zwei monate.

yyes, i am sorry i'm such a neglectful blogger! don't hate me, just appreciate this moment.

right now the main drive behind my blogging is procrastination (so not much has changed, hehe). we are currently in our fourth week of classes, and it is so difficult to look on facebook and see everyone back home anticipating their summer plans. i am just planning papers and presentations right now, but hopefully i will be planning some trips soon! right now rome and berlin are on the horizon, but nothing has solidified as of now.

my classes are going very smoothly. pretty much all of my classes are in english, and i don't know how to feel about it. a part of me feels defeated and lazy, because i came here to "mein deutsche verbessern" (to better my german). but on the other side of the coin, i want to be able to understand everything that is going on, and i don't feel like my german speaking abilites are up to german university level yet. i have been going to a newspaper class, and have already written two articles for their newspaper! yippie! unfortunately during the class/planning session, i just sit there and absorb all the fast-paced german speaking going on around me. i have officially become that creepy silent kid in class.

also, i realized that because german classes only meet once a week, i might be able cheat the system and get a whole year's worth of credits into one semester. so i will basically completing all the requirements for my International Studies Major while i'm here. horray!

i'm currently taking six courses, and i think my two favorites are pop culture theories and international media and journalism cultures. in my pop cultures class, we have been talking about different british and welsh culture theorists, and next week we will be talking about marx. i will be giving a presentation about bob dylan in two weeks. we have really only met two times for my international media systems and journalism cultures class, but i really enjoyed my meetings! this class combines my two majors, so i am really excited to really dive into the subject. it is also really fascinating to learn about the different attitudes the german and other international students have towards worldwide media issues.

oh yeah...i almost forgot that i went to the netherlands two weeks ago. it was a pleasant trip to say the least, but i think i had my expectations set too high for a two day trip. the first day, the group and i (4 other girls) just found our hostel in amsterdam and then wandered around the city for a little while, soaking up the dutch scenery.

amsterdam is the city of a million bicycles, so me and two of the other girls decided that we should experience the city the same fashion the locals do. apparently they don't have too many short people renting bikes! the first 10 minutes of my bicycle adventure was terrifying! i could barely touch the ground from the sitting position, and i felt like i was on some sort of oversized novelty bike! i went back to the bicycle store and told the woman working my problem. she told me that the seat could be lowered even more than it already was, so she took out some metal tool, took of the seat, removed a few metal pieces, and then viola! the bike was at least managable. i was still pretty terrified riding in amsterdam, though, because you are literally inches away from moving traffic most of the time. the woman at the bike shop told me not to be afraid, though -- "bikes own this city." (i was still pretty freaked out, though) we rode around alongside the canals, and then found our way to a cute park where there were flocks of college-aged students sitting around smoking marijuana (the dutch way!).

speaking of marijuana, i unfortunately didn't get to experience any coffee shops. at the time i felt pretty apathetic about it, but after we left amsterdam i felt like i really missed out. although i don't smoke pot, i really wished that i could have experienced smoking it legally in amsterdam. perhaps another trip to amsterdam is in order?

so after we returned the bikes, me and one of my travel companions (wendy!) split off and went to visit the anne frank house. it was definitely a very moving experience. they had artifacts, literature, and video interviews set up around the house. at the end there was this video room that had short video segments about different modern cultural debates about freedom of speech, religion, etc...but we unfortunately arrived too late, because the house was two minutes away from closing when we got to that point. afterwards me and wendy sat by one of the canals, and pull out the beer and pistachios we had bought earlier in the day. we laughed, told stories, and acted like hobos as the sun went down.
mid-beer, a man in a boat drove by and informed us that it is illegal to consume alcohol in public in the netherlands (the complete opposite of germany), so we chugged our beers and then high-tailed it outta there back to our hostel.

when we returned, we found ourselves some more heinekens, and brought a scrabble board into the mix. our game carried on late into the evening, even after all of the other travelers had extinguished their joints and cleared the common lounge.

the next day we travelled a short distance to the towns of haarlem and..uhhh...some name that is completely slipping my mind at the moment. one of my travel companions, diana, was very excited to see the Corrie ten Boom house in haarlem. we discovered the tour was free, so wethe whole group decided to join in! we were the only people under the age of 60 in our tour group (*wait, no, i take that back. there was a 40-year-old polish woman translating for her parents). it also turned out to be much more religiously based than i was expecting. the old dutch tour guide kept on switching back and forth between telling bible stories and the history of corrie ten boom. she laid the bible-paste on pretty thick (did you guys know that the berlin wall fell because people prayed?...maybe i need to stop being so cynical all the time) my mind kept on wandering, kind of like when i have to go to church. in between the relgious ranting, it was nice to absorb a little bit of dutch history though.

later we went to the small town of mystery to see a tulip parade. it turned out to be a lot smaller and hokey-er than we had thought, so i was a bit disappointed. i was anticipating it to be like Tulip Time in Pella, except a hundred times bigger because it was ACTUALLY IN THE NETHERLANDS. wrong! there wasn't even any candy (i know! a parade without candy!? WTF?). again, we were amongst the youngest people there, so me and two of the other girls decided to go inside a nearby restaurant and get coffee and cake instead of standing outside with the old people and japanese tour groups. we were still able to observe the parade from the comfort of our coffee and conversation.

now back to reality and the swing of everyday life..

!things that i have enjoyed in the past few weeks!
1) movie club. me and about 6-8 of the other students started a tuesday night movie club. usually we take turns bringing snacks or making dinner, and then we watch a german film.
2) oberhausen international short film festival. lots of short films from different countries around the world. french short films are quite the mind-fuck, let me tell you.
3) tanz in den mai. the day before may 1st, there are lots of parties and dancing at clubs because may 1st is a national holiday. i went to a dance club in essen with alexander and a few of his friends, and i danced into may (until 4 am!).
4) my palm tree is still alive!
5) i recently rediscovered how much i love listening to NPR. before i came to germany, i was working at the smaller java house at the hospital, which is the slower kiosk. i would usually be the only one working, and the radio would always keep me company. i downloaded a bunch of podcasts, and have been immersed for the last few hours in my old friends, This American Life and Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me.
6) Döners! i cannot express how much i love these things. Mom, you will fall in love with them, too, when you are here. 7) television. stefan and his parents are letting me use a small TV, so i have been able to watch Spongebob Schwammkopf (which translates into Spongebob Spongehead) and German news programs as i get ready in the morning.

...things i am craving/wishing for/missing...
1) mexican food..particularly Los Portales(my favorite mexican restaurant ever)
2) free drink refills
3) cheetos
4) Thai Flavors (best asian restaurant in iowa city)
5) bethany, kaydee, sarah, lauren, emily, and my family

that is about it. i don't feel like posting photos right now (but do i ever? i think i am the worst blogger of all time!)