14.05.10

28.04.10

I went with my community representative to her university, and got to sit in on a lecture. It was interesting, and something unexpected happened. I heard something. It was an accent. An American was sitting not too far from me.

After the lecture I talked to him for a really long time about colleges... I had been wanting to sort of just apply to whichever school I know would accept me, and avoid having to stress out too much about going somewhere out of state, or somewhere expensive. He had a really good point though. Why not at least try?

30.04.10



I met up with the exchange student from Switzerland after school, and we rode our bikes to the Heilandskirche (a church) on the side of the Havel river. No one was allowed to go there during the Cold War, because it was a part of the wall. Literally. One of the walls of its bell tower was used as a piece of the Berlin Wall.



But, it is a beautiful church. And it's really on the water's edge, so you go down a small staircase and wade in the river, or walk along the church's outer wall, which juts out into the Havel.

Another fun thing about the trip, is that I didn't know 100% how to get that. What I like about navigating along a river, is that all you really need to know is in which direction something is. Then you follow the river until you get there. Berlin itself is turning more into a huge maze that navigate through without fear. I can just be somewhere, and I'll always figure out by myself how to get home. Whether it be by bike, bus, subway, tram, train, boat, or foot, I'm getting there. Ironically, that's something my mom was afraid of before I came here. She didn't want me to get lost in Berlin. But to me, that seems impossible to do.

01-02.05.10

I went to the Baltic Sea again with my host family, but my host brother stayed home this time. We went on huge bike rides through the forest, and I got rained on really badly, but I also managed to find souvenirs that don't cost a fortune! I also went to a city called Wandemünde, and it was really nice there. An interesting thing about the Baltic Sea, is that this one type of ancient tree grew there, and only there. Now, when we find the remnants of this tree, it's called amber. And guess what? You can only find it at the Baltic Sea.

06.05.10

I saw a beautiful movie with my host cousin. It was called "The Last Song", and you really shouldn't read what I'm about to say, unless you want a spoiler. So, do you really want to know what happens? Really? 100% sure? (This is your last chance to skip this paragraph!) Ok, here goes. The father dies from cancer. But there's sea turtles. Why is this important? Because the sea turtles are eggs. The daughter (who is visiting her father), protects the sea turtles for the first half of the film, and then they hatch. As she and the rest of the people (you know, the cast that I don't want to explain right now) watched the sea turtles go into the sea, her father collapses. Basically, the ideas of new life (the sea turtles) and death (the father and cancer) are always there. But they're not fighting for camera time, no, they're coexisting harmoniously. As if life was just a cycle. As if there will always be new life, and there will always be the ending of old lives, but it must be like that. A 'death' is just a new opening on this Earth for more life, and there wouldn't be any room for new life, if the old life didn't cease. It's a cycle. A circle. No beginning, no end.

08.05.10

I ran a marathon. And I didn't die! There's an annual Avon marathon in Berlin to fight against breast cancer, and everyone who participates gets a bag of makeup. It goes through the Tiergarten and ends and begins at the Siegelsäule. And the marathon I took part in was really only 5 kilometers, so it wasn't really that bad. But I ran it with some friends, and it was fun. I was happy that I wasn't the last person over the finish line, even though I walked a lot. And even though I walked a lot, at least I did it. That's a lot just by itself.

09.05.10

I went to see a theater with my host mom and host grandma. We saw it in Friedrich The Great's palace, in the room he saw it in (it was a newer take on an older piece), where only he and his noble guests went to enjoy amusements. I was really frustrated at first, because almost the whole thing was in Italian, and at first I didn't understand that the jesters were giving summaries about what was going to happen in the next scene before the people starting singing in Italian (did I mention it was half opera?). But it was entertaining.

13.05.10

I watched Germany's Next Top Model at a friend's house, and we made crêpes with Nutella. Then we watched another TV show, and I was a bit tired, but not too bad, so I didn't realize how late it was. No mom, I didn't get home at 11pm. I got home at midnight!

