Euro Quotes

Out of Place at Kotti

"My parents grew up here, so they lived through the whole Berlin Wall thing. Wait, you know about the Wall, right?" - 17 year-old girl on the way home from basketball.

"Oh, basketball! How nice! Did you make any goals?" - Coworker after I told her I went to an open-practice.

"Water in the fridge? But it's not even hot out." - Coworker looking on in confusion as I placed a bottle of sparkling water in the fridge for later.

My Green Berlin Weekend

View from the Holocaust Memorial

Gay Pride Parade

Kreuzberg Fountain

two 4 three

Last Saturday morning I had big hopes of exploring the Winterfeldtplatz Market in a district called Schöneberg before heading to a work meeting that afternoon. Winterfeldtplatz is no Turkish market, in that it's way more organized, clean, and fancy. In other words, not half as much fun, but still cute and a good market fix for this now-working gal who can no longer spend her Tuesday and Friday afternoons stuffing Gözleme into her face and lazing over cappuccinos.

As soon as I exited the train and eagerly rounded the corner to the escalator, I could hear the heavy rain splattering up above. Equal parts patting myself on the back for bringing an umbrella and cursing myself for getting out of bed early to go to a market in the rain, I decided to make the best of it and find a cute café to enjoy a light breakfast. Light because, well, I had already eaten breakfast an hour earlier.

A corner café called Winterfeldt (sensing a pattern here?) that doubles as a Chocolatier caught my eye. I ducked in and treated myself to a cappuccino and croissant. It wasn't the best croissant of my life, but it did the trick, and so did the ambiance. And the delicious house-made chocolate covered almond that sat delicately on the coffee spoon. When the cashier rang up the total as 3 euros ($3.80), I remember thinking, "man, that's cheap." The thing is it's not really, not for Berlin standards, but it is for me when you consider a comparable order in a comparable cafe in DC would probably cost $5 or $6. Not to mention there are basically no independent cafés I know of in DC that are as cute.

Later that evening, I met Kelly to go to a dub-step concert (more on that later) and we were scouring the back streets of Neukölln for a quick pre-show dinner. We found ourselves in a neighborhood without many options, but spotted an adorable café-slash-ice cream dealer with live music that was offering a vegetarian buffet. Now let me be specific on what I mean by buffet. There were indeed a variety of dishes available for everyone to choose from, and yes, you could take as much and go back as often as you wanted. But the dishes were small and the options limited for American standards. I remember a caprese salad, tabbouleh, some other salads, hummus, soup, bread, rice pudding... plenty for a quick dinner and we only went back once, for dessert. It was all the buffet I needed. And all for... you got it... 3 euros.

Week One

View from the balcony in my office

Lessons learned from my first week working in a German office. It's not scientific, but in 5 days I have garnered it is acceptable to:

1) Wear jeans all week long.

2) Arrive around 9:30/10am.

2) Dip out of work a little early to watch a big soccer match.

3) Take lots and lots of breaks if you are a smoker. They may end up with shorter lives in the end, but they're making the time they've got count.

4) Leave when you feel you hit your limit for the day (within reason of course- I'm not talking 3pm here- unless it's a Friday). "What are you going to do instead, sit there and pretend to work?" scoffed one coworker. Um yes, that's exactly what we Americans do.

5) Leave in the early afternoon on a Friday.  Freitag ab eins, macht jeder seins goes the saying. Translation: Starting at 1pm on Friday everyone does their own thing.

6) Take 25 vacation days a year. HA. I just threw that one in to piss you off. 

I guess I've made it all sound pretty great. So here are some downsides to even things out a bit:

1) If you don't go to the Finance Bureau and sort out your tax class you are automatically placed in Class 6 where they deduct, oh, approximately 80% of your salary. I'm all for social welfare but 50% seems like plenty, thankyouverymuch.

2) The whole welcoming someone new to the office with a happy hour, lunch, cupcakes, or uh, email to tell them how they're going to get into the building their first day is apparently not protocol.

3) You have to type on a German keyboard with US settings for a week. But that's likely just in my case. Hyphens, colons, and quotation marks, where are youuu? Umlauts go awayyy.

Gesehen: Strawberry Shame

That's not what LSD stands for...

I took a slightly different route to work today and found myself in Wilmersdorf's own little Red Light District. We all know Euros love a good sex shop, but somehow I was completely unaware of the sex strip right around the corner from my house. Have I mentioned before that Wilmersdorf has the highest proportion of elderly people in the city?

Karaoke is XCiting!

So there I was, strolling by posters ranging from flat out topless women to the more discrete and ehm, artistic, shots of women in bras balancing strawberries in their cleavage. Good morning, Sophia!

Taking Berlin by Sperrys and Stripes

(In all fairness, the Sperry were coordinated but the stripes were just a pleasant coincidence)

The last few days, I've been playing host to my sister's husband's youngest brother and his girlfriend. I'll give you a second to work that one out in your head.

...............

And we're back! Both Sarah and Daniel were Berlin newbies, so we/they did all the major sights, including Brandenburger Tor, Checkpoint Charlie, the Jewish Memorial and its accompanying museum, the Pergamon (yes, Opa, I finally went!), Hackescher Hoefe, East Side Gallery, und so weiter. We spent a good amount of time in Mitte, the main tourist district, but I made sure they saw some of real Berlin, as well. I took them to Neukoelln, a neighborhood full of Turks and Berlin's "most dangerous" (give me a break) that is entirely absent from my Berlin guide book. At least half my friends live or are planning to move there, and it's home to great little bars, cafes, and delicious Turkish food. We also made the requisite visit to Friday's Turkish Market where they only sampled a bite of my Goezleme because they had foolishly eaten lunch before meeting me. Fools!

