Hurricaaaaaane!

Hurricane Festival in Scheesel has come and gone. I don't really feel like thinking right now, so instead of writing much I'll just post some photos. Enjoy!

This is the sky as we were driving in to the campground on Thursday... ominous much!? It poured rain much of the weekend. Practically made up for not being able to afford Glastonbury.

Campgrounds... stretched for miles. 

The girl who made it all happen! My amazing sister Annika. 

The crowd at Arcade Fire... as seen from the first row, WHERE WE WERE STANDING! 

Arcade Fire, highlight of the festival...

Arctic Monkeys!

Love that these campers had a flag that referenced the Little Prince!

Steve, drummer of Blood Red Shoes

Laura, Guitarist of Blood Red Shoes. They played in a crazy rainstorm, in danger of being electrocuted but they totally rocked their brains out nonetheless. 

Campground in the afternoon

Campground at sunset

More rain clouds!

Bright Eyes... They were so impressive. Conor was really on-point. 

Campground tear-down. Sad Monday morning. 

down by the sea.

This morning it was hot. H.O.T. hot. Sunny, cloudless blue sky, pressing humidity. Despite my konversation teacher's warning yesterday about a Gewitter (thunderstorm,) I thought I could really use a trip to the beach.

I felt that I especially deserved such a treat after the 45 minute disaster that was me trying to teach German 5th graders about the "simple past tense" in English.

So after I got home, ate lunch, washed up some dishes and checked some emails, I got ready for an afternoon in the sand. I packed the newest issue of Neon magazine, put a few new chuuunes on my Droid (most notably L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N. by Noah and the Whale) shoved a banana in my bag and headed off to Markleeberger lake ≈≈≈≈≈≈ in my red Wendy Pfefferkorn bathing suit (bathing suit = Badeanzeug, thank you ubiquitous H&M ads.)

When I arrived at the beach after a 15 minute bike ride, I was a bit disappointed at the lack of space under the few trees- even though I am a fervent lover of beach-time, I have some skin issues and shouldn't really be in direct sun too much. However, since all the shady spots were snagged, I somewhat reluctantly laid out my blanket on a square of sand and laid down in the full sun.

I took a look around me, as I am want to do, and saw the unavoidable naked and/or half-naked bods.  Now, I totally understand and accept the German concept of freie körper kultur (free body culture) but when you're a naked 65 year old couple and you suddenly decide to start playing football on the beach, well, I feel like at that point you're just messing with us.

As it turned out, I didn't have to endure naked kicking sports for too long, because after about 20 minutes or so  the sky began to turn an ominous blue-black. I began to see streams of rain across the lake, so I packed up and cycled home, attempting to beat the storm.

I've been laying on my bed for a half hour now and still no rain. Although the thunder is starting to roll in.

I think the rest of today will be dedicated to re-watching the 1st part of the Doctor Who midseason finale, and finally watching the last episode. Might even squeeze in a nap, but after that comes...

PUB QUIZ!

Es Weihnachtet Sehr.

Winter hibernation has begun. Lately the pattern has been; wake up (at the last possible second,) go to school, come home, make tea, snuggle under the covers and immerse myself in internet. I've taken a break with the whole "I'm in Europe, I'll sleep when I'm dead" business and started wanting to constantly be in jammies, wrapped in blankets and drinking hot beverages. 

Which isn't to say I haven't been doing anything at all. In fact, the past week was pretty eventful and the upcoming weekend looks to be more of the same. 

Elli coerced me out of the house last week with the promise of hot glühwein and Weihnachten treats. We nommed on pommes mit majo and had a nice little spaziergang. The Christmas Market is in full swing, and it spreads all through the city center. Unfortunately I didn't get too many shots, due to the premature death of my camera's battery.

As evidenced from the photos below, Christmas (Wiehnacht) is NOT TAKEN LIGHTLY in Germany. IT'S A BIG FREAKING DEAL.

Reisenrad

The tops of the Finnish Weihnachts Markt Tee Pee's are peeking up at the bottom of this shot

Just this past Monday Elli took me to see a Berlin-based electro-pop duo called I'm not a Band. The group consists of a boy and a girl and their electric violins. That's right, they BOTH play electric violin. Echt super. Here's a link to a clip of Monday's show at Werk II.

