Change

Lietzensee

How, How, HOW has it been 6 months since my last post? My mind is officially boggled. My bike is lying on its side in shock above. A lot has happened in 6 months I guess. The half marathon, trips to Sofia, London, France, Switzerland, Soest and Doha, visits from my mom and a few friends, a friend's wedding and reunions with friends from Lannion and Tübingen, and that whole Germany winning the World Cup thing. Plus a boy/heartbreak situation I won't go into here, but will say was equally lovely and heart-wrenching.

World Cup Final: That was fun

Yet despite all the above, the majority has remained the same, leaving me feeling a littttttle antsy. A few weeks ago, in an attempt to mix things up, I tried to do one thing differently every day. Well I meant to try one thing differently every day but lost steam around day 4. Though to be fair, sharing this "failure" with you all is "different" for me - usually I would ignore it completely since I didn't officially finish what was a very unofficial project to begin with. Anyways. I tried things like taking different routes to work on my bike or biking to new parts of town, taking a spontaneous weeknight evening stroll through the Tiergarten, and going vegan for an entire day. Nothing crazy obviously, just minor efforts to show myself that I can make things different if I want them to be different.

Tiergarten

It kinda worked I guess. I saw, experienced, and learned new things. Like what gears I should ride my bike in, locations of a few cute new cafes, and that not all tortillas are vegan. Like I said small things (though the bike gear thing was a revelation). But perhaps those changes weren't grandiose enough. It's surreal sometimes to think back at what this city meant for me as a tourist and what it means now, almost 3 years after living here. Routines can (and usually) settle in anywhere, and even though I'm still completely enthused and inspired by this place, it's usually the case that my days look somewhat similar. But I won't lie - I've been feeling a little like a spoiled brat having these thoughts in the first place. Are most of you just totally happy where you are, doing what you're doing? Or am I destined to live a perpetually confused and antsy life if I continue this transnational business? At this point I'm pretty sure it's a done deal either way though. A move anywhere else will surely leave me yearning for Berlin, which - in its own way - has been equally lovely and heart-wrenching.

Before January's Over

Reflections on a Berlin Canal

Despite my vocal and written proclamations to the contrary, I seem to be making resolutions pretty regularly these last few years. Truth is, I do find it enjoyable to look back, review and reflect, and pat myself on the back or rekindle my desire to reach a goal. I just don't need it to be in a January-January time frame, which I find a bit silly. But steadily working towards something that makes me a happier and healthier person... that I can get behind.

So how am I doing on my goals? Here's what I wrote last year: 

1) Travel to three places just for fun.

Mission accomplished, and I doubt anyone's surprised. Though this may seem like "cheating" to people who only make unenjoyable resolutions, the goal was for me to take advantage of the time and freedom I currently have to explore rather than racking up countries on my list. Where did I go? Copenhagen, Croatia, and Sri Lanka (could also add a new part of the Swiss Alps and Madrid to the list). Copenhagen was a long weekend trip with my best gal Kelly, Croatia was the first time my mom and I have taken a trip just the two of us, and Sri Lanka was my first experience in South Asia with the lovely and adventurous Anna. All fantastic experiences. All, as usual, making me feel like the more I see the more I have yet to see.

Croatia, you beautiful devil, you

2) Follow through on a side project.

Can I get a HELL YEAH on this one?! Kelly and I revealed Collidoscope Berlin back in April and are still going strong with our xenophilic baby. While we post much less often than we did in the beginning (down from 3 a week to 1 every 10 days or so), we've added Facebook (like us!), Twitter (follow us!), events, and more to our side-project docket. While sometimes it's difficult to get ourselves to just sit down and write already, we're always so pleased with the product and the progression the project has taken. As always, we're open to ideas, comments, and connections if y'all have any!

3) Date more.

Oh, dating. When I wrote this one last year I was giggling at the idea that this could even be considered a resolution, but now I can say with certainty it was the most challenging of the lot. I took some RISKS in 2013 that ranged from giving online dating a shot to trying to use Collidoscope to hang out with my cute and ethnically ambiguous dentist. I had some fun, I turned many a boy down for a second date, and I had some disappointments and rejections. But even at the lowest of these moments, it was good to feel like I was putting myself out there. Now I feel I can take a bit of breather and hope that I've laid the groundwork that will catapult something into fruition this year.

