Q

This weekend must have been the laziest weekend on earth. I left the house once to buy eggs, and only reluctantly. Oh, I started printing and writing my new year's cards, though. That was slightly productive, but I was basically just procrastinating because I didn't want to study for my German test. My idea of studying for my exam this weekend was watching German TV. Well, no. But I certainly could have done more . . .

Anywho. I was going through facebook photos (which is what I often do when I'm procrastinating), and I found a really funny comment by Mar's friend Q. Q is a really awesome guy with lots of obsessions, like shuffling (a kind of dance), working out, techno music, babies (yes, babies), hygiene, and meat.

This particular comment was about meat. Q eats a lot of meat. Well, he eats a lot in general. He told us once about a time when he got really hungry for a burger around 3am or so. There were no stores open, so he tried to walk through a McDonalds drive-thru, but apparently they refused to serve him and he was really upset. He's also really thin. God only knows where all the food goes. Either he's hiding it somewhere or he's got the most amazing metabolism in the world. Anywho.

It was a photo of my friends eating veggie burgers. For Q, veggie burgers is a mystery. Why would anyone eat a veggie burger when you could order a perfectly good burger? He described to me a nightmare that he had the night after he saw the photo, which basically went like this:

(click to enlarge)

"I had a dream last night about veggie burgers ZOMG! ok so I was like waiting in line at the cafeteria with 2 ppl in front. I saw a block of meat(pork, though it looks like those round blocks of smoked chicken at the deli) still there, but only 1/3 left.

When it was my turn, another worker asked what do I want on my burger. I looked at the containers and it's all veggies. I asked "What? Don't I get to choose which meat first?" And they're like "no, it's past 11pm, we don't serve meat after 11pm" I was HORRIFIED!!!! I asked why and they replied no one does.

I looked around at the McDonalds and Burger King next door and it was closed. I told them, "I still see that block of meat right there. Why don't you sell me that?" They said "It's store policy to not sell meat after 11pm" I was like "WTF, what kind of stupid policy is that?"

I was getting so worried. The thought of NO MEAT for a WHOLE NIGHT was UNBEARABLE. By now tons of ppl were in line waiting. I kept asking them to sell me what's left of the block of pork... to no avail."

Aw! I miss Q!

Date?

I think it's been long enough now that I can talk about that awkward date I had some weeks ago. He was my classmate's roommate, and though we'd met briefly at the school's Stammtisch, we'd exchanged only about three sentences. One day, when we were about to leave the bar, he casually mentioned that we should go out for drinks one day. I'd already had about four beers (the 500ml increments make it easy for me to count how many beers I have to have before I start to feel drunk (4) or my lips go numb (6), etc.), and with four beers, everything seems awesome and I generally respond to everything super-enthusiastically. So yes.

aaanyway. He called a few days later while I was on the bus, and I thought I heard "S and I were wondering if you wanted to go for drinks tonight." I wasn't up to much, so I said yes. After I got off the bus, I started to question whether he had actually said "S and I were wondering" or just "I was wondering." I eventually figured I was just flattering myself---of course it's a group thing---and so I went off to our meeting spot in blah clothes with minimal make-up.

I've never really been asked out on a date-date as an adult. I don't know how these things work.

He was the only one there. Oh bugger. It was a date. Yay, I wasn't flattering myself! I'm not entirely unattractive! Oh crap, he's coming this way. I put my hand out to shake his hand. He takes my rigidly outstretched hand and awkwardly kisses it, and motions me to hook arms. Urgh. Thinking it probably wouldn't be very polite to refuse arm-hookage, I reluctantly and awkward hooked arms with the boy and headed to the bar.

The rest of the night was actually not nearly as awkward, but there was definitely not going to be a second date. He said he would call me the next day (and he did), so I prepared myself for the call by googling "how to reject a second date."

I'm a dork. hee.

sun sun sun

Ack! I missed yet another day. I've been really lame this week!

The sun was partially out today, and we actually got to see a patch (just a patch) of blue sky for the first time in weeks! Man, is the European winter ever depressing. But well, I guess it teaches you to, er, appreciate the little things in life, like a tiny patch of blue sky . . .

Oh man. I can't wait till spring rolls around . . . mmm, springrolls.

phone-o-phobia

I have an incredibly stupid fear of answering phone calls from people I don't know, or just answering phones in general. Thinking I'd be able to overcome my fear of phones by making myself confront the problem, I took a job as a customer service rep after university, only to find that it only made things worse (as 75% of the clients calling in were angry about something). Sure enough, I quit 3 months later and took refuge in the significantly less social world of translation.

And yes, I do actually cover my phone with a pillow and sit on it until it stops ringing.

New Tandempartner

I have a brand new Tandempartner, and I am so incredibly happy with him! Yay!

Roomiedom

Our family friend K-san is here in Berlin, and we had a wonderful Sunday with warm meals, flea markets, and Weihnachtsmarkt in front of the Schloss Charlottenburg in the evening with friends.

Anywho. Two ex-classmates of mine have recently moved in together. I guess it's been about a month now, and it is quite apparent that the honeymoon period of roomiedom is over:

Although I've really lucked out in the past (except for a slightly inhygenic one in my first year uni), having roomies is tricky. I wonder if they've had their talk already this weekend. hee.

kaputt

I'm totally dense when it comes to guessing someone's sexual preferences. As in, my gaydar is kaputt. I had this awkward conversation with a friend yesterday:

On a less awkward note, I went to the Neues Museum see some "entartete Kunst" ("degenerate art" that the Nazis had deemed inappropriate and got rid of in the 30s) that was recently dug up in Berlin. It was a cold but beautiful day out!

These guys weren't part of the "entartete Kunst" exhibit, but aren't they adorable?

ps. Nefertiti was drop-dead gorgeous. 

photomaton

Oof. Spent the entire day at school today. 

After class ended at noon, I had lunch with a classmate, went back to the library to try out the listening part of the B2 test, worked on some transcription, did some more studying, went for cake with Motoki, came back to meet Andrew to go to the "Degenerate Art" talk that was being given at school. Then post-talk coffee, then home at 9pm. Phew. Man. But the talk was super interesting, and tomorrow morning we're going to the Neues Museum to check out some of the "degenerate art" from early 20th century that had just been dug up recently in Berlin.

Anywho. Today I remembered that one of my all-time favourite French words was:

I don't know what it is about the word, but whenever I hear photomaton, this is what I imagine:

An adorable camera monster. Raawr! *click*

mehr Schnee

More snow! It was getting kind of ridiculous until it stopped a few hours ago. We got a good 25 cm or so of snow from last night and this morning, which is definitely enough for now. Some of the students were going berserk in the inner courtyard at school during break time and we had a 2nd-floor-window-to-courtyard snowball fight. Fun!

When I got home, there was plenty of snow on our balcony.

It's about -10C here, which is kind of cold for Berlin. But I remember calling my mom in Cambodia back when I was in university in Toronto. The conversation was totally nonsensical because I was all excited about the weather being wonderful and warm at 1C, while my mom was on the other end, unable to understand why I would describe 1C as "warm."

Warm is relative, indeed.

Schnee!

It's freaking December.

Sorry for the lack of comic today. But it's SNOWING a shit load outside for November in Berlin, and the weirdest thing is, I'm totally psyched about it. I was just out for a drink to see a friend of mine off, and a few hours later . . . SNOW! Everywhere! Fresh, white fluffiness! It's -10 C degrees and it apparently feels like -19. And yet I'm so excited. I thought I hated snow, but somehow it brings back fond memories of Toronto and childhood in the states and it made me so retardedly giddy. I can't even explain it.

New word of the day:
Kopfsache