One of Those Days

You know how sometimes you have those days that are just great? When the sun is shining and everything goes right and the people are pleasant and the buses get there when you want? You know those days?

Yesterday was not one of those days.

And I tried to keep a positive attitude the whole time! In the morning, I was thinking, "Wow, for how crudding this morning is, my afternoon will probably be awesome!" Or I thought, "Ya, this may be a bad day so far, but I'm not going to write this whole day off! It'll get better right now!"

HA!

So now I would like to share with you my yesterday. I hope you see it as a humorous tale and not as a list of complaints, because, trust me, I was laughing all day.

. . . maybe I'll number the events, just for fun. And organization.

1. Woke up in the morning and first thing on the agenda was to take the clothes out of the washer and hang them up. But it turns out that the way I had invented to use the dryer wasn't right, so my dress got shredded. Looks like it went through a paper shredder. I should have taken a picture, but I didn't.

2. Also, a large portion of my lady-attire (I couldn't think of a word that I wanted to put on my blog, so that's what I'm using) got eaten by the washing machine. Definitely my fault, because I used it way wrong, but still a bummer.

But it's no matter! Only one dress got shredded. My "I <3 Barcelona" shirt was fine, which is good because I love this shirt (I say "this" because I'm wearing it), PLUS I washed my stuff with Nadja's pillow case, which was totally fine. I would have felt SO BAD if I had ruined her pretty pillow case. But I didn't. Major disaster avoided.

So I hung up the surviving laundry and sat down at the computer to a) play soothing music, and b) read emails from people that like me and make me happy.

3. Instead, however, I got an angry letter from my bank. My money wasn't in the account it needed to be in, which had ended up causing some problems. So I had to spend time sorting all that stuff out. Which was great fun. We all know how much fun banks are.

4. Oh, plus while online doing that stuff, I was reminded how much it sucks to have your bank account be all out-flow with nothing coming in. I'm super excited to get a job and an income again. I guess that's not really something that happened, but seeing the truth all there in black and white took an emotional toll.

But no matter. It was my last full day in Germany, and I wanted to enjoy it. So I decided to shake off all the bad feelings and go off into the world and do stuff. So I got dressed and had breakfast and left.

5. After about a 12 minute walk towards the metro, I relized that I had forgotten my camera. It wouldn't have been such a big deal, but I as planning on going to a conert that night, and I knew I would want my camera for that. Plus I didn't yet have a picture of hanging out with the lovely Sarah Germini (friend from Cal), so the camera was necessary. So I decided to turn around.

So I rushed home and grabbed the camera, and then rushed out to finally start my day.

6. It was only when I was outside the automatically locking door that I realized my key was still in the apartment. Awesome. I remembered that I had some bobby pins in my bag, so like any law abiding citizen, I got down on my knees and stuck them in the lock and tried to jiggle them around a bit. Probably due to the fact that I have no lock-picking experience, nothing helpful happened. The elevator opened right as I was standing up, and we made awkard eye contact. I laughed and left.

But it's no matter. I was meeting with Nadja later for lunch, so I would just borrow her key, open the door, and return them too her later. So I headed to the train station to get things all squared away for my next train trip. So I went to the train station, and it took me a really long time to find the ticket guy. Not enough for it to be deserving of #7 all by itself, but enough to be mentioned. So I eventually found the ticket line and waited in the world's slowest line. I learned that I could use my EuRail on my first train to Poland (best news all day!), but the second train would cost money. He told me the price and had the reservation up ready to book it, when I heard someone mention "Munich" and in my head, I thought, "oh, maybe I want to go to Munich." So I told the guy I'd think about it, and left in a rush to meet Nadja. I would be a couple minutes late, but I had texted her ahead of time.

7. Enter worst train connection scene ever. To start off with, Berlin Hbf station is huge, with the U-trains and the S-trains and the train-trains on different levels.  So just finding the right train was difficult. Then I knew I'd have to transfer from a S to a U after the second S stop. I figured out when the S train was pulling out of the fist S stop that it was the first S stop I was supposed to transfer on. Instead of back tracking, I rode it another stop to the third S-stop and got on the U2, and then rode the U2 pretty much in a big circle until it landed me at the right place. At which point I was feeling late and guilty.

But of course Nadja was awesome about it, because she's awesome about most things. And I got to see her and Frida (cute dog) in the park during her lunch break. Plus I got to borrow her key.

