Rice cooker

While cooking dinner at a friend's house, I was asked to cook rice in a pot. I couldn't do it. Ha.

On a more serious note, please continue to keep the Japanese earthquake victims in your thoughts. You can also help out by donating to the Red Cross.
If you read Japanese, here's all the different ways you can donate: 募金情報まとめ, and be wary of donation frauds. When in doubt, donate directly to the Red Cross.

Also, it's Postsecret day!

Earthquake

Praying for everyone's safety and Japan's quick recovery from the giant quake. I still can't really believe it's happening--it's all so unreal. I'm glad to hear that Tokyo wasn't hit as hard as other prefectures and that my friends are safe. We think that my extended family should be all right, too, but we hope to get in touch sometime soon.

For all those in Japan, stay safe, and we'll be keeping our eyes on the news for the next while....

Something Awesome

I've recently discovered the blog 1000 Awesome Things through a friend, and have been slowly going through the list of awesome. If I had to add one to the list, I would say:

I often check my mailbox as I leave the apartment and take the contents along with me so I can read them on the go. For some reason, postcards and letters feel much more special when I'm reading them in the train or during short coffee breaks or sitting outside waiting to meet somebody.

And. I can show off the fact that I have awesome old-school friends who still send postcards. Ha!

Basically, I'm just a show-off.

Happy International Day of Awesomeness!

Punctuality and Mapplethorpe

Went to see the Mapplethorpe retrospective at the C/O Berlin today, as the gallery's due to close at the end of the month. My favourite was probably his series of portraits of artists, including photos of Cindy Sherman and Louise Bourgeoise. Louise Bourgeoise had a wrinkly smile and a giant phallus in her arms.

She was probably the coolest and kinkiest mamie when she passed away at 98. 

Learning

Phew! Still barely Tuesday. And what a gorgeous day it was! Spring is just around the corner, or so we hope!

I come home fairly late from my evening classes three days a week, and I just don't learn from my mistakes . . .

Speaking of which, I think I'm going to make myself a sandwich . . .

Perspective

Practiced drawing perspective today at my art teacher's studio. Or tried to practice, rather. I kept measuring everything wrong. Bleeergh. All my lines look wonky and wrong.

Well, the view of Karl-Marx-Allee was nice, though.

Vermeer

A colour post after having ranted about colour in my last post. It's coloured pencil, so it doesn't really count.

So I went to my friend F's birthday-slash-Karneval party the other day. Karneval party implies costume party---so it's as close as the Germans get to Halloween (completely different concept, yes, but yay costumes!). I wanted something easy and cheap but also recognizable, so yes. This is what happened.

The theme of the party was actually "heroes from our childhood," so my costume didn't exactly go with the theme (unless I wanted to argue that Vermeer was my childhood hero, which probably would have made me one of those obnoxiously precocious kids), but thanks to the presence of many like-minded art nerds, I had fun being recognized (except I had to do the neck-twisty-pose every time)...until I started to lose track of how much wine I was drinking. It literally took me 24 hours to recover from my hangover the next day. Ugh.

I also think I lost one pearl earring at the party. Damn. I guess that made it even closer to the original, seeing as the only mention the single earring. Except I somehow doubt that Vermeer's model was a drunken mess. I just pray that I didn't do anything too stupid . . .

Anywho. Happy Sunday!

Colourphobe

Am finally finished with one pencil still life that I can include in my portfolio. I actually don't mind doing pencil drawings because well, you don't have to deal with colour. I've never been interested in colour; even as a kid, my crayon and pastel sets went completely untouched whereas my I constantly needed new pencils. I'm not really sure what it is about colour, but I feel like greytones can do everything colour can do. And what's not to love about grey? It's so perfect, so subtle, so classy, so . . . grey.

So yes. Grey is awesome. Better go draw some more.

Beautiful

Pap test day. My gynecologist was an awesome little lady who asked if I wanted a tiny towel to cover myself (what for?), and then was like, "I don't know how it is in Japan, but we have no shame here in Germany! HAHA!" Anyway, she was perky, straightforward, and competent. That's more than anyone could ask for from a trip to the gynecologist's.

It's a strange compliment, but a compliment nonetheless.

Letter of Demotivation

Writing letters of motivation is hard. I'd been procrastinating and avoiding it for a few days, but it had come to a point where I was seriously running out of time, so I worked on it after coming home from my evening German classes and actually got it done in an hour. Go me!

But of course, now I have to translate it into German. Ungh.

Still. Hard part's done. Now I can meet G tomorrow without feeling too guilty about it. Maaybe.

Also getting the first of my HPV vaccine tomorrow. Owie. But good.