Jeez, is it already the middle of May?

*Looks at calendar* Uh, guess so...sheesh.

I had a great trip home, although (no offense, ma) being home (in a new house, so not exactly home) with my parents was a bit odd after having lived solo and then with my bf for the past 8 months. And before/during/after my trip back, I've been finding myself sort of pondering and struggling over what the word means for me. Yea, there's a literal home, a home where you grew up, and a metaphorical home, a place where you feel at home. Not like I had that much trouble adjusting to the new house (well, not like I had that much time to adjust anyhow, I was busy buzzing around in my car, aka zippy car, aka caffetiera, aka the percolator! Way too many family and friends to visit.. and I still got flak from some for not including them in my plans! But Beaker was my number 1 concern anyhow so deal with it, peopo!) I ate horrendously, with pizza and pasta being number 1 on the list of what I'd eaten... Ugh. Now I'm paying for it. Regardless, it was fun and I miss my nephew already. And I wish I had gotten to see some people more than just once! (Like Nico aka my little buddy, the little baby I used to babysit :)

I was just reading some previous posts I had written and this one (obviously as I'm typing it) and I notice that sometimes I write how I speak/think-- ie I don't put that much thought into these blog posts, which sometimes results in sloppy posts dripping with spelling errors, etc. I'm also sort of a forgetful person and a scatterbrain to boot. So mix that together with too many thoughts going on in my head at once, and the result is a mishmosh of dashes and parentheses since I feel I need to immediately type everything in lest I forget what I was just thinking. My favorite professor (the one who suggested I apply to University of Wisconsin) was the one that pointed that out to me (the fact that I was/am a scatterbrain, hehe.)

Anyway, I got back to Berlin and it was like Christmas all over again for Michi. Presents from my grandmother, mother and me, wee! A new backpack, a shoebox full of nonna's famous cookies (which are an instant reminder of my childhood), a bracelet, a new water canteen, 2 Wii games and more.

What sucked about getting back here was that I had to work within an hour and 30 minutes of my plane landing. I didn't originally schedule it that way; my plane was late. But oddly enough, I didn't have jetlag. Stayed up til 10pm on Thursday, took a 2 hour nap on Friday and I was good to go.

Today I had off due to a class cancellation. Not like I work too many hours but I got to sleep in, read some and just generally ride around the city and see cool stuff and interesting people and architecture. Which reminds me, I always forget to bring my camera! There were definitely things I wanted to take pics of and I missed the opportunities. And I got a flat tire. A damn nail went into my rear tire. That sucked. I walked all the way home, although I could have taken the U or S-bahn but that would have cost me 3,60 euros and I only had 1 stop to go. Weather was nice enough so I didn't mind. Also went to a vegan health food store. Yea, as if I am not complicated enough as a person, I'm trying out veganism for the first time. Started officially yesterday. Not that I'm not happy about being vegetarian but since I was a kid I always felt it was kind of weird that humans drank cow's milk, for one. I really love milk, don't get me wrong. (Don't even get me started on cheese. I'm such a formaggiona! Vegan cheese is definitely not a good substitute whatsoever-- at least, not yet.) But scientifically speaking, I think our bodies were designed to drink our mothers' breast milk for a while and that's it. And to this day, the enzyme in our bodies use as babies to breaks down lactose fades away and disappears as we get older, which explains why many of us become lactose intolerant by the time we're in our early teens (including me.) I do like fish but when I first starting being vegetarian, I didn't eat fish (for about a year or two.) I don't think I'll miss that too much. As for nutrition, there's no question that you get all the vitamins/minerals/protein you need on a vegan diet. And pretty much any way you slice the cake, it's healthier for you, which is pretty much the bottom line for me. This is what I made for dinner yesterday. With a side of Lebanese bulgur. Sooo good. I'm eating it again now actually. (I even omitted the honey in the bulgur recipe since it's technically an animal product. I promised myself I would go all or nothing! And I also promised myself I would post about falling off the bandwagon if I do.)

I do feel bad for Michi's mom though, who cooks for us three when we visit her on the weekends. It's nice enough that she cooks vegetarian meals for me, so I feel bad that I'm making life harder for her. But we'll have to cooperate. Michi's grandmother won't take the news so lightly, as most Germans don't understand non-meat eaters. Anyway, we'll see how long I last. (Just to let you know, when I became a vegetarian about 10 years ago, it also started as a weird fad/phase I was going through. It just never ended.)

My ultimate goal is to be a weird/cool (it's all relative) vegan Italian doctoral student with really long dreadlocks in Wisconsin. Ahahaha! Slowly but surely.

Oh, by the way, I'm also little beaker's godmother! woohoo!