Ok, that's it.
It's taken two months but I have finally got there. I am in the post-breakup psychotic phase. Today I was reading a blog and I was jealous because my ex-boyfriend would like her more than me, never mind he has never met her ( I assume) and she is a lesbian.
In other news a friend just invited me to drinks at a cute Norwegien's (sp?) house tomorrow, so maybe I had better go back to repression.

Ok, so I feel pressure to write something although I feel it is a damn cheek that certain people never comment unless is to complain I haven't written. It is fine for me to write into a void, but the void shouldn't answer back.
Not much has happened in the last week or so, my dad visited me on the weekend, so i showed him around a bit and did some sightseeing etc. The main thing that preoccupied me last week was that my ex-boyfriend butted back into my life briefly so I was thinking about that, but that is not really blogging material and he could quite easily find this (or perhaps already has?) and so I am not keen to write about it here.
Mainly just been hanging out with a few friends and taking it easy. Still trying to sort out my subjects here, today I went to a class on marx in german but this is not a goer, I have no idea what anyone is saying and as it is a seminar, the other students talk also and their voices are much more impenetrable than the teachers. I wanted to do it because the reading list looked really interesting but I think it would be too frustrating.
My computer is driving me nuts at the moment, it is thinking about something else, god knows what, but I am typing faster than it it writing so tchuss.

Also eBay, I love eBay. I have never used it in Australia, but today I picked up my desk which I bought for 1.50 Euro! I currently have bids on two Harry Potter books in German, and also an Art Deco lamp. I a playing it cool however and haven't put any bids on yet, will have to be near the computer tomorrow night to watch the final stages of the bidding process and clinch the deals.

Nothing at this university is easy. The day started off well, I had a great lecture and the lecturer knew what the assessment was for the subject and for Erasmus students (which I am not but I fall into the same category). Then I had a few hours to kill so I thought I would check out the reader situation. Now I already knew that there are no pre-copied readers, some you can order, and others you have to copy yourself. But today I discovered that there are at least two copy-shops which hold the master copies of the readers, so you can't make a clean sweep. And some readers aren't in the copy shops you have to go to the Americanistik/Anglistik Bibliothek and borrow them to copy. There also happens to be a copier outside the library, but you need to buy card first. So I ask the young man who is already attempting to use the machine where I can get a card from. After some miming I realise it is in a completely different building at least 10 minutes walk away. Imagine. So I trek over to where I think the man has described (incidentally the law building) and sure enough there is a man sitting in a little booth with a sign saying Kopie Karten 5.5 Euro, so I try to ask how many copies I can get and I think he said 95 but by this time I was over the whole idea, so I haven't started on any reading for my course yet.

Andrea Dworkin has been dead for over a week and I didn't even know, this is Catherine McKinnon's obit, don't know if you will have to sign in for it.

A night out on the Pfand, or how I became a Catalonian Rat

My friend is from Catalonia, and she had explained to me previously that the Spanish call the Catalonians ‘rats’ as there is the stereotype that they hoard their money, and are always looking for ways to save money. Anyway, as was discussed briefly in another post the Germans love the Pfand (deposit when you buy certain bottles), so last Friday night a few of us went to check out the university start of semester party. I won’t say I didn’t have reservations as the memory of one J.L. starting a fight with a female bouncer and subsequently being escorted from the last university party I went to is still fresh in my mind. It started at 10 and while we were there about half past others in our group decided we were too cool to go into the party then so we went round the corner to another pub for a drink. When we returned at midnight there was a queue consisting of a few hundred people. We waited an hour. Upon the 4 euro entry, my fears were confirmed, this was worse than the Melbourne Uni party, downstairs they were playing top 40, but not the tacky fun stuff just shit, and people had whistles! Upstairs was billed as indy-alternative but seemed more try-hard goth. We had waited an hour and payed the equivalent of $7 so I was gonna stay anyway, and I headed to the beer table. The Pfand was 20c and already I saw a few thrifty people bringing back more bottles than they bought. After a few more beers myself and some energetic dancing (It’s Raining Men! (Weather Girls not Geri!!)) only slightly marred by a nasty habit of the DJ in turning down the music at crucial moments during the song so everyone can drunkenly yell out the words, I started collecting handfuls of bottles on my way back to the bar. And then I discovered that the mixed drinks had a 50c Pfand. My friend Paula and I ended up having a completely free night out, I’m sure it is very non de rigeur (sp?) and people were laughing at us (especially the bar staff) but at least we were making money, and who the fuck were they still at a scheiße uni party at 4am? The next day we were rich but very ashamed, and I am an honorary Catalonian.

