Dear World, Thanks. Love, Margaret, xoxo.

Well, Jesse, you said you wanted pictures of me opening my package. There you have them and you haven't even commented! Unglaublich!

I've officially survived all my university classes! Like I posted before, Tuesdays are going to be my big day. Theaterstadt Hamburg from 9-11am. (We get to go see Die Zauberflöte!) Advanced French linguistics course from 4-6pm. I had no idea what to expect because there was absolutely no course description anywhere, so basically I just guessed that it would be the right place for me. Turns out it was a great choice - it involves lots of creative writing with a focus in the expansion and use of sophisticated vocabulary. I think it's going to be my most challenging class because of the sad diminuation in easily-retreivable complex French vocab in my brain that has been occurring slowly throughout the past couple years. (Also the fact that my brain is now dominated by German, yikes.) I also think that the challenge will be fantastic and just what I need to regain my confidence, no matter how many times I'm going to mess up in the process. Think about long-term goals!

SEGUE: Carolyn and I were approached by a young fellow while waiting for a train last week, asking for directions in English. After a little chatting, it came out that he was French, so I switched into said language and we talked for a short while. I was positively tickled when he was surprised to learn I was from the States - he told me my accent was so good he thought I was French!! You can bet my self-esteem was soaring all afternoon after that.

Meanwhile, back in French class... I found it ironic that out of the 15ish students, only two of them were male. (It could have easily been a Smith class.) Even more ironically, it turns out that one of these menfolk is a French and German double major from England studying at the Uni-Hamburg for a year. It was so exciting to run into someone as crazy as myself! Even more ironically, I ran into him again an hour later at the first choir rehearsal. Weird!

This is the big choir at the university that sings a big work with the orchestra every semester. This semester they're/we're doing Das Lied von der Glocke by Max Bruch. The first two rehearsals are open to everyone and you audition the third week if you'd like to stay. It felt good to be singing in a big choir again, though I was pretty frustrated with my voice quality after many a week of not practicing. I like the conductor a lot and while the choir was not up to par, I think it will get much better in the following weeks.

Good story - during the break I attempted to speak German with Kassia, English with said Englishman, and then French with a French friend of his all within about 10 minutes. The result? FAIL. My head still hurts a little.

After the rehearsal (which is long, 7.30-10), everyone was invited to hang out at a pizza parlor, which I guess is a weekly tradition. Kassia and I decided to go be social despite being sleeeeepy, and we had a good time. We met some fun people, one of whom convinced another that we were Canadian. However, the biggest lesson I learned from the evening was that trying to meet new people in a foreign language in a loud place fonctioniert nicht, because then not being able to hear someone can be mistaken for you not understanding them, which then makes you look like a stupid foreigner. Just a word to the wise.

As is apparent, yesterday was a long day full of many small accomplishments, though the best part was when I finally lugged myself up the three flights of stairs to my room at midnight to find the previously depicted wonderful little parcel from Jesse waiting for me in front of my door. I don't really know how it got there, but don't particularly care. Dear World, My brother rocks. Love, Margaret, xoxo.

This morning only got better when I found a note in my mailbox saying I had a parcel at the post office, which I fetched pretty immediately. Dear World, My Brandon rocks. Love, Margaret, xoxo.

This afternoon I had my Volkskunde course, which is a big lecture class, also mostly filled with women. I wasn't really sure what to expect from this class, either, and am still confused about what the subject actually IS. I guess that comes later. The gist I understood was that it's folklore as a big mix between lots of anthropological, sociological, ethnological, and other ologicals. Still confused. The professor was very nice. Good things to come?

The love-fest continued tonight as my "big sister" had me over for another wonderful dinner AND brought me back baking soda, baking powder, and brown sugar from her recent trip home to the States. YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!! Dear World, Martha rocks. Love, Margaret xoxo.

I have no classes tomorrow and grammar on Friday, which is another Smith course. Tomorrow I'm also hoping to find out whether or not I got called back for the University Players, the theater group I auditioned for.

Phew! Now you know ALL SORTS of cool things about my life. Isn't that exciting?

Here's one more: Apparently my huge window gets huge sunrises.

12:25am. Hello, tomorrow. Goodnight, everyone still in yesterday.