The Germans in Edinburgh
So I've been back in Edinburgh for a couple days, living with the coolest German ever, my friend Sabine. Her other flatmate is German, and she had a German friend staying with us over the weekend, so I am happy to say there has been a lot of Deutsch-sprechen. They keep teaching me German words. It's fantastic. Sabine and I spent the weekend hanging out with loads of random Germans, and a few French people too, and Alison and her brother and brother's daughter. What an eclectic mix - at least I got to practice my French. A little.
It's a bit hard to put into words, all these thoughts about returning. It's nice to be in a new neighbourhood, with new people, and having it still all feel a bit fresh, with the festival running and the (albeit obnoxious) crowds of people in the streets - but it's good that it's not just "exactly the same." I'm at my new local coffeeshop hang, and they're playing the accordion music from "Amelie" that was part of my "soundtrack to France." Sabine and I gushed about how food in "regular Europe" is of such a higher quality than it is here, and I felt good that I wasn't the only one complaining anymore. I have no doubt that Deutschland is just as fantastic as France (if not more so), and I still really want to visit - or maybe live? - there someday, but I think maybe my big month-long BerlinnerExperiment will have to wait until the next time I run away to Europe indefinitely. I'm just not really sure it's the smartest thing to spend September there. But that's tied up in another story.
Right now I'm just excreting jumbled thoughts while I should be working on my dissertation anyway, so I think I'll stop. And get started on the last draft of my Masters masterwork.
It's a bit hard to put into words, all these thoughts about returning. It's nice to be in a new neighbourhood, with new people, and having it still all feel a bit fresh, with the festival running and the (albeit obnoxious) crowds of people in the streets - but it's good that it's not just "exactly the same." I'm at my new local coffeeshop hang, and they're playing the accordion music from "Amelie" that was part of my "soundtrack to France." Sabine and I gushed about how food in "regular Europe" is of such a higher quality than it is here, and I felt good that I wasn't the only one complaining anymore. I have no doubt that Deutschland is just as fantastic as France (if not more so), and I still really want to visit - or maybe live? - there someday, but I think maybe my big month-long BerlinnerExperiment will have to wait until the next time I run away to Europe indefinitely. I'm just not really sure it's the smartest thing to spend September there. But that's tied up in another story.
Right now I'm just excreting jumbled thoughts while I should be working on my dissertation anyway, so I think I'll stop. And get started on the last draft of my Masters masterwork.