If you are going to get sick at least do it right.

That's correct. A lack of action on here can be explained by me being sick or under the weather for a large portion of the past week. I actually think that two different things hit me at about the same time. Maybe three. It started by my allergies acting up, then I lost my voice on Sunday. I blame it on allergies and too much good conversation the night before. (Who would have thought hours of good conversation could be a bad thing?) Monday I strongly want to suspect that I had a low fever of some sort. My host mum seems to think it was weather related from it being so hot for so long. Plus, I had no energy, ached all over, and kept switching between chills and feeling warm. Needless to say, I slept 13/14 hours that day. Then the stuffy nose turned into congestion and my voice was out of whack for a few days, lots of coughing, etc. I drank lots of water, vit enhanced juice, and some tea stuff. Not to mention I ate ricola drops like they were candy for a few days. Hopefully an experience I will not have to repeat again.

In positiver news, I went on the bar tour organized by the school. It was rather interesting, in both good and bad ways. It was the first evening that I went out since getting sick. The area that we toured was Neuköln, which is the southern section of Kreuzberg, I think. Apparently this area has new bars popping up almost every week or two. We went to a total of 4 or 5.  The decorating of two left a bit to be desired, though the others were fun. The first one was more of a cafe and almost cute in an antique-y mini chandelier sort of way. We had a large group of students (15 perhaps?), so that made for an interesting dynamic. I might have known 1/3 of the people.  Getting to speak a bunch of German is always fun, and I even found a student who had read some Borchert. Me, being the dork I am, got insanely excited by this since Borchert is my favorite German author. He had only read 'Nachts schlafen die Ratten doch' (The rats sleep at nicht). It is a good story, but post-WWII in content, and thus a bit depressing, especially since it deals with how lying is sometimes necessary and more appropriate than the truth. I got into a rather enjoyable argument with one of the guides who said that all of Borchert's Kurzgeschichte (short stories) are depressing.

We ended up being out pretty late, and Neuköln is quite a bit away from where I live.  I am not sure what time we left the final bar, but the two people who I left with were practically falling asleep. We had a slight mishap of being vaguely lost on the way back to a subway station, mainly because we had originally started to go the wrong way, which I realized and turned us around. But then they thought we were walking to far, and I didn't know where I was going. I wasn't totally sure, but I had a pretty good idea of where there ought to be a stop. They finally asked someone passing by, and I was right. Ha. For once. The little lesson I learned was to make sure that the guides you very good directions and not just 'oh, exit the bar, turn left, walk on __ street.' Turns out we needed far better directions than that. Ah well. Getting home at 5 am isn't too terrible considering I had to walk home the last 15 mins because I did not want to wait 25 mins for the street tram. Plus, it was cold outside!

So that was a fun little outing, but not too terribly exciting. This week I have internship interviews, which ought to be interesting.  Translating the German version of the phrase keeping one's fingers crossed always makes me giggle. Ich drücke die Daumen.  It literally means you are pressing/holding down the thumbs. German is so cute sometimes.

PS. I forget to talk about how I swear I saw a German actor on Thursday! Silly me to forget to share it. So, I really like the film The Edukators: Die Fetten Jarhen Sind Vorbei (the years of plenty are over). It is really interesting in how it discusses activism and what happens when your ideals change or you get older. Plus, there are some criticisms of over-consumerism that I really agree with. But anyways, of the two young men in the film, Daniel Brühl is the actor that anyone watching recent German films will known. The other actor, Stipe Erceg is not very well known at all and is part Kroatien or something. He was the one I thought I saw.

It was so random. I had gone home because the Deutschland/Kroatien Spiel was proving to be so disappointing. Figuring that I ought to do something productive, I went to a laundromat and do the laundry I've been putting off. I was on Danziger Strasse when I saw what looked like him talking animatedly on a cell. Natürlich I did a double take. I couldn't believe it. Doing laundry I couldn't stop thinking about it, and I checked pictures when I got back home. I am pretty sure it was him since his facial features are rather distinct.  I have heard of people making such sightings before but never thought it would happen to me.  Guess it is a good think I couldn't manage to watch the whole Spiel after all.