Dating?!

4) Work on my German grammar.  

A hard one to measure objectively but I'd say I was pretty successful on this one. While I didn't take a class or crack open any grammar books, I did start paying way more attention and forcing others to correct me. I've finally learned some basics as well as been hit in the head with the realization I've been making some rather ridiculous mistakes for the past 20 years (so it's really "Hälfte" instead of "Helfte" and "inzwischen" instead of "entzwischen" and salt is neutral but pepper is masculine?). But that's what you get for growing up hearing a language but barely ever writing or reading it.

So what's on the proverbial list for this year? 

To be honest, I'm not sure I'm totally feeling the resolution thing this year. I want to continue to make progress in the above categories and have started making some small shifts in other areas of my life that I'll give more attention to in 2014. These include trying to do one. thing. at. a. time. (I increasingly blame the internet for ruining my attention span... I can barely get through an article without being distracted by an email, work task, song, recipe, or god knows what else anymore). I want to learn to cook more vegan meals (In Berlin I eat almost entirely vegetarian but I want to go a step further on occasion). I want, nay, NEED to read a bit more in German (not my favorite activity). I want to travel somewhere on my own, even if it's just a weekend. OH! And writing more on the ol' blog here, because I hope you guys still enjoy it on occasion (anyone out there??), and because I know I will down the line.

Thirty

London

No, not me! I still have a little time before I hit that milestone. I did, however, reach another milestone this year: getting a 30th country under my belt, Croatia. Though far from considering myself a travel expert, I have picked up a few tricks over the years on my travels from everywhere from Cartagena to Copenhagen to Canada. Here are my five personal favorites.

1) Find a hotel

.... if you need a restroom.  Many countries have unfortunately not embraced the idea of free public restrooms, and they are often tricky to locate. I find that hotels are the best bet for a free pit stop as a tourist. They have so many people coming in and out they generally can't remember who's a guest and who isn't, and all of them have public restrooms on their main floors. It's foolproof! Otherwise I'm not such a big fan of hotels: Airbnb, small guesthouses, or better, staying with locals, is always my preference.

Copenhagen

2) Say (and learn) "Hello"

No one expects you to learn every language in the world and we all struggle when abroad. Learning a few words (like hello, thank you, please, and how much?) can go a long way. But no matter how much you struggle with language, say "hello" when you greet a waiter, hotel concierge, museum ticket seller, or bartender. Oftentimes these people greet throngs of tourists a day and just demanding what you want (in a foreign language, no less) doesn't go over so well. A smile and a short greeting in the local language can make all the difference.

Croatia

3) Get up early

...not just for the sunrise. Tourists tend to sleep in (it's vacation, after all!) but the locals are living their normal, every day lives. In busier touristy cities (think Prague, Paris, Dubrovnik) the morning is the best time to see locals going about their business as usual, rather than just your business as a tourist. While your fellow travelers are sleeping, they're heading to work, grabbing a coffee, and taking their kids to school. Prime people watching time.

Or mountain watching time. Alps, Switzerland

4) Don't make special meal requests

There aren't direct flights between Berlin and DC so I always end up transferring in London. During one of my layovers last year I was showing my passport at Heathrow when the attendant glanced over my boarding pass, typed something into his screen, and suddenly asked if I would like an upgrade. After enthusiastically nodding yes and thanking him profusely he leaned in and said, "you know why we picked you? Because you don't have a special meal request. We can't upgrade people with special meal requests because the meals are different in every class." You know, so they won't get sued if you eat something you said you didn't want to eat. What's the point of special meals anyway? Veggie options are pretty standard these days and unless you're allergic or do it for religious reasons I think we can all agree that no airplane meals are particularly "special" to begin with.

Berlin

5) When in doubt, ask the New York Times

These guys don't mess around. The recent 36 Hours in Berlin article profiled one of my absolute favorite restaurants in the city that is not even that popular (yet). In the last 1.5 years I've followed their guides for Dubrovnik, Krakow, and Copenhangen and haven't been disappointed once. (A bottle of NYT recommended Croatian wine that I lugged from Hvar-Dubrovnik-Berlin is sitting in my apartment as proof.) Of course it's great to be flexible and spontaneous and just see where the wind takes you, but sometimes you want the wind to know what it's talking about. Other than good ol' locals, I consider the NYT my reliable wind.

