Exams

Well, friends, it's that time again. Exams. Or as the they say here in good old Deutschland, Klausuren (at least in so far as I've been able to determine). I feel like a wimp, because whenever I try to make small talk with my housemates, and this subject comes up, we inevitably discuss how many of them we have. I have a lot of empathy for them, because I know what it's like to have three exams (or at least papers) to do during a short period of time, and I try to make this is as clear as possible with lots of sympathy and understanding. Then they get to ask me what my schedule looks like and I have to admit to them that I just have the one, thanks to my ever-so-kind Latin teacher who decided that, since I don't need a grade and would probably be very unsuccessful at reciting all of the 'rules' he's given us in an oral exam ("Regel! Schreiben Sie bitte GROSS und DICK mit einem Rahme!" "Rule! Write it down big and thick in a frame!" he is always comically saying to us). But it's Ancient Greek, I tell them, and we've been frantically trying to learn about 30 verbs (and their 3-6 principal parts) and 100 vocab words every week all semester, so I'm worried! When I explained this to my housemate whom I ran into on the bus, and then said something along the lines of 'well, plus it's Ancient Greek IN German so I think it counts more as 1.5 or 2,' she just sort of gave me this 'ohhhh yeahh....suuuure I'm pretending I agree with you to be nice'. I don't care if you're studying medicine, I'll give you all of this material in English with a class full of unfriendly Germans and several nice Erasmus students and we'll see how YOU do.

Anyway, in an attempt to bring some joy into our otherwise morbidly depressing exam-lives, our friend Josh had his birthday on Tuesday! Come to think of it, neither he, nor his parents, probably had exam-relief on the brain when they all decided that should be the day of his birth, but that's how it worked out. Saturday night was the big celebration in Tuebingen, and I had what was, hands down, the best time out I've ever had. Ever. His 'dorm', right smack in the middle of the altstadt (not cool), was having a combination birthday and goodbye party for Josh and another couple of students, so they set up some great speakers in this big open space that usually has couches and things and a table, right outside their kitchen. 'DJ's' rotated through duty all night on a laptop, which is a recipe for success when one can snag internet access and a little youtube. At about 1am, the DJ gave us a break from the German hip hop/pop that was fine, but not necessarily fun to dance to if you weren't familiar with it, and brought out a parade of universally-known, verifiable dance hits. Not just new stuff---in fact, I don't think there was any Lady Gaga in the mix to speak of--but I distinctly recall the Jackson 5 and some Spice Girls. At 3am, deciding that we should head out for some sleep when our friends needed to catch the last bus up the hill, Anya and I hauled ourselves over for some doener/veggie doener and then made our way home. The test of any good dance party (which everyone knows is really more karaoke in an enormous group with loud music and some dancing), I awoke the next morning extraordinarily horse and with sore feet. Win! (Speaking of 'winning', ten points for Ivor and the crockery set he found on the way home, and then had the good sense to text us about. Excellent cap on the evening).

On Tuesday we all went out for burgers and drinks at our established haunt, Schlosscafe, and came back to mine and Anya's for some cake. I was in the mood to bake something, so I offered Josh his choice of birthday cake, and he very quickly settled on carrot. I'd never made one, but felt pretty fearless, so I happily agreed. 

I need to get back to my studies (freak snow storm, freak snow storm, pleeeaaaase Tuebingen!?), but I'll leave you with some photos of the cake...and if you care about photos from the party, you've likely already seen them on facebook. (And if you're someone not on facebook *cough* Jane *cough* who might care to view them, just drop me a line).

It wasn't the most stunning of my creations, as philadelphia frischkaese frosting is a little more tempermental than philadelphia cream cheese frosting, but most of the ugly action in this is just cake with raisins in it that were a little stuck to the pan, so please ignore the foreground. Cake was, in fact, quite moist and delicious.