Annie's on Fire

So when I last left off I told you I was looking forward to a low-key night at Scotch and Sofa. While I did end up going there to meet some people; everyone was late or not going and I started to get a little worried. So finally one by one people trickle in, but still missing, Laurel, Eliza, Adria, Steve (basically most of the people I made plans with) so I was like, what the hell? I hung out at Scotch and Sofa for a while and Julia Newman's (who I know from D.C. this summer) friend Jon (who is studying abroad in Bonn and was in Berlin this weekend) ended up coming to meet me at Julia's request. He brought one friend, and by about 12 o'clock present at Scotch and Sofa were Pam, Margot, Sam, Evelyn, Elise, Me, Julia's friend, Jon, and one of his friends. A pretty solid group. I called Laurel and she, Eliza, and Adria, were at Andrew's just hanging out. So I ended up going over there (just around the corner from Scotch and Sofa) with the intention of meeting everyone again at this club called Prater. So I went to Andrew's, round people up to go to Prater, and surprise, surprise, it's closed! So there is a group of like 12 people, all drunk (except me, since I got a late start) trying to come up with a new plan. At one point everyone just stood blocking the entrance to the U-bahn. Anyone who knows me knows this situation gave me a heart attack. I was cold, everyone was unorganized, and I was like, "alright here's what going to happen, you're all going to pull your thumbs out of your asses and we're going to a bar. ANY bar." This didn't work.

However, the more sober of our numbers, Andrew, Jon, his friend, Elise and I ended up splintering off to go to this nearby ping-pong bar. Ping-Pong beer you may ask, well it's exactly what it sounds like. It was a basement type deal with a bunch of beer and ping-pong tables. That was kind of lame, but I mingled and talked to people. It was a good chance for me to bond with Andrew who I had instantly for no reason when I first met him, well there is a reason, it's because he reminds me of Phil, but I figured I should try to make nice and get to know him. He and I stood in the corner and talked, mostly about people in our group and our opinions on them. And he said, "Damn all the hot girls in the program have boyfriends," normally I would have let even a small comment like that make me feel bad about myself, but given my new ephifany, I just said, "Careful. I'm one of the hot girls AND I don't have a boyfriend." And he was caught off guard and he said, "Oh uh, I just mean, like there's no attraction, we're just friends." And I said, "I wasn't offering, just wanted to remind you that you forgot to include me in the category. Silly you." BAM! How cool and collected of me right? No feeling bad, no desire to prove my attractiveness, just "alright dumbass, if you can't see I'm a hottie you're an idiot, so let me tell you so."

Anyway, Jon's friend wanted to go to this techno club called Tresor and I was not really feeling it, it was kind of far away and already almost two am, but everyone else was down and I figured, Hell, I'm in Berlin, let's go. So we went to this club, which is in an old factory, and is quite possibly the weirdest thing I have ever encountered. It's so loud, the people are crazy, drugs are being passed around, and most offensively it was 14 EURO cover charge. So I went and danced and tried to have fun, but it just wasn't my scene at all so I bailed before other people did, which was still 5 am.

Sunday I slept. Day over. Yesterday, Monday, I met up with Julia's friend again after class and he and I went to my two favorite bars, "The Oscar Wilde" and "Studio 54". We had a really great night just hanging out and telling Julia stories and I ended up getting home at about 12. So the past couple days really have been sort of a frenzied blur. But I'm having a lot of fun (finally) and I think I might be at the point where I really don't give a shit what people say or think about me (also finally). Like today, in the middle of our gender studies class, our teacher said, "there is this great place that women in the twenties would have hung out at, and it's still a great place to go and get coffee. Just 'round the corner." And I was like, "let's go!" and my teacher is like, "go now?" And I said, "yeah it's just around the corner, let's continue our discussion there over a cup of coffee." So our teacher, much to her credit, was just like, "ok let's go!" So I was stoked, a) to be going on a field trip b) that it was my opinion that swayed her and c) to go to a really cool 1920s, cabaret type bar. So while we're getting our stuff together I was like, "i'm so excited" and I guess I said it like more than once, because this girl goes, "If you say that one more time I'm going to push you in the street and make sure a car hits you." To which I said, "Alright Debbie Downer, I'll try to be more morose about life next time, would that suit you?" BAM! I seriously am on fire. She was a total bitch for no reason, and instead of me getting down on myself, again, I called her on it. It's liberating! We'll see what happens with all this new found confidence, yeah?