It's really interesting to think about all of the freedom I have here in comparison to how it was before in my life. My mom wouldn't have allowed me to stay out until midnight, and I wouldn't be able to do a lot of the stuff I do normally now. But I'm also not the same person I was before. It'll be hard to adjust to American culture again, and no, I don't mean the rules by that. I'll have to talk the whole time in another language too... I'm used to German. I speak different in German. I learned how to express what I want in German, and forgot how to do it in English. And the worst part? I can't translate German into English, and vice versa. I didn't know what my own German blog's title was in English.

This will probably not make any sense to you though.

But I'm on school break, and I'm sick, and I really hope my mom doesn't send me more cough drops after reading this, because I already have two bags, and I found tasty Wasabi beans. They really open up your nasal canal.



(Unrelated note: my exchange program is having a photo competition, and I entered three photos. I'm not really sure what I sent is what they wanted, but oh well. I like my photos, and at least I'm trying!)

Yo

Ok. There's not an amazingly large surplus of days before I go back home, just 58. Although that is a long time, it's still dwarfed by the much larger amount of days in ten and a half months. What am I trying to say? I would rather be living those days out, instead of taking so much time to write my blog ^^. That is why it has taken about a month for me to update this.

06.04.10

I finally went to the big zoo in Berlin! Some time I will have to hit up the aquarium too though... but anyways, I totally forgot that I was supposed to be going to the zoo with my neighbors, so I ended up being a bit late, but I went to the zoo with them and their grandchildren, and it was fun. The little boy held my hand, and it was all just so cute :3.

07.04.10

I ate ice cream at the Florida Eiscafé, and arranged to go with her to a college class, to get the feel of what it's like to attend college in Germany.

23.04.10

Tara slept over my house, and we went shopping, and I had a lot of fun. I finally bought new jeans, and was happy to find some for just 9 Euros. I found some other cheap stuff too, and was very very happy with myself.

24.04.10

I went to a seminar for the parents of kids who're going abroad next year (so, parents of German exchange students), and they asked me a lot of questions about, well, basically what it's like to be an exchange student. It was a lot of fun.

25.04.10

I went to the smaller zoo in Berlin with my boyfriend's mother. It was weird, because this drunk dude decided to hit on me on the subway (even though it wasn't noon yet, he was still drunk...), and tried to sit between my boyfriend's mom and me, then he turned to me and started talking. I didn't understand what was happening at first. But, we walked away and so he left.

But at the zoo, my favorite part was with the stork thingies. They were free to just walk out of their pen, and the visitors could pet them. One didn't like ANYONE, and another was nice, but ended up hitting a little kidy in the face with his beak... the kid was ok though, and I got to take pictures with one of the birds. This one was a LOT calmer than the others.

°°°

So, this part is basically just a rambling summary of random things that have happened to me. I managed to get a few 'jobs' going, and have earned a total of €67 now :D. I help two people out with learning English, and another girl I just sort of watch until she gets her homework done, because otherwise she wouldn't be very productive.

My German blog found its way onto the website from my German high school. You can find it here.

Other than that, I'm really tired right now. It feels like life is picking up speed. So many things are happening.

I also signed up for a marathon. My host mom is worried, because it's 5 kilometers wrong, and she doesn't want me to collapse somewhere.

