Reality Bites

Just watched the film. Good one. Quite like it.

Life has been layed back and good lately. I've been spending all of my time with Nikki again. Wait, that never stopped. Difference is, we're together again. Sounds like a joke, but maybe it's not this time? Who knows! I'm definitely scared of it, but mal sehen, oder? 

Yesterday, we went to a city called Werneuchen, probably about 1,000 people, because we live on Werneuchener Straße. Today, we went to Dahlem Dorf to get our grades at the JFK Institute at Free University and then to Spandau, then to Hansaplatz to eat, then to the Imbiss, and met Simone, Sarah and some other girl whose name I have forgotten. Chatted with them, and they had recovered from our Raki drinking on Sunday. We're meeting them tomorrow at 6 at the Imbiss again. Then we came home and watched Reality Bites. Yep. I've been drinking much alcohol and eating much good food, and just generally having a good time. Nothing really objectionable to say. Bis nachher, oder?

hmmmm

So, I leave for Munich, Florence, Rome and Paris tomorrow. How exciting.

Yesterday was a wonderful day. I was supposed to meet Manon, but then Nikki came home, with her parents and sister, and so, we hung out and then all went out for ice-cream. I then went to the airport and picked up my parents. We took a cab home, and my mom and I had a drink, while my dad took a shower. We then checked out the Marx-Engels Forum and ate in the Nikolaiviertel. After that, I met Nikki and her sister on Alex. We went to a bar on Oranienburger Str. and had only one drink. Nikki and I then dropped her sister off at the hotel, and the first words out of her mouth when her sister was gone were, "OHHHHHH, I missed you John." We then went home and ate cake for awhile, before staying up doing laundry, until about 3:30. It is now 7:55, and in 5 minutes, I wake Nikki up, and we go to meet our respective parents. Then, the 7 of us (Nikki, her sister Amy, her father and mother, my father and mother and I) are all going to eat dinner together tonight. Wow. I never knew I could be this excited about someone else's family. I think it's the love. I don't know how everything just suddenly and completely turned around. Oh well, I'm not arguing.

Krakow

I am at an internet Cafe in Krakow, Poland. It's quite a trip. We just can't stop drinking, cuz a half/liter beer in a pub is really onlz about 80 Euro cents.

Yesterday, we left Budapest at 7.15 at night. It was a very sad time as I loved Budapest, and I loved the Hungarian language, and I loved the people I met there. I might be seeing Santiago again, as he wants me to go with him to Istanbul in April. Oh, how I'd love to go to Istanbul. Amazing.

Prague was still maybe my favorite. Budapest was way upbeat and hella intense, but probably mildly dangerous, and I had no idea what was going on with the language. Krakow is pretty small and therefore laid-back, but it's still beautiful. Soon, we will bo to the Glowny Rynek (main market square) and check out some junk stores. Then, we will go get some Polish food..... read meat and meat and meat and maybe a vegeatable, and then get some vodka, and then go to sleep. I might be getting sick. I miss you and love you Nikki.

So, last night was quite the punch-drinking experience in the Netherlands. America was in both gender forms, as was Canada. Denmark and Finland made quite the pair. Netherlands and I chatted, smoked, drank, smoked. Amsterdam green. America likes France, America likes the Netherlands, America likes America. As Spain blabbed about Dylan, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Bayern were chattin about the Kerry elections. The Spanish mafia drank too much punch, so Bayern "organized" some more in a bucket out on Karl Marx. Stalin builds crappy doors. Spain sucks man. Latin languages rip me apart. I like France and Spain, but only one, you know? I think the Netherlands is my favorite. Yo, America ate at Burger King and didn't get off the train until about 5:45 back in Hohenschönhausen. Ich bin jeztz HOHENSCHÖNZUHAUSE!

