Last night, I bought a printer. An exchange student who was going home to Chile soon sold it to me for 25 Euros, which is quite the steal except it didn't include a USB cable, so I'll either have to borrow or buy one. But now I can print things without having to go downtown for it!

As we were getting ready to go pick up the printer, Jeff and I were trying to find a box to carry it in, just in case the guy didn't still have the box. (He did.) As I was digging under the table that the TV is on, I came across a box that I hadn't even looked in before. (You have to remember, I'm living in a room that has collected all the appliances and knickknacks left by every recipient of this scholarship for the last 10 years, or maybe more. So I have a lot of junk lying around.) The box contained watercolor paints, brushes, paper, and a water heater (for tea and the like). I swear, this room is like a treasure trove. And my legacy will be a color printer and a hair dryer.

**Edit: I started telling that story about the mystery box because I wanted to tell you that it also included an old Walkman, which I have since hooked up to my speakers. It is now pirating radio to me, which I think is pretty cool, even though German radio, as a general rule, sucks pretty bad. People who own a TV set and/or a radio in Germany are required to pay monthly fees (Runkfunkgebuehren) to Rundfunk, which purportedly distributes the money to all the public TV channels and radio stations. I now have both a TV set AND a radio, and I'm not paying the fees. Yet. Don't tell the authorities.

And last night I had a scary dream about dinosaurs. I went to an amusement park with a friend for her birthday, and we had to be plunged 3000 floors down into the earth via elevator to be disinfected. The only ride I remember going on was pretty sucky, but for some reason the birthday girl couldn't be persuaded to leave, even though there was the threat of dinosaurs. A brontosaurus, tyrannosaurus, and a triceratops were the only dinosaurs there, and the brontosaurus almost stole my backpack, which went missing by the end of our time at the amusement park anyway. None of the dinosaurs could move if it started to snow on them, an effect that could be simulated if you released confetti over them. This proved helpful in our attempts to escape, which oddly enough we only needed to pull on the brontosaurus. The other two dinos weren't as aggressive. Okay, enough of my weird dreams. **End Edit

Tonight, my aunt comes in, and we will leave tomorrow for Switzerland via Baden-Baden. That means I have to pack again, and run countless errands today. This includes cleaning my room, so I'd better get started now. Have a good time while I'm away from the internet world, everybody!

Finally, finally back. I was starting to get used to living out of my backpack and hopping from place to place to sleep. Takes about 2 weeks to get used to it, but once I was, I could have kept that up for a few more, because I was comfortable with the fact that I had 4 shirts, 2 pairs of pants and enough underwear for about a week.

But now I'm back in Tuebingen, and I couldn't be happier. Of course, I'll only be here until Friday, but it's so nice to rest for a few days and wash some very dirty laundry. My aunt will be here Thursday, so just a few days before it all starts again.

As for the rest of my trip, it was delightful as can be. Jeff and I enjoyed the streets of London very much, and were impressed by the Tower of London. We flew back Wednesday, spent the night at Jeff's relative's house, and then the next day took off. Jeff was headed for Tuebingen, but not I... I had bought a ticket for the Jack Johnson concert in Munich, so I headed straight for the capital of Bavaria, locked up my backpack in a locker at the train station, and headed to the concert hall. Jack was amazing and I'm really glad I went to see him. Coincidentally, I ran into one of my dorm mates at the show. She invited me to hang out the next day with her and go to the Nockherbergfest, and then spend the night with her at her parent's house (they live in Munich and she goes home for the breaks). I spent the night at my friend Jess's dorm, and then the next day met up with Clara (my dorm mate) and went to the Nockherbergfest.

Now, if you've ever been to Oktoberfest or even Hofbrauhaus, you'll know have an idea of what Nockherbergfest is all about. It's basically the same: long wooden tables filled with Germans in lederhosen and dirndls, raising liters of beer to each other and dancing on the tables as the oom-pah band plays old traditional songs and waitresses in traditional dress bring up to 6 steins of beer to tables. The only differences at the Nockherbergfest is that it's a Starkbierfest, which means the beer served there has a higher alcohol content, and the celebration is smaller and way more authentic (aka less touristy). Basically, it was the Oktoberfest experience I had always wanted to have, because this time I was with actual Germans, one of which was wearing Lederhosen.

It was awesome.

The night went on for a while, as we had arrived at the Fest at 5:30, then later went to a house party, and then finally to a club. When we got home shortly after 2 AM, I realized with bewilderment that this was early for a Friday night. Personally, I felt like I had been out for a short eternity.

The next morning, I hopped a train to Hannover to visit my old host family, the Languths. It was as good as a time as ever - I got to relax, watch some TV, eat, and not really do anything but hang out with one of my favorite families for a few days, which was glorious. The most strenuous thing I did was go out and see "V is for Vendetta" with Jutta and Claus. I also hung out in the city on Sunday night with Albi, a guy I met in Stuttgart who's from Hannover. There are a lot of cool clubs in northern Hannover, which I didn't really know, and I was excited to go to one. We tried to find a club that was open, but nothing was going on that night, so I took the train back to the Languth's house.

And then yesterday, I came back to Tuebingen, which just delighted me to no end. To celebrate, Jeff and I went to Storchen.

So that's that story. There were many times that I wanted to blog because I had some inspriation for a great post, but didn't have the time or the means and so whatever genius I had stored up for y'all is lost, and you get a synopsis of what I did.

Added bonus: my Dad now has a blog. Want me to add you to the blogroll, Dad?