Germany is the land of "good beer, good cars and good porn"... and now Eurovision 2011!

Yesterday the weather was really nice and sunny. Here's a picture of the campus from the lounge in lab where I get internet connection. If you follow that rode in, my dorm is to the left. As you can see, there are forests on either side (quite scary at night because there are no lights and I get the feeling that something feral is bound to jump out).

The weather reports for today look bleak: lots and lots of wetness ("Welcome to Berlin summer: cool and wet").

On a happier note, I went out with people from the campus to an Irish pub last night to watch Eurovision, which is a song competition with all the European nations (plus Israel??). This has been a long tradition, however recently it has become more political and the music, as the people I was with put it, has become crappier (as in lots of heavy pop influence). Last night was the Eurovision finals with 25 countries being represented. We were cheering for Germany, Armenia, Denmark, and Romania (everyone was joking that it was too bad the US is not in Europe... I had to pick another country to cheer for). Of course, the songs from each nation had a very different influence although most of them sang in English. Some of the performances and wardrobes seemed to be stuck in 80s, while others were downright weird. However, the Armenian performance caught everyone's attention because the singer was very well-endowed on top (look up Eva Rivas and you'll see what I mean). The Armenian guy in our group really wanted Armenia to top Azerbaijan because of the conflict between the two countries (Nagorno-Karabakh War). The Azerbaijani singer decided to show off her legs so as the night went on, it was a close contest. However, in the end, Azerbaijan placed higher despite the fact that the Armenian was spilling out of her top, but more importantly, it was the 19-year old Lena who topped it all with her catchy lovesong! This means that next time this year, Berlin will be hosting Eurovision! That got everyone in the bar really excited. There was boisterous cheering and some middle-aged men shouting "I love you lena!!!" Germany won in football (soccer) as well! It was a really good night for Germany :)

LILY