8 days left

Today I met with two different professors, one at Humboldt Universität and one at Technisches Universität and while I was very concerned about the horrifically preliminary-draft-state of my proposal and wondering whether or not they'd be interested and was I dressed nice, but not too nice and how's my hair (gawd, it's so awful) and do I have to speak English or German and what if I can't find their office and I really need coffee, but I'm late, shit, ahhhhhh.....when I met with the first one he took me to the HU's "Auslandsamt" (Foreign Exchange Office), and the lady was like "oh, you are from Stanford, yes? You are applying for a Fulbright, yes? You need a letter of recommendation for 2007-2008, yes? Just tell us when. That's not a problem." I was blown away. THAT EASY? Really? I feel like the US puts everyone through the ringer for these kinds of things. If I were going to a US professor, I'd have my resume and my transcript and my first born child and a pint of my blood with me. Jesus. I love Germany. So, now all I have to do is fine-tune my proposal, write my personal statement, finish the online application and secure these letters of introduction. That sounds like a lot, but I think the hardest part (well, the most logistical part) of meeting contacts is taken care of. *Another sigh of relief*

I spent 30 minutes in an English bookstore today and decided on The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner. Might as well be well-read or something. I almost bought In Cold Blood by Capote, partially because of the movie and partially because I spent a good portion of yesterday at work (I have NOTHING to do now) reading about Ted Bundy and the Green River Killer and it was so fascinating to me. But the book was kind of expensive and....I can just watch the movie (cue cringe).
Dave, I did not get the books you recommended because I am in Germany and no one has them. There is one book of short stories that I have found and it's, you guessed it, Best Short Stories of 2005.

Jackie and I watched Donnie Darko the other night in German. That made the movie about 20x creepier than it already is. Did you know that when German's dub their films, they get the same guy to dub for the same American actor? For example, Tom Hanks' German voice is always the same, Woody Allen's too, etc. and last fall there was some play in Berlin that had all those famous voices actually acting on a stage (I have no idea what they were doing) but it was a big deal b/c their voices are so famous. I guess it's a similar novelty to when we watch cartoons and Mel Gibson or Robin Williams or David Spade is the voice and you spend half the movie going "ah, ooh, uh, I know that guy, ah, dammit, umm...its that guy, from....you know, ah, fuck." When we could just look at the back of the movie box but we don't. Or I don't.

I get really bad headaches every morning now before I have coffee. That is not good.

And tonite is Brazilian food! 8€ buffet, all you can eat, baby.