GRE Prep and Birthday/Germany Countdown

Hello, friends, family, and possible poor souls who stumbled across this blog!  I hope everyone is doing relatively well.  I have been attempting to soak up as much Berlin as possible before I have to leave.  Only a week and a half left!  I can't believe how long it's been.  I haven't really been up to anything too interesting, mostly just wandering and hanging out.  Friday we went to the Pub Crawl, which is 12 euro and includes free beer for an hour (we were, of course, half an hour late, thanks to my perpetually-tardy roommates) and 1 euro shots and free cover for 3 bars and a club.  I drank just enough to be happy to be out and meeting people, which spared me any painful morning-after hangover.  I met some interesting people, including a lot of Americans.  I got hit on some, too, which was flattering, but fortunately everyone was very understanding when I told them I already had a boyfriend.  No crazy persistent people, yay!  I spent the rest of the weekend sleeping, due in part to a slight cold.  It actually got chilly enough to need a sweater on Sunday!  It was so thrilling.  Now it's back to being 33 degrees (~91), but it's only supposed to last through tomorrow and then it's getting cold and rainy.  Super excited for that!

I went to Leysieffer the other day, which is a chocolate store.  I discovered that they had cake and basically had a seizure right there.  I was like, "Oh mein Gott, ich LIEBE kuchen.  Das ist mein Lieblinsessen" ("Oh my God, I LOVE cake.  It is my favorite food"), and the woman behind the counter was both impressed and a little frightened.  With her advice, I managed to decide on a delicious chocolate-covered piece of orange-infused cake.  I ate it with great relish in front of the guys, though I was generous enough to let Peter have a bite (Ric didn't want any, the weirdo).  Then today I went to a different bakery near school and got an enormous piece of chocolate cake and ate that for lunch.  Don't worry, Mom, I had a good breakfast and I'll eat something healthy for dinner.  Sometime soon Peter and I are going to go to Brandenburger Tor, the symbol of Berlin, and then to Operncafé, which is rumored to have the largest cake selection in the city.  YUM.

In other exciting news, it is only 8 days until my birthday!  I am hoping to go the whole day only eating desserts.  It's my birthday, that should be allowed, right?  If only there were a Voodoo Donuts here, then I could have a bacon-maple bar and call it protein.

In less exciting news, I have started studying for the GRE.  This is, quite frankly, a bummer.  Especially since, if I go to grad school in Germany, I won't have even needed to have taken the test.  On the upside, however, I get to discover a whole buttload of words I have never heard of, and will never use.  Some of the notable vocab they may have on the test include (this is a very limited list, since I've only gotten through part of the a's and the first half of the most commonly found words, out of 3500 total, so there will be more to add as time goes by):

grandiloquent, which means "pompous, bombastic, using high-sounding language", an adjective that could be used to describe anyone who would use "grandiloquent"--this one is one of the most commonly appearing words on the test, which should tell you what a douchey test it is

adjutant: assistant to a senior officer; who really needs to know this?

anneal: heating and cooling metal or glass to improve its durability

phlegmatic: calm; not easily disturbed.  It's a positive descriptor that sounds exactly like gross mucous.  Who thought that was a good idea??

problematic: doubtful, unsettled, questionable, perplexing.  Also: the most common word at Swat, after heteronormative.

I have also seen two references to Eugene Lang, a Swarthmore alum (after whom LPAC [Lang Performing Arts Center], Lang Music Hall, and Eugene Lang Center for Peace and Social Responsibility are named, as well as the Eugene Lang College) whose granddaughter is in my class, under "altruistic" and "magnanimity".  There may be more that I haven't gotten to yet...there have also been at least two references to Mr. Collins from Pride and Prejudice, though I can't remember which words specifically (things related to "sycophant", though I haven't gotten to the S's yet, so that's not it).

I've gotten better at the analogies; now all I really have to do is learn all the vocab.  The whole GRE is a joke.  It doesn't measure intelligence or critical thinking; it measures how willing you are to devote untold hours of your life in preparation.  Which, sure, probably comes in handy in grad school, but I wish they would at least be upfront about it.  I'm seriously considering grad school in Germany, now it's just a matter of figuring out what I want to study and where.  I'll apply for a DAAD grant, which will provide 750 Euro a month, plus insurance and 1000 Euro for travel, but I definitely need to do some more thinking about what exactly I want to do.  And then I have to figure out how to apply to German universities...ugh.  It's all too complicated for my poor anxious brain.  However!  I still have time, and I will simply think about the fact that my birthday is almost here and that I had chocolate cake for lunch to cheer me up.

Now I ask, how are YOU?!  I feel like I haven't talked to anyone from home/school for the longest time!  I hope you're all having a wonderful summer :-)

Until next time!  Which will hopefully include pictures, at the very least of cake.  Tschüss!