I Like to Ride My Bike

28.03.10

You know what I did today? I rode my bike for an extremely long time, and went very far. I rode my bike along the Havel River, then across it, where I found a marathon in my way. So followed the marathon throughout Berlin, and suddenly found myself on the shopping street called Kurfürstendamm; basically I was pretty much in the middle of Berlin. Then I was going in circles around Potsdamer Platz, before going to Alexander Platz, after which I sort of just... went east. I almost left the city boundaries before a little voice in my head told me to go home. So I went north to go home (not sure why, to be honest), and well... I was all over the place. I also visited a Jewish cemetery. But, I planned on riding my bike the whole way home too (I was over 20 miles from home), but then my host mom called me, and told me to take the subway home. So I did. And I got all the way to the Olympic Stadium, where the Olympic Games were held during Hitler's reign. I liked how one of the streets around the stadium was named after Jesse Owens, a black person who had been a competitor in the Games, and won some shiny metals despite his "racial inferiority". But, back to the bike riding, I rode my bike over 30 miles through Berlin. Here is a map of an estimate of where I was (I know where I went, just not how I got there). The thin red line is my trip through Berlin, the blue is after I got on the subway to go home.



(Thanks Google Maps for the map.)

Afterwards, my host family and I ate out at a Mexican restaurant. It didn't taste as well as Buckeye...

29.03.10

Dude, I took a break from doing anything.

30.03.10

I cooked with the neighbors and ate leaks for the first time. It was actually a lot of fun. We made this meat thing with leaks, a pepper purée, a potato purée, and a weird thing. The weird thing was dessert, had caramel at the bottom, was in a small bowl, but the rest of it was like Jell-O-pudding. It all tasted pretty good. I was surprised by how much I like leeks, and also by how nasty it is to clean them. They actually have sand between their leaves. I am just so used to not expecting food from a store to have ANYTHING resembling dirt, much less actual dirt, in it. So, my host brother, the neighbors and I all enjoyed the meal, and then I helped them more with making bread dough. It's amazing what the Germans all make.

31.03.10

I visited my host mom's work. She happens to work in a library at an institute (Max Planck Institute) where English is the main language, because scientists from all over the world go there to exchange ideas, and basically work on finding out new things about the fundamentals of science. I ended up getting one talk about latex, and one tour of the place. It was actually pretty nice. And well... there was too much there to talk about. But it was really interesting that the scientists there were basically just working on any random thing they wanted. A lot of research was being done on teeth, and on natural structures (how your bones are structured, or bark, or ... anything you can think of).

That evening I watched a film about Scientology, called "bis nichts mehr bleibt" (Until Nothing Remains). It was... kind of creepy, what the Scientologists were doing... and then there was a debate after the film, about whether or not it was an accurate portrayal... it was kind of creepy.

01.04.10

I looked at the Scientology Church that's here in Berlin. From the other side of the street of course. I didn't want them to see me taking pictures and try to talk to me. But look. This looks more like a bunch of office buildings than a church, and the first floor looks like a storefront... it actually is, to be honest. They're trying to get people to come in and take a personality test, and also are trying to sell their books...



Also, the church is six stories tall, and the whole building belongs to the church...

02.04.10

I went with my host parents to Potsdam, a city close to Berlin, with our bikes. We also took a Water Taxi. Basically, a boat that works more like a bus than a taxi... it has its own route, and you pay to use it, but you don't say, "take me to that really pretty rock there", and well, you're using it with other people too. Then, we were in Potsdam. And what can I saw, Potsdam has an evil amount of hills. And guess what? We went to the top of the biggest one! We visited a castle that was basically just built so that the royal people could kick back, relax, and see around for miles.



After that my host mom and I went to this little Russian village within Potsdam, and then a Dutch part of Potsdam. Then she showed me a way through the forest to get home faster.

04.04.10

I rode my bike to this tiny little town called Fahrland. But before that, I went with my host family to church, and then I got presents. I got this little gadget for my bike, that calculates how fast I'm going, how far, how many calories I burn, the temperature... just about everything. In case you're wondering, I traveled 23 kilometers today, my max speed was 38 kilometers per hour, average speed was 15.9, my time was 1:27:20, it's 20.5 C° in my room right now, and I burned 372 calories. Beat that.

Shoes.

