…our Hampshire group!  They should all hate me for this unattractive sketch, but I felt like you should meet them in some way.

Someone else you should meet, whom I only met this Thursday, is my housemate Mark!  I’d lived in the apartment for almost a week before we finally crossed paths; I leave early in the morning for language school, and he works late nights at a Spanish restaurant.  But now we have finally met, and I am glad of it.

Mark is in his 20’s, and from Barcelona.  He’s been in Berlin about a month now, and would like to stay for at least another five.  He’s a graphic designer (does Flash animation), and a musician.  When we met he was cooking while listening to Beirut and the Dodo’s.  We talked about music and the Berlinale, both marveling at how weird it is that Germans often dub American movies with new voices—in Spain, they just add subtitles.  “That’s basically how I learned English, from the movies,” he said.  He speaks both Spanish and Catalan, the language spoken exclusively in Barcelona.

I didn’t even know about his language; he learned mine just by watching some movies.  Yes, it can be pretty embarrassing to be an American—at least, if you’re as uninformed as I am.

PS I seem to be sketching more right now (German class is long, y’know), so I may make a habit of this Sunday sketch thing.  What I’m saying is, check in on Sundays, if you’re into that.

PPS MOST IMPORTANTLY: I put up two new videos on YouTube yesterday.  They are both original songs, from mah music section.  The first was written when I was 16.  The second was written about six months ago.  Like 98% of the songs in the world, they are about love.  Together, I think they provide a nice little timeline of my feelings on the subject.