TWO down, ONE to go!!!

I'm two-thirds done! Woohoo!!!!!

One more week of this madness... I hope I can make it. I also hope I can figure out what the heck the last paper is really supposed to be about... heh heh oops. Wish me luck!

In other news, it's almost spring! It's been so nice and sunny lately! And this week it will be March, and March means spring. Woot!

One down, two to go...

But most importantly, one down!!! I just finished the first term paper--the hardest one, actually--and I'm feeling very encouraged. It's a very good feeling to have completed something that didn't seem possible a few months ago. And... it really wasn't that bad. Once I got myself to just start putting something on the page, it kinda came together.

Also, having Shannon and Janine here for a little while really helped. I was little nervous that I'd be distracted and tempted not to work, but they actually turned out to be a source of encouragement. I didn't get to go around sightseeing with them a lot, but living with friends for a few days just gave me a necessary boost. If they hadn't been here, I know I would've just sat in front the computer all day everyday feeling depressed and thus not working very effectively. But they cheered me up a lot and helped me to relax a bit. :)

So... now we're on to the next one! Not without taking a little time to celebrate a special day though... :)

"The H-word"

HAUSARBEITEN. The German word for TERM PAPERS.

Time to start writing. What I'm supposed to write... heh heh I wish I knew! Wish me luck!

These papers are really consuming my life right now. Grr. But, in like 2 weeks they will be done and I will be FREE for like 6 weeks. Can't wait.

In other news, Shannon (my roomie from Penn) and another friend from her study-abroad program in France are coming to visit this weekend. I will have to ditch them a good bit to work on papers, but it'll be fun to have people around. I hate spending so much time alone, and especially now that classes are over, I'm pretty much by myself except for when I'm at church stuff.

I hope everyone had a happy Valentine's Day! Mine was uneventful--V-Day is not a huge deal in Germany--but still nice. I wore lots of pink to keep me in the V-Day spirit.

Sigh... I'm getting anxious to get out of study-land and into the real world where life is more consistent and normal. Hopefully when I finally get there I won't miss study-land and it's on-again off-again nature. Right now I can't imagine that...

Photo update

I don't really have time to write, but I have time to post some pictures...

Okay this isn't a great picture, but maybe the "stern look of approval" is easier to imagine if you at least know what the guy looks like. Here's Manfred, the choir director:



And here are some pictures of my pastor's little kids, who I'm totally addicted to: Robert, Emily and Heidi. :)


Robert thinks it's cool that we both have blue coats. :)


Robert and Emily playing inside their new armoire/closet thing, before the drawers had been put in...


Emily looks a little suspicious!


And here's little Heidi, though she's grown a good bit since I took this picture (like 2 mos. ago).

Cute just got cuter.

Additional text added! Scroll down if you've already read the original post. :)

Hard to believe, I know. But this morning I experienced a level of cuteness far beyond what I had ever imagined.

Last night after dinner (which was like midnight!) I asked Timo if he would call me in the morning when he gets up. Robert and Emily are very early birdies and so Timo is pretty much always up between 6 and 7 because of them. I was afraid I'd oversleep and miss class or even my exam since I'd been out so late the night before. Timo thought it was funny but said he'd call. Then I jokingly told him that Emily should call me because she'd just be like "Keeee-nahh!!!" and then I would definitely wake up.

So, bright and early this morning, I'm all snuggled in my warm bed and in the middle of some dream, and all of a sudden my cell phone rings. My first thought: Argh! Who in the world would call me in the middle of night? Second thought: Oh no, I told Timo to call me. Yeah right Timo, I'm going back to bed! But then I answered the phone, and alas, a sweet little voice... "Keena aufstehen!" ("Keena get up!") It was the cutest thing EVER. I laughed so hard and was so cheered-up I couldn't have gone back to sleep even if I wanted to. :)

Edit (7. Feb.): Okay so yesterday I too tired and out of it to give a full update, so I just posted the cute story because I couldn't wait to post it. :) Here's the rest of the news:

The choir concert was Monday night and went very well. Not 100% perfect, but a lot of things that were not working out at dress rehearsal on Sunday worked out at the concert, which was awesome! Our director is so cute too. He can be so funny and animated, and whenever we got through a hard part during the concert he looked up at us and gave us this very intense look of approval. Unfortunately hard to describe, but it was very nice. His conducting also becomes even more animated on stage than in rehearsal, which was also rather entertaining.