22.03.10

I visited the neighbors for a little bit, and arranged a time when I will come over to cook with them, and also to babysit for them. Some flowers started to bloom as well. My host mom said that normally you can tell what month it is in Germany according to the flowers that are blooming... and normally the flowers don't bloom all at once, like they're doing this year. The winter was abnormally long and cold, so it's like the flowers are making up for lost time... they only last for about a week though, before they start to go away again, and the next ones come.


23.03.10

I was hanging out at Ikea with a friend during these two periods I have free from school, and my friend has a car, so he just drove us there. Also, Ikea is a swedish chain, did you know that?

But anyways, we were just hanging out, drinking the best hot chocolate I have ever had in the world, when my stomach attacked. It started to eat me, so my friend drove me home... and I'm really thankful of that favor.

24.03.10

I had rode my bike to school the day before, but didn't get a chance to get it back home... and when I got to it today, it was fine, but I somehow forgot that I left my helmet with my bike. And a dog ate it.

25.03.10

I watched "The Reader" with my host mom. In German, it's called "Der Vorleser", and is originally a German novel. The point of the story is basically how the Germans dealt with the past after the Nazi time. It was really interesting to watch it with my host mom, because I had read half the book already and didn't understand some things, but she was able to point out things that made me realize what was going on.

And I got to talk to my boyfriend before going to bed ^^. He spent spring break in the Caribbeans.

26.03.10

Well, in case you don't know, I LOVE RIDING MY BIKE! I rode my bike today to Spandau City Center again, then around in that area a little, then sort of in the direction of Potsdam, then a pretty forest road distracted me, and I found myself by a barn, and then I got onto this road, and got home. But on the way to Spandau, I rode along the edge of the river that runs by my house. There's this ferry that comes every hour, and is like a bus, but like on the water? (My point is, it's basically still a part of public transportation ;)) I also saw another kid from CBYX in Spandau. It was strange, because I had seen someone who looked like him about a week ago, and ran up to him, but then noticed that it wasn't him, and then... yeah. Funny looks and what not.

But the really interesting part of my day, was biology class. The kids were messing with the teacher the whole time. But before I explain the first part of the story, please note that my biology class is on the third floor, and that EVERY wall in the school is practically filled with windows (of course, only when the wall is on the exterior).

But anyways, my teacher was talking about heart rates and breath rates, and had us measure ours. This one kid's pulse was like, awful (the teacher asked himself why the kid wasn't dead), then had the kid run around the school once. Well, my whole class gathered by the window to watch him and cheer him on. And also to see him lose his shoe in the middle of the street. So, another kid went down to get his shoe for him, while a third kid was sitting in the window, telling the shoe-fetcher-kid to throw the shoe through the window. The third story window. Well, the runner-kid got back, was sitting in the window to catch his breath, when his shoe flew over his head. Somehow the shoe-fetcher-kid managed that without breaking something/someone. Later on, someone stole the clock off the wall when the teacher wasn't looking, and set it 10 minutes faster. Then a bunch of the guys tried to convince the teacher that class was over, but the bell just hadn't rang. Then they tried convincing him that it had rang, and he just hadn't heard it. Then they tried playing a cell-phone ringer that sounds like the bell... we didn't get out early.

Oh, and Buckeye isn't the only place with tractors driving down the middle of the road; Berlin has tractors on the streets sometimes too ;). I swear though, I had seen an ATV driving on the road today...

I suis müde.

17.03.10

The kids in art class stole my apple again.

18.03.10

My host mom bought me a used bike :D

19.03.10

I rode my bike to and from school today ^^.

I also gave my first presentation in German. It wasn't very interesting, and I was rather nervous, but at least I did it... and my host mom and I had corrected it, but then I forgot to save the corrected version on the stick that I used to bring the powerpoint part to school :\.

I found my apple in my backpack.

After school I rode around taking pictures. I took a few really pretty ones. And I found a farm.



20.03.10

I rode my bike the seven miles into town to go to my boyfriend's mom's house... one of her friends came over with her son, and I tutored him. I earned 15€ ^^. I got rained on on the way home.