So there you have it. This coming winter I'll be backpacking around country #31 (unless I get a work travel surprise between now and Christmas): Sri Lanka. It'll be a different type of trip than I'm used to - less planning ahead, more go with the flow, a new region of the world - and I'm bound to add something to this list. In the meantime, there's always the NYT.

The Delightful Danes

Living in Berlin, I always knew I would make it to Copenhagen someday. Yet despite a general interest to visit, the prospect never seemed as exciting as planning trips to Croatia, Istanbul, or even Krakow. Maybe it's because it's so close: the flight from one capital to the other takes less than an hour meaning the ride from my apartment to the airport was literally longer than flight time. Or maybe Scandinavia just seems too similar to Germany culturally to feel at all exotic. Either way, it was a no-brainer in my travel to-dos, and my excitement soon kicked in upon arrival.

Excited about the discovery of a library-cafe for our first meal

I'm not usually one for stereotypes, but sometimes I make exceptions when they veer on the positive side. Really, I just want to share a few of my impressions of the Danes which will likely be over-generalized and premature given I only spent three days there and had close contact with all of one actual Dane. Not exactly the stuff of ethnographic studies, but enough to affirm some suspicions as well as shed some light on our friendly neighbor to the north. So I hope you'll indulge me just this once.

Copenhagen is every city. But better. It's a ludicrous statement that is highly linked to my very thematic-prone brain, but I'm going with it anyway. Multiple times a day while in Copenhagen I found myself reminded of other cities. One moment I'm jogging along the water and thinking of Amsterdam, and the next I'm peering up at a couple cafes overflowing with people-watchers assembled in rows of outer-facing chairs and picturing Paris. The language and orderliness kept reminding me of home (both of them), and the cosmopolitanism and water everywhere reminded me of Hamburg... and I haven't been to Hamburg yet! Copenhagen felt like a utopian port city: It has absorbed influences from around the world but the influence feels reciprocal and seamless, not forced. 

Danish is like German. No, English. No... Denglish. Kelly and I were in language heaven in Copenhagen. As soon as we got to the airport we were giggling and pointing out words, excited to find so many connections to our languages. In the airport we immediately spotted Ankomst for arrivals which is clearly related to "to arrive" in German, ankommen. Though the language certainly leaned more toward German, a lot of it reminded us of English, too. This makes sense given that English is a Germanic language (English native speakers: keep that in mind the next time you say German is an ugly language). Denmark, like the rest of Scandinavia, is known for their high English proficiency, so we were free to get by in our native tongue while learning a few words just for fun. The word we ended up using most often? Mange tak which means thank you. Mange: what do you see more? "Many" in English or Menge in German ("amount" or "plenty")? Tak: a shortened version of "thanks" or danke? Oh, the joys of language.  

Look! Language!

May as well be the German "Reichstaggarten"

The Danes are the perfect amount of confident. Their education system may not be as good as the Finnish one and they may get the short end of the stick when it comes to IKEA furniture names, but Denmark is still part of the elite club known as Scandinavia. A certain confidence comes with being a member of this region, but people are educated and open to other cultures and languages, coming off as much more modest than those from another country I know. They're a happy and healthy and secure bunch riding their bikes, earning their overtime salaries, and eating lots of omega 3s and whole grains. They struck me as very balanced, and I am a fan of balance.

Mmmmm herring

Denmark is struggling with their growing multiculturalism. Like many European countries, Denmark is still struggling to see itself as a country of immigration and multiculturalism. Kelly and I were enchanted with a neighborhood in the city called Nørrebro which is full of Arabs, Turks, and many other Middle Eastern and ethnic groups. Our (young) Danish friend of a friend slash tour guide was so surprised at how much time we ended up spending there that he said he would start to bring more future visitors to the neighborhood, not having realized it could be so interesting for tourists. Kelly and I were beyond interested: Nørrebro made both of us wish we could spend a summer in the city, and we began devising a plan for me to propose a Copenhagen project to my bosses and for Kelly to tag along as my devoted assistant. A dog factored into that plan somewhere, too. 

