Waiting on the midnight train

Well, I'm a week into fall break, and I didn't get as much accomplished, as far as seeing more of Berlin is concerned, as I wanted to. Part of that is because I was working on grad school applications, and you forget how long it takes, and how tedious it is, to sit at a computer and type in your data, and write out your reading list for the fifth time, and procrastinate by writing e-mails to people you haven't talked to in a while and suddenly feel the need to contact (if you were one of those people, though, it's not just the applications talking. I do miss you and would love to hear from you). I also need to print out bunches of forms and writing samples. Since I don't have a printer, this will be interesting.

Another reason for my relative laziness is a cold that's snuck up on me in the last few days. One of my roommates had a nasty cold about two weeks ago, and I thought that I'd escaped it, but then the other day I woke up feeling all stuffy and tired. So, I've been mostly staying inside and taking it easy, and drinking enough tea to keep most of China in business.

I wanted to save my energy for the trip I'm embarking on tonight. Another of the assistants and I (let's call her B, for the sake of anonymity) are taking a night train to Vienna. We'll spend a few days there, eating cake and drinking coffee, before moving on to Salzburg, Mozart's old stamping grounds, and finally Munich, home of appeasement and beer by the liter (Oktoberfest is already over, but we're hoping that the city isn't completely dried out). And we just got our first payments from the teaching exchange program, so our travels are actually funded, and we won't have to wash any dishes to earn our suppers.

I probably won't be blogging or e-mailing much before the 14th, when we get back, but I'll have a lot to report then. Hope everyone is doing fantastically, and a lovely Columbus Day break to people back in the U.S.