General Mischief

Hey all,
The last few weeks haven't been particularly exciting, but I have been up to a few things...

Tandem Partner
So, today I had my second meeting with Julia (which, means that I obviously lived through the first one!). We talked in German the first half of the hour and English the second half both times. The conversation has to be kept a lot simpler in German (such as today, where it was mostly about movies) while Julia's English is really good (we talked about colleges and Native American reservations in the Midwest). However, I think we're both getting something out of it and she's really nice.

IKEA
About a week ago I went to IKEA with Eric and Christine (who was awesome enough to drive her car!). It was kind of funny, because although I'd been the one to ask to go, it turned out that they both came up with lists of their own pretty easily. I finally got a few new pillows (thank God...sleeping's been a lot better!), a sheet thing to go over my air bed, another fleece blanket, a knife, pizza cutter and some dish towels for the kitchen (which are nice to have, and worth the price for another 6 months!) and some candles for my room. During the visit to IKEA Eric and I were found guilty for not caring enough about Christine's bathroom - apparently picking out the right floor mat is VERY important and last time she bought a shower curtain the decision took days. Which, I can partially understand - it being a matter of pride of having your own place - however so humble and having it reflect you. I was really excited about the candles (just tea candles, but I got little holders too), and was all ready to light one that night - until I realized that'd require fire...So now I own a box of matches.

Theater Weekend
This last weekend was a "Theater Retreat" weekend for Theater Babylon - the theater class I'm in. I was kind of the odd-person-out, because I don't technically have a roll. However, one or two people in minor roles didn't make it, so I did end up doing a little bit. We actually rode in cars (I know....twice in the span of a week...amazing) for about an hour's trip to Haunersdorf - a teeny little village a 10 minute drive to the nearest train station. The picture I put up is of the Hostel we stayed at. Since it didn't have the most convenient location, the rooms were cheap - 8 euros for the room and 11 (if you needed bedding) per night. They also made HUGE quantities of food - with soy substitute for the meat, which more or less kinda agreed with my intestinal track.
Also impressive were the vast quantities of baked goods (including my newly patented Nutella Peanut Butter cookies..mmmm) and the sheer quantity of alcohol. They(the 2 instructors for the course) brought the standard 2-3 crates of beer but also provided a few bottles of vodka and wine - plus everyone else brought at least one bottle. With approximately 20 people, this was impressive.
At times all the line running was enough to break a person, but we also had a lot of fun too. The first night we played a huge game of charades in English/German (because so many songs, books and movies are in English, so it's pretty standard). That night was most notable for me because of was happened during the night. I was sharing a room with Sara (after warning each other we sleep-talked) and she told me the next morning that she'd woken up in the middle of the night having a "conversation" with me - although we both apparently weren't making any sense. So, apparently I really never shut up.
The second night everyone was pretty hard core about drinking, but as most of the wine was really dry white wine and the fact that I was slightly sleep deprived (and knew it wouldn't be any better later) I only had a few glasses at dinner. On Sunday I was part of the group who took the train back to Regensburg (we didn't have enough cars) and it took 1.5 hours. I actually really like riding in trains and I think that'll be something I miss when I come home.

PS I Love you
All right. So when I was home I ended up seeing I am Legend (because I wasn't aware it was a "scary" movie...) and didn't see PS I Love You - which happened to be the English Movie this Monday. Which was good, because it is essentially an emotional mind-(rhymes with luck...and forgive the language). I mean, I'm all for sentimentality, but I've never bawled my eyes out at a movie before. One minute I'd be leaking like a river, the next laughing hysterically. Luckily, I was in good company, as both Molly and Sara were crying a fair deal as well. It was pretty weird though, because I can't even remember the last time I cried during a movie...

I Dreamt in German!
Finally, I have my breakthrough dream. Mr. McIver always said that you knew you were getting somewhere when your dreams switched languages. Up until last week, I'd never had a dream in German. I had had one dream where someone was saying something (German?) but I couldn't understand it. However, last week I had a dream that was a conversation with a German girl and we had a conversation mostly in German. Crazy...I might actually be learning German after all!

Anyhow, I hope everyone is well...
Steph