It's like a mojito party out there!

This weekend, Tang and I went to Martha's birthday party. Here we are in party outfits:




Before we went to the party, we had dinner at the Thai restaurant in Karlsruhe called Chiang Mai. It is SO SO GOOD. It makes Pforzheimer-Thai food look so crappy in comparison. I had a delicious spicy rice noodle soup. Sorry this picture is so blurry.



Karen and Karla dancing. I like this picture because you can really see what Candela looks like.



We had mojitos.



Afterwards, we missed the Straßenbahn to Martha's house, so we had to take this weird night bus. We were all sleeping over at Martha's house, seven or eight girls. Most people had school Bahncards, but I (and another girl) had to buy tickets from the ticket machines that I FINALLY figured out how to use properly. So I ran across the street to get tickets and came back and we just caught our bus. I stamped my ticket in the bus and sat down.

In Germany, nobody checks your ticket when you get in the bus, but every once in a while the "ticket man" comes to check everyone's ticket. The ticket man came. My ticket was valid, but two others hadn't stamped theirs, so the ticket man started yelling "Raus, raus!!" and we had to get off the bus, and two other Polizei came and started yelling at us. Since the girls from Stuttgart and Manheim were staying with Martha, they took her to the police station to get her address, and told the others they each had to pay 40€. But they kept insisting that they didn't have the money, so finally they just let us go. Several people were crying at this point. But not me. It wasn't really scary at all, just a little irritating since we had to wait an hour for the next Bahn and it was cold.

Yesterday I had Waffles with Aline and Rhonia and Franziska from my class. It was really nice, and we are going to get together to watch movies the weekend after next. Aline asked me if it was boring for me in my village, and I said yes, sometimes. She asked me what I do with my free time and I responded, "Read, watch TV, computer." Yes, that is literally all. Isn't that embarrassing? She said, "Then we have to meet up more often." I hope we do.

Sort of related to my free time -- I picked a lame time to go abroad, creativity-wise. Before I left I was writing a lot and just getting into philosophy and writing music, and now, I feel purposeless. I spend a lot of time on the computer, or even just lying around doing nothing. I know I would be bored if I were at home, and that this is the right place for me to be right now, but I'm not feeling inspired in the same way I thought I would. And I think a lot of this has to do with being so alone, honestly. I'm not alone, and I have support, but at home, I spend so much time talking with my family or my friends about things I'm interested in or ideas or whatever. And the fact that so much of what I thought of as my personality might have come strictly from the people I was surrounded by depresses me a little.