum and Søren met us and drove us to Nini's where we stayed the night.



The next day we headed off to Mette's apartment to move in and figure out how things were. It's vairy nice, I'll tell you that much! We settled in a bit, and later (I'm not sure whether I've maybe messed up my days at this point, or at some point) Signe came to visit with her daughter, and we all (along with Anna) went for a walk in the park. Where pigs really do fly, and they have a dummy tree (which I think we need to introduce in England). Basically when your child is too old for their dummies you take them and you hang them on the tree for the dummy fairy so she can give them to other children, and it's really cute, and some of the children have written letters with their parents for the dummy fairy. I want a dummy fairy. That evening we went to a restaurant for dinner – one word: Buffet. I was stuffed.




Tuesday we had a bit of a trip round Copenhagen, saw the sights, got free Ben and Jerry's. You know, standard! We cycled round town (I don't think I've ever seen so many bikes before in my life, not even in Berlin!), getting to grips with everything, went on a boat, took a trip to the mermaid. Yeah, pretty standard. And in the evening Nini and Anna came over for dinner, and we made Fajitas. Also very standard for us.




The next day we did a bit of shopping, got some new shoes and took a trip to the beach to get our feet wet. Of course. Because it was really warm. In the evening we had dinner with Mette's mum and Søren (wow, can he cook!), just generally staying late and chatting. Thursday brought the arrival of Viktor. Oh Viktor. How can you do so much in so little time?! We started our jollities rather early in the day to celebrate his arrival, with the gin and tonic being at quite interesting proportions... Then in the evening we headed off to Charlie Scott's for Jazz Five's warm up gig (rather good band, by the way, recommended!). I think there's only one person who I've lost that many times in one night (remaining nameless), and that definitely wasn't quite to the same scale as this! Whilst still in Charlie Scott's we got a phone call from him requesting our whereabouts, because, having thought we had for some reason gone else where, he had gotten in a taxi and was somewhere in the middle of town. Ok. Lost number 1. This happened again that night, though we managed to somehow find him again. Then, somewhere between two bars (or in one of the bars, I'm not quite sure) we lost him again. And didn't find him again, despite several phone calls between several people. So we just stayed in the Happy Pig (interesting choice of name...) with live music for a while before heading home. To be woken up around 6. With a request for directions for wherever we supposedly were at that point in time. Eventually arriving in a taxi (with no money to pay for it...), he was greeted by some VERY (ok, one, because I was too lazy to get up...) unhappy bunnies. It was a bundle of laughs... Determined not to have quite the same thing happen the next night, we kept quite a close eye on Viktor on Friday (at the real gig), which was definitely a good plan! Though when we wanted him to go home we did offload him on some other unfortunates...

With it being Mette's big return to Denmark there was a little surprise waiting for her on Saturday. By surprise, I do of course mean a surprise party. It was SO well done, the effort put into it was incredible, and I have to say Mette is very lucky to have so many people so intent on her having a good time back in Copenhagen. Plus they're all really lovely people, which makes everything so much better! Though I wasn't necessarily loving it all that much when I had to get my coach back to Berlin at 06.30 the next morning...

After a lot of complexity (very complex, don't ask), I was asked to play first horn in Britten's War Requiem for a concert in early May. Which led to my attending the first rehearsal on the Tuesday. See, everything has a point. Tuesday also being my first day back at uni. Because we don't have the same holidays as England, so yes, we will start back the day after Easter Monday. Fun, right? But yes, I'm not sure four hour rehearsals after days in uni are always the most productive thing. But they should have thought about that in advance...

Being cool as I am, I went to the Sprachzentrum nice and early the next day to book my Sprachkurse, which is always a bit of an effort and a half, especially as I didn't bring my “Schein” to prove that I'd passed my courses last semester. But whatever, as I'm a genius I managed the registration anyway :P And had a horn lesson later that day, before meeting up with Becca for some chillaxing with chocolate milkshakes. Mmmmmmmm.