Nørrebro

Nørrebro mutlilingual statue about coexisting... yes please!

The Danes are puuuurty. I wish I had a picture of the barista at that one coffeeshop. Or the waiter at that Nørrebro cocktail bar. Or the waiter at that Nørrebro restaurant. It's rare I ever find a guy on the street attractive, but in Copenhagen I was accosted by good looks multiple times a day. It didn't help that the men I saw were tall with chiseled features, many possessing that mysterious dark hair, light eye combo that makes me a bit weak in the knees. The girls were nice, too, I'm sure, but I was a bit distracted. Mange tak for the eye candy, Copenhagen.

Going it Alone

On top of the Andes in Mendoza, Argentina: 2009

I'm settling in on the couch with a glass of organic tinto and some dim lighting for this one, because I'm planning on getting a little more personal than usual and need the atmosphere to work with me a bit. I generally try to stay away from divulging too much about my private life here on the old blog, because, well, it seems a bit self-indulgent and narcissistic for one, and two, this blog is public so who knows who's reading it. But I know it makes things interesting and can be cathartic and what not, so here goes.

The weekly market in Lannion, France: 2007

When I first got to Berlin and people asked why I moved here, some would frame it as a question for which they suggested a possible answer. "Oh, so you're studying here?" or "You're teaching English, right?" were both popular, but the most common was actually, "Ah, so is there a guy over here?" One or two people even deigned to ask if I had left the US because of a guy. (I should add that these guesses came from people who didn't know about my German family/language/passport situation, all which make a 26 year old American girl moving to Berlin on a whim by herself without a job somewhat less surprising.)

Who needs a boyfriend when you have Italian statues? Parma: 2006

Not only did a guy not influence my decision to leave the US nor to choose Berlin, but no guy has factored into my life planning for quite some time. As of some day in the upcoming two weeks - I've forgotten the exact date - I will have been sans boyfriend for three years. There was some dating and a few flings here and there, but nothing even approaching serious. I've become the epitome of the single 20 something girl, the one who eats eggs or pasta for dinner in bed while watching Gossip Girl and Downton Abbey. The one who leaves clothes strewn about on the chair all week because it's unlikely anyone will see it. The one who had to race into the bathroom and shave her legs one night while an unexpected suitor waited patiently in the living room, à la Michelle Pfeiffer in "One Fine Day." Fortunately my suitor had not fallen asleep by the time I resurfaced. Unfortunately my suitor was not George Clooney. Maybe I should stop drinking this wine and rein it in a little.

Also not reining it in, Tuebingen: 2006

So no, I didn't move to Berlin for a boyfriend, and haven't found any serious contenders for the position in my almost 1.5 years here yet. But wanting or not wanting a boyfriend was not really the point of this post. The point is, I have watched, half-enviously and half-satisfactorily, as people I know in couples lead similar lives to mine: that is, do the moving abroad, traveling, teaching English to move abroad and travel thing. I am somewhat fascinated by this idea, because I've never had it. "It" meaning the partner to travel and live abroad with, not "it" the great boyfriend, because those I have had. But my international adventures have been overwhelmingly solo ones. Sure, I've traveled and stayed with friends in a lot of places and had plenty of help along the way. But no one was with me when I was lumbering onto the train to Tuebingen with two suitcases, registering for Spanish classes in Buenos Aires, traveling on a night bus to Mendoza, apartment searching in Lannion, battling the border control at the Chunnel from Paris to London, or facing the bureaucrats at the Bezirksamt or Zollamt in Berlin.

One of my first nights in Berlin: 2011

And it's not just those big things: the travel itself, the paperwork acquiring, the apartment assembly, etc. A lot of major and minor life moments happened to me the first time while abroad: eating dinner alone in a restaurant, going to a movie by myself, figuring out how to read a map, learning to cook a proper meal, scraping by on very minimal language skills when an entire group of people relied on me at a cafe. Of course it would have been nice (more than nice, sometimes) to do these things with a partner. But I can't imagine I would have experienced the same leaps of growth, independence, and self-confidence if that had been the case.

