i will never see the sun

So, I've been a little MIA. Its all explainable in due time, but for right now you'll have to be satisfied with some tidbits.

Winter semester is over. I have one more paper to write (which has been remarkably easy to put off working on, so far), and a couple of grades to worry about getting in, but other than that- no school for awhile. Plans for traveling this break have gone back and forth and back and forth, but I think tomorrow I am going to figure some things out, finally. Sitting on the train with Jacky the four hours to Hamburg should be enough time to make a decent gameplan. We are seeing 'Clap Your Hands Say Yeah' (a band) and thus it should be a good time- though I am feeling under the weather, so hopefully the staying up all tomorrow night waiting for the earliest train back to Goettingen won't be too detrimental.

Steven and I seated and waiting for our very last lecture on Thomas Mann. I was definitely the only one taking pictures of that old lecture hall that day.

And speaking of Thomas Mann- when I went to Elke's today to turn in my Wortschatzuebungen grade, I got my Thomas Mann essays, final and grade back. The final verdict:

"Die beiden Essays sind sehr gelunden, vor allem die Formulierung der eigenen Meinung ist herauszuheben. Das Referat war gut, an der Abschlussklausur ist nichts auszusetzen. Ebenso ist die Mitarbeit im Tutorium gewesen, die fast ausnahmlos von der guten Vorbereitung und dem Interesse an den Gespraechen im Plenum ablegte."

So yeah. I was in Amsterdam last week. If you want to see pictures, go here. More on this, and everything else, later. I leave you with a picture I took as we were saying goodbye to Kai, as she left Germany for Japan, eventually to head back to California. She became one of my favorites here, and she even taught me a little Japanese... but luckily I will be able to see her next year. The other kind of goodbyes are going to be a lot harder, I foresee.