Grueße aus Berlin

Bad day. Not totally bad day, because it's been cool to show my grandparents around Berlin a bit, but bad enough. I guess I should start at the beginning though. So my grandparents and I have been on the road since Monday, we hit up Nürnberg for a couple of days and now we have just finished our first day in Germany's wonderful capital. This is my 3rd time back to Berlin and I love the city more each time. It was sort of an unorganized day, we arrived at 2pm and checked into our crappy hotel which was WAY too far from the U-bahn station (which is why we're changing hotels to the far-nicer and far-more-central Marriott on the Gendarmenmarkt tomorrow). After that we hit up Unter den Linden to see Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag. Not much seen today but that's why we're here for another 2 full days.

So as you all know I've been working feverishly on this term paper for my EU policy class. 6 pages minimum on the EU's regional policy. I spent all 5 hours on the train to Berlin today typing that paper (in German) and got 4 pages written, including all the footnotes done. I was so proud of my productivity and for the first time was starting to relax a bit about the whole thing. You know that wonderful feeling you get when you know you've made some really great headway on a paper?

So after all our sightseeing today I finally got back online for the first time since Sunday night and checked my email. There was an email from my EU policy professor with the subject line, "Final Exam." The email was short and to the point.

You did not pass the final exam. If you wish to retake it, you may do so on April 20 at blah blah blah (I stopped reading here).

For those of you unfamiliar with the German educational system, I need BOTH the final exam and the term paper to receive a grade and credit for the class at ASU. Without that final exam, the paper is worth nothing. There is no chance of me passing the retake, since I'm getting back to Tübingen on the 13th from this trip and that leaves me only 7 days to prepare. For perspective, I spent over 3 weeks studying for the final the FIRST time around and I STILL didn't pass.

So this means no credits for European Union Policy and that the paper I've been slaving away on for 3 weeks is worthless.

I suppose that the silver lining to this cloud is that I no longer have to worry about writing the paper and that I am officially on my real semester break now. That, and I am now a totally unnecessary expert on regional policy in the EU.

If anyone needs me, I'll be at Pariser Strasse 40 in a dinky little hotel room lying on my bed with my iPod firmly planted in my ears and the soothing sounds of Coldplay swimming through my brain.