I swear I didn't fall off the face of the Earth. Two days after my last post I got incredibly sick. Food poisoning or something. It was not a fun three days. And being sick made me miss home so much more, which in turn kept me from getting over whatever it was as quickly as I normally would. Being sick in a foreign country is really not fun. There's no one around to take care of you and all those home remedies and comforts that you've developed over the years are generally just not an option here. The only good thing I can say about being sick was that it happened on the weekend that the local public transportation union was on strike, so I wouldn't have really been able to go out anyway. Also, I had a really good day up until I got sick, so that was nice. I went on this self guided art walk that I found online. It was kind of like a scavenger hunt for street art. I saw some really sweet paintings. And the sun was out, making it the first really gorgeous day we've had since I've been here. I did not fail to appreciate that :) Near the end of my walk I decided to cross over the river I had been walking along because there was a cool painting on the other side that I wanted to get a closer look at. That turned out to be a great decision. I actually accidentally stumbled across the East Side Gallery of the Berlin Wall. It is a very neat section of the wall that has been painted by several different artists. It's a huge tourist attraction. I was there last time I was here and I was a bit disappointed to see that when I compared the old pictures with the new, you could see that they had repainted the paintings and repaired damage to the wall. I guess I understand the reasoning, but it still makes it seem less legit. Also, my favorite painting that I saw that day wasn't even one from the art walk, it was the one that I crossed the bridge to get a look at! You can see a picture of it on my Flickr page (the link is at the bottom). It's the painting that says I Heart Berlin.
So after my little excursion into miserable, feeling-like-death land, I did next to nothing notable for the whole next week. My language classes started up again (finally!) and are going really well. I worked a lot again and saved up a little money so I'll hopefully be able to go on a pretty decent trip in April. Martina and I are thinking maybe somewhere warm, with beaches and nightlife. Perhaps Croatia or Greece. That would be sweet. I could use some sunshine, for sure.
The only other interesting thing that happened last week was that we had Fasching on Tuesday at the Kita. Fasching is the German Carnivale celebration. Everyone dresses up, a lot like Halloween, only without the scary factor. I dressed as a cat because I came up with my costume last minute and had to borrow M's cat ears. It was a really fun little celebration. We had a big breakfast with all three of the little kid groups and then a song and dance party with the whole Kita. I really do love working there :)
And speaking of children, I know I don't talk much about my host kids. That's mostly to protect their privacy. But I do want to say that things are getting better and better the more time I spend with them. I think we are starting to understand each other a little better (Mentally, not linguistically. They're both quite fluent in English.) Some days are really hard, but that's just part of life when you work with kids, particularly in a foreign country.
This last weekend I spent with Martina and a couple of other new friends. Friday morning Martina and I had tickets to the wine festival because her host parents had a booth there representing their vineyard. It was a little high class for our tastes, but it was a fun new experience nonetheless and it was free! Plus I got to taste a bunch of different kinds of wine so I can work on having some class and actually figuring out which wines I like. We had a little get together on Friday night to meet someone that was visiting from England, which ended in us watching Chicago and all singing show tunes. Then Saturday we went out to another club and danced until the wee hours of the morning. I successfully turned down dancing with a Justin Bieber look alike by telling him I was with my boyfriend and pointing to the nearest person from my group, which happened to be a gay man, all while speaking in German. Finally, at 6:00am, Martina and I embarked on our ridiculously long hour and a half trip home. When we got off the bus at my house at 7:30am my host dad was standing in the yard. He just laughed and said the least we could have done was to bring fresh rolls from the bakery. It's nice to have a really understanding host family, lol. And I've really come to appreciate the friends I have here too. We just always have a good time together and the socializing comes so much easier for me with them than it ever did at home. This is just one of the changes that I've noticed in myself. Berlin, the city and the people, have done so much to me. My speech, my fears, my personality, my everything... It's all changed so much. Sometimes I wonder if the people back home would recognize me like this. But then I remember that it doesn't really matter, because I'm happier now than I have been in my whole life.
There's probably more to be said. I mean, life here is never boring. But right now I'm really tired because we had an au pair meeting last night at 8:00pm an hour and a half from my house. At least the Indian food we ate was delicious! So I'm gonna go get some sleep and look forward to my weekend. Mexican food (keeping my fingers crossed that it's legit!) and a birthday party for a friend are on my agenda. I'm looking forward to a good time and some decent dance music because the club we are going to has an indie rock floor. I sincerely hope the foot cramp that I've had for the past 26 hours goes away by then though!
Today's title comes from A Day in the Life by the Beatles, which was so kindly suggested by Martina. And you can check out pictures from my art walk here.
PS Happy Leap Day! I tried to explain the reason behind Leap Day to my six year old host kid and I'm not 100% sure he got it. We did draw a pretty sweet treasure map together though!
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