Today is the Day!

I guess today is the day could be interpreted one of two ways. Today is the day that 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince' comes out, and today is the day that I leave for Prague! I don't really know which is more exciting! A girl from my class (also called Laura, but she is from the US, not Brazil) and I are hoping to find an English bookstore in Prague that will have some copies of Harry Potter VI. Keep your fingers crossed...and if we can't find a copy, you guys better not tell me ANYTHING that happens in the book. But I think we will be able to find a copy, so today is a good day. Prague and Harry Potter. They just go together like...like...orange Fanta and a tomato-mozzarella sandwich on fresh sesame seed bread. You may not think this sounds like a savory combination, but trust me. It is the breakfast of champions, my friends.

So, there are crazy people everywhere in the world, and I obviously already knew this because I am so wise, but I must say that I am very amused by some of the crazier ones I have seen around here. For instance, this morning as I came out of the U-Bahn into Sendlinger Tor, a man was walking around the newspaper dispensers muttering to himself and smacking his left hand with his right, all the while carrying a large baguette by way of stuffing it down the front of his pants. Also in the U-Bahn, although not this morning, was a shirtless man in (probably) his 60's with a large white rat perched on his shoulder. Not only was the rat perched on his bare, hairy shoulder, he was talking with it. And when I say 'with' I mean it...he obviously believed that the rat was talking back because he would pause and look very thoughtful, tilt his head toward the rat's twitching mouth, and then either nod or shake his head and respond to the rat. There is a lady who hangs out near one of the tram stops who is always shouting things at pedestrians. I think she is screaming at them to 'Watch out for the big blue tram or it will eat/maim/decapitate you,' but I can't be sure. I can only understand Germans when they speak very slowly and at a normal decibel level.