Happy 4th of July!

Here's wishing you all a nice relaxing day.  Hope it's more relaxing than mine was!  I spent like 5 hours in front of a computer in the lab with Marni, trying to get all my book illustration project images scanned and put in a PDF.  Computer was acting up and I didn't get it completely done, unfortunately.  I'll have to finish it tomorrow.  Printmaking was tough just because I was so tired.  Don't think I was nearly as productive as I had hoped to be.  Tomorrow is the last day of the mezzotint course.  It turns out that most of us haven't completely finished our print series because we just didn't have enough class time to make it happen (mezzotint plates can take a long time to make), so Louise is going to just have each of us choose one of the images we've finished to put in the class portfolio and grade us based on overall effort.  She said we can finish our series on our own time if we want, once the student exhibition is done and they open the workshop again.

Finally left school at 7.  Tired, but at least the stress of the morning had worn off, and the World Cup game was going on so I was eager to find out how Germany was faring against France.  When I got to the train station the marquee said it was 1-0, Germany.  Yay!

It was such a warm and humid summer afternoon that it felt weird to take the train and not walk, but I was going to meet Marni and Indra for dinner and I didn't want to keep them waiting.  We met outside the Borgweg station and then walked to an Italian restaurant around the corner and down the street from Georgi-Haus, just past the Rewe grocery store.  It's called Il Pavone and Indra had been telling us they had an incredible crème brûlée.  We got there just in time for the end of the game.  (Germany won, despite their recent illnesses--HOORAY!  I'm so excited every time they advance, just because it prolongs and intensifies the football fever here.  It would be so cool if they made it to the final!  I might have to go back to St. Pauli for the public viewing of the game with Brazil on Tuesday, just because it will probably be a super exciting one.)  Anyway, this restaurant did not disappoint.  It wasn't the cheapest place ever, but their food was amazing.  Indra had bruschetta (this was much fancier than the one in St-Peter Ording), Marni had risotto, and I had a delicious assorted-mushroom pizza that was made with a creamy truffle sauce rather than tomato sauce.  And of course we ordered the crème brûlée for dessert, which was absolutely incredible.  The inside was perfectly custard-y, the sugar layer on top was delicate and crispy, and it came with this incredible handmade lemon sorbet that actually had little bits of lemon peel in it.  Really for the superb quality, the price wasn't bad.  And it was a nice way to finish off what had been a long and stressful week.

Got to Skype with my family tonight when I got home!  They were all getting ready for the afternoon's 4th of July barbecue.  Kind of crazy to think that I'll be back with them in Seal Beach in less than a month!  The second half of the semester has gone by in a flash!  I can't decide whether I want to go home or to stay in Hamburg . . . I love both places and I
wish I could do both . . .