My Life is a Collage of Stories

You know what I love?

Stories.

Stories are why I am an English major, why I love to read, why I love to write. They are the reason I see the world for what it is, to love this place and these people and this chance we have been given to explore and discover and feel and know. The reason I have battled the biggest and the smallest monsters, traveled through time, died and been born again and again, defeated Voldemort, survived the zombie apocalypse, met the Doctor, learned what love means at the end of it all. The reason I know that the human imagination is probably the most important part of our collective existence, the reason we have survived, and will continue to do so.

This week, with finals approaching and the number of square meals I get in a day reduced to one-ish, I have been lucky enough to have time to experience some pretty amazing stories. Stories that have absolutely nothing to do with school, or academia, or studying, or learning, but have magic and meaning in them just the same.

The first was Firefly, the early-2000s TV show about space cowboys. My brother has been pestering me to get on the hipster bandwagon for years, and only now that I have succumbed and watched the tragically short fourteen episodes plus one movie do I realize how effing awesome it is. Everything you would ever want in a series --  danger! a gang of rebellious outlaws! romance! intrigue! humor! -- all wrapped up in a  story of smugglers aboard an outdated spaceship travelling throughout the galaxy evading capture. When you add in Nathan Fillion and a bunch of other likable/badass characters, the story is irresistible to the lover of post-apocalyptic space epics known as Myself.

The second was Life of Pi. I had the pleasure of reading this book in Ms. Kremer's class freshman year of high school, and while I loved and appreciated the book and its general genius, which was very new to me at the time, I promptly forgot about it until the announcement for the movie. Last night, several friends and I went to see it at last, and I was totally blown away. This was by far the best book-to-movie adaptation I have ever seen, effectively capturing, not only the detailed plot and its complicated twists, but also the essence of the book itself, all its subtleties and nuances and themes and the feel of the story. For this, I respect Ang Lee (the director) and Suraj Shurma (young Pi, who had never acted before) immensely.

Lastly, I spontaneously decided to reread Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows earlier this week, which, despite being time-consuming, has been completely worth it. It's been well over a year since I've read a Harry Potter book, and every time I return to them I am astounded by their sheer genius. These are books that will last generations--and rightly so. This story is so epic and perfect and human, and it holds a special place in my heart as the one that, so many years ago, got me hooked on this beautiful art form.

Sorry this post is long, but if you've made it all the way to the end, I'm going to give you some advice: stop studying, stop stressing, stop whatever you're doing for just a couple of hours and go watch a great movie, read an excellent book, and revel in your favorite stories. Get away, if only briefly, from your own life and problems and worries and experience someone else's for a while.

:)

Potter-o-ween and Pyromania and Possums, etc.

So for Halloween, my friend Jenna and I decided to go as the Black sisters (or, you know, the LeStrange-and-Malfoy sisters), and I, as the resident blonde, was of course Narcissa Malfoy.

Despite that I didn't have a wand or a robe or pretty much anything else, I did have a pretty bad ass Dark Mark, courtesy of my friend Sarah. 

Although really, I feel like I still kind of looked more like a World War II era bar singer than a witch, it's the thought that counts on Halloween, right?

Anyway. This weekend was also Homecoming, which meant BONFIRE!

(also pretty much the only Homecoming event I attended. Whatevs!)

It started off with fireworks!

And then just FIRE!

And then MORE FIRE!

Until it was so big, I almost got my face burned off from all the way across the lake!

Not this guy, though. 

He's too cool. 

These people were with me, though. RETREAT! RETREAT!

And then I came home to house sit and found a ridiculously un-afraid possum. 

Still no kitty, though. :( 

But I DO love this Inuit who put his rightful name on his Senior shirt despite that no one will ever understand it except me. 

Ah, Mickey. Good to see you embracing your true heritage!

Oh, also, I saw Cloud Atlas. Not sure how I feel about it. It was long and hard to watch, mostly because of some really uncomfortable and slightly gratuitous violence. But the concept was interesting. I guess the verdict is that it could have been better but wasn't nearly as horrible as it could have been. 

