Better Bon

Yay, I get to go home! The inflamation of my lymph nodes are down and now I just need to take antibiotics for the next week. I'm now sitting in my hospital bed waiting for the nurse to come and take the IV out of my arm. I can't wait.

Hospital Bon

Good News: the hospital has wireless.

Bad News: I'm in the hospital.

As one doctor in Prague suggested, my only cure may be a hospital visit to have antibiotics administered through an IV. And that is where I am. Except for two visitors I've had, my time here has been kind of boring. Then, about an hour ago, I discovered I can access the wireless here and now my time has changed. I'll write more when I'm more awake -- it's about 9:10 pm and I'm already sleepy.

Third Time's A Charm?

Prague is a backpacker's destination, so when people learn of my travels, the question of whether I've been to Prague often arises. Technically, yes, I've been to Prague but I haven't really seen much besides the clock tower, charles bridge, jewish cemetary and, my personal favorite, the museum of medieval torture. When I returned from my first trip there, someone asked me what I thought of the castle. My response was "castle? What castle?". Apparently, it was that big building I passed daily on my tram ride to and from the city. So, when I learned that I was being sent to Prague for the internship I just started (for an online travel portal for backpackers, feel free to check it out at rucksack.com), I was excited to see what I missed.

I came with high hopes which were, once again, quickly shattered by a bacterial infection in my throat. I arrived in Prague on a Saturday and on Sunday I awoke to find a painful lump the size of a golf ball under my throat that gave me a double chin. The rest of my time in Prague would be overshadowed by my throat, the infection had spread to my lymph nodes causing the ridiculous swelling. The rest of my time was spent either in the doctor's office, sleeping, sweating (had a fever for a couple days), writhing in pain in the common room of the hostel, or just being miserable because I had no energy to move.

For all you Prague-lovers out there, I'd love to hear what it is you love about that city so much. While during my first visit, I feel I got to know the Museum of Torture really well. This visit, I feel I got to know doctors and my hostel's common room really well.

As a final good piece of information, I did find out that since I was not able to do any of the work I was sent to do in Prague, I will be sent back there for a third time. Let's hope nothing bad happens this time...

Catch up Bon

There is a lot to catch everyone up on and I will try to do so quickly here. If I get my act together, I will later try to post more in depth updates.

I am back in Berlin, sitting in my apartment, happy that for the first time my landlady/roommate didn't unexpectedly wake me up at 10 am on a Saturday (that is extremely early for me on a weekend) to do some ridiculous type of cleaning (more on this in another post). The weather is looking better than it has been over the past couple days, where we've had nothing but rain. I am excited to see some friends tonight that I met in Casablanca and lastly, I'm glad because I, for the first time, have a small amount of income to look forward to (read: I'm finally getting my act together here).

This past week has been relatively productive. Last Friday, I interviewed for a English teaching position. This Monday, I got a tutoring position. This Thursday, I got a paid internship, which I will start this Monday. On top of that, I found a new apartment that I will move into in June in a neighborhood that I enjoy AND on top of all of that I got to see two colleagues from New York and fully enjoyed my brief but fun time catching up with them. The only downside to my week was that my camera broke and I have yet to fix it. I took lots of pictures in Poland and on the first of May (workers day -- stories to come from that) that I would like to post but I cannot access them yet on my camera.

That is my brief summary of the week. More to come soon-ish.

PolishBon

I just wouldn't be myself if I didn't do a little bit of spontaneous travel here and there, right? I decided a couple hours ago (around 3pm my time) that I would hop on a train early tomorrow morning (6:40am to be exact) to meet up with my friend Thad who is in Warsaw. I had actually been planning on tagging along with him to Warsaw earlier this week but decided to hang around Berlin since I was in the running for a job which I did not get. There is talk that we might head over to Krakow too but that has not been decided yet. After listening to a really interesting, older broadcast of "This American Life" on a burgeoning interest in/increase of Jewish culture there, my interest in Krakow has been sparked. Plus, everyone I speak to says that Krakow is great. We'll see. Anyways, just wanted to update everyone that I will be heading over to Poland for a couple days.

BittenBon

For your listening pleasure, please play this song in the background while reading this post (ed. note "Eisbaer = Polar Bear")

As many of you may know, Berlin has recently been in the news due to a polar bear attack at the Berlin Zoo. I surprisingly only heard of the incident through my sister via Article Club. If you do not know what I am talking about, then please read the link provided at the bottom or top.

One of my good friends from the English Teacher's course, his brother was in town so I seized the opportunity to explore Berlin with them. One day of exploring led us to the Berlin Zoo. I couldn't pass the Zoo without taking a picture to commemorate, well, the ridiculousness of humankind (this is including me who was ridiculous enough to take the following picture). Anyways, for all of you following the polar bear story, although I did not make my way into the Zoo, here is me paying respect to the incident. I think, facially speaking, I did a pretty good job, yes?


The Article:
(http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1169266/Pictured-Shocking-moment-polar-bear-attacks-woman-climbed-zoo-enclosure.html)

Also, for those who actually listened to the song here is a gist of it's lyrics in English:

I want to be a Polar Bear
in the cold polar
because then I wouldn't need to scream
Everything would be so clear
....
....
....
Polar Bears don't need to cry

(to all you German speakers out there, please don't diss on my translation skillz)

In-Need-of-a-Job-Bon

I was recently called out by 2 friends for not having posted new information recently. A) thank you for calling me out. B) so much has happened since the last post that I'm not sure where to begin. I have one or two old posts that need to be finished which I may post soon. They tend to be time-stamped according to when I first started writing them, meaning they'll appear below this post.

First off, I am still in Berlin and I love it here. For those of you who have not been lucky enough to visit, Berlin is an amazing city that seems to suck people into it. It's laid-back, liberal, culturally and historically rich, very bike friendly and seems to have a certain je ne sais quoi to it. Every time I visit, I never want to leave and this is no exception. Berlin is like a 3rd home (after Philly and New York) to me. I'm lucky to have a great friend base here -- friends that I have met through my course and friends that I have already known for quite some time (some since 2001!). Berlin has actually acted as a great place to get back in touch with the western world and once again, I never want to leave!

Now the thing is, having said all of that, I am in no way, shape or form ready for my world adventures to end. Not in the least bit. However, pulling oneself away from Berlin is, for me, next to impossible. To use a cheesy analogy, it's like trying to separate oneself from their demon a la "The Golden Compass". I've only ever left in the past because I had to return to New York for school or for work. And while meeting up with the rest of the group is a priority of mine, it's hard to motivate myself to leave because I've finally found myself in the city that I have always dreamed of returning to.

I hear that the biking group is actually headed to New Zealand. This is an amazing piece of information, as one of my best friends is currently volunteering in NZ and a trip there would mean time with her. However, a flight from Berlin to NZ via Delhi (where the rest of my things currently are) might be costly, meaning that by the time I arrive in NZ, I'll be close to being out of money. Ughs. So, we'll see. I'm trying to find a job in Berlin, which isn't going too well but, then again, I could probably try a little harder than I am. Anyways, as you might see, I'm a little lost without a plan, not sure how to come about a plan, hoping to come up with a plan, but all around doing well.