Entspannungsphase

Otherwise known as the Pre-Italy and Eastern European Roadtrip Round-Up

Yay! Finals are over! Happy Entspannungsphase to all! (More Cold War jokes.) Well, they have been over for a few days, but I didn't have anything interesting to report to you. Or I guess I wanted a few semi-interesting things to accumulate. Because otherwise there would have been a bunch of little blog posts like my last one and that just would have been sad. 

So with that said, I shall start with the sad part. Louise left Tübingen to go back to Belgium! :( We had a grand goodbye Kneipentour, which actually end up taking us to roughly 3 bars, because it was a Monday and so everything closed around midnight. But we found Last Resort, which stays open until 3AM on a slow day. So we got drinks and hot dogs (from the little hole-in-the-wall hot dog shop upstairs–nomz) and had a merry old time. But it was very sad saying goodbye. But at least she lives on this continent, and 6 hours is convenient enough. 

baby's first mac n' cheese

Then there was Tuesday. On Tuesday, I spent most of the day grocery shopping or watching Arrow, because on Tuesday night, it was Mac-n'-Cheese-Abendessen night. I had realized that the German Gymnasium students in my conversation group had never had (in some cases never heard of) mac n' cheese. Which was a very sad thing that needed to be remedied. (Lasse had also never had mac n' cheese.) So I made a kilogram worth of mac n' cheese, and invited 5 German teenagers, 3 Americans (Hannah, Julius, and Yasmine), and 2 Norwegians (Lasse and Brian) and together we ate said kilo worth of homemade mac n' cheese and a bunch of chocolate chip cookies. (I wanted it to be a really American eve.) Because I am unorthodox, we also put bacon, barbecue sauce, and peas in it. I don't care what you haters (read Pookie and Dobby) say; it was delicious.

Then Wednesday, I went shopping with Hannah in Reutlingen, which is a town that about 10 minutes away from Tübingen by train and has a much bigger Altstadt with a few more shops...ok a lot more. (However, let's be real, Tübingen is so much better.) Then we got back, I went to Clever Fit for the first time in a while, watched more Arrow (it's so bad it's good), ate the last of the chicken that was in my fridge, and then went to Hannah's to chill and try some of the Germanized Chilean food she made. (Lolerskates empanadas with pizza dough and döner meat.) Then we went to Münzgasse to hang out with the rest of Deutsch Kompakt, because so many people are leaving. (So sad.) 

And now I am here, blogging to (for?–what is the appropriate preposition here?/English is silly) you lovely people. In a few (roughly 7) hours I leave for Italy, and begin the adventure that is now coming to be known as Entspannungsphase. Let the craziness begin. 

In any case, I may be falling off the grid for the while. But everyone needs that every now and again, right? So with that said, bis später, dudes.

“I know not all that may be coming, but be it what it will, I'll go to it laughing.”  –Herman Melville, Moby Dick

2+4; I'm gonna reduce our nuclear weapons

Hey! Look! I'm working!

Hey gang, so sorry that these blog posts keep getting less and less interesting, but unfortunately finals are upon us. I have my first on Wednesday. Ironically the first day of the second semester at Tufts. For this exam, I get to answer fun things, such as "was Germany a civilian power (Zivilmacht auf Deutsch, ich glaube, dass das besser geht) from 1945-1990?" or "what are Ian Manners' 5 methods of norm transfer?" Such fun. We'll see how the entire thing goes. Also did I mention this is my entire grade for this class. Lolerskates, why aren't I studying right now? 

Anyways, I am trying to think of other things that I have done that have been interesting in the past week or so. I guess I do have a mildly funny story. I was over at a friend's house playing card games, and I tried to walk across their living room, which is rather small and such that you don't have a terribly clear view of their floor. Their floor is also tricky in that it isn't all at one level. Part of it abruptly drops down about a foot. So I managed to completely eat shit on said floor. Which was absolutely hysterical and Max shall never let me forget it. 

This weekend was mostly studying with a mac n cheese (nomz, it was bacon and bbq mac n cheese) and hair-cutting party on Friday night, another Spanish dinner on Saturday night, and then dinner at my friend Lasse's on Sunday with delicious chicken and Norwegian Christmas cookies and Aquavit. Which sounds like I had a life or something, but really there was a lot of pre-Klausur hermitting. 

In other news, I have an internship for next semester with this group called Vivat Lingua, which is a language school in Tübingen. I'm going to be part of their English team. 

And then finally the fun stuff. After this blog goes through the "oh my God, finals" phase, it's going to get a lot more fun. Namely because it's going to be in the "TWO MONTHS OFF TIME TO TRAVEL" phase. Which means that this will get to be a fun little travel blog. Thus far, there are relatively concrete plans in the works for: a trip to northern Italy for Carnival, a week-long roadtrip around Eastern Europe (Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic as of right now), a trip to Belgium for my friend Louise's birthday, a trip to Ireland (Dublin and Galway) for Paddy's Day, and a trip to Norway to hang out with Lasse and go hiking. Furthermore there's been talk of trips to Switzerland, Spain, Scotland, and Sweden. (Weird, all S names.) But since there's two months, there may be even more in the works. So have faith, beloved blog-readers (if you exist, I like to think I have a loving public to talk to), this blog will cease to be about me dying of finals and other schoolwork very, very soon! 

So with that, I must say bis später for now. Studying and then sleep calls. And to all you Tufts kids, viel Spaß beim ersten Tag des Kurses! :)

Oh and here's a good ole' German grammar joke. So silly.