A Little Bit of Nightlife

Yesterday I was walking to the tram after class and I just missed it.  I was kind of mad, but it ended up being a good thing.  So I got onto the next tram, which was completely packed with people.  And somewhere along the way, I realized I saw some familiar red hair--it was Lilo, my former land lady!  She wasn't expecting to see me either--but we got off at her stop and sat at the Haltestelle talking until the next tram came.  She had gone to IES (my former study abroad program) to pick up her summer student, but the student never showed up.  With what happened to the flight from Brazil to France, I think she was a little worried, but the student had to change planes at Heathrow, so maybe she just missed the flight, since that place is huge.  Lilo told me that I had changed since she last saw me and that I looked much more serious than I did three years ago.  Could I have frown wrinkles on my forehead?  But I was in a rush, so I promised to call her today or tomorrow and set up a time when we can have dinner together (and she can cook either Konigsburger Klopse or Kohlrouladen--Swedish meatballs or stuffed cabbage--for me!)

Then I ran back home, ate 3 day old spaghetti, and then I left to meet up with Yukako in Friedrichshain.  I think Lilo was onto something, because instead of our usual wild antics we spent the evening playing the board game"Mensch ärger dich nicht" ("Sorry!") with her boyfriend.  There was still alcohol involved, though!  

This morning I figured out how to use the washing machine--the thing has about 15 different settings, and then about 7 other options which are important enough to have their own button, only one or two of which I understood.  Apparently it never went through a spin cycle, because my jeans were still soaked, but luckily I knew the word for spin cycle: schleudern!  While that was going on, I went to McPaper, which is like Staples or any other office supply store but with a cooler name, to buy some paper to take notes (forgot that the first day), and bought some bread at the bakery so I could pack a small sandwich for a snack.  I am in desperate need of some real food, though--I don't understand what I am buying at the supermarket, but my fridge is always empty.  So I'm going to head back to my apartment right now and then I'll go shopping, I guess.  Luckily the supermarket closest to my apartment is open until 10 pm--which is very late, even for Berlin, I think.