It's getting late and I actually need to get some sleep, I'm getting up early tomorrow. My friend Miri is going with me to the Auslandsamt in the morning to help me try to get an extension on my visa application, which needs to be done because otherwise I'm going to be illegal in two days! Ooops. 

1,000 plus!

First off, I have to say I am well pleased... the blog has reached 1,000+ hits! Thanks for looking! Please don't be shy... leave me a comment, let me know who you are and/or what you think. I truly do appreciate you taking time to stop by here.

The past few days have been really super-spectacular. I think I'll start with today and work backwards.

I had my first exam this afternoon... Grammar. Ugggh. I think it went pretty well, though, on the whole. After class I walked over to the train station (inside of which is a massive shopping center) and picked up a bottle of almond syrup and a milk frother, in order to be able to make myself London Fogs a la my lovely friend Jim's favorite Starbucks bevvie. Once home and with said beverage created (unfortunately there's a lot of room for improvement in my technique,) I settled down into a Gmail phone chat with my mom and type up this here blog. An excellent way to spend a chilly evening.

Yesterday I just hung about the apartment, doing not-much-of-anything all day until my GDR photography class. After that was over Tracy and I decided to try this place near the Universität called Maza Pita for dinner- excellent find on her part, it was DEEEELISH. I got a maza plate with baba ganoush, hummus, and lebneh. Yum.  I luuuuurve Mediterranean food.

After dinner Tracy, Melinda and I walked over to Petersbogen to see HARRY POTTER und der Heilige der Todes (or whatever the heck it's called in German.) and it was maaaagnificent.

HP7

I was so, so impressed with the film. It was definitely too scary for kids (I was thinking of the Reading clan the whole time,) and there were some pretty randy moments too, but on the whole it was incredible. Thankfully we waited to watch it in English, because it would have lost so much without the original voices of the actors. I'm really not much for over-dubbed films.

Which, since we're moving backwards, brings us to the weekend, happily spent split between my two Berlinerin friends Peggy and Kristy. I had a blast, as I always do in Berlin with such wonderful friends and exciting surroundings. Friday I walked around the city by myself for hours, snapping a million photos and generally being a tourist.

Siegessäule

Brandenburger Tor

 I picked up a Christmas gift for my baby bro and took in the Color Fields exhibit at Deutsche Guggenheim.

Stella @ Berlin Guggenheim

After a thoroughly satisfying Stadtrundfährt (city tour) I met Kristy around 23.00 at Warschauerstraße and we began our adventures in Kreuzberg, starting off after Berliner (donuts) at our favorite watering hole, Fuchsbau. However, it ended up being much too crowded and not as appealing a scene as our last visit there, so we ventured across the street where we encountered a fantastic DJ spinning some incredible 90's R&B and HipHop and loads of people dancing. It was the perfect spot to start off our night.

The DJ in this bar was so spot on.

Kristy as Jumpin' Jack Flash...

Friday night lasted well into Saturday morning with Kristy and her friends, "the Danish boys," as she refers to them, and a couple of their breathtaking girlfriends at a pub called "ä" in Neukölln.

Danish specimen.

I finally flopped into bed around 7am at Peggy's. I am so lucky to have the amazing friends that I do! There aren't many people as hospitable as the divine Ms. Peg.

Kaffee und Blümen

When I finally woke up in the afternoon, Peggy made some coffee and we sat and had a really nice chat. She's such a sweet and remarkably intelligent person. I'm so grateful to have been introduced to her (thanks Abby!)

Later on Saturday I met up with Elli (a Leipzig friend) and her buddy Jonas at the Warschauerstraße Ubahn station. We had a heiße Schokolade together inside a cafe as an anti-fascist/anit-Nazi demonstration marched by.

Heiße Schokolade mit Sahne

 I ran outside with my camera and made myself a right fool in the name of journalism, jumping up on a chair and taking photos as the crowd marched by chanting and blaring a White Stripes song (maybe it was Icky Thump? I don't remember...) from a huge set of speakers on a truck.

