The end is near.

The most exciting part of this week was, of course, the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1. Not only would I have seen it before people back home just due to the time difference, but it came out 2 days earlier in Germany then it did in the UK and the US. So, to all you back home, ha.

As expected, the theater was packed with a number of excited Harry Potter fans, both German speaking and English speaking. Thankfully, the movie was in English, even though the first preview was dubbed in German and near gave me a heart attack. The movie was also very well done, I thought, and had a good blend of the darkness and the humor in the book. Sometimes, I found myself frustrated with the characters' emotional constipation, whether it was written in the book or made more awkward by the director. Most of the time I just wanted to shake them and tell them to talk it out, but then again that is the nature of 17-year olds . . . awkwardness and a lack of understanding for how they feel.

In retrospect, I also find myself a little jealous of the Germans in the theater. The movie was the original version, without subtitles, and the Germans chose to see this version instead of a subtitled or dubbed version--they have enough mastery of the English language to understand the film. It's one thing to be able to say basic sentences related to your job, but to understand a movie, especially a movie with lots of created words, is impressive and something I could never do after years of studying Spanish back home. My German is of course very minimal, but my Spanish could be much better, if I started younger and if I had more opportunities to use it outside of an academic setting. To learn a foreign language as a child and use it on a regular basis . . . I am jealous of Europeans for this kind of opportunity, even if they don't see it as one.

I leave here in less than three weeks. The papers and projects I have left to do stand as a constant reminder that soon, they will be done and I will be going home. How crazy is that? Part of me is ready to go home, to play with my dog, to find a job and have some sense of normalcy back. But part of me is also not at all ready . . . it was not easy for me to get here financially and it will not be easy for me to get back for a number of years. How strange a thought. Or even, will I come back soon? I've seen a lot of Berlin and very little of other cities. That thought is the wierdest I think . . . what should I do my last few days here, other then final papers?