B is for Belated, Bears, and Berlin

Happy belated Valentine's Day, dear readers! I don't know about you, but my V-Day was pretty good. I started off my evening with a Spinach and Cheese Börek from my favorite Turkish stand by work and a homemade cosmopolitan, followed by finally seeing Les Misérables at Berlinale, Berlin's annual film festival. There was a red carpet at the theater which made me feel all sorts of important (minus the celebrities) and there were beers (which we smuggled in). Kelly and I went to Berlinale last year in our unemployed days when we had no sorts of real lives and all sorts of time to go explore the city every day and take cute pictures and wish you a Happy Valentine's Day on time. This year I offer you the following picture, which took 5 tries and still didn't turn out right:

Also, cultural difference alert!! Apparently the Germans found any mention of Jean Valjean "giving away" Cosette to Maurius incredibly funny. I mean, they were cracking up in any scene where it came up. The idea that a man would pass off his daughter like property! Ludicrous! It is pretty silly, but come on, this was the 1800s and Jean did Cosette a real solid with the whole adoption thing.

What Berlin Looks Like...

walking up the stairs to an independent movie theater

strolling past a closed pet store

sipping a cappuccino and reading by the windowsill

waiting for the subway to go home

Berlinale

I'm back! It's been almost a week since my last post, I apologize. But what a busy week it has been for this unemployed girl! There was a big job interview, weekend visitors, my first live German soccer game, a friend's birthday... and that was just the last two days. Today also marks the end of the 2012 Berlinale, Berlin's annual film festival. About 400 films, primarily European or International premiers, were shown over the past 10 days.

Kelly, my also-unemployed-partner-in-crime, got us tickets last Wednesday to see some Generation 14+ short films, directed by those in the 14-26 year old category. We ended up in the wrong theatre by accident (second time this has happened to me in Berlin) but a nice volunteer snuck us into a different Generation 14+ movie that happened to be playing in that theatre at the same time.

We ended up seeing a short film called Nosilatiaj. La Belleza, or Beauty, about a young girl from the indigenous Wichi tribe in Northern Argentina who works as a housekeeper for a Catholic family. It's lovely. Should you be interested, check out the trailer here. After the film, the young director, producer, and main actress came on stage to talk about the movie and answer questions from the audience.

As much as the beautiful film impressed me, I couldn't help but be even slightly more starstruck by the Ritter Sport tower in the theatre lobby. Some things never change.