If I was religious, this would be a situation to pray

Rain, rain and ever more rain… it seems to go on that way endlessly and it feels already like autumn although it is just August. I am sleepy all the time and everyone else I meet seems to share my problem. Yesterday evening I finished my new timetable for the upcoming semester and realised how many books I will have to read until it starts. I should use the month I have still left for reading, studying and preparing myself for university. But it is hard to motivate oneself when the sky is always so dreadfully grey. The humidity is extremely high, so whatever I do and even when I do nothing I am sweating. It is annoying.

The city is almost bare of people. That is not only because of the weather. The absence of the 12.000 students who usually roam the streets on their bikes is obvious. They are all at home or on holiday while only very few are left here. Today I had to go to the post to sent my mum some documents and I needed to go to a book store to get some of the books I will have to read. I saw some unlucky tourists, a handful of elderly native inhabitants of Greifswald and for whatever reason a lot of young women with prams. Of course these young women had to take their prams into the shops and while I tried to escape the rain for some minutes in the “Rossmann”, a very popular drug store, I had great difficulties to stay in front of the “Rival de Loop” display for more than 10 seconds because there was always one of these mothers pushing their pram through the narrowest passages while I had to jump out of the way or squeeze myself against the shelves.

I had been thoughtful enough to take an umbrella with me when I ventured into the city (it had not started raining then) so that I could walk the streets quite confidently. A lot of people were standing in the doorways of shops or under awnings so as not to get too wet. But I was unlucky in the end, too, for the wind turned my umbrella inside out and I had to take shelter in a café near the market place where I waited almost two hours until the rain stopped for some time and I could go home. As you can imagine it is raining again now…

The absence of students in town and in my residence hall has of course some effect on me. It is wonderfully calm and quiet. No overly loud music, no barbeque parties until late in the night, less garbage and a greater chance to get a free washing mashine in the washing center. But another side effect is my increased weakness for good looking men. It sounds weird, I know. But imagine living for 2 months in a city with almost no young men! I noticed it when I watched “The Devil wears Prada”. Simon Baker… oh well… I could not understand why she chose this Nate in the end. This scene in the art gallery where Simon aka Christian just kisses her on the cheek sent me blushing, giggling and hidding my face behind a pillow! Like I was 12 or 13 again instead of 21. Now I am very impatient to wait until Sunday when they will broadcast “The Mentalist” on TV.

I am so weak against such charming actors. I watched “Confessions of a Shopaholic”, a rather bad film, not at all to my taste, although I am very keen on romantic comedies. Nevertheless I was paralyzed like a mouse in front of  a snake whenever Hugh Dancy appeared on the screen. That is why the next film on my list is “Julie & Julia”. No danger for me there I reckon. I do not want to waste my energies giggling and cooing over actors when I should start working.

While I keep my mind distracted the rain is causing flooding in parts of Saxony, Brandenburg and Poland. This is bad, you know, really bad. I have family in southern Brandenburg and Lisa, my flatmate, is in Saxony right now. She is visiting her family near Dresden where the flood is at its worst. She wanted to stay there only for a week. Well, this week is over but I fear the railways will be under water and the streets, too. Although I seldom share her point of view on things I cannot help worrying. I listen to the radio to keep up to date on the situation and Alex and Julia ask me about it more than once a day. They do not understand German so they have to rely on me for news. If I was religious, this would be a situation to pray. Since I am not religious, I keep my fingers crossed and hope for the best.