That is all. 

Day 9: Berlin, City of New Old Things

Berlin is full of „old“ things (hehe...those quotation marks are silly :-P) - things that have been destroyed by war or for symbolism (see previous Berlin post) that have been rebuilt again to look old or things that arent so old that pretend to be. This includes pretty much everything we visited today, which is:

The red Rathaus (city hall - I don't actually know if it was rebuilt or not)

The giant German Cathedral (giant gorgeous church complete with 7000+ pipe organ and a crypt with dead folk from all the way back to the earky 1600s. Built in1905 but more weathered looking even than --

The Old Church (don't remember it's real name, but it's a tiny church, and also the oldest building in Berlin, built in the 1200s (?), surrounded by an area of houses that were bombed, rebuilt in a modern style, then rebuilt again to resemble the old houses that were there before. Also, there was a miniature book shop. As in tiny books. :D)

The Charlottesburg Castle (more like a château - originally from the 1700s-1800s, but destroyed in the war and then refurbished in the years that followed with original furnishings and newly made stuff to look like the original; absolutely beautiful, home of the German Kings starting around König Frederic I. Also, I wasn't supposed to take pictures but I did anyway and got in trouble, so enjoy)

And on a completely unrelated note, we also visited KaDeWe, Berlin's answer to Harrod's- a giant superfancy department store where you can buy all your diamonds and Chanel and Dior and that is literally all the fancy brands I know, but you get the idea. And on the top floor is the fanciest grocery store you have ever seen, selling mostly chocolate and bread and wine and cheese but also produce and pasta and classy stuff. We got some excellent dried strawberries and kiwis and pineapple and whole bananas (look up dried whole bananas - they look very unappetizing but they taste like banana bread). Afterwards we went to have spargel for dinner - German asparagus, which is huge and thick and white and usually covered in Hollandaise sauce. It was pretty good. :)

Next is Prague. Phew! :)

Day 3: Brussels, City of Good Gastronomy and Big Physics

Belgium is, as my grandfather has put it, a "gastronomical city," meaning, of course, that there is good food here. Besides the chocolate and the waffles and the frites, there is a legitimately tasteful (haha) food scene. My meals today are definitely worth mentioning.

Breakfast: (at the hotel) chocolate croissant, pineapple, and fresh French sourdough bread with strawberry jam. Also, some damn good scrambled eggs.

Lunch: French bread straight out of a local patisserie and fresh homemade Brie (which would definitely have been illegal in the US) out of the cheese shop next door. Then, best waffle ever - even better than the one I had yesterday!

Dinner: (restaurant called Ricotta & Parmesan) Super-fancy salade folle (crazy salade) with baked chèvre cheese, olives, smoked ham, grilled zucchini, and many more surprising vegetables. Then just a little spinach and ricotta cannelloni followed by chocolates from that same little shop.

Other than stuffing ourselves, today we visited the Atomium, which is a bajillion-times-life-size model of an iron atom or something that was built for the World's Fair in the 50s and never taken down. You can go up to the top, and like the Eiffel Tower, Empire State Building, or Seattle Space Needle, look out on a panorama of the city below. Very lovely to go there again. The place is so weird, sometimes I think I just made it up in my head, but it's really there. :)

After that we returned to the Grand Place to eat (see above), took a rest at the hotel for a few hours, then went to dinner (yeah, yeah, I know, I'm a fattie) and came home.

But WAIT! What did I find when I got to my room? The sweet concierge who helped me with the hot water problem yesterday bearing two boxes of Neuhaus chocolate truffles for the inconvenience. Uh, yeah. I will take a shower in the room across the hall any day if it means free Fancypants chocolate. Thanks, Monsieur le Consierge. Talk about excellent service!

Oh, I also bought the sixth Harry Potter book in Dutch to add to my collection (I already had the seventh one in French - I'm working backwards). The Dutch covers are really simple and pretty. I approve! :)