Brunch in Tel Aviv: 2012

Of course if the right guy (or even "a right" guy) happens to pop up at my door anytime soon, I certainly won't turn him away. I look forward to finding someone who shares this interest and lifestyle and who I can explore places in the future with, and I have no doubt I'll find him eventually. But in the meantime, I'm happy to enjoy my somewhat crazy, occasionally scary, but extraordinarily fun and exciting life on my own.

The Case for Food Snobbery

Last dinner in Bethesda with the family

It's no secret that I am a bit of a foodie and eat (and drink) pretty well. Besides travel it's probably the number one thing I splurge on. I blame my family, since growing up with a dad, sister, and aunt who all cook really damn well meant I had high standards from a young age. The travel hasn't helped either, because once you have sushi in Japan or wine in Mendoza or gelato in Rome or seafood in Brittany or chocolate in Switzerland it's hard to go back to the mediocre stuff. I also don't know why being a "food snob" has to have such a derogatory connotation. Smokers have their preferred cigarette brands, no one rolls their eyes when people say Starbucks makes bad coffee, so why is it so bad if I say I'd rather not eat at Olive Garden or Chili's? I'm not going to sneer at anyone who does, I'm just not going to be sitting at the table next to them slurping up overcooked fettuccine drowning in a bath of bland cream sauce.

Galettes with Giovanni (extra egg on top for good measure)

Discovery of a new Weinbar with Kelly in Kreuzberg

I also think food snobbery gets conflated with people just trying to be high-class. I'm not talking about fancy food here, just good quality food. When I lived in smaller towns I ate plenty of "peasant" food like spaetzle and pretzels in Ludwigsburg and Tuebingen and galettes in Lannion, and I loved it. But the problem with living in small European towns like those was that although local cuisine was tasty and of high quality, there was absolutely no diversity. Tuebingen had one mediocre Chinese buffet and Lannion had... a Subway. Thankfully, Berlin is a large capital city with most cuisines on offer, and on top of that it is cheap. Not everyone seems to know that about Berlin. But yes, Berlin is very cheap and you can eat (and drink) pretty well at a reasonable price. So this foodie does! 

My ongoing search for Berlin's best cappuccino at an Italian cafe

Sunday brunch with Max and Kelly in Prenzlauer Berg

Pizza, salad, and wine night

Chicken curry at "Gruene Woche"

Fortnight

  

I can't believe it's been 2 weeks since my last post! I really don't mean to disappear like that. Things have been kinda busy I guess, partly due to my resolutions that I've been following through on. Primarily #3 has kept me busy outside of my normal routine, and I have to admit that dating is hard work! I'm not used to going out with guys I don't really know and most of the time it feels like an interview that I thankfully get to mitigate with a couple glasses of wine. I don't think actively hunting like this is going to last for long, but it's an interesting experience for the time being. Resolution #2 has also been moving slowly but surely, and #4 will get a kick-start in a few days when I commence a weekly study schedule. As for #1, a potential trip to Croatia and Macedonia is in the works for the summer (Kate!), I have my eye on a three day weekend at the end of March for a possible getaway to Scandinavia (actually just thought of that as I was writing this, pretty good idea though right?), and the 2013 PJS reunion weekend has been booked for London in April. All in all not bad for a few weeks work.

Otherwise it's business as usual. A few little surprises at work, half-marathon training in the persistently below freezing temperatures (though running through the deserted and snowy Tiergarten last night amongst the bunnies was nothing short of spectacular), and lots of meeting friends for dinner and drinks. My Opa was also just in town for a few days which was lovely, and now I have a few leftover hunks of wurst in the fridge to remember him by. Anyone want some chunky pork products?

Oh, and the picture. That's just an advertisement I saw weeks ago at the S-Bahn that never fails to make me giggle. Hehe.

Got My Berlin Groove Back

Bye, bye Christmas

After 6 days, I feel I have finally gotten my Berlin groove back. Yesterday I described coming back to Berlin after a long trip home a "hangover," because that was the best way I could think to explain it. My head is spinning from everything I did, all the places I visited and family and friends I saw, and then all of a sudden I'm opening the door to my apartment in Berlin and am supposed to resume whatever it is I've got going on over here. It's like flipping a switch, turning on one life and fading out the other.

