Finished Harry Potter 6 last night. It finally arrived in the mail, and it was the normal bullshit of having to go to the post office and collect it...because the shitty hausmeister always takes my name down from the doorbell...so the post people don't know which bell to ring...and then they have to put a note in the letter box...and I have to wait in a massive queue to collect my parcels...
Anyway, it was pretty shit, Harry Potter that is, I guessed who died pretty early on, the half-blood prince was a load of crap, and unless Snape does something pretty bloody fantastic in the last book it will all be arse.
As you can tell I am feeling particularly cheery today, maybe it is not all Harry's fault. Not sure if it is a combination of everything ending here, the massive essays I have to write, the fact I did something utterly stupid yesterday, or the weather, but blah.

I have finally gotten up the courage to see if all my photos were deleted from my camera since it started having its little rest, and they seem to be ok. So here is a brief gallery of the Christopher Street Day parade. All of the photos are the ones taken before the aforementioned little rest, so luckily for everyone we are saved from photos of extremely drunk people in summer clothes determinedly marching down the street, in torrential rain and hurricane winds. CSD is the annual gay/lesbian parade in Berlin, it refers to street in which Stonewall Inn sits, the site of gay rights riots in New York in '69. Anyway, in the last few years it has been particularly big, particularly since the Love Parade was cancelled, and this year there were about half a million people there. It wasn't as flashy as what I have seen of the Sydney Mardi Gras, and less of the choreographed dancing etc. but we had an awesome time. When we first got there we all bought a bottle of champagne to get us in the mood. Then after we had watched a bit all my Spanish and Italian friends started making fun of the German attitude to parades of merely standing and watching, and demanded we all follow a float. I think both Marty and myself were a bit shy about this idea, but not wanting to admit Australians are as boring as the Germans had been deemed we jumped in as well. About half way along the storm hit, the wind barreling along the streets, and torrential rain. As the weather had been in the mid-thirties earlier that day everyone was dressed for the heat, and this is aside from those who had chosen naked as their costume. Anyway I think the weather only served to make everyone feel an even greater sense of solidarity. I have to say after this the day is a blur, I vaguely remember eating wurst, buying beer off the back of a float, grabbing heaps of male beauty products from the Nivea boys and, while taking a piss in Tiergarten, getting stung by nettles. We staggered home for a power nap before attending our planned afterparty, however we never quite made it. We almost did, standing outside the front door of the club, but somehow paying 10 EUR to sit in a corner feeling sorry for ourselves didn't cut it so we turned and went home. The highlight of the day has to be my photographer friend Damaris, who came up giggling to say she saw two naked guys "making each other like this" (wanking movement) "and I didn't know what to do, so I took a photo."

Damaris was very taken with this young man. 

Cheery marchers back view. 

Cheery marchers before the rain hit. 

One of the floats in the parade. 

Ok, so I look like a squinty eyed rat, but it is a nice one of Marty. 

Time for a breather. Today is supposed to be a 'productive' day of study as tomorrow I have two, TWO, big presentations in my higher level classes. Both of which require me* to lead the class for a whole hour and a half. Both of these classes are particularly brutal actually. My lit theory one burns through a theorist a week, I felt particularly sorry for the Derrida week as the professor had lost her voice and the onus was on them to explain Derrida in an hour and a half. Anyway the class I have most angst for tomorrow is actually a presentation on HERmione by H.D. which is an awesome book. Although unfortunately no-one else in my group liked it and I was slow enough for this to become the reason why I should lead class discussion, instead of the easy parts like author biography etc. Anyway this is why I have turned to the blog. I figure the computer on and open in front of me is half the challenge. As Hamish would say I am 'addressing the screen'.


*well, when I say me I am referring to my group of lovely German fellow students who have very nicely, for the most part, spoken in English when we have met to prepare said presentations.