Went to Aachen again (4-hour drive there, 4-hour drive back, insane traffic again) to sign the lease for my apartment. I’m thrilled to move there now because Aachen looked prettier than I remembered and I went to check if there is, in fact, a Starbucks 500m (0.3 miles) from my apartment and, YES THERE IS. So, everything’s going well on the apartment front.

I also finally finally finally received the enrolment forms for Maastricht University in the mail today. So I’m gonna go and read through those in a minute.

Didn’t have time to do that yesterday because as soon as I got home my friend J called to confirm our plans for today, then I hit the shower, picked up my friend N, ran to the store to buy peaches, strawberries and grapes, went back to my house to quickly fix some fruity salad, and went to our friend V’s house to watch Casablanca.

Which we didn’t actually end up watching because we had to keep talking since we hadn’t seen each other for so long and, thus, couldn’t keep up with the movie. So then we watched one that didn’t need much attention and then Ocean’s Eleven which we had all seen at least twice. That they acted as though Casablanca was a boring movie and then kept their mouthes shut during the other movies kinda pissed me off.

Side note: my friend V brought to our attention that Brad Pitt either eats or drinks something in every scene of Ocean’s Eleven (except for maybe two or so when he’s in that SWAT team uniform or whatever). Also, he has an annoying way of chewing food. That is something I had once noticed in Mr. & Mrs. Smith.

Fell into bed at 2am sharp, endlessly tired. More details tomorrow.

So I saw that Sex and the City movie and it was okay. Given that I didn’t expect much from it from the beginning and that I had a Mercedes Benz gift card for it and so didn’t spend a single dime, it wasn’t disappointing.

As mentioned before, my cousin L and I went to the 11 o’clock showing on Tuesday and we basically had the whole screen to ourselves. Which was awkward because she and I don’t really have much to say to each other and so there were a few annoying silences.

But anyway, on to the movie. It was just like what you would expect from something called Sex and the City and just like the TV series itself: lots and lots of almost pornographic sex scenes (considering that, in Germany, it’s rated to be okay for 12-year-olds to see it without PG and in the US it’s rated R, this is especially confusing), some pretty shots of NYC and extraordinary apartments and unbearably cheesy and predictable dialogues.

Seriously, what’s with the language in that movie? What’s with the, some love stories aren’t epic novels, some are short stories but that doesn’t make them any less filled with love? What’s with Mr. Big sending Carrie love letters written by great ancient poets? What’s with all the, But don’t you want a big wedding? - Darling, I want you.s?

Everything about the storyline and especially the dialogues was so incredibly cliché!

Although, of course, as does everybody else who saw the flic, I too can’t get over The Shower Scene with Gilles Marini. That was pretty hot, I must admit.

Other than that, go see it with a bunch of girlfriends if you’re really bored and have nothing better to do or if, like me, you get to go for free. Otherwise, you don’t miss out on anything.

(Especially since the shower scene is already on YouTube. You might as well watch it there and skip the rest of the Hollywood nonsense whose sole purpose it appears to be to rid you of your money. But what else is new, right? So, just go watch this on YouTube already.)

Picture source: here. 

It’s a cliché and more often than not do so-called classic movies disappoint in the end because, these days, we are used to all the special effects, the actors and actresses of our time, the technology in the movie and computer-enhanced overall quality - but Casablanca reaches that level with less effort; effortlessly, if you will.

I hadn’t seen Casablanca until a couple of nights ago and from the very beginning I was biased because for one, my mom is a huge Humphrey Bogart fan. Secondly, Casablanca is said to be one of the greatest movies ever made. That’s just the way it is, it’s a fact and it’s well-known and, consequently, I expected only the best.

That said, I am a stubborn person and I tend to question the opinion of the masses with annoying persistency. So, I figured, there are many movies out there that are generally labeled classics and yet, I just don’t get what the big deal is - PROVE ME WRONG CASABLANCA.

And prove me wrong, it did.

From the actors, to the music, to the setting and general scenery, to the subtle humor, to the dialogues and the romance, down to the story itself - it’s flawless. I wouldn’t shy away from criticizing a movie that’s been praised to high heavens by others but in this case, there’s nothing to work with. Casablanca is simple; simply perfect - and yet a gigantic classic.

Although, no matter how often critics say that the end is perfect, I still felt as though something was missing. As if there should be a sequel, and then again, the thought of a sequel makes me cringe because it just wouldn’t work. I guess, the end adds some of the mystery to the storyline and the movie itself.

Truly worth seeing and devouring and adding to the DVD collection. And maybe even worth taking it so far as to buy a poster. Or whichever piece of crappy merchandise makes your skirt fly up.

Picture source: here.