I stuck my laptop in my wardrobe so that I wouldn't use it.

21.03.10

My host brother flew to America today to go to Florida with my other host brother.

I pulled my laptop out again to update my blog. I made five posts in total. One here, and four on the German blog ;).

The weather here has been warming up, the snow is finally gone, flowers are starting to grow, I think I have hay-fever, and the weather is giving my a headache... and my left eye has been twitching for like five days now.

Je parle allemand.

28.02.10

So, I totally forget what happened on this day.

01.03.10

It was my mommy's birthday ^^. And I went to a book store, and I sort of want to buy one of those Moleskin journals, but I don't know... they're so expensive, and I only want one because other people have said that they're wonderful. I don't know.

03.03.10

I stayed home from school today. I was pretty sick... I had used almost two carry-around packages of tissues the day before.

04.03.10

I saw a limo! But really, what I did was go with my host mom, who is a community representative in case you guys forgot, and meet a family who was wondering about whether or not they should become a host family. They live in Wandlitz, a city outside of Berlin (and on the way there, you pass by where the Olympic players were living when Germany hosted the Olympics during Hitler's reign), and they lived practically on the shore of this really pretty lake. They were a really nice family, and I think that if they get an exchange student, the student will enjoy itself there.

Other than that, I just stayed home sick this day too, because, well... I wasn't feeling too wonderful for the first part of the day ^^. (I'm perfectly fine though now mom, so PLEASE, do NOT send me more cough-drops!)

06.03.10

I got into the van with Stranger Danger, and he gave me candy :D.



No really, I got into the van with my host family, and we went to the Baltic Sea. It was simply beautiful there. It was sort of strange though, because it was freezing cold with snow on the shore, but... we were at the ocean. Basically, when you think about the ocean, you think about warmth. That sort of permeates every other idea. But it was cold. The waves were splashing, the seagulls were flying, the sun was in the sky, but I was jumping up and down because I was FREEZING!

But we stayed at the "vacation apartment" that my host family rents out. Basically, it's like an apartment that is treated like a hotel (tourists are always checking in ant out). So, my host family rents this apartment (and decorated it all themselves), and then rents it out to other people who want to stay there. We were visiting to take care of the apartment before tourist season.



7.03.10

We went back home :'(. I actually really liked it there ^^.

8.03.10

I tried to tutor someone in math and English. They were in the 9th grade, but it didn't go too brilliantly. It was hard for me to try to explain something in German, and she was sort of going over the section of math that I had in 9th grade too... but sort of slept in. I think Mr. Henrion knows how well I can mentally tune out subject matter ;). But, I ended up learning myself what she was doing... the problem was the way that she did it. I had taught it to myself a different way, because the other way made more sense to me. But not to her. And, oh well ^^. She ended up not needing English help because they're just reading a book in her class, and I couldn't help her as well in math as a tutor should be able to, so... ya.

9.03.10

I had SO much fun today! I was playing Egyptian Ratslap in the library with these two guys, and it was SO much fun! I can't wait to play that game again ^^! (But I feel bad for the little German kids that had to listen to me play ;))

10.03.10

Someone stole my apple. It was just sitting there on the table... and then it was gone. Poor apple.

But anyways, in art class we were drawing still-life, and we each got a tomato, a nut, and an apple. The kid sitting next to me kept on messing up my nut, and then he was throwing them at my head xD. He even rolled a retard-tomato across the table at me. Then, when I was trying to trace something onto my paper, and wasn't paying attention, someone stole my apple.

Afterwards I went to KFC with my boyfriend's mom. She gave me candy :D. Then I went to a community representative meeting with my host mom, and it was... well, I wasn't paying attention during the actual meeting, but other than that, it was interesting. I got to see this video that was filmed in Buckeye, Arizona, in order to get the point across to the exchange students that they can go to a host family that's in the middle of nowhere ;). But the kid's family was literally in the middle of nowhere... they weren't even in a housing development; there was just a bunch of cacti around the house.