Having had Ren withdrawal symptoms, Mette arrived back in Berlin the next day for a ten day visit (Berlin (and I, of course) is pretty hard to give up just like that!). So yes. This meant Friday = party at Sandra's. Fun times, meeting of new people, learning from grammatical mistakes. All the things you need for a party. Plus I had a skype chat with George on Friday, where we established that he'd be a good Frenchman. And that we should go out in London, though this will probably end badly, as previously discussed...

On Friday I met up with Nadi for Sushi (I told you the people from bars keep coming back to life!) before getting Becca round for some games and a trip between the three of us to Frannz... The games continued, let's just put it that way... We teamed up with Evamaria and her visitor for dancing and... hilarity? Can I call it that? Probably. However, I do have to admit that late night clubbing is probably not the best thing when you're planning on visiting the opera the next day... Which I was (in case anyone didn't get the hint...). So I met up with Almut (who had also been up rather late the night before) and we went to the komische Oper to watch Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier, which, despite the consequences from the night before, was rather good, even if I didn't quite approve of parts of it... And hit the pub afterwards for some discussion. With our class. See, it was an educational pub visit. Bet most people can't say that.

Mum arrived from Poland pretty early the next day, and after booking her into the youth hostel and seeing a few of the sights we met up with Mette for lunch in the Mensa, then meeting up with Vanessa for some group Rosenkavalier work before a rather overfilled seminar. And because it was Yulia's birthday we then had a sort of meal picnic thing in her room that evening, with brownie cakeeeeeeeeee :)

Between my language course and orchestra Becca and I met up for a hot chocolate to discuss the developments of the week. That makes it sound rather intellectual. I assure you it wasn't. This was followed, obviously, by the first orchestra rehearsal of term. Shostakovich 10 and Dvorak Cello Concerto – quite a program! And then, because every country needs a Klimach invasion at at least some point in its existence, Boy, Hepsie and Baby arrived, which led to a pizza and Rum fuelled evening. I think that sums that up nicely.

Having Wednesday off Uni I again delved into the tourist attractions in Berlin with guests. Anything else to tell there? I think that tells it all. No, that's a lie. We didn't hit quite all the usual tourist attractions. We started off with an old children's hospital. Then we headed off to Tempelhoff (which is one of the usuals, just not one I've been to before) and then to the fruit and veg market at Yorckstraße before then starting with the normal tourist attractions. There you go.




After a full day at uni on Thursday (yes, 10-18. Try that.), we dolled ourselves up for a bit of dancing at Alte Kantine, old style. Having had her bag searched at the entrance, Mette was found guilty of possessing whipped cream, though we were granted entry providing she promised not to spray it in the club. Maybe they remember us from last time... Becca also met us there along with a few of her friends who were visiting Berlin at the time, so that was all interesting. But they didn't play our spice girl requests, which upset us a bit. I mean, that coupled with the ban on Sprühsahne was a bit much, if I'm honest with you!

Being a bad girl and going against all possible German traditions, I naughtily celebrated my birthday on the Friday, almost a week early! Shock horror... Oh well. I left my year behind in style. Fancy dress style – definitely not Germans' favourite thing, I promise you! Though I did get quite a few responses – Mette and I were clowns, my siblings were Wally (Where's Wally, not the robot), Minnie Mouse and Luigi, and then I also had a variety of things including Pippi Langstrumpf, Alvin, Schnee Weiß and Rote Rose, Heidi, and many more! This is, however, where the Sprühsahne was introduced – and I apologise to anyone who got bruised in the fight.... As Joe was to tell us later that week, food is not to be played with. I shall learn my lesson. One day.




I think the Reichstag got quite a great impression of the Klimachs in Berlin when we arrived the next day... We were loving it. Plus it was very sunny. We had a rave. And then took forever to get back home because of demonstrations in the town centre – thanks firemen/bagpipers! Still never figured out what all that was about. But we still made it to the airport in plenty of time, sitting eating Teddy's Hits for a while. Yeah...

