Dreaming On

The relaxed nature of my break has led me to not care much to write anything.  I can say though, that I had a lovely Christmas in provincial Nieder Sachsen and had a spectacular New Year’s here in Berlin.

I did want to post a link to this article on a new theory of dreaming.  I really like this article not only for its content, but also for its prose.  It reads as a wonderful example of nonfiction I thought.  It still doesn’t explain the combinations of sleep paralysis and dreams, which I experience from time to time, but it does add another interesting concept into my understanding of dreams.  I can’t help but think of Heinrich von Kleist’s Prinz Friedrich von Homburg.

It’s Snowing in Berlin

Lately I have been trying to better my culinary aptitude.  I have also begun looking at graduate programs.  The cooking has led to me learning how to make many new Asian styled meals.  I learned how easy it is to make fried rice in my apartment, two nights ago I helped in cooking a pad thai stir fry and last night Ben and I cooked up some great Indian styled red curry.

As for the graduate programs, finding the ones I am going to apply for is still a long way off, but I did look into the details of the GRE and have decided to try and consciously better my vocabulary, so that I don’t slump on the verbal section.

Luckily my efforts in increasing my personal lexicon can meet my attempts at creating more Asian styled meals for others through the wonderful website Free Rice.  Now every time I correctly define a word, 10 grains of rice are donated to help feed the world’s starving.  Although 10 grains does not sound like much in the past five minutes or so I have already managed to donate 300 grains while bettering my own cant.

In other news it has snowed for the past two days here in Berlin, some may accumulate tomorrow.  Slowly the winter season begins…

Links and Links

Today is Halloween (well, technically yesterday was). There Germans don’t really celebrate it in the way that Uncle Sugar does. I saw a kid dressed up as Zorro, a couple of young ladies dressed as stereotypical Amerindians, a man dressed as a witch, and someone mocking punk culture in U-Bahnhof Alexanderplatz.

SDS.Die Linke HU threw a pub quiz tonight to try and get interested people to show up. It was fun, my table had a bit of trouble so we won no free beer (see man above). I am also positive giraffes can swim, but the questions said it was not true. Having class tomorrow at 8:00 I decided to come home some what early, yet I am still awake at nearly 1:00 AM.

Revolution Does not Happen on Buffet Tables

The past week has been spent with courses in the morning, city exploration in the afternoon, clubs and pubs at night, and war protest on the weekend.

Yesterday, as many Americans were marching in Washington D.C. to call for the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq, somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 people attended a rally and march through the streets of Berlin under the slogan “Bundeswehr raus aus Afghanistan.” I met up with my friend Loren at the Rotes Rathaus where the rally started. He had already met some members of the student group of die Linke, the recently formed leftest party of Germany.

After a few speakers and some music, the march started and we made are way through the streets. Somewhere on Unter den Linden after anti-imperialist chants in front to the American embassy, Loren turned to me and said Tariq Ali was standing next to him. Loren had seen him speak at Northwestern last year so he recognized him. I shook Ali’s hand and talked to him a little bit, he is in Berlin for the Literature Festival. Loren talked to him more about subcontinental politics at depth far outside of my knowledge.

The march ended at a stage on Platz des 18. März just west of the Brandenburg Gate; the same place where Kennedy said “Ich bin ein Berliner” and Reagen said Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”

The message being recited yesterday, although being given by people with political conviction far from those of Kennedy and even farther from Reagen’s still carried a same thread. One of peace, unification, and anti-Imperialist agendas. Tariq gave an impromptu speech in English which a young woman attempted to translate into German, but she had a bit of problems. Tariq spoke of the last time he had spoken at a protest in Berlin: 1968 against the war in Vietnam. He told us that at that a vast majority of West Germany was for the war, but that now over 80% of Germany was against having troops in Afghanistan. The end of his speech was probably the most powerful moment of the day. He spoke the one line of German he had learned that day, “Bundeswehr raus aus Afghanistan!” At which point the entire crowed stared chanting the slogan, Tariq walked off the stage and the translator stood confused attempting to finish her job, but Tariq had struck a chord with the people and we didn’t want to here anything from the microphone, just the voices of everyone around us calling for an end to imperialistic politics and wars created by the western powers.