Anti-Fascism march through Friedrichshain

The three of us parted ways soon after finishing our hot chocolates, as Elli was off to see Interpol after having interviewed the band for motor.de earlier in the day.

Alone again, I headed further into Friedrichshain down Simon-Dach Straße and was greeted by Kristy in front of her local cafe, DachKammer. It was one of those lovely, warm, homey sort of places, and we snuggled down for a chat in an antique couch.

DK, Kristy's local coffee shop

After Kristy finished her cappucino we headed to her apartment and acted like complete and utter girls, quatschen (chatting), cooking, listening to music and dying Kristy's hair an intense shade of copper, which I was thrilled to do for her. She was so happy with the results!

We took it easy Saturday night, sticking mostly to Kristy's Friedrichshain nabe and some nearby spots in Kreuzberg, getting home around 3am desperate for pommes mit majo (french fries with mayonnaise,) as the nearby döner place was fresh out. Ever resourceful, Kristy sliced up some potatoes and popped them in the oven, and I whipped up some homemade mayo.

Don't have any mayonnaise? Whip up some homemade at 3:30 AM! 

Sated, we went to sleep with intentions of rising early for the Mauerpark Flöhmarkt (flea market,) and early we did rise, to a bright, crisp sunny Berlin Mittag (Yes. Waking up at noon is early.) We got ourselves pretty and headed out to do some filming for her upcoming documentary, and captured a few shots she'd been wanting to film. After the "work" was done, we took the Straßenbahn to Mauerpark, hoping for the famous Mauerpark Karaoke.

The crowd mourns the lack of Karaoke... or maybe that was just me.

Unfortunately it wasn't going on, probably due to the onset of winter, so instead we frittered away what short amount of daylight there was in a cozy log cabin in the middle of Mauerpark.

Log cabin in Mauerpark.

Glühwein-vision

Kristy, her friend Marie and Marie's Spanish friend and I spent the whole evening drinking Glühwein, which is warm mulled wine. It's called "glow wine" I suppose because of the lovely glowing feeling it gives! Half of mine and Kristy's time was spent making eyes across the table at a group of gorgeous German boys, of which there is no shortage in Berlin.

I was trying to move backwards through this post but I did the weekend in chronological order, so it's with hearty apologies that I skip back to Thursday.

I met my friend Elli in Connewitzer Kreuz here in Leipzig and we headed off to Conne Island where the British band Blood Red Shoes were playing. The plan was, Elli would interview the band and I would be her photographer. I was/am so grateful for that experience! It was so much fun. I hadn't heard of the band before Elli invited me to the show, and I'm happy to report that they were just as great as Elli said they'd be. We met Laura, the guitarist/singer, before the show and Elli conducted an interview with her. I sat at the table adjacent them and snapped a few shots but mostly just felt sort of awkward and intrusive, and tried to be very quiet and not interrupt. I got to take a few shots of Laura and her bandmate Steve.

Steve and Laura

The band is comprised of just the two of them, they both sing and Steve plays drums, though during the encore of the show they did switch off and showcase how multi-talented they both are! During the show I was granted access to the photo pit, but being an ABSOLUTE amateur, I didn't realize photographers could only be in the pit for the first three songs of the set, and so I missed my chance. I still did get some first class shots from my spot in the crowd, using motor.de's Nikon D60. You can read (if you can read German) Elli's interview with Laura of Blood Red Shoes here. I'm really hoping to be able to collaborate more with Elli as her photographer- it was an absolute blast!

Straight rocking.

Laura shreds.

After the show we hung out with Steve, whose exuberant energy and open, positive attitude was remarkable to watch. The night ended, as ever, with POMMES MIT MAJO! Oh, and lots more wine back at Elli's house.

As for the upcoming week, tomorrow Tracy and I plan on taking in Menomena at Skala here in Leipzig. I'll happily report on the show if we end up going. Of course, Thursday is Thanksgiving so the Americans here are of course going to put out all the stops for a delicious meal and share with our British and German buddies. I can't wait for the parade!

Well, that's all for now. Thanks again for reading. I can't believe it, more than 1,000 hits! Yay! V. cool. Hope you keep coming back.