Day 9 - Friday, September 4

I made the mistake of having a tablespoon of espresso yesterday morning at school - 8 am, mind you, and yes, a tablespoon is all that comes out of the coffee machine's espresso function. I didn't fall asleep until after four a.m., and got up at my new usual time of 6:30.

Wonderfully cooler today, and breezy. A few showers. School was over my head again so I'm going to have to work really hard over the weekend to catch up and prepare for a test on Monday. We get out at noon on Fridays instead of 1:00 so I took the extra hour to walk and shoot photos; got a few good ones, although not all the graffiti shots I wanted.

Spent quite a bit of time looking for a paper store where I can purchase a sketchbook but didn't find the store I was thinking of. Or any other, for that matter. I need a book to begin to paste my ephemera into. Then napped, and spent the rest of the afternoon and early evening apartment hunting online, plowing through listings on German sites. It's a time-consuming process, first figuring out all the vocabulary (warmmiete, kaltmiete, nach vereinbarung, befeuerungsart, kurzfristig, etc.) then locating the address on a map because the pictures don't show you that this particular lovely apartment sits above 3 sets of railroad tracks. Waterfront property in Arizona.

Hannah and I had Vietnamese food AGAIN tonight, the third time since I've been here. I like being able to take Maggie to the outdoor cafes. She's being the BEST dog. I didn't get her out for a long walk today, so going to dinner at least helps make up a little.

Hannah went out to an art opening, and I had good Skype chats with brother Bob and daughter Sally, who just got engaged Wednesday night. And THEN I started making flash cards. Hundreds of them. On Friday night, no less. Sheesh! How my life has changed in 30 years.

I like German, though. It feels like a meaty language, with words that almost require chewing. Mein Stift ist auf dem Tisch. French is easier to just swallow. La plume est sur la table. At any rate, I feel as though I'm roiling around in an atmosphere of alphabet soup; occasionally the letters line up right and I can recognize a word. But mostly it's still just soup.