Tickets!

As winter progressed on, the rain luckily disappeared this morning. So did the temperature as it crept towards 40 fahrenheit. At least the wind wasn't horrific and I've got more winter layers than a Sherpa training for K2. Speaking of sherpas, I highly recommend Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air. I don't know if it's as good as Into the Wild because it hasn't been made into a movie yet (and because I haven't read the latter), but its an unbelievable read about his experience climbing Everest during the 1996 disaster. I blame the apartheid and the asians... they were both amateur groups. That and the horrific storms that I am just learning of as I near the end of the book.
After surviving another hellish 2 sessions this morning, after lunch, I returned in a state of paralysis. For the first time in any class, I actually did not understand a single thing that happened. I've exaggerated before and said that, but today, I had no idea what happened. At least if I walked into a Chinese class I would be able to understand hand gestures or something. If I was in a graduate level astrophysics lecture, I may recognize a word or phrase. Today, I had not a clue what happened, and as other people tried explaining to me what we were trying to do, and what I was failing at miserably, my teacher just sat in silence waiting for me to respond to her question. Even with others telling me the right answer, I still got it wrong. This was embarassing and pathetic; the perfect confidence booster the day before a quiz.
I then went to the train station because they supposedly have more train rides at better prices than finding them online. For 83 USD, I booked a roundtrip train ride to Munich [a 6hr ride] which can be redeemed anytime within the next month. The lady at the train told me that not only do I not have to show my passport upon arrival, but I don't even have to raise my hand in salute. Supposedly Germany is much cleaner and friendlier to Jews than many other European nations, and they have attempted to regain our love by providing a beer festival. At least in my eyes, their opinion has been raised slightly. That and because they make decent automobiles. Other than that, Germany is still filled with Kraut eating pigs. And another side note- this time on the thought of Kraut- Central European Sauerkraut is far superior to American, and even tastes good. Whereas I usually only eat it at home if a vendor accidentally puts it on a dog, here, I have chosen to eat it, and have enjoyed it. I wonder if the Germans make as good Kraut as the Czechs (they probably stole the recipe when they stole the Sudetenland).
I have since gone to yoga, eaten a hot houska (pronounced hoe-skah, translated as a kickass roll thats not in the shape of a roll) chilipepper [syr paprika chili] cheese and pepper [a paprika] sandwich, and typed this blog. This day could only get more exciting if I had to study for a few hours, which I get to do! At least in Germany I might have a place warmer than a park bench to sleep on this weekend or next, depending on who I can think of that may have planned ahead and gotten a hotel room (to be fair to my slacking, CIEE specifically told us not to make travel arrangements this weekend, so I couldn't have gotten my own room). Well, I'm off to study and relearn everything that I subconsciously blocked this afternoon. At least it's only 50 verbs, 30 vocab words, 10 phrases, and the numbers 1-1000 in 2 days of class, and there's a chance of snow tomorrow!
PS: Since having written this, I actually have been studying. Until my break, when I got a phone call 15 minutes ago from our Czech buddy Yarda. He got a text message from the girls who live either a floor or 2 below us complaining that we were playing foosball too loud. It wasn't even 2315 when we were cut off, and we weren't even playing as intensely competitive games as we usually do. What's happening to our world if someone can't even be loud at 11pm!