firstly: i just watched the project runway season finale from abroad, and then stumbled upon this gem:



wow. that made my whole life better.


anyway. so ignore that last post about springtime and happy feelings. tuesday it snowed all afternoon. yesterday morning it snowed as well and there was snow all over the city in places where the sun doesn't really hit. today the high was like 3 celsius. it's cold and gross and windy and awful. on top of that, the bvg is striking, which means that more than half of the city's public transportation is out of commission - the u-bahn, buses and trams are done. thank goodness the s-bahn is still running.

OH WAIT. they're striking on monday, essentially shutting down the entire city ... ? i'm not sure how it's legal or what i'm expected to do, but it will be another berlin adventure.

speaking of berlin adventures, on monday the adventure involved an ordinary trip from zoologischer garten to thielplatz u-bhf. seemingly mundane, since i do it every day, but today i was in a bad mood and had woken up especially late, and needed to do a lot of work. i plopped myself on the U3, as i do almost every day, with my headphones in my ears, engrossed in my new book. suddenly, at fehrbelliner platz, i realized that NO ONE ELSE WAS IN THE TRAIN. the train was by no means full previously, but the 5 other people in my car had left. when i stood up and pushed the button to open the train doors, they didn't open.

immediately my stomach dropped in panic, i threw my book in my bag (earmarking the page first of course), and pulled out my headphones, as the train slowly began moving forward and then stopped in the middle of underground-nowhere. great. fabulous. as i scanned the train for a notruf (emergency call) button to alert whoever that they were driving me towards some train graveyard, the button lit up on the door, indicating that i could open it again. as i opened the door and gingerly stepped onto a sketchy wooden platform underneath somewhere in west berlin, the driver strolled over, calmly explaining to me that between fehrbelliner platz and breitenbach platz there's construction happening, and that i needed to get onto a bus in between the two stops and then get back on the U3 over there (which is ridiculous, but whatever). he told me to just get back in the car, and he'd be driving back to the platform in a minute to take everyone back the other direction.

i then had the pleasure of being the only asshole who got out of the empty train back on the platform i had just left, two minutes later, unscathed. but it gets better. on the way home i thought to myself - genius that i am - i'll take the bus back to zoo. its direct, 27 minutes (which is shorter than the train), and i won't have to run around from train to bus to train. well while standing and waiting for the bus i was approached by a girl from one of my classes, and when the bus came we hopped on together.

and it was the wrong bus.


yes i was that big of an ass. so i traveled about 15 minutes in the TOTAL WRONG DIRECTION and had to get on some random other train to get back to zoo. after five months i considered myself not only competent but SKILLED at navigating berlin's public transportation system. as a temporary berliner, i took pride in the city's u and s bahn, the buses and trams, all of which are terribly convenient and free for students. monday they proved to get the best of me.

now lets see how the city (and myself) fare without it.