Erasmusblogs

…my only friend, the end! My flatmate Cinzia is going back to Italy tomorrow, after six great months living together. It makes me sad, I don´t have such a good relationship with my other flatmate (though she´s nice as well) and feel this is the end of an Era.

Right now I´m on holidays: it´s unbelievable, but in Germany (or at least at the HU Berlin) there are two whole "holiday" months: they hate to call it "holiday", it is said to be "Vorlesungsfreizeit" (period without classes), but anyway that means holiday. Lots of students fly back home in this period, so the time here runs quite slowly now, and moreover there´s nothing to do for me. Some friends of mine are attending German intensive courses, others are going on holiday, to sum up, I´m almost the only one doing absolutely nothing here, and however I´m not complaining anymore. Today, with the begginning of the spring, the birds have even started singing and the frozen puddles are slowly thawing out. I still find it difficult to believe, but The Great German Winter seems to back down!!

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         I have started reading a play by Albert Camus, Le Malentendu. The story is set in a small Czech city. In the preface of the book I read as I wrinkle my brow that the play was meant to be called Budejovice — the name of a city in South Bohemia, not far from Prague.

         Le Malentendue is about a murder. And it is because of the bad weather. A woman, Martha, and her mother, who run a small hotel, are so sick of the harsh endless Czech winters that they decide to kill some customers to steal their money, till they are wealthy enough to start a new life in a Mediterranean country. Let´s see what our dear Martha has to say about Czech weather: "Ce que nous appelons le primtemps ici, c´est une rose et deux bourgeons qui viennent de pousser dans le jardin du cloître." Hard, isn´t it? But let´s continue listening to her: "Je n´ai plus de patience en réserve pour cette Europe où l´automne a le visage du primtemps et le primtemps l´odeur de misère." Enough, Marta. Thanks you very much.

         12th March, Prague. Streets full of ice and snow after a two-day ice storm. I´m on my sofa reading the third act of Camus´ play and half listening to the telly. Euronews is on, and here comes the weather forecast. The camera goes across the map of Europe, while a catchy jingle melody sounds: "Jingjing jingjing jing jing jiiiiiiing jing." Madrid 20º. Jingjing… Paris 12º. Jingjing jing… Berlin 5º. Jiiiiiiiiiiing… Prague 0º. What the fuck!! Warsaw 4º. Bratislava 4º. I can´t believe it. We´re in the coldest place in the world. "Hey, Ben. Have you seen that? 0º. Worse than ever."
         "Yeah…" he says, and something else I can´t understand.
         Jingjing jingjing jing jing jiiiiiiiiing…
         I wanna kill somebody.

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