Tonight was hilarious, if only for the beer drinking conventions here in Germany. The last time I saw Le Tigre was at the Corner, and there they serve beer in pots, and pay some poor sucker to walk around with a torch during the show and pick up everyone's (hopefully un-smashed) glasses/bottles off the floor. Now in Maria am Schillingsbrucke they do it different. You pay a euro extra for your beer and you get a token, and when you bring the bottle back like good girl, you get your money back. Is very regimented. Anyway, 'Lesbians on Ecstasy' weren't much chop, a bit too techno-y for my tastes but Le Tigre were awesome and the gig itself was much better than the one at the Corner a few months ago.
Afterwards, quite randomly, I ran into a woman from Melb I have been meaning to get in contact with who is on exchange here also, and we went to Barbie Bar, a bright pink establishment were I mostly spoke with woman who performs in Drag Kings in Melbourne so it's a small world.
Ok am a little pissed so am off to bed.

This week has been full of interesting experiences with the German higher education system. I went to a class on Monday, and all the students turned up but not the lecturer, fine. Then yesterday I went to a class with only four students, it will normally be held in English but it was the introductory class so all German, and me nodding and smiling (hopefully in the right places), anyway I think it might not run due to lack of interest. Today I went to another class, where there was both students and a teacher, but the teacher didn't now what the assessment was and to finish my degree this semester I need to get credit, so that might not be a starter either. And then after waiting 'round for an hour, there was a repeat of Monday, with many students/no lecturer. Although on the plus side I spoke with another student in German (very briefly). Tomorrow there is more trial and error, although I think things start in earnest next week so maybe I will be able to sort some stuff out then and finally organise my semester!
[sigh]
After that whinge, tonight I am going to see Le Tigre! The support are called "Lesbians on Ecstasy" so they should be fun also, and there is always more cheap beer to drink.

This is my room, it is actually bigger than it looks here and I have no furniture so it is fairly spacious. My next objective is to get a cheap desk off ebay

This is my building, Iam on the third floor, and my window is just left of the front door.

All the lawn at uni, if you look closely you can see plates and bowls from the Mensa.

This some of the food from the Mensa (a cafeteria for uni students), it is really cheap but usually really gross, and always, always potatoes.

Ok so take two.
Have been getting so much ‘Kultur’ recently that have had no time to blog, ha ha. The people I am hanging out with here seem to know what’s going on much better than me so I have been tagging along to a few exhibitions. On Saturday I went to the Martin Gropius Bau to see the Stanley Kubrick exhibition, I’ve never been a big film buff but it was really interesting (and in English!), I have added Barry Lyndon to my must see list, but I think Lolita and Full Metal Jacket might be too much for me.
And then on Sunday after a quick trip to a flea market, we went to see the "Friedrich Christian Flick Collection" in the Hamburger Bahnhof. The bahnhof itself is a pretty cool space, as you would assume from the name it is a converted train station. Anyway, my friend explained to me (in German and patchy English so I might not have understood completely) that Flick is an art patron and his collection, mainly installation pieces, is too big to store anywhere permanently so it is always on loan to different galleries. They have already started packing the exhibition up so we didn’t see all of it, but some of it was really interesting. I particularly liked the work of Rodney Graham, especially "Flanders Trees". Now, far be it from me to assume any actual knowledge or insights into visual art but these pieces really grabbed my attention. They are large photographs of trees, turned upside down (the photos not the trees). But for some reason because they are not the right way up it is difficult to know them. I kept wanting to flip them round because then they would make sense as trees but because that was impossible they were very uncomfortable to look at.
And then we went to an Irish pub where the waitresses can’t speak German and watched Barcelona v. Real Madrid. (2-4)

Fuuuuck! I just wrote a massive post and blogger deleted it all! I don't know if I can be bothered again right now.

. 

Oh shit! It seems to be happening again, another blog fading to death through neglect. But never mind I have resolved to buy a cord for home and then internet for me! Today was the last day of my intensive German course thank god, I thought I was going to have to kill someone by the end, probably the teacher. Who for some inexplicable reason hated me and never answered my questions and if I went out of the room to the toilet he would hand out the worksheets (yes worksheets people!) and not have one for me. Anyway I have finished now and got credits and grade (good, although the final exam was a bit of a schmozel) so now will only have 4 hours per week and is free!
I haven't really got into the Berlin 'szene' yet, what with having to be in class every day at 9am and so forth have mostly been sleeping. Went to a cabaret (sp.?) last night with my class and it was abysmal. It was meant to be erotic but was mainly an excuse to have young goodlooking people wearing skimpy amounts of clothing and pouting. In the last act they brought a bath out on stage and all the young cast members jumped in and out and splashed the audience, but luckily we were in the cheap seats! Very cheap as we refused to buy any alcohol much to the waitress' chagrin.
My semester starts next week but not sure which classes I will take, there is no centralised system here, you just turn up to class and at the end you hand in an essay, for which you receive a 'schein' (piece of paper with a mark on it) if you are German you hang onto all the bits of paper until you have earned enough to sit an exam and then you have to take them to some special office and register to sit the exam. Then you do this again in the upper level until you have your degree, it seems like a nightmare system with no-one knowing what they are doing and no faculty cooperation with either students or other faculties. As you can imagine this freaked me out a bit but it seems with exchange students you can just tell the lecturer who you are at the start and go to pretty much everything.
Ok 30min computer lab time is pretty much up, I have just got the 5min warning.