Dutch

So, I had a date last night. I met her at about 6.15 at Ostkreuz, and we took the train to Landsberger Allee and then took the Straßenbahn. We went back to my place and had some wine, and Nikki chilled for awhile in her room alone and then came out and had a glas of wine with us, then went back and shut the door. She was very good about it. Manon then helped me prepare dinner, which wasn't great, but she went back for seconds, so hey, guess that's a good sign. We finished the wine and the food, and then Nikki came in and she said she'd finished her paper, and then went to this party. Manon brought up this American diner at Hackescher Markt, and I told her I'd been there, and she said, oh cool I want to go. I told her, OK, what about this week? She told me ok, but didn't seem too excited, oh well I thought, I'll let her bring it up again. Then, I showed her some pictures, she showed me some, I played her some songs on my guitar, she liked them, but they were sort of weird to her, I think. Too jittery and weird, but she was definitely interested. Then, we talked about James Joyce, because I had bought her Dubliners for her birthday. Then, at about 11 we went to the English Pub, and I of course had a black velvet cider, and she a Budweiser (from the Czech Republic, not the same crap Anheuser Busch beer, much better. Hollie (the guy bartender) asked me if Manon was my girlfriend now, now that Nikki and I have split, and while I was in the bathroom, Simone (one of the girl bartenders) asked Manon a lot of questions, because Simone was probably trippin about where Nikki was, and who this random new girl was. We talked, and I learned some interesting things about her, like her sister's age (18) and name (Roxanne) (now, I won't forget) and then she said she wanted to catch the Straßenbahn home. When the bill came, I said "I'll pay Manon, I invited you." Simone didn't even ask if we wanted to pay together or not, she just gave me the bill. As we were walking out, Manon brought up the american diner (woohoo) and I suggested, due to the Weinerei night on Wednesday and her class til 8 and maybe 9 on Thursday, that we go out on Tuesday. She said, OK, but she'd have to make sure. Then, she told me that she had a really nice time, and thanks for the food, and gave me an awkward hug, which I felt was awkward because I wanted something else, maybe she too?

The girl is very strange, incredibly strong in her political beliefs. 22 years old, poli sci major, almost perfect English, studied in Pennsylvania for a year, dad's a philosophy professor, mom's a member of the governing council for her home town. Manon likes to read recent books, and reads about 4 books a week. Mostly in German, she reads modern Berliner literature mostly and randomly picks books at the library. She is going to get Notes from the Underground by Dostoyevsky, and Of Mice and Men or Cannery Row from Steinbeck, because I tried convincing her that classics are not bad by default. The girl's very intriguing, very mysterious, incredibly nice, seemingly fairly shy, intelligent and also real pretty.

Also, Nikki told me this morning that in the past week and a half or so, she's felt that I've been treating her like shit, as if she is disgusting, and I'm better than she. I think I have been. I think she eats unhealthily and smokes too much and doesn't really care about much, and she bothers me. But all the same, I love her, and it's really hard to think that I might be hurting her with the way I've been treating her. I hope that I can pursue Manon (and more?) but darüber hinaus I want to make sure Nikki is ok. She is right now, next to myself, my top relationship priority. Nikki is amaying.

Caitlin, Chili, Snow Toes

You know who's a person that I enjoy? Caitlin. I haven't seen her since Christmastime and I won't see her again until probably late July, but I like her. I do.

I finished my paper yesterday, and then swept and bought a flower for Nikki cuz she had been feeling down. Meanwhile it was snowing like mad. She brought home a Halbes Hänchen (a half a chicken) and we ate that with broccoli, then drank some wine and went to the pub. After Nikki was horribly insulted by this man, and I sat and talked to the amazingly intelligent and attractive bartender Kirsten, I ran home through the snow.

Today, she was all better, and we went shopping, and I got Tofu! In a jar! And then we converted a recipe into the metric system and made some chili, and I ran out to get some beer, and then we started watching Back to the Future, but Nikki was too tired for all of that, so now she's sleeping, and I'm writing.

Oh, and due to her snow toes, Manon is not coming tonight, but rather tomorrow night. I'm still quite excited.