Boredom+Stress=Compulsive Planning

The stress of not having a job or internship for next semester, coupled with the boredom of not having a job or internship or school has thrown me back into compulsive planning mode.

My latest project- a trip to Romania. I've been wanting to do this for a long time now, but I've finally buckled down and done some research. I found a group of UUs that's going in June and looked at their 2 week itinerary. Ideally, I could go to Germany for a week, then hook up with this group, and subsequently go either couchsurfing in Hungary or have a beach vacation in Croatia, or permitting, both.

To make the planning more fun and poetic, I decided to write everything into a leather-bound notebook I bought many years ago. It now begins with a list of every country I've visited in my life. Then it goes into all my notes for planning any voyages I may make in the future. I already recorded research on Hungarian train schedules and average rain fall in Cluj-napoca.

To further indulge in my compulsive planning, I downloaded Google Earth and marked all the cities I would see on the 13 day UU trip. For your enjoyment, here it is:

Alas, I Crawl Back to the Blogoshpere

A quick look at my blog archive to the right of the screen reveals my pitiful inactivity since last June. I suppose after couch surfing in Latvia and freezing jeans in Berlin, my New York lifestyle struck me as less than blog-worthy. I've been "micro-blogging" on my twitter, but I discovered sometimes 160 symbols aren't enough.

So what has happened since I last blogged about signing a lease? I moved to a beautiful apartment on a homey, residential block of Williamsburg. I had a good semester at school, except for a pesky intro to neurosci class, and did little to no traveling. Winter break I visited my family for the first week, then returned to New York where I've spent weekdays alternating between watching West Wing and reading Betty Friedan. Weekends I go to the same parties and clubs and bars that I've been going to pretty much since I came to New York.

I fully intend on blogging more when something more exciting happens; till then, I'll leave you with a picture from New Years stolen from my good friend Mukai, and a picture of the first real snow in the city a few weeks ago.

Starting Up Again

I'm thinking about blogging again.

My summer hasn't been going at all as planned. I don't have a job, I'm not volunteering, I won't move to the city for another month, and I've gained weight.

My last weeks in Europe were a blast though, I got to see two operas and a baby polar bear while in Stuttgart. Here's a video I threw together:


I went to the zoo with my second cousin, who I had never met before that, and we had a really great time and hung out together the remaining weeks I was in Stuttgart. We watched the Euro Cup and visited Scientology to see if they're as scary as people say, they're not.

Being back in the US I've spent some time in New York and Baltimore; in fact, I just celebrated my 21st birthday in the city. Not too many of my friends were able to make it, but a good time was had by all who did.

Finally, I've signed a lease for an apartment in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and will move in September 1st, until then I'll be shuttling back and forth between Ikea and Target.

The exact direction this blog is going to take is up in the air for now, it'll probably involve lots of personal rants and occasionally pictures, once I'm back in the city and life gets more exciting I may wish to expand on that.

The End for Now

Hey guys,

it has been brought to my attention that i never did any sort of final post. I have left Berlin and am now in Stuttgart after travelling with my mom for a few weeks. We just got back from a Mediterranean vacation on the Spanish island Mallorca. The trip was great, but the flight back was awful because I did something stupid enough to rival putting my wet jeans in the freezer. Last night I was bored at the airport so I went to the duty free shop to test if I really was allergic to a perfume I was pretty sure I was allergic to; I scratched up my whole arm and sprayed about 6 splashes of the stuff on. I spent the plane ride watching it turn red and puffy, heavy sneezing was also involved.

My internet connection here is impossible so I'm not really able to upload many pictures. The two here are of Mallorca and of my last night in Berlin, riding my zebra bike.

I decided the bike is a metaphor for Berlin, it is cheap, doesn't have functioning brakes, old but with modern touches, it's charming and rugged and you keep on waiting for it collapse on itself, yet it never does.

I don't know when I'll be posting again, right now the lack of an internet connection is a big issue, but I intended for this blog to be more than just study abroad. I get back to PA June 20, and move to New York Aug 1st. I plan on interning for a local Obama office for the 5 weeks I'm in West Chester, let me know if you hear where they're putting one.

Much love,
Anita

Riot Pictures

My friend Bryan posted these pictures of the May Day riots on his facebook profile. Thought I'd share them:

Time I Reprioritize

My week has been a total shitshow.

It started off great; Monday night I got to see Ladytron, my favorite electropop band. They put on an amazing show and the venue was an old warehouse turn club in East Berlin. I met some cool people there and hung out pretty late.

Tuesday morning I met an old friend for breakfast who I haven't seen in over 5 years. The weather is beautiful so I've been making full use of street cafes. I've also been going against all my German instincts and getting American iced coffees at my local Dunkin. We've also started having German class at a beergarten.

Friday is when my week went downhill. Some international hippie friends invited Sam and me to stop by a four day beach party at a lake. Because we have so many papers due we decided not to stay past ten, even though everyone else was sleeping over in the tents. Figures we miss the last tram, so I was stuck in the middle of nowhere wearing only shorts, a Miami Vice tee, and my new Birkenstocks (FYI: not as comfortable as everybody says). By midnight I was freezing and wanted to die, it only got worse when we were squeezing into someones tent, three of us sharing one blanket. I couldn't sleep because I was shivering so badly, the worst part was that the way we were squeezed into the tent I couldn't curl up into a fetal position. I took off around 5 when trams started running again.

When I got home this morning I crashed and didn't wake up till 2:30. My friend Lauren and I then went down to the site where Nazis burnt books 75 yrs ago and they're having commemorative readings of some of the texts. We then went to a street cafe at the famous Gendarmen Markt to work on final papers. I'm writing an epic analysis of Heidi Klum's national identity. I'll be spending the rest of the weekend working on papers and will not be able to party at all.

This week's good news: MADONNA ANNOUNCED TOUR DATES! I'm planning on seeing her twice in New York. For the first show I'll get the best available ticket no matter what the cost, and for the second night I'll settle for nosebleed section.

Here's the teaser for her Amsterdam show:


This ad for the 2004 ReInvention tour is better though:

MAY DAY!

May Day in Kreuzberg, the Turkish neighborhood of Berlin that I live in, is a huge holiday with great traditions.

During the afternoon there is a large street fair where they set up stages with bands playing everything from hip-hop to punk and people drinks copious amounts of beer till they get exhausted and retire to one of the many parks to relax.

Late in the evening when everyone is completely out of their mind and on their second wind, the riots starts! Families and go back to their apartments and all that's left is angry locals, gutter punks, journalists, and a few stray NYU students. At this point several hundred cops in full riot gear carrying tear gas super-soakers flood the area. They carry little zip-ties to quickly hand cuff kids.

The rest of the night involves people setting things like trash cans on fire, throwing bottles at cops, and screaming anarchist slogans against the capitalist establishment. The cops rush the crowd, grab a few kids, throwing them to the ground and zip-tying their hands, the crowd retreats and the cops ease up. Rinse, wash, repeat. This all happened a million times throughout the night. My friends and I were way at the front, and one of us even got hurt a little.

Having recovered from Thursday's festivities, I had a delightful lazy Sunday. My friend Sam and a Minnesotan yoga teacher we know both had birthdays recently so we celebrated by going to Mauer Park. The park is in an über-hip neighborhood and everyone looked like they should be in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. We drank champagne and wine and smoked hookah, while some kids in our group played guitar.






The slideshow contains pictues from my recent day trip to Dresden.