With hopes for the return of Karaoke, Mette, Natali, Simon and I had a picnic in Mauerpark the next day. And we weren't disappointed, no no. In fact, I don't think anyone there was disappointed that day... So, with the best seats in the house, Mette signed up for the Karaoke (being amazing as usual), and, having allowed Mette and a bit of wine to take influence, after a while I signed myself up too......... Yes. It's at this point where the picnicking really has an impact. You see, there was quite a lot of food from my party on the Friday, and with Andy having presented Mette and I with a box of Schaumküsse each, there was no way it was going to end well. So. The next thing you need to know is that when you eat a Schaumkuss, you have to smash it with the Schamkuss your neighbour is eating. Which went fine when Natali and I were eating them. Mette, on the other hand. Well, as most of you know, she is quite the child. Which meant there was a bit of a mess. On both of our faces. And then more of a mess. And then a bit of a fight. And then, right after one got smashed on my glasses, my name got called to sing. Yeah... I think we showed Mauerpark a thing or two that day... So yes. I'm quite proud of what I like to call my bravery here. I stepped up and sang. Covered in Schaumkuss. I really do have to thank the people who presented me with water and tissues to wash it off my hands, though, otherwise it just wouldn't have happened. Yeah. It's going to take quite something to match up to that. When I finished Mette also came and chased me around the stage with the last Schaumkuss. Yeah... We then sat in the sun for another few hours before getting the tram home and attempting to persuade Aysel and her friends that that's the new thing at Mauerpark now – if you sing then they cover you in Schaumküsse. I'm not sure they believed us. And you know what the worst part is? There are still three Schaumküsse in my room and Mette's visiting again in a few weeks....




Right. Less than a month to go. Phew. Mette left the next day, because obviously she can't actually just stay forever with me. Apparently then you can't actually finish a degree. Or work. Whatever. More orchestra the next day. There's a lot of orchestra coming up. It'll probably make my writing this faster...

Wednesday. I had a lovely skype with one of my favourite gingers. By which I mean Rozzy. She's such a babe. And then Becca came round and we headed out for some dancing fun as well as a few challenges thrown in there, you know, just for fun! For some reason we also bought olives stuffed with garlic, cheese, pombears and pringles for the way home. But who's judging, right? I mean, if anyone's going to judge they should probably judge the late night playing of play mobil rather than the food... It did, however, mean that the next day was a bit of a write-off – after 8 hours straight in uni you don't really feel up to much if you've only had a few hours sleep!




Friday: Orchestra. Although this takes more than just that, so maybe I lied with what I said about orchestra before. It was our Berlin Probewochenende, so yeah. Then afterwards Wiebke invited me to an archaeology party, which I obviously rocked. There was beer, rum, people. Pretty cool. Oh. And it was in a library. Because that's completely normal, right? I don't know, I'm not sure any uni in England would let you have a party in the library. But who's judging?

Saturday: Orchestra. AND the Keller is back!!! This has made me very happy. Kicker and beer after rehearsal is what everyone needs. And in the middle of orchestra we had a brunch outside in the Sun (it was SO sunny), and it was all very lovely and lovely and lovely.

And on Sunday I rested. With Freddy (my exchange partner) being in Berlin for a few days I met up with her for lunch on Monday, which was all groovy, followed by a bit of relaxation in Lustgarten. And yes, I got sunburnt in April. Only on my left side. I like to think of it as skill. And in the evening there was orchestra.




Tanz in den Mai. That's another thing we need in England. It was SO sunny, like you wouldn't believe. I met up with Becca and we headed down to Volkspark Friedrichshain for a bit of Salsa in the Park with Natali, Johannes, Christoph, Vanessa, and whoever else was invited... We danced, we barbecued, we chatted. It was lurvely. Then it chucked it down with rain. But somehow it was still soooooo nice, and we just danced in the rain for a while (about an hour maybe?) before catching the tram home, absolutely soaked! Yeah :) There should be more days like that.

On Wednesday I met up with Freddy and her brother for lunch in a cute little restaurant in Moabit before heading into Uni for a one-off Rosenkavalier Seminar – we managed to get the conductor from the production we went to see to come and speak to our class, so it was pretty cool :)

Thursday: Orchestra. Then afterwards I met up with Sara, who I haven't seen in absolutely forever! We went to a little pub near Warschauer Straße, which was really cute, and just chatted and caught up on a lot of news! So yes, that was pretty nice.