Solo Sunday trip to the Berlinischer Galerie

The first couple days are never easy. There's the unpacking, of course, the follow up emails and calls to tell everyone at home you've landed and are fine and to stay in touch, etc. Then there was returning to work and reorienting myself to a normal schedule after 3 weeks which is hard enough in itself. And then there was the fact that 3 of my close Berlin friends were still out of town, which meant a somewhat lackluster social calendar. So on Monday and Tuesday it was staying at work late, staring at a computer screen, to come home exhausted and watch movies on another screen. It's not a good pattern, but it's hard to break when you're tired and all you want to do is watch things on a screen. Sure enough though, as always, things turned around in the middle of the week, and a productive day at work coupled with a great jog with my running group last night was all I needed to whip myself back into shape. Now Kelly and Giovanni are also back, and my weekend calendar is filling up quite nicely.

Hope you all had a lovely holiday season, and have fully recovered from your respective hangovers, whatever type they may have been.

Transnational

Volkspark Friedrichshain

No matter how much I fly, I always get the pre-trip flutters before a big travel day. Tomorrow I fly back to the States for the first time since May, and through all my excitement to see my parents at the airport, my sister and three closest childhood friends the following day, and a host of family and friends the following 2.5 weeks, I can't help but be somewhat nervous. And my nervousness was only heightened by the news of the devastating Connecticut school shooting today.

A few friends and I gathered this evening to cook our last meal together in 2012 when we learned about the shooting. With four American expats at the dinner, the criticism of the US and many American policies quickly began to fly around the room. We were heartbroken, furious, and at the same time, acutely conscious of how living in Europe has shifted our perspective on such issues. It is clear that any American would feel heartbroken and furious at such news, but no matter how initially shocking, the shock may wear off more quickly because it's becoming tragically commonplace to hear this type of news in the US. School shootings certainly don't happen every day in the US but they happen a hell of a lot more there than here- the US did experience two separate public shootings in the course of this week, after all.

As we digested the news, we also reflected on the fact that such events remind us of why we moved here in the first place. Not because of school shootings in particular, but because the world just functions a bit differently on this side of the Atlantic, and although we all came for different reasons, we find comfort in and feel connected to that world.

The longer I stay in Berlin, the longer I see myself staying here. In many ways, I see raising a family easier here, my quality of life being higher, a certain standard of living guaranteed for me should things get rough at any point, and a basic standard of living for others that I fundamentally believe should be guaranteed to all, especially in a developed country. I certainly don't need to make any long-term decisions now, but I'm aware that eventually the time will come where I have to choose the US or Europe in a somewhat permanent way. And as incredibly wonderful as it is to go home for a visit, it reminds me of everything, and more importantly, everyone, that I have to leave behind should my choice be here.

Every Thanks, Everywhere

During my daily ritual of struggling to throw off my warm comforter and pull myself out of bed this morning, I thought about my last few Thanksgiving celebrations. Last year in 2011, I had just moved to Berlin and flew over to London to visit some family and friends. I celebrated Thanksgiving with a couple friends from college and their London crew at a big potluck. I made roasted veggies. In 2010, I was in grad school and traveled to NYC to celebrate with my aunt, uncle, and cousins. My aunt cooked a splendid meal as she always does and we drank loads of wine as we always do. I made the roasted veggies. The last time I was in DC with family for Thanksgiving was 2009 it seems. I'm pretty sure I made roasted veggies.

Veggies pre-roasting 2011, London

Somewhere along the line that is my life, Thanksgiving morphed into my favorite holiday. Christmas is still the big one in our family: it brings us all together without fail and will always remind me of our Oma who planned and executed every Weihnachten of our childhood, from the decorations to the music to the "boxes" to the big meal on the 24th to hiding the cookies from Opa. If I could only have one holiday, it would be Christmas, for these reasons.