I also got to meet another one of my host brothers at the meeting. The one that studies in Munich was there, and he's going to be staying with us for 10 days now. The first time he talked to me though (admittedly, I had seen him once months ago, before I knew he would be my host brother), he was just asking me if this glass was already being used. No "hi Caitlin". But then I told him that, and he hugged me ^^.

13.03.10

I bought materials to make a pencil case. I have never sewn anything before, but my host mom has a sewing machine, and will let me play around with it.

14.03.10

I got rained on. And I forgot my jacket. And my post card got all messed up...

15.03.10

This boy figured out how to make me laugh. He basically just needs to get me to laugh a little bit, then he makes the dumbest face ever, and imitates exactly what I do, and even pretends to laugh. He and his friend made me laugh for like 10 minutes straight by doing that. I honestly have no idea how long I was laughing, just that I could hardly breath anymore, my stomach hurt, and I started coughing.

16.03.10

I went to Broadway today.

Really, it was just this little cinema in the middle of Berlin. We went to see a French movie there with German subtitles. It was really interesting. It's called LOL (Laughing Out Loud) ®, because the main character's name is Lola and her friends just call her "Lol". But, it basically follows her life through a year of French high school, including all of the girl-problems, love-problems, and family-problems that come along with it.



Also, on the way home from the movie, I met this Lebanese man and a Serbian woman on the bus. I was taking a picture of someone on a bike in the middle of the street, riding along side of the bus, when this guy was telling me to take pictures out of the other side of the bus, because the other side is clearer... I said something, and then could hear him saying to his friend "I didn't understand a single thing" basically... and then we got to talking. He attempted to convince me that he's a pilot and that they were going to the airport :D. He was just pulling my leg though ;).

German blog!

So, I've been writing a blog in German. At first I wanted it to be like this one, just sort of like a journal, but then I decided it would be better if I was writing about the differences in the German and American cultures that I see everyday. After all, I'm sort of here not just to learn German, but to also learn the culture. You can find the link on the right hand side of my blog, really close to the top. But, everything in it is in German.

20.02.10

The 21th of February was the last day of the Berlinale (Berlin's annual international film festival), so today I first did some quick shopping with my host family, sent my boyfriend a postcard, and ran to the Zoo Palast (a movie theater (by a zoo, hence the name)). To be honest, running would be a bad hyperbole in this case, because it's a 40 minute bus ride there. Of course, for the time that I wasn't on the bus, I was at least walking hurriedly. The Zoo Palast was only selling tickets for that day, but the movie I wanted to see was the next day, so I went to a different place, called the Urania, and they told me that the movie was sold out earlier that morning. Yay! But, I got some tickets to a different movie at least. The ticket was only €3, that made me happy. Oh, and I was also really lucky today! I just so happened to have my camera out and ready at the exact moment I found someone driving on the sidewalk!



I also finally bought a Russian book.

We had company over later on. My host mom's two friends came over (who are married to each other), and it was really nice. The wife had lost her voice, but the husband was making up for it. He was born and grew up in Algeria, and his first language is Algerian, a sort of Arabic. In school he learned French (unless I'm wrong, all of the courses were held in French), and he came to Germany at some point in time, without speaking any German, and eventually just learned it. I had a really interesting time talking to him. He introduced a new idea to me... he said how much German I should learn depends on what I want to do with it. Someone who just wanted to well... basically do nothing else with German again in their life, does't have to learn that much German here, but someone who wants to use it in their daily life (by living here or something), needs to learn a LOT... it makes sense. I don't want to go home and be like, "oh I know a little bit of German". I want to go home and be talking to all of the German exchange students in German, and then hopefully be able to attend a German university... and he was reading an Arabic book to me. My host mom had been studying Arabic during her time studying in a university, and had a book with French on one page, and the same text in Arabic on the other. So, he was trying to have me read the French out loud, and he was correcting me. Then he would read the Arabic, and I would repeat him. I learned and remember how to say "elephant" in Arabic, but I already forgot how to say rabbit and crow...

