Quinesential Sunday in Berlin

This has been a great weekend, crazy and random, but great. All culminating in the very traditional Berlin Sunday, brunch and flea markets. But first, I'll give some background.

Friday during the day I met up with Eliza and Laurel to do some shopping in Prenzlauerberg. There are all these great little boutiques with really cool stuff. I ended up trying on a lot of very chic/hipster European clothing but could only commit to a leather shoulder bag. It is really nice to go shopping though and do some female bonding. Shopping is like the universal female language of sisterhood and friendship.

Friday evening I met up with a group of people at about midnight for a few drinks and just generally to hang out. Our intention was to go out to a club but apparently some people had enjoyed our three day weekend a little too much and were hungover from Thursday and only wanted to get falafel and go home. I was like, screw this, I'm all dressed up, I'm going out. So me, Mills, and Sam decided to go to White Trash Fast Food. We walk in, are about to check our coats and I hear these two guys speaking British English, so I get excited, play dumb and folksy and say, "hey where are you guys from?" And we all start chatting. And it turns out only one was British and the other was German but had a thick British accent because he studied there. The German one, Jan, also had just received his results from the German equivalent of the bar, and he passed, so they were both out celebrating. They were just leaving White Trash and they were like, "you guys should come with us." So I was like, whatever, and we all went to this cool seventies-ish bar with them. I also challenged them to a whiskey drinking contest and I schooled both of them. My mother and father would be proud. Anyway, Jan (the German lawyer) and I really hit it off and exchanged numbers and I really hope to hear from him again because I liked him a lot.

Saturday was pretty low key. I took a nap and lounged around and then went to meet Steve and Sam at Oscar Wilde, the Irish Pub. Over the course of the night most of our group ended up coming, so it was a really fun experience, just hanging out, enjoying the group. It was also a lot of fun because a lot of the people in the bar were either Irish or British so there was a lot of English speaking and accents and it was really fun to chat. The British are so elegant when they drink, aren't they? Like, this one guy comes over and says, "Oh man, I be pissed out me fuckin' tree." I would just say schwasted. That isn't nearly as colorful. I mean, the most vulgar sentence, if said with a British accent sounds like the Queen's English. If I said in slurred English that I was "Pissed out of my treeeeeee" it would sound like a sloppy drunk cursing unecessaily. When the Brit says it, it might as well have been Shakespeare.

Following the bar Steve, Eliza, Sam and I all got Dada Falafel and tried to avoid falling on the sidewalk which is basically a sheet of ice at this point. The Turkish food is one of the best things about Germany. It's so filling and delicious and cheap. And the people at the stands don't speak German any better than I do so I feel like it's a great equalizer.

Today I met Mike, Pam, Elise, and Steve for brunch, which is a huge thing in Germany. It's a buffet with all kinds of breads, and meats, and cheeses, all you can eat, and we paid only two euros each. I haven't been shopping in a while so my goal was to eat enough to the point that I wouldn't have to eat later so we sat for 3 full hours going back and refilling our plates with seconds and thirds as we saw fit. It was a really pleasant lazy Sunday except one of the girls kept making all these snide comments at me. I honestly can't imagine what her problem is, but she said things like, "You just speak in stream of conscience don't you. I can never understand what the hell you're talking about." And it's like, if I was speaking in stream of conscience I would be hurling insults at you now. Honestly, girls are impossible. After brunch we went to a flee market and bought warm spiced wine and browsed through all the weird knick-knacks and other shit that no one wants. Honestly, who actually buys at a flea market?! Certainly not me.

So I am dreading having to do classes again after such a fun and relaxing three day weekend.