Sunday Brunch

Their visit also happened to coincide with the Euro Cup and first round Germany-Portugal game. We hauled it out to the "Fan Mile" for a public viewing of the game along with thousands of other enthused fans and blended in seamlessly with German jerseys on our backs and Bratwursts in hand.

After Germany beat Portugal

I've had quite a few visitors since I arrived in Berlin 7 months ago, but these two get a special shout-out and standing invitation to return anytime because they brought me such a wonderful gift: FOUR jars of Potbelly's hot peppers. They now proudly stand in my cupboard next to two jars of JIF and a bottle of habanero salsa. All American delicacies as far as I'm concerned. Future guests take note!

Kumpir: A Poor Man's Paradise

Slowly but surely this is morphing into a food blog. I am well aware of this fact but not prepared to stop myself any time soon. On that note, today's meal I've deemed worthy of discussion is one I find very successfully blends the German and Turkish food cultures. It's not Gözleme, it's not even Döner Kebab. It's Kumpir: a baked potato like you. have. never. seen.

To make Kumpir, the potato is first baked in an oven where it gets nice and hot. Then the insides are mixed with lots of cheese and butter that melts and gets all gooey. Mmmmm. This step takes time... they really mix it up well.  After the mixing, the expert Kumpir maker nods that he or she is ready for you and you race to the counter to choose your toppings. Common toppings are olives, corn, creamy noodle salads, pickles, tomato sauce, garlic sauce, quark (sour cream), jalapenos, and kisir, a Turkish couscous that is reddened with tomato or red pepper paste. Mmmmmm again.

I've only had Kumpir twice, but I think I have my toppings down. Kisir, tomato sauce, quark, and a vat of jalapenos. I told the woman making mine that I wanted a lot of them, and her eyes widened as I encouraged her to add a second and then third spoonful. Mmmmm spice-ay.

This is what Sophia's Kumpir looks like:

I like mine all mixed together so I get a bit of everything in each bite, so I spend a couple minutes trying to incorporate it all. When you have as many jalapenos as I do, this isn't the easiest task. It's also difficult to be patient and methodical with your stirring when all you want to do is stuff it into your mouth.

Why a poor man's paradise? Because I can't think of anything that gives you more bang for your buck. This thing is loaded with calories- a Kalorienbombe (calorie bomb) as one friend called it- and you can get as many toppings as you want for the same set price. Plus it's truly a monstrosity of a meal. I wasn't able to finish mine either time, so this could easily be shared with a friend, should your topping tastes align. And all for under 5 euros!

Transatlantic/k

Transatlantik is definitely not a German word. The correct translation would be Transatlantisch but coming up with cute blog titles is just more important to me than correct grammar. See how much I compromise for all of you?

I'm back in Berlin as of last night. My mama took me to the airport yesterday (was that yesterday? day before yesterday?), where we arrived about 2 hours too early. After fighting with my luggage and the check-in lady to make the weight and size limits for both suitcases we proceeded to an airport bar where my mom watched me drink my last Sam Adams of the trip. We had a nice last chat, scoffed at the $8.50 price tag, and when she left me at security, I was fighting back tears. I mean really, $8.50 for a beer?! Just kidding. It was the leaving part. 3 weeks at home and it really starts to feel like home again, let me tell you.

And by "home," I mean Raleigh, Surfside Beach, Cambridge, DC, and Bethesda. I mean birthdays, parties, graduations, pool trips, and visits to former offices. I mean frozen yogurt with strawberries and chocolate chips, trips to Rio Grande and Chipotle, iced teas bigger than my head and refills a go-go, long car trips, paddle ball, bagels with lox, trips to CVS and TJ Maxx, stocking up on hot peppers at Potbelly's, convenience, and happy hours. But most of all, I mean picking up Mo and Matilda and giving them kisses, running errands and cooking dinner with my sister, having a glass of wine (or two) with my dad, enjoying a 6 hour long porch chat with the cousins, eating and eating and eating with the whole family, playing silly games with friends in the backyard, and having an overpriced beer in the airport with my mama.

American Foodie

Chocolate Praline Bars at Black's in Bethesda

My friend Sarah who has been living in Spain recently wrote an interesting post defending American food. I'm a self-admitted food snob and at my worst when a conversation turns to the Olive Garden, but I have to say there are certain things I love eating when I'm here and miss dearly when I'm abroad. Thankfully Berlin is a large, cosmopolitan city, so ethnic food abounds and if I hunt long enough, I can find sriracha and jalapenos. Other stuff is pretty much impossible to find, like unsweetened ice tea. All they've got is the artificially sweetened canned stuff or I have to go to Starbucks for a passion-fruit-shaken-light-iced-venti-you get the point. What's nice about American cuisine is that while there is plenty of gross stuff, there is also plenty of great stuff. Not unlike its demography, American cuisine is diverse and can't (or shouldn't) be reduced to one kind or type. Here are some of the delicious goodies this foodie has been munching away on during her 3 week trip home, and while they're not all "American," they all belong to America in some way. Guten Appetit!

A "Magic Bar" and cappuccino from Petsi Pies in Cambridge

Julia's pulled pork feast in South Carolina

Nachos with beef and a margarita at Rio Grande in Bethesda

Bagel and lox brunch in the backyard 

Beignets at Founding Farmers in DC

French cheese from Brooklyn