After a horn lesson the next day I sorted my life out a little bit (it would take a lot longer to sort it out a lot) before going to Johannes' for his housewarming party. He possibly regrets that... There were games etc. (people here are bumming all over English games) and some tests of strengths, which I'd just like to let everyone know I won. And that's no lie! Yeah...

So. Almost there, about two weeks to go, I reckon... With her brother visiting, Becca and I decided to make another trip to Matrix. Something tells me we go there too often... So yes, after a few games and Brauses at mine, James ended up not coming out with us (he was tired from the night before!), so Becca, Louis and I headed off just the three of us. Armed with rum and vodka. It was... an interesting night! Let's just say we didn't all manage to stick together... To this day we're still not quite sure what exactly happened to Becca... But there was still dancing, which always makes things good. Until ridiculous o'clock in the morning...

This was followed by a relatively early (compared to the hour of the return home) trip to Amelie's the next day. But definitely well worth it for the Käsespätzle. Wow. I don't think I need to say anything more to that point. And the day was obviously made perfect by the essay that was waiting to be finished at home when I got back...



Monday: Orchestra. Tuesday: Orchestra + Keller (Luis and I: five games of Kicker, 100% win. Improvement from last Semester? I think so.). Wednesday: Orchestra. Hey, what do you know, I was right!

Anyway. On Thursday Amelie, Laura, Mareike, Christopher and I went for frozen yoghurt and then sat and chatted in Lustgarten. Which was definitely better than the lecture we were supposed to be in... Then I met up with Süley for the first time in about forever! We went for a few beers in a Biergarten near where I live and just chatted and drew on my hand. Because we're normal like that. And that evening Arne came back for the night, so we also had chats until rather late, quite proper DMCs, actually, now I come to think about it. Definite bit of bonding right there.

Friday: Orchestra, Saturday: Orchestra + Concert (in the Berliner Dom!). Then Theresa, Moritz and I went out for a few drinks, which was cool, especially as we haven't done anything together in far too long. So yeah, which just sat in a bar and chatted for a while. Surrounded by football fans...

Despite it not being the best weather in the world, Becca and I met up for a picnic the next day, though swapping part way from park to the garden behind her flat, due to the grey skies... And on the way we found Louis, who was meant to be there earlier, but hadn't quite made it out of bed in time... But yes, we picnicked, talked, played games (oh we wrote some publish worthy stories) and then spent a bit of time sitting in front of her bathroom watching youtube videos. Don't ask...

After my seminar on Monday I met up with Charlotte and Amelie to go and see The First Rasta in Germany's oldest cinema. Yeah, how many of you have been there? It was quite quaint, small and cosy, really nice. And the film was pretty good, actually. I say film, it was a documentary. But you can google that for yourselves.

Tuesday: Orchestra. And Keller. And Kicker. And dancing. With new people. Well, new people for me, they've pretty definitely been there before me. But I like new people. Luis and I still did pretty well on that Kicker table, though I do have to say we've unfortunately lost a bit of our Zing from the week before. But don't worry, we're determined to get it back! But yes, quite a while in the Keller there, getting home about 5.30 in the morning. Ah, Berlin, I <3 you!

Almost there! Right. So on Wednesday we had our Hoffest for the Musik- und Medienwissenschaften. Pretty cool. Basically everyone bring food and buy beer there. A bit like the Keller, but at the top of a building instead of underneath it. Plus you get to realise that the man who rules over all the music in the library is a bit of a legend, and will happily open a Seminar room for dancing with toons. Yeah. And after that we had a bit of a crawl, effectively seeing how many pubs we can stay in before they shut, starting in Aufsturz, heading off to Fire and then another one whose name I don't know. Learning the bunny game on the way. Of course. And eventually leaving the last pub at 6 in the morning. That's something they don't have in England...

However two rather late nights after one another generally lead to a doss day. That was yesterday. (And today, sort of...) Although I did give my horn a bath, so let's give that some credit! And today... Well, I've practised at least. And written this. Which doesn't exactly take no time and effort! Later I'm meeting up with Katrin again and going out anyway. So hah. And I think that's all for now! Thanks to anyone who actually makes it to the end of this.... I'm impressed!