Lots of my friends came, which was really cool. During the orchestra-only work I played "Where's Waldo" and found Molly, Tobi, Clemens and Tina. The rest were hard to find. I was thankful though that they weren't like a lot of other choir people's friends and families, who stood up and waved rather hideously when we first came out on stage. Embarassing!

After the concert I went to dinner with Timo, Tobi, Clemens, Tina, Gerard, and Johanna. And guess what we ate? Mexican-ish food! This restaurant was sort of a vague Mexican/Brazilian/South American place. Most importantly: I ate fajitas. And they weren't bad. Salsa was actually decent too. Wasn't fresh like American Mexican restaurants, but it didn't taste like ketchup!

Only bad thing about it was that we left the restaurant at midnight, and I had my Turkish final the next morning. The exam was at 10 but I had another class before that at 8:30, which is why I was afraid I'd oversleep and thus asked Timo to call me when he woke up. And then sweet little Emily called. Soooooooooo precious!

The exam went well. Turkish teacher was nice and gave each of us the opportunity to ask for help on up to 5 vocabulary words. For each question we didn't use, however, we earned an extra .5 point. I used four of mine, so I didn't really gain many extra points, but other than the questions I used I felt like I knew everything. I was pretty well-prepared. Hopefully I did well--Turkish is a lot like math, you can understand the concepts really well and still make careless errors that can mess you up a good bit, but I took my time with it and had time to check a lot of answers too. We'll see!

After the exam I pretty much just crashed at home. I did a little laundry because all my jeans were dirty (jeans are important!) and attempted to do a little reading, but it didn't really work. Oh well. Then I met up with Tobi to plan out our "Mitarbeiter Fiesta" for the 40 Days of Purpose (series by Rick Warren, now translated into German), then we ate at the Chinese restaurant underneath the church. Yum. Then I had music practice with Manu, which is always fun although my fingers are a little tender now from not playing guitar for two weeks. Then I went home and slept a lot.

And that's my update! In other news, Mom and Dad have finally planned their trip to visit me in March, and Mom and I are officially going to Istanbul and staying with Elif!!! Woot!!! I'm totally excited. Like, totally really excited. :)

That's it. Love to all!

Yippee!!! It's February!!!

That almost rhymed. Teeheehee.

So, despite the fact that "February" means my term papers are due in 1 month, I am totally stoked that it's February.

February is a really cool month. And greatly underappreciated. But my obsession with it probably makes up for it. Why do I like February so much?

Lots of reasons! For one thing, I'm not a big fan of January. It's just a hard month to get through. First you have the after-Christmas slump, and then there are no exciting holidays, and you have to go back to school/work/the real world and it's cold and gray and... you get the point. Only good thing about January this year is that in January, the days noticeably get longer again in Berlin, which is very comforting after the depressing darkness that falls in December.

Also, I really really like Valentine's Day. Like, a lot. Which most people think is kinda weird. Well, not most, but a lot. But Valentine's Day is the best non-religious holiday ever. "Significant other" or no "significant other", I can't help loving a holiday that celebrates red and pink (2 of my favorite colors), chocolate, and flowers, and love, and hugs. :) It just makes me happy. And because Valentine's Day is in February, the whole month of February just acquires this happy pinkish-ness for me. In my mental calendar, the whole month is colored pink.

Thirdly, my "spiritual birthday" (when I became a Christian) is in February, which is a cool milestone for me. This year I turn 3!

Fourthly, after February comes March. March means daffodils bloom (my favorite flower), my birthday, the beginning of spring, and then after that comes Easter. My dad always says he "lives on the slope of the curve"--i.e., it's not about where you're at, but where you're going. For me, January is pretty much a flat-bottom slump. But in February, the slope increases quite rapidly.

And thus, I am very happy that it is February.