Raindrops keep falling on my head,  they keep falling...

                                       What can you see in this picture?

                                        A) A raging river

                                        B) My way to school

Yes, you guessed it! It is B). The picture wasn't taken by me and not in Ann Arbor, but it perfectly resembles the current situation on the streets and sidewalks. The weather has been shit for a while now. Being from the most rainy part of Germany I don't mind getting wet. Also, massive rainfalls are not a real problem in most parts of Germany and the rest of the EU. Here in the US, however, many cities and states don't have the financial capacities to equip sidewalks and streets with sufficient drainage. That way, puddles as big (and deep) as swimming pools cover every last square meter of street that is not acclivous. The rainfall is nowhere near heavy at the moment. I am anxious (and that is anxious in the non-curious sense of the word) to find out what happens to this place if we ever do have heavy rainfall. This cute, little town will probably be washed away or devoured by the Great Lakes, making it the Atlantis of the Midwest. My pants look as if Ann Arbor was already burried under water, anyway (and this was after a five-minute-walk to the store on one of the nicer days...).

Adding to the rain, we have a lot of wind. A lot of massive wind. I have barely ever experienced any winds like that before. And the fact that the new semester started a couple of days ago forces me to actually go outside. It is intense! When I finally make it to Uni, wet and cold and happy to be alive, I am usually confronted with a professor, who will send me out to the bookstore right away to spend crazy amounts of money on readings. Let me give you a fun example:

The required reading for my anthropology class is over $200 if I want to get a new book. After I had recovered from that shock, the cashier at Ulrich's Bookstore (which you know from my Top 22 Places To Be In Ann Arbor) looked at me quite concerned and told me, in a voice that sounded like the voice of a mother who was just about to give her favourite child a huge lollipop, that she could sell me a used book for "only" $189. This time I was prepared for radical insanity in terms of pricing, so I found my voice a little quicker and told the cashier I wasn't going to pay $189 for a used book. She wasn't done yet, though, because she still had an ace up her sleeve. She finally offered me to rent the book... for $110. $110 for a used book... which I will have to give back after less than four months... I respectfully declined and turned my head away from the cashier. For a moment, standing there at the bookstore's check-out counter, listening to the cashier listing ridiculous prices, I wished I had been swept away by the river on the other side of the shop windows that was South University Street, to a place where a guy who receives free education, can actually afford his education.

Later that day my worries were poohed away by Winnie. It was actually the cheapest honey the store had. Lucky for me, because I would have bought Winnie, no matter what. His honey is delish! 

I hope the weather is better wherever you are! Keep warm and save! Oh, and by the way, here is my weekly schedule for this semester. It seems pretty chill when compared to last semester's schedule but with work at the dining hall and for the art blog, with WCBN and exercise, with pre-studying and reviewing, this makes up a very busy week. I will try to update this blog as frequently as possible, though.