21.02.10

I went to the Berlinale movie, called This Way of Life, and got there 10 minutes before the theater should've opened. I say "should've", because it was already open. And I managed to get tickets then for the movie that was sold out before. But, the first movie was really good. It's a documentary about the life of a family living in New Zealand, and it's all a true story. Over the course of the movie, their house is first sold while they're still living in it (it was in the family for seven generations, and the grandfather isn't getting along well with the father, and the grandfather happens to own the house and the land around it), they were harassed, someone tried jumping in their window, their house was set on fire by an arsonist, they moved into a camper by a river (I think it was by a river at least), they moved into a shed, the father started a business with horses, the family's wild horses in the mountains were stolen (30 or so), and they moved into a house. It was really a wonderful movie though, and it really brought you close to the people. Which was helped by the fact that it was all actually real. The mother and one of the sons (they had six kids or so) was there, and the son said that they all lived in a tepee on a hill now, surrounded by 60 horses. They weren't happy in the home, because they all had their own rooms, and would play in there alone, and wouldn't spend as much time together as a family. So, in the end, this family is really... together. They are the essence of that word. It's really a beautiful story, and I'm not even going to try to describe why, you guys just have to watch it yourself. I got to talk with the makers of the movie afterwards, and they were talking to an American company about mass producing it like how they would with a Tom Cruise movie (I just don't know the word for that, basically they will make DVDs and put it in theaters, if everything goes right). Here's a linkto the film's website. Oh, and I got the mother and the cameraman to sign my entrance ticket! Oh, and I totally forgot. In line to get the tickets, I met this nice lady and her daughter. The daughter is 18 and is hopefully going to New Zealand next year as an Au Pair.

The second movie was "Sons of Babylon". It wasn't as good, but the whole point of the movie was to show the devastation of Iraq after Sadaam Hussein's reign. It starts out with this kid and his grandma walking in the middle of the desert along a road. They're looking for the kid's father, who is also the grandma's son. Eventually a vehicle comes, but it doesn't stop. Then a second one comes, and the grandmother stands in front of it, forcing it to stop. The driver reluctantly lets them come along (although he does it more happily after the grandma bribed him), and they well... got to a city. They looked in a jail where the father was supposed to be, but they couldn't find him. They then went to mass graves looking for him. The movie is extremely desolate. Every single scene is desolate. The landscapes are nothing but sand, the buildings are destroyed, and the people are dead, mourning, or somehow doing something that isn't... happy. There's just a few moments that are different. And in the end, the grandma can't take it anymore, and just dies. The kid is left alone. It's not really mentioned, but it's sort of assumed that he has absolutely no family left. Now that I think about it, this film was actually really good too... it wasn't made to be enjoyed, it was made to show what a tyrant did to the people. And it showed that amazingly well. Too bad the movie doesn't have a website...

Interestingly though, the whole movie was in Arabic and Kurdish. It had English under-titles though.

Also, rather to this subject, "Free Iran" was written on the statue outside of the Berlinale headquaters.



22.02.10

I got a little nauseous at school, then pukey at home.

23.02.10

I stayed home from school, and ended up drawing flowers.

24.02.10

I hung out with Tara and bought CLOTHES!

25.02.10

I went out with Tara again and BOUGHT MORE CLOTHES!

26.02.10

I bought more clothes! (Not really, I just sent my mommy a box with stuff in it)

27.02.10

I wrote a LOT for my German blog, and I also sort of went wandering around... I walked in on a fashion show in the middle of a mall. I took pictures, and I interviewed someone for my German blog (that means the interview is going there and not here ^^ (P.S. learn German)), and I got autograph from her for some people.