1. Stötteritz

This is going to be a two parter; Sunday was unbelievably gorgeous, and I decided the best use of my time was not going to look at photos in a gallery (as I had planned) but going on a photo mission. I took almost 400 from start to finish! Here are some photos of things in my neighborhood, Stötteritz. The two at the end, however, are from Augustusplatz, which is in the city center.

Textilpflege, Papiermühlstraße

Garage

Polizei, Riebeck/Stötteritzerstraße

Stötteritzerstraße

Lights strung outside my favorite döner place.

Near Oeststraße.

mdr building (I have no idea what this is actually called.) Augustusplatz.

Baustelle. Augustusplatz.

B & Dubbs

London Underground

Leipzig Gewandhaus

Near the Uni Library

London

Leipzig

Church near the Volkerschalgdenkmal

Tracy at der Flohmarkt, Mauerpark Berlin.

Cool Stuff that's Happened in the Past Two Days

• Found a Polaroid photo on the ground, half buried in some wet leaves, while walking home from the Ausländerbehörde yesterday. Some (but not most) of you will know that I was obsessed with Polaroids for some time. Found Polaroids are something of a Holy Grail.

A found Polaroid of someone's bathroom...

• Met a cute English farmer yesterday at a dance party night here in Leipzig. He was completely uninterested in me, but whatever. 
• Thrifting today; found a brown leather jacket (finally!) for FIVE EUROS! only! It's not exactly the style I was looking for but it will do. It's pretty tough-looking.

my new coat!

• Other thrifted things- 2 books, one a children's book, the other a travel book of Prague written in (I think?) Czech. Both have outstanding illustrations. 

Procházky Prahou

Procházky Prahou

Das Mädchen Heika

Das Mädchen Heika

Das Mädchen Heika

• I bleached my own hair for the first time since high school, and it came out really nice! A very snowy white-blond. My favorite. 

blondierung

• I found out how to properly use my washing machine so I now have ACTUALLY clean clothes. Endlich! 

• Just booked a return to Berlin for next weekend (BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE is playing!) for nur €39! So. Rad.

ich liebe der 'schland...

This week has been uneventful in a good way. Shlepping myself to classes, buying crap like new makeup and a shower scrubbie thing at the drug store, reading magazines, listening to Podcasts, thinking about my future (ugh.) and of course, trying desperately to get some of this language to sink in. In so many ways I love German... I find it charming that it uses forms like "thee" and "thou" and words equivalent to "hither" and "thither" and also phrases things; "I like it not" or "that goes not" instead of "I don't like it" or "that doesn't go" oh, and also the word "one" to refer to the collective "you." It's all very medieval and somehow romantic. But it also doesn't really make sense in my brain, and most especially when I open my mouth to let words fall out. Generally that doesn't go very well.

So I was pleasantly surprised when I was able to (almost... kind of... sort of) engage in a conversation with the lady at the Ausländerbehörde, or Foreign Office, where I was applying for a visa today. See, living in Germany is totally cool, no problem, do as you like... for three whole months. However, if you want to stay longer, you have to get a visa, which in theory, shouldn't be a problem for someone studying here. In theory. However, the reality is that in order to stay, one must have a whole crap-load of money in the bank, around the tune of €6.380 (six thousand three hundred eighty euros... German uses a dot in numbers where we in English use a comma and vice versa...) Multiply that by the current € to $ exchange rate and... ouch. Obviously, I do not have this kind of dough sitting in the bank, let alone in my German bank account. So, in order to get my student visa and be allowed to stay in the country for the appropriate amount of time, I need to prove my financial independence. 

In order to do this, I can hopefully get Financial Aid at school to fax something over to "vouch" for the fact that this money is really coming to me. But who knows. The only thing I'm sure about in this situation is that my legal stay is ending in less than a month. So that's kind of stressing me out.

Other than that, things are good. My classes are great. I take two "real" university courses at Uni Leipzig. The first is Deutsche Demokratik Republik/Bundesrepublik Deutschland Foto, in which we look at and learn about photography in the GDR (socialist) and BRD (capitalist) mostly in the 60's, 70's and 80's. The other is a module called "Englisch Unterricht," which is teaching English to German kids. The seminar is in English, the lecture is entirely in German, and aside from my friend Melinda, everyone in the module is German.

My other two classes are in the category of German as a Foreign Language, one being Phonetics and the other Grammar. Altogether it's a pretty light load, to be honest. I dropped one course, Deutsch für Geisteswissenschaftler, because I found it tedious and boring and it interfered with my ability to attend observation at the middle school for the Teaching English module.

