Exit Life Through Window

Woo, Wochenende! Although actually today was pretty good, mainly because I'd actually read the entire novel (Rainald Goetz, 'Irre') for Popliteratur and therefore was able to actually concentrate and participate for 3 hours. Max, my teacher from the language course at the beginning of the semester, came in half way through to talk to our lecturer though, and it was kind of embarassing because I was playing with my phone under the table (it was a boring bit...) and he used to take the piss out of me for doing that in class before (it's kind of a habit *g*) so I went bright red, and my finnish friend (also Anna, heh... there are so many of us here!!) now thinks I fancy him. Oh well!

Yesterday was fun too - I have choir on a Thursday night, and I wasn't VERY up for going yesterday because I'd had a sore throat all day on Wednesday and I didn't want to risk screwing up my voice because we've got a concert next week. In the end I went, though, and my voice was fine, but also we had a Niklaus party afterwards (for St. Nicholas's day) and I went along, and not only actually got to know some of the (actually German) other choir members, but I found out that after the rehearsal weekend in January, they always have an open mic concert and people go and sing and play stuff - so I may actually get a chance to play some of my own stuff! Which would be great :)

Now this weekend I'm going to a flamenco night tonight, a birthday party tomorrow, and I'm having a gathering for mulled wine and mince pie eating at mine on Sunday night (I brought over a kilo of mince pie mix back from England. I love German Christmas but it's not the same without the mince pies!) And I need to go swimming, tidy my room, do reading, and buy a Christmas tree at some point. Which actually is exciting in itself - I love Christmas decorations but in London I'm never there close enough to Christmas to actually bother buying a tree. This year I'm in Berlin until the 23rd though, and I really wanted an excuse to buy some of the gorgeous ornaments from the Christmas markets. So I'm going out to buy a foot-tall Christmas tree tomorrow for 10 euros, hehe.

Hope everyone else is having a good weekend too!!

Today's was that my mother has surprisingly more conservative views than I ever thought. Funny really, that just because she never thought to mention certain things she disapproves of, I grew up really very open-minded, and now I keep getting surprised when I bring things up in conversation that I have no problem with and she gets all conservative! Ah well. We all choose our own path sooner or later, I suppose.

I wrote a long and angst filled post about birthdays etc yesterday, and then realised that it was a load of wank that nobody (including myself in days to come) would want to read, so I got rid of it and set about something more productive instead. So I have had rather a good day, all told. I got to play the Sims for a bit (hurrah, I am such a geek) and worked out when I'm going to do all my essay reading over the next few days. I've just started brainstorming for the first of those now, and it's going quite well - the primary material's interesting, and the secondary material so far seems to have been written by very human people (and I do love reading academic stuff written 40 years ago - there's something very warm and fuzzy about the image of old professors wearing tweed and writing about the source author as if he's an old chum). So it should be fun.

My other aim for this weekend is to come up with some meaningful resolutions. I know a couple already, but I'm saving them for the 31st - it means more if I set them in stone then, I think. But I want some to do with personal aims - psychological development, relationship with others, widening my circle of friends and socialising - and some to do with on here - some kind of project I stick to, probably in fandom - and some to do with academia and career - songwriting, academic development, getting more "culture", the german play/singing lessons/music theatre review... anyways, I need to go through and clarify all of those into things I'll vow to stick to. I'm taking it seriously this year. I think it's time to.

On another note (and because everyone else seems to be doing it!) Christmas has been good to me :) I got lots of nice stuff - an 8GB Sony mp3 player (a lot better than an ipod - and it's all shiny and pretty and black! and it shows fireworks on the display screen!), a really good wok, which I needed desperately!, some artwork and a belt from my sis, and some nice stuff for my room at uni - a massive fan from the Pier for my wall, and a really cute ornament of a black cat looking down at a mouse. Plus I got some good books - Colin Thubron's Shadow of the Silk Road, a book on propaganda in the films of Stalin's Russia and Nazi Germany, and a digital photography guide. Oh, and the DVD of Pleasantville - such a good film! Trev bought me an absolutely gorgeous necklace whilst we were in Berlin, too (and a stuffed penguin! It's an in joke...) and I got the usual selection of chocolate and stuff... enough to keep me going for a while. So all has been good at home!

Speaking of Berlin, photos are here, if anyone's interested.