Then I rushed home because I was meeting Sarah Germini near my house. At the apartment, I got my key, ate a pb&j, and had a glass of milk. Then I headed out to meet Sarah. Brief pause from my series of unfortunate events: hanging out with Sarah was awesome. We were able to go return the key to Nadja, we walked around, talked about girl stuff, and went to the DDR museum. (That's not Dance Dance Revolution, btw).

(Side note, I just got a Snickers from the train cart that came by, and it's super melted! This would never happen in Harry Potter.)

So then Sarah and I parted. She with plans to go get ready for the concert, and me with plans to go get my Poland ticket, pick David (Miller not Melendy) up at the station at 5:30, go back to my apartment so we could grab food, he could drop his stuff off, and I could change, and then meet Sarah at the concert.

8. But when I went to get my Poland ticket, the woman working at the counter said I could get the first one that left from Berlin, but the second ticket that actually got me to my destination, I would have to buy in Poland. This is the exact same ticket that the guy was going to sell me only just this morning. I tried to tell her that it had been available this morning, but between her little English and my nonexistent German, it didn't quite work. So I got the first ticket for the train I'm on now. The one that will drop me in Poland at a quarter to midnight with nowhere to stay and no ticket to the next destination. I'm only wording it like that because I know that by the time I post this, it'll be tomorrow and I will have safely somehow procured another ticket and made it to my hostel, so you (Mom & Dad) won't have time to worry.

Anyways, so I couldn't get my ticket. No bother. I'd figure something out. At least I had a destination now. I'd be meeting David soon, and then we could go and I could change out of my hot jeans and gross t-shirt, and everything would be okay.

Wait! Change of plans! David is running a little late.

Whatever. I'll go to Burger King. (Just accept it).

So I went to Burger King and went and sat outside the train station waiting for David to arrive. Then he texted me he wasn't going to be coming by car, he'd be coming by S-train. Getting in at 6:30.

9. So I gather my purse and book and head to the S-train platform to meet him. Only later realizing that I left my Burger King trash outside! I litered! That may not matter to some of you, but I felt guilty all day. Still feel a little guilty. I'm sorry nature!

So I meet David at 6:30 on the S-train platform, and we head to the concert.

10. Without time to go home so I can change out of my gross clothes.

And think that's it. The rest of the night was great! We went to the Owl City concert in this super tiny venue. If I had thrown my phone at the lead singer, I probably could have hit him in the head. That really only has significance to those of you that know about my lack of aim and throwing power. It means he was really close. And it was great hanging out with Sarah (from my Bible study), David (from Focus, although he identifies more with AGO), Michael (Sarah's friend from SigEp. Go bears.), and Sarah's other friend whose name I feel really bad about forgetting right now.

Comically bad day. Good night.

Oh! That's not it.

After the show, David and I wandered around a street fair and I ate some currywurst. Felt fine.

11. Later that night, didn't feel so fine. First time travel food made me sick. Gross. But after I threw up, I felt like a million bucks and slept soundly.

So that's it. Please don't take this blog to represent Germany - it doesn't. It just represents what an airhead I was yesterday. On days like yesterday, I wonder how I've made it so long without a major disaster. I think Someone is looking out for me.

Okay, that's it. On to Poland!!! Bye!

(later)

I’m on the train in Poland now (still the first one), and I just wanted to share how struck I am by how absolutely beautiful Poland is! We’re going through the forest, and I keep half thinking that if I look hard enough, I’ll see a unicorn or a centaur or Hermoine and Ron and Harry with their tent in that forest where Ron temporarily abandons them. It just seems like that kind of place. Lots of trees that I would probably call tall were I not from California, dark wood that looks like the makings of a link-in-long, dark green leafs at the top. The clearings are speckled with bright purple and yellow and white wild flowers. It seems to go on forever. So far, Poland has my stamp of approval. It feels magical. If I were a magical forest creature that was for some reason allergic to redwoods, I think I’d live here.

(It’s later. I’m in the train station waiting for my next train, that I now have a ticket for. I met a brilliant Polish physicist genius on the train. He speaks 5 languages and talked for 4 hours. Then he helped me buy my ticket. He was very kind, good stories, friends with lots of Nobel laureates, and he even tried to explain the string theory to me. It made me think of spaghetti. There’s wi-fi here, so I’m doing this now. Plus to keep me awake, because if I fall asleep and miss my train, I’m screwed. But don’t worry, train is almost here. Then I can sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep. Finally. . .for 5 hours. Okay, I’ll post this now.)