Now I get to spend my Monday afternoons hanging out with little rascals at Apollonia Mittelschule in Connewitzer Kreuz. I totally love it. I'm obligated not to say anything about any of the kids personally, but as a whole, they are a lovely bunch, and I feel like I'm accomplishing something more meaningful to my degree when I'm actually in a classroom, even though it's not an art classroom. Kids are kids and classroom management is classroom management so there's definitely going to be something to learn. 

The Big B.

The Big B. Berlin. If I wasn't in love with it already, the past weekend really cemented my feelings for this city. I'm officially in love. And I think it probably has as much to do with the three amazingly lovely women that I spent time with there as it does the city itself.

Tracy and I used a website called mitfahrgelegenheit.de to find a ride to Berlin on Friday evening. We lucked out and found a ride for €9 with a really cool chick. I've heard Mitfahr can be a crapshoot, but so far in my experience (used it once last summer) it's pretty great; far cheaper and faster than trains.

Arriving in Berlin at around 9pm, we immediately set out to find the Wombar and my two friends Brian (a bartender there) and Kristy, whom I had previously met in London. We jumped on the U-Bahn and headed in to Mitte,  easily found Wombar, snagged a couple of biers and had a chat with Brian on his smoke-break. Minutes later we saw Kristy at a table with some student friends of hers, and a joyful reunion between the two of us ensued; our chance encounter in a London pub has led to a completely solid friendship the likes of which I couldn't be happier about.

After finishing up our beers and promising Kristy we'd see her later and enjoying a surprise appearance from my friend Maria, (the afore-mentioned Brian's lovely girlfriend,) Tracy and I headed off to meet our hostess for the weekend, Peggy. Peggy is a friend of my good friend Abby in the States, and I've been looking forward to meeting her ever since Abby told me about her one night at Hardware over the summer. I was right to be so keen because Peggy is an incredible lady!  That night Peggy, a few of her friends, Tracy and I rolled out for the (guest list only!) "Kill All Hipsters" dance party at the Roter Salon back in Mitte. Kristy met us  there and the lot of us danced the night (and much of the morning) away on the DJ platform.

The view from the DJ platform at the Kill All Hipsters party.

The next day got off to an expectedly slow start after the previous night's shenanigans, but we managed to explore Kreuzberg a tiny bit and find an amazing hamburger place with a variety of vegetarian options called Ketchup & Majo (the German "j" sounds like an English "y"... the letter itself is pronounced "yot," so read "Majo" as "Mayo.") I had the halloumi "burger" and a side of potato wedges, which were perfectly seasoned and fried to a crispy golden brown. Yum.

After an evening nap back at Peggy's, Tracy and I were off to hit the town again with Kristy.

Road beers, foxes, swans, and a Molskine. 

Road-beers in hand, we three started off from the Kottbusser Tor U-Bahn stop and after 20 minute's walk and a brief encounter with urban swans and a fox, wound up at Fuchsbau.

Tracy and Kristy, being adorable.

Your humble narrator.

Translated, Fuchsbau is "The Fox Burrow," which was ironic as we'd just seen a real live urban version of the animal. Fuchsbau is a really cool bar in Kreuzberg that reminded me of Enid's in Brooklyn, only smaller. However, true to the name, the percentage of foxy dudes was, thankfully, just as high.

Foxy

Foxes and foxettes at Fuchsbau, Kreuzberg

The night progressed with the three of us wandering the streets of Kreuzberg in search of a Motown dance party, slurring already-poor German at one another and generally being ridiculous in the best possible way. We found the Motown party in full swing at about 4am. Germans seriously know how to party!

The crowd at the Motown party

However, we were all knackered and no longer much for dancing, so another beer later we slunk out of the massive club and began the U-Bahn/S-Bahn journey back to Peggy's, finally falling (ganz erschöpft!) into bed around 6 am.

The next day Tracy and I stirred considerably early and made our way back to Kreuzberg to meet Kristy for brunch in an amazing little diner called San Remo.

Time for vittles.

Our waitress was sort of hard to figure out; she seemed nice but also a bit exasperated by us, which was curious. I asked her where she was from, because she was obviously American, and when she said "Seattle" I said that was rad and that I have a friend who lives there- to which she said something snarky like "Oh, yeah, I probably know him, I know everyone in that city." and walked away.   

Mmmmmm...

I am not clear on why she felt the urge to be rude but she's lucky the eggs benedict with hollandaise was beyond amazing or I'd have been annoyed and not recommended the place to you.

View of a giant graffiti piece off of a bridge in Kreuzberg.

After stuffing ourselves, we reluctantly said our goodbyes to Kristy and headed to the Mauerpark Flohmarkt (flea market) where we unexpectedly ran into Peggy, her friend Andy and another friend of theirs. We walked together to the flohmarkt but parted ways when Tracy and I entered the market grounds.

Fuckin City.

