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.

Off to Amsterdam

Um, yeah, so Nikki and I are going to Amsterdam in like 6 hours. We are so falling all over each other in happiness. I just got the results from my class and from a test I took. I passed the test, and can study on my own anywhere in Germany and I got a fuckin A in the class. Nikki got the same. Yesterday I went to Wittenberg with three French people, a Slovakian and me. We went around and saw all the Martin Luther 95 Theses museum stoff, then it hailed, and then i came home. I was a little bit late and nikki text messaged me saying that she was starting dinner. I ran into Plus (the local market) and tried to buy some wine for us, but the line was hella long, so i just went home. I got to the door, and nikki was making Brotsuppe (german bread soup) and she had bought a bottle of wine. How perfect. WE went to the pub and the bartenderin wanted our emails so that she could invite us to a party. how fucking cool is that. then we went to the imbiss and the turkish man showed me and nikki pictures of his wife back in turkey. it was sad. anyways. its cold as fuck here. the high is about 50, low below freezing. that's all for now. John

So, I'm done with my Sprachkurs and I improved my test score by 10 percent, from 79 to 89. I am now in the highest level class for learning German. That makes me happy.

Theres something else that makes me happy. Nikki Sitzmann. I don't know what the fuck is going on, but we're frightened by each other, but we've already talked about moving in together, because we're together every day and every night. We're going to Amsterdam and Bruxelles on Wednesday. Ich kann es aber nicht glauben, weisst du? And she has given up on the idea that we're not together, she knows it and I know it, and it's scary as fuck because noone has the power, we're just two vulnerable people falling in love. Ich kann es aber kaum glauben.

Yesterday she, Jon, and I went to Potsdam and had this discussion with this bartender for awhile about how americans are so "verklemmt" which means "all tied up" in the sense that we hint at things, whereas as Germans say them blatantly. The bartender told us to stop complaining and vote Bush out of office, and when we said that we didn't know what was to be done, he said, don't you have free speech, voice your opinion. Although I feel that was simplistic, this man just randomly said this to us in Potsdam, it was strange. He said, du bist verklemmt. You're binding yourself. Yeah. Tomorrow Im going with Nikki, Jerome (France), Martin (Slovakia) and perhaps some others to Wittenberg Lutherstadt, the city with the Wittenberger Dom, where Martin Luther nailed the 95 theses to the door, and started the reformation. Im excited