Happy monologuing...

So unfortunately Kola couldn't make it this weekend. She called yesterday morning to let me know she's been under the weather and wasn't able to make the trip, but I was in the middle of a prep in lab and didn't really have too much of a chance to talk... It's actually better for me, since it turns out I am needed in lab this weekend. Only a couple of hours a day, but it would still put a crimp in our potential adventurning. But I'll have more free time in the next couple of months, so hopefully we'll be able to reschedule sooner rather than later!

I baked a double batch of brownies Thursday night for the Lektorat Semesterabschlussfeier. There were like 200 people there and less than a third brought food for the buffet, so I didn't get to try them myself, but I heard they were enjoyable. I have all the ingredients for another batch, but there is an unfortunate lack of smallish baking pans in our kitchen, so I'll either have to buy more stuff and make another double batch or buy an appropriate pan. I'm sure I can convince the folks in my dorm to help me eat them!

I had a fabulous time last night hanging out with Claire and Laura and watching the first two disks of Arrested Development season 1... I know I watched the first two seasons when I was home for Christmas, but poor Claire hadn't ever heard of the show so we absolutely had to introduce her to it. Laura and I had fun laughing preemptively at good jokes and quoting lines at each other. We're meeting up tonight to finish season 1 and probably take a nice chunk out of season 2 while we're at it. Yay!

I'm also attempting to do my laundry today, which so far isn't really getting anywhere. It's been a while, so I have three full loads to take care of. The problem is the washer situation in Studentendorf... for 36 buildings (a few of which are significantly larger than my 12-person Wohnheim) there are a grand total of 6 washers. That's pretty darn bad, even for the needs of college students. But it gets better... for the past month or so, three of the six have been out of order. I've gotten accustomed to the complete lack of dryers... I spent too much money on a drying rack and have to keep my window open with the heat on for a couple days, but I have a functional system. The washer problem, however, is completely ridiculous. Luckily I have way too many clothes, so it's not desperate yet... but if I have to haul all my stuff to the other side of the complex one more time to find alles besetzt, I'm going to be peeved. I'm considering camping out in the laundry room with a book until one frees up, but there are no chairs and the floor is wet. Oh well.

It's not so bad, in the end. Now that courses at the Lektorat are over for the semester, I have weeknights free again, so maybe I'll have a better chance later this week. Oh, I wound up with A's in my Wortschatzübungen and Schrieben courses, which was very good. I may be good enought to get bumped in to Oberstufe for conversation or writing next semester. The Grammatik final, on the other hand, was not as nice as I originally thought. I'll still get credit for attending the class, and I learned a few important and useful things on the way, but I think I'll actually have to repeat this one next semester. Ahem... and maybe study for the tests a little more. I have some things down really pretty well now: complex sentence structure, adjective endings, articles... but other stuff is still giving me fits. Who knows, maybe the fifth time is the charm and Konjunktiv and Passiv will finally click.

Other important things on my to-do list at the moment include figuring out my presentations for the Berlin conference(s) in March. I've signed up for poster space at FAST, and a 10-minute talk/powerpoint for the Fulbright Germany mid-year meeting thingamabob. Yikes, that's coming up fast!