Brille

A chestnut roasting vehicle (?!!?!??!)

Seasonal gemüse

Unlike the flea market here in Leipzig that I complained about, this one was on a whole other level. Some seriously amazing wares were being offered, but unfortunately our brunch had run so late we were pressed for time to make the train. However, I thoroughly intend to make another attempt at this incredible spot.

All in all, an fabulous trip that not only expanded my ever-growing love of Berlin but also put me in touch with some truly amazing people. Hanging out with three women with such creative and motivated personalities and positive attitudes was nothing short of inspiring. I can't wait until the next trip to Berlin!

experimenting

Decided to try a little filming... just using my old digital camera. The track is by my friend Dom Oxynucid, with vocals by my lovely and talented friend Lisa Mckeon. I'm sorry, I know it's a really boring little piece, hopefully I will get better. Just experimenting with this.

Foggy London nights

I've returned from London newly inspired. Style-wise, health-wise, art-wise and life-wise. I can honestly say I'm glad to be back in Leipzig, although London certainly remains my favorite city. Still though, it's just always nice to come "home", and as of right now, Leipzig is just that (for 8 weeks and one day, to be precise!)

Unfortunately, I don't have all my photos because of the silly mistake of clicking "erase images from memory card" when I uploaded them onto Kate's computer. Which means all the photos are on Kate's computer, and none are on mine. =( Despite the lack of photographic evidence for you, London was incredible, as usual. There's nothing about that city, as of yet, that I don't like.

The weekend started out with a Halloween party in Kentish Town given by Uni friends of my hostess/good friend Kate. It's all kind of a blur of cider, vampires, and Oasis (which is as it should have been, I think.)

On Saturday we took a cruise down the Thames on the Clipper. The Thames Clipper is part of the London transportation system and at 7£ return to Greenwich it was fairly cheap but also really nice. Greenwich, a district of South East London, is best known for giving it's name to the Greenwich Meridian (0° longitude) and also Greenwich Mean time. At night you can see a laser on the 0° line being beamed into the sky. It's very cool there, with a narrow cobblestone road leading you off the Clipper's dock and very traditional English-looking buildings which house pubs, restaurants, pharmacies, shops and of course, Starbucks. There is a massive flea market there on the weekends that I'd love to check out some day.

While there, Kate and I discussed Halloween plans over a mug of warm mulled wine in a pub called the Gipsy Moth.

We didn't end up doing anything particularly "Halloweeny, " instead we went costume-free to a pub tended by a friend of Kate's called Constantine. There were very few patrons, but the cider flowed freely (literally, free drinks!) and the decor was great- the interior was designed by none other than the incomparable Vivienne Westwood (innovative designer, basically invented the "punk" look still worn today of tartan plaids, buckles, safety pins, spikes, etc.)

After that we went to an East London pub called Dave's, a last bastion of "real" East London pubs. I felt like I'd been transported into an episode of East Enders. Brilliant! The clientele included a crowd heavy on 50-60 somethings, as well as a younger, chavvier sort. The off-key drunken singing was absolutely priceless.

On Sunday we were craving a cultural outing, so Kate and I took in Ai Weiwei's installation of 150 million hand-painted porcelain sunflower seeds at the Tate Modern. Very interesting. More interesting if you watch the accompanying video which better explains the concepts of the work.

Later on Sunday we dressed up for Halloween. I've been dying to paint my face like a Dia de los Muertos skull since seeing this image somewhere on the web:

Despite not having exactly the kind of paints I would have liked, I think my version came out pretty decent. I was pretty lame about the whole thing and just copied this design to the letter, but I was in a hurry. ;)

Kate put together a hippy costume... it was adorable, as are most things Kate does. We stopped at a few pubs in Camden, two of which we'd been to the last time I was there. Camden wasn't too hopping, which I chalk up to it being a Sunday. We had a great time anyway, ending up at a pub called the Elephants Head or something of that nature where they were playing reggae (despite a decidedly un-reggae crowd) and later some 60's Motown jams, which I can always get down to.

In trademark Kirsten style, I left the pub and basically go straight on a bus to the airport. No sleep, no shower, just straight up hardcore rockin' it. As I like to do. Of course, I did somehow manage to leave both my wallet and cell phone on the coach to Stansted. I think what happened was I fell asleep and they slipped out of my pocket. Really really strange though. Thankfully the wallet was my "going out" wallet and therefore contained only an ID, 7£ cash and two cards. Who knows, I may get it back still. Have to email National Express bus services to see if it was found.

All in all, a most successful trip to London. I absolutely can't wait to do it again. Thankfully, my travel is all booked for December 26th and Kate is letting myself and my friend Chris crash at her flat! It's going to be incredible to be in London around X-mas!