apologies and stories

i apologise for my last account. it took me several weeks to get it all out and as you can tell, by the end, i just wanted it to be over and it reads a little rushed. so. i'm sorry. and to make up for it, i will tell you all wooooonderful stories to make you laugh and cry and maybe even hug the person next to you. we'll see.

the wedding.
eike's sister got married on june 6th and the reception was on the 9th, which is why i had to leave ibiza earlier than the others. it was all really lovely. i had to wear a dress... and i didn't hate it. in fact, i felt quite pretty. eike and i sat at the kids table. which...considering how many kids there are in the schling family, it was actually a really fun table. anyway, band was awesome, food was great, drinks were free -- all in all, not a bad way to spend the day.

southside.
i went to my first real big music festival last weekend. i can't say i'm the biggest fan. i mean, the concept is really cool. camp for 3 days, be dirty and get drunk and see a ton of bands. but i didn't get to see all the bands i wanted to see and it rained parts of the weekend so we got dirtier than we wanted and it's hard to imagine but the sound of a flushing toilet is sweeter than you'd expect sometimes.
but on to the good things:
i saw less than jake and me first and the gimme gimmes. of course a return to my high school music listening days was fun. of course hopping around in the mud with other mud-hoppers was fun. but really... these were great shows. props to ltj for continuing to play even though people were throwing mud at them. don't ask me why - i really don't think people hated the show. in fact, i think the mud was in some form a token of appreciation. it was like, "you guys rock. have some mud." the sense of it i haven't quite worked out yet but regardless, the band never left the stage and there were a lot of really amusing attempts to get people to stop throwing mud...
me first was the last show of the first night. they played from 12:30 until 2 in the morning. and it was so freaking rad. for all of you who don't know - me first is a punk cover band. and i don't know how many people at the show knew this but "the next song is... a cover" never got old and i think a lot of people had fun. what really amazed me was the songs that germans know all the words to. there are certain classics that i always imagined would stay sort of american... in the way that i think i may only know the because my parents listened to these songs and they remain cheesy in a very culture-specific kind of way. but no. at least the immediate group surrounding me knew every single word to barry manilow's mandy. strange, no?
the rest of the weekend was sort of a blur but a definite highlight was pearl jam - i never ever thought i would see them live. but i did... about 8 years after i stopped caring. and man... eddie vedder is HOT. seriously, girls. it's hard to be convincing. i was standing about 70m away on top of a garbage can with about 6 other people concentrating on not falling over but that eddie... he was amazing.

the bavarian state library
it exists. i've been there. whether or not i was actually going to get any real work done before july was questionable... the bavarian state library, hence forth now known endearingly as the stabi, was not interested in making that a possibility. first, i'm a foreigner and therefore not allowed to take books out. they do have really nice reading rooms with lots of light and plenty of tables and outlets for laptops etc, so reading there isn't a problem. the problem is that there aren't actually many books there. this is only mildly problematic for a person who has found most of her research material whilst browsing... so now i need to be organised and know which books i want. you beg, 'really?' and my dear friends, the answer is yes. in order to get a book/journal, one has to have it ordered from archives, where it will be sent to the stabi to be collected roughly 2 days later. if you're foreign, it takes 4-5 days. double burned.

dissertations
well they sorta suck. and not in a little way. in a big, fat, 'ha, take that for the next 2 months of your life' sorta way. i know 2 months isn't a lot. it was originally 'ha, take that for the next 3 1/2 months of your life.' but i somehow wasted away the last month and a half and now i've got just 2 left. and still no topic. i'm such a failure.

blogging madness (or lack thereof)
it seems i was designed to shirk all responsibility, whether important or not. it seems that i've subconsciously decided to take a stand against actually doing anything... and i am REALLY good at it. some people say they get bored doing nothing all day. me? not so much. i mean, of course i do stuff. i read a lot. but clearly nothing dissertation-oriented. i think i need to find some sort of... how do you say... purpose? if anyone has any spare purpose lying around, let me know. you know how to reach me.

yours,
la pandita