Veggies post-roasting in 2010, NYC

But Thanksgiving, in its essence, is my favorite. Christmas certainly revolves around a big meal and loved ones, but it's simpler at Thanksgiving. Food and people are the star of the show. It's why people rush to the store to get the last frozen turkey and can of cranberry sauce, why people fly across the country or take long road trips in awful traffic to get home for just a couple days. I appreciate these rituals and this effort, but I personally don't find it necessary. For me, there is no need for turkey or cranberry sauce: for years my family did nontraditional Thanksgiving meals like surf & turf, quail, duck, and seafood stew. We drank heavy reds instead of Beaujoulais, and we bought our pies at Trader Joe's, when we had them at all. I'm obviously not one to criticize travel, but I am always content to spend Thanksgiving somewhere other than DC. It's comforting to know that Christmas is around the corner and I'll be home then anyway, and it's an opportunity to spend a special day with other people you care about, or maybe have recently met. It's a warm, fuzzy holiday that besides the cooking (and travel), is really relaxing. One could say I already spent my Thanksgiving this year with a group of Poles, Germans, Israelis, and Ukranians in a small town in central Poland a few days ago where we consumed immense amounts of food like schnitzel and pierogi, drank a few rounds of wodka, and sang songs from all our countries. 

Dinner in Poland, 2012

I'm a lucky girl though, and have the good fortune of celebrating again tonight with a group of friends in Berlin. Not only is it Thanksgiving, but it is also Kelly's birthday. I will be making...... garlic mashed potatoes. But you better believe I'll be roasting the crap out of that garlic first.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my family and friends celebrating today, wherever you are, whatever you are eating. I am thankful for all of you.

Quarter for your thoughts

Jerusalem's Old City

Did you know that I have Christian, Jewish, and Muslim roots in me? You probably did, because I talk about it a lot. Today it came to mind as I wandered Jerusalem's Old City, wondering in which quarter I felt most "at home". For my Ukranian colleague, the pick was clear: the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Christian quarter. For me it was somewhat fuzzier. My strongest reaction came in the Muslim quarter, where I felt most excited but also somewhat nervous, probably an irrational by-product of not being allowed to go there on my Birthright tour. The Armenian quarter I found most peaceful- perhaps it's the underdog amongst the "Big Three" and gets less traffic? Of course they were all lovely, and as I later picked at my delicious fried feta salad at lunch (don't worry, vegetables were involved), I decided that I didn't have to choose. I will always do my best to navigate the world just as I did the narrow, winding streets of the Holy City: with an open mind and a smile. And sturdier shoes, because those stones were slippery. 

Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Christian Quarter

Armenian Quarter

Jewish Quarter... duh

Muslim Quarter

Monday Memo

Grunewald

Good morning! This is what I consider my last week of Berlin "freedom" for awhile. I've been here since my last trip to Istanbul in early September- a whole glorious month without travel for work or anything else- so I've actually felt like I live here for once. I've been going out on weekends, meeting up with lots of friends, regularly attending yoga class, keeping my apartment tidy, throwing and attending parties, buying groceries(!), etc. It's a nice feeling. This coming Saturday I fly to Israel for a week for work and that's when my crazy fall really begins. Or heisser Herbst (hot fall) as our senior project manager put it. I'll be in and out of Berlin after that quite a bit until I fly home in December for an eagerly anticipated break with family and friends. The blogging may get a bit sparser from now til the end of the year but I promise to keep y'all as updated as possible! Just be prepared for shorter posts laden with Instagrammed photos, like this one. ;)

Istanbul Firsts

Merhaba! I've been in Istanbul since Monday for work, and though it's my third time here, I've had a number of "firsts" on this trip.

My first time driving over the Bosporus bridge (before I had only ferried it), crossing from Europe to Asia.

My first Raki, Turkey's most beloved spirit that tastes like Ouzo or Sambuca. I'm not a fan of anise, so after a few sips I switched back to my red wine.

My first experience eating boiled lamb brains. Taste was bland, texture was entirely too mushy for me. They should fry them. Everything tastes better fried!

And to conclude, a much more pleasant eating experience: my first time in a Turkish patisserie. While we shopped around the over-priced store we were given free samples of fresh strawberry and cream filled rolls and chocolate and left with one of those cakes covered in shaved white chocolate you see below. We had to make working on a Saturday more bearable somehow!