Exit Life Through Window

This is giving me a strange sense of deja-vu writing this... guess where I am guys?!? I'm in the Humboldt's PC-Pool! Yes, I am on a flying visit to Berlin to try and persuade my lecturers here to give me my marks back from Berlin, and I realised that my Humboldt login still works, so I'm browsing the net until I have to go get my flight. Sorry for the long disappearance from LJ-Land - I have no internet in my new flat right now so I won't be around much until it gets installed. The new flat is amazing though, and there will be pictures soon!

It's been really great being back in Berlin, although it's made me even more aware of how much more at home I feel here than in London right now. I went out with the tour guides last night and I feel so happy around them. They're a really friendly, open, accepting bunch of people and it makes them a really nice group to spend time with. I miss that a lot, as well as just the general atmosphere of Berlin in comparison to London. I was walking through Monbijou Park yesterday and just felt totally like I'd never left Berlin in the first place.

I have a new plan for post-degree now, because I realised I wanted to come back to Berlin. So the plan is to graduate, finish out my rental period on my flat working in London (I'm now a London tour guide, btw! I passed my test tour on Sunday, hurrah!) and then move back to Berlin for about 6 months to do the tour guiding thing, earn a load of money, and then go travelling for a couple of months. I want to go to the States, NZ and Australia, and then come back through Asia and maybe Eastern Europe. I shall see how it goes with the cash. After the travelling I want to move to France for a year and after that, who knows? But I think that's a pretty good sounding plan :D My sister is really up for moving to Berlin with me which could be pretty fun as well.

I also can't remember if I posted about this before, but I'm directing a play this year too, in April. We finally decided which one! It's going to be 'Forever Godard' by Igor Bauersima... hopefully it's going to be the best play the German soc has ever seen... fingers crossed, at least! We're going to fit music and dance and a tonne of film as well (of course, since it's named after Jean-Luc Godard) into it... I have been mentally (and sometimes really) squeeing every time I think about it, hehe. So exciting!

Anyway, I thought I'd update about my life right now. I actually have a whole essay, practically, about my thoughts on my year abroad ready to post, but it's on my laptop at home so that might have to wait til I get the net. Also, I'm buying a PC just so I can play the Sims,pretty much... I feel like such a geek!

On that note... have a good week everyone, comment and update me on exciting things going on for you all because I won't have much time to check my f-list over the next week or so, and I will be back in full force soon!!

I got two skirts and a necklace from C&A yesterday for under €20. Result!

I realised today as I was walking through Alexanderplatz that I would actually happily come back and live in Berlin again in the future. I think the difference between Berlin and London for me is that, although I love London and get a great buzz from living there, I always feel slightly in awe of the fact that I do. I never quite feel like I'm part of the place, more like I'm a constant fly-on-the-wall observing how amazing and busy it all is. In Berlin, I feel like I'm part of it all, like I'm not just existing here but both giving and taking something from the city. There's a sense of community here. It's a really nice feeling. I think that it's maybe that that makes people come here for two days and leave four years later. It's pretty amazing.

I am also very annoyed right now, because my voice has been dead for about three weeks now. I can't actually produce any note higher than an F above middle C when singing, and I sound like I've been chain-smoking for 50 years anyway. It's ridiculous. And even worse, I'm supposed to be singing at my party in a week and a half, and there's going to be a load of music biz people there, and I think I'm going to sound so stupid. So I'm kind of worried about the whole thing. I also don't really want to end up with nodules - for one thing Julian (my singing teacher) would kill me. Ergh. I think I'm just going on total voice maintenance from now until next Saturday - no alcohol, only drinking water, vocalzones, and steaming with tea tree oil twice a day. Hopefully that will help a bit.

So I'm back in London and at Trev's now. Had a bit of a manic journey to get here! I went out for my last night in Berlin, but since I had to leave at 7am to get to airport and I needed to do about an hour of packing/last minute flat tidying beforehand, I had planned to get home by 2am on Friday night and get four hours sleep. Well... obviously, it got to 2am and I was enjoying myself, so I decided it was a good idea to just not sleep, stay out late and then go home, pack, and head to the airport. Which I did, and Mira came with me and helped (and didn't sleep either). I planned to then sleep on the plane and the train instead, and the plane bit worked, but the trains at the airport in Luton were all either delayed or cancelled, which meant that they were impossible to get on. When I did finally get on one, it was so packed I spent the whole journey stood up and pressed into the wall... eergh. But still, I made it in one piece in the end, even if I did pretty much go 30 hours without sleep!

I'm feeling a bit sad now though, because although I obviously want to be in London and with Trev and stuff, Mira is going to be in Berlin for the next three weeks and then going back to Holland, and she's not coming back for next semester, so my coffee buddy/best friend in Berlin is gone! I felt really bad at the airport, half not wanting to go back to London :( I guess it'll be alright, but it's a bit crap to make such good friends with someone and know that you're probably not going to be living in the same place as them for a long long time. Oh well, I guess it means I'll have to make a trip to the Netherlands next semester...

On a lighter note, I got the best chat up line ever on Friday night:
Czech guy at the bar: Have you counted the beads on your necklace? [I was wearing a long string of beads]
Me: No, why?
Czech guy: Well, where I come from, that's bad luck not to!
Me: Well, where I come from, it's bad luck for a black cat to cross your path, but I live with a black cat so I guess I'm used to flirting with bad luck!

Just thought it was a pretty strange way to start a conversation, so he deserved a bit of piss-taking, heh!

I'm having a happy day today. I spent about half an hour in bed this morning at 9ish trying to persuade myself to go to work, and not pretend I was ill. When I finally did get in, I wasn't on the roster for today, so they sent me home - and the best thing is, because it's their screw up, I'm probably gonna get paid for it! Hurrah! So anyway, since I was already out of the house, I took advantage of the fact that the weather had improved from yesterday (it was actually pretty sunny this morning) and took a bus to St James's Park, and sat there with a cup of tea and a scone with jam and cream, and looked out over the pond. I love sitting outside the coffee shop in the park. You can see Westminster and the eye, and in front of them the park has a beautiful lake with wildlife and a fountain and loads of trees. Because it's a bit lower than the road you can't really hear the traffic. It was lovely. So I read some of Ansichten eines Clowns, the Boell text I have to read for Monday, and called my Mum and Dad and had a nice long chat. The weather was all crisp and wintry, and there wasn't much wind, so whilst it was cool, it wasn't cold. It was great. And I just feel so happy now. I love London.

I have to say though, if it makes me that happy that I didn't have to go to work, maybe I need to start looking for a different job...