Things are warming up here! All in honor of me no longer being a teen, I'm sure ;)
My mom and Wayne left on Thursday, which was sad, but I was so glad to have them out here! It was fun showing them my school and the bushes in which I'd woken up in naked and dehydrated. That latter sentence may or may not have been true. Wayne had one light beer and was virtually incapable of reading signs and slapping his hands together like he lived in Nowhere, TX and was attending the much anticipated high school football game.
On my birthday I headed over to my mom's hotel after class, and she had decorated it with pink and blue streamers! It was so cute. I later come to find out that she had put about 30 small dinosaurs all thoughout my purse and clothing in my room for me to find throughout the course of my stay here in Germany. O, her. I received some beautiful and much needed sweaters and jackets for my birthday. Not to mention, a Wii!! I'm too fearful to try to plug it into the electrical adaptors I have. I may end up the rest of my time here pretending to play Wii instead of actually doing so. I'm still stoked for it though!
After I napped in my parents hotel we went to Literaturhaus, a fancy pantsy coffee shop. Anna (the hosty) had gotten four tickets to the 6 day cycling races that were going on. It was the fifth day. We met Anna at her flat at seven and she drove us through the town. She was suddenly afraid to speak English around my parents, but then refused to let me speak English around my parents. This put a strange dynamic to the evening, but it was a blast! I had neglected the fact that she had been a celebrity journalist for ten years, so we show up to the races and she walks us to the VIP section. Translation for VIP = VIP. We checked our bags and headed to this gorgeous room where the ceilings had been composed of folded silk! I have pictures and will update with them later:) The drinks and food were free, for all of us! The director of the entire program came over (because he knew Anna) and gave me a cycling jersey! Because he knew it was my birthday! Everything was fantastic. After we watched men in spandex circle on a quarter mile track for an hour I took off to meet some friends who had further planned the evening. My friend Kirk found a place called Maltow Cocktail and had brought seven Russians he met in a youth hostel two nights before. Some others from the FU-Best program came as well. None of the Russians ended up speaking English or German very well, but one Russian girl spoke Spanish so we communicated that way! It was a blast. Good Geburtstag.
The next day the poop hit the fan with my host mother. She had wanted to have a "traditional German birthday" and I told her we could do it Wednesday night. She wanted to do it Monday, then Tuesday afternoon, and I agreed on Wednesday night. This is how it happened:
My boyfriend, Ian, and I were talking on the phone; I hadn't been able to call him because he's in the Marines and was on ship for several weeks, so this was a much needed phone call. My host mother, without announcing it, shuts off the Internet in the middle of my phone conversation. She wasn't even in bed yet. I walked out of my room and asked her if I could have ten more minutes to say goodbye to my boyfriend. She goes, "No. You have five." Not wanting to push any buttons, I consented (However, this is the mistake that I've been making. I have been so concerned with being polite that I haven't fully noticed how rude she's been to me. Apart from her idiosyncracies she treats me like a twelve year old project of hers, and can't take no for an answer; rant not over, but for the sake of this blog it will temporarily be put on hold). So, after I hang up from my boyfriend, something it killed me to do, the hosty walks into my room and asks what I'm doing (Wednesday) tomorrow. I told her I had class all day and she flipped (I'd just like to point out she's had a month of my schedule posted in her kitchen and knows that from 9:00 to 19:00 I have class every Wednesday). She began to tell me that it was "not nice to cancel plans" that she had had for a week. Um, back it up. I said Wednesday night. Survey says communication breakdown. And this became the issue. It was a miscommunication but she then proceeds to tell me that it wasn't, and that I did not ever tell her Wednesday night. So now she's 1. Quite literally calling me a liar to my face, 2. putting words in my moth, and 3. refusing to recognize that we had a moment of lost in translation somewhere, although we've been talking about this and her nature most likely neglected to listen to me repeating "Abends" and "Wednesday night, yes," more than five times. She then asks what my parents are doing on Wednesday, because she had suggested that she take them around Tiergarten. Her suggestions I've come to find out, are concrete calendar dates in her book. I told her also that my parents (in their second night of meeting) didn't okay the plans. This puts her over the edge where she was a broken record stuck on how not nice I was and how what I was doing wasn't nice, and how rude I was. She turns, slams the door, not in a full arm swing, but gives it a healthy five inches, and high-tails it into her room whereupon she slams that door. It was a childish display that I'm no longer willing to put my money towards. Which means...I'm getting my own apartment here! A daunting task, but one where I will let you know how it turns out! I've found four places I'm currently checking out actually:) My heart does go out to her because her daughter moved to England, she's getting rid of her cat (because she can't take care of him anymore), and a relative just entered the hopital. With that said though, I think it's best for her to sort out stability in her life without me, and me to regain a living stability sans hosty.
For my parents last night in town I took them to a place where we had our first Stamtisch (the program assistants take us into the city and pretend to speak German with us), Afsturz. It's located on Oranienberger Strasse, a place known for prostitutes. Anyone with a fanny pack and high boots you can assume is a hooker. We get inside and realize that Lo and Behold, my mother is wearing boots aaaand a fanny pack. She was tormented relentlessly for the remainder of the night.
Well, I'm off to Berghain tonight and homework tomorrow!
Take it easy!
-Raleigh
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